Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

In after Baud. Damn.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

He really is that stupid.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

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Reader Interactions

163Comments

  1. 1.

    donnah

    I know very little about Lady Gaga, but I’ve enjoyed several of her songs. Her performance last night blew me away, and I was so pleased that Julie Andrews seemed to have enjoyed it as well. Just tremendous!

    I watch the Academy Awards every year. I’m a sucker for the fancy clothes and sentimental speeches. And every time they do the In Memorium tribute, I get teary-eyed. I also say every year, “i didn’t know he/she died!” or “I thought he/she died a long time ago!”

  2. 2.

    Violet

    Seeing the clips from “The Sound of Music” and actually having Julie Andrews come out on stage and present an award were a big thrill for me. I love the movie and adore Julie Andrews.

    Loved Common and John Legend’s performance and acceptance speeches. And also Tim McGraw’s performance of Glen Campbell’s song. Both so moving in different ways.

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    I’m not sure why everyone is bagging on NPH as the host, except that it’s now traditional to say every host sucks. I thought he was better than Ellen was last year.

    They really should have made it more clear for viewers at home that the whole “predictions box” thing was a magic trick. I’m not sure that everyone got that.

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    I didn’t find her to have the chops to pull that off, but I’m not wild about musicals either so no harm/no foul.

    Still gloriously dry in California; we’re in deep doo-doo. (What would be the metric equivalent of of deep doo-doo?)

  5. 5.

    JCT

    I didn’t watch the whole show but caught Gaga’s medley and it was spectacularly staged and performed. All the more poignant given what happened to Julie Andrew’s own voice.

  14. 14.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I didn’t like him as host nearly as much as I thought I would. I preferred Ellen’s hosting turn last year. NPH seemed a bit too smarmy or something. I didn’t like the “magic trick” with the box and I didn’t like the punchline he had David Oyewelo read. Still like NPH, but was disappointed with his performance last night.

  15. 15.

    jl

    @the Conster: All I know is that they are both smaller than a butttucktonaload, which is the trouble CA will be in unless we have a multi Miracle March.

    But, chance of sprinkles this weekend, we’ll take what we can get.

    Edit: and why all the complaining? Aren’t Oscar shows supposed to be hangdog messes of some kind or other by now?

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @lamh36:

    And that’s why it was good that people boycotted the show last night. Make ’em think about who their audience really is and what that audience really wants.

    The base of the problem is really with the Screen Actors Guild, since the acting division of the Academy (who are all SAG members) selects the acting nominees so that the Academy and SAG Awards nominees end up the same. I’m not sure what the Academy can do to shake that up, but it’s pretty obvious that something needs to be done.

  19. 19.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @bemused: I am as well. And the gray tux from the red carpet had snug pants, so I now know he dresses left.

  20. 20.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Arclite: I think he should get an Oscar just for keeping a happy face while the other guy’s name was announced. It’s not like he’s going to be getting a lot more opportunities in his career.

  21. 21.

    lamh36

    @Violet: I had a few conversations about both “the box” gag, especially knowing Octavia Spencer wasn’t aware she’d be part of that particular long gag (particularly since it seemed that Benedict Cumberbatch was in on his bit before). But more than anything, the whole bit with David Oyelowo and the “black” Annie dig really hit people the wrong way. I can def say the people I talked to pretty much turned it off right there and didn’t go back until the Legend and Common performance

  22. 22.

    Linnaeus

    Check out the jazz/traditional pop standards that Gaga’s been doing with Tony Bennett. Good stuff.

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    @Violet: I felt kinda the same way about NPH — I like him and thought he’d be funnier. The magic trick shtick fell flat, IMO. But yeah, hosting the Oscars is definitely a minefield. It’s rare that someone is an unqualified success at it.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    Also, I swiped this from BuddyH in one of the threads below — a local TV anchor ground her broadcast to a halt by saying that Lady Gaga’s performance was “jigaboo music,” which led to her coanchors struggling to figure out (a) if she realized she had just used a racial slur on-air and (b) if she had any clue what the word meant since she had just applied it to “The Sound of Music.”

    http://m.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2015/02/23/fox-8s-kristi-capel-dropped-jigaboo-on-air-this-morning

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @lamh36:

    I missed the David Oyelowo bit and had to see it later. That was definitely a WTF? moment. There were a few other digs at Sony that night and I think that’s what the writers were aiming for but, like Sean Penn’s “green card” joke, it was wrong place, wrong time, wrong audience.

