So we finally reached the end of the year. This is the last release date before Christmas. Christmas actually falls on a tuesday new release day this year. But since most music store are closed on Christmas there will not be anything coming out. The new Mary J. Blige album was originally scheduled to come out weeks ago. But it got pushed back until today. Today is the day for the world to hear the new Mary J. Blige. I have been going a bit crazy myself just waiting for it. I have really liked her for a long time since she first gave us her first album back in 1992. Ever since I heard "Real Love" for the first time, I have been under her spell. She is now releasing her eighth studio album titled "Growing Pains." It has been a couple of years since I really liked one of her albums. I became absolutely obsessed with
"No More Drama" back in 2001. I really could not get enough of "Family Affair" and "No More Drama." The album seemed to be out forever and it sort of was. It got rereleased and repackaged in 2002 and it for sure became the album of 2002. I still have to play the song "No More Drama" anytime I find it on a jukebox. I had lost a little interest with her next album. She released "Love & Life" in 2003. But she was back again with a great album in 2005. "The Breakthrough" featured the great single "Be Without You." I may have not listened to it as much as "No More Drama" but it was still a great album.
The new album looks like it is going to be just as good as the last one. But more close to the level of "No More Drama." The first single off of "Growing Pains" is perfect. The song is "Just Fine" and I can't stop listening to it. The video is amazing. She changes her outfit about 20 times and looks amazing as she is reflected in mirrors and ends up singing duets with herself. I am sure the album will end up being one of the best of the year. Mary J. Blige is just one of those performers that somehow got under my skin. I just can't help loving her and her music over the years. She just makes me happy and I can't really explain it. But anybody who likes her understands what
I am talking about. You just want to listen to Mary J. Blige because you know she is going to make you happy. This album is bound to do that again and remain a part of my memories for the rest of my life. 
In the midst of all the holiday craziness it is also time for the Oscar season to begin. It should be an interesting time with the writers strike going on. Without Bruce Vilanch writing the jokes it might not be as funny. But it also might be more interesting with actors and presenters having to make up their own lines. The season already began with the announcement of the Independent Spirit Award nominees a couple of weeks ago. The Golden Globe nominations come out tomorrow. The actual date of the Golden Globes is January 13th. Ashley Judd was going to be the presenter of the nominees tomorrow. But for some reason the horribly unfunny Dane Cook
will be copresenting the nominees. But at least Quentin Tarantino will be there to balance him out. I'm hoping both Planet Terror and Death Proof get nominated but I am sure they will not. Maybe Quentin will just skip over Enchanted and Hairspray and add the grindhouse genre to the comedy/musical section. So I wanted to give my own little favorites and predictions for the Oscars before tomorrow. It just becomes a bit easier to predict the Oscars after the Globe Nominations come out. I have seen every movie on this list with the exception of Juno and There Will Be Blood. I'm basing my love of these movies just based on the actors in them and the trailers. My list is pretty much what I think will be nominated for Oscars. But it is also pretty much who I would pick if I ever become a member of the Academy. They will probably let bloggers into the Academy at some point, right? The official Oscar nominations do not come out until January 22 at 5:30 AM. But here are my very own official nominations. Just in case you didn't know yet. John Stewart will be hosting again and they will be on February 24th. 
December is usually sort of a slow period for new releases.
Usually by this point if it has not come out yet, it's not coming out until next year. But this year seems a bit ridiculous. I know it seems like this is what I have been talking about for the last couple weeks. I guess that is what I have been talking about. But its true. A couple more live albums. A couple useless boxsets and a couple hip hop and R & B albums. But we can always count on Bonnie Prince Billy to offer up some new type of album for us. He has probably released about 10 albums or singles or EPs this year. He also starred in an amazing Kanye West Video with Zach Galifianakis for the song "Can't Tell Me Nothing." It seriously made me so happy the first time I watched it and if you ever feel a bit sad you should just watch it...
Bonnie Prince Billy's new little album is called "Wai Notes." It is basically the demo versions of songs that made up the "Letting Go" album. He sent songs back and forth with the lady from the Faun Fables to create what ended up being the last album. These are basically those raw songs before they were made all nice and album like. There is also a new album by The Wu-Tang Clan called "8 Diagrams" and a new album by Bow Wow and Omarion called "Face Off." I am not really sure what they are
facing off about but I really hope it has something to do with that horrible movie starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. You know the one where one of them gets a face transplant of the other one to infiltrate his crime organization. I am glad that it is now 10 years after this movie and medical technology has still not gone as far as they thought it would in this movie. Maybe its not far off. But I don't really want anybody to be able to switch faces with each other. Even for the good of solving a crime. Maybe Bow Wow and Omarion are just going to be covering each others songs and seeing who can do them better. Or it might just be their secret tribute to the Barbra Streisand movie "The Mirror Has Two Faces." They just gave it a more tough sounding name so nobody would know that they were secret Streisand fans. 
It is another mellow release day in the world of music. A couple more collections and live albums. There are actually only a couple real releases out today. Both Too Short and Ghostface have brand new albums out. And there are also some cool tour only type albums coming out on CD by Songs:Ohia. The Rufus Wainwright album "Rufus does Judy" comes out on CD and DVD. I have never really cared much for Judy Garland. But hearing Rufus cover an entire show of Judy's is sort of hilarious and amazing at the same time. There is a live album from Daft Punk and a nice little Nick Drake box set. The Nick Drake box has 3 albums and a DVD. The Scissor Sisters have a live album and one of my favorite little bands called Idlewild have a best of album coming out. Basically a couple cute little things are coming out and two relatively moderately sized hip hop albums. As I mentioned before, the music labels decided to release everything early this year. Sort of like how they released Rob Zombie's Halloween months before the actual date of Halloween. 
Superbad comes out as an unrated 2 disc DVD. The movie is no Heathers. But it is sort of more like a Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Or maybe more like Porky's or Meatballs. I really ended up liking it more than I thought I would. That Jud Apatow is really a brilliant man and creating some of the funniest movies out in the last couple of years. The most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie also comes out. I really do love the ride at Disneyland more than anything. And these Pirates movies are for sure better than the Haunted Mansion movie with Eddie Murphy. But I was really fine with just one movie. It sort of lost me after that. But if they decide to put out a movie about Space Mountain, I will be the first in line. I really do love that ride. I can't really imagine what the movie would be about but I might just start working on that screenplay right now. The sountrack alone would be amazing. The Sigur Ros DVD also comes out today in the more regular format. The beautiful version with the book is out of print and will soon be gone. It really is awesome and I highly recommend it. The second season of Saturday 
Night Live also comes out on DVD today. I do really hate those best of Saturday Night Live DVD's that have been coming out. I guess the hardcore Dana Carvey and David Spade fans were probably excited that their favorite cast member had their very own DVD. But I really just prefer to watch the entire original episodes. This season covered 1976-1977 and was still way too early on for me to watch live. I have seen some of the skits over the years. But it will be fun to watch these old episodes that I have never really seen. There were some amazing guests on this season including Jodie Foster, Lily
Tomlin, Ralph Nader, and Sissy Spacek. But most importantly, the brilliant Shelley Duvall shows up as a host for one of the episodes. Wallace & Gromit also gets released on DVD. "Three Amazing Adventures" includes the fantastic early short films that made them famous. "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers," and "A Close Shave" are all included. The Rocky Saga also gets released again in a nice little box set. This time with the most recent film "Rocky Balboa." The old box was a bit ugly and simple. So it is nice to see some better treatment for a series that had such an affect on me. I was really excited about this for months. I was expecting an awesome deluxe box. But the only improved thing is really the packaging. I do like the new black box packaging. I just wish there was more for me to talk about other than the new packaging.