Posted tagged ‘Academy Awards’

Oscars Handed out at 82nd Academy Awards

March 7, 2010

A big night in Hollywood tonight with the much anticipated 82 Annual Academy Awards.

Unfortunately, I missed most of the show but thankfully, as always, the Oscars ran long so I was able to watch the final four award presentations.

I heard that the show itself was good, with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosting, but I also heard that for some reason, Farrah Fawcett was left off the tribute of those who have passed in the last year. Strange.

I’ll have to catch up on my movies since I’ve only seen one of the ten movies that was up for Best Picture, and that was UP.

From the New York Daily News:

The Hurt Locker” dominated the Oscars on Sunday night, winning six awards – including Best Picture and Best Director.

Kathryn Bigelow took home the Best Director Oscar, beating out “Avatar” director James Cameron.

Jeff Bridges won the Best Actor award Sunday night, taking him the trophy for his performance in “Crazy Heart.”

Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for “The Blind Side.” For both Bridges and Bullock, it was their first Oscars.

Mo’Nique won Best Supporting Actress for her turn as a monstrous mother in “Precious.”‘

Barack Obama Inauguration Schedule

January 19, 2009

For those looking for it, the Associated Press has a full schedule of Barack Obama’s inaugural events and it can be found below.

From the article:

MONDAY, JAN. 19

  • National Day of Community Service event: To honor Dr. King’s legacy, Obama, Biden and their families, joined by Americans across the country, will participate in activities dedicated to serving others in communities across the Washington, D.C. area.
  • Black Tie & Boots Inaugural Ball, sponsored by the Texas State Society, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.
  • Green Inaugural Ball at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. Ball hosted by former Vice President Al Gore.
  • Huffington Post preinaugural ball at the Newseum.
  • Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball at the Harman Center for the Arts. Hosted by the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Russell Simmons, LL Cool J, among others.
  • A children’s evening concert at the Verizon Center honoring military families. Event hosted by Michelle Obama, who will attend. Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers are among the entertainers.
  • Obama to attend three private dinners to honor former secretary of State Colin Powell, Biden and Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, for their public service. Dinners at the Hilton Washington, National Building Museum and Union Station.

TUESDAY, JAN. 20 (INAUGURATION DAY)

  • Gates to the Inaugural Ceremony open at 8 a.m. The inaugural festivities are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. They will include:
  • Musical selections of The United States Marine Band, followed by the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
  • Sen. Dianne Feinstein provides call to order and welcoming remarks.
  • Invocation by the Rev. Rick Warren.
  • Musical selection of Aretha Franklin.
  • Biden will be sworn into office by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
  • Musical selection of John Williams, composer/arranger with Itzhak Perlman, (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet).
  • Obama will take the Oath of Office, using President Lincoln’s Inaugural Bible, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. Scheduled around noon.
  • Obama gives the inaugural address.
  • Poem by Elizabeth Alexander.
  • Benediction by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery.
  • The National Anthem by The United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters.”

After Obama gives inaugural address, he will escort outgoing President George W. Bush to a departure ceremony before attending a luncheon in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

The 56th Inaugural Parade will then make its way down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.

Later that day, the Presidential Inaugural Committee will host 10 official inaugural balls:

  • Neighborhood Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
  • Obama Home States (Illinois and Hawaii) Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
  • Biden Home States (Pennsylvania and Delaware) Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
  • Midwest Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
  • Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
  • Western Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
  • Commander in Chief’s Ball at the National Building Museum.
  • Southern Inaugural Ball at the National Guard Armory.
  • Eastern Inaugural Ball at Union Station.
  • Youth Inaugural Ball at the Washington Hilton.

Unofficial balls include:

  • Congressional Black Caucus Inaugural Ball at the Capitol Hilton.
  • Creative Coalition Inaugural Ball at the Harman Center for the Arts.
  • Recording Industry Association of America’s ball for Feeding America.
  • BET’s Inaugural Ball at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
  • Africa on the Potomac inaugural celebration at Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va.
  • American Music Inaugural Ball at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
  • Inaugural Purple Ball at the Fairmont Hotel.
  • Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Ball at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel.
  • Inaugural Peace Ball at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
  • Impact Film Fund ball.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21

  • The president, vice president and their families will participate in a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral.

Newsday also has an in depth look at the festivities.

From the article:

With Barack Obama set to be inaugurated Tuesday as the nation’s 44th president, the day figures to be one of the most-covered live events ever — on television, radio or online.

Estimates put the potential worldwide audience for Obama’s swearing-in in the billions, a figure that could dwarf viewership numbers for the Super Bowl and Academy Awards and reach heights ordinarily seen only by the Olympics and the World Cup.

Following is an hour-by-hour account of what to look for as you keep up with the day’s proceedings:

5 a.m.

CNN kicks off the day’s live event coverage from Capitol Hill. C-Span and the other broadcast and cable networks begin their day at 6 a.m., so expect to see a lot of talking heads doing a lot of talking. There will also be copious live shots of empty stages and digital maps of the parade route as the anchors and correspondents fill hours talking about what their viewers are about to see.

8 a.m.
Security gates open for ticketholders for the swearing in and the National Mall. Expect to see shots of cold, but excited attendees slowly making their way through security gates at entrances to the swearing-in viewing areas and on the National Mall. Inauguration officials have advised anyone with tickets to arrive no later than 9 a.m. to get through security. Nonetheless, expect to see people in lines well before and after the official program starts.

10 a.m.
Now the show starts for real. The swearing-in ceremony begins with music from the Marine Band, the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will issue the call to order and make brief welcoming remarks before making way for probably the day’s most controversial figure, Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

Obama infuriated gay and lesbian groups when he announced earlier this month that Warren, a conservative evangelical megachurch minister, would deliver the invocation. The Obama camp attempted to defuse the situation by naming Gene Robinson, an openly-gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, to give the invocation at Sunday’s inauguration opening ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial.

Warren, 54, has a long record of staunchly opposing same-sex marriage, though he most certainly will deliver a nondenominational prayer today.

10:30 a.m.
After a song by Aretha Franklin, who also sang at President Bill Clinton‘s first inauguration, Joe Biden will be sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Stevens, 88, is the court’s oldest and most liberal justice and, to put it gently, since the justices have lifetime appointments, the most likely to be replaced during Obama’s term.

This will be Biden’s second swearing-in ceremony in as many weeks. He took the oath for his seventh term in the Senate Jan. 6, then officially resigned the seat Jan. 15.

11 a.m. The third musical interlude features composer and Floral Park native John Williams (noted for his “Star Wars” scores, among other accomplishments), violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill.

Once Williams and the foursome are through playing, Obama and John Roberts, the Supreme Court’s chief justice, will take center stage.

The swearing-in duties will be Roberts’ first, making him the 14th chief justice to swear in a president.

Every elected president since John Adams has been sworn in by the chief justice. (In 1789, George Washington was sworn in by Robert Livingston, the New York state chancellor, and William Cushing, an associate justice, in 1793.)

When presidents have died in office, the oath has been administered by an available judge or, in Calvin Coolidge‘s case, by his father, a notary public.

Obama, placing his hand on Abraham Lincoln‘s inaugural Bible, will recite the same oath as his 43 predecessors, as prescribed by the Constitution: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Noon
Obama’s inaugural address is perhaps one of the most anticipated political speeches in modern American history. It will be televised on scores of television networks worldwide, giving Obama an unprecedented platform to deliver his message to the world. Expectations for the speech are understandably enormous, so look for Obama to give a speech heavy on soaring language, and light on specifics.

The address will be followed by a poem composed and read by New York-born poet Elizabeth Alexander. The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery will follow with a benediction and the program concludes with a playing of the national anthem by the U.S. Navy band Sea Chanters.

12:30 p.m. After Obama, now President Obama, finishes his inaugural address, he will accompany now-former President George W. Bush to a departure ceremony at the Capitol and then attend a luncheon at the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. The three-course meal featuring stewed and scalloped oysters and an apple desert, is inspired by Lincoln’s culinary favorites. Obama, Biden and their families, the Supreme Court justices, cabinet designees and the congressional leadership are expected to attend.

At 1:25 p.m., Bush will make “brief remarks” at a departure ceremony.

2:30 p.m.
The 56th Inaugural Parade will make its way down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, with groups including the Mobile Azalea Trail Maids, from Alabama, and the University of Delaware Fightin Blue Hen Marching Band, having traveled from all over the country to participate.

Despite the predicted cold weather — forecasts are calling for highs near 30 and chance of snow — expect Obama to emerge from his limousine to walk a stretch of the route.

In doing so, he would follow a tradition established by Jimmy Carter that now seems ingrained in presidential inauguration. Carter’s 1.5-mile walk, which he made with his wife, Rosalynn, was designed to show that the country had emerged from the stain of the Watergate scandal. The symbolism struck home, and President Bill Clinton and both Presidents Bush also walked a stretch of the parade route.

6 p.m. The parade marks the end of the inauguration ceremonies, but Washington parties begin at 6 p.m., when the inaugural balls begin with the Commander-in-Chief’s Ball and the Eastern States Ball.

There’s also a ball that touts itself as “the largest gathering of peace activists without a protest” (Harry Belafonte and Joan Baez are attending), a Funk 4 Peace ball and a ball thrown by the D.C. municipal government to highlight the capital’s lack of representation in the federal government.

The Obamas are expected to attend 10 official inaugural balls: The Commander-in-Chief’s Ball, the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball, a Youth Ball, five official regional balls — including the Mid-Atlantic ball at the Washington Convention Center, for invitees from New York and four other states and the District of Columbia — and Home States Balls thrown by Hawaii and Illinois for Obama and Delaware and Pennsylvania for Biden.