Tonight was Oscar night, also known as "Let's gather 'round and worship Hollywood" time. I watched the whole thing, from the pre-pre-show stuff, where reporters interviewed people as they walked down the burgundy carpet, to the 50 minute overrun (despite the fact that a whopping 3.5 hours had been allocated for the event). Nearly 6 hours of television total. I enjoyed it.

Midway through the show, parental units came over and we had a grand salsa tasting event. Indeed, bouncing sent a box containing many flavors and styles of salsa from the mighty land of San Antonio. We used my cell phone speaker mode to conference bouncing in while we ate delicious mouth burners. After much tasting, comparing, cooling off the mouth, and comparing again, I decided that the award for best sauce would go to to the Texas Firehouse Blazing Hot Habanero Picante Sauce, with Salsa Verde the runner up. (The parental units also both picked Salsa Verde as runner up, but disagreed with me on the Texas Firehouse. Too hot for them. They liked the Sun Harvest Mild best.)

After much delicious salsa, bean dip, soda, and ice cream had been consumed, the parental units departed, and I continued to watch the Oscars.

I got lots of good ideas for things to add to my already overflowing netflix queue. Of categories where I had seen at least one of the nominees, I correctly predicted the winners until it came time for best original song. All the nomated songs were performed back to back, which was a cool way to do it. I predicted the winner would be Enya, Let it Be, from Lord of the Rings. Randy Newman won for his Monster's Inc song instead. From there, my abilities seemed to go downhill quickly. (I summarily declared that the Academy was incorrect, because I am a better judge of quality than they.)

A hysterically tearful Halle Berry made history as the first black woman in history to win Best Actress for her role in Monster's Ball. I definitely want to see that film. No DVD release, but it looks like it is playing at several local theaters, so I shall have to make seeing it an action item.

Denzel Washington, best actor for Training Day. (Ethan Hawke also won Supporting Actor for the same film.) That's also a must-see. In my netflix queue. Bumping it up.

Rewinding a bit, the first award of the evening was given to the beautiful Jennifer Connelly, for her supporting role in A Beautiful Mind. Fast forward to the end, Ron Howard won Best Director. (Why am I bothering to type this, when anyone who cares could be grabbing it from just about any news outlet in the world? I dunno.) Similarly, best picture: A Beautiful Mind.

Bitscape disagreed with this final choice. Though A Beautiful Mind was excellent, Fellowship truly deserved the award. Even Moulin Rouge would have been a superior choice. Or Mulholland Drive (had it been nominated for best picture, which it wasn't).

Categories (announced earlier in the show) where my picks were in line with the Academy: Fellowship of the Ring for makeup. Moulin Rouge for costume design. Howard Shore on Fellowship for best score. Shrek, best animated feature. (Though, in my mind, it would have almost been a tossup with Monster's Inc.)

Um... I think I'm on the verge of becoming incoherent. Whoopy Goldberg, a classy, funny host. She's much better than the annoying Billy Crystal when he does it.

Robert Redford won lifetime achievement award, and delivered a smashing speech. I'd quote it if I could remember any of it, but I'm too lazy to go look for a fresh transcript.

That's all for tonight. I'm going to bed.