FoundTime

I'm ushering at a Ukraine/UNICEF benefit concert this coming Friday evening and am having the same conversation with myself!

Encanto, that is how you do an Oscars acceptance speech! Beautifully done.

I hate it that when someone is speaking or singing in a foreign language, all my subtitles have to offer is "singing foreign language."

I think the first part -- calling the actors onstage -- was funny and made a valid point (and fairly subtly), but the groping went too far.

I think the house writing style is for Rachel's voice, so the scripts are always going to sound like they were written for her. It then becomes a matter of which guest host can deliver them best. On tonight's show, OMG Amy Klobuchar looked like she had a glam makeover! I think all she did was change her hairstyle, but I could barely concentrate on what she was saying, she looked so different.

Well, her name was Lilith. Wikipedia Although maybe we should give Stan a pass, as Frasier hadn't aired yet. 😈

I deleted the series recording from my DVR, and then "Just when I thought I was out..." I wound up watching the show Friday night. I like Ali the best of the guest hosts; I think Aymon tries too hard to be casual and it doesn't suit him, and the less said about Ari Melber, the better. Rachel's "special sauce" is, I think, almost impossible to duplicate. It's a combination of deep research, dogged persistence, connect-the-dots, 25-minute-long openers, and Rachel's own personality and energy. To me all of the Good Journalism would be nothing without the personality that's gone along with it these many years. I have a lot of confidence in her staff, but I just don't know how sustainable The Rachel Maddow Show is without Rachel Maddow. I'm not saying it's a cult of personality or anything, but the reality is that we choose who we let into our homes on our TV screens, so personality is a factor.

A friend who identifies as libertarian heard the news about Rachel and sent me an article from Yahoo News that Tucker Carlson has experienced a ratings surge thanks to Dems in the 25 to 54 demo, which is utterly mystifying to me. I do think Rachel's ratings are going to fall off a cliff starting next week. Is anyone here going to watch TFRMS (The Faux RM Show) long-term? I am really not sure what I am going to do. Her writers clearly have a "house style" that the guest hosts "deliver," but it always seems a bit lacking without Rachel's unique energy.

Man, Dave's still got it, hasn't he? He didn't miss a beat; it's like he's never been gone. Still the master in my book -- and I adore Seth, don't get me wrong. It shows a lot of grace and humility and confidence to share the stage with the guy who first made Late Night must-see TV all those years ago. (And I love that Seth dressed up for the occasion!) Variety: David Letterman's Interview with Seth Meyers Was Late Night at Its Best I virtually attended a lecture series a couple of weeks ago hosted by a mainstream liberal seminary and one of the speakers focused on the use of comedy and humor in preaching. He played a number of clips illustrating comedy that "isn't funny" but that examines the lived experience of the performer (Gary Gulman, Hannah Gadsby, Tig Notaro) as well as some clips showing how comedy can have serious undertones in the area of identity, and "Jokes Seth Can't Tell" featured prominently in the latter.

Agree with the previous two posts, which are pretty much what I came here to say. I think Seth is making the smoothest transition to an in-person audience of all the late-night hosts. Not only does he not fawn over them, he's actually a little sardonic toward them, which is refreshing. I do miss seeing the band members at home. No more keyboards in the kitchen or wildly creative, vivid decor as a backdrop for the guitarist. But they must be over the moon to be playing together in person again. All the tech in the world can't substitute for that. Surely musicians who perform collaboratively have had a hard time of it with distancing (all things being equal).

Heh, Kiddo82, I saw An Education at the Best Picture Showcase the year it was nominated (so, 2010), and I still remember it 11 years later. As good as Carey Mulligan is in Promising Young Woman, she stole my heart in An Education and that's what always springs to mind first for me when her name comes up. Interesting comparison of this screenplay to Jojo Rabbit (which was my second favorite nominee in its year, after Parasite). It also won this category. Maybe the Academy does appreciate that degree of difficulty.

So glad Rachel had a good outcome, and that was a uniquely Rachel PSA, but I also wanted to second everything she said about minor league baseball games. I think it’s the purest form of the sport. I have many stories and memories that I will not share here, because topic 😉, but go back and listen to that part if you can (especially knowing how the rest of the story comes out).

See, this is why the Georgia law, where you can't bring food or water to people waiting to vote, is so evil. TPTB create a situation (by selectively limiting available polling places) where lines are ridiculously long and then they just make it worse. So it's not enough that you're waiting for 7 hours, now we're gonna make sure you're hungry and thirsty besides. Then maybe you'll be so miserable you'll just give up on the whole thing and go home. Not new news with these recent laws, but when Texas first put voter ID in place several years ago, they decided that a student ID was not a valid form of ID, but a gun license was. Of course now you don't even need a license -- or training -- to carry. Anyway. I like the new set but the audience reactions felt intrusive to me. I guess I'll get used to it like I have with Colbert. I certainly don't begrudge Ollie an audience -- it's unnatural to tell jokes into a void, after all, no matter how much personality the void has 😆

John didn't mention another charming provision of the Texas voting law, that it empowers partisan poll watchers and disempowers poll workers, which is another way to suppress the vote once people are actually at the polls and trying to vote. And when people are intimidated at the polls, guess who's doing the intimidating? It's not BIPOCs; they are the ones the intimidation tactics are being used on. If ending the filibuster is the only way out of this mess, we are in a world of trouble.

I find I must nitpick re: Ava. She was supposed to be four years old in the first scene, then eight months was supposed to have elapsed between that and scene two, so maybe she was five by then. Then a year apparently went by between scene two and scene three, so she's what? six by now? and still acting like a four-year-old. I'll chalk it up to regressive behavior due to her f-ed up home situation, because otherwise, the practicalities of using an actress who would of course remain the same age through the filming schedule takes me out of the story way more than the intro-breaking-the-fourth-wall scenes do 😖

Show Me a Hero will always be Isaac's definitive performance for me; I bought the book it was based on the day after that miniseries ended and still can't get the story out of my head, he brought it so much to life. That said, I think Jessica Chastain is killing it here. She can do more with a glance than most other actors can do with a whole page of dialogue. I saw the movie version of Scenes in college (film minor, so you kinda had to see all the Bergman you could 😉) but this version is making me forget that fast.

Thanks for the clarification! The only thing wrong I could see was that he used a paper towel to dry -- not very good for the planet. I was recently playing some kind of party game where I had to give a clue for Tracy Flick and no one there-- of all ages-- knew the reference. I'm just gonna say it -- Election is essential viewing, so find a way to watch it! On topic, this finale was like a lot of reality show finales for me, in that I wasn't really clear on who I was rooting for or against until the episode started unfolding. Though Kelsey was always my third choice (and how did I miss that she was pregnant?!), I would have been happy with either of the other two -- Suu for being a fellow Houstonian and super creative, Autumn because she really grew on me over the season and showed more chops at the end than I ever would have expected. (Btw, I met a family from Myanmar/Burma a few years ago and I was being all politically correct and calling it Myanmar. Turns out they called it Burma.) If I could make any changes to the show overall, I would stop burning so many episodes on contestant selection and eliminate any challenges that require Chef Ramsay to curse and/or throw things. Not my favorite version of him, especially when we were reminded this season what an amazing cook he is.

As much as I love Jon Batiste, I have to agree with this. It seems like they only showed five or ten of those featured, full-screen.

And that's how you talk over the music, You just do it, you don't announce that you're doing it. Congrats to Stephen Colbert!

Awards show producers never seem to read these forums, or they would know to cut the skits.

That's how you do an acceptance speech! ❤ Michaela Cole

Okay, people know how long the have to talk before the music kicks in, right? Why not prepare your speech to fit that amount of time?

My impression is that Reggie is supposed to be some kind of genius, but I've never enjoyed him. OTOH, squeeing at the Survivor ad!

Between Evan's stage performance here, and Daniel Radcliffe's turn in Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail, it's a great TV season for...something 😉 Wanted to add to the love for Frances Conroy. She has been amazing me in everything I've seen her in since Six Feet Under back in the day.

All I kept thinking about was how easy it would be for anyone to wander into that backyard when no one was home and help themselves to their choice of the outdoor games/elements. But maybe that says more about me! It just seemed so open to the street. A fence would have been a nice addition.