VampireS SUMO

John Singleton is back and back in a big way with his new revenge drama Four Brothers. Four brothers tells the tale of four adopted siblings, Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin), Angel (Tyrese Gibson) and Jack (Garrett Hedlund) as they try to figure out who murdered their mother. As usual Singleton pushes the envelope a bit, throwing any sort of political correctness out the window and still managing to deliver a funny, entertaining, albeit violent film.

The four Mercer brothers, the worst of the worst of the kids their mother, Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Fannigan), cycled out of the foster care system, reunite after their mother’s funeral and soon they learn that her death that looked like a simple robbery gone wrong, was really a hit. Proving themselves more useful than the police working the case the brothers ferret out the conspiracy that led to their mothers murder.

What works about Four Brothers is the grittiness of it all. This is Detroit and Singleton doesn’t shy away from the corruption that is rampant in the city. We see it all, gangsters, dirty politicians, corrupt cops and instead of feeling shocked or horrified at the level of corruption we just accept it as just how things are. The brothers themselves are pretty flawed, Bobby is a low level, hot headed gangster, Angel is an ex soldier with a thing for the ladies, and Jack is a wanna be rock star with an interesting sexual history. Jeremiah is the only one with a stable, law abiding life. He’s a family man and a business man to boot.

The setting is dark and dreary and plays right into the seriousness and danger the brothers find themselves in as they search for the truth about their mother. The brothers are just as grimy as their surroundings, Bobby looks as if he could use a shave and Jack always looks as if he could use a bath, even after a scene of him showering.

But the film isn’t all serious. The chemistry between the actors is great and Singleton gives us plenty of comic relief: Bobby’s caustic and racially tinged sense of humor and best of all Sophi (Sofia Vergara) also known as La Vida Loca, who plays Angel’s on again off again girlfriend and well deserves her crazy nickname.

Other notable performances include Chiwetel Ejiofor as Victor Sweet, a nasty, cruel gang lord who currently owns Detroit’s streets, Josh Charles as Detective Fowler the cop who isn’t quite who he seems to be and Terrance Howard as Lieutenant Green a straight laced, streetwise cop who has a friend/foe relationship with the family.

All and all Four Brothers is worth your time and money. It’s not for the faint of heart or anyone who is adverse to strong language and violence, it is rated R for a reason. But if you’re looking for a loud, violent, raucous good time then Four Brothers is for you.

T.S. Johnson is a freelance writer and owner of PrologueReviews.com. Visit prologuezine.com prologuezine.com for all of your writing needs or prologuereviews.com prologuereviews.com to have your music, movie or book reviewed.

Is it really possible to conquer the guitar fretboard? Do you find the notes you want to find? Is tabulature cheating? Let me invite you to the guitar fretboard!

I suggest that you right now start to take command over your guitar. Usually when you are playing your first guitar sheet music melodies you will have to learn the notes in the first position on the guitar. To have a good grasp of these notes on the guitar I suggest that you learn them slowly and with concentration.

I usually begin by teaching the notes on the first string like E on open string, F on fret 1 and G on fret 3. On string two you’ll find B on open string, C on fret 1 and D on fret 3. With these notes you can play the song Mary Had A Little Lamb.

Using the previous notes the melody can be played as follows:

E D C D E E E D D D E G G E D C D E E E E D D E D C

I hope you recognized the melody. This kind of music notation doesn’t give any hints as to how the rhythm is to be played but you already know the melody, right!

Is using tablature cheating? My father taught me some interesting things about learning to read guitar sheet music.

My dad was the only guitar tutor in the town where I lived and he taught mostly classical guitar pieces. His young students, I was one of them, learned those first guitar pieces very rapidly because he used a system similar to tablature showing the frets and strings to play, along with the sheet music. Tablature wasn’t common back then. I remember somebody remarking that his system prevented the children from learning to sight read sheet music.

His reply was that if somebody really wants to learn the notes they will anyway!

I agree with that and I have found that if a pupil is not motivated learning guitar sheet music they will not advance in this area whether they play with or without tablature.

Do you think your fingers has anything to do with guitar playing? I guess you’ll answer yes!

A more important question is if the fingers you choose to use can have a bearing upon your guitar playing. Left hand fingering means which finger you use when playing a specific note.

Usually when playing the first pieces on the guitar on the first frets one plays the notes on the first fret with the index finger, notes on the second fret with the middle finger, notes on the third fret with the ring finger and notes on the fourth fret with your little finger.

Why mess up everything with this fingering stuff? Isn′t it possible to play every melody with your left index finger and forget about fingerings?

Well, of course you can play melodies with your index finger but your progress will be very limited beyond just playing easy melodies.

Besides you’ll have to move your hand all the time as you change frets and, most importantly when reading sheet music, you’ll have to look at the guitar fretboard all the time instead of looking at the sheet music.

The important thing when learning to play the notes on the guitar is to make a conscious effort to learn the notes and not to work on too many notes at the same time.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your capotastomusic.com free sheet music and learn to play resources at capotastomusic.com capotastomusic.com.

Some of us more than others need to work on getting pain relief, even after we discover exactly the right fit - or as close as we can get - in our pointe shoe.

The point I am making, is, that there is a very fine tuning that we can learn, and we tune our focus as finely as we tune our decision, to make this is easy as possible.

To add to what I’ve written before on theballetstore.com, here is a more detailed process.

Put on the new shoes with all the toe-protective padding you intend to wear. Just walk around the house for a few minutes. Wear a pair of socks over them so you don’t get them scuffed. Take care to walk going through the foot just as you do in bare feet - hah - or as close to that as you can get. You’ll get some feel for the shoe.

If there is very little pressure and pain, great. This shoe is not giving too much resistance.

If it hurts at certain points on your foot, try adjusting the padding. Walk around some more.

This walking around with your pointe shoes on probably won’t feel that great, and don’t get a blister from doing so. You are simply stress- testing before you get into class.

Here’s something you can do to mould the shoe more to your foot, if you have places that the shoe is really pressing on: you boil some water and pour it into the shoe. Roll it around inside, getting it all over, for a few seconds. Pour it out. Then you put on your shoes, with padding, and walk around for a while. The shoe will soften and mould to your foot shape. Then you can take your pointe shoes off, and let them dry out thoroughly. They will stiffen up in the shape of the pressure from your feet. Custom made as it were.

Do not do any rises or releves in the shoes when they are soft from the boiling water.

Exception: if you have very low arches and insteps, it’s a good idea to do a few rises when the shoes are soft. This will help break them in, as you will not break them as if you had a very high arch that will snap the shoes immediately. Remove the shoes and place them where they will dry quickly.

Always let the shoes dry out quickly and thoroughly after class. This will help give them some longevity.

The more you focus on this proper use of your pointe shoes, the more you will get out of your pointe classes. Fighting the shoe and fighting the pain is a waste of your concentration. It creates too much tension, anxiety, and deprives you of the joy of being elegant and artistic.

Art is something that happens on a soul level. You don’t want to be faint from the pain, in chasing that elusive muse of your inner being’s expression.

In my first two years at The National Ballet School of Canada I felt pretty intimidated. Pointe classes were awful. I didn’t know that my shoes did not fit - nothing close to! I was told that they would hurt, and they did. I wondered how everyone else did it….hopefully some of my fellow classmates lucked out and their shoes felt better! However, I did get a couple of permanent painful conditions from not having exactly the right fit.

Take a lot of time buying shoes, initially. Don’t worry about bothering anybody. Once you are in class, bother your teacher if the shoes prevent you from doing the movements in any way. Good ballet teachers love it when students bother them with details!

And always give yourself the time at home to prepare your pointe shoes.

Dianne M. Buxton is a graduate of the National Ballet School of Canada. She taught at, and choreographed for The National Ballet School, York University, and George Brown College, in Canada, and taught at Harvard University in the U.S.

Very talented Smooth Jazz artist Pat Metheny has released Pat Metheny latest CD titled Metheny Mehldau and Wow! It’s good.

I wish it weren’t the case but, it’s not everyday that I get a CD from an artist that I can just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. There is usually a song or two that I just can’t force myself to get through. Not at all the case with Metheny Mehldau. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.

The nice thing about a CD like this is when the talent is this rich even if Smooth Jazz isn’t your favorite genre you still can’t help but appreciate the greatness of the artist.

