So, I’m rather miffed that I missed the start of the Oscars last night. I got caught up watching the Confessions of a Teen Idol finale on VH1 and I forgot to switch channels in time. I don’t think I missed *too* much (tuned in just as the Best Supporting Actress award was being presented) but y’all KNOW how fanatical I am about catching stuff from the very beginning. (or you should know, anyhow.. feeling compelled to channel the Simply Red dude here: if yooou don’t know me baaah nowwww…you will never, never, never know me.Ooooo…) Also I was curious to see what kind of hosting job Hugh would do, and probably his opening was the best opportunity to gauge that. I watched the bulke of the ceremony & barely saw him at all, really. There was that song & dance # with Beyonce and assorted others but that I found kind of…mehh..underwhelming. Or, perhaps you had to take in the audio *and* the visual in order to properly appreciate …and if so, my assessment is not to be trusted as at this point I was playing Tetris on my iPod and gave like maybe 0.5 of an upward glance. So sorry. And that usually IS my sort of thing, too!! REALLY..you should see the fatty “musicals” section of my DVD library.

Well, I made the mistake of reading Kara’s blog earlier today, thus leaving me with the sensation that the thorough recap has been done (and done better) So I shall not endeavor to be thorough. Instead I shall list some various Oscar observations I had (w/ bulletpoints, which tend to influence me to be—not succinct exactly—just more succinct than I am naturally apt to be)

*Gorgeous set design.

*I like this new method of presenting the big acting awards (group presentation by a team of past winners).

*Love Natalie Portman’s pink dress SO much and she looked so terrific that my eye was actually drawn to her first and it took me a moment or 2 to notice that Ben Stiller was spoofing Joaquin Phoenix. I thought that was funny…but also a bit sad. I believe Joaquin was a 2time Oscar nominee (Gladiator & Walk the Line) and in addition, he was always a fairly attractive guy in a notraditional sorta way. Now he’s traditionally skeezy looking and displaying blatant WTF?? behavior and the perplexing thing is, I can’t seem to chalk this up to being drug related (which would still rather sad, but it would kinda make sense of it all) Well Ben Stiller’s parody did make me guffaw. But the real Joaquin?? A mélange of weird and SAD.


*I’m going to have to see Slumdog Millionaire I guess. It must be pretty phenomenal. Did it lose any category it was nominated in?? Still I was a slightly better informed viewer than I have been in recent years. During the last coupla Oscar ceremonies I’ve tuned into I recall marveling to myself—“Gosh, I haven’t seen ANY of these movies” This year, it was only “Geez, I’ve only seen 2 of these movies” (that would be Tropic Thunder & The Changeling)


*Kate Winslet’s dad is an EXCELLENT whistler

*Funniest non-famous person acceptance speech was the Asian guy who accepted for Best Animated Short. “Domo Aragato, Mr Roboto” ? Really? Sure, I laughed, but shouldn’t HE have been sort of insulted by his own joke??

*The beginning of Sean Penn’s speech was promising..amusing (before he got preachy, that is. UGH)…but I very early on got the sensation that he was going to leave his wife out. And despite my telepathically beaming him a mantra of “Thankyourwife thankyourwife DON’T FORGETto thank yourwife…” he did, ultimately, forget his wife. That cad. It’s no wonder their on, off, on-again marriage is so shaky… Hmm..I recall the last person to infamously omit a spousal thank-you in their Oscar speech was Hillary “horseteeth” Swank and we saw how that played out, eh??

*Is Seymour Phillip Hoffman (as Alan Arkin calls him) in a high school garage band or something?? That’s what he looked like with that redonkulous knit cap on. Don’t get me wrong—fanatical devotion to your garage band would not excuse such a heinous fashion offense. The only marginally acceptable excuse is if he had some sort of head wound he needed to keep protected/ sheltered.

*No jokes at Christian Bale’s expense? Maybe they did one in the monologue and I missed it. I mean, aren’t those de rigueur nowadays? I admit, I kinda enjoy all the Bale mockery, ‘cause I’m somewhat peeved at him. I’ve always been a big fan, so I feel as if he’s let me down personally, by being such a psycho ASS. I guess a Bale joke would’ve been too edgy for the Oscars?? Also, it occurs to me that Bale and our host are personally acquainted (they did The Prestige together) and maybe Jackman vetoed such content (on account of being friends with Bale….or being SCARED o’ him!!)