A Vanilla Academy Awards Show

So I’m a bit tired after staying up until 11:18pm to watch the 91^st Academy Awards which produced a pair of upsets but not much else in the first ceremony to go without a host (or hostess) since 1988.

The shocker came in the Best Actress category where the heavy favorite Glenn Close lost to a totally surprised Olivia Colman for her royal stint in The Favourite.  Colman clearly did not have an acceptance speech planned and actually apologized to Close, an idol of hers in what was one of the best moments of the night.

Thankfully the other surprise came when Green Book won Best Picture over Roma, which did capture Best Foreign film but was denied the big award. I still don’t get all the fuss over Roma, a movie I struggled to watch once and will never watch again. By the way I did make a small wager on Green Book winning through my William Hill betting app and it produced a nice return.

The broadcast was okay but nothing really great. I thought the highlight was Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper performing “Shallow” which rightfully won the Oscar for Best Song and their on stage performance only fueled rumors that there is something between the duo..

The opening number featuring Queen and Adam Lambert brought a lot of energy to the stage but after that it was rather mundane but okay show with few real highs. There was some good acceptance speeches although there is nothing worse than listening to winners read a long list of those they want to thank as it just sucks the air out of the auditorium.

In the end it was a fairly vanilla awards show and seemed to lack some of the Hollywood glitter that used to make for a great night and I think the TV ratings will reflect that.

Switching gears, in case you missed it Saturday night saw Ranney and Manchester capture the coveted championships in the 2019 Shore Conference Basketball Tournament.

Ranney fought off a spirited challenge by Manasquan to claim back-to-back boys championships with University of Florida-bound game MVP Scottie Lewis turning in a dazzling performance that was almost matched a player on the losing team.  Brad McCabe hit 9 3-pointers and scored 33 points in the loss in one of the best individual performances I have witnessed in the title game.

On the girls side Manchester behind MVP Destiny Adams pulled away from St. John Vianney in the end to give the school one of its greatest athletic victories ever.  It was so meaningful that the Hawks were welcomed back to their school by a police and fire escort and I’m sure the celebration lasted well into the night, which it should have.