Scattered Thoughts on the Grammys

Or at least the parts of the Grammys I saw:

I know she sings and has her own records and played at the White House, etc, but jazz fans, try to wrap your head around the fact that the person who was playing bass with Joe Lovano at the Village Vanguard a couple months ago beat Justin Bieber for Best New Artist. And would it have been too much to ask to see a Grammy-style over-the-top spectacle in tribute to Lifetime Achievement honoree Roy Haynes?  Maybe a Boredoms-style thing with 85 jazz drummers (one for each year Haynes has been alive) playing simultaneously.

Gwyneth Paltrow + Cee-Lo + a "muppet" band = much better than I could've imagined.  I have no doubts about Cee-Lo's talent, but Gwyneth brought some game, showing herself to have a considerably better sense of pitch than some past Grammy winners I could name (*cough*Taylor Swift*cough*). GOOP on, soul sister!

Dylan striking some poses during "Maggie's Farm"! I love this guy. And I loved the reaction shot of Neil Young simultaneously cheering and sort of waving to Dylan. Cool to see Neil in the position of a genuinely excited fan.

Did I really see a Target commercial for wigs? I had the TV on mute at the time, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was.  How long has Target been in the (non-Halloween) fake hair business?

Stranger Than Fiction

The John Lurie piece in the new New Yorker is really something.  One of those (less than weekly) occasions when I'm glad the Selected Ballads household has a New Yorker subscription. 

I may have been primed for the which-one-is-crazier story of Lurie and his friend/stalker by having just finished John Gilmore's Hollywood memoir Laid Bare, in which fame and its frequent companion self-destruction are major themes.  I might do a post of some of my favorite quotes from Laid Bare, which will certainly include the description of Dennis Hopper as "a goat in Miss Tweedle-dum's parlor". 

If you haven't already seen it, you've probably at least had someone recommend it to you, but I can't let a post mentioning John Lurie and Dennis Hopper end without urging you to rent, buy, or YouTube Lurie's Fishing With John.  Or, at a minimum, the legendary Tom Waits "fish in his pants" episode.