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STEVEN VAN ZANDT AND FREE SCHOOL OF ROCK - - ED ASNER AND TOVA FELDSHUH IN THE SOAP MYTH
- - UNITED STATES ARTISTS LAUNCHES $10M ARTIST RELIEF FUND - - POETRY READING PRINCE CHARLES CELEBRATES WEDDING ANNIVERSARY WITH CAMILLA - -
SIX FINALISTS FOR THE STEINBERG-ATCA
NEW PLAY AWARD ANNOUNCED - - ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER STREAMS - -
BROADWAY AND AMERICAN STANDARDS SING-IN
- - BURNING MAN TO BE VIRTUAL - - DONATE . . . Scroll Down
Copyright: April 12, 2020
By: Laura Deni
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HOME SCHOOLING A NIGHTMARE? LET STEVEN VAN ZANDT'S TEACH ROCK HELP
Steven Van Zandt
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Are you near a breakdown because you're trapped inside your house with your children who are both bored and running amok, while your don't know how and don't want to teach them in what is dubiously called 'home schooling?'
If you are downing your third drink before noon, reciting - "if I had wanted to teach I would have become a teacher" - then look to Bruce Springsteen' guitarist Steven Van Zandt to save your sanity.
Van Zandt created a Free School of Rock: 100+ Free Lesson Plans That Educate Kids Through Music
in Education, K-12, called the Teach Rock Program when he created the 501 (c) (3) Rock Forever Foundation as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in
The bandana-clad guitarist spent over a decade creating "dynamic, out-of-school learning experience inside classrooms, through his Rock and Roll Forever Foundation.”
For instance, Beatles songs are used to teach match while other songs teach colors an shapes.
Van Zandt is one of those guys who, when told 'nobody cares', 'we won't', and 'you can't' takes that as positive, creative reinforcement.
When the National Association for Music Education told him that “No Child Left Behind legislation was really devastating art classes,” he confronted Ted Kennedy and Mitch McConnell, telling them, “did you ever hear that every kid who takes music class does better in math and science?" They apologized,” he says, “but they said they weren’t going to fix it.”
Van Zandt's inflamed reaction was to create TeachRock. Working with two ethnomusicologists, he built the curriculum to connect with kids through music. “Instead of telling the kid, ‘Take the iPod out of your ears,’” he told a crowd of teachers gathered at Times Square’s Playstation Theater in May, 2018 “we ask them, ‘What are you listening to?’” Van Zandt describes his curriculum “teaching in the present tense,” and while his own back catalog may more radically trip off the tongue of the parents rather than their kids, he incorporates not only his music and the fifties and sixties rock ‘n’ roll which formulated his backbone, but also hip-hop, pop, punk, and the “Latin rhythms of ‘Despacito.’” Beyoncé’s Single Ladies video is used to prompt a discussion on the slave trade.
As Van Zandt told Fast Company in 2015, “I had been researching American foreign policy post-World War II just to educate myself, which I had never done, being obsessed with rock ‘n’ roll my whole life. I was quite shocked to find that we were not always the good guys.” His discoveries compelled him to visit South Africa and to “dedicate my five-record solo career to that learning process, and also combine a bit of journalism with the rock art form.” That same passion for justice informs all of the TeachRock lessons, which you can browse and download for free at the TeachRock site. The multi-media units incorporate video, audio, images, activities, informative handouts, and other resources.
“TeachRock is rooted in a teaching philosophy that believes students learn best when they truly connect with the material to which they’re introduced,” notes the site's “Welcome Teachers” page. “Obviously, popular music is one such point of connection.”
Lesson plans covering topics in social studies, STEAM, language arts, social emotional learning, general music, AP History, media studies, and more.
Rich historical resources, including archival materials and multimedia content from partner organizations such as CNN, PBS, Reelin’ In the Years, ABC NewsSource, Rock’s Backpages, and dozens of others.
Each lesson explains how its objectives align with Common Core, ESSA, NAfME, NCSS and other national and state education standards (New Jersey and Texas),
Multimedia support materials featuring timelines, biographies and interviews with legends of popular music.
“Teaching kids something they’re not interested in,” he told the teachers in New York, “it didn’t work then, and it’s even worse now. We have an epidemic dropout rate.” Then, in his refreshingly honest way, he concluded, “Where are we going to be in twenty years? How are we going to get smarter looking at this Administration? You know, we’re just getting stupider.”
TeachRock Distance Learning Packs help students, teachers, and families succeed with remote education. They center project-based learning, collaboration and communication, authentic assessment strategies such as art, podcasts, or videos, and include clear, concise instructions that empower non-educator family members to help a student succeed. Best of all, teachers can share them directly with students!
Examples of learning packs include:
DAMN: The Art and Importance of Storytelling
Grades: HIGH
SUBJECTS: ART, ELA, SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY
ACTIVITIES: DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTIONS, PERSONAL REFLECTION
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The Historical Roots of Hip Hop
Grades: HIGH, MIDDLE
SUBJECTS: GENERAL MUSIC, SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY
ACTIVITIES: PLAYLISTS AND PODCASTS
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Leo Fender, His Guitars, And His Workspace
Grades: ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE
SUBJECTS: ART, GENERAL MUSIC, SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY
ACTIVITIES: DESIGN AND BUILD
Who Is Prince?
Grades: HIGH
SUBJECTS: GENERAL MUSIC
ACTIVITIES: PLAYLISTS AND PODCASTS, VISUAL DESIGN
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Beat Culture & the Grateful Dead
Grades: HIGH
SUBJECTS: ELA
ACTIVITIES: CREATIVE WRITING, DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTIONS, TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Math With The Beatles!
Grades: ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE
SUBJECTS: MATH
ACTIVITIES: CHARTS AND GRAPHS, EQUATIONS AND CALCULATIONS
Who Is Amy Winehouse?
Grades: HIGH, MIDDLE
SUBJECTS: GENERAL MUSIC
ACTIVITIES: MUSICAL ANALYSIS, PERSONAL REFLECTION, PLAYLISTS AND PODCASTS
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Celebrating Community With Art
Grades: ELEMENTARY
SUBJECTS: ART, SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
ACTIVITIES: DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTIONS, PERSONAL REFLECTION, VISUAL ANALYSIS
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The Evolution of Sound Recording
Grades: HIGH
SUBJECTS: GENERAL MUSIC, SCIENCE
ACTIVITIES: FILM AND SOUND EDITING, INTERACTIVE TECH TOOLS, VISUAL ART
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Design An Electric Guitar With Shapes
Grades: ELEMENTARY
SUBJECTS: MATH
ACTIVITIES: VISUAL ART, VISUAL DESIGN
What Is Sampling?
Grades: HIGH, MIDDLE
SUBJECTS: ART, GENERAL MUSIC
ACTIVITIES: FILM AND SOUND EDITING, INTERACTIVE TECH TOOLS, VISUAL ART
Drawing To Music
Grades: ALL AGES, ELEMENTARY
SUBJECTS: ART, GENERAL MUSIC, SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY
Design A Distortion Pedal
Grades: ALL AGES, HIGH, MIDDLE
SUBJECTS: ART, GENERAL MUSIC, SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY
ACTIVITIES: VISUAL ART, VISUAL DESIGN
All of the courses offer clear, concise instructions that empower non-educator family member participation.
Culturally responsive, engaging, and FREE.
The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation is a 501(c)(3) established by Steven Van Zandt. TeachRock is the Foundation’s national K-12 curriculum initiative. Created to address the challenges of an environment in which schools face cuts to arts funding, TeachRock includes interdisciplinary, arts-driven materials designed to keep students engaged and in school. The groundbreaking curriculum is available at no cost to educators.
Foundr's Board includes: Steven Van Zandt, Founder -
Jackson Browne - Martin Scorsese - Bono and Bruce Springsteen.
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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.
In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid)
you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers,
treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.
ART AND ABOUT
THE COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART has announced that Memphis, Tennessee-based artist Johnathan Payne has been selected for the first Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Residency, one of two new programs created by the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) and the Greater Columbus Arts Council (Arts Council) to support African American professional visual artists and honor the legacy of the beloved Columbus artist. Payne was selected out of 50 applications from 24 states.
The Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Residency is nationally focused and provides an African American professional visual artist residing in the United States the opportunity to live and work in Robinson’s soon-to-be-restored home, and to devote dedicated time to creating art within Robinson’s home studio.
In 2020, the 90-day residency is currently planned to begin in late summer or early fall and will include a $2,500 award and a stipend up to $5,500; lodging and studio access is provided free as part of the residency. Payne will participate in community outreach activities and will have the opportunity for a public presentation and/or exhibition.
This residency will be the first and only program that is part of the Alliance of Artists Communities (AAC) network and set in the former home of a female African American artist. AAC is an international association of artist residencies – a diverse field of more than 1,500 programs worldwide that support artists of any discipline in the development of new creative work.
Payne, a Houston native, earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Rhodes College and Master of Fine Arts in painting and printmaking from the Yale School of Art. He describes himself as a Southern, African American queer artist working in drawing, painting, printmaking, collage and weaving. Payne engages with themes of self-concept, tribalism, mental health, semiotics and the complexities of being a marginal identity, and works with the traditions of geometric abstraction, post-minimalism and fiber sculpture. He has exhibited widely in New York City, Memphis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New Haven, Connecticut.
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SWEET CHARITY
UNITED STATES ARTISTS LAUNCHES $10M ARTIST RELIEF FUND to Help Artists Affected by COVID-19.
With performance spaces, galleries, libraries, theaters, and studios closed and the temporary halting of most cultural productions, artists are some of the hardest hit among the millions of workers across the United States who are currently unemployed and facing financial hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Artist Relief is an emergency, non-restricted fund that will grant $5,000 to individual artists facing financial hardship; serve as an informational resource; and co-launch the COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers, designed by Research Partner Americans for the Arts, to better identify and address the needs of artists moving forward.
Organized by a coalition of national arts grantmakers, consisting of Academy of American Poets, Artadia, Creative Capital, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, National YoungArts Foundation, and United States Artists, the fund will launch with $10 million, consisting of $5 million in seed funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation matched with $5 million in initial contributions from an array of foundations across the United States.
FILM AND TV COVID-19 EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND IN PARNERSHIP WITH THE BFI provides one-off grants from £500 to £2,500 to active behind the scenes workers in film, TV and cinema facing significant financial hardship as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
Applications are open for 2 weeks, closing 6pm Wednesday, April, 22 2020.
"It doesn’t matter when you apply during the two-week period, it’s not on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications are assessed based on need, not when we receive them.
We want to make the fund go as far as possible to help as many industry colleagues affected by COVID-19 as we can. So we’re asking you to only apply for what you need."
We’re grateful for donations from Netflix, the BFI, BBC Studios, BBC Content, WarnerMedia and several generous individuals who have come together to support our industry community at this very difficult time.
We’re also announcing a new Repayable Grants Scheme to support freelancers who are waiting for Government support payments. This will open next Wednesday April 15, 2020.
JASON ALEXANDER'S 18th ANNUAL POKER TOURNAMENT has been rescheduled to June 7, 2020.
The $140 buy-in poker tournament at Pickwick Gardens in Burbank, CA, benefits weSPARK Cancer Support Center. An awesome afternoon of food, fun, and meeting of old and new friends with prizes for top finishers, t raffle items, a live auction, and a trophy for the winner.
Previous celebrity participants include: Bryan Cranston, Neil Patrick Harris, Ray Romano, Zac Efron, Ed Begley Jr., Lea Thompson, Camryn Manheim, Cheryl Hines, Joshua Malina, Gina Hecht, Ryan Stiles, Jennifer Tilly, Mark L. Walberg, James Woods, and many more.
MERCY FOR ANIMALS presents a Two-Day Virtual Concert Featuring 30+ Artists. The streaming concert began yesterday, Saturday, April 11 and continues through today, Sunday, April 12, 2020 streaming on Mercy For Animals’ Facebook page and be posted on Instagram and Twitter.
Participating Artists: Grammy winners Joss Stone and Mýa; Latin Grammy winner Sie7e; Broadway stars Ryan McCartan (Frozen), Alex Boniello (Dear Evan Hansen), Kathryn Gallagher (Jagged Little Pill), Austin P. McKenzie (Spring Awakening), Jake Epstein (Beautiful), Alison Luff (Waitress), Mary Michael Patterson (The Phantom Of the Opera), Cary Tedder (A Bronx Tale), and Nellie McKay (The Threepenny Opera); American Idol stars Catie Turner and Sam Woolf; and actors, singers, and songwriters Aidan Gallagher (The Umbrella Academy), Kelley Jakle (Pitch Perfect), Juan Pablo Di Pace (Fuller House), Devon Werkheiser (Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide), Greg Cipes (Teen Titans Go!), Allison Scagliotti (Warehouse 13), Cassie Steele (Degrassi: The Next Generation), Amy Ferguson (Hart of Dixie), Matt Magnusson (The Bones), Jeff Hortillosa (Robin Alice), Vicky-T (Cobra Starship), Wesley Tucker, Skylar Stecker, Chris Theron, Adam Yaron, Darian Zahedi, Avasa & Matthew Love, Terra Naomi, and Rain Phoenix, among others.
The Voices of Compassion virtual music concert is one of the ways Mercy For Animals is helping connect and empower people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization has also provided direct intervention for communities in need, donating more than 2,000 plant-based meals.
Mercy For Animals is a leading global nonprofit working to end the exploitation of animals for food and construct a compassionate food system. Active in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and India, the organization has conducted more than 70 investigations of factory farms and slaughterhouses, moved more than 300 food companies to adopt animal welfare policies, and helped pass historic legislation to ban cages for farmed animals.
SPREADING THE WORD
SEVEN TIME EMMY AWARD WINNER ED ASNER AND FOUR-TIME TONY AWARD WINNER AND TWO TIME EMMY AWARD NOMINEE TOVA FELDSHUH Ed Asner and Tova Feldshuh
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participate in a special live-stream panel discussion on Monday, April 20, 2020
6:30pm (EST). The event at The Temple Emanuel Streicker Center commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The 85-minute play The Soap Myth was taped on April 22, 2019 at the Center for Jewish History/YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. A program of PBS/WNET and the ALL ARTS channel’s “House Seats” series, it can be viewed free-of-charge on any of the ALL ARTS streaming platforms.
Did the Nazis make soap from corpses of murdered Jews? Fifty years after the end of World War II, impassioned Holocaust survivor Milton Saltzman (Ed Asner) battles Holocaust historians to have the atrocity of “soap” included in their Holocaust memorials and museums. Jeff Cohen’s acclaimed play wrestles with the conflict between survivor memory and historical proof along with the scourge of anti-Semitism masquerading as Holocaust denial. The Soap Myth poses such provocative questions as Who has the right to write history? Who determines the truth? and How does a survivor survive surviving?
Although The Soap Myth is a work of fiction, it is, in the words of the program, "inspired by real people and real events as well as an article written by Josh Rolnick in Moment magazine profiling Holocaust survivor Morris Spitzer."
Foremost among the play's historical inspirations is the evidence that the Nazi regime had a program at the Danzig Anatomic Institute in 1944 to develop a process for the mass-production of soap from the fat of Jews being slaughtered in Nazi extermination camps, and produced soap in small quantities at a nearby concentration camp. In a dramatic moment, the players re-enact testimony from the Nuremberg Trials, including this recipe:
5 kilos of human fat are mixed with 10 liters of water and 500 or 1,000 grams of caustic soda. All this is boiled 2 or 3 hours and then cooled. The soap floats to the surface while the water and other sediment remain at the bottom. A bit of salt and soda is added to this mixture. Then fresh water is added and the mixture again boiled 2 or 3 hours. After having cooled, the soap is poured into molds."
The play's central character, is an elderly Holocaust survivor called Milton Saltzman, worked doggedly to establish as fact the idea that the Nazis produced and used soap made from human corpses, even handing bars of such soap to Jews on their way into the sealed chambers that functioned alternately as gas chambers and as shower rooms in the Nazi concentration camps.
The discussion will be introduced by Temple Emanuel Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson and National Jewish Theater Foundation President Arnold Mittelman. Taking questions from the worldwide virtual audience, the panel will include stars Ed Asner and Tovah Feldshuh, playwright Jeff Cohen, historian and Project Director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Michael Berenbaum and the Obama Administration’s Special Envoy for Combatting Anti-Semitism Ira Forman. Moderating the panel discussion will be Richard Salomon, Vice President of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
It is suggested that participants view the film of The Soap Myth prior to the live discussion.
Alongside Ed Asner as Holocaust survivor Milton Saltzman, Tovah Feldshuh plays the dual roles of Holocaust scholar Esther Feinman and Holocaust denier Brenda Goodsen. Also in the cast are Liba Vaynberg as journalist Annie Blumberg and Ned Eisenberg portraying five roles, including Holocaust scholar Daniel Silver. The play reading was directed by Pamela Berlin.
The performance of The Soap Myth is a part of the National Jewish Theater Foundation/Holocaust Theatre International Initiative program “Remembrance Readings” to honor and commemorate the Holocaust through works of theater. The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is the educational partner of The Soap Myth.
National Jewish Theater Foundation (NJTF), led by Arnold Mittelman, is one of the leading Jewish theater arts organizations (njtfoundation.org). NJTF's Holocaust Theater International Initiative (HTII), now part of University of Miami's Miller Center, is the foremost university based program for research, education and production of Holocaust related theater. NJTF's Remembrance Day Play Reading program is an artistic moral compass for future generations.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is now the second largest institution of its kind in the United States (after the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and third largest in the world after Israel’s Yad Vashem). The Museum won the 2017 National Medal for Museum and Library Science, the nation's highest honor given to museums and libraries for service to the community.
TONY AWARD WINNER ANDRE DE SHIELDS one evening last summer came to The Commons Cafe on his night off from Hadestown to perform a reading of Kevin R. Free's A Hill on Which to Drown, directed by Zhailon Livingston. His performance, which he insisted on doing in red silk pajamas, was "transplendent, inspiring, poetic." Now it is being shared through the En Garde Arts partnership with WNET's ALL ARTS. The episode has launched online.
"This new series from ALL ARTS, co-produced by En Garde Arts Artistic Director Anne Hamburger and four-time Emmy winning television producer Jesse Green, highlights new theatrical work by artists using their craft to explore the most important issues we are facing today, from climate change to immigration, homelessness to identity politics. Interviews with playwrights, directors and performers combined with excerpts of new theatrical work in its earliest stages of development, peels back the curtain on the birth of theatrical ideas."
BROADWAY AND AMERICAN STANDARDS SING-IN takes place
Wed, April 15, 1-2 pm ET.
Join 92Y's NYC informal on-line group class led by music director Mary Feinsinger. Sing your favorite Broadway hits, show tunes and standards from the American Songbook. No experience necessary, only a love for music and an enthusiastic voice.
THE BURNING MAN FESTIVAL scheduled for August 30 - September 7, 2020 in a temporary city dedicated to art and community erected in the Black Rock Desert of northwest Nevada, approximately 100 miles north-northeast of Reno - head annually since 1986 - has been cancelled for first time ever amid coronavirus pandemic
and instead the festivities will be "virtual."
"At this point the likelihood of 80,000 people being able to gather safely this summer is extremely low," the Burning Man website explained.
ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER invites everyone to collaborate. The famed composer motivates
every Sunday during a social media sing-along! He has also established a YouTube channel “The Shows Must Go On!” and plans to release one movie adaptation of his musicals per week. They will all be free to view, starting this Good Friday-Easter week-end with Jesus Christ, Superstar.
Other events include watching Andrew engage in a music play-off with mega maestro Lin-Manuel Miranda and the legendary Nile Rodgers.
As the lock-down continues, Andrew and the creative team remain in writing mode with daily video calls to ensure Cinderella can still open at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London this October.
IS PRINCE CHARLES AVAILABLE FOR VOICE-OVER WORK?
Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess Of Cornwall, pose for the an official wedding portrait with their children and parents: Prince Harry, Prince William, Laura and Tom Parker-Bowles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and her father, Bruce Shand. Official Photo Pool/Tim Graham
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the heir to the British throne is a man of many interests and talents including knowing how to control his voice. A fan of poetry, he's spent years reading poetry for various recordings and events. He's marvelous and is so adept that he could temp a person who doesn't like poetry to sit back and enjoy the phrases. He's also has quite a favorable reputation as being skilled at reading children's stories during which he imitate the characters - including appropriate noises.
While recovering from coronavirus at Birkhall on the Queen's Balmoral estate, he recorded an excerpt of William Wordsworth's poem Tintern Abbey which was aired on the BBC.
The Prince of Wales, is patron of the Wordsworth Trust. Wordsworth was born in 1770 and became a celebrated English Romantic poet who helped usher in a new form of verse with the Lyrical Ballads published with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Before his death in 1850 he became a central figure in British poetry and was made a Poet Laureate.
Listeners immediately not just praised but gushed over Charles' performance.
One tweeted: 'Rather surprised to be typing this but what an absolutely beautiful recital of Wordsworth by Prince Charles on - he could have been on the stage. Not sure Richard Burton could have done that any better...'
Another quipped that he should do voice-overs like his daughter-in-law Meghan Markle.
Broadway To Vegas agrees. He's not only talented, but knows how to take direction.
As to what he's been doing since recovering from COVID-19, he returned to the microphone recording a gospel reading—John 20: 1-18, to be exact—that will be released at 9 a.m. GMT on Easter Day in Westminster Abbey's podcast feed. The Prince's recording will also be included in an Easter Day Eucharist released by Canterbury Cathedral.
In his personal life Charles and Camilla celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary on April 9, 2020.
Prince Charles and Camilla were formally married in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall witnesses by 28 people. The Duchess looked beyond lovely in a cream silk chiffon dress and a matching coat from Anna Valentine. Milliner Philip Treacy designed her wide-brimmed hat with French lace and feathers. Prince William and Camilla's son, Tom Parker Bowles, served as the witnesses.
For the lovely blessing ceremony at St George's Chapel,
Camilla changed into a stunning pale blue dress hand-embroidered with gold thread. Philip Treacy also designed her headdress with gold-leafed feathers and Swarovski jewels.
The couple has established that despite all obstacles sometimes love does win out.
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LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE
Wayne Alan, owner of the Historic North Theatre complex in Danville, VA again provides some laugh getters.
Don't know why my fishing buddy is worried about this pandemic, he never catches anything!
Grocery shelves are looking like the Cincinnati Bengal's trophy cases.
Just read that tonight's Powerball is up to 275 rolls of Angel Soft toilet paper!
Many parents are about to discover the teacher was not the problem!
Now they're even doing therapy sessions over the phone.
Therapist: Your wife says you never buy her flowers. Is that true?
Him: To be honest I never knew she sold flowers.
A man told his wife he wanted to be cremated. She made an appointment for Thursday.
SIX FINALISTS FOR THE STEINBERG-ATCA
NEW PLAY AWARD ANNOUNCED
The six plays and their authors who are finalists for the 2020 Steinberg / ATCA New Play Award:
Animal Control by Chandler Hubbard (Firehouse Theatre of Richmond VA)
The Coast Starlight by Keith Bunin (La Jolla Playhouse)
The First Deep Breath by Lee Edward Colston II (Victory Gardens Theatre, Chicago)
How the Light Gets In by E.M. Lewis (Boston Court, Pasadena CA)
Nonsense and Beauty by Scott C. Sickles (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis)
Sheepdog by Kevin Artigue (South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa CA)
The award, which ATCA has been administering since 1977, honors the best new work which premieres outside New York City. The top award of $25,000 and two citations with $7,500 each is funded by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.
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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.
In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid)
you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers,
treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.
FINAL OVATION
JOHN PRINE famed singer/songwriter died in Nashville, Tennessee April 7, 2020 following a two week hospital stay for coronavirus. He was 73.
He had underlying medical conditions having undergone cancer surgery in 1998 to remove a tumor in his neck identified as squamous cell cancer, which had damaged his vocal cords. In 2013, he had part of one lung removed to treat lung cancer.
Prine was an American country folk singer-songwriter. He was active as a composer, recording artist, and live performer from the early 1970s until his death, and was known for an often humorous style of country music that has elements of protest and social commentary.
Record executive Jerry Wexler, who died in 2008, happened to be in the audience when Kris Kristofferson invited Prine to join him on stage at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village, where he was appearing with Carly Simon, and introduced him to the audience. Wexler was so impressed that he signed . Prine to a contract with Atlantic Records the next day.
Divorced twice, he is survived by his wife, Fiona Whelan Prine, a native of Ireland whom he married in 1996; three sons, Jody, Jack and Tommy; two brothers, Dave and Billy; and three grandchildren.
Harvey Mason jr.
Interim President/CEO of the
Recording Academy issued the following statement: "We join the world in mourning the passing of revered country and folk singer/songwriter John Prine. John earned 11 Grammy nominations and received two Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Folk Album, one for The Missing Years at the 34th Grammys and another for Fair & Square at the 48th Grammys. His self-titled debut album was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 2015, and just recently he was announced as a 2020 Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for his contributions to music during his nearly five-decade career. Widely lauded as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, John’s impact will continue to inspire musicians for years to come. We send our deepest condolences to his loved ones."
HAL WILLNER Grammy winning music producer and SNL sketch music veteran, died April 7, 2020 of COVID-19 complications. He was 64.
As a producer, he worked with Marianne Faithfull, Lou Reed, the Neville Bros., Leon Redbone and dozens more.
Willner worked on the music sketches of “Saturday Night Live” for decades as he also produced albums for musicians including Lucinda Williams, Laurie Anderson, and Bill Frisell. He may have been best known for assembling tribute albums and concerts. Willner was behind tribute albums including Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988), which featured the music of Michael Stipe, Ringo Starr, and Sun Ra (1914 – 1993), among others. Willner’s other popular tribute albums include Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man and Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys. Willner produced tribute concerts including the 1991 Greetings from Tim Buckley concert that launched the career of Buckley’s son, Jeff Buckley (1966 – 1997). He also worked on films including Gangs of New York and Talladega Nights.
THOMAS L. MILLER who produced a string of hit TV comedies before beginning a new chapter as a Tony Award-winning theater producer, died April 5, 2020 in Salisbury, Connecticut, from complications of heart disease. He was 79.
Miller worked at 20th Century Fox and Paramount Studios, where he developed programs including The Odd Couple and Love, American Style, before beginning a successful career as an independent producer. He and his early business partner, Edward K. Milkis, worked with Garry Marshall on sitcoms including Happy Days; Laverne & Shirley and Mork and Mindy.
Miller and Milkis also produced films including Silver Streak and Foul Play.
After forming a production company with Robert L. Boyett, the pair co-created the Tom Hanks sitcom Bosom Buddies before joining with Lorimar Television (later Warner Bros. Television) to make Full House and Perfect Strangers.
Miller and Boyett, personal and professional partners for 40 years, produced Netflix’s Fuller House, a Full House sequel that debuted in 2016 and is to conclude this year.
In 2000, Miller moved east to work in theater, collaborating with Boyett on productions including War Horse, the 2011 Tony winner for best play, the Tony-nominated Tootsie, a current revival of Company and the upcoming Mrs. Doubtfire.
EASTER SERVICES
which take place today, Sunday, April 12, 2020 is an important celebration for those of the Christian faith - although members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) a religious group which likes to assert they are Christians although Protestant denominations and Catholics stress they are not (they pray to a Mother God and a Father God, don't believe in the Holy Trinity; The Apostles Creed - a cornerstone of Christian faith - and view after life differently) - also celebrates Easter.
Those of the Eastern Orthodox Faith, a group which is Christian follows the Julian calendar year rather than the Georgian calendar and will celebrate Easter on April 28. No matter the date, or how or why Easter is celebrated, officials have indicated that services should be private and in your own home - no public gatherings because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most churches are responsible enough to comply. To the few who are renegade - shame!
Next Column: April 19, 2020
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