Wings Over Boston

BOSTON -(...) Last year, Skywalk celebrated its 40th anniversary by installing the Dreams of Freedom Immigration Museum. Formerly located in downtown Boston's International Institute of Boston, the museum highlights immigration's role in building Boston's identity. In one multimedia exhibit, two rap emcees appear on separate television sets and ask viewers sample questions from the U.S. citizenship test. Siblings Fernando and Jennifer Pena laughed while they watched the video. "If you ask Americans, some of them wouldn't even know the answers to those questions," said Jennifer Pena, who was born in the Dominican Republic.

Among the nearly 30 interactive displays are a short film about refugees narrated by singer Peter Gabriel and the "Wings Over Boston" aerial video tour.

DailyCD Official Selection Honors Best Albums Past & Present

DailyCD (www.DailyCD.com), the free e-newsletter that features the world's best albums, has created the DailyCD Official Selection to bestow on the albums selected for the newsletter and Web site. The musicologists and journalists who write the reviews on DailyCD choose only one album a day from the thousands that are released weekly and those released in past decades. More than 60,000 albums were released in 2005 alone, according to Neilson SoundScan. So, when the DailyCD Official Selection is granted, enormous musical value is placed upon that title.

"We created the DailyCD Official Selection to give consumers confidence in making their music purchases," said Scott Blum, co-founder and CEO of DailyCD. "Our goal is to help people identify the greatest albums among a sea of records, similar to the way the Sundance Film Festival helps guide people to great films."

The albums that receive the DailyCD Official Selection are chosen for their quality and individuality. They have ranged from Herbie Hancock's classic "Inventions and Dimensions" (1963) to Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" (1976) to "The Rain" (2003) by lesser-known artist Ghazal, which experienced a rankings jump on Amazon.com, going from 9,333 to 351 the day the album was featured on DailyCD. This type of sales spike is common for albums featured on DailyCD, whether they are by known or obscure artists.

The main goal of the DailyCD Official Selection is to recognize great albums and give often overlooked artists the accolades they deserve. The resulting jump in sales simply reflects the coming together of the artist and the consumer, according to Blum.

"We select albums that are excellent and that people will enjoy listening to even if they are not well-versed in all genres of music," said Blum. DailyCD covers indie rock, jazz, world, soul, folk, singer-songwriter, blues, rock, instrumental and several other types of music.

Blum is a pioneer in the Interactive music industry and founded iMusic, one of the first music Web sites ever. He is a record producer who produced Peter Gabriel's award-winning CD-ROM, "Eve," and he has worked with many chart-topping bands, including Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkins. DailyCD's influence continues to gain momentum and is expected to reach a subscriber base well into the millions by 2008.

For a free subscription to DailyCD or for more information, visit www.DailyCD.com.

Silverdocs Announces Festival Slate

SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival announced its full slate of films for the 2006 Festival, taking place June 13-18, 2006 in the Washington, DC area. SILVERDOCS 2006 will present 100 films from 22 countries selected from 1,687 submissions with 13 World, 12 North American, six US and four East Coast premieres. These numbers represent an increase from 2005 when 89 films were selected from 1,300 submissions. Created through an alliance between the American Film Institute and Discovery Channel, SILVERDOCS takes place at the state-of-the-art AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. In 2005, the Festival screened sold out shows to more than 19,000 participants who viewed the best in documentary film and experienced free mid-day shorts, outdoor screenings, live music, panel discussions and special events. (...)

BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY AWARD

(...) Best Music Doc Jury: Peter Gabriel, musician and WITNESS founder; Tracy McKnight, co-founder and president of Commotion Records; and Keven McAlester whose first feature, YOU’RE GONNA MISS ME, won SILVERDOCS’ 2005 music award.

Wedding time

2002 - Peter Gabriel marries longtime companion Meah Flynn at the Li Capanni hotel he owns near Sardinia`s Emerald Coast.

Arquette Got Gabriel Song in movie

Rosanna Arquette loved the film Say Anything so much, she begged boyfriend Peter Gabriel to put the song he wrote about her, In Your Eyes, in the movie. Gabriel had been approached by director Cameron Crowe, who wasn't well known at the time, to use the track in a pivotal scene where character Lloyd Dobler stands outside his true love's window blasting the song from a boom box.

Arquette explains, ""That is a beautiful song, it's a beautiful song." Cameron Crowe had wanted that in his movie Say Anything and a long time ago I remember Peter had had that tape of the movie on top of the TV for a couple of months. "I said, 'What is this?' and he said, 'Oh, this guy wants to use the song' and he hadn't seen the movie yet." The actress popped in the video and immediately convinced her boyfriend that the film was fantastic.Arquette says she has told Crowe about the incident and he has thanked her profusely.