Same picture, different take

Want to spruce up your picture taking arsenal. Get out of your comfort zone and try some new things. Here's a primer you can use help things move in a new and creative path...

New Music Monday

Anna Nalick

Anna Nalick (born March 30, 1984 - Glendora, California), is an American singer-songwriter. Her debut album, Wreck of the Day, featuring her first radio hit, "Breathe (2 AM)," was released on April 19, 2005.

She says in her Columbia Records biography that ever since she was a little girl she wanted to be a performer and that she actually began to write songs in fifth grade. Reportedly, while showing off her talents to her third grade teacher, her teacher told her that she'd end up "one day on Jay Leno's show." Leno recounted that story when Nalick actually did perform on his show earlier this year, quipping "which shows you how long I've been running this show".

History

Anna grew up in Glendora, California, just east of Pasadena. As a teenager, she says she grew up in a household where her parents spun a wide variety of artists. Her mother turned her on to bands such as The Rolling Stones, Cream and Led Zeppelin, while her father turned her to Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers. Anna began her songwriting career in the fifth grade. She officially cites her influences as Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Blind Melon, John Mayer, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others. She says of Vaughan that he is "the guy that I'm going to marry when I get to heaven." In high school, in addition to writing her own songs, she performed with a Rush cover band.

Nalick initially decided to go to college and then only afterward pursue her dream of music, but she met a photographer who said that she had a student in the high school at which she teaches who have parents in the music business. Nalick agreed to pass along a six song demo tape, and soon enough, was introduced to Christopher Thorn and Brad Smith, the founding members of Blind Melon now turned production team, and Eric Rosse, best known for his production work with Tori Amos. Putting her college plans on hold, in October, 2003 she signed on with Columbia Records. Anna went into the studio with Thorn, Smith and Rosse as producers, together with mix-engineer Mark Endert (Fiona Apple, Maroon 5, Gavin DeGraw) and an all-star group of musicians that included Smith on bass, Thorn on guitar, Rosse and Zak Rae on keyboards, Lyle Workman and Stuart Mathis on guitar, Joey Waronker and Matt Chamberlain on drums. The result is the Wreck of the Day two years later.

The funniest quote I've read in a while...

This text is part of a movie review for the Wesley Snipes' flick: The Detonator.

"There's no denying it anymore: Wesley Snipes has officially joined the cinematic softball team in which Steven Seagal plays first base, Jean Claude Van Damme is the pitcher, Chuck Norris is the designated hitter (hey, he's like 72 years old!), Dolph Lundgren is the shortstop, and Mark Dacascos is a bench player hitting (Jeff Speakman and Michael Dudikoff sell hot dogs out in the stands.) This is not a particularly graceful or talented softball team, but these guys show up every day, intent on delivering the most Romanian action flicks under the sun. And Sony just keeps on buying the things!"

New Music Monday

Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap is a British singer-songwriter from Essex. She grew up playing music from an early age, and had begun to write songs by the time of her eleventh birthday. Heap enjoyed a prestigious live debut - performing four songs, backed by friends Acacia, between sets by The Who and Eric Clapton at the 1996 Prince's Trust Concert in Hyde Park, London. Her debut album, I-Megaphone (an anagram of "Imogen Heap") was released in 1998 on Almo Sounds, an independent record label, internationally and garnered critical acclaim.

History

Heap most often worked with producer Guy Sigsworth, who had collaborated on "Getting Scared" from I-Megaphone. Together, they formed an electro-pop group Frou Frou, releasing an album called "Details" and singles, "Breathe In," "It's Good To Be In Love" and "Must Be Dreaming." The album was a full collaboration between the two artists. Frou Frou were approached to cover "Holding Out for a Hero", originally performed by Bonnie Tyler, for the soundtrack to the highly successful movie Shrek 2. An album track, "Let Go", was featured in the movie Garden State in 2004.

In December 2003, Heap announced on her web site that she was going to write and produce her second solo album, using her site as an online blog to update fans on progress, even seeking them to be her A&R team for the lyrics to "Daylight Robbery." Heap set herself a deadline of one year to make the album (she booked the album mastering for December 2004), and re-mortgaged her flat to fund production costs, including the use of studio time and instruments (which she purchased as a birthday present to herself). Having been burned by previous challenges with record labels (Heap had been spurned twice by record companies, when Almo Sounds was sold, and when Frou Frou's label staff focused on promoting other acts), Heap decided to form her own record label on which to release the new record. At the end of 2004, Heap premiered two album tracks online, enabling fans to pay for a digital download, entitled "Just For Now" (which was up for a limited time as a Christmas gift), and "Goodnight And Go," which had been featured on the second season of hit US TV drama The O.C. In April 2005, The O.C. season two finale featured another track, the sparse vocodered-vocal track, "Hide And Seek".

