Time After Time

What advice did I give last week? Don't sing a Cindy Lauper song!!! Tonight one of the contestants ignored that sage advice, and proceeded to crash and burn. He'll be lucky to be around next week.

Oscar's Labyrinth

I missed 9 of the categories in my Oscar Pool, which includes all 24 categories. My guesses didn't pan out too well, and I always have a tough time with the cinematography category, for whatever reason.

I was wrong about:
Supporting Actor-Eddie Murphy
Foreign Language-Pan's Labyrinth
Cinematography-Children of Men
Film Editing-Babel
Art Direction-Dreamgirls
Costume Design-Dreamgirls
Original Song-"Listen"
Animated Feature-Cars
Animated Short-The Little Matchgirl

At Least Eddie Murphy Lost...

As I expected, Ellen DeGeneres was awwwfull as Oscar host. They might as well go with no host next year; they could save 20 minutes of bland drivel. A total lack of spontaneity made the proceedings even worse. DeGeneres followed the script like her life depended on it, despite chances for ad libs during the audience excursions.

I can only hope that the ratings were similarly awful. Otherwise they might ask her back, like they did with Whoopi. Come to think of it, Whoopi might have been better than Ellen. It is almost like the conservatives were so embarrassed by Borat that they had to have a banal, vanilla host bring innocuous tedium to the proceedings.

I Am Trying To Believe

My favorite parts of this so far are the use of passages from The Hobbit and Slaughterhouse-Five. Where it's going...well, that's the fun of it. This is fun, right?

Take These Songs and Learn To Sing

I continue to be thoroughly unimpressed by the American Idol "singers." The song choices are unbelievably bad. All Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion, and Aretha Franklin songs should be banned immediately. They've been done to death.

Here's two songs that will NEVER be performed because no one has the raw talent to sing them-Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" and Concrete Blonde's "Joey." Anyone who could sing, or better yet, sell one of those songs would become the Idol in waiting.

I'm also still waiting for someone to do a good job on a George Michael or Cindy Lauper song. The few attempts in the past have been absolute disasters.

A Winter of Discontent

The smoking bans in Champaign and Bloomington continue to provide some entertaining fallout. First there was this absurd story in the Daily Illini which tried to paint bar business as being down due to the smoking ban, even though this one week period coincided with the coldest part of the year. Then today a News-Gazette story details a confrontation between a bar owner and a patron who was a known advocate for the smoking ban. If his business was not hurting before, it might have a few less patrons now. What's funny is that he denied most of it, but admitted taking the woman's picture. Well, gee, as long as he only harassed her a little bit, that's fine.

The More Things Change, The More Things Change

The U of I campustown has changed drastically since I first set foot on campus in 1991. Few fast food restaurants remain, and some of those that still have a presence on campus have changed locations. Subway moved from above O'Malley's (which closed down after my sophomore year) to next to Kam's, and then back to Green Street. McDonald's was next to the Coed Theater. The theater was closed several years ago, and the McDonald's moved to the Union.

Burger King has a strange history. In addition to the one that had been on Green Street for many years, another one opened on the south side of green street, close to Wright while I was in school there. That second BK did not last too long before it closed. And then shockingly last year the old BK closed. I would have thought that its drive-thru business would have been enough to keep it open. Another mystery was what happened to Taco Bell, which opened up an "express" restaurant on Green, again while I was in school there, but I don't know if that one lasted more than two years. Garcia's Pizza was allegedly really popular at one time in Champaign. Well, the 1990s were not kind. At one time I think it had at least 4 (possibly 5) locations in Chambana. I ate their a few times, but the pizza was nothing great for the price, and I don't remember ever ordering a pizza from their-pizza by the slice only. My favorite cheap pizza, Grog's, closed a year or so after I graduated. Blimpie's on Green closed, which did not matter to me, as I never ate there. Fazzoli's, which was close to the same location, also closed. There used to be two Greek restaurants on Green, but I don't recall if they are still there. Arby's on Sixth Street closed down.

Jimmy John's was one of the few to expand successfully, with a location on Green closer to campus. What does all this mean? Well, I guess that greasy food is not as popular as it used to be. I also think that finicky students got tired of the traditional fast food burger joints. With all these closings you might wonder if Green Street is a ghost town, but it is actually more bustling than ever. The Wendy's at the corner of Sixth and Green closed down while I was still in school, and the building remained empty for several years. There is now a Noodles and Co. and Flattop Grill in that general area.

Various other stores and bars have closed. It really is astonishing to think about all that has changed in the business district. I'm still not sure why, but it has happened, and overall I like it. It has a modern look now, which beats the dumpy appearance it had back in 1991. Now if only they would demolish Kam's!

The World Is Coming to an End

This is really shocking. UI canceled class today. Why shocking? It's the first time that has happened since 1979. I'm still not sure that today is worse than some of the days when I was in school. It's the drifting that is the problem, along with the last of the snow finishing up late this afternoon, or early tonight. I can remember that we had class even when the temperature didn't get above 0. I would rather walk in snow drifts than in temperatures that cold. It's hard to say how much snow we have received here. The snow is blowing so much that it is either 3 feet deep or barely covering the grass, depending on the locale.

Dueling to the End

Sunday we watched Barry Lyndon. Monday morning came the news that Ryan O'Neal was involved in a violent altercation with his son. The parallels between fiction and real life are striking. I am surprised that I appear to be the only one to make the connection between the character of Redmond Barry and Ryan O'Neal. He even named his youngest son Redmond, as if he felt some special affinity for that character.