New Fun City welcomes the most irrelevant annual music award competition to monopolize public space.

New York, N.Y.

The last three days by Penn Station and Madison Square Garden saw perhaps the largest temporary infrastructure project ever constructed on one block, in addition to the freight cans plopped on 8th Avenue.

For the Grammy Awards came to town and apparently the D.O.T. and the city, your city has our current Mayor reminded us last year during re-election time, gave permission for either the Garden or the Grammy Academy or Organization whoever the goddamn fuck it is, to drop a traffic obstructing glorified blanket fort for all the celebrities in the recording and possibly other entertainment industries to keep nice and cozy in during the inclement weather and to avoid to acknowledge the existence of the proletariat citizens of this city and to ward off their rabid fawning fans (but not enough so they can still bask in their adulation).

This looks like the grand entrance of the exalted festivities. Look on as it takes up 3 quarters of the road.

That last photo is the designated crosswalk to get to the subway, for the actual one is blocked by massive cargo modules and video trucks.

And for something completely different, while not in the way but still off-putting, a conspicuous snazzy design camper trailer taking residence in the bike lane.

It’s amazing what this city will do for the famous and talented, and majority pseudo and untalented and straight up musical hacks (looking at you, Bruno Mars and the others, you all know who you are). As most of the city’s infrastructure continues to deteriorate with traffic unable to move even without this eyesore shit and multiple movie productions happening all over the place (in fact, there were 3 such movies being shot blocks away in the Garment District and a few blocks south of the Garden).

And for what really besides keeping the red carpet inside plush and untainted by the dusty grime of hyper-development still in the ether and the abject poverty on the streets. A big gathering place for a few hours for banal interviews, tone-deaf, half-baked and uninformed statements and displays of high-end fashion from the beautiful and interesting people vying for the most meaningless serious award from the music industry. It should be noted that Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Clash and Led Zeppelin never won the gold tone victrola. The Beatles lost best new artist to Petula Clark, The Pretenders lost the same award to Christopher Cross, and the first time they finally recognized Heavy Metal, they invited Metallica to play at the show and snubbed and stiffed them of the award by giving it to Jethro Tull.

It can’t be worse and oblivious that they built this block long glamping village tent with fucking chandeliers!…

…when there are 5,000 plus homeless people sleeping in the street. Like this person right across the street from the monstrosity:

Looks like the tale of two cities continues into de Faustio’s second term.

Speaking of homeless, the Grammy Academy recently just got one with the restoration of a mansion in Murray Hill, and the daily perjuring mayor was there to cut the ribbon.

Thankfully, the show is still going to be produced in L.A. so this shit will all be gone. But what’s going to happen to those big ass glamp tents. How about repurposing them as homeless shelters or food pantries. Or even set up showers in them instead of having the indigent masses wait for a bus to get washed up so not to revile the new high and fast spending transients coming to exorbitantly rent here?

Nah, they are just going back to where they are going and will probably turn up at some celebrity and politico hobnobbing party in the Hamptons, like that fucking obscene one last year to promote the Washington Post movie or it will probably pop up for one of a hundred events on privatized federal parkland.

So all that obstructive bullshit will be thankfully gone by morning like nothing ever happened. Which can’t be more appropriate since the Grammy Awards have always been out of touch with music trends that it never ever has had any influence in any genre or determined the popularity of any artists, especially the thousands that they overlooked.

To be fair at least they try on rare occasions. Like when The Johsua Tree and Outkast won for best albums and the times when it was obvious who were the best that year like Michael Jackson and Adele (the 21 album, not 25). This year a nominee for song of the year mentions the word nigger 100 plus times and jew once.

And there are 4 African-American artists for album of the year. Kendrick Lamar is the odds on favorite to win being that he has release 3 classic critically acclaimed albums in a row and is the voice, the only sociopolitical voice of this generation. But the winner will certainly be the utterly lame and safe creator of soulless soul music for 3 day festivals, half-time shows, chain pharmacies and rooftop parties, Bruno Mars.

 

 

 

 

So expect and accept the inevitable. And to the Academy, stop hogging the fucking road.