Time to reevaluate horror? None of the Best Picture nominees got anything like 100 percent from the critics. But “Get Out,” starring comedian Jordan Peele, “is the latest in a string of bloody horror films that attempt to contribute to America’s cultural conversation in a meaningful way.”
Archives for February 2017
So Here’s The Moment-By-Moment Of How The Oscars Flub Went Down
USA Today had stationed reporters in various parts of the theatre, and here’s their take: “As the La La Land filmmakers take the stage to accept best picture, the accountant from PriceWaterhouseCoopers jumped up and said, ‘He (Beatty) took the wrong envelope!’ and goes running onstage. Craziness breaks out. No one knows how Beatty got the best actress envelope instead of the best picture envelope. ‘Oh, my God. Moonlight won, Moonlight won,’ a stagehand says, her hands on her head.”
Eileen Myles Is A Badass Of Poetry (And A Whole Lot More)
And now she has a new poetry record album. Yes, record album: “Happily at Naropa University there’s something called the Harry Smith house — it’s a little house on the Naropa campus — which Ambrose Bye uses to record everyone all summer. I had gone into that little house the summer before and recorded a shitload of poems, new and old, and did it in a really messy fashion. I was reading and throwing the pages down, and Ambrose was doing the sound stuff, and Anne Waldman, who I’ve known forever, was there.”
The Agency In Charge Of The U.S.’s Internet Is Just About As Divided As The Country
The story is long and winding, involving massive public comment and a stonewalling GOP, but “you can’t blame petty politics alone for the mess the FCC finds itself in. Debates over net neutrality and cable boxes stem from an ideological shift in Washington. In earlier days, it was ‘good regulation versus bad regulation,’ says Chris Lewis, vice president of the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge. Now it’s ‘more regulation versus less regulation.'”
Is There New Evidence In The Story Of Beethoven’s ‘Immortal Beloved’?
Maybe. Of course, “many rival camps on the identity of Beethoven’s ‘immortal beloved’ have developed over the years,” but it could be a married, religious aristocrat who held the key to Beethoven’s heart – and his later, more intense work.
When Will Dev Patel Get His Chance To Be A Leading Man?
Here’s the deal: “It’s not a given that he’ll remain on the industry’s radar for very long. That’s because to be a leading man in Hollywood requires more than just box office success, an award-winning list of credits, or even the esteem of your peers. You also (still) need to embody the American film industry’s narrow ideals of romantic masculinity.”
So The Oscars Happened, With Mostly Predicted Results – Until The Wild Ending
Here’s the complete list.
The Oscars End With An Envelope Mix-Up At The Worst Possible Time
WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED. (What just happened was that La La Land was announced as Best Picture, but … that was fake news, an envelope mix-up. The real Best Picture winner: Moonlight. See the video of it all here.)
The Emerging Oscar Powerhouse That Does Nothing Specific, But Also Everything
FilmNation is behind “Arrival” and a Judd Apatow movie that sold for $12 million at Sundance. “The two movies thrust FilmNation into the limelight and pose a tantalizing question: can a company unaffiliated with any conglomerate become a powerhouse in the challenging climate of the 21st-century entertainment industry?”
The Archival Battle Of The 175-Year Old Symphonies
The New York Philharmonic faces off against the Vienna Phil, both turning 175 years old this spring, in a joint exhibition of their archives in Manhattan. Can the NY institution measure up to this? “‘Damn and blast it! Confound it! Wake up!’ the conductor and composer Otto Nicolai wrote in his impassioned draft of the Vienna Philharmonic’s foundation charter.”
Top AJBlogs From The Weekend Of 02.26.17
WHAT’S GOING ON IN OPERA?
The news that Darren Keith Woods was summarily fired after a sixteen-year extraordinarily successful career as General Director of Fort Worth Opera added to some odd news from Vienna a short time ago seems inexplicable. … read more
AJBlog: OperaSleuthPublished 2017-02-23
The stories we weave are incomplete…
It’s Black History Month again, and though I haven’t blogged about it, it’s been on my mind. I’ve thought of it when I’ve gone to the Kennedy Center, and seen that their most visible gift … read more
AJBlog: SandowPublished 2017-02-23
Music and Design
WHY do we talk about “seeing” bands or orchestral groups? How did album jackets and photography of musicians — whether Francis Wolff’s shadowy shots of jazz musicians smoking in the shadows or Astrid Kirchherr’s … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2017-02-23
What’s It Like Writing About Soviet Spies In The U.S. While Politicians Are Calling For An Examination Of Russian Influence On The U.S. Election?
Joe Weisberg, writer and showrunner of “The Americans,” now in its fifth season: “How is this all happening again? When we started this show, the Soviet Union was gone. We were not in any kind of serious conflict with Russia. And it seemed like a good time to tell a story about those old bygone days. And how in a few short years Russia has turned into an enemy again makes very little sense.”
OK For Real, Does Ryan Gosling Or Emma Stone Dance Better In ‘La La Land’?
According to the choreographer, “They were a funny little complement. Neither is a perfect dancer; they weren’t supposed to be. I liked the way they took on the challenge.”
The Sprawling Costume Shop Outside Of London That Makes Its Customers Oscar Winners
Aside from outfitting TV – think “The Crown” and “Victoria” – the shop, which has been around since 1840, has worked for 36 movies that have won Oscars for costume design. “If you lined up all of the costumes in Angels’ storage in a row, it would stretch about eight miles.”
The Composer Of ‘Fun Home,’ Now On Tour, Knows How To Create Cacophony
Jeanine Tesori, among the most-nominated composers in Tonys history, says music is where science and art meet.
This Ballet School In Washington Has A 75-Year Commitment To Black Dancers [VIDEO]
The woman who took over the schools when the founders passed away says that dance isn’t just dance, but a metaphor for life. “I like to instill in the children to work with a certain kind of integrity even if you are uncomfortable.”
Actor Bill Paxton, 61, Dies From Complications Following Surgery
The Emmy award-winning actor, co-star of “Apollo 13” and star of “Big Love,” died on Saturday, according to Rolling Stone. Tributes continue to come in from his shocked co-stars and directors.
At The Independent Spirit Awards, ‘Moonlight’ Utterly Dominated
No, Manchester by the Sea didn’t even come close: “Moonlight won every single award it was nominated for, including Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Picture, and the coveted Robert Altman Award, recognizing greatness by an ensemble in independent film. It might have won even more – Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris are both carrying a lot of buzz in the Oscars‘ supporting performer races – but the Altman Award disqualifies wins for individual performances.”
We Have A Little Problem With Nostalgia, And It Leads To Things Like Brexit And ‘MAGA’
Not to mention ISIS. But humans – especially writers – have a chance to do something about it: “By imagining, we create the potential for what might be. Religions are composed of stories precisely because of this potency. Stories have the power to liberate us from the tyranny of what was and is. We are all creators of fictions, and we all have a role to play in imagining our way out of the nostalgic traps strewn around us.”
Classical Music At The Movies (AKA, The Oscars’ Nominated Scores)
Shocker: What should win Best Score and what is going to win Best Score aren’t remotely the same.
All Of The Academy Award-Nominated Foreign Film Directors Get Together And Make A Political Statement
In opposition to the U.S. president’s anticipated revised travel ban and many other things he’s said since he was inaugurated, the six issued a joint statement. “No matter who wins the Oscar, they said, the statuette would be dedicated to activists, journalists, artists and others ‘working to foster unity and understanding, and who uphold freedom of expression and human dignity — values whose protection is now more important than ever.'”
We Call Celebrities ‘Stars,’ But Why?
It all started with Chaucer, and it makes sense. Calling a celebrity a star “emphasizes the role of the celebrity as a body both distant and accessible, gleaming and sparkling and yet reassuringly omnipresent. Stars have long suggested a kind of order—and orientation—within chaotic human lives. They have long hinted that there is something bigger, something beyond, something more.
If They Gave Oscars To Books, Well, LitHub Would Have Beaten Them To It
The LitHub crew, perhaps day drinking long before the Oscars: “What would the categories look like if they applied to books and not films? Sure, best picture makes an easy parallel, but what about sound editing? Hairstyling? Cinematography?”
The U.S. Denies Entrance To 21-Year-Old Syrian Documentary Maker And Oscar Nominee
The young cameraman said earlier in the year, “If we win this award, it will show people across Syria that people around the world support them. It will give courage to every volunteer who wakes up every morning to run towards bombs. … If I cannot enter the US, I will not give up: we know that we have many friends in US, that there are people that share our humanitarian values.”
TV Stations And Networks Have To Pay For The Red Carpet This Year
Wait, isn’t this supposed to be a mutually beneficial relationship? Not anymore: “For the first time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is charging a license fee to TV stations and networks that broadcast live shows with interviews of movie stars on the red carpet before Sunday’s 89th Academy Awards telecast.”