Shania name-droppings...

[EilleenTwain88]

Okay, maybe that's extreme, but we just need a host who knows how to host a show. Shania Twain was a rare example of a great host who happens to be a talented Juno winner, but all the other greats have just been great personalities who knew how to keep people watching.
As we have heard numerous times; that is her true calling. In her shows also.

To HOST a party where the guests are most important, not to be a Star herself. And that attitude shows.

[Troll]

Thanks for the article John.

[dreamer]

love the las article but I can't believe someone is actually smart enough to praise Shania:cool:

[Raider]

I can't post the info and pics(source) because of the rules but
Shania is/was in New York... :shocked: :swoosh:

She's alive. :biglaugh:

[SHANIANUTS!]

She is still there?

[Raider]

She is still there?

:dunno:
They could be gone by now. Don't know.

[Troll]

Thanks for that.

[dreamer]

thanks...no joke?

[captainCorr]

No joke..;)

[FinnFreak]

:smirk: - Funny. NOT.


...I didn't know it was Shania & Mutt hunting season already..? :sad:


Those paparazzi morons should get a real job. :scowl:


John - :mad:

[FinnFreak]

Primenewswire (press release), CA - April 2, 2007


Source: Larry King Cardiac Foundation


2007 Larry King Cardiac Foundation Fundraising Gala Underwritten by St. Jude Medical Foundation

Donation Provides Life-Saving Treatment for Uninsured Cardiac Patients


WASHINGTON, April 2, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Larry King Cardiac Foundation (LKCF) is proud to announce the St. Jude Medical Foundation as the presenting sponsor for its annual fundraising gala in Washington, D.C. "An Evening with Larry King and Friends" will be held on Saturday, June 9, 2007, at The Ritz-Carlton Washington, D.C.

The St. Jude Medical Foundation's donation will allow all proceeds raised during the gala to directly benefit LKCF patients in need of cardiac care and will bring LKCF one step closer to its goal to Save a Heart a Day. This is the second year that the St. Jude Medical Foundation has underwritten the fundraising gala, which in 2006 raised $1.5 million for patient care.

"As the presenting sponsor, the St. Jude Medical Foundation is an invaluable partner in helping us treat cardiac patients," says Larry King, Jr., president of LKCF. "Because of their support, all funds raised from our June 9 gala will go directly to providing more cardiac procedures and ultimately saving more lives."

"We share a common commitment with The Larry King Cardiac Foundation to identify and help treat critical care cardiac patients," said Daniel J. Starks, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Jude Medical Inc., the sole benefactor of the St. Jude Medical Foundation. "We are proud to work together to advance these important goals through the funding of the St. Jude Medical Foundation to support LKCF patients in need of cardiac care."

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in America: 452,000 people a year die from this disease. Heart disease is also the No. 1 killer of women in America. Approximately 46 million Americans lack health insurance coverage for one year or more and more than 10 million Americans will go without health coverage for a short period of time over the course of a year. More than half of those who are uninsured are low-income; an estimated 8.5 million are children and about 16 million are women.

Individuals who support LKCF and have been honored in previous years include: Jonathan Tisch, President, Loews Corp.; Frederick Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of FedEx Corp., August Busch IV, President of Anheuser-Busch, Inc., J.W. Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, Inc; Tim Donahue, Executive Chairman, Sprint Nextel Corp.; and Joseph E. Robert Jr., Chairman and CEO of J.E. Robert Companies.

Performers who have donated their time to entertain at the D.C. gala in support of the treatment efforts provided by LKCF have included: Tim McGraw, Patti LaBelle, Wayne Brady, Lewis Black, Celine Dion, James Brown, Bill Maher, Stevie Wonder, Wynonna Judd, Vanessa Williams and Shania Twain.


About The Larry King Cardiac Foundation

LKCF provides funding for life-saving cardiac procedures for individuals who, due to limited means or no insurance, otherwise would be unable to receive life-saving treatment. The Foundation works in conjunction with major medical centers throughout the nation to ensure that such patients receive much-needed medical attention. For more information, please visit www.lkcf.org .

The Larry King Cardiac Foundation logo can be found at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=558


About The St. Jude Medical Foundation

The St. Jude Medical Foundation (www.sjmfoundation.com) is dedicated to improving awareness and treatment of cardiovascular, neurological and chronic pain conditions. The Foundation's grant programs are focused in three areas: health awareness; advancing the state of medical knowledge through education, research and training; and supporting communities in need.

CONTACT: Linda Roth Associates, LLC
Linda Roth Conte
703.417.2700
Linda@lindarothpr.com


http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=116618



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article John.

[dreamer]

so did Shania do it in the past or not yet?

[FinnFreak]

so did Shania do it in the past or not yet?

"An Evening with Larry King and Friends" will be held on Saturday, June 9, 2007, at The Ritz-Carlton Washington, D.C.

So, what does your Shania calendar say..?


John - ;)

[FinnFreak]

;)


Monsters and Critics.com, UK - Apr 3, 2007


Next Shadow Hearts confirmed for PAL regions this May

Don't send that PS2 out to pasture yet - Shadow Hearts: From the New World,
the third game in the series, is coming to all PAL regions in a month.

http://www.el33tonline.com/images/cache/1066.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/FinnFreak/SHShania.jpg


By Casey Lynch


UK publisher Ghostlight Ltd. just announced Shadow Hearts: From the New World will be released this May on the PlayStation 2 in all PAL territories.
Developed by RPG specialists Aruze Corp., Shadow Hearts: From the New World is the third installment in the popular Shadow Hearts brand.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World offers a multilayered story line, complete with side quests and multiple endings, compacted into over 60 hours of gameplay. A cast of entertaining new characters feature distinct personalities and emotions, plus a few a of the series’ old favorites will make appearances.

As players progress through the game, they can customize their party’s magical abilities using a ‘Stellar Chart’, developing each characters individual strengths and magical attacks.

Special combo attacks can be assigned and honed to eliminate challenging bosses, testing players’ skill and endurance.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World builds on the Judgement Ring battle system, a trademark of the Shadow Hearts series. A new ‘Stock System’ has been introduced to the improved Judgement Ring, allowing players to execute party combos and devastating double strike attacks.

Set in 1929, the player assumes the role of a young detective called Johnny Garland. Johnny, accompanied by a powerful Native American bounty hunter named Shania (not Twain) embarks on an epic journey after he witnesses the horrifying apparition of an evil demon.

Expect more of the CG cut scenes the Shadow Hearts series is renowned for and real-world locations including New York, Las Vegas, Machu Picchu and a surreal take on the Roswell site.


http://gaming.monstersandcritics.com/ps3/news/article_1286575.php/Next_Shadow_Hearts_confirmed_for_PAL_regions_this_ May_



John - :p

[Troll]

Intresting article.

[Alex]

The doll is named Shania.. is more interesting:p

[tonyme]

Very interesting;)
And yes, Shania and Mutt were saw in New York on April 01, 2007...

[Alex]

Hey Tony don't even dare to post something's here.. eh? lol:p

[dreamer]

WOW can't wait to see her....i had a dumb monent lol!!!!!

[EilleenTwain88]

;)...a powerful Native American bounty hunter named Shania (not Twain)
That is hilarious. :funny: :uhh:

But in a way it makes sense... "she is on her way!" too, eh? And she's gonna catcha them GOOD... heh.

[Troll]

Her numerous outfits included a hockey-themed party dress that seemed to riff on Shania Twain's hockey-jersey costumes from the 2003 Junos. But over all Ms. Furtado seemed ill at ease in the host's role, and couldn't find a way to react to her taped antics other than to look annoyed.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070402.wjunos02/BNStory/Entertainment/home

[dreamer]

LOL I love it pple are complimenting her! nashville, take notes!!!!!!!1

[Troll]

LOL I love it pple are complimenting her! nashville, take notes!!!!!!!1

They aren't going to take notes.

[Alex]

awwwwwwwwwwww:sad: but thens the rules:cry:

Yeah.. Maybe to me and you is not bad to see them, but the rules in here forbid them.. So :uhh: .. Hehe.. don't worry you must've seen in somewhere in the net.. heh:D

[Alex]

They aren't going to take notes.

who knows that? :dunno:

[dreamer]

i can dream!!!!!!

[Alex]

Misty, you're a dreamer:p

We can dream:D:up:

[dreamer]

forever if we want, how else did society begin?

[Alex]

Our dreams might come true if we believe strongly in what we wish, and we can be sure about that. :)

[FinnFreak]

Portsmouth News, UK - Apr 6, 2007


Man, I feel like a-woofin'


http://editorial.jpress.co.uk/web/Upload/PPP//TH1_54200729Flynn.jpg
Singing Flynn, with Charlie Bing, three


http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/template/images/icon_viewvideo.gif (http://video.jpress.co.uk/editorial/PPP/singingdog060407512k_stream.wmv) Video: Flynn, the singing dog (http://video.jpress.co.uk/editorial/PPP/singingdog060407512k_stream.wmv)


By Sue Wade


WE ALL have our favourite songs but when Flynn the dog hears pop star Shania Twain he cannot help but sing along.

As soon as You're Still the One is belted out the retriever immediately launches into backing vocals.

Flynn has now become the first entrant into a special News competition to find the best Potty Pet in our area.

In celebration of National Pet Month, Pets Paradise in Gosport High Street, is giving away a £50 pet voucher to the winner.

Flynn's owner Miss Holman, 33, said: 'He just suddenly started howling in the car one day, we were telling him to shut up but he wouldn't.

'Every now and again he would just go off on one and it took us ages to work out why. He only ever does it to that one Shania Twain song and It's a Kind of Magic by Queen.

'We can't explain it , he just seems to like those two songs and has done since he was a puppy.'

Although Flynn's only a hound dog and doesn't croon like Elvis, her three-year-old daughter Charlie Bing loves hearing the dog sing.

Miss Holman said: 'The first time he did it she just sort of looked at him confused, but she loves hearing him do it.'

Flynn, who is now eight, was recently diagnosed with cancer after a lump was found on his neck, but so far his illness has not stopped him from singing along.

Miss Holman's mum, Marilyn, has Flynn and three other flat coated retrievers living with her in Denvilles Close, Havant.

She said: 'If you're in the car with him and one of those songs start playing you have to turn the radio off because you can't cope with the noise he makes.

'It's funny he just does it with those two songs and when they finish he just stops.'

So what wacky things does your pet do?

Whether its singing, dancing, tricks, or just enjoying being dressed up we want to share their weird and wonderful talents with all our readers.
You have two weeks to get your photographs or videos in to be in with a chance of winning your pet free food for a week.


http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=2229984&SectionID=455



John - :D:up:

[Eleanor]

I wish my Bulldog could sing, he just farts instead.

[FinnFreak]

I wish my Bulldog could sing, he just farts instead.

...and I guess he doesn't keep in tune - otherwise he'd be all over the telly by now..? :p


John - ;)

[Troll]

Cool article.

[Troll]

...and I guess he doesn't keep in tune - otherwise he'd be all over the telly by now..? :p


John - ;)

Yes he would be.

[FinnFreak]

Centre Daily Times, PA - Tue, Apr. 10, 2007


THE UNDERWOOD EFFECT


By CASEY LAUGHMAN - The Associated Press


According to Ken Tucker (Billboard Radio's country correspondent), while "American Idol" has had a definite impact, the fan base of country is diverse enough that someone can have more of a pop sound and still be successful.

"Anytime that someone either crosses over or gets broader exposure like they do with 'American Idol,' there's always the opportunity for new fans to be drawn into country. There's always going to be fans that like more traditional country than pop country or (adult contemporary) country," and vice versa, Tucker said. "Even if 'American Idol' didn't exist, there's always going to be people who prefer a Shania Twain to a Merle Haggard."

But while Underwood has enough talent that she probably would have become a country star if her first exposure had been singing for drinks at a bar in Nashville, the "American Idol" effect certainly didn't hurt.

"She's got that almost indescribable element there that relates to people," Foglesong said. "Lots of times you get people with the great voices and the great looks, but that one little element is missing. It doesn't get people excited to run over to their computers and download it or go to the store and buy it."

Foglesong has spent more than half a century in the business, with much of that time as a record executive, where he worked with stars ranging from Garth Brooks to George Strait to Tanya Tucker, so he knows a thing or two about stars.

"When you're at a record company, it's just amazing, it's very, very tough to break records," Foglesong said. "But when you've got the right song and the right artist, it's amazing how easy it is."

And it's even easier when the singer's already got 30 million fans.


http://www.centredaily.com/188/story/64857.html


* * *


570 News, Canada - April 10, 2007


Queen-inspired musical 'We Will Rock You' debuts in Toronto with celeb gala


By: CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI


TORONTO (CP) - Queen fans stomped their feet and waved glow sticks in the air as they sang along to a star-studded debut of the rock musical "We Will Rock You" on Tuesday night.

The stage show opened with a gala premiere attended by celebrities including actors Eugene Levy and Colin Mochrie, the cast of "Degrassi: The Next Generation" and Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor.

Both May, who was draped in a long red coat, and Taylor, in a dark suit, were mobbed by cameras and autograph seekers as soon as they arrived at the Canon Theatre.

Taylor said he was pleased to finally see "We Will Rock You" open in Canada.

"It's been a long time coming," Taylor said of the musical, already a smash in England, Germany, Spain, Australia and Japan.

"I think Toronto is a rock 'n' roll town and Canada is a rock 'n' roll country. I hope it goes as well as it does in London."

Other notables at the splashy debut included writer Ben Elton, Sloan front man Chris Murphy, and "Canada AM" co-host Seamus O'Regan.

Murphy, who has covered Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down" in concert, said he's never considered putting Sloan songs in a stage show, but he playfully considered the idea.

"It would be hysterical to make one with Sloan music, but I don't know," said Murphy, dressed in a worn black leather jacket and his trademark oversized wire-rim glasses.

Seated in an aisle seat on the floor, the rocker could later be seen stamping his feet and waving his arms in the air along with other audience members to hits including "Another One Bites the Dust" and "We Are the Champions."

Audience members also waved yellow glow sticks that had been handed out for free before the show began.

The story - the result of a collaboration between May, Taylor and Elton - is set in a dystopian future in which creativity and individuality have been stamped out.

A band of rebels, known as The Bohemians, must rediscover rock 'n' roll and their freedom.

All the while, themes of love and rebellion are propelled by 32 Queen hits, including "I Want It All," "Under Pressure," "Somebody to Love" and "Bohemian Rhapsody."

And plenty of Canadian references abound - among the outcasts are rebels known as Burton Cummings, Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, and "Bachman, Turner, Overweight."

By and large, the band's well-known anthems are interpreted in their original form, but some songs are altered slightly to accommodate the storyline.

That didn't bother Queen fan Brian Petrie, 50, who said the show had him singing along in his seat.

"I thought it was very well done," he said.

"Very funny and original, and also I thought the reproduction of the voices were great."


http://www.570news.com/news/entertainment/article.jsp?content=e041092A


* * *


Montreal Gazette, Canada - Wednesday, April 11, 2007


Celine Dion story being shot in T.O.

She's Quebec's most celebrated chanteuse, but there are no plans to air TV movie in French


By BRENDAN KELLY, THE GAZETTE


The Celine Dion story is coming to the small screen, but her local francophone fans will be disappointed to learn that the TV movie is being shot entirely in English in Toronto and Hamilton, Ont. There are no plans to air the biopic of Quebec's most famous chanteuse in French.

Shooting began Sunday at the Glenn Gould Theatre at the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto and continued Monday with scenes shot at the chic Windsor Arms Hotel just off Bloor St. in Toronto's financial district.

The movie, titled Celine, is produced by Toronto-based Barna-Alper Productions, the same company that produced the Shania Twain bio, Shania: A Life in Eight Albums, which garnered more than one million viewers on CBC two years ago.

Celine is set to air next season on CBC, probably early in 2008.

It stars Montreal up-and-comer Christine Ghawi as the adult Dion and Nanaimo, B.C.-born Jodelle Ferland as Dion from the age of 10 to 12.

Producer Laszlo Barna told The Gazette yesterday the Celine Dion movie is being made only in English because he wants to focus on selling the film internationally.

The Hungarian-born Barna, a former Montrealer now based in Toronto, is not upbeat about the notion of making movies that work in both the French- and English-Canadian markets.

His recent production October 1970, a Halifax-shot miniseries about the October Crisis, aired last fall only on CBC in English, to dismal ratings. It didn't play in French because he couldn't persuade Radio-Canada to air the project even though it starred francophone Quebecois actors and was set in Montreal.

The miniseries garnered rave reviews in the French press.

Barna said he hopes Quebecers don't look at the Celine project and say, " 'Anglo runs away and does this,' because, gee, I'd be the wrong guy to do that to.

"I just did an authentic, real stick-to-your-roots movie on the October Crisis and fell on my face. I'm doing (Celine) because I love this story and I'm going to stop dreaming that I can straddle two markets at the same time.

"Whether it's the buyers who won't allow two audiences or whether it's audiences who demand their own films, I'm not going to pretend this works. If this inspires another version of (the) Celine Dion (story) in French, great, that would be wonderful."

Feeling burned by his experience with Radio-Canada on

October 1970, Barna did not approached the French network with the Celine project.

The movie marks a major break for Ghawi, a little-known local actress who has had some small movie and TV roles. The London-born Montrealer's biggest gig to date was playing the Sarah Jessica Parker character Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and la Cite, a spoof of Sex and the City that ran at the Just For Laughs fest last year.

Ferland, the 12-year-old actress who plays Dion at a younger age, was recently nominated for a Genie as best actress for the film Tideland.

Toronto actor Enrico Colantoni - best-known for his recurring role as the fashion photographer Elliot DiMauro on the sitcom Just Shoot Me - plays Dion's husband and manager, Rene Angelil. Singer and stage actress Louise Pitre (Mamma Mia!) portrays Dion's mother, Therese, and New Brunswick-born thespian Peter MacNeill plays Dion's dad, Adhemar.

Celine is directed by Jeff Woolnough (CSI, Battlestar Galactica) and was written by Donald Martin, based on the biography A New Day Dawns by Barry Gills and Jim Brown. It follows Dion until the age of 24.

The movie is not an authorized biography, and neither Dion nor Angelil is involved in the project.

There will be no original Dion music in the movie. Instead, a selection of Dion hits will be interpreted by Toronto singer Trish O'Brian. Ghawi will not do any of her own singing.

Though it is not an authorized biopic, Barna has no intention of dishing any dirt on Dion or Angelil.

Barna sees Dion's life is an inspirational tale, and the film will chronicle her rise from modest beginnings in the town of Charlemagne just outside Montreal to worldwide stardom.

For Barna, Dion and Shania Twain have much in common.

"You have these two women who've had these unbelievable success stories, but both come from humble backgrounds," Barna said.

"I love underdog stories. This is my Canadian Idol."

Filming on Celine continues in Toronto and Hamilton until May 5.


http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=ea6c5bb7-e1c1-4c83-b186-84be4c674eda&k=61086



John - :)

[Troll]

Thanks for the articles.

[captainCorr]

Interesting to see how Céline's biopic will turn out.. thanks for posting!

Anyway, Shania Gets Raw

According to an insider, famed vegetarian Shania Twain has recently been favoring “raw foods,” meaning uncooked, unprocessed foods that haven’t been heated above a certain temperature.

April 11, 2007 – The superstar was seen dining last week at the New York City raw-foods restaurant Pure Food and Wine. Shania’s 5-year-old son, Eja, reportedly is not on the diet. A gossip column recently reported that Shania insisted upon a raw foods menu backstage for her appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors gala honoring Dolly Parton. Shania is currently at work on her first album of all-new material since 2002’s Up!, set for release sometime in 2008. [source (http://www.countryweekly.com/shania_twain_raw_diet/scoop/2314)]

[Raider]

Shania Gets Raw

According to an insider, famed vegetarian Shania Twain has recently been favoring “raw foods,” meaning uncooked, unprocessed foods that haven’t been heated above a certain temperature.

April 11, 2007 – The superstar was seen dining last week at the New York City raw-foods restaurant Pure Food and Wine. Shania’s 5-year-old son, Eja, reportedly is not on the diet. A gossip column recently reported that Shania insisted upon a raw foods menu backstage for her appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors gala honoring Dolly Parton. Shania is currently at work on her first album of all-new material since 2002’s Up!, set for release sometime in 2008.



Bryan Adams switched to a raw diet recently. He lost a lot of weight in the beginning, was very very thin. Last I read, he's 90% raw.

[dreamer]

:sad:

[FinnFreak]

:sad:

C'mon, cheer up..! - Shania's just doing her part in saving energy & reducing emissions... well, at least carbon dioxide ones. ;)


I liked the picture they used in the article:

http://www.countryweekly.com/images/cw/209097/51890.jpg

:] - Seems like a good diet.


John - :p

[EilleenTwain88]

Bryan Adams ... Last I read, he's 90% raw.
:funny: :funny: :funny:
10% cooked?
:funny: :funny: :funny:

[FinnFreak]

Boiling & Toiling with the fans.


John - :D

[FinnFreak]

PR Newswire (press release), NY - April 12, 2007


Carrie Underwood's 'Wasted' Becomes the Best New Artist
GRAMMY Winner's 4th Consecutive #1 Country Single!


'Before He Cheats,' Carrie's Third #1, Now a Hot AC Top 10 and on the Air at MTV!


NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Double-GRAMMY winner and reigning CMA Female Vocalist of the Year Carrie Underwood is atop the country airplay charts once again this week as her fourth single, "Wasted," follows the #1 success of "Jesus, Take the Wheel," "Don't Forget to Remember Me," and "Before He Cheats." With "Wasted," Carrie becomes the first female country artist in the monitored era to achieve four #1 singles from her debut album. She joins superstar labelmates Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn as the three most recent artists in country music to enjoy this remarkable feat on their first album.

Even as "Wasted" becomes country radio's most-played song in the nation, Carrie's third smash, "Before He Cheats," is now powering its way up the Hot AC chart, entering the Top 10 this week. This marks the first time a solo country female has hit the Hot AC Top 10 since Faith Hill's "The Way You Love Me" in December of 2000!

MTV wants its Carrie Underwood, too, as the Oklahoma beauty and GRAMMY-winning Best New Artist sees the video for "Before He Cheats" newly added into MTV rotation. Remarkably, Carrie becomes the first country artist to hit MTV since 1999's Shania Twain smash, "Man, I Feel Like a Woman."

The singles are all from Underwood's unstoppable 19 Recordings/Arista debut disc, Some Hearts, now RIAA-certified 5x Platinum.

Fans can also be looking for a cover feature on Carrie in the May issue of Cosmopolitan, on sale now.


http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-12-2007/0004564051&EDATE=



John - :)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[Troll]

C'mon, cheer up..! - Shania's just doing her part in saving energy & reducing emissions... well, at least carbon dioxide ones. ;)


I liked the picture they used in the article:

http://www.countryweekly.com/images/cw/209097/51890.jpg

:] - Seems like a good diet.


John - :p

Yes it is a great pic.

[Roger]

"Shania Gets Raw

According to an insider, famed vegetarian Shania Twain has recently been favoring “raw foods,” meaning uncooked, unprocessed foods that haven’t been heated above a certain temperature.

April 11, 2007 – The superstar was seen dining last week at the New York City raw-foods restaurant Pure Food and Wine. Shania’s 5-year-old son, Eja, reportedly is not on the diet. A gossip column recently reported that Shania insisted upon a raw foods menu backstage for her appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors gala honoring Dolly Parton. Shania is currently at work on her first album of all-new material since 2002’s Up!, set for release sometime in 2008."

Wow! Shania ventures further into food faddism! Raw food enthusiasts may be correct in their beliefs with many foods but for sure certain other foods had better not be eaten uncooked, like meats (not a problem for a vegetarian), potatoes, etc.

[dreamer]

I don't mind her diet, that's her thing........I just miss her:sad::love:

[Troll]

1999 - Country music crossover queen Shania Twain becomes the only female artist in music history to reach 10 million units sold with back-to-back album releases. Twain`s third Mercury Records release 'Come On Over' is certified 10 times platinum and is granted a Diamond Award by the RIAA.

http://music.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1290664.php/This_Day_in_Music_for_April_12_2007

[FinnFreak]

Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH - Sunday, April 15, 2007


A CALL FOR COUNTRY


By Bill Lubinger


Tune in KISS-FM for a spell and you're likely to hear country meg astars Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood sandwiched around MTV pop queen Gwen Stefani and the alt hip-hop of Gym Class Heroes.

What was once as odd as mixing Skoal with Bazooka Joe isn't anymore.

"Our job," WAKS FM/96.5 program director Bo Matthews said of the musical smorgasbord, "is to play the hits, no matter where they come from."

Even when they come from country. The station finds that its target listeners (the under-30 crowd) heavily request that Southern-bred brand of music by phone, text message and online.

Country music, which rode Garth Brooks and Shania Twain into the suburban mainstream almost two decades ago, has lassoed an even wider and younger audience.

Last year, rising and established country artists dominated record and concert sales and radio airwaves. Purchases aren't tracked by age, but music-industry observers see country concert crowds at The Q, Blossom Music Center and elsewhere splashed with more fresh faces -- twentysomethings, teens, even preteens. Local club managers say their college-age country music nights and promotions offering free country line-dancing lessons are packed.

A fleeting "Urban Cowboy" trend it's not, and the music industry is riding the wave of country's popularity tall in the saddle.

"We're embracing the cycle," Matthews said.

Country music is as old as strummin' cowboys and campfires. As traditional as pickin'-and-grinnin' mountain bluegrass festivals.

The swell in the 1990s was roused by demand for younger artists singing traditional country music -- partly because younger fans became disenchanted with the pop, rap and hip-hop trends, country music expert Neil Haislop wrote in an e-mail.

"They started searching the radio dial and found music they could relate to coming out of Nashville," he wrote. "Now, 17 years later, the new generation is having similar problems with even more urban variations on the pop radio dials. The result is a new and welcome surge of country listeners among the prime 25-to-34 demographic."

And the sound, style and sex appeal that define many of the newer, popular country-music artists would have curled Conway Twitty's pompadour.

"A lot of people still think that Hee-Haw' is what country music is about," said Lisa Sands, promotions director for country station WGAR FM/99.5, Cleveland's perpetual ratings giant. "They're wrong."

What's labeled "country" has changed. Traditionalists dismiss pop country as a cheapened, watered-down version of the "real" thing. Songs are still delivered in Southern accents. Lyrics are still sprinkled with "ain'ts" and "thangs," pickup trucks and family dinners after church on Sunday. But country has evolved from Lester Flatt to Rascal Flatts.

Strong stories hook new fans

"I hated country when I was little," said 24-year-old Lisa Runyon of Berea, seated with a table of friends during a recent line-dancing night at Aces Bar & Grille in Brooklyn.

But, at 17, alone in her room channel surfing, she was hooked by a country-music video about a relationship gone bad like her own -- "There Is No Arizona," by Jamie O'Neal.

"It's always one song that sucks you in," she said.

Or one artist.

"American Idol" exposed millions to country as viewers followed winner Carrie Underwood into commercial superstardom with a youthful style and message. (Where Loretta Lynn laments loving a two-timer anyway, the character in Underwood's empowering "Before He Cheats" keys his car, slashes his tires and takes a Louisville Slugger to his headlights.)

Rascal Flatts, which contributed a cover of rocker Tom Cochrane's "Life Is a Highway" to the soundtrack for the animated film "Cars," pulls in new, young country fans with boy-band-ish harmonies and an energetic, sometimes syncopated pop beat. The syrupy cry-in-your-beer twang is replaced with a youthful, uplifting, "Life is a highway, I wanna ride it . . . all . . . night . . . long!"

Big and Rich snares younger fans with heavy guitar rhythms, screaming leads and such high-energy, partying singalongs as "Save a horse, ride a cowboy!"

"I call them bridge acts' -- acts that can serve as bridges to bring new fans to the format," said Mike Kraski, president of Equity Music Group in Nashville.

The record label represents Little Big Town, a rising country quartet that has performed with rockers John Mellencamp and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham. Other traditional rock and rock-rap acts, such as Bon Jovi, Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker, have bridged the gap with country recordings, further exposing noncountry fans to the genre. Jewel and Sheryl Crow routinely straddle the pop-country fence. The Dixie Chicks, who grabbed a mainstream pop audience in the late '90s with their country debut, continues to thrive, political setbacks aside.

Unlike previous generations of country-music loyalists, country isn't all that younger fans listen to, said WGAR morning personality Jim Mantel. But a country CD will be found among their collection of rock, pop and hip-hop discs.

Looking good on the surface

It doesn't hurt that the music is wrapped in stylish packaging. Country's face carries the People magazine sex appeal of the gritty Urban and happy-go-lucky Kenny Chesney, tabloid marriages and all (Urban to Nicole Kidman, Chesney briefly to Renee Zellweger). When the husband-wife duo of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill takes the stage, it's the star quarterback and head cheerleader.

"The marketing machine's doing its job," said John Hardy, frontman for the popular local country band, Lawless.

Nielsen SoundScan tracks music and music video sales in North America. Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems monitors radio play. According to both, country music claimed:

Two of the three top-selling albums in 2006 (Rascal Flatts and Underwood, behind only the soundtrack of the Disney Channel's TV movie, "High School Musical").

Half of the 10 top-selling artists in 2006 (Rascal Flatts, first; Johnny Cash, second; Underwood, fourth; McGraw, sixth; and Urban, ninth).

Six of the 10 most-played artists on radio (Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts, McGraw, Chesney, George Strait and Urban).

The top-selling new artist of the year (Underwood).

Six of the 30 top-earning concerts in 2006 were country artists, according to Pollstar. McGraw and Hill (at The Q on Friday, June 29, this year) grossed almost $90 million last year, behind only the Rolling Stones and Barbra Streisand.

With rock, said Gary Bongiovanni, Pollstar editor-in-chief, the biggest draws are baby-boomer evergreens -- the Stones, Madonna, the Who, Elton John and Billy Joel. With country, the hot tickets are Chesney (coming to Cleveland Browns Stadium on Saturday, July 14), Brad Paisley, Urban and other younger, rising artists.

They're hurdling fewer and fewer boundaries that once limited country to "hat acts," as Equity Music's Kraski calls them. On radio and country-music television videos, fans can catch 17-year-old Taylor Swift one minute and Cowboy Troy, a 6-foot-5 black rapping cowboy and his self-styled "Hick-hop," the next.

So snuff and bubble gum works just fine.

Even Lawless mixes sets up a bit, bouncing from the Waylon Jennings country anthem, "Luckenbach, Texas," to Black Sabbath's rocking "Crazy Train," or a cover of AC/DC's "Shook Me All Night Long," but with the Big and Rich-style harmonies.

"Now," said band founder and guitarist Steve Skrant, "the Eagles are more of a country band than Rascal Flatts ever will be."


http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living/1176539831101780.xml&coll=2


* * *


New York Times, NY - April 16, 2007


Critics’ Choice | New CDs

Ms. Mopey, Begone! Power Pop Is Back!


By JON PARELES


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/16/opinion/16choi-190.jpg

AVRIL LAVIGNE

“The Best Damn Thing”

(RCA)


Just about every word and every note on Avril Lavigne’s third album, “The Best Damn Thing,” is delivered as if it leads to an exclamation point. “I hate you now! So go away! From me! You’re gone!” she sings in “I Can Do Better,” one of the album’s many punk-pop kiss-offs.

Ms. Lavigne learned her commercial lesson. Her 2002 debut album, “Let Go,” was full of chirpy, driving songs insisting that a teenage girl (like Ms. Lavigne at the time) deserved attention; it sold 6.6 million copies in the United States. Her second, “Under My Skin” in 2004, indulged some angst with mopier songs and sold less than half as well.

So while Ms. Lavigne is now 22 and married, “The Best Damn Thing” serves up even narrower, high-concept teenage romance than “Let Go” did. She relies on the Swedish teen-pop expert Dr. Luke, who collaborated on Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” Most of Ms. Lavigne’s new songs are up-tempo, with punk power chords atop pep-rally beats and rhymes that are more like cheerleader chants than hip-hop; who knew Toni Basil’s “Mickey” would spawn a school of pop? Ms. Lavigne and Dr. Luke distill young love into competition with other girls, annoyance at male deficiencies and occasional bliss with someone who’s “hot.”

As an album “The Best Damn Thing” is too relentless to be heard end to end. Its songs are expected to bring occasional jolts to a playlist. The single “Girlfriend,” is the best, using cleverly manipulated echoes and attacks to sound as if Ms. Lavigne were charging in from all directions, and it makes most of the other songs sound redundant, though still perky. She hedges her bets with a few power ballads; her next career move will apparently be along the lines of Shania Twain. But for now she’s trying to blast her way back onto a few million high schoolers’ iPods.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/arts/music/16choi.html?ref=music



John - ;)

[tower]

Nashville is never slow in blowing it's own trumpet, but there is indeed for once truth in this story, but it is a damming thing for POP which seems to have lost it's way in a jungle of urban hip hop crass rubbish.

RIP POP Radio, it is indeed a sad day for me.

[FinnFreak]

CMT.com, TN - Mon. April 16.2007


HOT DISH:

Shania Twain and Family High on Another Mountain


By Hazel Smith


Shania Twain, hubby and producer Mutt Lange and their son Eja have been residing high on a hill in the Alps overlooking a lake in dreamy Switzerland where mountains touch the skies and fairy tales are written. The couple purchased 24,000-plus acres high on another hill in New Zealand where they are having a $30-million estate built. Locals say when Shania and Mutt shop at local markets for fruit and vegetables, she wears a baseball cap and is very nice. However, it's reported the couple does flit in and out of the country on their private jet.


http://www.cmt.com/news/articles/1557125/20070413/underwood__carrie.jhtml



John - :)

[Troll]

Thanks for the articles.

[RJ]

CMT.com, TN - Mon. April 16.2007


HOT DISH:

Shania Twain and Family High on Another Mountain


By Hazel Smith


Shania Twain, hubby and producer Mutt Lange and their son Eja have been residing high on a hill in the Alps overlooking a lake in dreamy Switzerland where mountains touch the skies and fairy tales are written. The couple purchased 24,000-plus acres high on another hill in New Zealand where they are having a $30-million estate built. Locals say when Shania and Mutt shop at local markets for fruit and vegetables, she wears a baseball cap and is very nice. However, it's reported the couple does flit in and out of the country on their private jet.


http://www.cmt.com/news/articles/1557125/20070413/underwood__carrie.jhtml



John - :)

That's a pretty short article, John.

Do you think it feasible to share the big article from NZ Herald last week? The reason I wonder, is because although the article is very interesting and far more descriptive, it also has a link to 3 aerial pics of the construction. A great view, but not necessarily optimal privacy.

[matty]

That's a pretty short article, John.

Do you think it feasible to share the big article from NZ Herald last week? The reason I wonder, is because although the article is very interesting and far more descriptive, it also has a link to 3 aerial pics of the construction. A great view, but not necessarily optimal privacy.

The article is below. The forum rules prevent the pictures from being posted.

New Zealand Herald
By Catherine Woulfe
April 8, 2007


The leopard skin leggings, big hair and country music were only ever taking her down one path, really. Music mega-star Shania Twain is finally living in a trailer. Well, a caravan.

And to be fair, the Canadian star, who lives in Switzerland, is only roughing it for a year or two as she watches her multimillion-dollar Kiwi getaway estate take shape.

Twain, with her husband, producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, and their 5-year-old son Eja, bought the 24,731ha slice of Wanaka high country three years ago but secrecy has surrounded the massive amount of construction taking place.

The building site is on top of a ridge, on the southern side of a knoll in the Motatapu Valley. It is about 1.4km from the original homestead and has stunning views down the Motatapu River to Lake Wanaka.

Rumour has it Lange has taken to staying on the farm while his superstar wife is touring, but last week she was back in town.

The couple spent $21.4 million on the station and are building a diamond-shaped complex on top of a ridge, just over 1km from an existing homestead. The property is now likely to be worth more than $30m.

But resource consents have proved difficult. Some of the 17 conditions they need to comply with include having to immediately replace any dying plant or tree, have a good water supply in case of fire and plant the same grasses as those growing around the homestead.

They are allowed to build a one-level house with two guest cottages, a garage and ancillary structures - it is believed Twain, a keen horsewoman, has included an equestrian facility in the plans.

The family are still at the centre of bickering about a tramping track they agreed to allow as one of the conditions for building.

But when Twain dons a baseball cap and mooches around town, the locals love her.

Radio Wanaka owner Ed Taylor said Twain was not the diva type.

"She doesn't come to town and get drunk... She keeps very much to herself.

"Most people that come in contact with her just say she's lovely, she's so down-to-earth and so is her husband."

Many locals thought it "tacky" that a fan took the singer's photo when she was shopping at a fruit and veggie store in Wanaka recently, Taylor said.

Local contractors were working on the estate and the star couple stayed in a caravan on site, he said.

The millionaire couple still used their private jet to flit in and out of town at will.

A builder, who has been working on the site for about 18 months, told the Herald on Sunday everyone employed by the famous family had signed confidentiality agreements.

"I can't really talk about it," he said. "It's pretty secure up there - no visitors... no photos... no information. They're pretty private."

He said the couple were back in Switzerland at the moment and would not say when they had last been in Wanaka.

But he was surprised to hear the rumour that they were on the site last week. "I don't know where you're getting your information from."


Shania facts

* Shania Twain is set to receive her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this year.

* Worldwide, she has sold more than 85 million albums.

* After a slow-selling first two albums, her third, produced with the help of husband Robert "Mutt" Lange, struck gold.

* The 1997 album Come on Over sold 34 million copies, making it the most successful female solo artist album of all time.

* As well as the title track, it included megahits "That Don't Impress Me Much", "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!", "You're Still The One" and "You've Got A Way".

* Since that stunner, Shania has released two albums - Up! in 2002, and Greatest Hits in 2004.

[Troll]

Today in 1999, Shania Twain becomes the first woman to be honored as songwriter/artist of the year by the Nashville Songwriters Association International during the 32nd Annual Songwriter Achievement Awards.

[dreamer]

thanks:)

[FinnFreak]

National Post, Canada - Monday, April 16, 2007


The Great Avril Lavigne


By Yoni Goldstein


Avril Lavigne's third album, "The Best Damn Thing," is slated to be released tomorrow. Early accounts suggest the album is a strong one.

The new album, however, will mark a significant change for Avril: She's shedding the skater-chic, faux-punk image that she — along with, no doubt, an army of marketing gurus — concocted. There are even rumours that coordinated dance moves (gasp!) will become a part of Avril's live act.

Not that I'm an Avril Lavigne fan, per say. But I very much respect what she's been able to do these past five years. Since the release of her 2002 debut, "Let Go," she's become the most accomplished, most widely popular Canadian musical act in the world (Arcade Fire and Nelly Furtado fans eat your hearts out!). More significantly, she has become perhaps the most accomplished and popular Canadian pop-performer ever.

Sure, Shania Twain put Canada on the country music map and bands like Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene continue to give us a good rep. in the indie music scene, but Canada has for a long time lacked a major pop star (with the notable exception of Alanis Morissette for about 10 months sometime in the mid-90s).

Avril blows every other Canadian act out of the water on the popularity scale: In Canada and in the U.S. (the music market that really matters), she's up there with the most beloved of teeny-bop, early-Britney clones.

But if there's one thing that has always bothered me about Avril, it was that obviously put-on skater/punk image. I believed her angst anthems (as juvenile as they were) came from real emotion, but the rough image she tried to portray was unconvincing.

I'm happy to hear that that image is now a thing of the past. And even if I won't be rushing out to buy "The Best Damn Thing" tomorrow morning, here's hoping Avril's new album is as big a hit as her two previous efforts.


http://communities.canada.com/nationalpost/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2007/04/16/yoni-goldstein-avril-lavigne-s-greatness.aspx


* * *


The Reflector online, MS - 4/17/07


Finding middle ground on cursing


By Robert Scribner


As far as I can tell (very far), there are three types of people when it comes to profanity.

The first group is composed primarily of amoral hoodlums who find no offense in even the absolutely worst "cuss words."

The third group, diametrically opposed to the first, is represented by a majority of religious zealots and old people. This group covers its collective ears at even the slightest reverberation of words such as "damn" or "hell," the latter of course excepted when used with Biblical implication.

The midpoint on this spectrum, as you might have guessed, is mathematically group two. Group two aligns nicely with my perspective and is thus logically "better" than the other groups. And by "better" I mean better, absolutely.

Group two is most concerned with "keepin' it real." Now, the problem with keeping it real is the subjectivity of reality. I define reality as what I know to be "true."

That might or might not correspond with the dictionary definition of reality, which is irrelevant, because I don't consider the dictionary to be more inherently "true" than any other opinion regarding the definition of words. For the dictionary to declare itself an authority on definitions (see the entry for the word "dictionary" in an actual dictionary) is surely some sort of logical fallacy. Perhaps these self-described dictionaries should look up the word "logic" inside of themselves, and maybe next time they'll be a little more prudent and a little less dumb.

Group two isn't afraid of dropping a few F-bombs. They know how to spice up the conversation with their almost supernatural ability to juxtapose articulation and profanity. Group two knows its limits, though, as its members generally uphold either a personal belief in a deity of their choice or in the least a respect for those who are religious.

As a result of this, the only off-limit phrases are the ones that take any god's name in vain. To circumvent this restriction, group two has developed a number of substitute bad words that gods don't mind nearly as much. The key here is replacing the deity in question with arbitrary, similar-sounding words so that they present an entirely different meaning, completely untraceable back to the original offender!

Voila, god(s) is (are) still happy!

Take, for instance, the new phrase "Oh, my lard!" It is completely nonsensical. I bet you can't even relate it back to the profanities it replaced. And if you can't do it, then surely an omnipotent being can't!

So when you're out on the streets, wearing your cargo pants, listening to your Shania Twain cassettes and keeping it real, remember to respect the gods that you might or might not believe in. They might or might not be listening. And if they are, then by gosh, we'll be sure to trick them yet.


http://media.www.reflector-online.com/media/storage/paper938/news/2007/04/17/Opinion/Finding.Middle.Ground.On.Cursing-2844820.shtml


* * *


Associated Content, CO - April 16 2007


American Idol Goes Country

A Little Bit Country and a Little Bit Rock N' Roll!


By M.S. Medina


This week on Fox T.V.'s block-buster show "American Idol," Country super-star Martina McBride takes on the role of teacher. The theme for this week is country music and Martina McBride a chart-topping country singer will be tutoring the 'Idol' hopefuls. McBride will mentor the top seven singers who remain and will try to give them hints on how to deliver a memorable country tune. The Country super-star has had more Pop hits chosen for 'Idol hopeful' cover songs than any other artist. Wednesday night Miss McBride will sing her hit song, "Anyway" from her new hit album "Waking Up Laughing." The album was self produced by McBride and was released on the 3rd of April. The country singer has been nominated 23 times in her career for hit songs. She is known for past hits such as "Valentine" done along with Jim Brickman.

Some past 'Idol' artists who have embraced the country scene have been, last year's dipsy, blonde, beauty Kelly Pickler and shy Bucky Covington who just released his first album with high expectations of good sales with country fans and 'Idol' fans alike. Carrie Underwood is probably the most well known of the past American Idol winners to go big. She has won several awards including the coveted "Grammy". She tops the charts again with her fourth hit single entitled "Wasted" from her currently released debut album. Other hits includes #1 hit "Jesus Take The Wheel." Her last single to go big is entitled "Don't Forget To remember Me" which is still on the charts. Underwood is the 1st woman since 1999 Grammy award winning star, Shania Twain did "Man I Feel Like A Woman."

Seven 'Idol' contestants remain and the countdown is taking it's toll on singers and audiences alike. American Idol, a number one hit for the Fox Network, winds its way down to the finale, that will culminate in the crowning of season six's (Queen or King) of singing. The voting is frantic and the show's fanatics are punching in those phone numbers as fast as their fingers can dial. Each call received to "Idol" will count toward the success or failure of the remaining seven contestants. Regardless of talent or lack of it, only one singer will succeed in becoming the new American Idol.

Last week on the show's Wednesday episode, a new twist was announced. 'American Idol' would hold a national contest for would be song writers to send in the grand finale winning song to be sung by this years new American Idol. The announcement came on the 11th of April. Songs must be original and the winner has the chance not only for the song to be sung but the winning song will be also recorded and released by Sony Records. The song writer will also receive a music publishing deal with '19 Entertainment' and a cash advance on royalties for the song. Simon Fuller, 'Idol' producer and his 19 Entertainment staff will narrow the entries down to 20 top songs and starting May 2, fans will be able to listen online to the songs and vote for their favorite. Voting will close on the 8th of May and the winner will be announced on the show's finale, May 22, 2007. Listeners and voters can check out the songs in the next couple of weeks at www.songwriter.americanidol.com .


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/217407/american_idol_goes_country.html



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the articles.

[FinnFreak]

;)


Las Vegas Sun, NV - April 17, 2007


Celebrity equestrians


Princess Anne: champion equestrian and member of the 1976 British Olympic team.

Prince Charles: avid polo player.

Douglas Fairbanks and Spencer Tracy: Used to play in weekly polo matches at Will Rogers' ranch home in the hills above Santa Monica, Calif.

Carson Kressley: Champion clothes horse from "Queer Eye" was a member of the U.S. World Cup Equestrian Team.

William Shatner: Latest Enterprise: founding the Hollywood Charity Horseshow.

Mickey Dolenz: The former Monkee has played in celebrity polo matches.

Madonna: Recently broke her collarbone in a riding spill.

Michael Owen: The English soccer star likes to saddle up when he's not scoring goals for the national side.

Christopher Reeve: The actor who played "Superman" was paralyzed and later died as a result of a riding accident.

Shania Twain: The country-pop singing star owns five show horses.

Bruce Springsteen: The rock icon rides horses with his daughter; attends most of her competitions.

Robin Quivers: Howard Stern's sidekick is an avid equestrian.


http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sports/2007/apr/17/566645839.html


* * *


Chaska Herald, MN - April 17, 2007


American Idol: Haley can't turn the beat around


Submitted by MFrancisco


At last we say ciao bella! to Haley Scarnato- Idol's own resident derriere shaker. And finally the world begins to make sense again (now if only Sanjaya would follow suit)...

Haley should feel really good about her showing. Her cute factor got her a lot farther than other, more talented, contestants. Could a Neutrogena or Maybelline ad be far behind? Perhaps a stint on Broadway?

Most of the contestants were lucky to survive a dismal Latin night unscathed. No one turned in a fabu performance which will make this week's country music theme night all the more important.

Given the contestants strengths, country music night could be a make or break night for many. Last year, Chris Daughtry stole my heart with his surprisingly tender rendition of Keith Urban's "Making Memories of Us" (and I do not like country music). But I worry about how our soul-inspired, R&B powerhouses Lakisha and Melinda will fare. It will undoubtedly be a challenge to find the right song for their voices. I say steer clear of the modern Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes tunes and look to old school country songs like Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" or a great Patsy Cline tune. Just don't come out in a boot and hats, please.

It could be a great night for Chris Richardson who can do that nasally singing that lends itself well to country tunes. Jordin can probably find a tune that is fun (Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots are Made for Walking" perhaps?) and sing the straw out of it. And with a hit, she could possibly launch herself to the front of the pack.

What Blake will choose, I can't predict - Johnny Cash or Elvis maybe (though either choice seems more likely for Phil). As for Sanjaya - let's hope country music spells this end of that circus act.

Songs I DO NOT want to hear tonight:

I Hope You Dance

God Bless the Broken Road

Red Neck Woman

Anything by Carrie Underwood or the Dixie Chicks


http://www.chaskaherald.com/node/1416


* * *


Walrus Magazine, Canada - Wednesday, April 18, 2007


Imaginings:

The Grizzly Prize

It’s November, book-prize time.


by Marni Jackson


Published in the December/January 2006 issue


It’s November, book-prize time, and the cheques are gently raining down. Some Canadians would argue that we have too many book prizes; the Writers’ Trust alone gives out eleven awards. But they’re all so damn competitive and based on merit. Who wants more meaning or literary excellence? It’s time for a more inclusive, friendly, artisanal book award. A prize open to anyone who can type, or blog, or call his agent. Hence, The Grizzly Prize.

. . .

I am very excited about our first short list: Acrylic Nail Designs by Shari-Lynn Wilson (Fun-Bo Books), a history of the rise of the Western nail salon; Loving Mutt, a collection of prose poems and haiku by Shania Twain (Tundra ‘n’ Lightning Books); and Dick My Ear, an autobiographical rap song “bookerized” by the Winnipeg recording artist Frosted Flake. Astonishingly, none of these books is over ninety pages, although Loving Mutt can be a demanding read at times.


http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2006.01-imaginings-the-grizzly-prize/


;)


The Wilderness Within

A feral child and the quest to be human: a Fijian odyssey


by Adam Gilders


Published in the November 2005 issue


Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume . . . . Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare, forked animal as thou art. — King Lear


Page 2 of 5


"...I cross the street to a taxi stand where eight or nine Indian men—Fiji is about half Indo-Fijian, the legacy of a British indentured labour policy—are gathered around a badly dented Toyota Corolla listening to a Shania Twain song. I have heard several Shania Twain songs on the radio since I arrived in Suva late yesterday afternoon, and, unable for the moment to recall having heard anything else on the radio, I begin to suspect that the nation pursues an all-Shania programming policy. It is something about Shania’s voice. Enormous, unprecedented change is possible, she says, improvements to your life, improvements you have been dreaming about but haven’t allowed yourself to mention. They are almost within reach..."


http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2005.11-society-the-wilderness-within/


* * *


Gulf Daily News, Bahrain - Vol XXX NO. 29 Wednesday 18th April 2007


Harvest Moon at Gulf Hotel


FOLLOWING the immense success of the Hot Chocolate show in February, the Gulf Hotel has lined up another live music show to tug at your heartstrings.

Harvest Moon, a production of the Barnyard Theatres group, presents the greatest sounds in acoustic rock and includes folk rock, Irish, country rock and some great sing-along hits.

The show will be presented in Bahrain at the hotel's Sherlock Holmes outlet from 9.30pm every night, starting tonight until April 23.

Tickets are priced at BD3 per person and will be available at the door.

Music being performed at the show is guaranteed to find its way into your heart with the greatest hits of the Eagles, Bryan Adams, Eric Clapton, Sting, Rod Stewart and REM, and some of the great Country and West Coast rock sounds of Shania Twain and Fleetwood Mac.

Harvest Moon is the greatest sing and clap-along party show that the Barnyards have ever staged, but it also features some of the most beautiful music and moments to savour - with melodies that will remain in your head long after the show.

Harvest Moon features a nine-piece ensemble that introduces instruments like the banjo, the mandolin and the fiddle, as well as the acoustic and electric guitars. For more information and reservations, contact 17713000 or 36560333.


http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=179507&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=30029


* * *


NorthernLife.ca, Canada - Apr. 17, 2007


Nearly 10 percent of doctors trained in Canada work in USA


BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN


One in nine doctors trained in Canada are practising medicine in the United States, according to a study published recently in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

But that doesn’t bother the chief of staff at Sudbury Regional Hospital.

Canadians should be proud doctors trained here are in demand in the United States and around the world, said Dr. Chris McKibbon.

“We should take it as something of which we are very proud that Canadian and Ontario-trained physicians are considered preferred products not only in small communities like Upper Rubber Boot, but in metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago, London and Toronto,” he said.

“When we talk about the people that we’ve trained, we would celebrate the fact that Shania Twain found a home in Timmins but as the result of many factors is at home anywhere in the world. That’s the kind of medical community we want to be a part of.”

Researchers used AMA stats

The authors of the study found information about Canadian doctors working in the United States by looking at the American Medical Association’s physician master file.

If Canadian-educated doctors who were born in the United States are eliminated from the statistics, the number practicing in the United States goes down to one in 12.

The tide is turning, however. In 2004, the number of Canadian-trained doctors returning to Canada outnumbered those leaving – 262 left and 317 returned.

McKibbon said he has several colleagues who have left to work in the United States.

