Justin Bieber Death Threats – “Stay Out of Peru or Else!”

Some days it just doesn’t pay to be a mega millionaire rock star.

Teen pop sensation Justin Bieber has barley left Mexico on his way to Brazil as part of his South American concert tour and he is already getting death threats about performing in Peru.

Bieber has been warned by a Facebook fan site (that we will not name here) that when he comes to Peru, someone will jump on stage and push him off into a frenzied front row crowd armed with eggs and glass bottles who will kill him.

Hmmm.

Usually when you plan to murder someone you don’t broadcast to the World exactly how you are going to do it, or when or where, but hey – we’ve never been to Peru and are not familiar with their local murdering customs.

We don’t really see it as a possibility and suspect Bieber is taking this all in stride.

By Monday afternoon the fight had moved to twitter as well as Facebook, with twitter fans begging Bieber to stay safe.

Trending the hashtag "#BiebsStayOutOfPeru" one follower begged,

"We don't want you to get killed. You mean everything to us. Please, it's for your own safety!"

Bieber is not a newbie when it comes to these sorts of things either.

He has been the subject of many death threats, and death hoaxes over the years. Who can forget the screaming headline last year of “Justin Bieber is Dead”.

His girlfriend Selena Gomez and other past girlfriends have also been the target of death threats.

Yawn…..

The closet anybody has ever came to ruffing up the pop sensation was in Australia last year when a teenage boy climbed in through the arena roof and threw eggs at the singer while on stage.

Related: Bieber gets pelted with eggs in Australia – Video

Of course the teen was quickly arrested and now must suffer them shame of the World for being known as the kid who threw eggs at Justin Bieber.

Anyway, we suspect this threat will quickly fade and the show in Peru will go over just fine.

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Video - Mishka The Talking Husky Dog Video Viewed 55 Million Times – He is a Star!

Mishka the Husky is a star.

His owners have more videos of their talking dog Mishka then they do of their own children.

And it’s all because Mishka the Husky can talk.

Seriously – he can talk.

In fact, he not only talks but he can sing too.

One of his most popular videos is the “I Love You” video and it has already been viewed over 55 million times.



Mishka has his own YouTube Channel, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter Account, and has already been on numerous television shows including Regis and Kathy Lee.

He has even appeared in TV commercials and on several radio shows.

And he's also an entrepreneur.

He has written a book and sells his dog songs on iTunes and has a dedicated web site to sell his own t-shirts and bandanas.



He has even been profiled by Brian Williams on NBC’s “Nightly News” with Brian Williams – finally some news that is not bad news!

Mishka is a 9-year-old Siberian husky who has been trained to say certain words by his owner Matthew Gardea, 31, and his wife.

Matthew says,

"What I love about posting [the videos] is that it makes a lot of people happy. And that's really cool – to make a difference like that. People love their animals so much, they'd like to be closer to them – talk to them. But not everyone's dog has the ability to talk because not every dog wants to."

Matthews says when Mishka is not singing, talking, or making YouTube videos he likes to play, lay out in the sun, chase Squirrels and play with his brother and sister Husky’s Laika and Moki.



Justin Bieber's cat Spaz may have his own twitter account, but we have to believe that it is truly a dogs World these days.

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Ronan Parke’s Music Blocked in the U.S. by Sony Music – Dumb Move Sony

Sony Music has always been on the cutting edge of protecting their content from copyright violations, but when does that protection cut into the promoting of their own artists?

Many of you have heard about the young singing sensation Ronan Parke who wowed audiences as he came in second place last year on Britain’s Got Talent.

But how much of his music have you listened to? How many videos of him have you watched?

If you live in the United States the answer is probably “Not Much”.

You see, Sony has blocked most of Ronan’s music from IP addresses originating in the United States.

Just visit Ronan’s Official YouTube Channel and you’re met with the cryptic message,

"Ronan Parke - Ronan Parke Sings: Make You Feel My Love.

