The best music of 2009

As you may have noticed, I did not make a post at the end of the last year sharing the names of my favourite songs and albums of 2009.

I did purchase several CDs last year, but I got a lot of disappointments. There were a lot of albums that didn't stick with me and weren't memorable. The biggest disappointment to me was LIGHTS album The Listening. It was filled with auto-tune and filler. I've heard some of her unreleased material, and most of it is a lot better than what's on the album. With this album, she lost a bit of her charm to me. I purchased a ticket to see her on her supporting tour of the album before the album was released. I should've waited.

Some albums I did enjoy were The Fame Monster by Lady GaGa and Picture Imperfect by Shiloh. The Fame Monster made me rediscover my liking for Lady GaGa, especially the song "Speechless." Picture Imperfect contained some songs I could really relate to during the later part of last year, like "It's Not Me" and "Ruin Me".

There are also albums that I wish I had checked out like Fantasies by Metric, instead of albums like Exposed by Kristinia DeBarge.

A lot of awful music appeared last year, like TiK ToK by Ke$ha. Though from the moment I first heard it, I knew it would be a hit. It's kind of sad when you think about it, that the number one song in the country contains bizarre unintelligent lyrics like this one.

Since the radio is mostly filled with autotune these days, I have started to listen to 80's music instead. There's one radio station here that now considers 80's music oldies. This freaks me out because in 30 years "Fireflies" by Owl City is going to be considered oldies. DO NOT WANT NOW, AND DO NOT WANT THEN.

So, I want to know... What are your favourite 80's songs, and who are your least favourite artists/groups on the radio today?

A warning for those looking to purchase a new camera or a camcorder.

Being an online blogger, I have a place to broadcast my opinions, an online soap box if you will. Of course, before I bad mouth something, I'm going to back it up with reports of several people saying the same thing.

The two products I am going to be talking about are the Samsung S760 - 7.2 mega pixel digital camera and the Flip Mino HD - 60 minute camcorder.

I've got to say, these products both worked fantastic for the first little while. They were the best I ever had for what I needed them for.

After using the Flip Mino HD a little bit for about 5 months, the battery started to wear down. On one charge I can now only record 11 minutes of video. There are other reports (like this one) that say the same thing has happened to them. I find it kind of funny that most reviews say it works for for 3 months and then messes up, considering it only comes with a 3 month warranty, when most other products like it come with a 1 year warranty at least.

The Samsung S760 was working fine when I went to see RENT last weekend and I took pictures at the stage door. Then all of a suddenly the lens wouldn't go in. The pictures it kept taking were blurry, but if something was very close up, it would show every single detail. There are many other reports (like this one) of this happening, too. I think it's funny that this also happened right after the warranty expired.

I decided to include examples of what is happening.

This is a picture of my jeans from maybe a foot away:

This is a picture of my jeans from 1 centimeter away:

If I wanted to take a picture of something that close up, that'd be perfect. Except I don't really think there's anything that I can take a picture of that close up that would be a great example of photography.

So if you were planning on buying one of these cameras, I hope you listen to my warning and consider something else instead.

LIGHTS at The Studio recap.

Last night was a first for me, it was the first time I was at a concert alone. Okay, other people were at the concert, but I wasn't there with them... Anyways, I arrived at about 6:15 PM and therefore I had to stand in line for the next 50 minutes. Rogers mobile was sponsoring the tour, so they had people there take pictures of fans waiting in line. I got my picture taken with one of the employees, who I swear is the tallest female I have ever encountered in real life. Since Rogers was sponsoring the tour, only people who bought tickets through Rogers new mobile concert ticket buying feature got to go to a meet and greet with LIGHTS. Therefore, I did not have the chance to get a new picture with LIGHTS and not be deemed a "hideous ogre" by some of her fans on Facebook.

The opening act was a band called Jets Overhead. I really don't remember too much about them...But they're from Victoria and the lead singer had what appeared to be a sock in his jeans.

LIGHTS came on around 9:15 PM, and started with "The Listening".



Her voice sounded tired, and not up to par with how I'm use to hearing it. I wasn't sure what to think. Her next song was "Lions".



After this my camcorder said the battery was near dead, despite the fact that I had just charged it before the show. I wanted to save the battery power that I had left for a good moment in the show. So I started recording Saviour. She did a two and a half minute intro for Saviour. My battery died because of that.

After Saviour I started feeling bad... So I escaped and lost my spot in the audience so I could go and get a drink. Thankfully, they were giving out free water! Hooray for not having to spend my school money on water! I had about 10 glasses, I'm not even lying. I told someone working there that I wasn't feeling well, so they directed me to where they suggested I sit down. While sitting down I missed Second Go and Ice...Two of my favourites, damn.

When I went back in, LIGHTS was performing Pretend, which is quite possibly my favourite LIGHTS song. It put a smile on my face. She then performed "Quiet" and I went back into my "I feel like I'm going to suffocate" state and left. This video shows that what I missed was good, though.



When I went back in she was singing "River". During the end there was a massive amount of feedback...She asked for people to name the feedback. One person said "Davey" and she then said "Why not something like Fiona Feedback?" "No, Davey!" "Okay, that feedback is called Davey, and Davey's a pain in the ass. Sorry if there are any Davey's in the audience".

There were people beside me who had glow sticks in the shape of hearts, and they threw them at her... I was afraid she was going to get whacked in the face by one of them, but she didn't. LIGHTS dodges glow sticks like George Bush dodges shoes. A fan in the audience gave LIGHTS a Wonder Woman belt (I think that's what it was) and she seemed very happy about that. LIGHTS then performed The Last Thing On Your Mind and got everyone to sing along. Though I no longer love Drive My Soul and February Air after listening to them 1,000 times off of her EP, I still love The Last Thing On Your Mind.

LIGHTS left stage and then came back for her encore. She did a cover of "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. It was interesting.... Kind of stretched out, but more cheery and electropoppy than the Phil Collins original. After that she performed an acoustic version of February Air. I learned something new last night, she has the same pick up for her acoustic guitar as I do. Despite not really liking the song anymore, I loved the acoustic version...It was a nice ending to the show and it put a smile on my face.

So there you have it... I didn't get to meet LIGHTS and show her fans that I am not a hideous ogre, and I wasn't feeling well the entire time, but I did have a good time.

In the past couple of months, I have dealt with many things. There has been lots of tears, lots of pain, and lots of photos and videos that will come back and haunt me. Okay, not so much the last one, since I was the one who chose to go to school wearing a pink wig and play a mash up of "Single Ladies" by Beyonce and "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift.

Enough of that "I'm going to whine about my life" stuff. (I DON'T HAVE TICKETS TO SEE LADY GAGA IN TORONTO. :'( MY LIFE IS RUINED! [Actually, that's probably a good thing considered what happened last time I saw Lady GaGa in Toronto.]) Anyways, on my birthday I got to wear a pimp hat while standing on a throne in front of dozens of people as they bowed down to me. What better way to spend my birthday, right? I'll admit, it was pretty awesome.

Earlier in the year I gave my one friend a birthday card with The Jonas Brothers on it. "Jailbait Jonas, Ugly Jonas, and Joe Jonas". I decided not to say anything mean about Joe, because he's the one she likes... But maybe I should've put "Sandy Cohen Jonas" as suggested by Jodie over Twitter. Anyways, she gave me a card that said "Happy Birthday Adam" which had all the Jonas Brothers on it, including their little brother. Worst. Birthday. Card. Ever. Okay, not really... From her I got Disney Sing It: Pop Hits. It includes a lot of Disney pop songs, the majority of which are by The Jonas Brothers... Only Jonas Brothers song I kind of know is "Paranoid", and it's not even on the game. I do enjoy immitating an angry goat in heat when singing "7 Things" by Miley Cyrus, though.

So I was joking with my friend who went with me to the Degrassi Goes Hollywood premiere that JT's ghost needs to show up, because in the Halloween special Rick's ghost came back. I did not think this would actually happen, but I was wrong.



Oh Degrassi...

I've noticed this blog really does not have a set topic, and just contains a lot of obnoxious rambling. It's probably because I haven't blogged in a while... Or because I woke up at 4 AM because I have a cold. 4 AM use to be my bed time...

So uh... Last one to buy me a ticket to see GaGa in Toronto is a rotten egg.

...That won't work, I'm a moron.

TIME TO SHUT UP NOW!

Shiloh - Picture Imperfect Album Review

You may wonder why I've waited so long to review this album, as it's been out a month and a half. I waited so long because I didn't want to seem completely biased and say Shiloh's album is like Mozart came back from the dead, and I also didn't want to seem to negative in my review. I have a great deal of respect for Shiloh and her team, and I worried that I was going to write something that would offend them.

Track 1 is Operator (A Girl Like Me). Odds are you've heard a song like this before. This song will get stuck in your head, even if you don't want it to. You'll be head bopping, jumping up and down, or acting like a complete moron when you hear it. You'll either love it, hate it, or hate that you love it.

Track 2 is Alright. An uplifting song that reminds you of the summer. This'll get caught in your head, too. So much that you may try and figure out how to play it on guitar by ear, write out the chords you came up with, and upload them to Ultimate-Guitar.com. Maybe that's just me.

Track 3 is You're Not Alone. This song contains a lie. "My mother never smiles". I know for a fact that Shiloh's mother has smiled. In fact, Shiloh's mother smiled when I told her she should sell ear plugs for those who don't want to listen to Shiloh's opening acts for $5 a pair. Oh crap, this is getting biased. It's another uplifting song... I sense a pattern here. It's a relatable song that's made to target a younger audience.

Track 4 is Goodbye, You Suck. This song has the best music video ever known to man. Okay, maybe I'm just saying this because I'm in it. Another relatable song, because everyone probably has someone they could say "Goodbye, You Suck" to. I wish this song was the elimination song for American Idol, it'd be perfect.

Track 5 is...I forgot... Oh... I Remember. Yes, I had to say that unfunny cheesy joke. That's just who I am. It's a slower emotional song, that sounds like it's got a lot of history. It's one of the stand outs on the album. It's darker than most of the songs on the album, and it could appeal to a mainstream audience, not just tweens.

Track 6 is Better. Better than I Remember? No, the track name is Better... I never usually read what I write on my blog, but I am annoying myself right now. I think I'm going to stop making crappy jokes about the track names. It's another slower song. It shows off how strong Shiloh's voice is. It's another one of my favourite off of the album.

Track 7 is Strong Enough To Cry. It's a good song, it's just not one of my favourites and it's never really stuck with me.

Track 8 is Get To You. It's my favourite upbeat song on the entire album. I do some serious head bopping and singing along everytime I hear it. "I WANNA! GET TO YOU! I'LL GET A LITTLE LOUD IF I HAVE TO!" It would be a good choice for a single.

Track 9 is Missing Existence. This song contains the lyrics "The staircase walked through the window, the carpet talked to my feet, the school bus under my pillow said that somebody has been watching me". Okay, it's official. This song reminds me of when I got my wisdom teeth out and had crazy trippy dreams from all the medication I was on, like Beyonce selling hair shampoo in a hotel lobby and Jesse McCartney doing an autograph session at my house. I think Shiloh is too young to have gotten her wisdom teeth out, so I doubt that was the inspiration for the song. She said on Facebook it's about a guy with schizophrenia. So I wasn't too far off...

Track 10 is It's Not Me. It starts with a haunting piano intro. My understanding of the song is it's about people trying to change her and telling her not to say or do certain things, but she's saying that's not her. If that's the meaning behind the song, I can totally relate. If not, it's still an awesome song. I'd like to see this as a single, too...But I doubt nearly her entire album would be released as singles. It's one of my favourites off of the album.

Track 11 is Raise A Little Hell Now. I've praised this song before, and I was excited for the album version, but I'm not sure if it meets my expectations. The production on the album version makes it sound too poppy. Instead of it being a song about being loud and raising hell by doing stuff like cranking the amps up to 11, it's more like cranking the amps up to 5. Did that make sense? The studio version sounds as rebellious as staying up until 10:30 PM on a school night when your bedtime is 10 PM, instead of staying up all night at a party. The problem with this is mainly the production...You can hear Shiloh's vocals where she is really singing it from her guts, but those are the background vocals when they should be the lead vocals. You can notice this especially in the "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" part near the end. So what I'm trying to say is I prefer the song live.

Track 12 is The Fight. I am obviously not part of the target audience for this song. It's an uplifting song, but it kind of reminds me of a Hannah Montana song. Shiloh is not Hannah Montana. This could target a Radio Disney audience, though. But I'm not sure if parents of the Radio Disney audience would let their kids buy her album, because some tracks contain strict words like "suck" and "hell". Even the YTV Big Fun Party Mix CD that features Goodbye, You Suck says "*YTV does not codone the use of the word suck".

Track 13 is Ruin Me. A beautiful piano ballad that is a great song to end the whole album. I really want to hear her perform this song live, because it's another one of my favourites. I love it, I really love it.

Overall, Picture Imperfect is a strong album. It contains songs that will appeal to several different audiences. I'm hoping my review didn't sound too biased, and that if you're considering buying the album it helps you make up your mind. I for sure want to hear more, and a re-recorded version of All I Want and can't wait to hear what's on her next album.

Good and bad moments of events that I've been to. Part 1

I haven't been to a lot of events this year, so I thought I'd write a blog about the good and bad moments events I've been to.

December 3rd, 2005 - Meet and greet with Adam Rodriguez at Wal-Mart.

Bad:

I use to have a lot of dandruff, as I was using anti-dandruff shampoo every day, which I've since learned is not good. So while waiting in line I kept scratching my head. They had a DJ on in the middle of Wal-Mart before Adam started signing autographs. He said "Kid, stop scratching your head" and suddenly dozens of people were looking at me.

When I finally met Adam, I did not know what to say. He said "Hi, how are you?" I replied "Good, how are you?" "Good" and then he said "Your name's Adam too?" and laughed. "Y..eah". So I got a picture with him, and in the picture I was looking the wrong way.

Good:

I learned what meet and greets are like.

October 3rd, 2007 - Pure Divine Concert featuring Natasha Bedingfield.

Good:
Some people were trying to get Natasha's autograph while Natasha was doing an interview with Star! Daily. The interviewer came over and asked everyone to stop, and said if they stopped, they'd get to meet her for sure. I wasn't one of those people, but I got to meet Natasha Bedingfield. The Star! Daily camera man recorded me meeting her. The concert was fun, she pointed to me several times, and hearing everyone sing along to "Unwritten" was awesome.

Bad:
Star! Daily was cancelled a few days later, prior to it being cancelled they were only airing re-runs, so the footage of me meeting Natasha Bedingfield never aired.

May 22nd, 2008 - Jesse McCartney performance & meet and greet at eTalk for contest winners.

Good:

There was only one other guy in the audience there, who was hiding behind a girl who I assume was his girlfriend. You had to be at least 14 to enter the contest, and 50 people won 2 wristbands. So there's me, and dozens of attractive teenage girls. Perfect. So Anna Cyzon was hosting the event, and before Jesse performed she invited people on stage to sing some of his songs. So I thought this was the perfect chance to impress the girls. Most times I sang Beautiful Soul on Singstar : Pop I got an almost perfect score.

Bad:

I messed up the words to Beautiful Soul...So while I'm up there I start laughing like a moron while all the girls in the audience are either singing the song or laughing at me. They really love the song, and they want to see him sing it. When Jesse comes on and his guitarist starts playing the song, his string breaks. All the girls are devastated. His guitarist didn't have a string to replace it, so his 5 song set was cut to 3 songs, without Beautiful Soul. So therefore these girls didn't get to see him sing his trademark song, but instead they saw me destroy it. Lovely. So I got to meet Jesse, and he asks me if I like the album, and I said "Yeah, it's really good". In reality I had not listened to anything off of the album except for Not Your Enemy and Leavin'. I listened to them on YouTube because I didn't want to listen to my copy of the CD, because I bought it only to have him sign and then auction for charity. (It only got $22 for charity, and I had paid $15 for the CD.) So when I'm about to get a picture with him, he starts laughing at me. I'm not sure if it was because I'm the only guy there, or because I'm tall and he's a midget, or whatever reason... So I just suddenly started laughing, too. It was very awkward.

July 20th, 2008 - Z103.5 Summer Rush.

Bad:

So I won this contest called "Win the Perfect Day with Cascada in Canada", and I thought you won what you described your perfect day to be in the essay you had to write for the contest. After all, it said you will win your perfect day and the prize is worth a maximum of $5,000. Not true. A couple months went by and I had no idea what was going on. I was informed the day before that I was going to meet her at her hotel in Scarborough. So while I'm on the bus to Toronto, I get a phone call...That phone call is from the guy who put on the contest, and he said plans had changed and I wasn't meet Natalie from Cascada at her hotel anymore, I was meeting her at Summer Rush. Since I had never been to Canada's Wonderland before, I got lost in public transportation. It took me 4 hours to get there. I was told on the phone that I was meeting her backstage, meaning I thought my wristband got me backstage...so I made a complete fool out of myself asking a guy to let me backstage. Also, I went to go to the bathroom, and it was flooded. After using the bathroom, I went back the way I came from, and a guy almost kicked me out. I waited for him to leave and then went back the way I came from. So Cascada's on when I get back, and I can't see her at all. I am told that I'm going to get to meet her in a few minutes by the guy who ran the contest...Several times. It took about 30 minutes till after she was finished that I was brought in to meet her. I forgot how to speak basically, as I don't do well around girls with lots of clevage. So my Mom spoke for me. I was asked what my favourite song was from both albums and I completely drew a blank. I somehow said that I play guitar and piano... I don't know why I said that, exactly. We were about to get kicked out, after being there only one minute...So my mom came up with a plan... Have me take a picture with Natalie and the annoying record label guy who doesn't know how to run a contest. So I did. I wish I could crop him out, but he's in the middle of the picture. After the meet and greet time was over, there were two other girls behind me. Annoying record label guy gave them a copy of Cascada's first CD and instructed them to pretend to be big fans. WTF? I don't know what that was about, but my prize was for sure not worth a maximum of $5000.

Good:

I got free food and a picture with Natalie.

So that's part one, part two coming soon.

Happy 51st Birthday Michael Jackson

On this day, Michael Jackson would've celebrated his 51st birthday. It has taken until now for me to completely realize what the world has lost. Michael Jackson was not only a fantastic musician, but a creative mind, a loving father, and a generous man. Of course the media couldn't show him as a good guy, they had to spread lies about him and hate him. He used the money he got after the Pepsi commercial shoot went horribly wrong to start the Michael Jackson burn unit. He did a lot of charity work. He protected his children from the media as much as possible, because he didn't want his kids to have the same life he had. He made some of the best music videos possible. They weren't music videos, they were short films. He redefined pop music. He invented some amazing dance routines, and this man was nothing short of a genius. You don't see that in many artists these days.

I hope you're moonwalking up in heaven, Mr. Jackson. Happy 51st birthday.

I'm sure Michael would have loved to have seen this tribute by Siedah Garrett.