Two More Cents

Regarding the Academy Awards presentation on Sunday, I was also particularly gratified that the orchestra this year didn't start playing music 10 seconds after winners started speaking. I have never accepted the 45-second rule (or the one-minute rule or whatever-length-of-time rule) as being necessary. It's an awards show. The whole point is to give people awards, not to showcase production numbers having nothing to do with the nominated films' music or to highlight montages of movies that aren't even nominated. When people win awards, they deserve time to say how they feel. Yes, I realize that too many people read off a laundry list of people they want to thank. However, just think how boring the awards might have been had it not been for Penelope Cruz claiming that she was going to faint or the Ledger family's tribute to Heath and his talent or Kate Winslet telling Meryl Streep to "suck it up" or Sean Penn's self-deprecating humor or, best of all, Dustin Lance Black speaking to all of the gay kids in the audience. Those are the moments that we remember from the Oscars (and other awards shows). More of those, please, and less of the stuff that's meant to be entertaining but usually isn't.

The Show

Everyone seems to have weighed in already about this year's Academy Awards presentation. Sorry that I'm so behind, but here goes...

What I liked about the show itself:

• The presentations of the acting awards by five previous winners. It was touching and heartfelt, and I loved the way it felt like this year's winners were being welcomed into the sorority/fraternity by their colleagues. Bravo. And, besides, when Eva Marie Saint and Sophia Loren and Goldie Hawn and Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken are all a part of the Oscars, what's not to love?
• The wins by Kate Winslet and Sean Penn. Winslet was, by everyone's account, overdue, and her speech was the most gushingly beautiful of the night. Penn was uncharacteristically funny, and when he turned to his political commentary, I found myself ready to forgive him all of his past performances where he coasted on his actor's tics.
• The acceptance speech by Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter for Milk. I was in tears when he started talking about how Harvey Milk would have wanted him to "say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, by the government, or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures who have value. And no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you." Just typing it again right now, my tears started up again. It was beautiful, and I was so glad it helped to set a tone for the entire evening.
• The order in which most of the awards were presented, starting with the item which must always come first in a movie: the script. Then we proceeded through pre-production (costume design, set design, etc.) to post-production (sound awards, visual effects, etc.). It took me a while to catch on that the order was deliberate. I mean, who gives the writing awards at the start of the show? After I realized what the producers were doing, I thought it was a brilliant idea. Kudos.

What I disliked about the show:

• Every production number. I know Hugh Jackman is talented, but I doubt anyone learned that from the show itself. The opening number was just silly. Who wants the Oscars to be scaled back, really? The one in the middle that managed to give one line each to about a million songs seemed incredibly pointless, and why drag these young stars (like the couple from Mamma Mia!) onto the stage if you aren't going to let them sing more than a couple of lines. And why must Beyonce be on every awards show? Well, at least, she didn't sing all of the nominated songs this year (as, you may recall, she did a few years ago). I thought the medley of the nominated songs was very disrespectful. As John Legend sang the song from Wall-E while Peter Gabriel, its writer/performer, sat in the audience, I kept having flashbacks to the year Ann Reinking sang "Separate Lives" while Phil Collins looked on in horror. Gabriel, at least, had the good sense to refuse to sing his song in a medley. Why can't we open the show with one of the nominated songs? Then halfway through we could present another one, and right before the announcement of the winner, we could do the last one. I'll even let you bring Debbie Allen back to choreograph the dancers for the production numbers. Please. Anything but this approach again.
• The montages. Oh, so many unnecessary montages. Last year, Jon Stewart and his team joked that if the writers' strike hadn't been resolved, the Academy Awards had planned a tribute to periscopes and telescopes in the movies. Were the montages this year much of an improvement over that joke's premise? A tribute to action in the movies? Is that so you can appease all of the fanboys who are still upset over the lack of respect shown The Dark Knight and Iron Man? Just give out the awards and stop trying to impress us with short clips of movies that aren't even nominated.
• The "In Memorium" number. I like Queen Latifah. I really do. However, she should not have to sing over a montage (here we go again) of those who have passed away. Are we supposed to watch her and pay attention to her vocal stylings, or are we supposed to note the film luminaries who are no longer with us? Simple, subdued music would be preferable. By the way, the montage this year seemed rather short. Were there really so few film people who died who had a connection to the Oscars? I know, why am I asking for a longer montage...

