So last night, Alli and I held the 2nd Annual Olathe Community of Christ Young Adult Oscar Party. It’s a great time watching the show with a bunch of friends and competing over who wins the awesome prizes provided by Brad and June.

Alli successfully defended her title as Best Prognosticator of Awards and unsurprisingly, I came in second once again. There were several great moments, some confusing moments, and some downright surprising moments.

My favorite moments:

• Forrest Whitaker’s speech
• Scorsese finally wins Best Director (and receives it from Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg)
• The cool dance troupe segues that formed the interpretations of the Best Picture nominees.
• Ellen’s opening monologue - totally spot-on, perfectly self-deprecating and not insulting to the nominees at all (do you hear me, Chris Rock and Whoopi Goldberg?)
• In fact, the Errol Morris opening nominees montage was really cool too.
• Ellen overall - she did a great job hosting, in my opinion. The part with her dropping off the script to Scorsese was priceless.
• Will Ferrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly’s song - awesome.
  

Confusing:

• Jack Nicholson’s bald head
• Jaden Smith and Abigail Breslin’s presentation
• Dreamgirls getting all but shut out (2 wins in 8 nominations)
• Chris Connelly. I can’t stand this guy and I can’t figure out why they had him backstage if he was just going to pass by the stars. Pointless.

Surprises:

• Eddie Murphy loses Best Supporting Actor. Not a bigger meltdown since Russell Crowe’s for A Beautiful Mind. Guess releasing Norbit when you did wasn’t such a great idea, huh Eddie? I was very happy for Alan Arkin though.
• The Departed wins Best Picture. I had it 3rd on my big board, behind Babel and Little Miss Sunshine.

Overall, it was a decent night. I was glad to see Scorsese win, but I think that it showed that the level of films this year was just average. The Departed certainly is not Scorsese’s best film to date, but for some reason, he wins for it. That seems to happen a lot (see: Denzel Washington).

I’m hoping that the next year brings some better movies and a more competitive race. As good as Jennifer Hudson was in Dreamgirls, I doubt we’ll hear much more from her ever again.

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I’ll do my best to re-cap the Emmys (even though I was mostly watching the Chiefs beat the Raiders in Oakland).

Here’s what I saw:

1. Couldn’t be more glad to see Everybody Loves Raymond off the air. I can’t stand that show. Seinfeld was funny, Raymond was not. And Brad Garrett winning for Supporting Actor over Jeremy Piven for Entourage was a traveshamockery.
2. So so SO happy that LOST won the awards that it did (Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series, Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore), Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series). JJ Abrams can be credited (along with Mark Cherry, the creator of Desperate Housewives) with the return of scripted television. Abrams’ other show, Alias, is easily my favorite on TV, but this year, LOST really managed to capture my interest. Great show…can’t wait for season two to start this week.
3. Not enough Ellen. She’s funny. Let her do her thing.
4. Didn’t watch the red carpet, but I heard that Kathy Griffin once again was delegated to the bridge and did not get to interview celebrities on the Red Carpet. Star Jones was down there and I CANNOT STAND HER. All she does is pucker up and tell people how great they are. She is so annoying.
5. Thought that the Brokaw, Rather, Jennings piece was cool, but Dan Rather annoys me. Brokaw was the most eloquent I’ve ever seen him.
6. Out of the 3 Desperate Housewives up for Best Actress in a Comedy, the one that I thought least likely to win, did. Really thought Patricia Heaton was going to win, but gave Teri Hatcher an outside chance.
7. I predict that with Raymond off the air now, Will and Grace will dominate in its last year next year. It will be interesting with Desperate Housewives up again and all the new shows this year.

Anyway, that’s all. We shall see what the year brings.

P.S. I’m sore. Played volleyball last night for the first time in ages (OK, not ages, but at least since Corporate Challenge). Sore today.

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