Sunday, December 31, 2006
How I Spent My 2006
First off ... will you look back at how little Prince Zakiya, my beloved goddaughter, looked in January of this year. I can hardly even remember a time when she didn't have her crazy hair ...
... but there was a time when she was still just a little baby.
In January, Tracey had a Dedication Ceremony for baby Z where Erik and I were asked to pledge ourselves to Z and we promised to be positive male role models in her life:
Erik and I became her official godfathers on that day and it is a commitment that I plan on remaining true to for as long as I draw breath. I know that Erik plans on also remaining true to the promise we made to her on that day ... it was a very special day for all of us.
In August, our little Princess Z turned 1-year old ...
... and she just keeps getting bigger and bigger each day. I love that little girl and it kinda scares me that she is growing up so fast. I want her to stay an adorable little baby forever ...
My very good friend Sherri gave birth to her second child this year:
Just a few short weeks ago, Daniel Frost was born. I got to meet the little guy just last week and know that he will make a great playmate for Zakiya.
This year, I got to attend my first Grammy Awards:
And Sarah and I got to party with a bunch of celebs together.
Detroit became center stage to the world this year when we hosted Super Bowl XL in February ... Playboy came to town to throw a hot Super Bowl party and Sarah and I were lucky enough to attend:
That first party was my introduction to wonderful Playboy company who has been so good to me ever since. I got to go to a few Playboy parties thruout the year, got to meet Hugh Hefer himself AND FINALLY got an invitation to the Playboy Mansion:
I never dreamed that I would ever get to visit The Grotto at the Mansion but it finally happened.
This summer I finally made the move to California ... a move I have been dreaming about for the past 4 years ... but this summer I packed all my shizz, grabbed my Sarah and drove cross country ...
... and officially became a Californian.
This year I got to meet Nina Gordon, formerly of my favorite rock group ever Veruca Salt, and was lucky enough to interview her for her newest solo album Bleeding Heart Graffiti:
And then a couple of weeks later got to interview Louise Post, still of Veruca Salt, about their newest album IV:
I cannot really express how thrilling it was for me to get to meet and interview these 2 amazing women. It was a long-time dream come true for me.
I got a few amazing shout-outs this year ... Entertainment Weekly listed me as their Must Star Hazer in their annual Must List issue:
John Mayer blogged about me in his official blog:
His little homage to the PITNB style was so cool ... even Rolling Stone magazine noticed :)
Carson Daly gave PITNB a shout-out on his TV show:
And I shouted him right back.
Natalie Maines, of the Dixie Chicks, started talking about PITNB on stage at the final batch of concerts on thier world tour this Fall/Winter and graciously sent me this amazing picture:
But the most important thing that happened to me was that I finally met the person that I love most in the world. I was asked to go on a blogger trip to Amsterdam back in February and that is where I met fellow blogger David Hauslaib of Jossip.com/Queerty.com and unbeknownst to me met the love of my life ... here are a few pictures of David, Rachel Hurley (of SceneStars.net) and me in Amsterdam:
The 3 of us were inseparable in Amsterdam and had the best time ever.
Once David and I finally got together I was introduced to the fam over Passover/Easter weekend ...
... and basically got to spend time with the a really cool family. I'm very lucky that I now get to be included in their family activities.
Even tho David and I live on opposite coasts, we're committed to spending as much time together as we can ... in the Spring, while visiting NYC, we spent an afternoon at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Brooklyn, NY:
I think we fell in more love among the blossoming trees.
The fact that Zakiya loves him so much just endears him to me even more:
For David's birthday, we spent a couple of weeks in Paris, France:
And I finally realized that I met the partner for me. We are so happy, I couldn't have wished for a better gift. I'm so happy that we get to spend NYE together ... and hopefully many, many more NYEs to come.
As the year winded down, the readers of Blender magazine and visitors of AOL Music online named Pink is the new Blog as the Best Gossip Blog of the year:
And here I am ... just a few hours away from 2007. It's been a great year ... I wouldn't have changed a thing ... and I look forward to what the future brings.
I hope y'all have had a great year as well ... thank you all for the support and love and friendship. XOXOX
trent
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The Last Day
The club is pretty intimate with video screens all around the venue. DJ Rashida spins until Prince takes the stage. There was a little video homage to James Brown and then Prince came out. He played a bunch of great songs (even said from the stage, "So many hits, so little time.") opening with 3121 and including Boys and Girls, Purple Rain, Lolita, Black Sweat, Kiss, covers of Everyday People and Play That Funky Music, If I Was Your Girlfriend, Pink Cashmere, U Got The Look, Let's Go Crazy and more! When he did Cream I about lost it! It was just a kickass show. Those of you who saw Prince in the late 90's may remember that he sold O(+> tambourines and for this show he is offering 3121 tambourines -- which of course I couldn't not get :)
The show is definitely worth seeing -- I fully plan on coming back to Vegas to see the show again.
David and I were surprised this morning with a wonderful Xmas/Hanukkah/NYE gift from Jim which was delivered to our room and we plan on spending the rest of the day enjoying that gift together. I'll have my last Year-End Wrap-Up post of the year later on today ... my personal memories of 2006.
Tonight, David and I are partying with Britney Spears at Pure nightclub here in Las Vegas ... it promises to be a great time.
I'm planning on getting things back to normal on Tuesday ... so until then ... have a very Happy and Safe New Year ... Much love to all y'all!
I'm out.
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Saturday, December 30, 2006
We Got Our Kicks In 2006
First off, I spent much of the year wondering what exactly was going on with Katie Holmes' pregnancy:
Click above to see larger image
Even after she allegedly gave birth ... I was still unsure what was going on ... but it was fun to speculate. This collage comes from the messageboard CPMCoG and was created by a poster called Newmy. [thanks JJ]
Brokeback Mountain looked to be the movie to beat at Oscar time:
But unfortch, my fave movie of the year failed to win the award for Best Picture. Altho the movie won much acclaim and other honors, fans (me included) were a bit upset that it didn't win the biggest enchilada:
This year, the incredible Tori Amos fansite (IMHO the best Tori Amos fansite ever ever ever) TheDent.com closed down for business ...
... but the spirit of the site lives on at UnDented.com:
Lil' Kim got sprung from prison:
And Kylie Minogue emerged first in Sri Lanka after going out of the public eye to endure chemo therapy for her breast cancer:
As the year progressed ... she looked healthier and happier ...
... and then triumphantly returned to the concert stage to finish the tour she had to end prematurely the previous year:
2007 promises to be a great one with a new Kylie album on the way.
Jared Leto proclaimed his hatred for blogs:
And then he went apeshizz and attacked little Elijah Wood:
Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan reunited as The SkeletwinsTM at a fashion show this year:
But then Lindsay became the target of much jealousy and hatred ... Brandon Davis, with Paris Hilton's consent, branded her a "firecrotch":
And then Lindsay got her ass chewed out by her boss in a hand-delivered letter that was widely circulated on the InterWeb:
And then she got robbed of over a million dollars worth of jewelry ...
... which turned out to be nothing more than a misplaced, overpriced purse.
This year, Lindsay also decided that she needed to cool off on the hard partying and revealed that she had been going to Alcoholics Anonymous for over a year:
It's been a crazy year for Lindsay ... but she's still alive so I guess she's doing ok.
As the year wrapped up we learned that Michael Richards was a crazy racist:
And we learned that Miss USA Tara Conner could cry herself out of trouble in order to keep her crown:
Which lead to a war of words between Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump ... which is too ridiculous to even get into again.
2006 was a fun year ... I had a great time talking about it ... I hope you had a great time reading about it :)
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The Year That Was Britney
The year started out with Kevin Federline dropping his debut single PopoZão (which by ALL accounts sucked ass) right at midnight NYE '06 and I think at that point I knew it was going to be an interesting year. Who could forget the amazing statue of Britney Spears, an ode to the Pro-Life movement, which was created by artist Daniel Edwards:
We definitely got to see a side of Britney that I think none of us were really interested in seeing ... little did we know that later on in the year we'd get to see a whole lot more and in the flesh -- yipes!
Right from the get go, Britney stole the headlines ... like when she was photographed driving a car with her infant son sitting on her lap:
Which then led to the photos of Sean Preston strapped into a car seat ... but then she took heat because he looked all bent in half and was unprotected from the California sun:
Which then led to her infamous trip to NYC where she almost dropped her baby onto the pavement right in front of the paparazzi's cameras:
She took a lot of flak from pretty much everybody (me included) and decided to go on Dateline to tell her side of the story:
Altho, her appearance on the news show didn't really do much to help the situation:
And she ended up looking even worse in many people's eyes.
There were a couple glimmers of hope this year ... after all the bad press she got for the way she was handling her baby she hired a male bodyguard who doubled as what I referred to as her "manny" (male nanny) named Perry Taylor. I hoped against hope he would be the one to save Britney from herself ... and from her husband Kevin Federline:
Unfortch, K-Fed wasn't having it and Perry Taylor was let go of the Spederline's employ. I still miss him.
Another glimmer of good news was that Britney was asked to be among the last celebrity guests on Will & Grace before the series ended this year:
Then she appeared, in all her pregnant nude glory, on the cover and within the pages of Harper's Bazaar magazine:
She darkened her hair and started a trend that was mimicked by others ... like Paris Hilton.
For his part, Kevin Federline was chugging along thinking he ruled the world ... he started this ridiculous trend of showing up on the WWE to wrestle:
Basically, he was doing anything he could to try and pimp his debut album. These lame tactics didn't work ... the album didn't sell and barely even made a dent on the charts.
At some point in the fall ... Britney decided she had had enough and she decided to clean up her act, get a haircut and divorce Kevin Federline:
You could hear the resounding cheer the world over ... Britney was finally free!
And poor Kevin had to get the news via txt msg that his freeloading days were dunzo ...
... at least, that's how the story goes.
Britney filed the paperwork:
Then Kevin filed a response:
And then left a personal message for Brit-Brit on a hotel bathroom window:
He's a classy, classy guy.
Britney made the world fall back in love with her ... she looked amazing as a surprise guest presenter at the American Music Awards:
And poor Kevin had to retreat back to the arms of his first babymama Shar Jackson:
But then Brit started hanging out with Paris Hilton, then she started showing her naked crotch and the world stopped loving her again. No matter, I still love her!
Britney gave us a few Letters of Truth this year ... speaking directly to her fans on her official website ... first, she proclaimed that she was no longer a student of Kabbalah:
Which meant that she fell out of Madonna's favor.
Then she kinda freaked out and started talking about tigers or some shizz ...
... and then she promised us that she would start wearing underwear again:
Britney will wrap up the year with a party at Pure here in Las Vegas:
And who knows ... perhaps there is more yet to come ...
... one can only hope.
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