ZINK Magazine, 'Gossip Girl's' Taylor Monsen, March issue!

ZINK Magazine! The March issue.
Covergirl, 'Gossip Girl's Taylor Monsen.
My first contribution, Martha Graham Dance Company!
On newsstands now!
Montgomery Frazier "The Image Guru"

The 84th Annual Academy Awards...Just Thoughts, Mind You!

My dear internet puppies,

read my thoughts on The 84th Academy Awards ceremony...just thoughts mind you, not viscous commentary. I mean this is supposed to be entertainment....not the coming of CHRIST, so put everything into perspective people and enjoy them....This is their time to SHINE, so try not to dissect every bloody thing about everybody and everthing.......We all should be so lucky to be in their shoes!

Hmm, let me see.....the Oscars were NICE! The fashions were AMAZING! The winners sometimes SURPRISING!

Billy Crystal was like a comfortable old shoe that we simply can't get rid of because it fits so well, but I LOVED all the pre-recorded montage clips of the nominated films WITH the respective actors in them...not new (it's been done before) but GENIUS nonetheless!

But the most memorable "half-time performance" if you will for me, was the high-flying (literally) poetic acrobatics of the Cirque du Soleil troupe which literally had the audience GASPING, as did I! SIMPLY AMAZING and so befitting, even for the jaded Hollywood assemblage of global stars. Now you know it's great entertainment when some of the biggest stars on the planet are mesmerized! BREATHTAKING!

My personal fashion favorite moments (which every "style-fashion expert" twit and their mothers will be commmenting on today) were when Gwyneth Paltrow was getting interviewed on the red carpet in her white Tom Ford ensemble with the jacket-cape thrown over the shoulder...but only then ( I didn't like the dress so much when she was onstage presenting with Robert Downey Jr., whose reportage-docu-drama schpeel I thought was BRILLIANT).

I thought Penelope Cruz was simply STUNNING and she displayed a graceful Spanish serenity of restrained elegance.( she kind of reminded me of a younger, elegant and less zophtic Spanish version of Sophia Loren). Then we had the va-va-va-boom-ness and homage to a John Singer Sargent painting that Angelina Jolie exacted, but she's way tooooo gaunt and thin and almost gray looking....But in her defense, she should have camped up the extended leg action even LONGER after that bald asshole mimicked her initial stance displaying her ivory extended leg...what an act of disrespect it was to make fun of her! However, Miss Jolie you need to fatten up a little luv.

I so loved the "BUTT twins", Lopez & Diaz (that's Jennifer & Cameron) in their "kiss my ass, luv ya lots" over the shoulder come hither stances. And NO, J-Lo's TIT was not exposed as most people are tweeting about today! Come on people, get a friggin' life! That's called dramatic effect in dressing....all you new-bees should take notice of a tried and true veteran of "entrance and exit" making! J-Lo still RULES in that department, so LOOK, LEARN and LISTEN!!!!

Plus, I'm already SICK about everybody tolking about J-Lo's supposed "wardrobe malfunction"...which wasn't! She looked STUNNING and exactly what we expect J-Lo to look like....a POP GODDESS...NOBODY else could have pulled off that dress......with her curves, her flawless makeup and hair, and her graceful demeanor. SHE RULED the Oscars....and made even Cameron Diaz look cutesy, which is pretty damn hard to do!

PS. I did like Rooney Mara's striking hair against her porcelain white skin and the fact that she wore white....as opposed to her general dark Goth look, in contrast to Angelina Jolie's messy, thin looking hair, but to reiterate, I did love her black velvet dress and especially her dramatically extended and exposed leg! So there ya'll!

Another refreshing moment for me personally was Emma Stone's "newbee" "first time at the rodeo" presenter's routine (gorgeous red gown by the way) with Ben Stiller, which actually seemed new and unscripted, which we all know wasn't. However, I thought Ben Stiller was like a stiff bored (oops I meant board) and I don't think being the hugely funny guy that he's been in in the past, he just didn't seem to respond to her well comedically. I know he was the "veteran" playing straight man to her fresh wide-eyed exuberance....but I believed her and thought she came off well and totally sweet. he just seemed tired...of her!

I thought that Christopher Plummer's speech, (you know that "old guy who played a dieing gay guy", which is actually something I heard from some young cluesless twit) was funny and eloquent and so well deserved...now he's a class act! And another class act in my opinion was Meryl Streep, "The actor's actor" whose self-deprecating genuineness was refreshing and coming from an actor who's considered to be one of the best actors (notice I didn't say actresses) of our time (although I did think Viola Davis was going to win), I thought that was just so Meryl....completely worthy of the "Shakespeare of Actors" that she has become!

Of note, I did think that Michelle Williams was "spot on" as Marilyn Monroe in her portrayal of 'A Week With Marilyn' and deserved whatever accolades she's garnered, as did Kenneth Branagh, who portrayed Sir Lawrence Olivier...another GREAT ACTOR! Although she's young, we'll be seeing alot more from Ms. Williams in the future. As a fan of Marilyn Monroe, I thought she captured the many complexities of the most famous woman of the 20th century, in all her raw sexiness and the sheer vulnerability which we all came to idolize.

But I did pick Jean Dujardin for Best Actor and even his cocky French arrogance didn't bother me (that's because he's a French facsimile of the late-great American actor-dancer Gene Kelly, whom I adolized.) When I saw 'The Artist', that's exactly what I thought and I also picked 'The Artist' for Best Picture....all the rest I was kinda' surprised, or just didn't care!

'Hugo' won way more than I thought it would, but then Martin Scorcese is an American directing treasure! I would have liked it if "War Horse" won something because I thought it was such a beautiful, "old school" Hollywood movie not unlike 'National Velvet' which started off the career of the great Elizabeth Taylor, but 'War Horse' much more graphic and violent than 'National Velvet' was; Damn, that horse alone should have won for its' painfully gripping performance in the battlefield scene!

But all in all The 84th Academy Awards were NICE! I even spied Shelia E on the drums in the balcony of the "Foreclosure Theater" (Kodak Theater) which was not that funny when you think about it. Why doesn't Hollywood do something about saving that beautiful landmark theater? Maybe some trillionaire will now buy that grand old theater after the couple jabs that Billy Crystal made about the theater being in foreclosure. When you consider the amount of money that the movie business rakes in globally, you'd think that there would be some sort of restoration or preservation fund for grand old theaters like this....hmm, maybe there is! I'll look into it.

And of course the gospel style, "In Memoriam" tribute brought tears to my eyes, with such great legends that died this past year...namely Elizabeth Taylor, Whitney Houston & Ben Gazzara, all whom I had the pleasure of meeting and or working with!

Just thoughts mind you, not an essay.

Montgomery Frazier "The Image Guru"