This year was the most accurate I’ve ever been at predicting the Oscar nominees. It’s also been the year where I have seen the least amount of the nominated films.
So, y’know… that’s hurtful.
In all seriousness, what my 41-for-48 predictions show is that this was the year when there weren’t going to be a lot of surprises on whom would be in the running for one of the golden statuettes. While there still were a few surprises (I’m shuffling through the internet to find out what the hell Another Round, nominated for Best Director, was about) and a lot of history made, this was a year where a lot of things fell into place the way most film nerds felt they would.
Is that a bad thing?
Honestly… not really.
Let’s take a look at some of the nominees and try and sort through what happened this morning.
Look, I’m gonna be the first to come out and say that I am terrible at picking Oscar winners. Most years, I’m lucky if I can clear 50%. Nominees, on the other hand… for some strange reason, that’s where I come to play. I can usually knock out 75-80 percent. I’m kind of a big deal.
There may have been a better title for this, but I’m not going to spend a crap-ton of time mulling that over. I’m not a headline writer nor do I have one at my disposal.
Do I think my kids hate sports? Hate is such a strong word, but I’m sure they do not appreciate them like I do. In fact, I’m not sure within the past 30 or so years of two wives, two different families and my own family anyone likes sports as much as I do. I spent a considerable amount of time watching football by myself at various Thanksgivings. Of course, my first marriage was into a family of scholars and scientists and for Thanksgiving they brought out flow charts and graphs about their latest work (I’m not kidding). Brilliant people, but criminy it’s Thanksgiving. As such, the TV became my friend… but not the Lions, never the Lions.
Okay, the only person who ever had the same zeal for sports that I have was my father. That’s where I got it from. Whatever team I wanted to win; he’d want the other. That was the nature of our relationship. He was certainly athletic, one of those multi-sport high school stars who ran roughshod over his opponents. He was good. Country good as he grew up on a farm, but not Jerry Sloan country good. That’s a far higher level.
Back to my kids. They were treated to a ton of games as they grew up. I was in advertising, and one of my clients for five years was WSCR The Score. So yeah, we went to a lot of games. While my fandom was certainly sated, I think I completely overwhelmed them.
But they played sports. Not as much as I did. I had something to prove – that I could beat my dad in basketball. Even though baseball was my favorite sport, it’s too hard to beat another individual at it and frankly he was a better hitter than I. No, I picked basketball. It took a lot of effort, and finally when I was 14 or so I beat him at HORSE. I know it hurt him as he was not the best at sportsmanship. Pretty sure he accused me of cheating. But that was normal. Accusations of cheating caused us to stop playing cards and board games when I was growing up. I was 9 when we stopped.
Not me and my daughter, but for a short period it could have been. Bad News Bears – Paramount – 1976.
It’s spring training and all the teams are out there getting prepped for the six months of regular season ahead of them. Baseball, since its season is so long, is a weird sport and team fortunes can change pretty quickly. However, I am not going out on a very long limb by stating this could possibly be the most lopsided season we’ve seen for a long time. The disparity between awesomeness and sorry-ass, to me, has never been wider.
For some teams the season will be far longer than they want. As such let’s start in reverse, like a spinning bunt that hits fair but slowly trickles right over the foul line to ultimately just be a strike… or in these collective teams’ cases, an out.
The ‘Keep your Bats in the Rack” Group
Colorado Rockies – they traded their best player, Nolan Arenado, to the Cardinals for a sack of seeds that no matter good the soil is and how carefully they water, will never germinate to anything of substance. They will be so bad that if California slides into the ocean, the Rockies still won’t win the NL West. They’re destined to be bad for a minimum of 5 years. Are there other teams worse than the Rockies? I believe yes, at least two.
Last week, I gave you ten films that are almost certain to be Oscar nominated in a week. Today I want to focus on five outliers that have shots at taking home some of the nominations in the big categories. Much like the last column, I’ll let you know where you can find these films if you want to check them out. Let’s dive in!
Well folks, we made it. We’re at the climax… The big O… The final article of the Fap Lane series. We’ve covered and uncovered a lot of ground over the past couple months with everything from the sex work industry, BDSM, sex toys, squirting, and, of course, onlyfans. And now we’re at the final chapter of this roller coster of a life I lead that you all seem so fascinated by. The part where I admit that: I have, in fact, been paid to have sex… sort of.
Earlier today, Texas governor Greg Abbott made news when he announced that he would be lifting all COVID restrictions in place, including the statewide mask mandate he put into effect in July. Starting March 10, Governor Abbott is not just removing the mask mandate, but also the limit on the amount of patrons who can be in a restaurant, despite the fact that Texas has seen an uptick in new COVID cases (and COVID deaths) over the last two weeks. Texas becomes the largest state to join a list of other states to lift mask mandates and COVID restrictions.
But what the liberal media doesn’t want you to know is this: there’s so much more that Abbott is allowing. Let’s give it up for freedom.
Last night, The Voice returned to television, which means that for the next few months, it is a guarantee that my wife will be watching NBC whenever it’s on. She loves this show. She loves Kelly Clarkson, she loves watching some of the performances (she does not love country, so she tunes out every now and then). This show is her cup of tea. Because I’m a good husband, I started watching it with her.
And now I love it, too… for one very specific reason: the insane amount of kindness radiating from its host, Carson Daly.
