...Venezuelan singer/songwriter Luz Marina makes her debut for Cacao Música with 14 tracks of heavy-breathing soft numbers full of sexy insinuations and personal moments. It works. "Noche a Noche" (Night to Night) and "Cómo Dueles" (How You Hurt) were a little more my cup of tea, while the rest of the album might find welcoming ears in the Liz Phair/Stevie Nicks/Alanis Morissette-loving demographic...

...World Ballet founder-director-choreographer Henry Hernandez is hoping more mouths will be left agape when "A Christmas Carol" is performed at FAMU's Lee Hall Auditorium this weekend. The original take on the Dickens classic is the first official public performance by the new company, which was founded this summer after Hernandez left his former job as the artistic director of The Tallahassee Ballet....

...Latvian viola/piano duo Ineta & Milda Zigure gave the concert a very aesthetic opening. Mrs Sonoko Kase's students from Östermalm Private Music School performed Japanese children songs, piano and ballet pieces. Venezuelan born soprano Gabriela Gonzáles-Toledo, who is also an active lecturer in Latin American music and culture, entertained with beautiful opera and musical songs. Hungarian folk singer Andrea Gerak's choice of Romany National Anthem was perfect for the occasion and really hit home to the audience. Swedish singer-songwriter Mimmi Siegel sweetened the mood while rock singer Lizette& and Nsako Afrodans, a group performing tribal music and dance from Uganda broke the floor with high energy sounds and moves...

Director Gabriele Muccino was searching for a uniquely lonely sound for the score of Will Smith vehicle "Seven Pounds." He found it on his brother's iPod, which happened to contain a number of songs written by Venezuelan-born composer Angelo Milli.

Taken from the Mexican film "My Brother's Wife," the sounds were dissonant, mysterious -- exactly what Muccino was looking for. He tracked down the 33-year-old Milli, who had until then worked mostly on Spanish-language movies, and invited him to score his first major Hollywood studio production....

...On Monday, Williamsburg residents Maribel Araujo and Aristides Barrios will open Caracas Brooklyn — a Venezuelan restaurant specializing in the stuffed cornmeal patties called arepas.

“Arepas are something you can eat every single day — they’re our bread in Venezuela,” said Araujo, who also owns Manhattan’s Caracas Arepa Bar...

For a kid born in Venezuela, Mario Valery-Trabucco seemed destined for anything but a successful college hockey career. A move to Canada changed all that for the Union junior, who now calls Montreal home.

"I would have been a beach volleyball player," said the affable forward, who this week was named ECAC Hockey's Player of the Week. Valery-Trabucco had a goal and three assists in a pair of nonconference wins last weekend, eclipsing his total offensive output for the rest of the season...

"Myrna Moreno le canta al Mundo" en el Salón Automotriz Siglo XXI

El Salón Automotriz Siglo XXI del Consorcio Fonbienes, presenta: "Myrna Moreno le canta al Mundo”, el domingo 30 de noviembre, a las 12 m, en este "Nuevo Espacio para la Música", empeñado en promover el talento de los artistas de Venezuela.

La exquisita mezzosoprano venezolana de trayectoria internacional, residenciada en Londres, nos visita para ofrecernos un exigente repertorio, acompañada al piano por Fernando Roa, con arias antiguas italianas, ópera, musicales de Broadway, canciones francesas, latinoamericanas y venezolanas, que ambos artistas han interpretado juntos durante una exitosa carrera de casi 25 años. Destacan en el programa: "Tanto sospirero" de Bencini, "Les Chemins de l'amour" de Poulenc, "La Vie en Rose" de Louiguy, la "Habanera" de la ópera Carmen de Bizet, "The man I love" de Gershwin, "Youkaly" de Kurt Weill, "Pueblito mi pueblo" de Guastavino, "El Ordeñador" de Estévez, "Quiero Sembrá" de Federico Ruiz y "Arráncame la vida" de Agustín Lara, entre tantas otras.

La cita para disfrutar de esta única presentación de "Myrna Moreno le canta al Mundo" será el domingo 30 de noviembre de 2008, a las 12 m, en el Salón Automotriz Siglo XXI, entre Parque Miranda y metro Dos Caminos, Caracas.

Jaime Gili’s abstract designs are planned for permanent display on the Sprague oil tanks in Portland Harbor. But little is known about the Venezuelan artist and his vision for transforming 16 oil storage tanks in South Portland into Maine’s largest public art installation. Gili, who specializes in public art projects, says his roots are traditional but his style modern. He also is outspoken in his criticism of U.S. oil consumption. Gili says he hopes that the oil tanks – with his art intact – will one day be empty relics as the world ends its dependence on fossil fuel...

A street in Doral will be named after Venezuelan singer and actor Jose Luis Rodriguez.

A portion of Northwest 107th Avenue will be co-designated as "Jose Luis Rodriguez El Puma Avenue" in honor of the actor.

Rodriguez began his career in the entertainment world in the late 1960s, when he started singing with Billos Caracas Boys. He landed his first acting role in Puerto Rico, where he earned the nickname "El Puma". Since then, he has recorded more than 50 international hits and acted in more than 30 Spanish soap operas...

"Che" actor Edgar Ramirez is continuing his revolutionary ways.

He will star in French director Olivier Assayas' "Ilich: Story of Carlos," tackling four to five languages for the complex role as the real life "anti-James Bond" who worked for radical Palestinians and groups in Syria, Libya, Iraq and communist Romania....