HOLLYWOOD FLIPS THE BIRDIE

Well, I didn't come close to guessing the picks but the surprise to Middle America wasn't the gay themes of Capote, Brokeback Mountain, or the political themes of Good Night and Good Luck, nor even the award for best song about pimps. The greatest theme of the awards, and the one the Religious Right will miss in condemning Hollywood as being out of touch with most American morality was the celebration of imperfection in the human condition.

Look at the awards honoured. It was not a lack of ethics, instead it was an award for best actor, a man with a drinking problem who turned his life around. The best film and best song were about the racism that black people face everyday. The best director was for a man whose father fled to Taiwan after his paternal grandparents were executed by Communists.

In other words, the Oscars weren't about being white, male, and Protestant. The spectrum of human experience is what American culture should be. And what the 78th Oscars showed the world.

---Izzy

P.S. Bush's approval ratings are at an all time low.

IRAQ UPDATE

British and Australian troops are expected to be pulling out of Iraq in May and there are rumours that the United States will be withdrawing its troops in 2007. If the Iraqi security forces can maintain order, a dubious supposition since the Iraqi police are rag-tag, corrupt, and without proper equipment.

Meanwhile,another US soldier was shot dead north of Baghdad on Sunday.

---Izzy

GET THE MEDS

God is talking to Tony. At least that is what Prime Minister Blair has hinted in his recent interviews about Iraq and how he will be judged on his decisions regarding the conflict. Last year the PM said that history would judge him.

I think the term is called "grasping for straws" or to put it in Biblical language, he is messing with Leviticus 19:12, among other verses.

Personally, I would be worried about history because, once your mouth is shuttered by death, Clio the Muse of History is a harsh and fickle mistress.

---Izzy

Recently, the Alan Rickman/Katherine Viner play My Name is Rachel Corrie was cancelled by the New York Theatre Workshop. There are two versions of the story involving the cancellation. The first reason, according to the playwrite Katherine Viner, was the situation was too edgy with the recent elections of Hamas and Ariel Sharon's ill health to produce the play.

The second reason from the New York Theatre Workshop's artistic director James C. Nicola was that there was inadequete time to prepare for the staging of the play. If anyone has a definite take on this, please e-mail me so I can update my information. Thank you.

Meanwhile, Vermont Bread and Puppet Theatre is producing its own version of the Rachel Corrie drama through Seattle's Consolidated Works arts center March 8-11. If you are in the area, you may buy tickets here.

---Izzy