Arts

Clad in a sparkling ball gown and tuxedo, the stars of the latest film to premiere in London’s Leicester Square walked the red carpet in a rather unusual manner – on four legs.

The stars in question were a group of sheep who feature in a new eight-hour, dialogue-free film “Baa Baa Land” – billed by its makers as the dullest movie ever made.

It’s not so much watching the grass grow as watching it be eaten.

The film – whose title plays on Hollywood hit “La La Land” — features no actors, words or narrative and consists entirely of slow-motion shots of sheep in a field in Essex, England.

It was made as a tongue-in-cheek insomnia cure, by Calm.com, one of the companies vying for a piece of the fast-growing mindfulness industry, part of what the Global Wellness Institute estimates is a $3.7 trillion global wellness market.

Mindfulness is essentially meditation of the kind practiced in East Asia for thousands of years. It is recommended by Britain’s National Health Service to help deal with stress and anxiety and has been embraced by companies ranging from Google to Goldman Sachs.

Apps like Calm and Headspace, which claims to have six million users, offer users guided meditation, while others help users ensure they are sleeping well.

There are at least 1,300 mindfulness apps in an increasingly crowded market, according to research firm Sensor Tower.

With many of the leading smartphone apps scoring 4.5 and 5 star reviews from tens of thousands of users in app stores, the technology does appear to be meeting with a positive reception from many users.

Whether taking contemplative breaks at the behest of your smartphone, or using it to assist you in getting a good night’s sleep has tangible benefits has some experts are skeptical.

“The idea of using an app on a digital platform to get to sleep – regardless of whether they work or not – seems to be a complete negation of what you’re meant to be doing, which is avoiding stimulation, interaction and thinking,” sleep expert Dr. Neil Stanley told Reuters. Research suggests that many health apps struggle to deliver on their promised benefits.

A 2015 study of mental health apps by researchers at the University of Liverpool found that many digital mental health products suffered from “a lack of scientific credibility and limited clinical effectiveness,” though noted that some did produce “significant patient benefits.”

Other experts feel that while not a panacea, apps are a positive starting point for many people.

“It’s much more about understanding how to use digital as a tool and not the driver of our lives,” said Orianna Fielding, founder of the Digital Detox company, which runs workshops on wellbeing in people’s digital lives.

“I think any app that gets you to have a look and understand your digital dependence habits, that can identify the psychological and emotional triggers that lead you to get overloaded and dependent is good.”
…

Garth Brooks is taking a long look back at his life and career in an autobiography that will span five books, the first of which will be released in November.

The country music superstar announced Wednesday that The Anthology Part 1: The First Five Years goes on sale Nov. 14. It promises “all the secrets, details, origins, true stories an insider would get.”

Some of those stories include background on some of Brooks’ early hits, including The Thunder Rolls, Friends in Low Places and The Dance.

The book comes with five CDs containing 52 total songs, including 19 new, unreleased or demo versions.

This is the first book authored by Brooks.
…

Liam Neeson’s latest film takes viewers into the life of a key player in the Watergate scandal, and he says there are clear parallels between presidents then and now.

Neeson plays the high-ranking FBI official who was a key source for Washington Post stories that helped lead to President Richard Nixon’s downfall in Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. Felt was the No. 2 official at the FBI and his identity as the source known as Deep Throat was unknown until 2005.

Neeson told The Associated Press that he sees similarities between Nixon’s distrust of critics and President Donald Trump’s actions.

“Nixon felt: Let’s circle the wagons. Everybody was an enemy that wasn’t on his side. We’re certainly seeing that with President Twitter in Chief. If you’re not with me, you’re against me,” the actor told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

Trump’s administration and several of the president’s allies are entangled in investigations into whether the billionaire’s campaign sought help from Russian operatives during last year’s presidential campaign. Among those investigating is former FBI director Robert Mueller, who has been appointed a special counsel to probe several facets of the campaign and Trump’s associates. Mueller was appointed in May to investigate potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign and his team has sought a broad batch of records and interviews with current and former White House officials. The exact scope of his investigation is unknown.

Neeson said he expects Mueller’s probe will be successful.

“I do think the truth is going to come out,” Neeson said. “I think it will be Robert Mueller. He’ll just keep chipping away.”

Mark Felt is out in limited release on Friday.
…

A decades-old propaganda film has become a lightning rod again in Indonesia. The 1984 film called “The Treachery of the September 30th Movement/ Communist Party of Indonesia,” was sponsored by and became a propaganda tentpole of the Suharto military dictatorship.

 

It presents a revisionist account of an attempted coup on September 30, 1965, when six generals were assassinated. The murders were orchestrated, according to the film, by the Indonesian Communist Party, or PKI. The failed coup was the pretext for a military-led massacre of up to one million suspected communists and leftists, which subsequently helped General Suharto ascend to a 31-year authoritarian presidency.

