Elton John

Is Macklemore’s Agenda Pro-Macklemore or Pro-Gay?

Macklemore, Manhattan, Manhattan Digest — Credit to: Esquire Magazine

Macklemore- Gay Crusader or Selfish Poser?

Tonight will be a big night for rapper Macklemore and his sidekick Ryan Lewis. They are at the top of the leader board in Grammy nominations with 7, including the illustrious Best New Artist and Album of the Year, something that they are both heavily favored to win. As if that isn’t big enough, he is now doing something on tonight’s show that has never been done before.

According to NewNowNext, 34 gay and straight couples will be wed during Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ performance of “Same Love”, which is up for Song of the Year. Further than that, Queen Latifah, a devout supporter of the gay community will be officiating this group wedding. Crazy right? As awesome as this has sounded to some, it doesn’t sound that great to many others. Funny part is that the ones that aren’t down for this quote unquote “prop” are gays themselves. Here is why.

There have been people who think that what he is doing, on top of the song “Same Love” is just an agenda for him to further push his career into being the next big “pop hop” superstar (their words not mine). They believe that it doesn’t come from an authentic place, even having someone write- “Straight pop-rappers are ruining the sanctity of homosexuality”. There needs to be a bit more depth in that very honest quote, but I get where they are coming from because in a sense there isn’t a gay one out there that can speak their mind freely the way that they do without the words “fag” or “homo” being put into it. Why is this? Because hip-hop remains a very homophobic industry, and even with the support from huge stars like Macklemore, it shouldn’t be him that is speaking the message- it should be us.

At the same time, the song and what he is doing is groundbreaking in so many different ways. He is publicly said that the reason why he did this was to further help the state of Washington legalize same-sex marriage, which has now completely come to fruition. So in a way I don’t think what tonight is going to be is a prop. Now, if we look back 12 years ago when Elton John joined Eminem on stage for their performance of the controversial “Stan”, that to me is different. That was Eminem’s way of saving his ass because so many organizations like GLAAD were after him for his spewing hatred of gays in his songs on top of his misogynistic lyrics. Suffice to say, it was a well received performance, but it is like apples and oranges in comparing the both of them when it comes to pushing someone’s agenda.

So there is two very different sides to how people view Macklemore, how would you view him? Pro-gay, or pro-himself?

2013 Emmys Live Blog!

by Michael Tyminski

Source: Emmys.com

2013 Primetime Emmy Awards: Tonight at 8 p.m. on CBS

Good evening everyone! I’m Mike Tyminski and I’ll be here with you watching the Emmys tonight so you don’t have to miss Breaking Bad! Speaking of Breaking Bad, it’s up for a slew of awards tonight in Acting, Directing, and of course, Best Drama, but it will face stiff competitions from other critical darlings such as Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Homeland, and Mad Men.

Another key storyline this year is the breakout of Netflix. The streaming service started producing original programming this year to rave reviews, and early series House of Cards and Arrested Development were both nominated for awards, with House of Cards being the sixth entry in the drama race.

While the major networks seemed to be locked out of the drama race, they seem to have a puncher’s chance in the comedy department, carried by 30 Rock and Modern Family. This is also a very strong year for females in comedy, as both Lena Dunham’s Girls and Julia Louis Dreyfuss’ Veep both received scores of nominations. Rounding out the year in Comedy is FX’s Louie. The show was hailed as ground breaking, but it’s been over a year since a new episode. Did voter’s remember Louie, or was it eclipsed by other new shows since then!

I’ll be a little before showtime (probably around 7:45) with last second news. Tonight’s show is hosted by Neal Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) on CBS.

7:55 pm: First and foremost, a small apology in advance, the Jet game is running very long on WCBS-NY (my local CBS station), so I sense that if the game goes to overtime I might be playing channel/streaming roulette at the last second. That out of the way, a couple of updates on performances tonight: First and foremost, the Elton John performance is slated to be a tribute to Liberace and will presumably be somehow tied to HBO’s Behind the Candelabra. Carrie Underwood’s performance, conversely will be tied to something considerably less related to TV, being a tribute to President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated 50 years ago this November.

In terms of tributes, the show has a particularly special tribute planned for Cory Monteith, in addition to TV heavyweights James Gandolfini, Johnathan Winters and Jean Stapleton.

That’s it for pre-show updates, see you at the beginning of the show!

8:20 pm: Conveniently, the football game ended at 7:59 pm, thus avoiding a potential joined in progress situation, so now we’re live! We open slightly late with a funny video package involving Neal Patrick Harris being forced to binge watch an entire season of TV, with all the highs, lows, weddings and dance sequences. A particularly funny part involved the TV’s giving NPH some harsh advice. NPH gives a pretty gentle monologue including a Paula Deen joke (what, not soon enough?), interruptions by last year’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, Jane Lynch, Jimmy Fallon, (Including a great zinger about tap dancing like at the Tonys), Conan O’Brien, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and a monologue by Kevin Spacey in which he mentions it was plan since he was snubbed for the hosting gig. This ends with NPH kicking it over to Fey and Poehler who present the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and the nominees are:

Jane Krakowski (30 Rock), Jane Lynch (Glee), Sophia Vergara (Modern Family), Julie Bowen (Modern Family), Merritt Weaver (Nurse Jackie), Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory), and Anna Chlumsky (Veep).

And the winner is: Merritt Weaver!

Her entire speech: Oh! Oh! **emotional tears** I gotta go. Bye!

Pretty good opening all around, and it looks like they made up for the time lost by pushing back the start 5 minutes.

8:32 pm: Malin Ackerman and LL Cool J arrive to deliver the award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series — with a cool video forcing the nominees to say which of their writing partners is funnier and who was funniest to write for.

Jack Burditt (30 Rock), Tina Fey (30 Rock), David Crane (Episodes), Louis C.K. (Louie), and Greg Daniels (The Office).

And the winner is: Tina Fey (and Tracy Wigfield)

Tracy and Liz give a funny speech making funny speech, thanking Robert Carlock in the process!

NPH then introduces Zooey and Emily Deschanel for presenting the award for Best Supporting Actor in a comedy, making fun of the fact that half the nominees play dads on Modern Family, speaking of the nominees, they are:

Adam Driver (Girls), Ty Burrell (Modern Family), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family), Ed O’ Neill (Modern Family), Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live) and Tony Hale (Veep).

And the winner is: Tony Hale!

I must admit, I didn’t see that one coming (despite loving Veep, i thought one of the guys from Modern Family would win). Tony gives the standard issue speech thanking his family and his co-workers at Veep

Robin Williams is here to give a tribute to Jonathan Winters, telling a story about how Jonathan Winters giving an epic improvised bit on Mork and Mindy, before a in memoriam graphic appears.

8:51 PM: Alec Baldwin and Jon Hamm come out to introduce the nominees for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy, and they are:

Tina Fey (30 Rock), Laura Dern (Enlightened), Lena Dunham (Girls), Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie), Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation), and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Veep).

And the winner is: Julia Louis-Dreyfuss

As a huge veep fan, I’ll be the first to say I’m pleased with the love Veep is getting tonight. Hale is up on stage with Louis-Dreyfuss holding her purse while she gave a very Selina Meyeresque thank you speech (With Hale interrupting and whispering in her ear).

Will Arnett and Margo Martindale then emerge, to both present the awards for Best Guest Actor/Actress on a Comedy Show (awarded last week) and promote their new show The Millers (October 3rd on CBS).

The winners were: Melissa Leo and Bob Newhart!

Leo then appears to present the award for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series, the nominees are which:

Beth McCarthy-Miller (30 Rock), Lena Dunham (Girls), Paris Barclay (Glee), Louis C.K. (Louie) and Gail Mancuso (Modern Family).

The winner is: Gail Mancuso!

Gail gives a quick and heartfelt speech including a pun about Modern Family, and a quick joke about blurred lines before the orchestra kicks in for the first time tonight

Continuing the breakneck pace, Jimmy Kimmel and Sofia Vergara are out to present the award for Best Lead Actor in a comedy series, in which they discuss the murderous effects of laughter (“If a doctor tells you to laugh to feel better, you can SUE HIM!” — Vergara). The nominees are:

Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Matt LeBlanc (Episodes), Louis C.K. (Louie), Don Cheadle (House of Lies), and Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory)

And the winner is: Jim Parsons!

Jim gives what seems to be a continues a string of psuedo in-character acceptance speeches sounding awkward until he becomes heartfelt and suddenly wrapping it up with a long list of thank yous.

Rob Reiner is out to memorialize Jean Stapleton (Edith Bunker on All in the Family), giving a very eulogy-like memorial, he looks like he’s struggling through the speech (i’m actually tearing up a little too), before ending with a very heartfelt “I love you”.

9:05 PM: We return to NPH kicking it over to Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, who say a few words about Elton and his legendary career while nodding to Liberace, the subject of Behind the Candelabra. This brings Elton John out, who cracked a few quick jokes about Liberace, before introducing his new track “Home Again”, which is a tribute to Liberace. It’s the typical intimate Elton John piece, before shooting back over to Damon and Douglas with the nominations for the Best Lead Actress in a Movie or Miniseries, whom are:

Jessica Lange (American Horror Story: Asylum), Helen Mirren (Phil Spector), Sigourney Weaver (Political Animals), Laura Linney (The Big C: Hereafter), and Elisabeth Moss (Top of the Lake).

The winner is: Laura Linney!

Laura Linney could not appear, so Damon accepts on her behalf (she’s such a good actress she didn’t need to be here! — Damon)

9:20 PM: We come back to a video package with NPH’s co-stars on How I Met Your Mother discussing EHD, (Excessive Hosting Disorder), including a cameo from Arsenio Hall and

Connie Britton and Blair Underwood appear to present the award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, and the nominees are:

George Mastras (Breaking Bad), Thomas Schuuz (Breaking Bad), Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey), David Benioff (Game of Thrones), and Henry Bromiell (Homeland)

And the winner is: Henry Brommel

Accepting on behalf of Henry Brommel (posthumously) is his wife Sarah Brommel.

