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.

5 "Must See" Christmas Entertainments

And just like that it’s Christmastime again. Okay it took a year since the last time…but it doesn’t seem that long, does it? The season is a celebration…of the Christ child’s birth…of the wondrous bonds of love and friendship that inform our lives…of gifts given freely and accepted gratefully…of food and drink…of music (the subject of an upcoming entry)…and, in those rare down moments, of enjoying some of the classic entertainment of the season.

Now personally I don’t need to see yet another adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (if you’re so inclined pick one of the dozens of movies, plays, or “very special episodes” of TV shows and have at it.) I don’t need to sit through It’s a Wonderful Life again either (it’s a fine movie…probably a wee bit darker than you remember if you haven’t seen it in a while…but I’ve had that particular experience enough for the time being.)

There are Christmas entertainments that I can…and do…watch happily every year.

The five "must see" Xmas entertainments:

1) A Charlie Brown Christmas: still the gold standard of animated Christmas specials even after 40+ years.

2) Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas: not that over-stuffed movie from 2000 but the magical animated special with the voice of Boris Karloff and the unforgettable singing of Thurl Ravencroft (see the classic "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" below.)

3) A Christmas Story: the endearing and delightful trip down nostalgia lane with Ralphie and his quest for the best Xmas present in the whole wide world (a Red Ryder bb gun, natcherly :-)

4) Miracle on 34^th Street: the 1947 version with Edmund Gwenn and young Natalie Wood (the 1994 version is okay but it’s overlaid with a bit too much seriousness and cynicism when compared to the ’47 winner.) Avoid the colorized version this movie looks grand in black and white.

5) A Wish for Wings That Work: a personal favorite that wasn’t an especially big hit featuring Opus (the penguin from the great Bloom County comic strip) and his quest to be able to fly (with “help” from the ever-addled Bill the Cat.)

Those are 5 great ways to make you smile after a hard day of Christmas shopping (or while sitting around after that last slice of pumpkin pie has made walking not something you have much interest in…)

Thriller

Happy Halloween :-)

Glee

Nowadays there’s not that much on network TV to really get excited about. Some of it is okay and even better than okay…but most of it is just there (or worse shouldn’t be there at all.) But almost every season I find something that just flat out makes me happy…it usually doesn’t last long (the show gets canned or, worse, it jumps the tracks and crashes and burns) but I enjoy it while it lasts.

The first season of Heroes made me happy (not so much since then…)

And during the last two television seasons the quirky charm of Pushing Daisies made me happy.

This season, Glee makes me happy. Some of the subplots veer towards the soapy (a fake pregnancy…a real pregnancy with the boyfriend’s best friend really being the father…closeted effeminate gay boy…etc.) but the show manages to stay out the weeds with its quirky (there’s that word again), subversive pluck.

And the musical numbers are gloriously compelling and unabashedly over the top (from Journey’s ubiquitous “Don’t Stop Believin’” to Kanye West’s infectious “Gold Digger”…the breadth of tunes that they got cleared is amazing and almost all of them are used to good, sometimes surprising, effect.)

It’s a delightful confection…an enormously entertaining cross between Fame and Freaks & Geeks with a sterling cast (extra credit for the guest shot by the wondrous Kristin Chenoweth, late of the aforementioned Pushing Daisies)…that I just adore.

Glee makes me happy.

How Photographers Created Rock And Roll - The Picture Show Blog : NPR

How Photographers Created Rock And Roll - The Picture Show Blog : NPR

Her Morning Elegance

Oren Lavie with a clever and charming stop motion video for his wistfully romantic song "Her Morning Elegance"

Thursday Night TV

Wonder of wonders, with the help of my handy remote control Thursday night turned out to be a pretty good night of television (a big change from most days since the new season started.)

Started on ABC with the intriguing FlashForward (you can view the episode at the link to the left), a spooky mind-bender keying off the premise that everyone on the planet goes unconscious at the same moment (for just over 2 minutes) and experiences an apparent glimpse of the future (six months hence.) The first episode moved right along despite the need to introduce the sprawling cast of characters. It obviously is going for that Lost vibe (even to the point of having Lost alum Dominic Monaghan join the cast soon...and then there's the enigmatic kangaroo...) and I'm not sure how this plays out in the long run if it becomes a hit (the date everyone sees happens in April of 2010) but I'm interested enough to give it shot (while fully realizing that something like this can easily slide off the rails and become a frustrating mess...yes, Heroes and Lost, I'm looking at both of you.)

At 9 I moved over to CBS for the season premiere of the original (and still the best) CSI which began with a trippy slow motion action scene and then flashed back to show how it got to that point. One old friend came back, another cast member was gone (not really a big loss), and the plot was convoluted, occasionally silly, and helluva lot of fun (in other words, a good way to kick off a new CSI season.)

Capping off the night with Project Runway and Models of the Runway over on Lifetime made for an entertaining evening of TV watching...gotta take those when you can get 'em :-)

Astro Boy

When I was a youngster, Astro Boy was one of my favorite cartoons...every weekday afternoon I would come home from school (Menlo Avenue Elementary in Los Angeles) and watch it with rapt attention and glee. When I heard they were making a new movie I wasn't that interested (these things go so wrong so often) but after watching this clip I'm totally down with it (yeah, I know it's geeky but "the little child inside the man" (thanks, John) doesn't care about that one little bit...cool is cool :-)

My Love Will Not Let You Down

Bruce is 60 years old today. Happy Birthday to "The Boss" :-)

The Rising/Eight Years Gone

Memory dims…time heals…life waxes and wanes…

life moves on like it has to do…

And we are here…eight years gone…

and moving on with life like we have to do…

Yes I remember where I was…

Yes I remember how scared I felt…

Yes I remember how angry I felt…

Yes I remember how helpless I felt…

Yes I remember finding solace in the smile of a baby girl…

Yes I remember.

Eight years gone…so many yesterdays ago…

And we are here…remembering with comforting buffer of time and tide…

Eight years gone…and moving forward and looking back…moving on with life like we have to…

Flags flying…tear stains long dry…I remember…we all remember…

Eight years gone…so many lifetimes gone….so many lifetimes to go.

- MKW/September 2009 -

Worst Song Medley

Garfunkel and Oates (c'mon, that's a cool band name! :-) with their snarky, but (mostly) good natured, skewering of some familiar tunes from the 80's and 90's. It's funny 'cause it's true (and I kinda like a couple of the songs in the medley...)

American Classic/Lost Highway

I wonder if Willie Nelson knows how many records he’s had released under his name over the years. Whatever the number it’s been increased by 2 in the past couple of weeks.

On American Classic, Willie dips back into the “great American songbook” one more time for a tasteful (sometimes a bit too tasteful and subdued) stroll through a dozen classic tunes. Nelson is a consummate pro and so his readings are in the pocket (his voice is not quite as supple as it used to be…but hell, whose is?...and Willie doesn't always sound fully engaged) but the tracks (produced by another consummate pro, Tommy LiPuma with a crack band of jazz players including the legendary Crusader Joe Sample on piano) don’t soar much (a contrast to the playful, engaging vibe of Two Men with the Blues, Willie’s collaboration with Wynton Marsalis last year.)

All that said, there is some fine stuff here: “The Nearness of You” and “I Miss You So” both have a fetching fragility that is lovely, “On the Street Where You Live” is sprightly, and “Always on my Mind” is revisited to fine effect.

Willie comes to life during the two duets…”If I Had You” with Diana Krall and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with Norah Jones…and though it doesn’t have the spark it might have reached for, American Classic is still a good addition to his other collections of classic songs.

Lost Highway is a compilation of 17 tracks (including 3 previously unreleased tracks and 1 song that had only been available on iTunes) recorded for the label of the same name (to keep that theme going, one of the songs, a cool duet with Ray Price, is also called “Lost Highway”.)

There are a lot of collaborations among the songs here, including the rollicking “Beer for my Horses” with Toby Keith, the classic country heartbreak of “I’m Still Not Over You” with Ray Price, and the tender “Overtime” with Lucinda Williams.

Willie goes into his own history with live versions of “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain” (a duet with Shania Twain) and “Crazy” (with the husband and wife team of Elvis Costello and Diana Krall.)

