The Oscars 2017 or as I say...Ooopsy!

I am certain that most of you, by now, have heard of the big F up that happened last night at the Oscars. It was actually going quite nicely until the Best Picture. Poor Warren Beatty opened up the envelope and hesitated because he knew something seemed amiss.  He showed it to good old plastic face Faye Dunaway who blurted out La La Land. The people from La La Land came to the podium and were saying the usually speeches when the producer of La La Land( I think he was the producer) came out and said that Moonlight actually won. Everyone was in a daze of WTF just happened. Poor Warren said that he saw Emma Stone's name on the envelope and thought it wasn't right which is why he hesitated so. Today people are blaming Warren for not stopping  and questioning it but, I don't care how many decades you have been there, when millions are watching and all eyes are on you plus this never happened before, I could see myself hesitate and show it to the person beside me. The person who handed Warren the envelope made the error and will probably be working for McDonalds  in a month.

This was the gob smack moment of the evening. You can look up who won so I won't make a list here but I have my own list of questions that I will now list and answer. If you have watched the show, I'd love to know what you think.

1. Best Dressed

People who don't watch may not care and major film buffs may put their noses up to this but I love the fashions to see who looks great, who looks horrible and basically cutting up the fashions or figuring out how to fix them up better, (like we could anyway) but I am showcasing my best here and it goes to Meryl Streep believe it or not. She usually doesn't drsss the best but I loved the colour, the style and the glitter plus it looks comfortable. I also must give a nod to Taraji P. Henson who looked sexy but not sexpot (despite the boobs a plenty) in this navy blue dress with a beautiful necklace. I also loved Charlize Theron in her metallic dress of pleats.

2. Worst Dressed

Oh, well, this one is so much fun because you have the gals who think the colour is great when it looks like a bland gluten, sugar, salt, wheat free wafer. Nicole Kidman was blah and so was Felicity Jones in her, I wanna be in a girl's jewelry box turning around to The Sugar Plum Fairy, blah dress. Octavia Spencer reminded me of those dolls found on the toilet tank where the skirt hid the toilet paper roll. The top was nice, although she needed a necklace, but the bottom was a large blob of feathers..ughhhh. Halle Berry's dress was nice but her hair......oh my...Holy light socket Batman!  My pick for worst is Janelle Monae with her bombastic glittery Marie Antoinette concoction. I am wondering how she got through the doors, how did she sit in the chairs and how did she go to the bathroom?? Dakota Johnson from the 50 Shades of Blechhh also wore a blechh dress with her own nappy in the front when she chows down on some food later.

3. Best Speech

Viola Davis gave a great speech about how the average joe has a story to tell and how they need to be remembered. One Classy Dame!

4. Worst Speech

The people who won for best Production Dessign. They won for La La Land and they just sounded bla blah.

5. Worst Nomination

Meryl Streep. Yes she was in a movie but does one have to nominate her every F-ing year?? Why wasn't Amy Adams up for a nomination??

6.  Pissed that they won

I didn't have a huge $@;/ moment for this but I think Star Trek should have won for best make up not Suicide Squad. The Joker in Suicide Squad was horrible.

7. What Drug Are They On

I was really hoping Winona Ryder would show up but, alas, most were great but I will give this award to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway...poor things because of the waiting moment that Warren did  and Faye just thinking he was being an ass and reading out the title without looking more.

8. Favourite Moment

I always love the memorial moment because they showcase and pay respect to the people who were not only famous to us but behind the scenes as well and they deserve this recognition. The song was beautifully done as well.

9. WHY???

Jimmy Kimmel brought in a group of tourists who thought they were going to see costumes and found themselves in front of all the major stars. If I was there, I would be loving it to see all these stars right up close and our Canadian, in the ruffled shirt, Ryan Gosling, actually got up first and shook their hands. There were quite a few who just kept taking selfies and not taking in the moment before they were  herded off out of the auditorium. It just seems to me that everyone wants to outdo Ellen DeGeneres when she did that big group selfie. This took up quite a bit of time.

10. How was the Host

From 1 to 5 I give him a 4 actually. I know some will hate him and I already heard that but I thought his jokes were funny (for the most part) and he kept it entertaining. He was great at the end with Warren Beatty too. How would you rate him??

Here was to a hair raising end of the evening...

Have anything to add??

Thursday Movie Picks: TV Edition-Super Heroes/Super Powers

It's TV edition this week and we are all about the super heroes or super powers and I know there are quite a few newer shows that fit the bill but, well, you know me, I amgoing old school  with 2 classic shows and one that I think is a classic and should be well known. Head on over to Wandering Through The Shelves to check out the other picks. Here are my three...

1. ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN-1952-1958

Poor George Reeves will forever be known to be this super hero much to his chagrin. Now I wasn't even born when this came out but I watched the show during all the reruns and I loved it. Good Ole Clark Kent finds a job at the Daily Planet and works along side Lois Lane and Billy. When his friends get into trouble, which they often did, Clark would find a phone booth and become Superman and save the day. What would he do now since phone booths are rarely seen now? We look at this show now and think it's cute but, back in the day, it was huge and every kid wanted to meet Superman. George Reeves couldn't go anywhere without being bombarded by kids everywhere and due to being Superman his acting role in From Here To Eternity was severely edited because the bosses didn't want people to snicker at their film (the preview audience did).

2. BATMAN AND ROBIN-1966-1968

Let's all dance the Batusi! No?? Ok but let's talk high camp where you have a bit flabby Batman with his over zealous sidekick, Robin, battling a whole bunch of crazy evil guys from The Joker to Catwoman. Believe it or not, this became such a huge hit back in the day that major stars wanted to be on this show from Roddy McDowall, Cliff Robertson and Vincent Price to Anne Baxter and Tallulah Bankhead. You also had your regular villains played by Burgess Meredith, Julie Newmar, Frank Gorshin and the great Caesar Romero whom Heath Ledger watched to get some of the laugh and nuances down for his role as the Joker. Batman was campy fun so watch their "BAM" and "Wham" and keep tuned in to the same Bat Time and the same Bat Channel.

3. GREATEST AMERICAN HERO-1981-1983

I love this show and watched it every week with my mom who also enjoyed it. It starred William Katt(where did he go?) as a young man who is given this suit by aliens to fight crime. When he wears the suit, he can fly, jump high, has super strength  plus so much more but he loses the instructions, so he must learn the hard way how to use the suit correctly...often with funny results (crash landing into trash cans). Robert Culp plays an FBI agent who works with him and becomes friends with the young guy with the suit. It is comedic but did have some serious moments as well and love that theme song!

Bonus....Super-Duck!

Extra Bonus and hope you have time to waste:)

I can't believe all the guest stars...

Which shows would you pick?

Cards!! Yippeee!!:)

I am so happy that I was able to make some cards this past weekend. My pain was less this weekend than it has been for a good couple of months. I am cautiously optimistic that the medication is beginning to work... time will tell but I am happy for this so now on with the show!

Butterfly stamp, gamsol pencils, perfect pearls, saying stamp, embossing powder.

Electric Ellapu-Anything Goes
Animal Friends-No Design Paper

I had to give this card almost a week late to my hubby but he still appreciated it. I had a dickens of a time placing the tape down, stamping with versamark and brushing the perfect pearls on it since I was trying to have red and pink stripes. I think it worked after much mess. I stamped and coloured the butterflies and fussy cut them out and adhered them on with pop up dots. I finally stamped the saying which is one of my favourites....oh and hubby loved the card.

Stickers, lifting tape, flower punch, brushes, blue crystals

Tuesday Throwdown-Favourite Embellishment

I enjoyed making this card because it took time! I was trying out some brushos I bought( tap out very little dust, add water and watch the colour go) but I didn't like how dark it went. I left it for quite a while and then got the bright idea to use my flower punch. I had used the tree sticker a while back and the negative was left so I took some sheet paper that is sticky on one side and lifted the tree negative and place it on the card. Where the flowers were, I used a pin and lifted each gold Petal and placed it on the flower punch and then glued the flower down. I added the water lily and coloured them with tomboy markers and sponged on some distress inks at the bottom to make it look like the tree was near water. I added my favourite embellishment-crystals.

Cuddlebug, snowflake folder, 3D paper pop up dots, stickers

Christmas Cards All Year Round-use red, pink and hearts
Simon Says-Pop A Flower on or Two

This was a quick card and I love these 3D. Papers. I just put the snowflake folder with the red paper through the cuddlebug to get the design and adhered the base of the 3D paper to it. I then built up the image with pop up dots, added the stickers and one can see the hearts of gold on each corner.

Cuddlebug, snowflake embossing folder, border Die cut, swirly stamp, angel stamp, psychedelic embossing powder, stickers, crystals, lavender Die stamp

CHNC2-Anything Goes Christmas

I started making this card 2 months ago and finally finished it. It was supposed to be for another challenge that came and went. I stamped the swirly stamp with lavender Die and just stamped it all over the lavender card. I cut the white cardstock in a triangle and put it through the cuddlebug and glued it in place. I stamped the angel and embossed her in the psychedelic glitter powder, I used the cuddlebug to cut the borders out, added everything together and voila. Now my hubby, being a pig, looked at the card and thought it was the image of a woman's underwear with the angel being right where...well, you know. Yup I did call him a pig:)

shiny blue and purple cardstock, distress inks, Imagine Rubber Stamp, Dye Pad, Embossing powder, stickers and stickles

