Here are the books my book club selected for the 2009-2010 year:
Nov: The Emperor's Children, Claire Messud
Dec: Sula, Toni Morrison
Jan: Dracula, Bram Stoker (in the designated slot for a classic)
Feb: Dreamers of the Day, Mary Doria Russell
Mar: Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
Apr: Three Novels: Nathan + two others, Wendell Berry
May: Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
June: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
July: An American Childhood, Annie Dillard
Aug: The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon
Sept: Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
Has anyone read Dracula?
Yes, that's right, we're reading The Yiddish Policeman's Union, in spite of what initially seemed to be disinterest in Kavalier & Clay. Though I was the only one who read K&C in time for the meeting to discuss it, many people finished it up later and loved it.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Sony, your copyright lawyers need to meet with your marketing folks.
Some kids posted to YouTube a video of themselves dancing a choreographed dance routine to Adam's first single, For Your Entertainment. The song sounds like it's playing on a boombox in the studio where they're dancing, i.e. the quality of the sound in the video is not particularly good. Adam saw the video, tweeted that he loved it and linked to it. (Tens of thousands of people watched the video over the course of 24 hours.)
As soon as I saw Adam's tweet, I was curious about the copyright implications. Did this tweet from Adam constitute a license to use the recording? The use of the recording was clearly prima facie copyright infringement, but it seemed to me like it was also such good marketing for the song that the better business practice would be to let the video be. But no. Sony demanded the video be removed from YouTube.
I realize that Sony needs to police its copyright rights, but if I were Sony, I'd let those kids know they need a license and then grant them that license for $1 to use the song in this manner. And if Sony were really smart, they'd sponsor an online dance competition and dole out $1 licenses left and right.
As soon as I saw Adam's tweet, I was curious about the copyright implications. Did this tweet from Adam constitute a license to use the recording? The use of the recording was clearly prima facie copyright infringement, but it seemed to me like it was also such good marketing for the song that the better business practice would be to let the video be. But no. Sony demanded the video be removed from YouTube.
I realize that Sony needs to police its copyright rights, but if I were Sony, I'd let those kids know they need a license and then grant them that license for $1 to use the song in this manner. And if Sony were really smart, they'd sponsor an online dance competition and dole out $1 licenses left and right.
How full of herself is Carrie Prejean?
Exactly how is asking the reason(s) why you dropped your lawsuit "inappropriate"? I know the world today is all about spin - she says she was fired or relieved of her duties because of her conservative values. The pageant officials say it was because she did not full-fill her contractual duties. I personally believe it is more the latter, but who really cares anyway. I know the right is holding her up as a role-model. I guess what they want young girls to do is have someone lend you money for breast implants, pose for semi-nude photos (but hide under the veil of "modeling") and while a teenager, send an x-rated video of yourself to a boyfriend.
This video of her on Larry King is awesome!
This video of her on Larry King is awesome!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Adam verifies my characterization
Based on the leaked 30 second snippets of the songs from Adam's album, For Your Entertainment (to be released Nov. 23, but available NOW for pre-order on iTunes -- go, go, go, you can read this after you order), I wrote that it sounded like the song Music Again nodded to Queen and that I could imagine Freddie singing Soaked.
In a Rolling Stone interview out today, Adam himself makes the Queen comparison for these two songs:
RS Q: What about "Music Again," the song Justin Hawkins from the Darkness contributed?
Adam: It has a classic rock riff to it that I thought was so sexy. Another band that was a major reference was Queen. You hear that influence in a couple different songs, and the chorus of that song, I wanted the harmonies to sound like Queen, I wanted it to be really full.
RS Q: Can you talk about the record's slower songs?
Adam: ... One of them is a song that Muse wrote, "Soaked." That opens up with a real soft vocal, it's very tender, the lyrics are very vulnerable, then it goes into a soaring ballad-type feel. ...[It has] this real retro feel to it, melodically and even in the style of the production, very Seventies, at times very Sixties, almost like a Shirley Bassey song mixed with a Queen record.
