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Miley Snubbed! Kanye Bested! David Cooked! More Grammy Surprises!

12/03/2009 12:35:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , , 0 Comments

Miley Cyrus ain't no Taylor Swift. David Cook ain't no Carrie Underwood. Kanye West probably isn't happy. (What else is new?)


Here's a rundown of the snubs, surprises and other stuff of note from tonight's Grammy nominations, plus Michael Jackson's MIA status explained:

• Miley Cyrus started the year with a hit movie and hit soundtrack, and ended it with fewer Grammy nominations than Ed Asner. Translation: Zero. Translation: Eight fewer than Taylor Swift.

• Cyrus' "The Climb" earned one nod in a non-marquee category (Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, where it'll probably lose to Slumdog Millionaire's "Jai Ho"), but none for its singer (the award is for the songwriters).

• Welcome to the real, cruel world, David Cook. The season seven American Idol winner got nothing for not growing up to become Taylor Hicks. Most notably, Cook came up empty in Best New Artist, the category fellow Idol alum Carrie Underwood won in 2007.

• Demi Lovato and Justin Bieber likewise failed to get Best New Artist love, making it a bad night for teenagers not named Taylor Swift.

• Where to begin with Kanye West? Yes, the award-show Grinch netted six nods, but no big fish: No Album of the Year, no Record of the Year, no Song of the Year, etc. Plus, his favorite Beyoncé song, "Single Ladies," got shut out of the ultimate prize, Record of the Year.

• Can't stop hum-hum-humming Owl City's "Fireflies?" Grammy voters could. The song and Adam Young's alterna-outfit got zip.

• The Black Eyed Peas are so powerful that only the Black Eyed Peas can stop them, with "I Gotta Feeling" nabbing a Record of the Year nod over the group's just-as-ubiquitous "Boom Boom Pow."

• Whitney Houston, we have a problem: Zero nominations for you and your comeback album, I Look to You.

• Michael Jackson, sit tight: This Is It, the soundtrack and the single, were absent from the nominations because the collection wasn't released until after the Aug. 31 eligibility cut-off date.

• Britney Spears, happy 28th birthday: You nabbed one nod. And while it wasn't for a prime-time award—with apologies to the Best Dance Recording category—it was for an award.

Susan Boyle's 'I Dreamed a Dream' tops U.S. album chart

12/03/2009 12:35:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream sold 701,000 copies its first week, the biggest sales week of 2009, in another chapter to the Scottish singer's fairy-tale rise to stardom.

Her debut album, which hit shelves Nov. 23, handily beat the year's previous leader, Eminem's Relapse, which racked up 608,000 copies in May, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Dream had the best-selling first week since AC/DC's Black Ice entered Billboard with 784,000 in October 2008. It's also the biggest debut by a woman since SoundScan began tabulating sales in 1991. Until now, Ashanti held the title with her 2002 eponymous debut, which sold 503,000. The only debut that has outsold Boyle's is Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, which moved 803,000 in 1993.

Boyle, 48, a church volunteer who lives with her cat, won worldwide notice after her audition on U.K. television show Britain's Got Talent, breaking YouTube records with performances of I Dreamed a Dream (from Les Misérables) and Cry Me a River.

Her voice is only one factor of her success, says Billboard chart analyst Keith Caulfield.

"It's the unlikely pop-star Cinderella story," he says. "It's so moving to a lot of people, who see something of themselves in her. They like to see the underdog achieve. You may not buy it just for the music but for the whole story, for a piece of that pop-culture moment."

Boyle's older fans, who infrequently buy music, are less likely than younger consumers to cherry-pick tracks or turn to piracy. "That's why her number looks disproportionately larger," Caulfield says. "Album sales are dreadfully lower now."

Fueling Boyle's debut was wide awareness of the album.

"You didn't have to do a lot of artist development," Caulfield says. "She's new, but everyone feels they know her. The sticker on the album cover says, 'As seen on YouTube.' There are great examples of artists who were signed or discovered thanks to MySpace or a viral network, but it's hard to think of anyone else who had such tremendous success via YouTube."

Boyle also got a boost from Thanksgiving week sales, though she faced stiff competition. American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment sold 198,000 to enter at No. 3, behind Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas (218,000). Rihanna's Rated R opened fourth with 181,000, and Lady Gaga's eight-song The Fame Monster arrived fifth with 174,000, trailed by her debut and its reissue, The Fame, with 151,000.Also new to the chart: Shakira's She Wolf, No. 15 (89,000).

Taylor Swift, Beyoncé Lead Grammy Nominations

12/03/2009 12:34:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , , 0 Comments

The nominees for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards are in, and Beyonce is leading the pack. The “Sasha Fierce” hitmaker earned a total of 10 Grammy nominations during “The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music’s Biggest Night” event hosted by LL Cool J on Wednesday night.


Beyonce is up for Album of the Year for her 2008 LP I Am … Sasha Fierce, Song of the Year for her mega-hit “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” and “Record of the Year for her ballad “Halo.” Nipping at her heels is country sweetie Taylor Swift, who was close behind with eight nominations, including Album, Song, and Record of the Year.

The Black Eyed Peas tied with Maxwell and Kanye West for a total of six nominations each.

Winner will be announced in the 2010 Grammy Awards ceremony at The Staples Center in Los Angeles on Jan. 31, 2010.

SONG OF THE YEAR
Beyonce – “Single Ladies”
Lady Gaga – “Poker Face”
Maxwell – “Pretty Wings”
Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”
Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me.”

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Beyonce – “I Am … Sasha Fierce”
Black Eyed Peas’ “The E.N.D.”
Lady Gaga – “The Fame”
Taylor Swift – “Fearless”
Dave Matthews Band – “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.”

RECORD OF THE YEAR
Beyonce – “Halo”
Black Eyes Peas – “I Gotta Feeling”
Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”
Lady Gaga – “Poker Face”
Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”

BEST COUNTRY PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP WITH VOCALS
Brooks & Dunn – “Cowgirls Don’t Cry”
Zac Brown Band – “Chicken Fried”
Lady Antebellum – “I Run To You”
Rascal Flatts “Here Comes Goodbye”
Sugarland – “It Happens”

BEST RAP SOLO PERFORMANCE
Drake – “Best I Ever Had”
Eminem – “Beautiful”
Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”
Kid Cudi – “Day ‘N’ Nite”
Mos Def – “Casa Bey.”

BEST ROCK ALBUM
AC/DC – “Black Ice”
Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood – “Life from Madison Square Garden”
Green Day – “21st Century Breakdown”
Dave Matthews Band – “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King”
U2 – “No Line on the Horizon.”

BEST POP PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP WITH VOCALS
Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”
Bon Jovi – “We Weren’t Born to Follow”
The Fray – “Never Say Never”
Daryl Hall and John Oates’ “Sara Smile”
MGMT – “Kids”

Microsoft demonstrates more Bing 2.0 features and shares new user stats

12/03/2009 12:34:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Microsoft sent a bunch of its top search execs to San Francisco on December 2 to show off more of what’s part of the Bing 2.0 fall refresh of the company’s search engine.


Microsoft announced the Bing fall refresh on November 11 and said to expect the new features to be rolled out over the coming weeks. To be clear, Microsoft doesn’t like to call these Bing 2.0, but that’s what employees at the company dubbed this update earlier this summer; Microsoft officials prefer to call these features examples of the “continuous improvements and updates” to Bing.

According to reports of folks in the San Francisco audience, Microsoft execs demonstrated a number of new visual-search add-ons, the new Bing Mobile search client and Silverlight-powered Bing maps. They also showed off “entity cards” and “task pages,” two more ways Microsoft is attempting to differentiate Bing from Google, presentation-wise, and to make searches more relevant.

Microsoft officials told attendees that Bing’s greatest growth is coming from the 18-24 and 25-34 age groups, to whom videos, shopping and image search are all important. Microsoft execs told event attendees that 50 percent of time in search engines is spent on sessions that are longer than 30 minutes and 60 percent of sessions include four queries or more. (I’d posit the length and number of queries could be related to the difficulty of finding the information being searched for, but that didn’t seem to come up in today’s remarks.)

Microsoft’s own internal survey found these to be the most popular queries from Bing searchers:



Given these stats, it’s not surprising that Microsoft is focusing on optimizing around visual search, video search and local mobile searches (and less so on general informational queries).

So what, exactly, did Microsoft show today? Microsoft provided more details via a Bing blog post and e-mail follow-up from a spokesperson. On the short list:

* The beta version Bing Maps that uses Silverlight and Photosynth imagery, available today. There’s also Twitter Maps “for real-time updates by area and Local Lens featuring hyperlocal, neighborhood content.”

* A new Bing Windows Mobile app that includes improved auto-locate and voice search that is due to be rolled out over the next few days.

* A new Bing toolbar “which flags online content and alerts you when you’re about to make a purchase that qualifies for Bing cashback.”

* A social-network Visual Search capability that integrates Facebook and Twitter. It’s “coming soon,” according to Microsoft. (Microsoft announced and began rolling out Visual Search this past fall.)

It will be interesting to see what Google announces on the search front next week on December 7 and whether Microsoft managed to grab any mind share by going out publicly with its latest demos days before Google holds its dog and pony show….

Britney Spears Spends Her 28th Birthday Shopping at Fred Segal

12/03/2009 12:33:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Happy Birthday, Britney Spears!

Just back from her "Circus" tour's stint in Australia, the pop star celebrated her 28th birthday in L.A. indulging in one of her favorite pastimes: shopping!

Going casual in oversize black glasses, a tan and black hat, white long-sleeve tee and a black sweater, the singer hit L.A. boutique Fred Segal with beau Jason Trawick.

After browsing the mens' sportswear section, she picked up some gifts not for herself but for her sons Sean, 4, and Jayden, 3.

It's been a great year for Spears after a seriously rocky period: her world tour went off without a hitch, she scored yet another #1 single in October with "Three," her body's back in prime condition...and, following a string of Mr. Wrongs, she has found a new, stable love in Trawick, 37.

A pal tells Us that Trawick is "absolutely fantastic with the boys." And the agent stood by Spears in her darkest days: in early 2008, she was involuntarily committed twice to a psychiatric hospital; in 2007, she had lost custody of her sons.

One of Trawick's biggest fans? Britney's mom Lynne Spears. "Lynne said, 'He's the kind of man you would dream of your daughter marrying. The kids love him, and he's stable,'" a friend tells Us.

Another news tweak for Google

12/03/2009 12:33:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Following modifications to its "First Click Free" policy that gives Google News users access to some content that would otherwise be behind a pay wall, Google has released an additional tweak that lets publishers decide whether they want their sites to show up in Google News, Google Web search, both, or neither.

Previously, if a publisher wanted to request inclusion in one or the other, but not both, sending a request to Google was required. This now automates the process.

These updates to Google's news indexing come at a time when media outlets are once again pointing fingers at the search giant as a revenue suck--and in response, Google insists it's good for publishers because it drives traffic. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has made concrete threats that he will pull his publications' content from Google and is reported to be in talks with Microsoft to strike an exclusive deal on its Bing search engine.

By offering more flexible options for choosing where exactly news outlets want their content to appear, Google comes across as friendlier and less authoritative--at least on the surface.

TVXQ performs together at FNS Music Festival

12/03/2009 12:32:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

The boys of TVXQ / DBSK / Tohoshinki were together as 5 and participated at the prestigious FNS Music Festival on Fuji TV in Japan. Only the top recording artists are invited to the Music Festival and it's usually the most watched (top ratings) program annually.


The boys performed Rainy Blue along with Hideaki Tokunaga and also their hit single Stand By You. They also had a brief interview section where they stated that they were nervous because this was their first time on the show. They also interacted with SMAP stating that Kusangi is supposedly good friends with Jaejoong. Kusangi stated they became friends after TVXQ appeared on the SMAPxSMAP show. Jaejoong stated he hasn't been in contact with Kusangi for a while because Kusangi changed his cell phone number. Kusangi stated that he'll give him his new number after the show.

Talk:
Opening:

Rachel Bilson Sex Scene! [VIDEO]

12/03/2009 12:32:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments



Rachel Bilson just doesn’t feel that comfortable doing a nude scene with co-star Adam Scott for her upcoming film Hearts of Palm. However, after a little pep talk for her patient director, she dives right in.

Check out Rachel’s sex scene in this hilarious video from FunnyOrDie.com…..


Microsoft Bing Maps Beta adds much richer images

12/03/2009 12:31:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , 0 Comments

Microsoft is kicking Bing Maps into a higher gear, announcing a beta version of Bing Maps that uses Silverlight to display 3D images and its own version of street-level images.


The company announced the new beta Wednesday amid a discussion of other improvements to Bing Thursday at its San Francisco offices in a presentation for the media. Bing Maps Beta is rolling out Thursday along with several other new features in the main Bing search results.

Bing Maps Beta requires Microsoft Silverlight to deliver very smooth three-dimensional transitions between satellite and street-view imagery. Like Google Street View, Microsoft has driven the streets of major cities such as San Francisco and assembled its own library of map-related images.

The new beta service can also find images of items inside popular destinations, such as art exhibits inside museums and other geotagged images available on the Internet through Microsoft Photosynth. Developers can also create Web applications to run inside the Bing Maps Beta, such as an application that works with Newseum to index local papers inside maps and let Bing users see the front pages of newspapers across the country.

In addition, Bing Maps Beta users will be able to see local tweets through a partnership with Twitter demonstrated during the event. Twitter recently rolled out a geolocation service.

Microsoft has street-level imagery for around 100 U.S. cities, it said, and is adding more imagery on a constant basis.

Microsoft also talked about new enhancements to Bing called "entity cards," which are sections on the top of a search results page that contain a mix of structured and crawled data on a given topic. For example, searching on "Coldplay" will bring up an official photo of the band with a link to their Web page, tour dates, additional photos, and other information all displayed before your eyes scroll down to the search results themselves.

Similar enhancements will appear on searches for specific cities, with photos and weather information, as well as searches for companies, where financial information and news will appear. At some point in the future, Microsoft also plans to let searches hook up with their Facebook accounts to search for photos, upcoming birthdays, and status updates.








Cyndi Wang dances with big-built men; Soft toy Wan Xin Ni accompanies her on promotion activities

12/03/2009 12:31:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Cyndi recently filmed the MV for her new song "Heart to Heart (心电心)" in Taipei. The dance instructor Lan Bo specially found 5 big built males that were over 120kg to dance with Cyndi. Cyndi remarked that "This dance sure has a very unique aura." With her new album coming out soon, the music company has also caringly designed a very cute large soft toy "Wan Xin Ni (丸心妮)" for Cyndi, to accompany Cyndi through her huge publicity activities.


To bring out the feelings conveyed in the lyrics of the song "Heart to Heart (心电心)" :
"Tall or short, I don't care, and it doesn't matter what's your weight. Palm to palm, let's have a heart to heart" the dance instructor Lan Bo had his mind set on having 5 overweight males dancing with Cyndi for this MV. After months of searching, he finally selected 5 "big-built" males that came from various work industry. Within them, there's telecommunication staff, salesperson, dancer and even a wrestling instructor from a Wushu School. The lightest among the 5 weighs 110kg while the most overweight guy weighs over 140kg.



When it was Cyndi's turn to practice dancing with the 5 "giants" in the dance room, due to the big size of the 5 males, the dance room which can usually accommodate 10 people seemed rather full. The "heat" generated even caused mist to form on the windows of the dance room. Cyndi laughed and said "There's the feeling of leading a sumo wrestling team out for competition. And the practice room was like a sauna! Its the first time I've came across mist forming on the room's window and when we're practicing, I'll accidentally "eat" some of the sweat that they splatter across. This dance sure has a very unique aura!"



During the practice process, what troubled everyone most was not the dance step but rather that the 5 males might work themselves too hard in the dance and end up slimming down. The music company thus quickly forked out NT $20 000 as food fund and got the dance instructor to lead the team after every practice for a very full meal. Cyndi has gain some weight recently and employees have been joking that she went to eat supper with the 5 dancers. Cyndi's pretty worried too "Those 5 dancers add up to be 600kg and over. And there's still me. Will the dance stage be overloaded when we have this performance!"



For the "H2H (心电心)" album promotion activities, the music company specially invited reknown internet illustrator "Da Mei Yang (大莓羊)" to help design a uniquely Cyndi's big soft toy "Wan Xin Ni", which is 120cm tall. This soft toy can accompany Cyndi to all her promotion activities. Cyndi also said that "The schedule for the publicity period is very pack. I also hope that someone can be constantly with me so that I can open up and share my inner thoughts. Thank you everyone for being so sweet." However, when filming the "Heart to Heart" MV, a worker accidentally toppled "Wan Xin Ni" and it became all dirtied. Even after cleaning, "Wan Xin Ni"'s mouth still shows traces of mud and Cyndi's finding it very funny yet heart aching. She says that she wants to bring her to the dry-cleaning shop for SPA.

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