The uploader has not made this video available in your country.”

Okay, for us in the United States it looks like there are only two possible videos to watch on his official YouTube channel.

Really?

Just read a few pages of the YouTube comments from Ronan’s adoring fans and you can see that they are not happy with Sony. Good marketing?

This week, Ronan released an acoustic cover version of Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love” on his Facebook page – that’s the song that got him to second place on Britain’s Got Talent.

But if you live in the United States and click on the link you get a message from Sony and Vevo saying,

“Sorry, this video is not available in your region”

And to add insult to injury just go the Britain’s Got Talent website and try to watch a Ronan Parke video and you get the message,

“This Video is not available in your location”

Okay Sony – listen up.

The whole idea of using the internet to promote your artists is to build a fan base and gain as wide an audience as possible.

When you filter out entire countries from listening to your new stars then you should not be surprised when we don’t buy their albums or merchandise.

Related: Ronan Parke covers Lady Gaga “Edge of Glory” - Video

There is nothing worse than visiting an artist’s official Facebook or YouTube page and not being able to view the content that they are trying to promote.

It makes Sony look a the big bad corporate music label more interested in making money off young artists than the interaction between the fans and their favorite musician.

Take a tip from Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Usher, Rihanna, Greyson Chance, Cody Simpson, and virtually every NON Sony artist - they provide access to a vast amount of their material and encourage the linking and embedding of their music and videos everywhere they can.

And guess what?

We buy their albums, t-shirts, calendars, lunch boxes, posters, perfumes, and concert tickets.

When fans can’t get the access to a new artist then they quickly move on and find another one.

And when you actively promote them in the social media and my inbox but then block me from watching the very video you are promoting – then you look like a big bad Ogre.

You come across as old grey haired men with a shirt and tie sitting in big offices sporting mahogany furniture drinking martinis and counting your money.

And when you ask a musician to post a new video on their official Facebook page and then restrict who can watch - it makes you look like a dick of a company.

If you don’t want fans in the United States to see any of Ronan’s work than fine – we won’t buy his albums.

But what we don’t understand is why you can’t give Parke the same level of exposure you have given another Sony artist – Jackie Evancho?

Her first album went gold in two months and she is already getting Grammy nods.

Related: Young Jackie Evancho Goes Gold! Takes the World by Storm

Anyway, enough ranting.

I guess we’ll just have to wait for Ronan’s first album to come out to know what his new musical journey is all about.

But then again, maybe we’ll just forget about him and move on to another artist – “Kings of Leon” really has me excited these days.

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Video - Ronan Parke Does Lady Gaga “Edge of Glory” – Preps for First Album

Not a lot of people in the United Sates know who Ronan Parke is.

He came in second place in the “Britain’s Got Talent” television show last year and, much like our own United States AGT runner-up Jackie Evancho, seems to be doing pretty well for himself.

Ronan, who was only 12-years-old when he competed on BGT, has already been signed to a record label and is preparing his first studio album.

But it has not been an easy ride for young Ronan.

During the Britain’s Got Talent competition he and Simon Cowell were accused of rigging the competition.

Parke was accused of training in secret for two years under the care of Simon – who was also accused of paying for his vocal couch and buying his cloths and sitting him with a fashion coach.

In fact, the day before the final show Cowell actually called the police to try and stop the rumors.

Watch Ronan Parke Talk about BGT Scandal


Ronan started singing when he was only three and has been taking singing lessons the last two years. After singing at a few birthday parties he decided to enter the BGT auditions.

He blew away the judges and audience, and was booked for the show and made it all the way to second place.

Watch Ronan Parke Sing on Britain's Got Talent


But now the show is over and Ronan has been in the studio after being signed by Simon Cowell’s record label.

He has also been performing live shows and has appeared at the Manchester Opera House, The True Loves Academy in London, The Edge Festival in Edinburgh, and at The Kazimier in Liverpool.

Not bad for the now 13-year-old.

His upcoming album will release on October 24, 2011 and will consist of remixes of popular cover songs.

In preparation for the new album release, Parke has been giving his fans a sneak peek at the various tracks.

One that caught our eye was an acoustic version of Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory”.

Watch Ronan Park Sing Lady Gaga’s Edge of Glory


He may not be the next Justin Bieber, Greyson Chance or Cody Simpson but this kid has talent.

Ronan says that music is in his blood and it is all he wants to do in life. His parents are behind him 100 percent and it seems he is off to a good start.

You can visit Ronan on his Facebook page and can pre-order his new album here on Amazon.

Go get ‘em kid.

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Video - Meet Austin Mahone – Social Media Genius or the Next Justin Bieber?

Have you ever heard of Austin Mahone?

I bet your kids have. And they either love him or hate him – but they have heard of him.

So, who is Austin Mahone? What’s his bio?

Mahone lives in San Antonia Texas and is a 15-year-old singer and musician known for looking like Justin Bieber and recording cover songs on YouTube.

So what? There are lots of kids uploading videos and singing covers these days right?

But Mahone and his fans are different.

His fans are known as Mahomies - and he has his own Blog, Facebook, YouTube, Dailybooth, Tumblr, Twitter, SoundCloud, Formspring, and Myspace accounts.

He records popular cover songs and posts them to YouTube and interacts with his fans on a daily basis and claims that Justin Bieber is his favorite artist.



And oh yea, Mahone LOOKS like Justin Bieber and his fans love him.

The thing that fascinates us about this young man is his savvy for working the social media to create a name for himself while building his own fan base from the ground up without a record label or marketing rep.

He has learned to do what many adults and big companies have failed to do – create a successful brand.

In addition to uploading covers he has hundreds of thousands of Facebook fans, dedicated fan sites, over 13 million YouTube views, and sells t-shirts, posters, wristbands, Stickers, and Necklaces.

Heck, he's even been know to run around shirtless just to tease his female fans.

This is the kind of interaction that defines social media.

His fans love him but he admits that he also has haters saying,

“Haterz don’t matter to me because they are just jealous and the hateful words that they say are garbage. That’s why I don't listen to hate. I am curious of what haterz have to say sometimes just because I'm a curious person. But their opinions of me don't matter to me, because I’m not trying to please them.

What is important are my fans. I love them so much and everything they do for me. Haterz can't hurt you unless you let them. And I just have one last thing to say.... Haterz gonna hate Mahomies gonna love.”

Austin’s success is a prime example of how social media can springboard you into fame, build a fan base, and possibly launch a music career if you’re good enough.

So how powerful can a homegrown fan base be to a young artist like Mahone?



One day last week his fans decided he should appear on the “Ellen Show” with Ellen DeGeneres, and in one magnificent push of social media network power trended the phrase “#MahoneOnEllen” on twitter for the day as a worldwide trending topic.

His fans also bombarded DeGeneres’s Twitter and Facebook account and called her studio’s switchboard requesting she book Austin as a guest.

Why is this significant?

Because it was Ellen DeGeneres and her “eleveneleven” record label that discovered 14-year-old Greyson Chance.

And with less effort than Austin, Greyson has been propelled into a celebrity status with his first album “Hold on ‘til the Night” due to release next week.

Related: Greyson Chance gives video tour of his home town - Video

That kind of power by your own fans is exactly what made Justin Bieber what he is today.

One thing that helps make Mahone a fan favorite is he covers songs that are popular in today’s young music culture ranging from Cody Simpson, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Ne-yo, Usher, Adele, Chris Brown, and Edwin McCain.



So take note big record labels.

The youth of today have developed the social media skills to find, fall in love, promote, and make famous the musical artists THEY want to see and listen to - not who YOU want them to listen to.

Not that there’s not any place for “big music”, but things are changing these days and kids have grown frustrated with the “business as usual” mentality shown by the music industry.

