Month: February 2021

Pope Francis Thursday said his thoughts are with musicians and those who work in the music industry whose livelihood has been all but eliminated by restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.In a video message he delivered to an international conference on music, Pope Francis said he knows musicians have seen their lives and livelihoods “upset” by the pandemic and how their work, training and communities have suffered due to COVID-19-related restrictions.He also credited the “significant efforts” made by those musicians who have continued working through the pandemic through virtual or isolated performances. He said those are “valid efforts” not only for music in the church but in concert halls and other places, “music is a service of the community.”The pope said he hoped “this aspect of social life can also be reborn, that we return to singing, playing and enjoying music and singing together.” He said that music, whether through voice, instruments or written compositions, express the “harmony of the voice of God,” and the “symphony” of this universal brotherhood.As Pope, Francis has never showed particular passion for music, unlike his predecessor, Pope Benedict, who was passionate about classical music and continued to play the piano even as Pope.
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After three years of negotiations with the late controversial art collector Douglas Latchford and his family, more than 100 Cambodian artifacts will be returned to Cambodia, according to the government.How Latchford, a British art collector and co-author of three books on Cambodian art and antiques, built his collection was a topic of art world speculation. He faced accusations of trafficking the artifacts to his homes in Bangkok and London. In November 2019, federal prosecutors in New York City charged Latchford with falsifying the provenance, invoices and shipping documents to transport valuable Khmer-era relics to private collections, museums and auction houses across the world.At the time, FILE – Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat ancient Hindu temple complex stands in Siem Reap province, some 230 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 28, 2012.The first shipment of five artifacts is expected to arrive in late February or early March. Cambodian authorities anticipate these will include a 10th-century sandstone sculpture of Hindu deities Shiva and Skanda, a 12th-century sandstone sculpture of Prajnaparamita – a female deity worshipped during the Khmer Empire – and a bronze statue of a male deity from the late 11th century.Kriangsak said she didn’t anticipate the complexity of the lengthy negotiations.“I am delighted that this complete collection, gathered over many decades, will be returned to their ancestral home in the Kingdom of Cambodia,” she said in the same Culture Ministry statement.In an interview with The New York Times published last week, Kriangsak skirted questions about the accusations and charges levelled against Latchford.“Despite what people say or accuse against Douglas, my father started his collection in a very different era, and his world has changed,” she FILE – Tourists visit the Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia, March 14, 2018. Cambodia’s main tourist destination, Angkor Wat, was built between the 9th and 15th centuries.The indictment alleges that Latchford intentionally faked the provenance of antiquities that were the “product of looting, unauthorized excavation, and illicit smuggling” to encourage the sales and boost the prices of merchandise he was putting on the international market.United States federal law enforcement authorities worked with the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts in 2020 to return two statues that were confiscated from an auction house in California in 2017. The U.S. and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding to place import restrictions on archaeological artifacts being taken out of the country.Hab Touch, secretary of state in charge of illicit trafficking and restitution at Cambodia’s Culture Ministry, said the government had negotiated with Douglas before he died last year.“We had worked with [Kriangsak’s] father for a long time,” he said. “His daughter had the willingness and intention to return what she has got from her father to Cambodia.”The official did not comment on the accusations and charges against Latchford.Thuy Chanthourn, who has researched Cambodian artifacts for 30 years, said many artifacts were lost most recently during the civil war in the 1970s and 1980 but also during the late 1800s and early 1900s.“Our ancient objects are not only with Douglas. There are many in Thailand, England, the U.S. and France. They are privately owned,” he said.The artifact researcher claimed that Latchford did not steal the artifacts himself but that they were trafficked to Thailand, which is one of the biggest markets for Cambodian relics.Vong Sotheara, a professor of history at the state-run Royal University of Phnom Penh, said numerous Cambodian artifacts remained in private collections, with many people having small museums to display their antiques.“The rich and millionaires spend their money buying authentic old objects from Cambodia as a hobby,” he said, adding that it was a long process to prove the provenance of these objects so they could be returned to Cambodia.
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American pop star Rihanna tweeted about ongoing farmers’ protests in India this week, sparking attention from other big names on social media and anger from the Indian government.
 
“Why aren’t we talking about this?!” Rihanna tweeted on Tuesday, with a link to a CNN article about ongoing protests.why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtesthttps://t.co/obmIlXhK9S— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 2, 2021The tweet, which has been liked more than a half-million times in the past day, sparked attention from climate activist Greta Thunberg and the niece of Vice President Kamala Harris.We stand in solidarity with the #FarmersProtest in India.https://t.co/tqvR0oHgo0— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) February 2, 2021″It’s no coincidence that the world’s oldest democracy was attacked not even a month ago, and as we speak, the most populous democracy is under assault. This is related. We ALL should be outraged by India’s internet shutdowns and paramilitary violence against farmer protesters,” Meena Harris tweeted.But its reception in India was mixed.
 
In a statement released Wednesday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that the issue was a domestic one and accused “vested interest groups” of mobilizing international support against India.
 
“Before rushing to comment on such matters, we would urge that the facts be ascertained, and a proper understanding of the issues at hand be undertaken,” the Ministry said in a statement.
 
“The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible,” the statement went on.
 
The statement claims that only a “very small section” of farmers have protested three new bills, which farmers fear would put them at the mercy of large corporations. However, tens of thousands of farmers have been camped out near India’s capital of Delhi for nearly two months as talks with the government have stalled.India’s Top Court Puts Controversial Farm Laws on HoldProtest leaders adamant that they will not negotiate with court-appointed panel saying all its members are ‘pro-government’ and reiterating that laws must be repealedIndian newspapers have reported that journalists reporting along the Singhu border near Delhi have been arrested or prevented from entering secured areas to report. The Indian government has also reportedly shut down the internet in various parts of the state of Haryana, where many farmers have set up camp.
 
While many Bollywood celebrities have echoed the rhetoric of the ruling party, famous musicians from Punjab — the state known as the “bread basket” of India where most protesters have traveled from — have welcomed the international attention.
 
Diljit Dosanjh, a Punjabi musician and actor who has been vocal in his support of the protests, produced a song called “Riri” in honor of Rihanna less than twelve hours after her tweet.#RIRI#Rihanna ✊🏽https://t.co/SkyOBC8lLx@Thisizintense@raj_ranjodh— DILJIT DOSANJH (@diljitdosanjh) February 3, 2021The farmers’ protest has emerged as a major challenge for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the government refusing to repeal the laws and farmers refusing to settle for anything less.    
 
The government has defended the laws saying they would modernize agriculture and help farmers raise their incomes by affording them new opportunities to market their produce to private companies.
But farmers say the laws favor powerful corporations and fear they will dismantle the protection afforded by a decades-old system under which the government buys farm produce such as rice and wheat at what is called a “minimum price.”
  
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American pop star Rihanna tweeted about ongoing farmers’ protests in India this week, sparking attention from other big names on social media and anger from the Indian government.
 
“Why aren’t we talking about this?!” Rihanna tweeted on Tuesday, with a link to a CNN article about ongoing protests.
 
The tweet, which has been liked more than a half-million times in the past day, sparked attention from climate activist Greta Thunberg and the niece of Vice President Kamala Harris.
 
But its reception in India was mixed.
 
In a statement released Wednesday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that the issue was a domestic one and accused “vested interest groups” of mobilizing international support against India.
 
“Before rushing to comment on such matters, we would urge that the facts be ascertained, and a proper understanding of the issues at hand be undertaken,” the Ministry said in a statement.
 
“The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible,” the statement went on. [[link:
 
The statement claims that only a “very small section” of farmers have protested three new bills, which farmers fear would put them at the mercy of large corporations. However, tens of thousands of farmers have been camped out near India’s capital of Delhi for nearly two months as talks with the government have stalled.
Indian newspapers have reported that journalists reporting along the Singhu border near Delhi have been arrested or prevented from entering secured areas to report. The Indian government has also reportedly shut down the internet in various parts of the state of Haryana, where many farmers have set up camp.
 
While many Bollywood celebrities have echoed the rhetoric of the ruling party, famous musicians from Punjab — the state known as the “bread basket” of India where most protesters have traveled from — have welcomed the international attention.
 
Diljit Dosanjh, a Punjabi musician and actor who has been vocal in his support of the protests, produced a song called “Riri” in honor of Rihanna less than twelve hours after her tweet.
 
The farmers’ protest has emerged as a major challenge for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the government refusing to repeal the laws and farmers refusing to settle for anything less.    
 
The government has defended the laws saying they would modernize agriculture and help farmers raise their incomes by affording them new opportunities to market their produce to private companies.
But farmers say the laws favor powerful corporations and fear they will dismantle the protection afforded by a decades-old system under which the government buys farm produce such as rice and wheat at what is called a “minimum price.”  
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Hollywood period drama “Mank” got a leading six nominations on Wednesday for the 2021 Golden Globe awards in film, while television shows “The Crown” and “The Mandalorian” will be among those competing for best series.
Streaming service Netflix Inc dominated the nominations in both film, with 22 nods, and television (20) after a year in which the coronavirus pandemic prompted Hollywood studios to push back dozens of their film releases, and many movie theaters were closed for months.
The contest for the Golden Globe best drama film awards will also include modern Great Recession-era story “Nomadland,” 1960s Vietnam War protest drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” #MeToo revenge story “Promising Young Woman and aging family drama “The Father.”
Sacha Baron Cohen’s satire on former President Donald Trump’s America, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm;” the film version of the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton;” LGBTQ musical “The Prom;” “Music” and time-loop comedy “Palm Springs” will compete in a separate category for musicals and comedies.
The Golden Globe awards, which kick off a pandemic-era Hollywood awards season, are due to be handed out at a ceremony on Feb. 28, hosted by actors Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The nominees and winners are selected by the small Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).
Three of the five directors nominated on Wednesday were women, including Regina King for Black drama “One Night in Miami,” Britain’s Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman” and Chinese-born filmmaker Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland.”
Among the actors nominated were Baron Cohen for “Borat,” the late Chadwick Boseman in his last film role in jazz period piece “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” British actor Riz Ahmed as a drummer losing his hearing in “Sound of Metal” and Frances McDormand for “Nomadland.”
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Whether anyone will be attending the Golden Globes in person remains uncertain and improbable. But nominations to the 78th Globes will be announced Wednesday, nevertheless. Hollywood’s strange and largely virtual awards season lacks the usual kind of buzz and red-carpet glamour that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association annually feasts on. More than perhaps any other award show, the Globes depend on a cavalcade of stars — something that won’t materialize when the awards are handed out February 28 in a ceremony hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.  Virtual announcementNominations will be announced virtually at 8:35 a.m. ET Wednesday by presenters Sarah Jessica Parker and Taraji P. Henson. They will reveal 12 categories on NBC’s “Today” show, with full nominees announced live on E! digital channels and the Golden Globes’ website. Without any in-person screenings or photo ops with stars, little is known about how the roughly 90-member press association — a notoriously unpredictable group, in normal times — is swaying this year. But one thing may be a lock: Netflix will land a whole lot of nominations. Several of the streaming service’s films — including Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” David Fincher’ “Mank” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” — are considered frontrunners, as are Netflix TV series “The Crown” and “Ozark.” At last year’s Globes, Netflix also led all studios with 34 nominations. Also widely expected to be nominated Wednesday are Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” with Frances McDormand; Regina King’s directorial debut “One Night in Miami”; and George C. Wolfe’s August Wilson adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” with Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman all but assured of nods. The Globes’ splitting of nominees between drama and comedy/musical could also mean one wildcard of the season — “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” — may emerge. The film could be nominated for best feature, comedy or musical, along with acting nods for Sacha Baron Cohen (also a contender for his supporting performance in “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) and Maria Bakalova. Also of note in the category: the “Hamilton” film, ineligible for the Academy Awards, is a likely nominee at the Globes. In the television categories, expect “The Mandalorian,” “The Queen’s Gambit,” “The Flight Attendant,” “Ted Lasso” and the final season of “Schitt’s Creek” to be in the mix.  Awards ceremonyThe HFPA has yet to announce what form its awards ceremony — typically a bubbly dinner gathering with flowing drinks — will take this year. In August, the group’s president, Lorenzo Soria, died at age 68. He was replaced by Ali Sar. This year’s Globes were postponed nearly two months because of the pandemic and to adjust to the delayed Oscars. Those are set for April 25. Last year’s Golden Globes culminated in awards for “1917” and “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” The telecast, hosted by Ricky Gervais, couldn’t buck the overall ratings trend for awards shows, drawing an average of 18.3 million viewers, down 2% from the previous year. 
 