If you’re even mildly into Smooth Jazz music you’ll enjoy this CD. Overall Metheny Mehldau is an outstanding release. I give it my double thumbs up. You will not be disappointed with one single track.

My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore [...as in "Stuck On REpeat"] is track 6, Find Me In Your Dreams. Wow!

Metheny Mehldau Release Notes:

Pat Metheny originally released Metheny Mehldau on Sep 12, 2006 on the Nonesuch Records label.

CD Track List Follows:

1. Unrequited
2. Ahmid-6
3. Summer Day
4. Ring Of Life
5. Legend
6. Find Me In Your Dreams
7. Say The Brother’s Name
8. Bachelors III
9. Annie’s Bittersweet Cake
10. Make Peace

Personnel: Pat Metheny (guitar); Brad Mehldau (piano); Larry Grenadier (bass instrument); Jeff Ballard (drums). Recording information: Right Track Studios, New York, New York (12/2005).

Get the information you want on your favorite smooth jazz songs and artists at ilovesmoothjazz.com iLoveSmoothJazz.com

Clyde Lee Dennis, a.k.a. smoothlee.com SmoothLee is a life long music fanatic, smooth jazz in particular, and does a daily online radio show featuring smooth jazz music that can be heard at denversmoothjazzradio.com DenverSmoothJazzRadio.com

Grey ‘s Anatomy has proven an unlikely success. While medical dramas are one of Tv’s best bets in the formula department, Grey’s Anatomy seemed from the beginning a pale and banal iteration of the formula. A cast that seemed cut from the fashion section of an old Sears catalogue, and stories filled with hyperbolic doctors screaming codes and demanding many cc’s of mysterious substances. Oh, and lots of that ‘paddle’ thing as well. But it wasn’t long before the serious caught on, and for good reason, the writing is, at its core, very story motivated, and behind those pretty faces are solid actors that emote as well they vogue.

After achieving success at such a fast speed, however, it is a questionable move the series is making trying for a spinoff. First, they are planning on extracting one of their favored characters from the shows dramatic dynamic, Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery (played brilliantly by Kate Walsh.) This will no doubt leave a huge hole in the dramatic fabric of the show. Next, in setting up the spin off, they are in a sense using the opposite formula. Instead of filling the cast with talented ‘barely knowns’, they are padding out Walsh with a host of well know actors including Tim Daly, Chris Lowell, and Taye Diggs.

Probably the biggest risk involved in this endeavor is the impact on Grey’s Anatomy itself. Were the spin off to fail, simply shifting Walsh back to Grey’s Anatomy might not be such an easy task. Walsh has been so central to the dramatic balance of Grey’s Anatomy that the writers will surely have to accommodate for her absence by creating a new equilibrium on the show. This could, in fact, throw Grey’s Anatomy off as well. Enough that the show itself could suffer and eventually fail.

It is impossible to say whether any of this will happen, but one thing seems for sure. Year three of Grey’s Anatomy seems to be just too soon to have a Spin Off.

For more information about

Gambling is popular amongst the young as well as the old. For many individuals gambling is a source of earning while for others it is a means to perfect entertainment. Today gambling is not just confined to the four walls of a casino. It has made its way to houses by virtue of computers (online gambling) and other gambling equipments. While many people are enticed by online gambling, those who desire to have a real feel of the game get gambling set up at their home only.

The gambling set ups are more or less same for all the games though there are some variations. For instance the tables of different games are different. A poker table is unlike a blackjack one. But some of the common gaming equipments are dice, cards, coins etc.

Dice is perhaps the foremost requirement of any gambling sport. It also can be the cheapest of all gambling equipments. This is because of the myriad variety of dice available today. A plastic dice will be significantly less expensive in comparison to an ivory made dice. In ancient times stones, pebbles, chalks etc. personified dice. Since people were not very particular regarding the equipments of the game, they would mark the holes on any tiny handy nugget and commence their game. Gradually dice came to acquire a proper cubical structure with pierced holes on all the sides. However in comparison to a dice used in household games, a casino dice has more precision. Casino dice is also known as ‘perfect dice’ as it is carved in a way that each side weighs equal after the holes have been pierced on each side. This provides an equal probability of either side being the outcome.

