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Story By: by Stephen Thompson

A playful, electronics-infused Mexican rock band, Café Tacvba found itself in an unusual spot on the Stubb’s stage at SXSW on March 13: namely, bookended by Nick Cave and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, both of whom roll around seductively in far seedier corners of rock ‘n’ roll. Singing in Spanish to a largely English-language crowd, singer Rubén Albarrán had to get his points across through giddiness-induced goodwill, not to mention the live-wire showmanship of a rock star with a 20-year pedigree.

Which isn’t to say Café Tacvba is strictly lighthearted; these guys understand their role as cultural ambassadors, and deftly mix serious politics into songs that just happen to bounce and surge with chant-along, jump-up-and-down urgency. El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco, the Tacvbos’ first album in five years, finds them polishing that mix of heavy and light, of introspection and extroversion, until it shines.

Of course, it never hurts that Albarrán — one of Mexico’s greatest and most beloved frontmen — still addresses crowds with the breathless excitement of a particularly fun-loving motivational speaker, whether he’s renouncing corporatism or reveling in the transportive power of pleasure and dancing. It’s a band with plenty of room for social consciousness, but also, late in this concert, an unapologetically choreographed dance routine worthy of the Backstreet Boys. As Albarrán himself says late in this disarming performance, “Let’s dance! Free yourself!”

* This track is not included in the video presentation.

Published May 10th, 2013 – 13:25 GMT via SyndiGate.info

Egyptian authorities arrested singer Hatem Fahmy on Thursday over allegations that he conned people through the web. 

The state news agency reported that four of Fahmy’s fraud victims held him captive in a Nasr City apartment after he took $500 dollars from each of them, claiming it was for an online marketing company. 

Security forces arrested both Fahmy and his captivators on Thursday and referred them to prosecution.  

Of Egyptian nationality, Fahmi was born in Saudi Arabia and even studied at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and and Maritime Transport before deciding that his talents lay in his pipes. 

Story By: by NPR Staff

LL Cool J’s latest album is called Authentic.

LL Cool J has been making music for more than 25 years. Through it all, he says, he’s tried his best to remain authentic.

“The last thing that I want to do is be a hack,” says the rapper and actor, born James Todd Smith. “Someone who is adapting to whatever the current trend is, and manipulating the public into being on board with me even though, from an artistic standpoint, I’m not doing anything.”

Authentic is the name of LL Cool J’s new album. It’s his first in five years, as well as his first since splitting from Def Jam, the label that launched his recording career.

Authentic bursts at the seams with guest artists, including Chuck D, Eddie Van Halen, and Earth, Wind and Fire. It also comes hot on the heels of his controversial collaboration with country singer Brad Paisley, “Accidental Racist.”

“Music is like a Rorschach test: People hear what they want to hear,” LL says. “With that being said, when it comes to that particular song, the only thing that really surprised me is that, me being in the public eye for so long, and people knowing my history and my background, for people to suggest that I was trivializing slavery,” he says, chuckling hard enough to lose his breath for a moment. “That was pretty shocking.”

LL Cool J spoke with weekends on All Things Considered host Arun Rath. To hear more of their conversation, including LL’s story of hearing himself on the radio for the first time, click the audio link.

Story By: by Anastasia Tsioulcas

1 of 5

During the chaos and oppression of China’s Cultural Revolution, one curious new theatrical genre was born — and it was the child of the Communist Party. Jiang Qing (a.ka. Madame Mao), a former stage and screen actress and the notorious wife of Mao Zedong, led the creation of yang ban xi: “model works” that were meant, in words attributed to Chairman Mao, to “serve the interests of the workers, peasants, and soldiers and [conforming] to proletarian ideology.”

Through these operas and ballets, Jiang Qing aimed to wean artists and audiences alike from what she and the Party saw as the bourgeois themes and trappings of older Chinese art and replace them with a handful of revolutionary narratives, often set on battlefields. But the savvy Jiang Qing realized that the dogma would go far further if it were married to visual dazzle and sonic overload.

Under Jiang Qing’s direction, eight initial works were produced — six operas and two ballets that married elements of Busby Berkeley-era Hollywood fantasy, classical Peking opera, Western ballet and Wagner’s idea of gesamtkunstwerk with arias like “We Will Wipe Out the Reactionaries” and dance scenes titled “Hatred Blazes When Enemies Meet.” And her big idea provided the repertoire for three thousand performing troupes across the country, as well as inspiration for a surreal scene in the John Adams opera Nixon in China.

Some of the most amazing artifacts of the yang ban xi are both kitschy and totally arresting stills produced by photographer Zhang Yaxin. Born in 1933, Zhang shot for the Xinhua News Agency before he was handpicked for the all-important task of disseminating Party philosophy through images. For eight years, he was closely supervised by Jiang Qing in his task of photographing the Communist Party’s forays into revolution-worthy art.

The Chinese authorities readily understood the power of Zhang’s images on their own terms. He was allowed to use one of only three Hasselblad cameras available, and while most Xinhua photographers were rationed three rolls of color film per year, Zhang was allowed to use as much as he liked. In turn, his stills from these productions were turned into posters, stamps, postcard books and craft pieces for further dissemination. And earlier this spring, a selection of Zhang’s work was on exhibition at Toronto’s Stephen Bulger Gallery, an exhibition we learned of via the Slate blog Behold.

As amazing as these hypersaturated images are on their own terms, many Chinese audiences in the 1960s and ’70s experienced them in the context of their original stage extravaganzas and, later, in filmed versions as well. After seeing Zhang’s work on Slate, we thought it would be fun to pair Zhang’s pictures back up with some of the operas and ballets they originally accompanied.

Surprisingly, these operas are not Technicolor (if now dusty) relics of a bygone era, swept aside in the new China. As the BBC noted last year, the Central Ballet of China and other troupes take these works on international tours to this day.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The anticipated June 2014 release of the fourth installment of “Jurassic Park,” one of the highest-grossing film franchises, has been put on hold, Universal Pictures said on Wednesday.

The decision was made to give “the studio and filmmakers adequate time to bring audiences the best possible version” of Jurassic Park 4, the studio said in a statement.

The film was slated to be released in theaters on June 13, 2014. Universal has yet to announce a new date for the release.

The three “Jurassic Park” films generated $1.9 billion in worldwide ticket sales between 1993 and 2001, according to the movie website Box Office Mojo.

Steven Spielberg directed the first two and will be taking on the executive producer role for the fourth film, while newcomer Colin Trevorrow will direct.

No announcement has been made on casting or on whether franchise stars Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough will return.

The first film, released in 1993, captured audiences with its story of a theme park of cloned dinosaurs and generated $967 million in worldwide ticket sales, according Box Office Mojo, ranking 16th among best-selling films in the United States.

It has generated $400.9 million in domestic sales to date, including $42.5 million from its limited theatrical re-release in 3D in April.

Universal Pictures is owned by Comcast Corp.

(Reporting By Ron Grover and Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Eric Kelsey and David Brunnstrom)

Story By: by Stephen Thompson

A playful, electronics-infused Mexican rock band, Café Tacvba found itself in an unusual spot on the Stubb’s stage at SXSW on March 13: namely, bookended by Nick Cave and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, both of whom roll around seductively in far seedier corners of rock ‘n’ roll. Singing in Spanish to a largely English-language crowd, singer Rubén Albarrán had to get his points across through giddiness-induced goodwill, not to mention the live-wire showmanship of a rock star with a 20-year pedigree.

Which isn’t to say Café Tacvba is strictly lighthearted; these guys understand their role as cultural ambassadors, and deftly mix serious politics into songs that just happen to bounce and surge with chant-along, jump-up-and-down urgency. El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco, the Tacvbos’ first album in five years, finds them polishing that mix of heavy and light, of introspection and extroversion, until it shines.

Of course, it never hurts that Albarrán — one of Mexico’s greatest and most beloved frontmen — still addresses crowds with the breathless excitement of a particularly fun-loving motivational speaker, whether he’s renouncing corporatism or reveling in the transportive power of pleasure and dancing. It’s a band with plenty of room for social consciousness, but also, late in this concert, an unapologetically choreographed dance routine worthy of the Backstreet Boys. As Albarrán himself says late in this disarming performance, “Let’s dance! Free yourself!”

* This track is not included in the video presentation.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A ruby-adorned silver and gold belt buckle from the U.S. television drama “Dallas” forms the centerpiece of an auction of personal items of late actor Larry Hagman, who played the conniving oilman J.R. Ewing on the hit series.

The buckle, with the initials “J.R.,” is as garish and brazen as the character who wore it and is expected to fetch between $3,000 and $5,000 in a May 5 sale, Los Angeles auction house Bonhams said on Thursday.

The large buckle has four rubies framing the initials of the villain on the show that was first broadcast between 1978 and 1991.

Hagman, who reprised his role in an updated version of “Dallas” in 2012, died at the age of 81 in November from complications of throat cancer. He rose to fame in the mid-1960s as a star on the TV comedy “I Dream of Jeannie.”

Hagman’s custom-made leather director’s chair from “Dallas” is expected to fetch between $2,500 and $3,000, and dozens of cowboy hats owned by Hagman are expected to sell for hundreds of dollars each.

Also up for sale among the scores of cowboy and Western-themed items is an abstract landscape painting by Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins, estimated to sell between $400 and $600.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Xavier Briand)

Story By: by Jasmine Garsd

Venezuela’s La Vida Boheme (left to right): Rafael Perez, Henry D’Arthenay, Daniel De Sousa, Sebastian Ayala.

For the next week, I’ll be traveling throughout Venezuela along with NPR’s Morning Edition. I leave our faithful audience in the good hands of beloved Alt.Latino co-host Felix Contreras.

I’ll help out mostly with our news coverage. But, Venezuela being the musical powerhouse that it is, Felix and I just had to take a dive into the scene there. And who better to guide us than Henry D’Arthenay, from La Vida Boheme, our favorite Venezuelan rock band?

We asked him to pick his five favorite Venezuelan musicians of all time. Of course, being the music lover that he is, he stayed up all night and came back to us with 30 recommendations.

So consider this week’s show an appetizer for Alt.Latino‘s 24/7 music stream, which will include all of D’Arthenay’s picks.

———————————————————————————————————————

Durante la próxima semana, estaré viajando por Venezuela como parte del programa de noticias matutinas Morning Edition. Los dejo en manos de nuestro querido coanfitrión, Félix Contreras.

En esta aventura caribeña, estaré asistiendo con nuestra cobertura de noticias. Sin embargo, dado que Venezuela es un país tan musical, Félix y yo cedimos a la tentación y decidimos zambullirnos en la escena musical. ¿Y qué mejor guía que Henry D’Arthenay de La Vida Bohème, nuestra banda de rock venezolano favorita?

Le pedimos a Henry que elija a sus cinco bandas venezolanas preferidas. Por supuesto, siendo un gran amante de la música, Henry se desveló toda la noche, y volvió a la mañana siguiente con treinta artistas venezolanos que deberíamos escuchar.

Por lo tanto, consideren que el show de esta semana es un antipasto, ya que también hemos decidido crear una estación de radio con los treinta artistas que nos trajo Henry: toda la música venezolana, pasada y presente, que ustedes necesitan conocer.

Four giant Gromit statues, decorated by well-known artists and designers, have been unveiled in Bristol.

The "grand trail" of 70 of the 5ft (1.5m) tall models of the Oscar-winning animated character is due to populate the streets of Bristol this summer.

The four finished designs are by British designers Sir Paul Smith and Cath Kidston, illustrator Simon Tofield and animator Richard Williams.

The aim is to raise funds for the Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal.

The 70 giant models of Aardman's famous canine character have been sent out to artists around the world to decorate with their own designs.

The statues will be put on display around the city from July, before being auctioned off in September in aid of the Bristol Children's Hospital.

In 2011, a sale of gorilla statues – which had been displayed around the city – raised around half a million pounds for charity.

Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal was formed 17 years ago after a public charity appeal to build a new children's hospital that enlisted the help of Bristol-based animation studio Aardman Animations.

Story By: by Bob Boilen

You’re about to watch one of the best fiddlers on the planet and a subtle guitar master work their magic. For too many of us, Irish music is something that merely gets trotted out around this time of year, associated with St. Patrick’s Day and the coming of spring — and made a cliche by commercialism and whatever other shallow notions make cliches what they are.

But for a moment, stop, put aside your notion of jigs and reels, and just listen. Martin Hayes plays his fiddle with an exquisite touch and tone, as well as a magnificent sense of melody and rhythm that never ceases to astonish.

I’m a year-round Irish-music guy. I’ve spent many summers at Celtic-music camps trying to improve my mediocre guitar skills and enjoying late-night Irish music sessions. I’ve seen Hayes at these camps as a teacher and performer; his playing has brought me to tears at times, and at others has made me burst out with joyful laughter. I couldn’t be prouder to have him perform for us.

Hayes has worked with many accompanying musicians, and some are equal partners, but with Dennis Cahill you get delicate support. It’s a rhythm that keeps the tune in; that accents and colors it but never overtakes it. It’s brilliant restraint that serves the music and perfectly suits his parter. So with fresh ears, come join us in a rare treat with a familiar sound.

Producer: Bob Boilen; Editor: Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo; photo by Gabriella Demczuk/NPR