The Buffet Plate

Note -- these are the predicted winners. If I disagree with a particular pick (as in, if I cast a vote, I would choose ____), it will be noted.

Original screenplay: Spotlight My personal favorite: Straight Outta Compton

Adapted screenplay: The Big Short My personal favorite: Brooklyn

Visual effects: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Sound Mixing: The Revenant

Sound Editing: The Revenant

Short film, live: Shok

Short film, animated: World of Tomorrow

Production design: Mad Max: Fury Road

Music, original song: “Til It Happens to You”

Music, original score: The Hateful Eight

Makeup and hairstyling: Mad Max: Fury Road

Film editing: The Big Short

Documentary, short: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

Documentary, feature: Amy

Cinematography: The Revenant

Animated feature: Inside Out

and now, the biggies ...

Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl My personal favorite: Rachel McAdams, Spotlight

I’ve not seen “The Danish Girl,” but, I think there will be a lot of gnashing of teeth, if only on a subconscious level, that “Danish Girl” and “Carol” aren’t bringing home more awards (you know, politics and such). I also think Rachel McAdams is getting a little bit of the “Norbert” treatment given her propensity for softer-slash-romcom roles. That said, she was awesome in “Spotlight.”

Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone, Creed

This a tough category, but, I think Stallone brings it home for his best-known role. Plus, well, SPOILER ALERT, there is a degree of “affliction bump” for this turn of Rocky Balboa.

Best Actress: Brie Larson, Room My personal favorite: Saorise Ronan, Brooklyn

I’ll admit something: “Brooklyn” was the pleasant surprise of the year for me personally. As I watched all of the Best Picture nominees, I told anyone that would listen that I loved “Brooklyn” much more than I would have predicted. I’d like to see it rewarded. I’ll make another admission: “Room” was, well, I mean, it was a well-done movie, but it was hard to watch, especially once you realized what the heck was going on. Larson did a heck of a job, but, I dunno, is it really hard to play desperate and broken? Well, yes, but still. At least I known that her name is “ser-shuh,” as in, rhymes with “inertia.”

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

If you would have asked me before seeing “The Revenant” and/or seeing the momentum DiCaprio was getting through awards season, I would’ve told you Redmayne was a lock for a second-straight statuette (see my note above on Supporting Actress). But, DiCaprio’s performance was compelling. I mean, he did make a movie where he crawls around and grunts for two hours meaningful and compelling.

Best Director: Alejandro Iñárritu, The Revenant

In about as much of a stylistic difference from his win a year ago for “Birdman or (the really stupid parenthetical),” well, Iñárritu is on a roll. See above about making a movie that’s a lot of torture, crawling and grunting compelling.

So now we go to the category that has bugged me the most ...

Best Picture: The Revenant My personal favorite: Spotlight

Oh, I came --this-- close to calling it a split ballot (splitting director and picture). I even posted a Facebook status update predicting such a split, but termed it more of a “hot take” than an actual prediction. “The Revenant” was a cinematic triumph, in that it is a technically executed marvel. But, really, it wasn’t my favorite. I was gripped by “Spotlight.” I was enthralled by “Spotlight.” I’ve thrown shade all over people that haven’t seen “Spotlight.” I, Rick Johnston, think it’s the best picture of the year. But, I think “The Revenant” has way too much momentum with other awards season wins. Now, admittedly, my love affair with “Spotlight” might be for professional reasons, but I’ll stand behind it.

That said, “Revenant” might have the momentum, but, don’t be shocked too much if something else wins, especially if it’s “Spotlight” or “The Big Short.” 

One thing that I am going to make an honest attempt to do this season is to not just needlessly yammer on about “bad coaching.” I mean, like with anything, one can question the wisdom of a particular decision, but, I think too often, we just say it’s “bad coaching.”

Why am I going to do this? Because I learned a lesson in the spring:

Coaching is hard.

It is nerve-wracking.

It was such for me, and I was coaching FLAG football played by 9 and 10 year olds. I can’t even imagine the stress levels one experiences when it is your job.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it. I fully intend to return again in the spring. But, it was maddening.

It got off to a great start. The very first play of the season, I called a play that was basically running a series of quick slants. Ball got out quick into the hands of one of our speedier guys, and it went for a TD.

I was on cloud nine. I mean, I thought we would do well for ourselves, but, this went beyond my wildest dreams.

Of course, as things go, it went slightly downhill from there. We wound up losing that game.

And the next …

And the one after that …

And the one after that one as well …

Went played 8 regular season games. Lost every last one of them. Some were close. Others were not.

Since this is a youth league, every team made the playoffs. We came within 2 minutes of knocking off the top seed, but, lost that one as well. I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever felt so utterly decimated after losing an athletic content.

I’ve often made fun of the idea of coaches — especially NFL ones — doing insane things like sleeping on couches and such. But, you know, part of me gets it.

So I stated before that I plan on returning in the spring. In thinking about the playoff loss, and the season as a whole, I’ve tried to turn it into a learning experience.

And that gets my wheels turning …

And turning …

So now, with six or seven months to go before I would hit the field again, I’ve been thinking and tweaking.

What did I like about my offense? What did I not like? What can I improve on?

For the record, I took the spread principles I generally liked and did work on occasion and morphed it with some of the more wishbone-y stuff that also did work on occasion.

And simplified it. And re-simiplified it.

Now I think I have things the way I want them. I felt like last season I was ready to go minute 1 of first practice, but, looking back I was wrong. This season, however, I’ll be much better prepared. After all, I don’t think I realized how precious that 1 hour of practice per week was.

