La Fogata Features New Tequila for April

La Fogata is excited to announce that they will be featuring a new tequila throughout the month of April. Well-known tequila Hornitos will be available to customers. The restaurant encourages customers to come in and enjoy a Fiesta Margarita with Hornitos Tequila.

Hornitos Tequila is available in a variety of drink options, including a Blood Orange Margarita, Sauza Skinny Margarita and the Top Shelf Margarita. Customers also have the option of enjoying a frozen margarita with Hornitos Plata Tequila.

The Blood Orange Margarita is made with Hornitos Plata Tequila, Dekuyper Blood Orange Liqueur and fresh lime juice. The Sauza Skinny Margarita is made with Agave Nectar and Hornitos Plata Tequila. The Top Shelf Margarita contains Hornitos Reposado Tequila, Orange Liqueur and fresh lime juice.

La Fogata is also currently completely decorated for Fiesta and is ready to create a memorable experience for all their guests. Stop in today to check it out.

In addition, the Lent Entrée Feature will continue to be offered through the month.

La Fogata encourages all their customers to come in and try one of their famous margaritas today. For more information about the restaurant or to make a reservation, call 210-340-1337.

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a tequila enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

New iPhone and Android App Theater Ears Promises No More Subtitles

South Florida Orthodontist Dr. Larry Kawa has announced that he is launching a new mobile app, Theater Ears, that will allow moviegoers the ability to hear a movie in the language of your choice, without the subtitles.

The app, which is scheduled for release on both Google's Android and Apple's iOS, will allow a user to synchronize a dubbed audio track of the film playing in a movie theater. The idea is to allow people whose native language is not English to enjoy the experience of going to an English language movie theater while hearing the film in their native language.

Dr. Kawa was inspired to develop this new iPhone & Android app for his mother-in-law, who is not a native English speaker, to enjoy the U.S. theater experience in her own native language, Spanish.

“As millions come to America speaking another language, there is a tremendous demand for moviegoers to watch popular American films in their native language. Whether it is Spanish, Chinese, Creole, or Italian, the new Theater Ears mobile app will allow millions who are unable to speak or are uncomfortable with the English language the opportunity to enjoy the art of Hollywood like never before,” stated Dr. Larry Kawa, the app's creator.

Unlike other ideas around this concept, Theater Ears does not require a streaming internet connection. With many theaters offering no WiFi and poor 4G LTE reception, Theater Ears has created an app solution that does not face the major problem of lack of internet connectivity.

The latest date from the 2011 American Community Survey along with the most recent U.S. Census data shows that roughly 1 out of 5 American homes speak a language other than English, or 60.6 million Americans. Two thirds of those Americans speak Spanish.

Few theaters in the United States feature alternate language subtitles denying those Americans the opportunity to hear the action of the movie theater in their own native language. In addition, many DVDs only offer audio dubbed in certain languages. Languages such as Tagalog (widely spoken in the Philippines), Vietnamese, Arabic, and German are often not found in DVD & Blu-ray releases.

To encourage new users of Theater Ears for iPad, iPhone and Android devices, the app will allow each user to sample one movie free of charge.

Dr. Kawa went on to state, “In today's world of creativity, technology, and opportunity, there's no longer a reason to exclude anyone just because their ears are trained in a foreign land. For the first time ever, Theater Ears' groundbreaking technology will allow them the fair chance to find a little piece of their homeland in every theater seat in America. Voice is passion. No more subtitles. Theater Ears.”

About Theater Ears

Theater Ears was founded in February of 2013 by South Florida orthodontist Dr. Larry Kawa. Theater Ears is a multimedia app development company that seeks to revolutionize the movie going experience through its app titled, Theater Ears. Based in Boca Raton, Fl, the company will offer via its app the ability to watch a motion picture in the movie theater and listen to the accompanying audio track in your native language in real time. The app is in development for both Apple's iOS platform (iPad, iPod, iPhone) and Google's Android platform (mobile phones and tablets).

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a tequila enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

Sculptor Anthony Dallmann-Jones Pioneers Light Ray Photography

Artist, professor, and former science teacher, Anthony Dallmann-Jones, today announced the development of a new art form – light ray photography. Harnessing the beauty of the colors produced by his signature Light Sculptures, Dallmann-Jones uses photography to capture the resulting imagery.

“I was working in my studio on a Light Sculpture – laid out on my work table in the dark – and suddenly it dawned on me,” says Dallmann-Jones of the circumstances surrounding his discovery. “Just tiny background segments of the Light Sculptures produced naturally beautiful variations of color that needed no alteration whatsoever. They make for gorgeous photography in and of themselves.”

