The Oscars pimp up some talent

This will be the first year the word "pimp" appears on a list of nominees at the Oscars. Yesterday's announcement of the 2005 nominated songs list included the jumping track from Hustle and Flow, "It's Hard for a Pimp." (Great song, by the way, if you have any interest in hip-hop or rap. One of the characters in the film is played by DJ Qualls, who's got a speech where he talks about rap returning to its roots, in the South, and that all good rap is really based on the blues.)

As for the Oscars, I'd kept hearing about Hustle and Flow; it made the 10 Best List in Rolling Stone, and the movie includes a performance by Terrence Howard which drew praise from lots of critics. Howard's had a hell of a year, with broad range from the slick TV producer in Crash who goes along to get along, all the way to the striving, seedy DJay in Hustle and Flow, where he got his Best Actor nomination. Howard's the only actor of color to be nominated this year in any category, so we rented Hustle and Flow last night, since the movie fell into the sweet spot of earning a nomination but already being out on DVD.

The Oscars are a celebration in my house, beating close to the heart of passion for the movies that Abby brought to my life. I always loved movies; I had a subscription to the American Film Institute's magazine in the 70s, well before I met my bride. But in our life together here, movies rule the nights, even though we live in The Live Music Capital of the World (TM, Austin Chamber of Commerce). A band is a band, and you can dance to it. But a movie is a story.

For the last 16 years, the morning of the nominations brought a little joy before sunup. Out in California they announce the nominated films and artists at 5:30, so the list rolls out into the press before 8 Texas time. In the early 90s I'd go log onto Compuserve — remember Compuserve? — and grab the Associated Press story, feeling like the old wire editor I was back on The Daily Texan. Today, there's Google News (just out of beta, I hear), which had 944 stories on the nominations by 1 PM. Lots of those were that AP story, run in hundreds of papers big and small all over the world. But there was also plenty of good analysis by lunchtime in California. (Time's Richard Corliss had a funny, insightful roundup, as did Ebert, a couple of the older pros ready to romp early on with the news.)

As for Hustle and Flow, I'd give it a thumbs-up. I agree with Ebert: it's the rare movie about how art can make a life worth living, especially one that's been without redemption for a long time, like a pimp's. We love this kind of story. One of the most powerful such moments I've seen in a film lies in Pleasantville, when Jeff Daniels, the soda jerk who never knew about color in art, gets inspired by Tobey Maguire, who shows him an art book with famous paintings. Daniels responds by unleashing his art overnight onto the windows of the soda shop, backed by a rousing anthem from Randy Newman.

And so with the nominations ends the "For Your Consideration" season. This year Abby had some extra frequent flyer miles ready to expire, so she put them into subscriptions to The Hollywood Reporter and weekly Variety. Wow, the money spent on full-page ads announcing a movie "for your consideration" to spark a nomination. My favorite was the cover ad (the Reporter sells ads on its cover) with a picture of Darth Vader's helmet. Open the magazine, and you'd hear the sound of Vader's respirator, coming from a miniature player glued inside the page.

You could argue that it worked, too: Star Wars' final saga did earn a nomination for Makeup. The movie's only nod, though. It was shut out of Visual Effects, this year's domain of the Monkey Movie that Couldn't, (only four Kong nominations, all craft, most notable Art Direction), War of the Worlds and The Chronicles of Narnia. (The last movie in the list brings me full circle to rap; check out the SNL parody of a rap on the Chronic-als of Narnia at You Tube.)