Short Story | Seersucker, Chiffon, and Lace

     "Alright. As I was saying," Jamie started, her lips parting from the glass that swirled red. Two other women leaned in a little further, their hair twisted up high and pearls laying on their bony sternums. Jamie Johnson continued her story, discussing what was similar to politics in the latest fashion news. Or more importantly, the most recent fashion failures.

    "I swear, her head looked like it was on a thirty foot building with that scarf. I mean, what even was it? Dolce? It's quite common knowledge to never pair Dolce with anything Scandinavian, it's a true crime." Her perfectly brushed hair teased up high and secured with an elongated hairpin twinkled in the light. The fancy broach for her hair didn't even amount to the sparkle that came from her finger. Most of the women sat in awe, not of her gossip but by the rainbow droplets that seem to be produced by the diamond. Selma Adams kept her hands folded neatly in her lap, she didn't say a word but uttered the occasional elongated vowel.

    The two couches in the drawing room of the Johnson home were tufted and smooth. A curve drawing along the back of the couch in a cylindrical twist. While Selma and Gwyneth sat neatly, legs never crossed but slanted, Jaime Johnson was in peril. A "womanly peril", she'd describe it. She was quite jittery with her words, drunk on expensive wine that she opened impatiently. Her motions were drawn out, contrasting her messy words, often stuck on finding the perfect one for her ramble. Though her lounging gown and robe showed sign that she was having guests at an inappropriate time, her hair seemed to have been perfect as well as her makeup. So much so that it didn't matter what she was wearing, she would've been pictured as a damsel in distress rather than a woman exceedingly, progressively drunk.

    Gwyneth Lillian Borden was a sweet young girl, around the age where it wasn't a crime to ask for her age or her phone number. As she graduated university with a degree in art history, she became enthralled with a handsome politician. His eye went towards the governor position and Gwyneth showed her support. The campaign itself showed a glimpse into the life she might have as a woman in a large house with its own garden that needed workers to tend to. Though she was too timid to hope for a residency at the White House. While she stood beside her lover, she slowly became impatient and restless for her marriage to arrive.

    By the time Jaime Johnson was monosyllabic, Gwyneth had a flushed uprising in her voice.

    "I just don't understand why he would keep me strung along like this, and he knows that I'd follow him wherever he went, and yet, he keeps baiting me on a hook that he will never reel back up." She sobbed, her cotton gloves coming off as she took another sip of the dark juice hurriedly, another few words sprouting up in her mind again.

    "I've never been fishing but I sometimes, and probably foolishly, can think myself a Jackie. Can't I? Can't I be a Jackie?" She said, her brows knitted up in worried and desperate lines. Selma shook her head slowly, a drawl coming out of her as well, "You are better than some Jackie, Ginnie. I assure you, he'll find the courage and the words to marry you. I'm sure he will." She said, her hand finding Gwyneth's. Selma was given a pout and sorry, Bambi-like eyes, to which she tsked.

    

    The three women sat in the drawing room, a couple sprawled out, another swaying back and forth. A bitter blonde, a jittery brunette, and a drowsy redhead. The picture of it looked like a painting; Three perfect women in despair because that is what they are supposed to do.

carving from pretense

Crime is an expression

Surrealist experience, carbon footprint, internet intermission

Finding law in patriarchic defense

Carving wood, carving stone, carving family out of pretense

Sometimes I find deep lines drawn in our faith in man

New visions cause divisions

No religions can mark incisions in the dreaming damned

Canyon sprawl unevenly throughout the promised land

Unplanned creation is relentlessly passed

Because no plane can't exist without the plane crash

No names survive erosion, common dates and times

Headstones and headlines

Blessings sold in printed paper, prayers looped in distant sound

Golden halos rust like statues, faith dissolves where none are crowned

Industry bleeds into oceans

Commotion around a white line on a black ground

Shadow people, fading figures

System shifts in wavering sand

Written law fades faster than the dust upon a severed hand

Point ball pen, black ink, twisted grip

Lives of many, not all, pushed to the left and right

Let a sitting-duck Moses walk through with "Never Surrender" high-tops and lips pulled back tight

Not one hand on the bible but five among children,

scholars, workers, blood family and found bredren

Smoke ascends like rising prayers, met with silence in the sky

Ghosts of progress walk in circles, searching for a dream that died

If no shadow's meant to linger, if no word is built to stay

Then I'll carve my name in echoes, leave my voice to fade away

The GRAMMYs : To Be Continued

 This past weekend, I watched the 67th annual Grammy Awards by the Recording Academy and it had me thinking... How valid are the Grammy Awards?

