Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with academy

Oscar pool ballot software?

Unsomnambulist — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:32:34 -0800

Looking for an online poll service or WP plug in that would work with an office Oscar pool. Oscar nominations come out tomorrow, and once again duty falls to me to create a ballot for a bunch of friends participating in an Oscar pool. The way we've done for years includes different points being assigned to different categories, so the person who predicts the most Oscar recipients doesn't necessarily win the pool.

I would like to create an online version of the ballot that allows me to also assign the point values, so after the awards are over all I need to do is enter the awardees, and it will automatically tally the points for anyone who filled out the ballot online.

Does anyone know of an free service or Wordpress plug in that could handle this?

Help me persuade a small philosopher's 'circle' to use the Philosopher's Research Network to distribute papers given at our annual meeting.

anotherpanacea — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:14:06 -0800

Help me persuade a small philosopher's 'circle' to use the Philosopher's Research Network to distribute papers given at our annual meeting. Objections include:
1. Young scholars cannot risk the loss of reputation associated with a flawed article appearing publicly. (Possible answer: papers are vetted by older scholars at the acceptance phase, the circle as a whole during their reading, and anyway, need not be posted until they are judged ready by the author and the circle.)
2. Online publication of drafts will decrease the likelihood of publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
3. Online access promotes plagiarism.

Anyone who has used any part of the SSRN or other online draft repositories successfully, I'd appreciate your anecdotes and advice on swaying the group. I'm especially hoping for refutations of the above points, and anyone who can say that SSRN-like sites have helped their careers or scholarship.

Benefits of Recording Academy membership

allterrainbrain — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:06:16 -0800

If you are or were a member of the Recording Academy (Grammy Fdn), would you recommend I join? Has it had any notable benefits or negatives that weren't clear to you before you joined, and has it been worth the annual fee? I'm mainly asking if there's anything you would've advised yourself before you joined the Academy (especially if it was "don't bother") or any further research I should do.

(Feel free to send me a private message if you'd rather.)

I qualify to join as a voting member, but I want to do research before I join since there's the $100/yr fee. I do live in a city with a local chapter that has regular events, but A) it's not stated on the website whether those events also cost a lot or are free for members; and B) realistically, I probably wouldn't make time for most of them.

The site is not at all clear about member benefits; it just gives a list of businesses and publications (which I'm assuming offer small discounts to members, same as you'd get as a member of any other professional org like ascap).

It seems like the main benefit is the voting itself, including the ability to nominate albums for the initial voting. Is that right or am I missing something?

Please help me find Budge Crawley's 1976 Oscar acceptance speech

persona non grata — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 21:23:45 -0800

My grandfather won an Oscar in 1976 and I want to find some video of his accpetance speech. He won it in the category "Best Feature Length Documetary" for the film The Man Who Skied Down Everest and his speech was quite short and a bit of a poke at the whole industry in Hollywood:

"This is an American award for a Canadian film about a Japanese skier skiing down a Nepalese mountain" and then he said some other stuff, I guess. But I don't know because I have never seen it. I'd dearly love to see it and so would his kids (my uncles and aunt).

I have contacted the folks who run the Oscars but they are ignoring me (I am in their email cue, I guess). Can anybody help me here? Do you just happen to have the 1976 Oscars on VHS and can you upload Budge's speech to YouTube?

Oscar neutrality?

beagle — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:36:27 -0800

Belated Oscars question: In this age of political correctness and gender-neutrality, why are there still gender-based Academy Award categories? There are not awards for, say, best male director and best female director. And most female actors shun the term "actress" in favor of "actor", but the Academy is still officially for the "Best Actress." The Screen Actors Guild has switched to "best male actor" and "best female actor", but they and all the other award programs still have gender differentiation in the acting categories. Nobels and Pulitzers are not given out on the basis of gender. What inherent difference mandates the continuation of separate but equal awards for male and female actors rather than a single "best acting" award?

Oscar Online?

Navek Rednam — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 09:55:37 -0800

Where can I watch, or listen to, the Academy Awards live on the internet? A repeat of last year's question. Has anything changed?

News research question on arts academy being destroyed by fire

scody — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 22:52:38 -0800

ObscureNewsResearchFilter: Does anyone remember a fairly recent news story regarding a performing arts academy (possibly a music school, specifically) being destroyed by a fire? I want to go even further and say that it happened in Salzburg, Austria, but I may have hallucinated that particular detail. I've googled to no avail.