Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Bruce: Wise Up! Work (athensnews.com)
"The New Yorker" is a very successful magazine, but when Harold Ross started it in 1925, the budget was so sparse that even essential items were in short supply. Dorothy Parker failed to show up for work one day, giving as an excuse the following day, "Someone else was using the pencil."
Clarence Page: Saving Rep. Jackson (chicagotribune.com)
When the news came out that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was under federal investigation, I found myself hoping in an odd Chicago-style sort of way that he was indeed guilty. I would hate to see the system punish an innocent man.
Froma Harrop: Poor Immigrants: Asset or Burden? (creators.com)
Dallas - America's fast-growing Latino population is famously hard working. It also has high rates for teenage pregnancy and dropping out of high school, two markers for poverty. Falling education levels should worry any country seeking to compete in the global economy.
Ezra Klein: The Obama administration's pipe dreams (washingtonpost.com)
The White House held a conference call [Sept 17] for Elizabeth Warren and various bloggers and writers. Most of it was what you'd expect, but Warren did mention that Rep. Barney Frank once told her that getting a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was a "pipe dream." … In fact, a lot of the Obama administration's accomplishments were [seen as] pipe dreams.
Jim Hightower: AT LAST, LARRY'S GONE
Thank God and Harvard - he's gone. But not before doing extraordinary damage to America's middle class and to the man who hired him. He is Larry Summers, chief architect of Barack Obama's squirrelly Wall Street policies.
T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.: Low Fat Diets Are Grossly Misrepresented (huffingtonpost.com)
Obesity continues to climb but not because of a switch to a plant-foods rich diet naturally low in fat and high in carbohydrate (TOTAL carbohydrate, that is). Rather, obesity increases as physical activity decreases and as sugary, fatty, salty processed food consumption increases.
The Swear
Play the song "January." Highly recommended.
Mark Morford: Forgive me I do not like The Arcade Fire (sfgate.com)
I do not know if it's a sign. I do not know if it portends things ugly and low, something related to aging and time, sadness and death, or if it's the exact reverse, and in fact illuminates some sort of higher truth, an enlightened and honest wisdom happily marinating for many years in dark rum and sultry chillout and classic Iron Maiden.
Donna Gaines: MY LIFE WITH THE RAMONES
G-d gave rock and roll to you, and put the Ramones on earth to police it. Whenever rock gets too up its own ass, too bloated, too toney, when it falls too far from grace, the Ramones' songs are there to enforce the law, to say, "No, that's not what it's meant to be, it's this way, simple, direct. And it belongs to you." Today your love, tomorrow the world. Adios amigos, gracias.
David Medsker: A Chat with Antony Langdon, Spacehog guitarist (bullz-eye.com)
I met up with the guitar player from Bush, and he was talking about how you're a retro band if you're from the '90s, or…what do they call it now…legacy bands. It's a strange time for music, for a band that's been around for a while, anyway.
Tom Lanham: Forever Smashing Pumpkins (csindy.com)
Despite all his rage, Billy Corgan is no longer just a rat in a cage.
Lee Klawans: Chicago musician Matthew Leone comes through surgery and is recovering
Matthew was the victim of a severe beating when he tried to aid a woman that was being choked by her husband. Matthew had just left his brother's apartment on his way to meet a friend around 12:45am when he saw the argument. The woman yelled for Leone to help her and he tried to break them up and calm the situation.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Send in the Clowns... Don't bother, they're here' Edition...
The House's No. 2 Democratic leader said today that comedian Stephen Colbert's testimony last week on immigration was "inappropriate" and "an embarrassment." Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California invited Colbert to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. But other Democrats weren't happy about her decision... House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told "Faux News Sunday" he thought the episode was more of an embarrassment to Colbert than to the House. But, he added, "I think it was inappropriate" that he testified...
House leader: Colbert was an 'embarrassment' - Politics - msnbc.com
Do you agree with Majority Leader Hoyer's assessment of Colbert's appearance?
1.) Yes... He made a mockery of the legislative process. What was Rep. Lofgren thinking?
2.) No... Congress, themselves, make a mockery of the legislative process, dagnabbit!
3.) More! More! Bring on Jon Stewart!
Send your response to
wrote:
said:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Correction
Chernolbyl 'Elk'
Hi Marty,
I'm sure you've gotten a bunch of these messages already, but the if the moose (Alces alces) in the photo is really an elk (Cervus elaphus), the radiation is much worse than we thought!
David S
Minnesota
Thanks, David!
Heh - and I grew up in Elk County...
Reader Suggestion
Ant control
Marty you wrote:
Got home and the kitchen sink looked like it had turned black. Then realized the black was really brown, and it was moving - ants!
Hundreds, if not thousands, of freaking Argentine ants.
We've had problems with ants in the past, but this was as if all the previous incursions were added together and multiplied by 100.
Found Windex to be wonderfully effective.
Have you ever tried dry yeast? It works very well, make sure to keep it away from pets though. The ants eat the dry yeast, then drink water and they blow up and die. Make sure to have some form of water for them to drink. If you see a ant hill, put the yeast by it. Argentine ants hmm, must be pretty strong to make that trip all the way from Argentina. Ok, I'll leave.
Uncle Sky
Thanks, Uncle Sky!
Once the big heat broke, they went away. I'm sure they'll be back. Sigh.
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Vic in AK
Termination Dust
Subject: Oh, by the way
Reader Comment
scrutiny
Subject: only the wealthiest are selectively independent of government scrutiny
In yesterday's E-page it is observed:
MacArthur winners don't need to tell anyone how they'll spend the grant money. There are no reporting requirements.
Which may be true, except that the IRS will always want to know.
DanD
Thanks, Dan!
Reader Comment
The Best Holmes
Hi Marty
Joe S showed a picture of the Best Sherlock
I ever saw, it was a sad day when he died.
Joe
Thanks, Joe!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hot and humid and icky.
Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
Tina Fey
Betty White will join "Saturday Night Live" cast members when they toast Tina Fey with the nation's top humor prize at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
White will join "SNL" comics and alumni Fred Armisen, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and show creator Lorne Michaels in awarding Fey the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Nov. 9.
They'll join top entertainers, including Steve Martin, singer and actress Jennifer Hudson and actor Jon Hamm who plays Don Draper on TV's "Mad Men."
The award show honoring Fey will be taped for broadcast on PBS stations Nov. 14.
Tina Fey
Pledges Free Bus Rides To Rally
Arianna Huffington
Website publisher Arianna Huffington has a ticket to ride, one for everybody who wants to get to Washington from New York for the rally scheduled by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert next month.
Appearing on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" on Tuesday, Huffington told Stewart that anyone who arrives at her office in lower Manhattan on Oct. 30 can hitch a free ride on one of her buses.
She said her "promise" is to have as many buses as people to fill them.
Arianna Huffington
Getting More Gay Friendly
U.S. Television
"The Good Wife" is getting a gay brother; new teen TV show "Hellcats" features a lesbian cheerleader; and as for "True Blood" -- TV watchers now need two hands to count the vampires who will suck the blood of either gender.
The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) characters on prime time U.S. television is growing, with 58 regular LGBT roles on network and cable shows this season, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) said in a report on Wednesday.
GLAAD said that 23 LGBT characters account for 3.9 percent of regular characters in scripted network shows like Emmy-winning comedies "Modern Family" and "Glee" in the 2010-2011 TV season, which started last week.
On mainstream cable networks, the number of regulars jumped to 35 from 25 last year, with HBO's surreal vampire drama "True Blood" taking the crown as the most inclusive program on TV with six recurring characters who are either gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
There are an additional 32 recurring roles on broadcast and cable TV shows, but GLAAD lamented the fact that there were no black LGBT characters on network comedies and dramas.
U.S. Television
DOJ Grant
Mister Rogers
The Pittsburgh company founded by television's Mister Rogers has received a $496,000 federal grant for a program that brings police and children together.
The Department of Justice announced the grant for The Fred Rogers Co. on Wednesday. The money will be used for a national rollout of the company's video program "One on One: Connecting Cops & Kids."
The program was created about 10 years ago to help build positive relationships between police and children. More than 220 police officers in western Pennsylvania have attended training sessions featuring the video.
The grant will fund 28 workshops across the country for 750 people. Many of those participants will then lead "Cops & Kids" workshops in their own departments.
Mister Rogers
Going 3-D
'Star Wars'
Lucasfilm announced Wednesday that the "Star Wars" films will be converted into 3-D and rereleased theatrically. All six films of the saga, beginning with episode one, "The Phantom Menace," and concluding with episode six, "Return of the Jedi," are expected to be released in theaters in 2012.
Lucasfilm and distributor Twentieth Century Fox have not yet set a release date. Industrial Light & Magic is supervising the conversion process, which it promises will be "cutting edge." Many previous conversions of films shot in 2-D, such as "Clash of the Titans," have drawn criticism for cheapening 3-D.
