Poll: The Eight Greatest Words In the English Language

Vote in the comments:

OPTION 1: Kylie Minogue arrives in California for U.S. Tour.

OPTION 2: The Pet Shop Boys, collaborating with Shirley Bassey.

OPTION 3: Next week's Tool Academy -- a lesson in Maturity.

Dear Lily

Earlier this week, I wrote a piece in response to Lily Allen's critique of file sharing...you can read my thoughts here, but I basically suggested that going after fans and technology is reductive, too late, and counter to their true financial interests...and that a better business model should be their goal instead.

A far more witty response to Lily's letter is below. I'm not sure the author is right about every single point, but there's enough in there (and wittily said!) to warrant sharing it.



[via SIART]

Churches Doing The Devil's (Financial) Work

At Sunday's mass all over the state of Maine, priests asked Catholic churchgoers to make an additional, second donation on Sunday toward repealing the marriage equality law in the state. Read the entire sorry state of affairs at The Advocate.

How can this possibly be legal? This is blatant political fundraising and lobbying by a tax-exempt organization. I realize that churches have blurred the line between faith and politics for centuries, but to openly admit to becoming a PAC? God, I hate religion.

I've said it before and I will say it until I die and go to Catholic Hell: churches should be taxed. If they are political machines, they should play (and pay) by the rules, like everyone else.

My Deepest Sympathies to the Gay Men of Alaska, Wyoming and Delaware

And to all of you in Washington, DC, I'll see you very, very soon. [NSFW]

The Value Of Music (And Changing The World)

A small but growing wave of internet chatter is developing around Lily Allen's recent MySpace blog rant on file sharing, and her thesis (echoed by many other artists on their own blogs, like Patrick Wolf and Darren Hayes) that it's killing music. Electroqueer weighed in today with some thoughts as well. All are excellent reads, so check them out.

Lily's nationalist anger, Patrick's self-centered whine and Darren's political perspective all have value...and all of them, at least in my opinion, completely miss the point. For the music industry to try to ban file sharing now would be a futile, useless exercise, and not just because hackers and technology will find a way around any barriers they choose to erect.

A fundamental reality: music, like information, yearns to be free. It is played in subways and on street corners for free, it is on our radios for free, it is performed in bars for free, and in most cities, there are free concerts of some kind nightly. In my teen years, we taped things off radio for free and made mixtapes, which we then gave friends without cost. In my twenties, we began to burn those mixtapes on CDs. Then, of course, we all encountered the swap culture of Napster, an enormous shot over the bow of the music industry. That was ten years ago...a lifetime, especially when you consider that music is most often bought by people not much older than that.

Is it right to steal music? Of course not. It's not right to steal anything. But the war that the music industry has lost here isn't a moral one. Rather, it's a public relations disaster. Through their neglect, ineptitude and naivete, they are now faced with a generation that has never perceived VALUE in music. For them, music has always been free, or nearly so. And when the subject of actually paying for music comes up, they look in their recession-burdened pockets and see no money...while the music industry promotes the impression (real or not) that pop stars are incredibly rich multi-millionaires. Why on God's green earth SHOULD these young kids pay, so those rich people can get richer? It's hard to make a compelling case to a broke teenager that they should incur more debt, just so Diddy can buy more diamonds.

Is that fair to artists? No. But it's the reality of how badly they've managed their industry's profile, and how little responsibility they're willing to place on their own labels for this downturn.

They are other problems, too...especially in the area of content delivery. Most teenagers don't have credit cards...and with the sad end of record stores and retail outlets, the only real way to now purchase music is online, which requires credit. What option do kids have? Should they wait until they're 18 to buy Jay-Z's new album? Youth isn't known for being patient. And for a generation more techologically savvy than any in history, the ease and availability of torrents and Rapidshare is too seductive to ignore.

And when you really think about it...why should they? The music industry is, after all, complicit in the file sharing phenomenon they claim to detest. As XO's Middle Eight bemoaned a few days ago on Twitter, it is now standard industry practice to "leak" a new single, giving the song away on artists' websites or elsewhere, to promote an upcoming release. This practice, however, only reinforces the culture of free music. MySpace, generally regarded as a great way to promote artists, has music players on each web page...which anyone with a basic understanding of Google searches can hack using free, easily available programs. And, of course, the industry knows this is true. They just don't know what to do about it.

Is there a light for the music industry, at the end of the file-sharing tunnel? Maybe. They should take heart in the fact that concert and touring revenues have remained high, perhaps because it's an experience people CAN'T download. Learn that lesson.

And, frankly, some quality control wouldn't be a bad thing, either. When the best music you've got to offer people is cynical, amateurish, market-tested bullshit like Lady Gaga, the Pussycat Dolls, and poorly-conceived retro acts like Whitney Houston and Madonna, you can't really blame people for not buying it.

The music industry should also get over their quaint, ridiculous provincialism. Releasing albums at different times, in different countries, is insanely stupid in the internet age. (Why did Kylie Minogue's last album, X, perform so badly in America? Because it had already been released in other countries SEVEN MONTHS earlier, by which time American fans had bought it on import, downloaded it from 7 Digital, or yes, illegally downloaded it. I expect the same thing to happen to The Gossip's new disc, Music For Men, when it gets it's physical U.S. release in a couple of weeks...because everyone I know who wanted it downloaded or bought the import months ago.)

It gets worse. For me, a lover of bands who don't get U.S. releases -- I'm talking Prefab Sprout, Deacon Blue, Swing Out Sister, Matt Bianco, local acts like Tigercity, or great new acts in Europe and Australia like Napoleon, P'Nau, Shazam, Sneaky Sound System, Fibes Oh Fibes, etc. -- I go broke on imports, and almost never buy records in my home country.

But I'm of an older generation, one that likes ownership of things...I still want the physical CD in my hand. (I did buy Lily Allen's CD, which I think is the best of the year so far. Sorry Patrick and Darren, I've heard your work, and I'm not a fan.) For younger people, however, the desire for physical product is giving way to a new era, one where consumption will not require ownership. They don't want liner notes or album art, they want streaming across multiple platforms. They don't want shelves of CDs in their living room, they want digital MP3s.

But there is one tremendously great bright side for the music industry, and it is this: people still love music. The art form is more culturally ingrained in daily life today than any time since the 1960's...just watch the ocean of people on your morning commute, all of whom are plugged into iPods.

In the end, the music industry can continue to blame young people for file sharing, and try to bully and scare them into not doing it anymore. But the reality is, it's far too late for that. It's time to find a new business model, one that recognizes the fundamental truth of the21st-century world: music now, for better or worse, is not an album, but a lifestyle.

As Prefab Sprout put it recently (so beautifully and so brilliantly), let's change the world with music.

Sprinkling The Glitter...

If you follow my photoblog, Glitterlens, you might want to know that it's moved over here. Yep, bought my own domain, and switched to a fancy-shmancy Wordpress template...heresy, but it's really much better for photo work. (It also has a new rss feed, for those who are into that.)

Currently on view are some pics from the U.S. Open, mostly of Venus and Serena, who were spectacular last week. I have some photos of Rafa Nadal, but he and I were naked in the locker room, and I promised him I'd keep them private. You know how young love is.

The Fine and Painful Art of Auditioning

For all of the actors in my life (especially Mr. ModFab himself) who have to suffer the unbearable, excruciating torture of auditioning, I share this moment. And of behalf of directors everywhere...we're really, really sorry.

Hotness Alert: Robbie Williams "Bodies"

Back to form after the noble misstep known as Rudebox, Robbie Williams is relaunching his bad-boy persona with a toned-down, grown-up, sexy-daddy ethos for his next record. The first single, "Bodies," says it all: "All we've ever wanted/is to look good naked." Amen, brother. [via Fizzypop]

Friday Hot Guy Blogging: The Sexiest Guys In Sci-Fi

Hard to argue against most of Entertainment Weekly's choices: dreamy (Chris Pine, Jensen Ackles) , smoldering (Lost's Naveen Andrews and Josh Holloway), and the erotic trifecta from Battlestar Galactica (Jamie Bamber, James Callis and Tahmoh Penikett). And is it me, or does The Rock just keep getting hotter? Check out all the space beefcake here. (A minor quibble, EW editors: the inclusion of anyone who was once on Dawson's Creek puts the whole list into question.)

Bollywood Kylie

Two tastes that taste great together: official ModFab Goddess Kylie Minogue singing and acting in A.R. Rahman's new Bollywood musical Blue. If you don't immediately start dancing to the catchy beats of "Chiggy Wiggy," the single from the soundtrack, check your pulse because you're dead.

Great way to get ready for Ms. Minogue's NYC concerts...one month away today!

Chiggy Wiggy by Kylie Minogue & A.R. Rahman

Friday Web Surfing

Is it me, or is this just freakin' brilliant?

Fabulousity: Sinead's Hand

It's Irish, but it works in America as well...

Pet Shop Boys In Concert: The Pandemonium Tour

Pet Shop Boys: Pandemonium 2009 Tour
Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City
September 1, 2009

There's no greater evidence of one's inexorable slide into middle age than attending concerts by the pop idols of your youth. As a child of the late 80's, my iPod is filled with the pioneers of that decade: Eurythmics, Erasure, Madonna, Depeche Mode, Yaz, ABC, the B-52s, Culture Club, the Human League, Cyndi Lauper and more. I list those acts specifically because, in recent years, I've seen them all in concert, which have varied between stunning musicianship (Eurythmics, Lauper), creaky nostalgia (Yaz, Human League) and desperate attempts at cultural currency (Madonna).

And then there are the Pet Shop Boys, whose appearance last night (and tonight) at the Hammerstein Ballroom supported their excellent recent album, Yes. Though they are not my favorite band of all time, I will admit to having more songs by the Boys on my iPod than by any other act (272 in total, including 19 albums, remixes, b-sides, bootlegs, etc.). As a band, the Boys have always mixed nihilist humor and wry romanticism into electronic dance symphonies that wereboth intelligent and accessible...a rare feat.

But the question last night, of course, was this: can a moody, smart, reserved, and aging dance act rock out? Singer Neil Tennant (55) and keyboardist Chris Lowe (49) have never been traditional concert-stadium gods, preferring their live shows to exude a cool, postmodern atmosphere of video projection and minimal stage gear. (Lowe plays all songs from one single computer bank; Tennant walks with a microphone and sings.) The "Pandemonium Tour," which almost seemed an ironic title given the minimal set, saw colorful costumes against a wall of white boxes of varying sizes. The boxes, occasionally reconfigured by stage hands dressed in white jackets, served both as a projection screen and as not-so-subtle metaphors for construction, buildings, architecture, and urban landscape, which became the central themes of the show.

Tennant, Lowe and four superb backup dancer-singers began the show with colored boxes on their heads in a rousing rendition of "Heart," the underrated single from 1988. Throughout the evening, many of the band's biggest stateside hits were skipped in favor of little-known tracks like "Two Divided By Zero, "Closer To Heaven," "King's Cross," and, most marvelously, a little-known ballad called "Do I Have To?," which appeared only as a b-side. (Among the big hits that weren't played: "Opportunities," "So Hard," "What Have I Done To Deserve This," and the entirety of their previous two studio albums, Release and Fundamental.)

There were, however, plenty of classic tunes to go around, each of which were re-arranged by Lowe with thudding baselines and modern instrumentation reminiscent of Yes' stylistic flourishes. An urgent new version of "Left To My Own Devices" stripped out much of Trevor Horn's orchestral flourishes from the original; the loping rhythms of "Se A Vida E" positively bounced with effervescence. Only the encore performances of "Being Boring" and "West End Girls" hewed closely to the sound and texture of the original tracks.

The high points were many. An eardum-shattering take on "It's A Sin" brought the largest applause of the night, and Tennant's evident joy in performing the song was infectious. Two dance pieces for the backup dancers were also astonishing -- a beautiful male solo for "The Way It Used To Be" led into a heartbreaking pas de deux for "Jealousy," where Tennant ceded the stage to a passionate interpretation of a couple's breakup. The video projections, inspired by the colored-block design of their latest album cover, were most effective in "Go West" and "Love Etc."

Many of the new songs fit snugly into the repertoire, blending with older tracks seamlessly. (This is harder than it looks...just ask the stonefaced audiences at Depeche Mode last month, patiently tolerating new tracks while waiting around for "Personal Jesus.") I'm of the opinion that PSB's current single "Did You See Me Coming" is their finest in years, and it played exquisitely to the energy of the crowd. As one might expect, there was also a great deal of humor in the show. The dancers dressed up as NYC landmarks for one song, and Tennant himself donned a crown and cape for a cover of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida." Even the stoic Lowe, who rarely even moves, got into the act...dancing (for eight bars) in one break, and wearing a feather-plumed hat for "Being Boring," which he never was.

Unlike many of their contemporaries, onstage the Pet Shop Boys exude a relaxed, pleasing confidence...aware of their place in the canon and in music history, but unwilling to cede their artistry to sheer nostalgia. It's exciting, thrilling even, to see musicians pushing the boundaries of their work while enjoying it at the same time. As Tennant sang in one of the band's best performances of the evening, "I never dreamt that I would get to be/The creature that I always meant to be." They have reached the heights, and thankfully, they've allowed us to tag along for the ride.