TOKYO (AP) û Minoru Chiaki, the last survivor of the actors who played the title characters in Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, "Seven Samurai," died Monday. He was 82.
Chiaki also played major roles in the famed late director's "Hidden Fortress" and "Rashomon."
Chiaki joined a theater group in 1936 and started acting in movies in 1949 at Kurosawa's suggestion.
Chiaki made his screen debut in Kurosawa's "Norainu" ("Stray Dog").
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Subject: (exotica) [obits]Hilary Tjader Harris,Theodore R. Scott
Date: 03 Nov 1999 09:46:06 -0500
November 3, 1999
Hilary Tjader Harris, 69, Sculptor and Experimental Filmmaker
By STEPHEN HOLDEN, NYTimes
Hilary Tjader Harris, an experimental and documentary filmmaker and kinetic sculptor, died on Oct. 26 at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 69.
The cause was kidney failure, said David Hollister, a friend and collaborator, adding that Harris had contracted an undiagnosed illness three years ago in Central America.
A filmmaker influenced by the work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Harris explored the possibilities of abstract motion in two early short films, "Longhorns" (1951) and "Generation" (1956). His third film, "Highway," used a rock 'n' roll score to accompany fast-moving images filmed from a speeding car on highways and bridges around New York City. The work received a bronze medal at the Brussels International Experimental Film Festival in 1958 and led to an offer from the Scottish Film Board to direct a documentary on shipbuilding on the Clyde River in Glasgow. That film, "Seawards the Great Ships," won an Academy Award for best short subject in 1962.
In the 60's and 70's Harris had a studio in Greenwich Village, where he made experimental, documentary, industrial and animated films. One, "Nine Variations on a Dance Theme" (1966), a study of the dancer Bettie de Jong, received prizes at several film festivals.
Harris was a pioneer in the development of time-lapse photography, which was the basic technique of his 1975 film, "Organism." It compared the patterns of activity in New York City to the rhythms of nature.
In the 1980's he moved to Woodstock, N.Y., where he designed and built his own house, shaped like a spaceship, and worked at designing a computer-oriented "drawing machine." He was still working on this invention when he became ill.
He is survived by his third wife, Dena Crane, and by two daughters, Branwyn and Rhana, and a son, Morgan, from his previous marriage to Maxine Barnes Rochlin.
Theodore R. Scott
HONOLULU (AP) û Theodore R. "Ted" Scott, a former Honolulu radio personality and actor, died Thursday in Redlands, Calif. He was 85.
Scott came to Hawaii in 1950 as a radio announcer for station KULA and worked for various stations over the years.
He was a co-founder of the Windward Theatre Guild in the early 1950s and starred in many of its productions. He also was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and appeared in numerous television series and movies made in Hawaii. At one time, he was a supporting character in the "Hawaii Five-O" series.
Survivors include two daughters and three grandchildren.
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Subject: (exotica) [obits] Charles Dant,Ian Bannen,Keizo Saji
Date: 04 Nov 1999 10:14:04 -0500
*Charles Dant
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) -- Charles ``Bud'' Dant, founder of the Hulihe`e Palace Band and a former ``Hawaii Calls' producer, died
Sunday. He was 92.
Dant began his musical career in 1925 with composer Hoagy
Carmichael. He worked with such stars as Bing Crosby, Jack Benny
and clarinet player Pete Fountain.
A conductor and arranger, he formed the palace band in 1975.
LONDON (AP) -- Ian Bannen, the actor who charmed movie audiences playing an Irish con artist in ``Waking Ned Devine,'' died
Wednesday in a car crash in Scotland, his agent said. He was 71.
Bannen's body was found in an overturned car near Loch Ness, a
police spokesman said. The female driver of the car survived and was flown by air ambulance to a nearby hospital. She has not been identified.
A longstanding veteran of the English and Irish theater, Bannen enjoyed a sudden bout of late-career movie success last year with ``Waking Ned Devine.'' The sleeper hit cast Bannen and David Kelly as aging Irishmen who attempt to persuade a village into claiming a lottery jackpot for themselves after the winner, Ned Devine, dies from shock.
Prior film roles included a leper in the Oscar-winning ``Braveheart'' as well as appearances in ``Hope and Glory,'' ``Gorky Park,'' ``Eye of the Needle,'' and ``Bite the Bullet.''
Bannen received an Oscar nomination in 1965 for his supporting
performance in Robert Aldrich's all-star ``The Flight of the Phoenix.'' He starred as one of a group of men marooned in a North African desert after a plane crash.
On television, he appeared in ``The Politician's Wife'' and
``Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.''
Born the only son of a lawyer in Lanarkshire, Scotland, Bannen
served as a corporal in the army before making his stage debut in Dublin in 1947 in a play called ``Armlet of Jade.''
Early London credits included the Eugene O'Neill plays ``The
Iceman Cometh'' and ``Long Day's Journey Into Night'' -- both in
1958 -- as well as an acclaimed London revival of ``A Moon For the
Misbegotten,'' opposite Frances de la Tour, in 1983.
Bannen appeared in the same play on Broadway the following
season.
He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during its
initial seasons in Stratford-on-Avon in the early '60s.
Bannen is survived by his wife, Marilyn Salisbury. The couple
had no children.
*Keizo Saji
TOKYO (AP) -- Keizo Saji, chairman of whiskey distiller Suntory Ltd. and one of Japan's leading industrialists, died Wednesday. He was 80.
Saji was the second son of Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii and joined the company in 1945.
Saji climbed the ranks at Japan's oldest and largest whiskey
distiller, serving as president from 1961 to 1990. Since March 1990, Saji had been chairman.
The Osaka-based company -- founded in 1899 -- also makes beer and food products.
Saji was ranked as the 48th richest person in the world by
Forbes magazine. His wealth was estimated at $6.7 billion.
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Subject: (exotica) [obits] Jerry Blake,David Schickele,James Goldstone,Albert J. Whitlock,Prince Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen
Date: 08 Nov 1999 10:04:52 -0500
The Associated Press
Saturday, Nov. 6, 1999; 5:07 a.m. EST
MILWAUKEE ûû Swing band leader Jerry Blake, who arranged music for the dance bands of Lawrence Welk and Wayne King, died Oct. 27 of congestive heart disease, his family said. He was 80.
Blake died in Las Vegas, where he lived while leading orchestras for several years.
Born Marvin W. Voigt, his band went on to perform in Milwaukee, Chicago and New York, and with vocalists including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Fabian.
His son, Richard Voigt, said notables such as King, Welk, Guy Lombardo and Benny Goodman would pay early-morning visits to the family home for something to eat after performances in Milwaukee.
The ballroom where Blake's band was featured for 18 years closed in 1968.
By 1980, he moved to Las Vegas, leading an orchestra for 15 years at Arizona Charlie's casino and occasionally the Santa Fe. He staged a farewell performance at Arizona Charlie's last New Year's Eve.
David Schickele
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) û David Schickele, a San Francisco Bay area filmmaker, violist and composer, died Oct. 31 of cancer. He was 62.
As a film editor his work included the feature films "Crazy Quilt" and "Funnan," directed by John Korty; "Over, Under Sideways Down" for Gene Corr and Steve Wax; and "Chalk" for Rob Nilsson.
He's best known for "Bushman," a feature-length film made in 1971 about an African student at San Francisco State University who struggles to resolve tribal, personal and racial fraction. The film won numerous awards and was accepted by the Pacific Film Archive at the University of California-Berkeley, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York for their archives.
The Associated Press
Sunday, Nov. 7, 1999; 9:12 p.m. EST
SHAFTSBURY, Vt. (AP) û James Goldstone, a longtime director of feature films and television shows, including the pilot episode of "Star Trek," died of cancer Friday. He was 68.
Of his experience with the "Star Trek" pilot, Goldstone once said that he was hired not because he had any special expertise in science fiction, but because he had done a couple of episodes of "Outer Limits," and knew "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry from working with him on the "Highway Patrol" series.
Goldstone said he had never bothered viewing the final version of the "Star Trek" pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," because he didn't enjoy watching television. But he said he enjoyed his short experience with the show.
Goldstone also directed movies including "Red Sky at the Morning," "Winning," and "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight." He won a directing Emmy in 1981 for the TV movie "Kent State," and was nominated in 1970 for "Clear and Present Danger," another TV movie.
In 1988, Goldstone and his wife, Ruth, moved to Vermont, where he was active in the arts, directing plays for the Oldcastle Theatre Company in Bennington and serving as head of the state Film Commission.
From 11/5/99 Variety --
Albert Whitlock
Albert J. Whitlock, Oscar-winning visual effects artist, died Oct. 26 in Santa Barbara following a lengthy illness. He was 84.
Born in central London in 1915, he began his career in British film studios as a young teenager. His artistic abilities brought him studio jobs in sign and title lettering, then scenic painting, and finally matte painting ù the art of seamlessly combining realistic paintings with live-action photography.
In the early 1950s, his phenomenal skills caught Walt Disney's eye while Whitlock was working on one of Disney's English productions. Disney encouraged him to move his young family to America, hinting at a job offer. After an anxious period as a billboard artist in San Francisco, Whitlock was finally hired at the Disney studio. His first assignment was lettering the titles for "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
In the early 1960s, Whitlock moved to Universal Studios to head its matte department. There he expanded the importance of matte painting, as it became a tool in filmic storytelling.
At Universal, Whitlock created matte effects and designs for more than 140 films, but he was best known for his close association with Alfred Hitchcock, particularly for his work in "The Birds," "Marnie," "Torn Curtain" and "Topaz." Hitchcock declared Whitlock to be "the finest artist working in films." Along the way, Whitlock won back-to-back Oscars for "Earthquake" and "The Hindenburg."
He stayed at Universal until his retirement in 1985; among his last films were "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes" and "Dune."
On movies including "The Learning Tree," "Bound for Glory," "The Sting" and "History of the World Part One," Whitlock made dust storms and tornadoes operate on cue, and brought the past to life.
Whitlock was a former governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers.
He is survived by his wife, June; sons John and Mark; and two grandsons.
From the BBC Online:
Former Abba star Anni-Frid Lyngstad is mourning the death of her
husband who lost his battle against cancer in Sweden earlier this week. German Prince Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen died aged 49 with 53-year-old Anni-Frid at his side. The funeral will take place on 11 November.
The couple married in Denmark in 1992 and lived at Ruzzo's castle in
Switzerland.
Ruzzo grew up in Rome but spent the summers with his Swedish mother
Louise.
His title was inherited from his father Enzio. The family ruled the
Reuss sovereignty in the former East Germany up until 1918.
Ruzzo leaves twin daughters Henriette and Pauline from his first
marriage to a Norwegian ship-owner's daughter.
It's not the first time that Swedish pop veteran Anni-Frid's life has
been touched by tragedy.
Two years ago her daughter, Ann Lise-Lotte Casper, was killed in a
traffic accident in the US aged 30.
Anni-Frid had been married twice before - first to her childhood love
Ragnar Fredriksson and famously to her bandmate Benny Andersson in
1978.
A grandmother and staunch ecological campaigner, Anni-Frid was reported to be too busy nursing Ruzzo for the opening night of the Abba musical Mamma Mia! when opened last April at London's Prince Edward Theatre
She has, however, maintained a recording career. Recently she was back
in the Swedish charts with a duet, Wonderful World, with Marie
Frederiksson of the duo Roxette.
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Subject: (exotica) fwd: Online Music Sales Booming - Survey
Date: 09 Nov 1999 11:18:12 -0500
FYI, y'all.
-Lou
lousmith@pipeline.com
11/04/99 Online Music Sales Booming - Survey
Online music sales are booming and only rank behind books as the most popular item bought on the Web, a survey found.
The study, released by the market research firm Greenfield Online, found that almost 60 percent of the people polled purchased music online in the past 90 days. A third of those who purchased music online spent between $50 to $150, and most planned to spend even more in the future.
However, two of the top three music purchases came from stores not specifically devoted to music. Leading the way with 44 percent of the visitors was amazon.com, followed by CDNow.com with 39 percent. Barnesandnoble.com was third with 27 percent.
The much-publicized MP3.com, which allows users to download music directly from the site onto their own hardware, was fourth with 16 percent.
"The reason why amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com ranked so high has a lot to do with Internet branding," Tricia Rosen, product manager at Greenfield Online, said. "They get their name out there and transit you into other products they offer. They capture you."
Rosen said many MP3.com customers downgraded their experience at the site due to ease of navigation, content satisfaction, and customer service.
The survey, which polled 5,100 people who have shopped for music in the past 90 days, found that four out of 10 believe satisfactory customer service is essential for them to make a purchase from the site.
Seventy-nine percent said price is a big factor and will not buy from the site if they can find it cheaper, despite the convenience.
Nearly half have abandoned purchases because it involved shipping charges, and most are willing to pay extra for custom music mixes.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie, a founding member of the long-running Art Ensemble of Chicago, has died from
complications from liver cancer. He was 58.
Bowie died Monday night at his Brooklyn home, said Kevin
Beauchamp, a representative of the Art Ensemble, the jazz group
Bowie helped found in 1969.
The group has played the United States and Europe for 30 years.
Bowie, who also played the fluegelhorn, was known as a
flamboyant performer with a sense of humor and an appreciation for
the theatrical side of performing.
``Lester Bowie was a great trumpeter who kind of pushed the
boundaries,'' said Walter Wade, an on-air personality at WBGO-FM, a
jazz station in Newark, N.J.
'' His approach to playing, it was very visceral,'' Wade said. That style was matched by the musicians he played with in the
ensemble.
``They were pioneers who took music seriously but didn't leave the theater out,'' Wade said.
Bowie was known for using all kinds of music in his
performances, including the works of Michael Jackson and James
Brown.
Born in Maryland, Bowie was brought up in Arkansas and Missouri. He started playing the trumpet at age five and by 16, he was
leading his own group.
As a teenager in St. Louis, he practiced his trumpet by an open window, hoping that Louis Armstrong would hear him and discover
him.
Bowie helped form Black Artist Group, and the Great Black
Orchestra in St. Louis. Later in Chicago, he and saxophonist Roscoe
Mitchell formed the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
He recorded with Archie Shepp, Sunny Murray, Jimmy Lyons, and
Cecil Taylor.
He had been on tour with the group Brass Fantasy in London and
went to hospital there when he felt ill, Beauchamp said. He came off the tour and headed back to New York. He went back into the hospital in New York and was sent home, where he died.
Bowie is survived by his wife Deborah Bowie; six children, and
two grandchildren.
Max Hunter
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) û Max Hunter, a folklore enthusiast who amassed one of the country's largest collections of hillbilly songs, stories and expressions died Saturday after a long battle with emphysema. He was 78.
His colorful expressions included phrases like "ugly as a mud fence" and "pretty as a speckled pup."
Hunter became known as one of the nation's premier collectors of traditional Ozarks songs and stories, most of which are on file at the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.
Some of the songs he collected came directly from the Ozarks. Others could be traced hundreds of years. Some, Hunter later discovered, had even been chronicled at Harvard University in the 19th century, in a collection of traditional ballads then thought to be extinct.
Other tidbits Hunter collected included ways to cure warts (start by stealing your neighbor's dish rag), or suggestions for warding off bad luck after a black cat crosses your path (put your hat on backwards and the cat won't know if you're coming or going).
Under lock and key at Springfield's Greene County Library, Hunter's collection fills shelves several feet high, with copies also kept at the University of Missouri at Columbia. There are 14 hours of jokes on tape, more than 1,000 native expressions like "got to get my ears lowered (haircut)" and more than 2,000 folk songs.
For Hunter's work, the state's Arts Council in 1998 presented him a Missouri Arts Award, its highest honor.
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> Looks like Exotic music has been going on for much longer than I
> thought.
Don't forget someone like Claude Debussy, who was influenced by Indonesian
Gamelan music (among other things) at the end of last century.
Marco
Keep an eye out for the book "The Exotic In Western Music":
Exoticism has flourished in western music since the seventeenth century. A blend of familiar and unfamiliar gestures, this vibrant musical language takes the listener beyond the ordinary by evoking foreign cultures and forbidden desires.
In this pioneering collection, distinguished musicologists explore the ways in which western composers have used exotic elements for dramatic and striking effect. Interweaving historical, musical, and cultural perspectives, the contributors examine the compositional use of exotic styles and traditions in the works of artists as diverse as Mozart and George Harrison.
The volume sheds new light on a significant yet largely neglected art form, and it makes a valuable contribution to music history and cultural studies.
It should still be available via on-line book stores.
Lou
lousmith@pipeline.com
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Thanks! It's great to get some real information about this. I see my theory confirmed by this.
Kristjan Saag wrote:
> Baroque music on record, at that time, was extremely unusual. (In the 1913 US record catalogue: two titles by Bach...) The Bach-Haendel-Vivaldi etc vogue came much later.
> And symphonies were hard to record with acoustic equipement - it wasn't until electric recording began (around 1925) that symphonies were released on a larger scale.
> My theory is: Hawaiian music was fool-proof to play on the early phonographs - you never had to worry about the record swaying...
Mo
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Subject: Re: Re: Re: (exotica) Didn't RealAudio ask for it?
Date: 11 Nov 1999 15:09:42 -0500
>across copies of his novels in the used bookstores. Another royalty >he
>didn't get, and the bookseller gets all the profit. (Not that begrudge
But he already got a royalty from the copy; just not from the resale and considering how firmly established the First Sale Doctrine is, this is unlikely to change. It seems like an equitable arrangement to me--not only in its particulars but because changing it would probably do serious damage to the state of our culture--and yes that's speaking as someone who's had work resold with no further payment to myself.
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and let's add this to the debate: which version do of Denny's Quiet Village
do you like better, the original mono version or the updated stereo version
they re-recorded in 1959?
I have to agree with Martin Denny that the original version is fresher and more exciting. The way he describes it is that this was the version recorded by a group of guys who were releasing an album for the first time and they put all they had into it. By the time the stereo version was recorded several years later and after several hundred performances Martin Denny felt a bit of the spontenaity and excitement had gotten lost.
Ashley
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Subject: (exotica) [obits] William Fineshriber,Gwendolyn Gordy Fuqua,Bob McCarthy
Date: 12 Nov 1999 10:40:29 -0500
*William Fineshriber
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- William Fineshriber, who helped develop international markets for American films and television during 24 years as vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America, died Saturday. He was 90.
Fineshriber, born in Davenport, Iowa, graduated from Princeton and started work in CBS' publicity department in 1931.
He was manager of New York's Carnegie Hall from 1934-1937, then returned to CBS radio where he wrote scripts, directed the music department was general manager of the CBS program department from 1943-1949.
He later worked at Mutual Broadcasting System and NBC before switching to movies and directing international operations for Screen Gems Inc. Fineshriber became vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America from 1960-1984.
---------------
Mary Reeves, the widow of legendary singing star Jim Reeves, died today (Thursday) in Nashville after an extended illness.
----------------
By VARIETY STAFF, November 12, 1999
Gwendolyn Gordy Fuqua
Gwendolyn Gordy Fuqua, sister of Motown Records founder, Berry Gordy Jr. and the founder of several music companies, died Monday of cancer at her home in San Diego. She was 71.
A native of Detroit, she and her sister, Anna, persuaded the Gordy Family to give her brother the $800 he needed to make a master recording of vocalist Marv Johnson, which eventually led to the formation of Motown Records.
Fuqua later formed Anna Records and was president of Tri Phi Records with former husband Harvey Fuqua, the lead singer of the Moonglows. In subsequent years, she formed and ran three music companies: Gwen Glenn Prods., Der-Glenn Publishing and Old Brompton Road Publishing.
In recent years, she established Gwen Glenn Farm and successfully bred and raced thoroughbred horses.
In addition to brother Berry and sister, Anna, she is survived by her son, Glenn Gordy, another sister, Esther, and two more brothers, Robert and George. ù Doug Galloway
Bob McCarthy
Bob McCarthy, longtime special effects director in all entertainment fields, died Oct. 31 of respiratory failure at his home in Northridge. He was 66.
A native of New York City and veteran of the Korean War, McCarthy enjoyed a prolific career, creating special effects for Broadway, TV, film and rock concerts. At one time he served as special effects director for Jackie Gleason and later was the lead designer of special effects for DisneyÆs Epcot Center.
A sampling of his credits include the feature ôThe Philadelphia Experimentö and the TV shows ôSaturday Night Live,ö ôTwin Peaks,ö ôSearch for Haunted Hollywoodö and ôTouched by an Angel.ö
McCarthy created special effects for numerous rock performers including Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Kiss, Earth, Wind & Fire, Van Halen and Genesis.
He also authored the book ôSecrets of Hollywood Special Effects.ö
He is survived by his wife, Carol, two children, three granddaughters and a brother.
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In amongst the debates on hardware and debates on debating hardware, I'm still hoping for some enlightenment on Francoise Hardy. Anyone? Pretty please?
Thanks,
m.ace ecam@voicenet.com
OOK http://www.voicenet.com/~ecam/
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> In amongst the debates on hardware and debates on debating hardware, I'm still hoping for some enlightenment on Francoise Hardy. Anyone? Pretty please?
What do you want to know? She was a pop/schlager/chanson singer of the 60s and 70s, sang mostly in French, but had some successes in German as well, don't
know about English, but would guess she did as well. Her songs are so so, mostly very soft, you could file her in Nat's most desired category soft pop...
she was pretty, I mean she was really beautiful, tall, slim, long straight brunette hair, the type of the times, but musically, I don't know. Would
surprise me if anything would come up that would knock me off the chair. Any details, such as producers, song and album lists, sorry, I can't help you
there. No website about her?
BTW: Isn't it strange, we don't seem to have any French list members?
Mo
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>few years back of Warner Bros. cartoon music by Carl Stalling - does
>anyone know the title?
There were two: The Carl Stalling Project and The Carl Stalling Project Vol. 2 (duh). The first one is far and away the best. (Speaking of which: supposedly John Zorn's liner notes have been removed from later pressings; does anybody know if that's in fact true and if so why?)
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Thanks for the posts. Using King Kini's link, I see that this album, "Francoise..." on Four Corners Of The World/Kapp corresponds to the original Vogue release, "L'amitie" (1965). Different covers (the Vogue cover looks much nicer) and a couple of tracks are different, but mostly they are the same album.
From what has been said, this must be one of her more rocking albums. There are a couple of tracks that lean towards the folky, but overall, it sounds very mid-60s pop to me. Some songs with an American girl group feel. Several songs remind me of the Rolling Stones in their mid-tempo or ballad mode of the time... that "As Tears Go By" feel (so maybe I mean Marianne Faithfull). Fuzz guitar on one or two tracks. One actually puts me in mind of Nico with the VU, but that might just be me. Nice.
Thanks again.
m.ace ecam@voicenet.com
OOK http://www.voicenet.com/~ecam/
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Subject: (exotica) [obits] Robert Kramer,Donald Mills,Alberto Bolet,Jack Hooke,R.J. Vealey
Date: 16 Nov 1999 10:04:39 -0500
The Associated Press
Saturday, Nov. 13, 1999; 8:37 p.m. EST
Robert Kramer
PARIS (AP) û Robert Kramer, an American movie director who devoted his career to capturing dissident movements from Vietnam war protesters to Latin American guerrillas, died Wednesday from meningitis. He was 60.
Kramer traveled the globe in his quest to capture on screen dissident movements and the questions they raised, filming in Asia, Europe and Latin America. His works also explored the frontiers of social change.
With varying success, Kramer made more than two dozen films and numerous smaller documentaries and television pieces.
Two of his best known works, "Doc's Kingdom" (1987) and "Route One USA" (1989), were reflections on the exile that he became.
While his work was generally acclaimed in Europe as a major example of political cinema, with some movies shown at film festivals in France, including Cannes, he never penetrated the American movie industry's mainstream.
Sunday, Nov. 14, 1999; 9:02 p.m. EST
LOS ANGELES ûû Donald Mills, the last surviving member of the Mills Brothers singers who broke racial barriers in radio, society and the movies, died Saturday of complications from pneumonia. He was 84.
Mills had performed for seven decades and last year accepted the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement for the singing group.
The Mills Brothers started performing in 1922 in Piqua, Ohio, when Donald Mills was 7. The group scored its first hit a few years later with "Tiger Rag."
In all, the Mills Brothers sold an estimated 50 million records and even performed for the British royal family during an overseas tour in the 1930s, said Daniel R. Clemson, president of The Mills Brothers Society and a biographer.
"Tiger Rag" sold 1 million copies and led to a contract with CBS that made the Mills Brothers the first black artists to have a commercially sponsored national radio show, Clemson said.
Their songs included "You Always Hurt the One You Love," "Glow Worm," "Yellow Bird" and "Paper Doll."
The group, with brothers Donald, Herbert, Harry and John, was known for its tight harmony and uncanny ability to imitate instruments.
John died in 1936. When Harry and Herbert decided to retire in 1982, Donald Mills recruited the youngest of his six children, also named John, and they sang as John and Donald Mills of the Mills Brothers.
The Associated Press
Monday, Nov. 15, 1999; 6:44 a.m. EST
TEANECK, New Jersey ûû Alberto Bolet, the Havana-born conductor who led orchestras on three continents and spread Cuban rhythms throughout the world, died Wednesday. He was 94.
Bolet was the conductor of the Havana Philharmonic in 1959 when he learned that communist leader Fidel Castro had targeted him for arrest. Bolet received safe passage to England only by convincing the British Broadcasting Corp. to offer him a contract.
He went on to lead the symphonies in Dallas, Sydney and Bilbao.
Upon his return to Cuba in 1936, Bolet founded the island's first classical music radio station and the group Trio de La Habana.
He conducted the Havana Philharmonic for nine years before Castro blacklisted him.
Bolet wrote two books, "History of Chamber Music" and "How to Play the Castanets."
Jack Hooke
NEW YORK (AP) û Jack Hooke, an entertainment manager who handled jazz, rock and Latin music stars for more than half a century, died Saturday. He was 83.
Hooke, most recently with RMM Records in Manhattan, originally bought Royal Roost Records with a partner. His first label handled Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and Hooke himself spent time traveling to promote artists.
He later went on to manage disc jockey Alan Freed, whom he met on a visit to WJW in Cleveland.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Hooke worked with Dick Clark Productions and performers such as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Jackson Five and Diana Ross. The 1980s brought salsa to the city, and Hooke helped organize regular shows in Greenwich Village.
R.J. Vealey
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) û R.J. Vealey, drummer for Atlanta Rhythm Section, collapsed and died Saturday from a heart attack shortly after a performance. He was 37.
Vealey studied music at West Virginia University and Ohio State University. He received a fine arts scholarship at West Virginia, where he was a featured soloist in the West Virginia University Jazz Ensemble.
Vealey performed at the 1984 Presidential Inaugural Ball in Washington, toured Japan with "Percussion 80" and won the outstanding soloist award at Ohio State University.
After college, Vealey toured with the techno-dance band Fashion Reaction. He also recorded with artists including Section Eight, Zaccaria, Tone Poets and Stonefish.
Vealey joined the Atlanta Rhythm Section in 1995.
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> Hey, when you're listening to a cassette, what causes you to actually hear "phantom" parts of the beginning of the next song BEFORE that next song actually starts (I'm talking seconds before the song begins, in between the breaks of each cut)??
>
> I have an idea it's caused by the alignment of the tape head across whatever tape you're listening to. Say, I tape something on one player and then listen to it on the Walkman or something.......
You can hear this phenomenon both on tapes and cassettes and on vinyl records as well, for different reasons:
With tapes it is the "imprint" of the magnetization of one layer to the next when the tape is wound on the reel. The longer you keep a tape on the reel, the more the magnetization is transferred to the neighbor layers. That's why in tape archives
they wind the tapes forward on another reel every few years to make sure that the neighbor layers change.
On records you actually get a mechanical influence of the groove to its "neighbor" grooves; the tighter the record is cut the more. This also increases in time a bit, as the vinyl is working too, but it's not as dramatic as with tapes.
Hope my English was sufficiant to explain this.
Mo
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Subject: (exotica) BBC eyes virgin ritual for 2000 bash
Date: 18 Nov 1999 09:51:13 -0500
Wednesday November 17 2:01 AM ET
BBC eyes virgin ritual for 2000 bash
By Erich Boehm
LONDON (Variety) - How's this for a riveting climax to a marathon of millennium TV? Live coverage from Easter Island of seven virgins entering a cave with a single naked man and later emerging "married." The interim logistics evidently still are being worked out.
This is but one of many initiatives unveiled by representatives from 60 international broadcasters assembled in London to organize the BBC's year-end, 28-hour TV extravaganza, ``2000 Today.'' Easter Island, one of the remotest places on Earth, is administered by Chile.
The epic broadcast will kick off at 9:30 a.m. GMT Dec. 31 on the South Pacific island of Kiribati. The BBC's world affairs editor, John Simpson, will be on hand to report.
Over the course of the program, there will be addresses from the Pope, U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan, former South African president Nelson Mandela and probably the Dalai Lama, but much of what will be offered is simply fun.
The Swedes have come up with three cool ideas: a wedding in a church made of ice, a concert on musical instruments made of ice and a gigantic bottle of champagne that will emerge from the sea.
Both Israel and Egypt are offering music: a classical concert from the Dead Sea and Jean Michel Jarre performing at the pyramids. Argentina's offering is also melodious: children's choirs singing on top of a glacier and in the depths of the rain forest.
Meanwhile, Russia's celebrations, centered in Moscow's Red Square, will include the Bolshoi ballet.
From Panama, expect a ceremonial U.S. handover of the canal. And Samoa, which will be one of the last places to greet 2000, is planning a religious service on a beach, Christ's blood symbolized by coconut milk instead of wine.
U.K. activities will be dominated by events at London's Millennium Dome. There, 10,000 people -- 5,000 of them drawn from the elite of British society -- will see in the new year.
Reuters/Variety
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Mabel King, 66, Who Played the Wicked Witch in 'The Wiz'
By NICK RAVO, NYTimes
Mabel King, an actress and singer best known for her portrayal of Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the Broadway and movie productions of "The Wiz" and her role as the mother in the mid-'70s television comedy "What's Happening!" died on Nov. 9 at a hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., where she lived. She was 66.
She died after a long illness and complications from diabetes, said a friend, Vickie Chamberlain.
Ms. King was born on Dec. 25, 1932, in Charleston, S.C., and grew up in Harlem. She appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" early in her career and later made guest appearances on many other television shows, including "Barney Miller," "Fantasy Island," "The Jeffersons" and "Wiseguy."
She appeared in nine movies, including "Scrooged" (1988); "The Jerk" (1979), in which she played Steve Martin's mother; "The Gong Show Movie" (1980); and "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings" (1976).
In 1975 she appeared in the play "The Wiz," an all-black musical based on L. Frank Baum's "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" that was later made into a movie; Ms. King had the same role in the film version. She also worked on Broadway in productions of "A Race With the Wind" and "The Women."
Ms. King's most visible role was as Mrs. Thomas, or Mama, in the ABC series "What's Happening!" from 1976 to 1979.
She is survived by her mother, Rosalee Washington, and a sister, Rose Washington, both of Manhattan. Her son, Larry, died in 1996.
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TANGIERS, Morocco (Reuters) - U.S. novelist and composer Paul Bowles died of a heart attack Thursday in the Moroccan city of Tangiers, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was 88.
``Bowles died this morning after a heart attack, around mid-day,'' the spokeswoman for the city's Italian Hospital told Reuters. She gave no other details.
Bowles was born in New York in 1910. One of his most famous works was the best-selling novel ``The Sheltering Sky,'' about disaffected Americans searching for inspiration and romance in the Moroccan desert shortly after World War Two.
The book was made into a film by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci under the same title.
Subject: (exotica) [obits] Mary Kay Bergman,"Cowboy" Jimmy Moore,Doug Sahm,Beatrice Colen
Date: 19 Nov 1999 10:10:41 -0500
The Associated Press
Friday, Nov. 19, 1999; 12:12 a.m. EST
LOS ANGELES ûû Mary Kay Bergman, who gave voice to the mothers of "South Park" characters like Stan, Cartman and Kenny, died Nov. 11 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She was 38.
Ms. Bergman's credits included supplying voices on "Star Wars: Episode I û The Phantom Menace," "The Iron Giant" and "Mulan." In recent years, she inherited the role of Daphne in the new "Scooby-Doo" videos.
Jimmy Moore
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) û "Cowboy" Jimmy Moore, a championship billiards player and technical adviser to films involving the sport, died Wednesday at 89.
Moore won the National Invitational Professional Pocket Billiards Championship in New York in 1965. Nineteen years later, when he was 74, he won the Legends of Pocket Billiards competition on ESPN.
He picked up billiards as a teen-ager in Detroit and won four Michigan state titles. In 1958, he beat Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter for the national title.
Moore later served as a technical adviser for pool-playing scenes in television shows including "My Living Doll," starring Bob Cummings and Julie Newmar, and movies including Jerry Lewis' "The Family Jewels."
Doug Sahm
SAN ANTONIO (AP) û Doug Sahm, 58, a steel guitar prodigy who lead the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Grammy-winning Texas Tornados, died Thursday in a Taos, N.M., lodge, apparently of natural causes.
Sahm was proficient on fiddle, mandolin and guitar and also sang with his groups. He played with Hank Williams and Bob Dylan.
Sir Douglas Quintet started charting hits in 1965 with the song "She's About A Mover." The Texas Tornados were formed in 1989 and won a Grammy Award two years later for their album "Texas Tornados."
Beatrice Colen
LOS ANGELES (AP) û Beatrice Colen, best known as the roller-skating carhop on early episodes of "Happy Days," died Thursday of complications from lung cancer. She was 51.
Mrs. Colen, the granddaughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright George S. Kaufman, appeared in more than 200 TV shows, commercials and movies.
From 1974-76 she played Marsha, a carhop on the popular "Happy Days" comedy. She also appeared in the "Wonder Woman" TV series as Corp. Etta Candy, the heroine's sidekick.
She had guest appearances in numerous TV shows, including "Alice," "Barney Miller" and "All in the Family."
Her film credits include the 1981 film "American Pop" and Mel Brooks' 1977 comedy "High Anxiety."
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Subject: (exotica) [obits from NYTimes] Horst, Bowles
Date: 19 Nov 1999 11:31:08 -0500
November 19, 1999
Horst P. Horst, Photographer of Fashionable, Dies at 93
By CATHY HORYN,NYTimes
Horst P. Horst, a master of light and deep shadow whose photographs of fashion and fashionable creatures like Coco Chanel, Marlene Dietrich and Noel Coward evoked the glamorous 1930s as well as his own chic circle in Paris, died Thursday at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 93.
The photographer, who was known from the beginning of his expansive career as, simply, Horst, had been in failing health since suffering from pneumonia last year, said Richard J. Horst, his manager and archivist, who also became the photographer's adopted son.
Best known for his classical images of models and society figures posed in dramatic, often Greek-inspired settings, Horst started taking pictures in 1931 as a protege of the aristocratic photographer George Hoyningen-Huene, and continued to work until 1991, photographing subjects as diverse as Jean Cocteau, Harry Truman, Maria Callas, Gertrude Stein and Andy Warhol, as well as settings like the Iranian deserts and interiors of Irish castles.
"He really was the 20th century," said the photographer Eric Boman, who met Horst in 1978, when both were assigned to photograph the French fashion collections, and who subsequently became a regular visitor to the Horst home on Long Island. Many of the furnishings there were from his friend Chanel, and a portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy, leaning against a White House pillar, hung in a bathroom.
The people he knew, the clothes he photographed, conjure up a world where elegance and manners still mattered, and indeed Horst was himself a specimen of prewar savoir-faire, with blond hair and a trim, muscular body. His settings were often highly stylized, and he preferred to work in a studio, where he could use artificial light to impose an unreality on his subjects, elevating them to a glamorous ideal.
In a 1984 biography by Valentine Lawford, a former British foreign service officer who became Horst's companion, Horst recalled a photo session in 1935 with the Comtesse de la Falaise for French Vogue: "To get this shot, it took two days. It was the idea that counted then, not the sort of nervous rush they work in today."
Horst also had an exquisite, if slightly eccentric, eye for detail, and in his early years as a photographer for French Vogue would shoo away overly fastidious fashion editors who tried to make immaculate his settings -- fussing with a stray flower, for instance.
"My best pictures always have a little mess -- a dirty ashtray, something," he said. And when he was asked by Diana Vreeland, the editor in chief of American Vogue, to photograph interiors, he was equally adept at recognizing the details that brought out the inhabitants' personalities.
"The cravats around the carafes of wine at the Rothschilds' house in Mouton," mused Mrs. Vreeland in 1984. "The Duke of Windsor's red leather dispatch box marked 'The King.' When those pictures came in, I went berserk. I'd be intoxicated for hours."
The younger of two sons of a well-to-do hardware merchant, Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann was born Aug. 14, 1906, in the eastern German town of Weiseenfels-an-der-Saale. Although he seldom bothered to use his surname even as a fledgling photographer among an expatriate crowd in Paris in the early 30s, he formally dropped it in 1943, after he had become an American citizen, so as not to be confused with the Nazi official Martin Bormann. He legally changed his name to Horst P. Horst.
A somewhat indolent youth who gravitated toward artists and actors, Horst initially wanted to be an architect, and was accepted by LeCorbusier as an apprentice in the Bauhaus architect's studio in Paris. But in Paris he soon met Hoyningen-Huene, whose father had been chief equerry to Czar Nicholas II, and his life took a different course.
Through Hoyningen-Huene, Horst met Cecil Beaton, who in turned introduced him to Charles James, the Chicago-born dressmaker. Horst was to spend a productive decade in the glittering orbit of the interior designer Jean-Michel Frank, the writer Janet Flanner, the set designer Bebe Berard, and, course, Chanel, whom Horst called "the queen of the whole thing."
He left for America in the late summer of 1939, shortly after taking what would be one of his most enduring images -- of a model, bathed in deep shadows, wearing an unraveling corset. He said the picture summed up his feelings about an era's end. "While I was taking it," he said, "I was thinking of all that I was leaving behind."
He went on to have a successful career as a photographer for American Vogue, though, in the 1960s, when editors demanded more lifelike shots of models running and skipping, he fell out of favor. Still, he continued to find work, shooting interiors as well as portraits and advertising images for Seventh Avenue designers like Bill Blass and Calvin Klein, for whom he used his sense of drama and elegance to light socks.
Aside from his son, Horst had no survivors.
Writer Paul Bowles Dies at 88
By MEL GUSSOW,NYTimes
Paul Bowles, the novelist, composer, poet and quintessential outsider of American literature, died of a heart attack Thursday in a hospital in Tangier, Morocco.
He was 88, and throughout his life, he remained an artist whose name evoked an atmosphere of dark, lonely Moroccan streets and endless scorching deserts, a haze of hashish and drug-induced visions.
Bowles was taken to the hospital on Nov. 7 from his home in Tangier, where he had lived since 1947.
He was most famous for his stories and his novels, especially "The Sheltering Sky." He was also known for his songs, concertos, incidental music and operas; for his marriage to Jane Bowles a novelist and playwright who died in 1973, and, simply, for being Paul Bowles.
He became an icon of individualism. Although he remained elusive to his biographers as well as his critics, his life as an expatriate was as fascinating as his own experiments in art.
One of the last of his cultural generation, what might be called the post-Lost Generation, he knew and occasionally collaborated with many of the major artistic figures of his time, among them Orson Welles, Tennessee Williams and Gertrude Stein. He put a stamp of sui generis on whatever he chose to do, or not to do. In many ways, his career was one of avoidance.
In an interview with The New York Times in 1995, the last time he visited New York, he said that a typical Bowles fictional character "slips through life, if possible without touching anything, without touching other people." Asked if that was how he lived his own life, he admitted: "I've tried. It's hard. If you discover you're affecting other people, you have to stop doing whatever you're doing."
Bowles's fiction deals with civilization overcome by savagery, a world in which innocence is corrupted and delirium thrives. At the core is a feeling of isolation, self-contained compartments in which people live alone and are fearful of communication. As he said in an interview in The Paris Review in 1981, "Everyone is isolated from everyone else." A Place Of Wisdom, Ecstasy, Even Death
Although Bowles's 1972 autobiography was titled "Without Stopping," his career was filled with stops and restarts. At various points he turned away from music and took up fiction, gave up writing novels, retreated to Tangier and became a collector of Arabian stories and songs, and moved farther away from the worlds of publishing and society toward an unknown destination.
As he said in his autobiography, "Like any Romantic, I had always been vaguely certain that sometime during my life I should come into a magic place which, in disclosing its secrets, would give me wisdom and ecstasy -- perhaps even death." In contrast to other writers who chose to keep their names in the public spotlight, Bowles steadfastly preferred not to, avoiding commitments and rejecting offers."I'm not ambitious," he said. "If I had been, I'd have stayed in New York."
Bowles became a magnet for those envisioning the artist's life away from the mainstream. It is not surprising that he was idolized by writers of the Beat Generation, many of whom visited him in Tangier.
Allen Ginsberg called him "a caviar writer." Sweet Songs, Light in Texture
There were two sides to Bowles's art, as Ned Rorem explained in his memoir "Knowing When to Stop." Rorem said that Bowles's stories were "icy, cruel, objective" and his music was "warm, wistful, witty."
It was his feeling that of his 50 stories only two were marked by violence. In one of the most brutal -- and most admired -- stories, "A Distant Thunder," a professor is captured by nomads who cut out his tongue and treat him as their slave.
Virgil Thomson said about Bowles's work as a composer: "Paul Bowles's songs are enchanting for their sweetness of mood, their lightness of texture, for in general their way of being wholly alive and right. . . . The texts fit their tunes like a peach in its skin."
One of the oddities of Bowles's life is that this international traveler, who was marked by his rootlessness and who was seemingly a wanderer in the desert of his own choice, was born into a middle-class environment in Jamaica, Queens. During his childhood, Jamaica was still a bucolic environment with sheep grazing on the main street.
In one family legend, Claude Bowles, who was a dentist, tried to kill his son, Paul, in infancy by stripping off the baby's clothes and placing him in a basket on a windowsill during a snowstorm. According to the story, he was rescued by his grandmother. In his biography of Bowles, "An Invisible Spectator," Christopher Sawyer-Lauτanno said that the incident might not have happened "but Bowles has always believed it to be true," and it haunted him.
He could read by the time he was 3 and within the year was writing stories. Soon, he wrote surrealistic poetry and music. When he was 16, he published poetry in Transition magazine.
Until he was 18, he followed a rigidly formalized life. Then, in his first semester at the University of Virginia, he suddenly quit school. He left the United States without telling his parents, expecting never to see them again. For the first of several times, he changed his life.
In characteristic Bowles fashion, he fled to Paris. He once said that he was not running away but was "running toward something, although I didn't know what at the time." A year later, he returned to the United States , where he met Aaron Copland and began to study composition with him. For four months he lived in Berlin, where one of his friends was Christopher Isherwood, who was gathering material for what would later become the book "Goodbye to Berlin." Isherwood named his leading character Sally Bowles after Paul Bowles.
In 1931, at the suggestion of Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Bowles went to Morocco, where he and Copland shared a house in Tangier.
Instant Rapport and Countless Affairs
By the mid-1930's, he was back in New York. He wrote musical scores for Orson Welles and later for works by William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams and others. In 1937 he met Jane Auer. She was a lesbian, and he was bisexual; there was an immediate rapport and an intimacy. Within a year they were married.
Through countless affairs on both sides, they remained married and permanently attached to each other. Looking back on their marriage, Bowles said: "We played everything by ear. Each one did what he pleased."
At first, he focused on his music while she began writing a novel. When she gave him a draft of him in Mexico in 1945, he read it carefully and, acting as editor, suggested changes. The book, "Two Serious Ladies," received mixed reviews, but it was the beginning of Jane Bowles's literary reputation, and it acted as an inspiration to her husband. "It was the excitement of participating in that that got me interested in writing," he said to Millicent Dillon, author of biographies of both Bowleses.
In New York, the Bowleses were immersed in a literary world. In the early 1940's they lived with other artists in a house on Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights. The residents included W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten and Oliver Smith, the scenic designer. For two years in the late 1940's the couple lived on West 10th Street in Manhattan. Smith rented three floors of a brownstone. Bowles lived on the top floor, Smith was on the floor below, and another flight down lived Jane Bowles and her friend Helvetia Perkins. The four shared a cook and lived communally. For a time, the first two floors in the house were occupied by Dashiell Hammett.
During this period, Bowles wrote scores for seven plays (including "The Glass Menagerie") and collaborated with Tennessee Williams on the song fragments "Blue Mountain Ballads." He also returned to writing short stories and translated Jean-Paul Sartre's play "Huis Clos," retitling it "No Exit." Identifying with the credo of the play, he said that mankind could be saved not through faith "but only by ourselves -- by looking straight at our own weaknesses so that we know them through and through."
One night in 1947 Bowles had a dream about "the magic city" of Tangier, one of his homes during the 1930's, and he decided to return there. Before departing, he had an idea for a novel that would take place in the Sahara, and he thought of a title, "The Sheltering Sky," borrowing it from the popular song, "Down Among the Sheltering Palms." Later his wife joined him in Tangier. Published in 1949, "The Sheltering Sky" quickly became the foundation of his estimable career as an author. He described the book as "an adventure story in which the adventures take place on two planes simultaneously: in the actual desert and in the inner desert of the spirit."
The central characters are Port and Kit Moresby, a married couple who are generally considered to be surrogates for Paul and Jane Bowles. But in his Paris Review interview, Bowles denied that possibility: "The tale is entirely imaginary. Kit is not Jane, although I used some of Jane's characteristics in determining Kit's reactions to such a voyage. Obviously I thought of Port as a fictional extension of myself. But Port is certainly not Paul Bowles, any more than Kit is Jane."
The story leads ineluctably to Port's death, which the reader sees from the character's point of view: "It was in the silence of the room that he now located all those hostile forces: the very fact that the room's inert watchfulness was on all sides made him distrust it. Outside himself, it was all there was. He looked at the line made by the joining of the wall and the floor, endeavored to fix it in his mind, that he might have something to hang on to when his eyes should shut."
A Best Seller and a Film
Reviewing the book in The New York Times Book Review, Tennessee Williams proclaimed the author as "a talent of true maturity and sophistication." Williams said it was one of the few books by an American writer "to bear the spiritual imprint of recent history in the Western world."
In a review in The Times of a subsequent Bowles novel, Conrad Knickerbocker ranked "The Sheltering Sky" "with the dozen or so most important American novels published since World War II." The book became a best seller and was sold to the movies, but it was to be 40 years before it was filmed. In 1990 Bernardo Bertolucci's lavish movie, starring John Malkovich and Debra Winger and with Bowles himself playing a cameo role, received mixed reviews. The author was disappointed. His one-word criticism of the film: "Awful."
The novel was followed, in 1952, by "Let It Come Down," about an American bank clerk who journeys to Tangier and is caught up in a world of intrigue and corruption.
