Oscar Nominee Banned from the Oscars

The Oscar nominations are out and you might think I'm here for another discussion of the Academy's dismal record on race. Not today. In fact, this year's group of nominees is the most diverse in a long time. So diverse that one of the nominees can't attend the ceremony without breaking the law. This is no Polanski situation where he can't show up cause he'll be arrested for a past crime. Asghar Farhadi is a celebrated Iranian director who is currently banned from America thanks to Comrade Trump's ban on citizens and refugees from several countries in the Middle East.

When I first heard that this cold-hearted idea was actually going to become a real thing, banning entire nations of people from the United States (except of course, countries where Trump has business interests like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), I didn't expect to hear about it in this context. Farhadi is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, a category that he won in 2012 for A Separation. I typically don't include that category in my annual predictions, but it's not for a lack of interest. It's just usually not possible for me to see all the nominated films before the Oscars.

The front runner for this year's winner in that category has been a German film called Toni Erdmann, but a scandal like this could easily swing the vote. If Farhadi does win for his new film, The Salesman, what happens at the awards? We'll need someone to go up there and say "Well, the director couldn't be here because our idiot President thinks he's going to blow up the place." And if he does manage to attend, I'm sure he'll have thoughts on the matter. Either way, sounds like a recipe for the leader of the free world to complain on Twitter about how "overrated" Iranian cinema is.

Supposedly someone from the White House said to People magazine that Farhadi might be eligible for some special wavier that would get him through the ban. But if that's true, does it really make them look any better? A director can be an exception but not all the innocent children suffering in Syria right now? What the hell, man?

I don't think this will be the last time the impact of this policy will show up in unexpected places. Taking a shit on millions of people has wide-ranging repercussions. When Farhadi won last time, he made a really beautiful speech about how he believed the people of America and Iran could be friends one day if our respective leaders took it down a notch. I wonder if he still believes that. I never thought I'd be writing an Oscars post like this one.

New Heights in Insensitivity and Fearmongering

And no, don't worry, this isn't another entry about Hillary. I'm done scolding her for now...and it's not just cause she won big this past Tuesday, though that was pretty impressive.

Nope, I'm here to tell you all a little about the company I used to work for. Journal Register Company (or JRC) is a big corporation that owns hundreds of newspapers all over the East Coast, including the New Haven Register. I've also learned recently that they own a tabloid newspaper in New Jersey that is responsible for one of the most infamously offensive headlines ever.

There was a fire at a mental hospital down there in 2002. Here was the headline.

Yep, Roasted Nuts. Here was the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill's reaction.

"This one is so bad that many NAMI members initially couldn't believe that it was true-and not a hoax over the Internet."

But it was real, and here's a more recent example of the newspaper's class. This came out during the Roger Clemens steroid hearings in Congress.

Moving on, today I was in Price Chopper picking up some lunch and on a whim, I bought 101 Dalmatians on DVD. This is the original 1961 animated film, not that Glenn Close remake with all the CGI puppies.

Now, I like these "Platinum Edition" Disney DVD releases. Despite their habit of always having a feature where a tween "Disney Channel" star sings one of the film's major songs, they do a good job. The Bambi DVD had a commentary composed of actors reading old production notes from the 1940s. It was pretty cool.

But one thing I'm really sick of is all Disney's bullshit about the "Vault." You have to have seen this at some point, they've been doing it since the VHS days. They put out one of their movies, and they say you have to buy it now, or else it's going back in the vault forever. Pinocchio's seen about five different VHS/DVD releases in the last two decades, despite the fact that each time was supposedly the last time for the rest of mankind's history on this Earth that it would be available in stores.

I mean really, can you think of any other movie studio that uses actual fearmongering to sell DVDs? Buy Pinocchio...or you will never have another chance. It's especially obsolete in today's times because all of these movies that are ostensibly in the vault now can be purchased on Amazon or other sites with the click of a button. You would think at least one person there would realize this bullshit has long jumped the shark, but nope. There it was on the little display rack for my 101 Dalmatians DVD.

Take your vault and shove it.

No Place is Safe

So I'm pumping gas this morning and I see a strange little speaker mounted onto the front of the pump station I'm at. As I pull on the lever to start the flow of gas, a loud voice suddenly comes over it. It didn't take me long to realize that this was an advertisement. I got annoyed and looked at the speaker to see if there was a way I could turn it off. I saw a Mute button and thought to myself, "That's a nice courtesy at least." I pressed it....it didn't work.

At this point, I got really mad. I began to repeatedly shout "Shut up!" at the speaker, unwittingly sounding like Bill O'Reilly whenever he's losing an argument. As other drivers gave me strange looks, I finally opted to press my hand over the speaker itself, effectively drowning out all the sound. When my hand stopped vibrating, I knew I had won. The ad was over, and I had not retained any of it.

I stopped to wonder why this had pissed me off so much. There's a simple reason and a broader reason. The simple reason is that normally pumping gas is a quiet experience. If you're alone, it allows for a few minutes of relaxed thought. When you're already dropping 40 frickin' dollars to fill up the gas tank of a little Cavalier that once only required 20-25, the last thing you want is for a loud annoyance invading what little personal space we have left in our lives.

And that leads into my larger point: Throughout my twenty-three and a half years of life, I've seen advertising becoming more and more invasive. It used to be that commericals were the price you paid for watching TV or listening to the radio. These sponsors paid for the programming, and so you have to hear their two cents. That's at least fair. Now it's almost the reverse: ads are shoving their way into entertainment that we pay for. A $10 movie ticket now means you have to sit through fifteen minutes of commericals. The internet service you pay for every month is now constantly interrupted by insipid ads popping up in your face....and apparently, you can't even pump gas without having something pitched at you.

Several months ago, Matt and I put on a DVD of Full Metal Alchemist episodes during a lazy afternoon at my house. There were previews at the beginning of the DVD, so my finger went for the "Menu" button. Didn't work this time. Neither did the button that skips to the next scene. Not even the damn fast-forward button was working. The same "This operation is not currently permitted by disc" or whatever that message is kept popping up. We were essentially being forced to watch this commerical.

I wouldn't stand for it. I muted the TV and stared at the ceiling for several minutes until I knew it was over. I won't have my arm twisted into watching/hearing more corporate bullshit when I paid for entertainment....and the next time that speaker starts going while I'm pumping gas, I won't shout at it, but I will again firmly place my hand over it.

I hope others do the same.