So my husband took me to a Raw show (WWE) a couple weeks ago here by where we live in Cleveland. It was at the Quicken Loans Arena. I must say, I”m not a huge fan of the WWE. Unlike my husband, I didn’t grow up on the fake wrestling stuff, so it always seemed totally cheesy and over the top to me.

I must admit though, I am a little entertained by it sometimes. Some of the stories are so funny, and some of the wrestlers are actually really witty – like CM Punk, who in my opinion is probably the brainest of them all, and hence the  most entertaining.

But after seeing the Monday Night Raw at the Q a couple weeks ago, who I truly became even more a fan of was Aussie actor Hugh Jackman. He’s the only celebrity that I’ve seen on that show who actually got into it a lot.  I haven’t seen all their guest stars, but I’ve seen enough to know that they usually look and feel awkward when they are out there.

Hugh looked like he felt right at home, and he really seemed to be getting into it, which really played to the crowd.  He’s earned a true fan for life!  He’s a real entertainer, and an excellent actor, which is rare these days.  And he’s absolutely gorgeous, there’s that too!

Well, in another tragic story in Hollywood, a rather troubled actor who hit it big as a young guy, Corey Haim, who was also known as the other half to his bff Corey Feldman, has died.

Details are pending, but I’m hoping it wasn’t related to drugs or alcohol, since he was so young this seems to be the most logical choice though. Details forthcoming. Our thoughts are with his family.

I actually got to watch the Oscars last night. I’m still shocked that my husband and I actually sat down with our little DVR’d show and watched it!  Of course, we flew through the boring sound awards and the stuff that you’ve never heard of or that you don’t really care about (at least for us), but nonetheless, for once I wasn’t waking up in the morning finding out who won all these awards with my morning cup of joe.

I have to say, I quite enjoyed this one! Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin did a great job hosting. They are both hilarious of course, but I am partial to Alec Baldwin, who I think is an understated comedic actor that cracks me up just by looking at him. The two of them really played off eachother well, and the writing was truly funny.

It was edgy without being schmultzy, so they really pulled it off.  The mood seemed to be light and fun as well, perhaps some of the blue mood from the economy and past events has warn off and people are ready to have some fun.

In a big shock for me, Sandra Bullock won for best actress for her role in the true life drama “The Blind Side”.  A nicer woman couldn’t have won, but she herself even said did I deserve this, or did I just wear you down?  I saw some clips of her performance. It seems solid, but I’m not sure about Oscar worthy. I’d like for her to win anything any time though, she’s just so likeable, I can’t help it.

Jeff Bridges won for Crazy Heart, which I’m dying to see now. I love Jeff Bridges. I think I’ve loved him since I had a mega crush on him as a young girl when he played in the remake of King Kong. He’s not only a great actor but seems like a really cool “dude” in real life. I mean, come on, how could you not love his “the dude” character in the Big Lebowski?

The biggest victory of the night went to best supporting actor Christoph Waltz. I couldn’t help but go “aw” when he accepted his award, clearly blown away and humbled.  I’m a big Tarantino fan, and we went to see this movie at the theater, but I must say it wasn’t my favorite Tarantino flick, however, Waltz made the scenes intriguing that he was in. In fact, he held me mesmerized in the opening scene to the movie and my husband and I were both like Who WAS THAT GUY?

Mo’Nique won for best supporting actress for the ruthless, cruel mother in Precious, which is based on the novel Push by Sapphire about an obese african american girl and her abusive family.

HGTV is one of my favorite channels. I know, I know, back in my early twenties, I never thought I’d be caught dead watching what I would have surely considered a totally boring station like this, with home how to’s and decorating advice, but now I can’t seem to get enough of this great channel. Two of my favorite shows are My House is Worth What, where homeowners find out if their home has enough equity to add on or to sell, and you get to see three awesome houses inside and out, and the other favorite is House Hunters, where you follow couples and individuals on their quest for their next home. You get to see three homes or ranging quality on that one too.

All in all, I guess as I get more into decorating and home making, if you will, I love to look at other people’s homes and get decorating ideas for my own home, and also get ideas to do things in a cheaper, more cost effective way. I also have started watching one of their landscaping shows, as we are looking at ideas to landscape our yard and plant additional trees as privacy screens in our back yard for next spring.

All that aside, I had to remind everyone to make sure they enter every day of the HGTV Dream Home Sweepstakes this year. You still have almost 30 days to put your entry in once every day if you wish, or you can just enter once if you want to do that. It is one of the most gorgeous homes yet this year. It’s built in New Mexico, where the sun shines most of the year, and it’s a pueblo style facade with a gorgeous rustic inside, with modern amenities and touches. Absolutely breathtaking.

And this year, to boot, they are also adding another incentive for entering their contest by adding a nice $500k cash to the pot. Part of me wonders if this was added to cover the property taxes and prize taxes people probably get killed with when they win this contest – that’s gotta be it. I bet they had too many people who won the house, but couldn’t afford to actually live it it!  Anyways, I’m entering every day from now til the contest is over. Who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll win

This past Friday, we went to the amusement park in nearby Sandusky, Ohio called Cedar Point. You may have heard of it, as far as I know it still ranks as one of the top amusement parks in the world, or at least in the US. I’m pretty sure it still can claim the novelty of having the tallest or fastest roller coaster, which one I cannot remember, but it also has the coolest new ride I’ve seen in years as an amusement park attendee in it’s newest addition, the Top Thrill Dragster.

