I'd Have Thanked My Dog Too

So I have to do a post-Oscars blog. I promise this one won't be all about fashion! Only mostly about it.

The Academy tried to switch things up this year, and along with the lovely ALV, I judged every aspect mercilessly. On the whole, it wasn't a bad show, but... well, I love to judge things. :)

Cons:

1. Belts! WTF? Why did every otherwise lovely dress have some hideous, pointless belt taped around the center, as if they weren't all heavily corseted on their own? SJP, Marion Cotillard, Miley Cyrus... all had belts around their itty bitty waists. Hardly necessary, ladies. You're thin as reeds. We get it. Thanks for playing.

2. Beyonce. Can we all just agree that she's a talentless hack? Really. Please? I want my wonderful childhood memories of "Over the Rainbow" back.

3. Beige (to continue the 'B' motif). Everyone wore it. Yawn. As ALV said - apparently 'color' is out. In general, although some women looked really lovely, there were no knock-outs this year.

4. Heath Ledger - you know, that guy that won the flippin' Oscar??? - getting left out of the memorial slide show! And no, he wasn't in it last year.

5. Oh, Sophia Loren. You used to be so beautiful. What happened?

6. The "what the heck are they doing here?" group. Robert Pattinson of 'Twilight' infamy was the most obvious - he sat closer to the front than Tina Fey and half of the best director nominees. Not only was he there - he presented! At least Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgeons were in the unfortunate Beyonce debacle.

7. I don't really care about Mickey Rourke (except I looked forward to the inevitable drawn-out, doggy-memorial speech). But I care even less for Sean Penn - and he forgot to thank his wife in his speech. Dude, she was sitting twenty feet in front of you. Her name is Robin.

Pros:

1. Hugh Jackman was adorable. Some of it was a tad ridiculous, but he attacked it with such sing and dance gusto that I wanted to hug him.

2. Angelina Jolie's jewels. I've never adored emeralds, but good grief, gorgeousness.

3. I think the little tributes by past winners to the nominees was kinda cute, if a bit rambling.

4. The winner of Best Animated Short - who was Japanese - trying to express his thanks in English and finally ending with something in his own language that everyone understood - "Domo Arigatou, Mister Roboto". Hehe.

5. Despite the obvious omission of Heath Ledger, Queen Latifah's singing for the memorial was fabulous. She's fabulous in general. And she wore color. Maybe not the best cut, but honey, if you got it, flaunt it.

6. Kate Winslet. What can I say? Oh yeah - FINALLY. Cute speech too.

7. 'Slumdog Millionaire' - the greatest movie I've seen in ages actually got all the honors it deserved. They seemed genuinely happy to receive every award they got too, which is always nice to see. The wins for Best Score and Best Song were especially fantastic - he told silly jokes referring to his wife (who I'm sure just smiled and rolled her eyes) and shook slightly during his 20 minutes onstage, including a rather clever compilation of the 3 nominated songs.

We Have a New Contender!

Until tonight, my top 5 worst-movies-I've-ever-seen list was fairly static:

1. Mr. Wrong
2. Ultraviolet
3. Eragon
4. Star Wars Episode III
5. Star Wars Episode II

Don't get me wrong. I haven't seen "Gigli" or "Glitter" or... well, anything with Jessica Alba (except "Sin City", which I did not care for). "Mr. Wrong" probably should be removed for the simple reason that *no one* has ever seen it, but I digress...

We have a new contender! And it's making its debut at no less than the third spot! Congratulations should be extended to the former #3 and #4 for bumping down a notch and a big thumbs up to Episode II for not showing enough of Hayden Christensen to stay on the list.

And the new number three? "Confessions of a Shopaholic", which I saw tonight with some of the girls (Lacour escaped unscathed).

I'm not sure which part was worse. Perhaps it was the creepy mannequins that kept talking to and winking at the main character. Perhaps it was the Lucille Ball-esque slapstick comedy. (I swear that some of those gags I had actually *seen* in "I Love Lucy"... except it was funny back then.) Perhaps it was the way the debt collector harassed the main character to the point of stalking, thus ruining the stalking "joke". Perhaps it was the way that the main character wasn't just a compulsive shopper, but a compulsive liar. Or perhaps it was because I spent the entire movie wanting to strangle the main character for being a total twit. And, no matter the reason it was awful (*cough* all of the above *cough*), I think that a movie about shopping should showcase more fabulous high fashion.

In all, I think I might have cracked a smile once. I *know* that this was the first time I've ever sent a text to someone in the middle of a movie and desperately wished for the answer so that I would be distracted for a moment.

The text summed it up really: "Jon! This is terrible!!!"

He Has a Son Named "Root"

A Sussex Spaniel won Westminster last night - his name is Stump and, at 10, he's the oldest winner of Westminster by almost 2 years. (The next oldest winner was in 1999, a Papillion and the first show where I established my habit of watching every year.)

I didn't see it last night though, because of the dratted storm - we lost power about 10 times in 20 minutes and then the cable didn't come back until long after midnight. It made me a sad bear to miss it.

Thank goodness for reruns - I saw the Best in Show judging in my break between classes this morning. That funny little Stump is rather endearing. Congrats, Stump! :D

(I apologize for the picture with more people than puppies, but this was the only one I could find that didn't have a lot of feet in it...)

Westminster Time Again

Usually I have to take a few hours out from studying for finals to see the Westminster Dog Show, but this year, finals were over beforehand. It's nice not feeling guilty for watching one of my few weird annual traditions. And this was definitely not the year to take off from studying, even for a those few hours.

In case you were wondering, the Pedigree commercials are killing me. Charlie is wondering why I keep giving him desperate hugs.

Some of the actual show is difficult for me too, though. Bulldogs - both English and French - and pugs often require C-sections to be born. (These I know, but there are others, I think.) Pugs need to be artificially inseminated - selective breeding has made it nearly impossible for normal mating. I find this not just excessive but downright cruel to take away from an animal's nature. It doesn't even improve the breed - several of these breeds have problems that extend far beyond birth complications, including cherry eye (a third inverted eyelid! sounds fun, eh?) and cleft palettes. EW.

I guess my tradition of watching this show every year is a bit ironic then. I get sad at the commercials and some of the content of the show too. I do love most of it though. Right now, the rough collie (the Lassie dog) is showing. She's beautiful and looks happy. And that makes me feel better.

So does Uno, last year's winner, who made a cameo earlier tonight. :)