Oscar Rules!

So it turns out you CAN kick the old white men out! (Actually the irrelevant ones will just be stripped of voting privileges.) In order to understand these newest changes, I have been all over the http://www.oscars.org site reading about the rules of the club, which I have compared to a Lodge.

The beginning of “Who are you wearing?” Fred and Barney’s sartorial choices.

 

Here are the Oscars by the numbers.  There are around 6,000 members, and as we have heard, an overwhelming majority are old white men.

Politically correct

Trump supporters are said to like him because he “tells it like it is”, and “says things people think but don’t say”, and of course because he is not “politically correct.”  If you define yourself as politically incorrect, what is actually happening to you beyond people speaking up and calling you out on it?  Are there laws about thought and attitude being passed?

Manchester, New Hampshire, June 17, 2015. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter

Oscar Diversity

It’s not a democracy, it’s a club.  You get to vote, but only if you are a member.  

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a club with entrance rules.  You get nominated, you get in.  You get an honorary award, you get in.

That’s it.*  You can’t kick out the old white guys because they are old white guys.  You can’t make new rules for how to get in without changing the whole nature of the club.  Which is: motion picture artists and scientists nominate and vote for motion picture artists and scientists.

Body Art

It used to take pleading to get a hard copy of my X-rays for myself, but now digital scans can be emailed directly from the optometrist, or copies obtained on CD at the hospital for a few dollars.

Actual scans:

my left and right retina

mammogram, combined and coloured in Photoshop

David Bowie – and now the ultimate reinvention

Memorable men were born on January 8: David Bowie, Elvis Presley, and my dad.

January 8, 1947 http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/david-bowie-66-releases-first-new-single-decade

January 8, 1935

January 8, 1923 my dad Joe

David Bowie left us in a way that has moved me to my very core.  His longtime friend and producer Tony Visconti has already been widely quoted:

He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life—a work of Art. He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn’t, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry.

When Winter makes a Statement

Mon pays, c’est l’hiver

Winter has arrived.  The bikepath where I walk Yoshi.