The champions of the world (or the lists, or Newark)

I will not be watching the Academy Awards this year. I normally would be walking a few blocks to the highly anticipated Annual Jen S. Oscar Party. It's always a blast, and the only reason in the world that I would miss it is if my favorite band ever in the whole world was playing a show that night. I think you can piece it together from here.

Oscar time reminds me that, somewhere in my late twenties, I suddenly lost my fascination with subjective rankings and winners and losers. While most of my teens and up to my mid-twenties were spent obsessing over my year-end top album lists and "all time best" categorizations and getting outraged over Oscar winners and the top selection in the increasing number of "Top 100 ______ ever" lists, I lost interest in rankings and winners in such subjective things like music and film. It just didn't make much sense to pronounce something "the best" when what's not even considered for nomination might be the most enjoyable work of art.

But life's not logical like that, and while I still don't agree with the concept of "experts" and "the best", in the last few years I've found the fun in rooting for the winners and losers. I don't really give much weight to the Academy Awards winners or VH1s Top 100's or Pitchfork's year-end lists, and I don't see their results as authoritative or as anything more than opinions, but I was able to see them as fun. It's as much fun to root for a movie or album you liked over one you didn't like as it is to root for a sports team. And while it doesn't really matter much, and I don't really consider them "winners" or "losers", it's still a blast to follow the suspense, to enjoy the ranking. It's just flat-out fun to think it's ridiculous that Kiss's "Beth" would make it into the Top 10 Power Ballads list. It's just flat-out fun to think that somehow Sufjan Stevens "deserved" to make EVERYone's #1 spot. It's just flat-out fun.

I say this because last night, I saw the documentary that I want to win for best feature documentary. Street Fight¹ is an incredible, tense account of the 2002 mayoral race in Newark, and I would love to see it take home the Academy Award. I'm rooting for it not because I think it's the "best", but just because I enjoyed it the most. I don't think that the Enron doc was very well done, but I can't say that it doesn't deserve the award. I liked Street Fight better than Murderball, but it doesn't mean that the latter is somehow an inferior film. But still, it's just fun to root for it.

So when you're at home watching the Oscars, and they announce the winner, think of me a few hours later, watching it on my DVR², and either yelling in triumph or being disappointed. But unlike years ago, when I used to take these sorts of things much more seriously, I won't take it to heart. I'll just enjoy it, even if the victor isn't who I wanted it to be. It's a lot like watching, say, curling.

¹ When we got to the theater at the National Archives, I realized I'd been calling the film by the wrong name. I'd been calling it Street Fighter, which is something else entirely.
² I'm kind of curious to see, when I fast-forward through the commercials and boring spots, how long it takes to get through the whole thing. I predict: under an hour.