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What goes on before and after The Oscars (The Academy Awards)

Is that time of the year again, my favorite one. The Oscars are here and there is a big expectation not only about who is going to win but about what celebrities are going to wear. Fashion critics enjoy guessing who is going to be the best and the worst dressed of the year... they enjoy it more than the award show itself. Here are some information about how celebrities prepare weeks before this important event and what goes on after the show.

How celebrities get ready for the Oscars

Picking –The- outfit

Celebrities hire people to get lend jewelry, shoes and dresses of the most famous designers exclusively for them (this means no other celebrity will wear the same things on the red carpet) the right outfit can make them even more popular! and of course...who wouldn't like to look incredible in case they get to when accept the award . The celebs obtain these and other benefits for free (So Ironic ). An exchange is made: “ I wear your clothes and your name will appear on all media and you will lend me your dress for a night for free. This is how Hollywood works.

VITAMIN SHOTS AND IV DRIPS

Stars are obsessed with the jolt of energy they get from vitamin B12 shots injected right into their blood stream — the perfect pick-me-up before a big night like the Oscars.

LASER HAIR REMOVAL

Stars in skin-baring dresses won’t risk the camera catching any stubble, so most turn to laser hair removal months before the awards show.

MICRODERMABRASION/PEELS

Makeup isn’t enough to make stars glow on the red carpet.

Celebrities will be arriving during daytime sun on the red carpet so their skin has to be flawless. Also, the skin is a canvas for their makeup. If the skin is perfect, they will be glowing!

TEETH WHITENING

Nope, those pearly whites aren’t natural. Stars usually get professional teeth whitening treatments a few days before major events, according to Dr. Bill Dorfman, a celebrity dentist in Los Angeles.

BOTOX AND FILLERS

Aging actresses don’t look that good without a little help. It’s no secret stars love Botox for smoothing skin and vanishing wrinkles, and injectable fillers help plump up lips and cheeks.

Diets!diets!diets!

Honestly, celebs are into crazy diets, some last months and others last a couple of weeks ( fast/cleans ).

Part Time !

Have you ever wonder if there is one official Academy Awards party ? Actually there is not one official Oscars after party, but there are many and they all sounds fun.

Here are the main ones:

1.      "Night of 100 Stars" Oscar Viewing Dinner/Party

2.      In-Style Oscar Viewing Dinner/Party

3.      Weinstein Brothers Oscar Viewing Dinner

4.      2015 Elton John Oscar Viewing Dinner/Party

5.      Motion Picture & Television Fund's The Night Before Party 

6.      Fox After Party at Boa Hollywood

7.      Elton John After Party Only

8.      Vanity Fair Party

9.      The 87th Oscars and Governors Ball

10. Fox Oscar party

This, just to name a few, there are even private parties hosted by celebrities but we won’t get to see this people posing on a red carpet. The tickets for these parties are between $1490.00 to $5990.00. A good way to keep track of what happens before, during and after the show is through social networks and following the official accounts of your favorite celebs. This way you can feel that you enjoy the experience of the Oscars next to the rich and famous.

You can also plan a small get together with your closest friends. Buy some decoration, dress up, take your drinks in glasses and buy some snacks.

Our favorite celebrities will enjoy a night of drinks,music and food. If that wasn’t enough, they nominees will get a gift bag (probably they will need more than one bag) full of the latest and popular products worth $160,000.

-The Oscars 2015 Bingo game !

This are some cards for you to play with your family or friends.

-Facts about the Academy Awards that you didn’t knew:

• 61.4% of the audience for last year’s telecast was female (28.1 million viewers). 

• Bob Hope has hosted the Oscars telecast 19 times more than anybody else.

• Since 1978 there have been three films to win both Best Picture Oscar and gross over $300 million in the U.S. Titanic $600.8 million released in 1997, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King $377.0 million released in 2003 and Forrest Gump $329.7 million released in 1994.

• There has only been one Oscar winner named Oscar: Oscar Hammerstein II, who won two for best song.

• The first person ever presented with an Academy Award was Emil Jannings, a silent-film actor who took the Best Actor award for two films.

• Jennifer Lawrence, who won Best Actress in 2013 for "Silver Linings Playbook," felt weird having hers in the house, so her mom took it and displays it on her piano.

• The goodies in Oscar attendees gift bags are famously pricey last year’s  swag bag is reportedly worth about $80,000.

• There are 2 movies that got the most nominations: All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997)

• Walt Disney won 22 Oscars. He also won the most Oscars in one year, with four in 1954.

• Cedric Gibbons (Art Director), who designed the Oscar statuette, won 11 awards out of a total of 39 nominations.

• Most film nominations without a win: The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985), with 11 nominations each.

• Shortest performance to win an acting Oscar: Beatrice Straight in Network (1976) - 5 minutes and 2 seconds and Anthony Hopkins' 16 minutes of screen time in Silence of the Lambs.

• Helen Hayes won in 1932 for The Sin of Madelon Claudet and in 1971 for Airport, which made it  the longest gap between awards.

