The benevolent Beastie: Adam Yauch remembered

When the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just weeks ago, the New York trio was down a man.

Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz took the stage with a letter from their missing band mate: Adam “MCA” Yauch, who was too ill to attend. He was suffering from a cancerous salivary gland first diagnosed in 2009.

In the letter, which Horovitz read, Yauch dedicated the honor to his fellow B-Boys, “who have walked the globe with me.”

“To anyone who has been touched by our band, who our music has meant something to, this induction is as much ours as it is yours,” said Yauch.

It was typical generosity from Yauch, the gravelly-voiced rapper who helped make the Beastie Boys one of the seminal groups in hip-hop and whose good-hearted nature led him to humanistic causes and made him beloved in hip-hop. One of his most famous rhymes was a sweet ode to women, which he called “long overdue”: “To all the mothers and sisters and wives and friends/ I want to offer my love and respect to the end.”

When the news came Friday that earlier that morning, Yauch, 47, had died after a nearly three-year battle with cancer, the words from his letter felt particularly apt. The outpouring of sadness at the loss, and celebration of the music Yauch helped created, was immediate and vast, shared across social media by those close to him, rappers influenced by “Paul’s Boutique” and hip-hop listeners raised on Beastie Boys videos.

The rapper Q-Tip, a member of another major New York hip-hop group, A Tribe Called Quest, recalled that the Beastie Boys “showed us the ropes.” Sean “Diddy” Combs called Yauch “a true pioneer and a creative force who paved the way for so many of us.” The rapper Nas lamented the loss of a “brother”: “MCA was so cool,” he said.

For Eminem, Yauch was an undeniable touchstone: “I think it’s obvious to anyone how big an influence the Beastie Boys were on me and so many others.”

Yauch was an integral, founding member to the ever-weaving trio: three Jewish kids from New York who found widespread respect in a hip-hop world with few credible white performers.

In a span of more than a quarter century that covered four No. 1 albums and more than 40 million records sold, the Beastie Boys played both prankster and pioneer- a simultaneously goofy and groundbreaking act that helped bring hip-hop to the mainstream.

The demure, gray-haired Yauch wasn’t the most boastful B-Boy; he was the thoughtful one and a steady source of the trio’s innovative spirit. A practicing Buddhist, he led the group in performing concerts to benefit Tibet and, as a filmmaker, he helped create their imagery.

“The group’s music crossed genres and color lines, and helped bring rap to a wider audience,” said Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy. “Yauch was an immense talent and creative visionary.”

Adam Nathanial Yauch, born in Brooklyn, formed the Beastie Boys with high school friend Diamond. Originally conceived as a hardcore punk group, they played their first show on Yauch’s 17th birthday.

In the letter read at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Yauch recalled their early days at his parents’ home in Brooklyn, “where we used to practice on hot Brooklyn summer days after school, windows open to disturb the neighborhood.”

The group became a hip-hop trio soon after Horovitz joined and coalesced after Yauch dropped out of Bard College two years into his studies. They released their chart-topping debut “Licensed to Ill” in 1986, a raucous album led by the anthem “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)”.

It was the first hip-hop album to top the Billboard chart, and while it remains popular, its irreverent rock-rap fusion bore few hints of an act with staying power.

“Adam was incredibly sweet and the most sensitive artist, who I loved dearly,” Russell Simmons, whose Def Jam label released “Licensed to Ill,” said on his website.

In the seven studio albums that followed, the Beastie Boys expanded sonically and grew more musically ambitious.

Their follow-up, 1989′s “Paul’s Boutique,” ended any suggestion that the group was a one-hit wonder. Extreme in its sampling and thoroughly layered, the album (produced by the Dust Brothers) was ranked the 156th greatest album ever by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003.

The Beastie Boys would later take up their own instruments – a rarity in hip-hop – on the album “Check Your Head” and subsequent releases. Yauch played bass. Later, they would even release an album of instrumentals, which won one of their three Grammys in 2007.

