NOT The Grammy People

My friend Kurt recently moved to South Philly, Home of the Cheesesteak Wars (both Pat's and Geno's are at the intersection of 9th St. and Passyunk Ave.). I was at his place the other day, and after I left I was walking along Reed St. to 9th to catch a bus into Center City. I found an odd sight. Between 8th and 9th on Reed is a small cross-street, Darien St. It's not much more than an alley, and is actually a dead end. At left is a picture, taken while I was on Reed St.

Notice how there's a building at the very end with a sign over the door. You can't make it out in the picture, but at the end of this nondescript street is the Pennsylvania Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

I immediately thought of the Grammy awards, handed out by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Obviously this was a local chapter, but why would they be in such an off-the-beaten-path location?

Turns out I was wrong. The Philadelphia chapter of NARAS is in Center City. This Pennsylvania Academy is a school. They have an outlet in Gettysburg as well. Their name seems juuuuust a bit misleading, don't you think?

Grammys And Gay Twitter Wars

A couple of Grammy comments before we get to...the War of the Gays on Twitter!

I am not a big fan of the Grammys. It's bad enough that this awards show is mostly full of performances instead of actual award presentations. Only ten Grammys were actually given out during the 3 hour, 30 minute show. And I don't know how they decide which ones (besides the obvious majors, Record/Song/Album of the Year, Best New Artist) make the cut. Besides the big four, we saw two Pop, two Country, one Rock and one Rap presented. The entire R&B genre, among others, was ignored. Of those 10 awards, all but one went to someone who performed on the show. (Fortunately, that one was given to Train for that awful "Hey, Soul Sister" thing.) And to have Arcade Fire perform both before and after winning Album of the Year just screams out, "FIX!!!"

(By the way, the Grammys need a host. The awkward ending of the show, with the one Arcade Fire member saying "we have to go perform another song...everyone leave to this song" or something really points out the need for a host, even a bad one.)

I don't respect the Grammys as an award or as an awards show. It's mostly performances. Had it not been for Lady Gaga, I probably wouldn't have watched at all. She was a lot less over-the-top in her performance, by Gaga standards, despite being inside an egg from the time she arrived at the show until the time the egg "hatched" on stage at the start of her performance of "Born This Way." So it was good, but not outrageously so -- like the song itself, although it is growing on me. It was a solid performance but I think she's been better.

Now, on to the War of the Gays!