February 22 – Help 50th Anniversary

I had me a good workout this evening. I’ve showered, Max is fed, I’m fed and am now settling in with a beer to watch the Academy Awards. I am sorry that Joan Rivers died, but I have always hated the “who are you wearing” thing. I like to see the attire, but it does overshadow the accomplishments of the women. And you can’t wear a who. Anyway, I’ve not seen many of the films this year and am not as adamant about my choices as I was last year. I wanted American Hustle to take everything, but was not unhappy with the winners, besides is Jared Leto not one of the prettiest men you’ve ever seen? And I mean that only as a compliment.

This year, I’ve only seen Gone Girl, Wild, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Theory of Everything and Birdman, and am rooting for the latter. Michael Keaton in particular, whom I have loved since first seeing him in Nightshift after my Rickie Lee Jones concert was rained out. I don’t want Budapest Hotel to win. I’m a big fan of Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums and the ex is equally enthusiastic about The Life Aquatic and we were both disappointed in his latest contribution. We did see The Lego Movie and hated it. I’m glad it wasn’t nominated for best animated film despite all the hoopla, and hope the song does not win. Unless it is sung by Bruce or Melissa Etheridge or the like, I will probably leave the room when it is performed (yes, I know I live in a studio apartment).

The Beatles’ Help was never nominated for an academy award, but it is celebrating its 50^th anniversary and I found this article with all these nifty pictures: http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/gallery/help-publishers-unearth-rare-beatles-pictures/ss-AA9mT7v#image=12. The Beatles have been nominated for three Oscars – for musical score and adaptation for A Hard Day’s Night, and for Best Original Score for Let it Be, which they actually won. Paul McCartney was nominated for best song for “Live and Let Die” from the Bond film of the same name, which lost to “The Way We Were,” and then for the song from Vanilla Sky, a Tom Cruise movie that I liked very much, but seemed to be in the minority. That lost to “If I Didn’t Have You by Randy Newman” from Monsters, Inc. It was Newman’s first win after being nominated 14 times previously for songs and scores of various movies, so I’m more than okay with that.

And now, I’m going to watch what they’re wearing on the red carpet.