Tag Archives: Academy Awards

Oscar Night (or A Very Low-Key Award Show)

Posted on March 16, 2023 | Comments Off

After going to the Artios Awards earlier in the week, I was ready for a casual party for watching the Oscars. I was going to go to the same party that I normally go to, and I usually try to wear something comfortable when I go since I spend most of my time there sitting and watching the show. But since it’s also a costume party, I try to figure out something fun to do that also isn’t too awkward to sit in. I seem to be pretty good at figuring out lazy costumes, but this year I was cutting it close with making a costume.

Since I hadn’t seen that many of the movies, I knew it wouldn’t be too easy for me to be inspired for my costume. So I decided to pay attention to the names of the movies and use that for my inspiration instead of the characters and storylines. And I think I figured out something that was really funny and easy. I decided to go as the movie “Blonde”. For my costume, I used a box I already had and printed a photo of a hair dye box and covered the box with that. I know I could have gone out to buy hair dye, but I was doing this about an hour before I was leaving for the party and it was much cheaper to do this. But I think the box turned out ok and my lazy costume came together.

I didn’t wear anything to go with the costume, so I knew that there was almost no chance I would win the costume contest. But I know that I never place in the costume contest so I don’t try too hard. I just like to make a costume of something and this worked perfectly for me.

I got to the party right as it started, which was about an hour before the show started. Since I am in a room watching the show for most of the time I’m there, I wanted to get my social time in during that hour. A bunch of people were there early as well, and we had a nice food spread that was much fancier than what we normally have. Right before the show started, I put together a little plate and brought it to where I would be watching.

There are two viewing areas at this party, the quiet room and the loud room. I’m always in the quiet room since I like to focus on the show. We do talk during commercial breaks and sometimes we say little comments to each other during the show, but for the most part, we are quiet. Most people at the party hang out in the loud room, so we are a small group and I didn’t really see people who showed up after the show started until I took a break to get something during a commercial break. It does feel a bit weird to not be social when so many of my friends are hanging out just one room away, but I think everyone understands that we will hang out a little later in the evening.

I really enjoyed the Oscars this year. The show didn’t feel long even though it was a bit longer than in some past years. I loved the speeches and everyone seemed like they were happy for each other. There was a nice sense of community at the show that I don’t remember seeing in the past and that made it feel more like a celebration of the work that was done in the past year versus a competition. I think there are some things they should still fix, such as letting the winners speak and not cutting them off, but there have been changes that they have been working on making and I think they are paying off.

Once the awards were done, we all gathered to vote on the best costume and see who guessed the most winners correctly. I sometimes do well with guessing the winners, but this year wasn’t my year. I missed so many of them and I think there were 8 people who did better than I did. But that’s ok since almost all my guesses were random and not based on seeing the movies. And I just have fun being around everyone and winning something at the party isn’t something I feel like I need.

I wish I was able to stay later than I did, but I needed to head home to get to bed early so I could get enough sleep before my workout. But even with the limited social time I had while I was there, I still had a great time seeing my friends and I know I’ll see them again at whatever the next party will be. And that next party will be much more social since we won’t have a 3 1/2 hour long show to focus on.

Maybe next year, I’ll have a more interesting costume or will have seen more movies so I can make more educated guesses on who the winners will be. But even if that doesn’t happen, I know I’ll still have a great time watching the show in the quiet room and being in my lazy and casual costume.

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Tagged Academy Awards, awards, friends, Oscars, party

Watching The Oscars With Friends (or Another Thing That Is Almost Back To Normal)

Posted on March 30, 2022 | Comments Off

Even though the pandemic started just over 2 years ago, there was only 1 Oscar ceremony that was really affected by Covid. The 2020 ceremony was one of the last “normal” things that happened before everything shut down. Somehow, that feels like it wasn’t really 2 years ago but also so long ago. And I don’t think any of us were that worried about Covid at that time. I know we were all aware of it, but it still seemed so far away from us and not something that would affect us. We really had no clue what was about to come.

The Oscars last year was an odd experience to watch. There was no party to go to but the group that I normally see for the Oscars was together on Zoom. So we all watched on our own and then during the commercials, we unmuted our computers and talked about what we just saw. It was nice to be able to still be a bit connected for something that has become a tradition for us, but it was also a reminder of things that we were missing out on. And the ceremony itself didn’t feel the same as it normally does, so I think the entire evening felt a bit off to me. But I still was grateful that I was able to have something that reminded me a bit of what I used to get to do.

And for this year, my friends did a small gathering to watch the awards. Everyone who was there has been vaccinated and boosted and most of us are somewhat in a pod together or we don’t see others. I know that it would have been amazing to have a big party like we used to, but this was the way we had to do it to stay safe. I just was grateful that I am in this small protected pod so I was able to go. And I think also a bunch of people took Covid tests leading up to the party to be extra careful.

Because I was going to go to an in-person party, I had to think of a costume. I know that it would have been ok if I didn’t have one, but I wanted to take advantage of being with my friends and doing something that I used to do before the pandemic. But the problem with thinking of a costume was that I really didn’t see that many movies in the past year. I didn’t even see all the screeners I got for the SAG Awards. I hate how disconnected I have become with movies, but I’ve had other things taking up my time and I just don’t love watching movies at home as much as I do in theaters, and I don’t feel ready to go back to movie theaters just yet.

So I decided to look at a list of movies that came out last year to see if anything inspired me. I was willing to dress as either a character in a movie or something that represented a movie. And as I was looking down the list, I figured out what I should do pretty quickly. Even though I didn’t see this movie, there was a movie that came out last year called “Licorice Pizza”. And I knew I could do a fun thing with that movie name.

In one of my grocery deliveries a while ago, I ordered something that wasn’t available and they swapped it for these microwave french bread pizzas. So I had a pizza box. And it was very easy for me to go to the store and buy some of my favorite licorice. And my friend suggested I should find a way to make it a purse, so I took the strap off of a water bottle holder I had and used a hole punch to make holes in the pizza box.

It wasn’t a crazy or elaborate costume, but I thought it was fun and I was happy with how it looked. And I think other people really liked it and thought it was funny because it got a good reaction at the party! I didn’t place in the costume contest (but I never expect to) but I did get a few votes!

And this party was really so nice. It wasn’t exactly like the pre-pandemic parties, but it was close. I sat in the quiet room as usual to watch the Oscars, and there were only 3 of us who were in there most of the time. In the other viewing area, there were a lot more people watching but I like being in the quiet room. And a highlight of the evening was that one of the people at the party was in a commercial that aired during the awards! That was so much fun and I can’t remember that happening at another party.

Before and after the awards, a lot of us were trying to guess the movies in the pictures that Marie and Chris made. I wasn’t able to guess a lot of them, but that was more about me not knowing the movies that came out. I guessed some of them based on the picture and then was surprised that it was a movie title and I guessed it correctly.

Overall, I had such an amazing time at the Oscar party. It was something that I missed so much the year before and I am so glad that we were able to do something that felt so close to normal. I can’t really forget that we are still in a pandemic and that this had to be an acceptable risk for me, but it was still a bit of an escape from the real world for a few hours. And I just hope that things still keep getting better so that we can continue to have things get closer to the old normal as we did for the Oscars.

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Tagged Academy Awards, friends, Oscars, party

Still Watching The Oscars With Friends (or Not Missing This Tradition For Anything)

Posted on April 28, 2021 | Comments Off

I’ve been watching the Oscars with my friends for a long time. I actually looked back to see how long I’ve been going to Oscar parties with this group of friends and it’s been since I was 19! I knew it had been since I was in college, but I didn’t realize it was that long. I don’t have photos of all the costumes I’ve worn throughout the years, but I did find a lot of them when I was looking back at Oscar Parties past.

I love watching the Oscars with my friends and it’s a tradition that’s been a part of my life for a long time. But just like so much over the past year, we all knew this tradition wasn’t going to be able to happen the way that we were used to. A lot of us are vaccinated, but it’s still safer to avoid big parties right now. So the Oscar party this year was done how so many things have been done since the pandemic started. We had a party on Zoom.

We weren’t wearing costumes and we didn’t have the contest to guess the winners, but it still felt like the Oscar party that I love so much. The party is a lot about the people who go, and I loved seeing the people who were able to join.

Usually at the party, there is a quiet room and a loud room. The loud room talks during the show and the focus is a bit more on the party. The quiet room, where I always am, doesn’t allow talking during the show and you can talk during the commercials. We are social during the commercials, but I want to be able to hear what happens during the show and don’t want to miss anything.

Originally, I said I would be doing quiet room rules on Zoom and many others said they would be talking during the show. But we realized that we all had to almost do quiet room rules with muting things because our tvs weren’t at the exact same moment at the same time. So most of us muted ourselves (I also muted my computer) and a bunch of us turned off our videos during the show. And as soon as the commercials started, we were back on Zoom to discuss things. We also had the chat in Zoom going so we could say our silly remarks during the show.

The Oscars itself were interesting. I wasn’t as invested in it as I normally am (similar to how I felt during the SAG Awards). I wasn’t really rooting for any particular actors or films, but I do still love to see who wins. And since they didn’t have a time limit on the speeches this year, it was nice to hear the winners say what they want without getting cut off. And it was nice that for most of the winners, they were in the room so they didn’t have to give their speeches over Zoom. For the few that did do that, it seemed like things were set up a bit more officially than other award shows, so they didn’t have the technical issues that other shows have had. That was nice.

And even though I was watching the show on my couch by myself, I still was able to feel like I was watching with my friends. We got to be silly together and joke about what we watched during the show. And I think we all agree that next year, all of us are going to try to go all out for costumes since we didn’t wear costumes this time. Hopefully, next year I will have watched more of the movies that were nominated and will have stronger feelings about who I want to win.

But no matter what, I’m so glad that I was able to continue this tradition with my friends even though things weren’t the way we usually do them.

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Tagged Academy Awards, friends, Oscars, party

A Night Of Oscars (or Last Minute Costumes and Enjoying The Show)

Posted on February 27, 2019 | Comments Off

This past Sunday was the Oscars and as always I went to the party that my friends Marie and Chris have. It’s one of their parties that I look forward to every year and it’s one of the best ones that I think they do. I love seeing people in costume and I love being around amazing people as we watch the awards. The party is the perfect mix of both of those things and that’s what makes it so special to me.

There are some years that I think of my costume for the party way in advance and there are some times that it comes together the week of the party. It just depends if something inspires me. And as soon as I saw “Incredibles 2”, I thought I’d go to the party as Edna. I did that the year the first “Incredibles” came out and I got second place in the costume contest! It was the only time I placed in the costume contest so I thought it would be the perfect repeat costume.

But someone went as Edna to the Halloween party and I decided that I wanted to do something different. I wasn’t sure what I’d do, but I figured I’d think of something. But time flew by and it was the night before the party and I still had no idea on what I wanted to go as. I had an easy idea that night and figured I could easily do it (it mainly involved wearing stickers) and I knew it wouldn’t be anything spectacular.

Then, on Oscar Sunday morning, I was doing my laundry and saw my Disney dog leggings I got a few months ago in my dresser. I remembered that “Isle of Dogs” came out in 2018 (which is the only rule for the costumes) and thought that would be so much better than my original idea. So I was going to wear the leggings and make stickers of pet store aisles to wear on my shirt. The stickers didn’t want to stick on my shirt, so I only put one on and used the others as backups for when that one fell off. It wasn’t my best costume, but it was comfortable and fun and that’s the best combination.

The decorations for the party were all about Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and they had an amazing puppet backdrop to use and they made puppets to go along with it!

There are a couple of different spaces to watch the Oscars, but I always sit in the quiet room. We talk during the commercials, but during the show we are quiet. There is sometimes something said quickly while someone is walking up to the stage, but the point of the quiet room is to be able to watch (the other spaces to watch has people talking throughout the show and the focus is being more social). We usually have the same people each year in the quiet room and we are all good at following the quiet room rules. But we also know each other well enough to be ok with the little whispers and talk that may happen.

And one thing we kept discussing was the show. There was so much in the press about how this show was the first one without a host in a long time and there were people wondering how it was going to go. And we all kept saying how much we were enjoying it without a host. I feel like the presenters had more opportunities to be funny and have little bits and the show still seemed to move quickly. It only ended about 15 minutes late, which isn’t bad compared to other years.

And we also were discussing how happy we were that they didn’t give any of the Oscars during the commercial breaks. Originally, 4 of the awards were going to be done during the commercials so we wouldn’t be seeing them while watching the show. They were going to have them online, but that’s not the same. The Academy reversed their decision and I’m so glad that they did it. I thought it was a bad decision to not air all the awards because everyone equally deserves to be honored the same way when they win.

And honestly, I felt more inspired watching the speeches for some of the awards that were going to be during the commercials than I did for some of the bigger awards. I love seeing people who are truly passionate about what they do be recognized for their hard work. I especially love seeing the winners of the short animated film, short live action, short documentary, and feature length documentary because I know that many times those films are passion projects. They don’t necessarily create these films to try to win an award. They do it because they had a story they wanted to tell and they went out and did it. And when they win you can see the pure joy and excitement on their faces. It’s really amazing to watch and I’m so glad I didn’t have to watch it online later to experience that.

