Donald Byrd Dies At 80

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Donald Byrd, one of the leading jazz trumpeters of the 1950s and early 1960s, who became famous in the 1970s by blending jazz, funk and rhythm and blues into a pop hybrid that defied categorization, died on February 4 in Dover, Del. He was 80.


Alex Bugnon, a jazz pianist, reported his uncle's death on Thursday, though it has yet to be confirmed.

Bugnon wrote on his own Facebook page: "Donald passed away Monday in Delaware, where he lived. His funeral will be held in Detroit sometime next week. I have no more patience for this unnecessary shroud of secrecy placed over his death by certain members of his immediate family. "

Byrd's legacy is summed up by his nephew's Facebook tribute: "Let's remember Donald as a one of a kind pioneer of the trumpet, of the many styles of music he took on, of music education. In sum, Donald was an avid, eternal student of music, until his death. That's what I try to be, everyday!! Rest in peace, uncle!"


Byrd's death was confirmed by Haley Funeral Directors of Southfield, Mich. Word of Mr. Byrd's death had circulated online for several days, but was not announced by his family. 


R.I.P Donald Byrd



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Is Naomi Campbell Married ?

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If you wonder if Naomi Campbell is married, the truth is that Campbell, 42, has never married.







 

To be more exact, in the late 1980s, Naomi dated boxer Mike Tyson, who was quoted as saying: "She has a great body. And she's scared of nothing." In the early 1990s, she had an on-again-off-again relationship with actor Robert De Niro. In 1993, she became engaged to U2 bassist Adam Clayton. They met in February of that year, after Clayton, asked in an interview if there was anything in the world he desired but didn't have, responded: "A date with Naomi Campbell". Campbell and Clayton went their separate ways the following year. She then dated dancer Joaquín Cortés in the mid to late 1990s. In 1998, became engaged to Formula One racing head Flavio Briatore; they were involved in an on-again-off-again affair until their split in 2003. Campbell now calls Briatore her "mentor". She dated businessman Badr Jafar in the mid-2000s. Since 2008, Campbell has been in a relationship with Russian businessman Vladislav Doronin, 42, with whom she resides in Moscow.

Naomi's current boyfriend, billionaire Vlad Doronin, is a married man who is not planning to file for divorce from his  wife of 24 years, Ekaterina. It is reported that they had already been living apart for a decade when Vladimir first met supermodel Campbell at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.


Naomi has moved to Russia to be with Doronin. She revealed to British Vogue in 2010: "I live in Moscow now permanently, and I really love life there. I'm really happy and things are just going really well."






According to reports,  Campbell and Vlamidir's estranged wife, Ekaterina, have even become friendly, while Vladimir and Ekaterina continue to co-parent Katia. Vladimir spent Christmas in Los Angeles with Ekaterina, Katia and his mother-in-law. Campbell then joined them shortly after, and flew with Vladimir to Mexico for New Year's.

 Just in case you wonder why Vladimir and Ekaterina don't want to divorce, maybe the reason for that is money. Doronin doesn't obviously want to give half of his multi-billion-dollar fortune to his wife and Ekaterina hates the idea of divorce. 





"She has no plans to file for divorce in the near future," a friend of Ekaterina told Page Six. "She hasn't met with a lawyer as of yet. Vladimir takes very good care of her and her daughter (Katia, 15), and they both have very separate lives."


Conclusion: Naomi is Doronin's official girlfriend. She moved to Moscow to be with him. They vacation together and  walk the red carpet together, but at the end of the day, Doronin still spends the holidays with his family. What is confusing though is the fact that Naomi states she is engaged to Vlad and she even wears an enormous ring to prove it.
 


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Kate Upton: The New Face Of Accessorize's Spring/Summer Campaign

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Kate Upton has recently become The Sports Illustrated cover girl for the second time in a row and now she is the new face and body of Accessorize!
 

The irony is that Victoria's Secret rejected Upton last year as having "the kind of face anyone can go out and buy"!

Upton, 20, poses in an array of sexy bikinis for the accessory chain's latest campaign.

The photo shoot took place in the crystal clear oceans of Barbados and shot by legendary fashion photographer, Josh Olins. Speaking about her shoot and her favorite ways to accessorise, Upton was quoted as saying: "There are no rules! If your outfit allows it, then more is more. I always love rings, and Accessorize has the best rings for everyday wear."



When asked about her enviable figure, Kate claimed it is all down to making time to exercise, no matter how busy she can be.


