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It snowed! Just a little, but I'll take it. Actually, the first thing I did this morning was look out my bedroom window (which looks out onto the front yard) to see if it snowed as predicted and was kinda bummed because I didn't see a whole lot. There was just a light dusting on the ground right in front of the window. However, when I went to the livingroom and kitchen, you could see a lot more in the side and backyards. And since it's not supposed to get over twenty-seven degrees today, it'll probably stick around until tomorrow at least. Oh, and we might get more later this week! Squee!

Yeah, I really love the snow.

I also really loved the Oscars last night. Didn't do too great on my predictions (10 out of 24 right), but I did sweep all the acting awards, best director, and best picture, which I don't think I've ever done before. The musical performances were fantastic. I especially loved John Legend's and Common's performance of "Glory" from Selma and Lady Gaga's tribute to The Sound of Music.

On the fashion front, I was actually way more into what the guys were wearing this year instead of the women, which is...kinda strange. But it seemed like most of the women wore white (or silver, champagne, etc.) or black while some of the men actually broke away from the usual boring black tuxedo to embrace color. Eddie Redmayne's navy (yummy)! Neil Patrick Harris's various colors throughout the night (the marroon was my fave)! Jared Leto's powder blue (which, with his long hair, made him look like he was going to prom in the 70s, but, hey, at least it stood out)! David Oyelowo's amazing red (which he somehow pulled off really well)! Matthew McConaughey's gray (or silver or whatever that color was)! For the ladies, I think Reese Witherspoon probably wins my best dressed nod; I'm always drawn to black-and-white colorblock dresses. I also really liked Margot Robbie's black gown with the sheer sleeves and interesting necklace, Rita Ora's dark blue dress with gold brocade, Kerry Washington's peplum gown, Anna Kendricks' peach dress, Kelly Osbourne's black hi-low lace gown (LOVE the dress...the purple hair and colorful clutch, not so much), Rosamund Pike's red dress with the slit, Zoe Saldana's pale pink gown (how does she look that good after giving birth to twins just a few months ago?), Rosanna Arquette's black-and-white column dress (but hated her hair style), and Octavia Spencer's light blue gown with the fun train  Not too many fashion disasters this year. Even Lady Gaga's dress wasn't that bad minus those weird red gloves (and she looked stunning in another white dress for the Sound of Music number). When I first saw Gwyneth Paltrow's one-shouldered pink gown with the huge rose detail, I wasn't a fan, but looking back at pictures this morning, I actually rather like it. It's interesting, the color was beautiful on her, and her earrings are stunning! If I had to pick a worst dressed, though, I'd probably go with Marion Cotillard. The dress looked okay from the front, but I just saw a pic of it from the back, and it's really strange-looking.
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Hey, I did rather well with my Oscar predictions this year! Officially, I got half (12/24) right, but unofficially, I'm giving myself credit for Original Song and Animated Feature Film since I did say that Adele would win for "Skyfall" (even though I picked "Suddenly" from Les Miserables) and that Brave and Wreck-It Ralph were pretty much a tie for me. Not bad at all! And although Les Miserables didn't take home the big award, I'm pleased that it tied with Life of Pi for winning the most (four) catergories of the night. (BTW, the musical number? A-maz-ing!)

Talk About Fashion )
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The Academy Awards tonight, and I've actually seen some of the movies nominated! O.o So, a little more invested (and informed) than I normally would be.

Here are my predictions:

Best Picture: Les Miserables, but I don't think it'll actually win... I just really want it, too!

Best Director: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Best Actor: As much as I would love Hugh Jackman to win, I'm 95% certain it'll go to Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln.

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Best Supporting Actress: ANNE HATHAWAY, Les Miserables!

Best Animated Feature Film: Oh, man, this is tough. I saw both Brave and Wreck-It Ralph and loved them both... Can it be a tie? Well, if I have to pick one, I guess I'll give a slight edge to Wreck-It Ralph.

Best Foreign Film: Obviously, it'll be Amour, since it's also nominated for Best Picture and a few others. That's a lock if I ever saw one.

