September 1st

It’s officially September, I don’t know where the time went but we’ll be putting up christmas trees in no time.

I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on the summer of 2009, especially in terms of this website.

Currypoptart.com has had an incredible amount of growth over the last 3 months. More than I could have ever imagined in my wildest dreams.

Some interesting stats:

900% – amount of growth the website has had in views since January 2009.
172% – amount of growth the site has had from July 31 to August 31. only 30 DAYS!
600 – number of views we got on August 13th.. biggest day in the history of the site.
300 – amount of views we averaged per day in the month of August.

That’s without ANY promotion for this website at all. These numbers continue to grow and our records are being broken every week. What’s the point of telling you all of this? Well we’re not done yet! We had a great summer, but want to have an even better fall. So we urge you to spread the word on the website, join the Currypoptart.com group on Facebook, add us on twitter, throw up the url in your AIM away message. Whatever helps to get the word out.

We also are looking for partners interested in advertising with us. Those numbers showcase the rabid fanbase that this site is developing and it can only go up from here. This is the perfect time for a business to get in on the ground floor of the blog and get some premium ad space for a very affordable price. If anyone is interested in ad rates or buying ad space, contact me at adi@currypoptart.com (fans need not worry, these ads won’t be intrusive and content will always come first).

So in closing, I hope everyone had a great summer and I want to thank you for your continued support for this website. Let’s finish out the year with a bang… great content, news, and reviews are on the way!

Bad Boys 3 in Development

Columbia Pictures is developing a third installment of the high-octane “Bad Boys” franchise, tapping Peter Craig to pen the screenplay.

The hope is to have a script that would reunite director Michael Bay, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. At this point, with the project in the early stages, none has a deal to return.

The “Boys” movies feature Smith and Lawrence as Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, caught up in cases involving car chases and explosions.

The first “Boys,” released in 1995, helped launch Bay as a director and Smith as an action star even though it was not a fire-stamped blockbuster — it grossed $66 million domestically and $141 million worldwide.

The sequel, released in 2003 when Bay and Smith’s stars had risen, grossed $138 million domestically and $273 million worldwide.

All parties have expressed a willingness to return if a story can be hammered out. One potential hurdle, however, would be the costly deals with the players.

Disney buys out Marvel for 4 Bil

Huge news today in the media world. Disney has bought out Marvel for 4 Billion dollars. This gives them an entry into the younger male demograhic that they have been missing for a while, expect to see Wolverine and Spider Man at Disney theme parks and on Disney tv channels. Disney owns ABC and ESPN as well creating a lot of opportunities for cross branding.

The downside to all of this is the major corporate structure of Disney which may kill off the independent spirit of Marvel. Taking over Marvel is sacreligious to its core fanbase. Will Disney meddle with popular franchises like Iron Man, X-Men, and Spider Man to water them down from the great movies that we’ve seen in the past? Hopefully Disney doesn’t plan to tinker too much with Marvel’s current business model, but time will tell if this will be a good move from the fan standpoint in the long run. Click the link for the official story from MSNBC:

Facebook 3.0 Launches for the iPhone

The third major edition of Facebook for iPhone has just crept into the iTunes App Store. It’s a huge update, with numerous advanced features that make Facebook more interactive than before and which bring the app as close to the desktop experience as it’s ever been.

Facebook for iPhone opens on your news feed as usual, but the upper left corner now sports a tiny grid icon that serves as the main organizing feature for this new build. Click it to see a screen equipped with a search bar on top, a notification alert area on the bottom, and a grid of nine activities you can perform in the middle. These include the news feed, your profile details, your message in-box, Facebook chat, friend requests, events, photo albums, and notes.

Those who use Facebook on the iPhone frequently will notice that quite a few of these actions are brand new, like viewing events and submitting an RSVP from your phone. You’ll also be able to view friends’ birthdays and upload photos to any album. Anyone sporting an iPhone 3GS gets the added bonus of uploading video.

Photos received a lot of attention in this update. You’ll now be able to zoom into photos, create albums and delete them, as well as upload and delete photos and photo tags, all from the Facebook interface. In addition, you can upload a new profile picture.

Facebook has also poured energy into how it deals with friends. You’re now able to call or text friends from the interface, which brings Facebook’s social connectivity into the real world. You can see friends of friends and mutual friends from the app, too, as well as the Pages you subscribe to. If you’re trying to locate a friend from within a page, Facebook has thought of that too, by equipping the page with search. To top it off, you can subscribe to Pages from the phone, not merely view them passively.

The new built-in Web browser is one feature addition that some may miss at first, but which is ultimately one of the most practical and useful for keeping the Facebook experience on iPhone firmly within the Facebook app. Before this integration, clicking a link would kick you out of the app and open a Safari browser. You would have to restart Facebook to resume your place.

There are more additions besides, but we thought we would start you off with a little taste and some first impressions.

RIP DJ AM

Adam Goldstein (aka DJ AM) passed away this morning in his New York City apartment in what is being speculated as a drug overdose. AM was one of the most revered DJ’s of this generation, getting his start in the Philadelphia club scene, before moving West to LA and becoming the resident DJ for the Roots and branching off to do big name parties and club appearances across the world.

DJ AM survived a plane crash last September when his private jet skidded off the runway and burst in flames. Also surviving the crash was Blink 182 drummer and member of TRVSDJAM, Travis Barker. DJ AM has made numerous television appearances, including HBO’s Entourage, MTV Cribs, and The Simple Life with Paris and Nicole. DJ AM was known for his famous relationships as well, including Nicole Richie and Mandy Moore. He was an innovator as a DJ, mastering the art of mash ups using music that crossed all type’s of genre’s. You could hear Lynyrd Skynrd going into Mariah Carey going into Modest Mouse at a typical show. He was inspired by classic rock, old school hip hop, and pop music. A true talent who was taken away at far too young of an age. He will be greatly missed.

Modern Warfare 2 Gameplay

While this certainly isn’t the greatest quality, it shows off a bit of the intensity and single player mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which drops this November. Already got mine preordered.

Avatar Trailer

Here’s the trailer for James Cameron’s (Titanic, Terminator 2) long awaited flick, Avatar. The movie is shot in 3D with over 900 camera angles and uses the most advanced technology to ever be used in film. The only problem is the story doesn’t look all that great. I guess time will tell, but the reaction has been luke warm so far.

Fable 3 Teaser

Peter Molyneaux and Lionhead Studios announced “Fable 3” for the Xbox 360 today at Gamescom 09. Seems as though you will start out as a son/daughter of the current king and play the first half of the game as an adolescent, eventually succeeding the king to rule the kingdom.

Cast your vote for the Ultimate Spike Girl

Spike TV is looking for the Ultimate Spike Girl, a girl who can hang with the boys but looks like a model. We’re the ultimate men’s website, so who better to team up with than the ultimate channel for men, Spike TV!

You can cast your vote at http://www.spike.com/girls-of-spike

This girl plays WoW: http://www.spike.com/spike-girl/501187

This one plays Mortal Kombat: http://www.spike.com/spike-girl/500962

and this one has a backside I could eat breakfast off of: http://www.spike.com/spike-girl/501183

The final 10 will compete in a television special on Spike TV called “The Ultimate Spike Girl Finale” to determine the winner. The lucky girl that comes out on top will be awarded a Spike.com talent contract to represent Spike.com at events around the globe. Tune into Spike.com August 17th and make sure that your voice is heard!

Breaking News: Brett Favre to the Vikings

I am so tired of this Brett Favre media circus. Every few months we finally start to think it might be over, and then Favre comes out of nowhere with some announcement that sets the sports world on fire. Favre has reportedly agreed to sign with the Minnesota Vikings, pending a physical.

This is his final F You to the Green Bay Packers as he’ll now be with a division rival. Favre will play in Lambeau Field against the Packers and hopes to get his revenge on being poorly treated 2 years ago. Well let’s not forget the mistreatment of Favre’s team last year, the New York Jets. The Jets lose their star QB due to “retirement” and get absolutely nothing in return now that Favre is BACK in the league.

This is a nightmare and Roger Goodell needs to enact some sort of requirement or legislation to get this type of thing to stop. You can have any unhappy player “retire” only to come back the next year for a new team and better attitude? That’s just not right and the exact opposite of being a good sportsman. Favre will be a BUST for Minnesota. His shoulder is NOT healthy enough for a 16 game season not to mention anything in the post season. Vike’s can enjoy their press, ratings, and merchandise cash now, but come December they’ll most likely be watching the playoffs from home like Favre’s last team the Jets were in 2008.