Monday, November 12, 2007

Country Music Star Sara Evans Hosts Online Auction


You pick the strangest stuff. It’s part of my charm. — LD

NEW YORK -- Country music superstar Sara Evans is playing an important role in combating eating disorders this year by serving as chair of the 3rd Annual Every BODY is Beautiful Online Auction, an exciting fundraising program currently underway by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).

Open to the public, the online auction can be accessed by going to http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.cmarket.com. There are more than two hundred items to bid on, including tickets to an upcoming Sara Evans concert; priceless guitars autographed by musicians like Bucky Covington, Eric Clapton and James Brown; and lots of other memorabilia from Country Music Association award winners Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley and others. The auction includes many great getaways, memorable dining experiences, art, clothing, jewelry, and much more. NEDA will be accepting bids for auction items through December 2, 2007.

Ms. Evans affiliated with NEDA last year as a means to promote both her interest in educating women about the importance of a positive body image and to generate awareness about eating disorders, which currently affect 10 million women and one million men every year in the U.S. She serves as a NEDA Ambassador, working tirelessly to help the organization with its education, research and advocacy efforts.

"I am committed to helping people with eating disorders," said Ms. Evans, who was named Top Female Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music and is a platinum-selling recording artist. "Too many young women fall victim to the idea that only thin is beautiful and end up with debilitating illnesses. I want people to know that eating disorders are preventable and curable, especially when treated in the early stages."

For more information on the NEDA auction, please visit http://www.NationalEatingDisorders.cmarket.com. If you have questions, email onlineauction@myneda.org or call NEDA's Development office at 206/382-3587 ext. 22. Sara Evan's website is http://www.saraevans.com.

SOURCE: National Eating Disorders Association

Stephen King Loves 'The Mist'


Stephen King? He’s the best! I’m a Dean Koontz man, myself. He came to my bachelor party. — LD

Horror writer sends a
chilling message to filmgoers


NEW YORK -- At a press conference today (Nov. 12 ) for the highly anticipated film ‘The Mist’ by Academy Award nominated director Frank Darabont ("The Green Mile," "The Shawshank Redemption"), Stephen King, whose novella the film is based on, gave his blessing of the film adaptation as well as sent out a chilling message to anyone who dares to give away the film's ending.

Stephen King stated, "Frank wrote a new ending that I loved. It is the most shocking ending ever and there should be a law passed stating that anybody who reveals the last 5 minutes of this film should be hung from their neck until dead."

About “The Mist”
David Drayton and his young son Billy are among a large group of terrified townspeople trapped in a local grocery store by a strange, otherworldly mist. David is the first to realize that there are things lurking in the mist...deadly, horrifying things...creatures not of this world. Survival depends on everybody in the store pulling together...but is that possible, given human nature? As reason crumbles in the face of fear and panic, David begins to wonder what terrifies him more: the monsters in the mist - or the ones inside the store, the human kind, the people that until now had been his friends and neighbors? In this legendary tale of terror from master storyteller Stephen King, the thin veneer of civilization is stripped away, the masks are discarded, and the true horror is revealed as us.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Newsweek – The Year That Made Us Who We Are


1968? Ancient history. Not so much. I wuz there. — LD

Newsweek Magazine Looks Back
at One of the Defining Years of the 1960s:
A Turbulent Period in American History


NEW YORK -- "There was at the end of 1968 an event that remains an inspirational symbol for the challenges ahead. For the Sixties were also the glory years of the American space program, and of astronauts such as Captain Jim Lovell," writes former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, in his forthcoming book, "BOOM! Voices of the Sixties," which is excerpted in the current issue of Newsweek. "The big goal was leaving Earth's atmosphere and landing on the moon, to keep the pledge President Kennedy had made at Rice University on September 12, 1962."

Brokaw writes that the three astronauts of Apollo 8 trained all year for the mission, which would have the spacecraft orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve, 1968. "When I met Lovell at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago-where he helped organize an elaborate exhibit commemorating the flight-I asked if the astronauts had been aware of all that was going on outside of NASA that year- the riots, the assassinations, the antiwar protests. 'We were all senior military people,' he said, 'and we were so intent on our project we put all of that aside. We did talk about the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, and we worried the cost of the war would eat into the space program.'"

"Lovell says that even though he wasn't paying too much attention, he thought the culture was disintegrating. 'My background,' he says, 'was more patriotic. Listening to your elders, taking direction, trying to be a leader. The hippie movement sort of soured me'," Brokaw writes.

The excerpt is part of the November 19 cover package, "1968: The Year That Made Us Who We Are" (on newsstands Monday, November 12). Senior Writer and Political Correspondent Jonathan Darman reports that while the 1968 election is four decades old, we're still rehashing that moment-that era-in the 2008 contest. Barack Obama was born in the 1960s, but is not of them. Such is the constant promise-I am not the '60s-of his presidential campaign-heartfelt, but ultimately hard to believe. Just look at the gray-haired '60s idealists inside the senator's own brain trust who see him as the fulfillment of 40 years' worth of hard work. John McCain is also the '60s. McCain knows what Obama should have learned by now: the '60s are impossible to escape. They will define the 2008 presidential election, just as they have defined American politics, and American culture, for the past 40 years, he writes.

Also in the cover package, Newsweek looks back at one of the defining years of the 1960s-1968-a turbulent period in American history:

* Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas writes that in a year of tumult, one five-day span in early spring 1968 was disorder distilled. Lyndon Johnson's presidency was collapsing. Robert Kennedy had openly announced his intention to reclaim the throne in the memory of his brother. The year culminated in the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
* Contributing Editor Ellis Cose's essay recounts the personal impetus" ... that shook my world, upended my life and turned me into a writer," from the July 1966 Chicago Riots to the April 1968 assassination of Dr. King.
* Senior Editor Jerry Adler writes that 1968 wasn't the only year that changed everything in America. Other years, like 1908-this was America's year of destiny-were equally significant and are jostling for starring roles in history.
* Science Columnist Sharon Begley writes that in the spring of 1968 the Beatles traveled to the Maharishi's ashram in northern India to mediate and brought Eastern worship back to the West, most markedly the practice of meditation. Now, some four decades later, meditation is widely accepted within the scientific community as a beneficial practice.
* Senior Editor Barbara Kantrowitz explores feminism and sexual politics of 1968 when women dumped symbols of female oppression-girdles, steno pads, and stilettos-into a "freedom trash can." Bras went in, too, but none were burned, in the midst of the infamous and symbolic protest staged outside the Miss America pageant. Kantrowitz examines where the fight stands now, talks with the lead protester and Miss America 1968.
* Senior Editor David Gates writes that although the times they were a changin', in the arts, only music kept pace. Despite all the potentially rich tension and upheaval, 1968 didn't produce much fiction, film or art worth remembering.

The package also includes a photo essay by photographer Nigel Parry featuring people who spoke out-and stood out-in the monumental events of
1968.

(Read complete cover story at http://www.Newsweek.com.)

http://www.newsweek.com/id/69637 - 1968: The Year That Everything Changed

http://www.newsweek.com/id/69585 - Tom Brokaw Book Excerpt

SOURCE: Newsweek

A Street Car Named 'Survivor' - in New Orleans


A streetcar named “Desire.” A news release named “PR.” — LD

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans' most venerable survivors -- the historic 1920 era double-ended green streetcars -- has once again rolled down the grassy esplanade on St. Charles Avenue into the heart of the world-famous Garden District on the oldest continually operating streetcar line in the world. The line reopened to Napoleon Avenue during a special ceremony at Napoleon Avenue and St. Charles Avenue on Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. The entire line is expected to reopen in Spring 2008.

Out of commission for more than two years, the streetcar line suffered significant damage from Hurricane Katrina but the historic wood and steel streetcars escaped destruction because the antiquated car barn in which they are housed is on high ground. And there was a streetcar named Desire among the bunch -- "Desire" was the terminus of one of the routes, hence the name.

Recognized by The National Register of Historic Places and a favorite among tourists, founded in 1835, the line is part of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) and to this day is a revenue-operating division of the city transit system for commuters, students and residents.

As significant as the streetcars are, St. Charles Avenue and The Garden District also are authentic American treasures. Known as the "Jewel of America's grand avenues," St. Charles Avenue is more than 200 years old and in 2007 was named the one of the ten great streets and neighborhoods in America by the American Planning Association.

The oak-lined St. Charles Avenue is an icon of Southern style and is the main artery into the Garden District -- home of Audubon Park, Loyola and Tulane Universities, historic cemeteries, churches, synagogues, schools and restaurants, and a neighborhood of extreme grandeur, graced by some of the most magnificent collections of antebellum Greek revival homes in the world.

This announcement is the latest in a series of milestones for New Orleans: cultural festivals are enjoying record-breaking attendance, airlines are adding new flights to Louis Armstrong International Airport and the French Quarter is cleaner than it has been in decades.

SOURCE: The New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau