Chicago blues legend Koko Taylor dies at 80
Chicago blues legend Koko Taylor died this afternoon while recovering from surgery to repair gastrointestinal bleeding. She was 80.
“She was recovering slowly but surely, and then she had a real bad night,” a spokesman for Taylor’s longtime Chicago-based label, Alligator Records, told the Chicago Tribune.
She was born Cora Walton in 1928 in Memphis, orphaned by age 11, and worked in the cotton fields to support herself. She and her future husband, Robert “Pops” Taylor, came to Chicago in 1952, and her big voice soon began filling South Side clubs.
Her final performance was May 7 in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards. After being honored as Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year she sang “Wang Dang Doodle,” her signature song.
Her website has an obituary.
Here’s a 1967 clip of her singing “Wang Dang Doodle,” with Little Walter on harmonica:
Nate McLouth Traded to Braves
Wow. The deal opens a spot for Andrew McCutchen, who will join the Pirates immediately, presumably as their starting centerfielder. Wow. Wow wow wow.
UPDATE: The Bucs get pitchers Jeff Locke and Charlie Morton and outfielder Gorkys Hernandez.
Locke is a hard-throwing lefty starter who should report to Lynchburg. He pitched well for Class A Rome as a 20-year-old last year. He gets a lot of groundballs, but control is an issue. Lefties who start and throw hard are pretty rare commodities, so he’s a very nice prospect to have around and probably the headline player in the deal. The Pirates prospect most similar to Locke in terms of value and career path is Bryan Morris, who maybe serves as a cautionary tale, but Locke does have good upside.
Hernandez came to the Braves in the Edgar Renteria deal and is a pretty nifty outfield prospect. He doesn’t have much power (yet), but he has good contact ability, some speed, and a decent batting eye. He’s a notch below the McCutchen/Tabata class, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad prospect. He also fits the Pirates’ plan of using fast outfielders in center and left. He has a good chance of posting decent OBPs in the majors, and if the Pirates are very lucky, some power will come along too.
Susan Boyle Anxiety Attack
Fame can have its toll on anyone, especially if the person is not used to it. Susan Boyle’s life was relatively peaceful and uneventful in the last four decades and suddenly she is catapulted into superstardom. That drastic change can have a very big effect on her psyche. Now she has just survived some anxiety attack. I hope she’d get used to the attention she’s getting.
Kate Gosselin Bikini Pics
-Photo: INF-At least she still has her body.
Kate Gosselin took all eight kids to the beach on Bald Head Island this weekend – without husband Jon.
Accompanied by a nanny and THE bodyguard, Kate and her eight took the ferry over earlier last week. A local resident said that Kate looked “like a movie star. She had a manicure and looked really like she takes care of herself. She didn’t seem unhappy. She actually seemed to be in a good mood; she was making jokes with everyone. She was talking loud to the kids, things like, ‘Don’t stand over there. Don’t touch that.’ She sounded like a mom.”
Well, she certainly doesn’t look like a mom who had six babies in that belly at one time — but, then again, she did get a free tummy tuck when she and her now-estranged hubby signed on to do TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8.
I bet she’s so happy about that now.
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Left 4 Dead 2: Exclusive RPS Hands-On Preview
New game, new locations, new characters, new weapons, new monsters: John has been to Valve and dragged back the news.
Left 4 Dead who now? No one was expecting Valve’s next game to be a sequel to 2008’s awesome co-op zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead. To answer your immediate question: Yes, this is a completely new game, with new characters, in a new location, with new zombies, new weapons, new twists, and an improved Director, in five completely new campaigns set in the Southern United States. This isn’t more maps for the previous game, it’s a brand new game, and it’s due this November. We snuck into Valve HQ ahead of Monday’s announcement and played a full campaign, and at first glance much appears to have evolved.
It’s still Left 4 Dead: Valve have more sense than to change anything that made the first game so splendid. Rather the focus on L4D2 appears to have been the desire by everyone involved in the first game to make something bigger and better. Coming off the back of the project, we were told by various Valve developers, people we bursting with ideas of where to take the game next. So they went right there.
Left 4 Dead 2 takes place in the South of the USA, beginning in Savannah, eventually reaching New Orleans. There’s four new characters to play, each with back-stories to be hinted at in their conversations. Coach is a high school football coach from the Savannah area, used to leading the kids, comfortable in his life, and perhaps not enamoured by the arrival of a zombie attack. There’s Rochelle, from Cleveland originally, working for a cable news network. She’s producing a segment on this strange story occurring in Savannah, and gets caught up in the events. Ellis is a Southern boy mechanic, an enthusiastic but smart guy with a “Southern flair”. Finally there’s Nick, a gambler and a conman, unsure of his company and cynical about the events.
