In a recent post I mention that there three actions I took when I first started Madden 2005. One was to dump Butch Davis for Romeo Crennel. Today the Browns took another page out of my playbook by dropping Jeff Garcia. (Now if only the real Lee Suggs wasn't injury proned as cyber Suggs, the Browns could drop William Green too.) Hopefully the Brown's learn from Garcia's mistake and not pick up other old stiff for like Drew Bledsoe, Brad Johnson, Rich Gannon, or Kurt Warner for big money. I say suffer through another season with the combination of Kelly Holcomb and Luke McCown, use the draft picks on an Offensive Line, and then try to find a quality QB. And for anyone who feels like questioning any of Crennel's moves, take note of this picture:
Grammy Awards were this past weekend. I went 14 for 25 in my predictions. Ouch, that's about as good as Bush's approval rating. Well maybe not that bad. Here are some of my random thoughts on the festivities:
8:00 - Surprise, surprise, the Black Eyed Peas start things off with "Let's Retarded Get It Started." Where have I heard that song before? Mmm.
8:02 - Gwen Stefani and Eve take the stage. Guided Track Alert! Everyone rips on Ashlee Simpson for her guided track on SNL but you never hear about the others who do the same thing. Granted everyone else don't have drummers who are not smart enough to press the right button. But there is a good thing that has come out of the "Fiddler on the Roof" ripoff, the hot dancer in the iTunes commercial. Can we get that girl a starring role in something?
8:05 - Nice to see the Los Lonely Boys are out of jail. But was anyone surprised that one of them got caught with weed. It really wasn’t a question of if but when.
8:08 - It's interesting that some cable channels censer when Maroon 5 says, "coming" while network TV doesn't. If you hear the song and think of something dirty you, and the people who think SpongBob Squarepants, are the ones with the dirty mind. But with that said, I did call the FCC just to see if the would do anything. I wonder if I get a finders fee. If they are going to start fining stations $500,000 then the whistle blowers should get a cut.
8:09 - Black Eyed Peas "Get Retarded It Started" again. Yeah.
8:10 - The best band ever named after some one who started a World War, Franz Ferdinand take the stage. Cue "I Love the 80's" theme music.
8:11 - Cool ending with the mixing of all the songs that were previously play although Miss Guided Vocals was not surprisingly missing from the others who were playing live. Mash-up artist - your move. This performance begs the question, "Why don't they offer these once in a lifetime song on a CD or for download?" Who doesn’t want to hear that opening again? Well, minus the Stefani part.
8:12 - Ellen gets a first row seat. Who does the seating arraignments?
8:14 - Queen Latifah makes an appearance. Worst. Host. Ever. Unless you count the Wayans Brothers.
8:19 - If there is one rule that always holds up throughout Grammy history is if you just performed, you will win the next award if you were nominated. But the Grammy’s put a wrench into this rule when three bands in the opening medley were up for the first award. One of them won anyways but so I don't know if this counts or not.
8:24 - Survivor starts this week. Most. Surprising twist. Ever. Or so I'm told. It always seems the Survivor "twist" tend not to be too exciting.
8:25 - The first of 572 Lifetime Achievement Awards is passed out. If they pass that many out a year, Limp Bizkit could win one by 2054.
8:26 - Alicia Keys performs with an orchestra securing her in the Best Grammy Performance Hall of Fame. Then Jamie Fox comes out and he and Keys do their best Elton John/Billy Joel impersonations. Did anyone else notice the weird thing on the back of Foxx's head? Was it a tattoo? Did he shave something in the back? I need the answer to this or it will keep me up at night.
8:30 - Barely a half an hour in and we've already had a third Ellen in the crowd shot. Seriously, is there a reason for this, are the producers purposely trying to mess with my head?
8:33 - It looks like Nelly has raided André 3000's closet.
8:35 - In a ceremony held earlier today, Grammy’s went out to... Bill Clinton? Sadly he isn't even the first Clinton to win a Grammy, Hilary beat him to it. I really need to start recording audiobooks so I can get my own Grammy.
8:41 - Bono can make anything sound cool. He's become the white James Earl James.
8:46 - First token "crazy coupling" of the evening with Mark McGrath (does he still have a band?), Penelope Cruz (quick, name one of her movies not entitled "Blow") and Pharrell (what would a Pharrell sighting be without the obligatory Startrac plug?).
8:57 - It's time for the heavily plugged Jennifer Lopez/Marc Anthony duet. That could only mean I thing - bathroom break. Too bad I didn't have to go longer because I caught the tail end and I'm beginning to understand the whole guided vocal track idea because Lopez cannot carry a tune.
9:02 - Now it's the Southern Rock tribute with today country stars. Um, I just used my bathroom break. Well, let's see what going on at "Desperate Housewives." Ooo, Frumpy Spice's husband forgot Valentine's Day.
9:17 - Now Queen Latifah is going to sing. They must have put all the horrible music at 9:00 knowing people were going to switch to "Desperate Housewives." Speaking of which, let's see what's going on. Sweet, token hot chick is in lingerie. Than you Queen for sucking so much.
9:21 - Looks like Hoobastack is picking up the Worst. Band name. Ever. Award. Wait; no they are presenting Best New Artist with Tyra Banks whom seems to be a good foot taller than all the band members. Kanye West seemed a little too upset for losing the Most. Cursed award. Ever. I'm sure if he really wants a Best New Artist Grammy, he could buy Milli Vanilli's on E-Bay.
9:30 - Out to introduce Green Day is Quentin "I've spent too much time hanging out with the Wu-Tang Clan" Tarantino in his new ghetto apparel.
9:34 - Holy Ricky Martin sighting! I haven't seen him in a while. Remember it was not too long ago when he owned the Grammy’s.
9:40 - Kanye West performs with a Staple Sister, John Legend, the Blind Boys of Alabama and his mom. I must stress again they really need to put these performances on iTunes or something.
9:51 - On cue, Kanye wins the Grammy after performing. Extra points for the Al Bundy reference.
10:00 - Janis Joplin tribute featuring Joss Stone and... a bald Melissa Etheridge. Wow, wasn't expecting that.
10:12 - Tim McGraw takes the stage. Mmm, "Desperate Housewives" is over. Let's see what's happening on "Celebrity Fit Club." Judge Mablean lost six pounds this week. Get back to the Grammy’s just in time to see McGraw's one person standing obviation. I guess it wasn't quite Kanye West's performance where everyone in the house stood up. Oh, and the one person standing, his wife.
10:27 - John Mayer continues his "I want to be Jimi Hendrix" phase with a power trio version of "Daughters."
10:36 - In a ceremony held earlier today, U2 picked up Best Rock Song, a songwriters award, for “Vertigo." A great song, but a songwriting award shouldn't go to a song that starts out with "one, two, three, fourteen" in Spanish.
10:38 - In the first blatant CBS plug on the show, Anthony LaPaglia introduces a bunch of Gammy nominees singing the Beatles "Across the Universe" led by Bono. Finally a song I can download on iTunes. Now where is Kanye West, U2 or Alicia Keys' performances?
10:46 - Now when Stevie Wonder took off his glasses to "read" the winner was funny when he did it years ago, but now it's time for new material. I feel now people are just giving him a courtesy laugh.
10:54 - Usher continues his "I want to be Michael Jackson" phase. (Insert "keep young boys away from Usher" jokes here.)
10:59 - Nothing better when the orchestra tries to cut some one's acceptance speech and they keep talking. How can you cut off some one speaking for a dead guy anyways?
11:10 - Cheesy Old Guy Alert! Why is the Grammy’s always headed by a guy whose only band they've been in was the marching band in high school. Of course Cheesy Old Guy brings up illegal downloading. When will these people realize that the music business is slumping because the music they put out sucks not because of downloading?
11:14 - Nice to see the Grammy’s remembered Ol' Dirty Bastard (aka Big Baby Jesus, aka Osirus, aka Dirt McGirt, aka Joe Bannanas, aka Dirt Dog, aka Unique Ason) during those have passed tribute considering he was the reason for the most entertaining moment in Grammy’s history when he bum rushed Shawn Colvin's acceptance speech shouting "Wu-Tang's for the children."
11:24 - To present Album of the Year are Grammy Award winner Bonnie Raitt and... Gary Sinise. Um, yeah, that makes sense. To nobody's surprise, Ray Charles wins proving there is no better way to sell records than to die.
11:28 - And we are done so it's time to pass out my awards:
Best Performance - Kanye West et al.
Best Acceptance Speech - Kanye West
Best Dressed (Female) - Alicia Keys
Best Dressed (Male) - Anthony Hamilton
Worst Dressed - Sheryl Crow