They say that “necessity is the mother of invention”, and our kids are inventing a new way to communicate and enjoy their favorite artists and musicians.

We hope some of the adults out there are listening because these kids can teach us a thing or two about what makes them tick – and they are showing us what it is they want to listen to and who they want to fall in love with as a fan.

After all, if Justin Bieber's pet cat "Spaz" can get his own @Justins_Cat twitter account - than anything is possible!

Related: Justin Bieber's pet cat Spaz joins Twitter

Time will tell if a shirtless Austin Mahone will become the next big teen idol or music sensation…

But shouldn’t we be listening to what they are trying to tell us?

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Forget About Planking - “Owling” is the Next Big Craze – Are These People Nuts? - Photos

I think the youth of today are getting extremely bored.

The latest craze to take over the internet in recent months has been a thing called “Planking”.

It’s really a pretty simple and stupid craze that consists of laying down anywhere, on anything, on your stomach stretched straight out like a plank of wood.

But it can’t be a dumb idea because some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have done it like Gordon Ramsay and Justin Bieber. Right?

Still, pretty dumb eh?

Here is what “Planking” looks like:

Justin Bieber Planking

The idea is to “Plank” in a bizarre or unusual place while somebody takes your picture.

Believe it or not, people have actually died while doing it – like the guy in Australia who died planking on top of a moving car.

Not too bright mate?

Well, move over plankers because there is a new trend taking over the world.

It started in Australia on Facebook and is called…..

Owling.

That’s right – Owling.

Owling is the simple process of crouching down and staring out into space – like an owl. It’s not difficult and just as stupid as planking.

Here is what “Owling” looks like:

 

Now you might think that that’s as good as it gets right?

Well, you would be wrong because you can score extra technical points if you can “Plank” and “Owl” at the same time.

The Technical Double "Owl and Plank"

Now be careful with that one – and consider that if all you have are Facebook friends you won’t be able to do this double craze because as you can see – you need two people.



If this is all people can come up with as the latest viral craze then we have lost our imagination and creativity.

But then again, they aren’t really hurting anybody and it does kind of make you smile when you see it.

Follow InfoStar on Twitter – we want to start a “Sitting” craze

Christiana – A New York Singer You Should Get to Know – Video

Every now and then we run across a new artist or singer that really impresses us.

We found Christiana from her Facebook page and YouTube channel and are wondering why more people have not picked up on her distinctive style and unique talent.

She hails from New York and has spent a lifetime singing, dancing, and learning how to act - and has an impressive number of professionally done studio videos of her music.

Christiana is the Granddaughter of a famous Opera singer and you can tell by her fashion and musical dexterity that the glamor and style has transcended down through the generations.

The thing we liked most was her throwback to the classic vintage style of music. You know - music that you can actually listen to, enjoy, and understand the words.

Christiana names Judy Garland, Celine Dion, and Queen as her big musical influences – and we definitely see that as young and beautiful as she is, she sports an old soul when it comes to her music.

She almost comes across as a Marilyn Monroe meets Madonna old-fashioned style, but a few of her photos and music videos actually have a slight Lady Gaga look and feel – and we mean that in a good way.

Christiana is very elegant and sophisticated, and clearly does not need a meat dress, plastic egg, shoulder horns, or bizarre costume to express her mood.

She seems very comfortable in her own skin, and this is most evident in her video “Being Alive”.

With a sound somewhere between classical Madonna and Celine, it is a great example of her musical range and emotion she puts into her music.

Watch Christiana perform "Being Alive"


In another song titled “Werewolf”, Christiana shows how effortlessly she can belt out the power notes.

In every song we listened to we could always hear a blend of styles – sometimes pop, sometimes romantic, sometimes musical Broadway, other times more vintage old school.

It is refreshing to find an artist who seems to be all about the music and not the fame, costumes, paparazzi, TV appearances, World tours, tabloid stories, and meat dresses.



Christiana seems like one of those artists that could really outshine her competition if given the right opportunity, producer, studio exposure, and set list.

Perhaps the world is not quite ready to return to the days when music was music and Hollywood was Hollywood.

But someday, we will all wake up and realize that Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Kanye, and others were just an output function of a massive marketing scheme designed more to make money than actually entertain us.

Christiana is a classic musical entertainer.

Yes, someday we will once again stir our inner desire to simply listen to and enjoy music for what it is meant to be – music.

Good luck Christiana, we hope you get your big break and are given the opportunity to express yourself to the world in the way you so clearly are prepared for.

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Video - Bill Maher and Jane Lynch Re-enact Anthony Weiner’s Facebook Posts – Hilarious!

One thing we like about cable TV is you can say things you can’t say on network television.

So, in the spirit of Weinergate, Bill Maher invited Glee’s Jane Lynch to re-enact Weiner’s Facebook message exchange with one of his Internet mistresses.

In what Maher calls a dramatic reading, complete with background chamber music, Maher and Lynch read Weiner’s messages he exchanged with Lisa, a Las Vegas Blackjack dealer.

It’s all here – comments about being hard, banging the future Mayor of New York City, Jewish girls giving head, c*ck sucking republicans, taking more photos, etc.

It’s really comedy and satire at its best.



Ah, only in America can you get busted for tweeting a picture of your junk, but make an audience scream by someone reading them your private email.

Hypocrisy at its best friends.

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Osama Bin Laden’s Last Facebook Post

We all know how addictive Facebook and Twitter can be.

And we have all heard the reports that Bin Laden’s million dollar mansion in Pakistan didn’t have internet or phones.

But CIA Chief Leon Panetta has said that in addition to several laptops and hard drives there were a number of prepaid cell phones seized from the compound.

After a team of experts began sorting through his browser history, Farmville requests, and hash tag Tweets, they found an interesting piece of evidence.

They found Osama Bin Laden’s last Facebook post.


Maybe Facebook really is a tool developed in secret by the U.S. Government to spy on us.

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MySpace Up For Sale – News Corp Asking $100 Million – Deal by End of Week?

Every now and then you see something that really hits home and makes you realize that an end of an era is upon us.

And so it is with the once dominating social network MySpace.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that News Corp has put MySpace.com up for sale with an asking price of $100 million.

Expectations are that about a dozen companies will express an interest in buying the now shrinking network.

News Corp paid $585 million back in 2005 when MySpace was dominating the internet by adding over 1 million new users a day. But today, Facebook has all but made MySpace obsolete and irrelevant.

After a big push last year to redesign the site and add a focus on music and entertainment failed to stop users from jumping to Facebook, News Corp decided it was time to sell.

Several venture capital and investment firms have indicated they may be interested in buying the property, and Bebo has also said the may bid on the site.

Regardless of who steps up to the plate, we should know who the new owner is by the end of the week.

But that still leaves one big question.

What will the new owners do differently that the old owners didn’t already try?

Stay tuned.

Justin Bieber vs Onion Ring

Just when you thought there was not enough competition in this world, Facebook has announced a new campaign - to get more fans for an onion ring then You Tube and pop music sensation Justin Bieber.

The "Can this onion ring get more fans than Justin Bieber" Facebook page just started today and already has close to two million fans.

Now, we realize this is not an exact science, or a perfect set of quantitative data necessary to extrapolate the merging of some cosmic science. We like to think of it more like a shifting of our most basic ideals and internal desires.

After all, Bieber has only been on the scene for two years, but the onion ring has been around forever - quietly satisfying our deepest carnal desires and providing comfort in the form of unhealthy fatty calories.

Justin Bieber? Not so much.

But now it makes us wonder where this will stop - who will be next?

Obama, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno? There really is no way of stopping this craze - it is destined to make its way through our space, but will soon be a distant memory.

An onion ring. Really?
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