Author: Ohart

Things are weird, as usual, in Key West.

A pair of Vikings push a stroller full of stuffed chimps down Duval Street. A man with a ponytail swallows a steel sword. People dressed only in body paint and glitter wander and jiggle from bar to bar.

Fantasy Fest, one of Key West’s major tourist draws of the year, is in full swing. And that’s a relief for Florida Keys business owners trying to weather the economic storm that hit after Hurricane Irma battered the middle stretch of the tourism-dependent island chain.

Bucket list trip

The festivities have not disappointed Gary Gates from Buffalo, New York, who planned this “bucket list” trip 10 months ago with six friends.

“We were coming whether there was a hurricane or not,” the former NFL cameraman said. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this. To come down here and actually see people dressed in all kinds of costumes — or no costumes at all — was something that I needed to see.”

Gates flew into Key West and has not left during its annual 10-day festival of costume parties and parades, so he has not seen the devastation that lingers more than a month since Hurricane Irma made landfall Sept. 10 about 20 miles north of the city.

​Middle Keys hit hardest

The mostly residential middle stretch of the island chain took the brunt of the hurricane’s 130-mph winds. The area is almost entirely brown, with debris piled alongside the highway and mangroves stripped bare. A stranded boat was christened the SS Irma with spray paint and offered “free” to drivers passing by.

But at opposite ends of the 120-mile-long island chain, tourist attractions in Key Largo and Key West escaped significant damage.

Dolphins Plus Bayside was ready for visitors three days after Irma’s landfall, but business has been down by half compared to last fall, said Mike Borguss, the third generation in his family to run the Key Largo attraction.

Some staff now live with friends or in temporary trailers parked outside their damaged homes, but the dolphins swim up to the water’s edge to check out new people toting cameras, and an adjacent hotel property is open for weddings and other events that had to be canceled elsewhere in the Keys because of Irma, said Art Cooper, Borguss’ cousin and curator at Dolphins Plus Bayside.

“The water’s pretty, the weather’s beautiful and we wish you were here,” Cooper said.

​Tourism down significantly

Scott Saunders, president and CEO of Fury Water Adventures, estimated tourism in Key West has been about a third of what it was at this time last fall, even though the city’s hotels, restaurants, cruise ship operations and beaches quickly reopened after the storm.

“There’s no reason not to be doing everything we did last year,” Saunders said before one of his fleet’s sunset cruises. “We should be having that tourist base down here, but we haven’t had any.”

Jodi Weinhofer, president of the Lodging Association of the Florida Keys and Key West, blames news coverage of Irma, but not the hurricane itself, for the downturn.

“There was over a $100 million worth of negative press,” Weinhofer said.

Tourism big business in Keys

Tourism is a $2.7 billion industry in the Keys, supporting 54 percent of all jobs in the island chain, according to Monroe County’s Tourist Development Council.

Some jobs have been lost to Irma. Last week, Hawks Cay Resort on Duck Key, about 35 miles northeast of Irma’s landfall, let go 260 workers amid ongoing repairs. The Islamorada Resort Company said its four properties in the Middle Keys will be closed for renovations over the next six months.

But up and down the island chain, bars, marinas and mom-and-pop establishments able to reopen have been hiring laid-off workers and keeping people from moving away, Daniel Samess, CEO of the Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce.

About 70 percent of roughly 35 hotels and motels in the Middle Keys are open, though those rooms mostly are filled by displaced residents and state and federal recovery workers. Officials plan to provide alternative housing and open those hotel rooms fully to tourists within the next two months, Samess said.

Final sweeps for debris in some parts of the Keys are scheduled Sunday, which also is the finale for Fantasy Fest. So far, the amount of broken tree branches and remnants of homes and belongings wrecked by Irma could fill over 133 Goodyear Blimps, according to Monroe County officials.

The cleanup will help create a good impression for visitors to Key West long before they arrive in the southernmost city in the continental U.S., said Key West Mayor Craig Cates.

“It’s a scenic cruise in your car coming down, and it’s very important that they get it cleaned up,” he said.
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We’re interacting with the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending October 28, 2017.

It’s a good week in the Top Five: not only do we get a new song, we also greet a new champion.

Number 5: Portugal. The Man “Feel It Still”

It all starts in fifth place, where Portugal. The Man advances a slot with “Feel It Still.” Why the wacky name?

This alternative rock act first came together in Alaska about 16 years ago, then moved to Portland, Oregon and released its debut album in 2006. The band members say they wanted their group name to have a bigger than life feel, but didn’t want to name it after any members. They decided on a country, and Portugal was the first to come to mind.

Number 4: Taylor Swift “Look What You Made Me Do,”

It’s a bounce-back week for Taylor Swift, as her former champ “Look What You Made Me Do” revives a slot in fourth place.

Taylor drops her “Reputation” album on November 10, and she’s giving us more new music and videos. On October 20, Taylor released a promotional single, “Gorgeous,” reportedly about her boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn. On October 26, Taylor gave us the futuristic video for “…Ready For It?”

Number 3: Logic, Alessia Cara and Khalid “1-800-273-8255”

Are you ready for Logic, Alessia Cara, and Khalid? They’re making a run for the gold, as “1-800-273-8255” jumps a slot to number three.

On October 21, Alessia joined many other top stars at a charity concert in Los Angeles. Held at the Hollywood Bowl, the fifth annual We Can Survive event benefited the Young Survival Coalition, which works to educate young women about breast cancer.

She’s no longer our champ, and that’s just the start of Cardi B’s problems.

Number 2: Cardi B “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)”

Cardi B ends her three-week run at the top, as “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” falls to second place.

On October 22, police removed Cardi from the Hilton Hotel in Albany, New York. The hotel had called them due to complaints about noise and the scent of marijuana near her room.

Cardi took to Instagram to say that neither she nor her team smokes, and that she was sick with a cold. Billboard Magazine has reached out to Cardi B’s representatives for comment.

Number 1: Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage “Rockstar”

Post Malone and 21 Savage have both reached the Hot 100 summit for the first time in their respective careers – meet your new number one single, “Rockstar.”

