Daily Archives: April 2, 2021

By Staff | on April 02, 2021

It was just 104 years ago today, April 2, 1917, when President Wilson, the man who had run on avoiding the war in Europe, asked Congress to declare war on Germany. And Congress granted the declaration. Societal upheavals change with the tide of the mob, and in this instance, when the loudest voices declared peace and isolationism, they then started to call for war. The popular song of the day was I Didnt Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier, it was then replaced with Over There. And thus we did, the American Soldier has never been ordinary, but extraordinary. Not to insult any allies, but the Americans won the day, but at a terrible cost, and the war that was meant to end all wars, only created more troubles, more wars, and arguably still today, many of our 21st century problems. General Sherman once was quoted for saying War is Hell, but another quote follows, that War is the legitimate object of Peace. Leadership demands that one should know the difference between the two.

The rest is here:

This Day In History, April 2nd, 2021 - "The Great War" - Signals AZ

INDIO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 12: Singer Rose of BLACKPINK performs onstage during the 2019 Coachella ... [+] Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 12, 2019 in Indio, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for Coachella)

Ros enjoyed a massive week on charts all around the world last week, especially in the U.S., where her one debut on the Hot 100 made waves, and history, in multiple fashions. In fact, with just a single...single...Ros managed feats no other musician from her home country ever had, and she mixed up a number of longstanding all-time rankings among South Korean stars.

Heres a look at the history Ros made on the Hot 100 last week when her song On The Ground made its triumphant debut.

Third South Korean Musician To Chart Solo And With A Group

Thanks in large part to her years with Blackpink, arguably the biggest girl group in K-pop and one of the most successful all-female vocal acts in the business right now, Ros had a built-in fan base ready to support her as she ventured out on her own. All those devoted listeners helped her become the third South Korean musician to hit the Hot 100 both on her own and with the group that turned her into a star.

Blackpink has now accrued seven Hot 100 placements, and Ros now claims one. She joins J-Hope and Suga (operating as Agust D) in this feat, as those two BTS members have also found their way to the chart solo and with their band.

Second South Korean Female Soloist

Tough as it may be to believe at this point, Ros is just the second solo female musician from South Korea to make it to the Hot 100 in the charts decades-long history. She follows in the footsteps of CL, who managed to place a pair of tracks with her name attached on to the tally several years ago.

Fifth South Korean Soloist

Including CL, Ros is now just the fifth South Korean solo artist to land on the Hot 100 at any point, with any kind of song. Psy leads the charge with the most hits on the all-encompassing tally, as hes now scored four smashes, including one with CL. Two members of the seven members of BTS, J-Hope and Agust D (or Suga when hes working with his bandmates) have also appeared on the list with their solo work.

Highest-Charting Song By A South Korean Female Soloist

Only three songs by South Korean female soloists have ever planted themselves on the Hot 100, and Ross On The Ground now stands as the highest-charting of the bunch. CLs collaboration with Psy, Daddy, peaked at No. 97 on the chart, while her own Lifted only rose a few spots higher, settling at No. 94 a year later.

Ross No. 70 placement is obviously a much better showing, and for now, its the biggest success of the trio.

Fourth-Highest-Charting Song By A South Korean Soloist

Looking at all songs pushed to the Hot 100 by South Korean solo musicians, Ross On The Ground is not the highest-charting release, but it does rank inside the top five.

Three of Psys singles, Gangnam Style, Gentleman and Hangover with Snoop Dogg, still hold as the best-performing tracks by solo stars from South Korea. Those titles peaked at Nos. 2, 5 and 26, respectively. On The Ground comes in at No. 4 on this specific ranking, replacing Agust Ds "Daechwita," which now has to settle for being the fifth-highest-charting in this specific group.

Excerpt from:

All The Ways Blackpinks Ros Made Hot 100 History With On The Ground - Forbes

INDIANAPOLIS The weight of the line, not the lure, unspools the reel. The timing, the rhythm whisk the fly back and forth before it lands in the desired spot.

The physical act takes a mental approach, of knowing the type of hatch for the season, the riffles where the fish like to feed.

Mark Few understood none of this when he first picked up a pole. His idea of fishing back then was to attach a blob of Magic Bait and drop it beneath a bobber.

In the years since, Few has transformed himself into a skilled fly fisherman through wits and will.

Hes molded Gonzaga basketball in a similar manner, amalgamating mind and body into an offensive juggernaut.

Theyre both kind of an artform, former Gonzaga and current Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said. Hes a very accomplished fly fisherman, but he didnt start out that way. And this whole program, his offense, everything has been an evolution of 20 years, kind of brick-by-brick building.

Gonzaga enters the final weekend of the college basketball season on the cusp of history. The Bulldogs are two wins from becoming Division Is first undefeated team since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.

Theyve gotten here with an offense thats evolved into a hardwood orchestra through years of honing, talented parts fusing to make beautiful basketball music.

Gonzagas offense has been unlike anything college basketball has seen in decades, maybe ever. The Zags (30-0) led the nation in scoring by more than six points per game and have yet to be tested, winning a Division I-record 27 straight games by double figures.

Theyve mauled four straight opponents in the NCAA Tournament to reach the Final Four for the second time in five years. Beat UCLA on Saturday and theyll play for a national championship and a chance at history.

Its so cool to see it go from ground zero all the way up to where it is, Few said.

Few has been the engineer, turning a small Jesuit school in eastern Washington into a national powerhouse by thinking big and refusing to shrink from his convictions.

When Few joined Dan Fitzgeralds staff as a graduate assistant in 1990, Gonzaga basketball was an afterthought in the regional scene, much less nationally. The Zags had struggled for so long, Fitzgerald used to joke with his assistants that they were wasting their time and the schools money.

Few wasnt buying it. He had a more ambitious future in mind.

Even after the program reached the regional final in 1999, Monson didnt see continued success as being feasible at such a small school. Other West Coast teams like Santa Clara, Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount had faded after making March magic, so Monson figured the Zags were headed for a similar fall.

You saw it happen with other schools, so it just didnt seem sustainable, Monson said. Mark has always been convinced we could do it.

Few began building well before he was named head coach after Monson left for Minnesota in 1999.

As an assistant under Fitzgerald, Few used his own money to upgrade to nicer rental cars so recruits didnt think the school had no money. No need to mention he and Monson slept on peoples floors because they couldnt afford hotel rooms, either.

Few recruited above the programs status at the time, refusing to accept that players being courted by Pac-10 schools would never choose Gonzaga. When Fitzgerald told his assistants it was a waste of time to recruit those kids, it only fortified Fews resolve.

It just irritated Mark that it got to the point he would only recruit guys that would be recruited by the Pac-10, Monson said. He really started changing the thinking of the program. We dont have to take a back seat to any of these schools.

And theres almost no sense arguing once Few has locked onto something.

Few knows basketball. Hes proven that. Hes also well-rounded and firm opinions come with the territory. Even when friends say, Mark, youre wrong, they know to expect a rebuttal, backed up by facts.

Losing an argument, like losing on the basketball court, is not an option.

Hes very stubborn, hes very competitive and hes going to come across like hes doing you the favor, Monson said. Hell make you feel like this is the wrong idea, like you dont know what youre doing. He wont tell you that, but youll walk away feeling that way.

Thing is, hes usually right. On a basketball court, theres no doubting it.

Few has built a national powerhouse on conviction.

Those early recruits who believed him set the foundation. Higher-rated recruits followed from success, propelling the program farther.

Few got his players to believe in their abilities, make smart decisions, accept criticism and praise equally.

His system, adapted over the years to the game and the players, became the standard of offensive basketball in the college game.

Theres not a lot of sugar coating, but theres never any demeaning, said Tommy Lloyd, Fews assistant the past 20 years. I think the guys get pretty comfortable when he tells them something, hes thought it through, he thinks its important and he means it.

Few also was right about another thing: Gonzaga can play for national championships.

When its over, win or lose, hell be back on the water, chasing his other favorite mind-and-body pursuit.

Read more:

Few puts Gonzaga on cusp of history - The Columbian

EDINBURG, Texas (KVEO) The Old Hidalgo County Jail in Edinburg was built in 1910. It is a historical landmark with Rio Grande Valley history locked in its cells.

Designed in a Spanish Mission Revival Style, it was one of the first buildingsintown after the county seat moved to Edinburgin1908.

The 1910 jail was also used as a community center andinthe 1930s it was turnedinto the Edinburg Fire Station and City Hall.

The secrets it holds remain unknown, as several volunteer firemen bunking on the second-floor claim hearing things throughout the night.

