Better Angels Songwriting in Key West

KEY WEST - The Better Angels Key West Songwriters Festival will take place from April 28, 2009 through May 3, 2009. The 14th annual event, sponsored in-part by BMI and FURY Key West, will feature more than 130 performing songwriters in over 30 shows.

In connection with the festival, a limited edition CD will be sold to benefit the Nashville-based Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation. The proceeds will be used by the Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation to support educational programs and to foster opportunities for young, aspiring songwriters.

The limited edition CD is a collection of eclectic songs by multi-hit, performing songwriters. The CD features Desmond Myers and Kelsey Mula, alumni of Heart & Soul’s Noise! Camp, which is an annual two-week summer camp held at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, that aims to give students a first-hand look into the music industry. The CD also features several current number-one hit singles including:

• Kylie Sackley and Gary Burr — Nothin’ Bout Love Makes Sense — as
  made famous by LeAnn Rimes
• Jamey Johnson — In Color
• Tim Nichols — That’d Be Alright — as made famous by Alan Jackson
• Bob Dipiero — Till You Love Me — as made famous by Reba McEntire
• David Lee and David Turnbull — Lucky Man — as made famous by Montgomery Gentry.

Only 1,000 copies of the CD will be sold at the festival. The cost will be $20 per CD, while supplies last, and all proceeds will go towards the Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation. Any remaining quantities of the CD will be available for purchase on the Heart & Soul Foundation’s website, heart.muzak.com, beginning May 5, 2009.

“We are deeply honored to be the first-ever charity partner for the Better Angels Key West Songwriters Festival,” said Bob Cauley, President of the Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation. “This is a unique event that, like our limited edition CD, highlights the talents of songwriters. The CD, which will be available at the festival, features hit songs audiences know, sung by the songwriters themselves. We are excited to be working with Better Angels Music and to be a part of the Key West Songwriters Festival. Our foundation also looks forward to giving back to the Key West community with a surprise on the stage of the Big Show on Saturday night.”

Stephen P. Villa, Chief Executive Officer of Muzak and member of the Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation Board of Directors, said, “The Key West Songwriters Festival is an opportunity for Muzak and our Heart & Soul Foundation to celebrate songwriters and their music. It is also the perfect venue to increase awareness about the importance of music education. In our 75th year of operation, Muzak is dedicated to continuing the success of the Heart & Soul Foundation in order to give back to the communities we serve and to advance the foundation’s mission of redefining and supporting music education.”

About Muzak Heart and Soul

Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to redefining and supporting music education. Heart and Soul helps students channel their passion for music into real world opportunities by providing educational programs on all aspects of the music business. Established in 1998 by Muzak, a leading provider of business, music, and other sensory branding services that believes in the power of music education to change and better lives, the foundation grants over $100,000 annually to school music programs around the country.

About Muzak

Muzak creates experiences that reach more than 100 million people daily. Some of the biggest brands in business work with Muzak to enhance their brand image. More than 80 core music programs and an endless variety of custom programs are distributed through a national network of sales and service locations, from Muzak’s library of approximately 2.5 million tracks. For more information, visit www.muzak.com.

Cummer in Jacksonville Features Quilts

JACKSONVILLE – The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens presents “A Survey of Gee’s Bend Quilts”, May 12 – August 2. The quilts of the women of the tiny rural town of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, are praised by the New York Times as, “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.”

The quilts have been shown at major art museums across the United States. Call (904) 356-6857 or see www.thecummer.org.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Weekend July 2

DAYTONA BEACH – NASCAR returns to Daytona International Speedway in July for the mid-summer spectacular under the lights with the July Sprint Cup Weekend from July 2 – 4.

Visitors to the Daytona Beach area can enjoy Grand-Am’s Brumos Porsche 250 Rolex Sports Car Race on July 2, the July Nationwide Series Race on July 3, and the 51st running of the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola on July 4. See www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or call (800) PIT-SHOP.

Picturing Eden at Ringling Museum

SARASOTA – Eden and paradise are themes that resonate across time and cultures, and are places that are still sought after today. “Picturing Eden,” an exhibit at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, features the concept of the garden as a symbol for both good and evil.

The exhibition, which runs May 9 – August 2, highlights the work of 37 photographic artists from six countries as they examine the ideas of paradise as a quiet, thoughtful place, as well as a place of despair. Organized into four sections; Paradise Lost, Paradise Reconstructed, Despairing of Paradise and Paradise Anew, the images explore the development and changing styles of the garden and the belief in paradise. Picturing Eden looks at original lost innocence, the significance of the humanistic environment and its place in the history of art.

See www.ringling.org

Animation Show Featers Cartoon Network Stars

TAMPA – Capturing the phenomenon of motion drawing can be traced all the way back to Paleolithic cave paintings—and is still popular in some of your kid’s favorite Cartoon Network shows. ANIMATION, an all-new summer exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry, goes on a quest to understand how animation really works. This traveling exhibition brings together art, math, science, and technology. Visitors will have an opportunity to explore the process of animation, surrounded by colorful larger-than-life graphics of popular cartoon and animation characters from Cartoon Network. See www.mosi.org.

Florida Architecture Explored July 20-22 With Steve McCurry Photos

ORLANDO – The Orange County Regional History Center will host “Looking East,” an exhibit by world renowned photographer Steve McCurry, and “Culture Quest: Florida Architecture 101: From Chickees to Cottages.” From August 21 – October 4, Looking East will allow visitors to the history center a chance to view the stunning photographs taken by Steve McCurry.

This collection includes some iconic images, such as the green-eyed Afghan girl recently featured in a National Geographic Greatest Portraits exhibition. Culture Quest is a three-day immersion experience of “Architecture with a Florida Twist.” This exhibit will reveal some of the rich history that Central Florida has to offer; helping people understand the many styles of structures from the region’s very early days to the present, including forts, family dwellings, public structures and more.

Buildings, such as the History Center and other points of interest in the area, will be explored; experts in the field will lead various discussions and field trips. Hands-on activities enhance this three-day adventure July 20 – 22. See www.thehistorycenter.org

Mennello Features Arts Earl Cunningham

ORLANDO – Mennello Museum of American Art presents “Earl Cunningham’s America,” March 6 – August 2. This art exhibit will feature some of the paintings of Earl Cunningham, one the premier folk artists of the 20th century. “Earl Cunningham’s America” features 50 of Cunningham’s canvases. See www.mennellomuseum.org

Dinosaurs Alive at Challenger Learning Center

TALLAHASSEE – On July 3 the Challenger Learning Center’s IMAX Theatre begins showing Dinosaurs Alive! Movie-goers can see the earliest creatures of the Triassic Period to the monsters of the Cretaceous period, in a ‘life-sized’ IMAX presentation. Join renowned paleontologists as they discover new fossils and uncover evidence that dinosaur descendants are still among us. Realistic and scientifically-accurate computer generated animation brings dinosaurs back to life. See www.challengertlh.com

Camp Blanding Hunting Changed, Canceled

STARKE - Many of the 2009-10 hunting seasons on the Camp Blanding Wildlife Management Area have been rescheduled or canceled because of military training.

• The archery hunts scheduled for Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 and Oct. 6-8 have been cancelled, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the Camp Blanding Joint Training Center.
• The muzzleloading gun hunts scheduled for Oct. 13-15 and Oct. 20-22 also have been cancelled.
• The supervised youth hunt scheduled for Oct. 10-11 and Oct. 24-25 have been rescheduled to Dec. 12-13 and Jan. 9-10, 2010.
• The general gun dog-hunt season scheduled for Nov. 21-29 this year has been rescheduled to Nov. 23-29.
• The general gun still-hunt season scheduled for Nov. 21, 2009, to Jan. 17, 2010, has been rescheduled to Nov. 23, 2009, to Jan. 17, 2010.
• The general gun still-hunt nine-day quota period, Nov. 21-29, has been shortened to a general gun still-hunt, seven-day quota period, Nov. 23-29. This seven-day quota period is divided into a four-day hunt, Nov. 23-26, and a three-day hunt, Nov. 27-29.

“The 53rd Infantry Brigade, the largest National Guard unit in Florida, and a number of other National Guard units are scheduled to deploy in the next year. They normally conduct training during the summer months, but their mobilization has shifted it to the fall, impacting hunting season,” said Col. Mickey Duren, commander of Camp Blanding. “These restrictions are temporary and only as a result of the mobilization of these deploying units.”

“We understand there will be people who are disappointed these hunts have been cancelled or rescheduled,” said Roland Garcia, regional director of the FWC’s North Central Region.

The staffs from the Camp Blanding Joint Training Center and the FWC have worked diligently to minimize the impact to the hunting seasons while keeping training the priority, Garcia said.

“While military operations must come first, we understand the historical relationship local hunters and fishermen have to these public lands. We plan to return to offering normal hunting and fishing access as soon as we can,” Duren said.

The new regulation brochure will be available at MyFWC.com/Hunting in May. Read more about the history of Camp Blanding at Globalsecurity.org.

Red Snapper Season Opens June 1

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) reminds anglers that the recreational harvest season for red snapper in Gulf of Mexico waters has changed. The open season now takes place from June 1 through Sept. 30.

Previously, the recreational red snapper harvest season opened on April 15 in Gulf state waters, and the season in Gulf federal waters opened on April 21. Now, the recreational harvest season for red snapper in all Gulf waters off Florida does not open until June 1.

Researchers consider Gulf red snapper to be overfished (in the past) and undergoing more overfishing now. A shorter fishing season will reduce the harvest of Gulf red snapper and help rebuild the fishery’s population.

More information regarding the management of Gulf red snapper is available at MyFWC.com/RULESANDREGS/Saltwater_Regulations_RedSnapperIndex.htm.

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