Paul Newman has left us last September 26 2008. He's gone with the same style with which he lived all his life, and with the memories of a golden age of Hollywood. Newman was born in Ohio (USA) in 1925. His passion for being an actor had its origin in the world of theater. He joined a theater company from Illinois called "Woodstock Player's", where he met his first wife Jacky White, with whom he had 3 children and divorced in 1958 after 9 years of matrimony. In 1953 he made his debut in Broadway with "Picnic", and his performance called the attention of some executives from Warner Bros, that contracted him. The following year, he did his first movie, "The Silver Chalice", a movie that was rather criticized and even Newman himself felt ashamed for having done it. But he had enough time to show how brilliant actor he was in more than 50 movies that he did later. In 1958, he married Joanne Woodward, without a doubt the woman of his life, with whom he has shared everything until the last moment of his life. It has been one of the most solid matrimonies of Hollywood, in spite of Newman being a sex-symbol for many during decades. With Joanne, he had 3 daughters. Far from the superficial way of life of Hollywood, Newman was always a very compromised man, with many kind of charitable causes. He was also against drugs, because his only male son died of overdose. He also fought against racism and against wars, being a representative of his country in the United Nations. He also directed 6 movies. With all this brilliant career, Newman was 8 times nominated for the Oscar, but only got 2: one for "The color of money", and the other for all his successful career. It's surprising and unjust how such an actor has only got 2 Oscars in all his life. From his more than 50 films, I selected ten: 1- Cat on a hot tin roof 2- The sting 3- Message in a bottle 4- Absence of malice 5- The towering inferno 6- The color of money 7- Torn curtain 8- Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid 9- The long hot summer 10- The verdict Cat on a hot tin roof, is based on a novel by Tennessee Williams. It had 6 nominations for the Oscars. An old rich man gathers his heirs together. They all think in the possible inheritance. All they hate each other. Fears, hate, vengeance, mistrust... all this happens under the staring eyes of the old man, that plays his last trick. The sting, Illinois in the 30's. In the middle of a world ruled by gangsters and criminals, an old rascal tries to retire from crime. But he won't leave it without passing all his "knowledge" to a young and smart apprentice, and make his last big sting. Message In A Bottle, A divorced journalist with 3 children goes for a walk in the beach and finds a bottle with a love message inside. She decides to search for the author of that message. And she finds him, a widowed sailor man that lives with his father and tries to forget his dead wife. What begins being a common interview turns into something more, as that message in a bottle changes the lives of many people. Absence Of Malice, Directed by Pollack in 1981, and starred by Paul Newman, Sally Field, Melinda Dillon... An ambitious journalist accuses a gangster's son of the disappearance of a man. The gangster's son makes a plan for demonstrating that he's innocent and getting revenge on the journalist. The towering inferno, A building of 128 floors is inaugurated, in San Francisco city. In the night of the inauguration party, there are many important guests and politics. Everything has to be perfect. But a fire spreads quickly, and the big building turns into a towering inferno. The color of money, Directed by Martin Scorsese. Newman plays the role of a veteran pool champion. He is retired, and meets a boy called Vincent (Tom Cruise), an excellent pool player that loves bets, and is always followed by his girlfriend. Maybe he has very much to learn. Torn Curtain, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Newman plays a nuclear physicist that is asked by the government to get the secret formula of a German scientist. He will pretend he is a betrayal to his country, even under the surprised eyes of his future wife (Julie Andrews). Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Two men steal a train. They are recognized bandits. One has the ideas, the other prefers action. And they will have an entire army chasing them. One is Paul Newman and the other Robert Redford. A clash of titans. The long hot summer, Ben Quick arrives to a small village. He comes fleeing from another city, where he was accused of provoking a fire. Ben is a very ambitious man, arrogant and extremely attractive for women. The verdict, A lawyer with many failures in his career decides to take a case that he thinks that will lead him to success. The case is a medical leniency done by a famous hospital. They offer a lot of money to the family of the victim to not go to a trial. Without a doubt, it's the case of his life.