Update: 30-second clips are now streaming at Amazon US here.
In a Rolling Stone interview out today, Adam himself makes the Queen comparison for these two songs:
RS Q: What about "Music Again," the song Justin Hawkins from the Darkness contributed?
Adam: It has a classic rock riff to it that I thought was so sexy. Another band that was a major reference was Queen. You hear that influence in a couple different songs, and the chorus of that song, I wanted the harmonies to sound like Queen, I wanted it to be really full.
RS Q: Can you talk about the record's slower songs?
Adam: ... One of them is a song that Muse wrote, "Soaked." That opens up with a real soft vocal, it's very tender, the lyrics are very vulnerable, then it goes into a soaring ballad-type feel. ...[It has] this real retro feel to it, melodically and even in the style of the production, very Seventies, at times very Sixties, almost like a Shirley Bassey song mixed with a Queen record.
Update: 30-second clips are now streaming at Amazon US here.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The meaning of Fort Hood, if there is one
Eric Etheridge, writing for The Opinionator at NYT, has collected a batch of viewpoints on the meaning of Fort Hood. He quotes some who see Nidal Hasan's rampage as a signal of "an internal jihadi threat we're ill-equipped to thwart" and others who see the rampage as "just another meaningless moment of American lone-gunman violence".
Update: And here is Michael J.W. Stickings writing at HuffPo, quoting Andrew Sullivan, rejecting a choice between these two viewpoints and instead finding a path in the middle of the two.
Update: And here is Michael J.W. Stickings writing at HuffPo, quoting Andrew Sullivan, rejecting a choice between these two viewpoints and instead finding a path in the middle of the two.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Fort Hood
Why is it that a mere 120 miles away from Ft. Hood (or 70 miles when I was in Austin) I am able to carry a weapon, but our soldiers, while on base, are not? Is it remotely possible that the major would have done this (or at least had had the impact he did) knowing every one of his targets was actually armed.
I qualified for my permit and practiced at a huge range south of Killeen where many of the Ft. Hood soldiers trained and competed on their own time with their own weapons. The idea that they should not be able to carry while on base seems outrageous to me. OK, maybe if they've just come back from a tour there should be a time-out to worry about PTSD and all that, but as a general rule this seems nuts...in the virtual shadow of the Lubys that ended up the catalyst of my right to carry.
When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
I qualified for my permit and practiced at a huge range south of Killeen where many of the Ft. Hood soldiers trained and competed on their own time with their own weapons. The idea that they should not be able to carry while on base seems outrageous to me. OK, maybe if they've just come back from a tour there should be a time-out to worry about PTSD and all that, but as a general rule this seems nuts...in the virtual shadow of the Lubys that ended up the catalyst of my right to carry.
When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Adam's place in music
Ann Powers, LA Times, has written a thoughtful piece about Adam's place in music.
[skip]
As Lambert plays the role, a rock star doesn't have to be an angry punk, a brooding post-grunge puritan or a hair-metal style macho dude in a dress. These approaches all have their purpose, but Lambert projects something different: outrageousness that's totally at peace with itself.
He does this by connecting countercultural ideas -- values he learned as a kid touring Germany in a production of "Hair," the musical that first brought rock's spirit to Broadway -- with a trouper's sense of artistic performance as work, which takes brains and a certain sharpness as well as talent.
[skip]
Lambert studied opera as a teenager, then turned away from lessons for a while. "I started rejecting the proper way to sing and I started singing," he said. "I was listening to more and more rock music and wondering, wow, how does that person do that with their voice?"
He discovered there was no name for what rock singers do. Lambert's singing, like his taste and his personal style, put him beyond a boundary.
"I met with [a vocal coach] over the summer and talked to him about it, and the funny thing was, you know when I do those little, crazy, screamy notes? He's like, 'We don't really have a way to teach that. It kind of goes outside of our box.' Those notes that sound sort of like rock-scream, no one ever taught me to do. I sort of had to teach myself. You just do it. It's just a sound you make."
