Celebrating Earth Day, the Movies and Baseball

Today we celebrate the Earth. I was in Manhattan for the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic from Union Square Park to Central Park. Downtown Fourteenth Street, between Third and Seventh Avenues, was transformed into an “ecological carnival” and Mayor John V. Lindsay gave a speech on the steps of the New York Public Library. Somewhere I have a photograph of him standing and smiling in front of the two lions, Patience and Fortitude, who perch with a steady gaze on columns next to the steps leading up to the building.
Last year, in 2020, the streets were silent. Fifth Avenue was a waste land. This year, while gatherings will be limited, the parks will be filled with people, riding bicycles, pushing prams and supporting the elderly out for a walk. This year I think each one of us has a new appreciation of how important it is to nurture and care for our Earth.
We are also just a few days from the Academy Awards Ceremony and the presentation of the Oscars. Are you planning on popping popcorn, pouring a coke over a large glass of ice and watching on Sunday evening? Or have you had enough streaming, zooming and watching screens over the last year that you have completely lost interest?
The Oscars were first presented in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks and about twenty-five years after the first movie theaters opened. The Oscars were broadcast on the radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. This year, 2021 is the 93rd awards ceremony. However, the world has shifted.
I had a conversation with Jesse Kornbluth, an author and collaborator on more than a dozen books and screenplays, and a self-described Cultural Concierge of sorts. Jesse has attended the Oscars, written about the actors and actresses who have been nominated for awards and spent short periods living in Los Angeles. How should we watch?

The Academy of Motion Pictures has taken diversity very seriously and this year for the first time we will recognize the diversity in their selections. In his opinion one of the best movies with the finest acting is Anthony Hopkins in “The Father.” Notwithstanding, he believes “Nomadland” will receive the Oscar for Best Film and probably for Best Director. Will “Mank” nominated in ten categories receive an award in a major category? Probably not.

In reality I watch the Oscars to see what the women are wearing on the Red Carpet. What will they be wearing this COVID year? Armanda Gorman’s Yellow Prada? Sneakers like the ones Vice President Kamala Harris wears as her signature footwear? Creative masks? Apparently those attending the Oscars this year, as there is an in-person ceremony, received a note encouraging them to wear formal clothing that aims for “a fusion of inspirational and aspirational.”

It isn’t that I’m just interested in the Academy Awards. I’m interested in reimaging our lives. What will matter next. Are we anxious to return to the movies? Or, will we prefer to stay home and watch streaming programs like the “Queens Gambit” or “The Crown” that can entertain us over weeks or allow a weekend of binging when the weather is dreadful, too hot, frigid, icy, wet. Is the gold Oscar relevant now?

Assuming most Laconia Daily Sun readers are Boston Red Sox fans, you might be aware that our New York Mayor, Bill De Blasio, is as well. He can’t keep it a secret and occasionally it gets him into very hot water. However recently he wore a Yankee’s hat for the first time when he opened Yankee Stadium as a vaccination center. As one who is a Boston Red Sox fan, I too wear my blue Red Sox hat with caution.

After a long winter, isn’t a wonderful to shift our thinking to the movies, baseball and just being out in nature, with all it has to give us.