2010 Emmy Nominations

Glee is the belle of the 2010 Emmy ball with 19 nominations. Acting nods went to lead actor Matthew Morrison (as the dedicated glee club teacher Will Schuester...see above), lead actress Lea Michele (as the talented but sometimes annoying Rachel Berry), supporting actor Chris Colfer (as the stylish and proud gay character Kurt), and supporting actress the inimitable Jane Lynch (as they relentless force of nature that is Coach Sue Sylvester...see also above.)

They also scored in the guest actor categories with nods to the wondrous Kristin Chenoweth (as the hard-living April Rhodes), Neil Patrick Harris (as Will's disillusioned rival Bryan Ryan), and Mike O'Malley (for his evocative appearances as Kurt's conflicted but unflaggingly supportive blue collar dad.)

The show picked up nominations as Best Comedy series (it's more of a comedy-drama but there's no category for that), writing, directing, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Mad Men scooped up 17 nominations, Conan O'Brien was nominated and Jay Leno was not, and Lost was given some love as it went out the door.

Modern Family and Nurse Jackie picked up nods for Best Comedy Series (though Nurse Jackie isn't really a comedy...but I guess they didn't know what to do with it...and voter inertia led to nominations for The Office and 30 Rock, both of which had uneven seasons, over perhaps more deserving nominees...and fellow NBC Thursday night compatriots... sterling sophomore Parks & Recreation and perky newcomer Community.)

None of it really matters...nobody remembers who wins these things...but it gives the Hollywood folks yet another reason to dress up and pat themselves on the back so it's all good I guess.

Grammys 2010

The awards really don't matter that much (quick...without Googling...what was the Album of the Year at the 2009 show? Yeah, I don't remember either), with the Grammy show, it's the music that matters.

The unavoidable Lady Gaga and the legendary Sir Elton John opened the show in bombastic (but admittedly fun) fashion and Green Day and the cast of the upcoming musical "American Idiot" made a good case for the blending of Punk and Broadway.

Beyonce got a jump on the Michael Jackson tribute with backup dancers dressed like stormtroopers and by grabbing her crotch during a searing medley of "If I Were a Boy" and Alanis Morrissette's "You Ought to Know" and Pink is apparently trying out for Cirque du Soleil (it's a bit odd but kind of cool too.)

The unavoidable Black Eyed Peas cranked up the spectacle to 11 (though after making a big deal about the fan videos of "I Gotta Feeling" they were barely seen in the far background.)

Second hour means the country folk can come out to play. Lady Antebellum leads off with a sweet and smooth performance. Best New Artists, The Zac Brown Band did themselves proud playing a spirited medley with the venerable Leon Russell. And Taylor Swift got to share a stage with one of her heroines, Stevie Nicks.

Jamie Foxx and his Auto-Tune continued the martial costume theme (T-Pain and his white tuxedo must not have gotten the memo and Slash is just too cool for that stuff.)

The Michael Jackson tribute...with Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, and Smokey Robinson singing along with MJ's recording of "Earth Song"...was stirring (and Jackson's children were dignified and gracious afterwards.)

Bon Jovi...with Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles sitting in...was solid in their 3-song mini-set.

Okay, I will admit to misting up during the soaring performance of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Andrea Bocelli and Mary J. Blige (and yes I will be ponying up for the Haiti-benefiting download available at itunes.com/target.)

And the jubilant performance by the Dave Matthews Band (and a WHOLE LOT of friends) was a joyous tribute to their fallen brother and bandmate, LeRoi Moore.

Maxwell and Roberta Flack were fine (though Roberta seemed a bit unsteady at times) and Jeff Beck's tribute to Les Paul was very tasty.

The performances were fair to great, the speeches were kept to a minimum, and the show kept moving...all in all the Grammys were fine this year and I was cool with that.

Random Notes: The 2009 Grammy Awards

Okay, the awards don’t really matter much…who remembers them two days later?...with the Grammys the show’s the thing. I only watch two awards shows a year…the Grammys and the Oscars…and so I’m always hopeful they’ll be worth the 3+ hour investment of time they usually require of me.