This is one of 12 champion songs to bear the word “rock” in the 59-year history of the Hot 100 chart. Elton John did it first back in 1973 with “Crocodile Rock,” while LMFAO last reached the top in 2011 with “Party Rock Anthem.”

We’ll resume the party next week, so join us if you can.
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As the best-of-seven 2017 World Series shifts from Los Angeles to Houston at one game apiece, diehard fans of the hurricane-devastated city can sense a first-ever baseball championship within their grasp. Houstonians admit that a series victory — if only a momentary distraction — would lift the city’s spirits. Ramon Taylor reports from Minute Maid Park, home of the Astros.
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Automakers from around the world take the stage this weekend at the 45th annual Tokyo Motor Show. Designers will showcase electronic cars with advanced artificial intelligence and at least one concept car with safety features for the world around it. Arash Arabasadi reports.
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Jessica Alba and husband Cash Warren are expecting their first baby boy.

 

The actress and Honest Company founder announced her pregnancy on Instagram in July and revealed on the platform Wednesday that the baby is a boy.

She chatted about her pregnancy later with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show.” Alba told Fallon she’s been trying to resist cravings for ice cream.

 

Alba and Warren have two daughters, Honor and Haven.

 

Alba most recently appeared as a judge alongside fellow actress-turned-entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow on the Apple Music summer series “Planet of the Apps.”

 
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It seems unreal in this 21st century, but an astonishing number of people are bought and sold around the world. The U.S. Department of State estimates between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. Millions more are enslaved within national borders. A grass- roots effort to raise the awareness of the crime of human trafficking is taking place in the Washington area. VOA’s June Soh has more on the arts-based campaign called ArtWorks for Freedom.
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To play a blind woman for her latest film role, Blake Lively took no short cuts into the darkness.

The 30-year-old actress learned to use a walking cane, wore opaque contact lenses off-camera to better understand her character, and learned how to navigate the main set without her vision.

“I wanted to know the experience of filling in the blanks in my head, learning it and then opening my eyes and seeing that, no matter what I had in my head, it was so different than I imagined,” she says.

Lively stars in All I See Is You, a dreamy, beautiful movie about a woman who lost her eyesight as an adolescent in a car accident but regains her vision through surgery in her 20s. She begins a period of self-discovery, which threatens to upend her life and marriage.

“That happens in all relationships, where you’re in an established relationship and then you start to not see things,” says Lively. “This movie speaks to relationships, I think, whether we have the literal blindness or it’s just figurative.”

It’s the brainchild of director and co-writer Marc Forster, whose career includes varied films such as World War Z, Quantum of Solace, Monster’s Ball and The Kite Runner. Inspiration for the new film came in one of the strangest places — the shower.

Forster, who has always admired fine art painters, was searching for a story that could lend itself to being painted onscreen. “I pushed it aside because I said, ‘OK, you’re a filmmaker. You’re not a painter. You’re not a true artist. You’re just a visual storyteller,”‘ he says. But one day in the shower, with soap clouding his eyes, he realized he had a visual template.

All I See Is You is certainly arty, with scenes decorated with a blur of images, bleeding colors and abstract symbols, even giving physical sensations an intense visual representation.

Forster says he was trying to shake the Hollywood cookie-cutter approach and recapture the feel of films from the 1970s, when character studies and open-ended plots ruled. “Movies became more and more close-ended and they also had to tick every box emotionally for an audience,” he says.

Indeed, Forster’s film is hard to categorize — part mystery, part horror, part a woman’s reawakening, part kaleidoscopic journey. He is very happy it cannot be pigeonholed.

“He’s created something that I’ve never seen before with the visuals,” says Lively. “So it was really just about taking a leap of faith with him and trusting him and being excited by that journey. But I think that if you even removed all of those visuals from this movie, it still works and that’s what’s important.”

The film also gave Lively, last seen in a bikini in The Shallows, a meaty and complex role — though a challenging one, too, since it centers on a woman with a disability. She says she was sensitive to making sure it was correct.

“This isn’t representative of any one person’s story. I was trying to take different peoples’ experiences and be as honest as possible,” she says. One person she leaned on to get her performance right was Ryan Knighton, a blind author who taught Lively how the blind walk, move and even argue. (The filmmakers honored him by having Blakely wear his signature red-tinted glasses onscreen.)

Both Lively and Forster realize that the film — featuring a woman learning to be strong and independent — comes at a time when women across the country are talking about their role in male-centered businesses and society.

“I think what’s happened in this past year, since the election, is that women have really stood up for themselves. I think we realized how much further we had to go than we thought we did,” Lively says.

Foster, for his part, hopes the film will remind people to open their eyes, see what’s actually happening and make better choices. 

“We, as humanity, ultimately have to really wake up and become conscious and start seeing things,” he says. “Otherwise, we’re going to go down a path that will be unreturnable.”
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Two-time Emmy Award-winning actor Robert Guillaume, who became one of the most prominent black actors on U.S. television playing the cantankerous title character in the hit 1980s series Benson, died of complications from prostate cancer on Tuesday, his wife said. He was 89.

The gravelly voiced Guillaume, who thrived in Broadway musicals before starring on the TV series Soap and its spinoff Benson, died at his Los Angeles home, his wife Donna Brown Guillaume said in a statement. It is not known how long he had been battling cancer.

Robert Guillaume first played sarcastic and irascible butler Benson DuBois on the over-the-top soap opera parody series Soap, which debuted in 1977 and also starred Katherine Helmond, Richard Mulligan and Billy Crystal.

His work on that show won Guillaume won the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series in 1979.

His character became so popular that the ABC network created Benson for him and that series ran for seven seasons from 1979 to 1986. Guillaume’s character had been a butler on Soap but on Benson he served as a state governor’s director of household affairs, then state budget director, lieutenant governor and candidate for governor.

Guillaume won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series in 1985 for Benson, the last of six times that he was nominated for an Emmy playing the character. He became the first black actor to win that award.

In accepting the Emmy, he joked, “I’d like to thank Bill Cosby for not being here,” referring to the fact that the star of The Cosby Show and the leading contender for the award had earlier taken himself out of the running for it.

Guillaume said he was sensitive about not playing his character as a racial stereotype and was pleased that Benson evolved from being a butler to a political power player — albeit one that retained the same crotchety attitude.

‘Upward mobility’

“In all honesty and candor and modesty, I always wanted the character to have that kind of upward mobility because it mirrored the American dream,” Guillaume told the Washington Post in 1985.

“When I took a role like Benson, which was in that time-honored sense ‘another black person in a servant’s role,’ I only took the part because it was a good part, it was a part in which I thought, with my own set of ideas about things, I could say something. And, indeed, that has been the case. We saw Benson was in no way anyone’s inferior.”

After the end of Benson, he starred in the short-lived sitcom The Robert Guillaume Show in 1989, as well as the series Pacific Station (1991-1992) and Sports Night (1998-2000). He suffered a stroke in 1999 on the set of Sports Night, but was able to return to his role within weeks.

On film, Guillaume provided the voice for the mandrill Rafiki in Disney’s animated 1994 hit The Lion King and appeared with Morgan Freeman in the 1989 drama Lean on Me.

In 1977, he earned a Tony Award nomination for his role in the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls. He also had leading roles on stage in Purlie and Golden Boy.

Born Robert Peter Williams on Nov. 30, 1927, he changed his name to Robert Guillaume to make it more distinctive (Guillaume is French for William). He was raised by his strong-willed grandmother in a St. Louis slum after his alcoholic mother gave up her children and his father abandoned the family.

After a brief military stint, he worked a series of jobs including as a trolley driver to save money for college.

He studied music at Washington University in St. Louis, where he was noticed by a Hungarian opera singer who helped him get a scholarship to the 1957 Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado. That was followed by an apprenticeship at a theater in Cleveland where he made his professional debut.
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The world’s most famous sled dog race has become engulfed in a doping scandal involving a four-time champion’s team of huskies, giving animal rights activists new ammunition in their campaign to end the grueling, 1,000-mile Iditarod.

The governing board of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race disclosed Monday that four dogs belonging to Dallas Seavey tested positive for a banned substance, the opioid painkiller Tramadol, after his second-place finish last March.

It was the first time since the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race instituted drug testing in 1994 that a test came back positive.

Seavey strongly denied administering any banned substances to his dogs, suggesting instead that someone may have sabotaged their food, and race officials said he would not be punished because they were unable to prove he acted intentionally. That means he will keep his titles and his $59,000 in winnings this year.

But the finding was just the latest blow to the Iditarod, which has seen the loss of major sponsors, numerous dog deaths, attacks on competitors and pressure from animal rights activists, who say the huskies are often run to death or left bleeding and desperately ill.

“If a member of the Iditarod’s ‘royalty’ dopes dogs, how many other mushers are turning to opioids in order to force dogs to push through the pain?” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a statement Tuesday.

It added: “This doping scandal is further proof that this race needs to end.”

“The race is all about winning and getting to the finish line despite the inhumane treatment towards the dogs,” said Fern Levitt, director of the documentary Sled Dogs.

Earlier this year, the Anchorage-to-Nome trek lost a major corporate backer, Wells Fargo, and race officials accused animal rights organizations of pressuring the bank and other sponsors with “manipulative information” about the treatment of the dogs.

Five dogs connected to this year’s race died, bringing total deaths to more than 150 in the Iditarod’s 44-year history, according to PETA’s count. And last year, two mushers were attacked by a drunken man on a snowmobile in separate assaults near a remote village. One dog was killed and others were injured. The attacker was given a six-month sentence.

Seavey won the Iditarod in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. He finished second this year to his father, Mitch, and has had nine straight top-10 finishes.

Dogs are subject to random testing before and during the race, and the first 20 teams to cross the finish line in Nome are all automatically tested.

Latest controversy

“I have never given any banned substance to my dogs,” the 30-year-old Seavey said in a video posted on his Facebook page. He said that security is lax along the route and that someone might have tampered with his dogs’ food.

He added that he wouldn’t be “thrown under the bus” by the race’s governing board and that he has withdrawn from the 2018 race in protest.

Seavey said he expects the Iditarod Trail Committee to ban him from the race for speaking out. Mushers are prohibited from criticizing the race or sponsors.

Iditarod spokesman Chas St. George said that decision would be up to the committee’s board of directors.

The committee decided to release the name of the offending musher on Monday after scores of competitors demanded it do so. Race officials initially refused to do so because, they said, it was unlikely they could prove the competitor acted intentionally and because a lawyer advised them not to make the name public.

At the time of this year’s race, the rule essentially said that to punish a musher, race officials had to provide proof of intent. That rule has since been changed to hold mushers liable for any positive drug test unless they can show something happened beyond their control.

Wade Marrs, president of the Iditarod Official Finishers Club, said he doesn’t believe Seavey intentionally administered the drugs to his animals. Marrs said he believes the musher has too much integrity and brains to do such a thing.

“I don’t really know what to think at the moment,” Marrs said. “It’s a very touchy situation.”
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“Sex and the City” star Kim Cattrall says she didn’t have kids in-part because of the demanding production schedule of the long-running HBO series.

 

The 61-year-old actress told Piers Morgan for an interview on Britain’s ITV that she decided against undergoing fertility treatments when she was starring on the show in her early 40s because she questioned how she could keep up with 19-hour days while raising a child.

 

Cattrall also opened up about her relationship with her co-stars on the franchise, telling Morgan she has “never been friends” with Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis or Cynthia Nixon.

 

Cattrall says she turned down the chance to appear in a third “Sex and the City” film and will never play her character Samantha Jones again.

 

 
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The New York attorney general has opened an investigation into sexual harassment and possible violations of civil rights laws at the Weinstein Company, the movie studio co-founded by Harvey Weinstein, and sent the company a subpoena Monday, a source familiar with the investigation said.

The subpoena, which has not been made public, requests information regarding how each complaint related to sexual harassment or other discrimination was handled by the Weinstein Company, the person familiar with the probe said.

It also asks for management’s criteria for hiring, promoting, casting, rejecting or terminating applicants or employees, the person said. The source added that the New York subpoena is part of an investigation into whether executives at the company violated state civil rights or New York City human rights laws.

Harvey Weinstein was fired from the company earlier this month in the wake of media reports that he sexually harassed or assaulted women in incidents dating back to the 1980s.

Weinstein has denied having nonconsensual sex with anyone. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations.

Representatives for the Weinstein Company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In response to a request for comment on the investigation, the attorney general’s office emailed a statement from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that said, “No New Yorker should be forced to walk into a workplace ruled by sexual intimidation, harassment, or fear.

“If sexual harassment or discrimination is pervasive at a company, we want to know.”  

The New York Times reported earlier this month that Weinstein, 65, had reached eight previously undisclosed settlements with women who accused him of sexual harassment and unwanted physical contact. The New Yorker magazine reported that 13 women had claimed that Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them.    

The New York City Police Department has said it is investigating an allegation of sexual assault by Weinstein in 2004.  The Los Angeles Police Department also said earlier this month that it is investigating a 2013 sexual assault allegation against movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
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Looking down from a small, five-seater airplane, Mikah Meyer felt lucky to be getting such a spectacular — and unique — perspective of some of America’s most beautiful and historic land and waterscapes.

Desert beauty

The national parks traveler was flying over and around Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service that stretches for hundreds of kilometers from the southwestern state of Arizona to southern Utah.

 

Mikah described the flight, courtesy of the tour company American Aviation, as “an amazing flyover where we got this bird’s-eye view of everything I was about to experience over the next few days.”

The park borders Navajo Indian territory. After the Cherokee, Navajos are the second-largest federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States, with more than 300,000 enrolled tribal members. And, Mikah noted, “as far as land square mileage goes, the Navajo Nation reservation is the largest.”

The “intimate Grand Canyon”

The area Mikah explored includes many sites that are sacred to the Navajos.

One of them – Horseshoe Bend, on the Colorado River –  is about eight kilometers from Grand Canyon National Park. It is named for the horseshoe-shaped area of the river, which winds around ancient sandstone canyons.

“It’s an incredible image,” Mikah said, where visitors can “stand right on the edge and see the entire horseshoe shape.”

Man-made wonders

Flying over Glen Canyon Dam, Mikah had a great view of both the Colorado River and behind it, Lake Powell, the largest man-made lake in North America.

Then it was on to an almost three-hour boat ride around the lake, where the gleaming water appeared against a backdrop of eroded red rock canyons and mesas as he and his tour group wound their way through the narrow waterways leading to the lake.

“You go into these super thin canyons where our large boat barely fit through,” he explained.

“What makes it so incredible is that there really aren’t any trees or anything around it. It was desert rock that was filled with water,” Mikah said. “And so you have this amazing stark contrast between this pure blue, and then these white, orange and red rocks right up against the water, for thousands of miles of shoreline…so the juxtaposition of colors is really incredible.”

Stone rainbow

The boat also gave him access to another important Native American site… Rainbow Bridge National Monument, which is administered by the National Park Service.

Known as one of the world’s largest known natural bridges — its thinnest point at the top is still 13 meters thick — the park service describes it as “a rainbow turned into stone.”

The span has undoubtedly inspired people throughout time — from the neighboring American Indian tribes who consider Rainbow Bridge sacred, to the 85,000 people from around the world who visit it each year.

“Native Americans believe it’s a portal to another world,” Mikah explained. So much so that no one is supposed to walk under or near the ancient structure.

Mikah related a story he read in the park’s brochure that described how former President Theodore Roosevelt, during an expedition with Navajo guides in 1913, “went under the bridge and the guides went around, and he realized he shouldn’t have gone underneath it.”

Maintaining a safe distance during his own visit to the site, Mikah said he felt honored to have had the chance to see it in person.

“We often forget that America is a country of rich, diverse religious traditions and so getting to hear the stories of these numerous Native American tribes that I encounter across the country is really fascinating,” he said.

Airborne attraction

After his Rainbow Bridge experience, Mikah took to the air again, this time in a helicopter. Thanks to Grand Canyon Helicopters, he was able to enjoy a close-up view of Tower Butte – an ancient structure which rises more than 300 meters above Lake Powell — another grand structure sacred to the Navajos.

“Tower Butte is named because it’s a very tall piece of rock that sticks out of kind of nothing,” Mikah explained. “It was something I’d seen from the water earlier in the day, you can see it from the airport, you can see it from the town; it’s a very striking feature from the city.”

But the “coolest” experience, he said, was landing on Tower Butte. “I felt much like a bird or Superman must feel because we were flying just a few hundred feet above things.”

“Apparently there had been two expeditions to try to climb it,” Mikah recounted, “and I think one was unsuccessful and one of them was successful but it was very tedious — so basically helicopter is the way.”

Spiritual cathedral

Not to be missed during his time in Arizona was another natural gem on the Navajo Reservation — Upper Antelope Canyon… which Mikah got to by foot.

Named for the herds of prong-horn antelope that once roamed the area, the ancient sandstone cavern isn’t a National Park Service site, but hundreds of thousands come to marvel at its sheer beauty each year.

Waterfalls of sand

“Upper Antelope Canyon was one of the most stunning canyons I’ve seen on this entire journey,” Mikah said. “The waves of water that must have worked their way through here to make these intricate shapes really is like nothing I’ve seen anywhere else in the country… so the fact that I got to experience it and see this raw, incredible beauty up close with my own eyes was a stunning experience.”

Indeed, Mikah, who’s on a mission to visit all 417 national parks in the U.S., shared that walking in the footsteps of Native Americans in so many areas of the desert landscape, was powerful.

“It was a privilege to be able to experience these sacred Native American sites and I’m thankful that the National Park Service preserves them in a way that allows myself and so many people to experience them.”

Mikah invites you to follow him on his epic journey by visiting him on his website MikahMeyer.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

 

 
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The U.S. National Park Service helps preserve and protect some of America’s most beautiful and historic land and waterscapes for all to enjoy and learn from, including many sacred Native American spaces. National parks traveler Mikah Meyer got a chance to explore some of those sites — from a variety of perspectives – during a trip to Utah and Arizona. He shared highlights with VOA’s Julie Taboh.
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A play parodying the lengths some Cubans will go to in order to earn a few tourist dollars set against the backdrop of socially critical graffiti is adding punch to Havana’s annual theater festival.

The first-time collaboration between veteran theater director Nelda Castillo, 64, and street artist Yulier Rodriguez, 27, underscores unease among some Cubans with the recent influx of tourists on the cash-strapped, Communist-run island.

The interdisciplinary spectacle, “¡Guan melÃn!, ¡tu melÃn!,” is also an example of the innovative ways Cubans are pushing the boundaries of critical expression.

Rodriguez’s eerie murals of creatures that look malnourished and malformed had become ubiquitous throughout Havana over the last three years, reflecting his view of the dark path upon which society was.

But the artist said authorities detained him for two days in August and ordered him to stop painting in public spaces.

Graffiti is seen as vandalism in many countries, although Rodriguez suspects authorities stopped him more because they did not like the content of his work.

“Now I am limited in what I can do in the streets, any space where I can exhibit my work becomes a space of resistance for me,” said Rodriguez.

Castillo, who often collaborates with visual artists, said she invited Rodriguez to paint the walls of the renowned El Ciervo Encantado theater because she knew his graffiti would enrich her play.

“The piece is about the Cubans’ struggle in the street in the context of the new relations with the United States and the influx of American visitors,” she said. “His work is also about that struggle in the street.”

In the play that was first staged last year, a skinny and squat comic duo attempt frantically to entertain tourists arriving on cruise ships with Cuban tunes and to sell them outsized cigars and paper cones of peanuts.

A student with a manic fake smile, rudimentary English and a hypersexualized walk sells chocolate and offers salsa lessons, city tours and cabaret acts “as way to make ends meet.”

In a beleaguered economy which shrank last year and where the average state salary is $30 a month, the tourist sector is a relative gold mine.

Castillo said Rodriguez’s graffiti – eerie, scared and hungry-looking creatures with four eyes, two gaping mouths or a crown of skulls – was like another protagonist in the play.

“Dialogue is always enriching as long as it is coherent,” said Castillo.

The two kept quiet about their collaboration until the day it opened to the public, at the start of the theater festival that runs from Oct. 20-29.

“Fingers crossed no one from up top orders the graffiti to be erased,” said Rodriguez.
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For almost 15 years, environmental activist Patterson Clark has been one of the U.S. National Park Service volunteers who go through forests and remove invasive plants. Because he knew how destructive these plants can be, killing their native host trees, increasing soil erosion, and causing major damage to streams and other wetland areas, Clark had already developed an antagonistic relationship with them.

“One day, when I was pulling a plant, I thought, how can I change my relationship with this plant so it’s not just eradication, taking something’s life?,” he wondered. “Since then, I’ve been harvesting plants, rather than just killing them. Some people who volunteer to pull weeds are called warriors. I don’t consider myself a warrior, I’m more of a gatherer.”

The artist, graphic editor and self-described “weed gatherer” now gives these plants a new life.

“When I first work with a plant, I call that prospecting,” he said. “I’ll sit with the plant, study its nature, cut it, bring it back into the studio, and then start running tests on it to see if it’s good for pigment [or] paper [or] other kinds of fiber.”

White mulberry produces paper

Over the years, Clark has developed a fondness for some of the weeds, like white mulberry.

“It offers paper, the strongest, whitest paper, pretty good lumber, fuel, [and] ash from that fuel is used to create a chemical used to break down the inner bark to make paper,” he says.

That’s a multistep process that takes long hours of work, and a lot of patience. Clark estimates it takes 20 minutes to cut down the plant, 30 minutes to steam it, five minutes to strip the bark, three hours to scrape it, an hour to cook it, 20 minutes to wash it and another hour to beat it. Then, he molds the sheet and lets it dry overnight. He’s rewarded with a stack of unique papers that have become art.

Bushes offer colors

Clark extracts the inks he uses in his paintings and prints from a variety of invasive vines and bushes.

“I take some ivy leaves and put them in ethanol,” he explains. “That’s how we get the green ink. Multiflora rose, the stems give us red ink. Bush honeysuckle, the inner bark provides an aqua color. And the leatherleaf mahonia, the inner bark of that, put it in ethanol, creates a fluorescent yellow color.”

Each print Clark creates includes all the plants he’s collected.

“I also include the landscape where these plants came from,” he says. “Sometimes I will include a volunteer pulling plants, or a tool used to process the plants, but all of these are part of the design.”

Creating art

Clark uses a computer to create his designs.

“I still use digital techniques in this work to expedite the process. Any tool or device that allows me to consume more weeds is good in my book,” he says. “The more weeds I consume, the more space I create for the return of native plants and native animals. So, it’s an environmental practice.”

He cuts his design into a block of wood by laser. Then, he applies his plant-based ink onto the block and presses it onto the handmade paper, repeating the process for each color.

Clark also makes frames for his prints from foraged plants, which attracts a lot of attention and admiration when he shows them in art exhibits.

“I do appreciate the compliments,” he admits, “but one thing I have heard some concern about is the archival quality of these prints. Some of the pigments that I use will last for a long time. Some of the brighter colors, however, if put in really bright light, will eventually fade a little bit. So, I encourage people who buy a print to put it in low light or keep it in a folio. That’s how I’d like these things to be treated.”

With his artistic treatment of invasive species, Patterson Clark is turning them into something that is actually valued.

 

 
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When the propaganda film, “The Founding of an Army,” hit theaters in China recently, the reaction wasn’t quite what the ruling Communist Party might have hoped for.

Instead of inspiring an outpouring of nationalism and self-sacrifice for the state, it was roundly mocked for trying to lure a younger audience by casting teen idols as revolutionary party leaders.

Viewers more used to seeing the idols play love interests in light-hearted soap operas responded to the film by projecting “modern-day romantic narratives on the founding fathers of the nation,” said Hung Huang, a well-known social commentator based in Beijing. “It was hilarious.”

Limiting Western influence

While China’s resurgent Communist Party once pushed its policies on an unquestioning public, it now struggles to compete for attention with the country’s booming entertainment industry and the celebrity culture it has spawned.

“Chinese people are increasingly ignoring party propaganda and are much more interested in movie stars, who represent a new lifestyle and more exciting aspirations,” said Willy Lam, an expert on Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

President Xi Jinping, who will cement his authority with his expected endorsement to a second five-year term at this week’s national party congress, has placed a priority on stamping out too much Western influence in Chinese society in part so the party can dictate the values the youth should embrace.

Authorities have responded by taking aim at everything from gossip websites to soap opera story lines to celebrity salaries. Instead of selfish, rich stars, the state is promoting performers who are all about patriotism, purity and other values that support the party’s legitimacy.

​Party values vs. youth interests

The results have at best been mixed and at worst ham-fisted and out of touch.

One problem is that the party’s values often clash with what young Chinese want to watch, according to Hung. Among the more popular shows watched by Chinese youth are those that center on palace intrigue, martial arts fantasies, high school romances or single, independent women.

“While the government could once dictate to young people what they should value and how they should lead their lives, they find themselves completely without the tools to do that now,” she said.

In the 1970s, the state was able to promote people seen as paragons of youthful devotion and selflessness, but Hung said that no longer works because young Chinese — like their counterparts in the West — now prefer to follow celebrity gossip and have the tools with which to do so.

Just this month, teen idol Lu Han, also known as China’s Justin Bieber, announced he had a girlfriend, triggering a flood of shares, responses and 4 million “likes” within a few hours that briefly crashed the country’s popular Weibo microblog service.

A recent commentary in The Global Times, a party newspaper with a nationalistic stance, railed against such celebrity worship, saying China had now surpassed the West in that regard.

That was likely a reason the government-backed China Alliance of Radio, Film and Television moved last month to cap the pay of actors, whose salaries had hit historic highs as young Chinese and a burgeoning middle class increasingly spend on movie tickets and goods.

​Gossip sites closed

In another move earlier this year, authorities closed 60 popular celebrity gossip and social media accounts and called on internet giants such as Tencent and Baidu to “actively propagate core socialist values, and create an ever-healthier environment for the mainstream public opinion.”

The tension between popular culture and state propaganda isn’t new in China. In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping’s lieutenants railed against spiritual pollution. But it has gained new traction since Xi came to power in 2012 and officials began a wide-ranging crackdown on perceived societal ills from corruption to dissent to — now — entertainment.

“Xi Jinping has been advocating a revision to traditional, Confucian moral standards,” Lam said. “The definition of what is vulgar or morally problematic has been inflated and expanded so that it has become all-encompassing.”

Shows about the pursuit of great wealth and luxury that used to be tolerated under Xi’s predecessor, aren’t anymore.

The government has demanded that broadcasters “resist celebrity worship” and limit the air time dedicated to film and TV stars.

“The party does not want these entertainment programs to compete with news programs and ‘morality shows,’” said Jian Xu, a Chinese media research fellow at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.

The government has also tried to shape some celebrities into party-sanctioned role models.

Thanks to their wholesome image and uplifting, patriotic lyrics, the TFboys, China’s first home-grown boy band, have risen to fame because of “political opportunities” they’ve been given, Xu said. The band is pursued by adoring fans and has performed twice on the coveted Lunar New Year gala hosted by state broadcaster China Central Television; it has also been promoted by the Communist Youth League.

Stars deviating from the party’s image of purity and moral acceptability, however, have been punished. In a high-profile drug crackdown in 2014, authorities publicly chastised a succession of celebrities caught using drugs, including Jackie Chan’s son, Jaycee Chan, and singer Li Daimo, forcing them to apologize on state television.
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Invasive plants can kill their native hosts, increase soil erosion and cause major damage to streams and other wetland areas. That’s why the National Park Service is asking volunteers to remove these invasive plants; so native plants have a chance to grow. VOA’s Faiza Elmasry reports on one volunteer, Patterson Clark, an artist, graphics editor and environmental advocate, who is bringing a reduce, reuse and recycle ethos to his removal technique. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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The Fox News Channel says the company knew a news analyst planned to file a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill O’Reilly when it renewed the popular personality’s contract in February.

The New York Times reported Saturday the company renewed the TV host’s contract after he reached a $32 million settlement with the analyst.

In a statement, 21st Century Fox defended its decision because it said he had settled the matter personally. It also said O’Reilly and the woman had agreed the financial terms would be kept confidential. 

The company says O’Reilly’s new contract had added protections that allowed Fox to dismiss him if other allegations surfaced.

O’Reilly was ousted months later when it was revealed Fox had paid five women a total of $13 million to keep quiet about harassment allegations.

The news analyst’s allegations included repeated harassment, a nonconsensual sexual relationship and the sending of gay pornography and other sexually explicit material to the woman, according to people briefed on the matter who spoke to The New York Times.

The settlement was by far the largest of a half dozen deals made by O’Reilly or the company to settle harassment allegations against the host, according to the newspaper.

It was reached in January. In February, 21st Century Fox granted O’Reilly’s a four-year extension on a $25 million-a-year contract. In April, it fired him.

O’Reilly has called his firing from the Fox News Channel a “political hit job” and that his network’s parent company made a business decision to get rid of him. He also has said his conscience was clear in how he dealt with women. O’Reilly could not be reached for comment Saturday.

The most-watched figure in cable TV was dismissed by 21st Century Fox nine months after the company removed its founding CEO, Roger Ailes, following harassment charges. The 77-year-old Ailes died in Palm Beach, Florida, last May.

The company said it has taken numerous steps to change its workplace environment.

“21st Century Fox has taken concerted action to transform Fox News, including installing new leaders, overhauling management and on-air talent, expanding training, and increasing the channels through which employees can report harassment or discrimination,” Fox said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. “These changes come from the top, with Lachlan and James Murdoch personally leading the effort to promote civility and respect on the job, while maintaining the company’s long-held commitment to a diverse, inclusive and creative workplace.”

