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Mariah: Stilettos on stage do not mix

Mariah Carey Tumbles During Singapore Concert @ Yahoo! Video

Four songs into Mariah Carey's Sunday night set at the Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix, the singer had a wardrobe malfunction.
Nothing went wrong with her outfit, though -- it was Mariah's dancing that went wrong: She slipped in her high heels while striding across the stage and clapping along to her 1992 hit "Make It Happen." A nearby backup dancer quickly rushed to her aid and a smiling Carey made a very quick recovery, telling the crowd, "I did that on purpose."

Her next order of business was to remove the offending footwear. "Someone come out here and take these shoes off," Carey said into her microphone, adding, "Obviously I'm supposed to be barefoot."
When an assistant arrived with a bottle of water, Mariah pointed to her feet and gesticulated repeatedly until her message was clear.
"We love her. She is a darling dear," Carey said of the woman, identifiable as her stylist, Blair. Three dancers helped Carey balance -- and she kept on singing -- while an additional assistant ran out from backstage to help her out of her heels.
Carey is known for beckoning her crew onstage during shows for wardrobe and microphone adjustments. On New Year's Eve in New York last year, she announced, "I need some lipstick real quick and my hair fluffed," and also called in personal assistants to affix her microphone pack and hand her a glass of champagne. "They say I'm a diva so, might as well act like one," she told the crowd at Madison Square Garden.
The singer's predilection for high heels has tripped her up before. She nearly fell down while walking out onstage for a November 2009 appearance on "The Jay Leno Show."
[Rewind: Onstage tumble lands Pink in hospital]
After her show in Singapore last night, Carey rushed out a tweet so fans would know all was well and her good humor was intact. "TY SO much to my fans in Singapore!!!" she tweeted. "Yeah, several hectic moments, (lol!)but I tried to swirl them into festive!.Love+ God Bless."
Fans were extra curious about the fall because of ongoing rumors that Carey is pregnant. Mariah has refused to issue a statement confirming or denying she will be having her first child with husband Nick Cannon. In her only official comment on the matter, Carey said in a statement last month: "I appreciate everyone's well wishes, but I am very superstitious." Referring to her longtime publicist, Carey added: "When the time is right, everyone will know -- even Cindi Berger."

Frustrated? Does your hubby spend too much?

Ladies. I know we men like to impress you by being your trust fund when we are finally your "husband". It's a "Man Thang". We feel like we are entitled to be the head of the house/apartment/relationship by demonstrating a courtly gesture of your protector and gate keeper. Here are a few suggestions to keep him in check and create a healthy financial lifestyle.

1. Put more into your savings.

Keeping a consistant addition to your savings helps for those rainy days.
You should definitely be putting away for emergencies and retirement!!

2. Make sure he does not act selfish.

A healthy financial relationship is one where both of you agree what accounts to manage together and separate.

Goldman a Sexist? Former Goldman Sachs Woman Explains

Plenty of women have said what they think about the sexual discrimination charges that three women filed a couple of weeks ago against Goldman Sachs.

Some have come out passionately describing the difficulty that Goldman Sachs as a whole faces as they try to fix the obvious problem of an underwhelming number of women in the top ranks at their firm. Others describe the rules that Goldman has implemented to try to improve the situation.

And then there's this perspective on the issue, from Yves Smith, who used to be the former Goldman Sachs corporate finance director.

In a recently released article, Smith mentions the dirty specifics of her case. (Actually hers does - and these two engaging pieces on this issue, which we also mentioned above, don't.)

But because it's detached and hopeless that Goldman and Wall Street will in our lifetime figure out a way to fix its inherent sexism without implying that women are handicapped because they need stats (read: help) to get to the top.

It's depressing because Smith comes from Goldman, so she might be right.

She writes a lot more, but this is one of her concluding points about the discrimination case:

Conservatism and a common preference to hire in your own image leads many firms to stick with their tried-and true profile, which in most cases is Caucasian and male.

"Conservatism and a common preference to ..." Those are nicer words for narcissism, a quality in both men and women, and a good point.

They further prove her actual conclusion, which is that nothing will change anytime soon as long as people are narcissists, which, let's be honest - they always will be.

Boys see older men at the heads of Wall Street companies and want to emulate them. Girls don't, so they don't as frequently aspire to be like them.

Human nature will not change soon or evolve with fewer narcissistic traits. So it seems to us that requiring every company to employ at least some percentage of women to work in the upper ranks is the only way to fix the repetitive and damaging system.

Sure, women will have to work harder to prove that they didn't just get handed the job because they're handicapped. And based on the gender discrimination lawsuits we've seen, they'll probably continue to be required to meet higher standards.

Shopoholics: iPhone app that gives bargain prices

Major retailers are working with a new smartphone application that tracks and offers promotions to shoppers as they move from outside the store, to counters, to cash registers — even inside the dressing room (now that’s persistence).

