Whether or not you were a No Doubt fan in the 90s, if you go to one of their concerts, you are guaranteed to be off your seat and having a good time – they put on an amazing show. If you were, in fact, a long-time fan, then seeing them at a stop on their reunion tour will be all the sweeter with the nostalgic factor. The set list consisted of a good mix of songs from their chart-topping (and one of my favourite albums of all time) Tragic Kingdom, as well as the “newer” albums Return of Saturn and Rock Steady, including one song, “Stand and Deliver”, from their yet-to-released new album set for 2010. As with reunion tours, and this was the case for the Spice Girls as well, the familiar first few beats or chords of every song is enough to get you riled up and excitedly screaming, “OMG I LOVE THIS SONG!!!”. One of the most memorable moments of the night came in the form of the first few chords of “Don’t Speak” and the entire arena getting their lights/cellphones and me with my glowstick I found at work, up and waving to the rhythm as we sang along to those familiar words. It was like a serene, collective moment we all shared together and as cheesy as that sounds, it was enthralling.

The band played in front of the backdrop of an enormous screen that showed quirky videos and visually befitting imagery, complementing the songs being played. In one part of the show, old home movies from the band were flashed on the screen, showing us just how far the band has come from the days of playing small venues to huge arenas all over the world.

Another awesome thing about the show? Gwen Stefani. So she’s turning 40 this year but from watching her, you wouldn’t even know it. Let me just say, the girl is fierce. Besides having a body that is just ridiculously fit considering the fact she’s had two children, including Zuma who was born just last year, she is one of those lively performers who can captivate an audience with her energy alone. Not only did she suddenly start doing push ups at the beginning of “I’m Just a Girl”, she was basically running from one end of the stage to the other and dancing around during the entire set. While singing live. Maybe it’s just my subconscious comparison to my recent Britney concert experience, but I was mighty impressed the entire time. She also took the time to interact with the lucky fans by the front of the stage, including bringing up two fans onto the stage (one of which even got them to play a bit of “Let’s Get Back” with the fan holding up a poster with the lyrics, albeit incorrect lyrics) and at the end, signing a poster for someone. Too bad I was nowhere near the front.

All in all, it was definitely an amazing show and not just because it made me feel warm and fuzzy with nostalgia. It truly was a great performance by the entire band and one memorable night.

Playlist of my videos from the show

13 clips in total.

Pictures from the show

Including a few of Paramore.

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As for Britney herself, she pranced around, didn’t fall over, there were no costume malfunctions to speak of, and no accidental inappropriate comments said while still mic’d up so I’d call it a good performance. It was mostly songs from Circus, but also quite a few from In The Zone and Blackout — with a throwback to her first hit “Baby One More Time” toward the end. It was entirely lip-synced, obviously, but that was basically to be expected. As has always been the case with Britney, she’s more well-known for her dancing during live performances than her singing. However, the dancing was somewhat lacklustre. There were moments where you got a glimpse of the early 2000 Britney (a la the early VMA performances and definitely not the disastrous 2007 VMA performance), such as a dance break during “Toxic”, but there seemed to be a good deal of walking back and forth between the three rings and some shuffling back and forth in certain parts. One part, I caught her doing some penguin shuffle inspired type dance move.

She only interacted with the audience twice: once to introduce “Everytime” and say “Hello Toronto!” (which abruptly ended with an awkward “great… well this next song…”) and at the end when she said goodbye to the crowd. That was it. In parts, it seemed very likely that she hasn’t completely recovered from her breakdown in 2007 and 2008 (who can forget Hostage Brituation ‘08 and the shaving the hair incident?). As much as I love her, and kind of think of her as my kid in the school play who isn’t very good but being the proud parent I am, I’ll cheer loudly for them anyway, she appeared dead inside. I’ve seen her in concert before and in TV performances back in the day and this just didn’t seem like the same Britney who once revelled in being on stage performing for a crowd. After all she has been through lately, with her seemingly doing much better under her father’s conservatorship, I am not entirely sure she was ready for a big tour quite yet.

But Britney does “go through life like a Karate Kid” so maybe getting back on tour will just make her stronger and help get her back to form. Back to the Britney we knew and loved (not that we don’t love her now… c’mon, how can you not love her after the Karate Kid comment??!).

Some of my photos from the night

Videos

You can click the arrows to navigate through the playlist. Or visit the YouTube playlist page.

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Alvin and the Chipmunks starts off with the back story of how the chipmunks came into Dave Seville’s (Jason Lee) life. The film opens on a snowy forest, where we see the [CGI created] chipmunks singing Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” on top of an evergreen tree and storing away food for the winter when suddenly, the tree they are perched upon is chopped down. With the chipmunks still hidden within the branches, the tree is transported into the lobby of JETT Records where it will serve as the Christmas tree and also, coincidentally, where Dave Seville is scheduled for a meeting. Dave meets with Ian (David Cross), a JETT executive, to go over a new song he has written but Ian informs him that he will never find any Justins or Britneys to sing that song because, frankly, it sucks. Dejected and rejected, he leaves the building but on his way out, he steals a huge basket of muffins. Kind of getting his comeuppance for the blow to his ego in the form of baked goods. And just as Dave is making his way out of the lobby, the chipmunks have gotten out from the tree and are making their big escape. They spot the muffin basket and jump right in. Long story short, and a rendition of “Funky Town” later, they become a part of Dave Seville’s life.

Blasphemy, I say!

As other Chipmunk aficionados will attest, that does NOT hold true to the origin of the Chipmunks tale. Not by a long shot! Those familiar with the cartoon will remember that the chipmunks’ mother had to abandon her three babies one winter because she had to leave her home in the forest and they would not survive if she brought them along. So with their best interest at heart and with much sorrow, she left them on the doorstop of Dave Seville, a man who was kind to the forest animals. She had intended to come back for them in the spring but she saw how happy they were with him, so decided it was best to leave them in their new home. Even years later, I still distinctly remember that scene of the mother chipmunk leaving Alvin, Simon and Theodore on the doorstep and me, a wee youngin’, getting all weepy over the sentimentality of the whole thing. I can understand changing some parts of the “Chipmunk-verse” to adapt to the audience of today, but to rewrite history so much that it somehow loses its authenticity and what made the story heartwarming? Not impressed.

Speaking of Chipmunk performed songs, besides “Funky Town” and “Bad Day”, Alvin and the Chipmunks also sang the classic songs fans of the television show will remember, “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” and “Witch Doctor“. The first rendition of “The Chipmunk Song” sung along to the piano was similar to the original version but then eventually, after being put on JETT Records, it was completely remixed to reflect the songs of today’s top 40 with the end result being this, errr, Fall Out Boy-esque ditty. And don’t get me started on what they did to “Witch Doctor”. It’s now, like, some sort of lame Kidz Bop fusion of Pussycat Dolls meets The Black Eyed Peas on a lot of helium! Apparently I am the only one who finds these remakes somewhat disturbing because those Youtube comments from the kiddies are almost all positive. Maybe I’m just too old for this. I guess this is just one of the ways the movie makers were trying to make the Chipmunks “cool” for the youth of today. In any case, those Chipmunk songs, man are they hard to get out of your head after listening to them. It’s worst than getting that darn Chumbawamba song out of your head (you know the one!).

And even more creepy was hearing Alvin say “what’s up, playa” in the movie. That just felt offputting, even though I know Alvin is the cooler, “rebel chipmunk” and in today’s world, I suppose that would equate to using “gangsta speak”. But the 10 year old inside of me couldn’t help but cringe upon hearing that.

Another one of my qualms about the movie may be a bit hard to explain but perhaps if you were a fan of the television show, you would know what I am talking about. In the cartoon, it was explicitly understood that the chipmunks were, well, chipmunks but it was also implicitly understood that they were like deformed children due to their stature and somewhat similar appearance. I mean really now, they were as big as regular kids when compared to Dave! As you see from the picture to your left, they really just look like chubby cheeked children with strange hair ‘dos that matches their skintone and with an unfortunate wardrobe of nightgowns. With this perception and frame of reference, I took in the stories when I was young. Now, it’s actual (CGI’d) chipmunks that are the size of regular chipmunks (i.e. really small as opposed to the giant, kid-sized Chipmunks I am used to) alongside actual humans and real scenery. With the live-action adaptation, it’s really a suspension of belief and reality when taking in the story whereas before, it was simply preposterous all around and that was fine because it was just a cartoon, if that makes ANY sense at all. In other words, it was just a different experience back then, regardless of the age difference.

It was, however, nice to see David Cross in the movie as Ian the evil music exec who steals the Chipmunks away from Dave. But maybe I am just too used to seeing him as Tobias Fünke, former analrapist turned actor, to be able to see him as anything “evil”. (Sidenote: I really miss Arrested Development!) The quirkiness he brought to the storyline was a nice added touch to the movie and made it that much more entertaining.

Alvin and the Chipmunks is surely a movie targeted at a brand new generation, a generation who, according to the Youtube comments, are not familiar with the “old school” Alvin and the Chipmunks and thus have nothing to compare the movie to. It’s definitely not for those of us who are looking for a nostalgic experience that lets us reminisce on our wistful childhood memories. Ultimately, if it’s an audience that’s purely watching the movie without any preconceived notions about what exactly the Chipmunks were in its heyday, it is actually quite enjoyable. However, if you are one of those children of the ’80s who watched Alvin and the Chipmunks so much as a kid that you will immediately start singing along to the theme the second you hear the familiar riffs, then this 2007 version of Alvin and the Chipmunks will be rather disappointing.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

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Before I begin, I should admit that I live for celebrity train wreck stories. Lindsay Lohan, Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, Tara Reid, LOVES IT ALL! On one level, it’s simply a case of schadenfreude — there’s nothing more entertaining than watching these starlets, who seem to have it all and with so many opportunities in life that us regular folks will never have, just throw their lives away over poor lifestyle choices. On another level, I just feel immense pity for these “train wrecks” because, at the end of the day, they are just people. People who probably don’t have a good support system who will tell them they are screwing up their lives and intervene, but nonetheless, they are just like you and I (err, minus the fame, the power, the wealth).

In the case of Britney, I feel particularly bad because many moons ago, when she first released “Hit Me Baby One More Time”, I met her. And through my own irrational way of thinking, I feel a link to her, if not for the mere reason that she seems more “real” to me (as opposed to Lindsay Lohan who I see as just a character in Mean Girls and gossip magazine regular). My encounter with Ms. Spears began at The Dini Petty Show, as my friends and I managed to get tickets to the show in which she was a guest on. Right afterward, we headed to the local mall that was literally right down the road from our high school, where Britney was doing the standard mall appearance with a performance and autograph session. Since we had gotten wristbands much earlier in the day, we were one of the lucky few who were able to get an autograph. Who would’ve known that this singer we were meeting, albeit having a number one single at the time, would become a household name and remain in the limelight almost a decade later? Having met numerous pop acts in my teenybopper days, it’s as if almost every single one of them has faded into the oblivion. Aqua? All Saints? M2M? No Authority? Take 5? Poof. Back to the story. When I went up to her, she was friendly and gracious. After signing my CD cover, I asked her for a photo and she put on a huge smile. I don’t remember the exact details of the encounter, as I was in my early teens around that time, but it was a decent enough of an experience for me to reminisce about it after all these years and say, “she was nice”.

My autographed CD cover!

Which is why this whole VMAs debacle is that much more conflicting for me. I had originally tuned into to this much-anticipated performance in order to watch this hot mess known as Britney Spears continue down the road to monstrosity. Or at least a stint on The Surreal Life. After she had that head shaving episode, the numerous panty-less paparazzi shots, the irresponsible parenting claims/facts, and the general erratic behaviour she’s become known for nowadays, I knew that I expected nothing less than a show that would go down in history. And boy, a notorious show we got.

The performance in question

The dancing.

Let’s not forget that this is the same girl who made this memorable 2000 VMA performance or this 2001 VMA performance. To say there were high expectations would be putting it mildly. But her lacklustre 2007 performance didn’t compare, even somewhat, to what she could do had she brought it. What was with the almost sloth-like movement, accompanied with some arm movements every so often? She looked lethargic or perhaps just had a few extra doses of Vicodin. It was as if I was watching a tranny Britney Spears impersonator at a low budget stage show. Even the production value seemed lacking, and maybe that’s the fault of MTV or The Palms, but it just seemed so pedestrian. The first few seconds, you could already tell that it was revving up to be one epic failure. On the other hand, the Chris Brown performance, now that was hot.

The lip-syncing.

It was arguably more cringeworthy than the Ashlee Simpson SNL Lip-syncing Snafu. It was like Britney completely forgot the words to her own song and just decided to “screw it”, nevermind even try to make it look passable as “real singing”. Maybe she should’ve just gone with the Ashlee Simpson method of coping with public embarrassment: do a hoedown.

The “look”.

I don’t want to be crass and use the F-word, like some journalists and publications have been liberally throwing around, but let’s face it, that was not a flattering choice of attire. Maybe it would be appropriate for Britney circa 2000, but not now. Sources say that she insisted on wearing that outfit, even though MTV had other choices in mind (a corset is rumoured to be the MTV choice of costume for her). And then there was the hair, I mean, the weave. It just looked awkward and strange, like someone chopped off all the hair on their Malibu Barbies and glued it onto her head. Just… no.

As I have said, many publications have harshly criticized Britney’s body, not even simply insinuating but flat out proclaiming. Yes, it was not flattering and she was not in her top form. However, must we resort to driving home the message that even a little bulge isn’t acceptable, particularly regarding Britney whose fanbase is predominantly young, ED susceptible girls? It just seems like it’s in poor taste.

After all this hoopla, I hope Britney is able to see pass the disillusion and turn her life around. This may be the end of her career, though admittedly I hope not because her new songs are kind of catchy, but she should realize that she’s become a huge joke. Girlfriend needs help, pronto.

Now for some HILARIOUS spoofs!

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