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August 21, 2008

Readers pick their top stories of 2007

By Mark Hornickel
mhornickel@kenoshanews.com

We asked readers to log on to our Web site and vote for the top stories in three categories — local stories, U.S. stories and international stories. And with the exception of the local stories, it appeared readers’ thoughts were widespread. Only a few stories on our ballot received not one vote.

Among local stories, Kenosha County Sheriff’s deputy Frank Fabiano’s death overwhelmingly drew the most interest, receiving 48 percent of the votes.

Said one voter: “Tens of thousands of Kenoshans mourned with and prayed for the family of the slain deputy. I feel that was the biggest story due to the involvement of so many strangers to the family.”

Another reader said simply, “Deputy Fabiano’s death was a tragedy that affected the entire community.”

The case of Dennis Troha — from severing his ties with the Menominee Nation’s proposed casino casino project to his indictment for fraud and a guilty plea — drew 19 percent of the votes. And this year’s developments in the Mark Jensen murder case received 8 percent of readers’ votes.

Six teens arrested in the vicious beating of a girl in Lincoln Park also received strong reactions from readers, though it received just 6 percent of the votes.

“I don’t understand how six youths felt justified in humiliating and torturing another human being,” one reader wrote. “It makes me wonder what has been happening in their own young lives. This horrendous activity occurred in our county. It woke me up to take seriously ‘it takes a village, town, etc. to raise a child.’”

A Kenosha native now living in Michigan and working in the court system logged on and called the beating one of the worst he’d read. “The unimaginable beating this child (I don’t care what numerical age she was) had to go through at the hands of six others, I just can’t understand not only what she’s going through but what the rest of her family is going through as well,” the person wrote.

Another reader said, “A horrific and heart-wrenching story. Hard to imagine something like that happening in our own backyard.”

Among the national stories on our ballot, most voters were split on the housing slump and the bridge collapse in Minnesota that killed 13 people and injured nearly 100 more. Twenty-three percent of voters thought the housing market was the national story of the year, while 22 percent picked the bridge collapse.

Other national stories that garnered attention were the political problems that plagued President Bush, the Democratic-led Congress; the California wildfires that forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes, the fall of the U.S. dollar and Nancy Pelosi’s election as the first female speaker of the House.

On our international stories ballot, most readers agreed that soaring gas prices across the globe had the most impact. Forty-seven percent of voters thought it was the top international story.

One reader wrote, “What the heck are we thinking? We have the knowledge and power to wipe oil usage off the planet within a few years and we are not using it. We should be a nation of ONLY solar, wind and hydrogen power by now, and not even be using a drop of oil. We are supposed to be the leaders of the world, instead our leaders are making sure their oil investments are protected at our expense.”

But China’s problems with exporting tainted toys, toothpaste and other products drew heavy interest also with 28 percent of people voting it as the top international story.

International stories

1. Oil prices soar worldwide: 47 percent

2. China's export industry buffeted by cases of tainted toys, toothpaste, other products: 28 percent

3. Koreas: North moves to scrap nuclear program, signs reconciliation pact with South: 8 percent

4. Iran spars with international community over its nuclear program: 8 percent

5. Palestinians feud among themselves heading toward peace talks with Israel: 4 percent

6. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez moves to consolidate power, extend rule: 4 percent

7. Political crisis in Pakistan: Musharraf declares state of emergency: 1 percent

No votes: Under pressure from critics, Paul Wolfowitz resigns as president of World Bank

Web, technology took centerstage in '07

A decade after the Internet’s Big Bang, the online cosmos is expanding as fast as ever. Much more so than a year ago, we can now download or stream many of our favorite movies, most of the TV shows we didn’t TiVo, and just about any song you want. (Music lovers: I’m exaggerating for effect. Thanks.)

Larger, higher-resolution online video players are emerging. It won’t be long before we think back bemusedly on how many clips we watched on that fuzzy miniature YouTube screen. Remember?

And social networking, now in its third generation thanks largely to Facebook, has achieved a degree of cultural permanence few of us fuddy-duddies over 21 were expecting.

But back to the early universe metaphor -- way back when everything was new, it took a few hundred millenniums for atoms to form, let alone big stars. Just so, in terms of Internet entertainment, this year did not see the birth of a thousand suns. A few stars blinked on, to be sure, but most of what was created was unremarkable debris.

Part of the lull is technological -- people may not be eager to watch a lot of Internet content until the Internet can support a higher-quality viewing experience. Another factor is the generally awkward efforts of the entertainment industry to adapt itself to a medium it doesn’t appear to understand.

YouTube puts on weight. The world’s No. 1 online video site completed its first full year under the auspices of the world’s No. 1 search engine. With Google’s guidance, YouTube grew like a supernova, opening home pages in 17 new countries so viewers could have access to what has become a massive global video database.

The last traces of YouTube’s early maverick identity disappeared as corporate entertainment entities began to take over its most viewed lists. As of this writing, eight of YouTube’s nine most-viewed channels of all time are held by major media outlets such as CBS, Sony-BMG and Universal Music Group, whose videos have a combined 692 million views.

The site also partnered with CNN to sponsor a series of presidential primary debates in which the candidates faced questions posed by YouTube users. The veneer of access -- where YouTubers were invited to ask candidates whatever questions they liked -- was almost invisibly thin, however. In the most recent GOP debate, candidates were thrown such hardballs as “What measures will you take to tackle the national debt?” and “Will you eliminate farm subsidies?”

Still, YouTube continued to spawn the homegrown, viral hits it’s famous for and helped a few unknowns gain either note or notoriety.

Esmee Denters, a Dutch teenager who started out singing karaoke into her bedroom webcam, became an international star, winning a spot on tour with Justin Timberlake and an appearance on “Oprah” (who, incidentally, also made her YouTube debut in November). Tay Zonday, a 25-year-old composer from Minneapolis, insinuated his “Chocolate Rain” tune into a million minds, and Lauren Caitlin Upton, aka Miss South Carolina Teen USA, put herself on the map with creative suggestions about enhancing global education.

Facebook’s grand illusion. Facebook wins 2007’s Internet buzz prize. With its series of game-changing innovations, the smart young social network made competitor MySpace look positively stodgy.

After abjuring its college-only roots late in 2006 in favor of an open-door policy, Facebook opened up further by allowing, in essence, anyone to design mini-programs for it. The result has been a tidal wave of Facebook “apps,” as they’re called, allowing users to engage in a multitude of ostensibly social online activities. It’s nice to be able to share music suggestions with friends, certainly. But once you’ve sent pals a few virtual cocktails or spent an hour attacking your cousin’s zombie with your vampire, you begin to detect Facebook’s central prestidigitation: That’s your friend’s profile you’re hanging out with, not your friend.

Facebook had its share of bad press too. But worries about privacy and sexual predation pretty much go with the Internet territory.

Big players, little screen. Hollywood got a little wiser to the promise of the Internet. First, it boosted the number of television episodes offered online, either for free, as NBC.com did with “The Office,” or for a small fee, as AMC did by offering $2 downloads of “Mad Men” from iTunes.

Meanwhile, NBC Universal closed up shop on YouTube in favor of its shiny new video site Hulu.com, a joint venture with Fox owner News Corp. Hulu will be a one-stop shop for titles from a variety of network and cable channels. “Simpsons”? Check. “Heroes?” Check. “A-Team”? “Airwolf”? You won’t be disappointed.

Established names also hurled their share of spaghetti against the wall in the form of original Web programming. With “Prom Queen,” Michael Eisner’s production company Tornante experimented with brazenly short 90-second episodes -- 80 of them. The show is generally credited with establishing that 90 seconds is not even close to long enough for an episode of TV.

Production team Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick (“thirtysomething,” “My So-Called Life”) took a longer-form approach with their Web-exclusive show “Quarterlife,” which is essentially a series of six hourlong episodes broken into eight-minute segments.

Then there was FunnyOrDie.com, the comedy site launched in April with Will Ferrell’s “The Landlord” -- the short and highly virulent clip featuring the trash-talking baby daughter of Ferrell’s moviemaking chum Adam McKay. “The Landlord” was so successful it seemed to instantly define a genre: online video starring a boldface name. The only problem is, eight months have passed, and FunnyOrDie has not been able to follow its own first act, even with a string of celebrity videos and a loudly touted alliance with rainmaker Judd Apatow. Guys, please don’t make me make a joke about the name of your site.

Despite these and other attempts to create the first big Web-only hit -- which we might define as a show someone on the other end of a randomly dialed phone number would’ve heard of -- it may have to wait till 2008.

The best photos of 2007

Kenosha News photos - The best photos of the year, taken by Kenosha News photographers.

Nation & World - The best news and feature photos of the year, taken by the Associated Press.

Sports photos - The best sports photos from across the globe, taken by the Associated Press.

Your Photos - The best reader submitted photos from 2007.

AP movie writers list their
top 10 films of 2007

AP Movie Writer David Germain:
1. “No Country for Old Men”
2. “Once”
3. “Juno”
4. “Away From Her”
5. “Into the Wild”
6. “American Gangster”
7. “Stardust”
8. “Starting Out in the Evening”
9. “The Band’s Visit”
10. “Year of the Dog”

AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire:
1. “No Country for Old Men”
2. “Gone Baby Gone”
3. “Once”
4. “Knocked Up”
5. “Away From Her”
6. “There Will Be Blood”
7. “The Lives of Others”
8. “Lars and the Real Girl”
9. “Into the Wild”
10. “The Bourne Ultimatum”

AP music writer lists
top 10 albums of 2007

AP Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody:
1. “Back to Black,” Amy Winehouse
2. The Bird and the Bee, “The Bird and the Bee”
3. “Finding Forever,” Common
4. The “Once” soundtrack
5. “Graduation,” Kanye West
6. “Double Up,” R. Kelly
7. “As I Am,” Alicia Keys
8. “Alright, Still,” Lily Allen
9. “Good Girl Gone Bad,” Rihanna
10. “Kala,” M.I.A.

Honorable mention:
“Because of You,” Ne-Yo
“American Gangster,” Jay-Z
“Sound of Silver,” LCD Soundsystem
“In My Element,” Robert Glasper
“Blackout,” Britney Spears

Tony and Harry, Britney and Paris, Hannah and Anna: The pop-culture moments of 2007

By JOCELYN NOVECK
AP National Writer

Rather than speculate on an uncertain future, let’s take a chronological journey back through a year of pop culture moments:

JANUARY
T.S. Eliot may have said April is the cruelest month, but that was before “AMERICAN IDOL.” In 2007 January is pretty cruel, for this is when the Idol judges sink to their snarkiest behavior ever, calling contestants names, laughing behind their backs, insulting their looks. The worst moment: Simon Cowell tells a stunned young man at Seattle tryouts, Kenneth Briggs, that he resembles a “bush baby.” (Of course, Briggs is awarded a guest appearance on the finale.)
And at the Golden Globes, “Grey’s Anatomy” star ISAIAH WASHINGTON inexplicably gets himself into further trouble by jovially repeating the same gay slur he was at the same time insisting he DIDN’T use when he FIRST got into trouble. Phew! Note to celebrities in hot water: Leave the jokes to the late-night hosts.

FEBRUARY
HELEN MIRREN and MARTIN SCORSESE bask in long-overdue Oscar triumphs, and Mirren at least is looking very sexy ... yay, middle age! But in our pop culture memories, February will always be ANNA NICOLE SMITH’S month. Her strange life — Playboy bunny, jeans model, reality star, billionaire’s wife, Marilyn Monroe impersonator — is eclipsed by her stranger death. As an unsavory cast of characters dukes it out over where she should rest eternally and who gets the baby, the medical examiner says Smith’s body lies decomposing faster than expected — as if even this publicity-starved starlet has had enough.

MARCH
There are moments in political life that transcend politics. When ELIZABETH EDWARDS, wife of Democrat John Edwards, announces that her breast cancer has returned and spread, she impresses many — of all political stripes — with her openness and her determination to continue living life just as she lived it before. Some question her husband’s decision to stay in the race, but cancer survivors cheer the decision to approach the illness as a manageable condition. At year’s end she is still actively campaigning for her husband.

APRIL
It’s not even a moment, just a couple of seconds: A quick comment on a video clip of the Rutgers women’s basketball team lands DON IMUS in the biggest trouble of his career. His “nappy-headed hos” remark triggers a gathering storm of outrage that leads to his firing — and for once, the ritual apology by a celebrity just isn’t cutting it. Imus’ critics want consequences, not apologies, and they get them — but they last only eight months (see December.)

MAY
A big month for movies, especially the “threequel.” Unfortunately, three isn’t the charm for “Spider-Man 3,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” and “Shrek the Third,” which don’t quite reach the heights of earlier installments. Director JUDD APATOW tickles our funnybones with his profane yet touching “Knocked Up,” and MICHAEL MOORE fans publicity for his newest (and arguably most effective) documentary, “Sicko,” with a trip to Cuba that gets him in trouble with the government.

JUNE
TONY SOPRANO says goodbye, and countless fans curse the cable company, thinking that cut-to-black was a malfunction. HILLARY CLINTON spoofs the ending in a video satire that wins points for cleverness. But we’re all equal in the YouTube universe, and thus Obama Girl gets just as much attention — that’s Amber Lee Ettinger, the model/actress/former pageant contestant whose racy “I Got A Crush On Obama” is one of the most-watched clips of the year. PARIS HILTON spends 23 days in jail for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case. Later she tells LARRY KING she spent her time reading the Bible, though she can’t recall a favorite verse, or, well, any verse at all. And wait, we’re not done! This is the month that SEN. LARRY CRAIG of Idaho makes that fateful trip to the airport restroom. His “wide stance” explanation will be endlessly spoofed, including by BRAD PITT and GEORGE CLOONEY on a tribute show for JULIA ROBERTS.

JULY
HARRY POTTER’S month, hands down, with the release of the seventh and final installment in J.K. Rowling’s insanely successful series. We won’t reveal details of the adorable young wizard’s fate in case any of you (like us) haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, in any of the 64 languages that Potter books have been published in. But here’s a choice tidbit not found in the book: later this year Rowling announces that the beloved character Dumbledore was gay.

AUGUST
What time is it? If you’re a tween or live in close proximity to one, you know the answer: It’s time for “HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2,” the sequel to the hugely popular Disney Channel movie. In this scrubbed-up, 21st-century “Grease,” high school never looked so clean, so gentle, so tolerant, with cliques that melt like butter and mean girls that aren’t really mean. Realistic? As legions of fans would say, whatever!! More than 17 million watch the first telecast alone, making it TV’s biggest event of the summer. Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens are bona fide stars, which makes it ...

SEPTEMBER
... a little awkward when nude photos of VANESSA HUDGENS surface on the Web. Will Disney disown its dark-haired sweetheart, heroine to countless young girls? Surely you jest (for one thing, there’s the upcoming “High School Musical 3” to consider.) Hudgens apologizes, and life at East High goes on. BRITNEY SPEARS could only hope for such a smooth landing. But it’s bumpy, bumpy, bumpy for the troubled pop icon, who hazards a comeback at MTV’s Video Music Awards, only to stumble through her song as if she were sloshing through mud. An unfortunately revealing sequined bikini guarantees the next day’s painful headlines, but not nearly as painful as a few weeks later, when ...

OCTOBER
... Spears loses custody of her two toddler sons to ex-hubby KEVIN FEDERLINE. Though her album, “Blackout,” is well-reviewed, her personal struggles continue with no end in sight. On a less serious note, the world spends a few days pondering the fate of IGGY THE TERRIER, first adopted by ELLEN DEGENERES, then given to her hairdresser’s kid, then taken away according to the rescue agency’s regulations. “Please, please, please, just give the dog back,” DeGeneres weeps on national TV. But later she has to plead with angry fans to stop threatening the agency.
Speaking of strange things on talk shows, is that really LYNNE CHENEY on Jon Stewart’s show, greeting him with a Darth Vader doll (a joking reference to hubby Dick) and getting a friendly, respectful reception? And speaking of Stewart, we told you last year there would be no Stewart/Colbert ticket in 2008 ’cause, well, these guys are just comedians. Turns out we were only half right. For in October, conservative faux-pundit Stephen Colbert announces he’s running, but only in South Carolina, his native state, which ....

NOVEMBER
... rejects him. State Democrats vote 13-3 to disallow his bid. Their lame reason? That he’s not serious. Bah, humbug! At least South Carolina will get OPRAH: The talk-show mogul announces that she’ll campaign for her favorite guy BARACK OBAMA in the key early voting states. Can Winfrey sparkle her candidate with the same fairy dust that makes books — even really old ones — sudden best sellers? And here’s one youngster that’s obviously gotten her hands on some fairy dust: MILEY CYRUS, aka Disney’s HANNAH MONTANA, turns 15 amid one of the very the hottest concert tours of the year. Hottest KIDS tours, you ask? No, hottest tours period, with tickets selling out in minutes and scalpers having a field day. In Florida, a man hangs onto a pole for much of six days in a contest to win tickets for his fiancee’s daughter.

DECEMBER
December completes the circle for Don Imus, who debuts his new show on WABC with a cast that includes two black comedians and a promise to “never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret ... that they accepted my apology.” He also pledges to use his new show to discuss race relations.
Will Imus be one of the first pop culture figures to actually make his apology mean something? We’ll have to get back to you on that.