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Blog posts : "Entertainment"

No more free music: Sound Cloud was moving to paid subscriptions

Attention musicians and fans! Sound Cloud music was no longer to be free as it used to. Right now, new users were able to upload and listen to their music, but not allow free streaming or downloads. The biggest problem with this company was, with the adoption of a paid subscription, it was unclear what levels were offered or whether current users were going to stay. In order to stream my friend's new sound, one had to unlock those services by paying for them. Spotify, one of their competitors, did this pay thing already.

There were some other things discovered by this blogger too. ReverbNation was better used as a fan than an artist. Having free access to the site was a great way to find out who was trending. It was easier to get the word out. Unfortunately, for the artist with empty pockets, the choices were limited unless they became a paying member like the above two. Unfortunately, my friend lost the password to their account on Reverbnation sometime last year, so getting a link was a little more challenging.

Trying to follow the How to on getting a personal link was difficult. There were so many articles on the subject. This blogger barely got past uploading and renaming the song so the link could be created. After that, the terminology got complicated too. Last night, this blogger found a freebie on the internet that actually worked. This was one that was rather kept to myself for fear that it became a paying situation too. How did one suppose to survive using something other than an Office product to write with? This blogger found something that was just as effective and free. Updates weren't paid for by me either. Thanks to the free search, this blogger found a way around the monthly WinZip file charge. Since this blogger had a hard time, look them up without my help.

Trying to share the song via my Google Drive only worked only on my laptop. There was a link anyone was able to use, it just showed up blank on phones, other laptops and iPads. This was not believed until tried by me. My efforts at trying to write the link myself actually worked, except the file were hard to incorporate into it. In order to have had a strong Google presence, one had to sell their previously free music via the Google Play Store. The artist got 70% of the sales and their membership there was free.

The good news was, that by signing with Universal Music, Sound Cloud avoided bankruptcy. It remained to be seen whether the paying option became just as popular or not.

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 Posted in Entertainment

David Bowie: His Life in Pictures and Video

David Bowie (1947-2016)  Sadly, the entertainment world lost another music icon this week. In all fairness, the late David Bowie wasn't on my radar until the introduction of Labyrinth. Most of this had a lot to do with Jim Henson's Muppets that also appeared in the film. During this time, they also showed The Man Who Fell to Earth, but the complete movie was not seen by me.

It was refreshing to notice that his career was more than music. Thanks to that one DVD, this blogger learned that he appeared on Broadway as the title character in The Elephant Man. It thrilled me to find out, while waiting for the latest episode of Poltergeist: The Legacy, that he hosted a few episodes of The Hunger, another popular show that followed The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, based in Canada, also watched by me.

This past week, nearly everyone in the Entertainment that had a connection to this musical icon paid tribute on just about any form of social media. The one thing that struck a chord in me was the way he confronted MTV when they ignored videos of black artists. This meant he was no slouch when he saw something he didn't like. He spoke up just enough to avoid being blacklisted, something that was missing in some of the other entertainment artists today.

Lazarus was the last of his music videos to be released the week of his birthday, January 8.. Inside Edition made note of the cryptic message behind the piece According to them, this was a final farewell to his fans. They also made note of his haggard appearance in the video due to the adancing cancer.

Of course, one television show got into hot water for filming  AngelaBowie'sreaction to the news of her ex husband's death. In spite of their divorce in 1980, it looked to this blogger that that they were still very good friends afterward. To me it looked like the show was out to boost ratings, no matter how tasteless it looked. Inside edition mentioned that she was told without the cameras rolling.This was a far cry from the custody battle being fought in the media with Chris Brown.

Below was a media list of tributes to David Bowie.

David Bowie Remembered

David Bowie In Memoriam

Iman's Touching Tribute

Confronting MTV

Fans pay tribute

Remembered by Conan

The Camelion

Lazarus

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 Posted in Entertainment

Golden Globes were full of 'mute button' moments

Thankfully, the Golden Globes went off without a hitch. No one was ushered off stage for hogging  the mike or kicked by Sharon Osbourne either. Every winner was given 30 seconds for their speeches of thanks, prompted to wrap it up as the orchestra started playing. One of the articles said that there's a big thaw when Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio met at The Golden Globes. It was said that the Internet lost its motherboard.  The internet went down like the Titanic.

Thanks to the nap taken earlier by me, the whole program was viewed. Media tagged it as one of the worst filthy-mouthed programs ever. They didn't use the 'bleep' button, they used the mute function instead. When something inappropriate was said, there was silence, sometimes a little more than a minute, according to Inside Edition. Judging by the reaction of the audience, 'mute button' moments were warranted by the censors. Being a star didn't mean that excused one for the use of bad language. Children could've been watching. This went further than a low-cut form-fitting dress.

Among the stars and the fashions, no one was removed by security because they didn't belong. It was said that the stars were well covered by the boys in blue both on and off stage. As a matter of fact, Jennifer Lawrence scolded someone for using their cell phone backstage. Unless someone were writing down notes for an article and didn't have a pen and paper, then it's ok. As a writer, my down time did not include the use of any electronics. It was a lot easier to post updates from my phone than from my computer though. The circuits have all but burned out.

It was great to see 'The Peanuts Movie' be nominated for Best Animated Feature Film.

Congratulations to all the winners, mute button moments aside.

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People's Choice Awards Highlights

The People's Choice Awards is the first award show of 2016. Congrats to the nominees and winners There were a lot of things to be seen and of course it had its controversial moments like, well see below.

Of course, my favorite part was hearing the speeches of the award winners and looking at the fashions everyone wore on stage and on the Red Carpet. Some of it was missed by me because of a full stomach and heavy eyelids.

2016 1ist of winners

It was great to see Lady Antebellum and Taylor Swift among the list of winners. This blogger bet that John Stamos was floored when he received his award. This poor man has had it rough lately.

2016 Photos

PCA Backstage Faves These were funny!

Awards Mishaps

Dakota Johnson's wardrobe malfunction at People's Choice Awards 2015 This made the trending topics on Facebook early this morning. The Today Show showed it also.

My biggest concern  during the awards show was security. This would have been stopped if they had been around doing their job. If this were the president, they would have wrestled him to the ground, like they did the man who threw an object a President Ronald Reagan so long ago.

An unwanted guest grabs the mic This guy pulled a Kanye West, according to The Meredith Vieira Show. Sharon Osbourne kicked him, which may cause a lawsuit. The reference to Steve Harvey was uncalled for, in my opinion. The card he read from at the Miss Universe Pageant was incorrect. The award winners were shocked.


2016 Video highlights Some were awesome!

Watch the part missed here It looked like a good place to play catch up. I missed Ellen Degeneres' speech and the other with the stage crasher.

Next week, the Golden Globes were up. It was a wonder what would happen there?

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New 'Roots' miniseries slated for 2016

For those who love to revisit the past, perhaps a remake of "Roots" was to one's liking. This was one of my favorite miniseries, after the original in the 1970s.

A+E Networks’ “Roots” remake is filling out its cast with the addition of seven more players, including rapper Tip Harris, better known as T.I., Variety has learned.

“The Following” alum James Purefoy and longtime “E.R.” star Mekhi Phifer have also been cast, along with Matthew Goode (“The Imitation Game,” “The Good Wife”), Lane Garrison (“Prison Break”), Emayatzy Corinealdi (“Hand of God”) and G. Hannelius (“Dog With a Blog”).

SEE MORE: ‘Roots’ TV Movie Adds Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin, More to Cast


T.I. will appear in the final part of the four installments of the revival miniseries, playing Cyrus, a headstrong slave who fights for his freedom for the Union Army against Confederate Forces. His character will be featured prominently in the finale episode. Phifer will play Jerusalem, a mute slave who works on the Murray plantation, but who is not quite what he appears to be; Purefoy has been cast as John Waller, the wealthy owner of a Virginia plantation who buys Kunta Kinte as a slave upon his arrival in America; Goode will play Purefoy’s character’s charming and well-educated brother, Dr. William Waller; while Hennelius will play his daughter, Missy; Garrison will play Frederick Murray, a volatile, unpredictable Confederate officer and slave owner; and Corinealdi will play Belle, the wife of Kunta Kinte (played by the previously announced newcomer Malachi Kirby).

The additions join a cast that includes star Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anika Noni Rose, Chad L. Coleman, Erica Tazel, Derek Luke, Regé-Jean Page and Kirby.

SEE MORE: ‘Roots’ Remake to Air on History, A&E and Lifetime Next Year

Based on the 1997 “Roots,” the eight-hour, four night reboot will be simulcast across the network portfolio on A&E, History and Lifetime.

Read full article

This blogger can't wait to see how this was redone.

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 Posted in Entertainment

More cameos due in Marvel films

As a fan of Marvel films, the latest announcement that other superheroes were to have cameos followed the formula written about in the Mummy Reboot last week. This was a better option because with the Marvel Universe, the characters were elastic enough to reboot the back story. This means, when new writers had new ideas,they were able to use them in their story. Let's look at this scenario of cameos in films, like the one touted by Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. Hey, cameos were used in some of the cartoons made in the '80s and '90s, so why not in the movies?

There was still a problem with a reboot of the Mummy movie because the timeline wasn't as elastic as those in the Marvel Universe. At least with the first two starring Brendan Fraiser, they put them before World War II. The charm with the monster movies like Dracula, The Mummy, Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein were that they were literary characters in books. The difficulty was getting them from the page to film. Frankenstein concerned me the most. His timeline existed way before modern advances like electricity, standard CPR procedures and the defibulator. The same thing can be said for Dracula and The Mummy. Archeological digs were and still are occurring though. Many medical advances were made by the study of mummies.

Cameos were great though. One of my favorite Eddie Murphy movies was Coming To America. When the cash that Arsenio Hall's character hoarded was confiscated by Akeem, He placed it in the till of two elderly gentlemen in the street, which just happen to be the Wall Steet tycoons named Duke in Trading Places Apparently, this wasn't the problem with the latest movie rumors on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, where Robert Downey Jr., let it be known about future cameos between Peter Parker, Iron Man and Captain America. In the mid 90's version of the X-Men, Captain America showed up in an episode called, Old Soldiers. Peter Parker also meets Anthony Stark, Iron Man, in Spiderman and His Amazing Friends

On last night's show, alongside Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. shared stories of their filming in  the Captain America: Civil War trailer, Atlanta and said they were doing it again. Ideas like locations were subject to change. There was a long wait before filming began on Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy 2, the only films due to shoot in the Atlanta area at the moment. It seems to this blogger that there were a few more cameos in the future.

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Mummy remake might not pass muster with the audience

This was one reason why a reboot or remake was not going to work too well, even if it was to revamp a famous part of the studios monster past. According to Variety, Tom Cruise was supposedly in talks to revamp the Mummy movie. Apparently, a few other directors/producers were drawn into the mix also, like Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan last summer to help develop a universe for Universal where its classic monster movie library was the main attraction. Kurtzman is also on board to direct and will produce alongside Morgan as well as Sean Daniel. Unfortunately, the studio was not confirming or denying this rumor.

Tom Cruise was not one of the producers, but he was involved in a big part of the development. Notice he wasn't part of the cast either. That's still to be determined. The script, written by Jon Spaihts, was set in the present day.  Characters from the monster universe films were expected to be cameos in each other’s remakes before coming together in an “Avengers”-style tie-in film. Plot still needed development. Universal’s executive VP of production Jon Mone and director of development Jay Polidoro were in charge of this project for the studio.

According to another related article by Variety, they want to bring back some of the monsters that were popular in Hollywood's Golden Age, like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy (1932). Together, they’re watching a team that’s busy mixing in elements of those classic films, such as the bolts in Frankenstein’s neck, with a modern setting tied to contemporary themes.

“This is not a heightened world,” Morgan says. “We’re exploring issues of family identity and questions of, ‘Where do I belong in the world?’ ”

This writer had no problem with the idea above as long as the plot moved well when remaking the film to fit modern day themes Even now, those monsters didn't fit just as they didn't fit in their own timeline. Frankenstein was reanimated from dead flesh, via electric shock, not resurrected like Jesus. Speaking from a viewer standpoint, not very many previous remakes were all that successful. Poltergeist was panned by Fangdango There were only two reviews that gave five stars. When one of the directors/producers were Sam Rami, one was sure to get a jolt or two with his films and TV shows.

The Omen, 2006, didn't go over well either. It received a 5.5 out of a possible 10. The sad fact was that my viewing of this remake didn't impress me either. Billie Whitelaw scared me to death in the original version of this film as Damian's nanny from Hell. It appeared to me that the one in the remake was not scary enough with scraggly hair and overdone makeup. She was there to indulge his overeating cherries, something that was not in the original.

This blogger prayed that the Mummy remake was successful. My having purchased the third installment of the Mummy franchise was a waste of money. What made the second movie so good was the precociousness of Freddie Boath who played Alex and Evelyn's premonitions about her past life, which tied in with the movie. With Alex all grown up, the childlike spark wasn't there. While Brendan Fraiser's character, Rick, didn't age a day, neither did the brother-in-law Johnathan, the lady that played Rachel Weiz's role looked at least ten years older than both actors.

Here's hoping this twist in the remake worked.

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 Posted in Entertainment

American Music Awards highlights

From Sunday night, everyone nominated at the American Music Awards did well. Without their talent, the winners wouldn't have been able to shine as they did. This list was courtesy of The Huffington Post:



Below the full list of 2015 American Music Awards winners:


ARTIST OF THE YEAR


Luke Bryan
Ariana Grande
Maroon 5
Nicki Minaj
One Direction
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith
Taylor Swift
Meghan Trainor
The Weeknd

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR PRESENTED BY KOHL’S
Fetty Wap
Sam Hunt
Tove Lo
Walk The Moon
The Weeknd

SONG OF THE YEAR
Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth “See You Again”
Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars “Uptown Funk!”
Ed Sheeran “Thinking Out Loud”
Taylor Swift “Blank Space”
The Weeknd “Can’t Feel My Face”

COLLABORATION OF THE YEAR UN-LEASHED BY T-MOBILE
Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth “See You Again”
Rihanna & Kanye West Featuring Paul McCartney “FourFiveSeconds”
Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars “Uptown Funk!”
Skrillex & Diplo Featuring Justin Bieber “Where Are Ü Now”
Taylor Swift Featuring Kendrick Lamar “Bad Blood”

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – POP/ROCK
Nick Jonas
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST – POP/ROCK
Ariana Grande
Taylor Swift
Meghan Trainor

FAVORITE DUO OR GROUP – POP/ROCK
Maroon 5
One Direction
Walk The Moon

FAVORITE ALBUM – POP/ROCK
Ed Sheeran – "X"
Sam Smith – "In The Lonely Hour"
Taylor Swift – "1989"

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – COUNTRY
Jason Aldean
Luke Bryan
Sam Hunt

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST – COUNTRY
Kelsea Ballerini
Miranda Lambert
Carrie Underwood

FAVORITE DUO or GROUP – COUNTRY
Zac Brown Band
Florida Georgia Line
Little Big Town

FAVORITE ALBUM – COUNTRY
Jason Aldean – "Old Boots, New Dirt"
Florida Georgia Line – "Anything Goes"
Sam Hunt – "Montevallo"

FAVORITE ARTIST – RAP/HIP-HOP
Drake
Fetty Wap
Nicki Minaj

FAVORITE ALBUM – RAP/HIP-HOP
J. Cole – "2014 Forest Hills Drive"
Drake – "If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late"
Nicki Minaj – "The Pinkprint"

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – SOUL/R&B
Chris Brown
Trey Songz
The Weeknd

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST – SOUL/R&B
Beyoncé
Mary J. Blige
Rihanna

FAVORITE ALBUM – SOUL/R&B
Chris Brown – "X"
D’Angelo and The Vanguard – "Black Messiah"
The Weeknd – "Beauty Behind the Madness"

FAVORITE ARTIST – ALTERNATIVE ROCK
Fall Out Boy
Hozier
Walk The Moon

FAVORITE ARTIST – ADULT CONTEMPORARY
Ed Sheeran
Taylor Swift
Meghan Trainor

FAVORITE ARTIST – LATIN
Enrique Iglesias
Ricky Martin
Romeo Santos

FAVORITE ARTIST – CONTEMPORARY INSPIRATIONAL
Casting Crowns
Hillsong United
MercyMe

FAVORITE ARTIST – ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC (EDM)
Calvin Harris
David Guetta
Zedd

TOP SOUNDTRACK
"Fifty Shades of Grey"
"Empire: Original Soundtrack from Season 1"
"Pitch Perfect 2" 

My favorite part of the American Music Awards was Arianna Grande's performance of Focus.

Of course, there was plenty of fashion to be seen on the red Carpet also from The Huffington Post:

On Sunday night in Los Angeles, Hollywood's biggest stars filled the red carpet at the 2015 American Music Awards, and we have to say, there were a number of looks that blew us away.

Between Selena Gomez's red sequin dress, Carrie Underwood's sparkly cape and Zendaya's monochromatic moment, we were elated with the fashion choices we saw come down the red carpet.

This was my favorite dress at the American Music Awards red carpet: Selena Gomez in Givenchy

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Tuesday's GOP debate: The top eight

What will this Tuesday's GOP debate reveal? Ben Carson was in the lead mainly because he was brushing off all the sniping attacks from his competitors like Donald Trump, who recently hosted Saturday Night Live.  Americans like the way  he has responded to some of the 'below the belt' remarks.

The biggest news was who had the best answers when it came to things like creating jobs, reducing the national deficit, and solving the immigration problem.  Donald Trump alienated a lot of  people trying to sound firm. His hosting of the above show only bought high ratings, but not much of anything else.  People were growing weary of his popularity. It often came with a huge price. He began slipping in the polls more than two weeks ago.

Remember, he alienated the Hispanic, Latino and military veterans? The Montel Williams' video tirade was still ringing in my ears.

The top eight in tomorrow's debate were expected to be in top form, no low blows allowed.

There were a few plans on how to handle some major problems, but nothing was set in stone yet. One major topic that was not highlighted in the first debate was tax reform. That was under the umbrella of the economy.

Here were the jumble of ideas from the last debate

Jeb Bush’s plan to lower the top personal rate from 39.6 percent to 28 percent Marco Rubio weighs in at 35 percent, while eliminating estate and capital-gains taxes); Ben Carson’s 10 percent flat tax Rand Paul has it at 14.5 percent; Ted Cruz wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service; Trump (no Jolly Old Saint Nick, he) as the “Santa Claus” of the bunch.

What to watch for Tuesday night's Republican debate

Jeb Bush must keep his wits about him because he has already faultered a lot in the last three debates. He had to show a strong offense to stay in the presidential race.

Donald Trump remained a puzzle because no one knew which of his personalities were to show. Was he to  continue hounding Ben Carson or play nice in the sandbox?

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 Posted in Entertainment
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