2010 Grammys

The Grammys have come a long way over the years, when I was a teenager it was about Rock 'n Roll. these days Rock takes a second seat to the big dogs of Pop. As always many genres are not broadcast, but there is some real good stuff on the nominees list. Take a look for yourself, and please scroll down a bit.

Record of the year: I think its between "I got a Feeling", "Poker Face" with Halo having an outside chance. Album of the year, will it be The Fame by Lady Gaga? IIRC 5-6 top ten hits. Or The End by the BEP, 2 monster number one chart toppers, or Beyonce with her I am Sasha Fierce? Dave Mattews and Taylor Swift have to be taken seriously too, sometimes its one artists year, they just march out of the hall clutching 4-5-6 statues. Or sometimes the grammys are distributed, Best Record may not go to the artist who wins best album. I do think Lady Gaga does not go home without a Grammy or 2, thats for sure.

Song of the year: For me Its either Put a ring on it or Poker Face. Best New Artist I'm going with Keri Hilson or Zac Brown, Keri sounds great and is gorgeous so I'm picking her. Best Female Vocal, it might come down to Beyonce and Taylor Swift.... I will predict a trouble selection though.

Best Male vocal looks to play out between 3 young bucks vs. a couple of old school dudes, Stevie Wonder and Seal need to make the case that neither John Legend, Maxwell and Jason Mraz. Mraz's Make it Mine is an infectious pop tune by the popular guitarist, while Maxwell's Love You has a good old R&B flavor to his voice, John Legends This Time is done straight up. I think its a toss up between Maxwell and John Legend.

May favorite for best collaboration is Willie Nelson and Norahs Jones's remake of the classic Christmas love song Baby its Cold Outside. Best Pop Vocal album: This might be a chance for someone else to get a Grammy, like Pink or Kelly Clarkson.

David Guetta and Kelly Rowland are up for 2 Grammys for When Love Takes Over, best dance and best remix. The song was #1 in the US dance hit, #1in Europe, and #1 International dance hit on the Billboard charts. If the Boom Boom Pow gets best dance, then When Love Takes Over should get a grammy for best remix. So I predict David and Kelly will go home with with at least one Grammy. The song When Love Takes Over is this blogs namesake and one of my favorite songs of 2009 and I'm really rooting for Kelly to take home 2 Grammys. If her vocal performance is any indicator Kelly might get 2 Grammies, but David Guetta is a big name as a DJ and he might get picked for best remix so the Black Eyed Peas can get a best dance Grammy for Boom Boom Pow.

It is interesting that Guetta is up for Best Electronic Dance album, as is :Lady Gaga and Britney Spears is also up for best dance opposite Kelly Rowland, I just don't see When Love Takes Over getting shut out.

Traditional Pop, Rock Solo, Rock Group, Best Hard Rock, Best Metal, Best Rock Instrumental. Lamb of God, I can't find my way back home, Tony Bennet, Nickleback. If Best Rock Album goes old school, it'll be Clapton and Winwood, Live @ Madison Square Garden.

Jody Whatley, on her Facebook page mentioned Lalha Hathaway,  so shes my dark horse pick vs Beyonce for Best Female R&B Vocal. Best male R&B Vocalist: I'm picking Anthony Hamilton's Point Of It All, his Facebook page has like 150k friends, the girls love him, and frankly his song has a way better groove than Maxwells.

Anyway its nearly 8:30pm and I'm skipping so many great categories, R&B group, Traditional R&B Vocal Group, Urban and Alternative, More R&B, Rap, Country, Gospel, Jazz, Latin Jazz, Tropical Latin, Latin Rock. The list is quite extensive.

Husband and Wife, Susan Tedeschi and Dereck Trucks are each up for Best Contemporary Blues Album and Duke Robillard for Best Traditional Blues Album, good luck to all 3 of you.

One more word, Aventura, they're just huge.

I just read the most incredible Myspace profile.

