2018 Oscar Predictions

[+ WilliamM]

The pity Oscar.

 

Yes. Elizabeth Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher and survived a very serious pneumonia scare.

[Kenny]

Yes. Elizabeth Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher and survived a very serious pneumonia scare.

La Liz had lost in ‘59 for “Suddenly, Last Summer,” and had lost in ‘60 for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” The sentiment around the potential ‘61 strike three: Get that lady an Oscar before she dies!

[LoveNDino]

McDormand is priceless

[+ pitman]

I'd personally get rid of all musical numbers to cut down on time moving forward. Best original song is one of the most insignificant categories, makes no sense that 30-45mins are dedicated to it each & every year.

+1

The nominated songs are nearly always entirely forgettable.

[bostonman]

+1

The nominated songs are nearly always entirely forgettable.

 

Except when sung by Adele Dazeem.

[+ pitman]

The problem is, for this to work on TV at all, there has to be production value. Wanna just merely watch the awards given out and speeches made? They could do that on C-SPAN lol. Now, I do agree that the writing could be miles better, the gimmicks (like the visit to the movie theatre) need to be rethought, and yes, the songs should be presented in a better way, but I do think the songs provide a needed respite from the routine of the evening.

 

But yes - faster pacing in general, and some careful choices as to what works as "filler" and what really doesn't (Like, please god, don't make the Star Wars actors try to make jokes, lol) - that would help. (I actually think that, instead of the songs, all that awful "cute" banter between the presenters, before they announce the awards, needs to go away. Most of it is beyond terrible.)

 

And somehow - though I know this is pretty much impossible for many reasons - the commercial breaks need to be MUCH shorter (likewise the custom commercials for the evening, some of which went on WAY past their welcome last night.)

Since the show is about honoring great cinema, instead of lame musical numbers they should show more scenes from the nominated films, especially the documentary and foreign language films which are overlooked by most people.

[Kenny]

+1

The nominated songs are nearly always entirely forgettable.

I think “best song” is a legacy of Tin Pan Alley in the ‘30s, when radio was big and a popular tune could drive listeners to the movie theater ticket booth. Back then, it was common to have way more than five nominees. In 1945, there were 14!

[Populist Fury]

McDormand is priceless

 

She is LYFE. <3

 

 

Since the show is about honoring great cinema, instead of lame musical numbers they should show more scenes from the nominated films, especially the documentary and foreign language films which are overlooked by most people.

 

Completely agree, documentaries & foreign films never get the attention they often deserve. Bad musical numbers belong @ the Tonys & @ the Grammys (one of the many reasons why I never watch either of those shows lol). The Oscars should be more like the Globes... fun, only 3 hrs long, & no musical performances.

[EZEtoGRU]

I agree with Shill on Dianne Feinstein not running for re-election and several other issues.

 

I love Feinstein and believe she would have been an excellent president 20 years ago. I too agree it's time for her to go although I will always appreciate the level of intellect and class she brought to the senate.

[Kenny]

Completely agree, documentaries & foreign films never get the attention they often deserve.

Earth to Shill: The Oscars is a TV show that is broadcast to promote an entertainment industry. TV rules apply to a TV show, not the rules of artistic merit.

[Kenny]

I love Feinstein and believe she would have been an excellent president 20 years ago. I too agree it's time for her to go although I will always appreciate the level of intellect and class she brought to the senate.

DiFi is among the more reasonable Republicans in the Senate, which makes her a rarity, but I would love to see her replaced by an actual Democrat.

[+ WilliamM]

I think “best song” is a legacy of Tin Pan Alley in the ‘30s, when radio was big and a popular tune could drive listeners to the movie theater ticket booth. Back then, it was common to have way more than five nominees. In 1945, there were 14!

 

Also true of the Academy Awards until rock music in the mid-to late 1950s.

 

Bad musical numbers belong @ the Tonys & @ the Grammys

 

In any given year, the music may include "Hamilton" "American Idiot" or revivals of Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, even Styne and Sondheim's "Gypsy."

[EZEtoGRU]

You want NSA goons to "very closely" monitor law abiding citizens based on their political views, but I'm the right-wing extremist in this?????? lol I don't even know how to respond to such lunacy. Many Democrats like yourself have drank the Neocon warmonger kool-aid & aren't even aware that y'all sound just like them at this point. Sad... very sad to see.

 

Yes you are a right wing extremist pretending to be a moderate centrist. There's a lot of that around these days as people dump on Trump and pretend they voted otherwise. Take it to the Politics forum sweetheart.

[+ WilliamM]

I think “best song” is a legacy of Tin Pan Alley in the ‘30s, when radio was big and a popular tune could drive listeners to the movie theater ticket booth. Back then, it was common to have way more than five nominees. In 1945, there were 14!

