Carrie Underwood gets Entertainer of the Year - Twitter update

Carrie!

Carrie Underwood not only scored the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year Award for the second year in a row, she scored Twitter points for her singing and her dress.

Carrie Underwood beat Taylor Swift and six other country music entertainers for the vote cast by fans using online and mobile platforms. Twitter celebrated the news, and while "Carrie Underwood" and "Taylor Swift" did not beat the more questionable hashtags of #TeamWhiteGirl and #TeamBlackGirl the tweets were certainly more fun, all over the place, and less disturbing to read.

Carries1fanOx Carrie Underwood...I love & I am so beyond proud of you! Congratulations on making history tonight! your my hero<3 goodnight #TeamCarrie <3 less than a minute ago from Echofon 

 natsraj23 wow carrie underwood looks gorgeous at the #45thannualacademycountryawards wedding_gown_id Carrie Underwood, Julianne Hough, Reba McEntire Fashion winners at the ACM ... http://bit.ly/a6XibD less than a minute ago from API 

 kaykeebakes Carrie Underwood won entertainer of the year yay!!! I'm so exited!!! :) less than a minute ago from Twitter for BlackBerry® 

SamanthaErin22 Woo carrie underwood Acm artist of the year! Not george straight:( But as long As it wasn't taylor swift Haha! 1 minute ago from txt

myniftynappy what? Carrie Underwood just won entertainer of the year! I like her, but come on! 1 minute ago from HootSuite 

Overall, the fact that Carrie Underwood's Entertainer of the Year win failed to hit the Twitter top trends and stay there for a while is a sign that the country music demographic isn't meshing with the young adult / teen set that generally uses Twitter. One way around this is to have Twitter as a major part of the voting campaign. The Academy of Country Music's Twitter account has just over 5,700 followers. Many of the top award nominees have thousands and in some cases millions of Twitter followers. Some kind of deal should have been struck to get the help of people like Taylor Swift, and the Twitter hastag should have been mentioned again and again on the television broadcast.

That didn't happen and because of that, the Academy of Country Music missed a golden chance to really make sure the awards show was a part of the Zeitgeist beyond Google Trends and with a wider demographic range.

Well, there is next year.

Carrie Underwood's legs and New Media beat Taylor Swift in ACM voting

After all that, Carrie Underwood's legs, and an assist from New Media, did beat Taylor Swift and six other country music entertainers - Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, George Strait,Keith Urban, and Zac Brown Band - in the ACM voting for American Country Music Entertainer of The Year at the 2010 Academy of Country Music Awards. That was just announced by show host Reba McEntire, and to a wowser of a yell of approval from the audience.

As of this writing there's no way to tell how much Carrie Underwood won by or who came in second, but it's a safe bet Carrie beat Taylor Swift.

But aside from Carrie Underwood's awesomely hot legs, she got a song that so matched her voice and style it's a 2010 hit: Cowboy Casanova. Here's the kick-ass music video:



But it wasn't just the legs, Carrie Underwood used New Media to advertise her desire for your vote. From the top of her YouTube channel to her website, CarrieUnderwoodOfficial.com, the words "click now to vote" were immediately visible.

And while Taylor Swift had the same notification and a funny video on her website, there was no such request on her YouTube channel and that may have been the difference.

I'll bet it was close.

Well, I like Taylor Swift's voice, but major congratulations to the newly engaged Carrie Underwood. She deserved it.

Stay tuned.

CBS.com/vote ACM Awards: Taylor Swift over Carrie Underwood's legs

The voting is closed at CBS.com/vote for the Entertainer of the Year at the 43rd Annual American Country Music (ACM) Awards. This blogger voted for Taylor Swift and after much consideration and musing. Why? Because her voice is just great. Swift's songs are a habit.

Taylor Swift is also, frankly, the least "country" of all of the entertainers and that includes the drippingly sexy Carrie Underwood.

Carrie's legs 

I've got to admit I was almost swayed by Carrie Underwood's music video about the "Cowboy Casanova;" those toned muscular legs of hers combined with that catchy tune almost made me switch from Taylor and vote for her, but I didn't.

Taylor Swift has a more mainstream sound that just plain rocks.

Yes, Taylor Swift's won a ton of awards and got a bunch of Grammys. Yes, Taylor Swift's still not apologized for that Swastika photo incident. Yes, Taylor Swift has her moments as a diva. But taken as a whole, Taylor Swift's just a person. But a person who can sing and produce her own content.

 Perhaps Taylor Swift's been overdecorated, but time will tell. For now, I'm backing Taylor Swift, regardless of how very hot Carrie Underwood's legs may be.

Ok, are.

Jay-Z and Beyonce at 2010 Coachella Music Festival (video)

Jay-Z and Beyonce brought the house down at the 2010 Coachella Music Festival Saturday night. Hip Hop Wired reports that fans got a big "disappointment" when Dr. Dre did not perform with Jay-Z, but all of that was forgiven when Beyonce, not a listed headliner, came out to the surprise of the 2010 Coachella Music Festival audience.

Dressed in country music female sex symbol star style - torn t-shirt that reads "Punk Ass Motherfucker," cowboy hat, boots, short "Daisy Duke" shorts, and long hair - Beyonce was nothing less than hot and at her soulful best, singing Forever Young.

Before she took the state to sing with her husband Jay-Z, Beyonce was hanging with some great company: California's First Lady, wife of Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, and Twitter friend to this blogger Maria Shriver. (Interestingly, Bayonce's holding a can of Red Bull positioned so the words and logo on it can be picked up by photographers.

Yes, Beyonce is a supporter of Red Bull, which is at this point is far more tolerable to many than the Tiger Woods / Nike association (even though that didn't bother this blogger at all). It proves how powerful images can be and how they impact style, fashion and commerce. I'm surprised Beyonce's not holding a drink with her name on it.

Stay tuned.

MGMT at Coachella Music Festival pleases, but new stuff fails

MGMT is a group and a sound new to this blogger and just introduced at last week's YouTube Happy Hour at 111 Minna Street (video coming).

MGMT is a new group from Brooklyn that rose fast, having formed just outside of five years ago, recognized by SPIN Magazine three years ago, hit the British scene in two years ago, and got its first Grammy nomination this year, you'd be forgiven if you'd never heard of MGMT.

What drew me into MGMT was its pulsating, unmistakable, soulful sound. At the YouTube function I asked "Who's that?" and was told "MGMT." I was hooked.

MGMT's rocking, or perhaps given its sound pulsating, The Coachella Music Festival this weekend. Here's a video from their performance:



While MGMT pleased the Coachella audience, Billboard reports that the crowd wasn't too keen on some of their new material. The rule is don't mess with a good thing.

Stay tuned.

A YouTube tale: The Seattle Freeze

The video below, created using YouTube / Google's searchstories application, tells a story of a California marijuana addict who seeks to start a new life in Seattle. Along the way, it seems that person ran into something called "The Seattle Freeze."

If you recall the Super Bowl Google ad, it was essentially an introduction to Youtube.com/searchstories and told the tale of a man who meets and marries a French girl. Well, this video, shown below, is in that sprit:



What's interesting about the YouTube Seattle video is what it says about Seattle through the eyes of the video maker who's channel's called RyanNoir. Is it that hard to find love in Seattle? Is is easier than finding a job or an apartment? Why?

What's the Seattle Freeze? According to a video that could not be embedded here, an action which is a kind of social network freeze itself, so here's the link, Seattlites are described as being, well, cold. One woman says she doesn't give hugs to friends or family. I'm thinking, what the hell's wrong with her? That's just plain weird. Moreover, it's neurotic because of the weird misunderstandings it creates. People like that become their own worst enemies.

On Yelp, the Seattle Freeze has its own forum, where people write their experiences with what The Seattle Times calls "Our Social Disease" that for some on Yelp seems justified...

The Seattle folks seem passive -- but they're not -- they're cautious because of all of the apparent nutjobs out there. I've observed that these people don't respond well to being confronted on any level;, hence the incidents you read about in the Seattle papers about the "after the bars close" violence in this area that starts over very minor shit.

Learning more about The Seattle Freeze, it could just as much apply to San Francisco or Atlanta. I hear similar stories from transplants to Atlanta, and San Francisco has changed such that there's a large problem of anti-social behavior. I do find that people in Atlanta reach out far more than they do in San Francisco, but not as much as in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago.

The Seattle Freeze also applies to race. While there's no discussion of The Seattle Freeze from a racial persective, observation by this blogger is that people who practice this "freeze" in many cases have a few friends, and all of the same color. There's an indirect correlation between freeze behavior and diversity.

Perhaps that's why there's no "freeze" in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago.  People who exhibit that kind of fear of others in the end are the last to get good jobs or be really good friends to anyone.   A city's a reflection of the people within it.  The most dynamic and successful cities aren't the coldest ones socially.

Stay tuned.

World Cup Soccer coming to Barbacco in San Francisco

While Oakland's Lake Chalet is still this blogger's favorite restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area and followed by The Balboa Cafe in San Francisco, Barbacco, in downtown San Francisco, is moving up the list fast. Barbacco, owned by the same group that started Parbacco next door on 220 California Street near Front Street, is more in the style of a futuristic deli cafe that you'd expect to see in a Star Trek movie.

The lively Barbacco's the perfect place to watch The World Cup Soccer games starting in June. If you're going to go over there, I recommend visiting their website to reserve a table now Barbacco.com.

Now you may ask why do this blog post? Did anyone ask me to do it? No. Was I an official spokesperson for them as was the case for the Lake Chalet (which was my favorite place before they asked me to help them with New Media and of which I still enjoy after the engagement)? No. Was the video paid for? No.

I did the blog post just because every time I walk in to Barbacco or Perbacco  before it, the service and the food are excellent, the staff's really nice, and the owner, Umberto Gibin always greets me and has done so for years before he knew I blogged.

If I'm having a lousy day, Barbacco's a great pick-me-up. Plus, all of my friends raved about this place, so I had to try it.

Check it out.

NFL Draft : Jahvid Best of Cal's "concussion leak" news

Jahvid Best

Pro Football Talk.com found a story about California Running Back Jahvid Best that has an "unnamed source" who's a scout making a claim that Jahvid Best told him Best's still concerned about the concussion he sustained in the Cal - Oregon State game of last season.

In that game, Best tried to score a touchdown by jumping in the air. As Best did, he was hit sideways by an Oregon State defender and came down on his neck and shoulders. Best froze on the field, having suffered a concussion, and was taken to the hospital.

The article, by Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, lists the NFL Draft running backs who are "beaten up" and reports that Best suffered two concussion's in two straight games. After missing four games and a bowl game, Best decided to enter the 2010 NFL Draft. This is what I said then:



After a time it seemed the injury was behind him but this concussion leak is major. The scout said:

"Yeah, he's worried about it. Plus, he has a muscle going down from his neck to his leg that bothers him. That's my reservation on Best. He's coming in all beat up."

It's not the kind of news you want out there less than a week before the NFL Draft; this issue about the muscle is new.

That news caused ProFootballtalk.com to assert Best would be the last of the record number of 16 players to visit New York for the NFL Draft to be drafted. Some Draft watchers have Best falling toward the 2nd round and to the Detroit Lions. Based on his NFL Combine performance and ranking, this blogger believed the San Diego Charger should take Best, but that's far different that what they will do.

Stay tuned.

NFL Draft: Tim Tebow says Jerry Jones just having fun

In the latest NFL Draft news, Tim Tebow continues to show why so many people just plain like the quarterback. Asked about the now-famous rant by Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones that was caught on cell phone camcorder, where Jones said Tebow would "never get on the field," Tim Tebow gave a good natured response:

"I really haven't even thought about it. I don't even take that as an offense. He's just having fun."

Which may be Tim Tebow's christian way of saying, "Yeah, and when I play the Cowboys, I'm gonna kick their butts up and down the field." If you didn't see the video, here it is with my take:



Since then Jerry Jones has said Tim Tebow is an "outstanding" young man, but that the Cowboys don't have a need for a quarterback. Jones also said he has special feelings for former head coach Bill Parcells, now President of The Miami Dolphins Organization.

Parcells said he and Jones "talked it out."

Oakland Mayor's Race has ten candidates so far

See: city of oakland, mayor of oakland, ron dellums, jean quan, don macLeay, jean quan, greg harland, maya dillard smith, terrance candell

The City of Oakland, California Mayor's race is more crowded than you think. It's not just Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Oakland District 4 Councilmember Jean Quan, and Rebecca Kaplan. The Oakland Mayor's Race has ten candidates, nine of them fully known and the last one still largely "under the radar."

The full list of Oakland Mayor's Race candidates consists of incumbent Ron Dellums, Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell, and an tenth person who's still not ready for prime time, but will be.

Ten choices for Mayor of Oakland, California.

This blogger just got off the phone with Greg Hatland, who's an Oaklander who graduated from Oakland High School in 1964 and lives close to California Attorney General Jerry Brown in the Oakland Hills. Hartland, who's website is at Harland4Mayor.com, decided to run for Mayor because Oakland has been a focus of crime for as long as he could remember and wanted to take action.

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Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell for Mayor of Oakland

The City of Oakland, California Mayor's race is more crowded than you think. It's not just Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Oakland District 4 Councilmember Jean Quan, and Rebecca Kaplan. The Oakland Mayor's Race has ten candidates, nine of them fully known and the last one still largely "under the radar."

The full list of Oakland Mayor's Race candidates consists of incumbent Ron Dellums, Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell, and an tenth person who's still not ready for prime time, but will be.

Ten choices for Mayor of Oakland, California.

This blogger just got off the phone with Greg Hatland, who's an Oaklander who graduated from Oakland High School in 1964 and lives close to California Attorney General Jerry Brown in the Oakland Hills. Hartland, who's website is at Harland4Mayor.com, decided to run for Mayor because Oakland has been a focus of crime for as long as he could remember and wanted to take action.

Harland's worked to stay relatively quiet until his campaign kickoff on May 1st from 11 AM to 5 PM PDT at Alpha Omega Worship Center located at 8627 International Blvd, in Oakland (of course). He's offering a $10 steak dinner and a chance to win a $100 cash prize at his event.

Maya Dillard Smith is someone who said she was running for Mayor last year and approached this blogger to explain her intentions. Since that time, Maya Dillard Smith's established a Facebook page as her website called Maya for Mayor, but as of this writing has not announced an official kickoff event.

Terrance Candell calls himself "The People's Mayor" and has this video below where he has others calling the other Oakland politicians sell-outs, takes a not-too-veiled swipe at Don Perata, and ends with Candell saying "I'm Terrance Candell and I'm not for sale."



Other than a March 13th campaign meeting, Terrance has no scheduled events on his extensive website at Candell4Mayor.com.

So there's the almost full, and bound to get larger, list of candidates for Mayor of Oakland. Unfortunately, you only knew of a few of them; not any more.

Stay tuned.

The Oakland Salon Beatdown Video trial this month

The Oakland Salon Beatdown Video is back in the news as the trail starts in April. According to ABC News Channel 7 in the Bay Area, the pretrial hearing was held in Alameda County Superior Court, Department 104.

Melissa Seals is the owner of the Oakland hair salon where she was the focus of a brutal beatdown by not one, but six women in the spring of 2009. The women entered the salon and two started the attack while one made a video of it. They then stole her merchandise and raised the blinds so people walking by could see what they were doing, according to The Huffington Post.

Here's the ABC News video (Warning: it's graphic):



The ABC video reports that in 2010, 36-year-old Melissa Seals is suffering from Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder. One of the attackers is named Kavina Bryant, who attended the hearing. Bryant is the woman in the green sweat pants and blue halter top who does much of the beating of Seals.

Another woman, who Melissa Seals identifies as "Janilla Edgerton" (she has no Internet trail) in the video (with the red sweat pants) also hit and kicked her,and Seals said the woman's still roaming the neighborhood, even with an arrest warrant active on her. As of this writing and to this blogger's knoweldge, Edgerton has not been arrested.

Seals needs help. She's lost 75 percent of her clients, and as ABC was talking to her, someone from EBMUD turned off her water. The problem is other customers were scared off by the attack.

I don't have contact information for Melissa Seals; ABC News Channel 7 may. Seals does not have a criminal record so she can work at another salon with ease.

Stay tuned.