Flakes - They're Not Just for Your Scalp Anymore!

Once again, my friends, it is snowing. Not that I particularly mind today, except for the fact that I have to walk to the library and should pick up my dry cleaning this evening. Although if this is the extent of that HUGE Nor'easter the weathermen have overblown into a story of mammoth proportions, then I really think we ought to revolt against a weather segment on the nightly news. What a rip-off! At the very least, I expect several feet of powdery white stuff and a couple of old-people deaths to start of the day if they're threatening me with THE BIGGEST STORM SINCE THE ICE AGE! And I really mean those all-caps.

As for my actual weekend, I had a wonderfully boring time with my honey in Philadelphia on Saturday and Sunday. Since he was working Friday night with the First Lady of Mexico (or someone along those lines), I spent Friday night doing nothing but watching crap t.v. and reassuring myself that my reading, applications, etc. can wait. Saturday I spent reading, cleaning the apartment, grocery shopping, and pampering Anthony; Sunday was full of homemade strawberry pancakes and bacon, several hours of clothes shopping that led to a new pair of work shoes for Anthony and a single t-shirt for me, and then a sweet-sweet five hours of Academy Awards bruhaha with my Mama Palma's and several bowls of neopolitan ice cream with berries on top.

Now it hurts to be awake, but that was the least disappointing Oscars I've seen in many moons. Whoever arranged the ceremonies this year certainly did a good job on time (it only ran over about 15 minutes), and cut out a lot of the really dull speeches that have come to mark most awards shows as a type of sleep-inducer. I am really proud of the Academy also for not choosing Martin Scorcese and The Aviator as Best Director and Best Film. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I think there was so much genuine competition out there that I didn't want to see another, "Well, you did really great with past movies, so we're going to give you this award because we think it's about time." I HATE when sub-par movies/actors/directing jobs/etc. get recognized far later than they should, thereby NOT honoring another person who clearly deserved recognition that year.

At least the Academy recognized a few independent gems this year, granting that industry some clout in the years to come (the most recognition going to Jamie Foxx with his Best Actor Oscar, but kudos also going to Sideways for Best Adapted Screenplay and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for Best Original Screenplay). On a personal level, I was really happy to see Finding Neverland gain some recognition, even if it was only for Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures. It was such a beautiful little film, and I cried like a baby in the theatre all by myself.

Of course, Million Dollar Baby was the big winner this year. Morgan Freeman got Best Supporting, Hillary Swank got Best Actress, Clint Eastwood got Best Director, and the movie garnered Best Motion Picture of the Year. For those same awards, my picks wouldn't have differed greatly: Freeman for Best Supporting, Winslet for Best Actress, Eastwood for Directing, and of the movies up for Best Motion Picture I would have liked to see Ray or Finding Neverland win (although I know the whole world is not behind me).

Other thoughts on the awards:

• Sean Penn is still an ASS, who really didn't deserve last year's Oscar for Mystic River;
• My favorite acceptance speech of all time was Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting a few years ago - they were so young, so exuberant, so truly NOT HOLLYWOOD that it was a refreshing sight to see them win;
• Halle Barre's acceptance speech last year was painful, but not nearly as painful as her acting inabillity in Monster's Ball (why again did she get that Oscar?);
• I have to give a shout out to Chris Rock for a) retorting to Sean Penn so well, b) conducting a real-life interview of average movie-goers, most of whom's favorite movie of 2004 was White Chicks (egads!), and c) mentioning Boat Trip, the most god-awful movie that Jimmy and I had the pleasure of watching on our Dominican vacation (Cuba, what were you thinking???);
• Renee Zellweger should never go brunette and should start eating again before I mistake her for a starving tsunami aid child;
• Drew Barrymore makes a better blonde;
• Why don't they actually have some kind of viewing of all the shorts before or during the Oscars? Then we might actually have a chance of seeing some of them;
• Carlos Santana and Antonio Banderas should never collaborate to destroy a beautiful song again with their live performance;
• Costume Design should have gone to Lemony Snickett, if only because there was no time period for the designers to review and each design had to be imagined first instead of stolen from another age;
• House of Flying Daggers should have received Best Cinematography;
• and the Best Supporting Actress should have been anyone BUT Cate Blanchett, who impersonates just a shell of the late, great Katherine Hepburn (probably learned from watching too many old movies, instead of figuring out what kind of person Hepburn was in her private life

And that's all I have to say about that. Other than... next year I need to find someone else to watch the awards show with because Anthony is the WORST date for that kind of thing. He has such a dislike for Hollywood and actors that he can't keep his hate inside, which was made even more obvious after he drank about six glasses of beer and a glass of wine. It makes for a very tense viewing of the glitz and glamour that is the Academy Awards - and really, for something as silly as an awards show, who needs all that?