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Day Two Hundred Five (Year Two)

First off tonight, I can almost guarantee you that some thirteen year old girl pressured her parents to go out and buy her a banjo today after seeing Taylor Swift rock one hardcore on the Grammy broadcast last night.  In case you haven't seen it, here you go.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SDXBz-T4HE.

Watching her sashay down that flight of stairs, rocking out with a banjo was one of the coolest moments of the night for me.  I wanted so badly to not like her when she started out, and yet, slowly but surely her talent and her sincerity are winning me over a bit.  She'll probably be a "greatest hits" purchase for me at some point in the future.

I'm not surprised that Adele won everything under the sun.  After the year she had, the girl probably deserved it.  And I still like her record, even after its general overplayed-ness.  Her voice isn't all the way back yet, but her performance was still solid, and she's obviously come a long way since her throat surgery.  She'll get all the way back.  I'm just curious what 23 or 25 or whatever her next record will be called is going to sound like.  With so much artistic growth (and such huge sales) for this second record, the bar will no doubt be set astronomically high.

I'm also really happy for Dave Grohl.  He and the other Foos deserve all of the accolades the world is finally dropping at their feet.  And his acceptance speech about learning your instrument, mastering your craft, and not being afraid to make mistakes was astoundingly inspirational.  It still weirds me out that there is an entire generation who don't know him as the drummer for Nirvana, but that's another post for another time.  Also, I need to revisit the record they won for.  I bought Wasting Light during a flurry of other purchases, and it never really got a fair run in the CD player last year. 

And, you know, while I'm happy for Mr. Grohl, I'm also incredibly bummed out on behalf of three bands who lost out on victories because his band and Adele won everything they were nominated for.  Those three bands?

1) Wilco
2) The Decemberists
3) Mumford & Sons

All three are great bands who made amazing records and deserved to win.  And if life goes the way it should, they will win/win again at some point.

One more thing about Grohl, and then I suspect I'll be done for the night.  As creepy as Deadmau5 was at certain points last night, the song he did with Dave Grohl was cool enough to have me go back and listen to a bit of his record today at work.  Interesting stuff that definitely deserves more consideration.  And I'm not usually a fan of electronica or house music.

Can't believe I've gotten this far without mentioning McCartney or Springsteen or The Beach Boys, but those three highlights may well have to wait for tomorrow's post.  All told, I really enjoyed the Grammys this year. 

Thank heavens there were no dancing Bieber ninjas with drums.

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