Category: Мистецтво

Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila’s blend of indie rock and lyrics about social and political injustice has won a passionate following among fans seeking an alternative to Arab pop with its romantic themes.

But securing a firm footing in the Middle East has been difficult for the band. Jordanian authorities cancelled its concert in June, for the second year in a row. Lebanese radio stations steer clear of its music.

“They don’t know where to place us,” said Hamed Sinno, 29, the openly gay vocalist of the five-member band formed in 2008 that has stirred controversy in the region with songs tackling oppression, classism, sectarianism and homophobia.

“We can’t play in Syria, we can’t play in Palestine, we can’t play in Jordan apparently, we obviously can’t play in Saudi,” he said, listing places where conflict or social conservatism prohibit them from performing.

And things don’t seem to be changing in the region, Sinno said, so the band has been playing more abroad.

Mashrou’ Leila has played concerts in cities including Paris, London, New York and San Francisco since its 2015 album Ibn El Leil reached number 13 on the Billboard world album chart.

The band’s music has broken away from the norm in a region whose pop stars steer clear of social issues, singing mostly of romances. Arabic music doesn’t really have a tradition of “teenagers rebelling or expressing a lot of anger,” Sinno said.

“Are we the rebellious teenagers of the Middle East? No, I think we’re just a band that’s writing about our lives and about the stuff that affects us,” he said.

“And because of the way we are as individuals and people, a lot of what does inspire us is political, because that’s the stuff that we freak out about on a daily basis.”

The band’s most recent song, Roman, focuses on overcoming betrayal, with references to Judas and Jesus.

The video was directed by a woman, Jessy Moussallem, and is dominated by women, their hair and hijabs flapping in the wind side by side in the back of a truck as Sinno sings among them.

“I think it’s literally speaking about what I would like to see and what I think men should do, especially in the Middle East, which is just to shut up and sit back,” Sinno said in an interview ahead of a concert in the Lebanese town of Ehden.

Focusing on the Music, Not the Audience

At sunset, young fans gathered at the venue, wearing shirts emblazoned with the Arabic numeral “3”, the symbol of Mashrou’ Leila’s latest and third album. Others wore Nirvana and Beatles T-shirts.

Both Lebanese and non-Lebanese fans said they liked the band because it is not at all like traditional Arabic music.

“They have this sort of Western twang,” a Lebanese fan, Anthony, said. “The way he sings and vocalizes, it’s not very clear what he’s saying.”

In fact, Sinno said the music they most identified with growing up came out of the United States and Britain.

The band draws inspiration from R&B, jazz, rock, Seattle grunge and metal, he added, and they listen to a lot of Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Madonna and Fleetwood Mac.

Beirut, with its eclectic mixture of noise and language, also had a big influence on the band.

Asked if he believes the band’s music had alienated audiences, Sinno said that’s always a risk, but one he’s willing to take.

Critics in the region often focus on Sinno’s way of singing: he elongates words so they are often incomprehensible. The Arabic word for jasmine hung in the air for 11 seconds in a live rendition of “Shim el Yasmine”, or “Smell the Jasmine.”

An hour after listening to the band rehearse in Ehden, someone unfamiliar with their music looked up and said: “You know, I think I can hear them sing the occasional Arabic word.”
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American Comic legend Jerry Lewis, who teamed up with the late Dean Martin before starring in his own movies, has died at age 91 at his home in Las Vegas.

During the peak of their popularity, Martin and Lewis ruled nightclubs, radio and then the box office with their breezy yet physical comedy act, reigning as the top draw at theaters from 1950-56.

After their breakup Lewis remained the No. 1 movie draw through the mid-1960s on the strength of such classics as The Bellboy (1960) and The Nutty Professor (1963).  As Paramount’s biggest star, he had the creative freedom to make the moves he wanted to make.

Lewis also was known for more than a half-century to fighting the neuromuscular disease, Muscular Dystrophy, hosting an annual Labor Day telethon and raising nearly $2.5 billion from 1955 until 2011.
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Danelle Johnson started designing her own clothes when she was a teenager. Not just because sewing was her hobby. She wanted to stand out among her classmates with a personal, distinctive look. Johnson’s vision of fashion motivated her to start her own design company … on wheels. As Faiza Elmasry reports, the fashion entrepreneur attracts customers who prefer her rolling retail boutique to big malls and online shopping. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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Dick Gregory, the comedian and activist and who broke racial barriers in the 1960s and used his humor to spread messages of social justice and nutritional health, has died. He was 84.

Gregory died late Saturday in Washington, D.C. after being hospitalized for about a week, his son Christian Gregory told The Associated Press. He had suffered a severe bacterial infection.

As one of the first black standup comedians to find success with white audiences, in the early 1960s, Gregory rose from an impoverished childhood in St. Louis to win a college track scholarship and become a celebrated satirist who deftly commented upon racial divisions at the dawn of the civil rights movement.

“Where else in the world but America,” he joked, “could I have lived in the worst neighborhoods, attended the worst schools, rode in the back of the bus, and get paid $5,000 a week just for talking about it?”

