Happy Easter, Body Politics

 It's Easter weekend -- what a perfect time to enjoy thinking about mortal human bodies. 

This culture war is so fckng dumb. 

It's dumb that so many people in the USA align themselves with their chosen political side while dismissing the other big moneyed party as hopelessly terrible. It's dumb that people who align themselves with the so-called conservative side say asinine shit about "values" and what they call "wokeness." It's dumb that people who align themselves with the so-called liberal side can't say one goddamn thing about the topic without sputtering clichés and twisting themselves into self-contradicting contortions of logic.

It is so so so so dumb that media coverage is a joke and that the things people write obfuscate and deny reality.  (On "both sides"! 😅😡)

It is so so so so so so dumb when you want males to play/ compete in women's sports.

It is so so so so so so so so so so so so so dumb when you pretend you are not your body.  

"He is not here, for He has risen." 

      - some Bible verses

You know what wasn't in the tomb? His. Body. 

It's a story about a mystifying wacky event that gave us a world-spanning religion. The religion spends a lot of time on souls and imaginary things and not making sense, and the Easter weekend story is grisly af (pounding nails into flesh = now I can forgive you), but if resurrection doctrine gets one thing right, it understands that everybody is a body. 

On the other hand, gender religion is more like all the rest of Christianity and spends time doing torturous mental gymnastics to try to convince everybody that the imagined immaterial soul inside them is what really counts. Only, it's also randomly male or female. You know, like a body. Could have got in the wrong one, though. Whoopsies! So gender religion is then like, hey! your body doesn't have to be your body, so to fix that we'll do a bunch of stuff to... your body.  

You are here (on Earth - I would say "here in reality" but some of y'all do your level best not to dwell much in reality at all) because your human body was born. (Side note: born. An embryo is not an alive person.)  You are your body. That's you! 

You know who will never ever ever have women's bodies? Men. They do like to use and control our bodies, though.  

Salon Day

Completed Category: Makeup & Hairstyling 

I recently was on TV and on that occasion I got to have actual Los Angeles studio professionals touch my hair and makeup, for two seconds. I believe this is the first Awards Season in which I've had this recent, fresh perspective. This, of course, is of no actual consequence whatsoever to anything. On to the nominees! 

All Quiet on the Western Front * The Batman *  Black Panther: Wakanda Forever * Elvis * The Whale 

The other day I got around to watching Im Westen Nichts Neues which is German for not much is happening on the western front, and by the way I loved it, and since it got a whole lot of Oscar noms, this viewing let me chip away at eight more categories AND complete another one: Makeup and Hairstyling. 

I will say this. There is a pivotal moment in Im Westen Nichts Neues (aka AQotWF) where the makeup of caked up mud etc. on our protagonist's trench-war-weary face is really, really close up for a good long scene and it is haunt-your-nightmares memorable. That one scene, along with all the various blood and guts, could bring a Makeup win here. I think it would be well deserved. 

It's interesting that this category is mostly thought of as Makeup, when Hairstyling is clearly also right there in the name. I think that IWNN/AQotWF, The Batman, and The Whale had far less going on hair-wise than makeup-wise, whereas BP:WF and Elvis had notable hair. 

As I've mentioned, BP:Wakanda Forever was OK but loooong and boring, and I'm not sure that I would pick this category for it to win. It might get overlooked because it just did its Makeup/Hairstyling job well and that's that. The Batman, a much worse movie (in fact, in the bottom two of all nominees I've seen so far), had at least one superb makeup job (everyone's raving about the Penguin) but that movie was mostly about being dark and moody and brooding and dark (and terrible) and I don't predict a win here for it. 

What about The Whale? This is an interesting question of how a full-body prosthetic is "makeup."  It is, of course - but just interesting to think about. For example, how much daily work was it, how many touch-ups, versus building how many prosthetic bits in the first place? Also, the whole fat suit and the movie got some backlash because they are said to be one big fat-shaming mess, so I suspect that might lead some people to not vote for it. But, it's a secret ballot, so who knows? 

Elvis, on the other hand, is definitely going to get some proud votes including for the nominated Actor performance, and sometimes when the Makeup & Hairstyling is a big part of the actor's "transformation," people like to applaud both and talk incessantly about them throughout the Awards Season. Elvis could definitely take home this prize without much other thought being given to anything else. 

I, however,would probably vote for Austin Butler's actual acting performance. HE was great. It wasn't the makeup and hair. That said, this movie DID have a constant stream of shows and glitz and performances and aging and many people to make up and style over many decades, and I won't be mad if it wins this category.

If I were an Academy voter, I'd check the  Makeup & Hairstyling box for All Quiet Im Westen, because I can still see that soldier's face now, vividly. Not to mention various other bullet wounds, blood, guts, and human tragedy that we somehow will never, ever learn not to perpetuate. 

Who would win in a fight among a banshee, a whale, and a panther?

This has been my weirdest Oscar nominations week in years!  I didn't get to take the Oscars day off work as usual (thanks, new position at my non-profit), and I also had this weird little thing that happened, which is that my Jeopardy! episode aired on January 24th as well. My focus was totally split! All this is to say that although I watched the live morning nominations announcement and mad e a checklist, I really didn't get a chance to sit and revel and ponder and think about my Oscar checklists until days later (read: today), at which point I realized: I already have a completed category! 

Whaddya know! 

Completed Category: Supporting Actress

Do I have a strong opinion about who should win here?  Weeeelllllll....  no. 

My strongest opinion, of course, so far this awards season is the general overall one that Everything Everywhere All At Once sucks, and due to its leading 11 nominations, that opinion is probably going to get repeated at least nine more times (today is a two-fer).  Both Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu were nominated for that disaster of a flick, so we can only hope the godz hear our prayers and split the vote, if any, leaving one of the other three to win, please and thank you .

On the other hand, I will give some props to the category this year, that you could make a reasonable case that all of these are, in fact, Supporting roles. We all know that this doesn't normally happen, but there is no real egregious leading-role-angling-for-an-award-by- pretending-to-be-Supporting here, so we're already off to a better start than in SO many years.  That said, you could definitely make a reasonable case as well that some of these are, if not proper co-stars, then equal parts of an ensemble. But, really for The Whale and The Banshees of Inisherin (my favorite so far!), the whole film is set up as This One Guy's Story and everyone else orbiting around him.  Hong Chau has a lot to do in The Whale, but she and everyone else are orbiting around our Professor Whale, so I'm not too mad about it.  I would also not be too mad if she won! She was fantastic!!   I might add that she was also beyond fantastic in The Menu, which got exactly zero Awards love, despite being AWESOME. I would love to see her win. 

Ditto for Kerry Condon in Banshees, which I adored.  It is a bunch of co-stars/ensemble revolving around our hapless Colin Farrell hero, and she is just the best there is. 

I think, though, that the safer bet is Angela Bassett in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I have nothing bad to say about her performance, and yes there were emotions, the late Chadwick, etc. etc. but honest to god that movie was boring and long and did I mention it was long?  The first Black Panther was so good and I know our expectations were high but ohmyfreakinggod was that thing ever going to end? SO I can't really remember necessarily the emotions elicited me watching Angela Bassett other than the happiness I felt when I got my popcorn refill. 

What do you think? Who was your favorite Supporting Actress performance this year? 

One category down, twenty-two to go .... which is actually the same number I had on Tuesday when the noms were announced.  I did not get to do my usual ritual of going to see a nominated flick each day this week, either.  In fact, after the noms day, I didn't head to the theatre until, GASP, Saturday night.  That's right; you heard me. I went to a movie in a THEATRE on Saturday night, which makes me so twitchy (but it was Women Talking so the masses weren't thronging my auditorium, thank godz.)  Still just the Supporting Actress complete for now, though.  And so we commence our Awards Season, and maybe even hold out hope that I will blog consistently about it (don't hold your breath).