"My schedule can be pretty gruelling, but I always make time for fitness and relaxing. I get facials regularly when I'm in NYC, and my trainer helps me to plan work outs when I'm traveling. A lot of sleep and water is important too, especially when adjusting to time changes," Upton revealed.

 
It has to be noted that other supermodels who have posed for Accessorize are: Claudia Schiffer, Lily Cole and Bar Refaeli.


 



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Toni Braxton Retires

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R&B star Toni Braxton, 45, has assured fans she isn't giving up on music completely. She will still perform concerts to help her pay her bills. 







Braxton revealed on "Good Morning America" that she has lost the passion for her craft and was planning to retire from the music industry, making the shocking statement her "heart isn't in it anymore."


On the other hand, Braxton insists it's just the recording studio she's going to stay away from, because she isn't interested in recording new material. Braxton was quoted as saying: "I'll have to do shows here and there, but I'm not gonna do any albums...I'm falling out of love with it, it's weird...I've been trying to listen to songs; record companies have been calling me, so it's a good situation to be in, but I'm not really interested at all."

It has to be mentioned that Braxton's last studio album, "Pulse," was released in 2010. She has since been focusing her time and energy on her family reality show and her new TV movie, "Twist of Faith."



What do you think of Toni Braxton's decision to retire from music?



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Top 10 Music videos from the 80's

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You may have gathered that the Islander is a budding sports journalist and comic book connoisseur. Apart from that, I have a fetish for old school music. So I thought I would share my top 10 1980s music videos with you kind folks. Enjoy!!!10. "Safety Dance" - Men without hats (1983)9. "Need you tonight" - INXS (1987)8."What a feeling" - Irene Cara (1983)7. "Take on me" A-Ha (1985)6. "I wanna dance with somebody" - Whitney Houston (1987)5. "Relax, Don't do it" - Frankie goes to Hollywood (1983)4. "Wild boys" - Duran Duran (1984)3. "Billie Jean" - Michael Jackson (1983)2. "Never gonna give you up" - Rick Astley (1987)1. "Thriller" - Michael Jackson (1983)

Mischa Barton Cellulite

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It appears that celebrities are just like us when it comes to having body flaws. Even with the top personal trainers and unlimited money at their fingertips, celebrities can't escape the fate of cellulite!


In May 2008, there were published unflattering snaps of Mischa Barton sunbathing while on holiday in Australia by an Australian photographer. Needless to say that the snaps were widely circulated on the web and became viral.


Barton claimed at the time: "Every woman has cellulite. I've never claimed to have a perfect body. I eat healthy, I work out. I feel very comfortable. I come from a European family that's always very comfortable with their bodies. You are what you are as a woman".





"If I'm in shape and I'm fulfilling my role as an actress, then that's all that matters to me. There's been a lot of nasty gossip written about me. If I was to cry over every single thing, I'd be the most depressed person ever," Barton added.


The truth is that cellulite doesn't discriminate when it comes to age! 

It's estimated that some 90% of women suffer from unsightly cellulite and it knows no barriers - with even the slim and physically fit displaying signs.



The old orange peel look doesn't happen only to older woman, check out Mischa Barton's legs and butt. It would be crazy to call Mischa fat, and yet she hasn't make the cellulite go away. 

According to the style director at Shape magazine, Jacqui Stafford: "Cellulite can actually affect you whether you're thin or you're heavy."





Cellulite is caused by fat deposits that are just below the surface of the skin and usually occurs around the thighs, abdomen and lower pelvic region.

Just in case you wonder what causes cellulite, the reasons vary... Hormones, genetics, lifestyle, diet and even clothing can all contribute to the formation of cellulite.




What is admiring for a celebrity like Mischa Barton is that she feels comfortable with her body, which is undeniably rare.

Conclusion: If Mischa Barton has cellulite with so many trainers and nutritionists looking after her, imagine how she would look like if she couldn't afford them...So, the next time you feel bad and insecure about your body imperfections give it a second thought!


Photo credit: Splash News, ABC


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Tim Burton Quotes

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1. I have a problem when people say something's real or not real, or normal or abnormal. The meaning of those words for me is very personal and subjective. I've always been confused and never had a clearcut understanding of the meaning of those kinds of words.


2. One person's craziness is another person's reality.

3. Movies are like an expensive form of therapy for me.




4. People told me I couldn't kill Nicholson, so I cast him in two roles and killed him off twice.

5. Anybody who knows me knows I would never read a comic book.

6. You don't know whether chimps are going to kill you or kiss you. They're very open on some levels and much more evil in a certain way.



