This is a year when I am absolutely stunned that the lead acting categories are both so close. It’s easy to make a case for five people to be taking home one of these two trophies a week from Sunday. Which thespian will be walking away with acting’s biggest prize? Let’s get right into it…
In the last few years, all of the major locks have come from the supporting acting categories. There have been no real surprises or upsets. You don’t see Olivia Colman winning over Glenn Close or Anthony Hopkins stealing Best Actor from Chadwick Boseman. There is something nice to know I can just check these off as guarantees, but also kind of a bummer to know there’s really no home for an upset.
Will 2023 be the same? Let’s take a look…
Continue reading “FBC 2023 Oscars Coverage, Part VIII: Predicting the winners, part 2…”
Twenty years ago I was sixteen, still a few years off from even comprehending what twenty years felt like. Every responsibility I have now was merely a pipe dream. Kids? Wife? Mortgage? I couldn’t begin to imagine how far away these concepts were back then. In 2003, my primary concern was getting a driver’s license. I was a suburban kid full of all of that teenage angst and disillusionment toward the world around me. I internalized every negative thought and interaction, feeling as though only I could see the cracks in the suburban façade. Linkin Park was practically handing me a tract for whatever they were preaching. Their debut album, Hybrid Theory, was my obsession. I gravitated toward their extremely catchy hooks and melodies. When they announced their second studio album, Meteora, was coming in March of 2003, it was the most important thing in my life. I had favorite musicians and bands prior to them, but no act had fully overtaken me like Linkin Park did at that time.
But as I found out- time doesn’t stop. And the only constant is change.
A staple of the Chicagoan suburban comedy scene for over a decade, there are few comics working more than Jack Baker. Clubs and shows love him. Audiences love him. Other comedians love him. It’s really kind of gross.
This Sunday, Jack is preparing to record his first special at The Comedy Vault in Batavia. He agreed to sit down with us and let us ask him some questions…
Continue reading “Fancy Boys Club sits down with: Jack Baker”
Ok, so normally, I start predicting winners a week earlier, but ya boi caught the COVID and it sucked butt. So, let’s not waste any time and jump right into the sweet, sweet screenwriting categories. This year, I will be brief in my remarks about what films should have been nominated, as I gave you my thoughts on the matter a few weeks ago.
So, let’s begin…
Continue reading “FBC Oscar Coverage, Part VII: Predicting The Winners, Part 1…”
Hogwarts Legacy, one of the most anticipated video game releases of the year, came out a few days ago. The game, in which a player controls a child wizard at the school of magic made popular by the Harry Potter book and film series, is bound to sell a whole lot of units, though I won’t be one of them. For starters, I don’t own a video game console unless you include my phone, of which there are several games I often pass time with. Also, I think there have only been a few great video games, and the last one may have been Halo. There is no better video game, to me, than Burger Time. That being said, I understand that this boy wizard franchise, created by J.K. Rowling, meant a whole heck of a lot to a whole bunch of people and that sentimentality is going to be huge for sales.
Even if it means that people are supporting something that’s really gross.
Yeah… it’s one of these pieces.
Continue reading “For heavens sake, you don’t have to play the fucking wizard game!”For the past eight years, I worked as an editor for GameSpot and Comic Vine–and I was a freelance writer prior to that. During this time, I wrote and published thousands of news pieces, editorials, features, reviews, and listicle galleries that I often called, “Fun toilet reads.” Additionally, I had the role of host/producer/editor of a wrestling podcast called Wrestle Buddies. I had what many considered to be the dream job. Then, one day, it was taken all away, as I was part of a group of people that were laid off by our parent company.
This isn’t something new. Throughout my years working at GameSpot through various parent companies, I saw this happen a few times. It was never easy. You lose people you talk to every single day, as they’re no longer in your work Slack. And from there, you grow apart from many of them. But after surviving numerous rounds of layoffs and seeing people move on, I was brought into a meeting on a Thursday morning and told I no longer had the gig of a lifetime. It still stings. It still hurts. And it’s hard to pick yourself up.
Continue reading “I’m A Casualty Of Mass Layoffs”
For the past three years, my wife, Moon Daisy, and I have spent our time traveling in a dilapidated seafoam green 1971 Volkswagen Bus. The interior was a faded checkerboarded material that looked like cloth but felt like a damp sponge that sat in a dirty sink over the weekend. The van smelled of sex, caviar, and Drakkar Noir’s most nefarious scent, “Voyeur Connoisseur.” Throughout my years as a prolific mountain climber, award-winning hiker, and tantric sex thought leader, I have had many luxuries. I’ve dined in the finest restaurants in Hanoi. Slept on 1,000 count Egyptian sheets in Sudan. I’ve celebrated the new year with world leaders and billionaires in Club 33 in Disneyland. But one experience that separates “me” from “you” is trying to make ends meet and traveling throughout America in a piece of shit automobile for “fun.”
Continue reading “Can You Call It A Bed & Breakfast If There Isn’t A BDSM Dungeon?”
When the sun rose and the dust settled on the announcement of the nominations for the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, Everything Everywhere All At Once was the big winner with eleven chances to win a shiny gold naked dude holding a sword. All Quiet On The Western Front continued to gain steam and go from the best chance to win International Feature to now seeming to be a legit contender for Best Picture. Women Talking, a movie which underperformed at SAG and BAFTA, thankfully got nominated for both Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Jackass Forever was robbed for Best Documentary. And I was 39/50 in my predictions. Not great, but serviceable.
Here are my immediate takeaways from today’s announcements…
With the nominations less than 24 hours away, you can feel the excitement in the air, and by that, I mean the air around me!
I’ve been predicting the Oscar nominations for Fancy Boys for three years with a very respectable 80% success rate. I think 2022 has the chance to be the most unpredictable Oscars in years, but that could also make it the most fun. Every year, I have a pick from my heart, whether it is Lupita Nyong’o for Us or Nicolas Cage for Pig, and I’m gonna try and avoid that and just go with my gut of what I think the Oscar voter is going to say.
Unfortunately, that is challenging in 2023. This feels like the one year where every category has some wild cards. Each category has about 3-4 locks with then another 2-5 hopefuls going for the other spots. And there are some real dogfights here. Remember how I said Michelle Williams running for Lead Actress was going to ruin the chances of a worthy actress? I did not realize it, but the actress getting hosed was Williams herself! Universal should have listened to me.
So, here we go. The nominees will be…
Continue reading “FBC 2023 Oscar Coverage, part V: Predicting the nominations”
