Instead of writing blog posts this weekend, I wound up working to prepare for Thursday’s Advanced Twitter class I’m teaching at Enterprise Center of Johnson County. And instead of using Sunday night to at least get Monday’s post written, good friend Jim Joseph lured me into his Golden Globe Awards Twitter Chat, #ggexp. Since Sunday night was full of tweeting, here's some of my commentweeting the creative highlights of the Golden Globe Awards. (BTW, thanks Amy Balog for that great term, commentweeting.)
- Despite my prediction last year, Ricky Gervais was back as Golden Globe Awards host for the third year in a row in 2012. But for as little time as he was actually on stage, he served more as an on-stage reporter than a host. In any case, the opening line from Ricky Gervais (“Where did I leave off?”) was as good an opener as anything since Pee Wee Herman’s, “Have you heard any good jokes lately?” to open a long ago MTV awards show.
- For all the speeches allowed to go on way too long, they started playing music to get Meryl Streep off the stage. She’s Meryl Streep – our best known American actress – even if she did have a dress that looked as if it were from the Mary Todd Lincoln collection. She should get as much time as she needs (and she needed more time than usual since she forgot her glasses – and everyone was afraid to hand them to her mid-speech).
- There should be a play clock for the Golden Globe Awards show like there is in the NFL. You only have so many seconds to start your speech or there’s a penalty involved.
- Speaking of the NFL, Lifetime Achievement Awards are to awards shows what the Halftime Show is to the Super Bowl. Yawn....
- There was a decent Google Chrome ad (as if Google really needs to advertise its impending world dominance). But the minute the spot ran, Google Chrome would barely run on my computer. Coincidence? I think not.
- There’s a real problem with too-thin female stars. If you put Buffalo Wing sauce on Madonna’s biceps, you could serve them at Buffalo Wild Wings, and I was thinking $5 would be enough to make sure Angelina Jolie gets one meal per day for a whole month!
- Steven Spielberg was thanking people for approving a project he did. Wait a minute. He’s Steven Spielberg! Does anyone really tell him, "NO," he can’t do a project?
- I don’t know much, if anything, about fashion, but it was clear that Jessica Lange and Jane Fonda are beyond the ages when they should be wearing semi-backless dresses.
- Matt Leblanc (who will forever be known as “Joey from Friends”) won a Golden Globe award for some show where I think he plays himself. I’m not sure why he won, but I was very excited to see I wasn’t the only person tweeting about him with the Twitter hashtag, #JoeyFromFriends.
- NBC kept running ads for its new series, Smash, and saying, “Introducing Katherine McPhee.” “Introducing” Katharine McPhee? I guess the statute of limitations on losing a reality TV show must be 6 years.
- During the 2011 Super Bowl, the Chrysler 300 ad with the car rolling through overcast days and dark nights in Detroit was incredibly cool. The ad last night with the car driving through neighborhoods on a sunny day looked like another car commercial.
- The Hollywood Foreign Press Association needs to inject some NASCAR sensibilities into its sponsorship of the Golden Globes. No sponsor should have to put up with as few sponsor mentions as the Hollywood Foreign Press gets during the broadcast. Maybe they should get a NASCAR driver to host the Golden Globes next year?
My favorite Twitter chat opportunities are those tied to widely-viewed television programs since you can not only get a good small group tweeting together, but you can also see what the nation (and often the world) are thinking about it as well.
Did you watch the Golden Globe Awards? What did you think about this year’s show? Any commentweeting the creative highlights for you? – Mike Brown
