My Yard Goes Disney, the HGTV show that brought the coolest parts of Disney theme parks to backyards with miniature teacup rides, African safaris and Pirate-themed pools returns for its second season on Friday, June 1, at 8 pm ET/PT. HGTV and Disney Parks will team up once again to surprise lucky families with Disney-inspired fantasy backyard makeovers they never thought possible. Along with host Brandon Johnson, HGTV brings even more of the magic, spirit and adventure of Disney to homes this season.

“This effort between Disney and HGTV is about creating spectacular backyards that are fun hang-out spots for the whole family,” said Kathleen Finch, general manager, HGTV.

In the premiere episode, viewers meet homeowners Geo and Gwen Morales and their two adorable daughters. The girls love traveling to Walt Disney World Resort to meet the Disney princesses with their mom and play miniature golf with their dad. Gwen, who grew up adoring Disney fairytales, wants to keep the tradition of being a little princess alive for her girls and give them an idyllic childhood filled with happy family memories. Gwen and Geo welcome HGTV and Disney to transform their backyard from a blank canvas into a magical space where the girls’ imaginations can run wild.

While the kids spend time with their grandmother, Brandon and the design team install a fairytale village inspired by Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom(R) Park and the topiaries of the Fantasia Gardens miniature golf course in the Epcot(R) Resort Area. Custom built by craftsmen from all over the world, the backyard is complete with castles and playhouses fit for Snow White and Rapunzel, as well as personalized trains and a miniature golf course. This space certainly has something every member of the family can enjoy. When it’s time to reveal the amazing results, friends and family arrive to celebrate.

Future episodes of My Yard Goes Disney will feature a design inspired by Ariel’s Undersea Adventure at Disneyland(R) Resort with a rock slide and an underground viewing window for the pool as well as a Caribbean-style dining area. Viewers can also expect to see makeovers with Disney’s Animal Kingdom(R)-themed designs that feature a pool-connected treehouse zip line and a sand pit for digging dinosaur fossils.

Tune in to HGTV tonight, June 1st at 8PM!

Credit: HGTV

Read more at Brandon Johnson’s Official Site

The IPO launched May 18 at $38 per share, and Facebook stock closed trading Thursday at $29.60.

Bartiromo read Gorman a quote from The Cohen Group CEO Peter Cohen:

Frankly, it was an overreach. I don’t think that it should have been upsized, and I think that we don’t really know all of the facts about it, so it’s not fair for me to talk about it, but I’ve never, in 43 years, seen anything bollocks up like this in my career.

Gorman’s response:

I think it is interesting that if we played the tape about what everybody was saying the week before the deal: Would it be priced at $50? There was pricing on an exchange in Germany apparently that morning of $70 for a brief period. The secondary market had this trading at higher numbers at different points. There were a lot of opinions the week before, and lot of opinions, including Peter Cohen’s, after. It is very different, though, actually being in the room and understanding what the demand was at that point in time. Now, operating as an underwriter, you’re matching both the seller’s desire to get a fair price for the company they have built, and the risk that they undertook with, obviously, the demand in the marketplace, and that was the process we went through.

Gorman on why the price of Facebook stock slipped:

I think this is a very complicated story. By the way, we’re on day seven or eight of the story, and I think the stock was up 10 percent from the lows just today. This is one of the most volatile openings to an IPO ever, and it also happens to be one of the largest ever, and also happens to be one that affects an institution that is touching 900 million individuals around the world. So it’s got hype going in every single direction. We spent the time, all of the underwriters, putting together and trying to find the right pricing integrity, obviously working with institutional shareholders and retail shareholders, establishing a pricing range, and it was ultimately priced at the top of — not above, but at the top of — the revised range of $38.

On Nasdaq’s technical issues:

Well, we thought we were opening with the market, shortly after the market was opening, and it was clear that the exchange handling the issue, Nasdaq, was having problems. We were being updated every couple of minutes and delayed every few minutes, and eventually, they declared a go, everybody could go, and we could start proceeding with the transaction. Over the next couple of hours, there reined enormous confusion and disarray, because buyers and sellers didn’t know what they were being filled at. Some people who thought they were long were short. Some people who thought they had sold at $42 had sold at $41. Some buyers who thought they bought at $38 were buying at $40. That confusion, frankly, in a deal of almost unprecedented size, against a macro backdrop of everything going on in Greece, and so on, created a sort of potent elixir, if you will, that really set this thing aflame.

