September 20, 2009

You may be getting tired of hearing about them this week, but today's musical selection is Muse. I've already talked about the ultra-hyped appearance on the MTV VMA's last week, and the new album that came out on Tuesday, so they were the obvious choice for this week's featured artist.
I've attached two clips below. One is Starlight, my favourite single from their last album, Black Holes and Revelations. And the other one is Uprising, the single from the new album, The Resistance. Uprising is a great, catchy pop tune with a bit of an egde, and a feel of the the theme from Doctor Who resonating in the background somewhere.



My favourite part of the Uprising video is how lead singer Matt Bellamy plays the major guitar hook in the song. Every time it comes up, he throws the neck of his guitar upwards as if he's playing Rock Band and trying to go into Overdrive. (If you've played Rock Band, you'll have a good laugh.)

September 16, 2009

- I’m very happy that Jordan won Big Brother, but I’m not going to devote an entire post to it. To be fair, she really didn’t do much in the game, but she won at the final HoH when it mattered the most, and made the right decision on who to take to the final. I’m kind of bummed that Natalie won second place, and the $50,000 prize, but it’s better than her winning the half-million. I didn’t like the format of the finale, with the jumbled mess of everything that they had to do…it just looked like everyone was confused at all times. The pre-planned jury questions were ridiculous, and it changed the show that they weren’t able to speak freely as they questioned the final two, as they had been able to do in previous years. I wanted Natalie to have to deal with the fact that her “allies” couldn’t stand her anymore. Oh well, Congratulations Jordan…it’s tough to be upset about a feel-good story winning the grand prize.
- It’s been one month since I’ve had a Coke now. To be fair, I have had a Coke Froster from Mac’s after Lucas and I went for a nice long walk the other night…but I don’t think it counts.

- I’m already wearing out my new Jet album. Now the new Muse album came out yesterday—and it’s great!—and a new Weezer album next month, and the Foo Fighters Greatest Hits in November. Throw in the movie release of Where the Wild Things are next month (it’s only one month away!), and it’s shaping up to be an exciting fall. If you haven’t seen the amazing trailer for Where The Wild Things Are, check out my March 30th post. And how awesome is the cover of the new Weezer album?
- I was flipping around on TV the other day, and I came across Criss Angel’s show. I’m sorry, I’ve seen it before, and it’s just all so ridiculous. If you’re watching this show and actually believing that these ‘illusions’ are taking place in front of real people, I’m afraid I have very little hope for you. There is no way that these idiotic tricks are done without camera trickery and editing, and there is about a one hundred percent chance that anyone who is participating in ‘the trick’ or is one of the spectators…are all paid actors. It is absolutely idiotic to think anything otherwise. This is why this moron doesn’t do a live show, because he can’t do his “illusions” without the camera or the paid responses. And don’t even try to tell me that his show in Las Vegas, Believe, qualifies…because even though he stars in it, he doesn’t do magic! It’s all theatrics with Cirque Du Soleil. And do you know why he doesn’t do live magic? Because he can’t!

- I’ve mentioned a number of times on the blog here, how I love Swiss Chalet. Let’s be honest…who in their right mind doesn’t? I had dinner the other night at Swiss Chalet with my friend Norm, and when he plopped a giant pile of ketchup on his plate for his fries, I asked why he would choose ketchup over the always-delightful Chalet sauce. Norm proceeds to tell me that he likes them mixed together…so much so that he sometimes POURS THE KETCHUP IN THE CHALET SAUCE. (I’ll pause for you to get past the involuntary gagging and partial vomiting that most of you are experiencing right now.) Now, I have to ask, why on earth would you mix these 2 things together? I actually asked him later in the week, and his response was “I really enjoy the ketchup and chalet sauce as it swirls together forming a heavenly blend of two great tastes.” Yes…he actually said that. First of all, you can’t group ketchup and Chalet Sauce together as both being ‘great tastes’…you just can’t. Second of all…never mind…I can’t even talk about this anymore, it’s just so disgusting.

