The VMAs

Normally I wouldn't bother mentioning the arrivals, but there are two important theme-related occurrences I should mention. The first was Lady Gaga and her arrival with her date. Her date turned out to be Kermit the Frog. I will chalk this up as number one on the Lady Gaga is insane list. The other notable arrival was of Kanye West, who arrived with a bottle of Hennessy in hand. This, of course, would play a part in the festivities to come.

Starting out the night, Madonna stood alone on stage and spoke of her friendship with Michael Jackson (although it seemed more like an acquaintanceship from how she described it) and how his death has affected her. She called him a king and did her best to explain his weirdness away, but it did little to convince me. However, I almost became a believer when I saw the tribute they gave him. A mix of videos ranging from Thriller to Smooth Criminal saw the pop icon doing his best trademark moves. A surprise came when Janet Jackson arrived to assist in the dance to ‘Scream.' The tribute was well done and the crowd responded with hearty applause and cheering.

The first award, Best Female Video, was won by Taylor Swift for "You Belong With Me." After reaching stage to receive her Moon-Man, Kanye West jumped onto the stage and took her microphone. "Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time," stated Kanye before handing the microphone back and disappearing backstage. Swift looked shocked and ended up missing the chance to finish her thank you speech. The other awards presentations went without a hitch. Video of the Year went to Beyonce for "Single Ladies" while "21 Guns" gave Green Day the Moon-Man for Best Rock Video. Lady Gaga took home "Best New Artist" and Eminem returned to the spotlight with Best Hip-hop Video for "We Made You."

The night was filled with great music. After the Michael Jackson tribute, the crowd was treated to a Perry version of We Will Rock You, performed by Katy Perry and legendary Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.  After a series of songs that we TV audiences missed out on, Taylor Swift serenaded a crowd in the subway with "You Belong With Me." I thought this performance was very unique and give Taylor major props for doing it. Lady Gaga was the next performer, singing her song "Paparazzi." During her performance, she started bleeding (fake blood, people) all over herself, and her dancers. This added to her four extremely strange outfits throughout the night give me reasons two through seven on her insane list.

Green Day rocked the house with their song "East Jesus Nowhere." After their performance, the actors from the Twilight movies came to show a sneak peek at the next movie. Beyonce performed her song "Single Ladies" after the sneak peeks. After about 15 minutes of pure torture, I was eventually given a break and Muse played their song "Uprising." Even from my seat in front of my computer, I wanted to jump and sing with everyone in the audience. Muse did not disappoint and takes the cake as my favorite performance of the night. Taking a close second was P!nk, performing "Sober." This in of itself was not impressive, but the fact she did it on a trapeze and sang as she swung upside down and did flips was. Major kudos to P!nk for this performance. Jay-Z performed his song "Empire State of Mind" but I hate rap music, so I barely paid attention to it. The last performance was a sneak preview of the new Michael Jackson documentary called This Is It. I was never a huge fan of Jacksons, but it actually looks worthy of being watched.

Two thumbs up and a thumbs down need to be given out before this article ends. A major thumbs up to Beyonce for allowing Taylor Swift to finish her acceptance speech. The other thumbs up goes to Gerard Butler for his introduction of Muse. Anyone who can get a crowd of New Yorkers chanting like the Spartans is a hero in my book. (HOO-AHH!) A major thumbs down to the VMAs for choosing Russell Brand as host. His jokes are terrible, and he is not funny in the least. He spent most of the time ‘hitting' on the different females there, but most of the laughs were forced. If the VMAs want to have people continue watching these shows, they need to get semi-decent hosts. Russell Brand, you are a disgrace. Retire and disappear from public view and thought. Thank you.

Overall, the VMAs were an interesting mix of drama, music and bad jokes. While I didn't care for the drama or the bad jokes, the music made up for more than enough to make this VMA a rousing success. Hopefully next year, our host isn't a washed-up British man and we won't have drunken idiots or ‘bleeding' stars to deal with.