"The Spider's House" (1955) deals with an American novelist living in Fez during a Nationalist revolt. It was 11 years before Bowles published his next novel, "Up Above the World." At the center of that book are an American doctor and his wife, adrift in Central America and held captive by a charming man of mystery. Neither novel measured up to Bowles's first success.
In Morocco he began translating the stories of Arab writers, particularly Mohammed Mrabet. Because Bowles seldom traveled, friends (and journalists and potential biographers) came to see him as if on a pilgrimage. Eventually his dream city of Tangier was invaded by tourists and became something of a nightmare. Still he stayed on.
He lived alone in a modern apartment building in Tangier. For many years, he limited his contacts with the outside world by refusing to have a telephone, but recently had installed both a phone and fax.
There are no survivors.
Cherie Nutting's "Yesterday's Perfume," a photographic diary of Bowles's last years, with text by the author, is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2000.
"I live in the present," Bowles said, and added about the past: "I remember it as one remembers a landscape, an unchanging landscape. That which has happened is finished. I suppose you could say that a man can learn how to avoid making the same actions which he's discovered were errors. I would recommend not thinking about it."
For Bowles, the point of life is to have fun, "if there is any point at all." Enjoyment, he said firmly, "is what life should provide."
When it was suggested to him that others might say that life should provide a greater moral purpose, he said: "What is moral purpose? The word 'moral' sets nothing ringing in my head. Who decides what's moral and what isn't? Right behavior, is that moral? Well, what's right behavior?"
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> > It happens when the record is pressed: Before the hot soft
> > vinyl cools down, the parts pressed aside by the male groove of the matrix >move back a bit and transfer a bit of information to the neighbor grooves.
> ---
> Charlieman wrote:
>
> >This is exactly how it was explained to me. Like vinyl under
> >pressing-pressure oozing where it shouldn't.
> ---
> Still I can't figure this. Oozing vinyl doesn't contain sounds, the sounds are the waveforms that are cut in the grooves. When vinyl starts to ooze it has already lost shape and is unintelligible for the stylus.
Not oozing; it is trying to move back to its original form. Imagine the vinyl when it is hot and soft; the pressing matrix is pressing its male waves into it and is hereby not only compressing the vinyl into the
deep but also between the grooves. When the matrix moves out of the still warm and soft vinyl, this material between the grooves relieves the pressure by moving back to both sides in the direction of both grooves
before it gets cold and hard. The amount of pressure it still has and therefore the distance it moves back in this moment depends on the form of the grooves on both sides; if a neighbor groove for instance is
nearer, the pressure will be higher and the vinyl will move back further - in both directions! this way information is transferred from one groove to its neighbor groove.
The difference between a tape echo and a vinyl echo should be that one is stereo and the other mono.
Mo
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LONDON ûû Quentin Crisp, the eccentric writer, performer and raconteur best-known for his autobiography "The Naked Civil Servant," died Sunday after collapsing at a private residence. He was 90.
Crisp, who lived principally in New York City for decades, was in his native Britain to begin touring with a one-man show.
He collapsed at a private residence arranged by the Green Room Theater in the northwest England city of Manchester, where he was to begin appearing Monday night, said the theater's press manager, Christopher Hodgson.
A slight, dandified figure who wore makeup and high-heeled shoes and piled his white hair in bouffant waves on top of his head, Crisp made no secret of the fact that he was gay.
Born on Dec. 28, 1908, as Denis Pratt in Sutton, south of London, he worked as a commercial artist, part-time prostitute and art school model after leaving school. He declared his homosexuality in his 20s.
Crisp first stepped into the public arena with his 1968 autobiography, "The Naked Civil Servant," later adapted for television. It was widely praised and sold well, but he began to receive anonymous threatening phone calls.
These intensified when the book was made into a film in 1975 with John Hurt as Crisp. By now, he was a cult figure û what he called "the mother superior of homosexuality."
November 22, 1999
Quentin Crisp, Writer and Actor on Gay Themes, Dies at 90
By ALEX WITCHEL,NYTimes
Quentin Crisp, the British-born writer, raconteur and actor who found fame at 59 when he published "The Naked Civil Servant," an account of his openly homosexual life in London, and who found happiness when he moved to New York at 72, died yesterday in Manchester, England. He was 90.
Crisp was in Britain for a new run of his one-man show "An Evening With Quentin Crisp," which was to have opened Monday.
The flamboyant Crisp gained attention in the United States in 1976 when a dramatized version of "The Naked Civil Servant," starring John Hurt as Crisp, was shown on American television to enthusiastic reviews. In The New York Times John J. O'Connor wrote that it was "a startling, thoroughly fascinating portrait of one of those exotic creatures who adamantly refuse to behave 'properly' in this world, thereby making the rest of us examine our own behavior to a closer and often more valuable extent."
A resident of the East Village since 1977, and of the same single-room-occupancy building on Third Street since 1981, Crisp was a neighborhood celebrity known for his wardrobe of splashy scarves, his violet eyeshadow and his white hair upswept α la Katharine Hepburn and tucked under a black fedora. His nose and chin were often elevated to a rather imperious angle, and his eyebrows were painstakingly plucked. When he played the role of Queen Elizabeth I in Sally Potter's 1993 film "Orlando," Village residents bowed before him on the sidewalks as he passed.
He was so well known for the prickly wit that earned him comparisons to Oscar Wilde that he regularly received mail addressed to "Quentin Crisp, New York City, America." After a lifetime of being pointed at, snickered at, even spat at, Crisp learned to welcome attention, even to court it.
Quentin Crisp was born Denis Pratt on Christmas Day, 1908, in Sutton, a London suburb. He was the youngest of four children born to a lawyer and a former nursery governess. In "The Naked Civil Servant," Crisp, who changed his name as an adult, wrote of a tortured upbringing and young adulthood at the hands of a vociferously homophobic society. But rather than live unobtrusively, he decided in his early 20's to dedicate his life to "making the existence of homosexuality abundantly clear to the world's aborigines."
He made a career of flaunting his effeminate manner and dressing in women's clothing, and for such provocations, he would be rejected and even physically assaulted. "I suppose it's logical," he said. "I abuse them, they defile me."
Unable to find employment in 1930's London, he resorted to prostitution. With his mother's help he eventually found work as a book illustrator before beginning to model nude in subsidized art schools on a government stipend, hence the title of his autobiography. "Maybe it's true that artists adopt a flamboyant appearance," he once observed. "But it's also true that people who look funny get stuck with the arts."
Crisp performed "An Evening With Quentin Crisp" Off Off Broadway at the Players Theater in 1978, and it earned him a special Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.
Richard Eder, reviewing the production for The Times, said Crisp had offered "a witty, touching and instructive evening," adding: "Despite his extravagances, perhaps because of them, there is nothing sectarian about Crisp. Both in words and in his fussy, faintly self-mocking gestures, he asserts his identity. But what he draws out of it is universal: gaiety -- in the original sense of the word, for once -- and themes common to all of us: the need for courage and individuality, and the ground of tragedy on which they are exercised."
Among his books are "How to Have a Lifestyle" (Methuen, 1979), "How to Become a Virgin" (St. Martin's, 1984) and "Resident Alien" (Alyson Publications, 1997), a compilation of his pieces for New York Native, the gay newsmagazine.
Crisp was famous for never turning down a party invitation or a free meal. But despite his gregarious social nature, he was fond of claiming that he had never fallen in love. "You can fancy someone, wish them well or enjoy their company," he said. "That's all I can do with anybody. But when Miss Streisand sings, 'People who need people are the luckiest people in the world,' she's being funny. When you need people, you're finished. I need people, but not any one person."
"A woman in England once told me, 'All people are the same to you.' But that's not true," he continued. "They're different but equal. I've spread my love horizontally, to cover the human race, instead of vertically, all in one place. It's threadbare, but it covers."
He leaves no immediate survivors.
Moving to the United States, Crisp maintained, was his proudest achievement. He loved Americans, he said, for "their belief that personality is the greatest power on earth." One anecdote he often told had him standing on Third Avenue, dressed and made up as usual when a passer-by stopped.
"When he noticed me, he said: 'Well, my! You've got it all on today!' And he was laughing. In London people stood with their faces six inches from mine and hissed, 'Who do you think you are?' What a stupid question. It must have been obvious that I didn't think I was anybody else."
As cherished a character as he was by many, Crisp had his detractors, especially gay men of younger generations who decried his claim that gay pride was an oxymoron. "It's not normal to be gay," Crisp said, "and I think it's very weird to think that it is."
"I don't know why gay people want to be separate but equal, anyway," he said in a 1997 interview. "That means they want to be cut off from nine-tenths of the human race. 'I have nothing in common with them,' they say. Why, you have everything in common but the funny way in which you spend your evenings."
His provocative comments aside, Crisp's homosexuality was always front and center in the way he lived, filtered through his particular mix of pride, anger and wit. "When I was coming to America," he recalled, "I went to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, and the man asked me, 'Are you a practicing homosexual?' And I said I didn't practice. I was already perfect."
November 22, 1999
Doug Sahm, Musical Voice of Texas, Dies at 58
By JON PARELES,NYTimes
Doug Sahm, a patriarch of Texas rock and country music, was found dead on Thursday in Taos, N.M., The Associated Press reported. He was 58 and lived in Austin.
A Taos police spokesman said he appeared to have died of natural causes. An autopsy was ordered.
Sahm had been making music since before the birth of rock 'n' roll in the 1950's. He played country, blues, honky-tonk, folk rock, Tex-Mex, rockabilly, swing and just about every other style that thrived near the Mexican border. Sahm had his biggest hits in the 1960's as the leader of the Sir Douglas Quintet, with "Mendocino" and "She's About a Mover," songs that transferred the pumping accordion chords of Tex-Mex to electric organ and helped to reshape American garage rock. In the 90's he sang and played with the Texas Tornados, an all-star band that won a Grammy Award in 1991 for Best Mexican-American performance.
Douglas Wayne Sahm was born in San Antonio and started making music before he could read. He learned to play guitar, steel guitar, fiddle and mandolin, and won a children's talent contest on KMAC in San Antonio, where he performed regularly for two years. He sat in with touring honky-tonkers including Webb Pierce and Hank Thompson. His mother made him refuse an invitation to the Grand Ole Opry radio show from Nashville, though he did appear on the "Louisiana Hayride" radio show before he was a teenager.
He made his first recording in 1955, a honky-tonk single called "A Real American Joe," under the name Little Doug and the Bandits; his voice had not yet changed. During high school he played guitar six nights a week at the Old Tiffany Club in San Antonio, soaking up blues and rhythm-and-blues. His next single, "Crazy Daisy" in 1958, reached local rhythm-and-blues charts, and "Why, Why, Why" in 1960 became a Top Five local hit. During the early 60's he worked in Texas and California, mixing blues, rhythm-and-blues and Tex-Mex music and making more regional hits, including "Crazy, Crazy Feeling."
In 1964, as the Beatles led the British Invasion into American pop, Sahm created a pseudo-British band: the Sir Douglas Quintet, including Augie Meyer on Vox electric organ. Recording in Houston with the producer Huey P. Meaux, they had a national hit with "She's About a Mover," and followed it up with "The Rains Came." Despite the band's British fashion sense, the music was unmistakably Tex-Mex. The group toured the United States and Europe and appeared on pop television shows including "Shindig," "Hullabaloo" and, in Britain, "Ready, Steady, Go."
Sahm moved to Northern California in 1966 with a new quintet (minus Meyer) that performed regularly at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. The band signed with Mercury Records; by then it had absorbed some psychedelia along with its blues, country and Tex-Mex material. Meyer rejoined the group in late 1968, and it recorded "Mendocino," its last major national hit.Sahm also produced albums for the blues singer Junior Parker and for a Mexican-American group in California, Louie and the Lovers.
Sahm returned to Texas in 1971 and temporarily retired the Sir Douglas name. His 1973 album, "Doug Sahm and Band," featured a guest appearance by Bob Dylan, who wrote "Wallflower" for the album. Sahm's 1974 album, "Groovers Paradise," used the rhythm section from Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Sahm was settling into a role as a voice of Texas. He sang about Texas cities and memories, he named his band the Texas Tornados and he used album titles like "Texas Rock for Country Rollers." By the mid-70's the "cosmic cowboy" movement was coalescing around Austin, Tex., mixing down-home music with hippie vagaries, and Sahm was right at home in it; he was a regular performer at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin.
New-wave rockers, particularly Elvis Costello and the Attractions, revived the sound of organ-driven Tex-Mex rock in the late 70's. Through the 80's Sahm and Meyer toured with a reconstituted Sir Douglas Quintet that also included Sahm's son Shawn on guitar. Their 1981 album, "Border Wave," flaunted their role as precursors of new-wave rock. The quintet toured the United States and Europe through the 80's. Sahm released albums in Europe, including one of rockabilly songs with the Texas Mavericks and 50's Tex-Mex songs with Mexican musicians. He produced an album for Meyer of straightforward Mexican conjunto music.
In 1986 a visit to Vancouver led Sahm to assemble a group called the Formerly Brothers; their album of Cajun and country songs won a Juno Award, Canada's equivalent of the Grammy Awards.
In 1989 a concert in San Francisco brought together the Texas Tornados: Sahm, Meyer, the Mexican-American singer Freddy Fender and a top conjunto accordionist, Flaco Jimenez, backed by musicians from Mexico and Texas. The band leaders took turns singing lead vocals and did not appear together on most of the album's songs, but the album won a Grammy.
The group made follow-up albums in 1991 and 1992 before disbanding; it also released Spanish-language versions of its songs. The Tornados regrouped to perform in Austin to make "Live From the Limo," which was released in July. Sahm had recorded an album of country songs, due for release in March, called "The Return of Wayne Douglas."
In addition to Shawn, Sahm is survived by another son, Shandon, and a daughter Dawn; a brother, Victor; and two grandchildren.
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> > Oozing vinyl doesn't contain sounds, the sounds are the waveforms that are cut in the grooves. When vinyl starts to ooze it has already lost shape and is unintelligible for the stylus.
>
> Hmmm...?
> If vinyl oooozes and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound???
> I myself am not sure, but all this talk about oozing and vinyl..... Now that's exotic, BABY!
>
> em.
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Subject: (exotica) [obits] Eulalie M. Banks,John Benson Brooks,Arthur K. Marshall,Gene Levitt
Date: 24 Nov 1999 10:10:09 -0500
The Associated Press
Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1999; 6:27 a.m. EST
LOS ANGELES ûû Eulalie M. Banks, a muralist, writer and illustrator of more than 50 children's books, died Nov. 12. She was 104.
At 18, she wrote and illustrated her first book, "Bobby in Bubbleland," published in London in 1913. After marrying Arthur L. Wilson, she moved to Pittsburgh and illustrated her first American children's book, a version of Mother Goose in 1921.
Her 1952 illustrations for Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses," for which she earned $950, has sold more than 2 million copies and is still in print.
She returned to England for the decade surrounding World War II, continuing to work there, illustrating books, magazines, calendars and greeting cards. Several examples of her card designs were exhibited at the British Industries Fair in 1948, shortly before she returned permanently to California.
John Benson Brooks
NEW YORK (AP) û John Benson Brooks, a jazz composer, arranger and songwriter, died on Nov. 13 at his home in Manhattan. He was 82.
Brooks attained prominence with the composition "Just as Though You Were Here" (1942), which featured lyrics by Eddie DeLange. The song was recorded by Tommy Dorsey's band with vocals from Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers.
His best-remembered hit, "You Came a Long Way From St. Louis" (1948), with lyrics by Bob Russell, was originally recorded by Ray McKinley and his Orchestra.
Other songs of which Brooks was composer or co-composer included "Where Flamingos Fly," "Over the Weekend," "A Boy From Texas, a Girl From Tennessee" and "A Door Will Open."
A 1957 recording of jazz musicians improvising on music Brooks had written, "Folk Jazz, U.S.A.," on which Brooks played the piano, was praised by John S. Wilson in The New York Times.
Wilson wrote that Brooks's arrangements of "Shenandoah" and other familiar folk songs, based on the tunes' chord structures rather than their melodies, "emerge as relatively new compositions melodically, while retaining the evocative nostalgic quality of the source tunes."
"It's a good trick and it works out as valid jazz," he added.
Other jazz albums of Brooks's music were "Alabama Concerto" (1958) and "Avant Slant" (1968), which was a mixed-media collage featuring a performance of his 12-tone jazz work, "The Twelves." .
Born in Houlton, Me., he attended the New England Conservatory in Boston. In the early 40's he wrote musical arrangements for swing bands, including those of Les Brown and Tommy Dorsey.
He is survived by his wife, Peggy; two daughters, Stephanie Lee Brooks and Wendy Brooks Mitchell, both of North Palm Beach, Fla., and a grandson.
Arthur K. Marshall
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) û Arthur K. Marshall, the Los Angeles Superior Court judge who presided over the first palimony case involving actor Lee Marvin and former live-in lover Michelle Triola Marvin, died Sunday of cancer. He was 88.
After the California Supreme Court issued its landmark Marvin vs. Marvin decision û legalizing suits for palimony by unmarried couples û Ms. Marvin had to take her case to a lower court judge for a ruling on how much money she was owed for her six-year relationship with the actor.
Before the state's high court ruling, non-marital relationships were seen by the law as "meretricious" and akin to prostitution.
Marshall awarded Ms. Marvin $104,000 for "rehabilitation," by computing $1,000 a week for two years based on her highest salary as a sometime singer, "so that she may have the economic means to re-educate herself and learn new employable skills."
The decision was later tossed out by an appeals court, leaving her with nothing.
Gene Levitt, 79, a TV Writer; Created 70's Hit `Fantasy Island'
By NICK RAVO,NYTimes
Gene Levitt, a television writer, director and producer who created "Fantasy Island," a popular show in the late 1970's, died on Nov. 15 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 79.
The cause was prostate cancer, said his wife, Diana.
Born in Brooklyn on May 28, 1920, Levitt hitchhiked to Wyoming on a whim after seeing a billboard about the west. A few years later, he received a degree from the University of Wyoming.
He then went to work for City News Service in Chicago. His career in journalism was interrupted by World War II; he joined the Marines and served as a bomb disposal officer in the South Pacific.
After the war, he renewed a friendship with Robert Mitchell, whom he had met at the University of Wyoming, and they started working together. Their first joint project was the 1947 radio drama "The Adventures of Philip Marlowe." The series ran until 1949, with Gerald Mohr playing Raymond Chandler's detective. Mitchell, who went on to write for various television shows including "Charlie's Angels" and "CHiPs," died on Oct. 13 in a car crash.
Levitt wrote, directed and produced numerous television features and series. His best known credits include "Barnaby Jones," "Hawaii Five-O" and "Alias Smith and Jones."
His big hit, however, came in 1978, when he created "Fantasy Island," a romance about a faraway resort where guests' wishes were fulfilled by the suave Ricardo Montalban.
The phrase "Da plane! Da plane!" with which Montalban's diminutive assistant, played by Herve Villechaize, greeted the guests, has become part of the American lexicon.
