2013 Holiday Gift Guide: Melody By Soundcast® Portable Bluetooth Speaker System

NEXT-GEN BLUETOOTH® SPEAKER SCOOPS UP FOUR TOP CONSUMER ELECTRONICS AWARDS

Soundcast Systems, developer and manufacturer of high-performance wireless music systems, encourages CE retailers and custom integration businesses to get aboard for the holiday selling season with its new Multi Award-Winning Portable Bluetooth Speaker System, Melody. Melody has quickly earned its spot as the Best Sounding Portable Bluetooth Audio System on the market today by winning four distinguished consumer electronics awards since its July U.S. debut at CE WEEK in New York City.

Melody — Portable Wireless Bluetooth(R) Speaker System is compact and lightweight (only 9-lbs) high-performance audio. Enjoy both outdoors and indoors with its weather resistant enclosure for 20-hrs of uninterrupted music with its built-in high capacity lithium-ion rechargeable battery system. (PRNewsFoto/Soundcast Systems)

Melody was awarded Best In Show for Portable Bluetooth Audio, a very crowded category at the show, winning its first award at CE WEEK 2013. In September 2013 Residential Systems Magazine awarded Melody its prestigious RESI Award 2013 for its industrial design. “Residential Systems is proud to recognize Soundcast Systems’ industrial design prowess by
presenting a 2013 RESI Award to the company’s Melody speaker. This product exemplifies the attention to detail and craftsmanship that we look for in winners of our annual awards,” stated Jeremy Glowacki, editorial director of Residential Systems.
Melody was chosen by AV systems integrators and the editors of CE PRO Magazine to receive its third award, the exclusive annual CE PRO BEST 2013 Award in the Wireless Speakers category. The fourth award was announced in late September by the editors of Technology Integrator Magazine as a winner of its 2013 EXC!TE Award for being innovative, high performing and solutions-oriented for AV installation businesses.

Melody sets a new standard among Bluetooth wireless speaker devices, in its ability to deliver CD quality omni-directional sound from its portable and stylish 9-lb enclosure. Melody’s unique circular 360-degree acoustic design employs multiple speakers and woofers radiating sound equally –four bass radiators and four high-performance, full range speakers delivering exceptional sound in any environment. The weather-resistant compact system delivers 20 hours+ of uninterrupted sonic perfection on a single charge with its internal battery system making it the perfect outdoor entertainment companion. Its built-in v3.0 Bluetooth and AAC / Apt-X® codec technology mean that users can expect high performance lossless CD Quality audio while streaming from their music library, or from apps like Pandora®, Spotify(TM), Rhapsody®, iTunes®, TuneIn® and others, from Apple or PC devices alike.

Melody is receiving prominent and favorable editorial reviews being touted as the best sounding Bluetooth Speaker on the market. “Soundcast’s Melody has set a new, audaciously high standard for portable Bluetooth speakers,” said Darryl Wilkinson, Sound and Vision Magazine, (6/29/13).

Isa Genzken: Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art

November 23, 2013–March 10, 2014

The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor

This exhibition, the first comprehensive retrospective of Isa Genzken’s (German, b. 1948) epically diverse body of work in an American museum, and the largest to date, encompasses Genzken’s work in all mediums over the past 40 years. Although a New York art audience might be familiar with Genzken’s more recent assemblage sculptures, the breadth of her achievement—which includes not only three-dimensional work but paintings, photographs, collages, drawings, artist’s books, films, and public sculptures—is still largely unknown in this country. Many of the nearly 200 works in the exhibition will be on view in the United States for the first time.

Genzken’s work has been part of the artistic discourse since she began exhibiting in the mid-1970s, but over the last decade a new generation has been inspired by the artist’s radical inventiveness. The past 10 years have been particularly productive for Genzken, who, with a new language of found objects and collage, has created several bodies of work that have redefined assemblage for a new era. These groups of sculptures range from smaller, diorama-like works to room-filling installations.

Isa Genzken Hospital (Ground Zero), 2008 Each: 86 5/8 x 23 5/8 x 17 11/16″ (220 x 60 x 45 cm) Overall: 86 5/8 x 23 5/8 x 70 3/4″ (220 x 60 x 179.7 cm) 122 13/16 x 24 13/16 x 29 15/16″ (312 x 63 x 76 cm) Collection Charles Asprey Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin © Isa Genzken

Isa Genzken Bild (Painting), 1989 Concrete and steel 103 9/16 x 63 x 30 5/16″ (263 x 160 x 77 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Susan and Leonard Feinstein and an anonymous donor. © 2012 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar

Although Isa Genzken’s primary focus is sculpture, she uses various media including photography, film, video, works on paper and canvas, collages, and books. Her diverse practice draws on the legacies of Constructivism and Minimalism and often involves a critical, open dialogue with Modernist architecture and contemporary visual and material culture. Using plaster, cement, building samples, photographs, and bric-a-brac, Genzken creates architectonic structures that have been described as contemporary ruins. She further incorporates mirrors and other reflective surfaces to literally draw the viewer into her work. The column is a recurring motif for Genzken, a “pure” architectural trope on which to explore relationships between “high art” and the mass-produced products of popular culture.

Isa Genzken Rot-gelb-schwarzes Doppelellipsoid ‘Zwilling’ (Red-Yellow-Black Double Ellipsoid “Twin”), 1982 Lacquered wood, two parts Overall: 9 7/16 x 8 1/16 x 473 1/4″ (24 x 33.5 x 1202.1 cm) Part one: 5 1/8 x 8 1/16 x 236 1/4″ (13 x 20.5 x 600 cm) Part two: 4 5/16 x 5 1/2 x 237″ (11 x 14 x 602 cm) Collection of the artist Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin © Isa Genzken

In 1980, Genzken and Gerhard Richter were commissioned to design the König-Heinrich-Platz Underground Station in Duisburg; it was only completed in 1992. Between 1986 and 1992, Genzken conceived her series plaster and concrete sculptures to investigate architecture. In 2000, a series of rather roughly patched together architectural models was inscribed with Fuck the Bauhaus. Later, in the series New Buildings for Berlin, which was shown at DOCUMENTA 11, Genzken designed architectural visions of glass high-rises.

Isa Genzken MLR, 1992 Alkyd resin spray paint on canvas 48 1/16 x 32 5/16″ (122 x 82 cm) Lonti Ebers, New York Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin © Isa Genzken

The project entitled Der Spiegel 1989-1991 is a series images comprising 121 reproductions of black and white photographs selected and cut from the influential German newsweekly Der Spiegel. Presented in a non-sequential but methodical manner, each image is glued against a piece of white card and individually mounted in a simple frame. Whilst the images themselves remain caption-less, the dates in the series’ titles offer clues about the artist’s intentions. Her paintings of suspended hoops, collectively entitled MLR (More Light Research) (1992), recall gymnastics apparatus caught mid-swing and frozen in time.

Holiday 2013 Gift Guide: Singing Machine Introduces Home, the World’s First Smart Bluetooth Speaker that Turns into a Party-Starting Karaoke Machine

THE ELEGANTLY DESIGNED HOME DELIVERS SOULFUL, ROOM-FILLING SOUND AS A BLUETOOTH SPEAKER BY DAY, AND TURNS UP THE FUN AT NIGHT BY TRANSFORMING INTO A SINGING MACHINE WITH INSTANT ACCESS TO MORE THAN 8,000 SONGS

Singing Machine, one of the first companies to bring karaoke into American homes, announced the Singing Machine Home(TM), an elegant speaker that pumps out room-filling sound and wirelessly connects to any Bluetooth-enabled device including smartphones, tablets, laptops and more. When the mood is right, Home turns into an on-demand, Wi-Fi-enabled karaoke machine. It plugs into your TV via HDMI and connects to the cloud wirelessly. With one click, you have instant access to Singing Machine Play(TM), a platform that streams more than 8,000 HD karaoke music videos.

Singing Machine Home — Beautiful Wireless Sound By Day, Singing Machine By Night. (PRNewsFoto/The Singing Machine Company, Inc.)

Founded more than 30 years ago, the Singing Machine company (www.singingmachine.com/) has sold millions of karaoke machines, evolving as music technology changed from cassettes to digital audio files. Now, with the Home, the company is breaking preconceived notions of what karaoke machines should look like and is turning the industry on its head.

