Sure, there are more brands than ever. But they're taking a beating - or, even worse, being ignored. Who's to blame? A new breed of hyperinformed superconsumers. (That's right - you!)

By James Surowiecki. originally printed in wired

The world, it seems, is disappearing beneath a deluge of logos.In the past decade, corporations looking to navigate an ever more competitive marketplace have embraced the gospel of branding with newfound fervor. The brand value of companies like Coca-Cola and IBM is routinely calculated at tens of billions of dollars, and brands have come to be seen as the ultimate long-term asset - economic engines capable of withstanding turbulence and generating profits for decades. So companies spend billions on brand campaigns and try to indelibly mark everything in sight, from the ING New York City Marathon to the Diamond Nuts cup holders at SBC Park.


Since 1991, the number of brands on US grocery store shelves has tripled. Last year, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued an incredible 140,000 trademarks - 100,000 more than in 1983. The average American sees 60 percent more ad messages per day than when the first President Bush left office. A handful of years ago, David Foster Wallace fantasized in Infinite Jest about an America in which corporations sponsor entire years - the Year of the Whopper, the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. The fantasy seems more reasonable by the day.

And yet there's something strange going on in branding land. Even as companies have spent enormous amounts of time and energy introducing new brands and defending established ones, Americans have become less loyal. Consumer-goods markets used to be very stable. If you had a set of customers today, you could be pretty sure most of them would still be around two years, five years, ten years from now. That's no longer true. A study by retail-industry tracking firm NPD Group found that nearly half of those who described themselves as highly loyal to a brand were no longer loyal a year later. Even seemingly strong names rarely translate into much power at the cash register. Another remarkable study found that just 4 percent of consumers would be willing to stick with a brand if its competitors offered better value for the same price. Consumers are continually looking for a better deal, opening the door for companies to introduce a raft of new products.

Marketers may consider the explosion of new brands to be evidence of branding's importance, but in fact the opposite is true. It would be a waste of money to launch a clever logo into a world of durable brands and loyal customers. But because consumers are more promiscuous and fickle than ever, established brands are vulnerable, and new ones have a real chance of succeeding - for at least a little while. The obsession with brands, paradoxically, demonstrates their weakness.

The single biggest explanation for fragile brands is the swelling strength of the consumer. We've seen a pronounced jump in the amount of information available about goods and services. It's not just bellwethers like Consumers Union and J.D. Power, established authorities that unquestionably shape people's buying decisions, but also the crush of magazines, Web sites, and message boards scrutinizing products. Consumers have also become more demanding: Even as the quality and reliability of products have generally risen, satisfaction ratings have not budged, and in some cases they've actually fallen. Businesses are now dealing with buyers who are armed with both information and harsh expectations. In this environment, companies that slip up - even if it's simply failing to match customer tastes - can no longer count on their good names to carry them through. And consumers have become far more willing to experiment with products, because the amount of information out there makes taking a chance far less risky. By the time you think about buying that digital altimeter barometer, chances are the bleeding edge has already weighed in at Epinions. This gives nascent brands an opportunity to succeed, but it also makes staying power a lot harder to come by. Welcome to the What Have You Done for Me Lately? economy.

Some industries are suffering more than others. In consumer electronics, quality has risen across the board, making product differences harder to discern. Manufacturing has commodified: Most of today's computer equipment, television screens, and stereos are made by a small handful of contract manufacturers and then slapped with a logo before hitting store shelves. That doesn't mean that making a better gizmo no longer matters - offering genuinely innovative products is, more than ever, the best way to capture market share. But savvy consumers are no longer willing to pay a high premium for an otherwise identical product just because it has a fancy nameplate.

Undoubtedly, there are strong brands that can still command a premium. In one recent survey by Landor Associates, 99.5 percent of people said they'd be willing to pay more for a Sony. But the size of that premium is smaller than ever. Five years ago, Sony charged 44 percent more for its DVD players than the average manufacturer. Today, Sony DVD players cost just 16 percent more than the average. And yet, even though the price of Sony's most expensive DVD player fell 60 percent between 1999 and 2003, CyberHome, maker of absurdly cheap DVD players, has knocked off Sony to become the biggest DVD-machine seller in America. Similarly, in the fashion industry, a stronghold of brand identity and obsession, prices fell an average of 9 percent between 2001 and 2003. At least part of the reason is the uptick in private-label sales, which now account for almost half the market. The rise of retailers like Zara and H&M, which make their own cheap but nice designer knockoffs, and the emergence of a high-low aesthetic (in which top designers no longer dictate taste) have weakened the power of fashion brands and fragmented the industry into myriad small ones. Sure, superbrands like Louis Vuitton and Prada can still command a heft price premium. But they're increasingly the exception.

Marketing types either don't see this trend or choose not to talk about it. In the words of advertising legend Jim Mullen, "Of all the things that your company owns, brands are far and away the most important and the toughest. Founders die. Factories burn down. Machinery wears out. Inventories get depleted. Technology becomes obsolete. Brand loyalty is the only sound foundation on which business leaders can build enduring, profitable growth." Similarly, in the new book Brands and Branding, Rita Clifton, chair of Interbrand UK, puts it this way: "Well-managed brands have extraordinary economic value and are the most effective and efficient creators of sustainable wealth." These assertions claim that while factories, source code, and patents are ephemeral, brands are real. But in fact, their long-term value is shrinking. They're becoming nothing more than shadows. You wouldn't expect your shadow to protect you or show you the way. It only goes wherever you do.

Look at Nokia. In 2002, it had the sixth-most-valuable brand in the world, valued by the consultancy Interbrand at $30 billion. But the very next year, Nokia made a simple mistake: It didn't produce the clamshell-design cell phones that customers wanted. Did consumers stick around because of their deep emotional investment in Nokia? Not a chance. They jumped ship, and the company's sales tumbled. As a result, Nokia lost $6 billion in equity. How about Krispy Kreme? In 2003, Fortune called the doughnut maker America's "hottest brand." Then came what might prove to be the hottest name of 2004: Atkins.

Annual rankings of brand value are littered with examples of firms that watched billions of dollars in supposed "brand equity" vanish - not because they messed with their identities, but simply because they didn't make a product or deliver a service that people needed. Even genuinely powerful brand association is no longer a guarantee that a company will make money. TiVo has revolutionized television, and even introduced a word into the consumer vernacular. But it hasn't made a dime in profit. In the past year, the company has cut prices sharply to try to compete with the cheap DVRs coming to market from cable and satellite companies. Similarly, Apple has had to continually introduce better variations on the iPod - and cut prices - to fend off copycats.

Marketers aren't completely deceived (or being deceiving) when they argue that customers make emotional connections with brands, but those connections are increasingly tenuous. If once upon a time customers married brands - people who drove Fords drove Fords their whole lives - today they're more like serial monogamists who move on as soon as something sexier comes along. Gurus talk about building an image to create a halo over a company's products. But these days, the only sure way to keep a brand strong is to keep wheeling out products, which will in turn cast the halo. (The iPod has made a lot more people interested in Apple than Apple made people interested in the iPod.) If a company must constantly deliver new value to its loyal customers just to keep them, those customers aren't loyal at all. Which means, save for a few perennials like Coke, brands have little or no value independent of what a company actually does. "Brands have run out of juice. They're dead," says Kevin Roberts, CEO of advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi and author of the new book Lovemarks. "Now the consumer is boss. There's nowhere for brands to hide."

This is all, of course, a bad thing for marketers. A brand is supposed to provide a haven from competition, offering what Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila calls insurance against missteps. But the disappearance of loyalty means that insurance is vanishing, too - which is great for consumers. When companies can't count on their reputations to carry them through, they're forced to innovate to stay alive. The erosion of brand value, then, means heightened competition - and everything we know about economics tells us that the more competition, the better off consumers will be.

The truth is, we've always overestimated the power of branding while underestimating consumers' ability to recognize quality. When brands first became important in the US a century ago, it was because particular products - Pillsbury flour or Morton salt - offered far more reliability and quality than no-name goods. Similarly, many (and arguably most) of the important brands in American history - Gillette or Disney - became successful not because of clever marketing, but because they offered something you couldn't get anywhere else. (Gillette made the best razors; Disney made the best animated movies.) Even Nike first became popular because it made superior running shoes. Marketers looked at these companies and said they were succeeding because their brands were strong. In reality, the brands were strong because the companies were succeeding.

Over time, certain brands came to connote quality. They did provide a measure of insurance - which in turn made firms less innovative and less rigorous. (Think of the abominable cars General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler made in the late 1960s through the 1970s - remember the Pinto? - in part because they assumed that they had customers for life.) That sense of protection is eroding in industry after industry, and instead of a consumer economy in which success is determined in large part by name, it's now being determined by performance. The aristocracy of brand is dead. Long live the meritocracy of product.

about Gopnik Article

click to see full version.
so the organizer George Koch, asked me to do a poster in rebuttle to this article. that they are gonna print a thousand copies of and sell for 5$ and put on tshirts. so that was exciting.. considering he could of asked any of the other "more experienced" ppl to do it. considering ther were 1000 artists involved in art o matic. which is really tight and i think you all should go before it closes. ! (dec 5th_btw)

Artomatic 2004: Hanging Is Too Good for It

By Blake Gopnik
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2004; Page C01

Here's a fine idea. Let's find an abandoned school and then invite local dentists to ply their trade, free of charge, in its crumbling classrooms, peeling corridors and dripping toilets. Okay, so maybe we won't get practicing dentists to come, but we might get some dental students, hygienists and retirees to join in our Happy Tooth festival. What the heck, let's not be elitists here: Why don't we just invite anyone with a yen for tooth work or some skill with drills to give it a go. Then we can all line up, open wide and see what happens.

I'll be at the front of the line.

After all, it could hardly be more excruciating than this year's Artomatic, the fourth edition of the District's creative free-for-all, which opens tomorrow. Organizers have gotten about 600 local "artists" -- anyone who could ante up the $60 fee and 15 hours of his or her time, in fact -- to display their creations. They're on show in the sprawling, scruffy building in north Capitol Hill that once housed the Capital Children's Museum and several charter schools.

The result is the second-worst display of art I've ever seen. The only one to beat it out, by the thinnest of split hairs, was the 2002 Artomatic, which was worse only by virtue of being even bigger and in an even more atrocious space, down by the waterfront in a vacant modern office building.

I won't dwell on the art. And I certainly won't name names. No one needs to know who made the wallfuls of amateur watercolors, yards of incompetent oil paintings, acres of trite street photography and square miles of naive installation art that will be polluting this innocent old building for the next three weeks. There's something for everyone to hate. The rest are works only a mother could love.

There may just be a few decent things hidden in the mix -- with so many thousands of objects on display, the law of averages says there must be. But three hours' worth of looking didn't spot too many. Some of the glasswork looked all right. (Glass is such a gorgeous medium it's hard to screw it up, and you need some basic training even to begin to work in it.) There were a few political one-liners that had some heft. But with works hung pell-mell and cheek-by-jowl in every corner of five floors of shabby rooms and corridors -- lighted by fluorescent tubes and the cheapest clip-on floods -- anything good was bound to get obscured by mediocrity. There's not even an attempt to keep like works together, or to craft oases of somewhat more polished art.

I don't blame the people who made this work, bad as it mostly is. This is, as they say, a free country, and if someone wants to mess around with art supplies at home, then only their nearest and dearest have the right to complain. It's the basic premise of this show that is so badly at fault.

You'd think that the purpose of a public exhibition would be to give the public a fair chance of seeing interesting art. Or you might think that it could serve emerging artists, too, by giving them a chance to learn from the best work that's out there. But what useful purpose is served in showing work by anyone who wants to have it seen, however awful it may be? How can an art exhibition be counted as anything other than a dismal failure when it's so bad overall?

Or worse. A show like Artomatic, in theory organized and stocked by lovers and supporters of fine art, is actively insulting to all the genuinely talented artists who have managed the long slog to a professional career.

For almost the entire history of Western culture, art was not conceived as something just anyone could or should make. Imagine living in Renaissance Florence and telling one of your Medici pals that you were going to have the family altarpiece painted by Joe Blow the baker, who felt like giving it a try. It would have seemed a joke. An Artomatic would have seemed sheer lunacy. Ditto if you had lived in Rembrandt's Amsterdam, Gainsborough's London or the Paris of Monet. For most of the last 500 years, dentists have been seen as less professional a bunch than artists.

But somehow, over several decades now, we've bought into the nutty idea that fine art matters so very little, and is such easy stuff, that everyone and anyone can make it. (Actually, the idea has disappeared almost entirely among the kind of art professionals and intellectuals who suggested it in the first place, around the turn of the last century. The idea of art-by-anyone at first met with stiff public opposition, even ridicule; I'm only sorry it finally managed to catch on.)

Real, worthwhile art, the kind that says something that hasn't been said a million times before, requires carefully honed, hard-to-acquire skills -- sometimes manual, always visual and intellectual. Almost all artists worth the time of day know what's come before them, understand what's being made around them, and then -- against the odds and with terrifically hard work -- manage, every now and then, to make an art object that can contribute to the larger cultural conversation.

There may be a remote chance that such a person has been laboring unrecognized in a garret somewhere in Washington and that only Artomatic could have coaxed him out of hiding. But it's about as likely as finding a genius cavity-filler lurking in our dental open house.

After all, there are already lots of institutions dedicated to finding and displaying novel talent in the arts. Several alternative and artist-run spaces in the Washington area -- DCAC, Flashpoint, Transformer and others -- consider almost anything that comes over the transom. Their organizers tell me that the problem isn't a surplus of submissions; programming tends to suffer because they have too few options to choose among.

Despite public perceptions, the art world isn't anything like a closed shop: Curators, dealers and critics are always on a desperate hunt for new makers of new kinds of art, and they'll take it absolutely anywhere they can get it. Well-known mid-career artists are the ones who tend to face neglect; the hot young things that no one's seen before are where the action is. I guarantee that anyone with talent who might be discovered at a show like Artomatic would have had a fine chance of being discovered anyway.

What the District truly needs is more displays of carefully selected, quality contemporary art, so that local emerging artists -- and, just as importantly, their public -- would have more and better examples of how serious creativity can work. As things stand, too many local artists, as well as a few of our dealers, get attention they wouldn't get in any city where they faced some decent, savvy competition. The region needs its artistic bar raised another notch or two. Whereas Artomatic, of course, removes the bar entirely and invites anyone and everyone to stroll on in and strut their stuff.

It's not as though we are a society that fiercely discourages the making of art, one that needs an Artomatic just to make sure anything gets made at all. More art schools turn out more trained artists every year, and they all have to compete for a slice of the same meager pie of patronage, funding and public attention.

Artomatic costs more than $100,000 to put on, drawing funds from the artists themselves as well as from the public and private sectors; it absorbs major gifts in kind and vast amounts of volunteer time; it gets plenty of media coverage and pulls in tens of thousands of visitors. And all the money and resources and attention that go Artomatic's way are, by definition, not going to serious art that needs a boost, and deserves a higher public profile. Artomatic isn't only good for nothing. It's bad for art that matters.

i was mentioned in the city paper the one that is out now.

MUSEFUL CRITIQUE

For all his ranting about “bad” art projects in the District this past year, Washington Post critic Blake Gopnik hasn’t actually done much to stop them. In fact, the Oxford University–educated art historian has done just the opposite.

To wit: Last spring, Gopnik ripped the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ “exciting public art project,” PandaMania. In fact, he likened the task of painting blank panda statues to filling in a coloring book. “It would take a really skilled contemporary artist to turn a coloring book into something worth an art lover’s time,” Gopnik wrote in a May 30 Post critique. “There probably aren’t more than a half-dozen artists in this city who could do it.”

Oh, but Bethesda, Md., painter Marsha Stein thought she could find a few. So she formally challenged Gopnik to hand-pick a team of artists to compete against hers. Each team would paint a blank two-foot cube, with the public voting on the best one.

Gopnik politely declined the challenge. But that didn’t stop Stein: Her project has since evolved into a multiteam competition—albeit sans cubes—that D.C. filmmaker Nigel Parkinson is shooting for a documentary. Or maybe a reality-TV show.

“He just pushes people’s buttons,” Stein says of Gopnik. “He does my job for me. He couldn’t have fueled this competition any better than by writing that article.”

More recently, Gopnik issued a scathing critique of Artomatic 2004, the exhibition of works by some 600 area artists now showing in the former Capital Children’s Museum. In a Nov. 11 Post piece, he called the show “the second-worst display of art I’ve ever seen. The only one to beat it out, by the thinnest of split hairs, was the 2002 Artomatic, which was worse only by virtue of being even bigger and in an even more atrocious space.

“Artomatic isn’t only good for nothing,” Gopnik concluded. “It’s bad for art that matters.”

Again, artists responded. For starters, there’s The Official Artomatic 2004 Boo Blake Wall, an installation papered with angry letters from Artomatic exhibitors and dotted with Travis Miller– designed stickers that read: “Blake isn’t only good for nothing. He’s bad for art that matters.” And sculptor Mark Jenkins has posted a phony news story reporting

Gopnik’s kidnapping by “human figures made of packaging tape.” The wall is also splashed with red paint, some of which drips down into a plastic bag taped to the ground. “Somebody said it looks like bullet holes and blood,” notes Artomatic executive-committee member Jim Tretick.

A less ominous homage to Gopnik appears at Artomatic’s Overlook Bar: A case of warm beer wrapped in white paper and labeled “One vintage case of Icehouse from Artomatic 2002: The worst beer from the worst show.”

“That case of beer has been sitting in my basement for two years,” says Tretick. “We were saving it for a special occasion.”

Right beside the beer is a brand-new Clue game wrapped in a plastic bag for Gopnik. And the artists aren’t done yet. McLean, Va.–based graphic designer Jesse Thomas is now putting the finishes touches on a new collage inspired by Gopnik.

The tributes to Gopnik come as news to the critic. “I didn’t know about any of the Artomatic responses,” he writes via e-mail. Gopnik’s own response? Something in Latin about judges and matters of taste: “De gustibus non...I guess.”

rockbottom first. then dadelysis. for a supposed free open bar. that turned in to 3$ kamikazees. boo on dadelysis. there were 20 of us

abingdon crew

bridget, nick, megan (nicks twin sister), lisa, and natasha

tonight we went thai square.. mmmmm.. and then to whitlows.. I went to school with megan, nick and bridget for 12 years !. I went to the bus stop with megan and nick for 10 years.

Masterpiece theater: Hos and Housewives

Bill Gates might not use AOL, but he's definitely got mail. The Microsoft Corp. chairman receives millions of Internet messages a day, said Steve Ballmer, the company's chief executive. "Bill literally receives 4 million pieces of e-mail per day, most of it spam," Ballmer said Thursday.

Spam or junk e-mails are unsolicited messages, generally advertising goods or services and usually sent to many e-mail accounts simultaneously.

Ballmer said Microsoft has special technology that just filters spam intended for Gates. In addition, several Microsoft employees are dedicated to ensuring that nothing unwanted gets into his inbox.

"Literally there's a whole department almost that takes care of it," he said.

Ballmer was in Singapore for the company's Government Leader's forum, which ends Friday.

Hunters soon may be able to sit at their computers and blast away at animals on a Texas ranch via the Internet, a prospect that has state wildlife officials up in arms.

A controversial Web site, http://www.live-shot.com, already offers target practice with a .22 caliber rifle and could soon let hunters shoot at deer, antelope and wild pigs, site creator John Underwood said on Tuesday.

Texas officials are not quite sure what to make of Underwood's Web site, but may tweak existing laws to make sure Internet hunting does not get out of hand.

"This is the first one I've seen," said Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife director Mike Berger. "The current state statutes don't cover this sort of thing."

Underwood, an estimator for a San Antonio, Texas auto body shop, has invested $10,000 to build a platform for a rifle and camera that can be remotely aimed on his 330-acre (133-hectare) southwest Texas ranch by anyone on the Internet anywhere in the world.

The idea came last year while viewing another Web site on which cameras posted in the wild are used to snap photos of animals.

"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.' A little light bulb went off in my head," he said.

Internet hunting could be popular with disabled hunters unable to get out in the woods or distant hunters who cannot afford a trip to Texas, Underwood said.

Berger said state law only covers "regulated animals" such as native deer and birds and cannot prevent Underwood from offering Internet hunts of "unregulated" animals such as non-native deer that many ranchers have imported and wild pigs.

He has proposed a rule that will come up for public discussion in January that anyone hunting animals covered by state law must be physically on site when they shoot.

Berger expressed reservations about remote control hunting, but noted that humans have always adopted new technologies to hunt.




from the Live Shot website.

"First it was rocks and clubs, then we sharpened it and put it on a stick. Then there was the bow and arrow, black powder, smokeless power and optics," Berger said. "Maybe this is the next technological step out there."

Underwood, 39, said he will offer animal hunting as soon as he gets a fast Internet connection to his remote ranch that will enable hunters to aim the rifle quickly at passing animals.

He said an attendant would retrieve shot animals for the shooters, who could have the heads preserved by a taxidermist. They could also have the meat processed and shipped home, or donated to animal orphanages.

"LIVE-SHOT is a new concept. You can challenge yourself and compare your skills to other members with our on-line target shooting. We have developed a system where you can control a pan/tilt/zoom camera and a firearm to shoot at real targets in real time.

While your membership is active, access the viewing cameras to see how others stack up to your abilities, control the pan/tilt/zoom camera to take a look around, and schedule a reservation for your on-line shooting experience.

Currently, shooters will be able to fire 10 (ten) .22 caliber rounds at paper and silhouette targets. You may also have a DVD recording and/or the paper target from the session shipped as an option. Look for additional, varied shooting systems along with competitions to come online soon.

If exotic big game hunting is of interest to you, contact us at info@live-shot.com for information on scheduling a hunt on our ranch in Texas.

LIVE-SHOT is similar to a trip to the rifle range with one very notable exception. Everything is done through a computer and the internet. A paid membership will allow for access to the range viewing camera(s) at any time. Members can then schedule a reserved session time which allows exclusive control of the shooting system to fire at a choice of various reactive targets. Please note that the shooting range is an outdoor facility located on a secluded ranch in the Texas hill country. Please take this into consideration while shooting is taking place, as weather can affect accuracy.

At all times during a shooting session, someone is at the shooting station and is available to answer questions (e-mail, instant messaging), provide assistance, and ensure a quality experience. This person has the ability to override the firing mechanism of the system to minimize the chance of a dangerous or illegal discharge from occurring. "

When it debuted in 1999, TiVo revolutionized the TV experience by wresting control of screen time from advertisers, allowing viewers to record shows and skip commercials. TiVo's slogan said it all: "TV your way."

Behind the scenes, though, TiVo was courting advertisers, selling inroads to a universe most customers saw as commercial-free. The result is a groundbreaking new business strategy, developed with more than 30 of the nation's largest advertisers, that in key ways circumvents the very technology that made TiVo famous.

By March, TiVo viewers will see "billboards," or small logos, popping up over TV commercials as they fast-forward through them, offering contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads. If a viewer "opts in" to the ad, their contact information will be downloaded to that advertiser — exclusively and by permission only — so even more direct marketing can take place.

By late 2005, TiVo expects to roll out "couch commerce," a system that enables viewers to purchase products and participate in surveys using their remote controls.

Perhaps even more significant is TiVo's new role in market research. As viewers watch, TiVo records their collective habits — second by second — and sells that information to advertisers and networks. (It was TiVo that quantified the effect of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction," reporting a 180% increase in the number of replays reported by viewers.)

For advertisers it's an extraordinary boon, a quicker and more effective way than they've ever had of measuring the effects of their TV commercials.

For viewers, TiVo's new strategy means the technology famously christened "God's machine" by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell is rapidly becoming a marketer's best friend, proving that try as they might, consumers cannot hide from marketing.

"TiVo looked like it was going to be the weapon of mass destruction of Madison Avenue," says Robert Thompson, Syracuse University professor of television and pop culture. "However, we knew that the [TV] spot ad would not go gently into the night, and this is the next battle strategy."

The shift underscores what industry observers have been saying since TiVo started — that TV advertising and programming must change dramatically to survive.

These are anxious times for marketers, who are faced with commercial-busting technology that's evolving faster than they can keep up. Broadcast-ready cellphones, hyper-real video games, interactive DVDs and the Internet give consumers the on-demand, often commercial-free entertainment they crave.

Traditional network television viewing, by comparison, can seem antiquated. The number of American households with a TiVo or TiVo-like recording system is expected to increase from 5% to 41% in five years, according to Forrester Research, which studies technology's effect on business.

For this reason, ad agency executives who initially ignored TiVo and its digital video recorder technology, or DVR, are now praising it as an industry savior.

"I look at TiVo being first generation of the TV advertising of the future," says Tim Hanlon, a vice president at Starcom MediaVest Group, one of the world's largest media-buying companies, with clients including General Motors Corp., Procter & Gamble Co. and Best Buy Co. "There's a whole witch's brew of change coming to the linear television form."

But what about TiVo's devotees, those folks who send the company fan mail and photos of their pets posed with TiVo boxes, and act as missionaries, converting their friends to the technology?

Some say they don't mind a little pop-up advertising — just so long as they can fast-forward through it — because it could help keep TiVo in business. (A September report from Forrester shows that DVR owners typically fast-forward through 92% of commercials.)

Others are wary of the changes and concerned the company's priorities may be shifting away from the consumer.

"A company can get too big for its britches, you know?" says Bill Calogero, a Chicago computer business analyst and TiVo subscriber since 1999. "I just don't want them to interfere with the experience. If it isn't broke, don't fix it."

Yet from its inception, TiVo engineered its system with advertisers and networks in mind. While competitor ReplayTV had allowed its subscribers to skip commercials entirely — TiVo restricted its fast-forward capabilities so viewers could still see the commercial, albeit eight times faster than intended. (ReplayTV last year was forced by litigious studios and networks to adopt a more TiVo-like system.)

TiVo also sold space on its main menu to advertisers as a venue for commercials that ran longer than the usual 30- or 60-second spots. And the company developed "tagging" technology as a way for networks to advertise TV shows by embedding a green thumbs-up sign in the corner of the screen during a show's promo, reminding the viewer to record it. Advertisers saw tagging as an opportunity and jumped at it.

By 2002, TiVo was selling "tag" time to Lexus and Best Buy. The thumbs-up icons appeared during live commercials, inviting the viewer to "click here" for a chance to enter a contest, receive a DVD or brochure or watch a glossy, long-form commercial.

Over time, General Motors, Nissan Motor Co., Coca-Cola Co., Walt Disney World and Royal Caribbean International cruise line paid their way into the program. And all the while, TiVo recorded viewer response.

The tags proved so lucrative for TiVo, and so popular with viewers, that the Alviso, Calif.-based company expanded their capabilities significantly. They created "billboards," more robust tags that are larger and promote greater brand awareness with logos and text.

Until now, the new technology has been relatively subtle and not widely seen; by spring, it will be hard for TiVo users to miss. (The technology is part of the software provided to all TiVo users.)

"The message we really want to get across," says Davina Kent, TiVo's advertising and research sales manager, "is that we now have a dedicated road map for advertising."

There are TiVo users who say that as long as the new technology doesn't interfere with their ability to fast-forward through a commercial, they're happy to ignore it. It's the timesaving apparatus they say they cherish most.

"To be able to see things when I want to see them is the real advantage," says L.A. radio promotion executive Jennifer Sperandeo.

Other TiVo users say they hope the new partnerships prove lucrative enough to keep the company afloat. Five years after its launch, TiVo still hasn't turned a profit and doesn't expect to until January 2006. (Kent says the advertising revenue will probably bring down the cost of TiVo to its 2 million subscribers — currently $12.95 a month.)

And in the year since Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. took control of satellite operator DirecTV Group Inc., TiVo's largest source of customers, the future of that relationship has grown increasingly uncertain.

"I want them to be successful," says Gary Beck of Long Beach, who bought his first TiVo in 1999 and now has three. "They have clawed their way up. As long as they're not giving out personal data, I don't mind."

Some observers, however, interpret TiVo's new ad campaign as a profound change in its ideology that won't sit well with devotees.

Matt Haughey, whose Portland, Ore.-based PVRblog.com gets 10,000 hits a day (PVR is short for personal video recorder), says he wasn't surprised by the shift. After last year's lawsuit against ReplayTV and TiVo's hiring of NBC executive Martin Yudkovitz as president, he figured the glorious "David versus Goliath" days, when TiVo was the best defense against corporate tyranny, were numbered.

"My first impulse is, this is going to start the slippery slope," Haughey says.

"TiVo is dependent on a psychology," says Neal Gabler, a senior fellow at the Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg and author of "Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality." "It is not just a technology. You don't want people to intrude in your life. That's the whole point of it — to give you control of that mechanism…. I think they're going to find themselves losing customers. I say this as a TiVo subscriber."

To Syracuse University's Thompson, the concept of interactive advertising interrupts the most relaxing aspect of watching TV. "People seem to forget that what we've loved about television so dearly is its abject passivity," he says. "That's why they call it couch potato. TV was so great because it wasn't interactive."

But TiVo research suggests that notion is out-of-date. Between 5% and 20% of TiVo viewers given the opportunity to "participate" in an ad — either by clicking on a tag or by selecting a long-form commercial from a main menu — take it.

That's because TiVo has done its homework and knows its customer, Kent says. The new ads intrigue viewers instead of annoy them. They pop up and disappear in a matter of seconds if the viewer isn't interested. "You'll never see TiVo roll out any kind of intrusive advertising," Kent says. "It's very core to our mission."

What remains to be seen is whether consumers will embrace this culture shift at TiVo.

"Watching [an ad] is one thing," TiVo loyalist Calogero says. "Interacting with it is something that the consumer is going to need a little more reassurance that their information isn't being sold. I mean, TiVo knows how many times I rewinded to see Janet Jackson's breast come up. How much more do they know about me?"

dremos.





tenny is doing the matrix in the back.. stop it..lol



holla







the matrix again. done





wasted.


*props to my nuchkA eric. for the pics

The rapper O.D.B., a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan whose erratic behavior and incessant legal troubles made him a figure as wild as his lyrics, collapsed and died inside a recording studio at age 35.

The cause of death was not immediately clear, but O.D.B. had recently finished a prison sentence for drug possession and escaping a rehab clinic. He had complained of chest pains before collapsing Saturday, and was dead by the time paramedics arrived, said Gabe Tesoriero, a spokesman for O.D.B.'s record label, Roc-a-Fella.

O.D.B. would have turned 36 on Monday.

From his first appearance in the early 1990s, O.D.B. — also known as Ol' Dirty Bastard, Dirt McGirt, Big Baby Jesus or his legal name of Russell Jones — had an unorthodox delivery that stood out even in the nine-man Clan, which featured such future stars as Method Man, RZA and Ghostface Killah.

The Wu-Tang blueprint was for each member to pursue solo projects, and O.D.B.'s were among the best. He released hit singles such as "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and "Got Your Money," and appeared on remixes with artists like Mariah Carey.

"There's nobody like him in the game," RZA told The Associated Press in an April interview, when asked if O.D.B. could resume his career after prison. "He's got a lot of problems he's got to iron out, of course, but as far as a one-of-a-kind person, a one-of-a-kind artist, he's one of a generation, one of a lifetime. He's a very rare commodity."

But as his fame increased, so did his erratic behavior, and fans came to expect the unexpected from O.D.B.

When MTV News followed him around at the height of his popularity, he took the camera crew and several of his kids (he was said to have more than a dozen, by numerous mothers) to the welfare office — in a limousine — to get an allotment of food stamps.

And he received them.

In February 1998, he crashed the stage at the Grammy Awards and hijacked a microphone from singer Shawn Colvin as she accepted an award, apparently upset over losing the best rap album Grammy to P. Diddy (then known as Puff Daddy). He complained that he spent a lot of money for new clothes because he thought he was going to win. The rapper later apologized.

Over the years, he was wounded in shootings and arrested on a veritable laundry list of charges, including menacing security officers, illegally possessing body armor, driving with a suspended license, shoplifting and threatening a former girlfriend.

O.D.B. is the latest in a string of rappers to meet an untimely death, among them Jam Master Jay of Run DMC, who was fatally shot in late 2002, and Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, who were both shot to death in the late 1990s. Those killings remain unsolved.

In 2000, after escaping a court-ordered stint in a California rehabilitation center, authorities searched for O.D.B. for a month. He was finally arrested in Philadelphia — three days after performing in a New York City concert with his Wu-Tang clique.

He was sentenced in 2001 to two to four years in prison for drug possession, plus two concurrent years for escaping from the clinic. He was released in 2003 and immediately signed with Roc-a-Fella.

He heralded his return with a news conference alongside singer Carey — pop fans may know him best for his memorable cameo on her hit "Fantasy," featuring rhymes like "me and Mariah, go back like babies with pacifiers."

His mother, Cherry Jones, said she received the news of her son's death in a phone call, which she called "every mother's worst dream."

"To the public he was known as Old Dirty Bastard, but to me he was known as Rusty. The kindest most generous soul on earth," her statement said. "Russell was more than a rapper, he was a loving father, brother, uncle, and most of all, son."

Tesoriero said O.D.B. had been working on his comeback album for more than a year and was almost finished.

"Russell inspired all of us with his spirit, wit, and tremendous heart," Roc-A-Fella founder Damon Dash said in a statement. "The world has lost a great talent, but we mourn the loss of our friend."

flyer design for my boy eriks pary for his boys 21st birthday. and to celebrate eriks job offer at google. !!!! congrats nuchka !, bentleys on dubs

about 24 being made for mobile phones

The makers of hit show 24 are creating a spin-off series of one-minute dramas designed to be viewed on mobile phones.

The 'mobisodes' will be offered to Vodafone users in the UK from January, coinciding with the start of the thriller's fourth season on television.

Fox will introduce the service to high speed mobile phone users in 23 other countries later next year.

The bite-size dramas, 24 in all, will be based on the show's characters including Jack Bauer.

It is the first time that a Hollywood studio has created a series specifically for distribution via mobile phones.

Real-time

Spy thriller 24 is set in real-time, with each episode covering one hour in the life of the programme's characters.

Its first series in 2001 saw central character Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, attempt to thwart an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate.

He also had to rescue his family during the critical 24 hours.

The third series of the drama stalled in the US television ratings, losing two million viewers compared with its second series debut.

geoff and christine.com
i made this design a few months ago and i am only now reserecting it and it will be on it real domain name today

check the ipod .. press play ! and check the phone in the corner. its not offically online yet so ther is dummy text in the blog area.. and check out the first draft

If there was an increase in the number of people who took the day off from work or stayed home from school Tuesday, it may not have been the flu that kept them at home and on the couch.

"Halo 2," the long-awaitedsequel to the 2001 game that set the standard for
first-person shooters, went on sale Tuesday (November 9) at midnight, and thousands of people around the country waited in line for hours, just to be among the first to get their hands on what promises to be the biggest video game of the year. including alexis.

"It's the 'Halo 2' flu!" 29-year-old Brooklyn, New York, resident Dimitri said as he waited in line at the Toys R Us in Times Square, explaining why he, like so many other die-hard fans of the game, won't be leaving his living room for the foreseeable future.

"I don't think there's going to be a lot of work done tomorrow," concurred Miguel, 36, from Queens, New York.

If a dip in the labor force does indeed impact the economy, Microsoft, the publisher and developer of "Halo 2," won't be suffering. More than 1.5 million copies of "Halo 2" were sold through pre-sale, and Microsoft is estimated to rake in more than $100 million after the first day. One of the improvements "Halo 2" has over the original is Xbox Live, the subscription service that allows players to compete against one another online. In its first day supporting "Halo 2," Xbox Live broke its one-day record for most users: At press time, more than 108,000 unique users were online trying to blast each other's brains out.

"Bill Gates is even richer tonight!" screamed 18-year-old Johann from Brooklyn as he waited to add his $49.99 to the Microsoft kitty.

Some fans weren't satisfied with buying "Halo 2" on the first day; they had to buy the game first, period. Paul Girardi and Joe Delea, both 22 and from Staten Island, New York, began their sidewalk sit-in at 10 a.m., some 14 hours before the game went on sale.

"We didn't think we would be first, but no one was crazy enough to be here before us," Girardi said, his hair colored bright green in honor of the event. A greasepainted "Halo 2" logo, meanwhile, adorned Delea's face.

Their long wait paid dividends when Girardi and Delea were allowed inside the store an hour early to get a first-hand look at the game in a makeshift VIP area complete with a dozen LAN-linked flatscreen TV sets, an open bar, a snack table, and a surprise visit from "Halo" fan and New Jersey Nets star Richard Jefferson. The time outside must have taken its toll on the guys' appetites: Upon entering the room, they made a beeline for the chicken satay, fried dumplings and other hot hors d'oeuvres.