Alphabet Challenge-You Choose

My best friend is going through hell right now with the break-up of her 22 year marriage which, needless to say has been very difficult on her and it is messy in many ways. I will be sending this to her with a book for her to fill out about the positive things she can find each day (harder than you think). In You Choosetheme...I am not sure what Alphabet Challenge meant by that, but I chose a saying a the main focal point along with distress inks.  I just added pieces of cardstock I had laying around, stamped the saying and embossed it. The fun part was playing with the distress inks. I placed the stamp colour down on a table (that I can wipe), added water and then just laid the white cardstock down. I dried the paper with my heating machine and then tried more colour. I think it turned out pretty cool...reminds me of space and moving forward so, of course, it needed sparkle which is where the stickles came in.

distress inks, snowflake die-cut, santa stamp, bleach, tombow markers, stickers and crystals, shiny black and silver paper. Sizzex machine.

Winter Wonderland-Anything Goes
HLS-Watercolour challenge-can use dies

This looks better in person plus the picture isn't the best but I was in a hurry so that's my excuse. I played with the distress ink pads to get that midnight blue with some purple  as a sky. I took the snowflake die cut and pushed it through the sizzex machine to get the snowflakes. I stamped the Santa image in black and used black sparkle embossing powder right on the blue cardstock. The blue was too dark to see the Santa, so I took a Q-tip and dipped it in bleach and gently blotted the image until only white showed. I coloured the image with tombow markers which turned out pretty good for a first try.

Whew! So there are some cards for you to see. Have a great day!!

Thursday Movie Picks-Shakespeare Adaptations

I so miss making cards! I actually did make one and almost finished another before....yawn....you know but I'm feeling better. Now on to this week's movie picks and it's all about Shakespeare! I actually saw A Midsummer Night's Dream as a ballet in the Vienna Opera house and it sounds magical doesn't it? The Opera House is beautiful and I loved Mendelssohn's music but when they went to the Fairy realm, the place I was so excited to see from the music to the costumes, some German...oops Austrian, took drugs, had a chimp play the piano and I watched people in skin tight condom costumes with sequinned shower caps on their heads dance like Andy Warhol was their God. Ughhh ....ok so below are my picks and to see the others, head on over to Wandering Through The Shelves to see what the others have chosen.

1.  FORBIDDEN PLANET-1956

Love this movie! It is based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest"  and it is the father of Star Trek and many of the other science fiction films to follow. A young Leslie Nielsen is the captain of a ship that lands on a planet to find out why the communication with the scientists have ceased. They meet Robbie The Robot along with Morbius and his very attractive and mini dress clad daughter who has never met another human except for her dad. They are able to live on this planet due to the very technically advanced Krell( no..they are not shrimp people) who have long since past their mortal coil. The Captain and the young gal start showing signs of amour which is around the time an invisible monster starts killing the crew. They now have a much bigger issues to deal with...survival! Excellent film that started so many science fiction shows and films. It really does make you think.

2. THEATRE OF BLOOD-1973

OOOHHHHHHH-Love this movie!! You have the great Vincent Price playing a Shakespearean actor who is critically degraded at an awards ceremony. He tries to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Thames, so everyone thinks he has died, but he is taken in by vagrants where the great actor plots his revenge on the critics who degraded him. The critics start dying one by one in very unique ways...all killed according to a Shakespeare play. I used to watch this film when I was a teen at 4 in the morning since I couldn't sleep back then. It is grisly in parts(pound of flesh anyone?) but it is also quite humourous. Price always wanted to act in a Shakespeare play so this film was close to his heart.  I found out many years later that this is one of my brother's favourites as well.

3. RICHARD III-1995

Ian McKellan plays Richard the III in this more modern updating of the Shakespeare play. It is set during the 1930's with England being fascist and Nazism almost taking hold. It is all about power and corruption but in a very modern style retelling bringing the Nazi ideas to the foreground. It is an excellent take on this play especially when Richard  the III tries to start his jeep and yells the famous line, "My Kingdom for a horse." Well worth watching and the acting is excellent

I feel guilty because I did not choose a Sir Laurence Olivier film rendition (He is a noted Shakespearean actor making the plays popular for films) but I had to go with these 3.

What would you choose?

Thursday Movie Picks- films about prodigies/Geniuses

It's genius week or prodigy week over at Wandering Through the Shelves. You pick 3 films that correspond to the theme of that week and this is the theme. I have never met someone who is a genius and not sure I would want to because they could easily put me to shame. I have met many who think they are geniuses and those are the types I like to stick a pin in their huge head and watch it deflate. So, let's check out the movies...

1. AMADEUS-1984

I have not seen this film in a long time but I love it! I am not sure if Mozart was quite the nut displayed in this film but it does not take away from the fact that he was not only a child prodigy who composed the song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" when he was 4, but also a man driven to create sheer poetry in musical notes. Salieri, a noted composer on his own, but now forgotten, talks about Mozart and his life at the King's court. Salieri's jealousy is shown to great effect as well as his respect for  Mozart's genius by the actor F Murray Abraham. We see Mozart at the top of his game but slowly losing favour, dying young and thrown into a pauper's grave with no one in attendance. The acting is superb and the music...sublime.

2. SHINE-1996

This first brought Geoffrey Rush to prominence to the regular folk like moi:). He plays David Helfgott, a young Australian who is mentored by his controlling father. He is a child prodigy gifted in playing the piano and wins competitions. He is not allowed to go to London or the U.S. because his father does not wish to lose control, but, eventually, David does go to London and enters a competition to play the very difficult Rachmaninoff's Concerto #3. He wins but at a cost to his mental health and ends up in a mental hospital where he undergoes electro-shock therapy. David must try to climb back up despite his mental issues (I like to say brain issues). It is an acting tour-de-force from Rush  and I think he did deserve the Oscar.

3. STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE-1999

Surprise! Now I am not a lover of these 3 films from the 90's but this young kid, the future Darth, is a child prodigy who sets everything in motion and is the daddy of Luke and Leia so I think this does belong. Now it starts with Q-Tip (Ok, Qui-Gon) and a young Obi-Wan going in search for the the one who has "The Force". They find this in the young Anakin (played horribly by that kid Jake Lloyd), a slave to some fat dragonfly, who ends up winning his freedom in a race. The troupe find Jar-Jar(ugh...don't ask) and Princess Armadillo (ok Amidala) and they all end up on going to a planet so she can plead her people's case regarding some trade agreement. All the while, the evil Sith are now gaining more power. I actually like the plot, The special effects are outstanding and the acting, aside from the annoying kid, is good. I really like Armadillo's planet which I thought was really quite beautiful. The music is excellent in the major fight scene between Q-Tip, Obi and the red and Black faced guy whom you know is evil due to his mean dad (OK just kidding but it always seems to be the dad's fault doesn't it?)

Which films would you pick?

An Extra...

WILEY E. COYOTE-SUPER GENIUS

Thursday Movie Picks-Movies about Artists

Ok I'm loving this week's theme because I love art! I love reading about artists and I love reading about their works so whenever a film comes on about an artist I want to see it. There are some I have not seen which is horrible ( Pollock, Frida)  but I will always try to watch any that come around my way. I have also decided to go the more biographical route about artists that really did exist rather than about a film about a painter. Now, head on over to Wandering Through The Shelves to see what the others have chosen.

1. REMBRANDT-1936

Rembrandt is one of my favourite artists and this is one of my favourite films starring the great Charles Laughton as the famous painter. It details his fame, the death of his beloved first wife and his fall from grace  since he chose to paint what he wanted to paint not what was expected. He found solace in his last marriage  played by his real life wife, Elsa Lancester. I loved the lighting of this film which truly does evoke the Rembrandt lighting that one would often see in silent films. I have been enriched to see many of his works especially the great Night Watch and this film really helps showcased what this man believed in and how rose to great heights only to die a pauper.

2. THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING-2003

This gem stars Colin Firth as the famed painter whom we know very, very little about and have so few of his great paintings. It is not a true biopic since this is more an idea of what might have happened since the girl in this famous painting seems to pop up in other paintings. This girl is played by Scarlet Johansson and she does a great job playing a member of the help to Vermeer. Vermeer is in a marriage that is difficult to say the least because of his wife's jealous ways. The cinematography is also wonderful because it uses the Blues and yellows that Vermeer loved. There is a sensuousness to this film without showing anything more than Johanssen's hair when she takes off her bonnet( which was quite seductive back in that day).

3. RENOIR-2012

My hubby and I were able to see this French film at the theatre that no longer is around(bummer). It takes place in 1915 when the famed painter is nearing the end of his days and his young son, the future famous French Film director, Jean Renoir, is trying to find out who he is after he is wounded in the First World War. A young lady comes to Renoir's home in the country to be his model and he finds his final muse. Renoir suffered from severe debilitating rheumatoid arthritis in his later years and would often have to tape the paint brush to his hand since he could not hold the brush any more but he still had to paint. The young girl becomes the young Renoir's lover and she seems to be their muse and their saviour even though she also seemed to be a bit of a bitch actually. In fact Jean Renoir married her ( Andree Heuschling) and she starred in many of his early films. Again, the cinematography is so beautiful and evokes the impressionistic beauty of Renoir's works.

What films can you think of? Do you love art and what style is your favourite?

3 great artists...