I Am A TV Junkie

Grammy Surprise: This Jeff Beck Version of Nessum Dorma

Okay, the surprise for me is that it exists at all. Once I heard it I was totally on board with the Grammy nomination.

Listen to it by clicking this link, a little box from Myspace (aw, remember Myspace?) will pop up for you to click and listen.

Grammys are Feb 13 at 8 pm on CBS. Full listing of nominees at this link.

If They're Moving the Location Out of Jersey What Will The Show Be Called? Also, They're All Over the Grammy Red Carpet

I mean, they can't call it Jersey Shore if it's not on the Jersey Shore, can they?

Well, I guess they could. I could also call myself a Nobel Prize winner, it doesn't mean I really am.

Billboard (and everyone else on the planet) are reporting that MTV wants to have something on air by mid-Summer, which means they have to find somewhere to shoot the damn thing where Mike Sorrentino won't get frostbite when he lifts his shirt to show you that predicament ... no, it's not that, it's ... his business? ... no, wrong again ... a story ... wait, I know it's something that starts with an S.

Whatev, you can't walk around shirtless in Jersey during the winter. Well you could, and I wouldn't put it past The Situation to do so, but there'd be a lot of splainin' to do and a lot of fading fake tans.

Twelve episodes for next season, and at 10K per episode that will send the kids home with $120,000, enough money for each of them to get into a huge amount of trouble or pay off the ol' Visa card (GLT doesn't come cheap ... gym memberships and laundry and tanning still cost, unless they start getting fame-based freebies).

See "mad celebs" (not angry celebs, mad indicates number and quality here) Snooki met at this HuffPo link.

More of that from MTV at this link. And, watch her red carpet reportage by clicking right here.

Check out The Situation's cleavage versus the other low cut aficionados from last night at this link.

Check out a library book nowhere near any of these people at your local library, click here for details.

(I had to add that, the post was getting a little too skeevy for my taste.)

New episodes of what I think we have to now call NOT Jersey Shore But With the Same Cast come this Summer.

I don't quite get this, but I'm presuming MTV knows what it's doing. I would have cast a whole new group and proceeded in the way The Real World moves on, but that's just me. They've chose, apparently, to follow the model established by The Hills, which only means these salaries will continue to go up.

I do like that the cast has decided to stick together Friends-style, however. And, it makes me giggle just a bit as well.

I wonder what Schwimmer thinks?

The Women of Grammy Night -- Beyonce, Gaga, Taylor: See Vids of Nominated Songs Here

They're calling them Grammy's Big Three, they being the press. And it's warranted, they are the biggest selling artists of the year, Gaga's currently the biggest tour on the road, Beyonce made bank all over the world last year and Taylor Swift is the fair-haired girl of crossover country pop.

And I enjoy all of them. But lets be frank about their talents ... Taylor's the prodigy, Beyonce is the performer and Gaga is the visionary.

Visionaries don't often get the praise they truly deserve until after their prime, which makes the Lady Gaga explosion even more remarkable. But I don't think she take home a lot of hardware tonight nor do I think she cares to be competing for awards. But it IS a business and Grammys mean sales and sales mean opportunities to affect the zeitgeist and that's what I really think Gaga is after.

This isn't the first major music award show since the MTV Awards (we've had the American Music Awards since), but Taylor still has plenty of shine, ironically from the attempt to tarnish her (fucking Kanye, who btw is very close with both of the young Ms. Swift's rivals here).

Beyonce is, for better or worse, an industry. That, frankly, harshes my enjoyment of her. Where Taylor feels like a Cinderella story and Gaga feels like a political movement, Beyonce feels like a multinational corporation hellbent on domination.

Dan DeLuca, Music Critic for the Philly Inquirer, has his own take on the three:

Whichever of the Big Three women takes home the most golden gramophones will be deserving and will have achieved a sort of ubiquity, making personalized pop music that sold in the millions. In picking Swift, Beyoncé, and Gaga as their three faces of music, the Recording Academy has ensured that while two of the women might end up disappointed at the end of the evening, the Grammys can't lose.

Indeed. Should be a great show. Still thinking about what Gaga might do.

See their Record of the Year nominees from these women, Poker Face, You Belong With Me and Halo, by clicking the respective song titles in this sentence.

Oh, there are other nominees in that category, too. Kings of Leon and The Black Eyed Peas, but I couldn't pick that Kings of Leon song out of a lineup and ... I'm sorry, but I'm just as tired of The Black Eyed Peas as I am Republican obstructionism in the House and Senate.

Nothing personal, but can't they go away for a little while and then come back when I've recovered from the overkill? You're all very nice people, Black Eyed Peas, but don't we all need just a little break from all the Boom Boom Pow?

Video -- Will This Be The Gaga Grammys?

UPDATE: I was just reading this online at the Times of London from Caitlin Moran and it really sums it up for me ...

In the18 years I’ve been going to the festival I have never seen an act arrive there so magnificently or so confidently impose its own agenda — sex, neurosis, fetish, heels, clubbing, fashion — on such an ostensibly unpromising setting. Just to remind you — there is a field of cows some 800 yards to our right. The principal exports of this location are hay and cheese. And yet Gaga is making Glastonbury feel like a club in New York at 3am. You can practically hear the sirens outside and taste the amyl nitrate. I start to worry about the possibility of getting a cab back over the bridge, to Brooklyn.

Exactly!!!

True story ... I was sitting watching whatever yesterday when a promo for the Grammys came on and I thought to myself, "I wonder what Gaga has in store for us?"

(I know, I know, she says, "Don't call me Gaga," but I think that's just for the guy who ate her heart in the song Monster. After all, she let Oprah call her Gaga, she let Toure at Fuse call her Gaga, I think she'd be okay if I did.)

I have never had a thought like that about a musical performance before, not about Madonna, not about Cher, not about (fill in name of gay icon).

Gaga makes me think about what she'll do, not just what song she'll do.

But I do hope she does Monster, I love the lyrics:

We French-kissed on a subway train

He tore my clothes right off

He ate my heart and then he ate my brain

And I love the kind of disco calliope sound it has. Really chugs along, and it's not a high bpm track which makes dancing on your ass while driving easier.

No video for the song yet, I'm hoping for a somewhat literal translation of the song with a subway platform and New York City on a Summer night after the rain has cleared the streets ... that's what the song makes me think of, the Sundays evenings walking back from The Eagle or The Spike or The Ramrod after a rain to my place on 15th St.

I don't mean the Gaga Grammys in terms of number of awards won but in terms of impact. She has to be the hottest act on tour right now and the show, from what I've seen online is fantastic.

Please HBO, please shoot the last stop of the European tour for broadcast, please! Because some of us older gays don't have anyone to go to concerts with.

Grammys start at 8 eastern on Sunday on CBS.

2 Clips -- "On a Serious Note" Seacrest on the Grammy Red Carpet With T.I.

What was up with TV's Ryan Seacrest? Watch him talk to T.I. after the jump about his weapons conviction? What, is he now the sheriff of the red carpet? Will he wear formal chaps with fringe if he's gonna be the sheriff of the red carpet?

And in the second clip, the Jennifer Hudson interview, he doesn't know the name of her fiance, which isn't like him. And is it me or is he not as crisp in these interviews? At one point in the Hudson interview it kind of seems like he's ... slowing down.

All those jobs and all that salon time takes it out of a guy.

I'm very happy Adele won, curse be damned. Great MTV profile at this link.

Watch her clips at Yahoo! Music, where I find all my music video embeds.

Gee, after seeing what T.I. went through with Seacrest, good thing Chris Brown didn't try to walk the red carpet after ... (MTV):

The awards show featured a slew of amazing performances, as well as the noticeable absence of two nominated artists and expected performers, Rihanna and Chris Brown, who were scratched at the last minute following an alleged domestic incident, for which Brown turned himself in during the broadcast.

Damn! What's up with that? Domestic battery? Absolutely unforgiveable.

Nineteen years old and hitting his girlfriend? After everything him and his mother went through with an abusive stepfather?

Giant Magazine from September 2007:

"(I told my mother) 'I just want you to know that I love you, but I'm gonna take a baseball bat one day while you are at work, and I'm gonna kill him.' He used to hit my mom...He made me terrified all the time, terrified like I had to pee on myself. I remember one night he made her nose bleed. I was crying and thinking, 'I'm just gonna go crazy on him one day...' I hate him to this day."

