Fantastic spectacle at the Britney Spears Circus Tour

Anyone who has witnessed a performance of Cirque du Soleil will know the power of great music when coupled with a stunning show. They might be surprised to know that Britney Spears achieves similar heights of skill and performance with her new Circus Tour.

Britney flies through the air (photo 1), very much in the care of professionals, yet does so with a true performer's ability and naturalness. Britney is nimble (photo 2), Britney is quick. Most of all, Britney is the star, back on centre stage and, by the looks, totally loving it.

The concert tour features many shows in large arenas, where the circle-in-the-round stage is used to thrilling effect. That approach is also a plus for the audience, as a much higher percentage have great seats, literally ringside.

There are four Acts to the show, with plenty of costume changes. They are Circus, followed by House of Fun (Anything Goes) and then some different sort of fun with Freakshow/Peepshow (photo 3). The final Act is Electro Circ and, of course, we can expect an Encore.

With the Pussycat Dolls as the opening act, there is plenty of dancing to watch, and that choreography carries over to Britney's Acts (photo 4).

The first part of the tour takes in Atlanta, Miami, Newark and Boston. As you can see from the photos, Britney is looking very fit.

Then the Tour heads north to Canada with shows in Toronto (two) and Montreal. New York, Washington, Pittsburgh and Houston round out to the end of March.

In April, beginning on the 3rd, Dallas is followed by Kansas City and Minneapolis. Then back to Canada for Edmonton and Vancouver. After Tacoma it's the turn of California, with a host of shows: Sacramento, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Francisco.

The end of April shows will be in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Chicago and Columbus. Such a concert tour requires lots of stamina and rumours are that Britney and her crew really worked hard to get themselves and the routines into shape.

On the strength of the first show, everything is working really well.

Dollhouse pleases and offers great promise - as well as being a hit on iTunes

The first episode of Dollhouse, titled Ghost, proved to be a gripping new series from Joss Whedon, again returning to his science fiction roots.

Photo 01: Echo gets reprogrammed, ready for the next "mission".

Whedon's successful TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the spin-off Angel, and also Firefly, has brought lots of attention to this new series.

The power of Apple in the whole range of media - music, film, tv - has been increasing year on year. From Toy Story (via Pixar) to digital downloads (iTunes) and mobile phones (iPod), the creators of the wonderful Apple Mac have dominated new channels. They also helped Dollhouse. The premier episode shot to No. 2 slot on iTunes sales, a huge boost.

Photo 02: Dollhouse is very up-to-date, with the soundtrack including Lady Gaga's Just Dance. Just as many other modern tv shows have gained large fan followings from being aware of the latest styles in music and fashion, it looks like Dollhouse will follow the trend

As well as the film of Buffy (he won an Emmy Award), Whedon also boasts co-writing credits on Toy Story (he won an Academy Award), Titan A.E. and also Alien: Resurrection. He has won many sci-fi awards as well.

Eliza Dushku had a great role in Buffy and Angel as Faith, and was the main star of Tru Calling. In all cases she is a strong and independent character, and has great appeal. She often played various personas in those roles, so Dollhouse may benefit a lot from her presence.

Photo 03: one basic premise of Dollhouse is: what if actions had no consequences

Dushku plays Echo, one of the Actives or Dolls. Sort of a cross between Alias and Dark Angel, the Dolls can become powerful contractors for various missions, good and bad, or even fantasies.

Photo 04: we learn some of the background to Echo through flashbacks, although at this stage we are not sure if any are real memories or just the programmed versions.

Although the Dolls have their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with new personas, Echo starts to become self-aware. The acquired talents, muscle memory, skills and language from different assignments can be a benefit or a curse.

In the "wiped clean" state, the "Actives" seem to live in a rather fantastic, futuristic dormitory with plenty of implied nudity and total lack of personal embarrasment so far, all off-camera.

Photo 05: Echo in a passive, care-free "wiped" state

The early indications are that Echo may have a particular brain function, or even gene, which allows her to retain some memories from the missions, and also some understanding that the processes used may not be entirely benign.


Photo 06: We see some early signs of Echo's differences from the rest of the Actives when she goes wandering out-of-bounds and sees another Active being wiped. She realises there is more than just a "pleasant" experience going on

Looking after our "heroes" are the Handlers, with all sorts of clever technology and, so far, clever justifications for what they do. Given the recent progress in the science with gene therapy, it is perhaps not too big a leap to believe the genetic "memory" can be tweaked to enable special talents.

A sophisticated, cold-as-ice woman is the highest authority at the Dollhouse, answering only to its owners. Adelle DeWitt (played by Olivia Williams) is both ruthless and protective, but prefers to keep the Dollhouse a smooth running business. She is a visionary who firmly believes that all involved benefit from the service they provide.

Photo 07: the instruction is to "facilitate the exchange and nothing more" and we just know that is going to play out differently.

To help free the kidnapped daughter of a businessman, Echo becomes a hostage negotiator to keep the police out of the case.

In the background - so far - an FBI Agent has been chasing "Project Dollhouse" for 14 months with little result and so his career is in jeopardy. It seems his story will get involved with one of the missions before too long.

One large clue to the potential drama in the storylines comes from one geek, who explains that their imprinting is "not just the greatest hits but the whole person" and so there could be weaknesses as well as strengths.

Photo 08: "... so who does she think she is?"

The "clean" and the "dirty" parts of Echo's persona come into play when she tries to rescue the kidnapped girl. At first they appear to create a doomed mission, until her acquired memories also help provide a clue to the current problems.

Photo 09: "you can't find a ghost" is a great line from the script

Although fast-moving and deliberately obscure at times, the scripts will probably follow Whedon's pattern of keeping us in the dark a lot of the time, and letting our own thoughts flesh out the characters and the situations.

The baddies don't come out well, although in this case there are shades of grey of the baddies. And, perhaps, we are starting to see varying shades for the goodies also. Perhaps those same blurred edges will apply to the Actives, which could make for intriguing viewing.

Photo 10: "you can't fight a ghost" follows up the earlier line

So a successful mission - if you don't count the dead and dying - brings episode one to a close, with plenty of potential for fireworks between the characters, and spectacular stunts as the missions become more physical rather than psychological (we hope).

Photo 11: will the dreams be untroubled?

Valentines - the style of advertising - the attraction of style

Apple is a wonderful inspiration in so many ways, from computers to operating systems to iTunes and to iPods. And let's not forget Pixar and Toy Story and all the rest. A large part of their success is clarity of both design and message.

The Apple Macintosh has always been the Lotus to the Ford of Microsoft. The Mac is sleek, focussed, powerful and fast. It will get the same job done in half or even a third of the time. Part of the reason is it has a much better operating system - optimised for design, graphics, images and video.

So it is perhaps no surprise the advertising used by Apple is also sleek, impressive and clever. It is not trying to be all things to all people - and master of none. Apple's brand is about quality, purpose, clarity - and colour.

Apple's design of their computers revolutionised the industry, blew apart the entrnenched greys and off-blues of the mainstream, suggesting that computers were great tools but could also look great - like a Lotus.

So it's also no surprise the advertising by Apple for Valentines Day will be clever and colourful.

We love it.
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Serena Williams becomes No. 1 in tennis - and number one in career earnings

Serena Williams had a fantastic run at the Australian Open tennis tournament, the winner in both singles and in doubles with her sister Venus. Which took Serena back to No. 1 in the official tour rankings.

Even more good news for Serena is she has become the leading woman, in any sport, in career earnings. As you can see from the chart, the Williams family dominate in career earnings.

Our second chart shows the extent of change in earnings for women sports stars over the years. Navratilova won 30 times more matches in her impressive career than Serena has so far.

Serena's earnings have been boosted by a combination of larger tournament winnings and the recent parity between women and men for prize money in tennis.

Wild Energy - The Girl That Rocks - New Girl Power from Eastern Europe

Just in case you missed the past 2 years, there are a host of talented singers now appearing from eastern Europe, not least out of talent shows like Junior Eurovision. Plus exposure and recommendation on blogs and, of course, MySpace, YouTube, imeem and bebo.

Once these singers achieve local success, they gather international fans and, when lucky, support from producers and singers in the USA and UK. If they happen to be photogenic and colourful (Ruslana, top right), so much the better.

Ruslana is, in fact, a huge phenomenon, with fantastic productions for her live shows that take the idea of 'circus' to Cirque du Soleil levels. As she sings "I am the dream you wanna see" there can be few who disagree. Even Missy Elliott enjoys the Wild Energy of Ruslana, joining in on her single The Girl That Rules.

Meanwhile, London has been host to Christabelle Borg from Malta, a young singer who has won nominations and awards at singing festivals, including Eurovision. She has been recording with top producers and we can expect lots of airplay on MTV and, without doubt, YouTube once the word starts to spread. One solid track is I Wanna Know with throbbing bass and sweet vocals over the top.

Alexandra Burke zooms to success!

Alexandra Burke has the record for the fastest-selling download across Europe on its first day of release. Hallelujah sold more than 105,000 which beat the previous fastest download of 82,000 in one day ... full story

Being a sex symbol is also about strength

Cristina Scabbia is a powerful frontwoman in gothic metal, but not a 6ft 2in scandinavian athlete :: speaking about her image and that power, she explains “I didn’t choose the thing of the sex symbol or the ‘hot woman’ and stuff. I always tried to give the message of, ‘be sexy however you are, even if you’re a supermodel or you’re a little ugly girl that still has to double up her inner beauty’.” full story

Gothic Lolita Surprise

One of the big attractions of music services like Last.FM and Pandora is the power of the genome approach :: the way songs can be classified and tagged to reflect tone and style ... full story

Behind every great woman - is another !!

We know a lot about Mariah Carey and Miley Cyrus, but maybe not a lot about someone who provides great musical inspiration behind the scenes. Antonina Armato is a songwriter and producer ... full story

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