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Look who’s back in the home decorating world. It’s Martha Stewart, and her line was in full force at Macy’s Ala Moana.

Don’t call it a comeback!

After watching KGMB9’s new morning newscast, Sunrise, for this past week, I’d say they’re off to a solid start. I appreciate the effort of fighting their way into an already crowded morning news crowd amongst KHON, KITV, and KHNL. I called Sunrise professional and boring because I had high expectations for this show featuring an experienced staff of Steve Uyehara, Grace Lee, Howard Dicus, Ramsay Wharton, and Jeff Booth.

But then again, this is the morning news which isn’t exactly breaking new ground on a fast pace. So I think Sunrise held their own with the other stations in their first week on the air and can succeed.

The staff was still getting comfortable with each other, but after watching Steve Uyehara’s profile followed by the Hunks of KGMB, you know they are on their way.

I may not permanently switch from watching the KHON Morning News, but I’ll flip to Sunrise for a look.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, KGMB

While I haven’t specifically tracked the format of KGMB9’s Sunrise, my basic impression is their newscast is geared for those on the go in the mornings. It feels like the Sunrise newscast is delivered in 10 minute blocks where you can pretty much get everything in that 10 minutes.

Of course, you start with a generous helping of traffic and weather. Then you’ll get three to four top headlines, some commercials, synopses of traffic and weather, and usually one special segment by Howard Dicus or Ramsay Wharton. Then repeat. So if you’re in a rush to get out that door in the mornings, this is a good format. Ten minutes are you’re caught up with the major news.

Day 4 of Sunrise showed big strides in the comfort level of the staff. They seemed more relaxed and were able to “mix it up” on the air. Steve Uyehara’s 10-minute profile was a definite highlight followed by Jeff Booth’s hilarious Hunks of KGMB mockup. Seeing the scotch tape on the pictures was so ghetto, it was perfect!

Update: Thanks to KGMB itself for making this video of the Hunks of KGMB available!

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, KGMB

Is it officially true? Has Kanye West’s Graduation outsold 50 Cent’s Curtis in the first week of availability? The numbers say so with Graduation sales topping 957,000 to Curtis’ 691,000.

Will 50 Cent actually retire from his solo career, or will this just turn into a publicity stunt? 50 has already cancelled 3 European
tours which could be attributed to his retirement.

So how did Kanye West win the rappers’ battle? By changing his game, that’s how.

I’ll admit it. When I first listened to Graduation, I was disappointed with the music. I was ready for some radio-friendly tunes like Stronger and previous hits like Gold Digger, Touch the Sky, and Diamonds from Sierra Leone. But instead, Kanye changed it up. Instead of relying on past success, he went fresh, changing his style and the game.

Listen to Graduation’s retro-infused raps with samples and loops from old school classics then listen to Kanye’s lyrical genius, and you’ll hear award winning material, and you’ll understand why Kanye West came out a champion.

Technorati Tags: Kanye West, music

On day 3 of watching KGMB9 Sunrise in the morning, I noticed some small improvements, especially with the interactions of the crew. It took about one hour, but there it was – fun banter between Grace Lee, Howard Dicus, Steve Uyehara, and Jeff Booth!

At 6:07, Howard was finishing up his business new segment commenting how Hawaii was special as the only US producer of chocolate, vanilla, and coffee. Grace then quipped how special Howard was. Going to commercial break, Steve intro-ed an upcoming comparison of OJ Simpson’s arrests noting that the “Juice has been in a jam before.” Nice alliteration. And finishing up, Jeff Booth added to the chocolate, vanilla, coffee comment saying those are his wife’s three favorite flavors of ice cream. Nice back-to-back-to-back combination.

So after shaking off the early morning grogginess and running through the scripted newscast for the first hour, the Sunrise crew woke up! Yay!

But as a point of comparison, KHON2’s crew of Kirk, Kathy, Manolo, and displaced Justin Cruz got into it only after a few minutes of starting their newscast. Before 5:10 (I think), Manolo was explaining to Justin how he had the tough duties of reviewing restaurants and food establishments for the public’s benefit while everyone else had to stay in the newsroom. Justin was jealous and incredulous whereupon Manolo said, “You sound just like Trini!”

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, KGMB, KHON

It’s only the second day of KGMB9’s Sunrise morning news broadcast, and already I’m getting a little bored with its professionalism. I watched about 45 minutes worth this morning and couldn’t resist the urge to channel surf to see what Kirk and the KHON2 crew were up to. Here’s what it felt like watching Sunrise – lead off with weather and traffic, top stories of The Boat, Superferry troubles, OJ Simpson’s bizarre arrest, weather and traffic, commercial, weather and traffic, Howard Dicus segment, then repeat starting with weather and traffic. You get the idea.

And I think there’s too much use of that high tech island map fly through especially during the news segments. The fly through is appropriate for the Traffic Tracker, but when there’s a report of a stabbing, do I really need to see where the stabbing geographically occurred on the island? I don’t think so.

Instead, I think KGMB should showcase the fresh faces of their talent while reporting these stories. I’d rather see more of Grace Lee and even Steve Uyehara (yes, I have enough testosterone to admit Steve ain’t a shabby looking dude) reporting the story than watching a flying map. All around, the cast of Sunrise might have the most attractive lineup of all the morning news shows. Hmmm, do I sense another Pulpconnection Hottest Local Newscasters contest? Grace, Steve, Howard, Jeff Booth, and Ramsay Wharton are all pretty good looking, especially with the absence of Mahealani Richardson (KITV) and Trini Kaopuiki (KHON).

Now if only the entire Sunrise cast can work on relaxing things a bit. Howard is Howard and is always entertaining. Jeff Booth is getting comfortable, squeezing in comments and remarks. Ramsay looked like she was having fun doing her live, on-site reporting. Grace and Steve got to get in the act. And you know it’s in them. At the end of Tuesday’s broadcast, the crew was gathered around reading fan mail and only then did the viewers get a sense of their personalities and a feel of their enthusiasm and excitement.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, KGMB, KHON, television

Caught some of the inaugural broadcast of KGMB9‘s morning news “Sunrise.” They played it safe with a conservative, professional format delivered by Steve Uyehara, Alabama-native Grace Lee, Howard Dicus, the newly-coifed Ramsay Wharton, and Jeff Booth. And was it me or was there a big emphasis on weather and traffic? It seemed like leading into a commercial break, an update on weather and traffic was given. Coming back from break, Jeff Booth was there with a blurb on weather and traffic, and in between news segments, there was yet more weather and traffic.

I’m hoping all this weather and traffic was due to a shortage of content for this inaugural broadcast and won’t be the norm. Although KGMB9 has a neat traffic display using a Google Earth-like flythrough that integrates the views from local traffic cams. And like rides at Disneyland, they provide estimated travel/wait times from specific locations. From the H1/H2 merge, it will take approximately 50 minutes to get to town. Neat though I don’t know how accurate or useful that really is.

I was hoping for a more relaxed, informal delivery playing off the personalities of the Sunrise crew. Howard Dicus is a hoot and according to Jeff Booth’s profile, he’s fun and exciting too, but you couldn’t tell from this installment. Everything was formal and straightfaced. Time together should improve their teamwork and chemistry.

I may switch from KHON to KGMB for the morning news mainly for Howard Dicus but right now, the crew of Kirk, Kathy, and Manolo still have an edge.

P.S. The KGMB9 web site is undergoing changes right now. Different (and brighter) look and promotes the Sunrise morning show.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, KGMB

Although Britney Spears continues to get pummeled in the press for her lackluster performance at the 2007 MTV VMAs, she may unexpectedly be the savior of rap music. Today marks the release of new music from rap’s hottest acts, Kanye West and 50 Cent. Each talented artist has a big ego with 50 saying he’ll quit his solo music career if West outsells him in the first week of sales.

Then came MTV’s VMAs with Britney’s forgettable performance to make both rappers realize they’ve both been played. MTV denied Kanye the opening spot to perform Stronger, opting for Britney’s Gimme More. Then Kanye was shut out during the ceremonies, not winning once despite five nominations. So instead of the rap artists winning any moonmen awards, the fair skinned Spears generated the controversy and Justin Timberlake won three awards and closed out the show.

The feud between the rap artists has got to be over with Kanye saying:

I looked at 50 like, yo, we need to help each other as much as possible.

Britney Spears may have indeed given us more.

Technorati Tags: Britney Spears, music

Not a positive sign but was already tired before actually getting to work. Had a decent night’s sleep. I think the thought of going to work is exhausting…

All I can say is that the Angry Asian Girl has gotten her revenge. Oh no, not directed towards me, but at her favorite alter-ego, Britney Spears.

The fallout from Britney’s “uninspired” performance at MTV’s VMAs on Sunday night continues…

Us Magazine says Brit was bawling backstage after opening the VMAs, and she reportedly fired her hairstylist right before going on stage.

Comedian Sarah Silverman blasted Britney, her career, her parenting skills, and uh, other things during Silverman’s monologue.

The New York Post says: “Spears was stuffed into a spangled bra and hot pants and jiggled like Jell-O as she sleepwalked through the song… She didn’t seem to care that she danced like she had a pantload, that her lips weren’t synched with the song, and that the tune isn’t all that great.”

USA Today recaps what others are saying about Britney’s comeback.

Wait, wait, wait… Britney’s average monthly income is $737,868!

Will add Britney’s performance ala YouTube later… Stop smiling Angry Asian Girl.

Here’s the vid. I really hope the mismatch of the lip syncing is made worse by the video encoding of YouTube because it’s really bad.

Technorati Tags: Britney Spears, music

I forgot that MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMAs) show was on Sunday night so I didn’t get a chance to see Britney Spears bomb on her comeback trail to open the VMAs. Here’s a few critiques of Brit’s performance:

Out-of-synch lip-synching. Lethargic movements that seemed choreographed by a dance instructor for a nursing home. The paunch in place of Spears’ once-taut belly. At times she just stopped singing altogether, as if even she knew nothing could save her performance.

Everybody knows Britney lip-syncs, but that’s because she dances so much. She barely even danced in this. It was so bad. It was painful. It was embarrassing.

Gimme more? Uh, no thanks.

Technorati Tags: Britney Spears, music

Anyone have recommendations for a good vacuum cleaner? In the past, we’ve had Hoover upright vacuums sold at Costco. Pretty good overall but had some recent problems. We got one last year but then the power switch stopped working right. It could go on easily but wouldn’t always turn off.

We bought a new Hoover at Costco this past week but out of the box, it’s broke. The rotating brush that picks up stuff from the carpet doesn’t roll. Other than getting a replacement Hoover, does anyone have any vacuum cleaner recommendations?

I kinda like the all-in-one package of an upright, but it don’t really matter.