Hello, everybody. They had to do it a little early to avoid the Super Bowl/Olympics crush, but the 56th Grammy Awards on Sunday was dominated by crushing wins and not-that-crushing moments.
Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams (who with his fedora was named Arby's honorary Employee of the Year) claimed the most with five Grammys including Album of the Year for "Random Access Memories" and Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Get Lucky". Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were not that behind with four; Best New Artist among them. They were followed up by New Zealand sensation Lorde picking up Song of the Year and Pop Solo Performance for "Royals", and Pop Vocal Album going to Bruno Mars ("Unorthodox Jukebox"), as a warmup to what will be an extremely cold Super Bowl halftime next week.
And although Robin Thicke and Taylor Swift got nothing, there were others that got something: Alicia Keys (R&B Album, "Girl on Fire"), Kacey Musgraves (Country Album, "Same Trailer Different Park"), Stephen Colbert (Spoken Word Album, "America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't"); and finally, after many nods, Kathy Griffin (Comedy Album, "Calm Down Gurrl").
Beyonce with the help of Jay-Z kicked things off as only they could, but the night's ultimate highlight belonged to a mass wedding of 33 straight and gay couples during Macklemore and Lewis' "Same Love" with Queen Latifah officiating.
As always, there are little to no rules when it comes to Grammy fashion, and I thought Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys, Anna Kendrick, and Beyonce aboded by them. Madonna, Paula Patton, and Katy Perry? I'm afraid they violated them.
But of course, the big talk prior to the Grammys was Justin Bieber, as on Thursday he was arrested for DUI and drag racing on a Miami area street. That would be followed by pulling a Tom DeLay for his mugshot before being released on $2,500 bail. On Sunday, he spent some downtime in Panama, but the news of his arrest was pure comedy and social media gold. You know, if I was the U.S. ambassador to Canada, I would deport Bieber's ass and bring Celine Dion with him.
And last but not least...ugh, not again! The Deep Freeze which has numbed the Midwest and Northeast U.S. on two different occasions this month has returned with a vengeance, and is now spreading to as far as the Deep South including here in Atlanta. Chicago is once again the epicenter, as wind chills may fall to -40, with schools, businesses, and city governments closed. But back in Alaska, a series of avalanches have shut down the only road to and from Valdez on the Richardson Highway, and it will remain so for a week.
With Super Bowl XLVIII now less than a week away, the only places that are worried right now are New York and New Jersey, and if the pundits are right, we may see the big game happen earlier or maybe later than Sunday. And to my Seattle Seahawks: I hope they came well-prepared; they may probably need more than gloves to grab not only the football in the frozen tundra of MetLife Stadium, but the Vince Lombardi Trophy. So long, stay strong, and stay warm.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
Hello, everybody, and welcome to our first blog of 2014. The road to the Dolby Theatre began in Beverly Hills on Sunday and the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards, where "12 Years A Slave" (Drama) and "American Hustle" (Musical/Comedy) took the top film honors and setting things up for the ultimate showdown on March 2.
Matthew McConaughey picked up Best Actor-Drama for "Dallas Buyers Club" (which also earned Supporting Actor for Jared Leto), Cate Blanchett beat out Sandra Bullock for Best Actress ("Blue Jasmine"), and Leonardo DiCaprio collected Best Actor-Musical/Comedy for the profanity-laden "The Wolf of Wall Street."
But it's "American Hustle" that's prematurely coming in with the huge advantage, thanks to wins by Amy Adams (Best Actress-Musical/Comedy) and Jennifer Lawrence (Supporting Actress). Meanwhile, Foreign Language Film went to Italy's "The Great Beauty" and Animated Feature Film, "Frozen."
On the television spectrum: "Breaking Bad" picked up where they left off from last September's Emmys by cooking up Best Drama, with Bryan Cranston finally Best Actor. Robin Wright received Best Actress for Netflix's "House of Cards", leaving -- you guessed it -- a now-pregnant Kerry Washington in the dust yet again. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" shot out perennial Emmy winner "Modern Family" for Best Comedy (ditto for Best Actor Andy Samberg), while repeat Golden Globes co-host Amy Poehler collected Best Actress ("Parks and Recreation") after planting a big one on Bono. Other winners include fellow Emmy leftover "Behind the Candelabra" (Miniseries/TV Movie and its star Michael Douglas) and Jacqueline Bissett, who not only took forever to get up to the stage, but sort of woke up the censors a bit. Woody Allen was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, in which Diane Keaton accepted on his behalf.
