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First up, sympathy for the hedge fund devil. That's what we're seeing in both The Big Short, the Oscar-nominated movie based on Michael Lewis' nonfiction book; and in Billions, the new Showtime series about a battle of wills between a cocky hedger and a U.S. Attorney. It seems a frequently reviled figure has joined the ranks of pop culture heroes and anti-heroes.
Next, the Oscar nominations were announced earlier this month, and they were, once again, so white. Twenty actors were nominated, none of them people of color. Nothing new there; lack of diversity has long plagued the Academy awards. What is different is the fallout. First, Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith called for an Oscars boycott. Academy leadership called for, and then enacted, new membership restrictions and requirements aimed at raising the percentage of minority and women voters. Many of those voters, most of whom you've never heard of, have voiced their displeasure. What does it all mean?
Finally, Second Thought Theatre, a small company that performs in Turtle Creek, kicks off its 2016 season with Martyr, a play about a teenager who wreaks havoc on everyone around him when he finds himself drawn to fundamentalist Christianity. It's a work in translation by German playwright Marius von Mayenberg that has been directed at Second Thought Theatre by SMU professor Blake Hackler.
And, as always, we have our weekly host touts. Including, yes, one involving Wyoming Public Radio and a carrier pigeon wearing a jockstrap. You'll have to listen.
