Archive for October 3rd, 2008
Nick Reynolds, Founder of Kingston Trio, Dies at 75
Musician Nick Reynolds, founder of the folk group the Kingston Trio, has died at the age of 75.
Nick Reynolds, a founding member of the Kingston Trio who jump-started the revival folk scene of the late 1950s and paved the way for artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, has died. He was 75.
Reynolds had been hospitalized with acute respiratory disease and other illnesses, and died Wednesday in San Diego after his family took him off life support, said son Joshua Reynolds.
Tags: Culture | Music | Bob Dylan | musician | Joan Baez | folk | nick reynolds dies | nick reynolds kingston trio | kingston trio | nick reynolds
Gawker Media to Lay Off 14% of Editorial Staff
Gawker strikes again, but this time against its own people.
Nick Denton announced Friday that 14% of Gawker’s editorial staff will be laid off as “a preventative measure” to offset against the collapsing economy.
(Read: Gawker’s soon to be collapsing content.)
Successful New York-based blog network Gawker Media will be laying off 19 of its 133 editorial staffers, according to an internal e-mail from publisher Nick Denton. The company will be additionally suspending its bonus payments to writers and editors, but will be increasing their base pay and making some strategic hires at the company’s most successful blogs.
“With the savings, we are increasing base pay and hiring 10 new people on the most commercially successful Gawker sites,” Denton wrote in the e-mail. “But I know that’s scant consolation for the colleagues we’re losing and for those of you who have been enjoying the bonus windfalls from breakout stories.”
Gawker’s bonus system has provoked controversy and banter throughout the new-media world: the company pays most writers at a base rate but then adds a bonus for every thousand page views a single post pulls in.
Laying off staffers is a preventative measure, Denton said. “The credit crisis is clearly going to affect every sector of the economy,” he wrote. “Advertising buys typically plunge after the Christmas shopping season, and 2009 is obviously going to be exceptionally difficult. We have to prepare for the worst, now, rather than when the worst comes upon us.”
A portion of those layoffs will fall on the highly successful internet gossip site Valleywag. Here’s their response to having to lay off 60% of their staff:
We would never sugarcoat someone else’s layoffs. Why ours? Gawker Media, our publisher, has told me to cut Valleywag’s costs, in anticipation of an advertising recession. In response, I have laid off associate editors Nicholas Carlson and Jackson West and reporter Melissa Gira Grant. They have all been doing excellent work, breaking stories and needling Silicon Valley. But our ultimate boss, Nick Denton, has decided he can’t afford them. Paul Boutin and I will continue running the site. Denton’s memo:
I have some bad news. Here’s the heart of it: we are cutting 19 of our 133 editorial positions and suspending bonus payments at the start of next year. With the savings, we are increasing base pay and hiring 10 new people on the most commercially successful Gawker sites. But I know that’s scant consolation for the colleagues we’re losing and for those of you who have been enjoying the bonus windfalls from breakout stories.
You can guess the reason for these brutal measures: the recession.
Tags: New York | Culture | Media | Nick Denton | new media | United States | Web | Site | gawker | Tech & Biz | Gawker Media | gawker lay off | editorial staff | internet gossip
YouTube to Stream Live Concert Event
YouTube is getting set to introduce its much rumoured live-streaming video service — and they’re going to do it in a big way.
“YouTube Live” is a massive concert event to be held in San Francisco on November 22nd that will be streamed-live all over the globe.
The event will include performances from include high profile (& web popular) musical acts like Akon, Soulja Boy, and will.i.am, but YouTube’s wildly successful cewebrities — like the inimitable Tay ‘Chocolate Rain’ Zonday — will also get their shine.
On November 22nd, YouTube will host a two-hour event in San Francisco, “a celebration of the site’s vast user communities.” Looks like we can expect performances from Akon, Soulja Boy, will.i.am and a bunch of online video-powered Weblebrities. And it will be broadcast live over the Internet. So, it turns out that Steve Chen was right after all — YouTube will have introduced live streaming video by the end of the year.
Here’s the low down from the YouTube site itself:
YouTube Live! is, first and foremost, a celebration of the site’s vast user communities; everyone from bedroom vloggers to world-famous rock stars, musicians, comedians, athletes, artists and more. Part concert, part variety show and part party, the event will bring to life many of the amazing videos and talent that YouTube viewers have already made popular on the site.
The two-hour event will take place on November 22, 2008, in front of a live audience in San Francisco; an audience of millions will be able to experience a simultaneous live stream on the site.
Tags: Culture | Entertainment | San Francisco | Concert | internet | Web | streaming video | YouTube | will.i.am | Akon | Soulja boy | Tech & Biz | live concert | live streaming video | youtube live
Jessica Alba In Muzzled Bondage for Voting Campaign
Jessica Alba has already been featured in a controversial ‘get out the vote’ campaign in which she was depicted, bound in duct tape, in an S&M-themed, bondage-inspired ad for Declare Yourself.
And now, as if that weren’t internet-shattering enough, Alba is appearing in an even more bizarre second part of the campaign.
I’ll leave it to Videogum to set the stage:
What we want from you is simple. Please spend the next few hours harnessing all of your brain power and all of your incredible knowledge on the singular task of inventing the single LEAST EFFECTIVE and MOST INSANE get out the vote campaign you can possibly think of. Bear in mind, this get out the vote campaign should not only result in ZERO NEW VOTERS, but it should also be HARD TO LOOK AT, potentially UPSETTING, and VERY RIDICULOUS. OK, science. You know what to do. Let’s see what you come up with.
The result, you ask? Well…
Hmmm. Jessica Alba wearing a Hannibal Lecter horror muzzle while her eyes fill up with tears of sheer terror (via NYDN). EUREEKA, I think you have done it.
Herewith, the latest in savvy provocateur electioneering:
Let’s talk edgy marketing. What do you think about Jessica Alba’s newest ad showing the actress donning a pin-heavy Hannibal Lector-style mask for Declare Yourself. The muzzle is supposed to give you a physical representation of what you look like when you don’t vote.
Marc Morgenstern, executive director of Declare Yourself says the campaign is working.
But it doen’t end there! No, why not take this print ad campaign and transpose it into the world of viral video by making a pseudo-infomercial YouTube clip for “The Muzzler” that not only features Jessica Alba espousing her love for the Hannibal Lecter-styled mask, but also includes a guest appearance from Hayden Panettierre sporting a customized hot pink-muzzle?
Yeah, that’s a good way to get people to vote. Watch the video here.
Seriously. WTF.
Tags: Culture | hollywood | Politics | Celebrity | United States | campaign | Vote | Jessica Alba | culturite | US Election | jessica alba bondage | jessica alba declare yourself | hayden panetierre | jessica alba muzzle | the muzzler | declare yourself
Beatles and Rolling Stones Members Join UK’s Rock Fantasy Camp
NME is reporting that members of famed musical acts like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, and The Beach Boys will be participating in an upcoming Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp in the UK.
Members of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd have signed up for the UK version of Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp.
The US institution sees participants sign up for a week-long masterclass with rock heroes, getting the ultimate training for living the rock dream.
But don’t get it twisted.
Although the program will indeed have some musicians affiliated with those bands, it’s not like Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and Brian Wilson are along for the ride.
Instead, you’ll get rock tutelage from the slightly lesser-known collaborators and ‘occasional members’ of these legendary acts.
Confirmed to aid the course so far are former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, AC/DC alumnus Chris Slade, Aerosmith producer and songwriter Mark Hudson, Mott The Hoople’s Mick Ralphs, and The Beach Boys‘ Jeffrey Froskett and Kip Winger.
All it costs is the tidy sum of £7,500 to participate and you too could be rockin with the lesser-best of ‘em.
For £7,500 participants can spend six ten-hour days jamming, recording and socialising with the stars at Abbey Road in the lead up to [a gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club joined by original Beatle Pete Best].
The UK rock camp will be held at the legendary Abbey Road Studios from November 4-9, 2008.
Tags: Culture | Music | Rolling Stones | UK | Beatles | Aerosmith | liverpool | PINK FLOYD | Beach Boys | pete best | ac/dc | uk rock n roll fantasy camp | rock fantasy camp | fantasy camp