John Knoll, visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic said a proper conversion to 3-D "is a matter of taking the time and getting it right."
'Star Wars'
Tour Changes
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen will no longer get to venture into the Hawaiian surf during the tail end of his world tour.
The Canadian folk poet has scrapped plans to perform in Honolulu on December 4, with his promoter on Wednesday citing "prohibitive and insurmountable logistical issues."
Instead, Cohen has added a date at Vancouver's Rogers Arena on December 2, and a pair of shows at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, Calif., on December 5 and 6, promoter AEG Live said.
The Hawaii show was announced on September 7, one of four marking the final leg of Cohen's tour. Unaffected by the cancellation are the concerts scheduled for Portland, Ore., on December 8, and Las Vegas on December 10 and 11. Ticket holders for Hawaii will get a full refund, and first shot at tickets for Vancouver and Oakland, AEG said.
Leonard Cohen
Drops Out Of Play
Rosie Perez
John Guare's new play will go on at Manhattan's Lincoln Center but it will not include Rosie Perez.
The Oscar-nominated actress is recovering from a bone marrow procedure and neck surgery. She says she had to drop out of the historical play "A Free Man of Color," which premieres at Lincoln Center on Nov. 18.
Perez says her doctor was afraid the workload would land her back in the hospital.
Perez, who appeared in "Do The Right Thing" and "Fearless" hurt her neck while filming an episode of "Law & Order: SVU" in 2009.
Rosie Perez
Texas School District Bans Author
Censorship
Each winter, Humble Independent School District, located in a suburb northwest of Houston, hosts a literary festival. The all-day celebration of books, which alternates yearly between a children's literature and a teen lit event, has quickly grown into one of the nation's leading festivals. Last January's "Peace, Love & Books" gala at Creekwood Middle School featured nationally acclaimed authors and illustrators and drew hundreds of children and families, despite the damp weather.
But this school year, there will be no such celebration of books. Not because of budget cuts, and certainly not because of lack of interest. This school year's teen literature festival has been canceled because of a string of events that followed the banning last month of best-selling young-adult author Ellen Hopkins - just in time for the controversy to ripen for Banned Books Week, which is commemorated during the last week of September.
"Banning authors isn't the same as banning books, but the intent is the same," says Hopkins, whose most recent novel, Fallout, the final volume of her Crank trilogy, just debuted at No. 5 on the New York Times series list (which is devoted to series of three or more). The trilogy (which also includes Crank and Glass) has been lauded by educators and reviewers alike. Its popularity among teens is rooted in Hopkins' pull-no-punches story lines that tackle issues such as crystal-meth addiction, teen prostitution, suicide and incest.
But it's her no-holds-barred approach that has ignited the current controversy. Upon learning that Hopkins was scheduled to speak at this school year's festival, several parents complained to the school board. The superintendent, after consulting with the head librarian, instructed the festival's organizers to remove Hopkins from the roster and rescind the invitation.
Since her books are available in Humble libraries, and because she had appeared at high schools in the district last year, Hopkins was shocked by the snub. After much soul-searching, she reached out to the other young-adult authors who were scheduled to participate. Pete Hautman, who in years past had been disinvited from appearances elsewhere after his work was deemed "inappropriate," withdrew from the festival. Then, in a show of solidarity, Matt de la Pena, Melissa de la Cruz, Brian Meehl and Tera Lynn Childs all followed suit. The district, in turn, canceled the event altogether. "As authors," Hopkins recently blogged, "we must maintain a unified voice against the idea that one person, or even a few, has the right to decide for everyone else what they are allowed to read, or what information they can have access to."
Censorship
Relaxes Censorship
Singapore
Singapore on Wednesday partially relaxed television broadcast guidelines allowing cable operators to screen movies containing nude scenes or explicit violence.
By the end of next year, cable operators will be able to offer Restricted 21 (R21) movies to pay-to-view subscribers, the ministry for information, communications and the arts (MICA) said in its 2010 censorship review.
Under the new guidelines, cinemas located in downtown Singapore can continue to screen R21-rated movies such as Hollywood's gay biopic "Milk" which won Sean Penn the best actor Oscar last year for his portrayal of a homosexual politician.
Singapore
Studio Bedbug Problem
Howard Stern
The office where shock jock Howard Stern airs his show has joined the ever-growing list of New York City buildings hit by bedbugs.
Stern said on his Sirius XM Radio show that the building was treated over the weekend and was 100 percent bedbug free on Monday.