“At-home karaoke is still wildly popular but many companies in our industry are slow to change. The latest models are big and boxy with lots of knobs, and get put in the basement or a closet when they’re not being used. Access to music has also been a major challenge, with machine owners needing to buy tons of CDs or download individual karaoke songs for a dollar each just to make a playlist,” says Singing Machine CEO Gary Atkinson. “Home solves these problems with its modern design, simple set up, access to one of the world’s largest libraries of karaoke videos, and versatility so it can be used every day. On top of that, we’ve integrated the latest Bluetooth, streaming, Wi-Fi and cloud-based technology because we know this is how people want to interact with their devices today.”

Singing Machine Home comes with a hybrid Mic-Remote that makes it easy to navigate the Play platform on your TV to queue up a playlist and even pick avatars for you and your friends so that you know when it’s your turn to sing. Rolling out to www.BestBuy.com and Best Buy stores in late October, Singing Machine Home allows you to fully experience your music, whether you are listening to a classical mix on a lazy Sunday afternoon or belting your favorite jam into the mic on Friday night with friends.

“With the Singing Machine Home, we’ve created a sleek Bluetooth speaker and karaoke machine in one that earns its place as a centerpiece in your home,” says Atkinson. “This is the first karaoke machine to have a truly streamlined, grown-up style and versatile technology so that it is used every day. The Home is about experiencing music, delivering great sound and creating fun memories with friends and family.”

Designed with carefully engineered acoustics, Singing Machine Home is packed with 2.1 omnidirectional sound, two tweeters and a pumping subwoofer for a full range of superior high and low notes. Home easily fills any room with sound and makes sharing your music simple. It connects to any Bluetooth-enabled device to play your music whether you stream from Pandora or Spotify, or have your own curated collection of songs. Plus with a range up to 33 feet, you can roam the room with your smartphone, tablet or MP3 player, and play DJ without needing to walk back to the speaker to control your music. The speaker’s minimalistic yet distinctive design includes a reflective bottom cabinet that mirrors its surroundings, making it fit perfectly into any interior.

When it’s time to turn up the fun, Home is ready. Plugged into your TV, Home connects to Singing Machine Play via Wi-Fi and transforms into a searchable vault of your favorite karaoke videos. Powered by The KARAOKE Channel (owned by the Stingray Digital Media Group), Play offers one of the largest, licensed, libraries of HD karaoke videos in the world with more than 8,000 videos hosted in the cloud. Three subscription levels provide convenient, affordable options to meet your streaming needs whether you want access for an impromptu party or your weekly karaoke night. A free trial lets you try before subscribing.

Singing Machine Home comes with a wireless microphone that works double-time as a remote to browse or search Play’s karaoke library by artist, song, decade or popularity. The smart mic has auto mute and unmute functionality, and allows you to select songs in advance to queue up a video playlist. You can also select your own avatar to see who is up next. Home will play from day to night without interruption; no music management required. When the party is over, Home stays put, and is your wireless speaker again.

Singing Machine Home will be available for $299 and is rolling out to www.BestBuy.com and Best Buy stores in late October.

PhotoPlus Expo 2013 Preview: SpinLight 360® Releases New Gel Collection And Light Modifier for Photographers

20 GEL COLLECTION AND MULTI-FUNCTIONAL LIGHT MODIFIER CASE ALLOWS FOR UNLIMITED CREATIVITY, UNIQUE EFFECTS AND COLOR CORRECTION

SpinLight 360® has announced the release of the new 20 Gel Collection and Light Modifier. The SpinLight 360® Gel Collection offers an exciting ‘twist’ to the company’s existing SpinLight 360 Modular System. Included in the new Gel Collection are 5 color correction gels, 15 color effect gels and a unique, multi-functional storage case. All gels are made from high quality, industry-standard filters and each gel is individually labeled with its name and fstop loss for ease-of-use and reference. All the gels (and more) can be stored in the case provided. The 15 color gels offer a broad range of colors allowing advanced amateur and professional photographers to create customized backgrounds, change lighting moods, enhance skin tones and create theatrical lighting. The 5 color correction gels include a half-strength CTB (Color Temperature Blue), plus 3 CTO (Color Temperature Orange) in Full-, Half- and Quarter-Strength and a Plus Green cc30 filter.

SpinLight 360 will demonstrate its complete line of products and services at this year’s PDN PhotoPlus International Conference Expo in New York City from October 24-26, 2013 at the Javits Convention Center, including hands-on demos of its new Gel Collection.

The specially designed multi-functional clear storage case also attaches to the SpinLight 360 Ring Module just like the system’s other modifiers to provide three additional unique features:

1). The user can attach the case to the Ring Module and place other items (e.g., colored glass or marbles, mirror fragments, etc.) into the clear case to create additional customized lighting effects

2). The case can be attached to the Ring Module over a gel to add a gel effect to the special effects

3). The SpinLight 360’s bounce cards can be attached to the Ring Module while the case is attached

Musée de la danse: Three Collective Gestures Dance Series at the Museum of Modern Art

October 18, 2013–November 03, 2013

The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, second floor, and other locations throughout the Museum

Images provided by The Museum of Modern Art

Choreographer Boris Charmatz (French, b. 1973), in collaboration with his groundbreaking institution Musée de la danse, brings a three-week dance program to The Museum of Modern Art this fall. Musée de la danse: Three Collective Gestures takes place in the Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium and other spaces throughout the Museum over the course of three consecutive weekends, from October 18 through November 3, 2013. All three performances are U.S. premieres. 20 Dancers for the XX Century (2012/13) will be performed October 18–20; Levée des conflits (extended)/Suspension of Conflicts (Extended) (2010/13) will be performed October 25–27; and Flip Book (2008/13) will be performed November 1–3, with Saturday performances to be live-streamed on www.MoMA.org.

Musée de la danse. 20 Dancers for the XX Century. Dancer: Lénio Kaklea. Les Champs Libres Rennes (FR). 2012. Photo: Nyima Leray

Musée de la danse. 20 Dancers for the XX Century. Dancer: Magali Caillet-Gajan. Film: Watermotor. Choreography and interpretation: Trisha Brown. Film by Babette Mangolte. 1978. Les Champs Libres Rennes (FR). 2012. Photo: Nyima Leray

Musée de la danse. 20 Dancers for the XX Century. Dancer: Raphaëlle Delaunay. Les Champs Libres Rennes (FR). 2012. Photo: Nyima Leray

Musée de la danse. 20 Dancers for the XX Century. Dancer: Fabian Barba. Les Champs Libres Rennes (FR). 2012. Photo: Nyima Leray

In 2009, Charmatz became director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne in northwestern France and promptly renamed it Musée de la danse (The Dancing Museum), in order to articulate the idea of dance divested of notions of “choreography,” “center,” and “national.” Through this gesture and his broader practice, Charmatz emphasized the museum not only as a space for predetermined, scripted movement and exhibition, but also as a framing device for dance that redefines traditional notions of museums and collections.

World Health Clinicians Launches HIV Testing and Anti-Stigma Initiative, “HIV Equal”

CELEBRITIES, POLITICIANS AND OTHERS JOIN MULTIMEDIA CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT HIV AWARENESS

In an effort to bring attention to HIV/AIDS awareness and to reduce the fear and stigma surrounding the disease and testing for it, a new social media campaign entitled “HIV Equal” has been developed by Connecticut-based World Health Clinicians (WHC), and will officially launch on October 26, 2013 as part of the organization’s LGBT wellness event. World Health Clinicians, Inc. (WHC) www.worldhealthclinicians.org is a U.S.-based non-profit 501(c)(3) humanitarian organization founded in September 2010 by U.S. HIV/AIDS specialists Dr. Gary Blick and Executive Director Scott Gretz, to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases in the developed and developing world.

(Clockwise) Tony Winner Billy Porter, Activist Peter Staley, Meg, Miss Fame. (PRNewsFoto/World Health Clinicians)

HIV Equal is a national multimedia campaign that aims to end HIV stigma and promote HIV testing by creating a social art movement which reignites the national dialogue about HIV/AIDS. The concept of HIV Equal was created by Jack Mackenroth, a long-time HIV activist, and celebrity photographer Thomas Evans. The HIV Equal multimedia campaign fights the stigma associated with HIV by illustrating that everyone is equally valuable regardless of HIV status. Participants who sign up to take a photo will also take an HIV test with an on-hand health professional as part of a greater effort to help end the fear around HIV testing.

