Last night was the 2014 Grammys. Here's my thoughts and recap. First, let's talk TV and production. The sound kept cutting out. At first, I thought they were censoring, but that's not the case. It w pretty annoying. Speaking of annoying, they started running ads and credits over the final performance. Seriously? You spend over three hours leading up this and you're going to cover it with crap? Come on, now. My only other issue with the TV broadcast is that we only saw a few awards get awarded. The show was mostly performances. I don't like that. I want to see the awards given. Also, with the number of performances they pack into the show, it becomes more of a concert opposed to "special guest performances". There's nothing special ab being one of 20 or so performances. OK, moving on, let's talk about these performances. Honestly, I'm 50/50 on them. Some were really good: Kacey Musgraves, Imagine Drag with some rapper, Miranda Lambert and Billy Armstrong, Taylor Swift Robin Thicke with Chicago (surprisingly good!), and Daft Punk with Pharell and Stevie Wonder. Some were OK: Metallica with Lang Lang, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the closing performance of Queens the Stone Age with NIN and Dave Grohl (though it was *great* to see Grohl kicking ass on the drums again). Other performances were eith bad or just plain boring: Beyonce with Jay-Z (the opening act) and Katy Perry come to mind. Lorde performed "Royals" and while I liked the music and the live mix, the visual performance was... well, I l to call it stage Tourettes. However, I have to mention probably the best performance of the night. Maclemore and Ryan Lewis performed "Same Love" and gave an excellent performance of it. Then, Queen Latifa comes on stage and actually marries 30 or so couples right there on live TV (apparentl she's ordained or has some other credentials that really do allow h to perform weddings). There were all types of couples including, of course, gay couples. This was all done to "Same Love", of course. Then, Madonna came out and proved once again that she's pre much done (terrible performance). All in all, the show was good, Maclemore killed it, and the whole thing was very moving. Find it o YouTube or something if you can. Finally, let's talk awards. This *is* an award show, after all, eve if the TV broadcast makes you think otherwise. I have to say, I'm really pleased with the number of smaller names, indie folks, and unexpected wins. Lorde, Kacey Musgraves, and Maclemore all walked a with awards. Daft Punk (with Pharrel) won, among others, Album of t Year for "Random Access Memories". Most importantly, Robin Thicke a "Blurred Lines" (the song *and* the album) didn't get shit. They were really quick with the "get off the stage music" last nigh as well. One interesting moment that sticks out is when during Maclemore's speech, he mentioned how he did all this without a reco label and *immediately* the music starts playing. Could be a coincidence, sure, but I'm thinking there might be some conspiracy there as well. Oh, and one more thing. There were some damn good jokes. Two that c to mind (paraphrased and not cited because I don't remember who sai them): "I'm honored to be in the same room as Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. The Grammys had to decide between bringing either two of the Beatles or all of the Jonas Brothers back together." (Implying the Grammys made the right decision.) and (Speaking about Daft Punk) "You know, back when I was drinking and using, I used to imagine all sorts of impossible things. Then I sobered up, and two robots showed up at my door wanting to make an album." Addendum: I have *no* idea how I forgot this when I first wrote thi post, but Robin Thicke surprised the shit out of me. That guy can actually sing! He's a natural born crooner. When he was singing Chicago's song my jaw dropped. Robin, listen to the words I'm about say: what are you doing with your life? You've got a great voice an are a natural crooner. Own it. Be it. Thank me later.