So…….I was all set to construct a comprehensive diatribe about the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, but lucky for me, my friend Paul already took care of that for us. Thanks Paul! Saved me some time! Bonus: If you click on that link, you’re actually treated to an impressive summary from a professional writer, unlike myself.
However, I can’t resist – I do need to make a few quick observations. First off, Green Day’s performance just crushed it. They were so far and above any other live act on the bill last night that it wasn’t even fair to the others. Nobody even came within a sniff of them. I was just graduating from college when their first major label work was released and I was already well on my way to obnoxious music snob-dom. My feeling at the time was “hey, innocent, fun, punk rock for the suburbs. yay! They’ll be gone in two years.” I am certainly man enough to admit I was wrong. Last night’s dominant performance and their latest record, American Idiot, has me thinking that they might very well have advanced theirselves to the point of being, um, important. Great record.
One more thing or two: if there’s anything I dislike more, it’s when recordings are heaped and slobbered over with awards simply because someone died. It could not be any more clear to me that the Ray Charles, how should I describe it, frontlash (?) is alive and screaming. Now, I love Ray Charles. Here’s a guy whose nickname certainly is deserving – the man was a genius, maybe not for any particular song, but for the way he gently introduced genres to unsuspecting masses. But for the latest work to be recognized as it was last night, that’s probably undeserving. Definitely undeserving, in fact.
Also, the embarassing love-in of several music superstars sputtering their way through “Across the Universe” was only made more insulting by the fact that they didn’t let the best singer of the group utter a single note! Alison Krauss was there, maybe harmonizing or whatever, but her job was largely to play the fiddle. An utter travesty.
Finally, I just cannot agree more with Paul’s comments on Alicia Keys. My gosh, she’s an overblown, melodramatic windbag. I won’t go near her records for fear of instant acid reflux disease. It’s that bad.
OK, so I ended up writing more than I wanted to about the Grammy’s. Sorry. Paul’s summary is much better.
Over the weekend, Stephanie and I did manage to see two of the five films nominated for Best Picture this year. Finding Neverland was way better than I thought it would be. In fact, it was one of the more touching movies I’ve seen in quite some time. I don’t want to get overly verbose in my descriptions here, for I realize that many of you don’t want me to ruin things. All I will say about Neverland is this – the sad outcome is somehow washed over with a feeling of unbridled hope. See it if you can.
I have not seen the other three that are nominated yet, but I can almost guarantee you that Million Dollar Baby is your winner for Best Picture. An absolutely terrific movie. I really cannot say more about it because enough infomation is sneaking out – just get yourself to the theatre asap and have at it.