I’m enjoying the show so far, as I feel the plight of Ben and Cam is so relateable regardless of where you’re living. It’s tough being a post-grad, attempting to grasp at a dream that seems so interminably far. One particular line ingrained itself in my mind – after Ben finds out that Cam received a loan from his just-out-of-prison cousin, Cam says to him, “I was just tired of seeing all our friends make it. I just wanted us to do something for once.”

I think it’s all about perspective. I was a teenager in the 70’s in NYC and I never walked across 42nd street unless I had to. I remember the first time I’d walked there in years, it was in 1999 and the AMC movie theater was there, I could not believe I was on 42nd Street, it was so beautiful to me, much cleaner.

I didn’t like NYC when the subways and Central Park were dangerous and dirty, but you are correct that at that time you could do more as a teenager, like go to the movies. $3 was how much it cost downtown, uptown you could see a double feature (after the Academy Awards) for $2.50.

I’m not sure that’s a fair assessment of The Hurt Locker. I share every single one of your concerns (see post #23), but think that the movie isn’t as actively awful as you make it sound.

I’m not sure that the film needs to be about the invasion. The soldiers there probably don’t care about why they’re there.

And I’m not sure it needs an Iraqi perspective. It’s about American soldiers, and I’m sure that many of them don’t think too much about the Iraqi perspective.

I think it’s a film that, for the most part, is effectively neutral. People read into it what they will. Some people think it’s pro-war, and some think it’s anti-war. It’s documenting the American soldier’s experience… and I don’t think that’s something we’ve seen done before in an accurate way.

Now, all that said… it bothered me that all the Iraqi characters were portrayed negatively.

But I don’t think the Americans came across as angels, either.

Thanks for the Hurt Locker recap. I had a feeling it would be rife with stereotypes of Iraqis uuugh!

http://oscars.movies.yahoo.com/blog/69-the-story-behind-the-oscars-weird-lady-kanye-moment

Bullock will probably never be nominated again in the rest of her acting career. So they gave it to her, the one time she was nominated.

However, that says a lot about the other nominees. I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot more of Gabourey Sidibe. And she’ll get her Oscar someday. I think that was their thinking.

I’m mad that The Blind Side got nominated for Best Picture in the first place. It was pure cheese at it’s best. Ugh. Oh well.

Oh, and Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist, I concur with everything you said, esp. about The Hurt Locker.

I am a huge football fan. Love everything about it, but as a black man, I had some issues with this book and the Hollywood treatment of the movie makes it worse.

In the book, one of the characters is a black lady dispatched by the NCAA to look into how Michael Oher became eligible to attend college. The book, in quite formulaic fashion, paints her as a villain much in the way that the Latino professor investigating testing fraud (Andy Garcia) in “Stand and Deliver” or the principal at the school (Courtney B. Vance) in “Dangerous Minds.” It’s a plot device to say “See?!? Black people are racist, too” and then some folks can feel better about themselves.

I read the book again (”The Blind Side”) and there’s some not-so-subtle racism and classism in the book.

What made the book so special wasn’t that Leigh Anne Tuohy is a likeable loudmouth blonde with moxie, it’s that they picked up a homeless black kid off the street to begin with. And let’s be real: in the book, the school that Oher went to marvelled at how big he was and that he could help them in basketball. At first, the school administrators were letting the kid flounder around and he was living in squalor back at his apartment complex. What if Leigh Anne Tuohy never sees the kid shivering on the street during the winter? What if “Big Mike” doesn’t bring his own son to that HS with Mike Oher in tow? Would that Christian school have ever reached out? I highly doubt it.

I was happy to hear Precious took home some important Oscars, as did a film directed by a woman, but I worry it was in efforts to get past the “first time” wins for AA and women, to move into our more PC, post racial future.

I’m pretty sure Martin’s joked was related to the speech. The winner bumbled through his speech a bit, though I don’t think you can really hold that against him. I think Martin was making a play on that. Still a bad joke, but I don’t think it was meant in the way you interpreted it. Just my two cents.

Thanks for the info on both points. I didn’t see that part of the video but that was frickin’ NUTS, and I don’t know much about dance at all.

To your perspective, I think the point about the accountability/responsibility of the original group is really important. To simply put a flag down on something and deny others access seems a bit ridiculous. Also, to your point about art forms evolving, I think we have to look at whether the “new” people entering the form are contributing or simply taking/stealing. If they are looking to help grow the art form, I think that is far more legitimate than simply taking what others have done and calling it your own. And, if the original members of the group aren’t feeling the contributions, we come back to your point about them speaking up. Now, this isn’t always possible. I don’t know what position African-Americans were in to wrestle back control of rock-and-roll in the 1950’s, given the power dynamics at the time, so I think there must also be a responsibility on the part of the “new” people to respect and inform themselves on the original culture. It’s a two-way street and if either group fails, then we run the risk of seeing an art form disrespected and a culture (further) marginalized. Thanks!