Best Original Screenplay: Django Unchained

Best Adapted Screenplay: Silver Linings Playbook

Best Costume Design: Sorry, Les Miserables, I want you to win everything, but I also saw Mirror, Mirror, and those costumes blow yours out of the water.

Best Original Song: Okay, so it'll probably go to Skyfall -- because, hello, Adele! -- but I haven't actually heard it and again want Les Mis to win all things, so I'm going with Suddenly.

Best Original Score: So I'll just put Skyfall here...

Best Documentary: The Gatekeepers

Best Documentary (Short): Redemption

Best Makeup & Hairstyling: Les Miserables

Best Production Design: Les Miserables

Best Film Editing: Argo

Best Cinematography: Life of Pi

Best Sound Editing: Skyfall

Best Sound Mixing: Les Miserables

Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Best Short Film (Animated): I think I've actually seen one of these! If Paperman is the one I'm thinking of, it played before Wreck-It Ralph and was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen, so that's my pick.

Best Short Film (Live Action): Henry
heavenly_pearl: (Default)


It's the day after the Oscars, which means it's time for my annual Oscar post! I forgot to post the list of my award predictions, but I did fairly well this year, guessing eleven out of twenty-four correctly. Almost half right, and one better than last year!

Liked Anne Hathaway as a host, because, well, I just plain love her, but James Franco was kind of dull. Cute, but dull. The best part was probably Anne singing about Hugh Jackman. I would have loved it if they had hosted together. I think that would have been a lot of fun. Also glad that they once again took the time to give performances of the Best Original Song nominees. Seriously, it was just weird last year that they didn't.

But for me, the best part of Oscars night is, of course, the fashion, and this year was great because of one thing: SLEEVES. People actually wore formal gowns with sleeves! Not always successfully, mind you, but I appreciated that they were there. (See my rant a few months ago about the lack of sleeves on bridesmaids dresses.) And there was a variety of different colors this year, too, which was nice, although red seemed rather popular. There was one really weird trend, though, of wearing colored gemstones that didn't match the dresses at all. Sometimes the look was okay if the dress was simple and the colors complimented each other, but most of the time I hated it.

Best dressed honors this year -- hands down -- goes to Reese Witherspoon in that simple, elegant black and white gown. She was just gorgeous! Loved it. For the past couple of years, Penelope Cruz has held that honor for me, but while she looked fabulous considering that she just had a baby a few weeks ago, I'm not really fond of sequins. (Yeah, I'm saying this as a huge fan of figure skating. Ironic, huh?) The dress was nice, just not her best.

Michelle Williams was probably my second favorite of the night in a short-sleeved white beaded gown, followed by Natalie Portman's maroon empire-waisted dress. (And her earrings matched, too!) Both of those were definitely my style. I also loved that blue dress Mandy Moore wore on stage to sing, Sandra Bullock's stunning red gown, and the tangerine number that Jennifer Hudson wore. Anne's assortment of dresses was also rather nice, except for the last one. It would have been better if the background fabric had been darker. (Props for long sleeves, though!) The shiny blue number was also a bit hit-or-miss.

I can't decide whether I hated or loved Scarlett Johansson's purple lace gown. (I know I hated her messy hairstyle, though!) I love lace dresses, and the color was pretty, but I don't know... Melissa Leo seems to be on a lot of the worst dressed lists, but I actually thought the top half was okay. (One of the more successful experiments with sleeves, I thought.) It was just that dreadful slit up the front that ruined things. That's almost never a good look. Slits should be on the side or in the back, not right up the middle in front.

But my pick for worst dress of the evening was Cate Blanchett's lavendar gown. From the weird pseudo-sleeves to the random yellow beads, it was just a disaster. Runner-up honors go to Nicole Kidman's ugly structured white gown. Ugh. And I'm pretty sure her jewelry didn't match either, so that was another blow to her look.