 

More than five decades after the coup attempt and 33 years after the film was made, Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo announced last week that the movie would be shown to all military personnel, drawing criticism from some senior figures, who advised the military not to reopen old wounds.

 

But President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo himself suggested there should be a remake of the film for the “millennial generation.”

The film — often abbreviated to G30S, for “Gerakan 30 September” or the September 30th movement — was required viewing during the Suharto regime, which ended in 1998. According to a 2000 poll, 97 percent of students had seen it, most of them multiple times.

 

Renewed debate

 

The fiery military chief Gatot, who has made waves with his freewheeling statements and actions, such as unilaterally suspending military cooperation with Australia, spoke about the G30S film while visiting founding President Sukarno’s tomb in East Java last week.

 

“We cannot let the younger generation become fragmented again,” said Gatot. “The goal is not to discredit anyone who is wrong, but to give the full picture, so as not to let those bitter and black events happen again.”

 

President Jokowi, somewhat surprisingly, echoed Gatot’s suggestion, saying “millennial children” need movies as an entry point to history.

 

“Let them understand the dangers of communism, let them know about the Indonesian Communist Party,” he said to reporters in Central Java last week.

 

The president’s acquiescence illustrates “the weak reality of Jokowi’s leadership and the long feud between human rights defenders and the military,” according to Arbi Sanit, a political analyst at the University of Indonesia. “Jokowi’s weak assumptions allow him to be stepped over by press statements like those of the Commander,” and essentially be pressured into public agreement, said Sanit.

 

Sidharto Danusubroto, a member of the president’s advisory council, stated that rehashing the events of 1965 would be counterproductive to Jokowi’s economic and social agenda, and he discouraged both the military’s promotion of the film and recent discussions of the killings at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute.

 

“Frankly, don’t hold [either of] them,” said Sidharto. “For us to fight to become the world’s fifth economic power, there needs to be political stability; if there are these movies, that seminar, some other noise here and there, those things don’t support the national interest,” he said at the council’s office.

 

Approaching anniversary

 

The pitch of the debate is only rising as the anniversary of the attempted coup approaches. There will be a number of informal screenings across Indonesia this week, as there have been, on and off, since the fall of Suharto.

 

The late president’s youngest son, Tommy Suharto, chimed in over the weekend to say that the film represents the “true version of history, and nobody could change that.”

 

The film’s narrative has been widely disputed by historians for at least two decades. Its major communist characters are eye-gouging gangsters, and it shows a leftist women’s group literally castrating military generals. Despite a runtime of over four hours, the film is not without artistic value, according to many latter-day Indonesian directors.

 

But the director of the Jakarta Arts Institute, writer Seno Gumira Ajidarma, disagrees, saying recently, “The film sucks.”

 

“Every year it was just a ritual all over Indonesia, and the movie was just terrible,” said Reza Muharam, now an activist with the International People’s Tribunal, which seeks justice for the human rights violations of 1965. “Imagine a bunch of 10-year-olds watching an interminable film with that much violence… it was just horror, you couldn’t sleep after that.”

 

Muharam hopes that a wider revival of G30S film is not in the cards.

 

“I think it was the biggest hoax ever made in Indonesia,” he said. “And everyone believed it.”
…

It’s not PT-109, but President John Kennedy is said to have driven his former speedboat as if it were the small warship he famously commanded in World War II.

Now the 17-foot mahogany boat acquired by the late president’s father, Joseph Kennedy, in 1961 leads a list of Kennedy memorabilia, including letters, cigars, a bomber jacket and a couple of his rocking chairs, to be auctioned next month.

“It was won by Joseph Kennedy in a church raffle,” said Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey’s auction house, which plans to sell the boat and other items on Oct. 6 and 7.

The boat, “Rest of Us,” became part of a flotilla at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, that included a larger vessel, “Ten of Us,” named for the 10 family members who used it at the time, Ettinger said.

“When he won this … the family had expanded,” which explains the boat’s name, he added.

The Kennedys were a well-known seafaring family, and the country’s 35th president was a war hero who commanded PT-109, which was rammed by a Japanese destroyer, leaving Kennedy and his crew shipwrecked on a Pacific island.

After Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, “Rest of Us” remained in the Hyannis Port area, first with Senator Edward Kennedy and later the Bilezikians, a wealthy retailing family, before being sold to its current owner, Peter Eastman.

When Senator Kennedy, known as Ted, was getting ready to sell the boat in the mid-1980s, he knew it needed some work and took it to local shipbuilders Mike and Brad Pease, Eastman said.

“Ted Kennedy told the Pease brothers, ‘Yeah, my brother used to drive this thing like a PT boat, he was a little rough on it,’ meaning it might need some work,” Eastman said.

The boat has been fitted with a 1986 Ford V8 engine and is “totally operational,” he added.

Guernsey’s, which has held two previous Kennedy memorabilia auctions, is also offering two swords that were owned by two naval officers serving in the Kennedy White House and used as part of the catafalque that held Kennedy’s coffin.

A bomber jacket with the presidential patch bought to replace the fraying one Kennedy often wore is also being sold, along with a draft of a letter to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, with hand-written notations, offering to name a Polaris submarine after him.

Churchill declined the offer.
…

The holiday of Diwali is starting to light up mainstream America.

Diwali, a festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and others in India and other countries, has long been observed in immigrant communities around the U.S.

But now public celebrations of the holiday are starting to pop up in places ranging from Disneyland and Times Square to parks and museums.

The Times Square event is the brainchild of Neeta Bhasin, who says that while many Indian immigrants have found great success in the U.S., “still people don’t know much about India. I felt it’s about time that we should take India to mainstream America and showcase India’s rich culture, heritage, arts and diversity to the world. And I couldn’t find a better place than the center of the universe: Times Square.”

Bhasin, who came to the United States from India 40 years ago, is president of ASB Communications, the marketing firm behind Diwali at Times Square. The event, now in its fourth year, has drawn tens of thousands of people in the past. It’s scheduled for Oct. 7, from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., with dance performances, Bollywood singers, a bazaar of food, saris and other goods, and a lighting ceremony.

While Diwali celebrations are held throughout the fall, the holiday’s actual date is Oct. 19. Also called Deepavali, it’s an autumn harvest festival held just before the Hindu new year. Celebrations include lighting oil lamps or candles called diyas to symbolize “a victory of knowledge over ignorance, light over darkness, good over evil,” said Bhasin.

The Diwali celebration at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, includes performances of traditional Indian dances and a Bollywood dance party for guests. It’s part of a festival of holidays at the theme park reflecting cultural traditions from around the world. The Disney festival begins Nov. 10 and runs through Jan. 7.

San Antonio, Texas, has one of the nation’s largest city-sponsored celebrations of Diwali, drawing more than 15,000 people each year. The 2017 event, scheduled for Nov. 4 at La Villita, a historic arts village, will be its ninth annual Diwali celebration with Indian dance, entertainment, food, crafts, fireworks and the release of lighted candles into the San Antonio River along the city’s River Walk.

New York City’s Rubin Museum will mark Diwali with an overnight Ragas Live Festival featuring more than 50 Indian classical musicians performing amid the museum’s collection of sacred Himalayan art. The event begins Oct. 21 at 10 a.m. and continues all day and night through Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. Chai and mango lassis will be served, visitors will have access to all the galleries and pop-up events like meditation and sunrise prayer will be offered. Special tickets will be sold for the opportunity to sleep beneath the artwork.

Other places hosting Diwali celebrations include Cary, North Carolina, in Regency Park, Oct. 14; Flushing Town Hall, Queens, New York, Oct. 29; the Seattle Center, Oct. 21; the Dulles Expo center in Chantilly, Virginia, Oct. 7-8; and Memorial Park in Cupertino, California, Sept. 30. In Columbus, Ohio, the Ohio History Center is hosting a photo exhibit about the city’s fast-growing population of immigrants from Nepal, Bhutan and India, with a Diwali event Oct. 8.

Bhasin said Diwali’s message is particularly timely now. “It is extremely important to be together and showcase to the world, not only Indians, but the entire immigrant community, to be together with Americans and to show the world we are one, we are all the same human beings,” she said.
…

Puerto Rican rapper Residente’s first solo album post-Calle 13 has received a leading nine nominations for this year’s Latin Grammys, including for record, song and album of the year.

Colombian sensation Maluma follows him with seven, Shakira’s comeback gathered six, and Juanes, Mon Laferte and producer Kevin Jimenez ADG received five nominations each, the Latin Recording Academy announced Tuesday. The announcement was delayed by nearly a week after last year’s devastating earthquake in Mexico and hurricanes Irma and Maria, which have devastated the Caribbean.

This year’s ceremony could provide Juanes with the opportunity to break his record tie with Calle 13: Both acts have won 21 awards each.

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s megahit “Despacito” got four nominations: record and song of the year, as well as best urban fusion/performance for its remix with Justin Bieber and best short form music video for its clip. The video, the most watched on YouTube with over 3.8 billion views since its January release, was produced and directed by Carlos R. Perez and highlights the color and beauty of now devastated Puerto Rico, which was hit by a Category 4 hurricane, Maria, less than a week ago.

Ten acts are vying for album, song and record of the year, unlike the traditional Grammy Awards where five nominees compete. Album of the year nominees also include Ruben Blades with Roberto Delgado & Orquesta, Antonio Carmona, Vicente Garcia, Nicky Jam, Juanes, Mon Laferte, Natalia Lafourcade, Shakira and Danay Suarez.