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Microsoft previews Project Natal
Moments ago at E3, Microsoft showed off it’s upcoming motion sensing system. Project Natal – that’s codename – will work with every 360 when it launches and will be available on all the new systems. It has full body motion control by tracking 3D movement. Plus it recognizes voices, and totally immerses the players into the game. You can use your own gear like a skate board and such. Basically it kicks the Wii’s ass in the interactive gaming field. That is if the system works as well as the Microsoft video shows.
We have two questions: when and for how much?
Update: It seems that the pricing might have been revealed early by Brier Dudley at The Seattle Times. His post, which went up 45 minutes before the press conference, states that the price will be around $200. Who knows where the number came from so we’re labeling this one as a rumor for now.
Update 2: Added a quick video demo after the jump. More to come.
Update 3: The official video is finally online. Enjoy it after the break.
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The 2009 National Spelling Bee winner is – Kavya Shivashankar
“Spelling has been such a big part of my life,” says the Scripps Spelling Bee 2009 winner Kavya Shivashankar to the Associated Press.
The new champion dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon, but, at the same time, feels that nothing can truly replace spelling. Shivashankar will most likely go on to compete in the International Brain Bee.
The 13-year-old Kansas girl who smiled after spelling every word took home over $40,000 in cash and prizes, as well as the desired spelling champion’s trophy Thursday night in Washington. Shivashankar made four tries to win over the 10 remaining finalists.
According to Associated Press, her father, Mirle Shivashankar bragged that while his daughter may not put her competitive mindset on display “she still has that smile,” a trait that he calls it her “quality.”
Kavya Shivashankar is now the seventh Indian-American to win the championship in 11 years, including two back-to-back youngsters who also aspired to be brain surgeons.
The 1999 winner featured in a spelling documentary Spellbound Nupur Lala,was Shivashankar’s role model. Lala is currently working as a research assistant in a neuro science lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Shivashankar traveled from her hometown Olathe, Kan., three times prior to the 2009 spelling bee. The word that took Shivashankar to victory was until “Laodicean,” a phrase referring lukewarm or indifferent feelings toward religion.
The 2009 Spelling Bee Winner used the technique of writing the letters into her palm with her finger while saying them aloud.
Mirle Shivashankar told the AP that his daughter’s victory was “the moment we’ve been waiting for” and “a dream come true.”
The family plans to celebrate her victory with a birthday party, as Kavya had been too busy preparing for the spelling bee to celebrate her actual birthday, which was last week.
The 2009 National Spelling Bee runner-up Tim Ruiter from Centreville, Va. told the Associated Press that he “was just racking my brain for anything possible that could help” in reference to his missed word “Maecenas,” which is defined as “generous patron especially of literature or art” according to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary.
Ruiter joked that to the AP that he would start spelling “Maecenas” in his sleep.
A record-breaking 293 students came to spell in the 82nd annual bee, which was aired on television for a fourth year.
Our Take:
Congratulations on the 2009 National Spelling Bee Champion title Kavya Shivashankar!
The tremendous amount of determination and hard work it takes to prepare for the national bee seems immeasurable to me. I think a birthday party is exactly what Shivashankar deserves after a win like this.
For that matter, every participant in this bee deserves some kind of reward when they return home after training for so long, before they return to the dictionary once more to prepare for the 2010 spelling bee.
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Did Susan Boyle win the Final?
No she didnt win. She comes on second Place. Heres the Final Video from Susan Boyle on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uc_GXylH_E
Susan Boyle Final Performance
All eyes are on Susan Boyle as the finals get under way on “Britain’s Got Talent.”
The Scottish church volunteer’s soaring voice has skyrocketed her to T.V. fame in a matter of weeks.
In order to win, the singer has to outshine nine other competitors on live television in front of millions of viewers.
The performance will air live on British TV today between 3:20 to 4:40 p.m. Eastern Time.
There are two options to watch the show for viewers outside the United Kingdom.
1. Youtube: Videos of Boyle’s performance will be uploaded by the show and by viewers immediately afterward.
2. The official website: Videos will be rapidly posted on the show’s official website. Click here
The winner will be declared Sunday on the program airing 3:30 to 5 p.m. Eastern Time.
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