  28. 28.

    Violet

    @lamh36: I thought the joke about “Annie” was in poor taste in any case. But having a black man deliver the joke, which I’m guessing he (David Oyewelo) didn’t buy into ahead of time–was incredibly tone deaf. If NPH (or anyone) wants to make that kind of joke, then they should deliver it themselves and own it.

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, I just found him underwhelming. And he’s so good and has been really good at hosting the Tony’s, so I figured he’d be good at the Oscars. Definitely a minefield.

    I wonder if Colbert will get a turn after he begins hosting the Late Show. He might be a good host.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I don’t think she meant “The Sound of Music” was “jigaboo,” and I don’t think she even knew what the word meant. I believe she was saying that Gaga’s typical fare is “jigaboo” (a term she probably heard some old racist great-aunt say a time or two and wrongly assumed it meant unpleasant modern music) and now that Gaga had sung TSoM medley, you could hear that she does, in fact, have some pipes. That’s my interpretation of her point, anyway. What isn’t in dispute is that it was an idiotic comment.

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Betty Cracker:

    It just wasn’t obvious that it was meant to be a magic trick. They should have had a showgirl/magician’s assistant standing next to the box instead. They were trying to do the classic audience participation of a magic show, but it just didn’t work (though Octavia Spencer was a really good sport about it).

  35. 35.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): From the clip of the exchange, she didn’t apply it to “The Sound of Music.” She said she didn’t know Lady Gaga’s voice was so good, what with the “jigaboo” music she usually has going on while she sings.

    In her non-apology apology she claims she didn’t know what the word meant or that it is even a word. Seriously? Her job is to say things on TV. She used the word to describe something. Then she says she didn’t even know it was a word, let alone what it meant? Then STFU and don’t use the word if you don’t know what it means. That’s got to be one of the worst “apologies” I can imagine.

  37. 37.

    kc

    I was watching “The Walking Dead” for the most part, but I saw Gaga’s performance. She was great, and it was very touching when Julie Andrews came out onstage.

    I recall reading that Gaga’s had classical voice training, but her hit songs are so highly produced it was hard for me to tell how good her voice really is.

  40. 40.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    It did not come across as a magic trick at all. It was more like a spoof of the old presentations they used to do where they showed the PWC dudes carrying in the locked briefcase with all of the envelopes. Unfortunately it just wasn’t funny and was so close to the end of the show it left an unfunny last impression.

  42. 42.

    jl

    @Betty Cracker: Too odd and daffy to figure out what the anchor thought she was doing. Seems to me she was talking about the music in the clip, which was really weird. Looks like she she started to realize that something had gone wrong when she tried to laugh it off and try some variations on the word.

    Mr. Dawson handled it very nicely. But he surely knows her better than we do (particularly that anchor’s potential for cluelessness).

  43. 43.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): It’s not really a good idea to have a magic trick that lasts for three or four hours, unless the entire show is a magic show and at the very end the magician can pull off the One Last Big Magic Trick by finishing with whatever the three hour trick was. In this case it was just confusing. Poor Octavia Spencer.

  45. 45.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): That’s what I thought too. She’d heard it before but didn’t know it was a slur.

    Until this story I’d never heard the word before to my knowledge. Had to look it up.

  46. 46.

    Buddy H

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Kristi Capel haz a wikipedia!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristi_Capel

    “She graduated from Heritage Academy (a parochial school affiliated with the Assemblies of God) in Kentucky in 2001. She won a sports scholarship to Evangel University, a religious school affiliated with the Assemblies of God, where she completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcasting and Public Relations with honors in 2005.”

    She finally took to twitter to apologize. “I didn’t know what I was saying! Honest!”

    A special academy award is in order for her co-anchor, who kept smiling through the whole fiasco.

  47. 47.

    ThresherK

    I’ve seen Gaga only on TV, one upbeat number, followed by her just sitting down at a piano and singing, alone and unadorned. (The music, not her body.)

    Ever since, I’ve felt that she had real musical chops and a better-than-average taste in choosing/writing material for a performer who’s had this many albums. All the flash and trappings are not there to cover a hollow core.

    (And I don’t automatically love it when some popster sits down and plinks piano and sings. It is not a shortcut to “seriousness”, “talent” and that something one needs to hold an audience.)

  48. 48.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Yeah, I remember the accounting guys coming on stage with the big locked briefcase so I get that it could have been a joke along those lines. But they either didn’t make that obvious enough or play up the magic part enough. It was just kind of confusing. Briefcase in a locked box….okay?

  51. 51.

    askew

    That was your highlight and not John Legend and Common’s performance? Wow. Lady Gaga was technically fine but she couldn’t infuse 1/1000th of the emotion that Legend and Common did in their performance. There is a reason grown men were crying in the audience after their performance.

  53. 53.

    elmo

    @Violet:

    Yeah – somebody needs to box up Benedict Cumberbatch’s apology for using the word “colored” and send it to her as homework.

    And “I didn’t know it was a word?” Seriously? “Really, I just made these random mouth-noises that happened to coincide with one of the fouler racial slurs in use today. No idea how it happened! Monkeys and typewriters, amirite?”

  55. 55.

    different-church-lady

    I don’t care what any of you say, I don’t care what happened last night, I still can’t stand “Telephone”.

  56. 56.

    jl

    @ThresherK: There are youtube clips of her before she was famous, and that was how she did it then. Just come out on some rink dink little stage without costumes and glitz and play and sing material at a keyboard, and some impromptu jamming. Tastes vary, so no problem if people don’t like her music, and probably some justified complaints she did some ‘heavy borrowing’ for some of her hits. But she seems to be a real musician.

  57. 57.

    Redshift

    I agree that NPH is better on the Tonys, where he’s working with people who are accustomed to performing on stage, but even if his Oscar performance isn’t as good as that, I still think it’s at least as good as anyone else’s. (I would say better, but Hugh Jackman is pretty much his equal on either show.)

  58. 58.

    Buddy H

    @Betty Cracker: a term she probably heard some old racist great-aunt say a time or two and wrongly assumed it meant unpleasant modern music

    I can imagine the great-aunt saying “It’s so nice seeing Kristi on the tee-vee! But why do they always have to put her next to that jigaboo?”

    I’ve heard all the slurs. I’ve been married to a black woman for 27 years… jig, jigaboo, jigger… all the little sneaky stuff. One passive aggressive jerk at my last job snuck “golliwog” at me. In the same office a dumb salesguy giggling about “coon” dog. Passive aggressive stuff from people who don’t have the balls to call me a nigger lover.

  59. 59.

    Laertes

    Not that it really matters, but I’m curious: Anyone know if Gaga was singing live or lip-synching? I don’t know how these shows are staged.

  60. 60.

    askew

    Thrilled to see that the ratings were way, way down. Hope that sends a message that in 2015 no one is here for the White Oscars. Can’t believe they gave David O. that Annie joke. Shows Hollywood is too wrapped up in their bubble to see how racist their industry is.

    As for NPH, I’ve been giving him a side-eye ever since I found out he and his husband served a cake designed as Amy Winehouse’s corpse shortly after she died. That shows an almost psychotic lack of empathy.

  62. 62.

    gogol's wife

    @Arclite:

    You mean like Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Barbara Stanwyck, and Alfred Hitchcock? (Not that he’s in their league.)

  64. 64.

    gogol's wife

    I’ve never heard Lady Gaga sing before. She did a good job. It wasn’t the travesty that it was when they had Pink sing “Over the Rainbow” with no breath control at all — in a tribute to Judy effing Garland.

  66. 66.

    Carolinus

    How long before Greenwald comes right out and endorses Rand? From GG’s Reddit AMA today:

    http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2wwdep/we_are_edward_snowden_laura_poitras_and_glenn/courtey

    The problem is that the leadership of both parties, as usual, are in full agreement: they love NSA mass surveillance. So that has blocked it from receiving more debate. That NSA program was ultimately saved by the unholy trinity of Obama, Nancy Pelosi and John Bohener, who worked together to defeat the Amash/Conyers bill.

