X Factor Vs American Idol – Battle of the Music Shows

Posted by Tracy in Entertainment, TV

X Factor Vs American Idol the ultimate battle of the music talent show.

Now that we have finally seen the X factor USA in action and we have our first winner, Melanie Amaro, we are interested in what you think about the talent shows and tell us your views about the X Factor Vs American Idol debate.

Its major rival is the long running show American Idol and old hunting ground of the X Factor judge and driving force Simon Cowell.

So we have a couple of straw polls below, just vote on which show you thought was the best and who was your favourite judge.

We have our own opinions and would love to hear yours, so get opinionated below right now.

X Factor Vs American Idol Straw Poll

X Factor Vs American Idol: Judges the Judges

We thought both shows had their plus points and there was enough of a difference between the two shows to keep both healthy in the ratings.

Simon Cowell is always fun to watch, usually he tells the truth as he sees it but the X Factors USP of mentoring individual acts means that he is completely blinkered when it comes to his own acts.

Nothing wrong with that of course, one of the traits of successful people is that they intently focus on what they want to see in order to lead others in that direction. As a neutral viewer though it can be frustrating.

American Idol on the other hand has moved into the middle ground, a touchy feeley place that Simon Cowell would find uncomfortable.

Both The X Factor and American Idol have their fair share of winners and losers amongst the contestants. Some of it is painful to watch, some of it is inspiring to watch and some of it… well you just can’t take your eyes of it no matter how hard you try.

Tell us what you think about the X Factor Vs American Idol debate in the comments below.

Blue Ivy Carter Born To Proud Parents Jay-Z & Beyonce

Posted by Tracy in Celebrity

Blue Ivy Carter is born to proud parents Jay-Z & Beyonce on Saturday 7th 2012.

When Beyonce announced that she was pregnant (see Beyonce pregnant) the world was caught by surprise.

Over the weekend reports were coming in that Beyonce had given birth on Saturday night at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.

Jay-Z was at her side as she gave birth, allegedly by caesarian section after checking into the private hospital on Friday.

They have named the baby Blue Ivy Carter seemingly because Blue has connotations for Jay-Z with his Blueprint franchising and Ivy because it represents the number 4 (IV in Roman numerals) which has connotations for Beyonce.

Beyonce was born on the 4th September, her mother was born on 4th January, Jay-Z was born on 4th December and they were married on 4th April. She also named her latest album 4.

Carter is because Jay-Z’s real name in Shawn Carter.

Jay-Z and Beyonce are officially music royalty after shifting more than 75 million albums between them and collaborating on the ultra-successful “Crazy in Love”.

Although no official statement has been issued yet, the twittersphere has been abuzz including from those close to the family and Beyonce herself.

Blue Ivy Carter Tweets

Gwyneth Paltrow wrote “Welcome to the world Blue! We love you already.”

Solange Knowles wrote “The most beautiful girl in the world.”

Rihanna wrote “Welcome to the world princess Carter! Love Aunty Rih”

And the last word to Beyonce ” Welcome to the world Ivy Blue” & “Officially Blue Ivy Carter for those asking. A whole world awaits you :)”

Congratulations to Jay-z and Beyonce for safely delivering Blue Ivy Carter into the world, we look forward to her album.

p.s. Don’t forget to tell us what you think of the name Blue Ivy Carter. Obviously celebrities live in a different world to the rest of us and are not held back by unusual names but what do you think?

Blue Ivy Carter Statement from Beyonce & Jay-Z

Hello Hello Baby Blue!

We are happy to announce the arrival of our beautiful daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, born on Saturday, January 7, 2012.

Her birth was emotional and extremely peaceful, we are in heaven.

She was delivered naturally at a healthy 7 lbs and it was the best experience of both of our lives.

We are thankful to everyone for all your prayers, well wishes, love and support.

- Beyoncé & JAY Z

Photo: alejandrolavinjr

Black Friday 2011 Signals Shopping Frenzy

Posted by Tracy in Business

Black Friday 2011 seems to be bigger than ever, in spite of… or perhaps because of the credit crunch.

With Thanksgiving over many people see the following Friday as an extension of the holiday and to the retail stores it is an opportunity to cash in.

For many stores Black Friday 2011 is aptly named, it marks the day that there accounts can move from the red to the black such is the amount that is spent on this single day.

For Black Friday 2011 it is easier than ever to find discounted deals, sites such as Find Shopping Deals trawl the internet to find the latest discounts from retail providers.

The online world may make it easier to find deals than ever before but it doesn’t stop thousands camping out overnight.

Macys department store in New York estimated that there were 9,000 people queuing up outside waiting for midnight opening. The people at the front of the queue had been waiting for about 4 hours.