On “Pass the Mic,” he rapped: “If you can feel what I’m feeling then it’s a musical masterpiece / If you can hear what I’m dealing with then that’s cool at least / What’s running through my mind comes through in my walk / True feelings are shown from the way that I talk.”

For many, the Beastie Boys’ lyrics – overflowing torrents of wit, humor and rhyme – were always the main draw. While other forms of hip-hop celebrated individualism, the Beastie Boys were a verbal tag team. Yauch once rapped, “on the tough guy style I’m not too keen.”

Their popularity perhaps peaked with 1994′s “Ill Communication,” which spawned several of their most famous music videos, including “Sure Shot” and the Spike Jonze-directed “Sabotage” – a hit highlighted by Yauch’s bass solo. (MTV, which played a key role in the Beasties’ rise, hurriedly assembled an hour-long tribute show to Yauch on Friday night.)

Yauch used the group’s growing fame to attract awareness for Tibetan Buddhists. He founded the Milarepa Fund to promote activism for Tibet in defense of what the nonprofit considered China’s occupational government.

In 1996, Yauch and Milarepa produced a hugely popular benefit concert for Tibet in San Francisco, which was followed by more international concerts over the next decade.

“He was a goofball and behind a lot of their prankiness, but if you wanted to talk to him about what was going on in the world and social issues and everything, you got a totally different guy,” said Rick Krim, executive vice president of music and talent relations at Vh1.

Introducing the group at the Rock Hall, Public Enemy rapper Chuck D said the Beastie Boys “broke the mold.”

“The Beastie Boys are indeed three bad brothers who made history,” Chuck D said. “They brought a whole new look to rap and hip-hop. They proved that rap could come from any street – not just a few.”

Yauch also went under the pseudonym Nathanial Hornblower when working as a filmmaker. He directed numerous videos for the group, as well as the 2006 concert film “Awesome: I F—–’ Shot That!” (shot entirely by fans given cameras) and the basketball documentary, “Gunnin’ for that (No.) 1 Spot.”

In 2008, he co-founded the noted independent film distribution company Osciolloscope Laboratories, named after his New York studio.

Yauch is survived by his wife, Dechen Wangdu, and his daughter, Tenzin Losel Yauch.

Yauch’s illness, about which he first expressed hope that it was “very treatable,” forced the group to cancel shows and delayed the release of their last album, “Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2.” He hadn’t performed in public since 2009.

But the enduring popularity of the Beastie Boys across some 28 years is one of the steadiest paths of success in pop music – a time remarkable for the constant, warm camaraderie between Yauch, Horovitz and Diamond.

“They are truly rock’s most realized group – not hip-hop but all music, really,” wrote Questlove, the drummer for the Roots, who toured with the Beastie Boys. “I mean, did we really expect the most thoughtful, mature, considerate act in music to be the same brats who gave us `Licensed To Ill’?”

 

Barbara Orbison, widow of Roy Orbison, dies in LA

Barbara Orbison, widow of rock n’ roll pioneer Roy Orbison, died Tuesday on the 23rd anniversary of her husband’s death, a family spokeswoman said. She was 60.

Barbara Orbison died from pancreatic cancer at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center surrounded by her sons, said publicist and family spokeswoman Sarah McMullen. Orbison had been hospitalized since May.

Since the 1980s, Barbara Orbison devoted her time to managing her husband’s estate and keeping his legacy alive.

With her son, Roy Kelton Orbison Jr. she co-produced a four-CD box set of her husband’s 107 recordings. “Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock and Roll” was released in 2008 and contains all of his hits and 12 previously unreleased tracks.

The package marked the first all-inclusive body of Roy Orbison’s work from his earliest recordings to the Traveling Wilburys’ debut album, “Mystery Girl” and his last live performance. Roy Orbison died in 1988 at the age of 52, in the midst of a comeback with The Traveling Wilburys.

Actor Patrick Swayze’s widow, Lisa Swayze, said her heart out goes out to the Orbison family. “Patrick and I always had a warm connection with them both. Now we have lost this wonderful lady,” Lisa Swayze said. Patrick Swayze died in September 2009 of pancreatic cancer.

