TEST

Christina Aguilera Flaunts Killer Style In “Your Body” Video

Hot on the (platform, stiletto) heels of her announcement that she is taking a hiatus from "The Voice" next season to refocus on her pop career, judge Christina Aguilera has released her comeback video, "Your Body," in all its trashy, tawdry, Technicolor glory. And man, the girl is looking killer, literally, as she portrays a femme fatale on the lam who leaves a trail of destruction and slain suitors in her wake. (Don't worry, a pre-video disclaimer assures viewers that "no men were harmed in the making of this video.")





Video On Youtube .....      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cfCgLgiFDM




The dirrty girl's sexy "Your Body" video makes so many pop-culture references during its retina-scaldingly rainbow-brite four minutes and 40 seconds, it's enough to make even Seth MacFarlane or Dennis Miller's heads spin. And yet, somehow, it's all so very, very Xtina. First of all, Christina basically embodies both Thelma and Louise, combined into one leopard-printed package. This, of course, brings to mind Lady Gaga and Beyonce's cross-country "Telephone" road rampage...and speaking of Beyonce, the retro-'50s housewife look Christina rocks in the clip's opening scene brings to mind Beyonce's "Why Don't You Love Me" vid, which perhaps not coincidentally was lensed by "Your Body's" director, Melina Matsoukas

When it comes to the hair--and what Christina Aguilera discussion would be complete without some serious follicle focus?--Xtina also references many other pop-culture icons' hairstyles, as well as some of her own past memorable looks. The finger-waved lavender 'do is oh-so Nicki Minaj, with a bit of Christina's old Back To Basics glamour; the grungy braids are reminiscent of "My So-Called Life" bad girl Rayanne (or Xtina's own tiny plaits from 2001); the multi-colored extensions aren't too different from the ones Christina's former Disney rival Britney Spears recently sported at the iHeartRadio music festival (or the streaks Xtina rocked herself in the early 2000s); and the pink-tipped ombre wig even seems like a subtle (well, subtle by Xtina standards, anyway) homage to Berlin's Terri Nunn.




And speaking of Berlin, the '80s references don't end there. Those rhinestone cat-eye specs? Soooo Cyndi Lauper. Paired with a platinum movie-star bob, the effect is pure Madonna circa Who's That Girl. And that pink pickup truck? It looks like it was borrowed from Hollywood billboard starlet Angelyne's garage. The result, of course, is some totally awesome fashion.

As for more recent pop-cultural touchstones, this may be a stretch here, but the tattered American-flag tee is quite Ke$ha-esque, and when Christina, still wearing said shirt, reclines in a tanning bed, Snooki leaps to mind. In fact, the scene when Xtina rampages through a roadside mini-mart, in her curve-hugging clubbing dress, kind of looks like an outtake from "Jersey Shore."




Basically, in "Your Body" Christina is dressed to excess and for success, because despite the fact that she looks like she's wearing the entire contents of a Sephora flagship store on her face and an entire counter's worth of Claire's baubles on her body, she pulls it off and makes every look totally her own. When Christina returns to "The Voice" in fall 2013, she really ought to have this video's stylist on the NBC set at all times, because this popstar-pinup thing she's got going on here is really werking for her..

Lady Gaga's meat dress to be shown in DC museum

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lady Gaga's famous meat dress has made its way to the nation's capital, along with Loretta Lynn's song about "The Pill" and other relics from music history.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is opening a national tour for an exhibit about pioneering women in rock 'n' roll, tracing the evolution of women artists and their impact on music. It opens Friday at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Curator Meredith Rutledge-Borger told The Associated Press the exhibit, "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power" is inherently political, in part, as it highlights many "first ladies of rock" who have spoken loud and clear on women's rights, gay rights and other issues through their music.

"This really is the center of our political life," Rutledge-Borger said during the Washington opening. "Bringing this exhibit here kind of redefines what's important in our history and political life ... at a time when there's talk of women being under attack in politics."

More than 250 artifacts represent 70 women who were "engines of change and creativity," she said, each helping to redefine who could make rock 'n' roll. It features items from Cher, the B-52s, Donna Summer, Stevie Nicks, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna's provocative outfit from her "Blonde Ambition" tour. Other items date back to jazz singer Billie Holiday, first blues recording artists Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey and country music trailblazer Mother Maybelle Carter.

Lynn's country song, "The Pill," was considered so controversial in 1975 that her record label delayed its release for three years. Lynn later recounted that doctors told her the tune was pivotal in rural acceptance of birth control.

"We really wanted to make sure this wasn't just a fashion show," Rutledge-Borger said. "We wanted to showcase these artists as musicians."

For the National Museum of Women in the Arts, it's the first exhibit to feature women performing artists, said chief curator Kathryn Wat.

Gaga's dress from the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards — now dried, preserved and painted to restore its original raw meat color — is being shown in its political context.

When Gaga wore the dress, she was accompanied by U.S. soldiers impacted by the "don't ask, don't tell" policy to protest the ban on gays serving openly in the military. She explained that if people don't stand up for their rights, "pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And, I am not a piece of meat."

Beyond the dress's shock value, Gaga's push for inclusion of gays or anyone else who is different helped cement her place as a pioneer, said Rutledge-Borger.

"If you dig a little deeper, there's this important message of inclusion and family," she said. "That to me is really why she's so powerful."

The museum also is featuring Gaga's outfit from the 2010 Grammy Awards, where "Poker Face" won for best dance recording, and her childhood piano. She began taking lessons when she was 4.

"Women Who Rock" will remain on view in Washington through Jan. 6. Then it will travel to the Durham Museum in Omaha, Neb., the EMP Museum in Seattle and the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix.

Quincy Jones denies casino mogul made threats

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Music mogul Quincy Jones testified Thursday that he never told "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis that casino mogul Steve Wynn had threatened to kill the soft-porn producer and have him buried in the desert.

The Grammy-winning record producer shook his head repeatedly under questioning before a jury as an attorney described Francis' accusations, which Jones called fiction.

Francis says Jones told him that Wynn had threatened to hit him over the head with a shovel and have him buried in the desert. Francis also says Jones showed him a stack of emails supposedly detailing the threats. Francis said under oath that Jones told him Wynn was a gangster and "old Vegas."

"That sounds like a line from 'Scarface,'" Jones said. He added that he would like to see the emails Francis claims he displayed.

Francis acknowledges he never read the emails and didn't ask Jones, who is his next-door neighbor, to let him read them.

Wynn has vehemently denied he ever threatened Francis. Wynn has testified that Francis' comments are damaging to his reputation and could hurt business at Wynn Resorts Ltd.'s casinos, the Wynn and Encore.

He told jurors Tuesday that he had never sent an email in his life, and Jones said he hadn't ever seen one sent by Wynn.

Wynn's attorney Barry Langberg asked multiple questions about Francis' accusations. Jones alternated between appearing taken aback by the statements attributed to him to smiling and shaking his head. "Absolutely not," he repeatedly said when Langberg asked about whether Wynn had ever conveyed a threat toward Francis.

Jones said he attempted to mediate a dispute between Francis and Wynn's casino over $2 million in gambling losses.

"I was trying to just make peace," Jones said, adding that he wanted Francis to "do what he should have done in the first place."

"If you lose the money, you pay the money," Jones said. "That's ridiculous."

Jones has won multiple Grammy awards for his work with artists such as Michael Jackson and the superstar 1985 collaboration "We Are the World."

He was initially a reluctant witness, citing doctor's orders for why he was unable to testify during the case. He said he wasn't really feeling well after taking the witness stand Thursday morning, but laughed and cracked several jokes while testifying.

When asked about Francis and their relationship, Jones said he tried to bail his neighbor out of a Panama City, Fla., jail after he was arrested on suspicion of filming underage girls. Jones said he'd traveled to Mexico and the Middle East with Francis for events, but acknowledged it could be a lot of work at times.

"A lot of drama," Jones said of Francis.

Kings of Leon's Jared Followill on His Ambient New Band

Jared Followill figures he's been touring virtually nonstop since the age of 15. Last November, after wrapping an Australian outing with his band Kings of Leon, the 25-year-old bassist was faced with an unfamiliar prospect: he had nearly a year off from the road.

"I knew that I would go a little bit stir-crazy just not doing anything and not having any artistic outlets," the youngest Followill brother tells Rolling Stone. Thanks to good timing and a close friendship with fellow Nashvillian Nick Brown, lead singer of the rock group Mona, Followill's outlet arrived in the form of a new band.

Smoke and Jackal, as the longtime friends have dubbed themselves, is the direct result of eight booze-filled nights spent recording in Brown's basement. The duo will release their debut, EP1, a six-song collection, on October 16th. The band, according to Followill, was anything but premeditated.

"It was super spur-of-the-moment," he says. The two friends' original intention, he says, was to record one song and "put it up on YouTube or something stupid like that for people to see. [Nick] sings amazing and I sing horribly, so we figured we could just go down there and try it one night."

The duo pumped out two songs on their first evening recording together; four more would arrive in just over a week's time. Before pressing onward, the two agreed on some basic ground rules. "We made a rule of 'no pressure,'" Brown says. "The second: if it's not fun, we're leaving. We'll go to a bar."

