The Smooth Jazz and More Blog

Smooth Jazz and More joins the Smithsonian Institute to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month this April. For 11 years now, this event has been commemorated to help promote the rich history of an original American art form. Schools, organizations, and even local governments, celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month with events ranging from free concerts to educational programs. This year, Smithsonian Jazz celebrates the contributions of singer Frank Sinatra. On September 11th, 1945, Sinatra took a...

Guest post written by my buddy Royce Heath I visited www.cabletelevision.net and upgraded our television package. Now, I have started to watch a show on the CW that I am hooked on. It is called “Vampire Diaries”. If you can imagine a mix of the “O.C.” ( if you are old enough to remember it) and a vampire show, you can pretty much imagine what the show is like. It is a high school drama, but with Vampires and supernatural creatures in the mix. It takes place in a small town in Virginia with a...

In 2005, then Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed the now controversial “Stand Your Ground” law. The legislation was an expansion to what was known as the “castle doctrine”. Whereas, a person has certain protections and immunities and may in certain circumstances attack an intruder without becoming liable to prosecution. The expansion of the law now allows anyone use deadly force without attempting to retreat in any location and removes the requirement that your own property is threatened. The...

It seems like the hate-mongers were out in full force on Monday, painting Trayvon Martin as a 'drug dealer', a 'drug user' and a 'common thug'. According to an article by the website, Think Progress ; " Much of this leaked information seems intended to play into stereotypes about young African-American males." Here's a scorecard of what's being promoted by the right-wing hate machine; 1. Prominent conservative websites published fake photos of Martin. Twitchy, a new website run by prominent...

The end of March means the final big figure skating competition of the year. This year's world will take place in Nice, France starting this Monday with the pairs and dance preliminary rounds. A last minute pull out include Finland's Kiira Korpi due to lingering foot and hip injuries. Alisa Mikonsaari has been chosen to take her place in the competition. Also not participating is former world men's champion Evgeni Plushenko, whose injury after winning the Eurpoeans ended any hopes for a...

In the coming days and weeks, you're going to be hearing about this story, because it speaks volumes to previous incidents involving race in the United States. Two weeks ago, during halftime of the NBA All-Star Game, Trayvon "Trey" Martin (pictured) decided to go to the store to get his brother some candy. On his way back home, he was confronted by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in the gated community Martin lived in. According to police reports, Zimmerman, called 911 to...

This guest post from Lenny Mcknight We’ve recently gotten t1 internet at my office in addition to VOIP which are both really helping me do my job easier. It’s been great having so much time to focus on things that don’t involve messing with my computer or hanging up the phone to call a client back because we got disconnected. I love having so much sway when it comes to this little business and part of it’s because I’ve been here from its inception – it is my aunt’s store, afterall! She...

Four years ago, the Canadian Television and Radio Commission passed a law requiring cable and satellite operators to black out US channels that contain the same content on Canadian television. The reason for this ruling was to "protect" Canadian advertisers from a loss of revenue. The direct impact of this ruling is the Super Bowl, the highest rated sporting event on television. However, if you watched last night's showcase event, you would have seen promos of CTV's programming. In fact,...

Four years ago, the Canadian Television and Radio Commission passed a law requiring cable and satellite operators to black out US channels that contain the same content on Canadian television. The reason for this ruling was to "protect" Canadian advertisers from a loss of revenue. The direct impact of this ruling is the Super Bowl, the highest rated sporting event on television. However, if you watched last night's showcase event, you would have seen promos of CTV's programming. In fact,...

Now that I had a week to comprehend the sudden death of Whitney Houston, I finally had some time to reflect on her illustrious career and the devastating impact of her consequences. Last week, I was working on my radio station playlist when a New York Times notice ran on my iPad screen, "R&B Singer Whitney Houston Dead at 48". Looking at the bulletin, I didn't cry. In fact, I wasn't surprised at all. I foretold her fate sometime ago after seeing her life played out through the cameras on...

Just found out this evening that a friend of mine passed away. Janice Thompson lost her long battle with cancer. The announcement was made by her son, who posted the news on Facebook. 8 years ago, she discussed with me about "Black Monday" at WSTM in Syracuse, New York. The new company that bought the TV station fought off attempts to unionize. She described that day in 1988 as a horrible event in time. "I can could remember people being brought in individually to their manager's office. One...

February 5th, 2012 Super Bowl 46 Indianapolis, Indiana New York Giants vs. New England Patriots Line: Patriots by 2½ And so it goes…five months of grinding, pounding and aching has come to this, a moment in time…revisited. When we last saw these two teams battle for the crown, we saw the most unlikely outcome take place. The Patriots were gunning for perfection. 18-0, they were the team of destiny. The only thing standing in their way was the upstart New York Giants, the team that no one...

This year, the best America has to offer in figure skating travels to San Jose, the home of legendary skaters Rudy Galindo and Peggy Fleming. Both Galindo and Fleming captured national titles in men’s and women’s divisions respectively. It’s also a monumental occasion, as 9-time ladies champion Michelle Kwan will be inducted into the US figure skating hall of fame during this week’s festivals. But the main even will be the skating competition, which stands to be one of the most competitive in...

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Contest Factory for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine. You've probably heard of the MTV's show "Pimp My Ride", where a car in poor condition becomes restored into a completely different vehicle. Well, the one company has decided to go one step further and give a poorly organized work cubical a complete makeover. The website is called "Pimp My Cube" and they're offering a $1200 dollar makeover to a person that can show off the worst...

Thousands of websites will stand in solidarity by blacking out their content for a day to protest a series of bills pending in Washington that would seriously curtail Internet freedom online. Our main website, smoothjazzandmore.com joins Wikipedia, Mozilla, WordPress, TwitPic, Reddit, Major League Gaming, Boing Boing and many others websites declaring their intent to go dark all day Wednesday in order to demonstrate just how damaging censorship of the Internet could be. One bill called the...