I called John Liu, New York City Comptroller and a thorn in mayor Mike Bloomberg’s side because like me and so many New Yorkers, we opposed Mike Bloomberg denying us, the people of NY a referendum. This issue divided New York and seriously alienated the people so it was no surprise Mike Bloomberg barely won.
But that is not why I called and left John Liu a voice mail at City Hall here in New York City this morning at six a.m.
You see CityTime, an Orwellian Time Clock that was suppose to save the City of New York big bucks is in fact a sham and is on it’s way to costing tax payers a billion dollars.
Why would I be writing about this now?
The renewal date for CityTime is September 2010 and CityTime must not be renewed.
In fact CityTime must be investigated. Why?
How did a program designed to save the city money go from under a hundred million dollar budget run out of control? Well for some mysterious reason CityTime needs countless consultants averaging close to half a million dollar salaries and at least one was reported to get a million and he happens to also collect a city pension.
Read my blog postings and see also how SAIC, hired to over see CityTime has scandals on a Federal level as well. I wrote this based on Ali Winston’s piece in City Limits from two years ago and an astounding series by Juan Gonzalez from The New York Daily News.
50 Cent, 34, has removed all his tattoos and has gone from 214 to 160 pounds for his role inThings Fall Apart, where he plays a football player with cancer.
The movie was inspired by 50's friend who died of cancer. I understand that for movie roles stars change their body and do certain things to fit the role, but this just looks so sad. It does not look healthy (I know it isn't supposed to look healthy). 50 says not to worry, "I've been eating, I'll be back in shape in no time!"
I wonder how his fans will react this weekend when he is performing. He goes back on tour TOMORROW, and this news has just broken today. I am sure if he had just started performing without explaining his weight loss there would have been a lot of rumors and tabloid craze over this.
Tony Yayo told MTV News that 50 was very dedicated to his role (we can see that!) Yayo says:
"50 doesn't party, he doesn't drink.... 'Man, he has the three D's: desire, determination and [direction].' "
“I took ‘em off,” he said. “I’ve been on a few acting projects and they been making me get up… My call time is four hours before the regular acting talent because of the tattoos.”
I always picture 50 Cent has the buff man from "In Da Club" with those big muscles and tattoos. I remember he used to speak of his tattoos and how much they meant to him. It seems sad that he got rid of those tattoos for his career as an actor. I know there are a lot of other actors and actresses who would refuse to get rid of their tattoos. He says that it saved time in the make up chair working on covering up the tattoos.
But at least he didn't get rid of the GIANT "50 Cent" on his back!
Lloyd Banks, from G-Unit, says since he was with 50 so much he didn't notice the drastic change as much as others:
"I was around him everyday, so I didn't see it [the dramatic weight-loss transformation] as much as other people did, but when I seen the pictures, it's affected everything,..He's crazy, it was non-stop working, running 10 miles."
Well, even though 50 is a "rapper-turned-actor" I hope that he will be able to bring back the "rapper" side of him for this weekend's kick off of his tour. I am sure he won't disappoint any of his fans.
New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) TechCrunch Disrupt New York City Day 3 has the final round of what the tech blog calls it's "Startup Battlefield." The idea is for a startup to give a pitch to a panel of judges, who then evaluate the company.
UPDATE: The winner of the competition is...Soluto, which receives a check for $50,000.
Today's panel has John Borthwick, CEO of betaworks, Ron Conway, Angel Investor at SV Angel, Marrissa Mayer, VP of Google, Samuel Schwartz, EVP of Comcast Interactive and Quincy Smith, Founding Partner of CODE Advisors.
Right now, a startup called Publish2 is up. The idea of Publish2 is to have a news exchange that replaces "the hated Associated Press" according to its CEO Scott Karp. It enables newspapers to install content from any source, from blogs to other news websites, into their print newspapers and websites.
In the questioning, Marrissa Mayer of Google says Publish2 is a good idea that "this is an area that needs to be looked at" as journalism is changing. But she's concerned about reliability and the business model. She's also concerned about distribution of the content.
Ron Conway mentioned Twitter as a competitor and the fact that Twitter itself is breaking news.
UPDATE: Soluto's a software company that promises to " bring an end to the frustrations PC users encounter" by finding the problem in your computer, then using "crowdsourcing" to connect you to a whole community who can help you.
The panel likes the company, but has concerns about privacy; the founders of the company, Tomer Dvir and Ishay Green are explaining that they are not going to collect private data.
UPDATE: Betterment is up next and my personal favorite. The idea of Betterment is to make it easier for people to invest online. Many companies have websites that are just plain hard to use. The founders call Betterment "the replacement for your savings account."
The panel is getting down on the concept of the "simplification" of data on the Betterment website. Personally, I agree with TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington, who said that there was a bit of looking down on Betterment because it's "cute."
Betterment does need to work on its SEO.
UPDATE: MovieClips, which allows you to make a mashup of videos clips from movies, is up now. MovieClips Richard Raddon presented a set of clips (one that will make your stomach turn). He explains that he has deals with six movie studios, which is how they're able to use the 12,000 clips.
Ron Conway said, "imagine how big YouTube sales would be if you were one of the founders." John Borthwick is skeptical as to how many people will use MovieClips. Plus, he feels that the studio deals can be done by others, not just the founders of Movie Clips, but Conway disagres.
Samuel Schwartz of Comcast Interactive likes MovieClips and wants to talk to Richard Raddon and Zack James about how they can work together. Marrissa Mayer focused on the need for a better search technology system to facilitate clip discovery.
Ujam, the conference favorite, is up. Ujam allows you to make original music from different sounds and instruments. Very simple. Very exciting. Movie Composer Hanz Zimmer is one of their partners.
The panel generally likes Ujam but focused on the problem of monetization. Currently, it's free.
The judges went backstage to decide the winner.
UPDATE: The winner of the competition is...Soluto, which receives a check for $50,000.
I don’t believe Jesse James is a racist. Here in NYC , I have seen photos posted by an elderly, grossly overweight white man of a middle aged African American woman, homeless, poverty level, drunk out of her mind in the park and with no tools or resources to climb out of her destructive cycle and worse has some white man with a camera photographing her topless out of her mind and posting on the internet -- in my opinion that is racism, misogyny and a terrible double standard because I have seen that white man drunk and he had the luxury of a home to go close a door and he doesn’t want anyone to photograph him including without his shirt. Jesse James hasn't done anything near as heinous as that.
It is easy to think James is a racist and he is flat out in denial or stupid to consider the Hitler gear as a joke. It is no joke. It is repulsive as is his treatment of his wife and everyone involved but is he the most hated person in the world? Is he a racist or plain stupid? When it comes to Hitler gear - I pick plain stupid. No he is not the most hated person in the world or the brightest. He is good at making motorcycle and lots of money. The global audience have their lives and they are way too busy to think about him for more than a moment...he is “media fast food”, consumed, not digested and done with.
I have said and continue to say he will continue to do really well with his career. After all his career is based on the bad boy brand. He comes across as sincere at moments but if he himself admits he is a liar why would he suddenly find truth and clearly he is in denial. Just his talk about the Hitler gear. I don't think he should have done this interview right now but he did and the ratings were very good so all the power to him as long as it isn't white power. America loves redemption but looking at his failed marriages before none of this is a big time shocker except that Sandra Bullock was clueless.
As I understand it, Janine was pregnant with Sunny when Sandra and Jesse started dating which was a huge red light and James was not involved in Sunny’s life until she was 3 years old when Janine was heading to Federal Prison for tax evasion. Maybe I am wrong but that was what I heard....
I feel most sorry for Sunny because she has been through too much too soon in her short little life and hopefully Sandra Bullock will stay involved in Sunny’s life.
Janine and Jesse has two things in common. Sunny their child and the reality they both have to work on their lives, as we all do, but if not for themselves than for Sunny and their kids from other marriages as well.
Note: I think Janine is self-destructive and has to come to terms with her demons. I also think there is something compelling about her and wished she could have been cast as the stripper in The Wrestler. That way at the very end, when Randy the Ram, Mickey Rourke is talking to her before he goes in to the ring, you would have to think, wait Randy don't do it. Janine would have made that scene before he walks out just rip! If Janine could clean up her act, I could see her crossing over in to main stream film.
I keep predicting James will be married again because he is they marrying kind and the marriage I predict will be open because I don’t see him being faithful. What ever he has been doing has aged him and clearly has not been agreeing with him. He looks much older and he may go the Hollywoo-woo way of getting some surgery to make himself look younger or do a radical change in what ever he has been doing but he looks like hell for now. Not a poster boy for bad boy who makes deals with the devil as in Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray but a warning to guys the bad boy life style is not all it's cracked up to be.
James has a following that love him and his family and a successful career...I am sure more drama to come.
“Jesse James The Brand” will continue on with success despite his repulsive misdeeds and Nightline’s ratings are proof. Just most women would not want to date him not that will in anyway change the number of enthusiastic women that will continue to hit on him because in the biker bad boy world it is no big deal.
I write about this because I know people are interested but I am gearing up for a “grown-up” piece on NYC politics that I am far more excited about coming to you soon.
In giving an overview of TechCrunch Disrupt, Shoenfeld said that Bartz "is a pretty tough cookie. She can...She gave as well as she gets. We got a few bombs out of her. She kinda came into the lion's den. We've been critical of Yahoo! and Carol, and for her to come into (this) and do really well speaks volumes about her leadership.
On the matter of the impact of "geo-based social networks" like Foursquare, and their explosion, the question has been when will the next "Foursquare" emerge? "There's a lot of buzz around geo-media companies. Foursquare and Gowalla, and Booya are some of the first ones out of the gate. I think it's going to be difficult for a startup today. The question is not what the next Facebook but who's the next Foursquare?...There are already early, early leaders. If you're not in that pack, it's going to be difficult to get into that pack."
Shoenfeld says that TechCrunch Disrupt is a mix of interesting panels in the morning and interviews presenting the different "disruptions" that are present. A disruption, in the industrial context, is another way of describing the "paradigm shifts" famously described in Thomas Kuhn's classic work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
A paradigm shift is a dramatic alteration in a process, tradition, or convention. In the case of tech, the growth of the web has been extremely disruptive to the media and entertainment industries, as iTunes, YouTube, and Craigslist (to offer some examples), have caused massive declines in ad revenues to newspapers and radio stations and other traditional forms of media. Thousands of people have lost jobs in the process. Meanwhile new jobs are being created and countries, like India, are now major players in these same industries.
The intent of TechCrunch Disrupt is to explore the anatomy of these disruptions and give a view of what "disruptive" companies are on the horizon. I think it's done that very well. Plus, it's probably the largest single "dump" of people from the San Francisco Bay Area into New York City ever done.
Is it Rand Paul's sudden rise to political prominence despite a total lack of experience? No, it's not that people vote often don't make voting choices based on logic, either. Sadly, that happens all the time.
Atlas Shrugged:
Rand Paul and The Crouching Weasel Technique
So, while it may defy logic for primary voters to elevate this guy based solely on the fact his dad's a celebrity and his ability to echo talking points, he may be a flash in the pan. Of course, given that people so often make choices emotionally rather than logically, it's possible he's still in it.
The first rule of politics is "Follow the Money." The second used to be some version of, "Truth is still getting on its shoes while the lie runs on ahead." But the third place entry may be about to overtake second with, "Voters will make strange choices."
It's already a little late to have much influence over which people run for office this year. But if we work together perhaps we can shape the remaining primaries and the November election to at least choose the most effective leaders to hold office rather than simply the person people think would be "fun to drink a beer with."
I must give credit where credit is due. Nikki Finke at Deadline.com broke this story and held back nothing (posting all the quotes, documents, and letters involving Bay and Fox).
There have been numerous articles/stories/blog entries written about Megan Fox no longer being apart of Transformers. There are many speculations made whether Fox quit or if she was fired by Paramount.
I have a question.
If you were interviewed for an article and you compared your boss to Hilter, do you think you would still have a job?
"[Michael Bay] wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. It's endearing to watch him. He's so vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set, he's a tyrant."
Now, in May 2010 we are hearing that she won't be in Transformers 3, and we are surprised by this? She was being interviewed about her movie Jennifer's Body, and she brings up Michael Bay being like Hitler.
It really shouldn't shock anyone that she isn't involved with Transformers, but the focus is more on who dumped who.
Do we remember what Fox said at Spike TV's 4th annual Scream Awards?
"The movie took me out of obscurity and gave me a career, and I'm completely grateful to everyone involved with this franchise."
The two have quite the past. Do we forget that when she was 15 Bay paid Fox $600 to get wet in a bikini for Bad Boys 2?
So why would the "grateful" Fox leave the movie that took her out of obscurity?
Fox's reps said that the actress "left the project on her own and wishes the franchise well."
Fox should let her publicist speak for her more often, but even after that statement was released Fox had to speak for herself. Fox made sure that everyone knew why she was leaving.
The "crew letter" from over the summer could have been a reason for her to leave.
I don't want to seem unsympathetic, but isn't comparing Bay to Hitler a bit "abusive" in itself. If not abusive then insulting.
Fox is determined to get the word out that Michael Bay and Paramount did not let her go. She wants everyone to understand that even though Michael Bay brought her out of obscurity, SHE was the one to choose to leave the franchise.
And if that isn't enough of a reason, Fox always wants everyone to know that Bay forced her to tan so excessively that she was concerned she would get cancer, or was it because of her weight issues?
Of course Bay wasn't bothered by anything Fox said, he even said himself:
"But her crazy quips are part of her crazy charm. The fact of the matter I still love working with her, and I know we still get along. I even expect more crazy quotes from her on ‘Transformers 3.'
I am sure Bay is very sad that he won't be getting those crazy quotes.
So, although Fox "wishes them well," she really means, "Michael Bay is the reason I am not returning." Whether it is because she called him Hitler, or if he was verbally abusive to her. Michael Bay is the reason that Megan Fox will no longer be apart of the Transformers Franchise.
I don't want to choose sides, but I think that Bay will survive this loss.
(Y'know, since Megan Fox made it clear that SHE LEFTand SHE WAS NOT KICKED OUT.)
New Giants and Jets Stadium: home of Super Bowl XLVIII
New York, NY - Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference to announce that New York was open to the tech business. In his speech, he failed to mention the real story: that New York was in line to host the 2014 Super Bowl.
At another press conference held in an adjacent area to the main room at 570 Washington Street, this blogger asked Mayor Bloomberg if he knew of New York's chances. "I don't know. They're supposed to announce today, but I don't know what they're going to do," and the Mayor was talking about the NFL.
At 5 PM EDT, on a sunny Tuesday, and in Times Square while this blogger was at the TechCrunch Conference, they did it. The NFL awarded New York City the 2014 Super Bowl. Immediately, I thought of Oakland's Super Bowl Bid, 9-11, and New York's determination to be great.
What stopped Oakland from landing the 2005 Super Bowl was its lack of community determination and support. Regardless of the specific reasons, Oakland lacked an overall want to. That's even true with Oakland's World Cup bid: no fire in the collective belly.
New York managed to convince the NFL that it could host what would be the first outdoor cold-weather Super Bowl in history. This is wild because for decades, the National Football League has had a cold weather rule that such Super Bowls were to be played in dome stadiums.
That was eliminated for New York. And while it's a gift that is due to the trajedy of 9-11, it opens the door for other cities to bid on it. And why not? New York beat Miami for the win?
But New York was determined to win. It has a moxie that Oakland could have, but seems afraid to muster.
New Yorkers and New Jersey football fans are celebrating the breaking news which is 2014 Super Bowl will be played at the New Jersey Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey. This is good for both NY and NJ who are in dire straits with economic budget problems and that is understating the problems. Thanks to 1010 Wins for the scoop.
Mark Sanchez, the gorgeous quarterback for the NY Giants is now a regular fixture on Page 6 of The New York Post and is now rumored to be dating Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Sanchez looks just too wholesome and sweet to pull an "A-Rod". A-Rod famous for kissing his own reflection has made it clear he can't settle down and no woman can compete with his own love for himself. I hear there is a tattoo on his chest that says warning, date at your own risk! Just joking...
Also if you haven't watched the dark indie "The Fan" it is time to rent the DVD!
I tend to visit TMZ to see what breaking news they have. Harvey Levin is always found surrounded with a young diverse group of people including one "beautiful" blonde boyish guy I use to think was gorgeous until I heard him speak about women.
Harvey has a law degree which is very important when attempting to understand what is going on in current events and even gossip because celebrities seem to get in trouble with the law. Harvey is one of the elite group of people in TV land that actually reads books. Most people refer to movies instead of books but today he talks about Abraham Lincoln and says he has read books on him....just so rare except on a few grown up shows and even than they have "talking heads" as opposed to well read.
On TMZ, the latest in Suge Knight and it is exactly as I wrote in my piece about him watching The Godfather way too much. He is now accused of ordering a hit! This story underscores the theory Suge Knight thinks he is "The Godfather" and is not the first time Knight has been accused of calling for a hit on someone. If you haven't watch Nick Broomfield's documentary on Tupac and B.I.G.
TMZ has new news about Jesse James supposedly thinking the Nazi "wear" was funny and let us face it -- it is not. Again Jesse James is just better when he doesn't talk about anything but motorcycles. He is not the most hated men. Most people don't even think of him and have forgotten him if they even knew about him. Jesse James has a strong following of fans and they don't care about whether he is lying about being related to the historical Jesse James and if he lied, cheated, robbed Sandra Bullock of her Oscar win joy, etc. They love him because he is a bad boy. It is that simple. Speaking up is not a good idea because he doesn't say anything that will endear him. You can watch him tonight on Nightline and decide for yourself if you care at all.
