Last night was the 2014 Grammys. Here's my thoughts and recap.

	Last night was the 2014 Grammys. Here's my thoughts and recap.

	First, let's talk TV and production. The sound kept cutting out. At
	first, I thought they were censoring, but that's not the case. It w
	pretty annoying.

	Speaking of annoying, they started running ads and credits over the
	final performance. Seriously? You spend over three hours leading up
	this and you're going to cover it with crap? Come on, now.

	My only other issue with the TV broadcast is that we only saw a few
	awards get awarded. The show was mostly performances. I don't like
	that. I want to see the awards given. Also, with the number of
	performances they pack into the show, it becomes more of a concert
	opposed to "special guest performances". There's nothing special ab
	being one of 20 or so performances.

	OK, moving on, let's talk about these performances. Honestly, I'm
	50/50 on them. Some were really good: Kacey Musgraves, Imagine Drag
	with some rapper, Miranda Lambert and Billy Armstrong, Taylor Swift
	Robin Thicke with Chicago (surprisingly good!), and Daft Punk with
	Pharell and Stevie Wonder. Some were OK: Metallica with Lang Lang,
	Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the closing performance of Queens
	the Stone Age with NIN and Dave Grohl (though it was great to see
	Grohl kicking ass on the drums again). Other performances were eith
	bad or just plain boring: Beyonce with Jay-Z (the opening act) and
	Katy Perry come to mind. Lorde performed "Royals" and while I liked
	the music and the live mix, the visual performance was... well, I l
	to call it stage Tourettes.

	However, I have to mention probably the best performance of the
	night. Maclemore and Ryan Lewis performed "Same Love" and gave an
	excellent performance of it. Then, Queen Latifa comes on stage and
	actually marries 30 or so couples right there on live TV (apparentl
	she's ordained or has some other credentials that really do allow h
	to perform weddings). There were all types of couples including, of
	course, gay couples. This was all done to "Same Love", of
	course. Then, Madonna came out and proved once again that she's pre
	much done (terrible performance). All in all, the show was good,
	Maclemore killed it, and the whole thing was very moving. Find it o
	YouTube or something if you can.

	Finally, let's talk awards. This is an award show, after all, eve
	if the TV broadcast makes you think otherwise. I have to say, I'm
	really pleased with the number of smaller names, indie folks, and
	unexpected wins. Lorde, Kacey Musgraves, and Maclemore all walked a
	with awards. Daft Punk (with Pharrel) won, among others, Album of t
	Year for "Random Access Memories". Most importantly, Robin Thicke a
	"Blurred Lines" (the song and the album) didn't get shit.

	They were really quick with the "get off the stage music" last nigh
	as well. One interesting moment that sticks out is when during
	Maclemore's speech, he mentioned how he did all this without a reco
	label and immediately the music starts playing. Could be a
	coincidence, sure, but I'm thinking there might be some conspiracy
	there as well.

	Oh, and one more thing. There were some damn good jokes. Two that c
	to mind (paraphrased and not cited because I don't remember who sai
	them):

	"I'm honored to be in the same room as Paul McCartney and Ringo
	Starr. The Grammys had to decide between bringing either two of the
	Beatles or all of the Jonas Brothers back together." (Implying the
	Grammys made the right decision.)

	and

	(Speaking about Daft Punk) "You know, back when I was drinking and
	using, I used to imagine all sorts of impossible things. Then I
	sobered up, and two robots showed up at my door wanting to make an
	album."

	Addendum: I have no idea how I forgot this when I first wrote thi
	post, but Robin Thicke surprised the shit out of me. That guy can
	actually sing! He's a natural born crooner. When he was singing
	Chicago's song my jaw dropped. Robin, listen to the words I'm about
	say: what are you doing with your life? You've got a great voice an
	are a natural crooner. Own it. Be it. Thank me later.