last night's oscar nap is complete

One of the most uneventful Oscars of recent memory concluded with a victory by Anand in Jeffrey's Oscar Pool. Here's the final tally (includnig number correct out of 19 categories):

• Anand: 16
• Moira: 13
• Leann: 12
• Jeffrey: 12
• Chad: 9
• Kevin: 9
• Jen: 8
• Diana: 8
• Adam: 8
• Jim: 7
• And admirably voting her heart and not her pocketbook, Lauren: 1

Congratulations to all, and most importantly to Anand who wins the leather jacket he left at my apartment last month!

In terms of the rare highlight from last night, I have to say I loved Chris Rock's Gap monologue about Bush, Jamie Foxx's acceptance speech, and was really confused by the in-audience award presentations.

New Age Cello

"Marston Smith performs on a 6 stringed electric cello mounted on Medieval Armour. His music is the embodiment of epic romanticism.... His performances are renowned for his creative costuming bordering Cirque du Soleil with Lord of the Rings and the Road Warrior."

rare thank you

I should also give rare props to the President for not cutting the NEA or NEH budgets. I suppose that's like congratulating a parent for not slapping his/her child, but given the amount of cuts across the government in order to fund his war, this was a nice surprise...

is this insensitive?

As a fundraising professional, I wonder just what kind of reaction I should have to the tsunami donations. Reading this article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy, I couldn't help but to cringe a little at this quote:

"I hope we don't run into a dry spell like we did with 9/11," [DeWayne Duskin, Salvation Army of Grand Rapids' director of development] says. "Fund raising took a dip for three or four months and went real flat. We cannot afford that at the front of the calendar year."

Is it equally my right as an arts organization to have your money as the Red Cross and Save the Children? I once told one of my high school students several years back who asked why people give to symphonies instead of hospitals that while hospitals protect our lives, we would have no point to our collective existence if there was no art.

Just like I mentioned last week about the cold, passionless way AOL talks about reaching African Americans, this story really is about the unfeeling, corporate approach to professional survival in the face of unimaginable pain and suffering.

I'm sure Mr. Duskin cares very much for the recovery of the tsunami-stricken region, and I'm not attacking him for his statements. It's simply a small sentence reflecting a larger image of American corporate life.

they're certainly not talking about hockey

There's a different kind of racial segregation these days, not the unspeakable separate but (un)equal of 40 years ago, nor the deliberate ghetto-ization of urban areas. We talking about the non-menacing but still unsettling segregation of demographics.

The extreme of this is obviously liquor and cigarette advertising in underclass and predominantly African-American neighborhoods. But even in daily marketing lingo for such middle-class products as, say, AOL.

I'm not pointing a righteous finger, but seeing this banner ad at AdAge.com incurred comic strip-like exclamation marks to appear above my head:

Look, this kind of thinking is fairly standard in marketing research. Nothing controversial here. But it's certainly comical and existentialist to an extreme. Here is where I note two amusing elements to the copy:
1. The division of the main phrase into two sentences -- "African-Americans live." Right. "Here." Righ---what? Where? AdAge? AOL?
2. "Let us connect you to their lives" would cause dirty, dead Camus to shit his britches.

So we have learned that not only do African-Americans exist (much like you and me, only darker!!) but also that no matter our color we're all just zip codes.

i noticed you're drinking 1 percent...

You should know how much I love you. All of you. Fans and detractors alike. I love you so much, in fact, that I will give you an early Valentine's Day present: Napoleon Dynamite reading the Top 10 list on Letterman.

Love me! Love me real hard

oscar pool

All right, kiddos, sign up for my Oscar Pool. There's no prize for the winner other than a fleeting sense of mild satisfaction. Even if you're not joining Wife and me at La Casa Fabulosa for the Academy Awards, you can (and should) still participate. Do it now!

Why are you still reading??? NOW!

asian massage and ice cream parlor

This sign is STILL up at the Florence, MA Friendly's. I need to eat out more: