The dude abides.

I failed to mention it, but I also saw all the live Oscar shorts. Wow, those were very different from the animated ones in that they were pretty much hella depressing. They actually went in order (probably unintentional?) from jaw-dropping bleakness to cute and somewhat upbeat (but even the last one was technically still kinda sad).

Unlike the animated shorts, however, none of these are available online. (At least not that a brief search revealed.)

Things began with The Confession. Relax, no one gets molested.



It’s just a story about bad choices resulting from good intentions (or at least confused intentions) and it goes downhill fast. It actually veered a bit too much into the unbelievable realm for me.

Then there was Wish 143.



Jesus, this was bleak, too. A cancer patient wants to lose his virginity more than anything else and he has days to live. I won’t tell you if he does or not, but it did take a direction I did not expect. Some good chuckles and it was sweet overall, really.

Na Wewe.



This was very serious right up til the end when the ridiculousness of the racism just got out of hand. Even though it was a tense scene, it became a little funny because it was drawing attention to the giant elephant of stupidity.

The Crush.



This is Irish and it may win. You think it’s going to be cute but then shit suddenly gets real--and based on the past 3 shorts you’ve seen, who the fuck knows what’s gonna go down. So it was definitely interesting. (This is another reason I love shorts in general—they tend to take risks and do shocking or new things full-length movies would never try to pull off since they have far greater financial considerations.) But I liked this one.

The God of Love.



I wouldn’t mind if this one won, either. Cute and different, silly but a little melancholy, too. American.

Nothing much else going on. It’s raining but it will change to snow and ice tonight. I don’t think it will amount to much. It snowed like crazy last night--BIG. FAT. FLAKES. Like, Christmas-worthy snow, it was awesome. It was also insanely cold. :/ (But not quite nose-hair freezing cold, yay.)

The night before that, I went out with my friend B (with whom I’ll be traveling this summer for our internship) and we took out the two interns who held our positions last year. They were both very nice, but unfortunately we went to this Irish pub I’d never been to before. That would have been okay, but apparently it was also karaoke night. MISTAKE. I think I heard about 20% of the conversation. But I nodded like a pro.

The two of them left and B and I had another beer. We don’t know each other all that well but we’ve always gotten along and we always seem to end up in the same classes since we’re interested in the same topics. And we’re potentially going to live together, so it seemed important to get some of the basics out of the way. For instance, I forget what we were talking about, but B was trying to test the waters by warning me that she didn’t want to offend me. I said, “There’s probably really only three things you need to know about me: I swear like a sailor, I’m a functioning alcoholic (an exaggeration, but hey) and it’s nearly impossible to offend me.” (Actually, it’s quite possible, but I knew she was not One of Them. I did explain that her trying to tell me about Jesus might do it.) In any case, she laughed and said, “Cheers to that!” So we’re good.

Now we just need to find a place to live! :/

And completely unrelated, hooray for Sunday being Oscar night! I will no doubt be a-posting a-plenty, and we’ll see if I’m motivated enough to include “live” pictures. Weirder shit has happened. It’s nice being done with most of my work for Monday so I can pre-game with the red carpet pre-show goodness. I worry that I’ve begun to tolerate Ryan Seacrest (maybe he mellowed out? tuned down the obsequious desperation? maybe I got used to it?), but that skeletal E! bitch will always creep me the hell out. She’s this leathery bronze creature with bony everything and less than zero personality. I would ALMOST rather watch Joan Rivers.

And at this moment I am watching Kings of Pastry. It has to do with some HELLA SERIOUS contest that happens once every four years in France (the MOF--the best craftsmen in France). The documentary is very upbeat despite the PRESSURE! these guys are no doubt under. I will warn you there are a couple heartbreaking moments.

But you must watch it just for the insanely gorgeous pastries they are making. There are little tiny masterpieces and giant, intricate sugar sculptures. One guy used his glassblowing skills. !! It's only hard to watch because I cannot eat the things they show me, stupid documentary tease.

OH TO BE A JUDGE.



You see the thick stripey ribbons? I guess that's sugar--I watched him make those ribbons--almost worth watching the whole thing just for that scene, it's incredible. I will never have that kind of patience. FOR ANYTHING.