Grammys

I only watched some of it last night. Wasn't quite as pathetic as last year, but just pathetic enough to ignore most of the Skank-a-polooza. Granted, it was less so than in previous years, if only because of the flashbacks to performers like Frank Sinatra, and tributes to veterans who are still with us like Tony Bennett. [UPDATE: I forgot to mention Kanye West's unexpected tribute to his mother. Didn't know the man had that much class. Such is the power of motherhood. God bless them all!] Whatever happens the night before, I check the winners in the news the next day. Until now, I could never find a place where the nominees were listed along with them. But here it is:

http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/50th_show/list.aspx

As usual, Jimmy Sturr won Best Polka Album. It's been like all but one or two of the last almost-thirty years now. Nice to see David Bromberg showing up in the Traditional Folk category again. Personally, I would have preferred Geno Delafose over Terrence Simien for Best Cajun/Zydeco Album (a fairly recent and most welcome category), now that Simien has sold out and become more of a show band than a dance band. (I can always tell.) It's encouraging to see as many categories for Classical and Opera as there are. When I was a kid, they got at least five or ten minutes of airplay on the show. Now they're lucky to get grips-and-grins in a slide show. Of course, this year they added a new twist, as two budding young violinists and an equally budding young celloist were auditioned for the crowd to text message their vote -- for what, I don't know. But unless I'm mistaken, this was the cello player.



Pretty awesome, huh?
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