Light up the Sky

Did Van Halen win the People's Choice Award for the Best Reunion Tour? I figured they were a shu-in but I'm not sure.

Sorry I missed this post somehow, AJ. No they didn't win--friggin' Zep won. The awards show itself was lame, I turned it off as soon as they announced that Zepellin had taken the award---I'll be glad when the writer's strike is over, although I do understand their concerns.

WTF? I thought it was for the Best Reunion "Tour"? Zep played one show, not a whole damn tour, screw them!

I was never one for awards.

You see VH are Media Industry outsiders now. Led Zep are not. In fact, Zep performed that gig as a tribute to one of the leading Industry Players. That kind of sucking up doesn't go unnoticed.

Indie bands never win awards (except in Britain)... and thats also the reason why VH haven't been on all the Talk Shows and in all the Mag's etc. Its the Record Labels that write the 'who's in and who's out' lists at all the fancy parties in town.

Ed gets his cover story in Guitar World, but no-one is interested in Dave anymore... lets be honest, why would they be? He vanished for years, resurfaced on Sterns old slot and then got fired. In the eyes of the Media he's just the "current" singer in the band.

Those cunts at Warner Bros. (and the like) hold the keys to the Trophy Case... make no bones about it.

Yeah, when you look at it like that I can see why Zep would get it. Or even Genesis.

Oops. My bad, it wasn't Zep that won, it was the Police (who didn't deserve it either--$250/ticket--who the f*ck do they think they are?)

So what you're saying Iro, is that the record companies control even who gets nominated for the awards--cuz the people's choice is voted on by the public...so I guess you have to get nominated by the record co's, the film studios and all that before the public can even have their say.....Makes sense--the nominees absolutely stank like yesterday's garbage this year. In some cases, it was like someone from another planet just came down and randomly selected 3 nominees for each catagory--I was very put out, because I actually like this particular award show....

Rav, these Media Co.'s are just like OPEC.
OPEC influence the price of oil, Warner Bros. influence who gets nominated. Basically, influence = control.

In this instance I would say it was a case of the Peoples Choice having to select anyone and anybody just to fill out the Nominee Categories. Its quite a broad sweeping Award Ceremony...

"And this years Best Broadway Performance By An Aardvark goes to... Alan, for his tear jerking rendition in Its A Wonderful Life - The Musical" --- if you see my point.

This year there were a plethora of 'Reunion Bands', so, they made it a category.

That makes sense--it's never been a staple category, now that you mention it.

Several of the artists who won did not speak, in honor of the writers' strike, but got their points across anyway. Joaqin Phoenix held up cue cards, a la Bob Dylan, that said, "Hi." "I'm Joaquin." "I'm speechless." ....I was amused.

The Golden Globes were a complete joke this year---the network had their B-team new anchors (whom I'd never seen before, so maybe it was the C-team) read them off in a one hour press conference at the theater where they would have been held had it not been for the strike. These two anchors looked very uncomfortable, and it was duller than watching bread toast. I channel surfed by it and stopped just to watch the train wreck of it all, but quickly got bored....Treating a bunch of basically meaningless awards like news was just completely self important of the industry and the network. Who cares that much really? If you're not going to put on an entertaining show, just phone it in to Variety and Entertainment Weekly and be done with it....sheesh!

The best, and only, Award Show that I tune into is The British Comedy Awards. Its just complete mayhem. Its so well-supported by the Comedians themselves, who always turn out in throngs to participate. Nominees are heckled, Awards Presenters are made fun of.... I remember one year a high-ranking Politician was presenting and the Winner (a well-known gay) insinuated, as he was accepting, that he just 'blew' the Minister backstage. Another year, Spike Milligan called Prince Charles "A groveling shit".

I'll watch the Oscars if I like the Host.... which isn't that often.

Agreed that most awards shows over here are typical of television over here---C.R.A.P.---do you suppose that the British Comedy awards will be broadcast on BBC America? We get that.

Speaking of British comedy, I wanted to thank you for making my world just a tiny bit more warped. On the strength of that conversation you had with unchained at That Other Place about the show, Little Britain, I got two seasons of it for Lance for Christmas.

Oh Iro, it's pure madness! We love it! It's right up our Steve and Sally (alley....was that correct form?) I wish we'd vetted it before we let the kids watch though...HAHAHA! Oh my, some of the goings on do freak the babies out a bit---it's almost as funny to watch them as it is the tv!! It's kind of at the point where they've already accidentally seen the nakey parts, so why bother to not let them watch the rest? I think our favorite is Andy and Lou--Andy's "I want that one" and "Yeah, I know" have crept into our familial steamer trunk of lines we quote at each other in conversation....Max has Andy down to a T.

Andy & Lou are brilliant. Pure comedy economy (see if you can say that 5 times over). You know how each skit will develop and end --- the getting there, via the catchphrases, is almost unimportant.

Rav, have you ever seen The League Of Gentlemen? I wont dare to explain what its all about... but its not a sketch show, I can say that much.

http://www.leagueofgentlemen.co.uk/newvids1.shtml Actually its not a current show, although they did make a Film version a little while back.

HAHA! I'd never heard of that either---wow....truly indescribable and killer funny "There's nothing for you here!! This is LOCAL shop!"---thanks, now my sides hurt....