And when the top music execs in LA got to make their top 10 list, this is what you get. Out of all those, Alicia Keys is the only one I like. Beyonce was ok but getting a bit dull by now. And I’m sorry, I just can’t like someone that changes his name to “Andre 3000”, it’s just not cool… So I guess this leaves me stuck on VH1 looking at “top 100 of the 80’s”-lists. They did a “Top 100 Women” list and for once I was able to nail the top 10. I got the order a bit wrong (never would’ve thought they’d put Aretha Franklin as high as #2!) but Madonna being # 1 was abit too easy. Makes more sense than putting Robbie as # 1 on their “100 men” list! That still feels so wrong.
I dunno why but I had no idea about “Live 8” that was coming up on saturday! I must’ve missed all press attention they never got here in sweden. But as I was flipping through the channels I came up on VH1 that had someone reporting from there saying “it’s a party down here, now back to our music”! It turns out I had to tune into our Channel 1 and survive with the INCREDIBLY annoying commentators ruining half the enjoyment!
As far as the concert(s) are concerned, they really did rock but it didn’t feel as .. big .. as the original 20 years ago. Maybe it’s my “when I was a kid”-mentality. Madonna rocked as always, “Pet Shop Boys” got thousands of russians singing “go west” and Will Smith getting Philadelphia singing the intro to Fresh Prince, funny stuff. But then I saw an interview with Blair being asked some tough questions by the MTV audience and wow, there are some really big and depressing problems out there to deal with! And having a concert like this isn’t really gonna change THAT much, is it?
So now I’m waiting for the DVD 🙂
As I was doing some shopping the other day I found the “Anastacia” DVD for a cheap 10 bucks. Why not, always thought her music was ok. Got home and put it on.. and ouch, that music in Dolby Digital on a bit too high volume, NICE! And the BOOMs in Boom made all my glasses in my kitchen move. 🙂 Now I’m left wondering what other music out there sounds this awesome in a digital mix…
One song (if you can call it a song) that is getting better and better for every year that passes is Baz Luhrmanns “Wear Sunscreen” with alot, ALOT, of true statements about life. Basically a list of things you wish you knew when you were a kid. One line in particular:
Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
And as so much in that song, it’s so true. Today I heard that an old collegue, I’d even call him a friend, has suddenly passed away. Just like that, totally unexpected. Shocked.
Another thing that works awesome with my home cinema is the Eurovision Song Contest. Usually it was just pretty fun to watch, but now it’s quiet an experience seeing it in 100″ and the thumping sound. And “thumping” is pretty accurate since every damn number had thumping drums all the time. Still think Hungary should’ve won. One of the things I enjoyed was all the BOOOING all the friends-voting got, like Scandinavian countries voting for eachother no matter how sucky the songs are. That’s usually just an accepted behavior, but now they got alot of boooooos 🙂
I invite everyone who thought that buying a new projector and stuff for $2.500 was a stupid idea to come on over to my apartment and see Flatley’s “Feet of Flames”. Wowsy how grand it looked at 100″. And it’s always a bitter reminder of my # 2 regret of my childhood – I shouldn’t have dropped out of dance school.
Remember how I’m always saying that music was better in the 80’s and even 90’s? Well here we go again – after seeing the Live Aid concert on DVD I ordered Queen’s Wembley concert from 1986. And – wow! There really isn’t any group in todays pop-scene that can even come close to rocking that place that much! Just awesome. And a little emotional too when Freddie says that the band is gonna be together until they “f*cking die”. Good show.
Finally! After years and years of debating illegal downloads of MP3 and stuff we FINALLY get Apple’s music store here in sweden! For a country as high up on the IT scale it took way too long! Just wish it was a little bit cheaper but it’ll do for downloading those old 80’s tracks that noone seems to be posting in those free (read “illegal”) places.
Wanna hear something depressing and deep? Well, you’re gonna:
Somehow your standard of living got stuck on survive.
