Here’s a latest icon post of icons that were created with trial versions of Adobe Photoshop CS and Elements 8. Please credit me if using and reply to the post with which avatars you are taking.
1 Cassie Chan
1 Patricia Ja Lee
3 Madison Rocca
1 RPM Black/Go-onger Black
1 Dr. K
1 Gem and Gemma
1 Lily Chilman
1 Ronny Robinson
2 Rose Ortiz
2 LARA of NanQuan Mama
1 Sailor Luna
1 Selena Gomez
1 Trini Kwan
1 Daniel V
1 Alison Kelly

You’ve probably already noticed that I no longer post to this blog anymore. If you are looking to read my writings, please follow and friend me on LiveJournal. My personal LJ is: http://music_bando09.livejournal.com

However, I’ve been thinking about making this my Icons blog where anyone can see and use my avatars and graphics. (With credit of course!)

 Can you believe it? From a small acting gig as Giana on Barney and Friends to today’s Princess Protection Program movie and Wizards of Waverly Place movie, Selena’s becoming a new hot commodity alongside her BFF Demi Lovato.

With her Untitled debut album due out this year, her upcoming role as Beezus in Beezus and Ramona, and special guest appearance on Sonny With a Chance, she’s not letting moss grow on her!

Earlier I commented on the early singles she produced for some films including 101 Dalmations and Another Cinderella Story. Cruella DeVil was a smash hit and I found her Bang a Drum quite catchy. Tell Me Something I Don’t Know took a while to grow on me but now I like it.

Some of the more recent samples of music she’s produced includes the single Fly to Your Heart featured in Tinkerbell. It’s sweet and gentle for a fairy tale ballad which sets the scene perfectly. Her recent single with the rock group Forever the Sickest Kids called Whoa Oh! (Me vs Everyone) has failed to hook me in. It’s not Selena, folks- its the song lyrics and what FTSK gave her to work with. Selena, you weren’t given enough justice in that song. Plus the song makes little sense if you break down the lyrics.

And for the crowning touch in her music career (we knew it was going to happen), she and Demi recorded a single called One and the Same which will be featured in Princess Protection Program. From the snippets leaked from other countries who already had the film premiere on their Disney Channel, it sounds great. Itching to hear it before the film? Don’t worry, it will be released on June 9 (My Birthday!) on a CD called Disney Channel Playlist. So if you were looking for a clear, high quality version of Emily Osment’s Hero in Me or the Wizards of Waverly Place theme Everything is Not What it Seems by Selena Gomez, look no further. Keep your eyes peeled for the release of the CD. Tracklisting includes:

Selena Gomez & Demi Lovato - “One And The Same” (Princess Protection Program)
Jonas Brothers - “Live To Party” (JONAS)
Demi Lovato - “So Far, So Great” (Sonny With A Chance)
Mitchel Musso & Tiffany Thornton - “Let It Go” (Hatching Pete)
Emily Osment - “Hero In Me” (Dadnapped)
Hannah Montana - “Let’s Get Crazy” (Hannah Montana: The Movie & Hannah Montana)
Phineas and the Ferbtones - “Gitchee Gitchee Goo” (Phineas and Ferb)
Mitchel Musso - “The Girl Can’t Help It” (Princess Protection Program)
Selena Gomez - “Everything Is Not What It Seems” (Wizards of Waverly Place)
Demi Lovato & Joe Jonas - “This Is Me” (Camp Rock)
Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens - “Breaking Free” (High School Musical)
Ashley Tisdale & Lucas Grabeel - “Fabulous” (High School Musical 2)
Corbin Bleu - “Run It Back Again” (Minutemen)
Jordan Francis - “Start The Party [Remix]” (Camp Rock)
The Cheetah Girls - “Dance Me If You Can” (The Cheetah Girls: One World)

Oh and as you can see from my avatar, word has it that Taylor Lautner and Selena Gomez are hanging out a lot lately. Pretty exciting since I think they look so cute together. What do you think? Feel free to sound off on your opinion!

 Ah now I’m back to being excited about the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers again. And I was crazy about them when I was about 7/8 years old. The Trini avatar is inspired by an avatar created by a user on Livejournal called metaclipse07.

But I’m getting off topic, so how about I get going on what this post is really about?

So ever since I got rehooked on Power Rangers, I’ve been looking around for wearable Power Rangers stuff. I’m talking things like t-shirts or wristbands so its a small dose of nostalgia instead of something too overdone.

In my quest for Power Ranger t-shirts, I found them at this website: mypartyshirt.com They have all the rangers including the green ranger. Sorry no white ranger-I’m thinking that would be tricky to create as a t-shirt since the suit was very different. But they don’t just sell Power Ranger t-shirts. You can find Mighty Ducks hockey jersey t-shirts, “You’re Killin’ Me Smalls’ t-shirt, TMNT shirts-the list goes on. There are discounts that do pop up every now and then so watch out for those.

I’m hoping to obtain a Yellow Ranger t-shirt in time for Comic Con 2009. So what are you waiting for? Go take a look for yourself.

 After so many years, I some how got Bulk and Skull’s (from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers) theme song stuck in my head one day. Then I remembered a few really great episodes of Power Rangers that I watched and rediscovered them via YouTube.

So here are some icons. I know Cassie Chan (Pink Turbo Ranger #2/Pink Space Ranger) came later but she’s probably turned out to be my favorite Pink Power Ranger.

There are 5 Cassie Chan avatars, 3 Demi Lovato, 1 Jane (My choice for Twilight), 1 BoA Kwon, and 1 Miranda Cosgrove. Textures used by me, Colorfilter, wicked.avis, Yuko, perfect_c, Lemon. Please credit me if used!

Here are another bunch. Please credit me if you used them. Brushes used are by me, Yuko, wicked.avis, and insom. 2 Twilight. 1 Lily Allen. 1 Daechelle. 1 Selena Gomez. 5 Ayumi Hamasaki.

Gee where to begin?

Twilight made its debut in the mid-2000s as a fresh-faced take on a human x vampire romance.

3 books and a movie later, we are looking at a major franchise aside from the High School Musical/Hannah Montana/Camp Rock one. Twilight has beat out other competitor vampire romances such as Vampire Kisses.

In summary, I’ve come to the conclusion that Twilight is aimed at preteens, tweens, and young teens. Sadly, this lusty romance between an average Jane and stereotypical vampire hunk seems, well, old. Bella is angsty at first when we are introduced to her. As soon as she meets Edward Cullen and his oddball family, Edward becomes her salvation and obsession. The whole romance seems childish and quite unrealistic for any believeable instance. There are few of the characters that I can say are charming and memorable:

Alice Cullen makes for a sweet, wise sage in the series but seems to be lacking something. After all, you don’t always run into completely upbeat, cheery girls like Alice every day.

Rosalie Cullen at first glance is icy and haughty. Yet I sympathize her poor situation of being transformed into a vampire, unable to truly love someone and have children of her own. Yet she too seems slightly overdone as a commonplace character.

Jacob Black is the rare diamond in the rough of a gentleman in the 21st Century. Rarely have I come across a true, good-hearted gentleman who respects his morals and others. He comes into trouble in New Moon yet he toughens becoming stronger mentally and physically.

Ah but this whole Team Jacob/Team Edward nonsense? Why, why, why are there claiming wars for characters? The entire dramatic fuss is quite idiotic and immature.

Sigh. The series has failed to charm me. Meyer can create great supporting characters but lacks talent in creating summaries.

 I feel tempted to write a redo version of Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls and have it be about the boys. I mean seriously, haven’t all you gals out there had a boyfriend that was fine and when you said goodbye it made you crazy? I haven’t had a boyfriend but some guys are so cute that it is almost asking for trouble if I asked them out.

So here you go. My lyrics for “Beautiful Boys.” Please do not claim credit for them. I combined part of Sean Kingston’s lyrics, JoJo’s lyrics, and some I wrote.

Beautiful Boys

You’re way too beautiful boy
That’s why it will never work
You’ll have me suicidal, suicidal
When I say it’s over

Damn all these beautiful boys
They only wanna do your dirt
They’ll have you suicidal, suicidal
When we say it’s over

It happened way back when
I was chilling with my friends
You walked across the room
And looked me in the eye
And in our hearts
We knew something could happen, could happen
You tried to spit some game
Asking me girl what’s your name
Saw that sparkle in your eye
So I asked you why
Right then and there
I knew that you were the one for me, one for me

See it’s very define
You’re a one of a kind
But you’re mush on my mind
You have to get declined
Oh man
My friends are driving me crazy

You’re way too beautiful boy
That’s why it will never work
You’ll have me suicidal, suicidal
When I say it’s over

Damn all these beautiful boys
They only wanna do your dirt
They’ll have you suicidal, suicidal
When we say it’s over

Its only been a week
But you’re leaving messages for me
It’s got my curiosity
Got my knees weak
I don’t need another guy
When I have you right here, right here

You took my hand in yours
Pulled me in and whispered words
Then you turned and walked away
Leaving me all alone
You left me dazed
And my mind is still running wild, running wild

Hey, I’m not easy to find
I’m a one of a kind
But you’re mush on my mind
You have to get declined
If you stick around
Be careful not to cheat on me

You’re way too beautiful boy
That’s why it will never work
You’ll have me suicidal, suicidal
When I say it’s over

Damn all these beautiful boys
They only wanna do your dirt
They’ll have you suicidal, suicidal
When we say it’s over

A couple months have passed
They never thought that this would last
And everybody asks how I got a boy like that
But I should have known that nothing lasts forever, last forever
I got a text from you
But it had another name
Oh I can’t believe that I fell into your trap
You cheated on me and now my heart’s in two, heart’s in two

Damn all these beautiful boys
They only wanna do your dirt
They’ll have you suicidal, suicidal
When we say it’s over

 Yes you are looking at an icon of Mikayla, Hannah Montana’s arch rival in the pop music industry in the show. Screen caps taken from the episode where Jake comes back into Miley’s life asking for friendship.

Sadly, the entire franchise of High School Musical and Hannah Montana has become a child obsession for most little girls. There are girls at my school (high schoolers mind you) that wear the gear from these flicks. Camp Rock is starting to become a fad too.

Whatever happened to classic Disney films that every generation could connect to and enjoy?

But I’m getting off topic… Mikayla seems to be better developed as a character than Hannah Montana/Miley Stewart. Aside from the disses and rude comments, Mikayla’s sass and sarcasm make her a more appealing character to me. Hannah’s disses come off as weak and overused in today’s society.

Her fashions are cooler- I guess that’s because she dresses in a more punky style than Hannah.

What do you think?

 This is the first single on Lily Allen’s sophomore album, It’s Not Me, It’s You. Originally it was titled I Don’t Know but now its called The Fear. A much more appropriate title for the song I think.

The clean version takes out the f-word, thank goodness. I really don’t get why she has to add those in. Still, a funny song which stabs at the dark side of fame and fortune in a sarcastic manner.

On another note, Happy Holidays and hopefully everyone is having a good time off.