49th Grammy Awards

The 49th Annual Grammy Awards were last night. Being a big fan of music, the Grammys are probably my favorite awards show. Yep, even more than the Oscars. I usually get pissed about terrible Oscars snubs at least 2-3 times per Academy Awards show, but the Grammy's are consistently fair in their choices, in my opinion. For example, back in 2000, Christina Aguilera beat out Macy Gray, Kid Rock, Britney Spears and Susan Tedeschi. Back in the day, it was an upset. Now, pretty damn spot on.

A brief history on the Grammys can be found here. While you can click here for all of this year's nominees and winners. You can also watch some video highlights at the same site. But I'll give ya'll a rundown of the festivities, from the red carpet to the performances, to the winners. On point, as the kids say.

Best dressed? Well, Scarlett Johanssen was there for no reason other than to look smokin hot. The wife threw a fit that she was there. Although I think we are all winners that she made it out for the event. And since I know the Kennish will demand it, some other fashion "highlights" and other notables of the included... Fergie not looking as trashy as she usually does. Shakira looking hot on stage, but she sported an 80's perm on the carpet. Not good. And I can't stand her music, Carrie Underwood was probably the best dressed overall. Even if she looks like a Barbie. Somebody needs to tell Cee-Lo that polka-dots aren't slimming. And Brooke Hogan "looks like a drag queen", according to Jenny. I kind of agree. Mandy Moore looked like she made her own dress out of a curtain. Jamie Foxx got off his valet side job and made it just in time. And Luda was the best dressed of the guys. He joked later, after winning for Best Rap Album, that he got it because he cut his hair. Not really funny... but the album is pretty good. Easily the worst dressed was Singer-songwriter Imogen Heap, who wore a dress created by a fan who contacted her through her website. Just imagine what it would look like if she was attacked by a plant and lost the fight. It looked worse than that.

The 49th Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles kicked off with a comeback performance by The Police, who are back together almost 25 years after releasing their last album. They brought it with a nice rendition of "Roxanne". Sting even sported a Feyd-Rautha-esque spiked hairstyle. By the way, the sound was terrible in the room they were in. Echoes throughout the night.

JT brought it with my favorite song off his nominated album in "What Goes Around". There was an ongoing "vote" for one of three girls, that looked pretty much identical, on who got to perform with JT at the end of the night. Terrible idea. They showed the 3 of them at least 8,983 times throughout the night. At one point, Jenny exclaimed, "I want to go back in time and lock those 3 in a closet or punch them so they couldn't make it tonight." Wow. She's a hater, folks.

Chris Brown... who? Ya, I said the same thing. But he actually put in a nice performance following legends Smokey Robinson and Lionel Richie. Nobody told Smokey that 70 yo dudes should probably button up their shirts apparently. Lionel sung "Hello" on a grand piano in the middle of the crowd. That song is effing catchy even 20 years later.

The aforementioned Christina sang "Man's World" in tribute to James Brown's passing. That girl has some pipes. And a good voice too. Mary J. Blige wore a red one piece for a performance with Ludacris that looked like a giant camel-toe. Yes, it was funny. Jenny didn't like that joke though. "She looks nice," the hater disagreed. James Blunt followed up with my song of the year in "You're Beautiful". Sure, it's been overplayed. But the song is a friggin' hit.

Towards the end of the show, I almost turned off the broadcast when the Red Hot Chili Peppers came out to play a song. Honestly, I wish they would have quit after that "Bridge" song and appearing in the Lodge Favorite Point Break. I am an FBI Agent!

But the big winner of the night was really Rick Rubin. He won for Producer Of The Year. He produced the Dixie Chicks multi-winning album, the Chili Peppers winning album, and the fifth Johnny Cash American V album. If this guy doesn't get a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 20 years, it'll be a travesty. The Chicks walked away with five awards in all, four years after losing tons of redneck fans by criticizing President Bush. Of course, Jenny believes that, "public opinion is so bad right now against Bush that the Dixie Chicks are winning Grammys because of it." She's probably right too. The album is good... but the best of the year? No. Although it was cool to see Al Gore announce the award. [Side note: I finally saw An Inconvenient Truth over the weekend. Wow. Phenomenal documentary. If you watch it and don't go out and at least buy energy-saving light bulbs, instant karma might show up to your front door. I'm just sayin']

I'll end this with a quick note about my Dad. Pops used to be a bi-partisan voter, but then Clinton performed well during the 90's and Dubya came into office. Now my dad is a raving Democrat. He even has a bumper sticker on his truck reading, "Somewhere in Texas a village is missing an idiot". I mention this because dad bought the Dixie Chicks album just to support their stance against Bush. Because, in case you haven't heard, the Chicks aren't ready to make nice.