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Day 264 - Feb 11 - Grammys

I can not say the Grammy's are fun. In my opinion doing them is more of a concession that it is made to appease a group of older out of touch music industry humans with a tremendous amount of power. Just the whole concept of declaring winners and losers harvested from the artists and musicians following their passion as if they were in some sort of absurd competition is just a twisted concept to start with.That said, there are some interesting aspects and the Gorillaz performance last year plus seeing the Police and Gnarls this year was enjoyable indeed. As far as all the pop stuff, well I guess I am 'pop show challenged' and all the flashy stuff and prerecorded tracks just bore me for the most part. I guess it is more of a movie watch that an musical connection to see the circus like synchro dance. Clearly I must be confused though as there are huge numbers of humans that just love the stuff.

So the Peppers win some awards, very cool. Country music reigns huge and with all the cowboys and wild west stuff blanketing modern America, of course. I admit that I am not a big country music fan, actually, not even an tiny country music fan with a few exceptions and though I have not spent time listening to the Dixie Chicks, I do love the fact that a new giant heap of recognition has been shoveled onto a politically outspoken group of artists that not long ago were boycotted by a bunch of simple minded idiots. Unfortunately though, while I do respect them for speaking their mind, I lost some of that respect when they back peddled after the uproar. Anyway, it looks like they are back on track and speaking through their music and ruffling feathers again.

**** A peek at The Grammy's ****

Well, if you are working the gig, here is what got allowed you to experience the body search and metal detectors -

Moving on and in and up and looking down from the press boxes to see a view of the Grammy's that never quite makes it to the TV when the lights were on and the room is empty we see many a things a hanging

Ooooh and what is that I see. Could it be an ATK version of a sub cannon, flown?

I wonder if it was inspired by the implementation I created for Peppers tour or perhaps a parallel thought process where natural and sensible concepts can not help but evolve. Either way, it is cool.

And while in and about observing multitudes of famous people that I rarely recognize, I did meet a different type of rock star of the political persuasion.

And pondering that further, I guess politician are just rappers that rock with no beats. Swirlers of words and magicians of persuasion they are and this one is known as Al Gore. It is very cool in that he is dedication his efforts toward curbing global deterioration issues. Eventually they let in the beautiful people, see them here, ooooh, they look like dots

Finally, a peek at the show from the seat I sat or actually stranded

The glad it's over and off to do another,

Dave Rat

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Monique on :

I thought their speech was pretty awesome. John especially--he seemed pretty psyched. Last time I saw them win an award was (I'm sure it was) in the 80's when I watched these music award shows religously. I was very young and I remember my girlfriends and I did a collective "D'awwwwwww!" when Flea said something along the lines of "Hello Clara, daddy loves you". I don't remember if it was the American Music Awards or the Grammys. In any event, it was good to see them win some awards again. =)

Monique on :

P.S. Lord love a duck--how many snow machines were there this time? I laughed as Queen Latifa picked it out of her breasts. ha! =D

rex on :

you met al gore sweet! i hope he runs for president.. althought the grammys may not be fun i still think it would be interesting to work on the crew for it i love busy shows plus getting to work with some of the best in the world is always fun hopfully after my move to la i will find lots of lampies to help me find shows to work that excite me the best show i worked in the last year was the stadium arcadia tour ur crew was a blast.. come back to grand rapids soon!

Rachelle on :

Yes agree and agree. The whole experience made me feel a bit squirmish. I think being so staged an un-natural really shone through. Especially the Idol-esque competition to sing with JT. I bit my nails through her whole performance …. Hoping that she wouldn't break down mid-song. Say that, I did have a few stand out moments. One definately being Gnarls - I am converted. I was never not a fan, but his live performance blew me away. Did he win anything? The majority of the rest of the show I squirmed in my seat and ate copious amounts of chocolate trying to stay awake. I did manage to read 4 chapters of my book which a bonus. Congratulations to the Peppers…. They all look genuinely touched to by the awards, which was a surprise to me as surely it becomes quite repetitive after a zquillion awards? To a new day … over and out ...

Garrett West on :

Thanks for the great photos Dave. I was hoping you would get to mee the Creator of the Internet himself, WOW what an oppritunity if it wasnt for him you wouldnt have this great blog. (wink, wink) The snow was great. How does the little magical podium mic go up and down, is there a midget under the stage? Also why are there two mics is one a spare or is one a direct feed for broadcast? How much say do you have over the broadcast feed of the peppers mix?? Thanks for the pics and the blog, in the words of flea.......peace and love to everyone Garrett West

Nick on :

Even though Garrett mentioned it I wanted to say thanks for the pictures of the rigs from the show. It is really fascinating to see what they do; it seems like every year there are more and more things. Whenever you have time could you go into more details about the "sub cannon" concept that you noted on one picture. Is it dealing with the way in which the subs are flown...it looks as though they are using the VT 4880 does that play a role in it? What way do you use this for the Peppers tour? Maybe you mentioned this previously, if so I must have missed it. To give some more insight into Garrett's question; the pop-up microphone that is seen on most awards shows collapses in on itself underneath the stage, a sort of telescoping action. It operates on a motor that is then controlled by an operator in the house who is able to adjust it to the desired height. The two microphones are just a redundancy in the case one fails. I was able to work with this set-up at the CMA Awards this year and got to experience it a little bit.

Richie P on :

Thanks for the behind-the-scenes pictures. Neat stuff!

Mikey B on :

Dave: Seems like you and Al G. have similar tastes when it comes to shirts. Are you shure you guys are'nt brothers? Do you think the carbon cycle can be reversed at all, or are we going the way of the dinosaurs? That movie of his is some serious shit for sure.

Susanne on :

I had fallen asleep already before the Grammy broadcast started but I woke up 02:02 a.m. in the morning just in time and turned on the television. It seems I must have missed the Police, dammitt…..(Yesterday I heard they will go on a worldwide tour this year). To say it like Prince did: ‘One word Beyonce….’lol I liked watching the Grammy’s. I had never watched them before. I was happy to see performances of the above mentioned, Christina and Mary J. Blige. Did I ever mention that I used to be into her music long ago? Shakira and WC. were great too. She can dance….lol I also loved to see the other ones, Justin Timberlake, Gnarls and the John Mayer with this woman who I have never heard of before. It was just beautiful listening to her playing the acoustic guitar and sing. Yeah I’m just so easy to please these days. Smokey Robinson had a face-lift. How old is he? Do they all look like that in LA LA land? Yes many of them, I know it because I have been there myself. Yikes! I have never heard a song by the Dixie Chicks so I don’t know. It seems they were overwhelmed getting that many Grammy’s and they were not prepared for speeches. I thought it was a bit silly how the front woman behaved up there, but that’s just me. This Carrie Underwood looks beautiful AND she could actually sing. About the Peppers performance: I had listened in via headphones and had turned up the volume very loud. The sound was ok and not like some people say it wasn’t. Anthony failed to hit the right notes yet again. This was the thing which sucked and which ultimately could turn me off. He also changed the lyrics on purpose I think. John was so happy and overwhelmed he looked so cute when he received the award. I’m happy for them though. They deserve it. Did you guys see Chad playing for the Dixie Chicks also at the beginning? Cool. Thanks for your postings & thoughts about the Grammy David. I love the photo of you with Al Gore. It made my day yesterday.

Julie on :

dear Rat...julie here...love the blog...i have tics to rhcp in des moines on march 2nd...first time i have ever seen them...any chance of getting an autograph?????

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