Favourite Oscars

Many of the media have been mildly distracted today, turning briefly away from the story of the South African athlete who shot his girlfriend towards a little awards ceremony taking place tonight in Los Angeles. I thought I'd add a little to the mix and thus present for your delectation and delight some other famous Oscars:

This is the Oscar Fish. Surely you recognise Astronotus ocellatus? It's a species of fish from the cichlid family and has many common names including Oscar, Tiger Oscar, Velvet Cichlid or Marble Cichlid.

If you are an amateur radio ham, you may have heard of the satellite OSCAR. No?

To be honest there don't seem to be any other particularly interesting Oscars. Except of course for the one and only, and my great favourite, Mr Wilde. As a teenager, I was so enamoured of him that I wrote a little poem of celebration

Am I in ernest when I say
That of puns I read as a child
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills'
Always drove me wild.

I am still waiting for the day when knowing Oscar Wilde's full name will be the answer to a vital quiz question. Meanwhile, I am always entertained by his wit. This quote seems apt for the end of this piece:

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."

The Oscars

Well, all the awards for films made in 2008 are over now I think. Here are the 10 moments that caught my attention:

1. Hugh Jackman can dance quite well.

2. There is no bad angle from which to shoot Angelina Jolie - whether the cameraman is kneeling at her feet shooting up her nostril, or allowing only her clapping hands to be seen in shot - she is totally stunning.

3. Maybe if Mickey Rourke had worn a tie he would have had a better chance of winning?

4. Worst camerawork was on the montage of the dead people - half the time the camera was dancing around so much the names were off-camera, and they totally missed Cyd Charisse.

5. Alicia Keys can pronounce foreign words quite well.

6. Brilliant Ben Stiller's impersonation of Joaquin Phoenix was, well, brilliant.

7. If Sophia Loren had had a better make-up artist she could have looked 20 years younger instead of only 10.

8. Thank you whoever decided to do the medley of the best songs!

9. I have a coat lining made of the same material as Whoopi Goldberg's dress.

10. Hurrah hurrah hurrah for Sean Penn's win as Harvey Milk!

what oscars?

actually, i have to admit that i did watch a few hours of the telecast. i had a bit of a temperature, and took a nice warm blanket, a bear and a pillow to the front room and turned on the television. haven't done that in months! there was some kind of crime thingy with mr big from sex in the city on one side of the oscar station that also had ben vereen in it with very black hair. there were a lot of l'oreal commercials i think, and jon stewart being rather bland. and there were some nice jewish boys who got a lot of prizes. the most compelling thing for me was the list of dead people, and i missed the beginning of that because i was trying to figure out the plot of the crime show. it ended with heath ledger, of course, although i think there were a few more distinguished people on the list like ingmar bergman or michaelangelo antonioni or deborah kerr etc. anyway, it is done. i was not amused. and julie christie lost to marion cotillard who played piaf in a biopic.

academy awards 2008

an image of uncle oscar
that reminds me, i must be the last movie buff blogger on the east coast to note that the nominations for this year's academy awards were announced today. the full list is on the academy's site. i have only seen two of any film nominated for anything this year. and i want julie christie to win, even though i haven't seen her film yet. "movie buff" she said she was? hey, this has been a tough year, what with going back to school and moving and cetera. i still know who van nest polglase was and can recite herbert lom's full name!

missy's shout-out to oscar

melissa etheridge backstage last night to reporters:

"This is the only naked man that will ever be in my bedroom."

oscars - the next day

so many people writing about the oscars today, you've probably read all there is to read, e.g., lesbians rule - ellen hosts, melissa wins; helen mirren gives a shoutout to her majesty queen elizabeth the second and americans in the audience uneasy; little miss sunshine beats borat and some others for best screenplay; jaden smith named best-dressed elementary-schooler on the red carpet ...


... all i have to add is this: what is going on with jack nicholson? d. said he looks like marlon brando. i disagreed. as far as i can see, daddy warbucks and lex luthor are battling for his soul.

nu - there goes oscar night for another year. to tell you the truth, we watched until 10, and then switched over to the L word (which was kind of hot this week). when it was over, the snowstorm had been going for a while, & the best choice really was to drive home safely and log on immediately, rather than sitting through another hour of advertisements and a couple more awards.

tonight, tonight ...

less than eleven hours to go until the oscars. i am not including the red carpet bit, which i find rather boring. about 25 years ago, my parents were driving me to uni for the first time. in the car, we were listening to an audiotape i had found in the 1ukp bin. it was joan rivers, and my mother remembered going to hear her in the village when i was a baby. there was one joke that made us laugh so much we nearly went off the road. ms rivers talks about how you have to make your children feel guilty so when they grow up they will never leave you. she says that her method was to go into her daughter's room in the middle of the night, wake her and say: 'melissa, you ripped me to shreds. now go back to sleep.' i guess it worked, and that is my main reason for lack of interest in the red carpet.

meanwhile, no predictions, just anticipation. i can hardly wait!!