Things That Make My Day

... Seeing the Diamond parking lot behind the old Zephyr building (300 South and West Temple) only half full. Used to be jam-packed with City Weekly employees' cars until they raised their rates and sent us packing. Now, we have to walk a half a block farther every day to get to work but it does give us a chance to savor the schadenfreude of Diamond's often vacant lot. [Jerre Wroble]

Sink Globe-ally

[Media] The best thing yet to come out of the Writers Guild of America strike: The Golden Globe Awards' televised ceremony is toast. As entertainmnt writer Nikki Finke first reported -- and it was later confirmed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- the NBC broadcast of the ceremony was being cancelled due to Screen Actors Guild members' refusal to cross a WGA picket line, with a one-hour press conference taking the place of the ceremony.

Here is why this is awesome: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has wielded a ridiculous amount of power over awards season for years, for no damn good reason other than inertia. The organization is made up of fewer than 100 people, and they love having a big party every year where they can mingle with stars. Look back at Golden Globe nominees over the past couple of decades, and compare the list of nominees, just for example, with those who ended up getting Oscar nods in the same year. Will you see a disproportionate number of A-list celebrities represented on the list that the HFPA chose to honor? Why, yes you will! Yet publicists continue to boast of Globe nominations in their advertising, despite the obvious interest of the HFPA in star-power for their awards broadcast over recognizing the best performances.

For a critic, schadenfreude doesn't get much better than this. (Scott Renshaw)