Monday, August 29, 2005

NEW ORLEANS GETS OUT OF KATRINA'S WAY WHILE THE VMAs ROCK MIAMI

Hello, everybody. Well, there were two major stories happening at the same time on Sunday: New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast evading themselves from the imminent wrath of Hurricane Katrina while Miami played host to the MTV Video Music Awards for the second time. I'll get to Katrina in a bit, but first the VMAs.

Diddy (alias Sean Combs, alias Puff Daddy, alias P. Diddy) played host to the three-hour plus event from Miami...which, just a few days prior, got minimal damage from Katrina. But with water as the theme it looks like they brought their own remnants of the hurricane to the show. Green Day were the big winners of the night with six awards including Best Video for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", followed by Kelly Clarkson (who looked great when wet during her performance, by the way) who garnered Best Female and Pop video honors for "Since U Been Gone." Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" got him the Male video moonman.

But there weren't any raindrops falling on our heads as far as the overall execution went. I didn't even care about R. Kelly's latest chapter; I was vacuuming my room during that. Mariah Carey put out an always stellar performance as did Coldplay, but those from West and Jamie Foxx (his first awards show appearance since his Oscar win), 50 Cent, and comedy from Dane Cook had viewers flipping to the hurricane coverage. Oh yeah, there was also MC Hammer's surprise appearance as well as the return of Beavis and Butt-Head. As for the fashions? Clarkson looked nice in light gold, while Jessica Simpson was a total muck-up.

Since the Video Music Awards is MTV's biggest event of the year, the ratings might be down because most of the Gulf Coast who evacuated from Katrina were either watching from their hotel rooms or going to read about it in this morning's papers or on the Internet. Aunt Bobbie and her family in Gulfport, Miss. -- whom I visited of course during my trip last month -- went as far away as Atlanta and Cousin Anthony's house to get away from the Category 4 hurricane as it's about to make its way to New Orleans.

But as far as Mississippi is concerned...could it be another 1969, when Camille swallowed the coast whole? Let's hope and pray that Aunt Bobbie and the gang doesn't lose everything in their house thanks to Katrina when they come back from Atlanta. And for those of you in the area who are toughing it all out, our prayers are with you as you stay for the long haul.

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