The Oscars That Almost Weren't

I'll admit it: the Oscars are one of my favorite nights of the year. It's like the Superbowl, except consistently more interesting. Of course, it's probably only interesting if you've seen any of the films that have been nominated, but that's at your own discretion. I figure that the excitement I get out of watching the awards is similar to how aspiring athletes feel when they watch the Olympics. Maybe not. Whatever.

I'm not going to recap the winners because if you didn't care enough to watch it, I don't care enough to fill you in. I will say the following:

-Amy Ryan should have won Best Supporting
-Thank GOD Juno didn't win Best Picture
-Apparently Americans aren't any good at acting anymore. (Every single acting award was given to foreigners: French, Spanish, British)
-Atonement got robbed

And most importantly...GLEN AND MARKETA WON AN OSCAR!!! Not only was their performance wonderful, but they beat out THREE vomit-inducing songs from Enchanted. And well-deserved. Dan works with them at Columbia (Records) and literally the second we all stopped screaming, his phone started ringing non-stop. I am SO PROUD of them it's unreal. If you don't own the Once soundtrack, buy it immediately.

Otherwise, most of my predictions (and everyone else's) were pretty accurate. It would have been a difficult year to be on the Academy I think, because there were a lot of really great films this year. I was a little worried that there would be a repeat of 2006, when there were four fantastic films and one abomination, and it won. (Crash, of course. Would have been more aptly named Trash. Or Trainwreck. Just saying. I'm not bitter.) In similar fashion, this year there were, once again, four great nominees and one sub-par one. When I first saw the trailer for Juno, I was really stoked for it. And when I saw it, I was...significantly underwhelmed. And I'm sorry Ellen Page, you are not acting, you are playing yourself. Not difficult.

Excuse the tangent. I am happy with the awards this year because my agency more nominations than some of the biggest agencies did, and some were victorious, so yippee for that. And despite the overall boring-ness, there were some notable moments:

-Gary Busey attacking Jennifer Garner on the red carpet
-Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill pretending to be Halle Berry and Judi Dench
-Colin Farrell and John Travolta sliding all over the stage
-Cameron Diaz proves she's blonde after all
-Marketa gets snubbed for her acceptance speech and is brought back out after the commercial break to finish it
-Martin Scorsese is allowed to give the award for Best Directing now that he's FINALLY won an Oscar
-James McAvoy. Enough said.

All in all, considering it was the 80th, I thought it was pretty tame. Especially considering the whole thing almost never even happened because of the strike. You'd think it would have been a little more celebratory. Jon Stewart was moderately funny but a little too tame, and there were a few too many montages.

And now, onto the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS...what they wore!

THE WINNERS: (in no particular order)

Jennifer Garner (in Oscar de la Renta)


Katherine Heigl (in Escada)


Keri Russell (in Nina Ricci)


Cameron Diaz (in Dior)


Amy Adams (in Proenza Schouler)


Anne Hathaway (in Marchesa)


THE LOSERS:

Ellen Page


Jennifer Hudson


Tilda Swinton


Rebecca Miller


Diablo Cody



Speaking of Diablo Cody, not only does she have a naked woman tattooed on her arm and a dress with a way-too-high slit, she also wore these:



...instead of THESE:



Yes. That's right. Homegirl wore FLATS to the OSCARS. When she could have worn STUART WEITZMAN heels that are worth $1 MILLION DOLLARS. Why? Why? WHY?! You IDIOT.

But apparently all of these faux-pas are excusable because she used to be a stripper. Oh, all right. Sure. That's fine.

Anyway.

In case you were wondering--trends this year: red dresses, and being pregnant.

In closing, here is a video of the montage of all 79 best picture winners in the past, not including last night's winner. How many have YOU seen? (My answer: 47)

Christmas In Review

With the holidays and all, I know many of you in the blogosphere are taking some time off, not updating as often, etc. Never fear! Such is not the case here. I am already significantly bored at home. And after New Year's I'm having oral surgery and will be completely beached on the couch, not to mention on all sorts of drugs, which should make the posting a little more interesting.

Now that you all know what I was doing on my holidays, I can give a little review. For the record: it all went pretty much according to plan, more or less. The curling was especially entertaining, and was actually kind of fun for a little while. It actually wasn't too hard once I got the hang of it. But I see why it's referred to as a "gentleman's game"--there is little to no aerobic activity involved. Pictures will be following in due time.

In other news, I, completely unexpectedly, really cleaned up on Christmas this year. My mother forced a wishlist out of me because I'm apparently impossible to shop for (I disagree) and all my relatives were asking for one back in November, so I sent her a list with a bunch of things of which I expected to get one, maybe two. Basically all stuff that I didn't want to pay for myself. Nope! I got almost all of them. Among other things:


An iPod Touch



Canon PowerShot



Tory Burch flats



New brown riding boots



Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media (a joke from Adam...but I love it)



More of my favorite perfume...Ralph Lauren Blue


Along with a bunch of other books, CDs, gift certificates, $$$, etc. I was blown away. I wasn't expecting anything, and I felt like a kid getting all this stuff. Getting the camera AND the iPod AND the TB flats was far too much. But yay! Sometimes it's great having so many relatives.

So here's the question: now that I have a functioning, quality camera, as opposed to my shitty old one or the two shittier ones before it, I intend to use it as much as possible. And I can only have so many Facebook albums before I feel like a loser. So, I need a place to put them all...do I jump on the Flickr bandwagon? Or is there something better out there? Joining Flickr feels like such a cliche, but I hate how places like Kodak or Shutterfly require other people to sign in to view your photos. Suggestions?

Update: Approximate time at home that the Broseph and I actually got along <24 hours. Better than usual!

My Current Favorite Distraction

My colleague and fashion expert Arianna turned me on to the genius that is Polyvore. On this website, you can browse through the world's largest closet and sift through thousands of clothes, bags, shoes, accessories and jewelry, designer and otherwise, in order to create various "sets" illustrating your fashion tastes. It allows you to search through the entire database, whether by designer, color, style, etc. You can even search from specific websites--even ebay! And if there's something that isn't on there, you can upload it yourself to the server!

Although it took me a little while to get the gist of it, it's thoroughly taken over my internet browsing time at this point. I still have a few problems with it--the interface is a little iffy and sometimes doesn't work the way it should, from what I can tell there's no screening process for what items get uploaded, and it simply takes too long to scroll through some of the categories. Nonetheless, I've already spent far too much time creating a few sets.

First off, here's a little cross-section of my closent, currently:



I was thrilled to find that they had my neon Nikes and my BAPE sneakers (though not in my color), as well as my Minnetonka moccasins and lace-up boots, my Christian Louboutin pumps, my Goyard tote (but not my Marc Jacobs one, though every other MJ bag known to man was there), my vintage Chanel bag, Levis jeans, True Religion jeans, even the high-waisted jeans I got at TopShop in London! Not to mention both my fur vest and fur coat. And before anyone jumps down my throat, both my items are faux fur. They had my American Apparel leotard and skirt, but they shockingly didn't have the v-neck AA t-shirts that make up a large percentage of my wardrobe.

I also didn't delve too much into the jewelry section, mostly because I knew nothing I own would be on there. Granted, I have my fair girl's share of Tiffany's jewelry acquired throughout high school when it was the ultimate status symbol, but the jewelry I wear now is a pretty eclectic assortment of things I have gotten either in my travels (bracelets from Florence, Africa, London, Greece, etc), inherited from my mother or grandmother, or found in some vintage store here in New York.

And now just for fun, here's a rough draft of (a section of) my Shoe Wishlist:



Including Lanvin flats (at the "12:00" position), YSL MaryJanes (1:00), Tod's loafers (3:00), Chloe ankle boots (5:00), Burberry ankle boots (6:00), Christian Louboutin pumps (7:00)...and in the center: Chanel flats and the coveted Burberry Prorsum studded platforms, which can be spotted in every Fall fashion spread in every magazine, if you look closely. Of course, by the time I can afford them, at $940, they'll be out of style. But that doesn't stop me from drooling over them.

This website would have been amazingly helpful a few weeks ago, when I was coming up with my Christmas list, at my mother's insistence. I had a hard enough time coming up with a couple things my various relatives could get for me, but as I was poring through the collections on Polyvore, I--shocker!--suddenly found quite a few things I wanted.

However, discovering the site smack in the middle of the onslaught of finals is probably going to cause a problem.