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Concert update: Cheech & Chong, Boz Scaggs and Randy Rogers

Cheech & Chong's "Light Up America" tour is about to fire up at the Chavez Theatre.

The '70s stoner comics, who reunited last year, will perform there on May 15. They last played the area in January at the Inn of the Mountain Gods, not close enough for a good comedy contact high.

Prices have not been announced, but tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. March 13.

The duo last performed in El Paso in the early '70s, just across the Judson L. Williams Convention Center courtyard from the theater in what used to be the Civic Center arena.

In other concert news:

• You might think of him as another blast from the past, but the reality is that smooth blues-rocker Boz Scaggs never stopped. He just doesn't make highly polished radio rockers like "Lido" anymore.

Scaggs will play the Plaza Theater on May 12. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. March 8. Prices have not been announced.

• ACM group of the year nominees the Randy Rogers Band are headed to Whiskey Dicks for an April 1 show. Doors are at 7, with a 10 p.m. show time. Tickets are $15, on sale March 5 at Rudy's BBQ, Good Time stores and Star Western Wear in EP, Horse and the Hound in Cruces and ticketbully.com.

Oscar post-script: 18-6 on predictions

I just counted up the Oscar predictions I got right and the ones I got wrong.

I got 18 right and 6 wrong, not a bad won-loss record for a baseball pitcher but pretty average as movie prognosticators go.

I guess it's not bad for my first predictions since the 1989 Academy Awards, but I like it when awards are less predictable than this year's.

I got best picture ("Slumdog Millionaire"), director (Danny Boyle), actor (Sean Penn), actress (Kate Winslet), supporting actor (Heath Ledger) and supporting actress (Penelope Cruz) correct. I also correctly predicted the winners in animated feature, art director, costume design, documentary feature, film editing, makeup, short film live action, visual effects, original screenplay, adapted screenplay, score and song.

I was wrong in the cinematography, documentary short, short film, sound editing, sound mixing and foreign film categories.

Next year, I'll have a pool!

Night at the Oscars (final): "Slumdog" fulfills its destiny

It is destined. "Slumdog Millionaire" wins Best Picture (and it should). The win caps an unlikely story about an unlikely hero from the slums of Mumbai.

This is a movie, you may recall, that almost fell through, that used kids from the slums along with a no-name cast and was directed by a guy, Best Director winner Danny Boyle, better known for edgy films about drugged out British kids, zombies and spacemen.

"We had passion and we had belief," producer Christian Colson said in his acceptance speech, flanked by cast and crew members, including the two young actors from the Mumbai slums.

That's eight awards for "Slumdog." I'd call that a sweep.

Night at the Oscars: Penn milks it, wins

You could tell just how much the men dominate the movie business by the heavyweights they rolled out to do the Best Actor honors, and the ovation those men — Robert DeNiro, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley, Adrien Brody and Michael Douglas, previous winners all.

But that wasn't quite the same as the ovation Sean Penn got for his winning portrayal of gay rights activist Harvey Milk in "Milk." 

"You commie, homo-loving sons of guns," he said by way of tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement.

"I know how hard I make it to appreciate me," he added.

He later referred to those "signs of hatred" outside the Kodak, and implored the audience that "we've got to have equal rights for everyone."

Night at the Oscars: Winslet wins

Kate Winslet's Best Actress Oscar was for her riveting performance in "The Reader," but it could just as easily have been for the woman killed by suburban hopelessness in "Revolutionary Road."

An emotional Winslet recalled practicing her speech as an 8-year-old using a shampoo bottle. "It's not a shampoo bottle now," she said. She even got her dad to whistle so she knew where he was.

Night at the Oscars: Boyle gets best director; a foreign surprise

Danny Boyle jumped up and down after receiving his Best Director Oscar, a tribute to his kids, he said, to whom he promised to do the Tigger dance.

The edgy director showed what a heart he really had when he made "Slumdog Millionaire" and that heart is pumping victory tonight. This is obviously the night of "Slumdog Millionaire," which takes home its seven trophy with this win.

It can make it eight with a likely Best Picture win. It's not up for any acting awards or ...

The Academy didn't mess around with the Best Foreign Film Award. Presenters Liam Neeson and Frieda Pinto ("Slumdog") read their lines and voila, Japan's "Departures," about an unemployed musician who goes to work in a mortuary, pulled off a bit of an upset over France's "The Class" and Israel's "Waltz With Bashir," my stab in the dark pic to win.

A tribute to fallen stars and filmmakers of the past year — including special fx wizard Stan Winston and actors such as Charlton Heston, James Whitmore, Richard Widmark, Cyd Charisse and funnyman Bernie Mac — followed, with Queen Latifah turning torch singer on "I'll Be Seeing You" as their images flashed on the video screens at LA's Kodak Theater.

Of course, the biggest segment, and biggest applause, were reserved for Paul Newman, one of the biggest stars on a night glittering with them. 

Night at the Oscars: Jerry gets his due, "Slumdog" wins two

Modern-day nutty professor (and a guy who makes a lot of bad movie choices) Eddie Murphy did something few American award shows have done in the past — gave Jerry Lewis a trophy.

Maybe the French paid for it?

Lewis, now 82, was honored for a lifetime of making people laugh, cry and fork over money for MDA with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, prompting the once wacky comedian to solemnly thank the Academy because this award "touches my heart and the depth of my sould because of who it is from."

A touching moment from such a beloved but overlooked guy.

Next in the producers' ongoing narrative about the filmmaking process come the music awards and "Slumdog" continues a sweep that seemed improbable two months ago. Bollywood king A.R. Rahman wins for his score and, after a flashy medley of nominated song featuring Rahman and John Legend (subbing for Peter Gabriel, who declined to perform his "Wall-E" song in a medley), and wins again for "Jai Ho," the movie's soaring anthem.

That's six for "Slumdog."

Night at the Oscars: Winning docs and more "Slumdog" honors

Bill Maher intro'd the documentaries, fitting since he made one, "Religulous," that, he joked (or not), didn't get nominated. Again the show's producers do the right thing, letting the documentary feature filmmakers get a little screen time talking about their passion.

And the winner is: "Man on Wire," about Phillippe Petit's daring high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in the 1970s. Petit said his thank yous, then balanced his Oscar on his chin (coupled with Seth Rogen's curiosity about turning one into a pipe makes two new uses for the golden statues).

I thought "The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306," about the assassination of Martin Luther King, would win documentary short, but I knew I was wrong as soon as I saw the clip from "Smile Pinki," about a young Indian girl's surgery for cleft lip. It won.

A following segment paid tribute to action movies in 2008, and god knows they were big box office. Presenter Will Smith rightly noted that action films don't get a lot of respect, but they do get big budgets. Then the visual effects award went to "Benjamin Button," by far the most gimmicky of the nominees ("Dark Knight" should have won).

The sound editing award went to "The Dark Knight," which I guess is sort of a small consolation considering how monumental that movie was. I thought "Wall-E" would win.

Another nice surprise in the sound mixing category: "Slumdog Millionaire." It is masterfully done ... music, dialogue, ambient sound, etc. Seamless, really. But I thought "Wall-E" would win that too.

"This is not just a sound award," the film's Indian editor Niv Adiri said, "this is history being handed to me."

"Slumdog" also took the film editing award (Chris Dickens), as cameras caught star Dev Patel pumping his fist in the air.

That's four awards for "Slumdog" now, with best director or picture ahead.

Night at the Oscars: Ledger wins for Joker

Alan Arkin, Christopher Walken, Joel Grey, Cuba Gooding and Kevin Kline intro the support actor nominees.

Arkin praises Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but accidentally calls him Seymour Phillip Hoffman. Grey touts Josh Brolin for nailing it as Dan White in "Milk." Gooding has fun with Robert Downey playing a black guy in "Tropic Thunder," but joked: "The brothers need to work." Oddball Walken intros Michael Shannon's oddball character in "Revolutionary Road." And Kevin Kline praises Heather Ledger's "bravura performances" as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," a character known for "reveling in the chaos."

Nothing chaotic about this.

The winner is: Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight," prompting a standing O as the late actor's family members stroll up to the podium to accept.

Ledger's dad notes that "this award would've validated Heath's quiet determination" to be accepted by the Hollywood community.

Reaction shots of famous crowd members showed pained expressions on the faces of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Kate Winslet.

Night at the Oscars: Franco, Rogen, Kaminsky, song/dance, "Spielzugland"

We're in the second hour and all the commercials that didn't disfigure the first one (when the network needs to hold viewers) are haunting us now. Short segments, like a nod to romance in last year's films, are squeezed between commercials.

The live action short film award was preceded by another montage paying tribute to last year's comedies. The fact that comedy never factors into these awards (save Robert Downey's "Tropic Thunder" nomination) was not lost on Judd Apatow, who directed a short with "Pineapple Express" James Franco and Seth Rogen reprising their stoner roles.

Funniest bits were when the two of them laughed at serious movies like "The Reader" and "Doubt' (ah, adolescent humor), with Franco putting his arm around Rogen after scenes of him kissing Penn in "Milk" a close second.

The frivolity is interrupted by a short film live action award for a serious movie, East German native Holocaust drama "Spielzugland," the announcement of which was mangled by Franco, who's embarrassed laughter was poorly timed.

Song-and-dance returned when Jackman, proclaiming the musical lives, teams up with Beyonce team up for a medley from classic musicals and pop songs. "High School Musical" sweethearts Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens chime in before a finale that, like the rest of the Baz Luhrman-created medley, was a bit too stuffed for me.