Of Meltdowns and Peanuts

February 27 marked the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony. But more importantly, it marked the 1st McKelvy House Academy Awards Viewing party.
After I (Eric Henney) led a rousing discussion of representations of gender and sexuality in visual media (which counted at least 20 prospective McKelvyites among its attendees!), we hastily arranged the lounge seating into rows, aimed the projector we’d borrowed from the College at the wall, tore into the bags of movie candy we’d bought, filled out our prediction ballots, and claimed our seats for the rest of the night. Several others came and went during the three-and-a-half hour show, but only a dozen or so diehards sat through its entirety, from Melissa Leo’s meltdown, Kirk Douglas’ unwillingness to get off the stage already, to Anne Hathaway’s frantic attempts at propping up co-host Jame’s Franco’s addled nonchalance. But the trainwrecks (and ongoing commentary from we, the peanut gallery) are what make the Oscars worth watching in the first place, right?
After Best Picture was announced, we tabulated the scores from everyone’s ballots, and the winners displayed their swag.