Lorde "Royals"

The Grammys are this weekend.

One of the many, many (many!) little things I do at MVY, is to copy the whole nomination list, and then go over it with a fine tooth comb, highlighting all of the MVY artists who got nominated.  I print it out and leave it in the studio for the DJs.

Though this year's document is 20 pages long, the list---for MVY listeners---is pretty weak.

No MVY acts for Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year or Best New Artist.

Oh, some of our favorites show up in places you'd expect, like Americana or Alternative.

But this list this year is decidedly Pop heavy.

That's not entirely a bad thing.

Even though they aren't likely to be played on our station, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Bruno Mars, and Daft Punk are all credible artists who made great songs in the genre where they live.

I'd even venture that though this was not a tune we'd play on MVY, Lorde's "Royals" IS one of the best songs of the year, without a doubt.

I'll post about some other interesting Grammy nods throughout the week . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Lady Gaga "Applause"

My wife and I were waiting to meet some friends at a bar this weekend.  While our friends were extricating themselves from a different party to come join us, my wife and I had some time to sit in the bar, talk and listen.

We talked about serious things.  We talked about light things.  We talked about Christmas.  We talked about the kids.

The usual.

A local band was getting set up at one of end of the barroom.  But in the meantime, the PA system was rotating through a bevy of current pop hits.

I don't listen to too much pop music by choice.  I don't hate it necessarily.  It's just not my taste.

But I DO hear a least a sample of what's current, via my wife and kids.

While they don't like everything---they are discriminating---they like enough to make me feel like I am connected to the pop world so that I know who Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are, or what the fox say.

Some fun song would come on the PA and my wife would start grooving in her chair, a smile breaking out on her face.  It wouldn't necessarily stop the conversation or anything.  It was just a part of the scene and the mood.

Our friends showed up right around the time the band started playing.

The band's selections tended toward the heavier, moodier stuff, and both my wife and I noted a marked change from what the vibe in the room had been.

"What were they playing before?"

"Oh, you know, Pop stuff," I said.  "Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars and such."

My wife started cracking up.

"No they didn't."

Really?  I thought they did.

But no.  She ran through the 10 or so artists we HAD heard.  But Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars were not among them.

Basically, what she was calling me out on, was that to me, there isn't really any difference between hearing Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, and hearing Fun and Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake (whose songs we DID hear).

Admittedly, unless I have heard the song a few dozen times (via my wife), then sometimes hearing songs from these artists is like trying to tell squirrels apart.


Hear "Applause" on Youtube.


Hear "Locked Out Of Heaven" on Youtube.


Hear "Roar" on Youtube.

Carole King & Louise Goffin "Where You Lead"

The pressure was getting to me, because there was no way I was going to surprise her.

I mean, since we were using her Grandmother's diamond, she knew that she was getting a ring, and that it would be soon.

But when?

Ugh, every time I did anything, she'd get that expectant look on her face.  Like this could be the moment.

"Honey, can you come in the bathroom?"

"Yes?!?" she'd come running in, eyes wide.

"Uh, I just wanted you to look at this mole."

(Disappointment)

I'm a pretty creative guy, and I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a creative way to ask my girlfriend to marry me.

But the truth was, her radar was on such high alert, there was absolutely no way I could surprise her.

So, I decided I would take the "anti" approach to a proposal.

I put the ring in my pocket, and decided that I would simply ask her when the moment seemed right, whenever that was.

A few days later . . .

I had come home from work before she did, and decided that I'd just go for it.  She'd be home soon, and it wouldn't leave me too much time to work myself into full on nervousness.

Knowing that we'd be going out to dinner to celebrate, I took a shower and I shaved.  And waited.

I put on the TV to keep myself distracted.  A rerun of "The Gilmore Girls."

She came home a few minutes after that.

She was standing in the middle of the room, looking through the day's mail.  She looked at me, somewhat distracted by the pile of bills.

"Hey, you shaved.  I can see your face."

"Does it look good?"

"Huh?

"Is it a face you could look at for the rest of your life?"

Now she was looking up from the bills.  I was holding out the ring.

"You're doing this now?!?!"

She still gives me a hard time about the fact that instead of Chili Contest proposals, or a dramatic standing-on-a-cliff scene, or a full-on lip-dub performed by family and friends (see below), that instead when she thinks about the day a man asked for her hand in marriage, it was while she was looking at the cable bill as "The Gilmore Girls" played in the background.

She wanted unique.  Well, I'm betting no one else has a proposal story like that . . .

Happy Anniversary to us!


See the opening credits on Youtube.


Hear the full song on Youtube.


And speaking of Gilmore Girls, I also did not do a proposal like this.




See a much more elaborate wedding proposal on Youtube.