Thumbs up: U2 (you usually can’t go wrong with Bono and the boys kicking off your show), Al Green and Justin Timberlake (a last minute sub for Chris Brown who was having legal problems to do with domestic assault) with Boyz 2 Men and Keith Urban, Jennifer Hudson (the performance was stirring), Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Brothers (the kids were a bit hyperactive…but hey they’re kids…and the combination was a bit weird but, strangely enough, it worked), Radiohead and the USC Marching Band (very cool), Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (the big winners in a year when the Grammy show was jam packed with hip hop), Kanye West and Estelle, Sugarland and Adele (the Best New Artist winner), Timberlake and T.I. (my favorite hip hop performance of the night), Paul McCartney with Dave Grohl (a wonderful time was had by all…though of all of the Beatles songs he could have picked, it was a bit strange that Sir Paul decided to use the one that starts with the line “…well she was just 17 if you know what I mean…” :-), Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock, and Kenny Chesney (who knew he was pals with Morgan Freeman?)

The tribute to the Four Tops…with Smokey Robinson, Jamie Foxx, Ne-Yo, and the last surviving Top Duke Fakir…was very sweet (though Foxx seemed to flummox the director by going one way while the other three guys went the other way.)

The tribute to New Orleans was fine but it could have been better if Lil’ Wayne could have shut up (after finishing his part with Robin Thicke) while Allen Toussaint and Terence Blanchard were playing.

The Bo Diddley tribute…with B.B. King, John Mayer, Buddy Guy, and Keith Urban…was also fine (though you might have hoped that a tribute to Bo would have been a bit more animated…)

There was something oddly cool about both Green Day and Blink-182 coming out to present awards.

Special props to M.I.A. for enthusiastically singing the hooks for the “Rap Pack”…Kanye West, Jay-Z, T.I., and Lil’ Wayne…even while it looked like her water could break at any moment. The song itself…”Swagga Like Us”…was lively enough but, as these rap collaborations too often tend to go, it ended up with the four rappers seemingly trying to out-shout each other.

The appeal of Coldplay continues to elude me (please spare me your barbs, Coldplay fans…which are, of course, legion…your mileage may vary…so just let it go), Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus have had better nights (ibid.), Whitney Houston seemed a bit…spaced out (but hopefully she is still on an upward trajectory), and Neil Diamond was…well…Neil Diamond (and I guess somebody has to be so there’s that…and hey Jay-Z really liked it…)

And I’m completely over “I Kissed a Girl” and Katy Perry should be too if she doesn’t want to end up a one-hit wonder/novelty act.

All in all, not a bad show…too long, of course (they cut off Stevie Wonder’s closing song) but most of the winners kept their acceptance remarks short (well until the end when Robert Plant seemed like he was going to go on for a while) and things kept moving a fairly good clip most of the night. Like I said, it was not a bad show.

2009 Academy Award Nominations

The Dark Knight didn’t make the cut in the “big” Academy Award categories…save for the totally expected (and deserved) Best Supporting Actor nod for the late Heath Ledger…and neither did Clint Eastwood (I haven’t seen Gran Torino but a lot of critical buzz seemed to have it anointed to pick up Best Picture, Actor, and Director nominations) but Brad Pitt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button scored big with 13 nominations.

Joining Benjamin Button in the Best Picture sweepstakes are Frost/Nixon (featuring Best Actor nominee Frank Langella), Milk (with Best Actor nominee Sean Penn), The Reader (starring Best Actress contender Kate Winslett), and the little-engine-that-could Slumdog Millionaire. The directors for these five films…David Fincher, Ron Howard, Gus Van Sant, Stephen Daldry, and Danny Boyle…are vying for Best Director honors.

Star power should be in abundance at the Oscar ceremony as the four acting categories features the likes of Meryl Streep (her 15^th nomination for her role in Doubt), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Robert Downey, Jr. (Tropic Thunder), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), and this movie season’s comeback kid Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) and his co-star Oscar winner Marisa Tomei.

Bruce Springsteen won the Best Song category at the Golden Globes with his song from The Wrestler but he failed to pick up an Academy Award nomination in a Best Original Song category that, for some reason, features only three candidates: “Down to Earth” from Wall-E and two songs from Slumdog.

Pixar’s charming Wall-E seems to be the one to beat in the Best Animated Feature category that also features Bolt and Kung Fu Panda.

As none of the Best Picture nominees are real blockbusters I would guess that the ratings for the Academy Awards broadcast (on Sunday February 22^nd) won’t be significantly reversing the downward trend they’ve been on of late…but hey I’ll be watching :-)

The 80th Annual Academy Awards

A big night for the Coen brothers…three Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director(s), Best Adapted Screenplay)…and their movie, No Country for Old Men, on a sedate, kind of uninspired Academy Awards night.