They also present Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, the nominees of which are:

Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad), Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Morena Baccarin (Homeland), Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), and Christine Baranski (The Good Wife)

The winner is: Anna Gunn (cue Skylar haters losing their mind and Breaking Bad fans rejoicing at a potential foreshadowing of a cleanup night).

Anna gives a long winded version of the standard acceptance speech, being the second person to draw the ire of the orchestra tonight.

Jane Lynch is out to memorialize Cory Monteith of Glee. She appealed to Cory’s positive traits in a very brief speech while not shying away from the cause of his death.

9:31 PM: NPH, comes out to perform a song and dance number called “the number in the middle of the show”. It’s a brief Broadway ditty designed to mock award show patterns, by questioning why there are fewer mid show numbers compared to their opening and closing counterparts, with interruptions by Nathan Fillion and Sarah Silverman. After the whole song and dance number, he introduces Mindy Kaling and Stephen Amell who are out to present the award for Best Reality Competition, the nominees of which are:

Dancing With The Stars, Project Runway, So You Think You Can Dance?, Amazing Race, The Voice, Top Chef.

And the winner is: The Voice

The Voice finally triumphs over The Amazing Race for best reality show and we’ll get to see some new…oh wait it’s Mark Burnett, who at this point IS reality TV. Once again we have the standard issue speech, but he manages to sneak in a plug for The Voice, which i’m sure CBS execs are absolutely pleased to hear.

9:49 PM: We’re about halfway through the show at this point, so some quick overall thoughts — the show is moving at an incredibly brisk pace with a lot of awards handed out (if the Oscars are about bracketology, then the Emmys are the most likely about trying to honor everyone in the industry with the strongest emphasis on the awards themselves), but also a lot of downers, probably in part caused by the three memorials sprinkled in that felt more like eulogies then celebrations of life. While the mid-show number existed to try and bring things back up

Diane Carroll and Kerry Washington arrive to present the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Carroll gives a heartfelt speech about race and the Emmys.

Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire), Johnathan Banks (Breaking Bad), Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Jim Carter (Downton Abbey), Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), and Mandy Patinkin (Homeland).

And the winner is: Bobby Cannavale

Cannavale is flabbergasted and is trying to improvise a speech, before giving credit to Mandy Patinkin as an inspiration. There was a truly great moment of unintentional comedy, as the soft notes of the orchestra hit as he’s describing his character on Boardwalk Empire beating someone with a wrench.

Julianna Marguilies and Dylan McDermott are out to present the award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama, the nominees are:

Bryan Cranston (who got a large pop, Breaking Bad), Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Damian Lewis (Homeland), Kevin Spacey (House of Cards), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), and Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom)

And the winner is: Jeff Daniels

Daniels is out cracking jokes, mentioning that his last acting award was from the AARP, the orchestra has clearly no patience for such foolery though. I think it’s safe to say this has been our biggest upset of the night so far.

We go from two funny acceptance speeches back to somber mode immediately, as we see a newsreel of JFK’s death. Don Cheadle appears to introduce Carrie Underwood’s tribute to JFK performance. Cheadle then brings up Beatlemania, and how it unified the country after JFK’s death (something most musicians and/or historians will probably question). Carrie then belts out “Yesterday”, but it seemed fairly overdone — is it weird that I wouldn’t have minded seeing Elton John perform double duty? Ugh, that whole segment made less sense than Monday’s episode of Sleepy Hollow.

10:10 PM: NPH introduces both the accountants of Ernst and Young, as well as Jimmy Fallon who is here to present the award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series, which are:

Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel), Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey), Claire Danes (Homeland), Robin Wright (House of Cards), Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men), Kerry Washington (Scandal), and Connie Britton (Nashville).

And the winner is **drumroll**: Claire Danes

Danes gives kudos to the writers, before giving a quick tribute to Henry Bromell and everyone who works on the show.

Dean Norris and Emilia Clarke are here to give mention to Best Guest Actors in a Drama Series (awarded last week).

The winners were: Dan Bukitinsky, and Kerry Preston whom are here to announce the award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, and the nominees are:

Tim Van Patten (Boardwalk Empire), Michelle McLaren (Breaking Bad), Jeremy Webb (Downton Abbey), Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland), and David Fincher (House of Cards).

And the winner is: David Fincher

And at 10p.m on September 22, 2013, let it be said: Netflix. has. arrived. Fincher is not here to accept the award.

Jim Parsons and Bob Newhart are here to present the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Program. Parsons mentions Newhart’s award, and the crowd gives him a long standing ovation. And the nominees are the teams for:

Jimmy Kimmel Live, Portlandia, Real Time w/Bill Maher, Saturday Night Live, Colbert Report, The Daily Show w/Jon Stewart

And the winner is: The Colbert Report

Colbert is here to accept the award, and gives a surprisingly heartfelt speech.

Parsons and Newhart follow up with the nominees for Best Directing in a Variety Show, which are:

Andy Fisher (Jimmy Kimmel Live), Jerry Foley (Late Show w/David Letterman), Jonathan Krisel (Portlandia), Don Roy King (Saturday Night Live), James Hoskinson (Colbert Report), and Chuck O’Neil (The Daily Show w/Jon Stewart).

