Okay, apparently these pictures came out quite a while ago, but I sure as hell heard nothing about them. They’re publicity stills from a 1984 play called “Wolfboy” that ignited Keanu Reeves‘ career.
The photographer sprayed them with water and told them to kiss and caress each other. He says they were apprehensive, but there seems to be no apprehension to me in these damn pics. Hot!
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Christina Aguilera has always been known as the tiny girl with the big voice. She's been hearing that all her life. In a way her voice has been what has set her apart from her peers, yet at the same time it's also been a point of criticism for people who claim she oversings. When compared to her arch rival Britney Spears, many people often say Christina has the voice while Britney has the stage presence. However, after Friday night's sold out concert at Madison Square Garden it's clear to anyone with five senses that comparison is null and void.
Spears' stage presence relies on her elaborate sets, costumes, crisp dance numbers–glitz and glamor. Though Christina's show uses all those same elements as well, Aguilera's stage presence is wrapped up in something she has all on her own: sheer diva. When the lights dropped, those opening notes played, and Christina appeared on the stage in a tight white suit with a pulled down hat and wailed that signature "Heeeeey!", the crowd went berserk, she threw a white scarf off her shoulder and left no doubt about it–she is the diva ethereal.
From her nostalgic yet hip rendition of Back in the Day, which pays tribute to soul legends like Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Lady Day, to the dripping wet with attitude Slow Down Baby, to the sultry and soulful ballad Understand, Christina pulls out show stoppers right and left–showing opening act Danity Kane the real meaning of the word. Based on their performances Friday night, they clearly have not yet to date looked it up in the dictionary.
Whipping out those trademark chaps she titillated us with the sexy and funky Still Dirrty, took us to church on Makes Me Wanna Pray decked out in a sparkly ruby red number drenched in sequins and sparked a fire in the crowd with a hit from her second album Stripped when she sang a snippet from the female empowerment anthem Can't Hold Us Down–which honestly, judging from the crowd reaction she should have sang full out.
Aguilera took us to the circus in the later part of the show, full with her dancers walking on stilts, tossing around fire, and swinging from trapeze. She even pulled a male volunteer from the audience (though judging from the look on his face through the entire thing, it looked pretty involuntary to me) to give a little punishment to during the raunchy burlesque number Nasty Naughty Boy. As racy as it was, full with phallic symbols, sexual innuendos, and whips, nothing could've shocked the many elderly people I saw at the venue like the three and half minutes of masturbatory goodness that was I Got Trouble.
While she and her dancers readied the next number backstage, a video played of her spreading her legs, writhing around on a bed, and touching herself provocatively–something that seemed to make even her younger fans somewhat uncomfortable if they could figure out what was going on. But what must you expect when coming to a Christina Aguilera concert? You want nice? Go to Las Vegas and see Celine Dion belt out My Heart Will Go On. When you shell out $100 to see the love child of Mariah Carey and Madonna, you're in for something naughty.
Quite possibly one of the gayest displays I've ever seen on stage was her performance of the Moulin Rouge-inspired Lady Marmalade–which at this point, the other three girls on the track should not even bother attempting it ever again–the song belongs to Aguilera. There were transvestites, there were feather boas and gloves, there was make-up, it was a gay old time. And in true Aguilera fashion, she sang the hell out of it.
Emerging from below the stage atop a carousel-esque horse and latched onto the pole, she did an electrifying of her hit Dirrty which defined her entire Stripped era. Surprisingly, she managed to perform the song without making me want to grab her and start running some bath water. Candyman, her current single and another one the audience favorites, got everyone up on their feet singing and dancing along, while her and her dancers sported sailor outfits moving to the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy inspired tune. When she hit the high note after the bridge the screams from the crowd were so loud I couldn't even hear the note anymore.
As in your face as the entire concert is, there are a few tender moments for those whose ears feel abused and battered. There's an emotional rendition of Oh Mother, a song she wrote in dedication to her mother for rescuing her and her sister from domestic abuse, and the epic ballad Hurt, a rarity in today's music scene but she pulls it off with finesse. One of the biggest highlights of the show was when she walked out onto the bare stage with a shirt and loosened tie and sang her signature hit Beautiful. The crowd sang along as they waved their cell phones in the air, and it is one of the few times during the concert that Aguilera stops, breathes, and gets a chance to interact and connect with the audience a bit.