I still enjoy watching the Oscars each year. Despite my grumblings above, I would never say that I'll never watch them again. I enjoy them too much overall. There's still suspense even if we know who most of the winners will be (Departures? Really? Who had that one in the Oscar pool at work?). And where else do you get to see so many stars in one place?

Above all else, though, I will particularly treasure this year's awards because my friend J stopped by to watch them with me. He hasn't watched the awards in several years, mainly in protest over some of the stupid choices the Academy has made in the past. (Don't get him started on Marisa Tomei, for example.) I haven't watched the awards with anyone else since an ill-fated Oscar party years ago. No one was allowed to talk while the show was on, so we had to jam all of our commentary into the commercial breaks. Of course, I watched with Partner At The Time before the break-up, but that's been eight (gulp!) years now. It was so refreshing to have someone else to laugh with and to talk about past winners and to enjoy the magic that is the movies.

Random Blond Highlights

I get my hair cut every three weeks. It needs to be kept short so that it's not quite as obvious how much of it I'm losing (and it seems to be gaining in speed these days). I've been going to the same stylist for eight years now, and he does a good job. He's also very funny, and that's one of the reasons I keep going back to him.

On Friday, I noticed he was doing some very precise cutting. Just a careful snip here and there, all of it after he had finished much of his work. I asked him what he was cutting so carefully, and he told me they were "random blond highlights."

I have no blond hair, just for the record. What he was saying, in his own delicate way, was that he was trying to make my increasing number of gray hairs less visible. This is a service he provides to several of his customers, all of us "men of a certain age."

I don't mind having gray hair, to be honest. I'm actually looking forward to all of it turning gray at some point. However, until them, I'm going to refer to my gray hairs as "random blond highlights," at least until they overtake the dark brown hair.

Now That's Leadership

On Friday, we received an e-mail from the faculty leadership at our campus informing us that we do, indeed, have a faculty chair for the upcoming accreditation process. I've done that job the last two times that we've gone through the process, and I'm glad to see someone else take up the challenge this time.

Fearless Leader decided to respond to the announcement by letting the entire campus know how grateful she was that the person had agreed to fulfill this important campus obligation. In fact, she characterized his acceptance as "graceless."

Sigh.

Then a few hours later, apparently after someone had e-mailed or spoken to her, she sent out a corrected version of the e-mail. Now she characterized his acceptance as "graceful."

Sigh.

Is it too much to ask that Fearless Leader, who has several college degrees, after all, know the difference between "graceless" and "graceful" and "graciously"?

Bliss

The theme of Friday night's party was "bliss." We were celebrating the recent marriage of one of our colleagues, and she and her new husband were to receive gifts from us that somehow represented something that brings us bliss. You know, to go with the whole "wedded bliss" idea. People brought various objects, such as wine and food and movies and even tickets to the theater (all great ideas).

Choosing an apppropriate gift was difficult, though. I toyed with the idea of bringing a particular wine that I like. I did bring a bottle of pinot grigio that was recommended at the local Trader Joe's, and even our most knowledgeable wine connoisseur said it was a good choice. It didn't take long for the entire bottle to disappear, that's for certain. People were still asking about 30 minutes later if we had any more of it. I guess I'll have to remember that brand for the next party.

