Utterly Frustrated: I CANNOT watch the Oscars

I guess this is the first time in many years in which I won't get to watch the Oscars. And was almost positive that I'd watched it online before in the past, but maybe I was wrong. Or maybe the rules for online live-streaming change every year. And this year is a "nay" year for Academy Awards online streaming.

In any case... I have been watching the Oscars live for many many years, even when it aired really late in Brazil (2 hours ahead of the U.S. right now). I think the first time I watched the whole broadcast was during my senior year of high school, 1989. I went to bed sooooo late, it was crazy! But I totally loved it.

(Slightly unrelated subject: You may not know this, but I am a night person and have always been).

More related to the subject... I have always been a big fan of movies, even though I never watched a lot of them (and when I did, it was only on video or on TV). I always read film reviews (in the São Paulo edition of the Brazilian national news magazine Veja, in the cinema section) and invariable followed which films won Academy Awards so I could watch them if they interested me. Another BIG motivator to watch the Oscars was to see clips of the nominated films and performers, so I could get a glimpse of what they were, even though I probably would never get to watch them. I felt it was part of my "getting to know what's going on in the world" strategy.

Now, the problem is that I want to watch the Oscars every year, but I do NOT watch any TV and I cannot possibly pay for a cable or satellite subscription only to watch live events a few times a year (thankfully I'll be in Brazil for the Olympic Games this year*) [side note, we would probably have the "antenna cable" of about 14 dollars if we had comcast, but this house is subjected to a HORRIBLE local company owned by Sprint, so they are totally to blame for this fiasco tonight. :(] So... yeah... frustration.

I even live blogged the Academy Awards (with LisaV) back in 2008 -- ha! I saw La Vie En Rose (LOVED it!, but still haven't seen Dream Girls, should I?).

Anyway... I don't know if abc picks up well here in this town. All I know is that the first thing I'll do when we finally buy a new TV (ours is from 1996, can you believe it?) is to get an antenna and figure out whether we can get anything over the air... Sigh.

I wish I could be happy that I'm not wasting my time, but instead of doing something useful, all I'm doing now is writing this post and moping. BLAH. I will get started with our packing for the trip right now! Promise!

Sorry for being so annoyingly frustrated!

P.S. I was equally frustrated about the Super Bowl (which this "mashable" site tells me way too late WAS available streaming online) -- and in the end I was glad I didn't watch because the Patriots lost (I lived in MA for 8 years, peeps, my first state in this country, my sons were born there... that state has my allegiance, sorry!) AND about the Grammys.  BLAH!!!!! :(
* I think I may have mentioned my OUTRAGE with the Olympic Games coverage in this country in this blog before, maybe I'll write more about that later this year.