PixlBit

Happy Friday Pixlbit! January is almost done, which means February is right around the corner. Yes it’s time to figure out where to take your special someone, and buy all the goodies. Since I’m single, I like to watch the folks go nuts especially the day before (you want to see something funny, go to a Target the night before and just stand at the Greeting Card aisle). My favorite time of the year is Feb. 15 when the candy goes on sale. I saw this tweet from Syndey Leroux from the United States Women’s National Team, and apparently I’m not the only one

 

Since this is Friday (I might be typing this early because Friday is a free day and I might be heading to my favorite mom & pop record store) it’s time for another Quick Hits With Chris. This week, I thought I’d give my thoughts about The Grammy’s, and Pickups. Sound good? Well hell, let’s get this started!

 

Chris Watches The Grammy’s

I do love me some awards shows and of course I do have thoughts on one of the big ones (I miss the good old days of the Source Hip Hop Awards where there used to be a ton of fights, and when Puffy used to wear shiny suits in music videos). The Grammy’s are fun, and it’s nice to see what artists are going to perform

Chicago meets Robin Thicke: Ok I thought this was going to be a trainwreck, but I really enjoyed this. LOVE Chicago, and I like Blurred Lines (go watch the unrated video on Youtube).

 

I’m not going to post that version, c’mon now. So while watching this I wanted to see Peter Cetera show up, but no dice. At the end of the performance Thicke sang his big summer song, and you know I was waiting for a certain twerking singer

 

Don’t lie, you see it too (Oh Reddit had the side by side pic that had me in tears). Bangerz wasn’t a bad album by the way

The Lovefest for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed The Heist. It’s a solid album, and that performance towards the end of the Grammy’s was special, but I don’t think they were better than Kendrick Lamar. good kid m.A.A.d city is a hell of an album, and Macklemore even agreed. This is one time I blame mainstream radio.

Daft Punk: Before I talk about them, let me say that I’m not a big Daft Punk fan, but I do like some of their songs. When Random Access Memory was released I bought into the hype and picked it up. There were some songs I liked on it but I don’t think overall it was better than the other albums it went up against for Best Album. If I had to rate the albums nominated they would look like this

Kendrick Lamar – good kid m.A.A.d city

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist

Sara Bareilles – The Blessed Unrest

Daft Punk – Random Access Memories

Taylor Swift – Red

 

Metallica & Lang Lang: It was good to see Metallica and the work with Lang Lang was odd. Joe Step made the comparison with Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony in the album S&M (awesome album by the way) to this performance and he’s right. Metallica already did this, and this time it felt like it was missing something *cough * an entire symphony *cough *.

 

If you have a couple of hours to kill watch this

Carole King & Sara Bareilles: I enjoy both and it was fun to listen to them sing Brave, and see the giddy Sara act like a fan afterward.

The two guys from The Beatles: It was nice to see them both performing. What more is there to say about them?

Pink: I like Pink, she’s a performer, but the whole Cirque du Soleil thing…again?

Justin Timberlake: I’m surprised he didn’t win a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album. I think if Part I was the entire album, and each song was cut in half, it would have.

Cut Me Some Slack: What do you get when you get a Beatle, and the remaining members of Nirvana? A guaranteed Grammy. I think if you threw in the Guns N Roses guys with or without Axl, the internet would break.

So I’m looking through the Grammy’s website to get a recap on who won what award, and why is there a “Best Urban Contemporary Album” category?

 

I was excited to see that Kacey Musgraves won Best Country Album with Same Trailer, Different Park. I bought this album based on the title and because it was $7 new. My first listen, I wasn’t too impressed but after a couple of listens I really started to enjoy it. I thought it was a witty country album, and I’m happy to see her win a Grammy.

 

Best Jazz Vocal Album went to Gregory Porter! Go Aztecs!

The one moment I was disappointed with was at the end of the show when Lindsey Buckingham, Dave Grohl, Trent Reznor, and Queens of the Stone Age were cut off. C’mon Grammy’s really? It’s okay to have Pink swinging around on ropes barely singing, Taylor Swift swinging her head back and forth, and the opening number I thought was way too long (can’t we tone down the Beyonce is the greatest lovefest a bit? Some folks were acting like Bieber fans where her album just appeared on iTunes) but let’s cut off this act.

My final thought about the Grammy’s is that I missed Norah Jones singing with Billie Joe Armstrong. I don’t know why Norah wasn’t there, but Miranda was fine, but it was have been much more interesting/fitting, to see the duo who covered the Everly Brothers’ album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. I haven’t purchased Foreverly yet, but I most likely will sometime this week.

As a whole I do like the Grammy’s. It showcased a bunch of different artists, folks won some awards, and it brings up little debates over fans who think certain artists were subbed, overrated, etc.

 

Chris Buys Things

 

Ok first off, Apple Juice makers, if you want adults to take you seriously, put your product in a bottle. I wanted some Apple Juice while roaming around Target, and this was my only option.

 

I spotted this in the weekly deals on the 360. I’ve never played the console version, but I’ve always wanted to try it, and I still had credit to cover it (I think it was $5.00)

 

While on one of my various trips to Target, I checked out the used section to see if they refilled it and I spotted a sequel to a game I enjoyed on the PSP

I spent the next day and half playing through all the match 3 puzzles to unlock the seven wonders

 

Yeah a day and a half. I’m happy I played this game, but really pissed I spent $13.00 and got a good full day of playtime.

 

For music purchases I found the following

My first stop was at a thrift store that I rarely visit. They had a first generation X-Box, two of the first X-Box controllers, and an X-Box branded backpack for $60.00. Not going to lie, I thought about it, but decided against it. They had a couple of games under glass but the one game worth picking up (I think it was an older Call of Duty for the PS3) was being purchased by the guy in front of me. I did buy some music

 

I forgot to take a pic of my CDs and I already placed them in their genre books. The albums are Bing Crosby’s Definitive Collection, Hot Hot Heat’s Makeup The Breakup, and Eiffel 65’s Europop. Yeah kind of random, but hey that’s how I roll.

 

As for some vinyl goodies

 

The Band nerd comes out when I spotted a Drum & Bugle Corps album

 

And you can imagine what happened when I saw this album in another stack

 

I couldn’t remember if I already owned this spoken word album or not, but for a $1, I bought it anyways.

At two other thrift stores I added more “new” music…and a CD that I already own (I really need to check my CD list when buying CDs)

 

Remember that period when Shaggy was huge? Yeah there’s a couple of songs I like on here…and we can look past the fact that I now own TWO copies of Celine Dion’s Greatest Hits.

 

I’m picking up Disney Soundtracks on Vinyl because at some point I want to frame them. Goodwill had a couple of other ones but the albums were scratched to hell, and this was the only one that was in goo condition.

 

Nat King Cole in Spanish? Why not

 

This was an interesting looking Sinatra album that was in awesome condition

 

I have no idea who this group is, and I’ve never heard this song but I bought it because of the title of the track. I got each album for a $1 so it was a good pickup day at the Goodwill

I picked up my next book for book of the month at Costco

 

I’m going to add this to the iPod once I finish off Game of Thrones (I’m almost done! It’s getting really good now). I own most of the Rainbow Six games, but I don’t think I’ve ever played through them.

 

A couple of CDs from Target (I got to use my 10% off Target Cartwheel coupon)

 

I really liked her mixtape, and when I saw this EP, it was a no brainer

 

I’m not familiar with Yo Gotti so I’m taking a chance on this album, and I downloaded some of his mixtapes to get an idea of who he is

 

I finished listening to one mixtape, and while typing/uploading this blog I'm listening to another one. There are maybe a couple of songs, but overall this isn't my type of music.

My final music pickups of the week come in digital format

 

Yeah I got sucked into Everything Is Awesome! This movie better be good.

 

From Google Play’s sale (all albums except Rihanna were $1.99. Also the Lana Del Rey Single was free)

 

Ok Pixlbit, it has been fun, but it’s time to end this edition of Quick Hits…as for the Super Bowl I usually root for the Aztecs in the game, which I’m doing this year but I also want to see Peyton win his second Super Bowl in Eli’s house. OMAHA!

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris