| Microsoft's Connected Learning Community Grants Enhance Programs at 35 ...
(CSRwire) Emmanuel Hutchinson, a student at Tucson High School, gave up football to attend classes at the Tucson-Pima Arts Council's Multimedia Arts Education Center, a component of the Council's Arts Education Program. He found the environment safe -- other kids didn't try to intimidate him and teachers treated students like adults, with respect and trust. Since graduating from the program in May, he's even returned to do a presentation using posters he created with Microsoft Greetings 2000 software. Thanks to the program, he's also found a career path -- Emmanuel wants to become a computer graphic designer. Connected Learning Community Grants The Multimedia Arts Education Center offers a tuition-free intensive computer mediated arts technology program for lower-income, middle school students who otherwise might not have access to this kind of technology.
Les Savy Fav: indiedom's best-kept secret
A visit to Les Savy Fav's Web site reveals this proud motto: "Missing out on cashing in for over a decade." It's been the Brooklyn-based band's curse–or blessing–to be slightly ahead of the curve without ever quite benefiting from it. "We're not really a career band," acknowledges bassist Syd Butler, reached in Washington, D.C., where he and his family are visiting his mom for Thanksgiving weekend. "We never signed to a major label, we never took advantage of the Brooklyn hype or whatever the trend was. We just kept putting along, like the Little Engine That Could. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Liars, they're amazing bands, but signing to a major label wasn't something Les Savy Fav was interested in." Known for singer Tim Harrington's unpredictable live shenanigans–kissing audience members, dangling from the rafters–as much as for clever art-rock records like The Cat and the Cobra, Les Savy Fav has been one of indiedom's best-kept secrets for over 10 years.
willy waterton the sun times
With her comic Minnie Pearl bits, her fancy footwork and her 50,000-watt smile, it's easy to overlook how much music Linsey makes as part of this old-time country music variety show. Pianist Mel Aucoin, a regular with the Becketts in recent years, has more than four decades in the music business behind him, including a lengthy stint on the old Tommy Hunter show. He grew up in the thick of Cape Breton fiddle culture and has high praise for Tyler and Linsey and their place within the Ontario fiddle music continuum. "I'm out of breath when I'm watching those two," Aucoin said after Monday's first show. "They're as fine a fiddlers as you'll hear, wherever you go. They're as good as you're going to get. It doesn't get any better." Sometimes we forget that around these parts, where as Sun Times columnist Jim Merriam once wrote, "the first family of fiddling" is a Grey-Bruce treasure we tend to take for granted.
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