the grammys, theirs and mine

So I recently got the entire Grammy 07 list, and I have to say, Im unjazzed. Not a single song I thought would win won. Not one, out of like sixty (OK, maybe one or two). What are the chances? (Gotta thank Providence Im not into betting and wagers, otherwise Id be selling my sould black market right about now - to cover my debt :) ) Anyways, Im seriously beginning to question the credibility of this so-called "Academy", because I do not see a world where James Blunt gets beaten out by the Dixie Chicks. I mean, how many people even listen to country outside Texas and Nebraska and Kentucky?!?!? Granted, the Dixie Chicks are good - even I like them, and that album of theirs is currently in the works, should have it in a week so's I can see what all the fuss is about - but when two artistes are both really good, methinks the winner should be the more mainstream one. Im guessing that's how U2 manage to win every time they put out an album, coz they always get really stiff compe. And I still can't for the life of me figure out in what universe a song by Bon Jovi would be ranked under country. How?!??!

Now Im thinking, if I was the who's who at that "Academy", what would my grammys look like? (Just the crucial categories - I discovered they have like a thousand different ones!):

Record of the Year
You're Beautiful - James Blunt - from Back to Bedlam

Album of the Year
(Here I wasnt crazy about any of their nominations, but since it's all up to me in my world...) How to save a life - The Fray

Song of the Year
(Again, none of their nominations jazzed) The hardest part - Coldplay - from X & Y

Best New Artist
James Blunt

Best Female Pop/Vocal Performance
(Here, I like their choice of artiste, but not the song) Hurt - Christina Aguilera - from Back to Basics

Best Male Pop/Vocal Performance
Bad day - Daniel Powter - from Daniel Powter

Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
Stickwitu - Pussycat Dolls - from PCD

Best Pop Vocal Album
Back to Bedlam - James Blunt

Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group
How to save a life - The Fray

Best Rock Song
Chasing cars - Snow Patrol - from Eyes Open

Best Rock Album
How to save a life - The Fray

Best Female R&B Vocal Performace
(I like their choice) Be without you - Mary J. Blige - from The Breakthrough

Best R&B Song
(Again, good choice by them) Be without you - Mary J. Blige

Best R&B Album
Testimony vol 1, Life & Relationships - India Arie

The rest of the categs don't really matter much to me, except New Age where Amarantine won. I totally agree with them - Enya is just good. Not really big on rap, hip-hop, classical, male R&B, country, and the gospel artists I listen to aren't particularly mainstream so I can't speak with authority in that field. Clearly me and the "Academy" disagree A LOT (I have indicated in brackets where we agree), so I'll stick to good ol' Dees. At least his countdown and I seem to have closer preferences.

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freedom feels like lonely

So I finally got round to listening to an old Yellowcard song I've had for a while called Empty Apartment, and it's about a guy who got dumped but has never gotten over it, and so he's trynna find out if she shares the same feelings: "...How's your life, what's it like there/Is it all what you wanted it to be/Does it hurt when you think about me/And how broken my heart is...If ever you loved me you'd say it's ok/It's ok to be angry and never let go/It only gets harder the more that you know/..." And that song really touched me. I have no idea why, seeing as how I've never been through a break up tough or otherwise. I've never crashed and burned, I've never even been dissed; so I shouldn't know how all that stuff feels like, and I shouldn't care, right? And yet somehow I do. I wonder why. Could be that I read a lot, and I do BTW, thereby learning things w/o necessarily having experienced them myself. Or it could also be that all this time I've been a closet romantic and didn't know it. I think back and I notice the kinds of movies that jazzed me: Miss Congeniality, You've got mail, Bridget Jones' Diary, The Titanic, The Notebook(!), Legend of the Fall, The Wedding Planner, If Only, 10 Things I Hate About You, Coming to America. The artists I listen to: Trespassers William, Natalie Merchant, Aqualung, Dido, Five for Fighting, Gavin DeGraw, Tyler Hilton, James Blunt, Lifehouse, Michelle Featherstone, Emiliana Torrini. The TV shows I watch: The O.C., One Tree Hill, Felicity, Gilmore Girls, Dawson's Creek, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives.

And Im thinking maybe I do have that void that I've always thought was for the wimps. Maybe all this time I've been lonely and instead of getting hitched up I've been choosing to see it on TV and read about it in books. I've always thought Im not wired for all that relationship stuff, but maybe I've just been supplementing subconciously and didn't realise it. I love the freedom that comes with being alone. Living for me and me alone. Not having to think about someone else all the time lest I be crucified for it. It's amazing, and I still don't think I want to give that up. But, if the eyes and ears really are the windows to the soul like they say, then isn't my soul full of all that mushy stuff? And what does that make me? I wonder.
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invictus

This is the title of a poem I recently came across. Now, I've once said here that I love to read poetry, but not by authors I've never heard of before and definitely not by Shakespeare. However, I got a chance to hear this one before I read it, so I did make an exception even though Id never heard of William Henley before [he's the author]. I totally dig it. It's so deep. Here's how it goes:

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the Pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the shadow of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll;
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Ok, if that's not deep stuff then I don't know what is. Plus it was inspired - William Henley survived a TB infection and an amputation. And the title is latin for unconquered.

New on the music scene, another form of art Im in love with, and definitely going down my annals of all-time bests:

Lie in the sound - Tresspassers William
Sideways - Citizen Cope
Easier to lie - Aqualung
Boston - Augustana
Born to try - Delta Goodrem
Chasing cars - Snow Patrol
Swingset chain - Loquat
Who's to say - Vanessa Carlton

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