For inspiration, the pair spun "vibe-y" records by Beach House and Magnetic Fields and jammed over muted clips of some of their favorite movies, including Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 action thriller Drive. (Brown specifically recalls playing over "that fight scene in the elevator where [Ryan Gosling] is kicking the shit out of the dude.") The band's aim, according to Followill, aligned with their creation method.

"We wanted to create a soundtrack," he explains. "That's the kind of vibe we were both going for."

On EP1, the two rockers explore uncharacteristically ambient musical territory. "I think it was important for us to create a new identity and have our own sound," Followill says.

Brown is more direct in his assessment. "You had two friends getting shitfaced and just wanting to make cool noises," says the singer. "I think everything was based on vibe. We weren't even thinking songs. It was like, 'That sounds cool.'"

The spaced-out collection ranges from the reverb-heavy, mid-tempo tailspin "No Tell" to "Save Face," a brooding, Radiohead-style séance. There's also a free-spirited rocker ("Ok Ok") more reminiscent of the musicians' other bands. Followill says this wasn't intentional.

"All of the songs were kind of a specific sound that our other bands did not go for," he says. That's not to say that either musician brought in music originally intended for their other crews. "We made a point of [not doing] that," Followill adds. "We both love our own bands, and we weren't trying to step on any toes. That would have been weird for us."

In fact, the bassist says that his brother Caleb has been supportive of baby bro's new band – albeit in his own distinctive manner. "Caleb is a big animal lover," Followill says, "so when he told me that [the album] sounded like pussy shit, I think he's talking about a beautiful kitten."

Followill says they'll have to wait and see if there's a demand for the duo to perform live. "We can always pull something off," he says. "We just have to try to remember what we're playing and just figure out what to do." He is confident however, that Smoke and Jackal will release another set of music. "I think at least we will go back and do another EP at some point. It might not be this year. It might not be next year. Us being friends, it's bound to happen again."

In the meantime, the recently engaged musician is keeping busy. Followill says Kings of Leon are in the beginning stages of plotting the follow-up to 2010's Come Around Sundown.

"We're just trying to have fun with it and just have a relaxed-type thing," he says. "We're just meeting with producers and stuff. I think we're going to try and start it this year. We'll see."

Yahoo account users: Do not ignore 400k stolen passwords

Yahoo confirmed Thursday that more than 400,000 user e-mail addresses and passwords have been compromised and posted online. The hackers claim to be do-gooders, breaking into Yahoo to shine a light on its potentially lax security.
Regardless of their intentions, the passwords are now online for everyone to see. The strike comes just a month after millions of passwords leaked onto the Internet. LinkedIn, the business-oriented social network, confirmed that nearly 6.5 million user passwords had wound up on websites frequented by criminal hackers. The same week, dating site eHarmony and the Internet radio service Last.fm acknowledged additional breaches that exposed the passwords of at least 1.5 million users.
If you use any of these sites, change your passwords immediately.
This rapid-fire series of announcements raises the question: Why would hackers target these sites? What could possibly be culled from someone's online résumé and dating history?
A lot, says Marian Merritt, Internet-safety advocate for the computer security company Symantec. People on LinkedIn share all kinds of information about their career history – names, associations, and department titles. Armed with details about someone's past, a hacker might pose as a former co-worker or pretend to be that person in order to scam people out of money.
"Oh, remember? We worked on this project back in '82," says Ms. Merritt, playing the part of a hacker who's laying the groundwork for a con. "I'm looking for X. Can you help me?"

This kind of scheme, called "spear phishing," requires a lot of effort, but going after the right target can be very lucrative. "The definition of a 'big fish' isn't necessarily the CEO of a corporation," says Merritt. "People often forget that churches manage money, membership dues, and whatever fundraisers. They have millions of dollars going through transactions, and it may be managed by somebody that doesn't have good security training because they're a volunteer or [work] part time."
Exposed passwords could also unlock other parts of a person's digital life. At the moment, it's unclear whether the ill-gotten passwords came with the corresponding usernames. Just in case, Gary Davis advises people to change passwords not only on the breached networks, but also on any website where they used the same login information.
"If I use the word 'password' as my password, and I use the e-mail address 'normangdavis,' well they can try that [combination] at my bank and see if that gets them in," says Mr. Davis, worldwide product marketing lead for security firm McAfee.
Fed up with remembering different passwords? Symantec and McAfee offer password managers. The paid services create unique logins for every site you use. You memorize a single password for the service – the software takes care of the rest.