random thoughts on the 2017 grammy awards

It's time for my annual tradition of watching cool musical performances with some awards sprinkled in between. This year, for the first time in eons, LL Cool J is NOT hosting. This year, that "honor" goes to The Late, Late Show's James Cordon of "Carpool Karaoke" fame... let's see how well he can control this wild bunch..

• Yay Adele is singing first! Can she just sing the whole time?
• Okay the weird picture-in-picture thing going on on the screen behind her is super-annoying. Maybe they shouldn't have put the screen *right* behind her...
• James Cordon's opening intro/dance disaster was less than funny.
• His rapped monologue was good though.
• J-Lo is getting political.. now you know we're in deep sh*t.
• So John Travolta has finally admitted to not being able to read the teleprompter. (Two years too late.) Next, can he finally admit that's not his real hair?
• The psychedelic scrolling background stolen from Real Player (or was it the Windows Music player?) behind Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood is hurting my eyes.
• Twenty One Pilots missed the pantless LA Metro ride day by a month or so...
• Jetsetter and one-man band Ed Sheeran.... from SNL to the Grammy stage in 16 hours (+ a 3-hour time change). I keep meaning to actually buy his music. He's awesome.
• And David Bowie wins Best Rock Song for "Blackstar." #sniff
• Since when do singer's moms get to do Grammy intros? I guess when they are Beyonce's mom...
• So is this pregnancy going to be Bey's next concept album?
• Um... how can these professional musicians (roped into a live Carpool Karaoke) NOT know the words to "Sweet Caroline"? Shame on you John Legend... for that, the two songs you're performing at the Oscars this year should lose. (Props to J-Lo for at least getting into the performance aspect.)
• Bruno Mars looks like he's going to the Olympics.
• And OMG.. I swear that triangle thing behind/above him is leftover from the NHL All-Star Game! #staplescenterhand-me-downs
• If anyone can follow Beyonce, it's Katy Perry! Love the #resist armband! And The U.S. Constitution graphic. The fence makes more sense now. (Yes, it takes me a while...)
• I'm really loving Gary Clark Jr. lately.... makes me wish I'd shown up earlier to the Foos concert he opened for on the Sonic Highways tour.
• Adele performing the George Michael tribute. #love
• Adele's luck with earpieces on Grammy live shows. #hate
• Seen just now on the EW Twitter: "Only Adele could make the Grammy's start over." Yep. #queen
• "I'm sorry. I can't mess this up for him." #sniff #love
• She slayed. Beautiful.
• Lady Gaga with Metallica. Not as odd as you'd think...
• What is odd is James Hetfield's microphone not working. Someone's not getting hired as a sound tech again next year. 
• Note: Demi Lovato was not alive when Stayin' Alive came out. Neither was Tori Kelly. Lady Antebellum was... well most of them.
• How sad is it that they keep cutting to Barry Gibb.. the sole remaining Gibb. #sniff
• Andra Day apparently thinks kimonos were big in the '70s. She wasn't alive then either.
• Yay! Adele's "Hello" wins Song of the Year. #love
• Cutting off her co-writer Greg Kurstin to intro a Tribe Called Quest #hate
• The Prince tribute from The Time isn't nearly as sad as the George Michael tribute was... 
• And now "Let's Go Crazy" -- my fave Prince song. Bruno has the look down. But he still reminds me more of Michael Jackson.
• Bruno also has the guitar playing down. Wow!
• Yay Adele's "Hello" wins Record of the Year! And yay Adele for calling the producers out for cutting Greg off last time!
• Yay Adele's "25" wins Album of the Year! I love that album... shows her true beauty, heart and sass. #love

worth the wait

So last December, I spent two hours of my life in a virtual "waiting room" on the AXS Ticketing website waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to get let into the "room" to purchase tickets to one of six nights Adele was going to perform at Staples Center this month. 

As an LA Kings season ticket holder, and someone who as spent more money than I care to admit at Staples Center since it opened in 1999, I was more than slightly annoyed by this "waiting room" process put in place by the owners of the Kings, Staples Center and the craptastic AXS Ticket purchase site in an attempt to beat online ticket purchasing bots. 

