Tag: los angeles

Grammy Awards: Indians Bag 6 Grammys; Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain’s Band Wins Best Global Music Album

Indian artists secured big wins at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, bringing home a total of six Grammys, three of which were bagged by the legendary tabla player Zakir Hussain alone. The music awards took place February 4 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and was hosted by comedian Trevor Noah for the fourth consecutive year. Shankar Mahadevan and Zakir Hussain’s fusion band Shakti won the Best Global Music Album for This Moment, beating competition from acclaimed releases by musicians of African, Caribbean, and Peruvian origins.

The album features a total of eight songs created by John McLaughlin (guitar, guitar synth), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Shankar Mahadevan (vocalist), V Selvaganesh (percussionist), and Ganesh Rajagopalan (violinist). Shakti released This Moment on June 30 last year after a long gap of 46 years, with its last studio album, Natural Elements, releasing in 1977. This marks the fifth win for Indian artists in this category (earlier called the Best World Music Album), with the last win coming in 2013 for Ravi Shankar for his album The Living Room Sessions Pt. 1.

While it is the first Grammy win for Mahadevan, this isn’t the first rodeo for Zakir Hussain, who had previously won in the same category in 1991, along with T. H. Vinayakram, for Planet Drum, and then again in 1996 for Raga Aberi, alongside L. Shankar and T. H. Vinayakram.

Congrats Best Global Music Album winner – ‘This Moment’ Shakti. #GRAMMYs 🎶

WATCH NOW https://t.co/OuKk34kvdu pic.twitter.com/N7vXftfaDy

— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) February 4, 2024

Another Grammy win for Indian artists this year comes in the category of Best Global Music Performance for the song Pashto, which features Hussain, alongside Indian flautist Rakesh Chaurasia (who won two Grammys this time) and American musicians Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer. Other songs of Indian connection nominated in the category were Abundance in Millets by Grammy winner Falu, featuring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Shadow Forces by Arooj Aftab and Vijay Iyer.

The album “As We Speak”, which includes the song Pashto, clinched the award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. It features a dozen songs by Zakir Hussain, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Rakesh Chaurasia. The album offers a blend of Indian and Western musical notes with a sonic tapestry of banjo, tabla, double bass, and bansuri (that would be a combination of Indian classical, Jazz and Bluegrass music).

Multiple Grammy winner Ricky Kej expressed his joy for Indian artists’ win earlier this morning, applauding Hussain, Mahadevan, Chaurasia, V Selvaganesh, and Ganesh Rajagopalan in a post on X. Bengaluru-based Kej won his third Grammy for the album ‘Divine Tides’ last year at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.

SHAKTI wins a #GRAMMYs #GRAMMYs2024 !!! Through this album 4 brilliant Indian musicians win Grammys!! Just amazing. India is shining in every direction. Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh Vinayakram, Ganesh Rajagopalan, Ustad Zakhir Hussain. Ustad Zakhir Hussain won a second Grammy… pic.twitter.com/dJDUT6vRso

— Ricky Kej (@rickykej) February 4, 2024

India first secured its position at the Grammys in 1968, with Ravi Shankar winning in the Best Chamber Music Performance category. Since then, Indian artists have won 19 Grammys (excluding the latest wins) across categories such as Best New Age Album, Best Song Written for Visual Media, Best Compilation Soundtrack Album, and Best Classical Vocal Performance.



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Los Angeles under fire for blaring music in train stations to deter homeless

A US city has come under fire over a controversial plan to deter homeless people that has been described as “psychological torture”.

In recent months, Los Angeles has been blasting loud classical music in train stations in a bid to reduce crime and prevent homeless people from loitering.

It comes after a recent spike in fatal overdoses and serious crime such as rape, aggravated assault and robbery within the city’s public transport system.

According to the LA Times, a city pilot program has seen blinding floodlights deployed in the Westlake/MacArthur Park station, along with music from a royalty-free playlist by legendary composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Vivaldi in a continuous loop.

But while LA Metro spokesman Dave Sotero told the publication “the music is not loud”, insisting it was being played at 72 decibels – less than normal noise levels outside the station – an experiment by the Times contradicted the claim, with a handheld meter revealing the sound levels actually averaged 83dB and peaked at 90dB in some areas.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), decibel levels between 80 and 85 are comparable to lawnmowers and leaf blowers, with hearing damage possible after just two hours of exposure.

As a result, the publication argued: “There is a clear disconnect between what transit riders and the unhoused are experiencing in the subterranean confines of the station and LA Metro’s official line about the music’s volume.”


Los Angeles is just the latest in a string of global cities to spark backlash as a result of anti-homelessness measures.
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LA Metro also recently told the LA Daily News the noise levels were “comfortable” for short periods of time.

“The idea is to create an atmosphere that is comfortable for spending short amounts of time transiting through our station, but not conducive to hours-long loitering,” a spokesperson said.

But the move has spared fierce backlash, with online commentators branding it an inhumane torture tactic.

“This is despicable. Sonic torture of people without homes in LA,” civil rights lawyer Scott Hechinger tweeted.

Another Twitter user called for LA Metro to “stop the psychological torture”, while another compared it to psychological horror flick A Clockwork Orange.

And other critics pointed out it did little to address the root cause of the homelessness problem.

Music has long been used as a weapon, with the US military infamously blasting Metallica’s Enter Sandman at Iraqi detainees in Guantanamo Bay, while “music torture” was used to force strongman Manuel Noriega out of hiding at the Vatican’s embassy in Panama City in 1989.

Los Angeles is just the latest in a string of global cities to spark backlash as a result of anti-homelessness measures.

In recent years, UK cities including London and Manchester were widely criticised for installing “defensive architecture” in the form of metal spikes which were placed on the ground in areas where people were known to sleep rough.

Pavement sprinklers have also been positioned over the years in New York, Hamburg and Guangzhou, with the intention of spraying homeless people who linger too long.

There are also countless examples right across the world of bus shelter benches that tilt forward, park benches with uncomfortable dividers and cement bollards positioned under bridges in an attempt to drive away those sleeping rough.

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Arrest made in killing of prominent LA Bishop David O’Connell

A suspect has reportedly been arrested in the murder of prominent Los Angeles Bishop David O’Connell after he was found gunned down in his home over the weekend.

Sources told the Los Angeles Times on Monday investigators had nabbed a suspect, but further details were not immediately available.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department, who is leading the murder probe into the 69-year-old’s slaying, hasn’t yet commented on the arrest.

O’Connell, who was the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was found dead inside his Hacienda Heights home on Saturday at about 1 pm.

The Irish native had been shot in the upper torso, authorities said.


Los Angeles Bishop David O’Connell was found fatally shot inside his home on Saturday.
AP

Law enforcement sources told the outlet early indications revealed no signs of forced entry into the Catholic archdiocese-owned home — located just blocks from a church — where O’Connell lived alone.

Investigators also don’t believe the fatal shooting was random, the report said.

Authorities have not yet said publicly whether the bishop was targeted or if his religion was a factor in the killing. 

O’Connell, who had been a priest for 45 years, was hailed as a “peacemaker” in the wake of his slaying.

“He was a peacemaker and had a passion serving those in need while improving our community,” LA Country Sheriff Robert Luna tweeted.

Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez also offered the archdiocese’s prayers for the family of “Bishop Dave,” as well as law enforcement investigating the crime.

“He was a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant, and he had a passion for building a community where the sanctity and dignity of every human life was honored and protected,” Gomez said.


The Irish native had been shot in the upper torso, authorities said.
AP

Neighbors and shocked parishioners prayed the rosary outside the slain bishop’s home Sunday.
AP

Neighbors and shocked parishioners left flowers and candles and prayed the rosary next to police tape outside his home on Sunday.

The slain priest had worked in South Los Angeles for years and was heavily involved with gang intervention and helping newly arrived immigrants into the country.

Pope Francis had named him one of several auxiliary bishops of the LA archdiocese in 2015.

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Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet hang at hot Los Angeles club

Hollywood’s two biggest stars — Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet — had dinner together at Los Angeles’ hottest private club on Wednesday night, sources tell Page Six.

The pair were photographed driving to West Hollywood’s Bird Streets Club — with DiCaprio, 48, behind the wheel and Chalamet, 26, in the passenger seat.

The duo previously starred together in the Netflix disaster comedy, “Don’t Look Up,” and Chalamet has previously said in a recent Vogue UK interview that DiCaprio has given him past career advice over the years, including, “No hard drugs and no superhero movies.”

Inside the starry haunt, we hear that DiCaprio and Chalamet enjoyed dinner together before they headed up to the club’s roof to join a larger group of friends, sources close to the stars confirmed to Page Six.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet starred together in “Don’t Look Up.”
affinitypicture / BACKGRID
Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet were spotted together.
affinitypicture / BACKGRID


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The insiders didn’t elaborate on what the thespians discussed at their powwow.

But DiCaprio has a reputation for picking the best projects in town — so we’d like to think he was giving the “Dune” star some more advice.

Chalamet has said that DiCaprio has given him career advice in the past.
Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
DiCaprio had been spotted leaving the same club just a night earlier.
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images


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DiCaprio had been spotted leaving the same club just a night earlier, and hopping into a car with Victoria Lamas, the 23-year-old daughter of Lorenzo Lamas. But sources told Page Six the pair had been at a “big group dinner” together, and “were also joined by a number of other people in the car.”

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SUV plows through LA street carnival leaving six hospitalized

At least six people were hospitalized after an SUV apparently trying to flee cops plowed into a crowded street carnival in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

A white Porsche Cayenne sped into a crowd of hundreds near Trinity Street and Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard in the city’s historic South Central area around 8:20 p.m., police told NBC Los Angeles.

At least six people were hit before the driver sped off, with the car heavily damaged, police said.

The victims, who were all between the ages of 15 and 40, were transported to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

Those at the carnival were waiting in line for the rides when they heard what sounded like gunshots, KTLA reported.

What had been a family night out at the street fair quickly turned into chaos as people fled for their lives in all directions, according to the outlet.

Police told NBC Los Angeles that they had tried to pull over the Porsche in a traffic stop when the driver drove into the carnival.

The vehicle was later found about three blocks away from the crash scene, police said.

A person matching the description of the driver has been taken into custody, cops said.

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Ex-‘Scrubs’ producer Eric Weinberg jailed after bail revoked in sex crimes case

Former “Scrubs” producer Eric Weinberg was jailed Tuesday after bail was revoked in his sex crimes case that includes more than a dozen charges against him.

Weinberg, 62, was previously free on $5 million bail after he was arrested earlier this month on 18 felony counts in connection to the alleged sexual assault of five women in the Los Angeles area.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Victoria B. Wilson sided with prosecutors when they called Weinberg a potential danger to society. The judge remanded him until his next court date on Nov. 15.

Weinberg fell to a wooden bench behind him as Wilson said “the defendant has engaged in a pattern of violence towards women for over six years,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The outlet reported Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez said in a court he goes up to any young women “and uses his status as a writer-producer to manipulate these women.”

Prosecutors have said he lured the alleged victims to his home under the guise of photo shoots before allegedly assaulting them.

Hollywood producer Eric Weinberg, middle, is taken into custody, at his arraignment in Superior Court on Tuesday.
AP

The crimes that he’s charged with span from 2014 to 2019, though investigators said there could be other assault victims dating back to the 1990s, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said earlier this month at a news conference.

During the arraignment Tuesday, defense attorney Philip Cohen proposed allowing his client free on bail, but without access to social media and prohibition on talking to women he doesn’t know and from going certain places, according to Hollywood Reporter.

He even suggested home arrest, but Judge Wilson shot back the “offenses occurred in the safety and privacy of his home,” the outlet reported.

Weinberg co-executive produced almost 100 “Scrubs” episodes and wrote nearly a dozen episodes of the comedy-drama, according to his IMDb profile.

He also worked on the show “Californication” as a co-executive producer and had various involvement in shows like “Anger Management” and “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.”

Documents filed in Weinberg’s divorce and child custody proceedings alleged that he sexually assaulted three women during photo shoots, the Los Angeles Times reported.

One woman said she met Weinberg at a coffee shop in 2014 when she was 22 and went back to his place for a photo shoot where she stripped to her underwear before he began the photo shoot. But during the shoot, he sexually assaulted her, including rape, the documents obtained by the LA Times alleged. 

He was originally arrested in July and freed on a $3.5 million bond before he was arrested again on more expansive charges in early October, according to the Los Angeles Times.

He currently faces charges including rape, oral copulation, forcible sexual penetration, sexual battery by restraint, false imprisonment by use of violence, assault by means of force likely to cause great bodily injury, and attempted forcible penetration with a foreign object, the district attorney’s office said.

