The pride is not over yet!

Today I picked up from my local Tower Records store some CDs that end the gay pride weekend with a bang.

The Pet Shop Boys (I think the only song that may be known to anyone here state side is "West End Girls") finally release a new CD here, and it's a doozy! Fundamental has them returning to synthy, dance goodness, and you can't stop a good dance song! If you do decide to get it, spend the extra five bucks or so to get the limited edition version that comes with a bonus CD of remixes, called Fundamentalism.


And speaking of dance goodness is Kylie Minogue's underrated younger sister, Dannii Minogue, with an (import only) best of CD, The Hits & Beyond. Like her older and shorter sibling, she comes up with a collection of great dance songs, from the sugary and sublime early 90's era songs like "Baby Love" and "$ucce$$", to her excellent pulsating, "touch of trance" newer songs like "Put the Needle on It" and "So Under Pressure". It also includes five brand new songs, the best of which is "I Can't Sleep at Night" (which is like my theme song right now, because it is too hot to sleep).

My current favorite track by Dannii is "You Won't Forget About Me", with it's jangly guitar line, insistent beat, and a song that doesn't have really stupid lyrics (like most dance songs do). The only caveat is that the song sounds like a "harder" version of her sister Kylie's song, "Please Stay", which also uses a thumping beat over guitar. Even their vocal deliveries sound eerily similar, like Dannii's songs are cast offs from Kylie. Now that I think about it, if I wasn't paying attention, I might have thought that this song was a remix of "Please Stay"! The video is also very cool, with fast forward and reverse effects, and stop motion camera pans (a la the Matrix).

And again, if you have an extra five bucks to spare, try to find the limited edition version of the album. It comes with a bonus DVD featuring all 16 of Dannii's music videos. (Note though, that since this is an import release, that it may be in Pal format, and you'll need a DVD player that can play this format.)

So if any of you bois (and grrls) are sad that the pride week dancefloor celebrations are closed, pick up these two CDs and keep on dancing.

(p.s., Don't forget that Season 2 of Project Runway comes out today. And since you're spending the money, pick up Amy Sedaris' hilarious Comedy Central show Strangers With Candy, out now as a specially packaged six disc DVD set collecting all three seasons.)

To all those 429 "Friends of Dorothy" out there...

Happy Pride Weekend to everyone in the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered community, and to those who support the GLBT community (that includes you, parents, siblings, relatives, and friends of your GLBT sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, friends, etc.).

It actually turned out to be a really nice weekend for the two parades going on in Seattle. The sun finally gave it's blessing and is giving us a little streak of hot weather, so enjoy it out there, but remember to use protection (sunscreen you sillies! ;-)

(Untitled)

You don't have to tell me
I already know
You are bored of me already
It's OK, I deserve it
I've exhausted my stay
I have nothing left to offer
Because there is nothing much to me
You sould have severed me long ago
There is no need to hide in gentility
Just let me go
I'll carry on, I always have
There have been others before you
And probably others down the road
...
See, I've forgotten about you already

6/23/06

Retro is the new black

Retro chic is in amongst the pop diva world. To go forward, one must look to the past I guess.

This sentiment is embodied in two of my favorite pop divas (well, ones that have stuff coming out now, I guess), Madonna and Christina Aguilera. Both have new releases that I am currently addicted to listening to on my iPod.

In Madonna's corner, her single for her excellent song "Get Together" was released on the 6th of June. I like the remixes on these better than the remixes on the "Sorry" single (there were only two good remixes on there, the "PSB Maxi-Mix", and the fantastic Paper Faces Vocal Edit version of "Let It Will Be" that she performs on tour). But if the song wasn't laid back 70's disco retro enough, the video is like a strawberry swirlie shake of retro goodness. Directed by the same guy that bestowed upon us those catchy iPod commercials, this video uses video footage from Madonna's promotional shows for her Confessions on a Dance Floor album, and mixes it up with animation of trees coming down, asteroids colliding, and cityscapes all in a pink and white melange. It's very different than what we usually expect from Madonna, but I guess we are to expect the unexpected from her.

Christina, on the other hand, goes so far retro, that he harkens back to an age when her grandparents were kids (or maybe even her grandparent's parents). Her song "Ain't No Other Man" continues what she did with Nelly on "Tilt Ya Head Back", by going big and brassy, with a touch of 20's flapper girl. There are horns, a percussive drum beat, and of course, that voice that can outblast poor Britney's 'till next month. And the video is off the wall also. No longer is Christina the grungy, "Dirrty" pop starlet, she is this little Marlene meets Marilyn vixen with a voice that can belt for days. She could easily have beaten poor Renee Zelwiger's Roxy Hart to a bloody pulp (I know Christina is scrappy!)

Anyways, click on the pictures above to get a sample of Madonna's 70's grooves, and Christina's 20's funk.

Literary enigma

If you look closely at the left side of the page (you may have to scroll down a little bit), you will see a new section of my blog. Nothing special. I just now have listed the current book(s) I am reading, and my last recent book(s) I just finished reading. Yes, book(s), because I have been known to read more than one book concurrently. Crazy as it sounds, that's the way I work sometimes. If I try to accomplish this feat, I usually try to choose books from different genres, like a non-fiction autobiography and a fiction thriller. That way I can keep everything separate. Or if I start to get bored with one, I can pick up the other and come back to the other book some other time.

Anyway, ever since I finished school, I'm trying to do more reading for pleasure. I can't do any of that while I'm in school, because I just feel riddled with guilt because instead of reading for fun, I should be reading to study (though, I don't really ever study anyway, because it feels like a waste of time. If I know it from listening to lectures, I know it, no use for me to try to drill it into my brain. Yes, I'm the guy who only had to go to class everyday and write notes, but never went over my notes later, yet still end up with an "A" or "B" in the class.)

I feel you can tell a lot about a person by what they choose to read. So check out what I'm reading right now, and have fun trying to guess why I am the way I am.

"Does that make me Crazy?"

I have totally become infatuated with the song and video for Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" off his album St. Elsewhere.

First of all, the song is this wonderful mix of soul, hip-hop, and retro funk that has a great beat with great lyrics. I love listening to it over and over again.

But the clincher is the wonderful video for the song. It is one, big long morphing Rosarch image, and it is masterfully done to music video perfection. It is simple, complex, haunting, and elegant all at the same time. Everytime I watch it, I notice something new, and that's not just reading into the Rosarch images.

The song and video are so funky that I actually thought it was a new Massive Attack song at first.

Anyway, you can hear a sample of the song via iTunes, or better yet, just buy the single and video together so you get the full meal deal. You won't be disappointed.

Oh, and if you like this song, but you also like Nelly Furtado, be sure to try to hunt down her live acoustic version (I believe it was done on BBC radio) of the song.

Dancing Queen!!!

"Please extinguish your cigarettes. For the next two hours, I am the only thing on fire!" - Madonna



Well, I'm back from my excursion to Sin City to view my idol, Madonna, live on stage for her "Confessions Tour". And except for consistent issues with my stomach where I constantly felt nauseous and full, even on an empty stomach, I had soooo much fun!

My sister and I saw Madonna on both Saturday, the 27th, and Sunday, the 28th. Of the two shows, it seemed like the crowd was more into the show for the Sunday outing. Madonna (who infamously blasted Vegas audiences being filled with "suit" types with free comp tickets (i.e., a bad crowd) even commented on the Sunday audience being on fire.

So I'm glad that she sang all the songs from her new Confessions on a Dance Floor album that I really liked, and that she scattered in a few surprises in the show. I think the highlight of the show for me was the new, revamped version of "Erotica" that she performed, because it was interspliced with an earlier version of the song, known as "You Thrill Me" to the hardcore Madonna fans. I think I was the only one that was able to sing along to this new version in my section. Madonna also likes the new version so much that she is planning on re-releasing "Erotica/You Thrill Me" as a single. Hopefully this will come to pass, though knowing Madonna's past release plans, I really shouldn't hold my breath (I'm still waiting for an official DVD of the "Blond Ambition Tour", and the "Re-Invention Tour").

Of the three different tours I saw of Madonna, I think I like her Re-Invention Tour the best. She seemed to blend her older songs with newer ones more seamlessly, and the show flowed together more nicely. Her Drowned World Tour was good, but a little too "artsy" for many, and didn't seem to have enough past hits.

This newest tour chose some surprising older numbers (I never really thought that she would sing "Lucky Star" live again), and a good chunk of her newer stuff. The tour did seem to drag a little in places (singing "Drowned World (Substitute for Love)" and "Paradise (Not for Me)" back to back was a little too much of a cool down, and I didn't really like the transitional build up to "Live to Tell"), but there were some very excellent sequences ("Music Inferno" where she mixes her song "Music" with "Disco Inferno" in a John Travolta Saturday Night Fever wet dream, "Erotica/You Thrill Me", and the new mix of "Sorry" with a background video of G.W. bush intermixed with the KKK was sooo cool!)

Anyway, if you have the chance to catch this tour, be sure to not miss it. And I would really recommend splurging on the $375 seats to get a better close up. How many times in life are you going to be in the same building with Madonna anyway?

P.S. Thanks to my sister who hosts the site Rock247Music for uploading a few clips of the Sunday, May 28 show on YouTube that you see here.