Taco Bell Shaker iPhone App

I was never one of those who wanted an iPhone before, but now I have a huge reason to get one.  Taco Bell has released their first iPhone app…The Why Pay More Shaker.  Let’s say you only have $1.63 in your wallet, but you need Taco Bell.  This happens to me all the time.  I go through the menu in my head (yes, I have it memorized) and try to come up with all the combinations I can get for whatever amount of money I have on hand.  I’m terrible at math so this is very frustrating, especially when I’m hungry.  I’ve been known to just go into Taco Bell, throw my money on the counter, and say “what can I get for this?”

The iPhone app does all this for you.  You just type in the amount of money you have to spend, give the iPhone a shake, and it will give you a combination of items you can get for that price.  Shake it again and it gives you a new combination.  If you want to hold an item, just touch the little lock below that reel and it will hold it while shaking up the other two until you find the perfect combo.

Once you choose your meal, you obviously need to get to the closest Taco Bell ASAP, but don’t worry, the app can help you with that too.  You just click on the Store Locator link, and it gives you all the locations near you, along with directions.

The app is free from the iTunes store and can also be used on the iPod Touch.  Delicious.

Lady Gaga Releases Video for “Paparazzi”

This video would have left me speechless if that were possible.  But I always find a way to express my speechlessness with speech.  Lady Gaga is the most innovative artist we’ve had in pop music for decades.  She is shameless and does whatever she wants.  She doesn’t just make music, she makes entire artistic movements with every song and video she releases.  After the release of the “Poker Face” video, I didn’t think anything could top that.  But she somehow found a way to shock and awe even more with “Paparazzi.”

This isn’t even a music video, it’s a short film.  Lady Gaga continues to showcase that her talents go far beyond music.  She can act, dance, and more than anything, develop an image unlike any other artist out there.

When Lady Gaga says she wants to bring back the super-fan, that’s exactly what she is doing with videos like this.  She has carved out a new genre of pop all for herself, and people are flocking to it.  It’s unlike anything else you see out there and I’m sure that artists will be quickly trying to copy her innovative style and performances.

I love that she brought back the dogs from the “Poker Face” video and continues to develop a theme that flows through all her work.  She has created her own world with her videos and short films, and she devotes herself to the world so much I think she actually might not be acting anymore.

And, yes, the guy in the video is Alexander Skarsgard who plays Eric, the vampire leader on “True Blood.”

My favorite thing about the video: her teacup makes an appearance!

The video is only available on PerezHilton.com for now, so click here to watch: “Paparazzi”

Cold War Kids Interactive Music

One of my favorite bands, Cold War Kids, has found a unique way to premiere their new single, “I’ve Seen Enough.”  On MTV.com, they’ve released an interactive version of the song.  You can mute the different instruments or vocals to hear the song broken down into different parts.  Other aspects of the song can also be adjusted, which helps listeners to better understand what goes into the production of a song.  It allows us to see the song more as a musician would see it, with all the pieces fitting together to make one full track.

Cold War Kids’ newest album which contains “I’ve Seen Enough” is called Loyalty to Loyalty and was released in September 2008.  It’s an amazing album, a great follow up to their 2006 album Robbers & Cowards.  Cold War Kids have a very distinct sound, and they’ve really begun to pick up a larger fan base with this new album.  Getting exposure from MTV is definitely going to help, and the interactive music is something that you can expect other artists to begin to pick up on.

Click here to visit the interactive song on MTV: “I’ve Seen Enough”

Click Read More to hear the singles from Loyalty to Loyalty.
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Jessica Simpson Gets A Reality Show…Again

Reality shows have become Hollywood’s version of charity.  Washed up celebrity with a struggling career?  Here, have a reality show.  Feeling like no one loves you enough anymore and need more attention?  Reality show.  Just plain nuts and can’t hold a normal job?  PLEASE take a reality show!

Jessica Simpson probably fits all of those categories and then some.  After her failed marriage to Nick Lachey (not that he’s doing much better these days), being called fat repeatedly, and a few failed pop and country albums, Jessica is whoring herself back to reality TV to “redeem” herself.

The concept of the show sounds like it has the potential to be interesting.  It’s called “The Price of Beauty,” and a source told US Weekly about the premise: “She and a friend set off on a road trip around the world in search of what people find beautiful and why.”  A nice change from just seeing what America thinks is beautiful.  To go to other cultures and find out their interpretations of beauty is something that most people aren’t able to experience, and to document it might be a good idea.  Of course, then comes the rest of the description, where my warning signs start going off: “(Jessica will try) shocking things that women do to make themselves beautiful.  Picture ‘Fear Factor’.”

I’m imagining Jessica Simpson in Africa getting her face pierced with a stick, or having those rings put around her neck.  Hmm, maybe the show doesn’t sound too bad after all…

My biggest worry is how badly Jessica is going to offend each culture she visits.  She has been known to say some pretty stupid things, like calling tuna “chicken.”  It’s one thing when you’re offending a fish, but when she starts calling Spanish people Mexicans, we’re going to have a problem.  Which is all part of the reason that I’m going to tune in.

From Crayons to Comfort

When Carrie and Neil Wesseler became foster parents, they not only took care of their own foster child, but decided to start helping children all over the area.  At the training session for foster parents, the instructor told them to imagine a child watching TV when someone comes in and hands them a garbage bag, telling them to throw all their stuff in and get ready to go to foster care.

A foster child is already scared and alone, and throwing their stuff into a garbage bag was too much for Carrie.  The instructor told her they had no choice, that garbage bags were all they had to use.  Most of the children didn’t have many possessions anyway.

Carrie decided to do something about the bags, and started asking for donations for duffle bags.  She donated them so that at least some children would have something better to use.  Once she began the donations, she decided to set up a booth at a festival to try to get more.  To draw people to the booth, Carrie melted down crayons and poured them into molds, making fun shaped crayons which she sold for 25 cents.

The response was overwhelming, and the crayons sold out quickly.  Carrie made more.  And more.  Now she raises enough money from her crayons that she can get duffle bags in bulk for the foster children.  She started out donating to one county in Indiana where she lives.  Now she is supplying bags to counties all over Indiana.

Carrie also has started making up school bags for foster children, since she found out many of them start out with nothing.  She fills backpacks with school supplies and gives them out to the needy kids.

Not only has Carrie brought happiness to foster children around Indiana, but she has brought joy to the kids who get to use her fun crayons.  She is using a cute and creative idea to benefit others, and that is something that we need more of every day.  It’s simple things like this that change people’s lives.  No one ever thinks about those garbage bags, but these children will be affected by what she did for them forever.  When they look back on the day they were taken to their foster home, maybe they felt a little more at home right from the start because of Carrie’s work.

Carrie calls her work “Project T3,” which stands for “Totes for Tots and Teens.”  For more information on the project, go to the website at projectT3.org.  There you can also find out about the donations she needs for her duffle bags and bookbags and other ways you can help out with the project.

Time To Go Gaga

“When I’m writing music, I’m thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage.  It’s all about everything altogether — performance art, pop performance art, fashion.  For me, it’s everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan.  I want to bring that back.  I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us.” -Lady Gaga

Could Adam Lambert Be The Next Freddie Mercury?

Adam Lambert, runner up on this season of “American Idol,” may have found something far better for his career than winning the show.  He may have come in second place, but with this show, that isn’t always a bad thing.  The winner of “Idol” is tied into all sorts of contracts with the “Idol” name.  Kris Allen, who won this season, already is being forced to release one of the most horrendous songs ever written.  His voice sounds great in the song, but listen to the lyrics and unless you’re the cheesiest person alive, you’ll hate it.  (Click Read More at the end of the post to hear it.)

I watched “Idol” on and off this season, and I loved Adam Lambert from the beginning.  He’s a total glam rocker, with the hair, makeup, and ridiculous costumes.  Exactly what I love.  He’s not exactly the picture perfect “American Idol” type like Kris Allen was.  A little too edgy for their pop-centric vibe, but he still made it to the end and impressed the judges and fans all along.

During the finale, Lambert and Allen got a chance to sing with the incredible rock band, Queen.  Although they’ve stayed together since Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991, the band has never had another permanent lead singer.  But now that could all change.  The band was impressed with Adam Lambert, and has expressed interest in adding the singer to their group, or at least doing some work with him.

Queen guitarist Brian May told Rolling Stone magazine, “Amongst all that furor, there wasn’t really a quiet moment to talk, but (drummer) Roger Taylor and I are definitely hoping to have a meaningful conversation with (Lambert) at some point.  It’s not like we, as Queen, would rush into coalescing with another singer just like that.  It isn’t that easy.  But I’d certainly like to work with Adam.  That is one amazing instrument he has there.”

This is really the best music news I could ask for.  Queen is one of my favorite bands of all time.  Freddie Mercury is truly irreplaceable, but Adam Lambert is the closest I could imagine an artist ever coming to capturing his style.  I’d really like to see Lambert do well, mostly for my own sake so I can continue watching him, but also because he has a talent that makes him stand out from so many other singers.  He has a stage presence and a style unlike most, and watching him perform is always so captivating.  Not using that talent would be a waste.

Click Read More to hear Kris Allen’s new single, hear my favorite Adam Lambert song, and watch some of the “Idol” performances for both.

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Marry Me A Little

Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park always impresses me with their shows.  They are always so different from one another, each one a totally different genre and style from the last.  Marry Me A Little, their current musical, contrasted greatly with Jekyll & Hyde, which is playing in their other theatre.  Marry Me was created by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene by taking various songs by Stephen Sondheim which he wrote for his other shows but never used and turning them into an hour long musical of their own.  (Sondheim is best known for writing the lyrics for Sweeny Todd, Follies, and West Side Story among others.)

The show takes place in two apartments with an invisible wall.  On one side lives the character only known as “Woman” and on the other side lives “Man.”  The two are each spending a Saturday evening alone in their apartments, reading the Sunday Times and singing about lost love, hopes for the future, and their funny daydreams about sex and relationships.

The songs alternate between wistful and humorous, which keeps the story moving at a good pace.  The characters are easy to relate to and remind me of myself on a Saturday night when I feel like the only single one sitting at home.  Okay, maybe my Saturday nights involve a little less singing, but the ideas are there.

In Playhouse’s production, Man was played by Benjamin Eakeley and Woman was played by Sally Wilfert.  Both are from New York and have acted in Broadway productions as well as television.  The vocals were amazing on both of their accounts, and the acting was great.  Wilfert had excellent comedic timing and was very free on the stage.  Eakeley made his character extremely likable and just seemed like he really was the typical guy next door.

The lighting and set design was also very well done, as well as direction.  Another interesting thing that they did with the production was have the actors on stage before the show started.  When the theatre doors opened, Man and Woman were both in their apartment just going about their life.  It made them seem more real right from the beginning of the show.  It was another very successful production for Cincinnati’s Playhouse.

The show was directed and choreographed by Stafford Arima.  The music director was Lynn Shankel.  If you live near the Cincinnati area, Marry Me A Little runs through June 14th and you can get your tickets on the Playhouse website: www.cincyplay.com

Click here for more information and to see photos and video from the show: Marry Me A Little

Click Read More to see a video with some short clips from the show.
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HGTV’s “Leader of the Pack”

Reality TV has reached a new low.  I thought it would be hard to beat shows like Tila Tequila’s “Shot at Love,” where people were degraded and embarrassed on each episode in new ways.  But HGTV has taken over the top spot with their new show “Leader of the Pack.”

The Reckseit family has decided to get a dog.  So instead of going to the local shelter to adopt an animal in need of some love, they turn it into a game.  They have eight dogs delivered to their house, and the dogs have to compete in challenges to test their skills and try to win over the family’s love.  Each of the five members of the family places a vote each week for the dog they want to see leave the house, and the dog with the most votes is cast out.

I have more problems with this premise than I could list.  Animals should never have to compete for love, and voting off a dog every week is just the saddest storyline I’ve ever heard.  At least on reality shows voting off people, the humans know what they’re signing up for.  The dogs just want a home with a loving family.  They didn’t ask for this.

Each dog that is voted off will be adopted by another family, so they won’t be homeless, but I still think it’s incredibly sad.  Although it’s actually sadder for the dog that has to stay with the Reckseit family.  These people look like a bunch of crazies.  The whole family seems to have an annoyance disorder of varying degrees of severity.

Another thing that seriously bothered me after watching the preview was when it was dinner time for the eight dogs.  First of all, they’re feeding them all the same food.  Dogs need different food depending on their age, size, and breed.  Also, they say “uh oh, we ran out of food!” and the dogs are all running around like crazy trying to get enough to eat.  Don’t play games with animal care.  That is not funny or entertaining.

I hope they at least got their “cast” of dogs from shelters, but judging from the breeds they have and the young age of the dogs, I doubt it.

This show infuriates me.  Where’s PETA when you actually need them?

Click here to watch clips from the show: “Leader of the Pack” Video

Click here to meet the dogs: “Leader of the Pack” Cast

Stars: They’re Just Like Us!

Here’s another one for the stars are just like us category.  When I was a little kid and I would have a plastic cup, I thought it was really funny to hold it in my mouth so that it covered my nose and pretend I was a little piggy.  Well apparently Brad Pitt still hasn’t gotten over this game, because he played little piggy nose cup in Cannes.  I know he has an entire flock of children, so maybe they’re rubbing off on him.

He also did a few really uncomfortable interviews to promote his new film where he avoids any personal questions.  He even gets mad when the interviewers compliment him on his looks, saying incredibly sarcastically, “Really, really, really thanks.  Let’s move on.”  I guess when you’re there promoting Inglorious Basterds, you can act like one.