The record of the year list is comprised by a diverse group of artists, genres and collaborations that include Residente’s “Guerra,” ″Amarrame” by Mon Laferte, featuring Juanes; Shakira and Maluma’s “Chantaje”, “El Ratico” by Juanes with Kali Uchis, Jorge Drexler’s “El Surco,” Maluma’s “Felices Los 4,” Blades’ “La Flor De La Canela,” Alejandro Fernandez’s “Quiero Que Vuelvas” and Ricky Martin’s “Vente Pa’ Ca,” also featuring Maluma.

The Latin Grammys will air live on Univision on Nov. 16 from Las Vegas.
…

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy-winning guitarist Joe Walsh has started a new charity to benefit veterans’ organizations. As VOA’s David Byrd tells us, Walsh says he especially wants to help small, grass-roots groups that work with veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan
…

Robert Plant is going on tour in North America next year to support his upcoming album, “Carry Fire.”

The former Led Zeppelin frontman announced Tuesday that his 2018 tour will begin Feb. 9 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He’ll also visit New York, Boston, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles, among other cities. More dates will be announced later. Plant will be joined on the tour by his backing band, the Sensational Space Shifters.

Plant has also released another track from “Carry Fire” Tuesday, a cover of Ersel Hickey’s “Bluebirds Over the Mountain.”

The album is set to hit music stores and begin streaming on Oct. 13.
…

“Frozen” star Idina Menzel has married actor Aaron Lohr.

 

Menzel posted wedding pictures to her Facebook page on Monday, writing: “Wanted to let you know… married the love of my life Aaron Lohr this weekend at our home. Dad & son walked me down the aisle. It was magical.”

 

The 46-year-old Menzel and Lohr, who’s 41, appeared in the 2005 film adaptation of the musical “Rent.” They also share a Disney background. Menzel provides the voice for Queen Elsa and her “Let It Go” anthem in “Frozen.” Lohr appeared in Disney’s Mighty Ducks movies and the company’s 1992 adaptation of Broadway’s “Newsies.”

 

This is the second marriage for Menzel, who shares a son with ex-husband Taye Diggs.

 

 
…

Not a single American athlete has expressed security concerns about next year’s Winter Games in South Korea and it is business as usual for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) as it pushes ahead with preparations, officials said on Monday.

The USOC’s reaction to mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula contrasts with a comment from the French sports minister last week that the country would not send a team to the 2018 Games if security could not be guaranteed.

“We are preparing as if we are going to go,” said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun during a news conference to kick off a Pyeongchang Winter Games media summit.

“We understand individual athletes may have questions and concerns but our job as the national Olympic committee for the United States is to make sure the athletes have an opportunity to go and are well supported by us while they are there.”

Tensions in the region have escalated since North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3, prompting global condemnation.

North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said earlier on Monday that President Donald Trump had ‘declared war’ on North Korea and that Pyongyang reserved the right to take countermeasures, including shooting down U.S. bombers even if they were not in its air space.

The Games, scheduled for Feb. 9-25, will take place just 80 km (50 miles) from the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, the world’s most heavily armed border.

The two countries remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

“These Games are really no different than any other Games in terms of our preparations, we are working closely with the State Department and law enforcement,” said Blackmun, adding that no athlete had come forward with concerns about safety.

“We had an opportunity to be in South Korea a little over a month ago and met with the four-star general who oversees all the U.S. forces there.

“We are in constant communication should the unthinkable happen.

“There are conflicts between nations that’s not an issue for the U.S. Olympic Committee to get involved in, that is an issue for the IOC and foreign nations to make decisions on.

“We talk to the State Department on a regular basis. We are getting the same briefings other Americans are getting who are traveling to South Korea. There are no travel restrictions in place right now and if that should change I’m sure we would be among the first to know.”

French Sports Minister Laura Flessel said last week that the nation’s team could stay at home if the crisis deepened and security could not be guaranteed, although the country’s Olympic committee president Denis Masseglia later said he could not imagine a situation that would lead to France deciding not to attend the Games.

Ticket sales for the Games are slow, with only 30 percent sold, but Kim Jae-youl, executive vice president of the Pyeongchang organizing committee said he did not believe current tensions were the reason.

“We hope not because the Olympics is a special moment that happens once every four years and this is a chance where you get to see the competition between the best of the best so I don’t think the current situation is impacting ticket sales,” Kim told Reuters. “Security and safety are the critical aspects of the success of the Games.”
…

Inside the Woodridge Neighborhood Library in the U.S. capital, a wall is plastered with ominous warning signs: “Reading This Book Display Is Banned” and “No Books to See Here.” Below the messages are shelves with books that have been banned, at one time or another, in parts of the United States. They include books in the popular Harry Potter series, banned for “witchcraft,” and the classic futuristic novel Brave New World, which has been banned for sexual content.

Although no books have been removed from libraries or schools in Washington, the display is part of Banned Books Week, which runs through September 30. The annual event points out the perils of censorship and emphasizes the freedom to read.

Among the groups sponsoring Banned Books Week is the American Library Association (ALA), which releases an annual list of the 10 most challenged books — works that have been targeted for removal from a library or school curriculum.

“Some of the themes could be dealing with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues, race and religion,” said Julius Jefferson Jr. of the ALA’s intellectual freedom committee. Most requests for books to be banned “you see coming from parents, because they feel they are not appropriate for their children,” he added.

Such topics may include “families with two dads or two moms,” said Linnea Hegarty, executive director of Washington’s DC Public Library Foundation. 

“Books about war are often banned, particularly if they talk about political issues,” she added, and also books about mental illness, because “some parents don’t want their children to be exposed to that.”

Transgender issues, profanity, Cosby

The books on this year’s ALA list were mostly written for children or young adults, such as Drama, by Raina Telgemeier, which includes transgender characters, and Mariko Tamaki’s This One Summer, which some critics have said is offensive due to profane language and instances of drug use.

In a first this year, a book was listed not due to its content or style, but because the author is under fire. Comedian and children’s story-teller Bill Cosby wrote a series of books called Little Bill. The series is being challenged because of sexual assault allegations against Cosby.

As part of Banned Books Week, hundreds of copies of six other books that may be challenged or banned have been placed in museums, restaurants and coffee shops around Washington, for anyone to take home for free. They are wrapped in black paper and hidden among other books on sale.

At the Duende District Bookstore in Washington, customer Lyric Prince discovered Fahrenheit 451, a science-fiction novel that depicts an American society where books are outlawed, and firemen burn any contraband literature. Some people object to the burning of a Bible in the story.

Prince is not surprised that books like this novel published more than 60 years ago are still banned today, because “a lot of places in this country don’t exactly take kindly to progressive ideas.”

Another customer, Katie Schwartz, found The Giver, criticized for its violence in a story about a world of conformity. Schwartz can’t believe books are still banned in the U.S., especially since the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech.

“It’s an American right to express yourself however you see fit,” she said. “It’s also an American right to avoid things by choice that you don’t agree with, and books are very easily avoided if you don’t agree with them.”

The American Library Association, which keeps tabs on challenges and bans, is aware of about 250 challenges last year, but it says very few succeed, and books hardly ever wind up truly banned.
…

Airbnb is launching local tours and other experiences in New York City this week with a special host.

Her listing promises an “unforgettable shoe-shopping experience'” and her bio describes her as an “actor, producer, businesswoman” and “proud New Yorker.”

 

She’s Sarah Jessica Parker of ‘Sex and the City’ fame and she’ll be taking four guests shoe-shopping at Bloomingdale’s, then sending them to the ballet.

 

Parker’s listing goes live Tuesday, with four spots at $400 each, first come, first served. The money will benefit the New York City Ballet, where Parker is a board member.

 

Airbnb is primarily known for vacation rentals around the world. Officials in many cities have criticized the company, saying its short-term rentals are reducing long-term housing options for residents and forcing prices up.

 
…

She has already captured hearts across Asia by taking on corrupt politicians and fighting bad guys who tried to shut girls’ schools — and now even the United Nations has been wowed by a superheroine whose only weapons are pens and books.

Move over Superman and Batman. Here comes Pakistan’s superheroine Burka Avenger who might soon be spreading her message of peace and tolerance on behalf of the U.N.

The Emmy-nominated animated TV series has won global accolades since its 2013 launch, with its female protagonist – a teacher called Jiya – putting on the Islamic veil at night and transforming into an all-action heroine to tackle social ills.

Now the U.N. is seeking to tap her popularity as it ramps up a campaign that emphasizes women’s role in peace-building to combat extremism.

“We have a lot of shared goals,” the series’ creator, Pakistani pop star Haroon Rashid, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Islamabad.

“The whole concept [of Burka Avenger] came about because I was reading about girls’ schools being shut down and bombed by extremists, and women and girls are threatened with violence. That’s why the superheroine was created,” he said.

Rashid will be speaking at a U.N. Women conference in the Thai capital Bangkok this week which will look at using creative approaches to promote women’s role in peace-building.

Although there is no official partnership yet, the U.N. agency and Rashid both said they were keen to explore collaboration, including by making Burka Avenger an ambassador.

“Burka Avenger can be a great messenger not only for women’s issues but because it’s animation, you can highlight very sensitive issues, it makes them [appear] softer,” Rashid said.

Fight Extremism From a Young Age

“Burka Avenger” was launched first in Pakistan, then Afghanistan, India and this year in Indonesia. It has been produced in different languages including Urdu, Tamil, Hindi, Pashto and Indonesian.