Theres a number of stories here, said Francisco Guajardo, Chief Executive Officer of The Museum of South Texas History. Theres no question the Rio Grande Valley is richinhistory.

Shackledbeneath the original walls, still standing, is the story of prisoners, jailers, and everything in between.

More than 110 years later, the original Hidalgo County Jail has been restored and has reopened its doors, but this time to the public.

Inmany ways, South Texas is shaped by the stories here at the museum, said Guajardo who started a campaign to restore the historic jail to its original roots.

To fully renovate and restore, the museum raised $3 million inprivate funding to bring these walls and their stories back to life.

In January, they completed the restoration and have officially re-opened the exhibit to anyone looking to catch a glimpse of the past.

Detailed exhibits, featuring real life items from the jail and its inmates are on display.

Everything from shackles of the era, to guns and even the original jail logs are inside the jail.

You can see howin1911, according to thejail docket, it would show the offenses, this is the actual record sheet, murder, robbery, this one says theft of sheep and goats, so thats why someone was broughtin, said Guajardo.

It is not just records still in the jail, but the tales of people that lived and worked there. Some may have never left.

This is a cool story here, this was the jailer and his wife, explained Guajardo with photos of the couple. The jailer was Nemesio Cortina and his wife, Marcela, he was working for John Closner at his plantation, John Closner was the Hidalgo County Sheriff at the time, so he brought him to work here at the jail and so he brought this wife and they worked here.

He diedinthe jail and when he died, she assumed the responsibilities of jailer.

The same steps the jailer fell to death are still there.

Nemesios death was far from the only one at the old county jail.

There was also a Lopez Brother who committed suicideinthis jail and one day after he killed himself, he was actually ruled not guilty, said Guajardo.

The story of the Lopez Brothers goes, that on July 9, 1910, near Mercedes, two brothers, Jose and Bartolo, were arrested for the murder of farmer Fred Luschen.

Police officers arrived in time before Luschens workers were set to hang the two brothers themselves for the murder.

Police took the two brothers to the Old Hidalgo County Jail, where one pled guilty and the other, not guilty.

After being found guilty of first-degree murder, the court set their date for execution by hanging on December 28, 1910, but before that, one of the Lopez brothers took his own life inside the holding cell.

Then, there is the story of Abram Ortiz.

Abram Ortiz was hanged. It was done officially, right hereinthis room, said Guajardo as he stands inside the Hanging Room.

But in 1913 a murderer lurkedinthe shadows.

At a ranch, there was a couple coming back from Reynosa. They came across the river and Abram Ortiz and this other man lurkedinthe brush and waited for this couple to come and they killed theman and took the woman, said Guajardo. They raped the woman and eventually she escaped. She went to the authorities. The authorities apprehended Abram Ortiz and the other man ran back toMexico and they never found him.

The Abram Ortiz story was far from over.

Abram Ortiz was found guilty of murder, but it was not clear if he was the killer.

On May 1, 1913, Abram Ortiz was brought into the Death Watch Cell at the Old Hidalgo County Jail.

The next day he was hanged on the gallows, and spectators throughout the region went to see.

The day he was hanged became a public spectacle because it wasinall the newspapers and people from all over South Texas to witness the hanging of Abram Ortiz, said Guajardo.

The court transcript and police records from Abrams arrest are on display throughout the cell he was originally held in.

However, murder and hangings are not the only things hidden between the cells.

It is also the founding leaders of the Rio Grande Valley.

We have Faces De La Frontera so we feature four people, Silvestra Pea Perez of Starr County, Juan Alamia of Edinburg, Nathaniel Jackson of Pharr, and Emilia Schunior-Ramirez of Edinburg.

Emilia Schunior-Ramirez is one of the very first graduates of Edinburg High School.

She would go on to earn her Masters degree at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg.

Schunior-Ramirezwould go on to teach at multiple school districtsinthe RGV.

Ramirez now has several schools and even university dormitories named after her.

Emilias son, Alfonso Ramirez, endedupbecoming the first Hispanic mayor of Edinburginthe 1950s.

We also feature Nathaniel Jackson who was from the Jackson Family RanchinPharr and that was historical because it was part of the underground railroad, where he and his family helped runaway slaves cross the river and into freedom,said Guajardo.

Whether it is the roots of historical pioneers of the Rio Grande Valley or the hanging of an Edinburg man, one thing is certain, the Museum of South TexasHistoryholds secrets and mysteries of Hidalgo County.

My favorite thing is what we dont know about it. If you walk through the jail, youll see theres a lot of questions that leave to the imagination and curiosity, the next step is to go find out what happened to that trial of Abram Ortiz, what happened to the Lopez brothers as well, or Chapin? The citywas named about him, then he killed someone, and it had to be renamed Edinburg, theres just so much mystery there are so many things we dont know, said Guajardo.

The Old Hidalgo County Jail is now open for visitors fromTuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

For the month of April, the museum will have free admission.

Visitors must reserve a timed ticket by visiting their website or calling at(956) 383-6911. All museum visitors are required to wear a mask and social distance.

Go here to see the original:

LOCKED UP IN HISTORY: A look inside the original Old Hidalgo County Jail - KGBT-TV

Monday, March 22, was Stephen Sondheims birthday, his 91st, and it came and went without one of the star-packed concert extravaganzas that marked previous milestones in the composers life, musical celebrations that were staged at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center and are still racking up views on YouTube.

Even last year, as Covid-19 was in its first months of devastating New York City and had already scotched the planned opening night of the 50th anniversary Broadway production of Company an opening night that also would have marked the composers 90th birthday the theater community came together, virtually and a month after the fact, to sing the great mans songs in a remarkable, precedent-setting Zoom-style benefit event. Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Celebration was livestreamed on April 26 as a sort of pandemic rain date for Companys stolen night.

None of which is to say that Sondheims most recent birthday passed without commemoration: In perhaps the strongest public pledge yet that Broadways revival of Company headlined by Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone would be back, producers of the Marianne Elliott-directed production tweeted a short video clip of Lenk, in character as Bobbie, plugging an electrical cord into a socket and lighting up a big neon Company sign. Coming back to Broadway. Tickets on sale soon, the promo promises, listing the names of Lenk and LuPone to vanquish any doubt. Two of the tweets hashtags were #WaitForUs and #BroadwayWillBeBack.

Broadways Company One Year After Covid Shutdown: Patti LuPone, Katrina Lenk And A Dozen Co-Stars Chronicle A 12-Month Pause In Being Alive An Oral History

As New York and its live venues begin the slow inching toward a vaccinated reopening, Companys March 22 tweet was as solid a Broadway forecast as were likely to get before the citys weather turns steamy. Company producer Chris Harper tells Deadline that a marketing campaign and a ticket plan will kick into gear as soon as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo gives the all-clear signal, hopefully in April or May, with a target of returning to the stage this fall.

Broadways Company During The Covid Shutdown, Part 2 Of An Oral History: The Dark Summer

Even before the tweet, the Company principal cast shared with Deadline the hopes, dreams and trepidations for the coming year. In Part 1 and Part 2 of Deadlines Company pandemic-year oral history, the cast recalled a spring, summer, fall and winter in shutdown mode. Now, in Part 3, the company of Company LuPone, Lenk, Bobby Conte Thornton, Matt Doyle, Christopher Fitzgerald, Christopher Sieber, Jennifer Simard, Terence Archie, Etai Benson, Nikki Rene Daniels, Claybourne Elder, Greg Hildreth, Kyle Dean Massey and Rashidra Scott look ahead, pondering both the rewards to come and the tolls to be paid.

All interviews were conducted separately, and in several instances via email, and have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Patti LuPone as Joanne

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Katrina Lenk as Bobbie

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Terence Archie, Patti LuPone, Katrina Lenk, 'Company'

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(L-R) Rashidra Scott as Susan, Katrina Lenk as Bobbie, and Greg Hildreth as Peter

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(L-R) Katrina Lenk as Bobbie, Claybourne Elder as Andy, Kyle Dean Massey as Theo, and Bobby Conte Thornton as P.J.

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(L-R) Katrina Lenk as Bobbie, Christopher Fitzgerald as David, and Nikki Rene Daniels as Jenny

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(L-R) Katrina Lenk as Bobbie and Matt Doyle as Jamie

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(L-R) Etai Benson as Paul and Matt Doyle as Jamie

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(L-R) Christopher Sieber as Harry, Jennifer Simard as Sarah, Katrina Lenk as Bobbie, and Patti LuPone as Joanne

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Claybourne Elder (Andy, originally April) Actors are not nurses. Were not saving lives. If anybody can stay home, we can, and that is nothing against my community. I think most of us feel that way. We absolutely should have stopped exactly when we did and we should not come back until its entirely safe.

But what Im worried about the most, frankly, is not for me, whos at mid-career. Im going to be fine, Patti LuPone is going to be fine. Its the kids that just showed up and who were just barely going to make it that I worry about, especially young people of color. I was never a trust fund kid but I was fine and I had people to support me. When I showed up in New York and was taking that huge risk because I hadnt graduated from a fancy school, I knew that the worst case scenario was that I could go back and live at my parents house and they would take care of me. That is not the case for most people, and the chance to do this dream is completely crushed for a large group who are now back in their hometowns working at Applebees because they have student loans to pay. Theres no miracle chance that theyre going to book a Broadway show. Theres no chance to even be in New York working at a restaurant and making good tip money. Those kids are gone, and what is Broadway going to do in several years when we need them? Are only the really lucky and the really privileged going to come back?

I know that there are a lot of organizations that have gathered around this topic about helping the next generation, helping kids get paid internships, getting them in the door, but when were talking about bail-outs or funding or backing or whatever you want to call it, it shouldnt be just about helping people like me pay their mortgages. It has to help those 19-year-old kids who blew their shot and were living in New York for six months trying to go to auditions and waking up at 5 in the morning to wait in lines and then had to leave the city. How can we help a person like that?

Nikki Rene Daniels (Jenny) At the risk of sounding cheesy, I just love singing. Its the passion of my life, other than my family. Even when Im not working, Im always singing or practicing or learning, going back to my old opera aria books and trying to learn a song. But I miss being with a cast. The special thing about Broadway is that its different every night. Ive done a few little TV gigs and stuff since weve been off, and you feel like you dont have control over the final product of your own performance. Even with these virtual concerts Ive been doing, you tape a song four different times, and you dont know which one theyre going to use. Now, yes, it has been nice to not feel the pressure or the instant worry when you get a sniffle or a sore throat and you have eight shows to do and youre like oh, no, am I going to be out? But being on Broadway, every night the show is different, and alive, and you feel like your performance is your own. I did The Book of Mormon for four years and there was always an understudy or a new cast member or something that just kept it so fresh, and thats so specific to Broadway.

Christopher Fitzgerald (David) Its unbelievable what theater has survived. People doing plays in front of each other is the most elemental thing to our humanity. Its going to be unreal when people are back singing songs on stage. Its going to be overwhelming. I was thinking about something the other day. Years and years ago,I went to Belize with my wife, and we went caving in Mayan caves. We were deep in these caves for an hour or two, with this guy we didnt even know, some random guy who was showing us these caves, and it was really dark, and wet, and I was like, oh my god, if this guy passes out, well never get out of here.

Finally, he leads us back out, and I just remember how lush everything looked, and how overwhelmed I was by the colors, and the sounds, and the saturation of the world after leaving this dark, dark cave. I keep thinking about that, and about how its going to feel so colorful and beautiful when this pandemic is over, and were going to be hugged by music and by stories. Its going to be overwhelming, I think.

Terence Archie (Larry) Some things are always going to be essential in a more immediate sense. We need food and water, you know, but theres also that essential quality of connection. We go to the theater to connect. Thats why people dont mind when theyre sitting in those small seats in so many of these Broadway theaters where were right on top of each other. Were there not just because we want to be there, but because we need to be there, and we need to have our lives and our realities reflected back onto ourselves. Thats what the theater does. We can have catharsis. Food and drink dont necessarily do that. Im a fan of food and drink. I love food and drink, but they dont really feed my spirit, you know? The theater is essential. We need the culture of theater to keep us sane. I believe that.

Patti LuPone (Joanne) Even with the vaccine and even with this industry that needs to come back because of the amount of money it generates for New York City and the amount of businesses that depend on Broadway doesnt Broadway make more money than all the sports teams in New York combined? its not up to us. Its up to the audience. Right now I dont know who wants to sit in a theater with a mask on their face. Its already a pain in the ass to sit next to people in the theater.

Katrina Lenk(Bobbie, originally Robert) I try to make the best of the situation, working out and keeping physically fit as much as I can, singing and practicing every day, working on new music, working on my own music, and eating, and watching way too much television. Sometimes Ill play a game of What would my character Bobbie be doing right now? Whats Bobbie like with Covid? Hows she dealing with all of her anxiety? Would she have a Peloton? Probably not, so maybe she will run up and down the stairs in her apartment building, but then she would get freaked out that maybe she doesnt have symptoms but shes a Covid carrier and if she breathes too much in the stairwell the elderly lady down the hall will catch it when she throws out the garbage, and so no running up and down the stairs. Shes probably just wrecked with her anxiety, but also has the relief of, oh, I guess I dont have to worry about being in a relationship right now because how do you start a new relationship on Zoom? So the pressures not there but the clock is still ticking, and shes wrestling with loneliness and being an introvert. Maybe shell get a fish, but then what if she messes up and overfeeds the fish or doesnt clean the tank and the fish dies? So she wont get a fish.

Bobby Conte Thornton(PJ, originally Marta) If the final stage of grief is acceptance, I think our version of acceptance right now is just acknowledging that we dont know. You cant hold out for something that is very much not in your control. You have to sort of take stock of your new reality and try to find daily purpose and daily joy while understanding how fortunate we are to have this job waiting for us whenever theater can come back.

Greg Hildreth (Peter) Ive been teaching acting on Zoom, and I finally met my student yesterday in the park, outdoors, in person because I was like fuck this Zoom. So we met in Prospect Park for a little acting lesson. It felt kind of human.

Kyle Dean Massey (Theo, renamed from the original Kathy) I love doing the show and Ive really enjoyed the cast but Ive had to kind of just release it, you know? However its going to be its going to be. Performing is a really wonderful thing, but if youre going to do a Broadway show its kind of depressing if theres no one out there. I dont know that anybody wants to go back and do a show if people arent going to be able to come see it. Its hard to know, especially when you live on the other side of the country like I do. Am I going to pack up my bags and go there again in hopes that we have a run under us? I dont know. Ive kind of quit trying to speculate.

Claybourne Elder I think it is inevitable that it will come back. My mood today is one of a person who feels so optimistic because we have a new president and I feel like the sun just came out for the first time in a very long time.

Broadway will come back and people will be so hungry for live performance, to sit in a theater and see actual people that they will come in throngs. I think it will be stronger than ever. For all the shows that have unfortunately closed for good, my heart just aches, but we have to get something else going. We have to start up again. I hope that our show is back. I have every intention that I will be, and I believe that our producers are very confident that Company will be back, but anything is possible. I think if weve learned anything this year its that anything is possible.

Christopher Sieber (Harry) Our producers have pandemic insurance, so our show will come back. We do know that for certain, so I do have a job, we all have a job. Its just when will we go back to that job, thats the thing.

I was scrolling back to pictures from a year ago when we were still in rehearsals and I was looking at myself. Back then I was thinking that I was going to try to lose some weight. Now I look back at those pictures from a year ago and Im like, you know, I wasnt so bad.

Etai Benson (Paul) Our producers have given us confidence. Every time theyve touched base with us, theyve never revealed any sort of fear or insecurity that we would not come back. When Broadway comes back, we will be there, and I have every intention of staying with the show.

I love this show. I think the best art is always relevant during whatever time it plays in. A good play is always relevant, and I think Company will just resonate differently when we come back. This is a musical about self-isolation, and even the way our set works is that its often all of us crammed in a tiny box. I think thats going to read very differently to a post-pandemic audience. Bobbie sings alone is alone, not alive, and I think about all the people who have had to be alone during this time, or have lost people and are now alone, and what those words will mean and what those images of all of us crammed in a box will mean in a post-pandemic world. Its going to resonate so differently than it would have in March of 2020. Im looking forward to being a part of that.

Bobby Conte Thornton My character P.J., who in the original production was named Marta, sings Another Hundred People which is one of the greatest songs Stephen Sondheim has ever written, and its also one of the quintessential New York City songs ever written. The way we interpreted it back when we were doing the show in the Before Time was really so special. It had been portrayed in the London production as a Brit who had just immigrated to the States, so the song was not only sung as someone in awe of New York City but in awe of America, and it was staged in a very specific way. All of that was thrown out the window when it came to Broadway, so it felt like a real privilege and an honor to be given the responsibility of taking something from nothing and trying to find what it was.