O’Reilly hosts his “No Spin News” podcast on his website, www.billoreilly.com, contributes to Glenn Beck’s radio program on TheBlaze and continues to write books in his best-selling series of historical “Killing” books, including his newest release, “Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence.”
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Millions of children the world over dream of visiting Disneyworld. But Sean Baker’s heartbreaking film The Florida Project, throws light on those living in dire poverty in the shadow of Cinderella’s castle in Orlando.

The film underscores the social divide in America through the eyes and lives of children. The film follows precocious 6-year-old Moonee and her friends, roaming around in the sweltering Florida summer months.

They live in cheap motels like the “Magic Castle,” and receive little to no supervision from their single, underemployed or unemployed mothers.

Baker said he wanted to reveal the darker underbelly of an America that barely subsists.

 

WATCH: An America of Poverty Subsists Alongside the Glitter of Disney World

“My co-screenwriter brought this topic to my attention and the fact that there are families with children living in budget motels outside what we consider ‘The happiest place on earth,’ a place for children, and that juxtaposition obviously grabbed me,” the filmmaker said.

Inspired by Little Rascals

Baker says he was also inspired by the Little Rascals, the comic shorts about a gang of children getting into trouble in the 1920s and 1930s. The series was set against the Great Depression, depicting poverty through the life and resilience of children.

Baker says, Brooklynn Prince, who plays the boisterous Moonee is the present day Spanky McFarland, one of the main characters in Little Rascals.

Moonee’s childlike pranks verge into serious offenses. 

“Spanky was the quintessential little rascal, and I said, ‘We are not going to move forward unless we find him’ and one day, Brooklynn Prince walks in the room for the audition and she has all the wonderful cuteness, the wit, the absolute hilarity,” Baker said.

The motel manager, Bobby, is the only character played by a big star, Willem Dafoe. Bobby is the only one who can barely supervise these unruly kids. He is both the disciplinarian and a protector of these children.

Baker says Dafoe’s character was inspired by a real low-budget motel manager in Florida.

“When Willem Dafoe was actually cast, he wanted to understand the world as much as we did,” Baker said. “He wanted to understand his character, so he actually came a week early from production, before we even needed him, and he interviewed this gentleman, he interviewed others. I think he absorbed, he started to develop his character by being there and understanding the situation. And then, one day, he comes to the set and he has this spray tan on, he had all kinds of accessories he chose building this Florida man as his character.” 

Putting life in danger

Bria Vinaite inhabits Moonee’s infantile mother, Halley. She loves her daughter and tries to stay positive. But she is unable to get a job or any kind of child support and slowly crumbles.

To survive, she ends up becoming a sex worker, unwittingly putting her life and her daughter’s life a risk. Vinaite says she drew from real-life women who have fallen by the wayside.

“You have a daughter you have to take care of, a roof to put over her head, food, and then, on top of that, you have to take care of yourself. And I feel like in her situation, her concerns are not even important to her. It’s about Moonie. And it’s just so admirable that she doesn’t give up even till the very end,” Vinaite said.

During one of the film’s screenings, she says she was approached by a European fan, who told her how European countries provide social support and free day care for children of single unemployed mothers. Not here, she says.

“It makes you wonder: What is wrong with the government, for them not to care for such drastic situations that really mold these children, their whole lives? No child should have to experience that,” Vinaite said.

Vinaite says before she was cast for the role she had no idea that there were single mothers living day to day, hand to mouth, one step from homelessness.

“(Filmmaker) Sean (Baker) had flown me out for an audition to the area, drove me around where we would be filming and introduced me to some of the women, who lived in these motels, and I remember I went back to my hotel room and I started crying because I was so shocked,” she said.

Newcomers

Baker found Vinaite, a newcomer, on Instagram. He says he wanted new people who would give authenticity to the story. He definitely succeeds.

Both Vinaite and Brooklynn, who had never acted before, deliver tour de force performances. As the film turns darker, young Brooklynn emotes such pain as Moonee, she might earn an Oscar nomination.

“I cry at the end, too; like on the screen,” Brooklynn said. “I cry. I cried just watching it and I’m like Brooklynn! You have mascara on!”

Moonee’s childlike optimism is tested by the stark reality that an uncaring society will ultimately decide her fate. But ultimately, Moonee finds refuge in her childlike perception of the world.
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Millions of children the world over dream of visiting Disney World. But Sean Baker’s heartbreaking film “The Florida Project,” throws light on those living in dire poverty in the shadow of Cinderella’s castle in Orlando. The film underscores the social divide in America through the eyes and lives of children. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with director and cast.
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Another actress has accused U.S. movie producer Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her, the latest of some 40 women who have alleged sexual harassment and assault spanning decades.

Former actress Heather Kerr told a news conference Friday that Weinstein attacked her during a private meeting in 1989 when she was in her 20s.

“He said that if he was going to introduce me around town to directors and producers, he needed to know if I was any good. He kept repeating that word,” Kerr said.

Kerr, who is now 56, said Weinstein then unzipped his pants and forced her hand onto his genitals. She said that Weinstein told her that “this is how things work in Hollywood,” and that all actresses who had made it did it this way.

“I was frozen with fear,” said a tearful Kerr, who appeared on the 1980s sitcom The Facts of Life.

Rape allegations

Also Friday, the Los Angeles lawyer for an Italian actress who has accused Weinstein of rape say it has had a “humongous impact on her life’’ and she is extremely scared.

Attorney David Ring said his client, who has not been named, has given Los Angeles police detectives a description of sexual assault and rape, which the actress said took place at the Los Angeles Italia film festival in 2013.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Police department said it had opened a criminal investigation into Weinstein, who is also under criminal investigation in New York and London because of similar allegations.

Weinstein’s attorneys have released a statement saying, “We deny any allegations of nonconsensual sex, though obviously can’t respond to anonymous allegations.”

This was the second statement from Weinstein attorneys saying their client has not participated in nonconsensual sex.

Emmys disciplinary process

In another development Friday, the Television Academy, which bestows the Emmy awards, said it has voted to begin disciplinary proceedings against Weinstein. The academy’s board of governors said a hearing has been set for November, in which the group could terminate the producer’s membership.

News about Weinstein broke two weeks ago, when The New York Times and New Yorker magazine both published exposes of the legendary producer, citing allegations that go back as far as the 1980s.

Since then, Weinstein has been fired from his production company, and has been thrown out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and stripped of various other honors.
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We’re on the job with the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending October 21, 2017.

We have some excitement this week, as a new remix results in a huge rebound for a song that was already a hit.

Let’s open in fifth place, where Taylor Swift dips two slots with “Look What You Made Me Do.” She’s been busy in London.

On October 14, she was spotted shooting a music video. Taylor was all over the place: in a double-decker bus, in a taxi, and on a bike on the Millennium Bridge. She also hosted a listening session in her London home for her upcoming “Reputation” album – the rest of us will have to wait until it drops on November 10.

Number 4: Logic Featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid  “1-800-273-8255”

Logic treads water in fourth place with “1-800-273-8255” featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid.

This song has gone double platinum in the United States, moving two million units…and that’s just the beginning. Latin superstar Juanes has added his voice to a bilingual remix of the suicide-prevention single.

Number 3: J. Balvin & Willy William Featuring Beyonce “Mi Gente”

Speaking of bilingual songs, how about ”Mi Gente”?

Colombian singer J Balvin and French DJ Willy William already had a sizable hit with “Mi Gente,” and now Beyonce has added her voice to the remix…propelling it from 21st to third place. Sales proceeds go to hurricane relief efforts in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and other affected Caribbean islands.

Number 2: Post Malone Featuring Savage “Rockstar”

Post Malone and 21 Savage rack up a third straight week in the runner-up slot with “Rockstar.”

That’s here on the Hot 100: in Australia, the song enjoys a third consecutive week at number one. It holds off Camila Cabello’s “Havana,” which has yet to make the Top 20 here in the States.

Number 1: Cardi B “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)”

Yes, Cardi B is your Hot 100 champ for a third week with “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” and yes, that’s a big deal.

The Hot 100 chart has been around since August, 1958…and this is the first time a solo female rapper has held the title for as long as three weeks. Congratulations, Cardi B!

The chart never sleeps, so be sure and join us next week!

 
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The newly refurbished USS Constitution is taking its first spin under sail in three years.

Friday’s joyride from Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston to Fort Independence on Castle Island will celebrate the U.S. Navy’s 242nd birthday and the 220th anniversary of the iconic vessel’s maiden voyage.

The world’s oldest commissioned warship will fire a 21-gun salute in the waters off the fort, and its cannons will boom another 17 times as it passes the U.S. Coast Guard station — the former site of the shipyard where the Constitution was built and launched in 1797.

It will be the warship’s first sail since October 2014.

The ship earned its nickname “Old Ironsides” during the War of 1812 with Britain.

 
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Harvey Weinstein is now facing criminal inquiries in three cities after an Italian actress told Los Angeles detectives the disgraced film mogul raped her in a hotel room in 2013.

Police confirmed Thursday they are looking into the woman’s allegations, and her attorney said he would give additional details about them at a news conference outside a downtown Los Angeles courthouse on Friday afternoon.

The unidentified woman is an Italian model and actress, according to an announcement of attorney David M. Ring’s press conference. In addition to talking to detectives, the woman and Ring spoke to the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, telling them Weinstein bullied his way into her hotel room, refused to leave and raped her.

Sallie Hofmeister, a representative for Weinstein, said in a statement that Weinstein “unequivocally denies allegations of non-consensual sex.”

The Los Angeles investigation comes after announcements last week by police in New York and London that they are taking a new look at allegations involving the Oscar-winner. New York police are taking a fresh look for complaints involving Weinstein and the department has encouraged anyone who may have information about abuses by the producer to contact the department. London police are investigating allegations of sexual assault against him made by two women.

More than 40 women have accused Weinstein, 65, of harassment or abuse. Actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Lupita Nyong’o have all accused Weinstein of harassment, while actresses Asia Argento and Rose McGowan have accused the film mogul of raping them.

Nyong’o accused Weinstein of several incidents of harassment in an op-ed piece published by The New York Times on Thursday, including a 2011 incident in which she said the mogul tried to give her a massage at his Connecticut home. She refused, instead giving the mogul a massage and leaving when he said he wanted to take off his pants, Nyong’o wrote.

The stories of harassment and abuse dating back decades has left to the total downfall of a producer who once ruled Hollywood’s awards season with a string of contenders including “Shakespeare in Love,” for which he shared an Oscar, and films such as “The King’s Speech” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”

Since The New York Times published its initial expose on Oct. 5, Weinstein has been fired from the company he co-founded, expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the producers guild has initiated his expulsion. Honors conferred by Harvard University and the British Film Institute have been rescinded, and several Democratic lawmakers have donated political contributions they received from Weinstein to charity.

Ring said in a statement Thursday that the breadth of accusations against Weinstein compelled his client to speak to police.

“My client is grateful to all the courageous women who have already come forward to finally expose Weinstein,” Ring said. “These women may not have realized it, but they gave my client the support and encouragement to hold Weinstein accountable for this horrible act.”

 
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Invasive plants can kill their native host trees, increase soil erosion and cause major damage to streams and other wetland areas. That’s why the National Park Service is asking volunteers to remove these invasive plants; so native plants have a chance to grow. VOA’s Faiza Elmasry reports on one volunteer, Patterson Clark, an artist, graphics editor and environmental advocate who is bringing a reduce, reuse and recycle ethos to his removal technique. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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Actress Mayim Bialik says she’s “truly sorry for causing so much pain” with her New York Times opinion piece that critics suggested put blame on women who’ve accused movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

Bialik wrote in the piece published Friday that she makes choices to be “self-protecting and wise,” like dressing modestly and not acting flirtatiously. She later added that nothing “excuses men for assaulting or abusing women” and women should be able to wear whatever they want and act however they want.

Bialik addressed the backlash in a Facebook Live interview with the Times on Monday, saying she regrets it “became what it became.”

She said Wednesday on Twitter that “what you wear and how you behave does not provide any protection from assault.”
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