A reader writes:
Academy Awards: Woodstock for women, gays, and celebrities
NBA All Star Game: Woodstock for blacks and rappers
Daytona 500: Woodstock for southerners and country stars
All on the same day! [Although rain has postponed the NASCAR race until Monday]
What's about SWPL whites, normal men, and country club Republicans? The NFL combine? Accenture Match Play championship? Our ruling elites are underserved if just for one day!
Yes, but plenty of white guys will win Oscars, so a few elite white men will be happy. The Oscar voters are 94% white and 77% male. (For some reason, the L.A. Times study that came up with this didn't ask about politics, sexual orientation, or religion/ethnicity.)
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41 comments:
Is Nascar still for southerners? Didn't they ban the General Lee, you know, the one with the southern flag?
look what our western-european high-ability-creativity-&-tolerance skills have wrought:
understanding of & appreciation for other cultures are themselves western-european creations.
multiculturalism & obsession with diversity are western-european creations. even attempts to minimize western achievement & creativity are western-european creations!
I'm a woman, a golfer. Watched most days of the Accenture match play. Saw most of it today. Yea, happy for Hunter Mahan. America all the way (although I do like Rory).
Won't watch the Oscars. Have been boycotting them for the last several years. The only movie I've seen this year is "Midnight in Paris. Lovely cinematography. Trite script, but still lighthearted fun. Loved Hemingway.
Tuned in to see the results of the Daytona 500, only to see it was postponed.
Sorry if this double or triple posts.
Hate basketball.
In which world in the NFL Scouting Combine something SWPLs watch?
understanding of & appreciation for other cultures are themselves western-european creations.
multiculturalism & obsession with diversity are western-european creations. even attempts to minimize western achievement & creativity are western-european creations!
Exactly, so stop blaming Jews.
There was a very good VDare column a day or two ago, arguing that NASCAR's dramatic decline over the last few years has been due to its top-down effort at "diversification."
I don't know anything about NASCAR, but it seems very plausible to me. If some of the big black rap stars starting singing European folk songs and having mostly whites in their music videos, I suspect they'd lose most of their black audience...
I was focused on the Fountain of Youth Stakes, a precursor to the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby.
Horse racing is a subculture loved by elite, middle and low.
The winner today was a colt named Union Rags, owned by Chadds Ford Stable (artist Jamie Wyeth's wife) and trained by the same man as the great Barbaro, Michael Matz. Union Rags may be the favorite on Derby day.
If Union Rags wins a Triple Crown race, the Philadelphia/Delaware area would continue a local roll...Smarty Jones, Barbaro, Afleet Alex, Animal Kingdom
I didn't used to be the slightest bit interested in the technical awards. But now I think the Oscars are interesting for them only. Movie are becoming increasingly dependent on technical wizardry. I'm watching the Oscars for that alone.
"Anonymous RKU said...
There was a very good VDare column a day or two ago, arguing that NASCAR's dramatic decline over the last few years has been due to its top-down effort at "diversification."
Yeah, or maybe smart people just burn out on watching guys drive around in a circle* for for hours. Either one.
*Yes, I know it's an oval.
Most of the white guys are too busy working and keeping things together to be bothered with trying to organize some grandiose spectacle of narcissistic strip-teasing. Immodesty is the hallmark of the vain and the shallow; nothing to emulate there.
If the elites had one you wouldn't know about it!
Don't the elites have orgies and stuff?
Anonymous said: Don't the elites have orgies and stuff?
Bugsy: Strauss-Kahn got caught.
In some way, theOscar voters will find a way to prove themselves progressives, won't they?
Bugsy: Strauss-Kahn got caught.
He didn't get caught for the orgies, though.
Burlesconi is also known for orgies.
What about all the orgies we don't hear about?
"In which world in the NFL Scouting Combine something SWPLs watch?"
SWPL sports fans comprise a small segment of the SWPL community, but they are the subset of the the sports fan community that makes the most fuss about the Combine, hands-down.
These people go to SmartFootball.com and Grantland instead of listening to the local call-in shows of the "Shark and Biff on Sports!" variety, they don't wear current jerseys (it's either obscure throwbacks or nothing), and they're gaga for data, so the Combine is their day.
Moneyball flopped... the black nominee didn't win Best Actress (against 4 nominees ranging from ultra-fair to translucent)... the Mexican peasant lost to the French aristocrat... Hugo cleaned up in technical categories... the Los Angeles elite is indeed mysterious!
it's not annual subculture day, though.
it's really strange the NBA all-star game is today. today is the academy awards. these 2 events are never on the same day. never. this year, not only are they on the same day, they are at the same time.
what was the NBA thinking? either they just couldn't fit it in any other weekend due to the lockout. or, they probably could have, and their arrogance is sky high now. they didn't even bother to move the game up to 4PM or something to avoid the academy awards.
the NHL had some games today, i saw some of the penguins game. of course those happened at reasonable times: in the afternoon. like the NASCAR race and the PGA event. so they didn't stupidly conflict with the oscars.
which is dumber: going up against the second most watched event of the year, or going up against NASCAR, NHL, and PGA?
