This is the guy J. Lo's husband Marc Anthony will play in the upcoming, J.Lo-produced film 'El Cantante': Hector Lavoe. Seen here with the Fania All Stars performing in Kinshasa/Zaire for the Ali-Foreman fight in 1974.
Lavoe was a great tragic figure of the mid 70s Fania scene here in New York. his life's story one of those epic dramas just begging for a biopic. Moved from Puerto Rico to New York, became a huge star, couldn't handle fame, succumbed to heroin, got famous for his tardiness (Johnny Pacheco even wrote a song about Lavoe's inability to show up on time for anything: 'El rey de la Puntualidad'), became suicidal, then his house burnt down, his mother was murdered in Puerto Rico, his son shot dead by a friend.
In 1993 Hector Lavoe died from Aids, which he contracted from intravenous drug use. None of his albums are currently in print, so I guess Mr. and Ms. J-Lo used their starpower for a work of pure passion.
The New York Times website ran the news that Apple is allowing Windows to run on it's machines as the lead. Just as other media treated this as the big news of the day. Aren't these ecumencial undetones while reporting a mere technicality taking the adoration of suppliers of electronic goods a bit too far? Is it like 1520 and Martin Luther and the pope just announced they wanna be friends again?
Puppies! The unbeatable way to instantly arouse protective instincts in anybody. The more curious it was last night that CNN Headline News ran an unusually extensive story about rampant puppy smuggling around the US-Mexican border. There they were on hidden camera, the cruel profiteers bringing in those unbearably cute bundles of fur and muzzle, endangering their wellbeing and health. There were interviews with the poor victims of puppy smuggling - young mothers, telling tearful tales about buying the cutest little pup for their children, just to see it die a few weeks later. The reporter asked the little boy on one of the mothers' lap, if he knew what happened to the puppy. Only the cruelest mind could've resisted, when the kid stammered 'it died'.
had to warm up to the idea that their arch enemies who had threatened them with nuclear anihiliation for about four decades might be turned into their future customers in a soon to be globalized economy by Perestojika, CNN ran an exposee about a Russian bear handler, who sacrificed so much to raise and take care of those adorably well trained bears. It was so heartwarming to see a real life Russian being nice to animals. As enraging as it is to see heartless Mexicans smuggle puppies! Well, at least now we know where CNN stands on immigration reform.
Are the terrorists winning after all? Nonesuch will release a remastered version of Brian Eno and David Byrne's seminal 1981 album 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts', that omits the song 'Qu'ran', which featured samples of Algerian singers chanting the Koran. 
The natural impulse with all new sources of information on the web is to first first check yourself and then delve into your past. So I was indeed impressed, when I was able to see our house in Brooklyn so clearly that you can almost identify the make of cars parked in front. I also discovered that the pigeon breeder across the street actually has two aeries on his roof. Next we checked out my wife's family's home in Germany, where she noticed the ominous absence of the neighbor's house, which was built almost ten years ago.
Heading South to my family's place that peek into the geographical past revealed a beautiful summer's day with my mother's large Italian market umbrella throwing some shade over the place, where she used to put up a table for lunch in the summer. Which was a nice look back to happy days in Bavaria, since my mother has passed away five years ago. Does this prove how poperful Google has become? Can they reverse urban sprawl and wake the dead? Or did they just follow Rumsfeld's advice to look at Europe as old?