And the winner is: Don Roy King

King gives an uplifting speech, about working at his dream job at Saturday Night Live, that easily is the third most positive moment tonight.

Michael J. Fox is here to speak about Gary David Goldberg, thus proving that we cannot go two consecutive segments without talking about death. Fox’s speech feels like a celebration of Goldberg’s life, including his distinctive laugh.

10:27 PM: NPH returns to present the award for Outstanding Choreography, and reality show style, they bring the choreographers together to do a “making of” sort of video package. The package itself seems to be built around some of the best nominees in their categories, including Mad Men, American Horror Story, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, and Breaking Bad, and the theme of luck using both “Luck Be A Lady” and “Get Lucky”. Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum get to do the honors of presenting the award.

And the winner is: Derek Hough (Dancing with the Stars)

Alyson Hannigan and Colbie Smaulders are here to present the award for Outstanding Variety Show, the nominees of the award are:

Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Real Time With Bill Maher.

And the winner is: The Colbert Report! The student has finally overtaken the master, as this is the first time in recent memory that The Daily Show has not taken the award for best variety series. Colbert mentions Stewart in his speech before giving a brief nod to his family.

Edie Falco is here to talk about James Gandolfini in the last of our memorial segments tonight. She talks about Gandolfini as an actor, mentioning that he was not the same as the man you saw on your TV screens every Sunday night for seven years. Not sure i’m fond of these memorial sub segments, as they seem to take away from the celebratory mood in the way the one segment long form memorial doesn’t.

10:42 :PM Anna Faris and Allison Janney are here to promote Mom and present the award for Outstanding Writing in a Miniseries, Movie or Special, and the nominees are:

Richard LaGravenese (Behind The Candelabra), Tom Stoppard (Parade’s End), David Mamet (Phil Spector), Abi Morgan (The Hour), and Jane Campion and Gerard Lee (Top of the Lake).

And the winner is: Abi Morgan

They also present the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries, Movie, or Special of which the nominees are:

Zachary Quinto (American Horror Story: Asylum), James Cromwell (American Horror Story: Asylum), Scott Bakula (Behind the Candelabra), John Benjamin Hickey (The Big C: Hereafter), and Peter Mullan (Top of the Lake)

And the winner is: James Cromwell

Cromwell gives a simple speech that is notable for being the first the orchestra hasn’t teed off on since around 9p.m.

Kaley Cuoco and the president of the Academy are here to discuss the Archive of American Television (a funny cut-away where Kevin Spacey shoos away the camera that cuts to him on mention of the word “tablet”). This then leads into yet another memorial segment (that makes seven if we count JFK?).

10:50 PM. Mark Harmon and Andre Braugher are here to present the awards for Best Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Special, and they are:

Steven Soderbergh (Behind the Candelabra), David Mamet (Phil Spector), Alison Anders (Ring of Fire), Julian Jarrold (The Girl), and Jane Campion and Garth Davis (Top of the Lake).

And the winner is: Steven Soderbergh

Soderbergh gives a quick speech, thanking Michael and Matt for their performances in the movie, only for Mark Harmon to return looking completely surprised, before bringing up the nominees for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries Movie or Special. The nominees are:

Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story: Asylum), Ellen Burstyn (Political Animals), Charlotte Rampling (Restless), Alfre Woodard (Steel Magnolias), and Imelda Stulton (The Girl).

The Winner Is: Ellen Burstyn

We get the usual set of thank yous, with a particular thank you to the writers, who she said “wrote a woman over 65 who still has juice.

11:01 PM: It’s almost 11 when the show is supposed to leave the air, and we still have four awards (including three big ones) and hopefully zero memorials.

Bryan Cranston (looking quite dapper and gracious) and Claire Danes arrive to present two awards: first for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie of which the nominees are:

Michael Douglas (Behind the Candelabra), Matt Damon (Behind the Candelabra), Benedict Cumberbatch (Parade’s End), Al Pacino (Phil Spector), and Toby Jones (The Girl).

The winner is: Michael Douglas

Douglas comes out and thanks Matt Damon only catch a verbal slip about a “two-hander”, before asking if Damon wants the bottom or top half of the statue. The orchestra eventually chimes in, but it seems like Michael Douglas got a much longer leash than just about anyone else here tonight.

The second award is for Best Movie, Miniseries, or Special of which the nominees are:

American Horror Story: Asylum, Behind the Candelabra, Phil Spector, Political Animals, The Bible, Top of the Lake.

And the winner is: Behind the Candelabra (which took it’s 11th Emmy)

Accepting on behalf of the team is Jerry Weintraub. He thanks his production team and the fine folks at HBO.

We’re down to Best Drama and Best Comedy, right after the break.