The other essential ingredient of gambling is ‘cards’. Usually cards are exclusive to every casino. This is because the backside of the card bears the logo of the casino. The casino cards are primarily of two types- bridge size and poker wide. Initially cards were made out of hard paper and different paintings were made on them. The suits and faces of contemporary cards are a gift of France.

Casino tables have their own charm. These tables are designed differently for different types of games and are quite expensive. For instance a single poker table can cost its buyer several thousand dollars. But here too prices vary with the quality of the table. The table face has a woolen felt surface with the games name on it. Along with it the odds and the areas for placing bets are also specified. However with the help of blueprints people often make gambling tables on their own. This is the most cost effective way to play the game.

Besides these assortments nowadays kits are available for different games. For instance a bingo kit has in it everything (such as bingo balls, markers, hand cranked ball cage etc.) that is required to play bingo. These kits make children too quite familiar with the game.

Mansi aggarwal writes about gambling equipment. Learn more at buygamblingequipment.com buygamblingequipment.com.

There are so many ways that we, as songwriters can escape our zones of comfort and enrich our lives, and just think, the worse that could happen is that you could write a great song about it.

Imagine having the confidence to experience life to the fullest with the knowledge that there could be a song awaiting as a result of the risk being taken.

That’s a powerful way of looking at life.

A prime example of a situation that can benefit from this way of thinking is the topic of intimate relationships. So many people don’t take the risk of falling in love for the fear of getting hurt.

My argument is that if you are committed to songwriting being life then as songwriters it is our duty to take that risk and go with it. If it works then you have some great songs to write, if it doesn’t work then you still have some great songs to write.

With an attitude like that how can you lose?

Here are some other simple examples of small things you can do to get more out of life and therefore get more out of your songwriting.

1. Go to a movie by yourself

2. Take a long walk on the beach

3. Go for a drive

4. Call a friend you haven′t spoken too in ages

5. Strike up a conversation with a complete stranger

6. Catch public transport

7. Go to a cafe and write in your journal (by the way how is your journal going?)

8. Smile at people and watch their reactions

9. Meditate and listen

10. Go skydiving (Optional - I can understand if people find this a little extreme)

We try so hard to control everything in our lives so we don′t have to experience anything that we would consider ‘bad’. If we choose songwriting as life we need to relax and let life unfold before our eyes, experience what happens and then write about it.

By doing this you will never have the excuse of saying ‘I don’t have anything to write about’ if everything that you do can be written into a song.

Go out of your way to experience life, what have you really got to lose?

Doing something different in your life doesn’t mean having to endure mammoth changes or extreme tragedy. It’s the little things that you can do to break the habits and routines of our lives that make all the difference.

What do you think? What aspect of your life can you do different today? How did that change affect you?

Can you write a song about it?

Corey Stewart is a published Singer/Songwriter from Australia who has his own quikonnex.com/channel/page/coreystewart/434 songwriting blog and his own coreystewartonline.com website

He also has a FREE eReport for you to download. It’s called “11 Ways To Eliminate Writers Block FOREVER!” and you can get it coreystewartonline.com/E-Report.html HERE

If you’re looking for a quick way to transpose guitar chords, then you’ll want to use a capo. These nifty little gadgets are a great way to change keys WITHOUT changing all the chord shapes you’ve been using to play the song. Capos can also be especially handy if you’ve spent a lot of time learning a fingerstyle guitar piece, but decide you want to change the key. Instead of having to rewrite all the fingering, just put the capo on, and presto- you’re in a new key WITHOUT changing any of the fingering.

Capos are really easy to use once you understand how to identify the key note of a chord. For example, when you play the C major chord you will find that the key note (which is the note C in this chord) is on the first fret of the second string. Your first finger is on the note C when you play the C major chord. If you put a capo on at the first fret and play the same chord shape, you will then have a C# major chord. If you move the capo up to the second fret and again play the same chord shape, you will have a D major chord, and so on.

Lets try the same experiment using the open chord shape of D major. Begin by asking yourself: “which finger is playing the note D in this chord shape?” Did you pick your third finger? If so, congratulations- You got it right! Now, put a capo on the third fret. What note is your third finger on now when you play the D major chord shape? The answer is F. That means when you have your capo on the third fret and play the D major chord shape you are really playing an F major chord.

Get a friend to strum the F major chord at the first fret while you strum the F major chord with your capo on the third fret using the D major chord shape . Even though the chord with the capo sounds higher, it is still an F major chord and blends nicely with the F major chord played at the first fret. This is a good technique to use when two guitarists in a band are both playing the same chord sequence. Having one of them add a capo will help to create more interest and color to the song.

My advice is to take some time to get familiar with using a capo. It will seem weird at first if you’re not used to it. Start with a song you know pretty well and try playing it all the way through with a capo on. Then see if you can identify the chords of the key that you are really in. In order to do this proficiently, you will discover that it is necessary for you to know the notes on the fretboard. This is a good incentive for you to get these notes down. After all, the more you know the better equiped you’ll be in the long run.

One last thing. In case you aren’t aware of it yet, I just wrote a new article on my website explaining abclearnguitar.com/transpose.html”target=>How To Transpose Guitar Chords in every key WITHOUT using a capo. It goes into quite some detail and also includes a useful reference chart of all twelve major keys. So, I guess it’s time for you to get busy!

FREE Reprint Rights - You may publish this article in your e-zine or on your web site as
long as you include the following information:

Kathy Unruh is a singer/songwriter and webmaster of ABC Learn Guitar. She has been writing
songs and providing guitar lessons to students of all ages for over 20 years. For free
guitar lessons, plus tips and resources on buying a guitar, songwriting, recording and
creating a music career, please visit: abclearnguitar.com abclearnguitar.com

The set is moving. There are animatronics.

No one told me there’d be animatronics
A rabbit with a busted plaster ear eternally chases cabbages,
which are inexplicably spinning, spinning.
A tiny farmer, armed with a pitchfork
( a real pitchfork, mind you,
on a children’s set—madness. )
a farmer futilely tries to defend his garden.
One of his arms looks like it was broken and set wrong;
it sticks out at a weird angle.

There is fake green grass,
little white picket fences,
a shed with a big ornate garden chair for kids
to sit and pose with the Easter Bunny.
There are no kids yet.

One young guy is manning the fort.

As I approach, I think, ‘he doesn’t know my face,
I could still walk away’…walk away, it echoes
in some dim part of my mind that still has dignity.
But I know this is my destiny. Appointed by God,
or drilled into my psyche from childhood
some forgotten moment when mommy
laughed and smiled at an unpremeditated antic.
A stumble, a surprised look….resulting in laughter.
A clown is born. And so here we are.

I tell the guy my name. We go to ‘suit up’.
There are hidden places in malls, walls with keyholes,
that open into large empty spaces used to store stuff.
The suit is there.

I must admit it is beautiful.

Pristine, first snow of winter white.

Soft, lovely fur.

Except for one little brown spot on the belly.

The guy tells me ‘There was an ice cream incident. “

I put on the suit.
It fits perfectly, of course.
All white, with a pink belly, the body of the suit alone
makes me feel like Sasquatch.

I picture me walking,
big arm swings in the woods, grainy image,
I look back over my shoulder, Wild Easter bunny ,
showing contempt for humankind.

The feet are enormous boats of white spongy material.
They go on right over my old boots.
(the same boots that stepped in the poop of Shaq
oneals dog, at another weird job. )
The bunny hands consist of thumbs and one big finger.
And then the head. It’s a really nice one.

Shiny, pink nose, big dopey red smiley mouth,
the expression perpetual surprise, amazed with happiness
that this child showed up, this old best friend.
When you put on the head for the first time,
you think ‘maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.’ .
The head is hot. Let’s start like that.
Go into your attic, rip some of that pink, fluffy stuff
off the walls, wrap it tightly around your head.
Now go outside on a hot summer day and cavort,
Dance around, wave, hop, gesture, shake your head.
Imagine there’s a government sniper watching you
through a scope with orders to shoot if you stop moving.
This is the Easter Bunny experience.
But I don’t want to give the impression it
wasn’t fun. I found it immensely so.
But then I’m weird.

