Categories
People

May he Rest In Peace.

Mad Magazine illustrator Mort Drucker dies at 91

Mort Drucker, the Mad Magazine cartoonist who for decades lovingly spoofed politicians, celebrities and popular culture, died Thursday at 91.

Drucker’s daughter, Laurie Bachner, told The Associated Press that he fell ill last week, having difficulty walking and developing breathing problems. She did not give a specific cause of death, and said that he was not tested for the coronavirus. He died at his home in Woodbury, N.Y., with his wife of more than 70 years, Barbara, by his side.

“I think my father had the best life anyone could hope for,” Bachner said. “He was married to the only woman he ever loved and got to make a living out of what he loved to do.”

Mad magazine was a cultural institution for millions of baby boomers, and Drucker was an institution at Mad. A New York City native, he joined Mad in its early days, the mid-1950s, and remained well into the 21st century. Few major events or public figures during that time escaped Drucker’s satire, whether Star Trek and The Godfather or Steve Martin and Jerry Seinfeld.

In large strokes, Drucker took in every crease, crevice and bold feature. The big jaws of Kirk Douglas and Jay Leno bulged even larger, while the ears of Barack Obama looked like wings about to take flight. Being drawn by Drucker became a kind of show business rite of passage, with Michael J. Fox once telling Johnny Carson that he knew he had made it when he appeared in a Drucker cartoon.

Drucker’s admirers also included Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz and Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas, who in the 1970s wrote a fan letter to Mad even as his lawyers were threatening to sue over a magazine caricature. (The suit was never filed.)

Besides Mad, Drucker drew for Time magazine, DC Comics, for an ad campaign for fruit and vegetables and for the heavy metal band Anthrax, which commissioned him to design art for its State of Euphoria album.

Some of Drucker’s illustrations, include a Time cover drawing of Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong playing table tennis, ended up in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 2017, Drucker was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.

“As Mad magazine became an established [albeit absurd] voice in the nation’s cultural mainstream, many of the visual masters who showcased the magazine’s written content eventually became icons in and of themselves,” the Hall’s citation reads. “Indeed, Mort Drucker proved to be one of the most popular artists of the group that collectively came to be known as the ‘Usual Gang of Idiots.'”

Categories
Sports

If they can do it, and keep everyone safe, here’s hoping it happens!!

Report: NBA Preparing 25-Day Plan to End Coronavirus Suspension

The NBA’s coronavirus suspension is now in its second month, and the league office has yet to announce a target return date for the 2019-20 season. But Adam Silver and Co. remain active in planning a potential resumption of play.

The league office is currently preparing a 25-day, “back-to-basketball plan,” according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Individual workouts would last 11 days under the NBA’s potential plan, and teams would then come together for a 14-day training camp. , per Windhorst. If parts of the nation begin to re-open, the NBA could begin a four-week program to resume the 2019-20 season.

“In talking to executives and trainers around the league, what they’re looking at is a 25-day return to basketball window,” Windhorst said on ESPN on Sunday. “An 11-day series of individual workouts. …and then hopefully, if the clearance comes that they can play five-on-five basketball, a 14-day training camp.”

“So as you hope for the country to heal and the virus to get better, look for at least about a three-and-a-half to four-week return date before you’d ever get back to games.”

The NBA has reportedly explored a slate of plans for resuming games, including a potential quarantined playoffs in Las Vegas. The league could also alter its schedule upon a return to play, with the possibility of a canceled regular season and shortened playoffs both on the table. Labor Day weekend is the league’s preferred end date for the 2019-20 season.

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People

His song will live forever. May he rest in peace.

‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’ songwriter Alan Merrill dies from coronavirus

Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Alan Merrill has died in New York at the age of 69 as a result of the coronavirus. Merrill was best known for writing the track “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Merrill originally wrote and recorded the iconic song while he was a member of the band the Arrows, who released the track in 1975. The song would later become a huge hit for Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, who topped the charts with the tune in 1982.

