Ahh, the end of awards season. Back to reality, free from filling out Academy Award pools, guessing poorly on Academy Award pools, and losing Academy Award pools. I'll certainly miss it. Luckily, we instantly have a number of things with which we may fill our free time: unfortunate news for proponents of Bitcoin, Lena Dunham's new gig with Archie comics, and, of course, some stuff looking back on the Academy Awards. And other things! Let's get to it!

• "What we really need, then, is a changed film culture that views online self-releases not with disdain, as second-rate work, but with curiosity." Zachary Wigon explores what must happen in the future of indie film, in response to Kentucker Audley's satirical petition on Change.org and the articles rallying against indie market saturation that spurred it.
   
• Is The Mother going to die on How I Met Your Mother? Vulture's Margaret Lyons hopes not! (I assume that you also hope not.) (She is a [fictional] human being, after all.) (Right?) (YOU MONSTER!) 
   
• In 1853, the New York Times dedicated a page to telling the story of Solomon Northup, the subject of Best Picture recipient 12 Years a Slave. Gawker found the 161-year-old article, and you can read it there now.
   
• "As Bitcoin stumbles, the community growing up around it has only become more fervent. Their beliefs are barely falsifiable. Their leaders give lengthy sermons and call fellow adherents 'brothers.' It has never been enough for this group to have supported the rise of a nifty new experimental currency – what they want, and what they believe is coming, is the dawn of an entirely new age." Following the theft of Bitcoin bank Flexcoin -- the most recent in a long string of Bitcoin-damning mishaps -- which left its user accounts barren Kevin Roose writes about how Bitcoin supporters have taken on a mindset closely resembling that of a doomsday cult. 
   
• And since we're talking about it already: Who do you think the reclusive billionaire creator of Bitcoin is? "Obviously it is Mr. Bitcoin," you're probably thinking. "A little coin man with arms, legs, thick glasses, and even smaller coin eyes." But, no, you would be wrong! The creator of Bitcoin is a programmer who goes by the name Satoshi, presumably a human, and, well, the Telegraph will tell you the rest. 
   
• The dark side of Reddit's cringe culture. 
   
• "If you think most motion pictures are bad, which they are (including the foreign), find out from some initiate how they are made, and you will be astonished that any of them could be good. Making a fine motion picture is like painting 'The Laughing Cavalier' in Macy's basement, with a floorwalker to mix your colors for you. Of course most motion pictures are bad. Why wouldn't they be?" Raymond Chandler on the Oscars, from March 1948. 
   
• Speaking of: this past Sunday's Academy Awards set the record for most-watched entertainment telecast in the past 10 years.
   
• And speaking of both the Academy Awards AND records: Ellen DeGeneres's Academy Awards selfie beat President Obama's record for Most Retweeted Tweet. 

If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

(I assume President Obama still holds the record for Most Retweeted Tweet That Doesn't Contain An Error In The Subjunctive Mood.)

• Lena Dunham is writing a four-party story for Archie Comics, to be published in 2015.
   
• "Once upon a time, a movie poster needed to have only two words on it: the star’s last name and the title. Stallone: Rambo. Schwarzenegger: Terminator. In the new action-hero economy, though, actors rarely carry the franchise; more often, the franchise carries the actor." For the New York Times Magazine, Alex French looks at why studios are more and more frequently turning to unknown actors to fill the suits of their big-name superheroes, and how that is affecting the industry. 
   
• Jeff Goldblum on "Occupy Jeff Goldblum" and how to be like Jeff Goldblum. 
   
• Earlier this week, the Tribeca Film Festival announced the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film selections. Did you miss it? WHY?  
   
• Iggy Azalea's new music video for her song "Fancy" is a tribute to the perfect film Clueless. Watch it, and then maybe just give a quick check to see if the real deal is playing on TV somewhere. 
   
• "So how ought an actress age? Throughout the evening, 67-year-old Sally Field (who appeared as a presenter) and 64-year-old Meryl Streep (nominated for August: Osage County) were compared favorably to Minnelli and Novak for daring to age “gracefully” and “naturally.” But we don’t know what Streep and Field do to maintain their looks—all we know is that they have successfully navigated Hollywood’s dual requirement to look amazing post-60 while never signaling that they’ve worked at it." In response to the comments Kim Novak, and other women, received after the Academy Awards, Amanda Hess speaks about Hollywood's demand for female youthfulness, and its refusal to accept anything else. (You should also read Ta-Nehisi Coates take on the subject for The Atlantic.)  
   
• The technophobic fantasies of early Michael Crichton. 
   
• And finally, just in case you needed an award season night cap, The Wrap has put together ten moments to remember from the past few months in film congratulation.