S Club Party…Almost 10 Years Later

S Club 7 have briefly reunited after almost 10 years since their split. With this news, plus the rumours that Steps may also be reuniting as well as JLo returning to no. 1, it seems likes its 2001 all over again!

S Club 7 are best known for their cheesetastic bubblegum hits like Don’t Stop Movin’ and S Club Party. In America though, they’re perhaps best known for their only top 10 Billboard hit, Never Had a Dream Come True.

The original line-up of S Club joined together for former bandmate Jon Lee‘s debut performance in Jersey Boys. And man, do they look very, very different:

Source: The Daily Mail

You can view loads more reunion photos and find out what the bandmembers have been up to at the source, The Daily Mail. According to Wikipedia, three of them still perform together as S Club 3.

Fun fact…I remember buying a copy of their debut CD single Bring It All Back. Yes, you can laugh. It was an “enhanced CD” that came with the music video lol. Ah, the days before YouTube and iTunes. It’s funny though, I tried searching for the official video on YouTube/Vevo but apparently copyright has taken it off.

So instead, here is a video of people dancing to Bring It All Back in a nightclub:

Didn’t they have a TV show, too?

Foolish – Ashanti: A Classic Video Review

Ashanti: “What do you do?”

Terence Howard: “Construction.”

After re-reading my post on Only U, I went back and watched the hilariously melodramatic video for Ashanti‘s debut single, Foolish (2002).

What more can you want from a video? It has a Goodfellas-inspired motif and features cameos from rappers that were huge in the day. Like Ja Rule.

For me though, I think the best sequence of the video is when Ashanti and her two friends storm some chick’s apartment.

Ashanti goes bezerk, yelling into the intercom furiously. For a moment it looks like there’s gonna be a huge catfight. One of Ashanti’s girlfriends (who rocks a pink weave, no less) even takes her earrings off:

But then it cuts to a scene with Ashanti lying next to her boyfriend as usual. I guess that’s why this song is called Foolish.

Where were you? Where have you been?!

Do you reckon this song/video is a classic of the 2000s decade? In my opinion, yeah…I guess I’d say it is. What about you guys?

Brokedown Palace: A Movie Review

Cover of Brokedown Palace

I finally got my hands on a copy of Brokedown Palace. I’ve wanted to watch this movie for awhile now, after reading so much about its plot and the controversial statements made by Claire Danes which angered the Philippines (where the film was shot).

Did the actual movie disappoint though? Eh, it’s the film the trailer promotes. A teenage take on the drug prison drama along the lines of Midnight Express and the Nicole Kidman 1989 mini-series, Bangkok Hilton.

Watching it also draws many parallels to contemporary, infamous drug cases, most notably Schapelle Corby.

The movie stars Danes and Kate Beckinsale as young American girls, Alice and Darlene. After holidaying in Thailand post-high school graduation, they are suddenly arrested while leaving Bangkok Airport. Inside Alice’s bag, police find packages of heroin.

So of course, they’re thrown into custody. Darlene, being so naive, unwittingly signs an admission of guilt even though they both claim to be innocent. Soon, they enter the women’s prison dubbed Brokedown Palace, where they’re cruelly intimidated, beaten up and tricked by their fellow inmates and prison guards.

They find an eventual ally in an American lawyer living in Thailand named Hank “The Yank” Greene (Bill Pullman). Nonetheless, their situation gets more bleak and desperate. They start to turn on each other and even plot an escape attempt. I also got the vibe that Alice was starting to get hit on by other inmates, particularly one woman who’s a total bitch to her but I think it’s because she was jealous of her closeness with Darlene. Or maybe I missed some scenes to explain that dynamic. I did doze off for a bit due to being sick…

Lou Diamond Phillips also makes an appearance as DEA agent Roy Knox.

In many ways, Brokedown Palace is kind of like a female version of The Beach (2000), a film about an American boy escaping his life to a dark, tropical destination. Funnily enough, that movie starred Danes’ Romeo + Juliet co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio.

Brokedown Palace does have it faults. To be honest though, I was watching this movie half-asleep, nursing a hell of a headache and fever from a cold so I didn’t really care.

Reading other reviews of the movie did make me laugh however, because they’re sort of true. I particularly loved this assessment of it by MaryAnn Johanson:

That’s pretty much how Brokedown Palace feels — it’s like the WB remade Return to Paradise. Two stupid, ignorant, spoiled, naïve, rich, white American girls get busted for drug smuggling in Thailand, and we’re supposed to feel bad for them because they may have been set up and, worse, are forced to endure bad haircuts in prison.

Source: MaryAnn Johanson, FlickFilosopher.com

The film attracted some controversy for some comments made by Danes about the Philippines. Talking about her experiences filming Brokedown Palace, Claire called Manila “a ghastly and weird city” in an interview with Vogue and later added to another magazine, Premiere, that the city, “smelled of cockroaches, with rats all over, and that there is no sewerage system, and the people do not have anything – no arms, no legs, no eyes”.

Despite an apology, Dane’s films were reportedly banned from showing in Manila and she was also allegedly declared a persona non grata.

Please re-release Aphrodite with this on it, Kylie

Kylie‘s official YouTube channel just released this 80s-tastic Pete Hammond remix of Put Your Hands Up:

Maybe she can re-release Aphrodite with this on it?

Related Articles

• Kylie Minogue’s Aphrodite Live Tour Hits Patriot Center (therogersrevue.wordpress.com)
• Watch: Kylie Minogue Releases MORE Tour Rehearsal Footage (pinkisthenewblog.com)
• Kylie Minogue: We have been so lucky, lucky, lucky (telegraph.co.uk)

Kirstie Alley is 60?!

Kirstie Alley, best known for her roles in Cheers, Look Who’s Talking and perhaps also her cheesetastic masterpiece with Tim Allen, For Richer or Poorer, is currently competing on this season’s Dancing with the Stars.

Not only is she still naturally funny and likeable, Kirstie can dance!

But the biggest shock of all for me was finding out that she’s now 60 years old! I can’t believe it. Along with fellow Dancing castmember, Ralph Macchio, Kirstie Alley looks a lot younger.

I was looking at some of the related videos on YouTube and I stumbled upon this hilarious clip from the underrated comedy, Drop Dead Gorgeous. Her performance was really good in that movie and the cast was solid, it’s a shame the movie wasn’t any bigger. I mean, it also starred Kirsten Dunst, Ellen Barkins, Brittany Murphy, Denise Richards and Amy Adams.

Someone uploaded Gladys’ breakdown scene, too:

“Oh my god, it’s Cops!”

hahahaha

Related Articles

• Kirstie Alley on Dancing With the Stars: What to Expect! (news.instyle.com)
• Kirstie Alley hopes to shed 30 pounds on “DWTS” (cbsnews.com)
• Ralph Macchio on ‘Dancing with the Stars’: ‘I have these orangutan arms’ (insidetv.ew.com)
• “Dancing with the Stars 2011 Recap: Kirstie Alley, Ralph Macchio Best DWTS Season 12 Dancers?” and related posts (blogs.babble.com)

March 2011 Trashy Dance-Pop Songs Post

March 2011 looks like it’s gonna be the defining month of the year in terms of trashy pop singles. First, there was Jam (Turn It Up) by Kim Kardashian, then we had the unexpected smash of the year, Friday by Rebecca Black explode all over the internet.

Fortunately for us, they just keep on coming! Here is a small smorgasbord of a few new dance-pop songs, good and bad, poised to join Kim and Rebecca:

WET / NICOLE SCHERZINGER

I can’t wait for Nicole’s debut solo album, Her Name is Nicole Killer Love, although it sounds like Stargate just produced a carbon-copy of Only Girl (In the World) for her with this track.

BUTTERFLIES / ALANA LEE

Thanks to Friday, Ark’s roster of “talents” have gone mainstream. This video has almost reached one million views. I don’t know why. I’m not a fan of this Taylor Swift-lite track. I think the autotune is even worse than Friday.

