Month: January 2018

South African jazz trumpeter and anti-apartheid activist Hugh Masekela dies at the age of 78. Among his greatest hits were the anthem “Bring Him Back Home,” demanding Nelson Mandela’s freedom from jail. But he recorded countless other solos and worked with other big names, including Senegalese and American superstars Youssou N’Dour and Paul Simon. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports on the outpouring of tributes to his long career in music and political activism.
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Ursula K. Le Guin, the award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who explored feminist themes and was best known for her Earthsea books, has died at 88.

 

Le Guin died suddenly and peacefully Monday at her home in Portland, Oregon, after several weeks of health concerns, her son, Theo Downes-Le Guin said Tuesday.

 

“She left an extraordinary legacy as an artist and as an advocate of peace and critical thinking and fairness, and she was a great mother and wife as well,” he said.

 

“Godspeed into the galaxy,” Stephen King tweeted, saying Le Guin was a literary icon, not just a science fiction writer.

 

Le Guin won an honorary National Book Award in 2014 and warned in her acceptance speech against letting profit define what is considered good literature.

 

Despite being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 — a rare achievement for a science fiction-fantasy writer — she often criticized the “commercial machinery of bestsellerdom and prizedom.”

 

“I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river,” Le Guin said in the speech. “We who live by writing and publishing want — and should demand — our fair share of the proceeds. But the name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom.”

 

Le Guin’s first novel was “Roncannon’s World” in 1966 but she gained fame three years later with “The Left Hand of Darkness,” which won the Hugo and Nebula awards — top science fiction prizes — and conjures a radical change in gender roles well before the rise of the transgender community.

 

The book imagines a future society in which people are equally male and female and also dramatizes the perils of tyranny, violence and conformity.

 

Her best-known works, the Earthsea books, have sold in the millions worldwide and have been translated into 16 languages. She also produced volumes of short stories, poetry, essays and literature for young adults.

 

Le Guin’s work also won the Newbery Medal, the top honor for American children’s literature. Last year, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

 

“I know that I am always called ‘the sci-fi writer.’ Everybody wants to stick me into that one box, while I really live in several boxes,” she told reviewer Mark Wilson of Scifi.com.

 

Neil Gaiman, a fellow Newbery, Hugo and Nebula recipient, mourned her death on Twitter and called Le Guin “the deepest and smartest of the writers.”

 

“Her words are always with us. Some of them are written on my soul,” he wrote.

 

A longtime feminist, Le Guin earned degrees from Radcliffe and Columbia. Her 1983 “Left-Handed Commencement Address” at Mills College was ranked one of the top 100 speeches of the 20th century in a 1999 survey by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Texas A&M University.

 

“Why should a free woman with a college education either fight Machoman or serve him?” she told the graduates. “Why should she live her life on his terms? … I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated.”

 

Born in Berkeley, California, on Oct. 21, 1929, Le Guin described a well-off childhood even during the Depression, with summers in the countryside. Her success followed an early setback: At age 11, she had her first offering rejected by Amazing Stories, the pioneering science fiction magazine.

 

“During the Second World War, my brothers all went into service and the summers in the Valley became lonely ones, just me and my parents in the old house,” she told sfsite.com, another science fiction website.

 

“There was no TV then; we turned on the radio once a day to get the war news. Those summers of solitude and silence, a teenager wandering the hills on my own, no company, ‘nothing to do,’ were very important to me. I think I started making my soul then,” she said.

 

She married Charles Le Guin in Paris in 1953. They moved to Portland and had three children.

 

Her themes ranged from children’s literature to explorations of Taoism, feminism, anarchy, psychology and sociology to tales of a society where reading and writing are punishable by death and of a scientist who battles aliens to save the world.

 

Critic Harold Bloom placed her in the pantheon of fantasy writers along with JRR Tolkien.

 

“Sometimes I think I am just trying to superstitiously avert evil by talking about it,” she told sfsite.com. “Throughout my whole adult life, I have watched us blighting our world irrevocably … ignoring every warning and neglecting every benevolent alternative in pursuit of `growth.'”
…

You may not know her name, but you know her face.

Connie Sawyer, known in Hollywood as the oldest working actress in show business, has finally ended her career. 

Sawyer died late Monday at her home in Los Angeles at 105.

She began her career as a singer and comedienne on radio, in nightclubs, and vaudeville in the early 1930s. 

