Meanwhile at the Grammy's

CAN anyone tell me who Arcade Fire is? Magaling ba sila talaga? They won Album of the Year for The Suburbs at last night's Grammy Awards and I'm shocked that 'with-it' gal me hasn't heard of them. (OA! ;p I'm so not with-it I actually thought the band's name was The Suburbs! haha.) Of course I was rooting for Lady Gaga's Fame Monster and Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. These two artists have been the brightest lights in the US pop scene, especially the former - a really fantastic and intelligent performer.

I was mildly taken aback by Katy's live performance though. I cringed as her singing went off-pitch several times; if it were an audition at the American Idol, Simon Cowell would've probably trashed her.

(Lady Gaga's Fame Monster wins Best Pop Vocal Album of the Year at the Grammys. Photo from www.glamourvanity.com".)

Anyway, I'm glad that Gaga won for Best Pop Vocal album, despite her rambling thoughts about Whitney Huston, hehe. Again, in this category, I was rooting for either her or Katy.

The most fun performance of the night, I thought was by Cee Lo Green, who looked like he plucked out all the feathers of the NBC Peacock and wore 'em (good for him, the Grammy's were on CBS), w/ a flashy headdress/skullcap(?) to boot. He and actress Gwyneth Paltrow sang his popular 'F*** you!' with some muppets as back-up singers and musicians.



As you know, Gwyneth sang the GP rated version of his song ('Forget You!') on a recent episode of Glee. She's got some pipes, mind you. But she was a bit stiff, unable to really shake her booty (unlike those muppets!) no doubt due to her killer heels from Christian Louboutin. Anyhoo, that Cee Lo performance appeared to be an homage (or a rip-off) of Elton John's gig on The Muppet Show in 1977, where the latter sang Crocodile Rock, feathers, glittery skullcap and all. (Of course, the joke was Lady Gaga's egg hatched and out popped Cee Lo. haha!)

(Btw, in case you were wondering, this is what Gwyneth Paltrow was wearing at her performance at the Grammys - Christian Louboutin retro colorblock booties from the Spring 2011. Kaya nahirapan sumayaw ang ale, hehe.)

Another favorite performance was by Mick Jagger who sang some soul, and looked really fashionable in his threads. He may be an old dude, but he still is Mr. Cool.



But the biggest upset of the night was in the Best New Artist category, which everyone thought would be won by Justin Bieber. But sorry, biebettes, the lovely artist Esperanza Spalding took home the award. This lady is one of the best jazz singers/bassists today, although I was a bit surprised that she's still considered "new" since she's been around since 2007-2008? She even visited Manila and performed at the Philippine Jazzfest in 2009. Dunno if this is true but there were some tweets that Spalding's web site crashed soon after she won, perhaps due to the number of people googling who she was. (UPDATE: Apparently what happened was some of the Bieb's cheap loser fans sabotaged Spalding's wikipedia page. Tsk tsk.)


(Esperanza Spalding performing at the White House in Feb., 2009. Watch this and you'll understand why she beat the Biebs.)

Jazz rules. Always.

Iron Man is hot! (no spoilers here)

...and so is Robert Downey Jr.!

He plays multi-gazillionaire industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man with such strength and poignancy...and we love the edgy humor, too.

Downey is obviously having fun with his character as he dishes out his snappy witty dialogues with his co-stars Jeff Bridges (as Obadiah Stane, business partner of Stark's father who helps build up Stark Industries, a weapons manufacturer), Gwyneth Paltrow (Stark's irrepressible and efficient assistant Pepper Potts), and Terrence Howard (Lt. Col. Jim Rhodes, military official/jet pilot and Stark friend). All of these actors are great on their own, and have starred in many of their own hits. So it was really very generous of them to take a backseat, and give major support to Downey Jr. instead. (There are also cute cameos from Iron Man creator Stan Lee, a lady who looks suspiciously like Hillary Swank, and Samuel L. Jackson.)

Btw, the movie premiered yesterday the same time as in the U.S., so lucky us. Cinema 5 at TriNoma was packed to the rafters despite two other theaters showing the same film. It is really one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year. I used to read Iron Man comics as a kid (borrowed them from my brothers) but they were not that many issues for me to follow. So basically, I went into the movie blind, with just the scant knowledge that Tony Stark is Iron Man. But I'm a sucker for anything that's even remotely sci-fi plus I really wanted to see Downey Jr. because this is his first major film since he got back from rehab. (He's been sober for five years.) And according to press reports, he had to audition for the role. Director Jon Favreau didn't even think Downey Jr. would make the shortlist.

The film's theme is anti-war, what with Stark trying to change the direction of his company from being a weapons manufacturer to a firm dedicated to global change and improvement. This happens after Stark sees the damage wrought by his company's products on harmless innocent people, in what is the U.S. government's war on terror. In the comics version, Stark is captured by the Vietcong. In this film, he is captured by terrorists in Afghanistan. (Btw, the Iron Man costume is really uber-cool, and the newly buffed Downey Jr. looks just amazing in it. Yummy!)

I won't spoil the movie for you guys by telling you the story line. Just go see it. It's a fun escapist film with some heart and humor. Downey is just brilliant in the role, as he always has been in his other roles (e.g. Chaplin). It was a shame that he screwed up his path to stardom with his bouts of drug taking and alcoholism. But now that he's back, I'm pretty sure Downey's going to be the actor to beat of his generation. Okay, him and Johnny Depp.

Credit also goes to Jon Favreau who made such an exciting film...at times it reminded me of Transformers, especially when Stark dons the red and gold Iron Man costume. The effects are very slick but not otherwordly, so Favreau is pretty much able to keep the film still believable.

Iron Man pretty much takes the cake as the blockbuster hit of the season. I'm gonna watch it again.