As a follow-up to yesterday's post about one-person theater shows, this video of a one-person band is pretty impressive.
And OHMYGOSHADORABLE.
Meet 9-month-old baby Rex, who is in the first-ever (probably) one baby band. His dad writes, "[O]ne morning my little (9 month old) guy was looking for some fun, so we set up the camera and let him get his hands on some different equipment. He loves making sounds, and even smiles when he watches the video. I planned this as a series, and we're already coming up with some ideas for PART 2, stay tuned!"
For now, here's Rex, who officially plays more instruments than I do. (I can play a mean hot cross buns on the recorder, though!)
Man, I never get tired of cute videos on the internet.
If you didn’t catch the Grammy awards Sunday — maybe because you were still digging yourself out of mountains of snow, if you live in New England, or maybe because you were watching the long-awaited return of "The Walking Dead" (like me) — don’t stress. Here are some of the highlights:
Performances
Taylor Swift opened the show with visuals reminiscent of "Alice in Wonderland." But the thing people really care about is that she supposedly made a jab at her ex-boyfriend, One Direction’s Harry Styles. During the song’s breakdown, she says, “So he calls me up and he’s like, ‘I still love you,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m busy opening up the Grammys.’” Supposedly, she uses a British accent for the guy’s voice — as you probably know, Harry Styles is British. In addition to Swift, performers included Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake; Mumford and Sons; Alicia Keys and Maroon 5; The Black Keys; Kelly Clarkson; Bruno Mars/Rihanna/Ziggy Marley/Sting (in a Bob Marley tribute); Carrie Underwood; Fun.; Ed Sheeran and Elton John; Frank Ocean… there were a lot of performances, OK?
What people wore
Prior to Sunday’s event, a "Wardrobe Advisory" sent to attendees regarding the evening’s dress code was leaked. The memo asked female celebrities to make sure their bodies were "adequately covered." Obviously what people wear is always a big part of award shows, but all I really care about are two. One, Adele, who always wears black, decided to change it up and rock a red and pink floral dress — and she looked amazing! Also, everyone loves Adele, and she has an adorable accent, and she’s so pretty and talented that she could probably wear a paper bag and people would talk about it. Two, Carrie Underwood wore, like, the prettiest projection screen ever!
Other highlights
Beyonce was there; so was Jennifer Lopez’s leg. Frank Ocean won best urban contemporary album, and Chris Brown didn’t stand for him despite the audience’s standing ovation because the two got into a fight a few weeks back or something. Prince presented Record of the Year. Faith Hill has braces. Rihanna and Chris Brown attended together. Katy Perry wore a revealing dress; Ellen Degeneres appreciated it. And I’m getting old. This is not a highlight of the Grammy’s so much as it’s news to me because, for some of the artists at the show, all I could really muster was a "who?" Soon I’ll probably be telling people to get off my lawn.
What did you think of this year’s Grammy awards?
2012 may now be history, but there is still a little more to talk about before we leave it behind, such as finding out who were the most influential artists of 2012. Over the next month or so, I'll post opinions on the topic from artists, commentators, teachers, and others, with whom they thought were the best artists in a number of roles. This week we start with drummers.
You often hear a lot about singers and guitarists, but for most bands drummers are a crucial part. Their playing can really make a good song what it is, and their skill on the set can influence generations of drummers after them, just as guitarists can influence future guitarists. So, with that in mind, I set out to ask some folks who actually drum who they thought was the most influential drummer of 2012.
My first respondent was Adam Silverman. Since late 2011, Silverman has been the drummer for country artist Lauren Alaina, the runner-up on season 10 of American Idol. He also blogs at his site adamdrums.com. Silverman told me about the drummer for Jason Aldean, who Alaina toured with last year.
Read more...
In case you're interested in the countdown, we'll have to wait three days, 11 hours, and 57 minutes. So worth it.
P.S. Shortly after, Destiny's Child announced they will be releasing a new single. And we all collectively hopped into a time machine and it was the year 2000.
So, we may have been teasing when we wrote that *NSYNC would be reuniting, but we’re completely serious when we say former *NSYNC front-man Justin Timberlake may be releasing a new single.
It started with a cryptic tweet Wednesday evening that simply read, "Thursday, January 10th, 2013, at 9:01 am PST…” but honestly, with fans so thirsty for new music from him, that’s all it took for crazy rumors to start swirling. We’ll have our answer in less than three hours, but Twitter may explode between now and then with excitement?
Although Timberlake began as a singer, first with several successful *NSYNC albums and then with a lucrative solo career, he’s taken a break from singing to try his hand at acting. He’s done hilarious skits on SNL (most famously a song involving a body part in a box), plus he’s starred in movies like "Friends with Benefits," "Bad Teacher," and "The Social Network" (as well as my all-time favorite Justin Timberlake film, Disney’s "Model Behavior").
In fact, it’s actually been almost six years since he released his last album FutureSex/LoveSounds, where he told us all he was bringing sexy back. (Jury’s still out on whether it needed to be brought back, but we appreciated the effort nonetheless.)
There's even been talk that this alleged new single might include an appearance from Jay-Z AND Beyonce, or be produced by Timbaland. Then again, it could just be that he's announcing what he's eating for breakfast. Who knows? As a not-so-secret boyband lover and pop music enthusiast (that sounds better than straight up calling myself lame, right?), I'm SO EXCITED. Justin Timberlake + music is pretty much all I ever wanted — and new music means a new album which means a new tour...