five thousand shades of blue
Monday, March 25, 2002
The concept of routinely driving long distances for anything less than a family death does not enter into the mindset of east coast inhabitants. I know this because I lived there for the first 23 years of my life. The thought of driving 2 hours to visit Rochester or Toronto was a major undertaking; people routinely fly from Washington DC to New York (and they're really just not that far apart). On the traditionally more sparsely populated west coast, probably even the midwest and definitely Texas, it is often a necessity to make a long haul just to buy groceries. I have myself travelled from one end of I-5, California to Washington, up and down the length of Oregon (but not all at once). Just yesterday I had to attend a meeting two and a half hours from home. The drive was longer than the meeting. And I feel like at least half of the journey was made jogging along side the truck. On the up side of the mountain. I feel utterly brain dead today.
I don't normally watch the Oscars, but I did catch the last hour or so. I loved that they aired it live for us shmoes on the west coast -- though, man, I felt bad for my east coast comrades who had to stay up until one in the morning. When Halle Berry won and appeared to be completely overwhelmed with the win, it took me a very, very long time to realize that she was the first black actress ever to take home the Best Actress statue. I'm sitting there wondering if Halle Berry's having a nervous breakdown because she didn't think she had a chance, not even
seeing her colour; when she spoke we all felt tears well in our eyes. When Denzel Washington won I thought
hey, good for him! I've always liked his work and then I realized that he was the first black actor to win since Sidney Poitier did in 1963. Is it acceptable for me to be outraged? Not against the fact that they won, heavens no!, but against a society that is still celebrating this kind of first in a 'modern' and 'enlightened' year two-thousand-and-two. I certainly don't want to diminish their respective wins by any means... but I'm almost embarrassed that this is something that has to be considered a milestone in this day and age.
And Bah! Sir Ian should have won.
Lord of the Rings should have won. Every year the Academy claps itself of the back for being visionary and ground breaking and then every year they hand out awards to the same damned movie (figuratively, or course). If they
really wanted to hand out an award to the most outstanding film of the year, that should have gone home with
Memento.
is
this just not enough…?