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
What would you ask? Update: Nothing is what you will ask.
This is part of the Radio City Music Hall Speaker Series.
What would you ask? I know the question invites humorous responses. But seriously, if you could get a truthful, complete response to a serious question, what would it be? I think I'd be asking about the Federal Reserve and the 2008 meltdown because everything else is a side show in comparison.
Update 11/5/09: As LJ commented, this is cancelled due to overaggressive language by the promoters that made it sound more adversarial than the Presidents intended the event to be.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Song samples
from Adam's For Your Entertainment album, courtesy of Amazon UK, are here. H/t to mmyy9 at Hooplamagnet.
Soaked is by Muse and is operatic and I think it will appeal to those who prefer less production.
Update: Soaked sounds a lot like a k.d. lang song to me. Update V: It's that damn scooping. I hate scooping, even when it's not a crutch. (Unpopular opinion: Frank Sinatra was a crutch-scooper.)
Update II: Everyone hoping for a renaissance of Led Zeppelin etc will be sorely disappointed. Anyone hoping for a great voice filling up the pop charts will be happy.
Update III: And you can imagine Freddie singing Soaked.
Update IV: It's hard to tell much from tiny snippets, but I'm hearing a lot of 80's influence.
Update VI: Extra good news: very little voice manip in these snippets and lots of use of his lovely middle and lower range which was under-used on Idol and Idol recordings, IMHO.
Update VII: Songwriters are clearly happy to have found a singer who's not afraid of big intervals, e.g. octaves all over Sure Fire Winners, and sixths (I think) in Whataya Want From Me. Update IX: Also octaves in Pick U Up which is a song Weezer gave to him.
Update VIII: Pronoun watch: Fever was written by Lady Gaga. Adam leaves the "he" pronoun. Yay!
Update X: I can't quite tell, listening quietly on my computer speakers, but I think Sleepwalker includes a big choir. Yay, again!
Update XI: Overall verdict from snippets: wow. I think it's amazing. I think I'm going to love everything on it, except for If I Had You which sounds like another club-like song that is not as much fun as FYE.
Update XII: Broken Open has a bit of a Roxy Music vibe. Roxy Music crossed with a particular Journey song that I can't quite place.
Update XIII: Music Again nods to Queen.
Update XIV: Sure Fire Winners conjures Terence Trent D'Arby.
Update XV and XVI: Reviews (or descriptions) of the snippets are coming in: Gil Kaufman at [update: NOT Rolling Stone but] MTV (glam is back) and Jim Cantiello at MTV (he likes Music Again, Whataya Want From Me, and Broken Open; Jim is horribly wrong about Sleepwalker and I predict he'll change his mind). Rolling Stone says it's a "musical odyssey". Update XVII: Joey Guerra seems to like what he hears.
Sleepwalker, by the way, was written in part by Aimee Mayo who tweeted for weeks about her angst as to whether the song would get chosen to be on the album and, in sharing her hopes and angst, she collected a whole batch of fans who will now pay attention to what she writes for others. More proof that Twitter is more powerful than it appears at first blush.
Soaked is by Muse and is operatic and I think it will appeal to those who prefer less production.
Update: Soaked sounds a lot like a k.d. lang song to me. Update V: It's that damn scooping. I hate scooping, even when it's not a crutch. (Unpopular opinion: Frank Sinatra was a crutch-scooper.)
Update II: Everyone hoping for a renaissance of Led Zeppelin etc will be sorely disappointed. Anyone hoping for a great voice filling up the pop charts will be happy.
Update III: And you can imagine Freddie singing Soaked.
Update IV: It's hard to tell much from tiny snippets, but I'm hearing a lot of 80's influence.
Update VI: Extra good news: very little voice manip in these snippets and lots of use of his lovely middle and lower range which was under-used on Idol and Idol recordings, IMHO.
Update VII: Songwriters are clearly happy to have found a singer who's not afraid of big intervals, e.g. octaves all over Sure Fire Winners, and sixths (I think) in Whataya Want From Me. Update IX: Also octaves in Pick U Up which is a song Weezer gave to him.
Update VIII: Pronoun watch: Fever was written by Lady Gaga. Adam leaves the "he" pronoun. Yay!
Update X: I can't quite tell, listening quietly on my computer speakers, but I think Sleepwalker includes a big choir. Yay, again!
Update XI: Overall verdict from snippets: wow. I think it's amazing. I think I'm going to love everything on it, except for If I Had You which sounds like another club-like song that is not as much fun as FYE.
Update XII: Broken Open has a bit of a Roxy Music vibe. Roxy Music crossed with a particular Journey song that I can't quite place.
Update XIII: Music Again nods to Queen.
Update XIV: Sure Fire Winners conjures Terence Trent D'Arby.
Update XV and XVI: Reviews (or descriptions) of the snippets are coming in: Gil Kaufman at [update: NOT Rolling Stone but] MTV (glam is back) and Jim Cantiello at MTV (he likes Music Again, Whataya Want From Me, and Broken Open; Jim is horribly wrong about Sleepwalker and I predict he'll change his mind). Rolling Stone says it's a "musical odyssey". Update XVII: Joey Guerra seems to like what he hears.
Sleepwalker, by the way, was written in part by Aimee Mayo who tweeted for weeks about her angst as to whether the song would get chosen to be on the album and, in sharing her hopes and angst, she collected a whole batch of fans who will now pay attention to what she writes for others. More proof that Twitter is more powerful than it appears at first blush.
Friday, October 30, 2009
For Your Entertainment
Adam debuted the first single "For Your Entertainment" off his album this morning. It's dancy; it's synthy. Usually those are disqualifiers for me, but I can't stop listening to this. It's completely infectious. The use of autotune is judicious, so I'm tolerating that. Young people will like it and that's what matters.
The lyrics work on a couple levels. It's a literal lover-to-lover declaration. But it's also a more metaphorical command from Adam to fans. See subtitle. (Update III: Ann Powers, LATimes says this so much better than I did: "It's a game that's led from the dance floor to the bedroom: seduction as a wicked parlor trick fully enjoyed by the master and his victim, the light fantasy of dominance and submission that's a metaphor for what happens between performer and fan.")
Houston Chron's Joey Guerra's review is here, including embedded audio. Update IV: You can stream it or buy it from www.adamofficial.com. [Our friend Asta will tell you she doesn't think his voice sounds manipulated as much in the higher quality recording of it. I think she's right, but I still think it sounds auto-tuned or manip'd in spots.]
There are illegal downloads floating around, but you'll be able to buy it later today on iTunes, so do that instead.
Update: Full lyrics courtesy of ontd_ai:
So hot out the box, can we pick up the pace
Turn it up, heat it up, I need to be entertained
Push the limit, are you with it, baby don't be afraid
I'm hurting you good, baby
Let's go, it's my show, baby do what I say
Don't trip on the glitz that I'm gonna display
I told you I'ma hold you down until you're amazed
Give it to you til you're screaming my name
No escaping when I start
Once I'm in I own your heart
There's no way to ring the alarm
So hold on until it's over
Do ya know what you got into?
Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do?
'Cause it's about to get rough for you
I'm here for your entertainment
Oh, I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
But I'm about to turn up the heat
I'm here for your entertainment
It's alright, you'll be fine, baby I'm in control
Take the pain, take the pleasure, I'm the master of both
Close your eyes, not your mind let me into your soul
I'ma work you til you're totally blown
No escaping when I start
Once I'm in I own your heart
There's no way to ring the alarm
So hold on until it's over
Do ya know what you got into?
Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do?
'Cause it's about to get rough for you
I'm here for your entertainment
Oh, I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
But I'm about to turn up the heat
I'm here for your entertainment
Do you like what you see?
