The 2009 Grammy Awards

Last night was the 2009 Grammy Awards. Here's a brief list of results. Follow this link to see complete results (featuring awards like Best Surround Sound Album and Best Polka Album) along with nominees and winners.

Record Of The Year
"Please Read The Letter"
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Album Of The Year
Raising Sand
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Song Of The Year
"Viva La Vida"
Written and performed by Coldplay.

Best New Artist
Adele

Best Dance Recording
"Harder Better Faster Stronger"
Daft Punk

Best Electronic/Dance Album
Alive 2007
Daft Punk

Best Pop Vocal Album
Rockferry
Duffy

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
Still Unforgettable
Natalie Cole

Best Rock Song
"Girls In Their Summer Clothes"
Written and performed by Bruce Springsteen.

Best Rock Album
Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Coldplay

Best Alternative Music Album
In Rainbows
Radiohead

Best R&B Song
"Miss Independent"
Written by Mikkel S. Eriksen, T.E. Hermansen & S. Smith. Performed by Ne-Yo.

Best R&B Album
Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Hudson

Best Contemporary R&B Album
Growing Pains
Mary J. Blige

Best Rap Song
"Lollipop"
Written by D. Carter, S. Garrett, D. Harrison, J. Scheffer & R. Zamor. Performed by Lil Wayne Featuring Static Major.

Best Rap Album
Tha Carter III
Lil Wayne

Best Country Song
Stay
Written by Jennifer Nettles. Performed by Sugarland.

Best Country Album
Troubadour
George Strait

The Vanguard hits the "Coraline" Red Carpet Event

The Vanguard hit the Red Carpet Premiere of Laika's new stop-motion feature film Coraline at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Check out some photos from the premiere, and check the Vanguard on Tuesday for interviews with Neil Gaiman, Dakota Fanning and Henry Selick. Also, check back here next week for video footage from the premiere. (All photos by Marni Cohen)

 

Left: Coraline Director Henry Selick  Right: Nike Co-founder and Laika owner, Phil Knight

 

Left: Actress Teri Hatcher voices Coraline's mom  Right: Coraline Author, Neil Gaiman

Above: Lead Animator on Coraline and son of Phil Knight, Travis Knight

Above, from left: Phil Knight, Producer Bill Mechanic and Lead Animator Travis Knight

Above, from left: Actress Teri Hatcher and Director Henry Selick

Above: Author Neil Gaiman is interviewed by KGW NewsChannel 8

Above: Actress Dakota Fanning voices the title character Coraline

Above: Actor Robert Bailey Jr. voices Wybie

New Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens!!

For those of you not already drooling over the "Dark Was the Night" compilation here are two excellent reasons to start doing so: "Lenin" by the Arcade Fire and "You are the Blood" by Buck 65 (remixed by Sufjan Stevens).

The Arcade Fire track is classic Arcade Fire and while very good in its own right, it is easily overshadowed by the epic "holy-fucked-ness" of "You are the Blood." Listen to that sucker, Sufjan really let loose his inner editor on this one and the results are beyond epic.

Ticketmaster fucks everyone over (again)

How's this for the latest chapter in Ticketmaster's horrible, shameful legacy (via the ever-lovely AV club):

A bunch of Bruce Springsteen fans tried to buy tickets for an upcoming show at the Meadowlands through the Ticketmaster website. They were taken to a screen that claimed that tickets weren’t available from Ticketmaster, but could be purchased for many times their face value from TicketsNow, a ticket resell outfit currently owned by Ticketmaster. In response to fan outrage, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey is lobbying for the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department to look into a possible conflict of interest. For its part, the company said through a spokesman that only a few fans reported problems.

Whether this is a mistake or not (my money's on not) it's just gross of Ticketmaster to contemplate ripping off their customers to such a horrific degree. Having worked for a Ticketmaster outlet in the past I can say with absolute certainty that the company is about as blatantly unethical as you can get (old news, I know) and I'm surprised that both the US people and US government have failed to rise up and depose it at some point in the past.

Maybe this will finally push things in that direction...

The lovely Laura Gibson

You should check out the interview with Laura Gibson in today's issue of the Vanguard. Not only is Ms. Gibson insightful and interesting but there are some excellent revelations about her academic endeavors as well.

In the mean time here are a few videos of Portland's foremost chanteuse:

With Colin Meloy:


All on her lonesome:


and on top of construction equipment (thanks to Live from the Wreckage!):

I want what he's having

Little kid goes to dentist, gets powerful anesthetic for surgery, Dad films him on the way home. Hilarity ensues.



"Is this real life?"

Yes, yes it is little buddy.

(Hat tip: Slog)

All the ads, none of the football

Not a football fan but still want to watch all the sweet new teasers for this summer's movie lineup. Save yourself the 4 hours and check out some awesome new spots from some of the summer's biggest blockbusters here.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen - The sequel to the obscenely successful 2007 movie about giant robots.

Star Trek - J.J. Abrams' questionable reboot of the Trek franchise. Although only questionable if you liked Star Trek in the first place, otherwise it looks pretty sweet.

Land of the Lost - A remake of the 1970's children's show starring Will Ferrell playing Will Ferrell.

Year One - A clip from the new Harold Ramis directed, Jack Black and Michael Cera starring story about lazy hunter-gatherers. This clip features David Cross and Paul Rudd as the biblical characters Cain and Abel.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - Cobra Commander. 'Nuff said.

Up - Disney/Pixar's new flick. All recycled footage from previous teasers (except for about 5 seconds at the end). Visit this website to watch some irritating clips from what may be Pixar's first ever critical and commercial failure.

Fast and Furious - In this fourth installment in the successful franchise, Vin Diesel drives your dad's old car under a giant flaming gasoline rig. As Paul Walker tells Diesel in the trailer "a lot has changed." Yeah, well probably not enough to make this movie any good.

Race to Witch Mountain - Something about clairvoyant adolescents and The Rock having to drive them around. Honestly, when I first heard about this movie I thought it was another movie adaptation of a theme park ride (a la Pirates of the Caribbean).