Little gold men...

I think the Oscars were on the other night.

I saw a bit of the hoopla, in passing. This means I was not stapled to the set from the Best Supporting Actor to Best Picture and all the action in-bewteen. I watched it as I was walking by the TV on my way to get a new diaper for Joyboy, while fixing dinner, baking the cookies with LaLa which never did turn out quite right, etc. I caught glimpses of the awards show as my real life provided me time to. It was actually more interesting that way, I think - a little seasoing of it rather than a full course meal of Hollywood-on-a-stick. Which, as we all know, has been known to provide more than a little nausea and tummy trauma.

In order to deliberately sit down and watch this whole thing ALL~THE~WAY~THROUGH, one has to be truly bored out of their dispassionate skulls, right? Or REALLY invested in this whole awards-show process thingy in a more passionate way which eludes me? Does anyone really make a night of this event? Grab some popcorn, a 2-liter of Dr. Pepper (or some inferior drink of choice), and settle in for 3 lightning-paced hours of this?

I personally could care less, but not much less, about the outcome of these things. I see movies because I am invested in their subject matter, or because Joaquin Phoenix or Johnny Depp are in them (the former because he is one of the most under-rated actors of our time and the latter out of sheer morbid curiosity and because he personifies great theatre), or because at the moment in time in which you decide what movie to see (for us, this is as we drive up to the theatre, check our watches, and read the marquee to see if, by some fluke of fated interplanetary alignment, there is a movie starting within the next 20 minutes) something just happens to sound better to you than the other available choices.

Flicks, we call them here. Flicks. "Chick Flicks" for girly movies. For guy-themed entertainment, sometimes - there just are no words. Some of the testosterone fueled flicks out there is just pure crap and thus unworthy of any catchy nickname. This ALWAYS includes anything with Jena Claude Van Damme in it, among other notable diasters. I think I saw something once which was so bad I can't remember it. That counts.

I appreciate being entertained. I REALLY value the blessed people on the planet whose talent can deeply move, make us laugh, and cause us to think. I love to laugh. Ellen Degeneres, Owen Wilson, and the cast of "Best In Show" are heroes to me, seriously. (and on a related topic - the entire ensemble of the TV show "Scrubs" deserves a substantial raise - that show has me howling every week) These guys are so gifted. But RARELY do I feel those people are truly rewarded in such shows like the Oscars. Call me jaded, but I do not see truth in these awards shows much of the time.

In truth, I have no idea who won what exactly, except for the vague concept that Hilary Swank won Best Actress for her role in a boxing movie I am not drawn towards in the least. I will surely miss out on her performance in that one. I don't think my favorite flicks from the year even made it in the running for anything, (because you asked: the newest Harry Potter installment and The Village). Call me easily entertained, but when I have a rare free 2-3 hour time block with Hubby-man ALONE and we are paying a babysitter to afford us this luxury, I am choosing to see what I WANT, not what someone says is fantastic based on the review someone else gave it, which was based on someone ELSE's opinion of yet another person's review of the film.

If you ask me, great acting does not need recognition because it speaks for itself. And in so doing, the audience rewards the actor with our presence, our dollars, our praise, and our loyalty to their work in other films. That is probably more valuable than a gold statue any day. But you never can tell what spins some people's bagels.

I have seen GREAT flicks that apparently no one else shared my opinion of. And I have watched movies win the Best Picture category that caused me to become convinced that in order to have arrived at that award conclusion, the whole Academy is almost certainly on crack. But in the end, no amount of awards or recognition fuels my fiery passion for flicks. And nobody's word on the subject (not even the twelve-stepping Academy) convinces me that any film is deemed excellent by collective opinion or vague criteria of random individuals who don't represent my tastes. I am not sure exactly who the Academy is. But I know I don't know anyone in it.

Oscar's limelight has not convinced me to hire my sitter and run out to see the boxing movie, or the flying movie, or the wine-tasting buddy movie. My little simpleton self is quite content to sit around watching DVD's at home while waiting for the next Harry Potter masterpiece to arrive. That or the next flick containing the work of either Mr. Phoenix or Mr. Depp.

Now that's entertainment.