Who Has the Most Likes On Facebook

                      My facebook Music Page. Have you liked it yet? If not click here

There is no doubt that social networking has revolutionized the way most of us live. I know that is true, otherwise blogging like this would be like the old dust bowl days days before the early part of 2003. That's when the world was introduced to the two most popular blogging sites, WordPress and Blogger. Back in the old days people wrote the crap that was in their noggin into a little book with a lock and key so no one else would see it.

But now, the more people who read the crap from your noggin, the more popular you can become. You can even get a TV deal based on how many people like the stuff that oozes out of your noggin. Not bad. Yes, by blogging and using social networking sites the entire world can now see how popular almost anything is, even a particular type of cookie like an Oreo.

Did you ever wonder how the Facebook page for your band, store, club or favorite cookie stacks up against the millions and millions of other pages on Facebook? Well, there's an app for that! Click here.

As of today May 29th, 2011 here are what pages the 500 million Facebook users "like" the most.

Name Likes 1.  Texas Hold'em Poker 43,676,389 2.  Facebook 42,797,272 3.  Eminem 37,888,938 4.  Lady Gaga 35,904,305 5.  YouTube 35,617,068 6.  Rihanna 34,849,368 7.  Family Guy 31,548,567 8.  Shakira 31,092,469 9.  Linkin Park 28,818,334 10.  Coca-Cola 28,358,949 11.  Justin Bieber 28,238,580 12.  South Park 28,034,168 13.  The Simpsons 27,993,457 14.  Cristiano Ronaldo 27,135,092 15.  Katy Perry 26,198,799 16.  Bob Marley 25,660,294 17.  Lil Wayne 25,377,278 18.  Vin Diesel 24,820,088 19.  Megan Fox 24,736,967 20.  Harry Potter 24,692,235 21.  Disney 24,423,067 22.  AKON 23,625,179 23.  Music 22,719,345 24.  MTV 22,686,123 25.  SpongeBob SquarePants 22,628,977 26.  Starbucks 22,467,997 27.  Twilight 22,177,948 28.  House 22,029,440 29.  Beyoncé 21,910,851 30.  The Twilight Saga 21,591,493 31.  Taylor Swift 21,532,346 32.  Barack Obama 21,059,384 33.  Adam Sandler 20,963,922 34.  Toy Story 20,845,820 35.  Dr. House 20,536,764 36.  Avril Lavigne 20,247,445 37.  Oreo 20,159,905 38.  Selena Gomez 20,071,562 39.  David Guetta 19,729,666 40.  Two and a Half Men 19,648,344

Ok, looks like if I ever want to be as popular as an Oreo Cookie (#37) on Facebook, I have some real work to do.

Blessings,

Ava

xox

When Good Things Happen To Bad Singers

Is Justin Bieber a WGTHTBS?

Have you ever heard music on the radio and wondered what the heck was that? Well that is a clear-cut case of When Good Things Happen To Bad Singers (WGTHTBS). It seems that they are coming out of the music industry wood work these days. It is an epidemic that is becoming worse than the recent strain of the Bird Flu. At least with the Bird Flu you could get a shot in your butt and become immune, but with WGTHTBS- not so much.

Hey, as a Blonde Greek girl who loves sneaker shopping 24/7 I don't begrudge these people because it is all about the Benjamins! And if you can get someone to pay you a lot of money for not being good at something, and you're not in politics, then more power to you! Art is art, right?

The first case of WGTHTBS that ever entered my Greek noggin was when I heard the Ricky Martin cover song She Bang by William Hung from American Idol in 2004. Although William Hung had no formal training and lacked talent, but because of his American Idol exposure he was offered a $25,000 advance on a record deal from Koch Entertainment in 2004, and eventually released three albums on that label in 2004 and 2005. The albums mainly consisted of covers of pop and rock songs, including "She Bangs." You mean they were all cover songs and there were no original songs, I am shocked!!

That's not all folks, there is a whole bunch of other really great things that have happened to this bad singer. Here is a list of them from my pals at wikipedia Hung has appeared in commercials for the search engine Ask.com, the Game Show Network (spoofing Freddy Mercury and singing an off-key "We Are the Champions"), as well as the mobile phone service provider Cingular Wireless. He also appeared to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in May 2004 at the Rogers Centre for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Hung performing in 2006

His first movie, a low-budget Hong Kong period comedy called Where is Mama's Boy (2004), was released in January 2005. Hung played a good-natured village kid who sells Chinese pancakes to pay his mother's medical bills. His character gets discovered as a singer, and helps a woman protect her business from her jealous, conniving elder sister. In the film, Hung played opposite veteran Hong Kong actress Nancy Sit and parodied his own American Idol performance with the song "Siu Beng" (Cantonese) ("Chinese Pancake"), an allusion to his American Idol audition song, "She Bangs." Despite solid financial backing and the involvement of Nancy Sit, the film was a box office flop.

Hung was the subject of a documentary called William Hung: Hangin' with Hung, a ninety minute film recounting his sudden rise to fame. Hung appeared as himself in a February 2006 episode of the television series Arrested Development titled "Fakin' It", acting as the front-man of a band, "William Hung and his Hung Jury", the house band for a fictional courtroom-themed show Mock Trial with J. Reinhold.  Hung has appeared in an episode of the MTV Show, Celebrity Deathmatch, where he battles Ricky Martin (who performed the original "She Bangs".) He has also appeared in Airline in which he missed his flight, then sang his infamous song once again for the cameras.^[2]

Hung has also been portrayed as a Chinese fairy in the Fairly OddParents movie, Fairy Idol. The fairy also sang horribly, but sang the Fairly OddParents theme song instead. Hung also made a cameo appearance on an episode of George Lopez, auditioning as a wedding singer."

Rebecca Black

Then there is the more recent WGTHTBS case study of Rebecca Black's Friday. With my Greek eyes I instantly saw a WGTHTBS in the making, I just had no idea how far she would go. As of May 23, 2011 Rebecca Black has received more than 147 million views of Friday on YouTube. That's impressive even for a WGTHTBS.

Florence Foster Jenkins

However the concept of WGTHTBS cashing in and making huge profits is nothing new. Have you ever heard of an opera singer named Florence Foster Jenkins? Me neither, that's my point! This is a name that came from my manager Mr. Bricks' noggin during one of my Skype calls to him asking what's up with all of the WGTHTBS cropping up? That's when Mr. Bricks told me the story about Florence Foster Jenkins who became extremely famous because how bad she was and how oblivious she was to that fact.  From any of her records it is apparent that Jenkins was, "a little pitchy Dawg", had no sense of rhythm and was barely capable of sustaining a note. Her accompanist can be heard on her records making adjustments to compensate for her tempo variations and rhythmic mistakes. Her dubious diction, especially in foreign language songs, was also noteworthy. Nonetheless, she became tremendously popular in her unconventional way. Her audiences apparently loved her for the amusement she provided rather than her musical ability. Critics often described her work in a backhanded way that may have served to pique public curiosity.

Despite her patent lack of ability, Jenkins was firmly convinced of her greatness, but then again aren't all WGTHTBS? She compared herself favorably to other renowned sopranos, and dismissed the laughter which often came from the audience during her performances as coming from her rivals consumed by "professional jealousy." She was aware of her critics, however, saying "People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing." Jenkins died in 1944.

Let me reiterate that the success that any WGTHTBS has or gets I am very happy for them. As much of a struggle as it has been for me as a singer maybe there is a new category called When Bad Things Happen to Good Singers. I personally would much rather be in the company of WBTHTGS than in the company of WGTHTBS - just sayin'

Blessings,

Ava

xox

NOTE: This is humor. No bad singers were harmed during the writing of this blog.

YouTube Killed The Record Stars

My YouTube Channel

Video Killed the Radio Star is a song by the British new wave group The Buggles, who released it as their debut single in September 1979, on Island Records. It celebrates the golden days of radio, describing a singer whose career is cut short by the invention of television. The song topped the music charts in several countries and not by me, but has been covered by many other recording artists. Coincidentally, it was the very first music video aired on MTV in the U.S. at 12:01am on 1 August 1981 when that music channel first went on the air. The song was number 40 on VH1's 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 80's. Hmmm, one hit wonder...sound familiar yet? Read on.

Music videos have been a great addition to the music industry. Sometimes it helps the audience understand exactly what was in song writer's noggin when  they  wrote the song. A great deal of early singers who found fame and fortune on the radio were crowded out with the invention of TV.  The early pioneers of the music industry sometimes created an image of what an artist would look like, and since people could hear them but not see them that worked for everyone until television came along. When TV came along, and some people sounded better than they looked, there went their careers.

When MTV came along in 1980's it was novel and some singers and band's images were made on MTV just because they made a video and had a certain cool look. As my manager Mr. Bricks tells me, back in the early days of MTV, not every song on the radio had a video. On a side note, Mr. Bricks was friends with Michael Jackson, (yes, that Michael Jackson) and Mr. Bricks was telling me just the other day about how Michael Jackson was describing to him the idea of what MTV was going to be all about, even before it debuted. Since there never had been anything like it at the time Mr. Bricks couldn't get the concept through his thick noggin. He said Michael kept giggling at him for not understanding what MTV was all about. Apparently Mr. Bricks never did get his thick noggin fixed.

Eventually, after several years of MTV,  the music video became less and less novel and soon became a necessity for a hit song. That brings us to the current dilemma where YouTube has created instant celebrities for the music industry and for this YouTube Generation (YTG).  Take someone like 13 year-old Rebecca Black, who’s song Friday’s video went viral instantly on YouTube amassing a staggering 111 million views to date. Did Rebecca get the popularity she has because she is a talented singer ?

No, the entire reason Rebecca Black has 111 million views on YouTube is because the producer from the Ark Factory knew that Justin Bieber was making millions of dollars and his videos were described as some of the most "disliked videos on YouTube." How bad are they? Well, if  the fact that Justin's very worst video, "Baby", just surpassed 500 million YouTube views last month, then they must be pretty bad. That is where Rebecca Black fits in. Her producers from the Ark Factory wanted to be just as "bad" as Justin, so they cleverly marketed it as “The Worst Song Ever.” By leaking a statement like that to the media, assured instant attention from the YTG who loves watching any video of the worst of anything. The worst car crash, the worst basketball shot, the worst practical joke, etc. Then they make it go viral by emailing the link of that "worst video" to 500 of their closest friends. And when a Justin Bieber song or Rebecca Black's song shows up on YouTube with a million views, the YTG thinks, " it must be good because it has so many views" and then the rest is history as the cycle repeats itself. To date Justin Bieber has 2 of the top YouTube videos of all-time with more than  a 1,541,295,560 views on his YouTube Vevo channel. (that's 1.5 billion) But, simultaneously with that achievement, Bieber also holds the distinction of having 5 of the top 10 most "disliked" (we can't say hate anymore) videos of all time on YouTube. To show the way YouTube has changed the musical landscape think of this: Michael Jackson only has 650,813,338 (that's 650 million) YouTube views on his YouTube Viveo channel. Now, if anyone can honestly say that Justin Bieber is better or more talented than Michael Jackson then they need to have their melon examined because that's just not right. With the way the music industry uses the YouTube yardstick to measure talent, that means in 2 months on the musical landscape Rebecca Black is 1/6 as popular as Michael Jackson and that Justin Bieber is a musical prodigy? This all makes my head bleed. Am I bitter, nope not at all, just sunburnt from the Florida sun.

The current record label executives grew up on MTV and they are currently not paying attention to anyone who has graduated from middle school or who knew life before Sham Wows.  They forget that a hit song is a hit song, no matter what the age of the performer is. The issue is whether or not the musical gate keepers in their ivory towers have enough vision to sign and distribute an artist who doesn’t need a legal guardian to accompany them to the recording studio. Rebecca Black’s song Friday is a mere novelty song and although it has achieved tremendous YouTube play and iTunes downloads, it is not considered to be artistically appealing. Catchy yes, artistic, not so much.

Unfortunately, these record executives are missing some pretty incredibly talented singers (hello, my name is Ava Aston and I think I am a pretty incredibly talented singer, just sayin') and it has turned many of us into indie artists. Take me for example, even though I have worked my Greek butt off since the age of 5 developing the skills and talent that I now have, skills that a teenager like Rebecca Black doesn’t have, simply because I no longer wear braces and a padded bra, I am off-limits to the major labels. That's just so wrong! The industry's trend of signing super young singers makes Taylor Swift seem like a VH1 artist and a music industry veteran. 

So, as most of you should know by now, next Thursday April 28th I am releasing the "Gone" music video, which is the title track on my "Gone" CD. I have given Mr. Bricks permission  to go ahead and send out a press release proclaiming "Gone" as the worst song ever written and the absolute worst music video of all time. I even gave him permission to say things like, "Ava Aston's "Gone" music video is so bad that if you watch it more than 3 times in a row your noggin will explode" or "If you thought Rebecca Black's Friday was bad, wait until you see Ava Aston's "Gone"  or my all time favorite hyperbole is, "Free sneakers to the first 100 Million YouTube Views"

Now of course I don't really believe that my song and video are worst of all time, I am actually very proud of them. And I don't begrudge Justin Bieber or Rebecca Black at all, I am happy for their success. I am impressed with what they have achieved. If you want to see just how bad my "Gone" music video is, you will be able to see it on Thursday, Thursday, Thursday  April 28, 2011.  Set your iPhone reminders now!!!

Ok, this hot Florida sun is wreaking havoc on my noggin. I think I need #60 sun screen.

Blessings,

Ava

xox

Good Bye Mr. Bricks?

This is a very special edition of  Saturday Morning Cartoons. Mr. Bricks has entered this cartoon into a Valentine's Day Contest at the  Xtranormal YouTube Channel where I make the cartoons.

I need your help. Not only would I like you to watch it, but I am asking kindly if you would email the link to everyone on your email list so we can get the most views!!!

Please cut and paste this into your emails

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-I50S3vnRU

Thank You.   And have a Happy Valentine's Day.

Blessings,

Ava

xox

Ava Wants More Fan Mail

The Super Bowl.



So what is all of the fuss about this Super Bowl?



So why all of the fuss over a super bowl? OK, I am going to humor you all for a second and pretend I just crawled out from under a rock and I don't really know what all of the Super Bowl hype is about. In fact, I have some questions rolling around in my little Greek noggin as to about what the game of football is really all about anyway.

From what I see, it just seems like a bunch of high-priced athletes fighting over money. At the beginning of the game they get the biggest guy from each team to go to the center of the court, track, diamond, field or whatever this sport calls it. Then they flip a quarter. And for the next (what seems like) 8 hours they fight over that twenty-five cents. I know that is true because I can hear them yell, "Get the quarter back, get the quarter back!"

I hope you like that, I'm using my best "A" material.

I really didn't discover the game of football until I was in high school...and then I really didn't learn much about the rules of the game of football. What I did learn was that all of the cute boys in school were on the football team. So I tried out for cheerleading as an excuse to be near them, and as a way to harness my inner Greekness. And I wasn't just a cheerleader, I was named captain of the cheerleading squad. Yep this big Greek yapper has its advantages I tell you. They said since I was always talking, I might as well be in charge. Ok, so I know a little bit about football, so bring it on!

The part of the Super Bowl hype that upsets me the most is that a football game seems to have more importance than a major religious holiday. Furniture stores, car dealerships, the grocery stores and even Subway are all having Super Bowl specials. I am sure there are more than one confused little kid who wakes up on Sunday morning, runs down stairs and is disappointed that there are no Super Bowl presents waiting for them. Don't we always give kids present on holidays like Christmas, Halloween, Easter and their birthdays?

In reality I think the Super Bowl gets far more media attention than Easter, more stores and companies advertise for the Super Bowl than for Easter. Just think how easy it would be for a company like Subway to advertise during Easter?

Jesus took five loaves of bread two fish and fed 5,000 people. We take one loaf of bread and throw on some sliced process meat and a crap load of veggies on it for only $5.00. The $5.00 foot long now at Subway! Happy Easter.

But alas, like Bieber Fever swept over a nation of pre-teenaged girls, so has the Superbowl fever swept over an entire nation. I will be on my couch on Sunday watching the commercials and laughing, watching and wondering out loud why they would get the Black Eyed Peas to be the half-time entertainment, and not get a real band like Journey or Foreigner to perform. I will also be watching The Pittsburgh Steelers kick the butts of the Green Bay Packers -Just sayin.

Blessings,

Ava

xox

Music Industry Rocked By New WikiLeaks Scandal?

In what can only be described as an ironic parody of the recent WikiLeaks breaches of national security with the release of sensitive classified documents from an insider within the United Nation’s US diplomat’s offices, the US music industry is now being rocked and rolled by a similar scandal with the release of a 50,000 page document dump from the tell all/reveal all WikiLeaks website.

The apparent target of the leaks is music industry executive boardroom and water cooler discussions, sensitive documents, Facebook posts, texts, tweets, YouTube viral videos and emails about unsigned recording artist Ava Aston.  A source close to someone who knows someone who once worked at a major record label said that “heads will roll” over the release of these sensitive documents. The unnamed source said although he has not seen any of the actual documents he is “pretty sure” there was a lot of cussing and name calling in them, because “that’s how top music executives roll.”

Ava Aston is an unsigned artist looking for a major record deal. Aston and her career was the commonality discussed among the music industry executives quoted in the more than 50,000 pages of sensitive documents. A source close to someone who dated the reporter who uncovered the documents verified that the documents frequently mention that Ava is a young “hot looking Greek girl” but that they only wanted to sign 11-year old girls. The sketchy source went on to say the documents reveal music industry powers-that-be only wanted to sign new artists who haven’t yet finished the 6^th grade. The documents go onto to cite the success of Justin Bieber, Jackie Evancho, Greyson Chance and  Rhema Marvanne as examples of why they want to sign pre-teens to major record deals.

Although warned by a whistle-blower, who tried to rally for Ava Aston’s defense by going public on HLN’s The Joy Behar Show to say that music is universal and a good artist can be over the age of 12 –  was rudely silenced by Behar and her guest, a middle-aged music executive who once was the toast of the industry when he signed the late actor Telly Savalas to a multi-million dollar record deal in the late 1970's. Behar publicly admitted that not only is she tone-deaf but that she is also not funny.  The older music executive continued to say he was “down with his  homies and peeps on the street and that he knew what would sell, for reals.” Leaked documents revealed The whistle-blower was later fired from his six-figure a year A & R position and told a confidential source that he recently filed a Qui Tam lawsuit or a whistle-blowers lawsuit against his employers and the entire music industry. It appears the whistle-blower was not fired for his lawsuit, but instead was fired for appearing on the lowly rated Behar cable show instead of a highly rated show like CNN's Larry King Live. According to a neighbor of the whistleblower’s grandmother she was told the appearance proved to be an embarrassment to the record label and so they had to let him go.

WikiLeak founder Julian Assange said during a Rolling Stone phone interview he granted from a cave that he shares with his fellow fugitive-on-the-lam and friend Osama Bin Laden, that he has no regrets for any embarrassment that these documents might shed on the music industry.  He said that he has downloaded (legally) Ava Aston’s “Gone” CD and said he often listens to her music on his iPod when he and Osama are out walking their camels. Assange said he thinks Aston has an incredible sound and that any record label would be lucky to have her.

Other documents revealed that some very liberal music executives feared that Ava Aston was un-American and not worthy of a major record deal because she wrote and recorded the song , “We The People” a song where she is asking Americans to stand up and support their country. Aston wrote the song about right and wrong, not the right and the left. When a low-level marketing rep for the record label sent an email and questioned the label VP about what was un-American about standing up and supporting our country he responded by saying, “I don’t know, it's just what they say on MSNBC all of the time.”

Ava Aston was unavailable for comment when contacted about the massive record industry document dump from WikiLeaks. Like a typical manager in the music industry, Aston's manager Mr. Bricks did not return phone calls from reporters working on this musical satire, but was seen having lunch at a local McDonald's with a McRib in his hands.

All in fun my friends, all in fun.

Blessings,

Ava

xox