Blackwolf the Dragonmaster's Diary of Magecraft

Being a Chronicle of the Inner Secrets of, and Spells of Magick as Wielded by, the Philosopher of the Internet and Unofficial Sorcerer-in-Residence of the City of New York

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Location: New York, New York, United States

As New York's Unofficial Wizard, my mission is to encourage the Mortals of Manhattan to imagine responsibly!

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Blackwolf Previews the Oscars!

Well, kiddos, the time is almost at hand --- the 81st Annual Academy Awards, coming to you as always from the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland. And for your humble Dragonmaster, that's going to be quite a challenge. Having done it three times in a row, I'm not exactly what one would describe as a veteran. Still, there are things one needs to know and they are these:

The team responsible for Dreamgirls, The Movie --- Bill Condon and Laurence Mark --- are the producers this year; there's a new musical director --- namely, Michael Giacchino, the guy who wrote the score for Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille; the telecast will have a new director, Roger Goodman --- who will be flying to Hollywood straight from D.C., where he will be working out the directorial duties for ABC News' live coverage of the Presidential Inauguration; our host will be no less than the sexiest Mortal alive, Hugh Jackman; Ed Catmull, Pooh-bah of all that is Pixar, will be presented with the Gordon E. Sawyer Award; computer genius Mark Kimball is to receive the John A. Bonner Medal; and finally, Jerry Lewis is being honored with the Jean Hershholt Humanitarian Award (doubtless for his legendary MDA Labor Day Telethon, I shouldn't wonder --- though I can't help but wonder why the Academy didn't send a few representatives to surprise Jerry with the news of this important milestone on the Telethon itself last September!).

Still, the truth must be told: Hugh Jackman is no comedian. I do not believe for four seconds that Buz Kohan, Bruce Vilanch and the writing staff can come up with one-liners that will make this year's show memorable. And, as usual, count on all the TV critics to whine about how overly long the damn telecast is. I was caught unprepared last year for the adventure of last year's show; the horrifying result was, of course, that my usual five-part wrap-up ended up being a three-parter (Damn you, Jon Stewart!); and the show was just too damn fast-paced for this foolish old Wizard to keep up.

Well, it won't make a bloomin' difference, one way or the other. Just tune in on Sunday, February 22nd, those of you who can --- or else just log onto Oscar.com itself, where there'll be reports and crap as they happen, etc. And for the most graphically detailed Oscar nominations list around, count on Blackwolf the Dragonmaster's Diary of Magecraft!