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People Magazine’s ‘Most Beautiful’ Issue: Kerry Washington, Gabrielle Union, Halle Berry and Kelly Rowland Featured

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2013
Halle Berry, Gabrielle Union, Kelly Rowland, and Kerry Washington
Halle Berry, Gabrielle Union, Kelly Rowland, and Kerry Washington are featured in the 2013 People magazine ‘Most Beautiful’ issue. (Photos: Getty Images)

People magazine released details on its annual “Most Beautiful” issue, which featured Beyonce on the cover last year. This year, the ever-esteemed title goes to actress and mother of two, Gwyneth Paltrow.
The issue also features such beauties as Kerry Washington, Kelly Rowland, Halle Berry and Gabrielle Union. Halle, Kerry and Kelly win the distinction of being on the list of the 10 most beautiful people in the world according to People magazine, in the eighth, second and seventh spot respectively.  It’s Kelly Rowland’s first time appearing in the issue, and Halle Berry once napped the top spot with a cover. 
Read the rest of this story on Clutch Magazine.

Born On This Day in 1917: American Musical Legend Ella Fitzgerald

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2013

Ella FitzgeraldElla Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the “First Lady of Song”, “Queen of Jazz”, and “Lady Ella”, was an American jazz vocalist with a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6). She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a “horn-like” improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
Fitzgerald was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of her 59-year recording career, she sold 40 million copies of her 70-plus albums, won 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.
ella_fitzgeralds_96th_birthday-1212009-hpAs Google honors Ella with her own Google Doodle today (pictured left), learn more about her life and music on Wikipedia.org.  Also, it is truly worth watching all seven minutes and thirty-nine seconds of the video below as Al Jarreau and Nancy Wilson honor Ella with a spectacular version of one of her biggest hits, “A Tisket, A Tasket” at the 1988 NAACP Image Awards.  Then, after 71 year-old Fitzgerald receives her award, she sings a dynamic, swinging, commanding version of “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” that is not to be missed:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AYin310AaI&w=420&h=315]
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

SékouWrites Launches BumperCandy.com, Automotive Website For Women

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2013
SekouWrites (photo by Brittney M. Walker)

Author, journalist, former Uptown Magazine editor and founder of SimplyRides.com, SékouWrites, has expanded his automotive-lifestyle business with the launch of BumperCandy.com, a multicultural women’s-interest website featuring beautiful cars and the lifestyle that comes with owning them. BumperCandy.com joins SimplyRides.com under the banner of Sékou’s newly created Dubbnet Networks, an assortment of automotive lifestyle websites tailored to audiences with unique interests.

“Ironically, my childhood career goal was to be a car designer,” says Sékou about his new-found path. “Later, when I was the Managing Editor of Uptown Magazine, I edited the car section to reach an audience of folks who are interested in cars but aren’t very interested in what’s under the hood. Once I started writing the car section myself, several women told me that they liked the way I covered automotive and I realized there was a niche for readers who care about the aesthetics and lifestyle associated with automobiles but don’t like to get bogged down by car jargon.”

Ed Gordon Media Announces National Syndication of ‘Conversations With Ed Gordon’

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2013

ed gordon

NEW YORK, NY – Ed Gordon Media announced today the syndication of “Conversations with Ed Gordon,” a quarterly, one-hour special with award-winning journalist and renowned interviewer, Ed Gordon, serving as host and executive producer. The specials will be aired nationally, including on all ten NBC owned and operated affiliates. The first special begins airing April 28, 2013.  Airdates, times and markets can be found on www.edgordon.net/conversations.htm.

Gordon, known for in-depth and exclusive interviews, will do it again with a stellar line-up of guests for the first special. Comedian Kevin Hart, one of today’s hottest entertainers, talks with Gordon on location in Los Angeles about his record-breaking concert tour and hit television show. Hart also confronts recent criticism surrounding a controversial “color” joke.
kevin hart & ed gordonKevin Hart on why he doesn’t address media/social network criticism:
“They want to make something out of nothing.  So if you give ammunition, which is a reply, an excuse or a constant apology, you’re setting yourself up for more comments.”
On wanting to be on the list of the greatest comedians of all-time:
“As long as my name is in there, I don’t care if it’s dead last, as long as I am in there. That means people understood my work ethic and understood that I love to do what I am doing now…making people laugh and that’s it.”

