My Discovery of the Month...

...is to blame for my lack of on-line ubiquity the last couple of weeks. I recently stumbled upon the amazing, can't-live-without-it-now youtube.com last week through Glenn, who posted a link to this hilarious MadTV Memoirs of a Geisha spoof (see it!) from his blog. But after fiddling around with the search engine at the top of the page, I found a way to catch up on literally everything in pop-culture that I missed over the past few days, weeks or even years. People like you and me upload various clips from t.v., movies, trailers, award shows, the news, their own lives (those are the crappy ones) from all over the place. Yes, there's a lot of crap out there, especially those home videos that feature stoned and drunk teenagers singing along to songs or making movie spoofs, thinking they're the funniest people ever. But if you master the search bar, there's no limit to how many hours you can spend watching (believe me).

Last night I stayed up until 3 a.m. catching up on Oprah putting A Million Little Pieces writer James Frey on the hotseat about his "memoir" or her other show featuring the cast of Brokeback Mountain (I needn't have lamented missing it on Friday; typical ignorant Oprah fare like "The tent scene - where'd that come from?!" or "Let's talk about the kiss guys!". Damn, just STFU Oprah, you immature, dumbass loser; get over the damn love scenes. But it was nice to see Heath and Michelle all googly-eyed; I heart them). From Tara Reid's disturbing (but funny) wardrobe malfunction to re-watching Geena Davis's Golden Globes speech, I'm in entertainment heaven. The downside is that vitually no work gets done, either university readings nor blog/review writing.

Tonight are the SAG Awards. I'm watching the hideous pre-show as I write this - the hosts feel like they have to explain everything, and that's hell for critics, movie lovers, or hell, anyone who's kept up with the two prior awards shows BFCA and GG. I already KNOW that Huffman and Witherspoon won at the Globes and that it's between them tonight. Stop reminding me. Okay, here are my predictions. Alternates in brackets.

Ensemble: Crash (Brokeback Mountain)
Self-explanatory. Big huge cast = prime ensemble. Brokeback is second-in-line, and I'd much rather see it win than Crash (Anne Hathaway deserves something!). But if you want to know my personal pick, I'd vote for Hustle & Flow, which featured heart-breaking, focused performances from all involved (not only Terrence Howard).

Actor/Leading: Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain (PSH, Capote)
Although I'm going against conventional wisdom here, I think it's time for a change (I certainly hope so). Heath would be my personal pick.

Actress/Leading: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line (Felicity Huffman, Transamerica)
Huffman is very likely also, especially because of that infernal show that I will not speak of here. But Reese is on a roll. And her movie is wider-seen. And for me, it's the only worthy performance in this group (haven't seen Dench yet though).

Actor/Supporting: George Clooney, Syriana (Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man)
It's between them, but it's the Cloonster, for chrissake. The voting body won't be able to resist. My pick: Gyllenhaal, even though it's the wrong category.

Actress/Supporting: Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain (Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener)
Aside from McDormand and Weisz (who I still haven't seen), all these performers are worthy, but an Amy Adams win would make me most happy. Michelle Williams would also be great.

Fuck the t.v. categories.

Tomorrow night: Reviews and Oscar noms.