Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Friday, March 07, 2008
These are trained professionals
There are plenty of ways to waste time. But if you're a snarky and nitpicky pro wrestling fan, this video of botched moves and broadcasting mistakes (and the rest of the clips in the collection) will kill any entire afternoon. Enjoy.
By the way, I actually have the MP3 of the music used in the video.
By the way, I actually have the MP3 of the music used in the video.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Musical microphones
Couple of interesting changes in the local broadcast booths this season:
-- Steve Stone is back in Chicago, although this time with the White Sox. In effect, he's pulling a reverse Harry Caray, who worked on the South Side before becoming a beloved Cubs announcer. Stone will be doing radio with Ed Farmer. I missed Stone doing Cubs games, but he had an interesting chemistry working with Steve Phillips and Gary Thorne on ESPN a couple of years ago. Strangely enough, Stone will be replacing Chris Singleton (whose dad is one of 500 people calling Yankees games on YES), who looks to be heading to Baseball Tonight.
-- Joe Buck won't do Cardinals games this season, ending a 54-year era of Bucks in the St. Louis booth. I'm not as much of a Joe Buck hater as some of my friends; I'm pretty ambivalent about Buck as an announcer. Of course, he's been showing up in a multitude of commercials (Dude!?!) and doing all sorts of other stuff that his cameo appearances with St. Louis seemed like just a ploy to keep the ties between the Buck family and the Cardinals alive. Besides, it's not like the primary network baseball voice has to have a local gig on the side, right?
-- Steve Stone is back in Chicago, although this time with the White Sox. In effect, he's pulling a reverse Harry Caray, who worked on the South Side before becoming a beloved Cubs announcer. Stone will be doing radio with Ed Farmer. I missed Stone doing Cubs games, but he had an interesting chemistry working with Steve Phillips and Gary Thorne on ESPN a couple of years ago. Strangely enough, Stone will be replacing Chris Singleton (whose dad is one of 500 people calling Yankees games on YES), who looks to be heading to Baseball Tonight.
-- Joe Buck won't do Cardinals games this season, ending a 54-year era of Bucks in the St. Louis booth. I'm not as much of a Joe Buck hater as some of my friends; I'm pretty ambivalent about Buck as an announcer. Of course, he's been showing up in a multitude of commercials (Dude!?!) and doing all sorts of other stuff that his cameo appearances with St. Louis seemed like just a ploy to keep the ties between the Buck family and the Cardinals alive. Besides, it's not like the primary network baseball voice has to have a local gig on the side, right?
Rambling on, with awkward pauses
If you watch enough American Idol, you'll get enough of these bizarre Paula Abdul moments. But I just realized why some of those stumbling moments sound so familiar -- Larry Merchant has made it an art form for years on HBO's boxing coverage.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Err-ball
Put it simply, if you really want to know more about the ABA, you're better off finding the HBO documentary Loose Balls, based on Terry Pluto's great book. Yeah, I saw Semi Pro over the weekend and was predictably disappointed. They did a good job of replicating the look of the uniforms and such, but everything else was pretty bland and uninspired.
But probably the most disconcerting part of the movie was the gratuitous profanity that led to its R rating (and eventually its so-so opening week box office take). I usually don't pay that close attention one way or another, but let's just say that this movie isn't a Kevin Smith or Quentin Tarantino picture where such talk would seem commonplace and allegedly clever.
It's probably still worth a cheap rental later on, but let's just say that I felt silly missing out on the pre-noon matinee price at the nearby AMC theater.
A couple of other observations while watching some random sports-related commercials:
-- I guess it's cool for Subway to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the whole Jared campaign, but using Tony Stewart as part of the ads seems a bit silly these days, given that Smoke seems to be getting pudgier in addition to growing that mullet. I'm guessing Stewart ain't ordering the veggie combo.
-- The Brian Urlacher-David Ortiz Vitamin Water ad is amusing enough, but exactly what country would those two be representing, assuming their opponents are Chinese?
But probably the most disconcerting part of the movie was the gratuitous profanity that led to its R rating (and eventually its so-so opening week box office take). I usually don't pay that close attention one way or another, but let's just say that this movie isn't a Kevin Smith or Quentin Tarantino picture where such talk would seem commonplace and allegedly clever.
It's probably still worth a cheap rental later on, but let's just say that I felt silly missing out on the pre-noon matinee price at the nearby AMC theater.
A couple of other observations while watching some random sports-related commercials:
-- I guess it's cool for Subway to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the whole Jared campaign, but using Tony Stewart as part of the ads seems a bit silly these days, given that Smoke seems to be getting pudgier in addition to growing that mullet. I'm guessing Stewart ain't ordering the veggie combo.
-- The Brian Urlacher-David Ortiz Vitamin Water ad is amusing enough, but exactly what country would those two be representing, assuming their opponents are Chinese?
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Oscar night follow-up
For what it's worth, the NASCAR race restarted Monday afternoon, so I was still able to see that at work. However, it looks like Oscars ratings took a huge tumble, although I'm not surprised given the best picture nominees. It's tough to figure out where mainstream success, critical praise and pseudo-artsy snobbery meet, if at all, but I suppose this wasn't one of those years.
Meanwhile, I realized that Brad Renfro was left off the Oscars obit reel. His death was overshadowed by Heath Ledger's, but it still fit the time period, and Renfro did appear in enough notable movies to merit a mention.
Meanwhile, I realized that Brad Renfro was left off the Oscars obit reel. His death was overshadowed by Heath Ledger's, but it still fit the time period, and Renfro did appear in enough notable movies to merit a mention.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Oscar blog 2008
Well, here's one way to resurrect this blog -- keeping up with the Oscars live, like I've done a couple of times in the past. This year, I've actually seen three of the five nominated films, ticking off No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood in one afternoon last week. (At least I was able to understand one of the skits on last night's SNL because of that cramming.)
8:12 p.m.:: And we're off, sorta. I'm flipping back and forth between ABC's Red Carpet show and the NASCAR race on FOX. I might as well check in on my office fantasy NASCAR team (hey, Tom Cruise is at the track instead of the Oscars) while I also see how I fare in my friend's Oscar pool.
8:17 p.m.: Rain causing havoc at the NASCAR race. So much for "It Never Rains in Southern California."
8:18 p.m.: Are Regis Philbin and Ryan Seacrest contractually obligated to host everything on TV?
8:28 p.m.: Jack still has a front-row seat? I guess he's good for mugging it up for the camera all night long. And he's got a seat next to Xavier Bardem (at least according to Reege). Interesting stuff.
8:31 p.m.: Interesting opening graphics montage with the Terminator delivering the Oscars while going through tons of iconic movie scenes/characters along the way. But hopefully that intro wasn't sponsored by UPS, looking at the truck.
8:33 p.m.: Jon Stewart gets to the writers strike stuff immediately. Why not. Nice jab at the Vanity Fair Oscar party as well as the narcissism that is the Oscars.
8:35 p.m.: "Thank God for teen pregnancy!"
8:38 p.m.: Is it just me or does Diablo Cody look like current day Alyson Hannigan?
8:39 p.m.: Well that didn't take too long to get to the political jokes. Nice tie-in with the bad performance of the Iraq movies. And I guess it made sense to cut to Wesley Snipes and Spike Lee after a joke about Barack Obama.
8:40 p.m.: Pretty much solid Jon Stewart for the monologue. Talk about the nominees, get some political jokes in. No song and dance, thankfully.
8:41 p.m.: Wait a minute, isn't one of the best supporting acting categories supposed to be first? Instead, we get costume design. So it's Elizabeth, the phantom menace, that gets the award. I do get a few points for it.
8:43 p.m.: Babs reminisces about her Oscar win. Whatever. But who the heck was reading the envelope for that ceremony? Oy.
8:47 p.m.: Clooney introduces the first waste-of-time moment of the ceremonies -- 80 years of memories montage. Not bad, but still a waste of time.
8:55 p.m.: iPhone plug by Stewart, followed by the Get Smart plug of Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway presenting best animated feature. No surprise that Ratatouille wins (and I did finally catch up to it this weekend), but why wasn't "The Simpsons Movie" nominated.
8:58 p.m.: Geez, an overly made up Katherine Heigl gives out the award for best makeup, which actually features Norbit as a nominee. But it's La Vie en Rose that gets the win.
9:02 p.m.: And we start with the original songs. So Amy Adams goes from The Office to Ricky Bobby to Oscar nominee to singing one of the Oscar songs, all in a span of about three years. I still say Adams looks exactly like Isla Fisher, but that's also because I was totally confused which actress played was actually in Talladega Nights. As for the performance, I'm thinking the outfit didn't necessarily match the song. Then again, I doubt they'd want to put her in the Enchanted get-up, or else have a repeat of that Snow White/Rob Lowe debacle actually showed in an earlier montage.
9:06 p.m.: More yellow-flag racing, and Dario Franchitti is somehow in the lead. Is Ashley Judd there at the track?
9:07 p.m.: Can you smell what The Rock is presenting? When in doubt with some of these awards, pick the artsiest film over the blockbusters. Hence, The Golden Compass beating Transformers (or The Transforming Robots, according to SNL) and the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film for visual effects.
9:10 p.m.: Moving right along to art direction. (BTW, we go from The Rock to Cate Blanchett as presenters.) Sweeney Todd wins -- hey, that was my pick. Lots of foreign winners already.
9:14 p.m.: Finally, we get to an acting award, best supporting actor. So of course we have to start with a montage. And how does the montage end -- with Cuba Gooding Jr., since he ain't getting anywhere close to that stage ever again.
9:18 p.m.: No surprise that Javier Bardem and the haircut won, and nice speech to his mom in Spanish. I'm still wondering how Jack got his seats by all the No Country For Old Men folks.
9:21 p.m.: Still raining at the NASCAR race. So which ends first, the Oscars or the race?
9:23 p.m.: Oh great, we're already getting meta with all the silly montages.
9:24 p.m.: Felicity gets to introduce the song from August Rush, since she was in it. Meanwhile, I saw Waitress over the weekend, and that was pretty good. It would've been cool if Andy Griffith had gotten similar supporting actor consideration that Hal Holbrook got.
9:28 p.m.: Owen Wilson's been nominated for an Oscar? But at least he's out there after his issues last year. ... Meanwhile, another foreigner wins, for Live Action Short Film -- Le Mozart de Pickpockets just sounds cool. Too bad, the category it's not part of the pool.
9:31 p.m.: Bee Movie still gets some consideration despite being snubbed for animated feature. The consolation prize is giving out animated short, I guess. And oh yeah, yet another montage -- of bees on film. Congrats to Peter and the Wolf for winning.
9:34 p.m.: If you're going to do a montage for best supporting actor, you're going to do it for best supporting actress as well. Can I call up the montage song from Team America yet?
9:39 p.m.: Oops, I didn't put down any points on Tilda Swinton in what was a pretty wide open race to begin with. But what's with the hair and dress? Yeesh. Still, a pretty quirky acceptance speech that actually mentioned the nippled Bat-suit.
9:44 p.m.: So Jessica Alba is the designated hottie to host the scientific and technical awards. No surprise there.
9:46 p.m.: Two anonymous actors from decent films present best adapted screenplay. It's cool to see Sarah Polley get a writing nomination, but the Coens did get the Oscar over Paul Thomas Anderson, which may be a harbinger for the rest of the evening. But at least Josh Brolin got to present an Oscar for his own film.
9:49 p.m.: Here comes the academy president to explain the voting process with a short video presentation. Cute, and it was a little better than just trotting out accountants, but like everything else at the Oscars, just a tad too long.
9:53 p.m.: Hey, it's Hannah Montana at the Oscars, introducing another Enchanted song. Disney synergy in full bloom, capped off with Kristin Chenoweth (from ABC's Pushing Daisies) singing. I am amused that Chenoweth was the inspiration for Sarah Paulsen's character on Studio 60.
10:01 p.m.: Dorky pregnancy award getup, but it did seem somewhat improvised.
10:07 p.m.: Sucks to be Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen as they couldn't get introduced on their own to present the sound awards. Instead, they had to fight over who was Halle Berry and who was Judi Dench. But as for the awards themselves, so much for the artier films winning by default -- the Bourne Ultimatum got them both.