Canadian Group to Honor Morgan Freeman for Fighting Racism

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2013

Actor Morgan Freeman accepts the Cinema Icon Award at the CinemaCon awards ceremony at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace during CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, on April 18, 2013 in Las Vegas
Morgan Freeman will receive a special award in Canada next month for his efforts to combat racism.
The veteran actor, currently starring opposite Tom Cruise in “Oblivion,” will be given the Key of Knowledge Award in Toronto by Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
During the event, to be held May 6, Freeman will take part in a question-and-answer session moderated by Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman, who worked with the actor on “Prom Night” in Mississippi, a 2009 documentary about the first ever racially integrated prom in Charleston.
Proceeds from ticket sales will go towards establishing the Morgan Freeman Scholarship Fund for international students at the university, according to Canada’s National Post.
article via eurweb.com

Sequel Already Planned for Ice Cube/Kevin Hart Film ‘Ride Along’

By goodblacknews on April 24, 2013

 

Ice-Cube-Kevin-Hart-Ride-Along-Set
A sequel is already in the works for the upcoming Ice Cube/Kevin Hart comedy “Ride Along,” which isn’t due in theaters until January.
As previously reported, the Tim Story-directed Universal project stars Cube as a tough cop who takes his sister’s future security guard husband (Kevin Hart) on a 24-hour ride-along which the cop hopes will scare the guy out of marrying his sister.
Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, who were among several scribes who worked on the original, are in preliminary discussions about scripting a sequel that could be put into production months after the first film opens, according to Deadline.com.
Of course, if the film bombs at the box office, it could stop the sequel in its tracks, but according to Deadline, Universal sees it as a high concept comedy made with solid elements at a price, ingredients ripe for sequels.
article via eurweb.com

Celebrity Brewmaster Garrett Oliver Educates on Crafting Beer

By goodblacknews on April 23, 2013

Brooklyn brewmaster Garrett Oliver. (Credit, photographer Brett Casper)
Brooklyn brewmaster Garrett Oliver. (Credit, photographer Brett Casper)

If you want good beer, sometimes you just have to brew it yourself. That’s just what Garrett Oliver does as the brewing chief of one of the most renowned microbrewery firms in America.
The brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery, Oliver is known for his unique approach to creating flavorful beer, and is sought out as a lecturer on the subject. Also known as the world’s leading beer scholar, his book, The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food, can help eager beer enthusiasts learn more about his area of expertise from the comfort of home.
To get a taste of his wisdom right away, read on as Garrett Oliver spills his secrets and tells us all we ever wanted to know about beer, but were afraid to ask.
Garrett, let’s start at the beginning: You are a graduate of Boston University, where you received a degree in Broadcasting and Film. How did you become a brewmaster? That must have been an interesting path.
In my senior year at Boston University I ran all student entertainment for the school, including clubs and some pretty big concerts. After I graduated, I moved to London, where I ran the concert hall for the University of London. At the same time, of course, I was going to the pub with friends. I fell in love with pubs, but the big surprise was the beer. It wasn’t very strong, but it was dark, rich, complex and flavorful. After a year in London I traveled around Europe and tasted all sorts of beer I’d never heard of before. And then I arrived back to the United States and discovered something awful – we didn’t really have any beer. All we had was a sort of “beer facsimile” that bore the same relationship to beer that “American cheese” slices bear to real cheese. So I started brewing beer at home, not because I was interested in making beer, but in order to HAVE some beer.
Eventually I went to work in 1989 at a pioneering brewpub called Manhattan Brewing Company, which was in Soho. I apprenticed to a British brewmaster and learned the professional side of brewing. From there I went to Brooklyn Brewery in 1994, and in 1996 we opened the brewery in its current site.

