Oscar’s music? Lazy voting

I was disappointed with best score and best song at last night’s Academy Awards Ceremony. OK, there was slim pickings in the best song category, but what an embarassment to hear that Three 6 Mafia’s song, “It’s Hard out there for a Pimp” was the best song. Oh pullleeaaase! Dumb melody, dumb words, no harmony, and not even a good rap song. Yuk!

And the score for Brokeback Mountain? The whole score was a variant on the opening three chords for the Beatles “Blackbird” and THAT was it! The score was an ok sonic backdrop, but what were voters thinking? What an insult to John Williams. Ok, John is the first multi-billion dollar composer (details, details) and has already won awards, but the score to Brokeback Mountain did NOT deserve an award. If people based it on the soundtrack, they should have given the award to Rufus Wainwright for the song that played right at the end of the end credits, “The Maker Makes.”

Lazy, lazy voting. Those two awards brought the whole event down in my book. I was thrilled that “Crash” won best picture. I liked Brokeback, but in terms of gay specific films, it is just another “the queer gets killed in the end” type film, which isn’t really that much progress in terms of gay acceptance in the media. I was also happy to see Ang Lee won best director: hats off for Ang taking a risk on this story.

And as long as I’m slinging mud, let’s let Bill Conti move gracefully into retirement and let someone else breathe some new life into the show’s orchestral accompaniment. Hell, bring in John Mauceri.