I am a Netflix customer, and a happy one at that.  I love getting my movies in the mail, and only having to wait about one or two business days to get my movies after they’ve recieved my returned movies in the mail.  I think the membership prices they charge are more than reasonable, so I was surprised when I got an email saying that they were lowering the cost of several membership prices.  I already thought what I was paying for the two at a time price was great, so I thought wow, that’s even better.

Then I read today that the reason Netflix lowered it’s prices are because they have recently suffered a lot of customer loss, and are attempting to regain patronage by broadcasting lower membership fees.  I honestly wonder how they turn a healthy profit even on what they charge now, but relegated to the fact that they probably rely more on quantity of people than anything else to turn a profit, and don’t worry so much about the individual membership prices because they did have the corner on the market, so to speak, for a while. 

Blockbuster has edged in a bit on Netflix, taking some customers away with an online mail DVD rental offering where the customer can order movies online just like they can with Netflix, but with the added benefit that they can take their movies back and exchange them for a new one at any local Blockbuster store as well. This is a good benefit, and I must admit, I thought about switching, but the service I get from Netflix is so fast, and the rate at which I watch the movies is just right for the service right now.  Besides, I hate going to the stores, so that’s why Netflix is perfect for people like me! 

Lisa Rinna, the unusually pouty lipped soap star turned fashio maven, wife to Harry Hamlin and mom, is now going to be the replacement for Joan and Melissa Rivers to host the red carpets and comment on fashion and maybe even be as big of a pain in the butt as Joan was.  Joan is 73 years old, and there’s no telling why she was replaced, but age may have played a part. 

Although you’d never know her true age thanks to the advent of face and skin pulling.  She’d probably be much better looking without that plastic, frozen look on her face though!

Joan has basically made a career as being an outspoken, say-anything type of persona and a lot of people don’t like her, but you gotta give it to her, the lady’s been around in showbiz forever.  At 73 years old she’s still hangin’ with the young, hip Hollywood crowd, although she may not always be the most welcome guest admittedly!

Rosie O’Donnell, another outspoken woman who’s made a career out of sometimes being obnoxious and controversial, notably once ribbed Joan for having too many facelifts and said she does even look human any more once when Joan ripped someone a new you know what for what they were wearing.  I agree with Rosie on that one!

YouTube, the immensely popular video website, where anyone can upload pretty much anything they want, unless it’s unacceptable material (this seems somewhat subjective though), is in hot water with Thailand over a video mocking one of their leaders.  Wow, it’s a good thing the US doesn’t work like that.  Talk about opressive.  Thank God for free speech.

To boot, officials over in Thailand blocked YouTube until they could be promised by the still in it’s youth video company that could come up with a technology to edit out any individually offensive videos.  I’d say that’s an awfully tall order, but I’m sure it’s one the video company is thinking of doing just to appease a huge audience. 

Can you believe that insulting the monarchy in Thailand is considered a criminal act, and is prosecutable?  Google, who owns YouTube apparently exercised it’s US rights of anti-censorship and refused to remove the video clip (good for them). 

I still wonder how YouTube makes it’s money.  I mean, I know they were bought out by Google, and Google has some serious geniuses that can figure out how to make money in advertising in almost any medium, but how many ads are really served and clicked on YouTube? 

Maybe it’s a lot more than I can imagine, but I just think that for such a huge engine of public interest that gets millions of hits a day, it would be able to be exploited for profit a little more than it currently is.  But much kudos to YouTube.  They’ve taken a concept and revolutionized it, and the name in itself is pure genius, I think!

A big, big fan of the cult classic Christmas movie starring Ralphie as the kid who wants a Red Rider BB gun, “Christmas Story”, has decided to take his fanhood to the next level, and has refurbished the actual Cleveland home where the movie was filmed, and made it look exactly like the home, down to details. 

He has recently decided to open the home for tours and hopes that it will become a Cleveland tourist attraction.  The man, who is in the military and has an 8 month old kid, spent half a million dollars on the home’s renovation, and is hoping that charging an entrance fee for the home tour will help him regain some if not all of his investment. 

He also has sold the infamous “leg lamps” that the father wins as an award door to door for a side line for a while, so this guy is truly a devoted fan.  I absolutely love this movie.  I’ve watched it every Christmas since I was about 13 years old and it always makes me feel like it’s really the holiday when I see it. 

Not only that, since it was filmed in Cleveland, where I live only an hour away, and which I frequently visited when my grandparents were alive and they lived there.  I even visited downtown when they still had a Higbees, so this is really like a trip down memory lane. 

Pete Townshend of the famous band “The Who” was scheduled to do a Howard Stern Sirius Satellite Radion interview.  He was actually waiting in a studio to be interviewed along with Roger Daltry and another bandmate, and when he heard Howard talking about the “child porn thing”, he reportedly stormed out, not wanting to talk about something he’d been 100% aquitted of years ago.

The Who prodigy was accused of looking at child pornography several years ago, and claims he was sexually abused as a child, but he was just looking at the images for research on a book. 

He was fully aquitted, and Roger Daltry stuck up for him when he went on Stern, basically telling Stern to cut him a break, and that he deserved to not be harassed about something that he was not guilty of.  What’s in the past is in the past….good for Roger – it takes a lot to get a shock jock like Howard to apologize – which is exactly what he did. 

Howard said he’s a big fan of their work, and that he loves them, and wants to have Pete on – Hmm Howard, I remember listening to your show a while ago when you were still on terrestrial radio, and you said you didn’t care for the Who – as a matter of fact – I think you said “Who cares about the Who?” or something to that effect….