Ansil Adams (1902-1984)
Did you know he was a Concert Pianist?  Even so, he took his first photo in 1916 and chose photography over music, and thus, .  He was known for his beautiful black and white landscapes; however, he also experimented with color photography.  He always reminded his students: "It is easy to take a photograph, but it is harder to make a masterpiece in photography than in any other art medium."

One of the coolest things about the work of Ansil Adams, is that the negatives are still being studied and used today by students at the University of Arizona.  Most of his work is handled by trustees at the Center for Creative Photography.

http://www.anseladams.com/

I learned something new from this blog I found today:
http://blog.sharmusic.com/blog/?Tag=Music%20History

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
"Tchaikovsky was known to be extremely sensitive and painfully shy. His anxiety began early in his childhood and continued in his adult life; there is speculation that he even ended his own life. The Russian composer made his most significant impact in ballet music, but his worship of Mozart influences his work's strict classical form. "

I did know that he "was one of the most loved of Russian composers. His music is famous for its strong emotion, and his technical skill and strict work habits helped guarantee its lasting appeal. "
Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/St-Tr/Tchaikovsky-Peter-Ilyich.html#ixzz2WmeBWV1Q

I found this awesome site that list the most common errors people deal with when speaking or writing the English language:  http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/

This came from the page for Acronyms and Apostrophes
"One unusual modern use of the apostrophe is in plural acronyms, like 'ICBM’s', 'NGO’s', and 'CD’s'. Since this pattern violates the rule that apostrophes are not used before an S indicating a plural, many people object to it. It is also perfectly legitimate to write 'CDs,' etc. See also '50’s.' But the use of apostrophes with initialisms like 'learn your ABC’s and 'mind your P’s and Q’s' is now so universal as to be acceptable in almost any context.
Note that 'acronym' was used originally only to label pronounceable abbreviations like 'NATO,' but is now generally applied to all sorts of initialisms. Be aware that some people consider this extended definition of 'acronym' to be an error. "

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) – full name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a fascinating character.  He was playing the piano perfectly by the age of 4, and by 5, was composing music while his father wrote it down.   Not only that, but he could hear a piece once, and write it down from memory with very few errors.  Mozart also played the violin.  Mozart longed to be employed as a court composer (popular at that time period in history); however, never did.  In fact, his employment history was very sketchy and against the thinking of the times (that of having to be employed by an aristocrat).  He had to think ‘outside the box’ and get employment where he could.  Because of this, he gained a great deal of experience in many styles of music and composed work that may have never been undertaken.  His range of genre includes: opera, chamber music, to ballroom music.  In fact, his formation of a variety of woodwinds, percussion, brass, and stringed instruments became the classical orchestra as we know it.  He was so ‘outside the box’ that he even reproduced the first illegal copy of the Vatican’s music collection.  He died at a young age (35) and the cause of his death is not really known.

·         http://www.mozartproject.org/

·         http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/395455/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart

·         http://www.allmusic.com/artist/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart-mn0000026350

I recently learned about a group of artists from the late 1800’s, early 1900’s known as the Scottish Colorists.  They painted with bold colors and favored the French Impressionalists.

http://www.winsornewton.com/resource-centre/product-articles/the-scottish-colourists

·         Samuel Peploe   http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/samuel-john-peploe

·         Francis Cadell   http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/samuel-john-peploe

·         William McTaggart   http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/themes-in-scottish-art/scottish-art-movements

·         George Leslie Hunter   http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/themes-in-scottish-art/scottish-art-movements

·         JD Fergusson    http://mydailyartdisplay.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/the-scottish-colourists-part-3-john-duncan-fergusson/

This is a painting by Samuel John Peploe, 1924, oil on canvas, in the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland.

How well do you know hyphen rules?  Check this out:

Some strong examples of semantic changes caused by the placement of hyphens:

• Disease-causing poor nutrition, meaning poor nutrition that causes disease
• Disease causing poor nutrition, meaning a disease that causes poor nutrition

• A man-eating shark is a shark that eats humans.
• A man eating shark is a man who is eating shark meat.

• A blue-green sea is a sea whose color is somewhere between blue and green.
• A blue green sea is a contradiction, unless "blue" or "green" are used contextually to mean something other than a color.

• Three-hundred-year-old trees are an indeterminate number of trees that are 300 years old.
• Three hundred-year-old trees are three trees that are 100 years old.
• Three hundred year-old trees are 300 trees that are 1 year old.

For more hyphen rules (and other grammar rules), check out:

http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/hyphens.asp

From “Daily Devotional” March-May 2010 The Dove

March 5

“He wanted to conduct, but his styles didn’t work.  During soft passages he’d crouch extremely low.  For loud sections he’d leap into the air, even shouting to the orchestra.  His memory was poor.  Once he forgot he’d instructed the orchestra not to repeat a section of music.  During the performance, when he went back to repeat that section, they went forward, so he stopped the piece, shouting. ‘Stop!  Wrong!  That will not do!  Again! Again!’  For his own piano concerto, he tried conducting from the piano bench.  At one point he jumped from the bench, thumping the candles off the piano.  At another concert he knocked over a choirboy.  During one long, delicate passage he jumped high to cue a loud entrance, but nothing happened because he’d lost count and signaled the orchestra too soon.  As his hearing worsened, musicians tried to ignore his conducting and get their cues from the first violinist.  Finally they pled with him to go home and give up conducting which he did.  Who was he?  Ludwig van Beethoven.  The man many consider to be the greatest composer of all time, learned that nobody can be the master of all trades.  The Bible says, ‘We have different gifts, according to the grace [divine enablement] given us.’  So recognize and develop your gift.  That can be intimidating, especially if you’ve spent your life looking for approval from people who’ve none to give you.  Stop making your life an ongoing struggle to be something you weren’t meant to be.  God made you who you are; when you try to be somebody else the best you can ever be is number two.  So be yourself; after all, who’s more qualified?

Something I found from:  “Christian Counseling Connection”, Vol.16/Issue1
Michelangelo – Famous Sculptor and Painter

Once in the city of Florence a massive, shapeless block of marble that seemed fitted to be the raw material of some colossal statue. One sculptor after another tried his hand at it, without success. They cut and carved and hewed and chipped at it, till it seemed hopelessly disfigured. Then someone suggested they give Michelangelo a chance with his skills. He began by having a house built over the block of marble, and for many months he was shut up there with it, nobody knowing what he was doing. Then one day he flung open the door and told them to come in. Before their eyes, instead of a shapeless, meaningless block, was the magnificent statue of David, one of the glories of the world.

Isn’t this a picture of Christ taking defeated and disfigured lives and refashioning them into the very image of God.

Here’s another vignette from the life of Michelangelo: There was a fellow artist who was very jealous of him and his ability. Not only was he an outstandingly gifted sculptor, but proved to be an equally outstandingly gifted painter. The fellow artist wanted him to be embarrassed and brought to disgrace so he asked the Pope to commission Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, thinking his painting would bring humiliation. Michelangelo spent four years painting the ceiling to the Sistine Chapel and it is considered the premier painting of all times.

We do not know the name of the other painter but we certainly know the painter of which he was jealous.

Michelangelo, Disappointment, and Waiting

It was the winter of 1498, a very cold, snowy winter in Florence , Italy . Michelangelo’s was as heavy as the clouds that blocked out the sun. The Grand Duke of Florence, had been the young artist’s benefactor. He had given Michelangelo numerous slabs of marble that he used to refine his incredible talents. Before he was able to create his masterpieces, the old Duke died and his source of marble was cut off. His son, the new Duke, had no use for a sculptor on the payroll so the artist’s great talents were put on the shelf, and Michelangelo sat and waited.

In what looked like an incredible answer to his prayers, he was summoned before the new Duke. While he was afraid to believe it, the rumor circulated by the servant who came to fetch Michelangelo was that he was being commissioned to carve a great statue. At last! When he arrived at the palace, he was ushered into the Duke’s presence and told that his services as a sculptor were needed. All he had to do was go down to the garden and he’d find all the white marble he needed to make a masterpiece for the Duke’s party.

What a disappointment when he found that the ‘white marble’ in the garden was actually snow. Now heralded as the greatest sculptor of all time had been brought to the palace to create a snow sculpture for a royal dinner party! Instead of being furious at that embarrassment, he simply went to work. Hour after hour he gathered snow into a great mound and began to carve.

Working from the top down (when normally you carve from the base up with real marble), a figure emerged from the white snow that would be viewed as a joke by the Duke and his guests then soon melt away.

The guests arrived, the snow carving was unveiled and instead of laughter came breathless silence. The Duke and his guests stared in awe and amazement at the figure that seemed able to breathe, walk and even sling a rick at a giant. That statue Michelangelo created in the snow represented the Bible’s David.

In the days that followed, that statue was replicated in marble, marble give to him by the new Duke. This priceless work has drawn millions of people to Florence . . . all because Michelangelo was willing to carve something of beauty out of snow.