![QQ - Skip to my Lou (Ft. Ding Dong){MUSIC VIDEO}[Dancehall]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110518000331im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QCtJErzX4nA/0.jpg "QQ - Skip to my Lou (Ft. Ding Dong){MUSIC VIDEO}[Dancehall]")
| Name | Tencent QQ |
|---|---|
| Logo | |
| Caption | QQ2008 Main User Interface |
| Collapsible | Yes |
| Developer | Tencent Holdings Limited |
| Latest release version | QQ2010 Simplified Chinese SP2.2 (Windows)()QQ2009 Traditional Chinese SP1 (Windows)() |
| Latest preview version | QQ2009 International Beta3 (Windows)()QQ for Mac 1.0 Beta1()QQ for Linux 1.0 Beta1() |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iPhone/iPad, Android |
| Language | Chinese, English, French, Japanese |
| Genre | Instant Messaging |
| Website | Simplified ChineseTraditional ChineseInternational |
Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in Mainland China, and according to its statistics, the number of simultaneous online QQ accounts exceeds 100 million. In October 2010, QQ.com ranked 9th overall in Alexa's internet rankings just after Twitter ranked 10th. The program is maintained by Tencent Holdings Limited (), owned in part by Naspers. Since its entrance into Chinese households QQ quickly emerged as a modern cultural phenomenon, now being portrayed in popular culture. Aside from the chat program, QQ has also developed many subfeatures including games, virtual pets, ringtone downloads, etc.
ICQ is one of the first modern IMS programs. The acronym "ICQ" came from the fact that the letters sound like "I seek you".
The current version of QQ is QQ2010 beta2. Tencent periodically releases special versions of QQ to coincide with events such as the Olympics or Chinese New Year.
The official client runs on Microsoft Windows and a beta public version was launched for Mac OS X version 10.4.9 or newer. The web versions, WebQQ (full version) and WebQQ Mini (Lite version), which makes use of Ajax, are currently available. On July 31, 2008 Tencent released an official client for Linux, but this has not since been kept in step with the Windows version.
In response to competition with Windows Live Messenger, Tencent released Tencent Messenger, which is targeted to business people. It also provides, in limited form, features that are only available to premium members in normal QQ.
A beta version of QQ is currently available for Symbian S60 3rd Edition.
In India, Tencent has partnered with ibibo to bring such services as chat, mail and game to the developing Indian Internet sphere.
In Vietnam, Tencent has struck a deal with VinaGame to bring the QQ Casual Gaming portal as well as the QQ Messenger as an addition to the already thriving Vietnamese gaming communities.
In the USA, Tencent has partnered with AOL to bring QQ Games as a contender in the US social gaming market. Launched in 2007, QQ Games comes bundled with the AIM installer, and competes with AOL's own games.com to provide a gaming experience for the AIM user base.
In Italy QQ has released an Italian language version, QQITALY translated by Sonky.
Category:Windows-only instant messaging clients Category:Windows instant messaging clients Category:Chinese websites Category:Tencent Category:Cross-platform software Category:Electronic currencies
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Phillip Jerome Hellmuth, Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player. He is best known for holding a record 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, for winning the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker and for his temperamental, "poker brat" personality. He is also a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.
At the 2006 World Series of Poker, Hellmuth captured his record 10th World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with rebuys event. At the time, this tied him with fellow poker legends Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. However, unlike Brunson and Chan, all of Hellmuth's bracelets are in Texas hold'em.
At the 2007 World Series of Poker, Hellmuth won his record-breaking 11th bracelet in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Event. Hellmuth also holds the records for most WSOP cashes (79) and most WSOP final tables (42), recently overtaking TJ Cloutier. At the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker Hellmuth made a deep run finishing in 45th place out of a field of 6,844. He was the last former champion standing at the event when he was knocked out. Hellmuth took home $154,400. As of May 2010, Hellmuth has won $6,105,254 at the WSOP and ranks 10th on the WSOP All Time Money List. Hellmuth also is tied for 4th all time in number of times cashed in the WSOP Main Event. He has 7 Main Event cashes (1988, 1989, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2009). He is behind Berry Johnston (10) and Doyle Brunson and Bobby Baldwin (8).
In May 2004 Phil Hellmuth partnered with Oasys Mobile for the release of Texas Hold'em by Phil Hellmuth. At the time it was one of the 10 most popular multi-player mobile phone games available. In spring 2006, Hellmuth replaced Phil Gordon as commentator on Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown. Along with Annie Duke, Hellmuth is a poker coach on Fox Sports Network’s Best Damn Poker Show, which is sponsored by the poker site Ultimatebet.net.
In October 2008, Hellmuth launched www.pokerbrat.com, a webstore where customers can purchase Hellmuth and non-Hellmuth brand poker gear. In May 2009, Phil Hellmuth released the book Deal Me In: 20 Of The World's Top Poker Players Share The Heartbreaking and Inspiring Stories of How They Turned Pro.
Hellmuth's sponsor, UltimateBet, arranged for him to arrive at the 2007 WSOP Main Event in an Ultimatebet race car, escorted by 11 Ultimatebet models (one for each of Hellmuth's 11 World Series of Poker bracelets). However, Hellmuth crashed the race car in the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino parking lot when he lost control of the vehicle and hit a concrete light fixture. After the accident, Hellmuth showed up in a limo, met his escorts, and made his grand entrance to the Main Event two hours late. The accident was briefly thought to be staged by some sources, but Hellmuth said it wasn't. He later made light of the accident in a television advertisement for Ultimatebet. In 2008, Hellmuth again made a grand entrance into the WSOP Main Event. As part of Ultimatebet's "UB Army" promotion, Hellmuth arrived in a convoy dressed in military garb, with eleven stars on his helmet (for the eleven WSOP bracelets he has won).
On Day 5 of the 2008 WSOP, Hellmuth folded to Cristian Dragomir's bet on a flop of . Asked by the table to show his hand, Dragomir revealed that he had called Hellmuth's pre-flop re-raise with , considered to be a weak hand. Hellmuth proceeded to call Dragomir an "idiot," among other insults, and was eventually issued a warning by the floorperson for continued berating of another player. In addition, other players (including close friend Mike Matusow, who was seated at the same table) advised him to stop. Nonetheless, he continued to verbally abuse Dragomir until receiving a one-round penalty. The penalty was to be carried out at the beginning of play the next day. However, overnight, Hellmuth had a private meeting with WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, after which Pollack overruled the floorperson's decision. (Hellmuth eventually finished this tournament in 45th place, while Dragomir finished in 29th). Hellmuth apologized to Dragomir for his behavior the next day.
On December 20, 2008 Hellmuth was playing $200/$400 heads up limit hold em on UltimateBet, where he was at the time a spokesman, when an apparent software glitch occurred. The $5599 pot was awarded to Hellmuth, even though he held the worst hand. (His opponent held for Three Kings and Hellmuth held Ten Two for two pair.) This hand became the subject of considerable controversy in the online forums due to Hellmuth's later comments about the hand. Immediately after the other player informed him of the error in awarding the pot, Hellmuth simply commented, "You wanna play or what?" and "I play U limit, right now." In addition, when later questioned about the hand, Hellmuth commented that he had experienced such errors a hundred times in his online career, "maybe 50 the wrong way to them and 50 the wrong way to me." (This contradicted the official statement of Ultimatebet that no other cases of this error had been found.) Finally, the previous cheating scandal at Ultimatebet led to suspicions about the plausibility of the company's explanation for the computer bug that they claim caused the error.
Category:1964 births Category:American poker players Category:Poker commentators Category:American gambling writers Category:Living people Category:People from Madison, Wisconsin Category:People from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:World Series of Poker bracelet winners Category:World Series of Poker Main Event winners Category:National Heads-Up Poker Championship winners
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Ben Folds |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Benjamin Scott Folds |
| Born | September 12, 1966 |
| Origin | Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
| Instrument | Vocals, piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, keytar, melodica, Synthesizer |
| Genre | Piano rock, rock |
| Occupation | Musician, composer, arranger, bandleader |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Label | Attacked By Plastic, Epic |
| Associated acts | Ben Folds FiveThe BensFear of PopMajoshaPomplamooseJulia NunesCharlie McDonnellRegina Spektor |
| Spouse | Anna Goodman (1987–1992)Kate Rosen (1995-1996)Frally Hynes (1999-2007(Fleur Folds 2007-present |
| Url | benfolds.com |
Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five who now performs as a solo artist and collaborates with many other musicians.
In the late 1980s, Folds (as a bassist) and longtime friend Millard Powers formed the band Majosha. The group released several locally produced records. They played their first gig at Duke University's Battle of the Bands in 1988, and won. They played at bars and fraternity parties, and eventually put out a self-produced EP, which was sold at a few local stores called Party Night: Five Songs About Jesus (1988). The record featured only four songs, with none of them actually being about Jesus. They recorded Shut Up and Listen to Majosha in 1989. It contains, among other tracks, the four songs from Party Night (remixed and/or re-recorded) and what Folds would later record with his own band ("Emaline" and "Video"). At about the same time, they did a dance mix of "Get That Bug" that was released in Japan.
Majosha broke up in early 1990, and Folds formed Pots and Pans with Evan Olson (bass) and Britt "Snuzz" Uzzell (guitar and vocals), where Folds played drums. The newly formed band lasted for only a month, after which Olson and Uzzell went on to form Bus Stop with Folds' brother, Chuck Folds, on bass, and Eddie Walker on drums.
Folds eventually got a music publishing deal with Nashville music executive Scott Siman who saw Folds open for musician Marc Silvey (as well as playing bass for Silvey's band Mass Confusion), and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue it in 1990. He played drums for a short stint in Jody's Power Bill, headed by Millard Powers, Will Owsley, and Jody Spence. Jody's Power Bill was later renamed The Semantics. Folds did not take a creative role in the band. He, again, attracted interest from major labels. He ended up playing drums there as a session musician.
"In Nashville, I was running eight miles a day, hanging out with my friends, walking around eating chocolate-chip cookies and playing a lot of drums, which I enjoyed. Life was easy. I was never frustrated -- even though I wasn't fulfilling my contract obligations. If you are failing in Nashville, at least your standard of living is nice. Nashville is a nice way to fail."
Folds tells audiences about a jury recital when he was a student at the University of Miami’s music school. A jury recital consists of playing a prepared repertoire (and sometimes unprepared pieces from prior years of training) before faculty members who apply a grade for the entire semester. Folds, a drummer, showed up with a broken hand from defending his room mate from bullies the night before, but was required to play anyway. He ended up losing his scholarship and in desperation threw his drumkit into a lake on campus.
After leaving Miami, Folds moved to Montclair, New Jersey and began to act in theater troupes in New York City. He enjoyed it in 1993 to the point where he didn't want to keep pursuing a musical career. in Chapel Hill. As Folds put it, “Jeff Buckley was being signed at that time by Columbia and I was talking to Steve, his A&R; guy, and somehow we knew the same people or something."
Folds has described his former band as "punk rock for sissies", and his oddball lyrics often contain nuances of depression, melancholy, self conflict, and humorous sarcasm, often punctuated by profanity.
Despite its presence on multiple Billboard genre charts, no Ben Folds Five singles reached the US Hot 100, although they did show well on both adult contemporary and modern rock charts. However they gained a strong following in the United Kingdom and Australia early in their career, and like many other 'alternative' American acts this was largely thanks to consistent support from national broadcasters in those countries, the BBC in Britain and the ABC's Triple J youth radio network in Australia (and ABC-TV's music video show Rage).
The group's first chart breakthrough came in the UK, when "Underground" made the lower reaches of the Top 40, peaking at #37. Britain was the Five's strongest territory in terms of chart success, with five singles making the national Top 40 there -- "Underground", "Battle of Who Could Care Less", "Kate", "Brick" and "Army" -- although none managed to crack the UK Top 20.
In Australia "Underground" likewise broke the band locally and while it did not make the ARIA chart, it came in at #3 the 1998 Triple J Hottest 100 poll. The 1998 single "Brick" became the group's only major chart placing in Australia, reaching #13; it also came in at #53 in the ARIA Australian Top 100 for that year and earned a Gold Record award while its parent album Whatever and Ever Amen peaked at #9 and charted for 32 weeks. Folds and band mates had been going full force since 2001 while moving album after album and states:"“The songs have been getting a great reaction,it makes me look forward to having a new album out there because it’s been a while. This feels like a really free period in my life and I’m really enjoying it.” Ben Folds Five reunited to perform its first concert appearance in nearly 10 years on September 18, 2008 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall. The one-off gig was part of the MySpace "Front to Back" series, in which artists play an entire album live. The band played its final album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. The concert aired during October and can be viewed at Nowwhat.com. All proceeds from ticket sales benefitted the charity Operation Smile, of which Ben's uncle, Jim Folds, is on the board of directors for the North Carolina Chapter.
Folds's first solo release after the breakup of the band was Rockin' the Suburbs in 2001. He played nearly all the instruments, notably guitar (an instrument seldom used during the Ben Folds Five days). The Luckiest was written for the Amy Heckerling movie Loser, but the scene it was meant for was deleted. Millard Powers, Britt "Snuzz" Uzzell, and Jim Bogios joined him on the promotional tour of the album. "Weird Al" Yankovic directed and appeared in Folds' video for "Rockin' the Suburbs". Folds' friend and fellow musician John McCrea, lead singer of the band Cake, contributed vocals to Folds' song "Fred Jones, Part 2".
A year later, he released Ben Folds Live, a collection of live solo recordings. In late 2003, two solo EPs, Speed Graphic and Sunny 16, were released. The last EP, Super D, was released in mid-2004.
Songs for Silverman was released in the United States on April 26, 2005. The album featured Jared Reynolds on bass and Lindsay Jamieson on drums, thus returning to the trio format. This album includes the track "Late", a tribute to the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, and also features backup vocals from "Weird Al" Yankovic on "Time" (Folds had played piano for Yankovic's song "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" on his Poodle Hat album).
Folds contributed to William Shatner's album, Has Been, as producer, arranger, musician, and backup vocalist. Shatner was also involved in Folds' Fear of Pop project, and contributed vocals to a number of songs on the album.
The soundtrack for the 2006 animated film Hoodwinked! featured "Red is Blue," performed by Ben Folds.
In May 2006, Folds contributed three original songs to the soundtrack of Over the Hedge, dubbed "Heist," "Family of Me," and "Still." Included with them was a cover of The Clash song "Lost in the Supermarket" and a remix of "Rockin' The Suburbs." "Rockin' the Suburbs" featured new lyrics written to complement the script of the film.
On October 24, 2006, Folds released Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP, a compilation of songs that were originally released on the EPs Sunny 16, Speed Graphic, and Super D. He announced on his MySpace blog that he planned to work on his next studio album in October 2006 (although recording did not actually start until 2007). On that same day, Folds became the first person to broadcast a live concert over MySpace. The concert was complete with pranks staged ahead of time by Folds, including a drunk man falling over the balcony during "Jesusland" and a suicide attempt at the end. The concert is also notable for featuring a "guitorchestra", a group of acoustic guitarists from Nashville who accompanied Folds on some songs, as well as a ringtone orchestra featuring members of the audience playing their cellphone ringtones in unison.
Folds produced The Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer's first solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer which was released September 16, 2008. He also performs on the album.
During a concert at the National in Richmond, Virginia on April 11, 2008, Folds announced that he had completed his newest album, and played four new tracks from this album. He played the first track, "Hiroshima", at the same show in Richmond on April 11. He also debuted new music at an impromptu gig at the Exit/In on December 19, 2007 and at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival on January 25, 2008. Other new songs include "Errant Dog", "Effington", "Bitch Went Nuts", "Free Coffee", and "Kylie From Connecticut". Folds played The 6th annual Langerado on March 8, 2008 and was a part of the lineup for the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.
On July 16, 2008, an anonymous user posted what they claimed was a "leak" of Ben's latest album on a fan site (eventually called Way to Normal (Fake)). The file contained nine tracks along with a PDF of supposed cover art, and was a mix of what appeared to be legitimate songs from Way to Normal, pastiches of dry humor and melodramatic pop interwoven with bright, energetic melodies. Folds explained on Triple J radio a few weeks later that in one overnight session in Dublin he and the band had recorded 'fake' versions of songs from the new album. His sources had then leaked them to the public as a light-hearted joke on his fans.
Way To Normal was released on September 30, 2008 in the United States and on September 29, 2008 in the United Kingdom. It became Folds' highest-charting album ever in the US, debuting at #11 on the Billboard 200.
Soon before Way to Normal was released, Folds announced that he planned to record an album with English author Nick Hornby, with Hornby writing the lyrics and Folds writing the music. The idea of the collaboration came out of the 'fake' leak of the album Way to Normal released in July 2008. "(We will) write and record it in about three days, just like we did in Dublin with the fake record," Folds said.
In August 2008, Folds played piano for friend and Japanese singer-songwriter Angela Aki's song "Black Glasses" on her new album Answer.
On April 28, 2009, Folds released Ben Folds Presents University A Cappella, an album consisting of college student's a cappella arrangements of his music performed by some of the country's best college a cappella groups.
Folds' song "Rockin' the Suburbs" has been featured as part of the music for ABC's sitcom Surviving Suburbia.
Folds was also an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards' judging panel to support independent artists.
From December 14 through 21, 2009, Folds was featured as a judge on NBC's a cappella competition The Sing Off alongside Nicole Scherzinger and Shawn Stockman and offered insightful, constructive comments and criticisms to the contestants. On the final show, in a departure from his a cappella purism, showcased his talents and played the roaring, riffing piano background on "Why Can't We Be Friends?" sung by the two finalist groups, The Beelzebubs from Tufts University near Boston and Nota, from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In March 2010, Folds became a YouTube phenomenon in a video titled "Ode To Merton". In the video, Folds improvises several songs about people that he sees on the popular social networking site Chatroulette, in the style of "Merton" another YouTube phenomenon who many thought was Folds himself.
Folds' newest album, a collaboration with English author Nick Hornby, is entitled Lonely Avenue and was released on September 28, 2010. On June 14, Folds released the official album art via his Twitter account. "From Above", the first single from the album, premiered on Richard Kingsmill's new music show 2010 on Triple J in Australia on July 18, 2010. "From Above" features Australian singer Kate Miller Heidke on backing vocals.
Folds has recently recorded a video song with Nick Hornby and Pomplamoose. As well, English YouTuber Charlie McDonnell was commissioned to create the music video for Folds' song "Saskia Hamilton", which was uploaded on October 1, 2010.
After Ben Folds Five split, Folds' first tour with a full band was to support the album Rockin' The Suburbs. He was accompanied by Britt "Snüzz" Uzzell on guitar and electronic keyboard, Millard Powers on bass and keys, and Jim Bogios on drums. Powers and Bogios later went on to join Counting Crows.
On a tour of Australia, Folds joined with solo artists Ben Kweller and Ben Lee to travel the country as The Bens, at the suggestion of a fan on Kweller's official website. The trio also went on to record a four-track EP together.
In the summer of 2004, Folds co-headlined an American tour with fellow singer-songwriters Rufus Wainwright and Guster. Folds again performed with Wainwright and Lee in the summer of 2005 as part of the "Odd Men Out" tour. In addition, Folds has performed with many other notable musical names, including Weezer and Tori Amos. After seeing The Fray perform with Weezer, Folds asked the band to join him for twelve performances in 2005.
Folds also performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) in March 2005, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in November 2005, the North Carolina Symphony in March 2010, and the Utah Symphony Orchestra in July 2010. A DVD of Folds playing with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra was released in December 2005.
On May 9, 2007, Folds performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra. The orchestra's performance was marred when a fight broke out between two audience members in the balcony, though Folds had not yet taken the stage.
Folds performed with symphony orchestras again in August 2006 during a tour of Australia, which included performances with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and The Queensland Orchestra.
After his MySpace performance on October 24, 2006, Folds's tour performances began to feature a synthesizer, which he uses in many of the songs when played live. The synthesizer is a red Nord Lead II synthesizer. During his concerts, Folds performs two of his concert traditions: palm-smashing and throwing his stool at the piano.
Folds toured with John Mayer as an opening act (though his set typically lasted an hour) in the summer of 2007. During this tour, Mayer sometimes joined Folds on the song "Narcolepsy", playing synth. At various concerts throughout the tour, parents of young children going to see Mayer would file complaints about Folds' lyrics. Folds responded by posting on his website, "We have kids too, but we don't take them out to rock shows that last until 11pm."
On March 29, 2008, Folds played the Cage Center Arena at Berry College in Mt. Berry, GA. During contract negotiations, he was asked by the administration to not play one of his songs due to its explicit lyrics. Folds refused, citing artistic freedom.
On May 9, 2008, Folds played his first completely solo show in years at Western Connecticut State University due to the fact that his bassist Jared Reynolds was with his wife who had just given birth to their first son.
Folds made a brief solo tour of Australia during August 2009; at one of his sold out Sydney Opera House concerts he was joined onstage for several songs by Aimee Mann, who was also touring Australia at the time. At the Palais theatre in Melbourne Missy Higgins joined him for You Don't Know Me.
In 2010, Folds went on a brief tour of North America called "Ben Folds and a Piano" where he played solo other than with Zach Williams or Kate Miller-Heidke and her husband Keir Nuttall as supporting musicians. A small number of copies that were pre-ordered also included signed manuscripts by Ben Folds and Nick Hornby.
Folds met Anna Goodman in first grade at Moore Elementary School, Winston Salem and was married to her from 1987–1992. She co-wrote several Ben Folds Five songs; "Alice Childress", "The Last Polka", "Smoke", "Kate" and "Lullaby." Folds was then briefly married to Kate Rosen in 1996. He met Australian Frally Hynes in January 1998 and they were married in Adelaide, South Australia in May 1999. the former inspiring his song "Still Fighting It" and the latter inspiring his song "Gracie." Folds filed for divorce in November 2006. Folds stated in an online chat on the fan forum thesuburbs.org.uk that he and Hynes share joint custody of their twins. Julia Rose is Ben's stepdaughter.
Category:1966 births Category:American male singers Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American pop pianists Category:American pop singers Category:American rock pianists Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Keytarists Category:Living people Category:Melodica players Category:Musicians from North Carolina Category:People from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Category:University of Miami alumni
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
