REMEMBER WHEN...

Coldplay is living la vida loca

Radiohead's distant foreign cousin - Coldplay, played to a packed stadium last night in Toronto. The tour is in support of the band's new album 'Viva La Vida'. Actually, at first I mistook them for The Killers with their scarfs and fashionably patchy, modified army blazers. At one point Chris Martin even poked fun at himself, comparing his hairstyle to Justin Timberlake in the *NSync years.
The band's classical training and love for performance made it an exciting and interactive show. They embraced experimentation with a variety of instruments and new takes on old songs. Will Champion used a number of different drums throughout the show, including a performance pad and bongos. He also sings backup vocals and rocks the guitar from now and then. Lead guitarist Jon Buckland seems to be loving the telecaster; which is pretty popular among indie/rock bands nowadays. And of course, Chris Martin being the dreamboat that he is, played both the piano and harmonica. The concert was very theatrical and visually stimulating. Butterfly shaped confetti circled the stadium and giant yellow balloons hovered the crowd, bouncing off of outstretched arms. Even their live video feed was impressive. The screens were constantly changing colours and hues, and the images came out choppy, short and frequent. I especially liked when there was an old TV beside Martin's keyboard, playing live footage of the concert. The cameras would sometimes do a close shot on the TV and it would make some really cool effects that complemented the 80s feel that the band experimented with for the show. At one point they even relocated, moving to a stage further into the crowd, toward the back of the audience. This acoustic segment of the show highlighted what everybody is doing now - an MJ tribute. And what kind of band would Coldplay be if they didn't, right?
Martin and Champion let loose on vocals while the crowd sang along to their acoustic rendition of 'Billie Jean'. Last night was Champion's birthday, so during in between encore songs the band arranged for a cake to be brought on stage. Over 20,000 people sang 'Happy Birthday' to the drummer before their closing act.

It was phenomenal!!

Michael's long lost son(gs)

Looks like another case of being worth more dead than alive. Since his death on June 25th, MJ has been the talk of the town - how he died, who gets custody of the children, the reason behind his death, court charges, debts owed, etc. etc. NOW, we've got another Tupac on our hands. I heard on the radio this morning a "long lost Jackson song from the early seventies" - I'm sure we can expect a new CD. 

Not only are his song's long lost, but apparently so is his first "secret" son Omar Bhatti. The Norwegian rapper known as Obee is claiming to be a secret love child. Supposedly he was conceived the night of a one-night stand that Jackson had with a fan in the eighties - who is also being claimed as Blanket's mother. Apparently Bhatti sat right next to the Jackson family at the memorial service. "Obee" now wants a DNA test to see if the King of Pop is his pappa.

But wait a minute! There's more! I found an article on The Smoking Gun - which has tons of information on all of MJ's court cases. This is from the article that I found on one of his sexual assault cases:

The grand jury transcript, which TSG exclusively obtained earlier this month, also reveals that sheriff's detectives interviewed a young friend of Jackson's during the November 2003 raid of his California estate. The performer befriended the teenager, Omer Bhatti, in 1996 during a Tunisian stop on the singer's HIStory tour (the child, then a 12-year-old Jackson imitator, was apparently spotted in front of Jackson's hotel).

HE'S A PHONY! ..or is he?

Alice: post-puberty years

By now you should know about Tim Burton's remake of Alice in Wonderland. Well, I guess you could say it's more of a sequel. IMDB tells us: "The traditional tale has been freshened with a blast of girl power, courtesy of writer Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast). Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn't remember."

According to the movie's official website: "19-year-old Alice returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends". I am especially excited to see Burton's gothic take on the classic story. His art direction is always amazing; not to mention this film is going to be in 3D. I know, right? The release date is March 5, 2010, but you can get a sneak peak by watching the trailer on the fim's website.

Check out some of the official pictures released by Disney:

Frightening Fashion Faux Pas: Jon Gosselin

Okay I'm sorry - but wearing designer sunglasses, a tattoo-inspired graphic tee and converse [probably high top] shoes does NOT make you 20-something again!! Come on Jon, I know you're all single and paparazzi-hot right now, but you only come off as completely ridiculous. I think it's hilarious that he's going for an edgier, more trendy look - bringing out gang signs and everything. Listen dude, stop trying so hard.. and stop hanging out with college girls! It's not like you can hide the fact that you have eight kids to deal with away from the bars. But in all seriousness, Kate's a bitch.

tweeting is SO HOT RIGHT NOW

For those of you who still haven't jumped on the tweeting wagon.. hurry up fast. Twitter has become one of the most popular social networking sites faster than any other website that has already been done (like the Myspace's, the Facebook's and even the Face the Jury's). Everyone is doing it. All the celebrities, CEOs and prepubescent teens are doing it.

Today I went to sign into Twitter and ended up being sent to the waiting room. To think that the website had too many people on at once to handle. I've seen these sites down for maintenance before but never because of high bandwidth. But doesn't it just make you wanna jump on that bandwidth bandwagon?

Besides, consider saving yourself now before the next generation starts calling you old for being alive when texting came out.

photoshop gave up

We already know that Britney is the new face of Candie's.
But what we do not know is whether or not it is Britney Spears in the new prints..
or if it's actually Derrick Barry.

Go ahead, judge for yourself.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Michael Jackson Memorial Tour

Okay, so the memorial service is not going on tour - but if it did, I'm sure tickets would be sold out everywhere. All morning I have been glued to the nearest television screens to watch MJ's memorial. Not only was it a star-studded tribute, but a heartfelt and emotional ceremony. As much of a spectacle as it was, you can only imagine that Michael wouldn't have wanted it any different. To tell you the truth, I'm sure he would have made it even more outrageous if he had the chance.

The most interesting part about the broadcast was the fact that Michael's kids were being shown to the public for the first time. There are only a few images of the children that have been released to the public, so up until today no one has really gotten a sense of who they are. When Paris said the closing words of the ceremony I completely broke down and lost it - full on waterworks people. I can't wait until those kids grow up, not only to see what they become but to hear what they have to say about daddy'o.

Back to the memorial - I absolutely loved Magic Johnson reminiscing about the superstar and him eating a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. While Stevie Wonder killed it, I expected a little more from my homegirl Mariah. However, I did enjoy John Mayer, who made the right decision by having his guitar on vocals. The only thing that threw me off was Brooke Shields. I had no idea that they were so close - but let's face it, she is just as crazy as he was so I can totally believe it.

Lastly,
Where the eff were Britney and Justin?

Rock the Bells 2009

Yesterday I ventured down to the Toronto harborfront to see a little music festival called Rock the Bells. Hip Hop superstars graced the Amphitheatre stage with sunny rays all day and a full moon at night. The lineup was incredible, even though some big headliners never made it to the Toronto show (The Roots, Busta Rhymes and Common were scheduled to play but cancelled, and Cypress Hill is only playing in the states!!).

Tech N9ne put on an incredibly entertaining show - not to mention they rap almost as fast as Twista which is always fun to listen to. Slaughterhouse (which consists of Joe Budden, Royce Da 5′ 9″, Joell Ortiz and Crooked I) came on a bit strong, but won me over when Joe Budden took it back and played "Pump it Up". RZA and GZA played an ODB song in tribute to him; while Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Nas all made shoutouts to the late Michael Jackson.

Somehow I managed to spot a security guard handing out wristbands for the floor, right before Nas and Damian Marley were playing. They played an amazing show incorporating stuff from their new album Distant Relatives (release date still unannounced) and some of their own stuff - you know, the crowd pleasers. While we were on the floor I managed to get a few great videos of their performance. I especially like the video I took of Damian singing his version of daddy's "One Love". Check it out below:

The official set times for yesterday's show:

THE KNUX 2:00 - 2:20 PM
SLUM VILLAGE 2:30 - 3:00 PM
M.O.P 3:10 - 3:40 PM
SLAUGHTERHOUSE 3:50 - 4:20 PM
TECH N9NE 4:30 - 5:00 PM
KNAAN 5:15 - 5:45 PM
REFLECTION ETERNAL 5:55 - 6:25 PM
RZA 6:35 - 7:05 PM
EPMD 7:15 - 7:45 PM
BIG BOI 7:55 - 8:25 PM
MOS DEF 8:40 - 9:25 pm
NAS & DAMIAN MARLEY 9:45 - 11:00 PM