Smartphones, Who Needs Them?

       Personally I was one of those people that boycotted the smart phone for as long as I could hold out. I never knew what the big deal about them was, hence I always made fun of them and kept telling myself that there was no way I would ever own one. Within my frame of mind there was no need for one, I had a laptop and my regular phone served me well, so why spend so much money on something that wasn't going to change my life that much....boy was I wrong.

       Around 2010 I got an Iphone 3GS, and I became instantly enlightened to the ways of the smartphone. It took about a hour or so of messing with it before I realized that I had been wrong for years, and with a defeated but joyous spirit I had to finally admit to being wrong and admitting my love for smartphones. Do you remember when you were 15 and thought to yourself, "I don't really need a car, it would be nice but it won't be a life changing thing" and later realized that now you could not live without one? Yeah, it's the same feeling.

       Smartphones have quickly become a norm and soon we will no longer have any phones around except for smartphones. They have everything one could possibly want, a computer right on your fingertips all the time, no matter where you are, yeah, it's magical. A huge breakthrough in technology. It wouldn't be wrong to speculate that this is the future of computers, that soon laptops will be ancient, and we'll all have pocket sized computers that will do everything it's bulky counterpart used to be used for.

       It's also obscene how technology evolves now a days, every year there is a new product that makes last year's product obsolete. Meaning if you buy a laptop today, that a year from now the same "top of the line" laptop will no longer be found in stores because it's old and outdated. Which can be a good and a bad thing, depending on your level of patience when buying new products. If you don't mind waiting, then you can just stay a year behind the growth and get a good product for way cheaper than it originally came out for. If you are not patient then yeah, this sucks for you, no doubt.

       The Ipad is also a big break through, it's crazy how much the Ipad has infiltrated our day to day lives. From doctors, students, lawyers, to business men, the Ipad has become a norm in various fields. It simplifies your life a significant amount. The downside being that you are always "plugged in", meaning anyone can get a hold of you at any time, be it through email, phone, text, aim, facebook, twitter, and all the other social media we have come to possess. Some have looked at this as a negative for the smartphone, but the positive outweighs the negative, so technology will continue to evolve and we'll continue to purchase the next best thing. It's just the way it works.

      So who needs a smartphone? Everyone. Those that have one understand that this is true, those that don't have one will probably disagree and fight me on this, but I promise you this, as soon as you own one, you will never be able to go back to a regular phone. They are just that helpful. The power of having Google at your fingertips in overwhelming, the possibilities are endless, and I for one am glad to finally have made the transition last year. It was a life changing experience.

           What is your take on smartphones?

    Hope you all have a fantastic Friday and a glorious weekend,

    Love from your humble blogger,  

Anne Polajenko Presents: "The Harid Conservatory Students Wear So Danca"

http://www.harid.edu/

      Students of The Harid Conservatory, located in Boca Raton, FL, are exclusively wearing the So’Dança ballet and pointe shoes for the 2011-12 school year. According to an agreement between the prestigious school and the dancewear company, all students will be provided with a monthly supply of shoes for classes and performances.

Russo Hall

       Harid Conservatory was founded 23 years ago as a not-for-profit, tuition free institution that would offer exceptional ballet training and academic schooling to talented students from the United States and abroad. Students are of high school age and must live on campus. They are selected through an annual audition process and must attend Harid’s summer intensive before being admitted to the school. Some graduates include Marcelo Gomez (Principal, American Ballet Theatre), James Sofranko (Principal, San Francisco Ballet), Isabella Boylston and Isadora Loyola (American Ballet Theatre) as well as Sara Webb (Principal, Houston Ballet).

For More Alumni Click Here

       So’Dança is very proud to associate its name with such a valuable organization as The Harid Conservatory and wishes all the students a wonderful school year!

Isadora Loyola (Harid class of 2007) in her So’Dança Pointe shoes.

Photo Bernardo Nogueira

                  --- Anne Polajenko

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     Take a deep breath my friends, it's Wednesday, half way done, the weekend is looking closer and more beautiful than ever, 

    Love from your humble blogger,  

The Much Needed Evolution of Cable

          There are many things in our culture that have sudden evolutionary leaps. It's usually without warning and it covers a specific item that had not evolved in a long time. I believe that the next big leap we will be seeing soon is the downfall of cable television, and the rise of streaming companies.

          Take Netflix as an example, specifically their instant stream option. Soon Netflix will no longer have the "ship to home" dvds and be completely instant stream active. No they haven't made an announcement about this, but it is bound to happen, it would be the biggest marketing move and would put them above their competition by a whole lot.

          On instant stream you basically select your shows, everything you could want you get to watch, without commercials and such. This is the way of the future. Instead of paying for 400 channels that you don't watch, you'll be paying for one service and get to pick what you want to watch and what you don't, and if you add a Pandora style meter you'll be able to get rid of all the shows you don't like and be suggested shows you might like, hence you'll always be introduced to new shows of your choosing.

         This might seem like it needs an extra touch, something to organize it, and I agree. Microsoft has unintentionally given us the best model for what tv could be like in the future with their Xbox 360 Live program. Within the layout of this service Xbox has joined Music, Movies, Games, and other internet services all on one package. This is brilliant, it's simple to use, looks clean and neat and would offer the consumer infinite personal customization possibilities. Why would you sign up for cable, which would inherently force you to pay for channels you don't watch, when you can have a company that allows you to pick and choose what you want to watch, when you want to watch it, all in one Netflix style package.

          Here is my shout out to all business men out there, please do what you do and make this a reality. By doing this you would revolutionize the media empire and quickly become one of the most famous companies in the world. I don't really care about credit, I just want this service right now. It'll eventually come to pass, this is a simple fact. Cable hasn't really changed all that much, the only recent leap was Tivo, though it was a good leap they only got their feet wet, there is a lot to do still and much room to grow.

        So business men and scientists, do what you do and change the industry forever.

   Love from your humble blogger,

Movie Remakes: "How soon is too soon?"

       "Conan the barbarian" is coming out next weekend, and with it comes a burning question, How soon is to soon to produce a remake?

    
       The original Conan came out in 1982, and stared Arnold Schwarzenegger. At the time this movie was exceedingly popular and everyone who thought of Arnold thought Conan. So it's not like the original was a fluke, is 29 years enough to make a remake? It's not even like this looks better than the original, it actually looks worse, with no name actors, and truly no interest from the masses. This is not the first time they have done this, in face Hollywood has been doing this a lot recently.

       How about "Clash of the Titans", who's story got changed ridiculously and was made worse then the original, we're talking 1981 to 2010, same as Conan (29). The movie was not only made more brashly it removed little bits of humor that the original had.

        Yes the original is was behind us now, but this movie gave our parents nightmares, what are we doing destroying a classic? There should be some ground rules when creating a remake, and even worse, they are making a sequel to it....yeah....I cringe inside as well.

      So then some of your are thinking, "they would never remake the classics, movies that had Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, or Angie Dickinson, how could they ever replace them and be successful?" Well, I hate to break it to you, but they did, and not only were they successful the remake spawned two sequels, yeah, no movie is sacred.

      And you know what, most people don't even know that this is a remake. The original came out in 1960, and the remake in 2001, that's a 41 year span, which you might think, "that's plenty of time", but is it? Is it really? If this is the case we'll be seeing some remakes that could very well shock us all.

Zac Efron, Megan Fox and Daniel Craig, Oh, it could happen

      So by this we shouldn't be surprised if in 17 years we see a remake to "The Matrix", a remake to the "Star Wars" series, the series is about 5 years past its due for a remake, or even "Casablanca", or "Gone with the Wind". So here we are left with two questions: "How soon is too soon?" and "Are there any 'sacred' movies that should never be redone?"