September 14, 2009

I watched the MTV Video Music Awards last night, and it was quite an eventful evening. It’s hard to believe the VMA’s have been around for 25 years now…I can still remember being 11 years old and watching Madonna perform Like A Virgin at the first awards ceremony and thinking “This is way better than the Grammys”. And to be fair, if you see Madonna rolling around the stage like that when you’re 11 years old, it’s going to be your new favourite awards show, too.
Madonna opened the show with a tribute to Michael Jackson. As a kid, I was a big Michael Jackson fan, and I was shocked to hear the news of his death in June (although I was trapped in a plane in Colorado Springs, so that made it significantly less dramatic at the time). I’ve tried to not address the Michael Jackson death/rumours/allegations topic on the blog because I’m not fully sure how I feel about it all. I will say, however, that while I can’t decide if I agree with what she said, Madonna’s tribute was very well-written, well-spoken, and poignant. The dance number that followed was enjoyable to watch, because it brought me back to a time when Michael Jackson was just a musician, and he truly was amazing. I did enjoy watching Janet Jackson perform…I mean lip-sync…Scream with the video wall of Michael at the same time. There was a great camera shot of Janet on the stage, and Michael on the screen over her right shoulder…both dancing it unison. It was a good moment.

Russell Brand is a good host for the show, but it sure would be interesting to hear what he would say if he could say whatever he wanted, don’t you think? His introduction put me off a bit, but only because of Joe Perry. I’m all for the splendour of a rocking version of We Will Rock You as an introduction, and I don’t even mind that they got Katy Perry to sing it…but if you need someone to play the guitar, why was it Joe Perry? Why not get Brian May to perform his own song? I was not a fan of MTV Aerosmith-izing a Queen song.
Lady Gaga certainly has a flair for the dramatic, doesn’t she? Independent of her theatrical performance of Paparazzi, which saw her ending up covered in blood and hanging lifeless on the stage (???), her outfits alone were enough to make me shake my head.
They sure made a big deal out of Muse’s performance as well. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Muse fan, and I’ve been waiting patiently for the new album (which is out tomorrow), but they built it up as this big “Introduction to America”, which I think is great. The new single was fantastic, and I hope all the hype around them will make them as big in North America as they deserve to be.

The funniest moment of the night was when Megan Fox and Adam Brody (or as 99% of men referred to him, “some random guy standing next to Megan Fox”) came out to introduce Green Day. First of all, Megan Fox looked so confused, and didn’t know when to start talking, until Brody leaned in to her and said “Just start talking”. THEN, as she’s reading her lines off of the teleprompter, Brody is standing beside her mouthing the words as she’s saying them and he’s reading along. Are you serious? This guy is supposed to be a professional actor! To be fair, The O.C. and Jennifer’s Body aren’t going to qualify anyone to sit across from James Lipton on Inside The Actor’s Studio, but you can’t have someone else say their lines without you moving your lips? Come on!
One of my favourite things about awards shows is the unexpected winner, and the complete and total shock you see from them when they had no idea that they could possibly win their award. Last night it was Taylor Swift, and while I’m not a country music fan in any way, it was nice to see how shocked and surprised she was, and how genuine she was when she began her speech. But then Kanye West decided to be the complete and total douchebag we all know he is, and jump on stage and interrupt her to declare that Beyoncé deserved the award. That was one of the most classless things I’ve ever seen. I know he has a history of doing crap like that, but it’s one thing to do it when you feel that you have been wronged (still 100% wrong), but even worse when you take up the cause for someone else like that. Did you see the look on Beyoncé’s face when he did that? She was embarrassed, for him, for her, for Taylor Swift.

When it came time for Beyoncé to give her acceptance speech at the end of the night for her award, I thought it was one of the classiest things I’ve ever seen when she asked Taylor Swift to come out on the stage and “have her moment” and complete her speech. Great to see the audience react the way they did, as well. A good turnaround to redeem a horrible situation.
Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable show…maybe a little over-the-top on the “We Love Michael Jackson” front, but musically speaking, he did deserve something on a grand scale for the career he had.

Did you watch? What did you think? Is Lady Gaga just a flash in the pan…or the new Madonna? What would you have done if you were Taylor Swift? Let me know in the Comments section.