Daily Beast, 1/29/10

“Grammy Monster” by Matt Gaffney –  11:39

Hello music lovers.  I’m Jeffrey, back with your weekly Daily Beast Puzzle.

The Grammy Awards are on this Sunday, and the puzzle honours one of the top nominees:

1A/133A. [Grammy nominee found in this puzzle’s theme answers] – LADY GAGA.

I don’t know a lot about her, being old and all, but I have my trusty copy of Entertainment Weekly to help me along.

She is up for Album of the Year for 5A. [“The ___” (album by 1-across)] – FAME. She is also nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Dance Recording  for 29A. [Advantage in Vegas] – POKER FACE. EW doesn’t think she’ll win any of these.

Other Record of the Year candidates are:

Beyonce – Halo
The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me (my pick)

But wait, there’s more! GAGA is hidden in six other answers (and who doesn’t like a hidden GAGA?)

23A. [Hitting the ceiling] – BLOWING A GASKET
40A. [Serve with, as charges] – BRING AGAINST
58A. [First person in space] – YURI GAGARIN
87A. [Giving it another shot] – TRYING AGAIN
100A. [Fraternity started at  the University of Michigan] – OMEGA GAMMA PI
123A. [Cracks on] – MAKES A GAG ABOUT

How about some more Grammy winners:

13A. [Start of a JFK quote] – ASK NOT (John F. Kennedy – As We Remember Him – Best Spoken Word Or Drama Recording – 1965)
28A. [Infamous fiddler] – NERO (Best New Artist – 1961)
65A. [“___ Be”] – LET  IT (Best Original Score Written For A Motion Picture Or A Television Special – 1970)
67A. [Rapper in harem pants] – M. C. HAMMER (Best Rap Solo Performance – 1990)
110A. [2010 Grammy nominee for Best Pop Instrumental] – BELA FLECK
118A. [Brad’s “Burn After Reading” co-star] – GEORGE  (Not George Benson, Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male – 1980)
132A. [Britney’s ex, casually] – KFED (Best Dance Recording -2004 [Britney, not KFED])
2D. [One of the Guthries] – ARLO (father Woody – The Live Wire – Woody Guthrie In Performance 1949, Best Historical Album – 2007)
3D. [Quebecoise chanteuse Celine] – DION (Record Of The Year – 1998)
5D. [Bookstore section] – FANTASY (Album Of The Year – 1981)
12D. [“Africa” band] – TOTO (Album Of The Year – 1982)
16D. [“The Lion King” role] – NALA (Best Musical Album For Children – 1994)
32D. [Setup] – STING (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male – 1993)
36D. [Pink ___] – FLOYD (Best Rock Instrumental Performance – 1994)
44D. [Queen’s “___ Here”] – NOW I’M (No Grammys!)
46D. [One voice] – TENOR. Say, Luciano Pavarotti (Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance – 1979)
59D. [“Tomorrow” musical] – ANNIE (Best Cast Show Album – 1977)
76D. [June’s portrayer in “Walk the Line”] – REESE (Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media – 2006)
121D. [Singer James] – ETTA (Best Jazz Vocal Performance – 1994)
79D. [Brown and Turner] – TINAS (Record Of The Year – 1984)

All we are missing are the Muppets (Best Recording For Children – 1979) and Canada’s Polka King, Walter Ostanek (Best Polka Album, 1992, 1993, 1994)

Stuff I didn’t know:

82D. [“The ___ Sanction”] – EIGER – 1975 Clint Eastwood movie/94A. [Yo La ___] – TENGO (No Grammys). got the G wrong.
15D. [Moroccans smoke it] – KEEF

And finally:
73A. [Brazilian soccer star] – KAKA
109A. [Signing gorilla] – KOKO
112D. [Hair scare] – LICE. Ewwww!
101D. [Mad man ___ E. Neuman] – ALFRED. What, me worry?
117D. [“The weekend has arrived!”] – TGIF! Yay! See you next week!

(Thanks to Alex Boisvert for technical support that has greatly eased my blogging.)