OK, I recently had a request to translate the lyrics to some Kings of Leon songs for my friends from foreign lands who may not get some of the American Slang. First off, American slang varies not only from region to region but culture to culture and even city to city. I will do the best I can but fair warning I am not southern and also I’m pretty sure the tight knit Followill family may have their own language. Comments, opinions, corrections, creative interpretations are encouraged!

Slow Night, So Long lyrics

Slow night so long,
She’s frenching out the flavor, (he just ate some chocolate right before they make-out…so basically she’s really gross, addicted to chocolate or PMSing…joking I have no idea-my perverted mind takes me to a more oral place).

She’s 17 but I done went and plum forgot it (plum forgot, “completely” forgot- southern expression; stemming from the word ‘aplomb’- origin French; noun; definition; confident-“he’s confident that he forgot.” actually I just totally made that up but it sounds good).

Sentence translated: She’s 17 but I done went and plum forgot it- “She’s 17 but I completely forgot that minor detail thus potentially attributing to my arrest for statutory rape,” (depending on the laws of the state and completely hypothetical, of course ).

No tears are gone they’re pooling on the table, (pooling on the table, puddle of tears. Lots of crying)
No tears are gone they’re leaving their mark behind (leaving their mark behind, he or she is walking away damaged from this experience. Meaning someone is walking away with major baggage).

So far so good she’s absolutely wasted, (drunk or stoned putting her in a vulnerable situation)
She’s hanging up and changing her story around (changing her story around, maybe denying something that happened or making accusation).
I just don’t know where leading ladies come from, (leading lady, I thought it was “don’t know where these ladies come from” maybe someone can confirm that).
I just don’t know where they can be found (this may mean they just came out of the woodwork, probably referring to groupies wanting to sleep with rock stars and are always hanging around).

She’s opened up just like she really knows me, (thinking this is a sexual reference, spreading her legs most likely a one night stand)
I hate her face, but enjoy the company (he likes sleeping with her but most likely if he were to take her out for a meal or something it would be to the IHOP clear across town and probably expect her to go dutch (dutch-splitting the check on a date).
I’ll take you home, or back to Oklahoma, (I’m guessing this is a promise he won’t keep)
You’re not so nice, but sex sells so cheap (she’s fast but a bitch, he’s with her cause she’s easy to get in bed)

Rise and shine all you gold-digging mothers, (gold digger, someone who dates a guy for his money)
Are you too good to tango with the poor boys (tango-be with, sleep with etc..)

So that’s my humble interpretation of Slow Night So Long. Red Morning Light and Milk to come…

(for Fernanda)

One of the greatest sporting events of all time. Check out some highlights from a Classic Puppybowl and meet some of the now retired players. Puppybowl 4!

Check out this years Puppybowl 6 on Animal Planet. Featuring the Twizzler Blmp piloted by Hampsters and the Sideline Bunny Cheerleaders!

Here is a link to most of the video’s I have uploaded on my blog. Check out my VodSpot http://itainthemingway.vodspot.tv/

I love a good mystery! These are a series of video’s that are viral on the internet and apparently sending everyone into a tizzy on who it could be. There is some speculation that it may be Christina Aquilera, Britney Spears, or Lady GaGa.

The only obvious clues to me are the illustrations of a whale shark, an owl and a goat at the end of each video. The person also uploaded National Geographic type video’s on those subjects. I have just come across this so I don’t really know what the latest theories are but I’d love to hear what or who you think this could be.

I personally think it has a Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson feel to it.
Or maybe it’s the answer to an even bigger mystery; the Billy Corigan and Jessica Simpson hook up.

Here is a related article

Some other clues could be the numbers that name each video.
These are the tags found on the you tube channel:
foetus lap nourish cortex sap disciple wood

I feel like I’ve been so engrossed in the world of Indie music that I’m completely out of touch with all the mainstream music that’s shoved down our throats in the USA. I heard my first Lady GaGa song right before the Grammy’s.  I listen to a station in Philly that plays a variety of music but mostly Indie and alternative. I don’t think they’ve ever mentioned the name Lady GaGa on air, let alone play her music. This is the reason I’ve remained a GaGa virgin for so long. Don’t’ get me wrong I know exactly who she is, I know all about her crazy outfits, alleged penis and shoes so distorted even a Geisha would wince. What does that say about an artist when their gimmick is more recognizable than their talent? Who convinced this woman that she needed to go that route? I have a video on my blog of one Stephani Germanotta with long brown hair sitting at a piano looking very bohemian, belting out a song with more integrity then I’ve ever heard before. She doesn’t need the carney act we would’ve believed without the glitter and spandex.

I think we are a nation who expects all the bells and whistles mostly because of the Hollywood scene and now we expect our musicians to deliver the same kind of theatrics. The Peas and their dancing alien beat boxes; Beyonce with her army of Storm Trooper’s, and even Green Day with their new career venture as the pseudo punk version of Andrew Lloyd Weber with the latest Broadway Rock Opera. Sorry not a fan of Green Day or Broadway musicals.

It’s refreshing when a true rock band wins an award. A band who’s idea of theatrics is when the lead singer performs the last-minute of the last song on his knees; who’s stage set consists of a black backdrop, blinking light panels and the random close up of their faces which never show enough of the hotty drummer in the band. I can tell you in my humble opinion the honesty of the music and simplicity of a solid performance is the thing that keeps drawing me in and will keep me coming back until the band chooses not to do it anymore. It’s the integrity and the purity of the music that the awards should be based on and not who can do the best Cirque D’Soleil act. All I’m saying is the soundtrack of my life doesn’t come with fireballs, acrobats or dancing robots, it’s not what I will remember.  It’s the sound and the words, the feeling it gave me, and the people I shared this passion with.

Obviously not all the awards are based on popularity or record sales, I think true talent is recognized more often than not but as in most things politics are always involved. I take award season with a grain of salt every year and watch to see the pretty outfits, my favorite Rock Stars, and Movie Stars and every once in awhile I hope to be pleasantly surprised by a good honest choice.

Sorry I’m getting my annoying LOST fan geek on. I saw an interview once with Hurley where he talks about how he and his real life girlfriend practice an escape route in case he passes out or dies on top of her. They time how long it takes her to crawl out from under him…funniest thing ever!

Interview with Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia and Josh Holloway – Outside the Box.

Just announced today, our favorite Grumpy Granny @Grannyogrimm has been nominated for an Oscar for the short animation Sleeping Beauty. Our girl @Jenniquatro (aka bornagirl76 for those of u familiar with her KOL library archive) introduced us to Granny on twitter. Jen and Brown Bag Films produced the animated short with creator Kathleen O’Rourke. Looking forward to watching Granny ride her Rascal up the ramp to accept her award! I will admit I feel sorry for the bloke who is stuck sitting behind her in the audience.

—————-
Now playing: Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
via FoxyTunes

CONGRATULATIONS! You Drunk Bastards!!!

Really hoping Mama Followill survived the evening.

How Dapper do these boys look! I absolutely love Caleb’s suit. They definitely win for most handsome group. Loving Matthew’s hair too.

Wondering what the hell the doc is pointing at. Was that a Subliminal Grammy Count off, or some kind of secret message to his beloved Sooners…I wanna KNOW!

LINK TO BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW No Nathan your hair was not Clumpy!

LINK TO ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

Grammy’s YouTube Channel

Taylor Swift

Fergie

Jared and Nathan

{{desc}}

via GRAMMY FANBUZZ VISUALIZER.

Since we are embarking on a fun-filled weekend of Grammy Coverage my next few posts are dedicated to just that. The nominee’s, which categories, polls on who you want to win, red carpet commentary and the Grammy Show. The good, the bad and the ugly.

1.31.2010

Some Twitpics by Grammy.com blogger @Arjanwrites of the Clive Davis Red Carpet

1.30.2010

Check We’re All Fans an interactive page for the fans!

Pictures from the Music Cares Gala, honoring Neil Young

Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, PattyGriffin

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

The Grammy’s on Facebook Check out the Nominee’s!

Palladia.tv

Watch Palladia.tv for Grammy Coverage all weekend!

Interview with Caleb Followill

2010 Music Cares Person of the Year Neil Young.

Top 10 Memorable Grammy Moments

The Grammy’s on Twitter

Check out Grammy Radio

Grammy Ballot…print it out and see how you do!

Check out the Grammy Live Schedule of events!

Grammy Week Events

Check out the Grammy’s Summit on Social Media held this past week. Really interesting stuff on how social media effects the music industry.

1.29.2010
Starting off with an original Spin article that covers how bands are selected for awards and the secrets behind the grammy’s.

As posted by Spin Magazine:

Grammy Secrets Revealed!

By David Marchese on January 29, 2010 12:03 PM

Why isn’t 2009’s freakiest breakout star nominated as a best new artist? Who decides whether or not an album is “Americana” or “Contemporary Folk?” How the heck are Hall & Oates nominated in the same category as MGMT? To help answer these, and other Grammy-nom related questions, we turned to Bill Freimuth, the Recording Academy’s Vice President of Awards

Lady Gaga was the biggest new star of 2009. Why isn’t she one of the nominees for Best New Artist?
One of the rules for the Best New Artist category is that this is supposed to be the first year that an artist comes to prominence. Lady Gaga was nominated for a Grammy last year ["Just Dance," Best Dance Recording], and that, as far as we’re concerned, signifies prominence. If you have a previous Grammy nomination, you’re not eligible to be a new artist anymore.

The nominees for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with vocals includes MGMT’s “Kids” and a live version of Hall & Oates’ “Sara Smile.” That song is thirty-five years old. That’s weird, right?
It might not be ideal, but that’s the way the voting broke down. I should say that for many of our fields, we have what we call “Nominations Review Committees.” Those consist of smaller groups of people who sit in a room and listen to, in most cases, the top 15 vote getters in certain categories — though not the ones you’re talking about — and then narrow it down to the top five nominees. One of the reasons for that is to give less well-known artists a little bit better chance because there might be a lot of voters who haven’t heard them. Maybe they’ll place in the top 15 or 20, but they wouldn’t necessarily get in the top five. But overall, we do try to ensure that the nominees are deserving and our voters are aware of things that merit recognition.

This is confusing.
[Laughs] It certainly can be! I understand why people watching the Grammys might feel like they don’t quite understand how it all works.

Like, how is MGMT nominated for best new artist if their album came out in 2007?
They achieved the nomination based on a single ["Kids"] that was released this year. Some of the rules about nominations are hard and fast and some of them are a little more subjective. Like we were talking about with Lady Gaga, “comes to prominence” is a subjective phrase. What constitutes prominence?

Something else that I find confusing is trying to figure out how certain artists end up in certain categories. Wilco are nominated in the Americana category. Who decided they were that kind of band and not, say, a “rock” band? Or why is Death Cab for Cutie considered Alternative?
Albums are entered into certain categories by either their labels or members of the Academy. When the labels make entries, they all have different philosophies and strategies about how to go about it. What a label will do, if they’re not sure what category it should go in, is go ahead and enter it in multiple categories, which red-flags it for us because an album can only be entered into one category. But we’re not just drawing these lines in thin air. We have 22 genre-based screening committees that involve about 300 people who actually come to L.A. and screen everything. So let’s say you’re a rock expert on a screening committee, you would come to the screening committee meeting, and help draw the line every year between pop and rock. Those lines sort of shift every year.

Are all the Grammy voters allowed to vote in every category? Are the same people voting on both Regional Mexican music and Urban Alternative?
Our 109 categories are separated into 29 fields. On the first ballot, any given voter is allowed to vote in nine fields plus the general field. On the second ballot, they’re allowed to vote in up to eight fields, plus the general field.

So then it could happen that people are voting on both the Regional Mexican and Urban Alternative categories? I’m sure there are people who are experts in both, but it seems weird.
It could be, yes. But we think the system works. Just to be clear, we want to make sure that the Grammy Awards are relevant. So the people who are on the committees that draw the lines are people that we trust implicitly.

