Category: Entertainment

Categories
Entertainment

DJ Khaled Reaches No. 1 With ‘Khaled Khaled’

DJ Khaled Reaches No. 1 With ‘Khaled Khaled’

Two years ago, two hip-hop stars, DJ Khaled and Tyler, the creator, faced each other on the Billboard album list, doing not only music, but also t-shirts, lawn signs and energy drinks.

The competition between them – Tyler won, Khaled finished runner-up – sparked long-simmering frustrations in the industry over the use of retail bundles to increase music sales and improve goose performers’ chart positions. The aftermath of this and other similar card fights led Billboard to tighten its rules late last year.

This week, DJ Khaled took first place with his latest release, “Khaled Khaled,” which equaled 93,000 sales in the US, including 107, as the bundle has largely been relegated to the trash can of industrial sales gimmicks – a very overcrowded trash can, according to MRC Data Millions of streams and 14,000 copies were sold as a complete package. It’s the third time that DJ Khaled has been ranked # 1.

The album, titled after the star’s full name, is a textbook example of DJ Khaled’s style: pumped-up affirmations of fame and humility (“Thankful” is the first track, not to be confused with “Grateful” a few albums ago). Comes with a deep bank of guest stars – this one includes Drake, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Wayne, Nas, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Post Malone, Jay-Z and more than a dozen others. In addition to DJ Khaled, recognized executive producers on the album include his two young sons Asahd and Aalam.

Also this week, Memphis rapper Moneybagg Yo’s second week “A Gangsta’s Pain” fell to number 2. Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” was number three; Bieber’s “Justice” comes fourth; and Slime Language 2, rapper Young Thug’s project, is # 5.

Categories
Entertainment

Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? An Investigation

Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? An Investigation

And then there are recent events that may have added more fuel to our fire. “Of course there is the indescribable factor of the quarantine, with which everyone briefly lost their minds,” said Adewunmi. “When all you have to do is roll off your bed and onto your laptop, you could say, ‘Do you know what I’m going to get into today? The father of ‘Onward’. “

And if you’re single and still struggling through the pandemic, isn’t it appealing to imagine a generally good-natured, relationship-oriented character who would love to be there for you? After “Raya” was over, I half expected Benja to jump off the screen onto the couch next to me, where he would finally be the supportive partner I have to watch stupid episodes of “The Circle” with. Plus, he looks great in patterned aqua blue tunics, and that can’t be said of every dad.

“You see, I don’t even think I could do it, so in a way he’s way superior to me,” said Daniel Dae Kim. When I called Kim a few weeks ago, Raya and the Last Dragon had just been released and he had started to take in the excitement on the Internet. “And I’ve gotten a lot of comments about how this character looks like me, too,” Kim said. “Well, I think that because of the transitive quality, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

In fact, Kim revealed that Benja got hotter and hotter as it progressed: “The character I originally saw was thinner and slimmer and longer,” he said. “I found that fascinating, and then when I saw a rough cut it was wider, a little more muscular, and I noticed a hairline that looked like mine.”

Still, it all has to be more than just well-rendered computer modeling, right? As Kim pondered Benjamin’s appeal, he wondered if these animated fathers convey a sense of G-rated comfort in a cultural moment he is sorely lacking.

“In a way, I think Benja is the dad we all want,” said Kim. “He’s a warrior, but he’s kind and compassionate to his children and tries to unite people rather than divide them.”

Categories
Entertainment

Jacques d’Amboise, Charismatic Star of Metropolis Ballet, Is Useless at 86

Jacques d’Amboise, an Early Male Star of City Ballet, Dies at 86

Jacques d’Amboise, who broke stereotypes about male dancers when he helped popularize ballet in America and became one of the most respected male stars in New York Ballet, died Sunday at his Manhattan home. He was 86 years old.

His daughter, actress and dancer Charlotte d’Amboise, said the cause was complications from a stroke.

Mr. d’Amboise embodied the ideal of a purely American style that combined the nonchalant elegance of Fred Astaire with the classicism of the Danseur nobleman. He was the first male star to emerge from the City Ballet’s School of American Ballet, joining the company’s corps in 1949 at the age of 15. Its extensive presence and versatility were central to the company’s identity in the first few decades.

He had choreographed 24 roles and became the lead interpreter of the title role in George Balanchine’s seminal “Apollo” before leaving the company in 1984, a few months before his 50th birthday. He has also choreographed 17 works for the city ballet, as well as many pieces for the students of the National Dance Institute, a program he founded and directed.

The energy, athleticism, infectious smile of Mr. d’Amboise (which critic Arlene Croce once likened to that of the Cheshire Cat), and the appeal of a boy next door made him popular with audiences and made ballet more attractive to boys in a world of tutus and pink toe shoes.

He also helped bring the ballet to a wider audience, danced on Ed Sullivan’s show (then called “Toast of the Town”), played important roles in several film musicals from the 1950s, including “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and ” Carousel “, and has appeared in appealing” Americana “ballets such as Lew Christensen’s” Gas Station “and Balanchine’s” Who Cares? ” In the early 1980s he directed, choreographed and wrote a number of dance films.

Although Mr. d’Amboise was never seen as a virtuoso dancer, his repertoire was demanding and extraordinarily broad, ranging from the princely “Apollo” to the daring head cowboy of Balanchine’s “Western Symphony”. He was one of the company’s best partners, including the cavalier of ballerinas Maria Tallchief, Melissa Hayden, Allegra Kent and Suzanne Farrell.

Mr. d’Amboise, Clive Barnes wrote in the New York Times in 1976, “is not just a dancer, he is an institution.”

Mr. d’Amboise was astonished when Balanchine invited him to the City Ballet in 1949, one year after the start of the first season. He was 15 years old. “I can’t do it, I have to finish school,” he recalled in his autobiography of “I was a dancer” (2011). His father advised him to become a stage worker, but his mother loved the idea and Mr d’Amboise left school to dance professionally, as did his sister Madeleine, who was known professionally as Ninette d’Amboise.

Although Balanchine was generally more interested in creating roles for his female dancers than for his male performers, Mr. d’Amboise identified with many of the key roles Balanchine played in ballets such as “Western Symphony” (1954), “Stars and Stripes” ( 1958), “Jewels” (1967), “Who Cares” (1970) and “Robert Schumanns Davidsbundlertanze” (1980). Early in his career, he also created roles in ballets by John Cranko and Frederick Ashton, and received praise for this. (“Balanchine was upset” with the Cranko Commission, he wrote in his autobiography.)

In a 2018 interview, urban ballet dancer Adrian Danchig-Waring described the qualities that Mr. d’Amboise embodied as a dancer: “There is this machismo that is sometimes needed on stage – this bravery, this boasting, this self-confidence and us all I have to learn to cultivate this and yet it is a huge canon of work. There are poets and dreamers and animals in it. Jacques reminds us that all of this can be contained in one body. “

Mr. d’Amboise was born Joseph Jacques Ahearn on July 28, 1934 in Dedham, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, to Andrew and Georgiana (d’Amboise) Ahearn. His father’s parents were immigrants from Galway, Ireland; his mother was French-Canadian. In search of work, his parents moved the family to New York City, where his father found a job as an elevator operator at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. The family settled in Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan. To keep Jacques, as he was called, off the streets, when he was 7 years old, his mother and sister Madeleine enrolled him in Madam Seda’s ballet class on 181st Street.

After six months, the siblings moved to the School of American Ballet, founded in 1934 by Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Energetic and athletic, Jacques immediately faced the physical challenges of ballet. After less than a year he was selected by Balanchine for the role of Puck in a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

In his autobiography, he wrote of how his mother’s decision had changed his life: “What an extraordinary thing for a street boy with gang friends. Half grew up cops and half grew up gangsters – and I became a ballet dancer! “

In 1946 his mother persuaded his father to change the family name from Ahearn to d’Amboise. Her explanation, wrote Mr. d’Amboise in “I was a dancer”, was that the name was aristocratic and French and “sounds better for ballet”.

After joining City Ballet, Mr. d’Amboise soon danced solo roles, including starring in Lew Christensen’s “Filling Station,” which led to an invitation from film director Stanley Donen to join the cast of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” (1954).

In 1956 he married the soloist of the city ballet Carolyn George, who died in 2009. In addition to his daughter Charlotte, his two sons George and Christopher, a choreographer and former main dancer of the city ballet, survive. another daughter, Catherine d’Amboise (she and Charlotte are twins); and six grandchildren. Two brothers and his sister died before him.

Mr. d’Amboise starred in two films in 1956 – “Carousel” alongside Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones and Michael Curtiz’s “The Best Things In Life Are Free”. But he remained committed to ballet and balanchine.

“People said, ‘You could be the next Gene Kelly,” said Mr. d’Amboise in a 2011 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “I didn’t know if I could act, but I knew I was a great ballet dancer could be, and Balanchine laid the carpet for me. “

His faith was rewarded when Balanchine revived his ballet “Apollo” in 1957, originally a collaboration with Igor Stravinsky in 1928, and cast Mr. d’Amboise in the title role. For this production, Balanchine took off the original, elaborate costumes and dressed Mr. d’Amboise in tights and a simple scarf over one shoulder.

It was a turning point in his career; Dancing, wrote Mr d’Amboise, “became so much more interesting, an odyssey towards your Excellency.” The role, he felt, was also his story, as Balanchine had explained to him: “A wild, untamed youth learns nobility through art.”

For the next 27 years, Mr. d’Amboise continued to be a strong member of the city ballet, creating roles and appearing in some of Balanchine’s major ballets, including Concerto Barocco, Meditation, Violin Concerto and Movements for piano and violin . “

Encouraged by Balanchine, he also choreographed regularly for the company, although the reviews of his work have mostly been lukewarm. In his autobiography, he wrote that both Balanchine and Kirstein had assured him that one day he would lead the city ballet, but Peter Martins and Jerome Robbins took over the company after Balanchine’s death in 1983.

Mr d’Amboise appeared to have resigned himself to this result: he withdrew from the performance the next year and turned to the National Dance Institute, which brings dance to public schools, which he founded in 1976.

The institute grew out of the Saturday morning ballet class for boys that Mr d’Amboise began to teach in 1964, motivated by the desire that his two sons learn to dance without being the only boys in the class. The classes were expanded to include girls and moved to numerous public schools.

Now the goal is to offer free courses to everyone, regardless of the child’s background or ability. Today the institute teaches thousands of New York City children ages 9-14 and is affiliated with 13 dance institutes around the world. The Harlem-based institute where Mr d’Amboise lived was featured in Emile Ardolino’s 1983 Oscar winning documentary “He Makes Me Feel Like a Dancer”.

“That second chapter brought something more fulfilling than my career as an individual artist,” wrote Mr d’Amboise in his autobiography. He told the story of a little boy who, after trying hard to master a dance sequence, wrote: “He was on the way to discovering that he could take control of his body and learn from it, control of his own to take over life. “

For his contribution to arts education, Mr. d’Amboise has received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1990, a Kennedy Honors Award in 1995, and a New York Governor’s Award, among others.

He saw himself as a dancer all his life, but was also a passionate New Yorker. When asked in a 2018 article in The Times that he wanted his ashes scattered, he replied, “Spread me out in Times Square or the Belasco Theater.”

Categories
Entertainment

Watch Miley Cyrus’s Saturday Night time Reside Mom’s Day Opener

Watch Miley Cyrus's Saturday Night Live Mother's Day Opener

Happy Mother’s Day from SNL! pic.twitter.com/QFaVVGA84r

– Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) May 9, 2021

The cast of Saturday night live started her Mother’s Day episode with a super cute tribute to all of the incredible mothers out there. During the May 8 episode, musical guest Miley Cyrus took the stage to play a beautiful rendition of the hit song “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” by her godmother Dolly Parton. In between we got an insight into the cast with their mothers. While Aidy Bryant’s mom adorable stuck her hit Hulu series, ShrillPete Davidson’s mom joked that she almost didn’t make it for the sketch because she got up late and played Madden with Timothée Chalamet. LOL! Of course, at the end of the act, Cyrus was accompanied by her own mother, Tish, when the entire cast gathered on stage. Check out the adorable opener above.

Categories
Entertainment

Martin Bookspan, Cultured Voice of Lincoln Heart Telecasts, Dies at 94

Martin Bookspan, Cultured Voice of Lincoln Center Telecasts, Dies at 94

Martin Bookspan, who turned a classical music childhood into a career as an announcer for the television shows “Live From Lincoln Center” and radio shows for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, died on April 29 at his Aventura home. Fla. He was 94 years old.

The cause was heart failure, said his daughter Rachel Sobel.

Mr Bookspan started violin lessons at the age of 6, but when he entered college he realized that he would never be the next Fritz Kreisler or Jascha Heifetz. After an early career behind the scenes at radio stations in Boston and New York, he established himself as a steadfast contributor to Live From Lincoln Center, the PBS show that became America’s premier source of classical music on radio television. He joined the program when it aired in 1976.

“Live From Lincoln Center” was not much different to him than radio – it was heard but not seen. He opened the show and then handed it over to presenters such as Beverly Sills, Dick Cavett or Hugh Downs.

“The camera was never on Marty,” said John Goberman, the program’s longtime executive producer. But, he added, Mr. Bookspan “was more than just the announcer. The convenient and familiar part of every show was Marty Bookspan. “

Mr. Bookspan’s voice “didn’t sound like a lion,” said Mr. Goberman. “He spoke in a very uncomplicated, friendly and talkative manner.” The Palm Beach Post, describing Mr. Bookspan’s voice after an interview in 1994, said, “Even on the phone, it’s a voice that resonates with the undiluted atmosphere of high culture, the kind of voice you get on a public Hear TV promises could drive. But it’s not so stuffy that you can’t imagine delivering your favorite team’s game after game. “

Mr Bookspan himself said: “If I have a technique, it is the sportcaster technique.”

“With sports promoters bringing the game to life, I hope I’ve brought concerts to life,” he said in 2006 as he prepared to leave Live From Lincoln Center after 30 years. “I want the audience to be engaged and love what they hear.”

By then, Live From Lincoln Center audiences were used to hearing his warm-up exercises before the concert and his withdrawals after the concert. With a well-dressed crowd in the audience and well-known actors on stage, the action had an air of glamor, but not necessarily for Mr. Bookspan. He and his microphone were sometimes installed in locker rooms and closets – even in Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, in a women’s bathroom. He was connected to the stage through his headphones and a video monitor.

Martin Bookspan was born on July 30, 1926 in Boston. His father Simon was a dry goods salesman who later switched to selling insurance. his mother Martha (Schwartz) Bookspan was a housewife. Simon Bookspan was passionate about Jewish liturgical music and took his son to hear prominent cantors.

At Harvard, Martin did not study music, but German literature. He graduated with honors in 1947.

He could also be heard on the campus radio station, where he conducted his first important interview in 1944. His guest was composer Aaron Copland, who revealed he was considering writing a piece for choreographer Martha Graham. It turned out to be the ballet “Appalachian Spring”.

In his future radio career, Mr. Bookspan interviewed more than 1,000 performers and composers, from the conductor Maurice Abravanel to the composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

After working as music director at WBMS, a classical music broadcaster in Boston, he joined the Boston Symphony staff in 1954 as radio, television and recording coordinator. In 1956 he moved to New York to become director of music recording at WQXR, then owned by the New York Times.

At WQXR he hired John Corigliano, then a young composer, as an assistant. He turned out to be a concerned boss.

Mr Corigliano called sick one summer morning. “I should have known better because Marty was so considerate that he called later that afternoon,” said Corigliano, who won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Music, in an interview. “I went to the beach. Marty called and my roommate answered the phone. Marty said, “How is John doing?” My roommate said, “Oh, he’s great. He’s on the beach. ‘

“I came in the next day. There is Marty. I approached him slowly and said, ‘I’ll never do it again.’ “

Mr. Bookspan left WQXR in 1967 and joined the ASCAP music licensing agency as the coordinator for symphony and concert activities. He later was Vice President and Director of Artists and Repertoire at Moss Music Group, an artist management agency. He was also an Associate Professor of Music at New York University.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he was an art critic for several television networks, including WABC and WPIX in New York and WNAC (now WHDH) in Boston. He hosted “The Eternal Light,” an NBC program produced with the Jewish Theological Seminary, and announced the CBS soap opera “The Guiding Light” in the 1990s and early 2000s.

He also wrote reviews of recordings for the New York Times (on open-role tapes in the 1960s and on CDs in the 1990s). He wrote several books, including “101 Masterpieces of Music and Its Composers” (1968) and, with Ross Yockey, biographies of the conductors André Previn and Zubin Mehta. He oversaw radio broadcasts for the Boston Symphony and later for the New York Philharmonic.

His wife, Janet Bookspan, died in 2008. In addition to Mrs. Sobel, a son, David, survived; another daughter, Deborah Margol; six grandchildren; and a great grandson.

Tenor Jan Peerce called Mr. Bookspan’s musical knowledge “encyclopedic,” and it served him well when he had to ad libitum.

One night in 1959 he was the announcer for a program on the Boston Symphony in which pianist Rudolf Serkin played Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2. Mr. Bookspan made his usual introduction before Serkin and conductor Charles Munch took the stage. Mr. Bookspan told The Berkshire Eagle in March that after the immersion, she said, “I did what I learned that I should never do it again: I left my booth.”

He went into the green room with Serkin, who “struck off with all his might, hit the pedals for everything they were worth, got caught up in work and didn’t notice anything else” – as Mr. Bookspan recalled in another interview to chat with Aaron Copland who was on hand for the concert.

Suddenly there was silence in Brahms’s second movement.

“I ran across the stage and up the stairs, tapping the news that there was a problem with the piano,” he told The Eagle. “I went to the microphone and puffed and puffed and said, ‘There was a problem with the piano’ and that ‘as soon as I catch my breath I’ll tell you what’s going on.'”

Mr. Bookspan spoke non-stop for more than 15 minutes until the piano was repaired and Serkin and the orchestra started playing again.

Categories
Entertainment

Tawny Kitaen, Star of 1980s Music Movies, Dies at 59

Tawny Kitaen, Star of 1980s Music Videos, Dies at 59

Tawny Kitaen, an actress best known for her roles in rock music videos in the 1980s and starring with Tom Hanks in the movie Bachelor Party, died Friday at her home in Newport Beach, California. She was 59 years old.

Ms. Kitaen’s death was confirmed by a daughter, Wynter Finley, who said the cause was unknown.

Ms. Kitaen became a mainstay of MTV in the 1980s when the network had its greatest cultural influence with music videos that played all day.

With her flowing red hair and acrobatic moves, Ms. Kitaen appeared in videos for bands like Whitesnake and Ratt and looked both sultry and playful. She danced on the hood of a white Jaguar in the Whitesnake music video “Here I Go Again” and graced the cover of Ratt’s 1984 album “Out of the Cellar”.

Julie Kitaen was born in San Diego on August 5, 1961. She studied ballet and gymnastics until she was 15. After appearing in a Jack LaLanne commercial, as well as television shows and films, she was best known as Mr. Hanks’ fiancée in the 1984 comedy Bachelor Party.

But it was her appearance on music videos that cemented her image in Generation X’s imagination as a free-spirited beauty who had the time of her life.

She once described working with Paula Abdul on the set of a video.

Ms. Abdul, then a choreographer, asked her what she could do. Ms. Kitaen said she showed Ms. Abdul some of her moves. Ms. Abdul then turned to director Marty Callner and said, “She has that and doesn’t need me.” Then she left, said Mrs. Kitaen.

“That was the biggest compliment,” she said. “So I got in the cars and Marty said ‘Action’ and I did what I wanted.”

She married Whitesnake front man David Coverdale in 1989 and the couple divorced two years later. In 1997 she married Chuck Finley, a major league baseball pitcher. They had two daughters, Wynter and Raine. The couple divorced in 2002.

Ms. Kitaen later appeared on reality shows and spoke openly about her struggles with addiction to cocaine and pain medication.

In a 2010 interview with The Daily Pilot, she described her volunteering work at a women’s shelter that had abandoned abusive relationships and said she herself was a domestic violence survivor. Ms. Kitaen said that after her divorce from Mr. Finley, she became involved with a man who was physically and verbally abusive.

“You don’t want to tell anyone because if you stay you will feel like an idiot – you are protecting them,” she said. “You do everything you can to keep other people from finding out that he is abusing you.”

Michael Goldberg, Ms. Kitaen’s agent, said she had appeared on various podcasts and radio shows over the past few years and enjoyed talking about her time as a character in rock history.

“People still love hearing these stories because the rock and roll lifestyle is something we all dream of, right?” he said. “And she lived it. And had so much to say. “

Ms. Kitaen is survived by her two daughters and a brother and a sister.

Categories
Entertainment

Former Dance Faculty Comptroller Pleads Responsible in $1.5 Million Fraud

Former Dance School Comptroller Pleads Guilty in $1.5 Million Fraud

A Maryland woman who had gambled away nearly $ 1.5 million in funds from the elite dance school where she was the inspector pleaded guilty to fraud in Washington District Court Thursday.

The plea is the second time in 8 years that Sophia Kim has been successfully charged with stealing from dance organizations with links to the Unification Church.

Ms. Kim, 60, was hired in 2017 to serve as director of the Kirov Academy of Ballet, a school founded in 1990 by Rev. Sun Myung Moon to promote what he called “the heavenly art of dance” and to be creative point of sale for his daughter-in-law, a former member of the Washington Ballet.

At its peak in the early 2000s, the school featured nearly a dozen top ballet dancers each year, including some who continue to direct the American Ballet Theater, the National Ballet of Canada, and other leading companies.

According to an affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ms. Kim was playing with funds she oversaw as the academy’s inspector. Over a nine month period in 2018, investigators found Ms. Kim wrote checks to herself and used her Academy debit card 120 times to withdraw cash and record losses at the MGM Grand Casino near her home in Temple Hills, Md.

When the school discovered the lack of funds, they reported Ms. Kim to the FBI and she was arrested at the casino in November 2019.

“Kim treated her company’s funds as her personal bank account,” said Timothy Thibault, assistant special agent for the crime department at the FBI’s Washington branch, in a statement announcing the guilty plea.

Last year, Ms. Kim said in an interview that she never intended her gambling to hurt the academy.

Ms. Kim joined the Unification Church as a teenager in South Korea, immigrated to the United States, and married a Church attorney. They settled in Northern Virginia, and after raising three children, Ms. Kim was hired as an accountant at Kirov. She later moved to the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation, a church-based nonprofit group that donated money to the Kirov, Little Angels children’s dance group, and the Seoul-based Universal Ballet.

In 2013, Ms. Kim, also known as Sookyeong Kim Sebold, was found guilty of misappropriating foundation funds that were largely lost in New Jersey casinos. She was imprisoned for two years. After her release, Ms. Kim was hired as the academy’s inspector, a decision the school did not discuss. On Friday, academy officials did not respond to a request for comment on Ms. Kim’s request.

The Kirov is now both a music school and a dance academy and is headquartered in a former convent near the Catholic University in Washington District Court in Washington on Thursday.

The plea was the second time in 8 years that Ms. Kim had been found guilty of stealing dance organizations with ties to the Unification Church.

Ms. Kim, 60, was hired in 2017 to serve as director of the Kirov Academy in Washington, a school founded in 1990 by Rev. Sun Yyung Moon to promote what he called “the heavenly art of dance.” and to serve as a creative medium for his daughter-in-law, former member of the Washington Ballet.

At its peak in the early 2000s, it found that the school produced nearly a dozen top ballet dancers each year, including some who continue to direct the American Ballet Theater, the National Ballet of Canada, and other leading companies.

According to an affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ms. Kim was playing with funds she oversaw as the academy’s inspector. Over a nine-month period in 2018, investigators said, Ms. Kim wrote checks to herself and used her Academy debit card 120 times to withdraw cash and make losses at the MGM Grand Casino near her home in Temple Hills, Maryland, balance.

When the school discovered the lack of funds, they reported Ms. Kim to the FBI and she was arrested at the casino in November 2019.

“Kim treated her company’s funds as her personal bank account,” said Timothy Thibault, assistant special adviser for the FBI’s Washington Field Office crime department, in a statement declaring the guilty plea.

Last year, Ms. Kim said in an interview that she never intended her gambling to hurt the academy.

Ms. Kim joined the Unification Church as a teenager in Korea, immigrated to the United States, and married a Church attorney. They settled in Northern Virginia, and after raising three children, Ms. Kim was hired as an accountant at Kirov. She later moved to the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation, a church-based non-profit organization that donated money to the Kirov, the children’s dance group The Little Angels, and the Seoul-based Universal Ballet.

In 2013, Ms. Kim, also known as Sookyeon Kim Sebold, was found guilty of embezzling money from the Foundation, and most of it was lost at New Jersey casinos. She was imprisoned for two years. After her release, Ms. Kim was hired as the academy’s inspector, a decision the school did not discuss. On Friday, academy officials did not respond to a request for comment on Ms. Kim’s request.

The Kirov is now a music school and dance academy and is headquartered in the former monastery near the Catholic University.

Acting US District Attorney Channing D. Phillips said, “We have no tolerance for criminals to raid the coffers of the companies and institutions that make our district great.”

The fraud charge carries a legal sentence of up to thirty years in prison and a fine of up to $ 3 million, double the Academy’s losses. Ms. Kim’s sentencing is scheduled for September.

Categories
Entertainment

Olivia Rodrigo Calls Out Sexist Criticism of Tune Lyrics

BURBANK, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 1: Olivia Rodrigo attends the Disney + premiere

Image source: Getty / Rachel Luna

Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift’s lyrics are raw, emotional, and catchy at their core. They have a lot in common, and the Drivers License singer has already faced the same criticism that Swift has dealt with since day one. Before releasing their debut album on May 21st AngryRodrigo said recently The guard for noting that “sexist criticism of songwriters like me is told that they only write songs about boys”.

Aside from the fact that songs about love and relationships are bops, criticism like this is inherently linked to gender stereotypes that perpetuate harmful ideologies about women’s sexuality. Fortunately, Rodrigo doesn’t have any of this. “I write about things that I feel very intensely – and I feel heartbreak and longing very intensely – and I think that’s authentic and natural,” she said. “I don’t really understand what people should write about. Should I write a song about income taxes? How should I write an emotional song about it?”

