Thursday, April 22, 2004
SPOILER ALERT - American Idol
There have been some backlash about the credibility of this reality TV show after one of the more talented performer got the boot yesterday. Jennifer Hudson became the 6th casualty but not without some heated discussions. Clearly she has been the one who 'raised the bar' so to speak & Simon Cowell even mentioned that she can beat the 'other two'. Without revealing the name, its obvious that he's talking about Fantasia & Latoya. But last night she fell victim to this 'popularity' voting. John Stevens & George Huff were expected to fill in 2 of the bottom 3 spots but they even managed to get the top 4 votes. Fantasia & Latoya unexpectedly filled the other 2 bottom spots to the amazement of everyone.
Ryan Seacrest reminded everyone that AI is a 'talent' show but who is he kidding? Its a bloody reality TV show which means that audiences are being 'screwed' for the sake of ratings. We see crappy singers enter the final 4 or 5 with the more deserving ones getting the flick. Part of the problem with the American installment is that people get to vote for free so they can vote as many times as they wish. Unlike in UK's Pop Idol, contestants with huge fanbases like this shit John Stevens gets a freebie while the likes of Hudson gets the chop. That's why the Pop Idol winners, Will Young & this fat chick (forgot the name) really deserved it. OK before anyone reacts and say the Kelly Clarkson is not a product of partisan voting, I noticed that for some reason, people wise up at the latter stages & they tend to pick the one who really whooped it up. In time we'll say adieu to John Stevens coz the AI bigwigs are not that stupid. All I'm saying is that this Idol phenomenon is no different than Survivor or Big Brother.
posted by uging |
6:55 PM
Sunday, April 18, 2004
The NBA playoffs is upon us once again. There's this tipping competition that some pinoyexchange sports fanatics started. I boldly predicted that the Finals will feature the unlikeliest of matchups: my Dallas Mavericks vs. the Detroit Pistons. Why the hell not? The best NBA offense against the stingiest defense in the league. Revenue-wise, this is not a Finals the NBA would want but basketball fanatics will be drooling over such a possibility. The Mavs started off badly though as they got beaten by the Queens in Game 1.
Here's how I picked them:
Indiana over Boston
New Orleans over Miami
Detroit over Milwaukee
New Jersey over New York
Minnesota over Denver
Dallas over Sacramento
Lakers over Houston
San Antonio over Memphis
2nd round
Indiana over New Orleans
Detroit over New Jersey
Dallas over Minnesota
San Antonio over Lakers
Conference Finals
Detroit over Indiana
Dallas over San Antonio
Finals
Dallas over Detroit
posted by uging |
7:21 PM
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Can't believe its almost May. Two more months and I'm gonna be celebrating my 10th year in this office. I've blogged about my plans of doing other things besides I.T. I've been doing this thing from the time I was still in college & all along I thought that computing will be my first & last career. The I.T industry presented a challenge for me because of the never-ending technological changes. But with these transitions comes the stress & burn-outs. More & more I.T professionals refuse to accept these changes & they end up sticking with old-school shit not because they can't cope with the technology but rather they can't cope with the transition. Just as one is getting comfortable using the latest software then comes another. And these young punks end up getting the better deal coz they are the ones benefitting from all of it. I'm lucky coz I wasn't put up to this kind of pressure; of dealing with what's new & chucking the old. But for how long? My boss already has drawn up his plans for next year. Ten years ago I would've been excited about it. Now I just seem to shrug it off.
posted by uging |
8:46 PM
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curves ahead
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| Weekly Top 10: Fave George Benson & Al Jarreau tracks |
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10.Lady Love Me One More Time
9.Feel Like Makin Love
8.20/20
7.This Masquerade
6.Love Times Love
5.Turn Your Love Around
4.Were In This Love Together
3.Boogie Down
2.Mornin`
1.Breakin Away
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| Musical heroes: Def Leppard |
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Def Leppard, in many ways, was the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder, and were more dangerous, than the Sheffield quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well. Emerging in the late '70s as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the group actually owed more to the glam-rock and metal of the early '70s — their sound was equal parts T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, Queen and Led Zeppelin. By toning down their heavy riffs and emphasizing melody, Def Leppard were poised for crossover success by 1983's Pyromania, but skillfully used the fledgling MTV network to their advantage. The group was already blessed with photogenic good looks, but they also crafted a series of innovative, exciting videos, which made them into stars. They intended to follow Pyromania quickly, but were derailed when their drummer lost an arm in a car accident, the first of many problems that plagued the group's career. Def Leppard managed to pull through such tragedies and they even expanded their large audience with 1987's blockbuster Hysteria. As the '90s began, mainstream hard rock shifted away from Leppard's signature pop-metal and towards edgier, louder bands, yet the group maintained a sizable audience into the late '90s and were one of only a handful of '80s metal groups to survive the decade more or less intact.
