The Oscars

 For years I have had my triumvirate of lady singers, Emmylou Harris, who is the honor student, Lucinda Williams who is always in detention, and Nanci Griffith who was the girl next door who was a bit dreamy and had a way with words.

Wrong again on Johnny Cash, I don't know what to say, those songs always just sounded so much like him.  Had to check to see if he wrote Man in Black.  

I don't know what to say.  Years ago I was in a tavern in Champaign and a song came on and I went on and on to the guy on the next bar stool, about how much I liked Roy Orbison and how interesting it was that he stuck with those old rock and roll love ballads through most of his career, and so on and so on.  Finally the guy stopped me and told me that was all well and good, but that was Elvis Presley on the jukebox.

I remember at the Ten Cat when Old Dog would speak of how he always thought he would have been a pretty good unicyclist, and once again how he bruised the owner's oranges showing off his juggling ability.  But harmonica, yeah I can see it.  You go guy.

So thankfully The Institute has not been sullied with mention of The Slap, but I am afraid I am about to ruin that.  First of all, as a guy who does a little improv I can see where Kevin might have reached too far for an edgy joke, but that was no excuse for slapping him, but Will has apologized so maybe they can exact some small penalty on him and then we can all go back to our unglamorous lives and carry on.

I like movies but I never watch the Oscars.  It doesn't mean anything, like that Baseball Hall of Fame thing.  It doesn't mean that you are the best, it's just what some group of people voted for on a certain day.  If it was raining maybe they would have voted differently.  Nothing to get your panties into a bunch over.

And a day or two before the affair there was Sean Penn in Ukraine, or more likely one of the bordering countries, telling the CNN talking heads that they should definitely have Zalenskyy phone into the Academy Awards, because ,you know, it is the most important thing going on in the world.  He was threatening to melt down his Oscars (Oh please Sean don't do that) if Zalenskyy did not make his appearance.  At this point I don't know if they are still standing tall or if they are just puddles on the shelf.

Okay, just now, doing some fact-checking, which I obviously should do more often, I learn that Zalenskyy himself, was asking to make the appearance.  Well he is a desperate man.

I imagine on a Saturday night in Big Al's Tap, it is not unusual for a spot of violence to occur for whatever reason.  Possibly the gendarmes are called in, most likely they are just pulled apart and there may even be some sort of apology, but I'll wager that what doesn't occur is a discussion on what this means for society.  

And another thing, reading past the slap the next morning it was all about how history was made because a movie about deaf people won an award, and how the emcees were all three of them were women(!!!).  I reckon the Puerto Rican lesbian in the wheelchair will have to wait some more years for her day.  

Nothing much was said about whether the movies that won were any good.  Because you know, it is not about movies, it is about the whole word.  

And the next time you have an itchy fist at Big Al's Tap, maybe you should confer with Sean Penn and if his message of peace and brotherhood does not win you over maybe he can loan you one of his melted down Oscars to clobber the other guy with