Author: Ohart

National parks traveler Mikah Meyer continued his journey in the southeastern state of Florida with a visit to Dry Tortugas — a chain of small islands in the Gulf of Mexico. The remote Dry Tortugas National Park is home to beautiful coral reefs, a vast assortment of bird and marine life, and a magnificent 19th century fort. The young traveler, who’s on a mission to visit all of the more than 400 NPS sites, shared highlights with VOA’s Julie Taboh.
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Danish toymaker Lego is building a playhouse in its hometown designed to look like 21 giant versions of its bricks stacked on top of each other, the company said on Thursday.

The Lego House is due to open in September near the company’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark.

“Lego House will be the only one of its kind in the world and it will remain so, because Billund is the home of Lego and this is where we will always be,” its general manager, Jesper Vilstrup, told Reuters.

The 12,000-square-meter (130,000-square-feet) building, designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, will include three restaurants, a Lego store, four play areas and a gallery displaying the history of Lego and creations made by fans.

Lego House will “display everything the Lego brick can do,” Vilstrup said.

Lego, which is vying with Barbie doll maker Mattel to become the world’s biggest toymaker, has teamed up with movie franchises such as “Star Wars” in deals that span Lego sets, video games, and smartphone applications.

The company, founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen and his grandchild Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, aims to bring children back to its core product: the Lego brick, first produced in its current form in 1958.
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Pink Floyd co-founders Roger Waters and Nick Mason hope an exhibition in May documenting the rock band’s 50 years in music will give fans a sense of their live work as well as honor those who helped fulfill their artistic vision.

“The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains” opens at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in May, the same venue which previously hosted a David Bowie retrospective.

On display will be more than 350 artifacts, including letters, sketches, handwritten lyrics as well as footage of the band’s live performances.

“I think what [fans] will get…is a real sense of the scale of some of the live work that we did, some of theatrics that we developed over the years,” Waters told Reuters on Thursday. “Hopefully there’s personal memorabilia that people are interested in because they’re interested in the history of it.”

The exhibition comes 50 years since the release of Pink Floyd’s first single “Arnold Layne.”  Known for its experimental music, the band went on enjoy worldwide acclaim, namely with “Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall.”

“What you realize is that it’s literally hundreds and hundreds of people who’ve worked with us as sound engineers or road crew, technicians, inventors or graphics or whatever,” Mason said. “And to go ‘we got through a lot of work by getting help from these people’ – that’s a really nice aspect of it.”

Released in 1979, “The Wall” is one of the most successful albums of all time.

Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the border with Mexico, Waters said: “The building of walls between nations and between religions and between races and between different groups of people with different beliefs is invariably counterproductive.”

“We should be past a time when we’re wanting to make enemies of the other. Unfortunately we’re not.” 
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The Salt Lake Screaming Eagles take flight on Thursday as the normally low- profile Indoor Football League offers a glimpse into the future of interactive sports.

The expansion team’s site, coach, logo, mascot, cheerleaders and players have already been chosen by fans, who will use an app to pick the Screaming Eagles’ plays in real time when they meet the visiting Nebraska Danger at 8,000-seat Maverik Center.

“That’s the future of sports,” club owner and co-founder of Project FANchise Sohrab Farudi told Reuters. “Twenty years from now fans are going to be very hands on and interactive with all of their sports teams.”

More than 30,000 fans across the United States and over 20 countries have jumped on the Screaming Eagles’ digital bandwagon and some major movers in sports are paying attention.

Sports Illustrated will live stream Thursday’s game on its website and Farudi said the entire Screaming Eagles home schedule might be streamed. The rest of the league’s games are available on YouTube Live.

The ownership group includes longtime NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball business executive Andy Dolich, who spent four years with the San Francisco 49ers, seven with the Memphis Grizzlies and 15 with the Oakland A’s.

“This is the laboratory for fans to actually express themselves and be involved however immersively we can take them as we move forward,” Dolich told Reuters in a phone interview.

“We can go to the white board and really give the fans, who are giving of their time, their money, their enthusiasm, their heart and soul and their knowledge, an opportunity to get involved.”

Any fan that downloads the app can engage in voting, though fans that hunger for advanced participation can ante up for special tutorials that allow them to contribute in the team’s virtual front office.

“That’s the future of sports, the interactive model,” said Farudi, whose group has also bought the IFL’s Colorado Crush for a second team in the 10-club league that will be run by fans.

“With e-sports and gaming taking such a large role now .. traditional sports have to catch up. The younger generation is looking for this type of interactive experience.”

Fans are paying from $10 to $40 a month for tutorials from Screaming Eagles staff on scouting, breaking down game tape, designing plays and game-planning among other skills and are allowed to watch meetings and clubhouse speeches.

“A couple of players on our team were found by some of our fan scouts in our virtual front office,” said Farudi. “They sent in tape to our coaching staff, who were impressed and invited them to try out.”

Team president Thom Carter said there are 15 to 20 assistant general managers and 75 scouts in the virtual front office.

“We’re all working together,” Carter said. “Every other week we do a Google hangout. These folks that are all over the world sign in and we have an open conversation about the business side of the team as well as the football side of the team.”

Farudi envisions the entire IFL becoming fan-driven and renamed the Interactive Football League.

“My plan is to build this platform in a way that we can go out and take it the NFL or Major League Baseball and provide them services and opportunity,” he said. “That’s the future of sports, the interactive model.”
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Keith Urban’s boundary-pushing album “Ripcord” has spawned several top country singles and led him to pick up seven nominations including entertainer of the year and album of the year at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards.

Lady Antebellum announced the nominations Thursday on “CBS This Morning” for the awards show, which will be held April in Las Vegas and aired live on CBS. Urban is also nominated for male vocalist of the year, single record of the year and song of the year.

Six-time nominee Miranda Lambert could make history again as she is nominated for female vocalist of the year, which she has won a record seven years in a row. She is also nominated for album of the year for her double album, “The Weight of These Wings,” single record of the year, song of the year and video of the year.

Coming off her Grammy win for best country solo performance, Maren Morris tied Lambert with six nominations, including album of the year for “HERO.” She also is nominated as female vocalist of the year, new female vocalist of the year and single record of the year for her song, “My Church.”

With strong pop, dance and R&B influences, Urban’s album has dominated country radio over the past year, with four singles reaching the top six on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

Urban, who performed his newest single “The Fighter” at the Grammys last Sunday with Carrie Underwood, said the entertainer of the year nomination is an acknowledgement of great live performances.

“I have been a musician since I was six and playing on stage since I was like 7,” Urban told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I have always loved performing on stage, being an entertainer. So that category has always been the highest honor imaginable.”

He added that great performances are all about being “in the flow,” and mentioned Adele’s performance at the Grammys when she restarted her tribute to George Michael.

“She had this incredible courage to stop it in the middle of a live show and say, ‘Let me get this thing right,'” Urban said. “It was the most extraordinary thing I have ever seen on a live TV show.”

Competing with Urban for entertainer of the year will be last year’s winner, Jason Aldean, along with Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line and Underwood.

Florida Georgia Line and Tim McGraw both have five nominations each, including a shared nomination for vocal event of the year for their collaboration on the song “May We All.”

Bryan and Dierks Bentley, who has three nominations, return to host the awards for a second time together. Thomas Rhett and Chris Stapleton also each have three nominations.

 
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WATCH: People in America: Meet Tuhin Das — Poet, Activist and Writer in Exile
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Two South African rowers pushed off from the coast of Cape Town earlier in February and began what they hope will be a record-breaking journey to Rio de Janeiro. If they succeed, they will be the first to row across the southern Atlantic. Their goal in undertaking such a voyage: to raise awareness about climate change.

The entire distance for rowers Braam Malherbe and Wayne Robertson is 6,400 kilometers as the crow flies, but they plan to row much farther to take advantage of currents and prevailing winds. Their route takes them north along the African coast before turning west, paddling past the island of St. Helena in the mid-Atlantic, and then south to Rio, says Malherbe.

Their boat, at barely seven meters long, includes a watertight bubble at the bow, where the two oarsmen can rest or take shelter in a storm.

However, they will spend most of their time in the rowing seats on the narrow deck that lies just two feet above the waterline.

“So it’s rowing two hours, resting two hours, 24-7, through the day, through the night, for up to 90 days,” Malherbe said. “We’re hoping that we’re going to have tailwinds, which means we could possibly complete it in as little as 60 days.”

Malherbe is no stranger to grueling endeavors.

In the past decade, he has run the length of the Great Wall of China; raced on foot to the South Pole in temperatures of 45 degrees below zero (Celsius); and run the Southern African coastline to fund cleft-palate operations for children.

He says mental strength is key.

“I’ve done a lot of work on the erg, the rowing machine that I have at home: technique, skilled stuff,” Malherbe said. “I’ve got a bloke called Guy Biscoe, he’s my rowing coach. On the water, I’ve only done probably 50 kilometers on this thing in bits and pieces — two hours on, two hours off, two hours on, getting my head right. Because if you over-train, you’re going to injure, and at my age, 59, I don’t want to injure. So I rather go slower, err on the side of caution, and build up my fitness as I get closer to Rio. Halfway mark, I should be peaking.”

The two men are traveling without a support vessel, which means they are alone in the risks they face. Whales are one hazard — the creatures sleep on the surface of the water, and hitting one would roll their boat.

“The boat will self-right, but it’s still not pleasant,” Malherbe said.

But their greatest danger is ships at night.

“We have what’s called an AIS on the vessel, line of sight. So it will pick up a vessel and go beep, beep, beep and send an alarm,” Malherbe said. “But they don’t change course, and sometimes there’s not even anyone on the bridge. So being hit by a ship, it’s over for us.”

All of which raises the question: Why do it?

Malherbe is a noted conservationist in his native South Africa. By rowing the southern Atlantic, he is hoping to encourage people to find out how they can tackle climate change.

Like many things these days, there is an app for that. Called the DOT Challenge, which stands for Do One Thing, its purpose is to encourage people to take action in four categories — conservation, water, waste and energy — and share what they’ve done.

“That’s the purpose of this journey — 2.3 million pulls to get to Rio. We’re hoping to have 2.3 million people on that app doing one thing for the planet by the time we reach Rio,” Malherbe said.

If the winds are in their favor, Malherbe and Robertson expect to reach Rio in April.
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They’re pets that need a few accommodations, like a minivan with the seats pulled out, a bed that can approach the size of a twin mattress and a household that doesn’t mind when an animal that weighs in triple digits wants to “share” the sofa.

But owners of some of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show’s giant breeds say there’s no small joy in thinking big.

“It’s a very interesting relationship you can have with a large dog,” Lynn Kiaer of Argyle, New York, said as two of her 10 Scottish deerhounds, Seaforth and Rhionnach, relaxed after competing this week. To her, “their whole manner of living” feels closer to human scale than does life with smaller dogs.

After all, her lean, gentle dogs can come roughly eye-to-eye with a person sitting down: Seaforth, a 6-year-old male, stands about 32 inches tall at the shoulder alone.

Size matters

 

While canines of all shapes and sizes have won the nation’s most prestigious dog show, large breeds just might win an outsized share of attention outside the ring as visitors mingle with dogs and breeders.

“Those are bigger than the wolves I’ve seen!” one boy exclaimed as he laid eyes on Irish wolfhounds Stuart and Kaviar, members of the tallest breed recognized by the American Kennel Club, the governing body for Westminster and many other canine competitions.

“It’s a good thing,” owner Karen Goodell said, explaining that the dogs’ commanding size — 4-year-old Stuart is about 37 inches at the shoulder and weighs 180 pounds — was an asset when they historically hunted wolves and guarded castles in their native Ireland.

At Goodell’s Colorado Springs farm, a half-dozen wolfhounds enjoy the run of fields and the comfort of lazing around a house with taller-than-usual kitchen countertops and everything from biscuits to bowls in “jumbo” size.