10:08 p.m.: So I guess we know when a major award will come up -- just look for a montage of former winners. Next up -- best actress.
10:13 p.m.: A pretty big surprise with Marion Cotillard winning Best Actress. Although it goes with the theme of the evening with all the foreigners winning Oscars. She did take the Golden Globe, so apparently it wasn't a major fluke. I guess Juno will probably take the original screenplay award (aka the award for the hip film that has no shot at Best Picture) and be happy with that.
10:18 p.m.: Dude, a game of Wii tennis at the Oscars. They've already had Jon Stewart playing with an iPhone, now this. What other tech toys are next?
10:18 p.m.: Colin Farrell nearly slips on stage before introducing the song from Once. Where are those mops like they have at basketball games?
10:22 p.m.: OK, Jack actually has a use in this year's ceremony other than just mug for the camera. OK, maybe not, as it's a montage of the Best Picture winners, even though that award won't be given out for another hour or two.
10:28 p.m.: Not sure what to say about Renee Zellwegger's look, although I miss her Jerry Maguire look. Meanwhile, The Bourne Ultimatum now has three Oscars, after taking film editing. Nope, I didn't have any points down for that one.
10:37 p.m.: The Alabaster Android (great term, although not my own, for Nicole Kidman) has the honor of introducing Robert Boyle, a long-time production designer for an honorary Oscar. So a little love for one of the very deep behind-the-scenes guys. However, while there were a bunch of great movies noted in the piece, it somehow ended with a shot from Dragnet (the Tom Hanks/Dan Akroyd one). I don't care if it was a shot of the Hollywood sign that prompted its inclusion in the piece, but after seeing all sorts of classic films in there, ending with a movie best known for the Virgin Connie Swail was a bit of a letdown.
10:43 p.m.: Makes sense to have Penelope Cruz introduce the Best Foreign Language film. So Austria gets an Oscar about the Nazis. Not much juice in the category this year.
10:45 p.m.: So McDreamy gets to introduce the last of the Enchanted songs. Sorry, I still think of Patrick Dempsey from Can't Buy Me Love.
10:48 p.m.: John Travolta (not in drag) gets to announce the Best Song winner, although none of the Hairspray songs was nominated. And once again, the out of left field song wins, as the song from Once gets the award. I'm pretty sure all the Enchanted songs canceled each other out, much like Dreamgirls did last year to open up the spot for Melissa Etheridge's Oscar. Best Original Song is becoming a ridiculously wide open category these days, but note to those in Oscar pools, if three songs from one movie are nominated, go for something else.
10:57 p.m.: Nice gesture to give the other writer of the song from Once an opportunity for her speech. It looks like they do have a little leeway in deviating from the script.
10:59 p.m.: Cameron Diaz fumbles around with the word cinematography. It's one of the last awards where a movie star-type like her would be allowed to present. (You've got to earn it to give out the acting/directing/best film awards.) Not a huge surprise that There Will Be Blood got the award. There were some stunning scenes in the film.
11:01 p.m.: Hilary Swank gets the honor of introducing the obit reel. Let's see the gradations of applause. Who's really important or at least most renowned.
11:02 p.m.: Nice to see them put a time frame on the obits, BTW.
11:05 p.m.: Nothing really out of the ordinary. Suzanne Pleshette and Deborah Kerr get the first notable bits of applause back-to-back, followed by a louder ovation for Ingmar Bergman. Not surprisingly, Heath Ledger closed out the bit, but even his ovation was rather muted. In all, there were a lot of notable names, but very few huge stars or truly tragic deaths that would've elicited a major reaction until the end.
11:08 p.m.: Amy Adams is back for Best Original Score. It's still interesting to think that she was Jim's first love interest on The Office. As for the award, Atonement gets itself an Oscar. Good for them. That means only Juno hasn't gotten an award out of the Best Picture candidates.
11:12 p.m.: Hey, it's Tom Hanks. But first, he's introducing some troops in Iraq introducing the Best Documentary Short Subject. They weren't going to have them introduce the Best Documentary Feature, given all the war-related works in that category.
11:15 p.m.: Hanks is back for Best Documentary Feature. Let's see if Michael Moore wins again, although I doubt it. Sicko was pretty dull compared to some of his other works.
11:17 p.m.: Taxi to the Dark Side wins. I guess it was a surprise win, but I suppose it's a matter of which war-related documentary would get the honor.
11:19 p.m.: Thankfully, they've been judicious with the stories of past winners getting their Oscar. The Elton John one was like a bunch of the others tonight -- mildly interesting but you're not missing anything if you switched
channels before they came on.
11:23 p.m.: Hey, did you know there's a new Indiana Jones movie coming out? That would explain Harrison Ford reading off the teleprompter horribly, giving out the Best Original Screenplay award.
11:25 p.m.: Yup, Diablo Cody did indeed win for Juno. All five Best Picture nominees get an award. Surprisingly, I had actually heard of Diablo Cody and her interesting past long before Juno came out, but I never really thought she'd have an Oscar this quickly. But once again, it's pretty easy to pick out the original screenplay winner -- just find the hip movie with the most positive buzz. At least in this case, there was some interesting writing here, which can't always be said for past winners.
11:29 p.m.: It's time for a montage -- Best Actor. We're hitting the home stretch here.
11:34 p.m.: No surprise that Daniel Day-Lewis got the award. He was brilliant in There Will Be Blood, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the movie. I'm still trying to figure out whatever accent he was trying for, but whatever it was, he did a good job of it. Meanwhile, Bill Hader has already perfected the performance.
11:39 p.m.: And it's straight to a montage for Best Director, starting with a great Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau bit.
11:42 p.m.: It's nice to see Martin Scorcese pass the torch for Best Director, and he got to give it to the Coen brothers, who probably deserved one a long time ago.
11:45 p.m.: Denzel Washington got the nice gig for giving out Best Picture, although I'm sure he wished American Gangster was on the list. Then again, he wouldn't have that spot if it were.
11:46 p.m.: And I guess, not surprisingly, No Country For Old Men takes the big prize. I though it was decent, but not even the best of the Coen brothers' work. But then again, I've always liked their quirky comedies, and those don't usually win the big awards. Make it slightly more serious, and presto, an Oscar.
11:48 p.m.: And that's a wrap. So it went about 15-20 minutes past the 11:30 scheduled ending time. That's not bad at all. All those film montages were a bit wearisome, but I guess it was good to have that stuff in the can if the writers strike had continued on. Jon Stewart seemed to move things along relatively well with just enough spontaneous reaction to some of the stuff going on. The whole thing seemed like a tamer version of The Daily Show, sanitized for Oscar purposes. I wouldn't mind having him back again, but I wouldn't be torn up if they go in a different direction.
And that wraps things up for this year. Guess I'll have to make more trips to the movies (or at least to my local Redbox) sooner rather than later.
As for one last update on the NASCAR race, it's still going on, although they've been stuck in a rain delay all day. They were supposed to resume it at 1 a.m. but came to their senses and moved it to Monday afternoon.
8:12 p.m.:: And we're off, sorta. I'm flipping back and forth between ABC's Red Carpet show and the NASCAR race on FOX. I might as well check in on my office fantasy NASCAR team (hey, Tom Cruise is at the track instead of the Oscars) while I also see how I fare in my friend's Oscar pool.
8:17 p.m.: Rain causing havoc at the NASCAR race. So much for "It Never Rains in Southern California."
8:18 p.m.: Are Regis Philbin and Ryan Seacrest contractually obligated to host everything on TV?
8:28 p.m.: Jack still has a front-row seat? I guess he's good for mugging it up for the camera all night long. And he's got a seat next to Xavier Bardem (at least according to Reege). Interesting stuff.
8:31 p.m.: Interesting opening graphics montage with the Terminator delivering the Oscars while going through tons of iconic movie scenes/characters along the way. But hopefully that intro wasn't sponsored by UPS, looking at the truck.
8:33 p.m.: Jon Stewart gets to the writers strike stuff immediately. Why not. Nice jab at the Vanity Fair Oscar party as well as the narcissism that is the Oscars.
8:35 p.m.: "Thank God for teen pregnancy!"
8:38 p.m.: Is it just me or does Diablo Cody look like current day Alyson Hannigan?
8:39 p.m.: Well that didn't take too long to get to the political jokes. Nice tie-in with the bad performance of the Iraq movies. And I guess it made sense to cut to Wesley Snipes and Spike Lee after a joke about Barack Obama.
8:40 p.m.: Pretty much solid Jon Stewart for the monologue. Talk about the nominees, get some political jokes in. No song and dance, thankfully.
8:41 p.m.: Wait a minute, isn't one of the best supporting acting categories supposed to be first? Instead, we get costume design. So it's Elizabeth, the phantom menace, that gets the award. I do get a few points for it.
8:43 p.m.: Babs reminisces about her Oscar win. Whatever. But who the heck was reading the envelope for that ceremony? Oy.
8:47 p.m.: Clooney introduces the first waste-of-time moment of the ceremonies -- 80 years of memories montage. Not bad, but still a waste of time.
8:55 p.m.: iPhone plug by Stewart, followed by the Get Smart plug of Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway presenting best animated feature. No surprise that Ratatouille wins (and I did finally catch up to it this weekend), but why wasn't "The Simpsons Movie" nominated.
8:58 p.m.: Geez, an overly made up Katherine Heigl gives out the award for best makeup, which actually features Norbit as a nominee. But it's La Vie en Rose that gets the win.
9:02 p.m.: And we start with the original songs. So Amy Adams goes from The Office to Ricky Bobby to Oscar nominee to singing one of the Oscar songs, all in a span of about three years. I still say Adams looks exactly like Isla Fisher, but that's also because I was totally confused which actress played was actually in Talladega Nights. As for the performance, I'm thinking the outfit didn't necessarily match the song. Then again, I doubt they'd want to put her in the Enchanted get-up, or else have a repeat of that Snow White/Rob Lowe debacle actually showed in an earlier montage.
9:06 p.m.: More yellow-flag racing, and Dario Franchitti is somehow in the lead. Is Ashley Judd there at the track?
9:07 p.m.: Can you smell what The Rock is presenting? When in doubt with some of these awards, pick the artsiest film over the blockbusters. Hence, The Golden Compass beating Transformers (or The Transforming Robots, according to SNL) and the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film for visual effects.
9:10 p.m.: Moving right along to art direction. (BTW, we go from The Rock to Cate Blanchett as presenters.) Sweeney Todd wins -- hey, that was my pick. Lots of foreign winners already.
9:14 p.m.: Finally, we get to an acting award, best supporting actor. So of course we have to start with a montage. And how does the montage end -- with Cuba Gooding Jr., since he ain't getting anywhere close to that stage ever again.
9:18 p.m.: No surprise that Javier Bardem and the haircut won, and nice speech to his mom in Spanish. I'm still wondering how Jack got his seats by all the No Country For Old Men folks.
9:21 p.m.: Still raining at the NASCAR race. So which ends first, the Oscars or the race?
9:23 p.m.: Oh great, we're already getting meta with all the silly montages.
9:24 p.m.: Felicity gets to introduce the song from August Rush, since she was in it. Meanwhile, I saw Waitress over the weekend, and that was pretty good. It would've been cool if Andy Griffith had gotten similar supporting actor consideration that Hal Holbrook got.
9:28 p.m.: Owen Wilson's been nominated for an Oscar? But at least he's out there after his issues last year. ... Meanwhile, another foreigner wins, for Live Action Short Film -- Le Mozart de Pickpockets just sounds cool. Too bad, the category it's not part of the pool.
9:31 p.m.: Bee Movie still gets some consideration despite being snubbed for animated feature. The consolation prize is giving out animated short, I guess. And oh yeah, yet another montage -- of bees on film. Congrats to Peter and the Wolf for winning.
9:34 p.m.: If you're going to do a montage for best supporting actor, you're going to do it for best supporting actress as well. Can I call up the montage song from Team America yet?
9:39 p.m.: Oops, I didn't put down any points on Tilda Swinton in what was a pretty wide open race to begin with. But what's with the hair and dress? Yeesh. Still, a pretty quirky acceptance speech that actually mentioned the nippled Bat-suit.
9:44 p.m.: So Jessica Alba is the designated hottie to host the scientific and technical awards. No surprise there.
9:46 p.m.: Two anonymous actors from decent films present best adapted screenplay. It's cool to see Sarah Polley get a writing nomination, but the Coens did get the Oscar over Paul Thomas Anderson, which may be a harbinger for the rest of the evening. But at least Josh Brolin got to present an Oscar for his own film.
9:49 p.m.: Here comes the academy president to explain the voting process with a short video presentation. Cute, and it was a little better than just trotting out accountants, but like everything else at the Oscars, just a tad too long.
9:53 p.m.: Hey, it's Hannah Montana at the Oscars, introducing another Enchanted song. Disney synergy in full bloom, capped off with Kristin Chenoweth (from ABC's Pushing Daisies) singing. I am amused that Chenoweth was the inspiration for Sarah Paulsen's character on Studio 60.
10:01 p.m.: Dorky pregnancy award getup, but it did seem somewhat improvised.
10:07 p.m.: Sucks to be Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen as they couldn't get introduced on their own to present the sound awards. Instead, they had to fight over who was Halle Berry and who was Judi Dench. But as for the awards themselves, so much for the artier films winning by default -- the Bourne Ultimatum got them both.
10:08 p.m.: So I guess we know when a major award will come up -- just look for a montage of former winners. Next up -- best actress.
10:13 p.m.: A pretty big surprise with Marion Cotillard winning Best Actress. Although it goes with the theme of the evening with all the foreigners winning Oscars. She did take the Golden Globe, so apparently it wasn't a major fluke. I guess Juno will probably take the original screenplay award (aka the award for the hip film that has no shot at Best Picture) and be happy with that.
10:18 p.m.: Dude, a game of Wii tennis at the Oscars. They've already had Jon Stewart playing with an iPhone, now this. What other tech toys are next?
10:18 p.m.: Colin Farrell nearly slips on stage before introducing the song from Once. Where are those mops like they have at basketball games?
10:22 p.m.: OK, Jack actually has a use in this year's ceremony other than just mug for the camera. OK, maybe not, as it's a montage of the Best Picture winners, even though that award won't be given out for another hour or two.
10:28 p.m.: Not sure what to say about Renee Zellwegger's look, although I miss her Jerry Maguire look. Meanwhile, The Bourne Ultimatum now has three Oscars, after taking film editing. Nope, I didn't have any points down for that one.
10:37 p.m.: The Alabaster Android (great term, although not my own, for Nicole Kidman) has the honor of introducing Robert Boyle, a long-time production designer for an honorary Oscar. So a little love for one of the very deep behind-the-scenes guys. However, while there were a bunch of great movies noted in the piece, it somehow ended with a shot from Dragnet (the Tom Hanks/Dan Akroyd one). I don't care if it was a shot of the Hollywood sign that prompted its inclusion in the piece, but after seeing all sorts of classic films in there, ending with a movie best known for the Virgin Connie Swail was a bit of a letdown.
10:43 p.m.: Makes sense to have Penelope Cruz introduce the Best Foreign Language film. So Austria gets an Oscar about the Nazis. Not much juice in the category this year.
10:45 p.m.: So McDreamy gets to introduce the last of the Enchanted songs. Sorry, I still think of Patrick Dempsey from Can't Buy Me Love.
10:48 p.m.: John Travolta (not in drag) gets to announce the Best Song winner, although none of the Hairspray songs was nominated. And once again, the out of left field song wins, as the song from Once gets the award. I'm pretty sure all the Enchanted songs canceled each other out, much like Dreamgirls did last year to open up the spot for Melissa Etheridge's Oscar. Best Original Song is becoming a ridiculously wide open category these days, but note to those in Oscar pools, if three songs from one movie are nominated, go for something else.
10:57 p.m.: Nice gesture to give the other writer of the song from Once an opportunity for her speech. It looks like they do have a little leeway in deviating from the script.
10:59 p.m.: Cameron Diaz fumbles around with the word cinematography. It's one of the last awards where a movie star-type like her would be allowed to present. (You've got to earn it to give out the acting/directing/best film awards.) Not a huge surprise that There Will Be Blood got the award. There were some stunning scenes in the film.
