New This Year: Less Moral Outrage

I had fun sharing my opinions on the Grammys last year, so I decided to do it again 🙂 And this year I’m going to update this draft in the WordPress app during the ceremony, which should allow me to go to bed much earlier than I did last year.

I even started watching the TV Guide Network red carpet show (even though I knew better) because I got bored playing iPad games. What the hell was up with Randy Jackson’s glasses? The lenses were magnifying his eyes. It was weird.

Okay, on to the show.

Taylor Swift = creepy. I don’t like clowns, or circuses (but that’s mostly because of the clowns). And I’ll probably have that song stuck in my head for hours now.

Ed Sheeran & Elton John = anger that Ed Sheeran received “top billing.” Who in the hell is Ed Sheeran? (No, seriously, I have no idea who he is.) Also, this really just made me think of the Eminem & Elton John performance of “Stan” from forever ago. But “Stan” was better.

Adele won another Grammy. Is it still 2012? Actually, I’m glad she won and not Carly Rae Jepsen.

fun. = surprise that they did “Carry On” instead of “We Are Young.” And their weird, shiny shirts made sense when it started raining on them.

Is John Mayer wearing a purple jacket?

Miranda Lambert & Dierks Bentley = time to catch up on Twitter. I’m more than a little embarrassed that I knew how to spell his name without looking it up.

Okay, that throwback clip of LL on American Bandstand was adorable.

Those old white guys next to Wiz Khalifa look horrified. Ha! But I thought LL said Miguel and Wiz Khalifa were presenting an award, not performing. Oh, okay, now they’re presenting. A country award. Alrighty then. Also, is it weird that I kinda love Wiz Khalifa’s suit?

Yay fun. won! (And Carly Rae Jepsen didn’t!) Am I crazy or did Faith Hill & Tim McGraw clearly not know who the hell fun. is? Oh, Nate Ruess, you’re adorable.

Holy crap, Johnny Depp!

Mumford & Sons = quite good. That song is growing on me.

On the whole, that was not worth missing a new episode of Once Upon a Time. Maybe I’ll learn that someday.

Ellen, please stop making Beyonce feel awkward. You’re standing between the audience and a Justin Timberlake performance!

Justin Timberlake = finally! This is the reason I’m watching the Grammys. How cute is it that CBS used an Instagram filter on the performance? This is the first time that Jay-Z’s verse hasn’t seemed completely unnecessary to me. And that other song was pretty good too, but it reminded me of the songs I always skip on his other records. Is it just me or are Jessica Biel’s bangs really severe?

Oh good, they’re still nominating Chris Brown for awards. Not. I haven’t listened to Channel Orange yet, but thank God Frank Ocean won. And how cute is his mom? (That’s his mom, right? I think he said it was his mom.)

Apparently I have to buy JT’s new record at Target. I’m not averse to that.

Yay the Black Keys won! How adorably awkward are Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney?

Maroon 5 & Alicia Keys = meh. I like them both, but I don’t know that Maroon 5 song and I don’t really like that Alicia Keys song (partially that Visa commercial’s fault). And I don’t know how I feel about Alicia Keys playing drums.

Good for Kelly Clarkson! Not loving her as a blonde, though.

Rihanna = meh. I like her (fun fact: my autocorrect knows “Rihanna”), but don’t know this song. And who is that guy?

Why am I being subjected to Carly Rae Jepsen speaking??

Great acceptance speech, Jay-Z 🙂

“Oh good, Herbal Essences brought back the fake orgasm commercials,” said no one ever.

The Black Keys & Dr. John = amazing! I didn’t know it was possible for “Lonely Boy” to be better than it is on the record, but they made it better with that fantastic horn section. And I didn’t know it was kosher to perform in the same clothes you wore to the show.

This Kelly Clarkson thing is pretty good, but I really don’t get this thing with presenters performing a little something before getting down to the actual business of presenting the award. It’s confusing (see: Miguel and Wiz Khalifa earlier).

I’m glad they’re giving out a second country award during the telecast. It’s not like country music has a bunch of its own televised award shows or anything.

Bob Marley tribute = better that I expected. (I don’t like Marley or reggae at all, actually.) Oh, cool, Bruno Mars is playing “Locked Out of Heaven” instead of a Marley song; this I like. And his band is skanking, which is awesome! I see you playing bass, Sting. Not The Police song I was expecting, but I dig it. Oh, here comes the actual Bob Marley part of the Bob Marley tribute; that’s less awesome.

Why couldn’t they just let The Lumineers perform “Ho Hey” without making them introduce Jack White as well? It’s an awesome song; it deserves all the fanfare that goes along with an actual performance. And Taylor Swift is adorable, rocking out in the audience to a song she clearly loves.

Jack White = go away. I haven’t given a crap about him in at least five years, but he keeps insisting on putting out interchangeable music under different projects. It needs to stop.

Yay fun. won Best New Artist! I feel like I called that last year. Oh look, I kinda did.

Who is this person playing piano? Am I supposed to know him? Why was he not introduced by the voiceover announcer?

Carrie Underwood = meh. I didn’t even know she had music out right now (and I’m proud of that). Why were laser designs growing on her dress?

Holy crap, Prince! But why does he have a cane?

Pretty stoked for Gotye. And Prince said he loves the song! Are you not allowed to hug Prince?

Are they just not announcing the performers now? Or is my CBS station just coming back to the Grammys feed late?

Get off my TV, Ryan Seacrest! But Justin Timberlake makes it better.

In Memoriam = oh man, I forgot that person died and getting sad all over again. Cases in point: Davy Jones and MCA. Y’know, they should’ve done an MCA/Beastie Boys tribute.

And it’s another performance they aren’t announcing. Good job, Grammy producers. Wait, is Darin Ruf playing the mandolin? (I’m kidding, guys.) I seriously needed Twitter to tell me that this is the Levon Helm tribute.

Oh look, another performing presenter. But, yay, he’s doing “Your Song!” Bilingual “Your Song,” in point of fact. I love that song so much, you guys 🙂

Frank Ocean = alright, that settles it, I’m buying Channel Orange tomorrow. That was fantastic. And I loved the visual effects.

Aww, Adele is adorable.

I’m honestly surprised that Mumford & Sons won Album of the Year, but I’m not upset about it. Frankly, I was gonna be happy as long as it wasn’t Jack White.

LL Cool J = great (at least until CBS decided to show ads instead of the freaking performance). I wasn’t expecting much, but that was a lot of fun. And I appreciated the tiny, little MCA tribute.

Well, that was fun. The last 2.5 hours of the show were worth missing Downton Abbey. (Yep, my parents succeeded in turning me into a Downton Abbey fan.) You know what’s weird, though? I just found out that the Grammys were tape-delayed on the west coast again. Why do they keep doing that? Didn’t people complain about that a lot last year?

Oh, and my surmise when I started this post was correct; I am posting this much earlier than I posted last year’s.

Until tomorrow.

Fun

Today was kind of fun despite the fact that it was cold.

First of all, I slept in until almost 11:30, which was lovely. Of course, I’d woken up at 4:30 because I felt like crap, but whatever.

After everyone was up and dressed, we went to lunch and then on a tour of my dad’s 2012 projects (namely, the construction projects at my parents’ community and church). I was excited to finally see the clubhouse because I hadn’t really gotten a chance to yet. And even though I’ve been to the church several times in the past month, this was the first time I got to see it looking like a church (with an altar and chairs and whatnot). However, I think the best thing of all is that my parents aren’t going to make me go to Mass tomorrow. (At least, I don’t think they are.) Although I am willing to go to the dedication ceremony at 11.

Plus, my parents finally watched part of Batman Begins. They didn’t watch all of it, but the simple fact that it was allowed to play in its entirety on their TV is remarkable. Of course, they only allowed that to happen because my brother and sister-in-law brought it with them, but I’m trying not to be bitter. Trying. But I really do feel that it was a step in the right direction for them.

Well, I really ought to go to sleep in case my parents make me go to 8 o’clock Mass. (Yes, I am aware that I am 32 years old, but I stand by my verb choice.)

Until tomorrow.

Well, That Was Unexpected

I went out drinking with my brother and sister-in-law tonight, which was awesome. Sadly, it was the first time I went out drinking in ages (as evidenced by how drunk I got on comparatively little booze – although the drinks were strong). It was fun, though.

And that’s the kind of shit I miss by living in a place where I have no friends. (Right or wrong, I try to avoid going out to bars by myself.)

Tonight really reinforced my desire to move back to Philly. (It also reminded me that my tolerance has dwindled to nothing, but that’s neither here nor there.) I’m not gonna search for a job over the weekend, but hopefully tonight will inspire me to start looking in earnest after Christmas.

Until tomorrow.

Happy Holidays

I wanted to update the look of my blog last week when this theme became available, but I decided to wait until I was done with schoolwork. Changing the theme was neither difficult nor time-consuming, but still. I had better things to do. Well, maybe not better, but definitely more important.

And right now I have to try to sleep. Wish me luck.

Until tomorrow.

Fore!

I spent some time whacking some golf balls with my dad today. It was fun. We weren’t actually playing, but we did spend some time at the driving range and the putting green. If you’re wondering, I can putt pretty well (thank you, mini golf) but I can’t hit a golf ball for anything. I hit two good shots where the ball actually got a little bit of air and some distance, but the rest were terrible. My personal favorite was the time I hit the tee out from under the ball; I thought that was kind of impressive. But I was having fun so I was able to have a sense of humor about it 🙂

I spent the past several hours wondering why the hell I’m so sore. And then I realized, oh yeah, golf. Golf is harder than it looks. Plus, there was the whole thing where I think I started to develop heat exhaustion. Fun.

In other news, I just watched Adam Richman’s Best Sandwich in America finale and was stoked that DiNic’s Roast Pork won. Now I really, really need to visit Reading Terminal Market the next time I go home. Oddly enough, my parents have tried DiNic’s Roast Pork and they didn’t like it. Then again, they didn’t get it with the broccoli rabe, which I always thought was odd. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that if you go to a restaurant specifically to try an item on the menu (in this case a sandwich), you should order it as the chef intended.

Until tomorrow.

Conference Calls Are The Worst

I didn’t have my usual Tuesday night class tonight. Instead, we had online training for a piece of software that we need to use in our next homework assignment. The training was in the form of a conference call. I had forgotten how much they suck.

Of course, I don’t remember ever being on a conference call with so many people who were clearly conference call virgins. Apparently most people on the call had never heard of the mute button that’s on pretty much every phone now. And if your phone didn’t have a mute button, there was a way to mute your line through the conference software. I think what I found most annoying, though, was that the leader/teacher kept threatening to mute all the lines, but she never went through with it. Grr arrgh.

I’m glad I got that off my chest. I’m also glad that I’m watching Conan right now. I haven’t watched in ages and I kinda forgot how good it is. Not that I’m gonna start watching it regularly; I don’t have time for that sort of thing. But I am really glad that I remembered Fun. was gonna be on the show tonight. They were quite good. I noticed that the guitarist was wearing a Fun. t-shirt, but I’ll give him a pass because it’s a shirt I can support.

Until tomorrow.