Scattered thoughts 2/23/09

-Soooo...the Oscars. As I said previously, I enjoyed it. But then again, I'm the rare straight guy who actually enjoys musicals, so take that with a grain of salt. However, I didn't particularly care for the whole thing where they had past award winners come out and rhetorically fellate the present nominees. That was just bizarre and awkward and sort of cringe-worthy at times (Hello Sophia Loren!), but whatever, I enjoyed it. But I will say this...if the future goal is reach a larger audience, the show needs to lose some of the gay and definitely needs to lose a lot of its overwhelmingly self-congratulatory tone. Like I said, such shit doesn't bother me, but I know how Clint and April McAverage out there in middle America thinks, and this sort of thing just doesn't jive all that much with them I'm afraid.

And for the love of God, can someone just lock Ryan Seacrest away in an underground box and never let him out? Jesus Christ is that guy annoying! I mean, he's the worst! THE. FUCKING. WORST. I didn't watch any of the red carpet pre-show as I have no interest in such things at all, but the clips I have seen of him last night have made me wish that I could reach into the screen and rip his throat out.

-For a while I was thinking it was just me, but the NBA regular season is suddenly an "in" thing again. Ratings are through the roof on just about every game that's televised nationally. People are talking about games around the proverbial water-cooler again in"holy shit did you see what Lebron did last night?" fashion. I personally find myself looking forward to watching regular season games days in advance, rather than simply when flipping channels and running across one and thinking, "oh, well, I guess I'll watch some basketball," and then changing the channel after ten minutes. I haven't done that in probably ten years. Sure, I'd watch the playoffs, but the regular season didn't interest me. At all. It does now. It took the league a while, but it's rebuilt its roster of genuine athletic superstars and strong teams that can breathe life into previously dead rivalries as well as create new one. Hell, even the Knicks are fun to watch! Sure, they lose more games than they win, but they're very fun to watch even when they're losing. I just wish that more Hornets games were broadcast nationally.

-Lately I've been overcome with a new found appreciation for Havarti cheese. The fancy-pants all natural deli near my apartment has this Havarti infused with jalapeno that I can't stop eating. Good shit. I like cheese.

-As you might have noticed, I've put up a post full of links the last couple of days, something I think I'll continue to do in the future. There's so much stuff that people email in and I run across in the course of my daily information feeding frenzy that I find interesting and want to pass along, but can never seem to find the time to figure out how to incorporate it into regular posts, so I figured that I'd just do it the lazy way. And since I'm always up late at night, I can put it together and set it to post at 6am or so, so it's up first thing in the morning for most people. Anyway, just in case you're interested in such things, it'll be there.