R.I.P. Sandeé, freestyle legend

Sandra Tola Harvey (née Casañas, died December 15, 2008), professionally known as Sandeé, was an American freestyle music vocalist and an original member of the trio Exposé from 1984 to 1986, along with Alejandra "Alé" Lorenzo and Laurie Miller.

As a solo artist, Sandeé released the singles "You're the One" and "Notice Me" (produced by C + C Music Factory), and an album, Only Time Will Tell, featuring the single "Love Desire". "You're the One" peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Single Sales in 1987 and "Notice Me" peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1989. She performed at many freestyle events and dance clubs up until her death on December 15, 2008.

Despite rumors about her death, the cause of death has yet to be determined until the autopsy report has come in.


The Original Exposé



Sandeé - "Love Desire" - Her Debut Video from the "Only Time Will Tell" Lp


Born Sandra Mercedes Zeno on the lower east side of Manhattan, Sandra left New York at the age of 9 when her family moved to Florida where she later attended McArthur High School. Determined to make it on her own, she left home, got married, and had a son by the age of 17. She worked as a clerical assistant at a pediatrians office, which gave her "good medical care" for her son , she laugh's.

Then something happened that changed her life......

"I hadn't been thinking about the music business, you know?" said Sandra. "Then one night I was hanging out with some friends at a club called "Lime Light" in Hollywood Florida, and we were playing "Truth Or Dare". So of course me, I have to choose the Dare, then one of my friends dared me to go up and sing with the house band which was from Canada, I decided to take them up on it and I asked them If they knew "Last Dance" by Donna Summer? They said yes & I got up on the stage and the crowd went wild."

It must have been a part of God's plan, because a friend of producer (Lewis Martineé) was in the audience, he approached Sandra about a girl group that they were putting together and he wanted her to audition. Sandra decided to give it a shot and was chosen to be one of three girls that formed the famous group "X-posed", which was later changed to "Exposé" by Arista when they were picked up. "It was less risqué, They felt it was too provacative, and if we added the accent, It somehow became more Classy"

"We were on a promotional tour when we got this call from "Dave Jurman", "You've just landed a record deal with Arista, he said". I remember Alé, Laurie and I were screaming and jumping around in the lobby of this radio station in Los Angeles, California. "We finally got what we worked so hard for" said Tola. Exposé then opened up for "Miami Sound Machine" on the 1984-85 "Primative Love Tour". "I remember doing this gig in Venezuela, we were on the side of this cliff and the Oceanic View was our backdrop, It was amazing. We also performed "Conga" with the Miami Sound Machine, It was something I'll never forget! In fact there is footage of us doing that show".

Sandra got the opportunity to sing on two of Exposé's hit singles "Point of No Return" (which reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Dance Chart in 1985 and was later named "Dance Record of the Year") and also "Exposed to Love" (which also charted well). That led to headline engagements and an extensive tour though-out Canada and the United States. Touring with such great acts as Erotic Exotic (Exposé's live backup band for all you fan's), Stacey Q, The Flirts, and Trans X.

After recording her vocals for the Exposure Lp, and some turmoil within Management, Sandra had her heart set on a solo career. Contrary to belief, Sandra left Exposé to release her own music. "It was fun while it lasted, but to an extent. Everything was controlled.... makeup, costumes. It was more like Military School", said Tola. "It limited my talent, and I got scolded if I let myself go on stage. Exposé members were to only greet the audience and sing the songs, It was like the Supremes.... or the Pointer Sister's. Its different if you own your own name".

She owns her name today, that name being "Sandeé" (Pro-nounced SAN-DAY) "Being a Solo Artist, It's the same amount of work, but it's less stressful! (you can hear her background vocals all over the Exposure Lp)

Sandeé's first outing was with Producer "Avy Gonzales" whom penned the Hot Track "You're the One (My Heart Beats For)" with his own East/West Records and Co-Distrubuted by Atlantic Records in 1987. It hit No. 17 on the National Dance Music Charts. Tola appeared on TBS's "U.S.A Dance Party" (A Soul Train-style based television program) and performed the track with great response from the audience.

She then went on with that same formula and tossed us the "Awesome" drum-driven and synth-licked track entitled "Alway's Beside Me". "I had alot of fun doing this track, Avy was a dream and The Adlibs are too die for!!!. "Alway's Beside Me" went on to top the charts for more than 10 weeks and established her as one of the premiere solo artists on the dance-pop scene.

Her Third single "Notice Me", which was released on Fever Records was written and produced by C&C Music Factory's "Robert Clivilles & David Cole". It entered the charts at No.32 and sold over 100,000 copies in New York City alone. The house version of "Notice Me" also went on to explode in the club scene. Sandeé once again did a promo tour and stopped by TBS's "U.S.A Dance Party", this time "Tearing the Roof Off" performing the hit song "Notice Me".

Sandeé was on a successful tour with Menudo, Sweet Sensation, The Cover Girls, Denise Lopez, Stevie B. and Pajama Party in 1988-89. Not long after the release of "Notice Me", Sandeé signed a record deal with Columbia Records, and went to New York to record her first full-length Lp.

With recording complete, The fourth single from Sandeé and the Debut off her "Only Time Will Tell" Lp was titled "Love Desire". A Hot & Sultry track which went on to top the pop and R&B charts along with her Video. This then led to a national tour opening up for Jeffery Osboune and Surface, and later for Tony, Toni, Tone!

Unlike many artist's with dance hits, Sandeé used a live band and refuse's to lip-sync when in concert. She also does not like being labeled as a freestyle/dance artist. "Im also crossing over into pop, and I do R&B as well.....I also sing Spanish."

After much touring and a hectic lifestyle, Sandeé decided to take some time off to reflect on her life and focus on what was most important to her and that was her family....

Well, several years have gone by and Sandeé is now back, Stronger than ever and with a story to tell. "You never know what obstacles you may have to face in life," she says. "But as long as you overcome them and learn from them, they are well worth it." ** Affirmation: Tough times never last, tough people do.

SOURCE: JAX ENTERTAINMENT

R.I.P. Eartha Kitt - very sad day

This is a very sad holiday. One of my favorite entertainers has passed away. I'm happy to have seen her perform a couple of times and to have met her.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eartha Kitt, a sensual singer, dancer and actress who rose from modest rural roots to captivate international audiences with her sultry voice and style, died Thursday at the age of 81.

Andrew Freedman, a long-time friend and publicist, said Kitt died of colon cancer for which she was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York.

The cancer was detected about two years ago and treated but recurred after a period of remission.

"She came back strongly. She had been performing until two months ago," Freedman told Reuters by telephone from Los Angles. "We had dates booked through 2009."

Slinky and cat-like, Kitt described herself as a "sex kitten" and used her seductive purr to charm audiences across the world.

"She loved cabaret performances," Freedman said. "If there was ever an opportunity to do a small intimate venue with about 150 people, that was always her preference."

Kitt picked up a string of awards during her long career, winning two Emmys and being nominated for a third, as well as a Grammy. She also had two Tony nominations.

Kitt's hit songs included "C'est Si Bon," "Let's Do It" and "Just an Old Fashioned Girl." She also was widely associated with Christmas because of her hit "Santa Baby." The song went gold this year and she received the gold record before she died, Freedman said.

Blackballed in America for speaking out against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, Kitt began performing in Europe and rose to fame before returning to her native land to great acclaim.

"She was never one to look back on her life," Freedman said. "She was a true individual who believed that if you had a true belief in yourself, your talent was authentic."

"My greatest challenge was to be able to survive in the business and to be able to survive according to what I was doing. Not what other people were doing," Kitt told Reuters in a 2005 television interview at the Newport, Rhode Island jazz festival.

"I just stuck to my own guns and I think that was one of the way's I have survived. I didn't follow the herd. I stuck to my own path," she said. "The audience is not supposed to know that I'm scared, the shyest person in the world."

Born Eartha Mae Kitt on a cotton plantation in South Carolina in 1927, she spoke in many interviews of her tough childhood in the impoverished South before she was sent to live with an aunt in New York City.

Kitt got her start as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company and made her film debut in "Casbah" in 1948. On television she was perhaps best known for her role as the sexy Catwoman in the 1960s U.S. TV series "Batman."

[Reuters]

"Santa Baby"


with Bronski Beat "Cha Cha Heels"


"I Love Men"

Music Company closings ... (sad times)

Last month Cisco in Japan closed their doors and this week Creative Vibes in Australia and Neuton in Germany are shutting down their operations and Pinnacle in the UK has gone under administration (insolvency, which is similar to bankruptcy/liquidation)

Last year we had the closings of Amato in the UK, Unique in NY, Watts in NY, Syntax in NY and many more.

This economy sucks !!!

In November, Cisco Music (the audiophile label in California) and their parent company, Cisco International, filed for bankruptcy and shut down their business completely. This included all their retail stores throughout Japan, which they shuttered last year, their online store and their vinyl distribution division. Cisco was one of the leading vinyl sources in Japan with many retail stores throughout Tokyo. Their online store was the busiest for vinyl.

Neuton, one of the biggest (vinyl) music distributors, is about to announce its insolvency today. After the collapse of the UK distributor Amato and the Japanese distributor Cisco, the whole vinyl label scene and the distributors put Neuton under extreme pressure. Neuton worked with many top electronic labels, distributing music for diverse labels including Four Twenty, Tresor, Vakant, or Perlon and has worked in the past with labels like Bpitch control, Playhouse, Klang or M_nus.

Australian label and distributor Creative Vibes is calling it a day after nearly 15 years in the business. In a statement, the founders blamed in part competition from vertically-integrated multinationals and the recent massive fall in the Australian dollar for their decision to wind-up.


Pinnacle Entertainment who have been around since 1992 as a leading software, games and music distributor in the UK has gone under administration today.


URP Music Distributors, based in Nashville Tennessee, is still selling loads of vinyl.

R.I.P. MC Breed

Flint rapper MC Breed dies at 37

Influential Flint rapper MC Breed, who was one of the first Midwest rappers to emerge onto the national hip-hop scene, has died, his manager has confirmed to The Detroit News. Breed was 37.

Breed, who scored a hit with his 1991 lo-fi classic "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'" and later collaborated with a young Tupac Shakur, was found dead on Saturday at a friend's home in Ypsilanti, according to Darryl Morris, Breed's manager. No further details were available as of press time.

Breed, whose given name was Eric Breed, had recently been wrestling with health issues and was admitted to a hospital in his adopted home of Atlanta in September after suffering from kidney failure, according to reports. The rapper was put on life support, according to reports, and had only 30 percent functionality of his kidneys. Plans were put in place to throw a benefit concert for the rapper to raise money for his medical bills, but they were put on hold when his condition seemed to improve.

Breed's biggest hit was "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'," from his 1991 debut album, "MC Breed & D.F.C." The song sampled Zapp's "More Bounce to the Ounce" and the Ohio Players' "Funky Worm" and found Breed not only bragging about his hometown of Flint but also stating his goals for the highest office in the land. "If I was the President, then I would state facts," he rapped, "you leave it up to me, I'll paint the White House black."

Breed bolstered his cred when he collaborated with Shakur on "Gotta Get Mine," the lead single from his third album, 1993's "The New Breed." The song came just as Shakur was just starting to earn his bad-boy-of-rap reputation, and it reached No. 6 on Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart.

Over the course of his nearly 20-year career, Breed also worked with Too $hort, the D.O.C., Warren G and more. While never achieving full-fledged mainstream success, Breed was respected in hip-hop circles for his work ethic and his lucid, scratchy-voiced flow.

He recorded 13 albums, and released an album a year between 1991 and 2001. His final album, "The New Prescription," was released in 2004.

Detroit rapper Trick Trick says he looked up to MC Breed.

"I salute him for everything he did," Trick said Saturday. "It was good to see him break out of Flint. It gave a lot of us hope, like, 'We can do this, too.'"

Breed's career cooled considerably in recent years, and he spent eight months in prison for a parole violation that was a result of unpaid child support. In April, a Flint judge sentenced him to 60 days in jail as a result of owing more than $200,000 in unpaid child support to three different women.
Funeral arrangements are still pending, but an end-of-week service in Flint is being planned.

[DetNews]

R.I.P. DHL

DHL to cut 9,500 U.S. jobs

The firm will end deliveries within the U.S., but will continue shipments to other countries.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Global delivery company DHL announced Monday that it was cutting 9,500 jobs as it discontinues air and ground operations within the United States.

DHL said its DHL Express unit will continue to operate between the United States and other nations. But the company said it was dropping "domestic-only" air and ground services within the United States by Jan. 30 "to minimize future uncertainties."

Elias Sleiman, a quality control worker and one of 375 DHL employees at a shipping facility in Allentown, Penn., said the company has scheduled a 10:30 p.m. meeting to explain their fate.

"At the meeting they're going to be telling us the bad news," said Sleiman. "We don't know what's going to happen."

DHL's 9,500 job cuts are on top of 5,400 job reductions announced earlier this year. After these layoffs, between 3,000 and 4,000 employees will remain at DHL's U.S. operations, the company said.

The company also said it was shutting down all ground hubs and reducing the number of its U.S. stations to 103 from 412.

DHL said it was making the cuts to improve profitability and "to prepare the company for the economic challenges ahead."

The company said this latest action would add $1.9 billion to its restructuring costs, for a total of $3.8 billion over two years, most of it during 2008. The company said the cuts would reduce the annual operating costs of DHL's U.S. unit to less than $1 billion, from its current cost of $5.4 billion.

8,000 more jobs
DHL is owned by the German company Deutsche Post World Net. DHL's main U.S. hub is in Wilmington, Ohio, a town of about 12,000 people. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., visited Wilmington in August as part of his bid for the presidency, noting at the time that he was "deeply troubled by the specter of job loss confronting Wilmington" and the surrounding area.

DHL spokespersons said the cuts would take place nationwide and will not be concentrated in any one location.But there could be many non-DHL jobs on the line in Wilmington as well.

Because DHL isn't U.S.-owned, the company isn't permitted to make deliveries between U.S. airports. Instead, these services are currently performed for DHL by U.S.-based carriers like ABX Air, Inc. and Air Cargo Carrier, which are both also based in Wilmington.

As DHL scales down its domestic operations, it's working on a deal to outsource these services to UPS Inc., (UPS, Fortune 500) based in Atlanta. If the deal goes through, then UPS could transport DHL packages between U.S. airports, instead of ABX and ASTAR.

ABX and ASTAR depend heavily on DHL for their business. Joseph Teuchert, a 16-year captain on an ASTAR cargo plane and a spokesman for the organization "Save the Jobs in Wilmington, " said that if the UPS deal goes through, "you're going to see a minimum of 8,000 jobs gone from Wilmington."

DHL spokesman Robert Mintz told CNNMoney that the company is still "in full negotiations with UPS [and] expects to reach an agreement by the end of the year."

"If [domestic shipping] goes to UPS, then my job is probably gone," said James Garner, a shipping handler for ABX Air in Wilmington.

Michele Nadeem, vice president of corporate communications for DHL, said "a great number" of the non-DHL workers "will be affected" by the job cuts, but she wouldn't say how many.

DHL's pullback in the U.S. should help not only UPS but also competitor FedEx Corp (FDX, Fortune 500), said Donald Broughton, analyst for Avondale Partners.

"Obviously, it's good news for FedEx and UPS, because this puts the 3-4% market share that DHL had [for domestic ground and air shipping within the U.S.] up for grabs," said Broughton. "Makes it a jump ball, if you will."

UPS shares rose 3.5% in Monday trading, and FedEx shares rose about 2%. Both outperformed the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.

The U.S. job market has been bleeding jobs all year. The Labor Department said nearly 1.2 million jobs were lost in the first 10 months of this year, with 240,000 jobs lost in October alone.

[CNN]

R.I.P. Madelyn Dunham, Barack Obama's Grandma, 86

Obama's grandmother dies after battle with cancer

Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, passes away Monday in Hawaii

CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died following a bout with cancer, Obama and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said Monday.

She was 86.

At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, Monday night, the Illinois senator said "she has gone home and she died peacefully in her sleep with my sister at her side."

"I'm not going to talk about it long because it's hard to talk about," he added.

Obama remembered her as "one of those quiet heroes we have across America, who aren't famous ... but each and every day they work hard. They look after their families. They look after their children and their grandchildren."

In a statement released Monday afternoon, Obama and his sister said that Dunham was "the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility." Watch CNN contributors discuss Obama's grandmother »

"She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances. She was proud of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and left this world with the knowledge that her impact on all of us was meaningful and enduring. Our debt to her is beyond measure."

Obama and Soetoro-Ng asked that donations be made for the search for a cure for cancer in lieu of flowers. A small private ceremony will be held "at a later date."

Dunham passed away peacefully at her home shortly before midnight Sunday night (5 a.m. ET), campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told CNN. She said Obama learned of her death around 8 a.m.

Obama's republican rival, Sen. John McCain, issued a statement Monday afternoon:

"We offer our deepest condolences to Barack Obama and his family as they grieve the loss of their beloved grandmother. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them as they remember and celebrate the life of someone who had such a profound impact in their lives."

The Democratic presidential candidate left the campaign trail on October 23 and flew to Honolulu, Hawaii, to spend the day with Dunham, whose health deteriorated after she suffered a broken hip.

His wife, Michelle Obama, filled in for him at events in Columbus and Akron, Ohio, on October 24.

Obama said in an interview taped for that day's "Good Morning America" that Dunham had been "inundated" with flowers and messages from strangers who read about her in Obama's 1995 book, "Dreams From My Father."

"Maybe she is getting a sense of long-deserved recognition toward the end of her life," he said.

The candidate resumed his campaign on October 25.

Obama has spoken often about his grandmother -- who helped raise him -- as an integral figure in his youth and how she struggled against the glass ceiling in her career. He and his family traveled to Hawaii in August to visit her.

"She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life," he said in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. "She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well."

[CNN]

R.I.P. Yma Sumac, Peruvian exotica singer, 86

A very sad day. I've adored this talented artist for many, many years.

Yma Sumac, 'Peruvian songbird' with multi-octave range, dies at 86

The singer with a persona matching her exotic voice became an international sensation in the 1950s.

Bursting onto the American music scene after signing with Capitol Records in 1950, the raven-haired Sumac was known as the "Nightingale of the Andes," the "Peruvian Songbird" and a "singing marvel" with a 4 1/2-octave (she said five-octave) voice.

Yma Sumac, the Peruvian-born singer whose spectacular multi-octave vocal range and exotic persona made her an international sensation in the 1950s, has died. She was 86.

Sumac, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in February, died Saturday in an assisted-living facility in Silver Lake, said Damon Devine, her personal assistant and close friend.

Bursting onto the U.S. music scene after signing with Capitol Records in 1950, the raven-haired Sumac was known as the "Nightingale of the Andes," the "Peruvian Songbird" and a "singing marvel" with a 4 1/2 -octave (she said five-octave) voice.

"She is five singers in one," boasted her then-husband Moises Vivanco, a composer-arranger, in a 1951 interview with the Associated Press. "Never in 2,000 years has there been another voice like hers."

After Sumac performed at the Shrine Auditorium with a company of dancers, drummers and musicians in 1955, a Los Angeles Times writer observed:

"She warbles like a bird in the uppermost regions, hoots like an owl in the lowest registers, produces bell-like coloratura passages one minute, and exotic, dusky contralto tones the next."

Sumac's first album for Capitol, "Voice of the Xtabay," soared to the top of the record charts. A handful of other albums followed during the 1950s.

With her exotic beauty, elaborate costumes and singing voice that could imitate the cries of birds and wild animals, the woman who claimed to be a descendant of an ancient Incan emperor offered Eisenhower-era audiences something unique.

During her 1950s heyday, Sumac sang at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall. She reportedly made $25,000 a week in Las Vegas.

She was featured in the 1951 Broadway musical "Flahooley" and appeared in the films "Secret of the Incas" in 1954 and "Omar Khayyam" in 1957.

Although details of her birth date and early life vary widely, Devine said Sumac was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo in Cajamarca, Peru, on Sept. 13, 1922.

Sumac said she began singing when she was about 9.

After joining Vivanco's large group of native singers, dancers and musicians, she made her radio debut in 1942; she and Vivanco were married the same year.

In Argentina in 1943, Sumac and Vivanco's group recorded a series of Peruvian folk songs. By then, she was known professionally as Imma Sumack. (Capitol Records later changed the spelling.)

In 1946, she and her husband moved to New York City, where they performed as the Inca Taky Trio, with Vivanco on guitar, Sumac singing soprano and her cousin Cholita Rivero singing contralto and dancing.

After making her name as a solo artist, Sumac toured around the world for several years in the '60s, but her popularity in the U.S. had waned by then.

In 1971, she recorded a psychedelic rock album, "Miracles," that was not widely released, and semi-retired to Peru later in the decade -- at least that's what she always said.

"That's the legend that she stuck with all through these decades," Devine, who runs the Sumac website www.yma-sumac.com, told The Times in June. "She didn't want people to know she was here and not working. The story was good for her. She's a very eccentric woman. . . . Her whole career and life is based on her mystery, and so the facts and fiction is a fine line with her."

Sumac, however, did return to performing in 1984 at the Vine Street Bar & Grill and the Cinegrill in Hollywood. In the early 1990s, she toured in Europe and continued to perform until 1997.

"The younger generation loves the music, loves Yma," Sumac told the Tampa Tribune in 1996. "The new generation told me many times: 'Miss Yma, we love you. Your music is something. It's out of this world.' "

Sumac, who was divorced from and remarried to Vivanco in the late '50s and divorced from him again in 1965, is survived by their son, Charles, who lives in Europe, and three sisters, who live in Peru.

Services will be private.

[LA Times]

Documentary (in French)

R.I.P. Levi Stubbs, vocalist from The Four Tops

Arguably the most powerful voice in Motown's storied history has been silenced. Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs, Jr., died today (Oct. 17) at his home in Detroit after a long series io illnesses -- including cancer and a stroke -- that forced him to stop performing in 2000. He was 72.

Funeral arrangements are pending for Stubbs, who is survived by Clineice, his wife of 48 years, and five children.

"He had one of the most prolific and identifiably voices in American history," the Motown Alumni Association's Billy J. Wilson tells Billboard.com. "It's a deep loss, to the entire Motown family and to the world."

Stubbs' death leaves Abdul "Duke" Fakir as the Tops' only living member from the original quartet, which formed in 1954 as the Four Aims and signed with Motown nine years later. Laurence Payton passed away in 1997, and Renaldo "Obie" Benson died in 2005.

Fakir continues to lead a version of the Tops that includes Payton's son Roquel, former Temptations member Theo Peoples and Motown veteran Ronnie McNeir.

Stubbs -- born Levi Stubbles in Detroit -- gave voice to enduring hits such as "Baby I Need Your Loving," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Brenadette" and others. The Tops have sold more than 50 million records and racked up 45 chart hits for the Motown, ABC Dunhill, Arista and Casablanca labels, and the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Stubbs also provided the voice of Audrey II, the man-eating plant in the film version of the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" in 1986, and of Mother Brain in the 1989 animated TV series "Captain N: The Game Master."

Stubbs' last public appearance with the group came at the group's 50th Anniversary Concert on July 28, 2004 at Detroit's Music Hall Center.

[Billboard]

Singer, songwriter Isaac Hayes dies at age 65

Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless "Theme From Shaft" won Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said. He was 65.

A family member found him unresponsive near a treadmill and he was pronounced dead an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, according to the sheriff's office. The cause of death was not immediately known.

In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco, for what became known as urban-contemporary music and for romantic crooners like Barry White. And he was rapping before there was rap.

His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."

Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes' wife and young son and his wife's cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff's deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

"The treadmill was running but he was unresponsive lying on the floor," Shular said.

The album "Hot Buttered Soul" made Hayes a star in 1969. His shaven head, gold chains and sunglasses gave him a compelling visual image.

"Hot Buttered Soul" was groundbreaking in several ways: He sang in a "cool" style unlike the usual histrionics of big-time soul singers. He prefaced the song with "raps," and the numbers ran longer than three minutes with lush arrangements.

"Jocks would play it at night," Hayes recalled in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever."

Next came "Theme From Shaft," a No. 1 hit in 1971 from the film "Shaft" starring Richard Roundtree.

"That was like the shot heard round the world," Hayes said in the 1999 interview.

At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation. TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys.

"The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence," he said. "And they'll tell you if you ask."

Hayes was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

"I knew nothing about the business, or trends and things like that," he said. "I think it was a matter of timing. I didn't know what was unfolding."

A self-taught musician, he was hired in 1964 by Stax Records of Memphis as a backup pianist, working as a session musician for Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone.

He began writing songs, establishing a songwriting partnership with David Porter, and in the 1960s they wrote such hits for Sam and Dave as "Hold On, I'm Coming" and "Soul Man."

All this led to his recording contract.

In 1972, he won another Grammy for his album "Black Moses" and earned a nickname he reluctantly embraced. Hayes composed film scores for "Tough Guys" and "Truck Turner" besides "Shaft." He also did the song "Two Cool Guys" on the "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" movie soundtrack in 1996.

Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" and had radio shows in New York City (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis.

He was in several movies, including "It Could Happen to You" with Nicolas Cage, "Ninth Street" with Martin Sheen, "Reindeer Games" starring Ben Affleck and the blaxploitation parody "I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka."

In the 1999 interview, Hayes described the South Park cook as "a person that speaks his mind; he's sensitive enough to care for children; he's wise enough to not be put into the 'whack' category like everybody else in town — and he l-o-o-o-o-ves the ladies."

But Hayes angrily quit the show in 2006 after an episode mocked his Scientology religion. "There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," he said.

Co-creator creators Matt Stone responded that Hayes "has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians." A subsequent episode of the show seemingly killed off the Chef character.

Hayes was born in 1942 in a tin shack in Covington, Tenn., about 40 miles north of Memphis. He was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died and his father took off when he was 1 1/2. The family moved to Memphis when he was 6.

Hayes wanted to be a doctor, but got redirected when he won a talent contest in ninth grade by singing Nat King Cole's "Looking Back."

He held down various low-paying jobs, including shining shoes on the legendary Beale Street in Memphis. He also played gigs in rural Southern juke joints where at times he had to hit the floor because someone began shooting.

R.I.P. Cassette Tapes

Say So Long to an Old Companion: Cassette Tapes
By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

There was a funeral the other day in the Midtown offices of Hachette, the book publisher, to mourn the passing of what it called a “dear friend.” Nobody had actually died, except for a piece of technology, the cassette tape.

While the cassette was dumped long ago by the music industry, it has lived on among publishers of audio books. Many people prefer cassettes because they make it easy to pick up in the same place where the listener left off, or to rewind in case a certain sentence is missed. For Hachette, however, demand had slowed so much that it released its last book on cassette in June, with “Sail,” a novel by James Patterson and Howard Roughan.

The funeral at Hachette — an office party in the audio-book department — mirrored the broader demise of cassettes, which gave vinyl a run for its money before being eclipsed by the compact disc. (The CD, too, is in rapid decline, thanks to Internet music stores, but that is a different story.)

Cassettes have limped along for some time, partly because of their usefulness in recording conversations or making a tape of favorite songs, say, for a girlfriend. But sales of portable tape players, which peaked at 18 million in 1994, sank to 480,000 in 2007, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. The group predicts that sales will taper to 86,000 in 2012.

“I bet you would be hard pressed to find a household in the U.S. that doesn’t have at least a couple cassette tapes hanging around,” said Shawn DuBravac, an economist with the Consumer Electronics Association. Even if publishers of music and audio books stopped using cassettes entirely, people would still shop for tape players because of “the huge libraries of legacy content consumers have kept,” he said.

As long as people keep mix tapes from a high-school sweetheart up in the attic, Mr. DuBravac said, there will still be the urge to hear them. “People have a tremendous amount of installed content and an innate curiosity when coming across a box of tapes to say, ‘Hey, what’s on these?’ ” he said.

The tapes started to really take off in 1979, the year that a radical new cassette player — the Sony Walkman — was introduced, enabling people to listen to Donna Summer and the Knack’s “My Sharona” while they were jogging (remember jogging?). The heft of the early Walkman — slightly smaller and lighter than a brick — is comical by today’s wispy iPod standards, but during the Carter administration it seemed sleek.

Nowadays, listening to music on cassettes is a dying pastime. None of Billboard’s Top 10 albums last week were issued on cassette, though half were released on vinyl, which has been resurging. Last year, only 400,000 music tapes were sold, representing one-tenth of 1 percent of all physical and digital music sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. In 1997, the figure was 173 million, and that was when cassettes were already getting a drubbing by CDs. (The iPod wasn’t introduced until 2001.)

“I would not expect to see a revival of cassettes like we’ve seen in the LP market,” Mr. DuBravac said. While vinyl records have always been prized artifacts for their devotees, the plastic cassette tape has little sex appeal.

Such was the case for the eight-track format as well, which was popular in the late 1960s and ’70s. It died relatively quickly with the advent of cassettes because eight-tracks were not widely used for personal recording or mix tapes, Mr. DuBravac said.

While the chances of finding cassette players in a dorm room today are slim, they are still available for sale: on Amazon, Sony alone offers 23 tape players, from the Walkman to boomboxes.

Popping a cassette in the car tape deck is also passé. Only 4 percent of vehicles sold in the United States during the 2007 model year had factory-installed cassette players, according to Ward’s Automotive Yearbook. As recently as the 2005 model year, 23 percent of vehicles had them.

Given that the median age of a car in the United States is nine years old, said Alan K. Binder, the editor of Ward’s yearbook, it is most likely that the majority of the 200 million cars and light trucks on America’s roads have cassette players (though how many have had the same Bob Seger tape lodged unplayable in them for 11 years is impossible to determine).

Cassette tapes’ tendency to hiss — and to melt in the summer and snap in the winter — turns off audiophiles. But for audio books, the cassette is an oddly elegant medium: you can eject it from your car, carry it home and stick it in a boombox, and it will pick up in the same place, an analog feat beyond the ability of the CD.

Cassettes accounted for 7 percent of all sales in the $923 million audio-book industry in 2006, the latest year for which data is available, according to the Audio Publishers Association. While many publishers, like Random House and Macmillan, stopped producing books on cassette in the last couple of years, there are holdouts.

At Blackstone Audio, which produces cassette versions of its roughly 340 annual titles, Josh Stanton, the executive vice president, said there was still demand from libraries and truckers, who buy them at truck stops. But he could forecast only that his company would produce cassettes through 2009.

Recorded Books, whose authors include Philip Roth and Jodi Picoult, still issues cassettes of all its titles, roughly 700 a year. Retailers like Borders and Barnes & Noble have essentially stopped ordering them, but libraries have been slower to abandon them, said Brian Downing, the company’s publisher.

The Web sites of Barnes & Noble and Borders, however, indicate that they still offer some cassettes, though publishers say the stores’ buyers have expressed little interest in ordering more in the future.

At some point, the cassette will go the way of the eight-track, Mr. Downing acknowledged, and his company will publish only in other formats.

“I would guess it would be pretty much gone in three years,” he said.

[NYTimes]

Estelle Getty dies at 84. R.I.P. Sophia Petrillo from "The Golden Girls." Picture it... Sicily ...no more.

Diminutive actress Estelle Getty, who found fame late in life with her portrayal of a sharp-tongued Sicilian mother on "The Golden Girls," died Tuesday.

The 84-year-old passed away at her Los Angeles home following a long battle with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disease.

Getty, who stood under 5 feet tall, won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Sophia Petrillo, a meddling mom spending her twilight years with her middle-aged daughter and two roommates on "The Golden Girls."

Nearly 45 minutes of makeup were needed to transform Getty - who was actually younger than her screen daughter, Bea Arthur - into the feisty octogenarian, whose wisecracks and Sicilian memories often stole the scene.

"Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duos ever, and I will miss her," Arthur said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Born on the lower East Side in 1923, Getty briefly worked in local theater but left the limelight to raise her two sons with her husband, Arthur Gettleman, in Queens.

She returned to the stage later in life and, in 1982, landed the role of Harvey Fierstein's mother in "Torch Song Trilogy" on Broadway.

Based on accolades from that role, Getty decided to try her luck in Hollywood and was plucked from relative obscurity for "The Golden Girls," alongside sitcom stalwarts Arthur, Betty White and Rue McClanahan.

"Estelle always wanted to be an actress, and she achieved that goal beyond her dreams," McClanahan said. "Don't feel sad about her passing. She will always be with us in her crowning achievement, Sophia."

Getty's Sophia shuffled around the screen, with her purse tucked under one arm and a smart-aleck comment at the ready. Viewers knew the only thing keeping her in line was the threat her daughter would ship her back to Shady Pines nursing home.

The series' subject matter - the lives and loves of older women in Florida - was a departure for prime-time television, but the show was an instant hit and ran from 1985 to 1992.

Getty went on to play mothers to Sylvester Stallone, Cher and Barry Manilow in "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot," "Mask" and the TV movie "Copacabana."

"She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents," her son, Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica, Calif., said Tuesday.

[NY Daily News]

R.I.P. Dignity In The Music Industry

New Web Site Shakes Up Music Industry

DanceFreeway.com is a new site dedicated to offering dance music fans free legal mp3 downloads in an easy to use environment. There's no registration required, and no maze of pop up ads and "special offers."

A new website is promising to put the Music Industry on its' head. DanceFreeway.com is a new site dedicated to offering free MP3 downloads of Dance Music in an easy to use environment.

"So what's the catch?", asked Ron Hirsch of DanceFreeway.com. "There is no catch. Yes, you will see ads on the site, but they won't interfere with your ability to stream or download music...all at no charge."

The site is actually the brainchild of record label, Act 2 Records. So why would a record label design a site to give away their music and others'? Isn't that counter productive to making money? I asked this question to Act 2's President Ron Hirsch. He said that "the Economics of the Music Industry have changed so dramatically, that it has forced us to re-evaluate how people value music. Clearly people still enjoy music, but they're just not going to pay $16 for a CD anymore. And frankly, 99 cents or lower for a download is a good deal for the consumer, however it's too small a margin for a label to sustain itself."

So then what is the value of music? Mr. Hirsch believes that "music has value as a promotional product. And that the Music Industry's future will more closely resemble other mediums like radio and television. Specifically, we will offer a free product (ie music), and sustain ourselves by selling advertisements."

DanceFreeway.com was launched in May 2008 with 2 sister sites (HipHopFreeway.com & RockFreeway.com) being launched in June. Mr. Hirsch states that "so far the amount of traffic and the amount of downloads has greatly surpassed our most aggressive estimates."

But not everything's free on the site. The basic premise for the site is that in exchange for Artist's offering songs for free, they will be allowed to post additional songs that people can purchase and they will receive 100% of the net proceeds.

"It's really a win-win-win & win concept", says Mr. Hirsch. "The User wins by getting free downloads in an easy to use legal environment. The Artist wins by getting exposure to new fans and incremental revenue. The Advertiser wins by getting a targeted consumer. And we win by creating an additional stream of revenue for ourselves."

Mr. Hirsch goes on to say: "It's really a fun process. It's like the old days again. We help new Artists' get exposure, (recently having one get signed to a major record deal), and we also get to turn people on to some great new music. What could be better?"

Artists may "Get On The Freeway" by submitting an application on line at one of the three current sites. Future sites include CountryFreeway, IndieFreeway, LatinFreeway, ChristianFreeway and others.

[PRWeb]

A Heartfelt Read ...

Please read this email ... all the way to the bottom.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cary@djcarystringfellow.com
Sent: 6/23/2008 11:24:05 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: A Quote from George Carlin

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

[Spyder>>] Now after reading this, please take note that the person (Cary Stringfellow) who sent this email, shortly after the recent death of George Carlin, took his own life about a week later.

You can read a little more about Cary HERE.

Hopefully Cary is now at peace with himself and will sharing a moment with George Carlin.

R.I.P. Cary Stringfellow

This is very sad news. A really lovely person, incredible DJ, friend, etc. has left us this weekend. At 36 years old, DJ Cary Stringfellow, took his own life on Friday, July 4. He will be missed very much.

Cary Stringfellow began his nightclub career in 1992 as manager of Salt Lake City’s first Superclub “The Vortex” with a capacity of over 1,300. The club experienced extreme success for over 7 years. In 1999, Cary and his partners opened Club Axis. Not only did Axis win Salt Lake’s Best Dance Club for 5 years, it also was the official host to world athletes during the 2002 Winter Olympics. It was at Club Axis that Cary’s passion for music blossomed. He was the resident DJ for Salt Lake’s premier gay night with over 1,200 boys dancing with hands-in-the air every Friday night. With personal friends and mentors such as DJ’s Phil B, Neil Lewis, Twisted Dee, and Chris Cox, Cary was able to gain the technical skills and insight to mixing music flawlessly. You can count on a musical joyride of soul, disco, driving beats, and powerful, uplifting vocals.

In 2001, Cary headlined Latin Fever, Puerto Vallarta and has returned every year since. Cary is always in demand playing San Francisco, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Salt Lake City, Mexico City, Monterrey, Leon, Guadalajara, Cuernavaca, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Fire Island, Toronto, Hawaii and San Diego. He currently maintains residencies throughout the US and Mexico. Cary was selected to close the Folsom Street Fair weekend at the Real Bad 2007 party in San Francisco, which is a huge honor. He continues to receive outstanding feedback not only as the “party of the weekend” but also as “a music journey like no other”. He was also voted “Best up-and-coming DJ for 2008” by JustCircuit.mag.

Cary is one of the brightest stars in the new generation of gay DJ’s that is transforming the music scene. Once people hear him, they instantly become followers. Cary has dedicated himself to reaching out wherever he is invited with his infectious spirit and message of joy and celebration - all reflected in his music. With a bright outlook on life, he always brings an uplifting spirit to everything he does.

R.I.P. George Carlin, 71

One of my favorite comics passed away today of heart failure. He will be missed.



WASHINGTON (AFP) — Irreverent US comedian George Carlin, who became known as a voice of the 1970s counterculture and was one of the country's best known funny men, died on Sunday aged 71, US media reported.

The Grammy award winner, whose career spanned five decades, died of heart failure, his publicist Jeff Abraham told the New York Times.

Carlin had a history of heart problems and passed away in Santa Monica, California after checking into the hospital with chest pains.

He won four Grammy Awards, including one for his 1972 comedy recording "FM & AM," in which he combined his older, more conventional material that entertained audiences in the 1950s and 60s, with his new, edgier and more controversial style.

Gray-bearded and often dressed in black casual attire, Carlin frequently admitted to drug use and shocked 1970s audiences with his hit "Seven Words That Can Never Be Said on Television."

When a radio station played the album on air, Carlin's use of numerous swear words sparked a legal case over obscenity regulations that made it all the way to the Supreme Court.

The material was judged indecent, though not obscene, and a 1978 high court ruling upheld the government's right to penalize stations that broadcast such material during hours when young people may typically be tuned in.

Carlin, who also collected five Emmy Awards, was considered in the same class of influential comedians as Richard Pryor and his predecessor Lenny Bruce, the Times said.

The first host of the popular comedy show "Saturday Night Live" when it debuted in 1975, he went on to sell more than one million recordings of his stand up acts and also became a best-selling author.

"I think it is the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately," Carlin once said.

Earlier this year, Carlin was named the winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and was to accept the award at a ceremony in November.

He performed as recently as last weekend in Las Vegas.

"In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think," said Kennedy Center chair Stephen Schwarzman. "His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching."

He was an Air Force veteran and got his start in entertainment as a disc jockey at a radio station in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Carlin was born in New York and had a daughter, Kelly, with his first wife Brenda who died in 1997. He is survived by his second wife, Sally.

Pringles Can Inventor, buried in a ... Pringles can

COLLEGE HILL - Dr. Fredric J. Baur was so proud of having designed the container for Pringles potato crisps that he asked his family to bury him in one.

His children honored his request. Part of his remains was buried in a Pringles can - along with a regular urn containing the rest - in his grave at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Springfield Township.

Dr. Baur, a retired organic chemist and food storage technician who specialized in research and development and quality control for Procter & Gamble, died May 4 at Vitas Hospice. The College Hill resident was 89.

He developed many products, including frying oils and a freeze-dried ice cream, for P&G. The ice cream was patented and marketed, but didn't catch on. "Basically, what you did, you added milk to it, put it in the freezer and you had ice cream," said his son Lawrence J. Baur of Stevensville, Mich. "That was another one he was proud of but just never went anywhere."

Later in his career, Dr. Baur became a compliance specialist for P&G. "He had a worldwide reputation in plant sanitation and traveled all over the world inspecting plants," said his daughter, Linda L. Baur, of Diamondhead, Miss. He also lectured, edited books, and wrote several publications and articles.

But the Pringles can - a tube-shaped container designed to hold the salty, stackable, saddle-shaped chip - was his proudest accomplishment, his daughter said. He received a patent for the package as well as the method of packaging Pringles in 1970.

Born in Toledo on July 14, 1918, Dr. Baur received a bachelor's degree from the University of Toledo and both a master's degree and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Ohio State University.

He served in the Navy as an aviation physiologist stationed in San Diego during World War II. Aviation physiologists conducted research on the medical aspects of flight.

Dr. Baur started working for P&G in the late 1940s and retired in the early 1980s.

He was a member of College Hill Presbyterian Church and active with the national Presbyterian Church. He was on the board of directors of the church-run Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.

His wife, Elaine Baur, died in 2001.

In addition to his daughter, Linda, and son Lawrence, survivors include another son, Ronald S. Baur of College Hill; and four grandchildren.

Services have been held.

Memorials: Vitas Hospice, 1150 Northlake Drive, Suite 400, Cincinnati, OH 45249, or National Ghost Ranch Foundation, 401 Old Taos Highway, Santa Fe, NM 87501.

Source [The Enquirer]

R.I.P. Frosty Freeze of Rock Steady Crew

Breakdance Pioneer Dies in NYC

In this 1981 photo provided by Martha Cooper, breakdance pioneer Wayne "Frosty Freeze" Frost executes his "dead man" move outside of New York's Lincoln Center. Frost died in a New York hospital Thursday, April 3, 2008 after a long illness. He was 44. (AP Photo/Martha Cooper)

NEW YORK (AP) — Wayne "Frosty Freeze" Frost, a hip-hop pioneer whose acrobatic performance with the legendary Rock Steady Crew in the 1983 movie "Flashdance" helped set off a worldwide breakdancing craze, has died. He was 44.

Frost died Thursday at Mount Sinai Medical Center after a long illness, said Jorge "Fabel" Pabon, a senior vice president of the crew where Frost and other so-called b-boys (for beat or break boys) made their name performing complicated and daring dance routines.

"He was one of most charismatic b-boys that ever lived," said Benson Lee, director of the new documentary film "Planet B-Boy."

Breakdancing emerged from the Bronx and Harlem in the early 1970s, part of the hip-hop culture that also included graffiti, MCing or rapping, and disc jockeys scratching and mixing vinyl records on turntables.

During extended pauses, or breaks, in the music, b-boys would mimic James Brown's showmanship and footwork and Bruce Lee's martial arts, adding their own signature moves.

Frost was known for his energetic style, intricate choreography and fearless moves including back flips and head spins. One was even dubbed the "Suicide."