While some giant dogs can be easygoing house pets, owners stress that early, assiduous training is essential for puppies that will grow — quickly — to an imposing size.

“You’re not going to be able, in six months, to pick up this dog if it misbehaves,” notes Newfoundland owner Kathy Wortham of Newport Beach, California. Her dog Xander competed Tuesday.

Shorter lifespan

Big-breed owners also confront the painful reality of losing their dogs relatively soon. While the average lifespan of American dogs of all sizes has roughly doubled in the last 40 years because of factors including better medications and diets, “it’s a fact that larger dogs die earlier and smaller dogs live longer,” said Dr. Joseph Kinnarney, until recently the president of the American Veterinary Medicine Association. He also co-owned the 1995 Westminster best in show winner, a Scottish terrier named Peggy Sue.

The reasons for the lifespan discrepancy aren’t clear, but Kinnarney says he’s hopeful continuing genetic research will shed light over time. For now, though, a long-lived Chihuahua might make it to 18, for instance, while 10 would be an impressive lifespan for an Irish wolfhound.

“That’s the hardest part” of having a wolfhound, Goodell says. “To me, they’re worth it because they’re so wonderful. … They’re smart, they’re loyal and they’re great to live with.”

Any dog owner has his or her share of “it’s worth its,” but the big-breed crowd has perhaps a particularly memorable list.

Big dogs … big beds

 

For Great Dane owner and breeder Teresa LaBrie, who showed her dog Duesy at Westminster on Tuesday, it’s worth custom-ordering supersized dog beds and using a 13-quart bucket as a water bowl for the 10 Danes who share her Norwich, New York, home with, yes, two Chihuahuas.

“There are times when we sit on the floor because we don’t want to disturb the dogs,” she chuckled.

With four St. Bernards at his home in Lawrenceberg, Kentucky, Dr. BJ Jackson has grown accustomed to sweeping up daily and teaching hundred-pound puppies that they’re too big to jump into laps.

“Absolutely, it’s worth it,” said Jackson, whose dog Rambo competed at Westminster. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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Barack and Michelle Obama, the former U.S. president and first lady, on Tuesday tweeted Valentine’s Day greetings to each other. A C-Span reporter tweeted a picture of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at an upscale grocery store buying a Valentine’s Day bouquet for his wife, Karen.

Later, Pence tweeted at the reporter: “Don’t ruin the surprise. Ready to share our 34th Valentine’s Day with my valentine, Karen.”

In Pakistan on Monday, the Islamabad High Court placed a ban on the celebration of Valentine’s Day because a citizen petitioned for it, saying the February 14 holiday promotes “immorality, nudity and indecency.” Public displays of affection are forbidden in Pakistan because they are seen as un-Islamic.

Indonesia and Saudi Arabia also banned celebration of the holiday that honors love of all kinds, but especially romantic love.

Even in places where people are free to celebrate, the holiday has its critics — most notably, single people who say the day just serves to highlight their unpartnered status.

Violent origins

But the torture of lonely hearts is a newer development in the holiday’s violent past. According to legend, the day’s namesake St. Valentine, a Roman priest, was beaten, stoned and beheaded for conducting Christian marriage ceremonies sometime in the third century. However, Catholic histories contain numerous martyrs named Valentine, leaving open the question of which Valentine is responsible for the modern-day celebration.

Pope Gelasius in 496 established February 14 as St. Valentine’s feast day. Because of the legend about Christian marriages, over time the day has taken on romantic connotations.

It is even mentioned in the writings of 14th-century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who is one of the earliest writers known to have referenced the day. He spoke of it in several poems as the day when birds traditionally choose their mates.

But the timing of the day coincides with a less innocent celebration: that of Lupercalia, the Roman feast of fertility. Lupercalia was celebrated with naked men or near-naked men running through the city streets, striking women’s hands with leather thongs to allegedly improve fertility.

By the 19th century, Valentine’s Day had become the day to declare one’s love with elaborate, handmade cards and handwritten sentiments. By the beginning of the 20th century, mass-produced Valentine cards had become big business.

Big business

The U.S.-based Hallmark Cards company, which dominates the greeting card industry, produced its first Valentine card in 1913.

The National Retail Federation says American consumers spent $4.3 billion on jewelry, $2 billion on flowers and $1 billion on cards for Valentine’s Day this year. Valentine’s Day is also a big commercial holiday in Japan, where women give men chocolates and men reciprocate with gifts of even higher value a month later, on March 14. South Koreans have a similar practice.

In Ireland, those seeking love might go to Dublin’s Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church, which houses some relics believed to have come from St. Valentine.

Popular variations

In Finland, the day is known as “Friends’ Day,” and is centered more on platonic friendships than romantic ones.

And, of course, there is a counterculture for singles feeling left out on the big day. Girlfriends wish each other a “happy Galentines’ Day” (“gal” being a euphemism for “girl”), blogs publish anti-Valentine’s song playlists and lists of comforting movies to watch, and bars host anti-Valentine’s parties.

And, in maybe the biggest Valentine’s backlash of all, students at Nanjing University in China concocted “Singles’ Day” in the 1990s. Celebrated November 11, the day has grown into Asia’s largest single shopping day of the year, with sales of $17.8 billion.
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Having once forecast doom for photography in the face of the smartphone, Sebastiao Salgado has changed his mind.

One of the most lauded documentary photographers of recent decades, 73-year-old Salgado told Reuters: “I don’t think it is endangered. I thought so at some point, but I was wrong and I take that back. I think photography, now more than ever, has a long future ahead.”

The Brazilian is still dismissive of the billions of smartphones which now take the overwhelming majority of the world’s pictures.

But he believes that documentary photographers are cutting through that with memorable pictures that will survive.

“What people do with their telephones is not photography, it’s images,” he said in Bangkok for an exhibition of his work. “Photography is a tangible thing, you grab it, you look at it. It is something akin to memory.”

Salagdo’s black and white, pin-sharp images have a grandeur that only enhances his often brutal subject matter of people caught in poverty and conflict or threatened environments.

Among his most famous photographs are those of swarming and muddy gold miners in Serra Pelada in Brazil.

Salgado shifted to digital photography from film in 2008, but his prints are still created using the old gelatin silver process for the range and subtlety of its tones.

 

Industry estimates for the total number of photos that will be taken in 2017 range upwards from a trillion.

At least 85 percent of those pictures will be taken on one of the world’s more than 2 billion smartphones with only some 10 percent taken on a dedicated digital camera.
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Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici won the 2017 World Press Photo competition Monday for his image of a gun-wielding off-duty Turkish policeman standing over the body of Russia’s ambassador, whom he had just fatally shot.

Ozbilici’s image was part of a series titled “An Assassination in Turkey” that also won the Spot News – Stories category. The photos were captured in the moments before and after policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas drew a handgun and shot Ambassador Andrei Karlov at a photo exhibition in Ankara on Dec. 19.

In the winning photo, the gunman, wearing a suit and tie, stands defiantly, pistol in his right hand pointed at the ground and with his left hand raised, his index finger pointing upward. His mouth is wide open as he shouts angrily. The ambassador’s body lies on the floor just behind Altintas.

Another image in the series showed the ambassador before the shooting, with Altintas standing behind him.

Ozbilici said his professional instincts kicked in despite the shocking scene unfolding in front of him.

“It was extremely hot, like I had boiled water on my head, then very cold, very cold. Extremely dangerous,” Ozbilici said in an interview. “But at the same time I understood that this was big history, it was history, [a] very, very important incident.”

So the veteran AP photographer did what he has learned to do over some 30 years: “I immediately decided to do my job because I could be wounded, maybe die, but at least I have to represent good journalism,” he said.

The winning image announced Monday was among 80,408 photos submitted to the prestigious competition by 5,034 photographers from 125 countries. The jury awarded prizes in eight categories to 45 photographers from 25 countries.

“Burhan’s striking image was the result of skill and experience, composure under extreme pressure and the dedication and sense of mission that mark AP journalists worldwide,” said AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee. “We are enormously proud of his accomplishment.”

Jury chair Stuart Franklin called Ozbilici’s image “an incredibly hard-hitting news photograph” and part of a strong series documenting the assassination.

“I think Burhan was incredibly courageous and had extraordinary composure in being able to sort of calm himself down in the middle of the affray and take the commanding pictures that he took,” Franklin said. “I think as a spot news story it was terrific.”

Denis Paquin, AP’s acting director of photography, said Ozbilici’s actions that day were typical of his professionalism. 

“Burhan would tell you he was just doing his job. His humble professionalism, combined with incredible courage, enabled him to capture these unforgettable images,” he said.

 

The eclectic selection of winners highlighted the dominant news topics of the last year _ including conflict in Syria and Iraq, the migrant crisis, the death of longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro and the Olympic Games in Rio. Among winning nature photos were images depicting humanity’s devastating effect on wildlife, including a gruesome photograph of a poached rhino with its horn hacked off and another showing a turtle swimming while enmeshed in a green fishing net.

 

Among other winners, Jonathan Bachman of the United States, a photographer for Thomson Reuters, won the Contemporary Issues – Singles category with an image of Ieshia Evans being detained in Baton Rouge during a protest on July 9 over the death of Alton Sterling, a black man killed by police. Evans stands bolt upright in a flowing dress as two police officers in heavy body armor and helmets move to take her into custody.

 

Franklin called Bachman’s image “an unforgettable sort of comment on passive resistance. It’s really a lovely photograph. You’ll never forget it.”

 

AP photographer Vadim Ghirda, based in Romania, won second prize in the Contemporary Issues – Singles category with an emotionally charged photo of migrants crossing a river as they attempt to reach Macedonia from Greece, while another AP photographer, Felipe Dana, came third in the Spot News – Singles category for his image of an explosion in Mosul, Iraq. And Santi Palacios won second in the General News – Singles category for a photo that ran on the AP wire of two Nigerian children who said their mother died in Libya aboard a rescue boat in the Mediterranean Sea.
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Americans shower their loved ones with gifts on Valentine’s Day, with chocolate candy being the most popular gift-giving item, according to a recent National Retail Federation survey. The organization estimates consumers will spend $1.7 million on chocolates this year. That keeps Ben Rasmussen, who creates award-winning chocolates, especially busy. VOA’s June Soh visited his one-man chocolate factory in the Virginia suburbs. Carol Pearson narrates her report.
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The 59th annual Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles on February 12, honoring the top performers in music over the previous year. Here are the award winners:

 

Album of the year: “25,” Adele.

Record of the year: “Hello,” Adele.

Best new artist: Chance the Rapper.

Song of the year (songwriter’s award): “Hello,” Adele and Greg Kurstin.

Best pop solo performance: “Hello,” Adele.

Best pop vocal album: “25,” Adele.

Best traditional pop vocal album: “Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin,” Willie Nelson.

Best pop duo or group performance: “Stressed Out,” twenty one pilots.

Best dance/electronic album: “Skin,” Flume.

Best rock song: “Blackstar,” David Bowie.

Best rock album: “Tell Me I’m Pretty,” Cage the Elephant.

Best alternative music album: “Blackstar,” David Bowie.

Best R&B album: “Lalah Hathaway Live,” Lalah Hathaway.

Best urban contemporary album: “Lemonade,” Beyonce.

Best rap album: “Coloring Book,” Chance the Rapper.

Best country album: “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth,” Sturgill Simpson.

Best country solo performance: “My Church,” Maren Morris. Best jazz vocal album: “Take Me to the Alley,” Gregory Porter.

Best jazz instrumental album: “Country for Old Men,” John Scofield.

Best compilation soundtrack for visual media: “Miles Ahead,” Miles Davis & various artists

Producer of the year, non-classical: Greg Kurstin.

Best music video: “Formation,” Beyonce.
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Adele won the trifecta – album of the year, record of the year, and song of the year – at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday night, beating out Beyonce in all three categories.  When she won the record of the year, Adele said, “My dream and my idol is Queen B and I want you to be my mommy.”

Earlier in the show, Beyonce delivered a performance that was an ode to motherhood with her twin-carrying baby bump featured prominently. Beyonce won the Grammy for best urban contemporary album for Lemonade.  

Adele also won in the best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album categories. 

The annual music awards show is known as music’s biggest night and Sunday’s show did not disappoint.  It was loaded with show-stopping performances and tributes – Lady Gaga performed with Metallica, while Bruno Mars sounded eerily like the late Prince. Adele sang a tribute to the late George Michael, stopping her performance near the beginning because of a technical issue.  She began again after telling the audience, “I can’t mess this up for him,” referring to Michael. 

Chance the Rapper won in three categories, including best new artist, without selling a single CD or download.  The 23-year-old rapper released his music only through streaming. 

The late David Bowie’s performance on his song Blackstar won him Grammys for best rock performance and best rock song. 

Solange, Beyonce’s little sister, won the best rhythm and blues performance for Cranes in the Sky. 

The best country song performance nod went to Maren Morris for My Church.  Morris said in her acceptance speech that 11 years ago, she was a participant in the first Grammy Camp, which teaches young people about the music business. 

This year’s show was hosted by James Corden.

Unlike the Golden Globes earlier the year, the Grammys generally avoided political statements for most of the show, until A Tribe Called Quest took the stage late in the evening. 

Busta Rhymes repeatedly called President Donald Trump “President Agent Orange” as the group sharply criticized Trump’s recent executive order attempting to freeze immigration from several Muslim-majority countries, and Busta Rhymes called it a “Muslim ban.” 

The rappers repeatedly chanted, “We the people” and ended their performance shouting “Resist! Resist! Resist!” – something that’s become a rallying cry for those protesting Trump’s policies. 

Trump had been referenced but rarely mentioned earlier in the show. 

Katy Perry’s performance did include several political messages and the displaying of the preamble of the Constitution. 

But unlike last month’s Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, Trump wasn’t a fixture of acceptance speeches. 

Some material for this report came from the Associated Press.
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Glamour was shot through with grit at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday.

Frothy musical “La La Land” took five prizes including best picture, but major awards also went to tough welfare-state drama “I, Daniel Blake” and fractured-family stories “Lion” and “Manchester by the Sea.”

In keeping with an awards season that has coincided with a wrenching change of government in the United States, even “La La Land’s” prizes came with a political tinge.

Accepting the best-actress trophy for playing a barista who dreams of Hollywood stardom, Emma Stone said that “this country and the US, and the world seems to be going through a bit of a time.”

She said that in a divided world, it was vital to celebrate “the positive gift of creativity and how we can transcend borders and how we help people to feel a little less alone.”

The U.K. awards, known as BAFTAs, are often seen as an indicator of who will win at Hollywood’s Academy Awards, held two weeks later. “La La Land” already is a dominant force at the Oscars, with 14 nominations. It also has won seven Golden Globes.

“La La Land” had 11 nominations for the British awards and won prizes for Stone, director Damien Chazelle, music and cinematography as well as best picture.

But while the luscious musical was an academy favorite, voters also rewarded less escapist fare.

Stone’s co-star, Ryan Gosling, lost out on the best-actor prize to Casey Affleck, who played a grieving handyman in “Manchester by the Sea.”

Affleck, who is also Oscar-nominated for the role, thanked writer-director Kenneth Lonergan for creating a film that “dignifies everyday lives and their struggles with great compassion.”

The wintry New England drama also won Lonergan the prize for best original screenplay.

British actor Dev Patel pulled off an upset, beating favorite Mahershala Ali, from “Moonlight,” to the best supporting actor trophy for “Lion,” about a young man who goes searching for the Indian family from which he was separated as a child.

The London-born Patel expressed shock at being a winner at a ceremony he used to watch on TV with his family.

He said “Lion,” which co-stars Nicole Kidman is “a film, about family, about a love that transcends borders, race, color, anything.”

The “Slumdog Millionaire” star thanked his “amazing team, who had the insane task of trying to get this Indian dude, this noodle with wonky teeth and a lazy eye and floppy hair, work in this industry.”

“Lion” also took the BAFTA for best adapted screenplay.

Ken Loach’s “I, Daniel Blake” was named best British film. The 80-year-old director used his acceptance speech to lambast the country’s Conservative government.

Loach said his docudrama about a carpenter trying to get welfare after a heart attack shows that “the most vulnerable and the poorest people are treated by this government with a callous brutality that is disgraceful.”

Loach apologized for making a political speech, but told reporters backstage that “you can’t do a film like this and then talk showbiz.”

Loach was cheered by an audience at London’s Royal Albert Hall that included Prince William, his wife, Kate, and nominees including Meryl Streep, Casey Affleck, Emma Stone and Nicole Kidman.

Both William and Kate wore black and white – he a tuxedo, she an off-the-shoulder Alexander McQueen gown and glittering chandelier earrings.

Viola Davis won the supporting actress BAFTA for “Fences,” Denzel Washington’s adaptation of August Wilson’s stage drama about an African-American family.

A visibly moved Davis praised Wilson’s play for showing “that our lives mattered as African Americans.”

“The horse groomer, the sanitation worker, the people who grew up under the heavy boot of Jim Crow,” she said. “The people who did not make it into history books, but they have a story – and those stories deserve to be told.”

Ada DuVernay’s film about mass incarceration in America, “The 13th,” was named best documentary, and Laszlo Nemes’ unbearably powerful Holocaust drama “Son of Saul” took the trophy for best foreign-language film.

The stars brought a dose of glamour to gray, wintry London, as hundreds of fans lined the red carpet outside the domed concert hall beside London’s Hyde Park.

Many said they were unsurprised politics made a guest appearance at the ceremony, as it has so often this awards season. Streep is among the stars who have used the awards stage to criticize President Donald Trump.

Master of ceremonies Stephen Fry joked about Trump’s dismissal of Streep as overrated, declaring from the stage: “I look down on row after row of the most overrated people on the planet.”

Prince William, who serves as president of Britain’s film academy, presented the academy’s lifetime-achievement honor to veteran comedian Mel Brooks at the end of Sunday’s ceremony.

The 90-year-old entertainer said he would treasure the trophy.

“This is one of the awards you will not see on eBay,” he said.

 
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Hours before the Grammy Awards ceremony, the biggest night in the music industry in the United States, word came of the death of well-known jazz and rhythm and blues singer Al Jarreau.

Winner of seven Grammys himself, Jarreau died at age 76 Sunday in a hospital in Los Angeles, the city where the Grammys are held each year. No cause of death was given.

He was hospitalized for exhaustion last week, and while he had been “recovering slowly and steadily” according to a Friday post on his Facebook page, he had been forced to cancel his remaining tour dates for 2017.

The multi-talented Jarreau achieved a rarity, winning Grammys in three different categories:  jazz, pop and rhythm and blues. He released 16 studio albums, a host of live albums and several compilations. He was considered one of jazz’s greatest vocalists. Jarreau’s hits included “We’re in This Love Together,” “After All,” and “Moonlighting.”

“Moonlighting” was the theme he wrote for the late 1980s American television show with the same title, and it cemented his place in pop culture.

As for Sunday night’s 59th Grammys, the battle for the top awards was expected to be between two of the most successful women in pop — Beyoncé and Adele. They go head-to head in each of the top three categories — album, record and song of the year.

Challenging the two for album of the year are Justin Bieber, Drake and Sturgill Simpson.

Another category always closely followed is best new artist. A hit-making production duo, the Chainsmokers, is up against two young country singers, Kelsea Ballerini and Maren Morris, and two rappers, Anderson .Paak and Chance the Rapper.

Eighty-four Grammys will be handed out by the time the night is over, much of it televised live around the world.
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Every year, dozens of talented young American musicians spend a week at Grammy Camp in Los Angeles. They live and breathe music, playing with their peers, honing their skills and working with some of the biggest names in the industry.

This year, they jammed with Joey Alexander, the 13-year-old Indonesian-born jazz pianist whose debut album, “My Favorite Things,” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Albums chart and received two Grammy nominations last year, for best jazz instrumental album and best improvised jazz solo.

This year he was nominated for a third Grammy, for best improvised jazz solo with “Countdown.” The field this year also includes John Scofield, Brad Mehldau, Fred Hersch and Ravi Coltrane, son of the late jazz icon John Coltrane.

One of the campers, Geoff Gallante, played trumpet with Alexander on a ballad: “Just me and him … so that’s a great honor. We got to play for a good 15 minutes.”

Born in Bali, now a New Yorker

Alexander felt the same way. 

“It’s really my honor because to play with my peers who are close to my age … so I am really happy,” he told VOA.

Josiah Alexander Sila was born in Bali to musical parents; his dad plays guitar and piano, his mom’s sister is the Indonesian pop star Nafa Urbach. He remembers hearing jazz for the first time when he was 3 years old; at 6, he was playing the piano.

Alexander played for jazz icon Herbie Hancock in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, but his big break came in 2014 when trumpeter Wynton Marsalis spotted him on YouTube. Marsalis, the artistic director for Jazz at Lincoln Center, invited Alexander to play at the center’s gala that year.

Since then, Alexander has been profiled on U.S. television (CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes”) and received millions of views on YouTube. However, “I’m still me,” he told an interviewer from National Public Radio. “I play sports. Like, I play a little bit of tennis, swimming, like a normal kid. I watch movies.”

The ‘confident touch’ of a veteran

Alexander now lives with his parents in New York City, where he is home-schooled when not performing and receiving swooning reviews from the jazz press.

Alexander’s original compositions, JazzWeekly said, show that “his touch is already confident, spacious and patient.”

Or as Sylvannia Garutch, wrote in the online Elmore Magazine: “I have reached the point where I no longer think of him as an incredible jazz pianist for such a young man; I regard him as an incredible jazz pianist, period.”

This story was first reported by VOA Bahasa Indonesia.
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Every year, dozens of talented American students are selected to join the Grammy Camp in Los Angeles, where the annual Grammy Awards are presented each year. For a week, the Grammy campers hone their musical skills and perform alongside famous professional musicians, including Indonesian jazz piano prodigy Joey Alexander. The 13-year-old is one of this year’s Grammy Awards contenders. VinaMubtadi reports.
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Every Valentine’s Day, U.S. businesses reap great profits on all things red, pink and heart-shaped.

But for tourists roaming Times Square in New York City, there’s a big red-and-pink heart that costs them nothing — and it’s learning opportunity.

On display through March 5, beneath the big-apple-red stadium seating on Broadway and 46th Street, is the winning sculpture of this year’s Times Square Valentine Heart, called “We Were Strangers Once Too.”

The lesson, according to its artists, is to celebrate diversity by way of public data and visual art.

“After the election, we in the studio … were really upset about the language that was coming out about immigration,” said Jer Thorp, founder and principal of the Office for Creative Research, a Brooklyn research group.

Thorp and his team decided their sculpture would focus on immigration, something he said “makes this city great.” His team spent six weeks producing a sculpture featuring 33 metal poles, inscribed with data from the 2015 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau.

As visitors make their way around each section, they view the diverse origins and shifting population patterns of New York City’s foreign-born residents. Upon reaching the final observation point, a red-and-pink heart appears on full display.

“It’s an interesting manifestation of data, to make data real,” said Stephen Jaklitsch, an architect who attended the sculpture’s opening ceremony. “To see the relative numbers of people from different countries — and then all of us united in one large heart — I think is an interesting piece.”

Thorp, himself an immigrant from Canada, says the structure is meant to serve as an important reminder to all who visit.

“Immigrants are our mothers and our fathers and our grandmothers, and our sons and daughters and our loved ones, and our friends,” Thorp said. “There is love at the center of this community.”
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George Clooney and his wife Amal are expecting twins, actor Matt Damon said on Thursday, adding he was so thrilled for the high-profile couple that he “almost started crying” when he found out last fall.

Damon told Entertainment Tonight Canada that Clooney, 55, told him the news while they were filming a movie, and that his wife Amal Clooney, 39, was about eight weeks pregnant at the time.

“I’m like, ‘Are you out of your mind? Don’t tell anybody else, don’t tell anybody else, I mean, don’t you know the 12-week rule?’ Of course he doesn’t,” Damon said, laughing.

“Then four weeks later, ‘I’m like, ‘We’re good right, we’re good,’ so I’m thrilled for him.”

The pregnancy is the first for the Clooneys, who were married in a lavish Italian wedding ceremony in 2014 after a whirlwind romance.

Representatives for George and Amal Clooney did not immediately return Reuters’ requests for comment.

Damon praised Amal Clooney, an international human rights lawyer, calling her “a remarkable woman” and saying George Clooney had “hit the jackpot.” He added that the couple were “going to be awesome parents, those kids are lucky.”

Oscar-winning George Clooney is one of Hollywood’s top A-list actors and box office draws.

Last week, singer Beyonce caused a social media stir after announcing that she and husband, rapper Jay Z, were expecting twins.
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With the 89th Academy Awards almost upon us, critics and Hollywood insiders are placing bets on which nominees will go home with the coveted statuette.

Ideally, the Academy judges films on their artistic merit, but as always, political considerations and even current events can impact who wins an Oscar.

Damien Chazelle’s nostalgic musical La La Land may be the big winner this year.

The film offers a tribute to Hollywood musicals, has great cinematography, good music and a tear-jerking story; but, some critics question if the film really deserves all of its 14 nominations. That number has been equaled by only two other movies throughout Hollywood history: the 1950s drama All About Eve starring Bette Davis, and James Cameron’s 1997 Titanic.

Watch: How Politics, Current Events Can Influence The Oscars

Ads, money influence Oscars

Giovanna Chesler, director of the Film and Video Studies program at George Mason University in Virginia, says that as in any other campaign, robust advertising and a large amount of money can have as much influence as artistic merit in securing a film’s road to the Oscars. 

She says that in some categories, such as the documentary category, filmmakers have to submit a $50,000 fee just to be considered for a nomination. She says such fees guarantee screenings of the prospective nominees’ films in core markets during the Oscar season.

A filmmaker herself, Chesler says she has renewed faith in the Oscars because, as she puts it, “in this year’s nominees you see more talent reflected, not just the marketing ability of the industry.”

 

 

Oscars less white

There are more nominations for minority films and actors.

She points to art films like Moonlight, a coming-of-age drama about an African-American boy growing up in a drug-infested community, and Denzel Washington’s movie adaptation of the play Fences, about a struggling husband and father who, despite his personal flaws, is working hard to make his mark in the world.

These noteworthy films, Chesler said, might not have been registered in the consciousness of viewers’ and Academy voters had it not been for last year’s campaign and protests against “#Oscarssowhite.”

 

“We know that Hidden Figures dominated the box office, right? And continues to, and received a SAG award,” Chesler said. 

Based on a true story, Hidden Figures — the uplifting tale of three African-American women who helped NASA launch the first American astronaut into space and later onto the moon — has captured the popular vote and is an Oscar contender.

The film went viral after scores of movie viewers marveled at the three African-American females’ mathematical genius and wondered how they had never before heard this story. Films such as Hidden Figures and Fences have helped build solidarity and pride among the African-American communities, and they also have created awareness among progressive moviegoers in America at large.

Politics can intrude

Political developments also can have an impact. President Donald Trump’s actions on immigration put a renewed spotlight on refugees.

Giancarlo Rossi’s documentary, Fire at Sea, chronicles rescue efforts off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Rossi’s exquisite camera captures many rescues but also shows the body bags carrying some of those who died in the process.

“This is the moment for documentaries. It really is,” Chesler said. “So, the more questions and attention they get, the better for me to see the genre blossoming.”

She also points to some of the other strong contenders in the same category, such as I am Not Your Negro, by Raoul Peck, examining the state of racial relations in America, from the Civil Rights era to #Black Lives Matter, and Ava DuVernay’s 13th, an in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequality.

Chesler says these nominations were the result of changes in the Academy’s voting community after #Oscarssowhite. She also notes, though, it started two years ago with DuVernay’s film Selma, starring David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr. The film received critical acclaim but no nominations.

“David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay laid the groundwork for this moment. I think Ava DuVernay deserves so much praise for changing the conversation,” Chesler said.

In the Foreign Language Film category, The Salesman, by Academy Award winner Asghar Farhadi, may have received a boost after the president’s travel ban singled out people from seven Muslim-majority countries. Iran is one of these countries. The Iranian filmmaker says he will not attend the Oscars this year, even if he’s allowed into the United States.

The divided political atmosphere also could swing Oscar voters toward picking safer, more mainstream subject matters and actors.

Will voters play it safe?

“Well, La La Land is the barometer,” Chesler said. “And La La Land has just secured more nominations than any other film.”

Chesler hopes the statuettes will be distributed more equitably to talented minority artists this year. One of them is African-American cinematographer Bradford Young, who is breaking new ground with his work in the Oscar-nominated film Arrival. Chesler said such recognition would be a step in the right direction for Hollywood.

She cautions, however, that this progress only signals the beginning of change in an industry traditionally led by white men. She underscores that while minority films garnered many nominations this year, women and other groups continue to be excluded in many major Academy Award categories.

She highlights the exclusion of women behind the camera. This year, no females were nominated in the categories of Best Director or Best Cinematography. According to a Women’s Media Center analysis, women constituted only 20 percent of the nonacting nominations. It’s not hard to imagine the rise of a new movement: #OscarsSoMale.

 
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The 89th Academy Awards are upon us and, as every year, fans, critics and Hollywood insiders are divided over which nominees should go home with the coveted award. Although the idea is that films are judged on their artistic merit, there are also political considerations that can determine the winner. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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Soul music legend Aretha Franklin says she plans to retire from full-time touring after she releases a new album in September.

“I am retiring this year,” the 74-year-old singer told a Detroit TV station in a telephone interview this week. “I will be recording, but this will be my last year in concert. This is it.”

Known as the “Queen of Soul,” Franklin said she planned about a six-month tour to support her upcoming album. She also plans to perform “some select things, many, one a month, for six months out of the year.”

“I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from, and where it is now,” Franklin, who lives in Detroit, told TV station WDIV. “I’ll be pretty much satisfied, but I’m not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing. That wouldn’t be good either.”

The album will feature all original songs, several of them produced by Stevie Wonder, Franklin said, but she did not give details.

Franklin began her music career in the late 1950s and has won 18 Grammy Awards.

Her last album, “Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics,” was released in 2014.
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National parks traveler Mikah Meyer spent the month of January immersed in American history as he visited a number of historic forts along the southeastern U.S. coastline.  

Reliving American history at war

One of his first stops was Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston Harbor, just off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina.

The fort is famous for being the spot where the first shot of the Civil War was fired, and also where the first casualty of that war occurred.

After a decade of cultural and economic tension between the North and South, it was here, on April 12, 1861, that the southern army opened fire, marking it as the day the Civil War began. It is considered by many to be the bloodiest battle in U.S. history.

 

Standing inside the large, fortified walls of Fort Sumter National Monument, looking across the water to the port city of Charleston, Mikah imagined what it must have been like all those years ago.

“It was under siege at one point for 17 months,” he noted. “There were cannons that could fire from where I’m standing on the fort all the way to the old town. So imagine living there for 17 months and wondering if at any point that a cannon [shot] might come.”

Connecting with the past

At the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, also in South Carolina, Mikah had an opportunity to learn about a principal author and signer of the U.S. Constitution.

 

“Some people call him our forgotten founding father, but he was a political figure of early America who helped shape what our eventual Constitution ended up looking like,” Mikah explained.

The National Park Service helps preserve what remains of Pinckney’s former plantation, and exhibits help tell the stories of 18th century plantation life for free and enslaved people.

Serendipity

During his journey through the south, Mikah, who’s on a mission to visit all of the more than 400 sites within the National Park Service, had an unexpected surprise…

“My phone started lighting up,” he said, with people letting him know that just south of Charleston, in the city of Beaufort, President Obama had just designated the Reconstruction Era National Monument as a National Park site. It was just two hours from where Mikah was traveling.

The Reconstruction Era (1861-1898) which followed the Civil War, was a transformative period in American history, as the United States grappled with the question of how to integrate millions of newly-freed African Americans into its social, political, economic and labor systems.

The new national monument will help tell that story.

“So all within the Charleston, South Carolina, area, you have these three sites now that are really related to either America becoming America, or America figuring out who America is,” Mikah noted.

Built like a castle

Driving south into the state of Georgia, Mikah stopped at Fort Pulaski National Monument. Built in 1847, the fort is considered one of the most technologically advanced fortifications of its time.

 

“This one was interesting solely just upon appearance,” Mikah said. “It had a moat, with water that circled the whole fort, which after seeing a number of forts that don’t have moats, just that one little feature it’s amazing how much more exciting that can make it!”

Just an hour south of Fort Pulaski, the scene couldn’t have been more different. At Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island, Mikah walked among the ruins of this once flourishing 18th century settlement.

“They’re an interesting combination because Fort Pulaski, when it was built, it was one of the most technologically advanced forts of the time, and so perhaps because of that it’s still standing today… So it was an interesting one-two punch going from one extreme to the other,” he said.

Oyster heaven

Continuing on his journey south, Mikah stopped by the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in Jacksonville, Florida, where he learned that an abundance of oysters in the area provided a steady supply of protein for the Native Americans who lived there.

“In fact there are so many oyster shells now that much of the land that is walkable in these swampy, marshy areas is actually just piled-up oyster shells that have turned into earth,” he explained.

That would explain why oyster shells were used as building materials for lodgings, which are still intact today.

“It’s all of these little huts that were built out of a kind of paste of oyster shells and other minerals that when mixed together form sort of a brick-like substance,” Mikah said, adding that the Kingsley Plantation, where the lodgings are located, has the largest number of intact slave dwellings anywhere in North America.

Continuing down the Florida coast, Mikah squeezed in a quick visit to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, a well-preserved site in the popular city of Saint Augustine on the ocean.

Followed by a brief visit a little farther south to the much smaller Fort Matanzas, “which was kind of a Castillo de San Marcos maybe on a one-eighth scale,” Mikah said. “It’s just a very small fort with one turret.”

The young traveler said visiting these historic sites – both large and small – made him appreciate the efforts of the National Park Service in preserving these national treasures for all to enjoy – and learn from.

Mikah invites you to follow him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
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The thick fog hanging over Venice Beach did little to disrupt Tommy Hilfiger’s carnival-esque runway show co-created by and featuring supermodel Gigi Hadid.

 

Hadid helped pick out the models, the music and the clothes for the TommyXGigi collection – and she walked the beachside runway first and last Wednesday, cheered by her family and Lady Gaga along the way.

 

“The clothes themselves are inspired by Southern California, inspired by Gigi, and really suited for this type of lifestyle,” Hilfiger said in an interview.

 

The collection featured blocks of bright color, American flags and a mix of halter tops and flowing summer dresses.

 

Hilfiger called the 21-year-old Hadid “the It girl of today” and praised her sense of style. His brand has made a comeback in recent years with such partnerships and by embracing youth culture – and nostalgia.

 

“It’s really a new dynamic, with social media, with e-commerce shopping, with ‘buy now, wear now.’ It’s a whole new ballgame. Everything has changed. And everything is changing very rapidly,” the 65-year-old designer said.

 

Lady Gaga – who took cell phone photos and waved to Hadid during the show – and Cindy Crawford’s children, Kaia and Presley Gerber, were among the celebrities on hand. Fergie performed after the show.

 
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National parks traveler Mikah Meyer spent the month of January immersed in American history as he visited a number of historic forts along the southeastern U.S. coastline. The young traveler, who’s on a mission to visit all of the more than 400 sites within the National Park Service, says he’s learned a great deal about his country’s rich and colorful past. He shared highlights of his experiences in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida with VOA’s Julie Taboh.
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