Capítulo 252: Chapter 249 Grammy Nominations
From November 25th Thanksgiving to before Christmas, major supermarkets across the United States would have promotional activities, with some goods being 50% off and some supermarkets giving vouchers to the first 300 customers.
This period was also the shopping season for Americans. According to the "New York Times" report, the total amount of shopping by Americans in this month accounted for 1/4 of the whole year.
It was the same in New York. On the eve of Christmas, long queues could be seen in front of major supermarkets and department stores before dawn, including Walmart, Best Buy, Macy's, Lord & Taylor, etc.
There were even many people wearing black masks who went into supermarkets and shopping malls for "zero-dollar shopping."
Link and Taylor decided to spend the holidays in New York, so naturally, they needed to prepare some holiday items, food, drinks, new high-tech appliances, etc.
However, they came back too late, and with the three-day Christmas holiday, many shopping malls and stores closed early, making it difficult to buy everything they needed.
After Selena knew that they were going to buy holiday supplies, she volunteered to help and patted her chest, saying that Mandy was too busy this year, and she was responsible for all the holiday supplies in their home, so listening to her was definitely right.
Link didn't quite believe it and texted Mandy to ask. Mandy said that if they waited for Selena to buy things, the whole family would starve to death. She told him to make his own decisions when buying things and not to trust Selena's suggestions too much.
After Link knew the truth, he didn't expose it and drove Taylor and Selena around the center of Manhattan.
After driving around for a while, he found that Selena had no sense of direction. She stared with her big round eyes, looking for Best Buy everywhere, but she didn't even see the Best Buy sign that was more than ten meters high right in front of her. Her round face became redder and redder, and her forehead was sweating.
After entering the supermarket, the first thing was to buy a turkey. They went to the turkey shopping area and found that all the turkeys were refrigerated.
This kind of turkey was very cheap, only 16 dollars after the discount, but the taste was very bad after cooking. He needed the kind of clean, fresh, marinated turkey, with the minimum requirement being clean and fresh.
He couldn't find it after searching for a while.
Selena said she had a good idea and dragged him and Taylor to the live animal area, pointing to a few lively turkeys in the basket and asking him to buy one and kill it himself.
Link hesitated a little. The turkey was too big, it would be troublesome to deal with it at home, and if someone took a picture of him killing it here and posted it online, he would be warned by the Animal Protection Association.
Link asked her if she dared to kill a chicken.
Selena raised her chin and said of course she dared. She claimed to be a descendant of Mexicans, and Mexicans were born warriors. In the past, everyone had a pet, which was a boa constrictor more than ten meters long, wrapped around their necks as a scarf every day.
She also said that she had raised a boa constrictor when she was a child, milky white, seven or eight meters long.
Link casually picked up a rope and quietly put it on her shoulder. Selena screamed and jumped on the spot, throwing herself into Taylor's arms, and then complaining about him with Taylor.
"Link is so mean!"
"Yes, he's terrible."
Christmas arrived, and the weather forecast from the US Meteorological Bureau was quite accurate. At noon that day, snowflakes began to fall in the New York sky, adding a lot of festive atmosphere.
Link and Taylor also put up a Christmas tree in the living room of their apartment that day, decorated with many spherical colored lights, Swarovski crystals, little snowman dolls, cute and festive.
Link also put on an apron and made a Christmas dinner for the first time: a big roasted turkey, waffles, macarons, Boston steamed shrimp, Mexican barbecue, a large fruit platter, and a Christmas cake made by Taylor.
It was colorful, fragrant, and very sumptuous.
At six or seven o'clock in the evening, Link and Taylor drove to Midtown to meet Selena and Little Annie.
Little Annie was Link's half-sister, over three years old, with a bob haircut and a perky nose. She was pink and tender, even cuter than Selena.
The group first went to Times Square to watch the light show, then to Radio City Music Hall to watch the acrobatics show, and finally went ice skating at the Rockefeller Center ice rink.
While ice skating, Taylor and Selena wanted to see him fall on the ice, so they pushed him onto the ice together.
Unfortunately, they were going to be disappointed.
Link had good physical conditions and a good sense of balance. After skating along the railing for a while, he could let go and skate slowly on the ice.
After practicing for more than ten minutes and getting used to the speed of the ice skates, he could skate faster, occasionally skate backward, skate on one leg, and do some fancy moves, even more stable than Taylor and Selena.
After Link learned, he took Annie skating.
Little Annie was very timid. Even though she was wearing a helmet and knee and elbow pads, as soon as he let go of her hand, she would be scared and squat on the ground like a little radish.
Link held her hand and skated around the rink for more than ten laps. After she got used to the speed, she dared to skate forward slowly by herself, shouting in a milky voice, "Please make way, Annie is going to bump into you."
"Annie is so cute."
Taylor skated over from behind and put her arm around his shoulder.
"Of course, look whose sister she is."
"What does Annie's cuteness have to do with you? You're so shameless."
Taylor rolled her eyes at him, skated backward for a few meters, the ice skates leaving two obvious marks on the ice, and said, "How about we compete in speed? Let's see who skates faster."
"No, I just learned, I'm not your opponent yet."
"Good that you know."
Taylor accelerated and skated to Annie's side, holding her little hand and leading her forward.
Taylor was wearing a white down jacket and blue jeans, with her hair in a ponytail, like a high school girl. Annie, beside her, was wearing a pink down jacket and a pink helmet and knee pads, like a little bun.
The two held hands, looking like sisters or mother and daughter.
"Link, move out of the way, I'm going to bump into you."
Selena shouted and rushed over from behind.
Before Link could move out of the way, she bumped into his back with a bang.
It was already past ten o'clock when they left the Rockefeller Center ice rink. Selena and Taylor had a lot of fun and didn't want to go to bed early. Annie's eyes were also shining with excitement, so Link suggested going to the AMC IMAX theater to watch "Avatar."
It was the first time Selena and Taylor watched a 3D movie. Seeing the hero and heroine flying in the sky on the Ikran, they couldn't help but exclaim.
Annie couldn't understand it very well and fell asleep in his arms after only ten minutes.
---
After Christmas, Link and Taylor became busy again.
Taylor continued to record songs in the studio. Link had a lot of things to do at the beginning of the year. First of all, the awards season had arrived, and there were many award ceremonies that he needed to attend.
For example, the nominations for the 67th Golden Globe Awards were announced on Christmas Eve.
"The Fighter" received seven nominations at this year's Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, two Best Supporting Actress nominations, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Song.
Link received a Best Original Song nomination for the film's theme song "The Fighter."
The 52nd Grammy Awards were also announced before the New Year.
Link received eight nominations for his two best-selling albums and multiple singles.
Including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Male Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
Taylor also received eight nominations at this year's Grammys, with the first three overlapping with his.
However, they were not the ones with the most nominations. Beyoncé had the most, with ten nominations at this year's Grammys.
In addition, "The Ring" magazine and the four major boxing organizations would also hold award ceremonies at the beginning of the year to select the best boxer and the best boxing promoter of 2009. The North American Boxing Association was also preparing to give him a Best Spokesperson award.
Besides these, he also needed to prepare for the Super Bowl halftime show.
There were two performers invited to this year's Super Bowl halftime show: Link and the famous British rock band The Who.
Link had seven minutes of performance time, which was about the length of two songs.
The organizers hoped that he would sing his debut album's hit song "Unstoppable" and the American national anthem.
Link was a little confused after hearing this. The American national anthem? How to sing it? He didn't know it at all, and it might be too late to learn it now.
If he sang the wrong lyrics, he would encounter the same situation as Christina Aguilera in 2011, being ridiculed and his career falling into a trough.
Even if he didn't sing it wrong, singing the national anthem that everyone could sing on the Spring Festival Gala stage was very difficult.
If he performed poorly, people would think his singing skills were too bad.
Link thought about it carefully and proposed a compromise: write a song that fits the spirit of football and pays tribute to his predecessors.
After all, singing the national anthem was not a must-have program for the halftime show, and a song that fit the spirit of the football league was also conducive to the league's promotion of the sport.
After discussion, the organizers agreed, but they needed to listen to the demo of the song first. Link agreed.
Because of this, Link had to go into the recording studio right after Christmas to discuss the song arrangement with Graeme, David Kahn, and others, and also discuss the Super Bowl rehearsal with director Kenny Ortega.
"Hi, Link, Happy New Year!"
In the morning, Graeme Goodall walked into the Link Music recording studio, took off his hat, and greeted him.
"Haha, Happy New Year, Graeme. I'm sorry to take up your New Year's vacation time."
Link reached out and hugged him.
"Haha, it's okay. In another ten years or so, I should retire. At that time, I'll have a vacation every day. Just thinking about it is scary."
Graeme waved his hand, sat down on the opposite sofa, and said with a serious expression, "You said on the phone that you wrote a song for the football league. Is this true? You have to know that football is a noble sport for all Americans. To write a song for this kind of sport is no less difficult than the football World Cup. Are you sure you can do it?"
"This is the score. Take a look and see how it is."
Link took out a stack of manuscript paper from his backpack and put it on the desk.
In fact, when he was copying this song, he wasn't sure if it would work.
This song was uplifting and passionate. The main theme of the lyrics was that the pursuit of the ultimate realm of skill is endless, and the names of those who strive diligently will be engraved in history. It was also quite suitable for a confrontational sport like football.
If this one didn't work, he could think of something else. Anyway, he wouldn't sing the national anthem.
Graeme looked through the score, his brows furrowed tighter and tighter, his expression becoming more and more serious. If it weren't for his flushed face, trembling fingers, and rapid breathing, others would think the song was too bad when they saw him like this.
Graeme finished reading it once, looked up at him, then lowered his head to read it again, his breathing becoming more and more rapid.
"Graeme, how is it?"
Link blew on the tea leaves floating on his teacup and asked.
"Can't say for sure, let's go to the recording studio. I want to hear the effect."
"No problem!"
Link put down his teacup and came to the recording studio, singing the new song once.
Graeme listened and said it wasn't good enough. It still needed accompaniment. Without accompaniment, the song lost more than half of its flavor.
He called David Kahn, Bruno Mars, and other producers in the music studio to come to the recording studio to participate in the production of this song.
(End of Chapter)
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