Red Grooms – An American Milestone in Multimedia Artistry & Pop Art

American multimedia (painting, sculpture, and printmaking) artist, Charles Rogers Grooms, also known as Red Grooms, was born on June 7, 1937, at Nashville, Tennessee. He studied at the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois and later at the Peabody College, Nashville. In 1956, Grooms moved to the New York City and enrolled at the New School for Social Research. A year later, while starting his career as a dishwasher in a restaurant, he also joined the Hans Hoffmann School of Fine Arts in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It was here that he interacted a lot with animators like Yvonne Andersen, with whom he later on completed a number of short films. Here, Dominic Falcone of Sun Gallery, Provincetown, nicknamed Grooms as “Red.”

Charles Rogers is best known for his contributions to spontaneous artistic events, also generally referred to as ‘Happenings’ and is also famous for his ‘Pop art’ constructions, which are mainly bright in color, displayed on varied mediums. Most of his works have generated a satirically amusing view of modern-day life and this can be seen in his film, “Fat Feet (1965).” Red Grooms’ work like “The Burning Building” was also highly appreciated. It was staged at his studio in New York between December 4 and 11, 1959. Other famous works of Red include “Play Called Fire” & “The Walking Man.”

Red Grooms also invented ‘Sculpto-Pictoramas,’ a type of installations devised from several media, especially sculpture and painting, to generate the attention of the viewers. The example of ‘Sculpto-Pictoramas’ can be seen in “The City of Chicago (1968)” & “Ruckus Manhattan (1975).” The artist created these works jointly with Mimi Gross, his wife. The couple also featured in Mike Kuchar’s “Secret of Wendel Samson (1966).” Several of Red’s works have a strong sense of history and can be classified as perceptive, which is clearly visible in “Nighthawks Revisited (1980),” “Philadelphia Cornucopia (1982),” & “Studio at Rue des Grands-Augustin’s (1990-96).” Grooms was also often criticized for some of his works like “Shoot-out (1983),” where he portrayed a cowboy and an American Indian shooting at each other and another where his sculptures were picked for his callousness towards Indian history.

In 1985, Grooms displayed 29 years of his works at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. It contained all the paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and huge “Sculpto-Pictoramas.” Other than the USA, Grooms’ works were shown in Europe and Japan. In 1990s, the artist returned to Nashville, Tennessee and created some 36 figures hailing from Nashville history, for the Tennessee Foxtrot Carousel. His printmaking ranges from woodblock prints, stencils, etchings, and lithographs. In 2003, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Design. At present, Red Grooms lives and works in the New York City, lower Manhattan with his daughter Saskia Grooms.

Is an Online University Degree For You?

Online education has revolutionized distance learning, providing greater convenience and opening new doors for a lot of people who want to increase their career potential. If you are interested in getting a degree online, there are a number of things you should consider.

The first thing you have to make sure of is if online education is right for you. Enrolling in an online university or college is ideal for working people or stay-at-home parents. If your other priorities leave you no opportunity to make it to scheduled classes, taking courses online is the best way to go, provided you have a good amount of self-discipline when it comes to time management. Online education is really for people who do very well with minimum supervision. It can also provide that second chance at further education for older adults who may not feel too comfortable attending classes with people who are a lot younger.

Signing up for an online university degree doesn’t mean that you’ll be getting substandard instruction. An accredited online institution ensures that students get adequate online guidance from their instructors with the use of internet tools. Challenging individual and group projects may be given by your professors, for which you can use various online resources. Forums, message boards and chat rooms are often provided in online university websites to have a venue for and encourage interaction between online students.

There are a lot of different online degrees available including associate degrees, bachelor’s, master’s, and even doctorates in fields like healthcare/nursing, business and marketing, information technology, psychology, education, and even biology and electrical engineering. As long as you enroll in accredited online universities, there’s no need to doubt the credibility of this kind of education. The syllabi, resource materials, exams, and sometimes even instructors are the same for both online and classroom courses. Employers are also generally confident that online graduates have skills as competitive as those who got their degrees the traditional way.

Once you’ve made up your mind to continue your studies through online education, the next step is to choose the right degree program and online school to enroll in. Keep the following in mind:

1. When choosing a field of study, you may want to consider what kind of career may be lucrative for you.

2. For universities who are not purely online and have physical campuses, check if there’s still a residency requirement or if you’ll have to occasionally show up for exams, etc. Consider if you can work these in your schedule.

3. See if the credits you’ll be getting from an online university will be transferable just in case you’ll have to continue with another school at some point.

4. Check if the online university has resources like an online library and tutorial services. You may want to get more value out of your enrollment.

5. Beware online diploma mills, especially if what you’re really after is education that can be of use in your future career.

6. Most importantly, check if the online university is accredited by the appropriate regional agency. Your diploma will be useless if not issued by an accredited institution.

Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management Program

From the many culinary arts schools in the country and all over the world, the only thing common to all of their students is the passion for cooking. Without it, they will not be found in those schools. There are students who take culinary arts programs and other related courses not just to become a chef or cook. Others plan in putting up their own business or simply to enhance their skills and know more ideas about different cooking approaches. Whatever their reasons may be, choosing and going to reputable schools offering the best quality education will better serve their purpose.

What about career growth; you don’t expect to be forever chef, do you? You can have a higher position, or even the highest if you take up certain appropriate programs. Taking only culinary arts will leave you to discovering and preparing different new approaches to cooking. But if you take culinary and restaurant management, who knows, you can be the restaurant manager in less than 2 years time. Setting your goals higher combined with hard work will definitely take you to a higher position.

Just look at things this way, restaurant operations do not depend only on cooks and chefs. There should be someone managing the business. And who would run a restaurant better than those with full knowledge of culinary arts and restaurant management? This makes the program beneficial to people with ambitions to be managers or supervisors. How does that sound to you? Considering other programs to take in culinary schools for greater things?

One of the schools that offer culinary arts and restaurant management is The Art Institute of New York City. The school’s program balances culinary theory and practice. Students taking on this innovative program learn cooking, baking, communication, and management skill. All the things you are to study and gain knowledge from will help you walk your way up through the ladder of career growth. Isn’t that what most people wanted- to have an edge on their respective area of specialization and eventually lead to promotion.

Graduates of culinary and restaurant management program are equipped with knowledge and skills to seek entry-level jobs such as prep cook, assistant food service manager, line cook, assistant food and beverage manager, and many more. In the food service industry, it is not enough that you know the ins and outs of cooking if you want to see yourself managing a restaurant instead of just cooking. So, decide now and take the culinary arts and restaurant management program and lead the team, rather than be on the team.

Timeless Networking Tips for Commercial Real Estate Brokers

When you first connect with your commercial real estate prospects and clients it is very wise to prepare specifically for the meeting or the connection. In that way you can set the foundations for better listing conversions or opportunities. Relevance is everything in the market today. Ordinary brokers and agents struggle. Strive to be the best at what you do with your property speciality. When you connect with the client or prospect for the first time, have all your facts and information at your fingertips.

Here are some ideas to help you with the preparation work for that first meeting:

  1. If you can check out the property beforehand then do so. Understand how long the person has owned the property and the condition of the property today. Look for strengths and weaknesses that could have an impact on property performance or occupation. The physical condition of the property, the neighbouring properties, plus geographical and environmental factors will all have some impact on occupancy and ownership.
  2. Determine what is happening in the overall property precinct in case there are any upcoming changes to property zoning or usage. You can also get some details of recent prices and rentals through the region.
  3. Check out the properties that may have sold or leased in the last two years. Look for the trends that apply to time on market, and property enquiry. Would the zone in which the property is located be regarded as desirable? Will it create a reasonable amount of enquiry when the property is taken to the market?
  4. Look at the adjacent properties for any hints of pressure of use or clashes of ownership. As part of that process, you can look at the vacancy factors in the region and the qualities of the surrounding properties.
  5. Understand the occupancy costs for any property in that zone and how the subject property may be performing by comparison.
  6. If you are working with an investment property, check out the tenancy mix and any vacancies in the property before you connect with the property owner. If the property contains many tenants, you can easily strike up a conversation with the right people.
  7. If the property is in a busy precinct you will get some good feedback from other business owners in the zone. Preserve confidentiality in doing so, but ask questions about what has been going on locally with the business activity and property ownership. It is remarkable just what market intelligence you can get in this way.

In this market, listings are everything. They give you the control that you require in building income and commissions. That being said, the best listings to capture are ‘exclusive’ by type and not ‘open’ listings. Control your quality listings exclusively.

To convert the listing successfully and correctly, you really do need to understand the property precinct, the history of sales and leasing activity, and the attributes of the property. A correctly packaged and marketed property will always create good enquiry.

Satellite Internet Service – Now It’s Better Than Ever

Satellite internet service is here to stay and it’s better than ever. Whether you live in rural America or a very remote region, or spend lots of time on the road in your RV, with satellite internet, you won’t have to do without high speed internet.

The fact that fast internet has not been available for millions of people living in the country has been more than annoying. In today’s world, not having access to broadband can leave you at a serious disadvantage. Well, government has decided to level the playing field and wants everyone in the continental U.S to have access to high speed internet.

But even with government support, DSL and Cable will not be coming to many rural areas anytime soon. It’s too expensive to install the infrastructure to offer these services and businesses are in business to make money. The time frame for recover of their investment is too long to make it viable for them.

Even phone companies are reluctant to upgrade their lines just so high speed access is available.

That’s where satellite internet comes in. This type of broadband can be installed almost anywhere, no matter how far away from a city you live. You will need a clear view of the southern sky for the satellite dish. So if you want to finally get rid of slow dial-up, now you can.

That’s not all. For many, travelling in an RV for weeks or even months at a time has become a way of life.

One of the most inconvenient parts of that is trying to find a WiFi spot or a trailer park where you can have high speed access. Of course, you could opt for a mobile internet plan, but these plans are quite limited at the present time. But, with the recent improvements in RV satellite internet, you can bring the broadband along with you instead.

Admittedly, satellite internet was not very good when it was first introduced. There were lots of problems with the service.

For instance, when the weather was poor, outages were very common. Latency made it impossible to do anything in real time, like trying to place a bid during the final few seconds of an auction, or playing games online.

Then there was the cost. You really had to think twice about whether it was even worth the high cost for the limited amount of data you were allowed to download in a twenty four hour period. Finally, the speeds were faster than dial-up, but nowhere near what you would have with a Cable or DSL service.

Yes, there are still some drawbacks. The cost is higher than DSL or Cable and the amount of data that can be downloaded is limited compared to other broadband services. But it is high speed, and you can do so much more than you can with dial up.

If you used satellite in the past, and weren’t happy with the service, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. Satellite broadband is a whole lot better these days. As the demand for high speed internet has grown, satellite internet providers have improved the service greatly.

Today, outages are infrequent even during poor weather. There are more satellites available for internet, so customers can be hooked up to a satellite that is better positioned for their location. This results in better signal strength, and fewer issues with latency. You can even use VOIP. This was not possible in years past.

Today, you don’t have to be left behind with slow dial-up internet. True broadband is available with a satellite internet service, in rural or remote areas. And you no longer have to leave the broadband at home when you are enjoying life in your RV. You can stay connected with a reliable satellite broadband service.

Feeling Stressed? Try Going Technology Free For a Day

“My technology-free day was a nightmare,” exclaims one student at the very beginning of her final presentation on technology, nature, and her inner experiences of both. This exclamation has amused me so much that I have repeated it often through the day when describing this project to other students and colleagues at Saint Francis University, a small university tucked into the hills of the Allegheny mountains in central Pennsylvania.

