See that little squiggly, [maybe] weirdly shaped worm in the above video? It’s American Idol season four winner Carrie Underwood making a guest appearance on Sesame Street. She’ll first appear this Thursday with more appearances on March 17, April 8 and April 26. She may have lost to Taylor Swift at the Grammy’s this year but she makes up for that by performing as a puppet.
After a spectacular first season back in 2006, NBC’s hit Heroes has been met with nothing but rocky criticism since. Season two was panned for slowing down too quickly, season three for just being plain awful and four, well four is actually being well received right now.
Though fans and critics alike have been pleased with the show getting back on pace this season, the ratings tell a different story. The season four finale only managed to capture 4.41 million viewers. Compared to the first season’s 13.48, that is quite the drop. With ratings on a steady decline each episode until this finale, the question mark still remains as to whether or not the show will be brought back. Based on budget, casting and effects? The show would have to be considerably cut to match those viewership ratings. Based on other shows with similar ratings like Sarah Connor Chronicles, not a chance being that low.
Heroes had its run, whether it should’ve stopped earlier or not…is of your own opinion.
Though director Garry Marshall’s newest flick Valentine’s Day doesn’t hit theaters until this Friday, he’s already sharing his thoughts on a possible screen adaptation of the classic 76′-83 Laverne & Shirley tv series he helped create. The stars? None other then Jennifer Garner and Jessica Biel, who in addition to co-starring in VD have also struck up quite the friendship off set as well. They both got chummy in the photos for this month’s issue of Marie Claire and have said they’re both game for the parts. As of now it’s just speculation, but with their comedic timing and Marshall on board it will definitely be entertaining.
Today Google unveiled a new addition to its already growing platform of internet applications: Google Buzz. The app, (which is added within your G-Mail account) is set to take on the likes of Twitter and Facebook status updates with a slightly more sophisticated edge. Some of the key features differentiating it from the other services include:
• Automatic friends lists (friends are added automatically who you have emailed on Gmail)
• “Rich fast sharing” which combines sources like Picasa and Twitter into a single feed, it also includes full-sized photo browsing
• Public and private sharing (Allowing you to swap between family and friends)
• Inbox integration (instead of emailing you with updates like Facebook, Buzz features emails that update immediately with all Buzz thread content, like the photo viewer mentioned above)
• “Recommended Buzz” puts friend-of-friend content into your stream, even if you’re not acquainted. Recommendations learn over time with your feedback.
The app is already available and should be showing up right below where it says “Inbox” in your G-Mail account. Of course, it also works on cell phones so if you’re an iPhone user, look for it in the browser.
Via Gizmodo
Here’s a video from Google Explaining the service (It brings to mind the Twitter introduction video)
Even though they’ve gotten older, the Who were still able to maintain the same rock spirit they’ve always had. This year’s superbowl wasn’t just entertaining on the field (with a second half that saw New Orleans really up their game) but with a half time show that had a mix of four of the Who’s biggest hits. You can check out the full performance below.
Remember the recent contestant on American Idol by the name of Nicci Nix? The helium voiced girl who travelled 14 hours by airplane from Florence Italy to sing Something Kind of Ooh for the judges? Well it turns out that she’s not who she first appeared to be. Miss Nix (from California or Pleasantville) has previously appeared on four other reality shows prior to Idol under the name of Nicci Palmeri. On Fear Factor, Next, Making the Band and Date My Mom she had nowhere near the high voice she staged for the hit singing competition. Whether the judges will recognize this now and disqualify her for being untruthful (highly doubt that) remains to be seen. You can see some videos of her other reality appearances here.
All the way back in September we here at The Media Crunch vouched for an early Oscar nomination for Christoph Waltz’s incredible performance in QT’s Inglorious Basterds. As the rest of ‘09 flew by and more stellar performances were given (in particular, Stanley Tucci as George Harvey in The Lovely Bones) our position that Mr. Waltz deserved it was unchanged by any others. We just felt the performance was that good and we were far away from being the only one. As the Golden Globes approached and he won the prize more momentum was building, then he went on to win the SAG award. Now that the Oscar nominees have been revealed and he is definitely in the running our position is “Academy voters, this man deserves the Oscar!” Waltz gave an outstanding performance that will be remembered in film for a long time. He played the Jew Hunter Hans Landa believably and with as much gusto and flair as any past winner or present nominee. As a relative newcomer to American cinema after doing a lot of theater he was spot on, and among an ensemble cast he managed to constantly chew up the scenery. With a few awards for the role already under his belt, why not give him with the top prize as well?
At 8:30AM this morning the list of nominees for the 82nd Oscars were revealed. Leading at the front of the pack is mega blockbuster Avatar with 9 nominations, followed closely by Quentin Tarantino’s magnificent film Inglorious Basterds with 8. The Hurt Locker, District 9 and Up were also best picture noms with a surprise twist added by The Blind Side coming in to ten picks. Normally animated features and sci-fi flicks never the get the attention they deserve so it’s nice to see not one but two on the list.
The complete list of nominees is below.
Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
Best Director
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress
Original Screenplay
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Joel & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, & Thomas McCarthy, Up
Adapted Screenplay
Neil Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Ianucci, & Tony Roche, In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Best Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon
Animated Film
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up
Best Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria
Best Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria
Best Documentary
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home
Best Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Best Makeup
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria
Best Score
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up
Best Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up
Best Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Best Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek
Best Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin
Best Animated Short
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death
Best Live-Action Short
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants
Foreign Language Film
Ajami (Israel)
El secreto de sus ojos (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophete (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)
Best Song
“Almost There,” The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans,” The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname,” Paris 36, Reinhardt Wagner & Frank Thomas
“Take It All,” Nine, Maury Weston
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart, T-Bone Burnett & Ryan Bingham
Ke$ha, the newest pop sensation with major daddy issues has slowly started dominating iPods with her hit song “Tik Tok”. Rhyming about brushing her teeth with a bottle of jager, feeling like P. Diddy and her man’s wienerschnitzel she comes across as nothing more than another prepackaged dim witted pop tart. Trying to pass herself off as edgy (because, as she admitted in a recent Rolling Stone Interview pissing in people’s champagne bottles “is living life”) as comments on the article show, a majority think she came right from an area with no class. Every statement she utters either is meant to provoke or prove how vapid she is.
How can you blame them though, with the music industry’s choice of product already under a lot of scrutiny this artist (used about as loosely as possible) just adds more fuel to the fire. It opens up the debate as to just how far the music scene has spiraled downwards when major labels push someone like this as a hot new singer, even worse that so many people support it. Without a shred of creativity to her name, this high-school dropout has already managed to have the fastest selling single of the year. Her music mainly consists of nothing more then talking over a repetitive keyboard beat with juvenile lyrics that are of the lowest common denominator. Young girls used to look up to well spoken singers and celebrity figures, are there any left that haven’t done their way up the industry ladder for profit?
It begs the question, just what is a hit song in today’s climate? Forty years ago millions of people screamed for the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, four lads whose success will probably never be topped. They played all of their instruments, wrote all of their tunes and created hit after hit. Today, music is about money and a product. Ke$ha’s success is based off of a projected partying image, of videos and little musical talent. Nothing was more evident of that then her performance on Conan O’Brien which was so awful it was pulled off of her official Youtube fanpage.
Probably the biggest gripe of all is the little known fact that independent musician Uffie did it all first and much better. The similarities between the style of the two go far beyond genre and in even in today’s unoriginal climate, the main beat of Tik-Tok was lifted off of a Kylie Minogue track. It’s more then evident with the numerous usage of auto-tune, samples and other audio trickery that music (the most mainstream at least) is getting progressively dumbed down and worse as the years go by. Ke$ha isn’t even rapping, she’s merely speaking over a beat that she didn’t create, with a song a producer helped her write and whom the mass public bought. The people who complain about the downfall of the industry need to not point their fingers just at the musicians themselves but the public who buy into it. Speak with your wallets, maybe those 15 minutes will be shortened to ten.
Written By: Kyle Bulai
Uffie
Ke$ha’s Tik-Tok Mixed With the Beat of the Kylie Minogue Track Love At First Sight
Today Apple unveiled their long rumoured, eagerly anticipated tablet that managed to spark about as much debate about its abilities as its shortcomings.
With the appearance of an enlarged iPhone, the iPad is a sleek new device targeted at capturing the attention of e-book, portable internet and gadget fans alike. But how much marketshare will it capture, especially with its hefty price tag?
Starting at $499 for the 16GB “basic” Wi-Fi enabled device, the cost goes as high as $829 for the 3G, 64GB model. On top of that a $30 per month data plan needs to be set-up, which begs the question, why not just stick with your iPhone?
Already tech and gadget sites are discussing the many problems with this first generation device, from the name (Tampax jokes galore!) to the pricing and lack of features. Sure it plays movies from iTunes, but it doesn’t do widescreen! Sure you can surf the net and use hundreds of apps but there’s no multi-tasking. Another deal breaker is that there’s no support for Flash, which may be okay for the iPhone but on a gadget marketed towards people who want portable internet, not having flash will bring down the quality of the surfing experience.
In typical Apple fashion the device looks as sleek and well designed as ever (though the surrounding bezel could do with a little more thinning) and many fans of the company will probably scoop up the device. It maintains the simplistic design they’re known for and appears to be heavily inspired by the iPhone’s look. It also has the nice ability to sync up with a Bluetooth keyboard to make typing a lot easier.
At the end of the day after the hype has settled, you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth it. With no e-ink, shorter battery life due to screen size and no USB ports either, it’d be difficult choosing this over an Amazon Kindle (for reading) or a $250 netbook for the internet and word programs. There’s a lot of good tech in play here, it just seems underwhelming. Apple always improves upon their products every year and time will tell if this can have the standing power of an iconic device like the iPod or the iPhone.
Written By: Kyle Bulai
