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Tommy Tallarico Honored at First Annual Dream Awards

by: Randy -
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Hollywood Arts, a progressive non-profit organization that reaches homeless and at-risk teenagers through the arts, is honoring Tommy Tallarico at its first annual Dream Awards in Hollywood on February 17th.  (Tommy Tallarico is a video game music composer who's worked on over 300 titles since 1991, including Earthworm Jim, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Advent Rising.)  Coinciding with the awards, Hollywood Arts will host an auction on eBay with several game industry items -- including giving one lucky auctioneer a cameo in Halo 3.  No, seriously.
ommy Tallarico Honored at First Annual Dream Awards

Hollywood Arts Event to Host Charity Auction
Including a Cameo in HALO 3

LOS ANGELES - Feb. 6, 2007 - Hollywood Arts, a progressive non-profit
organization
that reaches homeless and at-risk teenagers through the arts, is honoring
video
game industry icon Tommy Tallarico at the first annual Dream Awards.  The
event
will raise funding and awareness for the charity.  An auction coinciding
with
the event will include a dream cameo for gamers:  an opportunity to be in
the
highly anticipated video game, HALO 3 for the Xbox 360.

"I am deeply honored to receive the Dream Awards recognition," Tommy
Tallarico,
said.  "The video game industry has been the arena of arts where I realized
my
dream.  I'd like to send the message to struggling young people on the
streets
that it is possible to live theirs."

Proceeds from the event, which will be held Feb. 17th at Raleigh Studios,
will
be donated to Hollywood Arts to complete the renovation of a full service
art
and media center in Los Angeles. The dinner and award ceremony will feature
the
COS Players, actors who dress as players of the games, and the Hollywood
Studio
Symphony, a 36-piece orchestra, will be performing at the event.  Individual

tickets and tables for the Dream Awards are available at
www.hollywood-arts.org
or by calling (323) 656-5274.

The Dream Awards will host an auction on eBay with several game industry
items
including an audio cameo in the upcoming game HALO 3, a Master Chief statue,

a tour of the Bungie Studios and signed video game paraphernalia of games
such
as Guitar Hero 2 and by artists such as Yugi Naki, creator of Sonic the
Hedgehog.
The auction, hosted at www.missionfish.org/NPMMF/nphomepage.jsp?NP_ID=18272
,
will begin on Feb. 17th  at 7 pm PST and will close on Feb. 24th.

"It was important for us to build relationships with the video gaming
community,"
said Dylan Kendall, executive director of Hollywood Arts. "Our students
gravitate
to games. We recognize gaming can work as a learning activity. Video games
can
be used to promote emotional health and serve as an important vehicle to
teach
our students critical life and job-readiness skills."

Tommy Tallarico is a veritable video game industry icon.  As one of the most

successful video game composers in history, he has helped revolutionize the
gaming
world, creating unique audio landscapes that enhance the video gaming
experience.
Tommy is the creator and executive producer of Video Games Live, the biggest

video game concert tour in the world. Tommy hosts, writes and co-produces
the
television shows Reviews on the Run and the Telly Award winning Electric
Playground.
He is the founder and CEO of G.A.N.G. (Game Audio Network Guild), a
non-profit
organization dedicated to promoting excellence in interactive audio. An
accomplished
musician, Tallarico has been writing music for video games for more than 17
years.
In 1994, he founded Tommy Tallarico Studios, the multimedia industry's
largest
post-production audio house.  He has won over 25 industry awards for best
video
game audio and has worked on more than 250 game titles.

Hollywood Arts reaches homeless and at-risk teenagers through classes in
video-games,
music, movies, writing, fashion, hair, makeup and animation, giving them
artistic
training and a chance to improve their self-esteem, heal trauma, create a
new
community of supportive friends and mentors as well as learn critical life
and
job-readiness skills to transition them off the streets and into jobs in the

creative industries.

ABOUT HOLLYWOOD ARTS
Hollywood Arts was founded to provide a range of arts classes, creative
activities
and job-readiness training for at-risk, runaway and homeless teenagers and
young
adults in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Founded by Dylan
Kendall,
the organization is slated to move into classroom and office space for its
programs
at 1671 N. Western Ave., next to the famed Louis B. Mayer Building at the
corner
of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue. For more information, please
visit
www.hollywood-arts.org.