Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Can films bring the world together? Pangea Day

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You could be part of it.

They want to know your story. Make a film. Get involved.

Register at www.pangeaday.org/

Then upload your film at youtube.com/group/pangeaday

High School Musical : The Ice Tour in Manila

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The Walt Disney Company and Feld Entertainment brings another Disney experience to the Philippines through High School Musical: The Ice Tour in Manila.

The ice show will be held at the Araneta Colisuem on selected dates this July. It is inspired by and will feature elements and songs from the popular American Television film “High School Musical” and its sequel “High School Musical 2″.

Ticket Prices: P1,340 (Patron/Lower Box VIP), P1,100 (Patron/Lower Box Regular), P 900 (Upper Box A VIP), P 640 (Upper Box A Regular), P 350 (Upper Box B), and P 150 (Gen. Admission).
High School Musical: The Ice Tour In Manila (July 2008) schedule:

July 11, Friday - 2PM and 6PM
July 12, Saturday - 1PM, 4:30PM and 8pm
July 13, Sunday - 2PM and 6PM
July 15, Tuesday - 6PM
July 16, Wednesday - 6PM
July 17, Thursday - 6PM
July 18, Friday - 2PM and 6PM
July 19, Saturday - 1PM, 4:30PM and 8PM
July 20, Sunday - 1PM, 4:30PM & 8PM

For more details, check out Disney's Site, call TicketNet at 911-5555 or visit Ticketnet.com to have a ticket reserved.

Charice Pemngco in the Oprah Winfrey Show

After a long wait, the episode wherein Charice Pempengco guested in the Oprah Winfrey Show was aired. I wasn't able to watched it on TV. So those who also missed the show here's the full guesting of Charice in the Oprah Winfrey Show.

View Here...

American Idol Favorite Hits

1. Always be my Baby - David Cook
2. When You Believe - David Archuleta
3. Stand By Me - David Archuleta
4. I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Asia'h Epperson
5. Let It Be - Brooke White

Thursday, May 8, 2008

What is emo?

Emo (pronounced /ˈiːmoʊ/) is a style of rock music which describes several independent variations of music with common stylistic roots. As such, use of the term has been the subject of much debate. In the mid-1980s, the term emo described a subgenre of hardcore punk which originated in the Washington, D.C. music scene. In later years, the term emocore, short for "emotional hardcore", was also used to describe the emotional performances of bands in the Washington, D.C. scene and some of the offshoot regional scenes such as Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, Beefeater, Gray Matter, Fire Party, and later, Moss Icon. (In more recent years, the term "emotive hardcore" entered the lexicon to describe the period.)

Starting in the mid-1990s, the term emo began to refer to the indie scene that followed the influences of Fugazi, which itself was an offshoot of the first wave of emo. Bands including Sunny Day Real Estate and Texas Is the Reason had a more indie rock style of emo, more melodic and less chaotic. The so-called "indie emo" scene survived until the late 1990s, as many of the bands either disbanded or shifted to mainstream styles. As the remaining indie emo bands entered the mainstream, newer bands began to emulate the mainstream style. As a result, the term "emo" became a vaguely defined identifier rather than a specific genre of music.

Grand Theft Auto IV

NEW YORK - "Grand Theft Auto IV" raked in more than $500 million in its first week in stores, selling more than 6 million units worldwide, the video game's publisher said Wednesday.

The highly anticipated title from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. has received stellar ratings along with criticism for its violent content. The game follows Eastern European immigrant-turned gangster Niko Bellic on crime missions around a fictional Liberty City.

The title sold about 3.6 million units on April 29, its opening day, bringing in roughly $310 million. This is $10 million more than what Microsoft Corp.'s "Halo 3," another blockbuster game, took in during its first week last fall.

New York-based Take-Two is the subject of a $2 billion hostile buyout from larger rival Electronic Arts Inc., which Take-Two has repeatedly rebuffed as too low.

Take-Two's shares were recently trading at $26.39, above EA's tender offer of $25.74 per share, which expires May 16. Unless EA is willing to offer more, it seems "increasingly possible" the acquisition attempt could unravel, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey said in a note to investors.

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter disagrees, however, saying the game's sales were well within his expectations.

"I don't think it changes the value of the company," he said. "I think we are going to end up with a Microsoft-Yahoo situation," with Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick believing the company is worth more and EA chief John Riccitiello disagreeing.

Three months after it first made an offer, Microsoft dropped its $47.5 billion bid for Yahoo Inc. over the weekend after the companies couldn't agree on a price.

Pachter said he expects the game to sell 12 million copies by the end of 2008. GTA's previous versions have sold more than 70 million copies worldwide.

Already, the game seems to be living up to its juicy past, which includes controversy over hidden sex scenes, sharp criticism from Hillary Rodham Clinton and a 2006 lawsuit that blames the game for three New Mexico murders committed by a 14-year-old.

For one, Take-Two sued the Chicago Transit Authority on Monday for removing ads for the game because of its "Mature" rating, which means it is not suitable for people under 17. And the game also caught the ire of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which seeks an adults-only rating because it lets players drive after imbibing in virtual liquor.

Week Ending May 4, 2008: Madonna Closes In On Streisand's Record

Madonna lands her seventh #1 album as Hard Candy debuts in the lead position. In the 52 year history of Billboard's weekly album chart, only one female artist-Barbra Streisand--has had more #1 albums. Madonna is also second only to Streisand for the longest span of #1 albums. Streisand's span a little more than 33 years, from People in October 1964 to Higher Ground in November 1997. Madonna's span a little more than 23 years, from Like A Virgin in February 1985 to Hard Candy.

The two women would seem to have little in common. Streisand is renowned as one of the most gifted vocalists of all time. Madonna's innate vocal talents are fairly modest. As she has pointed out, she didn't go into music because she thought she had a spectacular voice but because she had something to say.

The two women were received differently from the outset. Streisand's debut album won a Grammy for Album of the Year. By the time she was 27, Streisand had also won an Emmy and an Oscar, representing a rare degree of affirmation by the show business establishment. Madonna, by contrast, had a hard time at the outset even being taken seriously in the music industry. She didn't win a Grammy until 1992, and then only in a lower-profile video category. She didn't have a really good night at the Grammys until 1999, when she won three awards, including Best Pop Album and Best Dance Recording.

For all their differences, the two women also have a lot in common. A friend summed it up by saying they've both got a lot of gumption (though he didn't use the word "gumption"). In both cases, their cultural significance was apparent early on. Streisand made the cover of TIME in April 1964, two weeks before her 22nd birthday. Madonna was on TIME's cover in May 1985, a few months before she turned 27.

Madonna famously bowed before Streisand when the veteran diva made a surprise cameo appearance in a "Coffee Talk" sketch on Saturday Night Live in February 1992. (You can watch the video at the end of this week's blog.) Less famously, but significantly, when Billboard ran a special issue saluting Streisand in December 1983, Warner Bros. made a point of taking the back-cover ad to promote Madonna. The Madonna ad was headlined "A Star Is Born"--the title of Streisand's 1976 movie musical. That week, Madonna's "Holiday"--her first Hot 100 single--was in its first week in the top 40. For such a newcomer to invite any comparisons to the top female star of a generation took a lot of nerve.

Madonna has not equaled Streisand's success in films, despite a critically-hailed performance in Desperately Seeking Susan and a Golden Globe-winning turn in Evita. Nor has Madonna equaled Streisand's success on Broadway in Funny Girl. They've had about equal success in TV, though comparing Streisand's classy, Emmy-winning specials with Madonna's dozens of trend-setting music videos is a bit like comparing apples and bustiers.

While it may be hard to believe, especially given the erotic photo on the cover of Hard Candy, Madonna will turn 50 on Aug. 16. When Streisand was the same age, she was basking in the success of her lavish, four-disk career retrospective Just For The Record. Since then, Streisand has had two #1 albums, Back To Broadway and Higher Ground, but for the most part, she has seemed content to let her recording career wind down. Having recently signed a major deal with Live Nation, Madonna seems likely to remain active as a recording act.

In addition to being second only to Streisand as the female vocalist with the most #1 albums, Madonna is second only to Mariah Carey for most #1 singles on Billboard's Hot 100. Madonna has had 12, to Carey's 18. So you can make a reasonable argument that Madonna is the top female recording act (albums and singles combined) of the rock era. For a woman who is not a great singer to have achieved such a feat says two things--that Madonna has tremendous will and fortitude and that values in pop have changed. Under the new rules (which Madonna helped to write), vision and image matter more than pure vocal ability.

Hard Candy is Madonna's fourth consecutive studio album to reach #1, the longest such streak of her career. It follows Music, American Life and Confessions On A Dance Floor. At her white-hot heyday in the ‘80s, Madonna reached #1 with three successive studio albums, Like A Virgin, True Blue and Like A Prayer. It's striking that Madonna has had more #1 albums since 2000 than she did in the ‘80s. (And it's curious that she had none at all in the ‘90s.)

Hard Candy is the third consecutive #1 album by a female solo artist, following Leona Lewis' Spirit and Mariah Carey's E=MC2. This is the first time that three female solo artists have made #1 in succession since Monica, Beyonce and Ashanti scored in June and July 2003. This is also the second time in the past three weeks that female solo artists have locked up the top three spots on the pop album chart. (Men, we're getting whooped here.)

Hard Candy opens with sales of 280,000. That's the third highest weekly sales total of 2008, following E=MC2 (463,000) and Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static (375,000).

Lewis' "Bleeding Love" holds at #1 on Hot Digital Songs for a fourth week, with 217,000 paid digital downloads. This is the fifth time that the smash has topped 200,000 in weekly sales, which extends the record that Lewis set last week. And this is the seventh week in a row that the #1 title on this chart has topped 200K, which is also a new record. I see growth in this field!

Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 albums.

1. Madonna, Hard Candy, 280,000. Madonna's first-week sales are in between the opening numbers posted by her two most recent studio albums. American Life started with sales of 241,000 in 2003. Confessions On A Dance Floor bowed with sales of 350,000 in 2005. "4 Minutes," her hit collaboration with Justin Timberlake, dips from #2 to #3 on Hot Digital Songs. Two other tracks from the album debut this week. "Give It 2 Me" opens at #21, "Beat Goes On," a collaboration with Kanye West, bows at #101.

2. Mariah Carey, E=MC2, 95,000. Carey slips to #2 after spending two weeks on top. "Touch My Body" slips from #8 to #11 on Hot Digital Songs. "Bye Bye" drops from #22 to #41.

3. Leona Lewis, Spirit, 84,000. Lewis slips to #3 after spending one week at #1 and two weeks at #2. In addition to the chart-topping "Bleeding Love," Lewis has a second entry on Hot Digital Songs. "Better In Time" dips from #80 to #87. Spirit also includes a cover of the classic "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," which has now appeared on three #1 albums--Roberta Flack's First Take, Celine Dion's All The Way...A Decade Of Song and this album.

4. Lyfe Jennings, Lyfe Change, 80,000. This is the R&B star's second straight album to debut in the top five. The Phoenix opened at #2 in August 2006.

5. Def Leppard, Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, 55,000. This is the veteran hard rock band's first studio album to reach the top 10 since the chart-topping Adrenalize in 1992. The band subsequently released four studio albums that stalled in the bottom half of the top 20--Slang, Euphoria, X and Yeah!

6. The Roots, Rising Down, 54,000. This is the veteran hip-hop group's fourth album to debut in the top 10, following Things Fall Apart, which opened at #4 in 1999; The Tipping Point, which opened at #4 in 2004; and Game Theory, which bowed at #9 in 2006.

7. Portishead, Third, 53,000. This is the English duo's third studio album, and its first in nearly 11 years. They could have called it What's The Friggin' Rush?


8. Mudcrutch, Mudcrutch, 38,000. This is the l-o-n-g-awaited debut album by the band that Tom Petty was in before he formed the Heartbreakers in the mid 1970s. This is Petty's 17th studio album, a tally that includes 11 albums by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, three solo releases, two albums by the Traveling Wilburys and this release. Petty & the Heartbreakers first made the top 10 in December 1979 with Damn The Torpedoes.

9. Various Artists, Now 27, 31,000. Sales of the Now series are down, along with most everything else. But the series still sells dependably. This is one of only three albums from last week's top 10 to also appear in this week's top 10.

10. Tim McGraw, Greatest Hits-Limited Edition, 29,000. This two-CD combo pack is available only at Wal-Mart, at a bargain price of $11.88. It combines McGraw's two previously-released greatest hits sets. The first reached #4 in 2000. The second, Vol. 2: Reflected, hit #2 in 2006. (McGraw appears on a second album in this week's top 10. He co-wrote and makes a guest appearance on Def Leppard's "Nine Lives," a track from the #5 album.)


Seven albums fall out of the top 10 this week. Flight Of The Conchords' eponymous full-length debut album drops from #3 to #17, Ashlee Simpson's Bittersweet World drops from #4 to #31, Atmosphere's When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold falls from #5 to #41, the Juno soundtrack falls from #7 to #13, George Strait's Troubadour drops from #8 to #18, Taylor Swift's eponymous debut album falls from #9 to #11, and Phil Vassar's Prayer Of A Common Man plummets from #10 to #51. Sales of Simpson's album dropped by 64%--the steepest decline of any album in the top 200.

Two other albums debut in the top 15. Steve Winwood's 9 Lives opens at #13. It's his best showing since Roll With It reached #1 in 1988. Carly Simon's This Kind Of Love bows at #15. It's Simon's highest ranking for an album of new material since Boys In The Trees went top 10 in 1978. (An album of standards, Moonlight Serenade, hit #7 in 2005.)

Pocketful of Cash: Natasha Bedingfield's Pocketful Of Sunshine vaults from #97 to #24, with a sales gain of 199%. That's the biggest percentage increase for any non-debuting album. The title track jumps from #11 to #4 on Hot Digital Songs.

Celine Joins Exclusive Club: Celine Dion tops the 50,000,000 mark in album sales during the Nielsen/SoundScan era, just five weeks after Mariah Carey reached that same milestone. (Dion's total jumps to 50,010,000. Carey's jumps to 50,811,000.) These are the only female artists in the 50 million club. They're also the only female artists with five albums each on Nielsen/SoundScan's all-time list of the top 200 albums.

While being the second female artist to cross the 50,000,000 plateau is bound to take some of the luster off the achievement, it really shouldn't. And Dion is ahead of Carey in one key respect. Dion is the only woman with three albums in the top 50 of the Nielsen/SoundScan era (Falling Into You at #10, Let's Talk About Love at #22 and All The Way...A Decade Of Song at #44). Carey has just one in the top 50 (Daydream at #46).

Only two artists in Nielsen/SoundScan history have sold more albums than Carey and Dion-Garth Brooks, whose current total is 67,847,000 and the Beatles (56,247,000). All four of these artists first hit the chart before Nielsen/SoundScan set up shop in May 1991, so these totals don't take into account their entire histories. The Nielsen/SoundScan data doesn't include the first four months of Dion's chart history, the first 11 months of Carey's, the first two years of Brooks' and the first 27 years and four months of the Beatles'--during which time I have it on good authority that the group sold a fair number of records!

That Famous Diner Scene: As of this week, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" has sold more downloads since it was featured on the series finale of HBO's The Sopranos than it did before that memorable episode. It sold 780,000 before the June 10, 2007 series finale and has sold 787,000 since the episode aired. The best part: Steve Perry now gets to write off his HBO subscription as a business expense. Hey, a man's got to track his songs.

Catalog Report: I Can Only Imagine: Power Anthems Of The Christian Faith returns to #1 on the Catalog Albums chart, with sales of 21,000. It would have ranked #22 if older, catalog albums competed on the main chart.

Heads Up: Toby Keith's double-CD 35 Biggest Hits, Josh Groban's Awake Live and Clay Aiken's On My Way Here are among the albums expected to debut on next week's chart. Keith has had three #1 albums, Groban has had two and Aiken has had one. Neil Diamond, who has, amazingly, never had a #1 album, is also due with Home Before Dark.


Great Minds: Madonna's previous album was titled Confessions On A Dance Floor. In 1997, Michael Jackson released an album of remixes titled Blood On The Dance Floor. (Do you suppose the pop icons compared notes on possible album titles when they went to the Oscars together in 1991?)

5 brain-boosting games

According to one group of brain doctors at the University of Michigan, at long last a mental exercise has been discovered that could really make you smarter. Literally, if the research is correct, the more you play and the harder you play it, the smarter you get.

The game is pretty simple in design: Players are presented with a computer screen that shows a pattern of squares. If the pattern matches the same one the player saw two patterns earlier, he pushes a button with one hand. At the same time, he has to listen to letters narrated over a set of headphones. If the letter matches the one said two letters earlier, he pushes a button with his other hand. The better the player does, the longer the interval stretches out: Three patterns and letters earlier, then four, and so on.

In tests, 20 minutes of daily training over a varying period of time led to "significantly" increased IQ vs. a control group, and the longer people played the game, the higher their IQ got. The study is of course contested for a variety of reasons: Primarily, that it was too small to be scientifically rigorous. But if it pans out, this is good news for people who want to improve their intelligence through video games, or at least help stave off the effects of old age with them.

Alas, the U-Mich game just doesn't sound like that much fun. But there are a ton of new games on the market that aim to help you improve logical thinking, reaction time, and coordination. If matching dots on a screen isn't your idea of a good time, check out one of these new titles:

Lumosity (Web)


This browser-based game offers about a dozen mini-games, each designed to help with one area of cognition, including memory, processing speed, attention span, and "cognitive control." Many games are surprisingly similar in design to the one in the Michigan study and some present a real challenge. ($9.95 a month, pictured)

Brain Challenge (Xbox Live Arcade)
Similar to Lumosity, this used to be a cell phone game that was ported to the Xbox. A series of mini-games asks you what comes next in a sequence of graphic designs, count items quickly, do basic math questions, and more. 30 types of rapid-fire games are available, and your progress is tracked by the game over time. (800 points)

Rocky & Bullwinkle (Xbox Live Arcade)

No, I wouldn't have expected a game based on a hapless cartoon duo to be good for the brain, but this set of WarioWare-like micro games are great for those looking to boost reaction time and improve eye-hand coordination. Nothing here is too complex (quick: click the correct button in the next 2 seconds!), but it's all good for working on the "twitch" reflex. (800 points)

Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship (PSP)

This challenging board game comes to the PSP, offering a grid in which you have to place your Tetris-like pieces in such a way that they touch only on their corners. It really works on your pattern recognition skills and gets exceptionally tough when playing with a group of four. ($20)

Wild Earth: African Safari (Wii)
No, it's not a brain game at all, but really little kids won't be able to manage the controls and strategies of most of the above titles. Still they shouldn't be left out of the fun. Wild Earth isn't exactly the most thrilling title on the market, but youngsters will enjoy looking at the animals on this virtual photo hunt while learning the names of all the beasts of the wild. Good for very small minds. ($30)

Jason Castro is out...


Simon Cowell once told Jason Castro that his face would save him from elimination. Not this time.

The dreadlocked heartthrob was voted off "American Idol" Wednesday as the show narrowed the competition to three finalists: David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado.

Castro, 20, from Rockwall, Texas, started off strong in the show's seventh season but lost momentum in recent weeks. He gave weaker performances, and flubbed the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" on Tuesday's performance show.


Cowell predicted Castro's gaffe could spell the end of him. "Jason, I'd pack your suitcase," Cowell told the singer.

Castro took his fate in stride and didn't wipe the ever-present grin off his expansive face after learning the result.

Earlier in Wednesday's show, he told host Ryan Seacrest: "I think it's just getting tough for me. I think my inexperience is coming in."

Castro said this week he tried to pick songs he knew -- "Mr Tambourine Man" and Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" -- and yet he "screwed it up."

After Castro's cover of "I Shot the Sheriff," a less-than-impressed Cowell said: "I don't know what you're thinking!"

Castro replied: "I'm thinking, Bob Marley!"

Castro had his share of spacey moments while he was in the running, like when a viewer asked Wednesday what the contestants' biggest challenges were in the competition. Castro answered: "Just the brain being dead."

The program also featured performances by Maroon 5 and "Idol" alum Bo Bice.
 
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