In 1998, Barbara Orbison issued “Combo Concert” on her label Orbison Records, a collection of previously unreleased live recordings from Holland and France made in 1965, according to Roy Orbison’s official website. That same year, Barbara Orbison accepted the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award on her husband’s behalf, which honored his contribution to the recording industry.

In January, 2010, Barbara Orbison accepted a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on her husband’s behalf.

Barbara Orbison’s Nashville, Tenn.-based music publishing company Still Working Music was recently awarded BMI’s 2010 Song of the Year for Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me”.

Roy Orbison paid tribute to his wife on his website. “I’ve spent my lifetime trying to figure love out. Love ranges from just fascination to something almost spiritual. In the case with my wife, Barbara, it just keeps growing all the time,” he wrote.

Barbara Orbison will be buried next to her husband at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, McMullen said. A Celebration of Life will be held at an undetermined future date in Nashville, Tenn.

Barbara Orbison is survived by her sons Wesley Orbison, 46, Roy Kelton Orbison, Jr., 41 and Alexander Orbison, 36.

In memory – Christopher Reeve

On this day in 2004, the actor Christopher Reeve, who became famous for his starring role in four Superman films, dies from heart failure at the age of 52 at a hospital near his home in Westchester County, New York. Reeve, who was paralyzed in a 1995 horse-riding accident, was a leading advocate for spinal cord research.

Christopher Reeve was born on September 25, 1952, in New York City, and graduated from Cornell University and the Juilliard School. He made his Broadway debut in 1976 in A Matter of Gravity, starring Katharine Hepburn. The 6’4” actor shot to fame in 1978 when he was selected over some 200 other actors for the lead in Superman. Although he would play the action hero in three more films, Reeve was determined to “escape the cape” and avoid being typecast. As a result, he took on a variety of stage and screen roles. His film credits included Somewhere in Time (1980), Deathtrap (1983), The Remains of the Day (1993) and Village of the Damned (1995).

On May 27, 1995, Reeve, a strong athlete and avid horseman, was left paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from his horse and breaking his neck during an equestrian competition in Virginia. The actor then became a crusader for people with spinal cord injuries and also lobbied for government funding of embryonic stem-cell research. During a speech at the 1996 Academy Awards, Reeve urged the Hollywood community to make more movies about social issues. In addition to his fundraising and advocacy work, Reeve wrote two books about his life experiences and continued his acting career. In 1997, he made his directorial debut with HBO’s In the Gloaming, which was nominated for five Emmy Awards, and in 1999, he starred in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller Rear Window. In 2004, Reeve directed A&E’s The Brooke Ellison Story, a movie based on a true story about the first quadriplegic to graduate from Harvard University.

In 2000, Reeve, who maintained an intensive physical therapy regime since the time of his accident, was able to move his index finger. He stated publicly that he was determined to walk again. In Reeve’s New York Times obituary, one of the doctors who treated him said: “Before [Reeve] there was really no hope. If you had a spinal cord injury like his there was not much that could be done, but he’s changed all that, he’s demonstrated that there is hope and that there are things that can be done.”

Steve Jobs – We love and miss you – RIP

We will miss your compassion and knowledge.

‘Spartacus’ star Andy Whitfield dead at 39

“Spartacus” actor Andy Whitfield has died, CNN has confirmed. Fans of Starz Entertainment’s original drama “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” know Whitfield as the titular gladiator.

According to the New York Times, the 39-year-old passed away on Sunday in Sydney, Australia from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Whitfield leaves behind his wife, Vashti, two children, and a sister.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Andy Whitfield,” said Starz President and CEO Chris Albrecht in a statement.

 

“We were fortunate to have worked with Andy in ‘Spartacus’ and came to know that the man who played a champion on-screen was also a champion in his own life,” Albrecht continued. “Andy was an inspiration to all of us as he faced this very personal battle with courage, strength and grace. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. He will live on in the hearts of his family, friends and fans.”

