Grammys Flashback: That Happened Last Year

From Lady Gaga's egg to Katy Perry's wedding video, plenty of crazy went down at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards.
By John Mitchell


Lady Gaga arrives at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards
Photo: Jason Merritt/ Getty Images

<P>The 54th annual Grammy Awards are just a day away and everyone in the MTV Newsroom is starting to get excited. Will Beyoncé" show up? How will Adele sound in her first major live performance since undergoing surgery to repair a vocal cord hemorrhage? What color will Katy Perry"'s hair be? What will Lady Gaga" wear? We can't wait to find out. But if last year's show is any indication, it's safe to say that just about anything could happen at Los Angeles' Staples Center on Sunday night. </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="vid:621416.id:1657665" width="240" height="211"></div><p> The quirk factor was high at last year's Grammys, and it got started long before a single award was handed out. Lady Gaga's red carpet arrival inside of a pearlescent egg carried by four scantily clad dudes wearing prosthetics on their faces and shoulders should have been reminder enough that the unusual is the norm at the Grammys. But in case it wasn't, the show itself delivered Muppets and Katy Perry on a swing. We've rounded up five big moments from last year's show to remind you why the Grammys are the craziest awards show of the year. <b>&#187; Lady Gaga arrives in that freakin' egg, er, "vessel."</b><br> Never one to just casually stroll the red carpet in a pretty dress, Lady Gaga went to great lengths to make every element of her Grammy appearance part of a larger art piece that culminated in the performance of her then-new single "Born this Way." It all started on the red carpet, when she arrived already inside her "vessel," later claiming to Jay Leno that she'd been in a state of artistic incubation inside it for 72 hours. (Did you just roll your eyes? We think you just rolled your eyes!) The pop star emerged to deliver a full-voiced &#8212; if otherwise joyless &#8212; performance of the song, which at the time was drawing heavy criticism for sounding maybe a little <i>too</i> much like Madonna's 1989 classic "Express Yourself," and went on to score three Grammys, including Best Pop Vocal Album for <i>The Fame Monster</i>. <b>&#187; Did Christina Aguilera fall down after that showstopping Aretha Franklin tribute?</b><br> Last year's ceremony kicked off with an Aretha Franklin tribute featuring Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Florence Welch, Martina McBride and Yolanda Adams. The ladies delivered a rousing group performance of "(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman" before launching into solos of "Ain't No Way," "Until You Come Back to Me," "Think," "Respect" and "Spirit in the Dark" and closing with "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" &#8212; tearing the roof off the Staples Center. Except all anyone wanted to talk about afterward was how Christina maybe slipped a little in her towering heels. The performance came just one week after Xtina botched "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XLV (luckily, Kelly Clarkson's rendition this year went smoothly), and it seemed like the "Beautiful" singer and "Voice" judge had fully redeemed herself after the debacle, delivering a fantastic vocal performance ... until she stumbled onstage, sending gossips into a tizzy that the singer may have been, we'll say, out of sorts during the performance despite much evidence to the contrary. Or maybe people just like a good near-fall? People get very excited when an entertainer loses her footing &#8212; don't they, Madonna? Anyway, while everyone tried to make Xtina's mini-tumble a bigger story than it was, the ladies earned a richly deserved standing ovation for their tribute to Franklin, who was rather ill at the time but has since recovered, lost a bunch of weight, gotten engaged and ended that engagement. (A year in Hollywood time is like five years in normal person time ... maybe that's why everyone is so afraid of getting older!) <b>&#187; Bieber performs big, loses Best New Artist to unknown jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding.</b><br> Justin Bieber's medley performance began with an acoustic strum through "Baby" but quickly segued into a raucous take on "Never Say Never," complete with breakdancing ninja acrobats, fire breathers and a cameo rap by "Karate Kid" star Jaden Smith. Biebs' mentor Usher even joined in on the fun for a pop-and-lock-heavy dance-off to his hit "OMG." But the <i>real</i> story with Bieber at last year's Grammys was that he lost. To Esperanza Spalding. A critically acclaimed but otherwise unknown jazz performer. Bieber didn't take the loss so well but his fans went even crazier, expressing the profound sadness they felt and bearing witness to their idol's defeat by hacking Spalding's Wikipedia page and changing her middle name to both "Justin" and "Quesadilla." One fan wrote, "Justin Bieber deserved it go die in a hole. Who the heck are you anyway?" while another scribbled, "So the Esperanza Spalding has only 8 thousand followers on twitter and how many does Justin Bieber has?" It seems someone forgot to tell the Belieber army that the Grammys are not a popularity contest (well, they're not <i>supposed</i> to be, anyway) and that one's amount of Twitter followers is not taken into account when deciding the winners. Duly noted! <b>&#187; Katy Perry performed the ballad "Not Like the Movies" while on a swing, playing video from her wedding to Russell Brand.</b><br> If you needed further proof that <i>a lot</i> can change in just a single year, look no further than Katy Perry's performance at last year's ceremony. Much like she did on her California Dreams Tour, Perry performed her ballad "Not Like the Movies" while sitting on a swing as video from her elaborate October 2010 wedding to Russell Brand was projected behind her. Though one would think a sweet performance like Katy's would shut the gossip mill down for at least a little while, the couple was already back to defending their strange union less than two months later when Brand co-hosted "Live!" with Kelly Ripa. By year's end, Perry and Brand's marriage was officially no more, and it made re-watching her performance from last year for the purposes of this article, um, kind of awkward. <b>&#187; Cee Lo performed "Forget You" with a bunch of Muppets (and Gwyneth Paltrow). </b><br> No, no one at your Grammy party spiked your drink. Cee Lo Green, wearing a crazy red bear suit and a rainbow fan of feathers (think peacock), really did perform his Grammy-nominated smash "Forget You" backed by a bunch of singing and dancing Muppets while Oscar-winning home health guru Gwyneth Paltrow writhed atop his piano. Oddly, the whole thing worked like gangbusters and was a big old ball of fun. (And when was the last time anyone associated the word "fun" with Gwyneth Paltrow? Such is the funky power of Cee Lo.) This year's show has the potential to outdo last year's in the water-cooler department with Rihanna and Chris Brown both set to perform under the same roof for the first time since, well, you know ... in addition to plenty of interesting collabos, including a special electronic dance music performance set to feature the Foo Fighters (right?), and whatever Lady Gaga decides to get into. <i>What are you most looking forward to at this year's Grammys? Let us know in the comments below.</i> <b>Chaos! Profanity! Wardrobe malfunctions! Don't miss our Grammy red-carpet live stream this Sunday, February 12, for a full three hours of mayhem, starting at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And the fun doesn't end Sunday: MTV News has you covered for all the Grammy red-carpet fashion, Grammy winners and Grammy news until the hangover wears off!</b></p>

Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1679008/grammys-2012-flashback.jhtml "> http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1679008/grammys-2012-flashback.jhtml

Dania Ramirez Danica Patrick Daniella Alonso Danneel Harris Deanna Russo

Why We Love Geeky Glasses [Uniform]

When Buddy Holly finally conceded to glasses, his vision was already 20-800. He had tried some of the earliest contact lenses. They became unbearable after about 10 minutes. So he got glasses. His first frames had thick plastic at the top, with a thinner, less obtrusive metal frame for the bottom half. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cnaEgV4l92c/why-we-love-geeky-glasses

Jamie Chung

'Spider-Man' Star Andrew Garfield Reveals Spidey 'Shrine'

'I did try to look at every single thing that exists,' he tells MTV News of his research for the role.
By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz


Andrew Garfield
Photo: MTV News

Most Spider-Man fans would agree that the man who plays the iconic hero should be a fan. In that respect, Andrew Garfield fits the bill perfectly.

When Garfield spoke with MTV News' Josh Horowitz before a screening event for fans, he explained his process of tackling the role for "The Amazing Spider-Man," and it involved lots and lots of comic books. "I did try to look at every single thing that exists. That is impossible, I discovered, but I did my best," he said.

But naturally, as a fan, there would be certain incarnations of the web-slinger that resonated with Garfield and helped him conceive his take on Spider-Man. For Garfield, those insights came from many different comic book sources. "There were certain things that I loved for his physicality. There were certain things that I loved for his wit. There were certain incarnations that I loved for his body type," Garfield said. "The Ultimates, I love the body type in the Ultimates and his physicality in the Ultimates, but I also love the artwork in the 'Torment' series, the [Todd] McFarlane series."

Once those pieces were found, it was a matter of stringing them all together into an in-depth conception of the superhero. Garfield and his stunt team attempted to go through every level of Peter Parker's life and think of the implications of his powers.

"Me and the stunt boys, we created a room where we just had a shrine to everything Spidey and to everything Peter Parker, because we wanted to make sure the physical language wasn't just a guy in a suit being a guy in a suit and throwing punches and throwing kicks," he said. "We didn't want it to be Jason Statham in a suit. We wanted it to be a half-spider, half-boy, who has spider DNA running around his blood system."

To realistically pull this off, the team went step-by-step to imagine how Spider-Man would realistically act, something necessary for bringing him to the big screen. "We wanted to understand deeply what that meant in terms of how he moves, in terms of skin sensitivity, in terms of his abilities of awareness. Imagine if he had six eyes. Imagine if he had more legs and what that means, not just within the suit but in day-to-day life," Garfield said. "He can eat Chinese takeout with his feet, while he's also writing a note, while texting with his shoulder. What does that mean? We tried to approach it from as organic a place as possible."

Check out everything we've got on "The Amazing Spider-Man."

For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

Related Videos Related Photos

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678823/amazing-spider-man-andrew-garfield-spidey-shrine.jhtml

April Scott Arielle Kebbel Ashanti Ashlee Simpson Ashley Greene

Hertz charges into EV Plugless Power pilot program, can't say it three times fast

Hertz has been offering up electric vehicles amongst its fleet of rental cars, and now it's getting ready to pull the plug. The company is teaming with Evatran to test out the those cool little Plugless Power discs, installing some at its corporate headquarters this month. Hertz, along with a number of other companies will be logging "feedback on daily usage routines, user interfaces, and any additional functionality needed." No word on when such technology might see wider distribution.

Continue reading Hertz charges into EV Plugless Power pilot program, can't say it three times fast

Hertz charges into EV Plugless Power pilot program, can't say it three times fast originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/MqPD0mXO79Q/

Charlize Theron Chelsea Handler Cheryl Burke China Chow Chloë Sevigny

FIRST LOOK: Beyoncé & Jay-Z Release The FIRST PHOTOS Of Blue Ivy Carter

Earlier today we learned that new parents Beyoncé and Jay-Z have filed paperwork to trademark their baby daughter Blue Ivy‘s name so that other unscrupulous people cannot make a profit by exploiting her. But right now we’ve got THE most exciting Blue Ivy news yet … in a presumed effort to have complete control over [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pinkisthenewblog/~3/6zglQc-Mv7E/

Jennifer Gimenez Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Morrison Jennifer ODell Jennifer Scholle

How The Zebra Actually Got Its Stripes [Science]

Despite being perhaps the most recognizable animal on the planet, biologists have been puzzled for centuries over how the zebra got its stripes. But scientists have worked out an answer, and it's nothing to do with camouflaging themselves in long grass. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/STGTrLR1SIE/how-the-zebra-actually-got-its-stripes

Ali Campoverdi Ali Larter Alice Dodd Alicia Keys Alicia Witt

Dodge is a space-shooter in which you have no weapons

dodge
Space-shooters are usually a fairly fiery affair, with many types of guns, weapon upgrades, power-ups and more. Dodge does away with all of that, while keeping the very essence of a space shooter: Dark background, fast action, and stuff blowing up all over the place.

Your vector-looking spacecraft is the fastest thing on the screen, most of the time. And as the header implies, you have absolutely no weapons; you can't get any, either. All you have is agility and maneuverability.

Your opponents shoot heat-seeking missiles at you; the missiles lock on and start tracking you. The trick is to dodge the missiles while putting them in the path of one of your enemies, thus letting them have a taste of their own medicine.

There are three types of enemies, at least in the first few levels: "simple" spaceships which fire slow projectiles, "tanks" which seem to be more serious and take more hits to destroy, and "circles." The circles simply explode, spewing twenty or thirty very fast projectiles. This sounds dangerous, but is actually great once you learn to use them; they are very destructive for tanks, and can even blow up other circles.

The soundtrack is very techno, but it meshes very well with this type of game. Intense fun!

Dodge is a space-shooter in which you have no weapons originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/01/dodge-is-a-space-shooter-in-which-you-have-no-weapons/

Gina Philips Gisele Bündchen Giuliana DePandi Giulianna Ramirez Grace Park