In addition, Rodrigo pointed out how nuanced songs about heartbreak and romance can often be. “Something I’m really proud of is that this record talks about emotions that are difficult to talk about or that aren’t really socially acceptable, especially for girls: anger, jealousy, defiance, sadness, they are called b * tchy frowned and moaned and complained or whatever, “she said. “But I think they are such valid emotions.” With Rodrigo’s debut album out just around the corner, we can’t wait to learn every lyric about love and sing them from the bottom of our hearts.

Categories
Entertainment

Musicians Say Streaming Doesn’t Pay. Can the Trade Change?

Musicians Say Streaming Doesn’t Pay. Can the Industry Change?

An example of this tension is the pop duo Frenship from Los Angeles.

In 2016, the group with Brett Hite and James Sunderland had a breakout hit with “Capsize”, recorded with singer and songwriter Emily Warren. Frenship released the song independently, and it was quickly added to a prominent playlist on Spotify. Capsize hit 40 million streams in 10 weeks and raised $ 150,000 in payments, the group said.

“Spotify made our career possible for us,” Hite said in an interview.

Then the group signed with Columbia Records, which launched a radio advertising campaign centered around “Capsize”. The song failed to break the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but it remained a steady streaming success, now with around 570 million clicks on Spotify. The band declined to disclose specific details of their time in Columbia – they agreed to confidentiality in their 2018 separation agreement with the label – but Hite glorified his time with the majors with an anecdote about buying a car in the months “Capsize” lifted off.

“I look at BMWs and when I break down, I leased a Honda CR-V,” he said. “I’ll let this be the tale of where our hit brought us from.” The group is now independently preparing its next release.

Columbia declined to comment.

Despite the criticism of the artists of their labels, the contracts with the big record companies have steadily developed in recent years, which benefits the performers. Joint venture deals and shorter engagements are now more common, according to music managers, lawyers, and artist managers.

And the all-important license fee is also increasing. A 2002 study by Steven S. Wildman of Michigan State University that examined hundreds of major label contracts from that time found that artists who received their first contract from a label had, on average, royalties of 15 to 16 percent were offered. Tony Harlow, the managing director of Warner Music UK, told the parliamentary committee in January that the company’s royalties to artists had “increased from 27 to 32 percent” since 2015.

Categories
Entertainment

‘Wrath of Man’ Assessment: ‘H’ Has Some Fury

‘Wrath of Man’ Review: ‘H’ Has Some Fury

Filmmaker Guy Ritchie has long shown a willingness to embrace almost any blockbuster format a particular studio might want to offer him. Experience the noisy Sherlock Holmes-era shots he took with Robert Downey Jr. or his recent live-action look at Disney’s Aladdin. But his most entertaining films remain the tough, nasty crime thrillers with which he began his career in 1999 with “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”.

His new “Wrath of Man” is such an item, although it’s darker and less exuberant than “Lock”. It’s also a remake of the 2004 French film “Le Convoyeur”. Ritchie does better here with used material than with “Aladdin”, not to mention “Swept Away” (2002).

Jason Statham plays Hill, a mysterious, silent tough guy who takes a job at an armored car company that was recently hit by murderous robbers. His coach, Bullet, shortens Hill’s name to “H.” “Like the bomb,” Bullet explains to a colleague.

H proves his prowess by single-handedly hijacking a truck in which, in an extraordinarily satisfying moment, he pulls out a punk played by pop musician Post Malone. H’s staff greet him as a hero, but other characters wonder who exactly this guy is and what he’s doing on this job.

As Kirk Douglas pointed out in “The Fury” and Liam Neeson in “Taken,” there are certain men whose families shouldn’t be messed with. Here Statham is one of them. The severity of H’s true mission explains the tone of the film. Ritchie reveals key story points with clever time-juggling editing and keeps the tension going well into the climax of the film, which delivers exactly what the viewer was hoping for.

Wrath of man
Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the Policies of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before viewing films in theaters.