Competing for best picture are “The Father,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Mank,” “Minari,” “Nomadland,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Sound of Metal” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Some “Snubs and Surprises”

I didn’t really have any horses in the race, but I liked “News of the World” and “Da 5 Bloods” better than many of the nominees. The one thing that really surprised me was the nomination of Thomas Vinterberg as the Best Director, but I can’t really say it was unfair since I haven’t seen that movie and don’t intend to. (It doesn’t appeal to me: “Four friends, all high school teachers, test a theory that they will improve their lives by maintaining a constant level of alcohol in their blood.”) With that disclaimer, I think there are some who could have deserved a nomination in that category. Spike Lee, for example, did a great job in “Da 5 Bloods,” which is an ambitious and sweeping story with many complicated scenes.

Complete lists

I have to disqualify this year’s entire competition by invoking the Pecker Rule.

In my senior year of college we had our traditional vote for the douchebag of the year. My roommate, the Pecker, who was one of the election officials, tore up one of the ballots because none of the voter’s top ten choices included Fat Joe Carlson. This voter was disqualified for his obvious and complete ignorance, given that Carlson was not just a big, fat, fucking douchebag, but was the biggest, fattest, fuckingest, douchebaggiest guy in the history of Fordham University, which was no small achievement, because Donald Trump had preceded us there.

Invoking that precedent, I have to invalidate the Razzie ballot for its failure to nominate James Corden.

“Apparently Lola Bunny wasn’t the only Looney Tunes character who got a major visual makeover for the upcoming Space Jam sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy. But at least Lola is still on the team! Pepe Le Pew’s makeover was a head-to-toe situation in that he was removed completely from the film.”

“Sources add that Warner Bros. planned to acknowledge Pepe’s reputation as a serial harasser and use it as a lesson about consent. The only problem is, the scene allegedly begins with Pepe sexually harassing a woman.”

Winners & Nominees, 2021

I think that some of these awards went the right way, or at least were given to one of many good choices, but one thing demonstrates the utter insignificance of the Golden Globes: Emily in Paris was nominated as Best Comedy Series. There are times when the Globes and the Razzies are indistinguishable.

Highlight of the evening, Sacha Baron Cohen:

“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” won best comedy film, Cohen thanked the “talented newcomer” in his film, but he wasn’t talking about Maria Bakalova, who was hilarious as Borat’s daughter. “I’m talking, of course, about Rudy Giuliani. I mean, who can get more laughs out of one unzipping? Incredible. “Our movie was just the beginning for him. Rudy went on to star in a string of comedy films. Hits like ‘Four Seasons Landscaping,’ ‘Hair Dye Another Day’ and the courtroom drama ‘A Very Public Fart.’”

I love to write about the obscure underbelly of baseball, about guys like:

Bob “Hurricane” Hazle, a mediocre minor leaguer who had a miraculous dream-come-true season in the majors.

or

Frank Saucier, an amazingly accomplished man, and a potentially great baseball talent with a .380 lifetime minor league average, who had an embarrassing major league career, the highlight of which was that a dwarf pinch-hit for him.

I have planned other similar stories that sit as yet incomplete. I set aside tons of research to write about others like Floyd Giebell, Moonlight Graham (I assume you know who he was, thanks to Field of Dreams), and a certain Chicago schoolboy legend named Randall Poffo.

As you can see from the article below, young master Poffo was a serious and handsome lad who was once considered the best high school baseball player in the entire Chicago area. Some say he might have become a great star, except that a serious injury forced the right-handed kid to learn to throw left-handed, and therefore forced him to switch from catcher to first base or the outfield. (No catchers throw left-handed.) After the switch, his White Sox coach told him he threw like a girl. In spite of those obstacles, he managed to last four seasons in the minors.

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What made him so friggin’ interesting? Well, it was the fact that he eventually became a household name, one of the greatest all-time superstars in a very different form of athletic endeavor. He is better known to the world as The Macho Man, Randy Savage.

I actually kinda knew him because he was the main man for Slim Jims and my company (7-Eleven) was their biggest customer. I took a picture with him at the Slim Jim hospitality suite of a convention, but he never came out of character then. Later that night, I ran into him in a strip club when he was in civvies and de-machoed, and we had a great talk about baseball!

I also spent a lot of time one evening talking to The Ultimate Warrior (and his beautiful girlfriend). Mr. Warrior appeared to be a very pleasant, intelligent and laid-back man, although some fans and some of his colleagues didn’t care for him. Maybe I got to him before ‘roid rage kicked in. It was kinda weird to talk to him because he was dressed in character with the face paint and the bare bulging muscles, but he walked up to me and introduced himself as “Jim.”

Ol’ Jim has shrugged off the mortal coil now, as has Randy. Neither lived to blow out the candles on his 60th birthday.

You like him or hate him. One thing you have to agree on: he is one of the most influential voices in the history of radio. If you have to pick the all-time greats of radio, the people who mastered and/or transformed the medium, the list includes giants like Jack Benny, Orson Welles, FDR, Murrow/Cronkite, Larry King, Howard Stern … and Rush.

‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ to End With Abbreviated, Delayed Season 8. The Universal Television entry will return with ten episodes at a date to be determined during the 2021-22 broadcast season.”

“Co-star Terry Crews noted in June that the first four scripts of season eight were thrown in the trash after the summer of protests following Floyd’s murder. The writers room for season eight, which earned an early renewal more than a year ago, has been going since April as Goor and his team also planned to incorporate how the pandemic impacts first-responders like cops into its storyline.”

Chadwick Boseman got FOUR nominations (but for only two films)!

Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (Da 5 Bloods)
Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)
Cast in a Motion Picture (Da 5 Bloods)
Cast in a Motion Picture (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)