I don’t think you’d find many who would argue against Apple being one of the most important corporations in the past decade. They transformed the electronics landscape when they released the first-gen iPhone in 2007—and they are poised to redefine tech culture once more.

The long-fabled, previously announced Apple Watch will be featured during Apple’s upcoming event on March 9^th, reportedly debuting expanded features and functionality, and—rumor has it—a release date. Apple’s secretive events are always massive media fodder, but with the Apple Watch taking center-stage, this one holds added intrigue.

Since it’s official move from rumor to reality, critical and public opinion have remained varied on whether the world is ready—or needs—a smartwatch. Google Glass was once heralded as the new frontier in wearable technology, but now widely regarded as an ambitious endeavor, but a failure. The difficulty with wearables is the multi-layer balancing act between functionality and fashionable. Consumers want a product that works, and works well, but they also want to look cool while wearing it. This may have played a large role in the downfall of Google Glass.

The Apple Watch is another story, however. With the explosion of the fitness-tech market in recent years, Apple is releasing their smartwatch at a time when wearables are cool, and the consumer base exists and is thriving. As long as the updated functions revolve around lifestyle, health and fitness—and not just a smartphone on your wrist—these things will fly off the shelves, and further increase Apple’s tech dominance.

Heartrate and blood pressure monitors, GPS for location services and slip-and-fall alerts will make the Apple Watch a landmark device, specifically for older generations. It has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry in the same way the iPad did (another device predicted to fail which is now a ubiquitous aspect of society).

The grapevine has Apple releasing their smartwatch in April, and we will certainly know more once Tim Cook takes the stage next Monday to unveil the final product.

Ah, the inevitable Oscars post-mortem, where anyone and everyone provides their take on Hollywood’s biggest evening—the winners, losers, snubs and stumbles. I’ll spare you yet another Academy Awards rundown, because the evening was rather tame—bordering on stale, to be honest. John Legend and Common caused a collective jaw-drop in the Dolby Theatre with their performance of “Glory” from Selma, John Travolta made Vegas happy by being weird again, and Birdman rightfully took home the award for best picture.

The biggest takeaway from the 2015 Oscars was the handful of stars using their winners’ platform as a vehicle for activism, and it is causing quite a stir throughout the political spectrum. Documentarian Laura Poitras reignited the traitor-or-whistleblower debate when thanking Edward Snowden while accepting the Best Documentary Oscar for CITIZENFOUR, and Patricia Arquette championed wage-equality during her Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech for Boyhood.

Oh boy.

The public always has strong reactions—and in turn—strong opinions when Hollywood goes Washington, and Monday morning was no different. Arquette is being lauded for the statement she made for women’s rights, but she is also being raked over the coals by certain corners of punditry. Whether for or against Patricia Arquette’s comments, the commonly held belief is that events like the Academy Awards should remain politics-free, and actors should “stick to what they do best: acting”.

This line of thinking is frustratingly wrong. Like their opinions on political issues or not, a stage like the Oscars provides an incredibly visible platform for—in the very least—sparking a public conversation about those issues, and a career in Hollywood does not automatically invalidate an actor’s knowledge or opinion. The “stick to acting” mindset is commonly held by those in opposition to what they are hearing; there would probably be cheers from those same people given the opposite belief.

Point being: it’s all relative, and whether you feel the Oscars should be insulated from all-things-politics, it does not mean it is an ineffective forum for broadcasting political belief.

Art is born of chaos, pain, resistance—and politics. When political landscapes are the inspiration for art, there is no dividing line where one stops and one starts. The 87^th Academy Awards celebrated achievement in motion pictures, but also illuminated the societal struggles that influenced them.

Saturday Night Live is deeply embedded in the American culture fabric—and Sunday evening, it celebrated its 40^th anniversary with a marathon 3.5 hour show. Celebrating its past pioneers, present cast and the characters and sketches that have shaped the entertainment landscape for four decades, the live episode was full of memorable moments.

Here are my favorites:

1. Celebrity Jeopardy

Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond and Norm Macdonald reprised their classic roles as Alex Trebek, Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds/Turd Ferguson, respectively—and it was brilliant. One of the best recurring sketches in SNL history, the anniversary episode’s reboot did not miss a beat. A befuddled and increasingly annoyed Trebek, a purposely antagonistic-and-mispronouncing Connery and a foam hat clad Reynolds reminded us just how truly side-splitting SNL can be.

