Lauren VanderHorst - Making Today's Photos Timeless

Lauren is an award-winning artist, formerly working in watercolor.  She has sold several paintings/drawings at various art shows.  Always having enjoyed photography, she returned to her old passion after having children.  It is a lot less messy and it’s a quicker clean up than messing with paint.  She is a volunteer photographer for the non-profit organization, Inspiration Through Art.  Lauren currently lives in Muncie, Indiana with her husband and two young daughters. [SEE MORE HERE]

Thanks, Chicago

For what, you ask? For providing so many great places to visit, like the Museum of Science and Industry, The Field Museum and the Adler Planetarium. Oh, and let’s not forget the Art Institute of Chicago.

Thanks to an outfit calledCityPASS you can do all this a lot cheaper. [READ MORE HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

No Such Thing as Halfway Irreverent

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the co-creators ofSouth Park, never do anything lightly. They take irreverence very, very seriously.

Take for example their new Broadway musical,The Book of Mormon. In it they examine the rite of passage every Mormon boy must go through when he turns 18, which is spending time as a missionary away from home. [READ MORE HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

Wine Isn't Pretentious, It's Just Good

Art and wine go together like Christmas and snow, like magic and tigers, like hot dogs and baseball. Neither one needs the other but they just seem like such a good pair it would be a shame not to get them together. So it’s no wonder that wine tastings paired with artistic exhibitions are all over the place. [READ MORE HERE]

How to Guarantee Your Future as a Writer

by Chris Wolfgang

When someone discovers in passing conversation that I’m an editor at a publishing house, I note the sudden light in the eyes. “Oh? I’ve got a book I’ve been working on …”

To which I say here and now, kudos. Well done to you, sir or madam. There are far too many horrid writers out there to be stood for, and you need to keep pushing until you come to the front of the pack. [READ MORE HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

Concentrate, Focus Power

Did you see the 2009 Star Trek movie and absolutely love it? Or at least respect the amount of work that went into writing the thing? Well it’s time for round 2, and Damon Lindelof and Roberto Orci have heard the bell.

The cowriters have reportedly holed up in a hotel room, determined to finish the script for the 2012 sequel in six weeks. [READ MORE HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

Music of the Stars

There is music in space. No, (probably) not made by aliens. Instead the music comes from the stars themselves, reaching us in a variety of pitches. The lower the pitch, the bigger the celestial body. Just like the wooden bars of a xylophone.

The instrument that measures this music is called the Kepler space telescope. [READ MORE HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

Lips Too Cold to Kiss - Tara Amanda Shaw

Leave Me Loneliness

“These lips are too cold to kiss”
Time, is combined, in my mind.
Tragedy trickles to nowhere,
And now this pain I bare.
Seeing you for your worth,
Hearing you are only earth.
Killing, and filling, this feeling.
Lame, losers look like you.
Now this heart you threw,
Up on, and left the mess.
So this is progress?
Torture, under, this blur.
Blindsided by big, bountiful, beams,
That left me in shattered dreams.
Never thought I could catch this,
Because these lips are too cold to kiss.

[READ ABOUT THIS ARTIST HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

Graffiti Turned Big Business

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a film about street artists. Or rather, it’s about a guy who filmed street artists in the early 2000s. Or more specifically, it’s about a guy (Guy 1) who became a street artist after filming other artists and about the guy (Guy 2) that Guy 1 originally filmed but who later made this film about Guy 1 becoming a street artist.

Confused? Guy 2 is calledBanksy, and the film is an ode to a French wannabe filmmaker turned wannabe subversive artist named Thierry Guetta. [READ MORE HERE]

Spirit of the Sea

Here in the Midwest United States we’re experiencing an early faux-Spring this week, a welcome respite after debilitating ice and snow. But down in Florida the boat shows signal Spring is already here.

Hundreds of boats are sailing into the Miami Beach Convention Center this weekend for the Miami International Boat Show and the Yacht and Brokerage Show. Hotels are filling up with fans of seafaring engineering and artistry. [READ MORE HERE]

Music of Unity

The United States has been directly confronted with the reality of religious extremism for nearly a decade, since the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center. Though interfaith violence is nothing new, the U.S. had the luxury of turning a blind eye to this blight on world society prior to the event that killed thousands and ignited two “wars on terror” abroad in which we are still embroiled. [READ MORE HERE]

Video Games = Art

If you’re a gamer, you have probably seen a commercial for a new PS3 or Xbox game on television and couldn’t help drooling over the eye-popping game footage. It may very well be that your interest is purely due to your knowledge of the quality of gameplay – the is, the longevity and challenge of the experience – but for most of us what makes our jaws drop is the graphics. In other words, we are floored by the artistry.

For years enthusiasts have been insisting that the video game is an art form, but today it is clear these games are actually being honored as such. [READ MORE HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

The Music Genome Project

If you’ve ever streamed music at Pandora.com or through any of its mobile applications you have had contact with theMusic Genome Project. Conceived in 1999, the MGP categorizes all music into 5 genomes (Pop/Rock; Hip-Hop/Electronica; Jazz; World Music; and Classical) and under these assigns about 400 attributes to a given piece in an effort to classify it comprehensively. As a result music can be viewed as made up of building blocks that make it objectively similar or dissimilar to other music. The result is a highly marketable product. [READ MORE HERE]

Revolutionary Art in Egypt

The people of Egypt are tired of rampant unemployment, poverty and corruption in government and accordingly they have ousted 30-year autocratic President Hosni Mubarak. Egyptians did it through protests, widespread labor strikes and a collective voice denouncing the government they no longer recognized as legitimate. And meanwhile the window to the soul of Egyptian discord was its art. [READ MORE HERE]

Michael Gray Invites You to Wake Up in 2150

Mika Gerey, a cryogenic scientist, is buried in his newly developed cryo chamber during a 21st century super storm. He’s found by 22nd century archaeologists and revived with considerably advanced medical science.

His dream of the future becomes a reality. He quickly adapts but struggles with his new friend’s ambition to exploit technology in the human body as he visualises the destruction of humanity as the end result.  He finds new love but she’s more than just beautiful, she’s 22nd century!

Humans achieve deep space travel and become visible to friendly and aggressive species. Mika’s psychology retains primitive instincts which he employs, along with 2150 science, to defeat attacks upon Earth.  His imagination takes humans out into the galaxy to join the highly evolved Galactic Seniors Partnership.

Technical science makes humans invulnerable, which again draws the interest of the Gohdamma. Meeting this species reveals they are the originators of human evolution. Their revelations shatter our most fundamental beliefs and leave us in awe of their knowledge and power. [READ MORE HERE]

Country Music Showdown!

April 1st there's gonna be a hootenanny in northern California. The Willows Journal reports the annual Western Days celebration will reprise the Country Music Showdown from last year. Proceeds will benefit local high school agriculture programming.

Country music competitions are a big draw here in the United States. [READ MORE HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

Robbing Peter of His Art to Pay for Paul's?

The Iowa State Legislature isconsidering a bill that will force the University of Iowa to sell the Jackson Pollock in their collection – worth $140 million – to help subsidize education for Iowa students. Rep. Nick Wagner says the idea is to avoid a tuition increase and help more kids go to college. [READ MORE HERE]

How Worthy Aretha Franklin Is of Grammy Praise

The Queen of Soul will behonored at the Grammys Sunday, and it isn’t just because she’s a great singer and certainly not because she haspancreatic cancer(although get-well wishes and prayers are certainly in order). It’s because Ms. Franklin is an inspiration to artists everywhere. [READ MORE HERE]

Finishing That Romance Novel Just in Time for V-Day

Ahhhhh, romance. If romance novels were a pudding its readers would eat it up with a giant spoon that hardly fits between their lips. If romance were a chocolate milkshake the straw would have to be almost as wide as the glass to accommodate demand for it.

Not quite clear enough? Romance books have the largest share of the market, or 13.2% in 2009. That’s enough to beat mystery, science fiction/fantasy and religious/inspirational categories. That’s what they call marketability. [READ MORE HERE]

It Takes a Village

Filmmakers have a host of concerns including – but certainly not limited to – cameras, actors, lights, sound, film, location, scripts and music. The last of these can be especially challenging, since music is an artistic medium all to itself. Commissioning a musician to write for a film can be an expensive proposition and involves some potentially tricky contract wrangling. Then again, using music that has already been written involves a time-consuming venture determining what can and cannot be used and if it can, for how much.

That is why Moby is really cool. At Mobygratis.com filmmakers are allowed to simply register for a free account that gives them access to a generous collection of his music for use in film. [READ MORE HERE]

Subversive Artist Infiltrates Cheese Contest

Kraft and Paula Deen got together last year to put on a competition. Philadelphia cream cheese fanatics were invited to send in videos in which they demonstrated how to make their own recipes for a variety of dishes. The winners would star in cooking shows, go on publicity tours, help write a cookbook and win $25,000. It was called the Real Women of Philadelphia (RWoP) and its online community created a social network of cream cheese-loving ladies from all over the country.

Paula Deen didn’t know before it was too late that there was a subversive in the bunch. [READ MORE HERE]

Joel Levi - A Slice of Americana

Joel Levi is an energetic and engaging singer-songwriter from Anderson, IN. Joel’s music is a dense pitch of Rock, Folk, Indie and Americana sounds. Contrary to most solo performers, Levi primarily performs as frontman of his band, all the while maintaining the dynamic spectrum of his music, both sonically and emotionally. Levi recorded his first effort, “The Little Places” by invitation at the studio of Grammy award-winning producer and song-writer Charlie Peacock. He is currently supporting his latest EP “Middle of Everywhere.” [SEE MORE HERE]

31 Reasons to Visit Philadelphia

Were you expecting a list? There is none, because G.W. Miller of the upcoming JUMP quarterly implies that it would be difficult to keep a list down to just 31 items. He chronicled in his Philly Daily News column last week his January journey through 31 days of new musical experiences. Braving snow and power outages Miller discovered a city alive with music. He reports finding live performances of everything from Brazilian beats to freestyle rapping to classical. [READ MORE HERE]

Bookstore Culture a Thing of the Past?

Where was last place you bought a book from? If you were to buy a book sometime in the next week, where would it be? If those questions seem a little odd to you, that might mean you are one of the millions of people who in response to those questions picture themselves in front of a computer – quite possibly naught but a robe – clicking a mouse over the word “Checkout”.

Mega-bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble are beautiful places where the coffee is fresh and shelves are loaded with colorful dust jackets. But as Michael Rosenwald of The Washington Post recently reported they are far less often places where people actually buy books than they used to be. [READ MORE HERE]

Passing the Torch

If you think of Harvard as just a school of law, full of stuffy old books and stuffy old people, it's time to take a another look. The university just finished up Optional Winter Activities Week (OWAW) in which students had an opportunity to "immerse themselves in art without the anxiety of semester coursework." Various instructors in everything from creative writing to design to comedy performance led the workshops during one exciting week. [READ MORE HERE]

How Namibians Reward Musicians

The Grammys are coming around again here in the U.S. Music industry people and fans alike will attend or tune in to honor the best purveyors of rock, rap, rhythm and blues, country, jazz, instrumental music, gospel and various other ethnic music styles. In general, these folks are already very successful in their musical careers. We don’t see them as needful of the honor. We see the award as a response we need to give, a way to tell our artists that we love them and that we want their work to continue.

It’s a bit different in the southwestern African nation of Namibia, where Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTL) and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) just announced that this year’s Namibia Annual Music Awards (NAMA) will include bigger cash prizes than ever before. [READ MORE HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

Measuring Success

How do you gauge your success as a writer? Is it just getting started with a new piece that qualifies as success? Getting past page one? Maybe it’s completing the rough draft, or the first round of revisions, or getting somebody else to read and like it, or just sending it out to a publisher, or getting a positive response, or seeing it in bookstores, or having the opportunity to do a signing, or selling x number of copies, or winning an award.

There are so many milestones in the process of writing a book (or in writing anything else, really). [READ MORE HERE]

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GettingDiscovered.net

Gather 'Round the Crystal Ball

If you have not yet heard of Gibson Guitar, that problem is about to be corrected. The company got its start in 1974, just before a big slump in the guitar industry. They lost lots of money, had to close a plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan to relocate to Nashville and almost had to shut down entirely until Dave Berryman and Henry Juszkiewicz took over in 1986. With a little elbow grease these men turned Gibson into a respected name in the guitar industry and today theGibson Foundation is one of the greatest supporters of the arts in the United States. In 2007 it was officially awarded the honor of being incluced in the The BCA Ten (Business Committee for the Arts).

Now the world’s premier musical instrument manufacturer according to Guitar International, Gibson has announced their support of the New Music Seminar. [READ MORE HERE]