David Blaine intends to sleep with the fishes -- but only for a week, and in full public view.
The 33-year-old magician will perform his latest stunt by living underwater for seven days and nights in a ``human aquarium'' in front of New York's Lincoln Center.
He will conclude by attempting to hold his breath underwater longer than the record of eight minutes, 58 seconds. The finale of his latest stunt will air live in a two-hour ABC special in May.
Blaine's previous feats of endurance include balancing on a small platform for 35 hours and surviving inside a massive block of ice for 61 hours, both of which were performed in New York. In 2003, he fasted for 44 days in a suspended acrylic box over the Thames River in London.
The ``human aquarium'' in which Blaine will float is a specially built 2.4m acrylic sphere. He will receive liquid nutrition through a tube.
In music, Janet Jackson's latest tunes making the rounds on the Internet are apparently not as new as you might think.
The 39-year-old pop superstar, who is working on a new album, says someone has leaked songs she recorded at least two years ago when working with hit-making producer Rich Harrison. At least one song has already made the rounds, titled, Put It on Me.
``A couple of years ago I recorded some tracks with Rich Harrison. But none of that music will appear on my new album,'' Jackson said. ``I have a tight rein on all of the music that has been recorded.''
Jackson's new album, tentatively titled, 20 Years Old, is expected to be released later this year. She has not released an album since 2004's Damita Jo.
Oops, she did it again. Child welfare officials and a sheriff's deputy visited Britney Spears' home last week because her infant son was accidentally dropped from a high chair, according to published reports.
Six-month-old Sean Preston fell April 1 as his nanny was lifting him from the high chair and something in the chair snapped, Star Magazine reported. The infant slipped from her arms and fell, bruising his head on the floor, the magazine said.
Spears' attorney, Martin Singer, said in a statement that the hospital made a report to the Department of Children and Family Services as required by state law.
Grammy-winning singer-producer Kenneth ``Babyface'' Edmonds has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against singer Anita Baker, claiming she owes him more than US$250,000.
According to the lawsuit, filed last week in Superior Court, Baker broke two oral agreements with Edmonds, who co-wrote, produced and performed on the song Like You Used to Do on Baker's 2004 album My Everything.
The lawsuit claims Baker refused to pay Edmonds producer's royalties equaling at least US$100,000 from an estimated more than 500,000 albums sold.
Edmonds has written hits for a number of R&B stars, including Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige and Bobby Brown.
Maybe Edmonds should consult the man Wyclef Jean sees when he has business problems.
It was no surprise, therefore, when Donald Trump invited Jean to perform at a concert on Friday night for about 200 business associates. ``I'm very into music, and Clef is a great guy,'' Trump said.
Jean took the stage neatly dressed in a suit and sang more than a dozen songs. By the time his hour-long performance was over, the Grammy-award winning artist was stripped to his bare feet, pants and undershirt. Jean also appeared on Trump's show The Apprentice and said he looks to the real estate mogul for business advice.
``He rules. He's real tough when it comes to business,'' Jean said. ``I'm like a sponge right now. I know I can pick up things from him.''
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist