All that Glitters
Most of us have spent the last year baking bread (How is your sourdough starter?) or organizing our junk drawers (That ketchup packet definitely does not spark joy). But not Taylor Swift. In the middle of a pandemic she wrote and released two albums that were praised by fans and critics alike.
Last Sunday, Swift’s Folklore won the Grammy for Album of the Year along with producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. Dessner’s name is familiar to local music fans. Not only does he hail from Cincinnati, he’s a founding member of The National, who have played a number of shows here in their hometown, including headlining the Homecoming Festival in 2018.
Dessner credits Swift with renewing his sense of how music can bring people together.
But a Grammy may not be the old gold with links to the Queen City this year. Glenn Close was nominated for her eighth Oscar this week for Hillbilly Elegy. The film, based on Middletown native J.D. Vance’s memoir of the same name, was partially shot in Middletown in 2019, thanks to the efforts of Film Cincinnati.
Close faces a truly international field of competition in this year’s race. The other nominees are Maria Bakalova, Olivia Colman, Amanda Seyfried, and Yuh-Jung Youn. Will this be her year?
We’ll find out on April 25.