Wow. What a brilliant, captivating and amazing little girl.
Much love and respect for her endeavors.
She took a stand and all those touched by her actions will be strengthened.
Way to go, Marley Dias!
Way to go!
**********************************************
11-YEAR-OLD GIRL, “SICK OF READING ABOUT WHITE BOYS AND DOGS”
Janice Dias/for PhillyVoice
Marley Dias at Lingelbach Elementary School in Germantown, collecting books as part of her #1000BlackGirlBooks social action project. Dias cited Mildred Taylor’s “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” as a book she’s been happy to discover since starting her project.
January 19, 2016
11-year-old Jersey girl launches #1000BlackGirlBooks
Campaign collects books in the name of social action
In the past year, Philadelphia native Marley Dias has successfully written a proposal for (and received) a Disney Friends for Change grant, served food to orphans in Ghana and recently launched a book club.
Dias is 11 years old.
“I’m hoping to show that other girls can do this as well,” Dias told PhillyVoice. “I used the resources I was given, and I want people to pass that down and use the things they’re given to create more social action projects — and do it just for fun, and not make it feel like a chore.”
Dias’ latest social action project is the “#1000BlackGirlBooks” book drive. Frustrated with many of the books she’s assigned in school, she confessed to her mother during dinner one night that she was unhappy with how monochromatic so many stories felt.
“I told her I was sick of reading about white boys and dogs,” Dias said, pointing specifically to “Where the Red Fern Grows” and the “Shiloh” series. “‘What are you going to do about it?’ [my mom] asked. And I told her I was going to start a book drive, and a specific book drive, where black girls are the main characters in the book and not background characters or minor characters.”
So far, she said, she’s collected about 400 books — nearly halfway to her goal of 1,000 by Feb. 1. The project is part of an annual social action effort she makes as part of the Philadelphia-founded GrassROOTS Community Foundation Super Camp for young girls, designed to empower and improve the health of ‘impoverished’ girls middle-school-aged and younger. Dias’ mother, Janice, cofounded the organization seven years ago with lead MC of The Roots, Tariq Trotter (aka, Black Thought).
Janice, who grew up in Jamaica, calls watching her daughter grow up with such an investment in giving back a surreal experience. She further explained that her daughter’s “#1000BlackGirlBooks” project has been eye-opening even for her.
“I didn’t need identification, or I didn’t desire it because I grew up in an all-black country,” Janice told PhillyVoice. “She’s not growing up in an all-black country; she’s growing up in a fairly white suburb, in a country that only has 12.6 percent of blacks. For her, identification is a bigger deal. … For young black girls in the U.S., context is really important for them — to see themselves and have stories that reflect experiences that are closer to what they have or their friends have.
“And it doesn’t have to be the only thing they get, but the absence of it is clearly quite noticeable.”
The two just wrapped up a book drive at Lingelbach Elementary School in Germantown but are still on their way to hitting the 1,000-book mark. By the end of the drive, they’ll put together a reference guide that compiles the book titles, authors and age groups. Books collected will be donated to a low-resources library in St. Mary, Jamaica, where Janice grew up — in the spirit of giving back to their roots.
And in case you’re wondering what Dias wants to be when she grows up:
“I want to be a magazine editor for my own magazine,” she explained, without hesitation. “And I’d also like to continue social action. For the rest of my life.”
Book donations can be sent to 59 Main St., West Orange, N.J., 07052, Office 323.
Clarence Reid, the R&B singer who moonlighted as the innovative, masked and very explicit rapper Blowfly, passed away at 76 Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic
Clarence Reid, the R&B singer who moonlighted as the innovative, masked and explicit rapper Blowfly, passed away Sunday. He was 76. Reid’s death comes just days after it was revealed that he was admitted into a South Florida hospice care facility as he suffered from terminal liver cancer and multiple organ failure. A spokesperson for Reid confirmed the singer’s death to Rolling Stone.
“Clarence Reid, the genius known both by his given name and as Blowfly, the Master of Class, passed peacefully today, January 17th, in his hospice room,” Reid’s longtime collaborator and drummer “Uncle” Tom Bowker wrote on Facebook. “His sister Virginia and I thank you for all the love you have shown this week. We also thank you for supporting Clarence’s 50+ year music career – especially these last few years. We love you and will keep you informed on services and tribute performances in Clarence’s honor.”
Artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, Ice-T, Flying Lotus, DJ Quik, Pete Rock, Run the Jewels’ El-P and many more have turned to social media to pay tribute to the one-of-a-kind artist who had an unforgettable impact on many in the soul and hip-hop community. “I had the great privilege of playing with BLOWFLY. So much joy. R.I.P. Clarence Reid,” Flea tweeted, while Ice T wrote, “RIP and respect to the ORIGINAL.” (Flea appeared on Reid’s “Shake Your Ass” in 1991 and riotous “Funky Party” video two years later.) Flying Lotus also posted a photo of one of the iconic masks worn by Blowfly, which he gifted to the Los Angeles producer.
In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D spoke to Reid’s influence on the group’s landmark 1989 hit “Fight the Power,” specifically the verse calling Elvis Presley and John Wayne racists. “Blowfly had a record called ‘Blowfly’s Rapp’ [aka “Rap Dirty”] in 1980,” Chuck D recalled. “And there was a line in there where one of the characters in the song was a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and basically he had a lyric, ‘Well, I don’t care who you are, motherfuck you and Muhammad Ali.'”
As one of the main songwriters for Miami label TK Records, Reid penned a string of songs in the Sixties and Seventies for numerous soul and funk artists, including Gwen McCrae’s “Rocking Chair” and Betty Wright’s “Clean Up Woman.” He also wrote tracks for KC & The Sunshine Band, Sam & Dave and Bobby Byrd before giving birth to Blowfly, his outlet for performing comedic, explicit songs that over the years traversed the genres of soul, R&B and hip-hop; Blowfly is considered one of the earliest rappers. “He laid the foundation for hip-hop with ‘Shake Your Ass’ and ‘Rap Dirty’ and taught everyone that their dick could fly,” Bowker tells Rolling Stone.
His debut The Weird Wild World of Blowfly was released in 1971, with Reid’s alter ego releasing upwards of 25 albums since then, bearing titles like Porno Freak, Blowfly’s Party, Blowfly and the Temple of Doom and Fahrenheit 69.
His life was chronicled in Jonathan Furmanski’s 2011 documentary The Weird World of Blowfly, which found the singer touring the United States and attempting to reclaim and augment his legacy as both a jovial parodist and serious R&B vocalist (though mostly the former). In the film, Reid explains how as a child, he would pass the time working on a Georgia farm by creating dirty lyrics to popular songs to anger his white bosses. They ended up loving his X-rated renditions.
While the explicit nature of his music ensured that he never broke into the mainstream, Blowfly influenced many hip-hop stars (“Blowfly is a legend,” Snoop Dogg told Nardwuar) and, thanks to his crazed live performances, he maintained a fervent fan base, one that helped raise the necessary funds for the singer when his house was in danger of foreclosure in 2014.
Prior to Blowfly’s death, Bowker promised the rapper would release one last LP this year titled 77 Rusty Trombones.
“While most performers sit on their laurels in their later years, Clarence constantly wrote new material and grinded tour dates like a 20-year-old,” Bowker says. “He treated gigs at Halloween house parties in suburban California the same as arena gigs in Germany and massive Australian festivals. He never refused an autograph, or an opportunity to tell a dirty joke. He was a once-in-a-century talent, and it was an honor to reintroduce him to the world these past 12 years.”
Ettore Scola, one of the last of a generation of great Italian writers and directors, who was best known for “Il Sorpasso” (1962), “We All Loved Each Other So Much” (1974), “A Special Day” (1977), “The Family” (1987) and “The Dinner” (1998), died late Tuesday at a Rome hospital. He was 84 and had fallen ill on Sunday.
Scola was perhaps best known for “We All Loved Each Other So Much,” a 1974 portrait of postwar Italy that starred Nino Manfredi, Vittorio Gassman and Stefania Sandrelli. He directed and co-scripted with Maccari the 1977 Sophia Loren-Marcello Mastroianni film “A Special Day,” which picked up Oscar nominations for best foreign film and best actor for Mastroianni. He and Loren played neighbors who meet in 1938 during Hitler’s visit to Italy.
Scola won best director at Cannes for 1976’s “Ugly, Dirty and Bad” and shared the festival’s best screenplay award for “La terrazza” (1980). Another film much applauded on the festival circuit was the director’s 1983 film “Le bal.”
Scola started as a screenwriter, co-scripting 1962’sa “Il Sorpasso” with director Dino Risi and Ruggero Maccari. Starring Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant, the film was a road movie that is a classic of the genre.
Scola directed and co-scripted 1987’s “The Family,” starring Gassman, Stefania Sandrelli and Fanny Ardant; the Washington Post called the film “a thoughtful Italian ‘Upstairs, Downstairs.’ ”
He directed and co-scripted 1998’s “The Dinner,” starring Ardant, Gassman and Giancarlo Giannini; Variety said of the film, “A grotesque grab bag of trattoria diners, repping a cross-section of Italian society, eats its way through Ettore Scola’s ‘The Dinner,’ a relaxing, well-oiled comedy with little to digest.”
Scola’s last picture was a moving tribute to his friend Federico Fellini titled “How Strange to Be Named Federico: Scola Narrates Fellini” which screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2013. Praising this unique mix of clips and recreations of encounters between two postwar Italian greats Variety called it “a magical trip through history and memory.”
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said in a tweet that Scola’s death “leaves an enormous hole in Italian culture.”
Scola is survived by his wife Gigliola and daughters Silvia, who is a screenwriter, and Paola, who is a writer and assistant director.
GLENN FREY, GUITARIST AND CHIEF ARCHITECT OF EAGLES BAND’S VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL BLEND
So when Frey turned up at the celebrated Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood in the late 1960s to audition as a singer and guitarist for rising country-rock singer Linda Ronstadt, her manager wasn’t sure he’d be a good fit.
“I had pigeonholed him as this punky kid from Detroit who wanted to be a rocker,” John Boylan said Monday. “But he surprised me with the scope of his musical knowledge. The very first rehearsal we had with Linda, we were doing a [Hank Williams] song, ‘Lovesick Blues.’ He knew the country sixth chords that Hank would use — he knew the whole genre already. I figured I would have to teach this guy about ancient country music, but he could have taught me.”
Frey went on to become a founding member of the Eagles, one of the most successful bands of all time — a group that will be forever associated with the Southern California country rock sound.
Frey died in New York on Monday from the rheumatoid arthritis he’d struggled with for 15 years as well as acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.
“When they went on tour with me, it was the first time Glenn had ever gone on the road,” Ronstadt recalled Monday. “We didn’t have enough money for everyone to have their own rooms, so the guys had to double up. That’s when Glenn and Don [Henley] started working together. When they said they wanted to form a band of their own, I thought, ‘Hot dog! Yes, you should put a band together.’ The first time I heard them sing ‘Witchy Woman,’ I knew they were going to have hits.”
His death could spell the end of the Eagles, a group whose sound captivated listeners worldwide starting with their first No. 1 hit, “Best of My Love” in 1974, and continuing with such successes as “One of These Nights,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” “Take It to the Limit,” “New Kid in Town,” “Heartache Tonight,” “The Long Run,” and one that became a contemporary standard replayed nightly by bar bands around the world, “Hotel California.”
That song explored the darkness they found lurking beneath the bright promises of fame and fortune often dangled in front of musicians, actors and other artists who come to California in pursuit of their dreams.
Frey and band mate Don Henley wrote of the excesses they observed — and famously indulged in themselves — in and around Hollywood:
Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said, “We are all just prisoners here, of our own device”
Besides reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart in 1977, “Hotel California” was subsequently honored with the Grammy Award for record of the year.
In a statement issued Monday, Henley said Frey “was like a brother to me; we were family, and like most families, there was some dysfunction.”
That was a reference to the internal tensions the band was notorious for, and which led the group to disband at the end of the 1970s.
Henley had famously said the Eagles would reunite “when hell freezes over,” a phrase the band good-naturedly adopted when it did indeed get back together in 1992 for a new round of recordings and regular tours that continued into 2015.
“The bond we forged 45 years ago was never broken, even during the 14 years that the Eagles were dissolved,” Henley wrote. “We were two young men who made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles with the same dream: to make our mark in the music industry — and with perseverance, a deep love of music, our alliance with other great musicians and our manager, Irving Azoff, we built something that has lasted longer than anyone could have dreamed. But, Glenn was the one who started it all.”
Azoff, who has managed the Eagles for most of their long career, said Frey was as astute in business as he was in music.
“He was always telling people, ‘When you’re in the music business, you’ve got to have your music right, and you’ve got to have your business right,’” Azoff said Monday. “He had incredible instincts. He and Henley and I would always plot what was coming next. He wasn’t just an incredible writer, singer and musician.
“I don’t know of a better family man, or father. He’s just gone too soon.”
The Eagles were to have been recognized with a 2015 Kennedy Center Honor in December, but in November the band requested that it be put off until “all four Eagles — Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit — can attend.”
At the time, Frey had a flare-up of intestinal problems he’d struggled with for years, Azoff said, and was hospitalized with plans for surgery. But he developed pneumonia and never was strong enough to undergo that procedure.
In 1986, Frey missed a reunion concert with Henley because of an intestinal disorder. An attempt to reunite the Eagles in 1990 was put off in part because of surgery to remove part of Frey’s intestine. And in 1994, their “Hell Freezes Over” reunion tour was interrupted by Frey’s bout with diverticulitis.
Frey and Henley collaborated on most of the Eagles’ signature songs, hits that came to define a quintessential Southern California pop sound in the 1970s, as distinctive as the Beach Boys’ sunny harmonies had been a decade earlier.
Frey and Henley, originally joined in the Eagles by Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner, brought the two-, three- and four-part harmonies characteristic of country and bluegrass music to rock, powering them with electric guitars and drums in a tradition that had started with the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Henley credited Frey for being the chief architect of the vocal and instrumental blend that defined the Eagles.
“We gave Glenn a nickname, the Lone Arranger,” Henley wrote in 2003. “He had a vision about how our voices could blend and how to arrange the vocals, and, in many cases, the tracks. He also had a knack for remembering and choosing good songs.”
Glenn Lewis Frey was born Nov. 6, 1948, in Detroit and was inspired by the Beatles to take up the guitar. He played in bar bands in the Motor City as a teenager, and for a time was part of rocker Bob Seger’s band.
But Frey had greater ambitions, and he went to California, drawn by the vibrant rock and country folk scene brewing in the mid- to late 1960s.
The Troubadour was a focal point of that musical community, and it is where Frey met Ronstadt through mutual friend and musician J.D. Souther.
Frey and Souther formed a folk-based band called Longbranch Pennywhistle that began to make a name for itself, and for a time they shared an apartment in Echo Park, living above yet another soon-to-be-prominent singer-songwriter: Jackson Browne.
Frey said it was Browne who taught him the discipline needed to become a first-rate writer.
“He had his piano and guitars down there,” Frey wrote in the liner notes for the Eagles’ 2003 compilation album “The Very Best of the Eagles.” “I didn’t really know how to sit down and work on a song until I heard him playing underneath us in the basement.
“I had never really witnessed that sort of focus — someone being that fastidious — and it gave me a different idea about how to write songs; that maybe it wasn’t all just going to be a flood of inspiration. That’s when I first heard ‘Take It Easy,’” a song Frey helped Browne finish and which became the Eagles’ first national hit, in 1972.
While becoming one of the most successful acts in pop music, the Eagles also had detractors who criticized the band’s often ultra-polished sound as soulless and excessively calculated.
But fans continued to lap up the band’s recordings and concert tickets. The group’s 1976 compilation album, “Eagles/Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975,” is the second-biggest-selling album of all time, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, the trade organization that bestows gold and platinum records.
It has alternated over the years at No. 1 and 2 with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which holds the top spot with certified sales of more than 30 million copies, to more than 29 million for the Eagles’ album.
During the band’s hiatus in the 1980s, Frey released three solo albums and ultimately logged 13 singles that made the Billboard Hot 100. Two of those peaked at No. 2: “The Heat Is On” (featured in the Eddie Murphy comedy “Beverly Hills Cop”) and “You Belong to the City.”
He also mapped out a second career as an actor, appearing in “Miami Vice” and other TV shows and starring in the short-lived 1993 series “South of Sunset.”
But it was with the Eagles that his reputation largely rested. After the group reunited in 1994, its tours generated bigger business at the box office than the group had in the 1970s, in large part because of the dramatic increase in the price of concert tickets over the decades.
The band commissioned a “History of the Eagles” documentary that aired on Showtime in 2013, and it recounted the light and the dark aspects of the group’s track record, including Frey and Henley’s decision to fire guitarist Don Felder, who had composed the signature guitar parts that help define “Hotel California.”
The documentary set the stage for a “History of the Eagles” concert tour that surveyed the group’s four decades of music-making and ranked No. 8 among the highest-grossing tours of the year worldwide, raking in $86.5 million in 2014, according to the concert industry-tracking magazine Pollstar.
As part of that tour, the Eagles played six sold-out shows at the newly renovated Forum in Inglewood at the outset of 2014.
Whether the Eagles could continue without Frey was a question no one was prepared to address Monday.
“I haven’t even given it a thought,” Azoff said. “It’s of no importance right now.”
Frey is survived by his wife, Cindy, and their children Taylor, Deacon and Otis.
“There will be a major memorial, and it will be in L.A.,” Azoff said. “The only thing the family and guys in the band ask is that we want to plan it right.”
Over the next two weeks, for the first time in more than a decade, you can see all of the naked-eye planets — from Mercury to Saturn — together in the predawn sky.
Download our monthly stargazing podcast to learn about a close pairing of Venus and Saturn before dawn, a strong meteor shower, and a parade of bright stars after sunset.
