Tell me I am not imagining things or reading too deep into a magazine cover when I see the new Rolling Stone cover image of Britney Spears (Inside An American Tragedy) as a not-so-subliminal revisit to one of the magazine's most famous covers from fourteen years ago: the June 2nd 1994 Rolling Stone cover of Kurt Cobain that appeared in the wake of his tragic death. I think its a pretty obvious (and well done in my opinion) reworking of that earlier cover.
But if so what does it all mean? Nothing, just a way to sell more magazines? (By the way, the Britney story is quite a good read) Or is it a way of comparing the self-destructive lifestyles of two American pop idols from two different musical backgrounds & eras, and basically predicting that the latest "American tragedy" will end up like the Nirvana frontman, six feet under?
Thoughts? Theories? Anyone? If so COMMENTS box is below. Thanks!
I must admit I gleaned a certain satisfaction when I read the report of current Britney Spears boy toy, paparazzo Adnan Ghalib, getting into a shoving match with the pestering paparazzi over the weekend while he and Spears were trying to get in a little peaceful shopping at a mall in Studio City. 
Of course the obvious irony here is that for many years, until very very recently, Ghalib himself was one of that very same gang of papparassholes (as Brad Pitt and certain other frustrated celebs have dubbed them) who make a living off of hounding Britney and other similarly high-profile celebrities.
TABLOID TALES: In 2008 Britney Spears, no longer hounded by a pack of paparazzi - just that one guy she took back to her hotel room, will be completely upstaged by lil sis Jamie Lynn Spears who will lead tabloid headlines for the next seven or more months - suddenly being upstaged herself by the even more shocking, tabloid-ready real-life story of Hannah Montana (the alter ego of Miley Cyrus) who will have an unexpected and sudden, widely publicized downfall into drugs and sexploits. So shocking will this news be to the parents of tween fans of the wholesome Disney Channel star that there will be a huge backlash culminating in a Hannah Montana doll burning gathering at a Florida sports stadium in November with tickets to the event being as much in demand as Hannah Montana concert tickets were just a year earlier.
It's Britney bitch! announces Britney Spears straight out the gate (Track 1, 0:00 - 0:02) on her brand new album, "Blackout" on Jive/Zomba (available at each Amoeba Music store) which, in reaction to fear of internet leaking of songs, was released on October 30th - a couple of weeks early of its initial street date. The big surprise is that the album is actually pretty darn good - a tight dance-pop collection on which the heavily processed voice of Brit often lashes out at the mean media - like in the vocoder-fed song "Piece of Me" - as heard in the above "non-official" video version that displays the Tabloid Britney that we are all too familiar with - like it or not. But putting aside all the tabloid self-references and all the other superficial stuff, what really strikes me most about this new Britney Spears album is its production, the music itself and just how expertly its producers (Danja and others such as Timbaland and Pharrell Williams) effortlessly channel pop's golden past. Take for example "Heaven on Earth" (scroll all the way down for still YouTube clip to hear audio) is a straight homage (rip-off?) to Donna Summers' 1977 Giorgio Moroder produced dance masterpiece "I Feel Love."