Gregory’s sharp commentary soon led him into civil rights activism, where his ability to woo audiences through humor helped bring national attention to fledgling efforts at integration and social equality for blacks.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey tweeted, “Dick Gregory’s unflinching honesty & courage, inspired us to fight, live, laugh & love despite it all.” A tweet by actress/comedian Whoopi Goldberg said, “About being black in America Dick Gregory has passed away, Condolences to his family and to us who won’t have his insight 2 lean on R.I.P”

Gregory briefly sought political office, running unsuccessfully for mayor of Chicago in 1966 and U.S. president in 1968, when he got 200,000 votes as the Peace and Freedom party candidate. In the late ’60s, he befriended John Lennon and was among the voices heard on Lennon’s anti-war anthem “Give Peace a Chance,” recorded in the Montreal hotel room where Lennon and Yoko Ono were staging a “bed-in” for peace.

An admirer of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Gregory embraced nonviolence and became a vegetarian and marathon runner.

He preached about the transformative powers of prayer and good health. Once an overweight smoker and drinker, he became a trim, energetic proponent of liquid meals and raw food diets. In the late 1980s, he developed and distributed products for the popular Slim-Safe Bahamian Diet.

When diagnosed with lymphoma in 2000, he fought it with herbs, exercise and vitamins. It went in remission a few years later.

He took a break from performing in comedy clubs, saying the alcohol and smoke in the clubs were unhealthy and focused on lecturing and writing more than a dozen books, including an autobiography and a memoir.

Gregory went without solid food for weeks to draw attention to a wide range of causes, including Middle East peace, American hostages in Iran, animal rights, police brutality, the Equal Rights Amendment for women and to support pop singer Michael Jackson when he was charged with sexual molestation in 2004.

“We thought I was going to be a great athlete, and we were wrong, and I thought I was going to be a great entertainer, and that wasn’t it either. I’m going to be an American Citizen. First class,” he once said.

Richard Claxton Gregory was born in 1932, the second of six children. His father abandoned the family, leaving his mother poor and struggling. Though the family often went without food or electricity, Gregory’s intellect and hard work quickly earned him honors, and he attended the mostly white Southern Illinois University.

“In high school I was fighting being broke and on relief,” he wrote in his 1963 book. “But in college, I was fighting being Negro.”

He started winning talent contests for his comedy, which he continued in the Army. After he was discharged, he struggled to break into the standup circuit in Chicago, working odd jobs as a postal clerk and car washer to survive. His breakthrough came in 1961, when he was asked to fill in for another comedian at Chicago’s Playboy Club. His audience, mostly white Southern businessmen, heckled him with racist gibes, but he stuck it out for hours and left them howling.

That job was supposed to be a one-night gig, but lasted two months — and landed him a profile in Time magazine and a spot on “The Tonight Show.”

Vogue magazine, in February 1962, likened him to Will Rogers and Fred Allen: “bright and funny and topical … (with) a way of making the editorials in The New York Times seem the cinch stuff from which smash night-club routines are rightfully made.” ″I’ve got to go up there as an individual first, a Negro second,” he said in Phil Berger’s book, “The Last Laugh: The World of Stand-up Comics.” ″I’ve got to be a colored funny man, not a funny colored man.”

His political passions were never far from his mind — and they hurt his comedy career. The nation was grappling with the civil rights movement, and it was not at all clear that racial integration could be achieved. At protest marches, he was repeatedly beaten and jailed.

He remained active on the comedy scene until recently, when he fell ill and canceled an August 9 show in San Jose, California, followed by an August 15 appearance in Atlanta. On social media, he wrote that he felt energized by the messages from his well-wishers, and said he was looking to get back on stage because he had a lot to say about the racial tension brought on by the gathering of hate groups in Virginia.

“We have so much work still to be done, the ugly reality on the news this weekend proves just that,” he wrote.

He is survived by his wife, Lillian, and 10 children.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will not attend an annual ceremony at Washington’s Kennedy Center honoring the lifetime achievements of select artists to avoid distraction, a White House statement said Saturday.

“The president and first lady have decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction,” the White House said.

The announcement came after one of the honorees, dancer Carmen de Lavallade, said she would boycott a separate White House reception that is held in conjunction with the award ceremony.

The 86-year-old de Lavallade issued a statement Thursday announcing her decision.

“In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our current leadership is choosing to engage in, and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, I will be declining the invitation to attend the reception at the White House,” she said.

Another honoree, TV writer Norman Lear, has also said he will not attend the reception. A third, singer Lionel Richie, has said he is “on the fence” about the White House event.

In addition to Richie, Lear and de Lavallade, singer Gloria Esfefan and rapper LL Cool J will be celebrated for their lifetime contributions to the arts at the December 3 ceremony.

The White House announcement came just days after members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned in protest against Trump’s controversial remarks this week following last Saturday’s violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The latest developments are indicative of Trump’s contentious relationship with the arts world. After his election, Trump had a difficult time finding entertainers to perform at his inaugural gala in January.
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A Los Angeles judge has denied the impassioned plea of Roman Polanski’s victim to end the criminal case against the fugitive film director.

Judge Scott Gordon ruled Friday that Polanski must appear in a Los Angeles court if he expects to have his 4-decade-old case resolved.

Gordon’s ruling follows a fervent request by Samantha Geimer to end a “40-year sentence” she says was imposed on both perpetrator and victim.

Polanski pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with Geimer when she was 13. He fled the country on the eve of sentencing in 1978.

Polanski’s attorneys have failed to persuade judges to sentence him in absentia for the 42 days he was incarcerated for psychological testing before he fled.

Geimer has long supported Polanski’s efforts but made her plea in court for the first time in June.
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Every private member of the U.S. presidential advisory committee on the arts has resigned to protest President Donald Trump’s response to white nationalist violence in Virginia.

Seventeen members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities said in a resignation letter Friday, “The false equivalencies you push cannot stand.”

The letter was in response to Trump’s comments Tuesday that “both sides” were to blame for the violence at last Saturday’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Three people died in connection with the rally, and 19 others were injured.

James Fields Jr. was charged with several felonies, including second-degree murder in the death of Heather Heyer. He allegedly used his car to run over a group of protesters.

The arts committee is an advisory body on cultural issues composed of 12 federal agency heads and 17 scholars and artists. The members who resigned included actor Kal Penn, artist Chuck Close, and author Jhumpa Lahiri.

“The administration’s refusal to quickly and unequivocally condemn the cancer of hatred only further emboldens those who wish America ill,” the letter reads.

“Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions,” it said. “Supremacy, discrimination and vitriol are not American values. Your values are not American values.”

The advisory panel was created by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1982. All of the current private members had been appointed by former President Barack Obama.

The resignations followed the disbanding of two presidential business advisory councils Wednesday after most of their members left in protest against Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville.
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As national parks traveler Mikah Meyer wrapped up the last leg of his journey across the western state of Utah, he appears to have saved the best for last — with visits to Bryce and Zion national parks — the last two of the five national parks that make up the ‘Mighty 5.’

Hoodoo! Who knew?

Mikah was one of millions of visitors who are drawn to Bryce Canyon National Park each year. The park is home to the world’s largest collection of hoodoos — giant pillars of rock that were sculpted by erosion millions of years ago.

“What makes this place unique is that it’s not just like one, or two, or three, like you’ll see in many places,” Mikah noted. “It’s thousands!”

“Native Americans believe the hoodoos were former humans that were turned into rock,” Mikah explained. “I don’t know the whole story,” he added, but that was one explanation provided about the ancient formations that rise from the earth seemingly out of nowhere.

Observing the odd-shaped pillars from one of the many overlooks was special, Mikah said, but even better was “hiking down into them and exploring the hoodoos up close.” He especially liked looking up at some of the hoodoos that were supporting massive rocks on top of their thin pillars …  

“You wonder at what moment… that giant rock is going to come tumbling down and will I be underneath it when it does?”

Mikah had arrived at the park just in time for the sunset, which gave the surreal landscape a warm, golden glow.

“Man, am I glad I did!” he gushed. “I parked the car… ran out to the overlook and looked at the view and said to myself ‘this is a 10 — it’s a 10 park.’ I mean the view was just so incredible… at sunset or not… it is one of the most other worldly places I’ve seen in the United States.”

During his visit to Bryce Canyon, Mikah encountered an unexpected obstacle: a group of cows standing in the middle of the road, refusing to give way. At one point, he was worried one of the animals was going to charge his van, but instead, it took off, leading away the rest of the herd.

Utah’s first national park

The bovine roadblock was just a momentary distraction as Mikah made his way to Zion National Park, which welcomed almost 5 million visitors last year, making it the fifth-most visited national park in the United States.

Many consider Zion the granddaddy of all the Utah parks.

“I think what makes Zion so spectacular is this combination of red and orange rock, and lush green forests and plants,” Mikah said. “So many places are either lush greenery or stark canyons in orange and reds, but Zion National Park has both.”

Zion Canyon is the main focus of the park, Mikah explained, where “on every side you look, there is another peak that looks like a mountain in its own right, except they’re all together, all lined up on each side of the canyon.”

Angels Landing – a devilish climb

One of the most popular hikes is up Angels Landing, a 454 meter (1,488-foot) tall rock formation that’s considered by many to be the most challenging and dangerous trail in the park.

“What makes it so popular and so well-known is that for the last portion — maybe the last half mile — you are up on a very thin strip of rock; and it’s thin enough that the park service puts a bunch of chains that people can hold onto because since 2004, six people have fallen and died.”

It does look intimidating, Mikah admitted, “because you’re going along this thin strip of rock and either side you look, there’s very quick, dramatic drops all the way to the canyon floor and you see the shuttles driving by and the river passing through, so I think it’s popular because of this risk element that’s added into these dramatic views.”

But Mikah was undaunted, and described his four-hour roundtrip hike as a “very cool experience.”

Patriotic hike

On his second day of his visit, Mikah was invited by a group of experienced hikers on a 4-hour, back-country hike up a high plateau made up of sheer rock face, which had no trail.

“To get there, it was climbing on all fours, it was sliding down sheer rock faces, some of the guys cut their legs and they said, ‘oh, you know, it happens. Now that just proves that I was out here today.”

When he reached the peak, his fellow hikers asked him to sing, which he agreed to… belting out the National Anthem over the canyon.

“These gentlemen I was hiking with, most of them have never heard a Countertenor — which is a male Alto or Soprano — so I think they were shocked and surprised by that,” Mikah said, adding that he was surprised by the echo of his voice bouncing off the canyon walls, “so we all got something unexpected!”

The Mighty 5

As Mikah wrapped up his journey across Utah, he observed that the “Mighty 5” parks — Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks — are especially popular among foreign tourists.