As well as TV soundtracks (Frou Frou and Heap's solo records have featured in shows as varied as The O.C. to CSI among others), Heap has also contributed solo tracks to movie soundtracks. Her cover of the song "Spooky" (made famous by the band Classics IV, and previously covered by Dusty Springfield) for the soundtrack to the Reese Witherspoon movie Just Like Heaven. Heap also wrote a special track entitled "Can't Take It In" for the soundtrack to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She also appeared on the second soundtrack for the HBO television series Six Feet Under, entitled Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends, with a 50-second track that closed a season four episode, entitled "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia (In An Onion Patch)" (three versions were recorded and are available from Heap's official web site). In the episode, it was a nursery rhyme that the matriarch Ruth had sung to her children, who in turn sang it to her son Nate's child, Maya.

Faster input

Ever want to tackle that large novel or the last Harry Potter book but the sheer volume scares you? Would reading a bit faster help? Well, here's a wiki article that may help you out in that endeavor. After some initial practice you should be able to get higher speeds and hopefully more enjoyment out of reading. Of course, if you have vision problems or something like dyslexia then things may be a little harder. Give it a try and see how quickly you get results.

New Music Monday

Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli is a singer, writer and music producer. He is a classical crossover and operatic tenor, and has recorded four complete operas (La Boheme, Il Trovatore, Werther and Tosca) and over eleven other albums, both classical and popular in style. He has two sons Amos (b. 1995) and Matteo (b. 1997). He was married but has since separated from his only wife, Enrica. Bocelli was born with glaucoma, and was blinded at the age of 12 by a brain hemorrhage, which he suffered when hit on the head playing football (soccer).

History

As a child Andrea was already playing the church organ, and at the age of 12 won the Margherita d'Oro in Viareggio with O sole mio, his first competition win. After working for a year as a lawyer (he graduated as a Doctor of Law from the University of Pisa) he undertook singing lessons from Maestro Luciano Bettarini, taking up music full time. He has never stopped his vocal training, attending a master class with renowned tenor Franco Corelli in Turin, for example.

He is widely known as the performer of the song, Con Te Partirò. The Italian rock star Zucchero Fornaciari first auditioned Andrea while scouting for tenors in 1992; upon hearing the tape, tenor Luciano Pavarotti urged Zucchero to use Andrea instead of himself. In 1994 Andrea performed the winning entry Il mare calmo della sera in the San Remo Festival, which led to his first Golden Disc. That year he debuted as Macduff in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, sang at Pavarotti's benefit concert at Modena, and before the Pope at Christmas.

He has sung for many charitable events and occasions, such as at Ground Zero in October 2001; several of the "Pavarotti & Friends for Children" events; participated in the Sharon Osbourne CD project for tsunami relief; and performed in a large, televised concert in Italy in March 2005 called "Music for Asia".

Not limited to singing, Andrea has contributed to several written works, including a short piece on friendship in a compilation by Dorris Platt, and the foreword to an Italian book about shared custody. He also wrote an autobiography "La musica del silenzio" ("The Music of Silence") which was published in 1999. It was published in English as "Andrea Bocelli: The Autobiography" the following year.

New Music Monday

Andreas Vollenweider

Andreas Vollenweider is a Swiss musician. His music has been categorized as World Music, Jazz, New Age or even Classical; two of his albums were number 1 on the Billboard charts simultaneously in the categories Classical, Jazz, Pop and Crossover for many weeks; his music is very dynamic and colorful. His primary instrument is an electrically modified harp of his own design, but he also plays a wide variety of instruments from around the world, including the Chinese guzheng. His albums feature many musicians performing his compositions with him, ranging from simple solos to suites for orchestra and soloists. His music is mostly instrumental but he has occasionally forayed into vocal music as well.

His past collaborators include Bobby McFerrin, Carly Simon, Djivan Gasparyan, Luciano Pavarotti, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Carlos Nunez, Ray Anderson, and Milton Nascimento (among many others).

History

Andreas Vollenweider was one of the few musicians to gain superstar status as a "new age artist" back when the term was first used as a marketing category in the mid-'80s. The Swiss harpist, however, quickly transcended the need for alternative record sales when his albums simultaneously broached Billboard's pop, jazz, and classical charts in 1986. Born in Zurich in 1953, Vollenweider was ensconced in the city's fine art scene, courtesy of his father, one of Europe's leading organists. After becoming proficient on guitar, flute, and other instruments, the young Vollenweider developed a passion for the harp, which he modified to suit his needs. Not only did he construct a damper to expedite more rhythmic playing, he broadened the harp's tonal range by electrifying it. His buoyant funk beats, exotic pan-cultural influences, and colorful harp improvisations began to sweep Europe in the early '80s as Vollenweider signed with CBS Records to release Behind the Gardens...Behind the Wall. Three albums later, he won his first Grammy for 1987's Down to the Moon. Over the years, Vollenweider has managed to maintain his artistic integrity and vision despite increasing commercial success. The harpist's 1991 album Book of Roses is a testament to his ability to expand his scope as a composer while keeping his trademark sound intact; after a lenghty hiatus, he issued Kryptos in 1998, followed two years later by Cosmopoly.