Wednesday, November 14, 2018

On Tuesday, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, among other Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip, announced a ceasefire agreement with Israel. The agreement was brokered by Egypt and the United Nations.

A renewal of violence between Israel and militants in Gaza occurred on Monday and Tuesday. According to Hamas, hostilities resumed as a consequence of an Israeli raid within Gaza. The raid operation occurred on Sunday, killing seven Palestinian militants and an Israeli officer.

About 400 rockets were fired from Gaza. Israel’s Iron Dome air defensive system intercepted some of these, some missed their targets, but some still reached cities. Israel, meanwhile, launched over 100 aerial strikes on militant targets, and naval strikes against Hamas ships.

The latest confrontation marks the worst fighting between the two sides since 2014. The Palestian Ministry of Health reported seven Palestinians were killed, and Israel announced a Palestinian from Hebron was killed in a rocket strike on a residential building in Ashkelon. Others also suffered wounds, especially shrapnel wounds.

Prior to the recent violence, Israel and Hamas were making progress on a long-term diplomatic solution involving financial aid for Gaza. Israel’s assistance was to come with the condition that Hamas crack down on protests along the Israeli-Gazan border, as well as restrict flying incendiary kites into Israel.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Victoria Wyndham was one of the most seasoned and accomplished actresses in daytime soap opera television. She played Rachel Cory, the maven of Another World‘s fictional town, Bay City, from 1972 to 1999 when the show went off the air. Wyndham talks about how she was seen as the anchor of a show, and the political infighting to keep it on the air as NBC wanted to wrest control of the long-running soap from Procter & Gamble. Wyndham fought to keep it on the air, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. She discusses life on the soap opera, and the seven years she spent wandering “in the woods” of Los Angeles seeking direction, now divorced from a character who had come to define her professional career. Happy, healthy and with a family she is proud of, Wyndham has found life after the death of Another World in painting and animals. Below is David Shankbone’s interview with the soap diva.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Chelsea survived a Champions League scare today after coming back from 1-0 down to defeat Portuguese side Porto at Stamford Bridge in London. The first leg of the match ended 1-1, giving Chelsea the advantage thanks to the away goals rule, and Porto needed a win or a draw of 2 all or higher to advance to the next round. Porto fielded a defensive side, leaving Portuguese international striker Helder Postiga out of the starting lineup, while Chelsea featured Andriy Shevchenko and Didier Drogba on attack.

Shevchenko almost opened the scoring early in the game, having a poweful shot from 20 yard fly just over the bar and out of play. The early attack did little to inspire Chelsea though, as they looked sluggish for the first parts of the game. Porto took advantage of Chelsea’s poor start, and scored in the 15th minute on a counter attack. Lopez quickly passed the ball up to Gonzales in the center of the pitch, who split the defence with a well aimed ball that released Qauresma on a break away. The Portuguese player made no mistake about his shot, and slid it neatly past Petr Cech to give the visiting team the lead. Chelsea vainly attempted to draw level, but none of their first half chances were able to find the target to trouble keeper da Helton. Chelsea had a claim for a penalty nearing 35 minutes when Arjen Robben after he was apparently tripped up by Raul Moreiles, but the Dutch midfielded was awarded a yellow card instead for his theatrical dive. Chelsea’s defence supplied the most attack for the English Champions, as Ashley Cole made a fine cross into the box which was poorly cleared by Ricardo Costa, and the Ball broke for Michael Ballack. Costa was quick to justify his mistake and he poked the ball away from Ballack before he could get a shot away. The biggest worry for Porto came when Jorge Fucile was struck in the face by the trailing arm off a teammate, and left the field with blood streaming from his nose.

The second half saw Fucile retake the pitch, his injury obviously not too serious. Chelsea made a change to start the second half, adding John Obi Mikel in place of Claude Makelele. It took Chelsea only 3 minutes after the restart to get back into the match, and the goal came through Arjen Robben. The Dutchman cleaved a shot from 25 yards, and even though it lack power, de Helton was not able to get a grip on it and the ball slipped past him into the net. The goal tied not only the game, but also the series, and the scoreline would force extra time. Chelsea wouldn’t allow the game to get that far though, and Ashley Cole, Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack all contributed to the winning goal. A cross by Cole was headed down by Shevy, and neatly volleyed into the net by the German Ballack. Porto pressed, but the Chelsea defence easily coped, and Chelsea advanded to next round of the Champions League.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

A reporter from Wikinews recently interviewed Jim Babka, chair of Libertarian organization Downsize DC. The organization claims to have arranged for 22,158 people to send a message regarding the “American Freedom Agenda Act” proposed by Ron Paul, in addition to supporting many other laws. The full text of the interview can be found below.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Music documentary The Wrecking Crew received its commercial première Friday, screening in cinemas in Los Angeles and New York via Magnolia Pictures.

Two decades in the making, Denny Tedesco’s documentary observes and honours a group of session musicians collectively known as “The Wrecking Crew”. Tedesco explained he was moved to begin the documentary when he learned his father, guitarist Tommy Tedesco, had cancer in 1996. “When they said he had a year to live — and I always wanted to do this story about The Wrecking Crew — my concern was, if I don’t do it, it’s going to be the biggest regret of my life”.

Tedesco commented on his anticipation of audiences’ reaction at Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles, “People say, ‘aren’t you tired of watching it?’ I say, ‘I don’t watch it, I watch the crowd’.”

The documentary showcases interviews with the late Tommy Tedesco, guitarist Glen Campbell, drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, bassist Carol Kaye, and others, amongst the roughly 30 musicians that formed The Wrecking Crew’s loose roster. Cher, Nancy Sinatra, and Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys are also seen talking about the session artists.

The movie includes home footage of Tommy Tedesco, and photographs of The Wrecking Crew working in studios with artists Frank and Nancy Sinatra.

Originally completed in 2008, and screened at several festivals, the commercial release was delayed until recently as Tedesco needed to raise money to cover licensing costs of the one hundred and ten songs included in the film.

Tedesco explained: “We had a $750,000 bill before we could even release this film theatrically, so no-one was touching us. We still had this thing around our neck. Documentaries don’t sell, and music docs are the worst.” Tedesco described reaching out to sponsors to pay off publishers and labels to get the film into cinemas. “Every time I got money from a donation, I’d pay off a label or publisher.”

A Kickstarter campaign raised $300,000, which paid for licensing and session artists. Billboard reports the money was able to go towards the creation of outtakes for a future DVD. Tedesco said he wanted to keep outtakes of the interviews he conducted that didn’t make it into the movie. “I want to do outtakes of every musician, a lot of whom aren’t in the movie[…] Who are they? What did they do? I want to give everyone their say.”

The Wrecking Crew worked behind the scenes throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s with well-know bands and artists on memorable tracks such as Sonny and Cher, “I got you Babe”; Beach Boys, “California Girls”; Elvis Presley’s, “A Little Less Conversation”; and The Ronettes, “Be my Baby”.

Aside from the interviews, the documentary also includes footage of The Wrecking Crew, filmed by Hal Blaine. He dubbed himself a director as he joked around with the other musicians. “I had a camera, and I took it to work and I became a director of sorts. And I’d tell people like Tommy, ‘Hey, Tommy, do me a favour. I’m going to take a film of you. Just come walking into the studio, and all of a sudden pretend you’ve walked into a great big orgy going on here. There’s all these naked women and guys.’ And we’re laughing about it. I did that with Glenn Campbell, all the guys”, Blaine said.