Let me entertain you til you scream.
Do ya know what you got into?
Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do?
'Cause it's about to get rough for you
I'm here for your entertainment
Oh, I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
But I'm about to turn up the heat
I'm here for your entertainment
Update II: Rolling Stone describes it as "like the love child of Lady Gaga and Bowie’s 'Lady Stardust.'" Bowie fans want to weigh in here? I don't hear any Bowie, but I'm not familiar with his full catalog. The Wall Street Journal says "the song is funky, glam-y, has a pulsating beat, and more importantly, is perfect for top 40 radio." There you go, WSJ -- find the money.
The lyrics work on a couple levels. It's a literal lover-to-lover declaration. But it's also a more metaphorical command from Adam to fans. See subtitle. (Update III: Ann Powers, LATimes says this so much better than I did: "It's a game that's led from the dance floor to the bedroom: seduction as a wicked parlor trick fully enjoyed by the master and his victim, the light fantasy of dominance and submission that's a metaphor for what happens between performer and fan.")
Houston Chron's Joey Guerra's review is here, including embedded audio. Update IV: You can stream it or buy it from www.adamofficial.com. [Our friend Asta will tell you she doesn't think his voice sounds manipulated as much in the higher quality recording of it. I think she's right, but I still think it sounds auto-tuned or manip'd in spots.]
There are illegal downloads floating around, but you'll be able to buy it later today on iTunes, so do that instead.
Update: Full lyrics courtesy of ontd_ai:
So hot out the box, can we pick up the pace
Turn it up, heat it up, I need to be entertained
Push the limit, are you with it, baby don't be afraid
I'm hurting you good, baby
Let's go, it's my show, baby do what I say
Don't trip on the glitz that I'm gonna display
I told you I'ma hold you down until you're amazed
Give it to you til you're screaming my name
No escaping when I start
Once I'm in I own your heart
There's no way to ring the alarm
So hold on until it's over
Do ya know what you got into?
Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do?
'Cause it's about to get rough for you
I'm here for your entertainment
Oh, I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
But I'm about to turn up the heat
I'm here for your entertainment
It's alright, you'll be fine, baby I'm in control
Take the pain, take the pleasure, I'm the master of both
Close your eyes, not your mind let me into your soul
I'ma work you til you're totally blown
No escaping when I start
Once I'm in I own your heart
There's no way to ring the alarm
So hold on until it's over
Do ya know what you got into?
Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do?
'Cause it's about to get rough for you
I'm here for your entertainment
Oh, I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
But I'm about to turn up the heat
I'm here for your entertainment
Do you like what you see?
Let me entertain you til you scream.
Do ya know what you got into?
Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do?
'Cause it's about to get rough for you
I'm here for your entertainment
Oh, I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
But I'm about to turn up the heat
I'm here for your entertainment
Update II: Rolling Stone describes it as "like the love child of Lady Gaga and Bowie’s 'Lady Stardust.'" Bowie fans want to weigh in here? I don't hear any Bowie, but I'm not familiar with his full catalog. The Wall Street Journal says "the song is funky, glam-y, has a pulsating beat, and more importantly, is perfect for top 40 radio." There you go, WSJ -- find the money.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Reliving the past
Flash-back to 1976-1978....
During my first 2 years in college, I lived in a dorm. My friends and I started a type of ritual, every Monday thru Thursday in the afternoons after our last class and before dinner. The first 4 that finished classes for the day met in one of our rooms to play spades or hearts until dinner-time. The choice of music to be played fell to the room owner(s), but the first album (yes, back then there weren't cd's) was always the same one. I really wasn't into this group, though I was into their genre. But after hearing this album day after day, it grew on me to the point where I bought my own copy. Once the cd era began, this was one of the first ones I wanted to get on cd, but I could never find it. I looked and looked, but was never able to locate it. I was told several times that it was never made into a cd, which I found hard to believe, but as the years went by, I began to believe that.....
Flash-forward to last month, 2009...