The app, called Shopkick, for the iPhone and in the fall for Android phones. And with five major companies supporting it — Macy’s, Best Buy, Sports Authority and American Eagle Outfitters, along with the Simon Property Group, the prominent mall operator — it is getting a big introduction.

Customers with the Shopkick app will get points (called kickbucks) for entering a store. Pick up a putter at Sports Authority, and points drop into the app. Stop in the dressing room at American Eagle, and more points arrive.

The points are redeemable for gift cards at the retailers, along with music downloads or credits toward Facebook games. It takes a lot of points, however, to earn even a $5 gift card, although the stores say they may adjust the point system to make points more valuable.

Whether shoppers will get a kick, so to speak, out of being followed — and pinged from one floor of a store to the next — remains debatable. What retailers see as sophisticated marketing, privacy advocates see as intrusive. Shopkick knows “where you are, what you buy, your spending habits, passions, excesses,” Jeffrey Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said via e-mail.

Unlike apps like Foursquare, Shopkick tells retailers when users are inside, not just near, a store.

“That’s unusual,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Will it lift sales? That remains to be seen, but everyone is eager to experiment.”

The app lets stores “influence their behavior,” said Mikael Thygesen, who is the chief marketing officer at the Simon Property Group and the president of its Simon Brand Ventures division. Simon, along with the other companies using Shopkick, will install it in stores in and around New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles initially, with Chicago to follow next week.

Before introducing Shopkick, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, Cyriac Roeding, tested how willing consumers would be to “check in” to a location in exchange for a reward — in that case, money for charities. That app, called CauseWorld, was introduced in December 2009 and was downloaded more than 550,000 times in its first five months, with almost $1 million going to charities so far. Ms. Mulpuru called it “a success story of the retail-app world.”

Shopkick goes further.

Mr. Roeding stood on a slim strip of sidewalk on 46th Street in Manhattan, trying to avoid Times Square tourists as he demonstrated the app. As he stood a few yards from the entrance to an American Eagle Outfitters store, the app showed him all the nearby stores where he could check in — including American Eagle or the tiny candy store nearby. For each check-in — which did not require him to actually go inside — he could receive 0 to 2 points.

That was fine, but “foot traffic is so important,” Mr. Roeding said. “Why does no one ever reward anyone for visiting a store?” By actually going inside the American Eagle store, the app told him, he could earn 35 kickbucks. The app knows someone is in a store by listening for an audio transmitter placed in each participating store; the phone’s microphone picks up the signal, which people cannot hear.

Once inside, Mr. Roeding swiped through offers: a 15 percent discount, a sale on jeans. Enter a dressing room — once a shopper tries on clothes, sales rise, retailers know — and posters on the walls offer points for scanning the bar code.

“It’s the first reward programs for desired behaviors,” Mr. Roeding said.

Shopkick earns a small fee for each kickbuck a customer earns. If a customer buys something after using the app, Shopkick gets a percentage of the price.

Right now, it takes a lot of kickbucks to earn anything — a $5 gift card at American Eagle requires 1,250 kickbucks. And retailers limit the number of eligible visits each day, so someone cannot sprint in and out of Best Buy all afternoon.

Soon, the retailers say, they hope to become more sophisticated, giving points or promoting items based on sex or age, where people live, how frequently they shop or their buying history.

The companies can even weave in rewards-card numbers, as Best Buy is already doing. With that, “we have the ability to target down to even an individual level,” said Mike Dupuis, the vice president for marketing and operations at American Eagle Outfitters Direct, the Web and mobile division of American Eagle.

Privacy advocates like Mr. Chester said that was problematic, especially given how that data could be combined with other available information about consumers, and that Shopkick’s privacy policy was too broad.

“What appears to be a relatively harmless trade-off of your information for rewards or discounts is really misleading,” he said.

Mr. Roeding said he believed that because consumers had to turn on the app, the privacy problems were minimal. “The device does not detect your phone, the phone detects your device,” he said.

New York Fashion Week Spring 2011 Trends

This fall, butterscotch, camel and caramel are big winners. In the spring before that, colors most often referred to as "nudes" were hot, too.

Good news for those of us who like our trends to last, as lovely light colors look to be a hit based on the first few days of New York Fashion Week Spring 2011.

These are lighter, airier versions than fall's cozy cousins. White and cream figure prominently too. Of course, white jeans and khaki shorts are always in style when the weather is warm. But Spring 2011's looks so far lack that crisp New England summer feel. And they don't set the same mood as a laid-back, hazy-days-of-summer, gauzy white sundress.

Instead they are fluid and pretty, tailored in a soft, sophisticated way, as in the amazing parade of neutral dresses at Costello Tagliapietra or Nicole Miller. They are body-conscious without being constricting.

The palette is monochromatic, so save your red strappy sandals for another day and brightly colored statement necklaces for another day. But tangerine lipstick may be just right.