I dont know whether the way Im going to interpret it will be different when we reopen, whether there will be more trepidation in the way of someone literally with more fear in his voice singing about another hundred people getting off of a train. This character, as described by George Furth, proclaims to be the soul of New York. Marianne Elliott described him to me as like a lightning bolt, a thunder clap, someone who takes this energy from the ground below him and puts it back out into the city, and towards this woman Bobbie that hes so infatuated with.

But I dont think I can live in that space. I need to live in a mindset of awe and curiosity and wonder and joy, while still conveying whats so great about this song. At one moment it can be about endless wonder, endless possibilities, endless opportunities for connection, but on the flipside, especially in our 2021 world, about the disposability of love, of saying, I feel this connection with someone but is that good enough? Because I could just go get on my phone

Patti LuPone My dilemma is, Will I have the energy to go back to work? Will I have the energy, especially, to go back on stage? You know, doing television or a film doesnt require the same physical energy that eight shows a week on stage requires. I mean, I have phenomenal energy. I am a descendent of Italian peasants, so I have phenomenal energy. But will I have stage fright? Will I be able to get back on the bike? I dont know that, and I also dont know if I even want to. Its been so long that Im questioning my desire to continue in this business.

Were told were going to go back, but I dont know. I dont know anything. Thats the worst part. And the longer we dont do it, the more I question my desire to do any of it. Everybody wants it to go back, but when that happens, it could be two years that I havent been on stage.

Vocally, Ive got cords of steel. Im doing a demo record for a friend of mine, and the guy thats working with me cant believe the shape of my voice, nor can I. It sounds like I made a pact with the devil because I havent lost any of my high notes, and Im singing better than Ive ever sung before. I havent belted Fs since Evita, and Im belting Fs. So the voice isnt an issue. And the body is much better than its been in a long time. Ive had an injury on my shoulder since Sweeney Todd, and I thought, well, this is the time to get a shoulder replacement. So now Ive had two hips and a shoulder replaced, and Im working out every day.

I suppose the reluctance Im feeling is because Im guarding against disappointment. Can you imagine being in a state of expectation for this long and then, all of a sudden, they go, Well, too bad. I mean, talk about going to the dark recesses of your mind. Im trying to keep myself open to the fact that we are coming back and that we are not coming back. Im trying to figure out how to find a neutral place to be happy, to be emotionally safe in this turbulent time where its all coming at me from every single angle.

I think Im trying to rationalize the possibility of it not coming back. If were all geared up to go back and then we dont, that is a bigger disappointment than saying, Well, I dont know if I want to go back. Oh, theyre not going back? Well then I made the right choice. You know what I mean? Its a lesser emotional letdown if you just sort of go, Yeah, maybe itll happen, maybe it wont.

Katrina Lenk Im really working on not planning things. Or only planning things very, very loosely. At the beginning of Covid I felt like I had to hold on to Company really tightly the story, the choreography, the music, the ideas, all of it. I had to make sure that it was really close and I could feel it in my hands. Now it sort of feels like a balloon on a string, and Im letting the string go farther and farther and farther. The balloon is up there, I can feel it if I tug, and when its time to reel it in, Ill reel it in.

Terence Archie With this ever-growing appreciation for having the ability to do what Ive been able to do, and how much the world really needs it, I feel like I have a renewed sense of purpose and responsibility that may not have even been achieved without this very humbling experience, you know? Yeah.

Matt Doyle (Jamie, originally Amy) The darkest was right before the election and right before the vaccines were announced, around September and October. Our industry and all of our producers were hoping that maybe the vaccines would be 70 percent effective, and then we got the announcement of being 95 percent effective. We cant really overstate how incredible that is.

Jennifer Simard (Sarah) I think psychologically there has been a real shift, where you feel, okay, I did it for ten months, I can do it for five more, six more, eight more. You know? Its like running a marathon and having someone hand you a Dixie cup of lemonade at the right moment.

Claybourne Elder I was really lucky to have a child through this time, especially a toddler because they require so much attention and they dont require you to be happy. I want him to be happy. The gift of the year was that I got to spend an entire year with my son before he becomes school age. I got to really know him in a way that I probably wouldnt have gotten to know him if I had been in a Broadway show, busy, busy, busy.

Another wonderful thing is our producers reached out to all of us early on and said this is an incredibly difficult time for everyones mental health and we would love to help you with some sessions with a therapist. They paid for anyone who wanted to go to therapy for a while. I took them up on it. I mean, I dont think there was a time in which I felt like something was taken away from me in an inappropriate way or in a way that was not justified, and there was so much else in the world to worry about, but having something so exciting with so much momentum taken away so quickly was incredibly sad, incredibly hard.

I dont have a wonderful metaphor prepared for all this so just go with me: Its like youre eating ice cream and the ice cream gets taken away. It was nourishing you in some way and you loved it, but crying about it doesnt make anybody feel bad for you because its ice cream. Its hard for anybody outside the theater like everyone who is in my family to understand what happened this year. To them its like, oh, you didnt get to do your recital. And, okay, it is a recital in a way, but youve worked your whole life to get to do this thing and youre really lucky when you get your few chances. Even if youre a very successful Broadway actor, even after you become famous, most of your life youre not on Broadway. Youre mostly not doing it except for that one year when it happens.

Matt Doyle Just the idea that well get to do it again is what gets me through. The very idea of going into rehearsals is so exciting because weve all just gotten so comfortably numb to the tragedy of it all. I just keep focusing on that. I think everyone in the industry right now is very, very hopeful for a 2021 return, but for the past year weve set the goal posts farther and farther along. So its a cautious optimism at this point.

Rashidra Scott (Susan) Going back to the show, thats the plan, absolutely. Im kind of in a good place because I recently had a Zoom meeting with a new agency. Im going to call them and accept. Thats kind of lit a fire and given me a little pep to my step. Im not just kind of floundering by myself. I also checked the mail today and got some money from a voiceover session that I did at the end of December. And in a few hours my husband and I are getting in the car and driving to see my mom in Virginia. Itll be my first time home in about two years. In this industry, I never get the chance to say Im coming home and I dont know for how long. The last few times have been 36 or 48 hour trips at most. So Im excited, just to have some time home with my mom and my family for a little bit, and for a change of scenery from this little apartment living.

Patti LuPone Let me tell you something else. Since 9/11, I have been afraid on stage because anybody can walk into a theater with a gun and shoot the player, shoot the messenger. Ive had crazy people in the audience. When I was doing Master Class, at the end of the first act I saw someone go up the aisle and leave while Im doing a speech. My head goes, Well, lost one.

But he went out and then came back into the house down the center aisle and screamed, This is shit! This is shit! Fuck Terrence McNally!, and my head went right to, Dont shoot the messenger, dont shoot the messenger. The audience didnt know whether it was part of the show or not.

So Im terrorized. Theyve won with me. They won with me after 9/11, and I am terrorized now with this homegrown terrorism. Not that a Proud Boy or a Boogaloo Boy is going to buy a ticket to Company just to shoot up my ass, but you dont know.I have been vocal about my hatred for Trump, so I dont know how safe I am on stage. I mean, when I said what I said on the red carpet at the Tony Awards three or four years ago, [I hate the motherfucker, 2017] the hate mail was insane. There was maybe one with a rational critique, but the rest of them were crazy, and I thought, well, now Im out there, and now, if I go on stage Im vulnerable.

Its equivalent to stage fright, in that you dont get stage fright every single night, but Ive been on stage and all of a sudden I have stage fright and I dont know why. It just comes over you, and you think, Oh, whats going on? Whats going on? Whats going on? Concentrate. Concentrate. Dont leave the world

I feel a sense of paralysis. I really do, and I think it has to do with all the misinformation that we were made to ingest during those four years with that clown in the White House. So now Im thinking about going back on Broadway, and its almost the last thing in my head. I said this to Marianne Elliott when I was in London in rehearsal for Company and I actually said out loud, I dont know what Im doing here. I think I began to offend her, so I said, no, no, no, this is about America. This is about Trump. I said, I feel superfluous. I feel being on stage doing a musical is superfluous in these times. And in a way, I feel that now. I know that theater is a relief for people in the audience, but what about the people who have to do it?

Jennifer Simard When Company comes back, the scene that I have with Christopher Sieber is quite physical and requires me to be in really good shape. So my next few months or however long it takes is about getting in shape. Its a pandemic, and were all just trying to survive, but I definitely gained the Covid 15.So I bless those pounds,I thank them for their service, and now its time to say goodbye to them. Its time to move on.

Nikki Rene Daniels Ive definitely had a lot of hope since Bidens inauguration, that a concrete plan is being implemented to get us back up and running as a society. I never really lost confidence in Broadway as an industry, because I know that they want us to be back as soon as safely possible, but hearing from our union, and seeing that shows are starting to advertise again is really thrilling.

Bobby Conte Thornton Its hard not to take potential return dates with a grain of salt. Part of me is just waiting for the inevitable delay again, as has happened over and over this past year. But as so many dear friends and colleagues are now getting vaccinated, Im feeling hopeful again. Which is terrifying, as it naturally leaves your heart open to hurt and betrayal. But in a year of continuously managing expectations and putting my own personal grief in perspective as hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives during this pandemic, hope is the feeling thats persevered. And must persevere.

Greg Hildreth January and February were bleak. But my mood is improving as it feels like the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming more realistic. Im a jilted lover and Ive been burned before so Ill remain simultaneously hopeful and cautious. Ill do my best to manage my longing until were really back. I cant wait to get back to work.

Jennifer Simard My mood is one of gratitude and pragmatism. None of this would be happening without science giving us a vaccine in record time, nor a roll out and aid in record time because elections matter. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senate have helped us. It starts at the top and our city and industry are now able to help us because they are being helped.

Patti LuPone Im working in California [on the HBO Max pilot Ok Boomer], so Im feeling better because Im focused again and Im actually doing what I do, but as far as Broadway is concerned, Im cautious. Last year we were told by the powers that be that we would return in two weeks, then it was in June, then July, and it creates nothing but disappointment when we keep hearing this and it doesnt happen. We were sent an email from our general manager the other day saying we were going into rehearsal in September and then opening in October. And I thought, I dont think so. I dont think thats going to happen. I guess what Im saying is: Stop. Wait until we know were going to open before we keep getting these emails. Its depressing when it doesnt happen.

I personally dont think that Company should come back in the Fall. I think that we should let the big guns open and let them work out all the kinks. You know, Wicked, Hamilton, Lion King, the ones that have been running, that have paid off and are in larger houses and can afford to play to a quarter or half a house. Let them lead the charge, and then lets see what happens.

But I just dont know how I feel, quite frankly. I mean, I am fully vaccinated, and Im about to go onto the set in the studio, and last night we get a mass email saying somebody on our production has Covid. Contact tracing is in place, they are quarantining the people that have been around this person. But I said to my husband, Whoa, Im fully vaccinated and Im still scared! I dont trust anything. I am fully vaccinated and I dont trust anything. Youre talking to somebody who is so fucking gun shy at this point. I guess maybe I was born scared.

Christopher Fitzgerald I talk to my castmates from time to time, and one of our favorite things to talk about is, Whats it going to be like when we go back? Is it going to be hard? Is it going to be easy? Is it going to feel good? And I think Ive come to the conclusion that its going to be a combination of gratitude and sadness, at least for a while.

One of the moments we talk about a lot is the shows opening, probably the most dynamic moment in the show. Bobbie, the lead character, is coming home to an empty apartment, which is this small little box. The rest of us are all spreading across the stage, but throughout the opening number we all find our way inside that box, and then we all are moving around her, like this amoeba of her friends and her life. At one point in the music, we all snap our heads forward and start singing together, and as we sing together, the box starts to move downstage. The audience is unprepared for how close that box gets to them. They always cheer.

I just keep thinking about that moment. This idea that were all in this tiny little box as this company of actors, this company of Company. And were not going to have masks on, and were all going to be together, really close, singing about being a company, about friendship, all as we move forward, toward the audience.

Actors are survivors. We always have been. Were familiar with not working, and with not being sure where or what our next six months will be. But this year has been so profound, this triple whammy of Trump and Covid and unemployment, all at the same time. I think were all going to be crying in that moment, in that little box, and I dont think my tears are just going to be happy. I think theyre also going to be a release, you know? A release of this year.

Go here to see the original:

Broadways Company During The Covid Shutdown, Part 3 Of An Oral History: Being Alive Again - Deadline

Four US Navy officers have made history this week and breaking new ground in a traditionally white and male-dominated field.

For the first time in US Navy history, four women of color are now commanding war ships at the same time, NBC News has reported.

The four officers, Kimberly Jones, LaDonna Simpson, Kristel OCaas, and Kathryn Wijnaldum, recently said that there have been dramatic changes for women serving in the Navy over the years.

The Navy looks different in the fact that as an ensign, I looked around and at that time, there were not many senior female officers that I could necessarily go to for gender-specific questions, Jones, who joined the Navy more than two decades ago, remarked in an interview clip obtained by People magazine.

I may not have felt comfortable asking my male boss, Jones also said. Now, to their credit, they were phenomenal leaders. However, when it came time [for] some of those more intimate conversations on how to plan your career with a family, as a mom, that did not exist.

She added: And I was overseas, so the population was slightly smaller. And now walking this waterfront, there are leaders, there are role models, at every rank...That is something that I hope ensigns, young sailors, gravitate towards and take advantage of.

These four women are all based at Norfolk Naval Station, in Virginia. They are all Nuclear Surface Warfare Officers a qualification which is extremely competitive to obtain, according to the US Navy.

All four women have spent a considerable amount of their time serving aboard nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and in nuclear-related shore duty billets, the Navy noted.

Simpson said that while she was never discouraged from going after her career goals, she did not have many female role models.

The Navy has been very supportive of my journey and my professional training. There werent any voices in the Navy that said that I could not achieve this goal, Simpson said. The only limitation was the fact that women as a whole hadnt been on board combatant vessels until, I believe, it was 1994.

See the original post:

US Navy: for first time in history four women of color command war ships - The Guardian

GE Renewable Energy has made an agreement with Chicago-based Invenergy, a global clean energy developer and operator, to provide wind turbines for the 1.48 gigawatt North Central Wind Energy Facilities in Oklahoma.

The North Central Wind Energy Facilities project is a group of three wind farms in north central Oklahoma. GE will deliver 492 2.X-127s and 39 2.X-116 turbines. According to GE Renewable Energys press release:

The three wind farms are the 999-megawatt Traverse Wind Energy Center, the 287-megawatt Maverick Wind Energy Center, and the 199-megawatt Sundance Wind Energy Center. Maverick and Sundance will be completed in 2021 and Traverse in 2022.

The Traverse Wind Energy Center will become the largest wind farm in the US if it goes online as scheduled.

Tim White, GE Renewable Energys CEO, Onshore Americas, said:

GE Renewable Energy is delighted to be a part of this exciting endeavor, which is the largest combined onshore wind project in GEs history. We have a long partnership with Invenergy and AEP and look forward to working closely with them to help bring a significant amount of affordable, sustainable energy to the region.

The project will be owned by Columbus, Ohio-headquartered utilityAmerican Electric Power (AEP)s subsidiaries, Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSO) and Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO). According to Power Magazine:

PSO will own 45.5% and SWEPCO will own 54.5% of the project, which will cost approximately $2 billion, AEP said.

According to AEP, PSO received approval from Oklahoma regulators and SWEPCO received approval from regulators in Arkansas and Louisiana to acquire the North Central Wind Energy Facilities on a fixed-cost turnkey basis at completion in 2020. Both the Arkansas Public Service Commission and the Louisiana Public Service Commission approved the flex-up option, agreeing to acquire the Texas portion, which the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of Texas denied.

In June 2020, AEP CEO Nicholas Akins said in a statement about Texas denial [via Power Engineering]:

We are disappointed that our SWEPCO customers in Texas will not be able to benefit from the low-cost wind energy the North Central projects will provide.

The regulatory approvals we have received in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will allow us to move ahead with the North Central wind projects at full scale, saving our customers in those states approximately $3 billion over the next 30 years.

The Texas PUC has been in the news a lot this year. After Texas massive blackout crisis in February due to freezing weather, all three members of the Texas PUC resigned in March after pressure from legislators, as they refused to retroactively adjust the inflated price of power.

And just today, GovernorGreg Abbott (R-TX) named Will McAdams, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas and a former aide at the Texas Capitol, to the board of the Texas PUC. He will need to be confirmed by the state senate.

Photo: Invenergy

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GE lands largest combined onshore wind project in its history - Electrek

The more we look into the harsh extremes of Chile's Atacama Desert, the more we find. Phenomena both mystifying and wonderful, occasionally bordering on alien.

But in this incredibly dry place, it wasn't just the climate that was unforgiving. Its ancient human inhabitants, making do in a parched place not best suited to hosting them, traded in whatever they could get their hands on.

Sometimes, it seems, that was the brilliant feathers of colorful birds brought unceremoniously to a desert they didn't belong to, but were destined to be buried within.

