February 26, 2012

dear clusterflock

The Oscars.

posted by in dear clusterflock, movies, opinion, pop culture, religion | * | 38 comments 

comments

  1. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 5:53 pm

    To which traditional holiday are the Oscars analogous?

  2. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    I’m going with The Super Bowl is to Christmas as The Oscars is to New Years.

  3. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    Wait, we’ve got to shift that to Thanksgiving and Christmas, right?

  4. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    To answer your question: Fuck the Oscars. I don’t give a fuck. In fact, I actively hate the Oscars. Stupid awards. Boring show. What’s not to hate?

    I know I’m an asshole. I don’t care. The Oscars make my gorge rise.

  5. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    It’ll work. I hate New Year’s Eve (and Day), too.

  6. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    Let the games begin.

  7. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    Sheila, I perceive it as a what? A spectacle, I guess.

  8. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    The Oscars = January 20. Inauguration Day. Swearing-in of the President.

    Wake me when it’s over.

  9. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:06 pm

    I can dig spectacle. It just needs to be way more spectacular for me to get into it. I am thinking: North Korean Oscars. Dubai Oscars. Oscars staged for Alexander the Great.

  10. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    The Oscar ceremonies just feel to me like an expensive Rotary Club roast.

  11. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:09 pm

    I’m beginning to feel like a crazy person.

  12. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 6:10 pm

    I like the psychological spectacle. The fashion. The idea of awards in connection with creative pursuits. The idea of “art”. How spectacularly wrong most of the assessments are. What it shows and tells us about popular culture and the culture at large. In short, I love it.

  13. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    For some unfathomable reason I can’t achieve that degree of distance.

  14. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    I think I must feel something like what Brandon Hobson was recalling when he told me he was amazed that I could enter a WalMart and be amused.

  15. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    Yeah, exactly.

  16. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    Jupiter, Venus, and the crescent moon are going to align in a beautiful way early this evening, just as they did last night. That’s really good to look at.

  17. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    Yeah, that trumps this for sure.

  18. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    You can probably watch both.

  19. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:36 pm

    Hot damn! Like right now! It’ll last for a while longer. But it’s really spectacularly beautiful.

  20. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    Yes, beautiful. I asked them what they were wearing.

  21. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 6:41 pm

    One of them was wearing Stella McCartney, I think.

  22. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    Good eye.

  23. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    Binocular duct-taped to a tripod.

  24. Joel Bernstein on February 26th, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    I’m not sure I realized just how bad an actress Gwyneth Paltrow was.

  25. Erica Braverman on February 26th, 2012 at 9:00 pm

    Shelia, the party I’m at has a rooftop terrace and the alignment is spectacular. Also, you’d dig my toile halter dress.

  26. Joel Bernstein on February 26th, 2012 at 9:05 pm

    Aged Max von Sydow makes me sad.

  27. Joel Bernstein on February 26th, 2012 at 9:12 pm

  28. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 9:17 pm

    Joel, I had a similar thought about Winona Ryder about ten years ago.

  29. Rick Neece on February 26th, 2012 at 9:38 pm

    Okay, I haven’t chimed in. Whatever one may think of Gweneth as an actor, her dress is the best I saw. (A simple white sheath. Of the past few years of Oscar red carpet, I would count Nicole Kidman the best dressed and elegant. Gweneth came close, tonight.)

    We had to get over to the party at 3:30 or so, to get crudite in the ovens, so we could be ready for guests and the red carpet at 5:00. We’d mis-read, red-carpet started at 6:00, so I was well-tanked by 7:30 when the show actually started.

    In preparation this afternoon, I started watching “Moneyball.” again. (Danny’d told me we’d watched it before, but I didn’t remember an iota of it. Slept through it, I guess.) To see why Cousin Brad would be nominated for it instead of “Tree of Life.”

    Brad is quite good in Moneyball. Also in Tree of Life. (Much as Tree of Life deserves attention, I fear it will fall by the wayside.)

    I’m home now in the garage, fairly well in my cups. I could go in to watch the end of the show, but I can also get the news in the morning. So maybe I’ll just sit here, quietly, and have another cig then go up to bed.

  30. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 9:46 pm

    Rick, what did you think of Milla Jovovich’s dress? I thought it was lovely.

  31. Rick Neece on February 26th, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    Yes, Deron. Second best IMHO. And I think she has talent we haven’t really seen yet.

  32. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    Erica, the alignment here in the Driftless Region was/is stunning. Wish you’d been here. Bet your halter dress was/is stunning. Bonus: if you’d been here in the Driftless, I’d have made sure we wouldn’t have watched the Oscars.

  33. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 9:56 pm

    Rick, I think you’re probably right. She was reminding me of someone in the eyes, something I’m usually pretty good at, and I couldn’t quite figure it out.

  34. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    Sheila, next year, let’s watch the Super Bowl and the Oscars. Of course, I also want to watch the Super Bowl with Michael Smith and Andrew.

  35. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    Grammy Awards, too? I’ll make the nachos.

  36. Sheila Ryan on February 26th, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    I insist we watch the 2012 Eurovision Awards.

  37. Rick Neece on February 26th, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    Something in the eyes. Or in the earned-run-average. Moneyball is a metaphor I can’t let go of just now.

    Like I’ve told the members of the Greensman, “It’s a number, boys and girls. Just like the number of square yards of sod needed to cover a space. It’s ‘feet wide by feet long.’ It is a number.”

  38. Deron Bauman on February 26th, 2012 at 10:12 pm

    Sure, I’ll watch the Grammys with you.