the grammys are like the lame relative that still uses cassette tapes and dial-up

And every other recognition in music up-to-date, at least using CDs and wireless internet.

Okay, that may have been a lame analogy, but I went and checked the list of the Grammy nominations this morning just to refresh my memory for tomorrow’s awards. Sorry, Grammys, but you’re out of touch. You’ve become lamer and lamer for the last few years, but this year you’ve succumbed to record sales. I swear it’s like the record execs are blowing all the Grammy voters.

Record of the Year:
Halo – Beyonce
Poker Face – Lady Gaga
You Belong with Me – Taylor Swift
Use Somebody – Kings of Leon
I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas

It’s almost as if the Grammys are morphing into the VMAs, or the other less prestigious awards, only with way more completely unneeded categories. So many flipping categories.

Not to say that some of these nominations are deserved, but just because a song is catchy and played all over the telly doesn’t mean it’s good. If Taylor Swift or Black Eyed Peas win record of the year, I’ll be pissed. Just as long as one of the other three win. And Best New Artist? Grammys, you need to up your indie cred by a gazillion percent. Three of the nominated bands came out with their album a long while ago. Ting Tings – May of 2008. MGMT – Oct. 2007 and Jan. 2008. Silversun Pickups – okay, they released Swoon in 09, but they released Carnavas in 06, and Pikul on 05. For crying out loud, THEY’RE NOT NEW! They may only be new to you Grammy voters, but “Lazy Eye” was actually kind of a hit back in 2006. Wake up, Grammys.

But what’s worse – nay, in fact HORRIFYING – this is the list for best hard rock performance:
War Machine – AC/DC
Check my Brain – Alice in Chains
What I’ve Done – Linkin Park
The Unforgiven III – Metallica
Burn in to the Ground – Nickelback…

…NICKELBACK!??!

WHAT?!?!

Wow, Grammys, you really fucked up this one. Do you honestly think people are going to take you seriously after that? The fact that “1901” isn’t up for record of the year is terrible enough.

I was confused after hearing how ridiculous these nominations were, so I wikipedia’d the Grammy nomination process. I’d rather not explain it myself, so I’ll just CTRL+C.

Record companies and individuals may submit recordings to be nominated. The entries are entered online and then a physical copy of the product must be sent to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Once a work is entered, reviewing sessions are held by over 150 experts from the recording industry. This is done only to determine whether or not a work is eligible or entered into the proper category for official nomination. They may vote to nominate in the general field (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist) and in no more than nine out of 30 other fields on their ballots. Only 5 acts can be nominated for each category. Following this process the votes are tabulated. The 5 recordings that earn the most votes become the nominees. There may be more than five nominees if there is a tie in the nomination process. After the nominations are announced final voting ballots are sent to Recording Academy members. They may then vote in the general field and in no more than eight of the 30 fields. Ballots are tabulated secretly by the major independent accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Following the tabulation of votes the winners are announced at the Grammy Awards. The recording with the most votes in a category wins and it is possible to have a tie. Winners are presented with the Grammy Award and those who don’t win are given a medal for their nomination. Academy members in the nomination process and final voting process are to vote based upon quality alone. They are not supposed to be influenced by sales, chart performance, personal friendships, regional preferences or company loyalty. The acceptance of gifts is prohibited. Members are urged to vote in a manner that preserves the integrity of the academy. The nomination and final voting processes requires that members vote only in their fields of expertise. The eligibility period for the 2010 Grammy awards is October 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009.

That’s pretty messed up. You have to enter your album to be nominated? What if an artist doesn’t get around to entering, but they have the BEST ALBUM EVER? Again, that’s messed up. There was also a quote on the Wiki page that made me happy.

“I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don’t honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It’s the music business celebrating itself. That’s basically what it’s all about.” – Maynard Keenan of Tool

Yes. I love it. It’s like the Grammys are just a way of keeping all the awards going to the same people. Especially with all the unnecessary categories – so people get nominated for multiple awards which technically all mean the same thing. It’s a cycle of marketing, radio play, music videos, album sales, and awards – some crazy incestuous relationship between the recording industry and the artists they represent and the voters.

This is how ridiculous the Grammys have always been – the Dixie Chicks have won more awards than the Beatles. Jimmy Sturr has won more awards than Michael Jackson. Who the eff is Jimmy Sturr? He won best polka album like 18 out of the 24 years it’s actually been a category. How fair is that?

Not fair.

Grammys, you fail.

Gaga, you better win something.

God I wish I could have seen her last year at the Showbox. No way there will be another chance to see her at a venue like that.

❤ Abby

Procrastination

Yeah…I’ve fallen into that habit again. I don’t even know what’s due tomorrow besides what we have to post on the discussion board for Gorbman’s class. That shouldn’t be so bad, as it’s just about the readings we had and Red River. John Wayne wasn’t nearly as charming in this film, I’ll tell ya. What else do I have to do? Damnit. I had to have my annotated bibliography for Beaufort’s class. I should email He Is We if I’m actually going to do a feature on them. And I have to write up my proposal. Crap. But this has been a busy weekend. My IV infusion on friday that took most of the day, then I was all sloshy and tired for the rest of the day. We did get to hear some new WAS from videos from Philly though, which was a nice surprise this weekend. And yesterday we went to a wedding then one of the most amazing shows EVER.

Yes my friends, Phoenix. And this was one of my favorite shots of the night. So glorious. (No more epic, epic is going away.)

But last night was so good in so many ways, that the one bad thing doesn’t even matter. Turns out that the Showbox people like to pack SoDo full to the brim (excuse the cliche)…wait, no…the venue gets so congested it’s like before they built the second Narrows Bridge. There, no cliche. And because of this, it’s the first time I’ve gotten claustrophobic at a show since…well since Franz at Bumbershoot, but at least this time I didn’t get clobbered in the head. Thank goodness I went to the show on an empty stomache, or else I could have possibly vomited…but no matter.

Another of the good ones.

The opening band wasn’t bad, actually Soft Pack was pretty good. I’ll have to get some more of their stuff other than the Spin Magazine’s 2010 sampler. I didn’t get that many great pictures of them, at least of more than the lead guitarist, cause there was this dude standing in front of the me with the most obnoxious hair I’ve ever seen at a show. At least pull it in a ponytail, man. Be considerate. Actually, this girl standing next to me said at one point, “you’re tall, why do you need to stand in the front? You can see from back there,” speaking to no one in particular of course, but I responded with, “tell me about it,” and tried to lift my camera up over his mountainous glob of hair. The other guy standing in front of me was nice enough to lean over when I tried to get a good shot, which was helpful.

However, the hair mountain man did provide me with one of the best moments of the night. Honestly. After I’d politely asked to stand in front of him after Jenna brought me my photo pass, and we were waiting for Phoenix to go on, he shouted – I’m not kidding – “come on, allons-y!”

Seriously. I was so struck by it that I didn’t even think to turn around and give him kudos on his Doctor Who reference. But after I thought about it, I realized…oh, they’d even understand that without the Doctor Who reference, because it’s it French. Har-dee-har. I’m kinda slow that way.

I kinda like the soft focus on this one.

Okay, so the show was amazing, which was fully expected. I’m going to avoid seeing huge buzz bands at SoDo from now on, because I don’t want to be that claustrophobic again. But I can say that I’ve been to both Showboxes now. The parking for SoDo was 1/3 of the price of parking by the Market, but the Market is a far superior venue, easier to get to, and has prettier lighting.

However, THIS WAS THE BEST PART. As soon as the ridiculously long encore, Libby and I went to go find Renee and Jennifer, both of whom were standing right in the front row, not to far from me actually once I pushed my way up. I was so nice to see both of them again, as it almost made me stay and wait to meet the band. I feel like if they hadn’t been there, I would have been too much of a wimp and left. But I didn’t. I wasn’t a wimp. It was quite freezing outside, but I don’t tend to get cold, so I provided Libby’s warmth while we waited for Christian, Branco, Thomas and Deck. And I’ll take a picture of my pass with all their autographs here pretty soon and update this post, as soon as I accomplish some homework today. But here’s one of the shots I took of Renee, Jenn, Libby and Thomas.

We met ALL of them. Well, Jenn and Renee had met them several times before, but I finally did. I finally broke through that wall and don’t have to worry about it anymore. I’m sure it’s going to be much easier now for me.

