I seldom look at FaceBook.  Not that I’m a snob about it, on the contrary, every time I go there, I fall into the bottomless pit, and after way too much time has passed, I find I have to claw my way out to get back to what I was doing before I clicked on the irresistible video of “the kitten, the snowshoes and the rabbi”.  So, I’m not even sure if this is how one throws something out to FaceBook World…maybe some of you can help.

This may seem frivolous in the face of armed conflict, hunger, racial tensions, endangered animals or global warming, but this is the awards season, after all, and the concern on everyone’s mind has to be the frenzied, emotional response to the nominees and eventual winners of the myriad of statuettes handed out by slinky-dressed statuette-hander-outers at the ever-increasing, self-congratulatory events made up by the entertainment industry.  The most popular of these broadcast events rake in millions in advertising dollars and the resultant wins for “Best This or That” can translate into huge add-on revenue as an avid, stargazing public awaits such verdicts to decide what to watch or listen to or what to watch or listen to again.  Most of these independent, award-giving organizations have peer group memberships that nominate and then vote on the winners.  Some, like the People’s Choice Awards and MTV Movie Awards are determined by some system of populous voting.  The arguable granddaddy of them all, The Academy Awards, and its somewhat less Nielsen-rated cousins, The Tony Awards and The Grammys, have all been known to make boneheaded, arbitrary decisions of exclusion, based on vague interpretations of rules and bylaws, and blatant political wrangling.  I’ve been personally snubbed once or twice but, in my case, (even though I deem any affront as conspiracy), there was not the pall of morally universal injustice.  This season, someone has gone too far.

And the 2014 winner for Best Shamefully Stupid Decision by an Awards Committee goes to, (insert dramatic music)…the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Music Branch for disallowing the mind-blowing, cinematically integral, creatively musical BEST score by Antonio Sanchez for the film Birdman.