The show itself was okay…Jon Stewart was pretty good (not great but he had a few nice moments) as the host…with decent enough musical numbers, relatively brief acceptance speeches, and perhaps a few too many montages (I’m guessing they put them together in case the writers’ strike was still going on and they needed to fill a lot of time and decided to go on and use them anyway.)

Everything about the 80^th Academy Awards show was…okay…nothing particularly memorable but nothing especially bad either. And hey they got it done in less than 3 ½ hours…gotta give ‘em credit for that :-)

The 50th Annual Grammy Awards

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences realized that when it comes to the Grammy awards…especially the 50^th anniversary awards…it’s the music that counts. There are only so many laundry lists of record executives and shout outs to God that the audience wants to sit through so, again, they kept the number of awards they handed out on the prime time broadcast to a minimum and concentrated on presenting an eclectic array of performances. For the most part it worked to make for an entertaining show.

As far as the awards went the Academy went against the prevailing wisdom that Amy Winehouse’s train wreck of a personal life would preclude them from honoring her by giving her 5 Grammys…including plum prizes for Best New Artist, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year (the latter two for the ironic but undeniably funky “Rehab”.) Winehouse (above with her Mom), originally denied a visa to come to the ceremonies, performed in a small venue in London before an enthusiastic audience. Her performances of “You Know I’m No Good” and “Rehab” were a bit ragged but potent nevertheless. She seems genuinely shocked by her Record of the Year win, which announced just after her performance.

Winehouse lost the coveted Album of the Year to a surprise winner: Herbie Hancock’s (below) lovely River: The Joni Letters (only the second jazz album to win the prize following the 1965 award to Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto.) Kanye West lost out on this one for the third time (both Vince Gill and Usher took playful jabs at West’s petulant behavior during previous awards shows.)

The show itself was a celebration of Grammy’s 50 years with lots of Grammy favorites among those presenting awards or introducing performances. Among the very familiar faces were Quincy Jones (27 Grammy wins), Stevie Wonder (25), Cher, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, and Ringo Starr.

Alicia Keys opened the show with a duet with the youthful ghost of Frank Sinatra on “Learning the Blues” (Keys would return later for a rousing version of “No One” with some help from John Mayer) followed by Carrie Underwood romping through “Before He Cheats” backed up by a phalanx of percussionists.

Some of the performances that followed were rousing: Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang’s soaring take of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, Beyonce and the immortal Tina Turner shimmying through “Proud Mary”, Aretha Franklin and BeBe Winans leading a gospel medley, young Timothy Mitchum and Carol Woods (from the movie Across the Universe) with an amazing gospel version of the Beatles’ “Let it Be”, Kanye West’s heartfelt “Hey Mama”, Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban’s majestic “The Prayer”.

Others were fun…the reunited Time teaming up with Rhianna, Foo Fighters blazing through “The Pretender” with an orchestra conducted by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and a violin solo by this year’s “My Grammy Moment” winner, West and Daft Punk’s otherworldly performance of “Stronger”, John Fogerty teaming up with rock and roll fathers Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, Feist’s understated version of “1234”.

(A couple were….um…a bit more problematic: will.i.am’s rap was lame and the duet on “That Old Black Magic” between veteran Keely Smith…still in fine voice…and Kid Rock…not exactly Louis Prima… was a bit awkward. And there was a bit too much Cirque du Soleil for my taste.)

All in all, Grammy didn’t embarrass itself during its golden anniversary show and that was all good.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of '08

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its newest group of inductees. The class of ’08 (artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first single or album) is led by Madonna (see the "Borderline" video from back in the day below) and also features John Mellencamp, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, instrumental rockers the Ventures (whose hits included the classic theme from the TV show Hawaii 5-0), and British invasion stalwarts the Dave Clark Five.

The induction ceremony will be held in New York on March 10, 2008.

Britney Spears

It was almost painful to watch Britney Spears stumble through the terrified-deer-caught-in-the-headlights performance that opened MTV’s VMAs (Video Music Awards) on Sunday night (I didn’t watch the VMAs…I’m well past the age of their target demographic and well past the point where I think MTV is relevant to anything I’m interested in…but I did catch Britney’s sad bump and grind on MTV.com.) And I’m not even a Spears fan by any stretch of the imagination. The uncomfortable looks on the faces of audience members (including P. Diddy and 50 Cent) and the tepid applause afterwards showed that I wasn’t alone in feeling like I was watching the continuation of a very long train wreck.

If this was her “comeback” she really needs to rethink the direction she going in…and her management…and, most importantly, her priorities. Once you’ve been at the top of the pop culture world I guess it’s hard to accept that no one gets to stay up that high forever and that climbing back up after a precipitous fall is possible but extremely rare (are you listening, Michael Jackson?)

Britney Spears is going to do what she wants to do…and that’s her right, of course… but unless she needs the money really badly (and reports are that she does not) she might want to think about getting her personal world in some kind of order before she tries to re-conquer the pop world. It’s just a thought.

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My other little corners of the interweb:

Creative Writing: Bread and Roses

Comic Books: Suspending Disbelief

Interesting Sites and Images: StumbleUpon

2007 Emmy Nominations

Emmy is giving The Sopranos an affectionate sendoff with the HBO drama garnering 15 nominations (second only to the 17 nods given to the HBO movie, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.) The charming freshman comedy Ugly Betty scored 11 nominations while both Grey’s Anatomy and 30 Rock pulled in 10 nominations each.

There were a few new shows and faces among the nominations in the major characters (though, of course, the Television Academy loves to keep putting the same folks (see Shatner, Spader, Sutherland, Gandolfini, Shalhoub, Falco, etc., etc.) up over and over whenever they can.

The nominees in some of the major categories include:

Best Drama Series: Boston Legal (ABC), Grey's Anatomy (ABC), Heroes (NBC), House (Fox), and The Sopranos (HBO).

Best Comedy Series: Entourage (HBO), The Office (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC), Two and a Half Men (CBS), Ugly Betty (ABC).

Best Actor (Drama Series): James Spader (Boston Legal), Hugh Laurie (House), Denis Leary (Rescue Me), James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), Kiefer Sutherland (24).

Best Actress (Drama Series): Sally Field (Brothers and Sisters), Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Patricia Arquette (Medium), Minnie Driver (The Riches), Edie Falco (The Sopranos).

Best Supporting Actor (Drama Series): William Shatner (Boston Legal), T.R. Knight (Grey's Anatomy), Masi Oka (Heroes), Michael Emerson (Lost), Terry O'Quinn (Lost), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos).

Best Supporting Actress (Drama Series): Rachel Griffiths (Brothers and Sisters), Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy), Chandra Wilson (Grey's Anatomy), Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy), Aida Turturro (The Sopranos), Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos).

Best Actor (Comedy Series): Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Steve Carell (The Office), Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men).

Best Actress (Comedy Series): Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine), Tina Fey (30 Rock), America Ferrera (Ugly Betty), Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds).

Best Supporting Actor (Comedy Series): Kevin Dillon (Entourage), Jeremy Piven (Entourage), Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Rainn Wilson (The Office), Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men).

Best Supporting Actress (Comedy Series): Jaime Pressly (My Name Is Earl), Jenna Fischer (The Office), Holland Taylor (Two and a Half Men), Conchata Ferrell (Two and a Half Men), Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty), Elizabeth Perkins (Weeds).

The 79th Annual Academy Awards

Well that show was…something, wasn’t it…yikes…

(Every red state fear about Hollywood was confirmed as Al Gore…I kept expecting the crowd to break out into a chant of “Gore ‘08! Gore ‘08!” at any moment…got thanked [and lionized] more often than God did :-)

The show started off slowly…the cutesy self-congratulatory opening film…some tepid jokes from Ellen DeGeneres…the gospel choir bit that would have worked well on Ellen’s talk show but seemed more than a bit forced and out of place here…the first Oscar of the night for art direction (??) followed by a recap of the tech awards…and that was all before the first commercial break.

And things didn’t really go anywhere interesting from there. Certainly the only mildly amusing production number about comedy’s lack of representation in the Academy Awards didn’t help (no matter how hard Will Farrell, Jack Black, and John C. Reilly worked to try to sell it.) By the time the special effects “choir” hit the stage my eyes were glazing over.

The show was poorly paced…too many montages, too many shadow dancer things, too many Ellen bits that went nowhere near funny (she and her pantsuits tried hard, bless her heart, but it was only sporadically funny)…and something of a slog to get through.

Kudos to Martin Scorsese for finally getting one of the little golden guys (we can put that particular story to rest now) as well as to Melissa Etheridge and the Dreamgirls cast for breathing a little musical life into the proceedings.

The 79^th annual Academy Awards show was not a winner…hopefully they’ll get their act together for the 80^th and hit higher notes.

Pop Culture News and Notes

This year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model is, as you can see, Beyonce. She's wearing a bikini designed by the House of Dereon, the fashion label created by the Dreamgirl and her mom. SI says that Ms. Knowles is the first Swimsuit Issue covergirl who is neither a professional model nor an athlete.

The annual Swimsuit Issue also doubles as the Music Issue and it features models posing with Aerosmith, Kenny Chesney, Gnarls Barkley, Panic! at the Disco, and Kanye West.

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Man, that Robyn Troup (above performing at the Grammy Awards with Justin Timberlake and T.I.) is...well...a trooper. The 19-year-old Texan got bounced from the American Idol competition (as seen during February 13th's Hollywood round broadcast) but she picked herself up and went out and won the "Grammy Moment" competition to perform before millions during the show.

(Not good enough for Randy, Paula [who has been quoted as saying she's "never been drunk"] , and Simon but good enough for Justin? I'm not sure what that means...but hey, it worked out for everybody so it's all good.)

More MKW blogstuff: Bread and Roses

Random Notes (Grammys '07 Edition)

Nobody remembers who wins the Grammy awards. Okay, that’s an exaggeration…but not by much. I am lifelong fan of popular music and the Grammy Awards are one of only two televised awards show that I watch most years and the winners do not linger long in my active memory after the show ends.

With the Grammys, it is indeed the show…and not the awards (the Grammy voters are woefully out of touch most years) nor the winners’ insipid acceptance speeches…that is the thing (see recap of the 2005 show here and recap of the 2006 show here…jeez this is Neverending Rainbow’s third annual Grammy piece…we’re getting old :-)

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The last time I saw Sting on television he was playing the lute on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip…he was a little more interesting opening the show with the reunited Police on a potent version of “Roxanne”…

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Apparently, the Dixie Chicks are still not ready to make nice…hey, that’s cool (hey, nice dress, Natalie.)

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That Prince…ever the soul of brevity: “One word: Beyonce”…that’s cool, too. Then the Dreamgirl belted out “Listen” like the soulful pro she is.

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Damn it, they played Mary J. off before she could thank me (my name MUST have been somewhere on that seemingly endless list of “thank yous”...)

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Justin Timberlake's hand-held nostril-cam…yeah, that was good idea…

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Corinne Bailey Rae, John Legend, and John Meyer sounded good together...they should form a band or something...

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Gnarls Barkley looked resplendent in their airline pilot uniforms and “Crazy” sounded cool even slowed down.

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What the hell?? Ludacris didn’t give me a shout out either? He name checked everybody including Oprah and Bill O’Reilly but not me…what’s up with that? :-)

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Okay, Mary J. (whose awards were apparently thanks to God) is forgiven for dissing me after the powerhouse medley of “Be Without You” and “Stay with Me”.

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Huh? Oh sorry…I must have dozed off…have Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts finished their Eagles tribute yet? (To be fair, Ms. Underwood acquitted herself well on the Bob Wills’ classic “San Antonio Rose”.)

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Somewhere in Smokey Robinson’s attic there has to be painting of himself as a very old man (hah, an Oscar Wilde joke!…I kill myself sometimes :-) And dude, who knew Nicole Richie’s dad could sing??

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Christina Aguilera doing James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”? It’s a bit over the top (of course) but it works (I think Mr. Brown would have given a thumbs up…especially when Xtina went down on her knees in her snappy white suit.) Diva of the night award by a hair over Mary J.

Nice touch draping the “Godfather of Soul” cape over the mike stand at the end of the memoriam clips.

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Ah yes, this year’s hip hop spectacle: Ludacris with Mary J. Blige, Earth Wind & Fire, and a bunch of girls carrying candles. Um, okay…

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Oh good, James Blunt got to sing the horribly under-exposed “You’re Beautiful”…maybe now it’ll get some more airplay.

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Contest winner Robyn Troup made the most of her “American Idol...I mean, Grammy Moment” with Justin Timberlake; she looked a bit lost every now and again but mostly she held her own.

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Chris Rock sez the Red Hot Chili Peppers are the “best band in the world” so I guess it must be true. (Chris also drew the only bleep I heard when he said the name of Timberlake’s infamous Saturday Night Live bit.)

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Coolest presenting team of the night? Queen Latifah and Al Gore, of course (that Gore guy is everywhere…you’d think he was running for President or something…)

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Ah, those lefty Grammy voters poured the accolades on the Dixie Chicks…Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Country Album of the Year (it really wasn’t a country record but whatever works…)

The Chicks seemed a bit embarrassed by the end of the show…they shouldn’t have been, Taking the Long Way is an excellent record…and more than a bit tongue-tied every they came to the podium to pick up another award.

