Bob Mackie

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Robert Gordon Mackie (b. March 24, 1940 in Monterey Park, California) is an American fashion designer, best known for his costumes for Cher and for The Carol Burnett Show.
Mackie is also known for his exclusive designs of dress for high-priced Barbie dolls.
Two of Mackie's best-remembered creations had a humorous element. While working on the "The Carol Burnett Show", he designed a "curtain dress" (complete with a curtain rod across the shoulders) that Carol Burnett wore in the Went with the Wind parody. Mackie also designed the garish ensemble worn by Cher at the March 1986 Academy Awards: black stretch pants, a bejeweled loincloth, kneehigh boots, a black chainlink top, and a huge feathered Mohawk headdress that was one and a half times taller than her head. Introduced by Jane Fonda with the words, "Wait'll you see what's gonna come out here," Cher was appearing as a presenter after what many considered an Oscar snub (Cher was not nominated for her performance in Mask). "As you can see," said Cher, "I did receive my Academy booklet on how to dress like a serious actress."
Mackie is often called the sultan of sequins, or the rajah of rhinestones known for his sparkling and imaginative costume designs. He has won seven Emmy Awards for his designs and was thrice nominated for an Academy Award. He attended Pasadena City College and Chouinard Art Institute.
Mackie has said A woman who wears my clothes is not afraid to be noticed. He designed for a lot of woman in showbizz but mostly for Diana Ross. Most of her stage outfits are done by Bob Mackie and this from very early on in her carreer.

Diana Ross' Leading Lady Medley. All Mackie designs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJevWgly2Go

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the "BET AWARDS" 2007

The BET Awards were established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate African Americans and other minorities in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment over the past year. The awards are presented annually and broadcast live on BET.



This year's nominees were announced on May 16 and followed by the BET Awards show which aired live from Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 8PM ET, with a 2-hour preshow kicking off at 6PM ....


Mo'nique played host for the 7th annual awards show - in which viewers were asked to vote for who they think were deserving of this year's Viewers Choice Awards.


Major BET nods in 2007 included Beyonce with boyfriend Jay-Z (in collaboration, and for separate megahit performances) followed by Ciara, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Gnarls Barkely, Corinne Bailey Rae and Mary Mary among other multiple BET nominees.

Special tributes were given to the late soul singer James Brown, while Motown diva Diana Ross was honored with The Lifetime Achievement Award. For his work in Darfur, actor Don Cheadle received this year's Humanitarian Award.

Diana Ross with her 5 children at the "BET AWARDS" 2007.













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Check out Mo'nique who just proved together with her girls that you don't have to be thin to be in!!! And watch Beyoncé when she realizes that Mo'Nique is doing a Beyoncé song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwD3p42O7-s
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"freedom"

What happens when people who know it all aren't heard by the people who think they know it all?

Want to know the answer?..... see my "freedom of speech" blog
(by invitation only)

Salim Gauwloos

Todays post is about "Antwerpenaars" in the world. One of them made it big but is still unknown for most Belgians. Salim Gauwloos is better known to the world as "SLAM" Madonna's dance partner during her Blond Ambition Tour back in 1990.









Slam's career commenced when he began training in his native Belgium, at the Ballet of Flanders in Antwerp. At the age of seventeen, Slam auditioned in Belgium for a scholarship to a prestigious Dance School in New York City. Out of the two thousand dancers that auditioned, he was one of the two dancers who were awarded the scholarship.

In 1990 he began his association with Madonna. He is most famous for his performances in “The Blond Ambition Tour,” the documentary film, “Truth or Dare,” and he has also performed in several of her videos, such as "Vogue,” “Hanky Panky" and “Holiday” (live).

In addition, he has performed in music videos for the most popular artists in the entertainment industry. He has worked with Mia Michaels' company R.A.W and with Margo Sappington's Company The Daring Project, where he performed with Valentina Kozlova. He performed in New York City Opera's productions of “Salome,” “Daphne,” and “Candide.” His Broadway credits include Elton John and Tim Rice's “Aida” on Broadway, and “Mambo Kings,” The Workshop.

Slam has acquired a reputation as not only and extraordinary dancer, but also as an exceptionally gifted choreographer. He was selected to showcase his choreography in the prestigious Ballet Builders 2002, 2004, and 2006. His work choreographing the number for Aida's performance at Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids, won “Gypsy of the Year 2003."

He recently presented two world premieres set on Orlando Ballet under the Artistic Direction of Fernando Bujones, which received rave reviews —“His synergy of forms is so fresh”—“This dance is as cerebral as it is visceral”—by Diane Hubbard Burns for the Orlando Sentinel. His work “I Breathe You In” was recently performed at Orlando Ballet’s production “A World of Dance” under the artistic direction of Bruce Marks.

The contemporary solo titled “Coming of Age” that Slam created for Joseph Gorak (ABT II and winner of the Youth America Grand Prix 2006 in New York City) was performed at the Gala “Stars of Today meet the Stars of Tomorrow,” held at City Center.

Slam will be teaching a workshop for Ballet de Monterrey, alongside luminaries Robert Hill (Artistic director of Ballet de Monterrey and former principal with ABT), Georgina Parkinson (Ballet Mistress ABT), and Laura Alonso (General Director of Centro Prodanza, Cuba).

Check out Slam at his website http://www.therealslam.com/

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What happened?

During the time of not posting and now I did a lot of things. One is renovating my bedroom. I now have this nice new bed in Bamboo. It took me a while to find a store who had exactly the Bamboo that I wanted but I managed and it was worth the wait cause it's a "fun" place to sleep.... I still need some volunteers to test it.... lol. I also went to see Diana Ross in concert here in Belgium and in Holland. She was great and I enjoyed it very much! But more later!
I have to go now but don't forget to tune in cause like I told you in my previous post..... I'm back!

I'm back

Hi all,

I'm back and this after a couple of months of not posting anything due to the fact of having not much time to do so. Than by the time I wanted to start posting again this terrible boat accident occured.... But now it's time to go on with everything that's fun in life cause I realised that life's too short.

Patrick