Oscars' "Moonlight" Madness

Warren Beatty at the Academy Awards (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 89th Academy Awards were the typical three-hours-plus snoozefest testing the patience and detractors alike  In fact, according to ABC, nearly 33 million folks (the lowest total since 2008) had bothered to watch the proceedings.  Then came the surprise ending.

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, who were co-stars in Bonnie and Clyde half a century ago, were tasked with announcing who won for Best Picture.  At first they said it was La La Land.  Then, as the group associated with the film gathered to accept their award, they were told there's been a terrible mistake.  Beatty was handed the wrong envelope, and that the Oscar actually went to Moonlight.  So the Moonlight crowd came to the stage to accept their award.

Sounds like the election, doesn't it?  La La Land  led the popular vote, but Moonlight won it in the Electoral College.

Actually, Moonlight checks off all the boxes for a Motion Picture Academy that had been taking heat for its lack of diversity.  It was a critically-acclaimed, independently-made film about a young and black gay male, with its cast populated mostly by African-Americans.  It also won two additional Oscars, including Maharshala Ali as Best Supporting Actor.

La La Land, an update on the classic Hollywood musical of yore, was about a good-looking young couple who fall in love and fight to save a jazz club.  Anachronistic, yes.  But that's what passes for escapist entertainment in President Trump's America.  The film won six Oscars out of 14 nominations, including Best Director for Damienne Chezelle and Best Actress for co-star Emma Stone.  So, despite having been screwed out of Best Picture, it wasn't a total loss.

Among the other major winners, Casey Affleck won Best Actor for the drama Manchester By The Sea.  Viola Davis gave another passionate speech as she accepted her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Fences, written by August Wilson.

Since this was the first Oscars to be held since Trump took office, you might have expected the ceremony to focus a little on politics.  And you'd be right.  Host Jimmy Kimmel skewered the new President every chance he got.  Director Asghar Ferhadi accepted his Oscar for "The Salesman" as Best Foreign Film through a surrogate, who explained that he couldn't pick it up in person because he was boycotting the ceremony due to Trump's travel ban on countries like his native Iran.  But the expected tsunami of Trump-bashing never really materialized.

Kimmel, who had already hosted the Emmy Awards a few months ago, is part of a trend of TV networks' handing off hosting duties of the award shows they televise to its late-night talk show hosts:  Jimmy Fallon (Golden Globes), James Corden (Grammys) and Stephen Colbert (2017 Emmys).  This time around, the Oscars looked like a greatest-hits package from Jimmy Kimmel Live:  the 'feud' with Matt Damon, "Hate Tweets", and stunts such as dropping munchies on the audience and a tour bus full of unsuspecting folks who walked in on an awards show.  Otherwise, Kimmel did a heck of a job.

Yes, this year's Academy Awards will be forever remembered for the Best Picture mixup, which will certainly lead to rules changes and possibly a new accounting firm (PriceWaterhouseCoopers having tabulated the ballots for as long as anyone can remember).  Now we can all go back to caring about the latest blockbuster featuring some kind of apocalypse or comic-book superhero, which will be shown on a streaming service near you in a few months.

So Who's The Real "Enemy of the People"?

Portrait of a younger Henrik Ibsen, one of the first playwrights to adapt domestic drama into his works. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Back in 1882, Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen wrote the play An Enemy of the People, which was about what happened when a local doctor raised questions about the possible contamination of the town baths.  According to Wikipedia, he did it in response to his previous work Ghosts, which was deemed indecent for its references to syphillis and other sexually transmitted diseases.

One hundred and thirty-five years later, President Donald Trump used the name of Ibsen's play on Twitter to describe what he thinks of the mainstream news media.  Conservatives like him have complained for years about the alleged liberal bias coming from the likes of CNN, the "failing" New York Times and the major broadcast TV networks, only not in the strong language the President uses.

Granted, the media's relationship with past Presidents haven't always gone smoothly.  But this President has in his one month of office gone out of his way to stiff-arm their questions about the release of his tax returns, the difficulty in implementing his refugee travel ban and--most seriously--his administration's apparent chumminess with the government of Russia's Vladimir Putin.

