Of Guinness Milkshakes and Red-Carpet Rollouts

You know you're a mondo movie fan when a) you can easily whip out a quote from any Oscar winner of the last half century b) you can name all five Best Supporting Actor nominees from each year of the last decade or c) just being around Hollywood during Oscar Week gives you a vicarious thrill.

We're pretty semi-solid on a), though b), not so much (we're working on it, swear) but c)? This, for us, is a must. We do adore Hollywood Boulevard in the days before Oscar so. The windbreakered guys with walkie-talkies, the giant statues, nearly as tall as the Colossus at Rhodes (or, movie reference, the bronze giant from "Jason and the Argonauts") that stand as sentinels over the bustling Boulevard, the excited tourists snapping pictures of random pieces of duct tape on the ground for no apparent reason.

But, because we know all those guys on walkie-talkies are busy, and because we want them to do their important jobs and not have us standing, slack-jawed, staring at everything and being in the way, we usually plan our visit around a meal or movie. So, after some quality sideline viewing of the Academy-related excitement, off we go to the dark lobby of the Roosevelt for a Guinness milkshake (we could easily find 25 Things we like about the hotel's burger restaurant 25 Degrees), or a movie at the Chinese Theatre, even a soda and fries over at the McDonald's just down the street.

Lunch, lollygagging and a bit of awesome Oscar-ogling in the days before the big show -- what could be more LA?