HAWT. music, movies, gossip, life.

April 17, 2007

Grayson's Delicious Summary

Delicious is Delicious...by Grayson

Over the past semester I’ve enjoyed del.ico.us’ing as it encouraged me to read more articles and explore the Internet than I might have without the assignment. The majority of the websites that I posted were articles that I found very interesting. These articles were very diverse in topic ranging from summaries of current events to offbeat how to’s, such as one I found about how to get rid of hiccups faster. I also used my del.icio.us to post interesting videos I would find on youtube.com, which my friends in my del.icio.us network might be interested in watching too. The requirement to have half our posts be related to information technology was very helpful. It forced me to read more about the latest developments and technologies that I would otherwise not be as informed about. At first I was quite hesitant and often forgot to post these information technology related sites and articles, but by mid semester I was really engaged, posting mostly these sites.

My favorite feature of del.icio.us was that it displayed how many other people posted the same website. This not only allowed me to see how popular certain topics were, but was an easy way to see what else people with similar interests were looking at or found interesting. Unlike Google, del.icio.us offers other features that make discovery easy such as the “popular” and “recent” pages. These allowed me to quickly see what were the most popularly posted sites on del.icio.us or just see what was most recently posted. Often times I would find some other really cool articles and sites, in which cause del.icio.us served me more like dig.com, a popular book-marking site I use for discovery.

All in all, I would consider my del.icio.us experience to be a valuable one. I’ve never actually participating in a social book-marking site by actually doing the book marking, but rather only by reading other people’s posts. However, after this experience, I think will continue to post (maybe not as frequently though) and someone can find something interesting that they had not seen before. I’d really like to give back to the social book marking community since they have been enlightening me for so long.

For Nikki's (paulinad) Del.icio.us Summary please click here.

For Tommy's (tschill) Del.icio.us Summary please click here.

Posted by graysony at 07:11 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2007

HAWT. music, movies, gossip, life...the Final Group Blog post

The Final Post: A look back at our blog...by Grayson

over the past semester, we've done a lot of blogging about some of our favorites things in entertainment. tommy hit up the movie world, nikki covered celebrity news and gossip (naturally) and i gave some insight into some new albums.

tommy reviewed films, bringing his keen interest in action, drama, acting and hot actresses to the blogisphere. by taking a look at newer films like blades of glory, 300, and this summer's ocean 13, he could tell you what to watch out for or what to avoid. and with the older films like into the blue, he gave movies you may have overlooked a second chance.

nikki took a look at everything from brit brit to naked harry potter (of course she would) to anna nicole smith. i mean what's more important than knowing what is going on in some of our favorite celebrity's lives? not a whole lot! i mean there's nothing like having something to compare your own life with.

there's nothing worse than having nothing new to listen to on your way to work or while walking it out with your ipod (now walk it out, now walk it out). so i spent some time giving you something new to maybe consider checking out. everything from rap (timbaland) to pop (justin timberlake) to country (taylor swift). i dug into my own library to find you something tastee to rock out to. whether you like up and coming artists, or local artists or weren't sure if your favorite artist's new album was worth your time, i hit it. hard.

now walk it out, now walk it out.

peace out homies.

Posted by graysony at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2007

Del.Icio.Us ... Oh my

del.icio.us!

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Before this semester, if someone had told me to "delicious it," I would have given them a weird look. Delicious is an adjective not a verb and why would I ever have to "delicious" anything? Well, thanks to BIT 200, I have had the pleasure of discovering that delicious isn't just a word, but one of my newest favorite internet tools, the social bookmarking website del.icio.us.

What makes the site so great is its ease of use and convenience. If I find a site that I like while I'm randomly searching the web in some random location, I can just post it onto del.icio.us, knowing that I'll be able to find it with the click of a mouse button, since it's virtually stored all in one place.

Not to mention you can organize your links by the tags you assign to each post. You can take this organization further by clustering similar tags into a Tag Bundle. I really liked this feature and utilized it well as evidenced by numerous bundles including "Entertainment", "Fun Stuff", and "Search,Tools,and Tips". It facilitates the process of finding the specific bookmark you're looking for.

What's even better is that you can del.icio.us stalk your friends who have accounts or other people who have really interesting links and see what new sites they've found, thus the "social" aspect of the site. That way, you can find all these links you never knew existed without really trying (making search and discovery that much easier). You can even send links to your friends who are part of your del.ici.ous network. In fact, Tommy, Grayson, and I have are all part of each other's networks.

Since Tommy, Grayson, and I decided to blog about the entertainment industry from movies to music to celebrities, we bookmarked a lot of sites pertaining to that topic on del.icio.us. For example, Tommy liked to surf the internet for official movie websites that he thought were intriguing or stumbled upon through imdb.com. He also looked at Rotten Tomatoes to see what critics thought of certain movies. Since Grayson looooves music, he usually kept abreast with hot artists through their myspace accounts or official websites. As for me, I have a very long list of my favorite entertainment websites that I tracked, which I have mentioned throughout my blogs, my absolute favorites being Pink is the new blog and Just Jared. Those two blogs always have new information everyday on my favorite and not so favorite celebrities complete with hot pictures.

Other interesting things to note about our del.icio.us bookmarks:

• Tommy has bundled his movie tags under the "blog" category
• Grayson went bookmarking happy with over 200 bookmarks :) with his music sites scattered all throughout
• I've listed my entertainment sites under the "entertainment" bundle and websites that I've bookmarked and mentioned on my blog are tagged "Bit_Blog"

Links to our individual del.icio.us accounts:

• Nikki's Account
• Grayson's Account
• Tommy's Account

Posted by paulinad at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2007

Birkhead proves he's daddy, finally

Nikki on the Anna Nicole Baby Drama

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Although news tied to Anna Nicole Smith has been continuously making headlines ever since her death on February 8th, I've refrained from commenting on it thus far because I felt that this drama has been overexposed in the media. Throughout her life, Anna Nicole always knew how to spur some controversy whether it be through her Playboy photoshoots, her marriage to oil tycoon Howard Marshall II, her fight for his estate, her venture into reality TV, or her remarkable weight loss. So it makes sense that after her death, people still want to talk about her. However, after reading CNN's Report on her daughter, Dannielynn Hope's, paternity saga, I've finally caved in.

Yesterday, April 10th, two months after Anna Nicole's death, Larry Birkhead - Anna Nicole's ex-boyfriend - officially found out from the Bahamian courts what he's been telling everyone all along: he's Dannielynn's father. Howard K. Stern, the man who's had custody of the baby and who also claimed to be the father, says he won't fight for custody.

Larry Birkhead's reaction upon exiting the courthouse says it all for me. He pumped both his fists in the air and broke into a wide grin, revealing genuine delight. This reaction signals to me that Birkhead's fervent plea for a paternity test wasn't just a way to drag this story and extend his 15 minutes of fame, but rather it was a sincere request to have his rightful daughter under his care. Hopefully, Dannielynn hasn't been traumatized by this grueling court battle because at the end of the day her well-being is what should matter the most.

Before the courts in the Bahamas officially announced Birkhead as Dannielynn's biological father yesterday, I noticed that numerous sites, including people.com, accesshollywood.com, and aforementioned CNN.com, posted articles anticipating the press release. The sites would say something to the effect of "in a few hours, the courts will reveal who dannielynn's biological father is..." I couldn't believe how captivated the media is with this story. This type of reporting seems more fit for a high profile murder trial than a simple paternity test...

Posted by paulinad at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

April 09, 2007

Movie Review

Tommy's Final Post

I'm not going to be reviewing a movie in this blog. I am going to take this time to give you some advice on movie critics. We are here to give our take on the wonderful films that we have seen. Take what we say with a grain of salt because if you truly want to go see a movie go see it, don't always listen to what other people have to say about it. That is one thing I never really liked about movie critics. They tell me that a movie will be bad but what do they really know? If a movie looks good I'm going to go and see it. Furthermore, many of the movies I wrote about were movies that I either liked or want to see, so my opinions are a bit bias. But nonetheless, I have brought you some great pictures and trailers to get you engaged into the movie industry, and if you want to go see a movie that I wrote about great, but even if you don't want to go see any of the movies I talked about, that is fine too. So just remember, if you don't think a movie will be that great, don't pay all that money for the theaters, just rent it from blockbuster. That is my tip for the day.

These links are of movie reviews and there is also a link to imdb.
Ebert and Roeper
Internet Movie Database
Rotten Tomatoes

Posted by tschill at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)

April 08, 2007

Music Review - Timbaland

Grayson's Music Post

Artist: Timbaland
Album: Presents: Shock Value
Genre: R&B, Rock, Pop, Hawt
Release Date: April 3rd, 2007

Timbaland, the musical genius behind justin timberlakes futuresex/lovesounds and nelly furtado's "promiscuous" is finally out with his own album, shock value. not only are the beats are hot as you would expect from timbo, but the music guests are fantastic. to name a few of the other vocalists jammin with timbo: justin timberlake, nelly furtado, dr. dre, tony yayo (of g-unit), missy elliot, the hives, fall out boy and sir elton john.

shock value's sound is as diverse as its musical guest list. you've got your standard club hits: "give it to me," "bounce" to more r&b'ish type jams: "scream," "apologize," hard rap: "come & get me" and pop rock: "one & only," "time.

you got to give timbo credit for pulling together such an interesting and musically diverse album. not only are the tracks all very different, but they are for the most part all very entertaining. obviously, some people will like some tracks more than other based on what their musical genre preference is, but if you love timbo's beats, you'll love this.

hot trax:

• bounce
  
• scream
  
• one and only
  
• 2 man show

Official Timbaland Website

Posted by graysony at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)

Charity on Idol

Nikki's Thoughts on American Idol and Charity

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According to another one of my favorite entertainment news sources (and television shows), ET Online, American Idol's using its popularity to raise some money for children's charities targeted to helping those impoverished in Africa and America. The ratings giant and reality show phenom has been wrangling numerous celebrities to join the cause, including its most famous alum, Kelly Clarkson - America's very first American Idol. Other celebs include Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Forest Whitaker, Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Radcliffe, Teri Hatcher and Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson).

The charity drive, entitled "Idol Gives Back", is set to coincide with the show's Tuesday, April 24, and Wednesday, April 25, airdates. On Tuesday night, every vote tallied will earn a donation to a charity from sponsors News Corporation, Ford, Coca-Cola and AT&T. Then on Wednesday's Result show, viewers can make their own donation while hot performers - Gwen Stefani, Josh Groban, Pink, Michael Bublé, Annie Lennox, Il Divo, and Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) - take the stage. Idol's banking on the tried and true formula of celebrity swaying power to get more contributions.

I think it's great that Idol's using its strong media presence for a worthy cause. Every time celebrities rally together to raise awareness and raise funds, such as 2005's Live 8 Concert, great things happen. It's even more awesome to see that Idol Gives Back isn't just coming at a time when some major disaster occurred - there are people suffering in the world all the time and we can't forget that.

Posted by paulinad at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2007

Movie Review

Comedy Blades of Glory hit the mark with me. It is a very funny movie that is full of typical Will Ferrell one liners. I was sketchy going in to see a movie about figure skating because it is definitely not one of my favorite sports, but the all-time great combo of Jon Heder and Will Ferrell caught my attention. I did not want to miss what might be my only opportunity to see Napoleon Dynamite teamed up with Ron Burgundy.

This movie has a fairly simple plot about two famous figure skaters with very different styles. Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) is a skater who focuses completely on style and showmanship, while Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) works the crowd, especially the ladies, with his dazzling effects and tricks. They both are competing for supremacy in the figure skating world. In the opening act the two compete in a big time event and end up tying, while accepting their medals they get into a fist fight in the middle of the ice. This causes the two men to be banned from figure skating for the rest of their lives. One note that I would like to mention is that William Daniels plays a role in this movie. For those of you who don't know who that is, he played Mr. Feeny on my all-time favorite TV show Boy Meets World. I digress. Superstalker Hector (Nick Swardson) finds a loophole in the system and tells Jimmy that all he has to do is sign up for doubles and he can skate again. Jimmy is skeptical at first but then he realizes he wants to skate because it is all that he knows how to do. He has trouble finding a partner until his old coach (Craig T. Nelson) gets the crazy idea that he should pair up with hated enemy Chazz Michael Michaels. Things are rough at first but the two eventually get along and find their way to the big stage at the national winter games in Canada. They have to compete against the best doubles team of all time Fairchild and Stranz Van Waldenberg.

The movie is very funny but it is a little corny at times, which is to be expected from a Will Ferrell and Jon Heder flick. But all in all in is a pretty good movie that I was not disappointed by. Will Ferrel is a genius when it comes to comedy. He really knows what he is doing and I've even heard he ad libs some of his scenes which makes it that much more hysterical. I'll give you a little flavor from the movie. This is my favorite convo between Jimmy and Chazz:

Chazz: Night is a dark time for me.
Jimmy: It's a dark time for everyone.
Chazz: Not people in Alaska or dudes with night vision goggles.

This is just one of the many one liners portrayed in the movie. But as usual I will provide a trailer below so you can check it out if you would like.

Grade: B

Posted by tschill at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

April 02, 2007

Music News - iTunes Songs Without Copyright Protection?

Grayson's Music Post

as many of you probably know, when you buy a song of iTunes, it comes along with copyright protection (protected AAC file). this is a problem if you want to burn your music as a data disk or if you want to move it between devices. according to apple, as of april 2nd, 2007, you will be able to by EMI music's entire digital cataloge without DRM (digital rights managment). the move away from DRM came after apple chief executive officer steve jobs asked EMI, universal music group, sony BMG music entertainment, and warner music group corp. to let apple remove DRM software from online music in february.

anyways, this is a start, as EMI is the world's third largest music company. songs will be offered at $1.29 for higher quality, DRM-free tracks and $0.99 for the normal quality tracks. if anything, this move should result in increased sales for apple as people with digital music players besides the iPod will be able to play music bought through iTunes.

Official Apple Announcement

Posted by graysony at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2007

KCA '07

Nikki Reports on the KCA 2007

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Justin Timberlake making his grand entrance by hanging onto a megasized Kid's Choice Awards Blimp

When I watch TV, I usually just flip to a few of my favorite channels: E!, MTV, ESPN, NBC, and ABC. No cartoons for me. However, today as I read through Trent's blog [April 1, 2007], Pink Is the New Blog, and saw his post about the 2007 Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards, all my fond memories of Nick cartoons and shows - Guts, Rugrats, Doug, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Double Dare, Rocko's Modern Life - came flooding back to me...but enough with my nostalgic digression, I need to squeeze in some entertainment news by reporting on the KCA 07.

Clockwise from top left: Nicole Kidman with an extremely slimy Tobey McGuire and Steve Carell, Fantastic 4's Jessica Alba and Chris Evans, JT and Vince Vaughn enjoying more slime, Orlando Bloom accepting the blimp for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Favorite Movie)

The show - celebrating it's 20th anniversary - was held live last night, March 31, 2007, at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion and hosted by the very talented and very popular Justin Timberlake. Why do they have to wrangle a hot ex-boy bander now? When I was infatuated with the Kid's Choice Awards (aka until I was 13), I got stuck with Rosie O'Donnell as a host. JT = definite upgrade.