It is generally received by most people that the Grammy Awards is an entertainment award ceremony for entertainment. It comes with a red carpet to show off the established and experienced artists as well as the up-and-coming ones with smashing debuts. The host is often an experienced talker who captures the audiences' attentions easily and make funny jokes while walking around the tables seated with fabulous musicians. Then the awards are presented by celebrities and familiar faces, accompanied with a sparkling award.

Some performances of notable songs throughout the year are sprinkled around and then the end. But have you ever wondered exactly how they choose which songs or which artists get the awards?

First of all, to understand the process of voting and getting the nominations and winners, the structure of the Recording Academy must be understood. There are twelve chapters spread across the nation, mostly city based. The Atlanta, Chicago, Florida, Los Angeles, Memphis, Nashville, New York, Pacific Northwest, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Texas, and Washington D.C. chapters. There are more than 16,000 members and around 13,000 voting members apart of the Recording Academy as a whole. There are two main branches: The Producers and Engineers Wing and the Songwriters and Composers Wing. 

"The P&E Wing advises the Academy on technical matters related to recording and also addresses matters of concern to producers, engineers, remixers, manufacturers, technologists, and other related professionals. "

"The S&C Wing will provide opportunities for recognition, networking and collaboration, and welcomes the prospect of new Academy members. The Wing will also spotlight emerging opportunities for song and scoring achievement within a variety of media on a global basis."

-The Recording Academy 

Great, so now that the Recording Academy is laid out, let's get into the Process of finding the best music of the year. Turns out, the whole process isn't actually all that simple. First, songs are submitted to the Online Entry Process through the Recording Academy, this year being through the dates July, 17, 2024 - August, 30, 2024. Around 20,000 entries of different songs, music videos, albums, or recordings are submitted each year. Secondly, each entry goes through a general screening process where the Recording Academy filters every submission into a genre or category.

There are 94 Categories (The awards, example Best Album of the Year) and 22 Genres (Example Pop, R&B, Rap, Country)

Click Here to see the full Guide

Then, the first round of voting. This round is to determine the Grammy Nominees, where over 350+ members of the Academy are given their First Round Online Ballot. And to ensure the quality of the vote, the members are encouraged to only vote within their own area of expertise. Each member votes in up to ten categories across up to three genre fields. Then they also put in their votes for the six categories of the General Field. (General Field categories are above.) This first round goes through and gets put into a table through an independent accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP. (Yes, that's right. There's a whole accounting firm.)

There exists Special Nominating Committees where Craft categories, final nominations are determined by committees made up of voting members from all of the Academy's Chapter cities who are actively working the craft they are judging. However, these committees were criticized for being controversial and for conflicts of interest which made the Recording Academy eliminate most of its "secret" nominating committees in 2021. The Weeknd and other artists had protested changes and threaten to boycott the Grammys.

"The Weeknd Ends Yearslong GRAMMYs Boycott with Surprise Performance"  -CBC News

Now, the top five in each category are put into Finals where they each have a chance to obtain a Grammy award. The top five are the nominees, essentially. The general categories have the top eight, excluding Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, and Songwriter of the Year which have five nominees.

Great, now we have all of the nominees. The Final Round of voting determines the Winner of the awards. In the show, each name gets called up with a snippet of their work to show every nominee. Behind the scenes, Academy voting members vote in up to ten categories across three genre fields and then up to six categories in the general field to determine the winners. And voilà, we have our winners.

Having had run through the Recording Academy's process in choosing every Grammy winner, now we can figure out the validity to it. The Weeknd posing a boycott against the award show is just skimming the surface of the many qualms people and artists have had in the past. And the Academy had worked hard in actually fixing those issues as well. But, concerning the now is what interests me. Is the way the process works now somewhat valid in the way it chooses the very best artists and music from the year?