Nick Adams

Nick Gruber

Individuals are photographed with a unique “HIV=” logo, which strategically appears on their body. As a play on the word “status,” a unique caption will read ‘STATUS:_______,’ and every model picks a word that exemplifies one aspect of their personality. This alludes to the fact that who we are as people is much more important than an HIV status.

(Clockwise) Jack Mackenroth, Arman Dixon and Olivia Cipolla, Congressman Jim Himes (D), Donna D’Cruz World Health Clinicians Launches “HIV Equal” Anti-Stigma and Testing Initiative. (PRNewsFoto/World Health Clinicians)

The concept of the campaign was designed by HIV activist Jack Mackenroth of Project Runway fame, in collaboration with renowned celebrity photographer Thomas Evans. They plan to utilize social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to disseminate the photos until the signature magenta glow becomes nationally recognizable. After living with HIV for 24 years, Mackenroth has witnessed the effects of HIV stigma firsthand.

Conde Nast Traveler Announces Winners of the 2013 Readers’ Choice Awards the “Best Of The Best” Of Travel

Conde Nast Traveler today announced the results of its 26th annual Readers’ Choice Awards, ranking the best cities, islands, cruise lines, airlines, hotels, and resorts in the world. This year, a record-breaking 79,268 readers participated in the survey, almost double the number of survey takers in 2012. These dedicated and discerning travelers cast 1.3 million votes for more than 16,000 properties around the world. The Readers’ Choice Awards are announced in the November issue of Conde Nast Traveler, on newsstands and online October 15, 2013.

Conde Nast Traveler 2013 Readers’ Choice Awards. (PRNewsFoto/Conde Nast Traveler)

The results? The most comprehensive “best of the best” travel awards ever. So many, in fact, that Conde Nast Traveler has introduced 15 new categories for popular destinations, including the Best Hotels in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Charleston, and New Orleans, to name a few. In total, there are 1,351 winners of the 2013 Readers’ Choice Awards. Some list highlights:

— Top 100 in the World: It’s a tie for first place between La Residence in South Africa and Lodge at Kauri Cliffs in Maturi Bay, New Zealand, which both scored a near-perfect 99.2 on the Top 100.

— Top U.S. City: Charleston, South Carolina, is the No. 1 city in the U.S. for the third year in a row!

— Top U.S. Island: Maui is the top island in the U.S. for the 20th year in a row!

—  Top Hotel in Boston: XV Beacon.

—  Top Hotel in New York City: The Peninsula.

—  Top Hotel in Texas: Mokara Hotel & Spa.

—  Top Hotel in Chicago: Waldorf Astoria.

—  Top Hotel in Northern California: Auberge du Soleil.

—  Top Hotel in San Francisco: St. Regis.

—  Top Resort in Southern California: Resort at Pelican Hill.

—  Top Resort in Hawaii: Four Seasons Hualalai at Historic Ka’upulehu.

—  Top Resort in the Southwest: Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort and Spa.

—  Top U.S.-Based Airline: Virgin America.

—  Top Small-Ship Cruise Line: Seabourn.

—  Top Midsize-Ship Cruise Line: Crystal Cruises.

—  Top Large-Ship Line: Disney.

—  Top River Cruise Line: Grand Circle Cruise Line.

Methodology: The Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Survey, begun in 1988, is available through a secure Web site at www.condenasttraveler.com/vote. This year’s tabulations of 79,268 responses were done by Equation Research.

Organization: The questionnaire contains lists of candidates in various categories (Cities, Hotels, etc.). Candidates must receive a required minimum number of responses to be eligible for a Readers’ Choice Award.

Evaluation: Individual candidates are judged on a set of criteria relevant to their category, based on a standard five-point scale: excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor. The percentage of excellent and very good ratings determines the final score published here. For example, in Baja, the One&Only Palmilla’s score of 97.2 represents the average of excellent and very good ratings it received from all respondents for all criteria relevant to resorts: Activities, Food/Dining, Location, Overall Design, Rooms, and Service.

For the complete list of 2013 Readers’ Choice Awards, visit www.cntraveler.com/RCA