Brooklyn Academy of Music Stages All-Black ‘Julius Caesar’

By goodblacknews on April 23, 2013
The world-renowned Royal Shakespeare Company returns to BAM with a new twist on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Set in present-day Africa and featuring an all-black cast, this visionary production echoes recent regime struggles throughout the continent. TheAs you find your seat at BAM’s recent production and U.S. premiere of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar, a group of black actors cavort on stage, laughing and joking, casually passing the day in what appears to be a West African market place, immediately distinguishing this production of Julius Caesar from the Shakespeare you might remember from your 8th grade reading list.

Certainly less romantic, and probably for that reason less popular than say Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has nonetheless surfaced in the past year in a modern day prison in the Triviani brothers’ film Caesar Must Die, in an all-female production staged at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, and now in an all-black production by Gregory Doran, using the political upheaval that has plagued modern day Africa as its backdrop.
Doran’s interpretation takes this classic drama’s transcendent themes – the corrupting influence of personal ambition, the fickle nature of public favor, and the unreliable symbols we pursue in making meaning of the world around us, just to name a few – out of the cool, limestone halls and monuments of ancient Rome, making them work and sweat under the hot, unflinching glare of the African sun.

Snoop Lion 1st Guest Editor of Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy; Offers Listen of New "Reincarnated" CD

By goodblacknews on April 23, 2013


In the 20 years since Snoop Dogg released his genre-defining debut “Doggystyle,” the rapper’s name has become a sort of hip-hop shorthand, and he’s become a larger than life figure in popular culture over a string of albums and movie roles (“Starsky & Hutch,” “Training Day”). So it came as something of a surprise when the MC rechristened himself “Snoop Lion” last year after studying the Rastafari religion in Jamaica, and announced he was recording a reggae album, “Reincarnated,” which comes out Tuesday.
Snoop today takes over Speakeasy as the first-ever special guest editor, and in that role wrote an essay that explains his reggae transformation, assigned a story about the part youth sports programs play in communities, and will answer questions from readers. Check back in throughout the day to read Snoop’s contributions.
It only makes sense to pair his guest-editing stint with “Reincarnated,” which Speakeasy is streaming in its entirety. To listen, click here. The album features contributions from Drake, Akon and Miley Cyrus, and production from Diplo and Major Lazer. If you have questions for Snoop, send them on Twitter with the hashtag #AskSnoop.
article by Eric R. Danton via blogs.wsj.com

R.I.P. Legendary Woodstock Singer and Songwriter Richie Havens

By goodblacknews on April 23, 2013
Richie Havens performs at the 'Woodstock 40th Anniversary' Blu-Ray release party at Hard Rock Cafe - Times Square June 4, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images)
Richie Havens performs at the ‘Woodstock 40th Anniversary’ Blu-Ray release party at Hard Rock Cafe – Times Square June 4, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (AP) — Richie Havens, who sang and strummed for a sea of people at Woodstock, has died of a heart attack Monday, his family said in a statement. He was 72.  Havens, a folk singer and guitarist, was the first performer at the three-day 1969 Woodstock Festival. He returned to the site during the 40th anniversary in 2009.

“Everything in my life, and so many others, is attached to that train,” he said in a 2009 interview with The Associated Press.  Havens was born in Brooklyn. He was known for his crafty guitar work and cover songs, including his well-received impersonation of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.”
The singer’s website said he had kidney surgery years ago and that he never recovered enough to perform concerts like he used to.  Havens performed at Bill Clinton’s presidential Inauguration in 1993. He has released more than 25 albums. His last album was 2008′s “Nobody Left to Crown.”
“I really sing songs that move me,” he said in an interview with The Denver Post. “I’m not in show business; I’m in the communications business. That’s what it’s about for me.”  A public memorial will be planned for a later date.
Below is one of his most popular songs, a cover version of “Here Comes The Sun”:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBbXKsKXyNU&w=420&h=315]
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com