Pushing Daisies Quotes: Dummy

Pushing Daisies: Season 1: Episode 2

“Dummy”

Episode #3T6501

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Written by

Peter Ocko

Directed by

Barry Sonnenfeld

The androids of the past : Automatons

Singular: au•tom•a•ton / Plural: au•tom•a•tons or au•tom•a•ta (-tə) 

1. A self-operating machine or mechanism, especially a robot. 
2. One that behaves or responds in a mechanical way.

   

History has taught us that the first machines produced by man were the automata. They constituted the first step in the realization of his dream to fly through the air like a bird, swim the sea like a fish, end to become ruler of all nature. From these attempts to imitate life by mechanical means, man subsequently utilized the principles involved to produce the complex mechanisms which have resulted in the technological advances of the Space Age.

 

Greek Automata: (Gr: Automatos - 'self-moving') When his writings on hydraulics, pneumatics and mechanics were translated into Latin in the sixteenth century, Hero’s readers were amazed to discover descriptions of inventions which included vending machines, a water-pump, a wind-organ, and the aeolipile (the first recorded steam engine). 

Although today the only surviving example of such sophisticated ancient Greek mechanics is the Antikythera mechanism, it is clear that complex mechanical devices existed in ancient Greece. Following the destruction of the Library of Alexander and the collapse of the Greek Empire, most of the works of the ancient Greeks were lost to us, and along with it, the art of automata. By the 8th century, the art made an official recovery in the Middle-east, with the publication of 'The Book of Ingenious Devices', which was a large illustrated work on mechanical devices, including automata, published in 850 by the three Persian brothers known as the Banu Musa working at the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) in Baghdad. The book described about one hundred devices and how to use them.

The automata look like the creation of the modern world. These pieces (specially the small ones) are intricate mechanisms that create the simplest movements, human like movements, so soft and delicate. Sometimes I forget that I am watching perfect androids, the more and more I watch them...they become real. I can't believe that the automatons have been around for centuries! even B.C.! 

During the 1700 royalty and people with money started buying automata for their parties. The royalty always needed to have the latest popular things, and the automata were the IT things, they provided entertainment and music. As you know, if the royals and the famous had something new, the rest of the society imitated them. On the 1800, the automatons became more popular, they were sold as souvenirs, toys for children and entertainment at local fairs, and they were not exclusive for people with money anymore. The automatons were based on common individuals, show business performers, fairy tales, etc. The characters on which the automatons are based are varied, it just depended on the creator.

Enjoy these wonderful videos ... 

 

I'm sure I had one of those in a past life. I need one.

The face of Halloween.

Far from an activity for children to do with their parents during October for Halloween, the original Jack-o-Lanterns, of the Irish myth, were actually quite terrifying looking and I can’t imagine children would have want to come close to any of them. This essential Halloween decoration item has a purpose and a story behind it.

They were carved from turnips or beets rather than festive orange pumpkins, and were intended to ward off unwanted visitors; spirits, goblins and demons. When the Irish and Scots emigrated to America, bringing the tradition along, they found that pumpkins, native to America, made perfect fruits for carving. Pumpkin Jack-o-Lanterns have been an integral part of Halloween festivities ever since.

The name “Jack O’ Lantern” was originally one of the numerous names given to ignis fatuus (Medieval Latin for “foolish fire”), another of which is “Will O’ the Wisps”, basically the odd light that can occasionally be seen over marshes, swamps, and the like.  “Jack O’ Lantern” first popped up being used this way around the mid-17th century in East Anglia, UK and spread from there through parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland.

Also this name could originally derive from the practice of calling men generically “Dick, Jack, Tom, etc.”  In particular, men who were lower class, were often called generically “Jack” beginning around the 14th century in England. (This practice popped up again in the late 19th century in the United States where “Jack” was used for the name for a man where his real name is unknown).  Thus, when you see someone carrying a lantern in a distance at night that you see is a man, but you can’t make out who exactly it is, he is literally “man with a lantern”, a.k.a. “Jack of the Lantern” or “Jack O’ Lantern”. 

The truth is that the jack o’ lanterns and pumpkin carving are probably going to be around for a long time, at least that is what I hope so. I could not imagine a Halloween season without this mysterious folks.

Even though the pumpkin is a simple vegetable, carved with a scary face and that alone makes it trick and it’s a perfect decoration for a spooky night; nowadays it is more commercialized in different ways. Just like masks changed from scary to sophisticated and expensive. The pumpkin has changed.

Before, the image of the jack o’ lantern alone was commercialized in cards, masks, plates and different decorations items. Today, the pumpkin itself has suffered a major transformation.  Apparently to get the attention of the new generation, new stencils with images of Disney characters, Movie characters, Music Idols were created to carve on pumpkins. We can also count with light and sound effects.  Don’t get me wrong. I’m all about this cool new designs, there are very creative people out there BUT I just hope kids learn first to carve the original face of our beloved jack so this tradition won’t disappear completely. But the question is: the Jack -o-Lanter face,will it disappear? 

Carved Pumpkins Back Then:

Carved Pumkins Today: