Whine & Cheese

Express Lane: Issue 60

Springsteen Calls Wal-Mart Deal A Mistake - Glad to hear The Boss, and champion of the working man (and woman!), express regret and take responsibility for the exclusive deal made with the retail beheamoth for an upcoming greatest hits album release. (1/30/09)

Comeback Kid Kelly Clarkson Makes History - The inaugural Idol is the first person to ever hit #1 with a song with "suck" in the title - also, the largest jump in Hot 100 history (96 spots) and, perhaps most surprisingly, the first Idol to score a second #1. (1/29/09)

Donny Osmond Won't be on DWTS, At Least Not Until Fall - Seems like Mr. Little Bit Rock 'n Roll got caught in a lie! (1/28/09)

More of London From Above, At Night - The Big Picture - It figures the day I go back and post a re-working of one of my London pix, TBP comes out with an amazing set of night pix of London! (1/28/09)

Donny Osmond to Follow in Marie's Dancing Shoes? - Alas the first substantive (if somewhat predictable) casting rumor for the upcoming DWTS season. (1/27/09)

Chinese New Year: Welcoming the Ox - The Big Picture - I've become semi-obsessed with China since our trip to Beijing, so was wow'd by this collection (I even have a very similar - well w/out the Qing Dynasty characters - to photo #21). (1/26/09)

Is This Nadal's "Wardrobe Malfunction?" - Nike hoping to increase clothing sales appears to be the reason behind Nadal's on-court wardrobe change this year... the belief being the "average" person is not going to wear sleeveless shirts and pirate pants. (1/26/09)

3rd Annual Out of iTune(s) Post

It's that time of year again... time to look at the 100 bestselling singles on iTunes for the year and see how many of those are part of my music library.

As you may have noticed above, this marks the third year that I have compiled this list.   In 2006, we checked in with 14 songs, which I thought was pretty bad... until last year when it dropped to an anemic 8 of the Top 100 songs from 2007.

So, I figured pretty much I had fallen off the listening to relevant music wagon for good... or at least got onto the adult contemporary/"oldies" bus.  This was only further driven home this Thanksgiving when one of Todd's nephews quite seriously asked us who we thought was better: Elvis Presley or Li'l Wayne?   While we still had to pick up our jaws from the floor, the good news here is that at least I had heard of Mr. Wayne, though sampling his songs on iTunes when we got home got our jaws dropping again (amazing how many f-bombs and euphemisms for loose women can be dropped in a 30-second preview of a song!).

Anyhow, when I heard the Top 100 Bestselling iTunes song list was available, I wasn't holding out much hope or optimism... but what do you know, it ended up being a record year!   21 or 18 songs out of the Top 100 (we admit to buying 3 songs after looking on the list and realizing/wondering why we didn't have them).

Here's the list (in sales rank order):

#1 - Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis

#2 - Viva La Vida - Coldplay

#8 - Pocketful of Sunshine - Natasha Bedingfield

#10 - Don't Stop The Music - Rihanna

#11 - 4 Minutes - Madonna f/t Justin Timberlake

#13 - I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

#21 - No One - Alicia Keys

#24 - Stop and Stare - OneRepublic

#25 - Whatever You Like - TI

#27 - Apologize - OneRepublic

#29 - Say - John Mayer

#36 - Bubby - Colbie Callait

#58 - The Time of My Life - David Cook

#65 - Won't Go Home Without You - Maroon 5

#68 - Rockstar - Nickelback

#71 - In Love With A Girl - Gavin DeGraw

#74 - Don't Stop Believin' - Journey

#84 - Love Remains the Same - Gavin Rossdale

#88 - Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's

#94 - If I Never See Your Face Again - Maroon 5 f/t Rihanna

#98 - Last Name - Carrie Underwood

Express Lane: Issue 56

Cobie Smulders Is Pregnant - After a red herring this past season, will it now be unavoidable for Robin to be the titular 'mother' on 'How I Met Your Mother'?  Plus, co-star Alyson Hannigan is also preggers! (11/28/08)

Julianne Hough Hangs Up Her Dancing Shoes ... to concentrate on her singing... (hopefully) it will just be for the next (Spring 2009) season of DWTS, but if her music career takes off, it sounds like we may have seen the last of her! (11/20/08)

Journey Song Most Downloaded Catalog Track - "Don't Stop Believin'" becomes the 1st song on iTunes to top 2 million downloads, guessing the infamous truncated version of the song in the last moments of 'The Sopranos' helped out with a bunch of those sales. (11/12/08)

Old Men On The Corner?

These days we seem to be edging away from going to concerts, but I am still on the e-mail list that notifies me who is coming to town.

While I heard rumblings of the reunion of this band, this still has me scratching my head on several counts...

As alluded to in the post title, the band's name has become a bit of a stretch... as they are neither "new" or "kids" ("Discuss!").  A quick bio check shows most of the band's members are pushing 40... which I am pretty sure makes the collectively older than even Backstreet Boys.  Let this be a gentle warning for musical acts who have intentions for any kind of longevity to perhaps avoid references to being youthful.

Next, up that header tells us "Wait No More!"... in the immortal words of SNL's Seth & Amy... Really!?!?  I am guessing the "Kids" fan-base is right around my age and I can't quite imagine that folks, I am guessing mostly moms w/ kids in high school (or... gasp!... college) have been pining away for the last decade or so waiting for the band to roll thru town again.

Finally, there's the venue... if there is this unbeknownst demand for this act, I still can not imagine it is enough to fill up an arena.  There are plenty of smaller, theater-ish venues in town that I would seem more than adequate for a group that last notched a song on the pop charts more than a decade and a half ago.

Express Lane: Issue 49

Flight of the Conchords Soar on U.S. Chart - The pseudo-fictional New Zealand folk duo debut at #3 with their debut album... guessing Ashlee Simpson at #4 is not amused. (4/30/08)

China Marks 100 Days Until Start of Beijing Olympics - Yikes!  It's coming up quick! (4/29/08)

Adam hedges on charity donation; James knew gay porn would come out - Finally some news about the two of the biggest "out of the house" stories from 'Big Brother 9.' (4/29/08)

'Idol' Singers Who Sing First May Not Last - Heck, I forget some of the early performances were from the same show... and now statistics show "kicking off" the show is the most frequent "kicked off" slot.  (4/21/08)

Express Lane: Issue 48

'Brothers & Sisters' Star Comes Out - Coming out stories are always good, but have to admit I would have been more surprised if Luke Macfarlane (Kevin's BF Scotty) had announced he was straight. (4/16/08)

Does TiVo Predict 'Idol' cast-offs? - If rewinding or fast-forwarding is correlated to the voting, David A is in great shape and Syesha maybe be waving goodbye tonight.  Update:  Wrong!  Michael Johns went home in arguably the first "shocker" elimination of the season. (4/10/08)

Joey Fatone, Mel B. to Co-host TLC Show - The DWTS alums set to head a show that sounds like 'Idol' meets 'The Office.'  (4/7/08)

'Idol' Download Rankings Appear On iTunes - It's the second time the "to remain anonymous" sales rankings have leaked... and once again it is good news for the guys ... David A, Michael, David C, and Jason were the highest pre-orders for Dolly week. (4/4/08)

Mariah Carey surpasses Elvis in No. 1s - Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this one of the signs of the apocalypse? (4/2/08)

"Rent" Extension - Due to high ticket demand, the Broadway hit gets one more season of love as closing night shifts from June 1 to September 7. (3/26/08)

Let It Be

While I thought Brooke White did a great job on "Let It Be" last night on Idol, it reminded me how much I am in love with another (and quite different!) version of the song from the movie Across The Universe.

I haven't seen the movie (though I'm guessing I would like), but saw this version of the song performed on the Grammys last month... and I immediately got it over on iTunes.

While some will think it's a bit bombastic, this gospel-infused take never fails to give me goose-bumps or even a lump in the throat.  I am sharing two videos here...

The first one (I take it) is straight from the movie and thus a spoiler warning... but it certainly makes it even more emotional.

The second is merely movie poster and the recorded version.

Grammys '08 Review

Last night, we just got around to watching the last hour or so of Sunday night's Grammy Awards.  As I have hinted around here, I am increasingly becoming out-of-touch with the "popular" music these days... and thus the Grammys seem to become less relevant to me with each passing year. 

But given that this year's show seemed particularly packed with performances and interesting match-ups (lots of duets), I figured I'd give it a watch... here are some thoughts (in no particular order and not including all the performances from the show... but I'm guessing you'll be glad it that it's not all-inclusive by the time you get to end of this post)...

American Idol 4 winner Carrie Underwood was one of the first performers of the night singing her multi-nominated revenge anthem, Before He Cheats.  I always thought Carrie was a bit vanilla, so when this song came out, I was glad to hear her do something with a bit of an edge... plus it gives her a chance to sex it up a bit, which visually she does quite well.  That said, she is not the best live performer and by the time the night was over she seemed like the proverbial babe in the woos... though I don't think this "nice girl" is totally comfortable with the trampy look.

Speaking of trampy, ever since she got engaged to my "other boyfriend" (Josh Duhamel) Fergie seems to have been trying to tone down the skank factor.  I recently saw her on The View and she was quite enjoyable and down-to-earth... and while I was not familiar with the song ("Finally") she sang on the Grammys, it made me think she really does have a voice.  Ok, I knew she could sing... but its hard to respect vocals when the lyrics speak of one's "humps" or being "Fergielicious."  Though when I read of this  Fergie-John Legend duet was it silly of me to think that Legend might sing?!

Allow me to be serious for one minute here...  Aretha Franklin is clearly one of our nation's greatest treasures... so isn't it time for an intervention regarding her weight?!   I really do worry about her (well, "worry" in the sense that she is a celebrity who does not have any impact on my day to day life).

I am confused about whether or not I should be worried about Amy Winehouse.  Despite all the buzz and the real-life drama(s), I am not terribly familiar with her. I am not even sure I had heard her big hit, Rehab, prior to Grammys.  But, based on this performance, I don't "get" her.  I guess there's the whole tortured artist/free-spirit thing... but it was all very strange and even a bit disturbing.

This will likely make me sound like a grumpy old man... but while I have enjoyed some Foo Fighters songs in the past, a lot their stuff just seems like a whole lot of yelling and noise to me... and/or just an excuse for front-man Dave Grohl to get all of his hair in his face and shake it away.

On the other spectrum of being viewed as an old man, I was knocked out by the duet of The Prayer by Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli.  Goose-bumps throughout and I can kind of understand why people cry at operas over just the sheer beauty of the voices.

The blockbuster duet of the night award seems to have gone to Beyonce and Tina Turner.  I lamented last week about the advanced age of some of my favorite gay-cons... but if Tina is showing them/us what 68 (68!!!!) years old looks like... well, bring it on!!  Most especially, if you can look that good in a tin-foil bustier and capri pants.  But while I certainly think she is both talented and beautiful, I questioned whether Beyonce is really the soul diva heir apparent to the likes of Aretha, Diana Ross, Tina... it certainly seems she is being groomed that way... but I am really not sure...

If anything, I think it is Alicia Keys who is more deserving of that mantle... though the whole songwriter / musician part of her resume might ultimately disqualify her.  While she was a tad burdened with a "duet" with the still very dead Frank Sinatra to open the show... she absolutely killed it with her current hit, No One... later joined by John Mayer (I couldn't help but wonder how many folks were thinking about those pictures of him in that Borat thong that's making the rounds on the Internets).

Battle of the Bilge

Had a quite funny "random" iPod moment while whipping up some dinner yesterday.  First up, Valerie Cherish comes on singing "I Will Survive"... if you are not familiar with that "artist," I guess I really can't blame you... Valerie is a fictional character played by Lisa Kudrow on the much too short-lived series The Comeback that aired on HBO during the summer of 2005.

But when the song ended with Val drinking some water because "angry hurts my throat," next up was Mary J Blige's "No More Drama"... and I totally cracked me up... why?

While Valerie has provided us with many catch-phrases that we still laugh about 2+ years later ("I don't need to see that"... "Note to self"... "Flag it"... "You see puppies, I see Korean BBQ")...

For us, Valerie and Mary J...

...are forever linked thanks to the episode "Valerie Relaxes in Palm Springs."

On the road to the resort town with hubby Marky Mark and her reality show film crew (including producer Jane) in tow, Valerie is ready to pass the time by listening to some music...

Valerie(flipping thru a music CD wallet):  Eric Clapton, Allman Brothers, Cheap Trick, and Bob Seger and... I know we have some current hits in here. 

Oh, here's one we love... Mary J Bilge.

Jane: It's Blige

Valerie (inspecting CD): You're wrong, it's Blige.

To this day, we still use the same mispronunciation of Bilge... and can't help it whenever we hear or see Mary J to think about Valerie Cherish.

The funny thing is that we've just got on the Mary J bandwagon, probably in thanks to Valerie.  Not sure why it's taken so long... I'm certainly not lacking the "diva love" portion on my gay DNA strand... I think (though I could be wrong) her early stuff was more rap or hip-hop, two genres that do not have much (any!) representation on our iPods.   On a fairly recent Grammy "best of" clip-show, we saw her perform "No More Drama."  It totally kicked ass and had a pretty good/inspiring message too (Britney and others of that ilk need to take a listen)... and we have also purchased a couple of songs off her new album including... "Work That" (used in iTunes TV ads over the holidays) and "Just Fine"... another good song (with a positive message) with an irresistible hook.

So... note to self... if you haven't already, give a listen to Mary J and long live Valerie Cherish!

Even More Out of (i)Tune(s)!

Pretty much year ago today, I wrote a post of how I felt we were so out of tune with "popular" music... bemoaning the fact that we had only 14 of the Top 100 Best Selling Songs sold on iTunes last year.

Well, folks -- it's even worse this year!   

Now we're not timid in our music download purchases.  I just threw together a quick "smartlist" and it showed we had 162 new additions to our music library this year.  While I am sure that's not a whole lot to many of you, it still surprised me a bit ($162!!)... but there were a few albums in there plus a bunch added by alternate means... but I'm still guessing $100+ spent on music this year.

So how hip are we !?!?

We have 8 of the Top 100 Best Selling Songs sold on iTunes in 2007!  And here they are:

#5 - The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani
#8 - Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5
#13 - Rockstar - Nickelback
#25 - Home - Daughtry
#36 - U + Ur Hand - P!nk
#43 - Beautiful Liar - Beyonce & Shakira
#63 - Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer
$65 - Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall

Now I haven't figured out the breakout by genre of all our purchases -- and I think we are pretty eclectic -- but it doesn't show up much in these.  Here is # we purchased in genre OF  # in that genre in the Top 100

Pop: 6 of 36
Hip-Hop/Rap: 0 of 31
Alternative: 0 of 13
R&B/Soul: 0 of 9
Rock: 2 of 6
Country: 0 of 3
Soundtrack: 0 of 1
Vocal: 0 of 1

Though I am not sure how valid that is... i.e. John Mayer is "Rock" and Daughtry and P!nk are "Pop"?

We'll see how we do next year... given our trend iTunes may have to start paying us in order to get some bestselling songs into our library!!