It’s easy to forget where the people who walk to red carpet come from when the flash of the paparazzi’s camera or an elaborate stage construction lends the distraction. All movie stars have a story of how they got to where they are now and who helped along the way. For Best Actor and Actress at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock, it was the people who raised them.
Bridges, who won the award for his role as self-destructive country singer Bad Blake in “Crazy Heart”, said his dad would sit him on his bed at night and teach him the basics of acting. His parents’ love for show biz is what brought the remarkable actor his first Academy Award. He said the award honored them as much as it did him
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Sandra Bullock, who earned her first Academy Award nomination and Best Actress win for her role as Leigh Anne Tuohy in “The Blind Side”, recognized all of the mothers who provide unconditional love for their children, no matter where they come from.
In the film, Bullock plays a mother who doesn’t care that the child she takes as her own comes from the dirty streets of Memphis with nothing but a brown bag with spare clothes in his hands. She helps him transform his life and succeed in football, which is his ticket to a meaningful future.
In the past decade, before the premier of “The Blind Side” in 2009, Bullock was stuck acting in romantic comedies that didn’t do her acting any justice. Her role as Jean Cabot in 2004’s “Crash” was the last time since her Oscar win that Bullock showed she has real talent as a dramatic actress, talent that she hid from Hollywood in movies like “All About Steve”, “Two Weeks Notice” and “Miss Congeniality.”
In “Crash”, Bullock plays a woman who becomes isolated from everyone around her because of her intolerable racial prejudices. And even though Leigh Anne Tuohy couldn’t be far from Jean Cabot, Bullock put the same amount of passion into “The Blind Side.” And finally she’s being recognized for it.
So it’s no surprise that she would take the time in her acceptance speech to thank the Tuohy family for giving her the opportunity to do something different. Maybe now she’ll learn to stay away from those roles that have kept her out of the running for an Oscar her entire career.
Movie stars didn’t make it to where they are alone; there’s always somebody to thank, even if their gratitude doesn’t extend to family or relatives. And that’s why acceptance speeches are some of the most important moments of the Academy Awards.
Winner for Best Supporting Actor, Christoph Waltz, who played the wicked Jew hunter in “Inglourious Basterds”, thanked director Quentin Tarantino for reeling him into his film when he was looking elsewhere.
And even Kathryn Bigelow, who made Oscar history as the first female to win Best Director for “The Hurt Locker”, owed it all to Screenwriter Mark Boal, “who risked his life for the words on the page.”
At an event that felt more like an awkward comedy routine with some dance sequences mixed in instead of an awards show, the thank you’s of the night were the most worthwhile part.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Final Piece Pitch (revised)
My final piece will be slightly different from what I previously pitched. I still maintain that America loves stereotypes, and that stereotypes sell because it’s what the networks want. However, I will argue that we may be coming to an age where stereotypes on television are being shattered, and television shows, like “Glee”, are shattering those illusions that stereotypes exist.
My primary source will still be “Glee,” the show about a high school glee club. “Glee” is saturated with stereotypes of every sort: the football player, the cheerleader, the physically disabled, the homosexual, etc. However, instead of using "Glee" as my example in favor of the argument that America loves stereotypes, it will instead argue the opposite.
I decided to take on a different critical edge because I changed how I feel about this television show. “Glee” indeed uses stereotypes and they make the show entertaining to watch, but I don’t believe that “Glee” is perpetuating those stereotypes. Look at the case of the pregnant cheerleader, or the nerdy girl played by Lea Michele. Michele is actually a beautiful actress with a beautiful voice, and she hasn’t been made to look the part of the stereotypical geek. Kurt, the gay member of the club, receives all sorts of criticism but he is strong-willed, confident, and knows someday he will be better than all those people who put him down. And the football player, Fin, is a jock who decides to pursue his passion for singing (does this remind you of anything? High School Musical perhaps...).
