The Pop Culture Addict’s Blog

This album, Love, is fantastic! Forget the Grey Album, this album has the Beatles mixed with…the Beatles. Love it! And it is mixed by George Martin, who, with his Beatles’ credentials, had access to recordings of versions of Fab Four songs previously unheard by the public. He worked on it with his son Giles. I admit I’ve had my doubts about Cirque du Soleil being my cup of tea. I saw one show awhile back and was impressed by their acrobatics but wasn’t quite feeling the new age vibe. I was agreeing with the Simpsons rendition of Cirque du Soleil, if you remember that or was it on South Park – both had parodies. But this show, Love, looks great. I saw a special on the premiere on E!, and it was very moving because Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Cynthia Lennon, her son Julian Lennon, Olivia Harrison, son Dhani and George Martin were in attendance. Also, I saw, and maybe you did too, Cirque du Soleil performing a scene from Love on the Tonight Show. It actually looked really good. Right now it is only playing in Vegas.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that, according to the liner notes, George Martin and son mixed together 135 songs into 26 tracks. So cool.

Speaking of not-to-miss music, go to Keane’s MySpace page (myspace.com/keane) and listen their very adorable live performance on Jo Whiley’s radio show of Dirrtylicious, a mix of Christina Aguilera’s Dirrty and Destiny Child’s Bootylicious. I’ve listened to it a half dozen times already. It just gets cuter and cuter every time I hear it.

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I recently got the new iPod shuffle which is quite possibly the cutest electronic device ever. It fits 240 songs, more or less, or one really long song that lasts 15 hours. The trade-off is that you can’t just re-charge it by putting it in any computer’s USB port. You need the little charger thingie that connects to a USB port. But the battery still lasts 12 hours and most trips do not last that long. So I think it’s a trade-off I can accept. The new model is so small, it makes you worry about keeping it safe. It is designed to clip on to something – if you’ve seen the commercial, you know. The sales person was like, this is so new, there aren’t any accessories for it. LOL. Then he thought of the USB converter which I already had. Yes, you can get more bang for your buck with another model, but Apple knows how to make seductive designs. The new shuffle is so sleek and cute. What can I say? I’m enthralled.

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I felt compelled to see the tap-dancing penguin movie, Happy Feet, on Imax and loved it. Savion Glover does all the dancing for Mumbles, voiced by E.G. Daily and then Elijah Wood. George Miller of Babe fame directed it and it has a lot of Babe-like qualities. The story is heart-warming, dark in spots (the tap-dancing penguin is seriously ostracized and as Al Gore already pointed out, humans are a drain on the earth – I was feeling guilty that I eat so much fish especially Arctic Char which is from the north, I know but still), funny and great visually. I watched the HBO special on it and saw how the dancing of Savion Glover and all the other dancers taught by the impressively talented choreographer Kelley Abbey was transferred onscreen using the technology that transferred Andy Serkis’ Gollum onto the big screen. You know, Savion Glover and the other 15 dancers wore all black with a bunch of dots put on them to help computerize their bodies and movements and coordinate them with their penguin counterparts. Amazing. And do I have to say how cute the baby penguins are in the movie? The music was integral to the movie and it is cool that Prince relented and let the filmmakers use Kiss with altered lyrics. Apparently, they asked him if they could use the song and change the lyrics and he was like, no. I don’t let people change my lyrics. They said, you will understand how it makes sense once you see the movie. So he was like, let me see the movie. Then he said, okay, you can use it and here’s another song I wrote for you which you can use for free (Song of the Heart). I was geekily watching all the end credits when at the very, very end, I heard a familiar voice and I said outloud, that’s Jason Mraz singing that Steve Miller Band song (The Joker). So needless to say, I got the soundtrack and will probably get the dvd. I would totally recommend Happy Feet as a long weekend flick to see with friends, family, with kids, without. Whatever. Just don’t deprive yourself of seeing it!

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