Carrie Marie Underwood
Posted by bensto in ARTIST AND MUSIC on 05 22nd, 2008
Carrie Marie Underwood was born on March 10, 1983, in Checotah, Oklahoma. The daughter of a paper mill worker and an elementary school teacher, she grew up on a cattle farm with her two older sisters, Shanna and Stephanie. Carrie began singing in her church choir when she was only 3 years old. When she was 13, she made her first studio recording, and performed in festivals in a number of states while trying to get a singing career off the ground. In spite of her passion for music, Carrie maintained a well-balanced life growing up. A big sports fan, she played softball for eight years. She was an honor student at Checotah High School, and a member of the National Honor Society. One summer, she served as a page for Oklahoma State Representative Bobby Frame. In 2001, Carrie graduated from Checotah as salutatorian.
After high school, Carrie went on to Northeastern State University, where she majored in mass communications. She joined Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and competed in beauty pageants throughout college, winning the title of Miss NSU runner-up in 2004. Not long afterward, Carrie decided to travel to St. Louis to audition for the 2005 American Idol competition. From the beginning, Carrie’s country-infused style was popular with both the judges and the audience, and she was one of only three finalists in the show’s history (alongside Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken) to never finish in the “bottom three.”
After Carrie’s performance of Heart’s “Alone” in March 2005, notoriously acerbic judge Simon Cowell had nothing but praise for her: “You’re not just the girl to beat, you’re the person to beat. I will make a prediction: Not only will you win this competition, but you will sell more records than any other previous Idol winner!” Sure enough, on May 25th, Carrie was named the new “American Idol,” beating out Southern rocker Bo Bice.
As part of her American Idol win, Carrie signed a recording contract with Arista Records. In June 2005, she released a single, “Inside Your Heaven,” which debuted at the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. She was the first country artist to ever debut at No. 1 on that chart, although “Inside Your Heaven,” a rather schmaltzy Idol anthem, isn’t a strictly country song.
More promising was the B-side, a cover of Martina McBride’s “Independence Day.” Life for Carrie Underwood didn’t have the chance to settle down after her American Idol win. All the publicity and work on an upcoming album (planned for a November 2005 release) didn’t even leave her much opportunity to celebrate. She became a spokesperson for Hershey’s chocolate and Skechers shoes, adopting a hectic schedule that sent her rushing back and forth between New York, Los Angeles and Nashville — and just about everywhere in between.
Not only did Carrie Underwood win Favorite Female Artist in country at the 2007 American Music Awards, but her album Some Hearts also won for Favorite Album in country.
read comments (0)Ashlee Simpson
Posted by bensto in ARTIST AND MUSIC on 04 15th, 2008
Ashlee Nicole Simpson is her complete name. was born on October 3, 1984, in Waco, Texas, and raised in Dallas. She’s the younger sister of pop star/reality TV queen Jessica Simpson. From Prairie Creek Elementary School, Ashlee’s talent was apparent early on: At age 4 she started dancing, and by the time she was 11, she was the youngest people that ever be admitted to the prominent School of American Ballet.
She began to dance professionally when Ashlee Simpson was 14, and the Simpson family moved to Los Angeles. Ashlee went on the road, dancing as part of her sister’s stage show. She supported Jessica’s rise to fame from 1999 to 2001, all the while dreaming of acting and pursuing her own music career.
In 2001, Ashlee made her first solo television appearance in a small role on Malcolm in the Middle, and during this time she appeared alongside her more famous sibling on Saved by the Bell, The Donny & Marie Show, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The View, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and a Disney Christmas show and concert special. Ashlee also took a part in the Rob Schneider comedy The Hot Chick (2002).
Ashlee Simpson signed a recording contract with Geffen Records to make her first album in the late 2003. At the same time, her father, Joe, asked her if she wanted to have a show built around her. Ashlee declined at first, but agreed when Joe Simpson suggested it be about the making of her upcoming album.
The Ashlee Simpson Show premiered on June 16, 2004, on MTV, and the album, Autobiography, was released on July 20th, after the show finished its run. The debut single, “Pieces of Me,” hit No. 1 on the charts.
Later in 2004, Ashlee Simpson was set to perform on Saturday Night Live but a technical mishap caused the cancellation of the performance and a great embarrassment as it proved the starlet was lip-synching.
Ashlee Simpson’s second album, I Am Me, hit music store shelves in the U.S. in October 2005, and the single “Boyfriend” became a top 20 hit on the Billboard Top 100.
After touring in support of her second album, Ashlee hit the stage as Roxy Hart in the London stage production of Chicago.
In 2007, Ashlee Simpson began working on her third album, Bittersweet World, and worked with producers such as Timbaland, Kenna and Will.i.am.
And, in 2008, Ashlee Simpson placed No. 93 on AskMen.com’s Top 99 Most Desirable Women list, showing the world that despite past mishaps she’s still hot stuff and geared to take on her sister and the industry. She also announced her engagement to Pete Wentz from the band Fallout Boy. Just after this, it was speculated that Ashlee Simpson was pregnant.
Mary Lousie Parker
Posted by bensto in ARTIST AND MUSIC on 04 10th, 2008
Her name’s Mary-Louise Parker. Birth of place in Fort Jackson, South Carolina on August 2, 1964, the youngest of several children. Her father was a judge and officer in the military, and the family of “army brats” grew up on military bases around the United States. Parker’s interest in the arts began during high school, and she went on to major in acting at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Following graduation, she moved to New York City in the mid-’80s to pursue a career in theater.
Mary Parker initially found work off-Broadway, and also had a short stint on ABC’s daytime soap, Ryan’s Hope. In 1988, she made her TV movie debut in the CBS World War II drama Too Young the Hero, quickly followed by her feature film debut as an abused girlfriend in Signs of Life (1989).
After a couple of years working in off-Broadway productions, Parker debuted on Broadway in 1990 in Prelude to a Kiss, for which she won a Theatre World award and received a Tony nomination. Another production that dealt with the AIDS crisis, the feature drama Longtime Companion, in which she portrayed the token female friend of a group of gay men.
Parker received critical praise for her breakout performance in Fried Green Tomatoes in 1991, and also appeared in Grand Canyon that same year. Returning to the stage for Babylon Gardens (1991), Mary-Louise Parker played a woman driven to madness due to the birth of a deformed baby, while in the 1993 black comedy Four Dogs and a Bone.
Parker also took parts in made-for-TV movies such as A Place For Annie (1994) and the HBO biopic Sugartime (1995), in which she starred as 1950s singing sensation Phyllis McGuire. In 1996, she returned to theater for the revival of Bus Stop, where she co-starred with then boyfriend Billy Crudup, and How I Learned to Drive, for which she received the OBIE for her captivating portrayal of a child abuse victim.
In 2000, Parker starred as a grief-stricken, troubled young woman in Proof, which premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club before moving to Broadway by year’s end. Mary-Louise won the Tony Award for Best Actress in 2001 for her performance. She joined the cast of NBC’s The West Wing that fall, playing seductive lobbyist Amy Gardner, and earned an Emmy nomination in 2002 for the role. That same year, she played wife Bonnie Hanssen in the made-for-TV movie Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story (2002), and was featured in Red Dragon, the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, with Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton.
Parker co-starred in the acclaimed HBO miniseries Angels in America (2003), along with Meryl Streep, Al Pacino and Emma Thompson. Her turn as a Mormon wife garnered her a SAG
nomination and the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, in 2004.
After seven years together, Parker and Crudup split up in 2003. She was seven months pregnant at the time of the breakup, and gave birth to son William Atticus on January 7, 2004. That year she added The Best Thief in the World, Saved! and Romance & Cigarettes to her resume.
Danisa Patric
Posted by bensto in ARTIST AND MUSIC on 03 29th, 2008
Danica Patrick born in Beloit, Wisconsin, on March 25, 1982.Grew up in a happy household with parents T.J. and Bev and sister Brooke. Danica’s need for speed was not clear from the get-go as, like many young girls, she like to play with Barbie dolls as a child.
At the age of 10, however, Danica got a glimpse into a world she would come to love. She accompanied her sibling on a trip to a go-karting lesson and quickly fell in love with sitting behind the wheel of a speedy vehicle. While sister Brooke soon abandoned racing, Danica was hooked, and she soon joined the World Karting Association (WKA).
Within two years’ time, Danica had become a racing fiend, and in 1994 she captured the WKA Grand National Championship in the Yamaha Sportsman class. She would win additional karting titles in 1995 and 1996, and soon had established herself as a rising star. Her final season in the WKA came in 1997, and she went out with a bang, winning the Grand National Championship in both the Yamaha Lite and HPV classes.
The next step in Danica’s career would be a big one. She upgraded her competition by joining the Formula Vauxhall Winter Series, moving to England in order to do so. Over the course of 1998, Danica kept up only an abbreviated racing schedule in the UK, because she was also spending time fine-tuning her technique at the Formula Ford racing school in Canada.
Therefore, it was in 1999 that Danica made her true British racing debut. She finished her first full season in ninth place, then showed vast improvement by finishing second the next year at the Formula Ford Festival, the best-ever finish by an American at the British event.
In 2001, her last year in England, Danica made a name back home in the U.S. She won the Gorsline Scholarship Award for Top Upcoming Road Racing Driver and competed in the tough British Zetek Formula Ford Championship. On the heels of these feats, Danica was touted as the top female open-wheel driver with international experience.
In July 2006 Danica Patrick announced that she’d signed a deal to race with Andretti Green Racing. For the 2007 season, she scored her first three career podium finishes to finish with four top 5’s and 11 top 10’s. She scored her career best championship points finish of 7th with 424 points.
Artist Edition Laptop by HP
Posted by bensto in HP on 03 19th, 2008
The HP Pavilion dv2890nr Artist Edition takes its award-winning imprint designs to the next level with a unique artistic rendering wrapped around the entire laptop. Built for today’s multimedia-savvy, always on-the-go computer user. HP’s Take Action/Make Art contest received over 8,500 entries from aspiring young artists worldwide, and this bold, colorful, innovative design stood out at capturing the HP PC experience.
Maximize your mobile with a BrightView 14.1-inch display that has the same viewable area as a 15.4-inch screen–in a notebook that weighs a pound less. Cheering more direct communication, the backlit media control panel responds to the touch or sweep of a finger. Control settings for audio and video playback from up to 10 feet away with the included HP remote, then store it conveniently in the PC card slot. Enjoy movies or music in seconds with the external DVD or music buttons to launch HP QuickPlay (which bypasses the boot process).
This laptop powered by the 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 processor, which serves an optimized, multithreaded architecture for improved gaming and multitasking performance, as well as excellent battery management. It also includes Intel’s 4965 AGN wireless LAN. It also features a 250 GB hard drive, 3 GB of installed RAM. It also includes an integrated Webcam in the LCD’s bezel and an omnidirectional microphone for easy video chats.
It comes preinstalled with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (Service Pack 1), which includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center.