Interesting enough show…it kept moving fairly well (these things always screech to a mind-numbing halt during the acceptance speeches but I’ve made my peace with that…it’s a good time to go to bathroom or to go grab a handful of grapes…)

More MKW blogstuff: Bread and Roses

Pop Culture News and Notes

Prince’s halftime show at the Super Bowl was a lot like the game: more than a bit ragged (and drenched from the constant rain) but entertaining just the same. With his set bracketed by “Let’s Go Crazy” and a wholly-appropriate (given the weather) “Purple Rain” with generous dollops of "Baby, I'm a Star", “Proud Mary”, "Best of You" and “All Along the Watchtower” in-between, you had to tip your hat to the guy…the little fella knows how to put on a show (and, to the delight of CBS’ censors, the now pious Purple One left his ass-less pants at home.)

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And, dude, who knew the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had so much power and influence? I mean, David Lee Roth getting back together with Van Halen for an upcoming tour…come on, all hail the power of the Hall! (And I'm sure the Hall had something to do with the long-estranged Police reuniting to open the Grammy show this weekend, too :-)

Now if the Hall can heal the rift between Grandmaster Flash and Grandmaster Melle Mel yet another of my rock and roll prayers will have been answered (and yes, Very Anonymous Mike, I’m still holding out for that Patti Smith/Ronnie Spector duet…maybe a medley of “Because the Night” and “Be My Baby”…or maybe a new version of “Take Me Home Tonight” with Patti taking Eddie Money’s place on the tune…)

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In “All You Need is Love” (and a couple of armies of attorneys) news: Apple Computers and the Beatles’ Apple Corps have settled their trademark dispute. One supposes that this might mean that the seemingly digital download-phobic Fab Four’s catalogue will be popping up on iTunes at some time in the very near future.

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More MKW blog stuff: Bread and Roses

Oscar Nominations

So Oscar loved Dreamgirls…sorta. The musical snagged 8 nominations which is impressive enough…it is the most for any nominee this year…but 3 of those are all in the same category (Best Original Song for “Listen”, “Love You I Do”, and “Patience”) which will probably split the vote enough to allow Randy Newman (nominated for “Our Town” from Cars) or Melissa Etheridge (getting the nod for “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth) to take that award.

Dreamgirls did pick up expected Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress nominations for Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson respectively.

Dreamgirls failed to join the group of Best Picture nominees which, instead, features Golden Globe winner Babel (which picked 7 nominations including two Best Supporting Actress nods) along with The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine (which also picked up Supporting Actor and Actress nods for wily vet Alan Arkin and young Abigail Breslin), and The Queen.

Four of the Best Director nominees come from those movies: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), Stephen Frears (The Queen), perennial Oscar hopeful Martin Scorsese (The Departed…a 6^th loss would put Marty in a dubious category all his own), and Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima…and the guy who denied Scorsese the last time they were both in this category: Eastwood taking the statuette with Million Dollar Baby while Scorsese and The Aviator went un-rewarded.) Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris were snubbed in this category in favor of United 93’s Paul Greengrass.

The oft-nominated (this is number 14 with 2 previous wins) Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) is among the Best Actress nominees along with Penelope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Kate Winslett (Little Children), and odds-on favorite Helen Mirren (The Queen).

Front-runner Forrest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) leads a Best Actor field that includes Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond), veteran Peter O’Toole (Venus…his 8^th nomination without a win thus far…another dubious record that might lead the often-sentimental Academy to make him a surprise “upset” winner), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), and semi-surprise nominee Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson).

Cultural phenomenon Borat had to settle for a Best Adapted Screenplay nod.

In a year when there seemingly dozens of animated movies the category still only features 3 nominees: Cars, Happy Feet, and Monster House.

The Academy Awards will be handed out on February 25^th in a ceremony hosted by Ellen Degeneres.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of '07 is a diverse group to say the least. The honorees...who will formally inducted during ceremonies on March 12 in New York City...are indie pop standard bearers R.E.M., rockers Van Halen (David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar are both included...but, for some strange reason, Gary Cherone is not :-), legendary rock poet Patti Smith, 60's girl group The Ronettes, and rap/hip hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 (the first rap group to enter the Rock Hall.)

With the acrimonious relations between the members of Van Halen (Michael Anthony having recently parted ways with the band and been replaced by Eddie Van Halen's song Wolfgang...not to mention the off and on relationship between Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth), one wonders if they can bury the hatchet long enough to appear (and perform) during the ceremonies.

Relations between some members of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 have apparently been chilly for a while as well.

Hopefully at least all four original members of R.E.M. (who do not have an acrimonious relationship following drummer Bill Berry's departure from the band) will be there to play together.