The artist became hooked, and temporarily abandoned his 20-foot-long light sculptures to spend days experimenting with new arrangements. He begins the process by setting up specially-constructed dichroic glass (originally designed by NASA for spacecraft windows), lead crystals, and other light-splitting materials. Using a tiny LED spotlight he creates brilliant rays of light in a spectrum of colors on a white background, and is able to control them by tweaking the angling and spacing of the glass pieces. He then takes up to a hundred digital close-up pictures between 3x5 and 4x6 inches in area, all in an effort to capture one or two perfect brilliant photographs.

“It’s like gem hunting,” Dallmann-Jones points out, “because another thing that makes this work so remarkable is that I never alter the coloring in the digital photographs. What the viewer is seeing is exactly what I saw through my Canon Rebel lens.”

Once his photos are selected, Dallmann-Jones enlarges them up to 30x40 inches. Through the use of clever cropping, the artist creates a unique kaleidoscope of colors captured in an innovative way. He uses a service that professionally frames the light ray photographs, or has them developed on canvas and then stretched. Recently, he has also had the images embedded in crystal-clear acrylic glass that furnishes an ultra-modern appearance with smooth, beveled edges that require no frame. In addition, the artist has been experimenting with printing onto metal surfaces to produce a shellac-like metallic sheen.

“The significance of this has yet to set in, but this just might become my major medium,” says Dallmann-Jones. “It was an accident, but when I look back I realize that many of my most successful art ventures began with an accident; a fumbling into the end zone that I never counted on, planned for, or saw coming. It was suddenly just there, the elusive football. I fell on it – touchdown!”

About Anthony Dallmann-Jones

Anthony Dallmann-Jones is a visionary artist, educator, and former science teacher whose deep interest in the abstract gave way to the creation of his signature Light Sculptures – a project that has evolved into a ten-year labor of love. More information on the artist and a gallery of his work is viewable at SculptedLights.com.

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a tequila enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

Top Five Things to Do in New York City this February

“After the Super Bowl, travelers may be wondering about fun things to do in New York City for the rest of the month,” Jamie Carr, editor of NYCTourist.com, says, “There are so many events happening constantly, and seeing as how NYC has become a winter wonderland, this February is a great time to explore the beautiful city!”

1 - Fashion Week

Fashion’s biggest night is headed to New York City this month, and while it may prove impossible for guests to snag a seat at one of the runway shows, that doesn’t mean travelers can’t enjoy Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Guests can celebrate by hitting some of New York City’s best shopping stops, like the four B’s (Barney’s, Bloomingdales, Bergdorf, and Bendel’s)! Another great, unique shop in New York City is Jutta Neumann, where all of the leather handbags are handcrafted on site in her studio! Guests shouldn’t skip their souvenirs - check out Grand Slam New York in Times Square for everything NYC.

2 - Hot Chocolate Festival

For the entire month of February, City Bakery hosts a Hot Chocolate festival offering different types of hot cocoas every day! Guests can grab a hot cup of cinnamon, banana peel, or rum raisin hot chocolate to keep you warm for your trek through the beautiful Central Park, or the Revolutionary Era Walking Tour, where guests can see many of NYC’s historical landmarks and learn about American History.

3 - Top of the Rock

One of the most popular Manhattan landmarks, the Top of the Rock offers the arguably best views of New York City. Guests can enjoy the beautiful New York City sunset with a warm cup of coffee, and should not forget their cameras!

4 - Food Tour

For travelers who’d like to take a trip off the beaten path, we suggest trying one of the Foods of New York Tours. Travelers can explore the snowy streets of NYC and excite their taste buds with the many different foods from a variety of cultures. There’s a food tour for every appetite and budget, so check out their website for more tours and information.

5 - Visit Ground Zero

A visit to Ground Zero is a given for any traveler to NYC. One of the best museums in NYC given its moving photographs of the 9/11 relief effort, The Ground Zero Museum Workshop gives guests the opportunity to tangibly connect with the tragedy. Guests can actually pick up and hold World Trade Center steel and window glass. Travelers can view the touching photographs taken of the 11 month relief effort and know the admission price is going for a good cause - a portion of all ticket sales go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and FDNY Firefighter Joe Graffagnino Children’s Fund.

Where to stay in New York in February

After wandering the snowy streets of NYC, travelers will want a warm place to sleep! The Crowne Plaza in Times Square is a great option as it is conveniently located in Times Square, and one of the most famous hotels in Manhattan. The Hotel Wolcott is another fantastic, conveniently located hotel in New York, as travelers can indulge in luxury without paying a hefty price tag.

