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 was
       pretty annoying.
       
       Speaking of annoying, they started running ads and credits over the
       final performance. Seriously? You spend over three hours leading up to
       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 as
       opposed to "special guest performances". There's nothing special about
       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 Dragons
       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 of
       the Stone Age with NIN and Dave Grohl (though it was *great* to see
       Grohl kicking ass on the drums again). Other performances were either
       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 like
       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 (apparently
       she's ordained or has some other credentials that really do allow her
       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 pretty
       much done (terrible performance). All in all, the show was good,
       Maclemore killed it, and the whole thing was very moving. Find it on
       YouTube or something if you can.
       
       Finally, let's talk awards. This *is* an award show, after all, even
       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 away
       with awards. Daft Punk (with Pharrel) won, among others, Album of the
       Year for "Random Access Memories". Most importantly, Robin Thicke and
       "Blurred Lines" (the song *and* the album) didn't get shit.
       
       They were really quick with the "get off the stage music" last night
       as well. One interesting moment that sticks out is when during
       Maclemore's speech, he mentioned how he did all this without a record
       label and *immediately* the music starts playing. Could be a
       coincidence, sure, but I'm thinking there might be some conspiracy in
       there as well.
       
       Oh, and one more thing. There were some damn good jokes. Two that come
       to mind (paraphrased and not cited because I don't remember who said
       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 this
       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 to
       say: what are you doing with your life? You've got a great voice and
       are a natural crooner. Own it. Be it. Thank me later.