Two tunes from the underrated The Great Divide…the playful “Maria (Shut Up and Kiss Me)” with Rob Thomas and the Grammy-winning “Mendocino County Line” with Lee Ann Womack…are actually given a better showcase here than on the original album which buried the vocals too far in the mix.

Willie has some good solo showcases too: a fine, fine reading of “You Don’t Know Me”, plaintively heartfelt readings of “Back to Earth” and the previously unreleased “Both Sides of Goodbye’, the cheeky “Superman” (another previously unreleased track), a credible take on Jimmy Cliff’s reggae classic “The Harder They Come”, and the cool western swing of “Bubbles in my Beer”.

The collection concludes with two songs seemingly inspired by the movie Brokeback Mountain: the politically incorrect (and vaguely homophobic) “Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” (which had been released only a download before this) and the profane (and decidedly homophobic) “Ain’t Goin’ Down on Brokeback Mountain” (which, even presuming that it was meant to be tongue in cheek, probably should have stayed “unreleased”.)

The last two tracks notwithstanding Lost Highway is a fine enough “best of” collection

The Who - Baba O'Riley

Today would have been Keith Moon's (1946-1978) 63rd birthday. This is a great live clip from the Who to celebrate the day.

Project Runway

The Runway is back! And it’s about time.

Following an extended legal wrangle between the show’s former network (Bravo) and its new network (Lifetime), the frothy, fabulous, and strangely compelling fashion catfight…um, I mean, competition…that is Project Runway is back. Accept no lame substitutes (yes, The Fashion Show, we’re looking at your sorry self…)

As I have mentioned before in this space I couldn’t give two flying figs about “high fashion” (my wardrobe consists of several pairs of jeans, a lot of t-shirts, hiking books and sneakers and a tie shoved somewhere in the corner of my closet…well there’s a bit more than that…but not much :-) but I love Project Runway just the same.

I love the egomaniacal designers…vainglorious home economics geeks who’ve decided that they’re too cool and far too talented for any room…and the deliciously supercilious judges (Michael Kors and Nina Garcia I mean...I pay little attention to whatever celebrity hump they stick in the fourth chair.)

And, of course, I love the Teutonic goddess that his host/judge/executive producer Heidi Klum (delivering the “you’re out!” kiss-offs with all of her cool blond, baby-making glory in full effect.)

And most of all, I love the dapper and (mostly) unflappable Tim Gunn, both nurturing and no-nonsense in his role as the mentor and cheerleader to the contestants.

It’s too early to tell who’s going to break out among the designers (at this point everyone comes with their “hey, look at me!” agendas) but it seems this season’s cast has the potential to be interesting both as clothes designers and as reality show characters.

Runway is now paired with a companion show, Models of the Runway, which goes behind the scenes with the models and also features an extended sequence where the designers choose the model they want to work with that week. It has a certain gossipy charm of its own and it adds to the overall Runway experience.

The Runway is back! And ain’t it grand? :-)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

The day started off gray…outside (the clouds would not give way to the hazy sunshine until late morning) and in (I was feeling out of sorts for no reason I could put my finger on from the moment I woke up)…and it seemed like that was going to be the way the day would unfold (sunshine or no sunshine.)

I had chores and other work aplenty but I couldn’t shake my ennui. I needed the help of somebody who didn’t know that kind of lethargy…someone so supremely and so delightfully self-confident that it was incredibly improbable that he would ever have a gray day.

And I found him. His name? Bueller. Ferris Bueller.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a product of the eighties…just check out the padded shoulders, Ferris’ massive, 5” floppy disc driven computer…but it is, at the same time, wonderfully timeless in its audaciously positive vibe.

And it’s charming and funny as all get out.

Matthew Broderick’s engaging performance as the impish Ferris is still a wonder of delicious comic timing combined with the wit and wisdom of the late John Hughes’ words and direction.

It’s a totally preposterous tale and that’s the unbridled joy of it…as we watch Ferris hoodwink his clueless parents, enrage his jealous sister, give his neurotic best friend the best day of his life, pledge his love for his bemused but patient and adoring girlfriend, and almost effortlessly thwart the hapless Mr. Rooney’s efforts to bust him, we happily go for the ride (nothing Ferris does is out of malice…he’s a free spirit enjoying life on his own terms and he wants his friends…and all of us…to enjoy life with him.)