So Trump likes to stick it to what he calls "fake news" purveyors every chance he gets.  His news conferences, either by himself or with world leaders, become such contentious free-for-alls that everybody looks bad.  He puts out a list of all the places that have had terrorist attacks in the past few years, then starts wondering why the "lamestream media" didn't cover them as adequately as he'd like.

Trump and his minions aren't above spreading a little "fake news" themselves.  Remember the terrorist attacks on Sweden and Bowling Green, Kentucky?  Neither did we, because they never happened.  But that hasn't stopped the administration from providing more of what we now call "alternative facts".

Most Presidents get their daily dose of information through the classified briefing they get every morning.  Not Trump, whose relations with the intelligence community has soured to the point where the Fox News Channel (which is where he got that idea about Sweden) serves as his window on the world.  Also, his assistant Steve Bannon used to run the Breitbart news site.

President Trump, through his words and deeds, is hell bent on making a mockery of the First Amendment through his takedown of the news media.  With all that baggage he carries and what's at stake, it's imperative that the media uncover as many real (not "alternative") facts about him as possible before he decides that he alone can fix this.

Henrik Ibsen could not have imagined that, more than a century after An Enemy of the People was first written and performed, that a President of the United States would use his work to denigrate his profession.  Or is it really just Trump describing himself?

Since We've Been Gone . . .

A sunset and the silhouettes of palm trees. The photo was taken from the Transportation and Ticket Center, looking toward the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OK, so we haven't posted anything in awhile.  Yours Truly just spent a week on Florida's west coast looking at palm trees, beaches, canals, and maybe a couple of alligators.  But now it's time to get back to work, so let's get on with it.

The Week In Trump

The President's remaining Cabinet picks have been confirmed, though it took Vice President Mike Pence's deciding vote as President of the Senate to get Betsy DeVos into her Secretary of Education position.  Michael Flynn might not be national security adviser much longer because he allegedly contacted Russian officials about sanctions before Trump took office.  The controversial travel ban affecting seven Muslim-dominated countries that ended up ensnaring a lot of non-terrorists is having trouble getting past the courts.  So the President, still insisting that the ninety-day ban is still necessary for national security, is saying he'll soon have a modified executive order covering that.  And speaking of security, couldn't the President's staff have come up with a more secure location than an open-air Florida restaurant when North Korea launched a test missile?  With the Japanese prime minister looking on?

Grammys Say "Hello" Again to Adele

Adele, music's queen of heartbreak, dominated the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles again Sunday with major trophies for 25 as Album of the Year, and for Hello as Record and Song of the Year.  She even survived messing up a tribute to George Michael and made his song Fastlove her own.  (And there's your Grammy Moment.)  Beyonce, whose groundbreaking album Lemonade was expected to do much better than it did, could only muster an Urban Contemporary award.   It didn't help that her performance, which was apparently about motherhood (she's pregnant with twins), reeked of pretentiousness.

The Inevitable Grammy Tribute to Prince, with Bruno Mars doing a nice imitation of the Purple One, and Morris Day and The Time brought out of mothballs to perform Jungle Love, wasn't as awkward as it could have been.  As for host James Corden of CBS' "Late Late Show"?  All we can say is:  Come back, LL Cool J.  All is forgiven.

The Recording Academy, the ones who pass out the Grammys, have never been the hippest people in the room.  How else to explain why another black artist, such as Beyonce, was passed over for a white artist for Album of the Year?  Also, the Academy really needs to do something about the length of their show, which this year ran as long as a typical Oscars telecast clocking in at nearly four hours. Maybe more awards and fewer "Grammy moments"?

Caught In a Dynasty

The New England Patriots made plenty of history at Super Bowl 51 in Houston.  They completed the biggest comeback ever (which coincided with the biggest meltdown ever for the Atlanta Falcons), overcoming a 25-point deficit in the second half, then scoring the winning touchdown in the first overtime ever for a 34-28 victory.  Patriots coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady won their fifth Super Bowl together, giving the proverbial middle finger to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for the Deflategate nonsense that resulted in Brady's four-game suspension.

Lady Gaga was the halftime entertainment, giving an athletic and spirited performance that also managed to squeeze in as many subtle Donald Trump digs as the NFL (and Fox) would allow.  But the high-priced commercials weren't that great.  See you in Minneapolis.

