Whirlwinds, of stage & screen and flakes & flautas

How much did the Oscars rock?! Seriously! It was one of the best productions in years. If not the best I've seen. I knew it would be great as soon as I heard Laura Ziskin was producing and I had high hopes for Ellen besides. Well they did not disappoint!

There were so many wonderful moments! And I only have a few minutes, so I can't revel in them all now. I will say this: three cheers for Martin Scorsese, at long last given his Oscar, and what a moment that was, with George and Steven and Francis (surely I don't have to tell you that's Lucas/Spielberg/Ford Coppola) presenting him the award. I should have realized that he would ride his wave of glory right on through to Best Picture as well. I was doing quite well in the betting pool at the Oscar party I attended except for not counting on The Departed getting best picture, editing, and adapted screenplay. I so knew Scorsese was going to win, and indeed I wanted him to, but I just had such high hopes for Babel to win more things. At least it won score. I should have thought it through more about The Departed, and I'd be a richer woman today. Oh well.

The other surprises I got totally wrong were Supporting Actor and Foreign Language Film. The actors had all just seemed so in the bag. Poor Eddie Murphy, but here's to Little Miss Sunshine! Oh yeah!! My own personally longed for upset would have been Adriana Barraza over Jennifer Hudson, in what I liked to think of as the Hudson-frontrunner-supporting-actress-upset tradition (recall Kate, Almost Famous, losing to Marcia Gay Harden...) but it was not meant to be.

And though Pan's Labyrinth won cinematography, art direction, and make-up, which I knew it would, it did not win foreign film, and I was so sure....instead, The Lives of Others! Wow! But I love that that happened. I thought The Lives of Others was fantastic. It was witty as all get-out in the midst of its political drama story and it had a stellar ending that brought a little tear...good stuff. Highly recommended.

There were so many wonderful moments, but for now my favorite is when Ellen mused about how Jennifer Hudson was on American Idol, and America didn't vote for her, and now she's here at the Oscars, and then look, Al Gore's here, and, well, America DID vote for him...genius! (And the bit with Leo asking Al to make a "major announcement" and then him finally acquiescing but getting played off was grand, too!)

Oh and how can I forget Melissa! I still really must investigate how many Best Songs have ever been from a documentary. My money's on zero. But I loved seeing her up there and I have more to say about the show but I so have to run and just, well, hurrah Oscars and hurrah glorious beautiful yesterday with The Vagina Monologues matinee, then Mexican food for dinner, then the fantastic fun time at the Oscars party.

I am so utterly exhausted it's actually amazing I made it through my classes today without zonking out completely. I did have the fluttering lids thing going on a few times, but I recovered nicely, for the most part. Although I got precious little sleep last night and it was definitely not a restful weekend, it was all gloriously worth it. What a big ol' bunch of fun times!

--end incoherent ramblings of exhaustion--