In turn, Greater Sudbury has attracted many doctors from other parts of the world over the years, he said. We benefit from doctors’ tendency to come and go, said McKibbon,

At the same time, McKibbon says he realizes this country desperately needs to try its best to retain doctors trained at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) and other Canadian medical schools.

McKibbon said the best way to accomplish the goal of retaining homegrown doctors is by making working conditions favourable.

“Moving forward with our one-site hospital will, I believe, be an important element in retaining, repatriating and recruiting physicians. I have no doubt of that,” he said.

“It’s also the case that if we’re successful in making Ontario a competitive place to practice in terms of the kind of procedures we can do and the quality of care that we can offer and the compensation that is offered, as well as the quality of life that we provide, we will recruit people.”


MDs attracted to better pay

More than two dozen doctors have been recruited to Greater Sudbury in the past three years, he said.

The time has come to start thinking of ways to attract Canadian-trained doctors back to their home country, said the vice dean of professional activities at NOSM.

“I know the government of Ontario has been looking at attracting physicians back into the workforce in Ontario as well as international medical graduates,” said Dr. Marc Blayney.

“I know we’ll be taking some extra residents that have trained abroad this year.”

Blayney himself was lured away from his country of origin – Ireland – to work in Canada in 1988.

He worked as a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and as a professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa.

These days, besides his duties as a professor at NOSM, he does some work on the pediatric floor and the neonatal intensive care unit at Sudbury Regional Hospital.

“They (Ireland) lost me, along with maybe about 10 percent (of doctors) at the time,” said Blayney.

“It was a time when a lot of people left and they didn’t come back. It still happens now. There is a movement of doctors.”

Blayney isn’t too concerned his students will want to work in the United States. NOSM students are mostly from Northern Ontario and many want to stay here and help alleviate the doctor shortage, he said.

Some medical graduates go to the United States so they can earn a lot of money to pay off their debt load, he said.

“One of the important things is to make sure there are good bursaries and that tuition fees aren’t rising excessively, and the debt that they have after four years of student life is less than $100,000,” he said.

“We do have bursaries for our students. I know they certainly won’t reach that level ($100,000).

“The students do see that the bursaries have come from people in the north, and they may work here to pay them back.”


http://www.northernlife.ca/News/LocalNews/2007/04-18-07-docsUSA.asp?NLStory=04-18-07-docsUSA



John - ;)

[dreamer]

thanks for the articles:up:

[aFinn]

There was some discussion relating to Shania and communication, that discussion can now be found here (http://www.shaniaforums.com/showthread.php?t=44583)

[FinnFreak]

;)


Lindsay Daily Post, Canada - Wednesday, April 18, 2007


Rolling Hills students embrace history


By Catherine Whitnall


Canadian culture, past and present, came alive in the Rolling Hills Elementary School gymnasium as its students tackled their first Historica Fair.

The program, entitled It's Cool to Be Canadian, has been up and running in the City of Kawartha Lakes for three years, spearheaded by former Alexandra Public School principal Nancy Page. But it wasn't until this year that Rolling Hills decided to add the fair to its experiences.

"When we were contacted last year and invited to be involved, I wasn't sure what to expect," said teacher David Cox, who was thrilled when the idea was strongly supported by staff. "We just went from there and I'm really pleased with what the students have accomplished."

All of the Grade 5 to 8 students at Rolling Hills participated in the program, holding individual class competitions first and the four best projects from each class moving on to the school competition held April 13.

Projects undertaken ran the gamut, said Cox, listing such topics as the infamous Vimy Ridge battle of the First World War battle, Canada's involvement in the Second World War, singer Shania Twain and pro basketball star Steve Nash.

"Sports seems to really dominate here for some reason," noted Cox, adding another common thread appeared. "The students are all really keen on this. They really gave it their all. They've shown some genuine enthusiasm. I'm really impressed given it's the first time they've ever done something like this."

In some cases, there was a personal connection to the project.

Grade 6 student Dan Lowe has always been a fan of outdoor sports, including snowmobiling, so it made sense his project would focus on that theme. He narrowed it down to Joseph Armand Bombardier whose first snowmobile hit the snow in 1926. Dan said he learned a great deal about Bombardier through his project, including the fact that the company also manufactures personal watercraft and jet planes, and that one of his uncles works for the company.

While Hayle Gill, Jessica Verkruisen and Hayley Preston don't believe they had any relatives living in Nova Scotia in 1917, many families were devastated by the Halifax explosion on Dec. 6 that year. More than 2,000 people were killed and another 9,000 injured when two ships collided in Halifax Harbour. Hundreds were left homeless and froze to death or burned in the fires that ravaged the city af ter the blast.

The three girls came up with the idea of detailing the tragedy after looking for an incident which significantly impacted Canadian history. The explosion strengthened ties with the United States and helped bolster support for Canada and Britain during the First World War.

The Grade 8 students took advantage of a variety of resources to pull together their project, including a number of movies and documentaries and they topped it all off with period style costumes. The girls even penned fictional diary entries, designed from a personal perspective on the day's events.

The top three projects from each grade have been selected to move on to the Trillium Lakelands District School Board's competition taking place Thursday, May 3 at the Victoria Park Armoury, 210 Kent St. West in Lindsay. The school will be joined by projects representing close to 20 schools which have held their own competitions in recent weeks. Winners from here will be chosen to advance to the provincial contest and one project will be selected to represent the board at the national fair.


http://www.thepost.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=490655&catname=Local%20News&classif=



John - :)

[FinnFreak]

PR Newswire (press release), NY - April 19, 2007



ButtKicker (R) Live!(TM) to premier at National Cable Show in Las Vegas


WESTERVILLE, Ohio, April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The Guitammer Company will unveil ButtKicker Live!(R) at the National Cable Show, booth #2382, in Las Vegas, May 7, 2007. This new, broadcast technology provides a third sense to entertainment, allowing sports fans to experience, live and in real time, a realistic indication of what it feels like to be sacked by a 340 lb. lineman, ride the Kentucky Derby winner down the backstretch at Churchill Downs, be cross-checked into the boards by an opposing hockey player, go 300+ mph down the drag strip, be slammed into the mat by Hulk Hogan, ride a rank bull for the full 8 seconds, crash into the wall at over 200 mph, and hit a 98 mph fastball 405 ft. over the center field wall.

ButtKicker Live! utilizes a combination of new and existing technologies that enable live events to be broadcast with not only audio & video, but now with the "feeling" and "impact" of the event... ButtKicker Live! doesn't just put the viewer in the stands it literally puts them in the game.

ButtKicker Live! is available for cable, satellite, over-the-air, internet TV and internet protocol TV broadcast events - whether live or tape delayed, and is especially effective for sporting events and the sports fan. It can be also applied to live music concerts ... or news broadcasts of natural and man-made tactile events. Audiences would be able to experience, first-hand, what it feels like to ride out a hurricane ... or stand close to a volcano ... or be on the front lines of combat ... or be on stage at the Grammy Awards.

Initial testing and rollout of ButtKicker Live! will begin this year, on a Mid-Western regional basis with the assistance of the new Columbus Sports Network.

ButtKicker brand audio products have gained significant public acceptance over the past several years, and are used worldwide in thousands of home theaters, at Disney and Universal Studios venues and in IMAX theaters, dance clubs and simulators. ButtKickers are also used on the stages of many of the top entertainers such as: The Rolling Stones, Shania Twain, Green Day, The Tonight Show Band, Josh Groban, Usher, Evanescence and many more. The new Kennedy Space Center and Lincoln Museum feature ButtKickers. And the new world class HD demonstration theater at the National Cable Telecommunication Association headquarters in Washington DC was specifically designed for ButtKickers in conjunction with a powerful sound system designed by THX and Dolby.

In a motor vehicle, the ButtKicker brand transducers provide high quality car audio, with no exterior noise, virtually solving community noise ordinance issues caused by loud car stereo systems, and provides a musically superior alternative to large vehicle speakers and subwoofers.

ButtKickers are installed directly to the frame of the vehicle, producing no audible sound. ButtKickers are being tested for highway warning systems and rumble strip simulation.


SOURCE The Guitammer Company

Related links:

http://www.thebuttkicker.com


An Overview of the ButtKicker

The ButtKicker is a small, linear motor, which reacts to an audio signal sent by an amplifier. It is similar to a loudspeaker, but instead of moving a cone, and transferring sound waves through the air, it attaches to seats and floors, and sends low frequency sound directly into the listener's body. The effect is amazing.

It takes two senses to perceive full range sound. We hear sound, but we also feel sound, especially low frequency. Traditionally, it takes big speakers, moving tremendous amounts of air, to feel the low frequency of sound. People like loud concerts because they want to feel the sound pressure in their bodies.

The ButtKicker reproduces the feeling range of audio in a more direct way than through air. The perception is actually better and sound pressure disappears. When using headphones, for example, with a ButtKicker, the listener perceives powerful, musically accurate, concert-level audio, but no one else hears anything. The sound is completely isolated to the listener.

This becomes very interesting for music monitoring and recording studios. We have several dozen of the top touring bands this summer using ButtKickers for stage monitoring. The ButtKicker gives them complete control over their mix and sound level, without sacrificing any quality. Most musicians tell us immediately that they hear better and play better with the ButtKicker.

In a recording studio, the ButtKicker allows for low volume, incredible isolation.. and, because the ButtKicker was designed to be musically accurate, to fractions of frequencies, studio engineers are finding that their mixes are coming out tighter, cleaner and better balanced.

For example: I am a music writer/producer and studio musician. I do soundtrack work for various commercial companies and stage show producers, in my own little home studio, using computer with Cubase, Sonar, etc. I always use the ButtKicker to check my mixes.

Ken McCaw
Founder, The Guitammer Company Inc



http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-19-2007/0004569051&EDATE=



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the articles John.

[RJ]

There was some discussion relating to Shania and communication, that discussion can now be found here (http://www.shaniaforums.com/showthread.php?t=44583)
Looks like you did a very good job on that, from what I have seen in my brief look so far.

How much time and effort did it take you?

[aFinn]

I didn't look at the clock, so don't really know, sorry Bob.

[Roger]

Looks like you did a very good job on that, from what I have seen in my brief look so far.

How much time and effort did it take you?

Well, my memory of being a mod is getting dim now but I do know that it takes a heck of a lot of time to follow everything that is going on. You and I can just skip threads that don't interest us. Mods have to keep an eye on all of them. I think we owe a big thanks to Marika for doing this. This keeps different topics separate. Of course we could make an effort not to get off topic but, you know what? If we all rigidly adhere to the original topic, it has an inhibitory effect and ultimately kills spontaneity and free thought. This is how real, i.e. spoken, conversations go. We flit from one topic to another in spontaneous fashion.

[RJ]

Well, my memory of being a mod is getting dim now but I do know that it takes a heck of a lot of time to follow everything that is going on. You and I can just skip threads that don't interest us. Mods have to keep an eye on all of them. I think we owe a big thanks to Marika for doing this. This keeps different topics separate. Of course we could make an effort not to get off topic but, you know what? If we all rigidly adhere to the original topic, it has an inhibitory effect and ultimately kills spontaneity and free thought. This is how real, i.e. spoken, conversations go. We flit from one topic to another in spontaneous fashion.
Yes, I agree.

And thanks Marika, for your time, effort, and I think - success.

[Troll]

There was some discussion relating to Shania and communication, that discussion can now be found here (http://www.shaniaforums.com/showthread.php?t=44583)

Thanks for moving those post Marika.

[dreamer]

yes thanks much:hugs:

[FinnFreak]

Livingston Daily, MI - Friday, April 20, 2007


Cancer sidelines cheerleader, but not for long


By Jim Totten, DAILY PRESS & ARGUS


Sarah Cromer used to be a typical teenager.

In the summer of 2006, the then 15-year-old girl was enjoying cheerleading camp and looking forward to her sophomore year at Brighton High School. Her mother, Jill March, said her daughter's other interests were shopping and boys.

In typical teenage fashion, Cromer clarified her interests.

"I think boys come first, then cheerleading and shopping," Cromer said from the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.
Her interests have taken a backseat, as Cromer has spent the last year focused on beating cancer. Instead of attending high school, Cromer has been receiving chemotherapy treatment at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and undergoing surgery for
cancer.

"You always think it's going to happen to someone else," March said.

She said her daughter appeared healthy and showed no signs of illness, and the pain she complained about in her leg, well, they figured it came from straining herself at cheerleading camp. Then came the cheerleading physical, the discovery of a mass on her leg and the chemotherapy treatments.

In addition to school, March said her daughter has missed out on her 16th birthday, driver's education classes, dances and hanging out with friends.

"It really sets your world upside-down," March said.

Her daughter underwent major surgery in December, in which doctors removed the cancer and reconstructed her leg.

Through it all, March said her daughter has handled this hardship with "grace and dignity."

Cromer recalled someone telling her she had a choice to make in how she dealt with the cancer. She could become a wallflower, or ... . But before that person could finish, Cromer had made up her mind.

"I'm going to be a sunflower," she said. "They stick out, they're pretty and bright."

Cromer said the most difficult ordeal was the surgery on her leg, and the second was losing her hair.

"I know my hair will come back," Cromer said.

It's been tough spending four-day stints in the hospital as she undergoes chemotherapy. She knows she's missing out on what's happening at school and attending dances and football and basketball games. She keeps in touch with her friends via her cell phone, and she also made new friends at the hospital.

Cromer said she does arts and crafts and plays games while at the hospital, but, in general, it's "just kind of boring."

She takes her mind off things by listening to her iPod, which has 6,000 songs stored on it. When she needs a lift in spirits, she listens to Daniel Powter's "Bad Day," and Shania Twain's "Up."

Cromer said she's been keeping up with her schoolwork with the assistance of a teacher. Next year, she said she's going to be a cheerleader.

Her chemotherapy will be completed in May, and she knows exactly what she will do when that time comes.

"I'm having a party," Cromer said.

Brighton Township resident Yvonne DeVries held a fundraiser for Cromer on Tuesday (April 17) as part of the Max to the Millions endowment. DeVries created the endowment to help others and as a remembrance for her son, Max, who was lost at sea while riding a personal watercraft in Aruba during a family vacation in May 2004.

March said she's been touched by the cards and baskets her daughter has received. She said many of the gifts were given anonymously and have included care packages with slippers, bubble gum and mints to take to the hospital during her four-day hospital stays.

"The things people have done for her have been incredible," March said.


http://www.dailypressandargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070420/NEWS01/704200329/1002



John - :)

[Troll]

Great article John.

[dreamer]

wow beautiful, sad but....:hugs:

[captainCorr]

Kiss me smell me

Poor Donald Trump. Not only is his reality TV show The Apprentice at the bottom of the ratings, but his signature scent, "Trump, The Fragrance," has been discontinued. It seems his plans for a global beauty franchise have fizzled, despite the high-powered backing of the Estee Lauder Companies.

Yet Trump's fragrance woes haven't dissuaded a handful of celebrities eager to cash in on celebrity perfume. In the next six months you'll see new scents from Usher, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, Sarah Jessica Parker, Shania Twain, Paris Hilton, Kate Moss, David Beckham and Christina Aguilera.

At stake is a cut of the $30-billion consumers worldwide spend each year on fragrance. Canadians alone spent almost $500-million on scents in 2006, an amount expected to grow to $571- million by 2011, according to market researcher Euromonitor International. Celebrity fragrances account for approximately 7% of total sales of perfume. It is a growing category in an otherwise flat market.

So, why are celebrities still lining up to lend their names to fragrances? It's simple: "They get 5% of gross sales," says a former fragrance company CEO, who had several high-profile starlets on his label. "As far as I know, every celebrity gets the same deal," he adds.

That can add up quickly. For example, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion and Elizabeth Taylor all sit at the top of the celebrity fragrance pyramid. Each earns approximately $25-million in royalties from their fragrance licensing deals. Indeed, it was Jennifer Lopez who kicked off the celebrity-scent trend in 2002, when she launched GLOW by JLO, a fresh floral scent that captured the teen market. Stores couldn't keep the perfume in stock. The trend gained momentum in 2004, with the success of Curious by Britney Spears.

(....) [source (http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=edb15486-0511-4b78-a912-0f9d86287450&p=2)]

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[dreamer]

:great:
it makes me wonder, !!! !u!!! !oo!?

[FinnFreak]

FHMonline.com


100 Sexiest Women In The World 2007


#56

Shania Twain

Last Year #30


http://www.fhmonline.com/images/cms/tn_tb_girls_100_sexiest_girls/92/Shania-Twain.jpg


One of the highest-selling recording artists of all-time and the woman who brought sex appeal to country music,
Shania hasn’t done much in the past few years, but she’s still as popular as ever.


http://www.fhmonline.com/girls_100_sexiest_2007.asp?cnl_id=1&stn_id=136&p=23




John - ;)

[eilleen333]

Not bad.... Not bad at all!

[Troll]

That is cool.

[tonyme]

Yeah well... expected her to go a little bit higher but, it's fine;)

[dreamer]

we all did I bet

[EilleenTwain88]

we all did I bet
Not me. Suprised she made it at all.

[Troll]

Not me. Suprised she made it at all.

Same here.

[dreamer]

well I guess that makes sense but to me Shania is ALWAYS #1

[tonyme]

To me too... Wait and see when she releases a new album and new sexy photos, you'll see she'll easily be on the Top of the list (maybe the Top 5)

[Troll]

To me too... Wait and see when she releases a new album and new sexy photos, you'll see she'll easily be on the Top of the list (maybe the Top 5)

She should move up the list when she does that.

[SevenUp!]

No doubt Shania is number one in the hearts of many people around here. But to be at #56 after having been away from the spotlight for such a long time, is quite good. I also think that once she gets back into things, that ranking will only go Up! Up! Up!....;)

[dreamer]

no doubt~I hope it isn't to much longer:(

[FinnFreak]

ZioShow.com - 30-04-2007


Madix Takes Rush on Tour with SpectraFoo

Front-of-house engineer Brad Madix will have an opportunity to reacquaint himself with an old friend on his next gig.


http://www.zioshow.com/images/db/news/bradmadix.jpg
FOH engineer Brad Madix, who is going out with
Canadian-rockers Rush, is taking Metric Halo's
SpectraFoo along for the tour as it can run an
FFT and RTA simultaneously across multiple inputs.


Front-of-house engineer Brad Madix will have an opportunity to reacquaint himself with an old friend on his next gig. Madix, who embarks on an extensive international tour with Canadian rock legends Rush in mid-June, is looking forward to once again working with Metric Halo's SpectraFoo analysis software after a six-month separation. Madix shares that, after replacing his computer in mid-2006, he has since been working with another well-known set of measurement tools and has come to a realization:

"SpectraFoo is so much better. It has a huge advantage over the other software, in my experience, which is being able to run an FFT and an RTA simultaneously across multiple inputs."

Madix, who is returning to front-of-house for Rush after first mixing the band for part of the Roll the Bones Tour, puts SpectraFoo to good use, not only during system setup but, also throughout the show. "I use it mainly for tuning the PA - that's the big job that it does - but also for stuff in the mix. Even though I'm mixing live, I do use it for 'mastering,' metering and looking at phase."

SpectraFoo is also superior to other systems in its ability to switch between measurements and displays, Madix believes. "You can save the window sets so that you can switch very quickly from looking at the left and right output of the console, looking at a phase scope and mastering metering, then switching over to see an RTA view on top of an FFT analysis between the output of the desk and a microphone. Nothing else is quite like that, as far as I know."

"Both tools are useful. FFT and an RTA, each on their own, have some value during a show. But using them simultaneously can help very quickly pinpoint where a problem lies," he explains. "If I think I hear some problem with the response of the PA in the room, if I look and see it's just on the RTA and not on the FFT then I know it's something that I'm doing. But if it's on both displays then I know it's something in the room. Right away I know if it's better to go to the EQ on the console or to the EQ on the system."

In order to replicate their studio recordings, each member of the three-piece band often plays or triggers other sounds in addition to their primary instrument onstage. That can be a challenge, notes Madix, especially in the low frequencies, but the Metric Halo software is equal to the task. "For a band like Rush, where there are multiple bass inputs, SpectraFoo has come in handy a few times for correlating the phase of three or four different bass inputs. It can be hard to hear. You know it's not quite right, but when things are close but not quite right it's really tempting to start twiddling the EQ. It's nice to have the computer sitting off to the side and be able to pull up a phase scope and see what is not right."

A musician who first began as a FOH engineer in the mid-1980s, Madix has worked with the Psychedelic Furs, Def Leppard, Queensrÿche and Shania Twain over the years, as well as, most recently, Shakira. Following a stint with Two, which featured Jerry Cantrell and Rob Halford, Madix was recommended by Halford's guitarist, John Lowery, for the FOH position with his next project, playing with Marilyn Manson.

"One of the first tours I did with SpectraFoo was with Marilyn Manson in 1999 or 2000," recalls Madix, who adopted SpectraFoo after discovering the fast Fourier transfer-based tool set at an industry trade show. "The funny thing about that music, which I like a lot, is that sometimes it's hard to tell when something is 'broken.' There's a lot of stuff that's intentionally distorted. It was useful to go in and find the things that actually were not working correctly, as opposed to the stuff that was supposed to sound like that. With a band like Manson, who knows what someone is doing up there! It may not be a matter of equalizing the PA."

Following rehearsals throughout May, Rush begins their latest international tour in Atlanta, Georgia in mid-June. A comprehensive schedule of U.S. dates is followed by a tour of Canada, followed by shows in the U.K. and Europe throughout the month of October. The band, which has achieved gold, platinum or multi-platinum status for twenty-three of its albums, is touring in support of a brand new full-length release, "Snakes & Arrows."

Based in New York's Hudson Valley, Metric Halo provides the world with high-resolution metering, analysis, recording and processing solutions with award-winning software and hardware.

www.mhlabs.com

Audio professionals are using SpectraFoo every day to solve real world problems. Whether you have to match the EQ of two different tracks, analyze a synthetic sound to match an original sample, or tune a room, SpectraFoo will help you get it done faster and better. You can use Foo in tracking, recording, mixing and mastering sessions as well as during the setup and mixing of live shows.


RTA - Real Time Analyzer, as used in pro-audio terminology, is a device that measures and displays frequency spectrum of an audio signal in real time.

There are generally two types of RTAs: 1. RTAs employing analog signal processing, and 2. RTAs employing digital signal processing (DSP). The main difference between the two types is that the analog RTAs use a series of hardware, analog, bandpass filters to break the signal into frequency bands prior to measuring it, while the digital RTAs use digital sampling technology and microprocessor based digital signal processing to perform necessary calculations, such as FFT - Fast Fourier Transforms, to perform the measurements and thus do not need analog hardware filters to isolate each frequency band. The digital approach to signal analysis generally yields much higher accuracy and resolution and thus most RTAs currently in production employ digital signal processing technology.



http://www.zioshow.com/viewnews.php?id=11430



John - :)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[tonyme]

Cool article, thanks for sharing :D

[Troll]

...He made the journey from crop duster to celebrity transport for the likes of Ben Affleck and Shania Twain, and then to corporate piloting. Flying for an oil company, he would glide high above pipeline inspectors who slogged the Alaskan bush tracking invisible leaks of natural gas with post-World War II technology...

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2006-01-22-pipeline-tech_x.htm

[Troll]

Billy Currington goes platinum

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 – Billy Currington's sophomore album "Doin' Somethin' Right" went platinum with more than one million units in sales, delivering him his first R.I.A.A. (Recording Industry Association of America) platinum certification. The third single from the same album, "Good Directions," is currently fourth on the charts, helping spur sales.
"I couldn't be happier," said Currington. "It feels amazing to know that I have so much support out there with the fans. It seems like the shows just keep getting better and better and I'm having a blast!"

Currington is currently in the studio putting finishing touches on his third Mercury Nashville album, slated for a fall release. Next week he heads to his home state of Georgia with photographer Danny Clinch for his album photo shoot.

Currington made his country debut with his 2003 self-titled album that spawned the Top 10 hit "Walk A Little Straighter" and the Top 5 aonf "I Got A Feelin'." Then superstar Shania Twain heard the Georgia native's soulful voice and chose him for the hit duet "Party for Two."

http://www.countrystandardtime.com/news/newsitem.asp?xid=574&t=Billy_Currington_goes_platinum

[dreamer]

thanks so much! go billy!

[FinnFreak]

commercialappeal.com, TN - May 3, 2007


Son of Sister Tagg doesn't like name change

Germantown renames street as McVay Manor Cove


By Clay Bailey


Germantown is taking Sister Tagg Cove off the city maps.

And the late Mrs. Tagg's son, who chose the name, is upset about the change, especially since he was unaware that the suburb was even considering dropping his mother's name in favor of McVay Manor Cove.

Typical Germantown," developer Billy Tagg said. "Do things behind the scenes without telling anyone."

The suburb's Planning Commission approved the name change in its meeting Tuesday night. Residents of the 18-lot, one-street development requested the renaming.

"We just didn't like the name," added Greg Meyer, the association president who steered the idea.

But Tagg sure did. Sister Tagg was the nickname of his mother, Mary Arnette Canale Tagg.

"If the world had a lot more people like her we wouldn't be in the shape we're in now," Tagg said.

Residents have discussed kicking the Sister Tagg moniker to the curb for about two years. They considered the name confusing and didn't think it represented their street.

But the change, unanimously approved by the homeowners, didn't mean they were abandoning some religious reference. The nickname developed because Sister Tagg was the only girl in a family of seven children.

"If it had been a nun, we would have never done this," said Tom Elledge, one of the residents who attended the meeting.

With all the lots developed, the Sister Tagg residents thought it was time to get a street name less confusing and more reflective of their neighborhood. After dealing with the lighthearted suggestions, such as naming it for Shania Twain, they decided to go with the subdivision's name, which was already etched in the brick entryway off McVay Road.

"I think McVay Manor was the right way to go," Elledge said.

The city must amend the plat to reflect the change -- a process that could take a week or so -- then entities such as Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division, the postal service and others will be notified of the new name.

"All of us have been waiting to buy new stationery," Lisa Morrison said.

But Tagg seems to want to show a little family spirit before he's willing to surrender his mother's name. He was talking about contacting his attorney Wednesday to stop the change, which he noted was approved with the original subdivision plan.