After posing for photos with a Bungie Studios executive and a guy dressed up as the game's protagonist Master Chief — and being taped for an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" — the guys finally had copies of the game ceremonially presented to them by noted "Halo" fanatic and star of "That '70s Show" Wilmer Valderrama. As a member of the "Halo 2" Council (see "Linkin Park, Hoobastank, Wilmer Valderrama To Get First Shot At 'Halo 2' "), Valderrama got his copy a few days earlier, but that doesn't mean his jones for the game has subsided any.

"The best thing about 'Halo 2' is not only are you this one guy who's the chosen one, you're also this bad-ass guy who can kick ass everywhere you put him," he said. "Every single one of my friends — even the guy who plays the dad on ["That '70s Show"] Kurtwood Smith, he's a 'Halo' fan, too. It's so random, everybody's so excited to play each other. You can be at home and the other player can be in New York. It's sick."

Besides looking for Valderrama online, players can search for him within the game, too.

"There's a bunch of celebrity voices in the game," he said, "so you might be able to make some of them out. I know that a few things that I said may have gotten into the game, but I'm not sure since I haven't finished the entire thing yet. As one of the soldiers, I said, 'Boy, that looks like taco meat.' "

"I'm immortal," he added, as a smile overcame his face. "I'll be forever a part of this game."

The murder of a soccer player and kidnapping of the mother of another have shown that not even Brazil's pride and joy -- soccer -- is immune from the violent crime that sweeps over cities.

"Kidnappers, you bastards, you'll pay for that," wrote one angry soccer fan on the Internet in reaction to the kidnapping of the mother of Santos club star Robinho -- a rising star who has been compared to Pele -- by two armed men from a beach house on Saturday.

Widespread poverty and extravagant wealth, flourishing drugs and illegal arms trade and corrupt police all help to fuel crime in Latin America's largest country, especially in cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro with their notorious slums, or "favelas."

Fears of becoming a victim prey daily on the minds of Brazilians, rich and poor.

But soccer players, who are adored by millions of people here as a symbol of their hopes and dreams, have rarely been targeted and the new incidents were taken as a sign the violence is running out of control.

"The soccer cases are more symbolic in nature as they gain notoriety," said Tulio Kahn who runs the Conjuntura Criminal think tank. "Comparisons with a war situation are not unfair."

Such was the shock of the kidnapping of Robinho's mother, Marina de Souza, that police appealed for people to report any information about it on a hotline.

"Please, any tip-off on the kidnapping. This way he's going to play again, great as always," another fan wrote. One day before Marina de Souza's abduction, the lesser-known Claudinei Resende, 26, who until May played for Swedish club Helsingborg, was shot in the head in an apparent gang-related showdown in a night club in the southern city of Belo Horizonte.

NO ESCAPE FOR RICH OR POOR

With a homicide rate of 23 per 100,000 people, or a total of 43,600 killings in 2003, Brazil is one of the world's most violent countries, comparable to some countries in conflict. The United States, in contrast, has a rate of about 5.6 victims per 100,000 people.

Traffic jams in Sao Paulo provide rich pickings for pistol-wielding thieves. The children of the wealthy go to school with escorts of bodyguards fit for a president.

In Rio, gun fights between gangs often close down main highways and the police invade the favelas armed for full-scale combat, with helicopters hovering overhead.

Night doorman Santos Almeida said he feels he's in a war zone almost every night as police mount a checkpoint outside the building where he works in a posh district of Rio.

"They check cars and have machine guns ready to shoot, and I'm always ready to duck. It's pretty scary," he said.

According to the National Security Secretariat, the overall homicide rate was unchanged at that level since 2001, showing government anti-crime efforts have had little effect.

The latest UN-Habitat report on the State of the World's Cities said Brazil's organized crime and trafficking in drugs, guns and humans had seen a sharp increase in recent years. Homicides among youths had increased by 77 per cent over the past 10 years, largely because of the prevalence of firearms.

Sao Paulo leads the rankings in Brazil for kidnappings for ransom, including so-called "lightning kidnappings" when the victim is taken to a cash machine to make credit card withdrawals.

THEY keep finding new ways to celebrate mediocrity," grumbles Bob Parr, once known as Mr. Incredible, the patriarch of a superhero family languishing in middle-class suburban exile. He is referring to a pointless ceremony at his son's school, but his complaint is much more general, and it is one that animates "The Incredibles," giving it an edge of intellectual indignation unusual in a family-friendly cartoon blockbuster. Because it is so visually splendid and ethically serious, the movie raises hopes it cannot quite satisfy. It comes tantalizingly close to greatness, but seems content, in the end, to fight mediocrity to a draw.

By "they" Bob means the various do-gooders, meddlers and bureaucrats - schoolteachers, lawyers, politicians, insurance executives - who have driven the world's once-admired superheroes underground, into lives of bland split-level normalcy. "The Incredibles," written and directed by Brad Bird and released under the mighty Pixar brand, is not subtle in announcing its central theme. Some people have powers that others do not, and to deny them the right to exercise those powers, or the privileges that accompany them, is misguided, cruel and socially destructive.

Bob (voiced by Craig T. Nelson, best known for his title role on television's "Coach"), who was once a superman in both the Nietzschean and the DC Comics sense of the word, has been forced by a litigation-driven, media-fueled anti-superhero backlash into the flabby, dull life of a cubicle drone. He and his pal Lucius, a k a Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson), do a little clandestine moonlighting, with the help of a police scanner, but it hardly compensates for the 9-to-5 tedium of Bob's day job processing insurance claims.

His wife, Helen (Holly Hunter), a daring and feisty crime fighter named Elastagirl in their former life, now stays home raising their three children, two of whom have already manifested special abilities they are not allowed to use. Bob and Helen's teenage daughter, Violet (who speaks in the scratchy deadpan of the essayist and public radio storyteller Sarah Vowell), can make herself invisible and generate impermeable force fields, but these powers serve mainly as metaphors for her shyness and disconnection. Dash (Spencer Fox), her younger brother, uses his gift of superhuman speed for low-level mischief. Like their parents, the children are forced to conform to a society where "everyone is special, so no one is."

In the movie's view of things, this kind of misguided egalitarianism, enforced in petty ways at school and work, is not just stultifying but actively, murderously evil. The super-villain, a flame-haired nerd named Syndrome (Jason Lee), is a would-be superhero tormented by his own lack of special talents. From his high-tech island laboratory, populated by faceless minions, a slinky second-in-command (Elizabeth Peńa) and giant killer robots, he plots a quasi-genocidal campaign against the former costumed crime fighters, whom he lures out of retirement by promising them the chance to practice their profession once again.

Syndrome's ultimate goal is not so much to rule the world as to force the rules that already govern it to their logical conclusion. His diabolical utopia will be cleansed of heroes: once he is done, he hisses, "everybody will be super, which means no one will be."

The intensity with which "The Incredibles" advances its central idea - it suggests a thorough, feverish immersion in both the history of American comic books and the philosophy of Ayn Rand - is startling. At last, a computer-animated family picture worth arguing with, and about! Luckily, though, Mr. Bird's disdain for mediocrity is not simply ventriloquized through his characters, but is manifest in his meticulous, fiercely coherent approach to animation.

A veteran of both "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill," Mr. Bird was also responsible for "The Iron Giant," an exquisite and poignant variation on the sensitive robot theme and one of the most dazzling attempts so far by an American filmmaker to match the strangeness and lucidity of Japanese anime. The clean, modernist lines of "The Incredibles" suggest an attempt to bring some of the beautiful flatness of anime into three dimensions. In contrast to the antic busyness of movies like "Shrek 2" and "Shark Tale" - and even to the kinetic bright colors of other Pixar productions like "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo" - "The Incredibles" is spare and precise.

The characters are drawn with such sharp wit - both Bob and Helen's bodies are acutely stylized renderings of what happens to parental bodies as middle age approaches - that the austere beauty of their environment takes a while to register. The settings, especially a modern mansion belonging to Edna, the superheroes' fashion maven and confidante, are marvelous and eye-popping, but Mr. Bird presents them with an artist's low-key confidence rather than a salesman's anxious emphasis.

The movie is also refreshingly quiet, using music sparingly and showing as much attention to aural nuance as it does to visual detail. Until the last act - the inevitable showdown with Syndrome - "The Incredibles" may resonate more strongly with adults than with children, as it is, at its heart, a story of mid-life frustration and compromise, examining the toll that unfulfilling work can exact on a marriage, and the heady rebirth (accompanied by a bit of marital confusion) that professional satisfaction can bring.

But then, perhaps inevitably, Mr. Bird steers his heroes in the direction of compromise. The Incredible family may stand up to the forces of mandatory mediocrity, but "The Incredibles," in the end, has no choice but to succumb. The climax is loud and unimaginative - a situation cribbed from "Spy Kids 2" tricked out with noise and fireballs. This, of course, is what the public demands, and while it may help the movie succeed as large-scale entertainment, it does so at the expense of some of its daring idiosyncrasy. The lesson is sobering, and a little dispiriting. If every movie is required to be spectacular, then no movie really can be.

"The Incredibles" is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It has some violent and potentially upsetting scenes.

Written and directed by Brad Bird; directors of photography, Janet Lucroy, Patrick Lin and Andrew Jimenez; edited by Stephen Schaffer; music by Michael Giacchino; production designer, Lou Romano; produced by John Walker; released by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios.

Running time: 121 minutes. This film is rated PG.


WITH THE VOICES OF: Craig T. Nelson (Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible), Holly Hunter (Helen Parr/Elastigirl), Samuel L. Jackson (Lucius Best/Frozone), Sarah Vowell (Violet), Spencer Fox (Dash), Elizabeth Peńa (Mirage), Jason Lee (Buddy Pine/Syndrome) John Ratzenberger (Underminer) and Dominique Louis (Bomb Voyage).

via nytimes article

nick is importing this liquor from brazil via his boy from school. and im designing the logo and bottle design.
nickw anted this bottle style. and he wanted something simple and stylish and elegeant.. and green.

*** (out of four stars)

"The Washington landscape has witnessed a burst of Thai restaurants opening this year, and while some of them are very good and quite handsome, I always find myself comparing the new ones against this benchmark. Thai Square isn't much to look at, just four walls and a few travel-poster pictures, and the service, while fast and efficient, leans toward the matter-of-fact. But there's a reason so many Thais fill the seats: The cooking is true to its roots -- hot when it should be, never too sweet, always fresh. Think all larb gai is created equal? The jumble of ground chicken, cool lettuce and searing chilies here stands apart from the crowd. "The top of my head tingles!" my friend says -- then returns for more pleasure-pain. Fish cakes are lightly bouncy, shot through with herbs and embellished with a fine peanut-cucumber sauce. Pale green curry practically pulses with heat, but it's not so blazing that you can't also enjoy the interplay of coconut milk, purple basil and ribbons of yellow vegetable. The specials reveal even more prizes, maybe whole rockfish in a thick sauce of tamarind and red chilies that plays fruity off fire. With food like this, I don't need scenery."

i went here on saturday night with natasha..

not upscale, infact kinda hole in the wally.. but the food was great. and realllly cheap. they didnt charge us for 4 beers.. great experience..

i had Tom Kha Kai soup , and Panang Curry Beef, natasha had Crispy Squid with Basil .

the crispy squid was dif then calamari.. very nice texture.. tasty.. mmm

from :
2004 Fall Dining Guide
By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Magazine
Sunday, October 17, 2004

3217 Columbia Pike
Arlington, VA 22204
Phone: 703-685-7040

A file-sharing program called BitTorrent has become a behemoth, devouring more than a third of the Internet's bandwidth, and Hollywood's copyright cops are taking notice.

For those who know where to look, there's a wealth of content, both legal -- such as hip-hop from the Beastie Boys and video game promos -- and illicit, including a wide range of TV shows, computer games and movies.

Average users are taking advantage of the software's ability to cheaply spread files around the Internet. For example, when comedian Jon Stewart made an incendiary appearance on CNN's political talk show "Crossfire," thousands used BitTorrent to share the much-discussed video segment.

Even as lawsuits from music companies have driven people away from peer-to-peer programs like KaZaa, BitTorrent has thus far avoided the ire of groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America. But as BitTorrent's popularity grows, the service could become a target for copyright lawsuits.

According to British Web analysis firm CacheLogic, BitTorrent accounts for an astounding 35 percent of all the traffic on the Internet -- more than all other peer-to-peer programs combined -- and dwarfs mainstream traffic like Web pages.

"I don't think Hollywood is willing to let it slide, but whether they're able to (stop it) is another matter," Bram Cohen, the programer who created BitTorrent, told Reuters.

John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA, said that his group is well aware of the vast amounts of copyrighted material being traded via BitTorrent.

"It's a very efficient delivery system for large files, and it's being used and abused by a hell of a lot of people," he told Reuters. "We're studying our options, as we do with all new technologies which are abused by people to engage in theft."

FOR GOOD OR EVIL

BitTorrent, which is available for free on http://bittorrent.com, can be used to distribute legitimate content and to enable copyright infringement on a massive scale. The key is to understand how the software works.

Let's say you want to download a copy of this week's episode of "Desperate Housewives." Rather than downloading the actual digital file that contains the show, instead you would download a small file called a "torrent" onto your computer.

When you open that file on your computer, BitTorrent searches for other users that have downloaded the same "torrent."

BitTorrent's "file-swarming" software breaks the original digital file into fragments, then those fragments are shared between all of the users that have downloaded the "torrent." Then the software stitches together those fragments into a single file that a users can view on their PC.

Sites like Slovenia-based Suprnova (http://www.suprnova.org) offer up thousands of different torrents without storing the shows themselves.

Suprnova is a treasure trove of movies, television shows, and pirated games and software. Funded by advertising, it is run by a teen-age programer who goes only by the name Sloncek, who did not respond to an e-mailed interview request.

Enabling users to share copyrighted material illicitly may put Suprnova and its users on shaky legal ground.

"They're doing something flagrantly illegal, but getting away with it because they're offshore," said Cohen. He is not eager to get into a battle about how his creation is used. "To me, it's all bits," he said.



But Cohen has warned that BitTorrent is ill-suited to illegal activities, a view echoed by John Malcolm of MPAA.

"People who use these systems and think they're anonymous are mistaken," Malcolm said. Asked if he thought sites like Suprnova were illegal, he said: "That's still an issue we're studying, that reasonable minds can disagree on," he said.

GOING LEGIT

Meanwhile, BitTorrent is rapidly emerging as the preferred means of distributing large amounts of legitimate content such as versions of the free computer operating system Linux, and these benign uses may give it some legal protection.

"Almost any software that makes it easy to swap copyrighted files is ripe for a crackdown BitTorrent's turn at bat will definitely happen," said Harvard University associate law professor Jonathan Zittrain. "At least under U.S. law, it's a bit more difficult to find the makers liable as long as the software is capable of being used for innocent uses, which I think (BitTorrent) surely is."

Among the best legitimate sites for movies and music:

-- Legal Torrents (http://www.legaltorrents.com/), which includes a wide selection of electronic music. It also has the Wired Magazine Creative Commons CD, which has songs from artists like the Beastie Boys who agreed to release some of their songs under a more permissive copyright that allows free distribution and remixing.

-- Torrentocracy (http://torrentocracy.com/torrents/) has videos of the U.S. presidential debates and other political materials.

-- File Soup (http://www.filesoup.com) offers open-source software and freeware, music from artists whose labels don't belong to the Recording Industry Association of America trade group, and programs from public television stations like PBS or the BBC.

-- Etree (http://bt.etree.org) is for devotees of "trade-friendly" bands like Phish and the Dead, who encourage fans to share live recordings, usually in the form of large files that have been minimally compressed to maintain sound quality.

article written by Adam Pasick.

you heard it here first folks !

Twice in one month the biggest Dutch newspaper published front-page pictures shot by amateur photographers using their mobile phones, showing how advances in technology can assist traditional media in gathering news.

De Telegraaf daily newspaper, with circulation of close to 800,000 copies, Wednesday published a picture of the dead filmmaker and columnist Theo van Gogh who police say was probably killed by an Islamic militant.

Passerby Aron Boskma took a picture with his cell phone at the scene of the crime in Amsterdam. News photographers arrived only after the body had been covered, leaving Boskma's picture the only one showing knives plunged into Van Gogh's body.

"This picture was the story. There was a discussion if we should use it, but everyone who would have had this picture would have published it," Telegraaf pictures editor Peter Schoonen said, commenting on the trend of using cell phones to snap the news.

In the past, amateur videos or photographs have provided the only footage or images of major news events but with more ordinary people carrying cell phones equipped with cameras there is far more likelihood of snatched images being published.

In another example of technology making the news, the upsurge in sales of digital cameras, which can quickly transmit and distribute images internationally, was highlighted in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq when digital pictures of humiliated Iraqi prisoners shocked the world.

GROWING EUROPEAN TREND

Nordic newspapers have also published photographs taken with mobile phones with built-in cameras.

In Sweden, a ferry collision filmed with a cell phone was shown on national television last year. Last month, Dutch newspapers published photographs shot with a cell phone from a police shoot-out in the town of Enschede, made available to Dutch news agency ANP.

"We offer these pictures if we don't have them ourselves, and only if it's really big news," said ANP pictures editor Leo Blom, adding he too would have distributed the Van Gogh picture to the Dutch media if only it had been offered to him.

ANP receives camera phone pictures through a collaboration with Internet news Web site Nu.nl, which offers money and prizes to amateur photographers who send in pictures.

In Japan, where many people own a camera-equipped cell phone, it has become common to sell pictures to television stations and other media outlets.

Chief executive of the world's biggest mobile phone maker Nokia, Jorma Ollila, said at a conference Wednesday that 200 million camera phones are expected to be sold to consumers this year alone.

my artomatic wall
this is what i am having printed today. for art o matic i get a whole wall but i got 9 pieces so i need to manage my space wisely..i am arranging the space on the wall in photoshop.. its kinda cool

Eminem has become a family man. during two long conversations over two days in Detroit in October, he constantly mentions the kids he's raising, as any proud father would: His daughter, Hailie Jade, will soon be nine, his niece Alaina is eight, and his half brother, Nate, is eighteen. In October, Marshall Mathers turned thirty-two. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and Detroit without a father figure, but he has grown into a committed parent who goes to school plays and everything. He schedules most of his recording in Detroit and has put his movie career on hold so he can be home with the kids at night.

He has slowed down his drinking and his drug use since two 2000 gun charges that he feared would take him away from Hailie, but his ex, Kim Mathers, has slogged through her own legal morass. In June 2003 she was arrested for possession of cocaine, then failed to show up in court and for a short while hid from the police. Eminem says that explaining the situation to Hailie and Alaina "was one of the hardest things I ever had to go through." At the time of our first interview, Kim was in jail. At the time of our last interview, she had been released. "She's out right now," he said. "We're hoping that stays kosher."

Encore is Eminem's fifth solo album, and he remains one of the most skilled, compelling, audacious, obnoxious and important MCs in hip-hop. He thanks his mother for the troubled childhood that still fuels his anger in "Never Enough"; he tells Kim that he hates her in "Puke" and that he still loves her in "Crazy in Love"; and he declares his devotion to Hailie on "Mockingbird," which he calls his most emotional song ever. He also attacks President Bush for the Iraq War in "Mosh" and says, "Strap him with an AK. . . . Let him impress Daddy that way."

On Encore, Eminem refers to himself as "Rain Man" because, he says, he doesn't know how to do anything besides hip-hop. He doesn't consider himself "a good talker" because his conversation is rarely as direct as his rhymes, but for two days when he sat for the Rolling Stone Interview he was open and introspective. We started out in a dank little room at a photo studio and continued in the recording studio where he does most of his work. The first day he lounged on a small black couch, wearing Nike gear and Jordans and picking at white-chocolate-covered nuts. Ever the fifteen-year-old, he said, "What's up?" and then asked, "Would you like to eat my white nuts?" He laughed. "C'mon, put my white nuts in your mouth."

Who in your family loved you? Did any of the adults make you feel special?

My Aunt Edna, which would be my great-aunt Edna, and my Uncle Charles, my great-uncle Charles. This was in Missouri. They're from my dad's side. They took care of me a lot. My Uncle Charles passed in '92 or '93, and Aunt Edna passed away just six months ago. She was, like, eighty-six. They were older, but they did things with me; they let me stay the weekends there, took me to school, bought me things, let me stay and watch TV, let me cut the grass to get five dollars, took me to the mall. Between them and my Uncle Ronnie, they were my solidity.

Did they connect you with your dad?

They'd tell me he was a good guy: "We don't know what your mother's told you, but he was a good guy." But a lot of times he'd call, and I'd be there -- maybe I'd be on the floor coloring or watching TV -- and it wouldn't have been nothing for him to say, "Put him on the phone." He coulda talked to me, let me know something. 'Cause as far as father figures, I didn't have any in my life. My mother had a lot of boyfriends. Some of 'em I didn't like; some of 'em were cool. But a lot would come and go. My little brother's dad was probably the closest thing I had to a father figure. He was around off and on for about five years. He was the dude who'd play catch, take us bowling, just do stuff that dads would do.

When I saw you playing with Hailie back in February, you were so respectful. A lot of people talk down to little kids, but you talk to her like she's intelligent.

Thank you for seeing that. I just want her and my immediate family -- my daughter, my niece and my little brother -- to have things I didn't have: love and material things. But I can't just buy them things. I have to be there. That's a cop-out if I just popped up once in a while, didn't have custody of my daughter and my niece.

Do you have full custody?

I have full custody of my niece and joint custody of Hailie. It's no secret what's been going on over the past year with my ex-wife. I wouldn't down-talk her, but with her bein' on the run from the cops I really had no choice but to just step up to the plate. I was always there for Hailie, and my niece has been a part of my life ever since she was born. Me and Kim pretty much had her, she'd live with us wherever we was at.

And your little brother lives with you.

I've seen my little brother bounce around a lot from foster home to foster home. My little brother was taken away by the state when he was eight, nine.

You were how old?

I was twenty-three. But when he was taken away I always said if I ever get in a position to take him, I would take him. I tried to apply for full custody when I was twenty, but I didn't have the means. I couldn't support him. I watched him when he was in the foster home. He was so confused. I mean, I cried just goin' to see him at the foster home. The day he was taken away I was the only one allowed to see him. They had come and got him out of school. He didn't know what the fuck was goin' on. The same thing that had happened in my life was happening in his. I had a job and a car, and me and Kim, we bounced around from house to house, tryin' to pay rent and make ends meet. And then Kim's niece was born, which is my niece now through marriage. Watched her bounce around from house to house -- just watchin' the cycle of dysfunction, it was like, "Man, if I get in position, I'm gonna stop all this shit." And I got in position and did.

So you have joint custody of Hailie, but she lives with you and spends most of her time with you and not with Kim.

I don't know if I'm inclined, or allowed, to say more than what is fact. In the last year, Kim has been in and out of jail and on house arrest, cut her tether off, had been on the run from the cops for quite a while. Tryin' to explain that to my niece and my daughter was one of the hardest things I ever had to go through. You can never let a child feel like it's her fault for what's goin' on. You just gotta let her know: "Mom has a problem, she's sick, and it's not because she doesn't love you. She loves you, but she's sick right now, and until she gets better, you've got Daddy. And I'm here."

What are your goals and principles as a dad? I'm sure there are boundaries.

Bein' a dad is definitely living a double life. As far back as I can remember, even before Hailie was born, I was a firm believer in freedom of speech. I never wanted to compromise that, my artistic integrity, but once I hit them gates where I live, that's when I'm Dad. Takin' the kids to school, pickin' 'em up, teachin' 'em rules. I'm not sayin' I'm the perfect father, but the most important thing is to be there for my kids and raise them the right way.

What are your biggest rules as a parent?

Teach them right from wrong as best I can, try not to lose my temper, try to set guidelines and rules and boundaries. Never lay a hand on them. Let them know it's not right for a man to ever lay his hands on a female. Despite what people may think of me and what I say in my songs -- you know, me and Kim have had our moments -- I'm tryin' to teach them and make them learn from my mistakes. It's almost like juggling -- juggling the rap life and fatherhood.

Well, in the nexus of that juggling is Hailie, who's in some of your songs, like "My Dad's Gone Crazy," from "The Eminem Show." Does she get to hear the songs she's in?

Most of the time I'll make clean versions of the songs and play them in the car. When she made "My Dad's Gone Crazy," it's a crazy little story. If I feel like I'm working too much, I let the kids come up to the studio. I get this little guilt trip inside, so I would have Kim just bring her up and let her hang around the studio. So me and Dre were working together, and Hailie was running around the studio and she was like [in Hailie's high voice], "Somebody please help me! I think my dad's gone crazy!"

Instantly that locked in with a beat we'd made the day before. I went to my house, and I had her go in the booth and say it. When she opens up, she's just like her dad in a lot of aspects. I just told her what to say and she nailed it, the first take. It almost was scary, to where I had to slow it down. I don't know if I wanna put her on any more songs. I don't wanna make her any more famous. She can live a life. She didn't choose to have her father become a rap star. Nor my niece, nor my brother. So they're able to go outside and live a normal life, go to stores and do things normally that I can't do. Which is why, a lot of times, certain things I can't be there for.

What about school events?

School is different. In school, when they have plays, field trips, all that stuff, I don't miss them, even if I gotta deal with the craziness. And the teachers are really good about telling the kids, "When Hailie's dad comes in, he's Hailie's dad, Mr. Mathers." Last year I went and read to the class. Two books. It was reading month or something.

There's a Hailie love song on this album.

Yeah, a song called "Mockingbird," to Hailie and Alaina. When Mom was on the run they didn't understand it, and I'm not the greatest talker in the world, especially when I'm trying to explain to two little girls what's goin' on with someone who's always been a part of their life and just disappeared. So that was my song to explain to them what was goin on, probably the most emotional song I ever wrote.

Michael Jackson called your mocking of him in the "Just Lose It" video "demeaning and insensitive." Are you picking on Mike?

I didn't do anything in the video that he hasn't said himself he does. With the little boys jumping on the bed and all that -- they're just jumping on the bed. People can take what they wanna take, decipher it how they wanna decipher it. But it's not actually Michael Jackson, it's me playing Michael Jackson, studying the moves and doing the impressions. I don't have an opinion, really, neither here nor there, against Michael Jackson. When Thriller came out, you couldn't tell me nothin' about Michael: Dude was the ultimate, dude is a legend. But the allegations that are thrown at him and the seriousness of the case -- the guy's jumping on top of his van dancing?

And showing up to court late.

I showed up to that motherfucker an hour early every morning. I'm not playing with court. And now I think my fans should rally around me for making fun of myself.

Paris Hilton is in the "Just Lose It" video. She seems like the sort of person you'd normally be dissing, not doing a video with.

Well, when I was on MTV with La La it kinda slipped out. La La said, "How did you manage to get Paris?" I said: "Well, I love Paris. I love her almost as much as she loves herself." Then I was like, "Damn, that was fucked up." I try not to attack people who haven't attacked me first. As far as the image she portrays right now, as far as the way my girls look at her, do I want them to grow up to be like that? No. But for a video, for entertainment, that's a different thing. The song is about goin' to the club and losin' it, and you get so drunk you say the wrong thing. And we needed somebody to punch me, slap me and pull my hair. Our first candidate was Jessica Alba. We couldn't get Jessica, and Paris happened to be in town.

There are two songs about Kim on Encore. In "Puke," you hate her so much she makes you want to vomit. Then in "Crazy in Love," you're like, "I hate you, yet I can't live without you."

It's a love-hate relationship, and it will always be that. We're talking about a woman who's been a part of my life since I can remember. She was thirteen when I met her. I was fifteen.

What was it like the first time you saw her?

I met her the day she got out of the youth home. I was at a friend's house, and his sister was friends with her, but she hadn't seen Kim in a while 'cause she was in the youth home. And I'm standing on the table with my shirt off, on top of their coffee table with a Kangol on, mocking the words to LL Cool J's "I'm Bad." And I turn around and she's at the door. Her friend hands her a cigarette. She's thirteen, she's taller than me, and she didn't look that young. She easily coulda been mistaken for sixteen, seventeen. I said to my friend's sister, "Yo, who was that? She's kinda hot." And the saga began. Now there's the constant struggle of "will I ever meet somebody else that's gonna be real with me, as real as I can say she's been with me?"

click to download

Today, millions of you will be hitting the polls and while the Bush/Kerry question is at the forefront of everyone's mind, the ballot will be stuffed with enough referendums, proposals, and propositions to make the 2000 election look like a game of connect-the-dots. While the initiatives -- on everything from tribal gaming to definitions of marriage -- only affect local and state government, they often set legal precedents, paving the political path for other states. We thought you'd want to check out the top initiatives in search...after all, their success or failure can create ripple effects on your hometurf.

1. Proposal 1 -- if money talks, there's enough of it swirling around this Michigan initiative for it to shout. We'll see if Michigan voters are listening.
2. Proposition 71 -- proposes that the state of California sell $3 billion in bonds to pay for stem cell research, a first in medical research for a state.
3. Proposition 66 -- adjusts California's "Three Strikes" law so that you won't be doing life for merely stealing candy from a baby.
4. Proposition 68 -- officially listed as "Non-Tribal Commercial Gambling Expansion. Tribal Gaming Compact Amendments. Revenues, Tax Exemptions." Oh...well, when you put it that way...we still don't get it.
5. Proposition 70 -- tribal gaming is a hot topic in California, especially since this bid would extend current contracts for another 99 years and expand existing casino operations.
6. Proposition 72 -- in an attempt to address increasing health care costs, this proposition requires medium and large companies provide health care coverage for their employees.
7. Proposition 200 -- this resident-driven initiative seeks to update Arizona's voter registration system while addressing illegal immigration and staying within federal law.
8. Proposal 2 -- taking the issue of marriage into state hands, this Michigan proposal would define it as a union between a man and a woman.
9. Proposition 60 -- if passed, it would amend the California state constitution to protect the current party primary election system.
10. Proposition 65 -- this constitutional amendment would require voter approval for any California legislation that reduces certain local government revenues from January 2003 levels.

You can now officially dub it the War of the Worlds. On Monday evening (November 1), lawyers for R. Kelly filed a $75 million lawsuit against Jay-Z, Hov's various business associates working on the failed Best of Both Worlds tour, and the tour's promoter.

Kelly, who alleges in the suit that Jay worked with the tour's original lighting director to sabotage his lighting during certain concert dates, is seeking $15 million in lost income form the tour being cancelled and $60 million in punitive damages. The lawsuit was filed in New York State Supreme Court.

"The historic and highly anticipated tour quickly turned into a nightmare as Jay-Z and his associates, motivated by spite and jealousy, not only failed to perform their obligations under the relevant agreements but also engaged in conduct intentionally designed to exclude R. Kelly from the tour, including threats and acts of violence," the lawsuit reads. "As a result of Jay-Z's conduct, R. Kelly has been excluded from certain past tour performances and will be excluded from future performances as well. Such conduct amounts to breach of contract by the concert promoter and tortuous interference with that contract by Jay-Z and his business entity."

A spokesperson for Jay had no comment on the lawsuit.

The "acts of violence" apparently include an alleged attack Friday night at Madison Square Garden. Kelly has accused longtime Jay-Z associate Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith of hitting him in the face with pepper spray when he tried to return to the stage. He had left the stage earlier in the evening after telling the audience that two men in the audience were waving guns at him.

"[Ty Ty was] marching up and down the hallway, clearly trying to provoke things," recalled Kelly's publicist Allan Mayer, who said he witnessed the incident. "He's yelling, 'Rob's a pu---, he's a f----t.' We shouldn't have to put up with this. ... To have a performer about to go back onstage and have some guy mace him, that's crazy."

A spokesperson for Jay-Z said Jay and his entire crew were onstage at the time of the alleged attack and none of them saw the incident, therefore, there was no comment from his camp. Reportedly, no police report was filed concerning the pepper-spray incident.

Kelly returned to Chicago on Monday after a weekend in which he and his Best of Both Worlds partner publicly ended their much-ballyhooed allegiance. The tour has been officially cancelled by its promoter, and for the last two nights, the shows — one in New York, one in New Jersey — have been billed "Jay-Z and Friends." There has been no word yet if Hova and his "friends" will continue the tour, which is scheduled to run through November 28, after their last New York date on Monday.

"The only reason why the tour is not continuing is because of Jay-Z," Mayer said, adding that despite the shocking developments at Friday's show Kelly was still willing to perform with Jay on Saturday. Mayer said his camp was informed on Saturday afternoon that Jay was not willing to perform with Kelly, and that the Chi-town crooner would not even be admitted to the Garden if he showed up.

Friday night on New York radio station Hot 97, Jay told personality Angie Martinez that Kelly would not "get to touch the stage" on Saturday, but that he would be willing to perform for the New York audience by himself.

In a statement released Monday, Jay cited Kelly's behavior as the reason for the tour being cancelled. "R. Kelly's lack of professionalism and unpredictable behavior has prevented the Best of Both Worlds tour from continuing," the statement read. "Mr. Kelly has cancelled three performances with less than 24 hours' notice and has delayed multiple shows by hours. On Friday, October 29, at a sold-out Madison Square Garden show, Mr. Kelly made a statement from the stage claiming members of the audience were waving guns. Jay-Z sees that statement as the equivalent of screaming 'Fire' in a crowded theater and was unable to continue with someone whose actions could potentially create a dangerous situation."

The statement also portrayed Kelly as having a history of unreliability. "Based on his actions on the tour to this point, the statement from R. Kelly's publicist [released on Saturday] suggesting that Robert was 'ready, willing and able' to continue the tour lacks any credibility. In Chicago and Baltimore, R. Kelly was not 'ready.' In Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Hartford, R. Kelly was not 'willing.' In St. Louis and New York, R. Kelly was not 'able.' "

Kelly claims he broke out early in St. Louis to attend Usher's birthday party.

"He's angry, disappointed and frustrated," Mayer said about Kelly. "For Rob, it's about two things: the music and the fans. He's in a whole different place than Jay-Z. It's not about posturing. It's about creating the music and playing it for the fans."

Meanwhile, Kelly has other legal matters to contend with. He's due back in court at the end of the week for a hearing concerning the child-pornography charges against him. Mayer said his client wants to go on his own tour soon to make up for the Best of Both Worlds debacle, however, it takes longer for Kelly to plan a tour than most artists because he must obtain permission from the court to travel.

"Rob is a professional," Mayer said. "[Regardless of] whatever he thinks of Jay-Z personally, he respects him as a musician. That's why he can't understand what this all about. Right now, he's just trying to get his head right about what happened this weekend. We're going to try and take the next couple of days and figure out what's going to happen."

Kelly's absence seems to have lit a fire under Jay-Z. For the past two nights, he's paraded out more stars than a Jerry Lewis telethon.

Saturday night at Madison Square Garden — where fliers passed out before the show alerted fans that Kelly would not be performing and that refunds were available — the reunited Bad Boy family took the stage like it was Puff Daddy and the Family's No Way Out tour again. P. Diddy and Mase made the floor shake with songs like "Been Around the World" and "Mo Money, Mo Problems," and the crowd erupted when Black Rob came out for "Whoa!"

Other guests rocking their own short sets were Busta Rhymes, who brought out Mariah Carey, and Mary J. Blige, who brought out Method Man. Meth then brought out Redman, who was carrying his son on his shoulders. T.I., Doug E. Fresh and Lil Vicious, Memphis Bleek, State Property and Foxy Brown also performed.

On Sunday at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey, Jay paraded out more buddies: T.I., Mary J., Busta, Diddy, Doug E. Fresh and Foxy Brown returned, and Kanye West, Talib Kweli, Q-Tip, Slick Rick and Pharrell Williams also performed.

Jay-Z promises more A-list guests for his Monday night show at Madison Square Garden.

*ass























*written warning




halloween was so fun. we were the wolf and 3 little pigs. pete wagoner was ali G, jen habit was a flasher.. etc

Identical twins Natalie and Nicole Albino came up with the name Nina Sky by combining the first two letters of their first names for "Nina" and tacked "Sky" on the end to represent their shared aspirations. The teen pop duo grew up in the borough of Queens in New York City. Their stepfather was a DJ and introduced the young girls to a variety of music. Singing was always important to them, eventually so important they announced their desires to become professional singers to their parents. With their parents support the girls auditioned for the production team the Jettsonz. Impressed, the Jettsonz introduced the girls to hip-hop producer Cipha Sounds. Sounds suggested the girls write a song to the dancehall reggae riddim "Coolie Skank." They wrote the party number "Move Ya Body" over the riddim, and when a demo reached Next Plateau/Universal Nina Sky were quickly signed. Rhythm and urban radio stations were quick to add the song to their play lists and the twins got to work on their album. Their self-titled debut hit the stores in June of 2004. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide

art o matic gala opening
nov 12. 800 3rd st, NE
come support my collages, dc art and get wasted all in one.

WHAT: Artomatic 2004 Opening Night Party
WHEN: (TONIGHT)
Friday, November 12th, 7p.m. - 1 a.m.
WHERE: 800 3rd St. NE --
corner of 3rd and H St.,NE
(Use of metro is encouraged. Access from Union Station Stop or take the X-2 Metro Bus. Limited Parking available.)
www.artomatic.org