A lot of movies from the eighties have not and will not stand the test of time (Flashdance looks pretty silly now, for example…though truth to be told I thought it looked pretty silly when it first came out so that might not be a fair example…) but Ferris Bueller’s Day Off continues to delight…and to bring grumpy old bears out of their funks…all these years later. Made me smile anyway :-)

Take a Bow

It's your 51st birthday, Madonna...hey, take a bow :-)

Woodstock

40 years ago the fabled Woodstock Music and Art Fair began in Bethel, New York (I wanted to go but being 13...and living on the other coast...at the time I missed it :-)

Here's Joni Mitchell singing "Woodstock", her tribute to the festival.

Joni Mitchell-Woodstock (1969)

Rhythms del Mundo: Classics

Classics is a benefit collection put together by Artists Project Earth (APE), a group dedicated to furthering awareness about climate change. The album itself features 19 (mostly) classic rock & pop tunes performed by Rhythms del Mundo (a talented assemblage of Cuban musicians…RDM is kind of a continuation of the Buena Vista Social Club) along with an international cast of well-known pop stars (some playing live with RDM others sampled with the original music stripped off and replaced with new backing tracks.)

The vibe is beguiling…tropical Latin rhythms and beats bringing entertaining new feel to the familiar songs…though it sometimes works against the grittiness inherent in some of the tunes.

The lead-off track, for example, is a breezy version of “Hotel California” featuring the Killers that is infectiously danceable (hard to resist those tasty drums and horns) despite the dark cynicism of the Eagles’ lyrics (Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” featuring The Editors also works despite its loping, foot tapping groove working almost at cross purposes with Reed’s ironic lyrics.)

On the other hand, Sam Cooke’s more fanciful “Cupid”…with vocals by Amy Winehouse…slips into smooth groove with no such dissonance as does the version of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” featuring the Kaiser Chiefs and the sunny version of “Under the Boardwalk” featuring the Rolling Stones.

Some tracks really click: Jack Johnson’s mellow (well, duh! :-) take on John Lennon’s “Imagine” is a subdued little gem…the Zutons’ lively recreation of “Runaway” works despite its vocal similarity to Del Shannon’s original…K.T. Tunstall does a nice job with “Because the Night” as does Fall Out Boy taking a confident swing at Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”…Shanade’s version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” doesn’t have the dark urgency of Nirvana’s original but it succeeds by finding a more plaintive groove to inhabit…and the Kooks take on a relatively obscure Elton John song, “Are You Ready for Love”, and turn into a tropical flavored charmer.

Other tracks try gamely but slide a bit shy of the mark: the version of “Under Pressure”, featuring Keane, is so soothing that it leaches out all of edginess of the original (though, that said, the trumpet solo on the outro is pretty sweet)…Cat Power’s languid vocals on the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” are ill-matched with RDM’s pulsating rhythms…there is a disconnect between RDM’s sunny rhythms and the somber lyrics in One Republic’s version “For What it’s Worth”

The Spanish version of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, featuring Augusto Enriquez, is very cool as is the rocking bilingual take on Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” featuring Aquila Rose and Dana Valdes. Eros Ramazotti’s version of Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” (here called “Mi Cherie Amour”) is smooth and sweet.

RDM’s instrumental version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” with thick guitar lines intertwining playfully with the horns is grand as is the stirring version of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”…featuring the wondrous classical guitar playing of Rodrigo y Gabriela…that closes out the disc.

All in all, Rhythms del Mundo’s Classics is a delight full of great playing and beguiling fun.

Les Paul (June 1915-August 2009)

Les Paul...guitarist extraordinaire, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, pioneer in the development of the solid body electric guitar and multitrack recording...died today at the age of 94.

Here he plays "Birth of the Blues" with Chet Atkins.

Robert Downey, Jr. - Smile

Robert Downey, Jr. with an interesting...and cool...take on Charlie Chaplin's classic song "Smile" (from the soundtrack of Chaplin.)