esrosedotblog

Sometimes one just has to throw up one's hands.

25 Times White Actors Played People Of Color And No One Really Gave A Shit

Sometimes, we just need to not give a shit. It is called acting.

Take a fucking breath.

I know all the arguments, so go have them with people more likely to even want to argue about it.

Is Hollywood too white? Maybe.

I am sure that this will work out with some of the usual absurd reactions from people who protesteth too much.

Besides the Oscars are so irrelevant to real film fans that the self importance of it all, all sides, makes my head spin.

I probably watch one "Hollywood", "Oscar worthy" film a year. Maybe two.

And yet I see a good movie every day.

I do not go to a theater. I watch independent and foreign films on DVD.

Believe me, The Revenant is not in my Netflix queue.

And yet,, I am a liberal, maybe a progressive. Perhaps a "red".

Am I a traitor to the cause?

No.

Start with this. What cause? More blacks in Hollywood movies? OK. I can't say I am against it.

But it is a faint opinion at best.

If blacks want to be in lousy corporate made films, so be it. More is the pity. My advice would be to go independent.

Labels: films, oscars, racism

There are elitist groups and then there are elitist groups; one often leads to the other.

Long time members of any group try to hold on to power. One way, of many, to do this is to tightly control the admission process. Guard and watch the gates.

Of course, cutting some slack here, it is a natural process and one which doesn't really require a lot of maintenance. Those in the know know who is to be in the know and let in. Even the old church sewing circles did this. My mother was a bit of an outsider (she had a loose tongue and spoke her mind) and so I saw her bump up against the elite. She and others formed an anti-elite women's group which did pretty well for awhile but then little by little the old biddies won and snuffed the upstarts out.

The Motion Picture Academy is like that. Thus the kerfluffle over the Oscars and their lily white biases.

Why the Film Academy’s Diversity Push Is Tougher Than It Thinks

It is pretty interesting to read not because anyone, or at least I, give a shit about the Oscars any more but how an elitist group is on the road to extinction through the bias of its membership.

It would seem that a lot of this is innocent or at least built in. They only admit so many and once in, never out. So they have a bunch of old farts manning the gates.

Let me tell you, there is no group more adept at manning the gates than an old fart.

Good luck to them.

In the meantime other award shows and organizations are taking precedence. The Globes, the guilds.

Labels: films, oscars

OSCAR NIGHT

I am not a fight fan although I do like to watch it; particularly the no-rules kind.

There is a small atavistic part of my brain that likes to see two gladiators pummel each other.

Come on. Admit it. You have that place too.

But, I would not go out of my way to see a fight or even follow it on the radio. Yes. That is how I remember 'fights'. We listened to them.

That said, I have to be in mourning this morning over Oscar De La Hoya's loss last night.

Mayweather Wins Decision Over De La Hoya

It is the end of an era.

Oscar; always the golden boy, even when he was behaving badly. I have followed his career since he began winning championships.

That he was a looker sure didn't hurt my interest.

He is/was a gentleman. A guy who seemed to have a life beyond boxing. He even recorded some songs.

I don't feel bad for him losing.

Like all of us, he is aging and cannot hold onto the career forever.

He has had a good run and he made a lot of money last night.

He should retire near the top and let it go.

He won't have a singing career but he could do worse than investing the money and doing some good works.

Living the quiet life.

Labels: oscars, sports

AND THE WEINER IS.......

You probably inferred that the Oscar festivities are not on my 'must do' list today.

First, we do not have the cable hooked up to the teevee yet (12 years and counting). That is pretty much a show stopper.

But John has been known to mooch a watch at someone's house.

Not me.

Another thing. It is past my bedtime. And that is PST!

I would miss the best of the best or whatever it is.

Another reason that I will not witness the ludicrous exercise of naming the best of anything in a media so diverse, is that I have seen only one of the films being touted for best.

Little Miss Sunshine.

So, of course, all the nominees from that film (and there are a few) are my sentimental favorites.

Now, if that is not a recipe for heartbreak I don't know what is.

Finally, the awards have nothing to do with the popular cinema. The nominees are all from films that didn't do very well at the box office.

The industry gets to pat itself on the back for not producing and promoting the good stuff. They will hide behind these nominations while they produce the pap/pop that makes the money.

Not that there is anything wrong with this. Hypocrisy is a high American value. As is making money with the worst motives behind it.

I just don't want to go to the party.

Labels: films, oscars, weiners