During the Oscars, I'm going to throw out some comments; please add yours. And keep in mind that these are chronological and random:
1) The bar was set pretty low, but Jess Cagle managed to get under it. He's now officially the most obsequious host in red-carpet history. Working ABC's half-hour premiere (in which Kathy Ireland wasn't much better), he felt compelled to tell us that the every person and every gown was wonderful. If Uriah Heep (the Dickens character, not the rock group) saw this, he'd say: "Can't you toughen up a bit?"
2) That was in stark contrast to the ceremony itself, filled with witty self-mocking. Why did the red-carpet people think Hollywood stars need to be toadied up to?
3) Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are terrific as co-hosts, filled with wit and surprises. I doubted the two-host approach, but they work together neatly.
4) OK, I guess there's a rule that Neil Patrick Harris must do every ceremony. After hosting the Tonys and the Emmys (both brilliantly), he opened this one with a great song.
5) If there is such a rule, it would be a good one.
6) Yes, the early awards make sense. "The Hurt Locker" script was fairly good through most of it, brilliant in the last half-hour. The "Crazy Heart" song offered a warmly passionate finale to a subtly involving movie. And "Up" (the best-animated-movie winner) is a masterpiece.
7) Good scheduling: Show the best-animated award early; show the "Up" best-picture clips early. Kids could catch them before bedtime.
8) Bad scheduling: Have the John Hughes tribute early. I admire John Hughes immensely -- partly because he helped people learn how to spell a fine old Welsh name -- but a ceremony about right-now shouldn't stop early on for a post-mortem tribute.
9) There are already two candidates for the night's most awful gown: Amanda Seyfried's looked like a wedding dress, with lots of extra curtain fabric attached at the bottom. Zoe Saldana had odd little purple puffs at the bottom, sort of like "Lorax" characters were riding in. And neither woman could walk safely in her dress.
10) Still, I'll bet Jess Cagle would even praise those two gowns. Really.
11) I kind of wish they would pick only funny people as presenters. Ben Stiller was, as usual, wonderful. Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Robin Williams had their moments; some others were just dull.
12) What a delight, to see Roger Corman win his honorary Academy Award. An Oscar for the man who gave us "Women in Cages" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches"? Yes. This guy sort of inspires every kid who figured he can make a movie, despite the lack of money.
13) I'm sure that Mo'Nique gave a fine performance and deserves her Oscar. Still, I've found her so insufferable on her talk show that I have trouble celebrating.
14) We're within a couple hours of the best-picture award. That's James Cameron's first chance to win since "Titanic." If he wins, I think he'll say "I'm king of the virtual world"; he'll also request a moment of silence for dead blue people.
15) It was nice to see "Young Victoria" win something. (It won for costumes.) Not a great film, it is a pretty good one, with an interestingly fresh -- and favorable -- portrait of the eternal monarch and her husband Albert.
16) All of a sudden, my blog mechanism turned balky and I couldn't add anything. Maybe it realized I blah-blah-blog too much. So if this never quite finishes, that's why.
17) There's fresh joy in my part of the country. A Michigan State University alumnus (Bob Murawski) has just won an Academy Award, for co-editing "Hurt Locker." Also, he thanked another MSU alumnus (Sam Raimi) for giving him a start. That's in an Oscarcast co-produced by an MSU alumnus (Bill Mechanic). Also, James Cameron's wife Suzi Amis wore a gown designed by an MSU senior (Jillian Granz).
18) The horror-movie tribute was fun, but the introduction perplexed me. It said the Oscars hadn't paid attention to horror movies since the 1973 "Exorcist." Then its clip package included scenes from the 1991 winner "Silence of the Lambs."
19) Anna Kendrick -- the "Up in the Air" nominee -- is sometimes a dead ringer for Tom Cruise. Really.
20) The introductions of the five best-actor nominees were ponderous. Fortunately, they led up to a well-deserved award. Jeff Bridges is superb -- bringing subtlety and detail to "Crazy Heart."
21) The best-actress introductions were also ponderous -- except for Oprah Winfrey's wise and witty nod to Gabourey Sidibe. As far as the winner? Sandra Bullock was very good -- although, perhaps, no match for the perfection of the other nominees.
22) Now it's over and "The Hurt Locker" has won big. It's a good film, but not -- at least until the final half-hour -- a great one. Catch it at video stores. Also, go to the theater and see "Avatar"; it's the kind of movie that big screens and big budgets were made for.