The Academy Awards 2007 (Oscars)

Well, Martin Scorsese finally gets his Oscar, Ellen Degeneres worked an offbeat host routine, and Al Gore got a chance to fake a presidential run announcement. What'd you think of the Oscars this year and what'd you think of the winners?

I normally don't pay too much attention to the Oscars show, but this year I volunteered to be a Paparazzi photographer for the Oscars Night Benefit at the Coop and thus got to see a good bit of the show in style while working the event. You can see some of my pics in the Oscars Night at the Coop 2007 Album. It's an annual event and they're going to do it again next year. It was a great way to catch the Oscars. People came dressed up and were really into it all night long. The food was great, there were prizes, a silent auction, and the money all went to charity.

I was really happy to see Little Miss Sunshine win and I thought Ellen Degeneres was a very funny host. The "oh look, I appear to be holding a script" joke with Martin Scorsese was priceless.

I was SO happy that Alan Arkin won an award for his performance in "Little Miss Sunshine"!!!!!!!!

Watching the Oscars was more fun than I thought it would be. I could have done without the random 2-minute dance-art pieces, but the rest of the show had some funny and touching parts to it. Forest Whitaker's acceptance speech was lovely.

You mean the Al Gore lovefest? It was a very pleasant oscars, Ellen did good (she didn't really have to do a whole lot), no major faux pas & almost all my picks won including the Departed & Alan Arkin!

QUOTE (ArsNova @ Feb 26 2007, 06:25 PM)

Watching the Oscars was more fun than I thought it would be. I could have done without the random 2-minute dance-art pieces.

What's up with everyone bagging on those dance art pieces? I thought that was pretty cool and it was more like 20 second dance-art pieces than 2-minute.

I think the dance pieces would have been more cool if:

a) We could have seen the bodies of the dancers as they formed the shapes, then let the curtain drop to give us the shadow of the image. You have to figure they were contorting themselves in different shapes - it would have been cool to see how they got there, and the strength and control (and grace) it took.

They were longer, and involved more movement - not just forming a single shape. Part of the amazing thing about Pilobolus is how they move from one shape to the next, and being able to see the inventiveness in motion, watching the patterns they create as they get there.

c) If each dance piece wasn't supposed to represent one of the nominees for best picture - some of the representations were just kind of silly (like the gun). Abstract shapes, especially when you can see the dancers, can be incredibly beautiful, and the references needn't have been quite so literal, which just made them seem contrived and simplistic. I felt like they didn't expect the audience to understand modern art, so they dumbed everything down to be acceptable - I found it a little insulting to the audience's (and my) intelligence.