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While many U.S. professional football games this season have been played in empty stadiums because of the coronavirus pandemic, the February 7 Super Bowl will be played in front of 25,000 fans. It will be the lowest attended National Football League championship game of all time.Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, where the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has a capacity of 65,890, so the empty seats will be filled with as many as 30,000 cardboard cutouts of fans.Buccaneers, Chiefs to Face Off in Super Bowl Quarterbacks Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes look to add to their championship resumes According to the NFL, all fans in attendance will be given personal protective equipment (PPE) kits. The league said that it was giving 7,500 vaccinated health care workers free tickets to the game. Everyone in attendance will be required to wear face coverings.Until this year’s game, the lowest attended Super Bowl was the first one, where nearly 62,000 fans in the Los Angeles Coliseum watched the Green Bay Packers defeat the Chiefs 35-10 in 1967. There were 35,000 empty seats.The 1980 Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers remains the most attended game with 103,985 fans watching in the Rose Bowl. Pittsburgh won the game 31-19.
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Rocker Marilyn Manson was dropped by his record label on Monday after actor Evan Rachel Wood accused her ex-fiancé of sexual and other physical abuse, alleging she was “manipulated into submission” during their relationship.
Manson called the allegations “horrible distortions of reality.”
Wood, who stars on HBO’s “Westworld,” had spoken frequently in recent years about being abused in a relationship but did not name the person until she posted Monday on Instagram.
“The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” Wood said. “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years.”
Manson’s label, Loma Vista Recordings, said in a statement that after the “disturbing allegations,” it will “cease to further promote his current album” and has “also decided not to work with Marilyn Manson on any future projects.”
Wood and Manson’s relationship became public in 2007 when he was 38 and she was 19, and they were briefly engaged in 2010 before breaking up.
Wood, now 33, said in her post that Manson left her “brainwashed and manipulated into submission.”
“I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives,” the post added.
She concluded, “I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”
Manson responded with his own Instagram post Monday night.
“Obviously my art and life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality,” his post said. “My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how — and why — others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.”
It was not immediately clear whether Wood has gone to authorities with any of her allegations, and a representative did not immediately respond when asked via email whether she had.
In 2018, Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to file charges against Manson over allegations of assault, battery and sexual assault dating to 2011, saying they were limited by statutes of limitations and a lack of corroboration. The accuser in that case was identified only as a social acquaintance of Manson.
He denied the allegations through his attorney at the time.
In 2017, Wood was one of thousands of women who identified themselves as victims of sexual harassment or assault amid the #MeToo movement.
“Being raped once made it easier to be raped again. I instinctually shut down. My body remembered, so it protected me. I disappeared. #metoo,” Wood wrote at the time as part of a series of tweets on her experience.
In 2018, she testified about her abuse to a House Judiciary subcommittee as she sought to have a Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights passed in all 50 states.
“My experience with domestic violence was this: Toxic mental, physical and sexual abuse which started slow but escalated over time,” she told the committee.
Wood began acting as a child, gaining fame and a Golden Globe nomination for playing a troubled adolescent in 2003’s “Thirteen.”
For three seasons she has played Dolores Abernathy, a sentient android, on HBO’s “Westworld” and has been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for the role.
Manson, 52, became a household name in the mid-1990s with a series of hit rock albums and used a stage persona designed to shock and stoke controversy.
The Associated Press does not normally name people who say they were victims of sexual assault but is naming Wood because of her decision to speak out publicly.
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Tony Bennett has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease but it hasn’t quieted his legendary voice.
The singer’s wife and son reveal in the latest edition of AARP The Magazine that Bennett was first diagnosed with the irreversible neurological disorder in 2016. The magazine says he endures “increasingly rarer moments of clarity and awareness.”
Still, he continues to rehearse and twice a week goes through his 90-minute set with his longtime pianist, Lee Musiker. The magazine says he sings with perfect pitch and apparent ease.
A beloved interpreter of American standards, Bennett’s chart-topping career spans seven decades. “He’s not the old Tony anymore,” his wife, Susan, told the magazine. “But when he sings, he’s the old Tony.”
Bennett, 94, gained his first pop success in the early 1950s and enjoyed a career revival in the 1990s and became popular with younger audiences in part because of an appearance on “MTV Unplugged.” He continued recording and touring constantly, and his 2014 collaboration with Lady Gaga, “Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
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The abstract figures of naked women gyrating to the rhythms of a five-piece band had shocked many people almost 60 years ago as they eyed the artwork for the first time on the walls of a popular restaurant-nightclub in Cyprus.   The valuable and very rare concrete relief by Christoforos Savva, Cyprus’ most avant-garde artist of the 1960s, had lain hidden for decades in the underground recesses of the Perroquet nightclub in abandoned Varosha — an inaccessible ghost town that had been under Turkish military control since a 1974 war ethnically cleaved the island nation.   But with Varosha’s controversial partial opening last November, the artwork has again come to light following a report by local newspaper Politis. Now, the man who says he commissioned the art from Savva is asking authorities for help to have it removed and transported to the country’s national gallery for all to see.   Former Perroquet owner Avgerinos Nikitas, 93, a Greek Cypriot, has appealed to a committee composed of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots that’s tasked with protecting Cyprus’ cultural treasures on both sides of the divide to help remove the 13 sections.   “In return, I pledge to cede these pieces to the National Collection as a small contribution to Christoforos Savva’s huge body of work,” Nikitas said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, addressed to the committee as well as Cyprus’ education ministry.   But the whole venture could be derailed as the Greek Cypriot family that owns the Esperia Tower hotel that hosted the Perroquet club insist that the artwork legally belongs to them. They say they won’t allow their “private property” to be removed and transferred and are warning of legal action.   Speaking on behalf of his family, Panayiotis Constantinou told the AP that their lawyer has advised them that the hotel, the club and everything inside it belongs to the family, regardless of the Savva artwork’s cultural value.   “We respect and value culture, but this is private property about which we haven’t been asked anything about removing it, and on top of that, someone else lays claim to it,” Constantinou said.   Art historians credit Savva as one of the most influential artists of the time who brought the country’s inward-looking, traditionalist art world into modernity in the years immediately after Cyprus gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960.   A painter and sculptor, Savva shifted away from the established, representational art styles by encompassing influences like cubism, which he picked up during his stays in London and Paris through the 1950s, into his voluminous artwork. He died in 1968.   “Savva was an innovator who always sought to break new ground and challenge the conservative times in which he lived,” said Andre Zivanari, director of the Point Center for Contemporary Art.   Savva’s work reflected the joie de vivre of Varosha, which at the time was Cyprus’ most progressive, popular tourist resort — a favorite with visitors from Europe and beyond, said Yiannis Toumazis, an art history professor and a Greek Cypriot member of the committee on culture.   That all changed in the summer of 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Turkish armed forces took over an empty Varosha and kept it virtually sealed off until last November, when breakaway Turkish Cypriot authorities re-opened a stretch of beach to the public.   The move caused much consternation among the suburb’s Greek Cypriot residents and protests from the island’s internationally recognized government amid concerns that the Turkish Cypriot north’s hardline leadership aimed to place the entire area under its control.   Cyprus’ former first lady and cultural committee co-chair Androulla Vassiliou told the AP that the body would look at bringing the reliefs to the island’s southern part, once new Turkish Cypriot members are appointed.   The previous Turkish Cypriot committee members collectively resigned last December for what they said was a divergence of views with the new Turkish Cypriot leadership over its aim to steer talks to resolve Cyprus’ division away from a federation-based arrangement.   The reclamation of artwork that disappeared amid the confusion of war isn’t without precedent. Last February, the culture committee successfully engineered the return of 219 paintings — including some of the most significant works produced by Greek Cypriot artists — that were thought lost or stolen in the north.   In return, Turkish Cypriots received rare archival footage from state broadcaster CyBC of Turkish Cypriot cultural and sporting events dating from 1955 to the early 1960s. The swap was hailed as a tangible way of bolstering trust among Greek and Turkish Cypriots.   Toumazis said the return of Savva’s reliefs would be another trust-boosting milestone, but better still would be if people could return to their properties in Varosha.   “It would be nice if people themselves returned to what they owned, rather than having any artwork being transferred to them,” he said. 
 
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