For sake of a change in scenery our magazine decided to go to nearby Maryland and notably the mountains surrounding beautiful Cumberland City. Our choice was to take an excursion trip on the scenic Western Maryland Railroad.

The trip would take us from  the Western Maryland Train Station, located at 13 Canal Street in downtown Cumberland to the mountaintop town of Frostburg. Both of these cities border southern Pennsylvania to the north, and Cumberland also is host to part of the canal system that used to link Ohio with the Chesapeake Bay. This was one of the ‘water highways’ of early America, known as The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. It’s purpose was to create a route to transfer goods and supplies between the East Coast ports and the American frontier. A museum for the Canal system is on the lower level of the Cumberland Train Station. (more…)

  In the continuing series of ‘My Virginia’ my photographer son, Joseph O’Donnell IV, and I recently took a trip to Great Falls and Mather Gorge. The Great Falls Park is run by the National Park Service and is located in Northern Virginia along the Potomac River. The river itself is the borderline between Virginia and Maryland and it has been a National attraction since the our country was first founded. The gorge was named after Stephen T. Mather, the first National Park Service director.

There is a canal running along it that was set up by the Patowmack Company in 1784 which constructed a series of five canals to make the river navigable as a water route between the Chesapeake Bay and the interior of Virginia. It was overseen by George Washington who’s dream was to connect the East with the Ohio Valley and bind the country together in a framework of trade and mutual interest. (more…)

TAEM- The Arts and Entertainment Magazine has once again attended the annual poet Robert Burns Anniversary Dinner thrown by Fauquier Scottish Heritage Society of Warrenton, Virginia. We also linked this to the 35th Wedding anniversary of our publisher, Joseph J. O’Donnell, and his wife Maryann. We were joined by our daughter, Jennifer Baird, and her husband Matt and our granddaughter, Haven. The celebration was also extended to include our daughter’s 33rd Birthday ! (more…)

It is with great sadness that we must announce that our publication will be coming to an end. As advertising has not caught up to the costs of production we have come to the conclusion that we must close our doors. As the publisher I have only a small pension and a monthly Social Security check to survive on, and I feel that out-of-pocket expenses for the magazine is no longer viable.

There will be no void, however, because this gives me a chance to complete two other books that I am writing and I am deeply involved in oil painting. I also wish to travel and I am researching my family history (possibly for another book in the future) and I wish to visit Scotland, the home of my father. (more…)

The Arts and Entertainment Magazine has just been contacted by a very famous actress that we had interviewed some time ago. We had first met with her in Hollywood and followed up with an interview with Calista Carradine (click on to see article) for our January 1, 2011 issue. Her new film, Jade Trader, has received much attention in Hollywood and she sent us the following report and pictures:

When Gerry Pallay brought The Jade Trader to my attention, his wish was for Quentin Tarantino to direct it. He asked me to bring Quentin the script  since Quentin is tight with the Carradines’ (more…)

   News from Hollywood has alerted us about a fabulous actress, Maryam Tarami, that we interviewed in our May 25th, 2013 issue (click on to see article). Currently she is starring in the movie ‘February’ and has won the award for Lead Actress in the Red Dirt Film Festival in Oklahoma. The film was chosen above 1,000 other entries in the event.

Asked about the film, Maryam responded, ”February is based on a true story of a woman from Iran. Last year I met a woman who shared stories about her homeland Iran and how she one day left everything behind for freedom.”

Michael Florie, the Executive Producer on the project said of Maryam, I met Maryam by accident after she worked on a movie I was executive producer on. Her vision on life and film making got my attention. After she shared her ideas for February I was pleasantly surprised by the unusual concept and agreed to be the executive producer on the project. I made the right choice as the Short takes us through the 4 strongest human emotions in 10 minutes. Compassion, romance, suspicion and fear! She put down an excellent performance as the female lead and I see a great future for her as actress and producer! She is one of a few! (more…)

   Our publisher, Joseph J. O’Donnell, has just learned that his daughter, Jennifer, is now engaged to be married. Her husband-to-be, Matt Baird, “had asked permission for my daughter’s hand in marriage yesterday and I proudly accepted”, the happy father of the bride said. Matt proposed to Jennifer today on an outing and she was overwhelmed with joy.

The wedding date has not been announced yet and the whole O’Donnell and Baird clans are looking forward to the celebrations.

“We met with his parents over the course of the summer, and both our children were witnessed to be much in love with each other”, our publisher said. Jennifer had already met with many of her fiancé’s family members and will meet his entire family in short order. (more…)

   The Commonwealth of Virginia is home to many spectacular sites, some of which we had introduced in this series of articles. Virginia has access to the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay in the east. To the west you can easily drive to the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains to see the fantastic views from up high. Between these two mountain chains runs the Shenandoah Valley, called the ‘breadbasket of the South’ during the Civil War.

This long valley, running almost the entire length of the state, still is predominantly farm lands, but is also home to many fine universities. Its picturesque beauty can be better seen by traveling the Skyline Drive which sits on top of the Blue Ridge summits. You can also glimpse its splendor when traveling along Route 81, a major North/South conduit running the entire length of the eastern part of our country. (more…)

   The Arts and Entertainment Magazine recently journeyed to the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a travel destination interest for our readers. The area is the premier visitor destination on the Atlantic coast of the United States and is one of the only few locations where wild horses roam in this section of the country. Our adventure lasted five days and was planned by Maryann O’Donnell and photographed by both our publisher and our staff photographer Joseph O’ Donnell IV. We have included pictures of our visit along with tips and advisories for those who wish to make this journey. (more…)

TAEM- In our August 1st, 2010 issue we first interviewed David Sakmyster (click on to see article) and recently learned that Dave has been quite busy indeed.

David in reading your bio it states : “David Sakmyster is an award-winning author and screenwriter who strangely finds himself at home amidst the icy upstate New York winters.  He has over two dozen short stories and nine novels published. In addition to The Morpheus Initiative series about psychic archaeologists (described as “Indiana Jones meets The X-Files”) starting with the book The Pharos Objective, he has published the horror novel Crescent Lake, the suspense-thriller Blindspots and the historical epic, Silver and Gold. His screenplay, Nightwatchers, has been optioned for production, and when he’s not researching ghost sightings or fighting corruption, he’s currently at work on several other screenplays and novels. Visit him at www.sakmyster.com.” (more…)

Marvel has done it again! The Guardians of the Galaxy was a smash hit. At first glance at the trailers, my expectations of the movie were very low because these were not your well known Marvel superheroes or super heroines.

The movie starts off with the main character Peter Quill, played by Chris Pratt for the opening scene. Peter Quill is an space outlaw and a thief and he calls himself, star-lord, which no one seems to know him by. Peter is followed by Rocket Raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper , a genetically enhance rodent who is brilliant and well armed. Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel, is a strong and loyal living tree creature with a lack of a vocabulary. Drax played, by Dave Bautista, is a powerful alien warrior with no common sense. Gamora, played by Zoe Saldana, is a sexy, lethal, no-non sense alien assassin. Other actors and well known people make their appearance in movie like Michael Rooker, Lee Peace, Glenn Close, Stan Lee, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Benicio Del Toro and Lloyd Kaufman. (more…)

Our Publication’s, The Arts and Entertainment Magazine and THE EERIE DIGEST is celebrating Five Years since they first appeared on the Internet!

We have had many important changes since we began and the present product has been well received, and read, around the world. With hundreds-of-thousands of readers to date we have become a must read for students, and Students of the Arts, to boost their careers. From informative articles to Hollywood Interviews, from Science to Music, and great late night stories and poetry, we have become an icon to many. (more…)

We are very pleased to announce that Raymond Benson (click on to see article) who we had the pleasure of doing a second interview with in our ‘November 15th, 2013 issue’ has been quite busy as of late. Raymond, as you may recall, had written six of the James Bond novels.

In our last interview we talked with the author about his new series of novels titled ‘The Black Stiletto’ .We caught up with him recently and asked him about some of his latest work.

He told us that on January 2014: “The Black Stiletto: Secrets & Lies” (4th book in saga) was published. He also said, ” On April 2014: “Ice Cold—Tales of Intrigue from the Cold War” was completed. This is the annual Mystery Writers of America anthology of short stories, it was edited by Jeffery Deaver and Me… the first collaboration between two Bond authors (I was the first American Bond author, Jeff was the second). My short story “Ghosts” appears in the book as well.”
The film/TV rights for Black Stiletto have been optioned by Tony Eldridge of Lonetree Entertainment. Tony is one of the producers of the upcoming “The Equalizer” starring Denzel Washington and Chloe Moretz. (more…)

     Recently The Arts and Entertainment Magazine decided to tour the southern coastal region of Virginia and discover some of the wonders of the area. Notably Williamsburg is famous for Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg, so we decided to see what other hidden treasures the region held. We chanced upon the historical site of Yorktown, not far from the Williamsburg tourist attractions. There we discovered Yorktown Sailing Charters.

There are two sailing schooners available, the three-masted Alliance and the smaller two-masted Serenity. We naturally opted for the Alliance which was available at the time. The schooner is a seventy-five ton steel hulled ship handled easily by a three person crew. This includes its captain, Alex, and a well trained crew consisting of Emily and Darby. All three were gracious and knowledgeable and allowed us to help them set the sails.

The charter service also has a Pirate Adventure cruise in which both ships depart the Yorktown dock and actually fire live cannons at each other while sailing on the York River. The river is also a deep river port of bygone days and presently is used by the Navy and Coast Guard vessels for training and docking. (more…)

     The Commonwealth of Virginia offers a variety of exciting and interesting places to visit. It also offers some historical, educational, and natural wonders to explore.

In some of my last articles I had introduced The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Aldie Mill, and back trail hiking among some other interesting places to visit. One of the best hidden treasures is the State Arboretum of Virginia located near Boyce Virginia just off of Rte. 50 in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The location itself is beautiful with a panoramic view of the Shenandoah Valley a short distance away.

The Arboretum offers several walking trails if you are in a mood for a short hike and wildflower walks for your visual pleasure. The entrance from Rte. 50 leaves you off at a large brick structure which houses an old estate. Many weddings are also held here due to the pleasant surroundings that the site offers. There are also a number of ponds and gentle rolling hills giving a tranquil feeling to all the visitors. (more…)