Then I thought about some music. I have several artists who are favorites, but I couldn't choose one that I thought would be really a good fit for a young (mid-20s) couple. All of my musical tastes seem to skew somewhat older. Streisand is my favorite, but she's a bit too "mature," I think. I've already loaned all of my Rufus CDs to the young bride, so she has all of his music. The other options included such artists as Jamie Cullum, but I don't even know if they are aware of who he is. Without a "sampler" CD, I was just at a loss for a musical.

Last weekend, I was browsing the Barnes & Noble at the Westside Pavilion waiting for the start of my movie (this year's Oscar nominees for Live Action Short, to be specific) when it struck me. Living in the city of Los Angeles brings me a feeling of bliss (well, most of the time). Living in this region brings me a feeling of bliss. Even just being in the state of California brings me that feeling. So I headed to the section of the store with guidebooks and choose a couple that I thought would be fun and interesting.

The first one is a guidebook to places that are "off the beaten path." That's even its title, or close to it, anyway. One of my favorite things to do is act like a tourist. I've lived here almost 19 years, but there are still so many places to see in this area. I never grow tired of finding new spots to explore, and I hope the couple will enjoy spending time together looking for new places as well. Over the years, I have used the guidebooks I own to find the Doheny mansion in Beverly Hills; it's been used for lots of movies and TV shows. It also led me to the location of the Eagle Rock that lends its name to the city. (I don't think it really looks all that much like an eagle, but once you're there, you go with it.)

Just as an aside, one of my favorite Spring Break weeks involved a guidebook adventure. I was trying to save money on travel, and I hit upon the idea of going to a different area museum each day. Even without going to the more popular destinations like the Getty Center and LACMA, I managed to have an incredible experience. I went to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and now it's one of my favorite places in all of California. What a collection they have. And I also went to several of what are dubbed "ethnic" museums, ones like the Japanese American National Museum downtown. It too has a remarkable collection and is filled with a sense of history. This city, this region, has a lot of art to be enjoyed, but sadly, too many of the museums are almost empty when I visit them these days.

Back to our story... In case the newlyweds are not adventurous in the same way that I am, I also bought them a book of romantic destinations for either an evening or a weekend. The key to a successful marriage, I think, is keeping that romance going. I hope there are lots of options for them to consider and that they take advantage of any chances they have to continue showing their love for each other. That would, of course, be the greatest form of bliss.

Only in Los Angeles

I ventured out of the apartment today to purchase a gift for a housewarming party I'm attending tomorrow. I'm becoming more like an elderly shut-in all the time, and when it's been raining like it has the past couple of days, I'm even more reluctant to go outside. However, the sun was shining the entire time I was out and about this afternoon. I went to the Westside Pavilion because free parking is nothing to sneeze at these days. I was tempted to go to a movie at the Landmark, one of my favorite theaters, but I resisted the urge and stayed focused on finding a suitable gift.

I made my way through the mall to a couple of stores, even walking all the way to the far end from where I parked. That meant I went to the three-story Barnes & Noble, one that is particularly well-stocked, I might add, lots of possible gift choices there. On my way out of the bookstore--no, I'm not going to tell you if I bought anything there or anywhere else--I had to walk through Nordstrom. I was walking toward the escalators when I heard the pianist one floor down. There's almost always someone playing piano on the weekends in this Nordstrom, and today it was a distinguished looking African American man. The tuxedo always helps to make one look distinguished, doesn't it? It took me a couple of seconds to recognize the song he was playing: "The Way He Makes Me Feel," one of the songs from Barbra Streisand's directorial debut, Yentl.

I've not heard the song in a while, to be honest, but the melody is rather distinct. I don't know why he would be playing this song today. The DVD of Yentl just came out this past Tuesday, so perhaps it was fresh in his memory. Maybe he had watched the film and wanted to play one of the beautiful songs written by Michel Legrand and Marilyn & Alan Bergman. Or maybe just he's a fellow Friend of Dorothy (or Friend of Barbra?) and knows all of her music and was in the mood to play one of them. I wonder how many other people walking through Nordstrom today recognized the song. I suspect the number is pretty low.