MY SISTER IS WAITING FOR US IN CHINA. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO HER IF WE DON'T GET HER?  I've given Smash two episodes, and my basic reaction is this: who wrote this shit? Look: I'm a big fan of cliched backstage stories so long as there's some wit or self-awareness involved, but this is done so straight and predictably that I feel like I'm laughing at characters who don't know they're being laughed at. Really: when you tell us early on that Dev has a Very Very Important Dinner for which Karen Cannot Possibly Be Late ... and then she's late, and Dev reacts exactly the way you'd expect if this were a dumb and predictable show...  one starts to believe this is, in fact, a dumb and predictable show.

As Alan notes, the show has a serious case of Studio 60-itis, in which the writers feel the constant need to have other characters tell us just how brilliant and wonderful everyone is (the scene with the adoption letter, ugh), with minimal evidence that the characters are, in fact, all that. Indeed, yet again, we've got an NBC behind-the-scenes drama that comes with much hype, and with talent behind the scenes and on stage whom we've liked in the past ... and the execution just isn't there. I may watch it just to laugh at it, but I'm certainly not enjoying it on its own terms.

ARTICLE IV, SECTION 3: One hundred years ago today, the Arizona Territory was admitted to the Union as the forty-eighth state.  From the Public Enemy song to the Glen Campbell, from Raising Arizona to the 1970s sitcom Alice, I hope I haven't exhausted the list of things from or regarding Arizona worth listing when we do lists like this.

[Bonus!  Okay, so I totally missed that on January 6, New Mexico celebrated its centennial of becoming the 47th state -- not that they got an official 47-star flag out of it. But since we're not slated to do another state centennial blog post for another 47 years (coincidence!), and given that we appreciate both our New Mexican commenters and the whole green chili thing, you should list your Pop Culture and Other Things We Like About New Mexico as well.]

WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE, EXCEPT THE SPARKLY ONES: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter: The Movie.

DEBTS THAT NO HONEST MAN CAN PAY: Bill See looks back at Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, which was released thirty years ago this March. "Nebraska is a kind of magic in the bottle that’s only captured through sheer happenstance. It’s no coincidence that Bruce walked around for weeks with the cassette in his back pocket, unaware it would not only become his next record but be talked about, and rightfully so, as one of the true masterpieces in American music":

TRACY JORDAN'S REVENGE: We didn't notice this last night, and it's worth a separate post--while Parker/Stone remain O short of EGOT, the Book of Mormon win for Best Musical Show Album does give producer Scott Rudin an EGOT, with an Oscar for producing No Country For Old Men (and a ton of other nominations), a 1984 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Childrens' Program, and 7 Tonys--all for producing, including Passion, The History Boys, Doubt, and Book of Mormon.

THIS RECORD WAS INSPIRED BY SOMETHING THAT'S REALLY NORMAL -- A RUBBISH RELATIONSHIP: Last night's Grammy Awards were, all in all, an entertaining mishmosh of genre mashups, worthy tributes, and the kind of overblown disasters one only gets to see at awards shows. Yes, Nicki, thank you for making my Super Bowl halftime prediction ("Nicki Minaj will be weird enough to compel my mom to call me immediately thereafter to ask me who the heck that was") correct, albeit a week late.

The best performances were the simplest: Adele's comeback, Jennifer Hudson's unadorned tribute to Whitney Houston (which was so spot-on vocally that it made one question Whitney's own singularity), and, most surprisingly, Paul McCartney and friends' rocking romp through the end of Abbey Road, the best awards-ending performance I can remember since Pearl Jam and Neil Young closed the 1993 VMAs.  Bullets:

• Commenter Randy asked the question last night on Twitter, and I don't have a great answer: who's the last artist to have the kind of massive critical and cross-demographic popular acclaim that Adele has now? Best answer I could come up with was Lauryn Hill, but that wasn't as widespread as this.
• I think my BRUUUCE credentials are sufficiently established that I can state unequivocally that there was no justifiable reason for him to open the show last night. (Heck, it's not like he was nominated this year.) Should've been Jennifer Hudson.
• Twenty years ago, Nirvana couldn't win a Grammy until after Kurt Cobain had died.  Now, Dave Grohl is the Jose Oquendo of the evening, and the Foo Fighters are so industry-established as to win almost every award for which they were nominated.
• Chris Brown, ugh.  Double performance, double ugh. Shame on you, NARAS, and this quote makes it worse.
• It is amazing to have Lady Gaga just sit there for three and a half hours and not have her perform, or win a single award. (Seriously, why was "Born This Way" not the song she pushed for consideration?) 
• Nice work by LL Cool J as host; he had the difficult job of establishing the right tone for the evening (we are in mourning, but we have permission to celebrate as well), and he pulled it off well. I have been warned, however, not to call it a "comeback".

GRAMMY NIGHT 2012: As a night expected to be focused on a young woman who sang "we could have had it all" shifts to the one who belted "Didn't We Almost Have It All?", comments are open. Matt and I will also be tweeting most of the night.