When Sawyer became too old to be called a “girl singer,” she began acting in character parts on Broadway and on hundreds of television comedy shows and films, playing little old ladies in such hits as When Harry Met Sally, Dumb and Dumber, and Pineapple Express.

Sawyer never retired and said she never wanted to be a star — just a working actress who could always get a paycheck.
…

Some of the nation’s largest recording studios have joined forces in an effort to stop a music streaming service aimed at fitness enthusiasts from using songs by Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Green Day and other stars.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Atlanta, Sony Music Entertainment and more than a dozen other record companies say Fit Radio illegally infringes on their copyrighted recordings “on a massive scale.”

The Atlanta-based streaming business is hurting artists who rely on music royalties, the music companies states in the suit filed recently in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. The lawsuit mentioned several major artists, including Beyonce, Jason Derulo, Green Day and others.

“Rampant copyright infringement of sound recordings over the internet and through mobile applications, including the infringement engaged in and enabled by entities such as Fit Radio, has resulted in significant harm to the music industry, including to artists who rely on royalties from recorded music for their livelihood,” the complaint states.

A representative of the Atlanta firm said in a statement Tuesday that it looks forward to “being vindicated by the court system.”

“We will continue providing exceptional services to our customers,” it said.

Fit Radio is available through its website, fitradio.com, and through an application or app on mobile devices such as cellphones. Fit Radio recruits disc jockeys who copy and upload popular songs to attract users, the lawsuit says.

The streaming service entices the DJs to upload recordings to Fit Radio as a way for the DJs to “promote your personal brand,” the lawsuit states. The company also supports the DJs with marketing efforts through Facebook and email campaigns, according to the lawsuit.

The recording companies say their music is legally streamed via services such as Apple Music and Spotify through business agreements with them. But Fit Radio is different because it has no such agreements to stream the copyrighted music, they say.
…

Winning the best new artist Grammy is a goal for most breakthrough performers, but for some of its recipients, it can create pressure to match previous success or surpass it.

That’s why some feel that winning the award is a slight curse.

The Recording Academy has been known for picking the wrong best new artist winner over the years. Some of the world’s greatest musicians have lost the award, including Elton John, Elvis Costello and the Dixie Chicks. Taylor Swift lost, too, though it was understandably to Amy Winehouse. But other choices may surprise you — Macklemore & Ryan Lewis not only beat out Kendrick Lamar, but they won over Ed Sheeran.

But sometimes the Grammys gets it right: The Beatles, Bette Midler, Mariah Carey, John Legend and Adele are some of the superstars who have picked up the honor, and have followed up their wins with impressive work.

We take a look at four acts who won best new artist and what life was like afterward.

Milli Vanilli

Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli said even before the Grammys asked the duo to return its best new artist award, the group planned to give it back.

“We didn’t sing on the record. That is 100 percent, so we wanted to give it back. It was the right thing to do,” he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “And to this day it got twisted [and people thought] the Grammys wanted it back, when in fact we were the first to say, ‘We want to give it back.”‘

Milli Vanilli, who won the honor at the 1990 Grammys, had to famously return the award after the public learned Morvan and Rob Pilatus didn’t sing on the duo’s 1989 U.S. debut, Girl You Know It’s True.

Morvan said despite that, it was still an honor to be nominated and that he and Pilatus, who died in 1998, still put in a lot of work.

“People might say, ‘Well, you know, they didn’t sing on the record.’ But look at the rest. We were the heart and soul of Milli Vanilli. We did those 107 cities [on tour] … in eight months,” he said. “We worked hard. We worked our butts off. We entertained people.”

Milli Vanilli beat out acts like Indigo Girls, Soul II Soul, Neneh Cherry and Tone Loc for the honor. In some ways, Morvan feels winning the Grammy actually hurt the group.

“We were a target, an easy target at that. So, you know, winning the award definitely made us a major target. It pissed people off,” he said.

​Jody Watley

Winning best new artist for Jody Watley was vindication in its finest form.

“I remember reading at the time when I quit Shalamar in 1983, ‘Jody Watley’s future will probably be the most in doubt,”‘ she recalled with a laugh. “Pretty much everyone made sure that I knew that they thought I would fail. Everyone said that it would be the biggest mistake of my life, that I would live to regret it. And so … getting nominated and winning it is one of the greatest moments of my life.”

Watley had previously been nominated for a Grammy with Shalamar, so being a nominee for best new artist surprised some people. She won the honor at the 1988 show over Swing Out Sister, Cutting Crew, Terence Trent D’Arby and Breakfast Club.

“When people ask the question, it’s like, ‘Well, get over it. I was eligible and I was the best new artist.’ And I shut a lot of people up,” she said, laughing again.

Watley’s 1987 debut launched five hits, including the Top 10 pop hits, “Looking for a New Love,” “Don’t You Want Me” and “Some Kind of Lover.” She said winning didn’t create pressure for her second album, which launched three more Top 10 pop smashes.

Watley said she knows that the conversation around winning best new artist “sometimes … has a negative connotation,” but she wants to remind people that she’s “a great success story.”

The 58-year-old is currently recording music in the group SLR — Sexy Real Love — and said she could return to the Grammys.

“I was teasing the guys and I was saying, ‘Maybe we’ll make history and we’ll end up nominated for best new artist,” she said. “Because I think we would be eligible.”

​Arrested Development

Arrested Development marked history when they won best new artist in 1993, becoming the first rap act to do so.

It opened doors for hip-hop performers like Lauryn Hill, Chance the Rapper and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis to win the same honor.

“People who had never explored [hip-hop] and didn’t totally get it really got what we were bringing out,” said Speech, the lead vocalist and co-founder of the progressive rap group. “It made me proud that we were sort of like introducing hip-hop to a large audience.”

Arrested Development’s 1992 debut, 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of…, was a departure from the gangster rap that had dominated radio at the time. The album had three Top 10 pop hits, including “Mr. Wendal,” “People Everyday” and “Tennessee,” which won the group another Grammy.

But following their debut album wasn’t an easy task, Speech said.

“For our second album, the label was more in a business model thinking about quarters and when can they make the biggest impact from a first to fourth quarter standpoint, and things that have less to do with the heart [of making music],” Speech said. “So if I had a chance to do it over again, I just would have just taken more time on the second album, regardless of how it sells. It’s not even because it didn’t sell as well as the first, but just because that’s what the art deserves.”

“If you take four or five years or if you take a few months, whatever it is for you, take that time and really pour it in just like you likely did on your first project or on the project that got you best new artist,” he added.

​Debby Boone

Being named best new artist in 1978 was an “out of body experience” for Debby Boone, who had a huge hit with the song, “You Light Up My Life.”

But following up the win had some challenges.

“It did create pressure. And I think it added to the discouragement when that was not what happened, you know, if people believed in me and now I’m letting them down, a little bit of that,” she said.

Though Boone didn’t match the achievements of her debut album and single, she still released music that charted successfully and won more Grammy Awards.

But she admits she has “mixed feelings about” how things took off after her best new artist win.

“I thought everybody knew more than me. So even when I didn’t particularly like the choices that were being made on my behalf, I would tell myself, ‘These are the experts. These guys know. I don’t like this song, but I’m going to give it my best shot.’ And that’s because my success happened suddenly,” she said. “When ‘You Light Up My Life’ took off, I didn’t know which direction I wanted to go. I knew what I liked, but I didn’t trust that what I liked would be liked by other people.”

“And now I’m old enough to realize, first of all, I don’t want to spend my life doing things that I don’t believe in, or love, or feel passionate about,” the 61-year-old added. “I think the healthiest attitude at this stage of my life, and even 20 years ago, is to say, ‘It is what happened.”‘

Boone is a Grammy voter and says when looking at the best new artist nominees, she’s voting “for who I think has a talent that is most promising to continue giving us wonderful music.”

“And though I haven’t had a string of hit records, basically on the strength of that hit record, I have, for 40 years, had a very full life of performing and recording,” she said. “And I’m nothing but grateful.”

The 60th annual Grammy Awards will air live from Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday. Nominees for best new artist are R&B singers SZA and Khalid, pop singers Alessia Cara and Julia Michaels, and rapper Lil Uzi Vert.
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Love, hate and hot sauce are themes of a 19th-century comic opera being produced this week as a kickoff to New Orleans’ 300th anniversary. It’s also the 150th anniversary for Tabasco sauce and the New Orleans Opera’s 75th. 

Tabasco: a Burlesque Opera had been stuck in an attic for more than a century when conductor Paul Mauffray found a program from its 1894 tour in archives for the opera company and its predecessors. 

 

“At first I thought it couldn’t be Tabasco — that Tabasco hadn’t been around that long,” Mauffray said. But an official history of McIlhenny Co., which makes the sauce, showed that Tabasco predated the opera by 26 years, and that McIlhenny had sponsored the original tour. 

The Tabasco-making company underwrote the sold-out production running Thursday to Sunday.

Composer George Whitefield Chadwick was well-known in his day, Mauffray said, and if Tabasco had its due, “it would be the founding cornerstone of our American history in the opera. It was not just some little show that was done here once. It was the most popular American opera from the pre-20th century.” 

Opera has been a big part of New Orleans’ social and musical scene going back to the late 1700s. Mauffray was trying to learn more of its history when he found the program in a box in 2009. 

This opera might be rooted in the comical genre that brought fame to the British duo Gilbert and Sullivan. 

Commissioned by cadets

Chadwick attended a music conservatory in Leipzig, Germany, a decade after W.S. Gilbert, and probably studied under some of the same masters, Mauffray said. Chadwick was commissioned to write Tabasco in 1893 by a corps of well-to-do Army cadets in Boston. The cadets performed it in January 1894 as a fundraiser, winning critical notice for the shapely, clean-shaven legs of the young men acting women’s parts. 

It went on to more than 40 professional performances in New York. “This time, the reviewers said it sounded so much better when the women’s parts were sung by women,” Mauffray said. 

About the same time, the great Antonin Dvorak, then director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York, presented Chadwick with a national composition prize for one of his symphonies. 

Impresario Thomas Q. Seabrook acquired touring rights for Tabasco and asked McIlhenny’s permission to use its trademark. John Avery McIlhenny, eldest son of the hot sauce’s creator, agreed, and provided free samples for the audience. 

“As far as I know, that’s the earliest we gave out miniature bottles,” company historian Shane Bernard said. 

“We’re still making those minis today,” company president and CEO Tony Simmons said. “I think we did about 30 million of them in 2017.” 

Lengthy run

The show played in at least 48 cities, from Dallas to Rhode Island, when Chadwick realized he wasn’t getting royalties, Mauffray said. 

Chadwick had Seabrook arrested and took back his music. When asked about a revival in the early 1900s, Chadwick — who had a composition then being performed by the New York Philharmonic under Gustav Mahler — declined, writing that comic opera was no longer his style, according to Mauffray. 

Mauffray tried for years to locate the opera. In 2012, he got access to a box that Chadwick’s descendants were sending to be archived. He found instrumental parts and three different scripts. Reconstruction took “a lot of detective work and piecework and bits and pieces had to be rewritten,” Mauffray said. 

 

The show is directed by Pacific Opera Project director Josh Shaw, who’s known for reimagining Mozart’s Escape from the Seraglio as a Star Trek episode and for Puccini’s La Boheme: AKA “The Hipsters.” 

The opera’s wacky plot involves traders, a harem girl named Fatima and her older counterpart Hasbeena, a sultan obsessed with spicy food, and Dennis O’Grady, a drunk who impersonates a French chef. A bottle of Tabasco saves O’Grady’s life, trader Marco falls for Fatima, and trader Lola for O’Grady. There’s also a boatload of dancing girls and a plot to assassinate the sultan by putting a bomb in a fancy chest he believes to hold Tabasco. 

The plot may seem outlandish to modern audiences, but a souvenir some spectators will get at the show has withstood the test of time: mini bottles of Tabasco. 
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Spam, trout, fried chicken, moon pies and anything slathered in mayonnaise — those are some of the flavors of South Korea’s home cooking that might seem just a bit familiar to the U.S. athletes and hordes of westerners preparing to descend upon the small Asian country for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

But within those bites is a story of South Korea’s resilience, pride and adaptability, which fueled its rise from a poverty-stricken country torn apart by the Korean War, to a world power set to host the glittering Olympics for the second time, all in a matter of just a few generations.

“They would recognize things that were of great use and they would take them and adapted it with what they wanted out of it,” said Michael Pettid, a Korea history expert and author. “The things that came to them, they have another existence in Korea. It just didn’t stay the same.”

Korean eats such as kimchi, barbecued meats and bibimbap bowls have likewise become ubiquitous in urban areas of the U.S., with nearly 1.8 million people in America identifying as Korean, according to Census data from 2015.

When the world’s most elite athletes move into the 21st-century Olympic village, there will still be echoes of the war that tore apart that land decades ago. Organizers in Pyeongchang said some of the 450 items on the menu at their 24-hour dining facility during the Games will include traditional Korean dishes, including local specialties.

Though Western influence on the South Korean diet dates back more than a century thanks to missionaries, diplomats and world explorers who left an imprint on the cuisine, it was the massive GI influence since the 1950s that brought a wave of new ingredients and tastes at a time when hunger was a serious problem in the country.

Alves Key, secretary of the Korean War Veterans Association, said more than 5.7 million military members were officially involved in the three-year war, but more than 2 million others have since served in the country through the rebuilding years after.

Here’s a look at some of the most popular Korean foods with an American influence:

Army stew

A South Korean dish called budae jjigae, or “army stew,” prominently features Spam, the canned meat product from Minnesota.

The stew is a salty, savory concoction of spicy kimchi, ramen noodles and various processed meat products served bubbling hot. SPAM — which has a somewhat mixed reception back home in parts of the U.S. — has been loved by South Koreans as a symbol of American prosperity and a source of always-ready protein. That’s been the case since they appeared on the U.S. military base and then given away to starving children or sold on the black market as a prestigious food item. The dish in some cases is also affectionately known as “army base stew” or even “army garbage stew,” as some suggest the poor got them as scraps.

Young Kim, 22, moved to the Seattle area as a teenager but remembers eating the stew with family or friends in restaurants in South Korea. He said its origins are well documented as a part of Korean history, which has been passionately passed down to younger generations because the war so changed the country and its entire trajectory.

“The story about budae jjigae, I think everyone in Korea knows it,” Kim said. “Your parents would tell a story about it.”

Meanwhile, some food interchanges reflect the makeup of the GIs themselves.

Fried chicken

Southern foods such as fried chicken and moon pies have made lasting impressions on the Korean diet, just as the U.S. military has historically included a large percentage of its recruits from the southern U.S. The taste of flour-battered chicken and using deep-frying as a technique are both hallmarks of southern cuisine. And long before KFC made its way to Seoul, the crispy, buttery chicken pieces were also referenced simply as “Kentucky chicken” to South Koreans, said Clark Sorensen, Korea history professor and the director of the University of Washington’s Center for Korea Studies.

A.J. Han, who grew up in South Korea, said her relatives remember falling in love with fried chicken at first taste. The 34-year-old restaurant owner and chef said her family then developed their own recipe that she still uses at Stars in the Sky, a popular Korean-style fried chicken shop outside of Seattle.

“Because of the Kentucky fried chicken came over, that’s why people started doing battering,” Han said.

Key said there was fried chicken served on base during his time with the U.S. Air Force between 1968 and ’70, though it was nowhere to be found outside of his military quarters in Gunsan along the west coast of South Korea, south of Seoul.

“The chicken I remember was mostly boiled,” Key said.

​The moon pie

Moon pies — a treat made of chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows — are also similar to the popular Choco Pie in South Korea. The native snack food has such a cult following that it’s been rumored to be something of a sought-after contraband and bribery tool in North Korea, according to Pettid.

“The fact that it’s the southern style [food] also reflects the demographics of the army style,” Pettid said.

Mayonnaise

Even when South Koreans are influenced by a product, historians point to how the prideful country has made it its own. While mayo is commonly used in cold salads and sandwiches in the U.S., Koreans have enjoyed it as a ubiquitous sauce, dip and general flavor enhancer. It’s also often used in the banchans, or side dishes, that accompany every meal, mixed with everything from potatoes, cabbage, corn and seaweed.

“You always get these vegetables covered in mayonnaise but that’s not actually western. They’ve adapted, indigenized that, just like American pizza is not like Italian pizza,” Sorensen said. “The flavors aren’t exactly western flavors.”

Trout fishing

But of all the food examples that illustrate the enduring U.S.-South Korean alliance, one little talked about story has become lore. And it involves trout swimming in the waters around Pyeongchang, where the Olympics will be held.

Many years ago, as the story famously goes, an American officer who was an avid fisherman helped persuade local and military authorities to import a species of live trout from the U.S. into the mountain streams near Pyeongchang, where there were other kinds of native trout, according to Sorensen.

Locals viewed that as a win-win situation, as the officer presumably got his fishing in and the natives had another source of protein. Pettid said he’s heard the story too, but hasn’t found it substantiated in any historical or official text, though it could be one of the many things that happened during the massive era of transformation that the governments quietly allowed or facilitated.

Pyeongchang today still hosts an annual trout festival.

“He must have gone through a considerable amount of trouble and he must have had Korean collaborators, too,” Sorensen said of the officer. “Koreans like fish.”
…

Russia said on Tuesday it had canceled the release of Death of Stalin, a dark, satirical movie from British director Armando Iannucci, saying many

Russians would find it an insulting mockery of the country’s Soviet past.

The film, which focuses on backstabbing and infighting among the Soviet leader’s closest allies as they vie for power immediately after his 1953 death, had been privately viewed by culture ministry officials and advisers.

Vladimir Medinsky, the culture minister, said Tuesday that his ministry had received a number of complaints after the showing, which had prompted him to withdraw its general release license.

He said he had asked legal experts to make extra checks on its content.

“Many people of the older generation, and not only, will regard it as an insulting mockery of all the Soviet past, of the country that defeated fascism and of ordinary people, and what’s even worse, even of the victims of Stalinism,” Medinsky said in a statement.

He said his ministry had told the film’s distributor that it was inappropriate to release the film on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the victorious World War II Battle of Stalingrad, in which so many Soviet soldiers died fighting for a

city that bore Stalin’s name.

But he said the distributor had not heeded the warning.

“We don’t have censorship,” said Medinsky. “We are not afraid of critical and unpleasant assessments of our history. But there is a moral line between the critical analysis of our history and desecrating it.”

Russia holds a presidential election on March 18 that incumbent Vladimir Putin is expected to easily win. Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for the last 18 years, has put patriotism at the center of his rule.

​’A complex figure’

Stalin was repudiated by the Soviet Union after his death. He is recognized as responsible for the deaths of millions, from policies that included the forced collectivization of farms that caused famine, and from a succession of purges that saw mass executions and imprisonment at an archipelago of camps.

But the wartime Soviet leader is still associated by many Russians with the country’s greatest achievements. Putin has called Stalin “a complex figure” and has said attempts to demonize him were a ploy to attack Russia.

Some of the people who attended the film’s private viewing told Reuters they were disgusted.

“It’s a despicable film,” said Nadezhda Usmanova, head of the Russian Military Historical Society’s department of information. The group was involved in organizing the pre-release screening.

“It’s a bad film, it’s a boring film, and it’s vile, repugnant and insulting,” Usmanova told Reuters.

Elena Drapeko, deputy head of the culture committee in the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, said she found “extremism” in the movie.

“It’s an effort to breed bad blood into the social harmony that has been reached in Russian society,” said Drapeko, who earlier in her career was a popular Soviet and Russian actress.
…

Marc Cohn is rightly proud of his Grammy Award but it’s not the most valuable thing in his house.

The trophy sits in a heaving bookcase right above a copy of Bob Dylan’s “The Lyrics.” That thick volume was once owned by Dylan, who presented it to Cohn with a personal inscription when they toured together in 1992.

As you might guess, it’s priceless to Cohn. “My kids all know, in case of a fire, I grab the kids, they grab the book,” says the singer-songwriter, laughing. “The Grammy is on its own.”

Songs and lyrics – not pretty hardware – have always been the fuel for Cohn, the singer-songwriter best known for “Walking in Memphis” from his self-titled debut album.

When Cohn talks about the night in 1991 when he won the Grammy for best new artist – besting Boyz II Men, C+C Music Factory, Color Me Badd and Seal – he cherishes the connection he shares with his musical influences.

“It was very, very poignant and meaningful to be on that stage and accept an award that my heroes had won in the past,” he says. “The night itself was otherworldly. I felt like I was in a waking dream.”

These days, Cohn does between 70-100 concerts a year and just got off a tour with Michael McDonald. In 2016, he released “Careful What You Dream: Lost Songs and Rarities” and the bonus album, “Evolution of a Record.” He co-wrote the song “Paint You a Picture” with David Crosby and is working on a new album that he hopes will be out by the end of the year.

His connection with the Grammys endures – he co-wrote half the songs on William Bell’s album “This Is Where I Live,” which won the best Americana album Grammy in 2016. This year, a tune he co-wrote for the Blind Boys of Alabama is nominated for best American roots performance.

“It feels particularly sweet to be talking about the Grammys but not just as something in my past,” he says. “It’s been a wonderful full-circle thing for me.”

Cohn has always charted his own musical course, enjoying creative highs and fallow periods. Along the way, he’s watched record stores disappear and the power of record companies chip away. Most upsetting to him is the demise of the LP.

“The art form I fell in love with, that made me want to be a songwriter – namely, the album – is pretty much gone. Nobody listens that way anymore. But it’s the only way I know how to work,” he says.

Cohn grew up in Cleveland, the fourth son of four boys. He had amassed years’ worth of songs for his 1991 piano-led debut album, which also contained “Silver Thunderbird” and “True Companion.”

He was heralded as an important American artist and a Grammy nod followed – a big slap on the back for a singer who was an avid watcher of the broadcast. At Cohn’s home, everyone knew to stay quiet while the show was on.

“The Grammys were the only game in town if you were a young person predisposed to being passionate about music. There was no MTV. There was no VH1. There was no anything,” he says.

“The only time I saw Paul Simon, heard him talk, saw the way he walked, got to really watch Stevie Wonder – just all these amazing people – that was always on the Grammys.”

After his win, Cohn wrote a clutch of new songs relatively quickly. But they were different from his debut – more guitar-driven – and he had to fight pressure from his label, Atlantic, which wanted him to reproduce the sound of his earlier hits.

“I think I experienced what every artist who is signed to a major record label and has success with their first record. The pressure is on to have another hit,” he says. “Whether it wins a Grammy or not, the record companies aren’t that interested. They’re interested in how many millions can you sell now.”

Cohn is more interested in following good music. He’s released five studio albums, plus a greatest hits and a live album, including “Join the Parade,” which deals with Hurricane Katrina and his own near fatal shooting.

Rising singer-songwriter Chelsea Williams joined Cohn on a few shows in Park City, Utah, last year and calls him a fantastic storyteller, both in song and word. The first night, he unexpectedly pulled her onstage to duet on a Dylan song.

“Getting to see Marc Cohn do his thing so brilliantly and beautifully and getting to see people really, truly appreciate that was very inspiring and encouraging,” she says.

Cohn this year plans to tour with the Blind Boys of Alabama and in February will return to City Winery in New York to headline his annual Valentine’s Day concert with guests such as Jackson Browne and Shawn Colvin.

“I’ve got an audience that comes to see me when I come into town and I’m able to do what I love for a living,” he says. “As complicated as it is now, that to me is still an incredible blessing.”
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She waited 90 years and saw a trail of men and Disney princesses get there before her, but on Monday Minnie Mouse finally got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Minnie Mouse made her movie debut in the 1928 film “Steamboat Willie,” and her co-star and beau Mickey Mouse got his bronze plaque on Hollywood Boulevard back in 1978.

But it took another 40 years for Minnie, who appeared in more than 70 animated movies, to join him on the Walk of Fame.

“In true Hollywood fashion, she delivered a memorable performance but Mickey got all the credit,” Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger said at the ceremony unveiling the 2,627th star.

“After 90 years in show business, it’s certainly about time you got your star,” Iger said.

Minnie has been celebrated as a fashion icon, pop culture staple and a character who brings joy to children worldwide, and an actor dressed as the cartoon character waved and batted her eyelashes throughout Monday’s ceremony.

“This is the best day ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she squeaked from the red and white polka dot stage.

Pop star Katy Perry, also dressed in red and white polka dots for the occasion, said she had been a fan of Minnie since the age of two or three.

“Minnie-and-Mickey-printed diapers – that was my first memory ever and it turned into a lifelong devotion,” the “Firework” singer said.

“No one rocks a bow, or the color red, quite like her,” Perry added.

Walk of Fame honorees are selected by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Women have stepped up their campaign in recent years for equal pay in Hollywood and better representation behind and in front of the camera.

It took Minnie much longer than her boyfriend to receive Monday’s accolade because Disney only nominated her last year, Walk of Fame producer Ana Martinez told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Maybe he was more popular back in the day,” Martinez said.

Donald Duck, Tinker Bell, Snow White and other Disney characters were immortalized on the Walk of Fame before Minnie.
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U.S. singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, one of pop music’s all-time best-selling artists, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and plans to retire from touring, his official website said on Monday.

The onset of the disease has made it difficult for him to travel and perform on a large-scale, a statement on the site said, adding he will be cancelling upcoming concert dates in Australia and New Zealand and offering refunds.

“It is with great reluctance and disappointment that I announce my retirement from concert touring. I have been so honored to bring my shows to the public for the past 50 years,” Diamond said in the statement, offering apologies to those who purchased tickets to his upcoming shows.

Diamond, known for hits including “Sweet Caroline” and “Cracklin’ Rosie,” said he plans to remain active in song writing and recording.

Later this week, Diamond will turn 77 and on Sunday the Recording Academy plans to honor him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Diamond has sold more than 130 million albums worldwide and 38 of his singles have made it to the Top 40, according to the academy.

Grammy-award winner Diamond, a fixture in American pop music since he began recording in the 1960s, has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“My thanks goes out to my loyal and devoted audiences around the world. You will always have my appreciation for your support and encouragement,” Diamond said.

“This ride has been — so good, so good, so good — thanks to you,” he said.
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“The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson is going from Middle Earth to the Western Front, transforming grainy black-and-white footage of World War I into 3-D color for a new documentary film.

 

Jackson’s movie, announced Monday, is among dozens of artworks commissioned by British cultural bodies to commemorate 100 years since the final year of the 1914-18 war.

 

The New Zealand-based director of “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” series has restored film from the Imperial War Museum using cutting-edge digital technology and hand coloring, pairing it with archive audio recollections from veterans of the conflict.

 

He said the aim is to close the 100-year time gap and show “what it was like to fight in the war.”

 

“We all know what First World War footage looks like,” Jackson said in comments broadcast Monday. “It’s sped-up, it’s fast, like Charlie Chaplin, grainy, jumpy, scratchy, and it immediately blocks you from actually connecting with the events on screen.”

 

“But the results we have got are absolutely unbelievable. They are way beyond what I expected. This footage looks like it was shot in the last week or two, with high definition cameras,” he added.

 

The film will premiere during the London Film Festival in October before being broadcast on BBC television. Every school in the U.K. will also receive a copy.

 

The film is part of the government-backed 14-18 Now project, which has presented works by more than 200 artists over four years to remember a conflict in which 20 million people died.

 

Other works premiering this year include a large-scale performance piece by South African artist William Kentridge about African porters who served in the war; processions to mark the 100th anniversary of some British women winning the right to vote; and a performance celebrating wartime homing pigeons that includes birds fitted with LED lights.

 

“Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle — who helmed the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony — will create a mass-participation work to be performed on the anniversary of the Nov. 11, 1918, armistice that ended the war.
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Film star Cate Blanchett, singer-songwriter Elton John and Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan received awards at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday for their work raising awareness about human rights issues.

Blanchett, an Australian, received a Crystal Award for her work with people who have fled their homes. British singer-songwriter John received his for his charitable work with his AIDS foundation. Indian Khan’s was in recognition of his work championing the rights of children and women in India.

The Crystal Award is given, by the WEF to artists who make a positive change in society.

The awards were presented at a ceremony in the village of Davos, in the Swiss Alps, where some of the world’s top policy makers and executives have begun gathering for the annual meeting.

Blanchett, who has won two Oscars, was named a goodwill ambassador for United Nations refugee agency UNHCR in May 2016.

As part of her role, the actor has travelled to Lebanon and Jordan to meet refugees displaced by the Syrian conflict.

She warned of the consequences if more was not done to help people forced to flee their homes.

“Lost generations of uneducated, disenfranchised and displaced children not only represent a vast loss of potential but also a threat for future global security and prosperity,” she said.

More than a million people have fled parts of Africa and the Middle East to Europe in the last few years.
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Bill Cosby has performed in public for the first time since a sex abuse scandal embroiled him in 2015, telling stories and honoring old friends in his hometown on Monday as a retrial looms in his criminal sexual assault case.

 

The 80-year-old entertainer took the stage Monday night at a Philadelphia jazz club for his first show since May 2015. His last comedy tour ended amid protests as about 60 women were coming forward to accuse him of drugging and molesting them over five decades, something he has denied.

 

Cosby arrived at the club on the arm of his spokesman Andrew Wyatt. He wore a gray hoodie printed with the phrase “Hello Friend,” something his late son, Ennis Cosby, often would say.

 

Cosby is scheduled for an April 2 retrial on charges he drugged and molested a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bail. His first trial ended with a hung jury last year. Jury selection for his retrial will start March 29.

 

Cosby’s spokesman notified reporters of the comedy performance about two hours before he was to take the stage at the LaRose Jazz Club. The show was part of a program honoring jazz musician Tony Williams.

 

The performance is Cosby’s latest step back into the spotlight he’s mostly shied from since his December 2015 arrest.

 

Two weeks ago, Cosby invited reporters to tag along as he ate dinner with old friends at a Philadelphia restaurant.

 

Over the weekend, Cosby’s social media accounts featured photos of him visiting a barber and a cafe in the area and showing support for the Philadelphia Eagles, who won Sunday’s NFC Championship game against the Minnesota Vikings and secured a spot in the Super Bowl.
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