That's why this is either very surprising or not at all so, I guess. I don't really understand how one becomes "that guy."

New Clothes Off Our Back Auctions of Grammy, SAG, Oscar Ceremony Celeb Garb

Their website is at this link.

Lotsa good stuff I'm sure, although I am not celebrity sized (well, okay, there is Drew Carey, I could probably fit into something of his, but it would have the smell of Plinko on it).

From their press release:

Bid now on Helen Mirren's SAG Award gown and shoes, Martin Scorsese 's Oscar tuxedo, America Ferrera's SAG Award gown, a Snoop Dogg Grammy Award necklace, a signed jersey from the cast of MICHAEL CLAYTON, an autographed shirt from "Californication" star David Duchovny, gift bags and much more! AUCTION ENDS MONDAY, MARCH 17.

Custom designed sneakers were on the list for stars attending the Sundance Film Festival. Only two pairs of these shoes created by Emily Blunt, Lloyd Banks , Brittany Murphy, JUNO director Jason Reitman, Adam Scott , Catherine Bell, Billy Morrison, Rex Lee and Sondre Lerche will exist - one for the celebrity and one for you! AUCTION ENDS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12.

If you are looking to stay warm, celebrities at Sundance were also happy to sign Scanty Pajamas for the cause. Olivia Wilde, Zoe Kravitz, Kerr Smith, Bijou Phillips and others signed PJ tops and bottoms for charity. AUCTION ENDS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12.

Do you need a little black dress? No one can have just one. Bid now on dresses and signed bottles of Little Black Dress Wine from America Ferrera, Jaime Pressly , Jeremy Piven, Julianne Moore, Felicity Huffman , the casts of "Chuck," "Heroes," "Medium ," "ER," "Mena Suvari, Emmy Rossum , Garcelle Beauvais and many others. AUCTION ENDS THURSDAY, MARCH 13.

Bid now on Pure & Natural® brand Eco-totes signed by John Legend, Felicity Huffman, One Republic and other celebrities at the recent film festival in Park City, Utah. Totes include a Pure & Natural® Bar Soap, an assortment of floral seeds & a mini-gardening tool kit. AUCTION ENDS MONDAY, MARCH 10.

If you like art, bid on an original painting by acclaimed artist Annie Lee. This colorful painting was commissioned by Lawry's to bring to life its Cooking up Culture program, honoring the various cultures that have influenced American cuisine. Proceeds from the online event benefit America's Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network. AUCTION ENDS MONDAY, MARCH 31.

Stay tuned for items from recent red carpet events, jewelry, gift bags and more!

Pics of some more items after the jump.

Grammy Ratings Tepid at Best

TV Week:

An Amy Winehouse-fueled “50th Annual Grammy Awards” (6.9) propelled CBS to the top spot in the 18 to 49 demographic (5.8), according to preliminary Nielsen numbers.

Bolstered by the fact that there weren’t writers waving placards outside the Staples Center deterring stars from entering, the Grammys won every half-hour between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

But the awards show was down 16% from last year’s ratings, which hyped a reunion performance from the Police.

I think that it's really obvious, interest in the music industry's award show correlates directly to interest in the music industry.

I'll say it one more time so that maybe some people will get it -- the music industry is not dying because of downloading, it's dying because most popular music with limited exception sucks and people are going to other forms of entertainment.

Today Video -- Blender's Joe Levy on Winehouse: "I Think She Was Shocked She Just Made it Through The Performance"

That's what he said, the clip is after the jump.

I have Amy Winehouse's performance there and the presentation of Record of the Year, too.

Note to media, Joe Levy is now at Blender magazine, no longer Rolling Stone.

A list of your Grammy winners is at this link. There are so many awards given out these days that I don't even check out the list. And of course, there's that whole ranking creative content from best to whatever that I just don't like.

Hey, if you're still listening to your Dio albums from the 90s or Wham! or whatever you like, I'm happy for you, as long as you enjoy it.

Video -- Beyonce & Tina At the Grammys

And introduced by Cher, who apparently started singing when Abraham Lincoln was in office.

