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Sunday night was Hollywood's biggest night. The Oscars. After the stresses and strains of the seemingly endless Writers' Strike, there was huge relief in the entertainment world that the big event took place.
And it seems not much of the country cared. Ratings were down 14%. Many of the acting awards went to performers a lot of people would say they never heard of.
For me, the turnoff was most of the movies being honored this year were the bloody, violent kind of films that I call, "bad dream movies," because indeed, they give me bad dreams and I usually choose not to see them.
Full disclosure on the bad dream thing—I can see just about anything in person and have it not affect me. This was very handy all those years covering disasters and bad things in my traditional news job. But anything fiction with a scary theme and here come the night terrors. I've been like this since I was a kid and hated watching even Starsky and Hutch, just in case one of them got shot. My brother would point out that it was a tv series and he could guarantee they would be back next week, so that there was nothing to be afraid of. No matter.
Because of that I've skipped many a classic over the years. Jaws, Alien, Exorcist, Carrie, any of the Halloween movies. Nope. No way. Not a chance.
Now, during the time I was covering all these award shows, I did force myself to go see all the nominated films. It's just one of the benefits of my new life that I don't have to do that anymore. That's why I haven't seen There's Going To Be Blood or No Country for Old Men.
But just last week, my friend, Cyndi, told me about a delightful, sweet, low budget movie she and her husband, Darren (we call him, "Boy Darren," in conversation.) had seen. It's called Once. I haven't seen it yet, but I went to the website and reads, "Once: How often do you find the right person? The film tells the story of a street musician and a Czech immigrant during an eventful week as they write, rehearse and record songs that reveal their unique love story." Ooh! I'm going to love that one.
So, I'm watching the Oscars the other night and it turns out one of the songs is nominated for Best Original Song. The two lead actors from the film Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova perfomed Falling Slowly. And what do you know? They won! Beating about a slew of better known and established composers.
Now, I'm finally getting around to the moment I want you to know about.
The two of them came on stage and Glen gave his thank you's. But before his partner Marketa got her chance, that "get them off the stage" music began to swell and their big moment was over.
That is until Oscars host Jon Stewart came back from commercial break and explained that he was talking to Marketa backstage and realized that she had missed her big moment. Stewart made the executive decision to break with tradition and bring her back on and give her another chance. I'm so glad he did, because this is what this little known Czech folk singer had to say,
"The fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this, it's just proof that no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible. And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream, and don't give up. This song was written from the perspective of hope, and hope, at the end of the day, connects us all, no matter how different we are."
Don't you just love that? A message about hope! In the middle of boring Oscars show that seemed to be only about bad dream movies.
I figured you would want to know about it. Again, the movie is called Once. The website says it's out on DVD. I know I'll be checking that out.
Meanwhile, here's Glen and Marketa performing the winning song. This is from Sundance Fesitval last year. I found it on YouTube.
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