“Spears’ audio even worse than show - Greensboro News & Record” plus 4 more

Spears’ audio even worse than show - Greensboro News & Record
The gossip site using old-fashioned newspaper tactics to woo readers - The Guardian
Today in History - Sept. 7 - AOL
Kourtney Kardashian's baby daddy throws 'man-shower' - New Kerala
LADY GAGA'S BOLTON COLLABORATION - Contactmusic.com

Spears’ audio even worse than show - Greensboro News & Record

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 11:54 PM PDT

GREENSBORO — The idea that a rock star's life is a public freak show has long been a theme in popular music, from the gallery of circus sideshows on the cover of the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street" album decades ago, to Britney Spears' latest album and the tour it was named after, "Circus," which came to the Greensboro Coliseum on Saturday night.

It has been 21/2 years since Spears, now 27, famously hit bottom with a custody battle, rehab and a shaved head.

"Circus" is her attempt to rise from the ashes without denying the dark side of fame. Her Greensboro show brought the circus to the stage, with the space during Spears' many song breaks and costume changes filled by clowns, acrobats, a dwarf and a legless trampoline athlete.

Before Spears emerged shortly after 9 p.m., a series of acts brought brief opening sets to the three-ring stage, which filled most of the coliseum floor. Kristinia DeBarge is the latest pop singer from the DeBarge family, which hit in the 1980s with "Rhythm of the Night." She got the crowd going with "Goodbye," a variation on the vintage Steam song-turned-sports anthem "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye." But DeBarge was barely on long enough to make an impression, as was the case with the second act, the new boy band One Call, whose members did a mean little leprechaun dance during their brief run.

The sound seemed to be prerecorded throughout the opening sets, with no musicians visible on stage or on the surrounding coliseum floor. And it was abysmal: muddy, distorted, the vocals barely emerging from the clatter produced by the small banks of speakers. But mediocre sound is an all-too-common reality for opening acts, and Jordin Sparks soldiered through reasonably well. The 19-year-old "American Idol" winner, performing in a little black dress, revved up the crowd with such soulful hits as "SOS (Let the Music Play)" and "Battlefield."

The production values of the concert escalated dramatically for Spears' set, with her performance augmented not only by the circus-style acts but also by jets of smoke erupting from ports in the stage, elaborate sets that ranged from rolling circus-animal cages to Victorian-style furniture, and a 360-degree video screen that encircled the rigging above the center-ring stage and provided visual commentary to accompany the songs.

Unfortunately, the sound quality failed to keep pace, with Spears' set offering audio no better than the dismal sound of her opening acts.

But audio quality seemed almost beside the point. If Spears didn't lip-sync her way through the entire show (and it appeared that she did), she might as well have. The concert was little more than a two-hour staging of a music-video shoot, with Spears, dancers and backing vocalists lock-stepping their way through a random collage of images and eras, sporting "Anna and the King"-style costumes here, bondage gear there.

Spears' show was a long tease devoid of emotional engagement or meaningful interaction with the crowd.

Still, she plowed her way through all the hits, from recent songs commenting on her troubled tabloid times, such as "Womanizer" and "Circus," to her first single from 1998, "... Baby One More Time." She included 2003's blistering "Toxic," which transcended the throwaway dance-pop of many of her other songs. Spears offered up the closest the concert came to an emotionally unguarded surprise when she covered the 1995 Alanis Morissette hit "You Oughta Know."

People paying top-dollar prices for a coliseum concert deserve better than the terrible audio quality heard Saturday night at the Greensboro Coliseum, and fans of any artist should get a more engaging, compelling show than the one Spears delivered.

Contact Eddie Huffman at ehuffman@triad.rr.com

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The gossip site using old-fashioned newspaper tactics to woo readers - The Guardian

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 11:54 PM PDT

3am.co.uk website, published by Trinity Mirror

3am.co.uk, clearly avoiding the usual use of 'David Beckham' in a headline. Photograph: Public Domain

Ooh … Gasp! ... Grrr! ... Phwoar! ... TeeHee! Hardly the words to get those Googlejuices flowing if you are a website looking for search engine optimisation. If, on the other hand, you are a newly launched gossip website that doesn't give two hoots about attracting millions of unique users, these may just be your navigation bar handles of choice.

This is the gamble being taken by the Daily Mirror's latest web offering, 3am.co.uk – based on the newspaper's column of the same name – which has gone for typical tabloid headlines over using keywords that will show up on Google.

Its publisher, Trinity Mirror, has decided that rather than seeking volume of web traffic, it wants to establish a smaller but more loyal community of readers.

Matt Kelly, Daily Mirror associate editor, says: "It's almost as if, online, the newspaper industry has forgotten all of those very hard-earned lessons from print: the importance of establishing a brand, a sense of community, getting people to appreciate the value of your content. If your customers don't appreciate the value of it, why on earth would your advertisers?"

The Mirror is not alone among newspapers in aiming to build loyal communities around its websites. Even press groups that believe in the value of search engines are looking at ways to forge more intimate links with their audience. The Guardian is drawing up plans for a "readers' club", which will build a new revenue stream for the newspaper. It recently advertised for a general manager, emphasising that the aim of the club is "to move us decisively away from the traditional, rather distant relationship that newspaper companies have had with their readers".

The New York Times is talking about charging readers for closer access to its journalists by offering premium packages, with benefits including newsroom tours as well as online access to articles before they are published more widely. The NYT has also recruited columnists to give online seminars – a week-long course on how American women's lives have changed over the past 50 years with op-ed columnist Gail Collins, for example, costs $185 (£112).

Nic Brisbourne, a partner at the European venture capital firm DFJ Esprit, last week wrote on paidcontent.org (owned by Guardian News and Media): "The scarcities created by abundant news are interesting stories, thought-provoking analysis, conversation and community."

While he may not have had 3am.co.uk in mind, there is no reason why this principle cannot apply just as much to celebrity gossip as to other kinds of news.

Kelly believes the monthly number of unique users who visit a website, the measurement tool used by the Audit Bureau of Circulations' ABCes, which has been adopted as the UK standard for newspaper sites, is "meaningless".

"This absurd metric of unique users values two people flitting in and out of our site more than one person who visits every day," he says.

The newspaper is looking to produce a new metric "based on interactivity, click-throughs, geographical analysis", which it can take to advertisers.

This thinking is evident throughout Trinity Mirror – 3am.co.uk follows the launch of Mirrorfootball.co.uk last month. But it seems advertisers may take a little longer to get used to the gossip site. While Mirrorfootball.co.uk had four launch partners – Vauxhall, Barclays, pokerstars.com and 188bet.com – Kelly admits: "We took the decision we would need to establish 3am first before approaching partners so they could see what it was."

Trinity Mirror executives need something to be upbeat about. The circulation of the print version of the Daily Mirror – which once sold well over 2m copies a day – fell 7.16% year on year in July to 1,340,028, although the figure was up slightly month on month. In the first half of 2009, ad sales fell 14.4% across Trinity Mirror's national titles, including the Daily and Sunday Mirror and the People, although this represented an improvement in the rate of decline.

Like most newspaper groups, Trinity Mirror is considering charging for some online content. But Kelly believes there is a big job to be done first in changing readers' mindsets.

He says: "People will possibly pay for premium content, but before we get to the point where people will hand over hard cash for content we need to move them over from this position of assuming all content is free to a position where they attribute value to content."

Essential to the success of both new websites, insists Kelly, are the journalists. The Mirror has hired Isabel Mohan, sister of the Sun editor Dominic, from rival gossip website heatworld.com, to edit 3am.co.uk, while the columnist Polly Hudson is also taking a central role.

"Above all the bells and whistles the most important thing is the way it's written," he says. "If we're not making people laugh, or get angry, or go into palpitations over pictures of David Beckham, then we've failed."

Charlie Beckett, director of the journalism thinktank Polis at the London School of Economics, agrees with the Mirror's online strategy. "They are absolutely on the right track. There was the so-called Britney Spears syndrome. You can get millions of readers online by putting Britney Spears in the headline, but if they don't really value what you're doing then you can't monetise it."

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Today in History - Sept. 7 - AOL

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 09:38 PM PDT

heibett

02:10 AMJun 14 2009

Dear Mr. Obama.I have a quotation to ask you.What is the difference between Nasrallah, and the two others Eahmadinejad & kim jong il?I know, it is a very complicated question for your understanding capability, so, I will help.The first one still hiding in his bunker, terrifying Israel will put her hands on him.The two others invited to speech in UN or sign on silly agreements.It is difficult to comprehend how a UFO like you, became to be the president of the USA.Oh, do you know how UFO called in Hebrew? OBM.Well, you are probably the most primitive version, Type A.

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Kourtney Kardashian's baby daddy throws 'man-shower' - New Kerala

Posted: 07 Sep 2009 12:01 AM PDT

The 30-year-old socialite revealed her shock news last month (Aug09) and reunited with her 26-year-old former partner after learning she was carrying his child.

And as Kardashian's girlfriends arranged her baby-shower, Disick got involved with the pre-birth celebrations by partying in Miami with fellow celebrity father Kevin Federline - the dad of Britney Spears two sons.

She tells People.com, 'We were joking that it was Scott's man shower, like his version of a baby shower.

'Guys get excited too about having a baby, so they should do something too. One of our friends started calling it a man shower, but I was like, 'Guys don't have tea and open presents!' But for them, dinner and then going to a nightclub is a man shower. They thought it was funny.

'That was it. That's as far as guys will ever plan unless they need an excuse to go out! I had no desire to go. I was relaxing, chilling. If they want to go have a man shower in Miami, then go ahead.'

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LADY GAGA'S BOLTON COLLABORATION - Contactmusic.com

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 09:45 PM PDT

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Lady Gaga found writing for Michael Bolton "exciting". The duo have teamed up for an unlikely collaboration on the crooner's forthcoming album but the 'Poker Face' star welcomed the chance to write a different style of song. She said: "I love Michael ...