Billie Allen, an African-American actress who was involved in original productions of such pivotal stage works as A Raisin in the Sun and Funnyhouse of a Negro, died Dec. 29 at her home in Manhattan. She was 90.
Ms. Allen received a Lortel Award nomination for her direction of a 2006 production of Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse. She had a special connection to the piece, having played the lead role of the disturbed young woman Sarah in the 1964 premiere of the drama. Also in 1964, on Broadway, she was a member of the cast of James Baldwin’s play about racial intolerance, Blues for Mister Charlie, playing a small part while understudying the lead role portrayed by Diana Sands.
Ms. Allen was an understudy, too, in the famous 1959 premiere of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Eventually, she assumed the role of Beneatha Younger. She became friends with her fellow cast member in that play, Ruby Dee, and later directed Dee in Miss Lucy’s Eyes in 2001.
Off-Broadway, Ms. Allen directed as often as she acted. Her directing credits included The Brothers and Day Trips. As an actor, she was in Take a Giant Step, Black Monday, Trainer Dean Liepolt and Company, The Ofay Watcher and Every Night When the Sun Goes Down.
Wilhelmina Louise Allen was born in Richmond, VA, on Jan. 13, 1925, to Mamie Wimbush, a teacher, and William Allen, an actuary. Early on, she studied both acting and dance, and early roles on Broadway, in Caribbean Carnival and Virgil Thompson’s Four Saints in Three Acts, were dance oriented. Other Broadway credits included Critic’s Choice and A Teaspoon Every Four Hours.
She had a recurring role as a WAC on the 1950s sitcom “The Phil Silvers Show,” an anomaly at a time when black actors did not typically take part in predominantly white programs.
Billie Allen, one of the first black performers with a recurring network TV role, in 1955 on “The Phil Silvers Show,” with from left, Elisabeth Fraser, Barbara Berry, Midge Ware and Fay Morley.Credit CBS Photo Archive, via Getty Images
She was married to the composer and arranger Luther Henderson from 1981 to 2003. A previous marriage, to Duane H. Grant, Sr., ended in divorce. She is survived by two children from that marriage, Duane Grant, Jr., and Carolyn Grant.
Bowie’s son Duncan Jones, who is a Bafta-winning film director, wrote on Twitter: “Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all.”
The artist’s hits include Let’s Dance, Changes, Space Oddity, Starman, Modern Love, Heroes, Under Pressure, Rebel Rebel and Life on Mars.
He was also well known for creating his flamboyant alter ego Ziggy Stardust.
The singer, who had been living in New York in recent years, released his latest album Blackstar only last Friday, his birthday.
The album has been well received by critics and was intended as a “parting gift” to the world, according to long-time friend and producer Tony Visconti.
There have also been crowds outside his New York home and in Berlin where he lived in the late 1970s.
David Bowie in numbers:
In a career spanning 51 years
140 million albums sold since his first release in 1967
111 singles – averaging more than two a year during his career
51 music videos, along with a number of film roles including The Man Who Fell to Earth and Labyrinth
25 studio albums, including Blackstar, which was released two days before his death
Sir Paul McCartney said he would “always remember the great laughs” the pair shared, saying in a statement: “David was a great star and I treasure the moments we had together.
“His music played a very strong part in British musical history and I’m proud to think of the huge influence he has had on people all around the world.”
Friend and collaborator Brian Eno said: “David’s death came as a complete surprise, as did nearly everything else about him. I feel a huge gap now.”
Brian May, guitarist with Queen – with whom Bowie collaborated on Under Pressure – described him as “a fearsome talent”.
Friend and collaborator Iggy Pop wrote on Twitter: “David’s friendship was the light of my life. I never met such a brilliant person. He was the best there is.”
Madonna said she was “devastated”, writing on Facebook that Bowie “changed the course” of her life after she saw him perform – her first ever concert.
“I found him so inspiring and innovative,” she wrote. “Unique and provocative. A real genius.”
Comedian and actor Ricky Gervais, who convinced Bowie to star as himself and ridicule Gervais in an episode of 2006 sitcom Extras, simply wrote: “I just lost a hero. RIP David Bowie.”
Midge Ure, who helped organise the Live Aid concert in 1985 – at which Bowie performed – said: “He wasn’t just a brilliant songwriter and an amazing creator, he excelled at everything.”
Will Gompertz, BBC Arts editor
David Bowie was the Picasso of pop. He was an innovative, visionary, restless artist: the ultimate ever-changing postmodernist.
Along with the Beatles, Stones and Elvis Presley, Bowie defined what pop music could and should be. He brought art to the pop party, infusing his music and performances with the avant-garde ideas of Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Andy Warhol.
He turned pop in a new direction in 1972 with the introduction of his alter ego Ziggy Stardust. Glam rock was the starting point, but Ziggy was much more than an eyeliner-wearing maverick: he was a truly theatrical character that at once harked backed to pre-War European theatre while anticipating 1980s androgyny and today’s discussions around a transgender spectrum.
He was a great singer, songwriter, performer, actor, producer and collaborator. But beyond all that, at the very heart of the matter, David Bowie was quite simply – quite extraordinarily – cool.
Image copyright2016: mark.harward53@hotmail.comImage caption This picture, showing Bowie performing on saxophone at a youth club at Biggin Hill in May 1963, is believed to be one of the first images of him on stage
Bowie was born David Jones in Brixton, south London, on 8 January in 1947. He changed his name in 1966 after The Monkees’ Davy Jones achieved stardom.
He was in several bands before he signed with Mercury Records, which released his album Space Oddity in 1969, with the title track becoming his first UK number one.
His breakthrough came with 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
Image copyrightAPImage caption Bowie performing at Live Aid alongside Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney and Bob Geldof
Mark Savage, BBC Music reporter
David Bowie changed music forever. Throughout his career, he reinvented not just his sound but his persona over and over again.
He was a proudly progressive composer, drawing on any genre that came to mind – from the hippy folk of Space Oddity to the crunching industrial rock of 1995’s Outside album and his ambitious, jazz-flecked swansong Blackstar, released just last week.
His style shifted with the sands, but he was always recognisably David Bowie.
That powdery voice – vibrating off the back of his teeth – is unmistakable; while his impressionist lyrics had a constant theme – he was an outsider, an alien, a sexually ambiguous spectre.
Bowie also carved out a successful acting career, including his role as an alien seeking help for his dying planet in Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth in 1976.
Other roles included Labyrinth, Cat People, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Hunger.
The late 1980s were dominated by Bowie’s involvement with his new band, a postmodernist heavy metal outfit, Tin Machine.
The 1990s saw him flirting with drum-and-bass on the Earthling album, while his 2002 album Heathen saw a long-awaited return to form for the singer.
Image copyrightPhotoshotImage caption Bowie attended the Theatre Workshop in New York last month for the premiere of Lazarus
Festival founder Michael Eavis told the BBC: “He’s one of the three greatest in the world, ever – Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and David Bowie. There’s no-one else even close.”
Bowie was thought to have suffered a heart attack in 2004, after which he largely stopped making public appearances. His last live performance was at a New York charity concert in 2006.
But after a decade without a studio album he released The Next Day in 2013, surprising fans who thought he had retired. It became his first UK number one for 20 years.
He co-wrote Lazarus, a musical featuring his songs and inspired by his role in The Man Who Fell to Earth, which opened in New York last month.
He helped transform the idea of the music video from a mere promotion to an art form in its own right.
By NATE CHINEN
******************************************
WILLIAM A. “BILL” DEL MONTE, LAST SURVIVOR OF SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE OF 1906
January 11, 2016, 4:47 PM
Associated Press
William Del Monte, Rose Cliver
Laura Morton / Associated Press
WIlliam Del Monte and Rose Cliver, survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, are shown at a commemoration ceremony in 2009. Del Monte died Monday, 11 days shy of his 110th birthday. (Laura Morton / Associated Press)
The last survivor of the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 has died.
William A. “Bill” Del Monte died Monday at a retirement home in Marin County. He was 11 days shy of his 110th birthday. His niece, Janette Barroca of San Francisco, confirmed his death of natural causes.
He’d been doing “great for 109 years old,” Barroca said.
Del Monte was 3 months old when the quake struck — forcing his family into the streets to escape in a horse-drawn buckboard with fire burning on both sides. The family crossed the bay to Alameda County and returned to San Francisco after their home was rebuilt, Barroca said.
His father had opened the famous Fior d’Italia on Broadway in 1886, which was destroyed in the quake but reopened in a tent not long after. Del Monte attended San Francisco schools and after graduation worked briefly for his father at the North Beach restaurant.
In his teens he was interested in playing the stock market — and he was good at it. By 1929, when he was 23, he was worth $1 million, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
He lost the money, but around the same time he gained a wife: Del Monte and Vera Minetti eloped to Reno in 1925 and were married for more than 55 years before she died in 1991. They never had children. Though his true passion was playing the stocks, he also ran a San Francisco Bay Area theater for years.
Del Monte’s death leaves a void in the city’s history.
At 113, Ruth Newman was the oldest remaining survivor of the earthquake before her death last summer. Four years old when the quake struck in the early morning of April 18, 1906, she never attended the city’s annual quake commemorations.
But Del Monte did over the years. In 2010, he was the only survivor who made it to Lotta’s Fountain downtown, riding in the back of the city’s big black 1930 Lincoln convertible.
More than 1,000 people were killed in the earthquake and fire. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake’s magnitude has ranged from 7.7 to 8.3.
“The common thread I would draw with all of these survivors is they had a unique, dry, wry sense of humor as anyone would have at being so rudely tossed out of bed at 5:11 in the morning,” said commemoration organizer Lee Houskeeper. “But none could compare to Bill.
“He had absolutely the sharpest mind of anybody I’ve ever known. A sharp mind, a sharp sense of humor and he was a complete flirt. My guess is there are a lot of heartbroken nurses out there today.”
Media captionActor Bill Paterson has said he had “no inkling of the seriousness” of Alan Rickman’s illness despite visiting him just two weeks ago
Actor Alan Rickman, known for films including Harry Potter, Die Hard and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, has died at the age of 69, his family has said.
The star had been suffering from cancer, a statement said.
He became one of Britain’s best-loved acting stars thanks to roles including Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films and Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling led the tributes, describing him as “a magnificent actor and a wonderful man”.
She wrote on Twitter: “There are no words to express how shocked and devastated I am to hear of Alan Rickman’s death.”
She added: “My thoughts are with [Rickman’s wife] Rima and the rest of Alan’s family. We have all lost a great talent. They have lost part of their hearts.”
Emma Thompson, who appeared with Rickman in productions including Love Actually and was directed by him in The Winter Guest, said he was “the finest of actors and directors” and “the ultimate ally”.
She wrote in a statement: “Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye.
“What I remember most in this moment of painful leave-taking is his humour, intelligence, wisdom and kindness.
“His capacity to fell you with a look or lift you with a word. The intransigence which made him the great artist he was – his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view. I learned a lot from him.”
She added: “He was, above all things, a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again.”
Announcing his death on Thursday, a family statement said: “The actor and director Alan Rickman has died from cancer at the age of 69. He was surrounded by family and friends.”
Image copyrightWarnerImage caption Rickman played the mysterious Professor Snape in all eight Harry Potter films
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe said Rickman was “undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with”.
He wrote on Google Plus: “Working with him at such a formative age was incredibly important and I will carry the lessons he taught me for the rest of my life and career.
“Film sets and theatre stages are all far poorer for the loss of this great actor and man.”
Sir Michael Gambon, who appeared with Alan Rickman in Harry Potter as well as on stage, told BBC Radio 4 he was “a great friend”.
He added: “Everybody loved Alan. He was always happy and fun and creative and very, very funny. He had a great voice, he spoke wonderfully well.
“He was intelligent, he wrote plays, he directed a play. So he was a real man of the theatre and the stage and that’s how I think of Alan.”
Director Ang Lee, who cast Rickman opposite Kate Winslet in 1995’s Sense and Sensibility, called him a “brilliant actor… a soulful actor… [and] a great human being.”
Alan Rickman
1946-2016
41 when he played Hans Gruber in Die Hard, his breakthrough film performance
68 film credits to his name
16 awards, including an Emmy, golden globe, and BAFTA
Getty
Actor Richard E Grant wrote on Twitter: “Farewell my friend. Your kindness and generosity ever since we met in LA in 1987 and ever since is incalculable.”
TV star and Bafta ceremony host Stephen Fry wrote: “What desperately sad news about Alan Rickman. A man of such talent, wicked charm and stunning screen and stage presence. He’ll be sorely missed.”
Actor David Morrissey also paid tribute. He said: “So sad to hear the news of Alan Rickman. A wonderful actor and lovely man. Tragic news.”
Image caption Rickman (left) made his TV debut in 1978’s Romeo and Juliet Image copyrightIan Jones/Daily Telegraph/PAImage caption Rickman and his Truly Madly Deeply co-star Juliet Stevenson met the Queen in 2000
The London-born star began his career in theatre, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company, before winning roles in TV dramas like Smiley’s People and The Barchester Chronicles in the 1980s.
His performance as the manipulative seducer the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway in 1986 brought him the first of two Tony Award nominations.
It also brought him to the attention of Die Hard producer Joel Silver, who offered him his film debut as a result.
He went on to become best known for playing screen villains – including the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, for which he won a Bafta award, and Judge Turpin opposite Johnny Depp in 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
But he showed his gentler side in films like 1990’s Truly Madly Deeply, in which he played Juliet Stevenson’s ghost lover and which also earned him a Bafta nomination.
Further Bafta nominations came for his roles as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility and the calculating Irish politician Eamon de Valera in 1996’s Michael Collins.
The following year, he won a Golden Globe for best actor in a miniseries or television film for the title role in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny.
Image copyrightPAImage caption He starred with Lindsay Duncan in Private Lives in the West End and on Broadway
Other film credits ranged from Tim Robbins’ 1992 political satire Bob Roberts to Richard Curtis’s 2003 romantic comedy Love, Actually, 1999’s sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest and the voice of the Blue Caterpillar in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
He also moved behind the camera in 1997 directing Thompson and her mother, Phyllida Law, in The Winter Guest.
Two years ago, he also directed period saga A Little Chaos, in which he co-starred with Kate Winslet.
Meanwhile, he continued to be a major presence on the stage in London and New York.
Another Tony nomination came for Private Lives in 2002, in which he appeared opposite Lindsay Duncan on Broadway following a transfer from London.
He recently revealed he had married Rima Horton in secret last year. The couple had been together since he was just 19 and she was 18.
Dan Haggerty, who has died aged 74, may have been known for only one role but it’s a role which will linger in the memory of many TV viewers of a certain age.
For any child of the Seventies, Grizzly Adams was a fascinating folk hero. This hirsute Californian woodsman who fled into the Californian mountains after he was wrongly accused of murder was irresistible to youngsters because he seemed so free from the constraints of normal adult life. Here was a man of integrity with a knack for survival and a mistrust for authority, and who, most importantly, was kind to animals. Ben, the grizzly bear cub he adopted, brought out the gruff Grizzly’s caring side and many a young heart was melted by this unlikely friendship.
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams was originally a feature film, based on Charles E Seller’s novel and released in 1974. It was the seventh highest-grossing film of that year, making $65million worldwide. The subsequent series, which aired from 1978 to 1982 (including TV specials), brought Dan Haggerty to an even wider audience.
Haggerty was perfect casting for the role of Adams. Born in Wisconsin in 1941, he grew up in a family that helped raise wild animals. To modern sensibilities this wasn’t quite the noble endeavour that it sounds. The Haggerty family ran a small wild animal attraction and the young Dan trained a black bear to perform tricks – this early experience would, of course, prove invaluable when he was cast as Grizzly at the age of 32.
Before that time, Haggerty’s career is best described as spotty. His powerful physique led to early appearance in the cult classic Muscle Beach Party. He also worked as a stuntman in the Sixties TV version of Tarzan, and as an animal trainer and handler for Walt Disney. He had a bit part in Dennis Hopper’s counter-culture classic Easy Rider, though his off-screen role bears much more significance – he assisted in the building of many of the motorcycles which roared iconically through the heart of that film.
Man mountain: Dan Haggerty as Grizzly Adams
Following the demise of Grizzly Adams, Haggerty failed to capitalise on its success although his imposing presence was a gift to casting directors looking for quirkier roles. He appeared in TV show The Love Boat and in the film Night Wars as a Vietnam veteran and psychologist who deals with the nightmares of other ex-soldiers. Haggerty supplemented his acting career by working as an animal handler in several productions. For example, he directed bears, foxes and even hawks in the 1997 film Grizzly Mountain.
Life was not always kind to Haggarty. He was arrested for cocaine possession in 1984 and spent several months in jail. Then, in 1991, he was seriously injured in a motorbike crash and it took him 18 operations to recover. In a terrible twist of fate, his wife of over 20 years, Samantha, was killed in a similar accident in 2008.
Haggarty, who had been suffering from spinal cancer, never gave up. He continued acting despite various setbacks, appearing in the irresistibly titled Axe Giant: the Wrath of Paul Bunyan in 2013. At the time of his death, he had two films in production. Here was a bold adventurer and a resilient spirit – much like Grizzly Adams in fact.
Otis Clay, “Trying to Live My Life Without You” soul singer and Blues Hall of Fame inductee, passed away Friday at the age of 73 Simon Ritter/Redferns
Otis Clay, “Trying to Live My Life Without You” soul singer and Blues Hall of Fame inductee, passed away Friday in Chicago following a heart attack. Clay was 73. His management confirmed Clay’s death on his official site, asking fans to “please keep the Clay family in your prayers.”
Clay’s longtime collaborator Billy Price told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Saturday following the singer’s passing, “After the shock of this wore off a little, I was left with a feeling of gratitude to have known him. I had the opportunity to sing with him and to learn from one of the true masters of the genre I work in. We first sang together in 1983, and I have so many memories of the great shows we did together over the years.” Clay and Price released their This Time for Real in 2015.
The Mississippi-born Clay ventured into the music world with gospel vocal groups before branching out to secular music in the mid-Sixties. After signing with Chicago label One-derful! Records, Clay nabbed R&B hits with 1967’s “That’s How It Is (When You’re In Love)” and “A Lasting Love.” Following a move to Atlantic Records’ Cauldron subsidiary, Clay recorded a version of the Sir Douglas Quintet’s “She’s About a Mover” at Muscle Shoals, Alabama’s FAME Studios.
Clay next teamed with Al Green producer Willie Mitchell at Memphis-based Hi Records in 1971, resulting in Clay’s biggest hit, “Trying to Live My Life Without You”; nearly a decade later, Bob Seger would climb the Hot 100 with his own version of the single. Similarly, Clay’s 1980 single “The Only Way Is Up” would be the inspiration for Yazz’s U.K. chart-topping cover in 1988.
“My life always has been a combination of things musically,” Clay told the Chicago Tribune in 2013. “Every Saturday night I listened to the Grand Ole Opry. During the day, later on, you listened to (radio) coming out of Memphis. During the noonday, at 12 o’clock, we listened to Sonny Boy Williamson, coming out of Helena, Arkansas, and I’m listening to Vaughn Monroe and Rosemary Clooney and listening to Hank Williams and Roy Acuff.”
Clay continued to record and perform live in the ensuing decades, including contributing a cover of “Wild Horses” to the Rolling Stones tribute comp Paint it Blue in 1997 and scoring a 2008 Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category for “Walk a Mile in My Shoes.” In 2014, Clay appeared in the Memphis-centric music documentary Take Me to the River. Clay was a 2013 inductee into the Blues Hall of Fame.
About the LIGO Gravitational-Wave Rumor. . . The physics and astronomy world is all agossip: has LIGO heard its first black-hole merger? Well, not so fast. Here’s everything we know so far.
Sirius twinkles brightly after dinnertime below Orion in the southeast. Spy an asteroid as it occults a bright star. And if you’ve got binoculars handy, find out how to spot Kemble’s Cascade.
Asterisms for Winter Nights Asterisms appeal to our playful side but also serve as key waypoints in the sky for identifying fainter stars and constellations.
Download our monthly stargazing podcast to learn about a close pairing of Venus and Saturn before dawn, a strong meteor shower, and a parade of bright stars after sunset.
Winter is a grand time to start learning your way around the stars, with bright Orion and his neighbors shining high. Join Tony Flanders, contributing editor of SkyWeek fame, and Alan MacRobert at this live online event!
Possible Federal Crimes Numerous at Oregon Refuge Take-over
Bill Morlin
January 15, 2016
There appears to be a growing list of potential federal laws that could be used to charge antigovernment extremists and militia members who are illegally occupying a wildlife and bird refuge in Oregon. The standoff is now two weeks old, and a resolution doesn’t appear in sight.
Billy J. Williams.
U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams, of the District of Oregon, and his assistant prosecutors aren’t talking publicly, but they likely have charging statutes in mind if they get the green light to bring criminal charges from senior Justice Department officials, likely to include U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch.
The Oregon standoff, and what to do about it, likely is one of the thorniest problems Lynch has encountered since becoming the nation’s chief law enforcement officer last April 27. There has been no official statement from her or the Justice Department on the Burns takeover.
Prosecutors may very well have already obtained secret grand jury indictments and warrants that FBI agents would use when they deem the time is right to make arrests, likely avoiding any violent confrontation.
Then again, federal prosecutors may very well decide not bring criminal charges or make arrests – the same scenario that followed the initial Cliven Bundy standoff in Nevada in 2014 involving armed antigovernment militias pointing firearms at federal agents.
There are many people, including those in the law enforcement community, who say the “do nothing” approach following that 2014 standoff emboldened Bundy’s three sons, Ammon, Ryan and Mel, to embark on the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters on Jan. 2.
There is no law enforcement perimeter around the refuge, but the FBI is known to have an undercover, plainclothes presence. Media representatives can come and go at will and attend daily Bundy press conferences. The lack of a law enforcement perimeter has allowed occupiers to travel to Burns to renew supplies, receive mail, cash donations and post updates on social media. They’ve even received hate mail, including a box of dildos.
Some Bundy supporters claim on social media they actually are rotating in and out of the headquarters to return home for rest or to watch pro-football playoffs before returning to Malheur.
The occupation and whether to bring criminal charges falls to federal prosecutors in the District of Oregon because the facility, south of Burns on the cold, high desert of Eastern Oregon, is federally owned and managed and staffed by federal employees.
When Ammon Bundy and his band of two armed dozen cohorts walked into the unoccupied headquarters complex, it certainly appeared they initially were committing the crime of federal trespass. They gained entry to an unoccupied federal building without permission and, later, refused a demand from the local sheriff to leave peacefully.
Since the armed occupiers have been in the complex, media accounts document that some of them have illegally used federal computers, accessing employees’ personal information, made illegal use of federal equipment and damaged or destroyed Bureau of Land Management fencing by cutting in down.
That conduct, legal experts say, clearly suggests there is probable cause to charge those individuals with trespassing on federal property, destruction of federal property, unlawful access to federal computers or possession of firearms and dangerous weapons in federal facilities.
Then, there are federal terrorism laws that might be considered.
“The term ‘Federal crime of terrorism’ means an offense that is calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct,” says federal law, Section 2332B of Title 18 United States Code.
Some of the occupiers at Malheur have said in media interviews and on social media that they are willing to kill or be killed in furtherance of their agenda.
The terrorism law allows for bringing conspiracy charges and charging “co-conspirators and accessories after the fact.”
Terrorism and terrorism-conspiracy charges can be brought, the law says, if “the victim, or intended victim, is the United States Government, a member of the uniformed services, or any official, officer, employee, or agent of the legislative, executive, or judicial branches, or of any department or agency, of the United States.” The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service who operate out of the Burns headquarters complex are both agencies of the U.S. government.
Prosecutors also could elect to use “interference with commerce laws” — having to merely show that items within the refuge moved at some point in interstate commerce.
Section 1951 of federal law says there is interference with commerce if an individual “in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do, or commits or threatens physical violence … in furtherance of a plan or purpose.”
Nicholas Caldwell, co-founding member of one of our all-time favorite groups, The Whispers, has died at age 71 after a long battle with heart disease.
Caldwell was not only a mainstay in the group for its half century of hitmaking, he also wrote and produced many songs for The Whispers and for other artists, including Phil Perry. He fought a courageous battle against the dreaded disease, and, once it became public last July, fans of the group became prayer warriors, supporting the artist and his fight in a truly heartwarming way.
Caldwell often considered himself a changed man for his development as a husband and a man of faith over the past two decades. He recounted his wilder younger days in an episode of TV One’s Unsung, and, with his wife beside him, talked of his conversion into a man who could be admired as much for how he lived his life as for his music.
Formed in LA in the early 60s, the Whispers have certainly taken a “slow and steady” career course in which they have quietly become one of the most successful modern soul groups. Consisting of twin brothers Walter and Wallace (Scotty) Scott, Nicholas Caldwell, Marcus Hutson and Leaveil Degree (who replaced departing member Gordy Harmon in 1973), the Whispers first recorded for local LA label Dore Records, hitting the pop and R&B charts with “Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong” in 1970. They continued to be a mid level charting act throughout the ’70s on the Don Cornelius/Dick Griffey “Soul Train” label but gained momentum toward the end of the decade when Griffey, who was their manager, created his own SOLAR label and worked with the group on their SOLAR debut album Headlights, which scored a moderate hit with “Olivia.”
Here’s the famous video below:
After so many years, the Whispers seemed destined to remain a a middling act that would never achieve real large scale international attention. Then in 1980, Griffey teamed them with upcoming writer/producer Leon Sylvers, and the result was “And the Beat Goes On,” one of the most infectious songs of the disco era and the single that thrust the Whispers to the top tier of soul artists. “And the Beat Goes On” was included on the excellent Whispers album along with two other instant classics, the Caldwell-penned ballad “Lady” and “A Song For Donny,” a touching tribute to Donny Hathaway sung to the tune of Hathaway’s “This Christmas” (with lyrics by Whispers labelmate Carrie Lucas).
The 80s brought a string of monster soul chart success for the Whispers, with additional hits “It’s A Love Thing,” “Keep On Lovin Me” and “Tonight,” though crossover success was more limited. The group appeared to lose steam in the second half of the decade, but a hot dance tune written by then-unknown Deele member Babyface brought the Whispers back, as the excellent “Rock Steady” shot to the top of Pop, Soul and Dance charts. The group left Solar for Capitol in 1990 and continued to record soul hits through the mid-90s, garnering success with “Innocent,” “My Heart Your Heart” and “Is It Good To You.” Sadly, they lost group member Marcus Hutson in 2000.
After leaving Capitol, the group recorded a solid, but underappreciated 1997 album of Babyface covers. Songbook Vol. 1: The Songs of Babyface, for Interscope Records. It was nearly a decade before the issuance of their next album, the self-released For Your Ears Only, a surprise hit that topped the CDBaby independent CD charts for several weeks. In 2009, the Whispers issued their first Gospel album, Thankful, collaborating with Unified Tribe’s Magic Mendez as well as Fred Hammond, among others. The first song, “For Thou Art With Me,” hit radio in Summer 2009. The disc was a moderate hit, and the group followed later with a live album.
The Whispers continue to perform both alone and in multi-artist shows around the world, and fifty years after joining together they remained a model for consistency and unity in song. Caldwell’s death adds a sad chapter to an amazing group story.
Nicholas Caldwell was truly an incredible man, a dear friend and a one-of-a-kind artist. He will be terribly missed.
Take a look down memory lane with the video below:
PAT HARRINGTON, JR., EMMY-WINNING ACTOR WHO PLAYED SCHNEIDER ON ‘ONE DAY AT A TIME’
January 7, 2016, 6:37 P.M.
Pat Harrington Jr. was a salesman pushing 30 when his big break finally came.
And big it was: A chance encounter with comedian Jonathan Winters in a New York bar got him not a tryout, not a bit role, but the most coveted stand-up gig a young comic could hope for: an appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar.
Harrington walked out on that big network stage a complete unknown in 1959 and never held a job outside of performing again.
Though he still looked like a salesman — the Los Angeles Times described him at the time as “belonging to the gray-flannel-suit variety” — Harrington painstakingly built a series of ad-libbing roles on “The Tonight Show” and “The Steve Allen Show” into a six-decade career that included scores of credits for character parts. “That’s extraordinary in Hollywood,” said his agent, Phil Brock.
A decade and a half after his first TV break, Harrington was cast as building superintendent Dwayne F. Schneider on the television sitcom “One Day at a Time.” The role brought him fame and an Emmy and enshrined him in popular memory as the ever-present handyman in T-shirt and vest.
Harrington died in Los Angeles late Wednesday, said his son, Michael Harrington of Los Angeles. He was 86 and suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and complications from a fall.
His television appearances read like a history of the medium: “The Steve Allen Show,” “Make Room for Daddy,” “The Jackie Gleason Show,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “The Partridge Family,” “Love American Style” — all the way up to “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
But it was his performance as Schneider that sealed his image in the public’s mind as the obnoxious super with a heart. “One Day at a Time” was a topical Norman Lear effort that ran for nine seasons beginning in 1975. It struck a national nerve with its touching/comic treatment of a divorced woman and her struggles raising two daughters at a time when single mothers were rare on TV.
Harrington’s Schneider was an exasperating but loving hang-about, constantly in the family’s apartment, perennially with a pack of cigarettes jammed in the sleeve of his T-shirt, the lone male in an all-female home.
The character might have been drawn along more limited comic lines but for the way Harrington played it, said Brock.
“He dug deep … and did his homework,” Brock said. Harrington’s dedication to humanizing Schneider meant that the super’s role deepened as the series progressed, he said.
Schneider steadily gained heart and dimension and became ever more central to the lives of main character Ann Romano (Bonnie Franklin) and her daughters, played by Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips, Brock said. It was typical of Harrington, who “could be funny, but he also brought meaning to his roles,” he said.
The part won Harrington an Emmy in 1984 for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series.
Daniel Patrick Harrington Jr. was born in New York on Aug. 13, 1929, the son of actor Daniel Patrick and Anne Francis Harrington.
His father, known as Pat Harrington Sr., was a well-known vaudevillian and cafe singer. He was determined that his son not endure the hardship of stage life and saw to it that Pat Harrington Jr. got a master’s degree in political philosophy from Fordham University and a straight job as a network time salesman for NBC, Michael Harrington said.
But the young Harrington had inherited his father’s comic bent. Plus, his son said, he’d grown up a “black Irish” kid in the ethnic maelstrom of Hell’s Kitchen, where a penchant for imitation and improvisation came with the territory.
He did an impression of an Italian character in a bar one night in front of Jonathan Winters, who, according to family lore, grabbed Harrington by the lapels and brought him on “The Tonight Show,” his son said.
Later, when he sought acting roles, Pat Harrington took himself back to school, seeking every kind of formal training he could. Stand-up was fun. But “when you’re acting, you gotta know what you’re doing, this is work,” he explained to a Times reporter at the time.
Harrington had four children with his first wife, Marge Harrington. They divorced in 1985, and he married Sally Cleaver, who survives him.
Some of his working years were lean, his son said. But for the most part, Harrington always worked.
It helped that his improv skills never left him, Brock said. Many of his lines in “One Day at a Time” were his own, thought up on the spot.
But collegiality was the other reason Harrington worked so long, Brock said. Though Harrington’s humor had an “Irish bite,” he “was a gentleman’s gentleman.… Actors wanted to be on set with him.”
Michael Harrington called his father a “dyed-in-the-wool liberal Democrat who loved the underdog” and said he’d been struck that the family was receiving many tributes from “guys on the crew.”
Harrington is also survived by sons Patrick Harrington III of Tucson and Terry Harrington of Los Angeles, and by daughter Tresa Harrington of Los Angeles.
Picture taken in the 1950’s shows Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, the twin sister of the last shah of Iran, who was widely regarded as a talented diplomat and headed the Iranian delegation to the UN General Assembly for more than a decade (AFP Photo/)
New York (AFP) – Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, the twin sister of Iran’s last shah, who has died at the age of 96, was a trailblazer for women’s rights who lived an opulent life that was never far from controversy.
Born in Tehran, she was considered a powerful force behind her brother and a sometimes fierce critic of him in private, playing an important role in domestic and international politics.
An official with the office of the shah’s son, her nephew Reza Pahlavi, told AFP in a statement the princess died in Monte Carlo on Thursday, noting that she had long suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
Iranian media confirmed the death, with several outlets posting unflattering accounts of her private life alongside details of official posts she held under her brother’s rule.
The Islamic revolution of 1979 that toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi transformed Iran and meant the princess never returned, a fact she had reflected on in her final days, her nephew said.
“She was thinking about Iran till the very last moments of her life, and she passed away with hopes for her homeland’s liberation,” wrote Reza Pahlavi in a Facebook tribute.
“May her soul find joy and the memory of her kind image last forever,” he said, noting her efforts for women’s rights, social welfare and campaigns for literacy in Iran and abroad.
“With a heart full of affection for her country, she made outstanding efforts,” added Pahlavi, who lives near Washington.
Three-times married, the princess is survived by a son, Prince Shahram, five grandchildren and several great grandchildren.
From exile she supported cultural, literary and artistic heritage projects that aimed to restore what she saw as their near desecration by Iran’s revolutionary rulers.
In the royal era, the princess was regarded as a talented diplomat, leading Iran’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly for more than a decade.
On Saturday, IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, said she headed the country’s human rights committee, was chief of the Women’s Organisation of Iran and its representative to the UN human rights commission.
– Privilege, and tragedy –
The princess basked in her privilege and wealth, often pictured at the gaming tables of European casinos, but experienced family tragedy and survived an assassination attempt.
Shahriar Shafiq, her son from a second marriage was gunned down in front of the princess’s home in Paris in 1979, an assassination blamed on the new regime in Tehran.
Two years earlier, she walked away unhurt after her lady-in-waiting was killed and her driver wounded when gunmen fired on her Rolls-Royce as she left a casino in Cannes.
In “Faces in a Mirror: Memoirs from Exile”, she revealed an unhappy childhood, saying she was overlooked. Instead, she said her sister, Princess Shams, was more cherished by her parents and her brother was coveted, as he was destined for the throne.
In the book, published in 1980, she described herself as a rebel with a quick temper.
Vatan-e-Emrooz, a conservative daily in Iran, noted Saturday that the princess died exactly 80 years to the day after her father, Shah Reza Pahlavi, banned women in Muslim Iran from wearing the veil.
In a sign of the religious and political change, the wearing of at least a headscarf and loose clothing by women to cover their bodies was made mandatory after the revolution.
Princess Ashraf was considered a powerful spokeswoman and ally for her brother, leading to her forever being loathed by Iran’s religious rulers.
“In the Pahlavi era, there was no woman as influential in foreign and domestic policy as Ashraf. She played a major role in the coup,” Fars News Agency reported Saturday, referring to the 1953 overthrow of the country’s democratically elected nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
The agency, affiliated with Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, said the US- and British-orchestrated coup that brought the princess’s brother to power led to Ashraf’s “interference” in international affairs.
“She went on numerous foreign trips on behalf of her brother and negotiated with governments hostile to Iran,” it said.
Stephen Kinzer, author of “All the Shah’s Men”, a book about the revolution, said of the princess: “Ashraf’s tongue-lashings of her brother were legendary, including one in the presence of foreign diplomats where she demanded that he prove he was a man or be revealed to all as a mouse.”
ANDRE COURREGES, FRENCH FASHION DESIGNER WHO REVOLUTIONISED WOMENSWEAR IN THE 1960S WITH HIS ‘SPACE AGE’ OUTFITS
André Courrèges in the 1990s
6:32PM GMT 10 Jan 201
André Courrèges, who has died aged 92, was one of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century; in the mid-1960s he changed the way women dressed, and did so almost overnight.
Courrèges’s “new look” swept the world in 1964 almost as dramatically as had that of Dior in 1947, but, unlike Dior, whose clothes evoked the opulence of a bygone age, Courrèges’s highly distinctive designs owed virtually nothing to tradition, instead they embraced the “Space Age”.
Often credited with inventing the miniskirt (although Mary Quant and John Bates have also been cited as its creator), Courrèges’s other innovations include the graphic A-line shift, the ribbed bodysuit, the short white go-go boot, the skinny-legged hip-hugger, and the trouser suit. He brought Modernism to clothing design and both fashionistas and women on the high street were dazzled by his futuristic vision. He was immediately touted as the designer for “tomorrow”.
André Courrèges was born on March 9 1923 in Pau in France’s Basque country. As a young man he was fascinated by everything to do with art, design and fashion and wished to become a painter, but his parents insisted on a more practical training and so he began his studies as a civil engineer. Bridges, however, could not sustain his interest for long and he switched midstream to architecture and textile design, finding work designing boots, shoes and men’s suits for a local tailor.
André Courrèges at his atelier in Paris
His career was temporarily halted by the war during which he served as a pilot in the French Air Force. He eventually arrived in Paris in 1945. There he worked briefly for a designer named Jeanne Lafaurie, but soon realised he needed to study under one of the great masters of couture. He waited until 1950 for a position to open up with Cristóbal Balenciaga, and remained with the Spanish maestro for 11 years, absorbing all he could about cut, quality and construction. These years taught him to be a serious, committed perfectionist, and he emerged not just a designer but a brilliant tailor.
In 1961 Courrèges opened his own salon at 48 Avenue Kleber, where his assistant was another ex-Balenciaga student, Coqueline Barrière, whom he married six years later. It was she who became responsible for his distinctive fashion shows, where in place of the sedate mannequins of the 1950s catwalk, a dozen bright, buzzing girls popped in and out of the room to the sound of jazz and musique concrète – the perfect complement to his fresh, young look. From his cramped white premises, reverberating with progressive jazz, he sprang into the future, using his “ascetic scissors” to deliver designs that were enchanting yet simple.
In 1963 he first introduced the trouser suit and with it the revolutionary notion that trousers could be worn by women as widely as they were by men. His trousers, however, were not based on men’s, but were stovepipe slim, slit to fit over the foot, and came to the top of the hip bone. Nor were they to be worn with the shirt tucked in. They came with slit-blacked tops that showed a sliver of midriff and a bra-less back.
André Courrèges at his atelier in Paris in the 1960s Photo: AP
For grand occasions he gave them tops in sequins or in sheer organdy appliquéd with his own particular flowers – flat-petalled daisies. He accessorised them with chin-tied baby bonnets, slit-eyed opaque white sunglasses (later adorned with gigantic false eyelashes), short boots and wrist-length white kid gloves.
The miniskirt was introduced because Courrèges wished to put women into what he described as a “total-freedom suit”, a sort of ribbed-knit body stocking. But because not all women have perfect bottoms, and because he wished to introduce an element of fluidity, he topped these suits with a gaberdine hipster miniskirt. His battle cry was “elongate the legs” and over several seasons his skirts became shorter and shorter.
Courrèges had broken the fashion plate. All his clothes were designed for the modern woman’s modern life. They were meant to allow complete ease of movement – to run, sit down, get in and out of cars with comfort.
It was in 1964 that he reigned over the fashion world with his “Space Age” collection, and the following year after his miniskirt collection of 1965 he was copied worldwide. Women’s Wear Daily called him the “Le Corbusier of Paris Couture” and his clothes were embraced by Lee Radziwill, Margaret Trudeau, the Baroness de Rothschild and Princess Ira von Fürstenberg.
He was furious at what he considered plagiarism by others, however, and retired from public life for a period, devoting himself to his couture clients. In future, he decided, no one could profit by stealing his designs because he himself would have ready-to-wear lines available all over the world. While preparing to move from premises that were too small, he showed only a smallish collection to his regular clientele.
Courrèges with models wearing some of his futuristic designs
In 1967, having already bared the leg, arm and midriff, Courrèges began to experiment with transparency, making minidresses and jumpsuits in see-through organza ornamented with judiciously placed vinyl or sequinned flowers and circles. One pair of pants was shown with no top at all, just a pair of “flower power” patches.
His fame and his power in the fashion industry endured throughout the 1960s, but in the 1970s when fashion became floppy and folksy, Courrèges went out of style. He did, however, branch out into perfumes, creating several fragrances, including Eau de Courrèges, Empreinte and Courrèges pour homme.
The fashion house he had set up changed ownership several times and in 1983 Japanese investors moved in with a 65 per cent stake. In 1985 he stopped producing a couture collection altogether. But in the early 1990s, with a 1960s revival in full swing, and renewed backing from a French venture capital company, Courrèges began taking his futuristic fashions forward into the 21st century. His company was eventually sold to Jacques Bungert and Frédéric Torloting, two advertising executives, in 2011. “When the feeling of a brand is respected,” Bungert said, “it can be reborn without losing its integrity.”
One of Courrèges outfits being modelled in 1970 Photo: AFP
A tall, thin, angular man, Courrèges had none of the egomania generally associated with the world in which he moved. On the contrary, he was shy, quiet and diffident, a man who saw himself as an artist rather than a businessman. When his career as a couturier was interrupted he quite happily took up sculpting and painting. “If my subject happens to be a woman, maybe I’d make her a dress,” he once noted. “But sometimes a dress isn’t able to communicate all the emotions that I wish to convey. So I try to express my ideas through other mediums.”
Fit and athletic – in his youth he had been a keen rugby player, mountaineer and pelota enthusiast – he continued to be the epitome of stylish youthfulness, wearing his customary uniform of sugar-pink cord trousers, polo shirt, sweater and trainers well into old age.
Using a powerful radio-telescope array, astronomers have gotten a peek at 100 star systems forming in a vast interstellar cloud. The observations reveal tantalizing clues about their origin.
Infrared-sensitive telescopes are finding dozens of fast-moving runaway stars by searching for the bow shocks they create in interstellar gas and dust.
During winter in the Northern Hemisphere, we face the Milky Way’s anticenter — a little-explored region offering goodies for telescopes both large and small.
All amateur Michael Sidonio wanted was a pretty astro-image of the spiral galaxy NGC 253. What he got instead was credit for discovering a rare dwarf galaxy hovering nearby.
How the extremist right hijacked ‘Star Wars,’ Taylor Swift and the Mizzou student protests to promote racism
Keegan Hankes
January 05, 2016
As online platforms like Twitter and Facebook become increasingly important for the dissemination of breaking news, extremist leaders are recognizing the power of subverting mainstream coverage in the service of their own agendas.
Ammon Bundy, the figure at the center of an extremist antigovernment occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, appeared to make an announcement on Twitter yesterday –– his struggle against the federal government was in the same tradition as Rosa Parks’ civil disobedience.
The Tweet from the fake Ammon Bundy account
Coverage of the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge until then included many articles on the racial double standard between armed whites threatening violence while protesting the government and the peaceful, if confrontational tactics, of racial justice protests like Black Lives Matter.
The tweet about Rosa Parks hit a nerve for observers everywhere. Publications including The Washington Post, USA Today, Mediate, and The New Republic ran stories with headlines like “Oregon ‘militia’ leader says he’s doing the ‘same thing’ as Rosa Parks.” The problem? The Twitter account was a total fake.
Gizmodo was the first to discover another Twitter account, @TheSaintNegro29, that was crowing about the success of their fraud and posting correspondences they had via the account with journalists. That account, with its obviously racist name, was marked with racist images of the major players in the Oregon standoff. Diving deeper into other images the account tweeted, the racist images got worse and worse.
The publications that ran stories on the fake account soon ran corrections. But this was not the first time a extremist troll was successful in hijacking a media moment. And in all likelihood, it won’t be the last.
Subversion
As online platforms like Twitter and Facebook become increasingly important for the dissemination of breaking news, extremist leaders are quickly recognizing the power of subverting mainstream coverage in the service of their own agendas.
So far, this subversion has manifested itself in two major campaign styles: overtly, with memes and images designed to elicit outrage and disrupt messaging, and covertly, through the spread of disinformation, fraudulent eyewitness accounts and fake news reports.
But no matter the method, the racists behind the tactics have one goal: hijacking the media in the service of more “racially awakened” minds.
One of the foremost practitioners of both types of campaign is Andrew Anglin, administrator of The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website that thrives on the type of vicious racism formerly confined to anonymous boards such as 4Chan and 8chan. In recent years, the site has originated racist campaigns targeting both the mainstream media and social justice organizers.
During last fall’s protests calling for the resignation of Tim Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri, over his handling of a series of racist incidents on campus, Anglin was able to generate thousands of retweets and “likes” for false information purportedly coming from the demonstrations.
Using the hashtags #Mizzou and #PrayForMizzou, Anglin manipulated the audience following the situation online to unwittingly spread reports that the University of Missouri police were complicit with the Ku Klux Klan and that crosses were being burned on the university lawn — an effort apparently meant to show that overly sensitive anti-racist protesters will believe anything. When his efforts were discovered, Twitter banned his username. But the damage had been done. Anglin touted his efforts as a major success and called for similar campaigns as soon as possible.
It didn’t take long for copycats to follow suit.
Several weeks after Anglin’s trolling of the Mizzou protests, dozens of White Student Union (WSU) pages began appearing on Facebook. The reaction from students and administrations alike was predictable condemnation and outrage. After one such response from the administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Anglin copied the idea for another one of his own campaigns of organized subversion.
“So, guys. Here’s the plan: Make more of the White Student Union pages on Facebook for various universities. You don’t have to go there. Make one for Dartmouth, Princeton, etc.,” Anglin wrote on his website. “If they won’t let it on Facebook, put it on tumblr or wordpress or whatever. Get it up, then forward the links to local media.”
What followed was massive media coverage — from ABC News, USA Today, The Washington Post and others — all asking if the pages were authentic. Only a handful of the WSUs seemed to be real groups. However, in a matter of a day, Anglin was able to help propel extremist ideas from the neo-Nazi fringe into the mainstream, and it took no time for other white supremacists to take notice.
‘Sock Puppets’ and the Klan
“It doesn’t matter who started them or why, whether it was ‘real’ or a satire, spontaneous or coordinated: A few dozen Facebook pages made the concept of White Student Unions real through manipulated tension and predictable media amplification,” wrote Abigail James on the white nationalist journal Radix. “Worst-case scenario, this particular incident fizzles out and we learn a few new tricks. If we’re sensitive to opportunities and smart about it, it can be done again.”
Radix’s endorsement of tactics popularized by the comparatively lowbrow Daily Stormer is perhaps even more remarkable than the media coverage itself. Radix and its publisher Richard Spencer claim to be the bourgeois thought catalog of the “new right,” and they were suddenly heaping praise and taking cues from neo-Nazi Anglin’s legion of anonymous Internet trolls. (To get a sense of Anglin, consider that his website is named for Der Stürmer, the obscene and gutturally anti-Semitic rag published by Julius Streicher, a Nazi leader who was executed for crimes against humanity after being tried in Nuremberg.)
“You are having a quite remarkable effect. I would say that this recent trolling campaign of yours, I thought, was pretty incredible to get all of that mainstream coverage and all of that absolute hysteria about Ku Klux Klan on the Mizzou [University of Missouri] campus,” Anglin’s Radio Stormer co-host Sven Longshanks said. “Apart from being hilarious, it really did make a point of how easy it was to stir these blacks up.”
Using platforms like Twitter is old hat for the more savvy Internet racists who have long taken advantage of online anonymity to spread racist messages like “#WhiteGenocide” and “The Mantra,” a screed devised by Bob Whitaker, the 2016 presidential candidate for the American Freedom Party (AFP), that reads, in part, “Asia for the Asians, Africa for the Africans, White countries for everybody!”
Seeding false news stories on this scale, however, is new for racists like Anglin.
“I’m just one guy. This could have been done by anybody,” Anglin said. “What I’m saying about the Holocaust, and joking about ‘Gas the Kikes’ is that you’re using the same methods they used to destroy our traditional systems against them. … In many ways, it’s the whole concept behind the Daily Stormer.”
Acknowledging that he has his own “sock puppet” accounts — accounts registered to a fake name — Anglin and his co-host encouraged listeners to strike out on their own and impersonate people of color and women in order to conduct “culture jamming.” Longshanks went as far as to suggest purchasing disposable mobile phones to avoid detection and banishment from social media platforms like Twitter.
Culture jamming is a tactic normally associated with anti-consumerist movements, and typically uses satire and irony to discredit commercial or political messages and claims. In that context, it has sometimes been referred to as “subvertising” or “guerrilla communication.”
‘Holocaust Humor’
“Anglin’s tactics, really a bastardized form of cultural jamming, have many effects. One of them is to discredit the official narrative. Another one is to sow seeds of doubt and to suggest a false equivalency between viewpoints and positions where there truly is a right and a wrong,” Mark Dery, a culture critic who writes about the dark side of the American psyche, told Hatewatch.
“Another tactical move Anglin is attempting is to simply stress the mainstream media. … It’s never been less economically viable to run a really rigorous investigative news operation. If you can just distract reporters and stretch their resources thin, sending them on a wild goose chase for what is effectively a media hoax, in a sense you’ve already won because they’re not covering stories that need to be covered, and they’re squandering resources on something that doesn’t pan out.”
Last month, using more overt tactics, racists from around the globe managed to get the hashtag #BoycottStarWarsVII to trend over a supposed “anti-white” agenda — based on the casting of a female and a black man as the film’s leads — without the help of the mainstream media. Director J.J. Abrams was the primary target for supposedly leading a campaign of “white genocide” through his casting choices. The attack generated enough attention to elicit headlines from news organizations like The Guardian, the Daily Mail, Wired and the Daily Beast.
Another popular series of memes has been built around attaching anti-Semitic quotes, including some from Hitler, to images of Taylor Swift. Although primarily born in noxious environments such as the depths of Reddit, as well as 4chan and 8chan’s /pol/ sections, they can be found with some frequency in the comment threads of mainstream sites.
Anonymity binds most of these campaigns together. With the exception of known leaders on the radical right who often organize and initiate them, these projects rely on the velocity and strength of legions of anonymous users disseminating memes and using hashtags simultaneously. Perceived humor, often of the darkest variety, is what allows them to be perpetuated so effectively. Reactions of outrage by the targeted demographics only add fuel to the fire.
“My inclination is that ‘gas the kikes’ is ridiculous enough that it will immediately be recognized as humor — if dark humor — by any normal person who hears it, and that the media repeating this phrase would desensitize the public to Holocaust humor,” Anglin wrote.
Sowing Doubt
The culture jamming tactics co-opted by Anglin present a Catch-22 for the mainstream media. Writing about their campaigns generates precisely the publicity and desensitization that bad actors with nothing to lose, like Anglin, are after. His hypothesis is that regular viewers exposed to a tide of seemingly hyperbolic images will eventually begin to laugh, even if reluctantly, creating a new status quo for what passes as acceptable content across the mainstream Internet and ostensibly redefining the rules of the debate.
“They’re actually doing what the conservative-, mainstream-, corporate- or ideologue-funded right, that is to say the GOP and its fellow travellers, have been doing for decades, which is simply sowing the seeds of doubt in the media narrative,” Dery explained. “In other words, you don’t have to win the climate change debate, you don’t have to win the fracking debate, you don’t have to win the debate on rape in the military, if you just create the illusion that there’s another side to this.”
As Angelo John Gage, the former congressional candidate for AFP, pointed out during the #BoycottStarWarsVII campaign, “no one cares about a black dude having the lead in #BoycottStarWarsVII, the whole point was to seed the meme #whitegenocide & it worked lol.”
Indeed, Anglin, Gage and their legions of followers are simply making a scene to force an audience, wittingly or not, to consider an extreme political position. Given the anonymity of those exposed to their handiwork, it’s difficult to measure their efficacy outside of the headlines they have managed to generate.
But Dery has doubts about the prowess of ringleaders like Gage and Anglin.
“I wouldn’t exalt [Anglin’s] perspicacity and penetration of these issues too much. He isn’t framing it consciously in terms of its effects. He’s loaded his blunderbuss up with every bent nail and twisted screw in his drawer and is kind of firing away at the broadside of the barn culturally, but there’s no nuance to the analysis.”
Anglin did not respond to an E-mail from the Intelligence Report requesting comment.
The existence of these campaigns, nuanced or otherwise, as well as the energy expended by the perpetrators, serves as one more example of the Internet as the new battleground for organized racism. Whether covertly derailing social justice campaigns or attacking perceived hypocrisy in the mainstream through overt memes, the battle for hearts and minds is being fought online.
What used to exclusively dwell in the darkest corners of the web has now crept into the mainstream. Understanding the tactics being deployed is essential in countering these racist campaigns, and a trained eye is the only feasible way to flush these subversions out of the mainstream and back to the swamps in which they bred.
Janice Dias/for PhillyVoice 
Caldwell often considered himself a changed man for his development as a husband and a man of faith over the past two decades. He recounted his wilder younger days in an episode of TV One’s Unsung, and, with his wife beside him, talked of his conversion into a man who could be admired as much for how he lived his life as for his music.
Ann
BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS 