The Grammys through the eyes of me
12 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Random Thoughts, Review Tags: Adam Levine, Bruno Mars, celebrities, Grammy, music, performances, Whitney Houston
As always I feel like I need to say something about this awards show. THis will not be a play by play because some of us need to study for at least 15 minutes so I won’t feel guilty.
First, I am inventing a new drinking game. Whenever someone says “Whitney Houston” during the show, you take a shot. My guess is that you will be completely obliterated and belting out “I Will Always Love You” by the second hour.
When did Chris Brown become a kareoke-ing backup dancer? If there was no autotune, there wouldn’t have been a song. And once again he rips off Michael Jackson (the effects remind you of Billie Jean much?). I don’t get why he is being praised like a king when he is nothing but a joker!
Poor Jason Aldean…belting his heart out and his mic goes haywire. Kelly Clarkson looked fab (loved the dress) except from the back her hair looked like her cat threw it up.
Did Rhianna hire everyone she knew to be a backup dancer?!
Paulie Perrette looks fabulous! Her bookends don’t look so bad either. Although Wes and Aaron would have looked pretty nice too!
Looks like the pompadour is catching on…first Bruno Mars and now Adam Levine is rocking it! Wow the animatronic dolls are amazing..oh wait, what…those are the Beach Boys? My bad
I’m back on the Taylor Swift bandwagon…but just in small doses. But surely I wasn’t the only one expecting her to rip away that potato sack of a dress and kick it in to high gear in something sparkly ?
Does Kate Beckinsale not age?
Totally knew that wasn’t Katy Perry in the beginning and that the blackout was on purpose, but what I didn’t expect was such a KICK ASS performance. From the entry, to the dancing, to that fab outfit….TAKE THAT RUSSEL!!
Those doctors that saved Adele’s voice should be getting one hell of a bonus! Her dress is perfect for her figure and she looks like she is having a blast! She is definitely delivering a message with this performance… Oh, and I decided I need a group of 4 divalicious backup singers to follow me around from now on
Carrie Underwood makes it seem so easy to be that beautiful and talented. Not fair. I must say that the duet with Tony Bennett is as beautiful as her dress is stunning!
Does anyone else think that every time they show Rhianna she looks likes she is jonesin’ for some sort of fix?
Props to Jennifer Hudson for the last minute Whitney tribute! Well done J Hud
Was there are a shortage of available performers? There must have been because I really don’t see why Foo Fighters, Chris Brown and Paul McCartney had to perform twice.
And we have reached the end of the blog (i.e. my tolerance for the same old same old)
By the way, those 15 minutes I mentioned at the beginning…never happened.
My $.02 on leggings
19 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Review Tags: clothes, leggings, trends
I’ve decided not to chime in on the leggings craze until now. I have patiently held my tongue, although if you know my opinion on jeggings
you can guess where this is about to go.
My theory is that those who wear leggings as pants are the socially acceptable versions of the little girls who would run around in their opaque tights holding their skirts up. Because let’s face it, leggings are one or two thread count away from being footless tights.
Grammy $.02
13 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in Random Thoughts, Review Tags: awards, Bieber, Bruno Mars, Cee Lo, Gaga, Grammy Awards, Grammys, Katy Perry, Miranda Lambert, Muse, performances
The Grammy Awards are usually the only award show I can tolerate watching for a bunch of reasons:
- I know what the categories are (do we really need a Sound Mixer AND a Sound Editor?)
- There are no long-winded, artistic, political speeches
- The performances don’t involve interpretive dance that no one can interpret but the choreographer
So here are my thoughts on this year’s performances…
Aretha tribute: 5 strong singers all attempting to beat the range and volume of Ms. Franklin. Florence handled herself rather well. Christina remembered the words (SHOCKER). Jennifer Hudson basically gave a big F-U to Simon Cowell by her performance. Martina McBride-ugly earrings, amazing dress and way to represent country. Yolanda Adams looks amazing for almost 50!
Lady Gaga-While her entrance in a space age, irradiated egg was slightly on the nutty side, her performance was kind of awesome. The dance/costumes actually went with the song. The only thing I didn’t like was that Albino Cobra she had growing out of her head. One more thing…thank goodness for pasties and latex staying where they were supposed to.
Miranda Lambert-Hate the dress but LOVE the song.
Bruno Mars, B.o.B, Janelle- Loved the Mars performance, even though his hair kind of hinted to where the performance was going to go. B.o.B. looked like a goofball. I had never heard Janelle sing before and she wasn’t bad but there were two things I didn’t get: her school marm outfit and why she crowd surfed.
Muse-Only the British can rock bedazzled blazers and a dual-neck guitar and not be completely ridiculed. I know the point of the random rioters on the stage, but since they weren’t really visible and there were very few of them, it was useless.
Justin Bieber, Usher and Jaden Smith-The performance showed how many dancers you can afford as the years go by: Bieber=5, Usher=cast of thousands. Can someone please explain the Asian theme? Usher’s pants and how he thinks he is MJ? Jaden…I heart your dad.
Mumford & Sons, Avett Bros, Bob Dylan-enjoyed Mumford, couldn’t stop staring at the lead singers hair of the brother band and was thankful that Bob Dylan’s mic didn’t work.
Lady Antebellum-::Snore::
Cee-Lo/Gwyneth Paltrow-Way to forget the words to your own song! But love the Elton John meets Planet of the Apes costume. Gwyneth should have considered walking and stairs when considering her footwear choice for the performance, but she rocked the black unitard (and the pink feather earrings)! As odd as the puppets were….they were also kind of fabulous.
Katy Perry-Now I know where the Victoria’s Secret diamond bra went. Loved the first song because it showed that she can actually sing and doesn’t need strategically placed cupcakes to perform. I thought it was cute when she kept finding her hubby in the audience and singing to him. (Kudos to the camera man who caught Nicole Kidman rocking out!)
Norah Jones, John Mayer, Keith Urban-Felt very coffee house-ish in a good way. Norah looked beautiful, Keith looked exactly like he always does and John Mayer look like a stoned Captain Jack Sparrow. But, I liked it.
Eminem, Dre, Rhianna- Still hate Rhianna and her bleach stained dress. Eminem is amazing because you can understand him, you know he’s not lip synching (due to the pulsing vein in his forehead), and he actually tells a story. Dr. Dre hasn’t changed in the last 10 years.
And since I don’t give a flying fig about the rest of the performances, I’m signing off. Personally, I would have put Streisand and Jagger in the middle of the show so that their fans could go to bed at their normal time instead of nodding off in their easy chairs. Overall, what I saw I enjoyed, but part of me thinks that nothing will ever come close to Pink’s performance last year.
Sister Wives: My $.02
18 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in Rants, Review Tags: polygamy, reality show, Sister Wives, television, Utah
Until last night I was a Sister Wives virgin. In fact a part of me NEVER wanted to watch it because of all of the hype. I was warned that it would be a “car crash I wouldn’t be able to take my eyes off of.” Sadly, they were right. So last night while channel surfing I landed on a mini-marathon. Lucky me.
After wasting an hour and a half of my life, I feel the need to make that loss worth it by sharing my thoughts on the topic. I want to say they are weird freaks who crave attention (and they are) but the women and man are oddly endearing, well the women are. The man, Kody, seems to be a procreation-crazy nutjob whose only goal is to breed and keep the appearance of having a full head of hair.
It’s kind of like Kate Plus Eight, except it is Kody Plus 4 Plus 16 (the present number of kids). The lead “character” is a superficial blonde with bad tan lines and an unnatural amount of energy and the side characters spend all their time together vying for the blond’s attention. The 4 wives are Meri (stubborn and rough around the edges), Janelle (friend of Meri that seems to model herself after her friend), Christine (flower child who loves everyone) and Robyn (the one who cries at the drop of the hat). It’s just weird how they are all inseparable and, well it’s just weird.
If they were as proud of their culture/beliefs as they claim to be, wouldn’t they be spending less time herding cats kids and recording fluff stories and more time teaching people about polygamy? Besides the multi-wife thing, they don’t really touch on ANY other part of polygamy (because I’m sure there are other parts, right?). Can I just say this, polygamy MUST be a man’s idea because no woman in her right mind would want multiple husbands. Kody is living a fantasy. He splits his nights between three blondes and a brunette and spends the day at work. I might add that I tried to Google his job but couldn’t find it anywhere. I just wanted to know how a man with a harem can afford multiple Lexuses (Lexii?). But maybe the women have a point. The other wives are always there to take care of the kids, clean or cook when one is at work. You could just say you have to work and go to the spa guilt-free knowing that the kids are with “family.” That last part could also be my subconscious trying to rationalize the lifestyle.
In my opinion, this show is more of a fender bender than a car crash because there isn’t half as much drama as the shows we are accustomed to. I mean let’s make it interesting and add in Amy Winehouse or maroon them on an island. THEN let’s see how happy go lucky they are!
The Proposal…better than expected
22 Jun 2009 Leave a Comment
in Review Tags: movie, movie review, movies, Ryan Reynolds, Sandra Bullock, summer movie, The Proposal
We all know the first week of summer usually begins the onslaught of testosterone fueled movies (The Hangover and Transformers for example), so for us estrogen-based beings that might not want an explosion every 15 seconds, The Proposal is a well spent 2 hours. (Of course next week, I will probably find myself paying $10.25 to see Mr. Optimus Prime himself on the big screen, but I digress.)
The Proposal is the new movie with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Stupid me read the reviews before I went to see it, so I can’t say that I was expecting much. Everything I read described the flick as a disappointment, a waste of money or just another generic romantic comedy. Come to find out, it was highly entertaining. Perhaps I was so pleased because I expected a little more than nothing, but I would definitely give it a B+/A-.
Will either Sandra or Ryan be winning an Oscar for their role, doubtful, but they still made a very predictablestory line seem fresh. There was more than a handful of moments when I, along with the 3/4 filled theatre found ourselves laughing out loud. (If you are a teen reading this, that means loling). The movie revolves around a fake engagement brought on by a threat of deportation to Margaret (Bullock) and some blackmail by her assistant Andrew (Reynolds). They find themselves deceiving his family when they return to Sitka, Alaska for his Gammy’s (Betty White) 90th birthday and comedy ensues. White had the habit of stealing any scene she was in…that girl definitely still has it.
The moment that got the most laughs…and I’m not spoiling anything here…was the nude scene. The crowd was split in half with the whooping of teenage (and twenty something) girls at the sight of Reynolds and the sound of all the male jaws dropping at the sight of Bullock. Don’t worry, nothing is seen, it’s all from the side, but they played off the awkwardness perfectly.
Like I said it was predictable, but it seems that the movie itself knew that and didn’t try to hide it. It flaunted the assets (both literal and figurative) of the actors superbly while not taking itself too seriously. I’ll definitely see it again…when it’s out on Netflix.
Woodman’s in Essex…good but greasy
23 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in Review Tags: beach, fried, fried food, grease, greasy, seafood, summer, summer food, Woodman's
Plates from Woodman's
X-Men Origins:Wolverine
04 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in Review Tags: Hugh Jackman, movie review, will.i.am, Wolverine, X-Men, X-Men 4, X-Men Origins
I’m the type of movie watcher that give a movie a couple of days to stew in the endless realm known as my mind. I saw Wolverine on Saturday, which means its time to give you my ever important opinion.
In interest of full disclosure I am not a comic book reader so I am taking the movie and the story at face value. I don’t know if in the book adamantium clad Wolverine is really stainless steel Wolfboy, so please forgive my Marvel naivete.
Here are some of my more trivial observations:
- Mysterious Army generals are always bald
- Hugh Jackman can run around my house naked ANYTIME
- Will.i.am’s performance wasn’t exactly Oscar worthy but was good nonetheless
All in all it was an entertaining movie and worth the matinee price. Here’s something you need to keep in mind during the first half…it’s not a normal X-Men movie. Since it is a prequel it needs to give you a lot of background and story which means fewer “building-go-booms.” About 35 minutes in my eyes glazed over slightly. Mind you about 8 of those minutes were taken up by the excessive intro, so you can see why I got bored. Anyway, once you get past that there won’t be a ten minute fight scene every 12 minutes, you find yourself enjoying it.
As always, the special effects are amazing…overall. There is one scene in the end where it is so painfully obvious that it is fake and green-screened that it taints the amazing FX of the entire movie.
One thing that is silly, but leftout, is they never really say why he changed his name to Logan. They explain the whole Wolverine thing, but not Logan. Not that it is at ALL important, but it was noticebly gone.
Overall, I think the ending meshes well with the beginning of X-Men 1. If I were to score it, I think B/B+ is fair. While at first I thought it was a must see at the theatre…if you have a good surround sound system and a good sized TV, you could probably wait to order it on Netflix. And if the time comes when you do order it, I’ll bring the popcorn because I don’t pass up a chance to see Hugh Jackman in his skivvies. 
My name is Amanda and I own an iPhone
16 Apr 2009 Leave a Comment
in Misc, Review Tags: adopter, Apple, AT&T, cell phone, iphone, new phone, Samsung Impression, upgrade
And that’s when you all say, out loud and in a monotone voice, “Hi Amanda.” Yes, it’s true, I broke down and got the best gadget since the iPod. For weeks, even months, I have been so far off the bandwagon of Apple adopters that I couldn’t even see, well, the bandwagon. Then came upgrade time. And just like a wad of cash in my pocket, the lure of an upgrade was eating at me. Who can resist something new and shiny? Not cockatoos and not me. For full disclosure I was convinced by the AT&T salesman (cha ching for Hector) to get the iPhone over the Samsung Impression.
I found the Impression online and thought it was cool: a slider plus a touch screen. Boy was I convinced by all the imagery on the website, that this was the phone for me. Then, I saw it in person. 1 word….cheesy. While I was giddy at the possibility that I would soon be getting a slider with a kickass display, I looked a little closer. The calendar, web browser and general feel didn’t stand up to all of the marketing….at all. The icons looked like they were designed by and made for a fifteen year old. And overall, the phone was for a teenager that texts like lightening, not a bells and whistles girl like myself. In the middle of my debating, all 3 minutes of it, Hector said “I think you are old enough for an iPhone.” While I didn’t exactly have a response for that, and was flattered and insulted all at once, he was right.
Switching from a BlackBerry I did sacrifice some itsy bitsy features that I have become accustomed to: Hotmail on the phone, a flash camera, copy & paste but so far so good. The second I walked over to the display, I was blinded by the light of the phone. OK so it was more the flourescent overhead lighting bouncing off of the glass screen and burning my cornea than an epiphany, but I am still rationalizing the purchase. I must say, now that I have had 24 hours to play with it, I am pleasantly surprised.
The keyboard isn’t as clumsy as I expected. It’s superfast. And all in all, it has done everything I have asked of it, which is basically download a couple apps and update my calendar. The battery life isn’t all that great and I am so terrified of dropping it sometimes I find myself coddling it like a kitten on my lap, but I think I’ll keep it. The true test is in a month when the shiny, new novelty has worn off and it is just a dumb old cell phone, will I still love it?
I <3 Thai food!
25 Feb 2009 1 Comment
in Review Tags: food, medford, restaurant, thai, thai food
Just got back from dinner at Tom Yum Koong in Medford Square and was pleasantly surprised. For a hole in the wall with no parking, it was quite nice. Since it was a random Wednesday, the place was empty so we had excellent service, the food was tasty and the people were sweet. The chicken in the Pad Se Ew melts in your mouth.
The only complaint I have is that the water tasted funny. At first we thought it had just a hint of carrot flavor. It took us all dinner to nail down that it was just really bad, really faint lemon flavoring. So needless to say I would avoid the water and go for the all American soda.
Next to try, Tamarind Bay for Indian food in Hahvahd Squah! I’ll let you know!
