Atlanta, Ga. 12/10/2007 08:10 p.m. GMT (FINDITT - Top Story)
The man who shot and killed two members of the Christian-based Youth With a Mission organization in Arvada, Colorado is believe to be the same man who killed two worshippers at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs several hours later.
After being refused a room at the Youth With a Mission building Matthew Murray fired on several of the staff members. Two of those hit were killed while two others received injuries, one with a bullet to the neck and the other a bullet in the leg.
About twelve hours after the first shooting Murray began his assault on worshippers at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Murray killed two sisters in the church parking lot and shot their father before entering the building.
A female security guard shot Murray before he got more than 50 feet into the church, a shooting that is believed to have saved hundreds of lives.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Texas Rapper Pimp C Dies in L.A Hotel
Wed Dec 5, 2007 3:54am IST
LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Texas rapper Chad "Pimp C" Butler, a member of the chart-topping duo UGK (Underground Kingz), died in a Los Angeles hotel room on Tuesday, officials said. He was 33.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said detectives were investigating the death of a "male black adult" at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood. The cause of death was unknown.
Butler's Jive Records label issued a statement mourning "the unexpected loss." It did not indicate what had happened leading up to his death. A spokeswoman said no one had any details.
The Web site TMZ.com broke the news, reporting that Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel discovered Butler dead in his bed after responding to a 911 call.
UGK, in which Butler performed with Bernard "Bun B" Freeman, topped the U.S. pop album charts in August with "Underground Kingz," its first entry on the survey in five years. Pimp C spent much of that time in prison, serving nearly four years for aggravated assault. He was paroled in 2005.
Butler, who was born in Port Arthur, Texas, formed UGK with Freeman when they were in high school. They signed with Jive in 1992 and released eight albums for the label.
"He will be remembered for his talent and profound influence as a pioneer in bringing southern rap to the forefront," Jive president and CEO Barry Weiss said.
Jive is a unit of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture between Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Patricia Reaney)
© Reuters2007All rights reserved
LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Texas rapper Chad "Pimp C" Butler, a member of the chart-topping duo UGK (Underground Kingz), died in a Los Angeles hotel room on Tuesday, officials said. He was 33.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said detectives were investigating the death of a "male black adult" at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood. The cause of death was unknown.
Butler's Jive Records label issued a statement mourning "the unexpected loss." It did not indicate what had happened leading up to his death. A spokeswoman said no one had any details.
The Web site TMZ.com broke the news, reporting that Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel discovered Butler dead in his bed after responding to a 911 call.
UGK, in which Butler performed with Bernard "Bun B" Freeman, topped the U.S. pop album charts in August with "Underground Kingz," its first entry on the survey in five years. Pimp C spent much of that time in prison, serving nearly four years for aggravated assault. He was paroled in 2005.
Butler, who was born in Port Arthur, Texas, formed UGK with Freeman when they were in high school. They signed with Jive in 1992 and released eight albums for the label.
"He will be remembered for his talent and profound influence as a pioneer in bringing southern rap to the forefront," Jive president and CEO Barry Weiss said.
Jive is a unit of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture between Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Patricia Reaney)
© Reuters2007All rights reserved
Ever Thought About Making Money With Adsense? Interview with the Adsense Guru
Interview
with Michael Cheney from AdSense-Videos.com
Q. So what made
you get started with AdSense?
A. I
was looking for a way to monetize some of my websites. AdSense
is such an easy thing to get started with the eye for it would
be a great way to start earning more money without actually putting
into much more effort. I think as soon as you see the first earnings
coming into your account you get addicted to AdSense. I know is
what happened to me and since then I've just spent time working
out how to earn more and more each day.
Q. How much do
you make with AdSense?
A. Some days I can earn
close to $1000 and others it's less than that. But it all comes
down to how much time and effort you devote to creating a quality
site that people like visiting. AdSense is not what my business
is based on by any means - but it is a great way to earn revenue
almost on autopilot.
Q. What is the
biggest mistake people making with AdSense?
A. Probably
the biggest mistake people make is thinking the AdSense earnings
are easy to achieve. It is very easy to get started but as I learned
it takes a lot of effort to increase your earnings. I got really
downhearted whenever I would log in to my account to see that
I had only made a few dollars. And that's when I decided to spend
months and months of my time learning everything I could about
AdSense.
I basically buried myself
away and devoured every single piece of AdSense information I
could find. I ran thousands of AdSense tests and started to see
a dramatic effect on my click through ratio and therefore on my
earnings.
This is why I'd decided
to record the videos - because I knew that it would help people
who were in my position to also increase their earnings. I've
read an absolute ton of AdSense e-book's but they take so long
to go through and always seem to keep information back.
With AdSense Videos I
knew that I had to tell the story exactly as it is and actually
show people and lead them by the hand through the exact techniques
that I use to generate large earnings from AdSense.
Q. In your videos
you show people how to increase their AdSense earnings - can you
give us a taster of this advice?
A. I
don't want to give away my biggest secrets as you can understand!
But some of the more basic things that you can do to increase
your revenues include using ads that blend in rather than stand
out from your content. Flat out the worst thing you can do with
an AdSense ad is make it look like the standard Google ad. What
you need to realise is that you will get more clicks if your ad
actually appears part of your site rather than something that's
just been dropped into the page.
Q. What would
you recommend that someone do right now to increase their AdSense
earnings?
A. I've
created a totally free AdSense minicourse that people can go through
to learn some of my techniques. It takes you through the four
cornerstone principles that I've used to build up my AdSense empire.
You can check it out, as well as all the AdSense Videos, here:
http://mtreadaway.htmlindex.hop.clickbank.net/
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Johnny Truelove in Alpha Dog
Alpha Dog Misses The Point
"Alpha Dog" based on Jesse James Hollywood case• Nick Cassavetes directed film about kidnap/murder gone awry• Film may get details right, but lacks insight, says reviewer
By Tom CharitySpecial to CNN
Nick Cassavetes' true-crime drama "Alpha Dog," which premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival, has already had its own day in court. After the cops finally caught up with the basis for one of the film's characters, Jesse James Hollywood, his defense attorney moved to block the film's release -- a motion dismissed by the court last month.
You can see why the defense could be concerned. "Alpha Dog" concerns an impromptu kidnapping and a murder, and once the action begins, it seems like every bit character is introduced with a witness number attached (more than 30 of them).
Sure, the names have been changed, but the who's-who is fairly straightforward: 20-year-old dealer Hollywood becomes Johnny Truelove (played by 20-year-old Emile Hirsch). The victim, 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz, becomes Zack Mazursky (15-year-old Anton Melchin). And so on.
In the interim, Cassavetes did rewrite the ending for his movie -- but it is, he claims, 95 percent accurate.
Here's the story: When Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster) fails to pay off a drug debt, Truelove opportunistically snatches Zack, Jake's younger half-brother, off the street and whisks him off to Palm Springs. The kidnapping hasn't exactly been thought through, to put it mildly, so Truelove's homeboy Frankie (Justin Timberlake) finds himself babysitting the hostage, a responsibility he discharges by simply inducting the kid into his own party lifestyle. Within hours Zack is a minor celebrity on the scene.
"Stolen boy," coos one girl. "That's hot."
Nobody thinks to dial 911, and the one girl with the modicum of ethical sophistication to suggest that kidnapping is not cool is advised to take a Valium -- a sentiment echoed by Zack himself, who doesn't want to spoil anybody's fun.
This kind of moral nullity is depressing, but no longer shocking -- or original. In the 1986 movie "River's Edge," a schoolboy kills his girlfriend and practically the whole school knows about it before the authorities are alerted. And in Larry Clark's "Bully" (2001), a bunch of aimless high school graduates conspire to murder a manipulative "friend" because they can't think of anything better to do with their lives. Both were based on real cases.
Like Clark, Cassavetes paints a picture of liberalism gone to pot: constant casual drug use, alcohol abuse, promiscuity and profanity. And that's just the parents.
"If you want to know what this is about ... the whole thing is about parenting," opines Truelove's father (Bruce Willis) in the film's first speech. Not that he's a perfect role model, having brought his son into the family drug-supply business.
Whatever you make of the diagnosis, this oration is typical of the movie's not-so-subtle approach, with its faux documentary inserts and ironies you couldn't lift with a crowbar.
There are some good performances here, but they happen in isolation. Ben Foster works up a fury as the older brother Jake, but it's like he's in a different picture entirely (in one bizarre sequence, it looks like a martial arts action flick). Timberlake -- I know you're curious -- is modestly effective as a (relatively) nice guy who goes along with murder. Best of all is young Yelchin, "riding it out," as he puts it, unassuming and then some, but obviously a good kid.
The rest is hit and miss. As Zack's bereaved mom, Sharon Stone is asked to pour her heart out while wearing a fat suit. It's not a pretty sight and kills the pathos Cassavetes is shooting for. Several split-screen sequences are an object lesson in how style can distract from content, while the boombastic rap soundtrack suggests the film's paternalist concern over gangsta culture only goes so far.
"Alpha Dog" is no travesty, but I would trade 95 percent accuracy for, say, 25 percent insight. The film mostly fails to get under the skin of its fine young criminals and you find yourself wondering, "What were they thinking?" as you walk out of the theatre. It was surely Cassavetes' job to shed some light on that question.
"Alpha Dog" is rated R and runs 117 minutes.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/12/review.alpha/index.html
"Alpha Dog" based on Jesse James Hollywood case• Nick Cassavetes directed film about kidnap/murder gone awry• Film may get details right, but lacks insight, says reviewer
By Tom CharitySpecial to CNN
Nick Cassavetes' true-crime drama "Alpha Dog," which premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival, has already had its own day in court. After the cops finally caught up with the basis for one of the film's characters, Jesse James Hollywood, his defense attorney moved to block the film's release -- a motion dismissed by the court last month.
You can see why the defense could be concerned. "Alpha Dog" concerns an impromptu kidnapping and a murder, and once the action begins, it seems like every bit character is introduced with a witness number attached (more than 30 of them).
Sure, the names have been changed, but the who's-who is fairly straightforward: 20-year-old dealer Hollywood becomes Johnny Truelove (played by 20-year-old Emile Hirsch). The victim, 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz, becomes Zack Mazursky (15-year-old Anton Melchin). And so on.
In the interim, Cassavetes did rewrite the ending for his movie -- but it is, he claims, 95 percent accurate.
Here's the story: When Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster) fails to pay off a drug debt, Truelove opportunistically snatches Zack, Jake's younger half-brother, off the street and whisks him off to Palm Springs. The kidnapping hasn't exactly been thought through, to put it mildly, so Truelove's homeboy Frankie (Justin Timberlake) finds himself babysitting the hostage, a responsibility he discharges by simply inducting the kid into his own party lifestyle. Within hours Zack is a minor celebrity on the scene.
"Stolen boy," coos one girl. "That's hot."
Nobody thinks to dial 911, and the one girl with the modicum of ethical sophistication to suggest that kidnapping is not cool is advised to take a Valium -- a sentiment echoed by Zack himself, who doesn't want to spoil anybody's fun.
This kind of moral nullity is depressing, but no longer shocking -- or original. In the 1986 movie "River's Edge," a schoolboy kills his girlfriend and practically the whole school knows about it before the authorities are alerted. And in Larry Clark's "Bully" (2001), a bunch of aimless high school graduates conspire to murder a manipulative "friend" because they can't think of anything better to do with their lives. Both were based on real cases.
Like Clark, Cassavetes paints a picture of liberalism gone to pot: constant casual drug use, alcohol abuse, promiscuity and profanity. And that's just the parents.
"If you want to know what this is about ... the whole thing is about parenting," opines Truelove's father (Bruce Willis) in the film's first speech. Not that he's a perfect role model, having brought his son into the family drug-supply business.
Whatever you make of the diagnosis, this oration is typical of the movie's not-so-subtle approach, with its faux documentary inserts and ironies you couldn't lift with a crowbar.
There are some good performances here, but they happen in isolation. Ben Foster works up a fury as the older brother Jake, but it's like he's in a different picture entirely (in one bizarre sequence, it looks like a martial arts action flick). Timberlake -- I know you're curious -- is modestly effective as a (relatively) nice guy who goes along with murder. Best of all is young Yelchin, "riding it out," as he puts it, unassuming and then some, but obviously a good kid.
The rest is hit and miss. As Zack's bereaved mom, Sharon Stone is asked to pour her heart out while wearing a fat suit. It's not a pretty sight and kills the pathos Cassavetes is shooting for. Several split-screen sequences are an object lesson in how style can distract from content, while the boombastic rap soundtrack suggests the film's paternalist concern over gangsta culture only goes so far.
"Alpha Dog" is no travesty, but I would trade 95 percent accuracy for, say, 25 percent insight. The film mostly fails to get under the skin of its fine young criminals and you find yourself wondering, "What were they thinking?" as you walk out of the theatre. It was surely Cassavetes' job to shed some light on that question.
"Alpha Dog" is rated R and runs 117 minutes.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/12/review.alpha/index.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)