Archives For alicia keys

My purty iTunes Library~

April 22, 2011 — 4 Comments

I’m a dork, you can’t deny it.

I’m a dork, and I’m proud of my -mostly- tidied up iTunes library.

As with my CDs, and my DVDs… a little bit of books, and mostly with computer files, I like to know where my things are. Of course, iTunes makes it way easy to keep things organized with their “copy to folder” and “keep things organized” options, but then we’ve got album covers, song names, artists names… and music can get a little messy.

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Excuse as I say that I thought Grammy awards couldn’t get any lower than last years. This is me saying that I enjoyed Eminem, and Lady Gaga fine.

But it’s really effing sad that Katy Perry’s got a Grammy nod for Album of the Year.

Not really static about any of the main categories. However, one category did really jump out for me — Julieta Venegas got a nod for Latin Pop Album. She plays so many instruments… and she has her own sound. When you listen to Julieta Venegas, you know it’s Julieta Venegas.

Her album wasn’t even nominated for a Latin Grammy — instead, Nelly Furtado’s which I actually liked fine won. The saddest part was that when watching that I told my mother “You know what would be sad, if Nelly Furtado wins Best Female Pop at the Latin Grammys.” Let’s not pretend Nelly is not singing in Spanish for commercial purposes. If she were trying to connect with her roots, she’d be singing more in Portuguese.

Plus, they also nominated They Might Be Giants for their Children Album [Meet the Elements, I am a Paleontologist]. I think that’s pretty much it.

Here are the general categories nominees~

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Ahh… nostalgic much?

I was doing some TLC reading – rumored new material? Please, Grilled Cheesus! – and found that Alicia Keys had put together a performance honoring her fave girl groups.

VMA 2010

September 12, 2010 — 1 Comment

Dunno if I’ll be watching the show. I don’t even know who will be performing xD But if there’s any highlight, if there’s any complaint… it sure will be posted here. LOL

I like Chelsea Handler. Her intro where everyone’s spanking her was pretty funny, but because she couldn’t really take a very direct jab at reality stars, her game wasn’t that good. Besides, almost nto one huge was there… was Beyonce even there? Eminem left… Justin Timberlake was there as an “actor” and… well, Lady Gaga was pretty much the biggest star there without considering Usher (did he win anything?), Taylor Swift, Kanye… and well, okay – Justin Bieber.

Also… Cher. So so wrong xD and the meat purse. LOL but really, what a waste of meat. Instead, Gaga should’ve gone as Joe Calderone (was that the name?) – Really. WASTE OF MEAT. Unless, of course… she eats it, but I doubt that.

The biggest winner of the night? HELLO, VMA 2010 SET DESIGN.

The set design was so awesome, I was distracted from most of the performances. I really REALLY need to find out who was in charge of that set and do a post on it. At first I thought it was Usher’s genius use of light, but no… it was the SET. Even Kanye’s performance was perfectly placed in that PUUURRRRfect set.

And oh… Winners

Lady Gaga won for Bad Romance
Best Dance Music Video
Best Female Video
Best Pop Video
Best Choreography
Best Direction
Best Editing
Video of the Year

and only one – Best Collaboration with Beyonce – for Telephone.

Eminem for  Not Afraid won 2
Best Hip Hop Video
Best Male Video

while 30 Seconds to Mars (Rock), Muse (Special Effects), Justin Bieber (New Artist), Florence and the Machine (Art Direction), Jay Z and Alicia Keys (Cinematography), and The Black Keys (Breakthrough) won one each.

Performance-wise.

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Okay, I took a WHOLE lot more time on getting names for this list, because apparently I am not knowledgeable enough in female actresses and well singers from Asia as I first though…

AfterEllen.com also made their annual list of Hot 100 2010 [as well as Top Women of Color, Top Out Women, Top Women over 40], only they made it backwards, so I’m linking you to their last page, and you’re going to have to work your way backwards… Ovbiously, I thought AfterElton worked better because I took the time to look through it more than once to make sure I wasn’t missing anyone.

Tips for a better list for AfterEllen:

  • Start from #100
  • Point out with arrows who’s going up or down in positions, and who’s a new entry.

And really? No Asians on your list?

Not that I don’t appreciate the likes of Alicia Keys, Jennifer Beals, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, the girls from Glee (Cheerios plus Rachel, woah that’s bizarre xD), Meryl (who doesn’t need a last name), Rachel Weisz, Amanda Seyfried (even though the things that are coming out of her mouth lately), Christina Hendricks, Tina Fey, Penelope Cruz, Jodie Foster, Rachel McAdams, the whole cast of The L Word… right? Pink, Emily Blunt, Kate Winslet, Ellen Page, all whom often make appearances on this blog. And to top it with Olivia Wilde…

but then again… no Asians?

So me, barely scraping made a list of Top East-Asians that you might want to consider for future editions of your Hot 100. I would also offer a weekly/monthly (a la my AfterElton offer), but I don’t think I’m as knowledgeable in this area. I could try pimping Asian talents on a monthly basis if you want xD

Okay… once again, in no particular order.

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What happened to MTV Unplugged anyway? It feels like it just went away. I do remember Alicia Keys and Maroon 5 had MTV Unplugged albums, right? Or was it only Keys?

Anyway, Vampire Weekend on MTV Unplugged.

Does that mean they’re famous? I thought only famous… like household names had MTV Unplugged albums. I really liked Vampire Weekend’s debut, and their sound translates well on this unplugged scenario. But what’s missing? I guess I’m used to really different arrangements. As it it now, they just sound kind of the same.

Check out some clips (6 songs is a full show?) over at the MTV website.
* seems like the embedding didn’t work for me.

Ever since the internet began playing a bigger part on what is music today (with places like MySpace, YouTube and Peer to Peer), I said it… there will never be a fuly 100 Greatest Songs for this past decade. You will watch a VH1 (or MTV) Greatest Songs of 2000-2009, and you will always feel they will be nothing compared to their list of Greatest 90’s songs, or Greatest 80’s songs where you would sit, listen and say “Wow, I remember this song. It brings such memories” – Those days are over, and it’s kind of nostalgic.

With the internet, the market for music was open in such a way that you do not need to listen to the radios. You are not obliged to listen to what the record companies decide to send the radios… you simply do not need to listen to anything they produce as there’s a market from pretty much any small artist willing to put themselves out there. With the internet, you do not need to restrain yourself from listening to something just because it’s not sold on your region. You can find out about any group around the world, singing in any language, and you can most likely get their albums digitally or through online stores.

And so my list of 100 Best Songs of the Decade doesn’t reflect what was supposed to be popular in America… or America Latina… or Europe… or China… or Japan, but it reflects the best of everything that was available anywhere in the world. There is most likely you will find something here that will bring memories to you.

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Best Albums of 2000-2009

December 23, 2009 — 7 Comments

Well, I’ve found it easier to narrow down the number of albums for this Top100 Albums of the Decade, than to narrow my list of songs to 100. LOL I have around 350 songs at the moment. This is gonna be difficult… and also in every possible language xD

Anyway, I’m sure that I had to take out some albums to include other albums. It was all a very difficult process to figure out what to include… going from “do I really have to take this song out?” to “OMG, I really love all these songs from this artist!!! Which one should I choose!- So please, bear with me, and comment what to add.

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Well, f*ck me twice on a Sunday.

I was googling Alicia Keys because I needed the name of her album, and came up with the news that her album… out on December 15th (on time for next YAM) can be listened to if you become a fan of Alicia Keys on Facebook. Now, never have I ever become a Fan of x-artist. I’ve joined their groups, but never became a fan… even of Yu. At least on Facebook. xD

Anyway, why am I talking about this? Because I opened the Alicia Keys page… read that I needed to become a fan, and I actually considered becoming one. After all, I can just stop being a fan — so that’s actually a pretty good campaign. One click away and you can stream Keys’ new album one week ahead of anyone. I’m sure there will be people, unlike me, who will click the button and listen to it. I mean, this actually made me consider… I was looking at the page for several seconds, when I usually just delete any Fan Page invitation.

I also just block most applications, unless I’m looking for it specifically.

AMA’09 – Again, Did You?

November 22, 2009 — 2 Comments

The American Music Awards — it’s still on, though I’m guessing there’s about 20min left. Taylor Swift is such a sweety. As for performances, were you impressed? Because I wasn’t that entertained.

I did like Lady Gaga’s performance though, I don’t really go crazy about her music — album-wise — but her performances have been pretty cool. And her performance, alongside Whitney Houston and… yeah, even a little bit J.Lo were the best of the night, in my opinion.

Gaga’s stage performance, alongside the energy of the song, the lights, the theatrics, the glass-breaking, the piano-playing and the bottle-breaking, I thought it was interesting.

J.Lo’s performance — was that a comeback? — of her song Louboutins, it was kinda interesting (songs average, though). I liked the entrance to the boxing ring, and the choreography was pretty good. Note how her feet moved, instead of just jiggling her stuff. Jiggling your ham is not dancing, people. Feet gotta be moved.

And Whitney. Oh, my. I do love a good comeback. What a voice. The song on the album was okay, but the performance brought it to that level. Loads of feeling, I miss that feeling. And those shots with the backlights, they made Whitney look pretty rocking.

And LOL, Adam Lambert. Never seen him perform, but Maca always fuzzed about him. His performance was pretty good. He looked a little bit weird, but there were other parts that were pretty good. There was a lot of touching, including some pretending c*cksucking from a guy and a woman. And a bit of guy-on-guy action — right? coz the keyboards was a dude, right? We don’t see enough of that. They seriously cut from a close-up to a general shot when that happened.

Other performances of the night? Janet Jackson — who was pretty okay, I guess — Black Eyed Peas, Carrie Underwood, Shakira, Rihanna, Keith Urban, Mary j. Blige, Alicia Keys solo and with Jay-Z, Eminem with 50 Cent… and Timbaland’s performance which was okay, but truly can’t stand the way he sounds any longer. He’s overdone it.

Winners don’t really matter. No, really. I mean it.

But congrats to Taylor Swift who won big, including Artist of the Year.

— EDIT —

LOL, honestly. There’s a lot of talk about Adam Lambert. I knew it. The average American Idol viewer couldn’t take that performance. A lot of self-proclaimed Lambert fans who will not be buying the album tomorrow because of the crotch on the face, the S&M stuff, and the guy-on-guy kiss. Get over yourself, people. Female performers do it all the time, and no one says anything about it. If it had been a girl doing all the crotch grabbing, and there had been a girl on girl kiss no one would have made a peep.

Bunch of Mo’phobes.