Everybody Wins

If it's January it must be awards season, which literally fills me with glee.  Red carpet no-nos, acceptance speeches, snubs.  It's like extending Christmas by a month.

We begin with last week's Golden Globes and Saturday's Screen Actor's Guild Awards.  Both evenings were pretty much carbon copies of each other, so it's easay to cover them in one sitting.

First, we have to give it up for Mo'Nique.  If you saw Precious, you know she deserved this award, and if you didn't, you can at least admit that all the attention she's getting makes up for how blatantly she was snubbed for Soul Plane. 

Ok, seriously though, if your career can survive a movie called Soul Plane and you're still a front-runner for an Oscar, you've got some serious staying-power.  This rule was invented in 1990 when Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar despite having appeared in "Jumpin' Jack Flash."  (For the record, Jumpin Jack Flash is actually one of my favorite movies ever.  If you don't thrill at the sight of a young Annie Potts or giggle when Whoopi yanks the toupee off of Peter Michael Goetz's head, you're not human.)

The other sure thing seems to be Christoph Waltz, whose turn as a comically fey Nazi is the only real attention Inglourious Basterds is receiving. 

I don't know that I'm down with Avatar winning everything, since Up In The Air, The Hurt Locker and Precious were all such powerful films, but the film is a clear feat of movie-making.

I am enjoying watching Sandra Bullock win everything in sight, especially since I've been a fan since The Net, not to mention the Miss Congeniality films.

And, speaking of fashion, Project Runway has begun again.  Season 7 proves to be more entertaining than Season 6, in no small part due to contestant Ping.  In the first episode she made it into the top three with a dress that looked to me like she threw bolts of fabric on her model as if she were about to commence the Dance of the Seven Veils.  In the last episode, where the designers were asked to create an outfit out of potato sack material, she designed a very architectural and shapeless shift that looked like, well, a potato sack.  Oh - and it wasn't long enough to cover her model's butt.  This makes we want to call the dress Ass Foo Young - but only because it sounds funny.  Anyway, she landed in the bottom three but didn't get sent home, for what I can only imagine is the producers' reasoning that she's going to be comic gold this season.

And I'm already glued to American Idol.  I ordinarily don't get sucked in until Hollywood week, but the auditions this year are so ridiculous.  Aside from the usual heart-string-pulling stories about people who were born with 11 toes or childhood asthma, the number of ridiculous contestants getting escorted out by security appears to be at an all-time high.

I think Kara DioGuardi just brings out the worst in people.

But the TV I'm really salivating for (other than the midseason returns of Glee and FlashForward) is the final season of Lost.  I've invested five seasons in this weird island with the smoke monster and the numbers and the time-jumping.  There better be a good payoff.  It's like, on the weekend, when I'll do a really long run - like 7 or 8 or 10 miles.  I want a cheeseburger for lunch, so if we end up some place with salads or chicken, I just feel disappointed.  Like it's all foreplay and no money shot.

Other than that, there isn't too much to report, folks.  It was a long week at the new job - with travel to Texas and DC - and I'm still spending Saturday catching up.  I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and I don't learn as well as I used to - or I don't remember as well as I used to - but as I approach 40, I'm finding the challenge of learning a lot of new information harder than I remember it being.  Still, I have to say, I forgot what it was like to jump out of bed excited to go to work in the morning. 

At my last company everyone was staring down divorce and mid-life crisis.  Here, we've got a guy in his 20s who is so smart we acquired his company and hired him before he even graduated from college.  Now, for a company that sells to the education space, this is a great example of practicing what we preach.  But on a personal level it's hard not to bring every inadequacy I feel about myself to the surface.  In my 20s, I slept until noon and the only thing I invented was a way to combine Fruity Pebbles with the Rice Krispie treat recipe.  (Do not try this at home - this snack can keep you awake for 54 consecutive hours and give you the dental experience of an Englishman.)

Finally, Neil and I did have a chance to try the new Accademmia di Vino on the West Side this weekend.  We love the one on the East Side, but I'm sad to report this one is a poor facsimile.  The design, which works nicely in the Third Avenue location, has been replicated here, but the building on Broadway isn't actually brick, so the exposed brick is a facade.  It shows, and looks cheap.  When combined with the trappings of Tuscany they're trying to create- plaster walls, faux vines - the whole effect is very Olive Garden.  The wine list is still excellent, but the food was just OK.  Grab a glass of vino, then head over to Ouest for a better meal.

Arrivederci.