7. I always liked strange characters.

8. I am not a dark person and I don't consider myself dark.

9. I never really got nightmares from movies. In fact, I recall my father saying when I was three years old that I would be scared, but I never was.

10. I wouldn't know a good script if it bit me in the face.

11. I don't know what it was, maybe the movie theaters in my immediate surrounding neighborhood in Burbank, but I never saw what would be considered A movies.

12. I've always been misrepresented. You know, I could dress in a clown costume and laugh with the happy people but they'd still say I'm a dark personality.


13. It's good as an artist to always remember to see things in a new, weird way.

14. If I had a choice about going to a meeting at a studio or changing a nappy, I'd choose the nappy.

15. Jack Nicholson is a textbook actor who's very intuitive. He is absolutely brilliant at going as far as you can go, always pushing to the edge, but still making it seem real.

16. There's something quite exciting when you have a history with somebody and you see them do new and different things.

17. When I was growing up, Dr. Seuss was really my favorite. There was something about the lyrical nature and the simplicity of his work that really hit me.


18. I've always been more comfortable making my decisions from the subconscious level, or more emotionally, because I find it is more truthful to me, Intellectually, I don't think like that because I get uncomfortable. I'm more wary of my intellectual mind, of becoming delusional if I think of it too much.

19. We all know interspecies romance is weird.

20. It wouldn't be so bad, you know?…It's pretty snazzy.

21. People might say "oh it's too dark and scary" for children but you could say that about "Nightmare before Christmas" also. People say their dog even liked watching: "Nightmare Before Christmas". So this is for animals, children, whoever.

22. It's two thirds cheaper than other animated films. As animated films go this is low budget.

23. It seemed right for this particular type of (stop-motion) animation. It's like casting; you want to marry the medium with the material.








24. (on Johnny Depp) Each time I've worked with Johnny, he's something different. He's interested in being a character and not necessarily interested in his persona, and I find it very exciting to work with actors like that. He's really willing to take risks that don't have to do with image or money. And each time is just different and better. It's great to find people like that you can communicate with on an almost subconscious level.

25. It's funny, because "Nightmare" wasn't a real success when it came out…

26. I happened to be listening to David Bowie's "Heroes"…That, and a colleague in Austria was teaching heroism to Americans - how we spend lots of time discussing heroism.

27. There's just something visceral about moving a puppet frame by frame. There's a magical quality about it. Maybe you can get smoother animation with computers, but there's a dimension and emotional quality to this kind of animation that fits these characters and this story.

28. There's a roughness and a surprising nature to most B movies that you don't get in classic films - something more immediate. I never chose those movies to leave impressions in my brain, they just did.



29. Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else's dreams?

30. When you don't have many friends and you don't have a social life you're kind of left looking at things, not doing things. There's a weird freedom in not having people treat you like you're part of society or where you have to fulfill social relationships.

31. Certain things leave you in your life and certain things stay with you. And that's why we're all interested in movies - those ones that make you feel, you still think about. Because it gave you such an emotional response, it's actually part of your emotional make-up, in a way.

32. Half the fun is plan to plan.





33. I was never interested in what everybody else was interested in. I was very interiorized. I always felt kind of sad.

34. (commenting on the demolition of the Landmark casino in Las Vegas for the film "Mars Attacks!") It was like watching something die.

35. I had never really done something that was more of a horror film, and it's funny, because those are the kind of movies that I like probably more than any other genre. The script had images in it that I liked.


36. I remember when I was younger, I had these two windows in my room, nice windows that looked out onto the lawn, and for some reason my parents walled them up and gave me this little slit window that I had to climb up on a desk to see out of. To this day I never asked them why; I should ask them.

37. I think the atmosphere that I grew up in, yes, there was a subtext of normalcy. I don't even know what the word means, but it's stuck in my brain. It's weird. I don't know if it's specifically American, or American in the time I grew up, but there's a very strong sense of categorization and conformity. I remember being forced to go to Sunday school for a number of years, even though my parents were not religious. No one was really religious; it was just the framework. There was no passion for it. No passion for anything. Just a quiet, kind of floaty, kind of semi-oppressive, blank palette that you're living in.

38. (the approach you have to take in movies) You always have to feel like it's gonna be the greatest, even if it's a…you know…piece of crap.





39. (Talking about the Batman characters) These are some of the wildest characters in comics and yet, they seem the most real to me.

40. (About working with Jack Nicholson on "Batman") By the time Jack walks onto the set, he feels very clear and strong about the character. So when you're shooting it's great, because that's when you toy around with the levels of how broad to go.





41. I'll always remember this image of being in line to see "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth", and all the younger kids were like: "Dinosaurs are so cool!" and all the older kids were like: "Oh, man, I hear there's this really hot babe in this movie!"

42. (on WB's lame suggestions for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") They thought the Charlie character should be more proactive and that Wonka should be more of a father figure, and I'm sitting there thinking: "Willy Wonka is NOT a father figure! If that's your idea of a father figure, yikes. Willy Wonka's a weirdo." 

43. (on the stress of delivering a summer movie in an era when release dates are often set by studios before a script is finished) It's like you're a runner and they beat the shit out of you and break your legs right before you're supposed to race, and then they say: "Now go win the race."



44. (on cult director Edward D. Wood Jr.) Nobody had his style. That's something I try to do in my films. You have your own kind of cryptic messages in there - cryptic things that most people wouldn't understand but are important to you. Things that kind of keep you going through the process.

45. (on style) I remember, I was at Cal Arts and I wasn't a good life-drawer; I struggled with that realistic style of drawing. And one day I was sitting in Farmer's Market sketching, and it was this weird, mind-blowing experience. I said: "Goddamit, I don't care if I can't draw, I'm just gonna draw how I feel about it." All of a sudden I had my own personal breakthrough, and then I could draw, and satisfied myself. I've had very few experiences like that, and I'll never forget it.

46. In Hollywood, they think drawn animation doesn't work anymore, computers are the way. They forget that the reason computers are the way is that Pixar makes good movies. So everybody tries to copy Pixar. They're relying too much on the technology and not enough on the artists. The fact that Disney closed down its cel animation division is frightening to me. Someday soon, somebody will come along and do a drawn-animated film, and it'll be beautiful and connect with people, and they'll all go: "Oh, we've got to do that!" It's ridiculous.

47. (Becoming a movie director) There was one moment, and it happened in school. I had a big final exam - we were supposed to write a 20-page report on this book about Houdini (Harry Houdini). I probably would have loved reading it, but I didn't, so I just decided to make a little super-8 movie based on it. I tied myself to the railroad tracks and all that. I mean, this is kid stuff, but it impressed the teacher, and I got an A. And that was maybe my first turning point, when I said: "Yeah, I wouldn't mind being a filmmaker."

48. It is unfortunate that Disney closed down its drawn-animation unit. I find it quite upsetting, because they made a few drawn movies that weren't successful and they went: "Well, that is dead, so we have to go to computers." They forget that the reason that they have been successful is because Pixar (whose films Disney distributes) makes good movies. Success is the real reason people try to copy things in Hollywood. Someday someone will do a beautiful cell- animation film that connects with people and then someone will say: "We have to go and do that again." The number-one priority should be that the story and the medium are compatible.

49. I grew up watching things like "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" on Saturday afternoon television. There's a guy with his arm ripped off and blood smeared all over the wall. I never saw it as negative. I find that stuff, when it's not rooted in reality, to be cathartic.

50. I've always loved the idea of fairy tales, but somehow I never managed to completely connect with them. What interests me is taking those classic images and themes and trying to contemporize them a bit. I believe folk tales and fairy tales have some sort of psychological foundation that makes that possible.

51. (on "Batman Begins") I saw a tape of it. It was very touching. Very good.

52. If you've ever had that feeling of loneliness, of being an outsider, it never quite leaves you. You can be happy or successful or whatever, but that thing still stays within you.

53. All these kinds of stories, whether it be "The Wizard of Oz" or "Alice in Wonderland", are an internal journey. I think that's a fairly universal concept. These characters represent things inside the human psyche. I think that's what every child does. You try to work out problems as you go along. Same thing as an adult. Some people get therapy, some people get to make movies.

54. (on living in England) I love the weather more than in California. I am serious! You know, you can go for a walk in any kind of weather. In Los Angeles you immediately arouse suspicion when you're out without a car.

55. (on Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in "Batman Returns") I don't really go back and look at the movies but her performance in that was one of my favorite performances of anything by anyone in any movie that I've worked on. It was just the best. Really, I'll never forget her in that…I just have all these memories of her - letting a live bird fly out of her mouth and learning to use the whip and jumping around rooftop sets in high heels. The work and just the performance were very, very impressive.



What do you think of Tim Burton's quotes?




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