The Official Chris Duncan Web Site

Kanye is being complimented for his blog by GQ (according to Jossip). Apparently, they’re calling him out in the “Men of the Year” section for his blog Kanye Univercity. Mr. West is a super-blogger — some days he posts over 10 times. He even managed to post 20 times on the day that he was arrested in the UK. Is that really possible? Probably not. Hip Hop’s Newest Vocoder Fan oozes narcissism in his new Fader interview. Gross. He also attributes his sour grapes outbreak during the MTV Europe VMAs to him being an “independent champion” (the outburst is at 1:10 and quite ridiculous). Right. He also said recently that he wanted to be Elvis. Will his next album’s (likely) mediocre sales temper his attitude? We’ll see… he’s compared himself to Michael Jackson and Elvis in the past week. Please also do not give him credit for the Lego heart he wore on Conan… it’s from the guys in Jackson Swinton.

You didn’t know?  Kanye made underbites hot.

• Stallone adds Dolph Lundgren to The Expendables along with Jet Li and Jason Statham.
• Nike orchestrating LeBron move to the Knicks; gives Knicks fans free hot dogs.
• Whizzinator creators face The Man.
• Twilight stars will get $10 million raise for sequel.
• SNL to air “sports-centric” special during NFL Playoffs. Sarah Palin will appear. Just kidding.
• Ryan Seacrest is slowly becoming a somewhat legit TV producer… he’s responsible for Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, Bromance, and Momma’s Boys.
• George Clooney hazes Hugh Jackman upon becoming Sexiest Man Alive.
• Yeah, Kanye can’t possibly write his own blog… but Argentinian model Griselda Sanchez is really hot.
• Apple sued over iPhone’s browser.
• NY Daily News: Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Australia’ an ‘unwieldy mess’; Nicole Kidman ‘painfully corny’. Ouch.
• Is the Heidi/Spencer marriage fake? Probably.
• Mila Kunis knows a lot about World of Warcraft… even more shocking: Macaulay Culkin is her boyfriend.
• Atlantic Records claims half of its revenue comes from “digital”.

Jimbo Wales is an innovator. He’s also a big time Google hater and has said that the world’s #1 search engine is severely flawed and lacks openness. Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales is the mind behind Bomis, Wikipedia and Wikia Search. Everybody knows Wikipedia… but people know less about his first project, Bomis, and his most recent project, Wikia Search. You might think he’s a squeaky clean, Silicon Valley nerd… but Bomis was a “babe search engine” and it was discovered that he’s EDITED HIS OWN WIKIPEDIA ENTRY multiple times. The newest project, Wikia Search, was supposed to compete with Google by providing an community-powered search experience. Users could essentially grade the results that they received. Most recently, they added an app platform called WiseAPPS. None of that matters now. Google released “Search Wiki” yesterday and logged in users can do literally the same thing … but with Google. Considering the clout that Google already has by running Blogger, YouTube, and Gmail, it won’t be long until this outstrips Wikia Search. See you later, Jimbo Wales and Wikia Search. Also, has anybody ever noticed how SHITTY the search is within Wikipedia? Unless somebody has created a redirect, you get completely irrelevant results if you mispell anything. Maybe he should focus on that.

Jimbo Wales, we hardly knew ye

• Blackberry Storm gets mixed reviews.
• 50 Cent sues Taco Bell for asking him to change his name to 79 Cent, 89 Cent, or 99 Cent.
• Online advertising actually increased in Q3 despite the economic conditions.
• Selling an $11000 truffle isn’t easy with the economy in bad shape…
• Tall Europeans aren’t as good for the environment as medium-sized Americans.  USA!  USA!
• GLC & Kanye West - “Big Screen” … look, ma, no vocoder! GLC & Kanye have teamed up before … check out Akademics Jeanius Level Music Vol. 2.  It’s awesome.
• Ludacris ft. Jay-Z & Nas - “I Do It For Hip Hop” … Kanye, Luda, The Killers, and GnR all drop albums next week.
• George Clooney is down with the stache.
• If you hate Affliction shirts as much as I do… it’s quite discouraging that Wal-Mart is going to start selling an off-brand version.
• Scrubs starts on ABC Tuesday January 6th @ 9PM.
• Here’s the preview for The Wrestler directed by Darren Aronofsky. Marissa Tomei is HOT, Mickey Rourke’s face is NOT.
• Boston College won’t give students email accounts anymore… just forwarding.
• Victoria Secret model Karolina Kurkova has no belly button. It’s funny how her super-perfect body healed a scar well… and that’s an imperfection.
• Flashback: Letterman did a show with no commercials over 10 years ago. Think about it TV, internet, and mobile video producers.

