Oscars, Blindspot & Berlin refugees

So, last week wasn’t really great for me but despite that, there were a few highlights. A little highlights recap…

First, there were the Oscars. I watch the Oscars live every year, I stay up all night to do so. It’s all nonsense, I know, but I love it. I do this with a friend and this year a new friend of mine joined us as well. We went to my parents’ holiday cottage in the north as the only channel we could watch it on this year wasn’t a Dutch channel but a German satellite channel that we can receive there. My old friend and my new friend didn’t know each other but that didn’t stop the fun, they got on well together. We had a great time! Alas, the Oscars themselves weren’t that eventful…

I enjoyed the Chris Rock opening but after that #OscarsSoWhite was the only topic and frankly, that did get a little old. I prefer not only more diversity at the Oscars, I would also have liked more diversity in presentation jokes. In addition, there were no stand out winners for me, but maybe that’s because quite some of the movies haven’t been in the cinemas here yet. That annoys me, that these newest movies get nominated that no one has had a chance to see yet. But, I was glad to see Leonardo Di Caprio finally win an Oscar (even though I haven’t seen The Revenant yet) and as I had ony just seen Brie Larson the week before in Room, I was very pleased for her as she was excellent in it. Bridge of Spies with Mark Rylance and The Danish Girl with Alicia Vikander I have yet to see but they seem sympathetic wins too.

As for the the red carpet… we loved looking at the dresses and commenting from our couch. From what we saw we loved Lady Gaga’s outfit the most (we couldn’t say that for her Oscar nominated song, though – none of the songs were too good, I thought)! We also liked seeing Leo and Kate Winslet together. Aww.

Yep, Oscars were fun, but more due to how much I enjoyed watching it with my friends than due to the show itself…

After Oscar-night I got sick… but the highlight was that Blindspot has started again and I was able to watch it while I was sick! Not only does Jane (Jaimie Alexander) completely intrigue me (and gosh, she’s bad-ass beautiful!), Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) is sympathetically intense and those two just have great, crackling chemistry together. I also just love Patterson the tech-lady, played by Ashley Johnson (screencaps all mine from last week’s 11th episode of season 1)…

Yep, so nice that the show is finally back from it’s hiatus, looking forward to the next episode!

The rest of the week didn’t have that many highlights but the weekend did; it brought tweets by Richard Armitage who was visiting a refugee shelter in Berlin. He also tweeted three pages of text about his experience there (click on images to enlarge)…

This refugee issue is one close to my own heart. I know there are difficulties and I know there are no easy and quick solutions but first and foremost it’s humanitarian action that counts! These people need help and not the hateful backlash I see so much around me now. They aren’t criminals, these are people who have to give up home and hearth and flee under dangerous and uncertain circumstances to find some semblance of a peaceful and good life. I love that Richard has highlighted the humanitarian need and, in his recount, has tried to give the word “refugee” a sympathetic face, like little Lego-Paul and the Cinderella girl. Yep, good on ya, Richard!

So, in the midst of all the sad news and sickness and funerals, I love that there are these positive highlights that can make me happy. I am after all, in general, a glass half-full kinda girl.