We recently switched from satellite to FIOS for our television service. In doing so, we picked up some channels that we didn't get before, one of them being VH1-Classic. I love this channel. Among the many different programs they have are stories about the making of classic albums and showing classic live concerts of bands from the 60's-80's - some of which were recorded in the particular bands heyday, or recorded within the past several years. I was flipping around the channels a couple of weeks ago and caught a concert from 2 or 3 years ago, recorded at the House of Blues/LA from the band, which made me think back to the album that I could never find on cd. It had been many years since I had last searched for this cd, so seeing them made me try again. The internet is a wonderful thing.....
Today, Oct 29, 2009....
Delivered today, shipped from an import cd store (in of all places, Kentucky), was this cd....
I put it on as soon as it arrived. It's a rainy, overcast day in DFW today and the music fit perfectly. I sat, reading the paper, being taken back to a dorm room in the late 70's. I found myself singing along to songs I hadn't heard in 20 years.....
Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war?
'Cause when we stop and look around us,
There is nothing that we need,
In a world of persecution
That is burning in its greed......
Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.
Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.
He'll fly his astral plane,
Takes you trips around the bay,
Brings you back the same day.
Timothy Leary.
Timothy Leary....
This cd will be in my car for the foreseeable future. When I get sick of Rush or Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity, I'll just hit "CD" and go back in time.
(I found this on Wikipedia - I had no idea about the history of this album. Since I wasn't into The Moody Blues, I didn't know about them being on a self-imposed sabbatical or that many of the songs on this album were different mixes than the versions on the original albums.)
During my first 2 years in college, I lived in a dorm. My friends and I started a type of ritual, every Monday thru Thursday in the afternoons after our last class and before dinner. The first 4 that finished classes for the day met in one of our rooms to play spades or hearts until dinner-time. The choice of music to be played fell to the room owner(s), but the first album (yes, back then there weren't cd's) was always the same one. I really wasn't into this group, though I was into their genre. But after hearing this album day after day, it grew on me to the point where I bought my own copy. Once the cd era began, this was one of the first ones I wanted to get on cd, but I could never find it. I looked and looked, but was never able to locate it. I was told several times that it was never made into a cd, which I found hard to believe, but as the years went by, I began to believe that.....
Flash-forward to last month, 2009...
We recently switched from satellite to FIOS for our television service. In doing so, we picked up some channels that we didn't get before, one of them being VH1-Classic. I love this channel. Among the many different programs they have are stories about the making of classic albums and showing classic live concerts of bands from the 60's-80's - some of which were recorded in the particular bands heyday, or recorded within the past several years. I was flipping around the channels a couple of weeks ago and caught a concert from 2 or 3 years ago, recorded at the House of Blues/LA from the band, which made me think back to the album that I could never find on cd. It had been many years since I had last searched for this cd, so seeing them made me try again. The internet is a wonderful thing.....
Today, Oct 29, 2009....
Delivered today, shipped from an import cd store (in of all places, Kentucky), was this cd....
I put it on as soon as it arrived. It's a rainy, overcast day in DFW today and the music fit perfectly. I sat, reading the paper, being taken back to a dorm room in the late 70's. I found myself singing along to songs I hadn't heard in 20 years.....
Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war?
'Cause when we stop and look around us,
There is nothing that we need,
In a world of persecution
That is burning in its greed......
Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.
Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.
He'll fly his astral plane,
Takes you trips around the bay,
Brings you back the same day.
Timothy Leary.
Timothy Leary....
This cd will be in my car for the foreseeable future. When I get sick of Rush or Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity, I'll just hit "CD" and go back in time.
(I found this on Wikipedia - I had no idea about the history of this album. Since I wasn't into The Moody Blues, I didn't know about them being on a self-imposed sabbatical or that many of the songs on this album were different mixes than the versions on the original albums.)
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Adam's album cover
Adam's album cover was revealed yesterday:
Fan response is mixed. I post it, though, because there is nary a critique/commentary in the media that doesn't include a reference to Bowie.
Rolling Stone says:
The Wall Street Journal says (yes, really, the WSJ is spending money on staff to comment on album covers; isn't there some naked short-selling you should be investigating? oh wait, Rolling Stone is doing that. Well then, carry on with your album art critiquing):
Michelle Collins (who loves Adam) writing for The Best Week Ever says, colorfully, that the cover sends notice to unicorns:
After considering it for a day, I've decided I like it except for the fonts which look cheap to me and the neck-less shoulder awkwardness. But maybe it's retro font and I am failing to appreciate that. (It doesn't look that much like the Purple Rain font to me.)
Update: Adam mentions Bowie too, when interviewed by Access Hollywood:
Update II: There's more going on here than meets the eye at first glance. A Chinese fan site has played around with this image, cutting out just the eyes and rotating them to horizontal, then producing two versions, one with the left eye mirrored and one with the right eye mirrored. The result is that one looks completely masculine (using Adam's left eye) and the other feminine (using Adam' right eye).
Update III: Adam tweets:
Update IV: And the world is having fun with Photoshop and Adam's cover. Rolling Stone here puts Adam's face into several famous covers (including a Bowie one, with Kris Allen tattooed near Adam's collarbone). Jim Cantiello of MTV puts himself into eleven Idol album covers, including Adam's. Fan sites are having their own fun too. Seems like alot of buzz about an album cover and all generated in less than 24 hours.
Update V: Houston Chron's Joey Guerra blogged about Adam's cover:
H/t hooplamagnet (content locked).
Fan response is mixed. I post it, though, because there is nary a critique/commentary in the media that doesn't include a reference to Bowie.
Rolling Stone says:
Do not adjust you computer monitors: the above image of Adam Lambert is in fact the cover for his post-Idol debut album For Your Entertainment, due out November 23rd. The album cover was confirmed by Lambert’s Adam Official website today, and judging solely by the art, his debut is venturing to a glammed-out galaxy far, far away from his image on his 2012 single “Time for Miracles” — probably landing someplace where there are Spiders from Mars. From his bright blue hair to For Your Entertainment’s straight-off-Purple Rain font, this album looks like it’ll live up to Lambert’s Twitter promise that “Glam is back!!!”
The Wall Street Journal says (yes, really, the WSJ is spending money on staff to comment on album covers; isn't there some naked short-selling you should be investigating? oh wait, Rolling Stone is doing that. Well then, carry on with your album art critiquing):
The cover art for Adam Lambert’s debut album “For Your Entertainment” has just been released, and in typical Adam fashion, it’s glamtastic (As Lambert himself tweeted: “Glam is back!”). The “American Idol” runner up is pictured with blue hair and hyper-colored lime and navy eye shadow, and a finger-less glove adorns in his left (black nail-polished) hand. Oh yeah, and his head seems to be floating around in space. David Bowie would be proud.
Michelle Collins (who loves Adam) writing for The Best Week Ever says, colorfully, that the cover sends notice to unicorns:
This album cover is the FANCIEST THING WE HAVE EVER WITNESSED. Unicorns may not exist, but gay ones certainly do, and this album cover is more of a warning to that endangered species: Step your game up, you cashmere soft, ivory horned, glittery hooved m******f**kers. ... In other news, I just plunked down some hard earned bloggin’ bucks on a ‘78 Camaro so that I may airbrush his visage unto its hood and become my town’s classiest lady. It’s going to be a great year.
After considering it for a day, I've decided I like it except for the fonts which look cheap to me and the neck-less shoulder awkwardness. But maybe it's retro font and I am failing to appreciate that. (It doesn't look that much like the Purple Rain font to me.)
Update: Adam mentions Bowie too, when interviewed by Access Hollywood:
“I’ve loved David Bowie since I was a kid [and] artists like Michael Jackson, Prince [and] Mick Jagger,” Adam told Access Hollywood’s Tony Potts at the Los Angeles premiere of “This Is It” on Tuesday night. “There’s a lot of male rock stars in history that have kind of played with androgyny and I [am] just fascinated by that look so I wanted to do something like that for the album cover.”
Update II: There's more going on here than meets the eye at first glance. A Chinese fan site has played around with this image, cutting out just the eyes and rotating them to horizontal, then producing two versions, one with the left eye mirrored and one with the right eye mirrored. The result is that one looks completely masculine (using Adam's left eye) and the other feminine (using Adam' right eye).
Update III: Adam tweets:
Update IV: And the world is having fun with Photoshop and Adam's cover. Rolling Stone here puts Adam's face into several famous covers (including a Bowie one, with Kris Allen tattooed near Adam's collarbone). Jim Cantiello of MTV puts himself into eleven Idol album covers, including Adam's. Fan sites are having their own fun too. Seems like alot of buzz about an album cover and all generated in less than 24 hours.
Update V: Houston Chron's Joey Guerra blogged about Adam's cover:
Androgyny? Check. Fierceness? Check. Makeup and blue hair? Check. (Loves it.)
H/t hooplamagnet (content locked).
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Naked short selling
While driving around today running errands, I heard an interview with the author of an article in Rolling Stone about naked short selling and the market collapse of last year. Much of it was over my head, but the interviewer kept making the comment that descriptions of short selling, naked short selling, etc. that were very easy to follow and understand were in this article. So when I got home, I read it. For those of you who are all into the Fed and the market (i.e. Stephanie), this is a must read.
All I can say is...UNBELIEVABLE.
All I can say is...UNBELIEVABLE.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Coolest thing ever
I dreamed that someone posted something really interesting. Alas...
But maybe it was premonition, because my partner B just sent me this link which is the coolest thing ever. It's a graphical representation of the history of the Fed.
(I'm reading In Fed We Trust, so this is a nice complement.)
Update: I haven't read the text yet. B says it has a Friedmanesque perspective.
But maybe it was premonition, because my partner B just sent me this link which is the coolest thing ever. It's a graphical representation of the history of the Fed.
(I'm reading In Fed We Trust, so this is a nice complement.)
Update: I haven't read the text yet. B says it has a Friedmanesque perspective.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Lyndsey Parker previews Adam's album For Your Entertainment
I hear that the music dude for the Houston Chron is disappointed in Time For Miracles. He was wanting something glammier from Adam. He shouldn't fret. TFM isn't representative of Adam's album For Your Entertainment, to be released Nov. 23. Lyndsey Parker from Yahoo Music got to preview part of the album. Her preview includes these phrases:
- extraterrestrial electro-opus
- freaky-deaky songs, in all their wondrously neon-lit, mirror-balled, future-shocked, robot-rockin' glory
- Rocky Horror-meets-Robbie Williams-style
- imagine if Mika, Sam Sparro, and Kevin Rudolf had a threesome that resulted in the conception of a glittery alien baby
- a giant whitechocolatespaceegg
I don't quite know what to make of that, but I do think the Chron guy is going to get what he's asking for.
H/t ontd_ai or hooplamagnet. (I won't bother to link since the content is locked.)
Monday, October 19, 2009
Jack White is everywhere
As reported by NME, Jack White gave a surprise lecture to the Philosophical Society at Dublin's Trinity College last night. White discussed anxiety and authenticity. Stripes-mate (and either sister or ex-wife, speaking of authenticity) Meg White has reportedly suffered from anxiety severe enough to require them to cancel shows. On authenticity, he wondered whether Britney Spears might be more authentic than Bob Dylan. Also, he claims that he upholstered albums into furniture pieces he worked on in his pre-Stripes job.
"300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues" and "Rag and Bone"
Here's a little sample of the White Stripes. And another (though with very poor sound quality). Across the Icky Thump album you'll hear influences from punk, rap, blues (from primitive to rock), rock-a-billy, Celtic folk, Dick Dale/surf. His voice reminds me a bit of Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother.
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