“Spartacus” creator Steven DeKnight shared his thoughts on Twitter, writing, “No words to express the depth of such a loss. You will be deeply missed, my brother.”

Whitfield rose to stardom on the Starz series, but took what was intended to be a temporary hiatus following a check-up in March of 2010, the NYT reports. Starz ended up using a variety of actors for a prequel, “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena” as they waited for Whitfield to return, but he never became well enough to do so.

Australian actor Liam McIntyre was tapped to fill the lead for the second season. At the time, McIntyre commended Whitfield for his work on the show, and said that “everybody hurts that he’s had to give up that role, myself included.”

Whitfield’s co-stars are chiming in with their condolences as well. In a statement on her fan site, “Spartacus” actress (and former “Xena” star) Lucy Lawless is quoted as saying that  “Obviously, Andy Whitfield left an indelible mark on all of us in the ‘Spartacus’ family.”

“He was a gentle man who never said a bad word about anyone, a gifted photographer, engineer (no really!) and a brilliant actor,” the statement said. “Andy’s incandescent film presence made men want to be him and women want to marry him. Andy’s two babies will always know that their Daddy cherished them and their mother, Vashti, above all things. How lucky we were to have him grace all our lives. Godspeed, Andy!”

 

In Loving memory – Amy Winehouse 1983-2011

In Loving memory – Amy Winehouse 1983-2011

Amy Winehouse 1983-2011

English singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home on July 23, 2011. She was 27. Winehouse’s 2006 album “Back to Black” was nominated for six GRAMMY awards, of which she won five including Record of the Year.

Fans toast Jackson on 2nd anniversary of his death

Hundreds of Michael Jackson fans have marked the two-year anniversary of the singer’s death by gathering for a memorial outside the Gary home where Jackson grew up.

The Times of Munster reports that revelers swayed to Jackson’s songs during Saturday night’s tribute. Poets, local singers and dancers also entertained the crowd. Mayor Rudy Clay welcomed visitors to the event and proclaimed the city will not stop celebrating Jackson’s memory.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009, of an overdose of sedatives at the age of 50, just before he was to begin a comeback tour.

Thirty-year-old Marshall Bingaman of Kansas City, Mo., says he made a nine-hour drive to Gary to pay tribute to Jackson’s life. Bingaman says events like Saturday’s memorial help keep Jackson’s memory alive.

Jermaine Jackson honors his late brother

Jermaine Jackson performed a nostalgic tribute concert Friday to his late brother Michael Jackson to mark the second anniversary of the pop star’s death as part of the 12th International Indian Film Academy festivities in Toronto.

Dressed in a Michael Jackson-inspired outfit, complete with a red military-style jacket, V-neck white shirt, fitted black slacks and a black cummerbund with an emblazoned number “5,” the former Jackson 5 performer sang a medley of his brother’s hits including “Scream,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” and “Can You Feel It.”

“This is a special moment in the show because it’s a tribute to my brother,” said Jackson moments before joining Indian singer Sonu Nigam to perform “This is It,” a song written by Nigam after the megastar’s death, which the singers dedicated to the pop icon.

The pair performed at IIFA Rocks, a Bollywood-inspired concert and fashion show bonanza which is part of the academy’s three days of film, song and dance that culminates in Saturday night’s awards ceremony, often referred to as the Indian Oscars.

IIFA Rocks also kickstarted the awards portion of the weekend by presenting some technical film awards in between bouts of fashion runway shows and high-energy musical performances.

(See: Mullen sees risk in Obama’s Afghanistan withdrawal)

Romantic comedy “Band Baaja Baarat” and the action movie “Dabangg” led the pack, each scooping up three awards.

Toronto’s Ricoh Coliseum was packed with excited Bollywood fans who could hardly contain their excitement when South Asian superstars including “Slumdog Millionaire” actor Anil Kapoor, Bollywood king Shah Rukh Khan and veteran stage and film star Anupam Kher took the stage to announce the winners.

The cheering was so raucous when the venue’s camera monitors flashed on Bollywood superstars sitting in their seats that it sometimes drowned out the hosts.

“When we’re speaking, please don’t put close-ups of big movie stars on the screen,” joked co-host Karan Johar, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Johar and co-host Anushka Sharma alternated between English and Hindi throughout the evening.

Sharma was treated to a hug by Shah Rukh Khan, often referred to as “King Khan,” whose close-ups on the monitor screens drew the loudest cheers.

“I’m tired of girls giving me a hug. I want a deep passionate kiss,” said Khan.

“You’re forgetting what would happen at home if that happened,” smirked Johar.

Khan retorted, “We’re thousands and thousands of miles away. What happens in Toronto, stays in Toronto.” But in the end, he played it safe with a big bear hug for the bombshell Bollywood actress.

Much of the evening’s music was provided by Shankar Ehsaan Loy, a musical super group consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa, who also won an award for best background score for their work on “My Name is Khan,” starring Shah Rukh Khan.

But the real musical superstars were British-Canadian bhangra trio RDB, whose energetic performances with singer Veronica and two players of the drum-like dhol, got the audience shaking their shoulders in their seats and cheering excitedly.

 

 

Peter Falk, TV’s rumpled Columbo, has died

The best way to celebrate Peter Falk’s life is to savor how Columbo, his signature character, fortified our lives.

Thanks to Falk’s affectionately genuine portrayal, Lt. Columbo established himself for all time as a champion of any viewer who ever felt less than graceful, elegant or well-spoken.

Falk died Thursday at age 83 in his Beverly Hills, Calif., home, according to a statement released Friday by family friend Larry Larson. But Columbo lives on as the shining ideal of anyone with a smudge on his tie, whose car isn’t the sportiest, who often seems clueless, who gets dissed by fancy people.

As a police detective, Columbo’s interview technique was famously disjointed, with his inevitable awkward afterthought (“Ahhh, there’s just one more thing…”) that tried the patience of his suspect as he was halfway out the door.

Columbo was underestimated, patronized or simply overlooked by nearly everyone he met – especially the culprit.

And yet Columbo, drawing on inner pluck for which only he (and an actor as skilled as Falk) could have accounted, always prevailed. Contrary to all evidence (that is, until he nailed the bad guy), Columbo always knew what he was doing.

Even more inspiring for viewers, he was unconcerned with how other people saw him. He seemed to be perfectly happy with himself, his life, his pet basset, Dog, his wheezing Peugeot, and his never-seen wife. A squat man chewing cigars in a rumpled raincoat, he stands tall among TV’s most self-assured heroes.

What viewer won’t take solace forever from the lessons Columbo taught us by his enduring example?

Columbo – he never had a first name – presented a refreshing contrast to other TV detectives. “He looks like a flood victim,” Falk once said. “You feel sorry for him. He appears to be seeing nothing, but he’s seeing everything. Underneath his dishevelment, a good mind is at work.”

On another occasion, he described Columbo as “an ass-backwards Sherlock Holmes.”

“As a person, he was like Columbo. He was exactly the same way: a great sense of humor, constantly forgetting things,” said Charles Engel, an NBCUniversal executive who worked with Falk on “Columbo” and was his neighbor and longtime friend.

He remembered Falk as a “brilliant” actor and “an amazingly wonderful, crazy guy,” and said a script was in place for a two-hour “Columbo” special, but Falk’s illness made the project impossible. In a court document filed in December 2008, Falk’s daughter Catherine Falk said her father was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Somehow fittingly, Falk – the perfect choice to play Columbo – failed to be the first choice. Instead, the role was offered to easygoing crooner Bing Crosby. Fortunately, he turned it down.

With Falk in place, “Columbo” began its run in 1971 as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie series, appearing every third week. The show became by far the most popular of the three mysteries, the others being “McCloud” and “McMillan and Wife.”

Falk was reportedly paid $250,000 a movie and could have made much more if he had accepted an offer to convert “Columbo” into a weekly series. He declined, reasoning that carrying a weekly detective series would be too great a burden.

NBC canceled the three series in 1977. In 1989 ABC offered “Columbo” in a two-hour format usually appearing once or twice a season. The movies continued into the 21st century. “Columbo” appeared in 26 foreign countries and was a particular favorite in France and Iran.

Columbo’s trademark: an ancient raincoat Falk had once bought for himself. After 25 years on television, the coat became so tattered it had to be replaced.

Falk was already an experienced Broadway actor and two-time Oscar nominee when he began playing Columbo. And, long before then, he had demonstrated a bit of Columbo-worthy spunk: at 3, he had one eye removed because of cancer.

Then, when he was starting as an actor in New York, an agent told him, “Of course, you won’t be able to work in movies or TV because of your eye.” And after failing a screen test at Columbia Pictures, he was told by studio boss Harry Cohn that “for the same price I can get an actor with two eyes.”

But Falk prevailed, even before “Columbo,” picking up back-to-back Oscar nominations as best supporting actor for the 1960 mob drama “Murder, Inc.” and Frank Capra’s last film, the 1961 comedy-drama “Pocketful of Miracles.”

Paying tribute, actor-comedian Michael McKean said, “Peter Falk’s assault on conventional stardom went like this: You’re not conventionally handsome, you’re missing an eye and you have a speech impediment. Should you become a movie star? Peter’s correct answer: Absolutely.

“I got to hang with him a few times and later worked a day with him on a forgettable TV movie,” McKean went on, calling Falk “a sweet, sharp and funny man with a great soul. Wim Wenders called it correctly in `Wings of Desire’: He was an angel if there ever was one on Earth.”

“There is literally nobody you could compare him to. He was a completely unique actor,” said Rob Reiner, who directed Falk in “The Princess Bride.”

“His personality was really what drew people to him. … He had this great sense of humor and this great natural quality nobody could come close to,” Reiner said. Falk’s work with Alan Arkin in “The In-Laws” represents “one of the most brilliant comedy pairings we’ve seen on screen.”

Peter Michael Falk was born in 1927, in New York City and grew up in Ossining, N.Y., where his parents ran a clothing store.

After serving as a cook in the merchant marine and receiving a master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University, Falk worked as an efficiency expert for the budget bureau of the state of Connecticut.

He also acted in amateur theater and was encouraged to become a professional by actress-teacher Eva Le Gallienne.

An appearance in “The Iceman Cometh” off-Broadway led to other parts, among them Josef Stalin in Paddy Chayefsky’s 1964 “The Passion of Josef D.” In 1971, Falk scored a hit in Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” Tony-nominated for best play.

Falk made his film debut in 1958 with “Wind Across the Everglades” and established himself as a talented character actor with his performance as the vicious killer Abe Reles in “Murder, Inc.”

Among his other movies: “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” “Robin and the Seven Hoods,” “The Great Race,” “Luv,” “Castle Keep,” “The Cheap Detective” and “The Brinks Job.”

Falk also appeared in a number of art-house favorites, including “Wings of Desire” (in which he played himself as a former angel), and the semi-improvisational films “Husbands” and “A Woman Under the Influence,” directed by his friend John Cassavetes.

“Today we lost someone who is very special and dear to my heart. Not only a wonderful actor but a very great friend,” said Gena Rowlands, who co-starred with Falk in the latter film, and was married to the late Cassavetes.

Falk became prominent in television movies, beginning with his first Emmy for “The Price of Tomatoes” in 1961. His four other Emmys were for “Columbo.”

He was married to pianist Alyce Mayo in 1960; they had two daughters, Jackie and Catherine, and divorced in 1976. The following year he married actress Shera Danese. They filed for divorce twice and reconciled each time.

When not working, Falk spent time in the garage of his Beverly Hills home. He had converted it into a studio where he created charcoal drawings. He took up art in New York when he was in the Simon play and one day happened into the Art Students League.

He recalled: “I opened a door and there she was, a nude model, shoulders back, a light from above, buck-ass naked. The female body is awesome. Believe me, I signed up right away.”

Falk is survived by his wife Shera and his two daughters.