Ray Christensen (1924-2017)

Ray Christensen had a long career on Twin Cities radio, but was best known as the voice of University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football and men's basketball.  Beginning on campus station KUOM in 1951 and ending on WCCO-AM in 2001, Christensen called 510 football games and over 1300 basketball games.  When he landed at WCCO in 1963 after a few years at WLOL-AM, he did a little bit of everything besides calling sports, including news broadcasts and hosting a classical music program.  He was one of the most recognizable voices on the Big 8-3-0, a station that had no shortage of talent.  Christensen died on Feburary 5 at the age of 92.

And finally, a word about the Tampa Bay TV news stations.  We sampled the network affiliates, mostly WFLA (NBC) News Channel 8 and News 10 WTSP (CBS).  We thought News Channel 8 had a better handle on local coverage and a more photogenic news team than News 10 did, being that this is Florida.  News 10 and KARE in the Twin Cities share the same parent company (Tegna), so their newscasts kind of looked alike.  Instead of backyards and goofballs doing the weather, both Tampa stations aggressively promoted their Doppler radars as "Max Defender 8' (or something like that) and their news choppers, which the Minnesota stations stopped promoting years ago.  It's necessary for an area that gets its share of severe weather and the occasional hurricane, but all the money the stations spent on the radars goes to waste on sunny days. 

OK, that's enough.  We're all caught up.

Trump, Week Two: Coming In Like a Wrecking Ball

English: Wrecking ball in use during demolition of the Rockwell Gardens housing project in Chicago, Illinois, February 2006. Português: Bola rompedora em uso durante a demolição do projeto residencial Rockwell Gardens em Chicago, Illinois. Fevereiro de 2006. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the two weeks since President Donald Trump took office, according to USA Today, he has made at least 20 executive decisions.  That is more than any previous post-World War II President in such a short period of time.

The most notable of them all thus far, the one that's causing fear and protests around the world, is Trump's executive order banning immigration from seven Muslim-dominated countries for 90 days.  Those countries are Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya.

The move was intended as a way to keep the "bad dudes" out, as the President would put it.  Yes, keeping "radical Islamic terrorists" from doing harm on American soil is a worthy goal.   But the order was so poorly executed and thought out that it winds up targeting the majority of those who are not card-carrying members of the Islamic State or any other terrorist outfit.

Refugees from the seven aforementioned nations are stuck in limbo, unable to to use their visas and green cards to get in and out of what used to be known as the Land of the Free.  Even those who now live in the U.S. fear they are in danger of being deported.  Just like the number of undocumented individuals currently awaiting their fates.

It may be a 90-day ban, but there is a strong sense that this is only the beginning of more permanent travel restrictions.  Not only are protesters and human rights organizations concerned, but also corporations, sports leagues and European governments who employ immigrants are contemplating how the travel ban will affect relations with the Trump administration going forward.

The ban might even backfire if ISIS decides it's a great recruiting tool for disaffected youth, then starts carrying out attacks somewhere in the world.

Trump's order has also led to dissension within the ranks.  Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, was fired as acting attorney general by the President for not defending the travel ban in court.  Yates was keeping the seat warm for Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who is awaiting Senate confirmation as the new Attorney General.  When that happens, Sessions would presumably do what his boss tells him to do when push comes to shove.

Meanwhile, in another part of the world that Trump risks alienating (if he hasn't already), he's going ahead with his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.  The President has been insisting that the Mexicans pay for the wall, but it also turns out Americans might too through a proposed twenty-percent tax on goods and services.  And you thought Republicans usually avoided taxes.

Finally, in an attempt by Trump to change the subject while the protests are going on, he named Neil Gorsuch as his choice to replace the late Antonin Scalia as a Supreme Court justice.  Gorsuch was a judge in Colorado for the U.S. Court of Appeals, and is much like Scalia in his views.  So essentially, you're trading in one conservative for another.  The Democrats, mindful of how Obama nominee Merrick Garland was badly treated by GOP senators, will likely use filibuster tactics to delay Gorsuch's inevitable confirmation.  Because the Court will have gone nearly a year since Scalia's death with eight justices, and they can ill afford to do that much longer.

Eventually, President Trump will hasten down the whirlwind of proclamations and executive orders long enough to see what he's accomplished.  And for a frazzled world to catch its breath, seeing how much damage Trump's wrecking ball has done to the existing order.

Mary Tyler Moore (1936-2017): She Made It, After All

Mary Tyler Moore at the 45th Emmy Awards 9/19/93- Governor's Ball. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How many people in the history of television could say that they've had not one, but two iconic roles on different shows?  Well, it was Mary Tyler Moore, who did more than "turn the world on with her smile", as the song went.  For her, talent was all around and she didn't waste it.

As Laura Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (CBS, 1961-66), she was the epitome of the 1960s suburban housewife wearing capri pants on a sitcom about the writing staff of a TV variety show.

As Mary Richards on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (CBS, 1970-77), she proved that as a single career woman working as a news producer at a TV station in Minneapolis, there was more to life than being married.  That resonated plenty with the women's liberation movement of the era, and Moore was credited with giving women the encouragement to kick-start their own lives and careers.

Moore won seven Emmy awards, two for "Dick Van Dyke", four for "MTM" and one for a cable drama called "Stolen Babies".  She wasn't as successful in TV after her iconic sitcoms left the air, but did make a name for herself in the movies and on stage.  She earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for the 1980 film "Ordinary People", which not only won that year for Best Picture, but also Best Director for Robert Redford.  On Broadway, Moore won a Tony for her role as a paraplegic in "Whose Life Is It Anyway?", also in 1980.

Moore has success off camera, partnering with her then-husband Grant Tinker (who died a few months ago) on MTM Productions.  They were responsible for many other TV classics besides "MTM" during the 1970s and 80s, including "Rhoda". "Phyllis", "WKRP in Cincinnati", "Hill Street Blues" and "St. Elsewhere".

In Minneapolis, where "MTM" was set, the show became a source of civic pride.  In certain sections of downtown, you could find the places where Mary Richards lived, worked, and even had lunch.  There was a statue of her on the Nicollet Mall (since moved to a visitors center because of renovations), where she flung her cap in the air just like in the opening credits.

Mary Tyler Moore, after a lifetime of health problems, died Wednesday at age 80.  She leaves behind not only a record of achievement every time you turn on the TV, but also the millions of women (and men) for whom Mary Richards became a role model.

The proper tribute to Moore, so far as we're concerned, isn't the "Chuckles Bites The Dust" episode of "MTM".  It's the final episode.  Not when the cast does a group hug on their final day at WJM-TV, but when Mary was the last person to leave.  She takes a good look around the office, turns off the lights, and goes out the door with a smile on her face.

America in Trump Land

English: The Mad Hatter, illustration by John Tenniel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States almost a week ago.  It came on a cloudy, rainy day in Washington in front of a sea of mostly white faces.  His Inauguration speech was also gloomy, dissing both Republicans and Democrats for their corruption, the "carnage" that's been inflicted on America over the past few years, and other tidbits from his campaign speeches.  All but his adoring fans cringed at the results by the time the new President danced the night away with his wife Melania.

As one circus folds its tent (Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey), a new one is just getting started in the nation's capitol with President Trump as its ringmaster.  He will attempt to tame Congress and his critics by turning the country into a military and economic colossus not seen since the Roman Empire.  Or so he says.

And that's just the beginning of our story.

• Disputes with the media over the size of the crowd and the TV ratings at the Inaugural led to a rough start for press secretary Scott Spicer, leading one to believe he's in over his head.
• Kellyanne Conway, a Trump aide who also happens to be the High Priestess of Misinformation, is on nearly every TV show trying her best to explain herself and the administration.  And struggling.
• Most of the President's Billionaire Cabinet have yet to be sworn in, pending congressional approval.  
• The President is not releasing his tax returns, even when the audits are finished.  Is it going to take somebody like WikiLeaks to do that for him?
• Signing executive orders reversing parts of former president Barack Obama's legacy, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal (which nobody liked anyway). parts of the Affordable Care Act (while promising us a new and improved one), and resuming work on the controversial oil pipelines going through North Dakota.  And, of course, there's that wall Trump keeps talking about (and keeps insisting Mexico will pay for) along with new restrictions for immigrants.
• The President's use (and abuse) of a certain social media outlet has earned him the nickname of "The Mad Tweeter".  As such, he's been using the platform to mock and vilify anyone who disagrees with him.  For example:  After an anti-Trump women's march drew millions of protesters around the world, he asked why those people didn't vote.  Also, being the Tweeter-In -Chief, Trump has shown a willingness to shut down government employees' use of social and other media if they don't toe his line.  See:  the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Parks Service because they disagree with him on climate change.
• Trump still has problems with letting things go.  Now he's complaining that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton because of voter fraud, and is launching an investigation.  There's no evidence of fraud, but that doesn't seem to matter to Trump.  Dude, you won the election.  Now chill.
• There are lingering concerns over how much the Russians had to do with getting Trump elected President.  But it doesn't seem to bother him, so long as relations between the two countries are about to be normalized.  Or so he says.

