Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018): Oscar nominated documentary about life in rural Alabama. Cinéma vérité, a style I loved when I first came across it in 1975 (Frederick Wiseman's Welfare), but am now more likely to find simply mundane and tedious. C-

The Wheel Award for Excellence in Motion Pictures

The Academy Awards will be given out February 24, 2019. This will be the third year in a row that I've seen all the nominees for Best Picture before the Oscar is awarded. That means my opinion means something. Right?

2018 had a diverse set of movies, as did 2017. I'm not in complete agreement with the Academy's choices, but overall, I'm not complaining with the nominees they've given me to vote on (even though they haven't actually, you know, given me a vote on anything).

The Wheel Award for Excellence in Animated Short

IMDB

There are five movies nominated for an Oscar for Animated Short. My own pick for the Oscar, if I had a vote, would be for

• One Small Step (USA and China): Young girl dreams of being an astronaut. With perseverance, the support of her father, and the shoes he makes for her (One Small Step, get it?), her dream...well, you'll just have to watch yourself. A-

Not Just On Track, It's Double Track

Maybe lost in the higher profile news of the last couple of weeks (the Scott Dunn "bimbo" tweet and the Laura (Maczka) Jordan bribery trial) was news that will likely have a longer term impact on Richardson. And it's good news! I'm talking about the decision to double-track the Cotton Belt line.

The Wheel Award for Excellence in Live Action Short

IMDB

There are five movies nominated for an Oscar for Live Action Short. My own pick for the Oscar, if I had a vote, would be for:

• Fauve (Canada): Two boys play in the woods, on a train track, in a surface mine, until they get in trouble. Fun and games turns serious. Good acting. A complete short story in 17 minutes. A-

"Einen veritablen Shitstorm"

"Einen veritablen Shitstorm." That's how Kronen Zeitung, a German-language Austrian newspaper, described the reaction to Richardson, Texas, City Council member Scott Dunn's ill-advised tweet. If somehow you've been on another planet for the last two weeks and don't know what I'm talking about, read the Recap. If you just want my opinion on the whole sorry mess (oops, I may have given myself away there), jump to "My Not-So-Hot Take".

POTD: Winter Palace and Hermitage Museum

From 2018 08 13 St Petersburg

Today's photo-of-the-day is from St Petersburg, Russia. It's a photo of one of the world's great museums and historic palaces: the Hermitage, founded by Catherine the Great, housed in the Winter Palace, home of Russian tsars for 200 years, from Peter the Great to Nicholas and Alexandra.

POTD: "The Worst Hard Time"

From 2018 06 17 Pueblo

Ike Osteen's life spans the flu epidemic of 1918, the worst depression in American history, and a world war that ripped apart the globe. Nothing compares to the black dusters of the 1930s, he says, a time when the simplest thing in life -- taking a breath -- was a threat.

Source: Adam Johnson.

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Texas Panhandle. It may not look like much, but it's one of the earth's great landscapes, flat and stretching in all directions to the horizon. It's in the heart of the Dust Bowl, the site of perhaps the nation's worst ecological disaster in our history (at least until our own impending global warming disaster). Drive through it sometime. Stop the car. Get out. Take it in.

Bonus photo after the jump.

Oscar Snubs

Each year, when the Academy hands out its Oscar nominations, it snubs some deserving films. Some of my favorites from 2018 weren't nominated. Let's call these snubs, even if very few (none) of the critics liked these movies as much as I did. In hindsight, I'd only add one, "If Beale Street Could Talk," to the list of eight movies the Academy did nominate. So, I'm not complaining. But before we get all caught up in the Oscar ceremony, let's take a moment to remember these overlooked gems from 2018.

POTD: "In Every Grain of Sand"

From 2018 06 14 Great Sand Dunes NP

In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.

Source: Rachel Carson.

Today's photo-of-the-day is not on a beach. It's not within 900 miles of any ocean. It's from the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. And there's a great story of the earth there. Go and read it sometime. And play in the sand when you do.