Taylor began learning to play guitar from a computer repairman who showed her how to play three chords.
Right after learning those three chords Taylor wrote her first song Lucky You.

She began writing songs and used it as an outlet to help her with her pain from not fitting in at high school.

Taylor became one of country-pop’s brightest and youngest faces when the 16-year-old vocalist released her first album.

Swift had been performing since early childhood, taking inspiration and encouragement from her opera-singing grandmother Marjorie Finlay.

She sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a Philadelphia 76ers game at the age of 11; the following year, she began practicing her guitar skills for several hours each day, only stopping when her fingers began to bleed.

Taylor’s parents realized their child’s dedication and hard work and began making regular visits to Nashville, where Taylor would perform casually and meet with songwriters in the area.

The family then decided to move from their native Pennsylvania to an outlying Nashville suburb, which accelerated Swift’s career.

While performing at the intimate Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Swift caught the eye of music industry veteran Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his newly formed label.

Taylor released her debut single, “Tim McGraw”, in mid-2006, reaching number 6 on Billboard magazine’s Hot Country Songs chart.

Released in late 2008, Taylor Swift catapulted the young songwriter to stardom, spawning a handful of hits while earning multi-platinum sales.

Taylor also received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, an award she ultimately lost to Amy Winehouse.

Two subsequent EPs – Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection and Beautiful Eyes – helped maintain Swift’s popularity while whetting public demand for her sophomore release, Fearless, which arrived in November 2008.

You must also post photos along with a submitted story. These photos can be, and are preferred to be photo shopped to accompany the humorous story. The best photos will be placed in the “Moon Shots” section.

If your story gets featured it will be displayed in the “Face in the Moon” spot on the very front of the page. It will display the photo along with the story. The writers name will be credited on the story as well. (All stories will be credited with the writer’s name only!)

The runner-up section is shown next to the featured story and with display 3 stories that were great as well! These will just display the writers story on the homepage and will display the writer’s photo once it is viewed.

All stories that are submitted are viewable, just shown in the different categories at the top.

You must also post photos along with a submitted story. These photos can be, and are preferred to be photo shopped to accompany the humorous story. The best photos will be placed in the “Moon Shots” section.

This is really a terrific site for all people and especially lovers of journalism and comedy!

By

Randy Garsee

Let’s face it, no matter what your position, you may feel like your budget is under attack by economic terrorists determined to silence the voice of local broadcast and print news nationwide.  Budgets are hacked with mathematical machetes.  Correspondents are turned to crisp with financial flamethrowers.  Reporters written off.  Producers pushed out. Photographers flushed into the streets.

The last thing you’re thinking about right now is how to expand your international news coverage.  The idea of putting a local face on the battlefields of Iraq or Afghanistan is not even a remote consideration, right?  How can you possibly pull that off in this economy?

It’s simple.  You can do it and it’s free.  It doesn’t matter if you need video, audio, photos or print content for a web site, a newsletter, a newspaper or a television station.

In the past few years, the Department of Defense spent millions of your tax dollars to create the perfect tool for you to get domestic and international news. It’s called the Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System.  Of course, we know how the military loves acronyms, so it’s also known as DVIDS.

More importantly, this is the farthest thing from propaganda.  It’s access.  You or your news team decides how to use the free articles, video or photos.  Here’s an example of how to use DVIDS for a television station.  Let’s say your assignments editor receives a call from a mother complaining that your station never mentions Iraq where her son or daughter happens to be deployed.  With DVIDS you can request a satellite link-up and interview that mom’s son or daughter.  You can record the interview and incorporate an interview with the parent.  With little effort you’ve just localized an international story and made your audience care about it.

When you visit DVIDS online, there’s a link for media requests near the top of the page.  For more information on DVIDS, go to www.dvidshub.net or call the 24-Hour Media Hotline at 678-421-6612.  You should do it quickly.  After all, your competition may be reading this too.