Author: Ohart

The Grammy Museum is putting rare Ella Fitzgerald memorabilia on display for what would have been the singing legend’s 100th birthday.

The museum’s “Ella at 100: Celebrating the Artistry of Ella Fitzgerald” exhibition includes the first Grammy Award  that Fitzgerald won — the first awarded to an African-American woman — as well as some of her gowns, sheet music and personal telegrams.

Fitzgerald died in 1996 at 79 from complications with diabetes and left few possessions beyond personal notes, but the exhibit puts a focus on what made Fitzgerald a star — her voice.

Her voice is the key

Grammy Museum curator Nwaka Onwusa says she wants visitors to be captivated by her singing, so the exhibit includes video and audio of her early performances with jazz greats Count Basie or Duke Ellington.

The exhibit is one of several celebrations of Fitzgerald’s birthday on Tuesday. New York City declared it Ella Fitzgerald Day and the Smithsonian has also opened a special exhibit, while Starbucks stores in the United States played her music.

 

“Ella Fitzgerald’s is probably the single most important voice in American history,” said recording artist Miles Mosley. “If you’re going to start with any song before 1970, her version is the one you start from. That’s the ground floor. That is the most representative version of what the composer themselves wished their songs would sound like.”

Performed in many styles

Over the course of her career, she sang swing, bebop, pop, jazz.  Among her best-known works are a 1938 novelty smash, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” which she co-wrote, and a series of eight album sets, each dedicated to an American songwriter or songwriting team. In addition to being best sellers, those albums helped establish the long-play record as a platform for deeper, more serious musical exploration.

Twenty-plus years after Fitzgerald’s death, the rave reviews keep pouring in.  

 

Celebration of Fitzgerald’s 100th actually began March 31, as Dianne Reeves held a Fitzgerald tribute concert at the Library of Congress, which serves as home to Fitzgerald’s personal library. A day later, Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which has long hosted a Fitzgerald exhibit, opened a new display, “First Lady of Song: Ella Fitzgerald at 100,” kicking off Jazz Appreciation Month.

Onwusa said Fitzgerald’s exhibit was not an easy display to put together, noting that the relatively new Grammy Museum, which opened in 2008, could not compete with the long-established Smithsonian and Library of Congress, which have long been collecting Fitzgerald memorabilia.

Gowns are a key attraction 

But the Los Angeles-based Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation and Fitzgerald estate came through with enough items to make for an attraction, including gowns Fitzgerald wore in performance, rare photographs, sheet music, newspaper articles, concert programs. Securing performance footage proved more challenging, but was critical for Onwusa.

“When you come to Ella at 100, immediately we want visitors to be captivated by her voice,” she explained. “That’s what draws you to Ella.”

To that end, there are viewing and listening stations, where exhibit visitors can watch and hear Fitzgerald performing in various points in her career. She was an active professional performer for some 65 years, going in semi-retirement in 1994, after having both of her legs amputated below the knee due to the effects of the diabetes.

‘100 Songs for a Centennial’

 

For those just being introduced to Fitzgerald, Verve/UMe has just released a career-spanning primer, the four-CD set “100 Songs for a Centennial.” For hardcore fans, there’s the lavish six-album vinyl limited-edition “Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George and Ira Gershwin Song Books,” which is newly packaged with lithographs, a book and a bonus track. Numerous other releases and events are planned throughout the year.

 

But once the celebration ends, it’s fairly clear that the Fitzgerald legacy will continue.

Grammy Museum executive director Scott Goldman singled out a relative newcomer such as Andra Day as a perfect example. “(Here’s) a young African-American artist who is blurring the lines between jazz and soul and R&B.” he noted. “If you listen to Andra Day, you’ll hear a little Ella Fitzgerald. And I think many artists carry that. I think that’s what makes Ella Fitzgerald so special. She lives.”

The exhibit runs through Sept. 10.

 
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When it comes to music and visual arts, American teenagers could use some help.

The National Center for Education Statistics reported Tuesday that in 2016, American eighth graders scored an average 147 in music and 149 in visual arts on a scale of 300. Some 8,800 eighth graders from public and private schools across the country took part in the test, which was part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the Nation’s Report Card.

Acting Commissioner Peggy Carr said the test shows students have a lot to learn in art and music and that no progress has been made since the same test was administered in 2008.

“When I saw the results, clearly there is room for improvement, because clearly there is a lot of content that students weren’t able to interact with correctly,” Carr told The Associated Press.

When asked to listen to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” only about half of the students were able to identify that the opening solo is played on a clarinet. Students who scored 182 were able to label all the eight notes in C major, students who got 150 were able to label one note.

While most students could point to one or two structural differences between two mother-and-child portraits, they usually struggled to explain the technical approach and meaning in an artist’s self-portrait.

“The average student does not know a lot of the content that was asked of them on this assessment,” said Carr. “It was a difficult assessment, a challenging assessment.”

On the bright side, the achievement gap has narrowed between white and Hispanic students from a difference of 32 to 23 points in an average score in music and from 26 to 19 points in arts since the previous test. Girls continued to outperform boys.

The black-white achievement gap, however, remained unchanged. While white students scored an average of 158, black students got 129 on the music test and the margin of difference was similar on the arts portion of the exam — 158 for white students and 128 for black students,

“Every student should have access to arts education to develop the creativity and problem-solving skills that lead to higher success both in and out of school,” said Ayanna Hudson, director of arts education at the National Endowment for the Arts. “Arts education can be especially valuable for our nations’ underserved students, leading to better grades, higher graduation rates and increased college enrollment.”
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The papal almsgiver has made a donation, in the name of Pope Francis, to cover the annual rent for a beach area near Rome used by disabled youths.

