Tonight is the 82nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony. This used to be a big deal back when I was running movies. I seem to recall we’d have Oscar parties, and get together to watch, though I’m not sure how we managed to do that, since we all had to work on Sunday nights. I guess we probably taped them (yes, tape; this was a long time ago) to watch after work. Now, though, I don’t much care one way or another about the things, though I’ve at least heard of most of the films and actors that were nominated, unlike the Grammys. But I supposed that’s just how it goes when you get old. Back in my day, music was music, you could make a decent living as a working person and have health insurance for your family and a pension to live on when you retired. We walked 100 miles each way to school (but we had fun doing it), never had to lock our doors, and let our dogs roam freely about the neighborhood (in fact, mine would follow me to school in the morning, then make her rounds about the neighborhood getting handouts along the way, and be there waiting to walk me home at the end of the day). Now we have the Internet, cell phones, and HDTV though, so I suppose it’s a fair tradeoff.

So, who will the big winners be tonight? For one, I’m guessing the dual hosts of Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will go over well. Especially if they let them have a little fun, and don’t stick them with a bunch of schlocky material (which I guess is kind of the definition of Oscar-hosting material, but some is worse than others). I mean, you’ve got Steve Martin for us old-timers (and who doesn’t like Steve Martin), plus Alec Baldwin, for all us, um, old-timers. And it seems like a good match, since Steve is a smart alec and Alec is smart (not that Steve isn’t smart).

For best picture, the only one I’ve seen (on DVD) is District 9, which I thought was pretty good. If you listen to the WTF podcast, you know the disdain that Maron has for James Cameron’s Avatar, which is also up for best picture. I haven’t seen it, personally (other than some extended clips back in October before it came out), so I can’t really comment on it. Maron’s big problem seems to be that, well, for one, it’s Sci-Fi, which he doesn’t like, and also that it cost a lot of money to make. I guess you can always argue whether it’s worth it to spend lots of money making a movie (or paying an actor or an athlete – or even a comedian), and that the money would be better spent on something else. No doubt, it would be.

But I personally don’t care whether it cost $1 million or $1 billion to make a movie. It’s either a good movie (IMHO), or it sucks. From what I’ve seen of Avatar, it looks to be somewhere in the middle. Kinda neat, but not that great. And I’m not sure that Avatar was really all that expensive to make. I’ve seen people throw out estimates like half a billion dollars (which, by the way, if you adjust for inflation, is what it cost to make War and Peace – though, to be fair, that’s like 8 hours), but I’ve seen it suggested that it’s more like $300 million. That’s still a lot of money to a schlub like me, but it’s grossed about $2.5 billion worldwide (and we’re not even talkin’ all the merchandising and whatnot), so while it may not have been “worth it” to produce in terms of its having a positive affect on society, I reckon it was pretty much worth it to investors.

Another movie up for best picture is The Hurt Locker, by James Cameron’s ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow. I haven’t seen that one, either. It isn’t the kind of movie that makes it up my way (unless it wins an Oscar, and then we’ll see a wider distribution). It sounds pretty interesting, though.

Also nominated are “The Blind Side, An Education”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “Precious”, “A Serious Man”, and “Up in the Air”.

My prediction is that The Hurt Locker will win. It’s the kind of movie that lets us get behind our troops over there in Iraq (which we’ve pretty much forgotten about), but it’s also been on NPR a lot, so it’s got the liberal Hollywood elite seal of approval, and the cast and director were on the Today Show the day the nominations came out (and GE isn’t even an investor in it), which I think pretty much seals it.

Best Actor nominations are Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”, George Clooney in “Up in the Air”, Colin Firth in “A Single Man”, Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”, and Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”.

Well, as you might have guessed, I haven’t seen any of these. I like George Clooney, and Morgan Freeman has been great in everything I’ve seen him in, but I think I’ll have to go with Jeff Bridges on this one. I hear he was good in this flick (and the Academy loves it when they do their own singing, which he did), plus, let’s face it, most of the voters these days grew up watching Sea Hunt, and everybody knows Lloyd Bridges should have gotten an Oscar for his work in Airplane, so I think Jeff gets the nod here.

