Whine & Cheese

Grammys '08 Review

Last night, we just got around to watching the last hour or so of Sunday night's Grammy Awards.  As I have hinted around here, I am increasingly becoming out-of-touch with the "popular" music these days... and thus the Grammys seem to become less relevant to me with each passing year. 

But given that this year's show seemed particularly packed with performances and interesting match-ups (lots of duets), I figured I'd give it a watch... here are some thoughts (in no particular order and not including all the performances from the show... but I'm guessing you'll be glad it that it's not all-inclusive by the time you get to end of this post)...

American Idol 4 winner Carrie Underwood was one of the first performers of the night singing her multi-nominated revenge anthem, Before He Cheats.  I always thought Carrie was a bit vanilla, so when this song came out, I was glad to hear her do something with a bit of an edge... plus it gives her a chance to sex it up a bit, which visually she does quite well.  That said, she is not the best live performer and by the time the night was over she seemed like the proverbial babe in the woos... though I don't think this "nice girl" is totally comfortable with the trampy look.

Speaking of trampy, ever since she got engaged to my "other boyfriend" (Josh Duhamel) Fergie seems to have been trying to tone down the skank factor.  I recently saw her on The View and she was quite enjoyable and down-to-earth... and while I was not familiar with the song ("Finally") she sang on the Grammys, it made me think she really does have a voice.  Ok, I knew she could sing... but its hard to respect vocals when the lyrics speak of one's "humps" or being "Fergielicious."  Though when I read of this  Fergie-John Legend duet was it silly of me to think that Legend might sing?!

Allow me to be serious for one minute here...  Aretha Franklin is clearly one of our nation's greatest treasures... so isn't it time for an intervention regarding her weight?!   I really do worry about her (well, "worry" in the sense that she is a celebrity who does not have any impact on my day to day life).

I am confused about whether or not I should be worried about Amy Winehouse.  Despite all the buzz and the real-life drama(s), I am not terribly familiar with her. I am not even sure I had heard her big hit, Rehab, prior to Grammys.  But, based on this performance, I don't "get" her.  I guess there's the whole tortured artist/free-spirit thing... but it was all very strange and even a bit disturbing.

This will likely make me sound like a grumpy old man... but while I have enjoyed some Foo Fighters songs in the past, a lot their stuff just seems like a whole lot of yelling and noise to me... and/or just an excuse for front-man Dave Grohl to get all of his hair in his face and shake it away.

On the other spectrum of being viewed as an old man, I was knocked out by the duet of The Prayer by Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli.  Goose-bumps throughout and I can kind of understand why people cry at operas over just the sheer beauty of the voices.

The blockbuster duet of the night award seems to have gone to Beyonce and Tina Turner.  I lamented last week about the advanced age of some of my favorite gay-cons... but if Tina is showing them/us what 68 (68!!!!) years old looks like... well, bring it on!!  Most especially, if you can look that good in a tin-foil bustier and capri pants.  But while I certainly think she is both talented and beautiful, I questioned whether Beyonce is really the soul diva heir apparent to the likes of Aretha, Diana Ross, Tina... it certainly seems she is being groomed that way... but I am really not sure...

If anything, I think it is Alicia Keys who is more deserving of that mantle... though the whole songwriter / musician part of her resume might ultimately disqualify her.  While she was a tad burdened with a "duet" with the still very dead Frank Sinatra to open the show... she absolutely killed it with her current hit, No One... later joined by John Mayer (I couldn't help but wonder how many folks were thinking about those pictures of him in that Borat thong that's making the rounds on the Internets).

Battle of the Bilge

Had a quite funny "random" iPod moment while whipping up some dinner yesterday.  First up, Valerie Cherish comes on singing "I Will Survive"... if you are not familiar with that "artist," I guess I really can't blame you... Valerie is a fictional character played by Lisa Kudrow on the much too short-lived series The Comeback that aired on HBO during the summer of 2005.

But when the song ended with Val drinking some water because "angry hurts my throat," next up was Mary J Blige's "No More Drama"... and I totally cracked me up... why?

While Valerie has provided us with many catch-phrases that we still laugh about 2+ years later ("I don't need to see that"... "Note to self"... "Flag it"... "You see puppies, I see Korean BBQ")...

For us, Valerie and Mary J...

...are forever linked thanks to the episode "Valerie Relaxes in Palm Springs."

On the road to the resort town with hubby Marky Mark and her reality show film crew (including producer Jane) in tow, Valerie is ready to pass the time by listening to some music...

Valerie(flipping thru a music CD wallet):  Eric Clapton, Allman Brothers, Cheap Trick, and Bob Seger and... I know we have some current hits in here. 

Oh, here's one we love... Mary J Bilge.

Jane: It's Blige

Valerie (inspecting CD): You're wrong, it's Blige.

To this day, we still use the same mispronunciation of Bilge... and can't help it whenever we hear or see Mary J to think about Valerie Cherish.

The funny thing is that we've just got on the Mary J bandwagon, probably in thanks to Valerie.  Not sure why it's taken so long... I'm certainly not lacking the "diva love" portion on my gay DNA strand... I think (though I could be wrong) her early stuff was more rap or hip-hop, two genres that do not have much (any!) representation on our iPods.   On a fairly recent Grammy "best of" clip-show, we saw her perform "No More Drama."  It totally kicked ass and had a pretty good/inspiring message too (Britney and others of that ilk need to take a listen)... and we have also purchased a couple of songs off her new album including... "Work That" (used in iTunes TV ads over the holidays) and "Just Fine"... another good song (with a positive message) with an irresistible hook.

So... note to self... if you haven't already, give a listen to Mary J and long live Valerie Cherish!

Even More Out of (i)Tune(s)!

Pretty much year ago today, I wrote a post of how I felt we were so out of tune with "popular" music... bemoaning the fact that we had only 14 of the Top 100 Best Selling Songs sold on iTunes last year.

Well, folks -- it's even worse this year!   

Now we're not timid in our music download purchases.  I just threw together a quick "smartlist" and it showed we had 162 new additions to our music library this year.  While I am sure that's not a whole lot to many of you, it still surprised me a bit ($162!!)... but there were a few albums in there plus a bunch added by alternate means... but I'm still guessing $100+ spent on music this year.

So how hip are we !?!?

We have 8 of the Top 100 Best Selling Songs sold on iTunes in 2007!  And here they are:

#5 - The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani
#8 - Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5
#13 - Rockstar - Nickelback
#25 - Home - Daughtry
#36 - U + Ur Hand - P!nk
#43 - Beautiful Liar - Beyonce & Shakira
#63 - Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer
$65 - Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall

Now I haven't figured out the breakout by genre of all our purchases -- and I think we are pretty eclectic -- but it doesn't show up much in these.  Here is # we purchased in genre OF  # in that genre in the Top 100

Pop: 6 of 36
Hip-Hop/Rap: 0 of 31
Alternative: 0 of 13
R&B/Soul: 0 of 9
Rock: 2 of 6
Country: 0 of 3
Soundtrack: 0 of 1
Vocal: 0 of 1

Though I am not sure how valid that is... i.e. John Mayer is "Rock" and Daughtry and P!nk are "Pop"?

We'll see how we do next year... given our trend iTunes may have to start paying us in order to get some bestselling songs into our library!!

That Was My Then

Last season's American Idol winner, Jordin Sparks, debut song -- "This Is My Now" -- may have been a bit too prophetic and the same goes for beat-boxing runner-up, Blake Lewis.   The final two are the first of the Season Six-ers to release albums and the response has been pretty tepid.

Since Jordin is the Valley's pride and joy, we saw and heard quite a bit about her when her self-titled album was released two weeks ago.  While she cranked out over 119,000 sales units, it was only good enough for a #10 debut on the album charts and "earned" the dubious distinction of Weakest-Ever Opening For An American Idol Champ. 

While the sample size of 5 previous winners is pretty small company, it's still not saying much that she got bested by the likes of "Where are they now?" candidates Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks.   And that the album dropped to #18 in its second week.  There is some good news... her first single, Tattoo, which is still on an upward journey at #11 after 10 weeks on the charts.

Even though I was more a Blake fan, I still thought it was better that Jordin won... by far the better fit for an Idol winner.

I was pretty enthusiastic about Blake's debut album.  While the album cover (pictured left) has been much maligned... I liked it.  It had that 80s retro feel (which Blake said he was going for)... so the kinda kitschy cover art was fine.  I even liked his debut single, Break Anotha.  (Doing my best Dancing With The Stars host Tom Bergeron elimination voice)... but did America agree??

Apparently not.  Even before her less than Spark-ling debut (thank you, I'm here all week!), I thought Blake would far outsell Jordin (ala Idol Season 2's Clay and Ruben)... but alas, while also debuting at #10, Blake sold 21,000 less units than Sparks did in her first week.  In the runner-up first week sales department that only puts him ahead of Justin Guarini and Diana DeGarmo (so inversely... behind Clay, Bo, and Katherine)... yikes!

Blake's video debut likely won't help out matters.  I caught it over at EW and has a You-Tube-ish quality to it ... my imaginary pop-culture BFF Michael Slezak, as usual, nailed it: "Who wants to bet I spent more money on groceries at Trader Joe's last night -- one that doesn't stock alcohol, by the way -- than the total budget for Blake Lewis's Break Anotha video?"

And while I giggled like a "Blaker Girl" during his recent visit to Ellen on hearing he likes to "go commando," any goodwill generated by that habit was squashed with plans for full back and chest tattoo of Alice in Wonderland morphing into Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory.  Now a tat (or even two) can be sexy, but I'm not a big fan of the body-covering kind.

So have we reached the point of whither American Idol?  We'll start finding out in about a month when Season 7 gets underway... but keep in mind, that Season 3 Champ, Carrie Underwood bested both Jordin and Blake both those weeks with her sophomore effort released in October.

UPDATE:  More good pre-Season 6 Idol news...  Billboard crowns 'Daughtry' top seller... the best-selling album of the 2007 with 3.2 million copies sold of the self-titled debut.  Kinda makes you wonder how the band earned 4 Grammy nods but not one for Best New Artist.

It's Called SILENT Night

A week or so ago, we watched the Christmas at Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting show on NBC... it was definitely a mixed bag of musical performances...

Goose-bump inducing awesome (Josh Groban)
Quite Good (Carrie Underwood)
Mondo Cheesy (High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale)
Bit Senile (Tony Bennett... We love him... but sorry, just not a good night!)
... and Tad Inappropriate (Celine Dion capping the show off with her cover version of Heart's Alone)

Now there were some performances that we fast-forwarded thru (bo-RING)... but this was such a wreck we were simply glued...

I generally don't like to go too negative here ... but at times like this, I am reminded of this exchange from Sex and the City:

Stanford: Before I tell you, you have to promise not to judge.
Carrie: Do I judge?
Stanford: We all judge. That's our hobby. Some people do arts and crafts... we judge.

Without further ado... country artist (and just nominated today for a Best New Artist Grammy) Taylor Swift  "singing" Silent Night:

Ooooooouchie!   Is it "sleep in heavenly peace" or "wake the dead"!?!?   And it's pretty much a dead heat between which is more hideous...  the singing or the mangling arrangement.

Now I could be wrong.  When searching for this ... there were folks who thought it was... (a) awesome, (b) amazing, (c) cute, and (d) gr8!!!!

So give me your best Randy, Paula, or Simon... what do you think?!

Just a bit pitchy... did she "make it her own"... or, do my ears not deceive me and we officially cyber-charger Ms. Swift for assault and battery on a holiday classic?

Her Heart Hair Will Go On

Wholly moley! 

Is this what happens when a diva leaves her Colosseum (picture left) and attempts re-entry into the real world (picture right)?

After wrapping up her 5 year stint at Caesars Palace... rather than rest or, as previously rumored, get another baby out of the freezer... Celine Dion will take just a two month break and than head out on a 5 continent, 25+ country, 100+ city tour starting in February 2008.

Dubbed the Taking Chances World Tour (a CD of the same name, drops in a couple of weeks), given the above pictures I am not sure it is wise for Celine to "take the chance" and re-enter the world where she can not control the temperature and climate... the Colosseum stage was kept at a climate bubble of 75 degrees and 55% humidity.

Soul Sisters

Hard to believe that it is already Friday, with Todd back from France tomorrow night.

I managed to survive the week pretty well ... though let's say I don't plan on having a frozen pizza any time soon.  Work really picked up in the past week, so I didn't have that much idle time... and didn't even watch all the TiVo backlog that I thought I would while Todd was away... granted we have a whole new backlog of shows that I "saved" for Todd (and, for the most, part didn't watch)... and I won't be catching up tonight.

Unfortunately, Todd is missing out on the first show of our 2007-08 theater season (and the next one's not until January!)... so tonight, this ex-Jersey boy is off to see Jersey Boys.  I have heard pretty good things about the show and it's still at capacity on Broadway two years after it opened... so that seems to be a pretty good sign.

Ok, time to get around to the title of this post!.

I am aging myself, but iTunes has kind of brought back the days of the 45 record.  To my confused younger readers (though I am not sure I have any of those), there was a time when you could buy a small (the size of a personal pan pizza), vinyl recording of just one song (and a "B" song on the flip side).  I would guess 95% of my iTunes purchases are songs, not albums.

Alas, there wasn't too much internal debate about purchasing the whole album of the latest from Annie Lennox, Songs of Mass Destruction.  I have listened to it...and it is incredible!   It's a good sign when you have those earbuds in, he music up and you get those goosebumps.  Only a handful of singers can do that to me.  If you haven't heard the amazing first single, Dark Road, here is the video for it via YouTube (nicely provided by Annie herself!)... got some interesting imagery, is America on that dark road?

We were fortunate to see Annie during her last tour (sadly there's no Phoenix stop on her recently announced tour for SoMD).  Incredible show and we were in the 2nd row!   However, it is also remembered for my view being blocked by a rather large (and high!) wheelchair!  It kind of ticked me off... how could one be in the 2nd row and not be able to see the artist at various points around the stage?!?!  Todd pondered how I could be whiny about being blocked by what I am guessing was a quadriplegic!  Now that I think of it, it was all very Seinfeld-ish.

Ok, I said Soul Sisters... plural.   Lately, we've come around to groovin' on Joss Stone.  I'll admit I was not an early fan.  For the most part, I am not fond of the "child prodigy"... particularly those in the entertainment business.  We purchased have a bunch of her more recent hits (songs, not albums) off of iTunes.

Todd stumbled upon a song from her debut album (when she was 16!), that was never released as a single, but is now on frequent rotation on my iPod... it's called "Dirty Man"... LOVE IT !!   It has quickly ascended up my list all-time favorite "somebody done somebody wrong" songs.  I prefer the album version, but here's a You-Tube of Joss singing it live:

If you're looking to inject some soul in your life... Annie or Joss are currently at the top of my recommendation list!

W&C iPod Top 30

I would imagine if you had a look at someone's TiVo and/or iPod you could tell quite a bit about them... well besides that they like products that have combinations of uppercase and lowercase characters.

This week while I was loading myself up on some new tunes (pretty much all Idol motivated, after the season ends I'll let you in on how much Idol cost us in 99 cent increments), I took a look at the most played songs on our iPods.  I'll spare you the Top 100, which is one of our "smart" playlists, but here's the Top 30. 

So what does this say about me?

My gut reaction would be to add... "besides gay"... but, to be honest, I don't think it's that gay (not that there's anything wrong with that)... 

With 3 songs, Kelly Clarkson is one of my most played artists... but so is Jack Johnson, do they cancel each other out?  Sure Britney Spears cracks the Top 10, but Fuel is not too far away...  only one Madonna tune and barely making the Top 30?

So who knows... I guess I can't argue with it, the counts don't lie (and from what I hear the hips don't either... Shakira! Shakira!) ... though the majority of the I have it on random for our entire music library... though I am a chronic "next!" flipper... so it's probably a good thing is a song doesn't "count" until you get to the end of it. 

Oh, I am guessing many of you may be surprised by the #1 most played... a country song by a former Idol finalist... but it's just one of the very contagious songs... with the words going by so fast, but you still try to sing along with it (Mika's "Grace Kelly" is my current favorite of that particular ilk).

There you go... I'll keep an eye on the list and when some new stuff cracks the list or there is a shake-up maybe we'll do a little re-visit (and besides it's an easy blog entry!).

Harry Hotter

No worries, this isn't another post about last week's much over-blogged about pix of the revealing stage debut of a certain wizard playing actor... nope, this is something a tad less dangerously age inappropriate (okay okay, so I have kinda sorta dipped into near jailbait territory before... Rafa can you hear me?!).

Anyhow!  Is it just me or is Harry Connick Jr looking especially dreamy on the cover of his latest CD - Oh, My Nola ?!   Oh my indeed!

Or, in the immortal words of Little Richard...
Mashed potatoes! Gravy!  And Cranberry Sauce... Woooooooo!

Out Of (i)Tune

While making some purchases on iTunes... Celine Dion's unintentionally hilarious version of "Feliz Navidad" and Carrie Underwood's delicious (and decidedly non-vanilla) bad-girl turn with "Before He Cheats"... I stumbled across the Top 100 Best Selling Songs on iTunes for 2006.

I figured it would be fun to count how many of the songs we own. 

Well, the fun didn't last too long! 

I was feeling pretty hip that we had 5 of Top 11... but then we could only scrape up 9 more in the next 89 songs!   Ouch!

I think the music you like tells a lot about you. 

What this says, I don't know... besides not having my finger on the pulse of popular American music and/or turning into a crusty curmudgeon (what kind of gosh-darn music are these crazy kids listening to these days!).

Here are the songs that made up the 14% overlap of our music library and the bestseller list (iTunes 2006 sales rank in parentheses).

Bad Day - Daniel Powter (#1)
You're Beautiful - James Blunt (#3)
Over My Head - The Fray (#7)
Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield (#9)
Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers (#11)
What's Left Of Me - Nick Lachey (#32)
Check On It - Beyonce (#34)
Waiting On The World To Change - John Mayer (#42)
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall (#45)
Walk Away - Kelly Clarkson (#48)
Stupid Girls - P!nk (#56)
Not Ready To Make Nice - Dixie Chicks (#61)
Upside Down - Jack Johnson (#66)
Hung Up - Madonna (#93)