Category: Play

I Am... Leona Lewis

12/17/2015

Day 4 of the 12 Days of Bubbles continues.

Leona Lewis's latest album I Am released in September has no relation to the Beyonce masterpiece I Am... Sasha Fierce. Other then both of their tremendous vocal ranges. It came out in September and I've still yet to buy it. And, I like Leona Lewis.

Picture it. It's 2006. She's just won the British version of X Factor. Simon Cowell has taken her under his wing. He plans on turning her into a superstar. Leona Lewis is primed to be the next Mariah Carey. My first experience with Leona Lewis was in the orthodontist chair. Something about cutting and snipping wires went so magically with Leona's voice.

By all accounts Simon Cowell achieved his goal in the running gate. The Ryan Tedder penned hit “Bleeding Love” dominated the charts. It's parent album Spirit went ten times platinum in the United Kingdom. The equivalent of three million copies. In the United States it went number one and sold close to two million copies. Spawning a second hit “Better In Time”

Buy "Bleeding Love"

Everyone loved Leona Lewis. She was beautiful. Talented. Gorgeous. Safe if somewhat boring. But, this was a woman not heralding her music, but instead letting other creative forces do the work for her.

The first misstep she took was with Echo. Simon Cowell was once again at the forefront, but the producers he lined her up with didn't replicate the success of Spirit. Not that much would. In the UK it went a more then respectable two times platinum. Spawning one UK top ten hit and another top hit. In the US the album charted one single within the top 40 and failed to chart within the top ten on the albums chart.

She'd lost all of her momentum in the US. She was a pretty face. If somewhat faceless. Her brand of R&B just wasn't syncing.

Glassheart was her musical detour. It had Childish Gambino on the lead single. Colton Haynes in a music video. It was an electronic experiement that was musically innovative for someone not known for her involvement in her music. She was safe. Glassheart was her underrated masterpiece. It achieved a silver certification in the United Kingdom and was never released in the United States.

A Christmas album was released to sales success if doing nothing to revitalize her status at radio.

Now we have I Am. As I said, I like Leona Lewis, so I listened to the singles. I don't know who was supposed to buy this album. “Thunder” sounded like a watered down version of Nicki Minaj's “Pills and Potions.” Not a song that was even a Nicki hit.

“I Am” harkened back to Mariah Carey filler of yesteryear when that kind of music went number one. The only song that held some interest was “Fire Under My Feet” that worked have worked much better as a club stomper instead of the R&B based number it was released as.

She seems to have lost any sense of focus or musical direction. She's probably wishing she hadn't passed up on “We Found Love” now. In the UK I Am was her first album not to go top ten in it's debut week. Not a single song went top 40 in her native country.

In an attempt to garner radio play the only successful thing this able has accomplished is proving how much she still radiates. All of that said. I still haven't listened to the album in full. But, I would hate to put Leona out of the running forever. All she needs is the next Babyface to launch her back into stardom.

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Video Games Are Art

8/27/2015

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I went to an art exhibit with Boomer recently. The question posed was “Are video games art?” The point of the exhibit was to convince you that they are.

I dragged Boomer along, so we could get some culture in and because he's obsessed with video games. I am not so. One time a boy asked me if I played video games. I said no and then I was like well... And, he said to me that whenever people say that it means that they have a Wii.

He was right.

Now the exhibit was interactive. You could actually play some of the games. It was really cool. Boomer did not let me read most of the information despite the fact that I was blogging on the material. He already knew most of it. Still, it was amazing.

The very first home gaming system was the Odyssey. Yes, I had to google that. I didn't remember. I can't tell you much about it other then it's old as hell. This gaming system was released in 1972. I was unaware that these things existed outside of arcades until the nineties. The flagship game for this system was the immortal pong.

Now I learned something crazy about Pac-Man. So, Pac-Man is actually based off a Japanese story. The story is that this creature eats children in order to protect them from monsters. It really begs the question of who's the villain in this story. Now, I don't know about you, but I've never been good at Pac-Man. Or any video game.

One of the most interesting games I learned about was 1943: The Battle of Midway. The concept is that your this fighter jet attacking Japanese planes in order to sink one of the Japanese ships. It was one of the most successful shoot em up games. But, the crazy part to me is that this was created by Japanese developers. I find that to be an interesting choice. I don't know how I as Japanese person would have felt about creating a video game where the goal is for Americans to kill the Japanese. It's a little unsettling.

This game was even on the immortal Commodore. A gaming system I'd never heard of until this exhibit.

