Oscar Blog, 5

WOW! Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin just showed us what pros can do when given great dialogue, some rehearsal, and of course, great talent. Their introduction of Robert Altman's Special Oscar will go down as one of Oscar's greatest. Inspired by Altman's signature over-lapping dialogue and unconventional structure, it should win the writers an Emmy - and the performers too, if they're eligible.

Greatest Oscar Prop ever

and the winner is....the March of the Penguins guys who each brought life-sized emperor penguins up to the stage. But what will they do with them during the Governor's Ball?

Oscar blog, 4

Poor Lauren Bacall - she looked frail as she shuffled to the podium and then haltingly read, or didn't, the teleprompter. I'm sure it's only a matter of minutes until her press people start explaining that there was a technical problem, and that her shockingly poor performance was not due to nerves, medication, or lack of rehearsal.

Oscar Blog, 3

Well Rachel Weizs's win supports my theory that if an actress sings or gets naked in a film, she increases her chances of winning an Oscar.

Oscar Blog, cont'

It's 53 minutes into the show and only one major award has been given. And what were they thinking with that montage of biopics? Was there no better use of those four minutes?

Blogging the Oscars...

Jon Stewart started slow and a bit hesitantly, but seemed to relax by the end of what was an average monologue. The video montage of the history of gay overtones in cowboys movies was reminiscent of portions of The Celluloid Closet.

Loved Nicole Kidman's reference to the nominees as "all leading men," and Best Supporting Actor goes to George Clooney. Will his thoughtful speech, without this list of thank yous, be a model of things to come?

My Oscar Predictions

With only 90 minutes to go until the show begins, here are my predictions:

Best Picture: Crash
Best Director, Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
Best Actor: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Best Actress: Felicity Huffman, TransAmerica
Best Supporting Actor: Jake Gyllenhall, Brokeback Mountain
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, Junebug
Best Original Screenplay: Crash
Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
Cinematography: Brokeback Mountain
Animated Feature: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

I'm going out on a limb with several of these - and I wouldn't be surprised to see Brokeback for Best Picture, Reese Witherspoon (Actress), George Clooney (Supp. Actor), and Rachel Weisz (Supp. Actress) win instead. Nothing will make me cheer more loudly than if Amy Adams wins - the supporting actress category has been a wild card in the past and as prone to recognize great performances (e.g., Marsha Gay Harden in Pollack) as well as payback (e.g., Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love) and hers is the best BY FAR - if only the voters took the time to watch it.

We'll know before too long.....

2 for 1? I'll pass

During the 1992 Presidential race, Bill Clinton joked that if we elected him we'd be getting "two for the price of one" because his wife brought so much to the table. Now we see what a Hillary Clinton administration could bring us along this line - she opportunistically plays politics while he works behind the scenes to achieve exactly what she is inveighing against. Do we need any more reasons to stop Hillary?

Well, that explains everything!

Here's a not-so-far-fetched explanation
for the real motivation behind Fred Phelps' hatred.

Small Investor, Beware!

If you're a denison of the Yahoo stock discussion boards, here's some helpful advice about the "bashers" who toil to make stock prices tank to enrich their short positions.

Brokeback, Part II

One man's imagination of what Ennis & Jack's reunion would be like.

The Source of Evil in the Modern World

I'm all hepped up over high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and last week's trip to the grocery store pushed me over the edge.

Did you know that most commerically produced bread - the kind most Moms in America buy for the kids' lunches, including the supposedly-healthy whole grain types - is made with HFCS? I sure didn't, and believe me you have to read a lot of lables to find the few varieties of non-organic, reasonably priced bread to find one made with honey or cane sugar instead.

This article explains the link between HFCS, Federal corn subsidies, and America's growing obsesity crisis.

And where are our lawmakers in all of this? In bed with the agribusiness giants, of course. Remember this the next time you see an ad on those Sunday morning talk shows from ADM - one of the leading purveyers of this poison, and the most prominant recipient of Federal subsidies.