Lopez Blogs

GAH! I have not been in the mood to blog these past few days - or really do much of anything so intense has work been. Still watching the DVD extras of Hairspray late into the night has been a good a tonic as getting a nice spooning from Dazpants when i crawl into bed :) And last night, bff Kirsty dragged me to The Duchess which was just so lovely and elegant and finally made me forgive Keira Knightley for breaking Andrew Lincoln's heart in the ever amazing Love, Actually. Anyway, on with other things that have been sun poking through the clouds these past few days...

• Return of switch 22 - back in the good old days of Zapping It To Ya, i was pretty much focused on 3 acts. One of course being Simon Curtis and another being Switch 22... They have been pretty quiet of late and I feared they had gone to the great unsigned pop band heaven in the sky. But no! They are back with a "nu" sound. Literally. Still propping up their myspace are their catchy pop-rap hybrid tracks 1985 (with brillo Adam Ant reference) and Back To The Dancefloor (best intro to a pop song ever), but now there are two new tracks. Nu Sound (See?!) is a fiercely rapped electro tune complete with non-cheesy handclaps and sounds a little bit more punky than their previous tunes. My World is a slightly darker sounding track, no less catchy but represents a rocked up evolution in the s22 sound. The cobwebs of creaky old boyband pop are well and truly blown away and I'm more than ready for the switcheroos to take their rightful place in pop history :)
• The third was Conor who was busy pushing out a nice line of S/A/W inspired pop in late 2006. Anyway, guess who popped up on last week's X Factor... Conor! (Seriously, if you guessed anyone else at that point you have issues). You can check out the video here - it's a typically set up "ooo i know Louis/simon telling him this could be his last chance" scenario. He sounded pretty decent i thought (compared to some others who got through) so i guess it's a case of watch this space!! Woohoo! 2006 predictions finally coming big :) Ish...
• Colour me more surprised than ANYONE that i think the debut single proper from Leon Jackson (or Leonb as popjustice brilliantly call him) is actually pretty decent. Entitled "Don't Call This Love", (and don't judge me for this), it's rather epic but in a simple way. Leon's voice is nowhere near as annoying as I first remembered, and it mixes his crooners style well with some simple melody enhanced by a glorious strings section throughout the chorus. Perhaps it seems better than it is because i am so genuinely surprised that i like it! Time will tell, but for now I'm quite the smitten kitten with this lovely track. Oh god! Does this mean I will have to start liking David Archeluta's Crush? Oh too late. D'luv already talked me into that one :)
• Leona Lewis new single mix of Forgive Me is a welcome change of pace but frankly it's not enough. Sure Bleeding Love and Better in Time were ace singles and perfect for showcasing her vocals so Simon Cowell can look more smug than usual. But this is a bit dreary and underproduced - i was hoping that when Leona picked up the pace it would be more "I'm Your Baby Tonight" or (god help me Yuri!) "Please Don't Stop The Music"/"Disturbia"!! Thank god Jennifer Hudson has said that she doesn't just want to sing ballads on her funky sounding debut out later this month...
• What no "Hairspray" the movie alum albums? Surely Nikki Blonski could take time out of her busy reality star brawling schedule (she's not graduated to proper pop star brawling/beating up toilet attendants just yet) to be the next Diana DeGarmo? (Don't judge - i love that shrieky little minx) And Elijah Kelley is just gorgeous and has the most amazing soul voice. One track on a Disney album is not enough! But it's Jimmy Marsden who i want to hear a whole album from. Not only is he one of my "ten most beautiful men in the world" but his voice is as creamy as home made vanilla ice cream. PS - If Simon Curtis ever gets the opportunity to play Link, grab it with both hands!!

I'll leave you with my two favourite quotes of the day - one by Blair Waldorf (Gossip Girl) and one by Darren. I'm sure you'll have no trouble guessing which is which...

"Oh. My. Effing. God"

"It's like they walked back to 1982, raided Blake Carrington's man about house wardrobe and put it on the shelves!!" (regarding the new River Island collection)

Oh what a week it has been. A good one though. And busy! I had a ton of stuff to do for work as I have a week off next week, so of course all of next week's work needed to be up to date too. I finished our firm's environmental audit too (which I implemented about a year ago)... and was all annoyed with the branches that STILL don't recycling facilities. I got all preachy and "it's disgusting in this day and age that you are only just doing something about it" etc., then realised I was sounding a bit of a twat. But still - did live earth teach people nothing? Sheesh. Anyway, off soap box and on with a round up of the week (a week that contained some potentially very exciting news for me. Ooo intruiging)...

American Idol finale:

• Despite sucking harder than an top 24 contestant on his/her knees on Tuesday night (ooo how inhabited with the spirit of d'luv was that!), Mr David of Cook beat cherubic looking David Archuleta. Of course all of that was deemed irrelevant by the appearance of a very dapper looking Ryan Tedder. Take some fashion notes Archie. Jeans and a jacket will only get you so far in life... (Download video here)
• The other highlight was who was arriving on the red carpet! Some WTF moments came from Thomas Dekker (great new crew cut, but that top? Jesus!) and Jon Peter Lewis (either a VERY unflattering angle or someones been drowning their sorrows in cup cakes!) Still at least Blake Lewis looked quite decent in a sort of boffable way...(click links for piccies)
• I'm temporarily changing my opinion of Jason Dreadlocks. His version of Hallelujah was quite good.
• The rest of the show was mainly filler. Seal was good. As was Donna Summer, though one girl in the group tribute did not look happy to be singing in a group! Oh well. X Factor to look forward to now then...

Movies:



Oh I am so very very behind with movie watching. I think it's because I have developed an allergy to the cinema. It's full of talking people, chewing with their mouths open and discussing the plot continuously through the film. And so uncomfortable (oh what a little ray of sunshine I am!). Anyway, DazPecs and I did date night again and went to see Indy. Some very great moments, (brilliantly outlandish) including the ridiculous car chase/sword fight through the jungle which was quite entertaining. Shia did a decent job and Harrison tried not to look as old as he is. Despite some great moments not a particularly great film, though nice enough. I need to desperately catch up on Prince Caspian, Made of Honour, Speed Racer, Iron Man and ooo Sex and The City next week. Viva Carrie Bradshaw!

Pop bytes and bloggy gossip:

• Oh Laura are back! Well they never went away. But they do have a stunning new video for Release Me. Sigh. It's lovely.
• Monsieur D'Luv is remembering when Madonna wore blouses in videos and he wore denim shirts. Fashion disasters that have come back to haunt them both :P
• Bobby puts some ridiculously good looking bloke on his site and gets spammed by an overzealous Doe Deere fan. Crikey!
• Yuri has Olga begging him for Mercy! Oh my days :P
• Poppostikipediagirl has been fervently following Eurovision and notes that the brits got it oh so right with putting all our points in Sweden's basket. Shame the brits got it oh so wrong by letting Andy "my greatest hits is out this week. No really!" Abrahams be our less than stirling entry...
• DanUK has all the great comics gossip. I feel slightly ashamed that I downloaded some comics this week and spent ages wondering what the fuck a .cbr extension was. Worked it out now...
• DanUSA and Heidi are guilty. And not just of love in the first degree....
• XO is critiquing all the necessary album covers. The Zuton's one almost makes up for their music...
• Digital Spy has an endlessly amusing look at flop boybands.

Fizzypoptastic Top 21 Songs of the week

21 ~ Mariah Carey, Bye Bye (NE)
20 ~ Last Shadow Puppets, Age of The Understatement
19 ~ Sergey, Flyer
18 ~ Jesse McCartney, Leaving
17 ~ Enrique, Can You Hear Me (NE)
16 ~ Duffy, Warwick Avenue
15 ~ Jason Mraz, Lucky
14 ~ Captain, Keep An Open Mind
13 ~ Kylie, In My Arms
12 ~ Ola, Love in Stereo
11 ~ Blake Lewis, How Many Words?
10 ~ Rongedal, Just A Minute
09 ~ David Jordan, Move On
08 ~ Alphabeat, 10,000 Nights of Thunder
07 ~ Caracola, Smiling in Love
06 ~ Madonna, 4 Minutes
05 ~ The Feeling, Without You
04 ~ Jack McManus, Bang on Your Piano
03 ~ Jesse McCartney, Bleeding Love
02 ~ BWO, Lay Your Love On Me
01 ~ Maroon 5 ft Rihanna, Never See Your Face (1 week)

Previous 2008 Number Ones: The Feeling, I Thought It Was Over (4 weeks); David Jordan, Sun Goes Down (4 weeks); Jesse McCartney, Leaving (3 weeks); Madonna, 4 Minutes (2 weeks); The Feeling, Without You (4 weeks); BWO, Lay Your Love on Me (3 weeks)

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