2. Martin Short & Maya Rudolph

Can we talk about how great it was to see Maya Rudolph’s Beyoncé impression again? Definitely one of the better impressions from the later casts. She had palpable chemistry with Martin Short as they introduced a variety of SNL’s beloved musical characters. Steve Martin did King Tut. Adam Sandler did Opera man. Dana Carvey revived Derek Stevens and performed “Choppin’ Broccoli.” It was a sublime trip down Saturday Night Live’s music memory lane. I would have loved to see the inclusion of “Buckwheat sings” as opposed to Eddie Murphy’s awkward appearance, but you can’t always get what you want.

3. Miley Cyrus Covering Paul Simon

I will be the first to admit that I’m no fan of Miley Cyrus’s campy radio-pop, she took the road-less-traveled on SNL40, forgoing her traditional catalogue and instead opting for a terrific cover of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” The arrangement was unique, and the choruses highlighted her vocal ability. Dare I say she sounded far better than Paul McCartney?

4. Bill Murray’s Theme from Jaws

This could have fallen under #2, but c’mon: it’s Bill Murray, he deserves . He was in peak Murray form during SNL40, returning as lounge singer Nick Ocean, lamenting his lost love: Jaws. With Paul Shaffer on the keyboard, Bill belted out such lines as, “You took me! You took me out of the deep blue. You took me and you made me, you made me, made me part of you.”

Pure brilliance. Someone elect this man to public office. Bill: America needs you.

Lyin’ Brian Williams is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week—and his very public career implosion continues. During the broadcast of NBC’s Nightly News on February 4, Williams apologized for his reporting of an experience in the Iraq War, stating he “made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago.”

By “made a mistake in recalling” Williams really means “massively embellished to make it more interesting.” In case you’re unaware, Brian Williams had stated that he was aboard a helicopter that was hit by RPG fire, a claim that had been frequently called into question by veterans. As it turns out, their accusations of exaggeration were spot-on, and Williams was forced to take the news desk, tail-between-legs, and let America know the same. A few days later he announced he was “taking himself off the air for a few days.”

That was only the beginning. The problem with lying is—once caught—people begin to scan through their mental rolodexes of your other incredible claims. During the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, Williams claimed he had “seen a dead body floating by his hotel” in the French Quarter. The problem? The French Quarter did not flood during that hurricane. You see where this is going.

It’s now open season on Williams’ accounts throughout his career, and it’s safe to say that many in the media are obliged to take birdshot to what remains of his journalistic integrity. Lying, stretching the truth, fibbing—call it what you want, but it’s unacceptable in any profession, but even more so in journalism. Once caught in a lie, your entire career—past and future—comes into question, and rightfully so. If your audience cannot trust your reporting of facts, you are not an appropriate medium for delivering them.

I believe we have seen the last of Brian Williams behind a news desk. With NBC experiencing a steady decline in ratings over the last year, and a sharp drop once the news of the Williams debacle broke, he is simply too much of a liability to captain their flagship news show. The exaggerations may have spiced up his stories throughout his career, but now they have effectively ended it.

With over 114 million viewers, Super Bowl XLIX became the most watched TV show in U.S. history. This means that along with watching Seattle blow it, a record audience also saw the most depressing Super Bowl ad of all-time.

Among a swath of commercials that leaned toward the serious as opposed to the trademark humorous or imaginative side, Nationwide’s young-boy-who-turns-out-to-be-dead ad took home the blue ribbon for biggest bummer. The commercial, narrated by the kid, lists all of life’s moments that he’ll never experience, because, you know—he’s dead. It was the Super Bowl commercial equivalent of putting on “Tears in Heaven” at a party.

The 45 second spot caused the Internet to explode, with Nationwide’s hashtag #MakeSafeHappen trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. Mocking updates and memes filled the social media stratosphere, all begging the question, “Who thought this was a good idea for a Super Bowl advertisement?”

The adage “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” is applicable here, as two days later and it’s the one commercial that is still encouraging debate. Nationwide even issued a statement: that fostering a dialogue about household accidents was the objective of the ad—not to sell insurance. So while the spot could be deemed a failure because of the public’s perception, it should also be considered a success for the amount of mileage it has received so far.

What are your thoughts on Nationwide’s Super Bowl ad? Was it inappropriate for the setting, or does the message warrant attention, regardless of the backdrop?