The Moment of Truth

Oh my... Yet another successful Oscar night is behind and you, my readers, are in for a thorough post about... well, everything.

Let's start with the Red Carpet.

White was the color that was seen on many stars, like J.Lo, Rooney Mara, Gwyneth Paltrow and my absolute favorite, Octavia Spencer.

This Tadashi Shoji dress is -in the lack of a better word- fabulous, and she carries it beautifully. She looks classy and proves that a woman doesn't have to be a size zero to rock the show. Congrats to O.S!

I really liked Paltrow's dress, but what's with the ponytail?! Not only does it look weird, I think it's too much an everyday-look to wear to the biggest Hollywood event of the year.

Angelina Jolie's dress looks heavy and her poses strike me as odd... Some say she might have been trying to cover her alarmingly thin figure with this creation, but who knows? Loved her make-up and hair.

My personal favorites (dress-wise) include Octavia Spencer (above), Sandra Bullock, Milla Jojovich, Meryl Streep and Jessica Chastain.
When it comes to flops... I wasn't that into Shailene Woodley's choise of dress, nor was I crazy about Viola Davis's look. I think she looks better with the black hair (was it a wig?) and maybe the dress wasn't the right color of green for her. Please note that these are all my personal opinions.

Now let's move on to the actual Awards Show.


This year the original host was supposed to be Eddie Murphy, but instead we had to make due with Billy Crystal. He was only OK, I think. I fondly look back to when Ellen DeGeneres was the hostess and did a great job. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin weren't as funny as they could have been, but I still enjoyed watching them. Anne Hathaway and James Franco... well, I shouldn't say anything (BORING!). Billy Crystal was OK. Only OK. All in all he did a steady performance throughout the show.

In my previous post I promised a full list of winners, including my own bets, so here we go... I did better than last year, when I guessed eight winners. This year I guessed nine. LOL.

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
The Artist
My bet: The Artist
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
My bet: George Clooney for The Descendants
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
My bet: Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Christopher Plummer for Beginners
My bet: Kenneth Branagh for My Week With Marilyn
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Octavia Spencer for The Help
My bet: Octavia Spencer for The Help
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
My bet: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
BEST WRITING, SCREENPLAY BASED ON MATERIAL PREVIOUSLY PRODUCED OR PUBLISHED
The Descendants
My bet: Moneyball
BEST WRITING, SCREENPLAY WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR THE SCREEN
Midnight in Paris
My bet: Midnight in Paris
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
Rango
My bet: Kung Fu Panda 2
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
A Separation
My bet: Footnote
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Hugo
My bet: The Tree of Life
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
My bet: The Artist
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
Hugo
My bet: Hugo
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
The Artist
My bet: The Artist
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
The Iron Lady
My bet: The Iron Lady
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES, ORIGINAL SCORE
The Artist
My bet: War Horse
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES, ORIGINAL SONG
The Muppets
My bet: Rio
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
Hugo
My bet: Hugo
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
Hugo
My bet: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
Hugo
My bet: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
BEST DOCUMENTARY, FEATURES
Undefeated
My bet: Hell and Back Again
BEST DOCUMENTARY, SHORT SUBJECTS
Saving Face
My bet: Movement
BEST SHORT FILM, ANIMATED
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
My bet: Wild Life
BEST SHORT FILM, LIVE ACTION
The Shore
My bet: Pentecost

I can't say I agree with the Academy when it comes to Cinematography. That one should have gone to The Tree of Life. And Transformers should have gotten some recognition for its amazing visual effects.

But for your sake, I'm done now. Probably the longest post I've ever done. Thanks for your patience (if in fact you read all of it.)

xxo

It's the most wonderful time of the year...!

Dear Readers, the night has finally arrived. The night of glamour, fashion, motion pictures, a very long red carpet and a heavy golden statue.

It's the night of the Oscars!

I have watched the Oscars with friends many years in a row now, and because of the 10-hour time difference it means we have to stay up all night. We don't mind, though, because this is one of the highlights of the year for us movie-fans!

Joining me tonight are

 Markus

 Tomi

PIZZA

Our main source of caffeine

It's almost time to turn on the TV and start criticizing the dresses and hair do's. Gotta love this! 