Someone escorts me to the set, because, did I mention,
you can hardly see anything from inside the bunnyhead.
The whole outfit is like a man on the moon spacesuit,
on which the big, clear face bubble has been spray painted
almost completely over by mischievous aliens.
You can see straight ahead through two big eyeholes,
but there’s a sort of black fog over everything
because you’re looking through mesh.
There’s a surreal quality to it, children waving,
bunny smiling, as volcanic ash slowly falls from Mount
St. Helens.

Later. At the set.
Waving, dancing, holding onto the lapels
of your tiny Easter bunny vest, playing ‘peek a boo,
blowing kisses, more waving, lots of waving.
And some kids are happy and some are scared,
some stunned at the weirdness of it all.

When you sit in the bunny suit,
your hard little bunny tail will wedge itself uncomfortably up your butt.
So if you notice your Easter bunny adjusting his tail
before he sits, you know why.

There’s a little fan low to the ground, blowing sweet air up,
and if you angle it just right the breeze flows in the crack at your
neck, and cools you down.

Still later.
I realize it’s only kids here,
kids as customers, kids in charge.
So I start to push the envelope.
Making bunny gang signs at kids too old and
tough to sit on my lap.
Saluting security guards,
clapping when pretty girls walk by, making the curvy
hourglass figure with my hands,
imitating people on cell phones, one furry hand clapped to my big ear,
the other hand gesticulating wildly.
Peek-a-boo, that’s my specialty.
I love to play peek-a-boo with adults.
No one likes it,
they all walk away fast.

The job is fun, the kids are cute, the pictures are good
if we can get them to look at the camera.

The quintessential moment comes
when I am doing something stupid, dancing,
or just lolling my big fat head around, sweating profusely.
I stop, I see… a movie poster.
Viggo Mortensen is wielding a shiny sword,
his hair blows in wild wind.
He looks out proudly at a billion people who know his face, his name.
That is the highest height of being an actor.
And this, a faceless, sweaty clown in a bunny suit, is the lowest low.
But I am strangely happy.

As my shift ends, and I am escorted to the ‘secret room’
to change out of my bunny suit,
some kid asks me
‘are you somebody famous under there? “
I put a finger over my bunny lips and disappear
behind the hidden door.

keith merritt is as writer, actor, puppettmaker and dog lover, who lives in Los Angeles and creates more then is normal.

See his Easter bunny film now while it’s still topical!
easterbunny.notlong.com easterbunny.notlong.com

Everyone wants to learn to play piano. What a wonderful feeling to be able to sit down and produce beautiful music from one of the most beautiful and versatile instruments ever created. But it can be overwhelming. Don’t worry, though–you can learn to play piano!

Determine your motive when you learn to play piano

What do you want from the piano? That’s the question you need to ask yourself from the beginning. Do you want to play classical music? Would you like to play for a church service? Maybe join a rock band or country western group? How about becoming an accompanist? Or maybe you would like to play pop music for your own enjoyment.

There are so many avenues for the pianist. Just pick your favorite and you’re ready to learn to play piano!

Get your piano

Obviously, you need an instrument to play. You can rent, borrow, or buy one to get started. Prices range from free to hundreds of thousands of dollars. You will probably select one in the middle somewhere.

Ask around and you can probably find someone who has a piano they want to get rid of. Look in the newspaper classifieds or try an on-line site.

If you don’t want to pay a lot, you can find something used or get an inexpensive keyboard. That will get you started. Electric keyboards have the added features of sounds, rhythms, and all kinds of fun things. You can also use head phones if noise is a problem where you live.

When you′re ready, you can look into fine grand pianos.

Piano instruction

Piano lessons are necessary to learn to play piano. Today there are so many choices.

Find a teacher in your area.
Buy a piano lesson book.
Obtain an interactive course with videos and DVDs.

Now have fun

That’s a sneaky way of saying practice! Seriously, though, just start playing. The key to keeping it fun is to realize that you will always be better than you were the day before. Play a new song every day. Put on a CD and play along. Click another button on the digital piano and play with the bassoon sound. Turn on the waltz rhythm. Just put your fingers on the keys and get started.

Make it more fun by involving friends. Have a sing along, invite over a bass player and have a jam session. Remember, it’s never too late to pursue your dream of playing the piano. Just do it!

What’s the secret to learning to play the piano fast? Check it out…

cyberflute.com/learn-to-play-piano.html cyberflute.com/learn-to-play-piano.html