January 31st, 2008
13th Annual Black Solidarity Conference at Yale
The Ballot or the Bullet: Revitalizing the Revolution
February 29 – March 2, 2008
www.yale.edu/bsc
No, if you never see me another time in your life, if I die in the morning, I’ll die saying one thing: the ballot or the bullet, the ballot or the bullet.
-Malcolm X
Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Both envisioning a greater America, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. uttered these beautiful and stirring words during a defining moment of American history. They and countless others wondered would the democratic ideals of justice, equality, and peace of our forefathers finally be realized. …
January 23rd, 2008
By Dimeji Ogunsola
Almost everybody is guilty of it; saving a couple of dollars
by burning an album via file sharing or downloading. Your
friend buys a CD, rips it onto his computer making it available
to everybody on their aim buddy list. Then you are constantly
bombarded by commercials featuring artists pushing for the
legal downloading and purchase of their songs and albums.
But common responses from consumers are complaints of the
lack of quality of music or the irrationality of buying an album
when it’s available for free. This controversy is due in large part,
though not fully, to the digital revolution of the late twentieth
century. With the high availability of music via downloading and
file sharing, what will be the future state of the music industry
in light digitalization? Furthermore, how will the relationship
between major record labels, artists, and consumers change as a
result of this digital revolution?
From 1999 to 2003, …
November 23rd, 2007
By Sharifa Love
Today, Black Friday, is the traditional beginning of holiday shopping season. Some large retailers attempt to lure in traffic with great deals on electronics and other big ticket items, while clothing retail locations offer slashed prices and buy one get one half off deals. Even web retailers get in on the action offering sales for Black Friday, some with different hourly discounts. With all the savings to be had, people get excited.
Really excited.
People rush to outlet stores at midnight tired yet motivated to shop. Tents are set up outside of Best Buys and Wal-Marts across the country where people camp out and wait for hours to be the first in the store.
With tremendous focus on all things material, an insane prep day for a “religious” holiday that is over a month away, it makes me wonder what values people really have. It seems that our society …
October 22nd, 2007
Sphere Magazine is pleased to present:
“Inside Scoop With Goldman Sachs”
Monday, October 29th
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Barnes & Noble Yale Bookstore
77 Broadway
Join us for an interactive event featuring a panel of current and former Yale students sharing the “inside scoop” on how they landed a job at Goldman Sachs and their experiences of working on Wall Street. A networking reception and light refreshments will follow.
Visit www.gs.com/careers for more information.
Be there!
September 26th, 2007
By: Adjoa Boateng
“I prayed to the stars and I changed
my stars/ I went to the malls and I
balled too hard/ Oh my God is that
a black card? / I turned around and
replied, “why yes”/ But I prefer the
term African-American Express”
–Kanye West, “Last Call” (2003)
“I know you’re thirsty, ma/Go ahead
and order whatchu want/Some
call it trickin’, go ahead and call it
whatchu want/I came to ball, I ain’t
come out here to front/Cause the
black card will pick-up what the
gray card won’t” -Nelly, “Flap Your
Wings” (2004)
When American Express executives were informed of a rumor circling among its Platinum cardholders, they decided to capitalize on it. The buzz within this elite group was that there existed a mysterious credit card completely void of any spending limit. In October of 1999, a new line of credit, the Centurion™ card, was released for its members whose annual charge had been an astounding $150,000 or more. The card was developed to service those members, “who travel frequently, entertain often and value personalized service.”
At the launch party for this elite …
May 30th, 2007
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World¹s End (Buena Vista) raked in a total of $126.5 million during its four-day opening weekend, and while that figure doesn’t top Pirates 2’s $135.6 million last July, it still manages to destroy the Memorial Day weekend record set by X-Men: The Last Stand (Fox) last year ($122.9 million). Both the Spider-Man and Shrek trequels managed to beat out their predecessors during their opening weekends. Excluding the Thursday previews, At World’s End pulled in $112.5 million during its debut weekend; we’ll have to wait to see what kind of stamina it’ll have. Shrek the Third (Paramount/DreamWorks) and Spider-Man 3 (Sony) rounded out the top three, while the Judd/Connick Jr. thriller Bug (Lion’s Gate) grabbed the number four spot. Waitress (Fox Searchlight) was sitting in the twelfth spot last week and climbed up to fifth in its fourth week of release. Disturbia (Paramount/DreamWorks) is still holding a spot in the top ten after seven weeks. Foreign releases Paprika (Sony Pictures Classics), Angel-A (Sony Pictures Classics), and …
May 14th, 2007
Though debuting with a bang last week and garnering $60,000,000 in week two, head and shoulders ($50,000,000 to be exact) above the second place this week, Spider-Man 3’s plummet in revenue is a big money representative of this overall depressing cinematic week. Many of the films this week, such as Next, The Invisible and Fracture that have remained in the ten top-grossing films have done so merely by virtue of the fact that there has been a lack-luster lineup of films this week. Despite this week’s low profits and in some cases low quality (thank you Delta Farce), there are some gems. Meet the Robinsons has stayed in the top ten for its seventh week and is slowly trudging towards $200 million. On the other hand, we must state that the follow up to 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, has received critical acclaim and managed to match its predecessor’s first week’s gains, despite our critiques last week. Likewise, The Ex, Sphere’s pick last week, earned only $1.4 million, falling …
May 10th, 2007
In our effort to keep you, the future media mogul, in touch with the news that lets you know what’s really going on in the industries you care about, sans record label hype or hoopla, we at SphereMagazine.com will be reporting on the weekly Soundscan numbers, as well as providing our own in depth analysis of the most significant movers and shakers on the charts. Why? Because unlike your favorite record label exec, numbers don’t lie, and it’s these numbers that tell you whether or not your favorite artist has a chance of being back again next year (that is, unless they get outside the current industry paradigm of “SINGLE, ALBUM RELEASE, REPEAT”…hint hint, nudge nudge). So put on your math caps, ladies and gentlemen; it’s about to get bumpy.
This week saw a major debut for Ne-Yo, strong holds for crossover artists across the board (hint hint, nudge nudge), and the standard drops for anyone sitting comfortably in their genre (that group of people who will buy …
May 8th, 2007
Weekend Box Office Numbers for 5/6/2007
Despite accusations of undeveloped plot lines and rumors that Sam Raimi has a secret desire to direct a musical, Spider-Man 3 steamrolled the competition this weekend, earning $148,000,000 and breaking all kinds of box office records. Not suprisingly, out of all the movies trying to open against the Spiderman juggernaut, only the Warner Bros. film Lucky You managed to break into the top ten, earning a solid $2,515,000. Smaller releases Waitress (Fox Searchlight), Civic Duty (Freestyle Releasing), Away From Her (Lions Gate), and Paris, je t’aime (First Look), came in at 24th, 26th, 27th, and 28th, respectively, but could have shelf life based on receving critical praise. No studio would release anything too important against Spider-Man 3, and the only surprise from this weekend is that Warner Brothers chose to risk Lucky You against it. That film has not been helped at all by its repeated delayed release dates, and it’s a credit to the draw of competitive poker that it …
May 7th, 2007
Ok, so there are going to be a lot of numbers assaulting you fairly quickly here. But, like those on the board during your middle school Algebra II class, or the ones on the inside of your girlfriend’s emergency contraception packet, they’re numbers to which you should probably pay attention. For those of you who are still living in fantasy land, your favorite artists’ music careers aren’t driven by your hopes and dreams. They are, however, driven by how much airplay their songs receive on mainstream radio. Each week, SphereMagazine.com intends to report exactly what songs are making what kind of impact on the top 25 songs on mainstream radio. But before we hit the actual numbers, here are the key things to know…
LISTEN TO OUR MOST INFLUENTIAL SINGLES HERE:
1. PINK “U+Ur Hand”
Hey, remember when Pink was the artist that was forgotten? Note to anybody trying to make it in the music industry, …
