Limos, Zombies, and the Oscars.

It was a surprising weekend.

Saturday night we celebrated JB's birthday by shoving twenty or so folks into an Escalade stretch limo (utterly ridic) and heading out to a suburban tiki bar to get well and good girl drink drunk. I know I had some pretty good conversations earlier in the evening, but I warrant I'm not the only one who only sort of vaguely remembers the later hours. Upon our return to the city I uncharacteristically had a good idea and headed home while the rest of the revelers headed out to the evening. It is this move, and this move alone, I credit with the result that the following day I was not crippled by a massive hangover.

Still, if one must drink girlie, fruity drinks, I can not recommend the Zombie highly enough.

Even more surprising than the amount of rum I ingested Saturday night? Last night's Oscar winners. I can't remember an Academy Awards in recent memory during which almost all the conventional wisdom picks lost and underdogs won again and again. The ceremony itself was pretty boring -- I'm told I slept through the third quarter of the telecast -- but that was to be expected. Ellen Degenres did a fine job hosting, since her personality is such that she can be a teensy bit sarcastic and pull it off with charm, but she really shouldn't have brought out that gospel group during her monologue since it effectively brought things to stand-still.

Here are a few observations culled from the hours I was actually awake and paying attention.

• Jack Nicholson shocked the world by finally shaving his head, transforming him into a dangerously attractive shark of a man instead of the wild-haired grinning cartoon he customarily appears as.


• The look of Peter O'Toole's face, the honest to God, "I can't believe I didn't win" moment of slack-jawed yokelism, and the simultaneous realization that the man probably had no idea who Forrest Whitaker was? Priceless.


• Ibid for Eddie Murphy.
  


• Who was the mugging skeleton lady next to Clint Eastwood? She scared me.


• That Apple iPhone ad got really old, really quickly.


• The guy who won for best short film gave a great speech. Short, concise, informative, and moving. It also made me really want to see West Bank Story.


• Helen Mirren is still frickin' hot.
  


• While I personally did not think Peter O'Toole deserved to win an Oscar for his current film in order to reward him for every other time he was nominated but didn't win, I had no problem watching Martin Scorcese reap a similar reward.


• I really have to see Pan's Labyrinth.


• Ellen's funniest line? The Judy Dench knee surgery / eye-lift joke. Her worst move of the night? The up and down the aisle improv tomfoolery fell flat ever time.


• The funniest moment of the whole evening, hands-down? Al Gore's faux-Presidential announcement that was cut off by the orchestra in the inimitable "you've gone over time" style. Why can't he run for president? I mean, he already won once ...