Oscar Night

Mar. 8th, 2010 10:48 am
heavenly_pearl: (Default)
Was it just me, or were the Oscars really...dry this year? Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were funny (most of the time), but all they really did was tell jokes (minus that hotel room skit). I missed Hugh Jackman and wished Neil Patrick Harris (who opened the show with a fun musical number) had been the host instead. :( And I know a lot of people didn't like the whole musical theater theme from last year (for some incomprehensible reason), but that was no reason to cut out performances from the Original Song category. (I don't know if that's the official reason; that's just my assumption. It could have also been the fact that there were ten Best Picture nominees to introduce.) What the heck was that all about, anyway? The best score nominees got a fantastic dance number, yet the song nominees just get brief clips during the nominee reel? Lame. Note to producers: Awards shows that do nothing but give out awards are boring to watch, even if it does make it easy to end the show on time. (Remember when it was a running joke that the Oscars always ran overtime? I miss those days, 'cause the shows were almost always more interesting.)

FYI: I predicted ten out of the twenty-four winners, same as last year.

On to the fashion... People actually wore colors other than white or blue! Yay! The big trend this year seemed to be ruffles. Lots and lots of ruffles. Some pulled the look off better than others.

My picks for worst-dressed go to Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez, and Zoe Saldana. SJP's pale yellow dress was just plain ugly. Ugh. Jennifer's and Zoe's had potential but were ruined by going overboard. Jennifer's would have been better without that weird side train(? Bustle). As for Zoe's, I'm a huge fan of ombre (graduated colors) and purple is one of my favorite colors, so I liked her dress in theory, but the ruffles were a bit much and I hated the gold at the bustline.

My best-dressed picks are Penelope Cruz (no surprise; she's been on this list for the past three or four years), Rachel McAdams, Cameron Diaz, Queen Latifah, Elizabeth Banks, Tina Fey and Kathryn Bigelow. It's hard to pick an absolute favorite. If I had to, though, I guess I would say Penelope, in that stunning red dress. I can't help it; I love her fashion sense! But I also really loved Rachel's beautiful watercolor-inspired gown. She looked like a work of art! I guess I'll call it a tie.

I debated whether to add Sandra Bullock to the list. I did like her gold dress, but I don't think she was styled well. I would have suggested she wear her hair up instead of straight, and the shade of her red lipstick bugged the heck out of me. Sandra and I have roughly the same coloring -- dark hair and eyes, with pale skin -- so I know how difficult it is to find a red lipstick that looks good on us. (It's always a royal pain whenever I have to buy a new tube.) The color of our hair and eyes says warm; the shade of our skin says cool. That's why it's best to go with a neutral blue-red (true red), but it looked like she was wearing more of a pink-red, a cool shade that clashed with the warm tones of her dress. Personally, I think Cameron Diaz pulled off the red lips/gold dress combination much better.
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I predicted ten out of twenty-four, my highest percentage in a while. It would have been eleven had I went with my gut and chose Kate Winslet for best actress, but as much as I like Kate, I adore Anne Hathaway, so I chose her instead. Oh, well.

Loved Hugh Jackman as host. I hope they ask him back for many years to come, especially if it means more huge musical numbers.

As for this year's fashion... Did the invitation say that actresses were only allowed to wear white or dark blue with black accents? Or did one stylist with an obession with those colors dress them all? Seriously, everybody wore the same colors! I can kind of understand why the white dresses were popular this year, since Michelle Obama wore a white gown to the inauguration ball, but color! Greens, purples, yellows, pinks, reds, lighter blues -- I would have been excited even to see an orange dress, and you guys know how much I hate orange. Just because there's a recession going on doesn't mean that you have to wear neutrals, just less bling. (Speaking of bling, I loved Amy Adams' necklace, but her red dress...not so much, although she really stood out in the audience thanks to being one of the few who dared to choose something other than white or navy.) Best dressed honors go to Penelope Cruz (surprise, surprise -- can I have her closet...and her body?) and Marion Cotillard, who were both favorites of mine last year. They wore the colors -- white and blue/black, respectively (although Marion actually wore black as the base color, with blue accents) -- but their dresses were so gorgeous that I forgave them. (I love that Penelope evidently first saw the dress in a vintage store about a decade ago and managed to find it again just a week before the Oscars.) Tina Fey gets an honorable mention, and she wore platinum! (Close to white, but not exactly, so it counts.) Worst dressed -- Jessica Biel. Urgh. She usually has great taste, but that dress was just hideous.

