Wednesday, February 25, 2009

This Week In Mormons In The Media

Worst. Oscars. Ever.

Too long, as always, and full of all the filler viewers usually complain about and are promised will be done away with every year like musical numbers and boring speaches. It didn’t help that there wasn’t a single movie or category I had any vested interest in. I had three hopes this year, that Richard Jenkins would get nominated for The Visitor, that Melissa Leo would get nominated for Frozen River, and that Robert Downey Jr. would get a nom for Tropic Thunder and all three happened with zero chance of actually winning. Knowing this was a foregone conclusion weeks in advance, I had no skin in the game. And, let me be clear about this, I HATED (yes, all caps) Slumdog. What a laborious piece of fantasy fluff. You know that agonizing gap in time on “Who Wants…Millionaire” between Regis saying “Is that your final answer” and “You are correct!” that feels even longer when you know the guy got the answer right? That’s what the entire movie felt like.

It was not a good night for Mormons as we, yet again, took a whipping for Prop 8. (Mark my words, the history books will mark that fiasco as our 3rd black eye after polygamy and not giving blacks the priesthood. We’ll never live it down and we don’t deserve to). Dustin Lance Black, who also writes for “Big Love” won for Best Original Screenplay for Milk. Of course, he thanked his parents, not for loving or supporting him, but for moving him away from a “conservative Mormon home in San Antonio” to California where he realized he was gay and could be himself. Then, he went on to, basically, say all gays and lesbians were God’s children and were beautiful people and that they should feel proud to be themselves. I totally agree with this, it’s just that the comments subtly came at the Church’s expense. Oh well, we have it coming.

Then Sean Penn won Best Actor, also for Milk, and basically called us out. "For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think it's a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect on their great shame and their shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that support." I’d like to share the blame with the Blacks who also voted against the bill, but I know he’s really pointing a finger at us.

So, Survivor’s back and includes Tyson, a return missionary from Utah County who is a professional cyclist. He hasn’t had much to do yet, but he was, as my good friend Chuck texted me the night of the premiere “the first to get nekkid”. (Note: Chuck did not write “nekkid”, but considering Chuck is Black, I felt the artistic license was justified since it’s probably how he would have said it in person.). I know many are horrified by Tyson's behavior, but consider the alternative: would you rather he was handing out Book of Mormon’s and baring his testimony? Not me! I’ll take this any day. Farrah and I have a hunch Spencer might be LDS too. He looks like one and his name is Spencer afterall. His bio does not seem to support this, but I’m curious if anyone knows for sure.

3 comments:

C-Pipes said...

You gave us a mouthful this time my friend. Wouldn't call it the worst, but I wouldn't call it the best either. Howard Stern called the presenters of the major awards a "Reading Contest" to see who could sound the most endearing. Not sure how anyone could HATE Slumdog considering the trash that came out this year, but we don't have to agree on everything.

I don't think Sean Penn was pointing at you guys too much. There is a smaller organization out there called "God Hates Fags" who protest any chance they get. For example they protested at the memorial for the recently crashed plane in Buffalo because I believe someone was gay on that plane. However, I do think you're correct on the black eye thing there, and you can thank the media for that.

I hope your LDS friends that are watching Big Love would comment on this season. It's shaping up to be the best season yet and it's really pushing some limits.(side note... as a Mormon with a shiny new job you should step up and get HBO so you can blog about this season... Kinda disappointed about that)

Are you still watching your boy Chet on the Real World?? I think he's got a great future ahead of him, but he's kinda lame at the same time with the bickering with the other roommates.

And to wrap this all up... I don't say Nekkid.... I say naked like the rest of my black friends. But if I'm sippin on Syzzurp I'd say Bucky Nekkid!!! LDS Translation... Butt Naked

Rachelle said...

I LOVED Slumdog! LOVED IT!!!

AnnieB said...

its John. I was in SLC a couple weeks ago and went to an Ultimate Fighting event. Not really my thing but the guys I was with wanted to go so I tagged along. We ended up with ringside seats and who should be at our table but Tyson from Survivor. Since I haven't watched since Richard won, I had no idea who he was. After about 20 minutes, in comes Mark Burnett and sits 3 seats away from me. He was in SLC shooting a pilot for some reality ultimate fighter type show. I wish teleporting had already been invented so I could've switched places with you as this sighting was surely wasted on me.