Get Ready for the Oscars

Let's face it.  The wilds of Chatsworth are a bit of a gallop from Gower Gulch and Hollywood's Walk of Fame, but this is a Company Town and there's more interest in the Oscars here than, perhaps, Omaha.

So, in that light, Chatsworth Patch surfed around the internet and our sister Patch sites for a list of links to get you in the mood to watch ABC's broadcast of the Academy Awards on Sunday.

Official Oscar website and ballot

Fun stuff

Let the Oscar Party Games Begin!

Snacks

And finally, enjoy these links from Hollywood Patch:

Banksy watch: As anticipated, it appears the anonymous, Academy Award-nominated street artist has returned to Los Angeles ahead of the Oscar ceremony. Over the last week four or more walls or billboards have been artfully defaced in a style familar to Banksy. Some examples:

• A stenciled Crayola-machine gun toting kid in the alley behind Westwood's Urban Outfitters. Here's bad boy British chef Jamie Oliver posing next to it.
• Another stencil, this one of a girl with a sledgehammer, in front of Golden Apple Comic on Melrose near LaBrea.
• A peeing dog near the Beverly Hills Community Recreation Center.
• A pyromaniac Charlie Brown on Sunset across from Pink Dot (*UPDATE: the one put up for sale on eBay is considered a fake by Melrose & Fairfax).
• A Mickey and Minnie style hijacking of a Sunset Strip billboard (since removed over the objections of the advertiser, who wanted to keep it up).

All of these links go to the blog Melrose and Fairfax, which has been on top of Banksy's L.A. art spree from day one.

(Note: photographer Ted Soqui incorrectly identifies a popular piece on Broadway in Downtown L.A. as new. This one has been in place for at least the last two years.)