The U.S. state of Texas has long been a center for musical innovation and is the birthplace of many notable musicians. Texans have pioneered developments in Tejano and Conjunto music, Rock 'n Roll, Western swing, jazz, punk rock, country, hip-hop, electronic music, gothic industrial music, religious music, mariachi, psychedelic rock, zydeco and the blues.
The twist is a dance that was inspired by rock and roll music. From 1959 to the early sixties it became a worldwide dance craze, enjoying immense popularity while drawing controversies from critics who felt it was too provocative. It inspired dances such as the Jerk, the Pony, the Watusi, the Mashed Potato, the Monkey, and the Funky Chicken, but none were as popular.
David Arquette is an American actor and former professional wrestler. He is best known for his role as Dewey Riley in the slasher film franchise Scream, for which he won a Teen Choice Award and two Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.
Take 6 is an American a cappella gospel sextet formed in 1980 on the campus of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. The group integrates jazz with spiritual and inspirational lyrics. Take 6 has received several Grammy Awards as well as Dove Awards, a Soul Train Award and nominations for the NAACP Image Award.
The Winans family is a U.S. family of gospel music artists from Detroit, Michigan.
Balloon modelling or balloon twisting is the shaping of special modelling balloons into various shapes, often balloon animals. People who create balloon animals and other twisted balloon decoration sculptures are called twisters, balloon benders, and balloon artists. Twisters often perform in restaurants, at birthday parties, fairs and at public and private events or functions.
Yolanda Yvette Adams is an American gospel singer, actress, and host of her own nationally syndicated morning gospel show. She is one of the best-selling gospel artists of all time, having sold over 10 million albums worldwide. In addition to achieving multi-platinum status, she has won four Grammy Awards, four Dove Awards, five BET Awards, six NAACP Image Awards, six Soul Train Music Awards, two BMI Awards and sixteen Stellar Awards. She was the first Gospel artist to be awarded an American Music Award.
David Ritz is an American author. He has written novels, biographies, magazine articles, and over a hundred liner notes for artists such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Nat King Cole. He has coauthored 36 autobiographies, including some celebrities' autobiographies.
A toy balloon or party balloon is a small balloon mostly used for decoration, advertising and children's toys. Toy balloons are usually made of rubber or aluminized plastic, and inflated with air or helium. They come in a great variety of sizes and shapes, but are most commonly 10 to 30 centimetres in diameter. Toy balloons are not considered to include "sky lanterns", although these too are or were used as child toys in some parts of the world.
The Inside Film Awards is an annual awards ceremony and broadcast platform for the Australian film industry, developed by the creators of Inside Film Magazine, Stephen Jenner and David Barda, and originally produced for television by Australian Producer Andrew Dillon. The awards are determined by a national audience poll, which differentiates it from the Australian AACTA Awards, which are judged by industry professionals.
Shelton "Shelly" Glen Berg is an American classical and jazz pianist and music educator. He is the dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida and the school's Patricia L. Frost Professor of Music.
Joey Dee and the Starliters is an American popular music group. The group is best known for their million-selling recording "Peppermint Twist" (1961). The group's most notable lineup is considered to be Joey Dee, David Brigati, Larry Vernieri (vocals), Carlton Lattimore (organ), Sam Taylor (guitar) and Willie Davis (drums). Jimi Hendrix and Joe Pesci played guitar with the group at different times in the 1960s.
Lawrence “Larry” Charles Moss (born September 25, 1970) is an American artist, writer and educator who works mainly with latex balloons. He is known, in the field of large-scale balloon sculpture as art installation, for creating technically and aesthetically challenging sculptures which often incorporate literary, art and pop culture references. In March 2015, The Washington Post ran a profile on Moss which identified him as "the best balloon artist in the world."
Henry J. Maar (1921–1992), known as "The Sultan of Balloons", was one of the pioneers in balloon twisting. He appeared for over a decade on episodes of the long running Bozo's Circus. While the origins of balloon twisting is impossible to prove, Emmy Award winning producer/director Joseph Maar has provided evidence that his father, Henry, may be the founder of balloon twisting. Larry Moss calls Joseph Maar's evidence "compelling" but warns that if Joseph Maar is correct then the history of balloon twisting would have to be rewritten. For example, the 1975 book by "Jolly the Clown" Petri credits "Herman Bonnert from Pennsylvania at a magician's convention in 1939" as being the first balloontwister.
The Twisters were a blues band from North Vancouver, British Columbia. They are signed to Toronto's NorthernBlues Music.
Addi Somekh is a self-taught balloon artist who has been twisting balloons since 1991. Best known for his balloon hats, Somekh's other signature pieces include the balloon flower, balloon ring, and large-scale balloon sculptures. In addition to his balloon twisting, Somekh is an author, university philosophy instructor, and musician. With photographer Charles (Charlie) Eckert, Somekh traveled around the world creating balloon hats for people of various backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs in an effort to demonstrate the universal power of joy and laughter. These journeys have been photo-documented in calendars, books, and films.
The International Fellowship of Christian Magicians was formed in 1953 by a group of individuals interested in sharing the Gospel using sleight of hand illusions, juggling, puppetry, ventriloquism, comedy, clowning, mime, facepainting, storytelling and related performance-arts disciplines. Since its beginnings in California it has grown into an international organization with thousands of members past and present. These members are not only performers of Gospel magic, but also entertainers across the world, secular and gospel, that are members of the Christian faith. Notable members have included ministers and entertainers like: Andre Kole, Duane Laflin, Justin Flom, Randy Christensen, Kenrick "ICE" McDonald, Lance Burton, Don Bursell, David McCreary, David Ginn, Robert Hill, Peter McCahon, Toby Travis, Mark Shortland, Wes Iseli and others.
Tank and the Bangas is an American musical group based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The band won the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Contest and in November 2019, they were nominated in the Best New Artist category for the 2020 Grammy Awards. They have released three studio albums, Thinktank (2013), Green Balloon (2019), and Red Balloon (2022).
Testify is a Southern Gospel/Contemporary Christian vocal band founded by two brothers, Kenneth Swanner and Brent Swanner in 1995. Testify has performed at the Southern Baptist Convention, multiple State Baptist Conventions, Gaither Homecoming Concerts, Chick-fil-a Corporate Headquarters, Theaters in Branson, at TBN, the Grand Ole Opry, GMT and in Nashville for a concert at Lifeway Christian Resource Center of the Southern Baptist Convention. In October 2001 Testify performed at the Roy Acuff Theater for the "Heal Our Land Benefit Concert" for the victims of 9/11.
