I'd like to thank the Academy . . .

I saw a bit of the Academy Awards presentation last night - I didn't get back from Jennifer's skating lesson till nearly a quarter to 10 (Sunday night skating lessons suck, BTW). I quickly caught up with the award count and have the following observations:

Someone has finally gotten control of the excesses and really worked out some fair and efficient means of moving things along. I thought having nominees for many of the awards already on stage really helped. I liked less the "give it to them in their seats" bit. Should for any bizarre reason I find myself nominated for such an award, I want up on the stage.

I also noted that I have seen less of the movies nominated for this past year than seems in years past, and more than a couple I saw only because they were already released on DVD. I only saw "Million Dollar Baby" Saturday night. It was an excellent film, but I've yet to see "The Aviator" or "Vera Drake" or "Finding Neverland" or "Being Julia". Haven't seen "Hotel Rwanda", "Motorcycle Diaries", "The Very Long Engagement". I haven't seen the Lemony Snicket mess of a movie and hope not to. And you'd have to pay me and pay me well to see "The Passion of the Christ."

I did see "Ray" and it's a fine biopic with and excellent performance by Foxx.

And my favorite movie of the year? "The Incredibles."