Oscar Pool 2013 pt.1

The 5th Annual J&A Oscar Party started before anyone arrived at Josh and Annie’s house this Feb. 24, with Josh frantically cleaning the living room while preparing brats and mets for the grill. And to be clear, it’s actually more of a get-together than a full-blown party – just a few friends and few dollars in the pot (reserved for the winner of the pool). This year, it was just Josh, his wife Annie, Garret and myself. Unfortunately one of our best friends, Eric, couldn’t make it due to a last minute family obligation. But he texted in his ballot picks and wished us a fun night.

The night started off with some light drama, when Annie found out that Josh had been doing some online research before filling out his Oscar ballot.

“Alright, well I’m not going to cheat – I’m just going to choose,” Annie said while putting her laptop away and picking up her ballot sheet.
"I didn’t cheat! That’s not cheating,” shot back Josh.

While E! Channel correspondents went back and forth, “oohing” and “aahing” over the nominees’ designer choices, we had a few beers, laughed and debated the Academy’s nominations.


(from left to right) Garrett, Josh and Annie

“Damn. I haven’t seen the rest of these, said Garrett, examining his ballot.
“How many have you filled out so far?,” I asked.
“…One.” We all laughed, and Garrett, glancing up at the clock said, “20 minutes. I’m going to need the rest of that to finish this.”

And then the curtain rose. “Welcome to the Oscars! And the quest to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh begins now,” said the host, Seth MacFarlane, as he kicked off the 85th Academy Awards.

The first award of the night was a bit of a surprise as the Best Supporting Actor award went to Christoph Waltz for “Django Unchained.” Waltz gave an eloquent and humbled acceptance speech as usual and even quoted his character before acknowledging his fellow nominees and Quentin Tarrantino. Josh and I, who pride ourselves on being the big movie-lovers in the group, struck out. Josh picked Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln,” and I picked Alan Arkin in “Argo.” We had immediately fallen behind to Annie and Garrett.

The first time the music queued to play off a long-running acceptance speech, we all laughed at the same time, recognizing the melody at the same time as the “Jaws” theme. The winner had just said, “I urge you to remember…” and then was cut off. We spent the next five minutes complaining about how the vindication of this man’s work over the past year was just cut short in lieu of a ten second Diet Coke spot.

About an hour in, Josh’s mother-in-law Tweeted, “Oscars  so far - LAME.” This sparked a quick debate over the best Oscar host of all time.” I thought Chris Rock did a great job,” I said. “I like Billy Crystal… the old ones were more entertaining,” retorted Garrett. And Josh facetiously added, “What about James Franco?” He then added, “He was high the whole time! It was interesting watching how uninterested he was.”

To be continued...