There Will Be Oscar Coverage

I Boldly Predict an Oscar quip something like "Also up for an award is 'No Country For Old Men', that fabulous documentary about an Obama rally."

We'll see.  More accurately, you will see; I left the NBA after Michael Jordan and the Academy Awards after Gandalf.

Comments

[BumperStickerist]

So you spent $105 million and didn't get a nomination ... welcome to Hollywood, Hillary.

[Other Tom]

I loved Old Men, and I hope it wins. I only recently learned where the title came from--"Sailing to Byzantium," by W.B. Yeats--but the opening lines are worth quoting:

"That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

"Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect."

Fine, fine flick. Mrs. OT and I go about every eighteen months, but we picked the right one this time.

[Syl]

I left the Oscars in the '80's when Julie waters (walters?) didn't win for Educating Rita.

I stopped going to movies when they stopped making real popcorn with real butter.

I left baseball in the '80's with the strike. I'd watch two games on tv and listen to a different two games simultaneously on the radio. I was that into baseball.

I just walked away.

I'm good at that. :)

[clarice]

I used to do the NYT crossword puzzle every morning after reading the paper. Never touch it now. Walked away.
I never watch the Oscars anymoe. Walked away.
I used to read the New Yorker every week. Walked away.
I used to go to movies almost every week. Walked away.

Maybe someone in marketing will take notice, because surely I am not the only decades long consumer/subscriber these outfits have offended into dumping them?

[bgates]

A couple years ago I saw a site that offered links to torrents of all the Oscar-nominated films. Hollywood has just about convinced me of the evil of private property, at least enough I wouldn't feel so bad about taking a little off their hands, but they don't make much good any more.

Turner Classic Movies, on the other hand, just about makes up for the rest of Ted Turner's life. I caught a little of 'Comrade X' this week - Clark Gable lampooning the Soviets. Awesome.

My bold prediction - Jon Stewart opens with, "Welcome to the last-ever Academy Award ceremony of the Bush Administration", causing 3 hours of jubilant applause. For half the audience, this will constitute their most strenuous physical labor ever. Shouting their joy over the coming liberation of the working man will make the crowd headachey, though, and their maids and gardeners will catch hell for it the next day.

[bgates]

I left baseball in the '80's with the strike.
Baseball got rid of the strike in the '80's? Games must take forever now.

[kim]

The globe used to be warming; then the sun just walked away and took a nap.
====================

[anduril]

This is an Obama thread, right? Then it must be the right place to link to an article by Dean Barnett that may give us an insight into what to expect from an Obama presidency:

Coupe Deval
The unhappy first year in office of Barack Obama's friend and oratorical model.

Some choice grafs:

Early last week, the presidential campaign was rocked by the "bombshell" that Barack Obama had borrowed certain rhetorical flourishes from Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick's 2006 gubernatorial campaign. The revelations were not universally regarded as shocking.

Anyone who was aware of the existence of Deval Patrick prior to the publication of this story could see the similarities between the Obama and Patrick campaigns. Both men ran campaigns based on hope. Both ostentatiously sought out a style that would transcend politics as usual. They shared a strategist, David Axelrod, who had penned vacuously uplifting prose for John Edwards long before Edwards became an angry populist trapped in a 28,000-square-foot mansion.

The Patrick campaign appeared to provide something of a blueprint for Obama. Patrick didn't start his race for governor with the advantage of celebrity that Obama brought to the presidential race. Nevertheless, his message of hope resonated, and he easily defeated formidable opponents in both the Democratic primary and the general election.

If anything--and you may find this difficult to believe--the Patrick campaign was less substantive than the Obama campaign. In 2006, Massachusetts's overwhelmingly Democratic legislature had passed Mitt Romney's universal health care law. The economy was good. And yet Patrick won the race relying on hollow rhetoric like, "I want you to understand, I am not asking anybody to take a chance on me. I'm asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."

...

Many Americans may wonder what's happened to Patrick since he arrived at Boston's golden-domed state house with a mandate to be hopeful and aspirational. It turns out the governor has spent his first year in office all dressed up with no place to govern.

Given the narcissistic nature of the politics of hope, it's unsurprising that much of the Patrick administration has revolved around the whimsy and caprice of Deval Patrick himself. Patrick came to office seeming determined to glorify himself with unprecedented gubernatorial flights of ego. One of his initial executive decisions was to lease a brand new Cadillac in which he would be chauffeured around the state--at taxpayer expense, even though Patrick and his wife are extremely wealthy.

And it continues...

[boris]

The media is the message, the symbolism is the substance.

[anduril]

Steve Sailer has begun reading Michelle Obama's senior thesis, now made available to the public--and it looks ugly:

The Obama camp has now released Michelle Obama's senior thesis at Princeton. So far, I've read the Dedication and the first couple of pages of the Introduction, and that's plenty. You've got to be impressed with how ruthless Senator Obama is -- he'll humiliate his poor wife by releasing her semi-literate college graduation maunderings just so he can say, "Let's move on."

DEDICATION

To Mom, Dad, Craig [her brother], and all of my special friends:

Thank-you for loving me and always making me feel good about myself.

And here's part of her creatively punctuated Introduction:

"The purpose of this study is to examine various attitudes of Black Princeton alumni in their present state and as they are perceived by the alumni to have changed over time. ...

"These experiences have made it apparent to me that the path I have chosen to follow by attending Princeton will likely lead to my further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant. This realization has presently, made my goals to actively utilize my resources to benefit the Black community more desirable."

Well, thank-you. You have presently, made my day; never dreaming of such a surprise.

(I originally figured this 1985 thesis was created on a typewriter, which would have made it harder to fix typos, but the columns are justified, so it was done on some sort of word processor. Still, Princeton grads are supposed to know that there is no hyphen in "thank you" ...)

So, it looks like Barack has had his vengeance on Michelle for calling him "stinky" and "snore-y."

...

Keep in mind that Mrs. Obama not only got into Princeton, but then got into Harvard Law School, graduated, and even passed the Illinois bar exam. So, maybe, prose just isn't her strong suit.

A reader comments:

The Illinois Supreme Court website says Michelle Obama was admitted to the bar on May 12, 1989 and voluntarily went inactive in 1993.

Barak Obama was admitted December 17, 1991 and went inactive this year.

A reader who is an attorney in Illinois explains:

The May admission to the bar is for those who took the Winter (March I think) bar exam. Most take the July bar exam, and I think were admitted in October, so I don't understand Obama's date of admission. Not everyone who graduates in May takes the July exam, but in Mrs. Obama's case she was already at Sidley and Austin, so I'd guess her main job would've been studying for the bar exam. So, the guess would be she didn't pass the July exam and did pass the winter exam, what with over half a year of studying for it. Now, many folks who attend schools like Harvard aren't really taught the things that are on bar exams, if only because many of their profs don't want to teach it (too boring).

[MayBee]

Teaching to the test is bad anduril. That's what the Obamas learned from Harvard.

[Porchlight]

Turner Classic Movies, on the other hand, just about makes up for the rest of Ted Turner's life.

I agree. I love it - it's pretty much the only channel I watch anymore. I try not to remember that Ted has anything to do with it.

Like TM, I haven't watched the Oscars since Peter Jackson/LOTR swept in 2004 and Master and Commander got (mostly) ignored. I don't miss them at all.

[Other Tom]

I haven't watched the Oscars in at least 25 years. The last time I even tuned in was the year the insufferable John Irving won an Oscar for "Ciderhouse Rules," which apparently had a strong pro-abortion theme. At the instant I tuned in, he was giving his acceptance speech, and said "I'd like to thank so-and-so and such-and-such for having the courage to make this movie."

As I hit the remote to move on to something else, I thought about how real "courage" in Hollywood would consist in making a flick with an anti-abortion theme--something we have yet to see, and never will. I just thought "how delusional and self-congratulatory these dopes are." That was it--I saw about a half-minute of the thing that year, and have logged zero seconds since.

[Other Tom]

Here's a savory excerpt from one of the Hollywood trade pubs:

"A chilly rain is forecast for Sunday so the Red Carpet has been tented. Nerves are still frayed from the writers strike just ended. Panic is setting in about an actors strike that may be on the way. Few in America or the world have seen the nominated pics and performances. There's no suspense because Hollywood has long ago guessed who and what will probably win. The vast majority of the presenters aren't big names. And not only has the host done it before to really poor ratings, but Jon Stewart couldn't even find anything funny to say about it while guesting on Larry King Live. So, all in all, I think everyone should expect the Worst Oscars Ever In The History Of Hollywood. Really, Sunday can't come fast enough to put this beleaguered 80th Academy Awards which almost was picketed into oblivion out of its misery."

[Jane]

Sheesh Anduril I've been posting that stuff about Patrick for days. I feel scooped.

[Porchlight]

Worst Oscars Ever - gosh, the poor little HOllywood dears. How ever will they bear being so unimportant and uninteresting?

[kim]

Trust me, they'll all arrive in the teeth of the gale, in vehicles powered by self-satisfaction.
============================

[kim]

Oh, dang, I really ought to give Ed Begley, Jr, credit for that one.
===========================

[PeterUK]

Been downhill ever since the Talkies came in.

[anduril]

Maybee, I think those comments about elite schools not teaching to the test are perhaps a bit dated. In the old days, my youth, some of the elite schools had very poor first time pass rates on the bar exams, but I think in recent decades there has been a new emphasis on the actual practice of law. Part of the answer also may be that graduates of elite schools have wised up and now take bar review courses. Graduates of most of those schools now have good first time pass rates.

Now, if the Obamas learned anything from their former terrorist turned education reform prof pal Ayers, they probably favor doing away with tests altogether. Then, rather than teaching to the tests professors would be expected to teach to the revolution--which the Ayers breed no doubt do already.

Jane, I was aware that you've been posting on Patrick. It seems to me that the Patrick angle is one that bears repeating, and Dean Barnett has a way with words that I wanted to draw attention to. Barnett's article has a slightly different angle than others that I've seen in that he uses the Patrick experience as an example of what we might expect from an Obama presidency--vacuity.

[Daddy]

So if the Oscar statue himself was giving the Sally Field's speech to you guys, it would be
"You don't like me. You really don't like me."

[Jane]

Anduril,

I think you and Barnett are right. We are a moonbat state and even the mooniest of moonbats have no use for Patrick at this point. But something else is worth thinking about. More than anything else Patrick relies on cronyism; cronyism in appointing Judges, cronyism in awarding contracts, cronyism in all of his appointments (many of which are his creation). It's as if he and his friends embarked on all this for the gain in personal wealth. Patrick will only get 4 years provided we can find a candidate to run against him, but a lot of damage is being done.

[anduril]

Yes, I think Barnett was right to emphasize the "cronyism." I was looking for the right word and it eluded me, so I dropped that theme when I posted. We've seen that the Obamas have also gotten wealthy through forms of cronyism--Michelle barely practiced law at all, went inactive after only a few years, but she got lucrative directorships--clearly through political connections. There is every reason to expect something similar from a President Obama--the left has always understood the need to reward their own and they show few scruples about using the system in that way. Another reason to expect something of the sort is that the Obamas come from Chicago, home of Jesse Jackson and Operation Push. They've seen it all, first hand. They know about consolidating your power base in the bureaucracy and milking government for grants that expand your power base throughout the community.

[narciso]

Lets see, one film about an evilbusinessman (Doheny/Plainview)who had the audacity to
actually draw the petrol from the ground that helped power the same movie industry
that derides him now (from the pen of the
thinner Michael Moore of the 20s, Upton
Sinclair)Another about a nihilistic assassin(Chigurh)who is clearly a consequence of the
evil War on Drugs.(Buzzkill, man)Another, Atonement, is a very ironic title, but it does illustrate the consequences of the flawed stratified class system, that led to the hero's fate. For those that persevere through it; it does show the valiant struggle of the Brits at Dunkirk, at a time
where it seemed all was lost. Then there's Juno ofcourse, which is a reproach to the
liberal sacraments of abortion and ultrahipness. At least they won't feature
American Gangster, the agitprop of a murderer and drug kingpin, who alleged he used the US airforce as his private Fed Ex courier service

[sophy]

I do not know how to use the flyff gold ; my friend tells me how to use.