2023 (Our Version)

 This was the year of Taylor Swift.  She sold out football stadiums with her Eras Tour. sold millions of records whether she made or remade them, became an inspiration to millions, and made headlines for dating an NFL player, creating the most highly-publicized romance since--I don't know--Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt.  And Time magazine bestowed Swift with its "Person of The Year" honors, something which has not happened to an entertainer.  Clearly, the sky's the limit for Taylor Swift.  But life is a blank space.  Someday, she might be writing songs about all this.

Elsewhere, war continues in Ukraine as they hold on for dear life against Putin's Russia and increasingly reluctant support from Europe and Washington.  A new Middle East war between Israel and Hamas is creating divisions around the world of anti-Semitism, and whether one should support the Palestinian people without having to support Hamas.  

Donald Trump has been indicted four times since leaving the White House, yet he's taking advantage of the slow-moving justice system to make another run for President--so he could make all those indictments moot.  No one, it seems, can stop him.  His poll numbers are steamrolling over his Republican opponents, who don't seem to know what to do with him on the way to the nomination.  Meanwhile, Trump continues to rant and rave against immigrants and his enemies, and his fans are just eating it up.  Do we need to ask whether you want this guy in the White House again?

President Joe Biden, on the other hand, has been a steady presence for the past couple of years and has restored much of this country's respect that was squandered by Trump.  So how come he can't seem to convince folks that the economy is doing great despite inflation?  Or that he is now the oldest President in history, and is running again only because the Democrats can't find anyone who's younger and can beat Trump?  Trump is no spring chicken either, but no one wants to talk about that because he thinks he's Superman.

Congress is a mess.  We've known that for years, yet it keeps getting worse in the era of political hyper-partisanship.  The House of Representatives, with its GOP cast of characters, has such ineffective leadership that they went a few weeks between Speakers of the House while the country was on the brink of bankruptcy.  All they seem to be interested in is impeaching President Biden and indicting his son Hunter. They did manage to kick George Santos out for being not all there, but that doesn't explain why the rest are still there.  The Democrats who control the Senate seem to be hamstrung because of the House's shenanigans that they're not getting much done either.

If this wasn't the warmest year ever on the planet, you haven't been paying attention.  Record high temperatures, wildfires, smoke from wildfires, drought, flooding, you name it.  Despite agreements to limit the amount of carbon and other things, we face more of the same because the powers that be don't seem to think it's a real problem, and that we will continue to depend on fossil fuels because that's what it will take to run all the solar panels and electric vehicles in the world.

Elon Musk is the other most important person in the world who screwed up this year.  He bought Twitter, ran it into the ground by reinstating all those right-wing characters who used to be banned from the site and causing normal users to flee, then changed the name to X (or as we call it, The Site Called X).  Actually, all of social media has been called into question for everything including Facebook's alleged shenanigans to banning Tik Tok because of its Chinese connection.

Hollywood actors and writers spent several months on the picket lines, striking for higher wages and assurances that their jobs won't be replaced by the alleged scourge known as Artificial Intelligence.  Production was shut down, TV broadcast networks were forced to put up with reality-laden shows, and viewers started checking out those streaming services they've heard so much about.  Both strikes are over, and one wonders whether AI will really be the scourge everyone fears.

The Women's World Cup was won by Spain, but has long since been overshadowed by a scandal caused by the president of that country's soccer federation who took it upon himself to kiss the lips of one of the team's stars during the trophy presentation..  He was forced to resign.  The Spanish women's team still has to live with it.

Those who left us in 2023:  Bob Knight, Frank Howard, Richard Moll, Richard Roundtree, Tina Turner, Gordon Lightfoot, Jimmy Buffett, Bud Grant, Jeff Beck, Lisa Marie Presley, David Crosby, Barrett Strong, Burt Bacharach, Bobby Caldwell, April Stevens, Astrud Gilberto, Harry Belafonte, Ed Ames, Tony Bennett, Sinead O'Connor, Randy Meisner, Robbie Robertson, Dwight Twilley, Jean Knight, Denny Laine, Jim Ladd, Burt Young, Andy Bean, Piper Laurie, Suzanne Somers, Phyllis Coates, Brooks Robinson, David McCallum, Roger Whittaker, Henry Boucha, Herb Kohl, Tom Smothers, Dianne Feinstein, Matthew Perry, Rosalynn Carter, Andre Braugher, Ryan O'Neal, Norman Lear, Chad Allan, Sandra Day O'Connor, Frances Sternhagen, Henry Kissinger, Betty Rollin, Marty Krofft, Ken Squier, Frank Borman, Jerry Springer, Paul Reubens, Bob Barker, Bill Richardson, Albert Quie, Raquel Welch, Alan Arkin, Cormac McCarthy, Robbie Bachman, Treat Williams, William Friedkin, Rudolph Isley, Tom Sizemore, Al Jaffee, Cindy Williams, Glenda Jackson, George Maharis, Melinda Dillon, Robert Blake, Stella Stevens

2024 is coming. Prepare yourselves.

The 95th Oscars: "Everything" Wins All at Once

 The Motion Picture Academy doesn't usually reward science fiction fare with its Best Picture.  Unless it happens to feature actors of Asian descent, a category Oscar usually consigned to the margins,  For the 95th annual Academy Awards ceremony, however, such a film and its cast were honored.  "Everything Everywhere All at Once" took home seven Oscars in a sweep of most of the major categories .

Besides Best Picture, Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian-born woman to win for Best Actress. Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan won for their supporting roles.  The Two Daniels (Scheinert and Kwan) shared the Best Director trophy. EEAO also received Oscars for original screenplay and film editing.

In the only major category in which EEAO did not have any nominations, the award for Best Actor went to Brendan Fraser for "The Whale".

And now, a few bullet points.

• Not everyone was happy with Curtis' win for Best Supporting Actress.  They all wanted to know why Angela Bassett was overlooked for the umpteenth time.  Or Viola Davis, whose film "The Woman King" was not nominated.
• Finishing a distant second in the Oscar race was "All Quiet On The Western Front", which is currently streaming on Netflix.  It won four awards including Best International Film.
• "Top Gun Maverick", the box-office smash credited with bringing people back to the post-pandemic multiplex, won an Oscar for Best Sound.  But its star Tom Cruise was a no-show  Lady Gaga almost was one until, at the last minute, she showed up onstage in casual attire to perform "Hold My Hand".
• Jimmy Kimmel once again hosted the festivities on ABC, helping the briskly-run (for 3 1/2 hours) show along with his so-so jokes, interacting with a burro and Cocaine Bear, and getting shot down on a stupid question for Malala.
• No fighting or slapping was involved.
  

The Grammys: All Hail Queen Bey

 At the 65th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday, things seemed to be in a holding pattern two hours into the CBS telecast.  Beyonce, who these days is considered the Queen of Pop Music by her subjects, was stuck in traffic on her way to the arena currently named for a cryptocurrency outfit. It seems even on Sunday there's a need for traffic reports.

When Beyonce finally arrived at her table, host Trevor Noah presented her with her 31st Grammy, which was announced at an earlier ceremony.  That one tied the record for most Grammys won by an individual artist.  She broke it later with a win in the dance/electronica category for her album "Renaissance".  That was her 32nd.

Beyonce did not, however, win Grammys in any of the major categories.  Neither did Adele or Taylor Swift, both of whom were also heavily favored to do so.  But Harry Styles did.  The former boy-band heartthrob (remember One Direction?) , won Album of the Year for "Harry's Place".  It introduced us to the single "As It Was", which ran for 15 weeks at the top of Billboard's pop chart during 2022.

Record of the Year went to Lizzo for "About Damn Time".  Yes, we in Minnesota are constantly reminded that Lizzo used to spend some time here before she became famous.  She dedicated her award to Prince, who stayed in Minnesota even after becoming famous.

Song of the Year (which, it has to be explained, is a songwriters' award) was "Just Like That" by Bonnie Raitt, an ode to organ transplants that also served as a tribute to John Prine.  Raitt, a longtime Grammy veteran, seemed to be just as shocked as you were that she won out over heavyweight competition before accepting her award from First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.

In Beyonce's absence, the Grammy telecast made do with their by-now-trademarked "Only At The Grammys" performances that people tend to talk about the next day.  Here's a couple:

--In a salute to Smokey Robinson and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, Jr. for winning an industry award, Stevie Wonder and guests rolled through a few Motown classics.

--There was a celebration of 50 years of Hip Hop, featuring every artist the Academy could find who didn't have an alleged criminal record (that we know of), or who had long since gone into acting.  It was a reminder to the rest of us that rap had its beginnings during Richard Nixon's presidency.

--The annual "In Memorium" segment was enlivened this year by live tributes from Kacey Musgraves channeling Loretta Lynn with "Coal Miner's Daughter", and Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and Mick Fleetwood performing "Songbird" in honor of Christine McVie.  Otherwise, the names and faces of those who have died in the past year just flew by, barely giving us time to know who they were.

A couple of other things:  

Viola Davis reached EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) status for her win in the spoken-word category.

Best New Artist went to singer Samara Joy.

The Grammy TV extravaganza ran almost four hours, once again leaving the announcement of the major awards to the final half-hour where CBS usually has its local news.  We don't need to rehash why awards show ratings have been dropping, but this is one reason why.