PASADENA, Calif. – After a run of celebrity grand marshals, a real American hero led the Rose Parade on Friday.
Onlookers stood and cheered as Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III rode down Colorado Boulevard in a vintage 1928 Pierce Arrow with his wife, Lorrie, and two daughters as part of the annual armada of flower-draped floats, marching bands and prancing horses.
Sullenberger said he did not hesitate when asked to serve as grand marshal because his family has watched the parade when he was growing up in Texas.
“It’s really an American institution, a celebration of American values,” he said after the parade. “I think people see those in me, and I’m glad.”
Parade-goer Hilda Roy held a hand-painted, fluorescent sign that read, “We (heart) you Sully!” She waved and screamed the name of the man who landed a stricken jetliner on New York’s Hudson River and was thrilled when Sullenberger waved back.
I covered El Divo’s antics at his special dinner the night before and still had energy to bailar hasta la madrugada. Ojalá que todos las asignaciones sean diversiones como ésta.
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Puerto Rican duo Calle 13 won all five awards it was nominated for Thursday at the Latin Grammys in Las Vegas, including two of the top awards of the night and honors in both urban and alternative categories.
The awards show ran late because Mexico’s “Divo of Juarez,” Juan Gabriel, sang for 40 minutes straight while mariachis stomped on stage and the audience clapped and sang along.
Calle 13 won album of the year for its innovative collaborations and politically charged reggaeton. Left with little time to accept the golden gramophone for the top honor, lead singer Rene Perez, who raps as “Residente,” dedicated the award to Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa, who died in October at age 74.
“May she rest in peace. An applause for Mercedes Sosa, please,” he said in Spanish.
(I covered the Golden Globe nominations for AP’s Spanish language service, focusing on the Latino and international favorites.)
Por Raquel Maria Dillon | ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEVERLY HILLS (AP) _ Shakira y Javier Bardem fueron nominados el jueves a los Globos de Oro mientras que América Ferrera, quien ganó el año pasado el premio en su debut como “Betty la fea”, volvió a ser postulada.
Shakira se medirá por el Globo a la mejor canción con “La despedida”, que compuso especialmente para el filme “El amor en los tiempos del cólera”, inspirado en la novela homónima de Gabriel García Márquez.
Bardem, por su parte, competirá por el premio al mejor actor de reparto por su papel de asesino en la cinta de los hermanos Coen “No Country for Old Men”.
Y Ferrera volverá a medirse por el Globo a la mejor actriz en una serie televisiva de comedia por “Ugly Betty”, la versión anglo de la exitosa telenovela colombiana, producida por Salma Hayek para ABC.
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ As Hollywood’s striking scribes ventured out to their picket lines over the last two months, it’s been plain to see – female writers are outnumbered by their male colleagues.
“I’m surprised when I see a woman on the picket line and I always wonder, Hmm, do I know her?’” said Sarah McLaughlin, who wrote for “That 70s Show.” “If I don’t know a woman writer personally, I know of them.”
AP Photo | Ric Francis
Women make up 27 percent of television writers and 19 percent of feature film writers, according to the most recent Guild membership report from 2005, according to figures supplied by the Writers Guild of America.
Writers attribute the scarcity of women in their midst to tokenism, a tradition of bawdy humor in the writers room, and the dearth of women in key managerial positions.
Others say women have made significant strides toward parity in recent years, and feel increasingly comfortable working in an historically male-dominated field.
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Among all the fossils, skeletons, meteorites and gemstones for sale Sunday at the I.M. Chait Gallery natural history auction, lot #127 stands out.
It’s a mummified baculum, or penis bone, from a species of walrus that went extinct 12,000 years ago. The piece is more than 4 feet long, curves to a point and is covered with weathered skin and dry muscle tissue.
Who would want to own such an odd thing? Lots of people, including technology executives, Hollywood producers and A-list celebrities. Bidding starts at $16,000.
“Size matters, and the walrus has got everybody beat,” said Josh Chait, operations director for his family’s auction house in Beverly Hills. “It’s a little sick, but where else are you going to get another one? That’s how collectors think.”
By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON for ASAP (AP’s now defunct multimedia service)
LOS ANGELES (AP) _It looks like the inspirational posters found in a guidance counselor’s office — a Siamese kitten playing with balls of colorful yarn. Then there’s the caption: “I’m in ur fizx lab, testn ur string therry.”
Lolcats — deceptively simple photos of cats with absurd captions — are cute and fluffy. And that’s all they’d be, if they didn’t talk so funny.
The captions adhere to a strict grammar of “kitty pidgin,” an amalgam of texting acronyms, poorly translated movie subtitles and leet speak, or hacker lingo. Proper lolcat features consistent misspellingz, subjects and verbs that disagrees and lotsa typos.
The “meme,” or an idea that propagates through culture, is so popular that the exhaustive lolcats library gets almost 200,000 unique visitors per month.
I shot, produced and edited this piece for a class at Berkeley’s J-School and later sold it to Current TV. Their producers provided the titlecard typeface and the music.
This is one of several video pieces I produced in Park City for AP’s Entertainment Video division. Unfortunately the video is only available to paying APTN members, but here’s the story that ran on the wire and the script.
AP Photo | Amy Sancetta
By Raquel Maria Dillon | ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) _ After a career playing to sold-out stadiums, U2 did what their fans have done for years — stood in line to see U2 perform.
That concert was “U2 3D,” a film of the band’s 2005-06 Vertigo tour, shot at several shows in South America with new 3-D technology.
“I was really hoping we weren’t crap after all these years. Luckily we weren’t,” guitarist The Edge told The Associated Press before the band donned plastic glasses to watch the movie’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night.
The Edge, joined by singer Bono, drummer Larry Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton, joked about the absurdity of seeing themselves perform after playing together for more than 30 years.
“It’s kind of horrific,” to see himself on stage in 3-D, said Bono. “It’s bad enough on a small screen. Now you get to see the lard arse 40-foot tall.”
This story ran on Sunday’s A1 and with an audio slideshow online.
The editors were desperate for a piece about the growing popularity of the county fair among Latino families. I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say about the fake charreada or the Batalla de las Bandas. Then I found the trio, working musicians playing their hearts out on a small stage in between taco trucks and churro stands. They made me think of the boleros my grandfather loved and I knew how the music evokes nostalgia across generations of immigrants. Molina was also a great talker — bonus! I wanted to put him on the radio. Instead, I pitched a slideshow, only the second that the paper had ever done.
Of all the musical acts at the Sonoma County Fair, Trio Zaragoza plays the smallest stage. It’s barely a stage at all, just a corner near the picnic tables in the Mexican Village area.
With sweet romantic lyrics and delicate guitars, traditional trios take audience members on a trip down memory lane with the greatest hits of 1940s Mexico.
“We’re not ranch hands, we’re caballeros – the last gentlemen of the great Golden Age of Mexico,” said Carlos Molina, who manages the group and plays bass.
