And the nominees are...

Kind of disappointing. Dare I say shocking? I had 5 movies on my wishlist going in. You know, movies I figured had a good shot at getting some indie attention:

1. Once
2. Bella
3. Juno
4. Lars and the Real Girl
5. Waitress

Despite being completely eligible and totally cute, Lars was snubbed. Once is nominated in the Foreign category. I'm worried because it's up against Persepolis which everyone is loving too. I haven't seen it yet, but I don't see how I can vote against Once. (Oh, yeah, did I mention? I'm voting this year.) I have a feeling Once will win for music at the Oscars, so there's that. So back to today. Bella didn't get a mention, but I guess everyone didn't love it like I did, so maybe I was off base with that one. I am happy with Juno. I don't think I have to say again that I love Diablo Cody. Ellen's nod is so well deserved. The ones for best feature and directing are just icing. I was a little surprised about the lack of attention given to Waitress. I hope they give Adrienne some posthumous love. She IS up for screenplay...

Ok so ZB was selected to announce the nominees this morning. I was disappointed about not getting assigned to cover the event (and not just because of the ZB factor), especially since the hotel is a 3 minute drive from my house. So I said I would just stand outside the hotel. Well, turns out, sometimes you can just walk into the Film Independent Spirit Award nominations and nobody stops you and you find yourself making eye contact with a heavily-made up version of your No. 1.

I won't say that I think he was making eye contact with me out of recognition (because you already know that's what I was imagining). But there was a lot of eye contact. I probably would have done better to wear the jazzercise outfit, but then I would have looked like a CRAZY stalker. Whereas, in my retro dress and boots I just looked like a regular-ish stalker who makes eye contact before pulling her Pink Lemonade Lipsmackers out of her legitimately retro Growing Pains tote.

No seriously.

So that's how I started my morning. Not bad, eh?

Last night I saw Grace is Gone. John Cusack. Wow. I'm hoping the movie had a budget larger than $20-Mil and that's why he didn't get nominated for a Spirit Award. I hope he doesn't get overlooked at the Oscars. A nomination is all I'm asking for people. You don't have to give him the statue.

Surprisingly I made it about halfway through the 85 minutes before tears actually hit my cheeks. Once they came tho, I couldn't stop them. I was sitting between my coworker's husband and NDG. I decided it wasn't really appropriate to grab on to either one of their legs when the going got tough. (I mostly made that decision after reflexes took over and I went to grab one and then the other.) But after the credits started to roll and I was still pretty upset, I looked at my coworker and said, "I just need to borrow him for a minute." To which her husband replied "Yeah, it was really sad" and put his arm around me and gave me a squeeze. NDG and I then proceeded to sit through the credits and I had to beg her to stop crying lest I begin again and we never get out of there. So, yeah, an upper it's not. But sometimes crying is good.

Oh, and Clint Eastwood did the score and it's AMAZING.

I finished reading The Time-Traveler's Wife and am engrossed in Diablo's stripper memoirs. It's already got me contemplating an amateur night. In the midwest. I think it would be easier there, you know, competition-wise. Although, having said that, when I asked around at clubs out here during my S Factor days the girls I saw were pretty rough looking and had bruises and stuff.

This is getting really long, but I'm super excited because Glen and Marketa (Once) are coming into the studio. NEXT WEEK! I get to interview them, and I'm gonna ask them to play a couple songs for me, and then I'm gonna tell them I'm having a hard time facing my 30th, and how much better it would be if they performed at my party. I hope they go for it. If my dream sequence is allowed to continue, Joshua Radin would also perform at the best bday party ever and ZB would show up, you know, just to say hi.

Alright, that's enough daydreaming. I actually have work to do. I've got the Atonement screening tonight. Iron and Wine concert tomorrow. Screenings for The Walker and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story on Thursday and the Aimee Mann Christmas Show on Friday. Whew!

For a complete list of all the nominees for the 2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards, click here.