Pics of the duet are at the Daily Mail website, but they are particularly not kind to Cher, which is just not a nice thing to do. And they're Getty Images pics, which I don't steal (because I think of them as a reasonably reputable company).

Speaking of which, I will indeed by making my pilgrimage to Vegas in the near future to see Cher at Caesar's Palace. I didn't see any of the final tour performances, but I will go to CherMecca and see Cher, I will head the call of the beacon and bow before her.

This is notable because I HATE Vegas. Love Cher, hate Vegas.

Funny, I just saw Cher two days ago being interviewed in the blonde version of the wig you see in the clip. I betcha she has it in every color. Well, ever natural hair color, she's not Britney after all.

I know, shut up and show us the clip, right? Well, you gotta click over beyond the jump.

So I'm Driving Through Suburban Orange County Today ...

... north of the beach by about three or four miles, and I'm at a light and I see these two kids in an old Jeep Cherokee who look like they just pulled out the parking lot of a Phish concert from the mid-nineties.

And they had, among other decoration, a window decal ... of Michael Jackson, the face image from the Thriller cover (see it?).

So, I finally got even with him (still moving, but I like a challenge) and I ask out a moving truck window into another, "Ironic?"

And the guy laughed, pointed at at and gave me a thumbs up.

I almost asked him if he had any 'shrooms for sale.

Speaking of Michael Jackson, he might be on TV tomorrow at the Grammys.

And then again he might not, but, it's the 50th anniversary of the awards, something extraordinary has to happen.

I've read reports where he's in some studio in Burbank working on the Billie Jean routine from Motown 25 so that he can break it out as a surprise live on national television, but I just don't know what a good idea that would be, and to me it would seem like the act of a desperate man.

If you just wanna take a pass on the new and remember the classic, it's after the jump.

John Legend Fans? See His Concert in Mid-Air, Enter Now!

I dunno, a concert in an airplane? It's kinda loud up there in the sky. Will you be able to hear anything?

From the press release:

Five-time GRAMMY® winner John Legend will perform an acoustic in-flight concert on board Delta Air Lines' new GRAMMY aircraft for the winners of a special sweepstakes that begins today, sponsored by CBS, The Recording Academy® and Delta Air Lines.  Contest winners, who will fly from New York to Los Angeles , will also attend GRAMMY rehearsals and THE 50TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS, scheduled to be broadcast live from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles , Sunday, Feb. 10 (8:00-11:30 PM, live ET/delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network.

CBS is partnering with The Recording Academy and Delta, the Official Airline of the GRAMMY Awards, to host this unique performance at 30,000 feet that celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the music industry's most coveted honor.

Click any one of the links below to enter:

CBS Stations and Affiliates participating in the sweepstakes are New York (WCBS, www.wcbstv.com), Los Angeles (KCBS, www.cbs2.com), Chicago (WBBM, www.cbs2chicago.com), Philadelphia (KYW, www.cbs3.com), Boston (WBZ, www.wbztv.com), San Francisco (KPIX, www.cbs5.com), Dallas (KTVT, www.cbs11tv.com), Baltimore (WJZ, www.wjz.com), Miami (WFOR, www.cbs4.com), Denver (KCNC, www.cbs4denver.com), Sacramento (KOVR, www.cbs13.com), Pittsburgh (KDKA, www.kdka.com), Atlanta (WGCL, www.cbs46.com), Washington D.C. (WUSA, www.wusa9.com),  Raleigh (WRAL, www.wral.com) and Houston (KHOU, www.khou.com) (More stations may be added.).  The sweepstakes period begins at 12:00 PM (ET) on Jan. 17 and will end at 12:00 PM (ET) on Jan. 29, 2008 (may vary by market).

Go there for rules and all the legal mumbo jumbo.  

Video -- Meet Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters and Play With Them on the Grammys

All the details are at this link. But watch the clip, because ... well, it's Dave Grohl.

I like Dave.

LINK

From the same YouTube page:

Join the Foo Fighters onstage in Los Angeles at the Grammys on February 10th to perform a brand new orchestral version of the song "The Pretender"! You and up to 19 others will work with a world renowned composer to create a blazing new song and one winner will be featured onstage! Woodwinds, Brass and Strings are invited. No guitars, bass guitars, drums, or vocals; the Foo's have those instruments covered!