Popstar in Bloom: Christina Aguilera "Lotus" Review

"Rise up, Lotus, Rise, this is the beginning" Christina Aguilera coos on the opening track of fifth album Lotus. She may have licked her wounds after the disaster that was Bionic in 2010 but Lotus sees one of pop's signature voices claw back into the fray.

The Goldfrapp-lite opening intro mentioned above sees Christina whisper over a wobbly R&B meets electronica beat. It's a kooky and slightly drawn out opener but it hints that she might be about to head into the futuristic sonic textures Bionic promised but didn't deliver. In reality it's a misnomer with the album zooming into an uptempo but straightforward pop vein for a solid six tracks.

Surprisingly, it gels fairly well early on. Zippy, zesty danceable rhythms highlight Christina's pipes as well as any mournful ballad when done properly. Army Of Me, as she's pointed out,  is a fairly obvious nod to Fighter and it's "You won't stop me message". It's not quite as impressive but it's a solid slab of fist-pumping pop. Red Hot Kinda Love is a cheeky but enjoyable sex jam that feels more flirty and knowing than some of her previous attempts at proclaiming her sexuality. Make The World Move is an awkward collage of soul pop and electro flourishes as Aguilera's co-judge on The Voice, Cee-Lo pops up for a warm and fuzzy ode to just getting along with everyone. It's a tad cheesy but the bouncy production and ebullient chorus make it an adequate slice of pop candy.

Next is current single, Your Body one of Aguilera's strongest pop moments in quite some time albeit one that is failing to smash on the charts. The first of two cuts co-written by hyper-successful Max Martin (Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Basically Every Big Popstar of the Last 10 Years), it's followed by the straight-up dance pop of Let There Be Love, which is a tad generic but comes equipped with a hook so big it's hard to dislike and it gives Christina plenty of moments to ad-lib and holler with the best of them.

Then comes a ballad-y chunk. The Sia penned Blank Page is truly lovely, a sister track to Beautiful that could do big things as a single. Sadly, Cease Fire and Sing For Me fall flat, letting Aguilera's own vocals become grating and misplaced when they should be soaring and uplifting.

Next up is a Rihanna "I like a bit of sex, me" style romp in Around the World which has a fun, down and dirty vibe but feels a tad slight. Circles is a bitter but oddly enjoyable flip of the bird to detractors. It's not very strong melodically but it's a rare moment of genuine personality on an album that seems to drain much of Aguilera's famed bolshiness. Best of Me is another decent if not stellar ballad that has a nice sense of melancholy to it. 

A real surprise is the duet with her other Voice judge Blake Shelton on Just A Fool. Yes it's a country-pop extravaganza that's blatantly squared at US radio but it's actually a decent duet and one of the strongest songs musically on the whole release. It's one of the few songs that Aguilera nails both in terms of emotional delivery and vocal hysterics too.

The addition of the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition (The standard release for the album in many European territories) will get the hopes of fans who know that her previous album hid some gems on it's deluxe side. Sadly, they're a mixed bag. Light Up The Sky is sweet but unmemorable, another mid-tempo track too concerned with schmaltz then letting Aguilera shine vocally. Empty Words is something of a hidden gem with some nicely drawn lyrics and a big, belt-y hook that wouldn't have been out of place on the main edition of the album. Shut Up is the sequel to Circles with a bleeped but still feisty hook telling imitators, haters and people of that nature to "Shut the f**k up". It's not her strongest song but it is an enjoyable slice of bratty pop. There's also a decent, if not dazzling remix of Your Body by Martin Carrix to enjoy too.

Decent but not dazzling, could in fact be applied to the majority of Lotus. It's certainly not a stinker and hits enough sweet spots over it's lean run time to please fans and suggest that there's life in Christina as a big pop star. Sadly, it never quite delivers the knockout moment you know she needs to really succeed. 

Lotus is out now on RCA.

The Weird World of Not Quite Right Gaga and Christina Aguilera Weight Gain Reporting

If you were keeping an eye on any celebrity chit chat in the last few weeks then you probably spotted the ongoing saga of how Lady Gaga had apparently put on alot of weight, was talking about it publicly, came under fire for it and then rushed to defend her figure while referencing her own teenage struggle with an eating disorder.

It was a frustrating story on a number of levels. First of all the amount of weight Gaga actually did seem to gain wasn't even that large amount and even if she was the size of a house who cares? Gaga may frequently appear in scant clothing but it's not her main selling point. She uses her image in an ever-shifting way and so trying to boil down her presentation to "Is she hot? Is she skinny?" is missing the point by such a huge margin. Jezebel discussed this topic including a round up of the amount of news outlets that ran with the story about Gaga's weight.

The other reason it was vastly irritating was how it was a story composed across several sources that wasn't even particularly true and yet so many outlets ran with it. 

Huffington Post, amongst others, ran with this piece using a picture of Gaga on stage as proof that she'd piled on the pounds. The picture was from her Amsterdam stop on the Born This Way Ball tour and from the off seemed like a photo that had likely been tweaked or at the very least taken from a bad angle. I'd been at the show just days before this picture was taken and there was nowhere near that amount on Gaga's frame. I was standing near the catwalk and got plenty of close-up looks at Gaga in the flesh. She was in terrific shape, clearly someone keeping themselves fit and in show-ready shape but not afraid to look womanly. She bared a bit of ass cheek constantly, was happy to strip down when it suited her and just as importantly was squeezing into skin-tight leather ensembles at a dizzying speed. Basically she clearly was looking after herself and exceedingly comfortable in her skin. There was no way the Gaga in the Amsterdam picture was in fact a reality.

But that didn't stop the press from running with a non-story. Huffington Post, like other showbiz sites (there weren't the only ones who ran with this piece and are obviously not just a showbiz site, I'm just using them as an example in this case) began using lines from Gaga herself where they claimed she was addressing her weight gain after the pictures. They cited an interview she'd done with American radio where she referenced how much she'd put on, her Dad's new restaurant and how she was enjoying the food etc. Yes Gaga had said all this but in AUGUST. The interview is on her own Youtube channel and her discussion about her body are a small part of a seven minute piece where she sounds relaxed, keen to be in shape to do her shows in Europe. Suddenly the web was flooded with pieces about how much weight Gaga had put on, her response and painful hand-wringing from media outlets. Again Jezebel neatly summed up the stupidity of these comments but few seemed to question whether the sources of this story were legit (again that photo) or actually directly referencing the past week (An interview quotes were pulled from which literally anyone could google in about 2 seconds and spot was weeks old). Still it's easier for copy-and-paste showbiz sites and sound-bite celebu-tainment shows to run with an unflattering pic and some sort of line then it is to go "Oh, is this actually accurate?"

This week a similar has been brewing with Christina Aguilera. The popstar-turned-Talent show judge has had plenty of comments on her changing shape in the last couple of years but as she plugs new single Your Body and the accompanying album Lotus there's been plenty of commentary on Christina's shape. Billboard magazine placed Christina on the cover of their latest issue, posting a part of the story online two weeks ago. The slightly over the top comments on her previous album Bionic had already been picked up by pop fans but today another part of the interview where Christina made very explicit references to being a "fat girl now" and discussing specific situations where she claims music execs told her to slim down were being quoted online, causing quite a stir.

It did seem a tad fishy that people were running with quotes from Billboard that weren't on their website already but given that they promised the "full story" in their print edition maybe that's where they lay. The quotes were used by the website of Us weekly and soon appeared on plenty of sites until in the last couple of hours both Billboard and Christina's rep confirmed that the were in fact completely fabricated. Now many of the sites that shared the materialare rejigging and updating their previous posts (in a way they probably should have read in the first place before the desire to be first with a scoop took over). Unlike the Gaga story, which cleverly stitched together material in a typically tabloid way this story seemed to be completely false.

There are two things that are slightly worrying about how both of these stories unfold. One is that obsession with weight and how a comment on it will create a feeding frenzy. The other is that in the world of fast-paced gossip sharing, the accuracy of quotes is second to getting some hits. It's fascinating to watch how stories both false and accurate now feed into the images of stars. Even when stories are retracted or defused by those involved they'll stick in people's heads. It may only be famous people we're discussing, people with vast amounts of money and very different problems to the rest of us, but if we are supposed to be reading reports and fed information shouldn't it be accurate? The funny thing about how quickly stories like this move around is also how easy (almost too easy) it is to take apart the claims and see that most of them are bull.

It might only be celebrity journalism and it may not be highbrow but the ease with which narratives are knocked together by outlets quick to sell a story whether the star involved is playing along or not is worrying. Gaga and Aguilera's responses to these stories suggest that many stars are no longer going to play ball and when we can quickly figure out how fake such pieces are, why should we keep doing the same?

Christina Aguilera Debuts Video for "Your Body": Twirls Hair, Offs Unsuspecting Males

There is a veritable glut of big pop singles, albums and videos flying our way at the moment all looking to grab a chunk of the 4th quarter pie as people buy more music than usual. We've had two new tunes from Ke$ha and Rihanna alone this week and now big-voiced pop icon turned TV judge Christina Aguilera unveils the next phase of her comeback with the video for her current single Your Body

Of all the new pop numbers I've heard in the last few months Your Body is my personal favourite. The Max Martin penned cut is the poppiest thing we've heard from Xtina in forever but it also has a bold, sexy feel that allows her to go to town with the vocal gymnastics while still serving up her most radio friendly hook in eons (looks like Moves Like Jagger rubbed off on her then).

Christina has been teasing clips from the Melina Matsoukas directed video all week (Melina famously worked with Beyonce, Gaga and Rihanna incl. many key Riri clips such as We Found Love) and just in the time for the weekend is Xtina's eye-popping new visual.

The plot (ahem) is basically: Christina lives in a trailer, consults an internet psychic, twirls her dip-dyed tresses alot (ALOT) and goes on a weird killing spree of random hot men who die in an explosion of pink, a splatter of blue paint and an explosion of pink glitter respectively.  Peep the video below:

The whole thing is as camp as 12 hour marathon of RuPaul's Drag Race and Christina herself is oozing plenty of drag-queen glamour, coming off like the love-child of RuPaul and Honey Boo Boo at times. It's all very knowing and over the top and in alot of ways is so bullish and brash that it feels very Christina Aguilera.

That tongue in cheek quality doesn't help mask the fact that it's a video about going around killing people as a form of empowerment, and if the genders reversed everybody would likely cry foul. Still, Xtina has always taken what she considered objectification and turned it on it's head as a form of expression. It's a mixed message and probably not a very clever one but again, feels in line with the view of female empowerment she's always had.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to dip-dye my tresses and twirl around a trailer park. It is the weekend after all.

Your Body is on iTunes now. Christina's new album Lotus is released on the 9th of November in Ireland, the 12th in the UK and on the 13th in the US.

6 of The Best: 6 Pop Culture Treats This Week

Whether you spend your days tweeting about your favourite boyband (I see you One Direction Mafia) or reblogging endless gifs (who can blame you with the likes of RealityTVGifs doing such bang up work?) it's always fun to see what your friends are digging online at any given time. With that in mind, and with the weekend upon us here are six of my favourite pop-culture finds this week. Enjoy!

1: Bravo's Andy Cohen on the Howard Stern Show

Howard Stern is an infamous force in US radio for his no-holds barred approach but for all his filthy bluster, he's also damn-good at interviewing people. Here he chats with US TV star Andy Cohen who's not only been instrumental in the behind-the-scenes of reality giant Bravo TV, he's also become one of their most well-known faces on his own talk show. Cohen's story is an interesting one and it's easy to see why many have fallen for this TV charms. This is typically crude stuff but is an interesting primer on what makes the Andy Cohen story worth a look for any TV fan. (thanks to Alex on Twitter for the linkage)

2: Azealia Banks "Drops" new tune.

She is a rapper. She is much talked about. And you've definitely dance your hoop off to 212 at some point in the last 9 months. Duh, it's Azealia Banks, Twitter queen, Fashion queen etc etc. She's just debuted a new track Jumanji today and it's a stormer. Check it. 

3 : Andrew Garfield appears on the cover of 2 magazines. Remains Flawless

OH ANDREW. His turn as The Amazing Spider Man is almost upon us so feast your eyes on his V Man magazine covers (SO GOOD) here. Also loving his pose for the cover of the current issue of i-D:

4: Scissors Sister want to have a Kiki etc etc

This has been getting the gays into a tizzy all week and can you blame? Scissor Sisters have been dropping tunes and teasers everywhere for Magic Hour but the best so far is Let's Have A Kiki. It's a pitch perfect piece of gay-dance pop madness that sounds like going on a bender with a cast of RuPaul's Drag Race. Which is something I would pay alot of money to experience. 

5: Christina "Better Than Faves" Aguilera Continues to be Flawless

This update on the adventures of Xtina from MuuMuse is everything.

6: Serena William is a rapper now

No really though. Apparently she wants to be a rapper. I mean Azealia Banks better hold on to her weave, looks like Miss Williams is coming for her "new rap girl" title. Ahem.


What a week it has been! If you've got something I've missed or even just want to suggest some raps that Serena Williams could use, do let me know below!

Wigs, Tequila and Soft Focus: Burlesque gets Reviewed

I got to head to an early screening of Burlesque last week, the Cher/Christina musical that I've been excited to see for months on end. A star vehicle for both a returning icon and another whose recent pop comeback was something of a damp squib this film has had "future camp classic" written all over it. In big glittery, soft focus letters.

The plot is more threadbare then the pearl dress Xtina slinks about on stage in at one point. Christina plays Ali, a country bumpkin who blows into L.A. and soon finds herself in a Burlesque lounge that she is only gagging to sing for. Despite the fact that only ringmistress Tess actually sings in the club. The rest of the girls lipsync and dance along to show tunes, making some of the early performances look like acts from particularly athletic drag queens.

Still Christina auditions for the show, gets a part as a dancer but soon gets those vocal chords stretched and blows everyone away, with Cher giving her best surprised face on seeing her sing her heart out:

What follows is mish mash of tepid love story, enjoyable but unfulfilling banter between Cher & Stanley Tucci and a parade of tunes that sound a bit like the last Christina album and a bit like the one before it. Back to Bionic Basics if you will.

The pace of the film is off. Big moments feel rushed like the whole thing is in a hurry to get somewhere. But then what feels like forever is spent on inconsequential moments that were obviously meant to build up the characters but fall flat due to a poor script. The cast, for the most part are great and are clearly trying to work with material that doesn't do them justice. Despite her botoxed face painfully limiting her ability to really act Cher manages to make a decent impression and her easy going banter with Tucci is fun to watch. Kristen Bell does a fine job of chewing so much scenery she nearly chokes and Christina does a decent job for her first time in a major role. 

The musical numbers are slickly edited but the fact that they never leave the stage of the club means that it feels like you're watching a string of music videos as opposed to proper musical set pieces. At times like these you notice how oddly low budget the whole enterprise is. Much is made of how L.A. is this magical city that Ali escapes to but we never really see it, except in unintentionally hilarious scenes where Ali finger snaps along to her iPod as a form of "rehearsal" (if you saw someone do this on the street you would not think "there goes a successful Burlesque performer". You'd think "that person is a nut job")

The actual "burlesque" nature of this is quite questionable. It's all very Pussycat Dolls (Robin Antin the founder of the dance troupe turned pop sensation is the sister of the film's writer/director Steve Antin) meaning the choreography, while enjoyable, is basically hip hop video booty popping meets coquettish popstar dance moves with a dash of jazz hands for a bit of flavour. Still it's no surprise really. Christina famously performed with the troupe when they were picking up serious heat around L.A. in the early 2000s and she channels much of that throughout the film.

Throw in a pile of unconvincing wigs on top of Cher and Xtina's heads, more soft focus than you could shake a Botox needle at and plenty of blatant plugs for Patron Tequila (the fact that Robin Antin had a PCD style girl group sing a song about the brand in 2009 is hardly coincidence!) and Burlesque adds up to be one mess of a movie. It also turns out to be hilariously entertaining with it and if you need some quality campy laughs this Christmas this movie will surely make you happy. 

Burlesque is released here on the 17th of December while the soundtrack is out now.

Christina Aguilera sings her socks off in new Burlesque Clip

iLeaks came up with another beauty today, a clip from Burlesque, the trailer for which we squealed about last week. The clip that leaked today is a musical number from the film called Something's Got A Hold Of Me with Christina Aguilera putting her spin on the Etta James track (Aguilera has long admired James, including a cover of At Last on the Stripped tour back in the day)

This clip is way better than what I expected from the film. This version doesn't do to much damadge to the original and Christina sounds great. It'll be interesting to how many old songs vs new tracks turn in the final film. Here's hoping some more Burlesque goodies leak our way soon so we can find out.

Cher and Christina Aguilera Unveil Trashtasic "Burlesque" Trailer

Like every pop-trash-culture addict worth their salt I have been eagerly awaiting the release of musical drama Burlesque which sees Cher return to the big screen, Christina Aguilera maker her acting debut and a host of other stars (including my fave Kristen Bell) plonk around in the background and wonder how much time Cher spends in the make up chair every morning (conservative estimates would say 6 hours).

Finally a proper trailer has made it online and it does look pretty spectacular. Christina is Allie, the small town girl who heads to the big smoke and ends up performing in the local burlesque club. Cher is the sassy but classy runner of the club who puts Xtina in her place. And Stanley Tucci just turns up and re-enacts his role in the Devil Wears Prada. And that's no bad thing. Check out Kristen Bell's scary dark wig too:

Burlesque hits our shores in December and I cannot wait!

Spin That Record - Top Tunes of the Moment Circa May/June 2010

LCD Soundsystem – Dance Yrself Clean

B.o.B. – Airplanes feat. Hayley Williams

Janelle Monae – Tightrope feat. Big Boi

MIA – XXXO

Kylie – All The Lovers

David Guetta – Louder Than Words feat. Afrojack and Niles Mason

Jennifer Lopez – Everybody’s Girl

Christina Aguilera – You Lost Me

Lady Gaga – Alejandro (Chew Fu Remix)

Ne-Yo – Beautiful Monster

Dizzee Rascal – Dirtee Disco

Alicia Keyes – Rapture

Kelis – 22^nd Century

Christina Aguilera: The Road to Bionic and how Xtina still struggles to find an identity.

Christina Aguilera may be gearing up for another blockbuster album with the June release of Bionic but the lead single Not Myself Tonight is still failing to make an impression. I’ve fallen hard for the track since it was first released to our ears a few months back but it seems to have fallen flat with many, failing to climb the all important Billboard Hot 100 Stateside and yet to make any kind of radio/chart impression over here. I’m not exactly sure why. It’s Polow Da Don (a proven hitmaker for Fergie, Usher, Chris Brown and countless others) doing club-ready synth inflected R&B pop with plenty of oopmh. Maybe it’s just not distinct enough for the fickle pop world.

It’s funny too that the much hyped video has failed to raise any eyebrows or create any discussion. It’s Hype Williams taking the messy, aggressive sexuality of the Dirrty video and giving it a slick S&M tinged rework, all slinky shapes and futuristic looks. Christina vamps it up with relish, throwing around various “sexy” music video moves and ideas (girl on girl, hip thrusting, mounting a willing male) with some harsher looks (a bejewelled mouth piece and gimp mask for the big dance number). What’s interesting about the video is how it never feels sexy but that sort of feels like the point. Christina used her sexuality like an explosive device back in the Stripped days as a very deliberate way to emancipate herself from what she saw as bubblegum pop hell. Not Myself Tonight follows a similar path. While visually it’s basically Madonna’s Human Nature and Express Yourself sprinkled with a tinge of Lady Gaga, there’s a base, in-your-face and completely tact free approach to the enterprise that makes it feel like a video only Christina could have made.

This is an interesting point because Christina Aguilera, for all the record sales and superstar status is an artist whose identity sometimes feels ill formed and poorly defined. Stripped (her second album after her debut release which was commercially succesful but ultimately generic) was all over the place musically but that worked in her favour. Doing a broad range of pop styles allowed Christina to step out of the line of Britney clones she’d been placed and put her own stamp on her own material, particularly vocally. 

Back to Basics, the follow up, was similarly all over the place but in a much less satisfying way. The idea was solid, Christina paying tribute to the music that inspired her growing up, but it was ultimately a messy affair. A double album referencing everything from jazz legends to war-time pin up girls it tried to do too much with too much material. Having said that it threw up plenty of gems, not least the beautiful Save Me From Myself a sparse but moving ballad for which Christina did a video at the tail end of the campaign as a thank you to fans (it’s actually beautifully shot and well worth a look). What Back to Basics did do was point that Christina’s lofty claims to being a true “artiste” as opposed to a run of the mill pop starlet were not unfounded and her knack for picking producers she trusts (her partner in crime Linda Perry) and talents that may not be all over the radio (hip hop producer DJ premier who produced the lead single Ain’t No Other Man and responsible for some of the more soulful, interesting moments throughout the album)

