Year: 2009

Today is Record Store Day 2009

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 18, 2009

RECORD STORE DAY 2009 takes place today.

It’s the day that celebrates all things vinyl and good about music.

Many artists are releasing albums (or re-releasing, as in Green Day’s case) on Record Store Day in order to increase awareness of how these independent music retailers are still a vital part of the music scene.

Heck, even the COACHELLA MUSIC FESTIVAL will be running their own record store this weekend in honor of Record Store Day.

Some of the other artists releasing albums today include Bruce Springsteen, The Decemberists, The Smiths, Jane’s Addiction, and Bob Dylan.

How important are vinyl records to today’s musician? When CBS’s 60 Minutes recently interviewed Coldplay’s Chris Martin, the camera caught a glimpse of Coldplay’s “Rules”. One of the rules was “Promo/review copies to be on VINYL”. Makes sense, as that makes pirating just a bit more difficult than if the copies were sent digitally.

Tags Music, News, shopping

10 Things How To shopping

10 Things You Don’t Know About… Finding the Best Inexpensive Wine at a Restaurant

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 17, 2009

So you’re sitting at the fancy restaurant, and the waiter hands you the wine menu. If you’re like most people, you flip to the back page where the cheap stuff is, scan the page for the least expensive per-glass line, and order whatever it may be.

Yes, restaurants make a ton of money selling customers a bottle of wine at an incredibly high markup. The same bottle that can run $100 or more in the restaurant may only cost you $20 at the local wine shop…assuming the local wine shop even carries that label or vintage.

So how do you know which wine is a good value when you’re looking at the menu?

The Wall Street Journal has written a handy guide to help you SAVE MONEY WHEN BUYING WINE AT A RESTAURANT.

Tags 10 Things, How To, shopping, wine

TV TV Reviews

TiVo Alert: PITCHMEN on Discovery

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 16, 2009

Billy Mays (the bearded one) and Anthony Sullivan (the other guy) are two of those “As Seen on TV” pitchmen, shilling products ranging from stick-up lightbulbs to cleaning supplies to other handy household products.

Since these infomercials have become so ingrained in the public consciousness (“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”), The Discovery Channel has decided to make Pitchmen, a reality-TV show about what it takes to get a new product from the pitch to TV.

Similar in concept to the ABC program AMERICAN INVENTOR from a few years ago, people from around the country bring their inventions to a pitch meeting with Billy, Anthony, and the president of Tele-Brands in the hopes that they too have the Next Greatest Must-Have item.

Along the way, we learn a little bit about what it takes to be a successful telemarketed product, such as:

Tags advertising, marketing, reality tv, TV

Music TV

American Idol Singers Ranked

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 16, 2009

Victor Balta at Comcast has RANKED ALL 82 OF THE AMERICAN IDOL FINALISTS SO FAR, FROM WORST TO FIRST.

We can all agree that the top ten of all American Idols should be these folks, even if some of the specific ranking numbers may need to be tweaked a little amongst the top 5:

Kelly Clarkson
Carrie Underwood
Chris Daughtry
Clay Aiken
David Cook
Jordin Sparks
David Archuleta
Fantasia Barrino
Ruben Studdard
Tamyra Gray

Me, I would rank Archuleta, Fantasia, Ruben, and Tamyra a little lower into the teens. Just didn’t see what all the fuss was about.

Tags Music, reality tv, TV

Internet

Tweet Race 2009: @aplusk vs @cnnbrk (wins @EA loot)

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 15, 2009

By now you’ve heard of the TWITTER RACE between Ashton Kutcher and CNN to be the first Twitter user to have 1 million followers.

The TWITTER RACE website, updated every 10 minutes, has CNN in the lead right now by about 21k followers (give or take a few as I type this).

Electronic Arts, the video game publisher behind the Madden franchise and other hit games, just tweeted that they were going to award Ashton Kutcher’s 1,000,000th follower a copy of every game EA makes in 2009 for the winner’s system, and will also be featured in The Sims 3 video game. They estimate that this whole thing will be over in the next 15-20 hours or so, at the current rate those two users are attracting followers.

Tags Internet, News, twitter

News

A “Same Sex Kiss Day” Reminder

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 15, 2009

Just a friendly reminder that today, April 15th, is SAME SEX KISS DAY at your local Starbucks.

Previous info: SAME SEX KISS DAY AT STARBUCKS

Tags News, Party Talk, Starbucks

Disney

Detooning Disney in Five Lessons, a Response

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 14, 2009

PROGRESS CITY, USA‘s latest article in their “TEN WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR” series is entitled “DETOONIFICATION“. In it, PCU writes about how they would like to de-toon the Disney parks, and how the recent character overlays on various rides are a bit of overkill.

PCU does have a point: the overlay of Iago and Zazu into Walt Disney World’s Tiki Room is a perfect example of how not to add characters to an attraction. While the number crunchers may have interpreted the declining turnstyle numbers on the attraction as an indication that the Tiki Room was tired and needed to be modernized, the reality is seen across the country in Disneyland’s beautifully restored Tiki Room: that with a little bit of attraction maintenance – cleaning up the audio, blowing the dust off the electronics and lights – the crowds will once again flock to a beloved attraction.

Tags Blog, Disney, Epcot, Walt Disney World

Disney Movies

D23 exclusive screening of Pixar’s “UP” (and you’re not invited)

Post author By web gangsta
Post date April 14, 2009

Details are starting to emerge about the upcoming exclusive screening for D23 members of Disney-Pixar’s latest film, UP.

All you have to do, it seems, other than have your Disney D23 membership card at the ready – is to go to the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, California for the special showing on Thursday morning May 28th, at 12:01am.

Of course, further details are scarce about whether there is going to be any actual D23 preview ticket distribution or similar, in order to control the massive crowd that is sure to show up for this fantastic D23 benefit.

Tags D23, Disney, Movies