“It’s an incredibly international audience at all these five sites,” he explained. “More so than any other site I’ve been to, tenfold.”

After spending time in those magical places himself, Mikah can understand why.

“The concept of how long nature and animal life has survived on its own without any human interference creating these majestic spaces that have changed by centimeters every year, and we’re witnessing this one speck of time in its marvelousness… it’s definitely a lot to wrap your mind around.”

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

 
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America is the birthplace of fast food and many of the restaurants that serve it have gained famed and fortune worldwide. Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington is a neighborhood landmark. Its spicy sausages are loved by presidents, movie stars and locals. During its almost six-decade history, it has survived tough times, but now the family-run business is booming. VOA’s Mariia Prus and Kostiantyn Golubchik went to the famed restaurant and found out its recipe for success.
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Walt Disney Co. is developing a “Star Wars” standalone movie based on the beloved character of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the wise and noble Jedi master, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety reported Thursday.

The Hollywood trade publications cited unnamed sources as saying that the project was in the early stages of development by Disney and Lucasfilm.

The project has no script yet, but British filmmaker Stephen Daldry, best known for 2000’s ballet movie “Billy Elliott,” is in early talks to direct it, the publications said.

Disney declined to comment.

Han Solo movie, too

Disney bought “Star Wars” creator George Lucas’ Lucasfilm in 2012 in a $4 billion deal and announced a new trilogy of films following the space saga as well as three standalone “Star Wars” projects that focus on stories outside of the central tale of the Skywalker family.

Disney debuted the first standalone “Star Wars” story with 2016’s “Rogue One,” which featured new characters and a storyline tied loosely to the ongoing saga.

A Han Solo movie is in production featuring a younger version of the freewheeling space smuggler played by Harrison Ford in the original “Star Wars” trilogy of films.

​Who will play Kenobi?

Kenobi, a recluse played by the late British actor Alec Guinness, was the mentor to Luke Skywalker and introduced the young warrior to the Force in the first “Star Wars” movie in 1977. Kenobi was later killed by his old pupil, the evil Darth Vader.

Actor Ewan McGregor played the character in the second trilogy of “Star Wars” films from 1999 to 2005. The Hollywood Reporter said no actor was attached to the standalone project.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Disney’s first installment of the new trilogy in the revamped franchise, brought back beloved characters Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo as well as introducing a new generation. It took in more than $2 billion at the world box office after its 2015 release.

The next film, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” is scheduled for release in December.
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The late American entertainer Johnny Cash was a country music legend who embraced all races and religions.

His children say they were “sickened” to see his name on the T-shirt of a white supremacist who marched through Charlottesville last Saturday.

In a message posted on social media, Cash’s five children call their father “a man whose heart beat with the rhythm of love and social justice.”

Humanitarian awards

They say Cash would have been “horrified at even a casual use of his name or image for an idea or a cause founded in persecution and hatred.”

The Cashes say their father was the proud recipient of humanitarian awards from groups including the Jewish National Fund and United Nations. He was a champion for the rights of Native Americans, protested the Vietnam War, and stood up for the poor.

They said Cash chose love over hate and asked that his name be kept away from “destructive and hateful ideology.”

Deep bass, shy manner

Cash was known for his deep bass voice, black stage outfits, and a somewhat shy manner.

His signature songs include I Walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, and the humorous A Boy Named Sue.

Cash sold tens of millions of records before he died in 2003. 
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Fresh off winning her first Oscar, actress Emma Stone ousted Jennifer Lawrence on Wednesday to claim the top spot on Forbes’ 2017 list of the world’s highest-paid actresses.

Stone, 28, who won best actress for her role as a struggling actress in “La La Land,” made $26 million in pre-tax earnings, according to Forbes’ calculations over a 12-month period from June 2016 to June 2017.

She outpaced Jennifer Aniston, 48, who came in at No. 2 this year with earnings of $25.5 million, with residual income still coming in from the television sitcom “Friends” and endorsement deals with brands such as SmartWater and Emirates Airline.

Lawrence, 27, who topped the Forbes list for two consecutive years, dropped to No. 3 this year with earnings of $24 million, almost half of her prior year’s earnings of $46 million.

The actress, who has spoken out on equal pay for women in Hollywood, saw her earnings dip this year after the conclusion of the “Hunger Games” franchise, but continues to make money from movie deals and an endorsement deal with fashion brand Christian Dior.

Forbes compiles its annual celebrity earnings lists from box office and Nielsen data, as well as from interviews with industry insiders.

The top-10 list also includes Charlize Theron, Emma Watson and Melissa McCarthy. Forbes said no stars from Asia made the cut this year.

Forbes said the cumulative total earned by the world’s top ten highest-paid actresses — $172.5 million — was down 16 percent from the previous year.

Last year, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson topped Forbes’ list of highest-paid actors at $64.5 million, more than double the amount made by Stone this year. Forbes is expected to release its list of top-earning male actors later this week.

 

 
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Tom Cruise broke his ankle while performing a stunt on the set of the upcoming Mission: Impossible 6, causing production on the film to go on hiatus while the actor recovers, Paramount Pictures said in a statement Wednesday.

Paramount, a unit of Viacom, said the action movie, from one of its biggest franchises, remains on schedule to open on July 27, 2018.

Cruise, 55, who is known for doing his own stunts, was seen in a video on celebrity news website TMZ trying to jump between the roofs of two high-rise buildings and landing hard against a wall during filming in London at the weekend. He was later seen limping off the set.

“During production on the latest Mission: Impossible film, Tom Cruise broke his ankle while performing a stunt. Production will go on hiatus while Tom makes a full recovery,” Paramount said. “Tom wants to thank you all for your concern and support and can’t wait to share the film with everyone next summer.”

Paramount did not say how long production would be delayed.

Hollywood trade paper Variety said filming could be halted anywhere from six weeks to three months while Cruise recovers.

Variety said the actor also injured his hip.

Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, in which Cruise reprised his role as agent Ethan Hunt, made more than $680 million at the worldwide box office in 2015, according to movie tracker BoxOfficeMojo.com

Cruise has carved out a career as one of Hollywood’s top-earning and longest-running action stars, much of it built on his reputation for doing his own stunts, including swinging around a Dubai skyscraper and hanging off a plane as it taxied down a runway and took off.

“I just don’t sleep, I just keep going,” he told Reuters in 2015 while promoting Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.

Mission: Impossible 6 director Christopher McQuarrie told Britain’s Empire magazine in an interview posted Wednesday that the production schedule would be rearranged to shoot around Cruise while he recovers.

McQuarrie said that he did not know how long the immediate hiatus would be and that there were still seven or eight weeks left of filming.
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The organizers of New York’s annual Tribeca Film Festival are launching a standalone television event to recognize the vast and varied content now available on broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.

Organizers said on Wednesday the inaugural three-day Tribeca TV Festival will take place on Sept. 22-24 in New York, and is aimed at bringing new shows and returning favorites to the public.

The lineup for the festival includes screenings and celebrity talks for the return of comedy Will & Grace, the upcoming season premieres of dramas Queen Sugar, Designated Survivor and Gotham, and the world premiere of Look But With Love, a virtual reality series about life in Pakistan.

More than 400 scripted TV shows are currently produced every year in the United States across traditional broadcast and cable networks and services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, leading to what has been dubbed a “golden age of television.”

“Ten years ago, we wouldn’t have needed a TV festival. Now, with the change in the TV landscape, both the quality and quantity of shows, it makes sense,” actor Robert De Niro, who co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002 to rejuvenate lower Manhattan, said in a statement.

De Niro is among a plethora of Oscar-winning stars, including Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Michael Douglas who are making waves on the small screen.

De Niro is competing in September for his first Emmy Award for his role as disgraced financier Bernard Madoff in HBO television film The Wizard of Lies.
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British actor Daniel Craig has confirmed he will reprise the role of James Bond one last time, ending months of speculation.

Craig made the revelation during an appearance on the U.S. TV program The Late Show Tuesday. Asked by host Stephen Colbert whether he would return as James Bond, Craig responded: “Yes,” to cheers from the audience.

Craig has appeared four times as the spy with a taste for martinis: in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and Spectre.

Eon Productions, the company that runs the movie franchise, said on its website that the 25th Bond movie would be released in U.S. cinemas on Nov. 8, 2019, with a traditional early release in Britain and the rest of the world.

Asked by Colbert whether he would appear in any further Bond movies after that one, Craig said no.

“I think this is it. I just want to go out on a high note and I can’t wait,” he said.
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The Chinese action film Wolf Warrior 2 continues to set records at the box office and stir online debate in China. The film has raked in nearly $700 million in a little more than two weeks since its opening and looks all but set to become China’s biggest blockbuster.

While some are concerned about the chest-thumping nationalism they feel the film whips up, the movie, which features a Rambolike former special forces hero, is also showing that patriotic films can become big hits.

Realistic fiction

Moviegoers we spoke with liked how the film portrayed situations Chinese have and could face overseas when conflicts arise. They also noted a dispute in China that lands the main character in jail.

At the beginning of the movie, before the film’s hero, Leng Feng, travels to Africa to fight off foreign mercenaries and dodge hundreds (if not thousands) of bullets, he serves a prison sentence for killing a local gangster in China over a forced home demolition.

Forced demolitions, a byproduct of China’s breakneck economic growth, local corruption and greed, is one of the country’s big sources of social discontent.

One woman, surnamed Dong, who has watched the movie twice, said the film was both shocking and interesting. She said it made her think of recent situations when workers from China had to be evacuated from countries overseas by the Chinese military when conflicts arose.

“The director has good understanding of history and politics,” she said. “I heard similar stories (about the evacuation of Chinese citizens from Libya).”

Clearly, the Chinese military’s commitment to keeping its citizens safe overseas was a message the film has driven home. A closing shot in the film features a picture of a Chinese passport and a short message: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China. When you encounter danger in a foreign land, do not give up! Please remember, at your back stands a strong motherland.”

Atypical patriotic flick

Despite such heavy overtones, and declarations by state media outlets such as the Global Times, which early on said patriotism was giving the action film a boost, those we spoke with say it is how the film was different that made it more attractive.

One woman surnamed Qi said most patriotic films are not believable.

“Usually patriotic movies like The Founding of An Army do not reflect realistic situations of everyday life like Wolf Warrior does, which showed scenes of him trying to stop a forced demolition. These kinds of things are more realistic,” she said.

