That Kooky Academy

Oscar snubs and surprises: 3-way race for Best Picture but no love for Disney

It strikes me as entirely apt, and deliciously ironic, that I started out Thursday morning by doing a phone interview with legendary jockey Calvin Borel for an upcoming issue of Cowboys & Indians magazine. Apt and ironic, that is, because as soon as I set down the phone, I immersed myself in a different kind of horse race: The 86th annual Academy Awards.

Nominations for this year’s Oscars were announced early Thursday in Los Angeles. And now, after weeks and months of handicapping by professional and amateur showbiz observers — well, to borrow a key phrase from Mr. Borel’s primary place of business: They’re off!

Some observations from this veteran Oscar tipster:

And then there were nine
To be honest, I still don’t understand the intricacies and eccentricities of a Best Picture voting system that allows for a final outcome of five, 10 or any number in between. This year, we have nine finalists: American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, 12 Years a Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street.

We won’t find out who the winner is until March 2. But as we head into the home stretch, I view 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle as the front runners. On the other hand, if those two favorites split the vote, don’t be surprised if long-shot Gravity breaks out of the pack and gallops into the winner’s circle.

Gone but not forgotten
I wish there had been room for a 10th title — the under-Oscar-appreciated Inside Llewyn Davis — in the Best Picture lineup. And I really, really wish Will Forte could have slipped into the Supporting Actor category for Nebraska.

As I have noted elsewhere: Forte’s non-nomination reminds me a bit of how Donald Sutherland fared with Ordinary People. While co-stars Timothy Hutton (who actually brought home the gold as Supporting Actor) and Mary Tyler Moore were duly anointed for their standout work, poor Sutherland was overlooked for his subtler yet equally important portrayal of a man torn by conflicting demands while trying to keep his dysfunctional family together.

Good riddance
On the other hand, I can’t say I’ll be losing much sleep over the total shutout of Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Coming on the heels of a similar shunning by the Hollywood Foreign Press, this latest brush-off indicates that, to paraphrase Sally Field, most people in Hollywood really, really disliked this film.

I’m sure some people will see a racist motive in all this not-so-benign neglect. To do that, however, would necessitate a willful blindness to all the attention given 12 Years a Slave.

F**kin’ A, Mac
Every movie buff worth his popcorn knows that Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated movie ever to win a Best Picture award. This year’s list of nominations includes another singular sensation: The Wolf of Wall Street contains more F-bombs than any movie ever nominated in any category in the history of Hollywood.

Where’s Bobby?
Despite all the online and in-print chatter about Robert Redford being a Best Actor mortal lock for All is Lost ... well, it didn’t happen. Was it because, as some claim, Redford didn’t actively campaign for a nomination? That is, because he didn’t do his share of schmoozing at film festivals and meet-and-greet screening events?

Or was it because — dare I say it? — not enough Academy members bothered to see his movie (or, if they were viewing at home, see all of his movie) because they thought it might be, well, you know, a bummer?

Dissed Disney
There also had been much pre-nomination talk about a possible gaggle of Oscar nods for Saving Mr. Banks. In recent weeks, however, there’s been what appears to be an organized campaign against the movie, which offers a romanticized account of how a sage and folksy Walt Disney (played by Tom Hanks) talked the prickly P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) into signing over the movie rights to her Mary Poppins.

First we heard from those who complained that Travers was depicted inaccurately — or at least one-dimensionally — in the movie. Then there was a lot of loose talk that Mr. Disney wasn’t really such a nice guy.

The latter point was pushed to the max by Meryl Streep at the National Board of Review awards presentation, where the much-respected actress presented the Best Actress prize to Emma Thompson. During her presentation speech, Streep felt compelled to note what she described as Disney’s “gender bigotry” and “racist proclivities” and accused the late Hollywood legend of having “formed and supported an anti-Semitic industry lobby.”

(I’m certain — maybe not absolutely certain, but relatively certain — Streep wasn’t trying to sabotage Thompson’s Oscar chances, even though Thompson could be seen as her competitor in this year’s Best Actress race.)

Did any of this dissing have any influence on Academy voters? Well, you decide: Emma Thompson was conspicuously snubbed in the Best Actress category, Tom Hanks — who could have been nominated for Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor — got no Oscar love for playing Disney, and the movie itself couldn’t make the final cut in a nine-title Best Picture lineup.

Indeed, Saving Mr. Banks landed only one nomination, for the Original Score by Thomas Newman — who, apparently, is considered a perfectly swell individual by Academy voters.

Amy Adams earned a Best Actress nomination for American Hustle.

AmericanHustle-Movie.com

Amy Adams earned a Best Actress nomination for American Hustle.

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Vinyl Record News

Dallas record store chain Josey Records spins new location in Garland

Josey Records

Vinyl at Josey Records

Dallas music maker Josey Records has extended its reach east: The record store chain, whose empire includes one of the largest single independent record stores in the U.S., has opened a location in Garland, at 1005 Northwest Hwy., at the intersection of Centerville Road, where it's selling its trademark assortment of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, turntables, music posters, new releases, and music accessories.

This is the sixth location and the third in the Dallas area, joining the original in Farmers Branch which owners Waric Cameron and Luke Sardello opened in November 2014. They've since opened locations in Plano, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Vidalia, Missouri.

The original location is a giant place with 16,000 square feet devoted to vinyl, 45s, CDs, turntables, and T-shirts. They do a good job showcasing new releases and collector vinyl — they made CultureMap's list of 5 best places in Dallas to buy vinyl records — and are known to host album release and listening parties such as a recent blockbuster celebrating Linkin Park.

They made headlines in June 2020 when they acquired the vast musical inventory of Bill’s Records following the death of owner Bill Wisener; Cameron and Sardello both worked at Bill’s, and knew the sprawling collection first-hand.

"It has taken us years to even start going through it, but in last two years, we've made some headway," Cameron says. "Bill's has its own audience, so we created a specific Instagram account, just for Bill's Records merchandise called @billsrecordsvault."

They chose Garland because they saw it as an area that was under-served.

"There are very few record stores in that area of northeast Dallas, Casa View, Garland, Rockwall, Mesquite," Cameron says. "We have customers who live over there, so it seemed like a good place for a store."

The storefront they're in was most recently The Music Store, which sold and rented musical instruments and accessories; but coincidentally, it's next to an address that was once RPM Records, a hip record store from the '90s.

The Garland store follows the same model as their others: selling new and used records and merchandise, and buying used goods, as well.

"One thing that's cool is that each location takes on its own identity," he says. "We buy used CDs, vinyl records, cassettes — we're a used resale business — and what we buy from our customers dictates what that store becomes. For example, our Plano store has a lot of classic rock. So we're looking forward to seeing what Garland gravitates to."

Garland does have one thing that the other locations do not.

"Right now, Garland has this incredible collection of jazz," Cameron says. "We bought a great collection of jazz records — someone called and wanted to sell it. We get that a lot, we buy major collections from all over the U.S., we even make house calls. So we saved it for the Garland store."