RIP

[ProfPacker]

Still brings to mind the study Nickel and Dimed

[Happy_Go_Lucky]

Originally Posted by ProfPacker

Still brings to mind the study Nickel and Dimed

If I still taught school, ANY Barbara Ehrenreich book would be a 'must-read' in my class room. This country has lost its way.

[Kobi]

Paul Revere, a teenage businessman who found an outlet for his entrepreneurial spirit in the form of a campy rock 'n' roll band that capitalized on his name, wore Revolutionary War-era costumes and cranked out a string of grungy hits in the mid-1960s, has died. The founder of Paul Revere and the Raiders was 76.

Revere died Saturday of cancer at his home in Garden Valley, Idaho, his longtime manager Roger Hart told the Associated Press. After a near-constant touring schedule in recent years, Revere retreated six months ago to his adopted home state because of health issues, said his tour manager, Ron Lemen.

Along with singer and saxophonist Mark Lindsay, Revere, a keyboard player, formed a band called the Downbeats in Boise in 1959. Within a few years they would become Paul Revere and the Raiders, string together top-10 pop hits including "Kicks," "Hungry" and "Good Thing" and become fixtures of Dick Clark's weekday afternoon TV show "Where the Action Is."


"Just Like Me," a 1965 hit written by Revere and Lindsay, made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

Born Paul Revere Dick on Jan. 7, 1938, in Harvard, Neb., he grew up on a farm near Boise, where he learned to play piano. While still a teenager he opened a barbershop. At 18, with three barbershops to his name, he sold them to buy a drive-in restaurant and put together the band to attract young customers.

After some local success the Downbeats moved to Portland, Ore., in 1960 and with encouragement of their new manager, radio disc jockey Hart, renamed themselves Paul Revere and the Raiders. They recorded a 1963 version of "Louie Louie" that was eclipsed by another Portland garage band, the Kingsmen, but the Raiders were on their way to Hollywood.

Joined by early core members Drake Levin on guitar, Mike Smith on drums and Phil Volk on bass, the group performed a choreographed show in elaborate outfits complete with tri-cornered hats, brightly colored frock coats, white hose and knee-high black leather boots. In 1964, they signed a contract with Columbia Records as the label's first rock act and caught Clark's eye.

"From day one, we've always been a party band that accidentally had some hit records and accidentally got on a hit television series," Revere said in a 2000 interview with the Associated Press.

"We were visual and fun and crazy and were America's answer to the British music invasion. ... We just happened to be at the right time and had the right name and had the right gimmick."

Producer Terry Melcher honed the band's hard-edged, guitar-driven sound with Lindsay, the front man, providing the vocals. The blond Revere was content to remain in the background playing organ.

Besides performing as the house band on "Where the Action Is" beginning in 1965, Paul Revere and the Raiders appeared on Clark's later "Happening" shows as well as "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Tonight Show" and as themselves on the "Batman" TV show in 1966.

The band had 20 consecutive hits and reached its peak with John D. Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation" at No. 1 in 1971, but a revolving door of band members and changing musical tastes led to its decline. Revere maintained a busy pace of touring and appearing at state fairs, casinos and clubs.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituar...006-story.html

[Kobi]

Actress Marian Seldes, the Tony Award-winning star of "A Delicate Balance" who was a teacher of Kevin Kline and Robin Williams, a muse to playwright Edward Albee and a Guinness Book of World Records holder for most consecutive performances, died Monday at age 86.

Marian Seldes made her Broadway debut in 1947 in a production of "Medea," starring the versatile actress Judith Anderson, and later appeared in hits such as "Equus" and "Deathtrap." Her most recent Broadway outing was in Terrence McNally's "Deuce" in 2007, starring opposite Angela Lansbury.

Seldes was nominated for a Tony five times, for her performances in "A Delicate Balance," ''Father's Day," ''Deathtrap," ''Ring Round the Moon" and "Dinner at Eight." She won in 1967 for "A Delicate Balance" and won her second Tony in 2010 for lifetime achievement.

Her collaborations with Albee included "Three Tall Women," which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for drama, "The Play About the Baby," ''Tiny Alice" and "Father's Day."

But she moved easily from role to role, from Chekhov's "Ivanov" to Peter Shaffer's "Equus," from Ira Levin's "Deathtrap" to Tony Kushner's "A Bright Room Called Day" and Tina Howe's "Painting Churches." Her off-Broadway credits also include "The Ginger Man" and "Painting Churches."

Seldes' reliability and professionalism sealed her place in the Guinness World Records for a time after playing every performance during the run of "Deathtrap" from 1978 to 1982 — a total of 1,809 performances. Her record as most durable actress has since been broken by Catherine Russell, who logged over 11,000 performances in the off-Broadway production of "Perfect Crime."

From 1969 to 1992, she served on the faculty of the Juilliard School, teaching the craft of acting to such pupils as Kline, Williams, Patti LuPone, Laura Linney, Mandy Patinkin and Christopher Reeve.

Seldes also acted in films, in "Mona Lisa Smile," ''Home Alone 3" and "Celebrity." On television she appeared in "Nurse Jackie" and played Candice Bergen's aunt in "Murphy Brown" and Mr. Big's mother in "Sex and the City." She also wrote two books: a memoir, "The Bright Lights: A Theater Life," and a novel, "Time Together."

Seldes, a slim and elegant woman who often wore her hair pulled back, studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse and made her professional debut at age 17 in Robinson Jeffers' "Medea," with Anderson.

Her other Broadway credits include "Crime and Punishment," ''The Chalk Garden," ''The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore," Oliver Hailey's "Father's Day," for which she won a Drama Desk Award, Arnold Wesker's "The Merchant" and Kanin's "A Gift of Time."

In 1995, she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, marking 50 years in the profession, but she missed the ceremony because — typically — she was on tour with "Three Tall Women" in Los Angeles.

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/ns/obituary.as....x24tCzxO.dpuf

[Linus]

Geoffrey Holder, the Tony-winning actor, dancer and choreographer known to millions as Baron Samedi in Bond movie Live and Let Die, has died at 84.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29505646


http://www.latimes.com/local/obituar...007-story.html

[Kobi]

Former "Saturday Night Live" star Jan Hooks died on Thursday. She was 57 years old.

Hooks appeared on "SNL" from 1986-91 and most recently guest starred on "30 Rock" as Jenna Maroney's mother, Verna. She was a regular on "Designing Women" from 1991-93 and appeared on TV shows "3rd Rock From The Sun," "The Martin Short Show," "The Dana Carvey Show," "The Simpsons," "Futurama" and "Primetime Glick." While on "SNL," she was known for her recurring character Candy Sweeney of "The Sweeney Sisters." She also impersonated Bette Davis, Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Sinéad O'Connor, Jodie Foster and Hillary Clinton.

Originally, Hooks was considered for the 1985 "SNL" cast, but was passed over for Joan Cusack. She was hired the next season alongside Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman and Nora Dunn. In one of her most memorable sketches, she played Brenda the Waitress in "The Diner" with Alec Baldwin.

Hooks was born near Atlanta in 1957 and began her career as part of famed comedy troupe The Groundlings. Prior to joining "SNL," she landed a small but notable part in "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" as a tour guide at the Alamo.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/1...n_5961882.html

[Kobi]

Soft-spoken and clad in a subdued black robe of his monastic order, the Right Rev. M. Thomas Shaw seemed an unlikely choice in 1994 to lead one of the largest Episcopal dioceses in the nation. Yet his unswerving devotion to spirituality and his unwillingness to avoid political controversy turned him into one of the most visible and vocal religious leaders of his time.

For Bishop Shaw, once called upon to be a leader, fulfilling the will of God meant becoming a citizen of the world far beyond the doors of the serene monastery on Memorial Drive in Cambridge that was his home for nearly four decades. Though he preferred the life of a monk, he appeared in national TV interviews, lobbied State House officials, worked as an unpaid congressional intern, traveled to distant dangerous lands, and created programs to address urban violence, particularly among the young.

He also went online with “Monk in the midst: Bishop Shaw’s blog.” Still, his presence always reflected his background, and he wore his monastic garb whether riding the T to his downtown Boston office or walking through Washington’s halls of power.

Among Boston’s most powerful clergy, Bishop Shaw was an early, key advocate for gay rights and for the ordination of women, gays, and lesbians as priests in his denomination, and in a 2012 interview for a documentary, he let it be known that he was gay and celibate. Long before making his sexuality public, he guided his diocese through a stormy decade while a conflicted Episcopal Church decided whether it would consecrate a gay bishop and allow clergy to bless same-gender unions.

“The life of the church is always enhanced by including people that live on the margins of society – women, people of color, gay or lesbian people,” he told the Globe in 1997. “They have something profound to say about the Kingdom of God and they are the people Jesus specifically included among his disciples.”

At the same time, Bishop Shaw remained sensitive to conservative opponents of gay marriage at home and abroad. Even while advocating forcefully for gay rights within his denomination and beyond, he waited more than five years after Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2004 before giving priests permission to officiate at same-gender weddings.

“I have a longstanding reputation for supporting gay and lesbian rights, both in society and in the church, and I was surprised and delighted when the Supreme Judicial Court made its decision,” he told the Globe in 2004. “But this is one place where the state is ahead of the life of the church.”

He was a leading supporter of elevating an openly gay priest, V. Gene Robinson, to become bishop of New Hampshire. Nonetheless, to better grasp the deeply held opposition some cultures have to homosexuality, Bishop Shaw went to Africa in the late 1990s and immersed himself in the Episcopal Church’s health and education projects in Uganda and Tanzania.

