Did anyone catch the Academy Awards two nights ago? According to the ratings 37.6 million of you did. Can anyone tell me why? I love movies. Strike that, I LOVE MOVIES! And as I embark on my own career in moving pictures at a spry 47, I can honestly not even remember how many times I've watched the Oscars. At least every year since I can remember, and I clearly remember as far back as Bob Hope. I even attended the ceremony once. It was the year Cher won for Moonstruck and I got cold-cocked by her co-star Nickolas Cage in the lobby while talking to Lou Gossett Jr., Robin Williams, Joe Mantegna, and Tom Holce, but that's another story. And throughout all these years of watching I cannot remember one time that I thoroughly enjoyed the telecast.

 

I used to think it was the disrespectful way they played off the winners. An artist works their whole life for this moment of recognition and they get two minutes then they're rushed off so the host can do yet another in a series of insipid, Hollywood insider jokes that just generally creep me out. Or the way they'll give an award to the guy in the office editing the sounds of the scuffle into the scenes of the scuffle but not the stuntman that was actually IN the scuffle. Even in this age of CGI effects it is hard to deny that stunts and the folks that perform them are an integral part of the mainstream movie making experience.

 

What I finally realized last night is it's not those reasons or the 23 others I came up with off the top of my head (like, for instance, they could only come up with four songs worth nominating out of the, what, 1000 movies that were made last year), no. It's the fact that the Academy & the networks (ABC, last night) consistently put out a nearly unwatchable yuck fest and then do little to nothing to support the hosts of the show when the inevitable bashing starts in the papers the next day. Ugh!

 

Thank all that is glorious and good that I can recover from watching the show by burying myself in this month's issue. And without further delay, let's kick this pig and see what it'll do!

This month's A Poetry Congeries with John Hoppenthaler has yet another in the stellar line of columns John has become famous for. His artists include: Carmelia Leonte translated by Mihaela Moscaliuc, Kyle Dargan, Angela Ball, James Hoch, Ralph Black, Brittany Perham, Billy Ramsell, Stephanie Levin, and Will Wells. Enjoy!

From Plate to Palate with Amanda McGuire returns with a resolution that each March pets will be honorary foodies here at Connotation Press. Check out pet related food pieces by Stephanie King Strickland, Sherri Doust, Jeannie Kidera, Andrea Iglar, Anna Daly Kauffman, and Callista Buchen. Very cool! And there's bunnies!!

 

Joshua Fardon's Drama column features playwright Adam Szymkowicz. His new play, Incendiary, is an intense ride in the noir vein. Szymkowicz says, "For me the play is about the ability or inability of people to change. And things like addiction or strong internalized beliefs get in the way of my characters trying to become different people." Sounds good to me! As always, the play is accompanied by one of Josh Fardon's outstanding interviews.

This month marks the debut columns from our two newest editors. Fiction Editor Meg Tuite brings Julie Innis to the fiction column, and Stephanie Brown, our new Book Review Editor brings a review of Kathleen Graber's new book, "The Eternal City", reviewed by Marilyn McCabe. Welcome Meg & Stephanie! WOOHOO!!

 

Creative Nonfiction Editor Robert Clark Young brings us a piece by Elizabeth Eslami titled, "Four Years in Montana". Great voice in this piece. Really drew me in. Ms. Eslami is the author of the novel Bone Worship, which came out last year from Pegasus. After reading this piece I ordered it. Sweet!

 

Travel Editor Nicholas Baker's Discovered column takes us this month to Zurich! I LOVE NICK'S COLUMN! Seriously, there are times when it is my favorite column in the magazine. Join Nick & Freddy & their friends as they run through the Switzerland countryside. Gorgeous!

Finally, please don't forget to come back on the 15th of the month when the rest of our regular columns return. New poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, movie & book reviews are on the way!

 

And about the Academy Awards, I'll get over it. I do every year. But this year, with those two kids up there drowning in a sea of bad, bad, bad, bad writing, directing, and glib, obnoxious jokes & skits, I guess I got a little defensive. Here's to Ms. Hathaway & Mr. Franco for giving it the old college try. And here's to all the winners in the categories they deemed important to show us and in the far more they didn't. OH, and I'm glad The King's Speech won!

 

Connotation Press: Lights. Camera. ACTION!

This issue of Connotation Press: An Online Artifact is dedicated to the work of a fine character actor of the highest order: Kenneth Mars. Mr. Mars worked in over 50 movies including Young Frankenstein, The Producers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, What's Up Doc, Fletch, Radio Days, The Little Mermaid, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and numerous Television shows. Sadly, Mr. Mars lost his fight to pancreatic cancer on February 12, 2011. I can never get my head around the death of a brilliant character actor. They all, to me, seem immortal. Rest in Peace, Mr. Mars.