A follow-up post coming up tomorrow with the complete list of winners along with my own bets. Last year I guessed eight winners (only eight...). Hope to do better this year! 

xxo

it's ART, baby!

As if blogging, Facebook and Figment aren't enough, I had to join yet another social media site.

http://im0gen.deviantart.com/

Go check out my profile at deviantart.com and if you're into all that, sign up ;)

I know this promo isn't much, but I'm too busy trying to figure out how that site works.

xxo

joyful reunion

There's one other love in my life besides writing. Drawing. A hobby I've been neglecting for way too long (two years to be exact). I used to draw all the time and I was actually good at it. Then I started to use the familiar excuse not to draw: I don't have time. I did have time, I just lacked motivation. That's the reason making drawing a profession has never even occurred to me; I draw when I want to, not when I'm told, and that's also the reason why I hated art classes at school.

I've been wanting to draw lately again, and today I finally took my pencils and sketch pad and did it :) I had forgotten how much I loved it.

This is far from my best work, but after two years I'm pretty satisfied with it. I'm still having difficulties with the hair and with the nose, and usually with the lips as well, but this time I'm happy with the lips. The eyes have always been my strongest area. The other eye looks a bit weird in the picture, but in reality it's better.. take my word for it ;)

Hope I get some more work done! I have no idea how I've lived without drawing for the past two years.

just because

My friend and I had an interesting conversation today about talking. Why can't one just throw a topic out there and then talk about it with others without someone taking it too seriously or personally?

Sometimes when I'm writing, I tend to worry what others might think about it. Say I write a story about a girl who turns into a prostitute to pay herself through medical school. Does it mean that I accept prostitution? No. I never depict anything I don't really have to, but sadly, with the world being how it is, having my characters live in a perfect world isn't something readers would buy.

I think the same applies with conversing -why can't we talk about something just for the hell of it? You can always express your opinion, but judging others shouldn't be your job. And if you don't want to take part, that's cool too. Just don't make others feel bad when they've actually done nothing wrong.

When I read, I don't think about the author. I think about the characters and the way they're acting and handling their lives. Fictional or not, they become alive when I read. For me, it marks a successful writer when I'm able to relate to the characters and see the world through their eyes. After finishing the story, all I can think about is how wonderful a job the author had done with it. Not "why would he write that" or "does he really think so?". The beauty of being a writer is that you can create characters with their own minds, you can create whole worlds if you want to. What you write, doesn't necessarily reflect your own opinions. You just have to agree enough to make it work, and more importantly, make others believe in it, too.

Some might not agree with me on this, but I don't really care. What good does it to me to just sit around and wonder if someone's going to approve of me or not? Instead I could go out, meet my friends and just be. If there's a silent moment, I could say something completely random and see how they react.

Try it, might be fun :)

xxo

The Power of Imagination

About two years ago, give or take a couple of months, I came up with an idea for a fantasy novel. Unlike other times when I had something exciting to write about, I didn't start to write down this one. Instead the idea kept growing in my head, changing into something very different from what it was in the beginning. Sometimes I would write down a particular scene just to see what could happen, but other than that I have very little notes on this.

Whenever I heard an author say he/she had been working on an idea for several years, it struck me as unbelievable. How hard can it be to write a story? You get the idea and you put it on paper. 

If only it would be so simple...

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am, that I still, after two years, have not written the story that's in my head. It plays on my mind like a movie and not a day goes by that I don't think about it. Sometimes it can be a few weeks that I don't do anything about it, but mostly I keep on developing it. I try to figure out the situations, relationships... I'm still not finished with it. Almost, but not quite. 

Someday I will write it. It might take me another two years, but so what? My goal isn't to get it published. I just want to have the patience to work on something for this long and see through it. I would also love to get some peace of mind, because I know this one will haunt me until it's over and done with. 

I really have to get the Office thing for my MacBook Pro, because Texturi is... just terrible. 

xxo

Fab Feb Everyone!

I got a bit carried away (again) with the design tools and gave my blog a new look. I'm happy -for now ;) hope you like it!

I also hope you've all had a great start for February -I certainly have. I won't fill you in with the details now, you're just gonna have to stay tuned. More coming up later, folks!

xxo