Oscars SOC

To prep myself for tonight, I watched a “self-arranged” double-feature earlier today and saw “True Grit” and “The Fighter” – both were better than I expected. Shout out to my friend Jill, who probably likes boxing about as much as I do (which is basically not at all – yeah, beating up each other up is a “sport”), but swore to me the flick was worth catching for the performances; and she was right. Christian Bale was scary good. The disturbing thing about “The Fighter,” though, was the full-on display of white trash dysfunction – which included more than one scene that the SF moviegoers guffawed over even tho they were, to me, horrible examples of how fucked up your life can be based on where you’re born and into what family. It was like, “Ha, ha! Look at the white trash dysfunctional crazy sisters beating up the fighter’s girlfriend! Haha, white trash dysfunction is so funny!”

As for “True Grit,” I may have seen the original eons ago – I can’t recall – and I’m generally not a fan of westerns unless they’re done really well or have amazing performances (e.g., “Tombstone”), but Jeff Bridges was good, that young Hailee Steinfeld was awesome good, etc. Good cinematography, screenplay, and all that good stuff, too. So, in the end, I was able to catch 7 of the 10 flicks, and would rate them in this order: The Social Network, Inception, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Black Swan, The Fighter, and The King’s Speech. Don’t get me wrong – The King’s Speech was a good flick (ditto for Black Swan and The Fighter), and Colin Firth definitely deserves Best Actor, but they were all good flicks. I’m sure I’d like “Winter’s Bone,” too – and it’s in my queue along with “The Kids Are All Right,” which I’m also sure I’ll like. And I’d probably even like “127 Hours,” coz I like the director and James Franco – but no way I could stomach the arm-cutting-off scene (shudder).

Caught a bit of the pre-show and it was weird to hear Christian Bale, for the first time, in his “native tongue” – I thought he was American. First time I’d heard Hugh Jackman’s Australian accent, too – trippy!

Painful opening banter and Anne Hathaway’s fake eyelashes don’t go all the way across her eyes. Funny joke about Marky Mark, tho, who I will always think of as Marky Mark, too.

Gotta be Inception for Art Direction and Cinematography…..nope. Alice In Wonderland for Art Direction. Tho I have to say, although the movie as a whole was a bit lame, the art direction was in fact very good. At least Inception got cinematography.

Wow, Kirk Douglas is OLD – and what’s up with his ear lobes? I could go for Hailee Steinfeld OR Melissa Leo for BSA. Wow, poor old Kirk – Spartacus has definitely escaped. And score a win for the white trash mother. Deserving. And go on with your bad self for dropping the F bomb, Melissa! :)

Gasp! Toy Story 3 won Best Animated Feature! Who’dathunkit? It was indeed, awesome, tho – I cried like a baby at the end.

Okay, Social Network has GOT to be a slam dunk for Adapted Screenplay (tho the True Grit screenplay was really good, too)……..Yep! My friend SueLin is probably wetting herself now as she is SO in love with Aaron Sorkin (even after that bomb Sports Night or whatever it was called).

James Franco in drag! Not quite as pretty as I would imagine.

The range between American Psycho, Batman, The Mechanic, and The Fighter shows how deserving Christian Bale is—I’m glad to see him “finally” win one!

Wow, who would have ever predicted, back in his Nine Inch Nails days, that Trent Reznor would win an Oscar?

Oooh, the sound Oscars give Inception an early 3-2 lead over The Social Network and The Fighter(!).

Am I the only one who finds it odd to hear the words “Oscar Winner” before Marisa Tomei’s name?

Reading a speech is kinda tacky – and too bad “Alice” on the whole wasn’t as good as the costumes and art direction.

I keep hearing raves about Inside Job (now Oscar-winning!), but am scared to see it coz I’m afraid I’ll choke on my indignant outrage and/or have a rage-induced stroke! Nice point from the producer about no one going to jail yet for that outrageous disaster.

Really? A standing ovation for Billy Crystal? And I can remember back when he played the gay guy on “Soap” in the 70s! GAWD, I’m old!

Okay, SURELY Inception has Best Visual Effects locked up……yep! Their 4^th, now doubling up the second most.

Editing – I’d actually give this one to “Black Swan” over the other awesome entries…..but it’s The Social Network; worthy enough and their 3^rd now. Hmmmm, and the movie that wins this usually wins Best Picture.

Anne’s fake eyelashes are REALLY awful/distracting.

Although I doubt this is the case, I hope Jennifer Hudson lost weight for herself; although I do have to say she looks pretty kick ass in that tangerine-colored dress!

Speaking of bad eye makeup, Gwyneth Paltrow seems to be making a career out of that!

Director: Again, despite better pics in my mind, I’m rooting for Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan – that was a piece of work! But it’s the guy for The King’s Speech. I suppose that’s all right (ha!), although I think this is the first Oscar for that movie! Oh wait, it got screenplay, too.

