.

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One part coal. One part extreme. This is Darkside Ollie - the naughtiest app-controlled robot ever created.
Rocket around at a oor-warping 14 MPH, pull off diabolical tricks, and smoke the competition. You can
nd Darkside Ollie at the top of the naughty list and sold exclusively at gosphero.com.

Its time to upgrade your play.

Why Sphero Ollie isnt just another festive stocking filler 06

Mad Men Creator to Receive Honorary Intl Emmy 24
YAHOO REPLACES GOOGLE AS FIREFOXS DEFAULT SEARCH 30
New software tools launched for Apple Watch 36
GIFT GUIDE: 3 WAYS TO WATCH STREAMING VIDEO ON TV 52
One Direction, Iggy Azalea Shine At 2014 AMAS 62
TV-OVER-INTERNET SERVICE AEREO SEEKS CHAPTER 11 70
Taylor Swift conquers all that she surveys with 1989 74
List of Winners of The American Music Awards 92
Mockingjay, part 1 Opens with $123 Million 96
Katy Perry to Perform at Super Bowl Halftime Show 104
iTunes Review 108
REVIEW: 3 CHEAP SMARTPHONES TO CONSIDER 124
AUTOMAKERS AIM TO DRIVE AWAY CAR COMPUTER HACKERS 132
British Art Festival Head to Lead NYC Art Center 138
GOOGLES LATEST: A SPOON THAT STEADIES TREMORS 140
THANKSGIVING TRAVEL WOES? THERES AN APP FOR THAT 148
Aretha Franklin Blasts Author of Unauthorized Bio 156
NEW iPHONES PUSH APPLES MARKET CAP PAST $700B 160
Broadway-Bound Magician Shows Whats Up His Sleeve 164
A New Documentary Explores The Life of Kurt Cobain 168
Talking Songs with She & Him 170
Weight Loss and Exercise, According to Rick Ross 176
Cumberbatch Decodes Turing in Imitation Game 180

Plenty of remote control fun

to be had
We're big fans of toys - especially ones that
make the most of the very latest technology.
As Christmas looms and your younger (or
perhaps not-so-young) friends and relatives
compile their wish lists, or even as you
consider what you might want to buy for
yourself, all manner of newly-launched toys
are appearing on the horizon. One of them
is the Sphero Ollie - and we'd like to reassure
you that it's more than just another remote
controlled toy.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that it was, to
be fair. On first spying this curious toy, we
must admit that we thought it looked rather
unassuming. Of course, many astonishing toys
are like that these days, but even so, we found
it hard to imagine how much joy one could
possibly get from what appeared to be little
more than a large, cylindrical can with ruggedlooking tires on each end.
At a mere 80mm high and 110mm wide,
in addition to weighing barely 600g, the
Sphero Ollie certainly boasts modest essential
statistics. But as with so much else in life,
much more important than the size of your
equipment is what you can do with it.
The range of things that you can do with Ollie,
it turns out, is very wide indeed.

Ollie is quite something to

behold
First, let's get down to the basics. Ollie is
only the most recent creation of the Sphero
company that was until recently known as
Orbotix. Indeed, the name change arose due
the sheer success of the company's Sphero
product, a smallish ball that a user can control
via their smartphone.
The original Sphero has gained significant
popularity since its 2011 emergence, as the
many apps that are now designed to work
with it indicate. Now, the company's range
has been expanded with the addition of
a two-wheeled, cylindrical toy made from
high-grade polycarbonate. The device is also
visually distinguished by its LED lights in the
center, including a glowing Sphero logo.
Ollie's hubcaps at each end, meanwhile,
feature textured symbols that are obviously
evocative of outer space. Around these are
probably the most instantly identifiable
cosmetic feature of the toy, the rubbery tires
- Sphero calls them Nubby Tires - with rows
of bumps for maximum grip. These slide over
the smooth wheels known as Prime Hubs.
The final visual element to note is the
microUSB charging port under the Ollie brand
stamp. This feature does indicate a bit of bad
news for those who were hoping for Ollie to
be waterproof like the original Sphero - it isn't,
so be careful near those lakes.

10

Ollie vs. Ollie - Behind The Scenes

Sphero Connected Toys

11

12

Ollie - Official Launch Video

Sphero Connected Toys

13

A simple toy to set up

Right, so what happens when you open the
box? You'll get the Ollie itself, obviously - it'll
be either white or black, ours being white in addition to a single set of Prime Hubs and
Nubby Tires. Oh, and the box also contains a
microUSB charging cable and initial assembly
and use instructions.
As you might imagine, Sphero has taken
maximum advantage of the scope for
customization, with one look at the current
Sphero Store revealing the availability of
Agro Hubs, Flux Hubs, Nubby Tires, Turbo
Tires and Ultra Tires - all specifically designed
for Ollie. Naturally, these come in many
different colors.
This is a smartphone-controlled toy, so you'll
need a dedicated app to control it. The
instructions tell you everything that you need
to know to set up Ollie, but we found it a fairly
simple process. Once you have assembled the
toy, slipping on the required Prime Hubs and
Nubby Tires, you'll need to charge it with the
microUSB cord - that'll take no longer than
about an hour.
Then, we were able to download the app
from the iOS App Store, and it only took a
tap of our iPhone to achieve communication
between it and Ollie. We found the range of
up to 30 meters to be perfectly ample - not
once did we lose control of the toy.

14

Ollie vs. Ollie || Sphero Connected Toys

15

16

Seemingly easy to get to

grips with...
OK, so here's the big question... what was it
like to control Ollie? After all, the promotional
videos that Sphero has kindly put together
give the impression that it's as easy as you
like to get going with Ollie - to have it not
only racing at high speed, but also jumping,
spinning and crashing into anything and
everything. Those videos also show the toy
hurtling with ease across all manner of indoor
and outdoor terrain.
The principle of using Ollie is certainly
simple. The mobile app presented us with
two separate control setups - one for simple
navigation, and the other for tricks. As the
presenter on one of the aforementioned
videos puts it, Ollie is all about "speed and
tricks". The "speed" part of the equation is
easy enough to get to grips with, as even
if you find Ollie a bit too swift - as we did
when testing it out in a dining room as soon
as we set it up - there's a separate settings
page where you can adjust the speed to
whatever suits.
We spent a decent amount of time in that
settings section, actually, with 'acceleration'
another parameter that we are able to adjust,
in addition to 'handling'. With the latter, you
can move between the two extremes of 'drift'
and 'tight', depending on how you want Ollie
to behave. Oh, and you can even set up Ollie
for whatever conditions you are using it in,
choosing between a 'hard' and 'soft' driving
surface as well as either 'room' or 'open' for
the driving area.

17

Ollie Launch Video - Behind The Scenes

Sphero Connected Toys

...but difficult to master

Eventually, though, we needed to stop fiddling
with the settings and instead give actually
controlling the thing a go. At first, were we
very good? No, we weren't.
Using the on-screen joystick to drive Ollie at
the same time as performing gesture controls
on the Trick Pad (as appears when you rotate
your handset into landscape orientation) to
pull off crazy stunts, sounds simple enough.
However, we found it a hard-going process
at first to even steer Ollie easily and get it
perform basic tasks, like driving between two
nearby stationary objects.
However, at no point did we throw down our
iPhone in exasperation at our inability to get it
'right'. It's true that even once you've adjusted
to the app, the learning curve with Ollie is a
steep one. But over time, and with hours of
practice, we were able to get it to do things
like move forward and backward, spin around
and hop.

18

19

20

A challenging control system

Controlling Ollie becomes such an instinctive
process that it's difficult to explain anything
in a review that would make that process
any easier when you come to lift your own
Ollie out of the box. But it's worth saying a
few words about the control system. It's very
much user-centric, rather than centric to the
orientation of the toy. To understand what we
mean, just imagine a traditional radio control
car. It has an obvious front and back, and
when you command it to turn left or right, it'll
do precisely that, irrespective of where you
are stood in relation to it.
Ollie, though, despite its LED lights making
clear what its own 'front' is, doesn't have
that kind of control system. When you ask
Ollie to turn left, it moves to your left, rather
than its own left. This might seem to make
things simple from a control perspective, and
that turns out to be the case... as long as you
merely control Ollie in the space directly in
front of you. But what if you're driving Ollie
around you, or chasing it around corners?
That's where confusion can so easily reign.
Thankfully, it's not too difficult to get your idea
of 'forward' and the Ollie's idea of 'forward'
nicely aligned. If the toy gets disorientated, as
it got about every 10 minutes when we were
playing with it, you'll simply need to calibrate it
with the app, rotating it until the glowing logo
faces you. As with most aspects of controlling
this toy, you'll need to practice a lot, but we
were able to make decent progress on that
front during our relatively short time testing it,
both indoors and outdoors.

21

Overall, it's a toy worth saving

up for

22

As we've established, the Sphero Ollie

certainly isn't a cinch to use - but in many
ways, that's a good thing. It shows that this
is a serious toy for serious fans of all things
remote control - and it has loads of other
pleasing attributes.

stairs, and were generally subjecting it to as

much torture as we could, only to find that
it had sustained no more damage than a few
nicks and scrapes. Indeed, Ollie performed
without a flicker of a problem across
almost all of the terrain we tried - with the
exception, oddly, of grass, where it struggled
to accelerate.

Ollie is supremely durable, for instance. We

had it flying and thudding down multiple
flights of some rather industrial-looking steel

For the most part, though, Ollie hurtles, flips,

spins and crashes into things with aplomb,
and we can't deny that it gave us a massive

rush to pull off the more challenging stunts.

The future looks good, too - Sphero has talked
of expanding the accessories range into all
manner of tires, hubcaps, ramps and more,
and you can be sure of more apps launching
in the run-up to Christmas as well.
Priced at $99.99 for the starter kit, we
also can't deny that Ollie looks like a great
value addition to the pantheon of remote
controlled toys. If we were you, we wouldn't
hesitate to put it on the Christmas list.
by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

23

Mad Men
Creator to
Receive Honorary
Intl Emmy

Mad Men stars Christina Hendricks and John

Slattery will be presenting a special award at
the International Emmys Gala to the shows
creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner
whos preparing the final episodes of the 1960s
Madison Avenue ad agency saga slated to air in
spring 2015.
Weiner will be receiving the honorary
International Emmy Founders Award at Monday
nights ceremony at the Hilton New York.
`Mad Men has really come to define television
for a whole generation of viewers, said Bruce L.
Paisner, president and CEO of the International
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Its an
amazing global cultural phenomenon ... a force of
nature as much as just a television series.
Although these are stories in theory out of the
`60s, part of the success of the show is that its a
touchstone for how we think about ourselves and
our own relationships even today.

24

25

The presentation to Weiner will be the

centerpiece of the awards ceremony, hosted
by British comedian Matt Lucas, creator of
the comedy series Little Britain, a two-time
International Emmy winner.
A total of 40 nominees from 19 countries will
be competing in 10 categories for International
Emmys, established to honor excellence in TV
programming outside the U.S.
Britain had a leading six nominations, including
best actor and actress nods for Stephen Dillane
and Olivia Colman for their roles in popular
crime dramas.
Brazil had five nominations, including
nods for three Globo TV productions: The
Mayors Wife (comedy), Precious Pearl
(telenovela) and Alexander and Other Heroes
(TV movie/miniseries).
Argentina, Canada and Japan each had
three nominations.
Dillane, who portrays Stannis Baratheon in
Game of Thrones, was recognized for his role
as an aging British police detective in the British/
French crime drama The Tunnel, which as an
entry from France was among the nominees for
best drama series.
Colman was nominated for her role in
Broadchurch as a detective investigating
the murder of an 11-year-old boy in a coastal
Dorset town.
Other British nominees include: the crime-thriller
Utopia (drama series), An Adventure in Space
and Time (TV movie/miniseries) about the
creation and early years of the Dr. Who scifi series, No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri
Lanka (documentary) and Educating Yorkshire
(non-scripted entertainment). The Argentine
drama Television por la Justicia, about cases
inspired by real-life people harmed by bad
judicial rulings, had two nominations in the acting
categories - for Pablo Rago and Romina Gaetani.

26

27

The other actor nominees were Canadas Claude

Legault for 19-2 and Chinas Xiubo Wu for
The Orphan of Zhao. Rounding out the actress
nominees were Turkeys Tuba Buyukustun for
20 Dakika (20 Minutes) and the Netherlands
Bianca Krijgsman for De Nieue Wereld (The
New World).
A new category was introduced this year to
recognize non-English language U.S. primetime programs. The nominees include three
Telemundo Internacional productions - Pasion
Prohibida, `La Patrona and El Senor de
los Cielos - and Nat Geo Mundos Temple
de Acero.
Brazilian telenovela stars Gloria Pires and Milton
Goncalves will present the honorary International
Emmy Directorate Award to Roberto Irineu
Marinho, chairman and CEO of the Globo
Group of Companies, Brazils leading media and
entertainment conglomerate. His father, Roberto
Marinho, who received the same award in 1983,
founded TV Globo, which will be celebrating its
50th anniversary next year.
Online:
http://www.iemmys.tv

28

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30

YAHOO REPLACES
GOOGLE AS FIREFOXS
DEFAULT SEARCH

Yahoo will supplant Googles search engine

on Firefoxs Web browser in the U.S., signaling
Yahoos resolve to regain some of the ground
that it has lost in the most lucrative part of the
Internets ad market.
The five-year alliance announced Wednesday
will end a decade-old partnership in the U.S.
between Google Inc. and the Mozilla Foundation,
which oversees the Firefox browser. The tensions
between Google and Mozilla had been rising
since Googles introduction of the Chrome
browser in 2008 began to undercut Firefox.
Googles current contract with Mozilla expires at
the end of this month, opening an opportunity
for Yahoo to pounce.
Even though Chrome is now more widely used,
Firefox still has a loyal audience that makes more
than 100 billion worldwide search requests
annually.
Yahoo is hoping to impress Firefox users as the
Sunnyvale, California, company sets out to prove
that its still adept at Internet search after leaning
on Microsofts technology for most of the results
on Yahoos own website for the past four years.
Financial details of Yahoos Firefox contract
werent disclosed. In a blog post, Mozilla CEO
Chris Beard said the new deal offers strong,

31

improved economic terms while allowing

Mozilla to innovate and advance our mission in
ways that best serve our users and the Web.
Google accounted for 90 percent, or about
$274 million, of Mozillas royalty revenue in
2012. Mozilla hasnt released its annual report
for last year.
Besides dropping Google in the U.S., Mozilla is
also shifting Firefox to Baidus search engine in
China and Yandex in Russia. Firefox users still have
the option to pull down a tab to pick Google and
other search engines as their preferred way for
looking up information online.
Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer, a former Google
executive, hailed the Firefox agreement as
Yahoos most significant partnership since forging
the Microsoft deal in 2009.
We believe deeply in search - its an area of
investment and opportunity for us, Mayer wrote
in a Wednesday blog post.
Yahoo plans to unveil a clean and modern
search engine on Firefox next month and then roll
out the new model on its own website early next
year, Mayer wrote.
The redesign will primarily affect how Yahoos
search engines results are displayed, and not
the way that requests are processed. The search
technology will continue to be provided by
Microsoft Corp. as part of a 10-year deal Yahoo
signed in 2009, according to Mel Guymon,
Yahoos vice president of search.
In various public remarks since becoming
Yahoos CEO two years ago, Mayer has
expressed disappointment with Microsofts
search technology. That has spurred
speculation that she might renegotiate or end
the Microsoft search partnership next year
when Yahoo has an option to re-evaluate the
deal. Yahoo currently receives $88 of every
$100 in revenue generated from ads posted
alongside the search results on its website.

32

Image: Josep Lago

33

Those payouts have helped Yahoo boost

its revenue from search advertising for 11
consecutive quarters, compared with the
previous year. Despite those gains, more searches
have been shifting to Microsofts Bing search
engine, causing Yahoo to slip further behind its
rivals. Yahoo is expected to end this year with
a 5.6 percent share of U.S. search advertising
revenue, down from 6.6 percent in 2012,
according to the research firm eMarketer.
Yahoos stock gained 52 cents to $51.10 in
extended trading Wednesday. The shares have
been hovering around their highest levels in more
than 14 years, largely because Yahoo owns a large
stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., a rapidly
growing e-commerce site in China.

34

Image: Justin Sullivan

35

36

37

What we can expect from

WatchKit
We were all excited about Apple's longawaited wearable, the simply-titled Watch,
when it first broke cover in September. We
weren't even given a precise release date, still
only knowing that it will become available to
buy at some point early next year. What we

38

do know, though, is that the Apple Watch is

worth making a fuss about. Now, the device's
developers' toolkit - WatchKit - has been
launched.
WatchKit is all that the already wellestablished iOS developer community needs
in order to create apps for the upcoming
wearable - that's right, they can get to work

before it even makes an appearance on store

shelves. In announcing WatchKit's launch,
Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide
Marketing, Philip Schiller, said that it was for
the development of "breakthrough new apps,
Glances and actionable notifications designed
for the innovative Apple Watch interface and
work with new technologies such as Force

Touch, Digital Crown and Taptic Engine."

If you're a developer yourself, as long as you
have an iOS developer account, you will be
able to get to work on WatchKit apps right
now. But for the rest of us, what forms could
such apps take and what could they tell us
about the wider potential of the Apple Watch
and wearables in general?

39

40

That tricky balance between

iPhone integration and
dependence
One of the relatively few things that we did
know about Apple Watch as far back as the
autumn was the fact that a compatible iPhone
would be needed in order to use it. That's not
necessarily a bad thing given the still relative
infancy of the technology wearables market,
and the fact that such integration enables you
to make the most of your iPhone's processing
power from your wrist.
But it does mean that for now at least,
WatchKit developers aren't able to create
fully-featured apps. Currently, the Apple
Watch functions more like a third party
keyboard, with its "apps" presently mere
extensions that are pushed to the timepiece
from an iPhone app. However, Apple has said
that the creation of fully native Watch apps
will be possible from some point next year.
In the meantime, we get extensions that
render on the Apple Watch in one of three
ways. They may take the form of a small app
accessible via an app icon on the wearable's
home screen, or Glances that are a quick
way of viewing information from the
corresponding iPhone app. Alternatively, the
extensions may take the form of actionable
notifications displaying alerts on the Watch
from the iPhone app, with which you can
then interact.

41

How your Apple Watch and

iPhone will work together
With a current Apple Watch "app" or
extension, the user interface is on the
Watch, but any task necessitating an Internet
connection is effectively done by the iPhone.
Handoff can be implemented as part of Apple
Watch apps, allowing users to, for instance,
begin a task on their wearable before
continuing it in the full iPhone app.
With Apple Watch apps effectively taking the
form of simplified versions of their 'parent'
iPhone apps, although you will be able to
use the Maps app, for example, if you need
to update your location, the absence of GPS
on the wearable will force you to call upon
your iPhone again. But there are certain other
functionalities - such as listening to music and
health-tracking - for which an iPhone in close
proximity may not be necessary.
Indeed, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed back
in September that although the iPhone and
Watch had been "designed to work together
... If you go for a run, and you don't want
to carry your iPhone, music is also on your
watch. So with a Bluetooth headset, you
can run and listen to your music without
your iPhone."

42

A wealth of possibilities for the

Apple Watch
These may be modest beginnings, but it
nonetheless boggles the mind to think of all
of the functional possibilities that WatchKit
could bring in the years to come. We could
have apps for health, running, maps and
the sending of romantic messages to your
beloved. Perhaps the device could even
be used to send an emergency message to
your cardiologist with your tachycardia or
bradycardia information?
Then, there is the slightly more distant
potential that we could speculate about, on
the basis of what we already know about
the Apple Watch. A device doesn't need four
sensors, for example, to read a pulse rate.
One wonders whether future wearables
could incorporate non-invasive sensors for
the efficient measuring of such vital health
parameters as temperature, oximetry,
respiratory rate, hydration rate, blood
pressure and the 'Holy Grail' of the new
era of health and fitness monitoring: blood
glucose levels.
Diabetes, after all, remains a hugely prevalent
health problem here in the United States.
As of 2012, 29.1 million Americans - 9.3

43

percent of the population - had diabetes,

up from 25.8 million and 8.3 percent just
two years before. 1.7 million new diabetes
diagnoses are made every year in the US,
according to 2012 figures, while it was the 7th
leading cause of death in the US as of 2010.
Known complications of diabetes range from
hypoglycemia, hypertension and dyslipidemia
to stroke, blindness and eye problems and
kidney disease.

Why non-invasive technologies

could be the future of the watch
At present, those with diabetes are required
to regularly measure their blood glucose
levels in order to prevent the disease's acute
and chronic complications. However, for
many decades, there has not been a clinically
or commercially viable means of doing this
without puncturing the skin, drawing blood or
causing pain or trauma.
Every time a person with diabetes needs to
check their blood glucose levels, they are
therefore inconvenienced, needing to get
used to the pain of pricking their fingertips to
test their blood - as often as six times a day
or more - to say nothing of the financial cost
of strips and lancets. In an ideal world, the
blood sugar testing process would be quick
and painless, and many an organization - such
as the Israeli company Integrity Applications,
which developed the GlucoTrack noninvasive glucose monitoring device - has
dedicated itself to finding a solution.

44

45

46

Could technology wearables like the Apple

Watch eventually deliver such a solution?
There are certainly encouraging signs.
Wearable, watch-like devices are already
being developed that use changing patterns
of scattered light - known as the "speckle
pattern" effect - for the production of
images with grainy interference patterns,
in order to track specific biometrics and
monitor glucose.

Image: Marcio Jose Sanchez

47

The GlucoWise non-invasive

glucose sensor
It seems that a commercially and clinically
viable, non-invasive glucose sensor is coming
ever-closer to reality - just ask MediWise
Ltd, the organization developing such a
device that it claims will finally help diabetes
sufferers to "take control" of their lives. The
new GlucoWise device is truly non-invasive
and pain-free, making use of unique sensor
technology that enables those with the
disease to monitor their blood glucose levels
without the need to pierce the skin.
The technology has been described as
"simple, yet highly reliable", enabling its
users to sample as often and wherever they
like, with accuracy levels that exceed current
industry standards for the self-monitoring of
blood glucose. Intriguingly, the organization
has also invested in App and Smart Cloud
technology that delivers personalized advice
and alerts, meaning that diabetes sufferers
can much more easily and completely
manage their condition.
GlucoWise is London, England-based
MediWise's first product, and has already
won recognition - for example, it was Healthtech winner of the 2013 Building Global
Innovators competition. Although the device
is still under development, pre-orders are
set to commence following the completion
of clinical trials in late 2016, raising the
prospect of it joining a new generation of
non-invasive glucose sensors in the latter
years of this decade.

48

Image: Alice Truong and Matthew Strand

49

Image: Marcio Jose Sanchez

50

An exciting future for

technology wearables
Naturally, non-invasive health monitoring
is not the only potential application of
technology wearables in the years ahead,
but nonetheless indicates why so many
people are so excited about this emerging
product category. The Apple Watch that lands
in our hands early next year may give only
the faintest glimpse of the endless different
ways in which we could be making wearables
central to our lives for years and decades to
come - which is certainly something worth
watching the clock for.
by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

51

GIFT GUIDE:
3 WAYS TO WATCH
STREAMING VIDEO ON TV

Even casual viewers of online video will

appreciate the ability to watch it on a bigscreen TV.
For about $100, you can get a great streaming
TV device to do that. Or for about a third of that,
you can get a pretty good one. Content selection
varies, but all offer such basics as Netflix, Hulu
and YouTube. After trying out 10 streaming
devices, I have three recommendations and an
honorable mention:

52

53

AMAZON FIRE TV STICK

A stick is a cheaper, lightweight version of a
regular streaming device, often with poorer
performance. Thats not the case with the $39
Fire TV Stick, which is why Im recommending
it over the $99 Fire TV. The processor isnt as
powerful, and there isnt as much working
memory. But in my tests, video streamed well on
both devices.
The Stick lacks a remote control capable of voice
search - you type searches into the on-screen
keyboard. Voice search costs $30, or you can
download a free app for your Android device. A
version for iPhones and iPads is coming too. The
app isnt as easy to use as a real remote, but it
does the job.
The Fire TV devices stand out in having voice
search that works well. My lone complaint is that
youre currently limited to content from Amazon,
Vevo, Showtime, Crackle and Hulu. No surprise
that Amazon content is emphasized; its two main
rivals, Apple iTunes and Google Play are missing.
Unfortunately, the Stick is out of stock until midJanuary, so your loved one will have to settle
for a promise. The regular Fire TV is available
immediately and is better for games.

54

55

56

ROKU 3
This device is agnostic on content providers.
There are more than 1,000 apps to download,
many for services you have never heard of and
will never watch. Except for iTunes it has all the
leading channels.
There are many Roku models. The $50 Roku
Streaming Stick is adequate for basic video, but
painfully slow when rewinding and forwarding.
The top-end, $100 Roku 3 performs much
better. Some TVs have Roku built in, though
youll better off picking the TV you like and
getting the Roku separately.

Even with the top-end model, Roku tends to

give me the most problems with video and
audio improperly syncing. In many cases, its
subtle - something I can live with in exchange
for more choices in video content. It does
have the best buffer, at least for Netflix and
Hulu streaming. Thats important when your
Internet connection is spotty. Video kept
playing for a few minutes after I unplugged my
cable modem. It lasted only 15 to 30 seconds
on Amazon and Google devices and roughly a
minute on Apple TV.

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GOOGLE NEXUS PLAYER

Googles $35 Chromecast stick is useless on
its own. Your only option is casting, and I have
found the experience and video quality to be
poor. Googles new $99 Nexus Player is the better
choice. Its performance was comparable to the
Apple TV and Fire TV devices.
The Nexus has voice search like the Fire. While
the Fire limits such searches to titles, actors,
directors and genres, the Nexus offers more
flexible searching - though it works only some of
the time. A voice request for movie with Tom
Hanks and mermaid correctly gave me Splash.
On the other hand, documentary Oscar winners
gave me fictional flicks such as Gravity. Video
search is limited to Google content and a few
other services for now.
I hesitate to recommend the Nexus because
it has relatively few apps. Theres no HBO, no
Showtime, no ABC, no ESPN. PBS Kids is an
option, but PBS isnt. Casting is offered for
some of these services, but the Nexus needs
more stand-alone apps to be useful. That will
come over time, but not necessarily in time for
the holidays.

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APPLE TV
Apple TV, at $99, remains a solid device and is a
great choice for those who already have iPhones
or iPads. Place one near the Apple TV for easy setup. Your iTunes account transfers over wirelessly.
You cant download new apps as you can with the
others. Apple takes a less is more philosophy
and curates Apple TV with 45 or so outside
services, including ABC, HBO and Showtime.
Apple is able to insist on consistency that way, so
keyboards and menu layouts are similar from app
to app. New services are automatically added
through software updates. Amazon and Google
Play are missing, though you can cast content
to the TV indirectly. Using your iPhone or iPad,
load Amazon or Google Play video and send that
to Apple TV using a feature called AirPlay. Quality
sometimes suffers with casting.

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One Direction,
Iggy Azalea
Shine At 2014 AMAS

One Direction won three honors at the American

Music Awards, including artist of the year over
powerhouse acts like Beyonce and Luke Bryan,
while breakthrough newcomer Iggy Azalea beat
out heavyweights Eminem and Drake in the
rap categories.
Katy Perry, who was absent from Sundays award
show because of her world tour, matched One
Direction for most wins with three.
The boy band won also won favorite band, duo or
group - pop/rock and favorite album - pop/rock
for Midnight Memories at the fan-voted show.
This has been a real perfect day ... America
feels like a second home to us, Liam Payne said
onstage with his band mates when they won the
nights first award. The group released its new
album, Four, last week.
They wore all black as they sang the groove
Night Changes at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live.
Taylor Swift kicked off the AMAs as a mad woman
and man eater by feeding a boy a poisonous
apple, holding burning roses and giving crazy
eyes during a performance of her song about her
dating life according to the media.

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She was aggressive, grabbing her male dancers by

their blazers and singing in character on bended
knee when performing her new No. 1 hit, Blank
Space. She even removed part of her dress to
expose a shimmery, leg-revealing gold number.
She later received the first-ever Dick Clark Award
for Excellence, presented by Diana Ross.
To the fans who went out and bought over a
million copies of my last three albums, what
you did by going out and investing in music and
albums is youre saying you believe in the same
thing I believe in - that music is valuable and that
music should be consumed in albums and albums
should be consumed as art and appreciated,
said Swift, who recently removed her music from
streaming service Spotify.
Brantley Gilbert, who won favorite album country for Just As I Am, is on the same label as
Swift, Big Machine Records. He also removed him
music from Spotify, but declined to discuss the
topic when asked about it backstage.
You know tonight for me was about the songs
and the fans and I had a blast accepting an award,
Im not so sure I want to chase the question
without a safe answer, he said to reporters.
Azalea, who was the top nominee with six,
performed twice: She hit the stage first for
Fancy and new single Beg for It, later
returning to close the show with a steamy
Jennifer Lopez for their collaboration, Booty.
Azalea won favorite album - rap/hip-hop for The
New Classic and favorite artist - rap/hip-hop.
It means so much to me that it is for best hiphop because thats what inspired me to move to
America and pursue my dreams, and its what
helped me when I was a teenager to escape and
to get through my life and to better times, the
24-year-old Australian rapper said, as her mentor
T.I. stood beside her. And it means so much that
I can stand here against Eminem and Drake and
come out with this.

