A Thought On Adam Lambert

So by now you heard about Adam Lambert and his boyfriend being briefly arrested in Finland after a drunken brawl in a gay bar last week. While I am a fan of Lambert's music, and I liked how he handled the coming-out issue during and just after his "American Idol" days, and I was on his side when people (and TV networks) flipped out after his American Music Awards performance a couple of years ago, I find that I like him as a person less and less.

He seems to be rather arrogant, which isn't a big deal in itself. But when you're a celebrity, and you date another celebrity, and he happens to be a TV "reality" show star (in this case, the Finnish version of "Big Brother"), and you get drunk and get into a big fight, you can't complain about the media being interested in you, and you really shouldn't say that the media exaggerates...

...especially when at least one person has said she was accidentally punched while trying to break up the fight. After I read the tweet shown above I stopped following Adam Lambert on Twitter. Like I said, I'm still a fan of his music, and I'm looking forward to his second album. But his huge ego, combined with his whining about the media, is more than I can handle.

My 2010 In Music

Well, I've done all the accounting -- or, to be accurate, iTunes kept track of the totals -- and will reveal shortly my Top 25 Most Played Songs of 2010 (since I've reset the count to zero for the new year). First, I'd like to tell you about my top 10 albums of 2010. The problem with that is...I don't have one. I only bought 16 new albums all year, and if you take out greatest hits collections and albums released before 2010, that number drops to 11 -- and two of those were Christmas albums, so they don't really count.

(By the way, it seems weird to refer to "albums" when vinyl albums as we know it hardly exist anymore. There are music purists who prefer vinyl, thus allowing a certain number of releases in vinyl, but the vast majority of new releases -- and certainly everything I've gotten in at least the last 15-20 years -- are strictly CDs or digital downloads. But it's easier to refer to them as albums.)

Perhaps more will come into my hands in the future, but for now, here are the nine non-Christmas 2010 albums I bought:

Vampire Weekend – Contra
Glee cast - Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna
Kele – The Boxer
Scissor Sisters – Night Work
soundtrack – Despicable Me
Kylie Minogue – Aphrodite
Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns
Bruno Mars – Doo-Wops & Hooligans
Mark Ronson and the Business Intl. - Record Collection

I will say that, except perhaps for the Linkin Park album,

Randomness: Celebs Make Out, Come Out, Comics

Here are some unrelated items that caught my eye today...

• This isn't going to get me to listen to a music station with commercials, but morning show DJ Elvis Duran, whose Z100 (New York City) show is syndicated and airs on Q102 here (where he used to work in the 1980s -- I vaguely remember him being on in the afternoon at one point) came out on his show today in a very matter-of-fact way.

• Speaking of coming out, if any more long-time closeted Republican officials want to come out now, and then whine about how hard it was to be gay and working in the GOP, read this. Then go have a really blunt chat with your remaining GOP friends -- I say "remaining" because I bet some of them drop you like a hot potato -- about how despicable you've all been for so many, many years and how it has to end now. If you can't do that, then go fuck yourself, because I (among others) surely won't.

• Did Adam Lambert really make out with Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears while Katy Perry looked on? Watch this and find out!

• Sometimes the scheduled release date of a comic book is delayed. When such a book is connected to other books/storylines, it can be a problem. So the news that a book I thought would be out a couple of weeks ago, issue 5 of the "Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne" miniseries, has now been pushed back to October, just makes me laugh. There are all of these special one-shot issues due in October that are tied into Bruce Wayne's return, not to mention the regular monthly Batman books and that horrendous "Time Masters: Vanishing Point" miniseries. Unless everything's getting pushed back, there will probably be plot points mentioned in these other books that spoil what happens in "B:TROBW." (Would that acronym would be pronounced "be-tro-bwoo" or "buh-tro-bweh" or...?)

• But there is good news in comic book land: after 17 years of publishing Simpsons Comics, Futurama Comics and a bunch of related titles, and even a couple that had nothing to do with either show, Bongo Comics...finally has a website!

My iTunes Top 25 for 6-6-10

Since I just synced my iPod with my most recent downloads into iTunes, I thought I'd share my Top 25 most played tracks so far in 2010, with total plays for each (I cleared the totals at the start of the year.) Still clinging to the top for now is the song used in "Ugly Betty" during the scene where Justin first kisses his boyfriend. I'm not playing it much lately, so it surely will be dethroned. Also, there seems to be lots of Lady Gaga. Actually, there are six CDs with multiple songs on the list -- 20 of the 25 songs come from those six CDs. (This also kind of indicates that I could use some more new music. I haven't bought many new albums recently.)