Merrill was inspired to write the song as a reaction to the Rolling Stones’ single “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It).” “I’d met Mick Jagger socially a few times, and I knew he was hanging around with Prince Rupert Lowenstein and people like that — jet setters,” Merrill told songfacts.com. “I almost felt like ‘It’s Only Rock and Roll’ was an apology to those jet-set princes and princesses that he was hanging around with — the aristocracy, you know. That was my interpretation as a young man: Okay, I love rock and roll.”

Merrill also played with Rick Derringer and Meatloaf as well as pursuing a solo career.

The musician’s death was announced by his daughter Laura on Facebook.

“The Coronavirus took my father this morning,” she wrote on Sunday. “I was given 2 minutes to say my goodbyes before I was rushed out. He seemed peaceful and as I left there was still a glimmer of hope that he wouldn’t be a ticker on the right hand side of the CNN/Fox news screen. I walked 50 blocks home still with hope in my heart. The city that I knew was empty. I felt I was the only person here and perhaps in many ways I was. By the time I got in the doors to my apartment I received the news that he was gone.”

Joan Jett has paid tribute to Merrill on Twitter.

“I’ve just learned of the awful news that Alan Merrill has passed,” she wrote. “My thoughts and love go to his family, friends and music community as a whole. I can still remember watching the Arrows on TV in London and being blown away by the song that screamed hit to me. With deep gratitude and sadness, wishing him a safe journey to the other side.”

Categories
People

Oh no!! Get well soon, Mr. Prine!!

Singer-Songwriter John Prine Hospitalized in Critical Condition with Coronavirus Symptoms

Singer-songwriter John Prine may have contracted the coronavirus. According to a message posted by the Prine family on his official social media accounts, the 73-year-old is in critical condition with symptoms synonymous with the current health crisis.

“After a sudden onset of Covid-19 symptoms, John was hospitalized on Thursday (3/26),” explains the message. “He was intubated Saturday evening, and continues to receive care, but his situation is critical. This is hard news for us to share. But so many of you have loved and supported John over the years, we wanted to let you know, and give you the chance to send on more of that love and support now. And know that we love you, and John loves you.”

Categories
Business

Just so you know: The quality we pay for is going down, the companies will be saving money and not passing the savings along, and eventually the prices we pay will go up.

Netflix, Bell Media reduce video quality to lower internet bandwidth use

Netflix is lowering video quality for its subscribers in Canada as it attempts to reduce soaring demands on internet bandwidth in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The streaming giant says it introduced changes on Thursday that are designed to slash its data traffic by 25 per cent, as internet service providers deal with a surge in user activity.

The lower bandwidth streams of Netflix programs should still deliver the usual quality of each plan, the company said, whether it’s ultra-high definition 4K, high-definition or standard definition.

“We believe that this will provide significant relief to congested networks and will be deploying it in Canada for the next 30 days,” said Ken Florance, vice-president of content delivery, in a statement on Thursday.

The move comes as telecom companies are seeing a rise in bandwidth usage while Canadians self-isolate at home and use video-streaming services more frequently than usual.

Bell Media said it’s planning its own traffic measures for its Crave streaming service, which offers programming from HBO and Showtime. The telecommunication company’s quality reductions may downgrade higher-definition streams even more than Netflix.

“Crave does plan to temporarily reduce the quality of streams on certain devices,” the company said in a statement late Thursday.

The Crave 1080p and 4K streams will be reduced to 720p on Android mobile devices, Chromecast and Apple products, including its Apple TV devices, it noted.

Netflix previously introduced bandwidth measures in other parts of the world over the past two weeks. Similar reductions in video quality were made in Europe, India, Australia, New Zealand and some Latin American countries.

In a blog post last week, Florance explained that Netflix has many different levels of streaming quality for each title within each resolution tier. With the changes, Netflix is simply removing the highest bandwidth streams, which lowers the bitrate per second on the streams, he said.

“If you are particularly tuned into video quality, you may notice a very slight decrease in quality within each resolution. But you will still get the video quality you paid for,” Florance wrote at the time.

“We are living through a global crisis, and we all have a responsibility to help where we can,” he added.

Other streaming companies have made changes in certain regions to limit bandwidth.

YouTube announced similar moves to ease the pressures on internet traffic earlier this week, while Disney Plus and Amazon’s Prime Video have enacted bandwidth measures in Europe.

Disney told CBC News it is lowering its overall bandwidth utilization by at least 25 per cent throughout Canada as a proactive measure.

“We are monitoring Internet congestion and working closely with Internet service providers to further reduce bitrates as necessary to ensure they are not overwhelmed by consumer demand,” Disney said in a statement.

Representatives for Amazon did not immediately provide comment.

Categories
Awards

Good luck everyone!!!

2020 Emmy Awards still set for September despite coronavirus

The Television Academy is adjusting the eligibility and voting deadlines for this year’s Primetime Emmy calendar in response to concerns made by TV communication executives and awards strategists in the current coronavirus climate.

The dates for the Creative Emmy Awards and Primetime Emmy shows remain unchanged respectively on Sept. 12 to 13 and Sept. 20, and will only be moved should state and national safety directives deem them to be, should the coronavirus worsen.

This morning’s big changes involve the entry deadline moving close to four weeks from May 11 to June 5, and the Phase one voting period jumping from June 15 to 29 to July 2 to 13 with the new nominations announcement date being July 28 instead of July 14. The Phase one period thus shrinks from 15 days to 12 days.

Phase 2 voting, which was originally set for Aug. 17 to 31, will start slightly later, and shave off four days, now occurring between Aug. 21 to 31.

Also being extended is the eligibility date for hanging episodes for regular series and limited series, as the TV Academy takes into account production and programming delays. Now, all hanging episodes must broadcast or post on an accessible platform by June 30, instead of May 31. Both regular and limited series must still premiere by the end of this year’s eligibility date which remains May 31. A minimum of six episodes continues to be required for a show to be qualified in the series category. A limited series in its entirety must air or post on a platform before June 30, and if it doesn’t, then the limited series will qualify in the 2020-2021 Emmy year.

Meanwhile, all TV Academy FYC events “whether with a live audience, streaming or recorded for posting on a viewing platform” per the org remain suspended for the current Emmy season.

In recent weeks, the TV Academy appeared to be standing firm on their original voting and eligibility dates. However, TV publicists and Emmy campaign strategists reportedly voiced their reservations about promoting too heavily and too soon, thus wanting to exercise a greater degree of sensitivity in a spring that’s been rocked by COVID-19: Many productions have shut down, leaving many out of work, and the whole atmosphere across the nation is rather dour as we all self-quarantine. Emmy season has traditionally been decked with glam marketing, billboards, food trucks, stunt events, big DVD boxes and soirées. Earlier this year, to tame some of that, the TV Academy banned DVD mailers to voters, and in doing so, favored online screeners. The hope here with the TV Academy’s tweaking of the FYC calendar is that we’ll be on the other side of the curve in regards to the coronavirus, and in a lighter-spirited environment. Between the entertainment capitals, New York City currently counts 23K COVID-19 cases (and 365 deaths as of yesterday) while Los Angeles counts 1,2K cases (and 21 deaths) according to reports.

Still, this Emmy season has forced a lot of campaigners to continually re-think their plans. Screenings, Q&As, and pop-up hubs like those previously hosted by Amazon and Netflix are expected to be near-extinct in addition to a broad billboard presence of shows with few cars on the road. According to sources, the expectation is that networks and streamers will relegate their Emmy campaigning to digital, TV, and radio.

And the lengthening of the hangover episode deadlines? Will that new grace period now benefit FX’s season 4 of limited series “Fargo,” HBO’s “Undoing” or other shows? That’s hard to predict at this point in time as we don’t know how fast the current COVID-19 climate will quell, and how feasibly episodic production will resume. “Fargo” has two more episodes to shoot out of its ten order, with FX already pushing the premiere of the multi-Emmy winning limited series from April 19 to later this year. Yesterday, HBO released the following statement “In light of current events, HBO’s six-part limited series ‘The Undoing,’ will now debut this fall” instead of May 10. Meanwhile, National Geographic’s “Genius: Aretha” halted production, with its May 25 premiere date in limbo.

In regards to the Creative Emmys and Primetime ceremonies, the TV Academy also mentioned today that together with ABC, they’ll be monitoring the recommendations from the CDC and the L.A. County Department of Health when it comes to the coronavirus and whether they should delay both shows or not.

Categories
People

Very sad news. May he rest in peace.

Country singer Joe Diffie dies of coronavirus complications

EW YORK — Country singer Joe Diffie, who had a string of hits in the 1990s with chart-topping ballads and honky-tonk singles like “Home” and “Pickup Man,” has died after testing positive for COVID-19. He was 61.

Diffie on Friday announced he had contracted the coronavirus, becoming the first country star to go public with such a diagnosis. Diffie’s publicist Scott Adkins said the singer died Sunday in Nashville, Tennessee, due to complications from the virus.

Diffie, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a member of the Grand Ole Opry for more than 25 years. His hits included “Honky Tonk Attitude,” “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die),” “Bigger Than the Beatles” and “If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets).”

His mid-90s albums “Honkey Tonk Attitude” and “Third Rock From the Sun” went platinum. Eighteen of Diffie’s singles landed in the top 10, with five going No. 1. In his 2013 single “1994,” Jason Aldean name-checked the ’90s country mainstay.

Diffie is survived by his wife, Tara Terpening Diffie, and five children from his five marriages.

Categories
Television

For those who still care about this show…

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ plans early season finale for April 9

Grey Sloan Memorial is closing its doors ahead of schedule. The Season 16 finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” will now air on Thursday, April 9 (ABC, 9/8c), TVLine has learned.

The major scheduling change comes as a result of ABC deciding not to resume production on Season 16, which shut down earlier this month in response to the coronavirus crisis. Twenty-one of 25 episodes were completed when production was halted; the status of the remaining four Season 16 episodes is TBD. (Click here for a complete list of other early finales.)

Neither “Station 19” nor “How to Get Away With Murder” (which resumes its farewell season on April 2 and finales on May 14) are affected by the “Grey’s” programming changes.

That means “Grey’s” only has two new episodes left to air this season: April 2’s “Sing It Again,” in which Owen and Link treat an older woman who wakes up from surgery and can’t stop singing, and April 9’s “Put on a Happy Face,” which will now serve as the season ender.

Here’s what fans can expect from the new finale, according to ABC’s official synopsis: “Link tries to convince Amelia to take it easy during the final stage of her pregnancy; Hayes asks Meredith a surprising question; Owen makes a shocking discovery.”

“Out of an abundance of caution, production is postponed on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ effective immediately,” showrunner/EP Krista Vernoff, director/EP Debbie Allen and line producer James Williams said in a letter to the ABC drama’s cast and crew on March 12. “We are going home now for at least two weeks and waiting to see how the coronavirus situation evolves. This decision was made to ensure the health and safety of the whole cast and crew and the safety of our loved ones outside of work, and it was made in accordance with Mayor Garcetti’s suggestion that we not gather in groups of more than 50.

“Stay safe, stay healthy, stay hydrated, stay home as much as possible, and wash your hands frequently,” the trio added. “Please take care of yourselves and each other. As updates come in, we will keep you informed. Thank you for all that you do!”

Categories
Television

I know I should be watching this show…but I haven’t started yet.

‘Killing Eve’ Season 3 premiere to air two weeks early

Fans of “Killing Eve,” the Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer-fronted psychopath drama, are in for an early thrill after AMC Networks moved the show’s third season premiere forward by two weeks.