Client Number 9’s last call girl, Ashley Dupre, did an interview with People magazine recently.  It’s not really news that Eliot Spitzer was “strickly business”. However, normal girls don’t get paid thousands of dollars for sex… at least not in straight cash.  Did you already figure out that HCH stands for High Class Hooker?  She had a few select quotes that I felt obliged to share:

“I’m a normal girl.”

“This wasn’t any different than going on a date with someone you barely knew and hooking up with them. The only difference is I can pay my rent.”

“Some guys, they want to have conversations and really get to know each other. With him, it clearly was not like that. It was more of a transaction. Strictly business.  I was there for a purpose — not to wonder who [he] could be.”

Unfortunately, you won’t find this quality on Craigslist

• Beauty and the Geek celebrity version coming to MTV?
• Watch almost any sporting event live on the internet. (at the bottom)
• Showtime plans reality show about hookers…
• Paris Hilton and Benji Madden broke up. So sad…
• Will Nicole Kidman quit acting?
• LAT decides to use a jackass headline on article about McCain winning Missouri.
• GnR, Paul McCartney to debut albums on MySpace. The future! (Thanks, John)
• Are you ready for BRITNEY? (Thanks, Lindsay)

My mustache is fully operational and totally pathetic.  I’m almost three weeks in and it still looks like I may have just forgotten to shave.  In any case, I’m gearing up for the Movember parties this Friday and next Friday.  Later this week, the official New York Movember Gala Party will be at Capitale.  Our team name is the “MoLympians”, so I’m dressing up as a table tennis player.  Next week, I’ll be home for the first Mo Town Party in Austin.  We’re going as Chivas (a soccer team) so I was looking for some inspiring pictures… and happened upon this beauty.  This is the 1990 Colombian soccer team.  Now check out the guy in the upper left… and tell me he doesn’t look exactly like Eriq La Salle is coming to America.  That’s right.

MANDOM

• UFC 91 made $4.8 mn “at the gate” with 14,272 in attendance.
• Nike decides to rip off Affliction for newest Oregon Ducks jersey.  Lame.
• Seth Rogen makes a porno… on Showtime.  Why?
• “From Pickin’ Cotton to Pickin’ Presidents”
• Throwbacks are so 2004.  Hebrewbacks are the new hotness.
• Awesome Steve Nash Vitamin Water commercial…
• Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham draws Comedy Central’s largest viewership ever on Sunday.  Really?
• MetaCafe tries to differentiate from online video competitors with wiki-based searches and tags.
• Ben Silverman yaps it up on Charlie Rose.  Michael Wolff does not agree.
• Scarlett Johansson and Kiefer Sutherland leave WMA for CAA.  WMA denied me an interview for their agent trainee program.  It’s karma.
• Cristiano Ronaldo says he should finish 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd for FIFA Player of the Year.  Jackass.
• Overhauled XBOX Live coming tomorrow.
• ESPN-BCS deal includes right to broadcast games on ESPN Mobile, ESPN360.  That’s huge.
• NYU lies about security stats to save money on security.  Go Violets!
• Obama girls have their school picked out?
• Is Lipstick Jungle back?  Let’s hope not.

Wouldn’t it be great if you got a huge bonus each year?  Wouldn’t it be better if that bonus was more money than most people make in a lifetime?  Well, the executives over at Goldman Sachs were receiving 8 figure annual bonuses… until now.

Last year, Blankfein made $68.5 million, Winkelried and Cohn got $67.5 million, and Viniar got $57.5 million. The compensation of the other three was not disclosed.

Lloyd Blankfein took a Michael Vick-esque paycut.  Vick may win on percentage of income lost (making pennies an hour), but Blankfein forfeited more total dollars.  At least we can take comfort knowing that the economic crisis hasn’t affected everybody.  Stephon Marbury and Jerome James will haul in a little less than $30 mn combined and neither have played in a game this season.  The two combined to play 810 minutes last year (805 from Marbury, 5 from James) to pick up their checks work a little over $28 mn.

• Lloyd Blankfein takes $68 mn paycut and will not receive bonus along with other Goldman execs.
• Few NYC bars will be pulling all nighters this New Years Eve.
• The Hills Season 5 is a go. I’m going to guess that it will be the last season.
• Is Google trying to compete with… facebook?
• Dreamworks greenlights high concept movie Motorcade about an attack on the Presidential motorcade. Sounds like Nick of Time… and also bad timing.
• Penthouse to launch Las Vegas hotel-casino?
• Paul McCartney confirms existence of experimental 14-minute Beatles track.
• Brazilian porn movie made lampooning Ronaldo. Hilarious.
• Hulu will generate as much revenue as YouTube next year.
• Check out Toyota’s IQ concept car (site is in Japanese).
• Somebody hacked Miley Cyrus’ YouTube account and put up a video saying she was killed by a drunk driver.
• NFL Players that did the “I can’t feel my face” move today: Fabian Washington, Ike Taylor. Anybody else?

Justin Timberlake made a surprise appearance on SNL last night and killed.  He started with a super-speed monologue on Weekend Update where he ran through his entire (now cancelled) episode that he was going to host next week.  Later, he appeared in this skit as a backup dancer for Beyonce.  Paul Rudd was also a great host.  Maybe SNL isn’t dead.

Bringing sexy back?

• Netflix CEO thinks the remote control will be replaced by a sweet Wiimote-like pointer.
• Hillary Duff to star in NBC show.
• Hollywood scales back partying.
• Newest Guitar Hero not selling as well as previous installment.
• British woman divorces husband for virtual world sex. Also worth noting is that she met her (now estranged) husband in an online chat room.
• Prison Break coming to an end?
• Rosie O’Donnell “variety show” on NBC will feature Kathy Griffin, Jane Krakowski, Alanis Morissette, Danny Bonaduce, Dane Cook and Joe Francis. That sounds random and horrible.
• Paris potential BFF Corrie Loftin was not only in GGW, but also did softcore nude pics under the pseudonym Devin Lexen.
• My mustache heroes: the Croatian water polo team.
• Obama gives first weekly YouTube address.
• Robert Swift has a stupid tattoo on his arm (of the And1 guy). Idiot.
• Tatum Bell, previously a member of the Lions and manager of a cell phone store, signs with the Broncos.
• Maloof’s partner with Mark Burnett for reality show about the Sacramento Kings.
• Pros & Cons of the Blackberry Storm and iPhone 3G.
• Kanye West blogs about his arrest.
• Matthew McConaughey must’ve been stoned when he made up this exercise.
• Justin Timberlake buys $5.5 mn loft in NYC.
• Hamid Karzai offers Taliban safety deal.
• Kim Jong Il “makes new public appearance”.

NY Mag has harsh words about “Amazing” and “Tell Everybody That You Know” two tracks leaked from Kanye’s upcoming CD. I love a lot of what Kanye’s done. Everybody knows he’s an excellent producer and lyricist … but his vocals and flow are suspect at times. I actually like both songs and they will probably be popular, but you can’t call this an improvement on his past work.  “Amazing” almost sounds like a Kid Rock’s “Only God Knows Why” mixed with the Gangsta’s Paradise choir. And everybody still talks about Kid Rock’s slowed-down vocoder song… oh wait, no they don’t. Thankfully Young Jeezy is a good addition — he had a slick appearance on “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” from Graduation.

I don’t know how to feel about these songs though. They’re worth listening to… but they aren’t really “Kanye West songs”. When I heard them, I immediately thought either 1) somebody close to him died or 2) he and his girl split. Apparently, it’s both.  His mom died about a year ago from botched plastic surgery and because he and Alexis Phifer broke up a few months ago. The title of Mr. West’s upcoming CD is 808’s and Heartbreak. The former referring to the drum machine nicknamed the “808″ and the latter presumably referring to Phifer. Maybe Kanye grew up. He surprised me the most by failing to mention a single brand (I think). In 2004, he topped the American Brandstand list with mentions of 19 different brands in 4 of his songs (19 brands in 4 songs - Avis, Boost, Cadillac, Cartier, Cool Whip, Ensure, Geico Insurance, Hennessy, Jacob the Jeweler, Lexus, x2, Mercedes, MTV, Nike x2, Pepsi, Rolex, Toys R Us, Versace).  Although, the new “maturity” didn’t stop him from claiming he’s the “voice of a generation”.

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Gap creates potentially the most annoying celebrity holiday song commercial of all time

• NBC to air 3-D episode of Chuck after the Super Bowl… and then realize Chuck will never be popular. This is reminiscent of INCESSANT My Own Worst Enemy promos during the Olympics.
• Obama to resign from Senate on Sunday.
• Viewers of election coverage like and dislike O’Reilly the least. Katie Couric sandwiched between O’Reilly and Fox News (in general) on disliked list. Ouch.
• Heidi and Spencer will appear on “How I Met Your Mother”. Ugh.
• 60 Minutes books first post-election interview with Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday.
• NYT says Obama dresses like Jerry Seinfeld.
• Preview Kanye’s competition… The Killers Day & Age
• TMZ says it best, “Travolta Shaves Head, Leaves Beard“. Scary but kind of awesome.  John called it the “Stone Cold” look.
• Chinese government decides to “name and shame” artists that lip-synch.
• Quantum of Solace locations for your James Bond tour.
• Paulson urges automaker aid. Soros: “Hedge funds will be decimated.”
• Bin Laden “cut off” from Al Qaeda operations. I think we’d actually be less safe if he died. At this point, he’s just a trophy.

Here’s a late update.  Anybody want to bet on when Ben Silverman, programming czar at NBC, gets the axe?  Heroes is in the crapper, Chuck isn’t far behind, My Own Worst Enemy & Lipstick Jungle are both canceled, and Knight Rider & Kath and Kim suck.  Here’s the quote that sums it all up:

This year none of the network’s new shows are averaging more than a 2.6 rating. The network had already extended full-season orders to “Knight Rider,” which slipped to a series-low 1.6 last week, and “Kath & Kim,” which has fallen in nearly every outing.

That’s from an article on MediaLife.  The article also mentions the fact that the Heroes lead-out slot (previously occupied by Studio 60, Black Donnellys, and Journeyman among others) never gets any traction.  I think the problem is that Heroes is really a cable show (at least where they’ve taken it) on a network.  It probably belongs on Sci-Fi, which Universal also owns.  The ratings may be eroding, but I think they can keep a core audience.  If Monday Night Football can succeed on ESPN, Heroes could probably kill on Sci-Fi.  Although, Heroes has a massive budget ($4 mn per episode) that probably wouldn’t work on Sci-Fi.  Good thing it isn’t my job to fix this mess.

• Along with My Own Worst Enemy, Lipstick Jungle also gets axed.  Can you hear them calling for Ben Silverman’s head yet?
• LeBron can’t feel own face, dunks from free throw line.
• Love handles will kill you.
• Comedy Central to produce “Evan and Gareth Are Trying to Get Laid” pilot.  It’s about two guys that run an online advice site.  Entertaining?  Probably not.
• Stan Lee to produce gay superhero TV show.  Seems like a little much.
• ESPN’s bid to put BCS bowl games on cable could dramatically alter identity of ABC.
• Jake Plummer moves on from the NFL… to handball.
• Mark Begich leads Ted Stevens by THREE (3) votes to be one of Alaska’s senators.
• NYT’s Sorkin praises Paulson for new TARP direction.  WaPo says bailout lacks oversight.
• What’s it like being Paris Hilton?  Still want to be famous?
  
• Another celeb-driven animated movie is coming… this time with Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Kristen Wiig, etc.
• Former web series Sanctuary gets renewed for 2009 after the channel’s most-watched premiere since 2006
  
• FOX and NBC team up for local news coverage starting in Philly.
  
• Colt McCoy is rooting for Oklahoma.  OCD is as well.
  
• Web-version of Office will work on Linux, iPhone.