Oscar Down - Bleacher Bums Booted
Hollywood's Rolling Out the Red Carpet for the Oscars
Downtown Hollywood is abuzz with "Oscar Madness." For those of you who are lucky enough to not live in the "Entertainment Capital of the World" you are blissfully clueless about the insanity that surrounds the biggest nice in show-business. Thank your lucky stars. Allow me to give you a clue.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS-Oscar's owners)decided it needed a new theater. Hollywood wanted it badly. So after years of haggling, the new Kodak Theater was build right smack in the middle of the busiest corner of town at Highland and Vine. Between all the construction from the Red Line subway, the replacement of the sewer system, the beautification of Hollywood (meaning we kicked some of the hookers off the corners on alternate Saturdays and planted a couple trees,) and all the security in place for the Oscar show, this corner is ground zero. You can't get around it without going at least 6-8 blocks out of your way. If you can find a place to park and hike in.
Since the Sept 11th tragedy there has been serious concerns surrounding the Oscars about security. So as the large Oscar statues were being brought for set up around the theater, the security fences went up, the cops took all the hotel rooms across the street, the metal detectors went in and the streets got blocked off for BLOCKS as well. The merchants are bitching because people can't get to their stores. The offices (where I was going) have access to their parking blocked and they're complaining! Even the Red Line isn't stopping until the show's over. Talk about gridlock. Oy!
And then the Bleacher Bums got slammed! AMPAS informed the public that fans don't come to "Starwatch." Stay home and watch TV. (In LA?) And if you want a chance to sit in the coveted "Fans Bleachers"-- AMPAS threw everyone a curve! To be a bleacher bum at the Oscars this year, people were required to fill out an application, go through a lottery process and undergo a background check for one of the 500 seats. Those who were cleared get to sit in the bleachers. No security clearance, no seat. Oh bouy!
It wasn't this bad at the Olympics!
Between the gridlock, the SWAT teams and the security, Hollywood's down for the count this week and part of the next while they take call the Oscar crap down. Don't even try to go to movies or get a reservation for dinner within a 10-square mile radius-- Oscar's in town and the place is booked.
It should be interesting to listen to the lies the Academy tells us about the DMCA this go around.
Sounds like a good time to go to Tahoe to me!
2:30:05 AM 
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Russians Win Ice Dance Gold, 
As for the Women's short program: Irina Slutskaya is ahead, skating a clean program that earned her 2 - 6.0's Michelle Kwan missed her triple lutz and did not skate well. Skaters have said, "You could count the clean ladies short programs on one hand at this World Championships, but by far the most heart warming moments of the event were the superb performances of the two Japanese ladies, Fumie Suguri and Yoshie Onda, who thrilled their countrymen here in Nagano. As they say, "that was worth its weight in gold." 
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