Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
from Photographers Blog:
Hatching a plan to cover Lady Gaga’s egg
I've covered all of the big Los Angeles based award shows and multiple Grammy Award shows, but I've never seen something like this. Was Babylon 5 making a comeback? Nope - just Gaga being Gaga.
I started to set up my equipment at my assigned spot on the 53rd annual Grammy Awards red carpet around 10:15am. My assignment was to cover red carpet arrivals with Lucy Nicholson photographing the show and Mario Anzuoni backstage photographing winners with their awards. Arrivals began at 12pm and lasted until 5pm. At about 10:45am we had a visit from an organizer saying that 1pm would be a bad time for a bathroom break. We started to ask questions and the answers were vague such as variations of "believe me you will want to be here, trust me." We began to deduct through cryptic messages that it was regarding Lady Gaga's arrival as that was everyone's best guess and it made sense after covering her in the past.
As more photographers started to show up, the word circulated about the 1pm slot and we were told that the red carpet would be cleared for "something". Words with question marks floating around included a vessel, a cocoon, a carriage, an enclosure. Eventually the cryptic Lady Gaga talk ceased and all of us photographers were told that her enclosure would stop in the center of the backdrop, she would be inside and she would not come out of it to pose for photos. Would we even be able to see her? What is it? How large is it? We weren't sure. Photographers were trying to come up with ideas of what was possible. Would she walk with a transparent cage around her? Would she be encased in a glass dome? Was it something attached to her? People were asking everyone to try to gather a clue on what to expect. For some reason I started to envision her inside a huge hamster ball or some sort of plastic balloon like how some gift basket companies package stuffed animal gifts.
My main concern was not really what it would be, but how big it would be so that I could be prepared with the correct lens. The enclosure would be about 10 feet from us and if it was large I had to be ready with a wide angle lens. I was asking if it was vertical, was it horizontal, was she standing, was it about her height, was it larger than the backdrop, etc, but I couldn't get a concrete answer. We weren't allowed to walk around to get different angles, which is standard at award shows and other red carpet events. Only those with red carpet roaming access can move around on the carpet, which is usually reserved for the event's official photographers. I had to shoot from my fixed position and I needed to be as creative as I could be from that position - as prepared as I could be to adapt to wherever something happened on the red carpet. What I could see from my position was all the opportunity I would get to capture a strong image.
Taylor Swift wins Grammys, loses music critics
Taylor Swift’s record label has come out in defense of the young pop/country star after her less-than-stellar performance at the Grammy awards on Sunday had music critics shooting poisoned arrows at her vocal talents.
Swift, 20, took four Grammys on Sunday, including the coveted album of the year for the smash hit “Fearless”, which was also the biggest selling album of 2009. But her haul was somewhat overshadowed by her live Grammy duet with veteran rock singer Stevie Nicks, which The Washington Post called “incredibly wretched” and Ann Powers of The Los Angeles Times described as “tinny and rhythmically flat footed.”
Music awards shows falling by the wayside
The indignity just keeps piling up for pop stars these days. Fans are either pirating their records, or just not bothering to listen to music anymore. The labels are cutting back wherever they can. And now there are fewer opportunities for pats on the back and shiny statuettes.
Several key shows have quietly fallen by the wayside in recent years, including the Billboard Music Awards (last held in 2006) and the Soul Train Music Awards (last held in 2007).
UPDATE-What went wrong between Chris Brown and Rihanna?
R & B supercouple Chris Brown and Rihanna suddenly found their relationship thrust into the headlines when Brown was arrested on suspicion of attacking a woman widely reported to be Rihanna.
While various celebrity web sites, citing sources near both Brown and Rihanna, reported details of an argument in Brown’s car in the wee hours of Sunday morning, the fact is that right now, nobody really knows exactly what happened except those two, and neither is talking to anyone but the police. And the police have been equally quiet.
Critics rate Grammy Awards a so-so show
The Grammy Awards on Sunday failed to elicit a chorus of praise from the critics, wh
o tended to agree that the show was all over the musical map.
Brian McCollum, pop music critic for the Detroit Free Press, called the show “one of the most sizzle-free Grammy events in recent memory, marked by tepid live performances, unmemorable acceptance speeches and low-key presenters with dud jokes.”
