Huh. And wow.

Every once in a while, I come face to face with "the world out there". My reaction is usually either "huh" as in 'what do you know' or 'I didn't know that' or 'um...interesting'; or "wow" as in 'weird, man' or ... 'wow'.



Tonight, for instance, the Big Nuts and I decided to take in the annual spectacle that is The! American! Music! AWARDS! Back in the day - our day - we would have settled in for an evening of presentations, awkward speaches, and a few performances by Sting, the rock group du jour, the obligatory diva or pop princess, but it would have been fairly straightforward. Music was at the heart of it, and the genre lines were pretty clear cut - everyone knew which Billboard chart they were on.



This isn't our day anymore, (though I do know Green Day [ how sad is it that Green Day were the old timers on the show? ]) and that fact came clearly home to me, watching this show. I recognized most of the names, had heard some of the songs, but I watched most of the performances through my fingers, fairly scandalized at the proliferation of autotune and lip synching - not to mention the costumes, dance routines and general hoopla.



There was one performer - poor girl - that we had quite a giggle over. Let's call her Rihanna - anna - anna. Her number began with a video showing robot arms either removing bits of her clothing or embedding jewels on her chest (not sure just what was going on), then we transitioned to Live! On Stage! Rihanna - anna - anna spreadeagled on a windmill! Still managing to sing her trademark "hey, ey, ey". This is a talented young lady, let me tell you. I missed how, but she managed to get off the windmill, to reveal her costume of a white ribbon wrapped around her body, which seemed to become her boots. She clutched in her hand what was neither a mic stand or a walking/candy cane, but appeared to be a cross between the two. JB dubbed it the 'mic cane'. Toward the end of her number - and this was the highlight - laser beams came out of her shoulder pads! The Peanuts would have loved it! Luffed. It. Even better, Miss Rihanna-anna-anna once had a big hit with a song about her Umbrella ("under my um-brella, ella, ella" she sings). We figure we could overlay the music and lyrics about the umbrella over the video of tonight's performance, and they would faint in fits of happiness, for if there's one thing they want more than lasers coming out of their shoulders, it's an umbrella of their very own.

Huh. And wow.