You can tell Aguilera fans love their self-empowerment songs–because as with Can't Hold Us Down, and Beautiful, her rabble-rousing performance of Fighter had entire arena in a craze. Even the 60-something year old woman in front of me who came with her husband was punching her fist into the air and screaming the lyrics at the top of her lungs as her glasses shook with each punch.
There were a few low points however, in an otherwise great concert. She revisited a few of her old hits from her debut album, What A Girl Wants and Come On Over Baby, and I'm sorry to say–butchered them both. I understand the desire to do a new spin on the songs–especially when your current album is retro-inspired, but both songs were barely even recognizable. The only reason I could even figure out what she was singing was because I recognized the lyrics. It was really bad. So bad in fact–I'd encourage her to cut both of them from her set list immediately–or at least just sing them the way they are on the record.
The opening acts were Danity Kane and the Pussycat Dolls, one disappointed and the other left me pleasantly surprised. Diddy's MTV made girl-group pretty much made a mess of all of their songs except their one hit, Showstopper. They weren't dancing together, the songs didn't transition well, the costumes were a mess, if they weren't good singers their set would've been a high school musical. The Pussycat Dolls were much better. Their dancing was on point, they had way more energy, their outfits were hot and sexy, and though most of the group members could've just phoned in their vocals, lead singer Nicole Sherzinger had pipes stronger than all five Danity Kane girls put together.
But none of them were a match for the mighty Aguilera, whose powerhouse vocals brought down the house, built it up, and brought it back down again.
Christina Aguilera is looking very reminiscent of her early pre-Dirrty days on the current cover of Nylon magazine. She literally looks like she’s taken her look back to basics (forgive the pun). Anyway, there’s been an interesting update on the Dallas Austin controversy. Dallas’ people have taken down the video from both YouTube and Dailymotion, and he has now issued an apology–if you can call it that.
“Every action generates an equal and opposite reaction. My statement about Christina Aguilera and Joss Stone was a reaction to an incident I care not to discuss in any forum, and while I may have felt justified, I do owe an apology to Christina, Joss and their families. The comments I made about Christina Aguilera and Joss Stone were purely an act of retaliation not of malice or cruel intent.
As we all have our boiling points, I sincerely apologize as this is not my character nor should I have let anyone’s actions push me to this limit. I have let my family, friends, employees and business associates down with my actions. All content and any malicious statements that were in my control have been removed from outlets that may have posted this. Please accept this as my formal statement and apology to all parties involved.”
Pretty pathetic if you ask me. First of all, he says his actions were not out of malice, then he calls his statements malicious later in the apology. Either he’s really stupid or needs a new lawyer.
Aguilera’s rep Cindy Guagenti, meanwhile, said:
“She’s not commenting on such ridiculous statements, and we are consulting a lawyer to explore her options.”
Some excerpts from his interview:
“I tried so hard to be an R&B artist [with first solo album Justified] and it was the pop album of the year, and I was like, ‘F$$k. That’s the last thing I wanted but I was like, ‘So everyone considers me a pop artist? Well, f$$k it. I’m going to do whatever I want to do.”
“I could give you a bunch of analogies about why I’m still around that would sound like hippie self-help bulls$$t. ‘I saw an opportunity and I took it?’ F$$k you. Sure, there’s a lot of luck involved. But on some level I have to believe in my ability. And I’m not apologizing to anyone. I worked f$$king hard to get here.”
“I’m the nice guy who follows through on the things he commits to. But I don’t know if I’ll be going through that sort of thing again. I feel like the Grammys used me for ratings. And look at it-they were up 18 percent.”
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Someone needs to smack him and let him know that no matter how many “fucks” he uses, he’s not going to be R&B, he’s not going to be black, and it doesn’t make him look any cooler. You’re not Prince, you’re not Michael Jackson, so stop stealing their sounds and then try and call yourself an R&B artist.
And how dare you even attempt to accredit the Grammys ratings increase to your weak performances during the telecast. The first one was an off-key mess where you made a failed attempt at a sequel to the Blair Witch Project, and the second one I forgot about quicker than Beyonce’s first two singles dropped off the charts.