During the nineties video games really hit their stride. Sega released their console Genesis with their incredibly successful Sonic franchise. Did you know that Sonic only has one eye and that the character Tails was originally supposed to be based off of Madonna? It's crazy.

The exhibit also discussed computer games. The only one it really focused on was Myst. I knew of this game. It was an adventure puzzle game. It pioneered computer video games. My aunt loves this game. It's supposed to be incredibly difficult. You don't know what's happening. Your just this unnamed character exploring this island The only kind of puzzle games I ever played were the Nancy Drew ones. I'm just a dork enough to love them.

The craziest thing that happened is how upset Boomer was that Halo 2 was featured instead of the original Halo for X-Box. He was so mad. I even sparked a debate at my work over this very topic. Something was said about the multiplayer online function or something like that. Either way I didn't understand any of the anger. The only time I ever played Halo they had to turn off the friendly fire option, because I kept killing my partner.

Now the game I truly consider art was Flower. It was released on one of the Play Station systems and the entire point is to move flowers. You play the wind and you traverse this terrain. It's soothing and beautiful. Absolutely amazing. Now, I wouldn't have spent fifty dollars to play the wind, but I most certainly see the artistic merit of this game. It was visually stunning. The entire thing.

The final game I saw that sparked my interest was released a few years ago. It's called Heavy Rain. Boomer had never played it, but he had heard of it. It's the kind of game where you can make moral choices that effect the game play. You can kill people.

There's a serial killer who drowns people during heavy rain. It's intense. There's a cop. There's children. Multiple ways to get to the end of the story and different ways to act out the scenario. Your basically living this story. It would be too much for me, but I digress.

I don't know if I've done an accurate job of relaying the history of video games or convinced you that their art. But, no one can ever tell me that there isn't artistic merit to these games. Creating these worlds with computer models instead of a paint brush doesn't diminish their creativity.

Although, Halo is not art. It has the merit of a Kids Bop CD.

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Hold Your Breath For Eight Years

6/17/2015

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On the 16th Hilary Duff released her fourth studio album Breathe In. Breathe Out. This is my millionth friendly reminder to buy it. We had to wait for eight years for this album. I am not waiting another eight years. What the actual fuck was that Hilary.

In commemoration of the album event of the year. I'm rehashing all her past albums and reliving my childhood. I feel like it doesn't count. But, the Lizzie McGuire Soundtrack. Every 19 year old has that album or has it had it at some point in their lives or at the very least has a working concept of it. I can't honestly sit here and tell you it's high quality recording. What I can tell you is that “Why Not” is still my shit and Taylor Dayne's cover of RuPaul's “Supermodel” is amazing.

Buy "Why Not"

The “Tide Is High” is also on there. We have all sang to that song with hairbrush in hand. That's the moment I realized me and Lizzie McGuire are the same person. I've also shouted out the lyrics to “You Make Me Feel Like A Star”. If your a late 90's kid this soundtrack is essential.

Her first album was Metamorphosis (or her Christmas album, but I'm not even going there). Please don't buy Metamorphosis. I love it, because it's my childhood Not, because it's quality recording. It's on the level of ...Baby One More Time and that was not the highlight of Britney's recording career. Highlight is definitely “Come Clean”

I have a friend and I love her to death, but she was morally offended by the fact that Hilary Duff named her album Metamorphosis. She was like no that's tied to Kafka, Hilary Duff can't just do that. I rolled my eyes. She's philosophical and I'm a pretty face. She probably had a point.

Buy "Come Clean"

We're skipping over the Cinderella Story Soundtrack. Mainly because I don't have it and secondly because “Our Lips Are Sealed” is not a quality Hilary Duff recording. Her second album was self titled. I think it's a little lengthy, but it gives a lot of good Avril Lavigne vibes. Some songs could have been cut, but I feel it in every part of my body. The personal stand out for me is “Weird”. But, I have and will rock out to “Fly”, “Shine” and even to the cliched lyrics of “Rock This World”. I have no shame.

Buy "Weird"

Then, she did a greatest hits. God, knows why. It was called Most Wanted. I got it a Salvation Army for one dollar. It was the greatest find of my life. None of the new recordings are worth mentioning. The only one I've listened to on repeat is “Break My Heart” and if it wasn't so applicable to my life I would never listen to it.

Buy "Break My Heart"

Fast forward three years from 2005 to 2008 and the newest Hilary Duff album is Dignity. This is the first album I ever bought. I can't judge it from a reasonable perspective. It's perfect. It's a five star album. It's what I compare every album I buy to. It's dance and sexy. “Gypsy Woman” is a fun song on the album. My niece and I can turn up to that song. My personal favorite is still going to have to be “Play With Fire”. It's been eight years and I can rap every word to that song flawlessly. It's kind of embarrassing.