Christian was so darn sweet. When I held up my pass for him to sign, he pointed to it and was like, “oh, you take photos?”

“Yeah.”

“Are your photos good?”

“I was pretty happy with them.”

Or something like that.

And it was quite funny when we were standing in the freezing cold, everyone but Branco had come outside to meet people. Renee saw Christian upstairs through a window and he glanced outside, she looked up and pointed down, gesturing them to come downstairs. And when he came outside for the second time with his case, he told us, “my brother is coming!” In a French accent.

I feel so accomplished right now.

ADDENDUM: My review’s been posted HERE NOW.

❤ Abby

Apparently my rough drafts are too good

I’d rather not completely change my own principle way of writing, but I might have to in order to get better than a C in my creative nonfiction writing class. I mean seriously, woman…a flipping C? Not to sound too high and mighty, but I don’t get Cs in classes strictly about WRITING. Foolish woman.

But apparently, after a pep talk from Marisa yesterday, Professor likes IMPROVEMENT. Even if I had an amazing rough draft, my second draft has to be even more amazing, and my THIRD draft has to be almost sent from heaven. I DON’T DO THIRD DRAFTS. I write a great draft, and mess with it slightly here and there. So now, against my own conscience, I have to start with a shitty draft and improve immensely from there. Seriously, if some of the papers I read got higher grades than I did because they improved more on crap than I improved on a great paper, I’m gonna smack someone. Honestly, she told me that with MINOR adjustments that this was ready for publication in the school’s lit mag. I would have submitted it if the villain in the story didn’t go to our school.

That might get awkward, even though I doubt she’d ever read Tahoma West anyway.

I’m sorry if I sound arrogant right now, but I’m pissed. Her critique was all, “this is really good, you should submit it after making a couple adjustments,” and then I get my grading sheet back and she said, “met genre requirements, perfect grammar, used craft techniques effectively, but oh, yeah…you got a C.”

WHAT?

This is a seemingly waste of a blog, but it felt like a change up from what I usually write about. Because I’m sure you’re getting tired of my ramblings about…shit I don’t even remember what I’ve been writing about lately. Oh right, Doctor Who, missing my best friend, and music. Duh. Pretty much been what most of my tweets have been about for the last two weeks.

I took Libby’s senior portraits a couple weeks ago, and I never posted any pics, but this was one of my favorites.

I just freaking love her hair in it.

And here’s one from one of Laura’s going away parties.

Miss you already. ❤

OH MY GOD.

NEW WAS.

HOLY BALLSACK.

I wish I could embed this video, but Facebook doesn't want me too, and this guy hasn't uploaded it to Youtube yet.

Here's the link, nonetheless.

And here’s Nobody Move at Johnny Brenda’s in Philly two nights ago. I just wish that Laura could go to the WAS show in Hoboken tomorrow night.

Oh, and here’s a show roundup from What’s the Word, including twitter pics and a link to a review and some better pictures. Philly Show Roundup. Damn Keith is looking good. One more thing to look forward to in May. Holy crap May is going to be the most amazing month EVER.

Hmm, what else?

Hello Thomas Mars. I get to see you again tomorrow.

You I get to see you, Laurent.

And you Deck.

You too, Christian!

And since I won’t be in the pit with time constraints and hopefully no smoke machine, my pics will be amazing. Here’s hoping. And to meet them. That would be fantastic.

And just cause, some David Tennant picspam.




And a bonus of Tennant and Cribbins at the NTAs the other day that Susie posted on the WAS board yesterday. So heartwarming.

Screw my new sign-off, it’s tedious.

❤ Abby

Good ‘ol case of the mondays

Today’s the first day I haven’t been at school since last sunday. Seriously. Class every day this week, and then Ledger this weekend. I mean Jesus Christ, my week has consisted of class, driving, working out, laying out pages, making the most of my last week with Laura for an indefinite amount of time, and watching Doctor Who.

A lot of Doctor Who.

