Oscar(r) thoughts

Yeah, this is late but the Monk is a full-service blogger.

I watched part of the Oscars and I thought the best thing was Chris Rock's introductions of the presenters ("the only woman to breast-feed an Apple" for Gwenyth Paltrow; commenting on Tim Robbins' political bent, "a couple of old Fockers" for Hoffman/Streisand, etc.). Monologue = ok, occasionally harsh, occasionally limp. Other stuff: no surprises in any of the winners, no undeserving winners either (unlike Fellowship of the Ring getting shafted over and over in 2002) and no real close calls other than Morgan Freeman over Jamie Foxx in the Supporting Actor category.

Low point: the delay by the audience in cheering for Reagan when the acknowledgement of the recently deceased (since the prior broadcast) progression began. I think that there was actually prompting to cheer the Gipper. Disgusting leftist dopes. I would've been standing on my chair clapping my hands red.

But two quick notes: (1) Adam Durnitz (Counting Crows' lead singer) looks like a farking carpenter's assistant from South Boston with Sideshow Bob's hair. Yet he has lived your dream, boys: he dated Jennifer Aniston for a couple of years in the early 90s. Dang, I KNEW I should've learned guitar in grade school. (2) Clint Eastwood is too cool for words. Here's why: he shot Million Dollar Baby (principal photography, no reshoots to my knowledge) in 37 days and had only one 12-hour day in the bunch according to Hilary Swank's interview with Letterman (I think; might've been Conan, but Conan screwed up that interview so badly I doubt he's the one who elicited that revelation). That's amazing considering the schedules, screw-ups, workloads, pressure, etc. that surrounds the average movie set. He knows what he wants; he gets it; it's good. Eastwood gets good to great performances out of his actors and tells the story well: Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby. That's great directing.