I've done these Photoshop brushes. They are trees. And I want to share them with you. Download them for free, but before please read and understand the terms of use. Terms of use These brushes are free to use in commercial and non-commercial designs, as long as you follow these conditions: - The brushes can't be sold. You can sell the designs you make with the brushes, but not the brushes themselves. - They must be downloaded clicking the links from this article in www.emmaalvarez.com. If you like the brushes and want your visitors to download them, place a link to this post, so they come and download them from here. Don't directly link them. - You can't redistribute the brushes without my explicit consent. If you want to pack them in a clipart library, cd or dvd, or anything else, ask me first. - If you modify the brushes, or create some others starting from these, that are radically different from their original shape, you can redistribute them, but link back to www.emmaalvarez.com, and credit me in your website or design. If the modifications are trivial, I may consider it just a copy, and thus not allowed. - You can't claim these brushes as yours. - Don't use these brushes in racist, sexist, hateful or blaspheme works. - You can link back and name www.emmaalvarez.com in your website or designs, but it's not required, although I will appreciate it. Trees Click here to download

Hellboy is a character of Dark Horse Comics. Dark Horse Comic is an independent publisher created in 1986 by Mike Richardson. Richardson had some comic shops in Portland (Oregon - USA). With the money earned in these shops, he made his dream come true: create a comic publisher company. Other successful comics published by Dark Horse are: 300, The Mask, Sin City, Barb Wire. All these comics were turned into movies, as has happened with Hellboy. In 1994 Mike Mignola creates Hellboy, a character that mixes the Norse and Greek mythologies with a big influence from Lovecraft. Mike Mignola has always been very fond to the comics world. He worked in Marvel and DC Comics, and entered in contact with the most important authors from those publishers. For Mignola, Hellboy was an important personal project. To create his own character was a very important step for him. He always drew the characters of others before that. Mignola also collaborated in some cinema projects like Blade II, and there he met Guillermo Del Toro, that is the director of Hellboy movies. Hellboy has a Gothic terror aura. This is not strange because the last work of Mignola before Hellboy was for a Batman story. The story of Hellboy is the following. During World War II, the Nazis, very interested in everything related to super-natural, make an experiment lead by Rasputin. The experiment was called Ragnarok, the apocalypse in the Norse mythology. During a spell, a demon child appears, and is captured by the USA army. They will call this child "Hellboy". Professor Trevor Bruttenholm will became the adoptive father of Hellboy. When he reached adulthood, he worked for the USA government with other super-natural beings. In each one of his adventures, Hellboy gets to know more about his essence and about his destiny. All this torments very much Hellboy, but against it he has a strong will. Other characters of these comics are: Abraham "Abe" Sapiens, an aquatic being, extremely intelligent. His powers reside on his intelligence and in the psyche, that allows him to sense the past, the present and the future. Elizabeth "Liz Sherman", who is apparently a normal girl, but literally explodes when she is angered. She has serious mental traumas. The first time she exploded, all her family died in the fire. Trevor Bruttenholm, who is the adoptive father of Hellboy. Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. Died due to his masochist deliriums. He's an expert in mechanics and a lover of clocks. Herman Von Klemp, who is a mix of vampire (as he feeds on blood) and mad scientist. Baba Yaga, a witch allied to Rasputin. Rasputin. If you want to know more about the real personality of Rasputin, read this article. In Hellboy, he is who made possible that Hellboy arrived to the Earth. He has resurrected, and his destiny and Hellboy's will be linked forever. Hellboy is a big lover of cats. Between the powers of Hellboy there's his super-human strength and the extremely fast recovery from wounds. The first movie about Hellboy was shown in 2004. As curiosities of this first movie, both Guillermo Del Toro and Mike Mignola appear in it, one dressed as a dragon and the other as a knight. This first movie tells the origins of Hellboy and won more than $100 million. The second movie about Hellboy was shown in 2008. It was also directed by Guillermo Del Toro, and the plot, as in the previous movie, was also written with the collaboration of Mike Mignola. In this second movie, appear elements of fantasy like elves, trolls... Images (in order): Hellboy, by Gantian1988; HellBoy, by Rub-A-Duckie;HELLBOY, by NiteWorlf-749;Hellboy, by The Aphex.

Final Image Preview: In this tutorial you will learn how to convert a photo into a retro comic. You can use this technique with your own photos and get surprising results. Even more, you can create entire comics with this. In this case I use a photo of New York. This photo belongs to Goosehonker-Stock you can see her work in her gallery of Deviant Art. I'll also use Photoshop, but you can do this tutorial in your favorite application (Gimp, Paint Shop Pro...), following similar steps. Open the photo in Photoshop. Then apply a filter: Artistic/Cutout. With this image, this settings work well: number of levels 5, edge simplicity 2, edge fidelity 1. But you can choose the settings that you think are best. In this case, I used these. With this modification, it has lost the appearance of being a photo. To intensify the cartoon effect, we will apply another filter: Artistic/Poster Edges, with the parameters: edge thickness 10, edge intensity 0, posterization 4. I will also add noise to emulate the texture of paper. Use the filter Noise/Add noise, with these settings: amount 12,5%, distribution uniform, y monocromatic unchecked. In addition, I also alter the image colors to make it have a more cartoonish color palette. Use the menu Imagen/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation with these settings: hue +33, saturation -13, lightness -4. This is the result: Now we will make the comic blurb. For that, we will use the elliptical marquee tool, in another layer that we create. And then we use the tool polygonal lasso tool adding to the selection, to draw the pointed triangle of the blurb, as shown in this image: Fill the selection in white. But it looks better if you use a white with a little of yellow, for example #ECECD0 Once you have the blurb finished, you can use the text tool to write inside it. I used the Comic Sans MS font. You can duplicate the layer that contains the blurb, flip it horizontally (Edit/Transform/Flip horizontal), and add more comic dialogs. To make the "AAargh!" I used the polygonal lasso tool, and then rotated the pointy blurb and the text together linking the layers. You can add narration boxes using the rectangular marquee tool and filling it with color. Then add the texts. Remember to link the layers that contain the texts with their blurbs or boxes so you can move them together. Click the final image to watch it bigger. That's all, you have turned your photo into a retro comic style.

For many, Lord Byron is a famous poet. But besides that, George Gordon Byron was a disconcerting character: extravagant, interesting, and also a very advanced man for his times. Lord Byron was born in London, on January 22, 1788. He belonged to an important aristocratic English family. His father died when he was just 3 years old. He was a captain, and his mother was his second wife, Catherine Gordon of Gigh, a very temperamental woman. When George Gordon Byron was ten, he inherited a fortune, and also debts, from his great-uncle, in addition to the title of Baron Byron. George was born with a deformity in a foot. Many said that he'll never be able to walk. But his tenacity pushed him to fight against this problem. It was said that he learned to run before to walk. He suffered many jokes for this deformity, and also needed the special cares of his nurse: Mary Gray, with whom, very early, he was initiated into sexuality. If Lord Byron inherited something from his father, it was the taste for women, the promiscuity, and the liking for love affairs. During all his life, Lord Byron had a love/hate relationship with his mother. Catherine was devastated by the early loss of her husband, and the former infidelities of him. She called her son "the little devil", and he called his mother "the old woman" or "the widow". Although Lord Byron always said that his mother was the only person that truly understood him. For all his life, he was very fond to reading. His favorite book was "One Thousand And One Nights". His first poems were born from his first disappointments in his love life. When he was 18 years old, he published his first poems book. This first book was very criticized. The answer to this critics was a satyric work, and this was his first success. His stance at the College was full of scandal. In Cambridge, George Gordon Byron stood out as brilliant student as well as for his extravagances, his excesses, and his bisexual encounters. During this time, he also established important friendships, and very positive contacts. He also learned boxing and fencing, where he reached a high level. Without money, he returned to the house of his mother, where he spent all day and night writing. For a time, he was attracted to politics, and managed to have a seat in the House Of Lords, but he left it and went to travel. He traveled through Greece, Spain, Portugal, Malta... these travels inspired him in his works. When he was in Turkey, he tried to discover Troy. And during this time, he had many love relationships, both with men as with women. The published poems got the approval of the public. Lord Byron was a poet that offered a vision beyond the rules. He offered an exaltation of the senses and an infinite nostalgia. He married with Anna Isabella Mibarke. His marriage lasted for a year, and they had a daughter called Augusta Ada. As a curiosity, Augusta Ada is considered the first programmer of History, as she wrote the first sentences for a computer that Charles Babbage tried to build. Babbage and Ada had a great friendship. When the mother of Lord Byron died, he suffered a big depression. Death obsessed him, and searched for shelter in his half-sister Augusta Leigh. He was accused of incest for this. He abandoned England and continued traveling through Europe, leaving many love and scandal stories behind him. In his travels, Byron met great personalities of his times. An anecdote is that during a meeting with friends, they decided to write a series of terror stories. One of those friends was Mary Shelley, that wrote the popular Frankenstein. He also met Goethe, whom he defined as the first talent of his century. Some time later, politics seduced him again. In 1824, and when he was only 36 years old, Lord Byron died. It was in the fight for independence of Greece against the Turkish. Byron caught a fever and that was what put an end to his life, a life full of emotions and searches.

