The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    They say it never rains in southern California

    By artappraiser on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 4:32pm |

    Comments

    Better spread than a Bloomberg rally for the elites!

    I don’t see any ram-don but here’s what Wolfgang Puck has cooked up pic.twitter.com/or2Gr9wz7f

    — Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) February 9, 2020

     


    by artappraiser on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 4:41pm

    You art scene types, always there for the free eats (and wine, of course)


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 5:09pm

    interesting pre-emptive thread of tweets:


    by artappraiser on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 4:38pm

    He's gonna get in trouble if he keeps talking like that - he's acting as if he were white! Where's the resentment and grief? I don't buy it

     


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 4:42pm

    When #OscarsSoWhite became a meme, 94% of voters were white and 77% were white males.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/02/02/oscars-academy-award-nominations-diversity/79645542/


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 9:26pm


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 10:16pm

    "Hollywood" really is part of a conspiracy?!


    by artappraiser on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 9:26pm

    From Steve Martin and Chris Rock at the Oscars

    But as could have been expected, the sharpest jokes of the opening bit came at the expense of the Academy’s continued lack of diversity. This year, 19 out of the 20 acting nominees are white and all five director nominees are male. 

    “There’s so many great directors nominated this year,” Rock said, to which Martin replied, “I don’t know, Chris, I thought there was something missing from the list this year.” 

    “Vaginas?” Rock asked to loud applause from the audience. He then honored Cynthia Erivo, the one and only black actor nominated this year by saying, “Cynthia did such a great job in Harriet hiding black people that the Academy got her to hide all the black nominees. Cynthia, is Eddie Murphy under this stage?” 

    “Well, you know, Chris, think how much the Oscars have changed in the past 92 years,” Martin said. “Back in 1929, there were no black acting nominees.” 

    “Now, in 2020, we got one!” Rock said. And with that, the night’s non-hosts got the show on the road.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/chris-rock-and-steve-martin-roast-oscars-for-hiding-black-actors-and-female-directors?ref=home


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 9:43pm

    “Hair Love” director and writer Matthew A. Cherry addressed the importance of normalizing Black hair during his acceptance speech on stage at the 92nd Academy Awards.

    The short animated film, which tells the story of a Black father who wears his hair in locs and learns to do his daughter’s hair for the first time, won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film on Sunday.

    And

    Cherry called for the Crown Act, a bill first passed in California last year to protect Black people from hair discrimination, to be enacted in all 50 states.

    He noted its importance to people like DeAndre Arnold, a Black teenager from Mont Belvieu, Texas, who made headlines last month after he and his family publicly revealed that he wouldn’t be allowed to walk at his upcoming graduation unless he cut his locs. 

    Cherry, Toliver and other team members behind “Hair Love,” including Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade, surprised Arnold with an invitation to attend the Oscars as a special guest of the film.

    The high school senior hit the Oscars red carpet with his mother, Sandy Arnold on Sunday. 

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hair-love-2020-oscars-matthew-a-cherry-crown-act_n_5e40b117c5b6f1f57f13a221


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 10:05pm

    The Academy voted for globalism.

    Next they need to change their name to the International Academy of Motion Picture Sciences.

    Now where's that Star Trek translator?


    by artappraiser on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 11:20pm

    Still, plenty room on the dais for complaints

    Despite there being a plethora of female-helmed projects in the last year ― Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” Lorene Scafaria’s “Hustlers,” Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell,” Melina Matsoukas’ “Queen & Slim” and more ― the Best Director category this year consisted only of men. The nominees included Quentin Tarantino for “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite,” Sam Mendes for “1917,” Martin Scorsese for “The Irishman” and Todd Phillips for “Joker.”

    I wonder if Rocketman's happy or mad.


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 11:41pm

    Watching the whole show, that comes away as bullshit whining to me. As many of the presenters stressed the feminist issues and many of the men winning did as well! It was like consciousness raising time for the white men, kinder gentler, apologize for the patriarchy and your white privilege, thank the native americans for the land we're working on, all that kinda stuff. And the female filmmaker accepting her award for Learning to Skate in a Warzone (If You're A Girl) bested Hillary herself talking about how all the little girls of the world need to take that ramp no matter who's trying to stop ya!

    Then there was this

     

    'Joker' composer Hildur Guðnadóttir is the first woman to win best original score in two decades #Oscars https://t.co/mDPKOsaozk via @NBCNews

    — Nicole Acevedo (@Nicolemarie_A) February 10, 2020

     

    I believe she got a standing ovation for being a woman. It was quite emotional. As was her acceptance speech, which was very touching and encouraging of women speaking out and demanding recognition for themselves as persons with something to say, whenever they feel the music, or some such.

