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Selasa, 11 November 2014

Taylor Swift's 'Blank Space' Director Details Interactive App

Taylor Swift's director for new video "Blank Space" has revealed details of the video's new interactive app.

By Brittany Spanos | November 11, 2014

Embarking on villainous terrain isn’t the only surprise to come with Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" video. Fans can now engage with an app created around the story and never-before-seen extras the star pulled for the experience.

Helmed by "Blank Space" video director Joseph Kahn and created by Radical Media, the "American Express Unstaged Taylor Swift Blank Space Experience App" allows fans to dive beneath the linear video and unlock secrets in the mansion, follow minor characters and hunt for 41 collectibles that shows fans never-before-seen photos and more from Swift’s life.

Over the course of three days in September, Swift, Kahn and Co. decamped to Long Island's Oheka Castle and Walworth Mansion in Saratoga Springs, NY to put together a complex and one-of-a-kind experience that is as much about the singer exploring unchartered territory for her image as it is providing new and fun features for fans.

"In the app, it’s non-linear in that you can be in any of the rooms whenever, but it’s done in linear time," explains Kahn. "It’s like a stage play." Encouraged to watch the linear video first, fans can then choose to experience the "choose-your-own-adventure" version of the video from the home screen. The video starts up again, but users can choose to either follow Swift and her fictional beau, played by male model Sean O’Pry and handpicked by the singer, or explore the universe outside of just their story.

"Taylor and [Sean] can’t be edited, but you as the audience can look around as much as you want," details Kahn. "You have to watch the whole thing unfold essentially like a piece of theatre." The video is reminiscent of the interactive MacBeth-inspired play Sleep No More, where audiences walk around the rooms as the play unfolds, choosing which characters to follow or scenes to watch in full over several hours. In "Blank Space," three other minor male characters also have stories available to follow as the protagonists fall in and out of love on the premises.

Immersive and connected to the user’s relation to space, the app moves with the user if they were to spin or move their bodies while holding their smart phone or tablet. While listening through headphones, noises move with the location of the user in a virtual room.

Created with superfans in mind, the experience is addicting and filled with treats for those wanting to feel even closer to Swift. The clocks are changed to include Swift’s lucky number, 13, and a record player features a record by her grandma, Marjorie Finlay. Pictures of her cats and younger self are scattered throughout the rooms and placed in journals or albums. Updates and more features to unlock are expected to be added within a week of the app’s release to appease the more rabid of fans who may find all 41 collectibles within days of downloading the experience.

Available for free, the app can be downloaded directly through Google Play or in app stores. No Internet connection is needed to use the game, but the app does link to tour details and behind-the-scenes videos. "She’s the smartest artist I’ve worked with in 20 years of making music videos," muses Kahn. With the way tidbits of her life are scattered across the game, her engagement with fans may be the most seamless and immersive, even when she’s singing about an idea of herself rather than the real Taylor.

EW ranks the 'Halo' games in 'The Master Chief Collection'

By Jonathon Dornbush on Nov 11, 2014 at 5:51PM

@jmdornbush

With today’s release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, over a decade of Halo history has been assembled in one package to celebrate the franchise’s past–and do a smart bit of promotion for its future.
The collection combines Halo 1 through 4, highlighting every adventure in the franchise with Master Chief as the protagonist. While it doesn’t include the well-received spin offs Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST, the four main entries in the package highlight a number of the greatest moments in the fight between humanity and the Covenant.
But which of Master Chief’s adventures is the best, and which has withered with time? Having had a chance to revisit the classic titles as part of the collection, EW has ranked the four main Halo story campaigns from worst to best.

4. Halo 2 (originally released in 2004)
Jonathon Dornbush: Halo 2 made some important changes to the series—dual-wielding weapons, hijacking enemy ships—and yet it’s unfortunately the franchise’s weakest Master Chief excursion. I have to commend Bungie on keeping it a secret just how often you’d be playing as the Arbiter, but… you spend way too much time playing as the Arbiter. And late in the game there’s some giant plant talking to you or something. I tried to block that out for a few years. It is all undeniably gorgeous in remastered form and still controls well, but the follow-ups campaign stood firmly in the shadow of the game’s multiplayer options.
Favorite level: “Delta Halo,” a gorgeous outdoor level that created an impressive atmosphere in its original incarnation but now looks positively stunning in the Master Chief Collection remaster.
3. Halo 3 (originally released in 2007)
Aaron Morales: The jump to the Xbox 360’s more powerful hardware brought an even larger scale to the franchise’s already immense playgrounds, this time for up to four-players cooperatively. There’s a particularly memorable battle against two Scarab tanks—repeat, two Scarabs!—that shows Halo’s big battles at their best. With nearly every vehicle in the game available, players have a seemingly limitless number of ways to attack. It’s a brilliant, dynamic sandbox that few games even come close to rivaling. It’s a shame that the game essentially repeats the same nonsensical narrative arc as the first two, devolving into the same tired Flood battles yet again. No one likes fighting the mindless Flood, which explains our No. 2 pick.
Favorite level: “The Covenant,” a sprawling level that starts with a Spartan Laser, transitions to an epic outdoor encounter with two Scarbs, and culminates with a Gravity Hammer.
2. Halo 4 (originally released in 2012)
AM: After creating five Halo games in nine years, Bungie left the series behind to basically make a game that looks and plays a lot like Halo. It took a new developer to freshen up the series, and 343 Industries’ Halo 4 is a confident start of an all-new trilogy. It doesn’t stray from what made the series so great in the first place, playing up the good (big battles, vehicles) while jettisoning the bad (endless backtracking, repetitive level design). But best of all, it introduces a whole new race of enemies, the Prometheans, who actually play differently than the Covenant and Brutes you’d grown so accustomed to, which changes the combat dynamics considerably. Also, did we mention there’s no Flood?
Favorite level: “Reclaimer,” which starts aboard a mammoth transport vehicle dubbed… the Mammoth. The huge open areas are heavy on vehicles and big weapons to blow them up with.
1. Halo: Combat Evolved (originally released in 2001)
JD: There’s a sense of discovery and awe inherent in the first entry of any franchise, but Bungie nailed those aspects when it came to the first Halo. The initial chaos of the Pillar of Autumn being attacked, discovering the actual Halo, and duking it out with the Covenant are all unforgettable experiences. I still recall driving a warthog around the Halo for the first time—I think I sat slack jawed with friends for a good 20 minutes. Yes, the game includes the level “The Library,” but Halo delivers one of the most well-constructed shooter experiences around. And, more importantly, had Halo not been so successful, Microsoft and the Xbox brand might never have survived. And then players around the world would have been robbed of the pleasure of 12-year-olds shouting at expletives at them over Xbox Live.
Favorite level: A popular choice, but “The Silent Cartographer” is an impressively long but rarely tedious mission that employs all of Halo‘s best elements, while also introducing the brutality of Hunters.

108-year-old veteran, former POW honored in Austin

AUSTIN — Richard Overton, the oldest living United States veteran at 108 years old, accepted a box of cigars and a standing ovation last Veteran's Day with a humble demeanor and a beaming smile.
Overton, was born in Bastrop County, served in the Army during World War II and now lives in Austin. He served in the South Pacific from 1942-45. He sold furniture in Austin after the war and later worked for the state Treasurer's Office.
He drives and walks without a cane. During a television interview last March, he told a reporter that he doesn't take medicine, smokes cigars every day and takes whiskey in his morning coffee. The key to living to his age, he said, is simply "staying out of trouble."
More than 100 people packed a conference room at the Stephen F. Austin building in downtown Austin last November for a ceremony honoring Overton and Ken Wallingford, who spent 10 months in a tiger cage as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The event was overseen by the General Land Office and the Veterans Land Board.
“I've gotten so many letters and so many thank-yous and I enjoy every bit of it, but I'm still going to enjoy some more,” said Overton.
Wallingford, 65, shared his moving experience in captivity in the Cambodian jungle from April 1972 to February 1973, as the audience listened in amazement.
The Army sniper both laughed and became emotional as he told the terrorizing story and the triumphant recount of his return.
“As we look forward to Veterans Day I hope each and every one of us can remember those who have served, and importantly, those who serve today,” said Wallingford, the veteran's liaison for the Veterans Land Board.
Wallingford brought a food and water bowl, sandals, pajamas and photographs from his time in the prisoners' camp. His voiced cracked as he described his release and return to the United States.
“We weren't going to leave without you guys,” Wallingford remembered hearing in the Army helicopter on his way out.
President Lyndon B. Johnson offered Wallingford and the other POW's who returned with him the presidential suite and staff of the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, he said.
Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who served with the Marines, was not originally scheduled to be at the event, but said he canceled several appointments to ensure he didn't miss the chance to meet the decorated service members.
“I really just wanted to shake his hand,” Patterson said.
Bill McLemore, deputy commissioner for the Veterans Land Board and retired Army colonel, served with Wallingford.
“Most veterans are just looking to have someone reaffirm that what they've done was an honorable thing to do,” he said.

kparker@express-news.net

Twitter: @KoltenParker

Randy Moss 30 For 30 documentary "Rand University" set to air tonight on ESPN

If you’re a fan of the ESPN “30 For 30″ documentary series, and there’s no reason you wouldn’t be, you will want to pay full attention tonight.
At 7 p.m., a documentary about former Vikings WR Randy Moss will air for the first time.
We’re not just endorsing this, of course, because of the title of this particular documentary: Rand University. While it remains true that we will probably buy a shirt for ourselves and maybe members of our entire family (using straight cash, homey), we are mostly interested in the content of a film that will explore Moss’ early days growing up in Rand, W.V.
If you want to get ahead of the game, here’s an interview with director Marquis Daisy. Otherwise, make sure you are watching or DVRing tonight.

Idiot Finishes Serving His Seven-Week Olive Garden Pasta Pass Sentence

Aleksander Chan

Filed to: Olive Garden
Today 12:35pm

Idiot Finishes Serving His Seven-Week Olive Garden Pasta Pass Sentence

Alan Martin, the moron who strapped himself down to a chair in a Burlington, NC Olive Garden to shovel the pasta from his Never Ending Pasta Pass into his mouth for seven weeks, has finished his self-inflicted sentence.

The minister confirmed to Salon that in the span of seven weeks—in which he ate at Olive Garden twice a day, every day—he consumed 115 meals at the restaurant, or $1,840 worth of "pasta." He wrote to Salon by email:

It was worth it for the first bite of spaghetti and meatball! But it was worth it in more ways than just having happy taste buds. I was encouraged to see that our country still has jolly, fun people who love a good story, that root for the underdog and cheer when the little man wins. Of the comments I read and received, 99 percent were positive! The other 1 percent was at least funny… And I certainly am thankful for whoever invented chicken gnocchi soup!

But 'ol Alan, seemingly not content with the distinction of having choked down plate after plate after plate of Olive Garden and living to brag about it, goes for one more honor: He claims that he lost four pounds. And when Salon writer Joanna Rothkopf asks him where he ate Monday, his first day of out Olive Garden incarceration, he told her, "Nowhere—I went to the gym."

This man is a monster.

Alibaba and Others Push to Improve Delivery, on Singles’ Day in China

Golden Corral exec offers 6 secrets to building a powerhouse brand

Dephelia Horton holds her 11-month-old nephew Daybion Mason while dipping a strawberry in the chocolate fountain at Golden Corral on Capital Blvd. in Raleigh Nov. 6. The company got the idea for the fountain from an Asian restaurant in Indianapolis. PHOTOS BY VIRGINIA BRIDGES — vbridges@newsobserver.com

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/11/10/4304010/golden-corral-exec-offers-6-secrets.html#storylink=cpy

RALEIGH — Golden Corral hasn’t always been the master of the plentiful and affordable buffet.
The company started out 41 years ago as a family-friendly, entree-driven steak restaurant in Fayetteville.
By the 1980s, Golden Corral had opened about 500 restaurants similar to that one when competitors started to pull customers away with buffets.
“By the ’90s, we were given up for dead,” said Bob McDevitt, Golden Corral’s senior vice president of franchise development.
The company survived and ultimately thrived after a transformation that created today’s aggressive, buffet-driven brand that brought in more than $1.8 billion in revenue last year.
Last month, McDevitt shared some of the company’s challenges and successes in a keynote speech at the National Franchise Success Summit in Raleigh. Here are his six secrets to building a powerhouse brand.
All strategies ultimately fail, but the right mission can last a lifetime
Golden Corral founders James Maynard and William Carl opened the first restaurant in 1973 and sold steaks that started at $1.99 under the mission of “making pleasurable dining affordable.”
The company initially evolved into a corporate-owned chain of about 500 steakhouses from Virginia to Texas.
The 1980s, however, created a major stumbling block for the brand.
A couple of things were working against the company, said McDevitt, who started working for Golden Corral in 1994. First, Americans were advised by health officials to cut back on red meat, and steak became one of the first foods shunned by nutrition awareness campaigns.
Second, competitor Ryan’s, a restaurant with self-service buffets and large buildings, started popping up.
At first, Golden Corral leaders were hesitant to stray from their original strategy, but closing stores and declining revenues forced them to re-evaluate. They decided to move toward the buffet model with a plan to create restaurants like Ryan’s, but better.
The concept, first tested in 1988 in Lawton, Okla., was more successful than they had hoped. The challenge shifted to how the privately held company with limited capital would pay for the transformation.
“That’s when franchising came in,” McDevitt said.
In 1989, the company started franchising larger, buffet “metro stores,” which were designed to be successful in more populated areas. Golden Corral also sold franchises to people who were running existing, entree-driven locations, which were still doing well in smaller communities.
At the end of 2013, Golden Corral had 377 franchises and 125 corporate-owned restaurants in 40 states.
Ed Manns, 51, is a Charlotte-based co-owner of 17 Golden Corrals in the Carolinas and Pennsylvania. Manns said the company’s mission of making pleasurable dining affordable is reflected in various levels at the modern restaurants, from the price of the food to constant improvements to the layout of the dining rooms and food options.
Steal shamelessly. You don’t have to be cutting edge, but you have to be razor sharp
In other words, McDevitt said, you have to recognize good ideas.
Golden Corral incorporated an $80,000 upgrade at all its locations after Baltimore-based Cactus Willies started to pull customers from Golden Corrals in the area. Market research indicated customers preferred Golden Corral’s food and building, but chose Cactus Willies because it included grilled steak as part of its buffet.
“It was a really big idea, probably the biggest in our industry,” McDevitt said. “Cactus Willies, thank you very much.”
Other examples include a pot roast recipe given to Golden Corral executives by the owner of an independent restaurant in Nebraska and a mashed potatoes recipe that came from a cookbook marking a Texas-based competitor’s anniversary.
The Golden Corral chocolate fountain came about after Chief Operating Officer Lance Trenary passed an Asian buffet in Indianapolis with a line out the door.
“So he did a U-turn,” McDevitt said. “Lance went in and sure enough there were people with a stick and a strawberry waiting in line to dip it in the chocolate fountain.”
“Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers”
Robert Kriegel and David Brandt’s book with that title focuses on how companies can get rid of outdated and costly business practices.
For McDevitt, this means not letting internal resistance, such as “we have never done it that way” or “it’s too complicated” kill great products or ideas before they get off the ground.
Toot your own horn or someone else is liable to use it as a spittoon
When McDevitt started working for Golden Corral as the senior vice president of marketing in 1994, everybody knew the company’s marketing strategy.
“Your marketing budget is zero,” he said, “and you are fired if you exceed it.”
But as the company reinvented itself, communicating with customers became an integral part of the re-launch. Now the company and franchise owners contribute to an annual $37 million national advertising campaign.
The D in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) is real in the restaurant business
Depreciation is something that can suck the value out of a business, McDevitt said.
“Simply put,” he said, “a tired old facility is a competitive disadvantage.”
That is one reason Golden Corral requires facility updates every seven years.
The changes reinvigorate locations, arming them with modern benefits they need to stay fresh in the changing marketplace.
“I respect and like the requirement,” said Billy Sewell, 48, a Jacksonville-based franchisee who owns 29 Golden Corrals in six states.
Interiors get worn and tired, he said, and a new, redone space helps it look cleaner and rejuvenated. On average, Sewell sees a 3 to 20 percent increase in business after a remodel.
If two people in the business agree on everything, then one of them is unnecessary
Franchisees can make companies better, if leaders are willing to let them participate in key decisions, McDevitt said.
“They don’t care about your rank,” he said. “They care about, ‘Is this the right thing for their business,’ and boy will they keep you on the straight and narrow.”

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/11/10/4304010/golden-corral-exec-offers-6-secrets.html#storylink=cpy