Yesterday was a busy day to say the least. Interspersed with
my comprehensive house cleaning rehabilitation efforts I journeyed down to Rhode Island to see a
hockey game with my brother in law and last night was every movie nut’s
(guilty) biggest night of the years with the Academy Awards. Long day, indeed.
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| My Brother in Law and Robocop in Our First Seats |
My brother in law and his brother in law (Robocop) had me
down to see the Providence Bruins (Boston ’s
farm team). We were supposed to get a
complimentary buffet courtesy of Robocop but we accidentally picked one of the
three games of the year it was not offered.
The seats were pretty good until a young and semi-idiotic guy from the
Bruins PR staff showed up just after the start of the game. He stood directly in front of us, blocking
the game, and said he would need us to move six rows back so a group of kids
scheduled to sing during the first intermission could use our seats.
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| View From our New Seats - Sweet! |
To his credit I think he read the murderous looks in our
eyes. When he returned to move us he
brought tickets to another section with seats even closer to the ice. When the group did come to sing we were
thankfully fully across the arena because their “singing” more closely
resembled a series of cats being brutally strangled. The game was very entertaining; a Bruins win
in an overtime shootout. Hockey is one
of these sports that is best viewed in person to appreciate what great athletes
these guys are. I was astounded by just
how big and fast they've become; a real departure from when I was in college
and first became a huge fan. It was a
fun day with some really special people although we did miss out on an ambush photo
of Robocop’s wife (next time!).
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| Panoramic Shot of the Dunkin Donuts Center Yesterday |
I had to hurry back home for the Oscars. For the second year in a row my Oscars night
was accomplished solo (if you discount the presence of a certain black lab but
he lost interest when the snacks ran out).
I really liked this year’s ceremony with Ellen Degeneres sucking all the
pretentiousness out of the crowd (not an easy task in Los Angeles ) ordering pizza and taking
selfies. It seemed the crowd took itself
significantly less seriously which was a nice departure. It was cool to see Kevin Spacey and Meryl
Streep joining with some of the younger actors crowding around for the selfie.
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| The Famous Selfie Jennifer Lawrence, Streep, Degenres, Brad Cooper, Brad Pitt, Spacey, and Jolie |
There was the usual confusion with the Americans and Europeans
not knowing which side of the face and how many times to air kiss and Travolta must
have been doing some serious drugs to screw up an introduction as badly as he
did. I thought the In Memoriam section was
finally done well again. It certainly boasted
an all star cast this year and Bette Midler’s singing to bring it home was a
nice touch.
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| Midler Singing |
Speaking of big voices I was astounded by Pink. I never knew she had the kind of pipes she
demonstrated with the Wizard of Oz tribute, a real show stopper – best number
of the night. I thought the speeches
were well done especially those by Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong’o, which felt so
genuine. I haven’t seen 12 Years a Slave
so I can’t comment on it’s worth as Best Picture as I was rooting for Gravity
which won its fair share of awards.
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| Pink on the Yellow Brick Road |
Matthew Mconaughey deserves another award, in addition to
his best actor win, for his handling of Kim Novak when they presented together. It was obvious she was struggling with some
health issues and he shepparded her gently through the process with class. The
same could be said for Angelina Jolie and her presentation with Sidney Poitier,
who’s clearly no longer operating at Mr. Tibbs level. It’s a reminder of how much time has passed
to see these iconic figures from my youth so debilitated.
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| Mconaughey, Class Act with Novak (Yikes!) |
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