wouldn't you know it (the phone saga endeth) and why england loves oscar

... so wouldn't you know that the very day i get my replacement phone (the fancy red Motorola Razr), that my old phone shows up and is sitting on my desk when i arrive.

where was it? on the "bench" seat in the back of the department head's truck (think the back seat for those extended trucks). i had looked through said truck when getting dropped off but somehow failed to look on the seat itself, concentrating on the area where gravity would have deposited it (the floor). so 1 month of no phone, 1 replacement phone at $109, and we're back at square 1!!!

as for the razr? it's going back to sprint. nothing against it (very snazzy), but $109 is snazzier.

onto the oscars pick (and i'm completely clueless as i think this year, i've seen exactly zero of the movies up for nods)... major categories only... explanations where necessary

best actress in a supporting role: cate blanchett, "notes on a scandal". she's british. they always win this award. that and there are two ladies up from "babel" so that's splitting a vote, and i think everyone is a bit over voting for little kids (see: abigail breslin, "little miss sunshine"). and i heard "dream girls" was good only for eddie murphy's singing. huh? dark horse: miss breslin.

best actor in a supporting role: eddie murphy, "dream girls". see above. though i think djimon honsou is a tremendous actor and could win it for "blood diamond" in what could quickly become a very politically-loud oscar ceremony. dark horse: markie mark wahlberg.

best actress in a leading role: helen mirren, "the queen". 1) she looks like QEII, 2) eugene (who also hasn't seen a single nominated movie) says "mirren is a tremendous actor!" plus, she's british and british women always win oscars (see: gwenyth paltrow... wait? she's not british? are we sure?...). dark horse: meryl streep, "the devil wears prada". solid actress, also not british. and how penelope cruz is even nominated is beyond me. though she's quite delicious in a "not-an-old-british-actress" way. (see: Ms. Mirren, Dame Judi Dench, Ms. Kate Winslet, and Ms. Streep, who might be from Wales after all is said and done...)

best actor in a leading role: harrison ford, "indiana jones IV". what? it hasn't been made yet? oh... ok... um... Peter O'Toole, "Venus". So Sir O'Toole hasn't ever won an Oscar, right? He won a lifetime award in 2002, hasn't died in 2007, and is british? He might win best actress too! dark horse: forest whitaker, "the last king of scotland". why forest? 1) it's (nominally) about the UK, 2) wasn't he in "the crying game"? 3) and "dif'frent strokes"? give him some love! and let the people of Uganda rejoice! Celebrate Idi Amin! YES!

best animated film: "happy feet". why? march of the penguins won. brits wear tuxedos. penguins wear tuxedos. dark horse: "cars". not really. i bet cars wins. despite being a rip-off of "Doc Hollywood".

best documentary feature: "Iraq in Fragments". why? oscar can be loud and when voting was going on, it was cold, so the global warming movie might not stir up excitement. dark horse: "an inconvenient truth". why? everyone who's not a nutjob loves who al gore has become. side note: it's currently the movie sitting at home from netflix. so... maybe, just maybe i'll see one nominee prior to oscar. ah, maybe not (it's been there for 4 weeks at least...)

best adapted screenplay: "Borat". what is odd is that borat is largely improvisational, but if you have the "ali g" dvds, you know that Sacha Baron Cohen spends months perfecting his responses for every conceivable occasion. plus, since he wasn't allowed to dress as borat to present, he's BOUND TO show up as his gay german alter-ego bruno in case he wins. NICE! dark horse: no dark horse. borat is a phenonmenon. anyone who can call butros-butros gali "my main main man man, butros-butros-BUtros Gali" deserves recognition.

best original screenplay: "Little Miss Sunshine". voters like awarding this oscar to the movie that they secretly like but politically can't vote for other categories. this movie, from what i hear, is very good. bonus: it involves BOTH Steve Carrell ("40-yr. old virgin", "the office") AND Greg Kineear (who got Katie Holmes naked pre-nutso Tom Cruise, in "The Gift", which coincidentally has Cate Blanchett also... but people watch it for the holmes scene. just being honest...)

best director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu, "Babel". Not sure what this movie is about. It could be about that biblical tower, it could be about people learning a foreign language, it could be a rip-off of "Doc Hollywood". who knows. but Brad Pitt is in it right when he was going down to crazy-ville when he left Ms. Aniston for Ms. Jolie. That's a challenge for the director. Dark Horse: Paul Greengrass "Flight 93". why? 1) it's a sensitive topic still in the american consciousness, my brother said the movie was "intense" which is definitely part of the director's skill, and 3) see no.1.

Best Picture: The Departed. Why? Isn't Markie Mark in it?

happy Sunday!
--goose

best actor in a leading role: