I just wanted to write a random blog and nothing more random than what songs I currently consider MY JAM which, when played in a bar or club setting, watch out for my drink spilling on you because I AM GONNA BUST A MOVE (or something).

But probably mainly just spill my drink because I can’t dance. Enthusiasm counts for something.

I saw Salt-n-Pepa perform at Toronto’s Festival of Beer a.k.a. Beerfest on July 27th, 2012. Years later, and frankly after seeing their episode on Oprah, I didn’t even know or think they were still touring and performing. Even though they are in their mid-late 40s, you really wouldn’t know it – they looked and sounded great, still as talented as ever!

DJ Spinderella wasn’t there though, it was just Cheryl ‘Salt’ James and Sandra ‘Pepa’ Denton from the original group.

Here are some photos and videos from their performance.

It’s hard to believe how fast time flies by. I can still remember the days of being a scrawny 7th grader, belting out the lyrics to “Don’t Speak” in the school’s corridor during recess with my friends. It was pretty much the only thing we could do to keep ourselves from freezing in the cold and entertained, as we had no playground and the schoolyard was bare. More than a decade later, I find myself, perhaps just as scrawny and off-tune as back then, singing loudly and happily along to “Don’t Speak” in unison with the rest of the crowd at the Air Canada Centre. And for those few moments, it was like I was 13 years old again.

March 18, 2009 — I went to the Britney Spears “Circus” concert at the Air Canada Centre. It was a visual spectacle. The production value was way up there, with elaborate sets and side-show acts to keep the audience entertained between costume changes. The stage was set as a three ring circus, with a larger middle ring above which numerous aerial acts involving wires and suspension were performed for certain numbers. For example, during the “Everytime” number, Britney sat on the handle of a giant umbrella as it was suspended above the arena. Due to the layout of the stage, any location within the arena provided a decent view of the show. However, and perhaps to the benefit of Britney, there was no jumbotron to show up-close shots of the stage. While there was a jumbotron there, that was circular and wrapped above the middle ring, it mostly served to show intro videos to performances, which were actually rather well done and reminiscent of an actual music video. One video shown right before “Freakshow” was played to the track of Marilyn Manson’s “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” from his 1995 Smells Like Children album — which seemed somewhat out of place but fitting nonetheless. The side-show acts with circus folk (or carnies?), though sometimes drawn on for a bit too long, provided entertainment between the lulls and really made it a circus atmosphere. Could’ve done without the clowns though, not a fan of clowns.

Gwen Stefani has released a new perfume line under her Harajuku Lovers brand and unlike the perfume released under her other popular line, L.A.M.B., this one has a cute and quirky flare that you’d expect a Harajuku Lovers product to have.

How is it different than other fragrances? Well, first of all, there’s the unconventional packaging. Each scent, five of them in all, has its own individual figurine atop the bottle. Actually, the hollowed out figurine itself makes up pretty much 90% of its volume and the glass bottle containing the perfume acts as a stand (so while the boxes for both sizes of Harajuku Lovers Fragrance seems large, that’s just indicative of the figurine size). This fact, that it comes in a set of five but can also be bought individually, makes them seem like collectibles a la the days when you were a kid and collected those McDonald’s Happy Meal toys in series. That is the main allure for the perfume line, it’s kind of campy yet endearingly so. And I’m sure a complete set of all the Harajuku Lovers fragrances would probably be a nice decoration for your dresser. And as any Gwen Stefani fan can easily deduce, the five figurines a.k.a. scents come in the form of her four “Harajuku Girls” (or as some ironically muse, Gwen’s “accessories”) plus Gwen. The five include G (The Leader Of The Pack), Love (Sweet Stuff), Lil’ Angel (Sassy, Sexy, Cool), Music (Tough Cookie), and Baby (Girlie and Sweet). Their respective scents also coincide with the names, or at least if you stretch your imagination a little bit.

Lordy, the epic comeback performance of Britney Spears has been talked about to death all over the media outlets. Or shall I rephrase that, the epic mess of a performance. Nonetheless, I can’t let this magnitude of an event in pop culture history go down without adding my own commentary.

June 28, 2007. Let us remember this day, for it was this day that the Spice Girls announced the much anticipated and rumoured reunion world tour. Let’s just say that I have been waiting for this for awhile, since hearing about reunion rumours for Live8. It is said that this tour will be the very last chance to see all five girls together on stage, singing their 90’s hits, proclaiming “girl power”, while invoking nostalgia for all in attendance. Unfortunately, though, the 12 dates announced so far are lacking Canadian dates, something I hope will be rectified in the near future. [ Addendum: At the end of July and early August, two new Canadian dates were added! The tour now starts out in Vancouver and “The Spice City”, Toronto, will have its dated added later on. Huzzah! ]

You might remember, back in 2003, the huge uproar caused by one Dixie Chick’s dissenting words against George W. Bush. Words from one single person said in jest in a London concert made its way overseas and back home resulting in huge controversy. Treason, they called it. Un-American! Traitors! Every single adjective and noun related to unpatriotism was slung against the group. This was in the days before the anticipated invasion of Iraq. It was a time when approval ratings for “Dubya” was high and patriotism was in full swing.