He said his limousine also had to be fumigated after dogs sniffed out the bloodsuckers there.
The pests have been discovered in theaters, clothing stores, office buildings, housing projects and posh apartments throughout the New York City, and a resurgence of bedbugs is being seen across the U.S.
Howard Stern
Fake Pimp Tries To 'Punk' CNN Correspondent
James O'Keefe
A conservative activist known for making undercover videos plotted to embarrass a CNN correspondent by recording a meeting on hidden cameras aboard a floating "palace of pleasure" and making sexually suggestive comments, e-mails and a planning document show.
James O'Keefe, best known for hitting the community organizing group ACORN with an undercover video sting, hoped to get CNN Investigative Correspondent Abbie Boudreau onto a boat filled with sexually explicit props and then record the session, those documents show.
O'Keefe is best known for making a series of undercover videos inside ACORN offices around the country in 2009. The 40-year-old liberal group was crippled by scandal after O'Keefe and fellow activist Hannah Giles allegedly solicited advice from ACORN workers on setting up a brothel and evading taxes.
O'Keefe's next big splash ended with his arrest after he taped associates entering Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans posing as telephone repairmen. He ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of entering a federal office under false pretenses and is now on probation.
James O'Keefe
Stars Quit Discovery Show
"Deadliest Catch"
A trio of stars of Discovery's hit reality series "Deadliest Catch" have left the show.
Capts. Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand -- who were sued earlier this month by Discovery for allegedly not performing work on a planned spinoff special -- as well as Capt. Sig Hansen, said in a statement Tuesday that they were "unable" to continue on the series due to the litigation.
A statement from Discovery was not forthcoming.
The network sued the Hillstrands for $3 million claiming they failed to show up to finish work on "Hillstranded," a planned "Catch" spinoff. The Hillstrands' lawyer Jeff Cohen then called the suit an attempt to "extort" his clients and said the lawsuit could force them to sell their boats and fire their crews. Hansen, also repped by Cohen, later weighed in, backing the Hillstrands, slamming Discovery and saying, "I want people to know the captains stand together, and me and my brothers support them 100 percent."
"Deadliest Catch"
Settles Lawsuit
Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan no longer has a beef with Cocoa Pebbles.
The wrestler sued the cereal maker Post Foods LLC in May, claiming his likeness was being used in an ad without his permission. The St. Petersburg Times reported Wednesday that the suit had been settled.
Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, took issue with a "Cocoa Smashdown" TV ad featuring a blond-haired wrestler with a championship belt and mustache that resembled Hogan.
Hogan's attorney, Joseph W. Bain, wouldn't disclose the terms of the settlement, but says the commercial is no longer being aired and the lawsuit has been dismissed.
Hulk Hogan
Resigns From Live Nation
Barry Diller
Barry Diller, the media mogul who claimed credit for the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, will resign as chairman of the merged company after a boardroom power struggle with another media giant and director, John Malone, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
Live Nation Entertainment Inc.'s stock has plummeted this year following a disastrous summer concert season. Since hitting a high of $16.90 in late April, shares are down 41 percent, trading late Wednesday at $9.97.
The troubles were brought to light at an investor meeting in July, when the company said its adjusted operating income for 2010 was expected to be $405 million, down from $445 million last year, despite the benefits of its merger. That day alone chopped 11 percent off the shares.
Barry Diller
Jesus Loves The Ponies
"Secretariat"
That Disney has been marketing its October 8 release "Secretariat" to horse aficionados and sports enthusiasts is obvious.
But unless you're an influential Christian -- preferably one with a popular website -- you probably didn't know that the studio also has been leaning on the strategy employed by "The Blind Side" by going after what industry insiders like to call the "faith-based audience."
Director Randall Wallace seems to be handling the bulk of the marketing on the Christian front, which makes sense because the "Braveheart" screenwriter repeatedly has said that his faith informs his filmmaking, a reverence perhaps best displayed with his direction of 2002's "We Were Soldiers."
Disney PR types haven't been shy about comparing "Secretariat" to "Blind Side," which is understandable given that studio head Rich Ross once lamented that Disney, not Warner Bros., should have distributed the latter film. Additionally, there no doubt is some wishful thinking at Disney owing to "Blind Side's" heavenly $256 million haul at the domestic box office.
"Secretariat"
'Death Ray' Hotel
Vdara
The tall, sleek, curving Vdara Hotel at CityCenter on the Strip is a thing of beauty.
But the south-facing tower is also a collector and bouncer of sun rays, which -- if you're at the hotel's swimming pool at the wrong time of day and season -- can singe your hair and melt your plastic drink cups and shopping bags.
Hotel pool employees call the phenomenon the "Vdara death ray."
A spokesman for MGM Resorts International, which owns Vdara, said he prefers the term "hot spot" or "solar convergence" to describe it. He went on to say that designers are already working with resort staff to come up with solutions.
Vdara
Skeleton Came From Mediterranean
Stonehenge
A wealthy young teenager buried near Britain's mysterious Stonehenge monument came from the Mediterranean hundreds of miles away, scientists said Wednesday, proof of the site's importance as a travel destination in prehistoric times.
The teen - dubbed "The Boy with the Amber Necklace" because he was unearthed with a cluster of amber beads around his neck - is one of several sets of foreign remains found around the ancient ring of imposing stones, whose exact purpose remains unknown.
The British Geological Survey's Jane Evans said that the find, radiocarbon dated to 1,550 B.C., "highlights the diversity of people who came to Stonehenge from across Europe," a statement backed by Bournemouth University's Timothy Darvill, a Stonehenge scholar uninvolved with the discovery.
The skeleton, thought to be that of a 14- or 15-year-old, was unearthed about two miles (3 kilometers) southeast of Stonehenge, in southern England.
Stonehenge
In Memory
Arthur Penn
Director Arthur Penn, a myth-maker and myth-breaker who in such classics as "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Little Big Man" refashioned movie and American history and sealed a generation's affinity for outsiders, died Tuesday night, a day after his 88th birthday.
After first making his name on Broadway as director of the Tony Award-winning plays "The Miracle Worker" and "All the Way Home," Penn rose as a film director in the 1960s, his work inspired by the decade's political and social upheaval, and Americans' interest in their past and present.
Penn's other films included his adaptation of "The Miracle Worker," featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Anne Bancroft; "The Missouri Breaks," an outlaw tale starring Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson; "Night Moves," a Los Angeles thriller featuring Gene Hackman; and "Alice's Restaurant," based on the wry Arlo Guthrie song about his being turned down for the draft because he had once been fined for littering.
Penn was most identified with "Bonnie and Clyde," although it wasn't a project he initiated or, at first, wanted to do. Warren Beatty, who earlier starred in Penn's "Mickey One" and produced "Bonnie and Clyde," had to persuade him to take on the film, written by Robert Benton and David Newman and inspired by the movies of the French New Wave. (Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard each turned down offers to direct the film).
It turned out that Penn, in his 40s when he made "Bonnie and Clyde," found kinship with the gorgeous stars, played by Beatty and Faye Dunaway, and with the story, as liberal in its politics as it was with the facts - a celebration of individual freedom and an expose of the banks that had ruined farmers' lives.
The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, with Estelle Parsons winning for best supporting actress, and is regarded by many as the dawn of a golden age in Hollywood, when the old studio system crumbled and performers and directors such as Penn, Beatty, Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese enjoyed creative control.
Penn, who had fought - and lost to - the studios over the editing of such early films as "The Left Handed Gun" and "The Chase," now was able to realize a long-desired project - an adaptation of "Little Big Man," based on the Thomas Berger novel.
None of Penn's other films had the impact of "Bonnie and Clyde," but the director regarded "Little Big Man," released in 1970, as his greatest success, with Dustin Hoffman playing the 121-year-old lone survivor of Custer's last stand. It was, again, a violent and romantic overturning of the past and an angry finger pointed at the war and racism of the present.
Penn earned Academy Award nominations for both films and for his first movie, "The Miracle Worker," based on the Broadway show about Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, played by Bancroft. Among Penn's other stage credits: "All the Way Home," which won both the Tony and Pulitzer Prize in 1961 as best play; "Two for the Seesaw"; the musical version of "Golden Boy"; and "Wait Until Dark."
Penn traced his affinity for alienated heroes and heroines to the trauma of his childhood. Truffaut's film "The 400 Blows," he once said, "was so much like my own childhood it really stunned me."
He was no filmgoer as a child; books and baseball mattered more. Penn was frightened by a horror picture when he was 5 and said he did not see another movie until his teens, when Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" "staggered" him.
Along with Welles and Charlie Chaplin, Penn greatly admired Akira Kurosawa and the French New Wave directors, especially Truffaut and Godard.
Penn's 1960s success was bracketed by frustration. Early in his career, he was so angered by how Warner Bros. changed "The Left Handed Gun," a Western released in 1958, that he stopped making movies for years and turned to Broadway. He was fired from "The Train," a 1964 film, over disagreements with the lead actor, Burt Lancaster. And none of his later works found favor at the box office, though several - "Night Moves" (1975), "The Missouri Breaks" (1976) and "Four Friends" (1981) - won critical acclaim.
Penn decided to live in New York, rather than Los Angeles, as Hollywood soured on his social vision. Broadway, too, seemed increasingly drawn to blockbuster musicals rather than serious drama, further marginalizing Penn.
Arthur Hiller Penn was born in Philadelphia Sept. 27, 1922, the son of Harry and Sonia Penn and brother of Irving Penn. Although both sons were involved in the visual arts, Arthur Penn later said that he saw little in common in their work and rarely discussed the ties between them. (Beatty would claim the director was influenced profoundly by his brother, known for a spare, but photographic style.)
Penn joined the Army during World War II, formed a dramatic troupe at Fort Jackson, S.C., was often in trouble for behaving disrespectfully to his superiors and was in an infantry unit that fought in the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he studied literature in Italy for two years, then returned to New York, where he found work as a floor manager on NBC-TV's "Colgate Comedy Hour."
Arthur Penn
In Memory
Ed Wiley Jr.
Ed Wiley Jr., a jazz and blues saxophonist who recorded the 1950 hit "Cry, Cry Baby" and is considered an early influence in rock 'n' roll, has died in North Carolina. He was 80.
Ed Wiley III said Wednesday his father was leaving church in Garner on Sunday when he collapsed and struck his head. The elder Wiley slipped into a coma and died the next day at a Raleigh hospital.
In 1950, the Houston native produced "Cry, Cry Baby," which reached No. 3 on the Billboard charts. In later years, he performed with artists ranging from jazz-blues guitarist Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown to the late R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass.
Ed Wiley Jr. is survived by his former wife, a sister, three sons, three daughters, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Ed Wiley Jr.
In Memory
Dick Griffey
Dick Griffey, a key figure in black music whose record label SOLAR churned out classic R&B hits including "Fantastic Voyage" and "Rock Steady," has died. He was 71.
Griffey died Friday in Los Angeles of complications from quadruple bypass surgery, according to a family statement released Tuesday. The Nashville, Tenn.-born entreprenueur was instrumental to soul and funk music and in black entertainment.
Island Def Jam Chairman and CEO Antonio "L.A." Reid, who got his start with SOLAR as a member of the group the Deele, said Wednesday that SOLAR made black pop music for the 1980s and was a cultural force.
SOLAR was home to such top acts as the Whispers, Shalamar, Lakeside, Midnight Star and Klymaxx - groups that helped keep the label at the forefront of R&B music with hits including "As the Beat Goes On," "Second Time Around" and "I Miss You."
Griffey is also credited with giving the upstart production duo of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis early work paving the way for their blockbuster songwriting and production career. SOLAR was also home to the group the Deele, which featured Reid and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Babyface.
Griffey's first major success came as a concert promoter, when he worked with superstar acts such as Stevie Wonder and the Jacksons.
But Griffey soon turned his talents to creating new hitmakers. In 1975, after working for Don Cornelius as the talent coordinator on "Soul Train," he partnered with Cornelius to start Soul Train Records. Cornelius and Griffey split two years later, and Griffey went on to found SOLAR Records.
Griffey spent his latter years engrossed in African affairs. He was a supporter of South Africa's African National Congress and later established a trading company in West Africa and built a school for girls in Ghana in honor of his mother.
Survivors include his wife and five children.
Dick Griffey
In Memory
Greg Giraldo
Comedian Greg Giraldo, known for his stint as a judge on Last Comic Standing and Comedy Central roasts, has died at age 44 from an accidental prescription drug overdose, reports TMZ.
Fellow comedian Jim Norton announced the death on his official Twitter page saying, "Greg Giraldo passed away today. This is the last photo of us together, taken June 28 at Noam's wedding. RIP buddy." The comedian had been in a New Jersey hospital since he was found unconscious in his hotel room on Saturday.
Giraldo was a Harvard-educated lawyer before getting into stand-up comedy. He became a staple on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and The Howard Stern Show as well as his notable appearances on Comedy Central's roasts, including the most recent one with David Hasselhoff.
The comedian was a father of three and was open about his past substance abuse. Giraldo was scheduled to perform at the New York Recovery Rally at Randall's Island Park in NYC earlier on Saturday to mark National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.
Greg Giraldo
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