Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Feb. 1: Heather Morris, AKA cheerleader Brittany Pierce in the musical comedy series Glee, is 24 today.



Heather Elizabeth Morris was born in Thousand Oaks, California and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. She began dancing at the age of one, eventually competing at a young age in a variety of styles including jazz, tap, and contemporary.

After graduating high school, Morris decided to enroll in a local university but moved to L.A. instead at age 19.
Morris' first significant appearance was in 2006 on So You Think You Can Dance Season 2 where she made the "green mile" but failed to make the final 20 by a vote of 3-2.

Afterwards, she moved back to Los Angeles and actively pursued a career in dancing. Her big break came in 2007 when Morris was one of Beyoncé's backup dancers on The Beyoncé Experience world tour and, following that, worked again with Beyoncé on a mini "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" promotional tour that included 2008 performances on the American Music Awards, Saturday Night Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Today, and MTV's Total Request Live Finale.

She also danced backup for Beyoncé and Tina Turner at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008. She later appeared in a small role in the movie Fired Up, where she met choreographer Zach Woodlee. Following that film, Woodlee brought Morris in to dance on other shows he was choreographing, including episodes of Eli Stone and Swingtown, the movie Bedtime Stories, and eventually Glee.

Morris was taking acting classes and actively pursuing an acting career when she was asked by Woodlee to teach the choreography for Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" dance to the Glee actors. At the same time, the show was looking for a third cheerleader, and Morris ended up landing the role of Brittany. Initially a background character who hardly ever spoke, the role grew as writers discovered Morris had a gift for delivering one-liners.



(Press album cover for direct link to the entire Amazon Website):


Glee: Season Two


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When a promotional clip for the episode "Sectionals" indicated that Brittany Pierce and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) had slept together, Dorothy Snarker, writing for lesbian entertainment website After Ellen, praised the pairing, referring to them by the portmanteau "Brittana." Due to the positive response to her character, Morris was promoted to official series regular status during season two.

She was at the center of the second episode, "Britney/Brittany," (a tribute to Britney Spears) where she made her singing debut covering Spears' I'm a Slave 4 U solo and dueting with Naya Rivera on Me Against the Music. As on Glee, Morris is best friends in real life with co-star Rivera.

In December 2010, Morris was named the Celebrity Style Ambassador for FLIRT! Cosmetics, an Estee Lauder cosmetics line.

Morris co-wrote and appeared in a January 2011 video for Funny or Die, "Nuthin' But A Glee Thang," a take-off of the Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg collaboration "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang." Co-written with actresses Ashley Lendzion and Riki Lindhome, the video features appearances from Modern Family's Sofia Vergara and Morris's Glee castmates Matthew Morrison, Cory Monteith, Harry Shum, Jr., and Naya Rivera.

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Feb. 1: Big Boi of OutKast and the "Atlanta Ballet" is 36 today.



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Did you know?

In 2008, Big Boi collaborated and starred in a show with the Atlanta Ballet. The show, entitled big, premiered at the Fox Theater in Atlanta April 10–13, 2008. The show was performed by Atlanta Ballet dancers, local youth and talent, choreographed by Lauri Stallings. (See below.)
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Antwan André Patton, better known by his stage name Big Boi, is a A rapper, song-writer, record producer and actor, best known for being a member of American hip hop duo OutKast with André 3000.

The duo has produced six studio albums. Afterwards, Big Boi and André 3000 each announced plans to release a solo album. Big Boi's solo debut Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty was released in July 2010 to critical acclaim.

In the beginning...
Patton was born and spent the first half of his childhood in Savannah, Georgia, before moving to Atlanta with his Aunt Janice. He decided to pursue his interest in music at Tri-Cities High School, a Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School. He had a strong interest in hip-hop music, and met André "3000" Benjamin while attending Tri Cities High School in the early-1990s. The two signed with LaFace Records.

After four successful albums as a duo, the members of OutKast chose to make two solo albums, and release them as a double album under the OutKast name. Andre 3000 released The Love Below and Big Boi Speakerboxxx. The two albums were packaged together as Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003.

Speakerboxxx featured a style similar to OutKast's previous efforts, while The Love Below explored more offbeat territory, with Andre 3000 mainly singing rather than his usual rapping. One song from each album was released in September 2003 as a single.

Patton's choice was the single "The Way You Move," featuring Sleepy Brown. It crossed over to pop charts and became a pop hit. The second single from Big Boi's side of the album was "Ghetto Musick," which featured both members of OutKast and a sample from Patti LaBelle's "Love, Need & Want You."

In 2007 after the sixth album under the OutKast name, Idlewild, Big Boi announced plans to release an "actual" solo album titled Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. The album's first promotional single, "Royal Flush," was released in 2007, and featured Raekwon and Andre 3000.

Over the next few years the album saw many delays, but multiple promotional and video singles were released such as "Shine Blockas" featuring Gucci Mane, "For Yo Sorrows" featuring George Clinton and Too $hort and "General Patton" featuring Big Rube. The first official single was "Shutterbugg" featuring Cutty and the second "Follow Us" featuring Vonnegutt.

Guest artists include alternative urban songstress Janelle Monae; Big Boi's own new group Vonnegutt; plus established rappers T.I. and B.o.B. Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty earned praise from some critics for its inventive sound, varied musical style, and Big Boi's lyricism.




In a July 2010 Big Boi said he is working on the follow-up album to Sir Lucious Left Foot, entitled Daddy Fat Sax: Soul Funk Crusader. The album's title originates from when Big Boi and Andre 3000 would visit a local White Castle in between recording/writing in their earlier years because of an employee known as Daddy Fat Sacks, would give then extra burgers because he was a fan of their music.

Upon hearing of his death after visiting the same location after completing Sir Lucious Left Foot, Big Boi decided to name his follow-up solo album after Daddy Fat Sacks, but would use "Sax" instead of "Sacks" and planned to feature sax samples on the record.

In 2006, Patton and Benjamin starred in Idlewild, a film about music during the Depression-era South. Patton also plans on a joint project with Sleepy Brown.

He released a mixtape/compilation album, Got Purp? Vol 2, in conjunction with the Purple Ribbon All-Stars in November 2005 on Purple Ribbon Records. The first single from the album was "Kryptonite," which cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and was a hit on hip-hop radio.





(Continued below video and Amazon portals ...)





(Press album cover for direct link to the entire Amazon Website):
Sir Lucious Left Foot... The Son of Chico Dusty


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In 2006, Big Boi founded the Big Kidz Foundation a nonprofit organization to help youth in Atlanta. The Foundation's mission is to provide culturally diverse experiences in the field of humanities while helping create socially-conscious youth.

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