(And we can only hope and pray for a duet between Patti Smith and Ronnie Spector...well, I think that would be very cool anyway :-)

78th Annual Academy Awards

Okay, the fact that Crash won out over Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture was a bit of a surprise (especially after Ang Lee snagged the Best Director Oscar) but the biggest…and most whimsically amusing…surprise of the Academy Awards was the fact that they gave an Oscar to a song entitled “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”. In some ways it doesn’t get much cooler than that (though I’m guessing Dolly Parton didn’t find it that cool…)

The show itself was a bit tedious and anticlimactic (I guessed all of the winners…with the exceptions of the two mentioned above and the two short subjects…before the envelopes were opened and I doubt that I was alone in that.)

Jon Stewart, like Chris Rock last year, was okay…nowhere near great (he reined himself in to the point of being just this side of dull for large stretches of the evening), but okay. And thankfully they got the unavoidable Brokeback gag out of the way at the very beginning of the show with Billy Crystal and Chris Rock.

With no blockbusters (no Lord of the Rings: Return of the King or Titanic, for example) in the mix for the major awards I’m presuming the audience for the show was down in the ratings…and truthfully they didn’t miss much. Better luck next year, Academy.

(“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”…heh. Priceless.)

Random Notes (Grammys '06 Edition)

Okay…the broadcast of the 48th Grammy Awards was a mess. Bad camera angles, numerous audio malfunctions, awkward pauses, glimpses of people working backstage, bad transitions, a zillion commercials, padded out to 3 ½ hours…it was a mess. They chose to go without a host this year…and that was probably a bad idea too.

Some of the performances were pretty good, though:

Gorillaz and De La Soul opened the show with “Feel Good Inc.” (the rappers being a bit more animated than the too-cool-for-the-room cartoon characters :-) followed by Madonna (who, judging by the stylish leotard she was wearing, apparently came directly to show from a workout) and bunch of dancers gyrating through “Hung Up”.

Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys dedicated a couple of a cappella bars of “Higher Ground” to Coretta Scott King before giving out an award to Kelly Clarkson.

(Ooo look, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are sitting together in the audience…ain’t love grand?)

Coldplay (Chris Martin really likes that “prancing in the audience thing”, don’t he?), John Legend, and Sugarland (missing a member and plagued by mike problems) kept the show moving.

U2 kicked things up a level with “Vertigo” (though they got lost in the smoke there for a while) and then Mary J. Blige joined them to raise the roof with “One” (see above).

Kelly Clarkson (who had bawled through her acceptance of the aforementioned award) was in fine voice on “Because of You”

Sir Paul McCartney performed “Fine Line” and then got frisky with a rockin’ rendition of “Helter Skelter”

(Wait…are the Black Eyed Peas finished announcing the Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Male yet? They do babble on, don't they?)

Comeback girl Mariah Carey opened with “We Belong Together” and then went gospel with a choir on a soaring “Carry Me Home”

(Why is Teri Hatcher wearing a negligee?)

Keith Urban (thanks for dressing up for the occasion, guy) sang “You’ll Think of Me” on top of plastic box and then joined Faith Hill for a sprightly “The Lucky One”

The “tribute” to Sly and the Family Stone was…okay, let’s be charitable again and say “ ragged.” John Legend, Joss Stone, Van Hunt, Maroon 5, Fantasia, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Robert Randolph, and others (what the hell is Randy Jackson doing playing bass with the band? Shouldn’t he be at home practicing his “hip” banter for the next edition of American Idol?) stumbled through tepid versions of Sly hits with the man himself (resplendent with a blond Mohawk) came out to lead the ensemble in comparatively lively version of “I Want to Take You Higher”.

Jay-Z and Linkin Park brought things back up a bit with “Numb/Encore” and then they slipped into a lovely version of The Beatles’ “Yesterday” where they were joined by Sir Paul himself.

Bruce Springsteen got off the most political statement of the night with a simple cry of “bring ‘em home!” at the end of his Iraq War inspired “Devils and Dust”

And then there was the Kanye Show. Mr. West and Jamie Foxx put on an extravaganza with marching bands, dancers, and costume changes as they ripped through “Gold Digger” and “Touch the Sky”. It was gloriously over-the-top and fun.

Christina Aguilera looked sultry in her glittering gown and platinum blonde hair as she joined Herbie Hancock for “A Song for You”. (That she oversang the song goes almost without saying, doesn’t it?)

