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Thursday, 26 January 2012 |
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Some 33 long-finned pilot whales that were refloated Wednesday off a
New Zealand beach with the help of volunteers became stranded again
Thursday and will have to be euthanized, officials told TVNZ. “Unfortunately
the stranded whales are now also further along the Spit and on the
extreme boundary of our ability to reach them for another rescue
attempt,” Kimberly Muncaster, CEO of the marine-mammal rescue group
Project Jonah, told the TV station. "The Department of Conservation has decided they will have to be put down." John Mason, a Department of Conservation official, said the whales were physically deteriorating and in distress. The whales were part of a larger pod of 99 whales that beached on Monday at Farewell Spit in Golden Bay on the South Island. Volunteers have refloated surviving whales twice only to have them restrand. Each time, more whales died. A total of 82 whales will now have died since the stranding on Monday, according to TVNZ. Pilot
whales grow to about 20 feet, and large strandings are common during
the New Zealand summer. Experts describe Farewell Spit as a whale trap
due to the way its shallow waters seem to confuse whales and diminish
their ability to navigate. Source: msn.com
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Wednesday, 25 January 2012 |
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Oscar wants to take you back in time.The nominees for the 84th
annual Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning, and if there's a
theme, it's how many nominations hearken back to previous eras in film
history. Among the best picture nominees alone, there's a silent film
("The Artist"), an Old Hollywood throwback ("War Horse"), a film that
pays tribute to film's early days ("Hugo") and even that most
distinctive of comedy types, a Woody Allen film ("Midnight in Paris").If
either "Hugo" or "The Artist" -- two films-about-films -- wins, it
would be a groundbreaker, says longtime Oscar watcher Tom O'Neil of
GoldDerby.com."No film about Hollywood has ever won best
picture," he says, observing that classics such as "A Star is Born" and
"Sunset Boulevard" couldn't pull off the trick. ("Sunset Boulevard," in
fact, lost to a film about Broadway -- "All About Eve.")"Hugo,"
the story of a young boy and his adventures among clocks, trains and
interesting people, led all nominees with 11 nods. "The Artist," a
silent film that borrows a plot from "A Star is Born" and images from a
host of movie classics, was second with 10.The sheer number of
nominations makes the pair front-runners for best picture: In the last
20 years, the film with the most nominations has won 15 times, observes
O'Neil.But neither has created much heat with audiences -- or the
Academy, says Los Angeles Times Awards Tracker reporter Nicole
Sperling."Everyone's been waiting for the one film to really
catch them and they can all get behind, and that never seemed to
happen," she says. "You see that reflected in the nominations. It feels
diluted in a sense. Even though 'The Artist' and 'Hugo' are leading the
pack, I don't think anyone would call 'Hugo' a front-runner." Old hands
and snubs The Academy also paid tribute to its own past. Some of the
names behind the best picture nominees -- Allen, "Hugo's" Martin
Scorsese, "War Horse's" Steven Spielberg, "The Tree of Life's" Terrence
Malick -- evoke the 1970s, when Hollywood was energized by the arrival
of a new breed of filmmaker, one raised on genre classics and foreign
films. Except for Malick, who's been nominated only twice before, the
rest have become Academy veterans.Other nominees are also old
hands at the game. George Clooney added a couple more nominations -- one
for acting ("The Descendants") and one for writing ("The Ides of
March") -- to his haul. Meryl Streep ("The Iron Lady") and Allen are
well into double digits for Oscar nominations.On the other hand,
one of the most renowned filmmakers of recent years -- the
music-video-and-TV-commercial bred David Fincher -- was overlooked for
both best picture ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo") and best director.Indeed,
Oscar didn't smile on everyone. Albert Brooks -- another 1970s-era name
-- was widely touted for a supporting actor pick for his performance as
a brutal mobster in "Drive," but came up empty, no doubt providing more
material for his neurotic comedy. Michael Fassbender, who gave two of
the best-reviewed performances of the year in "Shame" and "A Dangerous
Method," was also overlooked, as was Ryan Gosling ("Drive," "The Ides of
March").Steve Kloves, who has adapted all but one of J.K.
Rowling's Harry Potter novels for the screen -- and been widely hailed
for capturing the books' detail and humor -- didn't get a nomination,
either. To date, Kloves' only nomination has been for his adaptation of
Michael Chabon's novel "Wonder Boys."And perhaps most shockingly,
Pixar was shut out of best animated feature for "Cars 2" -- the first
time the famed animation studio has been snubbed in the category."That
sends a powerful message that they need to up their creativity in their
movies," says O'Neil. "They're rubber-stamping their past successes
with things like 'Cars 2,' and they're being punished at the Oscars
today." Audiences felt the same way: Of Pixar's 12 features, "Cars 2" is
11th in total box office, and dead last if the take is adjusted for
inflation.In recent years the Academy hasn't cared about box
office as much, anyway. "The Hurt Locker," which won best picture two
years ago, topped out at $17 million domestically. Of this year's best
picture nominees, only "The Help" was a blockbuster, topping $100
million; "The Artist," despite its reviews and honors, has yet to make
$15 million domestically.The wide net indicates the power of the
"screener," says O'Neil. Once upon a time Academy members had to catch
all the movies in theaters. Now they receive DVDs -- or screeners -- at
their homes and can see a broader range of possibilities."There's
a very noticeable trend," says O'Neil. "Lately they've been paying
attention to these screeners, and the box office doesn't matter. They're
trying to send another statement." Such nominees as Demian Bishir, who
picked up a best actor nomination for "A Better Life," probably owe
their slots to these marketing efforts. The Oscar glow Which is one
reason the Oscars still matter. Audiences at home might ask, "Who is
Demian Bishir?" But to agents, casting directors and promotion execs,
the words "Oscar nominee" can make a difference. There's a reason you
now see Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker") and Christoph Waltz
("Inglorious Basterds") in bigger roles.This year, the talents to
watch include Rooney Mara ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"), Octavia
Spencer ("The Help") and the two stars of "The Artist," Jean Dujardin
and Berenice Bejo.And Melissa McCarthy, who nabbed a best
supporting actress nomination for "Bridesmaids," has certainly gotten a
career boost. The actress already has an Emmy for "Mike and Molly." The
Oscar nomination was a "pleasant surprise," says Sperling.Still,
the major nominees' low box office could hurt the ratings for the
Academy Awards broadcast, scheduled for February 26. Traditionally,
audiences like to have a rooting interest, and it's hard to root for
films that most people haven't seen. In the last five years, the Academy
Awards' best rating came in 2010, when box office champ "Avatar" was up
for best picture. (Host Billy Crystal, always a popular figure, could
help.)Will the nominations boost the box office? If "Hugo" and
"The Artist" can't build on their grosses now, they probably never will,
says Sperling.Her Times TV critic colleague, Mary McNamara,
finds Oscar bait wanting. "Film is suffering from 'who cares syndrome,' "
she said last week. " 'The Artist' -- the seven people who saw it liked
it. Yet the Academy rejects 'Harry Potter.' That should win best
picture, I think."Unless the Boy Who Lived can pull the ultimate wizard's trick, that's not going to happen. Source: cnn.com
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Wednesday, 25 January 2012 |
President delivers State of Union address, pitching 'blueprint' for
economy's future, built on manufacturing, energy, skilled workers and
American values—while all but daring Republicans to get in his way. Obama: 'Mission at hand' is to rebuild American dream...President Obama suggested Tuesday that Americans try to follow the lead of U.S. military forces and get past personal ambition and partisan obsession to "focus on the mission at hand" -- keeping alive the American dream by restoring a U.S. economy.
In his annual State of the Union address, Obama said that the "defining issue of our time" is finding the means to uphold the promise that if people work hard, they will succeed.
"No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules," he said.
But the devil is in the details and Republicans are unlikely to agree to many of the proposals the president laid out. According to excerpts released ahead of time, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who was to deliver the response, is to say that the president's rigid adherence to ideology was suffocating innovation.
"The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy," Daniels will say.
"We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon to haves," Daniels will say.
Saying that the country can get its mojo back, the president said the "house of cards" collapsed in 2008 as a result of mortgages being sold to people "who couldn't afford or understand them," banks that bet using other people's money and profited either way and regulators who looked the other way or didn't have the authority to stop the bad behavior.
Since then, he said, American manufacturers are hiring again and new rules have been put in place to hold Wall Street accountable.
"The state of our union is getting stronger, and we've come to far to turn back now" Obama said.
In a speech heavy in focus on manufacturing, job training and tax reform, the president said a new American economy must be "built to last" through government and financial systems that play by the rules and give everyone a fair shot. Borrowing the slogan from General Motors, the president called for restoring the economy and ending favoritism.
"What's at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them," he said.
Offering an array of suggestions for getting businesses to start hiring in the U.S. again, the president suggested incentivizing insourcing by doubling tax deductions for high-tech manufacturers that make products in the U.S., and extra help with financing for relocating in hard-hit communities.
"Ask yourselves what you can do to bring back jobs to your country and your country will do everything it can to help you succeed," he said.
The president added that companies that outsource jobs should not get a tax break while every "multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax."
"And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here," he said.
The president challenged lawmakers to pass several proposals that are unlikely to get any pick-up this election year. Obama called for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration laws, make college education cheaper and "double-down" on clean energy.
Recognizing that that differences in Congress are too deep to pass climate change legislation, Obama said he is directing the development of clean energy on public land and announced that the Navy will purchase enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes each year..
He called on Congress to fund "great projects" using half the money "we're no longer spending at war" and use the other half to pay down the debt. He also called for raising taxes on millionaires, saying anyone who makes more than $1 million a year should not pay less than 30 percent in federal taxes and should get no special subsidies or deductions.
"Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else ... Because if we're serious about paying down our debt, we can't do both," he said.
Though he requested Congress grant him authority to take several action, the president, who rehearsed his presentation with a weekend video to supporters that was prepared by his re-election team, acknowledged that the cynicism for action is great.
He said while he's willing to cooperate with Congress, he will not let Republicans hold up his plans.
"I intend to fight obstruction with action," he said. "With or without this Congress, I will keep taking actions that help the economy grow. But I can do a whole lot more with your help."
Source: foxnews.com
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Tuesday, 24 January 2012 |
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Spike Lee doesn't hold back. The Oscar-nominated man behind "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X"
went off on Hollywood after Chris Rock asked a question following the
Sundance screening for Lee's new film, "Red Hook Summer."
According to Entertainment Weekly, the film was screened for a large audience, some of whom left after the film took a controversial twist. That didn't seem to faze Lee. However, when Chris Rock asked Lee about financing the film, the director went off on a bit of a tirade.
2012 Sundance Film Festival Portraits
Rock, who appeared to be joking around, said, "You spent your own
money ... What would you have done differently if you'd actually gotten
studio money? What else would have happened? Would you have blown up
some (bleep)?"
Lee, apparently unamused, responded, "We never went to the studios
with this film. I bought a camera and said we're gonna do this
mother(bleeping) film ourselves. I didn't need a mother(bleeping) studio
telling me something about Red Hook! They know nothing about black
people! Nothing!" Lee then added, "And they're gonna give me notes about
what a 13-year-old black boy and girl do in Red Hook? (Bleep) no!" Yahoo! Movies: Sundance Film Festival 12
Lee later apologized for his outburst. "Sorry for that
mother(bleeping) tirade," he said. "My wife is looking at me like I'm
crazy."
"Red Hook," which stars Clarke Peters of "The Wire" and "Treme," is
the story of a young boy from Atlanta who spends the summer in Brooklyn
with his grandfather, whom he has never met. Lee makes an appearance as "Mookie," his character from "Do the Right Thing." However, Lee was quite clear when he told audiences that "Red Hook Summer" is not a "mother(bleeping) sequel" to "Do the Right Thing."
Got that, everybody? Not. A. Sequel. Source: yahoo.com
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Monday, 23 January 2012 |
Sunday night:Nothing should surprise us in the world of
Hollywood romance, but this one does. Supermodel Heidi Klum and singer
Seal have renewed their wedding vows every year and his Secret video was an intimate showcase of the two of them naked together. But they've "grown apart," they say. The star couple issued a statement to People.com, confirming that they are splitting after almost seven years of marriage. "We
have had the deepest respect for one another throughout our
relationship and continue to love each other very much, but we have
grown apart," they say. "This is an amicable process and protecting the
well-being of our children remains our top priority, especially during
this time of transition." The supermodel and the singer are parents to Leni, 7, Henry, 6, Johan, 5, and Lou, 2. UPDATE, Sunday: A source tells People that Klum and Seal have been through a rough patch but "have no plans to announce a split right now. They're not divorcing." ORIGINAL POST, Saturday: Another celebrity couple may be on the brink of splitting up, according to TMZ.
