Virgin Festival Free Again

You can feel the heat again this season, but for most music aficionados, it's time for summer concerts. Let loose, be free, rock on and carpe diem!

Even though most would love to go see their favorite artist or attend highly anticipated music festivals, it seems ticket prices this year aren't selling out. Reading Rolling Stones magazine, it seems this year a lot of musicians and artists are having a hard time selling concert tickets due to the bad economy along with high ticket prices.

Well you don't have to worry, if you're living in the Baltimore/DC scene this years. Virgin Festival is bringing back their Free Fest this year, September 25, 2010. That's right! According to Ron Faris, director of brand experiences for Virgin Mobil USA, last year was so successful with great reviews from attendees and band members. It's no surprise the Virgin company and Kyocera had to bring the Free Fest back again to the Merriweather Pavillion in Columbia, MD.

Virgin Festival hasn't announced their great lineup yet, but it will be announced today. Keep updated at http://virginmobilefestival.com.

Last year’s Virgin Mobile FreeFest lineup included Weezer, Blink-182, Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, GirlTalk, The National and a dozen more. All 35,000 tickets were scooped up in just 20 minutes. Fans can sign up for the news alerts announcing the 2010 band lineup and ticket information on www.virginmobilefreefest.com.

Su Veneno

Hello all! I've missed you blog world!

Work and everything in between have made me so tired throughout my day, so tired to even write a couple sentences here or even worse check my e-mails every day. Well I have definitely become a work-a-holic now. Oh and a small rant on the side, it's been a few months since I've actually been out to a lounge or club. I recently went to the Power Plant Live in Baltimore with my man to a very long overdue rain check. We were both ready to go out clubbing and dancing, until I saw an appalling sight. I was appalled to see how some people dance now. Is it just me or are people pumping their fist in the air now?? Has the Jersey Shore spread their way to the average people's dances now??? Ridiculous!! Maybe that's why I don't really go out in Baltimore much. Sorry Baltimore, your nightlife hasn't impressed me.

Anyway, that's just my rant for the day. So now on to what I wanted to talk about. Recently I have fallen in love to a new type of music to my ears, thanks to my man's introduction. The music has a tropical urban guitar flair, definitely Latino. It's definitely not something I have heard on America's Top 40s yet, but it would be a great variety to have. The music I'm referring to is Bachata.

Oh I have fallen in love with bachata as I have with anything else that I love, like I do with corn, and my friends definitely know how much I love corn. Okay, so I know bachata is definitely not new. But after living most of my life in Florida and if you live in Florida you know about Reggaeton, I am just surprised that I haven't heard about bachata before. Bachata originated in the Dominican Republic and is comprised of five instruments. These instruments are the lead guitar, rhythm guitar, electric bass guitar, bongos and a guira (originating from the Dominican). Even though bachata originated in the Dominican, it has a very distinct variation of bolero music.

Apparently, bachata was first recorded after the falling of the dictator, Rafael Trujillo. Thankfully bachata slowly came to be popular from the days when censorship became obsolete. When Juan Luis Guerra won a Grammy for Bachata Rosa, it may have helped bring recognition to bachata, even though the songs there didn't reflect bachata at all. Thankfully with widespread popularity, a New York based bachata group, Aventura, definitely caught my ears with their urban mix of bachata, therefore making me fall in love with the genre.

One of the first bachata songs I heard was "Su Veneno" by Aventura. Oooh, I really love that song a lot. About bitches and poison, that's love and women, right? Ha, yeah right, but hell it makes a great song to listen to.



source: Wikipedia, YouTube

Love Me

Wow, it feels like decades (well, okay, some months) since I've heard any new music or blogged about any music, but work has consumed my life entirely now. Even though it's still no excuse. So, even though I find it difficult to find and listen to new music, it hasn't stopped me my habit of buying new CDs, i.e. Jay Sean's All or Nothing.

I recently got a chance to dust my netbook (my lovely HP Mini) to turn it on and find my Pandora account. Oh thank goodness, for all the different types of "radios" I've created. One of the radios which I based off Jay Sean's "Down," I heard a mix that sounded like a FloRida beat, but the chorus line was so reminiscent of my early 90s love. I heard "love me, love me, say that you love me." Going crazy in my mind, oh snap, it's The Cardigan's song, "Lovefool," which brought me back to my middle school days. Though while listening it wasn't the same. The vocalist wasn't a female, but a young male voice. Lo and behold, when I switched windows back to Pandora, I saw it was Justin Bieber, Usher's new artist on Island records.


Justin Bieber - Love Me


The Cardigans - Lovefool

I remember when I first saw and heard this kid on YouTube. Since he was so young I didn't give him much cred. But who knew that Bieber would blow up and have Justin Timberlake and Usher try to get him on their record labels. It shows how technology and social media is changing the way we're looking for new entertainment and potential artists. For all my favorite underground artists who want to be on a major record label, I hope you're able to make it. Cross fingers and good luck!

It's not the same w/o a Kanye Incident

MTV VMA's just finished around an hour ago, and I must say I'm glad they broadcasted it in NYC at Radio City Hall.

So I have been MIA from the whole blog world, but I'm back per se. Let me give you my highlights of tonight's show before I head to sleep (I have to be awake and not look dead-tired at work, you know.)

Madonna gave a great speech regarding her memory of Michael Jackson to start off the VMA's tribute to the King of Pop. Even though the performance was short, it was sweet with clips of music videos, dancing, and performance with Janet Jackson.
First televised award of the night was for Best Female Video, and winning over much deserved nominees was Taylor Swift. It was so great to see her win her first moon man award at her first VMA's. And to see Kanye West ruin her thunder by pulling another stunt by getting on stage and interrupting another thank you speech. Telling everyone that Beyonce deserved the award more than her. What a d-bag and so heart-wrenching to see Swift tear up.
Yes, I understand the status and talent that Beyonce has over Swift, but let me remind you it is a music video award, and the video concept for "You Belong with Me" still hands down has such a great story line scene to go with the music.

I know other people are disturbed by Lady Gaga, but I absolutely loved her performance! It was such a dramatic piece for "Paparazzi" it was reminiscent of Phantom of the Opera-ish. The end with all the blood may be too crazy for some, but it added the extra oomph to her performance, that it was definitely well played.

Beyonce's performance for "Single Ladies" was amazing; her alter ego 'Sasha Fierce' definitely gave a performance to remember. Of course a lot of thrusting and lights were all over the place, but the best is what I saw at home. It was such a sight when all of a sudden at the moment Beyonce danced, my younger cousins (at 10 and 13) jumped off the couch and danced in front of the TV. Oh it wasn't because they wanted to groove, it was also to imitate those Beyonce moves, lol. It may be a bit much for kids their age, but still too cute for words because they truly love dancing.

Pink had a daring performance hanging from a string and bar. So acrobatic, it had me on the edge of my seat, and glad to see she had no clothing malfunction (did anyone else see that tear below the heart in her outfit?)

Beyonce, of course, won Video of the Year. And it was one of the sweetest moments I have seen tonight to see that B wanted Taylor Swift to come out and finish her speech and thank you's after Kanye ruined her moment. I mean seriously you have to, especially after the fact all the audience booed after every Kanye mention and nomination pop up.

If you love the hip hop form and the piano tunes, you'll love Jay-Z's and Alicia Key's performance together to "Empire State of Mind" as much as I do. Hearing this piece definitely makes me want to buy the Blueprint III.

And random loving moment is when Richard Brand mentioned Hare Krishna at the end. What does that have to do with anything? But then again, that man is crazy with his sexcapades and vulgarity. But nothing's wrong with the Krishna. I love their food, more specifically to the ones at UF.

Those are my highlights of the show. Definitely plenty more I'm sure you can find out at the MTV VMA's website. But I must say one more thing, it's so great and disturbing to see that we live in such a techie age, where we live of the iPhone, Blackberry, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks. After signing on to Facebook and Twitter half an hour after the show ended, I must say most of my friends' status updates are amusing, especially reactions about Lady Gaga, Kanye, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Twilight. Just a thought for the night. Night!