Sweeping up after the Oscars of 2014

The Academy Awards have been over and done with for a couple of days now,with plenty of expected wins and a few memorable moments such as the audience selfie(that word sounds so much like a character from a D&D type of game to me) that knocked Twitter out for a brief time.

Ellen was a nice enough hostess but I think her mild brand of humor plays better on the daytime talk show circuit. However, the ratings were slightly up from last year's Oscars and she did bring some positive energy into the room,so let's just focus on the good times had by all that night:

SNOW PRINCESS OF SONG:

The musical performances were nicely done(loved how Pharrell got some of the nominees to dance with him during "Happy"!), including Bette Midler's salute to the deceased with "Wind Beneath My Wings" and Pink singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to honor the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz.

It was wonderful to have Idina Menzel on stage to sing "Let It Go" from Frozen(which won Best Animated Feature as well) just before the song won it's awards but what was up with John Travolta messing up her name like that? Did he forget his reading glasses there? Anyway, just glad to have Idina sing her heart out for such a well earned victory:

THE SPEECH OF THE NIGHT: While there were several great acceptance speeches that evening,including Best Actor winner Matthew McCoughney's gleeful notion of how his dad was celebrating this moment in heaven and Darlene Love doing an impromptu musical interlude for Best Documentary's 20 Feet from Stardom, the queen of the night was Lupita Nyong'o.

Her heart rending performance in 12 Years a Slave(which also received Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture) was one of those expected yet sweetly surprising wins this year and for such a talented young woman to achieve such a victory early on in her career is a glorious sign of great things to come from and for her. So, congratulations,Lupita and we wish you all the best yet to come:

A GREAT DOUBLE SURPRISE:  Not just one but two of the truly unexpected wins that night went to Catherine Martin for her costume design and production work for The Great Gatsby. 

Granted,her husband Baz Luhrman is the director of the film but even so, it did seem as if that movie wasn't destined to garner any honors due to it's early fizzle at the box office after it's big opening weekend last spring. Have to say my interest is a little peaked by this and maybe I will give the film a chance after all:

Overall, I have to admit that this wasn't a bad Oscar night and yet,not as exciting as it could have been. It was fun at least and congrats to all of the winners with best wishes for those yet to be nominated next time. On a final note, while Ellen's pizza gag was a little cutesy, it was good of her to make sure the delivery guy got his tip: