The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards: Part 2

Aw, I need to start my homework and at least pretend to be concentrating on it, so my commentary will be briefer for most of the remainder of the show.  The more I love something, the more time I'll take away from mass comm research methods :P  Hopefully, I'll be able to rewatch the show online tomorrow.  I wish I had DVR here at school :(

Congratulations, Bobby Darin! He is one of my favorite singers from his era, and one of the reasons himself that I like music my grandparents listen to!

I like the way Kings of Leon roll.  Admitting they're drunk, and offering to buy shots for anyone they didn't thank?  Hey guys, you didn't thank me!

I wasn't really listening to the intro for T-Pain, so when I saw the first 2 opera singers, I thought it was a song from Camelot?! I really have been listening to too many showtunes! Haha!  But I love this song!  And Kings of Leon unintentionally introduced this song really well!  I love hip-hop dancing.  With performances like this I find myself not watching the musicians at all, but rather the dancers.

OMG SLASH!  Are they about to go into some Guns and Roses?! Yay, hair metal and acid wash jeans!  Awww, they're not, song's over now.  If Axl had come on stage, I would have freaked. outtttt.

I'm going to go vote for which song Bon Jovi is going to play!  Oy vey, Justin Beiber we're talking about Bon Jovi, not Beyonce.  That is why 5 years olds should not be on stage at the Grammy's.  Oh no, either my wireless connection is acting up again, or the CBS website cant handle all the Bon Jovi loving!  It is repeatedly "unable to service your request."  I voted for "Living on a Prayer."  Not my favorite, but from my favorite album, Slippery When Wet.  It's kind of funny that over 50% of the songs on their greatest hits CD came from SWW.



I love Katy Perry :) I'm not sure if she is performing tonight, but I hope so.  Later tonight I'm going to scour the internet for more songs of her that I don't have.  When I say that, I mean different versions because I have and have memorized everything.  She looks like she's channeling Bettie Page tonight!  And what do you know, she tweeted earlier that she would be!  I didn't even remember that when I saw her though, so her announcement didn't influence my impression.  She is Bettie Page tonight.  I love how versatile she is and how she could easily fit into any decade if she went back in time.  In my pretend world, Katy is my best friend!

Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks...I'm not a huge fan of Taylor Swift (I'll cover my face real quick so you can throw eggs at me).  I really thought that she was still like seventeen.  Turns out, she's older than me.  If she's twenty years old, she needs to stop singing about fairytales and middle-school type crushes.  Singing Rhiannon, she sounds pretty good though!  I didn't know Stevie was making an appearance at tonight's show, so I was kind of annoyed when Taylor was singing a classic Fleetwood Mac song by herself.  But once Stevie came out, the performance got real.  Her voice...so unique.  And it sounds the same as it did in the seventies.  She lost some weight from the nineties.  Overall, she's looking really good.

Michael Jackson Tribute

I'm SOOO excited for this!  When MJ died, I didn't realize how much I loved him.  Sure, I loved his songs and thought he was an amazing dancer, but, yeah, he got pretty weird.  But I cried when I found out about his death.  And listened to nothing but his music for a week.  And watched my DVD of his best music videos every day.  And tried to learn the choreography to Thriller.

This footage is really sad.  It's beautiful, but it's really sad.  I was expecting a video montage of his best videos or performances or something.  Wow, this performance isn't at all what I expected.  I still love it, I just wasn't expecting it.  I love Beyonce rocking the 3D glasses.  I didn't pick up my pair at Target, so this whole thing is starting to hurt my eyes a little!  And Usher may be wearing regular sunglasses, but damn he looks good.  Jennifer Hudson's bangs are really cute!

I'm sorry, but bringing his children on stage is NOT what Michael would have wanted.  Even though they are talking about how great he was, he did everything to keep them away from the Hollywood things.  And what Paris said made my eyes tear up.  She looks so young.  I think going on stage and talking about him was too much for her.  Her eyes looked so sad, and during her speech, it was like she wasn't even there.  She was somewhere else, maybe Neverland, in another time with her father.  People can talk about how fucked up Michael was and how he shouldn't have been allowed near little kids, etc.  I believe from what I've seen that he was a great father.  The whole problem with Michael's relationships with little kids was that inside, he was still a little kid.  He probably brought them so much fun while giving them important parts of childhood he was never allowed.  I read in multiple places (which means its more likely to be true, but who knows) that their education was CONSTANT and advanced for their young ages.  He knew that he wasn't normal, and he wanted more for his children.

And my blabbing about Michael Jackson is over, because another one of my 80's favorites is now on screen.

HI BON JOVI!!!  Jon Bon Jovi still looks ah-mazing.  Reason #234252 why I want to be Carrie Bradshaw: she sleeps with him in the episode that he guest stars on Sex and the City.  That's one of my favorite episodes.  If you don't know the episode I'm talking about, I HAVE to recap.  Carrie gives going to therapy a shot and meets a guy (JBJ) in the waiting room.  After they sleep together, she asks him why he is in therapy.  His answer: "Once I sleep with a woman I completely lose interest. How bout you?" Her answer: "I pick the wrong guys."  Before this, she didn't really believe in what her therapist was preaching, but there was her proof.

"Living on a Prayer"!!!  I love Tommy and Gina!  I wish the girl from Sugarland would get off the stage, though.  And JBJ's dance moves are kind of creeping me out.  It's not that he's now, like, 40, and still shaking his ass, cause that part looks good!  I don't know what it is, but it looks like he's sort of forgotten how to dance.

The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards

The Grammy's are the one award show I get completely enthralled in.  The past few years I've been disappointed with the performances and stuff, but this year is already amazing and it is only 20 minutes in!  I will be blogging live about some of my favorite parts of the show tonight, but publishing it all in one post together afterwards.

Comment with your favorite/least favorite parts of the show!

Opening Act

Oh. My. Gawd.  Lady Gaga AND Elton John?! What you have here are two of pop culture's most outrageous, controversial, and fabulous stars from different generations on one stage.  Thank you, Grammy's!  They are also two starts that were hugely popular within the gay culture before and during their worldwide fame.  While I haven't had the chance to see Lady live, when I was fifteen I was extremely lucky and got to see Elton John.  I doubt I will ever see a concert as amazing as his.  After the concert, my mom summed it up perfectly: "It was really a show.  A full-on performance." I think the Grammy's performance committee couldn't have planned a better opening act.  Lady Gaga, among my generation, is probably seen as the pop star that has the most outrageous outfits and says and does the craziest things.  But her wardrobe predecessor made sequins and crazy sunglasses.

Stephen Colbert's Intro

It was hilarious.  I don't have much to say about it, but it really was funny.  I liked how he brought his daughter into it.  She looks pretty nervous every time the camera goes to her, and is apparently not a very good actor.  Personally, I think she looks like she's a little backed up and could use some prune juice (I know, gross).

Taylor Swift's Acceptance Speech

She must be SO happy Beyonce wasn't nominated for this.  Who knows, it may be the only full acceptance speech she gets to tonight!

Miss Beyonce!

She is so amazingly fabulous.  Just standing there in the aisle, she exudes so much power and confidence.  That dress is phenomenal.  It really accentuates the curves that she is known for and that makes her stand out from the anorexic-looking stars in all the other music videos.  And her power continues as she walks up to the stage.  I'd like to see someone else attract that much attention in a room full of A-listers through D-listers without making a sound.

I'm not a huge fan of "If I Were a Boy," this performance is changing my opinion of it.  Beyonce could make "The Wheels on the Bus" a hit single.

And is that an Alanis lyric I hear coming out of her mouth?! Oh shit! It is!  "You Oughta Know" should be the anthem for strong, powerful and confident women...just like Beyonce!  The girl who put men in their place and make feminism cute back in the 90's is being covered by Beyonce, who could put anyone in their place!  I love how this year's performances are bringing together different generations. And girlfriend, get down and shake your hair!  I LOVE her moves!

How many times has Beyonce done one of these legendary Grammy's performances?  Remember when she sang with Prince (or the artist formerly known as?)?  And Tina Turner?!?!?!  My favorite part about her performance with prince was that he was wearing platforms that looked like they made him about 9 inches taller, but was still shorter than Beyonce, who was barefoot.

I love Seal's accent.  Don't really like his music, but love his accent and love his wife!  As for who he is introducing...I feel like Pink has gotten a little weird.  Actually, not a little weird.  I like a little weird.  But her songs, like Fun house, and just overall the way she acts has gotten pretty bizarre.  I'm not saying I don't like it, but I miss the spunky girl that was "mizzundastood"

Black Eyed Peas Performance

These kids are definitely one of my favorite hip-hop groups.  A lot of people say they've gotten too commercial, too mainstream, etc.  But out of the songs on the Top 40 charts, theirs have the sickest beats.  I have imagined choreographing/performing dances to almost all of their songs.  Especially this one.  Which makes me a little unhappy with the performance.  Not with the Peas themselves, but with the background dancers.  This song has so many aspects that choreography could do so much with.  And with lyrics about acrobatics, the dancers barely even take both feet off the floor.  They are doing a lot of the same movements as the band, but the band is limited because their singing.  Speaking of which, I love Fergie Ferg's voice.  So unique.  And her body and the clothes she puts on it are amazing.  Now "Imma Be" is over and they've gone into "What a Feeling," which I admit, has become one of the songs I change the radio station for.  But once its not on the radio every five minutes, it will be one of my favorite again.  Their sign-off was also really cool..."Welcome to the future!" because so many of their songs have that "futuristic" sorta thing going on and this is not the first time their wardrobe has been outer space-chic.  And all of the dances to their songs on So You Think You Can Dance have the same theme.  Drink up my cup, Mozel Tov!

**pictures are from The Grammy's official website

What Cha Really Really Want

What else can be added to the Spice Girls empire?  Back in the day, I had all the CDs, music videos, dolls, Spice World, pencils, notebooks, and who knows what else!  And a few years ago, when the girls did a U.S. reunion tour, most of the 15-20 year olds in the country turned back into preteen crazed fans.  All I wanted was to go to the concert, which would be my 5th time seeing them.  I know, I was a complete fangirl :-P.  But then it turned out that they would be coming to D.C. a few weeks after I had ankle reconstruction surgery, so I would still be on crutches and painkillers.  So, no go.  I actually felt pain looking at my friends' Facebook pictures and hearing their accounts of it the next day.  I thought I was more mature than that, but I guess a blast from the past can do that to you.

I'm back at home for the other weekend, and the other night my dad was telling me that he heard that a musical is being made out of one of my favorite movies, but he couldn't remember which one.  We couldn't figure it out, since most of my favorite movies were musicals first.  This morning during breakfast, someone said something about the Spice Girls.  I don't even remember what it was anymore since I've been in such an excited craze since then.  I was skeptical at first, because sometimes he makes up crap for fun just to get us excited.

But after some time on Google, I believe him!  Mel B has been talking to several publications about the plans for a musical.  I haven't been able to get many details, but this has still made my day!  Apparently, Simon Fuller and the producer of Mamma Mia got the wheels rolling.

It's going to be awhile until the musical hits the stage; in various articles I've seen 2-3 years.  And unfortunately, it is being launched in the West End.  It didn't even occur to me that it would end up in England, but that does make the most sense.  I'm really hoping it comes to the U.S.!

Some more links to news articles about it:

• Entertainment Weekly


• Monsters and Critics


• Daily Mail UK

Five for Friday: Snow Day Movies

I love lists.I make lists about everything...even when it's completely unneccessary or fruitless.  I love organization, but practice procrastination.  Most of the time, my lists don't get completely finished and end up being a reminder of how lazy I am.  But, as I say in this UDress article, having tangible reminders of your shortcomings that you consistently see can light a fire under your ass.

Every Friday, I will end the week off with a list for you...no, I'm not going to give you a bunch of boring things to do.  These lists will be fun.

Given the weather predictions for the weekend (although both the Newark and Baltimore areas have horrible forecasts...Maryland, Delaware, and parts of Pennsylvania seem to be in this weather bubble where normal rules don't apply :P), my mind has been on my favorite snow day activity: watching movies.

Some movies are perfect for snow days, and some just don't work.  When you're stuck inside, cozy, vegging with your family or friends, longer movies are good.  A lot of great movies don't get watched often because of the time it takes to get through them.  Either you don't have the time or you don't have the patience to sit in front of the same characters for three or four hours.  But it's a whole different story when you have a fire, hot chocolate and other foods that are bad for your figure, and nothing else to do!

Even if you've seen these movies before, and even if you love them already, give them a try the next time you're snowed in...

1. Gone with the Wind--remember the days of VHS?  Ya, I don't really, either.  But I remember one gloomy afternoon finally agreeing to watch it after my mom had been trying to get me to forever.  She rented it from Blockbuster (another blast from the past), and it was one of those 2-tape sets.  Like Titanic.  The whole movie didn't fit on one (one of the glories of DVDs!  Now everything with more than one disc is either a TV show or series, or loaded with special features!).  This movie is really a long one...I think it's around 4 hours long!  So it will take up quite a bit of time; but after all, it is a classic, and tomorrow is another day! :)

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind--I can't really explain why I put this one on the list.  Maybe because of the photo on the movie's poster...Jim Carrey's character looks freezing, while Kate Winslet's unique character, Clementine, doesn't look like she minds the cold at all.  This sort of describes parts of the relationship of their characters.  I don't want to say much about the plot, because it is so interesting.  I had no clue what it would be about when I watched it for the first time, and that may be one of the reasons I was so fascinated by it.  It would be perfect for a snow day, or any bad-weather, gloomy day for that matter.  It's sort of depressing and weird, coinciding with how gloomy weather tends to put everyone in that type of mood, anyway.

3. Garden State--Zach Braff's directorial debut is perfect on gloomy days.  I don't know why I'm associating sort of depressing movies and independent movies with snow days, but I know that on rainy and snowy days I don't want to get out of bed, and those movies just seem right.  The balance between Braff's detached character, who had been in a medicated trance for most of his life, and the vibrance of Natalie Portman's character bring a lot of interesting situations.  This was one of the movies that got me into independent films, and was definitely a movie that changed my life.

4. Say Anything--What girl doesn't love some John Cusack?  His characters always make me swoon.  But Lloyd Dobbler has my heart more than any of John's other portrayals.  I secretly wish my boyfriend would do one of Lloyd Dobbler's moves. I mean what girl wouldn't want this... To know Lloyd Dobbler is to love him!

Now this last one, I admit, is not a very good movie.  But it's one of my guilty pleasures and what better movie to watch on a snow day than...

5. Snow Day--This movie was HUGELY popular among kids my age when it came out.  It was like watching what we wanted to do every day of winter...stay home from school and play!  It also gave us some fresh ideas on how to spend a snow day.  Plus, at the time I was very into Hoku...who you have probably never heard of.  She was just another teenage girl, candy-pop one-hit wonder.  Her 2 singles are both in the movie and after seeing it I bought her single that included karaoke...  I feel obligated to put this movie in as a guilty pleasure!

Start Your Year with a New Style!

Hello, all!  I'm always really optimistic about New Years resolutions...in fact, I wrote an article for my school's fashion magazine (that's right, we're so cool that we publish a fashion magazine!) giving my fellow Blue Hens some tips for keeping their New Years resolutions.  Now that January is almost over, people are starting to lose momentum and excitement and the progress of their resolutions slow down, and eventually stop.  I'm a victim of this too, I am definitely no expert!  But I always try hard, and even if I break a resolution I will most likely pick it up for at least a few more weeks randomly in the year.

The contents of the article are things that I am going to tell myself every day!  I made a resolution to exercise more, and the momentum got me to work out at least 3 times a week all of January.  Now that its getting later in the year, I'm not as excited about working out, but I'm used to it.  My routine has become wear sweats with gym clothes underneath them to class and work (I only work in a computer lab at my school's admissions office) and then go straight to the gym.  I go to class and work everyday, and now it seems natural to head over to the gym afterwards.

I'd love to find out some people's resolutions.  I plan on updating on my progress throughout the year, seeing as that can actually increase progress (see the article).  Why don't you keep me updated too?

Check out UDress!

Now what's so bad about a night on the couch?

I came across an article on one of my favorite blogs while I was at work yesterday, and got so happy to find out that I'm not the only one that is sometimes too tired to want anything more than a night on the couch.

Albeit, the author of this article has already graduated and moved out into the real world, where partying is not as important as it is in college, I relate to her.  While I don't live completely on my own and work 8 hours per day, last semester it sure felt like it.  Between taking 15 credits, the out-of-class work required of all thos classes, working a part-time job, and trying to stay involved in the campus extracurriculars I try to participate in, a crazy weekend just wasn't doable.  I don't really understand the energy that other students seem to have.  Where does it come from?  How come so much is left come the weekend?

Life After College: I’m Lame. Yeah, I Said It

Another reason why I love Gala!

I have been extremely behind on my spending hours and hours exploring Gala Darling’s blog, iCiNG.  So it’s a good thing the online database at work is down again.  Thank goodness I caught up!  This article is the kind of thing I want to print out and post on my refridgerator door!  People that know me well know how OCD I am with organization.  It’s hard to see if you don’t know me and end up in my apartment…I am a little too fond of making piles on the floor.  The funny thing is, my mom once pointed out to me that my piles were even organized!  I made separate ones for clothes to go in the hamper, the closet, and the dresser.  I didn’t even realize it.

After 19 years, I think I have finally figured out why everything in my life is either in immaculate order or in the middle of the floor.  Thank you, college. I haven’t actually realized this thought process ever going through my head, but it was bothering me how this habit that I can’t seem to resolve is inequivalent to everything else in my life.  So I started trying to analyze myself.

I know, I know, that last sentence sounds like a prelude to a disaster or emotional crisis, but now I’m not as embarrased about my sloppiness.  It all comes down to this: I would rather have organized chaos than imperfect order. If I don’t have time or feel like hanging a shirt up with the rest of the shirts that are that color and sleeve-length on a hanger the same as those around it, I will make an organized pile.

Anyways…why I love Gala Darling!

I can honestly spend HOURS on her blog.  Before I studied Fashion Merchandising, I thought I loved fashion; I wanted to learn about it and write about it.  I was wrong.  I realized that what I’m interested in is style…specifically, personal style.  The only articles in fashion magazines that I read are the lifestyle ones…advice and such.  But I do like fashion.  What I don’t like is only reading and seeing things that are in fashion at the time.  I don’t really follow trends in fashion that much.  That’s why Vogue doesn’t do it for me.

iCiNG does.  Gala is so unique!  Clicking through the links on her blog, reading the subjects of each post, you see that she’s all over the spectrum.  She write about fashion, she writes about life (and hers seems pretty fantastic), and she writes about entertainment.  Almost any young woman will find quite a few articles that look like they were written for her.

So, please, go over to her blog.  I’ll most likely be mentioning her a lot in the future!