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a tequila enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

Blackthorn Tavern Opens Cabin in Nob Hill

The team at Blackthorn Tavern recently opened a new bar, called Cabin. Cabin opened its doors on New Year’s Eve, after housing the popular Bigfoot Lodge.

Cabin is the newest bar in San Francisco to embrace a relaxed atmosphere, located in one of the city’s hottest neighborhoods for nightlife. An incredibly diverse array of bars and nightclubs are within walking distance. The rustic, log-cabin walls transport patrons to that comforting, familiar place far from the dense, urban atmosphere of downtown San Francisco.

Cabin welcomes guests with log cabin-style walls throughout the interior. Owners David Zimmerman, Adam Croyle and Chris LaMotte — all native San Franciscans — retained this design element from the space’s previous tenant, Bigfoot Lodge. The décor reminds Zimmerman and Croyle, who are brothers, of the family vacation home in Grass Valley where they spent much time in their childhood and affectionately refer to as “the cabin.”

Located at the base of bustling Nob Hill, Cabin features an array of liquors, beers and specialty cocktails. Cabin offers 11 beers on tap, five special Guinness mixes, specialty cocktails and more than 35 types of whiskey. The refreshing Cabin Quencher combines Dickel Rye whiskey with citrus juices, mint and a lemon wedge. The tantalizing Saint Pear includes Grey Goose La Poire vodka, Saint Germain elderflower, fresh lemon juice and ginger beer with a lemon twist.

Bartenders will cure your foggy “Summer Blues” at any time of the year with their drink that mixes Revolucion silver tequila with blue curacao and pineapple — with a cherry on top.

Cabin is open weekdays noon to 2 a.m. and weekends 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. It is located at 1750 Polk St. (at Washington St.), San Francisco, CA 94109.

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a tequila enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

New Film Celebrates the Upcoming 80th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Federal Art Project

Jackson Pollock

Connecticut-based independent film makers Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton of 217 Films announce their new film project celebrating the 80th anniversary of “Federal Project Number One” – the initiative that launched the Federal Art Project in 1935 and put thousands of creative people to work across America.

The film is titled “Enough to Live On: The Art of the WPA” and is scheduled for release in February 2015.

As the effects of the Great Depression swept the American nation, with millions out of work and a national sense of despair, the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt adopted a novel idea: to put painters, sculptors, photographers, and writers, as well as actors and dancers, to work, and to place them on the government payroll.

On May 6, 1935, FDR signed Executive Order 7034, creating the Works Progress Administration...and on August 2, 1935, “Federal Project Number One” was created.

As some Americans went back to work under the WPA, among those workers included painters as diverse as Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Marsden Hartley; photographers such as Berenice Abbott; actors such as Orson Welles; and writers such as Saul Bellow and Zora Neale Hurston.

The result of paying creative Americans to work at what they did best resulted in an explosion of new art throughout the country and has had a lasting influence, 80 years later, on the way Americans view themselves and view the role of government in the support of the arts and in the furtherance of a civil society.

More about 217 Films:

217 Films is an independent film company devoted to the American artistic experience. In 2005, Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton released their first film “Cleophas and His Own” about the American painter Marsden Hartley's epic narrative of love and loss. Maglaras both directed and played the role of Hartley in this film. In 2008, they released a second film about Hartley called “Visible Silence: Marsden Hartley, Painter and Poet” – the first-ever documentary on the life of Hartley. In 2010, with their film “John Marin: Let the Paint be Paint!” they established, through the first full-length documentary on this important painter, that John Marin was one of the fathers of American Modernism. These films, among other distinctions, have been shown to acclaim at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

In 2012, they released “O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward.” Their most recent film, “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show” was released in September 2013 and is currently on tour across the United States.

The Sacramento Bee called Michael Maglaras a film maker of “Bergman-like gravitas.” His films have been described as “virtuoso filmmaking” (National Gallery of Art) “alive and fresh” (Art New England) and “elegiac and insightful” (Naples Daily News). David Berona, author of “Wordless Books” has said of “O Brother Man” -- “This film is stunning.” A recent review in The Dartmouth said of “The Great Confusion” that “Michael Maglaras...brought the drama of the original show back to life.”

For more information:

217 Films Website: Two17Films.com
217 Films Blog: Two17Films.Blogspot.com

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a tequila enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

Colonizing Mars Contest Launched by The Millennium Project

Would the first baby born here technically be a Martian?

Going to Mars has been the dream of many people for ages and might soon become a reality. National governments of several countries (including China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, and the USA) and private initiatives (such as MarsOne, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic) have plans for both manned and unmanned trips to Mars in the 2020s and 2030s.

To bring this spirit of space exploration to Venezuela, the Venezuela Node of The Millennium Project and the Venezuela Chapter of the World Future Society are launching a nationwide contest for university students to consider ideas for going to and colonizing Mars. The details of this prize called “Sowing the Future”, in memory of the famous Venezuelan intellectual Arturo Uslar Pietri, will be announced at the Wayra Academy in Caracas, on January 29, 2014.

José Luis Cordeiro, representing both The Millennium Project and the World Future Society, will explain the details of this competition, which will include scholarships to travel to the 2014 annual meeting of the World Future Society in Orlando, Florida, where the students will meet some of the famous futurists in the world, including experts who have worked in the Apollo missions. The winners might also go to EPCOT Center and the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, where they can experience more of the future technologies. Gustavo Reyes, Executive Director of Wayra in Venezuela, says that “it is important to help young people to dream, and to dream big. Small dreams do not take people anywhere, but big dreams can take you to Mars, and beyond”.

Besides the prize announcements, José Luis Cordeiro will also present the Global Futures Intelligence System developed by The Millennium Project, and the Spanish version of the latest best-seller by Ray Kurzweil, "How to Create a Mind," whose preface he has written. Cordeiro explains that “serious thinking about manned and unmanned travel includes considering collaboration between humans, robots and other artificial intelligence. It is important to keep in mind possible outcomes like HAL in '2001: A Space Odyssey'."

The Millennium Project is a global participatory think tank connecting 50 Nodes around the world that identify important challenges in their regions, and initiate and conduct futures-related special research, workshops, symposiums, and advanced training. Its mission is to improve thinking about the future and make it available through a variety of media for feedback to accumulate wisdom about the future for better decisions today. It produces the annual "State of the Future" reports, the "Futures Research Methodology" series, the Global Futures Intelligence System (GFIS), and special studies. The forthcoming 2013-2014 State of the Future will be available by the end of January 2014.

The World Future Society is a nonprofit educational and scientific organization in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, founded in 1966. The society investigates how social, economic and technological developments are shaping the future. It seeks to help individuals, organizations, and communities to observe, understand and respond to social change appropriately and investigates the effects of applying anticipatory thinking to society. The Society has over 20,000 members in more than 80 countries, including many national and international members, like Sociedad Mundial del Futuro Venezuela.

Wayra is a startup accelerator owned by Telefónica, the fifth-largest mobile network provider in the world that operates globally in Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia. Wayra first launched in Latin America and Spain in 2011 and there are now 14 Wayra academies in 12 countries in Europe and Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela). Companies accepted into the Wayra program receive funding of up to €40,000 plus office space and mentoring. Wayra is probably the largest technological startup ecosystem in the world after having received over 20,000 business proposals.

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a tequila enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

Seattle Area's Woodmark Hotel Honored as One of The Best in the World

Woodmark Hotel

For the second time in as many months, The Woodmark Hotel & Spa has been ranked as one of the best hotels in the world in Travel + Leisure Magazine. This award announced just on the heels of the Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Award voting the Woodmark Hotel among the top properties in the World last month.

The Travel + Leisure 'World's Best' list is based on a comprehensive reader survey that rates each property on their facilities, location, service and culinary fare. As one of only three hotels in Washington to make the list, The Woodmark offers exclusive waterfront views and is well known for its personalized guest experience, array of amenities and fitness activities, and fresh local dining at bin on the lake and Beach Cafe.

"It is incredibly humbling to have the voice of our valued Woodmark guests' evolve into a Best in the World designation," notes Howard Jacobs, general manager of The Woodmark Hotel & Spa. "Our team of dedicated associates bring their passion and commitment for our guests each and every day and we couldn't be more proud of their efforts."

Touted as a popular urban property, the hotel's focus on unique touches that improve the comfort of each guest was a key component in both awards. Whether it's complimentary late night snacks, in-room martini bar, or cruising Lake Washington on board Woodmark II, it's clear that guests of The Woodmark love the broad array of offerings.

In November, The Woodmark Hotel & Spa was voted one of the best properties in the world in the annual Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards for the second year in a row, with almost 80,000 votes cast.

Bringing together a host of fitness activities and amenities, The Woodmark Hotel welcomes each guest with an uncommon blend of inspired personalized service and a serene lakeside setting just minutes from Seattle, Redmond and Bellevue.

The property features 100 expertly crafted guestrooms and suites, rejuvenating spa treatments at Northwest Face Spa and delectable culinary offerings at two on-property waterfront dining venues - bin on the lake and Beach Café. For those with a more active agenda, The Woodmark offers a variety of activities from paddle boarding and kayaking to on-site customized fitness programs with their Director of Adrenaline.

For more information about the Woodmark and to make reservations, call 425-822-3700 or visit TheWoodmark.com.

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a tequila enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.