For Best Actress, the nominees are Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”, Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”, Carey Mulligan in “An Education”, Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”, and Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”. Okay, I didn’t see any of these, either (except a few clips of “Julia”). Meryl Streep is always hard to bet against, but since Dan Aykroyd gave the consummate performance of Julia Child that nobody can possibly outdo, I think Streep is SOL this year. Old broads are usually a pretty good bet, too. But Helen Mirren has already won an Oscar, and, besides, she’s British. This is America, and I don’t think we’re in the mood to be handing out our awards to foreigners this year. For that reason, I think I’ll go with that all-American girl in that All-American, Horatio Alger kinda story (true, even) of homeless boy makes good and plays football, Sandra Bullock. After all, she dyed her hair blonde in this movie, which is quite a stretch for her.

Best Supporting Actor nominees in movies I haven’t seen are Matt Damon in “Invictus”, Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”, Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”, Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”, and Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”. I can’t help but be a fan of anybody who’s a hemp advocate, but I don’t think this is the year of the Woody. It may only be Canada, but Christopher Plummer is still a foreigner (and the Academy wouldn’t want to be seen as advocating for universal health care by giving an Oscar to a Canuck). Creepy child molester murderers aren’t really the “feel good” kinda characters the voters are looking for this year, so I think Tucci is out of the running. I think Quentin Tarantino scares the bejesus out of the Academy, and they don’t want to totally ignore one of his films. Plus, who can’t get behind a little bit of Nazi-killin’? That’s why I’ll go with Waltz to take this award.

For Best Supporting Actress (again, haven’t seen any of these), there’s Penélope Cruz in “Nine”, Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”, Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”, Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”, Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”. I just saw Penélope Cruz in a movie whose name I can’t remember the other day with Ben Kingsley and Dennis Hopper. I have to admit, I was impressed with her, um, talents. But, again, “foreginer.” I’ve always liked Maggie Gyllenhaal, but she looks too much like a regular human being to win an Oscar. The smart money would probably be on Mo’Nique, who would be (I think), only the second one-name actress to win an Oscar (Cher won for Moonstruck in 1987, IIRC). But I’m going with a bit of an upset here, and go with fellow SU Alum, Vera Farmiga.

The Best Director nominees are Avatar’s James Cameron, The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow, Inglourious Basterds’ Quentin Tarantino, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire’s Lee Daniels, and Up in the Air’s Jason Reitman. I’m going with Bigelow on this one.

As for all the pissant little categories that nobody gives a shit about? My guess is Avatar will rack up a bunch of these so it can be branded as “Winner of 5 Academy Awards” or whatever, and have a second release to make another billion dollars or so before the DVD sales kick in.

Whatever happens, I’ll have to read about it in the paper, ‘cuz I won’t be watching. I’ll be watching the season finale (crap! It’s over already?) of Big Love.

Have a good one.

Now that President Obama has successfully reformed health care, ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, closed Gitmo, ended Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, restored bipartisanship to Congress, reformed the financial industry, solved Global Warming (by calling for more nuke plants), tackled the whole federal government Styrofoam cup controversy, and turned the unemployment situation around, he’s taking on immigration reform. Good idea. He needs something to get all the teabaggers wound up again. They’ve been kinda losing steam. It was either that or gay marriage.

Saturday is the best day of the week, because it’s the only day where I don’t have to work today, and I don’t have to work tomorrow. There should really be more days like that in a typical week. At least two, I think. Sunday is OK, but you have Monday hanging over your head all day. Friday is nice, ‘cuz you don’t have to work the next day, but you still gotta get up and go to work. Of course, it certainly beats being unemployed. The only thing worse than working is not working. And the only thing worse than not working is looking for a job. Or maybe being a prostitute.

It’s been kind of a long week here (and without any snow shoveling), and I’m pretty happy that it’s finally Friday. Other than that, I haven’t really got much of anything to say. But this song has been stuck in my head all morning for some reason, so what the hell. Maybe I can get it stuck in your head, too.

