Month: March 2023

Oscar weekend belonged to “Scream VI” in theaters, as the horror sequel notched a franchise-best $44.5 million in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. 

The Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group co-production sailed past expectations, easily surpassing the previous series high of $32 million that “Scream 2” opened with in 1997. The film’s robust debut, coming as Hollywood prepared to gather for the 95th Academy Awards, was yet another reminder of how horror has come to be one of the industry’s few sure things at the box office. 

After lying dormant for more than a decade, the “Scream” franchise, previously directed by Wes Craven and released by Dimension Films, has found a ripe revival with a young cast led by “Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera. 

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have brought back the 27-year-old series’ meta slasher storylines and serial killer Ghostface, and it’s paying off. Last year’s “Scream V” grossed $137 million worldwide on a production budget of $24 million. In the latest chapter, Courtney Cox returns as reporter Gale Weathers, as does Hayden Panettiere, a veteran of “Scream IV.” But it’s the first “Scream” movie without Neve Campbell. 

“Scream VI,” quickly greenlit after the success of “V,” has also fared fairly well with both critics and audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 75% fresh rating. Moviegoers gave it a “B+” CinemaScore, a decent grade for a horror film. The sixth “Scream,” which cost $33 million to make, added $22.6 million overseas. 

Last week’s top film, “Creed III,” slid to second after its above-expectations launch. Michael B. Jordan’s MGM “Rocky” spinoff, starring him and Jonathan Majors, earned $27.1 million in its second weekend. It has rapidly passed $100 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters. 

Columbia Pictures’ “65,” a science-fiction thriller starring Adam Driver as a space explorer stranded on prehistoric Earth, opened in third place with an estimated $12.3 million from 3,405 locations, and an additional $7.2 million internationally. That might be better than expected, too, for a film that got terrible reviews from critics. (It scored just 35% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.) But “65” reportedly carried a hefty production budget of about $90 million, though tax rebates roughly halved that cost to financiers including Sony, Bron Studios and TSG. 

Bobby Farrelly’s “Champions,” starring Woody Harrelson as a disgraced coach trying to lead a basketball team to the Special Olympics, opened with $5.2 million in 3,030 locations. Audiences (an “A” CinemaScore) have liked it more than reviewers (53% on Rotten Tomatoes). 

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

1. “Scream VI,” $44.5 million. 

2. “Creed III,” $27.1 million. 

3. “65,” $12.3 million. 

4. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” $7 million. 

5. “Cocaine Bear,” $6.2 million. 

6. “Jesus Revolution,” $5.2 million. 

7. “Champions,” $5.2 million. 

8. “Avatar: The Way of Water,” $2.7 million. 

9. “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: To the Swords,” $1.9 million. 

10. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” $1.7 million. 
    …

The South African rapper Costa Titch died on stage while performing, police said Sunday, as they opened an investigation into the circumstances of the 28-year-old’s sudden death.

 

The artist “collapsed while he was performing” Saturday evening at the Ultra South Africa concert in the Johannesburg suburb of Nasrec, police told AFP.  

 

They said a post-mortem would establish the cause of death.

 

Costa Titch scored a major hit with “Big Flexa,” which has more than 45 million YouTube views, showcasing the Amapiano or ‘the pianos’ local subgenre of house music blending house, jazz and lounge music.

 

Videos on social media of his concert Saturday show him performing with his microphone in hand when he appears to fall. He continues singing but collapses again, prompting other artists to come to his aid.

 

Costa Titch, whose real name is Costa Tsobanoglou, died a month on from the assassination of another popular South African rapper Kiernan Forbes, known as AKA.

 

Forbes was shot dead outside a Durban restaurant and an investigation is ongoing into what has been seen as a likely contract killing.

 

Tributes swiftly appeared Sunday for Titch with Julius Malema, leader of radical leftist party EFF, posting an image of a broken heart alongside Costa Titch’s name on social media.

 

The Southern African Music Rights Organization wrote on Twitter: “SAMRO is saddened by the passing of popular rapper Costa Tsobanoglou, better known as Costa Titch. Heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and broader music industry.”

 

“RIP, Costa Titch. Great talent gone too soon,” tweeted rapper Da L.E.S.
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Hollywood is gearing up for the 95th Academy Awards, where “Everything Everywhere All at Once” comes in the lead nominee and the film industry will hope to move past “the slap” of last year’s ceremony. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2023 Oscars, including when they are, where to watch the live show and this year’s controversies.

When are the Oscars?

The Oscars will be held Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. EDT and be broadcast live on ABC.

Can you stream the Oscars?

The broadcast can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and Fubo TV. Some of these services offer brief free trials. Here’s what you need to know about how to watch or stream the show live. 

Who is hosting?

Jimmy Kimmel will host for the third time and his first time since 2018. That was also the last Oscars to feature a solo host. The show went hostless for several years after Kimmel’s last outing. Last year, Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes hosted as a trio. In an ad for this year’s show styled after “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kimmel made his humble case for being the right person for the job while noting that he can’t get slapped because “I cry a lot.” 

What’s nominated for best picture at the 2023 Oscars?

The 10 movies competing for best picture are: “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Women Talking.” Here’s a guide to how you can watch them. 

Who is presenting?

Presenters include: Halle Bailey, Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Chastain, John Cho, Andrew Garfield, Hugh Grant, Danai Gurira, Salma Hayek Pinault, Nicole Kidman, Florence Pugh and Sigourney Weaver. They join a previously announced group including: Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Glenn Close, Jennifer Connelly, Ariana DeBose, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Jonathan Majors, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe, Deepika Padukone, Questlove, Zoe Saldaña and Donnie Yen. A third wave was announced Thursday: Halle Berry, Paul Dano, Cara Delevingne, Harrison Ford, Kate Hudson, Mindy Kaling, Eva Longoria, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Andie MacDowell, Elizabeth Olsen, Pedro Pascal and John Travolta. 

What else is in store for the shoe?

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has said that winners to all categories will be announced live on the show. (Last year, some categories were taped in a pre-show, something that caused an uproar among academy members.) All signs point to a full slate of musical performances, with Rihanna performing “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava singing Chandrabose and M.M. Keeravaani’s “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR.” Nominee Lady Gaga, on the other hand, will not sing “Hold My Hand,” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” during the show. On Monday, show producers announced that Lenny Kravitz will deliver the “In Memoriam” performance. 

Who are the favorites?

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s indie sci-fi hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once” comes in with a leading 11 nominations. Close on its heels, though, is the Irish friends-falling-out dark comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin,” with nine nods, a total matched by Netflix’s WWI film “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) may have a slight edge on Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) for best actress. Best actor is harder to call, with Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Austin Butler (“Elvis”) in the mix. In the supporting categories, Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) and Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) are the frontrunners, though Jamie Lee Curtis’ Screen Actors Guild Awards win may have thrown a wrench into the supporting actress category. Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) may win his third best director Oscar, though the Daniels may have emerged as the frontrunners. AP Film Writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle are predicting a big haul for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” 

What’s been controversial this year?

Aside from the usual snubs and surprises, this year’s biggest to-do has been the debate surrounding Andrea Riseborough’s unexpected nomination for best actress. Riseborough was nominated for the little-seen, Texas-set drama “To Leslie” after many A-list stars rallied around her performance. When two other best-actress contenders — Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) and Viola Davis (“Woman King”) — were snubbed, some saw that as a reflection of racial bias in the film industry. The academy launched an inquiry into the star-studded, grassroots campaign for Riseborough but found no reason to rescind her nomination. 

What else should you look for?

Just the reading of the title to one of this year’s short film nominees should prompt a wave of giggles. John Williams (“The Fabelmans”), up for best score, is the oldest nominee ever, at 90 years old. After historic back-to-back best-director wins by Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”), no women were nominated this year for best director. Also don’t expect to see Will Smith at the Oscars anytime soon. After striking Chris Rock at last year’s ceremony, Smith was banned by the film academy from attending for 10 years. In a live Netflix special on Saturday, Rock finally punched back at Smith with a blistering stand-up set about the incident. 
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Brent Sass, the defending Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion, withdrew from this year’s race on Saturday, citing concerns for his health.

Sass scratched at the Eagle Island checkpoint, a statement from the Iditarod said. Eagle Island is about 966 kilometers into the nearly 1,609-kilometer race.

“He didn’t feel he could care for his team due to current concerns with his periodontal health,” the statement said. The condition typically relates to gum disease.

A plane was being sent to Eagle Island to fly Sass off the trail, according to a video posted on the Iditarod Insider webpage.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sad, but it is what it is,” Sass’ father, Mark Sass, told Alaska Public Media. “I just want him to be OK.”

The Iditarod said all 11 dogs on Sass’ team were in good health.

Sass was in the lead when he arrived at the Eagle Island checkpoint late Friday night with an almost four-hour advantage over his nearest competitor, Jessie Holmes of Brushkana.

Holmes was the first musher to leave the Eagle Island checkpoint early Saturday morning. The 40-year-old Alabama native in 2004 moved to Alaska, where he is a carpenter and appears on the National Geographic reality TV show Life Below Zero, about people who live in rural Alaska.

The race started for 33 mushers on March 5 in Willow. It takes the sled dog teams over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and the treacherous Bering Sea ice en route to the finish line in Nome. Mushers had to contend with another issue during the first week of competition: Altering their race strategy because of high heat in interior Alaska.

The winner is expected to mush down Nome’s Front Street, a block off the Bering Sea, to the finish line either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Before the competitive start to the race, mushers greeted fans March 4 during a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage and drove auction winners riding in their sleds for a 17.7-kilometer jaunt through the streets of the state’s largest city.

The 33 mushers represented the smallest field ever to start a race, one short of the first race run in 1973.

Since then, three mushers including Sass have withdrawn.
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When Richard McKinney was getting married last year, friends stepped in to help. Bibi Bahrami cooked Afghan dishes — from rice with carrots and raisins to chicken and beef — for the wedding guests. Her husband officiated the Islamic part of the ceremony. 

At first glance, nothing seems unusual about that off-camera wedding scene — until you know the on-camera story of how McKinney and the Bahramis met. The short version is this: Angry and filled with hate for Muslims, the broad-shouldered, tattooed veteran once wanted to bomb the Bahramis’ Islamic Center of Muncie in Indiana and inflict mass casualties on its congregation. 

The longer version of what followed, how the kindness he encountered from congregation members helped change not just his plans but his life’s course, is chronicled in “Stranger at the Gate.” The 30-minute movie is nominated for best documentary short film at the 95th Academy Awards, set for Sunday. 

“We have been friends for years,” Bahrami, a former Afghan refugee and a grandmother of seven (the eighth is on the way), said of McKinney in an interview. “He’s like family at this point.” 

McKinney acknowledged that their unlikely bond is probably “mind-boggling” to many. “This whole journey has been very surreal,” he said. 

His is a story of second chances and transformation. It’s also one of love conquering hate, said “Stranger at the Gate” director Joshua Seftel. 

“It’s easy to feel hopeless these days. When I saw this story, I thought, ‘Wow, maybe there is a reason to believe in humanity,'” Seftel said. “If these two people can be friends, then why can’t any of us?” 

Seftel came across McKinney’s story when he was working on a documentary series titled “Secret Life of Muslims,” featuring American Muslims of diverse backgrounds and seeking to shatter negative stereotypes. 

“It’s easy to hate someone that we don’t know,” Seftel said. “The power of film and storytelling is that you can get to know someone through a film, and it can change the way people think.” 

The inspiration for that series, he said, was rooted in his own memories of antisemitism that he’s encountered and being called names as a Jewish kid. 

“After 9/11, I saw that kind of hate toward Muslims, and I just thought, ‘Maybe I can do something with my film work to try to help,'” he said. 

Bias prevalent

A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in 2021 found that 53% of Americans have unfavorable views toward Islam. 

McKinney was once one of those — fervently so. 

The end of a long military career left him angry, bitter, feeling worthless and drinking too much. His “destiny” to die in combat and return home in a flag-draped coffin a hero never panned out. He would look at himself and wonder who he was. 

He focused his hate on Muslims, some of whom, he said, had been his battlefield enemies when he was serving overseas. 

“My plan was to detonate an IED,” or improvised explosive device, outside the Islamic center on a Friday when worshippers would be gathered, he said in the film. “I was hoping for at least 200 or more, dead, injured.” 

He started going to the mosque in 2009, introducing himself as someone who wanted to learn about Islam. 

“I didn’t trust them. … I figured they would have me in the basement with a sword to my throat,” he recalled in the film. 

In reality, he said, he was welcomed and embraced by congregation members. 

Bahrami, who viewers learn is a fan of country music and whose husband dubbed her “the Mother Teresa of the Muslim community,” recounted comforting McKinney and giving him attention. Eventually, he found the sense of belonging he so craved. 

“I said I need to be Muslim,” McKinney said. 

Today, McKinney and Bahrami say they see the impact of the message behind their story in interactions with audiences after talks or screenings. 

“One of the best compliments I’ve ever received was when somebody told me after seeing the film that ‘you have given me a lot to think about,'” McKinney said. “I want people to think, because we live in a society where, unfortunately, there’s a lot of followers.” 

Someone told him how hearing his story saved him, as it made him think that everyone has a purpose to find. 

Bahrami, who Seftel said shows up at screenings with cookies for the audience, has had people hug her. Some have come up to her with tears, told her she gave them hope and courage or asked if they could “borrow” her for their own community. 

Others have posed a tough question: How did she forgive McKinney? 

She said that when she heard, in disbelief, of the plans McKinney once harbored, she invited him for dinner and asked him what he was thinking. 

“I’m a strong believer,” she said. “I think my faith is a big part of this forgiveness.” 

Another aspect, she added, was the vulnerability she saw in him and how apologetic he was. 

Bahrami recalled how when Seftel approached her to participate in the film, he found her in a coma. While recovering, she considered his request and had one thought: 

“God gave me a second life,” she said, “and if I die again, the story could live.” 
…

In the 2022 Elvis film, Tom Hanks’ depiction of Elvis Presley’s real-life former manager, Colonel Tom Parker, is cruel, corrupt, and according to the 2023 Razzie award results, deserving of worst supporting actor and worst screen combo awards.

Before celebrating the best films of the season during the Oscar ceremony Sunday, the Razzie Awards called out the worst Saturday.

Despite the Forrest Gump actor’s legacy of Oscar-winning roles, many critics and fans condemned his performance in Elvis, particularly his accent.

The Razzies named Hanks worst supporting actor and worst screen combo for the actor and his “latex face” in the film.

Joining Hanks, biographical drama Blonde, starring Ana de Armas as Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe “won” Razzies for both worst picture and screenplay. De Armas, however, is in the running for best actress for the role at Sunday’s Academy Awards.

Also taking home a Razzie is Jared Leto, who portrays Michael Morbius, and Adria Arjona, who portrays Dr. Martine Bancroft, in the Sony Marvel film Morbius. Both won for worst actor and worst supporting actress.

The Redeemer Award, which is granted to a previous Razzie contender who’s redeemed themselves following their unfavorable fall to Razzie status, goes to Colin Farrell for the Oscar-nominated film Banshees of Inisherin.

Farrell was nominated in 2004 in the Razzie worst actor category for Winter’s Tale, but as a now 2022 best actor front-runner for his leading role, he has escaped from Razzie prison, possibly rising to Oscar status Sunday.

Finally, the Razzies awarded itself the worst actress award after it nominated 12-year-old Firestarter actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong for a Razzie. After allegations of bullying, Armstrong was later removed from the Razzie ballot.

The Razzies, the self-described “ugly cousin to the Oscars,” started in 1980 as the Golden Raspberry Awards, created by UCLA film school graduates and film industry veterans John J.B. Wilson and Mo Murphy.

More than 1,100 Razzie members from across the United States and about two dozen other countries vote on the awards, according to the Razzie website.
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A film buff from Oklahoma City, Elyssa Mann has scant time to waste, needing to cross just four more movies off her Oscars binge list before Sunday’s Academy Awards broadcast: Two animated films, one for cinematography and another for costume design.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Steve Tornello has just one left — the latest “Avatar” — before he can fairly judge all 10 of the Best Picture nominees.

In the perfect multiverse, time would bend to allow time-strained movie buffs to watch anything anywhere, all at once. But in the real world, not the googly eyed one, time keeps ticking and that makes things difficult for diehard film fans hoping to fill every bracket in their personal Oscars scoresheets.

“I have four Oscars movies left in my quest to watch all the ones nominated for picture/acting/craft etc.,” Mann wrote in a tweet, “and this somehow feels insurmountable.”

As it is, Sunday morning’s time change (don’t forget to spring forward) will mean an hour less to binge.

“I am a person who thrives under pressure, like I need the deadline. So, it’s good that it’s here,” Mann, a 31-year-old marketer, said during a phone call. “Now I have to watch them.”

She’ll watch two or three Saturday and save whatever’s left for Sunday before the ceremony. Since the New Year, she’s watched nearly 30 of the nominated films, escalating her project when the nominations were announced in late January. She acknowledged there isn’t enough time to view nominees in a handful of categories, including documentaries.

It would take days without sleep to watch every one of the more than 50 movies receiving at least one nomination in any of the roughly two dozen categories being awarded.

Theoretically, those voting on the nominated movies are supposed to watch every film. But even for the pros, that apparently doesn’t happen. After all, does anyone really have the time?

Tornello, a fledgling screenwriter and creative director for a tech company, is trying to make time this weekend to finally trudge out to the movie theater to watch “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the final movie on his Best Picture list.

“I have a lot on my plate right now,” he said. “That’s a movie I know I need to see in the theater to get the full experience.”

Most of the rest he’s watched at home through a streaming service.

Drawn by all the buzz, he saw “Everything Everywhere All at Once” shortly after it was released last spring. He watched “Women Talking” earlier this month.

“I try to see as many movies as I possibly can, the ones I think are going to be a nominee, before Oscar nominations come out,” Tornello said. “I just want to get them all in so I can really enjoy the show.”

Like Mann, James Bramble has already seen all the Best Picture nominees and more.

“So, I’ve seen every picture nominated for Best International film, Best Documentary, Best Animated and before Sunday night, I will finish,” he said, saying he has a few more in the short film categories which shouldn’t require much time to watch.

Every year, there are bound to be nominated films that he thinks were a waste of his time. Not this year, he said.  

“I really liked, so far, everything that I’ve seen. Yeah, it’s a good year,” said Bramble, an attorney from Salt Lake City.

Mann hopes to beat the clock.

On her watch list this weekend: The animated features “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” and “Turning Red,” as well as “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” for costume design and “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” for cinematography.

She should have started sooner, she confessed.

“It’s something that I’ve always kind of considered doing, but seemed like too big of a project,” she said. But with the deep winter doldrums, she needed an outlet. “I love movies. And so, I thought this would be a fun one.”
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From “Star Wars” to “Jaws” to “Schindler’s List,” John Williams has written many of the most instantly recognizable scores in cinema history.

The 91-year-old is already the oldest person to receive an Oscar nomination for a competitive award, which he earned thanks to his spare yet poignant compositions for Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.”

With 53 total nods, Williams has more Academy Award nominations than any other living person, and is second only to Walt Disney, who had 59.

And if he gets another statuette on Sunday, which would be his sixth, he will become the oldest person ever to triumph in any competitive category. The record is currently held by screenwriter James Ivory, who was 89 when he won.

It “seems unreal that anybody could be that old and working that long,” Williams recently told NBC News, adding: “It’s very exciting, even after 53 years.”

“I’m very pleased, I think it’s a human thing — the gratification of any kind of appreciation of one’s work,” he said.

Out of the dozens of nominations over the course of his extraordinary career, the composer won Academy Awards for the original “Star Wars,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and three films by Spielberg, with whom he is closely associated — “Jaws,” “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” and “Schindler’s List.”

He’s even competed against himself multiple times for Oscars glory.

Williams is known for his grand neo-Romantic scores in the fashion of Wagner, a contrast to the more experimental fare prevalent among many modern composers outside Hollywood.

But his work is also steeped in mid-century influences including jazz and popular American standards.

Williams holds he’s not as Wagnerian as his music might indicate but admits the 19th century German giant’s influence on Hollywood’s early composers, and therefore his own, is palpable.

“Wagner lives with us here — you can’t escape it,” he told The New Yorker in 2020. “I have been in the big river swimming with all of them.”

‘Single greatest collaboration’

Williams was born on February 8, 1932, in New York’s Queens borough to a percussionist father, and was the eldest of four children.

The family moved to Los Angeles in 1948, where Williams later studied composition and took a semester of jazz band at Los Angeles City College.

While in the Air Force, he played both piano and brass while arranging music for the service’s band.

Afterwards, he moved to New York, where he enrolled at the prestigious Juilliard school to study piano.

Though he aspired to be a concert pianist, it became clear to Williams that composition was his forte.

He moved back to LA, where he worked on orchestrations at film — earning plaudits for his range — and as a session pianist, including for the film adaptation of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.”

Williams notched his first Oscar nod for the 1967 film “Valley of the Dolls,” and won his first in 1972 for “Fiddler on the Roof.”

His momentous partnership with Spielberg began in the early 1970s, when the soon to be household-name director approached him to score his debut, “The Sugarland Express.”

Spielberg approached him once more to work on his second film, “Jaws.”

The menacing two-note ostinato Williams composed for the film has practically become synonymous with fear itself: “John Williams actually is the teeth of Jaws,” Spielberg said last year at a concert for the composer’s 90th birthday.

The pair then worked on “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and a decades-long creative partnership unfurled.

At the Williams birthday celebration in Washington, Spielberg dubbed their relationship “the single greatest collaboration of my career and one of the deepest friendships of my life.”

“Through the medium of movies, John has popularized motion picture scores more than any other composer in history,” he said.

‘Soundtrack of our lives’

Spielberg also introduced Williams to one George Lucas — it would become another iconic collaboration that spawned perhaps the most recognizable film score ever.

Several of Williams’ “Star Wars” compositions are prime examples of leitmotif, with musical cues tying together the vast, character-rich story.

“He has written the soundtrack of our lives,” conductor Gustavo Dudamel told The New York Times last year. “When we listen to a melody of John’s, we go back to a time, to a taste, to a smell.”

“All our senses go back to a moment,” Dudamel said.

Other credits from Williams’ more than 100 film scores include the music for 1978’s “Superman,” the first three “Harry Potter” films and a number of “Indiana Jones” films.’

“Harrison Ford made Indiana Jones into an iconic action hero, but John made us believe in adventure again, through that pulse-pounding march,” said Spielberg.

Off-screen, Williams is responsible for the “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” first composed for the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles and used ever since on U.S. broadcasts.

Williams recently indicated he might take a step back from film scoring, giving more energy to conducting and composing concert music; he was a longtime leader of the Boston Pops orchestra.

But speaking at a panel with Spielberg earlier this year, Williams seemed to walk back the notion of slowing down, vowing to work until he’s 100 or so.

“So I’ve got 10 more years to go. I’ll stick around for a while!” he told the crowd. “You can’t ‘retire’ from music. It’s like breathing.”
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An exhibition of Ukrainian traditional clothing and unique art pieces opened in Los Angeles to support Ukrainian artists. The goals are twofold, help the artists but also help children in Ukraine. Khrystyna Shvchenko has the story.
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Mushers and their dogs in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race face plenty of variables in the Alaska wilderness. An unexpected one this year has been heat that is taking a toll in a sport better suited for temperatures well below zero. 

Jason Mackey said a thermometer hanging from the back of his sled hit 26.67 degrees Celsius at one point this week as he camped alongside the trail while mushers neared the halfway mark of the race. Other racers threw their game plans for the 1,609-kilometer race across Alaska out the window to deal with the heat and messy trail conditions. 

Although it’s warm, it wasn’t 26.67 degrees in interior Alaska, which would probably be a record high in July, said Brian Brettschneider, a climate scientist with the National Weather Service’s Alaska Region. Instead, when you leave a thermometer in the sun, it absorbs the solar energy, which is the reason official measurement thermometers are kept in the shade. 

But it’s still warm and sunny, and it’s having noticeable effects on people who are exposed to it, Brettschneider said. 

Last weekend, the same area was much cooler than normal, with what appeared to be ideal mushing conditions. The warmer conditions are being driven by an area of high pressure, he said.  

Many communities in the nation’s largest state hit record highs this week, from Kodiak off Alaska’s southern coast to Deadhorse, the supply town for oil companies operating on the state’s North Slope, about 2,012 kilometers away. 

Along the Iditarod race route, the community of McGrath didn’t set records but had a high Wednesday of 2.22 degree Celsius, -10 degree Celsius above normal. More telling was a low temperature of -2.78 degrees Celsius. 

“Normally it should be below zero (-17.78 degrees Celsius),” Brettschneider said. 

That warmth was evident all along the Iditarod trail Wednesday. “There’s almost no places that were below freezing along the route,” he said. 

That was not news to Mackey. “I wish the temperatures would cool down,” the musher told a television crew from the Iditarod Insider. 

It’s just not the heat that was bothersome. He said he looked down at his sled at one point and saw two mosquitoes. 

“Yeah, it’s spring,” Mackey said. 

The heat is taking its toll on Mackey’s dogs, which he called “big boys” at 36.29 kilograms. He said other teams were moving in the heat of the day, but he wasn’t willing to do that. “I mean, it zaps them,” he said of the dog team. 

Kelly Maixner, a pediatric dentist, said his dogs don’t like the heat, and he’d rather it be -28.89 degrees Celsius. 

During the race, mushers must take one 24-hour layover at a checkpoint to rest. Part of where to take that layover plays into the strategy of most every musher. 

Nic Petit took his mandatory rest early in the race, at the checkpoint in Nikolai, because the sun was out. “I like hot dogs, just not my dog as a hot dog,” said Petit, who was born in France and raised in New Mexico. 

The melting was causing issues and concerns for some mushers, especially as they made for the race’s halfway point, the ghost village of Iditarod. 

“It could be soft and punchy out there, and who knows how the hills are going into Iditarod,” Richie Diehl told the TV crew. “It could be big tussocks just like a couple of years ago, and it could be a brutal run, you know, with the rolling hills and possibly barren tundra.” Tussocks are clumps of grass. 

Rookie musher Bailey Vitello of New Hampshire was near last place Thursday, running his dogs in the rain during the day and having to deal with ice at night. 

He would rather not be behind and dealing with ripped-up trails. “The back-of-the-pack is the worst part of the trail,” he told the TV crew. 

Riley Dyche of Fairbanks took his 24-hour break before reaching Iditarod because he didn’t want to run his dogs in the heat of the day. That likely cost him either $3,000 in gold nuggets or a new smart phone, the prize given to the first musher at the halfway point. 

“I don’t think the little incentive prize — it would have been cool — but I don’t think it would have been a benefit to these guys for getting to the finish line,” he said, speaking of his dogs. 

Instead, that prize went to race leader Wade Marrs, who is originally from Alaska but now living in Wisconsin. He arrived in Iditarod about 1 a.m. Thursday. 

The good news for mushers is that as they continue west, temperatures will be more Alaska-like, highs around -12 degrees Celsius and lows below -17.78 degrees, Brettschneider said. 

The race started Sunday in Willow, just north of Anchorage. Mushers will take their dog teams over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and the Bering Sea ice to the finish line in Nome. The winner is expected sometime early next week. 

 
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Robert Blake, the Emmy award-winning performer who went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted in the killing of his wife, died Thursday at age 89.

A statement released on behalf of his niece, Noreen Austin, said Blake died from heart disease, surrounded by family at home in Los Angeles.

Blake, the star of the 1970s TV show “Baretta,” had once hoped for a comeback, but he never recovered from the ordeal that began with the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001. The story of their strange marriage, the child it produced, and its violent end was a Hollywood tragedy played out in court.

Once hailed as among the finest actors of his generation, Blake became better known as the center of a real-life murder trial, a story more bizarre than any in which he acted. Many remembered him not as the rugged, dark-haired star of “Baretta,” but as a spectral, white-haired murder defendant.

In a 2002 interview with The Associated Press, he was adamant that he had not killed his wife. A jury ultimately acquitted him, but a civil jury would find Blake liable for her death and order him to pay Bakley’s family $30 million, a judgment that sent him into bankruptcy. The daughter he and Bakley had together, Rose Lenore, was raised by other relatives and went for years without seeing Blake until they spoke in 2019. She would tell People magazine that she called him “Robert,” not “Dad.”

It was an ignominious finale for a life lived in the spotlight from childhood. As a youngster, he starred in the “Our Gang” comedies and acted in a movie classic, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” As an adult, he was praised for his portrayal of real-life murderer Perry Smith in the movie of Truman Capote’s true crime best seller “In Cold Blood.”

Blake’s career peaked with the 1975-78 TV cop series, “Baretta.” He starred as a detective who carried a pet cockatoo on his shoulder and was fond of disguises. It was typical of his specialty, portraying tough guys with soft hearts, and its signature line, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time,” was often quoted.

Blake won a 1975 Emmy for his portrayal of Tony Baretta, although behind the scenes the show was wracked by disputes involving the temperamental star. He gained a reputation as one of Hollywood’s finest actors, but one of the most difficult to work with. He later admitted to struggles with alcohol and drug addiction in his early life.

In 1993, Blake won another Emmy as the title character in “Judgment Day: The John List Story,” portraying a soft-spoken, churchgoing man who murdered his wife and three children.

Blake’s career had slowed down well before the trial. He made only a handful of screen appearances after the mid-1980s; his last project was in David Lynch’s “Lost Highway,” released in 1997. According to his niece, Blake had spent his recent years “enjoying jazz music, playing his guitar, reading poetry and watching many Hollywood classic films.”

Once a wealthy man, he wound up living on Social Security and a Screen Actor’s Guild pension.
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The security crisis in Burkina Faso has impacted every aspect of society, including its film industry. The 28th edition of the Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou, or FESPACO, which ended earlier this month [March 4], reflected this difficult situation both on and off screen. Reporters Yacouba Ouedraogo and Thierry Kaore have this story, narrated by Salem Solomon
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California’s desert is drawing artists from Bangladesh and from Mexico to the Coachella Valley for an unusual exhibition called Desert X. For VOA, Genia Dulot went to see.
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Wednesday is International Women’s Day with a theme this year focusing on the need for gender equity. 

The annual observance, which dates to 1911 and fights for women’s rights, is a day for people everywhere to celebrate the achievements of women across society. 

The United Nations is putting the focus of its International Women’s Day programs on the importance of protecting the rights of women and girls in digital spaces and working to address gaps in access to vital technology. 

The U.N. says worldwide 259 million fewer women have access to the internet than men, and that without access and the ability to feel safe online, “they are unable to develop the necessary digital skills to engage in digital spaces.”

In Washington, the International Women of Courage award ceremony is taking place at the White House for the first time. The award, which has been given to 180 women from 80 countries since 2007, “recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, often at great personal risk and sacrifice,” according to the U.S. State Department. 

This year’s event will feature 12 honorees, including an award for the women and girls in Iran who have led protests since the September death in police custody of Mahsa Amini. 

Some information for this report came from Reuters. 
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When entrepreneur Sana Bhatt decided to set up a studio, she hardly knew if people would appreciate her efforts to revive traditional music on the Indian side of Kashmir.

Prior to the launch of the studio, the 24-year-old approached many local artists to sing songs on a set that that appeared similar to that of the Pakistan-based musical show, “Coke Studio.”

“Kehwa Beats” is the name of the show streamed live on Bhatt’s YouTube channel, Kashmir Originals. It went on to become a big hit with just six tracks. Eight artists, including two women, set the stage on fire, singing songs written by local poets from the disputed Himalayan territory.

“I felt there was a need to bring out domestically produced songs so that people can consume our music,” Bhatt told VOA.

“Kashmir has a rich culture and has an outstanding heritage of producing wonderful music,” she said, adding that music helps people living in different parts of the world understand different cultures.

The task of setting up an appealing studio, according to Bhatt, was challenging in the face of what she says is a social mindset that places restrictions on women.

“I had expected a good response but had no idea that people from outside Kashmir, too, would fall in love with our music,” Bhatt told VOA. “One of our female artists was trolled because of her clothing during her performance, otherwise everything went smoothly.”

Shift to local music

For more than two decades, residents of Kashmir used to listen to music sung by well-known artists from India and Pakistan. Musicians such as Aatif Aslam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Bohemia, Honey Singh, Neha Kakkar and Shreya Ghoshal used to reverberate in every household.

However, artists such as Mohammad Muneem and Noor Mohammad Shah, and a duo of Irfan and Bilal brought the attention of the local population back to domestically produced songs.

The revival of traditional Kashmiri music remained confined to men for several years until female singers such as Aabha Hanjura, Memet Syed, Vibha Saraf and others released their own tracks.

“There are many people who say ‘Why (do) females produce or sing songs?’ but at the same time appreciate men for doing the same,” Bhatt said. “People often relate women’s singing to religion. I ask them if it is related to the religion then both men as well as women should be targeted as religious restrictions are meant for both the genders.”

Difficult success

Nargis Khatoon, a young Kashmir-born New Delhi-based singer, believes women musicians don’t find good opportunities in the valley, unlike in other parts of India. As a result, it becomes difficult for singers like her to thrive in Kashmir.

“I live in New Delhi and find number of opportunities here, but if we speak about Kashmir we don’t have [a] commercial market to perform due to a large number of youth [who] hesitate in choosing music as a career,” Khatoon said.

Khatoon sees hope in people such as Bhatt coming forward and setting up a platform that allows musicians to present their talent in front of the world without any gender bias. But she said some broad-minded parents allow their daughters to choose their career in music only to have fears of an unstable future sometimes cause them to change their minds.

“I believe this is one of the reasons parents don’t allow girls to become singers, as they are worried about their future,” said Khatoon. “If more opportunities are provided in Kashmir, we might witness more and more female artists coming forward and joining the industry.”

‘More artists are welcome’

The Kashmir valley historically has produced many female singers who created a lasting impact on people of the region with their unique vocalization.

Years ago, the local population would be glued in front of radio and televisions for hours so that they could listen to their favorite female artists — household names such as Raj Begum, Naseema Akhther and Shameem Dev Azad.

Ishfaq Kawa, one of the popular singers in the valley, said that like men, women should work to promote traditional music because of their love for the Kashmiri language and culture.

“They [women] too love and do their bit to protect and promote our cultural music,” Kawa told VOA. “More and more artists are welcome to join this field, and everyone should respect them.”

However, Kawa disagrees with a popular notion that women singers are the only victims of abuse on social media.

“The thing is, an individual has to carry on without caring and thinking about such people,” said Kawa. “If we pay heed to what people say then we have to stop doing what we believe is good for our mother tongue.”

The show must go on

Bhatt, the entrepreneur, meanwhile is working on Season 2 of her show. Many popular as well as new faces will join Kashmir’s own “Coke Studio.”

“I and my team this year will focus folk songs of Kashmir,” Bhatt said. “Season 1 of ‘Kehwa Beats’ was the fusion of folk and hip-hop. In Season 2 we will try to give our folk music a contemporary touch which I believe would be popular among the masses, especially youth.”

Kashmir Originals, she said, not only provides a platform for singers but also for the instrumentalists, who she says add beauty to music.

“Both men and women instrumentalists are part of Kashmir Originals and ‘Kehwa Beats,'” Bhatt said. “Instrumentalists are as important as singers because they put life in the songs.”
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