SHOWS IN LAS VEGAS

The designers that create the high end fashions that influence the entire fashion community are publicity hounds. Dressing one Oscar or Grammy winner is enough to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in new orders and many new clients. For this reason, Lady Gaga is being pursued by designers around the globe. Fashion mavens know that just like the ubiquitous strapless bra seen on Madonna during her Like a Virgin years, just one garment worn by Mother Monster can translate to instant sales.

The problem with designer Hollywood fashions as seen on the red carpet is they are not garments that can be worn on a daily basis. These are strictly dressy, grown up fashions. Young fashionistas are looking for things that they can showcase daily. They want garments that have a cutting edge look but also are comfortable and low maintenance.  This is the reason that singers and musicians have always had such an influence on fashion. Clothing that only costs $20 to $30 can sell millions of pieces while a designer dress may be bought by less than a hundred people (especially at $10,000 each).

Lady Gaga lures in both. Her outlandish concept dresses and fashions offer a certain snob appeal, but many of her looks can be deconstructed and replicated on a limited budget. Best of all, the key components can be used. A girl doesn’t have to dress from head to toe like Gaga, but can incorporate one flashy piece based on her style. This is what the mass market retailers are counting upon.

Trends and styles come and go, but at the moment no one is causing more of a stir than Lady Gaga. Whether or not she will be talked into directly endorsing a certain designer or style for the masses remains to be seen. In the meantime, expect to see more Little Monsters at a mall store near you.

Accountants are often seen as boring, nerdy, and uninteresting, but you may be surprised to know that some of the country’s most celebrated artists, musicians, athletes, and entrepreneurs actually worked as accountants before gaining their fame.

Accountants Turned Artists

Bob Newhart – a legend in stand-up comedy, Bob Newhart is best loved roles such as Dr. Bob Hartley from The Bob Newhart Show, as well as Dick Loudon in his self-titled sitcom in the 80’s. Unbeknown to many, however, is the fact that Bob Newhart is a bachelor degree holder from Loyola University, where he majored in business management. After his discharge from the army, Newhart served as an accountant for many years within the United States Gypsum Corporation. While his ticket to fame will always be his innate ability to make people laugh, his accounting background helped shape his profession, allowing him to become one of the most successful entertainers of his generation.

John Grisham – the brilliant mind behind some of the most provocative and clever best sellers of all time, Grisham’s body of work includes The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Client, The Chamber, and The Rainmaker, all of which were adapted onto the big screen. His contributions in the field of fiction novel writing have catapulted his fame, making him one of the most respected and highest paid authors in the world. Other than being mighty with his words, Grisham is also very gifted when it came to numbers. A graduate of Mississippi State University where he completed his degree in accounting, Grisham then went on to study at the Mississippi School of Law.

Kenny G. – a musician at heart, Kenny G. also has roots in the world of finance as a graduate of the University of Washington. Although his initial career was short lived, his legacy as a musician will forever be remembered. His unparalleled musicality makes him one of the best saxophonists in the world, earning him a Grammy nod and recognition as one of the highest selling artists of 2003.

Tim DuBois – Tim Dubois is a record label executive from Nashville who started out as an accounting hopeful, leading some to dub him the Singing Accountant. DuBois has a B.A. and M.A in accounting from Oklahoma State University. But after working as a CPA in the 70’s, DuBois soon made the big leap to explore a career as a musician. Over the years, DuBois has been regarded as one of the greatest minds in country music.

Accountants Turned Business Magnates

Arthur Blank – a graduate of Babson College, Arthur Blank first honed his career in finance as part of the Handy Dan Hardware Company. Because of his exemplary skills and dedication, Blank soon rose through the ranks and became a regional manager. In 1978, after severing ties with his former employer, he founded Home Depot along with his partner Bernie Marcus, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Walter L. Morgan – touted as the youngest CPA in Pennsylvania, Morgan is a graduate of Princeton University. From humble beginnings filing tax returns for his affluent clients, Morgan later moved on to establish the Wellington Fund, the first ever mutual fund in the country, now with over $23 billion invested.

Accountants Turned Athletes

D-Lo Brown – before becoming a professional wrestler as a part of the WWF, Brown first worked as a CPA in his local home state of Maine.

Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell – a graduate of Cal Poly University, this Ultimate Fighting Champion and Dancing with the Stars contender holds a degree in business management and accounting.

These are just a few of accountant wanna-be’s who later carved out a famous name for themselves in various industries.

Could schools that offer accounting degrees online be your first step towards fame? Umm…probably not, but completing one of these accounting master’s programs can put you on the path to a good job and happy life.

Alec Baldwin, a self-confessed “Words with Friends” addict, isn’t the only A-list celebrity playing this addictive word game. Lindsay Lohan, John Mayer, Ludacris and Michael Phelps are just a few examples of the famous faces you might see on Words With Friends. From Katie Couric to Jon Hamm, it seems like everyone is confessing their love for Zygna’s smash-hit app.

