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Can We Make Sure Breaking Dawn Doesn't Suck?

12/06/2009 12:40:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , 0 Comments

All fan hype aside, New Moon was bad. Real bad. Will that fact be taken into consideration at all while they make the next films of the franchise? Will they aim to improve?

Of course not.

When you make millions of dollars in the first eight seconds of a sequel's release, you don't change a thing. You keep the heroine as much of a doormat as she's always been and the hero as immortal and upset about that fact as ever. Eclipse has already wrapped of course, but Breaking Dawn has yet to start shooting, and there is always room for improvement, even in a fiction series that seems utterly perfect to any girl under 16.

Here are my suggested improvements for the movie (or two, or three, or however many they make), humbly submitted hereto for Team Breaking Dawn.

And yes, sorry, THERE ARE SPOILERS, for those who have not purchased Breaking Dawn and lovingly stroked it to death...

Lose the werewolf-on-baby love story.
In the book, Jacob falls in love with a baby soon after it pops out of mother Bella. Jacob apparently doesn't want to romance the baby right there, but it's his soul mate, all right. For some vague reason I cannot quite put to words, the movie should probably lose that bit. You are welcome, Taylor Lautner.

Two words: Stunt casting.
Cast Angelina and Brad as the elegant European nomad vampires. You know it makes sense.

And while we're at it...
Why not try Megan Fox as the accuser Irina? She does, after all, have to get dismembered by a pack of angry vampires. If not, hey, this is a chick franchise, what about you, SJP?

Hire another director.
The best movies know when to stray from book source material and when to stick to it. New Moon director Chris Weitz got much praise from fans for sticking to the book, but that doesn't mean he made a good movie. In fact it means he made a pretty mediocre movie. I'm sure Peter Jackson (heck, or even Tim Burton or Kathryn Bigelow) would know exactly what to do with that part in Breaking Dawn where Edward and Bella have sex so crazy that she passes out. And when in doubt, add a hobbit.

Rethink the genre.
Michael Sheen steals the screen whenever he's on it as Volturi vampire Aro. Make the honeymoon and pregnancy part of Breaking Dawn really short, and the Volturi trial part of the story really, really long. Make it a courtroom drama if you have to; bring in a resurrected vampire Matlock if you must, but do it.

An all-Dakota Fanning cast.
Forget that vampire who can grab someone's skull and kill with the touch of his hands; everybody can kill with their hands. Put in another little girl vampire who can make you feel pain with her eyes. You can never have too many Janes. Given how interesting Dakota Fanning was in the three seconds she was in New Moon, heck, all the Volturi vampires should be Dakota Fannings.

Lady Gaga raids the dressing up box as she pulls out all the stops for Monster Ball Tour

12/06/2009 12:40:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Fans of Lady Gaga have come to expect more than music when it comes to her stage performances.

And once again, the U.S. singer didn't disappoint as she slipped into a series of fantastical outfits for her latest gig on her Monster Ball Tour.

The Just Dance star dressed in a range of ensembles which looked fresh out of the dressing up box, including a Viking warrior, an evil-looking Rapunzel and a robot-inspired costume.

  

Other creations included an Angel outfit and a black faux fur number, which saw the 23-year-old carry off a crow-like appearance.

Lady Gaga, who is up for five Grammy Awards, was pictured on stage at The Susquehanna Bank Centre in Camden, New Jersey last night.

The next stop will be a three-night stint in Canada before she returns to the U.S. for a run ahead of taking the tour to the UK in February.



Earlier in the week, the star discovered she was up for five Grammy Awards as she performed at Boston's Wang Theatre on Wednesday night.

She is up for gongs including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Instead of thanking her collaborators or even taking credit for it herself, she has only one group of people to thank for this latest marker of the success she's amassed over the last year - her fans.



During the show, she broke the news to the crowd that she'd received five nods for her album The Fame and her single Poker Face.

She told them: 'So, thank you to all of you little monsters. This year, you were nominated for five Grammy Awards. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be where I am today, so thank you!'

