SPAN: May/June 2012

MAY/JUNE 2012 Rs. 20

“””Come “Come Fly Away” Online Fusion The HBO Factor

GLOBAL Groove

Go Online

Ambassador Powell introduces herself http://www.youtube.com/ user/USEmbassyNewDelhi

New U.S.

Ambassador to India

Nancy J. Powell arrived in April following her confirmation by the U.S. Senate as the first female U.S. Ambassador to India.

Ambassador Powell holds the highest rank in the United States Foreign Service, with the title of Career Ambassador.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 7, Ambassador Powell said India will be “a leading security partner of the United States in the 21st century,” adding “our relations are firmly grounded in a set of shared democratic values and an increasingly shared strategic vision of both the opportunities that can promote those values as well as the threats that can undermine them.”

Prior to President Barack Obama’s nominating her as Ambassador to India, Ambassador Powell was Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources. She was the U.S. Ambassador to Nepal from August 2007 to August 2009. From 2006 to 2007, she

Right: Ambassador Nancy J. Powell presents her credentials to President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil, at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in April.

Far right: Ambassador Powell answers questions during her first Facebook chat with fans of the U.S. Embassy.

served as the National Intelligence Officer for South Asia at the National Intelligence Council, as the State Department’s Senior Coordinator for Avian Influenza, and as Acting Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Activities.

Ambassador Powell has also served as Ambassador to Pakistan, Ghana and Uganda. Other prior assignments also include serving as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Bangladesh and Togo, Acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Consul General in Calcutta, and Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at U.S. Embassy New Delhi. Ambassador Powell is the recipient of the Homeland Security Service to America Medal for 2006 for Avian Influenza preparations, and the U.S. State Department Arnold L. Raphel Award for 2003.

Ambassador Powell graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1970.

A LETTER FROM THE

CONTENTS “Come Fly Away”

32



By Candice Yacono

By Michael Gallant 

JOAN MARCUS 

34

Bonding With Music

By Paromita Pain

9



Net Connections

36

By Carrie Loewenthal Massey

12



By Renuka Raja Rao and Anita Buragohain

© Getty Images

7



Global Groove



38

Are Reality Shows Real?

Alligators in the Everglades

By Laura Helmuth

By Howard Cincotta

21



The HBO Factor

40

By Howard Cincotta

26 27

On the Lighter Side 

My Love Don’t Cost a Thing—My Music Does

By Anne Walls

By Michael Gallant

18

American Education Opportunities Related to Entertainment

Online Fusion

By Michael Gallant

The Musical Worlds of Rudresh Mahanthappa

30 

By Howard Cincotta

Publisher Michael P. Pelletier Editor in Chief Adele E. Ruppe Acting Editor Deepanjali Kakati Hindi Editor Giriraj Agarwal Copy Editors Richa Varma, Shah Md. Tahsin Usmani Editorial Assistant Yugesh Mathur

Books

Art Director Hemant Bhatnagar Deputy Art Directors Khurshid Anwar Abbasi, Qasim Raza Web Manager Chetna Khera Production/Circulation Manager Alok Kaushik Printing Assistant Manish Gandhi Research Services Bureau of International Information Programs, The American Library Front cover: Dave Reed (left) and Chad Cisneros of Tritonal. Collage by Hemant Bhatnagar.

 Articles with a star may be reprinted with permission.

Those without a star are copyrighted and may not be reprinted.

Contact SPAN at 011-23472135 or editorspan@state.gov

http://span.state.gov For notification of new content, write to:

ezinespan@state.gov



4 Ways to Publish Your Book

By Howard Cincotta

Jazz

Published by the Public Affairs Section, American Center, 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001 (phone: 23472000), on behalf of the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi. Printed at Thomson Press India Limited, 18/35, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad, Haryana 121007. Opinions expressed in this 56-page magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Government.

Education

2

Art You Can Play

Courtesy G.B. Tran



V O LU M E L I I I N U M B E R 3

LA FRANCES HUI/Asia Society

I

t’s summertime in India—time to relax, kick up your heels, catch the latest Hollywood or Bollywood release, and enjoy the latest Billboard hits. To get you in the mood, we bring you an issue packed with articles on the latest in cutting-edge entertainment.

There was a time when entertainment meant going to the movies, watching television, or listening to the radio. While these activities remain among the most popular, the way they are produced and delivered and the way we consume them has changed almost beyond recognition. At the heart of this dramatic change lies the growth of technology and the Internet and the predominance of new gadgets. They have transformed so many aspects of how we communicate, share information, and entertain ourselves.

For the creators of entertainment, advances in technology have produced amazing tools that allow them to reach audiences in innovative and more exciting ways. Today, a musician is no longer dependent solely on stage shows or CDs to reach his or her audience. All it takes is one good YouTube video. Movies and TV shows are much sleeker and authors have a remarkable range of e-publishing options.

For people like you and me, this has meant an explosion of choices—we can catch the latest movie trailer at the theater, on TV, on iTunes, or YouTube. We have a steady stream of updates on our favorite shows, actors, or music albums on social media.

We can read the latest literary blockbuster on our iPads, Kindles, and Nooks. So, we have dedicated this issue of SPAN to the many choices you have in the field of entertainment—from video games, graphic novels, and cool DJs to cutting-edge TV shows and musicians who have taken the YouTube route to success.

Even we diplomats are using these new forms of direct communication. Before arriving in New Delhi, our new U.S. Ambassador to India, Nancy J. Powell, introduced herself to the people of India through a YouTube video subtitled in 10 Indian languages (http://www.youtube.com/user/USEmbassyNewDelhi). Her arrival comes at a time of exciting opportunity to expand the partnership between our countries. As Ambassador Powell underscored in her testimony in February before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “The number and kinds of interactions between our two countries at all levels is staggering in its breadth and depth. At its heart are the people-to-people links—students, businesses, and tourists along with the three million strong Indian American community.”

Ambassador Powell has lived and worked in Kolkata and New Delhi as a diplomat from 1992 to 1995. As she says in her video, she is anxious to reconnect with old friends and revisit her favorite places. At the same time, she is focused on looking forward—to experiencing first-hand the dynamism of India’s society, democracy, and economy. She will visit all corners of India and hopes to connect with you in person and through new media.

Theater

PUBLISHER

May/June 2012

44



New Sounds For New Music

By Michael Gallant

48



News Scape

“Once I get you up there where the air is rarified We’ll just glide, starry-eyed Once I get you up there I’ll be holding you so near You may hear all the angels cheer ’cause we’re together.”

Text by CANDICE YACONO, photographs by JOAN MARCUS

A new Broadway musical based on the music of Frank Sinatra has taken America by storm.

The creative pairing behind the hit song and dance sensation, “Come Fly Away,” may just be made in heaven.

—Frank Sinatra, “Come Fly With Me”

“Come Fly Away,,” now touring around the country, pairs the music of Ol’ Blue Eyes himself with the choreography of Tony Award-winning, legendary dance choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Lead dancer Ashley Blair Fitzgerald says Tharp’s choreography helps audience and dancer alike experience Sinatra’s music in a whole new way.

“The show has a 14-piece

2 MAY/JUNE 2012

If you

“Come Fly Away” http://www.comeflyaway.com/

Broadway

THEATER

http://www.broadway.com/

Go Online

Lead dancer Ashley Blair Fitzgerald gives a glimpse into her life as a member of the smash-hit show.

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

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band, and to have all that right there, where they match Frank’s voice, you just hear so much more of the music than you ever knew was there,” Fitzgerald says.

“To dance a story to the music, you hear it a different way.”

Fitzgerald is one of the elite dancers headlining the show; they are supported by a bevy of ensemble dancers.

“It is a story that takes place in one night in a nightclub, and it follows the relationships between four couples,” she says.

The pairings range from an innocent, unscathed young couple to those seeking a purely physical bonding. Fitzgerald’s character, Kate, is in a tempestuous, somewhat ambiguous long-term relationship.

“It kind of shows the trials and tribulations that go on with throwing all these people into the same nightclub,” she says.

“At the end of the night, you walk away feeling extremely happy; the music and the choreography do that to you.”

It is a story that takes place in one night in a nightclub, and it follows the relationships between four couples.

4 MAY/JUNE 2012

Anthony Burrell (far left) and Ashley Blair Fitzgerald in the roles of Hank and Kate.

Born to dance For Fitzgerald, the road to “Come Fly Away” was paved with countless pairs of ballet slippers.

“I started dancing when I was 5,” she says. “My older sister was a dancer, so I just kind of followed in her footsteps.”

A top ballerina by high school, she began participating in dance camps with companies like ABT and the Joffrey, as well as musical theater camps. She has studied with Ann Reinking, Gwen Verdon, Ben Vereen and Gregory Hines.

Fitzgerald went to the Boston Conservatory as a dance major, and then began touring with “Fosse,” which proved to be a critical decision in her life: her connections from “Fosse” determined her career trajectory, she says.

schedule.

“You want to work as hard as you posWhen it came to trying out for “Come sibly can for her, because you know that Fly Away,” the role seemed like an she’s really very right about everything,” instant fit—something that doesn’t hapshe says.

“It might not be what you want pen often in one’s career, Fitzgerald says. to hear, but it’s right.”

“I just went in and auditioned like regFitzgerald also describes her experiular,” she says. “They taught us a couple ences developing her character from the numbers from the show, and when I was ground up. there at the audition…sometimes you can Tharp “really wanted you to rid your see if they like you or if they don’t like mind of whatever you thought it was you. It felt like it was heading toward a supposed to be, to just learn the steps good place with the creative team. They and go from there,” she says. told me right there that I got the job, which is not normal. Twyla knew right Nonstop activity away.”

Fitzgerald partook in nearly two Fitzgerald says she was incredibly months of training and preparation humbled to work with Tharp, who is still before going onstage with her role in heavily involved in the touring produc“Come Fly Away,” but the training never tion of the show despite her hectic

An instant fit

MAY/JUNE 2012

5

stops, she says.

“This show has challenged me in that I really have to take care of my body. I’m young in terms of what ‘normal life’ is, but for dancers, you use your body so much. We’re athletes, and we really have to take care of ourselves.”

Fitzgerald is looking forward to getting married this summer, but anything beyond that is a bit too far out to grasp, she says.

“I just want to continue to grow; as an artist, we never know what’s going on six months down the road,” she says. “I constantly do as best I can in the job I’m in right now, and make sure that when I leave this job, I’m better than when I started it.”

Candice Yacono is a magazine and newspaper writer based in southern California.

6 MAY/JUNE 2012

Tharp's choreography helps audience and dancer alike experience Sinatra's music in a whole new way.

Courtesy Lisa Sorensen

g n i d n o B With sic u M y

Go Online

Black Girls Rock! Inc. http://blackgirlsrockinc.com

Beverly Bond on Twitter https://twitter.com/beverlybond

”

AL OCI

Scratch DJ Academy

DE

“

w o h ing jay n r Lea o dee rd t ha d s n mea ork an . w pline i c s i d

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it nd are ed w its we Bond a l, her t r a st al es ly t all re mak Bever . After Rock! g y u it s this to ghtedl k Girls r youn e i Tell hs del n, Blac mpow music, Ts e g o i h lau nizat ed to roug quitou e n a i h t th g g b i or des f color o the u ! was , . c k t o c In r en igin s Ro ha’ rlie wom s its or k Girl lete ‘a ad ea ck h c owe . “Bla a comp nd, “I d ‘Bla self a t o r f i sh uct o ays B that re derful ith s n d t w r o o ” i pr ent, a T-sh as a w share m o o m gned .’ It w ted t ly i des s Rock , I wan sudden l n I Gir matio hen w r affi orld, w e th

EN M P O VEL

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da N d to od.

PAI n a A go irt MIT RO T-sh rs look she A a P y h

http://www.scratch.com/

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2012 7

Courtesy Lisa Sorensen

If you

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

Right: Students at the Black Girls Rock! Queens’ Camp for Leadership.

realized this could be bigger than a shirt.”

Since 2006, Bond’s organization has been mentoring black teenage girls from age 12 through high school to become selfconfident through mentorship programs, art education, and public service.

For Bond, model, celebrity DJ and chief mentor at the Black Girls Rock!

Inc., reaching out through music is natural. “Teaching deejaying was a wonderful extension of what I was already doing. I couldn’t have thought of starting a science program for girls!” she laughs.

Winner of The Justos Mixtape Awards, Best Female DJ 2002, and other awards, Bond says it was her music connoisseur mother who instilled in her an awareness of the transformative power of music.

“Saturdays for us were musical days,” she says.

Destiny’s hand Deejaying actually happened quite by chance. Always an avid record collector, deejaying was a hobby which took off from the day in January 2000 when she walked into a club to perform. “I started spinning for celebrities like Prince and Kimora Simmons,” she says. “Deejaying was anything but a job.” She was tagged Vibe Magazine’s “Future Urban Icon” and Honey Magazine called her one of the “Hot 100 People to Watch.”

“I couldn’t have been happier,” she says. “But there was this constant awareness that a lot of the music out there aimed at young people was very inappropriate. Women were being insulted constantly. I needed to take a stand.” She has refused to play songs whose messages outraged her. “We walk a very fine line while deejaying,” she says. “I am not saying that everything has to be censored but who this material is being played out to certainly warrants control.”

Bond knew that her views would be met with resistance but she persevered.

“

g want n u yo ple peo be . to ellent exc

”

8 MAY/JUNE 2012

Inc. k c s Ro arting l r i k G ugh st c a l B o ts t i d y ha m . s t e n e mom cam

“ ”

I be est b n w o or. don

Today students like Abby, 15, Melinda, 14, and Natanya, 15, have much to thank her for. Abby proved to be a revelation for her class. She was considered quite laidback and no one knew how much she was learning. Now she is called the Silent Killer. That is her DJ name. Bond met Natanya when she went to speak in her school. “Natanya was a...victim of bullying,” says Bond. The program helped her face bullies by not letting them affect her at all.

Power of belief Like all projects, Black Girls Rock!

Inc. had its tough starting moments. “I

sed u f e sr s a h g Bond ay son ges l a to p e mess . r s who aged he outr

became my own best donor,” she says.

Bond is also grateful to generous corporate sponsors like General Motors that keep them going. Queen Latifah’s support made them name their summer leadership camp after her: The Black Girls Rock! Queens’ Camp for Leadership and Excellence.

The premier DJ school, Scratch DJ Academy, founded by Rob Principe and the late Jam Master Jay, collaborates with Bond and Black Girls Rock! Inc. to offer discounted DJ lessons.

There is an application process where recommendations and grade point averages are considered. Bond says it’s important that no one neglects their studies for deejaying. “The girls don’t pay anything,” she says. “Learning how to DJ means hard work and discipline.”

Her advice to young people looking to learn music is simple. “Look at free online resources like YouTube. Invest in the instrument of your choice and practice like no one’s listening.”

Her single most motivating factor is her firm belief that “young people want to be excellent.”

“The media is the strongest influence on young people these days and there are ridiculous messages being thrown their way,” she says. “This is a daily problem and we must all work together to stop it.”

Paromita Pain is doing her M.A. in specialized journalism from the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California.

T

Courtesy Terra Naomi

erra Naomi has been a true original from the start. Think about it: How many singing babies have you met?

“My mom told me I was eight months old and singing before I could talk. I just always knew I was going to be a singer,” Naomi says.

And a singer she became. While she’s gained a following with her captivating sound, it’s Naomi’s unique approach to managing and promoting her music career that really sets her apart. Rewind to 2005 when Naomi regularly posted audio recordings of her songs on

Connections

By CARRIE LOEWENTHAL MASSEY

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2012 9

SOCIAL MEDIA

Net

DAR YASIN © AP-WWP

Terra Naomi builds a music career online.

Global f you ask many young electronic music fans, DJs have filled the role that rock stars once did—and there’s plenty of evidence to support such claims. In countries around the world, nearly any night of the week can see scores of people gathering to dance to throbbing bass lines and powerful drum grooves, and a rarified class of superstar DJs like Armin van Buuren and David Guetta can sell out stadium performances just as easily as the biggest international pop star.

“A few decades ago, the tools of the DJ trade were records, turntables and a mixer,” says Francis Preve, an electronic music producer, performer, educator and journalist living in Austin, Texas. “These days, everyone uses laptop computers loaded with music production and performance software programs Abelton Live and Reason. Those tools let them manipulate audio and create music on the fly, so deejaying has really become a fusion of music production and performance.”

Indeed, the vast majority of cutting-edge DJs compose, program and record the floor-shaking music that they play each night, rather than playing back other people’s records—but the evolution doesn’t stop there. Today’s DJs are often eye-catching entertainers as well, seasoned performers who give their audiences captivating and energetic shows, night after night.

From international stars to promising up-and-comers, here are just a handful of innovative DJs worth checking out.

CHRIS PIZZELLO © AP-WWP

I

12 MAY/JUNE 2012

If you

lGroove

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

Cutting-edge DJs rock dance floors around the world.

By MICHAEL GALLANT

T

he charismatic duo of Dave Reed and Chad Cisneros first met online while Cisneros produced remixes in Texas and Reed crafted a solo album in Washington, D.C. Once they started producing and deejaying as a team, their addictive approach to trance and progressive styles of electronic music quickly earned them recognition within the dance music community. Their tours have taken them to clubs throughout Asia, Australia and the United States.

“In just two years, they’ve gotten into DJ magazine’s top 100 DJs,” says Preve. “That’s an amazing feat and their rise to success has been meteoric.”

