MUSIC REVIEW: Britney Spears "Blackout"

Britney Spears "Blackout"
Grade: A-

OK. I love Britney Spears but I am going to try to be as partial as I can with this. "Blackout" is the best album of Britney Spears' career. Ever.

After a rollercoaster of a year for her, Britney Spears comes back to do what she does best. "Blackout" is a surprisingly solid album with amazing beats and full of energy and attitude. The voice aspect of it though, is somehow under-rated. Britney's voice is blurred by synthetizer that kinda makes her sound like a robot in every single song. But that is what makes the songs of the album so great.

After the now world-wide hit "Gimme More", Britney gets to deliver even more solid tracks, such as "Radar", "Get Naked", "Why Should I be Sad?", "Freakshow" and "Toy Soldier". This last one, is a master piece. For any dance music lover, it is just like hearing the Milan Cathedral choir. It's like music to my ears. But the credit of the success of "Blackout" is not Britney's, it's mainly the producers. Danja, Bloodshy and Avant, The Neptunes, J.R Rothem and T-Pain among others.

"Blackout" has mostly received amazing reviews. "Entretainment Weekly" magazine gave it a B+, while "People Magazine" gave it 3 out of 4 stars. The Associated Press, MTV, US Weekly and the Chicago Sun-Times have also praised this album. And it is just the beggining. Barry Weiss,the president of Britney's record label, Zomba Music Label, says they have shipped around a million copies of the album just in the United States and the Editor-in-chief of Billboard Magazine expect sales of this album to be around 200-300 thousand copies on the first week, making it debut at number 1.

I don't doubt it. The critical and mass reception of "Gimme More" has been more than impressive, and has shut out many bad comments about her, shiftin the focus from her personal life to her career. Even though her personal life is going down the drain, her career still has a bit of hope. "Blackout" is such an amazing album, that it just makes me imagine how great would it be to have Britney actually doing promotion about it.

Still, this album will be a worldwide hit, despite herself. "Blackout" is on sale in parts of Latinamerica and Europe right now, and it will come out in the UK on Monday and in the US and Canada on Tuesday. You can stream it free on mtv.com, vh1.com, and logoonline.com. After you hear it, you will want to buy it. Guaranteed. BRITNEY IS BACK, BITCH.

San Diego devastated by the fires.

WOW, when I wrote the last post I didn't think it was going to get as ugly as it is. A couple of hours after I posted we had to get kicked out of the school because the air conditions were bad and there was a fire in San Ysidro, really close to my house.

So we all went home after a chaos created by alarmed parents waiting for us outside the school and then I went home to find out how bad the situation is. Me and my family have been glued to the TV waiting for the news updates about it. Every single local channel has been covering the fires non-stop. I have also called a lot of my friends that live in the East County to see If they were good.

We went to sleep with the fear that the fires might reach the part of Chula Vista where we live and we woke up we found out there was mandatory evacuation in parts of Eastlake (about 10 min. driving distance from my place), and recommended voluntary evacuation where I live. We had our stuff packed since yesterday and were only waiting to get official confirmation from Reverse 911.

Thank god, the fire in Chula Vista has just cleared out. Still, every high school in San Diego county has canceled classes for the rest of the week. The authorities are telling us to save energy and volunteer for all the affected people that lost their houses, especially in zones like Poway and Rancho San Diego. I'm going to try to volunteer tomorrow and on the weekend.

I want to thank god for letting us being safe, and for taking care of my friends and family. Thanks to all of my friends who were worried for me and were texting me throughout the whole ordeal, especially ADAM LEE and KAITLIN SCHLUTER (you guys are the bomb!). Thanks Adam for offering your house to evacuate.. Thank god we didn't have to..

PLEASE KEEP ON PRAYING BECAUSE THERE IS STILL A LOT OF PEOPLE IN NEED. HOPEFULLY TOMORROW THE CONDITIONS WILL HELP STABILIZE EVERYTHING. WE WILL PREVAIL.

Damn, we're on FIRE!

.... seriously. A tremendous fire has taken over a big part of Southern California. In Malibu it has burned several multi-million dollar mansions owned by A-list celebrities, but most of all, it has burned the Malibu Castle and part of Pepperdine University. HERE IN SAN DIEGO... it's bad.

Classes are supposed to be cancelled soon, the air is all ashy and we have a fire really close to the International border (really close to my home..), so the situation is bad. Some places around my community are being evacuated already. Hopefully the 2003 fire story won't repeat this time. Hopefully..

Let's keep on praying.

Ready for the BLACKOUT?

The time has almost come. October 30th. is the day of the release of Britney Spears' fifth studio album called "Blackout". With producers such as Bloodshy & Avant, The Neptunes, Nate "Danja" Hills, T-Pain, The Neptunes and more, this album is set to be the greatest pop album of the year. Including the worldwide hit "Gimme More", you HAVE TO HAVE IT. Preview some of the tracks of the album in this blog!

TOP 10 SONGS DANCE SONGS. EVER.

In my personal opinion... So please download this songs and play them in your next party!

1. Don't stop the music- Rihanna
(Yes, yes, yes. If you ever get to hear this song in a club, I guarantee you there will be not one person in the place who isn't dancing his ass off. Really good for working out too. Whoever produced this song is going to heaven, hehe).

2. Gimme More (Danjahandz Remix) - Britney Spears Feat. T.I
( Y'all know I love her, but lets be honest, this track is hot! I don't know why they didn't release this as the first single, they opted to release it as an official remix. People, they played twice at my assembly the other day and people went nuts. A favorite in my list.)

3. Sweet Dreams- The Eurythmics.
(An All-time classic. The beggining of the use of synthetized beats, which is now on almost every pop song out there. That song is just epic.)

4. SexyBack- Justin Timberlake.
(I know, I know.. That song is so overplayed, but it is also innovative, catchy and pretty fun to dance to. I'm kinda over the fact that Timbaland is in almost every dance song out there nowadays.)

5. Go Girl- Pitbull.
(The title says it all. The best song to freak on. Period.)

6.Can't get you out of my head- Kylie Minogue.
(Probably the first song of this new pop-electronic wave. So catchy, I once sang the "la, la,la- la, la,la,lala chorus for like a week. Non stop.)

7. Play- Jennifer Lopez.
(J-Lo is not that the top of my list, I think most of her songs are crap. But this one though is really good! Kinda like a good lounge song that you can bounce to. Get Right comes right after this.)

8.Gotta get thru this- Daniel Bedignfield.
(Remember Daniel Bedignfield? The brother of Natasha Bedignfield, hehe. Well that song was the bomb like 5 years ago for closeted-dance songs lovers like me. Wonder what happened to him....)

9. Yummy- Gwen Stefani Featuring Pharrel Williams.
( I love The Neptunes. They always come up with this crazy and refreshing beats. I don't know why the hell she hasn't released this as a single! Probably the best song of her new album. No, the best. Give it up for her...)

10. Hung Up- Madonna.
(Yup, I couldn't finish the list without the queen of dance music. She is larger than life. And this song proves everyone that no matter If you're 90 years old, you're always capable to put out an amazing dance song. Kudos!)

Now THAT was good television

Did anyone of you guys saw yesterday night's Bill O'Reilly's interview to former President of Mexico Vicente Fox Quesada? Oh...maaaahh...goood, that's what I call a match. First up we have Mr. O'Reilly who is one of the most racist journalist I've seen (Lou Dobbs and Glen Beck follow closely) and then we have the freaking ex-President of Mexico! I applaud Mr. Fox for being able to go to that program and stay cool. He was attacked from every way possible, from illegal immigration to drug trafficking, to the illiteracy on that country.

After seeing the intense interview (no way compared with the one Mr. Fox made with Larry King a day before), I have learned to respect the President of Mexico and to despise Bill O'Reilly more. I mean, O'Reilly got the guts to cut Mr. Fox's comments when he wanted to, he didn't give the president the opportunity to defend himself from everything that was happening. Take a lot yourself, the video is heating up YouTube.

PART 1


PART 2

Return to Normalcy

So I'm back in San Diego. After a glorious month globethroting three different countries. Wow, I'm such a jetsetter. Anyways, I got back to the core of my stuff. I called the friends again and today I came back to school. Just to find out that some special someone got herself a boyfriend while I was gone- yep, it always happens. On Sunday I'm going to my friend Adam's documentary screening at the San Diego Asian Film Festical! Wow, I'm so proud of that bastard. And I guess I'll see a couple of my CCNMA peeps, I love them. They've just smashed my MySpace profile with welcome messages and comments. Hehe, it makes me feel good.

Oh right, so coming back to the States I realize a couple of things. On an hour and a half I was working out in the Gym I saw what Britney Spears did on the weekend on three major prime time news show. Ok, that's going way too far. I also realized that even though Lauren Conrad is incredibilly gorgeous, her "reality show" is fake (I guess it took me too long to realize that), and I also realized San Diego's weather is crazy!! It was so nice down in GDL!!

Ok, so I'll write soon, or when I have something interesting to say. BYEE!

An eye opening conversation

Second post of the day? Nah, it's two in the morning now. I just came back home from a bit of clubbing and dinning with my cousins. The best part of the night though was back from some crappy bar we had dinner at Sanborn's (like an upper-class Denny's, may I say?), and I had one of the best conversations I've had in a while.

My cousin Carolina is a young 19-year-old, law student here in Mexico. She was named one of the best students in the country when she was in Elementary School and now she attends the top law school of the state. She is going to Harvard for six months in January... Freaking Harvard Law School! Like Elle Woods, hehe, but smart. Anyways, she is my pride and joy, I love her so much and I'm so proud of what she is doing. So we were talking of the political situation in Mexico and she told me something I will never forget..

She told me that people wanted her to be a politician but she wouldn't do that because she doesn't want to please people. She rules herself by her ideals and If you can prove her ideals wrong with real facts she accepts it, but she is not going to take shit from anyone, no one is ever going to try to impose an opinion to her because she is her own individual and she believes in what she is completely sure of. Then another of my cousins said this:

"Prefiero morir parado que vivir hincado por el resto de mis dias"

The translations is "I prefer to die standing than to live on my knees for the rest of my life", and you know what? It's fucking true! We're young, we have the power to change stuff! Being young and not being a revolutionary is hipocritical even by a biological standard. We're supposed to try to change things, it's our nature. The world we're living in keeps on getting worst and by the time we're adults there is not going to be chance to change it all.

That is the exact reason I want to be a journalist, to try to change things and to make a difference in my life. I don't want to just come and go from this world, I want to leave a mark, a legacy. Not only in my family but with people in general. If I could help to change someone to something better, It's like Mission Acomplished for me. Journalism gave me a reason to transcend in this life. It's my mission to make something for this fucked-up world we live in. I dare you to do something. Raise your voice, do something with your life.

Thanks Caro for giving me the push I needed. You and I are going to start the movement. Things need to change. You make me proud of being a mexican. Now go and kick ass on Harvard, I LOVE YOU!

WTF?! How did this happen?!!!

This week as you all already know, Britney Spears lost custody of her sons. She had probably the worst week of her life with tremendous amounts of bad publicity everywhere. And... unprobably by any of the music critics on the industry, she has the THIRD BIGGEST SONG IN THE COUNTRY!!

Yes. I'm a fan and even I think this is outrageous, but I'm loving it. "Gimme More" by Miss Britney Spears has reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (the overall chart of singles in the country), soaring from number 63 last week, making it the biggest jump of the week and I think one of the biggest jumps on history and defitinely of Britney's career. The song also debuted straight at number one on the Billboard Hot Digital Songs with over 179,000 downloads (still keeping her atop of the iTunes chart). Check the information here. This is the complete Top 10 on Download chart:

1 SPEARS*BRITNEY GIMME MORE 179290 999 0 179290

2 SOULJA BOY TELL’EM CRANK THAT (SOULJA BOY) 172478 -6 182658 1294360

3 WEST*KANYE STRONGER 156284 -7 167328 1372872

4 FEIST 1, 2, 3, 4 127606 74 73327 308571

5 TIMBALAND FEAT. ONEREPUBLIC APOLOGIZE 104875 77 59300 450951

6 CAILLAT*COLBIE BUBBLY 83779 0 83506 579647

7 MATCHBOX TWENTY HOW FAR WE’VE COME 83129 -4 86927 354138

8 TIMBALAND WAY I ARE 68622 -12 77781 1406528

9 50 CENT AYO TECHNOLOGY 67592 -20 84273 521240

10 NICKELBACK ROCKSTAR 67439 -5 70861 1321469

The Hot 100 chart will be released tomorrow and I will surely bring a copy to the blog. Now, the part that truly amazes me, "Gimme More" has the second higgest Hot 100 position for Britney since "Baby One More time" in 1999. It is assumed it will be number 1 next week. It is also the fifth song from her that reaches the Top 10 on that chart.

The "Gimme More" video will be released on Friday (on iTunes) and Monday on MTV. I promise I won't post about Britney that much but I'm super happy!!!