Category: Новини

Gordon Lightfoot, Canada’s legendary folk singer-songwriter whose hits including “Early Morning Rain” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” told a tale of Canadian identity that was exported worldwide, died on Monday. He was 84. 

Representative Victoria Lord said the musician died at a Toronto hospital. His cause of death was not immediately available. 

Considered one of the most renowned voices to emerge from Toronto’s Yorkville folk club scene in the 1960s, Lightfoot went on to record 20 studio albums and pen hundreds of songs, including “Carefree Highway” and “Sundown.” 

Once called a “rare talent” by Bob Dylan, dozens of artists have covered his work, including Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Cash, Anne Murray, Jane’s Addiction and Sarah McLachlan. 

Most of his songs are deeply autobiographical with lyrics that probe his own experiences in a frank manner and explore issues surrounding the Canadian national identity. 

His 1975 song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” chronicled the demise of a Great Lakes ore freighter, and 1966’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” depicted the construction of the railway. 

“I simply write the songs about where I am and where I’m from,” he once said. “I take situations and write poems about them.” 

Often described as a poetic storyteller, Lightfoot remained keenly aware of his cultural influence. It was a role he took very seriously. 

“I just like to stay there and be a part of the totem pole and look after the responsibilities I’ve acquired over the years,” he said in a 2001 interview. 

While Lightfoot’s parents recognized his musical talents early on, he didn’t set out to become a renowned balladeer. 

He began singing in his church choir and dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. At age 13, the soprano won a talent contest at the Kiwanis Music Festival, held at Toronto’s Massey Hall. 

“I remember the thrill of being in front of the crowd,” Lightfoot said in a 2018 interview. “It was a steppingstone for me…” 

The appeal of those early days stuck and in high school, his barbershop quartet, The Collegiate Four, won a CBC talent competition. He strummed his first guitar in 1956 and began to dabble in songwriting in the months that followed. Perhaps distracted by his taste for music, he flunked algebra the first time. After taking the class again, he graduated in 1957. 

By then, Lightfoot had already penned his first serious composition — “The Hula Hoop Song,” inspired by the popular kids’ toy that was sweeping the culture. Attempts to sell the song went nowhere so at 18, he headed to the U.S. to study music for a year. The trip was funded in part by money saved from a job delivering linens to resorts around his hometown. 

Life in Hollywood wasn’t a good fit, however, and it wasn’t long before Lightfoot returned to Canada. He pledged to move to Toronto to pursue his musical ambitions, taking any job available, including a position at a bank before landing a gig as a square dancer on CBC’s “Country Hoedown.” 

His first gig was at Fran’s Restaurant, a downtown family-owned diner that warmed to his folk sensibilities. It was there he met fellow musician Ronnie Hawkins. 

The singer was living with a few buddies in a condemned building in Yorkville, then a bohemian area where future stars including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell would learn their trade at smoke-filled clubs. 

Lightfoot made his popular radio debut with the single “(Remember Me) I’m the One” in 1962, which led to a number of hit songs and partnerships with other local musicians. When he started playing the Mariposa Folk Festival in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario that same year, Lightfoot forged a relationship that made him the festival’s most loyal returning performer. 

By 1964, he was garnering positive word-of-mouth around town and audiences were starting to gather in growing numbers. By the next year, Lightfoot’s song “I’m Not Sayin'” was a hit in Canada, which helped spread his name in the United States. 

A couple of covers by other artists didn’t hurt either. Marty Robbins’ 1965 recording of “Ribbon of Darkness” reached No. 1 on U.S. country charts, while Peter, Paul and Mary took Lightfoot’s composition, “For Lovin’ Me,” into the U.S. Top 30. The song, which Dylan once said he wished he’d recorded, has since been covered by hundreds of other musicians. 

That summer, Lightfoot performed at the Newport Folk Festival, the same year Dylan rattled audiences when he shed his folkie persona by playing an electric guitar. 

As the folk music boom came to an end in the late 1960s, Lightfoot was already making his transition to pop music with ease. 

In 1971, he made his first appearance on the Billboard chart with “If You Could Read My Mind.” It reached No. 5 and has since spawned scores of covers. 

