Don’t think I’ve posted this image here before. In honor of Adam Lambert’s unjust loss on the American Idol finale last night, I thought I’d post one of the glam images ForrestBlack and I shot of him and Cheeks. There is a whole free pics gallery of Adam Lambert on BlueBlood.net along with links to almost all of the articles about him from this season.
(Image Courtesy of Blue Blood)
PS Accepting model apps at BlueBloodPhoto.com
by Amelia G : May 20th, 2009
The Zodiac Show just relaunched their brand spanking new web site with stylish Flash design. The Zodiac Show is a interdisciplinary performance showcase which grew out of underground parties at Los Angeles photographer Lee Cherry’s studio. Thus Lee Cherry and performer Carmit Bachar turned the Zodiac Party into The Zodiac Show.
Because Adam Lambert performed at The Zodiac Show, the event has been in the news on MTV and FOX Extra. An interesting trivia point is that, for tonight’s American Idol finale, producer Simon Fuller chose a song for each contestant. Simon Fuller selected Sam Cooke’s Civil Rights anthem “A Change Is Gonna Come” for Adam Lambert. “A Change Is Gonna Come” is one of the most-covered songs in American pop music history. Most recently, hard rock’s Jon Bon Jovi and soul’s Bettye LaVette performed the sing for the Obama Inauguration concert. Adam Lambert performed “A Change Is Gonna Come” to many kudos at The Zodiac Show back in 2004.
At any rate, The Zodiac Show has a nice looking new web site. Given that my first glance through showed a pic or two Forrest Black and I shot on there, I hope they add a link to BlueBlood.net once they get the site more fleshed out. Designer Rusty Segars is a wiz with the Flash and the Zodiac performances are over the top, so it is worth checking out. In honor . . .
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Do you hate to see people like you succeed — Why Adam Lambert might not win American Idol
by Amelia G : May 18th, 2009
If you are alt-identified, yet want Kris Allen to beat Adam Lambert in this week’s American Idol finale, then you are complicit in your own oppression. Rebels who want Adam Lambert to lose must just hate themselves.
People like to fuss about sex and sexuality, but the place where Adam Lambert is actually unusual is that it is rare to see new musicians with serious larger-than-life star quality in the spotlight today. I just watched a top 20 video countdown and Eminem was just about the only one who would turn heads in a room he walked into, on force of presence alone. So it is exciting to see someone who has the right counterculture vibe with a mix of subcultures gothic, punk, hard rock, rockabilly, emo, scene and more blended together for something unique and compelling. To anyone who states people like Adam Lambert are a dime a dozen and FOX is just not in-the-know, I have to say there are a lot of people with some of that general sort of style, but not a lot with that vibe and that level of both charisma and musical talent.
To receive the same kudos as someone who comes across more normal and mainstream, I often feel like I have to work at least twice as hard and produce work which is twice as good. I would be fine with this, except for the part . . .
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by Amelia G : May 5th, 2009
Adam Lambert gave American Idol every inch of his love tonight on American Idol. Actually, I have no idea what I mean by that, but it seemed like the appropriate thing to say for Rock Week. After a bout with swine flu, following my bacon-eating tour of southern Arizona, I have been off writing duty for the week, but here is a quick American Idol update.
American Idol front-runner and Blue Blood fave Adam Lambert kicked off the show performing a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”. At first, I was not as impressed as I usually am with his performances. When the Studio 57 chick started her judge’s critique by calling Adam Lambert a “rock god”, it clicked for me what the problem was. Partly, Adam Lambert has set his own high score so high for rock numbers after doing such a rocking good job with a classic like Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild”. But it is more that I found myself, while I watched, comparing him to . . . well . . . Robert Plant, rather than the other American Idol contestants.
This points up a problematic career point for all creative people. When you first start getting good at something creative — singing, dancing, photography, writing, sewing plush dolls, putting rivets on leather jackets, whatever — you get a lot of positive feedback. Unfortunately, when people start to really . . .
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by Amelia G : April 29th, 2009
Adam Lambert was feeling good tonight on American Idol. The producers of the show chose to put him in the final performance slot of the night and it is a good thing they did because nobody else on there could have followed him. He took a fine strut down the towering American Idol staircase and sang a terrific rendition of “Feeling Good”. My only quibble of the evening is that Adam Lambert was wearing a white suit with a black shirt this week and a shiny black suit last week. This week is Rat Pack week and last week was Disco. Maybe the American Idol stylist and tailor were running behind schedule on the John Travolta Saturday Night Fever white suit outfit and ahead on the updated mobster chic black suit. Or maybe Adam Lambert was just looking to defy expectations and I can get behind refusing to be predictable, especially when the guy is that talented. And looks that fine in both black and white suits.
“Feeling Good” is a song made Rat Pack famous by Sammy Davis, Jr. It was, however, originally written for a critically-acclaimed, Tony Award-winning, commercially unsuccessful musical called The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley wrote a lot of songs and musicals and are some of the most successful modern composers on the planet. Blue . . .
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by Amelia G : April 22nd, 2009
How is it possible that a pop treacle show like American Idol can suck at disco? When collegiate-cutie-marketable-to-preteens Kris Allen did a slowed-down version of Donna Summer’s “She Works Hard for the Money”, I thought he totally owned it because Kris Allen is not a guy anyone would really see doing disco and the song was still enjoyable. I liked it the same way I liked Adam Lambert’s industrial world music take on Ring of Fire. Only, ya know, less so. Because I really really liked Adam Lambert performing “Ring of Fire” and would listen to that again repeatedly on purpose. Unfortunately, almost all the American Idol contestants tonight failed to do disco. What is the point of having a theme, if nobody does anything which really fits it?
Then again, this is a show where they inexplicably added an actual judge who can confuse Saturday Night Fever aka the movie which made disco a phenomenon with NBC’s successful comedy sketch show of the last three decades Saturday Night Live and the revered and legendary disco nightclub Studio 54 with Studio 57 aka the imaginary nightclub in her otherwise less-than-full head. (PS Dear Kara DioGuardi, the guy from Saturday Night Fever is actually John Travolta and Clark Kent is really Superman.) I understand that Kara DioGuardi is otherwise very accomplished and live television is very difficult, but . . .
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Hey everyone, we are “Hollywood’s most dark and offbeat counterculture” according to FOX News. Not that we haven’t been on various FOX shows online and on television a number of times, but I thought I’d share.
There are a couple of things which bother me about this piece, but they are probably only a thing to me and like six other people, and it’s always nice to be recognized. Then again, a segment about why Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson are splitsville follows.
And I’m pleased the Adam Lambert coverage was not negative. I’m saying no to anyone who contacts me wanting to do any sort of hit piece using the photos Forrest Black and I shot of Adam Lambert. We even got Star Magazine to play nice in . . .
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by Amelia G : April 14th, 2009
So Linda Holmes of MSNBC just posted an article where she called FOX’s American Idol front-runner Adam Lambert “self-indulgent and not particularly creative”. I know FOX and MSNBC are competitive with one another, but I just think Linda Holmes is way off-base. She goes on to say:
“But what, exactly, is the Adam Lambert constituency of the future? He would be popular with fans of … what? The judges seem to think that the answer is “Twilight,” but what kind of sense does that really make? . . . But before anyone goes anointing him some kind of highly marketable future star, take another look at that performance of “Ring Of Fire,” and ask yourself whether you’d hear that on the radio.”
First off, I feel like Twilight and Adam Lambert are two of the only major mainstream pop culture phenomenons of the new millennium which actually are made for an incredibly underserved demographic. When I look for Blue Blood appropriate subject matter which is new, Twilight and Adam Lambert are two of the only things on the radar there. The Twilight soundtrack has been in the Billboard top 10 for twenty-two weeks now. Carter Burwell’s freaking score for Twilight entered the Billboard charts five weeks ago and is still hanging in there. So, if MSNBC doesn’t see the relation between Adam Lambert and Twilight and what a lot of people would like to . . .
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by Amelia G : March 25th, 2009
During country week on American Idol, I expressed mild surprise that Adam Lambert had not gone for a more Elvis country vibe when he covered a song made famous by Johnny Cash, the original man in black, called “Ring of Fire“. Maybe someone should give me a music label or a reality show to produce because during the kickoff to Motown week today, Adam Lambert performed “Tracks of My Tears” in a sharp pale cool gray suit with a dark shirt and went for a less made-up look with just dark mascara and a rockabilly hairstyle with a clearly intentional Elvis circa 1957 vibe.