The enormous success of the show, as well as others he produced, gave Levitt the freedom to pursue other interests; he lived on a sailboat in Hawaii for three years. He was also an avid poker player.
Besides his wife, Levitt is survived by three sons, Chris, of Seattle, Jon, of Cleveland, and Doug, of Santa Monica, Calif.; a daughter, Lisa Levitt of Pasadena, Calif.; two stepsons, Randy and Tony Markes, both of Los Angeles; two stepdaughters, Julie Markes Schine of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Jennifer Markes of Los Angeles, and four grandchildren.
----------------------
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure!"
-Clarence Darrow 1857-1938
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> A new choice is "Un chant d'amour", France Arnell. But allthough beautiful it sounds melancolic too, Hmm I am bad at this.... Where are all the happy sounds?????
People who can't appreciate sentimental tunes have a heart of stone.
Mo
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) û Jazz pianist Charles Thomas, who shunned the spotlight of touring with Duke Ellington's band to play in his homestate of Arkansas, died Tuesday of prostate cancer. He was 64.
During his career, Thomas headlined numerous jazz festivals and accompanied vocalists such as Tony Bennett. After Ellington's death, the band leader's orchestra asked Thomas to take his place on the piano.
But Thomas's tour with the Duke Ellington Orchestra didn't last long. Thomas "got tired of being Duke Ellington û he wanted to be Charlie Thomas," said his longtime manager, Jim Porter.
Thomas returned to Arkansas and played at venues such as the Black Orchid in Hot Springs during the 1960s.
William "Tiger" Warren
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) û William "Tiger" Warren, founder and chairman of the Macheezmo Mouse restaurant chain, was killed Saturday when the float plane he was piloting plunged into the Columbia River just after takeoff. He was 48.
Warren and his wife were in the middle of what had become a bitter divorce in 1994 when he took Macheezmo Mouse public, turning his shares into a $9.2 million investment in one day.
But the chain of 13 Mexican-style restaurants since has struggled, despite its wide menu featuring many low-fat dishes aimed at attracting what the company saw as a growing market of health-conscious customers, including aging Baby Boomers.
Warren had worked for Esco as a steel salesman before founding Macheezmo Mouse in 1981. Before that, he had a short career as a filmmaker. Warren's movie "Skateboard," one of the first features on the sport, was produced in the 1970s in Los Angeles. A later movie, "Rockaday Richie and the Queen of the Hop," was produced in Portland, said Bill Foster, director of the Northwest Film Center, who had known Warren since the '70s.
Monday, Nov. 29, 1999; 6:54 a.m. EST
LOS ANGELES ûû William Benedict, a character actor best known as Whitey in the old Bowery Boys comedies, died Nov. 25 from complications of heart surgery. He was 82.
Born in Haskell, Okla., he was a newsboy and a plumber's assistant before appearing in films as a youngster in the mid-1930s.
He played Skinny in some of the low-budget East Side Kids films about the exploits of a tough gang of New York youngsters. In the 1940s and '50s, Benedict made regular appearances as Whitey in the Bowery Boys films, popular successors to the East Side Kids.
Alvin Cash
CHICAGO (AP) û Alvin Cash, who had a hit in 1963 with the dance tune "It's Twine Time," died Nov. 21. He was 60.
The cause of death was not determined, though he had been suffering from stomach problems.
A native of St. Louis, Cash started his career as a tap dancer and performed with his brother in a group called the Step Brothers. He started singing later, hitting the Chicago scene with his group Alvin Cash and the Registers.
"It's Twine Time" earned them appearances on shows hosted by Dick Clark and Ed Sullivan. Follow-up dance tunes included "The Funky Washing Machine," "The Ali Shuffle" and "The Philly Freeze."
Fred Ford
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) û Saxophonist Fred Ford, a versatile jazz and rhythm and blues musician who recorded with B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis, died Friday after a battle with cancer. He was 69.
Ford, a mainstay of the Memphis music scene, was known for his baritone sax skills. He played on hundreds of sessions, including recordings with Rufus Thomas, Lightnin' Hopkins, Charlie Rich and Junior Parker.
Ford started playing professionally with the Douglass Swingsters Orchestra and the Andrew Chaplin Band in the late 1940s, before graduating from high school.
His most famous recording û the 1952 classic "Hound Dog" by Big Mama Thornton û had him barking instead of playing sax.
Calvin Dodd MacCracken
HANOVER, N.H. (AP) û Calvin Dodd MacCracken, an inventor who developed products which ranged from electric hot dog cookers to space suits for astronauts, died Nov. 10 of pneumonia. He was 79.
MacCracken earned his first patent û a jet engine design û during World War II when he worked for General Electric. After the war, he founded Englewood, N.J.-based Jet Heat Inc., now called Calmac Inc., and served as its president for 50 years.
Ashley Montagu
PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) û Anthropologist Ashley Montagu, known for combining rigorous scientific research with witty, accessible writing, died Friday after a long illness. He was 94.
Montagu wrote more than 60 books, ranging from an account of the life of Joseph Merrick, known as "The Elephant Man," to lighter works such as a book on the history of swearing.
Montagu became a controversial figure in the 1950s when he suggested there was scientific evidence of race and gender equality. He recently published a revised version of his 1953 book, "The Natural Superiority of Women," in which he argued for complete equality between men and women.
Robert Theobald
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) û Noted futurist and author Robert Theobald died of cancer Saturday. He was 70.
Theobald wrote books, prepared and appeared on broadcasts, and lectured around the world to governments, businesses and organizations.
He worked independently throughout his career, and was not attached to a think tank or university.
Theobald argued that blind confidence in economic growth, technology and the culture of materialism destroyed the environment and failed to provide opportunity and income for many people.
"We've halved the size of our families, doubled the size of our houses and have to fill four times as much space with stuff," he said in an interview two years ago with The Spokesman-Review newspaper.
History is littered with cultures that collapsed under their own success, unable to maintain their ecosystems as their populations grew, he warned.
His latest book "Reworking Success" called for fundamental change at the new millennium.
"If we do not change direction rapidly, the impact of technology will deprive many people of the possibility of earning a living and will lead to despair and disruption," he wrote. "In addition, rampant technology will leach the meaning out of life."
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Subject: (exotica) [obits] Yasuhiro Kojima,Bethel Leslie,Adele Balkan
Date: 30 Nov 1999 09:58:40 -0500
The Associated Press
Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1999; 6:47 a.m. EST
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Yasuhiro Kojima, who trained and coached
professional wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Lex Lugar, has died of
colon and liver cancer. He was 62.
Kojima, who was known by his stage name as Hiro Matsuda, died Saturday at his home.
Kojima played baseball in Japan but came to the United States in 1961 because wrestling was his first love. The sport was more
developed here.
Kojima started wrestling on a circuit that took him through
Texas, Oklahoma and Florida.
After settling in the Tampa Bay area in 1962, he went on to
train neophytes at the old Sportatorium in Tampa, home of the
Championship Wrestling from Florida television program.
``We referred to it as the dungeon,'' said wrestler Brian Blair, known in the ring as Killer Bee. ``That's where Hiro put us
through the mill. He taught us discipline.''
Blair trained with Kojima for two summers 20 years ago. He
remembered that about 100 wrestlers tried out under Kojima those
two years.
Only Blair, Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan), Paul Orndorff (Mr.
Wonderful) and Ray Hernandez (Hercules) stuck it out, he said.
Kojima wouldn't allow them to enter the ring until they'd done 1,000 pushups and 1,000 squats.
``We never knew wrestling as sports entertainment,'' Blair said.``He trained us to believe we'd have to fight for our lives. He
used to kick us and say, `Come on, boys, I'm an old man and you
can't even keep up with me.' ''
Kojima never stopped training, Blair said. Even in his 60s, he could do hundreds of pushups and squats.
Kojima is survived by his wife, Judith; daughters Heather Kojima of Venice, Calif., and Stephanie Kojima of San Francisco; and a
sister, Hatsue Yokotsuka of Yokohama, Japan.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
Bethel Leslie
NEW YORK (AP) û Bethel Leslie, a Tony-nominated actress in theater, films and television shows such as "Gunsmoke," died Sunday of cancer. She was 70.
Ms. Leslie was a 15-year-old student when she was discovered by producer George Abbott, who cast her as the girl next door in the 1944 Broadway production of the comedy "Snafu." She appeared in 10 Broadway plays before she was 25 and acted alongside Fredric March, Sam Wanamaker and Helen Hayes, among others.
In 1955, she played the conflicted daughter of a Bible-wielding reverend in "Inherit the Wind." The show earned her strong reviews and a ticket to Hollywood, where she appeared on "Gunsmoke," "Perry Mason" and "The Fugitive."
Ms. Leslie's first film was 1964's "Captain Newman, M.D.," in which she played the wife of a traumatized Air Force pilot, played by Robert Duvall.
She returned to New York in 1965, appearing on stage and in soap operas.
In 1986, she was nominated for a Tony for her work as the morphine-addicted mother in Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night."
From 11/26 L.A. Times --
* Adele Balkan; Movie Costume Designer
Adele Balkan, 92, Hollywood costume designer who dressed such stars as Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich and Marlon Brando. Balkan's career spanned four decades until her retirement in 1972 to devote full time to art. She costumed many of the original films that inspired recent remakes--"The Bodyguard" in 1948, "Mighty Joe Young" in 1949 and "The Fly" in 1958. Among her other films were "The Boy With Green Hair," "The Blue Angel" and the biblical epics "The Ten Commandments" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told."
Balkan recently had helped create an oral history of her work in Hollywood for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library. On Saturday in Los Angeles of cancer.
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