On Popcorn and Movies: 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon Wrap Up...Best Picture

The past month I have had the thrill of particiapating in 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon, hosted by the very gracious...

Be sure to go to their blogs to read some really interesting and thought provoking posts on everything Oscar. The theme this last week...Best Picture, of course.

For my review of the 2011 Best Picture winner, which also took Best Actor for Colin Firth and Best Director for Tom Hooper, read this- THE KINGS SPEECH ....

For my tale of how I totally lucked out and saw the very first public viewing of the Oscar winning film, with Hooper, Firth and Geoffrey Rush in attendance, keep reading...

It all happened up here, in Telluride, Colorado....

near where I live, though near in the West is a relative term. I was there because I have a friend whose East Coast In- Laws just happen to have a house in Telluride and since she and I both liked movies and I can be a mooch, I was able to stay at their house for a few Labor Day Weekends, while my family went off and backpacked, actually in those mountains you see in the distance. I confess it wasn't a very hard choice for me.....sleeping on the hard ground, eating dyhrdrated food or this.....

Okay, as a "pretty much local," I do have to say that it is no less than funny, when either Californians or East Coasters come here and well, talk of their "cabins" and in reality they are talking about a house, two of mine could fit in. This is a cabin...

and if you don't have mountain bikes, skis, firewood or a saddle laying on it, it ain't a cabin.

I also find it very funny, working in a local boutique for a while, how when the rich come here, they have a desire to dress up Western and money is no object, putting down hundreds of dollars for cowboy boots they will probably not wear again, the darkness and stiffness of their Wranglers letting you know how new they are. Though, oh my, the reserved Brits- Colin Firth and Tom Hooper, can pull off the whole jeans and cowboy boot thing. They both have to be over six feet. I mean Firth is....

Darcy for goodness sakes, so think Darcy, walking around this....

That's not Firth, I just admired him from afar. Definitely not one of the literary types the LA times is describing below.

FYI, maybe in Washington and Oregon they wear a lot of flannel and plaid, but not in Colorado, contrary to James Franco...

promoting 127 HOURS in 2011

I so wished I didn't see that movie. Still think of how my grandmother taught me how to bone a chicken, if you know that, you certainly can remove the rest of yourself from your hand, in the wilderness, if the need arises.

Locals would say, don't get yourself in that situation in the first place and to look like a local and maybe get a "local's discount" or "not get shafted by the locals", when in the Four Corners, wear some Prana, Marmot, Patagonia with some Chacos, Keens or Haflingers. If you want to look like you just got done with a trail on your mountain bike, wear flip flops and toss some mud on your calves, bike sock tan lines also helps. Just dress like the 127 HOURS crew ,filming in the back country of Utah, not that far from me, the other direction in Utah...

Yup, thinking of boning chickens.

Back in 2006, the gorgeous Penelope Cruise was promoting VOLVER...

but came to her Q and A, late, trying to look like a sexy Elmer Fudd...

Btw, Chuck Jones, well known for his animation and direction of Elmer, Bugs and Daffy, lived in Telluride and the venue up at Mountain Village, bears his name, it is where I think I saw 127 HOURS...

my review HERE...

Geoffrey Rush...

Here, also in 2011, to promote THE KING'S SPEECH with Firth and Hooper, was so gracious and not full of himself, I'm sure he was adopted as a local, walking around with the rest of us. Bet the shop owners were giving him stuff for free, Telluride Swag. But there are no gift bags in the theaters...

you can pick up some pens and such in the Commons tent, but Telluride does not release what films it is showing until the Friday of the Festival. The LA Times does a good job describing how the "high brow" Indie Film buff that come to Telluride are pretty good guessers of Awards glory. I tried to make that sentence as low brow as possible, how'd I do?

But Telluride is a pretty laid back festival, no photo hounds, like in Sundance or Cannes. I did write about how the infamous dogs of Telluride, are so unimpressed....

by the Whose, Who that comes to this secluded mountain town set at 8,750 feet above sea level, in the San Juan Mountain....

Must be the lack of air, it slows everyone down, except at the Steaming Bean coffee shop...

which has a booming business all three days,the media, the movie lover, the directors, the producers needing jolts of caffeine to wake them up for the next showing. Its a great place to talk about what one has seen so far, get good recommends for what to see next, and to just listens. I have, I confess, overheard the most interesting conversations with a US Senator one year and the widow of George Harrison another year...

and have concluded, we really are about the same, when it comes down to it. Except for the actors.

But Forest Whitaker was such a gracious man, so engaging in the joint Q and A, Cruise was late for in 2006, promoting his film THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND....

which he would go on to receive a Oscar for Best Actor.

The Q and A's in Telluride, whether in the theaters after the film, at noon in Elks Park...

the talks in the Courthouse...

or the backstage discussions in the libray where I watched two episodes of TCM's Moguls and Movie Stars in 2010 are all free to the public. Ticket holders get in first, but there always seems to be room and you can camp in the city's campgrounds, Telluride is a festival town, ever hear of the Blue Grass Festival? If you are going to camp, I'd not bring children, two much marijuana smoke wafting around, wonder if the LA Times knows about that, when they describe the literate movie geek that comes for the films.

I was inspired in 2011, when having been recently restored, TRIP TO THE MOON was featured...