The only malfunction that occurred well before the show was a water sprinkler flooding a portion of the red carpet and the press line -- yards away from the "Entertainment Tonight", "Access Hollywood" and E! platforms -- leading up to the entrance of the Beverly Hilton.
Once again bypassing the usually dull fashion rundown, I'll say that Amy Adams (in Valentino) gets my best-dressed prize, while Sandra Bullock (Prabal Gurung)? She may be turning 50 soon, but I didn't think she didn't look it.
The Golden Globes ended a thaw from the Deep Freeze that numbed most of the country in the first full week of the year. Temperatures plummeted to as low as -15 in Minneapolis, which is the Lower 48's equivalent to -40 in Fairbanks, which I don't have to deal with anymore. Here, it went to as low as 8, which resulted in a growing number of school closures all throughout metro Atlanta including Clayton County, where I live. But three years ago at this time, a violent snowstorm shut the whole city down, turning roads into instant ice rinks for the vehicles. Compare that to the recent ice storm Fairbanks had this past fall, which left most residents without power for days.
Long story short: I'm glad that I'm enjoying real weather once again, especially when it's 50 degrees above zero...in January! Take that, Mike Shultz, and so long and stay strong.
Matthew McConaughey picked up Best Actor-Drama for "Dallas Buyers Club" (which also earned Supporting Actor for Jared Leto), Cate Blanchett beat out Sandra Bullock for Best Actress ("Blue Jasmine"), and Leonardo DiCaprio collected Best Actor-Musical/Comedy for the profanity-laden "The Wolf of Wall Street."
But it's "American Hustle" that's prematurely coming in with the huge advantage, thanks to wins by Amy Adams (Best Actress-Musical/Comedy) and Jennifer Lawrence (Supporting Actress). Meanwhile, Foreign Language Film went to Italy's "The Great Beauty" and Animated Feature Film, "Frozen."
On the television spectrum: "Breaking Bad" picked up where they left off from last September's Emmys by cooking up Best Drama, with Bryan Cranston finally Best Actor. Robin Wright received Best Actress for Netflix's "House of Cards", leaving -- you guessed it -- a now-pregnant Kerry Washington in the dust yet again. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" shot out perennial Emmy winner "Modern Family" for Best Comedy (ditto for Best Actor Andy Samberg), while repeat Golden Globes co-host Amy Poehler collected Best Actress ("Parks and Recreation") after planting a big one on Bono. Other winners include fellow Emmy leftover "Behind the Candelabra" (Miniseries/TV Movie and its star Michael Douglas) and Jacqueline Bissett, who not only took forever to get up to the stage, but sort of woke up the censors a bit. Woody Allen was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, in which Diane Keaton accepted on his behalf.
The only malfunction that occurred well before the show was a water sprinkler flooding a portion of the red carpet and the press line -- yards away from the "Entertainment Tonight", "Access Hollywood" and E! platforms -- leading up to the entrance of the Beverly Hilton.
Once again bypassing the usually dull fashion rundown, I'll say that Amy Adams (in Valentino) gets my best-dressed prize, while Sandra Bullock (Prabal Gurung)? She may be turning 50 soon, but I didn't think she didn't look it.
The Golden Globes ended a thaw from the Deep Freeze that numbed most of the country in the first full week of the year. Temperatures plummeted to as low as -15 in Minneapolis, which is the Lower 48's equivalent to -40 in Fairbanks, which I don't have to deal with anymore. Here, it went to as low as 8, which resulted in a growing number of school closures all throughout metro Atlanta including Clayton County, where I live. But three years ago at this time, a violent snowstorm shut the whole city down, turning roads into instant ice rinks for the vehicles. Compare that to the recent ice storm Fairbanks had this past fall, which left most residents without power for days.
Long story short: I'm glad that I'm enjoying real weather once again, especially when it's 50 degrees above zero...in January! Take that, Mike Shultz, and so long and stay strong.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)