Just now I was thinking about an obscure TV show that ran on PBS when I was a kid called “Bits and Bytes.” It was about computers and I think it was 15 minutes long. I’d fruitlessly looked it up on Google in the past, but for some reason I never thought to look on IMDB. It was there, of course, and it had the names of the two cast members. So I googled them and found a web page about the show with a bunch of screen captures and the words to the theme song. Turns out it was produced by TV Ontario.

“Bits and Bytes of information… turn darkness… to light…”

Oh, Internet, I love you.

I think this gets its right about the reviews of Jon Stewart’s turn as Oscar host:

There isn’t really much a host, whether it’s Dave Letterman, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, or the “gold standards” of hosts — Billy Crystal, Bob Hope, and Johnny Carson — can do to make the show any less of a bloated mess….

[T]hese critics forget one salient fact: this isn’t a fake news show, this is THE OSCARS, a show about entertainment and the movies. It’s not about politics or the media or race relations (to address the critics of Chris Rock). There’s only so much a host can do in that venue, especially a host that’s known for his edginess: if they make safe, funny entertainment-related jokes, they’re perceived as “tanking” (Stewart, Rock), but if they make edgy jokes that don’t land with the crowd in the theater, they’re also perceived as “tanking” (Letterman). It’s a no-win situation.

The Oscars ended almost 48 hours ago and I haven’t blogged about them yet, so:

Crash over Brokeback Mountain: Eh. I found Crash contrived and manipulative, even if it did have interesting things to say about race, i.e. it’s better to acknowledge one’s latent racism than to deny it altogether. Brokeback was a just plain better film. It was beautifully made. I didn’t like it just because it was a “gay movie”; in fact, it didn’t move me like it did some other people. It was unfair for gay people to make the movie carry the weight of the gay rights movement on its back, just as it was unfair for homophobes to accuse the movie of furthering a gay agenda. But peel away all the cultural baggage that has glommed onto the film – take the film as a film – and it was better than Crash.

To be honest, though, I preferred Good Night, and Good Luck to them both. That was a terrific movie. Luscious black and white, beautiful jazz music sung by Dianne Reeves, an economical plot. Loved it.

I still haven’t seen Capote or Munich.

(Strangely, I haven’t yet read any comparisons to 1998/99, when Shakespeare in Love upset Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture. That outcome thrilled me – I thought Shakespeare in Love was brilliant and original and deserved to beat the dutiful, serious Saving Private Ryan. But I’ve come to see them both as terrific films.)

As for other Oscar stuff:

Best moment: Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep introducing Robert Altman. Those two ladies have talent and class. I adore them.

The fake campaign ads were also great and the most Daily-Show-esque parts of the evening, aside from Jon Stewart himself.

Jon Stewart did not do as well as I’d hoped. Or maybe it’s just that the audience didn’t seem to get him. But he made a valiant effort. Later on in the show, he had some good moments, particularly after the Oscar for Best Song was announced. Much of Jon Stewart’s genius lies in his facial expressions. He can do so much without saying a word.

Speaking of best song: “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”… Huh???

Toby Ziegler’s ex-wife singing in front of burning cars and interpretive dancers: Whaaah?

Aren’t there usually five nominees for best song?

Does Jack Nicholson have a lifetime guarantee of a front-row seat? And what’s with his glasses every year?

Poor Lauren Bacall. She needed glasses, I think.

Montages: oh my god. People do not watch the Oscars for the montages. I love me a good Chuck Workman montage, but four montages? One was enough.

March of the Penguins: I shouldn’t criticize a movie I haven’t seen. So I won’t.

Playing music underneath the acceptance speeches was distracting. We’ve been conditioned to hear the music as the signal to wrap things up, so that was confusing.

Boo on all the co-winners who hogged the microphone without letting their co-winners speak.

All in all, the Oscars came in at a smidge under three and a half hours. They could have been shorter, but at least they weren’t longer.