National Cherry Festival!

National Cherry Festival tradition began in 1910 with the "blessing of flowers" a religious prayer ceremony for a good cherry crop.

Appeals to the gods for a bountiful crop are an old tradition that began shortly after the advent of agriculture. Similar ceremonies have been performed in many cultures since ancient times. By the early 20 century, when cherries agriculture began in earnest in the Traverse City area, got the local cherry growers together and asked their priest to bless their crops.

Over the years, several plantations were planted, and the ceremony was the cherry was more important for the region's economy. In 1925 cherry growers joined forces with Traverse City merchants create "blessing Blossoms Festival" to promote the region and the cherry business.

High School honor student Gertrude Brown beat out 72 other entrants to become the first Cherry Blossom Queen, after her name was pulled out of a hat. The festival included a parade through downtown Traverse City, which was recorded by newsreel cameras. Festival parade featured marching bands, veterans and 52 floats made of decorated trucks, cars and trucks.

Beginning in 1926, Cherry Festival Queen was selected by a referendum. Images from all 34 nominees were published in the local newspaper along with a ballot form. That same year Charlotte Thorsen won a decisive victory over the other 26 candidates with 702 votes out of more than 5,000 that were cast.

Her parade was delayed by 45 minutes because the newsreel cameras had not proved yet. One of the more unusual floats was a scene from a WW I battlefield with a wounded soldier holding a series of German helmets under a sign which said: "Who said we could not fight?"

In 1926 began the tradition of baking a large cherry pie and present it to the U.S. President. Hawkins Bakery in Traverse City baked a cake, which weighed 42 pounds, was three meters in diameter and contained more than 5,000 cherry.

The giant pie would be loaded into a car on its tilt windshield and then into a specially built wooden box in the back seat. It took three days to run the cake from Traverse City to President Coolidge's summer White House at White Pine Camp in northern New York's Adirondack Mountains, but the cake arrived none the worse for wear and President Coolidge was delighted.

Historic Festival Highlights

A late frost destroyed cherry crop in 1927, causing the festival to be canceled.

In 1928, the blessing Blossoms renamed the Michigan Cherry Festival and Michigan Governor Fred Green was on hand to crown the queen.

In 1930 the festival expanded to three days, with more parades, an air show, a boat race, entertainment, sports, and many other events. President Herbert Hoover attended the opening day ceremonies, but after being presented with his Cherry Pie, he was overheard noting that an assistant, "Give it to the poor." Hoover had reason to be in a dour mood, because the stock market had crashed just seven months earlier, and the nation was plunged into the Great Depression.

In 1931 the state legislature passed a resolution making the festival a national celebration and renamed it The National Cherry Festival. Seven U.S. Navy ships docked in Traverse City and 3 companies of sailors marched in the parade that year.

From 1933 parade featured a beer truck that dispensed beer along the parade route to celebrate the end of prohibition.

The first "Dog Show and Parade" was held in 1939 and were awarded prizes for the dogs, which were the largest, smallest, fattest, thinnest, had the biggest ears smallest ears, tail longest and shortest tail.

In 1941, "boxer Joe Louis The Brown Bomber" attended the festival and reviewed several Golden Gloves boxing matches.

During World War II era, 1942-48 Cherry Festival was suspended but it has been held every year since.

Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale horses made their first appearance in the Cherry Royale Parade in 1953.

In 1963 became the first Sandcastle tournament held on the beach at Clinch Park.

1967 festival featured a display by the U.S. Navy of a simulated atomic attack completely destroy a miniature village. After the blast, Seabees, administered first aid to victims thumbnail. A rather questionable presentation, to say the least.

The Mummer's Parade had always been a strange affair with the people dress up in wild costumes and acting out, but in 1967, the parade reached a new low in questionable taste. The "King of the Mummers' was riding at the Cherry Festival Queen's float in a crown and full-length mink coat, sitting on a toilet while smoking a cigar, and sometimes pull up his coat to expose his rear end. This stunt stop Mummer's Parade in Traverse City.

In 1970 began the celebration with a two-minute "Festival of Noise" with everyone in town to make as much noise as possible in every way possible, including car horns, beat washtub, bells and musical instruments of all kinds.

1973 featured the first "milk carton Regatta." The boats were forced to use milk cartons as their primary means of flotation. The Great Lakes Maritime Academy trains price for the most milk cartons to use 1800 on their craft. The "Bean Pot", built by Chuck's Sport Shop won the race. Darryl Nelson won the prize for the most original post-a contraption shaped like a water mill.

1975 Cherry Royale Parade was the biggest ever at 180 lines, and attended by over 300,000 people. It was chaired by President Gerald Ford, a Michigan native and former U.S. senator.

In 1978, exported U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds for the first time. Five T-38 fighters dazzled the amount collected on beaches with acrobatic art and heart-stopping maneuvers.

National Cherry Festival has continued to expand through the years and The Cherry Royale Parade has become one of the largest parades in the Midwest. In 2004, ran the 78th annual National Cherry Festival 2-9 July. The 8-day festival brought almost one million visitors and around 26 million U.S. dollars to the Grand Traverse area.

Among the many attractions were three parades, a classic car and truck show, an international Beach Volleyball World Championship competition, live music, a cherry pie eating contest, turtle races, a fishing contest, bingo, a pet show and of course, selection of a Cherry Festival Queen. There were around 150 events and activities, and more than 85 percent of them were free, including giant fireworks over West Grand Traverse Bay, which closed the festival.

The Charms of Pushkar Fair!

Pushkar Fair is organized in October or November each year around the holy lake. It is believed that Lord Brahma chose Pushkar Lake to perform his yagna. In addition, sage Vishwamitra meditated here for years also. It is believed that just a dip in the holy Pushkar Lake can relieve one of all sins, and opens doors to Paradise. The city of Pushkar is also believed to be the source of the famous Gayatri mantra and is thus regarded as one of the five Gayatri Dham worldwide.

Pushkar itself is an epitome of a city, but its lively fair attracts more tourists to the site. Pushkar Fair offers you much more than a bird eye's view of rajasthani culture and traditions. It is a kaleidoscope, where you can view thousands of panoramic aspects of Rajasthan from a vantage point. The riot of colors in dresses of men and women and crafts on sale adds to the liveliness of the fair. The women of Rajasthan look exotic in flared ghaghras, odhnis that sparkle with mirrors reflecting the sun's rays are often used as a veil, and tinkling jewelry that marks social status of their families.

The major attractions at the fair is its strange competitions, including mustache and beard show Bridal shows matka phod games and camel races. Pushkar Fair is the world's largest camel and cattle fair also. It is believed that more than 50,000 camels exchanging hands on the Pushkar Fair every year. Rajasthani people from distant villages flock to Pushkar Fair trade in some of the most popular souvenirs among foreign tourists, such as block prints and tie and dye prints in cotton from Ajmer and Jodhpur, Jaipur jewelry, brassware from Jodhpur and bead necklaces of Nagaur.

Matka phod competitions are exciting as the men try to break an earthen oven pot hanging high above them using various tactics, while others try to stop them from doing so. Bridal shows include turban shows how men tie turbans in strange styles and grab our attention with small details like strategically placed knots and colors of fabric they use. Mustache, beard and turban are three symbols of pride and honor rajasthani men, and they go beyond the generic efforts to keep them in good shape. Cultural shows are also organized to breathe life into the event. Various dance and musical performances, storytelling, dramatizations of the heroic legends of earth, ripe renderings of puppetry and acrobatics art pieces at Pushkar Fair has been an international reputation for the event.

Pushkar Lake is quiet and beautiful, and is said to be present from the time when the world was created. It is considered a very sanctified water, which was created by the impact of the Lotus Flower, who fell out of the hands of Brahma.

Music occupies an important place in our life!

Music occupies an important place in our lives. We can not live without it. Actually people have different musical tastes depending on their age, education and even mood. Some people like classical music, others prefer rock, pop or jazz, but nobody is indifferent to it. Popular music refers to the kind of music that appeals to the general public, in contrast to the highbrow, or classical. The emphasis on accessibility, uses various means to increase both instant appeal and memorability - distinctive syncopation, novel instrumental flourishes, danceable rhythms, repeated riffs - but its signal feature is the melodic focus. It is now since diversified to such an extent that it is now easily defined in relation to its market.

Popular Music 1950 - 1998 At the end of World War II in the U.S. white middle class fears of communism and a new independent - minded Black society emerged simultaneously. Since they both threatened the status quo, any cross-cultural performance took on the appearance of being subversive.

The songs in the early fifties reflected this and generally had light melodies, sweet lyrics and wholesome singers. Innocent and inoffensive "feel-good" tunes, performed by artists like Pat Boone, Rosemary Clooney and Perry Como dominated the pop charts. Major labels (Capitol, Decca, Columbia, Mercury and RCA Victor) decided to abandon the majority of black artists race books and their black audience, creating an opportunity for Independents like Sam Phillips' Sun Label or Chess Records to sign them up .

Artists like Bill Haley and the Comets adapted the work of black artists to make their own sound. Music's solid rhythm and heavy back beat inspired new forms of dance. Soon there were stars - Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Carl Perkins. Because of the prejudices of the time, invented the Disc Jockey Alan Freed named "Rock and roll," ironically, using a term that was slang for sex in the black community at that time. His original complaint was that the middle class white teenagers who soon came to feel it was their own. In this era, so-called 'race music' was largely criticized by the U.S. white business as being too rebellious, sexual and antisocial to be acceptable.

If Rock and Roll was formed by a merger between black music and white entrepreneurship, so the front of the blonde fathers to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Their writing genius, combined with the kinetic energy of Elvis made Rock and Roll history by recording Hound Dog, and Elvis Presley became a household name. (Leiber & Stoller also written hits for Ben E King, The Searchers, the Drifters and The Coasters).

There were also scandals (i.e. Payola scandal, which will lead to the closure of career Alan Freed) in the early days ", which did nothing to foster either parental or governmental confidence in the new music. Near the end of the decade, killed a plane crash , Buddy Holly and also took the lives of Richie Valens and The Big Bopper. Since all three were so prominent at the time was February 3, 1959, known as "The Day The Music Died '.

Female vocal groups began to produce songs that mixed Doo-wop harmonies with Rhythm and Blues music. The groups were usually trios and quartets, as a singer singing a lead part, while the others contributed a background vocal. Most notable was the Shirelles, The marrow is facilitated, and the crystals, which flourished in the early 1960s.

In 1962 'The Brill Building "on Broadway, New York had housed over 165 music companies and more pronounced host Don Kirshner and his star collection of songwriters (Carole King / Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka / Howard Greenfield and Barry Mann / Cynthia Weil), who were responsible for hundreds of identified hits. Record Producer Phil Spector (a marvel of songwriters Leiber and Stoller) was churning out unique classics by artists like The Ronettes, The Righteous Brothers and finally, Ike and Tina Turner with his legendary 'Wall of Sound ".

In the 1950s, Britain had not recovered from the effects of the Second World War, economic problems and shortages of goods and services were common. The 'provincial' cities (violently independent of London), as Liverpool and Manchester, as imports were less scarce (i.e., American Rhythm & Blues and Rock and Roll records) and as a result, an independent musical culture developed.

Liverpool produced Merseybeat sound led by The Beatles, with the UK charts by storm in 1963 while in London the Rolling Stones heralded a boom in British Rhythm and Blues, which included the Animals from Newcastle, Spencer Davis from Birmingham and scores more. The conquest of America followed. Between 1964 and 1966, dozens of British groups made fortunes in the states it much better here than at home.

People inspired artists like The Byrds, and even America's most influential contemporary performer Bob Dylan also turned to the sound of the Beatles for a new direction. The epitome of a California group The Beach Boys, helped fly the flag for Surf Music, although senior member Brian Wilson was pressured into illness in his efforts to make progress, both commercially and artistically.

Black Soul Music (containing the beat of Rhythm and Blues combined with the abundance of Gospel), may have been overshadowed in the media, but it still made as lasting impression as British Beat via the Atlantic and Motown, the best known and most successful soul label ever.

Between them, they had all the early soul stars intelligence, including The Drifters, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, The Supremes, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.

