My Reaction to the Oscars

The 2010 Oscars (82nd, to be precise) were, by far, my favorite to date. This may have more to do with the fact that I was watching it with amazing people (most of who were drunk) as we did our own acceptance speeches with our fake Oscar and ate food and (in my case) started randomly crying about African American hair (long story). But I really felt that, even sober, this would have been an excellent Oscars. And here is why (in the always convenient bullet form):

• Length: Yay!!!! The Oscars ended at 12:02 am for me...only 2 minutes after 12 am! Sure it was 4 hours. But most years are not 2 but 45 minutes after 12 am. This felt nice and short
• Crazy Red Headed Lady: Love her or hate her, you cannot deny she spiced up the always boring short film categories. Elinor Burkett, the producer of the film Music By Prudence ran up on stage and blatently interrupted the award acceptor Roger Ross Williams. And we later learn that Williams’ very old mother may have tripped her with a cane...priceless 
• Odd Speech by Sean Penn: A must for any good Oscars! What was he talking about? Did he blatently bash all the Best Actress nominees as he’s about to announce the winner? Sean Penn, you never cease to amaze me in your awkwardness. 
• Sandra Bullock’s Speech: Did she deserve the Oscar? God no. But did she deserve a separate award for that amazing, suttle speech? Yes. With little comedic references (“Meryl streep who’s such a good kisser”) to emotional yet always upbeat statement (“thank you for not letting me ride in cars with boys till I was 18...I would do everything you said I would do”), it was a gorgeous, royal speech. 
• John Hughes Tribute: The Breakfast Club. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The list can go on and on for director John Hughes, whose high school coming of age stories not only defined the 80’s but also told the tough lives teenagers have to go through. The Academy brilliantly brought back child stars like Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick to remember this legendary man. 
• Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin being dicks- and being so good at it! Just look at Clooney’s face!!!!

It was good. I didn’t do great with predictions (a measly 16/24) though I got all the big ones right). The biggest upset of the night (and it wasn’t that big) was Precious’ win over Up in the Air for Adapted Screenplay as well as the general dislike to Avatar, where it failed to get awards in sound. While most people thought The White Ribbon was a lock for Best Foreign Language film, it was surpassed last minute by The Secret in their Eyes)

It’s been a while...

No this is not a Britney Spears piece (though it is the intro of “Break the Ice”). It is my weekly Survivor prediction! The reason why the title is “it’s been a while” is that, well, its been a while...and I’m sorry for that- I’ve been CRAZY busy lately!!!

Anyway, I’m going to make this short and sweet. If the villains lose immunity, I think Russel Hanz will be going home. Randy was the obvious (though wrong) choice but now they don’t have any whiney old men left. Russel may be too slimy for this very smart tribe, but once again players like Parvati could change the game and get rid of a wild card, like Coach. If the Heroes lose, I think Colby will go home. It’s basically him and Tom together and I think Colby is the easier one to get rid of...hope I’m right!!!

Sad reality of life: Gay bashing

If there’s one complaint I have about Brown, it is that it really has made me unaware of the real world’s views of homosexuality. Here, men kiss men. Girls kiss girls. They do it in the dining hall, give a small kiss in class, whatever. It’s no big deal. The teachers, cops, everyone not only accepts gay people, but they make them feel like they’re at home. 

My hometown in NY isn’t as accepting as Brown is (for people who live where we live, you know what I mean) but it isn’t a shocking thing. I have friends who are gay, I know gay older people, and I’m sure, in suburban America as a whole, there is tons of closeted men (especially the ones who basically got forced into marriage due to societal pressures). So, as you can imagine, my life has basically gone by one principal: accept everyone, as everyone will accept you. 

So I was shocked when I answered a simple question by this gay man who was in a dilemma. He was having sex with many men and was worried if he was going to get AIDS. I told him that if he feels like he needs to have sex with so many men, I would get some professional help in the form of a psychologist. But for now, be sure to use protection to reduce the risk of getting that awful disease. I considered my answer to be honest and respectful- I’m no professional, and this man may have just been asking this to “show off” his ability to attract men, but nevertheless he has every right to live the lifestyle he wants. I mean, who has the right to judge someone in the end?

The other answers were disgusting. I considered mine to be by far the nicest, and I’d say the second nicest (as sad as this will be) called him a slut and a whore and said he is sure to get AIDS. I call this the second nicest only because, of the 12 answers, this girl (as well as myself) were the only ones not to gay bash him or say he was sinning. Some of the other answers included were “get a bible”, “stare at girl porn to become straight”, and the most disgusting one was “just kill yourself. You’re a sinner anyway”. I have many friends, both straight and gay, who are religious and lead very sinless lives who embrace other people’s viewpoints and lifestyles. My straight friends at home are perfect examples. They might not be gay, but I’d be sadly shocked if I were to ever see any of them gay bash others. 

I’m writing this blog post for two reasons. The first is because, when I started this blog, I wanted it to be used to just say my viewpoints and not hold in any strong emotions (like my disgust). The second, and more important, is that I want to remind my gay friends at Brown to be careful in the real world. Unfortunately, a lot of the world (and I feel like especially America) isn’t accepting of gay people and can be very cruel. While you should be proud of who you are, just make sure to watch your back. Brown has made all of us kind of oblivious to a lot of the prejudices in society as it is (to the most part) very accepting of various sexual orientations and practices, but not everyone is like that. Much love guys and I hope you can learn from these disgusting people. 

PS. I reported the question to report the question’s answers. They originally told me they will not bring the answers down because of “people’s personal viewpoints”. I wrote back saying “a personal viewpoint is, for example, that McCain would have been a better president than Obama because I’m conservative. Not something like McCain would have been a better president than Obama because he’s white. There’s a huge difference and I urge Yahoo, as such a large company, to recognize the difference between opinion and sheer discrimination and cruelty. Lives have been lost over statements like this, and it is our human responsibility to stop this evil practice of letting people get away with disgusting comments, which are never right to say whether its in person, on paper, or on the internet.” The answers weren’t there two hours after I sent that e-mail :) I just hope they sent an e-mail to those people or blocked them or something.