My Oscar Picks (and the winners!)

The Oscars are 2 days away and while I usually don't care much, this is the first year I've seen all the movies before the awards. Therefore I feel I should put in my two cents. I'm going to say who I want to win and then also who I think will win (I never could pick a winner anyway).

NOW UPDATED WITH THE WINNERS

Best Picture (Links are to all my own reviews)
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Her
Gravity
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street 
 Who I Want to Win: I enjoy so many of these. Gun to my head, though, I have to say Her struck me as most enjoyable, based on it's unique concept and all around great execution.
Who I Think Will Win: I'm leaning towards 12 Years a Slave taking it, or possibly Wolf of Wall Street simply because it got a lot of buzz upon release.
Who Won: 12 Years a Slave

Best Director
David O. Russell (American Hustle)
Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
Alexander Payne (Nebraska)
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Who I Want to Win: Each of these films is so radically different, I'm having trouble picking one. I guess since Gravity was such a thrilling ride I'll say Alfonso Cuaron.
Who I Think Will Win:  I also suspect the Academy will say Alfonso Cuaron.
Who Won: Alfonso Cuaron

Best Actor
Christian Bale (American Hustle)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Who I Want to Win: Another tough one but I kinda think Chiwetel Ejoifor should take this one, although I love me my crazy ol' Bruce Dern in Nebraska (choices!)
Who I Think Will Win: Probably Matthew McConaughey. It's some of the best work he's done and a lot of people were surprised by that. Sometimes that helps.
Who Won: Matthew McConaughey

Best Actress
Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
Who I Want to Win:  I love all these women, but I think Cate Blanchett will win for her awesome work in Blue Jasmine (I have a review of that I'll publish soon).
Who I Think Will Win: Cate Blanchett: she's already won most things and frankly her character is the most complicated. 
Who Won: Cate Blanchett

Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
Who I Want to Win: Jared Leto for breaking my heart. Or Barkhad Abdi for scaring me senseless.
Who I Think Will Win: Jared Leto.
Who Won: Jared Leto

Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
June Squibb (Nebraska)
Who I Want to Win: For this one I'm going to go with a long shot and say June Squibb. She made me laugh hard and I love her for that. Lupita Nyong'o made me cry hard, so I'd be happy if she won too.
Who I Think Will Win: Sigh...Jennifer Lawrence. And she was good and I love her, don't get me wrong. She just wasn't my favorite out of these five. But everyone loves her so we'll see how this one goes.
Who Won: Lupita Nyong'o

Best Writing- Original Screenplay
American Hustle- Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine- Woody Allen
Dallas Buyers Club- Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack
Her- Spike Jonze
Nebraska- Bob Nelson
Who I Want to Win: Gotta go with Spike Jonze for creating a whole awesome world for us to look at and really make the audience think.
Who I Think Will Win: Spike Jonze. That's right, I'm backing my decision.
Who Won: Spike Jonze

Best Writing- Adapted Screenplay
Before Midnight- Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke
Captain Phillips- Billy Ray
Philomena- Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
12 Years a Slave- John Ridley
The Wolf of Wall Street- Terence Winter
Who I Want to Win: Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope. This one's pretty selfish, I just love Steve Coogan and want him to have an Oscar.
Who I Think Will Win: Terence Winter. No explanation, just a hunch.
Who Won: John Ridley

I know there are a ton more categories but unfortunately I haven't seen the documentaries, short films, etc. I also don't know the qualifications for sound or camera categories. So to keep it simple I'll stick to these 7 categories. We'll see how I did come Sunday. UPDATE: I got 6 out of 8. Getting myself some ice cream.

Small Cakes, New Desks, Peanuts, and Pinochle: My Birthday.

The new desk, where all this magic comes from.

Happy Monday internet people! I've been loving Mondays lately. I don't have to be at work til noon, I work a five hour shift, I always have my evenings free (Teen Wolf is on you know). Most people hate Monday for being the start of the work week but I am excited for them because I usually work all weekend.

But not this past weekend: this past weekend I went home to West Virginia for my birthday. The fact that I'm telling you this is uncharacteristic because normally I don't care about my birthday. I'm not being a grump or a scrooge, I just don't get festive or excited about it.

It's not like I've had really sad or tragic birthdays as a child, I just never seemed to get into it as much as everyone else did. Now that I'm in my mid twenties (I'm twenty-five, I'm not saying 'late twenties' til next year) I really don't care much for them. And yes, I know I'm in the minority. I know people that celebrate their birthday the whole week of the date and I just don't understand it. There are approximately 7.146 billion people on this planet. Divide that by 365 days a year and on any given day an average of 19,500,000 are having a birthday (yeah I looked this up). So I don't feel like I'm particularly special on that day What if everyone just took the week off for their birthday? Society would crumble!

However this year was a pretty solid birthday time, especially when compared to last year when I had a very bad cold and a bedbug infestation. There were no big plans to any unique locations or a big party. But nothing bad happened and in my experience qualifies as a good birthday.

First, after working my final shift for Company at the theater me and the rest of the staff were treated to leftover cakes from an event the theater held before the show. My mini cake (I think provided by Oakmont Bakery) had chocolate mousse on top, then a layer of chocolate cake, a more fudge-like layer under that, and the bottom layer was cheesecake. We all went into a diabetic coma that night, and it was a nice accidental birthday cake for me.

I took this pic mostly to show my Ma and say "And what are YOU making for me?"

Then after the show I returned home. Saturday was the day of the "party". It was a simple plan; family would come over for pizza and to play cards. And that's exactly what happened. All my relatives came, I got to see my little cousins, I drank most of a bottle of wine, and pigged out on local favorite DiCarlo's pizza. Although fun fact for you West Virginians: DiCarlo's also makes bread-sticks and they're terrible. Just an FYI if you're ever wondering.