It’s weird to see Jeff Bridges looking so old – I remember being in love with him in “Tron” and….oh god, what was that movie where he played the visiting alien? Starman!

Natalie Portman was definitely ON in Black Swan, but even though I haven’t seen it/her, I would be happy with Annette Bening, too. And they picked a bad scene to use for Natalie/Black Swan. Wow, it’s Natalie Portman. I know everyone said she’d win it, and again she WAS really good – but I still kind of expected Bening to get it…wait a minute, is she wearing curtain tassels for earrings? Or are those high school graduation tassels? Seriously, WTF? Nice dress, though.

Big surprise, it’s Colin Firth for The King’s Speech. He does deserve it, though – he was really good last year, too, when he was nominated for A Single Man. Ha! Nice line about his career just having peaked.

Now I’m really curious about Best Picture. Inception has 4 awards, The Social Network has 3, and The King’s Speech just 2 (as many as Alice in Wonderland!). I’d love to see Inception win, although also wouldn’t “mind” The Social Network winning. I did like The King’s Speech, but to be honest I don’t see it as “standing out” like the other two do.

And it’s The King’s Speech. Again, nice flick but what a safe, slightly disappointing pick. I guess that’s why they tried to lure in the younger demographic with James Franco and Anne Hathaway as co-hosts only to disappoint them by ignoring the more “avant-garde” choices of Inception, The Social Network, or even Black Swan.

And I "pre-visioned" the Inception storyline over 25 years ago during a "trip" (cof, cof) with some friends wherein I declared that the true path to enlightenment/seeing God/knowing the answers to the universe would be the ability to insert yourself/your consciousness into someone else's and manipulate their thoughts in such a way that they thought that the thought that you inserted was their own! Oooooooh!

Why I Left Youth Court & Where I Landed

So as many of you may know/recall, I was TOTALLY psyched to get the E.D. job at McCullum Youth Court a year and a half ago. I (still) think it's an amazing program having a real impact on a serious issue and in some ways wish I was still there. Just with different Board leadership.

About3 months after I started, we were informed we were losing a federal funding stream - that accounted for well over HALF of Youth Court's revenues. I immediately informed the Board's executive committee and assumed the Pres. would call an emergency meeting to address the issue and/or strategize how to replace the missing funds. Instead, he elected to wait for the next regular meeting, in six weeks. At said meeting, I provided a list of folks to contact/advocate for restored or emergency/bridge funding. The Pres. treated it as just another agenda item (and, in fact, spent more time discussing an arcane aspect of the by-laws), did not exhort/encourage Board members to do anything to help, and instead asked for suggestions on staffing cuts.

Over the course of the next year, this same pattern repeated itself at every single meeting: me pleading with the Board to join me and the other Management Staff in calling, writing, meeting with community stakeholders to get some emergency funding while I continued the ramped up foundation outreach and other development work to diversify our funding. Every single time, the Board Pres. treated it as just another agenda item, asked for more staffing cuts, and never encouraged or asked Board members to help--and did absolutely nothing himself, as well.

When it finally became clear that of course a new E.D., on his own, was not going to be able to wave a magic wand and restore over half of Youth Court's funding in one fell swoop, and that the Board Pres/VP felt no responsibility whatsoever to make any significant effort to even TALK to anyone at the city or county level to help, I had to leave. Obviously, this is the short version, but I can honestly say that in all the years I've dealt with"challenging" and "disengaged" Boards, I have NEVER seen a Board Pres./Leadership so COMPLETELY abrogate their responsibilities regarding the non-profit they were supposedly responsible for. It was appalling beyond belief and beyond myself, many community members, parents, youth, and the press were also shocked at the negligence displayed.

Sadder still, while there are a few fresh faces that have come on recently, and would provide markedly more effective leadership, the arrogant fuck currently serving as Board Pres. refuses to step down (despite repeated calls to do from several different voices)--even tho he had no problem laying off TEN people and fucking up their lives. Because of my inherent cynicism, it's hard for me to be shocked these days by people who do evil, wicked, and/or grossly inconsiderate things, but even I was/am appalled by this loser's behavior. And while I would have to leave eventually, or take a big pay cut, I finally decided I could no longer work under someone so despicable.

Luckily, I landed at a place that's a bit different for me in terms of population served but I think it's going to be a pretty cool experience (ever the optimist! yes, that's me, the cynical optimist!). The place is called Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly (check it out here: www.littlebrotherssf.org).

Long and short of it, we provide matching volunteers for isolated elders for companionship, and also host/put on a variety of social events to get them out and about and engaged. It's a small office that is literally ONE block from my apartment (which means no more daily walking exercise to/from BART so I'll have to join a gym), with two young women who seem really cool and I get to hire a fourth person (anyone wanting a development/programs assistant job in the law/mid 30s, let me know!).

More to come, I'm sure, as I get settled, and thanks to anyone/everyone who had to endure my rants over the past year regarding the asshole Board Pres. at Youth Court! :)