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Oscar-watchers expect to see certain things every year: fabulous dresses, maudlin speeches, montages.

You know, those assortments of expertly edited clips looking back at who died in the past year, or the ones that sum up each best picture nominee in just a couple of minutes.

For 20 years, Chuck Workman created many of the Oscar montages. He likens the task to making a fruitcake.

"You don't want to have too many raisins, too many nuts," he says. "But you wanna have plenty of raisins and plenty of nuts."

Workman used plenty of raisins and plenty of nuts in his montage of the movie Babel when it was nominated for best picture back in 2007. Workman boiled the 143-minute movie down to just two minutes, which he packed with about 50 scenes.

"You're looking for a flow," he says. "What is pushing this thing forward? What is making it happen?"

Workman's montages just wash over you, says Tom Provost, a writer, director and film professor.

"In the film community, everyone knows Chuck Workman," Provost says. "As an editor he's kind of a god."

In fact, one of Provost's favorite movies is Precious Images, for which Workman won a 1987 Oscar. It's a short movie that manages to encompass the history of Hollywood film just by using montage.

"His transitions are incredible," Provost says, pointing to how Workman turns a corner in the film from musicals to horror movies. "We see this great famous shot of Esther Williams in a pool and then we get almost an identical shot from Jaws."

Behind The Oscars, An Academy Lacking Variety

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Workman honed his cutting skills for years making movie trailers, for such films as Star Wars, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and The Terminator. Provost says you could see his skill in the Oscars' "In Memorium" montages.

"Not only could he isolate a movie in one image, but with the 'In Memorium' segments, he could really isolate a performer," he says.

But montage-making wasn't always easy for Workman — particularly best picture montages for movies he disliked. "The Cider House Rules," he groaned. "Precious."

In 20 years of making montages for the Oscars, Workman's favorite might be a 1994 salute to the people behind the scenes: gaffers, grips, dancers, dressers, even accountants. He remembered how Stephen Sondheim rewrote his song "Putting It Together" for an over-the-top number — part live, part montage — starring Bernadette Peters in a glamorous golden gown.

But those kind of theatrical, production-heavy montages are becoming Oscar relics. While "In Memorium" is not going anywhere, Workman says his style of elaborately edited celebrations of old, increasingly obscure movies has given way to newer media.

"They'd rather have Ellen DeGeneres taking a selfie," he says, with just a bit of a grumble. "What does that have to do with movies?"

Workman has not produced any montages for the Oscars since 2010. It was fun, he says, but he does not miss it. Most recently, he celebrated Hollywood history by directing a 2014 documentary called Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles.

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Getting ready for the Lunar New Year once meant buying a new set of clothes for many families of Korean ancestry.

For centuries, the costume known as hanbok – a two-piece outfit traditionally made of embroidered cotton or silk worn by men and women – has played a central role in the new year's wardrobe.

"Family members would get together in a new set of hanbok and bow to each other in a traditional way, wishing good health and fortune," explains Minjee Kim, a costume historian who has studied hanbok, a style of dress modeled from 17th- and 18th-century daily attire worn during the Joseon Dynasty.

But this Lunar New Year tradition is waning.

While hanbok dresses are still in high demand during wedding season, these days a bride's hanbok dress might be the only one she ever buys. "Young couples today in Korea are not having as many children, so when they all get together for traditional holidays, those gatherings are very small," Kim says. "They don't try to keep their traditions strictly by wearing hanbok."

Kim adds that the cost of the custom-made outfits, which can run as high as several thousand dollars, has forced many families to scale back from making annual hanbok purchases.

Some families also turn to rental boutiques like Hanbok Story in Queens, N.Y.

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Youjung Jung takes a customer's order for a new outfit at her store Hanbok Story in Queens, N.Y. Hansi Lo Wang/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Hansi Lo Wang/NPR

Youjung Jung takes a customer's order for a new outfit at her store Hanbok Story in Queens, N.Y.

Hansi Lo Wang/NPR

Owner Youjung Jung, 57, opened the store six years ago after emigrating from South Korea. She says she's disappointed that fewer people are keeping the hanbok tradition in her home country and the U.S. Designing and making the outfits have been part of the family business for Jung as far back as her grandmother's generation. But her adult children, she says, have no plans to continue the business.

"It's a problem," she says with her eyes downcast.

For some Korean-Americans who live nearby, Jung's store has been invaluable.

Jinhee Kim, who lives in Queens, stopped by to buy a hanbok for the Lunar New Year after picking up her seven-year-old daughter from Korean-language school.

"I want my daughter to follow the Korean tradition. I'm just here for her," Kim says.

Lisa Anderson, who is Korean-American and also lives in Queens, says she is not getting a hanbok of her own for the new year, but she is getting her wardrobe ready for her son's doljanchi, or first birthday celebration.

"A lot of Korean women believe you should have a least one hanbok in your closet just in case," Anderson explains as Jung wraps a measuring tape around her husband Berris' waist. He's getting a hanbok, too.

Berris, who is Jamaican-American, says wearing the outfit is a way to keep the Korean culture alive in his family.

"I wish that my mother-in-law was still alive, and I wish that my wife had brothers and sisters. But she doesn't. She's an only child. So I think that if we don't maintain it, then it can very well be lost," he says.

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Youjung Jung measures Berris Anderson for a hanbok as his wife Lisa watches. Hansi Lo Wang/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Hansi Lo Wang/NPR

Youjung Jung measures Berris Anderson for a hanbok as his wife Lisa watches.

Hansi Lo Wang/NPR

On today's All Things Considered, NPR film critic Bob Mondello and I have a chat with Audie Cornish about the inevitable, inscrutable Oscars.

There are eight films up for Best Picture this year: American Sniper, Whiplash, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The Theory Of Everything, Birdman, Boyhood, and Selma. Of these, exactly one is a giant popular hit. And it's not the one that oddsmakers will tell you is going to emerge with the victory. In fact, there's a distinct absence of races this year that are perceived to be especially close. So with mostly small-box-office films and mostly contests that seem to have clear winners, what's to watch on Sunday?

Well, host Neil Patrick Harris, our Official Host Of Lots Of Things, for one. He's done the Emmys and the Tonys and probably spends his Sunday nights hosting impromptu awards ceremonies for his family, but this year, he's getting the big stage for the first time.

Meanwhile, we'll be on Twitter, like much of the rest of the world, using the hashtag #NPROscars.

Late last year, a Spanish judge prohibited Uber from operating in Spain, after protests by taxi drivers. Days later, the company announced it was closing down operations here.

But less than two months later, it's reinvented itself as UberEATS, converting its network of drivers into food deliverymen.

Customers in Spain can log onto the same Uber smartphone app which they used to request rides (though they may need to update the app; Spanish telecom operators were ordered to block the original app after a judge's ruling in December). A new option labeled UberEATS allows users to order food from participating restaurants. The service is part of a partnership with the Spanish foodie website Plateselector.

Uber debuted this new service in Barcelona last night, promising food delivery in 10 minutes or less. The company already provides a similar service in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, called UberFRESH.

"The global fame of Spanish gastronomy, the cosmopolitan character of Barcelona and Spaniards' great acceptance of new opportunities in the 'on-demand' economy, are the main reasons the company chose Barcelona as the first city outside the U.S. to launch UberEATS," the company said in a statement emailed to journalists.

Most dishes cost around $11, with about a $3 delivery fee. Just like with the ride-share service, customers with GPS-enabled smartphones can watch a little taxi icon getting closer, delivering their meal.

In addition to Spain, Uber faces ride-share bans in South Korea, Thailand, India and France. It also faces stiff resistance from taxi drivers and unions in Germany, Belgium and elsewhere. In India, Uber was criticized as unsafe after allegations that a woman was raped by her Uber driver. And in Sydney, Australia, the company came under fire for jacking up prices during a hostage crisis.

Nevertheless, the five-year-old San Francisco-based company has expanded to more than 50 countries. Uber is privately-held, but has been valued by investors at more than $40 billion.

That's a lot of takeout food.