As part of the curriculum in my Environmental Sociology class, students are asked to journal on two different but related kinds of experiences: two technology-free days and 6 times in nature, in solitude without cell phones or iPods. Their reactions to these types of experiences are both startlingly profound and surprisingly life changing, but in actuality, life-enhancing. In this article, I will relate their experiences with technology-free days.

For this assignment, I have given them some instruction, but I have left it up to them how they want to define a technology-free “day.” Knowing how addicted most of my undergraduate students are to their cell phones, laptops with Face book, and iPods, I am loathe to tell them how long they should go without such supports. Some students really stretch themselves and define a day as an actually day- from sun-up until after dinner. Others can only go so far as to define one hour as their ‘day.’ I ask them to consider the following questions and write about them in their journals.

How does it feel to spend a day without technology? What effect does it have on your mood? Your mind? Your emotions? What differences do you notice between a technology day & a technology-free day? Similarities? What are some things you like about a technology-free day & why? What did you not like and why? How has being technology-free affected your social interactions? Explain. Please describe any other observations.

In our culture, most of us have become dependent on communication technology in some form or another. And most of us have become dependent on that technology without being aware of how much we rely on it. For example, we text friends, we blog and we ‘Facebook’ (and create a new verb in the process). With college students, I am amazed, and secretly touched, by how often they call their parents. Many students claimed to call their parents every single day. Others said they called their parents, usually their mom, between each & every class. Some students complained about missing meetings or practices without technology (apparently, their schedule changes each day & this is how they are informed).

On the other hand, I am also dismayed by how much computer interaction has replaced face-to-face interaction with college-age students who live right down the hall from each. They report to me that they might IM their friend, rather than simply walk down the hall to say hi.

I have used this assignment for hundreds of students over several years in dozens of classes. I am always amazed by the insightful awareness this simple exercise brings to them about their social interaction and their lifestyle. The following are a SELECT FEW of their personal reactions:

Being Present: “In a day without technology, you are completely concentrated on what you are doing & who you are with. You have no distractions to take you away from that place. My mind was into what I was doing.”

Becoming more social: “This activity made me more social because in order to see what time to go to dinner and the time I had to go up to people and ask them instead of texting them or instant message. I also notice(d) how beautiful this campus really is.”

“Technology-free days (have) improved my social interactions. I engage in more conversations with my friends & girls in my dorm than just sitting in the room talking on instant message and through texting. Talking face to face with people is more personal than just sending IMs and texts.”

Waste of Time: “Ultimately, it wastes my time. The thought crossed my mind, ‘What do I really get accomplished with using technology?’”

Addiction to technology: (During a 7.5 hour bus ride to her basketball match, without technology,) “I didn’t think I was going to make it. When we stopped at our first rest stop, I was tempted to ask the bus driver to open the bottom of the bus, but instead my teammate encouraged me and I decided not to. When we got to the hotel, I immediately reached in my book bag for my phone because I really wanted to see my missed calls, text messages, and voicemails. I felt like a drug addict. I realized how obsessed I was with my cell phone.” “(Without my phone), I did not know what to do with myself. I felt like I was going crazy. It definitely mixed my emotions up and had me feeling sad at some points, but then again happy because I accomplished not using my devices on the bus.”

Spending time with family: One student extended the Tech-free day to her family: “As I was sitting in the living room yesterday, the phone rang. I glanced up and looked at our television. Our caller id comes up in every TV in the house. Just as I looked back down at my laptop, my sister instant-messaged me and asked who was calling. It was that moment that I realized how severely dependent my family is on modern technology. Later that night, I told my mother the story. She knows that my sister & I live in separate rooms and just message each other if we need something. So I asked her if for one night, the four of us could do something as a group. She thought this was a great idea!”

