Whataya Want From Me and Daylight Breaks

Just released this morning, here's a new music video from Adam in support of his second single, Whataya Want From Me from the album:

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And the question of the day is, who is the person behind the camera? There are several interpretations: 1) a lover; 2) fans/media/public; and/or 3) Adam himself (i.e. Regular Adam is in conflict with Star Adam).

Reviews/analysis: Rolling Stone (too safe; give us Ziggy Stardust), Jim Cantiello at MTV ("In fact, we're happy to get back in bed with [Adam].")

My perspective is so warped by adoration that I have no idea whether it works, whether it connects, whether people will be moved by angsty, lone-tear Adam, whether his acting is good enough to tug on heartstrings. It works for me. I want to make him some tea.

Speaking of angsty acting, yesterday Adam's buddy Cassidy Haley released a video for Daylight Breaks, a song from his EP Little Boys and Dinosaurs. He doesn't have a record deal. The video was produced with donations from fans. Conceptually, it's Edward Scissorhands meets Mannequin. I think it's beautiful. I love the color tint amidst the black and white. (Houston Chron's music critic Joey Guerra labeled it "gorgeous" and promoted it via Twitter.)

Athens Chuch Burnings...

Yikes. I even go to one of these occasionally (Grace, when I can't handle one of mom's church's substitute pastors). From the Athens Daily Review:

It was the third suspected arson reported at an Athens-area church in 11 days. Two hours before, AFD received the Lake Athens Fire report, Grace Community Church on State Highway 19 was in flames. The year began with Faith Church burglarized and scorched.

How cold has it been in Dallas? (UPDATE)

Last night it finally did not get below 32 and my pool/hot tub has completely thawed. Will be calling the pool tech guys to come check out my system to ensure no lasting damage was done before turning everything back on. I guess this means the great freeze of '10 is officially over.

Former client mentioned on The Corner

Ok, actually his firm was the client. Nordlinger makes mention here. Ouch. I can't believe that after many meetings and conversations with this guy, I never made the connection with his name.

Movie trailers

We've lamented before that movie trailers were not generally made available for legal embed. But I see Avatar's is, and I hope this means a shift in the industry.


Official Avatar Movie

McGwire

When I heard the story on the radio yesterday that Mark McGwire admitted steroid use, I was so confused, because I thought we already knew this. I had to have my memory refreshed that he had declined to come clean earlier.

The better headline is not that he used steroids, but that he's shown himself to be completely delusional:

Still, McGwire told Costas he “absolutely” could have broken the record without using steroids, pointing to his home run prowess going back to Little League.

I'll give him this about his prowess. It takes a special kind of douchebaggery prowess to wait until after the most recent round of Hall of Fame voting to make the admission.

As a North Dakota girl, I'm obliged to note that Roger Maris, born in Minnesota, grew up in Grand Forks and Fargo, ND. Maris held the single-season home run record prior to baseball's steroid period.

Whole Lotta Love (I know you're wondering what Adam's been up to, but you're just too embarrassed to ask)

I post this for the glory of the minute from 3:09 to 4:06:



This is a combo of fan videos and audio taken at the New Year's Eve Gridlock event in LA. (Specifically, this was compiled by terraj, using videos by alreference, intimations, sdljroller, with audio recorded by alreference, anthrogeekPF and edi5289.) Adam sang 10 songs from his album, For Your Entertainment, then sang Whole Lotta Love as an encore.

The guitar player is Monte Pittman, who toured with Madonna. The drummer is Longineu Parsons III, of Yellowcard. (Drum solo here sounds painfully dull, but I'm not sure we're hearing everything that's going on in this audio. He CAN play. Trivia: he's the son of Longinue Parsons, the jazz trumpet player.) Keyboard player offscreen is Lisa Harriton of Smashing Pumpkins. Bass player is Tommy Joe Ratliff.

Videos of Adam's set can be found at Hoopla Magnet (an Adam fan community site) which has left this post open to viewing by non-members. (I think it's open to the world, but you might need a free Live Journal account. Let me know.) This post offers an interesting peek into how diligent and thorough and dedicated this fan community is and how hard working its moderator is. This particular post is solely about stuff (videos, press, photos, reviews, audience accounts) related to the Gridlock performance and the list of its contents is about 14 screens long, not counting the pages of user comments.

Adam's album has sold almost 450,000 copies in seven weeks since its release on November 23. For context, Idol winner Kris Allen's album has sold a little under 250,000, and was released a week earlier. For further context, the highest selling album in 2009 (Taylor Swift's Fearless) sold 3.2 million, according to Billboard.

Of course, Susan Boyle is outselling everyone by a mile. Adam and Susan will be taping an Oprah show tomorrow, to be aired Jan. 19.

I'm sorry this is illegal because it's a hoot OR Ideas for what to do with frozen bodies of water

Two airplanes landed safely on Lake Calhoun, however such a landing is a violation of the Park and Recreation Department's ordinance.

This is taking place across the street from my office.

How cold has it been in Dallas?

We are over 90 consecutive hours of temps below freezing....not the best time for my pool pump/filter/heater equip to malfunction.