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Source: The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.迷你倉Jan. 17--Is it bad of me to be so happy that Emma Thompson didn't get an Oscar nomination? It's not her fault really -- she's a fine actress and she didn't write or direct the thing -- but "Saving Mr. Banks" was the alleged awards-season contender I was most rooting against and Thompson seemed like its best bet at a nod. So I was pleased to see this leaden and disreputable bit of Disney propaganda get shut out of major categories.Our lead film writer John Beifuss shared his first take on the Oscar nominations yesterday (and something tells me John and I will both be weighing in again sometime before the March 2 broadcast). I had the same initial reaction: Surprise at the absence of "Inside Llewyin Davis" from major categories given its strong performance critically and the Coens' recent Oscar track record (particularly in the screenplay categories). But "Davis," which seems to grow in my mind by the day, is pretty squirrelly even by recently elevated standards of the Academy Awards.But, look, this is a pretty strong slate of nominees: I've seen eight of the nine Best Picture contenders and like them all to one degree or another. Unless the as-yet-unseen "Philomena" is more of a dud than I expect -- or more of a true contender -- I may have trouble finding something to root against this year in the way I've rooted against such decent but overhyped past winners as "The Artist," "The King's Speech" and "Slumdog Millionaire."The biggest problem with this year's nominees is that, confronted with such a strong Best Picture slate, voters didn't seem to take in much else, giving the impression that only a dozen or so meaningful movies came out last year. The 20 acting nominations include work from only two films -- "Blue Jasmine" and "August: Osage County," with two each -- not represented in the Best Picture list, and that repetitiveness short-sells some of the year's best work.It would have been nice to see Oscar Isaac, so brilliant as Llewyn Davis, onstage and off, or Michael B. Jordan, rising above a rather ordinary work, aesthetically, in "Fruitvale Station," in an admittedly strong Best Actor list. Brie Larson gave a startling performance in the under-seen indie "Short Term 12" and should have been on the Best Actress list.In the supporting categories, the omissions are more surprising. The late James Gandolfini in the Nicole Holofcener relationship comedy "Enough Said" and Oprah Winfrey in the Lee Daniels' historical melodrama "The Butler" were the strongest elements in very good films that deserved more attention. Gandolfini and Winfrey play complicated, uncertain, relatable adults. He's warm. Her quiet intensity burns hot. You go in expecting to swoon for Gandolfini out of sentimentality. You expect, perhaps, to view Winfrey with skepticism because of her beyond-the-medium fame. Both are so good that they dissolve those extra considerations.Pazz and Jop Results: I'll probably circle back to this next week when I have more time to nerd out over it, but the Academy Awards weren't the only annual canonical institution to weigh in this week. The Village Voice also released the results of its annual "Pazz and Jop" music critics poll."Pazz and Jop" has been collating the findings of the nation's music critics -- or a section of them -- every year since 1974. This year, Kanye West topped the poll for the fourth time -- a feat only matched by Bob Dylan -- with his assaultive album Yeezus, followed by Vampire Weekend's Modern Vampires mini storagef the City and Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. Daft Punk topped the singles list with "Get Lucky," followed by Lorde's "Royals" and HAIM's "The Wire."The highest-charting Memphis record, after Justin Timberlake's 51st-place The 50/50 Experience, was Valerie June's Pushin' Against a Stone which came in at 61st, one of the better finishes for a Memphis artist (aside from ringers Timberlake and MGMT) in the past decade.June might have been a little higher -- tied for 57th -- if my own ballot had been counted. But 2013 marked the first year since 1998 that I didn't vote in the "Pazz and Jop." My e-mail ballot was presumably sent to my previous work address and my request for one at my new work address was ignored. For the record, here's what my ballot would have looked like (in "PnJ" you get 100 points to allocate to 10 albums, with a maximum of 30 and a minimum of 5 for each; singles get one point each, regardless of order):Albums:Modern Vampires of the City -- Vampire Weekend -- 20 points12 Stories -- Brandy Clark -- 14 pointsSoutheastern -- Jason Isbell -- 12 pointsJama Ko -- Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba -- 12 pointsLike a Rose -- Ashley Monroe -- 10 pointsRun Fast -- The Julie Ruin -- 8 pointsLight Up Gold -- Parquet Courts -- 7 pointsSame Trailer, Different Park -- Kacey Musgraves -- 7 pointsRun the Jewels -- Killer Mike & El-P -- 5 pointsPushin' Against a Stone -- Valerie June -- 5 pointsSingles:"Royals" -- Lorde"Unbelievers" -- Vampire Weekend"Two Weeks Late" -- Ashley Monroe"Black Skinhead" -- Kanye West"California" -- John Murry"Numbers on the Board" -- Pusha T"Primetime" -- Janelle Monae & Miguel"Blowin' Smoke" -- Kacey Musgraves"Beautiful" -- Mariah Carey & Miguel"Hush Hush" -- Pistol AnniesOpera Bound: I'm looking forward to taking in Opera Memphis' performance of "The Mikado" at Germantown Performing Arts Center tonight. A few months ago, during one of my weekly appearances on "The Chris Vernon Show," Verno and producer Jon Roser were perplexed by my passing mention of a museum exhibit I'd enjoyed, which got us off onto a rare for sports-talk radio fine arts tangent. Under interrogation, I allowed that the fine arts area I struggle with most is the opera. This lead to some playful Twitter teasing from Opera Memphis director Ned Canty and a personal invitation to attend the organization's next event, which I gladly accepted.I'm intrigued by Canty's vision of democratizing the medium without betraying its core artistry, to make it more accessible to philistines like me. A contemporary pop-culture spin on Gilbert & Sullivan is little different from a traditional staging or Verdi, no doubt. (Verdi is opera, right?) In truth, all I know of Gilbert & Sullivan comes from the Mike Leigh's film portrait of the duo's working relationship, "Topsy-Turvy," which I adore. (Okay, and also from that one episode of "The West Wing.")I'll report back on my opera excursion in this space on Monday.Final Rec: The Ashley Monroe song on my uncounted "Pazz and Jop" ballot? Okay, not really a single. But I couldn't resist. It was the country song of the year in a groundbreakingly good year for female country artists; a bit of songcraft -- the title refers to both the singer's rent and her period -- so perfect that it seems inevitable. Here's Monroe performing the song at the Grand Ole Opry earlier this year:Copyright: ___ (c)2014 The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.) Visit The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.) at .commercialappeal.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存