Another agreed, noting that while some say Wolf Warrior 2 is too commercial and that it is just benefitting from the August lull, the film wasn’t that bad.

“It should be seen as just a regular film. If it was really all about patriotism, then “The Founding of An Army” should be doing well, but it’s not. And the reason for that is that Wolf Warrior 2 is worth watching,” she said.

Floundering military film

The Founding of An Army, a story about the People’s Liberation Army was released about the same time as Wolf Warrior 2 and just days before the Chinese military’s founding anniversary. But unlike Wolf Warrior 2, the film has floundered at the box office.

Part of that might be because censors are running official interference.

The Chinese social networking service Douban forbids users to comment and give marks to The Founding of An Army, a move apparently made to avoid any criticism of the film. Wolf Warrior 2, however, has received four out of five stars and a wide range of comments and opinions.

On the day we saw Wolf Warrior 2, the theater was packed. A ticket clerk let us look at showings for The Founding of An Army. While Wolf Warrior 2 showings were almost fully booked, the seats for The Founding of An Army were largely empty.

The clerk said that in some cases, state-owned enterprises would send employees in large groups to boost the film’s performance. There have also been reports online about moviegoers purchasing tickets for other films, but receiving one with The Founding of An Army on it.

Allegations of box office cheating are not uncommon in China. According to Cbooo.cn, a website that tracks box office revenues in China, the film is lagging far behind with less than 10 percent of Wolf Warrior’s sales.

Game changer

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Wolf Warrior 2 is the third highest-grossing film in a single territory, trailing Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($937 million) and Avatar ($750 million).

The film’s success has some predicting a brighter future for China’s domestic film industry, with some even saying it could pose a threat to Hollywood. But not all are giving the movie an easy pass. Many have expressed concern about the violence in the film.

Others worry about the nationalistic fervor the film’s glorified violence whips up.

One man, surnamed Zhang, said while the movie is just a consumer product and too much should not be read into it, some of the debate the action blockbuster has stirred up online is worrying. He said he will not see the film.

“The movie is like a war mobilization film,” he said. “It’s sensational and whips up feeling of patriotism and national pride to the point that some who have seen it are saying we should wage war, we should do this and that.”

Online, many are urging the film’s director Wu Jing to follow soon with Wolf Warrior 3, even suggesting he focus on conflicts with foreign powers that showcase Chinese-made weaponry.
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Elvis Presley has been dead for 40 years, but the King’s legacy is alive and well in Las Vegas.

Elvis impersonators remain a staple of Las Vegas kitsch, performing at casino venues and wedding chapels and on street stages while decked out in garish jumpsuits, sunglasses and sideburn wigs.

At a recent Elvis convention, performers came from as far away as Japan and Australia to compete in a tribute artist contest that paid $15,000 in prize money.

Elvis performer Tyler James recalls going to Graceland for the first time when he was 5 years old — and immediately becoming hooked.

“I told my mom then I wanted my own show in Vegas as Elvis,” he said.

James now has a regular show two nights a week on an outdoor stage in downtown Las Vegas.

Elvis played hundreds of shows here, year after year — with more sellout crowds in Las Vegas than anywhere else. Sin City and the King became so deeply intertwined that fans across the country have continued to make the pilgrimage even after his untimely death. They travel to Vegas indulge in the many Elvis tribute shows, impersonators and nostalgic memories from his heyday.

Presley rose from poverty in Tupelo, Mississippi, to become an international music and movie star in the 1950s and 1960s. His life ended at age 42, when he was found dead August 16, 1977, at his Graceland mansion in Tennessee. By then, his career had slowed and he struggled with obesity and substance abuse.

But to Sin City, he’ll always be the handsome, hip-swinging, lip-curling crooner who gave the town its Viva Las Vegas anthem.

In the modern-day entertainment capital, his influence has waned in recent years. But Presley remains a larger-than-life pop culture icon in Las Vegas’ history.

To this day, the term “Elvis impersonator” is synonymous with Las Vegas — a term the performers dislike. They prefer to be called “Elvis tribute artists.”
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Young designers bring African-inspired color and ethical fashion to runways in London where fashionistas and industry professionals participated in this year’s Africa Fashion Week. Mariama Diallo reports.
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Taylor Swift won her trial against a Colorado radio personality on Monday after a jury found that the former DJ assaulted and battered the pop star by groping her bare bottom, and awarded her the symbolic $1 in damages she had sought.

Swift cried and hugged her mother as the verdicts were read in U.S. District Court in Denver and mouthed an emphatic “thank you” to members of the jury as they left the courtroom.

The six-woman, two-man jury, which deliberated for less than four hours following a sensational week-long trial, also rejected claims by radio personality David Mueller that members of Swift’s management team – her mother and a radio station liaison – got him fired from his “dream job” as a DJ by making false accusations.

“I acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this,” the 27-year-old singer said in a statement released immediately following the verdicts.

“My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard,” Swift said, adding that she would make donations to organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves.

Mueller, 55, showed no reaction as the verdicts were read.

The DJ had initiated the litigation after he was fired from his job after the groping claim was reported to the radio station. In his lawsuit he called the groping accusations false, and he sued Swift, her mother, Andrea, and radio station liaison Frank Bell over his termination.

During closing statements in the case, Mueller’s attorney, Gabriel McFarland, argued that his client was a respected industry veteran who would never have risked his $150,000-per-year radio job by grabbing a major celebrity’s rear end.

But Swift was firm on the witness stand, saying that there was no question in her mind that Mueller had intentionally slipped his hand under her skirt to clutch her bare bottom.

Her attorney, Douglas Baldridge, said during his closing remarks that Swift was seeking only $1 in damages because she had no desire to bankrupt Mueller, but only wanted to send a message.

“It means ‘no means no’ and it tells every woman they will decide what will be tolerated with their body,” Baldridge said of the principle Swift was trying to defend.

U.S. District Judge William Martinez on Friday dismissed Mueller’s accusation against Swift, saying there was no evidence that she had acted improperly. The judge left standing the entertainer’s assault and battery countersuit against Mueller.

He also left intact a single claim by Mueller accusing Swift’s mother and Bell of interfering with his contract and effectively ending his career at radio station KYGO-FM. The jury rejected that claim.

Before the trial, Martinez had tossed out Mueller’s defamation-of-character claim against Swift, ruling that he had waited too long to file a lawsuit on those grounds.
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 A shade of purple named for the late superstar Prince was announced Monday by the icon’s estate.

 

The “Purple Rain” hue created by the Pantone Color Institute was dubbed “Love Symbol (hash)2,” paying tribute to his custom Yamaha piano and the squiggly graphic Prince began using as his name in 1993 in a testy battle with Warner Bros. Records over ownership of some of his biggest hits.

The artist switched back to Prince as a name in 2000 after his Warner contract expired.

 

Prince died in April 2016 at age 57 of an opioid overdose, according to authorities.
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In a small studio littered with empty cigarette packets in Egypt’s second city, Alexandria, Abdelrahman al-Habrouk sits hunched over a sheet of paper making portraits with tobacco.

The cigarettes fuel his art; he breaks them in half, painstakingly traces out monochrome images of celebrities or animals with the fine flakes of tobacco, then sprinkles his creations with gunpowder and sets them on fire.

The resulting scorch-marks on the white paper form the portrait.

Habrouk, now 23, started using unusual materials to make images a couple of years ago, experimenting with coffee, salt and sand before settling on the tobacco technique because it is more durable.

“The idea is that I’m trying to make the art live longer,” he told Reuters.

“I wanted to make something good out of something that is considered harmful,” he added.

 
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No American woman climber had sumitted the world’s second largest mountain called, K2, in Pakistan until July 28, 2017 when 52-year old former banker Vanessa O’Brian led a team of 12 mountaineers to the top of what is known as “the savage mountain” and one the world’s most dangerous peaks. She described her adventurous trip to VOA’s Ayaz Gul upon her return to Islamabad this week from the northern town of Skardu.
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City of Ghosts is a new documentary that follows an underground group of citizen journalists from IS occupied Raqqa, Syria, risking their lives and using social media to expose the atrocities of the militants against civilians.

The goal of the group, called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, is to broadcast information online about IS atrocities in Raqqa, Syria. 

Last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists awarded the group its International Press Freedom Award. In an interview with Voice of America, Abdul Aziz al-Hamza said that Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), was created to protest the activities of the Assad regime. Later, the group expanded its activities to include IS, when Islamic State turned Raqqa into its makeshift capital.

​Waging war on the internet 

Al-Hamza says his group is waging an online war against IS propaganda. 

“ISIS prevented all media organizations to go over there to cover what’s going on, and we ended up watching propaganda coming from our city. All of us have families, relatives, friends, so we decided that we needed to do something for them. The problem with ISIS is the ideology,” he said.

“Defeating ISIS as a group is not going to solve the problem,” he added. “We are fighting against ISIS ideology because it’s not just in Raqqa, Syria, and Iraq. We’ve seen ISIS in Europe, in the U.S., in Asia, so the main goal is to work against this ideology.” 

Al-Hamza said his organization has drawn the attention of international media and has lifted the veil of isolation for the besieged civilians in Raqqa; it has also roused the wrath of IS.

In his film City of Ghosts, Matthew Heineman, follows the underground group and its activities from safe houses in Turkey and Germany, posting videos, pictures and other news about IS-besieged Raqqa they receive from counterparts in Raqqa. He also looks into their private lives, as husbands, sons and friends, and also as refugees. 

“It became an immigrant story,” Heineman said. “It became a story of rising nationalism in Europe. It became a story of trauma and the cumulative effects of trauma. So, it became much more that I thought it originally would be.” 

Exposing the ‘crumbling’ ISIS regime

AL-Hamza says the goal of RBSS is to expose the crumbling IS regime in Raqqa. 

“Everything is getting expensive in the city,” he said. “People are missing medical equipment, there are only three or four pharmacies working, only one hospital working. There is almost no electricity, the water is coming for three or four hours daily.”

Watch: Citizen Journalists Wage Online War on ISIS

RBSS online resistance has galvanized Raqqa’s civilians, he said.

Many people internationally have the idea that most people living in Raqqa or IS territories support the group. But, for example, in Raqqa less than 1 percent of the people joined IS, which means that most people are against IS, he said.

“Most decided to stay civilians and not join ISIS despite the perks that if you joined ISIS you get salaries in dollars, cars for free, oil for free, they would get women, power, whatever they want,” he said. Today, he added, “there are thousands of people providing us with news, and what is happening in IS occupied territories.”

Al-Hamza was not trained to be a journalist. Before the Syrian revolution, he was studying biochemistry. Others like him were studying to be doctors or lawyers. 

“When the Syrian revolution started, I didn’t think I would end up in this situation or here talking with you,” he said. “But it was that kind of duty that all of us had to do, and we’ve decided that we will not stop. So, we’ve lost family members, friends, relatives doing this work,” he said. 

As for their newfound publicity through Heineman’s documentary City of Ghosts, al-Hamza said “it was important to show our faces, because especially when we started, many people started to say that we are a government group or a government organization, we wanted people to know that we are local. We are from the city.” 

How will end? “Either we will win or they will kill all of us,” he said.
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A new documentary follows an underground group of citizen journalists from ISIS occupied Raqqa Syria, risking their lives to expose the atrocities of the militants against civilians on social media. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman as well as Abdul-Aziz al-Hamza, the co-founder of the group called “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.”
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A statue of the Beatles in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar could be at risk in an alleged land grab, protesters say, as rapid development turns a city once famed for wide open spaces into a cluttered metropolis.

Residents are protesting plans to build commercial properties in an area known as Beatles Square, where a bronze bas-relief monument to the “Fab Four” commemorates the former Soviet satellite’s transition to democracy in 1990.

“For a long time there were stories about construction on the land, but nobody wanted to believe it,” said Tsoggerel Uyanga, a community organizer and senior partner at research group MAD Investment Solutions.

Rock and Roll Communist Revolution

The monument, erected in 2008 with donations from politicians, businessmen and artists, marks the site where Mongolians gathered to talk about banned Western pop music and soon became a quirky tourist attraction.

The music of the Beatles, Abba, and other Western pop groups helped launch the “Rock and Roll Communist Revolution” that inspired a generation to fight for Mongolian democracy 30 years ago.

The protests began after an Aug. 2 announcement that construction work would start, with residents calling the project a “land grab” and expressing fears the Beatles statue could be moved or even demolished.

Authorities have defended the development as part of a “car-free street” project to build an underground shopping complex complete with street gardens.

A lawyer for Mongolia’s National Construction Association said there were no plans to remove the Beatles statue, however.

“By implementing the project, there are a great deal of advantages, such as increasing jobs and reducing traffic congestion,” said D. Uuganbayar, the lawyer.

Congestion, pollution grow

Congestion and pollution have grown in the capital as its population has doubled over the last two decades, with thousands of impoverished herders flocking to settle in makeshift residential areas.

The strain on Ulaanbaatar’s infrastructure has forced the city to rethink its planning of urban spaces, and drawn criticism for the sale of public land to wealthy buyers.

Investors have failed in the past to deliver on promises to protect public spaces affected by development, Uyanga said, pointing to the Bogd Khan conservation area where the World Bank had raised concerns about overdevelopment.

“It became a black market for land authorities during the early democratic years,” said Uyanga.
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A judge on Friday threw out a Denver radio host’s case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career.

U.S. District Judge William Martinez determined that the pop star could not be held liable because David Mueller failed to prove that she personally set out to have him fired after the 2013 photo op before a concert. His identical allegations against Swift’s mother and her radio liaison will go to jurors for a verdict.

Mueller denies groping Swift and sued the singer, her mother, Andrea Swift, and their radio handler, Frank Bell, seeking up to $3 million as compensation for his ruined career.

The singer-songwriter said in her countersuit that she wanted a symbolic $1 and the chance to stand up for other women.

With jurors outside the courtroom Friday, attorneys on both sides argued over whether Mueller had presented enough evidence to send his full case to the jury. Those statements and the judge’s questions focused on whether Swift herself had done anything to get Mueller fired.

It comes after days of testimony from the singer and others. Swift spent an hour on the witness stand Thursday defiantly recounting what she called a “despicable and horrifying and shocking” encounter. 

“He stayed attached to my bare ass-cheek as I lurched away from him,” Swift testified.

“It was a definite grab. A very long grab,” she added in her testimony.

Swift’s testy exchange with Mueller’s attorney occasionally elicited chuckles — even from the six-woman, two-man jury. She got a laugh when she said Dent saw Mueller “lift my skirt” but someone would have had to have been underneath her to see the actual groping — “and we didn’t have anyone positioned there.”

Swift testified that after the photo was taken, she tried to get as far away Mueller as she could. She said she told him and his girlfriend, who was also in the photo, “thank you for coming” in a monotone voice before they left.

She also said she was stunned and did not say anything to Mueller or halt the event after he left because she did not want to disappoint several dozen people waiting in line for photos with her.

In the image, shown to jurors during opening statements but not publicly released, Mueller’s hand is behind Swift, just below her waist. Mueller’s then-girlfriend, Shannon Melcher, is on the other side of Swift. All three are smiling.

Melcher testified Friday that she saw nothing happen during the brief encounter and that she and Mueller were rudely confronted and escorted out of the arena that evening. Melcher said Mueller was devastated by the accusation.

She said she and Mueller started out as co-workers at country station KYGO-FM and became romantically involved in February 2013, a few months before the concert. They drifted apart late in 2013, but Melcher says they remained friends.
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