Veteran British rocker Rod Stewart has been ordered to pay US$2 million to a Las Vegas casino for cancelling a show in December 2000.
A federal jury said Stewart should return the sum which he received as an advance from the Rio Hotel Casino for a New Year's Eve show which he cancelled after undergoing throat surgery.
"We felt it was only fair that if Mr Stewart didn't perform the concert that he should give the money back," said Jury foreman Stevan Jorgensen.
PHOTO: AP
US$25,000 worth of diamonds and platinum sit in Paul Wall's mouth, and syrupy Texas slang drips out of it. With the upcoming Tuesday release of his major label debut, The People's Champ, the rapper -- who's also basking in the spotlight of his appearance on Mike Jones' hit ode to cruising, Still Tippin -- keeps busy by selling jewel-encrusted teeth to his celebrity friends.
The rapper relies on a dizzying array of local vernacular to describe everything from attractive females ("honey dips") to rims ("swangaz") and tires ("vogues").
With the waters of Hurricane Katrina yet to recede, Randy Newman sang about a long-ago flood in Louisiana 1927 to open a benefit program spread across dozens of television networks Friday. Dr John ended a show suffused with the spirit of a musical city with a song that's only a wish now: Walkin' to New Orleans.
ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and the WB -- the six biggest broadcast networks -- aired it along with several cable networks. Viewers in nearly 100 countries were able to tune in.
"We've all heard the question," comedian Chris Rock said. "Why didn't these people just leave when they had the chance? But now we realize that not everybody can just jump into their SUVs and drive to a nice hotel. These people depend on public transportation and these people can't afford a nice hotel, because some of them work there. Now it's your chance to help them."
Mariah Carey and Neil Young were backed by gospel singers and Alicia Keys was joined by several gospel stars. U2 needed only one powerful voice, singer Mary J. Blige's, to enliven the rock band's anthem One.
BET was also appealing for help Friday for victims of a tragedy that struck the black community hard. Keys sang her hit If I Ain't Got You, and Patti LaBelle sang the Pretenders song I'll Stand By You.
Rappers Jay-Z and Diddy were 15 minutes late, but they made it worthwhile, presenting a US$1 million check to the Red Cross from the New York hip-hop community.
A city council committee has approved the demolition of a childhood home of former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, despite protests from opponents of a redevelopment plan.
The council's Housing Select Committee has decided that the property had no historical significance. The full council is expected to make a decision on Sept. 16.
"Ringo Starr lived in the Madryn Street house for about three months before he moved to Admiral Grove, where he lived for about 20 years," said Flo Clucas, the council's executive member for housing.
"John Lennon and Paul McCartney's childhood homes were preserved because they spent a significant part of their lives in them," Clucas said.
Renegade author Hunter S. Thompson lamented the onset of old age and his physical limits, then concluded, "Relax -- This won't hurt," in an apparent suicide note published by Rolling Stone magazine, his literary springboard.
The scrawled words -- perhaps the last he ever committed to paper -- were written on Feb. 16, four days before the self-described "gonzo" journalist shot himself to death at his secluded home near Aspen, Colorado, the magazine said.
The brief message, scrawled in black marker and titled "Football Season Is Over" (an apparent reference to the end of the NFL season he avidly followed as fan), reads as follows:
"No More Games. No More bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun -- for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax -- This won't hurt."
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby