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Borges, man, what a beautiful night this was!

The 77th Oscar ceremony was, on the whole, spectacular. Coming in at a tight (for the Oscars, that is) three hours or so, producer Gil Cates managed to fit in not one but TWO moving tributes, a few surprisingly good songs (who knew such a beautiful song came from such a loathsome film as the Motorcycle Diaries?), an often hilarious opening stand-up act by Chris Rock (though I could have done without the Bush-bashing, the ONLY Bush bashing of the entire night I might add to the naysayers here on FR), a few wonderful acceptance speeches by the winners, AND a hilarious little "presentation" by the animated costume designer from the Incredibles.

The Academy voters may not have made any MAJOR surprises tonight, but their top selection showed that their minds, hearts, and taste were all in the right place tonight.

Everything was as it should be, I think.

The two Best written films of the night, Sideways and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, won the two Screenplay awards, and I let out a whoop of joy whenever the absolute genius Charlie Kaufmann won an Oscar for his mind-bending Eternal Sunshine script.

I would have preferred Virginia Madsen win for Sideways instead of Cate Blanchett in the Aviator, but who can deny the wonderful feeling they got when Morgan Freeman, one of our greatest living actors, FINALLY won his golden man, for his riveting work as the one-eyed ex-boxer in Million Dollar Baby? Somebody tell me why Morgan isn't getting paid the twenty million per film that Adam Sandler and Cameron Diaz are. Who deserves it more than he?

Jamie Foxx and Hilary Swank for Best Actor and Actress? Hell yeah! Foxx makes you sing out loud with the power and passions of brother Ray Charles, and Hilary Swank is so perfect in MDB that I can't even imagine another actress with the role of Maggie Fitzgerald.

And when the effortlessly engrossing, deeply realistic (the first time I saw it I forgot I was even watching a movie), and devastatingly moving (I still can't stop thinking about the ending...) Million Dollar Baby took home the Best Picture prize, I fely like little David had slew the mighty, grandiose giant that was the Aviator through nothing but the sheer force of it's beauty, not to mention a little great word of mouth.

Sorry, Marty. Lord knows you deserve a boatload of little golden statuettes (and you should have won for Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and GONY), but I just can't fault the Academy for going with Clint Eastwood this year. Damn, but MDB was good! And it WAS Clint's "baby" after all. So much care went into crafting MDB, yet so little BS that Eastwood deserves the Oscar for making the film as muscular and powerful as Maggie's left jab. The Aviator's not the one, Mr. Scorsese. Maybe next year...

In fact, I feel so damn good right now that I think I'll just send this one post off to you, turn off this computer that I just turned on in the first place and go right to bed happy, leaving my loaded mailbox of friendly-fire venom for another day.

Keep on "Kicking against the pricks" for me Borges, and to movie fans all over the world I say: THIS WAS YOUR NIGHT, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Goodnight.