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What Next For Blackburn?

Posted on 16. Dec, 2010 by Matt.

Blackburn Rovers could be described as a club in decline despite having a bunch of chicken breeders as their new owners. Following the arrival of Venky’s as the clubs new owners boss Sam Allardyce was given the shove; a decision that has been derided by fans, players, and fellow managers alike. The Indian owners have said that he did not fit in with their plans of a top five or better finish while playing good looking football. They’ve also said that they may spend two months finding a new manager because they want to ensure that they get the best available.

Diego Maradona had been touted as the favourite to take over the club but the owners ruled him out saying that they would prefer a British manager, although they would consider any nationality if the new man fit the role perfectly. For now, the dubious honour falls upon Steve Kean, whose first match will be against bottom of the table West Ham this weekend. Under different circumstances maybe Kean would have relished the opportunity at management but you have to wonder how he feels right now.

In all honesty, and while Allardyce is probably still reeling from the decision, he’s better off out of there. There have been reports that the new chicken breeders are only giving GBP6m as a transfer kitty which would only buy a portion of a top five team player. What’s next for Blackburn? Who knows and who would be brave enough to have a guess?

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Zuckerberg Is Time Person Of The Year

Posted on 16. Dec, 2010 by Matt.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has been named Person of the Year by Time Magazine. The award is given to the individual that has done the most to change the world and had the greatest effect, either for the better or for worse, on people’s lives over the past twelve months. While Facebook and Zuckerberg have certainly impacted peoples’ lives again this year the choice was surprising for many people including Time Magazine readers who overwhelmingly voted for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange putting Zuckerberg in a lowly 10th spot.

There’s no doubting that Facebook has had a massive impact on many people’s lives. It’s difficult to find people who don’t use the social networking site any more and there are various pieces of data and information showing that using Facebook is more important than peeing, one of the country’s greatest business drains, and the way that most people choose to keep in touch with friends, family, and businesses and brands. However, 2010 is not the year of Facebook. 2008 and 2009 were, but even the release of The Social Network film and the continued controversy over Facebook privacy has not made this the year of Facebook.

Zuckerberg was realistically only a convenient choice. The world and their wives are attempting to snub Assange in one way or another and the Times Magazine has made rumblings that Anonymous stuffed the votes. But then Zuckerberg didn’t even manage 2nd place. Or 3rd, or 4th. In fact, he came 10th in the Time Magazine reader’s vote which begs the question, why bother asking for your readers’ opinions if you’re going to blatantly ignore them?

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New Wales Manager Gary Speed Looking To Bring Back Savage And Giggs

Posted on 15. Dec, 2010 by Matt.

Gary Speed has only been the Wales manager for about a day but he’s already making the right sounds as far as most of the country’s supporters believe. Robby Savage has said that he is willing to come out of international retirement for the 41 year old while Speed is also believed to be interested in bringing Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs back from a similar position of international retirement.

Former manager Toshack seemed to do a good job of ridding himself of any experience from his squad of players and while Wales do have a stable of promising youngsters, the stars of the future need some experience to help guide them through. Speed has said that he intends to spend the next few weeks ringing around the current and former Wales players to try and determine exactly who will be available for action.

A call to Savage isn’t necessary as the Derby player has already publicly said that he is definitely available for selection should Speed deem him worthy. He also added that he didn’t expect to be chosen just because he’s friends with the new manager but does believe that his experience along with the experience of players like Giggs would help the younger generation of players to develop into better and more accomplished players.

Whoever comes back out of international retirement and is picked to play could face England in two qualifiers next season and this may be extra incentive for some of them to don their international boots once more.

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Paul McCartney Rocks An Exclusive Crowd At The Apollo

Posted on 15. Dec, 2010 by Marie.

Paul McCartney has become somewhat accustomed to playing massive arena gigs and concerts in front of crowds of tens of thousands of adoring fans but when he took to the stage at the Apollo in New York last night it was quite a different crowd that he had to please and the trimmed down two hour set had the desired effect with the likes of Howard Stern and Val Kilmer singing along to some of the Beatles classics. They may be over played under other circumstances but when Sir Paul is singing them in what is essentially the size of a front room to most of the guests they take on a whole new life.

The concert was held by Sirius XM which was celebrating its 20 millionth subscriber, which is an impressive achievement, but not quite as impressive as getting Paul McCartney to sing at your anniversary (of sorts) bash. Keith Richards, Ron Wood, and Alec Baldwin were just a few of an extremely long list of celebrity names that packed the theatre and the whole atmosphere was clearly as enjoyable for Macca as it was for his esteemed guests.

As he walked on stage, McCartney touched the Apollo log which every performer does as a means to furnish themselves with good luck for the show. He also took a minute at the beginning of the show saying that he wanted to soak in the atmosphere before embarking on a blistering performance of some of the Beatles most famous and most loved tracks.

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X Factor Receives More Than 2,000 Complaints

Posted on 15. Dec, 2010 by Kate.

The X Factor has been no stranger to complaints and controversy this series. The whole Gamu Nhengu thing was blown ridiculously out of proportion in our opinion, with Cheryl Cole even receiving death threats and being accused of being racist while the usual fixing scandal and numerous social networking campaigns were also trotted out to ensure that if there were ever any real music fans watching then they probably turned off following the boot camp stages. Well, the series might have ended with Matt Cardle as the runaway winner but the controversy is yet to disappear.

Ofcom, the regulatory body that deals with people who seemingly have nothing to do with their time but dream up things to complain about, has received more than 2,000 complaints about the skimpy and apparently too racy outfits that Rihanna and Christina Aguilera wore during the live Sunday night show. With an audience of 19 million viewers for the live final weekend, the X Factor is certainly one of the biggest shows on TV and according to Vivienne Pattison of Mediawatch UK this makes them a role model that people look up to.

According to Pattison and, it would seem, 2,000 viewers the outfits and the simulated sex in the routines were too much for a pre-watershed show. While the dances and the outfits were a little risque in parts you have to wonder how many complaints came from viewers who were disgruntled over their chosen finalist not winning the competition.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab Price War Wages On

Posted on 15. Dec, 2010 by Paul.

You’ve got to love a price war. Some shops are happy to make a loss on fairly high ticket items in order to entice consumes into shops, to benefit from ongoing sales of accessories and games, and often just to get their names in the papers and try to win back some of the consumer love that they’ve been missing out on in recent months. The latter seems to be the case in the latest round of what has become one of the greatest bits of price warring that the consumer electronics market has seen.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab was always seen as being the main threat to the market dominance held by Apple’s iPad but the thing that put just about everybody off was the price. It’s true that the Galaxy Tab offers some features that the iPad doesn’t but the initial GBP600+ price tag was massive to say the least and made it more expensive even than the most expensive iPad offering.

However, straight out of the traps, retailers were seemingly aware of this and dropped the price to a more reasonable GBP529. It was then dropped to just under the GBP500 mark with Dixons being the first to offer it at 460 and Amazon quickly following suit. Amazon had taken it a little further with a reduction to the current level of 449 but flailing HMV have managed to steal a march on their opponents by offering the tablet PC at GBP429.

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Sonisphere To Include Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, And Anthrax

Posted on 13. Dec, 2010 by Paul.

In what is likely to be the biggest and most impressive heavy metal lineup most of us will ever see, Metallica have confirmed that they will be playing next year’s Sonisphere gig and they will be joined by Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax as part of what is being called the Big 4 Tour in which all of the bands are touring the whole of Europe together. This is the first time that the four of them will play the same stage at the same event and lovers of metal new and old will be clambering for tickets as soon as they go on general sale.

Metallica played Sonisphere last year and the event was considered a massive success and with all four of the bands currently releasing new music it’s the ideal time for them to put something like this together. Biffy Clyro and Slipknot have also been confirmed for the event with numerous other bands being rumoured. One thing is for sure, though, if you’re into metal of just about any variety then you’re going to want to be at Sonisphere.

The Big 4 Tour is already under way and last year it amassed an incredible 500,000 fans watching during the tour. Sonisphere is the only UK gig that has been booked for next year’s leg of the tour so it may well prove to be the only opportunity that most of us will get to watch the four biggest names in heavy metal perform at the same gig.

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X Factor Winner Matt Cardle Now Battles For Christmas Number One

Posted on 13. Dec, 2010 by Kate.

Throughout this series of the X Factor there has been arguing, bitching, and a constant social networking threat. There were supposedly a number of campaigns aimed at keeping show cabaret act Wagner in way beyond the date his talents should realistically have allowed. There were also numerous occasions this series when judge and mentor Cheryl Cole made it into the newspapers for all the wrong reasons. There were arguments between contestants and apparently arguments between performers and their mentors.

However, one thing that reigned above all other news was the campaigns on Facebook that started months ago and have built up a serious head of steam. These campaigns aim to ensure that the X Factor winner is once again prevented from hitting top spot. Last year’s Joe McElderry was beaten to the Christmas number 1 spot by Rage Against the Machine following a similar campaign and there are a number of campaigns this year aiming to do something similar.

One campaign, named Cage Against the Machine, have signed up numerous big name stars to record 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. To be accurate, it’s actually a cover of a song which was titled 4 minutes 33 and there isn’t complete silence but there is nothing more than ambient noise.

Another campaign is attempting to get Bird is the Word to number 1 while yet another campaign was started this week geared towards landing Biffy Clyro the top spot. Matt Cardle is covering a Biffy song for his winning release and it could go head to head against the original.

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Manchester United Back On Top Following 1-0 Win Over Rivals Arsenal

Posted on 13. Dec, 2010 by Matt.

The relationship between managers Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson may have mellowed over recent years but when it comes to a clash between the two teams that would determine who would be leading the table you can bet that the competition is a fierce one.

While the game itself did little to prove this point, however, it was Manchester United that came out on top of a scrappy goal thanks to a brilliantly placed Park Ji Sung header iat the end of the first half. Life should haev been even easier but for a missed penalty by Wayne Rooney.

Going into the match, Arsenal were top of the table and Manchester United down in third place although with a game in hand over their rivals. There had been much build up especially between the players but it was seemingly Evra that was proven right and United that kept up their excellent home record.

Chelsea had once again squandered the opportunity to hit the peak of the table with a draw against Tottenham at the weekend making it only one win in 7 matches for them but all eyes were on Manchester today for a match that has produced more red cards and goals than most others in previous seasons.

It was, in all honesty, a drab affair and one that the Chilean miners, who were in attendance following a personal invitation from Sir Bobby Charlton, would possibly rather have missed. David Beckham, who was also in the stands, would have certainly enjoyed the result though.

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Voyage Of The Dawn Treader Is Top Of The US Box Office Pile

Posted on 13. Dec, 2010 by Paul.

When it comes to reading about the latest episode in a series of kid’s fantasy films, just about everybody expects to see yet another story on the Deathly Hallows episode of the Harry Potter series but in this case we’re actually talking about Voyage of the Dawn Treader which is the latest in the series of Narnia films and was aired this weekend.

According to early figures, the film did manage to top the US box office charts and while the revenues it earned were less than from its predecessors at USD24.5m 20th Century Fox have said that it managed to raise a considerably more impressive USD105.5m globally.

It was perhaps due to the release of the latest Narnia film that Tourist which features Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie only managed to bring in USD17m from its opening weekend. Third place was animated Disney film Tangled which slipped from last week’s chart topping position.

Lovers of the CS Lewis franchise may well be flocking to the cinemas to watch the Voyage of the Dawn Treader but film lovers were largely disappointed by the latest release so it will take some effort to win them back for what is the third in the series of films.

The first film The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe made USD65.6m in its first weekend and the largely disappointing Prince Caspian managed USD55m highlighting a definite downward trend in opening weekend revenues. However, if this movie proves to be better than the last then maybe figures will start heading upwards again for the next one.

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