I cried. This person had something terrible happen to them in 2009, and they poured their heart out to Myspace. So I wrote this person a letter:

Dear XXXXX,

I'm a single guy a little bit older than you. I've never been married, no kids, probably can't have any anyway. I've been stuck in a rut for quite a few years, I've lived a dead end life for a while. The last 5 years I have embarked on a project of self improvement. Well this summer I had an epiphany. I learned so much about myself so fast it was scary ( At 1st I had no idea what or what was going on). I learned to not feel guilty about loving myself, bad self esteem went out the window, I learned what was triggering depressive episodes in me, how to spot the triggers in real time and figured out how to reverse their effects, dumped 51 years of emotional baggage all in 6 weeks. I'm not the person I use to be.

I guess I'm a late bloomer.
SO I decided to start a blog about my experience, and I've been pouring my heart out. Its been cathartic, cleansing, empowering, invigorating. My firend Ehrick told me my new blog was quite bold, riske. And then I read your blurb on Myspace. I am stunned. You're bold, pouring your heart out like that to whoever.

Heres my first blog entry

http://loveandrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/story-of-personal-renewal.html

And this one explains a bit more

http://loveandrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/ive-been-stuck-in-rut-living-my-own.html

I'm not sure what happened to you, I don't need to know either, but after reading your blurb I really wanted to reach out to you and say hi.

Roger Fox

Dear stranger, I know from what you've written you're very brave.

I know, I can, I will, fulfill my dreams

Sometimes I feel the need for some hi energy music and empowering and self affirmational lyrics.

It's a difficult world and you have to prove
That you're ready and you can do it

And when I feel that desire to be uplifted, when I want feel compelled to raise my arms over my head, move my hips and dance with all that I am, one of the best songs ever is Living Joys, "Dont Stop Moving". Sung by Tameka Starr (Doris Diggs), this song always cranks me up to Warp 9, give it a listen, your Dilithium Crystals will never feel better, lol!




I truly wish I had more of this ingredient in my soul when I was a younger man, but theres no time for regrets, no place for blame, theres no time to waste in the second half of my life, I've got to get it right.......

Oh yeah

Oh yeah...

You've got to

Oh yeah

Oh yeah...

You've got to get it right



You can do anything that you want to do

With your mind body and soul

Do it, prove it to yourself and say

I want (I want)

I will (I will)

I can do anything

It's a difficult world and you have to prove

That you're ready and you can do it

Nothing in this world can stop you

I know I can I will forfill my dreams



Don't stop movin'

Keep it up

Keep on movin' get it right

Yeah you've got to get it right

Oh yeah oh

Don't stop movin'

I it's your life

Keep on movin' get it right

Yeah you've got to get it right



You can be mystical magical

Physically phenomenal

Good to go

Not slow

Feel the heat and let it flow





You've got to get it right

Break up songs

I think the first break up song I "got" was Gloria Gaynor's I will survive, recently covered by the Pussycat Dolls.
I think a vital part of moving on after a break up is the self affirmation. Whitney Houston sings it real nice:

It's not right but it's okay
I'm gonna make it anyway
Pack your bags up and leave
Don't you dare come running back to me
It's not right but it's okay
I'm gonna make it anyway
Close the door behind you
Leave your key
I'd rather be alone than unhappy

But I'm gonna make it anyway. Because my soul is just that good, and any good woman is going to feel my soulshine and know that with just one touch... she'll wipe that past away.....
Self affirmation, knowing you love yourself makes it so much easier to stride right into your future. The future is where I'll find the woman who has that one touch...

I meant it, I'll love you fore ever

And it still holds true. After all thats happened in life, my first true love has stayed with me for over 20 years. That crazy intense pure love you showered me with is still there, in a special place, nice and safe. I'll carry that love with me as I move forward, as I love again, and again.

I've put you up on a pedestal, and then knocked you down. But when all is said and done I've loved, hard fast pure and true. I recognize the same in other couples, not all, some, and its not rare, but its not common. And its something I experienced after only dating you for a few months. Intense pure love.

I know these things are real.

