Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Michael Jay Feinstein

Michael Jay Feinstein (born September 7, 1956) is an American singer, a pianist, music revivalist, and a predictor of, and anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs. Feinstein was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Florence Mazie (née Cohen), an amateur tap dancer, and Edward Feinstein, a sales executive for the Sara Lee Corporation and a former part-time singer.

At the age of five, he studied piano for a couple of months until his teacher became incensed that he wasn't reading the sheet music she gave him, since he was more comfortable playing by ear. In 1986, he recorded his first CD, Pure Gershwin, a collection of music by George and Ira Gershwin. He followed this in quick series with Live at the Algonquin (1986); Remember, featuring the music of Irving Berlin; Isn't It Romantic, a collection of standards which featured the first time Feinstein was backed by an orchestra; and Over There, featuring the music of America and Europe during the First World War.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Francia Raisa Almendárez

Francia Raisa Almendárez (born July 26, 1988), is an American actress. She is sometimes credited as Francia Almendárez. Raisa is most notable for her character in Bring It On: All or Nothing, where she plays a tough Latina cheerleader named Leti, The Secret Life of the American Teenager as Adrian Lee and on The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream.


Raisa was born and raised in Southern California. Her mother, Virginia Almendárez, was born in Mexico, and her father, Maximo Renán Almendárez Coello el Negron, was born in Honduras, he worked to give Raisa and her two sisters, Italia and Irlanda, a wholesome life in the high-paced Los Angeles. A few years after Raisa was born her father came up with the Latin radio character "El Cucuy". She attended Bishop Alemany High School for a while. At the early age of five, Raisa began taking dance lessons excelling in tap, jazz, acrobatics, hip hop, and polynesian dance. She also explored karate and ice skating.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Britney Jean Spears

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi and raised in the Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in the stage productions and in television shows. She signed with Jive Records in the 1997 and released her debut album in 1999. During her first decade within the music industry, she became a prominent figure in the mainstream popular music and popular culture, followed by a much-publicized personal life. Her first two albums established her as a pop icon and broke sales records, while title tracks "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" became international number-one hits. Spears was credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s.

http://all-about-america.blogspot.com

Spears has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the eighth top-selling female artist in the United States, with 32 million certified albums. Spears is also recognized as the best-selling female artist of the first decade of the 21st century, as well as the fifth overall. She was ranked the 8th Artist of the 2000–10 decade by Billboard. In June 2010, Spears was ranked sixth on Forbes list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential celebrities in the world; she is also ranked as the third most powerful musician in the world.

About Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan (born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in the Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11. Lohan gained further fame between 2003 and 2005 with the leading roles in the film's Freaky Friday, Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded, subsequently appearing in independent films including Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion and Emilio Estevez's Bobby.

Her career was interrupted in the 2007 as two driving under the influence (DUI) incidents and three visits to drug the rehabilitation facilities led to several lost movie deals. Resuming her career, she guest starred in the TV series Ugly Betty in the 2008, starred in the 2009 comedy Labor Pains, and appeared in Robert Rodriguez's Machete in 2010. Lohan launched a second career in pop music in 2004 with the album Speak and followed up with A Little More Personal (Raw) in 2005. She has attracted significant publicity, particularly surrounding her personal life.

http://all-about-america.blogspot.com

Early life and education

Lohan was born on July 2, 1986, in the New York City and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Donata "Dina" (née Sullivan) and Michael Lohan. Lindsay has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr. (who appeared with Lindsay in The Parent Trap), Aliana ("Ali"), and Dakota ("Cody"), the youngest Lohan child. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage and was raised as a Catholic. Her maternal family were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" and her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party in the Long Island. Lohan attended Cold Spring Harbor High School, where she did well in science and mathematics until grade 11 when she started homeschooling.

Lohan's parents have a turbulent history. They married in the 1985, separated when she was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in the 2007. Her father, Michael, is a former Wall Street trader and businessman who inherited his father's pasta business and has been in trouble with the law on several occasions, while her mother, Dina, is a former singer and dancer.