Monday, February 28

...And The Oscar Pool Goes To...

I had 24 contestants in my Oscar pool.  I had a pink highlighter and 12 sheets of paper (2 contestant's lists per)  on which I checked the correct guesses.  I found that it would pretty much take me the entirety of an acceptance speech to check through all 24 guesses for each category.  This made watching the Oscar ceremony much more of a task for me than it was in years previous.  However it made the 3+ hours fly by.
First, before I get to the results, a few comments on the entertainment value of the broadcast:  I was a bit disappointed in Chris Rock's monologue.  I didn't find it that funny, and I didn't appreciate the "wait for A-list actor" jokes.  While I didn't really find him all that funny, I did appreciate the pull-the-pants-down-on-Hollywood tone of his performance.  His "streeter" video where he got the opinion of black theatre-goers was not very good, but I did like the surprise of Albert Brooks showing up at the end of it (although I didn't think what he said was all that funny).  After the monologue,  Chris Rock was pretty much invisible.  While I appreciated him keeping things moving briskly, I could've used a few more attempts at jokes throughout the broadcast.
I was disappointed in the choices for Best Songs, and the performance of each was pretty much unremarkable.  All five songs were pretty blech and having Beyonce sing three of them seemed like an odd thing to do.  Five opportunities for bathroom breaks, as far as I was concerned.  Having YoYo Ma perform live for the memorial video was nice.  I am always saddened for those who appear on the list and then the applause dies down to nothing, only to resurrect itself for the next person.
As a watcher of the Oscar broadcast, I appreciated the efforts to speed up the evening.  Having all the nominees (of "lesser" categories) on stage was a good move, however as a human being with empathy, I felt bad for all the losers who were shuffled quickly off the stage.
That's about it.  A fairly bland show, I thought.  Now, on to the results:
While I certainly don't think I made any mistakes in my tabulations, I certainly don't guarantee my results, since I'm not going to double check them (I was kind of double checking as I went anyway).  If you have a problem with your score as compared to what I proclaim it to be, too bad.



I was disappointed in my picks.  I submitted my picks early.  In fact, mine was the first submission.  If I had waited until this week, many of my picks would have been different, after checking with odds-makers and getting a feel for the buzz of the awards.  Still, I stayed with my original choices and only got 10 correct.  Usually I average about 13-15 correct.
Rather than list all the contestants by name and their results, I am going to go this way:



2 people got 5 right
4 people got 7 right
2 people got 8 right
4 people got 9 right
3 people got 10 right
4 people got 11 right
2 people got 12 right
1 person got 13 right
3 people got 14 right
2 people got 15 right



and, the winner, with an amazing 17 of 24 guesses correct...



Matt Rainnie



Way to go, Matt.  You nailed it, my friend.  Your mix-cd is being conjured up in my brain as I type and live and breathe.  I'll get it to you shortly.



If you entered this contest and would like to know your score, just make that request in the comments of this post and I'll post it there, for all to see.



7 comments:

Ty said...

Bully to you... I guess he can remove "self-proclaimed" from claim the aficionado title. I hope I was not one of the two with 5 right, but I think it's a possibility.

dylan said...

Congrats to Matt. Clearly he used his CBC connections to get the oscar results early and only "guessed" wrong on a few to eliminate the suspicion. Well played Mr. Rainnie.
I of course didn't write down my picks and have no idea how I did. Rob?

graham said...

Good things to everyone.

Rob said...

Dylan, you faired one correct guess better than I. You scored 11 right.

maryanne said...

I didn't think Chris Rock was up to snuff at all, but was impressed that he managed to neutralize two-thirds of the mean comments by bringing them to bear on himself. I think I hate Beyonce now, but I might just be jealous.

Yanik said...

I just can't seem to hate Beyonce…
Maybe, we're destined to have a love child, but I don't think she's ready for my jelly.

Matt said...

Look forward to the groovin' tunes cd (no Antonio Banderas please). Thanks, man!