11:11 PM: Will Ferrell (and kids) are here to present the final awards of the night in a T-shirt and Short, first of which is for best comedy series, the nominees of which are:

Girls, Louie, Veep, Modern Family, 30 Rock, and The Big Bang Theory

And the winner is: Modern Family

Color me surprised on this one, Veep got a ton of love earlier in the night, and Louie was hailed as one of the most brilliant comedies of the year. Maybe the lay-off killed it. Similarly seems like a disappointing night for Girls Modern Family’s speech mocked the tone of the night, stating “it may have been the saddest Emmy’s ever, but we couldn’t be happier.” the speech also thanked our bullies and gym teachers, which led to a super aggressive orchestra entry, but was actually very heartwarming.

That leaves the last award for Best Drama Series, the nominees of which are:

Breaking Bad, Mad Men, House of Cards, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Homeland

And the winner is: Breaking Bad

I think the crowd would have rioted if any other result had been the case. Vince Gilligan does the acceptance honors, and admits that he did not expect to win in this new golden age in TV. He gives a pretty standard acceptance speech otherwise, before NPH quickly does goodbyes and we get credits over generic music.

I’ll have some final thoughts for you in just a few minutes.

11:22 PM: So, 3 hours and 3500 hundred words later, what are my thoughts on the show as a whole? Well, for starters it was quite the downer. Awards shows should –in theory– be a celebration of the industry, the people in it, and the work they’ve done. The celebratory moments weren’t really there for the most part, and the parade of eulogies had much to do with it. Additionally, the comedy, while obviously on a gentler tack than usual, seemed a little too safe at points. If you DVR’d it to watch Breaking Bad, don’t waste your time, if you DVR’d it to watch Dexter, well then I’m sorry that you created that false dichotomy. But either way, the model where they robotically blow through awards to make time for seven memorial segments should be tossed.

NEXT TIME: This week is premiere week, I should have reviews for shows from Monday to Thursday this week! Have a good night everyone!

55th Annual Grammy Awards Live Coverage!

by Michael Tyminski

8pm Eastern Time tonight, CBS

CBS standards and practices is desperately trying to avoid a repeat of this (Photo Source: Wikipedia)

7:30 pm Eastern: Good Evening! Welcome to what will be the first of many Manhattan Digest awards ceremony liveblogs! LL Cool J hosts the ceremony, which starts at 8 pm Eastern time on CBS. This should be an interesting evening tonight, with the Album of the Year award showing a surprisingly rock heavy slate with Mumford and Sons’ Babel, Fun.’s Some Nights, The Black Keys’ El Camino, and Jack White’s Blunderbuss, with Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange being the sole R&B outlier. Personally, I think that Babel and Channel Orange are the clear favorites, with Channel Orange being my pick to win the whole thing.

That being said, I’m here mostly to look at the show in terms of its’ presentation than to heavily critique the award choices themselves. The Grammy’s are known mostly for being the safest show on the February awards season, often only garnering attention for a killer performance (such as Elton John and Eminem’s killer performance of “Stan” in 2001), or some truly horrendous fashion calls (see Jennifer Lopez’s infamous green dress from the 2000 show). The latter is under intense scrutiny this year, as earlier this week CBS standards and practices sent out a letter vilifying the use of thongs or costumes that allow for exposed “breasts and buttocks”, singling out that earth-shattering corrupter of morals: the thong. Needless to say, my gut instinct is telling me that someone is going to find a way to defy this (odds on favorite here? Rihanna).

I would love for tonight to be a dialogue as we all react to the show together (and get different opinions at the same time), so feel free to use the comments section below and get involved in the conversation! Stay tuned to Manhattan Digest for more updates as the ceremony unfolds!

Taylor Swift at the Grammy Red Carpet (Source Grammys.com)

7:45 p.m.: Some early updates from the red carpet. Generally speaking it looks like the artists are complying with the S+P guidelines, with only a handful of particularly deep plunging necklines (including Miranda Lambert and Ashanti). Similarly the men seem pretty buttoned up, with a surprisingly large number of skinny ties. I think Taylor Swift’s dress was pretty impressive from a fashion standpoint. Conversely, Adele’s floral print design leaves a lot to be desired.

For me though, the highlight of the red carpet was Jennifer Lopez’s angry shrieks of protest after Ryan Seacrest noted that her dress was skirting the lines of what CBS was allowing screaming “I’m just showing a little leg and a little shoulder!”.

7:57 p.m.: Three minutes to the curtain and a large number of the awards have been given off camera already. Notable award winners included Gotye (who won two awards including Best Alternative Music Album, and Best Duo/Group Pop Performance – the latter with Kimbra for “Somebody that I Used to Know”), Skrillex (who also wont two awards for Best Dance Album and Best Dance Recording both for Bangarang), Rihanna (for her video for “We Found Love”), and Taylor Swift (for Best Song Written for Visual Media ).

Additionally it was announced on the red carpet that Ms. Swift will be the opening performance tonight, so expect to see her on your TV screens sometime in the next few minutes.

8:15 PM: And on cue we open with a weird man on a bike with a torch to introduce Taylor Swift who opens the show with “We are Never (Getting Back Together)” in a very sideshow circus vibe that involved a boyfriend strapped to a carnival wheel, trapeze artists, fire spinners and a large amount of pyrotechnics. The performance itself was pretty mediocre in spite of the spectacle, but it seemed like a fine way to amp up the crowd for tonight’s show.

Afterwords, we see our first appearance of show host, LL Cool J. He devotes his somewhat meandering opening monologue discussing music as a vehicle for bringing people together before pitching it to Eddie Sheeran and Elton John to perform Sheeran’s song “A Team”. I love Elton John as much as anyone, but it seemed like he was off for most of the song and it adversely affected the vocal harmonies. I did enjoy the off in the crowd staging aspect that they used, as it seemed to highlight the “lighter song” vibe that one gets when listening to “A-team”.

Fun. Performing Carry On (Source Grammys.com)

8:27 PM: LL Cool J asks us to use #Grammys when talking about tonight’s show before kicking it to J-Lo and Pitbull (with a split screen to the infamous green dress from 2000) with Pitbull fawning over J Lo before announcing the nominees for best solo pop performance:

The nominees are:
“Stronger” (Kelly Clarkson), “Set Fire to the Rain” (Adele), “Wide Awake” (Katy Perry), “Call Me Maybe” (Carly Rae Jespen) and “Where Have You Been?” (Rihanna)

AND THE WINNER: Set Fire to the Rain by Adele.

Adele gives a very brief speech (in which she called back to last year’s six wins) before Neil Patrick Harris enters to introduce Fun. (whom have six nominations this evening). Fun. then took the opportunity to play “Carry On.”, which started a little slow but picked up once the instruments kicked in. Once it built, we got a performance with a very strong cinematic vibe, including the obligatory downpour towards the end. One thing did bother me about the performance however, and that is why frontman Nate Ruess wore those Capris?

8:48 PM: Bonnie Raitt and John Mayer appear to introduce Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley. The duo play a couple of country tracks in “Over You” and “Home”. Their performance was perfectly fine and fairly low key compared to the immediately preceding performance before cutting to LL Cool J on American Bandstand in an awkward transition. LL then takes the opportunity to pay tribute to Dick Clark.

LL Cool J then makes an another abrupt transition, introducing Miguel and Wiz Khalifa, whom perform “Adorn” . The performance was sizzling, with Miguel showing off his pipes and performing the standard issue R and B theatrics. From there, our performer then announced the nominees for…wait for it…best country solo performance (because that made sense to me too right?)

The nominees for best country solo performance:
“Home” (Dierks Bentley), “Springsteen” (Eric Church), “Cost of Living” (Ronnie Dunn), “Wanted (Hunter Hayes), “Over (Blake Shelton), and “Blown Away” (Carrie Underwood)

AND THE WINNER IS: “Blown Away” by Carrie Underwood.

8:58 PM: LL Plugs social media again before telling everyone in the Northeast to stay warm and kicking it to Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, whom are presenting song of the year.

The nominees are: “Adorn” (Miguel), “The A-Team” (Ed Sheeran), “Call Me Maybe” (Carly Rae Jespen), “We are Young” (Fun. Feat Janelle Monae), and “Stronger” (Kelly Clarkson).

AND YOUR WINNER: “We Are Young” by (the now completely dry) Fun.

Nate Ruess gives a speech that has the first real crack of the night in “I don’t know what we’re thinking writing this chorus, now that we’re in HD and you can see our faces, we are clearly not young.”. They then thank Jay-Z (who mouths a “You’re Welcome” from the crowd) and Chick Corea before the orchestra kicks in to introduce Johnny Depp. I want them to win more awards now because they are clearly the only people so far who have not taken this awards show too seriously tonight.

Depp is there to introduce Mumford and Sons in 20 words or less. They play their hit “I will wait” in front of a large display of lights and had an excellent performance aside from some sound issues that seemed to keep the backing vocals from coming through, though the remainder of the sound was very impressive.

Justin Timberlake performs at the 2013 Grammy Awards (source: Grammys.com)

9:15 PM: We return to Ellen Degeneres and Beyonce (in a pantsuit tonight) whom do a shticky introuction for Justin Timberlake, whom is here to perform “Suit and Tie”. The screen goes black and white, which is probably not a right call because it makes Justin Timberlake look disturbingly like Rick Astley. Jay-Z then climbs on stage to perform his verse. The screen then goes color befor Justin does a new song with a full orchestra and band (Update: The song is titled “Pusher Love Girl”). All internet memes aside, the performance is excellent and realizing the irony in saying this about someone whose only a few years older than myself, he still clearly has it.

Following that performance, we next see presenters Kelly Rowland and Nas, whom announce the nominees for a new category: Best Urban Contemporary Album

Fortune (Chris Brown), Kaliedoscope Dream (Miguel), Channel Orange (Frank Ocean)

AND THE WINNER: Channel Orange by Frank Ocean

9:30 PM:

During the commercial, we saw a hard release date for Justin Timberlake’s new album, which will drop on March 19^th.

Dave Grohl and Pauley Perette (Abby from NCIS) whom are here to announce that Dan Auerbach won producer of the year earlier in the day, before presenting the award for best Rock Performance

“Hold On” (Alabama Shakes), “Lonely Boy” (The Black Keys), “Charlie Brown” (Coldplay), “I Will Wait”, (Mumford and Sons) and

“We take care of our own” (Bruce Springsteen).

AND THE WINNER: “Lonely Boy” by the Black Keys

Following that, Maroon 5 and Alicia Keys perform “Room on Fire” and “Daylight”. While Maroon 5’s performance of Daylight was fine, “Girl on Fire” felt a little flat at points. This was a bit troubling as if there are two vocal artists who not only can, but are expected to let their vocals soar, it’s Adam Levine and Alicia Keys.

Kaley Cuoco and Keith Urban next came out to introduce the award for “Best Pop Vocal Album”. The nominees were:

Stronger (Kelly Clarkson), Ceremonials (Florence and the Machine), Some Nights (Fun.). Overexposed (Maroon 5), and The Truth About Love (Pink).

AND THE WINNER: Stronger by Kelly Clarkson

Kelly comes up and wings an acceptance speech, where she mentions being “stuck to Miranda Lambert” and expressed interest in working with Miguel. It was truly spontaneous and very welcome in this very overstuffed and seemingly overscripted show.

9:55 PM: After a performance from Rihanna that had shades of Adele’s performance of “Someone Like You” from last year, Carly Rae Jespen and Ne-Yo come out to present the award for best Rap/Sung collaboration

“Wild Ones” (Flo-Rida f. Sia), “Tonight” (John Legend f. Ludacris), “Cherry Wine ‘ (Nas f. Amy Winehouse), “Talk that Talk” (Rihanna f. Jay Z), and “No Church in the Wild” (Jay-Z/Kanye West feat. Frank Ocean and the Dream)

AND THE WINNER: No Church in the Wild by Jay-Z and Kanye West featuring Frank Ocean and the Dream.

In a classy move, Jay-Z gave most of the speech to Frank Ocean and the Dream, whom both give quick shout outs. Jay-Z on the other hand, simply thanks “The swap meet, because that’s where he (The Dream) got that hat.”

10:02 PM: The Lifetime Achievement award was announced with The Temptations, Carole King, Ravi Shankar, Patty Page, Glenn Gould, Charlie Haden, and Lightning Hopkins amongst the recipients.

After the break, Kat Dennings comes out to introduce the Black Keys, Dr. John, and the New Orleans Preservation Hall Band. All parties involved come out rocking, performing the Black Keys’ hit “Lonely Boy”. While I am typically not a fan of brass instruments in Rock Music. Adding to the proceedings was Dr. John, whom was dressed about as outlandishly as one could possibly be on a grammy stage, in full Hoodoo gear. It was a great performance, I do with it would have highlighted Dr. John a little more.
This was then followed up by Kelly Clarkson performing a medley including “Tennessee Waltz”, “Natural Woman”, in order to honor Patti Page and Carole King. This then segued into the nominations for best country album.

The nominees are: Uncaged (Zac Brown Band), Hunter Hayes (Hunter Hayes), Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran (Jamey Johnson), For the Record (Miranda Lambert), The Time Jumpers (The Time Jumpers)

AND THE WINNER: The Zac Brown Band’s Uncaged.

Bruno Mars and Rihanna during the Bob Marley Tribute (Source Grammys.com)

10:13 PM: We now get the Grammy’s tribute to Bob Marley with Bruno Mars, Sting, Damian and Ziggy Marley. The tribute started with Bruno Mars, who performed his hit single “Locked out of Heaven”. After the first chorus Sting came out in a fun moment as “Locked out of Heaven” is really Bruno Mars’ attempt at writing a police song. This then segued into The Police’s “Walking on the Moon”. This performance has been the best of the show so far, as Bruno hung out there with Sting and didn’t look out of place, though it looked like Sting initially hindered by the fact that “Locked out” was sped up.

Midway through the performance, Rihanna, Damian and Ziggy Marley came out and performed “Could You be Loved”. This actually created a largeness to the performance that made it feel more worthy of the Grammy stage, eclipsing even Rihanna’s prior appearance 15 minutes earlier.

10:30 PM: LL introduces The Lumineers, whom perform their hit single “Ho Hey”. The performance seemed perfectly servicable, and it seems like they have fixed the microphone problems from earlier. This then swept into Jack White’s performance of “Love Interruption”. After the completion of “Love Interruption.” Jack then exploded into “Freedom at 21”, giving the perfect loud kick after two quieter songs.

Katy Perry is now out to present the Best New Artist award. She marvels at the dedication it takes to get to that point before offering a little solace for those who didn’t win, saying: “I didn’t even get nominated for best new artist, but now I have my own eyelash line!”

The nominees are: Alabama Shakes, Fun., Hunter Hayes, The Lumineers, Frank Ocean

AND THE WINNER: Fun. (Fun has taken two Grammys tonight, I think they are now very much in the discussion for Album of the Year).

I think this one is a little bit of a shocker, I was pretty sure Frank Ocean was going to be a mortal lock for this one.