You’re a pompous bastard who can’t sing–even WITH your pitch-correcting mic, and you’re NOT bringing sexy back. Especially not with that Ashlee Simpson nose. Boo 
So I was watching VH1 late last night–well not really watching it, just kind of listening to it as it was on in the background–and all of a sudden this song came on that made me get off my bed, climb down the ladder, and walk over to the TV to see what and who was playing because it was lovely. It’s called “You Give Me Something” and it’s by a British singer named James Morrison.
He apparently toured with Corinne Bailey Rae (another singer I adore), and I’m pissed because he’s playing at the Knitting Factory here in New York City and of course it’s sold out. Oddly, he does sort of look like a mix between Chris Martin of Coldplay and James Blunt.
His voice is beautiful–he really reminds me of like a mix between Gavin DeGraw and Ray LaMontagne, and his music is like collard greens and corn bread with some cherry Kool-Aid. It just really makes you feel good. Light, breezy, soulful. I love him. Enjoy.
I’ve been very “eh” about Zach Braff ever since that emo mess of a flop The Last Kiss, but Jason Bateman and Amanda Peet were enough to get me to watch the trailer and I’m glad I did. This movie looks absolutely hilarious.
I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be one of those movies where the trailer is funny as hell but you go to see the movie and find out the reason the trailer was so funny was because they used all the funny parts in it, and the rest of the movie is shit.
Anyway, it comes out on May 11. Here’s the trailer:
Mandy Moore is looking mighty fierce in the most recent issue of Vanity Fair. I never got around to seeing that movie with her and Diane Keaton in theaters, I’ll catch it on DVD. It looks cute.
New York artists are suing NBC over the concept of their hit show Heroes, which the artists claim ripped of the concept of Isaac the Painter from their exhibition that the creators of the show visited before finishing their pilot.
Hollywood beauties and mommies Jennifer Garner and Reese Witherspoon were photographed hanging out together for the first time ever. Aww, how cute. Maybe Reese can give Jen some of her box office luck since girlfriend can’t seem to get a hit movie.
Speaking of Reese Witherspoon, she’s looking pretty smokin’ in this month’s Harper’s Bazaar. I’ve never been a big fan of her face, something about her mouth and chin really bother me, but she’s a cute girl with a nice body. I’m loving her new hair too.
Christina Aguilera looking gorgeous with her best friend and make-up artist Steve Sollito at a hockey game in Vancouver. She did 7 shows in Canada and all of them were completely sold out. Get ‘em girl!
Is Academy Award winner (ooh, it feels so awesome to say that) Jennifer Hudson going to be playing Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin in a biopic? I hope if they do cast her, she really works to differentiate the character from Effie, but otherwise I think she’s perfect for it.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is in the final stages of negotiations to replace Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes in the upcoming sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight. This is definitely an upgrade. Katie was the weakest link in an otherwise great movie.
Woody Allen is casting Scarlett Johansson in yet another one of his films. I’m really starting to think he’s putting her in his movies more because he has a crush on her and less because he thinks she’s talented and fits the roles. But I’m not a big fan of his films anyway so, do what you want, Woody.
I’ve missed Kim! Beautiful girl with a big old voice. I’m pretty sure I remember watching footage a long time ago where she stated “Supawoman” was gonna be her first single from this new album, but I really didn’t like that song and thought it would flop, so I’m glad they changed their minds and decided to go with this one.
It’s much more AC radio friendly, and she’s been successful at AC radio thus far so I think she should stay where she’s at for now–at least for a first single.
Anyway, “Change” is a pretty good song, and she definitely kicks the second half of the song into high gear with the vocals. Get ‘em girl! Here’s her performance of the song on The View.
And here’s a new About.com interview with Kimberley.
It looks like we’ve been picked to compete in Malcontent’s 2007 March Gayness, a battle of the gay blogs if you will–go here and vote for Breath of Fresh Ink if you have the time and energy!
We need your help to get us some much needed visibility. It’ll just take 5 quick seconds. We’re losing by a really big margin! It’s all the way at the bottom.
Ryan Seacrest sure knows how to grab ass like a pro. 
Does this man even care that everyone in the known world thinks he’s a flaming homosexual? 
