Academy Awards

A few words about this year's Academy Awards show: boring, boring, boring. Seth MacFarlane was as bland as vanilla tapioca pudding and should not—NOT—be invited to do it again. Most of the winners went as everyone expected except for best director, which went to Ang Lee instead of Speilberg. The acceptance speeches were forgettable. Pretty much everything about this show was forgettable. The songs were forgettable once again, although “Skyfall” beat the pants off that awful winner in 2005, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” Just look at all the forgettable song winners in the past decade: “Things Have Changed” (2000), “If I Didn’t Have You” (2001), “Love Yourself” (2002), “Into the West” (2003), “Al Otro Lado Del Rio” (2004), “I Need to Wake Up” ((2006), “Falling Slowly” (2007), “Jai Ho” (2008), “The weary Kind” (2009), “We Belong Together” (2010), “Man or Muppet” (2011). Now I ask you, how many of those can you hum along with? As awful and forgettable as the songs from the 2000’s, the songs from the 50’s and 60’s were as wonderful and memorable: “Mona Lisa” (1950), “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” (1951), “High Noon” (1952), “Secret Love” (1953), “Three Coins in the Fountain” (1954), “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” (1955), “Que Sera, Sera” (1956), “All the Way” (1957), “Gigi” (1958), “High Hopes” (1959), “Moon River” (1961), “The Days of Wine and Roses” (1962), “Call Me Irresponsible” (1963), “The Shadow of Your Smile” (1965), “Born Free” (1966), “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (1969). In 1973 we had, thanks to Barbra and the Bergmans, “The Way We Were,” which Barbra reprised during this year’s “In Memoriam” tribute, singing it as well now as she did all those years ago. In 1976 we had Barbra’s and Paul Williams’ collaboration on “Evergreen.” And just to put it all in perspective, in 1939, the winner was “Over the Rainbow.” And in 1936, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” LOST to “The Way You Look Tonight.” Maybe it’s just my mental decrepitude, but I find almost all of the songs for the past twenty years to be forgettable and inferior to almost anything written in the years before the 90’s.