MANY wore white and many carried white flowers in support for Time’s Up, a movement against sexual harassment that has gained widespread traction since its founding in January. That was the rallying cry in the 60th Grammy Awards, held on January 28 in New York. The Golden Globe was the first to hit the button. There was the lengthy speech from Oprah Winfrey, the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which only survived because it was delivered with such conviction. But then there was the banter and the jokes. The Grammy was damn serious about the whole thing.
The presentors, not as vociferous and prominent as Oprah, were passionate about the call to end sexual harassment in the workplace but more than that, equal payment and respect. The demand was for those in positions of power to use that power with justice, a clamor that’s almost unreal. In fact, all this talk about the fair treatment of women tells us that nothing significant happened between the time Women’s Lib was a battlecry and today, when everyone seems tired about injustices committed mainly by powerful men against women.
More than the issues that involved sexuality and exploitation, Grammy night brought upon the crowd this new notion of immigrants as dreamers. The elephant that was not in the room was Donald J. Trump. The winners were artists who reminded us that American music owes its birth and evolution to the immigrants, who brought to the land their rhythm and soul, their beat to produce one of the most unique sounds in the world. Come to think of it, records store always reserve an area for those music that cannot be classified as “American” or “Classical” under the label “World Music.” But if there’s an original world music, it’s the music that is generated from this land called the United States of America. That was the music celebrated in the 6oth Grammy Awards.
The Grammy Awards, of course, is noted for outstanding musical performances. The tributes to the great artists of America were mesmperiing. John Batiste, Gary Clark Jr. and Joe Saylor rocked the house with their ode to the two giants: Fats Domino and Chuck Berry. When “Ain’t That a Shame” and “Maybelline” soared, you could sense the beat that gave birth to the present songs. You were listening to the origins and you could not stop yourself from stomping your feet and clapping, as did the audience that night.
Two composers were honored that night: Leonard Bernstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Ben Platt scaling the high notes of “Somewhere” proved that old songs never die, they just get reinterpreted. Standing there without moving at all, the Broadway star also showed how simplicity can be gorgeous. But of couse, for those with a taste for the flamboyant, Patti Lupone brough the house down with her reprise of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from the musical Evita. I’m not a fan of her over-the-top performaces but that night, with her big frame and her big voice and the theatrics, I thought Patti Lupone was the star of the show. But then again, for those with a sense of history, U2 singing in front of the Statue of Liberty and Sting with his “Englishman in New York” were the downright show-stoppers.
I’m rediscovering Pink with her “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken”: with her retro fashion, Pink could be the Peggy Lee of this generation.
Cyndi Lauper joined Kesha and other artists to do “Praying,” calling almost the congregation and not merely the fans. At the end, the singers all in a white huddled in a group hug. It was not cheesy at all.
Let’s not forget Bruno Mars, winning all the major awards. In a red suit, he reminded us so much of Michael Jackson. In local TV news programs following the Grammys, Bruno Mars was claimed by the country as “Filipino”.
The lesson is that so long as the music is great, politics can be fine.
Another show has attracted me because of its politics. The series is about the life of one of the greatest minds of the last century, Albert Einstein. My pleasant surprise and shock is how science with politics and sociology can really be sexy.
The series, called Genius, tracks the early life and loves of Albert Einstein.
The world’s memory of this great scientist is that of an old man, with that shock of wild, white hair and the thick, graying mustache. His eyes are glazed. The inquisitiveness in those eyes are gone in this iconic photo, but the series brings it back and more.
There are many exciting things going for this series from National Geographic. For one, the discoveries and insights of Einstein are rendered in near magical visuals. Each shot of his ideas are like easy ways of understanding the basic notions of physics. Add to this the parade of scientists of the era—from Marie Curie, who discovered radium; to Philipp Leonard and Carl Jung. Einstein even gets to meet the young Franz Kafka in Prague. When told that this genius in front of him works as a patent clerk, Kafka asks the young Einstein whether he feels like a cockroach, a reference to Kafka’s character who turns into that insect in his book Metamorphosis.
Social issues overpowers science in Genius. Perhaps to make the stories engaging, the scientists are introduced not through their discoveries but by way of their social milieu. One gets this feeling of big minds with small hearts. In the case of the young Einstein, the character that confronts us is one that has an utter disregard for the feelings of others, of a tempestuous individual for whom his experiments and the quest for truth are the only things that matter. Every now and then, we get to see his humanity, but then he would make a decision that brings him closer to his science and away from us, from society.
Geoffrey Rush plays a very convincing elder Albert Einstein. The charm of the series, however, is the younger Einstein played by Johnny Flynn. With the face of an angel, Flynn is vulnerable and brash. He makes innocence and naivete look like they are a good excuse for a genius. He makes us fall for that.
The most heartwrenching characterization is etched by this glorious actress Samanthan Colley. As Mileva, the first wife of Einstein, she is the woman with a brain almost as brilliant as Einstein’s. Circumstances and the attitude of Einstein push her to the margins to be merely a wife. The lessons from the series: politics can destroy science and science can ruin marriage.