She continued that with the nominations announced, there wasn't much else to do but party. 'But now we will celebrate. And the truth is there's only one thing in the world that I really, really hate.

'Does anyone know what that is?' she asked the crowd. 'Money. But there's only one thing I hate more than money ... and that's the truth. I don't like the truth.'



Alleged Idol Group member involved in sex scandal uncovered

12/06/2009 12:39:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Just hours ago we reported that police are investigating a k-pop idol group member who is allegedly involved in an underage prostitution scandal.


The member who was not identified by the police, has been identified by none other than Korean netizens.

Jun Lee Soo (real name: Jun Kwang Chul), MC The Max's lead vocalist is under speculation to have had sexual relations with the 16 year old victim.

Lee Soo's apartment is located in Jong Roh Gu where the unnamed girl claimed she went to have intercourse with the idol member.

If this is true, what a horrible tragedy. Of course, this should not be taken too seriously yet, as there has been no official confirmation, only the netizens' accusations at this point.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with MC The Max, the lead singer is quite frankly one of Korea's most talented singers.

Evidence: Televised news report played video of MC The Max performance with singer blurred out.


Actual performance:

Google Officially Launching Chrome Extensions Next Week

12/06/2009 12:39:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

A couple weeks ago, Google unveiled its Chrome Extensions site after clues began popping up that a full-on push for extension support in their browser was imminent. Unfortunately, that site was only meant for extension developers who were allowed to upload their creations to Google. On the page, Google promised that end users who were looking for these extensions would have a way to do so “soon.” That will happen next week, we’ve learned.

Two sources close to the situation say that Google plans to unveil its Extensions Gallery at some point next week, probably in the middle of the week. This makes sense since Add-on-Con 09, a conference devoted to browser add-ons, is taking place next Friday, and Google Chrome is a Gold Sponsor of the event. Obviously, Google will probably want to have something they can actually show off at the event, rather than just a developer dashboard.

Apparently, the Extensions Gallery will be much like the Chrome Themes Gallery. It will be a page that lists a bunch of extensions and has a button to one-click download the ones you want. Presumably there will also be a link to learn more about what each extension actually does.

Several developers already have their extensions ready to go for Chrome. We’ve profiled Aviary’s and Shareaholic’s recently. And actually, there have been hundreds of extensions unofficially available for Chrome for some time via sites like Chrome Extensions. This morning we profiled 11 of the best ones found there.

Initially, Extension support will only be for the Windows-based version of Chrome. Even though the launch of the beta version of Chrome for Mac is imminent, that version will not have extension support built-in. However, the latest builds of Chromium (the open-source browser that Chrome is built off of) for Mac does support extensions, and even has an extension manager that works. It would appear that the Linux build of Chrome will support extensions whenever that beta is available.

Extensions will be very important for Chrome as it attempts to hit Google’s stated 10 percent market share goal in the next couple of years. Extensions have been one of the keys to the success of Firefox, as it continues to steal market share from the once utterly dominant Internet Explorer.

G-Dragon has sex at his first concert?

12/06/2009 12:39:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Big Bang's G-Dragon held his first ever solo concert titled Shine-A-Light, earlier today and people were saying it was hot. The performance that got people talking the most was during 'Breathe.' 


During Breathe, they brought out a bed along with Aimee Lucas onto the stage. The people who attended were saying that they were basically having sex with clothes on. He was on top of her and dry humped her, you can see photos from this performance below:




Concert song list:
1.heartbreaker (remix)
2.this love
3. hello (feat.dara)
4. gossip man
5. g-pod
6.a boy
7.꼬마룰라 << the roora flashback
8. the leaders
9.breathe
10.parody clip?
11. butterfly
12. but i love you
13.she's gone
14.TY's where u at & wedding dress
15.only look at me.
16.korean dream
17.1 year station
18.Lies (he did this song alone?)
19.heartbreaker encore
credit: TeamBIGBANG @ twitter

Unfortunately fancams weren't allowed at all, but some people took footage. If footage of the Breathe stage pops up, I'll try to update this post.

G-Dragon is scheduled to have another concert on December 6th. Thanks to aa_chan and GD&H for sharing the photos.









Tavia Yeung's double award stirs up Fan's war of words online

12/06/2009 12:38:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

"Yiu Gum Ling" Tavia Yeung and "Lau Sam Ho" Charmaine Sheh were both enemies in <Beyond>, after the series finished airing, the battle still did not end. Tavia won two awards at the TVB Anniversary Awards and became the big winner out of the Fadans. Charmaine only left empty-handed and because of this Charmaine's fans started a war of words with Tavia's fans!


After winning the awards, Tavia's fans brought flowers, champagne and posters written "unlimited light, extraordinary strength" to support her. Tavia had 20+ more fans than the "TV Queen" Sheren Tang at the scene. Yesterday many Netizens were online at the TVB forums leaving messages that they felt sorry for the Charmaine who "ate white fruit" (no reward), saying that because TVB wanted to boost Tavia, they "sacrificed" Charmaine and "Sam Ho" - being good person has no good payoff. Tavia although depended on her evil role "Yiu Gum Ling" to get both awards, but it was said that her acting was too exaggerated that makes people annoyed. When mentioning that "evil" stole the "good results", fans felt that was very wrong.

At her celebration, Tavia responded to Netizen's criticisms about her role being annoying: "I believe that Netizens don't hate Tavia Yeung, they're only disappointed that <Beyond> didn't get as many awards. It is a good thing to have competition, if I could win with Sam Ho (Charmaine) I would be even more happy! (It was rumored that the Best Performance Award was a consolation award?) This award is the most encouraging thing since the 11 years I've been in the industry. It provides my success and efforts. (Charmaine "ate white fruit"?) I already consider that she won the award with me. There is only one award, this year I get it, next year it's hers!"

Charmaine accepted a telephone interview and responded: "I haven't noticed the incident (fans war or words), but I thank their support. My only complaint was that Tavia and I clearly said that we'll kiss on the lips beforehand, but at the time she was too emotional that her face was off to the side!"

Also, the cast of <Beyond> including Tavia, Charmaine and Moses felt disappointed and pity that the series didn't get Best Series Award. The producer Miu Siu Ching is thankful of the artistes support and felt that losing to senior Lee Tim Sing is nothing uncomfortable. As <Beyond> had the highest ratings of 50 points, she felt that it was already a good enough result.

'The Blind Side' rises to the top of the box office with $6.8 mil on Friday

12/06/2009 12:38:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , 0 Comments

As is typical for the weekend following Thanksgiving, Friday was an underwhelming day at the box office — but that shouldn’t prevent Sandra Bullock from celebrating the impressive longevity of The Blind Side. After two weekends of placing second to The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the football drama drove into first place with $6.8 million on Friday, according to early estimates. That brings the movie’s total to $115.6 million — not too shabby considering its $29 million budget. Settling for second place was New Moon, which added $5.2 million, bringing the shirtless vampire/werewolf movie’s cumulative gross to $245.1 million. New Moon dropped 71 percent this week, but we doubt anyone at Summit Entertainment is sobbing. Not even Bella.

Third and fourth place went to two newcomers: the family drama Brothers (a remake of a 2004 Danish film) and the heist thriller Armored. The former grossed $3.6 million, while the latter stole $2.4 million. In fifth place, the John Travolta and Robin Williams comedy Old Dogs collected $2.1 million. Failing to crack the top five was the new Robert De Niro holiday flick Everybody’s Fine, which pulled in a measly $1.3 million.

In limited release, Jason Reitman’s Oscar hopeful Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, took off with $329,000 in 15 theaters for a buoyant per-screen average of $22,000. Friday’s figures are below, and check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report:

1. The Blind Side — $6.8 mil
2. The Twilight Saga: New Moon –$5.2 mil
3. Brothers — $3.6 mil
4. Armored — $2.4 mil
5. Old Dogs — $2.1 mil

Adam Lambert to Return to ABC

12/06/2009 12:37:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

It looks like Adam Lambert and ABC are ready to kiss and make up.

