My favorite night of the year so far

I'm a huge, HUGE fan of the award ceremony which aired last night from Los Angeles.  With thanks to continued unemployment, this was the first night in 4 years I did not have to cram 3.5 hours of TV viewing into two.

I was also happy to share the first two hours of the ceremony plus much of the pre-show with my friend on the East Coast.  First, January's Presidential Inauguration shared with so many on Facebook, now tonight with my friend across the country.  I'm going to attempt to do the Facebook/CNN thing when President Obama addresses Congress tomorrow night.  

I took notes tonight, as I have done with other award ceremonies in the past two months.  I'd never remember whose gowns, jewelry and other things I liked and whose made me gasp . . and not in a good way.

My recommendation is to bring up this address in a separate window so you can find the photos as I comment:  http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/gallery?section=on_the_red_carpet&id=6672325&photo=1

Photo 1:  So lovely to see the man outshine the woman for once when both are famous.  Does that man EVER look unattractive ??

Photo 6:  Best hairdo and gorgeous earrings.  But that gown?  Dark grey with black flowers down the shoulder . . nuh-unh!

Photo 7:  One of my favorite gowns of the night.  Very art-deco glam.

Photo 9:  Stunning gown.  The picture does not do it justice.  Sparkling and gorgeous!

Photo 10:  Such a beautiful bracelet with complimentary earrings.  I couldn't get overexcited about the gown, but it is a lovely color on her.

Photo 13:  Unlucky number for this woman.  Black with shiny gold print? For shame on whoever talked her into wearing this!!

Photo 14:  Beautiful jewelry here as well.  Proof that the best jewelry compliments the woman, not overwhelms.

Photo 15:  What the blue blazes was this gorgeous, talented actress wearing a necklace I could have picked up for $10 at the local swap meet?  Dreadful!  Fortunately, she usually looks fabulous and this incident will soon pass.

Photo 17:  I, for once, agreed with the on-the-scene fashion guru -- this gown looked like a stack of cocktail napkins at the end of a bar.  Too darn busy!!

Photo 18:  All this gown needed was a set of butterfly wings attached to the back and she could be playing Tinkerbell in the umpteenth remake of "Peter Pan".  

Photo 24: Best gown of the night.  Hands down.  Wow !!

Photo 27: I loved the art-deco style of her necklace!! Almost makes up for the unflattering, mummy gauze style gown.  Photo 37 gives you a closer look at it.

Photo 33:  My 2nd favorite gown and it was the first I saw tonight.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  The full gown has a similar style/pattern throughout the gown with a waterfall effect.  Skip to Photo 40 for a full photo of the gown.

I even have two favorite acceptance speeches:  The first from "Milk" screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and the second from Best Actor winner Sean Penn.  My hope is that all of the teens watching at least the first hour of tonight's award ceremony saw Mr. Black's speech and took his words to heart.

Loved the revamp of the Kodak Theatre and the host, Hugh Jackman, did a great job of keeping the show moving along while showcasing his many other talents.  The unique acting award presentation style was fun for this telecast, but I hope it is something only done once every few years so it also does not become stale.

Tomorrow, back to the job hunt and politics digest.