Warm and sunny, gorgeous day.
Well, today was a day to celebrate movies, and I did. For the first time since I moved to Japan I was able to watch the Academy Awards live, and I did. All of it. Yay! I got up nice and early so I could shower beforehand, then I parked myself on the couch and just watched. When Fumihiko came home from the dentist he was surprised 1) to see me up and 2) that I had no other plans for the rest of the day. One of my readers mentioned this morning that the Japanese commentors only "worked" during the breaks in the US show, and she was right. They were pretty annoying though...not that I could understand much of what they said. Did I have any surprises from today's winning films? Not really. I haven't seen most of the films yet since they hadn't opened here yet. I did see and love The Departed, so was happy with it winning best picture and director. It's nice to see Scorsese finally get it. I don't always like his films, but this one was great. I was a little sad that Peter O'Toole didn't win, but thought that this nomination might be a sympathy nom anyway. Forest Whitaker is always interesting... and his acceptance speech was quite moving. I was pleased as punch to see Helen Mirren get Best Actress, and thought her speech was great too.
The host this year was Ellen Degeneres. She was funny, she just wasn't hysterically funny. However, she was probably a good choice as people from all over watch this show and the really topical subjects in the US don't always translate. She's also safe! I'm sure they didn't have a 7 second delay on her. I did like that she didn't wear a dress or try the ultra glamour route. It just isn't her!
After my religious experience of the year finished...okay, you really think I'm joking about that? I'm not. The OCN guys came to our apartment to hook us up to some new system. I'm not sure that I'm impressed yet. They were here for 20 to 30 minutes.
We went out to have a meal and run errands after the men left. We had a quick meal at Gusto, then visited the train station to buy my train ticket for next month. I'm going to Niigata for a teacher's workshop. Then, we drove around looking for Fumihiko's massage therapist's office. Then, finally, we drove out to the mall.
In Mikawa, Fumihiko went and had a massage. Good for him, except he'd left his cellphone at home and neglected to tell me how long he was going to be. Idiot! I did a bit of shopping, and window shopping. I didn't buy any windows though. When he finished we left the mall for a bit. We went to the 100 yen shop for some school supplies. I'm going to be teaching about toys so I need to have some toys for the kids. Got some of them. Whew!
We went back to the mall to buy our coffee. Wonder of wonders, they were also brewing decafe coffee in the store, so I had a cup and Fumihiko had a cappucino. I gave him dagger looks when I heard his order. I am the cappucino consumer in our family, thank you very much! Still, it was nice to have a plain coffee too.
We had dinner near the mall, then visited the grocery store in Tsuruoka. We're going to have either garlic or ginger pork tomorrow night for dinner. We came home and settled in to watch ER. Hubby told me that he will probably have a drinking party on the day after tomorrow. Hmm. Lots of notice on that one!
Anyway, just before he took his bath, he turned channels on the TV and found Tess. Now, I had to read that novel (Tess of the D'Urbervilles) for my English class at uni and I think I had to watch the movie too. I hated hated hated that novel, and to this day I still dislike Nastassja Kinski because of the film. Hubby thought I'd be happy to see an English movie, but I wasn't in this case, so asked him to turn it off.
And that's my day. It was quite good. Quite peaceful. Except...oh, hang on, I didn't tell you this. On Saturday just as I was going to bed I realized I had a pain in my side, a bit like a pulled muscle or something. Well, it wasn't great on Sunday so I took a few tylenol. It's still there. I can't sleep on my right side--the pain is on my left, and it's still quite bad. I have no idea what I've done to myself! Argh.
The Daily Rant.
I watched the Academy Awards today and it gave me a few thing to rant about this year. First and foremost, why do they have to bring up the music on people's speeches? Now, I know that no-one wants the ceremony to last any longer, but it just seems rude that in a group win situation, the first person gets to thank everyone, the second person gets to thank their spouse and then the third person gets the music. Doesn't seem fair. Some of these people have important or interesting things to say.
Secondly, is it a rule that Celine Dion has to sing at the Academy Awards? How do we go about changing that? One Canadian that I'm not overly fond of! She always sounds the same....wasn't that the Titanic song she sang again this year??? No? Really??
And, this one, you had to know that this was coming....Jack Nicholson with no hair? Huh? And, why is he always front and center? He wasn't even nominated this year. Okay, he was one of the stars of The Departed, and by my own admission was really good in it, but why? why? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know he's like the king of Hollywood, but every year? The front row? Just unfair.
Night everyone!
|
