Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. —Henry Fielding

28 February 2005

Auditions & Oscar Bash Redux

It is so difficult to get people to want to do work in Spring quarter at Cal Poly. I know this. I do. I went to that school for Chrissakes. I know. But I took this job anyway because of... synchronicity (as Ayana put it). And no one thought we would have people audition today on our first day and yet... Six. SIX! Four men and two women! I was stunned, really. It was very nice.

Last night's Oscar bash was a lot of fun for me. I hope my guests had as good a time as I. In attendance: Allan, Justin, Elizabeth, Wahima, Catherine, Brittney, Ayana, Jaime, Julie, Lisa, Anna, Aaron Cohen, Scott, Kevin, Carlos D. (miss that guy), Danny, Ashley, Kim, Aaron, Sarah, and Simon. They all seemed to mingle together quite well, so that was good.

To eat, I fixed prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, Grand Marnier cookies, chocolate cake (with Aviator peas on top), shrimp cocktail, some brie/pear concoction that mostly failed, and crostini with choice of goat cheese or aged cheddar and peperonata, pesto or tapenade. It was mostly really good, and I had the wine flowing. PLUS, Justin and Elizabeth brought this fabulous homemade chipotle salsa, some edamame and more wine (hurrah for friends who bring good wine.) AND Ashley and Danny brought a Key Lime pie! Yum.

The show was kind of boring again. They need a new producer. AND they need to move the dates back to late March. These last two years have been absolute snores because films don't have any time to get up and walk. There is a mad rush to get nominated and a mad rush to give out Oscars and so it's frontrunner frontrunner frontrunner. Halle Berry could never have won in a shortened season like this. The award would have gone to Sissy Spacek in a hot minute that year if the awards had been in February. Ditto for Adrien Brody the subsequent year. Boo to the shortened season. I want the show to go back to March.

That said... I was glad Cate Blanchett won and happy for Jaime Foxx and Morgan Freeman. Good times for Sidney Lumet finally getting an Oscar. I was sad about Marty losing yet again and it was a true shame that Hilary Swank beat out Annette Bening for the second time. (Swank won in 2000 for Boy's Don't Cry over Bening's performance in American Beauty. I supported Swank's win then. This year, I wanted Bening to win like crazy and so would you have if you had seen Being Julia. She fucking rocks the house in that movie!)
This is the problem with the shortened season: there are no surprises. No Pianists. No Black Hawk Downs. The closest thing to a surprise was Jorge Drexler winning for Best Song. It was, however a kind of spread-the-wealth night, of which I sort of approve.
The Aviator: 5.
Million Dollar Baby: 4. (And I was glad it won Best Picture, I just wish Marty had won for Director.)
Ray: 2.
The Incredibles: 2.
Finding Neverland: 1.
Sideways: 1.
The Sea Inside: 1.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: 1.
Motorcycle Diaries: 1.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events: 1.
Spider-Man 2: 1.

Next year, though, I'm gonna be sure to tape the show, so I can actually watch it later on. Having a party during a show that you actually want to watch is not the best way to facilitate watching the show.

P.S. I should make sure my television reception is okay before the people show up next time.

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