Grammy Night

If you are not currently watching the Grammy’s, change the damn channel! I generally despise award shows and all the crap that is on them. When it comes to the music genre of shows, they usually are the best. I don’t like the AMA’s because the awards are based on sales and radio play. Not to mention winners are notified in advance. In the past, MTV has always put on the best shows with great performances and what not, but this years version was pure crap. The highlight was Justin Timberlake calling out MTV and asking to show more videos. Damn skippy JT! “Pop Culture” television can no longer call themselves “Music” television. If you like performance, as I do, the Grammy’s have been the best I have seen overall in several years. The music has been fantastic, the audio mix has been perfect, no lip synching, and very few award acceptance speeches. Kanye got dissed by the producers during his speech, but he fought back and he won to the ovation of myself on my couch and the audience in the Staples center. He got rushed with music and called them out on the air. In my opinion, if you’re going to give someone an award on TV, let them have their moment and ramble on as long as they want. Don’t hand out an award if your on a time crunch. I don’t remember anyone rushing the Giants during Lombardi trophy acceptances.

The highlight of the night, for me at least, will be the performance of the Beatles songs by the Cirque show Love and Across the Universe soundtrack performers. I had chills… A close second so far was Kanye West’s performance. It was innovational, entertaining, and impressive. However every performance so far has sounded just perfect. Except Fergie, she was off and pushed that song too hard vocally. Also, please learn to annunciate! Aretha looked awful, but even her gospel music performance impressed me. It’s not over yet, but I’ll actually stay up to watch until the end this year.

The Grammy’s this year did it right, it’s all about the performances. No host and the usual 100 costume changes with campy jokes, and not many stupid presenters with HIGHLY awful jokes. I look forward to hopefully buying some of them on iTunes in the near future. This is the template any music awards show should follow in the future.

NBA Game

I managed to score some free tickets, thanks Ed, to the Lakers/Magic game Friday night. Since my wife was sick, I took the girls and my wife’s girlfriend to the game. Yes, you read that right. The girls had never been to a game and through most of the first half they just sat in amazement at the spectacle that is professional sports. We went to a baseball game in New York last year and they loved it, but there isn’t quite as much going on all around you at a baseball game. The non-misses and I enjoyed the action with Kobe and Dwight Howard along with seeing Tiger Woods, Chris Tucker and Jonathan Silverman in attendance. The kids did great sitting on our laps and it was a fun time all around. So parents tae advantage while they’re still young/small enough to get in free. They’ll do better than you might expect.

I’m a Dork!

I am a big dork and I’m not afraid to admit it. Sure I write code for a living, but mostly because it comes easy to me and it pays pretty well. Outside of that, I like to be a dork. I love to play my Wii along with some simulator games like NHL Eastside Hockey Manager and Age of Empires. I mostly love to play sports games because I am a jock at heart. I also really like guitar hero as I am an avid music lover and the songs are fun to pretend to rock out to. I love Apple products and have become a full convert to them. They always seem to work, they look great and in the long run are cheaper than any Windows setup. I cannot live without my iPod and since that entered my life 3 years ago I can’t live without my iMac, MacBook Pro and Apple TV either. My kids love the photo slide-show in the Apple TV.

I like being silly and making jokes about anything in any situation. Nothing to me is too gross and it’s almost impossible to take a joke too far in my attempt to make someone smile or laugh. Personal embarrassment is also not off limits as I’m not afraid to cut a fart in a bookstore now and then just for a reaction. Besides, no matter how old you get, farts are funny!
Generally the dumber the idea, they funnier it will be for everyone else. Take the Jackass movies, no matter how many times I watch I laugh just as hard every time. Maybe it’s just a guilty pleasure, and maybe that makes me a little deranged, but dammit if it isn’t some of the funniest ideas ever. What’s not to love about going into a plumbing store and pooping in a toilet to “try it out.”
The best part about being a dork though is when it comes to your kids. Being silly with toddlers just to hear them laugh is as priceless as it gets. It doesn’t take much to be silly for them to crack up, but the lasting relationship it will build is permanent. I still think about some of the funniest moments and kidding around I did with my father and laugh like I did when it happened. He gave me his sense of humor and although a bit twisted, the ability to laugh about anything is the ultimate relaxation tool.

I’m not a nut for sci-fi stuff, but I do have a special place in my heart for the Star Wars saga. I loved the Lord of the Rings, LOTR in dork circles. Harry Potter and Odd Thomas are my favorite literary characters ever. I don’t collect comic books but I love comic book based movies. In my opinion what makes someone a dork is someone that has a deep passion for things other than themselves or social status. Being a dork in high school can lead to some difficult years but once you get to college and beyond, you get to be yourself with others just like you. Remember this ladies, the richest people in the world are all dorks in their respected fields!

Random Crap…

In my latest installment of who gives a crap thoughts you never asked for, I’m just gonna spew out whatever comes into my head at the time. Today I am wearing my Mets shirt because we just landed the big fish pitcher who may lead us to baseball’s holy land. As I write this I am enjoying one of my guilty pleasures, the show Nothing but Trailers on HDNet. Thanks Mark! For some reason I enjoy watching commercials for movies that I will likely only see on the TV I am watching the commercial on. Besides, it’s better than every other channel bombarding us with election commercials full of sly wording and misleading promises. I really don’t like any politicians as they give me no reason to trust them, but we must pick one. Election garb or the daily update on the mentally ill also known as Brittney Spears. She has created so much attention for herself we’ve all forgotten about Jacko the Wacko and his daily escapades. What is our obsession with such things? Why do we care so much for those who entertain us outside of the entertainment itself? People often use athletes and celebrities as role models and I don’t understand why. These people are rich, mostly beautiful and most often not very bright. Personally, I think actors are highly overrated. It is well within every humans abilities to pretend to be someone else and say things we memorized an hour before that someone else wrote. At least athletes and musicians have skills, talents, and abilities that truly are unique. For the most part, they are also smart enough to keep out of the limelight. The real celebrities should be considered the directors, editors, and more importantly the writers. Without the writers, even Meryll Streep would be another unknown pretender. Now I’m just an outsider looking in, but this is just the impression I get. Movies and TV is fun and I enjoy it as much as the next guy, but we put too much importance on the people involved and it sends them into lifestyles that are not healthy.

That’s enough crap for now…go Mets and go Islanders!