His message to buyers who are disappointed with the stock’s performance so far:

But the story isn’t over. Again, we are at day eight here. Give this a little bit of time. Day one, the stock opened above $42, and the average weight of price for the first day was 5 percent improvement. We just have to be a little patient. There was more hype going into this, I thought, than any security ever traded. However, the hype in the past few days has exceeded that. We just all need to settle down a bit, find the right base, and get back to the fundamentals of what is this great company doing and capable of doing with its 900 million active users that they have out there, and give this a little bit of time. Let’s have this discussion again in 12 months.

On reports that the IPO’s underwriters made about $100 million for their efforts to stabilize the scuffling stock:

Our intent is not to make money on the greenshoe. Our obligation as a stabilizing agent is to be the stabilizer of the security, and obviously, the shoe helps you perform that function. We are not done yet. We are still in a process and, as I said, this process is going to unfold over weeks, and eventually, all of this information will be disclosed. Our intent is to support our client, to provide a ready market matching buyers and sellers. And all of the underwriters, key to this syndicate, in addition to the company, agree that the pricing is appropriate give the demand and supply.

On why the number of Facebook shares being offered was increased:

Well, it’s not terribly unusual to raise the number of shares. You go out with an expectation that there is a demand for a certain number of shares, a belief, but you don’t really know. And then you go and do the work — and that’s what the roadshow does — and it either excites or diminishes demand. In this particular case, it was apparent early into the roadshow that the demand was significantly beyond what people thought it might be, and that’s why it was raised. The same thing happened, by the way, with General Motors, and I believe we increased the total shares that went up 20 percent or 21 percent with GM, almost identical.

On the allegations about Morgan Stanley lowering its revenue estimates for Facebook just prior to the IPO, and who was told:

Just so everyone understands what the process is, after you receive an S-1, if there is a change in what the performance of the company is believed to be — and Facebook, I think, acting with great integrity, alerted the marketplace relating to mobile advertising, what the numbers, what the direction was, trajectory for the second quarter over the first quarter — we put out an amendment to the S-1, and that went to every investor. Based upon that and based upon the company making that alert, I saw and I’ve got a list of over 20 news organizations that reported that — which included, by the way, CNBC — that came out and said there was a revision that was frankly a modest revision to the projections for Facebook, which translated into an amendment and said, “Dear investors, we know you are interested in the stock, here’s the amendment. Everybody make up your mind.” And the policy that we and the underwriters operated under — and this has been looked at a number of times over the years by regulators and, I believe, the Securities and Exchange Commission — is that there is individual disclosure, oral disclosure, no written reports to institutional investors interested in what that particular analyst says, because they can go to many of the companies and pick up input from a number of the different underwriters. The policy to date has been to not offer that same information — either the original projection or the revised — to retail investors. All of this was during the period of the roadshow. It wasn’t after the transaction went public. And the demand was still there at that point, when we got to the end of the roadshow. Listen, there will be various inquiries, and I know the SEC and Congress have looked at that. I’ve said to my organization that there was no nefarious activity, and that this was standard operating procedure. It’s the policy we and all of the other underwriters have operated under with retail organizations, and there wasn’t any desire to obfuscate or hide. This was standard operating procedure, and it was in the public domain.

Readers: How do you think the investigations by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the SEC will play out?

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The social network said in a post on its developer blog:

Built-in watch and read actions can only be published after someone engages with the content for 10 or more seconds. If a video is shorter than 10 seconds, the viewer must watch the entire video.

This policy change to its open graph publishing guidelines marks Facebook’s latest attempt to quell users’ concerns about oversharing or unintentionally sharing content they have viewed from open graph-enabled apps, as well as to stop the bleeding of users defecting from apps such as the social readers of The Washington Post and The Guardian.

At the end of April, the social network began experimenting with an icon next to the names of those apps that would appear green if social sharing was enabled and gray if it was disabled.

Readers: What else should Facebook be doing to enhance its social sharing process for open graph-enabled apps?

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Michael is also the SVP of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital.

Michael shares insights into the key factors that influence how larger businesses can benefit from engaging in social media, and how these activities should be managed.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• Why it’s important to have plans in place for different business needs
  
• What businesses need to keep in mind when expanding globally
• Which tools you need to manage your social media activities
• The importance of having a good social relationship management platform
• Why it’s essential to have policies and guidelines for your employees
  
• How to build trust internally with employees

Connect with Michael on Twitter @Britopian.  You can also check out Michael’s blog, Britopian.

What do you think? Are you part of a big business that is managing social media effectively? What tips do you have to share? Please leave them below.

Social Media Examiner

TWIST recently chatted with Adam Irigoyen, who stars as Deuce on Disney Channel’s Shake it Up! Adam discusses his music, on-set pranks, and his dream guest star! He also spilled exclusive deets about some upcoming episodes! Check out the interview below and be sure to tune into Disney Channel on Sundays to catch all new episodes of Shake it Up!

TWIST: What can we expect to see on some upcoming episodes of Shake It Up?

Adam: Well, obviously, you can expect to see a lot of dancing. You can also expect a lot of comedy. You guys have seen a couple of episodes of season two, and those episodes are awesome. But, I feel that the really, really funny episodes are towards the end of the season. Also, relationships grow and all that good stuff that happens in a sitcom.

TWIST: Can you share any fun memories that recently happened on set?

Adam: That’s a really hard question because we are always having fun. We’re always joking around and having a good time, especially Roshon [Fegan] and I. Whenever Davis [Cleveland] gets on set, you know you’re about to have a party. Every moment on set is always so fun and so enjoyable that I don’t know if I can really pin one down.

TWIST: Cool. Have you guys ever played any pranks on each other?
Adam: One time, Caroline [Sunshine] was coming out of wardrobe, and Davis hid behind a wall. This wasn’t really a prank. He was just trying to scare her, but it turned into the funniest thing of my life! He was hiding behind a wall, waiting for her to come upstairs into the schoolroom. He popped out of nowhere and screamed, ‘Boo!’ She screamed at the top of her lungs. It was the funniest thing! I’d never laughed so hard. She looked so scared and her face was as if she just saw a ghost. It was amazing!

TWIST: There have been some really cool guest stars on Shake It Up so far. If you could have anyone make a guest appearance on the show, who would you want it to be?
Adam: There are so many cool people, but I think Will Smith because he is my favorite actor ever. He would be awesome on whatever show he does because, well, he’s Will Smith!

TWIST: Who would you want him to play? What kind of character could he be on the show?
Adam: I think something similar to what he’s done so far in comedy, like what he did on Fresh Prince. He could definitely play a family member of Zendaya [Coleman] or Roshon or something. As long as I have one scene with him, I’m fine.

TWIST: Do you have any upcoming projects?
Adam: Right now, I’m working on my music. I don’t know when it’s going to come out yet, but it’ll come out soon. As far as acting goes, it’s only Shake It Up, but I’m working hard on my music.

TWIST: What do you plan on doing with your music? Are you releasing an album?
Adam: Right now, I’m just focused on getting a good single out! It’s not about albums right now. It’s a total singles world out there and I want a strong single. I don’t have a genre because it’s a completely different type of music. It’s completely fun and party and awesome! I love my music. I want that music that just speaks for itself, where you hear it and you want to hear more! I’m getting that prepared. I’m always in the studio and stuff.

TWIST: We can’t wait to hear it! Thanks for chatting with us Adam!
Adam: Thanks TWIST!

Credit: Twist Magazine

Adam Irigoyen | “Never Give Up”

Judging by the numbers, and the discussions here on the blog, the series seems to have held on to initial viewers while drawing in more. Which is quite a feat for a highly complicated, highly serial drama with a vast amount of backstory, settings and characters. Generally a series like that—see Lost—may start strong and even build, but it eventually loses viewers as people become overwhelmed or drop out for other reasons, while it gets tougher for newcomers to catch up.

And while I think this has been a stronger season on balance than season one, which had the burden of more setup and exposition, I’ve definitely heard complaints from viewers (especially ones who haven’t read the George R. R. Martin source books) that it’s getting increasingly hard to follow the characters and the action. So while we wait for the finale, a couple of questions for you:

For nonreaders of the books: Have you been able to keep up? Can you keep the players, settings and logistics straight? Are there any details you’d like cleared up, and any ways GoT might make it easier to decipher?

For readers of the books: By now we’ve gotten a good sense of how season 2 has departed from the source material—considerably more than the first season did. This has included rearrangement (putting Arya and Tywin together), condensation (combining the roles and functions of certain supporting characters, having Melisandre birth one shadow rather than two), omission (shaving some details, like the ship-trapping chain, from the Battle of the Blackwater) and outright invention (Dany’s dragon-napping and other incidents during her stay in Qarth). Which have helped and hurt the series?

It should go without saying, but let’s keep discussion free of book spoilers for non-readers. And I’ll see you back here Monday-ish to talk about the finale.

TIME Entertainment

Liam Hemsworth

Photo: Gary Gershoff/ WireImage

How do you know you’ve made it as an actor in Hollywood? When you land an MTV Movie Awards nomination in the buzzworthy Breakthrough Performance category!

In the past, the award has gone to such illustrious and soon-to-be superstars like Alicia Silverstone in 1994 for “The Crush,” George Clooney in 1996 for “From Dusk till Dawn,” Matthew McConaughey in 1997 for “A Time to Kill” and, more recently, Robert Pattinson in 2009 for “Twilight” and Chloë Moretz in 2011 for “Kick-Ass.”

Who will join the long list of MTV breakthrough performers this year? Your guess is as good as ours as this category will be decided by a group of established directors rather than by public voting. Here’s a closer look at the 2012 crop of nominees which are diverse as ever and range from an impoverished warrior to a dangerous hacker to a government employed puppy hoarder.

Elle Fanning, “Super 8″

There was a lot going on in J.J. Abrams’ nostalgic sci-fi thriller, but the heart and soul of the film was its youngest actors, particularly scene-stealer Elle Fanning as the perfectly crushworthy and resilient Alice. She also does a killer zombie impression.

Liam Hemsworth, “The Hunger Games”

From the moment Liam Hemsworth was announced as Gale Hawthorne in “The Hunger Games,” fans around the world were eager to see what the Aussie actor would do with the role. When the movie opened back in March, Hemsworth’s strong, stoic and supportive take on the beloved character did not go unnoticed and made us even more eager to see him in the sequel, “Catching Fire.”

Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”

The “Bridesmaids” cast is full of such wonderfully colorful and memorable characters, it’s difficult to single out just one, but on the subject of the breakthrough performance in that hugely successful film, Melissa McCarthy’s quirky, headstrong, security-obsessed, puppy hoarder Megan totally and completely stole the show.

Rooney Mara, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”

One look at Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and you can see the actress’ commitment to the role, without her uttering a single word. Mara’s transformation is as remarkable as her compelling, calculated and cold take on the brilliant hacker/master of revenge/mystery solver extraordinaire.

Shailene Woodley, “The Descendants”

Woodley’s portrayal of the angsty teenager who becomes an anchor for her grieving dad in last year’s awards-season darling “The Descendants” has officially put her on the map of young stars to watch and nabbed her several other acting awards to boot. And who can forget that underwater crying scene?

Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

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Join the East Harlem and Yorkville Communities – and special guest host – Caroline Sunshine for a free concert in support of SaneTrash.org, and against the planned construction of a Garbage Transfer Station at Asphalt Green Children’s Facility.

The event, which is being held by SaneTrash.org, is to ensure that garbage is disposed of properly, and that it doesn’t interfere with the personal lives of New York’s citizens.

Caroline Sunshine In Concert! is a post from: Caroline Sunshine | Official Site

When it came to this passionate Hinson family, they couldn’t keep the Disney transformation limited to the backyard. HGTV’s designers, with the help of Disney Imagineers, took over the Hinsons’ house inside and out for this special episode of My House Goes Disney. Host Brandon Johnson and the HGTV crew transforms the kids’ bedrooms with Crush, Cinderella and Lightning McQueen. Plus, there are surprises for Mom and Dad with a new pool and an outdoor kitchen!

See how they brought the magic of Disney Parks to this house – inside and out!

Tune in for the Season 2 premiere of My Yard Goes Disney tomorrow, June 1st at 8PM on HGTV!

Brandon Johnson

Appearing less often in search results on the site most Americans consult to find things would mean less traffic arriving to Facebook pages courtesy of Google.

Now, five months post-launch, Facebook analytics company PageLever examined the impact Search Plus Your World has had on traffic referrals and reported the results.

When PageLever analyzed external referrals from Bing and Google across 500 Facebook pages, each with at least 10,000 likes, it found that traffic referred from Google had dropped by 51 percent and that traffic referred from Bing had dropped by an even more substantial 59 percent year over year, Search Engine Land reported.

Before the launch of Search Plus Your World, Google led 9.25 percent of external traffic to Facebook pages, compared with 4.52 percent post-launch.

This put to bed a theory that the launch of Search Plus Your World alone was to blame for the dip in referrals from search, and potentially raised a question of whether the search engines are in cahoots.

PageLever Co-Founder Jeff Widman told CNET Google’s referral traffic to Facebook actually began to mysteriously fall off three days before the Jan. 10 launch of Search Plus Your World, saying:

Referral traffic from both Google and Bing to Facebook pages started dropping Jan. 7. That’s three days before Google rolled out SPYW. The timing is certainly suspicious.

So, in general, Facebook is getting less traffic from search engines. As for who is pulling the puppet strings, it’s still anyone’s conjecture.

Readers: Do you think the fall-off in traffic to Facebook pages from Google and Bing is a result of Search Plus Your World, or is something else going on?

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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