'Godfather of Soul "James Brown, through the rest of the '60s tunes omitted in favor of chunky rhythms horn interplay and scratching guitar giving a whole new sound which will be vital ingredients in what is known as Funk. With 'The Summer of Love' in 1967, the focus moved to the San Francisco Bay. The Flower Power era embraced extravagant clothes, strange lyrics and music that seemed to have few rules and less form: names like The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors became synonymous with meditation, levitation and drugs.

At the time America began to worship the hype and the extent of what became known as Heavy Metal. Groundbreaking by Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck and culminated by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, the term 'Heavy Metal' was coined by critic Lester Bangs from certain passages in the author William S. Burroughs 'Naked Lunch'. The music itself is characterized by heavy guitar riffs / ostinato, a high register male vocal and more punch particularly in the lower frequencies of the bass drum and bass.

Britain started the 1970 point towards a hybrid known as' glam-rock ", which produced Marc Bolan, David Bowie, and groups like Slade and The Sweet. Their theatrical style of dress (which consisted of heavy makeup and women's clothing) further emphasized the sartorial overkill of psychedelia.

Advances in technology will give rise to a genre, progressive rock groups like Genesis and Yes, followed by ELO, Supertramp, Queen and 10cc - The recording process itself has become much more sophisticated and the expansion of multi-tracking ability for artists to isolate each instrument and use a myriad of multi-layered harmony vocals to create an orchestral sound which would give these bands their trademark.

Bob Marley and the Wailers introduced Reggae and Ska to the international community after being signed to London's Island Records. (Reggae is a Jamaican form of Rhythm and Blues with accents on the half beats.)

Another popular style of reggae was known as 'Dub'. In Jamaica, when a song was put out on a 45 single, the'B'side was called Dub. It was the same song (often times with a different mix) that do not include vocals. Jamaican MC's started talking, chatting and singing over the Dub version of a song for a certain sound. When this music reached their Jamaican counterparts, then residing in New York's inner city neighborhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn, it gave birth to what is now known as Rap, or Hip Hop.

Another scene to emerge from its underground existence in New York was the dance 70's phenomenon known as Disco. Disco began as far back in the sixties with the Motown sound, but it came in a rapidly in the early and mid-seventies when extended versions of popular songs were played in the city's gay clubs. When the 12-inch singles became commercially available in 1976 the public became more aware of Disco. The soundtrack album from the movie 'Saturday Night Fever' featuring The Bee Gees, as it came out sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

Over the last three years of the 1970s, British youth, many of the towns that had been unemployed, victims of an economic slowdown, could find little relevance in the sun kissed utopia in which country-rockers The Eagles seemed to live. They had not much time for the biggest stars of the era - Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and all the others who have spent much more time in America where they became better appreciated and could earn far more than in economically divided Britain. None of these were greatly moved by seamless performance and catchy songs of Abba, the Swedish quartet, which has sold more records than any internationally during this decade, and topped the UK charts nine times in total.

Rock music has always been the focal point of call for rebellious youth, and in 1977 the anarchist punk generation produced disenchanted Britons like The Sex Pistols and The Clash. Ironically, at the end of this decade, had spawned New York punk's godparents Lou Reed, The New York Dolls and Patti Smith, and produce stars like The Ramones and Blondie.

Eighties in the United Kingdom began the 70's got off with Ska hybrid '2 Tone ', performed by racially integrated groups like The Specials and Madness. It is also testimony to the commercial finale of punk with Jam and polished post-punk as purveyed by The Police and XTC.

In 1981 the music scene underwent a significant change. The technological development in the form of Music Television, and the CD, changed the music world in a way that another approach was necessary. Indeed, major record companies would see music videos as important as television commercials.

The Boom of Synth-Pop and New Romanticism spawned Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Culture Club. They all came from Britain, and for several months during the second quarter of this decade, these acts and others like The Human League and Wham! helped Britain rule the waves of the Atlantic, but with less dominance than 20 years earlier.

Michael Jackson dominated the music world with his 1982 release 'Thriller'. It was the best selling album in history with over 40 million copies sold. In a time when MTV made progress, adapted Jackson to this and accompanied his single-releases with videos of high quality. Another artist to achieve Megastardom similarly was Madonna. Her popularity was also achieved by the way, she challenged the mainstream on issues such as race, gender, sexuality and power.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five brought a new lyrical intensity to Rap with the song 'The Message'. Def Jam label artists Run DMC and the Beastie Boys mixed heavy metal guitars rather than the usual funk and disco samples for an aggressive impact that helped the first Rap Album to reach a number one chart position.

Bob Geldof will forever be admired for his charitable work in organizing Band Aid, which consisted of dozens of British stars who have recorded a charity single in an attempt to save lives in drought-stricken Africa. Later he organized Live Aid - a concert on both sides of the Atlantic, which included a large number of stars like Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Queen.

In the UK producers Stock, Aitken, & Waterman clocked up 31 number one hits and 35 million records sold worldwide. (And it was precisely the 1987th) For their was the sound that dominated the charts, dance floors and radio and television company in Britain, with its instantly recognizable bouncy, chattering dance rhythms and chirpy, catchy pop tunes, no matter who is elected vocalist -- Mel & Kim, Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, Bananarama, etc. ..

Another dance phenomenon was to show, this time from the holiday resort of Ibiza. It would enter the UK as Acid House (Culture associated with Ecstasy.) And transmogrify into 90's genres, Trance and Rave. (Music, which was dominated by what machines were good at - repeating monotonous rhythmic patterns that could go on and on.)

90s followed the avaricious 80's with a softer sound - Country Music. Garth Brooks and Shania Twain are the sound of Nashville into the mainstream, effectively making it the music capital of the world. At the other end of the musical spectrum, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden took the raw sound of American Grunge and beat the screaming on radios everywhere. By the mid-90s, rediscovered a new crop of young British bands influenced by the Manchester Indie scene (the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays), The Beatles, Feeder Britpop. Blur and Oasis battled, fell out and made up. Take it paved the way for legions of boy bands like Boyzone and Westlife. But the best-selling British export of the 90s was the Spice Girls, who kick-started a resurgence in Teen Pop music.

Movie Rentals Today - Online Renting, Downloads, and More!

Many people around the world prefer to watch movies at home than in theaters. This leads to an increase in sales to Movie Rental and DVD sales alike. Movie downloads are also becoming popular due to a demand to see any flick you might want to look at any time to suit you. DVD movies are still the king himself, with all the craze these days, they will remain one of the leading entertainment media markets in the world in the coming years.

Movie Rental is a very convenient variant for home movie watching. The trend these days for film buffs seem to be online movie rentals. Of course there are still plenty of off-line rental stores out there, but their size is decreasing year by year, which only proves the growing popularity of their online competitors. Companies like Netflix, Blockbuster, Intelliflix or obtains steam each one every year because of its widespread popularity.

So why do more people give preference to ordering movies online? Well, it's all very simple in theory. You select which titles you wish to rent in the selection here, and within a few days, they are sent out to the door. It is a very easy and painless process. The problem is that you have to wait a couple days and not have a choice between seeing a movie with the same. This seems to be the true value of the common movie rentals. Now there even seems to be a solution to this problem as well with movie downloads. You can easily download a movie to your local computer and view it on your screen, but if you're like us, we prefer a wide screen TV and surround sound stereo on a small computer screen Anyday.

A big advantage of online movie rentals, is the diversity and number of titles (in thousands). Have you ever seen such a movie store? We do not believe it, and although we'll pretend, in theory, that it exists, imagine how long the search would be. The online computer system available online makes this process easy and affordable. Naturally, the small movie rental shops, you can drop in on the way home, still have not lost all their charm.

Online rentals offer various payment plans. You can pay for a single film, but more often you pay a fixed amount per month and can see as many films as you like. Some payment plans give you an opportunity to rent movies only to certain categories and genres. The amount of movies you can order at one time is usually limited either by three or four. All online rental venues offer a "keep the movie as long as you want" period, no late fees or due dates.

Very easy and simple, is not it? That is why people choose it. There are tons of online movie rental clubs out there, and sometimes the choices can be a bit overwhelming. There are a lot of rental club review sites out there that will really help you with your choices. Movie Rental Club Guide seems to be the most complex of them all and offer comprehensive cash back deals on all film club signups. Join the movie rental revolution, and you will never return.