 

The New Yorker:

 

 

.....at deeper level,[Andrew] Lloyd Webber’s memoir exposes a central fault line in the history of popular music. In the late fifties, not only was the “My Fair Lady” cast album the biggest seller of its time but spinoff jazz albums with musicians playing “My Fair Lady” material were huge sellers, too. Sinatra’s great albums of the mid-fifties were heavy with theatre songs. By 1964, all that had altered for good; a successful original-cast album went from the place where hits always happened to a place where they rarely did. When the Beatles and the rest arrived, the line between pop music and theatre music became almost absolute; the circumstance in which a Broadway musical was the natural home of a hittune began to break up more rapidly than anyone had thought possible, even though the previous connection had been so long-lasting that the Beatles felt obliged to play, as their second song before the American public, “Till There Was You,” from Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man.” An ironic sign of obeisance to a dying order.

 

Comment: True. I bought the OBC My Fair Lady and a Sinatra album together in Boston in the late 1950s.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

I mentioned this on Twitter, but Keala Settle really needs to stop singing This Is Me for awhile. She's ruining her voice and clearly, the media blitz they've put her through for awards season has done a number on her vocals.

 

She's a great performer. I'd hate to see her ruin her instrument.

[Kenny]

I mentioned this on Twitter, but Keala Settle really needs to stop singing This Is Me for awhile. She's ruining her voice and clearly, the media blitz they've put her through for awards season has done a number on her vocals.

 

She's a great performer. I'd hate to see her ruin her instrument.

Plus, the song’s not that good. It’s pretty much just a pastiche of "I Am What I Am" from La Cage aux Folles.

[bostonman]

I mentioned this on Twitter, but Keala Settle really needs to stop singing This Is Me for awhile. She's ruining her voice and clearly, the media blitz they've put her through for awards season has done a number on her vocals.

 

She's a great performer. I'd hate to see her ruin her instrument.

 

Plus, the song’s not that good. It’s pretty much just a pastiche of "I Am What I Am" from La Cage aux Folles.

 

Agreed. Settle is great in general, but she's pushing like crazy on this song.

 

I think, whether one is for or against having the songs presented in the broadcast, that we can all agree that the performances this time around were not very good in general. Gael Garcia Bernal's croaking of "Remember Me" being the true WTF moment.

 

Kenny - I know what you're getting at, but "pastiche" is really not the right term. That would imply the song would have a Jerry Herman-esque sound and/or lyric to it, which is obviously doesn't. But yes, both songs have a similar sentiment/meaning in the lyrics, which I know is what you meant.

[Kenny]

I know what you're getting at, but "pastiche" is really not the right term. That would imply the song would have a Jerry Herman-esque sound and/or lyric to it, which is obviously doesn't.

 

Jerry Herman:

 

I am what I am

And what I am needs no excuses

I deal my own deck

Sometimes the aces sometimes the deuces

It's one life and there's no return and no deposit

One life so it's time to open up your closet

Life's not worth a damn till you can shout out

I am what I am

 

Jerry Herman-esque:

 

I am brave, I am bruised

I am who I'm meant to be, this is me

Look out 'cause here I come

And I'm marching on to the beat I drum

I'm not scared to be seen

I make no apologies, this is me

 

[bostonman]

Jerry Herman:

 

I am what I am,

And what I am needs no excuses.

I deal my own deck,

Sometimes the ace, sometimes the deuces.

It's one life, and there's no return and no deposit.

One life, so it's time to open up your closet.

Life's not worth a damn till you can say, "Hey world,

I am what I am."

 

Jerry Herman-esque:

 

I am brave, I am bruised

I am who I'm meant to be, this is me

Look out 'cause here I come

And I'm marching on to the beat I drum

I'm not scared to be seen

I make no apologies, this is me

 

 

The way the "This Is Me" lyric reads to me is much more contemporary/pop in feel, and not structured as carefully or cleverly as Herman's more traditional Broadway lyric. (Herman is also more daring with his rhymes, which he always has been - the rhyming in "this is me" is much more general and common.) In terms of song structure, Herman always worked in the expected AABA kind of "standard" lyric structures, which "This Is Me" doesn't have. ("I Am What I Am" is 3 refrains of AABA lyric, each refrain carefully building and changing in tempo and feel - that kind of build or variety is also nowhere to be found in "This Is Me.") If anything, looking that that lyric simply on its own terms, I would tend to think, structurally, of something like "I Am Woman" way before "I Am What I Am" lol.

 

More to the point, "pastiche" in terms of music/song tends to refer more to a direct imitation of musical style. A lyric imitation would naturally follow, but the music would be the main focus. And there is nothing musical that connects the 2 songs. Though, Pasek and Paul can indeed do pastiche very well - I don't think they were trying for that here at all. (Or, in the film in general, as even Jenny Lind's "Never Enough" isn't pastiche for her character, which would have been an obvious choice to consider. Compare Cy Coleman's attempt at something more pastiche in Barnum, where Lind sings the more lyrical/quasi-operatic "Love Makes Such Fools Of Us All.")

