Aftermath

Here's Aftermath, another of the songs on Adam's Acoustic Live EP (made available for embed by his official site):



Aftermath was written by Adam, Alisan Porter and Ferras Alqaisi. Alisan and Ferras are singers themselves. Alisan sings extraordinary backing vocals for this song on the FYE album. Here's Ferras singing Hollywood's Not America. And here's Alisan singing Into the Fire in The Zodiac Show and singing Over the Rainbow on Star Search when she was 5 years old (too sweet to watch safely if you have a cavity that needs to be filled).

Update to add more Alisan info: Adam and Alisan have been friends for years. Here they both are in The Zodiac Show in September 2008 singing Led Zep's Black Dog. Adam is Singer #3 (starting at 1:26) and Alisan is #4 (starting at 1:46).


Alisan's band, The Canyons, will open for Adam at his LA shows Dec. 15 and 16.

Update 12/6/10: Adam's Acoustic Live EP is now available for download from iTunes here. Rockstar Weekly reviews it here (5 of 5 stars).

How to order at Chipotle

I love Chipotle.  Here is some excellent advice about how to maximize your burrito order.  (I say carnitas and pinto beans, though, instead of steak/barbacoa and black beans.)

On a related note, I'm spending some time with some 20-somethings for a fundraising campaign.  One of these kids used to work at a Chipotle, but refused to eat there because, he complained, Chipotle's food is very very bad for your health since they put salt in everything (in the meat, in the beans, in the sauces, etc).  His complaint seemed odd to me since he was smoking as he described this.  But it seemed all the odder when, later in the day, I watched him shake salt onto a pizza.

Adam's Grammy nomination

Adam was nominated for a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the song Whataya Want From Me. To refresh your memory, here's the video for this song:



An acoustic, live version of this song is included on Adam's Acoustic Live EP that is set to be released in a few days. I like this even better.



The EP includes 4 songs from his album, performed and recorded live and acoustic, plus a live acoustic version of Mad World. The first printing of the EP is sold out, though it hasn't been released yet. An additional printing is expected, though. It'd make an excellent stocking stuffer for Adam fans or all fans of great voices.

Full list of all Grammy categories and nominees is here.

If you ever feel sorry for yourself...

Consider what has happened to a friend of mine and good man--Roger Chan. I had the pleasure of serving with him in Lions in Austin. Good guy and I'm confident he'll overcome and flourish. From the Statesman.

Adam's Glam Nation Tour winds to a close

Adam's Glam Nation Tour is over, except for two final shows in LA in mid-December. When the tour started in May, I wondered how Adam's voice would hold out. He's now been on the road for 6 months, headlining about 110 sold out shows around the world, performing typically 4 shows per week, and here's what his voice sounded like in the encore of his show last night in London. Twentieth Century Boy:



Have I mentioned I'm going to LA to see his final show on December 16?

Update moments later: Here's Soaked from last night's show in London. Adam has identified this song as the most challenging vocally in his set.

Kanye West and his band of ballerinas

Ballerinas are everywhere right now. Yay. There are ballerinas on the big screen in Black Swan with Natalie Portman, and there are ballerinas in Kanye West's video and movie for his song Runaway. Whether you like Kanye or this song, you can enjoy the beauty and grace of Kanye's band of ballerinas in this extended version (about 8 min) of his music video for Runaway. (You really should watch it at this link so you can make it full screen. Also, I recommend watching in 1080 HD.)



You can see Kanye's 34 minute movie, from which the above 8 minutes is excerpted, on Vevo here.

Update moments later: Also, there's a history of ballet in the New York Times list of Notable Books for 2010. It's APOLLO’S ANGELS: A History of Ballet, by Jennifer Homans. "The question of classical ballet’s very survival lies at the heart of this eloquent, truly definitive history, which traces dance across four centuries of wars and revolutions, both artistic and political."

Update 12/2/10: Here's a screen cap of the names of the ballerinas in Kanye's video and movie:

Beautiful libraries

The relatively new Hennepin County Library in downtown Minneapolis made this list of libraries with the most beautiful facades. (Nevermind that I can't really tell WHO chose these libraries, and nevermind that the facade of a library is not really its most important quality, IMHO.) The design sports an airplane-esque wing that may seem silly but is actually kind of cool, because you can see it suspended over Hennepin Ave. from many blocks down the street. I think that it's great for reminding people that the library is there, since it resides at the edge of downtown. I'm having trouble appreciating the inside of the building, but I haven't spent much time there, so maybe it'll grow on me eventually. It has mostly glass walls and no amount of heat makes up for how cold it looks outside on a gray January day.

This library was designed by Cesar Pelli, who designed my favorite building (post-1930) in downtown Minneapolis. Built in 1989, it was originally the Norwest Bank building and will always be so to me. (Other people now call it the West Fargo Center.) It's deco. Tons of stone and brass and loveliness. At night, it's beautifully lit, though when it first opened, there was a brou-ha-ha about how much energy was wasted to light it all night, so a compromise was struck and it's now dark after a certain hour. I worked in it for a few years and it was as functional as it was beautiful.