Bitter On Twitter

As I was watching the Oscars the other night I found it interesting that actors like Christopher Plummer & Max Von Sydow who are both in their 80s now were both nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Supporting Actor. Plummer won out over Von Sydow, and, I should add, other actors much younger than them both for that coveted statue. Even at the age of 82 Plummer continues to do great, well respected work. I wonder if anyone was on Twitter asking who is Christopher Plummer? I write that because it really surprised me a couple of weeks ago when Twitter lit up over one of the older statesmen of Rock & Roll during this year’s Grammys.

I actually first heard about it from one of my son’s friends while we were having breakfast at his place in Dorchester, Ma. a couple of weekends ago. It was one of the most notable, if not the most repeated tweets that lit up twitter during the Grammy telecast. At first thought my reaction was “impossible!” How could anyone be so out of touch? After all this was one of the best Grammy shows I remembered seeing in awhile. Something for every generation, and although there were a few acts I was unfamiliar with, who could not know who Paul McCartney is!!? Yes, that was the tweet during his performance of “My Valentine” from his new CD. Young people tweeting back & forth: ”who is Paul McCartney?”. I have yet to become a “tweeter” but if I were, my tweets would’ve concentrated more on the performance of Nicki Minaj or the weird net that Lady GaGa had over her face…but who is Paul McCartney?...C’mon!! Wait a minute though. McCartney will be 70 in June. He’s just about the same age now that Perry Como, Bing Crosby & Fred Astaire were when McCartney himself first performed in America back in the 60’s!! (I’m assuming those of you reading this know those names). So there lies the culprit: The Grammys themselves! Something for every age group?? What were they thinking? The Grammys is a young people’s show! Having it appeal to a wide audience is insanity! Nobody who relates to Chris Brown or Lil Wayne got McCartney’s performance & those waiting to see McCartney could’ve done without Minaj’s “Roman” and the fish net stockings that Lady GaGa mistakenly placed over her head. So what we need to do is have a new awards show. A show for the performers of the past. One that those 60 something artists can perform on & no one will tweet “who the hell is that”?? We’ll call it “The Gramps” or maybe “The Grannies”. This way everyone will have a place to perform. Actually, I’m not worried about artists like Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, The Stones, Elton John or, do I dare say it, Madonna. I think they did OK for themselves. But a show like that just might be the saving grace for a few of those performers whose ability comes more from computer generated sound than any exceptional ability. Only time will tell. Great performers can stand that test of time. Christopher Plummer proved that last night……and even that guy that a lot of those tweeters didn’t know during the Grammys has done pretty well for himself. Oscar & actors like Plummer & Von Sydow have been going strong for more than 80 years. Artists like McCartney for nearly 50. So Whether they’re Academy Awards, Grammy Awards or someday maybe The Gramps or Grannies, only a few will be special enough to get that very special tweet: “ Who the hell was that??”