   Let us know what you think with a comment bellow,

      Love from your humble blogger,

Tapestry Dance Company Makes History With China Tour

   Excerpt from the ITA Newsletter:

   “Working with The Chinese Cultural Ministry and The Shangai Singers Club, Tapestry Dance Company will tour their National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpiece production of The Souls of Our Feet - A Celebration of American Tap Dance in China for 5 weeks this fall, bringing an artistic envoy from Austin comprised of 9 dancers, 3 musicians, a vocalist, a technical crew of 4—and artistic director Acia Gray. Starting in Shanghai, the company will present 15 performances.

        Gray says of the momentous news, "It is such an honor to be asked to share this historically relevant collection of tap dance classics and contemporary tap choreography in China. To present this indigenous American art form and represent Austin at the Shangai International Arts Festival with the support of Mayor Leffingwell, City of Austin Council members, and leaders of our Asian community—it is truly humbling."

       What's more, Acia Gray has also been asked to help develop a Chinese training system and syllabus of American tap dance for use in the university system. Meetings have been underway over the last two years and the first stages of development will happen in conduction with the tour.

       Tapestry Dance Company is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

   About the NEA’s American Masterpieces Initiative
        The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) created the American Masterpieces initiative to acquaint Americans with the best of their cultural and artistic legacy. The performances, exhibitions, tours, and educational programs held as a result of this initiative are geared to reach large and small communities in all 50 states. Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts.

     About Tapestry Dance Company
       Tapestry Dance Company is a professional, non-profit dance organization founded in 1989 for the purpose of developing a foundation in multi-form dance performance and education. The organization has expanded to a major dance organization in Austin. Its expansive south Austin facility is home to seven resident artists, an Academy for young people and adults offering classes (ballet, flamenco, hip hop, ballroom, jazz, tap, et al.), an annual festival, educational outreach programs, and a pre-professional and adult training facility sharing the unique training syllabus of founders Acia Gray and Deirdre Strand.

    The events and programs of Tapestry Dance Company include seasonal multi-form concerts at the historic Paramount Theatre, The Annual Soul to Sole Festival, community outreach programs such as Rhythm, Dance, Music & You!, numerous master classes and workshops in modern, jazz, ballet and rhythm tap as well as touring residencies throughout the country. The most recent production of The Souls of Our Feet - A Celebration of American Tap Dance is currently on tour through the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces." 

For more info on Tapestry Dance Company just follow this LINK

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The Many Faces Of The So Danca Pro Tap Shoe ^_^

      So’Dança has been an active supporter of both the International Tap Association and Tapestry Dance Company for several years. We are delighted that the art of Tap dancing will be brought to the Chinese people by such a valuable organization as Tapestry Dance Company. We wish them every success.

 So’Dança is the official provider of Character and professional Tap shoes (TA 715 and 815) for the company since 2008. We are thrilled to have our product represented by such talented dancers in the United States and abroad.

                        --- Anne Polajenko

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    Summer is ending, school is on the horizon and the busy season is soon here, We wish you all the best and hope that this coming school year is a fantastic one for you, 

     Love from your humble blogger,     

The Google Empire

           Let me start this off by saying that I'm a big fan of Google, so this is not a knock on Google by any stretch, it's just a thought exercise, if you will.

         Google right now has a lot of influence over the populous, I mean, a lot. Think about it, whenever you are in an argument and no solution is drawing near we almost always say something like: "I'll Google it" or "I'll look it up later when I'm home" which basically means "When I get home I'll Google it". With the addition of smart phones this becomes even more frequent, and though I enjoy destroying poor fools that spout off nonsense with a good "Let's Google that, before you talk more and rob me of my intelligence", this dependence on Google has me wondering if this is a good thing.

