Academy Awards have begun

A few quick thoughts on the Academy Awards so far, at 9:15 p.m.

Up until a year or two ago, I wasn't too crazy about Ellen DeGeneres. I don't have any specific reason; her humor just didn't hit my funny bone. But, there's more to Ellen than her humor, and I realize that now. But, she's funny! Ten minutes into the show, she makes a funny joke about Al Gore and his being elected by America, but being at the Academy Awards. I don't really remember the whole joke, but it was funny.

Speaking of Al Gore (Above, with wife Tipper, arriving at the show), I'm really, really pulling for his film, An Inconvenient Truth, to take the two awards its up for tonight. And of course, I'm really hoping for an announcement by Al tonight along the lines of "I'm running for president." That would be great. I realize that it almost certainly won't happen, but it would be awesome, and historic, too.

I'm looking forward to hearing Melissa Etheridge (Above, Right, with partner Tammy Lynn Michaels) perform "I Need to Wake Up" tonight. I hope the theme song for An Inconvenient Truth wins, but either way, it will be cool to see it sung live. I flat out love Etheridge, but even moreso for contributing such a great song to a great movie.

Lastly, I'm reeeeallllly pulling for Martin Scorsese. The greatest living American director is more than overdue to win an Oscar. I hope tonight's the night. And I still haven't seen The Departed, so I need to get my act together.

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Melissa's performing now - she's awesome. And they are displaying the words from the end of the movie with her performance. 'Way cool!

Okay, Gore was just on stage with Leo DiCaprio, and no announcement, but they did make a joke out of it. I'm not giving up hope on Gore running in '08, though. You can urge him to run by clicking Here.

Back to blogging - more after the show.

Photos from AP

Scorsese on Sesame Street

Since I'm in a YouTube mood tonight, I had to share one more with you. This one is a parody of a collection of movies by Martin Luciano Scorsese, the man who I feel is the greatest living American director, and certainly one of the best of all time.

Warning: This parody is, shall I say, colorful and explicit, so be careful if you are listening at work. Like most of Scorsese's films, this video clip takes liberties with the English language.

I know, I'm temporarily breaking my vow of cutting down on the profanity on the blog with this post, but hey, it's Scorsese's movies we're talking about here. Mob movies. Murder. Mayhem. No mobster ever said, "Oh sugar! Would you knock that stuff off!"

If you've seen the classic Scorsese films Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino, you will have a true appreciation for this. (Especially if you like all of these movies, as I so.) I will go to my grave believing that Goodfellas is the best mob movie ever made; the Academy robbed Scorsese of Best Picture for his masterpiece, awarding it to Kevin Costner for Dances With Wolves instead. That's not a typo, but it should be. The Godfather I & II are both tied for a very close second on my mob scale, and Scorsese's epic movie about the mob in Las Vegas, Casino, is very underrated and also one of my favorite movies ever.

Anyway, watch this, laugh, repeat.

Now go home and get your fuckin' shine box, Oscar!