Monday, February 28, 2011

My Take on the Oscars


Chris and I host and Oscars Party every year, and due to great company, this year was as fun as always.

But Hollywood's biggest night turned out to be an odd combination of the academy trying to fuse “young and hip” hosts with a large mix of older characters for balance. While I applaud the concept, as we all saw, it didn't work out so well. Half of it felt like an Oscars history lesson for those of us under the age of 50 who are expected not to know any of it paired with odd musical numbers and mashups supposedly appealing to a younger generation. Though despite the odd combinations, one of the funniest parts of the night for our group was Kirk Douglas' presentation of best supporting actress. “Colin Firth isn't laughing...He's British.” And Anne Hathaway tried to hold up her end of the “young and hip” bargain and gave a valiant effort with a few funny jokes thrown in the mix. But man, James Franco – total fail.

We all fill out ballots predicting the winners and we play Oscar's bingo where we mark off squares for things happening during the show. I particularly enjoyed the set of bingo cards that I found this year as it was tailored to this particular show and a good portion of the squares did happen – Music cutting someone off, A Facebook joke attempt, Christopher Nolan looking bitter, Someone looking bored (most notably the Cohen brothers). Though noticeably missing were Angelina Jolie looking pissed and Jack Nicholson wearing sunglasses. And it may not have been on the bingo cards – but I was thankful that we didn't have Ben Stiller doing something stupid – as he usually does.

Most of the winners were pretty predictable, and well spread out among the movies. However, I have seen a good portion of the big movies nominated, including The Fighter, True Grit, The King's Speech, Black Swan, The Kids are All Right, Inception, The Social Network, Toy Story 3 and I have to say, it was unfortunate that out of 10 nominations True Grit got snubbed on all of them. It deserved more recognition. And as much as I love Colin Firth, if Jeff Bridges hadn't won for Crazy Heart last year, then he would've won for True Grit this year. Another surprise was on Best Score – Hans Zimmer's score for Inception should have definitely taken this category.

One thing that they did right this year – having each of the nominated songs actually performed on their own– Yay Randy Newman! I hated when they took that part away in previous years.

Overall – even with the oddities, still a fun night, friends old and new! Thanks to all who joined us. :-)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

3 Great Albums

So, while it was a rough start to the week, I'd like to plan on finishing it out on a strong note.  Music is always good for helping with this concept...

And I don't know about you, but I rarely find artists whose full albums I actually like.  Usually, I will hit up iTunes for a song here or there, but usually not entire albums.  But here are a few full albums that I am loving obsessed with right now.

Science and Faith By: The Script

Favorite Song: "For the First Time"



Losing Sleep By: Parachute
 
 
Favorite Song: "She is Love" - the acoustic version




Backatown By: Trombone Shorty



Favorite Song: "Something Beautiful"


Check these out, I promise you won't be sorry! 
Do you have any suggestions for artists' full albums?


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Project Good Week - Week One: Shining City and Sushi



So now that I have gone through the busy CRAZY first week of the semester...I realized that these last four months are going to go by slowly. Though, I'm sure in four months I will be saying, Where did the time go?! But for now all my brain can think is – how can it only been week 2??

And it's not for lack of enthusiasm for my classes. I actually DO like the subject matter this semester. It's more just an overall lack of enthusiasm for running-around-all-over-the-place-doing-a-million-things-three-jobs-never-seeing-my-husband-and-still-broke.

That's where Project Good Week comes in. I have decided to make a conscious effort to find at least one thing to look forward to every week for the next 16 weeks. Somehow looking forward to something small makes plodding through each day a little easier. Of course, there are good things about everyday. But focusing just a little bit bigger will help, I believe. It's like making weight loss goals, you always gotta start with the small triumphs and then go from there.

So here's what I'm looking forward to this week:

  • Shining City at B St Theater tonight! I saw it on Broadway about 5 years ago with Oliver Platt and it was great. Looking forward to seeing it again.
  • Going to Taros for Sushi to watch the end of the Superbowl on Sunday with Chris after he gets off. They have happy hour all day. :-)


Look for another installment of Project Good Week sometime this weekend.