Friday and Saturday, it finally hit me: i'm not going anywhere! I'm stuck in Berlin! Unfortunately, this was not good news, and i got hugely depressed about the whole thing. It's not just that there were all the screenings i wanted to get to, it was also just seeing my family and friends. It's been four months since Christmas: i've never been out of New York City for longer than three months at a time before. And now that i've cancelled my trip back (i would have had to rebook my flight for this week, which would leave me less than a week), it looks like i won't get home before the end of this particular sojourn (which ends in July). Who would have thought that a volcano in Iceland could cause such disruption?

But today (Sunday), i decided to try to shake this. I cleaned (vacuumed and dusted), i went to the exercise room, i went to a movie ("The Young Victoria"; i enjoyed it, but i'm a sucker for Emily Blunt), i did my laundry.

One thing i did to try to get me in a writing mood was to go to IMDB and look at the Classic Film Board; unfortunately, i think i offended some people. In fact, i know i offended some people. The reason? One thing i hate is this whole so-and-so should have won an Academy Award/so-and-so shouldn't have won an Academy Award. Does it matter? What's done is done, and how people voted is how people voted. It's actually more interesting to look at who won, and try to figure out why. But it started with a thread on George Chakiris. The question was: are there any fans out there? And instead of people talking about George Chakiris, there were all these comments about how he shouldn't have won an Academy Award for his supporting performance in "West Side Story". But he did win, and i remember at the time, it seemed to be a pretty popular choice, it was part of the juggernaut that was "West Side Story".

But people get bent out of shape about the Academy Awards, and i can't understand why. If you're not a member, what does it matter what the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences decides? There are over 6,000 members (i don't remember the exact number), and the MPAAS is topheavy with veteran show biz types. Once you're a member, you're a member for life (just as long as you pay your yearly dues). So the only way i can take the Academy Awards is as a joke.

But i think i got some people angry, because they take the Academy Awards very seriously.

But it doesn't matter, because i'm stuck in Berlin.