(That Recording Academy President guy is a long-winded son of a gun, ain’t he? We get it, you guys are wonderful and you’re rebuilding New Orleans all by yourselves…now shaddap already!)

After U2 picked up the Album of the Year (0 for 2 in that category, Kanye), a tribute to New Orleans featured Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Irma Thomas, and The Edge on a loping version of Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can” (featuring more bad audio on the vocals.)

Bruce Springsteen and Sam Moore joined the group for “In the Midnight Hour” a soulful tribute to late Wilson Pickett.

The broadcast is just over as I write this and I’ve already forgotten who won what (I know U2 and Miss Clarkson and Mr. Legend were up there a couple of times each for stuff.)

Hopefully the broadcast of the 49th Annual Grammy Awards will be less snakebit next year.

Academy Award Nominations

Brokeback Mountain (see below) and George Clooney (see above) lead the pack in the race as the nominations for the 78th Academy Awards are announced and the chase for the precious Oscars is officially joined. Brokeback scored 8 nominations…including Best Picture…while Clooney got 3 nods all by himself (Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck as well as Best Supporting Actor for Syriana.)

Along with Brokeback Mountain, the other Best Picture nominees are Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Munich. The directors of those movies…Ang Lee, Bennett Miller, Paul Haggis, Clooney, and Steven Spielberg…are vying for the Best Director prize.

Capote’s Philip Seymour Hoffman (see above) is probably the favorite in the Best Actor race for his portrayal of the titular writer. The other Nominees include Terence Howard (Hustle & Flow), Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain), Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line), and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck).

Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) and Felicity Huffman (Transamerica - see below) are the likely frontrunners for the Best Actress prize. Dame Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents), Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice), and (having survived the bomb that was Aeon Flux) Charlize Theron (North Country) will likely have to settle for being happy to have just been nominated.

The year’s biggest moneymaker, Star Wars: Episode 3-Revenge of the Sith, got just one nomination (for Best Makeup). It was shut out of the Best Visual Effects race by King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia, and War of the Worlds.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong had to settle for a handful of technical nominations (Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects) after being shut out of the major categories.

And for some reason there were only 3 (instead of the usual 5) Best Song nominations this year: “In the Deep” (from Crash), “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” (from Hustle and Flow), and Dolly Parton’s “Travelin’ Thru” (from Transamerica).

The Oscars will go to the winners on March 5th.

AFI Awards 2005

Here in the time when critics’ awards sprout up like weeds, the American Film Institute has stepped up to the plate with their selections of the top 10 movies and TV shows of the year.

The Films:
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Crash
The Forty-Year Old Virgin
Good Night, and Good Luck
A History of Violence
King Kong
Munich
The Squid and the Whale
Syriana

The TV shows:
24
Battlestar Galactica
Deadwood
Grey’s Anatomy
House
Lost
Rescue Me
Sleeper Cell
Sometimes in April
Veronica Mars

The AFI certainly likes to keep it eclectic, don’t they? (I have absolutely no idea what Sometimes in April is or was so I guess, according to them anyway, I missed something there.)

Random Notes (post-Oscars '05 edition)

Chris Rock was okay. Not great but okay. Hosting the Oscars is a tough gig and in my lifetime the only ones who made it look easy were Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, and Billy Crystal.

*****

Some of the nominees and winners must have felt like unwanted stepchildren...paraded out en masse onstage or made to give their acceptance speeches from the audience...but at least the producers kept the show moving.

*****

Bless you, Morgan Freeman, not only are you a great actor but you know how to deliver an acceptance speech...short, sweet, take a bow, vacate the stage (note to all winners on all televised awards shows: if your agent/producer/interior decorator/second cousin on your mother's side needs some love send them some flowers don't bore the rest of us to death with laundry lists of people you don't want to take the time to thank in person for whatever the hell they did to help you win the award.)

*****

One hopes that Beyonce got some extra swag for all of the singing, costume changes, and hairstyles she had to go through during the course of the evening.

*****

Marty, it's cool man. Altman, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Spike Lee, Bergman, Howard Hawks...the non-winners club is filled with some other pretty impressive names.

*****

Yo Mr. Penn, they're just JOKES, dude. Jude Law is a big boy and I would hope that his ego is not so fragile that he needed your humor-deficient self to defend his honor (after apparently fuming about it for two hours.)

*****

Annette Bening smiled radiantly and graciously in defeat but you just want to believe that should she and Ms. Swank ever share the nominee list again that Mrs. Beatty is going to have be held back from going all Tonya Harding on Miss Hilary.