Muhammad Ali’s life and legacy are inspirational and impactful. The lessons learned are universal and transformative; his global footprint is enormous. Muhammad Ali is one of a select few individuals to have transcended athleticism into a symbol of larger societal issues and it is the totality of his life and the core principles that have guided him that have made him one of the most beloved symbols of peace and well-being in our nation and the world.
He has served as a symbol of hope and a catalyst for constructive international dialogue, has delivered sorely-needed medical supplies to an embargoed Cuba, provided more than 22 million meals to the world’s hungry, and helped secure the release of 15 U.S. hostages from Iraq during the first Gulf War. As testament to his work in developing nations, the United Nations named him a Messenger of Peace, and he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as Amnesty International’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In September 2012, he was the recipient of the prestigious National Constitution Center Liberty Medal.
Sports Illustrated Sportsman Of The Year 1974
In addition to co-founding the Muhammad Ali Center with his wife Lonnie, The Ali Family hosts the annual Celebrity Fight Night in Phoenix, is involved as a founding member of Athletes for Hope, and contributes substantially to the awareness and research efforts of Parkinson’s disease. Muhammad Ali has proven that one person can change the world.
Six Core Principles
Confidence
Belief In Oneself, One's Ablities, and One's Future.
Conviction
A firm belief that gives one the courage to stand behind the belief, despite pressure to do otherwise.
Dediction
The act of devoting all of one's energy, effort and abilties to a certain task.
Giving
To present voluntarily without expecting something in return.
Respect
Esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excelllence of, oneself and others.
Spirituality
A sense of awe, reverence, and inner peace inspired by a connection to all of the creation and/or that which is greater than oneself.
THE MUHAMMAD ALI CENTER
BE GREAT :: DO GREAT THINGS
ABOUT
The Muhammad Ali Center is a multicultural center with an award-winning museum dedicated to the life of Muhammad Ali. The Center museum captures the inspiration derived from the story of Muhammad Ali’s incredible life and the six core principles that have fueled his journey.
MISSION
The mission of the Muhammad Ali Center is to preserve and share the legacy and ideals of Muhammad Ali, to promote respect, hope, and understanding, and to inspire adults and children everywhere to be as great as they can be.
MUCH MORE THAN A MUSEUM
In its 10-year history, the Center has created programs that exemplify the principles of Muhammad Ali and the mission of the Center. Over the past decade, the Center has developed impactful programming serving children and adults, reaching people of all cultures, nationalities, ages, and geographic areas.
Inspiration is Ali’s gift, and his six core principles mark his true legacy—a legacy that has the power to live on, beyond the man, and beyond the walls of the Center.
Explore the links below and have fun. Hey, I am a geek and love the concept of time capsules. If your ancestors had left a time capsule, what would have been in it?
See what I put in the the time capsule below. Shelley
Fair Trade products positively impact the lives of farmers and their families. This is not about charity.
These products provide farmers and their families with more resources and control over their lives. Fairtrade can help farmers rebuild their lives, despite war. Forced child and slave labor are prohibited.
Another reason, I like Fair trade certified products? They are produced with limited amounts of pesticides and fertilizers. These products lifts people up while respecting the environment.
That's why I want to help spread the word about Coffee of Grace and the Rwandan Community.
Love Shelley
Mission Statement Below From Coffee of Grace Website
We believe that good business means doing good for the communities in which we work. Inspired by the spirit of the Rwandan people, I have created these coffees as a way to celebrate and support the coffee farmers of Rwanda. Through direct sourcing, fair trade, ethical practices and environmental stewardship, our dedication to the coffee farmers of Rwanda will allow them to create a sustainable business that can be passed from one generation to the next.
I invite you to taste the spirit and dedication of the coffee farmers of Rwanda. From Grace Hightower De Niro
Rwanda is a place where the beautiful tapestry of its people and its land is woven together by determination and hope. It is a place where terraced hills and mountains stretch as far as the eye can see. It is a place where some 11 million individuals, most of them farmers, are working to build a sustainable future. It is from this place that we bring to you a collection of coffees that highlight the extraordinary flavor characteristics found within. These coffees represent the promise of a better future; one that harnesses the inner strength of the Rwandan people and the fertility of the land on which they live.
Motivated and inspired by its people’s courageous spirit to succeed, it is our
mission to enhance the lives of the Rwandan people by empowering them with the
opportunity to market their unique products to the world.
From Biography Dot Com
Grace Hightower
Hightower is of African-American and Blackfoot descent and grew up in Kilmichael, Mississippi. She worked various odd jobs to help support her family. Hightower became a flight attendant for Trans World Airlines, attracted by the possibility of traveling and expanding her horizons. Settling in Paris and later London, she worked variously as a mutual fund trader and restaurant worker. In 1987, while working at Mr. Chow, an upscale London Chinese restaurant and celebrity
Born in New York City on August 17, 1943, actor Robert De Niro left school at age 16 to study acting with Stella Adler. He then worked with many acclaimed film directors, including Brian DePalma, Elia Kazan and, most importantly, Martin Scorsese. De Niro's role in The Godfather: Part II (1974) brought him his first Academy Award. He went on to make several other critically acclaimed films, including The Deer Hunter (1978), and scored his second Academy Award for Raging Bull (1980). In the 1990s, De Niro saw continued success with such films as Goodfellas and Analyze This. He more recently won acclaim for his work on Silver Linings Playbook (2012), garnering the seventh Oscar nod of his career.
Background and Early Life
Robert De Niro Jr. was born on August 17, 1943, in New York City. His parents were both respected artists who had met while attending Hans Hoffman's famed Provincetown painting classes. His mother, Virginia Admiral, was a cerebral and gifted painter, a Berkeley graduate who made a significant name for herself in the 1940s and '50s New York art scene. His father, Robert De Niro Sr., was a painter, sculptor and poet whose work received high critical acclaim. Known as the "golden couple" of the New York art circle, Virginia and Robert Sr. nevertheless split ways in 1945, when young Robert was only 2 years old. As his father remained singularly devoted to his art, De Niro was raised primarily by his mother, who took on work as a typesetter and printer in order to support her son.
A bright and energetic child, Robert De Niro was incredibly fond of attending movies with his father when they spent time together. He was especially taken with films starring Swedish actress Greta Garbo. De Niro's mother worked part-time as a typist and copyeditor for Maria Picator's Dramatic Workshop, and as part of her compensation, De Niro was allowed to take children's acting classes for free.
At the age of 10, De Niro made his stage debut as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Soon after, he was accepted at New York's prestigious High School of Music and Art, an institution specializing in visual and performance arts. However, feeling overwhelmed and unprepared for the intense and competitive atmosphere, he dropped out to attend public school after only a few days.
Not long after beginning courses at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village, De Niro proved to be uninterested in school altogether and, as a teenager, joined a rather tame Italian street gang that gave him the nickname "Bobby Milk," in reference to his pale complexion. While De Niro was by all accounts only a very modest troublemaker, the gang provided him with experience to skillfully portray Italian mobsters as an actor.
Career Beginnings
In 1960, after a soul searching cross-country trip to visit relatives in California, Robert De Niro decided to drop out of high school to study acting. Once asked in an interview why he decided to take up the profession, De Niro responded, "Acting is a cheap way to do things that you would never dare to do yourself." He enrolled at the Stella Adler Conservatory (later renamed the Stella Adler Studio of Acting), and though he continued to take high school classes at night, he never graduated. Stella Adler was a strong proponent of the Stanislavski method of acting, involving deep psychological character investigation. An intense teacher, Adler was once described by The New York Times as someone who would "curse, cajole, rage, roar and, from time to time, even compliment her students." Adler, who had taught the likes of Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger, would later remember De Niro as one of her best students.
With his mother's permission, De Niro took the money she had saved for his college education and put it toward his acting career. He studied briefly with Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio in New York City, and then began auditioning. As actress Sally Kirkland once recalled, instead of traditional headshots, De Niro showed up to auditions with "a portfolio of about 25 pictures of himself in various disguises to prove that he wasn't just an ethnic actor."