Def Leppard had its origins in a Sheffield-based group Rick Savage (bass) and Pete Willis (guitar) formed in their late teens in 1977. A few months later, vocalist Joe Elliott, a fanatic follower of Mott the Hoople and T. Rex, joined the band, bringing the name Deaf Leopard. After a spelling change, the trio, augmented by a now-forgotten drummer, began playing local Sheffield pubs, and within a year they had added guitarist Steve Clark, as well as a new drummer. Later in 1978, the recorded their debut EP Getcha Rocks Off and released it on their own label, Bludgeon Riffola. The EP became a word-of-mouth success, earning airplay on the BBC. The group members were still in their teens.
Following the release of Getcha Rocks Off, Rick Allen was added as the band's permanent drummer, and Def Leppard quickly became the subject of the British music weeklies. Soon, they signed with AC/DC's manager Petter Mensch, who helped them secure a contract with Mercury. On Through the Night, the band's full-length debut, was released in 1980 and instantly became a hit in the U.K., also earning significant airplay in the U.S., where it reached number 51 on the charts. Over the course of the year, Def Leppard relentlessly toured Britain and America, including opening slots for Ozzy Osbourne, Sammy Hagar and Judas Priest. High N' Dry followed in 1981, and it became the group's first platinum album in the U.S., thanks to MTV's strong rotation of "Bringin' on the Heartbreak." MTV would be vital to the band's success in the '80s.
As the band recorded the follow-up to High N' Dry with producer Mutt Lange, Pete Willis was fired from the band for alcoholism, and Phil Collen, a former guitarist for Girl, was hired to replace him. The resulting album, 1983's Pyromania, became an unexpected blockbuster, due not only to Def Leppard's skillful, melodic metal, but also to MTV's relentless airing of "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages." Pyromania went on to sell 10 million copies, establishing Def Leppard as one of the most popular bands in the world. Despite their success, the band was about to enter a trying time for their career. Following an extensive international tour, the group re-entered the studio to record the follow-up, but producer Lange was unavailable, so they began sessions with Jim Steinman, the man responsible for Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell. The pairing turned out to be ill-advised, so the group turned to its former engineer, Nigel Green. One month into recording, Rick Allen lost his left arm in a New Year's Eve car accident. The arm was reattached, but it had to be amputated once an infection set in.
Without a drummer, Def Leppard's future looked cloudy, but by the spring of 1985 — just a few months after his accident — Allen began learning to play a custom-made electronic kit assembled for him by Simmons. Soon, the band resumed recording, and within a few months Lange was back on board, but once he joined the team, he judged the existing tapes inferior and had the band begin work all over again. The recording continued throughout 1986, and that summer, the group returned to the stage for the European Monsters of Rock tour. Def Leppard finally completed its fourth album, now titled Hysteria, early in 1987, releasing it that spring to lukewarm reviews; many critics felt that the album compromised Leppard's metal roots for sweet pop flourishes. The record was slow out of the starting gates — "Women," the first single, failed to really take hold. But with the second single, "Animal," Hysteria began to take off. It became the group's first Top 40 hit in the U.K., but more importantly, it began a string of six straight Top 20 hits in the U.S., which also included "Hysteria," "Pour Some Sugar On Me," "Love Bites," "Armageddon It" and "Rocket," the latter of which arrived in 1989, a full two years after the release of Hysteria. During those two years, Def Leppard was unavoidable — they were the kings of high school metal, ruling the pop charts and MTV, and teenagers and bands alike replicated their teased hair and ripped jeans, even when the grimy hard rock of Guns N' Roses took hold in 1988.
Hysteria proved to be the peak of Leppard's popularity, yet their follow-up remained eagerly awaited in the early '90s as the band set to work on the record. During the recording, Steve Clark died from an overdose of alcohol and drugs. Clark had long had a problem with alcohol, and following the Hysteria heyday, the band forced him to take a sabbatical; he did enter rehab, but to no apparent effect. In fact, his abuse was so crippling that Collen had to play the majority of the guitar leads on Hysteria. Following Clark's death, Def Leppard resolved to finish its forthcoming album as a quartet, releasing Adrenalize in the spring of 1992. Adrenalize was greeted with mixed reviews, and even though the album debuted at number one and contained several hit singles, including "Let's Get Rocked," "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" and "Make Love Like a Man," the record was a commercial disappointment in the wake of Pyromania and Hysteria. After the release of Adrenalize, the group added former Whitesnake guitarist Vivian Campbell.
In 1993, Def Leppard released the rarities collection Retro Active, featuring a new single, "Miss You in a Heartbeat," which scraped the lower reaches of the Top 40. Two years later, the group released the greatest hits collection Vault while preparing their sixth album. Slang arrived in the spring of 1996, and while it was more adventurous than its predecessor, it was greeted with indifference, proving that Leppard's heyday had passed, and they were now simply a very popular cult band.
Undaunted, Leppard soldiered on, returning to its patented pop-metal sound for Euphoria, which was released in June of 1999.
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DISCLAIMER: The title URBAN WANDERER as well as the link titles to other blogs are song titles from a jazz band. I used these titles as a gesture of appreciation & gain no financial benefits from this & in no way used to promote my blog. For the real deal, visit their website.
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