An hour in, I actually started to hate them even more than I already hate Ticketmaster (which is a LOT). But I finally, miraculously got out of the waiting room and my max of four allowed seats popped up... in Section 314, row 8. I haven't sat in the 300 level of Staples Center since 2001. For those that haven't been to Staples Center, that's the top section of Staples Center, about 20 rows and three levels of luxury suites above my excellent Kings seats. Yes, I am a Staples Center snob. I was NOT pleased. And I now really hated AXS' ticket system more than I hated Ticketmaster (have I mentioned that is a LOT?). 

But I bought the tickets anyway, and tried for another hour to get better seats on another night. No luck. Lots of people complained on social media they couldn't get tickets at all... in addition to also proclaiming their hatred for the AXS "waiting room." So I buried my rage and downloaded my tickets and waited eight months for the concert to happen... hoping that Adele wouldn't blow out her vocal chords again and have to cancel the tour like she did on her last tour.

Well, August 10th finally arrived and here was my view from section 314... 

... and while I was very, very far away from the stage, it didn't end up mattering because Adele sounded AMAZING (of course) and the concert was AMAZING and I had a great time with my parents (who I took for their Mother's and Father's Day gifts) and my Adele fanatic-friend Daryl.

A lot of these vocal divas camp in front of a microphone and just sing. And Adele freely admitted she doesn't dance (while telling a story about why she's not performing at the next Super Bowl). But what she lacked in dance moves, she made up for with storytime... she had a story about almost every song she sang... some funny, some serious. (Fun Fact of the Night: The producers of Skyfall convinced her to do the theme song by asking her how old she was at the time. [Reminder: Her albums to date are all named after her age at the time she wrote them.] Her answer: 23. Their response: This is the 23rd Bond movie. Deal done!) 

Her fun personality won the night. She called three young girls up on stage to take a selfie with her early on after she noticed them trying to get photos of themselves with her on stage in the background, and also posing for three different photos for their three different moms' cameras. She was super-chatty (even apologizing for being so chatty) throughout the whole show. She smiled and waved to fans in between belting out lyrics. And it all just made everyone who already loved her love her more. 

This is the stage in the back of the floor that Adele first appeared on, rising up through the center at the beginning of the concert (singing "Hello..") and was lowered down below at the end of the regular set. She was smuggled under this mini stage and out from under this mini stage in a large rolling equipment case. I saw it roll in and 2 minutes later the show started, and I saw it roll out when she finished singing "Set Fire to the Rain."

The woman sitting in front of me thought I was crazy and the case wasn't big enough. Then I reminded her we were sitting four stories above said equipment case and of course it looked small from where we were. She realized I was right. (Duh.)

This is from the acoustic part of the show.. Adele performed "A Million Years Ago," "Don't You Remember" and "Make You Feel My Love" with just 2-3 musicians on strings and her amazing voice.  Beautiful.

And here are some of the videos I took to remember the amazing-ness. Enjoy! (Thank goodness for giant video screens... even if her head is half cut off because we were so far above the top of the stage  ;)

The Finale..

Here was the set list:

• Hello
• Hometown Glory
• One and Only
• Rumour Has It
• Water Under the Bridge
• Skyfall
• Million Years Ago
• Don't You Remember
• Make You Feel My Love
• Send My Love (to Your New Lover)
• Sweetest Devotion
• Chasing Pavements
• Someone Like You
• Set Fire to the Rain

Encore:

• When We Were Young
• Rolling in the Deep

downtown adventure day

Last Saturday turned into one of my favorite kinds of days... wandering around downtown exploring! My friend James' sister Karen was in town from Austin to watch her favorite hockey team, the Boston Bruins, lose to my LA Kings. So along with Daryl, we set off downtown with the 7:30pm puck drop as our only scheduled activity.

Stop #1 was at my second favorite place to hang out downtown (after Staples Center, of course), the amazingly delicious foodie paradise on the corner of 7th and Grand, Bottega Louie. It was 1pm and the weekend, so the brunch menu was still in effect, and we took full advantage!

Daryl and Karen had Bloody Mary's, I had a Bellini.
Dessert was the caramel butterscotch parfait on the lower right, with a salted chocolate macaroon.
We also, of course, made Karen try the famous portebello mushroom fries! (Sorry, no photo. They were gone too fast ;)

Our brunch meals were (clockwise from top left): My lemon ricotta pancakes, Karen's smoked salmon benedict, James' salmon millefeuille with soft boiled egg on the side and Daryl's lobster hash.

After brunch, we were walking back to my car to put stuff (ie: my Bottega Louie sugar cookies and raspberry beinget, which I had for breakfast on Sunday) away, when we spotted R2D2 and some storm troopers. Now, I've seen a live cow wandering the streets of downtown, but seeing an actual celebrity like R2D2 had to be investigated! Turns out, they were there to promote the 24th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (aka FIDM), which is a block from my go-to DTLA parking lot. The exhibit was free, so we wandered in and saw all the costumes nominated for Oscars this year, plus the wanna-be's (Jem and the Holograms anyone?). It was a welcome surprise on our Downtown Adventure Day!

The Force Awakens costumes, official exhibit greeter R2D2 and a combo land cruiser/back to the future prop car (it had a flux capacitor inside, along with a mini-BB8). Check out the cool "Kenobi 2016" bumper sticker and the "Yoda" "fish" :)

My fave movie surprise of the year, Brooklyn, Academy Award Winner Mad Max: Fury Road, and the Cinderella princess dress

After the stop at the car, we wandered to LA Live. Karen wanted to check out the Grammy Museum (which -- tip! -- only costs $10 with your AAA card). They had exhibits on Otis Redding (4th floor), The Supremes (3rd floor) and a Bob Dylan photography exhibit (2nd floor). But my favorite thing on the 2nd floor was found in the hallway on the way to the restroom... framed photos of Adele and the Foo Fighters. Apparently 2011 was an excellent year for the only two music acts I've listened to on the iPod in my car for the last four months (with the exception of an experimental week, which I'll be blogging about here soon ;)

After the Grammy Museum, we hit up Rosa Mexicana for their famous pomegranate margaritas, guac and a mini-dinner.

Then it was time for Karen and I -- well our hockey teams -- to go into battle. Luckily, the good guys prevailed so Karen got a ride home ;)

random thoughts on the grammys - 2016 edition

For the first time ever, the Grammy Awards are LIVE on the West Coast! Yay!

However, I'm working on a hour-long Tivo delay because I was signing refi docs for my house at 5, which means I should catch up around 6:45 as I skip the commercials and rap categories.... here we go:

First up, to set expectations, here's what I care about:

• When is Adele singing?
• When is Lady Gaga doing her Bowie tribute?
• Since they've been posting pix from all over LA this weekend, does that mean U2 is going to make a surprise appearance?
• And most importantly, is Dave Grohl there? Because Dave Grohl makes everything better.

Look it's Taylor Swift opening the show. Shocker. She cut her hair. I wish she'd sung Bad Blood. Then the cameras could have found Kanye in the audience... or John Mayer... or a JoBro .... or Katy Perry and created a fun awkward moment.

LL Cool J is hosting again. Does no one else know how to host this show?

And there's the Adele/Lionel Richie "Hello" joke. Took all of 3 minutes...

Rap category. Fast forward. (aka ff)

It's some guy singing with Carrie Underwood. She is very tan. (Sorry.. that's all I got. I was making dinner reservations on Yelp during that performance.)

Arianna Grande introduces The Weekend singing the song from "50 Shades of Grey." Somehow my Twitter feed already thinks he won something for this song. This is also the song that made "50 Shades of Grey" an Oscar(c) nominee. I really preferred the Ellie Goulding song...

That song wasn't that song...

Ooh speaking of Ellie Goulding, here she comes singing with Andra Day. I saw Ellie at the Bowl at the Katy Perry concert charity show a year and a half ago. And I saw Andra open for Lenny Kravitz at the Greek in September. She is AMAZING. Mark my words and remember her name....

Yay. They are singing the good "50 Shades of Grey" song. (Did I just say that?)

So they're saluting Lionel Richie. What do any of the people LL and James Corden just introduced (with the possible exception of John Legend, who's also a pianist/singer/songwriter) have to do with Lionel Richie? Demi Lovato and Meghan Trainor?? Umm well at least they can sing I guess. But Meghan Trainor looks like Nia Vardalos with brown hair... and that's all I can think about right now.

Tyrese is doing "Brick House." Was Bruno Mars (who's sitting behind Lionel Richie in the audience smiling like a dork) not available for that?

Is there ANY network Ryan Seacrest is not on? (Note: I do NOT want to see him host the Grammys instead of LL Cool J.)

Fancy in-the-round camera work on the intro to the Little Big Town "Girl Crush" performance. Love the acapella start followed by the strings.

Those are some snazzy bright sneakers Stevie Wonder is wearing.

Ahhh... so instead of one super depressing "In Memoriam" segment, they are doing musical tributes to those greats who passed away in the last year.. and by "the last year" we mostly mean the last 45 days. :(

AHH Dave Grohl is there!! (audience shot) YAY!

Taylor Swift is more excited for Ed Sheeran beating her for "Song of the Year" than I think she would've been if she won. He's so cute in his suit and Chucks... and thanking his parents for coming every year even though he never wins... til now. And saying he can't believe Stevie Wonder just gave him a Grammy. I heart him. And way to cut off his fellow songwriter Amy with the Glenn Frey clip as she started to speak... oops.

Now the Eagles' first performance without Glenn Frey. Don Henley looks like he's going to cry. I am too.

Great duet by Tori Kelly and James Bay. I love when people just sing with some stringed instrument.

Yay! Hamilton! This is probably the only time I'll see this cast perform live.

Kendrick Lamar. I feel I should watch this. Normally I would ff the rap.  That's a damn big fire inside Staples Center... I hope it's far above my Kings' ice. Way to bleep out a good 10 seconds of the song there censor with your finger on the button. That was pretty intense.

Look it's Seth McFarlane to present Best Musical Theater Album. Gee.. I wonder who's going to win this.... OMG! It's Hamilton (shocker). Lin Manuel wrote a rap for his acceptance speech. Of course he did.

Ooh. And now the live Gwen Stefani Le Target commercial. No pressure. She's like Alice in a Cruella de Vil Explosion... in a Barbie hair salon... in a speakeasy. And wow. She can roller skate. Or maybe not. What just happened. I'm so confused.

And the Foos lose "Best Rock Performance" to Alabama Shakes!?!?!?! WTF. No.

Yay! Bruno Mars! But wait. Why isn't he singing??? Oh, he's introducing Adele. That's allowed then. YAY! Shhh.

Why is the piano louder than she is? Sound guy... you SUCK. Oh. My. God. She looks pissed. Someone is sooooooooo getting fired. She looks and sounds beautiful though (now that I can HEAR her). Her dress is what I refer to as a "good red." And there is no doubt she sang that live. Wow. Such power and emotion. Love.

Bieber. I want to ff.. but I can't look away. Wait. He won a Grammy? So Bieber now has as many Grammys as David Bowie??!?!? Shoot. Me. Now.

Time to go get a glass of wine and some frozen Thin Mints. This has been a very traumatizing last 10 minutes since that Gwen Stefani Target commercial came on. Oy.

Nia Vardalos.. I mean Meghan Trainor just won Best New Artist. Okay. Stop crying. As anyone who isn't Christina Aguilera will tell you, this isn't necessarily a good thing. #bestnewartistcurse

Here's "Academy Award Nominee Lady Gaga"... the Bowie tribute. She's just about the only person other than him who could pull that performance off. Wow. And we thought her Sound of Music tribute was amazing at the Oscars. Now I miss him all over again. Aww. Nile Rogers is playing on "Let's Dance." Love.

Now a salute to the incomparable BB King. Miss him too. Geez the last year really sucked for losing great musical talent.

