Okay so I have been blogging about my love for the game “Singstar” for the PS3 for some time now. I do however have a beef with Sony over it. It’s about their “singstore” and the videos they make availabe.

Now to be clear, this franchise is way more popular in Europe than it is in America so far, which has been dominated by “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero.” Also Europe is more open minded than we are here in the States, especially when it comes to sex. Nevertheless, they have several “Blur” songs for sale in their “Singstore,” but not the one I want.

I grew up in Northern Virgina where during the 90’s the great “WHFS” was broadcast. This was a DC area based station pioneering the “alternative” sound and even played on MTV at that period for its “HFStiville.” This was a summer festival concert featuring all the “it” bands of the time.

They introduced me, and most likely many others, to “Blur” through the song “Girls and Boys,” which if you can figure out who is having sex with who then you are a mathematical genius.

Needless to say, Sony has yet to add this song to their “Singstore,” and it’s ticking me off. So I now present to you the video for “Girls and Boys.”

Okay, so I’ve been ranting and raving in a few posts about how much I love this game ‘Singstar’ for PS3. Well I can’t believe I’m posting this, but I am. I made a video of me camping it up to the ‘Scissor Sisters’ song “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin” for my friends to see what the game is about, and am sharing it with ya’ll.

For some reference, normally you sing to the songs video on the screen, which you can see in one of my previous videoblogs on here. However, if you have the cam for the PS3 then it records a clip of your performance for you to upload online, should you choose to. Right now the uploads are only available to the Playstation community. In the fall this is set to change so that the ‘Singstar Community’ hits the whole web, though you can opt out of having your profile go on the full web should you chose (in case I scare people from buying the game, which everyone should).

Anyway, I made a recording my recording of the ‘Scissor Sisters’ vid. Sorry, no way to extract the original off my PS3. Oh and for the curious, that would be my BF cackling in the middle of it when he saw it was me on the TV singing. Ass! I told him to get up and try it himself, but he wouldn’t. I even enticed him with ‘The Spice Girls,’ ‘Duran Duran,’ and ‘The Weather Girls.’ He will sing when I get enough alcohol in him, and trust me, his videos will go online! BTW so far I’ve gotten 4 out of 5 stars for this video lol! Oh and before leaving comments about my singing, try singing in some Bee Gee’s falsetto in tune on cam yourself first It’s not that easy!

This video goes out to you know who. It’s a dare to the Y to the B to the E C K. Yeah, it’s on baby!

P.S. If anyone wants to add me on the PSN network, I’m RDustinC

Another album I’m currently enjoying along with the new Alanis’ is the new Cyndi Lauper album “Bring Ya To The Brink.” It’s a total departure for her from her past few albums, which were more contemporary in feel. This one goes back to her pop roots and is pure dance fun! The following is her new video for “Into The Night,” which was filmed at Splash in New York City.

The new Alanis album “Flavors of Entanglement” dropped today. There is the regular version or a deluxe version with an additional 5 bonus tracks. Any Alanis fan will want the deluxe version of course just to get themselves more Miss Morissette.

The album streamed on VH1.com last week, so I gave it a listen there then. I ordered it from iTunes and actually got it last night. This is without a doubt her BEST album since “Jagged Little Pill.” I absolutely love love love it.

Alanis is back to her angry roots, as this album plays to her breakup with Ryan Reynolds. She’s also for some songs tapped back into her Canadian dance-pop roots a bit, as some of the songs have a very electro-dance-techno aspect to them, but not the sugary 80s kind. Some Alanis fans might hate this, but I love this aspect to the album. It gives it a harder edge believe it or not (think NiN actually).

If I had more than two thumbs, I’d give it more than two thumbs up!

So first thing I did this morning was get myself tickets to Madonna’s Philly concert, which went on sale this morning at 10am. Let me tell you it wasn’t as easy as it should have been either.

Ticketmaster, which I normally use for my tickets as they basically have a monopoly on the industry, dropped the ball. They did NOT have Madonna’s concert listed for Philly. It was up there as of last week, but then on Friday Madonna announced a date change. I suspect this has to do with why the concert was removed from their page. However they didn’t put it back up, so they’ve missed out on a lot of online ticket sales. This of course means they don’t get to rake in the money from their outrageous “service fees,” which Emily often refers to as being anally raped by Ticketmaster.

This basically left me with two choices. Call ticketmaster and order over the phone, or use the box office site for the venue. Well the first of those two choices were out of the question. I hate hate hate HATE dealing with people over the phone when it involves some kind of transaction like this. I wasn’t about to spend ten minutes navigating their automated “Push 1 for . . . ” menus only to end up being greated with “Hello, my name is “Bob,” I am here to help you with your ticket purchase today. Please tell me how I may assist you? . . . . . . . So please, yes, I understand that you would like to purchase Madonna tickets? Is this correct? Come again, I’m sorry but I did not understand that last sentence.” Yeah, I know that was mean, but sadly it’s true and you all know it!

So I was left with the Wachovia Spectrum’s box office site, which is the most unfriendly thing EVER. The first 3-4 tries to get tickets it kept telling me “Sorry no tickets are available because . . . ” Eventually I got through to their insane word verification system. It’s one of those ones where you have to read the letters and numbers mashed together AND read them through the 3 year old’s scribble ontop of it. Half the time you get the word wrong or have to ask for a new one because you can’t read it at all! So then I choose best ticket’s available, only to be given great seats, for 350 dollars a ticket. I love Madonna, but I don’t love the new album THAT much. So back to the begining and the whole process repeats over. No tickets, insane word verification, finally tickets. I had to go through this about 4-5 times to finally score seats I was happy with and at the price I was willing to pay. In the end I ended up with seats better than we had at the “Confessions” tour, so it was worth the pain.

I do have to add one final gripe aout the fees and crap. Not only did Wachovia charge me the normal 20 some dollars in “service and processing” fees, but then they charged me for mailing me the tickets! I don’t think Ticketmaster even has the balls to do that unless you expidite the tickets. Regular standard old mail was $3.50. Okay so stamps, paper, ink and envelopes cost money . . . whatever. So what are the “service and processing” fees I’ve already paid? Not only was mailing that much, they charged $3.50 for the option of holding my tickets at will call. That’s normally free too! I guess they have to pay the person at the booth to hand the tickets out? Finally there was the print your tickets at home option. Hey, my paper, my ink, my resources . . . . $2.50 cents. Are you kidding me?

I’ve never been a huge fan of Weezer, unlike my brother who loves them. However their new video is hysterical. It pulls in a bunch of “stars” who basically got famous thanks to YouTube. I know you all will at least recognize the Britney Guy Chris Crocker. Even Kelly from “Shoes” is in there. Special prop to the imfamous Zero Wing “All your bases belong to us” shows up in the video too!

Today on the radio I heard a song called “I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry and loved it! At first I thought it was a remake of the old Jill Sobule song, but it wasn’t.

Here’s a hilarious fan made video using “Xena” footage, which makes it so much better. Note, they are foreign Xena clips as they are speaking German I think.

I did some searching, her album comes out in June and she has another hilarious song called “Ur So Gay.”

First up, I know it’s been a few days since I posted. After Vegas I needed some down time, plus I got hit with kidney stones . . . always fun! Anyway I’m back to normal and getting back to work and the daily grind. Just a few updates on what other stuff has been going on.

Madonna’s “Hard Candy” album dropped this week. Unlike “Confessions,” which I instantly fell in love with, this is more of a “have to listen to it a few times” to get the feel for it. There are definitely some great songs on it with an 80s electro-pop dance feel as well as a 70s disco-soul groove. “Give It 2 Me, ” “Incredible,” “She’s Not Me” and “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” are my favorites on the album. Other songs are okay, some I could have done without. Some just don’t feel like Madonna should be singing them to me, and she really needs to stay away from rapping.

Last night I watched “The Orphanage.” Watching this around 3am was a mistake, because it was a subtly creepy movie. Nothing overwhelming, jump out of your seat scary. Just creepy. It’s from producer Guillermo del Toro, who is probably best known for writing/directing “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.” Both of these are set during the Spanish Civil War, but “The Orphanage” (which he just produced) is in modern times. It’s the story of a woman who buys the home/orphanage she grew up in to return to with her husband and son. However it seems the children she played with as a child might still be around! Very good movie, very creepy. One of the better in the horror genre to come out these past few years in my opinion. Warning though, it’s subtitled for those who don’t like reading during a movie

Also out this week is “GTAIV” better known as “Grand Theft Auto 4.” Yes this is the controversial game said to warp children’s minds and make them go out and shoot up people and stuff. It’s rated M for mature, there is a reason, kids shouldn’t be playing it! If you wouldn’t let your kids go to an ultra-violent movie, don’t let them play these types of games either, it’s that simple. I picked it up because it’s a fun stress reliever honestly. I know the difference between right and wrong and real and imaginary, so I’m pretty confident I won’t be carjacking anyone tonight or running people over on the street

Finally I ordered the “His Dark Materials” trilogy, the first book being “The Golden Compass.” It’s been awhile, since the last Harry Potter, since I read something for fun. I decided I liked the movie enough to give the books ago. Plus I want to see what the “controversy” is about.

Seriously, let’s get serious for a moment shall we? When the hell did everything get so serious and fun go out the window? I’m so sick and tired of the Oscars and their “serious” movies and all the nominations they give these movies no one sees. When did we start kissing Ebert and Roeper’s asses so much? I miss when movies were just fun and fun to watch, when you didn’t have to “think” so much and leave the theater pondering the meaning of life.

The same goes for music. Alot in music nowadays seems to have to have some social or political meaning. As much as I love Alanis (I love you Alanis baby), I also love just being able to have fun to music. I don’t want to think of the damn political situations or the strife of the common man when I listen music, does this look like the 60’s to you?

Sometimes you just need to say “F” everything going on in the world right now. That’s why I say “Thank God For the B52’s!” They have a new album out, in case you didn’t know. Don’t feel bad, I didn’t either. It took super lesbian Ellen DeGeneres to let me in on this when she had them on her show last week. Anyways, they have a new album out called “Funplex” which is their first album in umpteen years, which also brings back the blond girl Cindy Wilson to the group. For those not in the know, she left the group for a brief period to have a kid and a life, and they put out the album “Good Stuff” without her. It’s a pretty frakin awesome album in case you didn’t get it!

Well she’s rejoined the group and now they have their new album “Funplex” out. I command you to go out and buy it now and begin to have fun with music again! What are you still reading this for? BUY their album now!