The gossip site is reporting that Heidi Klum will file for a divorce
from Seal, her husband since 2005, possibly as early as this coming
week. "Sources with direct knowledge" say that Klum will cite
irreconcilable differences. The model/TV host and the singer have
had three children together, and Seal also adopted Klum's daughter from a
previous relationship. Source: usatoday.com
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Sunday, 22 January 2012 |
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Joe Paterno, the iconic former Penn State football coach whose legend
was tarnished when he was fired in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky
scandal, has died, his family confirmed Sunday. He was 85.

JOE PATERNO: 1926-2012
Doctors had said Saturday that Paterno's condition had become
''serious'' in recent days after he experienced complications from lung
cancer.
"His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled," the
Paterno family said in a statement Sunday. "He died as he lived. He
fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and
constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been.
"His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave
this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family,
his university, his players and his community.
"He has been many things in his life — a soldier, scholar, mentor,
coach, friend and father. To my mother, he was and is her soul mate, and
the last several weeks have shown the strength of their love. To his
children and grandchildren he is a shining example of how to live a
good, decent and honest life, a standard to which we aspire."
The winningest major-college football coach of all time with 409
victories and two national titles, Paterno was diagnosed shortly after
Penn State's Board of Trustees ousted him Nov. 9 following the child
sex-abuse charges against Sandusky, his former assistant.
The firing marked the stunning end of Paterno's 61-year career at Penn State — 46 of them as head coach.
Critics charged that Paterno, when told years ago of the Sandusky allegations, did not take appropriate action.
Paterno had been getting treatment since his cancer diagnosis. His health problems were worsened when he broke his pelvis.
On Saturday, the Washington Post, quoting individuals close to the
family, reported on its website that the family had been weighing
whether to take Paterno off a ventilator on Sunday.
As word spread Saturday of Paterno's condition, some 200 Penn State
students and townspeople gathered at a statue of Paterno just outside a
gate at Beaver Stadium. Some brought candles, while others held up their
smart phones to take photos of the scene. The mood was somber, with no
chanting or shouting.
''Drove by students at the Joe statue,'' Jay Paterno tweeted. ''Just
told my Dad about all the love & support — inspiring him.''
Penn State student David Marselles held a candle in his right hand and
posed next to a life-sized cardboard cutout of Paterno that he keeps at
his apartment. A friend took a photo on the frigid night.
"I came to Penn State because of Joe Paterno. Since I was a little kid,
I've been watching the games . . . screaming 'We Are ... Penn State'
because of him. . . . He inspired me to go to college," Marselles said.
"With such a tragic event like this, I just thought it was necessary to
show my support."
The pelvis injury forced the Hall of Famer to spend most of his last
season coaching from the press box — until trustees dismissed him.
The final days of Paterno's Penn State career were easily his toughest.
Sandusky, a longtime defensive coordinator who was on Paterno's staff
during two national title seasons, was arrested Nov. 5 and ultimately
charged with sexually abusing a total of 10 boys over 15 years. His
arrest sparked outrage not just locally but across the nation, and there
were widespread calls for Paterno to quit.
Paterno announced late on Nov. 9 that he would retire at the end of the
season, but hours later he received a call from board vice chairman
John Surma, telling him he had been terminated.
By that point, a crowd of students and media were outside the Paterno
home. When news spread that Paterno had been dumped, there was rioting
in State College.
Police on Saturday evening barricaded the block where Paterno lives,
and a police car was stationed about 50 yards from his home. Several
people had gathered in the living room of the house. No one was outside,
other than reporters and photographers.
Trustees said this week they pushed Paterno out in part because he
failed a moral responsibility to report an allegation made in 2002
against Sandusky to authorities outside the university. They also felt
he had challenged their authority and that, as a practical matter, with
all the media in town and attention to the Sandusky case, he could no
longer run the team.