Eventually the kids went home and the older people (I'm one of them now, you know) sat around and played cards and shot the shit. I love playing cards because in addition to the actual card game you also get to talking and sharing stories. A highlight story from my birthday night was listening to my aunts discuss how the plumbing was bad in their home growing up and they had to "flush" the toilet by using a bucket of water. "If you were nice you'd fill the bucket up for the next person." My aunt said. "We usually didn't do that."

I should also mention that we played I think four games of Pinochle on my birthday and, in the spirit of it being my birthday, I lost every one I played. I wish I could blame some of the loss on my sister but honestly I was just dealt shitty cards. Anyone my age even know what Pinochle is?

I told my family "no gifts" when I invited them over, which I think means I'm an adult now. Of course they brought cash anyway, which is perfect for me because I usually buy things I want the moment it's financially reasonable to do so. But I don't wanna seem ungrateful for all the presents I did get, so let's name them.

From my current and future roommates Mara and Gailyn I got a new computer desk (featured in the picture at the top). I'm quite thrilled with it, all though it has that "new desk smell" that makes one woozy.  We also signed a lease together, but I'll talk about that in the future.

My mother got me a beanbag chair, to replace another chair I got at Christmas and broke (I can't have anything). It's comfortable and I'm gonna do lots of sitting it in, although I thought when you got older people stopped giving you things that are difficult to get out of.

Peanuts in coke. Don't knock it. (This isn't my photo).

Nana got me a six-pack bottles of Coke and some peanuts to put in it, in honor of my Granddad who put peanuts in his Coke. I saw him do it once and thought it was so bizarre. Then I tried it and holy crap it's delicious. Puts a little salty flavoring into your drink and the peanuts are still crunchy after the soaking. Nana also funded a gift that hasn't gotten to me yet, and when it does it will be changing things up a bit on the ol' blog.

My aunts and cousins got me money mostly (and a Books a Million gift card that went towards Dance With Dragons and some comics). My cousin Lisa supplied the alcohol for the evening, shout out for that.

Oh! And my mom made a Butterfinger cake. It's a cake mix chocolate cake with a Butterfinger glaze and then a cream cheese/cool whip frosting with Butterfinger pieces on top. Impressive for a woman who doesn't cook, no?

Was that interesting? See I don't know, I don't find anyone's birthday interesting so I don't know what qualifies as a good one. But that's the rundown of my weekend. It was a fine birthday and I'm excited for February to be over, not just for the weather but because I'm looking forward to a lot of things in March.

I'll leave you with a celebrity I share a birthday with: Ellen Greene, actress best known for playing Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. I love a distinctive voice that annoys people. Makes me feel less self-conscious. Til next time!

Fun With The Skivvies!!

I just got back from an awesome concert in South Side (not to brag). This weekend the City Theater is hosting four performances by the fantastic musical duo, The Skivvies. Composed of musical theater actors Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley, the Skivvies perform stripped-down covers and medleys of all sorts of tunes, while clad in only their underwear. 

City Theatre's Lester Hamburg Studio gives the Skivvies a perfect cabaret-esque venue in which to wow their audiences. They have a wide variety of instruments they rapidly switch through, accompanied by Shannon Ford on drums. There are ukeleles, some guitars, that keyboard thing you play by blowing into a hose (I have no idea. I wanna say "Mouth Organ" but that's like crazy dirty, right?). Also Ms. Molina's skills with a cello are just an awesome thing to behold, and it's clear these guys are seasoned pros at what they do.

Both performers are gorgeous specimens with amazing sets of pipes. I mean, really, listening to them sing would be enough of a treat. The fact that they do it naked is just a bonus really (but, you know...don't stop). They have some awesome harmonies, the best are when Cearley goes into his beautiful falsetto. The medleys are fantastic, effortlessly mashing up song after song and putting their own spin on every one of them. One of my personal favorites was a great cover of "Pumped Up Kicks" that was interwoven with Molina busting out some opera skills from "Glitter and be Gay".

When they perform in New York City the Skivvies usually invite various Broadway performers to join them in song (in their underwear, obviously). Continuing that tradition, they've invited some local performers to help them out this weekend. Two of the guests were Hayley Nielsen and Bria Walker, both of whom were very funny and fit in nicely with the group. The third guest was Michael Campayno, who was in NBC's recent live production of The Sound of Music (can I get one more shoutout for dem knees?!?!?). Guests will rotate throughout the weekend (the Post Gazette has an informative article/interview here) and the Skivvies assured us no two shows would be the same.

I stumbled onto the Skivvies quite a while ago as part of an insomnia-induced Youtube session. I instantly loved them and when I learned they were coming to Pittsburgh I knew I had to see them. They actually showed up at the Public to see Company when I happened to be working. I recognized them in the audience and decided to tweet at them, because I'm a weird-ass and I don't know how to talk to humans. That combined with this blog probably has them thinking I'm a lunatic, but I swear I'm just a fan. 

So bottom line: The Skivvies are in Pittsburgh through Saturday and if you're not doing anything, get over to South Side and see them. Go for Valentine's Day with a date, or go by yourself (fuck love!) because either way you'll have an awesome time. If you can't go this weekend, I say hit up their youtube videos or try to catch one of their concerts in New York City if you get the chance.They're an awesome group and I'd definitely see them again in the future (but I will stop tweeting at them Phantom of the Opera-style).

The Skivvies have 3 shows left (one on Feb 14th and two on the 15th) at The City Theatre in South Side. Information and ticket purchasing can be done here on their website.