Again my life has fallen into a comfortable weekly routine that I’m just going along with waiting for something to happen. First time I got this feeling I ended up travelling around the world. Second time I got it I ended up unemoployed. So I wonder what’s in store for me this time… and oh yeah, quote by Jewel. Ofcourse.
Now I’m pissed off! Since I’ve started playing WoW I’ve been living in my little bubble almost oblivious to the real world. So I had no idea the new Moby album had come out in sweden but when I walked passed the CD store and saw it I just got all excited, bought it and almost ran to work to play it. And what happens? To make it more difficult for the MP3 coders out there to steal the tracks they’ve made it so copyprotected that I can’t play it on my computer! So here I am with a perfectly legal copy of a CD but still I have to download the MP3s from the internet so I can listen to it. This just pisses me! And it doesn’t help knowing that some of the $24 (!!) I paid for this CD goes to creating anti-copying software that results in this crap. Damnit! If it wasn’t a Moby-fan I’d ask for my money back!
Got a funny image in my head ; Natalie Portman going to the unemployment agency and being asked “how much did your last job pay per month?”. “Well I got 5 million for Star Wars Episode II and that was a very long photo shoot, 5 months so say 1 million bucks per month” 🙂 I don’t know what it’s like in other countries though but here you get a percentage of what you used to make and I’m the kind of guy who thinks these weird thoughts…
And the “new” version of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” rocks!
According to the swedish consumption authority (or whatever) it was decided that this years Christmas present was one of those slim TV:s you hang on the wall. Cool, right? … just how much are people spending on Christmas presents these days? I’ve been told that I sometimes spend more than I should on Christmas gifts, but I would never even think about buying something for $3.000, no matter how much I loved that person! That just doesn’t make sense! Sounds like they were a bit scared over the GNP…
And speaking of terrible Christmas gifts, you’ve heard that Britney released her “Greatest hits” album recently, just in time for Christmas shopping. Did I just get the entire point wrong, or I thought “Greatest hits” was something a has-been artist put together when they needed more money? Not a 23 (or however old she is now) yeard old with a careet that’s still going strong did?
Guess what VH1 did last night? They had Live/Band Aid specials! What are the odds 🙂 But here’s a thought about that song and the lyrics – “let them know it’s christmas time”. The song was about poor Africa and the starving children down there right? So I’ve been to africa – thrice – but as far as I know this is true for most african countries as well… THEY’RE MUSLIMS! Isn’t that like a slap in the face? I’m pretty sure they didn’t care that much but somehow it just doesn’t fit…
You know I’m a little bit undecided about remakes and covers of movies and songs. Some are good, few even better than the original but most aren’t even good. And here are two examples we could very well do without : an american version of “Taxi” and a new version of Band Aid’s christmas song from the 80’s! The american version of Taxi I can understand and it’s more of a comedy than the original. But I bet 99% of americans haven’t even seen the original I guess they won’t even know what they missed. And about a new version of Band Aid’s christmas song… that’s just bad all around. If Robbie really cared he would donate a few millions. And if Coldplay cared about the survival of anyone the wouldn’t do music that makes you wanna slit your wrist. Still, as sir Bob Geldoff (founder of the original, in case you don’t remember!) said – “it’s a great Christmas present! It’s cheap and noone who gets it can express their disappointment”…
Reason 9 : Going with the old saying “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” (Feodor Dostoyevsky), the american propaganda machine said over and over again how terribly the iraqi government treated their prisoners. Regular executions, torture and so on. Maybe so, but now we also know how the americans treat the prisoners in Iraq. And I loved that memo that, if you read between the lines, said it was ok to bend the “quaint” rules set in the Geneva convention!
I might as well finish the top 10 today…
Reason 10 : “After all, this is the guy that once tried to kill my dad”. Yeah, Bush Jr. actually used that line as a reason why going in there and taking him down was a good idea, because Saddam had once tried to kill Bush Sr. As far as I know, that never happened. Maybe Saddam once wrote or said “I wish he was dead”, but as far as I know he never actually tried to kill him. Not after all the favors Bush Sr. did to Saddam in the 80’s as Reagan’s vice president! What did happen however is that Bush sent in a bunch of special forces to kill Saddam’s two sons, which they did! And not only that, they took credit for it aswell! “tried to kill my dad” versus “killing two sons”…
I’m really getting annoyed at that “Facts of Life” song that seems to be really popular on the radio. I dunno why… maybe because it’s pointless … or maybe it’s because it goes on about weird facts that my brain has a dedicated storage space for that exceeds the storage space one would like to have for usefull stuff… I prefered the sunscreen-song, that was hilarious and actually made sense!
Today I saw ANOTHER docu-movie, this time on the story about MPRC, led by Tipper Gore, to ban “unethical” music lyrics and make the music industry responsible for what they are putting out there. And Frank Zappa, Dee Snider and John Denver came to its defence that they are just overreacting. The music bizz won but had to start putting “Parental Advisory” labels on the most extreme albums. Like all of Eminem’s. And along with that I also saw the “Bleeping Osbourne” weekend when MTV had so nicely replaced the the “fucks” and “bitches” with “beeps” and “mooos”. And they even went to the extreme length of censuring every on-screen cigarette. I’m all for pbulishers and TV stations taking their responsibility, but really, is it the music, lyrics and words we should be censuring? Isn’t it the image? What’s more damaging, Ozzy saying “fuck” or Britney dancing around wearing 3 threads? Twisted Sister’s song weren’t violent or anything extreme, but their image sure was…
Isn’t music amazing? I don’t know any other medium that can give you that kind of emotional responses or bring back memories like music can. I mean, who can hear a song like “Total Eclips of the Heart” without being effected in somehow, and who can help but to sing along to “Tubthumping”. Or help getting goose bumps when Moby’s “Everloving” kicks off? And there are songs that you just immediately connect to specific events. I heard Spin Doctors’ “Two Princes” the other day which brought me back to summer of -92 and me kicking back at the finishing line at the annual school run. I never ran since I had asthma so I was just sitting there enjoying the summer which pissed off everyone of my classmates. That why I love music.
Have I seen too many movies if the only way I can rate movies is by referring to other movies?
Have you seen Evanescence video to “Everybody’s Fool”? Powerful stuff. Not only a good singer, she can act too. But most of all – great music! Btw, what’s happened to that group, totally split up?
I hate to be one of those mainstream people that’ll say “I’ve always liked them even before they became famous!” but I guess I gotta – Nightwish. Recently downloaded the musicvideo to “Nemo” – that’s some heavy shit right there man! They’re a finish band that’s kinda like “Evanescence” only twice as good singer (sorry Amy!) and much more to the heavy metal genre. As I said – heavy shit!
And today the ever so enlightened, wise and open minded president of the land of the free decided to make same sex marriages unconstitutional. Why? Well, it seems the marital bond between a man and a woman is sacred and a basis for society to function. Meaning that if you’d allow people of the same sex to marry each other everyone else will feel their marriage means less and that would pose a threat to society.
Two words : Britney Spears. She wasn’t even married for 100 hours, but what she did should pose more of a threat to “normal” marriages meaning less than two people who actually love eachother. But their short “getting married while drunk”-marriage seems to be worth more than the thousands of gay people who’s gotten married in San Fransisco over the past week. I’m not married, so I can’t really say what that bond would be like. And I’m not gay, so I don’t know what that bond is like. So I can’t really say which one Shouldn’t the 50% (or whatever the number is nowadays!) divorce rate pose more of a threat? I’m pretty sure gay’s would divorce as well, but I guess we won’t find out. And besides, saying “gay people can’t get married because it would make my marriage feel less important to me” is to me like saying “women can’t vote since that would make me feel less important”, which they were saying hundred years ago. And that changed, so hopefully this will as well.
And I wish I could say Sweden was better, but we’re not. Here, gay’s can become a so called “registered couple”, which is as close to marriage you can get and offers some of the same benefits and assuarances, without actually being married.