11:01 p.m.: Hilary Swank gets the honor of introducing the obit reel. Let's see the gradations of applause. Who's really important or at least most renowned.
11:02 p.m.: Nice to see them put a time frame on the obits, BTW.
11:05 p.m.: Nothing really out of the ordinary. Suzanne Pleshette and Deborah Kerr get the first notable bits of applause back-to-back, followed by a louder ovation for Ingmar Bergman. Not surprisingly, Heath Ledger closed out the bit, but even his ovation was rather muted. In all, there were a lot of notable names, but very few huge stars or truly tragic deaths that would've elicited a major reaction until the end.
11:08 p.m.: Amy Adams is back for Best Original Score. It's still interesting to think that she was Jim's first love interest on The Office. As for the award, Atonement gets itself an Oscar. Good for them. That means only Juno hasn't gotten an award out of the Best Picture candidates.
11:12 p.m.: Hey, it's Tom Hanks. But first, he's introducing some troops in Iraq introducing the Best Documentary Short Subject. They weren't going to have them introduce the Best Documentary Feature, given all the war-related works in that category.
11:15 p.m.: Hanks is back for Best Documentary Feature. Let's see if Michael Moore wins again, although I doubt it. Sicko was pretty dull compared to some of his other works.
11:17 p.m.: Taxi to the Dark Side wins. I guess it was a surprise win, but I suppose it's a matter of which war-related documentary would get the honor.
11:19 p.m.: Thankfully, they've been judicious with the stories of past winners getting their Oscar. The Elton John one was like a bunch of the others tonight -- mildly interesting but you're not missing anything if you switched
channels before they came on.
11:23 p.m.: Hey, did you know there's a new Indiana Jones movie coming out? That would explain Harrison Ford reading off the teleprompter horribly, giving out the Best Original Screenplay award.
11:25 p.m.: Yup, Diablo Cody did indeed win for Juno. All five Best Picture nominees get an award. Surprisingly, I had actually heard of Diablo Cody and her interesting past long before Juno came out, but I never really thought she'd have an Oscar this quickly. But once again, it's pretty easy to pick out the original screenplay winner -- just find the hip movie with the most positive buzz. At least in this case, there was some interesting writing here, which can't always be said for past winners.
11:29 p.m.: It's time for a montage -- Best Actor. We're hitting the home stretch here.
11:34 p.m.: No surprise that Daniel Day-Lewis got the award. He was brilliant in There Will Be Blood, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the movie. I'm still trying to figure out whatever accent he was trying for, but whatever it was, he did a good job of it. Meanwhile, Bill Hader has already perfected the performance.
11:39 p.m.: And it's straight to a montage for Best Director, starting with a great Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau bit.
11:42 p.m.: It's nice to see Martin Scorcese pass the torch for Best Director, and he got to give it to the Coen brothers, who probably deserved one a long time ago.
11:45 p.m.: Denzel Washington got the nice gig for giving out Best Picture, although I'm sure he wished American Gangster was on the list. Then again, he wouldn't have that spot if it were.
11:46 p.m.: And I guess, not surprisingly, No Country For Old Men takes the big prize. I though it was decent, but not even the best of the Coen brothers' work. But then again, I've always liked their quirky comedies, and those don't usually win the big awards. Make it slightly more serious, and presto, an Oscar.
11:48 p.m.: And that's a wrap. So it went about 15-20 minutes past the 11:30 scheduled ending time. That's not bad at all. All those film montages were a bit wearisome, but I guess it was good to have that stuff in the can if the writers strike had continued on. Jon Stewart seemed to move things along relatively well with just enough spontaneous reaction to some of the stuff going on. The whole thing seemed like a tamer version of The Daily Show, sanitized for Oscar purposes. I wouldn't mind having him back again, but I wouldn't be torn up if they go in a different direction.
And that wraps things up for this year. Guess I'll have to make more trips to the movies (or at least to my local Redbox) sooner rather than later.
As for one last update on the NASCAR race, it's still going on, although they've been stuck in a rain delay all day. They were supposed to resume it at 1 a.m. but came to their senses and moved it to Monday afternoon.
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