Oprah GIF – notes from a chair

I’m not religious but I have nothing against praying. Or even thoughts.

But too often they don’t seem to go together.

It would be easy this Labor Day Weekend to post a fun song, a political song, or a snide song. One about workers uniting, workers goofing off, or one about a pregnant woman going into labor because, well, it’s a pun on the holiday, right?

But let’s not.

Instead let’s take a few moments to think of the two kids who were murdered while praying at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, and the other 18 who were injured – many of whom are quite young and some of whom are fighting for their lives.

In particular, I think about the best friend of a 9 year old I saw on the news who recounted how his buddy instinctively jumped on top of him and saved his life by taking a bullet in the back.

Supposedly he’s going to fine but I can’t help but wonder about the effect this traumatizing event will have on the rest of their adult lives.

I pray they’ll get over this but let’s face it, that’s just an expression in my case. And even if I went to a synagogue and formed a minion of a hundred or a thousand different Jews (Note: If they even let me in after all this time), I would instinctually know it will take a lot more than that for these two kids to emerge unscathed.

Meaning, my prayers might comfort me and others and even be reassuring to some of the families but I don’t magically think that this will replace good parenting, therapy or community love and support in helping these kids heal.

No more than I believe a blessing from the Pope, or whoever else one believes in, will replace a good surgeon when it comes to removing the bullet(s) from that young man’s back.

No more than I believe gun control of some kind – perhaps even a ban on assault weapons nationwide, won’t reduce the increasing number of mass shootings, many of them at schools.

And no more than I believe that if this last shooter was indeed a troubled young person from the trans community, demonizing that community will do anything but spread hate.

Especially since the hundreds of mass shooters that came before this were almost entirely young straight white men.

Certainly, I’m not on a campaign against THOSE people.

Or any person of faith.

Despite what Vice President J.D. Vance desperately wants to lay at the altar of all those, including myself, who believe something must be done to eliminate the proliferation of guns in the U.S. (Note: There are now MORE GUNS THAN PEOPLE IN THE U.S.)

That would be the majority of Americans.

The ones who are angry, sad and often enraged that at times like these the thoughts and prayers police, a MINORITY of the country, can constantly be counted on to change the subject to how anti-faith community the rest of us are for demanding action.

If they so virulently believe in the power of thoughts and prayers why not spend more time sending some of that to “endangered” blue cities instead of armed masked men with guns and military grade weapons, a la all those shooters, to patrol what they see as our dangerous, crime-ridden streets in the name of peace and safety?

Does it not occur to them that the images of so many men with guns on patrol in the tranquil city streets and surrounding suburban and rural communities of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago and who knows where’s next, might give even more people ideas?

Something to think about.

And maybe pray on.

Lana Del Rey – “Looking for America”

I’ve been excited for the announcement of the Oscar nominations every year for more than half a century. I’m not sure exactly when and why it started but my earliest memory is being a really, really happy little boy when I heard Mary Poppins got a ton of nominations AND several months later literally jumping up and down screaming when Julie Andrews walked up to the stage to accept the trophy as best actress.

Thinking about it now I wonder:

How did they not know I was gay?

Well okay, that’s not the only thought I have in my head.

I am also recalling years when I rehearsed my own Oscar speech (in anticipation of a win even though I had yet to ever work on a movie); others when I was a reporter and actually had to get up at 5 in the morning to cover the damn thing live at the Academy (Note: Be careful what you wish for); and still others where I voluntarily woke up at 5 in the morning at home to watch it on TV and not miss a moment of elation or outrage.

And I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that I was still doing that last one as a recently as, well, ahem, not that long ago.

Why?

I don’t know. Why do you care about the Super Bowl or the World Series; the NBA Playoffs, Wimbledon or Monday Night Football; Paris Fashion Week, the Cannes Film Festival, the Grammys or the winner of Eurovision?

Maybe you don’t or maybe you do but in life it’s nice to look forward to something.

Well, that ended this year. It’s not that I wasn’t tracking potential nominees but on the twice-postponed Oscar nomination announcement day I woke up, did my morning routine (Note: Use your imagination), hung out and, right before leaving the house at 11 suddenly thought, ‘oh right, the Oscars. I better…check?’