Hour three right now seems to have been a lot kinder to this show than the first two hours.

Carrie Underwood and her projection screen dress (Source: Grammys.com)

10:45 PM: And apparently I jinxed everyone (sorry!).

Hunter Hayes is out to sing (I wasn’t impressed, but I’m not a country guy) before introducing Carrie Underwood, who then sung two of her songs. Carrie’s vocals did not feel particularly impressive, but the lighting for this was particularly impressive as they used Carrie’s dress as a proxy for a projection screen, allowing for a neat visual that worked out superbly.

After this, Prince made a rare appearance to present Record of the Year, looking like a hybrid of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Puff Daddy.

The Nominees are:
“Lonely Boy” (The Black Keys), “Stronger” (Kelly Clarkson), “We are Young” (Fun.),“Somebody That I Used to Know” (Gotye f. Kimbra), “Thinking About You” (Frank Ocean), “We are never ever Getting Back Together” (Taylor Swift).

AND THE WINNER: “Somebody That I used to Know” by Gotye f. Kimbra.

11:04 PM: We come back to “Take Five” (no introduction, but it’s one of my favorite Jazz songs of all time, so uh, I know it…and now you do too.) for what I’m assuming is the tribute to Dave Brubeck as performed by Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Kenny Garrett.

Neal Portnow and Ryan Seacrest (who’s now the honorary chairman of the Grammy Foundation) are out to introduce Justin Timberlake. Mr. Timberlake comes out to shill for the Grammy Foundation and the new “music educator” award.

We now get the in Memorian Montage, which includes Dave Brubeck, Donna Summer, Andy Williams, Chuck Brown, Robin Gibb, Patti Page, Davy Jones , Dick Clark, Fontella Bass, Hal David, Marvin Hamlish, Richard Adler, Andy Griffith, Ravi Shankar, Adam Yauch (Adrock of the Beastie Boys), Levon Helm and others. Looking back at that last sentence, it seems like every genre of music took a heavy loss in 2012.

This then leads to a tribute to Levon Helm fronted by Elton John, Zac Brown, Mumford and Sons, T-Bone Burnett, Mavis Staples, Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes as they played “The Weight”. This performance had a looser jam band performance due to the larger nature of this collaboration. Elton seemed a lot stronger in this performance than his earlier performance with Eddie Sheeran. This performance is easily in the upper echelon of performances tonight.

11:18 PM: We return to Juanes paying tribute to Elton John singing “Your Song” in English and Spanish in a very intimate acoustic vibe before kicking it to Frank Ocean, who’s performing his single “Forrest Gump”. They start with a cool visual effect where Frank is running on a video screen before completing his run up a hill to his keyboard in person. Frank wrenched a ton of emotion into this one and it created an excellent and haunting performance

We’re down to one last award, Album of the Year, and Adele is here to award it after making a quick crack about she got knocked up after winning Album of the Year last year.

The Nominees are:

El Camino (The Black Keys), Channel ORANGE (Frank Ocean), Blunderbuss (Jack White), Some Nights (Fun.),Babel (Mumford and Sons)

AND YOUR WINNER: Babel by Mumford and Sons.

A pretty deserving winner and one of my favorites from earlier. They managed to spread the love around somewhat with only Jack White not making the winner’s podium during the course of the show tonight.

11:42 PM: We’re down to the grand finale, a performance by LL Cool J, Chuck D, Tom Morello, Travis Barker, and DJ Z-Trip, whom performed “Whaddup”, which was a fun way to end the show if only because Chuck D’s voice IS rap to me, and LL was game. It was a pretty solid performance and I would kill to see the single, though it would not have killed CBS not to stick fee plugs in the middle of the song.

My Final Thoughts: This year’s Grammy ceremony felt a little overstuffed with tons of abrupt transitions and sequences and with a little bit of breathing room we could have cut some of the weaker performances (notably the lacking Maroon 5/Alicia Keys collaboration and Hunter Hayes’ introduction of an introduction). Additionally, at times the show had a somber, joyless feel at points during a night that should be the biggest party for the music industry of the year. That being said, what you expected to deliver did deliver (the Marley and Levon Helms’ tributes, as well your Album of the Year candidates’ performances), so check out those seven performances.

Also some enjoyable moments I didn’t get to point out amid the I Love Lucy Conveyor Belt pace of the show:

Taylor Swift was rocking out to EVERYTHING. I’m not sure why, but this is really amusing to me.
The full extent of Kelly Clarkson’s gushing about R+B artist Miguel
Once the show hit hour three and it slowed down a little bit, it seemed like the show was able to gel a little more as the orchestra wasn’t cutting off awards speeches at the 30 second mark as it did for Fun.’s first speech

Final Verdict: If you haven’t seen the whole show, it’s probably not worth watching all three hours. You owe it to yourself to YouTube up the Marley tribute though, and I would probably check out Fun.’s , Jack White’s, and the Black Keys’ performances as well. LL Cool J was passable as a host, but the role of host honestly felt superfluous with the rapid pace that the show took.

Elton John

Macklemore- Gay Crusader or Selfish Poser?

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