Oscars

Feb. 24th, 2008 11:03 pm
heavenly_pearl: (Default)
Well, I predicted eight of the twenty-four Oscar categories -- Leading Actor, Supporting Actor, Animated Feature, Costume Design, Direction, Short Film (Live Action) and Screenplay (Original). I think that's the same I got last year, but since I didn't get to make an entry last year because of phone line problems, I'm not 100% sure. I guess it's a respectable number, but I was aiming for half this year.

Yume's Award for Best Dressed this year? Penelope Cruz - I seriously love everything that woman wears. (Again, I'm not absolutely sure, but I think I loved her dress best last year as well. The pink one? I think that's the one she wore last year.) Honorable mentions go to Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, and Miley Cyrus, with the Worst Dressed Award definitely going to Daniel Day-Lewis' wife for that red-bows-on-the-shoulder-straps-and-oversized-rhinestone black monstrosity she wore that I can't imagine anybody thinking was the least bit attractive.

*sigh*

Mar. 5th, 2006 10:48 pm
heavenly_pearl: (Default)
I didn't do very well picking out this year's Oscar winners. :( I only got six right for Art Direction, Directing, Documentary Feature, Film Editing, Sound Editing, and Adapted Screenplay. For the longest time, I didn't think I would get any at all. It was well into the show before I finally got one right (Documentary Feature).

Oh, well, at least I managed to beat Mom. She only got three right. :P

Anyway, the Oscars were good. I thought Jon Stewart did a great job hosting. Man, those fake ads were hilarious!

The fashion was a bit disappointing, though, especially since everybody was saying that the trend would be to dress in old Hollywood glamour to complement the theme of the show, which I didn't really see much of. What was Naomi Watts thinking when she decided on that dress? *gags* I predict it'll be showing up on the Worst Dressed lists for sure. And I don't get why everybody was raving about Michelle Williams' gown. I guess the style was okay, although I could have done without the large ruffles, but that color was ugly. (Granted, I'm not a fan of orange or orange-y yellow, so I'm admittedly biased.) As for best dressed, my favorite was definitely Sandra Bullock's dress, with Keira Knightley and Ziyi Zhang coming in at second and third, respectively. I also rather liked Meryl Streep's gown. It would have been better in a different color -- she wore brown -- but the style was nice. (Edit: Oops, it was purple, which is infinitely better than brown.)
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I finally got the first chapter of Against the Rules submitted to the various archives where I post (ASMR, ff.net, .moon, and SMF). It would have been done earlier, but I had the worse time trying to come up with a summary. I'm still not that fond of the one I decided on, but I guess it will do. For those who have been looking forward to it, I hope you like it. ^_^

Nothing much else has been going on, writing-wise. I managed to write a Yui and Ami scene for Ch. 3 that isn't too bad, so yay me, I guess. Too bad the rest of the chapter still sucks.

Oscars are tonight! Here's a list of my picks that I posted over at .moon a couple of weeks ago. Even though I have seen Walk the Line and Corpse Bride since I first made the list, my original choices still stand.

Best Movie
Brokeback Mountain

Best Director
Ang Lee

Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix

Best Actress
Felicity Huffman

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Giamatti

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams

Best Animated Film
Howl's Moving Castle

Best Animated Short
One Man Band

Best Live Action Short Film
Cashback

Best Original Screenplay
Good Night, and Good Luck

Best Adapted Screenplay
Brokeback Mountain

Best Score
Munich

Best Original Song
"In the Deep"

Best Art Direction
Memoirs of a Geisha

Best Cinematography
The New World

Best Costume Design
Pride and Prejudice

Best Documentary
March of the Penquins

Best Documentary Short Subject
The Mushroom Club

Best Editing
Crash

Best Foreign Language Film
Don't Tell

Best Make-up
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Best Sound Editing
King Kong

Best Sound Mixing
War of the Worlds

Best Visual Effects
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

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