It was kind of surreal.

Perhaps it’s age or the movies, but I don’t think so. Maybe it’s the fact that parts of L.A. were on fire several weeks ago hastening the delay (Note: During which I did have to evacuate my house) so I got that and a lot of dates confused. Not likely.

Mostly it was because I was keeping my mind on a bunch of other announcements that didn’t involve a svelte golden statuette but an engorged orange (and profoundly non-statuesque) one.

But these announcements were actually orders for actions that were not democratically voted on. Things like:

Releasing more than 1500 violent criminals from jail who severely beat up cops and broke into and entered the Capitol building, where they hunted down members of Congress (Note: And occasionally stopped to smear feces on the walls and destroy offices) all in order to subvert the peaceful transfer of power to a new president they didn’t vote for four years ago.
Revoking President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 order that guaranteed people of color and women equal opportunity to be hired, trained and employed by any agency in the federal government or any company or person who has a contract with said government, and
A termination to birthright U.S. citizenship even though it is literally written into the 14^th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that anyone born in the U.S. IS a citizen of the U.S.

For further elucidation and analysis of said announcements and their implications you can also check out these articles in Axios and the NY Times. Or simply use the google with the key words: recent executive orders for the source of your choice.

As for the Oscar nominations, anyone who follows these things or longs for a little competitive glamour or excellence in their lives courtesy of the movies, or is simply slightly film obsessed, has their favorites and their inexcusables. For me, it’s Timothée Chalamet’s performance in A Complete Unknown because I’m not sure how anyone can sound and act exactly like Bob Dylan, pretend they’re a young guy in the sixties, croon a tune to a pretend Woody Guthrie and go on to sing with and make love to a fake Joan Baez without making it a complete parody. (Note: Also because his best actor Oscar for Call Me By Your Name got stolen by Gary Oldman seven years ago. And no, I don’t forget).

Was this the most important cinematic moment of the year? Certainly not. But for me it was the most impressive and, anyway, as we all should know by now, that’s not what the Oscars are all about.

Nor should it be.

Also… sorry Timmy but better luck next time

The importance monicker is usually most omni-present in the best picture category, which pretty consistently reserves slots for movies that say something about social issues (Note: Forgetting the fact that ALL movies are social comments on our world), as well as advance the best of technology, execution or contemporary messages to be had from movies during that year.

Personally, I think expanding the best picture category from a limit of five nominations to these days as many as TEN nominations (Note: It works through a weighted scale the Academy concocted that is too cumbersome to explain in anything less than a term paper) is somewhat equivalent to being awarded a yearly participation award in a small, local day camp.

“And you get an Oscar… and you… and you!”

Okay, perhaps that’s a bit much but AMPAS voting to expand the list of possible nominees in 2009 seemed more like a marketing tool for studios due to lagging box-office than anything else.

But in an age where our new 78-year-old POTUS just announced that Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight are to serve as his special ambassadors to Hollywood (Note: News to them, since it was relayed only in a tweet, but fitting since they all reached stardom in those regrettable, greed is good eighties), it’s a welcome relief.

See, unlike MAGA voters the vast majority of all 10 best picture nominees this year focused on stories about diversity, equity and inclusion in regards to immigration, race, trans/LGBT representation, ageism, economic inequality and/or religious persecution. And if you look back in history that tends to happen when political leaders spend their time taking away rights or lashing out at specific communities for power, or profit or simply because they can.

As I tell my students, movies are not life but, on the whole, they tend to absolutely reflect real life and the issues we, as a society are concerned about in that moment.

This is why this year I am thrilled to have as many as TEN, if not more, best picture nominees vying for the Oscar. I might be selling out my long-held views for political gain, but hey, at least it’s not to stay in office.

As for the list of this year’s films, they are: Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Perez, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked.

I’d be happy with any of them winning. And not only because Gibson, Stallone, Voight had absolutely nothing to do with any of them, and they address rights and issues they and the guy they will be ambassador-ing for want to roll back and, preferably, erase.

Though, that helps.

A lot.

Jonathan Bailey – “Dancing Through Life” (from Wicked)

notes from a chair

Tag Archives: Oprah GIF

Thoughts and Prayers

Did I Almost Forget about the Oscars?