2008 Grammys not so Feisty

I watched the Grammys last night from bed after a long weekend. I thought I'd recap some surprises and disappointments.

Feist played live. It was not good...not good at all. I love the sound from the album, and hope this performance isn't a preview of the concert coming to the Pageant.

Foo Fighters stole the show. These guys are awesome and their music continues to evolve more substantially from album to album.

Kanye was controversial...again. I used to enjoy the arrogance, but there's no reason to take shots at the other artists. Saying that Common shouldn't release albums the same year as he does because he'll get beat every time was as tasteless as the fiberoptic vest he was wearing

Vince Gill took a nice little shot at Kanye asking if he'd ever received a grammy from a beatle.

John Mayer performed with Alicia Keys. Alicia is awesome and I'm a huge fan of Mayer, but his part of the performance was a little boring.

Amy Winehouse performed live and seemed to be hopped up on meth or something, she kept making jerking motions and seemed to struggle to remember the words.

Herbie Hancock won album of the year. I haven't heard the album, but I like Herbie, glad he won it.

Squeezing blood from a rock(et)

Yesterday I read the news that former trainer Brian McNamee coughed up evidence of Roger Clemens using steroids. He did this in the form of used syringes, bloody gauze and an empty Miller Lite can (the beer choice is the most disgusting). I immediately thought, WTF was this guy doing saving these things? 1 nanosecond later it hit me, blackmail. This guy was seeing dollar signs from the getgo. He was waiting for just the right moment to spring his money maker into action. When Clemens denied claims in the Mitchell report, he jumped up, gave ol' Roger a call and said give me a pile of money and I won't say anything. Roger balked, and here we are. The prick even has the audacity to say he "felt guilty" and knew one day "it would become a scandal." I'm not saying the Rocket was right in what he did, but two wrongs don't make a right, and McNamee is a money grubbing weasel.

My drink and my two step.

I think my liver has recovered enough to drop a quick recap of Mardi Gras 2008 St. Louis.

Friday night 4 of my friends got in town and we all played poker at my place. We proceeded to get belligerent. I won $13.70 which I soon forfeited after finding out they would leave me 6 of the 12 free cases of beer they brought with them from Columbia.

Saturday morning could have been better, not because we were hung over, but because I lost my damn keys and we looked for them for an hour only to give up, leave the door unlocked and take a friends truck. We were happy to be on the road and I soon forgot about the keys.

As soon as we stepped foot into Soulard we stopped at the first beer stand that crossed our path and bought buckets of beer 83oz of golden goodness. These turned out to be a poor choice because they didn't have a handle and we had to switch hands every 5 minutes to keep each arm from cramping. Those 83 oz were gone by parade start and the plastic bucket met it's demise via a spike to the ground from me.

The hurricanes came next, along with a little help from the trusty flask. what ensued after I doubt was pretty. I began to dance to every note of music I heard with anyone that would put up with me. It brought tears to the eyes of every man woman and child. I also told everyone I saw that " I like to party." We ran into more friends and headed back to the house at dark. The white castle invasion came next, a little more card playing and we were out by 3AM...Oh the memories.

...Sunday morning I woke up wiggled around a little and heard my keys crash to the floor, they were under my covers the whole time...

Super Bowl XLI

I had the pleasure of watching last night's Super Bowl on 100 inches of HD greatness in my friend's living room. This was undoubtedly the best Super Bowl I've ever been alive for. Although everyone in St. Louis claims the Rams win with the Mike Jones tackle was better. (surprise surprise)

I was very pleased with BOTH the game and the commercials as this year. I've never seen a more exciting defensive struggle. And "THE PLAY" I'm not sure I've seen a better one in all of football much less the Super bowl. I contribute the Patriots loss to the fact that Belichick changed out his lucky grey sweatshirt for that technicolor red one...

Under Armour previewed their trainers in a new commercial. The shoot was a take from 1984, but someone in our party made an appropriate comparison of the UA campaign to Nazi propoganda

My favorite commercials:

Talking baby with the clown

Will Ferrell Budlight

Mouse Trap Doritos

Band Of BADASSES

Last night I saw my first show at the Gargoyle, Band of Horses. The venue as a whole was pretty subpar. Don't get me wrong I love intimate venues, the smaller the better, but this place was like a college classroom complete with tile flooring. Also there were no refreshments whatsoever, no beer, no bar, no pop. That didn't bother me too much because I enjoy sober concerts and haven't done that in awhile. Also a warning if you are within 10 feet of the stage prepare to sweat you ass off. The lighting was pointed right at us and that shit is hot. Enough complaining, on to the review.

Tyler Ramsey led off. He's a guitarist in the BOH. Most of his stuff was instrumental and extended. I could have apprecited it sitting in my living room, but not really in a concert setting.

Cass McCombs was the next band and they were absolutely terrible. In fact there is only one band I've ever seen live that was that bad, and that was Dr. Dog. The lead singer was completely tone deaf and the whole band seemed to revel in the fact that they were horrible. I was so pissed off that I was fantisizing about chopping their heads off and beating them with their own instruments. Completely talentless.

The main event. Band of Horses was even better than expected. The had a good mix of the best from their two albums, including my favorite The Funeral. They played every song with a powerful passion. It was as if every word they sang was part of a greater message they were desperately trying to spread worldwide. A Creeedance B-side, "Effigy" was mixed into the set. It was played energeticly although Ben Bridwell was reading from the lyric book. All in all a great set with good length ( that's what she said)