New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) AOL Founder Steve Case visited Tech Crunch Disrupt for a "fireside chat" with TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington on Tuesday.
Case, who's now involved in investing in companies like Zip Car via his holding company Revolution LLC, answered Arrington's question about the future of the web. "I think what we've shifted two is having built and core infrastructure" and now are building on top of it, for example adding apps to existing web platforms like Facebook.
The AOl / Time Warner Merger
AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000. The new company, AOL / Time Warner almost immediately ran into trouble in mating two very disperate corporate cultures. While he stepped down in 2003 and said he wished he could undo the merger in 2005, Case now says he wish he could redo and not undo the merger. The problem for Case was that he had to step down in 2003; he would have focused more on content.
On the current AOL, he thinks AOL's headed in the right direction. "It's still got 100 million users. It's still got two-and-a-half-million annualized revenues, he says." AOL, to Case's view, is a more streamlined company with a more intense focus.
New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) On Tuesday, TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington's interview was punctuated by Bartz telling the legendary tech blogger to f-off. But from that has been a tremendous demand for the actual full video interview, which is above.
That was and still is the buzz of the conference and of the Internet to a degree, but the actual Bartz / Arrington talk was over 25 minutes and covered a large range of topics.
Bartz said that the Yahoo! web front page has 32,000 front page variations "So you don't even know what I'm seeing," Carol informs. It's part of what Yahoo! called "The web of one" or a more personalized content delivery system. "In fact we serve a million front page modules a day."
The Yahoo! application most widely used is Messenger, so "getting Messenger on the handset companies outside the US is important to us," Bartz said. Moreover, she added that they already have deals active with a number of carriers, but are just working to expand its presence in that area.
The conversation heated up a lot when Michael Arrington turned to Yahoo!'s hiring of former Microsoft exec Blake Irving. Arrington was critical of the decision, trying to "walk this carefully" but then asking pointed questions about Irving's role in the company and mentioning Apple CEO Steve Jobs by comparison. The mention of Jobs caused Bartz to bristle and state she didn't know any VP of product who could be compared to Steve Jobs. Then she explained who reports to Blake in the Yahoo! corporate structure.
The point I think Arrington was trying to make here is that companies like Apple, even if they have huge employment structures, have one person's vision that is reflected in the entire company. While Bartz is certainly combative, it's hard to say that translates into an overall vision that can be evangelized.
After a time the conversation went to an edgy level, with Bartz and Arrington trading barbs on what men look at versus women online. That was valuable, in that we learned women look at the banner on the top right, where's men have what Bartz calls "banner blindness" but do look at text ads.
Why the difference? "Because you're odd," Bartz playfully says to the male Arrington. "Now that you say it, Arrington said, it makes more sense," causing Bartz to respond, "You're so slow."
Bartz continued to talk about "science" and "process" whereas Arrington summed it up with one question: "Where's the soul?" And that's the disconnect which led to the friction between Bartz and Arrington.
From that point on Bartz communication with Arrington was more pointed and (there's that word again) edgy, and then she dropped an s-bomb on the idea of ownership of social content when she said "Oh, I'd like to own it. S---, why not?...I'd like to be queen pooba of the World, but I'm not."
Then it went downhill from there. On the matter of tech blogger Robert Scoble "trolling" Charlie Rose on Monday, Bartz said "Oh. He looks like he's slow."
She was referring to Charlie Rose. Bartz could have been kidding, but it didn't come out that way.
Could Michael's approach have been considered sexist? Frankly, that did cross my mind more than once. I wondered if Michael's questions would have taken a slighly less "put-downish" tone if he were talking to a male Carol Bartz.
New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) TechCrunch Day 2 features a lively Tuesday morning panel moderated by TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington, and with Foursqure CEO Dennis Crowley, Facebook VP Chris Cox, and Google VP Vic Gondotra talking about the next phases in mobile.
FFacing the Facebook privacy issue head on, Chris Cox saying that there will be new privacy tools to simplify user control over their Facebook profiles and it will be rolled out Wednesday May 26th.
On the matter of the growth of Foursquare, Dennis Crowley said the company passed 700,000 check-ins last Friday.
Google's Vic Gondotra said that mobile technology advances every quarter. Now, the phone that's the "new black" as Michael Arrington called it, is the EVO, whereas earlier in 2010, it was the Google Nexus. "You're going to see increasing amounts of technology that will permeate other countries."
