Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.~Dr. Seuss 

Inside the GrammysSneak peek into the performances, rehearsals and fashion for music's biggest night.By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer
February 8, 2007

Geoff Boucher, the pop-culture writer of the Los Angeles Times, is at rehearsals for the 49th annual Grammy Awards and filing dispatches for The Envelope. Here's what's going on as the clock ticks toward the Sunday show at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

MUSICAL CHAIRS
The seating chart at the Grammy's is a fascinating collage of music history and contemporary genre checking out the placards with names and photos that were set up Thursday on the folding chairs on the arena floor, here are some of the interesting juxtapositions: there's a murderers row of female singers down front row and center - Beyonce, Blige, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado and Natalie Cole are within 14 feet of each other; one row back, Gnarls Barkley can chat about movieland minutia with Quentin Tarantino on the other side of the audience Jamie Foxx should be working on his "Roxanne" falsetto, he's sitting next to the Police.

The two best seats in the front row belong to two old friends, Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder, the later serenaded the former at his recent birthday party in Los Angeles. For trippy cross generational conversation, we'd like to be sitting between The Grateful Dead and Busta Rhymes. Closer to the stage, down-home singer Reba McEntire is sitting between Hollywood scenery chewers, Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson. Finally, the best row for a discussion of world music poly-rhythms, that'd be the section where Wycliff Jean is parked between Shakira and The Police.

BACK IN THE DRESSING ROOM
Producer Ehrlich went down into the tunnels of the Staple Center to find the dressing room of Blige. I tagged along and visited with the singer, who I just profiled for the Grammy issue of The Envelope. She greeted each of us with a hug. Ehrlich is the one who persuaded Blige to weave a classic torch song into one of her own hits for her Grammy performance this year. The singer was reluctant but Thursday she was a true believer. "You were right," she said of strings-backed, bombastic final result. I'd tell you more about it but Blige's camp made promise to keep details quiet to preserve the surprise on sunday's show. Ehrlich chuckled at that. He pointed to four dozen backup singers sitting in street clothes in the arena. "Look, this is going to be on their camera phones and up on YouTube in an hour."

MOVIN' TRIBUTE
Chris Brown, the scintillating youg singer and dancer, is a big part of the James Brown tribute and his portion climaxes with a special gesture that echoes with Brown's legacy: Danny Ray, the emcee who introduced Brown at his shows since the early 1960s will come on stage and drape Brown's shiny cape on the shoulders of the young performer. That mystery climatic performer during the Brown tribute, meanwhile, is pretty good, I can tell you. I watched footage of the performer's early rehearsals with show producer Ehrlich just now. At the end he was beaming. "How good is that?"

SETTING THE STAGE The stage for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards is perhaps the most elaborate ever and, with pulsing red tlighting themes and curving lines and aerodynamic curves it somehow brings to mind a giant neon jukebox. Neil Portnow, president of NARAS, said during a break at Thursday rehearsals that the footprint of the stage is an attempt to keep an arena intimate. "You have to keep pushing the envelope."

IT DIDN'T FIT LIKE A GLOVE One of the centerpiece moments for the show this year is a tribute to the late James Brown. There will be performances of some of Brown's hits by Smokey Robinson, Lionel Ritchie and a surprise big-name artist who will rise from the floor of the stage singing "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World."