Which brings us nicely to Bionic and what Christina promises is her foray into electronic music and working with more “leftfield” producers and writers including Sia, Le Tigre, Goldfrapp, Ladytron, John Hill, MIA alongside pop heavyweights Linda Perry, Polow Da Don and Tricky Stewart. Christina has talked this up to be an edgy and out there release following some electro pop tracks on her 2008 greatest hits release and The Spirit soundtrack. So far much of the leaked material doesn’t really suggest that despite the promise of tracks such as her electro take on Falling In Love Again and Beautiful, which was reworked in a particularly Goldfrapp-y version entitled You Are What You Are

Of the newly leaked tracks there’s WooHoo the cringey but enjoyable ode to oral sex with MC of the moment Nicki Minaj on guest duties. Clips of the title track, the Le Tigre produced I Hate Boys and the epic sweep of the Sia penned You Lost Me have also surfaced. You Lost Me is undoubtedly impressive, with Christina’s voice taking on a husky, damaged quality but the others are enjoyable but a little flat. Which is a shame because there’s plenty to get excited about with regards to this album. The list of people involved is impressive and the concept, of the “bionic” or superhuman qualities of females and Christina’s own vocal range, being a lofty but impressive one. The artwork for both the album cover and the deluxe edition is beautifully realised too.

What sounds like the problem so far is an artist with one idea being confronted with a label who have a completely different one. Christina has admitted that the recording of Not Myself Tonight came at the end of the process when she finished working on her feature film Burlesque (which is no doubt going to be a must see, possibly not in a good way) which sounds a bit like the label getting cold feet to me. Throw in the Ladytron tracks being relegated to one feature on the bonus tracks for the deluxe edition, the Goldfrapp work being left unfinished (according to them) and a single failing to catch on and it’s starting to look like Christina is on unsteady ground.

At this point it seems unfair to write off the project entirely or Christina. While she always talked a lot of guff about her artistry (well before Lady Gaga did the same thing and irked people so much) and had pretensions well beyond her own sound there is a clearly an attempt at something a bit different intended in her work and hopefully Bionic will achieve that to some degree. This recent interview for Australian TV suggests Aguilera is ready to finally unleash a straighforward pop record, hopefully laced with some edge befitting her big ideas.

Until then check out her Billboard interview which is rather good and then laugh yourself silly at her interview with Out magazine which is unintentionally hilarious. The album is released in Ireland on 4^th June and the 7^th worldwide. Check out her official site for more, including how you can order the gorgeous looking deluxe edition. Not Myself Tonight is available to download now. 

Six Pack: Six Internet Things Worth A Gander

Here we are, sliding through snow, battling rain and still looking for a healthy dose of escapism. So fear not here are six internet treats to while away all the "what the hell is the weather doing, I feel like this is some kind of attempt by Al Gore to convince us he was right" madness.

(1) Rihanna interviewed by W Magazine : Fashion bible W get their paws on Rihanna for an great chat that gets across rather succintly everything that makes RiRi so great at the moment. Catch up on it here. You can check out the photospread too which has a great 60s movie star meets high fashion vibe. Great stuff. Thanks for MuuMuse for bringing this to my attention!

(2) Panti is CRAZY: Dublin drag superstar Panti has a rather great deal on for Sundays at her drinking hole (get your minds out of the gutter!). This video has been all over the place this week and with good reason. It is HILARIOUS:

(3) Katherine Lynch Returns: Speaking of hilarious things, Katherine Lynch is back. She may not be everyone's cup of tea but I love her bawdy, rough and tumble humour. Her new series started this Tuesday on RTE and RTE Player their catch up service has it available for a week here, new episodes added weekly

(4) Heidi Montag makes the next "Thriller": Apparently. Her album is no doubt a trash pop masterpiece but this interview with Entertainment Weekly is really interesting. I love the idea that someone can spend that much money on making an album and still not be able to sing. Well worth a read. That album cover is a work of garish art all by itself too:

(5) Ridiculous Cast, Ridiculous Movie: Kristen Bell, Christina Aguilera and Cher in the same film? How can "Burlesque" be anything less than amazing? Sound Off With DJ Taj has loads of photos here. Excitement.

(6) Joss Whedon on where US TV is headed: Fascinating interview with Joss Whedon. There is much chat of his now cancelled series Dollhouse which wraps up soon in the US and also on how Whedon has changed his approach to his work and making content when TV is losing more money than ever. An essential read for anyone the slightest bit interested in US TV and what the internet means for watching TV in general. Spotted via Pink is The New Blog