/ ENTERTAINMENT / WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
11
HOROSCOPES
10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Today is an 8
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Today is an 8
GEMINI (May 21-June 21)
Today is a 6
Your dreams are stirring up your desire for change. Put together a well thought out plan for what you envision. Small steps make big progress.
Social activities cement relationships, as you meet unusual individuals. Don't try to imitate their glamorous style. Instead, invent your own.
Use all the facts at your disposal as you create a plan for change. Maintain workflow at the same time. Decide how much time to spend on each task.
CANCER (June 22-July 22)
Todav is a 6
Great ideas flow between you and key associates. You agree that a persuasive message is needed, and have a variety of ways to make that happen.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
Today is a 6
Financial questions cause you to question a basic premise. Can you afford the renovations you'd planned? It's more attainable if you break it into manageable stages.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Today is a 6
Concentrate your energy on practical, creative ways to solve a household issue. Family members may disagree at first but respond to the logic.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Today is a 9
Your practical thinking makes life run smoothly now. Challenges at work become opportunities when viewed anew. Personal responsibilities benefit from logic.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Today is a 6
Today is a 6
Take time for personal attire and appearance today. Visit your neighborhood salon and try something new and different.
Take a calculated risk.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Today is a 9
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan.19)
Today is a 7
A new person on the scene asks key questions. To answer them, think about it well. Take time to consider creative options. Then present choices to the team.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
Today is a 7*You're on familiar ground with group activities now. Consider the needs of individuals and coworkers as you challenge old concepts. You'll know just what to say.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
Today is a 6
Changes depend on advice received from an older person with a sterling creative track record. Use what you need now and store the rest for future reference.
Tony Stark doesn't have this technology.
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By Dave Green
Conceptis SudoKu
6 8 2 5 1 7
1 1 3 2
8 3 2
6 4 7
5 8 6 4
1 8 6
3 5
2 9
1 7 6 2 8
12/01
Difficulty Level ★★★
3 8 1 6 9 4 5 2 7
7 9 6 2 8 5 4 1 3
5 4 2 1 3 7 9 6 8
1 2 8 5 7 3 6 4 9
9 6 7 4 2 1 3 8 5
4 5 3 8 6 9 1 7 2
6 3 9 7 4 8 2 5 1
2 7 5 9 1 6 8 3 4
8 1 4 3 5 2 7 9 6
THE NEXT PANEL
Difficulty Level ★★
Answer to previous puzzle
Moreover, West has seemingly sidestepped conventional logic and controversy every step of the way. After nearly a year of silence following the public outcry that accompanied West's interruption of Taylor Swift's 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech — including abandoning a co-headlining tour with Lady Gaga — he spearheaded his own promo initiative by giving away alternate and non-album tracks from "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" on his blog at KanyeWest.com. The performer spurned the overwhelming majority of interview requests — the notable exceptions
Nicholas Sambaluk
MUSIC
Kanye West uses Twitter to develop his own image
The upshot: "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" was on track to sell more than 550,000 copies in its first week on the market, according to a senior staff member at his label Universal Music Group who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the company.
LOS ANGELES — Early this fall, before any kind of promotional push for Kanye West's new album, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," had begun in earnest, the Grammy-winning rapper-producer took to his widely read Twitter account to vent. Even for a creative firebrand whose career has in many ways been defined by outrageous behavior and controversial statements, West's remarks stood as a defiant dismissal of every rule in the major label marketing playbook. Call it a tweet as mission statement.
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
And so began a campaign of nearly unprecedented, self-styled image control and media spin that culminated Nov. 22 with the album's release. Even in an era when social networking tools allow artists ever greater freedoms to communicate directly with fans, the so-called Louis Vuitton Don has taken the notion of personally generating his own hype to further extremes than just about anyone in popular culture.
"Man I love Twitter," West posted on Sept. 4. "I've always been at the mercy of the press but no more."
being an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and a stint "guest editing" XXL magazine (in which he basically interviewed himself) _ and took to Twitter to lambaste various reporters and media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times (for what West decried as a "soulless" review of his short film "Runaway") and "Today" show host Matt Lauer.
In the process, the performer has won critical props from a constellation of recording stars and past collaborators - even a powerhouse TV producer whose show West dissed on a single from the new album.
To hear it from multiplatinum-selling R&B crooner John Legend, who is signed to West's G.O.D.O. Music imprint, appears on "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and is currently working on an album to be released in 2011 with West, "all this wacky stuff and this controversy" does more than generate publicity. It sets West apart as a sort of endangered species, an artistic loner in an age of mannered shock value and carefully laid-out viral marketing initiatives.
release and West's star persona, yet in a depressed climate in which labels are eager to talk about any success, multiple requests over the last two weeks to speak to representatives of Universal's Island Def Jam imprint were met with notable silence.
Instead, West has largely been a one-man show. Online, he has been the comedian — "Don't you hate it when you say bye to someone then yall get on the elevator together," he tweeted in August — as well as the victim — "I can't be everybody's hero and villain savior and sinner Christian and anti Christ!" he noted in November.
Clearly, he does things that are provocative," Legend said. "That's cool. That's a part of what makes him interesting as an artist. He puts it all out there in every way — musically and with his personality. It's all out there. I think that throws people off."
Unsurprisingly, efforts to reach West were unsuccessful. When his publicist, Gabe Tesiorio, was asked via e-mail about West's interview availability on a scale of 1 to 10 — with one being "not a chance" and 10 being a sure thing — Tesiorio responded with a numerical one, accompanied by a frowny-face emoticon.
"Man I love Twitter. I've always been at the mercy of the press but no more."
"Outlets like Twitter," said suave R&B star Ne-Yo, allow West the opportunity to "vent to the world."
Likewise, executives at Universal Music Group declined to comment. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" is no doubt a priority for the label, given its holiday-timed
"I think it said, "a beautiful thing."
Ne-Yo said. "By now, you know who Kanye is. If he feels like he was disrespected, he's not only going to say it, he's going to stand on a chair and
KANYE WEST
Rapper
scream it. That's who he is. He's a master of PR. He knows what he is doing."
But does anyone else? The answer remains unclear. For instance, West tweeted that his intended album art for "Mv
Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" had been "banned in the USA," adding that he didn't think about Wal-Mart when picking art. The retailer issued a statement, saying it had never been shown the sexually graphic image, and multiple Universal Music Group staffers contacted by the Times were unaware of any such banning.
With West, unfiltered, perhaps, would be an understatement. His artistic peers admire it, even if they wouldn't take a similar approach. Justin Timberlake is a fairly regular Twitter presence with nearly 4 million followers. Unlike West, however, the pop icon and freshly minted movie star neither uses the platform to promote a personal agenda nor to provide an up-close slice of his life.
CBS swaps out hosts for the'Early Show'
TELEVISION
LOS ANGELES - The early bird doesn't always get the worm. CBS "Early Show" is playing
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Moving in are Chris Wragge and Erica Hill, co-anchors of the Saturday edition of the "Early Show" since 2008, who are scheduled to take over as co-anchors of the weekday show starting Jan.3.
musical chairs yet again by replacing its on-air team. Making their exit are Maggie Rodriguez, Harry Smith and Dave Price.
Also joining the team will be Jeff Glor, who has been
anchoring the network's Saturday newscast, and Marysol Castro of ABC's "Good Morning America" weekend edition, who will serve as a weather anchor.
Smith will become the primary substitute anchor for Katie Couric's evening newscast, "Face the Nation" and "Sunday Morning."
— McClatchy-Tribune
ACROSS
1 Radar signal
5 Type measures
8 Trudge along
12 Top-notch
13 Square root of XLIX
14 Michigan, e.g.
15 Barten-der's announcement
17 Largest of the seven
18 Preamble
19 Young cat
21 Payable
24 Piglet's mama
25 Jack's companion
28 Actress Moore
30 In need of repair
33 Coach Par-seghian
34 Shoe fasteners
35 Roulette bet
36 Existed
37 Muscat's country
38 Tosses in
39 Seesaw quorum
41 4-Down, e.g.
43 Storefront feature
46 George Eliot's Mr. Marner
50 Line of fashion?
51 Desperate final effort
54 Office part-timer
55 Type
56 Walk in the woods
57 Praiseful verses
58 Chesapeake, e.g.
59 Folk-music byline abbr.
DOWN
1 "— Ha i"
2 Give for a time
3 Research facility (Abbr.)
4 Rolls-Royce requirement
5 Actress — Longoria Parker
6 Wire measure
7 Lustrous fabric
8 Aristotle's teacher
9 Most fashionable example
10 Tom Joad, e.g.
Solution time: 21 mins.
Yesterday's answer 12-1
11 Jerry's longtime partner
16 Intimidate
20 Wife of Osiris
22 Cheese choice
23 Starbucks request
25 Mandible
26 George's brother
27 Smith or Jones
29 Carte
31 Started
32 Dentist's deg.
34 Symbol of craziness
38 Dismount
40 Cowardly sorts
42 "Guinness Book" suffix
43 Regarding
44 Garden intruder
45 Smooth-talking
47 Den
48 "— silly question,
..."
49 Raced
52 Chicken-king link
53 Firmament
12-1
CRYPTOQUIP
BKHFQR CTM CFLMZ CTSC LA CSFXXMZZ UMC HNBMQCZ RMC MKUTNHFPSXXA MXSCMB,
F PSXX CTML RFBBA UFRZ.
Yesterday's Cryptoquip: 1 SUPPOSE ANY SCULPTOR CAN ONLY CREATE SO MUCH. AFTER ALL, THERE IS A STATUE OF LIMITATIONS.
Today's Cryptoquip Clue: C equals T
All puzzles © King Features
MUSIC
Minaj didn't see career in music
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
LOS ANGELES — Nicki Minaj never envisioned herself as hip-hop's reigning "it" girl. The question alone makes her giggle as she offers an answer nowhere near as cocky as her saucy rhymes.
"When I was growing up I thought I'd be a famous actress," she says. "Acting came very natural to me. I didn't imagine all this music stuff happening."
Minaj is harnessing those drama skills, which she honed at LaGuardia High School in New York City, by assuming the identity of one of the many animated alter egos she's masterfully crafted in lyrics: There's Roman Zolanski, her gay male counterpart; Nicki the Lewinsky, the sex kitten; Nicki the Ninja, a spotlight stealer; Nicki the Boss, who runs her own empire; and Nicki the Harajuku Barbie — the over-the-top doll who doesn't hesitate to sign the breasts of her adoring female fans.
With those razor-sharp bangs, a penchant for colorful wigs, vibrant, body-hugging attire and brazen guest verses, she's been on a lot of people's lips of late. Like Lady Gaga, much of her appeal hinges on her image, and Minaj's quirky, charismatic presence seems to have arrived fully formed. The
masses — including her more than 1.5 million Twitter followers — have gobbled it up.
But somewhere within the caricature resides Onika Tanya Maraj, the 26-year-old Queens mastermind behind the hype who recently made chart history after her Annie Lennox-sampling single, "Your Love," became the first female hiphop No. 1 to hit Billboard's rap singles chart since Miss Elliott's "Work It" in 2002. She's also the female rapper with the most chart entries in one year on Billboard's 100 — she's had eight — all before the release of her debut album, "Pink Friday," last week.
On a recent afternoon she is doing what she does best: playing dress-up for the camera. After a photo session, she is shuttled to a Santa Monica studio for another shoot. Wearing a blue and black bob, bubblegum pink bomber jacket, hip-hugging jeans and pink hightop sneakers, Minaj might look like she's channeling one of her alter egos, but her sheepish grin and demure demeanor suggest that the real Onika is coming to surface.
The buxom rapper got her break when mentor Lil Wayne spotted her remake of Notorious B.I.G.'s "Warning" on a street DVD.