Screengrab In Exile Live Blogs the 2015 Oscars!11:

by Andrew Osborne, et al.

Watch this space (and @NewBaitShop on the Twit) for Oscar Red Carpet & Awards badinage and repartee from yours truly, Amy Jeglinski-Osborne, Heidi Cron, Merv Jeglinski-Osborne, special cyberspace guests, and maybe even…YOU!

5:44 PM – Since all the snow in the world is currently in New England, there’s no parking in our neighborhood, which means it’s just Amy, Merv and me on the couch here on Hooker Avenue, with the rest of the world checking in electronically.  Amy’s currently predicting that Marion Cotillard will win the Red Carpet…and she also thinks Anna Kendrick’s already out of the competition with a pretty dress…pretty boring.

Four Oscar Myths

by Andrew Osborne

It’s Oscar season, which means it’s time for entertainment bloggers and reporters to regurgitate timeworn tales of Sacheen Littlefeather accepting Marlon Brando’s Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather, that streaker running past David Niven, and the following four tired Oscar myths which your pals at Screengrab in Exile would officially like to retire once and for all.

MYTH #1:  The Oscars are too long!

Orphans & Oddities: Recreation Brochures by Andrew Osborne

KENNY LOGGINS KOUNTRY

 While you’re in Alabama, go “Back to Avalon” and visit KENNY LOGGINS KOUNTRY!

Just forty minutes from Dollywood, KENNY LOGGINS KOUNTRY is 44 acres of “Footloose” Family Fun!

Drop by the Loggins and Messina Hoedown Hall to prove that your mama can dance and your daddy can rock and roll!  Then climb aboard Kenny’s Kaddyshack II Karts and prove that you’re “Nobody’s Fool (Theme to Caddyshack II)” on Kenny’s 10-hole miniature golf kourse!

Maybe you’ll meet Kenny himself as you ride “Halfway Across the Sky” on the Over The Top® SkyTram!  Thrill seekers can venture into “The Danger Zone” where a ride in Kenny’s Kockpit is sure to make you feel like a Top Gun.

KENNY LOGGINS KOUNTRY…IT’S IN-KENNY-BLE!

***

Golden Globes 2015: The Live Tweets

by Andrew, Amy & Merv Osborne

Amy Osborne and I will be watching the Golden Globes red carpet starting around 6pm-ish…so be sure to join us for enlightened commentary here on the Faceplace and on Twitter @NewBaitShop (because, yes, I’m one of THOSE people now)!

Just a few hours to go until the start of the red carpet…ladies and gentlemen, snark your engines!

ANDREW OSBORNE’S BEST & THE REST OF 2014: AUDIO, BOOKS & THEATER

We’re more than a week into the New Year, so I’ll make it quick with the remainder of my 2014 highs and lows, starting with:

AUDIO

Best Podcast/Live Stream:  Double Toasted.com

I’ve been a fan of the riotous, whip-smart banter of movie critics Korey Coleman and Martin Thomas since the days of their old Austin, TX cable access TV show The Reel Deal.  After leaving the Lone Star State, I lost track of them for a while, during which time they stormed the internet with the website Spill.com — until corporate overlords Hollywood.com pulled the plug in 2013, after which I rediscovered Korey & Martin again at their new online home, the jaw-droppingly ambitious independent website, DoubleToasted.com, featuring a full line-up of live (and archived) video stream programming, an active fan community, and the most raucous, entertaining pop culture banter this side of Howard Stern (who, it should be noted, had an excellent year his own damn self, thanks to the Birthday Bash, an amazing line-up of guests, and, as always, fart jokes).

Runner-Up:  WTF with Marc Maron

ANDREW OSBORNE’S BEST & THE REST OF 2014: MOVIES

I used to care about movies a lot more than TV growing up, because the small screen was so formulaic and predictable while the big one had all the memorable, high-quality stuff.  That equation’s pretty much flipped 180 degrees in recent years, but 2014 went a long way towards restoring my faith in the power of cinema with more films I flat-out loved than any year in recent memory.

ANDREW OSBORNE’S BEST AND THE REST OF 2014: TV

Has the recent TV renaissance peaked?   Probably not, given some of 2014’s strong debuts and continuing favorites.  And while the big screen actually impressed me a bit more than the small one this year, the general quality of the best television still remains higher, its writing sharper, its characters more diverse, and its themes more relatable than most of Hollywood’s fanboy obsessions in the current Save The Cat! era.

Yet, at the same time, I couldn’t help noticing the sense of must-see urgency fading from many one-time “water cooler” shows this season.  Mad Men still has a great cast and beautiful art direction, but I stopped caring about most of the actual characters long ago, and I barely remember anything that happened in the first half of the show’s 1969 incarnation (aside from Ginsberg cutting off his nipple, which I kinda wish I could forget).