Downton Abbey ended last week, Diana. The Crawleys were finally engaged to be married! Matthew found out about the Turk and he didn't care.
In some way, theOscar voters will find a way to prove themselves progressives, won't they?
I noticed that the best actress award followed best actor. I am pretty sure that it was the other way around in the past but not sure when the switch was made. Doubtlessly, for PC reasons, however insignificant.
When exactly?
"I didn't used to be the slightest bit interested in the technical awards. But now I think the Oscars are interesting for them only. Movie are becoming increasingly dependent on technical wizardry. I'm watching the Oscars for that alone."
i agree. i stopped caring about the acting awards a while ago. this is why the academy should swap in a technical category into the televised part of the awards show, and swap out 2 of the documentary, short film, or foreign film categories.
few people have seen the foreign films, almost nobody has seen the documentaries, and flat out nobody has seen the short films. so when those categories come up in the televised segment, 99% of viewers scratch their heads and stare blankly as random people, who will never be seen or heard from again, occupy 20 minutes of the show.
but everybody will be seeing what the technical guys are doing, so that part of movie making should be pointed out. this year they should have spent at least 2 minutes talking about what doug trumbull is doing with cameras. that's hardly asking for much, a simple category swap. just 5 minutes of a 180 minute television production devoted to pointing how the movies are made.
the most important technical improvements or changes can be bumped up from their current, day before format, to the televised segment. and the documentaries and short films can be bumped down to the non-televised portion of the production, and awarded the day before, as most other categories are.
most viewers don't know that much about movie craft. for instance, most didn't know the guy who walked up on stage to accept the award for best animated movie, rango, is the guy who has been making all those johnny depp pirates movies.
interestingly, that's one way to know who is gonna get the music treatment and who will be allowed to talk for a while. they weren't going to yank gore verbinski off the stage. he's made over 3 billion dollars for them. but they'll yank most of the technicians off, and all of the documentary/short film/foreign film people if they go on too long.
one very peculiar thing about the show on sunday: the order of the last 4 awards was changed. it's never in that order. when they moved best actress back all the way, as far as it could go, right up to just before best picture, i knew something was up.
I swear every year I won't watch the Oscars, but I usually tune in for at least part of it. This year I watched the last 2+ hours, and I honestly can't remember an Oscars more boring than this one. Even most of the gags were lame - Ben Stiller & Emma Stone, The Bridesmaids girls, Will & Zach, every last one of them fizzled. Billy Crystal didn't phone his performance in - he sent a telegram. None of the movie clips I saw caused me to exclaim "I have to see that movie!" Not one. And what was with the constant references to Martin Scorsese?
The Oscars this year was like one giant in-joke, capped by the awarding of Best Picture to a movie thats a giant masturbatory self-reference to the industry itself.
Not only did I not get the joke, I didn't even care that I didn't get it.
Hattie McDaniel's win was well deserved this year. I miss those sassy fat Southerners of yore. Also we inoculated ourselves against that Iranian unpleasantness. Hooray for Hollywood
"SWPL whites" definitely watch the Academy Awards. SWPL are preoccupied with all things trendy and pop-culture-oriented, so being up on what happens at entertainment industry awards shows -- especially the Academy Awards -- is a must.
It should also be noted that Oscar parties occupy a special place on the social calendars of many SWPL. It breaks the monotony of the winter months. The Halloween-to-New Year's "holiday season" is a crazy time in the social lives most SWPL, but then there's nothing until the insanity of St. Patrick's Day. So Oscar parties fill a void. Heterosexual, single SWPL males can do very well for themselves at estrogen-soaked Oscar parties.
And that brings us to another important point ...
Not only is demonstrating one's superior taste in the arts a favorite pastime of the SWPL, it's also a "turn-on" for the average SWPL female. So even if a heterosexual SWPL male doesn't care about the glamor/pomp and circumstance of the Oscars, he pays attention so that he can win status points by saying something along the lines of: "I can't believe the Oscar went to _______ (insert name of film, actor, director, etc.). In a just world, where the Academy wasn't so culturally biased toward old white males' preferences, it totally should have gone to ________ (insert name of trendy foreign or "indy" film, actor, director, etc.)."
Being a geek is not necessarily considered a negative in the world of the SWPL. In fact, many SWPL proudly revel in their "geekiness" (provided they're not too geeky). So Oscar parties afford single SWPL males the opportunity to woo SWPL chicks with their mastery of pop culture knowledge, their superior taste in the arts and their "film geek" bona fides.
It's important to note, however, that while SWPL chicks often voice approval for pop culture "geekiness," a little "geekiness" goes a long way. Therefore, if a SWPL male hopes to impress the ladies with his "geek" credentials, it is paramount that he avoid coming off as a fanboy.
Drunk Idiot, how many divisions has the SWPL geek? Maybe you have been attending some seriously better Oscars parties than I ever went to, but I seem to remember them as mainstays of middle-aged professional women who would have no use for an AV Club contributing editor. Since the Academy only infrequently honors pictures for which people buy tickets, unless Weinstein is lobbying, the event itself is in advanced decline.
30something paralegals, realtors, Ally McBeals = mainstay of Oscar party; not other way around
In HS I remember the female students liked to gather for the show, but if Oscar night ever brought out the ready-to-rut coeds or even loose grad students in mixed company I missed that boat.
The movie industry shouldn't rely on us
@Anonymous, 10:26 PM, Best Actor usually follows best actress. This was the rare year in which the actress field was deeper than the actor field. There were other perfs. by actresses that got overlooked (Swinton) because the field was crowded. Streep was pretty much a lock so they gave pride of place to the legend. If they were doing this merely for PC purposes they'd have given the award to Viola Davis.
Get over it for 5 minutes, will ya?
@Jody,
I'm glad to see that someone agrees with me about the importance of the technical categories, but don't know, I think that more people who watch will be interested to see who wins in the categories you suggest they omit from the telecast than in any of the technical categories. Perhaps they dont' go to see foreign movies or shorts, but it's always kind of fun to see who wins.
The majority of the technical Oscars have been shunted to a non-televised side show, to cut down on time, and because "no one" cares. They get 1 minute of acknowledgement somewhere in the middle of the show.
In fact, a few years back, the academy stated its desire to ban ALL the technical awards from the main telecast, and there was a rebellion in the ranks - including stars, who depend entirely on their makeup artists and DPs to create them.
I noticed the following:
1. Surprisingly ugly dresses, or maybe I just don't care anymore
2. A lot of straight guys kissing each other on the cheek. What's up with that? They weren't all French.
3. Hollywood francophilia rules supreme
4. Overhwelmingly white guys won, one after the other, except for whoever won best supporting actress.
Troofie, this week it's a tri-oval!
@Davis, Downton Abbey ended last week? Shows you what I know! (I don't fall into either of its two demographics.)
Steve, Jody et al:
Behold the scientific and technical Oscars - the true heart of the industry - a cavalcade of non-diversity!
http://www.oscars.org/awards/scitech/index.html
Like I said, one white guy after another, with a few Asians for spice.
Pretty soon all movies will be recorded digitally.
@matthew
SWPL sports fans watched Liverpool win the Carling Cup yesterday, not the NFL combine.
The Halloween-to-New Year's "holiday season" is a crazy time in the social lives most SWPL, but then there's nothing until the insanity of St. Patrick's Day. So Oscar parties fill a void.
We should just be grateful they aren't filling that void with MLK parties.
Re: Wanderlust - I caught it this weekend. It was a decent flick. A bit gross (did they really need to show all those old nudists, IN FULL?) A bit of a throwback to 80s sex comedies. Its commentary on suburban materialism was somewhat funny, and would have been slightly funnier if Hollywood hadn't been spent the last 40+ years doing the same thing in generally less intelligent ways. Hollywood, of course, thinks it's cool to mock people who do work that's essential to our survival.
See it and you'll get several good chuckles. Miss it and you won't be missing much.
>Pretty soon all movies will be recorded digitally.<
And all acting will be digitized. Will save tons of money in the long. Then the techs will have the last laugh; revenge of the nerds.
There is also the advantage once mentioned by Disney. If he didn't like the performance of one of his animated characters, Walk simply erased him.
It's Annual Subculturepalooza Day... women, gays, and celebrities... blacks and rappers... southerners and country stars... SWPL whites, normal men, and country club Republicans... '
Sunday, February 26th, 2012?!?
You left out canned-goods-mongering, ammunition-hoarding, gun-toting SURVIVALISTS!!!
Out here in flyover country, they'd be what y'all big city types refer to as "normal men".
Downton Abbey ended last week,
has steve written about this.. lots of material here.
Reminded me of a long ago William Hamilton cartoon depicting a young wife perusing the newspaper and exclaiming, ”What a day! There’s a shrimp spectacular at Safeway, a Scandinavian furniture riot at Macy’s, and a radial tire bust-out at Texaco!”
The 1981 Oscars were scheduled for Monday, March 30, which was the same day as the NCAA basketball championship. The assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan occurred earlier in the day, so the Oscars were postponed one day. The basketball game went on as scheduled.
I haven't watched the Oscars since Eastwood won for Unforgiven. Throwing up is not my idea of fun.
@ diana:
If they were doing this merely for PC purposes they'd have given the award to Viola Davis.
Apples and oranges. Whoever scripted the show did not know who is going to win best actress. The move is pure PC and has nothing to do with the depth and competitiveness. The proof? Wait one year and see the same sequence - actress award given more "important" place than actor. Want to bet? :-)
"Whoever scripted the show did not know who is going to win best actress."
Anon, you are not being logical. If something is scripted then they would know who was going to win. If it's not scripted then the best actress coming last had nothing to do with who they thought was going to win.
I suspect they knew that Streep would win - but I'm not going to fall on my sword for that. I will say that it isn't PC to acknowledge that for once, the best actress field was actually deeper than the actor field. Usually they have to scrounge for best actress nominations. In this case several actresses who deserved noms didn't get them because of the 5 slot limit. This is very rare.
Actually, I'm kind of annoyed that Steve says that something that appeals to women is a subculture. Since when is half the human race a subculture? Is there such a thing as a mainstream without women? Isn't saying women are a subculture giving in to feminism in a way?
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