Grammy 2011 Recap

(in no particular order)

Bruno Mars: standout

Jamie Fox: (poser) Stick with acting, which you are actually good at.

Jagger: He seemed happy not to be in the montage of the dead, but who else could sing with a band that large and pull it off?

I feel bad for Kings of Leon.

Miranda Lambert: I just don't get it.

Muppets? Really? Cee Lo, Elmo. Elmo, Cee Lo.

John, Keith, Norah: Highlight

Muse? Really bad band name. Muse is a chick man.

Biebster: Really, it took 6 people to write "Never Say Never"? And you needed Jaden Smith too? When JB sings Usher-type material he fails. He wants to act too-- he shows talent, self-deprecation and humility there-- he probably should have gone with JT instead. Jaden (poser-spawn) ruined the segment.

Did anyone see the Church of Scientology ad?

GaGa: Armor butt and all-- professional. Say what you want about her, she knows exactly what she is doing.

Nicki Minaj and Will.i.am: priceless

BABS: Soft as an easy chair. She came to the party dressed as a giant Hershey's Kiss.

Who's Watching The Watchmen?

I am not your typical fanboy, coming to comics late in life. But I do have a modicum of respect for the likes of Alan Moore, whose early work on "Swamp Thing" transcended the genre. Though I lost my original copies of the "Watchmen" series in a flood, I still have my HC version. It was a stunning accomplishment at the time. A mixture of pop culture, hero worship, politics and morality; finely fleshed out by Dave Gibbons' very humanistic visual interpretation. "Watchmen" will continue to be a benchmark of sorts, in the graphic novel realm; comics' "Moby Dick" if you will.

The movie "Watchmen" will, unfortunately, not maintain any similar standing. Except within the narrow corridors of fan geekdom. The film, though a fairly cohesive story, falls far short of being any kind of cinematic powerhouse. And I will tell you why. 

It has always been my contention that anyone making a film based on a comic/graphic novel has a great advantage in that the whole damn thing is already storyboarded. But here Zack Snyder takes this idea quite literally. I would have to go back again, with my HC version,  to see if the scenes actually match the comics panels, but it sure felt like it. I suspect, out of deference to Moore, or fear of fans rejecting it outright if deviated from, in the end it comes off like a frame by frame interpretation of the book. Sadly this creates a plodding slide show-like effect. With camera movement very deliberate, deferentially slow and often static, Snyder fails to make the story sing as a piece of cinema. I feel for him, because I'm guessing this one, whether it makes dough or not, will be consigned to the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" pile. 

The Christian Bale Flap

One word people: STEROIDS.

Why hasn't anyone mentioned what is so obvious to me? Bales, who has a reputation for being buff -- at least since American Psycho [The Machinist notwithstanding], had also become known concurrently for his violent outbursts. Coincidence? I think not. That's why they call it "beefcake's little helper."

Little(?) Rascals

In a press release Tuesday, Lyric Records announced a massive recall of the entire Rascal Flatts (sic) catalog. A spokesperson for Lyric, a subsidiary of the Disney Company, explained that an error, originating at the time of their signing with the label in 1999, resulted in typos on every album they have ever released. A representative for the band would only say that an internal investigation had resulted in the firing of a mischievous and disgruntled employee in the A&R department, one Ms.Tinker Belle. Management has begrudgingly agreed to the reprinting of all packaging, which will henceforth have one "L" and one of the "T"s removed from the second word in the band's name. 

IN A RELATED STORY...

Whilst on a TV commercial break, WC visit tonight, I was startled by the shear volume of a commercial for the band Rascal Flatts (sic). The noise was so distressingly deafening, and beyond FCC guidelines range, that I had to actually force myself to stop urinating in order to return to the livingroom and turn the damn TV volume down.

– BGME

Owen Wilson: Love Child???

I like Owen Wilson. Such a nice young man. One can't help but want to hang out with him and want the best for him. He has not done much in the way of acting, but he is humorous and amiable in a Van Johnson kind of way. I think his career would get a shot in the arm if he would walk away from the sweet, clever, "lite" movies that he always seems to be cast in, and do a drama. So who's willing to take a chance on him? 

So I go to visit my friend, agent Syd Wasserstein, and light a fire. "Syd," I say, "How is it that no one in Hollywood has ever picked up on the fact that Owen Wilson looks and sounds like the son of Dennis Hopper?" I'm dead serious. I've even got Syd on the edge of his seat, as the realization hits him. I mean, not only do they bear a physical resemblance to each other -- even the nose, but their vocal delivery is so similar. I begin to speculate a "winter of love" motorcycle trip, wherein Hopper rides to Forth Worth in 1968, and ends up having a torrid one-night-stand with the 23 year old Laura Cunningham (later Wilson). How else could one explain these blatant similarities?

The point is: someone needs to come up with a father/son vehicle for these two. An intense drama in which both could turn up the heat and maybe Hopper would finally win the acting Oscar that has eluded him and Owen would get some respect. And please, could someone do a DNA test and put me out of my curious misery? 

Kate Gypped by Academy

In reviewing the nomination lists for both the SAG Awards and the Oscars, one stumbles upon a glaring omission. The Academy has decided to ignore Kate Winslet's work in "Revolutionary Road" and give her one nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role for "The Reader," a role that both the Golden Globes and SAG have recognized as supporting.

This snub is just another selective, political and, dare I say, semitic bias that continues to be exercised by the academy. Further fueling that whispered notion that if you do a film about the holocaust - you win an Oscar, or likewise, write a book about the holocaust and win a Pulitzer. This is getting ridiculously, blatantly obvious and it has to stop.

I don't know if anyone else got the joking aside made by Ricky Gervais to Kate at the Globes? This was a reference to an episode of "Extras" that Kate appeared in, as herself, in 2005. In it the extras worked on a holocaust drama, in which Winslet's character proclaimed (off-camera) that the role was undertaken because she knew it would get her an Oscar.

So now we are embroiled in a Hollywood game of chicken, whereby, if Kate doesn't win, then I'm proven wrong. And if she does win, Ricky's prescient bit of clichéd Hollywood irony is proven true and in the end: art imitates art imitates life.

Bobby Kennedy's Prescience

Robert Kennedy in an interview to "Voice of America" in 1968: Things are "moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years."

Obama was elected in 2008, exactly 4o years later.

And Ethel Kennedy, Bobby's widow, invited the then new senator Obama to deliver a keynote speech at an RFK 80th birthday event in 2005. At that event, before his campaign had even been spoke of, she referred to Obama as "our next president."