Saved by the ballgame

March 24, 2026 by Leave a comment

I was beginning to worry that, with the Oscars past, I was going to have to start watching the news again, but luckily baseball season starts later this week, just in time to provide another welcome distraction.

In the opening game my adopted team San Francisco take on the New York Yankees, so there might be some early indication of whether their 2026 campaign will be more inspiring than last year’s ultimately disappointing mediocrity. Before my pre-season optimism is inevitably deflated I’ll hazard another sporting prediction; Giants for the World Series.

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Oscar predictions 2026 revisited

March 16, 2026 by Leave a comment

So, four out of seven of my Oscar tips turned out to be on the money, which I think isn’t too shabby. Of the three I missed, two involved films that I haven’t seen yet, and the other was the wrong actor in the correct movie (and I’d argue that it was the Academy voters who erred; Sean Penn may have had a bigger role, but Benicio del Toro gave the story its moral compass).

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Oscar predictions 2026

March 14, 2026 by Leave a comment

A last-minute forecast this year; a movie-viewing spree this week has allowed me to belatedly catch up with most of the nominated films, so my tips are at least semi-informed.

  • Best Picture
    • One Battle After Another
  • Best Actor
    • Michael B Jordan
  • Best Actress
    • Jessie Buckley
  • Best Supporting Actor
    • Benicio del Toro
  • Best Supporting Actress
    • Teyana Taylor
  • Best Director
    • Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Best International Feature
    • The Secret Agent

As you can see One Battle After Another was my favourite movie of the year, probably because I can identify with Leonardo DiCaprio’s bewildered ex-radical. I did consider The Secret Agent for Best Picture, but I think it’s got a better chance of picking up the International award.

Of the other front-runners, I found Hamnet a bit dull and emotionally manipulative, and Sinners was entertaining, but disjointed, though they were elevated by the performances of Jessie Buckley and Michael B Jordan respectively. Marty Supreme was impressive, but fatally undermined for me by a protagonist who was just too much of an unlikeable asshole to root for. Sentimental Value looks like the sort of film that I would enjoy, and perhaps it would have featured more in my list if I had been organised enough to see it by now.

I’m tempted to stay up late to live-blog the ceremony tomorrow, but I have to go to work the next day, so I’ll probably skip it and come back with an update on Monday.

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International Women’s Day 2026

March 8, 2026 by Leave a comment

We’ve marked International Women’s Day a few times in the past, though the last occasion was, shamefully, nearly a decade ago. Each of those posts has struck a broadly optimistic tone, celebrating the resilience of our female comrades in their struggle for equality, but acknowledging the distance still to travel.

I’m finding it hard to maintain a positive outlook this year though. Whatever hope was generated by the signs of a resurgence of progressive politics locally has been all but buried by the outbreak of open-ended war in the Middle East. What’s particularly dispiriting is that the conflict doesn’t even seem to be the result of calculated Realpolitik, which would be bad enough, but rather to be driven by Donald Trump’s desire to project his own brand of toxic masculinity across the globe, which in turn is presumably an unconscious attempt to expunge his shame at dodging the Vietnam draft. It seems extraordinary that an advanced nation like the US can be drawn into such an obviously dangerous course of action by the whims of one unstable man, but apparently that’s where we are. Of course there are other actors in this situation who have their own agendas and motivations, but none of these seem to be particularly well thought out either, so it is very difficult to see how this could play out as anything other than a tragedy.

If you ask me, the Matriarchy can’t come soon enough…

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