Just a quick note on some things that happened over the weekend. First, Conan saying goodbye to his New York audience and his 12:30 am time slot to move out west and take over the coveted position as host of The Tonight Show. It was a lovely week of shows, with Conan breaking apart the set each night and handing out the rough pieces to lucky audience members. His final show was a nice capper to the week of goodbyes. I was so happy to see Andy Richter pop in one last time. And of course I was excited to see The White Stripes come out of hiding to perform at Conan's request. At first I was underwhelmed by their choosing to perform "We're Going To Be Friends". Meg just stood there playing guitar alongside Jack, chiming in lyrics part of the time. I had expected them to be their usual raucous selves. I had at least expected Meg to be on the drums. But, the more I thought about it the more I appreciated it. It was truly a wonderful last musical performance for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. I am excited to see what he has in store for his new position. I hope he doesn't go changing too much to please the earlier 11:30 crowd. I guess we'll see what he has up his sleeve on June 1st.
Now just a very quick word on last night's Oscars. I believe they were the best that I can ever recall watching. From the intimacy of the new set-up for the Kodak theater to host Hugh Jackman's opening number, it was a success. Leading up to the ceremony everything was very hush hush, which lead me to believe there were some surprises in store, and there were. No mind-blowing special effects, just a different format. The recession themed opening number was entertaining, especially The Reader portion of the song. The new idea to have the same two presenters hand out two or three awards one after another was a brilliant move. Not only did it keep those awards entertaining, but it also allowed the show to continue moving at a fast pace. Tina Fey and Steve Martin absolutely killed it. Tina looked amazing and they even found time to ridicule Scientology. Nice. The obligatory camera shot, not once but twice, to Brad and Angelina as Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black stood five feet in front of them presenting the Best Animated Short/Long feature was expected. It was highly unnecessary and demeaning to Jennifer. Stay classy Academy Awards director. Having five previous winners of the best acting awards come out and individually introduce each of the nominees was a nice touch I thought. Much more personal than just showing a clip from their nominated performances. It was like whoever won was being welcomed with open arms into this prestigious club. Besides Whoopi Goldberg's dress, that all went off seamlessly. The show was moving along quite nicely until that musical number featuring Hugh, Beyonce, Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron. I feel like I am forgetting someone else there, sorry if that is true. Anyway, I am not a Beyonce fan, at all. What was the point of her being there when she lip synched the whole performance? Hugh should have just pulled Anne Hathaway up there again. I don't know, it all just seemed superfluous. Just a time filler that certainly wasn't necessary. I think this year every winner delivered very heartfelt, entertaining speeches. I teared up during Penelope Cruz's and the Best Original Screenplay winner, Dustin Lance Black's. Of course, Heath Ledger's posthumous win for Best Supporting Actor was tough. His family delivered a wonderful thank you to everyone and there was not a dry eye in the house. Last year I was nervous about breaking down due to seeing his face during the In Memoriam montage. Now here we are a year later and I am crying again, but this time because he won. He deserved it, I just wish he was here to enjoy it. The rest of the big awards did not contain any surprises. Everyone who was predicted to win did. Not that that made it less exciting by any means. I loved seeing Kate Winslet finally win. I loved Sean Penn's speech. Bottom line, it was an overall success. I stayed tuned and apparently so did 6% more people than last year. I hope they keep some of the new format for next year and continue to change things as well. The Oscars should be fun and inventive every year, just like movies themselves.
It was a pretty good weekend I guess. I cleared out a lot of my dvr. I can highly recommend 2 Days in Paris now. And, I am looking forward to cluttering it all up again this week. Plus, I have a few new albums I need to listen to. I better get to it, I have a lot to do. Pop culture is exhausting.