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The Spectacle Blog
I just finished watching the 85th Academy Awards. Seth MacFarlane’s jokes were lame and most of the musical numbers were over the top.
The highlight of the evening was Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger to commemorate 50 years of James Bond. At 76, she still has the pipes. On a Bond related note, Adele won her first Academy Award for Best Original Song for Skyfall.
As expected, Argo won Best Picture despite the fact that Ben Affleck did not receive a nomination for Best Director. That award went to Ang Lee for Life of Pi.
Did we really need Michelle Obama to read out the winner for Best Picture?
I did, however, like Daniel Day-Lewis’ speech following his win for Best Actor in Lincoln. Day-Lewis, who is the first actor to win the Best Actor Oscar thrice, joked that he was originally cast to play Margaret Thatcher while Meryl Streep was Steven Spielberg’s first choice to play Lincoln. He also thanked his wife for putting up with “some very strange men” over the years adding that she was “the perfect companion to all of them.”
Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook. Lawrence tripped up the steps over her large dress as she headed to the stage to accept the statue.
Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained. He won the Best Supporting Actor trophy in 2010 for his work on another Tarantino film, Inglorious Basterds. Anne Hathaway, who co-hosted the Academy Awards two years ago, won Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables.
Much to my delight Searching for Sugar Man won Best Documentary Feature. Rodriguez however did not attend the ceremony because he did not believe he deserved any credit for the film. Frankly, Rodriguez had more business being present at the ceremony than the First Lady.
homme nike air max BW | 2.25.13 @ 1:14AM
Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained. He won the Best Supporting Actor trophy in 2010 for his work on another Tarantino film, Inglorious Basterds. Anne Hathaway, who co-hosted the Academy Awards two years ago, won Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables.
Rich D| 2.25.13 @ 2:02AM
Who cares?
We could have surgeons voting awards for the best quadruple bypass, EEs voting for the best low noise microwave preamp, physicists for the best cloud chamber picture...
A bunch of mostly liberal narcissists playing make believe and then patting each other on the back.
Maxwell| 2.25.13 @ 8:32AM
As a VERY OLD ham radio operator, my vote goes the the EE & the low noise VHF preamp.
Rich D| 2.25.13 @ 12:30PM
I am familiar with your equations.
73
Seek| 2.25.13 @ 11:44AM
Maybe you could try seeing some movies first before denouncing them and the people who make them possible. I've been saying it for years: Culture War is to the primitive Right what Class War is to the primitive Left: The politics of raw envy masquerading as moral superiority. Good for Hollywood for rewarding excellence in film. And good for the tens of millions of Americans who watched the proceedings.
Rich D| 2.25.13 @ 12:24PM
Maybe you should improve your reading comprehension. It would save you from the embarrassment of creating and burning straw men.
Seek| 2.25.13 @ 3:33PM
When you can go out and make a movie as brilliant as "Zero Dark Thirty" or "Life of Pi," then we'll talk. I don't deal with straw men.
spike59| 2.25.13 @ 4:00PM
'excellence in film?' how about, a bunch of narcissists that haven't had an original idea in a decade kissing each other's butts for rehashing the same tired themes over and over...
Rich D| 2.25.13 @ 5:27PM
You surely do - there is another one in your post. I said nothing about culture wars nor the quality of the movies, and you don't know how many movies that I watch. Not only that, the number of people who watch the awards is a non sequitur. Finally, engineers beginning with Edison make movies possible. They don't need the public worship that those who have mastered the art of make-believe do. Apparently, the money and satisfaction knowing the number of people who view their products is not enough for their tender egos.
My products have toasted your bread, refined your steel, destroyed enemy materiel with missiles, and saved sailors from mines. (You may applaud now. Louder - can't hear you. Thank you - that's enough. Say, how do you like my designer socks?)
So what have you done for us?
Rich D| 2.25.13 @ 5:52PM
Life of Pi? - I knew it when it was just a lad of 22/7 (no, the Bible doesn't say that it was 3), and now it's grown up to be
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923 0781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460 9550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954 9303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485 6692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631558817 4881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384 1469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 4807446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912983367336244 0656643086021394946395224737190702179860943702770539217176293176 7523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091 7363717872146844090122495343014654958537105079227968925892354201 9956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960518707211349999998 3729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533 4468503526193118817101000313783875288658753320838142061717766914 7303598253490428755468731159562863882353787593751957781857780532 171226806613001927876611195909216420198...
and still growing!
Rich D| 2.25.13 @ 5:54PM
And according to your logic, you can't criticize your steak at a restaurant until you can grow, slaughter, and cook your own cow.
spike59| 2.25.13 @ 5:49AM
Was that on last night? I haven't watched the Oscars since the days when there were only 3 channels, and the other 2 networks didn't even make much of an effort to compete for viewers when the Oscars were on, instead just showing an old movie or something...
Jack in Wi| 2.25.13 @ 6:23AM
How was Bob Hope last night? Is he still doing the Oscars?
JP| 2.25.13 @ 8:26AM
Yes. He and George Burns were terrific. And you should have heard The Andrew Sisters - they were lights-out.
Maxwell| 2.25.13 @ 8:34AM
Alan King was there too.
spike59| 2.25.13 @ 3:58PM
nothing like Red Buttons doing "Sam, you made the pants too long"
Cobalt| 2.25.13 @ 8:37AM
Well, at least they didn't give Obama an Oscar.
I'm sure he would have taken it.
Bob Grant| 2.25.13 @ 9:27AM
Lincoln assassination jokes? Really?
And his canned response "too early?" to the expected audible gasps? ...This is the best Hollywood has to offer? This is considered clever? To whom?
If he's all we have left, then I say bring back Billy Crystal.
JP| 2.25.13 @ 2:30PM
I was waiting for a Bristol Palin and incest joke. But, that is sooooooo 2009.
Mick Lee| 2.25.13 @ 9:28AM
As if the money and fame aren't enough, Hollywood busybodies have to give each other awards.
Oldefarte| 2.25.13 @ 11:18AM
My thoughts on Hollywood and the Oscars are that I'm reminded of Santa Claus walking down the street and spying three LADIES OF THE EVENING on the opposite side of the street. He then shouts out a loud HO, HO, HO!!!!!
Al Adab| 2.25.13 @ 11:23AM
Why do we still pay any attention to this now politicized, mutual admiration, self aggrandizement group hug session? Once upon a time, film was a honorable media and the actors had meaning within our culture. Such is no longer the case.
MikeNo| 2.25.13 @ 11:25AM
You get naked, you get nominated.
markenoff| 2.25.13 @ 5:24PM
I stopped watching the Oscars when Smokey and the Bandit Part II was snubbed for the best picture Oscar.