Video Music Awards

As a strange contrast to the Emmys, I watched the MTV Video Music Awards over the last week. I have to say that although MTV does try hard to stay current and interesting, I've confirmed the reports in the press that the show was a pretty big bomb.

Worth watching:

Justin Timberlake opening the show. That man can dance.

Beyonce's performance. She looked great in a floor length trenchcoat and black patent leather underneath, the song was catchy and she has an amazing voice.

A band I've never heard of, called Ok Go, did a great performance (sans instruments) on a set of eight adjacent treadmills. It was really creative and fun to watch -- what MTV should be all about. Apparently this band put a video on the web that cost nothing, and it's been downloaded 3 million times. You should go find it, it's good.

I also saw commercials for School For Scoundrels, and Employee of the Month, both of which look fun. Even an ad for Jackass 2 got a laugh out of me.

Mistakes:

Jack Black was a really weak host, which surprised me. It just didn't seem polished, and the jokes fell flat.

Beyonce won best R&B video for Check On It, against Mary J. Blige's Without You, which is a complete laugh -- Beyonce's video is just her strutting around in various pink outfits for 3 minutes, and Blige's video is a tiny film that includes Terrence Howard!

Pink won Best Pop Video, which was a masterpiece of satire, but when she accepted her award she was either incredibly drunk or playing very stupid. Her smart interview on Oprah was completely contradicted.

Honestly the rest was so marginal that my fast fowarding gained momentum through the program. I do like watching award shows, but this 3+ hour program had about 20 minutes of interesting stuff. Better luck next year.

But at least I recoginized more than half the bands, and even a respectable percentage of the videos considering MTV doesn't actual air them anymore!