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Two AJAM Executives Resign Following Ex-Employee Lawsuit

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Breaking: Following the filing of a lawsuit by a former employee today, Al Jazeera America’s executive vice president of human resources Diana Lee and the executive vice president of communications, Dawn Bridges, have both resigned.

The resignations came not long after attorneys for fired employee Matthew Luke filed a $15,000,000 lawsuit against Al Jazeera America and Osman Mahmud, a senior vice president at the network. As TVNewser first reported this evening, Luke claimed Mahmud created a hostile work environment and was prone to “making discriminatory, anti-Semitic and anti-American remarks such as ‘whoever supports Israel should die a fiery death in hell.”

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Casiotone MT-65, a classic 80’s Casio mini-synth

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The MT-65 used sound-generation chips that were shared by other Casiotones, but it was one of the few that had the physical controls to take full advantage of the chips capabilities.

The early years from 1980 to 1983 was Casio’s time of innovations and experimentation, where Casio made its first experiences creating musical instruments. Mainly because of their lack of experience, some of their designs are just plain stupid but at the same time, it is this exact lack of experience that led to some of the most wonderful keyboards during its early years, with great, weird, flexible, easy-to-use features that were never seen before and after, as nobody who knows anything about it would even think of features like Harmony Arrangers. All of the keyboards of this time are just great fun to play with and are worth owning; some of them (especially the VL-1, the PT-30, and the MT-65) belong to the greatest home keyboards ever.
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Gibson Buys Deckadance

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Image-Line has announced that growing Deckadance any further required our expanding so Gibson has acquired Image-Line’s Deckadance DJ music application and rights.

Growing Deckadance any further required our expanding into hardware development, says Image-Line CFO Frank Van Biesen, which would have diverted attention from our core business of developing FL Studio.

According to Gibson Brands CEO and Chairman Henry Juszkiewicz, We have many exciting plans for Stanton, and projects that will rejuvenate the DJ scene in the years to come. Acquiring Deckadance is a huge step forward in that direction.

Image-Line included this message to customers as part of its announcement:

As the sale was a friendly and strategic move for both companies, Image-Line and Gibson will collaborate closely to create the smoothest transition possible. You will receive instructions from us in the near future on how to migrate your Deckadance license and account to the Stanton side of the Gibson equation (under Stanton DJ).

We will continue to host Deckadance 2.43 (and activation keys) on our servers for the foreseeable future, but do encourage you to download and save a copy for your use until Stanton comes on stream.

Gibson has made several acquisitions recently, including the purchase of Cakewalk from Roland in 2013 and its recent purchase of music site Harmony Central.

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Teamsters, Other Basic Crafts Unions Reach New Three-Ye

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The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and Basic Crafts Unions announced Friday that they have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and Basic Crafts Unions announced Friday that they have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract. The deals are subject to ratification by union members, and terms were not released.

The Basic Crafts Unions are Teamsters Local No. 399 – notably, the drivers who move Hollywood gear – and four craft unions: the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 40, Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local No. 78, Studio Utility Employees Local No. 724, and Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons Local No. 755.

The new agreement runs August 1, 2015 through July 31, 2018.

Chairman of the Basic Crafts and secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 399, Steve Dayan said, “We were able to achieve good contracts for all of our covered members, while at the same time keeping Hollywood working. Under this agreement, we are able to ensure stability for the best work force on the planet.”

AMPTP President Carol Lombardini said, “We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the Basic Crafts Unions. The new agreement will keep productions working without interruption in the Los Angeles area, and provide certainty for producers and labor for the next three years.”

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Britney Spears to Launch Mobile Game

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Indulge your inner Britney Spears fan with this news: the pop icon will be getting her own mobile game, brought to you by Glu Mobile, a.ka. the makers of “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.” Your new guilty pleasure awaits.

It’s true, fashion ads enjoy pushing the boundaries of “tastefulness,” but now, the UK is pushing back. Cara Delevingne’s naked bathtub ad for Tom Ford’s Black Orchid perfume has been banned from appearing within 100 meters of any schools, with critics calling it “inappropriate” and “degrading to women.” Let the heated Internet discussions on censorship begin!

In just five short years, eyewear brand Warby Parker has changed the e-commerce game and built itself into an e-tail giant. On Thursday it was announced that the hipster-friendly company had raised another $100 million in funding, raising its valuation to over $1.2 billion. The brand plans to use the funds to open more brick-and-mortar stores, with eight new locations scheduled to open by the end of this year.

George Clooney may have more in common with Kanye West than you’d think. Clooney, like West, is apparently “very involved” in helping his wife with fashion choices. According to an insider, the actor tells Amal Clooney what looks good and what doesn’t, and even installed a runway in their L.A. home for her to model the looks. Now that is true love.Source link

Find Lost Phone and More with Android Device Manager

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Carrying a smartphone around you is convenient but it worries you when you’ve misplaced the device somewhere, even more so if you keep confidential data on it.

To help you find your misplaced phone or to mitigate the mishap, check out this app Android Device Manager developed by Google. It helps ring your phone, reset your password or wipe your data on the phone remotely.

For it to work, install Android Device Manager on your mobile device, then go to Settings, select Security and choose Android Device Manager to act as your device administrator so that it has permission to lock or wipe your lost phone.

Whenever you’ve misplaced your phone, open up a web browser and head to https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager, sign in to your Google account, you will then be able to locate your phone on a Google map and take any of the actions below.

  • Ring Device: press the Ring button and your device will ring at full volume for 5 minutes even if the phone has been muted. Good luck if your phone is just somewhere nearby and you can hear it.
  • Reset Lock Screen: enter a new password to replace your lock screen. This adds a layer of protection to assign a new password to your device for signing in.
  • Erase All Data: perform a factory reset and your apps, photos and other data except those on the SD card will be deleted as soon as the lost device goes online.

If you’re using Chrome, it’s even easier. Just type “find my phone” in the address bar. You can then locate your phone and ring the device. No lock and erase functions are currently available in this shortcut though.

Better be safe than sorry, this is a must-have app to safeguard your phone.

Android Device Manager — Free Mobile App of the Week

For Android
Size: 1.9 MB
Download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.adm&hl=en

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Towkio + Jubilee’s Miami Bass Compilation

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Chicago’s SAVEMONEY crew has been making some serious noise in the past couple of years.

Led by Chance The Rapper and Vic Mensa, SAVEMONEY are a hip hop crew at their core, but what makes them so special as a collective is their willingness to constantly reach outside that box.

Whether it’s the more traditional elements of hip hop like funk, soul, disco, and jazz, they’re able incorporate all styles of music to into their world, while still maintaining their own distinct voices as rappers.

The latest member of the crew to release work is Towkio with his .WAV Theory mixtape.

My interest in this .WAV Theory was piqued about a month ago when Towkio put out “Heaven Only Knows” on his Soundcloud; it’s a track produced by Lido and featuring Chance The Rapper that embodies all the things that set SAVEMONEY apart from everyone else.

Elsewhere on the mixtape, you get a couple of Kaytranada productions, including a favorite of mine called “Involved” featuring Vic Mensa, and appearances by Donnie Trumpet, The Social Experiment, and Leather Corduroys.

Stream .WAV Theory in its entirety HERE or just go ahead and download it all HERE for free.

VA – Jubilee Presents Magic City

In spite of the fact that it’s located in Florida, Miami is a pretty cool city with an interesting in modern musical history.

The music that’s emanated from the Magic City has generally had a bit of a sleazy bent to it (and I don’t mean that in a bad way).

It is, after all, the city where Blowfly and the 2 Live Crew made their name.

Aside from sleaze, the other thing Miami is famous for is BASS.

A new compilation curated by DJ/producer and Miami native, Jubilee, shines a spotlight on the new generation of artists that are either from Miami or have been inspired by the city’s sound and is a must for any DJ or bass enthusiast.

Florida Breaks legend DJ Icey is probably biggest name on the comp, but there’s also a killer remix by Night Slugs affiliate Helix and an awesome Plies remix by spazzy up and comer, Snappy Jit.

Stream Jubilee’s Magic City compilation below or download it all http://soundcloud.com/jubileedj/sets/jubilee-and-opening-ceremony/s-kVmL5

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TV Ratings: ‘Shark Tank’ Spinoff Opens Strong, ‘Blue Bloods’ Jumps in Finale

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Beyond the Tank’ is Friday’s highest-rated debut in over a year.

Two hours of Sharks worked well during its first night out on ABC. The premiere of Shark Tank spinoff Beyond the Tank opened to a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49, the highest-rated Friday launch in over a year.

The long-awaited coda to the entrepreneurial competition followed its parent series’ 1.6-rated outing, off two tenths of a point from last week’s Jenner-boosted episode.

CBS capped off another season of Blue Bloods, rising three-tenths of a point from its most recent episode for a 1.3 rating in the key demo. Both The Amazing Race (1.0 adults) and Hawaii Five-0 (1.2 adults) held steady before.

Elsewhere in scripted, NBC’s Grimm (0.9 adults) and the CW’s Messengers (0.2 adults) were both steady.

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Hollywood’s Latest Timepiece Trends

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Illustration by: Kavel Rafferty

This story first appeared in the May 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Over a decade ago, I noticed a male colleague of mine at Endeavor (now WME) wearing a 44mm diameter Audemars Piguet. Then it seemed everyone — friends, associates, athletes and celebrities — was sporting large-faced timepieces. The look was flashy, confident and an uber-masculine way to signal status and spending power. I fell in love with a 42mm stainless-steel Breitling Chronometre, my first large-faced luxury timepiece. Over time, the trend went extreme. Arnold Schwarzenegger sported an outrageous 53mm U-Boat — not quite beer-can diameter, but getting there.

Perhaps it’s just the fashion pendulum swinging back again, or men’s style maturing overall, but a lot of guys in Hollywood now are wearing smaller watches. I was at dinner recently with a few industry friends (agents, attorneys, executives) and all of the gentlemen were wearing expensive watches, but they weren’t chunky. They ranged from a Bremont to a Patek to a Rolex Milgauss — all elegant at 38mm to 40mm. As stylist Miles Siggins, who dresses Ryan Seacrest, tells me, “There is a definite trend to smaller, thinner cases, like the Zenith Ultra Thin, that started a year or so ago.”

Read more I

WC Designs One-of-a-Kind to Support Tribeca Film Institute

Meanwhile, some of the brands associated with oversizing are downsizing. You now can get 40mm and 42mm from Panerai. The majority of Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Offshores went from 44mm to 42mm last year. And Breitlings that were once a whopping 48mm are offered at a (still husky) 44mm. “The watch industry is now trying to find a happy medium around 40mm to 42mm. Some manufacturers are even offering the same watch in different sizes,” says watch collector and Los Angeles Clippers shooting guard J.J. Redick, who, even at 6-foot-4, prefers elegant 37mm to 39mm watches by F.P. Journe and Patek Philippe. (Some watches that I currently love in the 38mm to 40mm range are a Vacheron Constantin, an I

WC Chronograph and the rose-gold Panerai Radiomir.)

At the same time, Swiss makers are releasing women’s watches bigger than some of the men’s styles. At the Baselworld watch fair in March, Tag Heuer debuted a special-edition Carrera (with British supermodel Cara Delevingne) black-on-black watch that measures 41mm across. Both Parmigiani and Tissot brought out 42mm women’s watches. “The boyfriend jean has become ubiquitous … why not steal the boyfriend’s watch, too?” says stylist Jeanne Yang (whose client list includes Christian Bale). “For women, there’s a certain masculine, cool, powerful look to it.”

Read more John Mayer is Completely Obsessed With Watches

Don’t get me wrong: Large-faced watches for guys are not going away. Watch devotees always will own at least one large-faced watch and one smaller timepiece. Large watches look great for when you are active and not wearing a dress shirt. The only rule is that a watch shouldn’t be so big that the lugs stick out past your wrist. While a mega 48mm Hublot might look great on Michael Strahan, for the rest of us with smaller wrists, it won’t. As a style consultant, if there is one piece of advice I can impart, it’s that wearing a watch is like wearing clothes. Don’t let your timepiece wear you; you wear the timepiece. 

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No Stranger Than Love’: Newport Beach Review

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The Bottom Line

There’s nothing there

Venue

Newport Beach Film Festival (Closing Night)

Cast

Alison Brie, Justin Chatwin, Colin Hanks

Director

Nick Wernham

Given so many romantic comedies are crushingly conventional in both style and content, it’s hard not to give No Stranger Than Love credit for taking a interesting risk with its basic, batty premise: Just before schoolteacher protagonist Lucy (Alison Brie) is about to have sex with her married colleague Clint (Colin Hanks), a three-foot-wide hole magically opens up beneath his feet, plunging him into an extra-dimensional abyss where he spends the rest of the film, alive and audible but suspended in total blackness.

However, although that striking inciting incident sets up expectations for something inventive and edgy — a little bit Charlie Kaufman-esque, say, with a dash of Groundhog Day sci-fi surrealism by way of early Hal Hartley — sadly the rest of director Nick Wernham’s debut, written by Steve Adams, is disappointingly bland and dramatically wan, and laced with some painfully pretentious dialogue. Hard-core fans of Community and Mad Men’s incomparable Brie (for we are many) could raise an indulgent cult following for this offbeat item on VOD platforms, but theatrical distributors will be less affectionate.

It seems like every guy in the small town where pretty, kind-hearted Lucy Sherrington (Brie) lives is besotted with her, from the principal (Jonathan Potts) and science teacher Vernon (Mark Forward) at the high school where she teaches art, to the town drunk (Paul Fauteux) and the local garbage men. Lucy can’t get through a single day without three guys hitting on her or declaring undying love, but she declines each advance with her characteristic sweetness and gentle forbearance. Clint Coburn (Hanks), the school’s football coach, is in with a better chance than most, even though he’s married to Verna (Robin Brule, an MVP brought in far too late in the narrative game). But on the night they’ve decided to consummate their love, that aforementioned hole opens up in the middle of Lucy’s living room floor, which rather kills the moment.

Although the two are understandably shocked and baffled by this peculiar turn of events, Clint is unharmed and can be heard even though he seems to be thousands of feet from the surface. He sort of begins to enjoy the flotation tank-like experience of hovering in total blackness. More worried about being busted for adultery than anything else, Lucy and he agree to keep his situation a secret until she can aquire enough rope to haul him out. When Rydell (Justin Chatwin), a soulful tough guy with a penchant for poetry writing, shows up in town looking for Clint to collect on a gambling debt, he seems like the perfect candidate to pin suspicion on for Clint’s absence. But then Lucy and Rydell start to feel a mutual attraction, and it gets complicated.

In actual fact, the script’s problem is a distinct lack of complication that would enrich, build on and harmonize with the whole portal to another dimension thing. It’s not a problem there’s a hole, as it were, in the common-sense logic of the film’s world; it’s that there’s a big, gaping hole where the illogic should be, a whole lot of nothing where there should be metaphor, playfulness, all that juicy, enigmatic, magical-realism stuff that helps films like Being John Malkovich and its many knockoffs become fodder for film-studies essays.

Adams’ dialogue tries to compensate by having some of the characters deliver excruciatingly unconvincing speeches about what the hole might mean (one calls it a “peephole into the vast landscape of our ignorance,” and “exhilarating and humbling view into our frailties and limitations,”) but no one looks like they’re either convinced or even care that much.

As the perky, popular and impossibly nice protagonist, Brie does her best to make this goody-two-shoes less obnoxious than she might have been, but it’s clearly a slog. It’s also possibly a retrograde career move, a step back to the sort of cutesy ingenues she should be growing out of by now. And it doesn’t help that of the dozen or so men who are supposed to be in love with her in the story, she chooses to fall for the dullest, most self-pitying one on offer.

Production companies: An Innis Lake production in association with Pangaea Pictures
Cast: Alison Brie, Justin Chatwin, Colin Hanks
Director: Nick Wernham
Screenwriter:Steve Adams
Producer: Paul Fler
Executive producers: Nick Wernham, Simon Wernham, Jeffrey Latimer, Julia West, Fred Roos, Richard Wernham
Director of photography: Michael LeBlanc
Editor: Michelle Szemberg
Production designer: Adam William Wilson
Costume designer, Alex Kavanagh
Composer: Geoff Zanelli
Casting: John Buchan, Jason Knight
Sales: Innis Lake

No rating, 90 minutes

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