Saturday, July 2, 2011
Fisticuffs and Bad Horror Movies: An Interview with Michael R ...
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
R. Kelly Sends Love Letter To Loyal Fans On Tour
Kels seduces Newark, New Jersey, with nearly two-hour set reaching way back into his catalog.
By Steven Roberts
R. Kelly (file)
Photo: Jed Jacobsohn/ Getty Images
NEWARK, New Jersey — With the likes of Beyoncé, Chris Brown and Trey Songz dominating the pop/R&B space, some people may have forgotten R. Kelly. While Kels has been by no means dormant — he's released two albums, Untitled and Love Letter, in the past two years — his brand of R&B hasn't found a steady home on contemporary Top 40 or urban radio.
None of that seemed to matter Thursday evening as he played to a raucous sold-out crowd at the Prudential Center. Opening acts Marsha Ambrosius and Keyshia Cole showcased their vocal prowess, as the crowd filed in to the arena. Cole seemed to be winning over the audience, but it was easy to figure out whom the crowd had come to see, especially considering the line to get pictures snapped in front of giant, air-brushed portraits of R. Kelly.
Kelly's set opened up with a black-and-white video of him sitting at a bar, enjoying a cigar and a glass of scotch or some other dark liquor as a woman approaches. The "old timey" video is in line with the theme of the Love Letter tour: The corresponding album was an ode to classic soul singers of decades past, like Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson.
In the video, the woman — a past lover — presses Kels to return to her, and the crowd begged and pleaded along. Once the video ended, Kelly was revealed to be sitting at the bar of his casino-themed stage. He pulled a lever and commenced a nearly two-hour sing-along.
Kels' set was a musical journey through Chocolate Factory, TP-2.com, Happy People and the rest of his catalog, and at one point he waded into the crowd to get their help singing. He performed a medley of songs that included "Step in the Name of Love," "Ignition (Remix)," "Fiesta," "Feeling on Yo Booty" and "Down Low." Fans seemed to relish Kelly's older hits from his first solo album, 12 Play, including "Your Body's Callin'," "Sex Me" and, of course, "12 Play."
Toward the end of the show, the screens displayed a letter from Kelly's mom, thanking the audience for their dedication to her son, along with another video showing Kels throughout the years. While he may not dominate the radio like he once did, he may not need to. Most of contemporary R&B would kill to have his longevity anyway.
Share your R. Kelly concert reports in the comments below!
Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1666741/r-kelly-love-letter-concert.jhtml
dentists used books venezuela triathlon cheese zoosk florists
Nike re-signs Vick to endorsement deal (AP)
NEW YORK ? Nike re-signed Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick to an endorsement deal Friday, nearly four years after dropping him amid his legal troubles.
Nike, which signed Vick as a rookie in 2001, terminated his contract in August 2007 after he filed a plea agreement admitting his involvement in a dogfighting ring. Vick spent 21 months in prison.
CNBC first reported the deal. Terms were not released.
"Michael acknowledges his past mistakes," Nike said in a statement. "We do not condone those actions, but we support the positive changes he has made to better himself off the field."
Vick was voted The Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year after missing two seasons and playing sparingly in 2009.
"Michael is committed to working with Nike and wants to utilize his platform as a professional athlete to have a positive impact on our youth," said Andrew Stroth, the Chicago-based attorney who negotiated the deal for Vick.
Nike and Vick initially renewed their relationship in 2009, when the company announced it had "agreed to supply product" to the quarterback, who was not under contract. Nike has similar agreements with several athletes with whom they don't have endorsement deals.
Vick signed a one-year contract with the Eagles in March, a few weeks after being designated as the team's franchise player. He led the Eagles to a 10-6 record and the NFC East title after replacing an injured Kevin Kolb in Week 1.
Despite missing three games with an injury, Vick re-established himself as one of the most exciting players in the NFL. He set career highs with 3,018 yards passing, 21 touchdown passes, nine touchdowns rushing, a 62.6 completion percentage and a 100.2 passer rating.
harrison ford republican debate gabapentin university of phoenix army wives dallas morning news myanmar
Start A Home Based Business - Home Based Business
Start A Home Based Business
Jul 1, 2011
When starting a home based business, you can easily find that there is a lot to do. Where do you start, and what do you need to do, to be able to get your business to the first day of business? As you read every word of this article, you will discover the basics to starting a home based business.
Often we can complicate tasks, and this is true with business. The easiest route to something is usually the best, and we don?t have to make things more complicated than they need to be.
When you set about starting a home based business of your own, you will find that you need to write a business plan. This business plan could be a few sentences, it could be a page or two, and it could even be like an encyclopedia!
The truth is that it is easy to get stuck in the business plan, and find it hard to actually start. The best route is to make a simple business plan, and over time add to it and improve it.
You always have the option of starting a home based business through a Home Business Opportunity. The opportunities are a great way to enter into Home Business, without the hassle of going through trying to find a profitable home Business Idea, create a business plan, possibly get financing, and then starting.
Whichever way you choose to go, you will need to have a plan, one that is provided via a home business opportunity or one that you create for your own home business idea. The purpose of this plan is to show you how you will go about the day to day running of your home business.
It is easy to get into a home business with high optimism and not measure the risks and opportunities. A basic of any business is that it fulfills a demand. To fulfill that demand, you will need a supply.
This applies to a home business idea of your own or a Home Based Business Opportunity. Doing effective research in the beginning will help you in the long term. You will have the information, because you have done the planning. And this information will be the groundwork for your future success.
There is a learning curve to home business, and also a lot of personal development. If you are used to working in an office or at least in a business environment, going from there to a home business can present many challenges.
You have the television, you have the radio, and considering that home is usually a place of relaxation, it can be a difficult challenge at first. The rewards however are worth it, and once you get into full swing, starting a home based business can be one of the best things you can do.
About the Author
Visit these links to discover more about
starting a home based business,
find Home Business Ideas, and
Home Based Business Opportunities
Easy To Start Home Based Business Opportunity
Source: http://www.business-schooled.com/home-based-business/start-a-home-based-business-4/
buffy the vampire slayer eyes wide shut karate tie solar panels usopen golf tgi fridays
Friday, July 1, 2011
Obama administration tries to speed up deal to avert financial crisis (Los Angeles Times)
Internet Promoting?Various On-line Business Models - vintage trend
The term internet selling refers to marketing of various products and services through internet. This may also be referred to as web business, on-line business, i-business, e-business, etc singapore search engine marketing. Marketing through net services has become common and it is adopted everywhere as a result of there are immediate responses and results to the marketing of products over internet. This makes simple to buy and sell goods online. Concerned with the technical aspects of Toronto Internet Marketing, the design and development features must be focused additional and the other advertising strategies needs to be creatively implemented to attract SEO traffic.
First is your website. Choose your domain wisely by creating it straight to the purpose and short so it could be easily remembered. It ought to be not be difficult and easy to navigate to draw in the eye of visitors because of its plainness. However it should also have a creative and unique professional design to catch attentions of visitors. Having the most necessary tools in internet selling which is an online payment system and searching cart system in your site would make it easy for the guests to purchase something from your website and generate more sales!
In addition the Web selling company additionally ensures that the shoppers do not have to encounter the problems of carrying huge money or get involved in insecure transactions 
Niche marketing is additionally important for your search engine optimization needs. SEO may be a very important process and you must recognize what niche you are targeting so that you?ll use the proper keywords and carry out the method correctly seo in singapore. If search engine optimization is not carried out appropriately then your goals will not be fulfilled. Take it slow to put some thought into this before you get started.
Through the utilization of keyword rich blogs and articles, you can communicate with your target consumers, providing them with solutions they may want in order to realize their trust in your services or products.
These blogs can contain links to your pages, but most importantly should assist in building an email list through opt-ins and subscriptions.
No matter who you are, it is invariably helpful to have a direction and in this case, if you do not have a direction along with your niche then you will fall off your path very easily seo search engine optimization singapore.
Tags: internet marketingThis entry was posted on Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 at 7:17 pm and is filed under Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Source: http://evintagetrend.info/internet-promoting-various-on-line-business-models/
google social network google social network firelands corn hayley williams hayley williams tom petty
That Hard Swedish Shell, by Paul Shirley
So, in a little bit, everyone?s going to clear out of here and go home and when that happens, well, what do you think about you and me ? just you and me ? getting a drink somewhere?
The stunning girl I?ve been talking to for the past two hours looks at me, considering the question that hangs like a poorly-inflated balloon in the wine-soaked air of Muggen, a semi-crowded, upscale bar in the Sodermalm in Stockholm, Sweden. She looks down at her hands and a smile creeps across her face.
***
Twenty years ago, my mother became interested in the genealogy of her family. I think her interest came about because my father was interested in the genealogy of his family and wanted a way to get my mother to listen to the dull stories he would tell about Culps in Tennessee and Murphys in Illinois (or maybe it?s the other way around). As a byproduct of this marital brinksmanship, my mother figured out that her great-grandfather, Anders Kjall (or Kall, or Kjell, depending on whether you are Swedish or a lazy clerk on Ellis Island) came to the US from somewhere near Tidaholm, Sweden.
My mother resolved, when she learned all of this, that she would one day go to Sweden to see where her ancestors had come from.
In the meantime, she wrote letters to all the Kjalls she could find near Tidaholm. Eventually, one of them answered.
I met that man, whose name is Lars, on a quiet residential street in Hjo (which is pronounced You, and which has inspired many a T-shirt that states something along the lines of ?I Love Hjo?) when my mother and my brothers pulled up in the Opel Astra station wagon we?d rented in Gothenburg.
The reception we got far exceeded the reception we expected after the limited enthusiasm our relatives had shown when my mother told them what was going on.
What was going on was that my father ? twenty years after my mother made the discovery of our Swedish ancestry ? had woken up one day this spring and, my brothers and I surmise, realized that he had more money in his saving account than he thought, and decided he would send his entire family to Sweden to track down the fruits of the family tree. He also decided that he wouldn?t come with us. At first, we thought this was a joke. It wasn?t, but a digression into the idosyncrasies of my family could fill a novel ? and someday might ? so I?ll leave it at this: my father didn?t come on the trip he financed.
We met eighteen Kjalls or Kjells or Kalls during our two days in central Sweden. Lars and his wife hosted us for lunch on our first day. Then all eighteen of us took what seemed to be a nine-mile walk to Lake Vattern. Then we begged out of dinner because we hadn?t yet checked into the Comfort Hotel in Jonkoping (that K is pronounced as an SH, we learned). The next day, the onslaught continued: a trip to a traditional Swedish village preserved from the time when our ancestors left, lunch at the home of Karin who, I suppose, would be my fifth cousin, and another quaint, stilted discussion about our respective lives before my brothers and my mother and I left in order to find the old family farms (or rather, the farms our ancestors worked on, because you can be sure that they wouldn?t have if they?d owned the farms).
The discussions we had with the Kjalls (that?s the ?shells?, in case you?re interested) were stilted because not many of them spoke English. The broken communication that resulted was not their fault, per se, as it could hardly be said that we went out of our way to learn Swedish in time for the trip, but because we are American and because we expect everyone to cater to each of our whims, we were predisposed to think, from time to time, ?Come on, Lars. Give me one word in English.?
Lars didn?t. Give us one word in English, that is. Much of his family followed his lead. Nonetheless, by the end of our visit, it was clear that the Kjalls were thrilled that we had come to Sweden to visit them. When, after our last meal together, we said that we should probably get going, it was as if someone had removed the oxygen from the air. They wanted more time with us! This, from a group of people my mother could hardly get to answer an email prior to our trip.
This paradox ? the Swedish exterior vs. the Swedish interior ? was something I?d noticed before. I dated, for a long time, a European girl who had a Swedish roommate. Before I met the Swedish roommate, my then-girlfriend would say that there was something strange ? something ?cold? ? about her roommate. At the time, I chalked her evaluation up to exaggeration. But then I met her roommate. Later, I met other Swedish people. It turns out that my ex-girlfriend was right. Sort of.
It?s not that Swedish people are cold, exactly, but it is that they aren?t what anyone would call warm.
***
My brothers and I had come to the Sodermalm?s Muggen mostly at my behest. Matt had protested any nightlife hijinkery because he was tired; Dan doesn?t much care because he has a heavy girlfriend (not heavy like she?s fat; heavy like it?s serious). Tom was up for whatever because Tom is 21. But Tom was willing to be convinced not to be up for whatever because Matt is probably cooler than I am and, when in doubt, 21-year-olds will side with cool.
The problem, I told Matt, with going back to our hotel with our mother, was that we would probably never again be in Stockholm, Sweden, the capital of the country that produced not only some of our ancestors and the relatives they have begotten, but also the best-looking women I?ve ever seen.
Swedish girls are famous for being beautiful, so much so that, before coming to Sweden, I had ruled that stereotype as too obvious, in no small part because I lived in Russia for a time and Holy Shit Are Russian Girls Gorgeous. Plus, the Swedish girls I?d met while living in Europe, while attractive, hadn?t blown the doors off the bank safe of my eyes. But, upon arrival in Sweden, and presented with girls working at McDonald?s who make some of the runway models I?ve seen look decidedly pedestrian, I felt like a bear in a shallow pool filled with the biggest, most-delicious salmon he?d ever seen.
Of course, and to continue this simile to an unnecessary degree, I was like a bear with neither claws nor mouth. No mouth because, well, my mother was on the trip, and no claws for two reasons (perhaps reflecting the two claws): 1. While I would like to be a ladykiller, I am not. And 2. When my family and I left the country, I was two weeks out of a year-and-a-half relationship. And, as anyone who?s ever talked to strange girls knows, talking to strange girls is difficult when you?ve forgotten everything you?ve learned about talking to strange girls, no matter how insignificant everything you?ve learned might be.
Nonethefuckingless, when the tall, brown-haired (they?re not all blond, as they will tell you) epitome of the female form walked into Muggen, it was only a matter of time before I would talk to her, despite her location ? sitting, her back to me ? and the logistics ? she was with four friends, seated around a low table, and she was, well, Swedish.
My move was simple (and probably clumsy). After a guy who was sitting near her left, Matt and I sidled into the empty seats while I said ?Mind if we sit down?? and then, as I noticed that I had murdered the group?s conversation, segued into, ?So, maybe you can help us out ? we?re not from here and need to know where to go in this city??
It was at this point that the girl, whose name I soon learned was A____, turned and looked into my eyes. And it was at this point that I thought, I?LL STAY IN SWEDEN FOREVER IF YOU TELL ME TO.
When the conversation?s wake had settled, and when I could tell that Matt was holding his own with his side of the table (bless his heart), I cornered A____ and said that I had a confession to make ? that I had used our approach as an excuse to speak to her.
There are some who would question such directness. I would have been among them, at earlier stages in my life. But as I?ve grown older, I?ve learned that it is usually best to make one?s intentions clear, in case the girl thinks that, you know, I came over to actually FIND OUT WHERE TO GO IN THIS CITY or some equally inane shit that can?t possibly be true.
When I said what I said to A____, she blushed slightly and said, Oh That?s Quite A Compliment. Which caused me to think, WHEW. SHE DIDN?T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT A BOYFRIEND.
And away we went. Sort of. Because the thing about our conversation was that it wasn?t spectacular. It was good enough ? I found out that she had seen the Daily Show skit where Wyatt Cenac comes to Sweden (IS IT TOO SOON TO SAY THAT I LOVE YOU?) and that she rather likes the one-hour commute from the small town outside of Stockholm where she lives, a commute that takes her to her job working with developmentally-disabled children. (Because only in Sweden would A____ not be a model.)
But it wasn?t a great conversation. It was the sort of conversation you have with a girl who?s being cordial and who is interested in what you have to say and who is asking you enough questions that you think there?s a chance.
BUT PAUL, THERE?S ALL THAT EXPERIENCE YOU HAVE WITH YOUR EX?S ROOMMATE AND WITH OTHER SWEDISH PEOPLE AND, HELL, THE KJALLS! MY GOD, THE KJALLS! THEY LOVED HAVING YOU AROUND AND YOU NEVER WOULD?VE THOUGHT THAT BASED ON YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION?
So, in a little bit, everyone?s going to clear out of here and go home and when that happens, well, what do you think about you and me ? just you and me ? getting a drink somewhere?
***
In the moment my question hung in the air, I had time to fantasize about what A____ and I might do if I could get her out of the bar and alone. Sure, I only had a day left in Stockholm, and, sure, European girls, while rumored by the world to be sexually liberal, are actually not that. I mean, they are, once you are with them, but they aren?t, when it comes to hooking up at random, probably because they?re much more secure with themselves and/or live at home longer.
But still? arm-in-arm walking! A first kiss in a quiet bar! Walls! Cobblestones! Nooks! Make out sessions!
Then came her half-blush. Then came the smile. Then came her answer.
?Actually, I think that would be a bad idea. I mean, I think it would be a lot of fun, but it would be a bad idea.?
Gooooooooooddddddddddddddddaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttt.
I swallowed. MAYBE THIS IS THE COLD SWEDISH EXTERIOR.
?Well, what about tomorrow night??
She smiled again.
?Tomorrow night, I?m going to go home to my boyfriend.?
I TOLD YOU WHY I CAME OVER HERE WHEN I CAME OVER HERE AND THAT WAS YOUR CHANCE TO TELL ME YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND JESUS CHRIST WHAT?S WRONG WITH YOU, BETTER YET WHAT?S WRONG WITH ME?
?Ahh.?
And with that, my ?Ahh,? it was over. Oh sure, I gave her my email address, on a cute note that I wrote with the pen and notepad I always have around ? just in case, I wrote, on that same note ? but it was over. So my brothers and I said our goodbyes to A____ and her friends and my brothers and I missed the last train to our hotel by a minute and had to take a taxi that cost $45 for an eight-minute trip (because why wouldn?t it cost that much in this, the most expensive place I?ve ever been).
I won?t say that A____?s rejection was ?okay?, in the sense that I enjoyed it, because that wouldn?t be the truth. I would have liked nothing more than to have walked with her to some nearby bar and there, to sit and bask in the warmth of the gaze of a beautiful woman.
But it was okay in the sense that I tried.
My mother?s tracking down of her Swedish relatives could have gone badly. We could have been greeted with a cold cup of coffee and a vague ?Hei? on a front porch in Hjo. We could have failed to find the gorgeous farms, some of them so pretty they could have been models for Playmobil, that our ancestors once worked. We could have come to Sweden and left unfulfilled. None of those things happened, but they could have.
Even if those reverse negatives had come to pass, my mother would have been happy she tried.
I?m a little like my mother that way. Because I resolved something a long time ago, too. Not twenty years ago. More like ten. I didn?t resolve to track down my ancestors someday. I resolved only this: To not be afraid. And to not have any regrets. And while it will sound stupid and hokey and ?Eat, Pray, Love,? this is something of which I am quite proud.
I saw the beautiful girl. I talked to the beautiful girl. I was shot down by the beautiful girl.
But at least I tried.
For more from Paul?
Source: http://www.flipcollective.com/2011/06/29/that-hard-swedish-shell-by-paul-shirley/
san diego weather cedar rapids monaco grand prix californication undefined amish yellowstone
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)