The series has won numerous accolades, including the Peabody Award, International Gender Equity Prize and the Asian Media Award, while the protagonist Jiya was named one of the most influential fictional characters of 2013 by Time magazine.

Orphaned as a child, Jiya was adopted by a master of a mystic martial art called Takht Kabaddi, which uses pens and books as weapons to take on enemies.

There has also been debate over Jiya’s choice of disguise, the burqa.

The all-encompassing veil has typically been viewed as symbol of female repression in the West but the cartoon presents it in a different light, as a symbol of female empowerment.

U.N. Women Asia-Pacific head Miwa Kato said cartoons can help prevent extremism from a young age.

“We often look to law enforcement to prevent extremism but it starts very early from a child’s age, through TV and entertainment,” Kato told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“A girl and superhero using pens and books as weapons can make us start having a conversation, at home or in schools.”

“Burka Avenger” is set for more launches in Asia – including Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Singapore and Bangladesh – but after four seasons and 52 episodes, Rashid said he has no plans to work on new episodes immediately although he is planning a full-length feature film.

“We believe that will help spread the message on a larger scale, to a larger audience,” the pop star said.
…

Charles Bradley, known as the “Screaming Eagle of Soul” for a powerful, raspy style that evoked one of his musical heroes, James Brown, died Saturday at age 68.

Bradley, who achieved success later in life with his 2011 debut album “No Time for Dreaming,” was diagnosed with stomach cancer in the fall of 2016 and underwent treatment, according to a statement from his publicist, Shazila Mohammed. He went out on tour earlier this year after receiving a clean bill of health, but the cancer returned recently, spreading to his liver, the statement said.

Recording on the Daptone label, Bradley was a fiery live performer. He followed up his first album with “Victim of Love” in 2013. His third album, “Changes,” was released last year.

Among his TV appearances was a stop last year on “CBS This Morning: Saturday,” which earned him an Emmy nomination.

Born in Gainesville, Florida, Bradley found himself living in New York at age 8. He left home as a teenager and lived as an itinerant until he settled in Brooklyn 20 years ago.

Bradley idolized Brown, working as a Brown impersonator known as Black Velvet before he was discovered by Gabriel Roth, a Daptone co-founder. He later became known for closing shows under his own name with hugs for his audiences.

“The world lost a ton of heart today,” Roth said in the statement. “Charles was somehow one of the meekest and strongest people I’ve ever known. His pain was a cry for universal love and humanity. His soulful moans and screams will echo forever on records and in the ears and hearts of those who were fortunate enough to share time with him.”

Roth said he told Bradley recently there’s solace to be found for fans knowing Bradley “will continue to inspire love and music in this world for generations to come.”

Bradley’s response? “I tried.”
…

This is banned books week in the United States, an annual event that points out censorship and emphasizes the freedom to read. In Washington, the public library system has hidden around the city hundreds of copies of six books that may be banned or challenged in some libraries and schools in the U.S. People who find these books can take them home for free. VOA’s Deborah Block brings us to a bookstore where customers are searching for the books they want to read.
…

An Egyptian ultraconservative Muslim preacher hears on his car radio news of the death of Michael Jackson, the pop singer he idolized in his teens, and he becomes so distraught he crashes his car.

 

The news of the passing of the King of Pop is the start of a crisis of conscience for Sheikh Khalid Hani, the main character of the movie Sheikh Jackson, Egypt’s first feature film to focus on the religious movement known as Salafis, followers of one of the strictest interpretations of Islam.

 

It follows Sheikh Hani, a Salafi, as his love for Michael Jackson throws him onto a bumpy journey to discover his own identity, mirroring how Egypt’s conservative society is torn between its Islamic and Arab traditions and Western culture in an age when television, telecommunications and social media bring together people and cultures from all corners of the world.

Humanity and identity

 

“I no longer cry while I am praying. That means my faith is faltering,” Hani confides to a female psychiatrist in one scene. Crying while praying, he explains, reflects his fear of God.

 

The film goes beyond examining Salafis, says the director, Amr Salama. 

“It’s about humanity. … It tells you that one’s identity is not a single dimension or an unchangeable thing,” he told The Associated Press just days before Sheikh Jackson premiered in the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month. 

 

It’s a journey Salama has some experience in: He was a huge Jackson fan in his teens and then became Salafi during his university years, before moving away from the movement. 

 

What is Salafism?

Salafism is one of the most closed, uncompromising visions of Islam. Its doctrine is primarily built around what its followers believe is emulation of the actions the Prophet Muhammad. They are easily recognized by their chest-long beards and robes that reach to just below the knees. They shun music, film and dance and outside influences seen as decadent. Salafi women wear the all-covering niqab, including veils over their faces.

 

Followers view life as a little more than a transitional phase and are contemptuous of worldly pleasures. Immortality in heaven is their chief goal.