The Madonnina, an association that runs the beach establishment near Rome without barriers for the disabled, in a statement Tuesday announced the donation for the area just outside the town of Fiumicino. No money figure was cited.

 

Past charity initiatives by Pope Francis have included day-trips to the beach for homeless people.

 
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Nine years after his death at age 28, audiences are seeing a different side of Australian actor Heath Ledger through the lens of his own camera.

Documentary “I Am Heath Ledger” uses thousands of hours of self video shot by Ledger, as well as his art work and music videos, to paint a portrait of the young actor who took Hollywood by storm in roles like “Brokeback Mountain” and “The Dark Knight.”

The film also seeks to counteract the lingering perception that Ledger was severely depressed when he accidentally overdosed on painkillers, anxiety and insomnia medication.

“He was super happy and he was loving life. He struggled with some demons, but he wasn’t one to go anywhere but forward,” Ledger’s Hollywood agent Steve Alexander says in the film, which was launched at the Tribeca Film Festival this week.

Rather than dwell on his January 2008 death in New York, the film uses Ledger’s video archives and interviews with his family and closest friends to “celebrate Heath’s life and to tell the story of this multi-faceted artist,” director and producer Derik Murray told Reuters Television.

It portrays Ledger as a force of nature who longed for adventure, was generous with his friends, and whose passions ranged from chess to making music videos. His non-stop energy also meant he rarely slept a full night.

While Ledger’s friends including Naomi Watts and director Ang Lee were interviewed for the film, Michelle Williams’ – Ledger’s former fiance and mother of his daughter Matilda – chose not to take part, said her spokeswoman.

Murray said Williams’ support was integral to the film “but she really didn’t feel she wanted to be in front of the camera.”

Ledger was found dead a few months after the couple split up and shortly after filming his role as the manic Joker in “The Dark Knight,” for which he won a posthumous Oscar.

“There was a lot of conversation and chatter around the fact that his passing was a byproduct of his role as the Joker and that he spiraled down this path and couldn’t pull himself out of it,” said Murray.

But Murray said everyone the filmmakers spoke to said this was untrue. “He had the best time making it… The Joker was a role. He was enthralled by it. He was proud of it.”

“I Am Heath Ledger” will get a one-night showing in 300 U.S. movie theaters on May 3 and premiere on Spike TV on May 17.
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Elton John spent two nights in intensive care with a potentially deadly bacterial infection and has canceled all his concerts for the rest of April and May, his publicist said on Monday.

The British musician, 70, became “violently ill” on a flight home from his recent South American tour, spokeswoman Fran Curtis said in a statement.

The “Rocket Man” singer spent two nights in intensive care in the U.K. and is resting at home after being released on Saturday, the statement said.

The infection was not identified, but the statement said John contracted the “harmful and unusual bacterial infection” during his South American tour, which ended in Chile on April 10.

“Infections of this nature are rare and potentially deadly,” the statement said, adding that his time in intensive care was followed by an “extended stay in hospital.”

John is expected to make a full recovery but has canceled all his concerts in Las Vegas for April and May, as well as a gig in Bakersfield, California, on May 6.

John apologized to fans for disappointing them, adding in a statement: “I am extremely grateful to the medical team for their excellence in looking after me so well.”

He is due to resume performances at a concert in Twickenham, England, on June 3.

John, a Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner for his work in film and theater, is working on a score for a Broadway musical adaptation of the comedy-drama “The Devil Wears Prada.”
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For the first 20 years of Markus Rindt’s life, he knew just how far he could travel — no further west than the wall that split Germany in two.

“I grew up with walls around me —it was a weird situation, to see that the world seems to end at this wall,” remembers Rindt. “You feel that it cannot be that the world ends here.”

He’s spent the nearly 30 years since then-President Ronald Reagan called on then-Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall” between West and East Germany making music, traveling and making the occasional political statement the best way he knows: in concert.

Now Rindt wants to take that movement to a new frontier — the barriers between the United States and Mexico —where he hopes to pull off an ambitious, border-long project in early June with the Dresden-based contemporary orchestra he leads — the Dresdner Sinfoniker just days before the June 12 anniversary of Reagan’s speech.

“Our plan,” he says, “is a very big plan.”

Rhetoric prompts series of concerts

Rindt added the open-air border show to a schedule of two planned concerts June 3 by the group in Mexico City and Puebla, inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s rhetoric in favor of building more walls along the border.

“This project is the most ambitious project so far. I have no idea if it [will work] in the end,” Rindt told VOA in a phone interview from Dresden, where he returned six years after fleeing to West Germany via Prague in 1989.

“I feel the project is necessary in our time. It is not only against this planned Trump wall, but against isolation[ist] tendencies around the world as well,” says Rindt. That includes Europe, where last year, Britain voted to withdraw from the European Union, and France, where a nationalist candidate is in the running for president.

#teardownthiswall

There are, of course, logistics to a cross-border concert; Rindt feels confident in Mexico’s approval for the group to perform with 15-20 musicians and a children’s choir from Tijuana on a stage along the southern side of the wall/fence. He is less sure that U.S. officials will approve of a few musicians and a children’s choir joining them through the fence in San Diego’s Friendship Park where relatives on both sides of the border are allowed to meet.

WATCH: Report from Friendship Park in San Diego

Rindt has never been to the U.S.-Mexico border. He’s invited U.S. and Mexican musicians to join the Dresdner Sinfoniker in June, and has raised more than half the funds to get his musicians there.

It’s not the first cross-border concert; those have been happening for years; Rindt knows that. There is even an artist who used the wall itself to make music. But Rindt hopes the event will take on a life of its own; he wants musicians and artists to perform along the border, from Texas to California, and use a hashtag inspired by Reagan’s speech to link all of their performances: #teardownthiswall.

‘There must be other ways’

He’s not ignorant or ignoring transnational issues, he says. Trump has said the wall is necessary for national security.

“I’m aware of some problems — drugs of course — some people will answer me what about drugs and criminals. There must be other ways to solve such problem.”

Data shows that smugglers do indeed work around border barriers. Trump recently told the Associated Press that: “People want the border,” but an April survey from Qunnipiac University shows increasing opposition to building more of a border wall among Americans, up from 55 percent against its construction just after President Donald Trump’s election in November, to 64 percent now.

“To Trump: I would say there is no best country in the world, no best religion, no best skin color — I don’t like this America-first thought,” says Rindt. “Europe is unified … It is so great this feeling now, to be so so free, the world is much bigger than before for us.  We are so far away from conflicts with each other. If you compare this with 60 years ago — we have to keep this freedom and peace.”
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Robert De Niro helped Burt Reynolds onto the red carpet for the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of his new movie “Dog Years” Saturday night in New York. It was a rare appearance for the 81-year old actor, who at times struggled to walk.

Reynolds was given a chair on the red carpet, so that he could speak to a limited number of press outlets about the film.

 

He was overjoyed at the turnout.

 

“Great to see Mr. De Niro, who I love, and … you know, all the people that I know,” Reynolds said. “It’s very sweet.”

 

In the film, which is still shopping for distribution, Reynolds portrays an aging movie star who realizes his best days are behind him. The actor sees similarities in the character with his own life.

 

Reynolds laughed at the obvious parallel with his own life, though he said, “I guess I’m doing all right. I think because it’s a hell of a turnout.”

 

Written and directed by Adam Rifkin, the film also stars “Modern Family’s” Ariel Winter, Chevy Chase and Nikki Blonsky.

 

Reynolds joked about working with younger co-stars.

 

“You don’t learn from young actors,” Reynolds said. “You just tell them how to behave.”
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Erin Moran, the former child star who played Joanie Cunningham in the sitcoms Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi, died Saturday at age 56.

A statement from the sheriff’s department in Harrison County, Indiana, said the dispatcher “received a 911 call about an unresponsive female. Upon arrival of first responders, it was determined that Erin Moran Fleischmann was deceased. An autopsy is pending.”

The dispatcher confirmed to The Associated Press that the woman was the actress, who had been married to Steven Fleischmann.

A Burbank, California, native, Moran began acting in TV and movies before she was 10 years old. She had nearly a decade’s worth of experience when she was cast in 1974 in Happy Days as Joanie Cunningham, the kid sister to high school student Richie Cunningham, played by Ron Howard.

Debuting at a time of nostalgia for the seemingly innocent 1950s, the sitcom was set in Milwaukee and soon became a hit. Howard and Henry Winkler, who played tough guy Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli, were the show’s biggest stars, but Moran also became popular. In 1982, she was paired off with fellow Happy Days performer Scott Baio in the short-lived Joanie Loves Chachi.

Her more recent credits included The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote, but she never approached the success of Happy Days and was more often in the news for her numerous personal struggles.

“OH Erin … now you will finally have the peace you wanted so badly here on earth,” Winkler tweeted. “Rest In It serenely now … too soon.”
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The gigantic black and white portraits of children started appearing on walls around a suburban neighborhood of Havana two years ago, the work of Cuban artist Maisel Lopez.

The sober, finely painted portraits contrast with Cuba’s dilapidated buildings and pot-holed streets, colorful vintage cars and peeling pink, apricot and turquoise paint on eclectic architecture.

With nearly 30 murals completed, Lopez said he is only getting started on his “Colossi” series, a striking endeavor in the Communist-run country where street art is rare.

“I want to keep expanding further afield,” said Lopez, 31, who started painting the walls of homes and shops in his home district of Playa and is now completing his first mural in neighboring Marianao.

A chubby girl with wispy blond hair wistfully rests her chin on her hands, while a black boy with angular features peers at passersby with a slight air of defiance.

The murals are unusual in a country where public spaces are tightly controlled and posters and murals mainly have political themes or depict figures like Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

Only one other artist in Havana, Yulier Rodriguez, has an equally recognizable assortment of street art. His figures are alien, the murals colorful. Lopez’s subjects are realistic and monochrome.

Lopez said in an interview last week that political art led him to paint murals. He helped with several celebrating the Bolivarian revolution during a cultural mission in 2009 to Cuba’s socialist ally Venezuela.

“A mural is constantly in interaction with the public,” said Lopez, whose work is inspired by Cuban independence hero Jose Marti, who said “children are the hope of the world.”

“That’s why I paint the children big, to mark their importance,” he said.

Unlike many street artists, including Rodriguez, Lopez seeks permits to paint on walls. While initially hard to get, he gained trust as he developed the series, he said.

Each colossus is several meters tall and takes Lopez four days to a week to paint. Each depicts a child living in the vicinity. He does not charge to paint them.

Instead, he earns a living teaching art classes and selling canvas portraits that can fetch up to $1,500.

Locals have declared themselves fans and guardians of his work, looking after it as people stop to take photographs.

“It’s really striking and gives life to the street,” said Vivian Herrera, 47, who runs a bakery next to one of the murals.

“It’s like the girl is really there, with her big, open eyes.”
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Philosopher, humanitarian and physicist Albert Einstein is the subject of new TV series “Genius,” which delves into the drama and passion of the man who developed the theory of relativity and helped initiate the U.S. effort to build an atomic bomb.

Executive producer Ron Howard told reporters at the TV show’s launch at the Tribeca Film Festival that he had always been fascinated by Einstein.

“But I never realized how many twists and turns and, you know, there were in his life, and how much drama there was,” Howard said on Thursday.

The 10-part series for the National Geographic channel shows Einstein’s personal struggles and “how complicated, sexy, you know – kind of bohemian – a lot of his relationships were,” Howard said.

Australian Geoffrey Rush plays the older Einstein, with Britain’s Emily Watson and American actress Gwendolyn Ellis portraying older and younger versions of his second wife, Elsa.

“He wasn’t just a scientist,” Watson said of Einstein, who died in 1955. “He was a philosopher, a humanist. He was an immigrant. He was at the center of so many political events in the 20th century, or close to the center of them, and had incredibly complicated relationships in his life.”
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Fans are marking the anniversary of U.S. musician Prince’s sudden death from an accidental drug overdose with visits to his Paisley Park home, which has been turned into a museum.

The museum is hosting a four-day event that includes concert performances by Prince’s former bandmates and panel discussions.

It was a year ago Friday that the pop legend was found dead at Paisley Park, a recording complex outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Prince lived and created his music.

Fans come to grieve

Fans who came to the complex Friday included Mary Adams, who drove six hours from Kansas City, Missouri, with her 10-year-old daughter. 

“I needed to come here. This is where it began. I needed to pay homage to the star,” she said.

Adams said Prince had a profound impact on her life.

“Prince is the person that helped me decide that is was OK to be me, because that’s who he was. And he did it his way, his music, his style,” she added.

Minneapolis landmarks in purple

Fans are also holding a street party Saturday outside First Avenue, the club Prince made famous in Purple Rain, the title track of his breakthrough 1984 album and movie.

Landmarks around Minneapolis are being lighted in purple for two nights in tribute to Prince, while the Minnesota History Center is holding a special exhibit of Prince memorabilia.

The anniversary was supposed to be celebrated by the release of new Prince music. However, a Minnesota district court this week issued a temporary injunction barring the release of the six-song EP Deliverance after Prince’s estate filed a lawsuit claiming the works were stolen by his former sound engineer.

Prince’s commercial legacy continues to be surrounded in controversy. The pop star died without a will or children, and dozens of people came forward after his death, claiming they were heirs.

Musical legacy

Prince died at 57 from an accidental overdose of powerful painkillers he was secretly using to ease the pain of hip surgery.

Prince was 19 when he released his first album, For You, in 1978. In the decades that followed, the multitalented musician released 1999, Little Red Corvette and Purple Rain.

He sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, won seven Grammys and picked up an Oscar for Best Original Song score for Purple Rain. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Rhonda Soso said Friday that she came from California to Paisley Park “just to be a part of the purple family, the purple army, just be a part of just his spirit, just his energy.”

“It’s just still so difficult accepting that he’s no longer here,” she added.

 
…

For Prince fans, Friday’s one-year anniversary of his shocking death from an accidental drug overdose will be a time for sadness and celebration.

 

At his Paisley Park home and recording studio-turned-museum, a full four days of events are on tap, ranging from concert performances by his former bandmates to panel discussions.

Fans who can’t afford those high-priced tickets can head to a street party outside First Avenue, the club he made world famous in “Purple Rain.” And the Minnesota History Center is staging a special exhibit of Prince memorabilia, including his iconic “Purple Rain” suit.

 

Here’s a look at how Prince’s home state will honor his legacy and mourn his loss:

 

Paisley Park

 

Prince’s home base in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen is marking the anniversary with a roster of shows from artists such as his old band The Revolution, Morris Day and the Time and New Power Generation. Also on the docket: panel discussions featuring such speakers as his old band mates — think Lisa (Coleman) and Wendy (Melvoin) from “Purple Rain” and The Revolution — along with many more.

 

Fans who could afford it spent $999 for VIP passes for the Paisley schedule, and the estate said those were sold out. A relatively cheaper option — $549 general admission passes — was still available midweek.

 

Prince’s siblings, who are on track to inherit an estate valued around $200 million, are hosting an all-night dance party in the Minneapolis suburb of Golden Valley with Dez Dickerson, Apollonia Kotero, Andre Cymone and others.

 

First Avenue

 

The downtown Minneapolis club where Prince filmed key parts of “Purple Rain” is hosting late-night dance parties Friday and Saturday with tracks from the late superstar.

 

A memorial street party outside the club is also on tap for Saturday. It will be reminiscent of the one that drew thousands of mourners on the night of Prince’s death to cry, dance and sing along.

 

Pieces of History

 

Prince’s “Purple Rain” costume — purple jacket, white ruffled shirt and studded pants — was put out for display at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul through Sunday.

The museum is also marking the anniversary by featuring handwritten lyrics to an unreleased song, “I Hope We Work It Out,” signed by Prince in 1977. Prince performed it for record executives when he first signed with Warner Bros.

 

Painting the Town Purple

 

Several landmarks in Minneapolis will be lit up in Prince purple, including U.S. Bank Stadium, Target Field, the IDS Center, and the Interstate 35W and Lowry Avenue bridges over the Mississippi River.
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An award-winning documentary has captured the innovative ways farmers and others are trying to make the planet a greener, more sustainable place.

Winner of the 2016 César for best documentary, the French equivalent of an Oscar, Tomorrow charts a road trip in which co-directors Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent roam the globe in search of solutions to environmental problems.

Their journey takes them to Icelandic volcanoes, Indian slums and French farmlands, among other places, to tell the stories of ordinary people fighting climate change.

The decision to steer away from doomsday narratives — most recently seen in Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Before the Flood” — came from the realization that such an approach failed to spur people into action, Dion said.

“When we focus on catastrophe, and on things that raise fear, it triggers mechanisms in the brain of rejection, flight and fear,” the longtime environmental activist said in a phone interview ahead of the film’s U.S. release Friday.

The film begins in the United States, where two California professors discuss their milestone 2012 study concluding climate change may signal a new cycle of mass extinction.

Soon afterward, Dion and Laurent — a French actress known for her role in “Inglourious Basterds” — hit the road.

Public plantings

In Britain, they visit the market town of Todmorden where residents have seized public spaces to plant fruit, vegetables and herbs — which pedestrians are encouraged to pick.

In the French city of Lille, the CEO of an envelope company shows them how bamboo is grown in the factory’s wastewater to feed a wood boiler that powers the unit’s central heating.

And in Copenhagen, local planners explain how building a labyrinth of bike paths is part of efforts to become first carbon-free capital by 2025.

“We don’t make the cities to make the cars happy, to make the modernistic planners and architects happy,” Jan Gehl, a local architect and urban planner, says in the film. “We have to make the cities so that citizens can have a good life and a good time.”

Dion said he was confident the film would appeal to American viewers despite the many U.S. lawmakers who are skeptical about climate change and oppose regulation to combat it.

Since being sworn in January, President Donald Trump has taken several steps to undo climate change regulations put in place by the previous administration.

Trump also promised during his election campaign to pull the United States out of the global climate change pact reached in Paris in 2015.
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The stars of Guardians of the Galaxy, the Marvel movie about a rag-tag group of intergalactic heroes, landed in Hollywood to debut their return in a much-anticipated sequel that sees them embark on another high-stakes space adventure.

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, space heroes Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot find themselves pursued by a villain and once again are given the task of saving the universe.

They are joined along the way by Gamora’s petulant sister Nebula, space pirate Yondu and Mantis, an empathic alien. The film is scheduled to open in theaters May 5.

“This is a million-piece puzzle and when you sit back and see the mosaic put together you get this one incredibly even, fully executed idea,” Chris Pratt, who plays Peter Quill, said at the red carpet premiere Wednesday.

“It’s brilliant, great music, it’s super funny, dramatic and it’s got great emotion and relationships, it’s stunning,” he said.

Action with a heart

Sylvester Stallone, who makes an appearance as Stakar Ogord leader of the space pirates known as “ravagers,” said action films “are modern mythology when it’s done right.”

“The kind of action films I’ve done are sort of more mano-a-mano … now they’ve developed this Marvel universe Guardians that have a heart, that has a lot of emotion to it, that takes it another step further,” he said, using the Spanish phrase for “hand to hand” combat that has come to be associated with any kind of competition between two people.

“It’s kind of a cross between Rocky [and] Rambo in space,” he added.

Original set records

The sequel follows 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which smashed summer box office records and ushered in a new cadre of edgy heroes in the Marvel cinematic universe.

“I made a movie about outcasts for outcasts and it’s very touching for me that people all over the world, whether here or in Japan or in Russia or in England have been touched by the movie,” writer-director James Gunn said.

Gunn will write and direct the third Guardians film, set for release in 2020.
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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James were among seven sports figures named to Time Magazine’s annual list of the world’s most influential people, which was announced Thursday.

While Brady and James have ample championships on their resume, polarizing NFL free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick also appeared on the list that included pioneers, artists and leaders.

Chicago Cubs general manager Theo Epstein, 2016 Olympic gold-medal gymnast Simone Biles, UFC light heavyweight champion Conor McGregor and Barcelona superstar forward Neymar were also included on the list.

Brady collected his fifth Super Bowl ring in February after helping the Patriots overcome a 25-point deficit in the third quarter to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in overtime of Super Bowl LI.

“The mic was dropped,” talk-show host Conan O’Brien wrote of the victory over the Falcons. “But Tom’s real achievement is that he willed himself to be (the best).”

James also was instrumental in helping his team rally from a 3-1 series deficit to upend the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

“By making good on his pledge to bring a championship to the Cleveland Cavaliers and by investing in the promise of future generations through his foundation, LeBron James has not only bolstered the self-esteem of his native Ohio but also become an inspiration for all Americans — proof that talent combined with passion, tenacity and decency can reinvent the possible. Poetry in motion, indeed,” wrote Rita Dove, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former U.S. poet laureate.

Kaepernick’s initial refusal to stand for the national anthem as part of his protest for racial injustice led others around the NFL to follow suit.

“I thank Colin, for all he has contributed to the game of football as an outstanding player and trusted teammate,” Kaepernick’s former coach Jim Harbaugh wrote. “I also applaud Colin for the courage he has demonstrated in exercising his guaranteed right of free speech. His willingness to take a position at personal cost is now part of our American story.”

 
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Oprah Winfrey doesn’t scare easy and she wasn’t frightened here.

“But I was unsure and uncertain of myself going into this role,” she says. “I did not want to do it. I never truly expected to do it. I had other people in mind to do it.”

Instead, it’s Winfrey who erupts in the new HBO film “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” as a tormented woman in search of the mother she never knew whose tissue sample would yield medical marvels benefiting millions.

The film, which premieres Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT, is based on the best-seller by Rebecca Skloot. It charts the rocky road to discovery shared by Henrietta Lacks’ daughter Deborah (Winfrey) with Skloot, who wanted to shine light on the human story behind the legendary cell line known as “HeLa.” Rose Byrne (“Damages,” ”Bridesmaids”) plays the intrepid reporter Skloot.

Winfrey was captivated by the book and acquired the rights with the intent of producing a film. Then two things happened to set the project on its proper course.

She heard one of the hundreds of interviews Skloot had made with Deborah Lacks (who had died just months before the book’s 2010 publication). Winfrey heard her on tape saying to Skloot, “Girl! Did you see ‘The Oprah Show’ today? SHE should play me!”

“I did it as a way of honoring her,” Winfrey says, “honoring the legacy she tried to create and build for her mother.”

The other reason Winfrey couldn’t say no to the role: George C. Wolfe, the celebrated Tony Award-winning stage and film director, joined the project.

Wolfe saw the film as more than an untold tale of science.

“The desire to know one’s parents – that’s a very primal thing,” he says. “They are literally and metaphorically the DNA of who we become. For Deborah to know her mother is to know her own story. That’s the driving energy on which everything else in the film can hang.”

Even the simplest things Deborah wants to know: “Did she breast-feed me? Did she love to dance?”

A poor tobacco farmer who worked the same Virginia land as her slave ancestors, Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 at age 31.

“In segregated America, on paper, she had no power,” says Wolfe. “But her HeLa cells were unbelievably powerful. That juxtaposition was really fascinating to me.”

The film was shot last summer in the Atlanta area, plus a few days on location at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Byrne reports that during the production, “I didn’t see the Oprah that we all know: ‘OP-rah WIN-frey!!!’ She was very focused, very meditative, finding her way, like we all did.

“It was intimidating for me,” Byrne adds. “But that was good because that’s what Rebecca was: intimidated to try to tell this story (about Henrietta Lacks and her cell line) that she had been obsessed with since she was 15.”

The close but stormy relationship forged between Deborah and Rebecca is portrayed robustly by Winfrey and Byrne.

“The way you achieve that is by finding two people who are extraordinarily generous with each other,” says Wolfe. “Where one pushes, the other is there to receive the push and then push back. You can’t achieve that kind of connectedness with people who have their guards up.”

As for Winfrey in particular, Wolfe hails her as “brave and ferocious and willing.”

“I don’t have a lot of acting experience,” insists Winfrey, who says she learned her greatest acting lesson long ago, during her first, Oscar-nominated film appearance in the 1985 drama “The Color Purple.”

The director, Steven Spielberg, warned her that she would need to cry in a scene the next day. She feared she didn’t know how. She was frantic. Then a veteran co-star, Adolph Caesar, gave her wise counsel: “He says, ‘You got to let the character take control. And if SHE wants to cry, she will cry. But if SHE doesn’t want to cry, not even Steven Spielberg can make her.’ So giving yourself over is part of the process.”

Perhaps by now, at 63, Winfrey has learned to give herself over to the process in ways even beyond a film role: She says she’s easing up after all those hard-driving decades seeking more and more mountains to climb.

“The 60s are no longer about the climb. They’re about enjoying the view, the view that you created based on the long climb,” she explains. “I feel no need to prove anything anymore. The joy is in doing it, when you can come away from an experience savoring the view.”

 
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There’s another kerfuffle about crowd size surrounding the president.

On Wednesday, the Super Bowl-winning New England Patriots visited the White House to meet U.S. President Donald Trump.

As is the tradition, there were plenty of photo opps, including a group photo.

The New York Times then tweeted the group shot photo and compared it to the 2015 shot, which also featured the Patriots.

Some players declined to visit the controversial president. Star quarterback Tom Brady, a friend of Trump, also missed the event, saying he had to attend to family issues.

Upon a quick glance, it looked like there were fewer people in the 2017 shot, but the Patriots quickly pointed out that the Times comparison lacked a key piece of information.

“These photos lack context. Facts: In 2015, over 40 football staff were on the stairs. In 2017, they were seated on the South Lawn,” the team tweeted from its official account.

Trump, who appears to have a love-hate relationship with what he has called the “failing” New York Times, was quick to weigh in.

“Failing @nytimes, which has been calling me wrong for two years, just got caught in a big lie concerning New England Patriots visit to W.H.,” the president tweeted from his @realDonaldTrump account.
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Egypt has unveiled a massive granite statue of Ramses II, the most powerful and celebrated of the ancient Pharaohs, after completing its restoration.

Standing 11 meters (36 feet) tall and weighing 75 tons, the statue was presented in a floodlit ceremony at the Luxor Temple on the banks of the Nile on Tuesday evening. When the statue was discovered between 1958 and 1960, it was in 57 pieces.

Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great or Ozymandias, reigned more than 3,000 years ago. He led several military expeditions and expanded the Egyptian empire to stretch from Syria in the north to Nubia in the south.

The statue was displayed just hours after archaeologists unveiled the tomb of a nobleman from more than 3,000 years ago, the latest in a series of discoveries that Egypt hopes will revive a tourist business hit by political instability.

“What we’re happy with is that [the kind of tourists drawn to] classical Egypt, Luxor, Aswan, Nile cruises … are back to normal levels again,” said Hisham El Demery, chief of Egypt’s Tourism Development Authority.

However, an attack Tuesday claimed by Islamic State near St. Catherine’s Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula, one of the world’s most important Christian sites, revived fears for the tourist sector there.

The attack left one police officer dead and four others wounded.
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The Museum of the American Revolution has opened its doors in Philadelphia, with fife and drum music, colorful colonial re-enactors and the blessing of former Vice President Joe Biden.

 

Wednesday’s grand opening festivities traversed three spots in historic Philadelphia, starting at the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier.

 

A fife and drum corps provided an 18th century soundtrack as re-enactors marched to Independence Hall.

Current and former governors of states making up the 13 original colonies gave toasts.

 

Another march led to the new museum for the official dedication and performances including songs from the Broadway hit “Hamilton.”

 

Biden told the crowd the museum is an important reminder of “how we got where we are.”
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Julia Roberts was named People magazine’s world’s most beautiful woman for a record 5th time on Wednesday, but the actress said she thought her best years were yet to come.

Roberts, 49, was first given the annual honor in 1991, a year after she skyrocketed to fame in the romantic comedy “Pretty Woman.” She was also named most beautiful woman in 2000, 2005 and 2010.

“I’m very flattered,” Roberts told People magazine, adding “I think I’m currently peaking.”

The actress, who won an Oscar in 2001 for playing against type in “Erin Brockovich,” has been married for 14 years to cinematographer Danny Moder, with whom she has three children.

Former “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston was last year’s most beautiful woman for People magazine.
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Archeologists in Egypt have made a major discovery of statues, coffins and several mummies in a 3,500-year-old tomb.

According to the Antiquities Ministry, the tomb, which is on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor, was believed to have been built between 1,500 and 1,000 B.C., likely for a judge.

The tomb, which is located in the Draa Abul Nagaa necropolis not far from the Valley of the Kings, is made up of a courtyard that leads to two halls. One hallway had four colorful coffins, while the other had six.

The Associated Press reports that the head of the dig, Mostafa el-Waziri, said another area contains statues depicting royalty from previous ruling dynasties.

“It was a surprise how much was being displayed inside” the tomb, Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enany told reporters outside the tomb, according to Al Jazeera.”We found a large number of Ushabti (small carved figurines), more than 1,000 of them. This is an important discovery.”

More discoveries, including more mummies, are expected.
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Monday marked the 121st running of the annual Boston Marathon. But wounds stemming from the 2013 bombings are still open. Four years after the event, Rebekah Gregory, who lost a leg in the attack, is back in the city to launch her memoir. It’s called Taking My Life Back.
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Geoffrey Kirui of Kenya won the 121st Boston Marathon on Monday, leading a sweep for his nation of the men’s and women’s divisions.

Kirui pulled away from three-time U.S. Olympian Galen Rupp with 2 miles (3 kilometers) to go in the 26.2-mile (42 km) run to take the title in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 37 seconds. Rupp was 21 seconds back, and Suguru Osako of Japan placed third, 51 seconds behind the winner.

“In my mind, I was sure that one day I would win this race,” said the 25-year-old Kirui, competing in his third marathon. “To come here to Boston, I knew I was going to face my colleagues who have run many times here. … I knew I would challenge some of the champions who have been competing here.”

Edna Kiplagat won the women’s race in 2 hours, 21 minutes, 52 seconds for the Kenyan sweep. Rose Chelimo of Bahrain was runner-up, 59 seconds back, and American Jordan Hasay was another 9 seconds behind to take third place.

Ethiopians swept the titles last year. Kenyans had won either the men’s or women’s race every year since 1991 before being shut out in 2014 and again last year.

Temperatures were much warmer than normal this year, with the thermometer hitting 79 degrees (26 C) at the 20-kilometer mark.

Americans dominated the men’s division with six runners placing in the top 10.

“It’s so exciting to see Americans being competitive here,” said Rupp, the Olympic bronze medalist who was making his Boston debut. “It’s a real exciting time. And it’s awesome to see American distance running on the upswing and being competitive in these races.”

“American distance running is looking good today,” said sixth-place finisher Abdi Abdirahman, a Somali immigrant and Arizona resident who is a four-time Olympian. “We have the podium for both men and women, so the future is great.”

It was the first time since 1991 that two U.S. women had finished in the top four, with Desi Linden placing fourth.

Earlier Monday, Boston city officials announced plans for memorials to mark the sites near the finish line where two bombs exploded during the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.

Two brothers who immigrated from Russia, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were identified as the perpetrators. Tamerlan was killed during a shootout with police four days after the twin explosions that came 12 seconds apart. Dzhokhar remains in a federal prison after being sentenced to death.
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After nine attempts to sneak across the border between Syria and Turkey, with an indescribable amount of fear and painful near-death experiences, 31-year-old Mustafa Hamed finally found a home in Germany, where he is working hard to piece together his life.

“The most important thing is you are lost here. So you have to find a new job, new friends — you have to find a new life,” Hamed said. “So this is a new start for me.”

His priority right now is mastering the language. His dream is to work in journalism. As he works hard to achieve this dream, he constantly struggles with a nightmare — the memory of his days in Aleppo.

“The clashes started in Aleppo in, maybe, 2012,” he recalled. “You can imagine, it was daily and you can hear every night bombing someplace near you — maybe for just two kilometers [away]. The electricity was cut down for a long time. You have to wait for 7 or 8 hours just to charge your phone.”

Resetting their lives

Psychologist and researcher Kenneth Miller, in his book War Torn: Stories of Courage, Love and Resilience, recounts Hamed’s story, among many others from Guatemala, Mexico, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka.

During his more than 25 years of working with war victims, Miller noticed that the majority of what has been written about war focuses on soldiers. He wanted to draw attention to what’s missing from the conversation: the experience of civilians. In his book, he shares dozens of stories of people he met and worked with in many places around the world.

One of the most compelling stories is from Samad Khan, an Afghan who became a refugee in the 1980s, during his country’s war against the Soviets. Khan participated in Miller’s research in Afghanistan. In one of the counseling sessions on dealing with painful experiences, Khan shared a traumatic memory.

“He was driving a pickup truck with his sister’s family in the back, up a steep, winding mountain road and the road was controlled by the Mujahedeen, the freedom fighters,” Miller said. “They stopped him at one point and asked him to show his papers. So he stopped the car, and got out to show them his papers, but he realized he had forgotten to set the hand brake. He watched in horror as the truck spiraled off the side of the mountain and tumbled hundreds of feet down to the valley below. He had to go down to retrieve the bodies and bring them back to Kabul for burial.”

Overcoming tragedies

However, when Miller met him, Khan was a life-loving community leader. “I said, ‘How did you get over this? You seem to be doing so well now!’ He said it was a combination of the power of his faith and he also had a tremendous support of his extended family and friends,” Miller explained. “They got him through. I tell his story because this is something that recurs in the book, in every country that I worked in, that we are more alike than we are different. His story also captures something that we’ve seen in a lot of refugee communities, which is war, of course, can be devastating, but we’re built to heal. If the conditions are supportive, safe and stable, people have a remarkable capacity to be resilient and to heal.”

When the environment is safe and supportive, Miller says, refugees not only survive painful experiences, but they can thrive.

He tells another story, based on his experience in Guatemala:

“I got adopted by this one family while I was living in the camp for a year. This family fled when they heard about a massacre in a neighboring village where about 370 people were killed. They spent two months hiding in the mountains in the rainy season. They finally came down on the Mexican side of the border and found their way in to the refugee camp. This young fellow, Emilio, had developed a combination of trauma and severe shock. After a couple of days of traditional prayers and use of herbs, he healed. I think more than anything what really helped him heal was this tremendous love and support of his family. He has become a vibrant young professional musician, he became a refugee in Canada, who is doing wonderfully well.”

The social media effect

Miller says he hopes sharing these stories can help raise awareness about refugees’ situations.

“One of the biggest predictors about whether the refugees become severely depressed or adapt successfully is the extent to which they’re either made to feel welcome, given language and the material resources to get a new start, or whether they encounter a lot of discrimination. The more people feel marginalized and discriminated, of course, the harder it is for them to integrate, and the harder it is for them to heal,” he said.

One point Miller raises is the effect of social media. He says these tools can be helpful in raising awareness about the plight of refugees, but they also can be harmful if they’re used to spread misconceptions.

He points to images shared on social media of Syrian refugees on Lesbos, Greece. “When you see this father holding his two children and weeping and just arriving safely after crossing the sea, it mobilizes people and brings them to want to help, do something to counter this. Now, on the other hand, you also see social media being used to spread rumors and lies about refugees. Social media can spread tremendous fear, and that has serious consequences. It gets people turned back. It causes great harm.”

Miller says he also hopes these stories can inspire refugees and help them discover the inner strength they need to survive and start anew.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump hosted thousands of children and their parents Monday at the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll.

The president, first lady and their 11-year-old son Barron, accompanied by an Easter Bunny, greeted the crowd from a balcony of the White House. “We will be stronger and bigger and better as a nation than ever before,” Trump said. “We’re right on track. You see what’s happening.”

The Easter Egg Roll at the White House, on the day after Easter, has a long tradition dating back to 1878.

This year’s event, with 21,000 tickets handed out to Washington-area schoolchildren and military families, was a smaller affair than in years past. About 35,000 people attended a year ago, when then-first lady Michelle Obama organized a carnival-like affair with pop singers, celebrity chefs and professional sports stars.

Children and families roamed the White House lawn at Monday’s event, pushing wooden eggs across the grass with oversized spoons, playing beanbag games and coloring drawings that are being sent to U.S. troops stationed overseas. Military bands, a pop-rock band and a family circus performed for the crowd.
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An art exhibition in New York highlights undocumented immigrants and the items they left behind while crossing hostile desert territory from Mexico into the United States. The show, called State of Exception, stems from the University of Michigan’s Undocumented Migration Project, and it uses only discarded objects. Celia Mendoza reports on these traces of human migration from the New School’s Parsons School of Design.
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