“You give me butterflies deep in-ZZI-IEEE-DE”

Ugh.

INVADING MY MIND / JENNIFER LOPEZ

I hope the final version is better?

HOW R U DOIN? / AQUA

Kitschy 90s band Aqua have dropped their bubblegum sound in favour of club-friendly dance. Eh…it’s about as exciting as Steps reuniting.

WHAT A FEELING / ALEX GAUDINO & KELLY ROWLAND

Kelly returns to dance music (again) with this collaboration. This is okay I guess… I like it better than Motivation.

IN THE DARK / DEV

This is the brand new single from Dev – best known for her hit Like a G6. I’m getting a We Speak No Americano vibe from it, mixed with that annoying song from a few years ago, You Promised Me.

KISS KISS / B. SCOTT

Kim Kardashian and Rebecca Black bow down. YouTube celebrity B. Scott has released March’s most enjoyable debut single with Kiss Kiss.

Rebecca Black’s “Fun” Second Single

Britney who? Born This What?

Pop princess Rebecca Black is (finally) back with a new song after unleashing the tear-inducing opus “Friday”, although this is actually a bootleg remix highlighting Rebecca’s vocal prowess and enunciation skills:

Despite the lyrics containing just one word, I think Fun is much more meaningful and thought-provoking than Friday will ever be.

Femme Fatale – Britney Spears: A Quick Review

Til The World Ends – 9/10

Hold It Against Me – 6/10

Inside Out – 5/10

I Wanna Go – 9/10

How I Roll – 5/10

(Drop Dead) Beautiful – 8/10

Seal It With a Kiss – 6/10

Big Fat Bass – 2/10

Trouble for Me – 7/10

Trip to Your Heart – 6/10

Gasoline – 3/10

Criminal – 6/10

FEMME FATALE: 3 and a half stars out of five. It’s the kind of solid dance-pop album we’ve come to expect from Britney.

How are you liking this album? Overwhelmed? Underwhelmed? Just “whelmed”? lol… I’d like to read about your thoughts on the album.

Christina Milian is a psychic

Image via Wikipedia

I googled to see if Christina Milian has ever publicly admitted to singing the chorus of JLo‘s Play…after that classic tune started playing on shuffle.

Instead however, I found this gem of a quote from the formerly popular singer/actress:

“One thing I do miss in music is the uniqueness, no one is that unique anymore. But it is hard to be different and to shock people. In the past Madonna was always changing her image and shocking people. But now that has all been done. You’ve got to do it right and go for it but everybody is trying to be sexy and wearing the same thing.”

Source: Popdirt

This article was posted on 1 July, 2002, almost nine years ago! She was clearly highlighting the market gap to be later filled in by the likes of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj.

She must have good hindsight. This is the woman who had Kevin Federline featured in her AM to PM video way before he dated Britney. Christina even dated Nick Cannon way before Mariah Carey did, too. She’s an underrated pioneer!

And now she’s a has-been! What happened?

Also is it just me or have the following people just disappeared off the face of the earth:

• Blu Cantrell
• Shawn Desman
• Samantha Mumba
• Dido
• Michelle Branch
• Sally Polihronas, Scott Cain and the entire cast of Popstars minus Sophie Monk
• Nivea
• Las Ketchup
• Vitamin C
• Sorbolene Lotion

Okay, I made the last one up. But the rest of them are (were?) real and have not been heard of since Christina Millian was relevant. Yes, that is my new timeline milestone.

Singing does not put food on the table, singing does not pay the bills.

So Grey’s Anatomy is doing a musical episode, huh? Here’s Sara Ramirez (Callie) singing Grey’s unofficial theme song, Chasing Cars:

Apparently even rival medical drama House is producing a musical episode, too.

What the hell?

I hate when TV shows do musical episodes. It’s what ruined Xena for me. The scene where Xena sings to Gabrielle while they were being crucified is when I knew I had to stop: