So Wednesday doesn't really work for me.

What sucks is not getting funded to do research abroad next year.

What doesn't suck is being onstage during the Gorillaz/Madonna opening act at the Grammys on Wednesday.

Through a friend of a friend who works at KCRW (like I said, public radio is a good thing) I was on the receiving end of an email forwarded asking for young people interested in voluteering to send in pictures. The short version is that my friend Beverly and I spent most of the day yesterday hanging around the Staples Center while the graphics people worked on the 3-D animation images of Gorillaz and Madonna and De La Soul went through their blocking.

It was awesome.

The production people started putting posters and headshots on the seats to mark what artists and celebrities will sit where. The row right in front of the stage has Mariah Carey, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, James Taylor, and Missy Elliot. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are on the adjacent row, with Madonna and Guy Ritchie sitting behind them. Gwenyth Paltrow has a seat reserved next to the Coldplay spots, but the seat next to Sheryl Crow is just reserved, but not marked. I guess Lance doesn't have a headshot.

Anyway, a big group of people are just lying around on stage while Gorillaz & Madonna's images do their thing. I'm on the viewer's right side of the stage, near the top.