Who gets to be on those committees?
They all have to be voting members of the Academy. There’s actually a formal process by which we choose them. They are nominated to us, and then they all have to be ratified by our national board of trustees. Then the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the President of the Academy, and myself sit in a room and look at all the people that have been ratified and try to create the best mixes of geography and ethnicity and gender and a subgenre knowledge. It’s a constantly evolving thing.

Have you ever considered opening up a category to fan voting?
No. That would be antithetical to what we’re all about. These are peer awards. That’s what we’ve hung our hat on all these years and that’s why I think the artists, from what we gather, seem to care more about a Grammy award than about a fan-based award or popular-based award or chart-based award because this is their own people saying “You’re the best.”

Those are all the questions I have for now. Thanks!
Thank you! I hope I made things somewhat less confusing.

Check out SPIN online for more Grammy Coverage

My good friend John Arnold contributed to the Haiti Relief efforts by flying to Haiti with a plane full of supplies (he actually made several trips)without any kind of plan, he just did it. This is no surprise that John would do something like this he is truly the kindest person I know. Here is a video of his journey and some suggestions on how you can help.

His words:

If you'd like to help in Haiti directly - today - I'll share one way to do it.
I apologize for a mass email (not my style) and am not one to ask people for
things (again not my style).  I have had people ask how they can help and after
last week I know of a very good way and simply feel I need to do this.  Thanks
for understanding.

Last week I decided to fly right into Jacmel, Haiti with 1,300lbs. of water,
baby formula, rice, and soy milk.  When I arrived in Haiti I found a pathway for
aid that goes directly to feeding and caring for people (see the video link of
my trip).  Immediately.  This is not a big bureaucratic int'l organization -
which frankly, is the beauty of it.  These missionaries have dropped what they
were doing and have put together their own supply network that is getting aid
directly and immediately to the people that need it.  If you give today, you'll
feed someone tomorrow or the next day.  Also, there is zero overhead.
Transportation is donated.  It's the missionaries themselves, directly getting
the supplies in the Dominican Republic and transporting them to Jacmel, Haiti,
where they distribute daily what they bring in.  Whatever contribution you make
here is a "main line" injection of aid directly to someone that needs it -
pronto.  It won't get stuck in some warehouse somewhere or get eaten up in
overhead.  There is no overhead.  The news is filled with stories of aid piling
up and not getting out - not so here.  This is working, I saw it with my own
eyes and flew flights myself.

We had no big plan to get there when we started other than a contact in Fort Lauderdale who would supply us. Each step led to the next, we made it up as we went along, and received help every step of the way.

The video is at http://www.vimeo.com/8917700

If you'd like to donate and help these fine people:

1. G.O. Ministries - G.O. Ministries is the gatherer and the conduit into
Jacmel.

http://www.go-ministries.org/give.shtml

I talked to Ken George and under "Programs" if you select Haiti Relief Fund - it goes right to him. You can also put Ken George in "Recipients". They are
running out of money very fast. Can use credit card or PayPal.

2. Joy In Hope Ministries - a teenage orphanage in Jacmel which is now distributing aid (from G.O. Ministries) to the people in Jacmel

http://www.joyinhope.org/earthquake/index.html

Under "Reason" direct it to - Pye Family - it's towards the bottom. Can use
credit card or PayPal. Danny Pye and their teenage orphans unloaded our plane
in the video.

3. How Can They Hear (orphanage) - also distributing aid in Jacmel - Maria
Whittaker is the woman in the video that we flew back to Jacmel after she had
brought her own very young children out, to better care for others in Jacmel.

http://www.howcantheyhear.org/
Send check to :
Global Outreach International
P. O. Box 1
Tupelo, MS 38802

Please put "3015 Whittakers Earthquake Relief Fund" on the memo line of the
check.

Once again, sorry to blast this out & thanks for understanding. All week we've
been hearing how aid is not getting anywhere. This morning I thought, I know at least one way to get it done - NOW. I thought it proper to share in case you're looking for a way to do just that. Thanks for understanding.

On behalf of these organizations and the people they are helping......

Thank you!!!

John Arnold