THE SHOW BUSINESS! Back in the days of black and white TVs and the youngest child acting as the soon to be invented remote control, with the next oldest child handling the precise movements of the Rabbit Ears, and one or both of them in control of the very edgy horizontal and vertical dials, usually whose directions for adjustment were Commanded by a Mother or Father or in our house a VERY BOSSY older sister… we would all gather around the TV and watch the ACADEMY AWARD SHOW. It was an event, in which my mother would have baked a cake, cookies, and popped enough popcorn to feed an army. (It was buttered popcorn, just to make us feel that we were actually in a movie theater.) Back in those days, we of course only spent time in the movie theater on Saturdays at the neighborhood movie palace called the Manor, where for 25 cents, a kid could spend 3 hours watching 25 Cartoons, a dozen Previews, and a Matinee of two features in CINEMASCOPE! We were given 50 cents for food, other than the lunch and snacks our mothers prepared, and in our case, it was the best Hebrew National Bologna Sandwiches! But I digress…Because on Oscar Night, no matter how poor we were, no matter how middle class we were, no matter how much of budget we were on, WE suddenly became involved in the lives of “THE RICH AND FAMOUS,” and we considered it a treat. I loved the fantasy, the let's pretend, the whole idea of “THERE’S NO BUSINESS-LIKE SHOW BUSINESS.”
I love FILM! I adore Movies, and for me, Cinema is an escape to some creative environment. As I grew older and those Good Old Days became more abundant than the soon-to-be Good New Days, I became more aware of the HAVES in this world and the HAVE NOTS. What once seemed common and ordinary to me, began to fade into a kind of WHAT THE FUCK, JUST HAPPENED, and a who is IT that sets the standard of ACCEPTABLE or NOT ACCEPTABLE. FILMS, MOVIES, CINEMA remain a genre of entertainment in which I can fly high, leap mountains, become a hero, and sing and dance my way to a happy ending, (Of course for me BROADWAY MUSICALS, do that best), but sadly the business of SHOW BUSINESS, darkens the once bright eyes spirit I once had.
Joe decided that maybe this year we should watch the Oscars. We have a plethora of Cable Choices, but on Sunday we were tired and wanted something less taxing. What I witnessed at the OSCARS was a DEMONSTRATION of the HAVES having no idea of REALITY, and showcasing for the HAVE NOTS, that mere existence is nothing compared to overpriced fashion/overpriced jewelry/bad taste pretending to be CLASSY/Nobody’s suddenly becoming Red Carpet leeches, and SNOOTY BULL SHIT being as phony as watching and EMPEROR meander down the lane with no clothes. And the topper for me was the demonstration that if you are considered Entertainment Royalty you too can commit violence and receive a standing ovation. Oh yeah, and in the real world of death, dying and murder, and pain, if you are the HAVES a split second of mentioning THE REAL WORLD makes your soul eligible to fly to HEAVEN. (This year’s OSCAR BLING BAGS were estimated to cost $140K each…imagine if the ACADAMY suggested LOUDLY, spend that money on Ukraine/Poverty, Food and Shelter in the US!) There are the HAVE NOTS and DAMN a whole bunch of HAVES who just demonstrated to HAVE does not mean you HAVE A LOT!
