Grammy Awards: Adele Sweeps while Most of the Performances Made Me Sleep

The Grammy Awards focus more on the performances than the actual awards presented.  I will however cover the big winners of the night, and those were Adele and The Foo Fighters.  Adele is the second female performing artist to win 6 Grammy Awards, the other artist was Beyonce.  Adele won the three top prizes Album, Song and Record of the Year; she also won Pop Vocal Performance, Pop Vocal Album, and Short Form Video.  The Foo Fighters won five Grammy Awards all in the rock genre category.  Bon Iver took home the other major award Best New Artist.

Best Performances of the Night

Beach Boys Tribute

Maroon 5 and Foster the People captured the the essence of the Beach Boys.  I was pleased with both of their renditions of the Beach Boys music.  Then the Beach Boys came on stage and while many of don't look that great, they did a great job for their age capturing the beautifully fun element of their music.

Adele

A simple, classic, and beautiful return to the stage after the surgery on her throat.  While her voice seemed a little different I was still pleased get to hear beautiful voice.

Glenn Campbell Tribute

The Band Perry and Blake Shelton rocked it in the tribute to this country music icon.  These artists knew this legend and were able to put on a show that sold his musical experience.  Campbell then came on to sing his iconic song "Like A Rhinestone Cowboy, and the audience was totally into it!  Not my type of music, but I like what they did.

Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt's Tribute to Etta James

These two have great voices, and I am glad they picked these women to pay tribute to her instead of Christina Aguilera.  While I love Aguilera these two women captured James soul like no other could.

The Civil Wars

I would have much rather heard more from this country duo than from Taylor Swift, they had me wondering and asking who are these two people, and made me want more, that was something that did not happen much tonight.

The Boring 

Two times the Foo Fighters

While the Foo Fighters were not bad they were boring. What was the point of these them performing twice.  The first Foo Fighters performance was alright, and the second one was decent, and they proved they are a solid rock band, but their performances did not do anything earth shattering.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

While I love the energy that Bruce Springsteen has with the E Street Band their opening performance was a big yawn and set the tone for the night

Two times the Paul McCartney

I love Sir Paul, but both his performances had me wishing I started the show late, and could fast forward through him; he was just boring tonight.

Bruno Mars

Not much to say he's a good performer, but continued the pattern after the boss which just a lackluster boring performance that had some good dancing.

Bad Performances

Coldplay and Rihanna

Rihanna was so stiff and wooden; she did not command the stage and her performance with Chris Martin was terrible.  When Martin joined his band for their single "Paradise" I grew optimistic, but their performance fell flat.

Two times Chris Brown

I am not going to say much about Chris Brown because i have many strong personal feelings about how much I strongly dislike the fact that the music industry promotes him so regularly, and he has such a violent past and promoting him often seems to promote rape culture....there I go I need to stop.  Beyond seeing his penis through his tight pants there was not much exciting about seeing him perform.

Nicki Minaj

I like her and I often do mind when artists use their shtick and do some off the wall things, but out of context this was a big mess.  Roman is her alternate bad boy personality, and while she started with one of her best songs Roman's Revenge she went too off the wall and too much for the show rather than allowing the song to speak for itself.

Taylor Swift

Swift's album Speak Now is much better than her second album which won for album of the year, and "Mean" is a good song, and this performance was more boring than bad, but I just could not get into her at all, and she made me long to change the channel.

Katy Perry

Stop asking her to perform; she is not good live, and her stuff is all about the production.  Her new single is an attempt or seems to be an attempt to show the emotional side from Russell Brand, but it lacks the emotional context with her "live" performance.


Overall the show was pretty boring, and did not give me much to talk about at work the next day except the beauty that is Adele, and more continued talk about the loss of the wonderful Whitney Houston.  on a side not I enjoyed Jennifer Hudson's performance, and thought it was wonderfully emotional.  There was no cohesion to the actual show, and I thought having a host took away from this award show.  Go back to your old format and structure the show better next year, pick a theme and stick to it!

Grammy Predictions: Adele is Queen of the Night!