 

 

Pastiche doesn't refer to the literal substance of a song (i.e. a similar message or "plot" in the lyrics), rather a deliberate and obvious imitation of style. That isn't what "This Is Me" is doing. It may be a pastiche pop song (from the standpoint of Pasek and Paul being musical theatre writers "imitating" pop, in a sense), but it's not a pastiche of Jerry Herman.

Edited March 7, 2018 by bostonman

[+ WilliamM]

Pastiche doesn't refer to the literal substance of a song (i.e. a similar message or "plot" in the lyrics), rather a deliberate and obvious imitation of style. That isn't what "This Is Me" is doing. It may be a pastiche pop song (from the standpoint of Pasek and Paul being musical theatre writers "imitating" pop, in a sense), but it's not a pastiche of Jerry Herman.

 

Writing so much is absolutely worth the effort for Cole Porter.

 

Perhaps not for Jerry Herman.

Edited March 7, 2018 by WilliamM

[Populist Fury]

Yes you are a right wing extremist pretending to be a moderate centrist. There's a lot of that around these days as people dump on Trump and pretend they voted otherwise. Take it to the Politics forum sweetheart.

 

How can you be delusional/blind enough to accuse me of pretending to be a moderate centrist after reading any of my posts?????? I literally bash the corrupt neocon/neolib centrist establishment as much as I can in each & every post lol

 

And no, I didn't vote for Trump last time, but I WILL in 2020 if Democrats cheat/smear/attack indies & progressives again. I can wait till 2024 to get the president I want if I have to. bye!

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Plus, the song’s not that good. It’s pretty much just a pastiche of "I Am What I Am" from La Cage aux Folles.

The way the "This Is Me" lyric reads to me is much more contemporary/pop in feel, and not structured as carefully or cleverly as Herman's more traditional Broadway lyric. (Herman is also more daring with his rhymes, which he always has been - the rhyming in "this is me" is much more general and common.) In terms of song structure, Herman always worked in the expected AABA kind of "standard" lyric structures, which "This Is Me" doesn't have. ("I Am What I Am" is 3 refrains of AABA lyric, each refrain carefully building and changing in tempo and feel - that kind of build or variety is also nowhere to be found in "This Is Me.") If anything, looking that that lyric simply on its own terms, I would tend to think, structurally, of something like "I Am Woman" way before "I Am What I Am" lol.

 

More to the point, "pastiche" in terms of music/song tends to refer more to a direct imitation of musical style. A lyric imitation would naturally follow, but the music would be the main focus. And there is nothing musical that connects the 2 songs. Though, Pasek and Paul can indeed do pastiche very well - I don't think they were trying for that here at all. (Or, in the film in general, as even Jenny Lind's "Never Enough" isn't pastiche for her character, which would have been an obvious choice to consider. Compare Cy Coleman's attempt at something more pastiche in Barnum, where Lind sings the more lyrical/quasi-operatic "Love Makes Such Fools Of Us All.")

 

 

Pastiche doesn't refer to the literal substance of a song (i.e. a similar message or "plot" in the lyrics), rather a deliberate and obvious imitation of style. That isn't what "This Is Me" is doing. It may be a pastiche pop song (from the standpoint of Pasek and Paul being musical theatre writers "imitating" pop, in a sense), but it's not a pastiche of Jerry Herman.

 

 

An incredibly astute explanation!

 

I love reading things like this from people who are clearly well-read or teachers/experts in their field

[+ quoththeraven]

How can you be delusional/blind enough to accuse me of pretending to be a moderate centrist after reading any of my posts?????? I literally bash the corrupt neocon/neolib centrist establishment as much as I can in each & every post lol

 

And no, I didn't vote for Trump last time, but I WILL in 2020 if Democrats cheat/smear/attack indies & progressives again. I can wait till 2024 to get the president I want if I have to. bye!

Disagreement is not the same as an attack, jeez. For every argument about the DNC preferring/favoring Clinton there's nonsense perpetrated by the Sanders campaign and followers and existing structures like caucuses that favored them.

 

Thanks for believing that others should suffer so you can get the perfect candidate.

[bostonman]

An incredibly astute explanation!

I love reading things like this from people who are clearly well-read or teachers/experts in their field

 

Thanks! Though I wasn't at all looking for praise, lol - just wanted to clarify a term.

 

Now - if you're looking for Herman pastiche, the theme song to the sitcom Phyllis is a perfect example. Obviously the target song is "Mame" - but the melody and musical style are VERY classic Jerry Herman, let alone the clear allusions to "Mame" in the structure of the lyric writing.

 

As a kid, my favorite part of this was that priceless look that Leachman gives at the very end.

 

[bostonman]

Writing so much is absolutely worth the effort for Cole Porter.

 

Perhaps not for Jerry Herman.

 

We'll just have to disagree on that one. It doesn't make Porter any less of a genius to also praise Herman's work, which to me is generally first-rate. Neither of them got it right all the time, but does anyone?