"What we consider acceptable interactions with animals under our care was very different back then," says anthropological archaeologist Jose Capriles from Pennsylvania State University.

"Some of these birds did not live a happy life. They were kept to produce feathers and their feathers were plucked out as soon as they grew in."

Mummified scarlet macaw. (Calogero Santoro/Jos Capriles)

Capriles is something of a specialist when it comes to discovering the exotic oddities of pre-Columbian American culture.

This time, his mother Eliana Flores Bedregal, an ornithologist by profession came along for the ride, co-authoring a new study examining the life and death of over two-dozen mummified and partially mummified parrots found within the Atacama Desert.

In total, at least six species of parrots originally recovered from five of the desert's archaeological sites were studied in the research, with the remains variously dating from between 1100 to 1450 CE.

"The feathers of tropical birds were one of the most significant symbols of economic, social, and sacred status in the pre-Columbian Americas," the authors write in their study.

"In the Andes, finely produced clothing and textiles containing multicolored feathers of tropical parrots materialized power, prestige, and distinction and were particularly prized by political and religious elites."

Behind the folds of this marvelous drapery, the colorful birds likely lived a miserable existence in captivity, far from the Amazonian rainforests that were once their home.

(Capriles et al., PNAS, 2021)

Sometimes, the feathers were plucked elsewhere and imported into the Andes in special containers, but the remains of the 27 parrots and macaws analyzed here suggest many other birds were specifically brought to the desert for their vibrant plumage.

The feather trade in the region dates back much longer than this, at least to the Chinchorro mummies of around 5050 BCE. Thousands of years later, feathers were still a cherished feature used in garments, hats, headdresses, and other ornaments.

Most of the mummified birds examined in the new study were originally recovered from an archaeological site called Pica 8, located close to an oasis community within the Atacama Desert that still exists today.

Once upon a time, though, the people here buried their birds alongside themselves.

"Most birds were placed in direct association with human burials," the researchers write, noting the parrots' tails were often removed.

Sometimes the animals were positioned in elaborate stances, with beaks opened and tongues sticking out, perhaps tied to ritualistic practices invoking parrots' ability to mimic human speech. Others had their wings spread, as if to forever soar in the afterlife.

During their life on Earth, it seems many had their wings broken and their feet strapped, although the researchers also observe care was taken with some of the animals, with evidence of clipping of their beaks and claws, in addition to healing processes for fractures sustained by the parrots.

"We have absolutely no idea why they were mummified like this," Capriles says. "They seem to be eviscerated through their cloaca (a common excretory and reproductive opening), which helped to preserve them. Many times, they were wrapped in textiles or bags."

What is certain is that it can't have been easy to get these grounded birds to the desert. Transported by llama caravans, it's likely the journey from the Amazon would have taken months, the researchers think, although it's possible some of the birds were procured from regions closer to the desert.

Once there, they were held as valuable pets, treasured for their wondrous palette of feathers, with each enticing shade certain to be stolen.

The findings are reported in PNAS.

Excerpt from:

Mummified Birds in The Atacama Desert Reveal a Dark Side of History - ScienceAlert

The idea of being Black and poor in America often makes people think about the gun violence, drug trade and pain that wraps the existence of that reality. And becausethose factors are prevalent means that too oftenwe overlook the joys that make up the heart of the community. These joys exist by way of family gatherings, community affairs like block parties, and other forms of fellowshipping, with one thing tying all of these types of events together dancing. You better know how to dance.

My dad, one of the best dancers I know, once faked me out by telling me that we were going to the Exotic Auto Show, which comes to Baltimore every year around my birthday. So, we jumped in his car, picked my cousin up and headed down to the arena. Dad forgot his wallet, so we had to go back to the house and when I walked inside, "Surprise!" was yelled by my whole family and the bulk of my block. Before I could catch my breath, my cousins surrounded me telling me that I had to dance, my crush La Tesha was there, and it was a requirement. The only other option was me leaving my own party, kind of putting me in a dance or die situation. I was a little kid and didn't really have any moves (and would never really learn) but I quickly picked up the Black-Dude-Two-Step, which is a left to right, front-back movement that allows one to appear to be on beat for any song at any function. My friends still know I can't dance, but it doesn't stop me or them from joining in and celebratingthe love of something that is special to us. Author Hanif Abdurraqib captures the beauty of the history of dance and its relation to Black America in his new book, "A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance."

Abdurraqib, the award-winning andNew York Times bestselling author of "Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest" and "They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us"is back with a brilliant collection ofpersonal essays that circle around Black peopleperforming in the America, both publicly and privately. Abdurraqib joined me on "Salon Talks" recently and explained how "A Little Devil In America" covers everything from the true history of Don Shirley that was left out of the Oscar-winning film"Green Book" to how Don Corneliusbuilt his "Soul Train" empire.

Watch my"Salon Talks" episode with Abdurraqib here, or read a Q&A of our conversation below, to hear more about the history of Black arts, what COVID did to his sneaker collection and the enthusiastic dance moves that got him through high school in Columbus.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

I love how you love Ohio, man, Columbus. I love how you love where you're from. I feel like being from cities like Columbus or a place like Baltimore, I feel like we're always the underdog when we're fighting with different powers in New York, or Atlanta, or L.A., right? We come in and we do our thing and then we proudly go back home.

That's it, right? My parents are from New York, and so much of the pop culture that I consumed in the '90s, especially Black stories, were about like coastal stories, like "Juice," "Menace II Society," "Boyz n the Hood," all that. I realized at a pretty young age that there were Black people everywhere kind of living stories that were not dissimilar to those stories that I was consuming. I got really fascinated with regional Black culture. Baltimore is a really good example of this, where it's like nowhere else is like Baltimore and no one else are like the Black folks in Baltimore. And it's like that in Detroit too. I feel like Detroit is its own central thing. Loving where I'm from in a way, it's kind of just embracing my complete understanding of the way my people move in the city I love and understanding that it's not like anywhere else.

How have you been holding up with thisCOVID stuff and how are you handling the rollout of your new book when everything is virtual?

I'm going to honest, in 2019 and early 2020 I was on the road all the time, I did like 120 readings or something in that time. So if I'm being real, being home has been good. I wish it was under different circumstances and I wish it did not come with all of the tragedy that it's come with, both in my own life, but also globally, but I do think that I almost needed to slow down. I needed to hit a point where I could settle myself in Columbus and reassess my own priorities.

Now, putting the book out into the world, I miss the kind of physical nature of being in front of people and reading the work and hearing the way a room is reacting to the work in real time. But there's something about the accessibility of the virtual space that I've really enjoyed too, where I can connect with folks from all over, people who've come through from all over, and I do hope that's a trend that kind of remains post-whatever, post-a-pandemic world looks like if there is to be one. For me personally, I fell into healthier routines and I've been a little bit more generous with myself because it's just me and I'm just at home by myself. Spending that time alone is good.

Healthier routines like what? Like you changed your diet, or . . .

Well, a little bit. I spend some time meditating now. I have a more scheduled, thoughtful writing routine. My workout routine is a bit better. I'm sleeping better than I've ever slept. I'm getting like a solid eight hours of sleep, and it's just because I'm not always on the move. I'm not in like three different time zones a week. And all of these things lead me to be a better person, a better more careful, more thoughtful person, which leads me to be a better writer. It's all kind of interconnected for me.

That's fire. Sometimes I fear becoming a better person, because I think it'll mess my art up.

Nah. One, you're already a good person. You don't got to worry too much, but if anytime you become a better person, the art will follow. It really will.

Word. I've been following your work for a minute and I've always appreciated how much you love doing readings. It's a part that a lot of writers struggle with, even successful ones. They want to be able to protect the way they sound on the page. How are you going to try to keep that part of it together?

Everything's virtual. I have no in-person event planned until like November, and even that's tentativebecause it's so unpredictable. But I still try to kind of bring my all to the virtual reading space. So much of what I love about the in-person reading is just the sounds of the room and the sounds of the people in the room. It took a minute for me to adjust to the fact that I'm just like in my own house immersed in nothing but the sound of my own voice, and then silence. It's kind of like if you take the crowd out of the arena and you just hear like the feet squeaking on the basketball court. That's kind of jarring, but I still try to bring my all to the reading space. I write the work to be read out loud, I'm always thinking about the musicality of language and the pleasure of sound. So much of the work is written to be performed.

Speaking of performance here we have your amazing new book, "A Little Devil in America."

Thank you.

Can you first explain the title and just break down the cover for our readers?

