So, another Oscar night is over. Amazingly enough, I stayed awake for the whole thing.

The Fashions

Well, I think I had more “meh” moments than “wow.” Some random thoughts:

Why all the nude/blush fabrics. I think I would have liked to have seen Hailee Steinfeld in some color (I felt maybe her gown was a little too old for her), and I liked the color of Florence (from Florence and the Machine’s) dress when she was singing…I didn’t like the dress so much itself but I liked seeing her in color since I thought her red carpet arrival (nude) dress washed her out.

Other thoughts…I did love the color of Natalie Portman’s dress, and Mila Kunis’s dress (I thought she looked beautiful and the color was unusual). I thought Mandy Moore’s blue dress for singing was a gorgeous color but the puffiness at the bottom in combination with the color made me think of Cookie Monster. I pretty much loved all of Anne Hathaway’s gowns. I did not know what to make of Cate Blanchett or Nicole Kidman’s gowns (not sure about the wearable art aspect).

The Ceremony

Well, I can’t say it was the most entertaining one I’ve ever seen, but I liked the opening (so what if it’s been done?), I liked the “movie musicals,” and given my tendency to fall asleep when they run long, I appreciated the spare approach to big production numbers. I like Anne Hathaway (I found myself referring to her as “Annie” throughout the evening) but felt maybe James Franco didn’t have the “energy.” I thought it wasn’t the best approach to have the speech from The King’s Speech playing over the best picture contenders as they were introducing the best picture nominees as it took away from the other films (even though the speech seemed appropriate to the scenes).

The Awards

We had a pool going in the strivingcynic household…won’t know the results (our predictions are in a sealed envelopes) until strivingcynic teen comes over later this week. I *think* I am 4 for 5 in my predictions (I said Geoffrey Rush for supporting actor…). I think it pretty much went the way people expected and didn’t think anyone didn’t deserve the award (well, to be fair, I haven’t seen The Fighter). I was a little pleased with myself for having seen the four movies that walked away with the most/biggest awards (Black Swan, Inception, The King’s Speech, The Social Network).

Other Random Thoughts

There was an allusion at one point to a lunch where nominees are given pointers (eg, don’t pull out a list of people to thank because it isn’t good tv), which I found interesting. My jaw dropped when I saw Penelope Cruz since I knew she’d had a baby like, 5 minutes ago (okay two weeks). She looked beautiful. And I blame the Oscars for a fashion mishap I had today. I had to go to work early….was tired, not paying attention, got to work and realized……

black pants, black shoes, blue socks!

The color contrast was a lot more obvious at work than it is in this shot. I have tons of black socks, but trust me to grab the blue (maybe it was just Cookie Monster on the brain!).

Your Oscar Thoughts?