Lightfoot’s popularity peaked in the mid-1970s when both his single and album, “Sundown,” topped the Billboard charts, his first and only time doing so. 

During his career, Lightfoot collected 12 Juno Awards, including one in 1970 when it was called the Gold Leaf. 

In 1986, he was inducted into the Canadian Recording Industry Hall of Fame, now the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He received the Governor General’s award in 1997 and was ushered into the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001. 
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Negotiators for Hollywood writers and film and television studios engaged in 11th-hour contract talks on Monday to try to avert a strike that would disrupt TV production across an industry grappling with seismic changes. 

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) could call a work stoppage as early as Tuesday if it cannot reach a deal with companies such as Walt Disney Co. and Netflix Inc. A strike would be the first by the WGA in 15 years. 

Writers say they have suffered financially during the streaming TV boom, in part due to shorter seasons and smaller residual payments. They are seeking pay increases and changes to industry practices that they say force them to work more for less money. 

Half of TV series writers now work at minimum salary levels, compared with one-third in the 2013-14 season, according to Guild statistics. Median pay for scribes at the higher writer/producer level has fallen 4% over the last decade. 

“The way that it’s looking now is that there won’t be a middle class in Hollywood,” said Caroline Renard, a Guild liaison and writer whose credits include the Disney Channel’s “Secrets of Sulphur Springs.”  

Artificial intelligence is another issue at the bargaining table. The WGA wants safeguards to prevent studios from using AI to generate new scripts from writers’ previous work. Writers also want to ensure they are not asked to rewrite draft scripts created by AI.  

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan

The negotiations take place against a difficult economic backdrop for the industry. Entertainment conglomerates are under pressure from Wall Street to make their streaming services profitable, after investing billions of dollars in content to attract subscribers.  

They also are contending with declining television ad revenue, as traditional TV audiences shrink and advertisers go elsewhere. The threat of a recession also looms. 

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Comcast Corp., Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix and hundreds of production companies, has said it is committed to reaching a fair agreement. 

“It’ll affect every part of the industry and people beyond the industry,” actor and director Olivia Wilde said on the red carpet at the star-studded Met Gala, just hours ahead of the midnight Pacific time expiration of the current Writers Guild contract. “But you know, we have to stand up for our rights.” Wilde added.  

“They’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what they deserve,” Wilde said. “I wish it didn’t have to come to this, but tonight at midnight, we’ll see.” 

Actor Penelope Cruz, also at the Met Gala, offered a similar sentiment: “It will affect the rhythm of things, but sometimes things have to be done to be heard.” 

Late night will take a hit  

If a strike is called, late-night shows such as “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and “Saturday Night Live,” which use teams of writers to craft topical jokes, are expected to immediately stop production. 

That means new episodes will not be available during their traditional TV time slots or on the streaming services that make them available the next day. 

Soap operas and other daytime shows such as “The View” will likely be disrupted. News programs would not be interrupted because those writers are members of a different union. 

Further ahead, the strike could lead to a delay of the fall TV season. Writing for fall shows normally starts in May or June. If the work stoppage becomes protracted, the networks will increasingly fill their programming lineups with unscripted reality shows, news magazines and reruns.  

Netflix may be insulated from any immediate impact because of its global focus and access to production facilities outside of the U.S.  

The last WGA strike in 2007 and 2008 lasted 100 days. The action cost the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion as productions shut down and out-of-work writers, actors and producers cut back spending. 

Studios do not want another disruption after the COVID-19 pandemic halted production worldwide for months. But budgets are tight, and a new era of fiscal austerity has dawned in Hollywood, with studios laying off thousands of employees and curtailing spending on content.  

“The writers have legitimate issues here,” said one talent agent close to the bargaining process. “But the studios and the producers have very legitimate issues also. Their stock prices are down. They’ve overspent on content. They need to show profits to their shareholders.” 
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Aerosmith will be touring a city near you for the last time to celebrate the rock band’s 50-plus years together. 

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band announced Monday the dates for their farewell tour called “Peace Out” starting Sept. 2 in Philadelphia. The 40-date run of shows, which includes a stop in the band’s hometown of Boston on New Year’s Eve, will end Jan. 26 in Montreal. 

“I think it’s about time,” guitarist Joe Perry said in an interview with The Associated Press. 

Perry said the group, with frontman Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer and guitarist Brad Whitford, learned from the staging and production from their recent Las Vegas residency shows. 

Perry believes the time to say goodbye is now, especially with every founding band member over the age of 70. Tyler, 75, is the oldest in the group. 

“It’s kind of a chance to celebrate the 50 years we’ve been out here,” Perry said. “You never know how much longer everybody’s going to be healthy to do this. … It’s been a while since we’ve actually done a real tour. We did that run in Vegas, which was great. It was fun, but (we’re) kind of anxious to get back on the road.” 

Tyler and Perry said the band is looking forward to digging into their lengthy catalog of the group’s rock classics including “Crazy,” “Janie’s Got a Gun” and “Livin’ on the Edge.” 

Over the years, Aerosmith, which formed in 1970, has collected four Grammys. The band broke boundaries intersecting rock and hip-hop with their epic collaboration with Run-DMC for “Walk This Way.” 

Aerosmith performed the Super Bowl halftime show in 2001 and even had their own theme park attraction in 1999 at Disney World in Florida and later in Paris with the launch of the “Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith” ride. 

“We’re opening up Pandora’s Box one last time to present our fans with the Peace Out tour,” Tyler said in a statement to the AP. His “Pandora’s Box” reference calls out Aerosmith’s 1991 three-disc compilation album that covered the band’s output from the 1970s to the early 1980s. 

“Be there or beware as we bring all the toys out of the attic. Get ready,” Tyler added. 

The band said Kramer decided to not take part in the current dates on the upcoming tour. He’s still a part of the group, but the drummer has been on leave to “focus his attention on his family and health” since their Vegas residency last year. Drummer John Douglas will continue to play in his place. 

Perry called Kramer their brother. The band said his “legendary presence behind the drum kit will be sorely missed.” 

Before the 40-date tour wraps, Perry said other cities domestically and internationally could be added. 

“It’s the final farewell tour, but I have a feeling it will go on for a while,” he said. “But I don’t know how many times we’ll be coming back to the same cities. It could very possibly be the last time.” 
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Ten years ago, Native American photographer Matika Wilbur embarked on a road trip with an ambitious goal to document all 562 federally recognized Indigenous tribes. Her multiyear work culminated in a new book aiming to change the way people see Native Americans. She launched her book tour in her home state of Washington. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya has more from Seattle.
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“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” led ticket sales for the fourth straight weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters with $40 million as the global haul for the Universal Pictures release surpassed $1 billion, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Nintendo videogame adaptation dominated the month of April in theaters, smashing records along the way. Over the weekend, it faced little new competition, though that will change next week when Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” kicks off the summer movie calendar and is expected to move Mario to the side. Studios spent the last week at CinemaCon in Las Vegas promoting coming blockbusters and promising big returns at the summer box office.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was estimated to easily cross $1 billion in worldwide box office Sunday, making it the 10th animated film to reach that milestone and the first since 2019. With a domestic total thus far of $490 million, international sales are even stronger. The Illumination-animated release took in $68.3 million overseas over the weekend, pushing its international haul to $532.5 million.

Second place went to “Evil Dead Rise.” The horror sequel from Warner Bros. held well in its second week, especially for a horror film, dipping 50% with $12.2 million.

Among the weekend’s newcomers, the Judy Blume adaptation “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” fared the best. The Lionsgate release grossed $6.8 million in 3,343 locations, a decent start for the $30 million-budgeted coming-of age tale written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (“The Edge of Seventeen”).

As expected, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” about an 11-year-old (Abby Ryder Fortson) going through puberty, drew an overwhelming female audience. With stellar reviews (99% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong audience scores (an “A” CinemaScore), “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret,” should play well through Mother’s Day.

Lionsgate also released the Finnish action movie “Sisu” in 1,006 locations. The film, about a prospector (Jorma Tommila) whose gold is stolen by Nazis, grossed an estimated $3.3 million. That was a solid result for the rare international film to receive a nationwide opening. Reviews have been good (93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) for writer-director Jalmari Helander’s film.

“Sisu” managed to surpass the weekend’s most heavyweight new release: “Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World.” The film, from Sony’s Christian production company Affirm Films, gives a faith-based twist to the sports biopic. But after getting dinged by bad review, it didn’t punch very hard, with $3 million in 3,054 theaters.

Nida Manzoor’s “Polite Society,” about a British-Pakistani high-schooler (Priya Kansara) with dreams of becoming a stuntwoman, debuted with $800,000 in 927 theaters. The Focus Features film, one of the standouts of January’s Sundance Film Festival, blends kung-fu with Jane Austen in a story about London sisters.

One of the weekend’s biggest successes was a familiar box-office force. The Walt Disney Co.’s rerelease of “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” grossed $4.7 million in just 475 theaters. Disney put “Jedi” (the 1997 special edition version) back into theaters to commemorate the 1983 film’s 40th anniversary.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” $40 million.

2. “Evil Dead Rise,” $12.2 million.

3. “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret,” $6.8 million.

4. “John Wick: Chapter 4,” $5 million.

5. “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” $4.7 million.

6. “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” $4.1 million.

7. “Air,” $4 million.

8. “Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two,” $3.6 million.

9. “The Covenant,” $3.6 million.

10. “Sisu,” $3.3 million.
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The American Library Association says there were a record number of demands to censor U.S. library books last year, nearly double the challenges from the previous year. For VOA, Deana Mitchell takes us to a Texas town that is considering closing its library to block a court ruling ordering the return of banned books.
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Ever since missionaries started building churches out of mud 400 years ago in what was the isolated frontier of the Spanish empire, tiny mountain communities like Cordova relied on their own resources to keep the faith going.

Thousands of miles from religious and lay seats of power, everything from priests to sculptors to paint pigments was hard to come by. Villagers instituted lay church caretakers called “mayordomos,” and filled chapels with elaborate altarpieces made of local wood.

Today, threatened by depopulation, dwindling congregations and fading traditions, some of their descendants are fighting to save these historic adobe structures from literally crumbling back to the earth they were built with.

“Our ancestors put blood and sweat in this place for us to have Jesus present,” said Angelo Sandoval on a spring day inside the 1830s church of St. Anthony, where he serves as mayordomo. “We’re not just a church, we’re not just a religion — we have roots.”

These churches anchor a uniquely New Mexican way of life for their communities, many of which no longer have schools or stores, and struggle with chronic poverty and addiction. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find the necessary resources to preserve the estimated 500 Catholic mission churches, especially since most are used for only a few services each year.

“When the faithful generation is gone, are they going to be a museum or serve their purpose?” said the Rev. Rob Yaksich, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in Las Vegas, New Mexico, which oversees 23 rural churches. “This old, deep-rooted Spanish Catholicism is experiencing serious disruption.”

‘It’s our job now’

In the hamlet of Ledoux, Fidel Trujillo is mayordomo of the pink-stucco San Jose church, which he keeps spotless even though few Masses are celebrated here regularly.

“Our ‘antepasados’ (ancestors) did a tremendous job in handing over the faith, and it’s our job now,” Trujillo said in the characteristic mix of Spanish and English that most speak in this region. “I much prefer coming to these ‘capillas’ (chapels). It’s a compass that guides where your heart really belongs.”

Each mission church is devoted to a particular saint. When New Mexico’s largest wildfire last spring charred forests less than 100 yards from San Jose church, and Trujillo was displaced for a month, he took the statue of St. Joseph with him.

“Four hundred years ago, life was very difficult in this part of the world,” explained Felix Lopez, a master “santero” — an artist who sculpts, paints and conserves saint figures in New Mexico’s unique devotional style. “People needed these ‘santos.’ They were a source of comfort and refuge.”

In intervening centuries, most were stolen, sold or damaged, according to Bernadette Lucero, director, curator and archivist for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

“Saints are the spiritual go-to, they can be highly powerful,” said Victor Goler, a master santero who just completed conserving the altarpieces, or “reredos,” in Las Trampas’ mid-18th century church.

On a recent Sunday at Truchas’ 1760s Holy Rosary church, Lopez pointed out the rich decorative details that centuries of smoke and grime had hidden until he meticulously removed them with the absorbent inside of sourdough bread.

“I’m a devout Catholic, and I do this as meditation, as a form of prayer,” said Lopez, who’s been a santero for five decades and whose family hails from this village perched on a ridge at 7,000 feet (2,100 meters).

Faith that support will come

For the Rev. Sebastian Lee, who as administrator of the popular Santuario de Chimayo complex a few miles away also oversees these mission churches, fostering local attachment is a daunting challenge as congregations shrink even faster since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I want missions to be where people can taste culture and religiosity. They’re very healing, you’re soaked with people’s faith,” Lee said. “I wonder how to help them, because sooner or later one mission is not going to have enough people.”

The archdiocese’s Catholic Foundation provides small grants, and several organizations have been founded to help conservation efforts.

Exposed to rain and snow, adobe needs a fresh replastering of dirt, sand and straw every couple of years lest it dissolve.

That makes local buy-in and some kind of ongoing activity, even just funerals, fundamental to long-term preservation, said Jake Barrow, program director at Cornerstones, which has worked on more than 300 churches and other structures.

But with fewer priests and fewer faithful, taking some rural missions off the church’s roster might be inevitable, said the Rev. Andy Pavlak, who serves on the archdiocese’s commission for the preservation of historic churches.

Not everyone agrees. Running his hand over the smooth adobe walls he restored at the 1880s Santo Nino de Atocha chapel in Monte Aplanado, a hamlet nestled in a high mountain valley, Leo Paul Pacheco argued that the answer might hinge on the faith of future generations of lay people like him.

“They still have access to the same dirt,” Pacheco said as the adobe walls’ sand particles and straw sparkled in the sun. “They will provide.”
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A U.S.-sponsored youth festival opened Saturday in Ethiopia with the theme “Be Inspired, Own Your Future.” The two-day festival is being held just months after a bloody two-year civil war ended in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and as peace talks begin with the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

Nearly 20,000 youth from around the country are expected to take part over two days.

U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Tracey Ann Jacobson spoke about the importance of the festival during her opening remarks.

“The point of it is to provide job opportunities, to provide access to loans, to provide better opportunities for leadership and health care for young people throughout Ethiopia,” she said, “and I have seen it grow from a tiny seed that we started in March to this amazing program that we have today.”

Ethiopian Minister for Women and Social Affairs Ergoge Tesfaye spoke at the event about addressing the vulnerabilities of young people.

“Government and non-governmental institutions, other members of the community, as well as the youth themselves, need to understand that they are exposed to a variety of problems along with this untapped potential and providing necessary solutions and steps is expected from all of us,” she said.

Last week, the Ethiopian government started talks with representatives of the OLA in Tanzania after years of protracted communal conflict in Ethiopia’s Oromia region.

Entrepreneurs and creative individuals from across 17 cities in Ethiopia are showcasing their work at the Addis Ababa festival, but the event did not have representatives from the Tigray region because of the war’s impact.

Boni Bekele, from the Oromia region, had a booth for a clothing design shop at the market fair within the festival.

He said that he used to be able to work across the country in previous years but not anymore.

The government has made millions of young people lose hope, he said. But their strengths should be used, he said, and not just as soldiers, because that won’t transform a country. It’s philosophy, science and skills that can change a country, he said, adding that this must be a priority.

The youth festival also featured a tech village and an art gallery.

One of the artists presenting her work was 23-year-old Melat Shiferaw, who came from Dire Dawa in the eastern part of Ethiopia.

For her, though the current environment in the country is not encouraging, she hopes things will soon fall into place.

As humans, she said, we live not just thinking about today, but what we hope for tomorrow, hoping tomorrow will be better.

The festival, supported by USAID for five years, is expected to include participants from Tigray in coming years, as organizers finalize a post-conflict assessment in the region.
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