Music Review: Blackout by Britney Spears

It was 12:02 the night that Britney Spears’ album Blackout was slotted to hit the stores. I logged into my iTunes store, ready to download, and saw-to my horror- that it was not yet available for purchase. WTF?!? I asked myself. Why can I not get a pop-culture fix? Britney’s last album, In the Zone, was a slippery slide into her development as the media obsession she is today. With iconic songs like “Me Against the Music” and “Toxic”, and controversies over “Touch of my Hand” (come on…its as obvious as SheBop Britney!) paved the way to the fiasco of her reality show and the head shaving heard round the world.

So finally around noon that day the almighty Steve allowed me to download Blackout (named for the philosophy of blacking out negativity and embracing life). I didn’t expect the album to be good. At (what we all thought must be) the height of her craziness, she releases an album? There is no way it is going to be good. But I knew something on it would be fun enough to warrant a purchase.

And no, it’s not good. It KICKS ASS! Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not a soulful collection of jazz standards or experimental indie tech beats. It’s the purest sugary candy of pop. I won’t be bragging at my Mensa meetings about owning it but I will defend it to the end. It seems as if the marketing team of Britney, Inc. has finally figured out what she does well- dance music for gay clubs. Every song is upbeat (meaning no more sappy pseudo ballads like “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman” or “Email my heart”) and actually varies in structure from song to song.

So far, the radio has grabbed a hold of “Gimme More” and “Piece of Me”. Satellite radio has recognized the genius of “Freakshow” with a heavy backbeat that requires a subwoofer and gems of poetic prose like “10 PM to 4 and I came to hit the floor/thought you knew before/ but if you don’t then now you know.” In the aftermath of her divorce, we reap the benefits with “Toy Soldier” that describes her need for a real man (“This time I need a soldier/ A really badass soldier”) and “Why Should I be Sad?” (“People and US magazines/Tell me who’d I do that for, who?”). Sure, the singing isn’t operatic, but that’s not what it’s for. With an incredible production team (Danja, of Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake fame produced “Gimme More”) Blackout has a consistent quality that makes the album easy to enjoy from beginning to end.

With her failed performance at the VMAs and the continuous court appearances / hospitalizations / paparazzi boyfriend / fishnet stocking sightings I think this album has been underrated. There is a place for Britney. It involves rolling the windows down and turning the volume up. Don’t be embarrassed. Learn the words and sing them at the top of your lungs on your next commute or as you get ready to go out dancing. If Britney has taught us anything, it’s to let go of your shame.

Review: The Commitment by Dan Savage

If you are addicted to The Onion and podcasts, you are probably already aware of Dan Savage’s work. His primary claim to fame is his weekly sex-advice column “Savage Love” and a podcast in a similar vein “The Savage Lovecast”. Dan has also graced the world with a collection of books. The most recent one (recent being 2005) is The Commitment detailing Dan and his partner Terry’s quandary: To marry or not to marry?

Savage’s previous book The Kid was a romp through the perils of adopting a child as a gay couple, who have only been together for two years. Both books come from a place of humor and sincerity- which is much more palatable in large doses than his other books that are suited to short reads while in the can. Having been with his partner for longer than all of Britney Spears’ marriages combined, neither Dan nor Terry really see the advantage of heading to the border and getting hitched. Their adopted son tells them they aren’t allowed to get married because they “weren’t the kind of boys who marry girls,” but that they had to live with each other and be his dads. Dan’s mom is pushing the marriage issue, even though her other children are also unmarried with kids. Dan and Terry just want tattoos. [Read more]

Book Review: What Should I Do With My Life?

What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question
by Po Bronson

Like many of us, the author (Po Bronson) sought to answer this question about his own life. And, like most of us, he had to approach it in his own way. He decided he would talk to people who had answered this “ultimate question” - nine hundred of them, to be exact. He talked to about seventy of them in detail, even lived with a few, and ultimately included fifty of their stories in his book.

Despite the reader’s understandable expectation of an answer to the book’s title question: What Should I Do With My Life? Bronson doesn’t offer any career-guides or self-help advice in this book. That’s important to understand. Any guidance or judgments are purely anecdotal. If you turn to this book looking for clear-cut answers, you will quickly learn that there are none. See this post for more about that. [Read more]

Movie Review: Undertow

The notion of the “American Film-Artist” sounds a bit oxymoronic. The independent fever of the late 80’s/early 90’s has subsided into a flurry of productions that essentially share the same qualities as the big major Hollywood studios, only on a smaller scale. Even in the independent realm, films are created with the sole intent of telling a good story, or more importantly, a strong narrative. The screenwriter writes the story which (ideally) has a solid three-act structure, while the director’s main job is to merely “add the pictures.”

Filmmaker David Gordon Green does more than just “add the pictures.” In fact, if one were to regard his earlier efforts (”George Washington” and “All the Real Girls”), his films are ABOUT the pictures. Green is not so much interested in just “telling a good story” (though he ultimately does so), but rather he seems more drawn to moments, gestures, [Read more]

Review: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

You might not consider sitting down to read a cookbook from cover to cover, but with some cookbooks you should. Through the onslaught of celebrity chefs, catch phrases and cleverly named shows on Food Network, and the bandwagon jumpers of reality TV competition format TopChefHell’sKitchenAmericanIronChef shows- its good to find out that some people still write down recipes intended for us, the huddled masses, to cook.

I have been a fan of Mark Bittman for some time now, ever since I went off to college and received his first How To Cook Everything. Honestly, Mom, I was a little insulted. “I can cook!” I thought. But with Bittman, I could cook Everything. His first book was incredibly easy to follow, versatile, and allowed me to make a meal out of whatever was crammed in the mini-fridge and some strategically spent cafeteria money. Since that first book, Mark Bittman has entered the realm of the celebrity chef. He has a weekly column in the NY Times and has a show on PBS, but I won’t hold that against him. [Read more]

Review: Radiohead, In Rainbows

Immediately hectic and enormously satisfying, Radiohead’s latest installment revisits the bands straight-forward style. But, don’t expect business as usual - this is the most low-key album Radiohead has made to date. While the band is clearly speaking the same sonic language they have spoken since OK Computer, In Rainbows is unmistakably more eloquent. It’s warm and inviting, with a densely layered mellifluous vibe that oscillates in complexity throughout the album’s 10 tracks. In Rainbows is a pretty smooth ride from beginning to end, with the possible exception of the final track, “Videotape.” Although not a rabid fan myself, I know die-hard “Radiohead-Heads” will enjoy what could be considered a traditional closing track, as “Videotape” harkens back to the similarly-styled finale cuts of former Radiohead albums such as OK Computer and Kid A.

Much has been made of the method in which Radiohead chose to release the record. They allowed fans to pay whatever they wanted to download the tracks via the band’s website. As little as $.01 was enough to purchase the entire album, with the only instructions reading: “It’s up to you.” [Read more]