Since its debut in 2009, the game has been the most downloaded applications in Apple’s online store. According to the tracking service AppData, the game has 12.5 million active monthly consumers. Since it’s inception, it has spawned dozens of knock-offs and Words With Friends Cheat apps.

It is a multiplayer word game that is played online usually via Facebook or on the user’s phone. Similar to Scrabble, the players obtain a random assortment of letters placed on tiles and should use these to form words on a grid similar to a crossword puzzle. Words containing rare letters like Z and Q value more points. Players take turns on forming words with their phones alerting them when it is already their turn. The game can go on for several days or even weeks. Some WFF players even juggle multiple games simultaneously against random opponents or friends.

WFF will help you make words from your tiles so that you no longer need to rely on your poor memory. The game is very easy to use as all you need to do is to plainly input all the tiles on the WFF game board interface. If one of the tiles is blank, make sure to insert a question mark after the letter. After that, choose your vocabulary level plus type in the tiles you presently have. Click on the go button and you will get the best possible word.

Another plus for this game is that the players can save their game and return back to it later. As the players can save the game, they will be able to utilize the cheat for more than one game at the same time. Using the cheat can make the game more enjoyable as you will leave your opponents wondering about how can you be that good in the game and beat them easily. If you think that your opponents are already starting to suspect that you are cheating, you can also choose a lower level of vocabulary for the word finder to be more subtle. As it implies, the WFF shows to be a pleasurable game that even some celebrities play the game and enjoy it.

Many guys aspiring to become a filmmaker try to distance themselves from their “film heritage” they want to study abroad, preferably at a school with a certain unique trademark or creative imprint. If you´re from the U.S. here´s a few reasons studying at a film school in Europe could benefit your development and career:
High quality undergraduate programs

In Europe, almost every film school offers a high quality undergraduate program. You don´t need to already have a degree in order to enroll for film making, you just finish school and you´re ready to go. Note that the focus of at least 90 % of European film schools lies on diploma education, 4 years, no bachelor – no master. It´s a comprehensive and valuable curriculum that takes you from beginning to end.
No private schools = moderate fees

Most of the film schools in Europe are non-private or governmental. Therefore, the fees you pay are much lower than at a private school that has to fund itself from students paying for their education. Of course the better the Equipment and general studying conditions, the more you pay, but still it´s a lot less than you usually pay. I believe Munich Film School, which is always in the top ranks, is a few hundred bucks per 6 months. Crazy huh?
Choose from various artistic influences

Every school in the Best Film Schools in Europe Top 10 offers a unique create imprint to soak up. Be it a Eastern European one like FAMU in Prague, German like Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, or NTFS in the UK, once you´ve come to watch a few short films made by students you´ll recognize the unique style they teach. Some of them rely heavily on special effects, tv-friendly story and funny dialogue, some of them don´t focus on dialogue at all and try to teach you to tell a story just in images, with text to assists in a few spots. Some focus on colors and the structure of an image. It´s such a wide range of choices that you´ll have to take some time and evaluate each choice on it´s own.
I´ve given my own insights about my personal top 10 in my blog: Bekubrick.com. If you´re thinking about studying film in Europe, give it a look.

One of the most popular Christmas movies of all time would have to be “A Christmas Carol.” The movie is about Ebenezer Scrooge, who is a miser who grows cold after losing the love of his life and his business partner Jacob Marley. He grows bitter and no longer has the holiday spirit as he once did in his youth.

In the movie, Scrooge is a penny pincher who would like nothing more than to make everyone who is optimistic and cheerful to just go away and leave him alone. Throughout the movie, we see Scrooge treat his employee Bob Cratchit poorly, even though he is an extremely hard worker. When Cratchit asks Scrooge for time off for the holidays that is when he bellows how the movies famous catchphrase, “Bah, Humbug.” That phrase has seemed to become what we say whenever we are not feeling in the holiday spirit.

Oddly enough whenever we see someone who is considered stingy we always refer to the person as being a Scrooge. In the movie, the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future visit Scrooge during the night. They show Scrooge the real meaning of Christmas and being loving and kind. The ghost of Christmas present shows him Bob Cratchit’s son Tiny Tim.

He sees that the young child is a crippled and begins to feel bad for not paying his father enough money. As the night almost comes to an end the ghost of Christmas future shows Ebenezer Scrooge what his life will be like if he does not change his mean, greedy and evil ways. He shows him that he would die old and alone with no love in his life, just like his late friend Jacob Marley. He also sees that if things keep going in the direction that they are headed that precious Tiny Tim will pass away.

At the end of the movie, Scrooge, frightened at what could possibly happen, turns over a new leaf and vows to keep the spirit of Christmas alive in his heart always. He decides to give to the poor and he decides to go and visit his employee Bob Cratchit. When he arrives at the humble home of the Cratchit’s, he discovers how meager their living conditions are and chooses to spread a little holiday cheer. The sudden change in him shocks the family. Scrooge reassures the family that he is a changed man. As the lovely movie comes to an end, we the viewers may shed one last tear as Tiny Tim recites “God Bless Us, Everyone”