With Post wires

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‘Superfly’ actor Kaalan Walker sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for rape charges

A Los Angeles-based rapper who acted in the 2018 movie “SuperFly” was sentenced Monday to 50 years to life in prison after he was convicted of sexually assaulting seven victims — including three minors.

Kaalan Walker, 27, was also ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender for the series of crimes dating back to 2013, according to City News Service.

The performer was convicted of three counts of forcible rape, two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, two counts of rape of an intoxication victim and one count of assault with intent to commit oral copulation by a Van Nuys jury on April 18.

Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Wallace said she believes Walker is “truly a predator” for his assaults on young women and teenagers between 2013 and 2018, according to City News Service.

Walker used Instagram and Twitter to find his victims — who were often aspiring models and actresses — and lure them to locations by saying he had booked them for photo shoots and music video productions that never happened.

Kaalan Walker, who was ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender for the crimes, used Instagram and Twitter to find his victims.
WireImage

Instead the rapper raped as well as assaulted the women and underage girls, prosecutors said.

“When they said ‘Stop,’ he didn’t care,” Deputy District Attorney Yasmin Fardghassemi told the jury of Walker during the trial in March, the news service reported.

Walker’s attorney said he didn’t force the women and girls and that they were seeking revenge against his client for the false promises he made of music shoots and opportunities to meet his famous and well-connected friends.

Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Wallace said Kaalan Walker is “truly a predator” for his attacks on his victims.
Getty Images

The lawyer, Andrew Flier, added that the rapper’s career has been ruined and that he has suffered “a living nightmare” due to the allegations he was later convicted of.

Walker — who also appeared in the 2017 film “Kings” starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig — was arrested in September 2018 and released on bond. He was taken into custody again after he was found guilty.

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LA union honcho resigns amid backlash over leaked recording

A Los Angeles union boss who hosted a meeting that featured racist comments from the city council president resigned Monday amid backlash after an audio recording of the conversation was leaked to the press.

Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera participated in the closed-door October 2021 redistricting conversation with councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo in October 2021, according to The Los Angeles Times, which published a secretly recorded tape of the exchange Sunday.

The meeting took place at a labor federation office and was “illegally” recorded as part of a “serious security and privacy breach,” the alliance told its affiliates, according to the paper.

The officials were discussing how to maintain political power in the city’s Latino communities when Martinez reportedly called the black son of white colleague Mike Bonin a “little monkey” in Spanish and referred to her fellow Democrat — who is gay — as a “little b—h,” while offering to give his adopted son a “beatdown.”

Ron Herrera, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, resigned after a leaked recording revealed he participated in an offensive conversation.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Nury Martinez resigned as Los Angeles City Council president Monday, a day after The Los Angeles Times published a recording of her using racist language.
MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Martinez also mocked the appearance of Koreatown residents that hailed from the Mexican state of Oaxaca and used profanity to describe how District Attorney George Gascón was “with the blacks” politically, the outlet reported.

Herrera was not heard making offensive remarks but was put on administrative leave from his post leading a coalition of some 300 labor groups, after officials and other labor leaders called for everyone involved to resign.

He reportedly offered to step down during a meeting with the federation’s executive board Monday night. The board accepted his resignation and was set to make a formal announcement Tuesday, the outlet reported.

“We are focused on rebuilding solidarity and trust in the worker movement,” Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation reportedly said.

The shakeup came after Martinez resigned from her post as the council’s first Latino president Monday. She would not give up her seat in the legislative body, according to a statement. León and Cedillo had remained in the council amid widespread calls for them to step down.

Herrera was reportedly pressured to resign by eight hospitality unions that called for his dismissal in a joint statement Monday morning. His fate was sealed when his local Teamsters union amplified that demand before his meeting with the board, according to the outlet.

“I want to be absolutely clear: Racism has no place in the labor movement and will not be tolerated. I was appalled to learn that deeply disturbing racist, and incredibly hurtful comments were made in a meeting held at the LA County Federation of Labor last year,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler tweeted in a Sunday statement.

With Post wires



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Harvey Weinstein’s LA sex crime trial begins

Five years after bombshell reports of sexual misconduct ended his career and propelled the #MeToo movement, Harvey Weinstein will stand trial in Los Angeles Monday on a slew of sex-crimes charges.

The fallen movie mogul — currently locked up on a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault in New York — is staring down four counts of rape and seven counts of sexual assault from five women in LA.