Alabama Shakes is performing. ff out of spite. #foofightersforever

Whoa stop! It's Dave Grohl... "the leader of Foo Fighters with FIFTEEN GRAMMY AWARDS!" Aww. He's talking about Lemmy. #riplemmy
(Ed. Note: They've actually only won 11 Grammys. And Nirvana only won one. So Dave only has 12. Some Grammy fact checker just got fired too.)



Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp, Duff and Matt Sorum.... The Hollywood Vampires. I love that this is on CBS right now. All the old people who watch CBS are like, "What is this scary man with black circles around his eyes and blood on his shirt doing on my television and why is Johnny Depp playing guitar with him?" Hahahaha.

"Ace of Spades" tribute to Lemmy. Dave needs to be playing with them. Run out there!

Oh, it's the little piano prodigy I saw on "60 Minutes"... Joey Alexander. He's 12. He has talent. Right now, Justin Bieber has more Grammys than he does.

Now the dreaded "In Memorium" segment. It's packed with so many greats gone. So much amazing music. Nice extra long moment for Natalie Cole at the end since she didn't get a tribute segment. Unforgettable indeed.

This show is now officially too long.

Lifetime Achievement Award to Earth Wind and Fire. Another loss. Maurice White.

T-Swift just won Album of the Year. She's the first woman to win this award twice. Nice #girlpower speech... as she's surrounded by her male producing squad. Le sigh. 

Beyonce doesn't need an intro apparently. 

Bruno wins Record of the Year for "Uptown Funk." I support this decision. Geez Bruno Mars is short. 

That means it's over now right?

Wrong.

Pitbull still sings? Is this necessary? This sounds like the Macarena. ff. Wait. Why is Joe Perry participating in this? Oy. More wine....

Oh thank god it's over. That was SO not necessary. 

Okay. Break down the stage so my LA Kings can come back home....

PS: U2 never showed up. :( I guess Adam was having too much fun at The Getty today....

my favorites of 2015

Quotes 

I'm sure this quote is not from 2015, but 2015 is when I saw it on the Word Porn Facebook feed, which I also love...



And for my new personal mantra... expanded this year as I've become of lover of more teas than just chai (shocker, I know, but "Mauritius is delicious" ;)

Memories of loved ones lost, in my happy place (aka my garden)

Lucky's painted rose

Granny's Cactus' Flowering

Entertainment: 

Music...

Truth. It's the thing this introvert goes to when I need something no one else can give... time with my thoughts.

... or when I need an amazing communal experience. I saw a lot of concerts this year. But these three by my two fave bands were the most amazing.

U2 i+e Tour live @ The Forum 

Foo Fighters #brokenlegtour + Love Ride 32

Adele "25" 
The new album I (and the world) had been waiting four years for made me feel happy, sad and sassy. It's amazing and has been on repeat in my car and office iTunes for weeks. And her promo appearances on SNL, her NBC special and this Tonight Show Classroom Instruments performance with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots made me love her and the album that much more.

Movies...

Brooklyn
I new very little about this film when I put the screener in the DVD player. It made me laugh, cry, swoon and cheer. Great performances. Great screenplay by Nick Hornby. A great emotional movie experience. 

The Martian
I didn't see this in the theater, but rather on my TV via screener on a sick day, months after everyone I know had already told me how great it was. I wish I had seen it on the big screen. It's big, bold, exciting and magnificent. Great performances. Great special effects. And a great STORY. I haven't seen everything yet, but right now I think this is my pick for Best Picture.

Most 

Most Pleasant Surprise ... (in that this was really good, but most definitely not pleasant)

The Revenant
I had no desire to see this movie. Every time the trailer came on in a theater I counted the minutes till it was over and a "better one" came on. But about week ago, I started to read the reviews. Then one night I decided to put the screener in to see if they were true. Wow. It's brutal, beautiful, sweeping, sad, enraging and excellent. Leonardo DiCaprio could finally win his Oscar for this amazing, heartbreaking performance (as long as the Academy refuses to give Eddie Redmayne two Best Actor Oscars in a row... he's Leo's only competition in my mind right now.)

TV...

This is the year I became a true binge-watching aficionado. I started the year finishing Breaking Bad, started summer with Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and have spent the fall and winter with Mad Men -- I have four disks left with Don Draper. As f'ed up as he is, that makes me sad.

This is the year I also decided to no longer waste time watching shows I don't love... so I added exactly one half hour of new television this Fall, and deleted "How to Get Away with Murder," "Sleepy Hollow," Once Upon a Time" and "New Girl" from my Tivo season passes. My "Should I add a new show?" rule this TV season was: "Will I enjoy this as much as or more than another episode of Mad Men?" If not, then I didn't bother.

In the New Year (after Don and I say farewell), I will be focused on reading the pile of unread books I've accumulated in the last two years. (Anyone want to start a Book Club so I'm forced to do this? ;)

great grammy's

For once, Grammy voters last night agreed with me! The awesome Adele won in all six categories she was nominated in! Foo Fighters won five awards and played twice, in addition to Dave Grohl (I love him and his blue Gibson guitar!) joining Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and Joe Walsh for an awesome jam session at the end of the show. There were also great performance from Adele, Springsteen + the E Street Band, Katy Perry and Bruno Mars (can't believe I just typed that).

But last night was not only totally entertaining, it was also informative. For example, I learned that Adele is one cool chick. Listening to her music, you'd think she's this sad, demure, heartbroken girl. But in watching Anderson Cooper profile her on 60 Minutes (secretly one of my fave shows... I watch with the 'rents every Sunday after family dinner), I REALLY like her. She is funny, real and has a great 'tude to go with that amazing voice. (Plus, she's not afraid to acknowledge snot coming out of her nose on a live, nationally-televised awards show as she's accepting her 6th award of the night :)


 

things i'm looking forward to this weekend

1) Spending most of Saturday in auntie-mode... hanging with my cool psuedo-niece and two of my cutie psuedo-nephews + going to a baby shower to celebrate the coming-arrival of psuedo-nephew #6


2) Spending Saturday Night laughing at stuff like this...




3) Hearing this song...



(played on that awesome blue Gibson, my favorite guitar on the planet!)

And this song....



And/or this song...



... LIVE on the Grammy's Sunday night!

AND watching both that rock band and that beautiful woman with that amazing voice win a boatload of little gold gramophones!

long time, no type

It's been two months since I've been on here. It's been a rough two months. My workplace has been torpedoed and my professional support systems removed one by painful one since December. Been doing a lot of thinking... and pouting... and thinking. The last week finally started to feel normal there somewhat... a new normal, I guess. I was actually busy for the first time in a long time. But still thinking. However, I don't want to dwell on that here. This blog is supposed to be my outlet from that, to focus on entertaining nonsense that means nothing in the grand scheme of things but still makes me smile. So, in keeping with that, here are some of the few bright spots of the last two months...

I discovered an amazing singer a lot of people cooler than I probably already know about... the awesome Adele. I bought her CD "21" on iTunes in March and have been listening to it non-stop at home as I cook and garden (yes, I've been cooking and am welcoming spring so I can get back to my beloved yard work ;) Here's her current video "Rolling in the Deep" -- amazing! (Have I said that already?)




Since January 12th, I've been sticking to my "Get Healthy" goal, and have been working out on my Wii Fit 4-5 days per week. I've also being eating healthier food (lots of salad, lean cuisine and yogurt) and less of it, with just one cheat day per week. I've lost 11 pounds and have four more to go by April 12th to hit my first 3-month goal on the Wii so my little animated Wii Balance Board won't yell at me :p Last week, I decided it's crunch time and I needed to kick it up a notch, so I went back to Runyon Canyon for the first time in more than a year, since my knee problems. I finished the stair-side loop in one hour exactly...just in time to save my car from the "No parking after sundown" ticket in the Mulholland Parking lot.

Finally, my LA Kings have been playing awesome, despite losing our top two leading scorers six days apart last week. They are one game away from securing a playoff spot. They could have secured it today had the Sucky Ducks of Anaheim beaten the Stars, but alas, the Sucky Ducks of Anaheim never do anything Kings fans want them to do. So now we wait till tomorrow night for a hopeful win against the Sharks (eek).
The Kings' magic number remains at two - latimes.com

That's all for now... I'll try to be back here before June ;)