Grief-stricken fans braved Seoul’s winter cold on Thursday to bid farewell to Kim Jong-hyun, the lead singer of top South Korean boy band SHINee, who died in hospital in a suspected suicide.

Weeping, wailing and embracing one another, young men and women dressed in grey and black lined the road as the hearse carrying Kim’s coffin left the hospital.

“I am so sad that I cannot even cry. My heart aches so much”, 18-year-old Chinese fan Chen Jialin said.

Fellow singers, including SHINee’s Minho and members of bands Super Junior and Girls’ Generation, joined the funeral procession.

Kim, 27, was found unconscious next to burning briquettes on a frying pan inside a serviced residence in Seoul on Monday, police told Reuters.

Yonhap news agency had reported that the singer sent a final message to his sister asking her to “let me go.”

Kim spent nearly a decade as one of five members of SHINee, one of the most popular bands in the country, as well as a solo artist. His death was a massive blow to the worldwide fan base that Korea’s K-pop music has attracted in recent years.

K-pop is the rage in Asia and other continents, with a song by the group BTS maintaining a spot on the Billboard 200 for seven weeks as of the end of November.
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Cities around the United States are getting ready for Christmas. And when it comes to the season’s decorations, New York City stands out for turning Manhattan’s streets into a big, dazzling holiday display. Faiza Elmasry has this report narrated by Faith Lapidus.
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Clifford Irving, whose scheme to publish a phony autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes created a sensation in the 1970s and stands as one of the all-time literary hoaxes, died after being admitted to hospice care. He was 87.

Irving’s wife, Julie Irving, confirmed that he died Tuesday at a hospice near his Sarasota home, The New York Times reported. She said he had been admitted there after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about a week earlier.

A novelist of little note in 1971, Irving conned McGraw-Hill publishers into paying him a $765,000 advance for a book about the reclusive Hughes. His elaborate ruse became the subject of the 2006 movie “The Hoax,” starring Richard Gere.

Irving served 17 months in federal prison for fraud after Hughes emerged to condemn the work as a fabrication. The bogus autobiography wasn’t published until 1999, when it was printed as a private edition.

‘It became an adventure’

The scam “was exciting. It was a challenge. It became an adventure,” Irving told the Los Angeles Times in 2007.

The International Herald Tribune called the fake autobiography “the most famous unpublished book of the 20th century.” Time magazine dubbed Irving “Con Man of the Year” in a 1972 cover story.

Irving said the idea of fabricating an autobiography of Hughes came to him after reading a magazine article about the billionaire’s eccentric lifestyle. Hughes’ hermit-like obsession with his privacy all but guaranteed that the “gorgeous literary caper” would succeed, Irving wrote in “The Hoax,” his 2006 account of the scheme.

“Hughes would never be able to surface to deny it, or else he wouldn’t bother,” he wrote.

Rising skepticism

At the time of the hoax, Hughes had long withdrawn from his life as a powerful industrialist, aviator and filmmaker. He reportedly lived the final 10 years of his life, from 1966 to 1976, in near-total seclusion, even neglecting personal hygiene to avoid contact with the outside world.

Hughes’ intense aversion to publicity gave rise to skepticism about Irving’s claims to have interviewed the billionaire.

Irving insisted that he had several clandestine meetings with Hughes. He submitted to a lie-detector test and produced documents purportedly from the billionaire, including a handwritten letter written to McGraw-Hill.

The letter, forged by Irving, was deemed authentic by handwriting analysts hired by McGraw-Hill. At that point, the publisher decided to move forward with the book.

Irving put the cash advance into a Swiss bank account, opened in the name Helga R. Hughes.

The unraveling

The deception unraveled when investigative reporter James Phelan, writing a book about Hughes, recognized passages of his work in an excerpt from Irving’s manuscript of the autobiography.

Hughes himself then surfaced to conduct a telephone conference with reporters during which he repudiated Irving’s story and said that he never met him. His lawyer sued Irving and his publisher.

At the urging of McGraw-Hill, Swiss authorities investigated the Helga R. Hughes bank account and learned that the deposits had been made by Irving’s wife, Edith.

Irving and his collaborator, Richard Suskind, were indicted on fraud charges and were found guilty in June 1972. In addition to his prison term, Irving returned the $765,000 advance to McGraw-Hill. Suskind was sentenced to six months and served five.

Edith Irving served a total of 16 months in U.S. and Swiss jails for fraud. She left jail announcing her intent to file for divorce.

Irving was unhappy with the movie version of his escapades and asked to have his name removed from the credits as a technical adviser.

“Movie Clifford has the energy of a not-too-bright psychopath. If I were that man, I’d shoot myself,” he wrote on his website. “The movie is best thought of as a hoax.”

Background, books

Born in 1930, Irving grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He attended public schools and his boyhood friends included William Safire, the late columnist and speechwriter for President Richard Nixon.

He attended Cornell University and stayed on for a year after graduation in 1951 on a creative writing fellowship. He worked odd jobs after leaving academia and traveled to Europe, where he finished his first novel, “On a Darkling Plain.”

He moved in 1962 to an artists’ colony on the island of Ibiza off the east coast of Spain. It was there that he wrote “Fake!” the story of art forger Elmyr de Hory. The reviews of the book were favorable, but it sold fewer than 30,000 copies.

In all, Irving wrote more than a dozen books. In recent years, he and fifth wife Julie lived in Mexico, Colorado and Florida.
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Throughout the year, young members of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps beautify the city — cleaning and planting trees, and creating trails and green spaces in the city. They get a break at the holidays to share holiday cheer. 

“We all come together to have fun,” says Corps member Chrishana Cameron, 21, who was enjoying the festivities at one of the Corps’ job sites. “It’s not always about work,” she said of the holiday celebration. 

Some members bring their young children. Others bring parents, brothers and sisters, and the youngsters all receive presents from Santa Claus.

The nonprofit organization helps young people at risk, says staff member Alex Lopez, a senior program director who once belonged to a street gang and served five years in prison.

“I made a mistake,” he says, “but I use that as a tool to reach out to the young people and let them know that I’ve been there, done that.” 

Lopez joined the Corps in 1991.  He was later hired to a staff job and became a supervisor. 

“Whatever they’re going through,” he says of the young recruits, “I use my experience to lead them in the right direction.”

The program combines job training and education.  “I dropped out of high school,” recalls staff member Denise Haynes, who grew up in the Watts neighborhood. I made some bad choices in my life, but I didn’t know you can turn all those things around.”  After joining the Corps in 1997, she completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

The LA Conservation Corps was founded in 1986 by Mickey Kantor, a Los Angeles lawyer who would later serve as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton.  Modeled on the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, it is one of many groups that offer job training and a second chance to 26,000 young people around the United States.

There are many kinds of youth corps, says Jimmie Cho, LA Conservation Corps board chairman. Some focus on the city, and others on rural regions. Cho says “it’s really all about service and working to invest in other people.”

Corps members in Los Angeles say the work is hard but rewarding, and the holidays are a time to celebrate their accomplishments with co-workers and family.
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Laurie Metcalf has won three Emmys and a Tony Award in her nearly 40-year year career, but the veteran stage and screen actress still feels uncomfortable in front of a camera.

She says even after all her years on “Roseanne,” she still finds that a camera recording her makes her feel inhibited.

Metcalf is also feeling out of her element as a serious Academy Award contender for her role in the film “Lady Bird,” in which she plays the mother to a 17-year-old daughter who is going through a selfish phase.

The 62-year-old actress has already gotten supporting actress nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globe Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards. She says she’s flattered by the attention, which she also calls surreal. And on January 23, she might add the coveted Oscar nomination to her resume too.
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While most musicians seek to avoid a frosty reception at concerts, for Norwegian composer and performer Terje Isungset a chilly feeling is nothing to fear: he performs with instruments he makes himself out of ice.

A recent performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall featured a set including ice horns, ice drums and an “iceofone” — an ice xylophone — accompanied by the vocal stylings of singer Maria Skranes.

He sees his work as being about more than making music, since he also aims to display the beauty and fragility of ice.

“I see it as a part of something bigger. It’s not me and my project and my ego — it’s the elements,” he told Reuters.

The Norwegian, equipped with a background in traditional Scandinavian music and jazz, makes his instruments using chainsaws and pick axes.

Founder of an ice music festival in Norway, Isungset plays at about 50 festivals and concerts a year, many in the cold conditions of Norway, Canada or Russia.

At concerts in warmer climes, however, hotter temperatures can pose difficulties, as spending any more than 50 minutes at room temperature could damage the instruments.

All of the instruments for the London show were made in Norway and shipped over in special containers, highlighting the fact that, when it comes to making ice instruments, not any old water will do.

“If ice is from polluted water it doesn’t sound that good. If it’s from tap water it doesn’t work because there’s some chemicals in it,” he said. The best ice, he said, was from 2003 in the north of Sweden, adding “I’m very interested in that ice.”
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The Associated Press recently caught up with a few celebrities and asked them about their favorite holiday cards from fellow notables.

Hugh Jackman of The Greatest Showman wouldn’t name any names, but he said some cards are remarkable. He even rates them. Liam Neeson, who stars in The Commuter, really appreciates a certain sender every Christmas season: Steven Spielberg. Neeson said Spielberg has never forgotten his birthday or Christmas since the two did Schindler’s List together.

Rebecca Ferguson wasn’t shy about a little name dropping: Tom Cruise. Of her Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation co-star, she says he has a signature cake he sends for birthdays that he claims is healthy but really isn’t.
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The traditional Ukrainian Bell Carol has become an essential part of the American Christmas tradition. “Carol of the Bells” is a popular Christmas carol composed by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 with lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. The song is based on a Ukrainian folk chant called “Shchedryk.”
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Brushstroke by brushstroke, muralist Robert Vargas is telling the story of this changing metropolis, using the facade of a 14-story downtown apartment building as his canvas.

Vargas suggests the massive painting, an homage to his hometown, was inevitable. 

He grew up in East Los Angeles “on a street called City View, and from my stoop, I had a clear sight line to the downtown L.A. skyline. So I think I was always destined to dream big and to paint big,” Vargas said. “I’m fulfilling my destiny.”

Vargas, of Mexican and Native American descent, began painting as a child. He studied at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, as well as New York’s Pratt Institute. His art has taken him from doing portraits on local streets to crafting scenes abroad — in Australia, Japan and, most recently, the United Arab Emirates. He showcases his work on an Instagram account that identifies him as “Artist based in Downtown Los Angeles, but for the world!”

The scale of Vargas’ painting has grown over time. 

His current mural stretches more than 5,500 square meters (6,600 square yards) – painted freehand, without a preliminary grid or stencils. He works from the kind of adjustable platform used by window washers.

Vargas started painting the mural this summer and expects to finish it in early 2018. He’s touting it, in numerous media interviews, as the largest done by a single artist. Guinness World Records has “received an application on Robert’s behalf, but we have not received any further evidence for the claim,” a spokeswoman told VOA in an emailed response. 

Hope and inclusion

Vargas’ mural depicts a multicultural metropolis.

“The message here is one of hope, one of inclusion, one of just kind of celebrating the diversity of Los Angeles – an allegory of the city, if you will,” he said.

His mural is ripe with symbolism, such as the image of a Native American girl.

She’s a Tongva Indian girl, one of “the original natives to inhabit the L.A. Basin,” Vargas explained. Another figure will depict Oscar De La Hoya, “an Olympic gold medal winner who has led the charge in bringing the Olympics back in 2028.”

De La Hoya, a lightweight boxer who won his medal in 1992, served on the committee that landed the future Summer Games for Los Angeles. Vargas will paint the boxer carrying an Olympic torch.

Angels for Los Angeles

The crowning figures for the mural, called “Angeles,” are three angels.

“One of the angels up there, the one at the very top, is actually a portrait of my mother, the first person to introduce me to downtown L.A.,” Vargas said.

Another was inspired by “a homeless woman [who] would hang out here every day,” said the painter, later explaining that he wants to recognize residents who are losing ground in a gentrifying area.  “… That’s one way of uplifting someone through the creative process.”

The mural is giving Vargas a boost, too.

“I’m just really excited about painting something this big,” he said, “in the heart of the city where I grew up.”
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Pop star Lady Gaga is swapping touring for a two-year stint in Las Vegas, joining the likes of music divas Celine Dion, Britney Spears and Shania Twain who have recently taken up concert residencies in the entertainment mecca.

Gaga, 31, said on Tuesday she will start a two-year engagement at the 5,300-seat Park Theater at the Park MGM resort on the Las Vegas strip in December 2018.

“It’s the land of Elvis, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, the Rat Pack, Elton John, Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli. It has been a life-long dream of mine to play Las Vegas,” the singer said in a statement.

“I am humbled to be a part of a historical lineup of performers, and to have the honor of creating a new show unlike anything Vegas has ever seen before,” she added.

Gaga made her name almost 10 years ago with catchy pop songs, arresting dance routines and outrageous stunts like setting her piano on fire and wearing a raw meat dress.

In February, she kicked off her the halftime show at the annual Super Bowl by singing “God Bless America,” from the top of Houston’s NRG Stadium.

But in September, the “Bad Romance” singer postponed until early 2018 the European leg of her “Joanne” world tour, citing severe pain. She was hospitalized in 2013 for a hip injury and more recently has said she suffers from the musculoskeletal disorder fibromyalgia.

Las Vegas residencies have become a popular draw for top music stars because they allow performers to remain in one place and draw large crowd without the rigors of touring.

Exact dates and ticket prices for Lady Gaga’s residency will be announced at a later date.

The Park Theater is part of the transformation of the Monte Carlo hotel on the Las Vegas Strip into a redesigned Park MGM resort.
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Artist Carlos Carmonamedina is curious about his surroundings. Since growing up in Mexico, traveling around to Europe for school, he’s always seen the cultures in a city’s periphery. When he moved to Washington D.C. two years ago, he was inspired to create a work that represents the city’s visual identity. 

“This project was for me a perfect excuse to get to know the city better and get out there and discover what’s going on around me,” Carmonamedina said. He has created almost 100 postcards in his DC series.

What was originally intended as a personal challenge, has gained popularity online and in the DC community. Carmonamedina sees it as documenting how people live in Washington D.C. at this current point in history.

“It’s just an extension of my personal curiosity and how I approach the world I live in,” Carmonamedina said. “So right now if I’m interested about how the city behaves and how the city changes, it’s natural that my art is gonna reflect that as well.”

Carmonamedina brings a perspective to the city that is different from its political reputation. His postcards include images of everyday human behavior: white collar workers taking their lunch at the fountain in DuPont Circle, a man and his child watching planes take off from Reagan Airport from Gravely Park, local musicians and artists celebrating their work at the DC Funk Parade—all parts of the city that are lost amid the headlines of Washington insiders, backdoor deals in Congress and the influence of K Street.

His ideas come from what he sees on a daily basis. He bikes around the city, looking for an area that he hasn’t been to before, and then sketches what he sees—the architecture, people and natural environment.

His most popular postcard, however, is from the Women’s March last January.

“I try to avoid any political involvement in my art, just because I want people in different audiences to feel comfortable with what they are looking at,” Carmonamedina. “But also, at the same time, I cannot avoid to escape the fact that we live in a very political city and protests and situations that they affect the rest of the country are happening right here.”

Christmas market

For two years now, Carmonamedina has also sold his postcards and prints at the Heinrich Christmas Market in downtown Washington. It’s one of the few times where he gets to interact with multiple fans of his work, rather than just one at a time. DC locals come by often looking for a postcard of their home neighborhood, or they request that he visit their neighborhood or favorite part of the city to draw next.

“I wanted to reach a larger audience,” Carmonamedina said. “Before I was working mostly in gallery circuits where very few people will attend. And this project allows to me interact with a different broader group of people.”

Carmonamedina grew up in Mexico, but left for Romania when he was 24 to pursue a career as an artist. He lived in the UK, Slovakia and France before moving to Washington D.C.

“I’ve been very much into the gallery circuit, trying to get exhibitions here and there, organizing residencies,” Carmonamedina said. ”But I have always been interested in comics and illustration and I wanted to do something a little bit more down to earth which I could also reach, again, a larger audience.”

This project is different from his pervious endeavors, but his art has always had similar elements. “How I approach things like humor, death, peripheries, and how people who live outside of the typical economic cultures … behave,” Carmonamedina said. “So it’s always about empathy and having a little bit of, putting yourself in other people’s shoes.”

