Just two reciprocating stunnas. Courtesy xclusivezone.net.
Although it may be number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100, Lil Wayne’s latest collaboration with Birdman has garnered little interest from most radio stations. And probably for good reason. In all honesty, it’s a rare miss from rap’s King Midas. The song sounds stilted and cluttered, while also lacking the driving beat that usually characterizes Wayne’s work. “Always Strapped” is probably a throw-away track on Tha Carter III, but for the increasingly irrelevant Birdman, it’s the first single off his fourth studio album, Priceless.
So while “Always Strapped’ will probably have short-lived commercial success, its’ chorus promulgates one of the most eternal truths of biological life: a system of faithful reciprocity is the best strategy for dealing with other organisms.
In an unexpected announcement today, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis said that the Academy will nominate ten films for the prestigious Best Picture award instead of the usual five.
In the press release, Ganis mentioned that the Oscars were going back to its roots, as the ceremonies from the years 1931-1943 featured anywhere from 8-12 nominees for Best Picture. For example, Casablanca which won Best Picture in the 16th Annual Academy Awards, was one of nine nominees.
Many accredit the change-up with two major reasons. First, the Oscar ratings have been struggling (though the ratings of last year’s telecast were up) and a fresh change like five more BP noms will dust off the show’s formulaic feel–much better than that agonizing, everybody-wins praise they gave out last year. Second, box office favorites such as last year’s The Dark Knight and WALL-E were snubbed in the best pic race for more “Academy” (read: stuffy) films such as The Reader and Frost/Nixon. More nominees mean a broader scope–who knows, there might even be a comedy (dare I say The Hangov… nah, not just yet) or a legitimate indie in there.
As many critics make top ten lists each year, the change won’t be too visually dramatic for Oscar followers. And, seeing as the Academy used to broaden its scope in its earlier years, the change isn’t merely a marketing tool to get more viewers and garner more buzz but also a way to honor the institution’s heritage. And more best picture nominees might just be the cure-all for the economic recession–it did help to rid America of the Great Depression back in the 30s and 40s…
All in all, it will be refreshing to see more films up for the prize and it will make the race more dramatic and less predictable. It will also (finally) send a jarring wake-up call to all those Oscar blogger “experts” that have fine-tuned their prediction formula over the years.
In Oscar world, America might just be the land of opportunity after all.
“Wild Wild West” is the fourth installment of what might be the most commercially successful run of five singles any one artist has ever released. In a little under two years, The Fresh Prince gave us the following gems:
1) “Gettin Jiggy Wit It” (January 1998)
2) “Just The Two Of Us” (July 1998)
3) “Miami” (November 1998)
4) “Wild Wild West” (May 1999)
5) “Will 2k” (November 1999)
Okay, so we might be missing Agent J’s anthem. But still, wow! Love him or hate him, there is definitely one thing we can say about Captain Steven Hiller: He made the lives of middle school dance DJ’s really damn easy. Detective Mike Lowrey was a hit machine. We’ll be highlighting a lot of different artists over this series, and all of them (well, maybe not Eminem) were trying to supplant Bagger Vance as pop music’s most reliable artist.
“Wild Wild West” holds out surprisingly well, in that “I’m not ashamed to like it because everyone liked it” kind of way. Admit it, if all I told you was, “You don’t want to see my hand where my hip be at,” you would know precisely what I was talking about. And Sisqo sings the chorus, which was pretty cool at the time.
As for the actual movie Wild Wild West? That does not hold up so well. The thing is unwatchable. Fortunately, moviegoers eager to see some hilariously ridiculous robotic villains are in luck. Transformers II (and all its Michael Bayhem) comes out in two days!
Below are the three steps on how to be in a boy band:
1) After signing with a very suspicious middle-aged man, release two or three albums that simply own the charts, captivating the minds of young audiences, while weathering the vitriol of people who claim to really know music. Tour the world with well-choreographed, high-priced, over-the-top-shows that sell out stadiums.
2) Break up, citing “creative differences.” Launch a briefly successful solo career in an attempt to cash in on fan loyalty.
3) Reunite with your former bandmates for one last world tour, knowing full well that people will pay top dollars for the right to say they went to one of your shows.
In the late 80s to early 90s, New Kids On the Block was definitely in Stage 1. The incredible success of singles like “Be My Girl” and “Hangin Tough” (my personal favorite) is the reason people thought acts like ‘N Sync and The Backstreet Boys could make it. Last summer, the New Kids were in Stage 3. But in 1999, we all got to enjoy Stage 2.
The Nasher Museum is keeping its selection fresh throughout the summer. In addition to Christian Marclay’s visually stimulating Video Quartet, the on-campus art space will also be host 80 original photographs from Duke’s Special Collections Library. The showcase highlights the photographic process from the 19th century to the modern, and a large chunk of the visuals features the work of contemporary documentarians.
From the press release:
The exhibition, “Beyond Beauty: Photographs from the Duke University Special Collections Library,” traces the evolution of the photographic process from daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, albumen prints and gelatin silver prints, to the most recent examples of digital printing. Historic photographs by Eugène Atget, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz and others will be on view. The exhibition also features works by 36 contemporary documentary photographers, many of whom have agreed to give their entire body of work to Duke’s Archive of Documentary Arts at the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.
Beyond Beauty will be on display July 2 to October 18. For more information, visit here.