When Hani goes to the psychiatrist, whom he thought by her ambiguous name was a man, he asks her to put on a headscarf during their sessions. She refuses, and throughout their talk, he can’t look at her. When she asks him the last thing that made him feel alive, his response comes from Salafi doctrine: “I bought my shroud and wrote my will.” He occasionally sleeps under his bed, convinced that it is the closest thing to being inside a grave, thus a reminder of his mortality.

Connection to Jackson

But Jackson’s death revives in Hani the obsession with the singer he had in his teens, when he imitated the star’s look and dance moves. It earned him the nickname “Jackson,” but also the disapproval of his macho father.

 

“He is effeminate,” the father says of Jackson. But Hani’s mother whispers to him, “He is the world’s best singer. But keep that as our little secret.” When the mother dies young, Hani’s father turns into a serial womanizer and becomes violent, beating Hani for imitating his idol.

 

When the adult Hani discovers his own daughter, at age 6 or 7, watching videos of Beyonce, he tears out the Wifi and denounces “dancing to the devil’s tune.”

 

Delicate territory

The film, which is to be released in Egyptian cinemas later this month and which Egypt has put forward as a candidate for a best foreign film Oscar nomination, goes into delicate territory. 

 

Thousands of Islamists have been jailed under the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who was elected after leading the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 and who has faced a fierce militant insurgency. Depicting Islamists with even a hint of positivity can bring questions from authorities and security agencies.

 

Still, while some Salafis have been jailed in the crackdown, the government has tolerated parts of the movement, in part because some Salafi political parties lined up behind el-Sissi after the Brotherhood’s ouster. 

 

Salafism has been the fastest growing Islamist movement in Egypt for the past decade, and it covers a spectrum. Some Salafis are relatively engaged with other parts of society, often as successful businessmen; some separate themselves to avoid sinful influences; others denounce society outright as “kafir,” or non-believing. A militant fringe embraces jihad against “infidels” and tyrants. 

 

The film risks a backlash from the public, either by viewers who see as it as too sympathetic to Islamists or, from the other side, as mocking religious beliefs. 

 

“I have neither glorified nor dissed the Salafis,” Salama said. “They are just human beings like us.”

 

Touching moments

That extends to depictions of Salafi family that almost never show up in films. Hani’s wife understands his turmoil after Jackson’s death. At one point, Hani tells her he loves her because she loves God more than she loves him.

 

In a scene many parents could sympathize with, their young daughter watches her parents with disapproving bemusement as they drive her to school, joyously singing a religious hymn they heard on the day they met. Embarrassed, she asks her father to drop her off far from the school gate.

 

The movie builds Salama’s reputation as a director willing to take on some of Egypt’s thorniest issues. His 2014 Excuse My French dealt with the forms of subtle discrimination that Egypt’s minority Christians face, while the 2011 Asmaa portrayed the social stigma endured by those who are HIV positive.

 

Still, neither of the previous films was a box office hit, despite critical acclaim. Sheikh Jackson is unlikely to fare better in a country where comedies and action movies the only sure winners. 

 
…

Britain’s Prince Harry is in Toronto ahead of his Invictus Games for wounded veterans

The founder of the games left the Royal York hotel and arrived at a Toronto office building for a symposium about veteran issues on Friday.

 

Harry wore a blue blazer as he greeted and posed for photographs with athletes ahead of the symposium. His girlfriend Meghan Markle is a Toronto resident, but did not appear.

 

At least 550 competitors from 17 countries are slated to compete in 12 sports. U.S. first lady Melania Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with Harry on Saturday.

 

The opening ceremony is Saturday night and will feature a performance by Sarah McLachlan.

 
…

Kayra Martinez took calligraphy paper and pens into refugee tents in Greece last year. “That was the first time I had actually seen the children really calm,” Martinez said. “And I realized that this is something that they really love to do.”

As a flight attendant for United Airlines, Martinez is often in Greece, where she was drawn to the refugee camps and began volunteering there in 2015.

Focusing her efforts on Nea Kavala in northern Greece, she is now the first point of contact for many families in need.

“It’s very, very actually challenging to be able to leave Greece, because you have urgent needs every day,” she said. “Every day you have a family writing to you.”

The paper and pens presented a whole new opportunity. Martinez put one of the pieces of art on Facebook and instantly received offers to purchase it. Since then, Martinez has provided canvases, watercolors, pencils, markers, calligraphy paper and sketchpads to adults and children in the refugee camps.

She collects their art and takes it to cities around the U.S. and Europe, selling each piece for $25 to $150. She then uses the money to help the refugees in the camps through her new organization, Love Without Borders — for Refugees.

Many of the pieces sold are from children as young as 3.

“I’m really focused on what the children want to draw, more than telling them what they need to draw, because they have a lot of feelings, a lot of trauma that hasn’t been worked out,” Martinez said. “So, we just let them take their time and draw whatever they would like.”

Therapy and independence

Many of the pictures displayed at a recent show in a small gallery in Washington were done in black and gray. The young artists drew their homes burning, their cities being bombed, their families crying.

“There was one that was kind of a row of buildings and a bomb above it — ‘Syria,’ ” said Niyati Shah, who attended the art show. “This is what this kid sees every day. You see it in the news, but then you see children’s depiction of their reality, and it’s certainly moving.”

Other pictures were colorful and bright, showcasing the hope and resilience of the refugee artists. Each piece had an accompanying note about the artist, telling his or her story

“It’s just also nice to be somewhere where you’re not just getting the tragic images, but it’s kind of a more positive way and constructive way to look at the conflict,” said attendee Julieta Jakubowicez. “Very humanizing.”

Martinez sold 122 pieces of art in three hours, about 60 percent of the collection she brought with her from Greece. She raised $17,503, most of which will go back to the refugees.

At least one of the refugees Martinez helps was an accomplished artist before being displaced by war.

“And now he’s having his first exhibition in Greece. We’re selling his art all over the U.S.,” Martinez said. “It got back his independence. He’s empowered, he’s motivated, and also he can now create a better environment for his family when he has his own money.”

In addition to providing cash to refugees, Martinez also teaches them how to make jewelry and baby clothes to sell so they don’t have to rely on fickle government and NGO services.

“They are really tired of having to ask for everything and then be disappointed at the end by not getting it,” Martinez said.

Filling in the aid gaps

Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, hundreds of thousands of refugees have arrived in Greece. Many continued to other countries in Europe, but many remain — something Greece was not prepared for.

Despite financial assistance from the European Union, Martinez said, help from large aid organizations was not getting to the refugees.  Volunteers and smaller organizations, including Love Without Borders — for Refugees, fill in the gap.

“We’re doing a lot of work that a lot of organizations cannot do, but we are very innovative. We have a lot of ideas, and we’re a little bit more independent to be able to make things happen a lot quicker,” Martinez said.

She volunteers with refugees and hosts art show fundraisers around the world, while still working as a flight attendant for United.

“I think basically I’ve given up my social life. I don’t go out with my friends anymore,” Martinez said. “I don’t; I can’t.”

She doesn’t sleep much, but she doesn’t regret anything.

“I’ve loved to learn languages, and I’ve loved to learn cultures by traveling around the world. So I get to do what I love to do in a different sort of way.”
…

This is the Top Five Countdown! We’re detonating the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending Sept. 23, 2017.

Sometimes the Top Five can lull you to sleep with its slowness … and then there are weeks like this.

Number 5: Logic Featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid “1-800-273-8255”

It all starts in fifth place, where we welcome newcomer Logic, who surges four slots to fifth place with “1-800-273-8255” featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid.

What’s with that song title? 

Logic hails from Gaithersburg, Maryland, not far from Washington, D.C. The song title is the telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Logic says the inspiration for this song came on a recent tour, when he stayed in fans’ homes. Logic says some told him his music helped save their lives … which showed him his power as an artist.

Number 4: Taylor Swift “Ready for It?”

No artist is more aware of her own power than our fourth-place newcomer. Taylor Swift is back, and she came to play with “Ready For It?”

Taylor maintained a low profile for much of the past year, then last month re-emerged in a burst of activity on social media. Her sixth album “Reputation” arrives on November 10.

“Ready For It?” features songwriting and production from the solid-gold team of Max Martin and Shellback. It appeared on September 3, immediately becoming Taylor’s 13th number one single on the Billboard Digital Songs chart.

Number 3: Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber “Despacito”

Ms. Swift isn’t finished with us yet, but right now let’s bring on Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber: “Despacito” backs off a notch to number three.

On September 16, Luis gave a special private performance in San Antonio, Texas. He stopped by the Children’s Rehabilitation Institute of TeleTon USA. He sang for the young patients, who battle musculoskeletal and neurological disorders.

Number 2: Cari B “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)”

Cardi B gets serious this week, as “Bodak Yellow” moves into the runner-up slot.

The Bronx rapper was previously on track to drop her debut album in October, but now says she may need a bit more time to finish it.

Number 1: Taylor Swift “Look What You Made Me Do”

November 10 is the day Taylor Swift delivers her “Reputation” album, and the lead single remains atop the Hot 100. Ruling the roost for a second week: “Look What You Made Me Do.”

 

This marks the first time in nearly three years that two solo women control the Hot 100. It last happened in December 2014: Taylor Swift was again in the driver’s seat with “Blank Space,” while Meghan Trainor was the runner-up with “All About That Bass.”

We’re all about those hits, and we’ll have more for you next week — so join us if you can.

 
…