asianculturalfestival.org

Story By: by Will Shortz

On-Air Challenge: You’ll be given a series of categories. For each one, name something in the category beginning with each of the letters of the word “robin.” For example, given the category “two-syllable boys’ names,” the answers could be “Roger,” “Omar,” “Barry,” “Isaac” and “Neville.”

Last Week’s Challenge: Name the capital of a country that, when said out loud, sounds like a three-word phrase. This phrase might describe the reason why the police did not catch a barefoot thief. What is the capital, and what is the reason?

Answer: The capital is Port-au-Prince, and the reason is “poor toe prints.”

Winner: Jeanne Grace of Fairport, N.Y.

Next Week’s Challenge from listener Gary Witkin of Newark, Del.: Using only the six letters of the name “Bronte,” repeating them as often as necessary, spell a familiar six-word phrase. What is it?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week’s challenge, submit it here. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Rock singer Bret Michaels has settled a lawsuit he filed against the Tony Awards and CBS for damages to his head after a stage set piece knocked him down and he claimed it contributed to a brain hemorrhage he later suffered.

The terms of the settlement were not released. Michaels sued CBS and Tony Awards Productions after he performed in 2009 with his band Poison during the awards telecast of Broadway’s best shows, claiming producers failed to tell him how to exit the stage safely.

After he performed the band’s 1980s hit song “Nothin’ But A Good Time” with the “Rock of Ages” musical cast, Michaels said he suffered a fractured nose, split lip and trauma to the head after he was smacked down by a large set piece descending from the ceiling — a clip that was watched by millions on YouTube.

In April, 2010, Michaels suffered a near fatal subarachnoid hemorrhage – or bleeding at the base of his brain stem – that left him in a critical condition “at the hands of the Tony Awards,” the lawsuit that was filed last year claimed.

After the settlement in Manhattan federal court, CBS and the Tonys released a joint statement saying, “The parties have reached an amicable resolution of their dispute and the case has been settled. The terms of the settlement will not be disclosed.”

Michaels rose to fame in the 1980s at the helm of Poison, a glam-rock band whose hits also included the ballad “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

In recent years, he became a reality TV personality in such shows as dating contest “Rock of Love” and on “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy)

The Royal Court theatre in London has named Vicky Featherstone, head of the National Theatre of Scotland, as its first female artistic director.

Featherstone, who kicked off her career as an unpaid assistant director at the Royal Court, will succeed Dominic Cooke when he steps down in April 2013.

She said it was an "great honour" to take over the theatre during what she described as "challenging times".

Cooke said he "couldn't be happier" with Featherstone's appointment.

The Olivier-winning director announced last December he was leaving his post to focus on freelance work.

Featherstone was artistic director of new writing company Paines Plough before joining the newly formed National Theatre of Scotland in 2004.

The 45-year-old will continue to lead the theatre until the end of 2012 and said it was with "a complex mixture of real sadness and joy" that she was leaving the company.

Born in Redhill in Surrey, Featherstone studied English and Drama at Manchester University and was on the creative teams behind ITV's Where The Heart Is and the BBC's Silent Witness.

Anthony Burton, chairman of the Royal Court board, said he was "thrilled" the Sloane Square theatre was to "have a woman at its helm… for the first time in its 56-year history".

THE GOOD

Carey Mulligan

What do you do if you serve as the co-chairwoman of one of fashion’s biggest nights? You wear a dress to outshine everyone, that’s what. The newly-married Mulligan, in this gold-pailletted Prada, has even outdone herself, we think.

Rihanna

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1. Liam Hemsworth

The Hunger Games actor works on behalf of a charity in his native Australia. “I’m an ambassador for the Australian Childhood Foundation (www.childhood.org.au). My dad has worked in child protection and human services for 21 years, and the whole point of the Australian Childhood Foundation is to prevent kids from being abused in any situation at school, at home, around the world, anywhere. I want kids to grow up in a family like the one I grew up in – where parents are extremely supportive and where you are always safe. I want kids to be able to live out their dreams and go to school and learn and do meaningful things with their lives. That was kind of a big thing for me. I want kids to grow up happy.”

2. January Jones

Mad Men actress January Jones works with www.oceana.org. “There are more important things we need to do in getting shark-fin soup banned in certain cities and more ocean conservation things. I would love to do more dives with sharks to bring more awareness and maybe even travel abroad to bring more awareness to other countries. There is a lot of work that needs to
be done.”

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Jay-Z’s protege Rita Ora says she’s not dating Drake, they’re just good friends.

She did, however, fall in love with a track he wrote, R.I.P. It’s Ora’s debut single in the UK, where it’s No 1 on iTunes.

The Kosovo-born singer had a party in London on Tuesday to celebrate.

Ora says she loved the track the moment she heard it, but she’s only pals with Drake.