Paterno testified before the grand jury investigating Sandusky that he
had relayed to his bosses an accusation that came from graduate
assistant Mike McQueary, who said he saw Sandusky abusing a boy in the
showers of the Penn State football building.
Paterno told the Post that he didn't know how to handle the charge, but
a day after McQueary visited him, he spoke to the athletic director and
the administrator with oversight over the campus police.
Wick Sollers, Paterno's lawyer, called the board's comments this week
self-serving and unsupported by the facts. Paterno fully reported what
he knew to the people responsible for campus investigations, Sollers
said.
"He did what he thought was right with the information he had at the time," Sollers said.
Sandusky says he is innocent and is out on bail, awaiting trial.
The back and forth between Paterno's representative and the board
reflects a trend in recent weeks, during which Penn State alumni — and
especially former players, including Hall of Fame running back Franco
Harris — have questioned the trustees' actions and accused them of
failing to give Paterno a chance to defend himself.
Three town halls, in Pittsburgh, suburban Philadelphia and New York
City, seemed to do little to calm the situation and dozens of candidates
have now expressed interest in running for the board, a volunteer
position that typically attracts much less interest.
While everyone involved has said the focus should be on Sandusky's
accusers and their ordeals, the abuse scandal brought a tarnished ending
to Paterno's sterling career.
Paterno won 409 games and took the Nittany Lions to 37 bowl games and
two national championships, the last in the 1986 season. More than 250
of the players he coached went on to the NFL.
Penn State coverage from Scout.com
Throughout his coaching years, Paterno maintained that, yes, winning
was important, but even more important was winning with honor.
"When he decided to forego a career in law and make coaching his
vocation," the family statement said, "his father Angelo had but one
command: Make an impact.
"As the last 61 years have shown, Joe made an incredible impact. That
impact has been felt and appreciated by our family in the form of
thousands of letters and well wishes along with countless acts of
kindness from people whose lives he touched. It is evident also in the
thousands of successful student athletes who have gone on to multiply
that impact as they spread out across the country.
"And so he leaves us with a peaceful mind, comforted by his "living
legacy" of five kids, 17 grandchildren, and hundreds of young men whose
lives he changed in more ways than can begin to be counted."
In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests that donations be made
to the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania or the Penn State-THON, The
Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.
Source: ap/Newscore contributed to this report
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Friday, 20 January 2012 |
Etta James' performance of the
enduring classic "At Last" was the embodiment of refined soul:
Angelic-sounding strings harkened the arrival of her passionate yet
measured vocals as she sang tenderly about a love finally realized after
a long and patient wait.In real life, little about James was as
genteel as that song. The platinum blonde's first hit was a saucy
R&B number about sex, and she was known as a hell-raiser who had
tempestuous relationships with her family, her men and the music
industry. Then she spent years battling a drug addiction that she admitted sapped away at her great talents. The
73-year-old died on Friday at Riverside Community Hospital from
complications of leukemia, with her husband and sons at her side, her
manager, Lupe De Leon said.
"It's a tremendous loss for her fans around the world," he said.
"She'll be missed. A great American singer. Her music defied category." James'
spirit could not be contained - perhaps that's what made her so
magnetic in music; it is surely what made her so dynamic as one of
R&B, blues and rock 'n' roll's underrated legends. "The bad
girls ... had the look that I liked," she wrote in her 1995
autobiography, "Rage to Survive." ''I wanted to be rare, I wanted to be
noticed, I wanted to be exotic as a Cotton Club chorus girl, and I
wanted to be obvious as the most flamboyant hooker on the street. I just
wanted to be." "Etta James was a pioneer. Her ever-changing sound
has influenced rock and roll, rhythm and blues, pop, soul and jazz
artists, marking her place as one of the most important female artists
of our time," said Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame President and CEO Terry Stewart. "From Janis Joplin to Joss
Stone, an incredible number of performers owe their debts to her. There
is no mistaking the voice of Etta James, and it will live forever." Despite
the reputation she cultivated, she would always be remembered best for
"At Last." The jazz-inflected rendition wasn't the original, but it
would become the most famous and the song that would define her as a
legendary singer. Over the decades, brides used it as their song down
the aisle and car companies to hawk their wares, and it filtered from
one generation to the next through its inclusion in movies like "American Pie." Perhaps most famously, President Obama and the first lady danced to a version at his inauguration ball. The tender, sweet song belied the turmoil in her personal life. James - born Jamesetta Hawkins - was born in Los Angeles
to a mother whom she described as a scam artist, a substance abuser and
a fleeting presence during her youth. She never knew her father,
although she was told and had believed, that he was the famous billiards
player Minnesota Fats. He neither confirmed nor denied it: when they
met, he simply told her: "I don't remember everything. I wish I did, but
I don't." She was raised by Lula and Jesse Rogers, who owned the
rooming house where her mother once lived in. The pair brought up James
in the Christian faith,
and as a young girl, her voice stood out in the church choir. James
landed the solos in the choir and became so well known, she said that
Hollywood stars would come to see her perform. But she wouldn't
stay a gospel singer for long. Rhythm and blues lured her away from the
church, and she found herself drawn to the grittiness of the music. "My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy," she recalled in her book. She
was doing just that when bandleader Johnny Otis found her singing on
San Francisco street corners with some girlfriends in the early 1950s.
Otis, a legend in his own right, died on Tuesday. "At the time,
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters had a hit with 'Work With Me, Annie,'
and we decided to do an answer. We didn't think we would get in show business, we were just running around making up answers to songs," James told The Associated Press in 1987. And so they replied with the song, "Roll With Me, Henry." When Otis heard it, he told James to get her mother's permission to accompany him to Los Angeles to make a recording. Instead, the 15-year-old singer forged her mother's name on a note claiming she was 18. "At
that time, you weren't allowed to say 'roll' because it was considered
vulgar. So when Georgia Gibbs did her version, she renamed it 'Dance
With Me, Henry' and it went to No. 1 on the pop charts,"
the singer recalled. The Gibbs song was one of several in the early
rock era when white singers got hits by covering songs by black artists,
often with sanitized lyrics. After her 1955 debut, James toured
with Otis' revue, sometimes earning only $10 a night. In 1959, she
signed with Chicago's legendary Chess label, began cranking out the hits
and going on tours with performers such as Bobby Vinton, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers. "We would travel on four buses to all the big auditoriums. And we had a lot of fun," she recalled in 1987. James
recorded a string of hits in the late 1950s and '60s including "Trust
In Me," ''Something's Got a Hold On Me," ''Sunday Kind of Love," ''All I
Could Do Was Cry," and of course, "At Last." "(Chess Records founder) Leonard Chess
was the most aware of anyone. He went up and down the halls of Chess
announcing, 'Etta's crossed over! Etta's crossed over!' I still didn't
know exactly what that meant, except that maybe more white people were
listening to me. The Chess brothers kept saying how I was their first
soul singer, that I was taking their label out of the old Delta blues,
out of rock and into the modern era. Soul was the new direction," she
wrote in her autobiography. "But in my mind, I was singing old style,
not new." In 1967, she cut one of the most highly regarded soul
albums of all time, "Tell Mama," an earthy fusion of rock and gospel
music featuring blistering horn arrangements, funky rhythms and a
churchy chorus. A song from the album, "Security," was a top 40 single
in 1968. Her professional success, however, was balanced against personal demons, namely a drug addiction. "I was trying to be cool," she told the AP in 1995, explaining what had led her to try heroin. "I hung out in Harlem and saw Miles Davis and all the jazz cats," she continued. "At one time, my heavy role models were all druggies. Billie Holiday
sang so groovy. Is that because she's on drugs? It was in my mind as a
young person. I probably thought I was a young Billie Holiday, doing
whatever came with that." She was addicted to the drug for years,
beginning in 1960, and it led to a harrowing existence that included
time behind bars. It sapped her singing abilities and her money,
eventually, almost destroying her career. It would take her at least two decades to beat her drug problem.
Her husband, Artis Mills, even went to prison for years, taking full
responsibility for drugs during an arrest even though James was
culpable. "My management was suffering. My career was in the
toilet. People tried to help, but I was hell-bent on getting high," she
wrote of her drug habit in 1980. She finally quit the habit and
managed herself for a while, calling up small clubs and asking them,
"Have you ever heard of Etta James?" in order to get gigs. Eventually,
she got regular bookings - even drawing Elizabeth Taylor as an audience member. In 1984, she was tapped to sing the national anthem at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles,
and her career got the resurgent boost it needed, though she fought
addiction again when she got hooked on painkillers in the late 1980s. Drug addiction
wasn't her only problem. She struggled with her weight, and often
performed from a wheelchair as she got older and heavier. In the early
2000s, she had weight-loss surgery and shed some 200 pounds. James
performed well into her senior years, and it was "At Last" that kept
bringing her the biggest ovations. The song was a perennial that never
aged, and on Jan. 20, 2009, as crowds celebrated that - at last - an
African-American had become president of the United States, the song
played as the first couple danced. But it was superstar Beyonce
who serenaded the Obamas, not the legendary singer. Beyonce had
portrayed James in "Cadillac Records," a big-screen retelling of Chess
Records' heyday, and had started to claim "At Last" as her own. An
audio clip surfaced of James at a concert shortly after the
inauguration, saying she couldn't stand the younger singer and that
Beyonce had "no business singing my song." But she told the New York Daily News later that she was joking, even though she had been hurt that she did not get the chance to participate in the inauguration. Upon
hearing of her death, Beyonce released a statement on her website that
read: "This is a huge loss. Etta James was one of the greatest vocalists
of our time. I am so fortunate to have met such a queen. Her musical
contributions will last a lifetime. Playing Etta James taught me so much
about myself, and singing her music inspired me to be a stronger
artist. When she effortlessly opened her mouth, you could hear her pain
and triumph. Her deeply emotional way of delivering a song told her
story with no filter. She was fearless, and had guts. She will be
missed." James did get her accolades over the years. She was
inducted into the Rock Hall in 1993, captured a Grammy in 2003 for best
contemporary blues album for "Let's Roll," one in 2004 for best
traditional blues album for "Blues to the Bone" and one for best jazz
vocal performance for 1994's "Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday."
She was also awarded a special Grammy in 2003 for lifetime achievement
and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her health went into decline, however, and by 2011, she was being cared for at home by a personal doctor. She
suffered from dementia, kidney problems and leukemia. Her husband and
her two sons fought over control of her $1 million estate, though a deal
was later struck keeping Mills as the conservator and capping the
singer's expenses at $350,000. In December 2011, her physician announced
that her leukemia was terminal, and asked for prayers for the singer. In
October 2011, it was announced that James was retiring from recording,
and a final studio recording, "The Dreamer," was released, featuring the
singer taking on classic songs, from Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Dreamer" to
Guns N' Roses "Welcome To the Jungle" - still rocking, and a fitting end
to her storied career.
Source: ap/hunter007
Read
more here:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/20/4202548/legendary-blues-singer-etta-james.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=cpy
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Friday, 20 January 2012 |
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Sarah Burke was an X Games star with a grass-roots mentality — a
daredevil superpipe skier who understood the risks inherent to her sport
and the debt she owed to it.
The pioneering freestyler, who helped get superpipe accepted into the
Olympics, died Thursday, nine days after crashing at a training run in
Park City, Utah.
Burke, who lived near Whistler in British Columbia, was 29.
Tests revealed she sustained "irreversible damage to her brain due to
lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest," according to a statement
released by Burke's publicist, Nicole Wool, on behalf of the family.
A four-time Winter X Games champion, Burke crashed on the same halfpipe
where snowboarder Kevin Pearce sustained a traumatic brain injury
during a training accident on Dec. 31, 2009.
Wool said Burke's organs and tissues were donated, as she had wanted.
"The family expresses their heartfelt gratitude for the international
outpouring of support they have received from all the people Sarah
touched," the statement said.
Burke will be remembered as much for the hardware she collected as the
legacy she left for women in superpipe skiing, a sister sport to the
more popular snowboarding brand that has turned Shaun White, Hannah
Teter and others into stars.
Aware of the big role the Olympics played in pushing the Whites of the
world from the fringes into the mainstream, Burke lobbied to add
superpipe skiing to the Winter Games program, noting that no new
infrastructure would be needed.
Her arguments won over Olympic officials and the discipline will debut
at the Sochi Games in 2014. Burke likely would have been a favorite for
the gold medal at her sport's Olympic debut.
"Sarah, in many ways, defines the sport," Peter Judge, the CEO of
Canada's freestyle team, said before her death. "She's been involved
since the very, very early days as one of the first people to bring skis
into the pipe. She's also been very dedicated in trying to define her
sport but not define herself by winning. For her, it's been about making
herself the best she can be rather than comparing herself to other
people."
She was, Judge said, as committed to the grass roots of the sport —
giving clinics to youngsters and working with up-and-coming competitors —
as performing at the top levels.
"She was a great, positive person for the whole team, the whole sport,"
said David Mirota, the Canadian team's high-performance director. "She
enlightens the room, and she's great."
Burke's death is also sure to re-ignite the debate over safety on the halfpipe.
Pearce's injury — he has since recovered and is back to riding on snow —
was a jarring reminder of the dangers posed to these athletes who often
market themselves as devil-may-care thrillseekers but know they make
their living in a far more serious, and dangerous, profession.
The sport's leaders defend the record, saying mandatory helmets and air
bags used on the sides of pipes during practice and better
pipe-building technology has made this a safer sport, even though the
walls of the pipes have risen significantly over the past decade. They
now stand at 22 feet high.
Some of the movement to the halfpipe decades ago came because racing
down the mountain, the way they do in snowboardcross and skicross, was
considered even more dangerous — the conditions more unpredictable and
the athletes less concerned with each other's safety.
But there are few consistent, hard-and-fast guidelines when it comes to
limiting the difficulty of the tricks in the halfpipe, and as the money
and fame available in the sport grew, so did the tricks. In 2010,
snowboarding pioneer Jake Burton told The Associated Press that much of
this was self-policed by athletes who knew where to draw the line.
"If the sport got to the point where halfpipe riding became really
dangerous, I think riders would do something about it," Burton said. "It
wouldn't be cool anymore."
His opinion is shared by many.
"There are inherent risks in everything," Judge said. "Certainly,
freestyle skiing has one of the greatest safety records of almost any
sport. Freestyle is a very safe sport in large part because we had to
build a safe sport in order to get into the Olympics."
In 2009, Burke broke a vertebra in her back after landing awkwardly
while competing in slopestyle at the X Games. It was her lobbying that
helped get the X Games to include women's slopestyle — where riders
shoot down the mountain and over "features" including bumps and rails.
It wasn't her best event, but she felt compelled to compete because she
pushed for it. She came to terms with her injury quickly.
"I've been doing this for a long time, 11 years," she said in a 2010
interview. "I've been very lucky with the injuries I've had. It's part
of the game. Everybody gets hurt. Looking back on it, I'd probably do
the exact same thing again."
She returned a year after that injury and kept going at the highest
level, trying the toughest tricks and winning the biggest prizes.
A native of Midland, Ontario, Burke won the ESPY in 2007 as female action sports athlete of the year.
In 2010, she married another freestyle skier, Rory Bushfield, and they
were headliners in a documentary film project on the Ski Channel called
"Winter."
In her interview with AP two years ago, Burke reflected on the niche she'd carved out in the action-sports world.
"I think we're all doing this, first off, because we love it and want
to be the best," she said. "But I also think it would've been a great
opportunity, huge for myself and for skiing and for everyone, if we
could've gotten into the (Vancouver) Olympics. It's sad. I mean, I'm
super lucky to be where I am, but that would've been pretty awesome."
A little more than a year later, with Burke's prodding, her sport was voted in for 2014. Source: ap
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Friday, 20 January 2012 |
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The state's high court will attempt to clarify marijuana's hazy legal status in California. The California Supreme Court on Wednesday voted unanimously to review how cities and counties regulate marijuana dispensaries. The
court will address whether local governments can bar the pot shops
despite voter passage of Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana use with a doctor's recommendation.
The court also will consider the continued conflict between state
and federal authorities, who don't recognize Proposition 215. Under
federal law, marijuana is illegal in all forms. An appellate court
last year struck down Long Beach's attempt to license pot stores,
ruling that the local ordinance conflicted with federal law. Another
appellate court upheld Riverside's right to close and prohibit
dispensaries. The Supreme Court has not yet scheduled oral arguments for the cases.
Source: ap
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/19/4200625/california-high-court-to-consider.html#storylink=cpy
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