Ozzy Osbourne & the 2014 Grammy Awards

Ozzy Osbourne came out with his fellow Black Sabbath members to introduce the Ringo Starr performance. He flubbed his lines while reading the teleprompter, causing Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi to laugh. Afterwards while talking to reporters Ozzy had the best response, "I completely fucked it up." And we love you no matter what Ozzy!

Some other highlights included Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr performing Paul's new song "Queenie Eye" together. Half of The Beatles is still better than no Beatles. It featured a memorable moment with Yoko Ono & Sean Lennon dancing around to it. Sean, by the way, looked eerily like his dad John Lennon, circa 1969 and the Abbey Road era. The performance came ahead of CBS' 50th Anniversary Celebration (February 9th, 2014) of the Beatles' first performance in America. It happened back on February 9th, 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show, which was watched by over 73 Million people and kicked off Beatlemania and the "British Invasion".

Macklemore performed an emotional and powerful "Same Love" with Mary Lambert and Madonna. Queen Latifah walked out and married 33 diverse couples. Gay, lesbian, straight, interracial, etc. It made for quite the memorable and moving moment that will stand the test of time. Normally a mass marriage gathering would be creepy and cult-ish, but in the context was a nice touch.

The biggest stars of the night were possibly the hats. It seemed half of the people were wearing some type of hat. Pharrell's Indiana Jones style hat may have stolen the show. It's better than the star of the show being a foam finger though, that's for sure. Daft Punk of course took it a step further from hats with their helmets, decked out in enough white plastic to make the Storm Troopers from Star Wars jealous. 

London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony

Freddie Mercury

All good things must come to an end, and once again the Olympics have come and gone too quickly, with London 2012 ending with a bang, with one of the best Closing Ceremonies ever. Featuring performances from the likes of The Who, Spice Girls, George Michael, Muse, Anne Lennox as well as the members of Queen with Jessie J on vocals. They were introduced by the late, great Freddie Mercury on big video screens. It was old footage of him (from Live Aid 1985) interacting with a crowd, and the crowd in the London Olympic Stadium interacted back with him in a fantastic moment. This was the highlight along with the next one.

Another amazing moment came when a bunch of children came out to perform John Lennon's legendary song "Imagine". Then old footage of John Lennon came on the screens to sing the song, and it sent everyone into a frenzy (myself included). The children performed the song in sign language. The video was remastered from the archives of Yoko Ono especially for the Olympics. Much better than a hologram! Thank you Yoko for helping to bring John into the closing ceremony, where people from hundreds of countries were together singing and dancing, all "living life in peace." A sculpture of John's face was also created on the floor.

There were also tributes to David Bowie, Pink Floyd and The Beatles of course. The Spice Girls had a fairly good entrance, each coming out on a British style Taxi which then drove around the stadium floor with them standing on top. Russell Brand performed The Beatles' classic "I Am The Walrus" in a very psychedelic setting. Though Jessie J got so much screen time (too much) that I was half expecting her to come out and sing the "Olympic Hymn." Annie Lennox was dressed like some giant bird on a pirate ship which was odd, but interesting. Also got to see a great Monty Python performance. Some NBC viewers are mad that they cut out the band Muse and waited until midnight to show The Who after airing a new sitcom in between. Should have watched a BBC stream.

I loved the closing ceremony, and London knows how to stage on Olympics like no one else. This was their record third time hosting (1908, 1948 & 2012). Next its on to Sochi, Russia for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

Spice Girls Reunite

Mad Men Gets The Beatles

AMC's hit show Mad Men finally got an actual Beatles song on last nights episode "Lady Lazarus". At the end of the episode, Don's (Jon Hamm) younger wife Megan (Jessica Pare) gives him the latest Beatles album, "Revolver" (the show is currently in late 1966). She tells him to play the outstanding psychedelic track, "Tomorrow Never Knows." The song kicks in and we hear the rare sound of an actual Beatles song on a TV show. You can listen to it below.

The reason it's so rare is because the songs are expensive to license, and they are also picky about it in general. When the film Dinner For Schmucks got the right to play the song "Fool on the Hill" in the movie, Paramount/Dreamworks paid $1.5 Million. (Yoko Ono & Paul McCartney also saw the movie first and enjoyed it.) For Mad Men, Lionsgate reportedly paid $250,000 to feature the song. Its not just the money though, because many have tried to get songs and have been turned down. They have to like the script & context of the song before signing off on it. Paul & Ringo are fans of the show, which helped. I believe this is the first time a Beatles song has been featured in a TV show, at least recently. A few movies have had Beatles songs in them though: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Social Network, Bowling For Columbine, & Nowhere Boy. Plus their own movies of course.

The cost is referenced in the episode itself as a joke. Early in the episode the characters are pitching an ad campaign with their concept playing off the Beatles film, "A Hard Day's Night." Their task is to find a song that sounds similar, since it is too difficult and expensive to get an actual Beatles song for an ad campaign. Its a little wink and nudge at the audience that AMC spent the big bucks to finally get a Beatles song in an episode. And it worked out perfectly, because the track fit in so well with the story and the time frame they are in right now. Don doesn't understand why music has become so important, because he grew up in the 1930s/1940s when it wasn't. There were no larger than life musicians. Halfway through listening to "Tomorrow Never Knows", after seeing clips of Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) smoking a joint while working and Megan laying down at her acting class with her mind "turned off, floating upstream", Don turns the song off and walks away. The generational differences are surfacing as Mad Men moves through the psychedelic era of the 1960s. Don is out of touch and can't understand the Beatles or the younger generation, yet he married into it. Pretty sure this marriage will end up on the rocks. What are the odds Megan becomes a member of the "flower power" movement?

And if you haven't listened to The Beatles masterpiece Revolver by now, go out and get it. Remember to "lay down all thought, surrender to the void" (unlike Don).