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Academy Awards shorts

The Last Repair Shop

I’m reviewing the Academy Awards shorts after finally seeing the documentaries at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady on March 6 at 2 pm, where the auditorium was about half full. Yes, I could have seen most of these on a small screen, but seeing them on the large GE Theater screen was more impactful, IMO.

Animated short – previously reviewed

*Letter to a Pig

*Ninety-Five Senses – my favorite

*Our Uniform

*Pachyderme – perhaps the best

*War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko. It won the Oscar, but it was the most conventional.

Documentary Short

*The ABCs of Book Banning “follows the fight against book bans in America, specifically in Florida.”This works because it is the children, many around the age of 10, who “express disappointment over losing access to vital titles on LGBTQ and racial issues, wars, and the realities of growing up.” Then there’s centenarian Grace Linn, who “confronts a Florida School Board, opposing book banning in local schools,” citing her late husband as part of the reason. It’s currently playing on Paramount+.

*The Barber of Little Rock “explores America’s racial wealth gap through the story of barber Arlo Washington, who founded People Trust.” While there’s a lot of conversation about the wealth gap between white and black Americans, about eight times difference, the real impact was seeing the impact that not that much money can have on people’s lives. There’s an eye-to-eye exercise at the barber school, which is powerful. The New Yorker has this online.

*Island In Between—” S. Leo Chiang reflects on his relationship with Taiwan, the United States, and China from the islands of Kinmen, just a few miles from mainland China.” I had no idea that Taiwan controlled the islands, which are surrounded on three sides by the mainland. Where is Chiang’s home?Will the Beijing government take over Taiwan’s first line of defense? Interesting. You may watch this on the New York Times site.

My favorite in the category

*The Last Repair Shop: “Los Angeles is one of the last American cities to provide free and freely repaired musical instruments to public schoolchildren—this film goes inside a warehouse where instruments are repaired for students.” What’s terrific are the backstories of the “handful of devoted craftspeople [who] keep over 80,000 student instruments in good repair.” This was my favorite of the five. It’s available on Disney+. It rightly won the Oscar.

*Nai Nai and Wài Pó – Sean Wang: “”Nǎi Nai (奶奶) is my grandma. Wài Pó (外婆) is also my grandma. Together, they are a grandma super team that dances, stretches, and farts their sorrows away.” One is in her 80s and feels like she was in her 20s. The other is in her 90s and feels as if she were 100. They are a hoot. It’ll be on Disney+ if it isn’t there already.

Live-Action Short

The After – “follows a grieving rideshare driver (David Oyelowo) who picks up a passenger who helps him confront the past.” It’s on Netflix.

*Invincible –“Inspired by a true story, Invincible recounts the last 48 hours in the life of Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old boy on a desperate quest for freedom. A film by Vincent René-Lortie. I saw it on Vimeo. Depressing.

*Knight of Fortune – “The loss of a loved one, the grief, the risk of yellow skin, and a coffin, this is too much for Karl to face. It is much easier to fix a broken lamp. A chance encounter with a stranger will help him face his pain.” I watched this on the New Yorker’s YouTube channel and. liked it. I forwarded the link to some of my Death Cafe colleagues.

*Red, White, and Blue tells “the story of Rachel (Brittany Snow), a single parent living paycheck to paycheck who… has to travel across state lines in search of an abortion.” This, I suspect, is all too common. It was available from Vimeo for $1.99.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved story about a rich man who sets out to master an extraordinary skill to cheat at gambling. It is available on Netflix. Wes Anderson directed it, and it stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, and Ben Kingsley, so it’s unsurprising that it won the Oscar.

Oscars

I heard the Academy Awards were on Sunday night. As usual, I recorded them, but I haven’t viewed them yet. I will probably watch them by June, when I record the Tonys, and watch them over the summer. I’m not all that interested in who was “snubbed.”

I was thrilled that American Fiction’s Cord Jefferson won Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) and Anatomy of a Fall’s Justine Triet and Arthur Harari got Best Writing (Original Screenplay).

The other award I was pleased about is a category I seldom consider much. The Zone of Interest’s Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn won for Best Sound. If you’ve seen the film, you know why.

Playing cards as family currency

pinochle

One of the dynamics in the nuclear unit when I was growing up was playing cards as family currency. I learned canasta from my paternal grandmother, Agatha Walker Green before she died in 1964. Then, I taught it to my great-aunt, Deana Yates, before she died in 1966. She and I also played 500 rummy.

Shortly before Deana passed, my father taught me pinochle. A pinochle deck “consists of A (high), 10, K, Q, J, and 9 (low) in each of the four suits, with two of each card.” But one cannot play the game with two people. You need at least three. This meant that my mother would play with my father and me.

This was cool because I enjoyed time with my parents without my sisters, who were not serious card players, while the three of us were. In describing this situation to a friend, they said they just liked to play for fun. I contended that playing seriously WAS the fun.

Interestingly, we played with a double pinochle deck with the 9s removed. We held 26 cards each, with two cards in the kitty. When I was 10, I could barely hold all of the cards, but I improved over time.

Whist

My grandfather, McKinley Green, and I played gin rummy. To this day, I remember that he said, “This hand is a foot,” when the cards didn’t come his way.

My parents also played bid whist with family friends Jim and Betty at their house. I’d often go with my parents. My mom occasionally tired, and I’d be my dad’s partner. Also, sometimes Jim would get angry when the game didn’t go his way, and his tantrums would upset my mother. This was understandable, though I found Jim’s antics more humorous than scary as his face reddened.

I don’t recall how often we played pinochle or whist. One of my sisters recalled my mother complaining to my dad about going out to play bid whist, “I like the game, but do we have to play every week?” While this was a bit of hyperbole, we did play a great deal until I graduated from high school. As I said, it was something I did with my parents that I did not have to share with my sisters.

My parents got married 74 years ago today. They were hitched until my dad died in August 2000.

Outrage! I mean Outage!

National Landline Telephone Day

Sometimes, when I see a certain word, I read it as another. For instance, I read the word Outage more often than not as Outrage. I wonder if it’s because many folks are outraged when there is an outage – there’s a blackout after severe weather.

Sometimes, it’s warranted, such as after the Maui, Hawaii fires of 2023, which cost people their lives.

I’m sure the massive AT&T outage in February 2024 was problematic for some. But I felt more outrage when people called 911 to check if their cell phones worked.

I was also puzzled by media stories suggesting that those with cell phones—97% of Americans—should have some redundancy. Were they suggesting we should have…. no, it can’t be that… landlines? Either that or walk to your nearest fire or police station in case of emergency, we were told. I’m only a block and a half from the nearest police station but I can imagine several scenarios where walking for help would be inefficient at best, impossible at worst.

This article had some interesting statistics:

34% of homeowners still have a landline. Only 15% of renters have a landline.
There is a big geographic difference in households that only have cell phones… The states with the lowest percentage of homes that only use cell phones are New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. The whole northeast has fewer homes that rely on only cell phones than the rest of the country.

We’re Both Of The Above people, New York State homeowners with both cellphones and a landline.

Missed the holiday

Related: March 10, 2024, was a holiday. “Let’s take a step back in time and celebrate National Landline Telephone Day with our activity, The History of the Telephone. This activity introduces students to Alexander Graham Bell and shows the impact of his invention – the telephone – on the U.S. population and how phones have changed since first introduced in 1876. For added fun, encourage students to make a list of people they know who still only use landline telephones.” Fun for your favorite seven-year-old.

In case you have forgotten, this was how you dialed your telephone in 1936 and 1954.

FB/IG

Regarding the March 5 event, I laughed quite a bit when people marked themselves Safe after the Facebook and Instagram outage. I understand folks tried unsuccessfully to reset their passwords multiple times, and that certainly would have been extremely frustrating. Somehow, I had missed it altogether until someone emailed me. Elon Musk was experiencing WAY too much glee over it.

In the outrage category, a friend I’ve known IRL since the 1960s noted they disputed a few Amazon claims they didn’t recognize. Amazon immediately locked them out of their account, disconnecting the Fire TVs, Alexa, AND access to Kindle. So they couldn’t turn on any of the lights in the house, watch TV or read. All of these devices/media were items they purchased! Amazon shouldn’t be able to disable them. This DID get resolved, but it’s rather Big Brother.

This got me thinking about the vulnerabilities we experience, from technical glitches to bad actors hacking into governmental, educational, and medical facilities. Those outages do generate outrage, especially the ransomware attacks. Do you ever wonder if the technological networks we’ve built our lives upon could come crashing down?

Sunday Stealing: Friday Five

the cinema

This week’s Sunday Stealing is from something called the Friday Five. But is it the Dave Clark Five, Jackson 5, MC5, Five Stairsteps, Five Satins, Five Man Electrical Band, or another quintet?

1) What is your favorite thing about winter?

I may live to regret this, but… The winter of 2023/24 in Albany, NY, to use a technical term, sucked. Last I checked, we were two feet below average for the date. My seasonal allergies, which tend to disappear in the winter, occasionally flared up.

I like going to the movies in the winter and catching up on the awards-nominated films, so I’m greatly disappointed that both the Spectrum and the Madison Theatres in Albany closed, at least temporarily.

2) What is your favorite winter sport?

I LIKE shoveling a third of a meter of snow, and I take pride in the good, no, great job I do in clearing the sidewalk.

3) What is the best winter treat?

Hot Chocolate.

4) What is the earliest time in the year it ever snowed where you live?

October 4, 1987. I was interviewed on the local news because of my 2012 blog post recollections.

5) What is the best way to stay warm in the winter?

My head MUST be covered. I’ve been known to wear two knit hats simultaneously. Next, gloves are important, followed by warm socks.

6) What are your favorite things that are paper?

Book pages, especially art books. I did like the movie The Paper Chase.

7) What are your favorite things that are cotton?

Actor Joseph Cotten (1905-1994). Or clothes

8) What are your favorite things that are leather?

Eh? My wallet, I guess.

9) What are your favorite things that are floral?

No idea. The Rose Bowl parade?

or Woody Guthrie

10) What are your favorite things that are wood?

The built-in bookcase in my office. Or Evan Rachel Wood, Natalie Wood, Ed Wood, Norwegian Wood, or Woody Woodpecker.

11) What should you do if you think your house is haunted?

The house is a century old. It’s almost certainly haunted, but I’ve taken no action.

12) When should you investigate a strange noise in your basement?

We once had sewage back up into our basement. I believe we heard it before we smelled it.

13) How do you know if an abandoned building is safe to visit?

When I was younger, I LOVED abandoned buildings. I’m relatively sure I dream of abandoned buildings. Now, my footing is too unsteady to venture into uneven surfaces.

14) How do you decide whether to solve a problem as a team or split up and go it alone?

The last complicated problem was going to France in May 2023. It involved securing land transportation (train and car) and a place to stay in a remote locale that AAA’s affiliate could not accommodate. So much of it was me because 1) I was retired and, therefore, theoretically had more time, and 2) the wedding involved a friend of mine from 1977.

15) Where do you store your knives, and where would you look if one was missing?

The sharp knives are in a block on the kitchen counter. If one is missing, it’s likely in our daughter’s bedroom.

Mixed CD: Flick Tunes

from 1965 to 2003

Being Academy Awards weekend, I thought I’d share songs from movies. It’s from a mixed CD I made in 2007 called Flick Tunes. Interestingly, I haven’t seen three of the movies, yet I own the soundtracks on CD.

Morning Hymn/Alleluia – Nun’s Chorus. The Sound of Music (1965) won five Oscars, including Best Picture, and was nominated for five more, including Julie Andrews as Best Actress in a Leading Role. Though my mother owned the soundtrack LP, and I played it a LOT in my childhood, I never saw the movie until I saw it on video with my wife and daughter in 2013.

I’m A Soldier In the Army of the Lord – Lyle Lovett, The Apostle (1997). I am positive I saw this movie on Washington’s Birthday weekend in 1998 with my ex-girlfriend Susan to see Robert Duvall’s Oscar-nominated lead actor performance.

John Rudolph

In Your Mind – Johnny Cash. Dead Man Walking (1995). I saw it at the Spectrum. Susan Sarandon won as best lead actress. Sean Penn (lead actor), Tim Robbins (director), and Bruce Springsteen (the title song) were all nominated.

The Great Beyond – R.E.M. Man On The Moon (1999). At the Spectrum with my wife. Jim Carrey won the Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, but the film failed to gain any Oscar noms.

I’m Going Home – Sacred Harp Singers at Liberty Church. Cold Mountain (2003). I never saw the film. Renée Zellweger received the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The movie received four other nominations, including Jude Law as Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Beware Verwoerd – Miriam Makeba. Amandla! (2002). The subtitle is “a revolution in four-part harmony.” I saw it at the Spectrum.

In The Name Of The Father – Bono and Gavin Friday. In The Name Of The Father (1993). I saw it at the Spectrum. It was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director (Jim Sheridan), and Best Lead Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis).

Revolution – Grandaddy. I Am Sam (2001). I never saw it, but it has a bunch of Beatles songs. Sean Penn was nominated as Best Lead Actor again.

Overture To The Sun – Terry Tucker. A Clockwork Orange (1971). I saw it, quite possibly alone, and I felt brutalized. Yet I love the music. It was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Director (Stanley Kubrick) and Best Picture.

Train song

Ridin’ The Rails – k.d. lang and Take 6. Dick Tracy. I was disappointed that this track does not appear on the lang box set. I never saw the movie, which won three Oscars, including Best Music, Original Song: Stephen Sondheim for the song “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)”; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; and Best Makeup. It was nominated for four others.

Lonely Avenue – Ian Gillian and Roger Glover. Rain Man (1988). I saw it. As I recall, a critic particularly loathed this song as a bastardization of a great Ray Charles song. [Shrugs] The film won four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Lead Actor, Dustin Hoffman; Best Director, Barry Levinson; and Best Original Screenplay; and nominated for one other, cinematography.

Tennessee Plates – Charlie Sexton. Thelma & Louise (1991). I saw it in the cinema. THR deemed this film #18 on the list of Hollywood’s 20 Most Erotic Movies. Callie Khouri won Best Original Screenplay, and the film received four other nominations, including for director Ridley Scott and lead actresses Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon.

Ma ‘Tit Fille – Buckwheat Zydeco. The Big Easy (1986). I recall disliking the film, which I saw with Susan at the Spectrum, but loving the music.

The first film on this list that I saw

Ballad Of Easy Rider – Roger McGuinn. Easy Rider (1969). I saw it when I was in high school. Two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson) and Best Original Screenplay (Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern).

The Funeral (September 25, 1987) – George Fenton and Jonas Gwangwa. Cry Freedom (1987). Three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Denzel Washington), Best Musical Score, and for the title song (both Fenton and Gwangwa)

At that point, I might have quit after that stirring finish.

Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive – Clint Eastwood. Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil (1997). I saw this film shortly before my trip to Savannah in 1998 and recognized some landmarks.

You’ve Got A Friend In Me – Robert Goulet. Toy Story 2 (1999). My wife and I saw all four Toy Story movies; not one was with a child. Randy Newman was nominated for Original Song: When She Loved Me. I saw Randy Newman once.

And finally:

Gump – Weird Al Yankovic. Although I own the soundtrack to Forrest Gump (1994), most tracks are too obvious. This parody of Lump by The Presidents Of The United States was more suitable. BTW, Forrest Gump won six Oscars: Best Picture, Best Lead Actor (Tom Hanks), Best Director (Robert Zemeckis), Adapted Screenplay (Eric Roth), Film Editing, and Special Effects. It was seven more, including Gary Sinise for Best Supporting Actor.