We live for the fame

Okay, so I've got to talk about Lady GaGa for a while. Now, I don't use the 'F' word easily, but this girl is fierce. All of the gays have been buzzing about her for months, and her album just came out today.

On first pass, I was totally blown away. Now, I've been listening to her singles, so I knew pretty much to expect. What I didn't expect was the total consistency of her album. Most pop albums have at least 40-50% filler which you generally skip to listen to the singles. However, every single track is amazing, which is incredibly rare. I also expected it to be much gayer than it is. However, it turned out to be more straight-up pop than the pure dance music that I expected.

Of course, it is most definitely a pop album. It was clearly carefully crafted to appeal to large numbers of people. You've got the catchy choruses and requisite guest spots by other artists designed to draw in listeners by association. There's a somewhat suspect variety of musical styles, so that they can tailor future singles to audience reactions (or maybe she's just showing her range and I'm being cynical). I mean, it's pretty obvious that Lady GaGa is carefully constructing her own image to sell albums. You've got the contrived name (obviously), plus the ridiculous unitards and shoulder pads and glam makeup that she wears. But somehow the quality of the music shines through all that. And by quality, I mean catchiness and sheer dancibility of it all.

To be honest, I think that this is the best pop album, all around, that I've ever heard. This is the solo album that Gwen Stefani should have come out with. She's amazing. And she's younger than me, which is just frightening.

In costume news, I have now completed my genie costume and now need to do accessories and do my barbarian costume. I've got a Starbucks liqueur bottle that's got a good shape, so I'm thinking of decorating/painting that, and maybe I'll try to make slippers.

I give up

Okay, it's official. I need to get a new iPod. I don't know how the hell I'm going to afford it, but if I have to start packing my lunches and stop going out for a couple months, then so be it. Living with a Shuffle as my only functional iPod is driving me crazy.

I am quite torn as to what to get, however. I'm leaning towards a nano, though. I think that 16 GB is plenty of space to keep me entertained, since I generally go through phases where I only listen to a few artists for a period of days or weeks. I do miss having my entire music library with me, but I also really like the fact that the nano is much smaller and tougher than the regular. However, I haven't actually seen any of the new models in real life, so maybe the regular iPod is skinny enough it won't stick out enough in my lil' gay pockets to drive me crazy. It's also gotten much more affordable ($250 for 12o GB) so cost isn't as prohibitive as I thought it would be. Also, though, the nano is now motion-sensitive like the iPhone so you can turn it sideways and shake it and stuff to make it do things. That's just fun. And they're way more colorful.

So maybe now I'm leaning towards the classic. However, I'll probably end up deciding in the store when I actually hold them and see how each compares in real life.

Next crisis: what I'm going to do for Halloween. So far, I'm leaning towards a satyr or a fairy. Get ready for a long rambling blog complete with sketches when I get around to fleshing out my thoughts.

Belated Lollapalooza Blog: Day 1

So my original plan was to write about my Lollapalooza experiences every night after the festival. Well, we can see how well that went, considering how it ended three days ago.

So anyway, Lollapalooza. This year turned out to be a testament to how some music lends itself to live performances much better than other music.

12:00 - I show up at the gates. Big mistake, considering how this is exactly when the music begins and everybody and their mother is lining up to get into the park. While I'm in line, I put on my first coat of sunscreen and discover that Banana Boat makes my eyes burn like a bitch.
1:00 - I finally get into the festival and make my way over to Rogue Wave. Lesson #1: pleasant indie pop does not lend itself to particularly exciting live shows. Especially when the next stage over is three times as loud as you and makes life really distracting.
1:45 - I give up on Rogue Wave and head over to The Go! Team. By this point I've lost my shirt and put on my second coat of sunscreen. My eyes burn even more and my lips start to kick in too.
2:15 - The Go! Team starts and I decide that I totally need to own a pair of rainbow knee socks, and maybe then I'll learn to rap and sound like a spastic cheerleader at the same time.
3ish - Laura and Mike have showed up and we head over to see the Kills. Then I learn that minimalist blues-punk really doesn't lend itself to live shows. Laura and Mike give up after 15 minutes, and I stay just long enough to hear No Wow, which was the only redeeming part of their performance. Whatever, I still love them.
4ish - I wander around for a while and manage to catch Duffy singing "Mercy." I think I was too quick to judge her, I think she has some genuine talent. That voice still gets on my nerves, though.
5:15 - CAT POWER!!! I would consider going straight for Chan Marshall. However, I feel a little sorry for her because her voice sounds like it's a hairsbreadth away from giving out. You don't wanna end up like Janis Joplin, girl. I don't know if it's smoking or overuse or what, but be careful. Oh well, it sounds awesome regardless.
6:15-7:00 - I think this is when I ate? Who knows, it's all kind of a blur.
7:00 - CSS. Now, I enjoy them quite a bit. However, let's face it. The lead singer is batshit crazy, and can't sing anything near in tune. If she took some lessons, and learned to stay away from spandex bodysuits, they might be awesome.
8:00 - Radiohead. *Snore*. Sure, I can appreciate them, but...I'm not in love. I can handle Thom Yorke's voice for about 10 minutes before it starts putting me to sleep. I seem to remember I spent most of this time sitting on Laura's blanket and talking.
9:30ish - We caught the six home and I stated about 4 times that I was showering first thing when I got home. Well, two rum-and-cokes later, I gave up on that idea and passed the hell out. All in all, it was a good first day. And I didn't get sunburned!!!

Damn you iTunes!

I'm annoyed, iTunes.  You make it entirely too easy to buy music.  No longer do I spend half an hour in Borders, listening to sound samples and deciding which CDs I want to buy.  On the other hand, I can't download everything in sight anymore and delete whatever I don't want.  Stupid firewalled internet.

My current frustration is based on the fact that every CD I've bought from iTunes in the past month has been disappointing.  I listen to the sound samples and they sound good, and then when I listen to the whole album I'm usually either underwhelmed or I get bored within a few days.  At the moment, I'm annoyed with the Katy Perry album.  She's supposed to be the new alternative pop voice or whatever, and that "I Kissed a Girl" song is really catchy.  However, the entire rest of the album is completely filler, as far as I'm concerned.  It's completely generic.

Also, one of her song titles is in AIMspeak.  I HATE song titles in AIMspeak

I think the moral of the story is that I need to stop and think carefully before I waste my money on music, especially since it's so easy on iTunes and it doesn't feel like I'm spending real money because all I do is click the 'buy' button.

4 minutes to save the world

Dear Madonna,

I understand that all the cool kids these days are collaborating with Timbaland.  Nelly Furtado did it, Justin Timberlake did it, hell, even Björk did it.  However, don't you think that you're a little bit behind the bandwagon?

Now, I understand that you're a chameleon that follows the current trends.  Hell, that's pretty much the driving force behind what's made you such a successful artist for the past 20-some years.  I have a lot of respect for you for keeping fresh and current when most of the popular recording artists of the day are less than half your age.

However, none of this excuses the steaming pile of shit that is "4 Minutes."  It's derivative, uninspired, and just plain boring.  There is not a single original melody, rhythm, or lyric in the entire song.  Piling on guest appearances by Justin Timberlake and Timbaland will not change the fact that your single is just plain bad.  Neither will the heavy-handed production that transforms the song into a monolithic wall of sound, drowning out the majority of your own vocals.

I'm really hoping that the rest of the new album redeems this misstep, or it grows on me, because right now I'm not too hopeful.