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Story By: by David Browne

Former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart incorporates sampled sounds of the cosmos in “Who Stole the Show?”

Song: “Who Stole the Show?”

Artist: Mickey Hart Band

CD: Mysterium Tremendum

Genre: World

Plenty of Deadheads will argue that the Grateful Dead tapped into the unknowable mysteries of the cosmos with its music. And, at its most exploratory and improvisatory, the band came as close as musicians could to doing just that, even if you weren’t chemically altered while listening. On his latest solo album, former Dead drummer Mickey Hart takes that concept one extraterrestrial step further.

With the help of technicians at Penn State and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Hart captured light waves of celestial events like supernovas and turned them into sound waves. He then melded those recordings with the music of his own band, resulting in what could truly be called otherworldly pop.

“Who Stole the Show?” proves how effectively the music of our planet and others can have what Hart calls a conversation. The track starts hypnotically, with those crunchy, spacey sounds of the universe lurking behind the chant-like voice of Nigerian percussionist and longtime Hart collaborator Sikiru Adepoju. (The translation of the elliptical lyrics — “People ask me to accept a chieftainship / My response, personal peace overrides all things” or “Instrument used for divination is never false” — suggests a subtle political message.)

The song doesn’t stay spaced-out for long: In come some bluesy slide-guitar licks and good old-fashioned primal rock drums. You’ll hear a bit of the Dead here, along with hints of Peter Gabriel at his most world-music-infatuated. But you’ll also hear the sound of a veteran rocker who looks to carry on the traditions of his former band, even if it means literally leaving this world.

Story By: by Jasmine Garsd

Los Angeles based singer Irene Diaz is one of our most exciting new discoveries in this week’s show.

In the last month we’ve been travelling non-stop, covering music festivals from Texas to Mexico, and recording some pretty amazing Guest DJ’s, including folk icon Lila Downs and actor John Leguizamo. It’s been an exciting time during which we’ve also accumulated a stack of brand new records to share with you, and we needed to kick back, enjoy a cool beverage, and listen to some tunes. We have a mellow show today with some smooth Brazilian tunes, infectious funk, and a brand new discovery out of the Los Angeles coffee shop circuit who has us grooving in our seats.

We invite you to close your eyes, tune out the world and tune in to one of the funkiest, chillest Alt.Latino shows we’ve done yet.

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11 Nuevas Canciones Para Cerrar Los Ojos Y Bailar Lento

En el último mes hemos estado viajando sin parar, llendo a festivales de música desde Texas a México, y grabando con invitados especiales como la icónica cantante folklórica Lila Downs y el comediante neoyorquino John Leguizamo. También en estos días de viaje hemos acumulado pilas de música nueva para compartir con ustedes, y hoy tenemos ganas de quitarnos los zapatos, abrir una bebida fría, y escuchar canciones. Esta semana tenemos un programa muy tranquilo y relajante. Vamos a escuchar unas suaves baladas brasileras, canciones de funk contagiosas, y una nueva artista de Los Angeles que nos dejó boquiabiertos.

Te invitamos a que te quites los zapatos, cierres los ojos, apagues el estrés y prendas Alt.Latino.

The superhero saga The Avengers lived up to its blockbuster buzz with $178.4 million (Dh655 million) in overseas ticket sales days before it opens in US theatres.

Disney’s The Avengers releases in the UAE on Thursday.

The huge overseas launch will help fan the frenzy already in place for The Avengers, the superhero mash-up of Marvel Comics idols whose cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson.

"You hope that the magnitude of this kind of opening sends a signal that this is a for-everyone film," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney. "You can’t put up these kinds of numbers if it’s just for guys or just for the fans. These numbers say that it is for everyone, 8 to 80."

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The BBC is shaking up its daytime schedule by calling time on long-running series.

In future, commissioned shows look set to have runs of no more than 15 episodes, with the exception of Doctors and "one big drama per quarter".

The new strategy is part of the Delivering Quality First initiative aimed at saving money.

Daytime controller Liam Keelan has also pledged there will be no more than two programmes of any genre shown each day.

Under plans announced previously, BBC Two daytime shows are due to be preominantly replaced by news and factual repeats Keelan said: "With the future focus on one channel, the aim is to retain as much variety within the day as possible, so it's important we mix it up where we can.

"That means no more than two quizzes a day, or two consumer shows, antiques or collectables, and property," he told industry publication Broadcast.

Keelan used last year's decision to pull the plug on Cash in the Attic – which will come off air in early 2013 – and To Buy or Not to Buy as an example of the new approach.

"The parts of the schedule that have been freed up by that – the 11am slot, for example – have had more factual and consumer-related programming, which you can't keep the same all year round," he said.

The new schedule will also comply with the BBC Trust's call to make more distinctive programming.

Keelan wants programme-makers to come up with a host of new ideas, like arts programme Show Me the Monet, which is returning for a second series this summer.