one MM missing, one MM rocking the stage

So watching the Oscars tonight, seeing simian-foreheaded Jennifer Garner interact with a CGI Mickey-Mouse on stage, I had an epiphany--with the war and the revival of Norman Rockwell-esque Americana, and the montages of American Wartime Patriotism/American Defiance clips at the Oscars, and pregnant Catherine Zeta-Jones, the Queen of Hollywood royalty accepting her award for Chicago and family values: we are in the 50s.
But, of course, not the 50s-as-they-were. At first I was, like, this is simulacrum 1950s. But that's not correct. Baudrillard's definition of simulacrum is a signifier that purports to represent something, but really only represents itself. But that's just postmodern, which is not what is going on here. It's not like "these times" only represent themselves--they really DO stand for the agenda and ethos of the 1950s. Then it hit me: it's the Un-50s (see previous discussions of the Ungay). It's the zombie 50s, where they have been dead through the 60s, 70s and 80s, through the pomo 90s, and now they have returned, their genuineness (aka life essence) drained by subsequent deconstruction and irony. Now that irony has been suffocated by duct-tape, that does not bring back the real thing. Like, just because the "death" status of a zombie is reversed, that does not revivify the zombie with life essence. We live in the un-50s where the discourse of uncritical Americania (both domestic and in foreign politics) constructed through demonization of "the other" (then--commies, now--Arabs) can't even lay a claim to some sort of non-generated, non-derivative, non-constructed "innocence" (not that it was that way in the real 1950s, but at least it happenned before that very same discourse got deconstructed, so you could argue that on the mass consumer level it was less cynical than it is bound to be today).

Mad kudos to Michael Moore for lambasting Dubya on stage. It was amazing. "Fictiotious president and fictitious war." I wonder--if he had not won, would all the documentary film nominees still have come up on the stage? That was a great organizational move. Kudos to Adrian Brody for saying something, at least. Well, at least Michael Moore alone got more publicity in that moment than our huge march in New York did yesterday.

Question of the moment is: where is Eminem?

on a dadist tip

I was scouring google for any mention of Eminem's absence from the Oscars; I found an article but it was on French Yahoo current events. I clicked on the "translate this page" button, and this is what came out:

Current events Eminem, large absent from the Oscars
The spokesman of the rappor announced that his protected will be on next 23 March on holiday, day of the ceremony of the Oscars.
While announcing its absence, Eminem places in the embarrassment Gil Cates , the producer of the handing-over of the prices. Usually, the nominated ones in the music category of film come to sing the piece for which they contribute. However, the rappor will not be there to defend his chances (for 8 mile) vis-a-vis U2 (for the music of Gangs of New York) and Paul Simon (for the music of cartoon film The wild thornberrys movie), also in competition this year. As there is not any rule on this subject, it could be that a medley of the titles of Eminem is diffused in the place of its scenic service or that nothing is envisaged whole.
If from here March 23, the United States had entered in war against Iraq, as the current situation unfortunately lets it think, the ceremony could be stopped by special flashs. If not a message would ravel on the bottom of the screen to hold the informed televiewers of the turning of the events.