The 96th Oscars: "Oppenheimer" Wins, And Other Things.

 As the doomsday clock approaches midnight and wars are going in Gaza, Ukraine and elsewhere, a film about "the father of the atomic bomb" J. Robert Oppenheimer won seven Academy Awards Sunday night in Los Angeles.  Among those awards:  Best Picture, Christopher Nolan for directing, Cillian Murphy for lead actor, and Robert Downey Jr. for supporting actor.

Besides "Oppenheimer", other major awards went to DaVine Joy Randolph of "The Holdovers" for supporting actress, and to Emma Stone for lead actress in "Poor Things".  Stone was the surprise choice given that Lily Gladstone of "Killers of the Flower Moon", as the first of her Native American heritage to be nominated for lead actress, was considered the overwhelming favorite.

"Barbie" was the box-office champion of 2023, but was doomed at these Oscars by director Greta Gerwig and actress Margot Robbie not getting nominated.  But Billie Eilish did win Best Song for "What Was I Made For?" And Ryan Gosling did wow the audience with his "I'm Just Ken" production number.  So there's that.

Jimmy Kimmel did well as host of these Oscars, even as he saluted the "little people" who made big contributions to keep Hollywood running, and in needling Donald Trump.  He was also instrumental in getting John Cena to come out of his shell and introduce the Costumes category nearly naked.

"In Memorium" had singing and dancing onstage, but the ones being honored were filmed from so far away that you could not figure out who these people were or what they looked like.  Next time, just refer viewers to your website if you're going to treat the deceased like this.

The Oscar telecast began one hour early (6 p.m. Central) and ended three and a half hours later at 9:30 Central.  Long award shows are par for the course, but this one actually ended on time.  This meant ABC could go ahead and show a post-Oscar edition of its hit sitcom "Abbott Elementary"  This, however, will probably not stem the long slide towards ratings oblivion for the Academy.  Even if the football season is over.  And Taylor Swift didn't show up at your party.

The 66th Grammys: All This and Taylor, Too.

 Inside the arena where three of Los Angeles' pro sports teams reside, the Recording Academy was passing out their Grammy trophies for the 66th time Sunday night.  "Music's Biggest Night", they called it.  And for most of those three-and-a-half hours of CBS' prime time, it actually lived up to its billing.  For a change.

But first, we have to address the elephant in the room.  The woman who dominated music in 2023 with her prolific albums, headline-making concert tour and a romance with a football star made history once again.  Taylor Swift became the first person to win four Grammys for Album of the Year, this one for "Midnights".  She won two awards for the evening, one of which was used to plug her new album coming out in April.  She was also accused of ignoring presenter Celine Dion on stage to accept her album Grammy, but that turned out not to be true.  Such is life for a global superstar, and it sounds like there's more to come.

Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus also won two trophies each, one of them being for a major category:

• Eilish's contribution to the "Barbie" movie soundtrack, "What Was I Made For?" in her trademark breathy voice, won for Song of the Year (which, as host Trevor Noah has to explain to CBS viewers, is a songwriting award), which was co-written by her and brother Finneas O'Connell.

• Cyrus' "Flowers", the biggest hit of her career, was named Record of the Year.  I think she's ready for her Las Vegas residency.

Best New Artist went to Victoria Monet.

As for everything else that went on . . . 

• Tracy Chapman, who apparently doesn't get out much, performed her 1988 hit "Fast Car" with the guy who revived it, Luke Combs.  Really an unfair comparison.
• Joni Mitchell, who last received a Grammy more than 50 years ago and is now an 80-year old legend, returned to the stage with"Both Sides Now".
• Olivia Rodrigo, who most music pundits have bequeathed the honor of The Next Taylor, found a way to clean up her language in the made-for TV version of "Vampire".
• Billy Joel closed the show first with an unremarkable song that was his first new one in three decades, but redeemed himself on "You May Be Right".
• Jay-Z, the recipient of the Dr. Dre Global Impact award, used his acceptance speech to rip the Recording Academy for ignoring rap and hip hop, and to ask why his wife Beyonce's album wasn't nominated for a Grammy.  His daughter Blue Ivy was standing next to him on stage.

And finally, In Memorium.  Stevie Wonder "duetted" with Tony Bennett.  Annie Lennox did Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U".  And with Oprah introducing, Fantasia Barrino did a good job in channeling Tina Turner's singing, if not her dancing.

But again, as the performers sang, the images of those in the music business who died in the past year floated by without so much as context.  Some of those artists, including Melanie and Gordon Lightfoot, deserved a better tribute.  They both had long careers, but commercially peaked in the 1970s and have since been relegated to the dustbin of music history.  The Grammy's main TV audience these days wasn't born then.  And they wouldn't have known who Melanie, Gordon Lightfoot and the others were unless their elders told them.

The Grammy awards this year were all that.  And Taylor, too.

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.

2022: The Year That Ended

 Another year, another recap of the year that's ending.  Let's go!

Two years removed from his Presidency and still believing he won the 2020 election, Donald Trump is still making headlines whether we want him to or not. The House committee examining the events of January 6, 2021 trotted out witness after witness before handing its findings to the Justice Department, pointing the finger at Trump for encouraging the mob scene at the U.S. Capitol that day and recommending that Trump never again holds office.  The FBI unearths evidence of classified documents scattered all over Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida that he wasn't supposed to possess now that he isn't President.  Lawsuits involving him are clogging up the courts.  And we are about to see the tax returns that Trump has been hiding for a long time.  So what does he do?  Why, announce his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, of course.  You really think they're gonna convict the once and future(?) President of the United States?

Russia invades Ukraine, insisting that the land is theirs and has been since the Soviet Union was in existence.  Even though the country is being bombed to hell, Ukrainans and their plucky leader Volodymyr Zelensky have surprised the world by hanging in there and going toe to toe against an obviously superior opponent.  Worldwide sanctions aimed at Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin have so far resulted in Putin being hurt less than his own people.  The next year will decide whether Ukraine emerges from the rubble victorious, or go under Russia's boot.  So long as nobody gets nuked in the process.

The Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, to the surprise and shock of abortion rights supporters who had been covered by the law for nearly 50 years.  Now, if you are a woman living in a state that restricts abortion, you are running scared, looking at options to get to the nearest state that still allows the procedure to be performed.  Congress may or may not want to revisit that law so they could codify it.  But they sure didn't waste time in the lame duck session making same-sex and interracial marriage legal, unless the Court finds a way around it.

The Court, now having a 6-3 conservative advantage, did throw a bone to the liberal/moderate minority with the addition of associate justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the bench.  She replaced the retiring Stephen Breyer. It won't stop the complaints that the Court has been running amuck with unpopular rulings and less-than-civil behavior among some of the justices.  But it's a start.

Democracy survived another round when voters went to the polls in November, voting out many of the charlatans who thought Trump should be President and losing the election would result in recounts and lawsuits.  But some of those same folks were re-elected, thanks to gerrymandered districts.  So the 118th Congress will be divided for the next two years, both by slim margins:  Republicans controlling the House and Democrats hanging on to the Senate.  This will result in President Joe Biden's policies getting less traction in Congress than they did when Democrats ran the show, and that seems to suit the GOP fine..

In Minnesota, Democratic Governor Tim Walz won a second term over Republican Scott Jensen.  The DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) party had a great night, retaining all of the state offices and both houses of the Legislature.

COVID-19 remains a threat to the health and safety of the world, though it seems we've gotten a better handle on it than we used to with vaccines and prevention.  It's vax deniers and others who don't think they should be wearing masks in public that's keeping the disease front and center with their lies and misinformation, resulting in millions of lives lost around the world. So it's still a good idea to be careful out there.

Queen Elizabeth II, who had been ruling Great Britain and its commonwealth for most of our lives (actually since 1952), died in September at age 96.  She left behind King Charles III, who had been waiting for most of his life to assume the throne until he finally did at 73, and a bickering family that's the source of many a tabloid headline or gossipy TV special.  Oh, and England has had three Prime Ministers in the span of a few weeks.  Seems the new King isn't the only thing that needs saving in England.

Brittney Griner is back in the United States after spending several months in a Russian prison, traded to the U.S. government for an arms dealer.  The pro basketball player made the mistake of trying to get her marijuana-based oil supplement past customs, for which she was accused of violating Russia's drug laws.  The fact that this incident just happened to coincide with Putin's invasion of Ukraine was no coincidence.  Griner might return to playing for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury this summer--if she's up to it, but she and other players will certainly think twice before going abroad to play basketball, even if the countries they play in pay much better than the WNBA ever could.  That goes double if, like Griner, you're young, Black and LGTBQ.

Elon Musk is no longer the richest man in the world.  He spent some of his cash on Twitter, the social media giant he's currently running into the ground by making it less friendly to those who don't espouse his right ring views or believe in anything but facts.  Maybe Musk would be better off running an electric car company or giving rides in space to billionaires--which is what he had done before.  He's probably thinking that over right now.

We all learned about the term sportswashing during the past year.  It's when repressive governments with questionable human rights records host major sporting events aimed to make themselves look good in front of the world, while its propaganda guilts everyone watching on TV.  We've already had the Winter Olympics in China, soccer's World Cup in Qatar, and the Saudi Arabia -funded LIV pro golf tour.  There's been a backlash over sportswashing, but who's gonna argue with the billions of dollars these countries spend on state-of-the-art facilities to impress organizations--possibly done on the backs of immigrant labor?  Or the countries who try to get in the good political and economic graces of those who supply the oil or have nuclear weapons?  It's a slippery slope.

Besides all the victims of mass shootings, natural disasters and wars around the world, here's a not-so-complete list of those you may have heard of who died this year..  Cue Sarah McLaughlin's "I Will Remember You":

Peter Bogdanovich, Sidney Poitier, Bob Saget, Meat Loaf, Louie Anderson, William Hurt, Taylor Hawkins, Estelle Harris, Bobby Rydell, Gilbert Gottfried, Naomi Judd, Mickey Gilley, Vangelis, Ray Liotta, Mark Shields, James Caan, Claes Oldenburg, Paul Sorvino, Tony Dow, Olivia Newton-John, Anne Heche, Ramsey Lewis, Jean-Luc Godard, Coolio, Sacheen Littlefeather, Loretta Lynn, Angela Lansbury, Leslie Jordan, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gallagher, Irene Cara, Christine McVie, Kirstie Alley, Diane McBain, Ian Tyson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Russell, Madeleine Albright, Ivana Trump, Vin Scully, Kathy Whitworth, Thom Bell, Franco Harris, Stuart Margolin, Curt Simmons, Mike Leach, Paul Silas, Nick Bolliteri, Gaylord Perry, John Y. Brown, Robert Clary, Fred Hickman, Ray Guy, Vince Dooley, Bruce Sutter, Art Laboe, Anita Kerr, Judy Tenuta, Bill Plante, Louise Fletcher, Maury Wills, Ken Starr, Bernard Shaw, Anne Garrels, Moon Landreau, Earnie Shavers, Barbara Ehrenreich, Len Dawson, Tom Weiskopf, Pete Carril, Nicholas Evans, Judith Durham, Lamont Dozier, David McCullough, Clu Gulager, Pat Carroll, Nichelle Nicholas, Mary Alice, Bob Rafelson, Larry Storch, Marlin Briscoe, Hugh McElhenny, Ken Bode, Jim Seals, Marion Barber III, Ronnie Hawkins, Roger Angell, Gino Cappelletti, Bob Lanier, Ron Galella, David Birney, Jim Hartz, Orrin Hatch, Guy Lafluer, Daryle Lamonica, Robert Morse, Liz Sheridan, Mike Bossy, Rayfield Wright, Nehemiah Persoff, Tommy Davis, Gene Shue, John Clayton, Jean Potvin, Timmy Thomas, Johnny Grier, Tim Considine, Alan Ladd Jr., Sally Kellerman, Emile Francis, Ian McDonald, P.J. O'Rourke, Ivan Reitman, Bill Fitch, Yvette Mimieux, Joe B. Hall, Clyde Bellecourt, Ronnie Spector, Don Maynard, Dwayne Hickman, Lani Guinier, Dan Reeves, Stephen Boss. Pele, Barbara Walters, Pope Benedict XVI.

Time to turn the page.  See you in 2023.

The Emmys: The More Things Change . . .

 This year's Primetime Emmys, which were held on Monday night instead of the usual Sunday, was mostly a repeat of the previous year with "Succession" winning for best drama and "Ted Lasso" best comedy.  Same went for some of the main acting awards, including Jason Sudeklis winning best actor in a comedy for "Lasso", and Zendeya getting a second nod for best actress in a drama for "Euphoria".

There were a few Emmys passed out in the prime time telecast for the newbies, however.  "The White Lotus" won for best limited series, as well as its stars Murray Bartlett (supporting actor) and Jennifer Coolidge (supporting actress). Lee Jung-jae became the first Asian man to win an Emmy, taking home a best dramatic actor award for "Squid Games".

Among the familiar faces picking up Emmys:  Michael Keaton (actor, limited series) for "Dopesick", Julie Garner (supporting actress, drama) for "Ozark", Sheryl Lee Ralph (supporting actress, comedy) for "Abbott Elementary", Amanda Seyfried (actress, limited series) for "The Dropout", and Jean Smart (actress, comedy) for "Hacks".

Other winners announced included Matthew Macfayden (supporting actor, drama) for "Succession", and Brett Goldstein (supporting actor, comedy) for "Ted Lasso",  The Governors' Award went to actress and activist Geena Davis.

Among other things:  

• Late night comedy shows "Saturday Night Live" and "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" won Emmys for the umphteenth year in a row.  Maybe they should take a cue from Oprah Winfrey (who opened the show) and Ellen DeGeneres (whose long-running talk show has been replaced by either local news or Kelly Clarkson in most markets).  Both of them pulled their shows from future nominations after winning so many times.
• The award for best reality competition went to "Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls", which means morbidly obese women have replaced what we used to call drag queens (previous winner "RuPaul's Drag Race") as entertainment.  Quite a trade-off.
• "Abbott Elementary" was this year's Great Network Hope in a sea of cable and streaming offerings.  The ABC sitcom did win twice.  Once for Sheryl Lee Ralph, and a writing award for the show's creator Quinta Brunson.
• Kenan Thompson was just fine as Emmy host.  The producers were kind of overzealous in keeping the winners' speeches to 45 seconds.  And the opening number was the first that I can recall that needed a disclaimer for strobe lights.
• If you're not going to take the "In Memorium" segment seriously, with the pop singers and faraway camera pans, please take the list of those who died since the last awards telecast and show them on your website.
• NBC moved this year's Emmy telecast to Monday because Sunday night belongs to football.  Apparently, they forgot that ABC and ESPN were simulcasting the Broncos-Seahawks game at the same hour.  So much for blockbuster ratings.  Try Tuesday or Wednesday next time.

The 64th Grammys: Vegas, Baby!

 The 64th Recording Academy Grammys were moved from January in Los Angeles to April in Las Vegas because of the ongoing pandemic, but the show went on anyway.  This one went on without incident, unlike last week at the Oscars, because Kanye West was told to stay as far away from the MGM Grand Garden Arena as possible.  Much to the relief of Trevor Noah, who hosted the CBS telecast.

Song of the Year and Record of the Year went to Silk Sonic's "Leave The Door Open", a Bruno Mars-.Anderson Paak rendition of those 1970s-era soul groups that was introduced last year at the Grammys.

Jon Batiste, who's much better known as Stephen Colbert's TV bandleader, won five Grammys out of 11 nominations including Album of the Year for "We Are".  So that's also a win for host network CBS, right?

Olivia Rodrigo, who was expected to do much better with nominations for her album "Sour" and hit single "drivers license" ended up with three Grammys including Best New Artist.  Still not a bad evening.  It should also be noted that Billie Eilish, who has dominated the awards the last couple of years, came away with nothing this time despite seven nominations.

The In Memoriam segment got too cute when it doubled as tributes for drummer Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters and composer Stephen Sondheim.  As four singers warbled through some of Sondheim's greatest hits, images floated by on the TV screen of all those important music figures who died during the past year, whether we could read their names or not.

After being turned down for the Oscar telecast, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned up on the Grammys to beg the West for more support for his war-torn country.  It was followed by the usually overexposed John Legend leading a group of singers and a poet of Ukrainian descent to pay tribute to their homeland that is currently fighting for its life.  Which is about as political as the Grammys got all night.

Louis CK, whose career has been in eclipse since allegations of sexual misconduct turned him into a pariah, won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album.  Canceled or not, the Recording Academy seems to now have a Bill Cosby/Woody Allen problem.

In three and a half hours, only a few awards were handed out during the telecast.  The rest of them were done earlier and was carried on the academy's website.  Still, in today's attention-deficit disorder times, three hours is an awful long time to wait between the musical act you want to see, the suspense of who won what, and the seemingly endless length of commercial and station breaks.  Sometimes it's just easier to announce the results in a one-hour TV special, or online.  But no.  That'll never happen.  Or would it?

The 94th Oscars: We Need To Talk About Will and Chris. Not Bruno.

 Before we go too much further, here were some of the winners at the 94th Academy Awards, which were held Sunday night in Los Angeles:

• Best Supporting Actress went to Ariana DuBose for "West Side Story", the very same award Rita Moreno won back in 1961.
• Best Supporting Actor went to Troy Kotsur for "CODA".
• Jane Campion was named Best Director for "The Power of the Dog".
• Best Actress went to Jessica Chastain for "The Eyes of Tammy Faye".
• And the Oscar for Best Picture went to "CODA", the first to be seen mainly on a streaming service (Apple TV+).
• "Dune" won ten craft awards, most of which were relegated to commercial breaks.
• There was a musical number from the animated film "Encanto", which included Megan Thee Stallion, called "We Don't Talk About Bruno".

Right now, we need to talk about what happened between Will Smith, Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett Smith.  Not Bruno.  Together, they turned the Oscars from another overlong snoozefest into a horror show that even Hollywood couldn't have scripted.

In his monologue prior to announcing the award for Best Documentary, Rock made a tasteless joke about Pinkett Smith's hair.  She has been living with alopecia, a hair loss disease that affects thousands of people per year in the U.S. alone. Will, her husband, took exception to the joke.  He confronted Rock onstage, slapped him, then returned to his seat shouting expletives.

You might say Will was trying to defend his woman, but that's not how it looked to those who watched the incident inside the Dolby Theater and on TV around the world.  In the olden days, a slap on the face with a velvet glove was often an invitation to a duel, which was settled with guns at the crack of dawn.  It has evolved into shootouts on the mean streets of Dodge City or Tombstone, or just about any American city today..  At least that's according to Hollywood.

A few minutes later, Smith was announced as the winner of the Best Actor Oscar for "King Richard"--his first.  He played Richard Williams, who taught his daughters Venus and Serena how to be tennis champions in a mostly unorthodox manner.  Smith used his acceptance speech to apologize to everyone except Rock for the incident, and to explain that Williams also did all he could to protect his daughters.

In the aftermath, it must be noted that Smith is one of the most powerful men in Hollywood and will likely survive this incident, even if it is now tainted.  Rock, who has hosted the Oscars before, will now have to think a little more before making edgy jokes at the expense of his targets.  And now standup comedians and other performers have to worry about idiots who get up on stage and harass them.

Today, Smith issued an apology to Rock and others on social media.  To date, Rock has not filed criminal charges against Smith.  And the Academy put up a statement denouncing violence, while deciding what to do about disciplining Smith.  It's not likely that they'll ask for their Best Actor Oscar back.

The movies are a place for escape and fantasy, even in troubled times like these.  What we didn't need was a dose of Reality TV.

UPDATE (4/9/22):  The Academy has banned Will Smith from attending the Oscars for the next ten years, which is kind of a moot point since Smith said he was going to resign from the Academy anyway.  Remember what we said about Smith being one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood? That'll certainly be put to the test going forward. 

China '22, Week 2: Beijing Olympics on Thin Ice

The Winter Olympics in Beijing ended Sunday with the usual bombast and blather about how sports promotes peace and world harmony.  Which would sound even better if these Games hadn't been held in a totalitarian country during a pandemic.

But there they were, athletes from around the world competing in empty stadiums, getting tested for Covid-19 and its variants, shuffling from venue to venue to living quarters and back, without so much as moral support from back home or being able to say what they really think about the situation they're in.

Here's the final medal count:     

                        Gold            Silver            Bronze            Total

Norway              16                8                      13                  37

ROC                    6                12                     14                  32

Germany            12               10                       5                  27

Canada                4                  8                      14                 26

USA                      8                10                      7                   25  

• Kamila Valieva, the teenaged figure skater from the Russian Olympic Committee who was cleared to compete in the women's finals in spite of using a banned substance that she claimed was her grandfather's heart medication, turned in such a terrible performance at the final free skate that her coaches were colder to her than an Arctic front from Siberia.  Two of her ROC teammates won gold and silver, but didn't seem too happy about it considering the circumstances.  Unless the powers in figure skating helps fix the doping crisis and raise the age of skaters, we shouldn't call this the "Women's" Figure Skating Championships.
• Oh yes.  Because of the situation involving Valieva, the other participants in the Team Skating competition are still waiting for their medals.
• The biggest name to come out of these Olympics was Eileen Gu, a freestyle skier from the United States who chose to compete for China, her mother's homeland.
• In the NHL-less men's hockey tournament, Finland won its first-ever gold medal over the favored ROC team 2-1.  The Canadians won another women's hockey gold medal over their only rivals in the United States 3-2.
• Snow fell on the slopes in China.  The natural stuff, not the man-made kind that created some problems for skiers.
• NBC drew more than 100 million viewers for the Super Bowl.  They'll be lucky to get anywhere near that with Olympics coverage on the network, Peacock, USA Network and various other sources.  A lot of it wasn't their fault with the 14-hour time difference, lack of familiar sports and personalities, and the fact that it was in China.  But the decision to do the coverage from studios in Connecticut instead of on site, while understandable because of China's Covid policies, took all the starch out of being there.  Then again, we've gotten used to that stuff the past couple of years.

The torch has been passed to Milan and Cortina in Italy for 2026.  Unless something changes, the Olympic movement will continue to be run by governments who can pay the freight, organizations who can pay the International Olympic Committee to look the other way, and sponsors and networks who shell out billions to see which eyeballs are attracted to what they're selling.

In the end, though, it's still about athletes who want to compete at their best.  That will never change.

 

China '22, Week 1: More Scandals, Less Snow.

 The Winter Olympics in Beijing continued on its dreary pace with restrictions sucking the life out of it.  And that's without China doing all it can to try and eradicate the COVID-19 virus and its Omicron variant from within its borders.  In other news from the week:

• Reacting to worldwide disgust over their alleged treatment of Uyghurs, the Chinese cynically used an Uyghur skier to carry the Olympic flame for the opening ceremonies.
• What looked like silos from an abandoned nuclear power plant (which the Chinese tell us aren't really) were hard to miss during the freestyle skiing competition.  If this were Springfield, USA (hometown of "The Simpsons") instead of Beijing, plant owner Montgomery Burns would be in his office rubbing his hands and saying "Excellent!".  Nonetheless, it looks weird.
• What snow there is, by the way, is 100 percent man-made.  Just like your local ski slope.
• The scandals keep coming.  Kamila Valieva, a 15-year old figure skater from Russia (known as the Russian Olympic Committee for these Games), is currently allowed to compete in spite of testing positive for a banned substance.  It's the reason why the final results for Team Figure Skating have been delayed, and why her place in the Women's Figure Skating competition is in doubt.

We need to talk about Mikaela Shiffrin, the heir apparent to now-retired Lindsey Vonn as America's alpine skiing queen.  Pegged to win several medals in Beijing, she flamed out in her first two races by missing early gates.  After the second slipup, NBC cameras caught Shiffrin rolled up in a ball of misery out of bounds for several minutes while other skiers whizzed past her.  The question became:  Are we witnessing the next Simone Biles, whose legendary withdrawal from several gymnastic events at the Tokyo Olympics, put athletes and mental health front and center?  Turns out, no. Shiffrin completed her Super G run the following day without incident and without medals.  We'll see what happens next.

The medal count as of 2/13/ 22 reads like this (from ESPN.com):

NORWAY  Nine gold, five silver, seven bronze= 21

ROC           Four gold, five silver, eight bronze=17

GERMANY  Eight gold, five silver, one bronze=14

AUSTRIA  Four gold, six silver, four bronze=14

CANADA   One gold, four silver, nine bronze=14

U.S.              Six gold, five silver, one bronze=12 (tied for sixth with Netherlands)

NBC is, predictably, getting hammered in the TV ratings.  But they don't seem to be too concerned about it, because the numbers on streaming service Peacock and social media are trending upwards so far.  So in the end, this may not be the most watched Olympics ever.  Instead, this might be the most viewed ever.  We shall see.

Another week to go.  Who knows, maybe a war might start.

The Winter Olympics: China Being China

 The Winter Olympic games are underway in Beijing, China, six months after the Summer Games ended belatedly in Tokyo, Japan.  Beijing is hosting its second Olympics this century (the last in 2008), and is now the first city to have hosted both versions.

The COVID-19 virus, which has since mutated from variant to variant and continues to sicken and kill millions of people around the world, is again affecting the conduct of these Olympics.  Just like in Tokyo, the athletes who compete here will face venues with no spectators save for invited guests, extensive testing and social distancing.  Those who violate the rules are likely to remain guests of China until long after these Games are over.

China being China, not only will the government be cracking down on COVID, but also on foreign and domestic journalists and dissidents who don't stick to the script when it comes to human rights abuses, uprisings in Hong Kong and other sensitive topics.  The United States is leading a diplomatic boycott of these Games for those reasons--that is, send the athletes but not government officials,  But since so much of the world's economy revolves around China, you can't afford to piss them off too much.

As athletes from Russia are competing under the name ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) as punishment for alleged doping violations, President Vladimir Putin is risking a world war with a possible invasion of Ukraine.  Adding to the pressure is President Joe Biden's decision to send American troops near the Ukrainian border as an attempt to get Putin to back off.  Oh, and both sides still have enough nuclear missiles to blow each other up.

The National Hockey League, who you would think had wanted to come to China for the exposure that country could provide just like other North American sports leagues have, has once again begged off sending its players to the Olympics.  Because they've had problems scheduling games and keeping rosters together due to COVID, as well as balking at China's restrictions, the NHL decided to use its Olympic break on rescheduled games just to get its season back on track.  Which leaves the men's hockey competition with rosters full of whoever they could get, and possibly affect the quality of play.

As you watch skiiers, figure skaters, speed skaters, curlers and others on whatever video device you're watching from, keep in mind that the announcers calling the action is in a studio half a world away.  NBC, which has held the American TV rights to the Olympics since forever (1988, actually), moved most of its announcing staff to its sports headquarters in Connecticut to call games off monitors because of China's COVID policies.  They also might be walking a tightrope when it comes to honest appraisals of how China and the International Olympic Committee is behaving during these Games, to put it mildly.

The IOC has had a longer history of cozying up to dictators and oppressive governments than a certain former (and future?) President of the United States.  Germany 1936.  Russia 1980 and 2014.  China 2008 and 2022.  Promoting international brotherhood (or whatever the term is now) through sports has given way to the universal language of money, and we are the poorer for it.  The next few Olympiads will be held in what are now considered democracies:  France in 2024, Italy in '26, the United States in '28, and Australia in '32.

Let's all see what happens in China for the next few weeks, whether they're behaving themselves or if they're just being China. 

2021: Be Careful What You Wished For

 Remember when we were all looking forward to 2021 after a disastrous 2020?

The pandemic is still with us, having taken more than 800,000 in this country alone through COVID-19 and its variants Delta and Omicron.  In spite of vaccines and booster shots that give you a better chance against the virus, we're tired of telling people who don't want the vaccine to get one because we're also tired of listening to their excuses.  We're also tired of having to wear masks, at least indoors, even though they're a good way to hold back the virus.  We're also tired of crowded hospitals, overwhelmed doctors, nurses and support staff, zoom meetings, your kids learning remotely, etc.  But most of all, we're tired because there seems to be no end in sight.

The coup attempt on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 has so far resulted in indictments on the protestors who participated in storming it while a full session of Congress was going on, and not so much for the alleged perpetrators of the event.  The House of Representatives stepped in to investigate this matter because the Senate can't or won't offend Donald Trump, the former President who still thinks he should have won the 2020 election.  Realistically, they have until the 2022 midterms to wrap up their work finding heads willing to roll.

Joe Biden, the man who now sits in the White House, deserves credit for lowering the temperature from the previous administration.  He also deserves credit for ending America's longest war in Afghanistan, though the way he left was a lot to be desired, reminding one of the way America finally left Vietnam in chaos in 1975.  The President's efforts to fix up the infrastructure and his Build Back Better social agenda have had mixed results thanks to the Democratic roadblocks in Congress no one had heard of until this year--Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and (to a lesser extent) Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both moderates who could pass for Republicans in this political climate.  In other ways, especially when it comes to the virus, Biden appears to be in over his head just like Trump was.  But at least he's taking the job more seriously.  With all that's happened, can you believe this is only Biden's first year in office?

The U.S. Supreme Court already had its conservative coup, which resulted in a 6-3 majority, and whose decisions might eventually lead to a more restrictive country.  The most notorious thus far is the one about upholding Texas' new and restrictive abortion law, leaving women in that state with nowhere to turn and no one to trust (legally) when they find out they're pregnant.  Most Democrats and women's rights groups fear this is the beginning of the end for Roe v. Wade, the ruling that has kept abortions safe and legal for half a century.  Something tells me 2022 is not the year for a change in the Supreme Court to a more liberal mix.  Not unless Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell decides to hang it up.

One year after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was recorded taking a knee to George Floyd's life during a routine traffic stop, he was convicted of murder.  Eight months after Brooklyn Park officer Kim Potter mistook a gun for a taser in killing Daunte Wright in a routine traffic stop, she was convicted on two counts of manslaughter.  Cries of "Defund the Police" resulted in an election day defeat in Minneapolis.  The police chief who was on duty when Floyd's murder and the violence that hit the Twin Cities were going on has "retired", and Mark Frey won a second term as Minneapolis' mayor.  Now let's see if police officers (and everyone else) really can be careful out there.

Did we mention a school shooting in Michigan and a car ramming through a holiday parade in Wisconsin?  Just another day in America, right?

In sports, COVID went away long enough to allow Tom Brady to claim another Super Bowl trophy for his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Tampa Bay's NHL team, the Lightning. won its second straight Stanley Cup. Atlanta's baseball team won the World Series.  And the Milwaukee Bucks won the NBA title for the first time since 1970.  Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Kyrie Irving made more headlines for NOT playing than for when they did.  And Major League Baseball is currently in a lockout, in case you haven't noticed.

Heatwaves in the Pacific Northwest. Tornadoes in December in Minnesota and Kentucky.  A deep-freeze in Texas.  Wildfires out West and in Canada, creating smoke alerts in half the country.  Is this climate change, or just the sound of progress?

It's been over a year since Alex Trebek went to that Game Show in the Sky, and "Jeopardy" still hasn't come up with a permanent host.  After the parade of guest hosts has come and gone (Aaron Rodgers, Katie Couric and that guy from CNBC, anyone?), we're left with the tag team of former champion Ken Jennings and sitcom star Mayim Bialik after executive producer Mike Richards had to quit due to some stupid indiscretion.  For a show based on answers and questions, the most important one right now is how "Jeopardy" should address its future.

THOSE WHO PASSED IN 2021:  John Madden, Henry Reid, Desmond Tutu, Joan Didion, bell hooks, Anne Rice, Michael Nesmith, Lina Wertmuller, Al Unser, Robert Dole, Arlene Dahl, Lee Elder, Stephen Sondheim, Graeme Edge, Max Cleland, Dean Stockwell, Mort Sahl, Colin Powell, Leslie Bricusse, Melvin Van Peebles, Jane Powell, Norm Macdonald, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Willard Scott, David Patten, Mikis Theodorakis, Ed Asner, Charlie Watts, Don Everly, Tom T. Hall, Nanci Griffith, Dusty Hill, Ron Popeil, Richard Donner, Mike Gravel, Janet Malcolm, Frank Bonner, Ned Beatty, Dick Robinson, Clarence Williams III, F. Lee Bailey, Gavin MacLeod, John Warner, Lee Evans, Charles Grodin, Norman Lloyd, Tawny Kitaen, Lloyd Price, Bobby Unser, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Collins, Walter Mondale, Jim Steinman, Felix Silla, Prince Phillip (Duke of Edinburgh), DMX, Anne Beatts, Larry McMurtry, Beverly Cleary, Jessica Walter, George Segal, Yaphet Kotto, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roger Mudd, Lou Otters, Mark Pavelich, Vernon Jordan, Chick Corea, Mary Wilson, George Shultz, Christopher Plummer, Leon Spinks, Rennie Davis, Dustin Diamond, Cicely Tyson, Cloris Leachman, Larry King, Hank Aaron, Tommy Lasorda, Michael Apted, Neil Sheehan, Rush LImbaugh, Sarah Weddington, F.W. deKlerk, Peter Scolari, Michael K. Williams, Markie Post, Carl Levin, Biz Markie, Suzanne Douglas, Donald Rumsfeld, Bobby Bowden, Paul Westphal, Elgin Baylor, Phil Spector, Tony Trabert, Marty Schottenheimer, Larry Flynt, Bobby Brown, G. Gordon Liddy, Pervis Staples, B.J. Thomas, Walter Yetnikoff, Michael Constantine, Alan Kalter, Betty Lynn, Sam Jones, and Betty White. 

Emmy Awards Hail Their "Crown"-ing Achievement

 The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday was held inside a glorified tent with those who were nominated the invited guests, part of the COVID-19 protocol that put the ceremony one step above the Zoom-fest they had last year.  CBS televised the proceedings with one of its sitcom stars, Cedric the Entertainer ("The Neighborhood"), acting as host.

Amid the so-so comedy bits and rap music intro, awards were handed out.  Most of them went to "The Crown", Netflix's docudrama of Queen Elizabeth II and her family, and to "Ted Lasso" on Apple TV+, the story of an American football coach finding new life as a British soccer manager.

Like what "Schitt's Creek" did in the comedy category a year ago, "The Crown" dominated the Drama category with its sweep of the major acting awards:  Olivia Colman for Actress, Josh O'Connor for Actor, Gillian Anderson for Supporting Actress, Tobias Menzies for Supporting Actor, and the show itself for Best Drama.

"Lasso", besides winning for Best Comedy, did well in the acting categories:  Jason Sudeikis for Best Actor, and Hannah Waddingham and Brett Goldstien for supporting roles.

"The Queen's Gambit" won for Best Limited Series in a surprise over "Mare of Easttown", though the latter show did garner acting awards for Kate Winslet (Best Actress), Julianne Nicholson and Evan Peters (supporting).  Ewan McGregor won Best Actor for "Halston".

Netflix, long considered the standard for streaming services, set a record with 44 Emmys won, with HBO/HBO Max piling up 19.  The broadcast networks?  "Saturday Night Live", going into its 47th season on NBC, was the only one with an Emmy for Best Variety Sketch Show.

• Plenty of complaints about how the most diverse field of nominees in the history of the Emmys somehow resulted in white actors winning most of the awards.  The Oscars went through this a few years ago, and instituted a few changes to recognize the contributions of people of color.  Maybe this is something the Television Academy should take a look at.
• The Emmys ran well over three hours, which is typical for any awards show.  One of the reasons for the overrun were some of the winners taking too long to wrap up their speeches.  Scott Frank, who won an Emmy for directing "The Queen's Gambit", blew through several minutes and three choruses of play-off music to say whatever it was he had to say.  "White Man's Privilege", as some people have called it?  No, just another arrogant jerk.  The kind we've seen plenty of in the last few years.
• "Hamilton", the Broadway musical that put American history in an alternative universe, has now conquered TV.  It won an Emmy for best pre-recorded variety show.  Sounds like the Television Academy dreamed up this category for the sole purpose of saluting Lin-Manuel Miranda's work.
• Conan O'Brien ended his TBS talk show a few months ago, hoping the Television Academy would give him a going-away present in the Best Variety Talk Show category.  When the Emmy went to "Last Week Tonight" for the umpteenth time (no slight to John Oliver or his show), O'Brien reacted in mock outrage, heckling during the Academy President's speech and being in the background as Stephen Colbert accepted an Emmy for his Showtime (not CBS) election night special.  This is what happens when for half your career you've tried to overcome the shadow of another late night host whose ratings are better than yours, only to be exiled to cable and promptly forgotten.
• Awards shows usually mess up the "In Memorium" segment, and this one was no exception.  Saluting those in the entertainment world who have passed on since the last awards ceremony has taken a back seat to flying images and quiet music from up and coming singers, and whose name is big enough to be introduced last.  The honor (if you can call it that) this year went to Michael K. Williams, who was nominated for an Emmy this year.  And there's also nitpicking over who didn't make the list.  Maybe you should just ditch the music, and let everybody see the ones who are off to their final reward.
• The Emmy telecast's ratings on CBS improved 16 percent over last year's, which isn't saying much since the pandemic has wrecked the appeal of awards shows (and most everything else).  The Kansas City Chiefs-Baltimore Ravens game on NBC drew over 20 million viewers.  Time to find another night for Emmy?
  

9/11+20=America's Still At War--With Itself

 On the morning of September 11, 2001, a total of four planes crash landed into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington and a field somewhere in western Pennsylvania with nearly 3000 dead.  That includes the hijackers and passengers of those planes, as well as those who worked inside the buildings.  Since no one had a fancy name to describe what happened that day, it became known to history as a date:  September 11 or 9/11.

In the confusion and emotion of what just happened, President George W. Bush sent troops to Afghanistan with the intention of capturing Osama bin Laden (the man held responsible for the attack), and for removing the Taliban government there.  In March 2003, Bush decided to also invade Iraq on the basis of intelligence that said the country had more "weapons of mass destruction" than its leader Saddam Hussein was letting on.

Twenty years, four presidents (two from both parties), two wars, two disputed elections, mass shootings, a deadly pandemic, protests in the streets over police brutality, and general mistrust of government and the media later, America is at peace everywhere in the world except for within its own borders. 

Iraq was left in the rearview years ago.  Afghanistan is next, following the pullout of American troops and others desperate to escape the wrath of the new Taliban government, who took advantage of President Joe Biden's deadline of August 31 to quickly take over Afghanistan without much of a fight.  What's left are the country's remaining citizens watching helplessly as life for them is forcibly set back at least a thousand years.