"They had no business changing that," Tagg said. "They never said a word to me about it. I never got notice or anything.

"... They just can't do something like that without any input."


Streets meet dead ends

Changing a street name is rare, but not unheard of, in Germantown.

In 2000, the city changed the name of Farmington Boulevard Extended and Dogwood along the northeastern rim to Wolf River Boulevard.

A couple of years earlier, Germantown granted a request of neighbors on then-Fox Creek Cove to change the street name to honor the late musician and resident, Sandy Berry, after her 1998 death.

Way, way back in time, Dogwood Road between Germantown Road and Poplar was known as Hot Tamale Road.


http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/germantown/article/0,1426,MCA_1936_5517750,00.html



...their "lighthearted" suggestion was better, IMHO... :p



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article

[Troll]

During a recent interview with Smith, he said he was conscious of the similarities between Shakespeare's dark tragedy and what he was crafting in Big Man. "But I went off in another area. Something more satirical," he said. The genesis for his book comes less from the Bard than a quote by Steve Earle, he continued, "Who called Shania Twain the world's highest paid lap dancer. There's a lot of bad music out there and I thought country music was ripe for a caricature."

http://www.hour.ca/books/books.aspx?iIDArticle=11972

[Troll]

Searching for the worst Canadian, Shania and Celine have been nominated.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18442021/

[tonyme]

This doesn't mean anything to me

[dreamer]

:rolleyes:*barf*:uhh:

[FinnFreak]

Top40-Charts.com, NY - 2007-05-03


Soulful Singing Of Jazz-Infused Pop And R&B
On ALLISON CORNELL'S 'Pretty Colored Lights'


http://cdbaby.name/c/o/cornell.jpg


New York, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Allison Cornell Official Website) - Allison Cornell is a seasoned singer who is no stranger to the stage. She has a Masters from Juilliard, continued her education in New York, and toured doing vocals, keyboards, viola/violin with Joe Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Shania Twain, Angelique Kidjo, Jann Arden, Tracy Chapman, Pat Benatar, Ann-Margret and Ronnie Spector. Her recording credits include work with Cyndi Lauper, Jann Arden, Pat Benatar, Joe Jackson, Rachael Sage, Carter Burwell, Angelo Badelmente and Branford Marsalis.

"Pretty Colored Lights" is a CD of her jazz-infused r&b/pop and americana which showcases her eclecticism and virtuosity on the violin, viola, piano, keyboards, guitar, mandolin and lead vocals. Cornell, speaking about the diverse sounds on the new CD, "The hodge-podge nature of the album is by design- I like records with different flavors." The pulsating "Rock This Country" is sure to get the dance floors burning. Cornell vocals stand out on the Motown-flavored "I Want Everything". The simmering funk of "Crush" is a highlight of "Pretty Colored Lights" . The CD ends with the heartfelt pop-rock ballad "I Fall Down". Cornell's emotions are at the forefront of every turn of this song.

Lauper adds vocals to "I Fall Down". Cornell says, "My regular job is with Cyndi. We've been together six years. I've been on some fairly big tours with her, so I work around whatever fits in here schedule. I feel like I have one of the best jobs out there for me. It's challenging, and yet it's a good fit."

Joe Jackson and his band back Cornell on his spicy composition "Glamour and Pain", a highlight of "Pretty Colored Lights". Kat Dyson, bandmate with Cornell in Cyndi Lauper's group and former Prince and the NPG guitarist, lends great guitar assistance throughout "Pretty Colored Lights".

Allison Cornell info and CD ordering can be found at www.allisoncornell.com and www.cdbaby.com/cd/cornell. Allison is also on tour this spring in support of "Pretty Colored Lights"


http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=32513


“The music performed live by composer Allison Cornell…cooks in an edgy Western way.” - Village Voice

“Allison Cornell…wowed the audience with her virtuosity and vocal power.” - Boston Globe

“…musically and vocally, highly entertaining to watch – multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Allison Cornell deserves a stage of her own…” - Boston Herald

“Most Notable of all…Allison Cornell, who sang beautifully and played violin, viola, and keyboards.” - Chicago Tribune

“String instrumentalist and background vocalist Allison Cornell…eerily beautiful...” - The Advocate

“Her versatility has made her a hot commodity among many touring acts…” - International Musician



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for that John.

[dreamer]

yes thanks GO ALOSON!

[RKSTFan]

News Flashback from 1999:


May 17, 1999

Shania Twain sets up an endowment fund for students in her hometown of Timmins, Ontario, Canada.



Source: Country Weekly (May 21, 2007)

[dreamer]

:love::cry:

[Troll]

Thanks for the article

[Troll]

Now in rotation at MTV, the video for "Before He Cheats" was
a recent "First Look" on TRL and became the first country video ever to air
on the show and the first country video added to MTV since Shania Twain's
"Man, I Feel Like a Woman" in 1999

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-07-2007/0004582281&EDATE=

[Troll]

Bright as the future is for Underwood, one record that looks way out of reach for her is top-selling country album of all-time. Currently, that record is held comfortably by Shania Twain, who has the top-selling album of any genre of the SoundScan era: Come On Over. As of this week, it has scanned 15,420,945 units.

http://countryuniverse.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/carrie-chasing-the-century-record/

[dreamer]

thanks sooooooooooooooooo much:up:

[tonyme]

Thanks for all these news!!:D:D:D

Really!! Although I watched "I'm Gonna Getcha Good" on MTV too:uhh:

[dreamer]

all Shania is great Shania!

[FinnFreak]

FayObserver.com, Fayetteville NC - Tuesday, May 15, 2007


A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY


By Jessica Banov


“Country Music Awards”: Reba McIntyre hosts the awards show for the ninth time. Faith Hill, Toby Keith, Martina McBride and Big & Rich will perform. So will John Legend (huh?). Shania Twain comes out of hibernation to make an appearance. 8 p.m. CBS


http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=262294



NOT quite my dear: Shania's a songbird - they migrate. :p



* * *


ANU Reporter, Australia - Tuesday, May 15, 2007


THE CANADIAN DIVA EFFECT


What do Celine Dion, Shania Twain and Avril Lavigne have in common? They’re all female. They’ve all made their names and fortunes as pop singers. They’re all Canadian. And according to Professor Martin Richardson, they’re prime examples of what’s problematic about imposing cultural quotas on broadcasters.

Richardson is a specialist in international trade theory and commercial policy at the ANU College of Business and Economics. Whole sections of his working week are given over to developing and refining conceptual models that make sense of complex economic interactions. He also likes listening to music, describing his tastes as “catholic”.

“One man’s eclecticism is another man’s lack of discrimination,” he says. “But I’m very eclectic. I’ve got a 15-year-old son, so I listen a little to what my kids listen to. I like country music. I like jazz. I like rock music.”

During his previous job at the University of Otago, Richardson was also tuning into a heated national debate about whether or not New Zealand should impose local content requirements on its broadcasters. Advocates were pushing for a legislated requirement that radio and television stations play a certain amount of content created by New Zealand artists and producers. Such measures, it was argued, would help preserve the cultural specificity of the land of the long white cloud. Eventually the country’s broadcasters agreed to voluntary local content targets.

“It was quite a robust debate,” Richardson says. “Basically, it’s forcing people to listen to music they wouldn’t otherwise listen to. The proponents of it made me suspicious in the first place. What was their motivation? The answer is that if you have to play New Zealand music, the radio stations will tend to play the more established musicians like Crowded House and so on, so the royalties start flowing in. As a cynical economist, my immediate suspicion was that it was nothing to do with preserving domestic culture. The notion that Crowded House is something quintessentially New Zealand, too, is a stretch.”

Pondering the matter, Richardson began to look at other countries that had imposed local content quotas. He paid particular attention to the Canadian example, where such quotas had been in place for decades. Currently, TV stations in Canada must screen a high proportion of local content, while radio stations must ensure that 35 per cent of their popular music is Canadian. Whether or not the music qualifies as local is determined by the MAPL (Music, Artist, Performance, Lyrics) system, which requires that the composer, lyricist, performer or performance has originated in Canada. But Richardson says this kind of system is problematic, as it can lead to what he calls ‘the Canadian diva effect’.

“If you listen to people like Celine Dion, Shania Twain, or Avril Lavigne, they are Canadian, they get played – or, at least, used to get played – preferentially on Canadian radio stations, but they sound generically international,” Richardson says. “There is nothing distinctively Canadian about them at all, as opposed to some of their predecessors. Why? Once you have a cultural quota in place, you are forcing consumers to listen to more local content. Let’s assume that consumers have a preference for more international-type content. The obvious incentive is for local artists to start producing international music. The whole point of this is to preserve the local content, but actually by putting a restriction in place, you give local providers a very strong incentive to actually change their style and sound much more international.

“The Australian scheme is much less rigid. It says any band that is either in Australia or associated with Australia counts as Australian music. Take Nick Cave, who now lives in the UK and records there, but is still counted as producing Australian music because he grew up here. The proponents of these things always say there is some unique culture that is being preserved, but I just don’t see it. This stuff sounds very international.”

While the NZ debate was playing out, Richardson was busy developing a model that would help to describe the economic relationships between a given number of players. A colleague at Otago suggested this work could be applied to the consequences of cultural quotas for broadcasters. Richardson says he was keen to attempt the analysis, especially as he already harboured some doubts about local content targets.

“The model was originally developed to look at location decisions. There are physical locations, but you can think of locations very broadly. It can be any space at all. It can be firms that differentiate by geographical provision, firms that differentiate by some feature of a product – anything you can model as being a differentiation you can fit into this framework.”

To understand Richardson’s model, it’s helpful to think of two points on a line, both representing commercial radio stations making playlist decisions. The line represents a continuum, where the extreme left equates with non-stop local content while the extreme right stands for non-stop international content. Both of the radio stations are free-to-air, which means advertising is their only source of revenue. As a consequence, they both need to get the biggest market share possible. They make decisions about how to place themselves along the continuum depending on what the other is doing, deciding how much local music and how much international music to play. Suppose in equilibrium that one of the stations, the one further to the left of the line, plays around 80 per cent local music, with the remainder of its schedule is international tunes. The other radio station plays around 80 per cent international music. What would happen, Richardson asked, if a local content quota of, say, 30 per cent was introduced?

“For the local station it makes no difference – they’re obviously unaffected. But the international station has to increase the amount of local music that they play, so in a sense they’re shifting down the continuum. Because you’ve got this interplay between them competing for advertising revenue, if the other station did nothing at all, it would find it’s now got a closer neighbour. So the competition over advertisers gets fiercer. The optimal response for the local music station is actually to play more local music, so they move apart. So at first you get this sort of nice double whammy where both radio stations will start to play more local music.

“The gain to consumers is that both radio stations are now playing more local music but, because they’re closer together, they’re competing for more advertising revenue, which drives the price of advertising down but also leads to less advertising overall. The benefit comes because the advertising goes down. It’s a very indirect effect for consumers, and it’s certainly not the effect that any proponents of cultural quotas have put forward.”

Next, Richardson considered what effect introducing an advertising cap would have on the playlist decisions of the two stations. Given that it was competition for advertising that had been keeping the players apart in the first place, he found that limiting the commercials would have a homogenising effect, forcing once divergent rivals into the middle of his local-international continuum.

Finally, the economist introduced a hypothetical third station to his model. This one was publicly funded, commercial free, and played all local music.

“Triple J is a good example and always cited as a very successful example of a public radio station that’s located almost completely at one end of the spectrum (it does play some international music) and has zero advertising,” Richardson says. “The effect is to drive away the commercial station that was playing more local music, which is now having its market undercut. It’s now going to play less local music.”

Richardson admits that his model is only addressing some of the economic consequences around local content quotas. It’s not always possible to neatly convert something like personal taste into a mathematical measure, he says, adding that debates around culture will always include such human vagaries. But he believes his model is useful.

“What I like about the set up is that it’s very difficult to get a simple way of modelling local content. It’s hard to quantify why local content matters, why it is special and why people care about it. In this model that’s sort of assumed. There are some consumers who just happen to like it. We also assume there is some differentiation between local and international content.”

Although Richardson gives backers of local content quotas the benefit of the doubt by assuming that such a thing as local content exists in the first place, he himself remains doubtful about such classifications. For him, Celine Dion and her compatriots make pop music much like that found in the US, the UK, Australia and elsewhere. Whether Canadians choose to count such divas as their own is entirely up to them.


http://info.anu.edu.au/mac/Newsletters_and_Journals/ANU_Reporter/096PP_2007/_02PP_Autumn/_diva.asp


* * *


Denver Post, CO - Tuesday, May 15, 2007


"Redneck" redux

Gretchen Wilson's latest finds her leaning a little too hard on the rough-and-ready shtick.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site36/2007/0514/20070514__ae15_redneck.jpg
Gretchen Wilson is many things to her fans mainly she's the liberated woman not afraid to drink,
cuss or ground her man.


By Ricardo Baca


It's with purposeful intent that Gretchen Wilson starts her new album, "One of the Boys," with an upbeat song called "The Girl I Am." While Wilson has never been the sex symbol Shania Twain once was, she's also never been the complete tomboy the album's coy title suggests.

Wilson has always existed somewhere in between for fans of her easily digested pop-country music - and she nails that rough-around-the-edges persona on her new record's smart title track.

She croons: "I can do most anything a man can do/I can hold my liquor with the best of you ... I know I don't act much like a lady/But I still need to be somebody's baby."

In "The Girl I Am," she contemplates: "Sometimes I cry for no good reason/Sometimes I fight, and I ain't a man ... But I'll always be the girl I am."

Her lyrics are hardly poetry, but you have to appreciate their directness. Wilson is many things to her fans. But mainly she's the liberated woman not afraid to drink, cuss or ground her man from the Silverado when he's bad. It's her own form of feminism, and it's a formula that has touched a nerve.

Yet it is a formula. For 2004's "Here for the Party," Wilson and John Rich (ex-Lonestar, current Big & Rich) wrote "Redneck Woman," the song that ended up breaking her career wide open. The song was an unabashed celebration of her low-rent past - and it was a caricature that still defines Wilson's work even amid her third record, for which she co-wrote nine of the 11 songs.

In "There Goes the Neighborhood," she proudly sings, "I was born in the country on an old farm road/Worked for a living but I still stayed broke/Everything I had was either borrowed or loaned/ Except my mobile home."

It's catchy, and her pride and self-confidence is contagious. Still, like much of her work, it's musically flat. Wilson's better with her humor, which skews toward the "It's Five O'clock Somewhere" variety. But when she milks the bartender's popular last-call mantra - "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here" - she fails to connect with the universal experience of being kicked out of a watering hole at closing time.

The electric-guitar-driven pop song "You Don't Have to Go Home" celebrates that part of bar culture only true drinkers know - a nod to the hard-partying, shot-and- a-beer image she's made for herself. But unlike past songs such as "One Bud Wiser," "Not Bad for a Bartender" or "Redneck Woman," this song's experience seems more duty than pleasure. Her shtick is starting to weary like an assembly-line job.

Like her other records, this one has its peaks and its valleys. She's best when playfully talking about how she defines herself now, but she's sounding tired when she celebrates how she defined her character more than three years ago. Wilson tries to even out her record with a handful of cloying ballads sappily titled "To Tell You the Truth" or "Heaven Help Me" or "Come to Bed," the latter of which is this album's first single.

They don't work. But they do give you another peek into Wilson's mind, which is obviously more girlie than boyish.


http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_5894128


...the sex symbol Shania Twain once was...


:really: - "once was"..?!? - *IS* - Shania is "Still The One" :p



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the articles.

[shania megafan]

Thanks for posting! ;) and you're right, Shania is still the one!

[tonyme]

Yep I agree Shania is still the one :great:

[dreamer]

i'M GLAD YOU ALL noticed that too

[FinnFreak]

Dickson Herald, TN - Tuesday, 05/15/07


ACM Red Carpet: Cavalli popular with country stars


By BEVERLY KEEL
Celebrity Columnist


You can dress country stars in Roberto Cavalli, but you can’t teach them to pronounce the Italian designer’s name correctly.

Cavalli, whose colorful and sexy styles are the favorites of many rock stars, was the designer of choice for several famous faces strolling the orange carpet at tonight’s Academy of Country Music Awards at the MGM Grand.

Craig Morgan said his green blazer was “Robert Cavalli,” while Trick Pony’s Aubrey Collins said her short black dress was “Cavaratti.” “Anything with an ‘i’ on the end of it, I found out it’s nice,” says Trick Pony’s Keith Burns. “If it has an ‘i’, add another $100 to it.”

Playmate Tiffany Fallon, who is married to Rascal Flatts’ Joe Don Rooney, knew how to pronounce and wear her Grecian-style white-and-blue Cavalli with cutout sides. “I am a repeat offender; I wore Cavalli here last year,” says Fallon, who debuted a new haircut. “It’s Grecian, so it’s very light. It’s cut out, so half the top is there, and with the heat, it helps. It screamed Vegas to me.”

Her showgirl-rivaling look raised the stakes for her handsome husband. “I’ve got to try to be as pretty as she is. It’s impossible,” he says.

Most of the men opted for blazers and leather jackets, despite the afternoon heat that reached the upper 90s. “I’m really hot, but it’s a small price to pay,” says Trent Tomlinson, who wore a Juicy couture blazer he found in Minneapolis.” However, the heat wasn’t enough to steam the wrinkles out of actor Luke Wilson’s suit pants or run Dr. Phil’s makeup.

Old Hollywood and Greek were the themes of the night for the women. Faith Hill selected a vintage greenish-grey cocktail-length dress that draped beautifully. She and husband Tim McGraw traveled to Vegas after celebrating Mother’s Day with her children and mother, who is in the hospital. “They spent six hours in a hospital with (only) one complaint,” she says. McGraw added, “Everybody got along.”

Shania Twain looked like a Greek goddess in her white Monique Lhuillier, while Martina McBride channeled Elizabeth Taylor in her finest days in a purple Marc Bauer dress.

“I went to the Marc Bauer showroom about three of four weeks ago and got to hang out with him a little bit and look at all his dresses,” McBride says. “I put this one on and felt like old Hollywood in it.” She wore an antique silver beaded Bauer gown onstage. “It’s so feminine and makes you feel really pretty.”

Sara Evans chose a floral, feminine Etro gown. “I just liked it,” she says. “I wanted to be a little more casual.”

The Vegas spirit must have infected Gretchen Wilson, who bypassed her typical denim red carpet look for a short black dress and boots. “I got online at home and ordered about eight pairs of underwear, a couple of shirts and this dress from Frederick’s of Hollywood,” she says. “I tried it on about three times and took it back off and thought, ‘Mmm, I can’t do this.’ But I brought it with me just on the slim chance that I might change my mind. I just talked myself into it. I’m a blue jean baby.”

The sleeveless dress was a much cooler choice than denim in the afternoon heat. “It’s still kind of hot, I have to admit. I’m probably sweating more in this just because I’m so uncomfortable.”

Taylor Swift, 17, left the sexy looks to her older counterparts and instead wore a custom-made Sandy Spika pink dress with a corset and hundreds of crystals. “It is painful, but it is so cute. I love it,” Swift says. “ I feel like an architectural structure right now.

She adorned it with Tiffany pink sapphire earrings, a diamond bracelet and a pink sapphire ring that’s “way too expensive for me to be wearing right now. I think every girl should get a chance to dress up in a big pink dress and walk down a red carpet.”

Kellie Pickler selected an elegant blush-colored Maz Azria adorned with sequins.

“I’ve been picking on it all day, so hopefully it won’t be shriveled up by the end of the day,” she says. “I thought it was just beautiful. It’s very simple and from the new collection, so it will be out in November. It’s straight off the runway.”

Joe Nichols wore a pink shirt and John Rich went with a pink blazer. “Real men wear pink,” Nichols says.

An Armani-clad John Legend took a break from his tour to sing with Big & Rich. “I’ve got a show tomorrow in Albuquerque, but I’m going to have fun tonight. I can’t waste a night in Vegas. What happens here stays here apparently, so I’m going to exploit that tonight.”


http://www.dicksonherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/ENTERTAINMENT01/70515080



http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/3529/7415847529b2e47ac0.jpg

"Shania Twain looked like a Greek goddess in her white Monique Lhuillier"


True..!



John - :]

[FinnFreak]

The Tennessean, TN - Tuesday, May 15, 2007


Stars shine on the red carpet


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/FinnFreak/ACM1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/FinnFreak/ACM2.jpg

Country artist Shania Twain arrives at the 42nd Annual Academy of
Country Music Awards on Tuesday, May 15, 2007, in Las Vegas.


www.tennessean.com



John - :)

[Troll]

Thanks John.

[dreamer]

Shania is a goddess

[Myyde]

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/3529/7415847529b2e47ac0.jpg

"Shania Twain looked like a Greek goddess in her white Monique Lhuillier"


True..!



John - :]

Nääääh! I don`t buy that that easily. Not even close to Greek goddess.:uhh:












Well, if someone want to prove that i`m wrong, please post a pic of a Greek goddess who looks even nearly this magnificent.:p

[FinnFreak]

...they aren't usually invited as special guests to events such as this... so, they don't photograph this well...


John - :p

[Eleanor]

...they aren't usually invited as special guests to events such as this... so, they don't photograph this well...


John - :pShania 99.99% of the time photograph well, if that 00.01% is taken, then the camera man should have his camera were the sun don't shine, if he publishes the bad photo. :D

[FinnFreak]

Here's one from 1486 by Sandro Botticelli:

http://www.essentialart.com/mh/Botticelli_The_Birth_of_Venus_Detail.jpg


John - ;)

[Eleanor]

I like that pic John. It's not a photo, it's a painting, they didn't have cameras 1486 and Shania wasn't there in those days, well I don't think so, or maybe she was. :D :D :D

[FinnFreak]

Village Voice, NY - May 16, 2007


Academy of Country Music Awards: A Running Diary


By Tom Breihan


The Academy of Country Music Awards are a sort of kitschier, more casual version of the CMAs: held in Vegas rather than Nashville, loaded down with even more laughably useless non-country celebrities, unburdened by hall-of-fame salutes to country pioneers. (The ACM Awards are a couple of years older than the CMAs, but this show doesn't shoot for prestige in the same way.) Toby Keith, who never shows up to the CMAs and never wins any of their awards, has won Entertainer of the Year twice at the CMAs. I usually skip the ACM Awards because the show is rarely as well-produced as the CMAs and because one three-hour award show dedicated to country music per year is usually enough for me, but I'm still ridiculously amped about the new Miranda Lambert album, and I'm feeling generally warm and fuzzy toward country, so I decided to skip this week's American Idol rant and do a running diary instead.

. . .

8:04: Shania Twain is introduced as being "all the way from Zurich, Switzerland," and I have no idea what that could possibly mean. I'm just befuddled. Was that a joke? Does she live in Zurich now? Google is no help at all. Anyway, Shania is here to introduce tonight's host, Reba McIntire, who I will always kind of like just because she was in Tremors and she totally shot that graboid's tentacle off with a shotgun. She's also slightly better at telling unbelievably corny scripted jokes than perennial CMA hosts Brooks & Dunn: "You know, I just blew that joke right there. Well, it wasn't that good anyway."

. . .

10:56: Shania returns from Zurich again to give Kenny Chesney one more Entertainer of the Year award. He wears a giant hat and shouts out George Strait, which is pretty much exactly what you'd expect him to do. A predictable end to a predictable show.


http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2007/05/academy_of_coun.php



John - :p

[Myyde]

...they aren't usually invited as special guests to events such as this... so, they don't photograph this well...


John - :p

That is true.;)


Here's one from 1486 by Sandro Botticelli:

http://www.essentialart.com/mh/Botticelli_The_Birth_of_Venus_Detail.jpg


John - ;)

Nice painting. (..part of it, glad you didn`t post pic of whole painting);) Well, maybe i shouldn`t have put that "nearly" there, ......looking good, but not yet quite Shania level.;)

[FinnFreak]

I've got an alabaster sculpture of Aphrodite as well - all the way from Athens...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/FinnFreak/Aphrodite.jpg


John - ;)

[Myyde]

Keep trying, keep trying...;)

[Troll]

All About Country- Shania Article

Author: Jerry Dahmen
Former News Director of the Grand Ole Opry’s WSM for Jerry Dahmen's I Love Life
jerry@jerrydahmen.com
http://www.ilovelifeonline.com/
Jerry Dahmen

May 13, 2007

Eileen Regina Edwards---An Unstoppable Country Singer! [Printer Friendly Version]



My son Jeff, who was 12 years old, had a major crush on a young aspiring singer from Canada. As the chief interviewer of the internationally syndicated Grand Ole Opry Minute in Nashville, I was always receiving the latest information on the hundreds of aspiring singers who made their way to Nashville with used guitars strapped over their backs and stars in their eyes. Quite often, the record companies sent me pictures of their recently signed artists. While at my office, Jeff saw a glossy photo of a beautiful young woman whose God given name was Eileen Regina Edwards.
“Dad, do you think I could meet her,” Jeff begged me. Well, the next day, I called her record company and asked if Eileen would drop by WSM Radio for an interview. “No problem,” the media relation’s director told me. “In fact, she can do the interview today. I’ll just call her at home and ask her to see you this afternoon.”

I drove back home, picked up Jeff and returned to the radio station. Before we got to the station, Jeff asked me if he could ask Eileen three questions! I reluctantly agreed. Eileen was already waiting for me in the station’s newsroom. Jeff instantly fell in love with the stunning woman! After introducing ourselves, I turned on the tape machine, Eileen told me about her life---a life that was marred by tragedy, including childhood poverty and the loss of her loved ones. Eileen’s parents were both killed in a car accident. In an instant, the 21-year-old became the executor of her parents’ estate as well as the legal guardian of her 2 younger brothers and younger sister. Eileen moved the family to Huntsville, Ontario so that she could support them with her new job at the Deer Hurst Resort. She sang and performed in the resort’s “Viva Vegas’ show for three years. Then, in 1991, a Nashville lawyer was sitting in the audience. After the show, he invited the talented entertainer to come to Nashville. She soon signed a recording contact with a major label. It didn’t take before Eileen recorded her debut album. During our interview, Eileen’s can-do attitude was obvious. There was no doubt in her mind she would someday become a Country superstar. “Yes, I know what I want and I realize what it’s going to take for me to become successful---perseverance.”


It was pretty obvious to me---after interviewing Garth, Reba and other household names in Country music, Eileen had the qualities of a true winner. Eileen possessed the one ingredient that many newcomers don’t have---confidence in her talent and in herself. In Eileen’s words, “If you want to get involved at the level of someone like Garth Brooks, you have to be qualified to do that. The pressure is on. I think that weeds out many people who think they’re going to launch a major music career. Singing is one talent and performing is another talent. I think the two go hand in hand and I love both of them. But, it wasn’t always that way. I remember so well growing up as a child. My parents would actually force me to get on the stage. They knew I was talented. But, I didn’t want to do it. My knees would shake and I will never forget the time I even wet myself! Honest to God, I was so scared and petrified. But, I kept singing and with the help of my parents, I finally got over the nervousness and the fear. I think it was a famous actor who once said, ‘you must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best and still don’t win, at least you can be satisfied you’ve tried. If you don’t accept failure as a possibility, you don’t set high goals, you don’t branch out, you don’t try---you don’t take the risk.’ I’m willing to take the risk.”

Not long after Jeff and I met Eileen, the Canadian singer teamed up with a distant admirer, a London producer. What started out as a phone relationship turned into a marriage. Combining their unique talents, Eileen’s next album became an instant sensation. All together, Eileen’s run on the singles chart spanned over 100 weeks! In one year alone, Eileen’s tour grossed over 70 million dollars.

The girl with a dream was no longer just another singer waiting for the big break! Thanks to purpose, a positive mental attitude and perseverance, Eileen was now a worldwide Country superstar. Her name? Shania Twain.

By the way, on the way home from the radio interview, Jeff told me he asked Shania the three questions when I briefly left the recording studio. “Number 1, I asked her what kind of car she drives. Number 2, I asked her where she lives. Number 3, I asked her if she could pick me up Friday after school and take me to a movie!”

Well, Shania and Jeff never did make it to the movie. But, to this day, Jeff proudly tells his friends he’s the only 12-year-old boy who ever asked Shania Twain out on a date and got turned down!

http://www.allaboutcountry.com/cfm/index.cfm

[FinnFreak]

Now THAT was a GREAT article..!


John - :D:up:

[Troll]

Village Voice, NY - May 16, 2007


Academy of Country Music Awards: A Running Diary


By Tom Breihan


The Academy of Country Music Awards are a sort of kitschier, more casual version of the CMAs: held in Vegas rather than Nashville, loaded down with even more laughably useless non-country celebrities, unburdened by hall-of-fame salutes to country pioneers. (The ACM Awards are a couple of years older than the CMAs, but this show doesn't shoot for prestige in the same way.) Toby Keith, who never shows up to the CMAs and never wins any of their awards, has won Entertainer of the Year twice at the CMAs. I usually skip the ACM Awards because the show is rarely as well-produced as the CMAs and because one three-hour award show dedicated to country music per year is usually enough for me, but I'm still ridiculously amped about the new Miranda Lambert album, and I'm feeling generally warm and fuzzy toward country, so I decided to skip this week's American Idol rant and do a running diary instead.

. . .

8:04: Shania Twain is introduced as being "all the way from Zurich, Switzerland," and I have no idea what that could possibly mean. I'm just befuddled. Was that a joke? Does she live in Zurich now? Google is no help at all. Anyway, Shania is here to introduce tonight's host, Reba McIntire, who I will always kind of like just because she was in Tremors and she totally shot that graboid's tentacle off with a shotgun. She's also slightly better at telling unbelievably corny scripted jokes than perennial CMA hosts Brooks & Dunn: "You know, I just blew that joke right there. Well, it wasn't that good anyway."

. . .

10:56: Shania returns from Zurich again to give Kenny Chesney one more Entertainer of the Year award. He wears a giant hat and shouts out George Strait, which is pretty much exactly what you'd expect him to do. A predictable end to a predictable show.


http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2007/05/academy_of_coun.php



John - :p

Thanks for that

[Raider]

Perez Hilton posted Shania again on his blog and was nice. He didn't draw anything on her. :funny: Perez seems to love Canadians except for Avril. Some of the comments aren't so nice though so go post something nice.
That site gets over 5-6 million hits a day.

http://perezhilton.com/

http://perezhilton.com/topics/shania_twain/

http://perezhilton.com/topics/shani...18.php#comments


Not Just Yet

Filed Under: Canadialand > Shania Twain

Despite rumors that she's be releasing an album this fall, Shania Twain announced this week that a new record won't be out until next year.

Sadness.

[Eleanor]

Thanks for the links Raider.

[Eleanor]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/FinnFreak/Aphrodite.jpg


John - ;)She looks like she hasn't been out of doors for a long time, she needs a holiday to Spain, get a tan. ;)

[Troll]

Thanks Raider

[Raider]

Coty Puts Twain in Spotlight With 2nd Scent

Friday, May 18, 2007


Coty Beauty is shining a spotlight on another side of country superstar Shania Twain this fall with the launch of her second perfume, Shania Starlight by Stetson.

http://www.wwd.com/notavailable/dotcom?target=/issue/article/115926&articleId=115926&articleType=A&industryKw=issue&industryKw2=issuearticle

[shania megafan]

Shania Starlight By Stetson.. sounds beautiful! :]

[tonyme]

Wow :shocked: Shania Starlight !!! Very interesting!

[matty]

Thanks for all the articles guys :)

[SevenUp!]

Shania Starlight will be incredible I'm sure....actually Shania by any light works for me. ;)

Thanks for the information. :]

[Troll]

actually Shania by any light works for me. ;)



Works for me too.

[Troll]

This week, some of Hollywood's hottest actresses and singers put on a pretty impressive international fashion show.

The glitz got going in Las Vegas with the Country Music Awards. New female vocalist winner Miranda Lambert wore a flirty blue mini-gown by British designer Jenny Packham while old fave Shania Twain chose a classic Monique Lhuillier goddess gown.

Carrie Underwood – winner of album for the year and top female vocalist - accessorized her sparkly silver sheath with a Mary Norton Reese clutch adorned with a Swarovski crystal buckle. I'm not sure who designed Faith Hill's grey chiffon gown but someone should have helped her put it on properly.

http://www.latimes.com/env-sneadrewind-18may18,0,1476082.story?coll=env-home-headlines

[dreamer]

thanks for all of that!

[Troll]

Miranda told the press backstage at the ACMs that it was exciting to win on a show she watched as a kid, and to meet one of her female star idols.

"I used to watch the ACMs and I used to have a yellow tablet and write down all the nominees and circle my winners. And I told my parents about 5 years ago that I wanted to win this award one day and here I am, I've won the award. And, I am a country fan and actually I went over before it was announced and bothered Shania Twain and just wanted to introduce myself because I'm just a fan and it's still just surreal for me to be here as a peer with these people, it's amazing."

http://netmusiccountdown.com/inc/news_article.php?id=12706

[dreamer]

cool!!!!

[FinnFreak]

Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, TX - May 30, 2007


Air Force’s Top Flight to play in June


By Michael Cary


SEGUIN — At long last, downtown’s Central Park will rock and roll with the Air Force band Top Flight the night before the big 4th of July parade.

Tech sergeants Donna Siler and Jonathan Packard visited with Mayor Betty Ann Matthies and members of local veterans organizations at City Hall Tuesday to announce the six-member band will perform at 7:30 p.m., July 3, as part of Seguin’s celebration of the patriotic holiday.

Top Flight is an ensemble that is part of the 55-member Air Force Band of the West that is stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

“We’ll play for about a hour-and-a-half, and we will try to hit as many genres as we can,” Packard announced.

Top Flight consists of a rock/country band assembly, including a lead guitar, a bass guitar, drum, keyboard and four vocalists.

“It should be very fun and suitable for all ages,” Packard said.

The band was founded in 1991 with highly-skilled professional musicians, and it performs at more than 300 venues per year throughout Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas.

The USAF Band of the West formed the group to respond to America’s demand for classic rock and roll, traditional country and pop music from the Top 40. Top Flight performs songs by artists such as Michelle Branch, Brooks & Dunn, Creed and Shania Twain.

Top Flight reaches out to thousands of youth with “Stay in School” and “Say No to Drugs” messages throughout the Southwest. The group also performs at official military events, Air Force recruiting and community relations events such as Seguin’s 4th of July celebration.

Matthies said the addition of Top Flight’s performance is icing on the cake as the city will celebrate its 40th Annual Freedom Fiesta on Friday through Sunday, June 29 to July 1.

Seguin will celebrate the American Revolution with a parade at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 4.

“We have the biggest small town parade in Texas,” Matthies said.

She said anyone who wants to enjoy Top Flight’s repertoire on July 3 should bring their lawn chairs and blankets.

“If someone wants to get up and dance, get up and dance,” Matthies said. “I love music and I love concerts in the park.”

The mayor said she hopes for “wonderful weather,” but the coliseum will be held in reserve for the concert in case of inclement weather.

“The concert will take place no matter what the weather is,” Matthies said.

Seguin Main Street Program Director Mary Jo Filip said the band was requested during recent years, but this will be the first time they will perform in Seguin.

“We’ve been asking them to come here for a very long time,” Filip said.


http://seguingazette.com/story.lasso?ewcd=5ce8e150065ba593



John - :)

[faithfully]

Quality stuff:)

[FinnFreak]

Florida Times-Union, FL - 5/29/2007


Sen. Clinton wants help rocking vote


By LAURA CAPITANO, The Times-Union


Sen. Hillary Clinton wants you to know that behind all the sensible lady-suits and matronly hairstyles, she's still got a rock 'n' roll side. Woman needs a campaign theme song, and she's reaching out to you and me for guidance on this political initiative. Finally, an issue close to my heart.

The fair senator has been hosting a small-scale battle of the bands on hillaryclinton.com to help answer what she's calling "one of the most important questions of this campaign." Visitors to the site can watch her video plea to leech off their hipster cred, then listen, vote among all the tame to lame tracks and even write in their own recommendations without having to register.

Theme music has been part of the presidential race since the 1800s, according to the Chicago Tribune. It seems the selection gets exceedingly difficult as the years go by; new genres are coined and iPods are built to hold 80 GB worth of songs in your pocket. There's lots of material out there, so it's a smart move for the former first lady to call on the nation for help.

In the final round of Clinton's anthem selection, she's narrowed the playlist from nine tracks to five. It's a weak list, and it seems she's picked songs based on their title, no matter what shenanigans go on during the verses. She's got the Temptations' version of Smokey Robinson's Get Ready in the running, but it's not close to appropriate for politics. It's about a dude who wants to hit on some chick before all his friends get to her.

Another love song, Smash Mouth's cover of Neil Diamond's I'm a Believer, infiltrated the ranks. This candidate is made worse by Clinton's dismissal of Diamond's delightful ditty. Instead, she's using the version that causes all Americans with preteen children to think about ogres and talking donkeys - characters that don't add esteem to your candidacy.

U2's Beautiful Day made the short list, a song about learning to be comfortable with the environmental damage humankind inflicts on our planet. Woo-hoo, that track sure gets the party started. (I noted that Ms. Clinton had two U2 tracks on her initial song ballot - does someone have eyes for Bono?)

I was unfamiliar with another song in the line-up, KT Tunstall's Suddenly I See, until I listened on site. Sort of a British Sheryl Crow-sounding toe-tapper, the song makes a few references to a "beautiful girl." It's just not quite the proper sentiment for Hill, who's in more of that Man! I Feel Like a Woman age range.

A Shania Twain exclamatory selection did make the final five. Rock This Country! has a tug-at-the-heartstrings apple pie sweetness sure to make sensitive Americans coast to coast mist over as Hillary struts through town to the sexy Shania's beat.

The campaign theme song could go to a write-in, too. Tina Turner's The Best and Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way are in the running.

Though the message boards about the campaign song are packed with almost-amusing requests for Fat Bottomed Girls and Devil with a Blue Dress On, I think Hill should lean toward an artist who supports her campaign. Newsmeat.com reveals Mr. Barry Manilow as a first-quarter contributor, so I'd suggest I Made it Through the Rain. A hopeful song, while paying homage to all the tough times along the trail. Hillary, you are welcome!


http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/053007/enc_173524641.shtml



John - :)

[timminslover]

John, why is the time an hour ahead on The Forums today?

[timminslover]

:huh: Actually it's not one hour ahead, because i've just noticed it's am not pm. Where I' am, it's reading 1.38am when it should be 12.38pm. So it's 11 hours behind.

[FinnFreak]

I think it has something to do with the server transfer last night.

This post of mine shows as 4:04 am... muhaha.


John - ;)

[faithfully]

Lol! As long as it still works:funny:

[Troll]

Thanks for the articles

[Troll]

John, why is the time an hour ahead on The Forums today?

Yeah I was wondering about that too.

[dreamer]

hey those last articles are nice! thanks

[FinnFreak]

Regina Leader-Post, Canada - Thursday, May 31, 2007


Churko is the man in demand


By Gerry Krochak


Regina native Kevin Churko made a record with the musical "Prince Of Darkness" . . . and lived to tell about it.

"All I could think is, 'Please don't die in Ozzy Osbourne's house,' " the ridiculously talented producer/engineer/songwriter and musician recalls of a scary allergic episode that concluded with a 9-1-1 call and a shot of epinephrine, which potentially saved his life.

Osbourne made the call and even signed photos for the paramedics, but it's Churko who saved Ozzy's bacon with his work on Black Rain, an album being called the former Black Sabbath frontman's best in over a decade.

The Blizzard Of Oz and one of Yorkton's favourite sons have become great pals since the pair co-wrote and produced the new album, but it seems a safe bet that Churko never told Ozzy that he used to perform a country two-steppin' version of "Crazy Train" in his Yorkton family band nearly two decades ago.

Although Churko has quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after producer/engineers in music today, he says his experience with Ozzy and the Osbourne clan was nothing but positive.

"It was probably the most satisfying project I have ever worked on, beginning to end," he says from the Las Vegas home he shares with his wife Kemnay and children Kane and Khloe. "The entire experience was amazing and it was the most fun I've ever had making an album."

That might seem like a bit of a stretch considering the legendary metal howler's icon status and the fact that he seemed incapable of stringing two sentences together on his family's groundbreaking (for better or worse) reality television show.

"Ozzy is not entirely what people saw on that show," Churko says, laughing. "When the show was on he was using (drugs), popping pills and drinking, but he's been sober for the past three years.

"He's a very gracious, very smart and very real person -- he cuts through bull**** and sees truth faster than anyone I know."

Some would say the same of Churko and his ability in getting the most from himself and the artists he works with and records.

His brother Cory had been a long-time touring fiddle player in Shania Twain's band when Kevin's name came up for some studio work with Twain's husband and legendary producer Robert John (Mutt) Lange in the fall of 1999.

After several late-night telephone conversations with the man who not only married the sexiest woman in country music history but also produced Back In Black, Churko was on a plane to Switzerland where he spent four years that would change his life forever.

Reputed to be the most demanding perfectionist to ever walk into a recording studio, Lange still couldn't help but be inspired by the Saskatchewan work ethic of Churko. And let's face it: If you can impress Mutt Lange, you're immediately in the upper echelon of recording studio geeks in the world.

"The hardest thing and the greatest thing about working with Mutt is that he would accept nothing less than excellence," Churko recalls. "And out of my high respect for him I would give nothing less than excellence.

"I wanted to give him as much as I possibly could on the projects we were working on and that meant a lot of hours and consecutive days and weeks. I was willing to do the work so I guess he found the right guy."

Good luck is what happens when hard work meets opportunity. A foot in the door wouldn't have meant a thing had it not been for Churko's will, hard work, God-given talent and determination.

His "man-in-demand" status is deserved . . . even Ozzy Osbourne could tell you that.


http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/columnists/story.html?id=f0f7322a-5877-43fe-8674-6c9b27151e8d



John - ;)

[tonyme]

Great article... Go Cory:D:D

[Troll]

Great article. Cory rocks

[dreamer]

Very moving and cory SUPER ROCKS!

[FinnFreak]

Timmins Daily Press - Friday, June 01, 2007


Timmins airport renamed in honour of Victor M. Power


http://www.timminspress.com/npimages/newsphotos/file531200742500PM.jpg
Former Timmins mayor Vic Power, centre, is congratulated by current
mayor Tom Laughren during a ceremony Thursday afternoon renaming
Timmins Municipal Airport as the Victor M. Power Airport. Looking on is
Power’s wife Clarice.


By Scott Paradis


Hundreds of people packed the city’s airport for the ceremony that officially renamed the building to the Timmins Victor M. Power Airport.

The former mayor attended the ceremony with his wife, Clarice Power, and son, Dr. Kevin Power, who arrived in town from Ottawa.

The city publicly announced the dedication in April, but Power said seeing the large attendance and hearing the speakers brought the reality of the honour home for him.

“I’m overwhelmed by this kind gesture,” Power told The Daily Press moments after the ceremony.

“I feel this is typical of the people of Timmins — to acknowledge what they believe as positive. They don’t forget you.”

A number of people spoke during the dedication ceremony, including current Mayor Tom Laughren, former Sudbury mayor Jim Gordon and MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP —Timmins-James Bay).

But those attending the ceremony weren’t the only ones sending messages of appreciation.

Letters of recognition to the longest-serving mayor in Timmins’ history came in from people including Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, and country music star and Timmins native, Shania Twain.

Although Power said he was overwhelmed by the praise, the ceremony wasn’t without a few light-hearted moments.

“Well, now I know what my eulogy will be like,” Power joked.

When the city originally announced the Timmins airport would be renamed in the Power’s honour, the former mayor’s political history with the airport was cited as a key reason for the dedication.

The federal government announced it would transfer ownership of the airport to the City of Timmins on July 12, 1994, which came with a five-year deadline to complete.

Later that decade, Power reached an agreement that would have the federal government pay $6 million for the construction of two runways, as well as establish a reserve of federal dollars to ensure the airport was self-sustaining.

“In any event, we ended up with two new runways and a tidy reserve,” Power said during his speech.

“(That) means the facility operates at no cost to the taxpayers.”

But negotiations between the city and the federal government regarding the airport wasn’t the only part of Power’s legacy discussed at the ceremony.

Gordon, a long-time friend of Power’s, spoke about Power’s contributions during the “genesis stages” of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

Gordon said the idea was almost always to have shared university campuses between Laurentian University in Sudbury and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

But that couldn’t have gotten off the ground, however, without support from other communities in the North, he said.

Getting communities to support something that on the surface looked to be a Sudbury and Thunder Bay-only initiative seemed near impossible, Gordon said.

“I knew if there was going to be anyone who could (rally) support, it would be Vic Power,” Gordon said.

The selling point of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine project was a statement Power used often: “If we stay divided, we’ll never get anything for the North.”

Kevin Power, who now resides in Ottawa, came to Timmins specifically for his father’s dedication ceremony.

“I think this is a wonderful day for our family and my father,” he told The Daily Press.

“My father’s dedication to the city is admirable.”

Kevin said his father’s dedication regularly meant the former mayor would work long hours into the evening, weekends and holidays.

“He was a role model,” Kevin said.

“A good example for me.”

The ceremony was equally impressive for Power’s wife, Clarice.

“It was wonderful to see so many people here,” she said. “I think my husband has been working his entire life for the city.

“He has always put his heart and soul in everything he’s done for the City of Timmins.”


http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=551825&catname=Local+News&classif=News+Live



John - :)

[FinnFreak]

The Express Times, PA - Friday, June 01, 2007


All about the accordion


The accordion is a member of the reed family, not the keyboard family.

When people think of an accordion, they usually envision that large, black monstrosity with piano keys on one side and about a thousand buttons on the other side.

However, the accordion family also includes Cajun button boxes, chromatic and diatonic button accordions, the concertina, the bayan, and the bandoneon.

China is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter of accordions.

The first U.S.-made piano accordion (the ones with the keys on it) was manufactured in San Francisco, in 1907, by the Guerrini Accordion Co.

The piano accordion is the official musical instrument of the city of San Francisco and has been since 1990.

Actress Lucy Liu plays the accordion.

Billy Joel and Barry Manilow also play the accordion.

Shania Twain's immensely popular "Come On Over" CD has accordion on a couple of tracks.


Source: All Things Accordion at ladyofspain.com.


http://www.nj.com/living/expresstimes/index.ssf?/base/living-1/1180670882247150.xml&coll=2



John - ;)

[Troll]

Great articles.

[tonyme]

Thanks for the article:D

[faithfully]

:cool: Thanks for the articles

[dreamer]

very nice articles

[FinnFreak]

Moneyweb, South Africa - Monday, 04 June 2007


Outsourcing your life


Sending work offshore has transformed the U.S. economy. Now, some families are tapping the same approach for personal tasks, getting them done for a fraction of what they'd cost at home. Taking your to-do list global.


By Ellen Gamerman, Wall Street Journal


When David San Filippo decided to create a tribute video in honor of his sister's wedding, he could have gotten a recommendation from a friend or looked up video editors in the phone book. Instead, he did what big corporations have been doing for more than a decade: sent the work offshore.

On the Internet, Mr. San Filippo located a graphic artist in Romania who agreed to do the whole thing for $59. The result was a splashy two-minute video with a space theme and "Star Wars" soundtrack. It won raves at the wedding.

Offshore outsourcing has transformed the way U.S. companies do business. Now, some early adopters are figuring out how to tap overseas workers for personal tasks. They're turning to a vast talent pool in India, China, Bangladesh and elsewhere for jobs ranging from landscape architecture to kitchen remodeling and math tutoring. They're also outsourcing some surprisingly small jobs, including getting a dress designed, creating address labels for wedding invitations or finding a good deal on a hotel room, for example.

Such "personal offshoring" is still new and represents a tiny fraction of the more than $20 billion overseas outsourcing industry. But management consultants and economists say it's likely to evolve into a larger niche as offshore workers identify the opportunities. Thanks to instant messaging, computer scanners and email attachments, any work that doesn't require meeting in person has the potential to be done overseas.

The approach relies on the same model that drives corporate outsourcing: labor arbitrage, or benefiting from the wage differential between U.S. workers and those in developing countries. In the U.S., tutoring services charge $40 to $60 an hour for math help. Some skilled tutors in India are paid $2 to $3 an hour. In India, $20 is enough to buy a week's groceries for two people.

Sending personal work offshore requires Internet proficiency, and some patience as well. Though a few firms have begun tailoring their services to consumers, most deal primarily with businesses. Tapping this bargain work force means knowing about the online bazaars where workers abroad compete to bid for small projects.

Some big free-lancing sites include Elance.com, Guru.com and Rentacoder.com. In a recent study on the growth of offshoring services to small businesses and homes, market researcher Evalueserve found more than 90 such online marketplaces, with 500,000 vendors from low-wage countries using them.

Consumers must also be able to recognize when a routine task can be done digitally, and across time zones. Earlier this year, Dan Frey went in search of an artist to illustrate a children's book his mother had written for the grandkids about her life growing up in New York City. He thought about finding a student from a local art school, but then it dawned on him that he could outsource it without leaving his house. The job didn't necessarily require a face-to-face meeting -- he could just email the draft.

He logged on to Guru, which he'd learned about from computer programmer friends who had used it for work. Within a week, 80 bids had come in from countries like Lebanon, Ukraine and Malaysia. To narrow the field, he had 10 finalists send him sample drawings depicting a young girl. He rejected the illustrators who didn't follow instructions and sent pictures of animals instead, and he bypassed an Indian firm that seemed big and impersonal, offering him a "project manager" to oversee a staff of artists.

The woman he finally hired lives in the Philippines. He says her drawings, styled after Japanese anime, were more cheerful than other entries, and he was impressed by her polished portfolio. She offered to do 25 drawings for $300 -- what some others wanted for a single illustration. "I was kind of amazed at how easy it was," says the 36-year-old sales and marketing consultant. He says his mother was "overwhelmed" when she saw the finished product.

It isn't always easy to evaluate a vendor. Language gaps can lead to misunderstandings, and if projects involve revisions, they could take more time -- and cost more in long-distance bills -- than they're worth. When reporters tried outsourcing personal tasks, they were offered a range of prices, making it difficult to know what they were getting (see adjacent chart for more on our test).

Janice Harrelson says she was ultimately satisfied with the Web site designed for her by Virtuoso Online, a firm in India. But she says cultural gaps initially hampered the designers' ability to strike the right tone on a site devoted to her Christian beliefs. The theme she wanted to emphasize was the bond that believers have with Jesus Christ -- a concept known as being "the bride of Christ." The Indian technicians posted pictures of women in wedding gowns.

"They were beautiful, but not what I had in mind," says the real-estate manager from North Carolina, who went through a few more revisions before the site was completed with images of a waterfall and a crown. The total bill came to $250 -- half the price she was quoted by a local Web designer.

Global Solutions India, in Mumbai, is one of the firms now adding consumers to its primary business of corporate graphic design and web development. Americans never used to call for small personal projects four years ago, but now the company says about 20% of all inquiries comes from individuals in the U.S. -- some of whom discover the company after seeing its occasional banner ads on sites like Google. The jobs are handled by a six-person team making $1,000 to $1,500 each per month. They work in a small office with anything from Hindi pop to Shania Twain playing in the background.

Rajesh Shah, the 27-year-old president of Global Solutions, tells his clients to call him anytime, even on his cellphone at 3 a.m. He sometimes works 16-hour days, and he lives a seven-minute walk from the office so he can get there fast. "I normally don't turn down work," says Mr. Shah, who often sends work to new customers before they've paid him. The most prominent feature of the office is a statue of the elephant-headed Lord Ganesh, worshiped as a god of wisdom and a remover of obstacles.

Outsourcing has already trickled down from big corporations to small businesses, which now send everything from secretarial work to graphic design to back-end legal research overseas. Outsourcing revenue from small businesses was more than $250 million in fiscal 2006, and is likely to grow to more than $2 billion by 2015, according to Evalueserve. As offshore providers gain proficiency in dealing with smaller clients, individuals are a logical next step. "We're seeing the very tip of a very big trend," says Peter Allen, partner and managing director of TPI, a Houston management consulting firm that specializes in outsourcing.

Glen Hackler says he was inspired to try outsourcing for his personal income taxes after he hired an offshore firm to do the bookkeeping for his business. The owner of a Web site that sells RV parts, Mr. Hackler came across FinTax Experts, part of a larger outsourcing firm based outside New Delhi, during a Web search. He says FinTax saved his business several hundred dollars in accounting work.

This year, he decided to have FinTax do his personal income taxes, too. He emailed his earnings and scanned receipts, getting a completed return within two days. The firm charged him about $50, a third of what H&R Block charges for an average return. Since the return wasn't prepared by a U.S. accountant, he says, he filed it as "self-prepared," but he says he got all the deductions his CPA used to find him. "They seem to know all the laws here."

Most consumer outsourcing takes place on auction sites like Guru. In 2000, the Pittsburgh-based company launched an online job board. Its infrastructure is like eBay, with a ratings system so buyers can feel more comfortable choosing a vendor. Guru has an escrow system to avoid handing over a credit-card number to a stranger. Vendors pay a listing fee of roughly $10 to $80 a month, and Guru gets 6% to 9% of every successful deal. Customers aren't charged to list projects for which they're seeking bidders.

Guru says it is taking steps to make the process more user-friendly, with additions it says are likely to appeal to consumers. A new feature will let vendors post short videos of themselves and their offices.

Another site, Elance, is starting up "Elance University," a mandatory online course for vendors that will instruct them on how to attract customers and improve their customer-service skills. Elance just doubled the size of its customer-service team as it gets more calls from people who aren't Internet whizzes. "We're just coming out of the early adopter phase," says Fabio Rosati, CEO of Elance. "We're starting to see more and more mainstream people ... people that are not Silicon Valley technofreaks, that are not online entrepreneurs."

As evidence that more consumer tasks will wind up going overseas, economists point out that it's already happening more than Americans might realize. Many U.S. service businesses now routinely subcontract some portions of their work offshore. An architect designing a residence, for instance, might send drawings overseas to be turned into computer-generated renderings.

Some labor experts are skeptical that this kind of outsourcing will ever go beyond a small group of enthusiasts. One issue is being able to trust a worker thousands of miles away with projects of a personal nature.

And though it's hardly the political hot-button that's provoked industries like manufacturing and information technology, it is bringing consumers face to face with some thorny issues. Many are stumbling into their own personal-life versions of corporate responsibility in terms of working conditions and fair wages.

That has become an issue for the Oyler family of Fayetteville, N.C. Nitza Oyler raves about her stepdaughter's tutor, Raji Suresh, whom she hired through TutorVista, an online tutoring service based in Bangalore, India. Ms. Oyler says after shopping around, she couldn't find anyone else to beat the price: $99 a month, compared with the roughly $40-an-hour quote she got from Sylvan Learning Center. Last fall, her daughter Megan began two-hour sessions five days a week, using a digital tablet, instant messaging and a headset to communicate with her tutor.

Ms. Suresh, has grown close with the Oylers. She frequently tells Megan she loves her and says Megan always replies, "I love you more." But earlier in the spring, the Oylers began to worry about Ms. Suresh, who wakes up at 3:30 a.m. so the 12-year-old can do her homework after dinner in North Carolina -- and works a full day after that. "I felt bad," says Ms. Oyler.

When daylight savings time kicked in, Ms. Oyler decided that instead of making Raji get up even earlier to accommodate the new hours, Megan would start her homework an hour later, at 7 p.m., giving Raji some extra sleep. "That was very considerate," says Ms. Suresh, who lives with her husband and two sons in a three-bedroom apartment in Chennai.

Architects, accountants, landscape designers and other professionals say it's too soon to tell if this kind of outsourcing poses a threat to their business. But American free-lancers say they're getting hit. To compete on auction sites, U.S. vendors are either positioning themselves as experts so they can charge more, or lowering their bids. "People are undercutting each other to remain competitive," says Jia Ji, who manages community relations at Guru.

Tanisha Coffey, who does small writing jobs through her Atlanta-area company, Scribe, Etc., says larger offshore firms with several dozen employees routinely win contracts she's going after because of their low prices. While she asks 50 cents a word for a long article, she says some offshore firms charge $3 for the whole thing. "I can't work for that," she says.

Actress Michele Greene, known for her role as Abby on "L.A. Law," has found a way to outsource one of Hollywood's most entrenched jobs: the personal assistant. She contracted India-based concierge service GetFriday last year. Ms. Greene says she pays $150 a month for about 20 hours of service. That's about $2 less per hour than her L.A. assistants charged.

Ms. Greene says her offshore assistant has been a big help while she works on her second young-adult novel and a country-folk CD in addition to acting projects. Along with paying her bills and booking her flights, her assistant has given her tips on Bollywood movies and Indian food. His recipe for garbanzo beans with eggplant and peppers has become one of her signature dishes. It's a huge improvement over the unemployed actors who typically fill these jobs in Hollywood, she says: "They'd screw up everything you'd ask them to do."


http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page1408?oid=138556&sn=Detail



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[dreamer]

:great:

[faithfully]

Quite interesting stuff there:cool:

[FinnFreak]

Newsday, NY - June 6, 2007


Hollywood's Herbivore hotties

PETA raises heartbeats and awareness with sexiest vegetarians poll


BY JOSEPH DIONISIO


Natalie Portman starred in the film "V for Vendetta," but offscreen her lifestyle could well be titled V for vegetarian.

The Syosset native joins a list of 233 celebrities in PETA's sixth annual Sexiest Vegetarian poll, which runs through June 23 at goveg.com.

According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Portman had fake leather shoes made for her role in the 2006 comic-book movie.

"A lot of folks take their cues on what to wear and what to eat from celebrities," says PETA spokesman Michael McGraw. "It's a fantastic thing that vegetarianism has taken root in Hollywood."

Yet California isn't the only bastion for non-carnivores. If Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich were to win the 2008 presidential election, he'd break the meat barrier - as opposed to the more hyped race and gender barriers - as the first vegetarian in the White House.

Which sexy stars qualified for PETA's contest? Here are a few who hope to dethrone reigning champs Kristen Bell and Prince:

Alyssa Milano, who stars in PETA's upcoming "Let Vegetarianism Grow On You" campaign; Pam Anderson; Tobey Maguire; Common; Morrissey (the "Meat Is Murder" singer); Forest Whitaker; David Duchovny; Joaquin Phoenix (who wore vegan cowboy boots as Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line"); Milo Ventimiglia; Shania Twain; Orlando Jones; Carrie Underwood ("America Idol's" alum says she'd rather sing to cows than eat them); Alicia Silverstone; Mos Def; Def Leppard's Phil Collen; Ed Begley Jr.; Paul McCartney; Boy George; and Jared Leto.

Cool2Know asked several celebs how long they've been vegetarian, why they gave up eating animals and to dish on their favorite faux-meat products:

Actress Daryl Hannah - "Since age 11.... I was no longer able to disassociate what I was eating from the creature it had been. Many fake meats have soy isolate ... which can cause health problems. I really look at the ingredients and try to stick to whole foods."

Presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich - "Twelve years ago.... Initially, it was for health reasons. Then it also became a matter of respect for the lives and the treatment of animals, as evident in [my] voting record on animal issues ... favorites are Tofurky's 'kielbasa' and the vegan Gardenburger."

Actress Emily Deschanel - "Sixteen years ago, after watching [a school video about] the meat and dairy industries.... I do eat some meat alternatives. I love [the wheat/soy protein] Gardein. You can only get it at Whole Foods. It's very tasty."

Techno musician Moby - The co-founder of Teany, a veggie Manhattan cafe, has been "vegetarian for 23 years, vegan for 20.... I like animals and I don't want to be involved in anything that makes them suffer. Fake meat is amazing, the vegan equivalent of junk food. I usually refrain from fake meat unless I'm really hungover. Somehow it makes hangovers more bearable."

Actress Constance Marie - "No red meat [for] 23 years.... Meat made my body feel heavy and bloated. I started to think, what's the difference between eating a chicken or your family pet? Both are living, breathing animals with a face.... The quality of American meat is questionable.... Veggie hot dogs are my favorites!"

Singer Chrissie Hynde - "Since 1969.... I cannot justify the unnecessary exploitation of an animal. I will eat whatever I am offered, providing no animals have suffered."


http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/ny-2know5243130jun06,0,334560.story?coll=ny-entertainment-promo


* * *


Country Weekly - June 5, 2007


http://www.countryweekly.com/images/cw/209152/52117.jpg

Web Exclusive: Glamour and Glitz

The stars stepped out in style at the ACM Awards in Las Vegas—find out who won and what the stars wore!


Check out the fabulous fashions sported by Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and many more. Plus, Carrie Underwood and her new beau, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, walk the ACM’s glamorous orange carpet.

To read this story, pick up the June 18 issue of Country Weekly, on newsstands now—and check out the links below for our exclusive online coverage and photo galleries.


Kenny Takes Top ACM Prize (http://www.countryweekly.com/acm_awards_kenny_chesney/scoop/2368)

Kenny Chesney won the night’s biggest honor, Entertainer of the Year, at the 42nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, May 15, in Las Vegas.


ACM Orange Carpet Arrivals (http://www.countryweekly.com/acm_orange_carpet/hotshots/4)

Walk the Orange Carpet, where some of country’s biggest stars look their best.

May 18, 2007 – Country stars invaded Las Vegas to attend the Academy of Country Music Awards and we were there to catch them making their grand entrances on the Orange Carpet. This was country’s night to shine in Vegas and the stars didn’t disappoint!

In This Photo:

http://www.countryweekly.com/media/318shania.jpg
Shania Twain makes a rare appearance—one that won’t
soon be forgotten in this stunning Monique Lhuillier gown!


Rising Stars Party for a Cause (http://www.countryweekly.com/acm_party/hotshots/6)

Academy of Country Music Awards new-artist nominees perform at charity show.


ACM Charity Motorcycle Ride (http://www.countryweekly.com/acm_motorcycle_ride/hotshots/5)

The stars get their motors running and head out on the highway—for a good cause.


http://www.countryweekly.com/acm_awards/feature/1248



John - ;)

[Eleanor]

It's a good thing we are not all vegetarians, otherwise we would never see any cows, pigs or sheep in the fields, them animals would never be born too enjoy munching away at grass and enjoy having sex, try denying my dogs their loverly dog food with all those meaty chunks does not bear thinking about, once I did try and give my dogs vegetarian dog food and what a mess my Bulldog made on the carpet and the Jack Russel would not touch it. Farm animals may have a sad end, but they don't know until their last day. I know I will of pissed off a lot of vegetarians, but least I am honest and I dire to make my views.

[FinnFreak]

Many vegetarians still use dairy products and wool produced by sheep...


John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the articles.

[Troll]

Found this on the other board.

Check out the June 11th issue of OK! Magazine (Brad Pitt on the cover). On pages 34 and 35 are two full-page spread of Shania pics. Shows Shania's 1995-2007 "style evolution" from "Risque to Regal!" 7 large, awesome pics of our dear Shania. Sorry I don't have a scanner.

[FinnFreak]

PR Newswire (press release), NY - Wednesday 6 June 2007


Love Is In (And Over) The Air For Verizon Wireless Employees

Verizon Wireless Employees Name Their Favorite Love Songs


BASKING RIDGE, N.J., June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- With wedding season kicking
into high gear, Verizon Wireless asked its employees to name their favorite
wedding song or song they share with their significant other. The votes
have been tallied, and today Verizon Wireless released the list of its
employees' top love songs that customers can download over-the-air directly
onto their V CAST Music-enabled phones. With V CAST Music from Verizon
Wireless, customers from coast to coast have access to more than 1.9
million songs they can purchase right over-the-air from their phones --
from both well-known and independent artists.

V CAST Music runs on Verizon Wireless' award-winning broadband network,
and customers can also purchase and download songs to Windows(R) XP PCs,
plus sideload -- or transfer -- their existing compatible digital music
collections for free to their V CAST Music-enabled phones or memory cards.

According to Verizon Wireless employees, the top ten love songs
available through V CAST Music include:

- "Here And Now" by Luther Vandross
- "From This Moment" by Shania Twain
- "At Last" by Etta James
- "Always And Forever" by Heatwave
- "Ribbons In The Sky" by Stevie Wonder
- "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton
- "Spend My Life With You" by Eric Benet/Tamia
- "Let's Get Married" by Jagged Edge
- "Amazed" by Lonestar
- "Just The Way You Are" by Billy Joel

Purchases from the phone include two copies of every song, one for the
phone and one for the PC. For more information on V CAST Music from Verizon
Wireless, visit http://www.verizonwireless.com/music.


About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable wireless voice and
data network, serving 60.7 million customers. The largest US wireless
company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon
Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 66,000 employees
nationwide. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:
VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Find more information on the Web at
http://www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video
footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on
to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at http://www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.


http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-06-2007/0004602933&EDATE=



John - :)

[Troll]

Thanks for that John.

[tonyme]

Thanks :great:

[dreamer]

yes thanks a bunch

[FinnFreak]

ok - so, this next quote isn't really news.


Just a quote from another great Shania fan site.

Some words of wisdom and realisation, that needs to be said a little bit louder, in my humble opinion.


The discussion there reached the point where few were suggesting that the fans are the reason for Shania's success - therefore, she owes us & should give us more.


Nonsense.

Shania owes us NOTHING.




Ok, one, we did not create Shania's success and neither did she....not completely, GOD DID! I don't care who believes in God or who doesn't, He exists and only He can create or change one's future and life. He can give and He can take away at any time. God saw Miss Eilleen Twain as someone who could, in a small way, do his work. She only has what she has because she gives to hungry children and probably thanks God every day for what she has.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Shania. But make no mistake about it, she owes us nothing. She has met her destiny because it was meant for her.

Though it's true that everything every individual does impacts everyone else on this earth, no matter how great or small. We as fans can only be thankful for the joy her music has brought to us and the inspiration she has bestowed upon us. We should only be so lucky if we get to hear her voice and see her face again.

I wish Shania all the luck and the love her future brings. If at any time, it is farewell to the lovely and beautiful artist that she is, then all I can say is thank you and may God continue with you.

God Bless,
Amanda


Thread: "OFC Kit Made By.. Shania?" (http://www.shaniafans.com/mb/showthread.php?t=20514) at www.shaniafans.com/mb


...like I've said, Shania has some simply amazing fans...


John - :]

[FinnFreak]

Now, *THIS* article you guys are gonna love...

;)


Louisville Courier-Journal, KY - Thursday, June 7, 2007


In Nashville's 'Circle'

Nash's encyclopedia spans country music from early 1900s to today


By Tamara Ikenberg, The Courier-Journal


When she was a little girl growing up in Louisville, Alanna Nash's parents banned country music from their house.

But their daughter still grew up to be a fountain of Nashville knowledge. The country music scribe, 56, recently co-edited an encyclopedia of the genre, titled "Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America."

"Circle," which she edited with fellow music writer Paul Kingsbury, recently received the annual Belmont Book Award for the best book on country music. The honor is bestowed by Belmont University in Nashville, home to the prestigious Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. The book spans from the early 1900s to today, examining artists from Doc Watson to The Dixie Chicks and placing country in the context of American history.

We talked to Nash about past and present country superstars, topics in "Circle," from country power couples to the good and evil Garth Brooks and more things even a non-country music lover could appreciate.

Q: Carrie Underwood has certainly done well for herself as a country star.

A: Carrie's album "Some Hearts" has just gone six times platinum, and the quality of that record was surprisingly good. I reviewed it for Amazon, and that album really holds up.

Does this mean a smart Idol should aim at the country market?

If they already have that bent. The mistake is trying to make yourself a country singer when you're not. A number of people have tried to do that through the years, a lot of rock and rollers that no longer were viable, like Connie Francis, Davy Jones and Bill Medley. They usually fail. People underestimate the intelligence of the country music audience. While they're an embracing and forgiving group, they can spot the frauds in a second.

Why do folks underestimate how sharp country fans are?

Because they were initially rural people. The music didn't have a lot of sophistication in the early years. People still stigmatize country performers as being illiterate, ignorant, corny; and sometimes it's hard to defend some of that early work.

Sometimes it does sound like someone's singing with a clothespin on their nose, and some of that music of the past is unbelievably corny, and you just wince when you listen to it. But people who lived on farms, and lived off the land, they didn't have a lot to cling to. They had church, their faith, their family and their music from the radio, which connected them to their own emotions and a greater world. The music and the people who performed that music were extremely important in their lives.

They gave wings to their hopes, their desires and their ability to keep on in the face of incredible hardship. … Although there are so many closet country music fans.

Johnny Cash seems to be the go-to favorite of people who claim to otherwise hate country music. Why him?

He started out as a rockabilly performer in his early days in the mid-'50s. He has one foot in rock and roll and one foot in country music. Plus, his personality was more akin to a country performer. He was a very gracious man. Rosanne Cash is a friend of mine, and I remember her saying to me not too long ago, that she never saw June (Carter-Cash) or Johnny be ugly to anyone who came up to them. She never heard them raise their voice or give someone an unkind answer.

You can't say that about a lot of rock performers. (With Johnny and June) there was always that kinship, where the performers came from the same ilk as the audience. But Johnny also certainly had the hip stance and the attitude that made him appeal to the rock and roll crowd.

He's in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and he was probably the coolest artist country music ever had.

Johnny and June were definitely a classic country couple. And today we have Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. Who do you think is country's most iconic power pair?

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were really the king and queen in their day. They were the president and the first lady of country music. And they were the last of the power couples who really defined the redneck persona in that they were always fighting and making headlines.

Wynette did come from that kind of impoverished background and was not an educated person, and the country stars of today are so different from the country stars of yesterday in that so many of them came from a middle-class background, they go to college. … The music itself is smarter than it used to be in the old days. And that's a good thing and a bad thing.

There aren't many characters left in country music anymore. George Jones was famous for being kind of a sad drunk. Once, one of his wives hid the keys to the car, so he rode the lawnmower to the liquor store.

Can you give an example of an important early country/pop crossover hit?

"Heartbreak Hotel" is certainly a big one; 1956, Elvis Presley. That was the first hit that Elvis had that took him out of being strictly a country performer and appealing to a pop rock crowd. No matter what happened to him, even when he began to die on pop and rock radio, country stations continued to play him. At the end of Elvis' career, at the end of his life, he was back to playing and listening to country music again. He never left it and it never left him.

Garth Brooks: friend or foe?

Both. Garth Brooks did a lot of wonderful things for country music. He was the first modern performer to bring rock arena gymnastics and pyrotechnics to country music. He brought a lot of new fans to the music. When I was growing up, country music was the music of the older crowd. Young people didn't listen to country music. Alabama was the first act to really lure younger listeners, but Garth really galvanized them. He was a fan of Billy Joel; he was a fan of a lot of rock acts.

What accounted for Brooks' downfall?

People turned on him because he got really greedy. He was so obsessed with beating the Beatles' sales record that he got rid of any record executive who wasn't doing what he wanted done. He got them fired. He sold so many records he could do that. And he became so obsessed with beating the Beatles that he began to insist that his music be repackaged in different ways so he could just say he won. He just got so greedy and power hungry that it turned a lot of people off.

Who else has contaminated country music?

When Shania Twain first arrived, I was really horrified at her music. Her husband and producer Mutt Lange was the producer of Def Leppard and other highly successful bands. He's a brilliant producer. He introduced a lot of sounds to the music that had Nashville producers shaking their heads, asking, "How did he get that sound?" Shania sold more albums than any other female in the history of country music, but it wasn't really country music, and it did open the door to a lot of poseurs, and a lot of really bad music. But again, she brought in a lot of fans and a lot of dollars into country music that it wouldn't have had otherwise.

But your view of Shania eventually shifted. How?

I interviewed her. And I give her huge credit for coming to the mat to be interviewed, because I had been so hard on her (in reviews). And I just loved her. She was really open and honest and she was really up front about the fact that she has a secret writing life and she writes music, which is very akin to early Dolly Parton.

She has a whole secret cache of songs that she's written. She doesn't play them for anyone, including her producer husband. She knows that if she doesn't write commercial stuff that's going to be on the radio, she's finished. ... Is that watering down what country music is essentially about and has always stood for? Yes, of course. Has it evolved like every other genre? Yes, in order to stay viable and survive.


http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070607/SCENE04/706070364


Shania plays a big part in keeping that genre alive. And don't you forget it.


John - :p

[Troll]

Thanks for those John.

[timminslover]

Now, *THIS* article you guys are gonna love...

;)


Louisville Courier-Journal, KY - Thursday, June 7, 2007


In Nashville's 'Circle'

Nash's encyclopedia spans country music from early 1900s to today


By Tamara Ikenberg, The Courier-Journal


When she was a little girl growing up in Louisville, Alanna Nash's parents banned country music from their house.

But their daughter still grew up to be a fountain of Nashville knowledge. The country music scribe, 56, recently co-edited an encyclopedia of the genre, titled "Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America."

"Circle," which she edited with fellow music writer Paul Kingsbury, recently received the annual Belmont Book Award for the best book on country music. The honor is bestowed by Belmont University in Nashville, home to the prestigious Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. The book spans from the early 1900s to today, examining artists from Doc Watson to The Dixie Chicks and placing country in the context of American history.

We talked to Nash about past and present country superstars, topics in "Circle," from country power couples to the good and evil Garth Brooks and more things even a non-country music lover could appreciate.

Q: Carrie Underwood has certainly done well for herself as a country star.

A: Carrie's album "Some Hearts" has just gone six times platinum, and the quality of that record was surprisingly good. I reviewed it for Amazon, and that album really holds up.

Does this mean a smart Idol should aim at the country market?

If they already have that bent. The mistake is trying to make yourself a country singer when you're not. A number of people have tried to do that through the years, a lot of rock and rollers that no longer were viable, like Connie Francis, Davy Jones and Bill Medley. They usually fail. People underestimate the intelligence of the country music audience. While they're an embracing and forgiving group, they can spot the frauds in a second.

Why do folks underestimate how sharp country fans are?

Because they were initially rural people. The music didn't have a lot of sophistication in the early years. People still stigmatize country performers as being illiterate, ignorant, corny; and sometimes it's hard to defend some of that early work.

Sometimes it does sound like someone's singing with a clothespin on their nose, and some of that music of the past is unbelievably corny, and you just wince when you listen to it. But people who lived on farms, and lived off the land, they didn't have a lot to cling to. They had church, their faith, their family and their music from the radio, which connected them to their own emotions and a greater world. The music and the people who performed that music were extremely important in their lives.

They gave wings to their hopes, their desires and their ability to keep on in the face of incredible hardship. … Although there are so many closet country music fans.

Johnny Cash seems to be the go-to favorite of people who claim to otherwise hate country music. Why him?

He started out as a rockabilly performer in his early days in the mid-'50s. He has one foot in rock and roll and one foot in country music. Plus, his personality was more akin to a country performer. He was a very gracious man. Rosanne Cash is a friend of mine, and I remember her saying to me not too long ago, that she never saw June (Carter-Cash) or Johnny be ugly to anyone who came up to them. She never heard them raise their voice or give someone an unkind answer.

You can't say that about a lot of rock performers. (With Johnny and June) there was always that kinship, where the performers came from the same ilk as the audience. But Johnny also certainly had the hip stance and the attitude that made him appeal to the rock and roll crowd.

He's in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and he was probably the coolest artist country music ever had.

Johnny and June were definitely a classic country couple. And today we have Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. Who do you think is country's most iconic power pair?

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were really the king and queen in their day. They were the president and the first lady of country music. And they were the last of the power couples who really defined the redneck persona in that they were always fighting and making headlines.

Wynette did come from that kind of impoverished background and was not an educated person, and the country stars of today are so different from the country stars of yesterday in that so many of them came from a middle-class background, they go to college. … The music itself is smarter than it used to be in the old days. And that's a good thing and a bad thing.

There aren't many characters left in country music anymore. George Jones was famous for being kind of a sad drunk. Once, one of his wives hid the keys to the car, so he rode the lawnmower to the liquor store.

Can you give an example of an important early country/pop crossover hit?

"Heartbreak Hotel" is certainly a big one; 1956, Elvis Presley. That was the first hit that Elvis had that took him out of being strictly a country performer and appealing to a pop rock crowd. No matter what happened to him, even when he began to die on pop and rock radio, country stations continued to play him. At the end of Elvis' career, at the end of his life, he was back to playing and listening to country music again. He never left it and it never left him.

Garth Brooks: friend or foe?

Both. Garth Brooks did a lot of wonderful things for country music. He was the first modern performer to bring rock arena gymnastics and pyrotechnics to country music. He brought a lot of new fans to the music. When I was growing up, country music was the music of the older crowd. Young people didn't listen to country music. Alabama was the first act to really lure younger listeners, but Garth really galvanized them. He was a fan of Billy Joel; he was a fan of a lot of rock acts.

What accounted for Brooks' downfall?

People turned on him because he got really greedy. He was so obsessed with beating the Beatles' sales record that he got rid of any record executive who wasn't doing what he wanted done. He got them fired. He sold so many records he could do that. And he became so obsessed with beating the Beatles that he began to insist that his music be repackaged in different ways so he could just say he won. He just got so greedy and power hungry that it turned a lot of people off.

Who else has contaminated country music?

When Shania Twain first arrived, I was really horrified at her music. Her husband and producer Mutt Lange was the producer of Def Leppard and other highly successful bands. He's a brilliant producer. He introduced a lot of sounds to the music that had Nashville producers shaking their heads, asking, "How did he get that sound?" Shania sold more albums than any other female in the history of country music, but it wasn't really country music, and it did open the door to a lot of poseurs, and a lot of really bad music. But again, she brought in a lot of fans and a lot of dollars into country music that it wouldn't have had otherwise.

But your view of Shania eventually shifted. How?

I interviewed her. And I give her huge credit for coming to the mat to be interviewed, because I had been so hard on her (in reviews). And I just loved her. She was really open and honest and she was really up front about the fact that she has a secret writing life and she writes music, which is very akin to early Dolly Parton.

She has a whole secret cache of songs that she's written. She doesn't play them for anyone, including her producer husband. She knows that if she doesn't write commercial stuff that's going to be on the radio, she's finished. ... Is that watering down what country music is essentially about and has always stood for? Yes, of course. Has it evolved like every other genre? Yes, in order to stay viable and survive.


http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070607/SCENE04/706070364


Shania plays a big part in keeping that genre alive. And don't you forget it.


John - :p

To be fair, John. Shania and Garth kept country music alive on there own through the 90's. Between them they sold close to 200 million records, and this is the thanks they get.:(

[faithfully]

mmm... rather interesting article there John.;)

[faithfully]

To be fair, John. Shania and Garth kept country music alive on there own through the 90's. Between them they sold close to 200 million records, and this is the thanks they get.:(
Thats correct George. Nashville is getting stuck in time, the music scene is evolving and Nashville wants to keep hold of it's traditions. Sooner or later they will have to change their ways:)

[FinnFreak]

The Washington Times, DC - June 8, 2007


Wearing religion on the sleeve


On the red carpet, the only question anyone really wants a celeb to answer is, "Who are you wearing?" With the style selections of famous folks so carefully dissected then ultimately disseminated to the public (What young woman didn't have the Jennifer Aniston haircut in the mid '90s?), it's no wonder that the religious choices of Hollywood-types like Madonna and Richard Gere are also driving sales of merchandise. These products might not get anyone closer to heaven, but they sure make a person look hip.

Red string Kabbalah bracelet -- Livestrong bands may be exiled to the dresser drawer soon, now that the red string bracelet affiliated with the school of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah has caught on. It's all thanks to Madge's celebrity endorsement -- and Amazon.com, which is standing by to take orders now.

Puma's Nuala line -- Why should nirvana seekers have to "slum it" in tie-dyed hippie gear? Thanks to Christy Turlington's yoga-inspired clothing line for Puma, they can chant their way to bliss looking like they just walked off Rodeo Drive.

"Jesus is My Homie" T-shirt -- Nothing says "I love J.C. and the rock 'n' roll lifestyle" quite like this hot-ticket item. Coming soon to a Vans Warped Tour near you.

Bindi jewels -- Hindu men and married women believe wearing these traditionally red jewels on their foreheads will strengthen concentration and protect against bad luck. In recent years, stars such as Shakira, Gwen Stefani and Shania Twain have been seen sporting more colorful versions, prompting stores to mass-produce the self-adhesive kind.

Virgin of Guadalupe kitsch -- Maybe she's an incarnation of Mother Mary; maybe she's just a Mexican religious icon. What is clear, however, is that her image is becoming uber trendy and has popped up everywhere from a tattoo on rocker Dave Navarro's left arm to switchplates made for home use. Let the light shine, indeed.


http://washingtontimes.com/entertainment/20070607-084544-1798r.htm



John - ;)

[tonyme]

Thanks for all these great articles, John!

[Troll]

Thanks John.

[dreamer]

yes thank you so much

[faithfully]

Bindi jewels -- Hindu men and married women believe wearing these traditionally red jewels on their foreheads will strengthen concentration and protect against bad luck. Shania Twain has been seen sporting more colorful versions. :huh:
Shania wore a jewel on her forehead for a music video - that was that.:huh:
What's going on here:confused: :banghead:

[Alex]

Thanks for the articles!

[timminslover]

Thanks for the droppings.:D

[dreamer]

Lol!!!

[FinnFreak]

CTV.ca, Canada - Sun. Jun. 10 2007


Canada's Walk of Fame celebrates the best


The 2007 Canada's Walk of Fame induction event drew hundreds of fans and a host of glamourous celebrities to The Hummingbird Centre in Toronto.

The annual event is Canada's premier celebration of homegrown celebrity, and this year was no exception.

This year famed Maple Leafs goalie Johnny Bower, actress Jill Hennessey, legendary "Ghostbusters" director Ivan Reitman and veteran CTV News anchor Lloyd Robertson were a few of those inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame on Saturday.

Canadian hero Rick Hansen was also inducted. Before accepting his award, Hansen paid tribute to those who helped him during his 'Man in Motion' tour.

"This is living a dream," he told eTalk's Ben Mulroney. "The journey continues, we are trying to find a cure and make communities accessible and this is an honour I really receive on behalf of thousands of Canadians who are working towards that dream."

Hansen also thanked his wife for her support as she helped him unveil his star. The biggest show of family support, however, was for actress Catherine O'Hara. Several members of her family walked the red carpet with her.
"I am accessorized with O'Haras and Chanel," she said.

O'Hara added that her characters are based on her family: "I steal every bit I have ever done from these people."

To be considered for a star on Canada's Walk of Fame, the nominee's career should span at least ten years. For actor Gordon Pinsent, whose career has spanned over forty years, it was no problem.

"I don't know, they didn't have enough sidewalk, I guess," Pinsent quipped when asked what took him so long to get his star. "It is curious but this comes at a great time ... this is the best time."

Alberta rock band Nickelback questioned their contention because of the length of their career.

"It feels like we don't even belong, we've been around for ten years ... we're just squeaking in there," frontman Chad Kroeger said. "It feels like we should be getting this in another ten years maybe."

Here's some background on the nominees:


Nickelback has sold 21 million records worldwide and the chart-topping rock band plans to continue touring.
Jill Hennessey is seen most recently as the star of the NBC series Crossing Jordan but has had great success in Canadian and American film and television.
Lloyd Robertson is Canada's most trusted news anchor. He built that reputation by spending the past fifty years guiding Canadians through some of this country's most memorable, tragic, and momentous occasions.
Catherine O'Hara is one of the faces of the beloved Canadian show SCTV which she helped found with other comedians that shared her 'Second City' roots.
Johnny Bower was known to fans as 'the China Wall' and defended the Toronto Maple Leafs net for twelve years. He retired in 1970 as the oldest goalie to ever play in the NHL.
Rick Hansen carved a place in Canadian Athletics despite his disability. His Man in Motion world tour saw the Para-Olympian cross more than 40,000 km and 34 countries to raise money and awareness for spinal cord injury.
Ivan Reitman has directed and produced some of the world's most popular films. Reitman was born in Czechoslovakia but moved to Canada at the age of four. He grew up here, studied here and got his start here.
Gordon Pinsent is an actor, playwright, author and director with a theatre, television and film career spanning forty years. His most recent role in 'Away From Her' is causing Oscar buzz.

Levy, the host of this year's ceremony, has worked with O'Hara and Reitman and proclaims himself a fan of Pinsent.

"There's kind of a lot of familiar faces and you know some good friends," Levy said last week when speaking to Canada AM about the event.

Levy understands the event intimately. He received his star on the Walk of Fame last year, along with seven others. The annual ceremony began in 1998, with 101 Canadians receiving stars since then.

The walk includes people with varied accomplishments. Actors Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Pamela Anderson, Michael J. Fox., and Helen Shaver have been inducted as well as singers Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette and Paul Anka. There are authors such as Margaret Atwood and Pierre Berton on the walk along with dancers, directors, producers and artists.

One thing they all share, though, is their understanding of Canadian celebrity and artistry.

"I have noticed that there is a sort of continuity between Canadian artists. They are all very introspective and not afraid to be autobiographical," Morissette said in 2005 when she was inducted.

Most of the inductees feel indebted to their unique Canadian upbringing.

"Almost all of what I certainly learned as a young actor came from here. There was an incredible support," Sutherland said when he was inducted in 2005.


http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070607/walk_fame_070607/20070610?hub=Canada


http://www.shaniasplace.com/Timmins_Gallery/050817_Fancon3/jpgs/ShaniaStarGrp.jpg
Fans visiting Shania's Star before heading to Timmins for the 3rd Annual Shania Twain Centre Fan Convention in 2005.




John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[dreamer]

yeah :cool:

[faithfully]

Cool pic:D

[dreamer]

very cute indeed

[faithfully]

very cute indeed

It would be even better if you and I were in it;)

[FinnFreak]

The Sudbury Star, Canada - Thursday, June 14, 2007


Sudbury Federation of Musicians seeks new beginning


An historic association has been given a new lease on life. On May 15th the Sudbury chapter of the American Federation of Musicians held its first election in several years. Twelve members met at the Howard Johnson in Sudbury and elected award winning singer/songwriter Kevin Closs as their president and internationally acclaimed music educator Norm McIntosh Vice-President along with three board members.

The AFM is the oldest and largest musicians' association in the world with 100,000 active members. The Tragically Hip, Nelly Furtado, Barenaked Ladies and Diana Krall, are among the thousands of Canadian artists who make the AFM the most effective and powerful musicians' association in the world. It has collective bargaining agreements with major record companies, symphony orchestras, and the CBC. It also advocates for musicians' rights and collects and distributes royalties on behalf of its members.

Sudbury musicians were first granted a charter in 1968 and the Local once boasted a membership of over 500, including a young Shania Twain. In the eighties a recession decimated live music across the region and Local 290 was merged with the Sault Ste. Marie Musicians' Association in 1992. In 1998 a new charter was granted but the Local has been mostly inactive since then. However increasing membership and the formation of the new Board of Directors is giving Local 290 new life. With live music making a comeback recently, the Sudbury Federation of Musicians will have an important role to play in supporting professional musicians.

The Sudbury Federation of Musicians' jurisdiction includes all of the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts. For more information please visit www.sudburymusicians.org or call (705)-698-3259.


http://www.thesudburystar.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=571506&catname=Community+Press+releases&classif=Entertainment+-+Local



John - :)

[Troll]

Thanks John.

[faithfully]

Interesting facts in there John:)

[dreamer]

thanks a bunch!

[Troll]

Shania mention in USA Weekend

http://www.shaniafans.com/mb/attachment.php?attachmentid=3537

[dreamer]

I sae thar on tommys site:D thanks a lot

[FinnFreak]

Imperiumi.net, Finland - 18.06.2007


REVIEWS

http://www.imperiumi.net/albumcovers/ozzybrain.jpg

OZZY OSBOURNE - Black Rain

[ Epic / SonyBMG 2007 ] (6½)


The long-awaited new Ozzy album Black Rain was ushered in with tons of hype claiming it was the best Ozzman since No More Tears. Well, considering that only two albums have been released between No More Tears and Black Rain that's not saying much. Still, it's a considerable promise, since No More Tears was a milestone moment for Ozzy. So how about it, does Black Rain stand up to the hype?

No. Short and sweet. What we have is a rock legend trying to sound modern in modern times. Ozzy is trying to update his sound, as was attempted in part on 2001's Down To Earth, falling rather flat as an effort overall with songs that lacked any real spice and memorability, not counting a couple like Facing Hell and Dreamer per se. Now in 2007 we have Ozzy writing, singing and performing songs like The Almighty Dollar which are as far from Ozzy's sound as the Earth is from the Sun. The title track is bland, offering nothing worth mentioning. Actually, the radio single I Don't Wanna Stop is honestly the best track on this album, which may just as well have been a BLS track.

Even with Zakk Wylde writing along with Ozzy again the magic is not there anymore. Perhaps this has much to do with producer Kevin Churko, who has worked with names like Mutt Lange, Shania Twain, The Corrs and Ringo Starr. Now here he is, co-writing credentials on every tune on the album along with Ozzy and Zakk! But hey, what credentials does this guy have regarding heavy music? S**tloads of pop acts and f**k all for metal, and now Ozzy is his first forray into heavy music? Sharon! Ozzy! What were you thinking?!?

11 Silver is a good song, although not classic, with a steady roll and rhythm. Ballad Here For You is a classic Ozzy song at least. Yet, as a metalhead myself I do not buy Ozzy for his ballads. Countdown's Begun is fairly good also, and this time we even get some guitar in the verse, yet the chorus comes out a bit uneventfully. One of the better songs is closer Trap Door, which falls a bit short of classic Ozzy but the drive is good and as a whole the song works well, along with being one of the heavier numbers here.

Black Rain is just about even with Down To Earth as far as the sound, vibe and product goes. Almost all of the verses in the songs are void of guitar, opting for quick fills and licks and synths with bass and drums. Ozzy should really stick with what brought him to the dance in the first place, which is riff-rich tunage as found in his pre-1990's back catalogue. Instead, we get a hazy shadow of a rock legend trying to reach for something beyond his grasp and far away from his own domain. Prince of Darkness? Only in writing, boys and girls. Don't believe the hype.


http://www.imperiumi.net/alb_2.php?id=6330



ouch.



John - :smirk:

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[Troll]

25 years of memorable musical moments

14 Garth Brooks (1990)
Brooks became a key figure in country history by defying genre conventions with commercially slick songs and arena-rock techniques. Shania Twain followed suit with pop vixen appeal and the SoundScan era’s top-selling CD.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/top25-musicmoments.htm?csp=34

[dreamer]

thanks a lot:D

[FinnFreak]

The Boston Herald, United States - Wednesday, June 20, 2007


Clinton’s theme song a bit over the hill


By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa


The votes have been tabulated and the winner is . . . Celine Dion’s “You and I” - and may we say if the whole point of Hillary Clinton’s Pick-My-Campaign-Song campaign was to connect with the YouTube generation, she’s misfired. Badly.

“If she was going with a Celine Dion thing a more appropriate choice would have been the theme song to the ‘Titanic,’ ” said WAAF morning man Greg Hill, a known member of the vast right-wing conspiracy.

Added liberal funnyman Ben Alper, “She’s not even president and she’s already outsourced her first job - to a Canadian!”

But while the campaign tune didn’t fly like it was meant to, we must give the former first lady props for the “Sopranos”-style video that accompanied the big song announcement on hillaryclinton.com yesterday.

The clip, featuring Hill and hubby Bill kibbitzing at a diner - and channeling Tony and Carm - was an instant Internet sensation.

The video begins with Hillary walking into the diner. Cue Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” which, come to think of it, would have also made a dandy campaign theme.

She sits down and starts flipping through the juke box. We see the names of the theme-song finalists: the aforementioned “You and I,”; Shania Twain’s “Rock This Country; “Get Ready” by the Temptations, (bet that was Bill’s pick); “I’m A Believer” by Smash Mouth; and KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See.”

Bill walks in and sits down.

“I ordered for the table,” Hillary announces, and Bill’s face falls as the waitress delivers a basket of carrot sticks.

“No onion rings?” he whines.

“Where’s Chelsea?” she asks.

“Parallel parking,” Bill replies as the camera cuts to a tire rolling over a curb outside, a la Meadow Soprano.

A sinister stranger gets up from the bar and walks to the men’s room. It’s Johnny Sack, aka Vince Curatola, Tony’s one-time New York nemesis. He gives Hillary the evil eye.

“So what’s the winning song?” Bill asks. “Everyone in America wants to know how it’s gonna end.”

“Ready?” asks Hill, as she drops a quarter in the jukebox.

Then cut to black.

“I got a chuckle out of it but it does fall into the category of why presidential candidates shouldn’t act,” said GOP strategist Rob Gray, noting Hill’s rather wooden performance in the “Sopranos” send-up. (Bill, on the other hand, was a regular Edie Falco!)

Gray, who has done some work for Republican hopeful John McCain, also questioned whether Clinton’s new theme song will resonate with voters.

“Is she running for president of the United States or prime minister of Canada?” he said. “By picking Celine Dion she seems to be going for a rather narrow Vegas, $150-ticket slice of the demographic.”

Meanwhile, Alper wondered if Hillary’s pitch for campaign contributions that accompanied the announcement of the new theme song would pay off.

“The look Johnny Sack gave Bill Clinton seemed to say, ‘There are worse things than dying of lung cancer,’ ” he said. “Tony Soprano did some pretty cruel things but he never forced anyone to pay money AND listen to a crappy Celine Dion song.”


http://thetrack.bostonherald.com/moreTrack/view.bg?articleid=1007366



John - :p

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[Roger]

Am I the only one who thinks that You and I is a good choice? The melody is uplifting and the words vague enough to cover many situations. Air Canada used it to great advantage a couple of years ago in its TV ads.

I do agree it may not have been wise to select a song associated with a Canadian though.

[RJ]

Am I the only one who thinks that You and I is a good choice? The melody is uplifting and the words vague enough to cover many situations. Air Canada used it to great advantage a couple of years ago in its TV ads.

I do agree it may not have been wise to select a song associated with a Canadian though.
I probably have heard it in the distant past, and enjoyed it. But I don't remember it at the moment, lyrics or music.

That doesn't mean much. I NEVER heard Nana Mouskouri's song which you introduced me to a year or two ago (Dans Le Soleil Et Dans Le Vent). But when I heard that, I felt it was one of the most powerful and moving songs I've ever experienced. And since it was in French, I didn't even know what most of the words meant.

In order to compare songs, I need to have had my memory circuits refreshed recently.

My most recent hearings of RTC may have been Allison Cornell's version. That's a very different sound than what Shania released. So I had a few stray synapses, that did not line up for a clear comparison. More important for me, I usually avoid indulging in polls that compete stars, songs, etc.

[Eleanor]

Thanks for the article John :)

[dreamer]

yes thanks

[FinnFreak]

Timmins Daily Press, Canada - Local News - Wednesday, June 20, 2007


Daily Press offers local music; Website now features works


Timmins' website of record - www.timminspress.com - has added a section to highlight the works of local musicians not named Shania Twain.

The new "Local Music" tab in the menu along the left-hand side of the main page is the gateway to the sounds of music.

Featured so far are Timmins blues rockers "The Shaftmen" and the true essence of hard-rock "Blind Dog Circus."

You will find photographs, biographies, MP3 files of some of the groups' original songs, as well as links to their websites.

And that's just the beginning.

We will be adding new artists on a weekly basis - helping to promote some up-and-coming acts, as well as some of the bands that have been entertaining local audiences for years.

Bands - or singers - interested in having their work displayed in the Local Music section of our website should drop off a photograph, 50-word bio, website link and MP3 files of two or three of their original songs at The Daily Press office during regular business hours.

If you know of a local act you would like to see included, e-mail us at tperry@thedailypress.ca.


http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=578188&catname=Local+News&classif=



John - ;)

[Troll]

That is interesting

[dreamer]

yeah...

[FinnFreak]

Great American Country, TN - June 25, 2007


Ashley Monroe Finally Meets Dolly


http://img.gactv.com/GAC/2007/01/25/ashleymonroe5_h_e.jpg


Ashley Monroe has idolized Dolly Parton most of her life, so she was understandably nervous Wednesday as she prepared to sing "But You Know That I Love You" in tribute to Dolly at the Academy of Country Music's ceremony honoring the singer with the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award.

At first, Ashley told The Tennessean, she thought Dolly might be a no-show because her seat near Ashley's remained empty long after the ceremony started. But when she went backstage to prepare to sing, there was Dolly. "I was so nervous," Ashley said.

"She sent me a letter a couple of years ago and said how much she liked my music and how I reminded her of herself," Ashley said. "I asked her if she remembered the letter, and she did. She was so gracious and soft-spoken backstage, but the moment she stepped in front of the microphone, that big personality shone through."

Shania Twain and Alison Krauss are among those who have been moved to tears when meeting Dolly. "I was really struggling to maintain my composure," Ashley said. "There was definitely a tear or two and a lot of pinching myself going on."


http://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_headlines/article/0,,GAC_26063_5601513,00.html


* * *


RushPRnews.com (press release), Canada - Monday, June 25th, 2007


ASTRELLA CELESTE “The ‘60s Love Child with the 21st Century Spirit” Takes Euro-buzz Global with June 4 digital release of U.K. hit single, “Dream”

Donovan’s middle daughter kicks off U.S. visit in New York City as pair of major televised performances set for broadcast


MALLORCA, Spain (rushprnews) June 25, 2007 - As her Euro-buzz crests with a high profile performance slot at the prestigious 2007 Isle of Wight Festival and a surge of oversees radio airplay, pop-jazz chanteuse ASTRELLA CELESTE is heading to New York City to kick off the June 4, 2007 digital release of her U.K. hit single, “Dream” and promote her guest appearance with her father on his upcoming PBS television special.

CLICK HERE (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1108109078) TO VIEW THE MUSIC VIDEO OF The Donovan Concert: Live in L.A, will start airing nationally the same week “Dream” goes on cyber-sale and will be featured on the iTunes home page. (Check local listings for airdates and times.)

Born to rock royalty as the middle daughter of Donovan and embraced throughout Europe as “The ‘60s Love Child with the 21st Century Spirit,” Astrella is scheduled to arrive June 25 in New York City for several days of industry meetings and media activity while re-acquainting herself with the country where she spent much of her unusually blessed childhood and a portion of her adult life.

“I was born in America and have lived here half my life,” says Astrella. “It feels like home. I can’t wait to come back.”

“Dream” is currently in radio rotation throughout the United Kingdom and is spreading throughout Europe, gaining steady spins in France, Spain, Italy and Germany amid significant European press coverage in the Sunday Times Magazine, Hello and the Daily Mail, among others. In the U.S., Astrella was seen last month performing a duet rendition of “Dream” with her father when the PBS special first aired exclusively on Long Island’s WLIW-TV in a concert benefiting the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. The Donovan Concert: Live in L.A. was taped in January at Hollywood’s esteemed Kodak Theater (home of the Oscars).

Also in support of her single release, Astrella will be seen singing “Dream” by a global TV audience, as her Isle of Wight main stage performance – along with those of the Rolling Stones and many other legends – is being recorded for worldwide telecast (and airing live on BBC4). Astrella makes her Isle of Wight Festival debut on June, the weekend immediately following the digital release of “Dream.”

“Dream” is a driving fusion of jazz, pop and country showcasing Astrella as a songwriter who creates exceptionally personal, soulful and sensitive music with a sweet, almost innocent quality. She alternately recalls such icons as Liz Phair, Shania Twain and Natalie Merchant while capturing the lyrical and relaxing spirit of Donovan’s psychedelic folk-rock classics.

“Dream” is the first track from Astrella’s upcoming 6-song EP Blue Star, due in the fall. (Its title is the Spanish translation of Astrella-Celeste.) “Dream” was written by Kevin Hunter (of Sheryl Crow’s Tuesday Night Music Club), Astrella’s writing partner on the rest of Blue Star. It’s produced by Yoad Nevo (Sugababes, Goldfrapp) with string arrangements by the legendary John Cameron (Les Miserables, Jose Carreras). Astrella’s core band is Rat Scabies on drums, Andy Hobson (Pretenders) on bass and Carmen Squire (daughter of Yes keyboardist Chris Squire) sharing backing vocals with Astrella.

As beautiful as she is talented, Astrella’s career has been richly developed through collaborations in the studio, on stage and in home jams with David Gilmour, Brian Setzer, Graham Nash and the Happy Mondays, to name but a few. Astrella’s easygoing style is a reflection of the charmed life she’s led since childhood. She released her first single in Italy at age 8, which led to the Pope asking to meet her, and spent her youth in acting schools and dance troupes before working with her father providing backing vocals and touring with him.

“My dad will always be my biggest influence,” says Astrella, “but I also love Chet Baker, Nina Simone, Sade, Tori Amos, The Cardigans … I could go on and on.”

www.myspace.com/astrellaceleste

Press contact:
Randy Alexander
Randex Communications
856-596-1410
randex@randexpr.com
www.randexpr.com

SAVE THE DATE: New York City Press Opportunities to Begin Monday, June 25

INTERVIEWS SCHEDULED UPON REQUEST

“A powerful statement of intent from the girl, something that will
and has put her on the map the world over.” – The Talk Magazine


http://www.rushprnews.com/press/archives/123955



John - :)

[Troll]

Thanks for the articles.

[FinnFreak]

Baltimore Times-Herald, MD - Friday, June 22nd, 2007


Calling all ‘Superstars’

Compete for cash at town fair


by Cheryl Keffer


Whether you sing in the shower, in the car, or are queen (or king) of basement karaoke, the Perry Hall Town Fair might be your next big break.

Organizers are looking for contestants for the first-ever “Perry Hall Superstars” singing contest to be held during the fair, July 7.

Twenty-five slots are available and the only requirements are to bring a determination to win and to have a great time! Bringing a cheering section is also advised, but not required.

What you do is simple: “Come on up, belt your heart out, and have a good time,” said Sue Garczynski, one of the event’s organizers.

Contestants must be prepared to sing two songs, which will be supplied by a karaoke dj – song selection must be made by June 30, so decide between Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” and Shania’s “Any Man of Mine” and get practicing.

The American Idol-esque competition will begin at 1:30 p.m. A celebrity panel of judges will decide the top five, then the audience will vote for their favorites. (There’s even rumor of a talent scout attending!)

Prizes are cash: $300 for first place, $200 for second, and $100 for third.

For registration forms, see page 17 or visit www.phwmba.org to download them.

The Perry Hall Town Fair is sponsored by the Perry Hall - White Marsh Business Association, and will be held July 7 on Ebenezer Road at Perry Hall High School.

Teams are also needed for the second-annual Incredible Race – the fair’s version of the TV show, “The Amazing Race.” Groups of four who sign up in advance, dress alike, and have a team name will compete (find different stations, do silly activities to move on to the next station, etc.) for prizes that include a trip to Hershey Park (first place) and gift certificates to the Ironbirds and Mini Golf.


http://www.timesheraldnews.com/2007/06/22/calling-all-%E2%80%98superstars%E2%80%99/



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks John

[dreamer]

great articles you rock:)

[FinnFreak]

;)


24 Hours - Vancouver, Canada - Friday, June 29, 2007


Happy Canada Day!

July 1 Barbecues, beer and fireworks highlight our holiday


By VIVIAN SONG


What kind of magic elixir is this that can tempt Canadians away from sex?

Make otherwise level-headed Canadians swoon at the sight of liquid amber and become spellbound by the soft gurgle of a decanting bottle?

According to a national beer-drinking survey on behalf of Moosehead, an eyebrow-raising 40% of Atlantic Canadians said if they had to choose between beer and sex, they would forego carnal pleasures and opt for a cold one instead.

The survey found that Maritimers diverged from the rest of Canada, where nationally 72% of Canadians would rather have nookie than a beer buzz.

"There's a significant gender difference as well," said pollster Nik Nanos of SES Research, pointing to the 27% of women who chose beer, compared to 16% of men. "Hopefully that doesn't say anything about us men."

Today, millions of people across the country are expected to clink glasses, cans and bottles, celebrating Canada Day with the beverage that can be defined as Canada in a bottle -- cold, but refreshing, and maybe even a little effervescent.