Overall, I felt like the show was a really good one. Going without a host worked well, the winners for the most part were who I wanted and the speeches they gave were good, and I had a great time with my friends. I did get a few votes in the costume contest, but I knew I wasn’t going to win. The winners had really incredible costumes and I can’t compete with those. I was in the top 5 for guessing the winners of all the awards which was better than I expected to do. So many of my guesses were random so it was just lucky I did that well.

I realized while watching the Oscars that there have been a lot of films I missed. I’m trying to find ways to catch up on some of them now, and I’ve already been able to watch the winner of the short documentary on Netflix. There’s no rush for me to catch up on them, but I do want to make an effort to try just so I can see what made all of those projects awesome. It will be some good entertainment between customers when it gets slower at my job later this year.

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Tagged Academy Awards, awards, costumes, friends, Oscars

Oscar Party Time (or Feeling Inspired)

Posted on March 7, 2018 | Comments Off

This past weekend was the Oscars and as usual I was at the party that my friends Marie and Chris do each year. This party is one of the best parties that they do because not only do they have amazing decorations but we get to watch the Oscars! I love seeing the awards being given out and I’m always happy to have an opportunity to figure out a fun costume.

I’ve been doing much more low-key costumes the past few years and this year that trend continued. I actually had this costume figured out last year when I saw “The Disaster Artist” for the first time. I had read the book first (which I recommend reading if you haven’t yet) and in the book as well as the movie the green screen almost became a character. It was so weird to create a green screen setup for a set that was right next to them. It makes no sense but that’s what they did. So I decided that I wanted to be the green screen from the movie as my costume.

I thought that there might be a chance someone else would get their costume inspiration from “The Disaster Artist”, but I was so excited to see that a friend dressed up as James Franco playing Tommy Wiseau so she could post the same way he is posed on my fake green screen!

And I loved the costumes that Marie and Chris wore (he was Pennywise and she was Tonya Harding).

And as more people arrived to the party, I was loving all the costumes. Some people went for costumes that made them look like characters from the movie (“Lady Bird”, “War For The Planet Of The Apes”, and “Get Out”) and others were more puns on the movie (the one with the name tags is “Call Me By Your Name”).

And before the show started, I also was checking out the decorations for the party. Marie and Chris had been posting online that they would be doing small this year and we all just figured that it was because they always go over-the-top and they needed a bit of a break. But it was more of a pun because they were inspired by the movie “Downsized” and did miniatures for all the decorations.

Once it was time for the Oscars to start, I hung out in the quiet room (where talking is only done during the commercials). More people hang out in the loud room, but I really do like to watch the awards and hear the speeches. I tried to go out of the quiet room during the commercials to socialize with people, but I pretty much stuck to my spot on the couch talking with the others in the quiet room between awards.

And since this was a live show, there was no way to forward through the commercials. Usually that bugs me, but this time we were noticing that the commercials were all pretty awesome. Most of them were about being creative and producing your own work. The commercials were very focused on inspiring those of us who were watching the Oscars from home but one day hope to be there. And they did inspire me. I was getting a little annoyed when we kept seeing the same commercials over and over again, but the inspiration I felt was more than the annoyance.

As far as predicting the winners, I didn’t do as well as I have in the past. I didn’t see as many of the nominated films as I hoped and I decided to guess the winners I wanted for some categories versus the winners that were more likely to happen. But that’s ok with me because there are some people at the party who take the guessing very seriously and do see pretty much everything that was nominated. I just like being around people who are as enthusiastic about watching the show as I am.

And most of the winners were what was predicted even if they weren’t necessarily the ones I picked. But it still made me so happy when I saw some of the winners like when Jordan Peele won for writing “Get Out”. That was one of my favorite movies of the year and I love how he has shared how hard it was for him to write it and how he quit so many times but just kept going. And I loved when the winners for live-action short film talked about how they got the money for their film by crowdsourcing. That’s something I’m familiar with and it’s a good reminder that as long as you have an idea, there is always a way to make it and you never know if it will win an Oscar.

After the show was done, everyone headed outside for the costume parade and voting. I knew I wasn’t going to win because there were so many amazing costumes, but I was hoping for at least a vote. And I did make it to the honorable mentions so that means someone voted for me (and it wasn’t me)! The winners all had amazing costumes and they totally deserved to win.

As soon as the winners for the costume contest were announced, I had to say goodbye so I could drive back home. I wish I could have stayed at the party longer, but I rarely can do that because of my schedule. But at least I got to spend Oscar Sunday with awesome friends and feeling like anything is possible!

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Tagged Academy Awards, acting, awards, friends, Oscars, party

Watching The Oscars (or Costumes and Twitter)

Posted on March 2, 2017 | 2 comments

I’m sure by now you have all seen and read about what happened at the Oscars. If you haven’t here’s a great article about how the wrong film was announced as best picture, how it happened, and what was done to try to correct it. While that is a huge part of what happened at the Oscars, that was only a small time at the party I was at.

I went to Chris and Marie’s house for the Oscars as I have every year for a long time. It’s a great party every year and I’m always looking forward to it. The group of people who go to the party are a mix of those of us who take the Oscars very seriously and those who aren’t super into the awards but love any opportunity to dress up and hang out.

I had an idea for a costume around New Year’s Eve, but it seemed too complicated for me to figure out how to make and I gave up on it. I had another idea for a costume and even went out and bought things for it, but I decided that I wouldn’t be comfortable in the costume. I started researching what movies came out in 2016 (since the only rule for costumes is that it needs to be related to a movie that came out in the past year), and finally found the perfect idea for me!

I went as Anthony Weiner’s twitter account (inspired by the documentary “Weiner”). I had a dry erase board with his twitter profile picture where people could write tweets and I wrote on tape on my body a couple of statements Anthony Weiner had made after his scandals were in the news. It was another easy/lazy costume, but fortunately people at the party found it really clever and fun.

As always, Chris and Marie decorated their house and yard for the party. This year, the theme was Arrival and they did an amazing job making decorations that were exactly like the movie. I especially loved the photo set up they made with the aliens from the movie!

Since there is a mix of people at the party, the viewing areas are split up. There is the quiet room and the regular viewing area. The quiet room used to be much more quiet, but over the years we’ve gotten a bit chattier. We are still very quiet during all the speeches, but we will occasionally talk or say a comment during the show. And of course we are super chatty during the commercials. But my favorite party of the quiet room is that the video is projected onto the wall of a room so we have a giant screen to watch on!

We have ballots to use for the guess the winners contest at the party, but pretty quickly I knew I wasn’t going to do so well with that. While “La La Land” wasn’t my favorite movie of the year, I knew so many critics loved it and I assumed it was going to win more awards than it did. I also hadn’t seen all of the animated, documentary, or short films so for many of those I had to guess. But so many people and films that I wanted to win did and I was really enjoying the show.

Then there was the moment when the wrong movie was announced as Best Picture. I don’t think I’ve heard so much screaming before during the Oscars. We were all so confused (as was probably everyone watching) and we couldn’t believe what was happening. I’m glad that the error was corrected during the show so the producers from “Moonlight” could get up and speak, but I know that it was a moment during the ceremony that will not be forgotten. I know it was an honest mistake, but it was a big mistake.

I think everyone was in shock after the awards were done, but we all headed to the backyard to start the costume contest. We all go around and announce what our costumes are so we can vote. When I announced my costume, I got a bunch of laughs, but I knew that my costume wasn’t going to be a winner. So many people had amazing costumes and I was just happy to see how creative other people can be.

I loved my friend Regan’s Hidden Figures costume (she was with some friends who played other characters from the movie). Their group got first place in the costume contest.

And the funniest costume I saw was actually the costume I was originally thinking of doing! When I went to see Dr. Strange, I immediately thought how cool it would be to go as the cape from the movie. I was trying to figure out how to make a cape look like it was levitating in front of me, but I never could figure out a simple enough solution. But my friend Andy figured out a really easy way to do it and I think his costume looked so much better than anything I could have done!

After the costume winners were announced, the party started to wind down pretty quickly. Most of the people at the party had to work the next morning (I had an early workout the next morning) so a lot of people were trying to get home. I left pretty early too, but since that’s when most people were leaving I didn’t feel like I was missing too much of the party. I went around saying goodbye to all of my friends and walked out to my car.

On a random side note, this was the first party since my car died on New Year’s Eve and it was a little stressful driving home. Even though I have a totally different car, I was still paranoid something would happen on my drive home. I’m sure I’ll feel like that for a while because things like that stick with me. But I got home safely and I’m so glad that I have a car that doesn’t have any problems!

Overall, it was yet another amazing party for the Oscars. I love getting together to watch the show and it makes me feel a part of an amazing community. Most of us know at least one person who works at the Oscars (I know 3 or 4), and we love getting to celebrate movies and be proud of our friends who are there. Hopefully one day I’ll get to attend the show in person, but I know if that happens I’ll probably miss going to the party since that’s what I look forward to each year!