There are more examples from the show, and I will still use my previously listed examples in favor of the America loves stereotypes argument. I will talk about how “Glee” is the most recent example of this new development in popular culture, but stereotypes have already begun to shatter with other television shows, like “Ugly Betty”, so maybe “Glee” will change the way we look at stereotypes for good.
My primary source will still be “Glee,” the show about a high school glee club. “Glee” is saturated with stereotypes of every sort: the football player, the cheerleader, the physically disabled, the homosexual, etc. However, instead of using "Glee" as my example in favor of the argument that America loves stereotypes, it will instead argue the opposite.
I decided to take on a different critical edge because I changed how I feel about this television show. “Glee” indeed uses stereotypes and they make the show entertaining to watch, but I don’t believe that “Glee” is perpetuating those stereotypes. Look at the case of the pregnant cheerleader, or the nerdy girl played by Lea Michele. Michele is actually a beautiful actress with a beautiful voice, and she hasn’t been made to look the part of the stereotypical geek. Kurt, the gay member of the club, receives all sorts of criticism but he is strong-willed, confident, and knows someday he will be better than all those people who put him down. And the football player, Fin, is a jock who decides to pursue his passion for singing (does this remind you of anything? High School Musical perhaps...).
There are more examples from the show, and I will still use my previously listed examples in favor of the America loves stereotypes argument. I will talk about how “Glee” is the most recent example of this new development in popular culture, but stereotypes have already begun to shatter with other television shows, like “Ugly Betty”, so maybe “Glee” will change the way we look at stereotypes for good.
Flat Iron art show draws in large numbers, but ends in disappointment
The “Now You See It, Now You Don’t” art show that was supposed to culminate in a total destruction of the 40 Chicago artists’ murals that coated the walls of the three-story Flat Iron Arts Building in Wicker Park was an anticlimactic attempt to scam the public into forking over a $5 donation at what was listed as a free event. It was an attractive concept, but the public never got what they bargained, or paid, for.
Every first Friday of the month, the Flat Iron hosts a unique artistic event, which usually draws in huge crowds. Part of that reason, other than the attraction to the artwork itself, is because the Flat Iron has a reputation that precedes it. It’s now considered the artistic hub in Wicker Park and surrounding neighborhoods, but it wasn’t always that way.
According to artist William Eaton, the Flat Iron used to have a reputation for being “a craftsy place with a bunch of hippies doing junk,” when the building first emerged in the 1980s. A lot has changed; it’s not full of junk and most of the artists are far from the flower children that infiltrated the place two decades ago. And that’s because in the past couple of years, Flat Iron owner Bob Berger has upgraded the building and drawn in some serious artists. Not to mention the popularity of First Fridays.
On Friday, Feb. 5, 40 Chicago artists were given wall space and a limited palate to create a mural in the building’s hallways that would be painted over white at the end of the showing. The murals were one interlocked and never-ending work of art. It was a beautiful showcase of the talent of some unfortunately indecisive artists.
The other part of the night was a presentation of the artists’ personal galleries. Mediums ranged from sculpture and painting, to cartoon sketches and digital photography. The number of mediums used and variations in each was as large as the number of different personalities creating the art that night. Artist Scotie Cousin, whose wall mural was a silhouette of a man running against a blue and orange background, said the piece took him three weeks to complete. Cousin commented on his piece, “And I don’t know why.”
The murals and the artists’ personal galleries, which looked more like high-priced apartments than art studios, were on display from 6-10 p.m., and at 10 p.m. the artists were supposed to whitewash every inch of painted mural.
But it never happened. When asked when the show would begin, some female artists in black cocktail dresses said they weren’t dressed to paint. At 9:50 p.m., just minutes before the supposed destruction, Flat Iron President Kevin Lahvic, who conceived the idea, was wandering through the halls unsure of what to do. They were unprepared for the amount of people still in the building at 10 p.m., and didn’t want to paint when so many people were walking through the halls.
But the point of the show was for the public to witness the whitewashing of the walls, and the crowd had died down to half the size it was. And how could the Flat Iron be so unprepared for the number of attendees knowing that First Friday events always lure in massive crowds? If they weren’t prepared to handle the capacity, they shouldn’t have promised anything in the first place.
There didn’t seem to be an easy way to organize the art of 40 artists, who displayed radically dissimilar types of work. And if there was an easier way, the Flat Iron failed to execute that. The hallways were difficult to navigate and the amount of artwork in the building was overwhelming.
It was a shame their disorganization drew people away because for some of the newer Flat Iron residents, this was an opportunity to get their names to the public for the first time. But also because the Flat Iron has artistic significance that spreads throughout Chicago, so expectations were high.
This was one First Friday event that failed to meet the demands of the artistic community. Everyone in attendance was building up to the moment the artists would paint over their murals. Cousin said, “That’s part of the beauty; knowing it’s there and then it won’t be.” And for something the artists claimed to be so passionate and excited about, they didn’t seem concerned that nothing was happening when the clock struck ten.
Every first Friday of the month, the Flat Iron hosts a unique artistic event, which usually draws in huge crowds. Part of that reason, other than the attraction to the artwork itself, is because the Flat Iron has a reputation that precedes it. It’s now considered the artistic hub in Wicker Park and surrounding neighborhoods, but it wasn’t always that way.
According to artist William Eaton, the Flat Iron used to have a reputation for being “a craftsy place with a bunch of hippies doing junk,” when the building first emerged in the 1980s. A lot has changed; it’s not full of junk and most of the artists are far from the flower children that infiltrated the place two decades ago. And that’s because in the past couple of years, Flat Iron owner Bob Berger has upgraded the building and drawn in some serious artists. Not to mention the popularity of First Fridays.
On Friday, Feb. 5, 40 Chicago artists were given wall space and a limited palate to create a mural in the building’s hallways that would be painted over white at the end of the showing. The murals were one interlocked and never-ending work of art. It was a beautiful showcase of the talent of some unfortunately indecisive artists.
The other part of the night was a presentation of the artists’ personal galleries. Mediums ranged from sculpture and painting, to cartoon sketches and digital photography. The number of mediums used and variations in each was as large as the number of different personalities creating the art that night. Artist Scotie Cousin, whose wall mural was a silhouette of a man running against a blue and orange background, said the piece took him three weeks to complete. Cousin commented on his piece, “And I don’t know why.”
The murals and the artists’ personal galleries, which looked more like high-priced apartments than art studios, were on display from 6-10 p.m., and at 10 p.m. the artists were supposed to whitewash every inch of painted mural.
But it never happened. When asked when the show would begin, some female artists in black cocktail dresses said they weren’t dressed to paint. At 9:50 p.m., just minutes before the supposed destruction, Flat Iron President Kevin Lahvic, who conceived the idea, was wandering through the halls unsure of what to do. They were unprepared for the amount of people still in the building at 10 p.m., and didn’t want to paint when so many people were walking through the halls.
But the point of the show was for the public to witness the whitewashing of the walls, and the crowd had died down to half the size it was. And how could the Flat Iron be so unprepared for the number of attendees knowing that First Friday events always lure in massive crowds? If they weren’t prepared to handle the capacity, they shouldn’t have promised anything in the first place.
There didn’t seem to be an easy way to organize the art of 40 artists, who displayed radically dissimilar types of work. And if there was an easier way, the Flat Iron failed to execute that. The hallways were difficult to navigate and the amount of artwork in the building was overwhelming.
It was a shame their disorganization drew people away because for some of the newer Flat Iron residents, this was an opportunity to get their names to the public for the first time. But also because the Flat Iron has artistic significance that spreads throughout Chicago, so expectations were high.
This was one First Friday event that failed to meet the demands of the artistic community. Everyone in attendance was building up to the moment the artists would paint over their murals. Cousin said, “That’s part of the beauty; knowing it’s there and then it won’t be.” And for something the artists claimed to be so passionate and excited about, they didn’t seem concerned that nothing was happening when the clock struck ten.
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