Elves belong to the Scandinavian mythology. They are fantasy beings of great beauty, and fragile and delicate appearance. The elves are attributed magical powers and a long life of hundreds of years. The origin of elves is uncertain, just like if it was a distant race that had fallen in the shadows of time. Some call them "the Huldre folks". There are two main types of elves in the Nordic mythology: the elves of light (called Ljosalfar) and the elves of darkness (called Dokkalfar). The elves are similar to humans but their skin is more pale, their ears are pointed, they are very thin, agile and quick. They are also silent and stealthy beings, and this makes them almost invisible in the woods. In the stories of elves, they always appear suddenly emerged from nothing. The legends tell that the elves possess the knowledge of ancient cultures. They are also lovers of music, dance and art. They master the secrets of nature, use magical herbs and can forsee the future. The elves are also great warriors. They are trained since they are children with the sword and the bow. There was a legend that told about an army of elven women that rode on unicorns. Although the arrogance of elves was often reported, they have a strong sense of friendship, and many legends have told about stories of friendship between elves and beings of other species. There were also love stories, as there's a race called semi-elves, half elf half human. In the Norse countries, the elves were worshiped as demigods. They were the guardians of Magic. As a curiosity, the mandrake (which root was very often used in Magic) was called, in ancient German, "albrun" ("secret of elf"), and the sun was called, in the same language, "alfrothul" ("elven ray"). The Dark Elves were considered as cursed elves. They are dammed to never see the sunlight and they hide in dark places. Their hair can be gray, silver or white, and their eyes red or pale. They are described as the most cruel race of elves, and they were protagonists of the most feared legends told by the peasants. It was told that the dark elves stole babies and raised them in the darkness, telling them the dark arts and turning them into dangerous warlocks. Their biggest desires were getting out of their sinister hide-out and dominate the Earth. Other elven races are the Gray, lovers of culture and nature and riders of griffins. There are also other minor races of elves, that are named depending on their physical characteristics. The elves were the main characters in numerous legends and poems. But with the oblivion of all the pagan culture, the elves were one of the most forgotten creatures. It was Tolkien who returned the elves to their ancient splendor, and since then, elves have filled illustrations and stories recovering their past glory. Pictures (in order): Elfs, by Fish-KA; Elves, by Nell-Fallcard; Moon Elf, by Peachysticks; Clawed Elf Night, by Socar.

The "50 Free Photoshop Gradient Sets" article will be the last list of this kind that I'll publish. I call this kind of lists "macropost", and they bring thousands of visits and thousands of problems. I am not someone who uses to complain too much. But this kind of lists take a big amount of time to do. They use to contain high quality content, that is carefully chosen and composed. Some of this posts took me many days to write. They are bittersweet, because they bring a lot of visitors, but some people make a lot of copies too. The content thieves copy everything, they even steal your bandwidth. I must say that as this site has many visitors, I have a contract with an image hosting site. They don't copy the author signature, of course, and sometimes place a link in a tiny font to have some alibi. I must say that this happens when I do graphics design resources list. But when I show my contact email, it's not for receiving certain types of emails. I have the right to show my photo, because this is my blog and I'm the author. And I'm not searching for anything showing my photo, and I'm very surprised with the high level of sexism that is present in our days. I thought that I was living in the 21 century, and not in the Victorian age. When I did the Ubuntu post, some people doubted that I was a woman, that the I was the one in the photo... some people even said that "How can a woman understand Ubuntu?", that by the way, Ubuntu is the easier of all Linux distros. To add something more: there are many women that are programmers, and my husband says that the best books about programming are written by women. I had to read so much rudeness, that so many Diggs and votes were not worth the effort. Never reaching the popular page of Digg was so nasty. I even had phobia to Linux, Ubuntu and everything related, and only recovered from it after a long time. I also have to put up with a lot of rudeness in the blogs or forum where I am copied, when I try to protect my content, because in their opinion I'm not generous at all 'cos I don't let them copy my articles. Reading my content is free, and I, as many other webmasters, want people to read my content in my site. This is how anyone who makes original content wants to share. If contents were anonymous, there would be no books, no authors... A blog is like a free newspaper, you don't charge for reading it but you get income from advertising. Stealing visitors is stealing money to websites. Money is needed because everything costs money. Some people say that in Internet everything should be free and one should not earn money for anything. But then, they go and purchase famous drinks and clothes from big brands. Why? Do they get more satisfaction making the richest richer? So I spend all my time writing to hosts, claiming copyright infringements, and this makes me write less, and in addition this becomes a real hell. Many times, I thought in closing this site. I have had a very bad time, and many times this has been very nasty. For all those that suffer of copiers, I will tell you that all hosts are very conscious of this, and that no one allows copyright infringements, but these sites have their bureaucracy. And then you have to put up with the insolent attitude of the thief. The content thieves are the cancer of Internet. I know that my graphics design lists help a lot of people. But I won't do them anymore. Many people end closing their websites for this reason. This makes a big damage to Internet. This doesn't mean that I'm going to close Emma Alvarez Site. I will keep on doing my brushes, tutorials and things like that. And when there's a good application, I'll comment it for sure. It's hilarious, but most of the ones that are desperate for finding graphics design lists never do anything with them. They are collectors of resources. To be an artist or a designer you have to be creative, and have imagination. This is achieved in a different way: reading about fantasy, sci-fiction, the lives of important people... dreaming, living. This way, you get imagination. It's a stupidity to try to be a designer if one has no ideas. If this person insists because he thinks that this profession is glamorous, he'll do it. And as he doesn't come up with any idea, he'll end copying. I must say that all that I have told you happens with macroposts. The usual readers of my blog are respectful and considerate. And I feel that they're another kind of people, that are really searching for something more. I have to say that many of the copiers are graphics design business (or they pretend to be that). So they go to del.icio.us and copy all the articles that are in the popular page, to show their customers "the knowledge they have". Today, a graphics designer said me that he prefers to copy instead of linking "to not loose customers"!!! Poor people those who trust that kind of individuals. These are the kind of people that charge you for a logo and then they don't send it to you. There are many of these. This site keeps on. All the contents will stay the same, but without this kind of articles. For all the subscribers that are subscribed to copy me as I publish, guys you have killed the goose that lays the golden eggs!!! And I want to thank my usual readers that are always there. And to those that help me when they find a copy of my content, that defend me and send me an email warning me. To Pixelame, that is the best Latin social site, and I adore them. And to the users of Mac and Ubuntu that are so kind to me. And all those who link me in the right way, to the emails of support and care, to all those readers and friends that send my articles to social sites. To all those who vote me and always have a kind word. And of course, to my customers :) For you all, you are the reason to keep this site open and I'll keep on working for you. I'm still here and I love you.

Light and shadow effects improve your graphics and make them look more realist. Gradients have this function too. Using gradients in some areas can turn a simple graphic into a 3D one, and they also break the monotony. In this list you will find many gradient sets of high quality. They are 50 sets, and they are free, but remember to read the license terms before using them. Click the image to visit each gradient's page

The origins of pin up can be documented back at least to the end of 19th century, but reached their biggest popularity in the 40s and 50s. They were depictions of very beautiful women with a sensual and ingenuous air. With the time, pin-up passed from the photos and posters to fashion magazines and advertising. The pin-up girls were attractive for advertising agencies, their fresh image flooded the calendars. Even the government of the United States gave pin-up photos and illustrations as a present to their soldiers during the World War II. This supposed an entertainment for soldiers. Dreaming with those attractive women allowed them to forget about the war. There were illustrators like Gil Elvgren, Alberto Vargas, Haijime Sorayama, George Pethy... that were devoted, almost exclusively, to this genre. Some pin-up girls like Betty Page, Betty Grable, or Tempest Storm became very popular. But soon, famous actresses, singers and models were the most common pin-ups. Their fans wanted to watch them in sexy attitudes, and it was a way to give a bigger renown to their professional career. Between the great actresses that cultivated this genre there were Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Brigitte Bardot... And we should not forget the famous cartoon pin-up girl Betty Boop. Nowadays, fortunes are paid between collectors to get an old pin-up poster. As time went by, pin-up was more focused on its use on advertising, adding some touch of humor and hilarity. In the 60s, pin-up was a big ally of pop-art. The pin-up look is very precise. Pin-up girls are very feminine. Their lips use to be paint in red, their eyelashes are very defined, using false eyelashes in the photographs. The eyebrows are very pronounced, skin color uses to be very fair, and hair uses to be wavy or softly curled. The pin-up poses are very suggestive, in casual attitudes, always surrounded with glamour, using fetishisms like women dressed as sailor, waitress, nurse... Nowadays, women like Dita Von Teese have given pin-up a new boost, recovering the esthetics and poses of those old models. Images (in order): Pin up girl, by Narcyzjum; Pinup, by Logan-Miester; Guinness Pin Up, by Grim-Clavera; Battlestations Midway pin-up 2, by Henning;

"Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down." -Ray Bradbury- Summer has come to its end. The days of sun and beach have vanished. But we still can watch the sea from the top of a cliff. Enjoy them. Ibiza, Spain, by M.Prinke Etretat, France, by Sanderovski White Cliffs of Dover, UK, by Ian Wilson Preikestolen, Norway, by Willemgo Whitianga, New Zealand, by Stevecadman Gad cliff, UK, by Treehouse1977 Slieve League, Ireland, by Jule Berlin Lake Travis, USA, by Bgautrea Mangersta Sands (Lewis, UK), by Gaelic Arts Greece, by Alexik Acapulco, by Raveller Uluwatu, Bali, by Rvrastered California, USA, by AlexPears Upper Multnomah Fall, USA, by GlennWilliamSPDX The white cliff of Malta, by Heini Samuelsen

Photoshop patterns are often used both in graphics design as well as in digital art. They allow you to repeat patterns and fill the areas that you like quickly and easy. In this list, you can find patterns of fire, Christmas, floral, Saint Valentine, stone... and many more. They are 50 free Photoshop pattern sets, but don't forget to read the license terms. Click the image to visit each pattern's page

When I was asked to give my opinion about the latest CD of Blackmore's Night, I had no doubts that it should be very good. I know the band well, and I expected a great work. But when I received the promotional copy, I was shocked. "Secret Voyage" is more than good, it's simply excellent. Blackmore's Night band was born in the 90s, and is the union of the charismatic Ritchie Blackmore (guitarist of Deep Purple and Rainbow) and Candice Night, a singer with a captivating voice and a strong passion: the Renaissance. Candice and Ritchie met in the recording of "Strangers In Us All". In that time, Blackmore was guitarist of Rainbow, and Candice did the chorus of that album. In 1997, they published "Shadow Of The Moon", and achieved a big success in Europe. Blackmore's Night offers a very original proposal. Their music is a mix of folk, rock, and post-medieval sounds, adding authentic musical instruments from the Renaissance. Blackmore's Night always gives high quality music. We should not forget the brilliant career of Blackmore, and that he's a lover of classical music. His way of playing the guitar reaches virtuosity. To this, we can add the sweet and melodious voice of Candice. This makes of Blackmore's Night a band that goes beyond trends, seeking something really great. After a series of unforgettable albums, comes "Secret Voyage". "Secret Voyage" has 12 tracks: "God Save The Keg" is an instrumental piece, of great intensity, a Renaissance air, and triumph feeling. "Locked Within The Crystal Ball" is one of my favorites. It's a song full of vitality. It joins the Renaissance sound with Rock. Blackmore's powerful guitar resounds all along the song. It's a very dynamical and passionate theme. "Gilded Cage" is a very melodious song. A ballad with many shades, and a very dreamy air. "Toast To Tomorrow" is very cheerful song, with big influence from the traditional musics of Central Europe, Gypsy inspiration. "Prince Waldeck's Galliard" is an instrumental theme. A jewel for those of us who love string instruments. "Rainbow Eyes" is a precious song. One more time, the brilliant riffs of Ritchie Blackmore make it unique. "The Circle" is a song that joins Celtic, Oriental, and Rock sounds. Joins risky elements and the result is excellent. "Sister Gypsy" is a piece that reminds the stories sung by legendary troubadours. "Can't Help Falling In Love" is a version of Elvis' song. Elvis sang it for first time in the movie "Blue Hawaii". This version is truly brilliant. "Peasant's Promise" is a very ethereal theme, and at the same time, very cheerful, deeply Celtic. "Far Far Away" is very dreamy. Candice's voice sounds sweet and charming. "Empty Words", strong Renaissance influence and the always awesome strings of the great Blackmore stand out. For knowing all about the band, you just have to visit their official website: http://www.blackmoresnight.com/ You can also listen to some of the songs of "Secret Voyage" here. Many of the concerts of Blackmore's Night take place in castles, surrounded by a Renaissance halo. A true pleasure for your ears. So have a look to the tour info.