Stores were also reporting that their layaway options were being taken up far more this year than last. A layaway option allows people to pay for purchases over a certain period of time.

In California it appears things were not so civil. At Wal-Mart there were reports of one customer using pepper spray on other customers who were competing to get their hands on the bargains.

It brings back memories of 2008 when a Wal-Mart employee lost their life after being trampled on when shoppers broke down the doors to the store and waded in.

Tintin Movie, ‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn’, Comes To Life

Posted by Tracy in Entertainment, Movies & Film

Tintin movie called ‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn’, comes to life thanks to the efforts of director Steven Spielberg & producer Peter Jackson.

The Tintin movie, with a budget of around $100 million, uses the latest technology in motion capture to create super realistic 3D animation that they call ‘performance capture’.

You can understand why Spielberg and Jackson got together for this project. Jackson brought us the special effects monster that was the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Spielbergs achievements in ‘daring do’ movies need no introduction.

Most of the other major players in the Tintin movie happen to be British. The screenplay was principally written by Dr Who’s writer Steven Moffat and most of the cast are British.

Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell plays the lead role of reporter Tintin while Captain Haddock is played by Andy Serkis who won acclaim for his portrayal of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost play the bumbling detectives, the Thompson twins, while James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, plays the villain Ivanovich Sakharine.

The Tintin books have been bestsellers for decades around every corner of the world, from China to Europe, but America has been slow to catch on.

For Spielberg he hopes that this will now change as the film opens across the US. He has been a fan since his Indiana Jones days and he admits to wanting to make a Tintin movie for the past 30 years.

With so many Tintin stories to base the film on they decided to use 3 books as a basis for the movie. The Secret of the Unicorn, The Crab with the Golden Claws and Red Rackhams Treasure.

Tintin Trailer

Tintin Reviews

The Tintin movie has premièred in Europe and is coming to the US and rest of the world soon. Perhaps the biggest thumbs up for the film has been the good reception of the Tintin movie in Belgium, the home of Tintins author, the late Georges Remi (pen name Hergé).

Here is what other people have said:

Variety: “the director and his team have deployed both technologies with subtle finesse throughout, exploiting 3D’s potential just enough to make the action scenes that much more effective without overdoing it…. The characters, with their exaggerated features, almost resemble flesh-and-blood thesps wearing prosthetic makeup.”

Hollywood Reporter: “First Tintin instalment takes Steven Spielberg back to his fun-filled, visually splendid roots.”

Telegraph: “there’s a mechanistic quality to Spielberg’s craft that’s undoubtedly disappointing: a film directed by one such distinctive artist and based on the work of another shouldn’t feel like it could have been made by almost anyone.”

Empire: “Action-packed, gorgeous, and faithfully whimsical: Hergé thought Spielberg the only director capable of filming Tintin. He was onto something.”

Film4: “An entertaining start – roll on the next one”

Photo:tintin.com

Amanda Knox Freed in Italy After Meredith Kercher Murder Appeal

Posted by Tracy in Breaking News, Celebrity

Amanda Knox is freed in Italy after successfully appealing against her conviction for Meredith Kercher’s murder.

Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, have both been acquitted of the murder of Meredith Kercher after a high profile appeal in Perugia, Italy.

Both Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have been in an Italian jail for four years after being convicted of murdering the 21 year old UK language student, Meredith Kercher, in 2007.

Amanda Knox had been sentenced to 26 years in jail for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Raffaele Sollecito had been sentenced to 25 years in jail. A third person, Rudy Guede a small time drug dealer, was convicted in a separate trial to 30 years in jail.

Deanna Knox spoke to the press after the judgement was announced saying,

“We are thankful that Amanda’s nightmare is over, she has suffered for 4 years for a crime she did not commit. We are thankful to the court for having the courage to look for the truth and overturn the conviction.”

Amanda Knox & Raffaele Sollecito Evidence Unreliable

Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox were friends and shared a cottage in Perugia, Italy in 2007. Prosecutors had successfully argued that Meredith Kercher was murdered during a sex game that went wrong. Her throat had been slit and she had been sexually assaulted.

In the successful appeal, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito’s lawyers argued that the evidence against them was unreliable.

They showed that experts could not be certain that the DNA found on the alleged murder weapon was that of Meredith Kercher, even though it was a crucial part of their conviction. Proper DNA procedures were not followed by police and samples could have been contaminated.

Another piece of evidence, a bra, was found so long after the event that any evidence it contained was also unreliable. Lawyers also pointed out that no DNA evidence of Knox was found at the murder scene.

Forensic experts also cast doubt on the assertion that bloody footprints found near the scene belonged to Knox and Sollecito, that the burglary had been staged to throw police off the scent, that one witness was unreliable and that Rudy Guede had confessed to another inmate that Knox and Sollecito were innocent even though he had named them in court.

Amanda Knox’s conviction of slander after she accused a bar owner of carrying out the murder was upheld by the judge and she was sentenced to 3 years.

Having already spent 4 years in jail Knox was free to return back to America and attempt to rebuild her life. It seems that she will be in demand with the media and could set herself up for life, but she will never get those 4 years of her life back and the traumatic events in Italy will not be easy to forget.

Meanwhile Meredith Kerchers family are still left with many unanswered questions, namely what did happen in 2007 and who exactly did kill their Meredith?

Photo: Tim Pearce

Saudi Arabia Rules Women Can Vote & Run For Election

Posted by Tracy in Politics

Saudi Arabia has announced that women will, for the first time, be allowed to vote and put themselves forward for elections.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced the changes in his speech commemorating the opening of a new term of his advisory body, the Shura Council. The King said,

“Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with Sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior clerics and others, to involve women in the Shura Council as members starting from next term. Women will be able to run as candidates to the municipal election and will even have a right to vote.”

The landmark announcement is a victory for those in Saudi Arabia who have been arguing against traditionalist views.

Many have spent the last 20 years in Saudi Arabia campaigning for womens rights but reform has been slow.

Saudi Arabia runs a strict version of Islamic law with clerics holding much of the power in the country. The recent developments in other Arab countries may have helped to push things forward.

Women in Saudi Arabia have many restrictions on their lives. For example, they are not allowed to drive a car. They also need to obtain permission from their male guardian (usually a relative) to work, travel, marry or study.

The new pledge by the Saudi Arabian King means that women will be able to stand and vote in municipal councils, even though in practice, the power of these councils are limited.

Women in Saudi Arabia will also be allowed to be involved in the Kings Shura Council from next term, a much more influential group and where the change could really be felt.

Even though Saudi Arabia lags behind most countries in the world when it comes to giving women the right to vote, it should be remembered that many so called advanced countries were facing the same issues relatively recently.

Womens Right to Vote

United States

1920 saw the ’19th Amendment’ to the constitution expressly stating the rights of citizens to vote regardless of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

United Kingdom

1928 saw the People Act giving women equal voting rights with men.

Canada

1918 full voting rights for women in federal elections. 1982 Charter guarantees right to vote for all adult citizens.

New Zealand

1893 marks the first country to give women equal voting rights.

Australia

1902 women allowed to vote in federal elections.

India

1935 women gain vote via the British Raj. 1950 marked the women’s voting rights in independent India.

Source: Wikipedia

Photo: Retlaw Snellac

REM Announce Split

Posted by Tracy in Entertainment, Music

REM have announced that they are to split up after 31 years together.

REM are most commonly associated with their frontman Michael Stipe but have, since 1996 when drummer Bill Berry left, included bassist Mike Mills and guitarist Peter Buck.

They have been one of the most successful bands of the modern era with 3 REM albums going quadruple platinum in the US alone.

They have released 15 albums together with the last one released in march 2011 called ‘Collapse Into Now’. They also hold 3 Grammy awards from their work in the early 1990′s.

A statement on the official REM website said:

“To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.”

REM Songs & Music

Probably REM’s most famous songs come from their early 90′s period. Their outstanding hit ‘Losing My Religion’ capturing everybody’s attention across the world, catapulting them into music’s big league.

REM’s ‘Losing My Religion’ was the lead single off the ‘Out of Time’ album released in 1991, ‘Out of Time’ to sold over 12 million copies in the next 5 years.

The album also garnered 3 Grammy awards in 1992 including 2 for ‘Losing My Religion’. What’s the betting that we will see that song back in the charts very soon?

That same year REM released another album that would equal Out of Time’s success.

It was called ‘Automatic for the People’ and included another one of their most well known songs, ‘Everybody Hurts’. The album overall was a melancholy affair and REM attributed this to having to face turning 30.

In 1994 REM returned to a much more rockier style with the album ‘Monster’ and it was their most commercially successful record, although perhaps not their best loved.

The subsequent tour also brought about difficulties with Berry collapsing on stage, Mills having to have surgery and Stripe suffering from a hernia.

After Monster, REM have released another 6 albums including ‘Collapse into Now’ in 2011.

REM Band Member Statements

REM: Michael Stipe

“A wise man once said, “the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.” We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it. I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way. We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It’s been amazing.”

REM: Peter Buck

“One of the things that was always so great about being in R.E.M. was the fact that the records and the songs we wrote meant as much to our fans as they did to us. It was, and still is, important to us to do right by you. Being a part of your lives has been an unbelievable gift. Thank you. Mike, Michael, Bill, Bertis, and I walk away as great friends. I know I will be seeing them in the future, just as I know I will be seeing everyone who has followed us and supported us through the years. Even if it’s only in the vinyl aisle of your local record store, or standing at the back of the club: watching a group of 19 year olds trying to change the world.”

REM: Mike Mills

“During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, ‘what next’? Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together. We have always been a band in the truest sense of the word. Brothers who truly love, and respect, each other. We feel kind of like pioneers in this–there’s no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We’ve made this decision together, amicably and with each other’s best interests at heart. The time just feels right.”

I am sure it won’t be the last we hear of the now former REM band members…. but for REM…. it is goodnight.

Photo: turtlemom4bacon

Beyonce Pregnant: Announces Pregnancy at the VMA Awards

Posted by Tracy in Celebrity, Music

Beyonce Pregnant: Beyonce announces at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) with Jay-Z beaming in the background.

Beyonce told photographers on the red carpet that she had a surprise for them, pulling her dress tight over her stomach revealing a definite bump.

Beyonce pregnant !? You could hear the gasps.

Beyonce introduced her live performance with the words “I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside me”. She went on to finish her performance by throwing her mic to the ground and rubbing her belly.

Jay-Z was in the audience beaming a big smile for his wife as he was congratulated by his friend and fellow superstar Kanye West.

Beyonce and Jay-Z were married 3 years ago in New York and Beyonce revealed earlier this year that she had always planned to have a family at the age of 30. She will be 30 this year.

I guess that we shouldn’t expect anything less from Beyonce, a women who has gone on to create and live her dreams on such a massive worldwide scale.

Achieving another goal on the Beyonce list shouldn’t surprise us, although bringing up a family may just be the hardest thing to get right.

Lady Gaga was the other headline of the VMA night, dressing as a man for her performance and joined on stage by Queen guitarist Brain May. She picked up 2 awards for her ‘Born This Way’ video.

Katy Perry won the headline award of the night for her video ‘Firework’ gaining the video of the year award.

She was at the ceremony with her husband and comedian Russell Brand who had a serious message about seeking help with drug addiction. It was a reaction and tribute to the recently deceased singer Amy Winehouse.

Tony Bennett also paid tribute and gave a glimpse of their duet recorded shortly before Amy passed away. The  duet will be officially released later in the year.

Photo: Caro_Carlow

Prime Minister Cameron Threatens Crackdown on Social Media

Posted by Tracy in Politics

The UK’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, has said that there will be a review into whether to turn off access to social media & phone texting during times of civil unrest.

After days of rioting, looting and violence on the streets of Britain, the Government declared that they will be meeting executives from Facebook, Twitter and RIM (who make the Blackberry) to discuss their ‘obligations’.

David Cameron said that he was “struck by how they [the rioters] were organised via social media”.

He said that the Government would be taking advice from the police, intelligence services and industry figures whether it was “right and possible” to cut off social media being used to “spread disorder”.

It is a rapid turnaround for a Government who, only months earlier, had been singing the praises of social media sites when they were heavily utilized to organise the Arab uprisings.

Back then Government officials were chastising political leaders from other countries for attempting to switch off the internet and suppress the flow of information. It appears that when it is in your own back yard, it may be a different story.

Not that any of the rioting or violence should be excused of course, but a knee-jerk reaction that yet again attacks civil liberties and internet freedom appears to be in full effect.

In a moment of mild ironic comedy during the rioting, over in Libya, a spokesman for Colonel Gadaffi chastised Cameron for trying to suppress the uprising of the people who wish to overthrow him.

Back in London, now the rioting has died down after massive police numbers were drafted in, there have been mass clean-ups organised via facebook, twitter and other parts of the web. In some areas people were being turned away because of the numbers.

The speed of the cleanup has meant that some parts of London were remarked to be cleaner than they have been for decades, and shows the other side of social media’s powerful effect.

An appeal has also been setup for Malaysian student Asyraf Haziq. He was filmed apparently being helped after being hit, but was actually having his rucksack lifted of all it’s possessions. The video has been see all around the world after it was posted on Youtube.

Asyraf has had to have surgery on his jaw and police today arrested a man in connection with the robbery.

In a press conference today Asyraf said that his mother was worried about him and wanted him to go home, but he was determined to stay in London and finish his studies. He added,

“Britain is great. Before I came here I was very eager and I haven’t got any ill-feeling about what happened. I feel very sorry for the people who did this. It was really sad because among them were children.”

Londoners have been keen to show that the actions of the few do not represent a whole community.

Over £12,000 has so far been raised in just 48 hours for Asyraf Haziq and his stolen equipment has been replaced via donations. If you would like to donate then go to the site http://somethingniceforashraf.tumblr.com/

Photo: Alan Stanton