They went on to play 2 games of SORRY and 1 game of SCATTERGORIES. “To our surprise, we had fun…..Who knows! Maybe this will become our new tradition!”

Start a new tradition in your household! Go tech-free for a day, relieve stress, and maybe have some fun!

Choose The Right Student Loan Consolidation Program For Yourself

The student loan consolidation program is a loan repayment program designed for students with multiple loans from different lenders, to make the repayments easier for them. When you were in college, you took loans to finance your studies and now you may be facing difficulties to keep track of the different loan repayments. You might be paying too high an interest or may be missing the payment deadlines due to late payment or payment defaults.

In this case, you should consider student debt consolidation loan. Here, if you have three different government educational loans, you can combine it into one single loan. Technically speaking, all these 3 loans will be considered fully paid and you will be taking one new loan of the same amount. These means that instead of having three different loans with 3 different repayment amounts and due dates, you will now have one loan with one repayment check to make and just one due date to remember. Thus, the student loan consolidation program has made repaying the loans easier for you. For deciding on which lender to choose for consolidation, you may take help of organizations who specialize in student loan debt counseling.

What Are The Benefits Of Such Programs?

As we saw above, the first benefit of the student loan consolidation program is that, it is more convenient. You are less likely to miss the due date for monthly repayments, thus improve your credit ratings.

Next is the more important factor… that is money. The student loan consolidation program may be able to negotiate your new consolidated loan at a much lower interest rate than your previous loans.

Another benefit of taking student debt consolidation loans is that they offer flexible repayment plans. You may opt for different repayment schedules available. If you are new in your career, not earning much, are unemployed for sometime or are facing financial hardships, then under the student loan consolidation program, you have different options to repay the loans at your convenience.

Why Is Student Loan Debt Counseling Important?

If you are a novice at the loan sector, all student loan consolidation programs will appear the same to you, you may be confused as to which suits you best. For this, take help of student loan debt counseling. A counselor will help you plan a good repayment scheme with better terms and fewer burdens on you. The problems which most of the students face while looking around for a suitable student loan consolidation program can be taken care of by the counselor.

Student debt consolidation loans are a good way to go if you are facing problems with multiple loans and higher monthly payment amount. Choose the right student loan consolidation program which is in line with your financial requirement and meets your goal.

All About Home Schooling

Home schooling was the norm before the establishment of the public and private schools; children were taught at home by their parents or in a small community classroom by a local scholar. In current times, getting education at home has become a very popular trend again. In developed countries, home education has become an alternative to formal established education. To such an extent has this practice been accepted that it is now, in most places, a legal alternative to school institutions for the public.

A number of advantages have been cited in favor of home schooling rather than public school attendance. It has been shown that personality and moral development is at a higher level with home schooling. In addition some parents object to the lax environment of public schools. Because of the big population, it is sometimes impossible to strictly control the activities of students in large educational institutions. Home schooling is also preferable in isolated environments and is great for families who are constantly traveling.

There three main methodologies are applied to home schooling:

1. The unit study method approaches several subjects, whether history, math, English or science in the light of the central subject theme of that unit. For instance, a unit study of Ancient Rome might provide lessons in the social structure of ancient Rome, as well as exploring the history of the place, the language and customs, the interaction of other cultures, the food and the religion.

This method is adapted to multi-grade level teaching since the central topic may be taken up with a view to the learning level of the student. It is claimed that 45 percent retention is obtained by this method.

2. The “school-in-a box” or “all-in-one” method puts together lessons about many
subjects in a package containing the material for one-year’s worth of lessons. Obviously this method is ideal for families living in far-flung areas. The lessons are much standardized and formal tests are given to allow the student the chance to earn an accredited certificate of completion.

3. Online Schools are also becoming popular today. Middle aged people who want to get back, as it were, to school, often opt to take online schooling. This method of home schooling offers the students a greater variety of courses to study, provides online tests, tutoring and occupational therapy. They have teachers who are specialists in their field of learning and the student gets more flexibility for schedules. This option is favored by disabled people, or elderly students.

In the light of the advancing technology, it will not be surprising if, in the near future, conventional schools will be replaced by online home schooling, or some other small community schooling which uses technology to bring a wealth of educational information to student who are administered by one master teacher. Of all the options for studying at home, online home schooling offers the greatest adjust ability in terms of subject matter and school access.

Criteria for Choosing Wedding Entertainment

Entertainment is an integral part of any wedding reception and can certainly make everyone’s time more enjoyable. The days when the speeches and dancing were the only entertainment are long gone. Entertainment such as music or singing helps people to enjoy themselves and provides just the right atmosphere for your special day.

However, you need to think carefully about the kind of entertainment that you both want and that would also please your guests. Here are some criteria to go by when choosing your wedding entertainment.

  • The theme and style of the wedding. Your wedding might be a really formal affair, or it might go to the other extreme and be totally informal or casual. You can have it however you want, but choosing the right music to match is necessary. You wouldn’t want heavy classical music at an informal beach or garden wedding reception, for instance. Heavy metal would certainly not be appropriate at a wedding reception that was truly formal.
  • The ages of the guests. In most weddings the ages of the guests differ considerably. You may have young children and a few great grandmas or elderly aunts and uncles. Choosing entertainment to suit everyone may seem hard, but at least with music you can choose many different types so that everyone will be happy at least some of the time. If the ages of the guests differ like this then choosing a wedding DJ that has plenty of variety in his collection will be necessary. However, in some wedding receptions the guests are all around the same age and so your decision is easier. Most people like hearing the music that they grew up with.
  • Your own tastes. This is your day and so you should have music that you really like. Certainly you will want to please your guests, but you should be pleased too, so do not sacrifice your own happiness for that of your guests. You will probably have many people advising you on what they think you should have for your wedding entertainment. It is fine to listen to advice, but the choice should ultimately be your own.
  • Your budget. Your choice of music or entertainment will usually be constrained by your budget. Whether you choose a live band, a wedding DJ with many CDs or a live singer will depend on how much money you have allocated towards your reception. Usually the wedding DJ works out the cheapest and the live band will be the most expensive.
  • What is available in your area. Not everyone lives in a city where lots of entertainment is available for the asking. If you import entertainment it will certainly cost more, so if you are on a budget, consider using local talent, or a local wedding DJ.

Taking these considerations into account will help you to make the right decision regarding entertainment for your wedding reception. When you choose the right entertainment you can be sure of having a reception that everyone enjoys and that you will remember for many years to come.

Business Management – The Art of Getting Things Done

There are many challenges to being a business manager. One of the main challenges is getting the most important things done. This means that you need to be meeting your objectives everyday to ensure business efficiency and success.

Successful managers are able to get the important tasks done because they focus only on the activities that will ensure they meet their business objectives in the most effective way. What it comes down to is simply having a system that enables the business manager to work and perform more effectively.

In today’s fast paced business world is important that you acquire a ‘do it now’ habit and approach to your work. This means you must work towards consistently reaching your business targets. To do this effectively you must be able to identify and approach each task in the right order.

When a manager is able to get things done effectively it means they are in control of their business and personal lives. They are able to organise themselves and their activities more efficiently and this helps with keeping stress levels down to a minimum. By having a high organised approach to their work an effective manager is able to cope with last minute changes as well as dealing with the important issues of the day.

An effective manager who has a ‘do it now’ mentality has a high awareness of time and how to use it effectively. They understand that time and what they do with their time is more important than anything else. They have the mindset that every second counts.

Successful mangers who have a ‘do it now’ attitude understand the importance of building strong and quality business relations with their team and other influential people in the organisation. They understand that they do not have enough time or power to get everything done therefore, they use other peoples time and skill to leverage their own time to reach their objectives.

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