Valium In The Sunshine - Maps 64
Telephone (feat. Beyoncé)- Lady Gaga 61
Meet Me Halfway - Black Eyed Peas 53
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga 53
Giving Up The Gun - Vampire Weekend 46
Bad Romance (Rauhofer Anthem) - Lady Gaga 41
Cousins - Vampire Weekend 39
A Beautiful Mine - RJD2 38
Dance In The Dark - Lady Gaga 37
Poker Face - Lady Gaga 34
Sure Fire Winners - Adam Lambert 33
Vogue - Glee Cast 33
Paparazzi - Lady Gaga 32
Celebration - Madonna 31
If I Had You - Adam Lambert 29
When Love Takes Over (Featuring Kelly Rowland) - David Guetta 28
For Your Entertainment - Adam Lambert 24
Sexy Bitch (Featuring Akon) - David Guetta 24
Missing You (Featuring Novel) - David Guetta 24
4 Minutes - Glee Cast 24
Alejandro - Lady Gaga 24
Monster - Lady Gaga 24
So Happy I Could Die - Lady Gaga 24
Teeth - Lady Gaga 24
Memories (Featuring Kid Cudi) - David Guetta 23

Some TV Stuff: Glee, American Idol

I've got some thoughts on programs I watched this week for the first time in a while. I was going to also write about the finale of "Ugly Betty" but I'm going to save that for its own separate post, so stay tuned. ;-)

After what seems like years of hype, "Glee" returned to Fox this week with a new episode. You may recall that I tried to get into it back in the fall. It didn't take. With the confirmation that an episode devoted entirely to the music of Madonna was in the works, I figured I'd be watching it again at some point. Since they decided to start the Madonna party a week early, with the premiere of "Vogue" as sung by Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), I decided to watch it this week.

I loved the video -- a virtual remake of the original. The rest of the show? I still don't get it. I didn't dislike it. I'm glad the storyline revolving Will's wife and her fake pregnancy is over. Jane Lynch still delivers some delicious lines. But I'm still just as lukewarm as I was before. I wish I knew why. I did watch parts of the episode where Kurt became the football team's kicker and then came out to his dad. The coming-out scene at the end was very nice. The football game scene just before it (the team dancing to "Single Ladies" to distract the other team) was way too ridiculous.

My Idol Fling May Be Ending

Last night, the 9th season of American Idol premiered. For most of the early years I never watched the show. I've always held on to my view that most of the contestants aren't exceptionally talented or worthy of being referred to as an idol, that truly gifted singers who work at their craft get discovered and earn careers without such a shortcut. This isn't to say that no one from Idol deserves success; I have some admiration for Kelly Clarkson and I love Adam Lambert. But come on -- Taylor Hicks? Jordin Sparks? Kris Allen? Yawn. I just think there's too much self-serving hype from the show itself.

So, in the early years, my only real experience watching the show itself was in season 3's audition round, the one which featured the infamous William Hung. The freak show aspect was being hyped in Fox's promos at the time, and that's why I watched. However, I just didn't care after that.

In season 6 (the year of Sanjaya!) I finally watched an entire season from beginning to end. In part it was because I wanted to see what the fuss was about, and in part it was because I was reading recaps of the show online (EW.com, for one) and didn't enjoy them as much since I hadn't seen what I was reading about. I watched most of season 7, but with season 8 I didn't begin watching until Motown Week, when they were down to the top 10, and after that I was mainly interested in Adam Lambert.

While the show is entertaining on some levels, it also annoys me in a lot of ways. The editing process, as with many "reality" shows, truly warps what actually occurs in shows that aren't live broadcasts. People can be made to look good, or bad, depending on the whims of the producers. Controversies can be manufactured as needed. The emphasis on the feel-good or hard-luck stories, families, the self-congratulations about the vote totals, the product placement, Ryan Seacrest's "America has voted...and you are...not...going to..." lines...all of this grates on me.

Then there are the judges. The three originals -- Randy Jackson and all of his "dawg" shtick, Simon Cowell's acerbic crankiness, and Paula Abdul's lovable (substance-enhanced?) daffiness -- and the newbie, Kara DioGuardi, who struck me as sometimes vapid, sometimes obnoxious, always unnecessary. Often the criticism of the judges is contradictory from week to week or from contestant to contestant ("you made the song your own" vs. "you changed a great song" or "this is a singing competition" vs. "you sound fine but you look ridiculous"). At least Simon tends to be more honest, and Paula, in her way, tried to make the contestants feel good. If Randy and Kara got lost in the Bermuda Triangle I wouldn't be unhappy.

Unfortunately, the reverse is happening. Paula is already gone, and this is Simon's last year. We have to wait until we see how Ellen DeGeneres, Paula's replacement, works out. For the audition rounds they added guest judges. Last night it was Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham. Who knows what happens next year?

The whole show last night just left me kind of bored. I wasn't paying much atttention by the last 15-20 minutes. Everything about the show -- the awful and awfully strange auditions, the people who take offense when they don't get a ticket to the Hollywood round, the human-interest stuff (grandma with Alzheimer's, cancer survivor) -- it all had a "been there, done that" vibe. I didn't think anyone had a particular star quality, and with Posh Spice in Paula's place there was little coming from the judges (other than Simon) that I cared to hear.

I'm still planning to watch tonight, but I'm not sure whether or not I'll stick it out through the entire season. Certainly when Simon is gone, I think the show will take a real dive unless the producers do a major reboot. I'm not sure I can wait that long to jump off the Idol train.

Adam Lambert and TV Network Lunacy

So let's sum this up: on Sunday ABC televised the American Music Awards. The show ended with a performance by Adam Lambert. It was wildly over-the-top in his sexual acting-out, including simulated oral sex, among other things. The mildest part of the whole thing was probably when he kissed his keyboardist, another man.

Then the morons took over. ABC canceled Lambert's scheduled Wednesday performance on "Good Morning America" because they were afraid of more of the same. CBS eagerly snapped him up to perform on "The Early Show" the same day, and interviewed him about the controversy. While doing so, they showed a clip from the AMAs, and CBS blurred out the kiss between Lambert and his keyboardist. Moments later, they showed footage of Madonna kissing Britney Spears from the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards -- unedited.

What we have here are two networks so afraid to alienate part of their dwindling audience that they made utterly stupid decisions that end up alienating another part of the audience -- the part with working brains. The broadcast networks are a shell of their former selves anyway. Where there were once only three networks and some independent stations, there are now hundreds of cable networks, the Internet, DVDs, iTunes, cell phones that play video, and so on. The audience is fractured, probably forever. So it behooves a network to not give in to foolishness, to not be conservative and boring. To stand out in the crowd it takes boldness.

ABC struck out by canceling Adam Lambert's GMA appearance without, oh, contacting him on Monday or Tuesday and saying, "Hey, Adam, we loved what you did on our awards show. The ratings were up, which we're grateful for. But that type of performance wouldn't really go over at 7 a.m., you know? You probably know that, so you'll tone things down, right?"

CBS struck out by displaying hypocrisy. It's okay to show two women kissing, but not two men? Double standard much, CBS? Let's refine the question. It's okay to show two straight women kissing each other, but it's not okay to show two men, at least one of whom is gay, kissing?

Two network dinosaurs, slowly dying. With decisions like these, they won't be missed.

Quick Review: 2012

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel...well, not exactly fine, but I survived. After seeing "2012" director Roland Emmerich create so much devastation in movies like "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Independence Day" we pretty much know what to expect here: death and destruction on a massive scale, hokey dialogue, lots of cliches, bad characters who mostly get what's coming to them, good characters (both lucky and plucky) who mostly survive, and a hideous song in the soundtrack (in this one it's "Time For Miracles" by Adam Lambert). The highlight for me (besides all the destruction, of course) was Woody Harrelson in a small role as a conspiracy nut whose ravings about how the Mayans predicted coming disaster help persuade a not-too-successful writer (John Cusack) just in time to rescue his kids, his ex-wife and her boyfriend as massive earthquakes begin destroying California. It doesn't seem like the type of movie John Cusack should star in, but we all have to make a living, I guess. Essentially, I've seen worse. And Roland Emmerich is openly gay according to his Wikipedia page, so there's that. My grade: C-plus.

Adam Lambert: Going Down?

Since I was watching the football game last night, I missed Adam Lambert's performance on the American Music Awards when it aired, but caught up with it via YouTube. Watching it on the computer was not the best venue, but from what I've read the sound mix on the TV broadcast was poor so it certainly wasn't improved by listening through my PC's speakers. Having said that, between last night and the times I've seen him on American Idol, that was the weakest vocal I've heard from Adam Lambert. The rest of it -- the simulated oral sex (pictured) and the rest -- was just so over-the-top that it wasn't sexy, which was what he promised it would be.

I'm not complaining about it, unlike the assorted prudes and right-wing nuts. I just wasn't that entertained. Considering that this was his first major post-Idol performance, I can't help but think it wasn't the best route to promote the new album. On the other hand, it makes the Out magazine editor who felt Adam wasn't being gay enough look like even more of an idiot.

Entertainment Weekly had two different takes on it, both pro and not-so-pro.

Oh, those crazy Canadians!

Here's a YouTube video of Adam Lambert, "American Idol" runner-up, having a sex toy thrown at him while singing Led Zeppelin at the Idol tour show in Hamilton, Ontario. Forward to the 2:10 mark if you don't want to listen to the entire song:



See, this is what happens when we Americans try to spread culture amongst the savages in foreign lands. Keep "American Idol" in America, dammit!