Terry Linen Shook Up By Accident

November 18 - Singer Terry Linen, real name Kiplin Simpson, was involved in a motor-vehicle accident on Sunday in which one person died.   Police say Linen, 33, was driving along the Cheapside main road in Junction, St Elizabeth, in a 2007 Toyota Tacoma which collided with a 2006 unregistered motorcycle ridden by businessman Ainsworth Smikle, 26, from Junction.  Constabulary Communication Network liasion officer for St Elizabeth, Constable Karole Panton, said Smikle was among a group of five cyclists riding along the road, but he failed to properly negotiate a left hand  corner and collided with the left front section of the Tacoma. Smikle was taken to the Mandeville Hospital where he died yesterday.   Linen was reportedly shaken up by the accident but was not injured. He could not be reached for comment. Panton warned: "We, the police in St Elizabeth, are warning and imploring motorists to be careful while travelling on our roads. Extreme caution must be exercised at all times as we will be taking a no-tolerance approach to breakers of the Road Traffic Act."

Meet and Greet the Girls at Hooters of St. Thomas, Wednesday, November 18th

ATLANTA, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- On Sunday, November 15th 16 of the most gorgeous Hooters Girls from around the world will arrive in the Virgin Islands to film the Hooters Dream Girl television feature and shoot for the Hooters Magazine.   During the week, the Hooters Girls will be interviewed for the Dream Girls television show and modeling for Hooters Magazine photo shoots, as well as participating in various competitive events around the islands.  The 16 Dream Girls will be at the Hooters of St. Thomas on Wednesday, November 18th from noon - 2:30 PM.  The Hooters of St. Thomas is located at Buccaneer Mall in Havensight, USVI.   "The only way to make the Virgin Islands more beautiful is fly 16 top Hooters Girls from around the world and scatter them along the palm lined beaches," said Mike McNeil the VP of Marketing for Hooters of America, Inc. "This is our 4th year for the Dream Girl production and I think all the ingredients are here to make it the best one yet. We are especially pleased too find an exotic location like St. Thomas where we also have a Hooters Restaurant to help host the event," continued McNeil.  During the week the 16 Dream Girls week will be working toward the best photos and interviews in hopes to be voted Hooters Dream Girl.  The Hooters Dream Girl television show will air on FX during the first quarter of next year and viewers place votes for their favorite Hooters Dream Girl on FoxSports.com.  The Hooters Girl that receives the most votes and makes it through all 4 weeks of the bracket challenge will be featured on the cover of Hooters Magazine, receive $10,000 and be named 2010 Hooters Dream Girl. 

BY: STARAPPLE

November 13 - A paradoxical thing in Jamaica is that we are so full of talk of badmanism yet when people come around to abuse us; we mumble, forget it after 7 days and move along. A strange state of affairs given our mouths almighty.

Since the advent of internet access at high speeds and file sharing sites; it seems as though dancehall and reggae record sales have met with doom and gloom. Just look at the measly sales of some of our so called big stars. No names necessary here. You know them.  Just recently, I scanned a few sites and file sharing is a big deal. As riddims are sent out promotionally to deejays, in a few minutes they are up on sites available for download by anyone besides persons in the industry and for sale by persons who do not even have a licensing agreement with the creator of the music: neither the writer nor music composer. As much as we feel that Japan and Europe are the last bastions of real aficionados of our music, they are also the hot spots for illegal downloads and sales. Check the internet if you fail to believe.  When the internet and file sharing gained prominence a number of persons locally were cynical and then they came around thinking it would further the music. Yes, but for who though? Certainly not the musical composers.  A lot of persons are not intimate with the process of music making and a lot of persons don’t care. All they get is the finished product and maybe go to a party and hear a good joint, hear it blasting on the radio or get a hot mix tape and bop to it. That it is illegal, they generally don’t care.  Ok so file sharing and illegal downloading might get the music out and make it popular; and might ought to be underscored here. A direct negative result of this is that our artistes have resorted to hustling out the business: overcharging on dub plates, overcharging for shows, collecting and not showing up, charging major dollars to voice a tune; only a few innovative ones like ‘DI TEACHA’ have gone into merchandising and product branding, VYBZ Rum anyone. 
We really need to find some resolution to the loss of sales because when dubs are voiced hardly does an artiste return to a producer (who might also be the composer) and give him/her a portion of the dub plate money. Hardly is there an artiste who blows up big time and gets some shows who will return to music composer to say “see ah food ya”; so we really need a way to stem this bleeding of sales by inappropriate persons and the illegal distribution by unscrupulous persons.  We know how to crack any code to anything, certainly we can figure out a way to make it hard to get our music for free. One thing that some producers will do is send out a song ripped below cd quality or turn up some of the instruments such that there is some degree of distortion, but that does not reflect well on a producer. Encoding cds doesn’t even really help except for air play detection overseas. Perhaps a brilliant Jamaican can develop the technology such that if you download a song or songs without paying for it, your computer crashes, your ip address is identified and if previous credit or debit card information of the user has been used on that same computer then deductions are made from them. How long are we going to bled of our creativity? Why do we stay on the downlow while they download?
 

Rihanna Honored As Woman Of The Year

Janet Jackson's ABC Interview with Robin Roberts

November 12 - Janet Jackson opens up in her first televised interview since the death of her brother Michael. She speaks to ABC News’ Robin Roberts for a one-hour special taped at her Malibu home. “In the Spotlight with Robin Roberts” airs Wednesday, November 18, at 10 p.m. on ABC, the day after her greatest hits album Number Ones goes on sale.  Janet recently shot a video for her new single “Make Me” with director Robert Hales (Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears). The Jackson family joined her on set. “Some of my family stopped by to see some of the dancing. It felt good to have them there,” she tweeted. www.rap-up.com

November 11 - Reggae music which was established by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff and others has been known as protest music, this is the medium which Diligence uses to express himself, a writer of poetry, political issues and social commentary.  Born Jermaine Samuels in the parish of St. Andrew, Jamaica, his parents are avid lovers of music and exposed him to many different genres of music, which influenced him greatly.  He attended Providence Primary School in Jamaica, and then migrated to England.   As a Rastafarian, artistes such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Capelton, Luciano, Sizzla and Anthony B have been an inspiration to him, a versatile artiste, he began performing at school concerts and community events.   He has since hooked up with record producer Courtney Higgins, who believes in his talent, they developed a bond and a business relationship.  Since this, things started to change and look promising. They have recorded songs such as “Live As One”, “No More War” and “Outta Babylon” and are currently in the studio recording tracks to complete his debut album.  Diligence has a current radio hit “Live As One” which is a staple on FM radio, and is a favorite of many disc Jockeys in Jamaica.  The song is also getting favorable air play in the Caribbean, England and Europe.

He wants to highlight the many problems that are affecting people worldwide. The lyrical content of his music is of significant importance as he delves into historical and current affairs. He is representing the voiceless people of the world, the ones who are down trodden, the people who need help.  Signed to Nasheed Records, Diligence is determined to make an impact on the music scene in Jamaica and the wider world, this he knows will take a lot of hard work and dedication to accomplish.   Diligence has performed on stage shows, such as Wet Wet 08, Hype 2K9, and The Curry Festival 09.  

“My music is to inspire the youths of today, I want them to be wise and remember that education is the key. My journey will never stop, I have to achieve what I want, so I have to continue until I succeed for by the will of the Most I all things are possible”.