Diversity hassle
I am intrigued by the current diversity hassle concerning the academy awards. Both the hassle itself (and the new USC study) seem to be concerned with “what” with no consideration of “why.”
Let’s start by remembering that the production companies are privately owned and are operating in the arena of free marketing, motivated by producing a profit or dying. Only then can the social amenities be given consideration. They gamble vast amounts of money to produce a product that, theoretically, will be sold for more money than it cost. They spend a great deal of effort to accomplish this and even then sometimes it doesn’t work out.
They know a great deal about the likes and dislikes of the various market segments within their potential audience, and this where the “diversity” starts.
A production starts with an original idea or with a book, and once a story is chosen it is examined as to potential audience and the casting starts — casting being a function of the demands of both the story and the audience. Casting offices have their own resumes and appraisals of potential cast members, but also the resources of the actor’s agents. Appraisal of talent and of the audience’s presumed expectations, including the actor’s appearance and style.
In many ways, the casting of a movie is very, very similar to the assembling of an athletic team, or of any activity where talent and performance is far more important than “diversity.” The idea of staffing or casting is to win no be “diverse” If you can do both, more power to you!
The academy awards are chosen on the basis of performance and is highly subjective. If things work out and an actor is chosen to be character in a very good screenplay—and is outstanding—a nomination might result. And face it, actors and actresses are nominated in equal numbers. If there is a glitch in the award procedure, it probably is the fact that there may well be far more outstanding performances than nominee openings.
Guff Worth, Lakeport
Sidewalks needed
My name is Kevin Nance and the lack of sidewalks in Hidden Valley has always been an issue. What if someone gets run over by a car while they’re walking? Without sidewalks, people walking on the street can get hit by cars. People walking their dogs or riding bikes, for example, could get hurt on the road. We are disappointed at this community for being so cheap they can’t even put sidewalks on the sides of the road. It seems like Hidden Valley does not care about the safety of the residents.
Kevin Nance, Hidden Valley Lake
Congratulations Lakeport
I want to congratulate the City of Lakeport for spending money to buy benches for people to sit and view many items. But I feel that putting them in front of the yacht harbor does not make common sense.
Has anyone been to Library Park to watch and hear the concert on a Friday night? These concerts are sponsored and supported by the local business people and many local people along with tourist come to the concert in the park. Every single one of them has to carry a chair, sometimes from blocks away and I believe we should put some benches around the park for people to sit because of many activities throughout the summer.
I realize that in this day and age people would consider stealing a park bench. I have an idea: weld a piece of chain on a pipe drive the pipe in the ground and put a pipe on each end of the bench to go into the ground and lock the bench to the chain. When it is time to mow the lawn they could unlock the chain, let the chain go into the pipe hole, move the bench out of the way, mow the lawn or other activities, then put the bench back in its place and lock it back up. That would help the taxpayers in the City of Lakeport and the County of Lake to have much needed facilities and could be used for any other activity.
Common sense thinking.
Ron Rose, Lakeport
No problem
I find it interesting that the Republican Party is so worried that Trump will beat the other clown car passengers and be their party’s candidate for President. They should be smart enough to know that the Democratic voters in November will take care of the problem with ease.
Jim Hall, Clearlake Oaks
