Oscars, Scotties and Twitter

1. I tried watching the Oscars last night, but good lord that was bad. I mean, I thought last year's show with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin was bad, but this was truly horrible. I think last year's might have been worse simply because of the talent involved. I don't think anyone really expected comedic genius from Anne Hathaway (who was game and trying her best, but had nothing to work with) and James Franco was just a disaster. But Baldwin and Martin are genuinely funny men who bombed more often than not. Still, it was nearly impossible to watch.

There's already talk about who should host the show next year since it's a pretty sure thing Hathaway and Franco won't be invited back. But I think the problem isn't with the hosts. Some genuinely funny people have hosts the show in the recent past and have met with mixed success. There's no way that Jon Stewart or Chris Rock aren't funny. They are. I think it's just the confines of the show that prevent them from truly being able to cut loose. You'll never be able to do a Ricky Gervais style, no-holds-barred type of hosting on the show. It's too "sacred" or some such foolishness. Actually, Gervais's pseudo Oscar speech was funnier than anything on the show.

I haven't checked to see how I did on my predictions. It would mean, in some ways, having to relive parts of the show. And I'm really trying hard not to do that. I suspect not well.

Onwards...

2. I quite enjoyed the Scotties final last night. Down to the last rock, tricky shots and the team I didn't want to win, didn't win. So that's good. But also, I think I just enjoy women's curling more. It's more...human. If you're down three in a final after one end, as Amber Holland was last night, in men's curling you're doomed. Try staging a comeback down by three against a Martin or Howard. Not happening. It's going to be a couple of precise and deathly boring hours.

But in women's curling, things happen. They're still very good, but mistake happen more often. You can stage a comeback. It's just more fun. Just like the junior finals were a lot of fun. It's good when there's some suspense on if the player is going to make the shot. At elite men's level, if Martin or Howard had to get the stone to roll on it's side to make a take-out, I wouldn't be surprised. It's technically impressive and often deeply boring.

3. I mentioned a couple of days ago about the hit the local blogging community has taken and the reasons why people stop blogging. That doesn't mean that social media is dead in Nunavut. Far from it. Twitter has taken off big time, especially in Iqaluit. One of the big complaints about blogger is that almost no Inuit use it. That's not the case with Twitter. I can't say how many Inuit are using it, but certainly a couple of dozen. Which is a couple of dozen more than are using blogger.

Most local reporters are using Twitter now. Several local politicians are using it, although none so effectively as the city's mayor, Madeleine Redfern, who is a Twitter machine. She has her mayor's account and a personal account. And at any given time she's throwing out what's happening in the city, linking to articles or stories she finds interesting, arguing with reporters and any number of things.

It's fascinating to watch. I think it's safe to say she got my vote because of her activity on Twitter in the weeks leading up to the last municipal election.

I'm kicking around there too, for those who are interested.

Seriously though, I'm learning a lot more about my town just listening to people "talk" on Twitter. Some of it is fun, some of it is interesting, some have causes that they are unrelenting about (education, eating animals) and, of course, some of it is junk. And, occasionally, you find someone posting up a link to a picture that's amusing (Sorry Jordan). The poster was put up in the Post Office, incidentally.

Last Five
1. Paddy's lament - Flogging Molly
2. El Manana - Gorillaz
3. The final breath - Ron Hynes*
4. The golden rose - Tom Petty
5. Born in the USA (live) - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band