The Onion x Toronto [MEDIA]

The free satirical U.S. newspaper The Onion hit Toronto newsstands today, bringing along its wry humour and spin on current events. Partnering with The A.V Club Toronto, the weekly paper will have 50,000 copies at 600 locations across the city.

This is the first time The Onion is publishing outside the United States, and Steve Hannah, president and CEO of Onion, Inc., calls it the ideal fit. “It’s an obvious choice,” said Hannah in a telephone interview. “Toronto is a cosmopolitan, sophisticated, hip, cool town. It’s a music town. The film festival, we’ve been covering it for years.”

No you’ll have something cool to read while you’re riding our underfunded public transit system all over town.

The New Commandments [VIDEO]

Christopher Hitchens, in a most audacious, and darkly humorous fashion revisits the holy commandments in an effort merge them with modernity.


Check out the full Vanity Fair article here.

CNN, Vice Magazine Partner For Video Deal [MEDIA]

photo courtesy of http://www.brandnewsoup.com/

The hipster bible and the most trusted name in news are teaming up for a release of online video documentary every Wednesday, starting this week, the new web series will be produced by VBS.TV. The first feature, "Vice Guide to Liberia" follows Vice's founder Shane Smith as he travels through the the country's slums interviewing ex-war lords and residents.

via Business Insider

Ben Bernanke Is Time’s "Person of the Year" [NEWS]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2009. Arguably the most powerful man in the world, due to the fact that he controls the USD which is where the buck stops, so to speak. Named the person of the year for his role in containing the near economic collapse felt around the world last year, it's somewhat a moot accolade as it can be argued that the Fed was at the root of the near collapse.

Last year's winner was then-President-elect Barack Obama. The 2007 winner was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Other contenders included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and Usain Bolt (Go yard!), who each received shorter profiles in the Person of the Year issue.

___

On the Net: Time Magazine

Disney to Buy Marvel for $4 Billion [BUSINESS]

I'm talking 4 comma, 9 zeros. Dot zero. Here we go! LOL Will this change the creative nature of any of the forthcoming films?

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Co. is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E.

Under the deal, which was announced Monday and is expected to close by the end of the year, Disney will acquire the rights to 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee.

Disney CEO Robert Iger said Marvel's comic books, TV shows, movies and video games amounted to "a treasure trove of content." Iger said the deal would bring benefits like the ones Disney got from buying "Toy Story" creator Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion in stock in 2006.

"The acquisition of Marvel offers us a similar opportunity to advance our strategy," Iger said, and "to build a business that is stronger than the sum of its parts."

Read the rest of the story here.

Jay-Z x Billboard Magazine July/August 2009 [COVER]

Re: Autotune

"In hip-hop our job is, once a trend becomes a gimmick, to get rid of it."

-Jay-Z

Stephen Colbert Guest Editor for Newsweek Mag [COVER]

I'm thinking I can take cues a go heavy this Caribana with "YAADI" etched in the side of my joint! No? Okay than.

I wanted to find the answers. So when Jon Meacham asked me to guest-edit NEWSWEEK, I jumped at the chance, particularly because my guest editorship at Mature -Honeys fell through. I guess my photo essay of sexy housewives reenacting the Battle of Fallujah was too "real" for them.

Read the whole story: Newsweek

Jonah Hill x Complex Mag [COVER]

"Jonah Hill...just beat it! *So we let him keep the glove."

LOL


Check the cover story at Complex

Charlie Gibson x Lil' Wayne On "Jimmy Kimmel Live" [VIDEO]

Charlie and Lil' Wayne play Scrabble:

Charles Gibson or Lil' Wayne? The Game!

Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li Official Trailer [VIDEO]

Ahhh snap! Michael Clarke Duncan is Balrog! Read more here.

Obama Mad Magazine Cover: Spoofs President's First 100 Days

First Marvel Comics, now Mad Magazine. President Barack Obama, who was given the illustrious honor of appearing on the cover of Marvel's "Amazing Spider-Man" comic earlier this month, is now being spoofed courtesy of Mad magazine. Playing off the theme of his 'first 100 days,' the magazine's cover features a stressed-out Obama puffing away on cigarettes as he scans dire newspaper headlines during his "first 100 minutes."

Read the rest of the story here.

American Apparel x Porn Stars [ADVERTISING]

Often described by journalists and bloggers--and rightfully so--as bordering on soft amateur pornography, American Apparel fully embraces the reputation with a new wave of ads that feature women from the adult industry as models.

Read the rest of the story here.

LeBron James On GQ Cover For February 2009

After the controversial April 2008 Vogue cover, which featured the Cleveland Cavaliers star with (now-engaged) Gisele Bundchen in a King Kong like pose, LeBron James appears on the February 2009 GQ cover.

"LONG LIVE THE KING!" the cover-line shouts, "LeBron James is only 24 and just getting started."

The cover article, written by Joel Lovell and photographed by Nathaniel Goldberg, tells the tale of six GQ staffers who challenged LeBron to a game of basketball.

Read the article at GQ.com.

via Huffpo

66th Golden Globes Awards

One of the biggest/expected award for the night! Some of my other favourites Slum Dog Millionaire, 30 Rock, Mad Men, and John Adams cleaned up rather nicely as well!

I didn't see this coming, but I'm not surprised either.

WASHINGTON — Spider-Man has a new sidekick: The president-elect.

Barack Obama collected Spider-Man comics as a child, so Marvel Comics wanted to give him a "shout-out back" by featuring him in a bonus story, said Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor-in-chief.

"How great is that? The commander in chief to be is actually a nerd in chief," Quesada said. "It was really, really cool to see that we had a geek in the White House. We're all thrilled with that."

The comic starts with Spider-Man's alter-ego Peter Parker taking photographs at the inauguration, before spotting two identical Obamas.

Parker decides "the future president's gonna need Spider-Man," and springs into action, using basketball to determine the real Obama and punching out the impostor.

Obama thanks him with a fist-bump.

Marvel comics have featured most presidents, but generally in walk-on roles, Quesada said.

"I think President Nixon might have appeared on the cover, but not in a good way," he said.

Obama has said that as a child, he collected Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comic books. His Senate Web site used to have a photo of him posing in front of a Superman statue.

The Obama story is a bonus in Marvel Comic's Amazing Spider-Man #583, available in comic book shops nationwide on Jan. 14 for $3.99 and is expected to sell out, with half the covers devoted to Obama.

Via HuffPo

VIBE Magazine Cover February [Kanye West]

"I am rap" LOL

See Vibe’s playlist of Yeezy’s 10 Worst Songs.

via Nah Right

Twitter Accounts Being Hacked!

A flurry of high-profile Twitter accounts have been hacked, most prominently the Fox News account, which has declared that Bill O'Reilly is gay.

Fox News' Twitter posted an update, since deleted, Monday morning announcing, "Bill O Riley is gay."

CNN's Rick Sanchez, a prominent Twitter user, was also hacked. His malicious tweet read, "i am high on crack right now might not be coming to work today."

Britney Spears's Twitter also fell victim, with hackers announcing that her vagina is "4 feet wide with razor sharp teeth."

Update: Barack Obama's Twitter, which hasn't been used since November 5, has also been hacked. The Washington Times points out that a message was posted around 12:30 PM eastern time promoting a survey on Obama:

A message sent about 12:30 eastern time alerted the president-elect's tens of thousands of Twitter followers of a new message: "What is your opinion on Barack Obama? Take the survey and possibly win $500 in free gas." The message then linked to an odd two-question survey on a third party's Web site.

The post was taken down shortly after it was posted.

via HuffPo

New York Times Sells Front Page Display Ads For First Time

Happy New Year everyone! I'm back, and with something some of you might find interesting, I definitely did! Given the prestige of the newspaper I wouldn't expect something like this, but given the financial climate I probably shouldn't have been surprised. I read the article and walked away with the same sentiments as one of the commentators. Taking a guess that the front page would run you about 100k, 100,000 x 365 = 36.5 million. If this can keep folks at work, then more power to you. I guess the worry is that you turn the newspaper into say ad free for all.

NEW YORK — The New York Times, facing falling ad revenue like other newspapers, became the latest paper Monday to run graphical advertising on its front page.

The Times already has been selling such ads on the front pages of its business and other sections since 2006, and it has run tiny classified text ads on the front of its main section before. Graphical advertising, known as display ads, on the main front can command even greater prices, given the visibility.

"This high-impact placement represents an exciting new opportunity for our advertisers," said Denise Warren, chief advertising officer for The New York Times Media Group.

Although front-page ads might have been unthinkable years ago, today they hardly prompt a blink.

"I don't know how sacrosanct that front page is in a newspaper," said Sree Sreenivasan, a journalism professor at Columbia University. "I don't think in this particular economic climate, (you can) hold on to something for the sake of so-called tradition."

Read the rest of the story here.

Essence Magazine Dedicates January Issue To Obama

Essence may have scooped Vogue, sort of, in being the first women's magazine to put Michelle Obama on its cover since the presidential election, but the Time Inc. title did so by relying on archival images. Essence's January issue is dedicated to President-elect Barack Obama, with essays and commentary from Maya Angelou, Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Gwen Ifill and other notable African-Americans.

Read the whole story here.

via WWD

John Forte to Receive Bush Pardon!

This is crazy because I was just in the car this past weekend on the way to the club bumping a Fugees record, and one my homies was like “Yo...it’s a been minute since I’ve heard some John Forte” We then went on to talk about the $1.14 million dollars worth of liquid cocaine he was caught carrying.

But nonetheless this is excellent news! Especially for http://freejohnforte.com/
I think you can take a guess as to the go&d Friday classic this week!

WASHINGTON — President Bush granted 14 pardons and commuted two prison sentences on Monday, but the benefactors included none of the big names who had become the topic of speculation as Mr. Bush leaves office.

Mr. Bush has been relatively sparing in his use of pardons compared with past presidents, and the latest round of actions continued that pattern.

The closest any of the defendants came to celebrity was John E. Forté, a hip-hop artist and backup singer to Carly Simon who was convicted of aiding and abetting in the distribution of cocaine. (Ms. Simon put up the bail of $250,000 for Mr. Forté when he was arrested in 2001 at Newark International Airport.) Mr. Forté was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but Mr. Bush commuted the remainder of his sentence.

Read the rest of the story here.