The title is a quote from Josephine Baker's speech at the March on Washington, which is a speech that I love and a speech that often gets written out of the history of the March on Washington. People kind of cherry-pick Black history. Josephine Baker, at the March on Washington, gets written out, but I love that speech and that particular line comes from a point where she was looking out on the younger audience because she was a much older performer and a much older person coming back to the states for the first time in a long time and she looked out on that audience of younger people and she said this line about like, "Go and ask your parents about me. They'll tell you I was a devil.I was a devil in other countries and I was a little devil in America too." I love the way that Black folks remind people of their greatness and are unafraid to, but have to do it repeatedly, as Little Richard did for example as well. It felt fitting for the book.

I'm so hands-on with my covers. I take it real seriously, and we went through a lot of different iterations of the cover. We got really close sometimes, and I'd be like, "That's the one," and then I would sleep on it and wake up the next day and be like, "No, no, no, that's not the one. We got to do a different one." And we landed on this one. I landed on this because I really liked these photos of Lindy Hop aerials, and I knew I wanted a photo that showed Black people in the midst of something spectacular.

There's Willa Mae Ricker and Leon James's photo from 1943 doing a Lindy Hop aerial. I just love her face. I love that she's kind of like she can't even believe what she's doing. When I was writing the book so many times I was like, "I can't believe this book came so easily to me." I was like, "I can't believe this is happening." I wanted to capture that awe in the photo.

You start the book off with talking about dance marathons. It was a wild and crazy time to be alive. What was that world was like?

I didn't know these things existed, these Great Depression dance marathons, until about three years ago when I was working on the book, and a homie hit me to them. It was horrific. People who did not have much, did not have shelter or food were performing in this way where they were just dancing for, not just hours, not just days, but months, months and months and months and months. Some of them just to get shelter and three meals a day. In some cases the second place didn't win anything. If you danced for 1,457 hours, which some people did, you won, but if you danced for 1,456 hours and 55 seconds you got nothing.

That's crazy.

And that's just pretty horrific. I knew that it was an entry point into this idea of dance and endurance that I could use as a gateway to get into "Soul Train," and the somewhat marathon run that "Soul Train" had. Also, the "Soul Train" mind, which is less about endurance and more about precision and kind showing out in this small window of time. Of course the dance marathons were largely white folks. I was just fascinated by those parallels, those somewhat horrific parallels.

You're a sneaker guy. If you had to dance for 1,400 hours, what kind of shoes you wearing?

I'm thinking about those sacai Waffles, just because they're so comfortable. But I also just got those like Undercover joints with the Chaos and Balance on them, and those might be the ones too, because the cushion in the back is real. What are you wearing right now? What are you wearing out the house?

I'm wearing the newest sacais. I grabbed every colorway of them, but I'm not dancing 1,400 hours in those. Jordans still, bro, and just a lot of slip-ons.

A lot of slip-ons.

I feel like I'm Cali right now.

Yeah. I can't wait to get back out. I've gotten so many sneakers during the pandemic.

They're killing me. Oh my God. These sneakers, they've been killing me. I already know. I already know, and they're all in boxes.

All in boxes.

1,400 hours though, I think I might be going with some 992s or 991s, bro.

I forgot about New Balance. I only got one pair of 991s. I might have to put them on for that.

Another thing about this book I liked a lot is the way that you dropped in with bits and pieces of your personal story. One was about when you guys danced in high school and that was a way for the Black population of the school to connect. Could you dance?

I can't dance that well, but I'm an enthusiastic dancer. I know how to get from point A to point Z on the dance floor without f**king up anyone else's good time, which I think that's vital, because you have people who can really, really dance and you've got people who really can't dance. I like being in that middle ground where it's like I know how to stay out of the way and have my time in my little corner and let the people who can really dance take up a lot of space.

I don't need the spotlight, just a two-step. How did the rest of the school, like the non-Black population, respond to that?

It's wild, because when I look back at that time, ever since I wrote that piece in the book and people have read it, everyone wants to talk about it. When I look back at that time, I just thought this was happening at every high school all over the country. But it's so wild. High school, you're eating lunch at like 11:00 AM. We're having these like sock hops in a dark gym at like 11:15 in the morning, everyone's sweating, all these teenagers grinding up on each other and whatnot. Then we just got to go back to class. By noon, we're back in chemistry class just still sweaty or whatever.

It's an incredible phenomenon. It felt really innovative in a way because it was like the school's way of saying, "This is how we know we'll keep these people here, because if we let them leave during lunch they ain't coming back. We got to make something enticing enough to make them want to stay."

Much like in either city, to be Black in Columbus is regional. I'm from the east side and to be Black on the east side is different than what it is to be Black on the north side. In my high school there were Black kids from all over the city, and to have this point where we could all kind of come together and rock for a bit and then go back to our classrooms and be the people we are in our classrooms, it was kind of beautiful, because it let me in early on the fact that Black people can be multiple things at any time during any day.

It's crazy that in 2021 we still have to push that nerve that we're not a monolith. Some of us listen to this type of music, some of us are into that type of music, and then some of us love it all, and it's totally okay, like any other group of people.

You mentioned "Soul Train" earlier, and you write about Don Cornelius in the book. I think that was important for the culture just in general, because people don't know Don Cornelius was a mastermind, a business mind. He owned the whole franchise, right?

Yeah.

What should people know about Don Cornelius?

Coming up, he was a big deal in my house, mostly because those reruns would play. If you came up without cable, in Ohio, and Columbus specifically, you would still get WGN, the Chicago network, and they would just play old "Soul Train" reruns on Sundays all morning long. I just grew up as a kid immersed in Don Cornelius's cool. He was a cool mother**ker. The outfits, his voice, the way he talked, and the way that musicians revered him. Musicians really cared about showing up on "Soul Train," just showing out.

In my household he was someone who was really revered, and it was good for me as I got older to find out more about him, his business mindset and his full vision for the fullness of Black people. The era he came up in and what he saw in terms of the Civil Rights Movement and the way that he knew that music could be propulsive as a method to get people to freedom. He was visionary in that way.

Two of my favorite chapters in the book were one about you playing Spades, and then the other on Don Shirley, another person who people don't know enough about, until they saw the movie "Green Book," which you weren't a big fan of.

Nah, man.

I ride with you on that one all day. I wasn't the biggest fan of "Green Book," I'll just say that. Happy for the people involved and its success, but I wasn't a big fan of it. Talk about you as a Spades player. What is that Spades culture? Was it something you guys did for money, or was it something that you picked up as you found your way into your artist community?

Well one, I'll say as Spades player I'm much like a dancer, where it's like I probably need a partner who's better than I am, and then I'm steady, but I'm a get out the way. I don't want to give away too much of my spades.

Give away? Nah, you can't get out the way of your Spades. It don't work like that.

I definitely don't play it safe every hand, but one thing I'm really good at is looking at my hand and being able to pinpoint exactly how many tricks I could take. There comes a time to take risks. If a partner goes nil, I'm an elite. I can hold you if you go nil, almost no matter what. But it's because in my house we played Spades. I'm the youngest of four, so having older siblings and having parents who played cards and coming up in a neighborhood where people play cards and coming up around hustlers who play cards.

I don't even remember where I learned Spades, but I feel like I just learned it by watching. No one ever told me like, "This is how you play." I was just around cards. We played in high school for money. Definitely played in college for money because at the college I went to there weren't a ton of Black folks, and we all hung out together, and all we knew was how to play cards for money. College is where I really learned that depending on where you're from, people just play Spades differently.

Did you guys come up playing Tonk?

I played Tonk a little bit, yeah, but it wasn't in my house. We didn't play in Columbus. I didn't learn it until college.

It's such a regional thing that everywhere you go the rules are a little different.

I had no idea what it was until like one of my homies in college, he was from Alabama, taught me. I'm sure people play it in Ohio, but in my neighborhood no one was playing it. Spades is so fascinating to me because the story of Spades, in a way, is the story of Black migration where depending on where you land on the map, someone's going to play it a different way with a different language, a different set of rules.

And on Don Shirley. The "Green Book" movie didn't really do enough to show what the industry did to Don Shirley.

Yeah, and the thing about it is, I really wish that Hollywood would maybe divest from this idea of Black biopic movies because I think that so often the work is to condense Black life, a full Black life, into something that will make non-Black people feel good, or feel good about this vague idea of American unity, which that wasn't Don Shirley's job, and that wasn't Don Shirley's full life.