Frost got his start in 1978 with the Bronx-based Rock City Crew. In 1981, he became part of the Rock Steady Crew, joining such acclaimed breakdancers as Ken Swift and Lil Crazy Legs.

In this undated photo provided by Martha Cooper, breakdance pioneer Wayne "Frosty Freeze" Frost demonstrates some of his moves. Frost died Thursday, April 3, 2008 in a New York hospital after a long illness. He was 44. (AP Photo/Martha Cooper)

Frost toured the world with the Rock Steady Crew and other hip-hop artists, including Fab 5 Freddy, Futura 2000 and Kool Lady Blue.

Frost's appearance with Rock Steady Crew in "Flashdance" spread the breakdance phenomenon globally, said Joseph Schloss, a visiting scholar in the music department at New York University. "He was one of the first B-boys that most people ever saw," Schloss said.

Graffiti artist and close friend Zulu King Slone, who knew Frost for 15 years, said he was "like a walking hip-hop culture encyclopedia."

As a member of the Rock Steady Crew, Frost also appeared in several movies on hip-hop culture, including "Wild Style," "Beat Street" and "Style Wars." He also appeared on the cover of the Village Voice in 1981.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

Source [AP]

For more info: http://www.rocksteadycrew.com

R.I.P. Schoolkids

College-Town Record Stores Shuttering

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — You need a college, of course, but that's not the only ingredient in a good college town. You need quirky bookstores. Coffee shops — preferably not all chains. A diner. An artsy cinema. A dive bar.

There's one other thing you need, and it's getting harder to find: a local record store. The kind of place with poster-covered walls, tattoo-covered customers, and an indie-rock aficionado at the cash register, somebody in a retro T-shirt who helps you navigate the store's eclectic inventory.

A few years ago on just one block of Chapel Hill's Franklin Street, the main drag in what's been called America's ideal college town, four or five such places catered both to locals and University of North Carolina students.

But with the demise of Schoolkids Records, the last one is gone. Schoolkids had planned to gut it out through March, but couldn't even make through its final week and shut down Saturday. It's just the latest victim in an industry hit by rising college-town rents, big-box retailers, high CD prices, and — most importantly — a new generation of college students for whom music has become an entirely online, intangible hobby they often don't have to pay for.

Chapel Hill is hardly alone. In recent years, perhaps hundreds of independent and small-chain record stores in college towns have shut down or consolidated as music downloading all but eliminated the demand for them.

In State College, Pa., Arboria and Vibes have closed. Iowa City, Iowa, used to have BJ's, Sal's Music Emporium and Real Records.

Boulder, Colo., has lost at least a half dozen — Cheapo Discs, All the Rage, Rocky Mountain Records and Tapes, and others. Albums on the Hill, a holdout across from the University of Colorado's campus, is down from 18 full-time employees to three part-timers.

"I'm just trying to decide when I'm going to go online and close my brick and mortar," said Greg Gabbard, owner of City Lights Records in State College, near Penn State's campus. "I'm trying to stay here as long as I can because I love the people. We're all teachers."

Big record chains aren't doing much better. But somehow, customers never seem to miss them as much when they close down.

"You walk down the hall of the dorm and hear everything possible, and you will be influenced by all these people," said Ric Culross, who managed Schoolkids and has been in the business 35 years. "They've come to a store such as ours to feed off of that, just like they go into a bookstore."

But these days, most just go online. Culross said he'd hoped this year's freshmen might arrive with a revived passion for CDs and even vinyl albums, which have experienced a minor resurgence. It turns out many have never even bought a single non-digital one.

College students are the perfect market for music downloads. They have low incomes, small living quarters and endless bandwidth.

The change may be an economic inevitability, but still a loss. Colleges talk a lot about diversity, but you often find more of it browsing record stores near campus than in the cafeteria. Customers are black and white, well off and poor. You'll find cool high school kids next to older collectors, professors and students ranging from straight-laced pre-professionals to punk rockers.

"This is one of the few places I can consistently find things I'm interested in," David Crotts said as he flipped through CDs at Schoolkids' going-out-of-business sale recently. An MBA student at UNC, he first shopped at Schoolkids when he was a teenager in nearby Burlington. He has about 500 CDs, but most people he knows just download music.

"It's not surprising, but it's disappointing," he said. "You can't come into a place like this that has atmosphere anymore."

Nearby, as his wife thumbed a CD by a group called Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Timothy Shelly, who works for a catering company, complained about his recent shopping experience in one of the big chain stores.

"Even in their specialty heavy metal section, they didn't even have Black Sabbath," he said disgustedly.

In a town like Chapel Hill, with a good music scene, record stores also have been venues. Over the years, several bands played on a tiny stage behind Schoolkids' front window, including Tom Tom Club, a Talking Heads offshoot, and John Mayer, before he moved up the ladder to clubs and now arenas.

Like most such places, Schoolkids' walls were lined with posters — Nirvana, James Dean, Led Zeppelin, the Breeders. The rock shelves ran from Aberdeen City to Neil Young. Biggest sellers over the years ranged from groups such as Pink Floyd and Pixies to jazz musicians like Miles Davis and Latin albums including "Buena Vista Social Club," Culross said.

At their peak, around 2000, the five or so stores on the block did around $250,000 worth of business each month, he said. By the end, it was under $50,000. U.S. album sales have plummeted, declining 15 percent in 2007, while digital album sales rose more than 50 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Some independent record stores are surviving, though mostly ones that don't depend so much on college students.

There is still one independent record store in Chapel Hill, called CD Alley, though it's much smaller than Schoolkids and farther from the center of town. Owner Ryan Richardson, a 1998 UNC grad, says he has an older clientele and cheaper rent. But he's trying to drum up new business, selling turntables and hoping to get more students into vinyl records. The local college radio stations are a big help.

"We can carry all this obscure stuff because there's a good chance people will hear it on the radio," he said. "I'm hoping there's enough of a difference in what we do to keep us going a little while longer."

Schoolkids' owner, Mike Phillips, once owned eight stores, and will now be down to two — in Athens, Ga. (home of the University of Georgia) and nearby Raleigh, near North Carolina State. He said he's been getting lots of e-mails about the store closing, some of them from angry customers.

"If everybody was so damned concerned," he responds, "they should have come in and bought a CD every once in a while."

Source [AP]