"Beer and summer go hand in hand," said Moosehead Breweries spokesman Joel Levesque. "Because our summers in Canada are so short, we savour them, like we savour beer."

Western Canadians are randier than the rest of Canada, with 78% of respondents choosing sex over beer, followed by Ontarians at 73% and Quebecers at 71%, before dropping noticeably to 50% in Atlantic Canada.

According to the survey, the quintessentially Canadian beer-drinking experience among 500 respondents would be to enjoy a cold one at a barbecue with explosive fireworks for Canada Day, whilst diving into a dish of gooey poutine, talking hockey with Wayne Gretzky and trying hard not to ogle Shania Twain, the country's hottest sexpot.

Nationally, 36% of Canadians said the best way to celebrate the country's birthday is having a barbecue and setting off fireworks, narrowly beating out the cottage. Only 7% of those polled listed Parliament Hill as their ideal Canada Day venue. Poutine was also favoured among 34% of respondents as the best Canadian dish to be paired with beer, followed by a peameal bacon sandwich.

Breweries in Canada have succeeded in marketing beer as an important facet of this country's identity, said Greg Clow, a beer aficionado and news editor for a website devoted to tracking beer news in Ontario, www.bartowel.com.

"A lot of it is urban legend," he said of the belief that beer is uniquely Canadian. "Because we've developed a sense of pride in these products which are tied to Canadian heritage, like the moose and Moosehead."

Meanwhile, in an icy battle -- hockey rink versus Arctic ice floes -- Wayne Gretzky edged past David Suzuki as the Canadian male celebrity people would most like to share a beer with at 26.6%, compared to 25.9%. Comedian Mike Myers followed at 23%.

And who did Canadians vote as the sexiest Canadian female export? The results may surprise some, for more than half of Canadians chose country crooner Shania Twain over beach blond Pamela Anderson, who came in a distant second at 14%. The sultry brunette vegetarian also handily beat out younger contenders like "it" girls Elisha Cuthbert and Evangeline Lilly. Men more than women gave Anderson their support, with 16% voting for her compared to 11% of women.

Clow's palate for beer is more sophisticated than the chugging kind, and like wine, pairs different styles with different foods: strong, richer brews replace liqueurs as after-dinner drinks, and fruity beers accompany desserts.

As for which Clow prefers, beer or sex, he gives a hearty laugh saying he hails originally from the Atlantic coast.

"I'm from Prince Edward Island and my wife is from Halifax. That gives you an idea. I'll leave it there."

The survey polled 500 beer drinkers 18 years of age and older who consumed four or more units of beer over one week. The phone survey was carried out in the spring and is considered accurate 19 times out of 20.




#1 - Canadians voted Shania Twain as hottest export

#2 -Canadians voted Pamela Anderson as 2nd hottest export

#3 -Canadians voted Elisha Cuthbert as 3rd hottest export

#4 -Canadians voted Evangeline Lilly as 4th hottest export


26.6% of Canadians would prefer to have a beer with Wayne Gretzky

23% of Canadians would prefer to have a beer with Mike Myers

25.9% of Canadians would prefer to have a beer with David Suzuki

7% of those polled listed Parliament Hill as their ideal Canada Day venue

40% of Atlantic Canadians said they would choose beer over sex

34% of Canadians said poutine is best Canadian dish with beer



http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Lifestyle/2007/06/29/4299393-sun.html



:D:up: - Hilarious Canucks. - Have A Happy Canada Day..!



John - :p

[Eleanor]

According to a national beer-drinking survey on behalf of Moosehead, an eyebrow-raising 40% of Atlantic Canadians said if they had to choose between beer and sex, they would forego carnal pleasures and opt for a cold one instead.

Well I like the first and then I would like to have the second afterwards, I gave up smoking six month ago so I can't light up after the first :p

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[dreamer]

;)


24 Hours - Vancouver, Canada - Friday, June 29, 2007


Happy Canada Day!

July 1 Barbecues, beer and fireworks highlight our holiday


By VIVIAN SONG


What kind of magic elixir is this that can tempt Canadians away from sex?

Make otherwise level-headed Canadians swoon at the sight of liquid amber and become spellbound by the soft gurgle of a decanting bottle?

According to a national beer-drinking survey on behalf of Moosehead, an eyebrow-raising 40% of Atlantic Canadians said if they had to choose between beer and sex, they would forego carnal pleasures and opt for a cold one instead.

The survey found that Maritimers diverged from the rest of Canada, where nationally 72% of Canadians would rather have nookie than a beer buzz.

"There's a significant gender difference as well," said pollster Nik Nanos of SES Research, pointing to the 27% of women who chose beer, compared to 16% of men. "Hopefully that doesn't say anything about us men."

Today, millions of people across the country are expected to clink glasses, cans and bottles, celebrating Canada Day with the beverage that can be defined as Canada in a bottle -- cold, but refreshing, and maybe even a little effervescent.

"Beer and summer go hand in hand," said Moosehead Breweries spokesman Joel Levesque. "Because our summers in Canada are so short, we savour them, like we savour beer."

Western Canadians are randier than the rest of Canada, with 78% of respondents choosing sex over beer, followed by Ontarians at 73% and Quebecers at 71%, before dropping noticeably to 50% in Atlantic Canada.

According to the survey, the quintessentially Canadian beer-drinking experience among 500 respondents would be to enjoy a cold one at a barbecue with explosive fireworks for Canada Day, whilst diving into a dish of gooey poutine, talking hockey with Wayne Gretzky and trying hard not to ogle Shania Twain, the country's hottest sexpot.

Nationally, 36% of Canadians said the best way to celebrate the country's birthday is having a barbecue and setting off fireworks, narrowly beating out the cottage. Only 7% of those polled listed Parliament Hill as their ideal Canada Day venue. Poutine was also favoured among 34% of respondents as the best Canadian dish to be paired with beer, followed by a peameal bacon sandwich.

Breweries in Canada have succeeded in marketing beer as an important facet of this country's identity, said Greg Clow, a beer aficionado and news editor for a website devoted to tracking beer news in Ontario, www.bartowel.com.

"A lot of it is urban legend," he said of the belief that beer is uniquely Canadian. "Because we've developed a sense of pride in these products which are tied to Canadian heritage, like the moose and Moosehead."

Meanwhile, in an icy battle -- hockey rink versus Arctic ice floes -- Wayne Gretzky edged past David Suzuki as the Canadian male celebrity people would most like to share a beer with at 26.6%, compared to 25.9%. Comedian Mike Myers followed at 23%.

And who did Canadians vote as the sexiest Canadian female export? The results may surprise some, for more than half of Canadians chose country crooner Shania Twain over beach blond Pamela Anderson, who came in a distant second at 14%. The sultry brunette vegetarian also handily beat out younger contenders like "it" girls Elisha Cuthbert and Evangeline Lilly. Men more than women gave Anderson their support, with 16% voting for her compared to 11% of women.

Clow's palate for beer is more sophisticated than the chugging kind, and like wine, pairs different styles with different foods: strong, richer brews replace liqueurs as after-dinner drinks, and fruity beers accompany desserts.

As for which Clow prefers, beer or sex, he gives a hearty laugh saying he hails originally from the Atlantic coast.

"I'm from Prince Edward Island and my wife is from Halifax. That gives you an idea. I'll leave it there."

The survey polled 500 beer drinkers 18 years of age and older who consumed four or more units of beer over one week. The phone survey was carried out in the spring and is considered accurate 19 times out of 20.




#1 - Canadians voted Shania Twain as hottest export

#2 -Canadians voted Pamela Anderson as 2nd hottest export

#3 -Canadians voted Elisha Cuthbert as 3rd hottest export

#4 -Canadians voted Evangeline Lilly as 4th hottest export


26.6% of Canadians would prefer to have a beer with Wayne Gretzky

23% of Canadians would prefer to have a beer with Mike Myers

25.9% of Canadians would prefer to have a beer with David Suzuki

7% of those polled listed Parliament Hill as their ideal Canada Day venue

40% of Atlantic Canadians said they would choose beer over sex

34% of Canadians said poutine is best Canadian dish with beer



http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Lifestyle/2007/06/29/4299393-sun.html



:D:up: - Hilarious Canucks. - Have A Happy Canada Day..!




John - :p
thanks SO MUCH

[Troll]

Random detail: During the first two sets, I saw a bushy-haired gentleman wearing a Shania Twain Tour t-shirt. I thought, "Wow, that is the least metal thing I've seen all night. Even less metal than the sorority girl-types that will walk outside after the show and freeze." The next time I saw this guy, he was on stage, rocking out as the guitarist in Akimbo. Lesson learned. Don't judge one's metalness by the shirt they wear but by the rock in their heart.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/music/blogs/reverb/2007/06/3_inches_of_blood_friday_at_el.php

[dreamer]

Wow!!!:D

[Troll]

shania made the list of the 15 sexiest canadians!

http://entertainment1.sympatico.msn.ca/Celebs/Galleries/Articles/Gallery_SexyCanadians.htm?feedname=Photo_Gallery-SexyCanadians&pos=14&nolookup=true

[FinnFreak]

InternetNews.com - July 2, 2007


Universal, Apple Set To Play Chicken


By Andy Patrizio


The Universal Music Group, the largest of the four major record labels and a subsidiary of Vivendi SA, is reportedly trying to change the terms of its contract with Apple for selling digital music through the iTunes store.

Instead of renewing its previous contract to sell its online music catalog through iTunes, Universal is looking to market its music to Apple "at will," meaning Universal could remove songs from the iTunes service on short notice if there is a disagreement between the two sides.

Universal and Apple had a two-year contract, which was extended for one year last year and has now expired, according to Billboard. As the rumors in Billboard and other publications go, Apple was hoping to renew the deal for another two years, but Universal does not wish to be tied in to such an agreement should something better come along.

The question is, what might that "something better" be? Market research firm The NPD Group said iTunes accounts for 76 percent of digital music sales. For that reason, said Van Baker, research director for Gartner, Universal really has nowhere to go.

"It's negotiation time, and everyone has to posture a little to see what they can do for give and take on the deal," he told internetnews.com. "I'm sure that's what Universal is trying to do, posturing for a better deal. Apple knows they could go to [RealNetworks'] Rhapsody or Napster, but their unit volume would be 20 percent of what it is through iTunes at best. It's a cut off your nose to spite your face argument."

According to Wikipedia, UMG holds 25.5 percent of the marketshare of the music industry. It's home to artists like Shania Twain, Bon Jovi, Elton John, Jay-Z, Mariah Carey, U2 and up and comers like Amy Winehouse and Akon.

Neither Universal nor Apple responded to inquiries from internetnews.com, nor did either side appear to be commenting publicly to any press or media outlets for the time being. Apple is coming off the enormous success of their iPhone launch, further cementing Steve Jobs's position as a force in consumer electronics.

In the four years since iTunes first launched, it has emerged as the place to go to buy electronic music, assuming people actually buy it. A report last month by NPD Group found iTunes was the number three music retailer behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy, with 9.8 percent of the total music market.

NPD found that digital music continues to grow, accounting for the remaining 13.8 percent of total sales. But to hear Jobs tell it, iTunes is but a bit player. In February he published an open letter to the industry, claiming only three percent of music on iPods was bought at the iTunes store.

In that letter, Jobs also stuck to his guns when it came to iTunes pricing, despite pressure from labels to change. Labels have complained for years about the iTunes pricing structure of 99 cents for every track, instead of lower prices for older songs and a higher price for newer, hit songs.

Also, there is continued resentment at the lock between iTunes and the iPod. People want choices, to use non-iPods with iTunes, and to use some other software than iTunes with the iPod player. On this, Jobs remains intractable.

"Clearly the music industry is not happy with the degree of control Apple has over the market and prices and the pressure that Apple's putting on them to remove the DRM," (define) said Baker. "They feel like Apple has gained an inordinate amount of power in the music marketplace. The problem is, if you try and play hardball with them, they are likely to say 'ok fine,' and what's your alternative?"


http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3686816



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[dreamer]

I love her more each day

[FinnFreak]

Blogcritics.org, OH - July 03, 2007


Interview: Singer Robbie Fulks On His New Album, Revenge!

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mtQZegX7L._AA240_.jpg


Written by Scott Butki

...

What was the funniest reaction you received to your song, 'F--- this town," about Nashville? Did you ever have any regrets over the song?


This morning I did a TV show where the anchorman met me before going on camera with a quick rundown on the facts on his notecard: “So, you’re from Raleigh, and you disdain commercial country music… ” The thing is – and the reason that song theoretically speaks for someone other than just me - Everybody disdains radio country to some degree. Everybody that’s into country and most of those who are!

Almost all the acts I’ve had on my radio series dislike the typical modern mainstream country act. The legends of the Grand Ole Opry do. The Dixie Chicks do. I’ll bet Shania Twain does, and I’m almost sure Luke Lewis and Tony Brown aren’t that thrilled with what “Nashville” musically symbolizes anymore. So it’s no earth shaking or unique calling card for me to use. I don’t regret having recorded that song. But I regret its having defined my persona, and if I could have calculated that there was no way to record it without its permanently defining me, then I guess I would have passed.

As far as funny reactions to “F--- this town,” anyone that disliked it didn’t get in my face about it, except twice, when a No Depression writer lady took me to task for using the word “f@ggot,” and shortly later, when a gay friend parted ways with me over the same thing.


http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/07/03/082321.php


* * *


Channel 3 News - Timmins, Canada - July 03, 2007


Interesting Mail

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/FinnFreak/InterestingMail.jpg


The Shania Twain Centre receives mail from all over the world.
Adoring fans send gifts and flowers to celebrate the super star's
birthday or Valentine's Day.. Tracy Hautanen, the centre's manager,
says all mail is opened and read. There's even a place to exhibit
some of the mail the centre has received.


http://www.channel3news.ca



John - ;)

[Troll]

Great articles.

[FinnFreak]

Canoe.ca, Canada - Fri, July 6, 2007


Wear it's hat

http://www.shaniatwaincity.com/cma99/shania_cma5.jpg


By SHANNON WOODWARD, SUN MEDIA


Western dress has evolved dramatically in recent years with contemporary trends that would have Guy Weadick rolling over in his grave.

It is not uncommon to stroll the Calgary Stampede grounds and see suede rounded-toe boots and pink cowboy hats.

Wade Slugoski, store manager of Lammles Western Wear, attributes the shift towards fashionable cowboy hats to a crossover in country music.

In recent years, the word pop has become synonymous with country.

Shania Twain is heard on many non-country radio stations and Kelly Clarkson recently recorded a song with Reba.

Where the cowboy hat once symbolized a horse-ridin', boot-wearin' cowboy, it is now the height of fashion for many Hollywood celebs.

Shady Brady crushable straw hats have been made popular by a number of fashionistas, including Julia Roberts who sported one in Runaway Bride.

Bon Jovi has also been known to done the hillbilly hat on occasion.

"They're popular with the stars," says Slugoski.

"It's something that you see a lot of in movies."

Indeed, the traditional white hat is faced with a huge variety of competitors today.

The crushable straw hat, widely popular in the original straw colour, can also be found in every other colour under the rainbow, including lime green, sky blue and cherry red.

And, thanks to the Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign to raise money for breast cancer, pink is the colour of the season.

There's light pink, dark pink, hot pink and bubble gum pink cowboy hats on the stands this year.

The aspiring cowboy or girl can pick and choose a hat compatible with their personality.

"There's a pretty wide range of hats," says Slugoski.

"Everyone has their own characteristics as far as what hats they like, and hats -- after you've worn them for a little while -- kind of develop their own personality."

With the new trends have come new prices.

The classic beaver felt hat will cost upwards of $100, but with newer, more affordable materials, the perfect hat might just be within your budget.

"It ranges depending on how often you'd wear them and what sort of events you're going to," says Slugoski.

Cowboy hats are priced from $6.95 for the kids straw hat with the plastic sheriff badge and whistle to hundreds of dollars for beaver felt.


http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2007/07/06/4317616-sun.html



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article. That is a great pic. Love that outfit.

[FinnFreak]

Bucyrus Telegraph Forum, OH, United States - Tuesday, July 10, 2007


After 25 years, she's still the one


By Kimberly Gasuras


BUCYRUS -- Barb Scott thought she was going to an emergency meeting at her church, Victory in Truth Ministries, on Friday evening before heading to dinner in Columbus with her husband to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

"I had no idea. I can't believe he was able to keep all of this a secret," Barb said as she wiped away tears.

Barb's husband and Bucyrus Fire Department Capt. Greg Scott is a romantic and surprised his wife of 25 years with a full-blown dream wedding.

"We had a very small wedding the first time and I wanted her to have the wedding she always wanted. A wife is something you treasure and I wanted to show my wife how special she is to me," Greg said.

Greg, with a little help from his friends, managed to pull off the dream wedding complete with two bridesmaids, two groomsmen, a flower girl named Elena McCoy, a maid of honor and best man.

"This is amazing. I am proud of my dad for pulling this off," said Sarah Scott, who served her mom as maid of honor.

B.J. Scott is proud of the example his parents' marriage has set for him.

"Someday, I hope to have a marriage like my parents' marriage," B.J. said while carrying on the duties of his dad's best man.

Greg had his wife get measured at a bridal shop for a dress to wear to someone else's wedding. The dress was never supposed to come in. The measurements were for the beautiful wedding gown presented to Barb just after more than 175 guests yelled "surprise" in the lobby of the church.

Greg got down on one knee and asked his wife to marry him again.

Pastor J.C. Church performed the ceremony that included a slide show of the couple's life together and beautiful renditions of Shania Twain's "You're Still the One" and Steven Curtis Chapman's "I Will be Here" by Greg's sister, Holly Ortiz.

"We now have to repent after all of the lies, lies and more lies we had to tell to pull this off without Barb knowing," Church said with a laugh.

Church credits the Godly way in which the Scotts live their life to the success of their marriage.

Tara Hassinger, who is getting married in the fall, wants her marriage to be like the Scotts.

"I want a Godly marriage with a secure foundation. They are an inspiration," Hassinger said.

After the wedding was over, the surprises for Barb did not stop.

As Barb and Greg got ready to enter the limousine in front of the church, a trailer was pulled around the building with a mint-condition 1970 Volkswagen on it.

As Barb gasped and shook her head in disbelief, Greg said, "Over the years, Barb always talked about the car she always wanted but never got when she was in college. I found it on E-Bay and drove to the north side of Chicago to pick it up with my friend, Matt."

As the guests headed into the Youth Building at the Crawford County Fairgrounds for a reception complete with a wedding cake made by Crystal Sargel and a variety of food, Bucyrus firefighter Tracy Koons pointed out just how romantic the whole event was.

"It is wonderful to see a man who loves his wife that much after 25 years. It's beautiful," Koons said.

Koons' co-worker, Casey Easterday, feels Greg has set the bar too high.

"He is making all other men look like Neanderthals," laughed Easterday as he stood with his wife, Paula.

As the couple danced together to tunes played by JBS Sound of Marion, Barb wiped away happy tears.

"I'm still in shock. This is amazing," Barb said.


http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070710/NEWS01/707100302/1002



John - :)

[Troll]

Thanks John.

[Troll]

MOMENT WITH SHANIA TWAIN

This concert isn't the first time Meagan has caught the eye of a big star. She went to see country-crossover, superstar Shania Twain perform at the Anaheim Pond years ago.

"Mom and Dad paid big bucks for that," Christine jokes. "We sat right in front. Tickets were 250-dollars. She just loves Shania."

The payoff was memorable for Meagan. "We were in the front row seats. There were some ladies standing in front of us. Dad asked them to pick me up. I was really young", she says, "Seven or eight."

As Shania burst on stage, Meagan reached forward and offered a bouquet of flowers. She remembers Shania looking her in the eye, taking the flowers, and saying "thank you" to her. She calls it a high point of her life.

That was Meagan's first concert experience. The gift of a guitar at Kenny Chesney's concert was her second. And she has big plans for her third.

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070710/GETPUBLISHED/707100327

[FinnFreak]

StarPhoenix, Canada - Thursday, July 12, 2007


Big, Rich and famous


By Jeanette Stewart


It's not easy being Rich.

For John Rich, being one part of the party-country duo Big & Rich means business meetings, song-writing and producing for a gamut of country stars, running a record label, summer shows and making time to talk to reporters in every town they stop.

While their laid-back image and their country bar anthems might make their lives seem like a 24/7 party, Rich is a busy man.

"I just pretty much do it all day every day, seven days a week. It's what I want to do," he said in a recent phone interview.

And despite the fun and quirky persona -- their official fan club is called the Freak Parade and the band's website gives Kenny Alphin the nickname "Universal Minister of Love" and John Rich "Cowboy Stevie Wonder" -- Rich is a serious man who defends his music against criticism from country purists.

"I really don't give a damn what people say about us in the media, critic-wise. We make the music we want to make and they don't have to buy it if they don't want to," he said.

People buy it. Their latest album Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace sits in eighth place on Canadian country charts, four weeks after its release. Horse of a Different Color, the album that catapulted them to success on the back of the incredibly catchy two-chord two-step Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy), reached No. 1 on the Billboard country charts in the U.S. with multi-platinum sales.

It was the party country of the first album that turned the duo into a band with a catch-phrase, but many of their songs belie how serious they can be. Their success also paved the way for a roster of their Muzik Mafia friends -- including Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy -- to rise to the top of the country music world along with them.

The loose collective of artists has played together for more than seven years, beginning with Tuesday night jam sessions at the Pub of Luv in Nashville. "It's what we were all doing before any of us got record deals," Rich said.

"When we get to play in front of a big crowd together it's just like what we used to do, except with a big crowd and a big stage," he said. At the Craven Jamboree, Gretchen Wilson fills the bill before Big and Rich, and Cowboy Troy will come along.

The Muzik Mafia's official slogan is "muzik without prejudice." On Big and Rich's latest album, incorporating the philosophy means using fiddles in a countrified AC/DC cover, a horn section on the track Loud, and a guest appearance from hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean on the song Please Man.

Any question about genre-bending prompts the same answer from Rich.

"Honestly, you can keep asking me questions like that and I'm just gonna tell you I don't really give a damn what any of them say. We make the music we make, period," he said.

Rich -- who has been recognized by music journalists for his encyclopedic knowledge of the genre -- lists a number of country artists who broke the mold.

"Country music has always been in a state of change since Day 1," he said. "Country music started off as acoustic mountain music, and the second somebody put an electric guitar in it, everybody said that's not country music."

He points to the last single from Johnny Cash before his death. Written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, the song Hurt "talked about things nobody in country music would ever say.

"I seriously doubt anybody would say Johnny Cash was not country."

"You had Merle Haggard show up and he was singing about Marijuana and LSD, an Okie from Muskogee, and they said that's not country music. Now Merle Haggard is the standard. . . . Then a band like Alabama showed up and they said that's Southern Rock, that's not country, yet they sold 90 million albums. Then they say Shania Twain's not country she's pop, then she sells 40 million records to country fans," he said.

Whether or not he wants to talk about musical classification, whatever they do, the appeal to fans is apparent.

At last year's Craven Jamboree, the duo hung out in the campground, which served in part as an inspiration for the song Woodstock. Penned by Kenny Alphin, it's an as-yet unreleased or performed song available on the Craven Jamboree website.

With lines about girls "bouncing in bikini tops," "tearing up the party in farm boy fashion" and a party at the "plow-boy mansion," Big and Rich capture the country festival spirit.

"We had a great time there last year and that's why we wanted to come back and play again. I think it's gonna be a huge show," Rich said. And yes, they might play Woodstock.


http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/lifestyle/story.html?id=e9d5bb4c-5b54-43a9-8474-e07f58a2ce39



He points to the last single from Johnny Cash before his death. Written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, the song Hurt "talked about things nobody in country music would ever say.

"I seriously doubt anybody would say Johnny Cash was not country."

It's a great song - lots of NIN fans bought the Johnny Cash album, because they really liked his version.


Hurt

Sung by: Johnny Cash
Written by: Trent Resnor

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

(CHORUS: )
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

(CHORUS: )
What have I become
My ssweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way



John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article John. I agree that is a great song.

[dreamer]

great article thanks

[FinnFreak]

The Virginian-Pilot, VA - July 13, 2007


Which performers do you wish would release a new album?


Somewhere along the line, we fell in love with these artists. Their songs sizzled. Their albums scorched. But it has been a while since they put out any new material, and the heat has faded. Here's a list of 10 artists (in no particular order and with comments from local DJs) who we wish would release another album:

Which music artists do you think are overdue for a new release? Tell us (http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=128342&ran=215902#comments).


SHANIA TWAIN (latest, "Up!" 2002) As one of country music's favorite ladies, Twain first won our hearts in the mid-'90s with a sex-sells persona of countrified pop. This Canadian-born singer has sold millions of albums, but it was her second one, "Come on Over," that put her atop the country pedestal, selling more than 36 million albums. Twain has since focused on motherhood and the fragrance business. Although a single from her latest album was featured on a "Desperate Housewives" CD, there's nothing on her Web site about a new album.

Biggest hits: "You're Still the One," "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" and "That Don't Impress Me Much."

Shaggy from Z104 says: "If she doesn't hurry, Carrie Underwood will take over that hip-country spotlight."


http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=128342&ran=215902



:really: - WHO is Carrie Underwood..?!? :dunno:


John - ;)

[Troll]

Thanks for the article.

[Troll]

Country Weekly 7/30

Shania....then and now.....

http://www.shaniasplace.com/GreatestHits_Gallery/Articles/2007_Small_Articles_Scans/jpgs/070730_CW01.jpg

[mcjessica]

Shaggy from Z104 says: "If she doesn't hurry, Carrie Underwood will take over that hip-country spotlight."


pft she wishes haha.
Thanks for the article.

[dreamer]

pft she wishes haha.
Thanks for the article.

yeah:scowl: :mad: :rolleyes:

[orchestragirl]

Country Weekly 7/30

Shania....then and now.....

http://www.shaniasplace.com/GreatestHits_Gallery/Articles/2007_Small_Articles_Scans/jpgs/070730_CW01.jpg


Wasn't that picture from 1993, not 1995?