Ode to Conan & Oscar

Hello all! Wow, it has been a great weekend for pop culture. I've been attached to EW.com for the past three days, reading updates, making comments, viewing videos. I speak of not only the Oscars, but of Conan O'Brien's last episode of Late Night before he makes the move to the Tonight Show. All in all, what a great weekend.

First, lets talk Oscar...

If you've been keeping up on my twitter posts, you know I've been experiencing some crazy insomnia lately. Before this happened, I had plans to go to bed early on Sunday night, wake up at 3 a.m. to catch the live broadcast of the Oscars, and not miss out on one bit. But then that insomnia hit, and I was seriously doubting my plan to get up early if I was actually asleep...not to mention the fact that I might not even wake up. You would think that after a few nights of seriously deprived sleep, you body would finally collapse. You would think. I know I held those misconceptions whilst experiencing jet lag, so the fact that I deluded myself this time around is pretty foolish. Last night rolls around, and like clockwork, I'm up for hours. I think I finally fell asleep around midnight, pretty much planning on missing the Oscars. But the insomnia worked in my favor. I woke up around 3 a.m., tossing and turning, and couldn't go back to sleep. Huzzah! So I turned on the t.v. and began enjoying the show.

Random thoughts (very free-flow, so I apologize):
-Ick to E!'s red carpet coverage. But not surprised.
-Delighted to see ABC got Tim Gunn to be one of the hosts for their red carpet coverage. He is truly a class act, and makes me miss my Project Runway.
-LOVED the opening number. I was grinning from ear to ear. Yeah, the lyrics weren't always funny, but they were well organized, it was energetic, and Hugh did a great job bringing down the house (and props to Anne Hathaway for her pipes).
-Found a LOT of the transitions and segways very awkward, made the show feel unorganized at times. I think the editor (steven, correct me if it's some other behind the scenes guru) must have been dipping into the champagne.
-ADORED the acting presentations. They had 5 previous winners giving a short monologue describing the nominated's performance and giving them a bit of time to shine. Yes, I did get a slightly sick feeling imagining how long the show could go if they did it for every category, but they didn't, and man, it worked for me. Made it more personal, great to see past winners (except Cuba...seriously? Tim Robbins wasn't doing anything? Or George Clooney?), and just classily done.
-Found myself "meh-ing" about pretty much all the winners. I haven't seen anything except The Dark Knight (which, nice shout-0ut to the ridiculousness of it not getting nominated in the opening number).
-Loved Tina Fey's and Steve Martin's presentation. They were hilarious and fun to watch.
-Hated Jack Black and Jen Aniston's presentation. They kept cutting to Brangelina, which was tacky and just ridiculous.
-Found most of the set pretty, but some of the props were odd. Can't be as bad as the Emmy's were though, eh?
-Really, really wanted to love the Baz Luhrman musical number, but, once they brought out the High School Musical kids, and the kids from Mamma Mia, I was out. Hugh still sang/danced great, but it was just awkwardly placed in the show, a bit overdone at parts, underdone at other parts, bad song choices, and just felt like a bit of pandering with the performers chosen.
-I love me a good montage, but still found the categorical montages a bit off. And allowed crappy movies to take notice...lame-ish.
-Really liked them lumping the boring categories together, like with Will Smith. A time saver so they could focus on the classy.
-Liked the In Memorium for the most part, with the song adding a personal touch, but it was hard to read the names and not get dizzy with the fast paced/edited clips. But man, Paul Newman was truly a great actor. He will be missed. Same with Paul Schofield. I'm like JD from Scrubs when he says "God bless all Molly's everywhere" but replace Molly with Paul.
-Though I haven't seen any of the films and know nothing about performances, I was secretly glad Mickey Rourke didn't win b/c looking at his face makes me want to vom a little in my mouth. Harsh, I know.
-Read above, but still delighted Kate Winslet won. I really like that gal and find her charming, gorgeous and truly talented. AND, I laugh b/c she was right in her guest appearance on Extras...it just takes a "bloody movie about the Holocaust" (paraphrased) to win an Oscar.
-Liked how they used past winners to tie into the nominated best pictures, emphasizing that great movies follow basic themes, twist them up, and give new reflection to them. Really liked it. And miss Steven Speilberg winning oscars...rumor is he's got an Abe Lincoln biopic in the works with Liam Neeson rumored to be the tall guy. DELIGHTED.


I think that's it for my notes. I have spent the last couple of days reading all info about how the Oscars were recieved and if anyone enjoyed them as much as I did. Well, almost everyone universally hated the musical number, but everything else was pretty split. Whether it be Ben Stiller's scathing portrayel of Joaquin Pheonix, or the way they presented the acting trophies, it's a mixed bag. I'm delighted to say that the heavy majority of viewers/fans, was thrilled with Hugh Jackman's performance (Oprah included...makes me love Oprah that much more b/c she was the first to call him and congratulate him on the Oscar gig) and think he should return. I do as well. I have sooo much more to say about this, but it'll come out better in a convo rather than me verbally exploding all over this post.

Moving on...Conan O'briens last show. I was incredibly happy when it was announced he would be replacing Jay Leno as the Tonight Show host. I can't think of anyone more talented in the late night realm. Yes, Craig Ferguson is charming (it's that accent), and yes, David Letterman is a classic, and yes, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have me in stitches on a daily basis. But when all factors are taken into account, this was an easy decision. What I DON'T understand is NBC's decision to appease stupid, not funny, sexist and uncreative Jay Leno's massive ego and give him a nightly spot in primetime in front of Conan. BAD choice NBC. I think I can pretty much cut your network for my primetime enjoyment if that's what you think is watchable. I mean, Jay is NOT funny. At all. Not even close. It's painful and I cannot even stomach watching him when there is nothing else on and all I want to do is veg out in front of the t.v. I have been known to watch that horrible MTV show Next in place of watching Jay. It's that bad. And the people I work with not only do not think Conan is funny, but they think Jay is hilarious. Who are these people? How do we communicate on a daily basis without me just screaming constantly to block out the sounds of their voices? If you are a fan of Jay, now is NOT the time to share b/c I will judge you mercilessly. That's fine that Conan is not everyone's cup of tea. Some people don't like witty, self-deprecating, creative and realistic humor. I can abide by that. But I cannot, and will not, be okay with Jay fans. Makes me sick.

Back to Conan, so yes, it's a smidge insulting that they are pandering to Jay like this. But Conan is a true class act, thanking him and many others in his final speech, almost choking up (causing me to choke up) and just ending the show on a great note, bringing in our old friend Andy Richter (who hilariously said "I told you you would never make it without me!!!"), giving us great montages, and showing Conan's favorite clip "Oldtime Baseball" which I had never seen, and man, was I missing out. Sidenote, was that last sentence the worst run-on sentence ever or what? I'd fix it, but I think I just set a record.

Conan, you will be missed at the 11:35 slot, and I worry the Tonight Show might send you down an irreversible path that leads you to a fate similar to Jay's (though I don't know if Jay was EVER funny), but I will still tune in and hope that you bring us classic bits similar to these (my personal favorites):

-Walker Texas Ranger lever
-Abe Bagoda
-You traveling ANYWHERE (comic gold)
-In the Year 2000
-If they Mated
-Anytime you are doing a bit with producer Jordan
-Your string dance
-Your nerd impersonation "I know..."
-Your stint at UPS
-Your reaction to situations out of your control, i.e. writers strike, blizzards, NYC's blackout


Feel free to share your favorite moments from either the Oscars or Conan...I know I've missed many things, so I eagerly anticipate reminding.