In case you missed the big, mushy mess of an Oscar running commentary thing I attempted last night, it's there. Really, all you need to know is this: The "Belleville Rendezvous" performance was a travesty. A crime against humanity and fans of the movie. It featured obvious and cartoonish lip syncing, a lady poured into a Jessica Rabbit dress (thanks, Barb!) crooning what should have been a song sung by three people. Oh, and I didn't even mention the "stage bicycle" they had some guy "playing" -- which wasn't even a road bike, nor anything resembling any sort of bicycle one would see at the Tour de France. That was a shame, really, and it should have been one of the highlights of the evening. (There weren't many highlights of the evening.)

Sadly, the Oscars didn't even really deliver on their usual promise of trashy celeb behavior -- everyone was extremely well-behaved, no doubt under fear of CBS nipple clamps, and most of the dresses were unmockably classic. We were forced to compensate for the lack of entertainment by drinking too much wine. It was a sacrifice -- but one must undertake these burdens when they're about to lose an Oscar pool.

The new the title of this post refers to is a bunch of new links off the main page. Visit them!

The old is a bunch of old links, some from last week, but here they are anyway.

Actual message from God received in Georgia:

ROME, Georgia (AP) -- Tickets at one movie theater screening Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" are being deemed decidedly unholy. The number 666, which many Christians recognize as the "mark of the beast," is appearing on movie tickets for Gibson's film at a Georgia theater, drawing complaints from some moviegoers.

The machine that prints tickets assigned the number 666 as a prefix on all the tickets for the film, said Gary Smith, owner of the Movies at Berry Square in northwest Georgia. The 666 begins a series of numbers that are listed below the name of the movie, the date, time and price.

Do you think there was a swoon when this person realized this? Our arthouse theater, the marvelous Kentucky Theater, is showing THE PASSION OF THE GORE and we were driving by on Saturday afternoon and were shocked at the hundreds, literally, of people in line. All weekend long, wherever we went downtown, there were your obvious god-fearing, church-going types scurrying toward the Kentucky, lest they be late. The Kentucky, meanwhile, has taken to running a notice about being prompt and buying advance tickets and such on its ads. I must admit I have mixed feelings here -- I wish they weren't showing it and I hope they rake in the dough. The other movie they have right now is "The Fog of War," which almost makes up the difference.

Christopher and I are both very excited that it's Humana Festival of New American Plays time, and I'll have more to say on that soon. We intend to make at least two plays and hopefully more this year. Meanwhile, an article on one of the more fascinating, at least at first blush, plays that will be debuting.

Comments here from Shane Curruth on how he won Sundance with a $7,000 movie. (Thanks to Jacob Sager Weinstein, who's finally putting his diaries from London on the web.)

And I missed the tenth anniversary of Bill Hicks' death, but found this nice essay about his off-kilter genius at Danger Blog.

Also, according to Pew, I'm a freak because I update my blog so much. Okay, no real argument there.

I know, I know I owe you email and it's coming. I promise. Possibly even tomorrow. Very behind here at Fort Blustery.

George says snore!

earworm: "New Madrid," Wilco

rec: running away with the fork

namecheck: Kelly, Barb, Christopher Oscar-pool winning fools