Oscar Winners 2011

• Partial List of Oscar winners. For complete list go to http://www.oscars.com/

Listed By Film

Alice In Wonderland

• Best Art Direction
• Best Costume Design

Inception

• Cinematography
• Best Sound Mixing
• Best Sound Editing
• Best Visual Effects

The Fighter

• Best Supporting Actress Melissa Leo
• Best Supporting Actor- Christian Bale

Black Swan

• Natalie Portman Best Leading Actress Very well deserved

Toy Story 3

• Best Animated Feature
• Best Original Song We Belong Together

The King's Speech

• Best Lead Actor Colin Firth Very well deserved!
• Best Original Screenplay David Seidler
• Best Director Tom Hooper
• Best Picture

Faith Restored

Last year by the end of the season for American Idol while I was happpy with who won I was diappointed with the overall talent pool and felt it was pretty lackluster. This year there have been big changes New judges and new show fortmat. The cut out te top 32 and now have narrowed down the compettion to top 24 which makes things drag out a whole lot less. While I still miss Paula Abdul (and slightly miss Simon Cowell) I am impressed by what Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler bring to the table as judges. I think overall this is going to be a good season.

Now to the contestats. A few of my favorites have already been eliminated but for the most part I am happy with the top 24 this year. If highlighted in blue or orange it means they are my top picks
Boys
Scotty
Clint
Jovanni
Paul
Brett
Casey
James
Stefano
Jacob
Tim
Jordan
Robbie
Girls
Naimia
Haylee
Ashton
Karen
Tataynisa (sp)
Julie
Lauren
Kendra
Lauren
Rachel
Pia
Thea

Oscar Picks 2011

The Oscars are on Sunday. I am really excited about them because I have seen quite a few of the movies that are nominated and am interested to see how they do.
For full list of nominees go to the Oscars websiter I am only listing a partial list of nominees here
* Who should win !Who will win
Best Lead Actor
*!Colin Firth The King's Speech
James Franco 127 Hours
Javier Bardem Biutiful
*Jeff Bridges True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg The Social Network
With this category it's hard to pick between Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth. I think they both gave amazing performance but when it comes down to thr truth Colin First deserves the win because he gave one of the most powerful onscreen performances I have seen.
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale The Figther
Jeremy Renner The Town
Mark Ruffalo The Kids Are Alright
John Hawkes Winter's Bone
*!Geofrey Rush The King's Speech
There are a couple categories I exercise some bias in because I haven't seen all the movies in the category...this being one. I've been meaning to see The Town and The Fighter but haven't gptten around to it yet Like Firth Rush was amazing in his role.
Best Lead Actress
Annette Benning The Kids Are Alright
Nicole Kidman Rabbit Hole
*!Natalie Portman Black Swan
Jennifer Laweremce Winter's Bone
Michelle Williams Blue Valentine
Once again I excercise some bias because Black Swan was the only movie in this category that I saw. Natalie Portman was amazing in this role and if she doesn't win I will be as equally upsest as I will be if Colin Firth does not win Best Actor. I have seen Nicole Kidman in other movies and she is one of my favorite actress but I can't make a fair judgement of Rabbit Holr ss I have not yet seen it.
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams The Fighter
Melissa Leo The Fighter
Jacki Weaver Animal Kingdom
*Helena Bohem Carter The King's Speech
*! Hailee Steinfeld True Grit
It's a toss up between Bohem Carter and Steinfeld but Ithink Steinfeld will win. She is an up and comimg actress and amazingly talented for 14 years old.
Best Original Screen Play
^ I haven't seen this yet but heard it was amazing and think it should have gotten best picture.
The Fighter ( Scott Silver,Paul Tamsey,Keith Dorrington, Evan Johnson)
Insception (Christopher Nolan)^
*!David Siedler The King's Speech
The Kids Are Alright (Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Stuart Blumberg)
Best Adapted ScreenPlay
*!Aaron Sorkin The Social Network
Danny Boyle and Simon Bufoy 127 Hours
*Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Lasseter and Lee Unkrich Toy Story 3
*!Joel and Ethan Coen True Grit
Debra Granik and Anne Rosselini Winter's Bone
This one is really hard category for my to pick a winner. While Social Network may not have been that great of an overall film I thought the story was good and very in tune with today's society since there are so many people today who use Facebook. I have a soft spot for the Toy Story series because I practially grew up with it and have seen all three movies and loved the chracter growth throughout all three films and thought the film was very emotional. True Grit was amazing. I have never seen the original so I have nothing to really compare it to but I thought it was an overall good film. Well acted and well directed.
Best Director
Tom Hopper The King's Speech
David Fincher The Social Network
David O Russell The Fighter
Joel and Ethan Coen True Grit
Darren Oronofsky Black Swan
Saw most of these movies and they were all very well directed so it's hard for me to choose.
Best Song
Coming Home Country Strong
If I Rise 127 Hours
*I See The Light Tangled
*We Belong Together Toy Story 3
Both of these songs were good so it's hard to pick a winner. If I had choose one I'd probably choose I See The Light. Im a huge Mandy Moore fan .. and no I am not just biased to her because she is from Nashua. There were two songs from Burlusque which I feel the committee totally overlooked.
Best Animated Feature
*!Toy Story 3
The Illuionist
How To Train Your Dragon

Dispicable Me was totally robbed of a nomination for this catergory ss was Tangled.
Best Score
How To Train Your Dragon John Powell
Inception Hans Zimmer
*Alexandre Desplat The King's Speech
*!Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Social Network
A.R Rahman 127 Hours


Weigh in with your thoughts

80s Juke Box

I was born in the late 80s so 80s music is not really my era but to keep things interesting this year I want to have a theme party for my birthday. My birthday is 6 months and 3 days away so I still awhile to plan it. When I worked at the Barn Playhouse one of the cast parties that we had was as 80s costume party. Of course I was largely unprepared for that party costumewise but other people had some pretty cool costumes. I can't exactly remember what people dressed up as though. I would have to go back and look at my facebook photos from the cast party for furthur reference. I was thinking of doing a similar thing for my birthday party this year only stepping things up and giving people the option to not only dress up as music icons from the 80s (Michael Jackson, Madonna etc) I was also considering suggesting that people dress up as characters from muiscals from the 80s. I already have an idea for what I want to dress up as and my choice was not that hard to make. :)

Some ideas for possible musicals people could dress up for my party suggeted by people on Broadwayspace include
CATS
Little Shop of Horrors
La Cage Aux Folles
Into The Woods



The inivitation of course will not be sent out til the end of July or middle of August. By then I will have a full list finalizrd of suggestions for what people can dress up as. People are also welcome to select thoor own costumes too.. or even make them if they feel so incliined:)
This party willl be the best and most epic and fun party to date..... let's hope!

Broadwaysecret of The Week

This week's broadway secret is about the new musical Catch Me If You Can which is opening on Broadway in a few weeks. I have been experiencing technical difficultines with my computer so I am temporarily om my mom's computer until I can get the issues fixed..I can't get the picture of the bway secret to upload.

Anyway the poster of the secret said she is excited to see my friend Jay perform as the understudy for Aaron Teveit. I share her excitement ( assuming the poster is a girl.. i don't know the gender of the poster since post remains anonymous.)

I was not a huge fan of the movie version of this musical and hope it translates welll to the stage. When movies are made into musicals it can either be a hit or miss. Examples would be the Disney movies some musical versions of Disney movies have been hits (Beauty and The Beast and Lion King) others have been misses ( I didn't hear usch good things about Little Mermaid though I never got the chance to go see it) and others I haven't heaed many reviews about so I can't make a judgement (Mary Poppins) OTher non- disney movies have also recently been madde into musicals and I'm not sure how well they have done. Spiderman is still in previews but has been plagued by injuries so I am not sure when that is even supposed to be opening. The holiday classic Elf closed on January 2nd and I'm not sure how well that play translated to the Braodway stage. Interested to see what people thought of Elf and what people will think of Catch Me If You Can.


Good luck to Jay and the cast of Catch Me If You Can with opening night :)

Here's to 5 Years and many more great times ahead

As a bit of background every senior at Souhegan High School has to do a senior project about something they are passionate about. My senior project was about how people with disabilities use poetry to express themselves and I taught a poetry class to a group of students of from Crotched Mountain School in Greenfield. For those who remember my presentation it was pretty epic. What I am about to tell you about is pretty epic in itself.. or perhaps just epically amazing.


Last night was the 5 Year Anniversary Celebration for the Riverbend Youth Company. Aly McKnight organized the event for her senir project and she did an amazing job with putting it together.. major kudos to her (and also who ever made th mac and cheese for the pot luck because that was delcious. I have only been involved with Riverbend since last year teching four shows Annie Jr, Wizard of Oz (which won an award for coolest tech effect for the flying monkeys) ,The Man Who Came To Dinner and Guys and Dolls Jr. All shows have been amazing and I have enjoyed working on all of them.

