Sunday 20 February 2011

Grammys vs Brits

For as long as I can remember I have loved watching the Brit Awards.  Its always been an "event" for me, I can vaguely remember Fine Young Cannibals refusing their awards in 1990 and from then on I watched it every year, through the early 90s when Lisa Stansfield and Seal always seemed to win best male and female, through to Britpop era which brought lots of Brit controversy courtesy of Jarvis Cocker mooning Michael Jackson, Chumbawumba dousing John Prescott witrh a bucket of water and of course Liam Gallagher's verbal battles with erm most of the other nominees!  And of course, one of my favourite ever Brit moments comes from the Spice Girls performance in 1997, who were my 13 year old self's favourite band in the world ever!

But this year I felt a bit underwhelmed by it all.  For a start I don't like it being held at the o2, it just felt like a big televised concert.  Earls Court was much better as it always felt like a proper awards do.  Over the last few years the categories seem to have been whittled down, we didn't even get an Outstanding Contribution this year.  I liked artists being recognised for making a great video or putting on an awesome live show, seems the Brits don't care about that anymore.

I thought the artists performing were still pretty good though - Take That, Rihanna, Mumford...until this afternoon.  The Grammys are on ITV2 from the other night.  I've never watched them before but I'm enjoying watching it so much more than the Brits, even though I don't recognise some of the artists.  For a start, it just feels like they've got loads more performers and they're all better, even Cee Lo Green and Rihanna who both performed at the Brits were better at the Grammys, just look at this Cee Lo clip to see what I mean, he has Gwyneth Paltrow and Muppets!



Rihanna had Eminem and Dr Dre!  As I type Sir Mick Jagger has just popped out on stage for a sing a long!  Kings of Leon presented an award alonside Miley Cyrus!  Its surprise after surprise.  Everyone is singing live which means sometimes they miss a note or forget a line but for me this just adds to it and the atmosphere and energy is coming at me through the telly! 

I want my awards show to be more energetic and exciting and actually full of awards.  Brit organisers take note please. 

Sunday 13 February 2011

a grey & drizzly day in February

Hello! 

This is my first ever post on my first ever blog.  I've been meaning to start a blog for ages but never got round to it...however I've found myself with not much to do at all today, what with trying to save money and the weather just being pretty bleurgh, so I have finally got round to it. 

January is usually pretty rubbish but I quite like February as it has the Brit awards, pancake day and my birthday.  Plus its a short month so payday is never far away, however it seems to be a continuation of January so far, a fact which I'm mostly putting down to the weather and the rubbish cold I've had all week (on my birthday too, how rude!).  And today I found out that pancake day falls in March this year, rubbish! 

So to try and perk the month up yesterday I baked a Guinness cake.  I've never made one before but using Nigella's melting method recipe it was quite easy.  Until it came to putting the mixture in the cake tin, too late I realised my tin wasn't deep enough so it ended up splurging over the edges rather than rising properly, oh well!  It tastes delish though, will definitley do another one once the correct size tin has been purchased, its the perfect cake for St Patrick's day. 




Something else which brightens up these grey days and conjours up images of summer is this gorgeous Prada alike beach scene dress.  Its been floating around in magazines and on fashion blogs for a while now but a couple of weeks ago it finally appeared in stores.  I genuinely thought it was designer when I first saw a pic of it but no, its Primark!  Its the cutest little dress for only £17, I can't wait for summer so have been layering long sleeves under it and a chunky navy cardie over it.  Loveliness. 
(look its lovely Jade from BNTM modelling it too!)