www.sex.com domain on auction block

Sex.com, often touted as one of the most valuable Internet domain names, is due to head to the auction block next week. DOM Partners LLC, a New Jersey lender that backed a 2006 purchase of the domain name for a reported $14 million, is foreclosing on the Internet property, and is due to auction it.

Bidding for the Internet property, the tumultuous past of which includes several lawsuits and two books, is due to start at $1 million. The auctions of simple domain names are seen as rare opportunities for Internet entrepreneurs. An auction for the www.pizza.com domain name in 2008 attracted bids above $2.5 million.
Reuters

Yoshitaka Amano solo show

An art exhibition may not be the standard setting for the type of fanfare associated with sci-fi conventions. Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano, who gained attention designing characters for the video game “Final Fantasy,” appears to have earned this brand of fan appreciation with a body of work that reaches across several genres, including anime, video games, illustrations and paintings.

Admirers of Amano’s work arrived at the recent opening of “Deva Loka” (the place where the gods exist in Indian religions) at LeBasse Projects clad in full regalia, dressed as newly unveiled characters as well as past favorites. His first solo show in Southern California in nearly a decade consists of 13 pieces created over the past two years.  L A Times

Musicians turn to corporate advertising and product placement to promote their work.

With CD sales in free fall and opportunities for radio or television airplay increasingly rare, the rules governing the interplay between pop music and advertising are being rewritten.

It’s no longer possible to “sell out” — at least, not within a certain time-cherished understanding of the term. Rockers, rappers and up-and-coming pop titans of all stripes are licensing music and image as an integral part of brand-building, which largely has usurped selling music and concert tickets as many musicians’ professional end goal.  L A Times

Variety pulling critical review for ad money?

What made the review something of a cause celebre is that Variety mysteriously yanked the review from its website without offering any explanation for the sudden move. This has led to a host of snarky Web speculation that the venerable trade paper spiked the review after receiving a blistering complaint from Joshua Newton, the film’s director, who was furious that he’s spent $400,000 in Variety advertising on an Oscar campaign for the film, only to see the picture dismissed as mediocre by one of Variety’s critics. As a Defamer headline put it: “Variety Will Kill a Bad Review of Your ‘Mediocre’ Movie for Just $400,000.”   LA Times

Chips are down for US casinos as revenues slide

US casinos have run into a string of bad luck as the recession and other factors cut into gambling revenues, even as more states move to get a piece of the action.  Gaming revenues in the 12 US states authorizing casinos fell 5.7 percent in 2009 to 30.7 billion dollars, according to a preliminary estimate by the American Gaming Association, a trade group.

This followed a 4.6 percent drop in 2008 gross gaming receipts, the figures showed.  Gaming industry analysts say the recession has hit gambling along with all other consumer and leisure activities.  Breitbart