Just give her the Emmy or the Oscar, whichever comes first.

Telephone

I have never in my wildest dreams imagined a video quite like this one. Lady Gaga & Beyonce's Telephone. The strangest, wildest, most far-out nine minutes and 33 seconds of my day. Nay, my life.

Butch lesbians. Prison. Yellow hair. Dancing, cooking gays. Wonder Woman. "Let's Make A Sandwich." Costumes. Pussy Wagon. Diners. Hair shaped like a phone. Jai Rodriguez. Choreography.

Please check it out in HD, it's totally worth the wait for it to load.

Wikipedia has EVERYTHING

Seriously.

Reading Wikipedia articles is one of my favorite pastimes, and it never ceases to amaze me how much information is out there. Some of my favorite topics to read about are airplanes and airlines, the British Royal Family, Orders of Precedence, natural disasters, and small towns that I've been to.

Last night, while reading about the first topic mentioned above, I stumbled upon this fascinating image. It shows basically all of the commercial airline routes for the entire world. Who sat down to figure that out and make a map of it? I'm not sure, but it's pretty awesome.

Flashback: 2000 Summer Olympics

For me and all of my musical theatre friends in college, the highlight of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney was not sports-related. Instead, our fondest moment was when unknown DIVA Vanessa Amorosi sang "Heroes Live Forever" at the opening ceremony. Nothing short of incredible, Amorosi's voice rang through the Olympic Stadium and into our hearts; the song was played during just about every Singing Hoosier party, bus ride, slideshow, or other social event.

Here's the live performance:

Where is Vanessa Amorosi now, and what is she up to? Well, she has a new single out titled "This Is Who I Am," which comes from her newest CD Hazardous. More info is available on her website.

Wikipedia has a great article on Amorosi as well, including this paragraph about her vocal abilities:

Amorosi is known for her versatile vocal ability. She is able to vocally cover many genres of music including, pop, rock, blues, jazz, and gospel. Amorosi is also known for her vocal range which reaches Soprano C6 in what is perceived to be full chest voice. Amorosi's ability to connect chest voice and head voice is one of her trademark talents. Amorosi's effortless approach to singing in her upper registry is what helped her become well known in both Australia and Germany. She is also noted for her ability to sing in the whistle registry as well, hitting notes above E6. Amorosi's most powerful vocals can be heard in her song "Start It" from her 2008 album Somewhere in the Real World, in which she can be heard belting two A5's and two B5's in mixed/chest voice and an E6 in the whistle registry. Also in "I Am Woman", performed at the ARIA Hall of Fame tribute for Helen Reddy in 2006, Amorosi can be heard belting a sustained C6.

Hit It Or Quit It / Crush of the Day / Jailbait: Taylor Lautner

Taylor Lautner, one of the many breakout stars from the Twilight movie series, has the body of a God. Seriously. And he's only 17 years old. I'm not sure if it's illegal for me to ask this (I hope it's not), but...

Taylor Lautner: hit it or quit it? All I'm saying is that I haven't seen abs like that in a long time. Sigh.

In addition, Taylor is HANDS DOWN my crush of the day. He's adorable and I can't wait till he's 18 so I can move to Hollywood and become his BFF/BF. :)

Thanks, Perez, for making my jaw drop for a minute and a half when I clicked on your page...

What a glamorous wedding!

If you know me, you know that it isn't one of my life ambitions to get married. I don't know, I just think the whole thing is a little archaic for the lifestyle that I lead... Maybe I'll change my mind in a few years when I finally meet the man of my dreams (who lives in the same city as I do), and if that's the case, then I have a feeling our wedding will take a lot of inspiration from the one pictured below.

Stunning, right? Via DListed via Insight News.

Things I Love About Glee / Crush Of The Day: Mark Salling

If you haven't yet caught an episode of Glee, you must do so immediately. Go to Hulu and check it out--you will not regret it.