But man, wasn't it worth it to leave behind a no-win situation where the Americans' focus shifted from capturing and killing bin Laden (in Pakistan) to propping up a week government that resulted in thousands of American soldiers dead and apathy at home as the war dragged on?  Well, OK.  Time will tell on that one.

After America was attacked, it was widely assumed that the country would rally and come together in the spirit of patriotism.  Instead, all 9/11 ever did was to divide it.  Pick your side.  Black Lives Matter vs. the Police.  Republicans vs. Democrats.  Gun reformers vs. the NRA.  Truth vs. Alternative Facts.  CNN and MSNBC vs. Fox News.  The Big Lie vs. settled election results.  To mask or not to mask.  The COVID vaccine vs. bleach and horse medicine.  Roe v. Wade on the ropes.  Those who believe climate change is happening vs. those who think it's just weather.  And so yawn.

On September 11, 2001, the terrorists who crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in western Pennsylvania had no idea how successful their mission would be.  They couldn't have known that the United States would become, in two decades, a country full of divisions politically, socially, economically, and anything else you care to name.  Those who have died due to war, terrorism, crime and disease have become nothing more than collateral damage in the struggle to prove who's right.

We need to call a truce. Before another 9/11 happens.

Tokyo '21, Week 2: Moving Right Along

 The Summer Olympics that should never have been held concluded Sunday night in Tokyo with the United States winning the lion's share of medals before video cameras in empty venues, while thousands of athletes and volunteers may be coming home with the consolation prize of a COVID-19 diagnosis--whether they're vaccinated or not.

Here are the top three medal finishers:  

1.     United States  (39 gold, 41 silver, 33 bronze = 133)

2.     China (38 gold, 32 silver, 18 bronze = 88)

3.     Athletes from Russia (20 gold, 28 silver, 23 bronze = 71)

The Americans ruled the pool with Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky, took gold (as usual) in men's and women's basketball, and in women's volleyball (beach and indoor).  Considered disappointments were the women's soccer team (but they did win bronze) and the men's track team.

The Canadians had a good Olympics, with Damian Warner winning the Decathlon, Andre de Grasse in men's 200m track and the women's soccer team contributing to their haul of seven golds, six silvers and 11 bronze.  Those 24 medals were good for 11th place in the standings.

Among those who took their curtain calls during these Olympics:  Simone Biles (bronze in the uneven bars) in gymnastics, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi in basketball, Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd in soccer, and Allyson Felix in track.  Felix became the most decorated athlete in U.S. Olympic history with 11 medals, moving past Carl Lewis.

So it's over, the strangest Olympics ever.  It was postponed once, and despite misgivings from the media and host country Japan, there was no way the International Olympic Committee and business partners including NBC were going to pass up the opportunity to have these Games come hell, high water or jam-packed hospitals.  While all this was going on, it was the anniversary of the American nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, hastening the end of World War II.  Didn't hear much about that, did you?

In six months, the athletes of the world will descend on Beijing, China for the Winter Olympics.  Yes, they hosted the 2008 Summer Games, and the same issues about China's human rights policy are still valid.  But now we have the ongoing coronavirus crisis that apparently began in China, and could very well affect the conduct of these Olympics if vaccination rates don't improve.  One would assume the Chinese government would have a better handle on these matters than Japan, even if they do it more ruthlessly than we'd like.

But that's OK.  The IOC will take their money no matter how and from whom they get it from, pandemic or not.  Some things never change.

Tokyo '21, Week 1: Under Pressure

 Let's get this out of the way first:  At the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the United States leads the medal count over China by a 59-51 margin as of August 1.  The U.S. has 20 gold, 23 silver and 16 bronze.  The Chinese have 24 gold, 14 silver and 13 bronze.  The weather is hot and stormy, more athletes have tested positive for COVID-19, and NBC is insisting they'll make a profit on these Games in spite of low ratings and so-so reviews.

All the medals and the television coverage in the world took a back seat in Week 1 to whatever was going on with American gymnast Simone Biles, who dropped out of the all-around team and individual competition because she says she wasn't mentally able to perform.  It has been reported that Biles is begging off the rest of the individual events she was supposed to be in, but we'll see what happens in Week 2.

In the years since Biles vaulted to stardom (so to speak) at the 2016 Games in Rio, she's become the "face" of this U.S. Olympic team with NBC building their Tokyo coverage around her.  She's been through a scandal that resulted in team doctor Larry Nassar being sent to prison, convicted of sexually abusing Biles and other female gymnasts. Oh yes, and she's a Black woman participating in a sport dominated by whites.  So you could hardly blame Biles if she didn't want to face another pair of uneven bars right now.

Naomi Osaka, the tennis star who recently made headlines for skipping two of the sport's major tournaments--the French Open (also known as the Roland Garros tournament) and Wimbledon--to tend to her mental health issues after being suspended for refusing to speak to reporters.  She relented long enough to light the Olympic Flame at the Opening Ceremonies, then lost her first round match, leaving her with a lot more time to figure things out.

Biles and Osaka are being applauded for their decision to step back from the spotlight.  But this might not go over well with the "Suck It Up, Buttercup" crowd, who resent pampered millionaire athletes and celebrities who every once in awhile take time off to deal with their "issues". Or normal folks who are stressed out every day of their lives, yet they can't afford to take time off or have access to mental health services.

In Biles' absence, the American women's gymnastics team has stepped up.  They placed second in the all-around team competition behind Russia (known here as the Russian Olympic Committee after the official team was barred for alleged doping), and Sunisa Lee won gold in the individual all around event.  Both of which Biles would have dominated had she competed.

Athletes like Biles and Osaka have spent days, months and years training and perfecting their craft to get to where they are today.  If they are not mentally prepared, it can all go downhill on a moment's notice.  For Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and so many others, being mentally prepared to face their challenges is something they must deal with, and for the rest of us to understand.

The Olympics: Must The Show Go On?

Having been delayed once because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the Summer Olympics in Tokyo are scheduled to begin this week. Unless, that is, people come to their senses. 

Japan and much of the rest of the world is still dealing with the virus, which is now in its more contagious phase as the Delta Variant, leaving people to question why the Olympics are being held at all.  The reason, of course, is money.  The International Olympic Committee is willing to put up with empty venues, sick athletes, angry locals and government officials to realize the payday they're going to get from media companies like NBC and corporations like Coca Cola, no matter how much pushback they get

Already, several athletes have been taken off their teams' rosters due to getting sick, or declining to come in the first place because they might get sick.  

Others are not in Tokyo because the drug enforcement agencies are cracking down on those who prefer a little stimulation to their performance.  Some are legitimate cases such as the Russian team accused of alleged doping.  Others are rather questionable, as in the case of Sha'Carri Richardson,  the U.S. sprinter who was caught smoking marijuana during a tough time in her life. Apparently, it doesn't matter if MJ is now considered legal in half of  America, it is still a performance-enhancing drug to the rest of the world that had best be avoided. 

In show business parlance, no matter what kind of calamity might hit a performance, it is said that the show must go on. Well, that's been sorely tested in the past year and a half, hasn't it?  Even Broadway has been shut down, not to return until fall. In its current state, the Olympics in Tokyo is a slow-moving disaster about to unfold on the world's TV and video screens. It should not be held, even at this late date.

But the IOC, which has survived wars and dictatorships, thinks it can survive a pandemic no matter what the cost. So let the Games begin, and hope everyone stays healthy. 

The Trump Variants

 Halfway into 2021, America is still dealing with two dangerous variants coming from a single source.  One has killed millions worldwide and more than 600,000 in this country alone.  The other is spreading "The Big Lie" about the outcome of an election, resulting in a near takeover of the American government and more restrictive voting laws in several states.  That source is former President Donald Trump, whose followers in the Republican party and elsewhere believe him when he moans about current President Joe Biden taking the White House away from him, and for not masking up and getting vaccinated to stop the spread from COVID-19.

It's been six months since a mob of "tourists" stormed the U.S. Capitol, the intent being to stop a joint session of Congress from ratifying the results of the Electoral College that would make Biden the next President, allegedly egged on by Trump himself.

Six months later, we're just starting to get to the bottom of this insurrection.  It would have been done earlier, but Senate GOP's helped vote down an opportunity to set up a bipartisan commission to investigate the assault.  It has fallen to the House of Representatives to set up such a commission and hold hearings.

All this attempted whitewash of recent American history is at the doorstep of Trump, who never did concede the 2020 election to Biden, who he has accused of stealing the votes.  In spite of his being banned from social media (of whom he plans to sue), reducing the voice he carries to a fading pipsqueak--not to mention the number of his minions having legal troubles, Trump still has fantasies of retaking the White House either in 2024, or by the end of this summer--whichever comes first.  That's assuming, of course, he doesn't spend time in prison. Which he probably won't.

"The Big Lie" is also the reason why several states are pushing for laws that restrict the right to vote for not just minorities, but for all those who'd rather avoid lining up at the local polling place on Election Day, as the pandemic has proved.  The GOP just can't stand the sight of all those people doing their Constitutional duty, yet vote for Democrats.  Federal laws aimed at making voting easier is currently being argued--vehemently--in the Senate, and its odds of passing are not good.

Democrats had better think real hard before voting to abolish the filibuster as a way to get its agenda passed before the 2022 midterms.  If the Senate falls into GOP hands, they might wish they still had the filibuster.  Maybe that's why Biden has been reluctant to use the political "f-word" in his vocabulary.

Meanwhile. the COVID-19 virus is slowly becoming a bad memory for many of us who have already been vaccinated.  But there are still those who, for whatever the reason, refuse to mask up or take it in the arm.  Most, if not all, of these folks would rather believe what Tucker Carlson and the rest of conservative talk media tell them about the pandemic instead of the government.

Trump's responsible for this, too.  It was he who bungled the seriousness of the pandemic with an "everything's fine" approach, and with second-guessing every bit of scientific evidence presented by his experts.  He ended up contracting COVID one month before the election and has since been vaccinated, but he's still considered by his fans as the major reason they're putting their lives at risk. 

President Biden and his team have done a great job with getting as many needles into American arms as possible.  His biggest challenges are yet to come with getting the stragglers to take the vaccine before the Delta Variant becomes a big problem.  Or that by the end of the year, more people will be asked to get a booster shot as the original vaccine wears off.

This may be 2021, but the shadow of Donald Trump still hovers over the United States.  Despite Biden's best efforts, Trump has weakened the federal government and sickened the American people to the point of no return with his antics during his administration.  For the twin variants of the virus and in politics with his version of the truth, we must still keep an eye on Donald Trump.

The Oscars Get Small

Because of the ongoing pandemic, which for Hollywood meant closed theaters and many movie projects being moved to later this year or sometime next, the 93rd Academy Awards that were held Sunday was a small gathering seen by millions around the world.  Union Station (also known as Alison Krauss' backup band) was used instead of the usual Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, leading to a dinner party atmosphere not unlike (ahem) the Golden Globes.  There was no host for the third consecutive year.

The pictures got smaller too.  Most of the nominated films intended for the big screen ended up on Netflix, Disney +, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and HBO Max.  They're streaming services that can be accessed at home for the price of a monthly subscription.

"Nomadland", streaming on Hulu, was the big winner with Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actress for Frances McDormand (her third), and Chloe Zhao for Best Director.  Zhao was the second woman to win the honor (Katheryn Bigelow was the first), and the first from her native China.

It was a good night for actors of color, if only because the Academy wanted to prove they're oh so diverse.after many years of not being that.  Besides Zhao, Youn Yuh-Jung won Best Supporting Actress for "Minari", and Daniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor for "Judas and the Black Messiah".

It was all set up for Chadwick Boseman, the actor best known as "Black Panther" who died last year, to win a posthumous Oscar for his role in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".  In fact, the producers switched the order of the last three awards from Best Actor, Actress and Picture to Best Picture, Actress and Actor so Boseman would have a nice, emotional sendoff.  And the Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role went to . . . Anthony Hopkins for "The Father".  He didn't bother to show up to accept the award.  No disrespect to either Boseman or Hopkins or any of the other nominees, but maybe the Academy should never have messed with tradition.

It also would have been nice to see clips of the nominated films, so we had some idea what they're about.   Instead, we got actor testimonials, longer-than-usual acceptance speeches, and Glenn Close dancing to "Da Butt" in a trivia segment meant to fill time.  The telecast clocked in at three hours and 15 minutes, which is right on time if you're doing the show from a train station.  Or else it's just a pandemic thing.

One more thing that got small.  Everyone thought the ABC telecast would tally the smallest audience in Academy history, and everybody was right.  Less than ten million viewed the proceedings, a 58% drop from last year.  But that's typical of every other awards show that's been aired since this pandemic began a year ago.  If we just figured out that no one wants to watch people giving other people awards, what's going to happen when nobody wants to watch movies in a theater any more post-pandemic?  That's a doomsday scenario no one in Hollywood wants to contemplate.