            The Google auto-finish feature is clutch I agree, and so is it's guidance when spelling words. This is a new one I've come to realize, the amount of people using Google as a dictionary is astounding, and why wouldn't you, Google has the biggest resource or answers in the whole net, if Google doesn't know it then no one does. Or at least that's what we've come to accept in our culture, and worse in the new sprouting generations.

             Google is a search engine monopoly, but this is not the scary part, the worry comes in that everything Google does it does well, and recently Google has been doing almost everything. We got a Google phone, Google car, Google +, Gmail, and a TON more (click on ton to see the rest, and yes I found that using Google), there is no telling what they will do next.

             So either Google will continue to grow and remain being the benevolent company we love, or it will become a main villain, merge with Apple Inc, build T1 robots and be our very own "real life" Skynet, bringing with it the end of the world.

           Maybe that's a tad over-dramatic, but if you don't believe me that the threat is real then Google it and you'll see I'm right. Google is never wrong.

       What are your thoughts on the ever growing Google empire?

     Love from your humble blogger,

Cowboys And Aliens, The Brashest Movie Of The Summer

        The summer is very close to being over and the summer blockbusters will come to a close unfortunately. In this final weekend of July we found ourselves face to face with one of the most absurdly brash movie ever attempted on the big screen. But first let us define brash:

Brash: Self-assertive in a rude, noisy, or overbearing way. (dictionary.com)
 Used it in a sentence:
    Tim: Have you seen the latest Michael Bay flick?
    Bob: Yeah man, it was so brash I could barely handle it.

     So let's examine the elements of this movie and let me show you how incredibly over the top this movie is:

        Alien movies have always been around us. We have this stark-raving-mad fascination with space and the unknown factors within the vast infinite universe. Most of these movies portray us fighting said alien race and after much death and turmoil we end up winning in the end and wiping out the alien invasion. Typical alien flick, and there is always a main character that has to go through many obstacles to finally be able to eliminate said intergalactic threat.
   One would imagine the presence of aliens would be brash enough for a movie but no, not for this movie, not even close.

        
        Oh cowboys, the symbol of everything that it is to be a man. Well, at least what they thought a man should behave like 50 years ago. The Hollywood mainly man was the one who walked by himself, never working in a team, never taking a wife but sleeping around, being rude, never opening up, being a man of few words, having a ton of bromances along the way but always having to witness your bro die in front of you making you even more of a loner. The absurdity of this picture is way to brash for me to even fathom it, no wonder our generation gave birth to emo kids and hipsters, the total rejection and complete rebellion against the cowboy picture.
    But if you think we're done yet, oh, you are mistaken yet again.

       Harrison Ford, has won sexiest men alive contests since he started in the industry. The man is everything a man should want to be, he has fought aliens as Han Solo, has battle Nazis as Indiana Jones, battled terrorists as the president of the United States in Air Force One (which in itself is a significant brash movie), and many many more. This is the perfect actor to put in this movie, Harrison Ford as a bitter sheriff (man's man) with a knack for justice and a permanent scowl, yeah, the imagine of a perfect Hollywood cowboy. One would imagine that one such icon would be enough, but no, we don't stop there yet.

       Daniel Craig, recently known for his countless action movies and his amazing performance as the new James Bond, the brashest of them all. In truth Daniel Craig is just a quieter Jason Stathan, they do the same type of movies, they basically have the same dialogue, they get the girl, they beat up the bad guy and win in the end. Congratulations, you've watched almost every movie by the duo just by that description above. But most importantly both actors represent the actors in line to take Harrison Ford's place in the Hollywood world. So by including Daniel in this movie we not only have him and Harrison being cowboys battling aliens, but a clear picture of a "Major General Man" working with a "Staff Sergeant Man", thus providing us with brashness that knows no bounds.

      
        So when you go watch this movie please keep in mind that you are about to be blown away by an overbearing display of unexcused brashness that would make Michael Bay look like a mere child. So be warned.

       If you have already seen the movie what were your thoughts and reactions to it all?

    Love from your humble blogger,