His second trial is set to test the endurance of the #MeToo movement: the chances Weinstein, 70, might win an appeal for his New York conviction are increasing, and if the LA jury fails to convict, he could soon be a free man.

“It is disturbing and shocking that Harvey was allowed to continue his New York appeal, and so we – survivors, supporters – are paying very, very close attention to the Los Angeles trial,” one of his accusers, Caitlin Dulany, said in a recent interview with The New York Times.

“There’s obviously a lot at stake for the women who are testifying, but there is also a lot at stake for all of us,’ Dulany said, referencing the women will take the stand in LA under the name Jane Doe.

“If it goes the wrong way, it will be a step backwards. I think it will make it harder for women to come forward in the future.”

Weinstein is charged with four counts of rape and seven counts of sexual assault from five women in Los Angeles.
John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

Jury selection will begin Monday in the trial expected to last two months. The charges stem from alleged incidents between 2004 and 2013.

Despite the high stakes, the courtroom scene is expected to be quieter than at Weinstein’s first trial in Manhattan, with only a dozen reporters allowed to sit in the gallery.

“Mr. Weinstein’s notoriety and his place in our culture at the center of the firestorm which is the #MeToo movement is real, and we’re trying to do everything we can to avoid having a trial when there will be a swirl of adverse publicity toward him,” his lawyer Mark Workman said a pre-trial hearing.

The disgraced producer has been in poor health as of late, appearing unkempt and with bags under his eyes in a courtroom at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, where the proceedings will take place. He has been jailed at LA’s Twin Towers Correctional Facility while awaiting trial.

A “Silence Breakers” press conference held in Los Angeles after Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault on February 25, 2020.
Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
Weinstein at a hearing at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles on October 4, 2022.
Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

“I’m in pain every day. I have cavities and I can’t eat because I’m missing teeth,” he recently told the court.

In February 2020, a Manhattan jury found Weinstein guilty of forcibly performing oral sex on former “Project Runway” production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi in 2006 and of raping hairstylist Jessica Mann in 2013.

He was acquitted on two charges of predatory sexual assault related to allegations he raped actress Annabella Sciorra in the mid-1990s.

With Post wires

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Emmys 2022 hit record low with 25% drop in viewers since last year

“TV’s biggest night” of 2022 was its smallest in history.

The 74th Annual Emmy Awards on Monday, hosted by Kenan Thompson, attracted just 5.9 million viewers to NBC — a 25% decrease in viewership from last year’s awards on CBS, according to preliminary Nielsen data.

Additionally, this year’s Emmys had a 1.0 rating among adults aged 18 to 49 — the lowest score they’ve ever received among core audiences.

In constrast, the Emmys saw a 16% spike in viewership in 2021, compared to 2020’s 6.37 million viewers.

Since the advent of streaming apps, the diversity of television offered today has posed a challenge for Emmys producers, now unable to find a more cohesive audience. The last time it cracked double-digit millions was in 2018, drawing 10.2 million fans.

The show reached its highest viewership level in the year 2000 with a whopping 21.8 million viewers.

Sheryl Lee Ralph wowed Emmys audiences with a solo.
Variety via Getty Images

Highlights of this year’s show included “Abbott Elementary” actress Sheryl Lee Ralph’s singing Dianne Reeves’ “Endangered Species” during her acceptance speech, and “White Lotus” star Jennifer Coolidge’s chaotic, but on-brand speech, cut too short.

HBO’s “The White Lotus” cast and crew won all five of the categories for which they were nominated, but the network’s other standout, “Succession,” and “Ted Lasso” on Apple TV+, each won the night’s top categories for Outstanding Comedy and Drama series, respectively.

Thompson kicked off the show alongside backup dancers, grooving to remixes of popular TV show theme songs, including those of “Friends,” “Law & Order” and “Game of Thrones.”

Zendaya scored top honors as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for “Euphoria” (HBO).
Getty Images

The “SNL” comic later deemed history-making Emmy winner Zendaya “too old” to date Leonardo DiCaprio and slammed “Succession” for its lack of diversity later during his traditional monologue.

His “Good Burger” co-star Kel Mitchell briefly appeared for a bit at the ceremony’s bar, alongside Jason Sudeikis and Kumail Nanjiani — to the delight of, albeit few, nostalgic Millennial viewers.

See the complete winners list from the 2022 Emmy Awards here.

With Post wires.

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