Bonnie Carroll's Life Bites

The TASTE AWARDS Committee and TasteTV are pleased to announced the following changes for the 4th Annual TASTE AWARDS, including a June 20th Call for Entries. The annual TASTE AWARDS celebrate and honor the year's best in Food, Fashion, and Home lifestyle programs on Television, in Film, Online, and on Radio.

The Winners of the 4th Annual TASTE AWARDS will now be announced in December 2012, instead of January 2013, and will take place via a livestream feed. The annual January awards show in Hollywood has been redesigned into the new "TASTE AWARDS Red Carpet Gala", designed to celebrate and fete the pre-announced winners, nominees, and honorees of the TASTE AWARDS.

The Call for Entries will also now include two periods in which to submit nominations. An Early Bird period from June 20-July 16, and a Standard period from July 17-August 24. Nominations can be submitted by any associated party, however fan nominations are not accepted. Fans will be able to vote during the People's Choice Voting in November.

In addition to the main award categories for television, film, broadband, and radio, the following categories have also been either added or moved to a new category group: Best Games (non-mobile apps), Best Mobile Device Apps, Best Branded video promotion or campaign, Best Animation, Best Children's programming, Best Health & Fitness program, Best Online Beauty program

Winners from the 3rd Annual TASTE AWARDS in January 2012 included "No Reservations", "Drinking Made Easy", "Originals with Emeril", "Top Chef: Just Desserts", "Top Chef", "Aarti Party", "Project Runway", "Extra Virgin", "Ludo Bites America", "Restaurant Impossible","Check Please, Bay Area", "Mexico - One Plate at a Time", "My Drunk Kitchen", "Without Borders", "Style.com", "Average Betty", "Raising the Bar with Jamie Boudreau", "Kung Fu Panda 2", "Cuisine Culture", "The Chew", Steve Jobs, Debi Mazar, Stanley Tucci, "Kaitlyn's Beauty Journal,"and "Food Wishes. Channel winners included TLC, the Travel Channel, Public Television, The Food Network, the Cooking Channel, Bravo, E! Entertainment, Lifetime, and the Style Network.

The event featured an exciting lineup of celebrity presenters including the Food Network's Carrie McCully, Tanya Holland, Manouschka Guerrier, and Candice Kumai, Bravo TV's Fabio Viviani, Nyesha Arrington, and Danielle Keene, Public Television's Joanne Weir and Nathan Lyon, ION TV's Michelle Harris, food broadcast gurus Bobby Bognar, Zuzy Martin Lynch, and Susan Irby, plus food and drink humorists Zane Lamprey and Jolene Sugarbaker.

Major award sponsor, Kikkoman took part in the 2012 event in Hollywood. Food and wine for the star-studded evening was provided by purveyors such as CBS Foods, Sartori Cheese, Schiltz Farm's roast goose, The Estonian Consulate, Pure Dark chocolate, Mignon Chocolate, Peju Winery, Raymond Vineyards, R&B Cellars, thinkThin, Deep River Snacks, Food Should Taste Good, Mediterranean Snacks, Cinda's Toffee, Toffee Break, Toffee Talk, Tequila Alquimia, Qure Water, Shoop's, Fukuburger, Pink Taco, and VAD Vodka.

Other contributions came from sponsors and partners like SummerJasmines, Ferrara Flames, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts - Los Angeles, the Thompson Beverly Hills, Yelp, Eventbrite, Ecogenics, Jenuinely Pure, Sella All Natural Skincare, and PR Newswire. PR support came from Karen Marines of FAB PR.

The TASTE AWARDS mission is to honor and promote quality programming in Food, Fashion, and Home lifestyle topics on Television, in Film, Online, and on Radio.

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum recently hosted and jointly presented with members of The Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Museum & Library a beautiful program honoring the US Navy & Marines who served in World War II, and provided special guests speakers and a film on Midway/Guadalcanal for guest’s enjoyment. Greg Gorga, Executive Director of SBMM expressed his pleasure to share in this historic program with PCVM.

Lt. John Blankenship, founding director of the Pierre Claeyssen’s Veterans Museum & Library, and Brigadier General Frederick Lopes, distinguished 31 year career US Marine hosted the evening, and it was attended by Col. Paul Dupre, USMC, served 33 years in the Marine Corp and won a silver and bronze star during his career, and Col. Harvey Walseth, USMC, who served for 24 years and was a graduate of the Naval Academy in 1934.

A collection of memorabilia from WWII was on display during the event that will soon be placed in The Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Museum & Library scheduled to open in 2012. Many of the attendees at this event served in WWII and were delighted to hear about the new museum to be opened honoring this significant period in American history. A Pierre Claeyssen's quote was on display and read "To be killed in war is not the worst that can happen. To be lost is not the worst that can happen...to be forgotten is the worst."

Community members in attendance said they look forward to the opening of the new VeteransMuseum with pride and anticipation. For additional information or donations to the MaritimeMuseum at www.sbmm.org. For updates on The Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Museum & Library visit www.pierreclaeyessensveteransmuseum.org.

It was a nostalgic evening for many in the room who had loved ones who served in this battle, including me – my own father served as a US Marine in Guam, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Semper Fi . . . now and forever!

The downtown core rocked for blocks last week as hundreds of thousands of style fanatics scouted the city streets for all things exciting, edgy and eccentric during the 12^th edition of the Montreal Fashion and Design Festival (FDFM), in collaboration with the Casino de Montréal.

Stars fell from the sky and landed on McGill College Ave as the pumped-up public joined mobs of media to soak up the universally unique atmosphere at the largest open-air festival of its kind in North America. More than 100 fashion, design and music events sparkled on the stages and streets as social media outlets were flooded with thousands of tweets, “likes” and followers.

“Fashion steps up: Festival Mode & Design celebrates style in the city. In a city of summer festivals, it’s now fashion’s turn to step up. The 12th annual Festival Mode & Design kicked off in stilettoed splendour Wednesday, Aug. 1, on McGill College Ave., the plaza of Place Ville Marie, and for Thursday’s shopping rally – our answer to Fashion’s Night Out – along Ste. Catherine St. and in the major malls.” - Eva Friede, The Gazette.

"The breadth of visionary talent and sartorial creativity that stalked the runway down the center of Avenue McGill College was a resplendent testament to Montreal's role as the style and fashion bellwether of Canada. The splendid parade of innovative ensembles was a choreographic homage to our fashion-obsessed world - and a joyful reminder of fashion's fun quotient in the hands of the fiercely fabulous." –
Mark Thompson, Edge Media Network National Editor, Style & Travel, New York.

Le FMDM est plus populaire que jamais et mise sur des défilés-événements pour faire rayonner les créations d'ici." - Sandra Godin, Journal de Montréal

The star-power continued as international celebrities including Jay Manuel, Jeanne Beker and Usher showed their love for the festival’s creative vibe by showing up ready to party.

"Montréal Fashion and Design Festival has become such a phenomenal world class event! The caliber of the production, the sophistication of the staging, the visual impact of what comes out on that colourful catwalk--it all makes for such a memorable and stylish street experience. It was thrilling to be associated with this year's event. I only wish this glorious festival would come to Toronto! It's a real eye-opener, in terms of what can be done with meticulous organization and great vision." - Jeanne Beker

“It was great to debut my Fall/Winter collection for ATTITUDE Jay Manuel in Montreal,” said Jay Manuel, Creative Director of ATTITUDE Jay Manuel at Sears. “I’m always inspired by the vibrant approach that Montreal women take to dressing, so I wanted to give a nod to their style by mixing striking patterns and strong silhouettes for a look that has daring personality and attitude.”

Jay kept busy during the excitement by posting event photos and sending tweets out to his more than 700,000 Twitter followers, flooding the US and international markets with highlights of Montreal’s most magnificent showcase of creativity.

Best-loved leading designers like Denis Gagnon, Marie St-Pierre and Yves Jean Lacasse also made sure not to miss out on the high points of the festival that featured loads of local talent this year as always.

The DE:MTL campaign, crafted to make it simple for style hunters to spot our city’s darlings of design, culminated in Saturday’s highly attended Collectif DE:MTL show. In collaboration with the MDEIE, the spectacle highlighted the talent of such creative local personalities as Anna Note, Blank Cocollily, Cokluch, Dom Rebel, Rachel F. Elisa C.Rossow, Geneviève Savard, Harricana, Jean-Paul Cobeil, Mackage, Miss Mak Designs, Perdram Karimi, Soia and Kyo, M0851 and more.

The opening-night Dressing Room spectacle drew international attention to the MFDF main stage as choreographer Noémie Lafrance melded expert moves with YSO’s unmistakable styling and the heart-pumping music of DJ Christian Pronovost.

The 60th Anniversary Season is coming in 2 months!

Celebrate our 60th Anniversary by joining us for what promises to be the most exciting season ever.

2012-2013 Season Highlights
Rachmaninoff: Concerto #2

Beethoven: Symphony #5
Saint-Saens: Organ Symphony
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola
Stravinsky: Firebird Suite with State Street Ballet
Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Mahler: Symphony #2 "Resurrection"

Full 7-concert or Flex 4-concert series subscriptions on sale

Call Symphony Office at 805-898-9386 to subscribe. Subscribers receive exclusive benefits, including flexible ticket exchanges and 20% discount on additional single tickets. First-time new subscribers also qualify for a discount rate!

Click here to view the 2012-2013 season calendar
Click here to view or download the season brochure

October 21, 2012-January 6, 2013
Regenstein Hall
* Major exhibition: premieres in Chicago before traveling to Schaulager Basel, Switzerland *

Overview: Steve McQueen has had a 20-year career as a visual artist working primarily in moving images and is widely recognized as the director of the unflinching feature films Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011). As the holder of the largest collection of work by McQueen in any museum in the United States, the Art Institute of Chicago is proud to present, in the first large-scale survey ever devoted to the artist, 15 of his works, including one created specially for the exhibition and on view for the first time.

Born in London in 1969 to West Indian immigrants, McQueen made his first major work, Bear , in 1993 as he was completing his studies in the visual arts at Goldsmiths College. In the following two decades, he has produced a steady stream of evocative moving-image installations that blend elements of contemporary life and social commentary. His subject matter varies widely--meditations on immigration and diaspora, hip-hop culture, mining conditions in Africa, gun violence in Britain--but is always underscored by an emphasis on the individual body, often his own, as the surface on which contemporary life is written. Just as emphatically, McQueen uses film to explore the very essence of the medium itself. Distilled into contrasts between light and darkness, motion and stillness, and sound and silence, McQueen's installations are formally rich and multifaceted, redrawing the boundaries between fine art and filmmaking. Also included in the exhibition and on view for the first time outside the United Kingdom is Queen and Country (2006), a project composed of stamps bearing portraits of the British men and women who lost their lives in Iraq, which McQueen completed as an official British war artist.

McQueen won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1999 and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2009. In 2011, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the visual arts. The Art Institute is the only museum in the United States presenting this exhibition, which will travel to Switzerland in 2013.

Publication: A catalogue raisonné will accompany Steve McQueen and includes contributions by James Rondeau, Dittmer Chair and Curator of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago; Stuart Comer, curator of film at Tate Modern, London; Okwui Enwezor, director of Haus der Kunst, Munich; Jean Fisher, writer and professor of fine art and transcultural studies at Middlesex University, London; and Georges Didi-Huberman, art historian and philosopher. The hardcover, 180-page catalogue, published by Schaulager Basel / Laurenz-Stiftung and distributed by Kehrer, includes more than 200 illustrations.

Other Venues: Steve McQueen will travel from the Art Institute of Chicago to Schaulager Basel, Switzerland, where it will be shown March 1-July 7, 2013.

Sponsor: Lead sponsorship for Steve McQueen is provided by Donna and Howard Stone. Major funding is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Lannan Foundation. Co-sponsorship is provided by Stephanie Skestos Gabriele and James Gabriele, Patty and Mark McGrath, and Barbara Ruben. Additional funding is provided by Judith Neisser, Penelope Steiner, and the Consulate General of The Netherlands in New York. Generous annual support is also provided by the Exhibitions Trust: Goldman Sachs, Kenneth and Anne Griffin, Thomas and Margot Pritzker, the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation, the Trott Family Foundation, and the Woman's Board of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Organizer and curator: Steve McQueen is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and Schaulager Basel, Switzerland. The exhibition is curated by James Rondeau, Dittmer Chair and Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute.

Image: Steve McQueen. Still from Charlotte (detail), 2004. Courtesy of the artist; Thomas Dane Gallery, London; and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York / Paris. Photo courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York / Paris.

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On the first day of fall, September 22, 2012, the Paris Louvre unveils its new wing and galleries dedicated to the arts of Islam, marking the museum's greatest development since the iconic glass pyramid constructed twenty years ago.

To house the new wing, architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti created a new glass structure with a unique undulating roof, sitting in the Louvre's Visconti courtyard. The contemporary wing, spanning over 30,000 square feet, thus does not detract from the museum's historical 17-century facades, but offers a new dimension to the famous museum.

The new Department of Islamic Art will exhibit a large portion of the Louvre's collection of 18,000 works, showcasing some pieces to the public for the first time. This colleciton of art from the Islamic world spans from the 7th to the 19th century, including a particularly impressive collection of textile works such as fabrics, rugs and carpets. For information visit: www.louvre.fr.