It's kind of surreal to think that while I'm watching the Grammy Awards on CBS, it's actually taking place less than 10 miles away from where I'm sitting. I'm amused by the orchestra's efforts to cut short acceptance speeches.

One problem I have with the increasing commercialism of music is most evident in the ads for movies. Inevitably, they'll feature some song that has absolutely nothing to do with the movie itself -- not contained in it, not featured on the soundtrack, not even remotely relating to the plotline -- yet is prominently featured in the audio track of the movie's ad or preview. Case in point, the Dave Matthews Band song "The Space Between" was in almost every ad I saw for the movie Black Hawk Down, but I still can't understand the relationship. It just seems like basically, they decided to stick it in there because the song was popular at the time that the movie was being released and the studio thought using it in the ad would draw people to see it. Are there really any people out there who would pay $10 for a movie ticket just because a song was featured in the ad?