The night started with a wonderful potluck supper in the Miltipurpose Room. Lots of delcious food including the aforementioned macarono and cheese. We then went into the theatre for the award portion of the show which also included slide shows and musical performances from past Riverbend Shows. It loved seeing all the pictures from the shows I've seen and worked on in the past two years as well of shows from Riverbend's 5 year history that I may not have gotten the chance to see. There were awards presented for Best Brush Up Rehearsal Moment (Thriller) Raise The Roof Award (Sit Down You're Walking The Boat Guys and Dolls) The Awww Award to name a few. Parent Volunteers. tecnicians, directors, music directors and chreographers were reconized for their dedication to the programs that the Riverbend School of Theatre Arts and Riverbend Youth Company have to offer. Congrats to all awards recipients! Performances included Get Me To The Church on Time from My Fair Lady,An Annie Medley of You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile and Hardknock Life) and Footloose from Back To 80s.

It was a very fun night. Once again I give huge kudos to Aly for organizing it. :)

Here's to 5 years of fun for Riverbend Youth Company and many more good memories to come!

My recent chapter in Standing Up Again

Ending It
Standing Up Again Chapter 7

A/N: HermoineLennon was unable to collaborate with me anymore so I'm tying up the loose ends to this fic myself. This will be my final Little Shop fan fic. It is high time I move on to other fandoms. Thanks to all have commented on my Little Shop fics. I am hope you still continue to read my other stuff. Please remember I do not own rights t o the characters from Little Shop. The only ones I own rights to are the ones I created myself, Audrey's father and sisters who are explored in more depth In my 2nd full length LSOH fic Epilogue To The Three Matchmakers.
The next morning Audrey woke up… briefly forgetting where she was. She then looked around and realized she was in a futon bed in Chiffon's bedroom. She was felt liberated about having the courage to stand up to Orin the previous night but was slightly scared about what would happen next.
Chiffon's alarm clock glared in her face. It read 7:45. If she did not hurry she would be late for work. She had completely forgotten that she had promised Mr. Mushnik she would be in by 8:30 to get a new flower arrangement ready for a first communion that was that afternoon.
She knocked on the bathroom door and was grateful no one else was in the shower. She showered and put some make up on..to cover up what she hoped would be the last bruises she would ever get from Orin.
When she got to the kitchen Crystal, Chiffon and Ronette were all waiting for her at the table
Ronette got up to embrace her. "Chiffon was just telling us about last night." She said with a smile.
"Yeah, girl we're happy for you that you finally stood up to Orin." Crystal said
Audrey broke free from her embrace. "I can't stay and reminisce for long. I totally forgot I had to be in work early today so I have to kind of eat on the run."
"What time do you have to be there?" Crystal asked
"8:30."
"Well It's only 5 of 8 you'll have plenty of time to get over there." Chiffon said putting a steaming plate of eggs and bacon in front of her friend.
Audrey agreed.
"So what's your next step?" Crystal asked.
Audrey swallowed a mouthful of bacon and eggs.
"No question about it, I'm definitely dumping him. I don't know why I've waited this long." Audrey said with a smile.
Her friends grinned at her.
"Excellent!" Ronette said
"I'm just kind of afraid of the aftermath."
Chiffon looked confused. "What aftermath?"
"Well, the first thing I'm worried about is the fact that abuse could easily get wose."
"It won't." Ronette assured her.
"I wouldn't be so quick to judge, that guy is a physcopath." Chiffon said.
"What's the second thing you're worried about?"
Audrey got dreamy eyed for a moment but then her demeanor changed and she let out an exasperated sigh,
"Orin constantly accuses me of cheating on him with Seymour." She said
"You wouldn't do that, not in a million years!" Ronette said instantly angry that Orin would dream of making that accusation.
"Of course not. He doesn't know that I have feelings for Seymour, but soon enough weather or not he knows or cares about that won't make a difference…at least not to me."
"Are you worried Seymour might be put in danger?" Crystal asked.
"Yes. I think Orin knows I have feelings for Seymour.. I don't know he'd be able to figure that out but he's definitely on to something if he keeps accusing me of cheating."
"But you're not cheating. You and Seymour aren't even dating." Crystal said
"Yet, we're not dating yet." Audrey countered.
"Are you asking him out?" Crystal asked after three minutes of awestruck silence.
"Yes, soon after I break up with Orin I plan on asking Seymour out."
"Good for you!" Ronette was smiling from ear to ear
"Yeah, Audrey. You and Seymour would make a great couple." Crystal said squeezing her friend's hand approvingly.
"Thanks. I think it will be a lot easier to move my relationship with Seymour to the next level once Orin is out of the picture."
Audrey looked at the clock and noticed it was 8:15. "Gotta go,guys. See you later."
Audrey walked in the to the flower shop all smiles
"Good Morning Audrey. You're looking chipper today." Mr. Mushnik greeted his employee.
"Mornin' Mr. Mushnik."
"Did you talk to Orin last night?"
"Yes I did. He wasn't too happy… as you can probably tell from my latest bruise but I stood my ground."
"Good for you my child. I am proud of you. Now get to work on those bouquets for the first communion they need to be at the church by 11:15."
"Yes sir, right away. Is Seymour here yet? I want to tell him the great news."
"Yes, right now he's watering the Audrey II. He'll be back to help you with bouquets in a second."
Audrey smiled and walked to the back room.. getting to work immediately. Seymour joined her a few minutes later.
"So Mr. Mushnik said you finally stood up to Orin." Seymour said
"Sure did."
"Do you feel better now?"
"Slightly vindicated… yet slightly scared."
"Have you decided to dump him?"
"Yes but I am worried about the after effects?"
"Like what?"
"Well he has accused me of cheating on him with you several times ."
Seymour was floored.
"You know, I'd never ever cheat."
Audrey grinned at her co-worker "Of course I do, but he doesn't know you as well as I do so that's why he's so accusatory."
"Are you worried he's gonna hurt me or something?"
"Sort of."
"Well, I won't let that loser beat me up Audrey. I've got twice as much backbone as him."
'Yeah, but I wouldn't want you to get pulverized." Audrey thought to herself.
"So do you think we could start dating?" Seymour asked timidly not wanting to tread uneven waters.
"Yes, Seymour… I'd like that a lot. I have to end things with Orin first though."
"When do you plan on doing that?"
"We're giving each other space for awhile… I'm sure he won't stay away for long though."
"After you dump him I hope he stays away forever." Seymour said.
Audrey reached across the table, grabbed his hand and whispered "Me too."
"I love you Audrey."
"I love you too."
Before they could even think of kissing when Mr. Mushnik could easily catch them they immediately returned back to their work.
The week flew by… on Friday at the end of her shift Audrey was surprised to see Orin waiting for her outside the store.
There was awkward silence for a long time.
"Hi Audrey."
"Hello Orin."
"So you stickin with me or what?" Orin asked getting straight to the point.
Audrey led out a long sigh.
"No Orin. This is the end"
Orin raised a fist prepared to slap her. He was happy no one was around to back her up this time.
"You dirty slut."
"Sorry Orin, I'm not going to take your belittling comments anymore. WE ARE THROUGH!"
His fist connected with her face.
"I'll pummel that twerp Seymour if he had anything to do with this." Orin fumed
Audrey let out another long sigh.
"I'll admit Orin, I do have feelings for Seymour but they only started recently. I would never cheat on you with him but I figured it was only fair to tell you I have feelings for him."
"He had nothing to do with your choice to break up with me?"
"No, none at all. SO LEAVE HIM THE FUCK OUT OF THIS!"
"Hell, I will."
Another fist to face connection.
"I'll punch his face in next!" Orin threatened
"NO YOU WON"T!
The booming voice of Mr. Mushnik made both Orin and Audrey jump.
"Mr. Mushnik, I had no idea you were watching us." Audrey said.
Mr. Mushnik was red in the face. He felt had been silent long enough and turned to face Orin.
"I never liked you from the start and I like you even less with the way I've just seen you treat Audrey. Leave her alone. I will not have you threatening my employees. If I see around here again you will be banned from the premises."
Orin was enraged. He turned his advances to Mr. Mushnik
"Raise that fist to me and I'll call the cops." It was now Mr. Mushnik's turn to threaten.
Instead of punching Mr. Mushnik Orin looked at Audrey furiously.
"You'll pay for this. I'll find a way to make you pay." Orin said.
"Leave me alone Orin, I never want to see you again…ever!" Audrey said
Orin walked away in a fit of rage
Mr. Mushnik put his arm around Audrey.
"You did amazing Audrey… I'm just as proud of you as I was this morning."
Audrey suddenly realized she was proud of herself too. She could finally be happy… and start a relationship with Seymour she knew she deserved. She smiled and simply said "Thanks Mr. Mushnik."

To read the complete version of this fan fiction go to http://fanfiction.net/showtunediva
This fan fiction has been rated T for Violence and Language.