The Vatican’s daily newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of the White Album on Friday by dismissing as a “quip” John Lennon’s notorious claim that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ.
The legendary double album — which came out on Nov. 22, 1968 at the height of the Fab Four’s influence and popularity — was “a magical musical anthology” from a band “full of talent,” L’Osservatore Romano said.
Rather inevitably, its lengthy article kicked off with Lennon’s remark to a London newspaper in March 1966 that “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink ... We’re more popular than Jesus now.”
“It is a phrase that provoked deep indignation at the time, but which sounds today like a quip from a young man from the English working class overtaken by unexpected success,” the newspaper wrote.
The real talent of the Beatles, it said, “rested in their unequalled capacity to write popular songs with a sort of euphoric lightness.”
Pop superstar Madonna and her British husband Guy Ritchie were granted a “quickie” divorce on the grounds of his unreasonable behavior Friday, a month after announcing their eight-year marriage was over.
District Judge Caroline Reid pronounced the decree nisi at the High Court’s Family Division in London during a hearing which lasted barely a minute and was not attended by the couple or their lawyers.
The case — Ciccone ML vs Ritchie GS — was dealt with as a British newspaper reported film director Ritchie would receive no money under an agreed settlement.
Ritchie has expressed relief at the speed of the divorce and stressed that access to the couple’s children and not money was the biggest issue for him, the Daily Mirror said Friday.
“Thank God,” the paper quoted him as saying. “It was never about money — never about her bloody art collection. I just wanted to settle it and move on ... I didn’t raise any objections at any stage until she insisted the children lived permanently in New York.”
He is worth an estimated US$45 million dollars compared to Madonna’s US$446 million fortune.
The couple’s two sons, eight-year-old Rocco and David Banda, three — whom they adopted in Malawi — will split their time between Britain and the US, the Mirror and other papers said.
Madonna’s 12-year-old daughter Lourdes, from a previous relationship with fitness trainer Carlos Leon, is set to stay with her mother in the US.
The court released a document in which Madonna stated that Ritchie’s unreasonable behavior was continuing and that they had not lived together at the same address for six months.
The US government has asked the Supreme Court to reimpose a US$500,000 fine slapped on CBS television for a 2004 broadcast of live images of pop star Janet Jackson’s breast, court documents show.
It is up to the Supreme Court to decide whether it will consider the request.
Prosecutors are asking the high court justices to weigh in on a case that raised eyebrows and stirred passions in the US, where nudity on non-pay television is a no-no in advertising, while rare and limited to late-night hours in television series.
Jackson was performing live at the Superbowl when the attention-getting move took place, in a routine featuring her and fellow performer Justin Timberlake.
The popular press has dubbed the incident “Nipplegate.”
The Federal Communications Commission imposed a US$550,000 fine on CBS for breaking indecency rules.
But after a three-year court fight, a federal court in Philadelphia in July ruled that the network could not be held responsible for Jackson’s actions.
Japan’s once-iconic pop music producer Tetsuya Komuro was released on bail Friday after he was indicted on charges of swindling an investor over copyrights for music that had already been sold.
“I have caused trouble and disturbed you all,” the 49-year-old said, bowing deeply before a horde of photographers and reporters as he stepped out of the Osaka Dentention Center where he had been kept since his arrest on Nov. 4.
He paid the bail of US$315,000 following the indictment by the Osaka district public prosecutor.
“I wish to do my best, if
possible, in music again,” he said.
Komuro allegedly told the investor in mid-2006 that he would sell for US$10 million the copyrights of 806 tunes he had composed and written words for Jiji Press and other media said.
But the rights had been already sold to music publishers, the reports said.
The 48-year-old investor paid Komuro US$5 million as part of the fake contract.
Komuro needed the money to repay huge debt he owed after a number of failed ventures, the reports said. —AGENCIES
Last month historian Stephen Wertheim of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published an opinion piece in the New York Times with suggestions for an “America First” foreign policy for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Of course China and Taiwan received a mention. “Under presidents Trump and Biden,” Wertheim contends, “the world’s top two powers have descended into open rivalry, with tensions over Taiwan coming to the fore.” After complaining that Washington is militarizing the Taiwan issue, he argues that “In truth, Beijing has long proved willing to tolerate the island’s self-rule so long as Taiwan does not declare independence
Big changes are afoot in global politics, which that are having a big impact on the global order, look set to continue and have the potential to completely reshape it. In my previous column we examined the three macro megatrends impacting the entire planet: Technology, demographics and climate. Below are international trends that are social, political, geopolitical and economic. While there will be some impact on Taiwan from all four, it is likely the first two will be minor, but the second two will likely change the course of Taiwan’s history. The re-election of Donald Trump as president of the US
Nov. 25 to Dec. 1 The Dutch had a choice: join the indigenous Siraya of Sinkan Village (in today’s Tainan) on a headhunting mission or risk losing them as believers. Missionaries George Candidus and Robert Junius relayed their request to the Dutch governor, emphasizing that if they aided the Sinkan, the news would spread and more local inhabitants would be willing to embrace Christianity. Led by Nicolaes Couckebacker, chief factor of the trading post in Formosa, the party set out in December 1630 south toward the Makatao village of Tampsui (by today’s Gaoping River in Pingtung County), whose warriors had taken the
The Mountains to Sea National Greenway (山海圳國家綠道) draws its name from the idea that each hiker starting at the summit of Jade Mountain (玉山) and following the trail to the coast is like a single raindrop. Together, many raindrops form life and prosperity-bringing waterways. Replicating a raindrop’s journey holds poetic beauty, but all hikers know that climbing is infinitely more appealing, and so this installment picks up where the last one left off — heading inland and uphill along the 49.8-kilometer Canal Trail (大圳之路) — second of the Greenway’s four sections. A detailed map of the trail can be found
RSS