The Oscars are this weekend. I gave up on the Oscars for a while, as none of my favorites ever won. I’m hoping this year proves different. Here are the few categories I care about and the films/actors I hope win in the end.

Best Picture - Inception

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)

Best Actress in a Leading Role - Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

Best Animated Feature Film - Toy Story 3

from I Believe in Advertising

One of my very favorite cities in the whole world is Paris, and my very favorite part of Paris is Montmartre. The hill is topped by the beautiful and iconic dome of Sacré Cœur overlooking the city below. Montmartre is best known for the many incredible artists who gathered, worked, and partied in its restaurants and cabarets. Matisse, van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Toulouse-Latrec, and Picasso found inspiration here and drank plenty of Absinthe under the stars. When I visited the area, I was enamored with the collection of beautiful spaces. I spent hours there, pretending I was in a Renoir painting at the Moulin de la Galette, sipping drinks at the Lapin Agile, and admiring surrealist sculpture at Espace Dalí. Especially wonderful was the crème brulée at Les Deux Moulins café, made famous in Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, my very favorite film. Around every corner is an artist at an easel, a couple in an embrace, or a scene right out of an impressionist painting. It’s the kind of place of which artists dream.