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"I want to thank the members of the Academy . . ."

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In the past few years, the people who perform movie stunts have started to give out awards during the annual awards season, but they are still ignored by the folks who give out the ones known as Oscars. Tain't fair because, as most American movie fans know, sometimes a stunt will leave the audience dumbfounded and asking "how did they do that without killing the actor?" Don't they deserve to get an Oscar for their best effort for each year? The James Bond series of movies is particularly known for stunts that truly deserve the adjective stupendous when being discussed.

Maybe it's just an American thing? Europeans are the ones who like long lingering shots of some poor sap standing on the platform at the Gare du Nord train station dripping wet in the rain with a sad music playing (usually a tinkling piano) while his girlfriend boards a train with her husband. No one ever said being an existentialist is supposed to be fun.

American's love movies with cars driving off a cliff a la "Thelma and Louise."

In the age before Computer Generated Images, the stunt sequences spoke for themselves; it may be that in the computer era, two different awards are needed: one without a boost from computer animation and one where it was part of the magic.

The shortest acceptance speech of all times happened when Garry Cooper picked up his Best Actor award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences by saying just one word: "Thanks!"

Will some conservative troll object to this column? You betcha! Any capitalist worth his salt (look up the origin of the word salary) knows that if you start giving workers any sort of encouragement in the form of awards, it must follow as the night the day, the next thing the rascals do will be to form a union and demand higher wages for risking their lives as part of an effort that will earn hundreds of millions of dollars for the studio owners.

Would Woody Guthrie second the motion to honor the actors and actresses who put their lives on the line to help tell the stories that range from a guy named Luke running away from a pack of baying hounds to a fugitive diving off a high dam? You betcha! The guy who sang "I'm stickin' with the union" would most certainly endorse honoring the best examples of those anonymous daredevils at work.

Advocating the establishment of a new category for the Oscars may seem too mundane when compared to issues such as the stealth efforts to sneak Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) past the citizens, but being a progressive liberal means fighting a war on multiple fronts. Not just in the Middle East, but metaphorically speaking, it means paying attention to all the facets of politics, which have to be considered simultaneously.

The conservatives seem to be unanimous about all the contemporary issues they face; so solidarity with smaller progressive causes seems to be a necessary response to the Reagonists' "Three Musketeers" strategy. Have the Republicans been influenced by the Hell's Angeles' admonition: "to fight one of us means fight all of us" type philosophy? Hell, yeah.

Don't Uncle Rushbo's disciples seem to have a knee-jerk automatic disapproval of anything suggested on a liberal web site?

Those capitalist mongers will greet this column's topic by quoting the most famous cinematic line of dialogue of all time: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"

Now, the disk jockey will play Dooley Wilson's version of "http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/5/13335/41432?new=true>As Time Goes By." It's time to add the tags, because if I don't I will regret it. Perhaps not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of my life. Have a "This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship" type week.

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BP graduated from college in the mid sixties (at the bottom of the class?) He told his draft board that Vietnam could be won without his participation. He is still appologizing for that mistake. He received his fist photo lesson from a future (more...)
 

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