GRAMMY NOMINATIONS!!!!

This is video footage of the presentation for the Song of The Year Nominees...

The 53rd Annual Grammy's will premiere Sunday on February 13th 8/7C ONLY on CBS.

Eminem racked up a whooping 10 nominations. Newcomer Bruno Mars earned a total of 7 nominations. Jay-Z earned six, and Drake & Rihanna earned 4 a piece. To see the complete list log on to GRAMMY.com.

Digital Death

December 1, 2010 was World Aids Day, an important awareness campaign to take action, to tackle HIV prejudice but most importantly the spread of HIV. There are many organizations supported to raise awareness and even funds. Celebrities are actively involved in these efforts. According to MTV.com, "The original plan was for artists such as Usher, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Hudson and Ryan Seacrest to stage their "digital deaths" until $1 million was raised for Alicia Keys' BuyLife.org charity effort." the campaign kicked off in coordination with Wednesday's World AIDS Day and included the social-media -savvy stars staging a  Digital Life Sacrifice by signing off their Facebook, Twitter, and other online communication sites until the fund-raising goal was  reached.

This campaign helps provide money for medical care and support services for children and families impacted by HIV and Aids in Africa and India. 

Another notable participant included Kim Kardashian...

Personally, I understand the message but not particularly the approach towards sending the message. Many of  these celebrities don't really interact with their fans on any of the social networks and makes it seem as though people have to donate a significant amount of money for the cause. Many people are NOT effected by these celebrities not being on twitter or facebook. It would have came much more genuine if these celebrities were actively involved in sending the message to donate. For example, there could have been commercial advertisements with celebrities talking to certain AIDS patients or any other reasonable approach besides the "Digital Death." 

Nonetheless, hopefully the goal of  reaching $1million is  reached. 

American Music Awards on Sunday Night!!!!

Tonight is going to be an entertaining night for music lovers because the 2010 American Music Awards will be coming on with performances from Rihanna, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Usher, Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift, and many more. It is always great when artists perform and are nominated, even better winning awards for their work.

I must admit, I am excited to see Rihanna, Usher, and Christina Aguilera performances. The AMA's should be a great event in music history filled with many surprises and awesome performances. The AMA's have always been a great show filled with talented artists and performers.

RAPPER T.I 'SICK AND TIRED OF JAIL'

Rapper T.I has expressed his frustration of being sent to prison once again for drug possession, while on probation from a previous sentence of pleading guilty for weapon charges. According to billboard.com, T.I has penned another letter from jail and in it the rapper says he's "sick and motherfuc*king tired of going to jail" and that his return to the pen this time is a "real *ss whoopin."

To sum up the letter, he says he would have rather done a 5-10 year bid all at once than to go in and out of prison over the last 15 years of his life. He says he's in his darkest hours and knows he did something stupid, and he says he learned that bad behavior from his father and uncle who were on drugs. He also promised to never allow his sons to find their "manhood" from the trap or jail like he had to do. Oh and lastly, He's ready to "change."

T.I has alot of time to reflect on his life and the choices he will have to make, in order to lead a better example for his family and fans. The question for T.I is, How many times do you want to repeat the same mistake before you learn from it? He is a successful rapper, actor, and business man with beautiful children and a wife. If he keeps going down this path of destruction, he could possibly put his career and family at risk. There is a BIG difference between saying you want to change and actually making the decision to change.

Time will tell. But he's still got a long way to go..

THE FUTURE OF TWITTER!!!!

There has been a startling growth on twitter over the years and has exploded to millions of users in the last few years. There is no question that it is reminiscent of Google and Facebook in their early days. Twitter has taken the internet by storm and has become one of the most important ways to receive breaking news. Many celebrities have made twitter accounts, most notably President Barack Obama with a huge following of over 2 million.

With twitter's success, I propose the question What is the future of Twitter?

Twitter has the potential to change American Business. As twitter grows, it will increasingly become a place where companies build brands, do research and send information to customers. I believe it will have a profound effect on the general public. Twitter can be the future of search, perhaps giving google a run for its money. As far as news, twitter can deliver real-time content. For example, twitter displays real time streams of news and information. Twitter already represents the masses and can deliver more trustworthy results. Twitter can change the way news is broadcast.

However it is too early to assert that Twitter will become a Google Killer but it has the potential to be considered a search engine.

The fact that twitter keeps it to 140 characters or less can be great for part of society who enjoys skimming and doesn't want to read through pages of content to find what they want.

It will be interesting to discover what twitter holds for the public in the future.

MY FAVORITE GHOST STORIES

Today is Halloween and plenty of festivities taking place across the world in honor of Halloween. Its great seeing people dressed in costumes, especially the kids.

In honor of Halloween, I would like to share and recommend my favorite ghost stories. Here they are:

1. "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe (1843)
From the master of the morbid imagination, this gem of a story blurs the edges between horror and ghost fiction. A murderer's guilty conscience gets the better of him, driving him to confess his crime. The unnamed narrator murders an old man with a "vulture eye." He plans  carefully and hides the body by dismembering it, but his guilt will not let him rest. Is he imagining the beating of the heart beneath the floorboards or is there something there? Gripping and horrifying, the perfect mix of horror and Gothic, the forerunner of the psychological ghost stories that were to come into vogue.

2. "Bewitched" by Edith Wharton (1925)
This story, first published in the Pictorial Review in 1925, has a fabulous sense of place and is a grisly story with a twist. It leaves the reader doubting their interpretation of events. Great stuff.

Last but not least,
3. "The Signalman" by Charles Dickens (1866)
This story preys on both the anxiety provoked by the new technology of railways and deeply held beliefs that a ghost can be the focal point for events to follow. It is creepy, clever and has you looking over your own shoulder.

These stories are sure to set the mood for Halloween!!!

Kanye West "Runaway Video"

Kanye West has released a 35 minute opus starring himself and model Selita Ebanks. Selita Ebanks is captured in the picture, which is a screenshot from the video. She plays the love interest in the video. According to MTV. com, "Runaway Solidifies Kanye West As the Greatest Pop Star of this Generation." In the film, Ebanks plays a phoenix( as in the mythical creature) who crashes to Earth and gets saved by West( who plays a vaguely fictionalized version of himself). The two strike up a relationship that ends in tragedy. There was a scene that stood out to me when there was fireworks and a band as well as people dressed in pointed hoods reminiscent of those worn by the Klu Klux Klan. There was also a Michael Jackson float that appeared. Kanye sat down with Sway from MTV for a for a live Q&A session on the film and he explained that the scene represented the concept of cult and social conformity.

Kanye West never cease to amaze me. While some may debate on whether he is a role model or not, there should be no debate about his artistic impact on popular culture. This video is a great representation of artistic integrity and how Kanye makes sure his work is abstract. One of the many things I like about this video is that people can take it a lot of different ways, instead of it being taken just one way. The video was very captivating and inspired me. After watching this video, I realized something that is missing in music today is creativity. There are a handful of artists who has great artistic vision, but it seems as if music and visual representation is very commercial nowadays. Kanye, as well as Lady Gaga and other artists take risks and are not afraid to not conform to the commercial aspect of the business and think outside of the box.

This music video was beautifully done and very well represented.