Mujer latina son las más bellas del mundo Me considero una persona muy alegre. La edad de un hombre de la apertura de la puerta del coche de su fecha, y teniendo en su mano cuando sale no es una época pasada. Como ya someterse a una renovación personal, recuperar mis sueños, el papel de los dados del romance, en medio de la peor crisis económica en 70 años sigo siendo impulsado a diario en mi búsqueda del amor verdadero, puro.

Some disparate points:
This summer I started a period of renewal for me. I believe in love at first sight, it happened to me once, though it took me 4 dates to realize it, :-). I was raised by a single mom and I only want the kind of 50/50 emotional relationship she ultimately found and still enjoys to this day. I want that higher level of communication, where phrases, and body language can mean whole paragraphs, and that results in no arguing. I want to find a woman who has a beautiful heart & soul, a soul that has a pleasant flavor.

I've had these things before, I know they are real. All this, a great smile, incredible eyes, hips & legs will start a fire in my mind body and soul.

A song of renewal by Kim Sozzi

Former Mynt singer and solo artist Kim Sozzi has a strong hit on the dance charts. Sozzi shows her song writing chops with a touch of melancholy in her lyrics reminiscent of the of Everything But The Girl's "The Desert Miss The Rain", but Sozzi starts at a darker place before the story of renewal unfolds:

All that time alone made me go insane
Wasn't hard to see i had lost control

After reliving every traumatic emotional experience in my life, over and over, during the summer of 2009, I wasn't sure I was sane during this process, I couldn't control it, it was just triggered and the process flowed thru me, cleaning out 2 decades+ of emotional baggage in just 6 weeks. Every old girl friend finally started to become a ghost, every dirty trick my father pulled on me became faded.

Holdin on to pain made it hard to breathe
Couldnt get away from my memories

I realized my memories of my first pure true love Michele had held me back from ever achieving that same higher level relationship with another woman. And the best way to put those memories in their place is to make some new memories:

Then you wiped my tears with your soothing touch and you flew my past away

Sozzi describes how a "touch" took her memories away, I'm taking this as good advice, no regrets, no more blaming me or others, just me, a new man moving forward with a good emotional base

Wanna leave the past behind..

Kim Sozzi will be performing at the Empty Bottle Saloon in Middletown New York on October 16th, 2009.

An acoustic version of When Love takes over

Kelly Rowland performs an acoustic version of "When Love Takes Over" at the Biz Sessions for The Sun UK.

Recorded 15th June 2009 in London, UK



While over at KellyRowland.net....

I've been stuck in a rut, living my own Ground Hog day.

Monday morning July 27th I had a dream. I was in an apartment building and this guy was helping me look for my old first true love, Michele. He told me she lived in the building. Everyone who lived in this building were all girls that were 5 foot four with dark hair. One by one variations of my old flame were walking into the building. I woke up very disturbed, it was an extremely powerful dream. I realized what a total waste I had been, as I must have been in denial, and never faced the facts. I got very pissed at myself.

This was the start of an emotionally powerful sequence that had me on the rocks, not sure if I was losing my grip on reality. 30 years of bad experiences pounded me into the sand, like I was at the beach and the waves were overwhelming me.

September 15th I came up for air.

A story of personal renewal

I am a new man, during my 51st summer I learned to love myself. Kelly Rowland's song "When love takes over' is now my song, her song has become my anthem about beating that little boy with bad self esteem. I threw him under the bus, hopped in the bus and pulled K-turns over him until he was paste, his ghost still haunts me, but only rarely.

Love has taken over my life, love for myself. I'm smiling a lot more. As Kelly sings, I wonder if it shows.

It’s complicated, it always is
that’s just the way it goes
Feels like I’ve waited so long for this
I wonder if it shows?

This blog will chronicle my efforts at personal renewal in the middle of the worst economic period in a hundred years, as I at 51 years old, with a crap job, no home, no future, no wife, no girlfriend, no home I own, no dreams, work to reclaim all of these things.




Now I'm going to have that beautiful life that I should have had. And I 'm going to be dancing the whole way To all you single girls, I learned my lesson, I shoulda put a ring on it.