Thousands of kids showed their appreciation for having their voice heard by incessantly screeching the entire night, especially when slime was involved. Considering it's the show's 20th, there was definitely a lot of it. In fact, as JT sang his Broadway-esque opening number, slime kept popping out from the floors, getting dumped from buckets by little kids, and falling from the ceiling all onto celebrities and strangers alike.

During the very casual yet fun night, the kids enjoyed seeing their favorite celebs receive their orange Nick blimp for categories in movies, music, tv, and sports. The winners list includes JT for Favorite Male Singer, Dakota Fanning for Favorite Female Movie Star, and Shaq for Favorite Athlete. Hmmm...didn't Shaq win when I was seven?!

Ever since I was little, the KCA has consistently had great celebrity turnouts, and when I was little, I never thought anything of it. I was just ready to scream my head off at the cute movie stars on the stage. Now, I realize that while they may like kids, celebs are really just there to promote their next movie, next album, next whatever. How did I come to this realization? Well, every time a celebrity was introduced, JT or the announcer just happened to mention his/her next movie, album, whatever. Sorta depressing, but at the end of the day, the bottom line is that the show always manages to make kids feel appreciated and allows them to have a good time. The hidden agenda doesn't really matter...oh how I miss being an oblivious and care free kid.

Posted by paulinad at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)

March 30, 2007

Movie Review

Again I am going to be previewing a movie in this entry. I previously wrote an entry on Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest stating that I loved the Pirate movies, which is very true. These are my favorite movies of all time bar none. This means that I am highly anticipating Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End.Once the third one comes out on DVD I will be searching hard to get the trilogy in one box set. If that makes me some kind of creepy Pirates of the Caribbean lover I don't care because the movies are that good.

This movie will bring back the all-star cast led by Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley. This film is about the extinction of the Pirates. Their enemies including Lord Becket and Davy Jones are teaming up to try and put and end to piracy. Even though these two men have very different motives, there is one thing they have in common and that is they want Jack Sparrow dead...
All the Pirates from the corners of the globe must come together in this film to save their way of life because it is under attack. This movie promises to be the best Pirates film yet with as much action and drama as ever.

I can't wait to see what cunning plots Jack will come up with in this movie. Also, I love his one liners and the sexual tension that exists between him and Miss Swan.

This movie premiers on May 25th and there is no way I don't see this movie on that very day. I will be one of many waiting in line, which will surely lead to the fact that this will be one of the highest grossing films of all time. I am fairly confident that it will pass the other two Pirate movies which will put it comfortably in the number 6 slot. If you want to check out the preview click the video below.

Posted by tschill at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2007

Music Review - Music and Lyrics OST

Grayson's Music Post

Artist: Various Artist
Album: Music and Lyrics
Genre: Soundtrack
Release Date: February 13th, 2007

who doesn't love hugh grant chick-flicks? love actually was brillant. about a boy, hilarious. and notting hill, while cheesy, not a bad date movie. music and lyrics is much the same, where grant stars opposite drew barrymore. anyways, a friend's gf gave me the soundtrack, so i figured i'd give it a whirl. music and lyrics' soundtrack is fun, showing off grant's own vocal capability along with barrymore's "girl-next-store" sing-along-ness. the soundtrack also includes (randomly) a song by swedish rocker, the teddybears and one by the sounds (also very swedish). the sounds are great, by the way, but i'll save that discussion for another post.

music and lyrics's most chick-flickish and radio friendly track is way back into love, where in the movie, hugh grant and drew barrymore appear to be singing of their own feelings. the soundtrack includes both the demo where barrymore sings and a studio version with haley bennett (who does the vocals in the video on this blog). bennett also does a fun take on britney spears' "toxic" in buddha's delight, a goofy pop track.

most soundtracks are not that good, with the exception of the first few the O.C. mixes, and music and lyrics is not spectacular itself. it's an interesting cd to have if you enjoyed the music or if you just want a few of the songs. unfortunately, iTunes only lets you buy the tracks by teddybears and the sounds individually. if you want the cute hugh grant/ drew barrymore duets, you'll need to buy the whole album.

hot trax:

• pop! goes my heart
  
• way back into love
  
• buddha's delight
  

Official Movie Website

Posted by graysony at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2007

Movie Review

The recently released movie 300 has caused quite a buzz around the movie industry. This movie is extremely violent yet artistic in its own right. The movie was shot entirely in front of a green screen using computer generated imagery (CGI). According to acclaimed movie critic Roeper this gives the movie a dreamlike feeling throughout. Furthermore, he states that if the movie wasn't done in CGI it would not have had the same affect and ultimately would not be as good of a movie.

300 is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller. The film is a violent retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his massive Persian army. There determination and honor is so inspiring that it is said that for this reason the entire Greek nation united against the Persian army.

A problem that some people in our society are having with this film is that it is about war. The men from Sparta are extremely gung hoe about this battle and they seem to be willing to venture in to almost certain doom. People are linking this with the current situation of the United States. They are also liking the leader of the Spartans to George Bush because King Leonidas is so willing to fight. Well I think people need to just relax and realize movies are for entertainment. This is not a political movie and there is no political subplot to this film. So just watch this movie and enjoy the truly artistic work that it portrays.

I have yet to see this film but I most certainly will when I have the time. Roeper and Morgan give the film two thumbs way up. If you want to check out what they had to say click on their names. If you want to check out a preview look below.

Posted by tschill at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2007

Miss USA 2007!!

Nikki on the Miss USA 2007 Pageant

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Miss USA 2007, Rachel Smith, gets crowned by her predecessor, Tara Connor (AP)

Last night, the annual Miss USA, was held on NBC. While the network definitely milked the scandal surrounding Miss USA 2006, Tara Connor, to publicize this event, the actual pageant went pretty smoothly as per usual. 51 contestants from each state and the District of Columbia vied for the coveted Miss USA title and Mikomoto-designed crown. There was glitz, there was glamour, and of course, there were beautiful girls. Hosts Nancy O'Dell and Tim Vincent from Access Hollywood, comptently transitioned from one chereographed segment to the next. Miss Michigan made it to the round of 15, but unfortunately, the representative from my home state of Florida didn't even make the first cut. By the end of the night, Miss Tennessee, Rachel Smith, wowed the judges enough to win it all.

Unlike the Miss America pageant, the 51 Miss USA contestants did not have to showcase any talents. Which raises the question: Is Donald Trump's Miss USA pageant simply a beauty pageant with a Q&A round thrown in for good measure? It's true that Miss USA receives a scholarship for higher education purposes and does go around the globe advocating issues such as Breast Cancer Awareness, but after Tara Connor's drug use confession and stint in Rehab, I've become weary of the integrity of the Miss USA/Miss Universe organization. Their method of choosing the final candidate doesn't even seem legit. How can you feel 100% confident that the most qualified candidate earned the title when the final judges consisted of: Jerry Springer, "Blow Out" star Jonathan Antin, Baby Phat President Kimora Lee Simmons and Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss?!

It seems to me that the pageant is just looking to obtain high ratings using the following formula: Women + Bathing Suits + Semi-celebrities = Large viewing audience. At the end of the night, you don't hear people going, "Wow, I really liked Miss X because her stance on America's education system impressed me." Instead you hear, "I liked Miss Y because she had the best smile and her gown was AMAZING" or "Miss Z had the best legs and strut." The sad thing is, instead of the issues being emphasized, women continue to be objectified, perpetuating the stereotypes surrounding pageants that these organizations have tried to break free from.

Posted by paulinad at 03:54 PM | Comments (1)