Tired of all the Experts, a medium sized rant

So last night was the 84th Annual Academy Awards, a night full of pomp and pose that I used to enjoy watching back in the days when I watched movies in the theatre on a regular basis. I no longer watch movies in the theatre on a regular basis, or even at all really, and as a result no longer really have much interest in the show, but a chance to get together with friends we rarely see for an Oscar Party was on hand last night so I watched the Oscars.

As for the telecast, well it's 3 1/2 hours I'll never get back but at least daughter was exhausted enough after a weekend of tubing/sleepover/soccer, and uninterested enough that she actually snuggled with me on a loveseat. Daughter is almost 13 and has never really been cuddly so I've likely seen the last of that. The Thai food was solid and the banter had some moments, plus the whole thing wrapped up before 8:30 so it was a good evening out.

I had not seen any of the nine nominated films, when did that happen ?, but still got 11 correct out of 25 categories in the annual Oscar Poll with the winner getting 17. The show was fairly well paced, and while Billy Crystal did make me cringe a couple of times he was pretty solid as host. A silent movie made by Europeans, which is apparently about the way American films used to be, won best picture, and oddly was nominated for best original screenplay, Meryl Strep won, George Clooney didn't and the thing ended.

Today however, was the worst part of the Oscars as you couldn't swing a cat without running into some expert, ie: blogger, failed scriptwriter, media hack, lashing out at the selections, the production and the rampant racism of Billy Crystal doing blackface.

Really ? How about if you all just shut up.

We live in a society where I don't like it now means it's terrible and sadly the same technology that I'm using to complain about these experts is the one that provides them with their platforms, and yes I understand the irony of me blogging to complain about bloggers.

I'm tired of the experts who aren't, simply watching 100 movies a year doesn't make you a film critic, it just makes you a movie fan, I'm sick of the bloggers who monetize their opinions and then believe that they are more than just opinions, I loathe the tweeters who think that because they have 4,231 followers that they are important. Have they ever considered that 4,230 of the followers are simply there because the stuff they write is so hilariously bad ?

There was a time when critics carried some credibility because of their experience and knowledge of the industry or art form that they critiqued but nowadays everyone is not only a critic but they have an avenue to have others read their criticism and therefore give it some weight.

It's sad to me that Wikipedia, an encyclopedia where anyone with access to the internet can be an editor, is now a reference material. I am depressed that one of my favourite online Sports pages devoted its' lead today to a profanity laced rant about the Oscars written mostly by people who have no real experience in the motion picture industry. It makes me weep that consumers judge restaurants based on online reviews, especially after a New York Times study indicated that over 1/3 of all online restaurant reviews are written by people who have never eaten in the restaurant.

At the risk of sounding like an old fart, too late I know, I wish that journalism was left to the journalists, experts actually had expertise in their fields of criticism and blogs were simply a way for ordinary Joes to get their thoughts out to friends, family and wandering strangers, not a platform for shoving opinions down our throats.

I'll try to write something about food or wine later this week.