HD Fashion Model Wallpapers

Aparna Bajpai - Indian Model

7:34 PM No comments

Stylish Leg Mehndi Designs For 2011 ! For Girls and Womens !

7:33 PM No comments

Stylish Leg Mehndi Designs For 2011 ! For Girls and Womens !

Bryan Clauson has enjoyed about 10 days at home in Noblesville, Ind., since securing the inaugural USAC National Drivers Championship on Thanksgiving night

7:21 PM No comments

Bryan Clauson has enjoyed about 10 days at home in Noblesville, Ind., since securing the inaugural USAC National Drivers Championship on Thanksgiving night. He's been on the road, competing in New Zealand for three weeks and in the annual Chili Bowl (fifth place in the main event) in Tulsa, Okla., most recently.

Now the 21-year-old will get behind the wheel of a Firestone Indy Lights car for the first time Jan. 28 at Phoenix International Raceway with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Winning the USAC title includes a scholarship to compete in the six oval races on the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights schedule beginning with the Firestone Freedom 100 on May 27 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With his busy schedule, Clauson hasn't had much time to digest the opportunity.

"It's been a whirlwind week of getting the licensing and physical and paperwork," he said, "but I'm excited and can't wait to get out there and get started. I had a short time to relax and reflect on everything we accomplished last year and to look forward to this year, but after that it's been on the go. I left for New Zealand just before Christmas, and that was cool to race over there. I had never been out of the country. Then I came back and it was time for the Chili Bowl. I don't know if it will really sink in until we get to Indianapolis – the place I dreamed about as a kid and where it all starts really."

Clauson, who visited the race team shop in Indianapolis last week to get acquainted with the personnel and car, has familiarity with the one-mile Phoenix oval. Victor Carbone, who will drive for Sam Schmidt Motorsports in 2011, and two other drivers will join Clauson at the track.

"I even got a handbook that explained everything," he said. "It will be fun being a rookie again and going through the learning process. If I could pick two places to go, it would be Phoenix and Kentucky because I have thousands of laps at both places. I've raced the Midget at Phoenix and driven a Silver Crown there and it's a place I know fairly well, so it's a nice place to get started.

"I'll be working with a great group of guys who have lots of experience and that's important when you're learning something new."

Clauson wrapped up the USAC National Drivers Championship with a victory in the 70th Turkey Night Grand Prix -- the first back-to-back winner of the USAC Mopar National/Western Midget race since Billy Boat (1995-97). The National Drivers Championship is based on the best 25 races of each driver in one of the three national divisions (Silver Crown, Sprints, Midgets).

Taraji P. Henson shows no hint of shyness as she strikes a sexy – and totally naked – pose for a new ad campaign.

7:19 PM No comments

Taraji P. Henson shows no hint of shyness as she strikes a sexy – and totally naked – pose for a new ad campaign.

The actress, 40, shows off a toned physique and a sultry stare for PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign.

"I don't think a living being should suffer for the sake of fashion, period," Henson says. "End of story."

Henson's campaign will debut at PETA's New York Fashion Week Bash on Feb. 10, and the ad will also appear on a billboard in L.A.

Esperanza Spalding stands tall, hair and all

7:17 PM No comments

NEW YORK — When Esperanza Spalding plays her upright bass, the bulky instrument extends over her unruly mass of curls by half a foot as she bobs and weaves to complex jazz rhythms. The pairing's a visual mismatch, but there's no doubt she's in command.

"Maybe it looks like I'm working hard, but I'm pretty relaxed," says the lithe, 5-foot-6 (pre-hair) nominee for best new artist at the Feb. 13 Grammy Awards. "I'm conscious of playing with good technique and posture."

Spalding, 26, certainly stands tall among performers with potential to make a lasting impact. She's a musician's musician: classically trained composer, multi-lingual vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, a budding jazz star and buddies with (and recent opening act for) Prince.

And on the strength of her two major-label albums, 2008's Esperanza (instrumental and vocal jazz with elements of Brazilian and hip-hop) and last year's Chamber Music Society (a fusion of contemporary jazz and vocals with chamber music, folk and world music), she has captivated a wide swath of admirers, including collaborators Stevie Wonder and Stanley Clarke, plus President Obama, who invited her to play at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies.

Though her albums inhabit the upper reaches of the contemporary jazz charts, she says, "different kinds of people have been attracted to my music, and I see a broad demographic range in the audiences. People are more open than we think and can still identify heartfelt music when they get a chance to hear it."

Spalding, raised by her mother in a tough Portland., Ore., neighborhood, heard her first heartfelt music at age 4 while watching cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

"I said something like this to my mother: 'What is that thing making that sound? ... I want to play that! I want to do that!' "

That epiphany led to violin lessons, immersion in the city's classical world (spiked with stints as a bassist with blues and rock bands), a touring gig backing jazz singer Patti Austin, and a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she became, at age 20, one of the youngest teachers in its history.

Spalding resists the prodigy label, so fellow musicians express their awe in different terms. "What impresses me most is she is kind of a sponge," says Gil Goldstein, the Grammy-winning jazz pianist/producer who helped arrange and produce Chamber. "She's not finished with learning, which I think is the best quality one can have."

Her ability to sing, play, compose and arrange "makes her a quadruple threat" and enables her to work with artists "as diverse as Prince or Herbie Hancock," he adds. "She's versatile and doesn't have a genre pulling her in one direction. That's rare."

That eclecticism is reflected in the multitude of current projects: She plays upright bass alongside two drummers and a pianist in saxophonist Joe Lovano's Us Five contemporary jazz group. She fronts the seven-piece Chamber Music Society on U.S. and European dates. And she's working with hip-hop artist/producer Q-Tip on her upcoming album, Radio Music Society.

That work presents an entirely different "writing and producing challenge," she says. "I want to take this music that contains the most integral improvised parts of jazz and, without sacrificing those parts, format it in a way that it can be heard on the radio."

"There's a market out there for almost everything," she says. "And I think what people want to hear from me is good music that is sincere and enjoyable. It may be different from what people are expecting, but that's what I'm always striving for."