The judges seemed surprised that he cleaned up so well. Judge performer Paula Abdul went so far as to call his look for the evening “classy“. Did she really not notice that there was a hot man under the guyliner there before? Elvis dyed his hair black too. Most people who can do one flamboyant look fabulously can also do another. I am a fan of eyeliner on guys and a rocker look, but everybody likes Elvis Presley and any rock guy who can do an Elvis look is going to do so some time. It’s like a rule. I was more impressed by the emotional range Adam Lambert’s performance showed.
“Tracks of My Tears” is a song about putting a happy face on and showing everyone else a good time, while you ache inside. I know it is a song which really speaks to me personally. “Tracks of My Tears” was first performed by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles in 1965. Smokey Robinson was on hand tonight to check out this season’s American Idol contestants. “Tracks of My Tears” was written by Smokey Robinson, Miracles guitarist and fellow founding member Marv . . .
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by Amelia G : March 19th, 2009
In response to the recent Adam Lambert photos post, Forrest Black commented on Adam Lambert’s performance during country week on American Idol, saying:
“I’m a big Cash fan and I really enjoyed Lambert’s rendition a lot. I thought it had the right level of heat. I expected something more Elvis country, but this was a version of the song I’d listen to again on purpose.”
On the show, at the time of the performance, American Idol judge Randy Jackson compared Adam Lambert’s rendition of “Ring of Fire” to Nine Inch Nails singing Johnny Cash. In point of fact, Johnny Cash sang NIN’s Hurt so Trent Reznor and Johnny Cash have collaborated. The cross-promo Johnny Cash and Trent Reznor did with the Hurt video was pretty awesome because it introduced a lot of each of their fans to great new music. The man in black and the man with a honey with head like hole black as your soul do have similar measures of anger and anguish and torment and insight in their work.
At any rate, Blue Blood has been receiving emails informing us that Adam Lambert’s American Idol performance of “Ring of Fire” was not his rendition at all. These emails then go on to detail erroneous “facts” which the writers appear to fervently believe.
The Random House Dictionary defines rendition as “an interpretation, as of a role or a piece of music”. The American Heritage Dictionary defines rendition as “An interpretation of a musical score or a dramatic piece, a performance of a musical or dramatic work”. Princeton University’s WordNet defines rendition as “a performance of a musical composition or a dramatic role, the act of interpreting something as expressed in an artistic performance”.
On American Idol, Adam Lambert told country singer (and American . . .
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by Amelia G : March 17th, 2009
Last week, I started seeing all kinds of links in to Blue Blood from American Idol sites. As I have not been watching American Idol this season and have never covered American Idol on this site before, this seemed peculiar until we started receiving emails with subjects like Adam Lambert Nude, Adam Lambert Gay Kiss, Where can I find naked pics of Adam Lambert? and suchlike. Actually, this still seemed a bit peculiar until People Magazine got in touch with us and emailed us the photos we shot which everyone was talking about.
Now, of course I recall Forrest Black and yours truly shooting American Idol finalist contestant Adam Lambert. He is pretty memorable. I have also photographed guys before. Naked guys even. This does not mean that every single person, out of the thousands I have ever pointed a camera at, has stripped down at some point in the shooting process. In case this is not already blindingly clear, allow me to state categorically that we photographed Adam Lambert and Cheeks at a costume event sponsored by Blue Blood and promoted by Xian. Everybody at the event was clothed and most were even costumed. There was nothing scandalous about Adam Lambert being dressed up glam; he looked great and it was a costume party. So, no, I do not have any naughtier pictures than the portraits in this Adam Lambert gallery.
To all the ignorant prudes who hide their own bigotry behind platitudes about what “other” people in “flyover states” will think, I don’t think a few sexy images have exactly hurt the careers of any modern (like post invention of photography) musicians. Anybody heard of David Bowie, Keith Richards, Marilyn Manson, Twiggy, Madonna, Deborah Harry, Slash, Jeff . . .
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