steven tyler

Steven Tyler [born Steven Victor Tallarico; March 26, 1948] is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, and the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is also known as the "Demon of Screamin" and is equally known for his on-stage acrobatics. During his high-energy performances, he usually dresses in bright, colorful outfits with his trademark scarves hanging from his microphone stand. In the 1970s, Tyler rose to prominence as the frontman of Aerosmith, which released such milestone hard rock albums as Toys in the Attic and Rocks. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tyler had a heavy drug and alcohol addiction, and the band's popularity waned.

He completed drug rehabilitation in 1986 and has subsequently maintained sobriety for over 20 years, aside from a painkiller addiction in the late 2000s, for which he successfully received treatment in 2009. After Aerosmith launched a remarkable comeback in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the albums Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip, Tyler became a household name and has remained a relevant rock icon. As a result, he has since embarked on several solo endeavors including guest appearances on other artists' music as well as film and TV roles [including as a judge on American Idol]. However, he has continued to record music and perform with Aerosmith, after more than 41 years in the band. He recently was included among Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers. He was also ranked 3rd on Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. In 2001 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Aerosmith, and he was the presenter when AC/DC was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.

Steven Victor Tallarico was born March 26, 1948 in Yonkers, New York, the son of Susan [née Blancha], a secretary, and Victor A. Tallarico, a classical musician and pianist. His father was of Italian and German descent and his mother was of Polish, Russian and English ancestry [his maternal grandfather had changed his surname from "Czarnyszewicz" to "Blancha"]. Tyler has stated that he grew up "under his father's piano", and that from what his father played, he got "that emotional thing" that he has with music. When he was sixteen, he formed his first band, called The Strangeurs, later changed to Chain Reaction, where he was the drummer, and later the lead singer. Tyler also had been part of a few local bands, like William Proud and The Left Banke. He was expelled from Roosevelt High School in Yonkers due to his drug use. He graduated from the Leonard Quintano for Young Professionals School in 1967. He attended Woodstock with Joe Perry and Joey Kramer, his future Aerosmith band - mates.

source: wikipedia

manny champion pacquiao

manny pacman pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley is an upcoming Welterweight superfight for the WBO Welterweight championship. The bout will be held on May 7, 2011, at MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

natalie portman

Natalie Hershlag [Hebrew: נטלי הרשלג‎; born June 9, 1981], better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon. During the 1990s, Portman had major roles in films including Beautiful Girls and Anywhere but Here, before being cast for the role as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. In 1999, she enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology while she was working on the Star Wars films.She completed her bachelor's degree in 2003.

In 2001, Portman opened in New York City's Public Theater production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. In 2005, Portman received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for the drama Closer. She shaved her head and learned to speak with a British accent for her starring role in V for Vendetta [2006], for which she won a Constellation Award for Best Female Performance, and a Saturn Award for Best Actress. She played leading roles in the historical dramas Goya's Ghosts [2006] and The Other Boleyn Girl [2008]. In May 2008, she served as the youngest member of the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival jury. Portman's directorial debut, Eve, opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival's shorts competition in 2008.

In 2011, Portman won the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, and the BAFTA Award for her lead performance as Nina in Black Swan.

Portman was born in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Shelley [née Stevens], an American homemaker who works as Portman's agent, and Avner Hershlag, an Israeli citizen who is a fertility specialist and gynecologist. Portman's maternal ancestors were Jewish immigrants to the United States, from Austria and Russia [her mother's family had changed their surname from "Edelstein" to "Stevens"]. Her paternal ancestors were Jews who moved to Israel from Poland and Romania. Her paternal grandfather, whose parents died at Auschwitz, was an economics professor in Israel, and her Romanian-born great-grandmother was a spy for British Intelligence during World War II.

Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at Ohio State University, where her mother was selling tickets. They corresponded after her father returned to Israel, and were married when her mother visited a few years later. In 1984, when Portman was three years old, the family moved to the United States, where her father received his medical training. Portman, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, has said that although she "really love[s] the States... my heart's in Jerusalem. That's where I feel at home."

Portman and her family first lived in Washington, D.C., but relocated to Connecticut in 1988, and then settled on Long Island, New York, in 1990.

source: wikipedia

apl.de.ap

Allan Pineda Lindo, Jr. [born November 28, 1974] better known by his stage name apl.de.ap, is a rapper and record producer and is best known as a member of the The Black Eyed Peas.

Apl.de.ap was born in Sapang Bato, Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines, to a Filipino mother and an African-American father. His father, a U.S. airman stationed at Clark Air Base, abandoned the family shortly after his birth; his mother, Cristina Pineda, raised him and his six younger siblings as a single mother.

As a child, apl.de.ap would make an hour-long jeepney trip to and from school, and helped his family subsist by farming sweet potatoes, corn, sugar cane and rice.[citation needed] The Pearl S. Buck Foundation, an organization that finds healthier living environments for young abandoned or orphaned Amerasian children, matched him with a sponsor named Joe Ben Hudgens through a dollar-a-day program. He initially came to the United States at the age of 11 to treat nystagmus, an involuntary movement of the eyes. During a trip to Disneyland, Apl expressed his interest in staying in the United States. It would take another three years for Hudgens to officially adopt him, but at fourteen he moved permanently to the United States to live with Hudgens.

In Los Angeles, he attended John Marshall High School where he befriended William Adams [stage name will.i.am], the nephew of Hudgens' roommate.  He went to college at Holy Angel University. Apl.de.ap's early musical influences were Stevie Wonder, The Eagles, The Beatles, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Leaders of the New School and the popular Filipino rock/folk group, Asin. Apl was introduced to hip-hop by break dancing. "I would take the jeepney all the way to Angeles City, and that's how I got introduced to break dancing," he said. "I would see kids at the corner break-dancing and I'm like, 'I wanna do that.'"

He revealed to People Magazine in 2011 that he is legally blind in both of his eyes, suffering from nystagmus and has this condition his entire career. "I'm good at shapes. If I'm not close, even if it's big, I can't read it. I doubted myself for a long time," apl.de.ap said. "I'm comfortable not using my vision. I weave around my problems." He went on to say in the same article that "Until I discovered hip-hop, I felt I wasn't going to accomplish anything."

Two of his siblings are dead: his younger brother Arnel committed suicide [this is referenced in The Apl Song in the lines "I guess sometimes life's stresses get you down/Oh brother, wish I could have helped you out"]. His youngest brother, Joven Pineda Deala, was murdered at the age of 22 in February 2009 in Porac, Pampanga.

He and will.i.am formed a break-dancing crew called Tribal Nation and performed regularly at Southern California parties and events. From 1992–1995, their crew was re-named Atban Klann [ATBAN stands for "A Tribe Beyond a Nation"] and included MC Mookie Mook, performer Dante Santiago and producer DJ Motiv8. Atban Klann was eventually signed onto Eazy-E's label, Ruthless Records but Eazy-E's death put an end to their debut album Grass Roots.

Allan has brought his Filipino culture into his collaboration with The Black Eyed Peas. He explains his life story in a song called "The Apl Song" on the Peas' 2003 album Elephunk, which includes a full chorus in Tagalog sampled from the Asin song "Balita." The accompanying video, which includes cameos by fellow Filipino-Americans Dante Basco and Chad Hugo, is also a tribute to the Filipinos who fought for the U.S. in World War II; the song reached number one in the Philippines.

"Bebot" [which is Filipino slang for pretty woman] is another all-Tagalog song on 2005's Monkey Business album. A music video for "Bebot" was filmed in and around Los Angeles in early July 2006, including in Kenneth Hahn Park, where Dr. Dre's "Nuthin' but a "G" Thang" video was also filmed; the video features primarily Filipinos, Filipino Americans and other Asian-Americans from the Los Angeles area. The video was directed by Patricio Ginelsa who also directed "The Apl Song" and produced the Filipino-American coming of age movie The Debut. The single was not released in the US but was in the Philippines and several other Asian countries.

Apl.de.ap is working on a solo album. He recently disclosed in an interview that he would be collaborating with fellow Filipino-American Chad Hugo of The Neptunes and Illmind from G-Unit to incorporate traditional Filipino instruments into his songs. Some of his songs are uploaded on his MySpace page. On January 3, 2009, he debuted the first single, You Can Dream featuring Billy Crawford, from his upcoming album on the internationally broadcast Philippine variety/game show Wowowee. In August, he released a music video for his second single named Mama Filipina.

Apl.de.ap started the Apl Foundation. It is committed in giving back to communities and children within the Philippines and throughout Asia. He also started his own music company called Jeepney Music, Inc. It is currently based in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California. It currently handles DJs such as Free School, DJ Rockyrock, DJ MIA, and PoetNameLife.

Apl.de.ap recorded another Tagalog song for The Black Eyed Peas' fifth studio album, "The E.N.D.", the song is called "Mare". In 2009, he also had a song entitled "Take Me to The Philippines", in partnership with the Department of Tourism of the Philippines.
source: wikipedia