Trump is going to be President for the next four to eight years, to the disappointment of those of us who did not vote for him.  He's not going to be impeached no matter how far the investigations into alleged Russian election meddling go, because the Republican-led Congress is not going to convict one of its own.  Neither will he be forced to resign because of some obscure Constitutional procedure detailing the removal of a President.  You have one chance, and it's in 2020.  Unless Trump declares himself emperor, or something.

Welcome to a world where, not unlike "Alice In Wonderland" (apologies to Lewis Carroll), reality isn't what it should be.  Real facts don't matter.  Instead, we have "alternative facts", where the truth is spun to such a degree that no one recognizes them any more.  Wrong is right.  Science is disputed.  Figures do lie.  We're going to be staring down the looking glass for the next few years.  It's only going to get curiouser and curiouser in Trump Land.

President Obama: From Hope to Nope

Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a few days, President Barack Obama and his family will turn the White House keys over to the billionaire real estate mogul from New York City, who promises a fresh start and a different attitude.  Strangely enough, that's what Obama thought he was doing when he took office eight years ago.

Obama had inherited an economic meltdown that became known as the Great Recession.  American soldiers were still fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And Osama bin Laden was the world's number one fugitive.

Today, with economic policies that were put in place by the President, the Great Recession is but a bad memory to all except for those who still feel its affects.  There are no more troops in either Iraq or Afghanistan, just "advisers" to help their armies fight their own battles.  And bin Laden was killed in a U.S.-led raid, but the Islamic State has supplanted al-Qaeda as the source of worldwide terrorism.

In between, Obama tried to put his stamp on legislation that would transform the country.  But this  was (and still is) the era of hyper-partisanship in Washington, where both the Republicans and Democrats left Congress impotent when they refused to compromise on important issues.  So the President resorted to signing more executive orders than any other in history.

Take the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.  Obama's signature health care law was approved by only Democrats when they controlled Congress in his first term, not Republicans.  Now that he's leaving office, the Republicans who now run Congress couldn't get rid of the ACA fast enough.  And they still haven't come up with an acceptable alternative.

Another example is the blatant disregard for human life shown by that same Congress every time there's a mass gun shooting or terrorist attack, the latest of which occurred in Fort Lauderdale, Florida a couple of weeks ago.  The President could offer condolences to the families of the victims and rail against the injustice, but he couldn't get Congress to pass new restrictions on weapons.  Because the Second Amendment (and the National Rifle Association's money and power) were too sacred for them to mess with.

Barack Obama was the first African-American man to be elected.  Twice.  But in this supposedly "post-racial" era, all the racist yahoos came out of the woodwork, questioning his citizenship and religious background (having the middle name Hussein didn't help), using racial slurs against him and his wife Michelle, among other things.  It was also open season on unarmed black men by mostly white police officers, leading to violent protests across the country.  Add to that the backlash against immigrants (legally entered or not) due to fears of terrorism and siphoning off tax dollars, which was made worse by the devastating civil war in Syria and lapses in the security net.

Obama ends his presidency with high approval ratings, which is what he didn't have during much of his two terms  However powerful his personality was, he couldn't get Democrats to win more seats for a majority in Congress or to elect his party's successor in the White House.  There were also those who couldn't stand the fact that a liberal African-American was President for two terms, so they did everything they could to shut him down.  And, for the most part, they succeeded.  Which is why it's hard to see anyone other than a white male being President for a long time to come, given what Obama had to go through.

Barack Obama had already made his mark in history the moment he became President, but he tried to do so much more than that.  And he would have if gridlocked politicians and unenlightened souls had let him do his job.  Despite his best efforts, much of his legacy will be erased by the incoming Republican President.  But given time, history might treat Obama a lot better than Washington ever did.