Also: replace wrap-it-up music with a slowly-forward-tilting stage next to a swimming pool.

Everyone has a strong opinion about what movie was the best, or which actors put on the most convincing (or biggest) shows in their respective films.

Some of us consider ourselves film-literate enough to have opinions about screenplays or editing, or to think that Roger Deakins was robbed of his cinematography award yet again (fingers crossed for Blade Runner 2049, buddy. You deserve it!)

But with fully half the awards going to things most people have never seen (sorry short docs!), or barely understand (what’s the difference between sound mixing and editing again?), there still seem to be some glaring omissions for things that never receive recognition at all.

For example, Stephen Thompson of Pop Culture Happy Hour suggests (at 6:37 to about 7:15, below), that instead of male and female acting categories, we should do adapted and original roles. So one category for playing historical figures like Churchill or Harding, one for characters created out of thin air. This idea is incredible and should be instituted immediately.

Personally, I am angered every year that comedy is so grossly underrepresented, because writing and performing great comedy is very very hard (see: most comedy). I would suggest a category purely for Best Comedy Writing in a Film, so someone like Armando Ianucci, Kristen Wiig or Judd Apatow could finally be recognized for their indelible contributions to pop culture.

What category would you like to see added to the Oscars, and why?

In even greater need of examination and fresh ideas: travel Instagramming.

In the Boston Review, Jessa Crispin writes “How Not to Be Elizabeth Gilbert” (which, great title for sure), examining the pitfalls of the contemporary female travel memoir trend.

As she looks back at the history of travel writing, she observes differences between classic male travelogues and this new wave of personal travel diaries:

We still look to men to tell us about what they do and to women to tell us how they feel.

And even diving deeper into various female travel writers:

Maillart traveled because she was trying to understand something in herself; Stark traveled because she was trying to understand something in the world.

And about modern travel writing in particular, at her most pointed:

The travel writer sells not only lovely prose and insights into a new land but also the lifestyle of the rootless and adventurous. Yet, when you establish your life and yourself as goals to aspire to, you take yourself out of the world. Every interaction is sculpted for its eventual presentation, and the aim of every presentation is to show how wonderful your life is.

 

How would you best describe your reason for traveling?

How do you process and package travel when presenting it to others? What kind of stories do you end up telling?

Is travel in general enriching, or really just indulgent?