And I can say I’ve spent more time in the Ledger office in one weekend than I ever had. On Saturday after dropping Laura off at the airport at 7:30 for her 9:05 flight to Jersey, her parents dropped me off at school so I wouldn’t have to drive back to school later. So naturally, I had to sleep. Four hours of sleep doesn’t really work well for a layout day. So I dragged a chair in the office and slept on and off for 3 some odd hours with the end of series 3 of Doctor Who playing while I half-slept. I figured I wouldn’t skip those even though I watched them out of order 2 weeks ago. And I love Captain Jack. He’s awesome.

But after that, I didn’t leave school until about 10 when we left to go watch Youth in Revolt at the Lakewood theater. I didn’t pay for it last month, so I thought I might as well since I liked it so much. But that meant being awake for oh – 21 hours, cause when I got home I watched SNL and fell asleep in the couch. It was an interesting day to say the least. My best friend flew across the country, and I slept in the office.

———————-

Sorry, I’m kind of distracted. I’m in the middle of watching both series 4 of Doctor Who and the BBC mini-series Blackpool. I’d like to thank all my friends from across the pond for fueling the fire that is David Tennant as a distraction from both good and bad things. I did need distracting this week after Laura told me she was leaving, but I also didn’t need distracting from my school work. But I have to say, he’s a damn awesome distraction. I haven’t even watched thursday’s Grey’s Anatomy episode yet. I’ve been THAT off this week.

(Posted on the WAS board)

Hopefully once I finish with series 4, I can get back into the swing of things. School. Classes. Homework. Just as long as none of my other friends just up and leave, I think I’ll be good. Please, don’t leave. I think I’ll go mad. Stay here. It’s less complicated.

At least this week is going to end WONDERFULLY. Seeing Phoenix on Saturday. Yeah, the same Phoenix I saw just over a month ago, seeing them again. YES.

(And btw, I declared my major this week. So that was one thing I took care of that I said I was going to take care of.)

♫ Yours, Abigail ♫

Nine days? Wow.

This is possibly the longest I’ve gone without writing a new blog in quite a long time. It’s the tenth day of 2010. 1/10/2010.

There’s much to discuss – but I’ll just list a few that have been of note in the last week.

1. Classes started.
2. I have two hippie teachers.
3. One of which tells us about drug trips and playing clubs in the 60s. He’d pretty badass.
4. I didn’t get into TV Criticism. *FACEPALM*
5. Spoon’s new album leaked, and I was clever enough to find the direct source of the leak. *Laughs maniacally*
6. It’s amazing.
7. I’ve been on a Doctor Who marathon for the last few days, because I miss Tennant. Ten was the best Doctor.

❤
8. Oh, and Laura's moving to New Jersey in less than a week. Well, fuck.
9. I almost had a nervous breakdown yesterday when I found out.
10. But I have wonderful friends who keep me sane, even if they can sometimes be the cause of my insanity.

What else?

OH RIGHT!

NBC sucks. Like, a lot. They just can't give up this stupid chin.

Jay Leno is getting his time slot back because NBC realized that Leno at 10 would never work. But this also means that Conan’s Tonight Show will be moved back to 12:05. Wouldn’t it be the Tomorrow Show then? Anyway, there’s always the possibility of Conan losing his gig, which would suck even worse. Cause Conan is way funnier than Jay.

Grrr.

Except I’m not yelling at John Barrowman, more like ZUCKER!

Sorry, I’ve been fangirling about Doctor Who and David Tennant ALL WEEK.

See? I drew a TARDIS on my notebook for Creative Non Fiction.

But there will be one good thing to come from Jay leaving 10 p.m., NBC will be speeding up the process of getting the pilot of Tennant’s new show “Rex Is Not Your Lawyer” out there. Stupid title, I know. But this man belongs on television. Preferably UK television, but I’ll take what I can get. Maybe people will go as apeshit over him as they did Hugh Laurie. I doubt it, but here’s hoping.

Ugh. I have homework to do. But I thought I’d have a quick update, since Harry Potter has been in my home screen for over a week, which isn’t bad, but it was getting old.

Crap, gotta fill out my major declaration form.

♫ Yours, Abigail ♫

Why Twenty-Ten is going to be better than Two-Thousand-Nine

Not sure why I decided to spell out the years instead of using numerals, but maybe it’s cause I’m a word person. But since it’s the first day of the new year, and new decade, I want to look forward to why this year is going to be way better than last year. I know I did a “most anticipated albums of 2010” post three weeks ago, but this will be much more inclusive, just briefly touching on how amazing music will be this year.

In no particularly order other than when I happen to think of it:

Harry Potter is back.

I can’t find an embed-able trailer, so the video is here.
I know HP6 came out in 2009, but this is the beginning of the end. And not to mention that HP71 comes out AFTER the third Twatlight movie. So Harry, Hermione and Ron get the last word of 2010. Ha. And I’m hoping that the 4th sparkly vampire fanfic isn’t coming out for awhile. It wasn’t on the actors’ contracts, after all. As of right now, it’s not listed under any IMDB profiles. It’s just too bad that it’s inevitable that they’ll get the last word after HP72 comes out. Unless the production companies are douches and decide to postpone the last HP movie if Breaking Dawn does get made within the next year or so.

I’m turning 21.

But I’m probably not inviting Morrissey to my birthday.. Yes, I will finally be able to legally drink. But that’s not the point. I don’t care to drink. If I wanted to, I would have already. But the thing is – I can’t. Well, not really. I can have a little, just to avoid being the outsider, but I have to practice self-control for my own life’s sake. The point is that I can go to places where people drink. I would be stuck at all-ages shows the latter half of this year. No venues can hold me back! I won’t have to take my sister to every show I go to. Hallelujah! And hopefully – HOPEFULLY – I’ll be at Sasquatch during my birthday, cause sunday is the 30th of May. And hopefully 1) I’ll be camping; 2) I’ll have a media pass, so I’ll only be paying for camping; 3) I’ll have people other than just my sister with me; 4) amazing bands will be playing.

So many awesome bands have albums coming out.

(Thanks to Adrian at the WAS board for finding this.)
I only posted one photo, because this is the most important release of the year. And perhaps one of the most important albums of my life. For one thing – from what I’ve heard of it, We Are Scientists’ new album is going to be AMAZING. And for another – I now have access to music like I never have before. And for one last thing – I may finally get to meet them this year.

In fact, that should be its own reason for why 2010 is going to kick ass. I’ll add that in a sec after I’m done talking about the other albums I’m anxiously biting my fingernails waiting for.

Where was I? Oh – Spoon, Vampire Weekend, Motion City, Morning Benders, Interpol, Frightened Rabbit, The Strokes, MGMT, Panda Bear, Arcade Fire, and possibly Sufjan. Jesus Christ.

Cue.

Yeah.

I might meet Keith and Chris

Yes, it’s a might. But even the prospect of meeting these two men make this year so much better than 2009. I’m pretty sure my life would be pretty damn close to complete if I got to see WAS this year in Seattle and meet Chris and Keith. Well, I still have to finish school, find a paying job, get health insurance, my own place, and married. But other than that – I’d be content with my accomplishments.

More good things to come with Popwreckoning

Remember this? ^^^
Well, more of this ^^^ is coming. And quite possibly this ^^^ for more publications. Since I now have a resume, and a growing portfolio, I can get access to more awesome perks for frequent show-goers. More albums equals more reviews equals more readers equals more exposure equals awesome. More shows equals more photos and more networking equals more exposure equals – again – AWESOME. The one thing that I’d sad about this year is that I have no money – so no SXSW. I have access to SXSW, but alas, airfare and hotel fare – how you thwart my happiness, damnit.

I’ll be starting senior year in the fall.

The idea of finishing college scares the hell out of me, but as I get closer, it’s getting more exciting thinking about it. If we can just get this universal healthcare taken of, I’ll be set. I’m getting sick of school. Honestly. It’s been close to 15 years that I’ve been a student. 15 years of school. Holy crap.

This is the first time in a long time I can say I disagree with this statement. But you gotta give it to Carles, he makes a point in this post on Hipster Runoff posted today.So funny. Love you Carles.

Goodnight. Off to view some videos on La Blogotheque’s channel on Youtube. They make beautiful videos.

Have a wonderful Twenty-Ten!

Hope you knew was a blue moon last night. Yeah, pretty crazy, huh?

♫ Yours, Abigail ♫
(new decade, new sign off)