And the Winner is....

Happy Monday people. And what a dreary Monday Morning is is, depending on which part of the country you're tuning in from.

This morning I thought I'd talk briefly about last night's Oscar's. Big surprise, I know. Again, like the Grammy's, I wasn't aware that the ceremony was coming up until it had already passed, so my review largely will be lacking in factual deconstruction, and more the rambling diatribe you've come to know and love over these past two weeks.

So, upon quickly perusing the news updates this morning, it would appear that The King's Speech by and large swept the awards, taking home 4 of the coveted little golden idols. Now, once again, it would appear that last year I only saw one of the films nominated by the illustrious academy as being worthy of contemplation for best picture of the year. A running theme with my personal exposure to the Hollywood drivel. The last time I saw a movie that was awarded as being the best picture of the year before the awards were handed out was back in 2003 when Lord of the Rings: Return of the King picked up the trophy. Since then I have tried to make an attempt to do a little research on the winners after the awards were handed out, just to try and give myself a better sense of the social and cultural pulse that pumps in this country. Usually, I am sadly disappointed by the quality of the films that are bestowed the accolade of Best Picture of the Year (see: 2009 - The Hurt Locker. What a piece of god-forsaken trash).

Anyway, back to this year. Despite all of it's rave reviews, some how I had not even heard of The King's Speech until this morning. And you can bet your ass I didn't spend a red cent on a movie about the son of a bitch who designed and created Facebook and found yet another way for American's to literally pour their time down the toilet. You've gotten enough of my time Mark Zuckerberg, fuck you if you think you're getting any more.

At least Inception received recognition in taking home a few awards, but the awards they did take home really pissed me off. The one movie of the year (at least that I saw, again, I didn't waste my time on a lot of this crap) that made an honest attempt at promoting critical thought and imaginative discourse, and it lands Sound Editing, Visual Effects, and Cinematography. What The Fuck. Seriously. Say what you want about Inception's content, but at least it made you think about something a hair deeper than the court room escapades of America's newest tween billionaire. Or the speech impediments of a monarch separated by half a century and one of the biggest ponds on the planet.

But hell, according to the Academy all that picture is good for is its shiny, flashy pictures and cool sound effects. Oooohh...trippy. Stop minimizing the efforts of honest film makers to produce profound work by only rewarding them for the superficial flash that so often accompanies their work. Inception was the first movie I'd seen in far too long that came out of Hollywood honestly presenting something that we hadn't seen before. It gave us something new to think about, and while all the visual effects were certainly deserving of their awards, it was the mental rewards of that film that made it notable.

OK, I've gone on far too long on a topic that I already admitted I don't know nearly enough about. Who knows, maybe I'll check out The King's Speech one of these days and be absolutely floored, though judging on The Hurt Locker I'm really not missing much. But I do have one more small gripe I'd like to lay down.

I briefly scanned the nominees and winners for this year's Documentary categories. While I was pleased to see Exit Through the Gift Shop represented, I am more than a little disappointed to see that The Spirit Molecule was not listed. Not only does this movie present some very interesting information on its own merit, it very pointedly shows a long over-due change in the national paradigm regarding a taboo topic. The Spirit Molecule examines a recent study by Dr. Robert Strassman which marks the first legitimate study into the effects of psychedelics in decades, specifically dimethyltryptamine. I won't go too deeply into the movie as I would like to encourage as many of you as possible to go out and see it, but I will say this. While it may not have been more important than Inside Job's look into the devious and unsettling nature of the financial crisis of the last half decade, The Spirit Molecule certainly is a little more interesting and flavorful than your basic economics class, and at the very least deserved to be in the running.

And now, before I sign off I'll close here with another clip off of YouTube. The official trailer for The Spirit Molecule may not be for everyone, but hopefully I snag a few of you into checking it out. Human evolution didn't end with opposable thumbs here people. Let's stop focusing on shit like stuttering monarchs and bitchy little computer millionaires and start focusing on the important questions.



"Dreams are lies - the dreaming is real"
: Ratdog - Two Djinn