Tonight Adele could make history being one of the few artists to sweep the general field categories, but I think she is up to the challenge and will win a lot of awards tonight! Here is an analysis of the four major categories, and my predictions in the other categories.

Album of the year
Adele-21
Bruno Mars-Doo Wops and Hooligans
Foo Fighters-Wasting Light
Lady Gaga-Born This Way
Rihanna-Loud

Bruno and Rihanna are out, this is not their category to win, and I think the Grammy's would be eternally mocked is Rihanna beat Adele or Lady Gaga.  This is Gaga's third nomination in 3 years, a great accomplishment, and she could steal this prize away, but I can't think this album will help her, it was so divisive.  Then there is the pop factor.  4 of the five of these albums are all pop albums while the Foo Fighters is a rock album.  I do not think this is enough to help them win.  Adele had the highest selling (this means nothing, but helps) album of the year, and it was one of if not the most critically acclaimed album of the year.

Will and Should win: Adele-21
Spoiler-Lady Gaga

Record of the Year
Adele-"Rolling in the Deep"
Bon Iver-"Holocene"
Bruno Mars-"Grenade"
Mumford and Sons-"The Cave"
Katy Pery-"Firework"

Actually a pretty solid category this year.  Firework is my favorite Katy Perry song, but nope she is not going to win here.  Bon Iver and Mumford will win their field categories.  Bruno Mars may steal one trophy from Adele, but I think he will end up going home like India.Arie in her first Grammy Awards, going home empty handed.  I think this is Adele's to lose.

Will and Should win: Adele-Rolling in the Deep
Spoiler: Bruno Mars

Song of the Year (a songwriters award)
All of the Lights-Jeff Bhasker, Stacy Ferguson, Malik Jones, Warren Trotter & Kanye West, songwriters (Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi & Fergie)
The Cave-Ted Dwane, Ben Lovett, Marcus Mumford & Country Winston, songwriters (Mumford & Sons)
Grenade-Brody Brown, Claude Kelly, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine, Bruno Mars & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Bruno Mars)
Holocene-Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)
Rolling in the Deep-Adele Adkins & Paul Epworth, songwriters (Adele)


Another time for Adele to win? Yep, most likely.  All of the Lights is Kanye's only nomination in this field, which is a shame.  I think the only challenge could come from Mumford and Sons, this song and group had a lot of support this year.


Will and Should win: Adele
Spoiler: Mumford and Sons

Best New Artist
The Band Perry
Bon Iver
J. Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex

The more and more I think about this category the more my head hurts.  Esperanza Sapulding's win last year put everyone in a tail spin; she came out of nowhere to win this award! This year's winner could be anyone again.  I am going to first cut J. Cole while he is talented if they are going to award a rapper I would imagine they would go with Nicki, but I do not think she is going to win here either.  There is a clear bias against rap/hip-hop in the general field. Skrillex is great, but I do not see him winning either.  This leaves The Band Perry vs. Bon Iver.  Bon Iver is great and should win (in my opinion), but they had some bad Grammy press recently, where they stated they did not want to perform on the show.  While i agree with their reasoning I do think could effect them.  The Band Perry is bland enough to appeal to appeal to the large country and pop voting block.

Predicition: The Band Perry
Should Win: Bon Iver or Skrillex
Spoiler: Anyone in this category

Other categories
Pop Vocal Performance-Adele-Someone Like You
Pop Vocal Album-Adele-21
Pop Performance by a Duo or Group-Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse-Body and Soul
Best Dance/Electronic Album-Robyn-Body Talk Part 3
Best Rock Song-The Cave-Mumford and Sons
Best Rock Album-Foo Fighters-Wasting Light
Best Alternative Music Album-Bon Iver-Bon Iver
Best R&B Song-Cee Lo Green-Fool For You
Best R&B Album-Chris Brown-F.A.M.E.
Best Rap Performance-Kanye West and Jay-Z
Best Rap Song-All of the Lights-Kanye, Fergie, Rihanna, Kid Cuddi
Best Rap Album-Nicki Minaj-Pink Friday
Best Country Solo Performance-Taylor Swift-Mean
Best Country Song-Mean-Taylor Swift
Best Country Album-Taylor Swift-Speak Now
Best Spoken Word Album-Tina Fey-Bossypants
Best Short Form Music Video-Adele-Rolling in the Deep

2011's Best Music: The Albums and Songs

The Grammy's really don't know their stuff.  Here are my picks for the best albums of the year and the best singles.  This is my my first list of the "best."  The list of the best TV shows, performances in TV, and TV episodes of the year is up next!


Best Albums of 2011

1-Adele's-21-It's hard to find people who do not love this album.  I have one friend who does, but his argument is he does not like Adele's voice ( I am baffled).  From start to finish this album is beautifully flawless.  Their is pure raw energy and talent.  This is one of my favorite albums of all time
Best Track "Someone Like You"

2-Bon Iver-Bon Iver-The music on this album is hauntingly beautiful.  The songwriting and tone of this somewhat soft pop is terrific.
Best Track "Holocene"

3-Beyonce-4 A lot of people wrote off this album, but I think this is one of Beyonce's strongest albums.  This did not have a lot of success sales wise, but sometimes the best material does not.  Beyonce has put her heart and soul into this album and it shows!
Best Track- "Countdown" 

4-Jay-Z and Kanye West-Watch the Throne, The combination of these two performers could have been explosively bad, with both of their egos.  Yet the music speaks for itself with songs that go into deep subject matters like racism, this album takes hip hop to another level.
Best Track-"Otis"

5-The Black Keys- El Camino, This album keeps up with the trend of their music have an influence with the blues, but also finds inspiration in rock.  The album is their first that has found the best balance in going beyond their overtly sad, and finds more upbeat sounds.
Best Track-Dead and Gone

Best Singles of 2011

1-Beyonce-"Countdown"

2-Adele-"Rolling in the Deep"

3-Nicki Minaj-"Super Bass"

4-Foster the People "Pumped up Kicks"

5-Britney Spears-"I Wanna Go"

2011 Entertainer(s) of the Year: Adele is Entertainer of the Year

1-Adele-My entertainer of the year was a no brainer, Adele.  Adele's tunes simply put are some of the best music produced this year.  Adele's album has been certified gold, and sold 4 million plus copies, and her single "Rolling in the Deep" is the number one single of the year in the US.  Adele is from the UK and her album sales make her the most successful artist within the last ten years.  This woman is an unstoppable force, with a soulful voice.  Adele's "Someone Like You," is also doing well on the singles charts, and i imagine her third single "Set Fire to the Rain" will be another huge hit!  I first heard Adele back in 2004 when she was the free itunes single of the week with her song "Hometown Glory."  I have been hooked ever since, and am proud to make Adele my entertainer of the year.

2-Ryan Gosling-Why him?  This guy is much more than his looks.  Gosling has consistently moved beyond his good looks (should have been named People Magazine's sexiest man alive this year) and moved towards being a strong leading male; he has also taken roles in more off beat films.  Gosling starred in three different films this year and was amazing in each film.  Crazy Stupid Love showed how witty, sarcastic, and funny he can be,  give this man more roles like this!  In Drive Gosling did more with his facial expression than with the actual dialogue.  Drive is one of the more unique films of the year, and Gosling was spell binding in this film.  Neither of those films provided his best performance; his best performance was in Ides of March.  Ides of March has Gosling hitting every range of emotion, and never missing a beat; he provided strong performances in each of these films, and made these movies even better than they could have been!

3-Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Rose Byrne-These women rock!  Melissa McCarthy is hilarious, while she was great in the Gilmore Girls, 2011 was her year!  McCarthy has Mike and Molly on CBS sitcom.  At this past year's Emmy Awards she won Outstanding Lead Actress in Comedy Series (a huge surprise); her star power is making this show a hit.   Rose Byrne continued her work on the television series Damages and she starred in X-Men: First Class as Moira McTaggert.  Maya Rudolph is a scene stealing talk show host on the NBC sitcom Up All Night. Wiig is the star of Saturday Night Live;she is one the few females on the show and she makes this still a relevant funny variety series.  Then Wiig writes a screenplay for a film and when all four women's powers combine you get the funniest film of the year, Bridesmaids.  These four women are amazing and have provided some incredible laughter, and with Byrne a little bit of drama for 2011.

4-The cast of Game of Thrones-This show was a phenomena.  I came to the game late and watched the entire first season around Thanksgiving, but I was blown away by the talented cast.  The cast does not have a lot of big names, the biggest during the first season are Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey, but together they have created a series that illuminates a mystical world.  Dinklage was honored with the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series; he is great, but this ensemble works like a well oiled machine, and it's hard to single out one person that stands out.  Sure people will have their favorite character(s), but this ensemble provided some of the best acting this year, and made this show more than just a Fantasy show, it brought to life great literature.

5-Jessica Chastain and Viola Davis-These two are both twoof the stars of the hit film The Help, and within that film that are both polar opposites and at odds with each other.  Chastain plays a woman hell bent on creating seperate restrooms for "the help" while Davis plays Abileen of of the maids who works for white families and decides to tell her story.  Their performances in this film are great but both of them did not just take on these roles this year.  Davis has a supporting role in the film that will be released this month Extremely Loud and Incredibly Closewhich looks to provide her with more strong material.  Chastain seems to be in a lot of of films this year; she played the mother in Tree of Life, the wife to Michael Shannon in Taking Shelter (her best performance), and she was in The Debt and Coralanus.  These two women may have been at odds in The Help but they have proved to be two talented actresses.

6-Daniel Radcliffe-Daniel Radcliffe "The boy who lived come to die" was the star of this years highest grossing film (to date).  Radcliffe has been a part of the entire Harry Potter franchise, and as the series came to a close this year, he will ride off into a wonderful career.  Radcliffe started out an unknown more than ten years ago, and today he is one of the most recognizable faces.  Radcliffe not only starred in the most successful film of the year but he also made his way back to Broadway.  Radcliffe played J. Pierpont Finch in the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  While Daniel did not receive any award recognition his star power is a presence he and did a lot for the Harry Potter franchise and on the Great White Way this year.

7-Kanye West and Jay-Z-These two men not only put on the Watch the Throne tour, but they hold the throne as two of most influential musicians working.  The combination of their talent on a critically acclaimed album, and then a well attended tour has made this duo unstoppable this year.  Kanye West leads the pack at the Grammy Awards this year with seven nominations, and shares some of these nominations with the Jigga man.  Not only did these two put out one of the best albums of of the year, but their collaboration has spawned some of the best hip hop music in years, and should prove that this is the direction this genre should take.

8-AMC-This network continues to be a beacon for quality television programming.  In 2011 the network won Best Drama series award for Mad Men. This is the fourth year the series has won this prize.  Mad Men has not aired during the 2011 year but helped the network pick up this award.  During 2011 the network brought the first season of The Killing, which followed the murder of Rosie Larson in Seattle.  The Killing was a critical and ratings success, scoring a slew of Emmy nominations, and was picked up for a second season.  The mystery of Rosie Larson continues.  Breaking Bad returned for its fourth season getting continually better (as the show has done throughout its history), and has grown in popularity.  The Walking Dead returned for its second season and has remained the network highest rated show, scoring 6 million viewers on average.  This network has grown into one of the most reliable channels, and has provided some of the best television this year.


9-Michael Fassbender-This guy took 2011 by storm; he had a few relatively small roles but suddenly became a quality leading man this year.  Fassbender played Rochester in Jane Eyre, then played Eric Lensher aka Magneto in X-Men: First Class,  then one of the father's of psychoanalysis Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method, and finally a sex addict Brandon Sullivan in Shame.  Fassbender's four different roles provided him with a tremendous career change and served to be some of the best acting this year.  This man is a marvel, and every film he starred in provided people with something different from his dark action packed turn as Magneto to his exploration of sex addiction.  Fassbender provided some of the best film experiences this year.

10-The cast and crew from All My Children and One Life to 

Live-Laugh at me if you will, but these with both of these show ending this year they pulled together and produced some of the best television they had ever put on in years!  Saying goodbye to Susan Lucci's iconic Erica Kane, classic couple like Angie and Jesse Hubbard, and Tad the Cad Martin on All My Children was incredibly sad.  While One Life to Live is still on the air, its time is coming to an end soon too.  I started watching One Life to Live later than All My Children, but fell in love with some of the characters quickly.  Erika Slezak's Vicki and her multiple personalities, Bo and Nora reuniting finally, and of course Todd Manning and his evil ways.  Both of these shows provided some beautiful send offs, and worked towards providing satisfying endings.  I will be sad to see them off the air, but the provided some of the best entertainment during 2011.

The Grammy's Spread the Wealth but Crown Adele, Kanye, Bruno Mars, and The Foo Fighters Handsomely

The Grammy Award nominations were announced live on CBS last night, and these awards are always tough for me to predict.  As you can tell I rarely post about music, I like it, but I only talk about when it comes to award shows.  I think the nominees are interesting with some surprises.  This is an interesting year where Pop dominates!

Adele leads the female nomination tally with 6 award nominations including Album of the Year (21), Record and Song of the Year for "Rolling in the Deep", nominations in the Pop categories, and Short Form Music Video.  Adele has had an amazing year and at the moment I would crown her the frontrunner for most of these awards.

The shocking leader of the pack is the man so divisive, Kanye West with 7 nominations.  This is not Kanye's first time having the most nominations he had that honor two albums prior.  Kanye also had two albums out this year which helped him to rack up the largest number of nominations.  The two albums were "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and "Watch the Throne" his collaboration with Jay-Z.  While Kanye did receive a Song of the year nomination for "All of the Lights" he was shut out of the Album of the Year category.

Bruno Mars like Adele landed 6 nominations.  Mars was nominated for Album of the year for "Doo-Wops and Hooligans"; he also received Record of the Year and Song of the Year nominations for smash hit "Grenade", and some nominations in the Pop categories.

The other big nominee was The Foo Fighters with 6 nominations.  The Foo Fighters netted an Album of the Year nomination for the second time, and they were honored in the Rock category for the rest of their nominations.

 The Foo Fighters are only artist in the Album of the Year category that are not nominated in the Pop Album of the Year.  This bodes well for this group to win this award for the first time.  The other Album of the Year nominees are Lady Gaga's "Born this Way" (her third Album of the Year nomination) and, I can't believe I am going to say this, but Rihanna is nominated for Album of the year with "Loud."

There were a few shocking omissions from the major categories. Taylor Swift, the winner of Album of the year two years ago,  was left out of the general field categories and only received three nominations in the country categories.  In fact the only general field nomination in the Country genre is for The Band Perry for Best New Artist.

The Best New Artist's did a great job with nominations this year; Nicki Minaj has four, Bon Iver also has four, but is the only Best New Artist nominee with nominations in the general field category.  Bon Iver is nominated in Record and Song of the Year for "Holocene."  The other nominees are J. Cole and Skrillex.

Beyonce a 16 time Grammy winner has only two nominations in minor categories.  Her album "4" was not as commercially successful, and divided the fans and critics alike.  Tony Bennett was seen to be a spoiler in the general field categories, but was only nominated for two trophies.

This is going to be an interesting year, with pop dominating.  The general field categories reflects the year well.  There were not a lot of great Albums, but Adele's, and The Foo Fighters were two of the best.  I think this Gaga's weakest album, and Rihanna came back with a stronger album, but I would not have nominated her in this category.  Here is the list of the general field nominations.

Album of the Year

Adele-"21"

The Foo Fighters-"Wasting the Light"

Lady Gaga-"Born this Way"

Bruno Mars-"Doo-Wops and Hooligans"

Rihanna-"Loud"

Record of the Year

Adele-"Rolling in the Deep"

Bon Iver-"Holocene"

Bruno Mars-"Grenade"

Mumford and Sons-"The Cave"

Katy Perry-"Firework"

Song of the Year (award is given to the writers)

Adele-"Rolling in the Deep"

Bon Iver-"Holocene"

Bruno Mars-"Grenade"

Mumford and Sons-"The Cave"

Kanye West-"All of the Lights"

Best New Artist

The Band Perry

Bon Iver

J. Cole

Nicki Minaj

Skrillex

Predicting winners at this point is difficult, but I would say that The Foo Fighters will win album because it's the only rock album amongst four other pop albums.  With that said last years Album of the Year winner was a shock, so this is by no means a done deal.  I think Adele has an excellent shot, and Bruno Mars could be a spoiler.  I think "Rolling in the Deep" is going to easily take both Record and Song of the Year.  Bon Iver will most likely win Best New Artist, but look out for the country voting block.  The Band Perry is the only nomination for country in the major catgeories, and they may team up to make sure that win happens.

Things in Movies, TV, and Music I am Thankful for This Year

Movies


More films centered on women-Maybe Hollywood will realize that women centered films can be Post to both solid, and money makers.  Two films that come to mind right away are The Help, and Bridesmaids.  Both films were some of, if not the most entertaining films of this year.  Bridesmaids was hilarious, and there were very few central male characters.  The Help was heartfelt and well acted and was focused centrally on the women.Twitter


The Muppet's-I am so happy this group of puppets is back.  I am so happy Jason Segal brought Kermit, Miss. Piggy, Gonzo, Fozie, and Animal back into my life.  The movie was hilarious, and brought out some great celebrity cameos.


Marvel Comic Book Movies-They started with Thor, then there X-Men: First Class (the best) , and closed out with Captain America.  These three films took the time create wonderful stories with great action, and unlike Green Lantern or the Green Hornet they did a good balancing story with action.  The other important part was that the casting was well done, from Michael Fassbender as Magneto to Thomas Hiddleston as Loki (the only awful call was January Jones).

Ryan Gosling- This boy can act!  I have seen quality work from him in the past in Blue Valentine, Half Nelson, and Lars and the Real Girl, but he had three amazing performances this year alone.  Gosling started with the summer film Crazy Stupid Love, where he was both sexy and hilarious.  Then Gosling had his starring role in Drive where he played the sulky stuntman/criminal.  He closed out the year with his best performance in The Ides of March where he started out an ambitious aid to a politician and ended up a bitter sullen victim of the game of politics.

Some great Original Screenplays- Midnight in Paris was romantic hilarious and beautifully written.  The Tree of of Life is ambitious and a revelation.  Martha Marcy May Marlene is dark and thrilling.  Margin Call is one of the most interesting looks at current financial situation.  Taking Shelter is a great look mental illness and how fear of losing things shapes our reality.  Even Bridesmaids (with its flaws) is a hilarious piece of work.  There are still so many great ones to come!Th

TV


AMC- The Network is amazing!  They are currently airing The Walking Dead, which is having a great second season.  The first season of The Killing was addicting.  The fourth season of Break Bad continues the show's pattern of only getting better.  Mad Men will be returning in the new year.  What more could anyone want? This network is great!

Emily Van Camp-I love good soapy drama and she is currently the the headline of one of my biggest addictions this year, Revenge.

The Ensembles from Community and The Good Wife


Community has found their groove again, and NBC is shelving them for a short time?  This show has done such an amazing job evolving and continuing to be funny, and I could watch it over and over again.

The Good Wife's ensemble (including its guest stars) work impeccably together.  The cast is lead by Marguilles but this is not a one woman show.  The directors know how to intertwine stories and bring characters together.

Louis CK and Larry David-I am thankful for bitter sarcastic, dark humor!  Louis CK and Larry David have provided that for me this year.  Louis is a much darker version of Seinfeld, and his humor is so on point.  Meanwhile Curb Your Enthusiasm only has gotten better with Larry moving to New York City.

Music


4-I am thankful Beyonce has decided to to follow her heart, and work on music she wanted to make because it has paid off.  With great songs like "I Care" "I was Here" and her bigger hits "Run the World (Girls)" "The Best I've Never Had" and "Countdown" Beyonce should be proud.

Adele-Her voice is flawless and she can actually sing.  I have always loved this women, and new found popularity is great.  This Best New Artist Grammy winner is one of the best singers I have ever heard!

David Guetta-His DJ'ing and new CD is one of my favorite of the year.  This music is my gym mix and all of these songs are what make me want to just get out there and dance