As his project gains popularity, Carmonamedina is looking for new sources of inspiration that represent the city not only through his eyes, but through the eyes of the community.

“I feel like, so far has been very much my perspective as a newcomer, but I want to get to know people who have been here for a longer period.” Carmonamedina said. “I’m sure that they are going to give me a different insight of how the things are here.”
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In the two years since he came to Washington, D.C., Carlos Carmonamedina has created almost 100 postcards of everyday scenes in the nation’s capital. Many have DC landmarks in the background, like the White House, the Capitol and the Washington Monument, but all give a taste of what life in D.C. is like. Niki Papadogiannakis spoke to Carlos about why he documents D.C.
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Los Angeles artist Robert Vargas says he’s fulfilling his destiny by painting a huge mural in his hometown. A tall building in downtown LA serves as his canvas. VOA correspondent Arturo Martínez reports.
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Utah officials studying the possibility of Salt Lake City making a bid to host another Winter Olympics said Monday they would rather host the games in 2030, but could be ready if they’re needed for 2026. 

Hosting the games after the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles would provide a better opportunity to raise sponsorship dollars, said Fraser Bullock, co-chairman of the committee and a key player in the city’s 2002 Olympics. Los Angeles has exclusive rights to negotiate first with potential sponsors to help fund their games, meaning hosting the games before them would be more complicated than after, Bullock said.  

“But if nobody else bids for 2026, we would certainly be available,” Bullock said.

Denver and Reno, Nevada have also expressed interest in the U.S. Internationally, cities considering making a bid include Sion, Switzerland; Calgary, Canada; and Sapporo, Japan.

The Salt Lake City committee held its second meeting Monday, discussing in broad strokes budget, venues, staffing, transportation and environmental issues. 

The group is leaning toward recommending that the city make another bid but will issue its full report to state leaders on Feb. 1. It will include a budget estimate and other detailed plans.

Salt Lake City’s pitch would be centered on being able to host the Olympics for less money than other cities by using existing venues. Some venues need improvements and refurbishing, but officials say they wouldn’t have to build anything from scratch. 

It’s likely to still cost $1.2-$1.6 billion, officials have said. 

“Our budget will be a fraction of every other bid city that is out there,” Bullock said.

Even though the 2030 Olympics would normally be awarded in 2023, Bullock said Utah must have its bid ready much earlier. Bullock says there’s a chance the International Olympic Committee awards the 2026 and 2030 games at the same time in 2019.

That’s what the IOC did in September for the first time ever, awarding the 2024 Summer Olympics to Paris and the 2028 Summer Olympics to Los Angeles. 

Salt Lake City would first have to persuade the United States Olympic Committee it’s a better candidate than Denver and Reno because the country can only put one city in the bidding per cycle. 

The USOC has until next March to pick a city for 2026, though chief executive Scott Blackmun said earlier this month that officials believe the 2030 Winter Olympics are more realistic. He said though they are still keeping open the possibility of making a bid for 2026.

Denver, which famously rejected an offer to host the 1976 Winter Olympics, has assembled a committee to take a tough-minded look at whether the city should pursue a bid for another Olympics. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has asked the group, which includes former Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning as well as Gov. John Hickenlooper and the heads of companies such as Vail Resorts and Liberty Global, to look at whether the Olympics could be privately financed, gauge community support and study the possible environmental impact.

Among the international cities with interest, Bullock said he thinks Sion, Switzerland, is the best candidate. But, he said the European country needs to generate support first from its residents and lawmakers. Utah officials say they have polling that shows nearly nine in 10 state residents approve the idea of hosting the Olympics again. 

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert thinks Salt Lake City should make the bid, saying that the state still reaps benefits from hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics, which not only brought billions in spending but invaluable exposure. 

“Foreign direct investment in Utah comes with this exposure,” Herbert said. “It was a great door opener for us on international business.” 

If Utah officials decide to bid, they may have to answer questions about a bidding scandal that marred the 2002 Games and resulted in several International Olympic Committee members losing their positions for taking bribes.

Bullock said he’s not worried because the 2002 Olympics were a success and the current IOC members remember that and not the scandal. 

“We have a new group of IOC members who think of Salt Lake City very fondly,” Bullock said. 

 
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