Our governor is facing calls for his resignation because he got free tickets to a NY Yankees World Series game (valued at $450 per ticket). Yankee tickets? Really? That’s the best you can do? Now, I’m not exactly a huge David Paterson fan, but, come on now. Maybe it’s against “the rules” but on the NY State scale of political corruption (aka, the “Boss Tweed Scale”), this doesn’t even register. Look, I’m not a Blinky apologist or anything, but the guy’s already not running for a new term, and on the list of things that need fixing around here, the Blinkster’s pretty much at the bottom.

I actually feel bad for Paterson. I mean, here Eliot Spitzer comes a-callin’, saying, “yo, Dave, I need a black guy on the ticket. Plus the whole blind thing doesn’t hurt, either. So, you up for it or what?”

And Dave’s like, “hmm, let’s see. Lt. Gov. you say? That sounds like a pretty cushy do-nothing job with no real responsibilities. I bet I can even get free Yankees tickets out of it. Sounds good to me, El. Just don’t make me drop the opening puck at some backwater shit hole Upstate.”

Then Spitzer turns out to be one of the dumbest smart guys in history, and BAM! Paterson gets stuck with a multi-billion dollar deficit and a dysfunctional state legislature (that he was pals with just a few month ago). He’s supposed to be going to baseball games and opening shopping malls, and now he’s stuck with this big pile of crap. And while he seems like a nice enough guy (though a little on the goofy side), he’s just not up for the job. But, hey, at least he isn’t out driving drunk.

Speaking of which, California State Senator Roy Ashburn (your typical married, father of four, all-American family values Republican gay basher) got pulled over and charged with DUI on his way home from a gay bar the other night. While the dude that was with him wasn’t charged, he no doubt went home very disappointed.

Thank goodness Prop 8 passed in California. Otherwise, the sanctity of Ashburn’s marriage might be in doubt.

Great picture of Charlie Rangel on the Huff Post to accompany the story about him apparently giving up his Chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee (or is he? To sum up the story, yes he is, no he isn’t, yes he is, no he isn’t. UPDATE: Yes he is, but only “temporarily”). He’s wearing a black jacket, but it makes him look like Satan (or at least an old-school vampire – you know, before they got all ‘Lost Boys” and Twilight in the Loafers) wearing a black cape standing amidst the flames of hell. I always got a kick out of Charlie, but it appears he was bad, so I think he needs to go. I’m getting tired of politicians on the take (and, yeah, I think pretty much all of them are) – especially in New York State (the worst ones always seem to be from NYC; I guess Upstate politicians aren’t considered worth paying off – or maybe their prices are so low they fly under the radar). Except for our former mayor, Lee Alexander (best mayor Syracuse has ever had, except he got a kickback on every piece of business the City did), but he was from Jersey, so whattya expect?

The Senate has finally passed stop-gap legislation to extend unemployment benefits and keep highway dollars flowing, now that Jim Bunning (seen in this photo on the RMS Titanic, shortly before putting on a dress and jumping into one of the last available life boats) has stopped doing whatever the hell he was doing to prevent it. They’re calling it a one-man filibuster, but it was some other sort of bullshit than what we’ve come to know as a filibuster (even though the Senate defines a filibuster as an “Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions,” which I guess does make it a filibuster after all) . It finally passed 78-19, which show you what a load of crap the Senate rules are. But, nothing we can do about it, of course. The Democrats are too afraid of the Republicans saying mean things about them, and, besides, they want those rules available to them when they’re in the minority (not that they’d actually use them, of course, ‘cuz they’d be too afraid of the Republicans saying mean things about them).

The tea baggers are trying to recall NJ’s US Senator Bob Menendez. It doesn’t actually appear they have the right to recall a federal legislator, though. According to Menendez’s lawyer, there’s nothing in the US Constitution that allows a recall, although NJ is one of 18 states (plus DC) that has a recall procedure in place (along with Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin). The tea baggers want to see if they can get the required 1.3 million signatures required under the NJ rules. Or something.

Some Air Traffic Controller brought his little kid to work at JFK, and let him clear a couple of flights for take off. The pilots in question didn’t seem to care, but apparently the FAA does. If Ronald Reagan was still around, he’d get this all straightened out (namely, by firing all the Controllers and hiring child labor at slave wages instead). Just one more reason to stay the hell away from airplanes.

Crap, it’s getting late. Time to fly. Sorta.

