Oscars? Eh.

I used to live for the Oscars. I would wake up early to watch the nominations, and then pore over all of the Oscar predictions made by film critics, weighing my choices for the winners. The night of the ceremony I would watch all the pre-shows, including the annoying Barbara Walters shit, and then not leave my seat during the actual Oscar broadcast. I even watched the technical, and foreign film awards. That is how much I cared. The next week I would buy all of the magazines, looking at the party pictures, and assessing all the fashion choices. The Oscars was my Superbowl, and I took it very seriously. I actually remember thinking that one of my most interesting qualities was that I could name every winner in acting and best picture categories for the last two decades in chronological order. Now that fact actually makes me a little sad.

I don't know when I stopped caring about the Oscars, but I know it didn't happen all at once. I think the first thing that happened was that I stopped buying the magazines. I told myself that I didn't care about the fashion, because it was the films that were really important to me. But then I stopped caring about seeing all of the nominated films, or knowing how all of the nominated songs played roles in their respective movies. Finally, I stopped picking my winners, and really, legitimately being disappointed when they lost. I remember when Tom Hanks lost for "Apollo 13" thinking that I really didn't understand Hollywood at all. And when Angelina Jolie won for "Girl Interrupted," beating out Cathrine Keener in "Being John Malkovich," I was actually depressed for about a week. Again, now I can't really believe I was ever like that.

I know I will end up watching tonight's ceremony, but I know I won't be watching them. Ryan will be allowed to talk, and I might even let him flip to other channels during the show. I doubt that any of the food we will eat will be Oscar themed. And if the show goes past ten? I'm going to bed. I can always find out who won the big prizes tomorrow. After all, I may not care about the Oscars any more, but that isn't stopping the rest of the world, and especially the 24 hour news networks, from worshipping the little statue like a golden calf.