Tag: award shows

movies, Uncategorized

What Do We Even Want From The Oscars?

by ainsleymacintyre1 Comment on What Do We Even Want From The Oscars?
What Do We Even Want From The Oscars?

You’d be forgiven for not noticing, but the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony took place a little more than a week ago. It was an event intended to honor a handful of beautiful films and moving performances; an event that had plenty of obstacles working against it; and an event that ultimately fell day-old-champagne kinds of flat. I’ve spent too much of my time this past week wondering why, and my thoughts on the subject will most likely come across as a bit unwieldy. Somewhat circuitous. Contradictory, disjointed, incoherent, even. And I would apologize for all of that, if it wasn’t such a fitting tribute to the 2021 Oscars themselves.

Continue reading “What Do We Even Want From The Oscars?” →
Uncategorized

Broken Records: Four Ways To Fix The Grammys

by ainsleymacintyre3 Comments on Broken Records: Four Ways To Fix The Grammys
Broken Records: Four Ways To Fix The Grammys

In an act of what was either incredible cynicism or remarkable hubris, I started thinking about how to improve the Grammys months ago. But after watching brother and sister baby geniuses Billie Eilish and Finneas stack up trophies for their genuinely brilliant, haunting album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? I began to reconsider. Maybe the Grammys had figured themselves out, finally. Maybe they’d taken off their nostalgia goggles and at long last achieved a clearer sense of where music is going.

Then I remembered the other three (or was it ten?) hours of the ceremony.

There are few things in this world more precious to me than music, and there is no annual event more consistently disappointing to me than what is supposed to be Music’s Biggest Night. The gap between what I love about music and what the Recording Academy believes is worth showcasing about music seems to widen steadily every year, and what has resulted is a bloated, disjointed and hollow production with little to no respect for the audience it is supposed to be entertaining. 

Continue reading “Broken Records: Four Ways To Fix The Grammys” →