The show is magic. It follows the ups and downs of a high school glee club, complete with music video-like performances, musical theatre fierceness, hot guys, great belting, football (yeah, seriously), teen pregnancy, desperate housewives, etc., etc.

Here are my favorite things about the most recent episode:

1. Kurt's coming out scene with his dad... Super emotional, super real.

2. "Single Ladies" on the football field.

3. Will Schuster.

4. Lima, OH. "I don't want to be a Lima Loser!"

5. Rachel singing Celine Dion's "Taking Chances."

6. Crush of the Day Mark Salling. See below.

Jersey Girls

This clip is a bunch of highlights from a documentary shot in 1994 called Wildwood, N.J. It is amazing. It makes the Real Housewives of New Jersey look like angel food cake.

My favorite quote, from one of the first girls:

"It's different every night... And... Every night it's different. You can stay together forever or it's different... And... Whatever happens happens, but it's different. Every night. And you meet new people and it's summer, and I think........."

Via DListed...

Sears Tower Skydeck--Crazy!

The Sears Tower opened a new attraction on the 103rd floor today--a Skydeck with a glass floor! Visitors can ride the elevator up, up, up and go out on the balcony to watch the streets, river, people, and other city things below... Amazing pics and the whole story here!

A video from the Chicago Tribune below...

OMG amazing!!!

It's finally here--The Musical Theatre Dictionary... It answers all of your MT questions. A few of my favorites:

Belting and Bleeding- verb- When a person's belt is so high and loud that it sounds painful but is executed with completely healthy vocal production. Although a somewhat misleading name, belting and bleeding is often desired for powerful vocals. See Marla Mindelle/Kate Pazakis.
1. As obsessed as I am with Power Mixers, I still die for belting and bleeding.
2. If this girl playing Eva Peron isn't belting and bleeding, I'm leaving during intermish.

"Effie We All Got Pain"-saying- Response to a costar when he/she is throwing tons of diva comments your way. A reference to the musical Dreamgirls when Effie White's laundry-lists of excuses are met with this statement. The point being: you have struggles, so do we.
Diva: My Laduca Strap broke, I'm not warm yet, and if they make me wear this bullshit costume I'm going to flip.
Smart Actor: Effie, we all got pain.

Fiercey- noun- The embodiment of ferocity.

1. Caissie Levy is such the new fiercey of Broadway.
2. I will do whatever it takes to be a fiercey, even if that means singing soprano.

Pingy- adjective- The fantastic result of ultra-forward mask placement. The term is derived from the resonant sound and sped of a person's vibrato. Imagine a pinball being tossed around a pinball machine at fast pace: that's pingy. (We get extra points for making you want to listen to Tommy)
Her belt is so pingy, her placement can cut diamonds.

Whistle Tone-verb- The rare gift of singing notes above the soprano high C. This random-act-of-fierceness is almost always an expensive way of showcasing one's self. Whistle tones are almost always described as savage.
MT: I cannot believe his savage whistle tones. He got those notes past a G7.

Work!-compliment- This is a phrase used as a compliment shouted during/after a performance (preferably in a cabaret setting.) This phrase, borrowed from the Fashion World, is a truncated version of the phrase "You Better Work!" Literally meaning "do work" or "you are working the hell out of this song", this phrase carries a certain weight of tranny sass.
Gay MT Boy: Soooo fi-yerce! WORK!

Wow!

Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe, is a very picturesque sight: the tumbling waterfall drops hundreds of feet (I made that part up) in a glorious display of nature's beauty.

At certain times during the year, a pool at the top of the falls called Devil's Pool is (relatively) safe to swim in, and it makes for some incredible photo ops. Check it out!

If you're a nervous flyer...

...then please don't watch the video below.  

A Lufthansa Airbus A320 airliner came *this* close to having a tragic landing in storm-force winds, but thanks to a talented pilot, the plane ended up landing safely.  Truly amazing footage...