    The division over this issue (like so many other big ones, such as crony capitalism that owns the country) is much more “insider v. outsider” than “Dem v. GOP”. But until there are leaders of one of the two parties willing to dissent on this issue, it will be hard to make it a big political issue.

    That’s why the Dem efforts to hand Hillary Clinton the nomination without contest are so depressing. She’s the ultimate guardian of bipartisan status quo corruption, and no debate will happen if she’s the nominee against some standard Romney/Bush-type GOP candidate. Some genuine dissenting force is crucial.

  68. 68.

    jl

    @Laertes: Yeah. Any lip-synch experts here know? I can’t tell. Gaga is breathing like she is really singing, but maybe she is good enough performer to prefer to do that whether she is singing out loud or not. In the SNL spoof she is dong the most lame obvious synching imaginable.

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    @askew: I’m happy for the guys who won. It obviously meant a lot to them and the audience. Anything with rap in it sends me flying to the mute button, alas. It grates on my nerves almost as badly as country pop does (some of which now features rap segments — the worst of both worlds!).

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    @jl: She is known for NOT lip-synching, even in really long shows, so my guess is she was singing it live.

  72. 72.

    Buddy H

    I remember when Lady Gaga was on Howard Stern’s show. You know how Stern is… he was ready to make a fool of her if she didn’t measure up.

    She sat in front of a piano and belted out “The Edge Of Glory” and when she was done he murmured “I think I’m in love…”

  76. 76.

    askew

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yeah, I get that. Normally, I am the same way, but their performance was infused with so much emotion that it really moved me. And Lady Gaga is way too try hard for my liking.

  77. 77.

    SiubhanDuinne

    As is often the case in the afternoon, I am at the public library. For reasons I cannot begin to fathom, I’ve been approached this afternoon three separate times by three separate women, each of them asking me if I am or would like to be a tutor/teacher. I have no idea what that’s all about. FWIW, I’ve been taken for a teacher more or less all my adult life — I think I must physically align with the stereotypical profile, what with the short grey hair, stocky build, and big horn-rimmed glasses — but this was different. This was people essentially offering me tutoring jobs on the spot.

    So weird. I don’t even know whether to be flattered or annoyed. I’m going with flattered because it’s a friendlier emotion.

  79. 79.

    schrodinger's cat

    John Legend and Common’s performance and both their speeches were the highlight of the evening for me. They both used their moment in the spotlight well. I did like Lady Gaga’s rendition too. I do like that Lady Gaga is her own person and not a cookie cutter celebrity bimbette.

  81. 81.

    PurpleGirl

    I’ve not heard Lady Gaga before nor followed her to any degree. But her medley last night (after watching the youtube) was really good. I knew she sang with Tony Bennett so I thought she must a good voice but not having her heard… Yes, she’s got a good voice. And I see where she would create the persona to get attention since having a voice no longer seems to mean you’ll get the attention as a singer.

  84. 84.

    maurinsky

    I am a singer, and I thought Gaga was really good, although not really the right voice type to match Julie Andrews.

    Re: jigaboo – in the musical “Hair”, there is a song called “Colored Spade” that lists a lot of offensive terms that have been used to describe black people, sung by the character Hud. Jigaboo is in there. You shouldn’t use words if you don’t know what they mean! Especially if you’re on TV!

  86. 86.

    Zinsky

    It is a crime that “Selma” wasn’t up for Best Picture, Best Screenplay or Best Actor awards. Whether it should have won, is subject to debate, but just the nomination would have been an acknowledgement of its worth. It is a sad commentary that a movie about a sniper shooting women and children is considered worthy of consideration of the best picture of the year while one that celebrates the right of black people to vote is not.

  89. 89.

    SFAW

    @boatboy_srq: and others

    Actually the fvcktonne, at 1.118 fvcktons or 3.986 bvttloads, is the most massive.

    All of youse guys (of whatever sex) is wrong: the Pantload is the largest known quantity of shit (or other repulsive substances) in the galaxy. Especially if it’s Doughy.

  90. 90.

    jl

    @askew: At least the Academy knows their awards show (and maybe the awards themselves?) are lame, or are getting to be considered lame. So, they allow some liberties.

    Finally saw Selma. Didn’t see enough other movies to know for sure, but I thought it odd it didn’t have more presence in the nominations. So, OK, lame-ass and might come off really badly, but they broadcast some slams on the Academy about that problem: good. The Academy is really really white, and guy. And that needs to be fixed.

    Awards shows tend to be lame. I’ve been watching clips of old comics on youtube and ran into an interview of Jonathon Winters. He said when he won the Mark Twain award he thought he should do some edgy provocative late Mark Twain style humor. So part of his joke when he accepted the award to to make fun of the Mark Twain bust’s small size and ask if the swells who gave it out had stiffed the workers who made it. Big big mistake. He said that his acceptance appearance was never broadcast and tapes deep sixed.

    Thought I would mention it, in case anyone knows where to find it.

    I can’t find anything on Pryor’s acceptance either. Would like to see what those two did.

    They gave the last one out to Leno. What??

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    @Woodrowfan:

    Hoft heard a rumor that Louie Gohmert was going to start a blog, and so was staking out his turf – just letting Gohmert know There Can Be Only One.

    Now, if we could just find a way to get them in a room, and give them each a sword …

  93. 93.

    boatboy_srq

    @Buddy H: @Buddy H: Heritage Academy. Evangel U. AoG institutions, both of them (do they allow danceable music, or is it just the SBC that frowns on that?). And a BS (how apropos) in Broadcast and Public Relations (translation: either How to Bring The Bible to The Heathens Via TeeVee and Raydio or How To Launch Your Own TBN Affiliate Station). I’m actually surprised she didn’t make any bigger missteps now I read that.

    Re: Evangel:

    Evangel College (later University) was founded by the General Council of the Assemblies of God in 1955 as the first national Pentecostal school of arts and sciences.[2] The denomination, led at the time by the Rev. Ralph Riggs, already had several Bible schools and wanted a college where students entering secular fields could study in a Pentecostal, faith-based environment…. In 2010, the Assemblies of God began an effort to consolidate Evangel University with Central Bible College and Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.

    Emphasis added.

  95. 95.

    Larv

    The Kristi Capel thing reminds me of George Allen’s “macaca moment”. Like that, I suspect it was a term she heard her parents or other people use when she was a kid. She certainly realized that it was a putdown, but apparently didn’t understand the full context or history of it. But the “I didn’t know it was a word” excuse is pretty lame.

  96. 96.

    jl

    @Larv: What I cannot figure out, is what is ji-anything about Lady Gaga’s usual pop or her performance last night? Nothing that I can think off. Unless it Gaga is part of an ungodly mass of diabolical influence that she never listens too and all sounds the same to her?

  101. 101.

    Bystander

    CNN reported that Gaga sang “The Hills Are Alive” which I thought was the love theme from “The Hills Have Eyes.”

    She’s not bad until she flubs the final note while picking up her pretty pretty princess skirt just to arouse your tulle envy.

    This was of course Mary Martin’s role, and not a difficult role for range. But I agree I could have watched her in the role a heckuva lot easier than Carrie Underwood was.

  102. 102.

    raven

    @Betty Cracker: She did fine but it was the first of a group so she won’t really know anything for a while. I hit the ginormous farmers market and had a big bunch of flowers when I picked her up. The only scary thing was that I went to an antique joint and thought I locked the van with the key fob. When I came out the side door was open and Bohdi was just sitting there. I was really afraid that my deaf, dumb and blind little girl was gone but there she sat in the front!

  103. 103.

    burnspbesq

    @the Conster:

    I think there are 19.7 buttloads in a fuckton.

    As far as Ms. Germanotta is concerned, she’s got a nice instrument, as the Tony Bennett duets album showed. Not a Ronstadt-caliber instrument, but if she gets some more training and takes good care of herself she could have a long career.

  104. 104.

    Keith G

    @Zinsky:

    It is a sad commentary that a movie about a sniper shooting women and children is considered worthy of consideration of the best picture of the year while one that celebrates the right of black people to vote is not.

    Maybe it should only be a sad commentary if we know what went into the evaluative process.

    Other than that, Forget it, Zinsky. It’s Hollywood.

    It is a sad commentary that Peter O’Tool never won for one of his superb performances. The same with Glen Close.

    The Oscars are not a rational judgement of cinema quality.

    As far as NPH, his writing team (he is a performer and not a writer) was very inconsistent.

  109. 109.

    ThresherK

    @burnspbesq: Nice instrument aside, I think she can deliver the emotional content of a song, which is not often found among the “young and pipey”.

    (And that ability often gets better as one ages. Think Willie Nelson singing “Stardust”. His range and breath control will never be Nat King Cole’s, but Willie simply puts that song across.)

  110. 110.

    boatboy_srq

    @Baud: I was thinking the same thing when I read this in the article:

    [Republican Rep. Vito] Barbieri, who sits on the board of a crisis pregnancy center in northern Idaho, voted in favor of the legislation.

    I tried to add it to the earlier comment but the edit got eaten. FYWP.

  111. 111.

    jl

    @boatboy_srq:

    ” What amazes me is that people like him can procreate in the first place. ”

    Prompts me to think about several interesting scenarios, assuming that he has actually ‘done it’ with relevant gender.
    What did his partners tell him, and when?

  112. 112.

    catclub

    @Larv:

    But the “I didn’t know it was a word” excuse is pretty lame.

    Understatement. If you did not know it was a word, you would not use it as a word.

    Person whose business is using words, speaks gibberish (on purpose) as a change of pace. Does not pass the smell test.

  114. 114.

    Elizabelle

    @Buddy H: Wow. I did not know what “golliwog” meant. Would have assumed it was from a Lewis Carroll poem. All slithery were the borotoves, etc.

    My sympathies on having to listen to crap like that, to both you and Mrs. H. Idjits abound.

  116. 116.

    John

    @Buddy H: Jesus. Where the fuck do you work? I’m a white guy who’s been married to a black woman for close to 18 years myself and no one has ever even hinted at having a problem with that.

    Of course, I’m 6’5″ and 285lbs. Might have something to do with it…

  118. 118.

    Laertes

    @catclub:

    It’s a shame she went with the transparently silly “I didn’t know it was a word” instead of the probably more honest “I used a word that I didn’t understand nearly as well as I thought I did. I was aiming for one notch ruder than “urban” and way overshot the mark out of ignorance. My use of that word was, like, 90% ignorance and only 10% hate. 20% tops.”

  119. 119.

    wasabi gasp

    I like Gaga as a person and a performance artist, but her voice sounds like it’s trapped under a blanket.

  121. 121.

    Peale

    @Laertes: And I’ve yet to figure out who in the Best Actor or Best Director category clearly didn’t deserve to be there. There’s fewer spots available for those awards. So who on that list gave such a horrible performance or released such a technically foul movie that they shouldn’t have been on the list.

    Thinking a movie is “Better” doesn’t mean that those other directors and actors were bad. I thought Jake Gyllenhaal and Timothy Spall should have been nominated, but I can’t point to any of the five nominees and say “He Sucked. He wasn’t important to the picture. It wasn’t a substantial enough role.”

  122. 122.

    boatboy_srq

    @Buddy H: I have a friend who was in a similar relationship. They had a cabaret act – and a darned good one. I lost track of the places he told me they had to get sneaked out the back of the club ahead of the angry mob. And this was in the 80s and early 90s.

  124. 124.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    Also, too, I should report back that I did NOT get free champagne at work this morning, though I did get a free donut. The win was kind of a surprise, so I think they weren’t prepared. Even the VIPs were toasting with orange juice.

    (The Giant Evil Corporation swept the animation categories, so we’re all very happy, even those of us with no artistic talent.)

  125. 125.

    Laertes

    @Woodrowfan:

    Only time I’ve ever heard “golliwog” was in an Elvis Costello song. Growing up in Northwest Indiana in the 70s, I was eyeballs-deep in racism. Can’t believe they all missed that one. It wasn’t for want of trying.

  126. 126.

    Keith G

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I am sure that he did contribute and have final editorial control. I still consider him a performer largely dependent on the work of professional comedy writers.

    His team was noted here.

  127. 127.

    Randy P

    I don’t know much about Gaga. I had a general impression she was just kind of gimmicky based on the little bit of pop culture that was filtering into my brain from various sources.

    But a week ago or so I was talking to my wife about Tony Bennett and his duet albums, and we checked out a Youtube of Bennett and Gaga doing “I’ve Got Rhythm” and was mightily impressed with her jazz chops.

    Not that I’m any kind of jazz expert either. But it was a really enjoyable performance and tells me the lady has the skills to tackle multiple genres.

  128. 128.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Peale:

    One thing I’ll say is that the supposed lack of verisimilitude was used to bash “Selma,” but no one seemed to care that the “true” story in “Foxcatcher” was admittedly made up and merely used the names of real people.

    Some people are always left off the list. It’s just that it was particularly notable that in a field where 4 out of the 5 nominees were (supposedly) based on real people, they just happened to overlook the guy who played Dr. King.

    (Personally, I would have left off Bradley Cooper in favor of David Oyelowo, but YMMV.)

  129. 129.

    jl

    @Baud:

    ” Alternatively, she could have said that Lady Gaga doesn’t love America and doesn’t love you and me. ”

    I can honestly say I would like to give Lady Gaga a chance. Pretty sure that Giuliani and his ilk are not willing to do the same for Obama, in any sense of the words ‘chance’ or ‘love’.

  130. 130.

    Violet

    @raven: Your wife went for an interview? Hope it went well. Glad nothing bad happened since the car was unlocked. Big city and all.

  131. 131.

    jl

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): After seeing Selma, I think the controversy over treatment of LBJ is overblown. Not really historical maybe wrt to Selma episode itself, but seems permissible dramatic compression of whole LBJ/King relationship, from what I know of LBJ’s worries about the march on Washington, for example.

    The implication re Hoover eavesdropping seemed a false step though.

    Maybe my impatience with continued white guy dominance of Hollywood makes me biased, but from my point of view, I can see how lack of a noble White Savior may have made a difference.

    And maybe it is just me, but hard to feel sorry for how a guy who operated like LBJ gets treated dramatically, unless it is a true hatchet job, and Selma did not do one of those at all, IMHO.

  133. 133.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @jl:

    Someone (geg6?) pointed out a few weeks ago that the LBJ/Hoover scene is similar to one in the recent play, “All the Way,” which won the Pulitzer Prize. I don’t remember people complaining about historical inaccuracy in that play, but I don’t really follow theater, so I may have missed it.

    It really felt like the campaign against “Selma” was coordinated, though. It all seemed to come up at the same time. I’m not sure who exactly would have had a motive to do it, but dirty tricks are par for the course when it comes to the Oscars. I don’t think that whoever did it expected to turn into a major controversy, though.

  134. 134.

    raven

    @Violet: Not just unlocked, open. The sliding doors on these vans can be controlled by the key and I just clicked it a walked. Kudzu Antiques is not in a tough area but I was scared to death that the Lil one wandered off in search of a cookie and got squashed. I got lucky.

    The job interview was something she needs to pursue for her own peace of mind. She’s been with the organization for over 20 years and she needs to hang for the retirement. Whether she will take a job that entails travel and “overnights” is yet to be seen.

  135. 135.

    JPL

    Betty, How was your birthday and more important how was the home made brew?

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Since Selma was a front runner, I assume it was in the interest of another studio, to diss the film.

  136. 136.

    jl

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I also heard that Selma people did not do a major campaign (distributing copies for Academy voters, PR blitz).

    But, this is not first time Academy has had to deal with its ‘white dude’ problem, so, too bad for them.
    I don’t care that much about these awards, so can’t get too worked up over there many misses.

    I think they should have at least one more category for best picture, since comedy gets short shrift. Maybe ‘comedy or musical’? And should give more prominence to documentaries.

  137. 137.

    Ripley

    Count me as yet another Lady Gaga fan who falls outside the base demographic. Saw her Monster’s Ball show at the MGM Grand in Vegas a few years back, though, and I gotta say: her fan base seems genuinely diverse. She’s talented as hell, and moreover, she’s heartfelt. Rare stuff. (A new artist who strikes me the same is FKA twigs; check out the wrenching and beautiful song/video “Water Me” for proof.)

  138. 138.

    Violet

    @raven: Oh, wow! I misread your earlier comment. That is lucky. Those auto-whatever on cars now can definitely lead to some things like that happening. Glad it all worked out.