After a momentary cameo in the 1965 French film Three Rooms in Manhattan, De Niro's real debut came in the 1968 film Greetings. His breakthrough performances came five years later in a pair of highly acclaimed 1973 films: Bang the Drum Slowly, in which he played a terminally ill catcher on a baseball team, and Mean Streets, his first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese, in which he played a street thug opposite Harvey Keitel.
Oscars: 'Godfather: Part II' and 'Raging Bull'
In 1974, De Niro established himself as one the nation's finest actors with his Academy Award-winning portrayal of Vito Corleone in The Godfather: Part II, a role for which he learned to speak Sicilian. Two years later, De Niro delivered perhaps the most chilling performance of his career, playing vengeful cabbie Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976) alongside Jodie Foster. He continued to show his tremendous skill as a dramatic actor in 1978's The Deer Hunter. The film follows a group of friends haunted by their Vietnam War experiences.
De Niro later portrayed middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta in the commercially unsuccessful but critically adored film Raging Bull (1980), again helmed by Scorsese. The previously skinny De Niro had put on 60 pounds of muscle for his riveting turn as LaMotta and was rewarded for his dedication with the 1981 Academy Award for best actor. After 1981's True Confessions, his next roles were that of an aspiring standup comedian in Scorsese's The King of Comedy (1983) and as a Jewish mobster in the sprawling historical epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Other notable projects on the actor's diverse roster for the '80s included sci-fi art film Brazil (1985) and the historically inspired The Mission (1986), followed by fare like the crime drama The Untouchables (1987, in which De Niro portrayed gangster Al Capone opposite Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness) and the action comedy Midnight Run (1988).
De Niro opened the 1990s with Goodfellas, yet another acclaimed gangster film from Scorsese that saw the actor teaming up with Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci. De Niro next starred in a project that earned him another Oscar nod, portraying a catatonic patient brought back to awareness in Awakenings (1990), directed by Penny Marshall and co-starring Robin Williams as a character based on physician Oliver Sacks. Dramas continued to be the genre of choice for De Niro, as he played a blacklisted director in Guilty by Suspicion and a fire chief in Ron Howard's Backdraft, both from 1991.
Soon afterwards, the actor was once again front and center and reunited with Scorsese in a terrifying way, bulking up to become a tattooed rapist who stalks a family in the 1991 remake of Cape Fear. The film was originally a 1962 thriller starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen and Lori Martin, and was recast with Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis. (Peck and Mitchum made appearances in the remake as well.) De Niro received his sixth Academy Award nomination for Fear, with the film becoming the highest grossing collaboration between the actor and Scorsese, earning more than $182 million worldwide.
Casino and Comedic Fare
After somewhat edgy, comedic outings like Night and the City (1992) and Mad Dog and Glory (1993), another drama followed in the form of This Boy's Life (1993), in which De Niro portrayed an abusive father opposite a young Leonardo DiCaprio. That same year, De Niro made his directorial debut with A Bronx Tale, a film adaptation of a one-man play written and performed by Chazz Palminteri. In 1994, De Niro was practically unrecognizable as the monster in actor/director Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein.
Autumn 1995 saw another Scorsese telling of mob life, this time in Las Vegas. De Niro portrayed a character based on real-life figure Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal in Casino, co-starring Sharon Stone and Pesci. Michael Mann's Heat followed that same year, with De Niro re-teaming with fellow Godfather star Al Pacino in a well-received outing about a bank robber contemplating getting out of the business and the police detective aiming to bring him down.
For the rest of the '90s and into the new millennium, scarcely a year passed by that didn't see De Niro featured in a big screen project as either a lead or supporting figure. At the turn of the century, De Niro struck out into decidedly different territory with 1999's Analyze This, a hilarious and highly popular spoof of the mob movies that had garnered him fame. Analyze This earned more than a $100 million domestically, with De Niro playing a crime boss who seeks help from a therapist (Billy Crystal).
Parents' Patriarch and Wise 'Intern'
In 2000, De Niro took on another comedy, Meet the Parents, with the screen icon playing Ben Stiller's future father-in-law. The smash hit spawned two sequels: Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2011), both of which were also box-office successes. De Niro continued to switch between comedic and serious roles over the next few years, reuniting with Billy Crystal for Analyze That in 2002, and starring in the spy thriller The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie in 2006. The following year De Niro was featured as a secretive cross-dressing pirate with a heart of gold in the fantasy flick Stardust, while 2009 saw a return to dramatic fare with Everybody's Fine.
De Niro earned yet another Academy Award nomination for his turn in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook (2012), playing the father of a mentally troubled son (Bradley Cooper). He appeared in the comedy The Big Wedding with Diane Keaton and Katherine Heigl the following year. Other projects released in 2013 included the thriller Killing Season and the comedy Last Vegas, the latter with fellow veteran actors Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline.
In early 2015, it was announced that De Niro would again team up with Silver Linings Playbook director Russell and stars Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence for a film based on the life of inventor Joy Mangano. Later that year, De Niro hit box office gold once again starring as the widower title character in Nancy Meyers' The Intern, co-starring Anne Hathaway as an entrepreneur running a retail website.
Personal Life
In 1997, De Niro married Grace Hightower, they have two children and live in New York City.
Explore the links below and have fun. Hey, I am a geek and love the concept of time capsules. If your ancestors had left a time capsule, what would have been in it?
See what I put in the the time capsule below. Shelley
American musician Prince achieved wide fame in the 1980s with '1999' and 'Purple Rain,' the latter album also serving as the soundtrack for the popular film of the same name. Later Prince albums included 'Sign 'O' the Times,' 'Diamonds and Pearls' and 'Musicology.'
Prince was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prince's early music career saw the release of Prince, Dirty Mind and Controversy—all of which created controversy due to their fusion of religious and sexual themes. He then released the albums 1999 and Purple Rain, cementing his superstar status with No. 1 hits like "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy." A seven-time Grammy winner, Prince had a prodigious output that included later albums like Diamonds and Pearls, The Gold Experience and Musicology. He died on April 21, 2016.
Background and Early Life
Famed singer, songwriter and musical innovator Prince was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His parents were John Nelson, a musician whose stage name was Prince Rogers, and Mattie Shaw, a jazz singer who performed with the Prince Rogers Band. He became interested in music at a young age and taught himself how to play the piano, guitar and drums. His parents broke up when he was about 10, and he and his sister split their time between their parents’ homes. He eventually ran away and moved in with neighbors, the Anderson family. In high school, Prince formed his first band Grand Central (later known as Champagne) with André Anderson (who later changed his name to André Cymone) and Morris Day.
In 1978, Prince was signed to Warner Bros. Records. In a 2009 interview with Tavis Smiley, Prince revealed that when he was a child, he suffered from epileptic seizures and that he was teased in school. He told Smiley: “... Early in my career I tried to compensate by being as flashy and as noisy as I could."
Career Takes Off: 'Controversy' and '1999'
In 1978, Prince dropped his debut album, For You, which was followed by Prince (1979). He played practically all of the instruments on the albums, and the sophomore release contained his first top 20 pop hit, the easygoing "I Wanna Be Your Lover." The critically acclaimed Dirty Mind dropped in 1980, consisting of material that was graphic in its exploration of sexuality and fantasy.
Controversy (1981) continued playing with the themes of its predecessor, as seen with the dance-oriented title track, which reached No. 3 on the r&b charts, as well as songs like "Sexuality" and "Do Me Baby." Yet as Prince continued to develop his career, he would also be known for tracks that had a deep spirituality, with a yearning for majesty and wonder.
The singer found international success with the release of his 1982 album, 1999, which included the top 20 title track, an exquisite synth-funk ode about nuclear doomsday, as well as the top 10 hits "Little Red Corvette" and "Delirious."
The '80s: 'Purple Rain' and Beyond
With his band the Revolution, Prince went on to create the classic album Purple Rain (1984), which also served as the soundtrack to the film of the same name, grossing almost $70 million at the U.S. box office. Co-starring Apollonia Kotero and Day, the movie garnered an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. The melancholy title track "Purple Rain" reached no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the hits "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" both reached no. 1. While "Crazy" readily joined the pantheon of wild, electrifying rock songs, "Doves Cry" had one-of-a-kind signatures, displaying an otherworldly meld of electronic and funk elements without a traditional chorus. The soundtrack offered two other hits: "I Would Die 4 U" and "Take Me With U." Prince simultaneously became a well-known visual icon with his trademark curls, flowing jackets and ruffled attire with punk embellishments.
"Darling Nikki" was another tune from Purple Rain that incited controversy due to its explicit visuals. After senator Al Gore's wife Tipper Gore bought the album for their daughter and listened to the track, she eventually pushed for albums to sport labels specifically geared toward parents warning of graphic lyrics.
1985 saw the release of Around the World in a Day, which had the top 10 tracks "Raspberry Beret," a whimsical mid-tempo ditty, and "Pop Life." The record continued to feature Prince's penchant for playing a range of instruments and desire to impart messages of self-love as seen with "Paisley Park," a track inspired by the name of his Minneapolis studios. In 1986 Prince released his eighth studio album Parade, which included his pulsating no. 1 pop/r&b single "Kiss." Parade served as the soundtrack for the artist's second film Under the Cherry Moon, which he directed and starred in.
Acclaimed 'Sign' and 'Batman' Soundtrack
After the disbanding of the Revolution, Prince was able to consolidate various shelved projects into what ultimately became the double album Sign 'O' the Times (1987), with the title track reaching no. 3 on the pop charts and no. 1 in r&b. The album was known for its stark commentary on social issues yet also contained fun jams like "U Got the Look," a raucous duet with Scottish singer Sheena Easton that reached no. 2 pop. (He had previously penned the lasciviously charged pop/r&b hit "Sugar Walls" from her 1984 album A Private Heaven.) Sign was easily among Prince's most critically acclaimed albums, yet its sales lagged in the U.S., finding more of an audience in Europe, where the artist launched a successful tour.
Maintaining a prodigious output, Prince released Lovesexy in 1988, known for its album cover featuring a photo of the artist in the nude as well as the top 5 uptempo r&b hit "Alphabet St." By the time he released his 11th studio album, the soundtrack to Batman, in 1989, Prince had become one of America's most commercially successful pop artists, continually making waves on the charts. Batman offered up the no. 1 romp "Batdance" as well as the top 5 r&b hit "Partyman." The video for "Batdance" famously featured Prince in split-effect makeup and costuming meant to symbolize both the film's shadowy hero and his crazed nemesis, the Joker.
The Early '90s: The New Power Generation
The early 1990s marked the launch of the New Power Generation, Prince's latest band that featured a blend of contemporary r&b, hip-hop, jazz and soul along with the vocals of Rosie Gaines. The group was first called out in the soundtrack to Graffiti Bridge, a 1990 sequel to Purple Rain that didn't fare well at the box office yet still yielded the top 10 track "Thieves in the Temple." With the NPG's artistic contribution, Prince found success with his album Diamonds and Pearls (1991), which rose to no. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Diamonds included the romantic title ballad, the industrial strength "Gett Off," the playful paean "Insatiable" and the saucy No. 1 single "Cream."
Prince's work with the NPG continued to unashamedly toy with ideas around sexuality, gender norms and the body. To promote the album, Prince had appeared on the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards to do a live performance of "Gett Off." Echoing parts of the track's music video, the performance featured an array of dancers and musicians in an onstage bacchanal, with the artist famously turning around towards the end of the song to show off his seatless pants.
In the fall of 1992 Prince had signed a record $100 million dollar deal with Warner Bros., which was considered "the largest recording and music publishing contract in history" at the time and allowed him the freedom to pursue television, film, book and merchandising deals separately. As a comparison, fellow music giants, Michael Jackson and Madonna, had $60 million-plus contracts that were all inclusive.
Stellar Collaborations
Provocative performances aside, Prince had well established himself as an in-demand collaborator and behind-the-scenes player whose songs were remade by other artists. In the mid-'80s, Chaka Khan released an ebullient, highly successful cover of his 1979 tune "I Feel For You," while Sinead O'Connor's biggest hit was Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U." The Art of Noise and Tom Jones reached the U.K. top 5 in 1988 with a remake of "Kiss," and Alicia Keys covered "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore" on her own 2001 debut.
Prince also worked on specific album tracks for performers like Khan, Madonna, Tevin Campbell, Kate Bush, the Time, Martika, Patti Labelle and Janelle Monae. He was behind the girl group Vanity 6, lead by singer/actress Vanity, and their no. 1 dance hit "Nasty Girl." And he sent a song to the all-women's band the Bangles that they would record to great effect, having a no. 2 hit with the lush ode to a stressful workday, "Manic Monday."
In 1992 Prince and the New Power Generation released Love Symbol Album. Though embraced by some critics, sales did not fare as well as Diamonds. Love only managed to have one top 10 hit, the transcendent single "7," though "My Name Is Prince" and the carnal "Sexy MF" garnered some attention as well. The following year Prince released the compilation box set The Hits/The B-Sides, which had an array of popular songs as well as the newly released "Pink Cashmere," a tender number sung in falsetto.
Name Change
The lack of success for Love Symbol Album created tension between Prince and his record label Warner Bros. Over the ensuing years, the singer's career went through a roller coaster of ups and downs. Turned off by feeling controlled by his label, Prince changed his name to the unpronounceable glyph O(+> in 1993, a fusion of female and male astrological symbols which he used until 2000. During that time, he was more frequently referred to as "the artist formerly known as Prince," and his new symbol was not embraced by most fans. He also started making appearances with the word "SLAVE" drawn on the side of his face, meant to convey the great disdain he had for his label. Prince did release the 1995 album The Gold Experience during this time of duress, and scored another top 5 song with "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World."
Once he was released from all contractual obligations to Warner Bros., Prince released the triple album fittingly entitled Emancipation (1996), which went on to become certified platinum and featured the soul remake "Betcha by Golly, Wow." Several other albums affiliated with his NPG label soon followed, including Crystal Ball (1998) and Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999).
In Recent Years
After several years of relative obscurity, Prince returned to the limelight in 2004 to perform at the Grammy Awards with Beyoncé Knowles, the same year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That spring, he released Musicology with a tour that became the top concert draw in the United States. The album won two Grammys and added another dreamy ballad, "Call My Name," to the Prince canon. His next album, 3121, was released in 2006. That year, he wrote and performed "Song of the Heart" for the animated film Happy Feet, and won a Golden Globe (Best Original Song) for the composition. In 2007 he performed for the Super Bowl XLI halftime show on a massive stage shaped as his famous symbol amid pouring rain. The event was watched by 140 million fans.
2010 was the year of accolades for Prince. He not only was lauded by Billboard.com as the greatest Super Bowl performer ever, but was also featured in TIME magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World" and earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BET Awards. He ended the year with an induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Prince also continued to release albums as seen with Planet Earth (2007), LotusFlow3r (2009) and, in a joint deal with the Daily Mirror, 20Ten (2010).
With the advent of the Internet as the primary force for distributing music, Prince was against the trend of having songs shared at will on the web. He railed against the idea of providing his songs to online music platforms without proper upfront compensation and profit sharing, with his tracks eventually only found on the Jay-Z backed streaming service Tidal. One of the few pop artists to have full ownership of his masters, he was diligent via Web Sheriff in erasing examples of his music, including videos and live performances, from the internet. He was thus behind the Lenz v. Universal Musical Group case, which unsuccessfully pushed for the YouTube removal of a baby dancing to "Let's Go Crazy."
Prince continued to take political stands with his performances as well. On May 2, 2015, Prince staged a Dance Rally 4 Peace at Paisley Park to pay tribute to Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American who died in police custody after his arrest in Baltimore, and to show support for the activists protesting his death. With his backup band 3RDEYEGIRL, Prince performed a 41-minute concert including his protest song “Baltimore,” which was inspired by Gray’s death.
Memoir
In March 2016, it was announced that the pop superstar was working on a memoir, tentatively titled The Beautiful Ones, that was scheduled for a fall 2017 release. According to Billboard magazine, Prince spoke to an audience at a music industry event about the memoir. “This is my first (book). My brother Dan is helping me with it. He’s a good critic and that’s what I need. He’s not a ‘yes’ man at all and he’s really helping me get through this. We’re starting from the beginning from my first memory and hopefully we can go all the way up to the Super Bowl.”
On April 21, 2016, Prince was found dead at his Paisley Park compound in Minnesota.
Genius is Rare. Make no mistake Prince was a musical genius. He was a unique, powerful artist. Prince pushed the boundaries.
Celebrating Prince: I think Prince Was One The Greatest Rock Guitarist. I could listen to him for hours. #RockGod
Music Transcends All Boundaries. Prince and the (Revolution), will be loved by generations to come. His music will live on forever. #Legacy
From the Ink Spots Entertainment Family. We are Sending Love and Prayers to Prince's Family and Friends.
Prince, Rock On. Love Shelley
Explore the links below and have fun. Hey, I am a geek and love the concept of time capsules. If your ancestors had left a time capsule, what would have been in it?
See what I put in the the time capsule below. Shelley
Before you go any further I wrote a brief review about Garrett Borns Music. Go Here
The Darling Mansion, a Toronto home turned Salvador Dali funhouse by way of larger-than-life furniture, taxidermy peacocks, and an Aladdin’s cave of other oddities. Basically, it’s a bit of a trip.
“I like this house. I feel like these are the rooms of my subconscious in a weird way,” says BØRNS, revealing a Freudian-like focus on the inner workings of his mind. As it turns out his hit song “Electric Love” and the enchanted neon forest from the accompanying music video are headier than its catchy chorus let on.
“The song itself was about your mind awakening at night in your dream state,” he says, “And having the whole forest light up, sort of like all the nerve endings.” Keep Reading
Here at Ink Spots Entertainment we are doing our very best to put Stars aka Artists in the spotlight for their good deeds. We need more of this in this world; leadership, decisiveness, integrity, compassion, patience, tolerance and charity. I hope by sharing information, the readers of this blog will also be inspired to make a difference in their communities and globally.
In the October 2015 spotight, The Jon Bon Jovi "Soul Foundation"
=>From the JBJ Foundation Website<=
Hope is Delicious..
Our vision here at Soul Kitchen is to serve healthy, delicious, and when possible, organic meals. At Soul Kitchen you will notice there are no prices on the menu and you might have been seated with someone you don’t know. Customers pay the minimum donation or volunteer in some way to earn a dining certificate for a meal.
Manifesto..
All are welcome at our table. At the JBJ Soul Kitchen, a place is ready for you if you are hungry, or if you hunger to make a difference in your community. For we believe that a healthy meal can feed the soul.
Happy are the hands that feed. Those who volunteer are guided by Soul Kitchen staff through their tasks. Volunteering at Soul Kitchen can lead to qualifying for job training.
When there is love, there is plenty. As you will see, our menu has no prices. You select what you like and make the minimum donation. If you can afford to donate more you are helping to feed your neighbor. If you are unable to donate, an hour of volunteering pays for your meal.
At Soul Kitchen, neighbors from across the street or across town, new friends, families, those in need of help and those with help to offer, come together and share a good meal and the warmth of good company.
Friendship is our daily special. Introduce yourself to the person seated beside you or across the table. Stay awhile and stay informed of all the ways Soul Kitchen is dedicated to eliminating hunger, building relationships, and celebrating community.
End the meal with a slice of happiness. At Soul Kitchen the main ingredient is Love, with a large helping of you. Our chefs prepare our healthy, delicious meals with the freshest ingredients, some grown in our own organic garden. At the JBJ Soul Kitchen all are treated with cheerfulness, kindness, and respect.
JBJ Soul Kitchen is excited to share our new Sunday hours. We are open for Sunday Brunch from 11:30am to 2:00pm. Come join us and see what’s cooking!
This holiday season, give the gift of giving by donating to the JBJ Soul Kitchen in honor of your co-workers, employees, friends, or loved ones.
Also, if you do not live in the Red Bank area but would like to support Soul Kitchen, you can help us by Paying It Forward. By donating, you are helping to cover the cost of someone’s meal who volunteered as payment.
Please click HERE to donate and support our mission.
The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation exists to combat issues that force families and individuals into economic despair. Through the funding and creation of programs and partnerships, we support innovative community efforts to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness.
It is the organization’s goal to recognize and maximize the human potential in those affected by poverty and homelessness by offering assistance in establishing programs that provide food and affordable housing while supporting social services and job training programs.
The Foundation started its work through the localized efforts of the Philadelphia Soul Arena Football Team and its celebrity owners (which included Jon Bon Jovi). The Foundation quickly expanded its work to have a national presence in it’s commitment to develop role models for our city on the individual level, corporate level, and community level by developing, promoting, and assisting in innovative and long-lasting solutions to rebuilding pride in one’s self and one’s community – one SOUL at a time.
This website currently includes archived news items documenting the work we’ve done since the Foundation’s launch as the Philadelphia Soul Charitable Foundation in October 2006. The site will be updated as we continue to make a difference in the City of Brotherly Love and beyond… and ask you to join us in changing lives, one SOUL at a time.
Explore the links below and have fun. Hey, I am a geek and love the concept of time capsules. If your ancestors had left a time capsule, what would have been in it?
See what I put in the the time capsule below. Love Shelley
Quick Facts
Name
Jon Bon Jovi
Occupation
Singer
Birth DateMarch 2, 1962 (age 53)
Place of BirthPerth Amboy, New Jersey
Full Name
John Francis Bongiovi, Jr.
Zodiac Sign
Pisces
From Biography Dot Com
Born John Francis Bongiovi Jr. on March 2, 1962, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Jon Bon Jovi knew in his early teens that he wanted to be a rock star. He formed the band Bon Jovi in the 1980s, which became popular for its power ballads, soaring guitar riffs, and well-crafted melodies. Jon Bon Jovi has also acted in such films as The Leading Man and was a recurring character on TV's Ally McBeal.
Early Life
Musician, actor. Born John Francis Bongiovi Jr. on March 2, 1962 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Jon was raised by his parents, Carol and John Bongiovi, a hairdresser. By his early teens, he was hanging out at local clubs, convinced that one day he would be a rock star.
Idolizing local rising stars such as Bruce Springsteen and the Asbury Jukes, Jon was playing in clubs by the time he was 16. He met keyboardist David Bryan in high school, and the two formed a ten-piece rhythm and blues band called Atlantic City Expressway. Jon also performed with bands called The Rest, The Lechers and John Bongiovi and the Wild Ones.
In 1980, Jon recorded his first single, Runaway, at his cousin's studio, with back-up by studio musicians. A local radio station included the song on a compilation tape, and it began to get frequent airplay. The success of Runaway got Jon noticed, and he realized that he'd need more than session players if he wanted to capitalize on his success.
Jon gave David a call, who in turn tapped Alec John Such, Tico Torres and guitarist Richie Samborra. During a show in New York in 1983, the band caught the attention of record exececutive Derek Shulman, who signed them to PolyGram. It was Shulman who anglicized John Bongiovi's name to Bon Jovi.
Commercial Success
Their self-titled debut came out on January 21, 1984. Filled with the group's now-signature power ballads underscored by soaring guitar riffs and well-crafted melodies, the album went gold. Bon Jovi released its follow-up album, 7800 Farenheit, in April 1985, which was popular with the fans, but less so with the press. Many critics were turned off by the hard-rock band's manicured image and formulaic style.
Tours opening for the Scorpions, Kiss and Judas Priest helped Bon Jovi build up a considerable fan base that appreciated the group's rugged, soulful collection of songs about how tough it was to be a teenager. The band responded to tepid critical praise with its third album, Slippery When Wet, which went gold and platinum simultaneously within six weeks of its release. Powered by songs like Livin' on a Prayer and Wanted Dead or Alive, the album sold in excess of 14 million copies, putting it in the same league as Michael Jackson's Thriller.
More than Music
In the '90s, Jon stretched his talents by nurturing an acting career with starring roles in Moonlight and Valentino and The Leading Man. He also appeared in a handful of independent films, including Pay It Forward and U-571. On television, he was a regular guest star on Ally McBeal until the series finale in 2002. Bon Jovi also made headlines in 2004 when he and Sambora became co-founders and owners of the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul. The following year, he and the band donated $1,000,000 to Oprah Winfrey's Angel Network.
Jon married Dorothea Hurley, a karate instructor, in 1989. They have four children, Stephanie, Jesse, Jacob and Romeo Jon.
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Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 06:24PM