Left: David Guetta performs at the 2012 Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, California.

Above: Chad Cisneros (left) and Dave Reed of Tritonal.

Tritonal To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2012 13

DEEJAYING

A behind-the-scenes video of Tritonal on tour: http://goo.gl/a51Pg

An Ultra TV presentation of Deadmau5 performing at the Hollywood Palladium: http://goo.gl/ufeFd

Left: Joel Zimmerman, known as Deadmau5, dons a large, stylized cartoon costume head of a mouse during his performance (above).

Photographs by DREW RESSLER

Deadmau5

T

hirty-one-year-old Canadian Joel Zimmerman has gained worldwide fame under the moniker Deadmau5 for his powerful combination of house and dubstep electronic music styles. His performance is as memorable as his music—at live shows, Deadmau5 dons a large, stylized cartoon costume head of a mouse and coordinates his grooves with an impressive light show.

“Aside from the fact that he’s a technical genius, he’s been able to achieve mega-stardom without pandering at all to the public’s taste,” says Preve. “Deadmau5 isn’t the sort of producer who will compromise musical integrity just to get people to listen to him.”

Watch a time-lapse video of Wolfgang Gartner setting up and performing at the Avalon club in Los Angeles: http://goo.gl/JlqoT

16 MAY/JUNE 2012

SEBASTIAN KIM

Wolfgang Gartne r T

hough the name sounds German, the man behind the project, Joey Youngman, is a groundbreaking American house producer and DJ. Under the Wolfgang Gartner name, Youngman has done remixes for major stars like Tiesto and Britney Spears, and his 2011 solo album, “Weekend in America,” features guest rappers like will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.

“Like Deadmau5, he’s a technical genius,” says Preve. “He’s also found a way to keep a toe in the mainstream, but still be true to his underground roots. His tracks always sound massive, and production-wise, they’re extremely well crafted. He also has a great sense of melody and is extremely musical.”

S

onny Moore—a.k.a.

Skrillex—began his music career singing in a rock band, but first became known in electronic music when he released “My Name is Skrillex” for free online download. His quirky

and aggressive flavor of dubstep gained much greater visibility though when he won three Grammy awards in 2012, including Best Dance Recording and Best Dance/Electronica Album, for his “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.”

Matt Lange

L

ange spent years working as a music programmer and engineer for electronica pioneer BT and brings a great amount of technical knowledge and attention to detail to his work. He also draws upon a diverse set of influences— ranging from singing in a boy’s choir to shredding guitar in a heavy metal band—in his electronic production and deejaying.

“Lange records a lot of sounds found in nature and in cities, and incorporates them into the music,” says Preve. “His music encompasses an amazingly broad range of styles, from techno all the way to trance. It doesn’t fit easily into a category.”

Listen to the Matt Lange original track “The Other Shore” featuring Cristina Soto: http://goo.gl/9hLw0

“He stays true to what he’s doing,” says Preve. “He’s really an artist, and he continues to be highly creative and innovative in the dubstep genre.”

Michael Gallant is the founder and chief executive officer of Gallant Music. He lives in New York City.

JOSEPH LLANES

Watch tour and performance footage of Skrillex, compiled over eight months on the road: http://goo.gl/Q5pho

Others to Watch Preve recommends checking out the following DJs: Secret Panda Society (dubstep)

soundcloud.com/secretpandasociety •The Chaotic Good (electro/breaks)

thechaoticgood.com •Jan van Lier (tech house and progressive)

soundcloud.com/jan-van-lier

•Shreddward (guitarist-turned-DJ)

soundcloud.com/shreddward

Skrillex

•Audio DnA (electro)

soundcloud.com/audio-dna For more on cutting-edge DJs, visit

djmag.com

MAY/JUNE 2012

17

Courtesy FOX

Are Reality Shows

By HOWARD CINCOTTA

Well, yes and no. The answer turns out to be more complicated than you might think.

18 MAY/JUNE 2012

Above: Jessica Sanchez prepares to perform on the “American Idol” 2012 stage.

Courtesy Discovery Communications

Courtesy FOX

Left from top: Poster of “Hell’s Kitchen,” a competitive cooking show with chef Gordon Ramsey; a large Alaskan king crab caught on the program “Deadliest Catch;” Jonas Otusuji and Troy Robertson of the Manono Tribe on “Survivor: One World” 2012; Cheryl Burke and Chad Ochocinco in “Dancing with the Stars;” the Kardashian family in “Keeping Up With the Kardashians;” and the “Cops” logo.

If you

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

eality television is a little like reality itself: difficult to define, but you know it when you see it.

However you define it, reality TV has become one of the most watched, emulated, obsessed over, and criticized entertainment genres around the world today.

R

Despite an elusive definition, there is general consensus that the first genuine TV reality show was “Candid Camera,” first broadcast in the late 1940s, which placed ordinary and unsuspecting people in awkward or unusual situations while hidden cameras filmed their reactions. The result was instant hilarity, followed by the show’s catchline, “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!”

Despite “Candid Camera’s” success, the reality genre didn’t return until the late 1980s, triggered in part by the 1988 strike of Hollywood screenwriters, which left TV producers scrambling for material to fill the airwaves.

The first of the new generation of reality shows has proven to be one of the most durable: “COPS,” filmed with police officers in U.S. cities across the country.

Episodes depict officers in their police cruisers responding to emergency calls, most commonly for auto theft, drug possession, public drunkenness and domestic violence. Over the years, American viewers have learned the curious fact that, whatever the charge, a remarkable number of the men are never wearing shirts. “COPS” may also have the best theme music of any reality show with its reggae-infused number “Bad Boys,” and its refrain, “Bad boys! Bad boys! Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”

“The Real World,” first broadcast in 1992 by MTV, introduced another staple of reality television: a group of young people from diverse backgrounds living together while being filmed 24 hours a day. “Real World,” and its European counterpart, “Big Brother,” also employed the “confessional,” where participants could be privately recorded as they spoke directly to the camera.

Reality television became an international phenomenon with the success of shows like “Survivor” (2000), “The Amazing Race” (2001), and “American Idol” (2002), all of which dominated the ratings and have been syndicated and replicated from the Americas to Europe and Asia.

Many realities These shows have now been joined by other reality ratings giants: “Dancing with the Stars,” “America’s To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2012 19

ENTERTAINMENT

Courtesy ABC

ROBERT VOETS/CBS

“Candid Camera” to “Survivor”

Go Online Reality Blurred, a blog devoted to reality television http://www.realityblurred.com/

“Survivor” Courtesy CBS

http://www.cbs.com/ shows/survivor

“American Idol” http://www.americanidol.com

“Hell’s Kitchen” http://www.fox.com/hellskitchen

“Keeping Up With the Kardashians” Courtesy FOX

http://www.eonline.com/ shows/kardashians

Top: Contestants in “Amazing Race.”

Above: A performance by the 13 finalists of “American Idol” 2012.

“

Unscripted does not mean unwritten.

The final cut ultimately is very similar in its narrative structure to scripted television.

”

20 MAY/JUNE 2012

Next Top Model” and “Project Runway,” “Top Chef” and “Hell’s Kitchen,” “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” “The Biggest Loser” (losing weight), and “The Apprentice.”

Although wildly different in many respects, each of these shows is essentially an elimination contest in which individual episodes climax in the departure of one of the contestants.

Documentary-style shows remain both popular and notorious. At the top of the heap currently is “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” about a Hollywood family of women who are largely famous for being famous. Another hot show is “Jersey Shore,” which follows a tribe of bronzed Italian Americans, who spend their time preening, partying and hanging out at the beach.

Another important sub-genre, with a generally higher reality quotient depicts workers and professionals doing jobs that are either dangerous— “Deadliest Catch” (king crab fishermen in the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska) or “Ax Men” (loggers in the American Northwest).

What’s real?

Most viewers recognize that, like a sports highlight show, reality TV programs are culled from hundreds, if not thousands of hours of tape. But they may not always understand the degree to which these programs are shaped, if not staged.

The reason is simple: in the end, any reality show

must tell a story.

As screenwriter J. Ryan Stradal writes, “Unscripted does not mean unwritten. The final cut ultimately is very similar in its narrative structure to scripted television. There is a beginning, middle and end, with character development, goals, conflicts and resolution.”

Reality shows are almost always much less expensive to produce than scripted shows. Not simply because they don’t require sound stages and professional actors, but because most reality-show producers are independent contractors, not TV studio employees. As for the participants, they are paid very little, if anything, while working long hours, often in isolation, to ensure that they are “keeping it real.”

Nevertheless, reality television continues to flourish as producers pitch hundreds of new ideas for shows, only a small percentage of which reach the screen.

As Andy Dehnart, editor of the blog Reality Blurred, has written, “Some reality shows are horrifying and trashy, and others are completely compelling and socially redeeming. It’s a varied genre.”

However entertaining these shows may be, most of us recognize that, when we come face to face with reality, it is usually something internal and invisible as we achieve an insight or make a decision. We are probably alone and it is very, very quiet. And there are no television cameras.

Howard Cincotta is a U.S. State Department writer and editor.

Factor

Courtesy HBO

The

By HOWARD CINCOTTA

ritics have been decrying the state of television ever since it began beaming into their living rooms. In 1961, a federal communications official famously described the American television as “a vast wasteland.” Thirty years later, with television transformed by the proliferation of cable TV networks, rock star Bruce Springsteen wrote a song called “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On).”

TELEVISION

How did a single cable company become the catalyst for a new golden era of American television drama?

Above: Poster of “Boardwalk Empire.”

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2012 21

A screen shot of “The Bengali Detective.”

The book cover of the first volume of “A Game of Thrones,” a medieval fantasy series, now among HBO’s most popular shows (below right).

Fast forward to 2012. The channels—both cable and satellite—have multiplied exponentially, but there is still plenty to complain about: vacuous news programs, for starters, and so-called reality shows built around humiliation and bad behavior.

But American television today—and indeed for the past several decades—has also been carrying programs of remarkable artistry and innovation that have won critical acclaim.

One company that set the bar so high for original television drama is HBO. HBO, or Home Box Office, is neither an over-the-air broadcaster nor a conventional cable channel. In the United States, it functions as a premium, or pay-TV, service that viewers must purchase in addition to their basic cable channels. If viewers don’t like HBO’s offerings, they can easily drop the service—and

Courtesy HBO

Television innovator

For HBO, content is everything. Over 30 years, It has deliverED a long list of

landmark original television dramas.

If you

Poster of the “True Blood” series, season 2.

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

Poster of “Six Feet Under.”

Photographs courtesy HBO

CHRIS PIZZELLO © AP-W WWP

Musicians Jemaine Clement (left) and Bret McKenzie, of “Flight of the Conchords,” during a press tour in Beverly Hills, California.

still have dozens, if not hundreds of other cable channels and video options to choose from.

For HBO, in other words, content is everything.

And over the last 30 years, HBO has demonstrated the ability to deliver a long list of landmark original television dramas. Among the most celebrated: “The Sopranos” (mafia crime family in New Jersey), “Six Feet Under” (family undertaking business in Los Angeles), “The Wire” (police and drug gangs in Baltimore, Maryland), and “Sex and the City” (four women on the prowl in New York).

HBO continues to produce some of the most highly praised dramas on television today. Its current lineup includes the medieval fantasy series, “Game of Thrones;” the drama about a corrupt politician and crime boss in 1920s-era Atlantic City, “Boardwalk Empire;” tales of horseracing and gambling at the spectacular Santa Anita racetrack in California, “Luck;” and the long-running series about vampires and humans struggling to co-exist in the bayous of Louisiana, “True Blood.”

HBO has also been an innovator in comedy,

with quirky series like “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” depicting the life of clueless television writer and producer Larry David, and “Flight of the Conchords,” which traces the adventures of an oddball pair of musicians from New Zealand in New York City.

The network has been unafraid to tackle tough social issues as well, with original movies (“Too Big to Fail”—on the 2008 financial collapse) and documentaries (“When the Levees Broke”—on Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana).

Internationally, HBO’s film about women victimized by acid attacks in Pakistan, “Saving Face,” won the 2012 Academy Award for best short documentary. “The Bengali Detective” follows Rajesh Ji and his band of private detectives in Kolkata as they investigate three different cases over several weeks. And in 2011, HBO chronicled a dramatic chapter in the Arab Spring with “In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution.”

As a result, it is no surprise that in recent years HBO has regularly won more top television awards, known as the Emmys, than any other network. In 2011, the network took home 19 Emmys; the total was 25 the previous year.

“We are investing in original programming more than we ever have before,” HBO co-president Eric Kessler said in an interview with MAY/JUNE 2012

23

Video Neuze, a publication for the online video industry. “We want to ensure that HBO is different, better and worth paying for.”

HBO’s rise HBO reached its current prominence by mastering fast-changing broadcast technologies as well as creating original shows.

It began as a small pay-TV service in Pennsylvania that focused on live sports and Hollywood film reruns. Within a few years, HBO became the only cable network delivering uncut commercial-free films by satellite. It also pioneered multiplexing, which enabled it to broadcast on multiple channels without additional bandwidth.

In 2010, the network released HBO GO, which allows subscribers to download virtually all its programs to iPads, smartphones and other mobile devices.

Today, HBO has seven channels in the United States, including one for children and one in Spanish. Internationally, HBO broadcasts in 50 countries to more than 35 million subscribers.

Poster of “Sex and the City.”

CHRIS PIZZELLO © AP-WWP

Larry David (left), creator and star of the HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” with co-star Cheryl Hines during a press tour in California.

24 MAY/JUNE 2012

ON AN AVERAGE, hbo VIEWERS WATCH

14 PERCENT more television than non-HBO households.

The challengers Despite its success, HBO is facing a complex broadcasting environment with the rise of new cable channels and video services that are challenging its preeminence. Other services are learning HBO’s formula for original cuttingedge television, notably the cable channel AMC, which has enjoyed “Soprano”-like success with its tales of 1960s-era New York advertising, “Mad Men,” and matched HBO’s “True Blood” vampires with its smash-hit zombies, “The Walking Dead.”

But television’s changing economics in the United States may pose an even larger threat.

The video giant Netflix, for example, delivers DVDs and movies directly to consumers, online or by mail, and is cheaper than an HBO subscription. At the same time, a new generation of devices allow viewers to stream movies and sports directly from the Internet to their television through such services as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Google and Amazon.

“HBO is terrific, but the entry cost for a cable subscription with HBO is getting higher and higher,” says Video Neuze publisher Will

Richmond.

One reason is the increasing costs of sports programming, which the cable channels are passing along to subscribers, including HBO subscribers who may have little interest in sports.

“Because HBO has no direct-to-consumer model,” Richmond says, “it is 100 percent reliant on its pay-TV distributors for its subscription success. As a result, original content is hugely important for them.”

HBO co-president Kessler agrees about the importance of quality programming, but says the network remains committed to the pay-TV approach and value-added services like HBO GO. “Great series are exceptionally important to holding on to our subscribers,” he says. “We absolutely believe in the value of exclusivity.”

Kessler points out that, on an average, HBO viewers watch 14 percent more television than non-HBO households. “HBO subscribers love television. They are entertainment enthusiasts.”

Howard Cincotta is a U.S. State Department writer and editor.

http://www.hbo.com

HBO video clips and features http://goo.gl/3TLaZ

Poster of “The Wire.”

Photographs courtesy HBO

Poster of “The Sopranos.”

Go Online

HBO

MAY/JUNE 2012

25

O n t he L i g hter Si d e

Copyright © Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

“So this is where the magic happens.”

Copyright © Robert Weber/The New Yorker Collection/ www.cartoonbank.com

HUMOR

“The cracks can be fixed— it’s your cholesterol level that worries me.”

“I dropped twelve pounds the first week and kept it off!”

Copyright © Lee Lorenz/The New Yorker Collection/ www.cartoonbank.com

26 MAY/JUNE 2012

Copyright © Leo Cullum/The New Yorker Collection/ www.cartoonbank.com

JESSE WEINER

Go Online Shankar Tucker http://shankartucker.com http://youtube.com/theshrutibox

Online

Fusion

By MICHAEL GALLANT

Shankar Tucker fuses musical influences and gains global acclaim with The ShrutiBox video series.

MAY/JUNE 2012

27

M

y music is fusion,” says musician, composer and social media entrepreneur Shankar Tucker. “It’s pop-oriented, but at the same time, it focuses on Indian folk music and the modern interpretation of classical Indian music.”

For the past year, Tucker has shared his skillful mélange of styles with the world via The ShrutiBox, a music video series that he produces and distributes via YouTube. Each video showcases musical arrangements that are finely crafted and sophisticated, yet as accessible as any pop song on the radio. Tucker builds sonic atmospheres by playing multiple instruments like the tabla, keyboards and clarinet, while a rotating cast of vocalists sings in English, Hindi or Tamil.

His videos—which range from rollicking original compositions like “Night Monsoon” to a powerful and quirky mash-up of Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s “O Re Piya”—have been viewed millions of times, earning him worldwide acclaim in the process. “While his mastery of the clarinet can’t be doubted...he magnificently blends the essence of jazz, pop and

Indian classical to create seamless fusion,” wrote the Hindustan Times, while The Indian Express describes him as “an Internet sensation.”

Here’s what Tucker had to say about crafting multicultural music, captaining the creative process behind his videos, and finding his own path to international success: How did you start making The ShrutiBox videos?

It started when I was in India studying music. I had friends who were musicians, but I didn’t have many concert opportunities or a regular group to perform with. I’d seen some simple performance videos that American musicians had made for YouTube and thought I could apply that formula to the compositions I was writing, but didn’t have the chance to perform in public. I started making videos every week and, just last summer, they started really catching on.

How do you make the videos?

First, the singers and I decide what songs we want to do. Then I have a brief recording session

Shankar Tucker performs at Roosevelt House, the residence of the U.S. Ambassador in New Delhi.

28 MAY/JUNE 2012

posting new videos about every two weeks right now.

Tell me more about your musical influences.

I spent last year studying Hindustani classical music, so that’s a prevalent influence, and I’ve studied Carnatic music as well. When I’m working with a singer who may be trained in a Carnatic or Hindustani style, I adapt the song in that direction. I use the tabla in a lot of my music and jazz is also a big influence when it comes to harmony and how I arrange the songs.

What do you hope to do next?

I don’t think I’ll ever stop making YouTube videos, but I do want to get a group together to perform and record live. Right now, I’m also working on music for a film in south India.

If you could choose any singer in the world to work with, who would it be?

I’d love to work with some of the top Bollywood playback singers. Shankar Mahadevan, in particular—he’s one of my favorites.

Michael Gallant is the founder and chief executive officer of Gallant Music. He lives in New York City.

MUSIC

where I set them up with a microphone and record audio and video of them singing along with a basic arrangement of the song. After that, I’ll take a week and work on building a more complex musical arrangement around the vocals. I’ll record digital instruments and video myself playing piano and clarinet. Once I have all of the footage and the song is complete, I edit everything together into a three-tofour-minute video.

It sounds like you do everything.

I do all of the cameras, video editing and music production. The mixing and music editing is the easy part. [Laughs.] The video editing is where it gets difficult.

How do you earn an income with your videos?

Mostly through selling digital downloads. It would be great to earn more through advertising, like a lot of the biggest YouTube video producers do, but for musicians like me, things can get tricky because of copyright issues—I wouldn’t be able to cover songs by other artists. Plus, it’s hard to just churn out content quickly. A comedian can put up a new video every day, but it takes longer than that for me. I’m

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

RAKESH MALHOTRA

If you

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By HOWARD CINCOTTA

Jazz saxophonist and composer Mahanthappa is drawing a growing audience for his explorations of American jazz and traditional Indian music.

MARK DUGGAN

Go Online Rudresh Mahanthappa http://rudreshm.com 30 MAY/JUNE 2012

Right: Rudresh Mahanthappa (from left), Dan Weiss and Rez Abbasi of the Indo-Pak Coalition.

Mahanthappa had little interest in exploring Indian music simply for the sake of a kind of vague “East West” fusion music that has been tried many times in the past, both in jazz and pop music, with varying degrees of success.

“It was really difficult for me to find a space where I could learn about it on my own terms, at my own pace,” he said to the Washington Post.

What changed his mind was encountering Kadri Gopalnath, a master Indian alto saxophonist who has moved “beyond the Western chromatic Mahanthappa grew up in Boulder, scale into the realm of microtones, a feat Colorado, where he recalls playing with harder for wind instruments, whose keys a traditional Dixieland jazz band as a are in fixed positions, than for strings or teenager. He didn’t face any sort of real voice,” as the New Yorker explains. identity crisis until he attended college at Mahanthappa traveled to India several North Texas State, where he first encoun- times to study and play with Gopalnath. tered a substantial African American pop- Their collaboration resulted in the album ulation—and realized that, being neither “Kinsmen.” white nor black, he would have to find Mahanthappa lives in New York City, his own identity as an Indian American although he travels frequently to perform and the child of immigrants. with one of his many music ensembles He found his way through music, and to continue his musical explorations graduating from the Berklee College of in the world of jazz.

Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and “Oftentimes, when one is working earning a master’s degree in jazz comwith compositional elements from severposition from Chicago’s DePaul al different cultures, the end result has University in 1998. nothing to do with those cultural ele“There was no template for an Indian ments,” Mahanthappa observes. “For me American jazz musician,” he says in an that’s really great because it’s not always interview with National Public Radio. important to know what went into a com“There was a template for a white jazz position, it’s what you walk away with in musician, an African American jazz the end.” musician, even a Latin jazz musician. So we’re all kind of trying to blaze some Howard Cincotta is a U.S. State new trails in the best way we can.”

Department writer and editor.

JAZZ

In a 2009 review, the New Yorker magazine spoke of the “rumble” that echoed through the jazz world with the release of Mahanthappa’s Indian American breakthrough album “Kinsmen.” In 2011, Mahanthappa released another Indian American infused album, “Samdhi,” to equally rapturous reviews.

“The compositions artfully blend knotty subcontinental rhythms and modern jazz harmonies,” said one Washington Post review, while another described the “rippling silk of his saxophone timbre.”

Mahanthappa, 40, appears regularly at the top of the critic’s polls in the leading jazz magazine Down Beat, and in 2011 was voted the year’s top alto saxophonist. The Jazz Journalist Association named him best alto saxophonist three years in a row, 2009 to 2011. As a musician and composer, he has received numerous grants and awards, most notably a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 to study the Carnatic music of southern India.

With the range of his interests and music, Mahanthappa refuses to be labeled as “that Indian alto player,” as he put it in an interview in the blog Jazz Truth. In 2010, for example, he issued

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the highly regarded album, “Apex,” with American alto saxophonist Bunky Green.

Along with his own Rudresh Mahanthappa Quartet, he leads the IndoPak Coalition, plays in a duo with fellow Indian American pianist and composer Vijay Iyer, and co-leads the Dakshina Ensemble with Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath, among other groups. “I think jazz has always been a means of contemporary social expression, staking your claim in the American landscape,” he says in the Jazz Truth blog.

JORDAN HEMINGWAY

I

n many ways, the musical travels of Rudresh Mahanthappa parallel those he has taken in his own life—to reconcile his Indian heritage with his American upbringing. The answers he has found— in his life and his music—are not necessarily the obvious ones.

During the last several years, Mahanthappa has achieved widespread acclaim as a jazz virtuoso. At the same time, critics have increasingly recognized him as one of the most innovative and original composers working today, whether using a more traditional jazz idiom or exploring the fusion of American jazz with unique Indian melodies.

If you

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W

A look inside the creation of the video games played by millions of people around the world.

ithin the world of video games, the touch of a button can have you riding dragons, defending Earth from aliens, and discovering magical hidden treasures. And while making such games does require a touch of magic, any creative conjuring is matched by a heavy dose of hard work.

With vividly realistic characters, complex storylines and cinematic grandeur, video games have reached such levels of sophistication that dedicated game studios produce them over a span of months or years, often combining the talents of hundreds of artists, programmers and designers in the process. Despite the complexity of creating games, the goal is simple—to build something that is truly, irresistibly, fun.

“If we’re starting from scratch, the first thing we do is come up with a basic design of what makes the game a game,” says Chris Nemcosky, a technical producer for Big Huge Games in Baltimore, Maryland. Such propos-

als are often written documents only a page or two long, and can include details like the overall story or point of the game, whether it will function in two or three dimensions, and how the player will interact within the game’s imagined world.

Next comes the technical heart of the game, says Nemcosky. “The game engine is all programming code,” he describes. “It’s a set of specialized tools, a framework that allows assets to be represented in your game world.”

Those assets include everything you see when you play a game—vehicles, textures, characters, models, and other art—all of which must be meticulously drawn by digital artists.

“A big milestone when you’re making a game is the ‘vertical slice,’ ” says Josh Rose, a veteran designer who has founded multiple game companies in California. “If your game has guns, magic spells and enemies, then the vertical slice is when you have one of each

© Getty Images/Courtesy Electronic Arts

By MICHAEL GALLANT

32 MAY/JUNE 2012

Go Online

Daniel Floyd’s video lecture about video games and storytelling

If you

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

http://goo.gl/81z6H

Big Huge Games http://bighugegames.com

How to Make Computer Games http://goo.gl/ua1aP

Above: Some games, like “EA Sports PGA Tour Golf Challenge,” run on social media platforms like Facebook.

built and ready to test.”

While it’s the role of artists to create the eye-catching assets of a video game, it’s up to the game’s designers to make sure that the entire experience is “fun, balanced and entertaining,” says Nemcosky. On a more technical level, programmers glue together the art and functionality of a project; these code-writing masters make sure that the work created by designers and artists functions within the

game’s framework. Next, a game is thoroughly tested, often by in-house employees, and programming code is finalized. Physical copies are created and sent for sale around the world—and a new video game is born.

Thanks to social media tools and smart phones, though, different models of game creation can also apply. “When it comes to making games for Facebook, Android, iPhones, and other emerging platforms, cleverness counts for a lot,” Rose describes. “On older games I worked on, we had 130 people making a single game, but on these sorts of games, you often don’t need a big team anymore. What you need most is a good idea.”

When crafting games for Facebook or smart phones, producers often leapfrog some of the rigorous steps that more traditional games go through, getting their games online and tested by users as quickly as possible.

Regardless of the method, the underlying principles are the same. “What’s important is guiding all of the pieces of a game together into an enjoyable, cohesive experience,” says Rose. “Sometimes you can break all of the rules of what’s supposed to make a game fun, and it’ll still be great. That’s where the art in game creation lies.”

For those wanting to learn the art of To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2012 33

VIDEO GAMES

Photographs courtesy Electronic Arts

Game artists and designers create intricate, fantastical characters, like the ones in the game “Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning,” (right).

game-making, both Nemcosky and Rose recommend starting online. “If you want to start coding, look for free tutorials on how to make basic games,” says Nemcosky. “If you love doing art, read art blogs to see what programs and techniques people are using. Then get together with a couple of friends and try recreating a simple game, something like ping-pong. That’s exactly how many of us got started.”

He likens learning to make games with learning to play an instrument, and Rose agrees that skills don’t appear overnight.

“The first things you make will probably be horrible,” he warns, laughing. “But do it anyway. You’ll learn a lot and who knows—you might strike gold.”

Below: Sports games like “FIFA 11 Ultimate Team” incorporate incredibly lifelike models of soccer players.

Bottom: New games like “Family Game Night 4: The Game Show,” use motionsensing technology to let players interact.

M

By RENUKA RAJA RAO and ANITA BURAGOHAIN

odern technologies have made it possible for the whole world to wake up simultaneously to the new iPad and the movie “Avatar.” The spectrum of modern entertainment is indeed wide, including movies, TV, radio, computer games, theater and live performances, theme parks, even sport, hospitality and fashion.

Education in the United States has kept pace with the demands of the entertainment industry, and tailored programs of study geared toward entertainment. From graphic art to computer and video games, film and TV production to acting and fashion merchandising, U.S. educational institutions offer various courses and programs.

We take a look at the gaming industry as an example.

Spread across genres and disciplines, a video game is the perfect blend of creative inspiration and technological expertise.

Encompassing multiple delivery platforms, they are routinely used to raise awareness on various social issues, and even improve student learning outcomes.

Courses for prospective students interested in grabbing a piece of the action are

© Getty Images

Courtesy Electronic Arts

Courtesy Electronic Arts

Michael Gallant is the founder and chief executive officer of Gallant Music. He lives in New York City.

American Education

34 MAY/JUNE 2012

© Getty Images

Advice There are several design programs in American schools for those who wish to get involved in the video game industry.

on the rise as well. Broadly speaking, most of these programs are planned around building competencies in one of the following areas.

There are several design programs in America for students from a fine arts or writing background, who wish to get involved with the artwork and storyline aspects of a video game. The Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California boasts an entire graduate school devoted to game design, while Full Sail University offers a master’s degree in the same field. Other schools like Savannah College of Art and Design also have postgraduate courses in game design.

Next, courses in computer programming and computer engineering specific to gaming are conducted in cutting-edge technological environments, and focus on a mastery of areas such as computer generated imagery and artificial intelligence, to name a few. The focus here is on coding and simulation, alongside an exposure to state-of-the-art graphics and animation platforms.

University of Pennsylvania has a com-

puter graphics and game technology program, while West Virginia University offers a master’s degree in interactive technologies and serious gaming.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute also offers a master’s degree in interactive media and game development. Carnegie Mellon’s master’s in entertainment technology is another unique program tailored to the video game industry, in which technologists and creative professionals develop competencies in each other’s areas of expertise.

Typically, areas other than programming and design also feature in such courses. As game development is an overwhelmingly collaborative enterprise, a project management component is included in most syllabi. Product management covers the entrepreneurial knowledge required to effectively publish, distribute and market a game after its completion.

Though largely found at the postgraduate level, undergraduate offerings centered on gaming are also rapidly emerging.

University of Southern California, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Becker College, Champlain College and DePaul University are among the institutions that offer undergraduate majors in game design or development. The Peterson’s search engine found at www.petersons.com is useful for both undergraduate and graduate programs.

Students may use the 5 Steps to U.S. Study on the EducationUSA Web site http://www.educationusa.info/5_steps_to_ study/ to navigate the process of applying and going to American schools.

The breadth and diversity of the material and skills that fall under the category of game development can, like the games themselves, be breathtaking. And no matter where your talents and inclinations lie, chances are there is a stage of the gaming experience you can excel at. All it takes is the love of a good challenge.

Renuka Raja Rao is the country coordinator and Anita Buragohain is an educational adviser for EducationUSA Advising Services at the United States-India Educational Foundation in New Delhi.

MAY/JUNE 2012

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How intellectual property rights affect musicians.

M

By ANNE WALLS

usicians, more than other artists, are dealers of the intangible. There’s nothing in a song you can hold, no melody you can hang on your wall, no beat you can gift-wrap. Sure, music has physical forms—records, tapes, CDs—but those material representations are swiftly being replaced by more ethereal gigabytes of downloadable, shareable data.

Music, unlike painting, writing or film, finds some of its highest flattery in imitation.

People constantly perform, sample and utilize other musicians’ works in every kind of medium: live performances, TV commercials and emotional moments in film and television.

But all of this evolving and reinterpretation of original work leaves musicians in a quandary: when does flattery become outright stealing? And when must musicians defend their intellectual property—or risk their livelihood for the sake of art?

In America, the parts of songs that are eligible for copyright protection are the lyrics and melody of the song itself, and the song’s master recording. Different people (songwriters, producers, record labels, etc) can own different rights for the same song.

Not to mention rights can also be sold, bought, inherited and more. So, not surprisingly, it’s all a bit complicated.

The attitude of today’s musicians about intellectual property rights (IPR) is similarly complex. Anthony Polcino, 29, singer/songwriter who records under the name Soft Pipes, says about IPR: “If you’re someone whose livelihood is dependent on original ideas or intangibles of any kind, it’s very crucial indeed.” Travis Shettel, 36, frontman of TS & The Past Haunts, agrees there are gray areas when trying to determine rights infringement. Both musicians say they would be fine, and flattered, to hear their song played at a coffee shop or Open Mic Night.

But when asked how they would feel about hearing their song on a TV commercial without prior approval, both responded with anger. “I would want compensa-

tion for the use of my creation,” says Shettel. Polcino adds, “This is, without question, unacceptable.

Commercial spots, TV placements, and all other forms of licensing are sometimes the sole avenues [through] which artists make money to live and fund their next project. I’d call my lawyer, manager....”

Not surprisingly, many musicians similarly frown upon the idea of file sharing and music pirating. Not only because it takes money directly out of their pockets, but also because it adversely affects the entire industry in general. A study by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates the annual loss from music sharing and pirating to be $12.5 billion and 71,060 jobs.

One thing musicians do support: trading playlists on a free and legal music sharing site like Spotify.

“There is no more radio,” Polcino says. “What causes a buzz about your music is how much noise people in Internetland are making about you. Trading playlists on Spotify—this is the new radio.”

Shettel agrees times are changing: “This is a different time than when I started making records almost 20 years ago. You had to book time at a studio, record to tape, put tape to DAT, then send that DAT to be pressed into a record or CD. Now you can press record on GarageBand, export an MP3, then put it up on a Web site like Bandcamp.com, which sells through iTunes. Sadly, I think it makes being a musician less special. But the Internet has changed music indefinitely and I’ve tried to change with it. I can’t be angry with a poor music lover who wants to hear a song I’ve created.”

Polcino agrees. “Unknowns like myself can now record what we want and distribute it on the Internet and it’s guaranteed someone will listen,” he says. “On the flip-side, however, it makes the road to whatever your version of financial success is that much more treacherous. But hey, only the ones who mean business, or are truly great, will stick it out for the long haul.” Now that’s music to the persevering musician’s ears.

Anne Walls (www.annabellewalls.com) is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California.

A study by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates the annual loss from music sharing and pirating to be $ 12.5 billion.

36 MAY/JUNE 2012

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

t’s easy to assume the intellectual property laws have been put into place to protect musicians’ work. But there is, of course, another side to this coin. Some argue that intellectual property law as it pertains to music doesn’t protect musicians at all, but the corporations who own the copyright and licensing rights to songs other musicians wish to sample, cover or incorporate into new creations. And with the huge uptick in digital stealing of music and the decline of the music industry resources in general, the rights holders (namely, the record labels) are broadening the scope of copyright infringement, extending

I

music, one of the most freeflowing and interwoven of all the art forms, result in an atmosphere where new art cannot be created.

At its core, music is a collaborative art form. Musicians across the world have made it clear that every new power ballad, youth anthem and stadium encore wouldn’t be possible without the rhythm, beats and soul of the generations of musicians before them. This collaborative spirit extends to the fact that familiar melodies, beats or hooks from another song will often work themselves into a new musical creation.

Demers stresses that overzealous intellectual proper-

beyond the master recordings and getting as specific as 10second samples or even usages of common campfire songs.

In her book, “Steal This Music: How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity,” Joanna Demers argues that the overbearing nature of the corporate music industry has a vastly negative effect on the freedom of expression that music is supposed to allow. Any restrictions on

ty litigation can stifle creativity.

But, she also notes, a strange and wonderful side effect has emerged from all of this: musicians are now forced to be even more creative when using/building on existing works. They can still be free to craft, if only a little more complicatedly so.

So, maybe behind the bars of intellectual property rules and corporate regulations, the caged musician still sings?

—A.W.

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2012 37

IPR

If you

Alligators

By LAURA HELMUTH

Photographs by RODNEY CAMMAUF/National Park Service

The swampy nature preserve is home to many of southern Florida’s infamous reptile natives.

Right and far right: A black-ccrowned night-hheron and a great egret at the Everglades National Park.

Above: The Ernest Coe Visitor Center at the park.

Above right: An American alligator.

38 MAY/JUNE 2012

Copyright Š 2012 Smithsonian Institution. Reprinted with permission from Smithsonian Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any medium is strictly prohibited without permission from Smithsonian Institution.

Such permission may be requested from Smithsonian Magazine.

i

in the

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Everglades U.S. National Park Service’s YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/ EvergladesNPS/videos

Go Online

Everglades National Park http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm

© Getty Images

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Everglades National Park on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ EvergladesNationalPark

American Alligator

t takes a certain amount of courage to visit the Florida Everglades. Other national parks have their dangers: hot acid pools in Yellowstone, rock slides in Yosemite, grizzlies in Glacier. But the Everglades may be the least human-friendly habitat to be one of [America’s] great destinations.

The Everglades is a vast, slow-flowing river that sweeps from central Florida to the Keys; aside from a few “hammocks” (islands) and seasonal dry spots, most of the territory is covered in grasses, mangrove swamps and shallow, murky water. It’s thick with snakes, including invasive Burmese pythons; it’s hot and muggy much of the year; and swarms of mosquitoes

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will pick you up and carry you away.

Perhaps the weirdest and most intimidating creature in this spectacularly otherworldly place is the American alligator. These basking, groaning, teeth-gnashing reptiles grow up to [4.5 meters] long. They look like something from the Mesozoic because they are—they evolved more than 200 million years ago and haven’t changed much since.

Visitors to the Everglades will see plenty of alligators, from beady-eyed behemoths lounging by the side of the road to tangles of newly hatched juveniles. They add to the sense that this place is truly wild, and well worth the challenge. The wading birds are spec-

tacular as well—white pelicans with yard-wide wingspans, wood storks that were once almost extinct, great blue herons that flap leisurely through the air like pterodactyls. Boardwalk trails wind through otherwise impenetrable swamp, jungle and wetland habitat. Once you reach the southern end of the Everglades, where the slowly oozing fresh water mixes with the Gulf of Mexico to become brackish, alligators become scarcer. But keep an eye out for a more rare but equally intimidating reptile: the American crocodile.

Laura Helmuth is a senior editor with Smithsonian magazine.

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TRAVEL

http://goo.gl/EP3Y0

The sources of this revolution, however, are no mystery: the rise of the electronic book, or e-book, and, in the United States certainly, the growing influence of the behemoth online retailer Amazon.

“There is no going back, whether downloading e-books or simply ordering print books online,” says Mike Shatzkin, a New York-based publishing consultant. He estimates that e-books will have 50 percent of

Publish

© Getty Images

to

Your Book

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By HOWARD CINCOTTA

Print may fade but books endure. Here are four authors, four books—and their very different roads to publication.

he first problem with a revolution is recognizing you’re in the middle of one. The second is trying to figure out how things are going to end: who wins, who loses, and how you will navigate this brave new world.

Right now, everyone connected to the book industry—authors, publishers, agents and retailers—recognizes that a profound revolution is upon them, transforming the literary landscape at warp speed. But the precise shape of the future world of books, and reading itself for that matter, remains obscure.

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the U.S. market for full-text or “narrative” nonfiction and fiction in the next few years, and 70 percent within a decade.

It may be the worst of times for traditional publishers confronting a bewildering new landscape of e-books, online publications, social media, self-publishing and print-ondemand options. But it can be the best of times for authors, who find themselves with unprecedented opportunities for both traditional and Internet-based publication.

Here are four writers and the different paths their books have taken: major New York publisher, small independent press, graphic novel, and self-publication through e-books.

Major Publisher

Above: The cover of Karen Russell’s novel, “Swamplandia!”

Far right: Russell.

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very year brings a crop of books by young authors who have managed the trick of achieving both critical acclaim and bestseller status on their first try. In 2011, one of those books was the funny, moving, and stylistically inventive novel, “Swamplandia!” by Karen Russell. Set on a declining alligator farm and amusement park deep in the Florida Everglades, the novel tells the story of 13-year-old Ava who, while mourning the death of her mother, must cope with her hapless father, a clairvoyant sister, and a collection of wildly eccentric characters—and living all the time with alliga-

tors that are “pure appetite in a leather case.”

“Swamplandia!” was published by Alfred A. Knopf, a venerable imprint of the largest of the “Big Six” major publishers, Random House. The other five are the Hachette Book Group (formerly Time Warner Books), HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.

Thirty-year-old Russell, born in Florida, earned a degree in creative writing from Columbia University in New York City and published stories in a number of literary journals, bringing her to the attention of both literary agents and publishers

in New York. In 2006, she received critical praise for the wonderfully titled story collection, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” That book contained the story, “Ava Wrestles the Alligator,” a precursor to “Swamplandia!”

“There is something absolutely haunting about the swamp,” Russell said in an online interview with Book Browse. “If you go to the Everglades, it does feel as if you’re standing in a mythic and a real space at once. I wanted to explore the extreme, alien beauty of the Everglades—and also its extreme devastation.”

Above: The cover of Paul Harding’s Pulitzer Prizewinning novel, “Tinkers.”

Left: Harding speaks at Harvard University, where he taught expository and creative writing.

Goldman initially printed a modest 3,500 copies, but a sales representative in San Francisco fell in love with the book, and soon independent booksellers and book clubs were promoting “Tinkers” through perhaps the most effective marketing mechanism of them all: word of mouth.

Finally, the novel came to the attention of the Pulitzer committee. When it won, no one called Harding; he found out by checking the Web site out of curiosity. “I literally just could not believe what I saw,” he said in an interview with National Public Radio. “And I kept refreshing and it just kept coming up, “Tinkers,” “Tinkers,” “Tinkers.”

The Shatzkin Files—publishing industry blog http://www.idealog.com/blog/

Karen Russell http://www.randomhouse.com/author/ 70463/karen-russell

Paul Harding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Paul_Harding_(author)

G.B. Tran http://www.gbtran.com

Amanda Hocking http://www.worldofamandahocking.com/ http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2012 41

BOOKS

Go Online

memories of a dying George Crosby, beloved family man and repairer of antique clocks. “Tinkers” is also the story of George’s father, Howard, a backcountry tinker, or seller of domestic goods to farm families. Howard suffers from epileptic seizures that both terrify him (“swallowing lightning”), yet illuminate the natural world around him with unparalleled intensity. But his seizures horrify his wife and lead him to desert his family, a loss central to the life of his son, George.

Harding knew only a few stray facts about his family’s background. “But my grandparents, I could never get them to talk about them,” he said in a literary blog, Bookslut. “To imagine a version of it. I turned it into a legend. I turned it into a myth.”

Publishers rejected “Tinkers.” Three years later, it came to the attention of Erika Goldman, director of the small and unusual Bellevue Literary Press, part of the vast New York University School of Medicine. Bellevue typically publishes eight titles a year, two of them fiction.

“We’re not in a position to compete with major publishers,” Goldman says.

“So we wait until they go through their process, looking for literary books that others find ‘too quiet, not plot-driven enough.’ ” With “Tinkers,” Goldman says, “I knew immediately that this was something special, a great work of literary fiction. But never in my wildest dreams did I consider it winning the Pulitzer.”

MICHAEL LIONSTAR

JON CHASE/Harvard staff photographer

Independent Press

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he story of how Paul Harding came to publish his novel, “Tinkers,” is almost as dramatic as the novel itself. A story of fathers and sons set in rural Maine, and written in gorgeous incantatory prose, “Tinkers” is the first book from a small independent press to win the Pulitzer Prize in 30 years. It is also an example how, in any era, readers will find and promote a book they are passionate about.

Harding, former drummer for the rock band Cold Water Flat and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, drew upon his own family’s history to tell a story through the

Courtesy G.B. Tran

Above: The cover of “Vietnamerica.”

Above right and below: Drawings from the graphic memoir by cartoonist and illustrator G.B. Tran (below right).

“

A graphic book can tell a story in a special way through the constant interplay of words and images.

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t first glance, the crowed actionpacked graphic memoir “Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey” is the complete opposite of “Tinkers.” Yet it, too, deals with a son’s need to understand his family’s history. Gia-Bao, or G.B. Tran is a Vietnamese American born in 1976, a year after his parents came to America from Vietnam. He is now a cartoonist and illustrator living with his wife and daughter in Brooklyn, New York.

Growing up, Tran resisted delving into his family’s background, although he made a first trip to Vietnam in 2001. Through a friend, however, he met a literary agent who asked him, “If you could only tell one more story, what would it be?” Tran knew immediately that the answer was the story of his family and their journey from Vietnam to the United States.

Over the next year, he prepared a book pitch for a graphic publication with examples of the artwork and a chapter-by-chapter breakdown. The agent sold the book to Villard, another Random House imprint.

Although Tran provides historical context in “Vietnamerica,” he kept the focus on his family, following the admonition to “tell the smallest story possible,” he told the blog Diacritics.

“I really love the comic’s unique language,” Tran says. “At its best, a graphic book can tell a story in a special way through the constant interplay of words and images.”

For his next project,

Tran hopes to explore the theme of immigration in greater depth by collecting stories from many of his friends who are cartoonists or graphic artists—and the children of immigrants themselves.

Comic books aren’t just for children anymore. Today, comics, along with graphic novels like “Vietnamerica” (a term covering both fiction and nonfiction), draw a large adult readership for books by such illustrators and authors as Frank Miller, creator of “Sin City,” and Neil Gaiman, writer of the Sandman series. Sales of graphic novels in 2011 are estimated at $375 million.

Graphic novels cover an increasingly wide range of subjects and drawing styles, but it’s still true that the traditional staples—super heroes, science fiction and fantasy, and horror—remain the most popular, especially those with tie-ins to Hollywood films and television shows. Bestsellers in 2011: Batman and the zombies of the Walking Dead series.

JOE TOMCHO

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Courtesy G.B. Tran

Graphic Novel

E-Book Publishing

Howard Cincotta is a U.S. State Department writer and editor.

fiction and horror.

In addition, she has sold her books at rock-bottom prices ranging from $.99 (the lowest Amazon permits) to $2.99.

When Hocking began publishing online in March 2010, she had a lot of manuscripts but no money. By May, says USA Today, she was selling hundreds of books, and by June, thousands. Her total for 2010: 164,000. In two years, according to news estimates, Hocking has sold more than 1.5 million copies, almost all of them ebooks, and earned approximately $2.5 million. “Not a single book agent or publishing house or sales force or marketing manager or bookshop anywhere in sight,” observed the Guardian newspaper in a 2012 profile.

Hocking’s experience is hardly typical, but she is by no means the only author to enjoy such success and join the Kindle Million Club, exclusively for those who have sold more than a million copies of their books.

Hocking has now signed with the mainstream publishers St. Martin’s Press, a division of Macmillan, lifting much of the marketing effort from her shoulders, and allowing her to get back to her first love: writing.

Above right: The cover of “Switched,” the first volume in the young adult fantasy series, “The Trylle Trilogy,” by Amanda Hocking (below).

CHARLES SYKES © AP-WWP

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wo things are true. First, the vast majority of self-published books, print or electronic, will barely manage to reach a small circle of family and friends.

And second, digital publishing and e-books offer an unprecedented opportunity for previously unpublished authors to find large numbers of readers.

Enter 27-year-old Amanda Hocking, whose stunning success in e-book publishing has transformed a previously unknown and rejected writer into an author who is appearing on everyone’s bestseller list.

On the book Web site Goodreads, Hocking describes the Trylle Trilogy as “a paranormal romance without vampires, shifters, mermaids, fae, angels, dragons, ghosts or ninjas.”

Vampires, however, do appear in another of her bestselling series, My Blood Approves, and mythical sirens, if not mermaids, in the Watersong books.

E-books have reached a criti-

cal mass because a new generation of e-book devices, such as the Kindle from Amazon and the Nook from bookseller Barnes & Noble, make downloading books easy and virtually instant. E-books can also be retrieved by the Apple iPad and other portable devices. (Both “Swamplandia!” and “Tinkers” are available as e-books, but not “Vietnamerica” with its hundreds of complex drawings.)

At the same time, authors can choose from a remarkable range of publishing options.

Amazon has Kindle Direct Publishing and Barnes & Noble offers Pubit! Authors can also choose from dozens of other services—such as Smashwords, Lulu and Scribd—that will prepare their manuscripts for print as well as format them for a variety of e-readers.

When it comes to marketing an e-book, however, all roads lead to Amazon, which holds the dominant position in online book sales, printed or electronic.

Hocking, who lives in Minnesota, achieved her remarkable success through hard work and relentless marketing; her Web site offers book excerpts, video clips and writing tips to entice readers. She also publishes young adult fantasy books, a genre popular with online readers, as are such fiction categories as romance, mystery, science

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N Courtesy Intel

ithin Tumma, 17, of Fort Gratiot, Michigan, won the top award of $100,000 at the Intel Science Talent Search in March for his research, which could lead to more direct, targeted, effective and less toxic breast cancer treatments.

He analyzed the molecular mechanisms in cancer cells and found that by inhibiting certain proteins, we may be able to slow the growth of cancer cells and decrease their malignancy. Tumma is first in his class of 332, a varsity tennis player and a volunteer for the Port Huron Museum, where he started a restoration effort for historical and cultural landmarks. Tumma credits his grandfather, who was an agricultural scientist in India, with instilling curiosity in him. http://www.societyforscience.org/STS

T.G. VENKATESH

© Getty Images

eading his first trade mission to India in March, U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson told business leaders that the United States is committed to fostering a stronger economic relationship with India. In New Delhi, Secretary Bryson took a ride on the Delhi Metro, delivered remarks at an event hosted by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and witnessed the signing of two USTDA grants supporting U.S. business investments in India’s energy infrastructure development. He also visited Jaipur where he met with a group of Rajasthan industry representatives. http://www.commerce.gov

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ervice members from USS Carl Vinson, along with volunteers, clean up Madanapuram lake in Mudichur Village on the outskirts of Chennai. The American sailors were in Chennai as part of Malabar 2012 in April when the United States 7th Fleet joined the Indian Navy for the continuing series of exercises conducted to advance multinational maritime relationships and mutual security issues. This year’s participants also included crews from the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52), the guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey (DDG 97), a logistics ship, a P-3C aircraft and a submarine. Malabar 2012 featured both ashore and at-sea training. http://www.flickr.com/photos/usconsulatechennai//

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ould liquid magnets take us deeper into space?

Bangalore student Sachin Kukke’s idea of exploring special magnetic liquids as a space science experiment made him a regional winner at the YouTube Space Lab contest in March. Kukke was among six winners chosen by viewers’ votes and a panel of judges at the finale in Washington, D.C. His quest to understand heat transfers in ferrofluids could enable scientists to create advanced cooling systems on Earth. http://www.youtube.com/user/spacelab

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ndian American Raheela Ahmed, 18, an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland, won the primaries in a school board election in April. Ahmed finished first in the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Board of Education elections. If elected in November, Raheela will be part of a nine-member school board that oversees more than 120,000 students with an annual budget of $1.6 billion. Ahmed is a student of biology and business. http://www.umd.edu

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.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honored Indian NGO Chintan with America’s first Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. Chintan works to train and organize waste pickers and eliminate child labor from their ranks, advocating for their recognition, protection and fundamental dignity. Their efforts have reached more than 20,000 waste pickers in India in the past five years. Accepting the $500,000 award, which was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, Chintan’s founder Bharati Chaturvedi said they would use it to get a lot of young girls into schools and create more green jobs for women waste pickers. http://www.chintan-india.org

Registered under RNI-6586/60

“Vacation mood” by Nafis Khan.

Winner for technical merit.

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Connecting

Girls Inspiring Futures

he U.S. Consulate General, Mumbai organized an online photography contest in March to honor International Women’s Day and National Women’s Month. The contest was titled “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures.” The jury included

Rahul Gajjar, digital artist; Ashima Narain, photo editor with National Geographic Traveller India; and Sheetal Mallar, model and commercial photographer. All entries can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/amcentermumbai

Left: “Ladli betiya” by Rajendra Malviya.

Overall winning photo.

Right: “Freedom” by Adrian Reghelini.

Winner for best composition Far right: “Spread Your Light Wherever You Go” by Seema Sarang. Winner for best creative lighting.

Left center: “The Joy of Freedom”

by Shaison P. Ouseph. Winner for most inspiring photo.

Left: “Walking towards the BRIGHT Future...hand in hand...” by Prashant Saduwale. Winner for most thematic picture.