    Preceded by this, they gave the award, they didn't know who it was going to:

     

    "Kidding aside we want to stand here and say this together..." #Oscars https://t.co/WHP802kNOU

    — Independent Lifestyle (@IndyLife) February 10, 2020

     

    Furthermore, macho guys were not rewarded, they sat on their hands (i.e. Quentin). One might think River Phoenix getting the best actor reward would be triumphantly male, but instead he went on and on about respecting all other forms of life on earth, about stopping abusing all kinds of people and things for one's own good, including a riff about how we rip baby cows from their mothers and eat them, ignore the pain and grief we've caused and have the nerve to put mother cow's milk in our coffee and cereal....surprise


    by artappraiser on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 12:28am

    PLUS, it was two Korean women who accepted the best picture award, I presume they were the producers? The men didn't talk. The one who spoke English treated the director like she was patting him on the head for a job well done, favorite son.

    (Not to mention the best picture award was given by Jane Fonda, a woman, alone, not two men as I recall as typical.)

    The whole best picture award was really an amazing scene to watch, quite the show in itself. Here's the video, it is really worth a watch. There's quite a bit of hysterical joy at the announcement from the audience, I think the members were sort of shocked and extremely pleased that the vote had ended up that way, that they finally broke through the American thing. The second woman accepting got it "I think something historic has happened":

    the moment the cast and crew of ‘Parasite’ accepting the oscar for best picture at the 92nd academy awards.
    this is historic as it is the First non english film to win the award. #oscars pic.twitter.com/qF1T4LH41o

    — ໊PARASITE ACADEMY AWARD WINNING FILM (@strangeraIps) February 10, 2020

    by artappraiser on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 12:53am

    Vox couldn't resist the continued diversity complaints despite factoids like:

    At the 10 Oscar ceremonies honoring movies made in the 2010s — those from 2011 to 2020 — only one American director won the Best Director prize: Damien Chazelle for La La Land in 2017. The other nine directing awards of the decade have gone to a British director (Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech), a French director (Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist), a Taiwanese director (Ang Lee for The Life of Pi), three Mexican directors (Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity and Roma; Alejandro G. Iñárritu for Birdman and The Revenant; Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water), and now a Korean director (Bong Joon-ho for Parasite).

    Not a fan of The Irishman, and when I watched Parasite within minutes felt impressed how fresh it felt (no traditional say gangster fare like Old Boy or schtick like Crazy Rich Asians)


    by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 2:22am

    I note that among many other globalist-oriented awards and speeches, in categories like Best Picture and Best Director, the Best Documentary award was also globalist, backed by a globalist former president:

    Also see Barack and Michelle Obama React to Their Netflix Doc Winning a 2020 Oscar

    @ Entertainment Tonight By 7:23 PM PST, February 9, 2020

    "Hollywood" really is the enemy of Bannonism.


    by artappraiser on Sun, 02/09/2020 - 11:44pm

    On the winner in the other documentary category:

     


    by artappraiser on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 12:03am

    Heartbreaking.


    by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 2:29am

    Must admit it did come to mind watching the big shew: presenting the ultimate of the female as an aesthetic adornment meant to give pleasure. I don't think anything wrong of it, as I adored playing with my Barbie doll. But this shew plays up separate gender roles bigly and most very much are glad to play that part as well: men in black because they're too busy running the world, women as glorious butterflies to make it all worthwhile. That's why we watch, that's why the red carpet. Don't like it, don't get on it, don't take that freebie acres-of-silk gown with sequins and the diamonds from the jeweler to go with


    by artappraiser on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 4:48pm

    From UCLA's Hollywood Diversity Report

    “Most studios want to be associated with prestige projects. Everyone wants to tout Oscar nominations,” says Darnell Hunt, UCLA dean and professor who authors the university’s annual Hollywood Diversity Report (the 2020 report was released on Thursday). “And if you’re starting out with an Academy that’s overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male, and overwhelmingly over 60, then there are certain types of projects that they’re going to recognize as quality. Projects that feature people of color, I mean save maybe a slave story or two that they’re familiar with, they’re not going to see that as Oscar worthy.”

    That sentiment is something that the organization itself recognizes. Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a 2016 statement that she was “both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion,” and introduced a plan to increase membership for women and people of color.

    Hunt’s 2020 report says that films featuring diverse casts were the top performers at the global box office since it was created in 2014. “There certainly is no reluctance to making more money on the back of diversity,” he says. “What we’re not seeing the same degree is diversity behind the camera. Behind the camera white men are still firmly in control and that’s significant because they’re the ones who are making green-lighting decisions about what gets made, what the budget’s going to be, how it can be marketed, and who’s going to direct it.”

    This year’s report found again that writers, directors, and executives are still over 80 percent white and male. Without more diversity in these positions, the films that are made and celebrated will only fulfill certain narratives. Hunt says to start to fix the problem, there needs to be a large shift in who is in the executive suites, and a continued push for diversity among the Academy’s ranks.


    https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/oscars-diversity/

     


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 6:35pm


    by artappraiser on Tue, 02/11/2020 - 12:34am

    In a Post-‘Parasite’ World, What Happens Next?

    Can the film’s big Oscar win change Hollywood, or will things go back to business as usual?

    by Kyle Buchanan @ NYTimes.com, Feb. 14


    by artappraiser on Sat, 02/15/2020 - 6:42pm

    Parasite *is* business as usual, much as Brokeback Mountain, Avatar and Gandhi, and Sex, Lies & Videotape were business as usual - Hollywood sometimes cheers the outliers, sometimes backs the mundane. I'd look up Slumdog Millionaire, but doesn't matter - it either grabbed their interest or didn't, the M.O. stays much the same. Meanwhile, superhero franchises have largely taken over the industry, which largely worries me.Netflix and HBO are becoming as predictable as the studio system as well.

    But perhaps we should put Hollywood on a diet and quota system, for our own good...


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/16/2020 - 5:31am

    Drumpf apparently only figured out now that there was a globalist message here and that he should be using it as a MAGA culture wars meme:

    The president of the United States is complaining about 'Parasite' winning Best Picture at the Oscars because it's a film from South Korea. Via Fox pic.twitter.com/7szfnXgqPt

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 21, 2020

    Maybe someone on Fox said something on topic as an aside?


    by artappraiser on Thu, 02/20/2020 - 9:03pm

    Film critic Donald Trump reaches into his racist, rat-chewed box of Froot Loops to mock ‘Parasite’ and Brad Pitt

    By Vinay Menon Entertainment Columnist @ Toronto Star, Feb. 21

    love his snark but the photo illus. they chose is prime too. Ladies and gentleman, the president of the United States and new partner of Beavis and Butthead:


    by artappraiser on Fri, 02/21/2020 - 10:18pm

    Can we get 1939's "Gone With The Wind" back?


    by rmrd0000 on Fri, 02/21/2020 - 11:45pm

    I've got to say that to me this is perfect example of how you hunt for bias verification about racism in each and every story, no matter what it's about. Trump could have just as easily said "can't we get 'Lawrence of Arabia' back?" or "can't we get 'Dr. Zhivago' back?" and then others with different confirmation bias than yours could do their thing just as myopically. Missing what's important.

    The big picture message here: Hollywood came out against Bannonism, against Make America Great Again, for globalism and against nationalism and tribalism. There are open to quirky individualist works of genius no matter where they come from, no longer rah rah p.r. for the big American studio picture. And the members were surprised and proud that a majority ot them had come out and voted that way. 

    It is remarkable and important culture change. And Trump instinctively knows that. He knows that it's culture wars stuff and he's lost this battle (I dare say Ronald Reagan of SAG would too.) And you're missing the import by fixating on the fact that he used as an example of a movie from 1939 that revisionists have issues with, when it's not 1939 anymore and Trump probably was just picking a epic movie out of thin air. HE'S NOT THAT SMART, for chrissakes, and I'd certainly be willing to bet the last time he watched Gone with the Wind was: never. I seriously doubt he knows what the story of "Gone with the Wind" is.


    by artappraiser on Sat, 02/22/2020 - 12:20am

    An article in the WaPo addressed Trump's statement that you seem to be willing to dismiss. 

    Since its release, “Gone With the Wind” has been criticized for its depiction of enslaved African Americans as simple, scatterbrained and happy in slavery.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/02/21/trump-gone-with-the-wind-historians/
     

    This is not about confirmation bias. I responded to what Trump actually said. He did not pick the movie out of thin air.

    You miss the big picture by ignoring the fact that there is an ongoing discussion about lack of diversity at the Academy   Awards.

     

     


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 02/23/2020 - 7:29pm

    I don't buy it that Trump intended that, it's in the minds of paranoid beholders. Which happens naturally because he is already known as a racist, it's part of the circus. If all one thinks about is racism, and nothing else, one looks for things that confirm that bias just like the nuts who search for evidence of the Deep State plot in every bit of news they see.  But I disagree with the deconstruction, I think it's paranoid and inaccurate. I think it was intended as a preference for old timey big epics about western civilization by American studios, i.e. MAGA. That's "racist" enough for many, but not enough for you few who seem to be obsessed with code for Trump secret project of restoration of the Confederacy.


    by artappraiser on Sun, 02/23/2020 - 11:36pm

    Dick can Dyke for Prez?


    by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 02/22/2020 - 1:09am

    But "Hollywood" still conveniently gets right what witness tampering is and isn't.


    by artappraiser on Sat, 02/22/2020 - 12:01am

    Trump meant the Pentageli scene the judge wouldn't allow in trial. Stone didn't bring in Randy Credico's brother, so it wasn't intimidation.

    https://youtu.be/eUjjzwIrebQ


    by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 02/22/2020 - 12:53am

    One quite simply excellent and beautifyl result: globalism, cross-cultural fertility in action:

     


    by artappraiser on Sun, 02/23/2020 - 7:00pm