Belated thoughts on the Oscars

So I was trying to read tonight and get to bed early, but found myself unable to get away from The Aviator (starring Muhammad Ali?) on TV. It got me thinking about last week's Oscars, which I watched at a friend's house amongst other overeducated people who, although we hadn't seen a lot of the movies, didn't let that keep us from having strong opinions. In other words, we did it right (although I'll admit that a lot of the movies seem worth seeing)

thoughts:

• I didn't particularly like the Three 6 Mafia song, but it was clearly the best of those nominated. Can you even hum any of the others by today? No, because they sucked.
  
• that being said...Oscar Count: Martin Scorsese: 0, Three 6 Mafia: 1 So, so, sad. If any of the Best Picture nominees were as good as The Aviator (or even Gangs of New York) I really need to get around to seeing them. I'm not even going to insult everybody by bringing up Scorsese's best films, which never won either. Nevertheless, Kevin Costner is a no talent, ass-clown.
  
• A friend predicted days before the show, "Crash will win. It's clearly the worst of the 5 nominees." Remind me to ask my friend about business school.
• Steven Colbert correctly predicted Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress winners the Thursday before the awards during a comedy sketch on his show. I don't think I'd like to see a comedy sketch about my business school apps.
  
• Conservatives seemed more obsessed with the Oscars this year than in years past. Why? Gay sex. If Bill Clinton taught us anything, nothing angers conservatives more than sex. If the 2004 election taught us anything, gay sex angers conservatives more than hetero-sex.
• If Salma Hayek disappeared off the face of the earth and was replaced in past, present, and future by Penelope Cruz, the world would be better. I'm even willing to look past the whole Tom Cruise thing. I wonder how Ed Norton would take it.
• I still need to see Hotel Rwanda.
• Will Snoop Dogg be as cool as he is now when he's Jack Nicholson's age? Cause Jack is still the coolest guy around. He's like a real life Fonzie.
• Did Matt Dillon just recapture his spot as the most prominent Dillon brother? Kevin Dillon can't catch a break here. Just as Entourage got some acclaim, big bro Matt starts making a future Best Picture. No way he saw that coming with Sandra Bullock in the cast.
  
• Have enough of the cast of The Outsiders fallen back down to earth from the fame they had in the 80s to make a sequel to this thing? Just switch Matt Dillon and Tom Cruise's characters (Dally and Soda Pop, respectively). Nobody wants that freak Cruise in the movie anyhow, but who wouldn't wanna see Estevez, Swyaze, Rob Lowe, Dillon, Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, and Diane Lane act out the story of the Greasers 25 years later? Tom Waits can even show up.
  
• Philip Seymour Hoffman might be the actor that I'm happiest to see win an Oscar of anyone out there. Maybe now, people will stop calling him the gay guy from Boogie Nights.
• Thank god the musicals seem to be gone.
• These awards just don't mean as much anymore since Titanic won.
• 1994: Forrest Gump beats Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption...awful, and I like Forrest Gump.
  
• Other than Whoopi Goldberg, I don't remember the last time I didn't like the host of the Oscars. The crowd always seems to dislike them, though.
  
• Greg Kinnear should receive an honorary Oscar for his work on E's Talk Soup. Tom Petty should present.
• Don Knots got left out of the death montage. ouch. Do you think Gordon Parks, director of Shaft, who died in the past week makes next year's list? The Academy does tend to favor later-in-the-year events.
  
• How many Americans asked themselves, "Wasn't Richard Pryor already dead?" when he was on the montage (closing it)
  
• That they always get a hottie to host the engineer's award night has become high comedy on Oscar night. Well done, Rachel McAdams, well done.
• You win nothing, George Lucas. And this was by far the best of your prequels. Sometimes the world is just.
• Snub of the night: No Grizzly Man
• I always find myself wanting to hate George Clooney, but not being able to. He's just likeable in the way that Harrison Ford is and Kevin Costner is not.
  
• Of anything nominated, the ones I'm most anxious to see are Munich, Walk the Line, & Good Night, and Good Luck...and King Kong
• Is anyone else disturbed by the disconnect the media has between Joaquin Phoenix and the legacy of his older brother River Phoenix? I don't think I've ever heard this discussed, nor Joaquin's prominent role in Space Camp as Leaf Phoenix.
• for the first time I had some kind of cheese-port combination (it was pink) on my friend's homemade bread. This was good stuff.
• Crash (2004). 2004? wtf?

np: The Franklin Kite demo