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Tagged Academy Awards, costumes, friends, movies, Oscars, party, twitter

Oscars Time! (or Inside Out vs. Star Wars)

Posted on March 4, 2016 | 2 comments

After seeing my sister-in-law on Friday night and spending Saturday day/night and Sunday morning in San Diego, I was ready to lay low on Sunday and relax. But that was not in the plans for the day. This past Sunday was the Oscars, and as always I had an awesome party to get to!

I had planned out my costume carefully for the party. I knew that I would be coming back from San Diego that morning and wanted to make sure that even if we got caught in horrible traffic I’d have time to get ready. So I decided to make something that was easy to put on in case I only had minutes before I had to get out the door.

There were a couple of ideas that I had going for my costume, but the one I went with was actually the original idea I had.

Inside Out

I was Riley from “Inside Out” and had all the emotions coming out my head. I accomplished this by attaching each character to a zip tie that I had tied around a headband. It took a couple of tries to figure out something that would work (glue wasn’t helping to keep the characters upright), but I think it looked pretty cool in the end!

I was super excited to see how Marie and Chris would decorate their house. They definitely go all out and over the top, and I love it! And this year didn’t disappoint!

That X-Wing plane was made out of cardboard and PVC pipe and took up a good chuck on the backyard. And they made the BB8 and R2D2 out of various things they bought (the bottom of BB8 was a yoga ball). This was so impressive and amazing and we all took tons of pictures of it.

Before the Oscars started, I saved my seat in the quiet viewing room and got some food. I got there early enough that I had time to hang out with my friends before my focus went to the show.

Overall, I enjoyed the Oscars this year. I know there is a ton of controversy surrounding the show and the lack of diversity, but I think the Academy is taking some really great measures to make sure that this does not happen again. And of course the lack of diversity was mentioned a lot on the show so they weren’t trying to cover up for anything.

Normally I’m pretty good at guessing the winners, but this year was pretty bad for me! I got a couple of random ones right and best actor/actress correct. But there were plenty of surprises this year. While I enjoyed seeing “Mad Max”, I wasn’t expecting them to win as many Oscars as they did. They were all deserving wins, but not how I thought the Academy would vote. I also think that so many people were surprised by the supporting actor category as well as the best song (we were all crying watching Lady Gaga perform). And we were all pretty split on what would win best picture, and even though I really liked “Spotlight” it was not what most of us had picked to win.

Even though I was in the quiet viewing room, we were a bit louder than usual. Nobody seemed to mind so it worked out really well. There were a couple of people who were new to the Oscar party so we kept them informed on what the plan was for the night. I helped to let people know that after the In Memoriam segment several of us would gather to do a shot in memory of those we had lost in the past year. This year there was a special twist to it. At the New Years Eve party I had brought some of my grandpa’s vodka. The entire handle wasn’t consumed so we used that for the shot. And I had also brought the last jar of my grandpa’s blue cheese olives so many of us ate an olive (or added it to our shot like I did and made it like a martini).

For Grandpa

After the show ended, we all gathered in the backyard for the costume contest. While there was some variety in the costumes, it seemed like a majority of the costumes were either “Inside Out” themed or “Star Wars” themed. It was pretty crazy to see how many of us had the same idea (or the same costume like Dani and Marie had).

The Reys

Even though I liked my costume, I knew I didn’t stand a chance in the costume contest. I just like getting to participate and see what else everyone comes up with. I was the only person who had all the “Inside Out” characters on their head, so I was proud that I was at least a little bit original.

After the winners of the costume contest and award guessing were announced, most of us started to head home. I had an early morning the next morning and was still pretty exhausted from my weekend.

As I do every year, I had the best time at this party! It’s so much fun getting to watch the awards with friends who are just as excited about them as I am. And seeing how creative all my friends are with their costumes truly inspires me. Thank you Marie and Chris for being the most amazing hosts and creating such a fabulous party!

With Chris With Marie

I can’t wait to see what you come up with next year!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged Academy Awards, awards, costumes, friends, Oscars, party

Being “Wild” (or Not Guessing A Lot Of Winners Right This Year)

Posted on February 25, 2015 | 1 comment

For the Oscars this year, I was at Chris and Marie’s house like I always am. It really is such a great way to watch the awards and everyone who comes to the party is so awesome!

I was trying to plan out a super clever costume for a while and I decided that going as a Lego figure from “The Lego Movie” would be perfect! I was looking up costume ideas online when I noticed that someone else who attends the party had recently pinned several pins on Pinterest about Lego costume ideas. I was almost completely sure that they would be going as a Lego person, and I didn’t want to compete with that.

I was feeling a little uninspired by other movies so I was stuck on an idea until a few days before the show. I realized that while it might not be the most clever costume, I did have the clothing and some of the gear to go as Reese Witherspoon’s character from “Wild”. If I did that costume, I wouldn’t have to buy anything and it would be pretty comfortable to wear for the day.

So on the day of the party, I put on some workout clothes and my hiking shoes and grabbed my hiking poles and my backpack (which I stuffed my purse inside) and headed to the party. Considering the lack of effort I put into the costume, I think I looked pretty good!

I knew that my costume was pretty unlikely to win an award in the costume contest (I’ve only placed in that contest one time), so I was focusing on picking the winners on my ballot and hoping that I would place 1st or 2nd in that (since there are 2 prizes for guessing the winners). This wasn’t my most prepared year and I hadn’t seen as many of the films as I would have liked to, but I made my best guesses and felt pretty confident with what I picked.

That confidence was pretty short-lived once the show started. I did guess all of the acting categories correctly (and I’m super excited that JK Simmons won because he was a guest on the Inside Acting Podcast right before I started working with them). I also got the documentary and animation categories correct. But there were more that I guessed incorrectly than correctly.

I knew that there was no chance for me to win a prize, but that didn’t damper my experience at the party. I was having a great time and I thought that the Oscars were really good this year! I enjoyed the opening number as well as the performance for “Everything Is Awesome”. And while I was initially a little disappointed that Lady Gaga was the person doing the “Sound Of Music” montage, she did an amazing job and I really enjoyed watching how much Julie Andrews enjoyed Lady Gaga’s performance. And while the winners weren’t what I picked, I think all the winners were great choices and there were no awards where I was upset by who won.

After the awards were done, it was time for the costume parade so we could vote. Then it was time for the host and hostess to pass out the awards.

The friend who had pinned the Lego costumes on Pinterest was one of the winners. And all the other winners had costumes from “The Grand Budapest Hotel”.

Overall, it was the perfect way to spend Oscar Sunday. The rain was a little annoying, but since I was inside watching the awards pretty much the entire time, it didn’t bother me too much and I was able to have an amazing Sunday afternoon/evening!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged Academy Awards, costumes, Oscars, party, winner

“Into The Woods” (or Christmas Came Early For Me This Year)

Posted on December 4, 2014 | Comments Off

On Monday evening, I got an email from Women In Film letting me know that people who are a part of the mentoring circles have been invited to an advanced screening of “Into The Woods”.

“Into The Woods” is one of my favorite musicals. I saw it for the first time at a small production in Santa Barbara and have owned a DVD of the musical for a long time (and watch it pretty frequently).

When I first heard that the musical was being turned into a film, I was pretty nervous. Historically, the movies haven’t been my favorites and they seem to miss a lot of what I feel makes the musicals special. But even though I was scared I would hate the movie, it was one that I had been looking forward to seeing. And since it was opening on Christmas, my plan was to see it that morning.

But when I got the invitation to see it this week, I jumped at the chance. I emailed my RSVP quickly and hoped that I would get it. And wouldn’t you know it, I did!

The screening was held at CAA. If you aren’t in the entertainment industry, you might not know about CAA. They are the biggest agency in town representing the biggest and most famous actors out there. Pretty much, they are the top of the top of the agency game.

The invitation said that there was valet parking provided (since there really isn’t any street parking near CAA), and since it was raining I tried to get there early. But even with being there on the very early side, the line to valet park was a little crazy.

Once I got out of my car, there was almost no line to check in. I grabbed a program and followed a CAA employee to the front desk to have my parking validated. Then she led me and 2 other ladies into the screening room.

She told us that we could sit anywhere that it said reserved, and I chose to stick with the 2 ladies who walked in with me. The 3 of us found seats pretty much in the exact center of the room.

The screening room was amazing and very nice! I had previously seen the screening room at UTA (another agency) when I had one of my mentoring meetings. But this might have been a little nicer.

I started to talk with the ladies I sat next to and found out that one of them is a member of the Academy (as in the Academy Awards). This screening was an Academy screening so the members could view the film and decide if they would like to nominate it for any Oscars!

I believe a majority of the audience was Academy members and I felt very lucky and honored to be invited to such a cool event.

Jane Lynch (from “Glee”) was one of the people responsible for the screening, so prior to the movie starting she said a few words about how much she was looking forward to the movie.

Then, it was time for the movie to start.

For those of you who know the musical, you will not be disappointed. It stays very true to the original material and in some cases, I think the format of it being in a movie actually improves it. I was smiling pretty much the entire time that I was watching it. The performances were incredible and I think that the costumes and makeup were impeccable. I would be shocked if this didn’t get a ton of nominations for various awards.

The highlight of the movie for me was the song “Agony”. I think this is the funniest I’ve ever seen it done. And Chris Pine did a great job singing (I didn’t realize he was a singer).

Overall, this was so much fun to watch and I highly recommend it for everyone! I can’t wait until it comes out (or I get a screener for it) so I can watch it over and over again!

After the screening, there was a reception upstairs. I followed my seat mates (and new friends) to check out the reception (I wasn’t planning on staying, but how many times will I get this chance?).

The reception was held on the top floor of the building, and I just couldn’t get over how beautiful the building was!

I didn’t eat or drink anything at the reception (the lines were long), but I got to chat with some very nice people and even had the chance to thank Jane Lynch for putting on this event. She was very gracious and when I was saying goodbye I said my usual thing I say to industry people (pretty much along the lines of “I’m sure we will see each other again in the future”) and she said something that rally made my day. She said that she was sure that we would see each other again because our careers are following the same path. That meant so much to me.

I left the reception on cloud 9 after that!

Sometimes, I really have to stop and pinch myself because I never could have imagined that this would be my life. I have so many amazing opportunities and I really do see my career taking steps forward. If I couldn’t imagine this a few years ago, I can’t wait to see what my life will have in store for me in the next few years!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged Academy Awards, acting, christmas, movies, musical

Oscar Party (or Looking “Frozen”)

Posted on March 4, 2014 | 1 comment

The Oscars were this past weekend (but I’m sure you all already knew that). This is like the actor’s Super Bowl so of course it was a big deal!

I always go to my friends Marie and Chris‘ house for their party. I’ve been going for almost as long as I’ve lived in LA. And every year it’s a costume party.

I hadn’t felt too inspired with the movies this past year for a costume. The movies I loved had costumes that would be either too complicated to make or would be too simple and I wanted to try to do something a bit more.

After my hair was dyed, I realized that my hair is almost the exact same color as Anna in “Frozen”. Here’s a photo for reference:

I have a maroon sweater that looks like the cape and I wore blue jeans (because I thought I’d be too cold in a skirt). And I went to the beauty supply store and bought white/blonde clip in extensions so I could add the white streak to my hair. I tried to braid it but the extension kept getting lost in my hair, so I went with pigtails. After doing my hair and makeup, this is how I looked.

After getting dressed, I thought I did a pretty good job creating a more modern version of Anna.

Although my costume was tame compared to the hosts (aka cheerleader from “Monsters University” and Rayon from “Dallas Buyers Club”).

The party was awesome (as it always is!). There were great decorations and amazing food.

There were two different viewing areas to watch the awards show. I chose the quiet room for two reasons. One, I wanted to be able to hear all the speeches and the show. And two, Marie and Chris project the show on their garage wall so it’s a huge screen!

That was Chris celebrating as Jared Leto won for “Dallas Buyers Club”. He looked pretty good in drag and had great legs in heels.

I didn’t do too bad with my guesses for the winners. I got 20 out of 24 correct. But the winners of the guessing contest got 21 right! That’s ok. I’m happy with all the winners and thought that everyone deserved their awards.

After the show was over, everyone headed outside for the costume parade and a group photo.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to head home. I had such a great time at the party. I got to hang out with a ton of awesome friends and I got to see actors who I admire getting their Oscars.

Thanks again to Marie and Chris for being the best hosts ever! I can’t wait for next year!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged Academy Awards, acting, costumes, Oscars, party, TV

Tag Archives: Academy Awards

Oscar Night (or A Very Low-Key Award Show)

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Watching The Oscars With Friends (or Another Thing That Is Almost Back To Normal)

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Still Watching The Oscars With Friends (or Not Missing This Tradition For Anything)

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A Night Of Oscars (or Last Minute Costumes and Enjoying The Show)

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Oscar Party Time (or Feeling Inspired)

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Watching The Oscars (or Costumes and Twitter)

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Oscars Time! (or Inside Out vs. Star Wars)

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Being “Wild” (or Not Guessing A Lot Of Winners Right This Year)

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“Into The Woods” (or Christmas Came Early For Me This Year)

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Oscar Party (or Looking “Frozen”)

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