AMC Networks Entertainment Group will now launch the Phoebe Waller-Bridge-created drama on Sunday, April 12, as opposed to its previous premiere of April 26. The eight-part series will be simulcast on BBC America and AMC.

“We know how adored this series is and we know how keen people are for great content right now,” said Sarah Barnett, president of AMC Networks Entertainment Group and AMC Studios. “This season of ‘Killing Eve’ digs deep psychologically, and with actors like Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer and Fiona Shaw the results are nothing short of astonishing. We literally couldn’t wait for fans to see it.”

It is the latest scheduling move for the AMC Networks Entertainment Group, which postponed the launch of its zombie spinoff series “The Walking Dead: Beyond World” to the end of the year as a result of the Coronavirus. AMC was one of a number of linear networks facing an ad-hit in Q2.

The third season of “Killing Eve,” which has already been renewed for a fourth season, continues the story of two women with brutal pasts, addicted to each other but now trying desperately to live their lives without their drug of choice. For Villanelle (Comer), the assassin without a job, Eve (Oh) is dead. For Eve, the ex-MI6 operative hiding in plain sight, Villanelle will never find her. All seems fine until a shocking and personal death sets them on a collision course yet again. The journey back to each other will cost both of them friends, family, and allegiances … and perhaps a share of their souls. Fiona Shaw and Kim Bodnia also star.

Season 3 cast also includes Harriet Walter (“Succession”), Danny Sapani (“Harlots”), Gemma Whelan (“Game of Thrones”), Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent”), Steve Pemberton (“Inside No. 9”), Raj Bajaj (“A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding”), Turlough Convery (“Ready Player One”), Pedja Bjelac (“Harry Potter”) and Evgenia Dodina (“One Week and a Day”).

“Killing Eve” is produced by Sid Gentle Films Ltd. for BBC America and is distributed by Endeavor Content.

British writer Suzanne Heathcote (“Fear the Walking Dead”) serves as lead writer and executive producer for season three, continuing the tradition of passing the baton to a new female writing voice. Executive producers are Sally Woodward Gentle, Lee Morris, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Gina Mingacci, Damon Thomas, Jeff Melvoin, Suzanne Heathcote and Sandra Oh. Nigel Watson also serves as producer on the series.

Categories
People

Kenny Rogers was a part of my family growing up. I love him. RIP Kenny!!

Country singer Kenny Rogers dead at 81

Actor-singer Kenny Rogers, the smooth, Grammy-winning balladeer who spanned jazz, folk, country and pop with such hits as Lucille, Lady and Islands in the Stream and embraced his persona as “The Gambler” on record and on TV died Friday night. He was 81.

He died at home in Sandy Springs, Ga., representative Keith Hagan told The Associated Press. He was under hospice care and died of natural causes, Hagan said.

The Houston-born performer with the husky voice and silver beard sold tens of millions of records, won three Grammys and was the star of TV movies based on “The Gambler” and other songs, making him a superstar in the ’70s and ’80s. Rogers thrived for some 60 years before retired from touring in 2017 at age 79. Despite his crossover success, he always preferred to be thought of as a country singer.

“You either do what everyone else is doing and you do it better, or you do what no one else is doing and you don’t invite comparison,” Rogers told The Associated Press in 2015. “And I chose that way because I could never be better than Johnny Cash or Willie or Waylon at what they did. So I found something that I could do that didn’t invite comparison to them. And I think people thought it was my desire to change country music. But that was never my issue.”

“Kenny was one of those artists who transcended beyond one format and geographic borders,” says Sarah Trahern, chief executive officer of the Country Music Association. “He was a global superstar who helped introduce country music to audiences all around the world.”

Rogers was a five-time CMA Award winner and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

A true rags-to-riches story, Rogers was raised in public housing in Houston Heights with seven siblings. As a 20-year-old, he had a gold single called That Crazy Feeling, under the name Kenneth Rogers, but when that early success stalled, he joined a jazz group, the Bobby Doyle Trio, as a standup bass player.

But his breakthrough came when he was asked to join the New Christy Minstrels, a folk group, in 1966. The band reformed as First Edition and scored a pop hit with the psychedelic song, Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In). Rogers and First Edition mixed country-rock and folk on songs like Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town, a story of a Vietnam veteran begging his girlfriend to stay.

After the group broke up in 1974, Rogers started his solo career and found a big hit with the sad country ballad Lucille, in 1977, which crossed over to the pop charts and earned Rogers his first Grammy. Suddenly the star, Rogers added hit after hit for more than a decade.

The Gambler, the Grammy-winning story song penned by Don Schlitz, came out in 1978 and became his signature song with a signature refrain: “You gotta know when to hold `em, know when to fold ’em.” The song spawned a hit TV movie of the same name and several more sequels featuring Rogers as professional gambler Brady Hawkes, and led to a lengthy side career for Rogers as a TV actor and host of several TV specials.

Other hits included You Decorated My Life, Every Time Two Fools Collide with Dottie West, Don’t Fall In Love with a Dreamer with Kim Carnes, and Coward of the County. One of his biggest successes was Lady, written by Lionel Richie, a chart topper for six weeks straight in 1980. Richie said in a 2017 interview with the AP that he often didn’t finish songs until he had already pitched them, which was the case for “Lady.”

“In the beginning, the song was called, Baby,” Richie said. “And because when I first sat with him, for the first 30 minutes, all he talked about was he just got married to a real lady. A country guy like him is married to a lady. So, he said, `By the way, what’s the name of the song?”‘ Richie replies: “Lady.”

Over the years, Rogers worked often with female duet partners, most memorably, Dolly Parton. The two were paired at the suggestion of the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb, who wrote Islands in the Stream.

“Barry was producing an album on me and he gave me this song,” Rogers told the AP in 2017. “And I went and learned it and went into the studio and sang it for four days. And I finally looked at him and said, ‘Barry, I don’t even like this song anymore.’ And he said, ‘You know what we need? We need Dolly Parton.’ I thought, ‘Man, that guy is a visionary.'”

Coincidentally, Parton was actually in the same recording studio in Los Angeles when the idea came up.

“From the moment she marched into that room, that song never sounded the same,” Rogers said. “It took on a whole new spirit.”

The two singers toured together, including in Australia and New Zealand in 1984 and 1987, and were featured in a HBO concert special. Over the years the two would continue to record together, including their last duet, “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” which was released in 2013. Parton reprised “Islands in the Stream” with Rogers during his all-star retirement concert held in Nashville in October 2017.

Rogers invested his time and money in a lot of other endeavours over his career, including a passion for photography that led to several books, as well as an autobiography, Making It With Music. He had a chain of restaurants called “Kenny Rogers Roasters,” and was a partner behind a riverboat in Branson, Missouri. He was also involved in numerous charitable causes, among them the Red Cross and MusiCares, and was part of the all-star We are the World recording for famine relief.

By the ’90s, his ability to chart hits had waned, although he still remained a popular live entertainer with regular touring. Still he was an inventive businessman and never stopped trying to find his way back onto the charts.

At the age of 61, Rogers had a brief comeback on the country charts in 2000 with a hit song Buy Me A Rose, thanks to his other favourite medium, television. Producers of the series Touched By An Angel wanted him to appear in an episode, and one of his managers suggested the episode be based on his latest single. That cross-promotional event earned him his first No. 1 country song in 13 years.

Rogers is survived by his wife, Wanda, and his sons Justin, Jordan, Chris and Kenny Jr., as well as two brothers, a sister and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, his representative said. The family is planning a private service “out of concern for the national COVID-19 emergency,” a statement posted early Saturday read. A public memorial will be held at a later date.