Oscars = Good times!

We had our annual Oscars party last night, and good times all around! S---- was here for the first time in about 3 years since she didn't go to Ireland this year, so we held it over at her place last night, which also meant that she organized everything with her usual flare. We had enough food to feed about twice as many people as actually showed up, but it wouldn't be a party at S----'s otherwise!

We finally got to meet the infamous J----, who apparently was quite nervous about meeting us. He seemed like a nice guy, highly opinionated (but aren't we all in our own ways?), and seemed like he had a good time with the group. K------ and A--- were also there, but all 3 of them ended up leaving early due to work schedules, so it ended up just being me, S---- and B--- who stuck it out for the entire show. I also got the most nominations correct.

There were a few surprises during the show, the biggest being Pan's Labyrinth not winning Best Foreign Language Film, which went to The Lives of Others, from Germany. Cars did not win for Best Animated Feature (the Oscar went to Happy Feet, which in retrospect doesn't surprise me as much now, given it's environmental message, and the overall "Green" message that was present during the entire show). Neither Disney's offering for Best Short Film - Animated (The Little Matchgirl) nor Pixar's (Lifted) won, with the Oscar going to The Danish Poet instead. I was really hoping The Little Matchgirl would win, as it would prove that traditional 2D animation isn't dead. Alan Arkin winning Best Supporting Actor for Little Miss Sunshine surprised me a little, but after I thought about it, he did offer an exceptional performance in that movie. (In fact, I watched Little Miss Sunshine this weekend, and really enjoyed it! I found myself laughing at every clip that was shown from it last night during the show, as well.) I really thought that Eddie Murphy would have won for Dreamgirls; there just seemed to be a lot of positive buzz around his performance. I also felt that Ellen Degeneres did a good job hosting; I wouldn't mind seeing her host again in the future.

The rest of the weekend went well. B---, S---- and I went to the usual haunts on Friday night , and I spent even more money at Pier 1. That store is dangerous! R--- and I went to see The Bridge to Terabithia on Saturday. A surprisingly good film. I had some reservations about it, as I didn't feel there was enough in the original book to make a decent full-length feature film, but they fleshed it out appropriately to keep the younger audiences attention, to keep it enjoyable enough for the adults, and to convey the original point-of-view and sentiment from the book. Nicely done. I wouldn't mind going to see it again if S---- or someone else wanted to go.

This morning, I'm particularly tired, as the Oscars ran until 12:15am, and by the time we left S----'s house and got home, I didn't get to bed until closer to 1am. Today is going to be a long day!