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February 25, 2019:

THE BASH THAT WAS A SMASH

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, we had us a raucous and fun time at our Annual Oscar Bash. Over six hundred postings (not our highest and not our lowest) filled with merriment and mirth and laughter and legs, and I lived it vicariously since I’ve never bothered to get cable in this house and I have no antenna and doesn’t that explain so much.  The Oscars seemed to spread it around, certainly.  I was happy for Green Book, which was my personal favorite of last year’s films, and I thought Olivia Colman was a good choice for Best Actress.  I didn’t feel one way or the other about Rami Malek and probably preferred the performance of Viggo Mortensen, and actor I’ve never really cared for, but who I thought was just great in Green Book.  I was very happy with the supporting actress win for Regina King, who simply lit up the screen in If Beale Street Could Talk.  I do think they got Best Score wrong, I didn’t really care about any of the nominated songs, and I thought the Best Director award was as predictable as it gets.  I got both the screenwriting awards right and they were well deserved.  I did manage to see a YouTube clip of Olivia Colman’s speech, which was fun and just the kind of speech one should give.  I’ll probably YouTube it for other moments.

As to the no host, I think most people were fine with it, but it didn’t stop the show from running three hours and fifteen minutes.  The problem in the past few years hasn’t been the fact that there’s a host, it’s been the choices.  What you want is someone who is classy, funny, charming, and can keep everything rolling along.  Rather like Bob Hope was once upon a time.  He was never the whole show, he just opened it and came out occasionally, and that’s the way it should be.  I’m not sure we have anyone like that anymore, though, which is a sad thing. It was nice they dispensed with all the BS they usually do but from everyone I’ve talked to the comment most heard was, “boring.”

But boy did we have some fun here at haineshisway.com, as we always do. Whilst having our Bash I ate quite a lot of chicken stroganoff over rice bits.  It was very filling, but unless I’m completely counting calories incorrectly, it’s not terrible for being the only meal I ate yesterday, outside of a Kind bar and some Swedish Fish.

Prior to all that, I had a weird morning.  I didn’t get to sleep until four and I was intending to sleep until noon for eight hours of sleep.  But Grant called at ten-twenty and asked where the dust jacket flap copy was.  I’d completely forgotten about that, and he also needed last year’s jacket to do measurements.  So, up I got, got him the jacket, then wrote the flap copy.  For something I wrote quickly it came out pretty well – he normally futzes with it and smooths it out, but he didn’t make a single change.  But that took until eleven-thirty, so I got back in bed until twelve-fifteen, then got up and got ready and moseyed on over to see a matinee.

I shan’t say much about said matinee other than the two related one-act plays were not my cuppa at all so it was, for me, a bit of a slog to sit through. The production was well done, though. They started a little late and so I didn’t get out of there until four-thirty, as I stayed to say hello to some folks I knew in the cast.

I then went to Gelson’s and bought all the ingredients for my meal, then came right home, made it, caught up on posts, and then the Oscars began.

After the broadcast, I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched two-thirds of a movie called Looking for Love, starring Miss Connie Francis, that was on a home-grown DVD a nice person made for me.  I’ve never seen the film and while it’s not very good, I still enjoyed it because Miss Connie Francis was feisty as can be and the supporting cast was really fun – Jim Hutton, Susan Oliver (I just love Susan Oliver in anything), Jay C. Flippen, Jesse White and a whole mess o’ guest stars, including Johnny Carson, Danny Thomas, George Hamilton, Barbara Nichols, Paula Prentiss, and Yvette Mimieux.  I’ll finish it up later tonight.

Today is going to be a mother of a day.  I’ll be up by ten, I’ll have to go at eleven for some food because I won’t have any time to eat anything else until after nine.  At one we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal, and that is followed immediately by a three-hour rehearsal for the revue.  I’m not at all sure I’ll have time to hopefully pick up some packages, nor do I know if any are actually arriving.

Tomorrow is another revue rehearsal and I probably have a meeting either before or after it.  Wednesday will be a catch-up day for me, Thursday is our second Kritzerland rehearsal, Friday is another revue rehearsal, Saturday is our stumble-through, Sunday is sound check and show, Monday is a revue rehearsal, Monday is a day of rest, Tuesday is a revue rehearsal, followed by the Nick Redman memorial, and Wednesday is sound check and the revue.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat an early lunch, have a Kritzerland rehearsal, have a revue rehearsal, and then relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: What were the surprises, the annoyances, the speeches you liked and hated – all Oscars all the time.  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had another fun Oscar Bash that was a smash.

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