Troy

The following is Kam's recap, of the Oscars. As you might image I had zero interest in this broadcast. Far and away the most interesting thing to me is how Del's picks compared to Kam's ----------------------- Oscar Recap 2015 by Kam Williams Birdman Soars over the Competition! Evening Marked by a Profusion of Political Acceptance Speeches Birdman won Best Picture at the 87th annual Academy Awards on a night periodically punctuated by politically-conscious acceptance speeches. That film and The Grand Budapest Hotel tied for the most wins, 4, followed by Whiplash with 3, and Boyhood with 2. There weren’t any upsets in terms of the major categories, with Julianne Moore (Still Alice) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) prevailing in the lead acting categories, as expected, as well as J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) in supporting roles. The evening was emceed by Neil Patrick Harris, who went out of his way to draw attention to the diversity among the celebrities in attendance, but only after joking that “Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest, I mean brightest.” This was obviously in response to complaints about Selma being snubbed and all the acting nominees being white. Ostensibly to make amends, Neil awkwardly enlisted the assistance of Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo and Octavia Spencer to perform as his straight men, even returning to Octavia again and again as the butt of a running joke which unfortunately fell flat every time. The Academy took a posthumous potshot at the late Joan Rivers, getting the last laugh by leaving her out of the “In Memoriam” montage featuring photos of recently-deceased showbiz legends. The veteran comedienne might not have had much of a career as an actress, but she certainly established herself later in life on the red carpet where she would flourish as a sharp-tongued, fashion critic. From the very first acceptance speech by J.K. Simmons who suggested people pick up the phone and call their parents and tell them you love them, it seemed that every winner had a political agenda, with causes ranging from suicide prevention (Graham Moore) to equal pay for women (Arquette) to immigration reform (Alejandro González Iñárritu) to Lou Gehrig’s disease (Redmayne) to Alzheimer’s (Moore) to privacy (Citizenfour director Laura Poitras) to the African-American incarceration rate (John Legend). A galvanizing moment arrived during rapper/actor’s Common’s heartfelt remarks delivered while accepting the award for Best Song, “Glory,” with John Legend. Common eloquently put a universal spin on the legacy of the historic Selma march, stating: “I’d like to thank God that lives in us all. Recently, John and I got to go to Selma and perform ‘Glory’ on the same bridge that Dr. King and the people of the civil rights movement marched on 50 years ago. This bridge was once a landmark of a divided nation, but now is a symbol for change. The spirit of this bridge transcends race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and social status. The spirit of this bridge connects the kid from the South side of Chicago, dreaming of a better life to those in France standing up for their freedom of expression to the people in Hong Kong protesting for democracy. This bridge was built on hope, welded with compassion, and elevated by love for all human beings.” To hear Common & John Legend’s acceptance speech, visit: PS: As far this critic’s Oscar predictions, I got 18 of 21 correct, including all the major categories. Not quite the perfect score of a year ago, but pretty impressive nevertheless, if I must say so myself. Complete List of Oscar Winners Picture: Birdman Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman) Actor: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) Actress: Julianne Moore (Still Alice) Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) Adapted Screenplay: The Imitation Game (Graham Moore) Original Screenplay: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo (Birdman) Foreign Language Feature: Ida Animated Feature: Big Hero 6 Documentary Feature: Citizenfour Original Score: The Grand Budapest Hotel Original Song: “Glory” (Selma) Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel Makeup and Hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel Sound Mixing: Whiplash Sound Editing: American Sniper Film Editing: Whiplash Visual Effects: Interstellar Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel Cinematography: Birdman Live Action Short Film: The Phone Call — Matt Kirkby and James Lucas Animated Short Film: Feast Documentary Short Film: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

According to an article published by Nielsen. African Americans also. Listen to the radio for more than 48 hours 56 hours using apps or mobile Internet browsers on their smartphones two and a half hours watching videos on their smartphones Presumably some of these Black folks work a 40 hour week (160 hrs per month), which is a bold assumption given the economy. I would also assume these folks sleep for 7 hours a day or (roughly 210 hours a month), a luxury to be sure. Maybe an hour of eating, and an hour of caring care of personal things (bathing, and other bathroom related activities). Assuming a 30 day month, we have 720 hours to work with. Taking the information from Nielsen's report, and combining it with conservative estimates of things most people have to do we have; 160 hours work 210 hours sleep 48 hours radio 56 hours mobile aps 200 hours TV 30 hours eating 30 hours (bathroom related activities) That is 734 hours 14 more than are available. Now I know not everyone fits into every category, and people can do more than one thing at a time (watch TV and eat), but 200 hours of TV a month just seems extreme. I watched 6 hours of TV on day last week and I felt like a complete slob afterwards, and viewed never to do that again. According to this report Black people watch more than 8 hours of TV a day! I simply don't believe it. But why would they lie, or report numbers that don't make sense? Does anyone reading this believe those figures and their conclusions: African-Americans watch the most television of any group, watching nearly 200 hours per month—roughly 60 more hours than the total audience! While blacks watch more real-time (i.e., live) television than other groups, levels of time-shifted and video-on-demand viewing are increasing as well, furthering the notion this group of consumers is multifaceted in their approach to viewing their favorite broadcast and cable programs. I don't.

My Buddy Gwen was nice enough to share her experience at the NAACP Literature Awards:

Kam is pretty really good at picking which films will win. Last year he correctly picked all 21 films in the categories above. So if your picks come to pass you may be on to something.

Interesting Divination versus Pragmatism which will prove more accurate

Well we know who shot Malcolm. Indeed one of the trigger men who was interviewed by Gil Nobel, truly believed he was doing the right thing at the time, but later regretted his actions. There were no shortage of people who wanted Malcolm dead during the time. Of course the FBI had it out for Malcolm as well. We also know there were agent provocateurs stirring up things within the Nation of Islam, further fueling tensions. We also know an attempt was made on Malcolm's life when he was in Africa. Too bad we no longer have programs like Gil Noble's Like It Is perhaps we would not be so ignorant.

Yeah Lawrence Hill's award-winning bestseller was republished last month If I had time I would get into this book. I visited Nova Scotia a few years ago. Blacks have a rich history in the area.

Yeah but those b-ballers are not going to risk injury (nor should they) or really bust their humps to win this game; not the way they would (or should) for a championship ring. I'm sure you would agree with that. For me the basketball season does not really start until the playoffs. Watching the Knicks play, what are essentially meaningless games (they are not going to the post season), without there start player is not interesting to me at all--especially with the prices they wanna charge. In fact one sports commentator pointed out that the Knicks really do not wanna win too many games as it would impact the their draft picks. I just read Demitra died of breast cancer, at just 35 years of age. Sad. I was unable to find a video of her on youtube. I'm not sure I remember her.

I finally got around to checking this out. I'd seen this site before, stumbling across it looking for song lyrics. The interesting thing about his notes is, like poetry (or anything said or done), people bring their own interpretations. It does not mean that Chabon is right or wrong. It just means that Lamar lyrics are open to interpretation (which of course is the point). As plain as Lamarr lyrics were, I did not agree completely with Chabon's interpretation. I also saw a mistakes in the lyrics (though they don't materially impact the meaning). I get the impression both Chabon and the person who transcribed the lyrics, are not Black.

These men are active in the Harlem community, and have been for decades; Brother Leroy Baylor / Media, Mosque No. 7 and Dr. James McIntosh / C.E.M.O.T.E.P. (Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People). ​They are not celebrities but are actually doing conscious things of consequence in the community. Of course you will not read about them in the Black media today. The are direct links to Malcolm X, and The Black Power Movement. The program is called The Gilchrist Experience and was recorded on Feb. 11, 2015

To be clear, I was not griping about SNL, I was complaining about the length of the 3.5 hour anniversary show. I do watch SNL from time to time and have most of the 40 years it has been on air. The fact that the show was being stretched out makes sense, it sure felt like it was being dragged out. It seems childish for Dennis Miller to have boycotted the show because he is conservative there has to have been more to it than that. You know I can't tell the difference between the comedienne who imitates Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin. No, I had no interest in seeing the All Star game. Honestly I've heard very little about it. I even missed the slam dunk contest: Basketball, most sports don't mean much to me until the games mean something to the players. Which is why I enjoy NCAA March Madness, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, etc. Now I have been to pro games but I like to sit close when I can really appreciate the athleticism. But the ticket price are so high in NYC I can't really afford to go very often.

Thanks Del. I truly appreciate the supportive and kind words. You are right; for all practical purposes I have no competition. This was not always the case and there are many reasons we have come to this point. It is not so much that it is meaningless to me, it is meaningless to society as a whole. This too was not always true.. Did you see the article I shared from Ebony from just 15 years ago? It perfectly illustrates the shift in what Black people view as important. No one that I'm aware of publishes articles like that anymore. Apparently reporting on the activities of entrepreneurs on the web, does not generate any interest. In reality this type of content does generate interest, it simply does not generate as much interest as another story on some celebrity, ideally a scandalous story. Black platforms are largely controlled by corporations who only care about revenue, and therefore focus on what is most popular. The few remaining large Black-owned platforms, in an effort to remain competitive, mirror the behavior of corporations, as this is viewed as the best, indeed only strategy to succeed. This also explain the competitive behavior I've encountered from these entities. Over time readers come to see what these so called Black media companies cover as being what IS MOST important. The only people who might look beyond and question what dominated the mainstream Black media are those old enough to know what we had and lost, or those inquisitive enough to look deeper. These readers are my audience and supporters. Finally, and this is the most disheartening thing of all, consider the following: White media will cover an author like Attica Locke when they are targeting a white audience, but white media platforms designed for Black audiences do not. Black-owned media follows the script White media uses when targeting their Black audiences. Do you see what I'm saying here? In other words, an Attica Locke will get more coverage by white owned media targeted to white audiences and will get much less coverage in media targeted to Black audiences--whether it is Black or white owned. So I'll also talk about writers like Attica Locke who is a brilliant novelist and who also happens to write for the TV series Empire. The white-owned Black sites will focus on Terrance, Taraji and Lee Daniels, but AALBC.com will ensure Attica is recognized.

I watched my first episode of Empire last night. This was after watching the 3.5 hour Saturday Night Live special. All told, I watched about 6 hours of TV yesterday. I promised myself I would never do that again. Even if I enjoyed every sec of what I watched I'm sure I would still feel like it was a colossal waste of time. I feel like I'll end up watching 6 hours of TV again at some point; you know how it is when you binge drink, wake up the next morning and swear you'll never do it again, but you invariably end up doing it again anyway.... So no one has done that? OK maybe it is just me, but you see my point. At any rate, Saturday Night Live would have been a much better program if they edited out at least an hour. Chevy Chase was a shadow of his former self. I have to assume he has been sick, it was good to see him, but sad at the same time. Where was Dennis Miller, and what was the point of Eddie Murphy coming out if he wasn't going to do something at least marginally funny? Those who sat through all 3.5 hours will "get" the Saturday Night Dead reference. The acting in Empire is really good. I also noticed that Attica Locke has a screen writing credit, and I know she can write. I just don't really care for these types of stories any more. I understand the new series (Power?) with 50 Cent is more of the same.. There is plenty of drama in Empire so I can see why it has broad appeal. Taraji's character was called a bitch by at least 4 different people for no apparent reason. Do people, even in the music industry call women bitches to their faces, in front of other women, so freely? My on demand service did not have the first episode, so I had to start with episode #2, so maybe I missed the reason for all of the hostility against Taraji's character. Maybe I'm just an out of the loop prude. I felt compelled to watch Empire because of all the praise it has been getting, despite the obligatory criticism for depicting Blacks in stereotypically negative roles. I doubt I'll continue watching. If I do it will not be to end an evening of 6 hours of TV Besides, there are a couple of books I want need to get to.

I saw two of the movies listed above I saw Interstellar, which was pretty good, and The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I thought was a silly movie (I did not care for it), but I can see it winning for production and costume design. I did not see very many films this year. In fact the only "top Black film" I saw this year was Dear White People, and I just watched that this month. I do want to see Selma, before it leaves the theaters.

Kam shared his 2015 Oscar Predictions

Oscar Predictions 2015 Who Will Win, Who Deserves to Win, Who Was Snubbed by Kam Williams While Selma’s Academy Awards stock plummeted in the wake of allegations of historical inaccuracies, that of American Sniper simultaneously skyrocketed, thanks to both booming box-office returns and very positive word of mouth. However, Sniper probably had too much ground to make up to catch Birdman, the early favorite in the Best Picture sweepstakes. I envision Birdman garnering 4 awards overall, followed by The Grand Budapest Hotel, with 3. The only other multiple winners will likely be Boyhood, Whiplash and The Theory of Everything, at 2 each. Faithful readers will remember that a year ago, yours truly accurately predicted the results in 21 of 21 categories (I skipped the short films), so anyone who used my picks in their office pool fared pretty well. However, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Besides forecasting the winners below, I also suggest which nominees are the most deserving. Furthermore, because some great performances are invariably overlooked by the Academy entirely, I also point out those who should’ve been nominated. The 87th Academy Awards will air live on ABC this Sunday, February 22nd at 8:30 PM ET. Best Picture Will Win: Birdman Deserves to Win: Selma Overlooked: Nightcrawler Best Director Will Win: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman) Deserves to Win: Ava Duvernay (Selma) Overlooked: Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) Best Actor Will Win: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) Deserves to Win: Michael Keaton (Birdman) Overlooked: Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) Best Actress Will Win: Julianne Moore (Still Alice) Deserves to Win: Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night) Overlooked: Jennifer Aniston (Cake) Best Supporting Actor Will Win: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) Deserves to Win: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) Overlooked: Rick Garcia (Nightcrawler) Best Supporting Actress Will Win: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) Deserves to Win: Emma Stone (Birdman) Overlooked: Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year) Best Original Screenplay: Will Win: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo (Birdman) Deserves to Win: Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) Overlooked: Paul Webb (Selma) Best Adapted Screenplay: Will Win: Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) Deserves to Win: Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) Overlooked: Peter Landesman, Gary Webb and Nick Schou (Kill the Messenger) Predictions for Secondary Categories Animated Feature: How to Train Your Dragon 2 Foreign Language Film: Ida Documentary Feature: Citizenfour Cinematography: Birdman Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel Film Editing: Boyhood Makeup and Hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel Original Score: The Theory of Everything Best Song: Glory (Selma) Sound Editing: American Sniper Sound Mixing: Whiplash Visual Effects: Interstellar

OK Del I'll be waiting.

Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected One consequence of treating girls the same way your treat boys...

A book that followed those 100 students would be a good book or documentary Chris.

Chris that is an unfortunate story. Do you ever listen to the sports commentator Frank Deford?

No Cynique, the issues I raised are not unique to Black folks. It is just that Black folks, suffer the impact more profoundly (harsher and greater duration), and recover more slowly than our white counterparts. I know most people are not like me in this regard, but I have less than zero interest in reality TV. The programs always strike me as contrived, designed to entertain more than anything else. I've just resigned myself to the fact that I'll never be able to join in any conversations regarding these programs. I have nothing again people who enjoy them, I'm just not one of them. As far as your Mayoral candidate. I'm sure there are many white elected officials who how have done worse--especially in Chicago--than the brother you are referring it is just that Brothers forget they can't get away with the things white folks do. He has no chance of winning. I know something will be done about the wealth gap very soon. This morning I read an brief article in The Economist that said 0.1% of Americans have more wealth than the bottom 90%. This is the great wealth gap in the history of the country. Needless to say this includes a lot of white folks. When so many white folks are adversely impacted, things start to change and improvements are made to remedy the situation. Because when the great masses of white folks begin to suffer, they are liable to revolt and this is not good for business. Black folks of course stand to benefit from whatever changes are made. But we are never the reason for the change and any benefits we are accrue are purely incidental. This goes for the Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil Rights legislation. Funny how hard we fought for the right to vote. Now we don't bother to vote. I guess this is another example of us doing what Carter G Woodson described. "...if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit..." Chris I really do believe that if the Black media talked about these things, it would make a difference. Sure there is plenty of information available online, but you have to dig, it does not readily present itself in the filter bubble the social media driven thing the internet has become. But I also realize (trust me) that it is really difficult to make money talking about these things. 100 players scholarships--that is impressive. Any idea what percentage of those student/athletes got their degrees?

Reading this article is both nostalgic and depressing. Living through that period and comparing it to today is the main reason I often rant about the state of Black content and ownership on the web. As we lose publications, and the remaining ones struggle to survive, articles like this are virtually nonexistent today--even in Ebony. The potential reflected above has all but disappeared. Netnoir, The Black Word Today, Black Geeks, and many of the other sites mentioned above have disappeared, without fanfare or remorse. Ellington's, quote was quite telling; when looking for support from Black media companies, they either wanted to shut him down or buy him out. This mentality helps explain why we have lost so much and run so little today on the World Wide Web. I have tried to work with all of these companies at one point or another from collaborating with Omar Wasow on an interview an interview with Johnnie Cochran, before he started Black Planet, when he was running a digital bulletin board called New York Online I have been working with Gwen and Willie Richardson for years now; our most recent collaboration is the two year old Power List site for best selling book read by African Americans. I lament how slowly The Power List is taking to gain traction, because I know if the year was 2000, we would have so much more support. In 2015 the story is very different. Today, Black entrepreneurs cross the digital divide alone. It is no different that when I started creating websites in 1995. Interestingly the early 2000's mirrors the heyday of Black literature. This, of course, is no coincidence.

Crossing the Digital Divide Black Pioneers in the High-Tech World, Ebony Magazine, June 2000 I found this gem of an article on Google's site. I tried to find this article on Ebony's website but I could not. It remains unclear to me why Ebony does not make their digital archives available online, directly, on their own website.

Oh, I would have bet money Janae (whatever her name is) was from Chicagoland. I guess that shows you how much I care about all of this. But Jackie Robinson West (that is the team's name right) is no different that anyone else accused of cheating. Lance Armstrong denied it vigorously, until everyone involved came clean and he began to look stupid. Marion Jones, A-Rod, Ben Johnson, the list of deniers go on. Actually, it make sense to deny the allegations and fight them. You never know, you might just win. Think O-Jay. I read somewhere that the person who ratted out the winning team was also guilty of the same infraction. I don't like the win at any cost mentality. There can be pride in losing too, especially if you have a respectable game against a far superior opponent. But I guess we don't teach that lesson. We are definitely building character, it is the American character, it just happens to be one that is undesirable. One in which your success if defined by how much more you have than the other guy. It is the same character that is completely OK with 0.1% of Americans having the same level of wealth as the bottom 90%. If they have to cheat to get it (which they do), everybody understands--we were raised that way.