Now, I’m better prepared.

Now I think I’m ready.

Now I only have a few months to think about it.

Sigh.

But, you see that? Again, if that has driven me crazy for what I was doing, imagine if my livelihood depended on it.

So, yes, I’m going to try and ease up a bit. After all, I don’t know what the heck the big guys are having to deal with, just to get to gameday.

Here's the stretch of Greene St. in question. 

Notice it is your typical paved road. What if we tore up the pavement and made it one giant bricked walkway, much like the current sidewalks on each side -- much like the back patio of the Russell House -- much like The Horseshoe.

Surely it would look a lot better than what is there now.

I mean, it's not like we are doing this elsewhere amongst our facilities.

So, there is one issue -- and it's the big, garnet elephant in the room.

What would happen to the Gamecock? 

As someone who participated in the painting of the initial Gamecock, I have an attachment to it. It's become a campus symbol, with its most memorable moment coming in 2007, as it served as the gathering point for the vigil where people mourned those lost in the Ocean Isle beach house fire.

So, I'm not asking to get rid of the landmark. I'm proposing we make it a true landmark.

First off, let's look at the street view of the Gamecock. The pavement is kind of in bad shape.

So, let's go back to the idea of bricking Greene Street. Imagine a nice brass version of the Gamecock there in that spot.

For an example, let's check out the "M" on the University of Michigan's Diag (the equivalent of the Horseshoe).

Here's the M close up --

Here it is in context --

Or, an alternative could be to make it some sort of concrete inlay.

For an example, let's look at the university seal at UNC.

First close up --

Then in context --

You could, in theory, paint a concrete version, if it looked weird.

So, again, you have a chance to really take a simple, and I would think relatively low-cost, step to make a huge aesthetic difference on campus. You could even write the backstory on the Gamecock -- "The Gamecock first appeared on Greene Street in 2001, the bicentennial year of the university. It was made a permanent part of campus in 20XX, blah blah blah."

Original Screenplay: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Adapted Screenplay: "Whiplash"

Visual Effects: "Interstellar"

Sound Mixing: "Whiplash"

Sound Editing: "American Sniper"

Live Action Short: "Parvaneh"

Animated Short: "The Dam Keeper"

Production Design: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Original Song: "Glory" (from "Selma")

Original Score: "The Theory of Everything"

Makeup and Hairstyling: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Foreign Language Film: "Leviathan"

Film Editing: "Boyhood"

Documentary Short: "Joanna"

Costume Design: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Cinematography: "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)"

Animated Feature: "How to Train Your Dragon 2" (although we all know it's really "The Lego Movie." Still irked at the AMPAS for this one)

And so -- we move to the big dogs:

Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"

I'll be the first to admit, "Boyhood" was not my favorite movie of the bunch. It was a very interesting execution of an idea, although the plot was a little flat for me -- or, is the boring nature of the plot meant to convey everyday life? Who knows. What I do know is that Arquette gave a great performance of an underachieving, if often well-intentioned mother of some incredibly ungrateful kiddos. Pretty easy pick.

Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

"Whiplash," followed oh so closely by "The Imitation Game," was my favorite movie of the Best Picture crowd. Simmons, better known as J. Jonah Jameson in "Spider-Man" or "the dude from the Farmers Insurance commercials," gives a fantastic performance as the sadistic professor Terence Fletcher. The execution of such an exacting role is great. And just when you get a little bit of sympathy for ol' Fletcher ... well ... I won't spoil it. Again, easy pick.

Leading Actress: Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"

Admittedly, I've not seen "Still Alice." However, from what I have seen from the trailers and research on the movies (and the momentum of other awards shows), it seems like this is a pretty safe pick. Also, I mean, she plays a woman with early onset Alzheimer's. We know this is the kind of stuff the AMPAS leans toward. Part of me wants Felicity Jones to win, but, I just don't think it'll happen.

Leading Actor: ....

Leading Actor: ....

Okay, okay, Leading Actor: Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything"

First off, let's get one thing out of the way. David Oyelowo was not snubbed, y'all. He was good in "Selma," but these other performances were great. Hence, my trouble picking a winner out of the bunch. I can honestly say that any of the five are capable of winning, and, really, all deserve the Oscar (because, really, they're all that good). But, we have to pick a winner. I've been on the Redmayne bandwagon for a while. His performance humanizes Steven Hawking by capturing him in early life, showing he was a young man full of vim and vigor, only to be twisted down by ALS. His performance is reminiscent of "My Left Foot," and isn't to be missed. Also, let's be honest, as with Julianne Moore, the "afflicted person" corollary applies here. There it is -- my pick. However, I will be neither disappointed nor surprised if I'm wrong here.

Director: Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"

"Hi, I took 12 years to film a movie, and made it work." I mean, really. I think that this will be "Boyhood's" shining moment, and, well, it will be an award that rewards the process. Even though I wasn't as high on "Boyhood" as everyone else, I think it's pretty amazing that he pulled it off. 

And now, the Oscar for Best Picture will go to .... (drumroll) ....

"Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)"

I'd love nothing more than to go visit Coach Farnham at Blue Ridge, or wherever he might be coaching (although, given his success at BR, I can't imagine he'd be anywhere else) to get some tips on how I might be a success at this gig.

But, well, I can't. And that sucks. Because cancer sucks.

But I can remember that while we didn't win a ton of games, Coach Farnham did care about each and every one of us. He definitely knew that there was more to life than winning football games. It's funny that I remember him for his character and commitment to God versus any sort of X and O thing.