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Ariana Grande also worked double duty Sunday:

She took the stage to sing lounge-y, pianoversions of her upbeat hits Problem and Break
Free, following that with a duet of her latest hit,
Love Me Harder, with the Weeknd. Grandes
older brother jumped up in joy, MAGIC! leader
Nasir Atweh sang along and Heidi Klum bopped
her head. Grande returned again to sing Bang
Bang with Nicki Minaj and Jessie J, who kicked
off the song in the crowd. She rubbed against
Khloe Kardashian, sang closely in front of her
boyfriend, R&B singer Luke James, and danced
next to Swift and Sam Smith. Smith, who also
performed Im Not the Only One with A$AP
Rocky, won favorite male artist - pop/rock.
Last year I wrote an album about being lonely
and tonight, I couldnt feel further from lonely,
so thank you so much, he told the crowd after
thanking his fans. Mary J. Blige performed
Therapy, a new song she wrote with Smith, and
host Pitbull performed with R&B singer Ne-Yo.
Fergie gave a hip-hop flavored performance of
her comeback single, L.A. Love (La La), while
Selena Gomez slowed it down for the emotional
Heart Wants What It Wants. And Imagine
Dragons, who won favorite artist - alternative
rock for a second time - performed their new
folky single, I Bet My Life.
Australian boy band 5 Seconds of Summer
won new artist of the year, beating out Azalea,
Smith, Meghan Trainor and Bastille. They also
performed a cover of the Romantics What I Like
About You.
Being from Sydney, you never think youre going
to win an American Music Award, so its the
coolest thing ever to us, band member Ashton
Irwin said backstage.
Bryan, who introduced a satellite performance
from Garth Brooks, took home favorite male
artist - country.

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Perry won single of the year for her No. 1 hit

Dark Horse, favorite female artist - pop/rock
and favorite artist - adult contemporary. Other
absent winners included Carrie Underwood, John
Legend and Beyonce, who won two awards.
The soundtrack for Frozen, the years top-selling
album, won top soundtrack.
Online:
http://www.theamas.com

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TV-OVER-INTERNET
SERVICE AEREO SEEKS
CHAPTER 11

Aereo, an online startup that tried to offer a

cheaper alternative to cable TV, has filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection less than five
months after an unfavorable ruling by the U.S.
Supreme Court.
The company backed by media mogul Barry Diller
allowed people to watch and record broadcast
TV online for $8 a month on tablets, phones
and other gadgets. Unlike Hulu and other online
video services, Aereo offered live streaming of
broadcast channels.
The Supreme Court ruled this summer that Aereo
had been operating like a cable TV company,
meaning that unless it paid broadcasters licensing
fees, it was in violation of copyright law.
Aereo suspended its operations three days later.

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The company got its start in New York and had

expanded to about 10 other metropolitan areas,
including Boston, Houston and Atlanta, though it
never disclosed how many subscribers it had.
The Supreme Court decision effectively changed
the laws that had governed Aereos technology,
creating regulatory and legal uncertainty, CEO
Chet Kanojia said.
The Chapter 11 filing will allow Aereo Inc. to
maximize the value of its business while avoiding
the cost and distraction of litigation, said Kanojia.
Aereo didnt provide many details about what
it would do with its technology but in a March
interview with The Associated Press, Kanojia
said the companys Internet-based recording
technology was itself valuable.
The fact that weve created this cloud-based
system at a cost point, and it works, is going to
have a lot of value to a lot of people, he said
then.
Potential buyers of that technology could
include cable-television operators that are trying
to maintain subscriber levels by offering new
ways to watch TV online. Cable operators pay
broadcasters millions of dollars in licensing fees,
and would not be subject to the same legal
challenges.
Online: http://aereo.com

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Image: Sarah Barlow

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76

Why people are suggesting it

could be the last platinum album
To say that 24-year old country superstar
Taylor Swift has been doing well as of late
would be something of an understatement. In
fact, even within the rarefied territory where
the Reading, Pennsylvania native currently
resides, she is thriving with her most recent
album, 1989. But is her success pointing to a
more positive future for a currently besieged
music industry, or is it a mere anomaly?
Ask most informed observers these days, and
they'll say that things are in a bad way. Our
current pop music landscape is one of everdeclining physical sales - that has been known
for a while. But much more recently, digital
sales have also dropped - by 13 percent in
the first six months of this year, according to
Nielsen's midyear music report.
Instead, streaming and privacy are ruling the
roost, with the former seeing a 42 percent
rise in the aforementioned time period.
This comes on the backdrop of Swift's wellpublicized withdrawal of her catalogue
from the Spotify streaming service, amid
complaints from artists of low rates that fail to
recognize their hard work and the importance
of creativity. Who's right? Who's wrong?

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Impressive sales figures for 1989

But first of all, let's consider the bare
achievements - and there's no doubt that
they're impressive statistics indeed, whatever
their background. 1989, named after Swift's
year of birth, is the artist's first outright pop
album, after years of success in country music.
It also draws much of its inspiration from the
works of such '80s icons as Peter Gabriel, Phil
Collins, Fine Young Cannibals, Madonna and
Annie Lennox, any one of whom would be
proud of the album's first week sales figures.
Following 1989's release on October 27,
reports soon emerged of debut sales that
threatened to topple the record sales week
for a woman, the 1.319 million achieved
by Britney Spears' Oops! ... I Did It Again in
1999. The album was initially tipped to sell
750,000 copies in its first week, only for this
to be upgraded to 800,000 on October 23.
The projection was then upped again, to more
than 900,000, by mid-day on the album's day
of release. You get the idea. Forecasts just
kept getting higher and higher, reaching 1.25
million on October 31.
In the end, Swift fell tantalizingly short of
Spears' record, her fifth studio effort selling
1.287 million copies between October 27 and
November 2. That was none too shabby given
the much more compromised industry faced
by Swift now than the one that confronted
Spears 15 years ago. 1989 topped the
Billboard 200 chart, making it only the 19th
album in Nielsen SoundScan history - in other
words, since 1991 - to hit the one million sales
mark in its debut week.

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1989 also racked up the biggest sales week

for any album since The Eminem Show, which
sold 1.322 million in its first seven days back
in 2002. But even more tellingly, and perhaps
staggeringly, 1989 became the first album
released in 2014 to pass a million sales overall,
and thereby earn platinum status.

Why 1989 may remain in a

platinum class of one
As pointed out last month by Forbes writer
Hugh McIntyre, by this time last year, five
albums had already attained platinum status,
led by Justin Timberlake's two-million selling
The 20/20 Experience. This year, though,
the continued steep fall in recorded music
sales that began a decade ago has made
million-plus sales even more elusive, thanks
to a combination of privacy and streaming
that have made it so much easier for today's
younger demographic to access music for free.
Although streaming is, of course, preferable
to piracy from the perspective of songwriters
and artists given that they do at least get paid
by the former, that did not prevent many
nodding in approval at Swift's drastic action,
as she denounced Spotify as "an experiment
that I don't feel fairly compensates the
writers, producers, artists, and creators
of this music. And I just don't agree with
perpetuating the perception that music has
no value and should be free."
Not only music industry observers backed
her stance. Quincy Jones, for example,
declared that "Spotify is not the enemy;
piracy is the enemy." Adding that 70 percent

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of the service's revenue was being paid to

musicians and rightsholders, Jones added
that if Thriller - the biggest-selling album
of all time that he produced for Michael
Jackson - was to be released today, "You can
be sure I'd want it on Spotify."
Jones' contention was that there was no
hope of "The genie going back in the bottle",
and that other solutions would instead
need to be found for the music industry's
problems. But in the meantime, it looks like
1989 could remain the last platinum-selling
album for at least a while, even if there are
already suggestions that the RIAA could alter
its definition of platinum to account for
streams, as Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart
has done.

How Swift is bucking the

industry trend
The raw statistics may suggest that Swift
is fighting a losing battle against the
unstoppable force of Spotify, but if there's
something else that they suggest, it's that
she's doing a sterling job of resisting the
transition of an extremely uncertain industry.
The fact that a mere three weeks after
release, 1989 hit the two million sales mark
shows that she's certainly doing something
right. So, what's the sure-fire hit marketing
formula that Swift's peers are missing?
In short, it's all about sheer dedication. First of
all, there's that good old-fashioned approach,
dating back to Thriller's days, of simply
releasing one hot single and accompanying

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Image: Kevin Mazur

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video after another, as Swift's songs have

set the Digital Songs chart ablaze. Swift also
has an extremely strong and loyal fan base
that she has mobilized to the full, via her
shrewd deployment of a range of marketing
techniques. That means not only appearing
on the usual late-night talk shows, but also
deeply engaging with that fan base, even to
the point of inviting a small number of her
Twitter followers to her house for a private
listening party.
Indeed, if there's any pop star today
who extracts the maximum return from
Millennials' addictions to social media, it
is Swift. She is constantly directly engaging
with her fans on the micro-blogging service,
responding personally to fan tweets and
retweeting tweets about her, or that depict
fans buying her albums. Such methods are
more than just aggressive marketing - they're
about creating that truly personal, customized
connection with the 'ordinary' fan, telling
them that they matter.
It helps, too, that Swift does everything
possible to convince fans to buy physical
copies of her albums, observing of the
situation with 1989 in an interview with NPR's
Melissa Block: "There has to be an incentive
to go to a store, buy a CD. We've done an
exclusive at Target that has three extra songs.
It has three songwriting voice memos from
my cell phone. I have five sets of thirteen
Polaroids from the album photo shoot that
are in an envelope in the CD.
"So it's very much an experience that's
different than downloading the music itself.

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It's almost like this kind of collector's edition,

the physical copy."

Now, it's time to hit the road

How do you celebrate multi-million-selling
pop success as an artist in the year 2014,
when such success is so hard to come by?
Well, you build on it yet further by going out
on tour. Earlier this month, Swift announced
plans for a mammoth concert schedule
around North America, Europe and Australia.
It all kicks off in Japan on May 5, 2015, with
Swift set to perform two dates at the Tokyo
Dome before heading back to the United States
for a performance at the CenturyLink Center
in Bossier City, Louisiana on May 20. The tour
will then snake its way north, departing briefly
for some European dates before returning to
the States in early July for an appearance at the
Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.
Swift will then play various North American
stadiums before concluding the leg with a gig
at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on
October 31, 2015. Australian fans will be left
waiting until next December for her to turn
up on their shores.
It's a hectic schedule for sure, but who else
would you back to take it on with aplomb,
than Taylor Swift? All indications are that she
is a successful anomaly in a music industry
that continues to flounder, but there's no
doubting her good old-fashioned talent,
determination and star power.
by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

91

List of Winners
of The American
Music Awards

Winners of the 2014 American Music Awards,

presented Sunday at the Nokia Theatre in
Los Angeles:
Artist of the year: One Direction
New artist of the year: 5 Seconds of Summer
Single of the year: Katy Perry feat. Juicy J,
Dark Horse
Pop/rock female artist: Katy Perry
Pop/rock male artist: Sam Smith
Pop/rock band, duo or group: One Direction
Pop/rock album: One Direction,
Midnight Melodies
Country female artist: Carrie Underwood
Country male artist: Luke Bryan
Country band, duo or group: Florida Georgia Line

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Country album: Brantley Gilbert, Just As I Am

Rap/hip-hop artist: Iggy Azalea
Rap/hip-hop album: Iggy Azalea,
The New Classic
Soul/R&B female artist: Beyonc
Soul/R&B male artist: John Legend
Soul/R&B album: Beyonc, Beyonc
Latin artist: Enrique Iglesias
Alternative rock: Imagine Dragons
Adult contemporary: Katy Perry
Contemporary inspirational: Casting Crowns
Electronic dance music: Calvin Harris
Soundtrack: Frozen

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Mockingjay, part 1
Opens with
$123 Million

Mockingjay, Part 1 didnt catch fire like the

previous installments of The Hunger Games,
but it still had the biggest opening of the year
with $123 million at the weekend box office,
according to studio estimates Sunday.
Lionsgates Mockingjay opened well below the
$158 million debut of last years Hunger Games:
Catching Fire and the $153 million opening of
the 2012 original. But even with a $30-millionplus slide in the franchise, Mockingjay far
surpassed the previous top weekend of the
year: the $100 million debut of Transformers:
Age of Extinction.
The result made for some unusual ironies. The
biggest opening of the year (and by a wide
margin) was seen by some as a disappointment.
After initial box office receipts of Mockingjay
rolled in Friday suggested a weekend take below
expectations, Lions Gate Entertainments stock
dipped 5 percent.
But the decision to split the final book in Suzanne
Collins dystopian trilogy into two films was clearly
lucrative for Lionsgate. Mockingjay did even
better overseas, where it made $152 million over
the weekend, accounting altogether for a $275
million global opening.

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Its the biggest opening of the year, so it really

illustrates the strength of the franchise, said
David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate,
noting the North American opening was the 15th
best ever.
Spitz declined to answer questions about Wall
Streets reaction to the opening, or what the
effect may have been of splitting the third book
in two.
It speaks for itself, Spitz said of the result.
Dividing the book pushed much of the big drama
of Mockingjay to the second film, scheduled
for release in November 2015. On the same
November weekend in 2010, Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 - which similarly split
the series last book into two - opened almost
identically with $125 million. A year later, the
second Deathly Hallows film debuted bigger
than all previous Harry Potter films with
$169 million.
A little perspective is in order here, said Paul
Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box
office tracker Rentrak. He called the Mockingjay
results still an astonishing feat.
Im not worried about this franchise,
Dergarabedian said.
The release calendar made way for Mockingjay,
as no other new wide releases hit theaters. In
its third week of release, the Disney animated
adventure Big Hero 6 moved into second place
with $20.1 million. Christopher Nolans space epic
Interstellar came in third with $15.1 million,
also in its third week.
Last weeks top film, the long-in-coming sequel
Dumb and Dumber To, slid considerably. The
Universal comedy dropped to fourth place with
$13.8 million.

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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday

at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to
Rentrak. Where available, the latest international
numbers are also included. Final domestic figures
will be released Monday.
1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, $123
million ($152 million international).
2. Big Hero 6, $20.1 million ($7 million
international).
3. Interstellar, $15.1 million ($70 million
international).
4. Dumb and Dumber To, $13.8 million ($6.5
million international).
5. Gone Girl, $2.8 million ($2.4 million
international).
6. Beyond the Lights, $2.6 million.
7. St. Vincent, $2.4 million.
8. Fury, $1.9 million ($12.4 million
international).
9. Birdman, $1.9 million.
10. The Theory of Everything, $1.5 million

101

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday

at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and
Canada), according to Rentrak:
1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, $152
million.
2. Interstellar, $70 million.
3. Fury, $12.4 million.
4. Rise of the Legend, $11.9 million.
5. Penguins of Madagascar, $8.7 million.
6. Big Hero 6, $7 million.
7. Dumb and Dumber To, $6.5 million.
8. The Imitation Game, $3.3 million.
9. Gone Girl, $2.4 million.
10. Dont Go Breaking My Heart 2, $2.3 million.

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104

Katy Perry to
Perform at Super
Bowl Halftime
Show

Will Katy Perry be a firework at the Super Bowl?

Will she show them what shes worth? Will she
let her colors burst?
NFL announced late Sunday - after rumors
swirled for weeks - that the pop star will headline
the Pepsi Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 1 at
the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona. It
will air on NBC.
Perry, 30, has dominated the Billboard charts
since releasing her debut in 2008, including
nine No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Her sophomore effort, 2010s multiplatinum
Teenage Dream, matched the record Michael
Jackson set with Bad for most songs from a
single album to hit No. 1 with five.
Perry released Prism, another platinum effort,
last year. It includes the No. 1 smashes Roar
and Dark Horse.

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The Grammy-nominated stars upcoming

performance is the fourth consecutive halftime
show to display the NFLs push to include younger
acts on its large stage: Bruno Mars had a showstopping set at this years Super Bowl at the
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey;
Beyonc electrified in 2013 in New Orleans;
and there was Madonna, with Nicki Minaj and
M.I.A., and the Black Eyed Peas in 2012 and 2011,
respectively.
Other halftime performers in the last decade
have included the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom
Petty, Bruce Springsteen and the Who.
The girl-power singer will also be performing at
the culmination of a season where critics have
assailed the NFL for its response to domestic
violence cases involving women; its initial
handling of former Baltimore Ravens star Ray
Rices assault on his then-fiance with just a twogame suspension caused a national outrage, and
led the league to toughen its penalties for such
crimes. It later suspended Rice indefinitely.
Perry is currently on her Prismatic World Tour.
Her other hits include I Kissed a Girl, California
Gurls, Firework and Wide Awake.
Online:
http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/49
http://www.katyperry.com

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Trailer

Movies
&

TV Shows

108

Guardians of the
Galaxy
In stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan
(Lee Pace), a powerful villain whose ambitions
threaten the entire universe, the brash
adventurer Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) certainly
makes himself a target. In a bid to fend off
Ronan, Quill enters an uneasy truce with four
cosmic misfits. Expect plenty of fun 70s pop
tunes and an irreverent departure from the
usual superhero movie formula.

Five Facts:
1. The film is based on the Marvel Comics
superhero team of the same name.
by James Gunn
Genre: Action & Adventure
Expected Release: Dec 09,
2014
Price: $19.99

2. It is the 10th installment in the Marvel

Cinematic Universe.
3. James Gunn directed the film, in addition
to writing the screenplay with Nicole Perlman.
4. Other members of the ensemble cast
include Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel
and Bradley Cooper.

1316 Ratings

5. Its worldwide haul of $770,662,444

has made it the highest-grossing
superhero film of 2014, surpassing
X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Rotten Tomatoes

90

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Interview with the Cast

111

What If
This Irish-Canadian romantic comedy centers
on the story of Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe),
a medical school dropout with a history of
bad relationships. It seems that everyone
around him is finding the perfect partner,
but he decides to put his own love life on
hold - until he meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan), an
animator with whom he immediately strikes
up a close friendship. But could it yet turn into
something more?

Five Facts:
1. The film is based on T. J. Dawe and
Michael Rinaldis play Toothpaste and
Cigars.
2. Other members of the cast include
Megan Park, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis
and Rafe Spall.
3. The movie premiered at the 2013 Toronto
International Film Festival.
4. It was also nominated for Best Picture at
the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards, winning for
Adapted Screenplay.
5. Elan Mastais script appeared in the 2008
Black List survey of Hollywoods hottest
unproduced screenplays.

Rotten Tomatoes

69

112

Trailer

by Michael Dowse
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2014
Price: $14.99

23 Ratings

113

Interview with Daniel Radcliffe

114

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Ghosts n Stuff (Chuckie Remix)

Music
116

5 Years of mau5
deadmau5
Canadian progressive-house icon deadmau5
looks back on his career with the release of
5 Years of mau5, which combines past hits
by the EDM producer with exclusive and
new remixes from friends of mau5trap, the
record label he founded in 2007. Contributing
artists include Dillon Francis, Michael Woods,
Chuckie and more.

Five Facts:
Genre: Dance
Released: Nov 24, 2014
22 Songs
Price: $9.99

165 Ratings

1. Deadmau5 is the stage name of Joel

Thomas Zimmerman.
2. He was born on January 5, 1981 in
Niagara Falls, Ontario.
3. He released his debut full-length album,
Get Scraped, in 2005.
4. He has recently been involved in a legal
skirmish with Disney over the signature
mouse head that he wears while
performing, on account of its purported
resemblance to Mickey Mouse.
5. Other DJs and producers that he has
worked alongside include MC Flipside,
Kaskade, Rob Swire, Bighorse and
Wolfgang Gartner.

117

Interview with Deadmau5

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BEYONC
[Platinum Edition]
Beyonc
As if the pop superstars original 2013 selftitled album wasnt staggering enough, this
expanded edition features 17 music videos,
two new tracks - 7/11 and Ring Off - and
live performance footage from the year-long
Mrs. Carter Show World Tour alongside the
14 original songs. Completing the package
are new remixes featuring such guests as Nicki
Minaj, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z.

Five Facts:
1. BEYONC was developed as a
simultaneous audio-visual medium offering
an immersive experience.
2. To this end, a series of non-linear short
films was created to illustrate the songs
musical concepts.
3. The original album was released
digitally to the iTunes Store with no prior
announcement or promotion.
4. It became Beyoncs fifth consecutive
number one charting album in the United
States.
5. The album has now sold more than 5
million copies worldwide.

120

Genre: Pop
Released: Nov 24, 2014
42 Songs
Price: $24.99

209 Ratings

XO

121

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Drunk In Love (Live)

123

REVIEW: 3 CHEAP SMARTPHONES

TO CONSIDER

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The cheapest smartphones dont have all the

gizmos of Apple or Samsung models, but Im
impressed by how many features you do get for
roughly a third of the price.
Processors are slower, yet thats not so noticeable
for basic tasks such as email, Facebook and
weather checks. Video and audio are also
enjoyable, as long as Im not expecting the same
performance I get on high-end phones. Batteries
dont last quite as long without a recharge but I
still got about seven hours of streaming video on
Hulu. Do I really need the nine to 12 hours I can
get with an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy?
Because you spend so much time with your
phone, theres a case for having the best. But
those come with a price tag starting at about
$650 (unless you agree to a two-year contract, in
which case you end up paying higher service fees
for voice, text and data).
So consider how you use your phone and what
features will remain most important to you over
the next year or two. Before you break the bank,
here are three solid phones that cover the basics:

ZTE Nubia 5S Mini (Android, $280)

The Nubia is a slim, light device with a 4.7-inch
screen - the same as the iPhone 6. It looks sleek
and is comfortable to hold. Whats the catch?
The Nubias display measures 1,280 pixels by
720 pixels, well short of what you get on the
latest iPhones and top-end Samsung Galaxy
devices. That resolution is adequate for 720p
high-definition video, not the sharper 1020p. The
camera is OK for taking everyday shots; pricier
models deliver better focus and colors and take
nicer low-light photos with the flash off.
However, the front camera for selfies is 5
megapixels, better than the typical phone. (The
rear camera takes 13 megapixel shots, which is
common.) And it comes with 4G connectivity and
16 gigabytes of memory.

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Motorola Moto G
(Android, $180)
Motorola has a $129 Moto E phone, and you
get a good device at that price. But Ive found
photos to be subpar, especially because the
camera has a fixed-focus lens, meaning it
doesnt compensate for how far away your
subject is. Given how much people use the
camera on their phones, I recommend spending
another $50 for the Moto G.
The latest Moto G model has a large 5-inch
screen that is covered with Cornings Gorilla Glass
for durability, something more common in pricier
phones. The Moto Gs back is curved, which could
contribute to a better grip. Like the Nubia, its
display is 1,280 pixels by 720 pixels.
The rear camera is 8 megapixels, the same as the
iPhone, though shots werent as good. The front
camera is 2 megapixels.
The Moto Gs main shortcoming is the lack of
4G LTE cellular connectivity. Youre stuck with
the slower 3G network. LTE is available for last
years Moto G model, but that screen is only 4.5
inches and the cameras resolution isnt as good.
The Moto G also starts with just 8 gigabytes of
memory, when many smartphones are starting to
offer 32 gigabytes.

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Microsoft Lumia 635

(Windows, $179)
This 4.5-inch device doesnt feel as sleek as topend Lumia phones such as the Icon and the
1520. But its better than the $79 Lumia 530,
which feels like a bar of soap, given its bulk and
smaller screen. Its worth getting the 635 instead,
especially as some carriers and retailers are
offering substantial discounts to bring its price
close to the 530s.
The 635 has a 5 megapixel rear camera, no flash
and no front camera. It performed better than
the Nubia and the Moto G in low light. Just dont
expect shots to match what the 20-megapixel
Icon produces. The display resolution is lower
than on the Nubia and the Moto G, and the builtin storage is again just 8 gigabytes.
But the 635 does have 4G connectivity.

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130

AUTOMAKERS AIM TO DRIVE AWAY

CAR COMPUTER HACKERS

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Against the team of hackers, the poor car stood

no chance.
Meticulously overwhelming its computer
networks, the hackers showed that - given time they would be able to pop the trunk and start the
windshield wipers, cut the brakes or lock them
up, and even kill the engine.
Their motives were not malicious. These hackers
worked on behalf of the U.S. military, which
along with the auto industry is scrambling to
fortify the cyber defenses of commercially
available cars before criminals and even
terrorists penetrate them.
Youre stepping into a rolling computer now,
said Chris Valasek, who helped catapult car
hacking into the public eye when he and a
partner revealed last year they had been able to
control a 2010 Toyota Prius and 2010 Ford Escape
by plugging into a port used by mechanics.
These days, when Valasek isnt working his day
job for a computer security firm, hes seeing how
Bluetooth might offer an entry point.
Automakers are betting heavily that consumers
will want not just the maps and music playlists
of today but also Internet-enabled vehicles that
stream movies and the turn dictation into email.
The federal government wants to require cars to
send each other electronic messages warning of
dangers on the road.
In these and other connections, hackers see
opportunity.
There are no publicly known instances of a car
being commandeered outside staged tests. In
those tests, hackers prevail.
One was the Defense Department-funded assault
on a 2012 model American-made car, overseen
by computer scientist Kathleen Fisher.
Hackers demonstrated they could create the
electronic equivalent of a skeleton key to unlock
the cars networks. That may take months, Fisher

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136

Image: Ole Spata

said, but from there it would be pretty easy

to package up the smarts and make it available
online, perhaps in a black-market type situation.
The projects goal is more than just to plug
vulnerabilities - it is to reconceive the most critical
lines of computer code that control the car in a
way that could make them invulnerable to some
of the major known threats. The model code
would be distributed to automakers, who could
adapt it to their needs. That should take a few
more years.
The industry is participating - and not waiting.
One major association representing brands
including Honda and Toyota is helping establish
an information sharing and analysis center
patterned after efforts by big banks to try to
thwart cyberattacks.
Before, when you designed something, you
looked at how might components fail, said
Michael Cammisa, director of safety for the
Association of Global Automakers. Now, you
have to look at how would somebody maliciously
attack the vehicle.
The so-called Auto-ISAC will allow participating
companies to evaluate the credibility of threats
and, in the event of an attack, let one warn others
so they could test their own systems. The effort
was announced this summer at the Cyberauto
Challenge in Detroit, one of an increasing number
of programs focused on auto hacking. Several
days later, in China, organizers of a cybersecurity
conference announced success in their challenge
to hack a Model S made by Tesla Motors.
Another American company, General Motors,
has checked how Boeing and defense companies
create systems to repel hackers, according to
Mark Reuss, GMs executive vice president of
global product development.
Cybersecurity is one of the highest priority things
that we have, Reuss said. We have got to make
sure that our customers are safe.

137

138

British Art
Festival Head to
Lead NYC
Art Center

The head of a British art festival has been named

to lead The Culture Shed, a performing arts
center planned for Manhattans Far West Side.
Alex Poots will leave his current positions as
artistic director of the Manchester International
Festival and of the Park Avenue Armory
in September.
Culture Sheds chairman, Daniel
Doctoroff, tells The New York Times
( http://nyti.ms/11S9zXv ) that it was looking for
someone who was a cultural entrepreneur.
The Culture Shed will be an exotic structure with
translucent, telescoping outer shells that will
accommodate art exhibitions, concerts and film
screenings. The Times says it could become the
new home of fashion Week and a possible anchor
for the Tribeca Film Festival.
Construction on the $360 million center is under
way. Its expected to be completed in 2018.

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140

GOOGLES LATEST:
A SPOON THAT STEADIES TREMORS

141

Just in time for the holidays, Google is throwing

its money, brain power and technology at the
humble spoon.
Of course these spoons (dont call them spoogles)
are a bit more than your basic utensil: Using
hundreds of algorithms, they allow people with
essential tremors and Parkinsons Disease to eat
without spilling.
The technology senses how a hand is shaking and
makes instant adjustments to stay balanced. In
clinical trials, the Liftware spoons reduced shaking
of the spoon bowl by an average of 76 percent.
We want to help people in their daily lives
today and hopefully increase understanding
of disease in the long run, said Google
spokesperson Katelin Jabbari.
Other adaptive devices have been developed
to help people with tremors - rocker knives,
weighted utensils, pen grips. But until now,
experts say, technology has not been used in
this way.
Its totally novel, said UC San Francisco Medical
Center neurologist Dr. Jill Ostrem who specializes
in movement disorders like Parkinsons disease
and essential tremors.
She helped advise the inventors, and says the
device has been a remarkable asset for some of
her patients.
I have some patients who couldnt eat
independently, they had to be fed, and now they
can eat on their own, she said. It doesnt cure
the disease, they still have tremor, but its a very
positive change.
Google got into the no-shake utensil business
in September, acquiring a small, National of
Institutes of Health-funded startup called Lift Labs
for an undisclosed sum.
More than 10 million people worldwide, including
Google co-founder Sergey Brins mother, have
essential tremors or Parkinsons disease. Brin

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has said he also has a mutation associated with

higher rates of the Parkinsons and has donated
more than $50 million to research for a cure,
although Jabbari said the Lift Labs acquisition was
not related.
Lift Lab founder Anupam Pathak said moving
from a small, four-person startup in San Francisco
to the vast Google campus in Mountain View has
freed him up to be more creative as he explores
how to apply the technology even more broadly.
His team works at the search giants division
called Google(x) Life Sciences, which is also
developing a smart contact lens that measures
glucose levels in tears for diabetics and is
researching how nanoparticles in blood might
help detect diseases.
Joining Google has been motivating, said Pathak,
but his focus remains on people who are now
able to eat independently with his device. If you
build something with your hands and it has that
sort of an impact, its the greatest feeling ever,
he said. As an engineer who likes to build things,
thats the most validating thing that can happen.
Pathak said they also hope to add sensors to
the spoons to help medical researchers and
providers better understand, measure and
alleviate tremors.
Shirin Vala, 65, of Oakland, has had an essential
tremor for about a decade. She was at her
monthly Essential Tremor group at a San Ramon
medical clinic earlier this year when researchers
developing the device introduced the idea and
asked if anyone was interested in helping them.
As it was refined, she tried it out and gave them
feedback. And when they hit the market at $295
apiece, she bought one.
Without the spoon, Vala said eating was really a
challenge because her hands trembled so hard
food fell off the utensils before she could eat it.

144

Image: Eric Risberg

145

146

I was shaking and I had a hard time to keep the

food on a spoon, especially soup or something
like an olive or tomatoes or something. It is very
embarrassing. Its very frustrating, she said.
The spoon definitely improved her situation.
I was surprised that I held the food in there
so much better. It makes eating much easier,
especially if Im out at a restaurant, she said.

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148

THANKSGIVING TRAVEL WOES?

THERES AN APP FOR THAT

Traveling by plane, train or automobile can be a

headache. Mixing in Thanksgiving can make it a
throbbing migraine. Technology provides some
pain relief in the form of apps to let you know
which roads are clogged, what gate your flight
leaves from and whether trains are running
on time.
The American Automobile Association forecasts
that the Wednesday through Sunday period will
see more than 46 million Americans travel at
least 50 miles from home - the most Thanksgiving
road warriors since 2007. About nine in 10 are
expected to drive - or be driven - with about 3.6
million flying.
Here are some ways to make the journey a bit
less taxing.

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PLANES
FlightAware tracks not only your flights status
but also any delays or cancellations, even gate
changes. Set it up for a specific trip and it will
send alerts so you dont have to keep checking
for changes.
Seats matter, especially if youre traveling with
kids. The ExpertFlyer app has a feature called
seat alert, which informs you when a seat you
want to snag becomes available.

150

If you have the pleasure of a connecting flight,

consider FlightBoard. Every five minutes, it
updates with the latest from airport departure
boards at over 3,000 airports worldwide. If youre
picking up at the airport, its one way to find out
whether the flight will land on time.
Or, if you want to keep it simple, get the app of
the airline youre flying. That will typically let you
do things such as get a boarding pass or - gulp rebook your flight.

Image: Tammy Bryngelson

151

152

TRAINS
While Amtrak has an app that lets you make or
change reservations and check the status of your
train, local and regional public transit doesnt
have the same range of resources as air travel.
At least 70 percent of larger transit agencies
have apps that offer real-time travel information,
according to Darnell Grisby, director of policy
development and research at the American
Public Transportation Association. As for using
your phone to buy and manage tickets - thats not
as common an option, but some agencies offer it.

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AUTOMOBILES
Traffic apps are a familiar friend for many
commuters. Some, such as Sigalert, offer colorcoded highway maps - red for jammed up,
yellow for slow, green for full speed ahead.
Sometimes the data that inform the maps are just
outdated enough that they can lead a driver onto
a freeway that may have been traffic-free five
minutes ago, but now has a building bottleneck.
The popular app Waze tries to solve that
problem by asking drivers to report traffic and
other problems, which the app then shares with
other users.
AND JUST IN CASE
Should everything go sideways, and youre
suddenly stranded, Priceline and Hotel Tonight
can help you find a room nearby.

155

Aretha Franklin
Blasts Author of
Unauthorized Bio

The Queen of Soul says dont waste your money

- or soul - on the recently released unauthorized
biography about her.
In a statement, Aretha Franklin called David
Ritzs Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin, a
trashy book.
The two have a history of collaborating: Franklin
and award-winning Ritz worked together on her
1999 biography, Aretha: From These Roots. He
also won a Grammy Award for best album notes
for his work on Franklins 1992 box set, Queen
of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings. As many of
you are aware, there is a very trashy book out
there full of lies and more lies about me. ... (The
writers) actions are obviously vindictive because
I edited out some crazy statements he had the
gall to try and put in my book written 15 years
ago, the statement read. Evidently, he has been
carrying this hatred ever since. In Respect,
Ritz writes about Franklin as teenage parent, her
own parents separation, her battle with alcohol
and more. The sensitive questions - Arethas
mother leaving family, Aretha having two babies
while still in her teens, Aretha being beaten by
her first husband ... were off-limits, Ritz writes
in his new book about working with Franklin for
their 1999 effort.

156

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In my view, my two years of working on `From

These Roots resulted in my failure to actualize
the great potential in Arethas narration. I didnt
do what I set out to do. Ritz has written a
number of biographies, ranging from Etta James
to Rick James to Ray Charles. He has won the
Ralph Gleason Music Book Award four times, and
last year he received the ASCAP Timothy White
Award for outstanding musical biography for the
Buddy Guy book, When I Left Home. He has
also authored many novels, essays and articles.
I think the book in the deepest way is an
appreciation. And when I say appreciation,
its just not an appreciation of her art; its an
appreciation of the challenges of her life and the
appreciation how hard it is to kind of navigate
your way through the complexities of show
business culture, Ritz told The Associated Press
by phone Monday.
He writes that Franklin brought up the idea
of collaborating on a follow-up to From
These Roots, but their ideas for the project
were different.
When I renewed my research for this book, I
did so without Arethas blessing, but I did have
the support of three Arethas closest relatives,
Ritz writes.
Franklins latest album, Aretha Franklin Sings the
Great Diva Classics, was released a week before
Ritzs book last month. The album debuted at No.
3 on Billboards R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart.
I call the book `Respect because I think its
a respectful book, Ritz told AP. I tried to be
understanding and compassionate and that was
my goal. ...I love her and I love her art, and I tried
to honor her story.
Online:
http://www.arethafranklin.net/us/home
http://www.ritzwrites.com/home.html

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160

NEW iPHONES PUSH APPLES

MARKET CAP PAST $700B

161

162

Image: Ralph Llerenas/ TechnoBuffalo

Apple, already the worlds most valuable

company, surpassed $700 billion in market
capitalization Tuesday as its stock hit another alltime high.
The company unveiled the latest version if the
iPhone two months ago and sales have been
surging. During its last quarter, Apple sold 39.3
million iPhones and said that it expected revenue
from the sale of all of its products to come in
between $63.5 billion and $66.5 billion in the
current quarter.
Apple shares have risen 48 percent in 2014 and
the company announced its first stock split in 9
years.
Apples title as the worlds most valuable
company does come with an asterisk, however.
While Apple is the first S&P 500 company to
exceed $700 billion in value, Microsoft Corp., if
adjustments are made for inflation, had an even
greater market cap about 15 years ago. Its $613
billion market cap in 1999 would be worth $874
billion today.
Microsofts market cap is now about $394 billion.
Shares of the Apple Inc., based in Cupertino,
California, rose $1.12 to hit $119.75 Thursday.

163

Broadway-Bound
Magician Shows
Whats Up His
Sleeve

One grew up idolizing Harry Houdini. The other

worshipped David Copperfield. Now theyre both
in a place known more for jazz hands than sleight
of hand.
Italys star escape artist Andrew Basso and
American Adam Trent, who focuses on
technology-based tricks, are two of the seven
magicians set to play Broadway this winter in the
show The Illusionists. It will run at the Marriott
Marquis Theatre from Nov. 26-Jan. 4.
Its been almost 20 years since magic has been
on Broadway. To me, its been long overdue.
But maybe its been gone for a reason. Its been
waiting for something like this, Trent said.
The rest of the lineup includes Belgiums weapon
specialist Aaron Crow, campy magician Jeff
Hobson, illusionist and Americas Got Talent
veteran Kevin James, macabre specialist Dan
Sperry and Yu Ho-Jin, a Korean who just won the
title of Magician of the Year.
The goal is to do with magic what Cirque du
Soleil did with circus - get rid of the dated lions
and sequins and make it adult, sophisticated
fun. The show has a throbbing rock beat and
intelligent pacing.

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Basso and Trent stopped by The Associated

Press to tease their upcoming show. On camera,
Trent made a bunch of playing cards appear and
disappear, took a bite out of one only for it to
instantly return and set a lighter label on fire.
Basso told a story of once getting much too close
to fire himself.
A few years ago, Basso was shackled in an
explosive-rigged wooden coffin and had 60
seconds to escape before a speeding car crashed
the coffin. I needed 55 seconds to escape. Well,
the car crashed and he escaped, but the blast was
10 times bigger than it had been at rehearsal,
for still-unknown reasons. Basso suffered severe
burns. But I will not stop doing it, he vowed.
In the show, Basso will recreate Houdinis famous
Water Torture Cell - hell be put face-first into a
tank of water with his feet manacled. This time,
though, there will be no covers on the tank to
hide any tricks.
Trent, who grew up in Boulder, Colorado, wearing
out VHS tapes of Copperfield TV specials, calls
himself The Futurist because he likes to mix
comedy, technology and music into his act,
something the old school of magic has resisted.
The world of magic is going through extreme
growing pains, he said. A lot of the young guys
want to present it in a fresh way and a lot of the
older guys think it should stay a certain way.
Trent said innovation in magic is slow, partly
because magicians are loath to reveal their new
techniques or tricks. The same basic principles
in magic are used over and over again but theyre
dressed up differently, he said.So whether its
a card trick or you make that card an iPhone, its
the same exact sleight of hand. But when you
change the object and present it differently, it
does become something new.
Online: http://www.theillusionistslive.com

166

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168

A New Documentary
Explores The Life
of Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain is the focus of a new documentary

that probes the life and untimely death of the
Nirvana singer-guitarist. It will be released in
theaters next year and air exclusively on HBO, the
network said Tuesday.
Co-produced by HBO Documentary Films,
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is the first
documentary made with the cooperation of
Cobains family. It draws on home movies,
journals and other personal archives. It features
Nirvana songs and performances and previously
unheard Cobain originals.
The films director-producer, Brett Morgen, has
previously made the documentaries Crossfire
Hurricane, about the Rolling Stones, and The
Kid Stays in the Picture.
Cobain formed Nirvana in 1985, and by the early
1990s was decreed the spokesman of Generation
X. He died of suicide in 1994 at age 27.

169

Talking Songs
with She & Him

NEW YORK (AP) -- The musical duo She &

Him - thats Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward convened a 20-piece orchestra to make Classics,
a collection of songs written between 1930
and 1974.
Its an eclectic list of compositions popularized
by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Herb Alpert, the
Righteous Brothers and Dusty Springfield. So
we thought it would be fun to talk to the artists
about songs that stick out in their minds for
various reasons.

A SONG YOUD LIKE TO COVER BUT

INTIMIDATES YOU
Wards choice: This Is Radio Clash by the Clash.
Its one of his favorite bands, but he doesnt think
its in his vocal range. There is a certain attitude
to their music, and to the Ramones music, that I
think is untouchable, he said.
Deschanels choice: Paris 1919 by John Cale. I
dont think I could pull it off, she said.

170

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172

A SONG FROM THE LAST 20 YEARS OR

SO THAT WILL SOMEDAY BE SEEN AS A
CLASSIC
Deschanels choice: Open up Your Door by
Richard Hawley. She also loves Hawleys Tonight
the Streets Are Ours. Im a huge fan, she said.
Wards choice: Kool Thing by Sonic Youth.
Hes moved by the guitar and contribution from
Public Enemys Chuck D. The future of music
is combining things that dont really belong
together, he said. Thats what the best artists
have been doing since time began.

A SONG THATS BEEN UNFAIRLY

TRAPPED IN ITS TIME
Wards choice: Lovers Rock by Sade. The
record is pretty timeless, and I think she gets put
in a bubble of `80s music because of `Smooth
Operator, he said.
Deschanels choice: I Like It by DeBarge. The
song is really well written and versatile. I think it
would actually make a great country song, she
said. Honorable mention is Mariah Careys All I
Want for Christmas Is You. I would really like to
hear it without those keyboards.

THE HARDEST SONG YOUVE EVER HAD

TO SING
Deschanels choice: Sleigh Ride, written by
Leroy Anderson. (The Andrews Sisters recorded
the first vocal version in 1950.) It seems like it
would be simple, but it changes keys twice in
the bridge so its quite difficult, she said. In
spite of its trickiness its worth it because its a
fantastic song. Wards choice: The Red and the
Black by Blue Oyster Cult. He still has nightmares
about the time Mike Watt invited him onstage to
cover it, and it turned out to be much faster than
he remembered.

173

FAVORITE SONG TO DO FROM THE NEW

ALBUM, CLASSICS
Wards choice: Oh No, Not My Baby, written
by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Its my
favorite blend of strings and brass that Ive ever
produced, he said. It reminds me of some of
my favorite productions by George Martin or Phil
Spector - producers whose music I could listen
to forever.
Deschanels choice: Unchained Melody, written
by Alex North and Hy Zaret. Recording vocals with
the Chapin Sisters made it a treat. We recorded
it live with three microphones in the same
room and did only one take, she said. Theres
something very special about not just recording a
song, but a single moment in time as well.
Online:
http://www.sheandhim.com

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175

Weight Loss and

Exercise, According
to Rick Ross

Rick Ross had two seizures in a single day, sending

him to the hospital three years ago.
Health didnt concern the 300-pound rapper
then, but hes shed nearly 100 pounds in the
last seven months by eating healthier foods and
embracing a high-intensity workout plan.
Ross, 37, says he continues to work long hours
creating music, including his seventh album,
Hood Billionaire, released Monday. Its the
second album Ross has put out this year after the
March release of Mastermind, which debuted
at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
But in the middle of making music and running
his Maybach Music Group record label, Ross has
made his health a main priority.
And now, he believes if he can drop pounds, you
can, too. In an interview with The Associated
Press, the Grammy-nominated rap star offered
tips on how to lose weight.

176

NO SODA ON THE SIDE

Ross has given up a few things since changing
his lifestyle.
First, the rapper stopped drinking soda, unless its
diet. He also said its better to eat heavier meals
earlier in the day. As a result, he said hes able to
burn calories faster.
I used to eat big meals at 2 a.m. and base it
on my schedule, he said. But I dont do that
no more.
Ross said you should drink water throughout
the day. He also said to treat yourself when you
work hard.
I just went to Prime 112 (in Miami) the other
night, and I had some fried Oreos and fried velvet
cake, he said. I treated myself. You wake up in
the morning, you might regret it. But you got to
get back to work.

177

EVERY DAY HES HUSTLING

Ross credits a CrossFit program introduced to
him by Reebok last year - calling it Ross Fit with helping him lose weight. Its a highly active
workout plan where Ross completes a series
of exercises within a 20-minute span, including
pushups, sit-ups, boxing, squat jumps and
Olympic-style weightlifting.
CrossFit overall is more of an intense workout,
he said. So instead of doing 20 minutes on
the treadmill, youll (do) a 20-minute CrossFit
workout and youll be not only building your
endurance, but also muscle simultaneously.
Ross said the number of people who work out
with him has grown from four to 20, including
hitmaker DJ Khaled and producer E Class.
Enduring a tough workout isnt foreign to
Ross, who played offensive line at Albany State
University in Georgia.
WINNING WITH WINGS
Ross stopped eating certain foods such as bread,
white rice and fish fillets, and began drinking
less alcohol. But he hasnt eliminated one of his
favorite foods: lemon pepper wings.
The rapper, who owns nine Wingstop franchises
around the country, said he stops by the
restaurant at least twice a week when hes in
town. Hes trying to keep a good balance, though,
by eating foods like Branzino and fruits such
as pears. Im not under no stress of what Im
eating, he said. There are no restrictions. Im
not trying to make a particular weight. Im just
working out and doing whats best for Rozay.
Online:
http://www.rickrossmastermind.com/activity

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179

Cumberbatch
Decodes Turing in
Imitation Game

With characters like Sherlock Holmes, Julian

Assange and Stephen Hawking, Benedict
Cumberbatch has accumulated a filmography
littered with high IQs.
Characters of analytical prowess and fastdeducting intellect have made Cumberbatch
something like the ultimate quicksilver
mind of the digital age. No actor has made
computation sexier.
Cumberbatch, relaxing in a Toronto hotel room,
quickly points out that he has - like his spineless
plantation owner of 12 Years a Slave or his
painfully shy son in August: Osage County
- played some pretty dull, ordinary people:
Lets say us. Ive done us, version of me and
you, he says.

180

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182

And yet Cumberbatch is clearly drawn to highly

complex, real-life characters under extraordinary
circumstances - roles that demand technical
preparation (an accent, a stammer), considerable
biographical research and a precision of
approach. Puzzles to be solved.
Maybe thats a fair one, he says, turning over
the idea. Maybe I do. I think for the reasons
people are attracted to those characters, as well.
You can never fully understand them. Theres
always a certain amount of enigma or mystery
to them.
Cumberbatchs latest riddle is Alan Turing, a
hugely important figure to World War II codebreaking and a computer science pioneer.
The Imitation Game, which opens in select
theaters Friday, is about how Turing and others
at Britains Bletchley Park solved the seemingly
unbreakable Enigma code used by the Germans
throughout WWII. Winston Churchill said Turing
made the single greatest contribution to the war,
but his achievement wasnt widely recognized
until recently, when the code-breakers work
was declassified.
Considering all of that, why the (expletive) isnt
he on the front cover of every school history
textbook? says Cumberbatch. Hes a properly
important figure in our culture.
The Imitation Game is only partly a traditional
wartime thriller. Its also a tragedy of social
close-mindedness. Turing was gay at a time
when homosexuality was illegal in Britain. He
was convicted of indecency in 1952 and then
chemically castrated. Two years later, just 41, he
killed himself by eating a cyanide-laced apple
(though there remains some debate about
his intentions).

183

I see somebody who was tragically damaged

and continually battered by an intolerant,
non-understanding world - the very world he
was trying to save and liberate from fascism,
says Cumberbatch.
The Imitation Game, directed by Norwegian
filmmaker Morten Tyldum and written by
Graham Moore, is a kind of ode to outsiders.
Cumberbatchs Turing isnt just different because
of his sexuality, hes utterly anti-social. Rarely
making eye contact, etiquette disinterested
the single-minded Turing. I dont care whats
normal, he says in the movie.
His Bletchley collaborators also included Joan
Clarke (Keira Knightley), a rare female in that
world. Knightley says the film is about trying to
celebrate differences because of the tragedies
that can occur when you destroy the people who
arent like you.
The films mix of historical drama with
contemporary resonance has won it acclaim
on the festival circuit and positioned it as an
Oscar contender. Especially lauded has been
Cumberbatchs depiction of a mathematical mind
wracked by repression.
He can play so many emotions at the same
time. Theres strength and vulnerability. Theres
arrogance and theres this lonely boy, says
Tyldum. Its not every actor that can play
a genius.
Knightley, a friend of Cumberbatchs since the two
worked together on Atonement, calls him the
sort of actor who never tries to simplify anything.
If its a complex person, he wants to dive into all
the complexities and try to get all the nuances
out, Knightley says. You completely believe
him in any of these roles, whether its Assange,
Stephen Hawking, whoever. Hes very intelligent,
but hes got a curiosity you can see and it sort of
burns through his performances.

184

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Cumberbatch, however, makes no claim to

cleverness. Of Sherlock, he credits its writer:
Steven Moffat is the brain. I just say it fast.
With no footage to draw from for Turings
manner and speech, Cumberbatch met with
his relatives. The actor began many of his days
jogging. (Turing was an elite runner.) And he
worked at crafting a plausible stutter for the
famously awkward mathematician. Still, playing a
man of such brainpower was challenging.
Im not stupid but Im not that smart. So I
can at least lend something of that within the
performance, like maybe the alacrity of thought,
making fast connections, says Cumberbatch.
But when you actually start talking about
the language he used to get to those stunning
conclusions, you might as well ask me to write my
name in Mandarin.
After The Imitation Game, the 38-year-old Brit,
who recently announced his engagement to
Sophie Hunter, is ready for a simpler equation.
Ive done evil. Ive done good. Ive done smart,
says Cumberbatch. I havent done much sexy,
sexy, really. I know Sherlocks some peoples
cup of tea. Id like to do a romantic comedy.
I really would.

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