I think I may move to Kentucky, just to show my support for Jim Bunning, US Senator, Hall of Fame pitcher (not surprisingly, he was a righty), and the USA’s honorary crazy uncle (shown here entering the size of his tallywhacker into the Senate record). Despite his rather apparent senility, KY voters (fun fact, KY is best known for its jelly) returned the Bunster to office back in 2004, where he plays Valentin Arregui to Mitch McConnell’s Luis Molina in Kentucky’s version of Kiss of the Spider Woman (OK, sorry; I realize that’s a pretty obscure reference). His latest feat is not only blocking (repeatedly) unemployment and COBRA extensions for people out of work (which only encourages them to sit on their asses and not look for a job, according to Krazy Jon Kyl of AZ. Question: in poker, does Arizona’s pair of crazy uncles beat Kentucky’s crazy uncle and closet queen?), but at the same time triggering a 21 percent Medicare cut, putting thousands of Federal employees out of work, and killing construction and transportation jobs for tens of thousands of people. Well done, Senator. You’re a credit to your party.

Speaking of a credit to her party, the AFL-CIO is backing Arkansas Lt. Gov Bill Halter’s primary challenge against Blanche Lincoln – pledging at least $3 million to unseat the DINO. Additionally, MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, among others, raised nearly half a million dollars for Halter in less than 24 hours after he announced his challenge. Getting AFL-CIO backing is huge – not just financially, but for the man and woman power it brings to the race n manning phone banks, handing out literature, and getting out the vote. You’re a traitor, Blanche, and I hope you go down (on Jim Bunning). And I hope in his victory speech over Lincoln, Halter declares: ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis.’

Oh, crap. Time to go to work again.

Gun nuts are basking in a tremendous victory, apparently: Starbucks isn’t banning guns.

Dale Welch recently walked into a Starbucks in Virginia, handgun strapped to his waist, and ordered a banana Frappuccino with a cinnamon bun. He says the firearm drew a double-take from at least one customer, but not a peep from the baristas.

Well, good for you, Dale. Any guy who drinks banana Frappuccinos obviously needs to carry a gun to compensate for something. I think it shows a great deal of courage on Starbucks’ part, though. If I was charging $4 for a cup of shitty coffee, I sure as hell wouldn’t want gun-toting customers.

There’s yet another reason to like Jimmy Carter. Dubya says Jimmy made his life miserable by having the guts to speak up and tell the truth. Aw, poor Dubya. If it’s any consolation, George, you made a helluva lot of people’s lives miserable yourself.

A pretty good hockey game for the gold medal yesterday (not that I watched it. I was trying to get all my weekend chores done while wandering around in a bit of a stupor). But it sounds like it was a good game, and the Canadian NHL all-star team beat the USA NHL all-star team. I kinda liked the Olympics better when it used to be amateur college kids playing (even though the evil commie countries always seemed to have an advantage). Oh well, time marches on.

I have to admit, I didn’t watch any of the games this year. There’s just something about an Olympics that isn’t during a leap year that doesn’t feel right. Hats off to the Canadians, though, who won a boatload (a record, I think I heard) of gold medals. Of course, if you look at the medal “standings” on an US media site, you’ll see the USA is #1, because they add in the silver and bronze medals.

Excuse me, but coming in second and/or third just means you lost, and since when are Americans proud of losing? Just goes to show what 8 years of Bush will do to you.

Oh well, time to head off to work and wait for the new hoops rankings to come out. Rumor has it there may be some movement at the top.

I don’t normally stay up as late as I did last night, so I’m a little tired this morning. I also find myself totally uninterested in who’s on the stupid talking head shows. Apparently, the US hockey team is playing Canada for the gold medal later on today. I know this, because they said so on SportsCenter. They also said that the US team beat Canada for the gold medal exactly 50 years ago today, in 1960. I found this rather disconcerting, because 1960 happens to be the year I was born, and while I already knew I was pushing 50, it was still kinda weird to hear that ’60 was 50 years ago. I’ll be damned – how did that happen?

I remember my dad hitting the half-century mark. That’s not something that’s supposed to happen to me. Not that I really care all that much (and I still get to spend most of the rest of this year in my 40s), and my brother just hit 60 the other day (and he’s not even my oldest brother, who I think is like 62 or something), but it just seems kinda weird.

I mean, I was always the young one (my sister is closest to me – in age and everything else, for that matter, and she’s nine years older than I am), and here I am, on the verge of being eligible for AARP – about to exit the most desirable age demographic for advertisers. Soon, nobody will give a shit what I think about anything (not that they do now, really), and the teevee shows I watch will be sponsored by Polident, Depends, Metamusil, and Cialis. I’d say “what a revoltin’ development,” except any reference to Chester A. Riley would only serve to further illustrate how goddamn old I seem to be getting.

Oh well, it beats the alternative, I guess.

Did you know that if you fool around on your wife – lots and lots and lots of times – both President Obama and former President Clinton will call and offer words of encouragement? Granted, they’re probably encouraging you in somewhat different ways, but still. I could’ve used a little encouragement while I was struggling to get the driveway shoveled in time to get to work yesterday. Actually, screw the encouragement. I have a couple extra shovels – I could’ve used some goddamn help. Fortunately it’s not too late – seems to be snowing again. Hell, I’ll even sit down and have a couple cold ones with ya (none of that Bud Light swill, either), and if you want, you can hang out and watch the game with me tonight. I’ll do up some wings and everything. I bet you wouldn’t get wings from Tiger.

Unless maybe you think you guys could score us some tickets, that is. They’re a little tough to come by for this one, but I bet either one of you could get us something courtside. We can stop in at Hungry Chuck’s for a couple pitchers and I’ll spring for some slices (hell, a whole pie, even) at the Varsity before we head in. And maybe a couple more pitchers.

But I guess I’m not good enough for the Presidential treatment. I’ll have to settle for watching the game with David Paterson who I am officially extending the olive branch to, now that he’s dropped out of the governor’s race. I figure you probably don’t have the juice to score tickets these days (and you’d probably get booed like a black guy at a hockey game anyway), so come on over, Dave. I’ll let you wear my Ernie Davis replica jersey (as far as you know) and everything. You can even bring your wife, if you want. No swinging, though. We don’t play that up here in real America.

Speaking of hockey and swingers, how ’bout that Canadian Women’s hockey team? After winning an Olympic gold medal, they came back out and had celebration pictures taken with cigars and beer.

Cigars and beer! :omg:

And at least one of these women was only 18 years old! Damn socialist Canadians. See, it starts with universal health care, and before you know it, your hockey babes are swilling booze and doing unspeakable (Clintonesque, even) things with cigars. Such an outrage!

WTF is wrong with people? These are my kinda chicks. Do people really have nothing better to worry about? Oh well, I guess it could be worse. Don Imus could have called them nappy-headed hosers, eh?

Speaking of hosers and booze, former NY Republican congresscritter (not to mention Jack Abramoff crony and wife beater) John Sweeney will be spending 30 days in the slammer for drunk driving. Poor Johnny. Just a word of advice: if you’re gonna drive drunk, don’t do 59 in a 40 mph zone. Better yet, just head over the frat house, and get stoned with the bro’s.

Oh well, I guess I better get out there and shovel the driveway (again). Wouldn’t wanna miss ESPN College Game Day at 11:00.

I’m getting a bit of a late start this morning, having been up since 4:30 or so, shoveling snow. We’ve gotten about 18 inches, according to the weather geek. I’m not normally one to complain about the shoveling, but this is some of the heaviest snow I’ve seen in a while. In an hour and a half of shoveling the equivalent of wet sand, I barely managed to make enough of a path for us to get out of the driveway. Now I’m pooped. Not exactly how I wanted to start my day. I must be getting old.

The godless, socialist snowplows have been out all night making the godless, socialist streets passable. Many of these streets, I might add, I have never driven on. Why I should have to pay for other people’s streets to be plowed is beyond me. If they want their streets plowed, they should pay a private company to do it.

Sadly, it looks like another house bound day for the dogs today. I feel pretty bad about that, but hopefully we’ll be able to get them out tomorrow. I only wish somebody would invent a shovel a dog could use. They’d love it, and it’d tire them right out.

I guess I’ll just have to design something.