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Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Bieber Guy's 'My World' Reviews

It has been almost two months now since I launched the new Bieber Guy blog with my first review. If you haven't checked out Bieber Guy yet, here's a summary of what the blog is all about:

Justin Bieber's core demographic fan base is tween and teen girls. I, however, am a 23-year-old MALE college graduate. No matter where you turn, there Bieber is: on every TV show and website imaginable. I can certainly understand why the girls are in love with him, but I am not necessarily a fan. But neither am I a hater and dislike him either; I would consider myself a neutral outsider. That's there this new blog comes into play. I will become the Bieber Guy and explore the world of Justin Bieber (listening to all of his songs and albums, watch his music videos, read his book, watch his movie, view his YouTube videos, etc). This isn't necessarily to see if I will have Bieber Fever by the end; I'm not guaranteeing I will. The purpose of this project is to understand him as an artist rather than judge him or write him off as a fad, as many people have done without even taking the time to listen to much of his music. There are many who have said he will have lasting power in the music biz, unlike other young singing stars like Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers. Why is that? Let's explore...

As I said, I am two months into this project now. And I really am enjoying working on it, being able to listen to his music. And so far, I have found that I am enjoying much of his music more than I thought I would. But I digress; my overall thoughts will be left for a future day.

I am currently in the middle of reviewing Justin's full-length album, My World 2.0, which is his second music release. But before I go any further, I thought I would let you all know where you can read all of my reviews from his debut, the My World EP. Below are all the links to those reviews:

Debut Single: "One Time" (Updated)

2nd Single: "One Less Lonely Girl"

Promo Singles: "Love Me" & "Favorite Girl"

EP: My World


You can also check out that blog for the reviews I've done so far for My World 2.0. I'll make sure to let you all know when I'm completely done reviewing the songs from that release.

If you follow TV Watch Online on Twitter (@TVWatchOnline), I do post links to all my reviews there. But if you really want to stay updated on everything related to Bieber Guy and when the next blog and/or review will be online, follow Bieber Guy on Twitter @Bieber_Guy.

Monday, August 15, 2011

New Bieber Guy Blog Explores the Justin Bieber Phenomenon

Justin Bieber's core demographic is tween and teen girls. I, however, am a 23-year-old MALE college graduate. No matter where you turn, there Bieber is: on every TV show and website imaginable. I can certainly understand why the girls are in love with him, but I am not necessarily a fan (but neither am I a hater and dislike him either); I would consider myself neutral. That's where this new blog comes into play. I will become the Bieber Guy and explore the world of Justin Bieber (listening to all of his songs, watch his music videos, read his book, watch his movie, view his YouTube videos, etc). This isn't necessarily to see if I will have Bieber Fever by the end. I'm not guaranteeing I will; the purpose of this project is to understand him as an artist rather than judge him or write him off as a fad, as many people have done without even taking the time to listen to much of his music.

As of this morning, I have begun my venture as the Bieber Guy, reviewing his very first single, "One Time." Click HERE to read my review, where you can also find links to listen to the song for yourself. As you will read in that blog entry, I started off with a lukewarm reaction, but eventually warmed up to it and his voice. Read for yourself why I changed my opinion.

My plan is to review next his second single, "One Less Lonely Girl," then either the two iTunes promo singles or the debut EP as a whole. To stay updated on everything related to Bieber Guy and to find out when the next blog entry will be online, follow Bieber Guy on Twitter @Bieber_Guy.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

The X Factor Seattle Audition Taping: On-the-Scene Report

As I mentioned on Twitter, I attended one of last week's audition tapings in Seattle for Simon Cowell's new singing competition show, The X Factor. My On The Scene report recounting my experience is now up at OMGWire.com. Below is an excerpt from my report.

Click HERE to read the full On The Scene Report.

Conversations With The Contestants:
Whenever a singer or group came on stage, the judges would ask various questions, including finding out their name, age, job and musical influences. And what I found surprising was that the judges would ask for a different song after they first performed. I know that that happens on the Idol auditions, but they asked for different songs quite a lot, even asking some for the list of songs they had lined up. Overall, the judges spent a lot of time with each contestant. There was only one time where they whisked a contestant off fast. After her song, they did a quick no vote and that was the end of that.
Most of the time when the judges were waiting for another singer to come out, they would be chatting amongst themselves the entire time. And even when a singer or group came out, they would continue talking to each other and not acknowledge the singers until they got to their spot on the stage. Even though I would hate to have a seat behind the judges (you wouldn’t be able to see hardly anything), I would have loved to be sitting right behind them and try to hear what they were saying.
The X Factor premieres Wednesday, September 21 and Thursday, September 22 from 8-10pm on FOX.

Visit TV Watch Online's American Idol & X Factor News page for all the latest news on The X Factor.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Jennifer Lawrence: From Winter's Bone to The Hunger Games

Recently, I sat down to watch the Oscar Best Picture-nominated film Winter's Bone on DVD. Winter's Bone has never been on my radar of movies to watch, even during the high of Oscar season. So why, you might ask, did I decide to finally watch it? The answer is because of Jennifer Lawrence, who has been cast in the role of Katniss Everdeen in next year's highly-anticipated The Hunger Games, based on the first book in the bestselling Young Adult trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

When Ms. Lawrence was first cast as Katniss, there was an uproar among fans of the book series that she was too old, too blonde, not thin enough, etc. etc. Even during Oscar season, I didn't pay any attention to her, because everyone said she had no chance at winning Best Actress. When her name popped up as the frontrunner for this role, I'm not lying when I say I had no opinion either way on if she was the right person to play Katniss. I was willing to give her a chance at this, and not make harsh judgments when we hadn't even seen any images or video clips of her in the film yet. I didn't really understand why fans were so upset by this casting decision. Somehow, they overlooked the fact that you can change a person's hair color, you can use makeup and other effects to darken skin. You can do all sorts of things to make her look like Katniss. I mean, look at the Harry Potter films or The Lord of the Rings trilogy; hair and makeup, prosthetics, and special effects can go a long way (Tom Felton? Yeah, not a natural blonde).

Then Entertainment Weekly released the first promotional photo shoot of Jennifer in full makeup and costume with brunette hair. Suddenly, the fandom breathed a big sigh of relief, and thus there was a sense of calm and order in the world again. And, by the way, I love the promo shot and immediately got excited for her to play this role.

But back to Winter's Bone now. As far as I'm aware, I have never seen her act in anything before. And since a huge part of why Jennifer was cast in The Hunger Games was because of her moving and powerful role in Winter's Bone, I felt compelled to actually watch it. Jennifer plays Ree, whose father is out on bond and has put the house and property up as his bond. If he doesn't show up for court, Ree and her family will lose the house. So Ree sets out to find him.

There is a scene where Ree's uncle grabs her by the neck/face. Here is where we see Jennifer displaying a great sense of fear and vulnerability, whereas in the scenes before that, we see her defiant and trying to act tough and strong (putting on a front, perhaps?). The character of Katniss in The Hunger Games is not this hugely tough, Lara Croft-type heroine. She does have vulnerability. She does have fear. She is human and has flaws. And Jennifer perfectly captured all of that when playing Ree. And in a scene near the end which takes place in a boat (for those who don't want to be spoiled, I won't say what actually happens in that scene), Ree is very overwrought with emotion. Jennifer's acting in these types of scenes are breathtaking to watch. She is a brilliant actress. And after watching her Oscar-nominated performance in Winter's Bone, I don't have any worries about her taking on the role of Katniss.

When a million names were flying all over the Internet on who should play Katniss Everdeen, one of the front-runners at one point was Kaya Scodelario, who played Effy Stonem in the hit British drama, Skins. I am a fan of that show and thought she should play Katniss after seeing her on that TV show. One of the reasons why other fans thought she would be perfect as well was because she is pretty thin, since Katniss is supposed to have a starved appearance over the course of the games. And many are not happy with the fact that Jennifer is not thin. I'm not sure how they will deal with this aspect, but I'm sure they'll come up with something. This is the only area where I can understand why fans would be upset.

I have faith in Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and all the filmmakers to create an excellent film that lives up to our expectations. People are saying this new movie franchise could be the next Twilight, not in terms of the story, but in terms of the anticipation, buzz, hype, and box office draw. I believe it does have a chance at that; it's already started. Harry Potter is ending next month. Twilight ends next year. We need a new Young Adult/fantasy franchise to take over, and I am confident that The Hunger Games can fill that role. And with Jennifer Lawrence as the face of these movies, we the fans should have nothing to worry about. I'm not making any judgments about any of the casting choices until I see them in their roles. And I hope others can do that as well. I'm not saying I won't make criticisms about certain elements of the movie; I'm sure I will, but for now, I'm staying out of that department. There is a reason we love the books. So let's support the filmmakers in this journey of translating the story to the big screen.

For all the latest news, rumors and filming updates, visit TV Watch Online's The Hunger Games page.