Oscar Postmortem Pt. 3: Music

I guess I'm just lucky to fall into the minority of people who actually enjoy song and dance, because there was a lot of it for me to enjoy on Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. Things got off to an unusual but memorable start with Seth MacFarlane's tongue-in-cheek but controversial “Boobs” song (which speaks more to Hollywood sexism than Seth MacFarlane sexism in my opinion), followed by the odd but inspired pairings of Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron, or Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to join MacFarlane for some vintage swing and soft shoe. Seriously, when will we ever see that specific collection of actors performing together like that? He concludes with a brief, repurposed rendition of "Be Our Guest", always an old favourite:

What a boob!

Tatum and Charlize doing Fred and Ginger. Love the way they look tonight.

I have high hopes of seeing JGL tap into his inner song-and-dance man more often.

Seth's not a bad shoe shuffler himself.

One Category at a Time: Original Song

After several years of embarrassment culminated in last year's laughable pair of Best Original Song nominees, the music branch finally got a clue and decided to abolish their asinine grading system, instead just letting the five songs with the most votes be the nominees. They also went the route of screener DVDs, allowing music branch members to evaluate clips of all eligible songs from the comfort of their own home.

The rule changes have instantly paid off with a respectable slate of tunes which we'll probably hear performed on Oscar night. That basically is what this category is for.

My Award nominations: Original Song

Most years I find that I have to grasp at straws a bit in order to find five songs I like enough to justify nominating for Best Original Song. I've only got three down at the moment, but I may flesh it out before announcing my award winners:

UPDATE: So yeah, caught up with Ted recently, and very much dug the song. Nice catch by the Academy's music branch.

Golden Globes live blog

So yeah, like everyone else on the net, I'll be live-blogging the Golden Globes when they begin in about three and a half hours time. Check back for updates throughout the evening.

7:33 - Usual banter on the red carpet. The women look cold. Apparently it's chilly out on the West coast tonight.

7:53 - Got my laptop. Got my port. Let's get this party started.

7:55 - Shameless Quartet plug by Dustin Hoffman. Supose I shouldn't prejudge (but I heard it's awful).

8:04 - "When it comes to torture, I trust the women who spent three years married to James Cameron" ZING! Fey and Poeller were great. Laughed at almost every joke.

8:09 - Supporting Actor: Goes to... Christoph Waltz in  Django Unchained. Weinstein at work, as always.

Sunday Top Ten: Oscar noms that'll make me smile

Poles officially closed on Friday for Academy Award nominations. While the accountants at Price Waterhouse Coopers crunch the numbers, we're left to ponder and anticipate. My predictions are likely to shift and slide during the next few days. What will stay consistent are my personal rooting interests. There are certain contenders in several categories who feel like they're on the cusp of a nomination -- contenders who I'd love to see make good on that possibility -- but who could just as easily miss the cut. Here you go, Academy; you have ten chances to make me smile on Thursday morning.