Pen-Elayne on the Web

Random Grammy Thoughts

Did anyone get a snapshot of Harvey Fierstein (dressed to kill in his fabulous Edna Turnblad drag) and Aretha Franklin together? That's the photo op I'd maim to see.

How much of a newcomer can you be if your dad is Ravi Shankar?

According to Neal Pollack (link at sidebar), his "Just Shut Up" screed wasn't really meant as a bored-and-jaded-white-guy admonishment to bloggers to "Shut down your computers and shut your goddamn pieholes. No one gives a shit what you write, so stop writing about the war. Shut up, all of you." (actual quote), but merely as an objection "to the pompous, official, elite tenor of the discussion." I had no idea that us Just Plain Citizens were either official or elite, although that we do all tend toward the pomposity of, well, Pollack's essay is probably not in doubt. In any case, while he wasn't doing an O'Reilly on last night's luminaries, I cringed as much as other anti-war bloggers did when Fred Durst came out with his "agreeance" Bushism. So much for the eloquence high road in this debate. Like others I suppose I was a bit surprised that there wasn't more overt anti-war sentiment (would it have been too much for Sheryl Crow to perhaps push her hair back so we could see that her "No War" sash matched the sentiment of her peace pendant?), but what I think folks need to remember is the copious amounts of drugs doubtless ingested before the program. They tend to either mellow or distract you, y'know? Thank goodness a few of the songs performed (particularly "London Calling" and "Sounds of Silence") spoke for themselves.

And we'll have to thank goodness, because nobody thanked God in their on-air acceptance speeches. Not a one. This is very frustrating to those home viewers playing drinking or toking games.

My eyes may never recover from being seared after seeing Paul Shaffer's outfit.

Some others thought Avril Lavigne's flashing the audience at the beginning of her number wasn't shown on TV because her t-shirt had an anti-war statement; I just assumed it was because she wasn't wearing a shirt or a bra or something. Nice to see I was wrong; she probably wore the most sensible female-rocker outfit of anyone. Although all I could think of when Kelly Rowland was performing with Nelly was the old Ginger Rogers line about "backwards and in high heels."

Favorite performances were "London Calling" of course, "The Rising" of course, "Landslide" by the Dixie Chicks (I was hoping Stevie would make a surprise guest shot on that, but oh well) "Sweet Baby James" with Taylor and Yo Yo Ma, Eminem's "Lose Yourself," 'N Sync's BeeGees tribute, and "Your Body Is A Wonderland" by Mayer, who's really terrific on that acoustic guitar.

Glad I'm not the only one who thought Nelly's pyrotechnics were perhaps in questionable taste given the recent tragedy in Rhode Island.

Even at 3½ hours, I was surprised at which awards were and weren't televised. This was the first year that I recall the Best Spoken Comedy category was presented live, but that was probably because Robin Williams was a shoo-in (actually making me happy that Firesign didn't put out a new record last year) and he always gives good TV. And all those times people were introduced with "has already won a Grammy today" I was saying "huh, when did that happen?"

More snide comments cogent observations as and when I think of them. Complete list of winners here.