    I caught a few seconds of a car commercial the other day where a woman is driving and her work calls her for a conference call. I guess she hits the wrong button on the steering wheel and they show the guys in the office building listening to her singing something really badly. One says to the other, “Does she know we can hear her?” or something like that. I was thinking, “And this is how they sell the car to people? It’s so easy to hit the phone button on your steering wheel that you can humiliate yourself in front of your co-workers without knowing you’re doing it? Okay….”

    Hope your wife’s interview works out for the best.

  139. 139.

    Peale

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): don’t get me started on versimlitude. what imitation game and fox catcher did to their stories to make them sympathetic to audiences was much worse than what I saw in Selma. I think I might be the only one who thought imitation game was a parody.

  140. 140.

    Violet

    @jl:

    I think they should have at least one more category for best picture, since comedy gets short shrift. Maybe ‘comedy or musical’? And should give more prominence to documentaries.

    I prefer how the Golden Globes do it because comedy/musicals have their own category.

  141. 141.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @JPL:

    Of course, but which one? It’s hard to say, especially once the whispering campaign takes off and gets a life of its own.

    As with this entire mess, I’m guessing another contributing factor was a toxic mixture of racism, sexism, and professional jealousy since the director of “Selma” started in PR and has now gotten above herself — she didn’t even go to film school! Most of the actors in “Selma” are relative unknowns (and British, to boot), so they don’t have any constituency within SAG pulling for them.

    The Academy loves to claim that they like indie films, but they only like “indie” films with movie stars in them or star directors slumming in them. Actual indies, not so much.

    (It was distributed by Paramount but not produced or financed by them, which may have contributed to the problems with the Oscar campaign.)

  148. 148.

    SRW1

    @boatboy_srq:

    What amazes me is that people like him can procreate in the first place.

    My hunch would be that his wife probably had to so some guiding at the beginning of the sinning exercise in the dark.

  149. 149.

    Matt McIrvin

    Jill Stein is apparently running again. Friends talking excitedly about how both parties are the same.

  150. 150.

    gwangung

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Well, Robert Schenkan is a white dude and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a nice accepted institution palatable to the blue hair crowd, so that might have something to do with that.

  152. 152.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: Oh my god, that would give you a scare!

    I had a similar moment (years ago) coming home from taking my cocker spaniel to be put down, coming home hours later and seeing I had left the gate open with my other dog outside. I thought oh my god, I have lost both of them in one day. But my boy was just sitting at the door waiting for me.

  155. 155.

    MaxMary

    @Laertes:
    My understanding, from a music industry sound engineer, is that a backup track is recorded during dress rehearsals or in a studio. The on-air performance is live, with someone listening to be able to switch to the backup track if there is a technical audio problem. Some performers may work it out with the sound mixer that they want the secondary track boosted at certain points, so that they are singing mostly live, but with some *magic* on the parts they find difficult to sing or while they are dancing. This is also done during live concerts, often to spare the performer’s voice. Easy on the voice stuff live, the rest from tape. So lip-syncing isn’t a yes or no, the person doing the audio mix usually has both the live vocal and backup material.

    Also, I wasn’t surprised by Lady Gaga’s singing. I’d wanted to hear her do a musical theater number since learning that she was a student in the musical theater program at NYU, with admission through a highly competitive audition process.

    I also confess that I would really like to see her revive the “Sweeney Sisters” sketch on Saturday Night Live. I really can’t hear a Broadway medley without Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks coming to mind.

  157. 157.

    Cain

    @ThresherK: Her stuff with Tony Bennett and Elton John are fantastic! The ones with Tony Bennett is especially good because she sang like some girl from the 50s with a New York accent. It was awesome.

  158. 158.

    Cain

    @Redshift:

    @Gin & Tonic: Keaton looked genuinely happy on stage for the Best Picture acceptance.

    My favorite was when he interrupts himself and says “aww, who am I kidding, it’s great to be up here!”

  163. 163.

    tam1MI

    It really felt like the campaign against “Selma” was coordinated, though. It all seemed to come up at the same time. I’m not sure who exactly would have had a motive to do it

    Harvey Weinstein was/is notorious for ginning up”controversies” to knock rival films out of contention.

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