This day, 35 years ago, marks the passing of English singer
and songwriter and former member of The Beatles, John Lennon.
(Born John Winston Lennon; Oct. 9, 1940 – 8 Dec.19, 80)
John Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the members of the Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism and pacifism.
He was shot by “a deranged American gunman” (I refuse to use his name) in the archway of the building where he lived, The Dakota, in New York City on 8 December 1980.
Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono.
After sustaining four fatal gunshot wounds, Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital. He was 40 years old.
At the hospital, it was stated that nobody could have lived for more than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries. Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon’s death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota.
Lennon was cremated on 10 December 1980 at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. The ashes were given to Ono, who chose not to hold a funeral for him.
I listen to her new CD over and over and over again. In my car, in my house, through my cell phone. All the songs have something special. Each one stands on its own.
Can’t tell which one is the best but this is one of my many favorites. Enjoy.
Adele Wows With “Million Years Ago” Live Performance On ‘The Today Show’
Singer Adele doesn’t have a single day to rest in the first week of release of her new album “25”.
The British diva is continuing with her promotional tour across different TV shows in America. On November 25th, she attended NBC’s “The Today Show” to offer a live performance of the super emotional guitar-driven ballad “Million Years Ago” from “25”, which by the way, if you haven’t heard, beat the N’SYNC record of most album sales in a single week in just three days. “25” sold 2.4 million copies from November 20th to November 23rd!
I’ve followed this family since their early days in Miami.
I know their story and how Gloria came to be the main singer of Miami Sound Machine. The band became a huge hit in the Latin community. Then Gloria “crossed over” into the American mainstream music scene.
It was all then about Gloria.
I remember their hits, I have all the CD and concert videos. I couldn’t forget the harrowing time of the bus crash, her fractured back, her rescue, her recovery, her rehab and her comeback … that blue dress singing “Coming Out of the Dark”.
And the rest is history!
In their personal lives, they had Nayib and finally a daughter, Emily. Her name honors her dad Emilio.
I’ve seen Emily dab here and there in music. She has it in her genes, her internal makeup and her talent has grown.
She has released an awesome video with an absolutely on target message.
If you ask Gloria Estefan, it feels like yesterday when her daughter Emily was a baby backstage at her sold-out concerts. Fast-forward to today and the 21-year-old college sophomore is totally grown up and ready to rock out on her own.
“I always think about it as a double-edge sword,” Emily shared on Today’s show when asked about following the same career as her mom. “I don’t even understand that saying because doesn’t a sword have one edge?”
She continued, “But the reality is they’re amazing golden footsteps to follow in so my biggest fear now is just being able to do the past justice.”
“I know that must people I know believe in me for my talent and for what I stand for but there’s always a doubt in my mind because there is no way of knowing when you are a descendant of the Conga Queen.”
As her parents focus on their Broadway musical appropriately titled “On Your Feet,” Emily is ready to prove she herself can turn the beat around. And yes, she’ll do it while wearing mama’s clothes.
“When I want to go shopping, I just go to the warehouse and grab her clothes,” Emily admitted while wearing Gloria’s retro pants and T-shirt. As they like to say, like mother, like daughter.
Singer Emily Estefan, the Miami Beach daughter of Gloria and Emilio, on Thursday released a music video in which she expresses her point of view to a ‘sterile and ominous’ world: F#ck To Be.
F#ck To Be prominently focuses on male and female gender roles and stereotypes.
On November 3, Emily Estefan released her brand new video F#ck To Be. The concept behind the video shows Emily discovering and noticing a world that it is not what she expected instead it is very sterile and ominous.
“There are two POVs in the video, it is either what I see or what the mirror sees. It is me against the mirror. The mirror being expectations that I carry of myself, or what people expect me to be. I’m combatting the mirror, “ says Estefan.
F#ck to Be will be the first single from her forthcoming full length CD, Take Whatever You Want. Emily wrote, recorded, produced and performed her full album at Fairy Light Studios (her own studio in her college apartment in Boston, MA).
“Many people think I am saying “F” everything or everything sucks, but that is not true. I go in and out of these very different looks in the video that I don’t necessarily like for myself, but that doesn’t mean that I frown upon them, it just means that it is not me” said Estefan.
Back to school with What’s the Mashup!
To celebrate, here’s a mashup of 100 scenes of dance made in Hollywood and elsewhere !!
Can you identify the 100 movies?
Before going into the actual post, I must confess that I have totally fallen in love with Adele’s new musical project.
I have been listening to her new CD “25” and must say that I’m totally taken by it.
I know I’m not the only one because everything seems to be Adele nowadays. She was on a visit to New York City and hit all the major talk and late night shows. She appeared on Jimmy Fallon and was hilarious.
She also filmed a TV special for NBS which will air December 14 at 10 PM. One show that I will surely record and watch at my leisure.
Ellen DeGeneres made a parody of her “Hello” which was quite entertaining. Heather Rooney, an incredible illustrator, painted a colored pencil picture of Adele.
I found this video, a rendition of Adele’s “Hello” by the Southern University Marching Band and the Dancing Dolls.
Southern University Marching Band’s Outstanding Cover
By COLLEEN ANNEK
December 3, 2015
Southern University, “of Baton Rouge, not New Orleans: this distinction is incredibly important” as noted by USA Today, takes on Grambling State in the Bayou Classic every year, this year having been the 42nd face-off between the teams, according to the Bayou Classic’s website.
Southern University competed in the Bayou Classic Battle of the Bands on November 27, 2015, and they came to impress. With a stacked horns section, the band covered Adele’s chart-topping single ‘Hello’ with unparalleled power as the Dancing Dolls accompanied the band from the field.
Record-breaking ‘Hello,’ which is currently one of the most popular songs in the country (it has been at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 list for five weeks now) was the perfect card for Southern University’s marching band to play.
~~GALLERY~~
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While Adele’s power-ballad might not be the first thing you think of when considering marching band music, the orchestration of the original track leaves plenty of room for the song to be adapted to a full marching band arrangement. The resulting harmonies are out of this world — just make sure you don’t have the volume turned up too high, these horn players mean serious business.
I am a 22 year old illustrator specializing in photorealistic colored pencil and graphite drawings.
You can check out my drawing videos on YouTube!
Hello!
My name is Heather Rooney.
I am an illustrator specializing in photorealistic colored pencil and graphite drawings.
Since finding my passion for portrait and figure drawing in high school, I have developed a technique focusing on high attention to detail. I draw my inspiration from a broad range of cultural figures, such as sport athletes, media personalities and entertainment professionals.
With each illustration requiring many hours of work, ranging from 30 hours to 100+ hours, I share my process through time-lapse videos on my YouTube channel, which has generated over 60 million views from a global audience.
I received my B.A. in Studio Art at Emmanuel College, in the vibrant city of Boston, Massachusetts. I am now pursuing a career in illustration.
Polina Semionova (born 13 September 1984) is a Russian ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. She also has an older brother, Dmitry Semionov, who is now a principal in the Staatsballett Berlin.
Studying at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow, Russia, she won awards in the top ballet competitions; including a gold medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition 2001, First Prize at the Vaganova-Prix Ballet Competition in St Petersburg 2002, and Junior Prize at the Nagoya (Japan) International Ballet Competition 2002.
Graduating in 2002, Semionova joined the Ballet Staatsoper Berlin as a principal upon the invitation of Vladimir Malakhov, becoming the youngest principal in the company’s history at the age of 18. She toured Japan as Malakhov’s partner, the reason he had invited her to be a principal in the company. He gave her the lead roles in The Nutcracker and La Bayadère during her first season, following with the role of Tatiana in , which became her favorite role.
In 2003, at the age of 19, Semionova performed with the English National Ballet in Swan Lake, receiving approving reviews from English critics.
The following year she joined the California Ballet in their production of The Sleeping Beauty, again impressing critics despite what they termed a disappointing overall ballet.
Watch Adele, Jimmy Fallon, Roots Sing ‘Hello’ With Classroom Instruments
Tonight Show’ supergroup perform chart-topping ballad with melodica, tambourine, toy xylophone, kazoos
By Ryan Reed
Adele’s “Hello,” a chart-topping ballad from her record-breaking new LP, 25, is already one of her most intimate singles. But the singer achieves a new level of intimacy with this Tonight Show rendition of the poignant track, backed by Jimmy Fallon and the Roots on classroom instruments.
Crammed into a small space, the supergroup fleshes out Adele’s croon with melodica, tambourine, wood block, toy xylophone, bongos, a banana shaker and kazoos.
Joining in on the silliness, the singer fakes a cell phone call, channeling the long-distance melancholy of the lyrics.
It’s a duet between Pink and her father, James T. Moore.
As she explains before the song, her father wrote it while serving in Vietnam.
As a child, Pink used to accompany her father to Veterans’ centers and sing it with him – it was the first song she ever learned, ever performed and is, in fact, how she learned to sing.
It’s a tribute to her father and to war veterans everywhere.
Blues legend B.B. King died peacefully in his sleep Thursday night, May 14, 2015, at his home in Las Vegas. He was 89. King won 15 Grammy Awards, released more than 50 albums, sold millions of records worldwide and was inducted into both the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. King performed more than 100 shows a year into his 80’s and was a mentor to countless musicians including Eric Clapton.
He’s perhaps best known for his song “The Thrill is Gone.”
Mississippi’s own B.B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known by his stage name B.B. King, was an American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Rolling Stone ranked King number 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time (previously ranked number 3 in the 2003 edition of the same list). He was ranked No. 17 in Gibson’s “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time“. According to Edward M. Komara, King “introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed.”
King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
He is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname “The King of the Blues“, and one of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar” (along with Albert King and Freddie King).
King was also known for performing tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing at more than 200 concerts per year on average into his 70’s. In 1956, he reportedly appeared at 342 shows.
In 1990, King was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George H.W. Bush. In 2006, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential blues guitarists of all time, inspiring countless other electric blues and blues rock guitarists.
Born and raised by underpaid public school teachers in Sanford, Fla., Andy Marlette graduated from the University of Florida and became staff editorial cartoonist at the Pensacola News Journal in 2007.
Marlette received a priceless editorial cartoon education while living with his uncle and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette in Hillsborough, N.C.
Doug’s tragic death in July of 2007 made evermore poignant the elder Marlette’s fierce and faithful devotion to the art form of editorial cartooning as a cornerstone of American free speech. With this in mind, Andy works daily to learn and uphold the disciplines and values passed on to him by his late uncle.
It Is What It Is 