Buy "Play With Fire"

What's actually embarrassing is how I got this album. I was a shy young child who did not understand the concept of the alphabet and I went up to a clerk and I asked if they had “Hilary Duff's Dignity”. They laughed. I wanted to die. I got the album and I listened to it every day for a month and every other day for three months. I know most of the words by memory and there is now wear on the CD from all the times I've played it.

There was another random greatest hits. See my Snapshot Saturday day I did on it's lead single “Reach Out” for my opinion. It's flawless for an unnecessary greatest hits.

Link to full article: Reach Out & Touch Me

Now here we are in 2015 and the newest installment is here with Breathe In. Breathe Out. I can't be subjective. Your just going to have give me a few months to read it or label it certified ten times platinum. Right now I'm gagging and in love. Get yourself a copy and enjoy your summer properly.

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D-Pop

9/27/2014

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Do you remember when Icona Pop hit big with “I Love It” there was a brief surge of I love “S-Pop” so much. Like stop already. K-Pop makes sense. J-Pop makes sense. Their singing in their respective language. But, Swedish Pop is not any different from B-Pop (British Pop). They're singing in English. These same people who could only identify Icona Pop as the only current Swedish music sensation. Failed to buy This Is... Icona Pop they're super short (just under thirty-three minutes), super fun revised debut album. Now that's shady.

While, we're discussing Icona Pop check out their new single “Get Lost” and the album only guest spot they did for Tiesto “Let's Go” (An euphoric improvement over the Calvin Harris produced single of the same name).

That whole introduction was to explain “D-Pop”. Danish Pop. The title of today's Throwback Thursday. So, I bought Aqua's debut album Aquarium. Aqua were the brilliant provocateurs of “Barbie Girl”. Do you remember how upset Mattel got over that? Didn't they sue Aqua or something. How dare a group present Barbie as an unintelligent blonde, when that's precisely how the world perceives her.

There is just something so cheeky and fantastic about everything they were. I love the tinny voice of Lene and that deep raspy voice of Rene. Their visuals were basically everything. The one thing that surprised me about them was the fact that they sang ballads.

That's actually what I'm listening to at the moment. “Be A Man” is my favorite ballad on the whole album. There's only three, mind you, but they pull them off surprisingly well. I am just having so much fun listening to them. They are terrible. They are filler. They are what I do my math homework to.

The struggle is real right now. I am in introductory algebra and I do not know what's happening. It's rough. Being the dumb friend everyone else is in calculus, pre-cal. Even finite, but I'm sitting over here being, “Oh, my god what even is the Pythagorean theorem.” I am not built for math.

Buy "Be A Man"

Now in America, Aqua is considered a one hit wonder (Everyone forgets about “Lollipop (Candyman)”. I know I'm not crazy. That was on the radio). However, in the rest of the world, otherwise known as Europe. They were extremely successful after this point. Their second studio album Aquarius was full of hits. Less hits, then previous, but nothing to gag at.

It's at this point that they took a hiatus. They broke up. They were never going to get back together again. I did not look up the reason why. Maybe it was crushing success and touring I don't know. You can wikipedia it if you would like, but it did not peak my interest.

However, they did reunite recently. I have not bought their album Megalomania. From what I have put together it was only released in Denmark. No explanation. The album cover is really cool. I listened to a few of the songs. I think it's pretty fantastic.

Of the ones I've listened to “Dirty Little Pop Song”, “Like a Robot”, and “How Are You Doing” are the most exciting. Although, ballad “Playmate to Jesus” despite some claims of sacrilege is pleasant. Perfectly competent.

If there was an American release of this album, I want to say I would buy it. I would buy it. However, paying for the shipping costs for an album from Denmark is not going to happen.

The lead singer, Lene also released a solo album during their break up. So, if your just obsessed with her voice. But need them to put away the childhood play toys, look up Play With Me. Other then that revel in your childhood. They're a pop culture necessity.

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And Then There Was Bubbles

9/13/2014

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In case your unaware, the title of today's article is a play on words of Agatha Christie's classic And Then There Were None. Puns are always shitty if your not the one who said it. I am always slick judging people when they use a pun, and when I use one they ask me why I'm so judgmental. I tell them I judge myself just as hard.

There came a point in my writing for this blog that I realized, I never really talked about books. I talk about music, movies, the celebrities. You would have no idea that reading is my everything. During the summer I will go through a book a day. If I'm taking an English class, the most outside reading I do is the magazines. Vogue, Architectural Digest, Cosmopolitan on occasion, and any of the weekly rags if they have anything salacious.

Agatha Christie as a human being, as a writer, is life to me. I did this massive research report on her in eighth grade. If Madonna is my music icon, Agatha Christie is queen.

Her start as a writer came around as a challenge from her sister that she couldn't write as good a mystery as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or any of the other contemporaries in the early 1900's. Mysterious Affairs of Styles was born from this. She sent the manuscript out to a few publishers and two years later she got a response saying they were interested in publishing it.

By this point she had married her first husband, Archibald Christie. I believe they'd even had a child, and he convinced her to write as a second source of income. Almost like a hobby. Now Archibald was an aviator, and he served in the war. Agatha was a nurse. That's where she learned about all these poisons and there side effects.

My favorite thing she did was after she found out that he cheated on her. She was going through a very rough time in her life. Her mother had just passed away and for all intensive purposes she had a break. She disappeared. She left her car by a lake. And, she went up to this spa. Until the police finally found her. This was national news. There was a manhunt, the world thought that Archibald had killed his wife. The lake was dredged, this was everything.

When they finally found her, if I remember correctly she was booked under the name of his mistress, Nancy Neele. I can just see them finding her asking her where she'd been, and her calmly telling them she'd forgotten to mention she was leaving. Even before she disappeared she made the reservations at this spa. I might be wrong, this was a little bit ago, when I did this report, but the whole situation made me pro-Agatha.

She divorced him after this. Eventually married and fell in love with her second husband Max Mallowan. He was an archeologist. So, she did a lot of traveling in the Middle East. Something you might have noticed in the long list of books set in the region (Death on the Nile, Murder in Mesopotamia, They Came to Baghdad, and Death Comes as the End).

What's funny is that she took this photography classes in London and when she was with Max on digs. They needed to photograph what they found. And, she did all of these artistic poses, with shadows and light, and he told her. You need to redo every single one of these. We have to be able to identify what your taking a picture of. She never did do any more of the photography.

Fun fact about Murder on the Orient Express is that it's loosely based off an actual event. There was a train (Agatha may have been on it, I think she was) that got stuck in the snow, just like the Orient Express. And she decided this is the perfect setting for a murder. You definitely should read it. My favorite Agatha Christie book is Death on the Nile, but Murder on the Orient Express is everything.

The two detectives you should know about are Hercule Poirot and Jane Marples. Hercule is everywhere. David Suchet had a long running gig as the detective on PBS. If it's on Netflix, watch it. The show is perfect, I love it so much. Near the end of the series it did become a lot more darker and artsy, but I like all TV. So, I was still here for it.

Miss Marples, though. This woman is near and dear to my heart. I love her she is essentially a dear friend. Geraldine McEwan did a wonderful job portraying her. Geraldine McEwan is just one of the sweetest old ladies around and she lives and embodies the spirit of Miss Marples I hate to admit that I like Miss Marples better then Hercule Poirot, but I do.

I feel less guilty, because I know Agatha did not really care for Hercule Poirot. She created him to be the antithesis to Sherlock Holmes. And, whenever her publisher felt that she was down or depressed, they urged her to write a novel for Miss Marples. Of course how much she really hate Hercule is in question. Because, she did not like her play the Mousetrap and yet she carried around this little fake block of cheese a fan sent her for good luck. I feel, like Hercule was near and dear to heart, he just irritated her and she didn't want to deal with him.

Do not be confused and think that she was not a celebrity. She was. When she was on site with her husband, they always had people come out and visit her. She never let on to her husband that they were really there for her. Agatha knew how to play a man, so she didn't offend him.

I just think she's great. Don't forget that she was born in the 1890's. She still had a coming out season in Egypt of all places. So, when people really started being like equal rights for women. She was just so confused. She did not understand why women wanted the right to fight in the military. As an older woman, she probably felt the place for women was on the sidelines. She said she just didn't understand why after hundreds of your, women were finally getting men where they wanted them, all of sudden women wanted to start doing men's work.

Her mystery's are the cornerstone of how to write a noir type novel. Her works are short, clipped, and fast paced. There's a reason she's the third best selling author in the world only behind Shakespeare and the Bibles' numerous contributors. With her work you have a large, wide ranging, appeal to many types of people. I'm utterly impressed and obsessed with her. And, if you ever have free time or on break try one of her books out. It might not be for you, but almost certainly it will be.

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I Am... Leona Lewis

Video Games Are Art

Hold Your Breath For Eight Years

D-Pop

And Then There Was Bubbles

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