What a wonderful respite, a small window into humanities soul. It took the Hollywood artifacts of our culture to expose the current condition of the “American Dream” with a riot, a boycott or a demonstration happening here and around the world, very prominent during WWI and WWII. It was that marvelous tool best represented by the Walt Disney philosophy of distraction, entertainment, all efforts with a message, some more profound, in very difficult, local, national and global times.

The popularity of this blog “the Worst Academy Awards Show in History” says many things. It speaks to the unpleasantness around us all, with its staged distractions, representative of a privileged and blessed group, a group hardly suffering anything, being more “important” than world unrest and conflict. There were minor incidents of misdirected passion, rambling nothingness and even something worthy of our attention. Throw in Charlie Sheen and one can have a lot of fun or a wake. He needs our serious prayers. You make the call.

It speaks, with its’ pomp, circumstance, spectacle and ceremony to the exceptionalism of principled capitalism. One wanted more for the documentary “Waiting for Superman” but the “truth begets hatred”.

This would be the time to remind unions, and unprincipled capitalism, that any unreasonableness and unwillingness to engage in shared pain and sacrifice, and to address “parity” between the private sector, who pay the bills, create the jobs, and the public unions is problematic, will rip at the fabric of our nation. The “I’ve got mine” never works out well.

In today’s hostile climate for capitalism one wonders if Hollywood, Intel, the San Pedro docks, Microsoft or Apple would ever have been born. These companies today are a few of the remaining pillars of prosperity in California as it struggles to recover solvency, at a time when companies are leaving California in droves. Will Hollywood be next? Most production fled along time ago.

The unintended, or maybe intended consequences of this blog, was a comment on an escape of fantasy, it was welcomed…always in difficult times. It that respect the Oscars are always the “best.”

I’m mostly a fan of old Hollywood. Sad but not surprising that the only time I laughed during this year’s broadcast was from a clip (60 years old) — Bob Hope, “It’s Academy Awards night. Or, as it’s referred to in my house: Passover.”