A decade later, he traveled to Zimbabwe on a secret mission to express support for Anglican worshippers who were subjected to human rights abuses and to bear witness to their suffering through letters to US officials back home. “I don’t think I’ve ever been any place where the oppression has been that overt,” Bishop Shaw told the Globe upon his return.

To see close up how public policy is forged, he moved to Washington, D.C., in early 2000 and spent a month as a congressional intern working for Amory Houghton Jr., an Episcopalian and a Republican who was then a US representative from New York and now lives in Cohasset.

The following year, Bishop Shaw incurred the ire of Jewish leaders when he joined others outside the Israeli consulate in Boston to protest that country’s treatment of Palestinians. Uncharacteristically, he traded his monk’s garb for a purple cassock that announced the gravitas of a bishop. His participation surprised many Jews, and he subsequently spent years mending the rift through discussions with leaders in the Jewish community. Bishop Shaw continued to speak out for Palestinian rights.

Discussing his political activism in January 2013, when he announced plans to retire before learning he was ill, Bishop Shaw invoked the life of Jesus. “He was very out there in terms of critiquing a society that didn’t recognize the dignity of human beings,” he told the Globe. “And so I think because I’m a follower of Jesus, that’s my responsibility as well – I’m supposed to speak up on issues that diminish people’s dignity.”

Born in Battle Creek, Mich., on Aug. 28, 1945, Marvil Thomas Shaw III grew up in a devout family and believed early on that he would give his life over to God.

He graduated from Alma College in Alma, Mich., and received master’s degrees from the General Theological Seminary in New York City and Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

After being ordained to the priesthood in 1971, he was a curate at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, England, and then assistant rector of St. James Church in Milwaukee.

He entered the Society of St. John the Evangelist in 1975 and seven years later was elected its superior, serving a 10-year term. While he was the order’s leader, the diocese said, Bishop Shaw “was instrumental in developing the society’s rural Emery House property as a retreat center, establishing the Cowley publishing imprint for books on prayer and spirituality, and renewing the society’s longtime commitment to at-risk children in Boston through Camp St. Augustine in Foxborough.”

When he was elected bishop in 1994, he was 48 and was the first monk in the church’s history to serve in that position. Then and until not long before his death, he lived in the order’s monastery on Memorial Drive, a short walk from Harvard Square in Cambridge. His home was a small cell in the monastery, and he managed to pray 90 minutes a day, even after taking on greater responsibilities as head of the diocese. “I wouldn’t have the perspective I have on my struggles if I didn’t pray,” he told the Globe in 1996.

Those struggles began early when he was elected bishop. Serving initially alongside his predecessor, Bishop David E. Johnson, Bishop Shaw guided the diocese through tragedy and tumult when Johnson shot himself in January 1995. At the funeral, Bishop Shaw told mourners that “we know David fell in the struggle against despair.”

Then, 11 days after announcing the suicide, Bishop Shaw was a co-signer of a statement the diocese issued explaining that Johnson “was involved in several extramarital relationships at different times throughout his years of ministry, both as a priest and bishop,” including some that “appear to have been of the character of sexual exploitation.” That Johnson had been viewed as a tough enforcer of rules against clergy sexual abuse added to the sense of betrayal many felt. “We don’t want to keep anything hidden,” Bishop Shaw told the Globe a few days after issuing the statement. “Knowing everything will help the healing begin.”

During Bishop Shaw’s tenure, among his proudest accomplishments were programs he created to serve youth and to help reduce urban violence. A diocesan camp and retreat center opened in Greenfield, N.H., in 2003, while in the South End, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church initiated the Bishop’s Summer Academic and Fun Enrichment program, or B-SAFE, for hundreds of inner city youth. A graduate of the program, Jorge Fuentes, became a respected counselor and mentor, and his death by a stray bullet, across the street from his Dorchester home in 2012 was devastating for the diocese and Bishop Shaw, who presided over the 19-year-old’s funeral.

Bishop Shaw’s final blog post included a video of him speaking at the Mother’s Day Walk for Peace in 2013, when he was part of a contingent of more than 600 Episcopalians who walked in memory of Fuentes.

When Bishop Shaw thought the time had arrived to address his sexuality publicly, he took an understated approach, doing so in an interview while being filmed for “Love Free or Die,” a 2012 documentary about Robinson, who became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church when he led the New Hampshire diocese.

Bishop Shaw told the Globe he didn’t want his choice to be a celibate monk to be held up as an example that lesbians and gays in the clergy should also choose celibacy.

“My hope has always been … that we can move along this discussion about human sexuality in the best possible way, and I thought for myself the best possible way I could move it along as a celibate bishop was not by hiding it, but by not making myself the center of the discussion,” he said then.

In January 2013, he announced he would retire by year’s end. A few months later, he said that he had brain cancer, and he began radiation and chemotherapy soon after. Hr died Friday at the age of 69.



http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/201...brJ/story.html