The Idol runner-up will join the ladies of The View next Thursday to discuss his wild year.

After the singer's sexually-charged performance on the American Music Awards, the network canceled his scheduled New Year's Eve appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live and his performance on Good Morning America.

The View episode will air the morning after Barbara Walters's primetime special featuring the year's Most Fascinating People, which includes Lambert.

Lambert's appearance on The View has been pre-taped – preventing any unexpected on-air surprises.

Google crushes Bing: Poll

12/06/2009 12:36:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Mashable.com’s new poll in their "Face Off" series has yet again established Google’s supremacy and dominance in the search engine market. Readers have unhesitatingly voted Google to be better than Bing where their search engine preferences are concerned.


It was far from a close call when the website which has been holding a series of user polls every week to establish current public trends in social media found out that Google surpassed Microsoft’s “prettier” Bing by a massively humiliating margin of 78 percent.

The figures
The figures boil down to Google’s 2180 votes to Microsoft’s 519, sending Bing spiraling down to 19 percent. Around 3 percent, that is, about 97 votes stood for a tie between the two giants.

Google fans have surely been celebrating the victory. Their loyalty to Google stands strong due to Google’s friendly and honest image. Imse4n, a loyalist, commented on the results saying, “Google is honestly trying to open up the internet, make it faster, and more useful... obviously because more clicks equals more ad revenue for them... but the means justify the ends in this case. Microsoft is just plain evil.”

Another fan Erik stated, “I become kind of disgusted when I come on Mashable some days and see, “Google has 5 new ways to speed up the web!” and then "Microsoft paying people to block their competitors". Google is miles ahead of Microsoft and Bing in so many things, and it will get even worse if Microsoft keeps halting innovation and trying to solve this with bundles of cash.”

Bad week for Microsoft, the going good for Google
The week has been horrendous for Microsoft as the third largest search engine had gone down on the Dec. 3. The error being displayed was “Internal Server Error – Read
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.”

While Bing is trying to match up to Google’s grace, the search engine giant is coming up with newer and better innovations every day. A few days ago Google Finance released their real time streaming quotes making the website more helpful to Wall Street users.

At the same time, they even announced the advent of their own dictionary at google.com/dictionary. Google has also proven to be a decisive threat to Microsoft Office, which was uncontested till now. Google Docs has arrived and is ready to be contested by Office 10.

In other popular polls, Mozilla Firefox had defeated Google Chrome by grabbing 4600 votes, as compared to Chrome’s 3310. And where Twitter v/s Facebook is concerned, Facebook was victorious with 2484 votes.

SJ-M’s Ryeowook and Donghae jealous because of Ariel Lin

12/06/2009 12:36:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Super Junior-M (SJ-M) arrived on Dec. 4 for their fan meetings. Donghae bravely showed off that he likes (loves) Ariel! He frankly said that he likes women with beautiful foreheads, and Ariel – with whom he’s worked before in an MV – fully meets his ideal. But co-member Siwon revealed that Ryeowook also likes Ariel and frequently watches her TV series. Faced with a rival, Donghae was very jealous.

Sweet Donghae escorts Ariel on stage
Donghae, in a self-mocking tone, said his Chinese is not good but he knows how to pick up girls. To prove that he’s not bluffing, he asked group leader Han Geng to act as a woman and (DH) speaking in fluent Mandarin asked him (her) for his mobile phone, which had everyone at the press conference laughing. He really knew how to make a woman smile. When he saw Ariel Lin arrive to present them with a box of pipagao, he took the initiative of escorting her on stage. He said she's very nice, “(I) remember when we were in Taiwan to shoot an MV, she took good care of everybody, made me feel that I wasn’t a guest (stranger) here.”

Playing scissors, rock, paper; loudly proclaims ‘dear baby’
Speaking of their new song “Super Girl,” Donghae said his Super Girl should have a beautiful forehead; tall or short, fat or thin is not important. He also unreservedly said Ariel is the ideal model, her forehead is more than 100% perfect. Ariel played scissors, rock, paper with the group; the winner gets to be fed pipagao by Ariel. Donghae, who did his best but lost, said: “It hurts so much.” (my heart aches). When he returned Ariel’s favor by giving her an [SJ-M] product, he loudly and straightforwardly declared, “dear baby” (beloved) to everybody’s surprise.


Ariel’s agent Chou Mei-yu said that Donghae had shot an MV with Ariel, so [Ariel] had more interaction with the lively [Donghae] before. Yesterday when SJ-M arrived at the hotel, Donghae, not caring that he hadn’t completed his make-up, was in a rush to greet Ariel. As for being praised for having a lovely forehead, Ariel smiled shyly.

Appearing in “Quan Min Zui Da Dang”
SJ was one of the most popular imitated acts on “Quan Min Zui Da Dang” (The Public is the Biggest Political Party). Sub-group SJ-M will be in Taiwan for six days, five nights. Aside from the two-day fan meets, SJ-M will also appear in “Quan Min Zui Da Dang.” Ryeowook said: “I haven’t seen the program yet, but I know they do imitations .. happy [to hear that].” Reports said about 800 fans greeted the group at the airport. Hearing that a fan got pushed and fell, Kyunhyun showed concern and said: “We’re meeting tomorrow [fan meeting], so try to go to bed early tonight.”

K-pop idol group member allegedly pays for sex with minor

12/06/2009 12:36:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

On December 5th, 2009, four people were arrested for running a prostitution ring with underage girls and keeping all profits. But because the girls received no money at all, they're technically not underage prostitutes but victims. All of the identities are being held anonymous and only the leader's last name "Yim" (22) was revealed at this time.


Since March, Yim and his 3 partners have been gaining clients and providing them with the services of Girl/Victim A (16) via internet messaging. It turns out that Girl A has had sex with over 200 men and all money paid by the clients were given to Yim. It's been estimated that he has profited roughly about $30,000 and his excuse for not giving the girl any compensation was "because he had to drive her to the client's home and back to hers."

Girl A's friend, Girl/Victim B (16), was also caught up in the business and has gone through the same exact process or rather horror.

After digging into Girl A's phone history, it was revealed that one of the clientele was a male celebrity. Not just that but he is also part of an idol group. That's not good news and the police have yet to release the idol's name, but they say the idol has received a notice of summons.

Girl A confessed, "Since February of last year, I have had intercourse with the 'idol' located in Jong Roh Gu three times for 300 dollars each."

This doesn't sound good for the entertainment industry. It's very shameful that an idol may have participated in this terrible crime. Stay tuned to allkpop as the case progresses.

"Hi My Sweetheart" Finishes Filming; Show Luo and Rainie Yang Not Looking Good

12/06/2009 12:35:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Show Luo and Rainie Yang kisses out ratings; in just 1.5 hours, they kissed 4 times, allowing the ratings for CTS <Hi My Sweetheart> to increase. However, when finishing the very last scene in Kaohsiung and celebrating Director Lin He Lung’s birthday, they did not look too happy. It’s because they were filming and preparing for their new albums at the same time; in the end, in just 3 days, they finished filming 4 episodes. Everyday they only slept for 3 hours; so tired that they were unable to even smile.

In "Hi My Sweetheart", the mushroom head, under-bite Da Lang who Show acted out is very popular, but for this character, he has to wear the wig and protrude his jaw for a very long time; so long that it caused his head skin to have inflammation and his jaw to be in pain. Though, the toughest and most painful part should be that this drama started filming in the summer and finishes in the winter, but the storyline is from the winter to the summer. The longer they filmed, the more painful it was. Show had to wear thick winter clothing in the summer time, and then he had to jump into water in the cold winter. He joked that towards the end when he sees the script, he will shiver first. Fortunately, the drama finally finished filming.

The story of the drama went into a turn recently. Rainie went from a mean, violent girl to a sweet radio DJ. While, Show changed from a dorky nerd (Da Lang) into a handsome guy (Xue Hai). All the fans were saying, “Show becoming handsome will make the ratings go up even more.”

Matt Damon on 'Bourne 4': 'I wouldn't do it without Paul Greengrass'

12/06/2009 12:35:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Matt Damon is still optimistic that Bourne 4 will happen. But the actor, who’s starring in the upcoming Invictus for Clint Eastwood, made it very clear that he wouldn’t do the movie without director Paul Greengrass. (Greengrass, who directed both Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum, dropped out of the fourth film which did not yet have a greenlight last week.) “I feel like someday it’s going to happen,” Damon said at the premiere of Invictus on Thursday night (that film bows Dec. 11). “We just don’t have a script right now and so there’s no reason to try to put a round peg into a square hole. People like the franchise, including us, but the only reason to do another one is if we can make it great.”

He adds, “Paul’s got to go to work, you know? He’s ready to do another job, and it wasn’t the right job now. I get it. I wouldn’t do it without him but I don’t feel like he’s done with it totally. I think he’d change his mind if a good script came along. If there was a great Bourne idea, he would love to do it. It’s a big part of his life, too. We’re still going to keep working together — and hopefully on another Bourne movie too.” (Greengrass and Damon also worked together on Green Zone, which is due out in March 2010).

Josh Zetumer, the young screenwriter who did a last minute polish on Quantum of Solace and is the writer behind the upcoming adaptation of Dune, is currently in the middle of writing a script for Bourne 4. It’s a parallel effort to the work George Nolfi did on the film but Nolfi exited the project to direct Damon in The Adjustment Bureau, which he will wrap in New York next week.

It’s Chris Brown’s turn, but who wants to listen?

12/06/2009 12:34:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

In a blind taste test, contemporary R&B fans would probably groove in blissful ignorance to several of the songs on the new album “Graffiti.’’

The insistence of the fuzzy synths and hard angled beats of “Wait’’ only require a dance floor for full realization. “Crawl,’’ a paean to restoring lost love, soars in its wistful chorus as the singer hits a high note of despair, leavened with unfounded optimism for “one more chance/ we can still have it all.’’ The ballad “So Cold’’ manages to ache and bounce simultaneously as the singer offers apologies in an instantly hummable curlicue of a melody.

But life is not a blind taste test, and once listeners learn that the voice behind those songs belongs to Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty in June to a felonious assault on then-girlfriend Rihanna, many might just change their tune.

In the wake of the bloody police photos, the horrifying descriptions, and Rihanna’s own hard-shelled expressions of regret, terror, and anger on her recent album “Rated R’’ and its promotional tour, it’s unlikely that anyone wants to hear Brown apologize. Or seek solace. Or worse, try to shovel some of the blame for his atrocious behavior back in her direction, as he does on “Famous Girl,’’ implying that she was unfaithful (as was he) and had a temper of her own.

How fair is it to judge Brown’s music on his offstage actions? Given the public’s capacity to separate the art from the artist when said artist has committed a different kind of crime (all those drug dealers-turned-rappers come to mind) or even the same crime (some domestic violence perpetrators apparently get a pass for genius), it’s an interesting question. And some people simply don’t care.

Since Brown traffics in the kind of frivolous urban pop that sticks with you only as long as the time it takes to dance to it in the season it’s popular, it’s easy to understand the but-it’s-a-great-song argument. But that only gets you so far when what feels good on the surface gets discomfiting as you dig deeper.

The 20-year-old, who plays the House of Blues tonight, opens himself up to analysis, however, on “Graffiti’’ by singing so many songs - a handful great, the rest less so - that seem to reference the relationship. As co-writer of 12 of the 13 tracks, that’s where he sabotages a lot of the album’s purely musical promise.

No matter how catchy a tune is, it’s difficult to feel comfortable enjoying Brown croon on “So Cold,’’ “Tell her I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, can you forgive me, please forgive me, come back home, keep me safe and warm,’’ when that was precisely what he didn’t do for the woman in his life. The “heavy is the head’’ laments can also be tough to swallow, as on the otherwise appealing “Lucky Me,’’ in which he sings, “Even though I’m so damaged/ gotta pick myself up and perform for the crowd.’’

Even more unfathomable is that no one in this young man’s life - a producer, his mother, an anger management counselor - apparently advised him to reconsider certain lyrical decisions. Whether or not these songs are autobiographical, it is ill-advised that not once, but twice, Brown references Keri Hilson’s song “Knock You Down.’’

As an exercise in image control, “Graffiti’’ is a failure. If a handful of the songs were judged solely on their merit they would be huge hits, especially the keening “Crawl.’’ Others would not. No violent backstory is necessary to render the junior R. Kelly sex stuff and braggadocio on songs like “Sing Like Me’’ and “Take My Time’’ skeevy, not to mention plodding.

Brown could have simply made an album of club jams. But his decision to share his side of the story is also what perversely makes the eruptions of hurt, anger, and desperation interesting, if not necessarily contenders for repeat listening. Whether it’s a consequence of willfulness, cultural tone-deafness, or “artistic’’ need, Brown has to know that these songs will not make him popular with those who’ve already chosen to hate the sinner along with the sin. They could also potentially turn off those willing to give him a second professional chance.

That could be a huge mistake. But maybe Brown, who also sings, “Now I’m thankful for everything/ And I’m finally becoming a man,’’ figured that at this point he has little to lose in the court of public opinion so he might as well say what he wants to. Obviously, just as Rihanna did on “Rated R,’’ Brown should be allowed to express himself and examine his own demons, but he also has to understand that members of his audience may no longer be up for hearing it.

Google's Lesson Learned: Good News for Bing?

12/06/2009 12:34:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 1 Comment

Analysis: The recent rift between Rupert Murdoch and Google gives Microsoft an opportunity to earn the trust of Google-wary publishers.

The news that Rupert Murdoch's media empire, News Corp., was pulling its content out of Google and going exclusively to Bing — with Microsoft paying for it — shook up the technology and online news worlds last week.

But it turns out that's not really happening — yet. It's still a threat from Murdoch. But he has stated that he plans to pull News Corp. content from Google once all his sites are subscription-based.

Meanwhile, Microsoft denied that it has plans to pay for exclusive content to go on Bing. And Google, as a way to appease angry publishers like Murdoch and the Associated Press, changed how it grants access to news stories, and also made it easier for news sites to opt-out of Google News.

So will this all blow over? No way mate.

Murdoch has a history of creating enemies and then going after them doggedly (What's up Ted Turner?). Google is the latest. He's bloody mad at them for making so much money from merely listing content that hard-working publishers create, and then not sharing the advertising revenue.



And if, like The Wall Street Journal's site, you are charging a subscription fee for that content, Google is providing free access to your stories. In Google's defense, it has revised its system so readers will see a registration page on paid sites after clicking through their sixth article of the day. But still, that's six free stories on a paid site.

Initially, Murdoch's threat to de-index his company's content from Google seemed nuts. Why would you pull your content from a search engine that controls 65 percent of the market, and move it to Bing, which has a 10 percent of the market?

But Murdoch doesn't really care about that. Google float-ins who arrive at the WSJ site are like ghosts — they can't be monetized because WSJ doesn't know anything about them. What Murdoch wants is subscribers, subscribers, subscribers – something Google can't guarantee them.

Page views don't mean much to Murdoch if he doesn't know anything about those doing the viewing. It's easier to tailor ads to users whose behavior you have analyzed. Google knows this better than anyone and has been monetizing the heck out of you and me for years.

As Murdoch said recently in an interview with his Sky News Australia service about Google users who wind up at News Corp. sites: "They don't suddenly become loyal readers of our content ... We'd rather have fewer people coming to our Web site but paying."

The traffic Google brings into the WSJ site is not as high as one might think. Web site market share tracker Hitwise reports that the site has 25 percent of its traffic come through Google. A related story in Silicon Alley Insider calculates that losing that traffic would only cost WSJ approximately $12 million.

Could Microsoft pick up that 12 million tab to have exclusive rights to News Corp. content? Right now, Microsoft is saying no.

And that's wise. Microsoft should not just throw huge sums of money at the problem. It would look like a desperate bid to grab market share, and it's also a gamble because more people go to search engines to look up digital cameras and restaurants than for news stories.

But the Google/Murdoch scrap does present an opportunity for Bing to be the anti-Google, and cultivate shared ad revenue deals with publishers. Microsoft could also share general user data with publishers so they can analyze the behavior of readers coming from Bing. Publishers don't see the value in traffic coming from search engines. Bing could change that perception and both parties could benefit financially by sharing revenue.

Microsoft is deeply invested in search. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that he plans to spend $5.5 to $11 billion on Bing over the next five years. It would be a mistake to use that cash to simply buy content. A smarter way to go is to invest in revenue-based deals with publishers, helping them make sense of search traffic and helping them make money from it.

In other words, be better at something than Google.

Kim Hyun-jung to Get 3 Awards at Gala in HK

12/06/2009 12:33:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

K-pop idol Kim Hyun-jung of boy-band SS501 will receive three prizes at the"Yahoo! Asia Buzz Awards 2009," a gala event which will be held in Hong Kong on Dec. 14, his aides said.

The annual awards ceremony, jointly organized by Yahoo portal operators in Korea, Hong Kong and Taipei, has honored stars chosen by netizens since 2003.

The awards reserved for him are ?"Buzz International Single,'' "KR Top Buzz Artist" and "Taiwan Top Buzz Korean Artist."

The Buzz International Single award is given to an entertainer who claims the top spot in the list of most searched entertainers by Internet users on Yahoo sites in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea.

The award signifies that Kim is the top hallyu star in Asia. Kim gained international fame after starring in the KBS smash hit ``Boys over Flowers'' as a handsome tycoon heir earlier this year.

His band SS501 will also receive the"Buzz International Group" award. The band will have a concert in Hong Kong on Dec. 12 before attending the awards ceremony.

Shindong is an alcoholic?

12/06/2009 12:33:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Apparently, Kangin wasn't the only one in Super Junior to suffer from his unstoppable love for alcohol...


After the airing of November 17th's episode of SBS Strong Heart, the oh-so-vigilant netizens have been abuzz toward a green bottle located behind Shindong's chair. However, there is only one substance that a green bottle can possibly contain in Korea - it is none other than the nation's favorite alcoholic beverage, soju (??).

Just from looking at these screenshots, it seems like Shindong had attempted to hide it from the cameras' perspectives, yet ultimately failed. The bottle was closely positioned from the chair, so it was easy to reach for whenever. Also, it looks like one-third of the alcohol has already been drunk. Filming under the influence of alcohol is strictly against the broadcasting rules, and general etiquette to the viewers as well.


Could this mean Shindong was actually drinking during the filming? Obviously, no - it's just a possibility. Many conclusions can be made from the scene we see above, such as: 1. Another person could've placed it there. 2. It might be filled with water (although it's not likely). 3. It could've been a prop for one of Shindong's comedy segments. 4. Producers of the show had a late night drinking session in the studio and forgot to clean up.

However, the netizens showed their disagreement to the hypothetical situations.

"Wow, the name of the program suits perfectly. What a strong heart to drink in front of millions."
"Are you serious? Did you really think hiding your bottle would've worked?"
"I cannot accept this. First Kangin, and now Shindong?"

So what do you think? Do you think Shindong is actually a hardcore soju lover? Or nothing but another victim of netizens' mighty false accusations?

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