New Whitney :(

Ok, i know everyone's been waiting for the new Whitney album, to see if she's still got it. Sad to say, i don't think she does. We never look to her for any good lyrics or anything, just wanna hear that booming voice that was so amazing once upon a time. It's a great story and all, for her to come back after being with the King of R&B for all those years, and a clear drug problem, but it's obvious that all that took a toll on her voice. It's still kinda there, but you can hear her struggling through some songs. She just has this rough airy sound to her which is not what we're accustomed to hearing out of her. I shudder to think of what it'll sound like hearing her sing some songs live. It's not like with Mariah where you know she can still sing, although obviously not as good as she was in her prime, but when she wants to she can still make the hairs on your neck stand up.

I'll always love Whitney, and all the hits. But i think we've just been spoiled over the years by that voice, and it's sad to hear that it's gone. Musically, it's not a bad album. And it's not bad to listen to, but it just got a once over. I can groove to some of it, but it's the power ballads we want to hear out of the likes of Whitney and Mariah. I don't really want to dance, but i want to be moved by that voice. I'll wait for a couple live performances that she doesn't blame on Oprah, and see what she's got. If she can sing all these songs tolerably, then she'll deserve the title of "best comeback of all time."

Blueprint 3

Just gave that new Jay-Z a quick once over. Gotta say it's impressive, and i don't think anyone would've expected anything less. I've just given it a quick listen all the way through, so i haven't gone into detail on all the tracks, but i go off that first listen to see how i'm feeling about it. Straight off, i can't say it's better than American Gangster, but then again that was a concept album which was easily a classic. Just proving jigga can do an album any way he wants. I gotta go through this and catch the lyrics, and see if he's throwing anything out there that blows our minds, making us think. Hopefully i'll have an update in the next few days

Obsessed

I'm gonna keep this one sweet and simple. Everything i wanted it to be. Black man doing his thing in the business world. White woman throwing herself at him. Black man keeping it together, and white chick goes nuts. Plus a cat fight with beyonce. how can this movie not be awesome?? Nuff people hated on it, but it's easily the most entertaining movie of the year. GO SEE IT!

Star Trek

so i caught star trek the other day. it's one of those movies i feel like i need to see again. before seeing this i wanted to go in fresh, knowing nothing about it. i guess that played against me, cause it didn't occur to me till much later that it was a prequel kinda movie. i know, i'm an idiot, but i just wasn't thinking about it. i thought they just recreated the characters and told a different story about their children or something. Now that i know it was a prequel, it makes a lot more sense, and i kinda wanna see it again. I mean, it was a good movie. I wouldn't say it was "this years Iron Man" but it was a pretty decent flick. A solid 3 star movie. The start of the summer blockbuster season i would say began with this, but only because i heard Wolverine was awful. Only thing i would say was a damper for me were all the Trekkie jokes that i happened to know, but didn't go wild about it. Just felt like they had to throw them in there as crowd pleasers. A lot of this movie was all about crowd pleasing, imo. Too bad i didn't know who all the characters were, so i didn't really care about what was going on with them, or creamed my pants at the sight of certain people. I thought about trying to get into the original series, but meh, maybe not. We'll see.

I wouldn't say it's amazing, but it's not terrible. I'm still waiting for Transformers to blow the summer season WIDE OPEN. But i'm gonna maybe give Star Trek another look in a couple weeks and see if it's really as good as everyone says. My recommendation, sure, go see it. Good action movie, and will probably make a sweet blu-ray.

Eminem: Relapse...thoughts

OK, so i dunno what happened to Slim Shady, or even Marshall Mathers? Em hasn't had a decent piece of work since The Eminem Show, and with the nonsense that he put out with Encore, it seemed right that he come out of retirement to try and salvage his name. 5 years later he comes out with Relapse, and i've gotta say i'm less than impressed. For some reason he's gone back to that sound that he used back on the Slim Shady LP, except now his lyrics aren't as funny or interesting. Naming an album Relapse you'd think he'd gone through some serious turmoil and would have mad stories to tell, but he's essentially talking about nothing for 20 tracks.

The rapper we all came to love was clearly present in the Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show. Just the way his voice sounded on those albums was so much more rugged and engaging. i mean, The Way I Am? Classic, and he just brought you in with everything he said. I gave this album a quick listen straight through, and there was nothing about any of the songs really that made me want to play it back or listen closely to what he was saying. I think it all goes back to how his voice sounds on these. High pitched, and whiney for 5 minutes talking about nothing of significance. I'll give it a couple more listens and hope to hear something better, but i'm doubtful. If you're gonna come out of retirement, you know you have to come with something strong, cause you have to prove that the game missed you while you were gone, ie, American Gangster. yes there was Kingdom Come as the initial comeback, but Hov gave us a classic the next time around. So i can only hope Em comes with something different after seeing the failure in this album. His peak must've actually come back on The Black Album where he outdid Jay-Z on his own song. That was the marking of him being the best rapper in the game.

Now......?

Do you know what the most popular youtube channel is?

SO i was just put on to this a couple weeks ago, and apparently this is the most popular youtube channel. Each video with millions of views. And when you see it you'll understand why. A blonde russian woman who gives you the background on words. She does new videos about 4-5 times a week. OH, and the massive amounts of cleavage don't hurt either

The Dark Knight: Let's talk about it

SO i haven't been really hyped for a movie in who knows how long. I think it might've been American Gangster, and honestly i was little let down on that one. But they hype never left through the whole 2.5 hours of this flick. First off, i gotta say that i was also hyped for the IMAX experience, and these crazy southern folks let me down. How are they gonna have the coolant system for the screen bulb break and cancel all IMAX showings for the next 2 days. I'm kinda glad southern folks are a bit more understanding, cause if this were in Manhattan, and thugs and comic geeks were denied IMAX all hell would've broken lose. But at least we got a free movie ticket, which most def will be used to see this again in IMAX (for free).

I gotta say that The Joker is now one of the most terrifying villains ever to hit the movie screens. Not just cause his face is kinda creepy, but that he's a total nut. But the character was done so well, that you miss him when he's not on the screen. The performance gets you so engrossed in what's going on, that when he's off screen you can't wait for him to get back and do more crazy stuff. I wasn't sure if all the praise for Heath was going to be warranted, but i'll say that he definitely is deserving on an Oscar win, not just a nomination. Seriously, he put Jack to shame and gave us a true villain. Makes you never want to see anyone do a magic trick with a pencil.

Joker aside, the movie as a whole was pretty amazing, and it definitely lived up to the hype. All bets were off from the beginning. Easily one of the better films i've seen in a loooooong time, tho i've been told that Wall-E is a must see as well. It kind of makes you wonder what can be done for the next film. Christian Bale is supposedly signed on for 2 more movies, but what else can they do. The Joker is one of those characters that never really goes away, but there's NO ONE who can duplicate this performance. Even when we thought they were introducing someone new, it took another turn. I think the only thing that took it down a peg was that i didn't get to see it in IMAX, which hopefully i can remedy in the next couple of weeks. I wont' spoil it for anyone, but just knowing that i'd go see it again says something about it.