Director Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” is tied with “American Hustle” as a No. 1 contender in this year’s Oscar race. Both films earned 10 nominations, including nods for best picture, best director and best actress. Sandra Bullock nabbed the latter honor for her memorable portrayal of Dr. Ryan Stone, a fledgling astronaut who is stranded in space when a fast-travelling band of debris disables the shuttle that she and her colleagues launched in.
The Pershing Center in Lincoln, Nebraska gushes with fans. They have eagerly gathered to support Lincoln’s No Coast Derby Girls – the local flat-track roller derby league. Parents attempt to control their rowdy children; sallow-skinned teenagers hold hands and kiss beneath fluorescent lights; burly men sip Budweiser from plastic cups, chuckling softly. Though rapt with curiosity, I am lamentably lost within this subculture and ashamed that my only exposure to the feminist sport remains “Whip It”—the 2009 indie flick directed by Drew Barrymore, which highlights banked track derby in Austin, Texas.
If relatively simple songs are being underanalyzed, we also lose the power in more complicated expressions of protest in songs like Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” The song’s triumphant chorus, which chants “Born in the U.S.A.,” often overshadows its darker verse.
Professional baseball faced a similar postwar influx. More than 500 major leaguers and 4,000 minor leaguers had swapped jerseys for military fatigues during the previous four years. Two former big leaguers, Harry O’Neill and Elmer Gedeon, plus more than 100 minor-league players, lost their lives.