I can't speak for Don Shirley, but that wasn't, for me, the most interesting thing about what Don Shirley contributed to American culture. None of that was. Mahershala's performance was a beautiful performance, on the whole but that movie was not for me. As someone who grew up listening to Don Shirley and was very interested in Don Shirley, I probably went into that movie with the wrong expectations and came out of it very frustrated. But it also was a pattern of times I've gone into movies that are supposed to be made with a full Black life in mind and walked out understanding that the movie was made to placate a non-Black audience.

Hollywood is starting to be fascinated with also telling the stories of these courageous Black people through the lens of informants and snitches and the people that tried to bring them down, and I'm hoping this is a trend that will end quickly. Hopefully we get past that.

We got to.

When I read your writing and I always think, "Wow. This guy can write about anything," but it seems like that you are pulled towards music a lot, right? Your Tribe Called Quest book "Go Ahead in the Rain" being one of the great examples of that. What draws you to music as a fan or as a person who connects with it enough to dedicate a whole project to it? Are there any current artists that you feel like you could write a book on?

Oh course. Well, current for me is like folks who are still living who I think deserve their flowers, like Miss Patti LaBelle, or I was thinking about Gladys Knight the other night, or Sly Stone. These folks. But music has helped me make sense of the world. The way that music has created a map for me and unraveling my own emotional messes has allowed me a clarity that I can approach the world better with, and I think I owe an articulation of that in my work. I owe my work to that.

I owe how my life has been soundtracked. In the book I write about '02. I write about The Diplomats and Juelz Santana. I remember that era more than I remember most anything else. When a soundtrack is the most immense part of my lived experience, I think I owe it to that soundtrack to be real about that. I will say though, my next book is about basketball. I'm writing a book about Ohio, the high school era of basketball in Ohio from like '94 to 2001, the LeBron James era, because I've always wanted to write a basketball book, and I know I'm kind of preaching to the choir. I know Baltimore's high school basketball history is well-documented, and as well-documented as it is, it's still not enough, because you all got a history that's maybe better than any other city.

Bro, I'm writing Carmelo Anthony's memoir, so I've been in the basketball world the whole past week and I'm kind of like, "Oh, I want to go deeper."

I'm fascinated by the era of high school basketball and who makes it and who doesn't, and what making it is defined by. Then I got to thinking about Columbus and how we had some runs that were not like that, not as great as that, but like similar when I was coming up. Great ball players that came out of here, Michael Redd, Kenny Gregory, Estaban Weaver, that led to this LeBron James era. I wanted to write about that. So yes, of course I write about music primarily, but in the back of my head always there's a basketball book I want to get to, and I'm really excited to get to it next.

Your work does so much for living Black artists and I think it's extremely important. I don't know if that's the goal for you, but how do you see the larger context of your work?

I think so much of what I'm trying to do is give people their flowers in real time, or to re-contextualize someone's living so that it is fully appreciated before it gets swept away by history, or before it gets reformatted for an audience that doesn't have the best intentions for that person's full living.

When I think about someone like Merry Clayton, who I write about in the book, I wanted to give her her flowers through the only lens I could, which is deep gratitude before someone kind of wrestled that story away and then reformatted it to serve a different audience. It's kind of like plugging the leaks that history punctures. So often history punctures a legacy of these Black artists to make them more palatable, and I'm trying to plug those leaks to say, "No, no, this is a full person who does not need to be drained of their radical history, or their revolutionary history, or just the fullness of their life that did not serve the machinery of whiteness."

Facts. You create so much literature. You write a lot. You have a lot of stuff out. What are you doing right now as far as what kind of art are you consuming outside of just your own stuff? I know I get tired of myself.

I'm sick of myself right now because I'm in the book cycle. I've definitely been running into other art. I've been reading a lot of poems, a book, "Inheritance" by the poet Taylor Johnson, which I love a great deal. I keep it by my nightstand. The book "All Heathens" by Marianne Chan, which I've been rocking with for months. I've been reading a lot of Black punk zines, old and new, that I get from this spot called Brown Recluse Zine Distro. I've been really on old Black magazines that I get from like BLK MKT Vintage, like old Ebony. Just kind of immersing myself in the way profiles used to written, all this kind of shit. And music, man, every Friday I'm listening to new stuff. The album that I'm super on right now, Starrah's new album. Joyce Wrice's album.

And then sneakers, I've been on this tip lately where I've been trying to go back and get like OG joints, like original joints from the years. Early in the pandemic I got the original 2000 Space Jams, and I got these '94 Bred Jordan Ones that I had to send out to get resoled because the sole was kind of starting to crumble a little bit so I got those refinished.

I gave my nephew some original Space Jams, and this fool went out and hooped in them and they crumbled.

Yeah, you can't hoop in those joints. You got to take care of them.

The problem with the older sneakers for me is that technology has changed. Some Jordans from the '80s is not going to feel like the Retros. The Retros got like new cushion, new technology. They feel a little better. You ever think about that?

Oh yeah. Some of them '85s feel like you're walking straight on the concrete. And that's why I will wear them, but I'm a wear them like very selectively, like maybe once or twice a year. Not because I'm on some s**t like I got to protect them, but because some of them joints, if you wear them long enough in a day it feels like you're straight walking on the actual concrete with no shoes on because the cushion's not there. They were made kind of specifically for hooping in, where some of the Retros were made for fashion in a way. So I feel like around '96 is when they kind of started being better for just like everyday wear.

In Baltimore all we wore was like the Foamposites and Uptempos. I remember when the Pennys first came out and going to New York and playing this basketball thing. New York dudes were so in awe that somebody would not only spend $200 for a pair of sneakers. That was kind of rad back in 1996 for you to pay $200 for some sneakers, but let alone pay $200 and hoop in them. Foamposites becomes this big thing in my region, and then D.C. It goes back and forth with Baltimore over who came out with Foamposites, who came with the New Balance, who came with this and that.

I think for me, I have a couple pairs of Fives, but I'm really big on like Ones, Threes and Fours and 11s. It's funny, when I was a kid I would cop anything, but now it's like I look at Sixes and Sevens especially and Eights, Six, Sevens, Eights, I'm like, "Yo, I maybe gassed those up when I was younger, but these shits ain't hitting." Eights are so weird, because you can't even like tie in them, and like strapping them up . . . It's like, "Yo, I can't. These don't do it for me."

We could talk about sneakers all day. Can you drop a couple of words for some young artists trying to find their voice or just trying to figure out how to master being themselves? So many people feel like they got to sound like this person, or sound like that person.

I think I was lucky in that I came up reading widely and taking inspiration from a wide number of places, and through that I think that you build your voice, or I built my voice, out of the pieces of many other voices. That how I think you become an authentic self, is that you don't tie yourself to one writer or one artist and chase only that inspiration. You perhaps allow yourself to flow.

I'm as much Morrison as I am Virginia Hamilton, as I am Zora Neale Hurston, as I am Adrian Matejka, as I am Terrance Hayes, as I am Khadijah Queen, as I am Tyehimba Jess. All of these folks I'm borrowing from to build up a voice that feels authentically mine. Pursuing the excitements that I find in their work has informed my own, and then you're really yourself, because you're taking percentages of other people that make up your own and you're not taking the same percentages other people are going to take. Build your voice out of the many parts of others and you'll never be like anyone else.

Tell everybody when the books drop and where they can get it.

"A Little Devil in America" comes out March 30th. You can get it anywhere. Try to cop it from an independent book store if you can. Support those. If you're in a space that has a Black-owned bookstore, definitely slide through there. And the Black-owned bookstores have been so great to me through my career in general. Like Loyalty in D.C. and Source bookstores in Detroit and Marcus in Oakland, and a lot of these are institutions that deserve our support.

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From "Soul Train" to Don Shirley, new book celebrates the history of Black performance in America - Salon

SAN FRANCISCOScoffing at his ignorance and petulance, sources confirmed Thursday that local man Clint Williams, despite being a resident of the most affluent country in the history of the world, had the nerve to complain about being homeless. I mean, this is the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the history of all of human civilization, and hes out here grumbling that he doesnt have a place to sleep? said onlooker Vincent Bristow, who shook his head while watching the ingrate count out the change in his pocket to see if he had enough money to buy a cup of hot coffee. Just look around you at these towering skyscrapers and dazzling buildings that he gets to sit outside of every day. Nobodys life is perfect, but you have to put things in perspective: This is the United States of America were talking about! This guys basically won the lotto, and here he is griping that hes hungry. At press time, Williams was whining that there werent any public restrooms nearby where he could wash up before work.

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Man Living In Most Affluent Country In World History Has Nerve To Complain About Being Homeless - The Onion