Nicola and I Tivoed the E! preshow awards because we like to look at all the pretty dresses, and then of course the Oscars. We drank beer and wine and ate dinner while we watched (skipping all the commercials, which is the beauty of TiVo). I got snockered, because I do every year for the Oscars — they are, even more than writing awards, my Great Big Dream of Recognition, and I like to drink and wave my arms and opine about the speeches, and most of all to imagine myself there. My BA is in Acting, and I’ve been on stage, or writing, or both, since I was 8 years old: the Oscars have always been one long evening of what if and what I would say and how marvelous it would be.
So, a few thoughts on tonight:
Isn’t Kathryn Bigelow awesome?
Helen Mirren is so gorgeous and I want to be her when I grow up.
I love that for the Best Actress and Best Actor nominations, they bring out people who have actually worked with the nominees who can say something personal about them and their work. It’s a big award; it’s nice to have a chance to see the nomination be truly meaningful.
I read the screenplay of Precious recently, and thought it was astonishingly moving. Screenplays are not novels: it’s not so easy to make them interesting reads. This one is really good.
James Taylor can still sing. It is nice to see age and experience onstage. Youth and energy and potential has its place, but the older I get, the more I enjoy seeing potential realized.
Someday writing awards will be sexy. Today is not that day.
Can I just double down on the Kathryn Bigelow thing?
In 1989, after Clarion, when Nicola was back in England and I was in Georgia, I wrote her a long letter that was essentially a play-by-play of the Academy Awards. That year they made a bunch of unfortunate women dress up like dancing stars with tap shoes. The star costumes covered their heads and bodies, so out on stage they were just great big gold stars with legs and arms, tapping away. It was a particularly funny production number, and with any luck at all we will not see its like again. I sat on my sofa with a glass of wine and drew Nicola a little picture of the dancing stars. I don’t remember who won that year, but I remember wishing that she was there. So tonight was a good night, you know?
Have a good week. The world is full of magic: I hope some of it comes your way.
We didn’t watch the Oscars (we never do, nor do we watch the Emmys, the Golden Globe, the Grammys, none of them) but I always listen the day after to who won.
I cannot tell you how relieved I am that “Avatar” didn’t win. It’s even better than a relatively “small” picture beat it out, which tells me that storytelling is still more important than glitz. Even better that a “groundbreaking technological achievement” was beaten out by a groundbreaking human achievement.
One day an SF film will win the big awards, but I truly hope it will be a real science fiction work, with a heart and a mind, and not some big budget eye-fest written by twelve monkeys with a Cliffs Note and twenty typewriters. I really enjoyed “Avatar” while watching it. Later, I thought it was crap. I imagine a lot of people did. That’s not good SF.
But wonderful news for Kathryn Bigelow. Kudos.
And one day, m’dear, you’ll be up there all sentimental and thanking people and holding a little statue with a lot of meaning. It will happen.
We’re all on the same page. I was thinking last night that I’d probably see KE up there some night accepting her Oscar.
And yes, yay for Kathryn Bigelow.
I’m with Mark. I rarely watch. It is only one moment in their lives and no matter what no one can make it last forever. Just ask M. Streep.
Congratulations to K. Bigelow–that’s another door that has been kicked down.
I had a large moment a couple of years ago when a play of mine was produced in a city not far from where I live. This event taught me a lot about what artistic success means. Opening night, parents were there. They were happy and somewhat proud, Especially my dad. On the other hand, my partner of ten plus years threw a tantrum in the car on the way home.
When someone takes home the statue, there is so much we don’t see.
I have to confess that I’ve never been interested in the awards shows. I think it’s great when someone I appreciate and respect wins, but I’ve never really gotten into watching the process.
I am so bad on this, actually, that I couldn’t even tell you which award is for what medium — TV or movie, etc. I do know that I hoped that ‘The Lovely Bones’ would get an award of some kind because I really enjoyed it. It totally defied what I thought it was going to be, which was cool. Additionally, Peter Jackson has a sopooky way of taking almost exactly what is in my mind in terms of visual imagery and projecting it onto the screen. The surreal imagery in ‘The Lovely Bones’ is what my mind looks like all the time. It was fun to see it on screen.
My magic for today was that I wasn’t told that I didn’t look disabled when I asked for a wheelchair to get from my doctor’s end of the hospital to the lab at the other end of the hospital. I think this is a testament to how utterly crappy I look today : P.
I can’t wait for your award night. Clue me in so I know when to watch. : )
@ Mark — I love science fiction but for some reason I had absolutely no interest in seeing Avatar. I saw a lot of trailers for it, but although the visual effects looked astounding, what I could see of the plot line never hooked me.
Zack,
I nearly didn’t go myself for much the same reason. But I thought it would be worth it to see the 3-D and I have to admit, it was. I’ve seen a number of 3-D films and this was the first that didn’t give me a headache. Visually, it was a stunning piece of work. I would have been just as happy had it been a travelogue of an imagined world without the hackneyed plot.
@ Mark – hmm. I hadn’t thought about the 3-D part. That would be stunning. All the 3-D films that I have seen I saw before my own 3-D vision was restored. As a kid I never could understand what the fuss was all about. : P
The world in 3-D is pretty damn fantastic after 33 years of everything looking flat : ). I should have gone to see “Avatar”.