Well, dear readers, I gather that this year’s Oscar show was mostly a bust, and I think most of that can be put directly on the shoulders of new producer Steven Soderbergh. He had a vision, you see. Every Oscar producer has a vision, you see, at least from the 1970s on. Prior to that, no Oscar producer had a vision – they simply aired the show and that was that. Shooting the opening in scope, well, that’s a vision, all right. Shooting in Union Station – well, okay. Moving the best actor/actress category to the last slots – well, that’s a vision, just a stupid one and in light of who won, an incredibly stupid decision. In this brave new world we’re in, there was zero humor from what I can see, because humor is no longer allowed. That’s why a couple of the thank you speeches were actually welcome respites. I watched enough of it after the fact and read enough reviews to know that I’m glad I didn’t suffer through all three hours of it. Having all the nominated songs sung on the red carpet? This isn’t a vision; this is clueless producing. The winners were quite diverse this year, and yet, on Facebook, I read and responded to some guy who was upset that two white people won actor and actress, as if in his world no white people should win anything. I’m sure he’ll call me a racist, but if he doesn’t see the stupidity of it, well, clearly, he doesn’t. Instead of celebrating the diversity on view, it’s never enough. I was thrilled Anthony Hopkins won best actor – it’s one of the best performances I’ve ever seen and certainly, for me, the best of the year. But, of course, I’m quite sure the complainer didn’t bother to see it. What else is new? Putting that category last because the producers clearly thought it was going to go the other way was an incredible miscalculation. You never know who’s going to win what, I think that’s been clear since the Oscars began. Doing a pointless fifteen-minute name that tune segment? And then, because of it, having to rush through the dead people montage? That’s a vision, all right. Several people seemed upset that Glenn Close didn’t win. I queried them as to whether they’d seen Minari – nope, they hadn’t. Still, there were the usual suspects raving how GREAT it all was. What else is new? In the old days, you got it all – laughs, tears, drama, suspense, music. Now, it’s a big load of nothing. I has spoken and, of course, everyone is free to disagree or agree, not necessarily in that order.
I’d received an e-mail from ABC saying the show could be watched by clicking on the link. This is known as a click-bait e-mail because when you click on the link and go through all the hoops to TRY and watch it, you’re finally taken to a screen asking you to sign in with whatever service you use. Note to ABC: Duh. Don’t be sending me any more click-bait e-mails. Prior to the Oscars and hanging out at our very own Oscar Bash, I’d watched a most wacky motion picture on DVD entitled Dead Ringer, starring Bette Davis and Bette Davis as twin sisters. This quite bad film with some fun camp, has a 100% “rating” on Rotten Tomatoes, because nine people liked it. NINE. And not one contemporaneous review, all reviews are after the fact and all but two are blog reviewers. 100%. Uh huh. Miss Davis is fun and smokes one cigarette after another. Peter Lawford is actually kind of embarrassing. Jean Hagen’s character is cliched and ridiculous and there’s nothing that fine actress can do with it. Some of the other supporting folks are good, and there are a couple of nice LA location shots. Paul Henried directed, and his work is mediocre, at best. The black and white photography by Ernest Haller (his final film) is excellent, as is the score by Andre Previn. I looked it up on the imdb to see when it was released. As always, with that cesspool of misinformation, it, in fact, was not released when they said and who wants to go week after week to find out when it was? I was just curious as to where it played. After all that, I had a small rack of ribs and a tiny bit of creamed spinach for my evening repast. Earlier, I had had that excellent chopped salad from Stanley’s – not delivered – I saved myself eight bucks and picked it up. It was every bit as good the second time around.
Otherwise, yesterday was okay. I’d said I’d do a Zoom thing with some guy on Facebook who was interested in talking to me. I thought it was at eleven, so I got up at ten-thirty after only six hours of sleep. But it wasn’t until eleven-thirty, so I could have at least gotten another thirty minutes. The Zoom thing was fine – his power went out so that ended it and I had to go order and get the food. As promised, I did not an iota of anything other than what you’ve read above.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up and it will be directly to Indiegogo-land and Kritzerland-land. I’m not going to hear anything about the move until tomorrow, so I’m going to do my best not to get wound up in knots over it. I wonder if Don Knotts ever got wound up in knots? I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then do whatever else needs doing. At some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll hear about the move and I hope and pray it will be on, will go smoothly, and will NOT break the bank, and I hope to hear something from the helper about who will supervise this. Send your strongest and most excellent vibes and xylophones, please – we’ll need ‘em. Wednesday, I’ll have to drive out to the storage place to sing the contracts and pay, and then if someone’s there to supervise, we’ll discuss what’s what and I’m hoping I can just get out of there and let the people who know what they’re doing do what they’re doing. I only care about the unit that will have all our stock, because all that HAS to be organized and ready so we can keep shipping stuff. The rest of the week is Indiegogo and Kritzerland.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, let’s dance the Hora and The Ocarina, for today is the birthday of dear reader Jennifer. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Jennifer. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER JENNIFER!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do Indiegogo and Kritzerland stuff, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, do whatever else needs doing, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Postmortem on the Oscars. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, wishing that someday the Oscars will stop being a sanctimonious bore and get back to being an entertaining and fun show.