Lifestyle
Disney composer Richard M. Sherman has died at 95
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Richard M. Sherman, the Academy Award-winning composer who was part of a songwriting team with his late brother, Robert, has died due to age-related illness at 95. The Sherman brothers wrote the scores for two dozen films, many for Disney — among them, Mary Poppins (for which they won two Oscars), The Jungle Book and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Born in New York on June 12, 1928, he and his family moved to Beverly Hills, Calif., when Sherman was 9. His father, Al, was a popular songwriter and challenged Richard and his older brother to write together, Sherman remembered in 2005. “He sensed that Bob and I collaborating and pooling our wits could come up with something.”
They had a top 10 hit in 1958, “Tall Paul,” with Annette Funicello, which brought them to the attention of Walt Disney.
Through the 1960s and into the 1980s, they were, in effect, Disney’s house songwriters — beginning with The Parent Trap, in 1961. They wrote many film scores and even theme park songs for the company, such as “It’s a Small World (After All).”
But it was the score for Mary Poppins, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, that cemented their reputation. Filled with standards such as “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” the film’s gentle ballad “Feed the Birds” was Walt Disney’s favorite song.
“He’d call, not every Friday, but he’d call up and say ‘Come over, we’ll talk,’ ” recalled Sherman. “And so, we’d go over and we’d pass the time about what we were doing, because we were always working on something. And then he’d look out the north window of his office and say, ‘Play it.’ And I’d play and sing ‘Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag.’ And he’d say, ‘Yup, have a good weekend boys!’ ”
Producer Cubby Broccoli, who owned the rights to Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, hired them to adapt the author’s children’s book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Sherman said he and his brother had fun writing the title song about the magical flying car. “We wanted the song to sound like the way the motor sounded,” Sherman explained, “because that’s the trick, the whole thing is that it backfires and goes ‘bang bang.’ ” The rhythmic song was nominated for an Oscar.
While they were very much on the same wavelength as songwriters, the brothers had a complicated, sometimes contentious relationship, which was documented in the 2009 film, The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story. Their last original score was for Disney’s The Tigger Movie in 2000, and both Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang were adapted for the stage. The Sherman brothers were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1976.
Robert Sherman died in 2012 at the age of 86.
Lifestyle
Sunny Hostin Calls J Lo Flying Commercial a Full 'Jenny From the Block' Move
TMZ.com
Sunny Hostin says it’s humanizing to see Jennifer Lopez flying commercial, and a sure sign she can still be a humble girl from the Bronx … even though she’s a world away from “the block.”
We got Sunny Tuesday outside ABC Studios in NYC, where our photog asked her about the images we got of J Lo sitting in a window seat on an Air France flight from Italy to France. Now, she was flying business class, but it’s still a far cry from her usual private jet lifestyle.
Sunny says the commercial air travel makes Jennifer more like a woman of the people … and she likes the fact the singer/actress/dancer can still fly among the normies, despite all her fame and fortune.
In other words, Sunny — who herself is from the Boogie Down Bronx — says J Lo is still comfortable in her “Jenny from the Block” persona … and she’s glad the singer/actress isn’t forgetting her roots.
TMZ.com
6/24/24
While we’ve seen lots of celebs fly coach over the years — Sunny says she still does too — it’s still the exception to the rule … especially for an A-lister like J Lo.
Some fans might see this as Jennifer trying to save a buck as she and Ben Affleck appear to be headed toward a divorce, but Sunny says it’s deeper than that.
Sounds like a Bronx thing, and Sunny would know!
Lifestyle
Can't stop the (classical) music : It's Been a Minute
Hulton Archive/Getty Images,
It’s Black Music month! This week, Host Brittany Luse invites Howard University professor and trombonist Myles Blakemore to talk about how classical music influenced some of our favorite musicians. They look at how the counterpoint technique of Johann Sebastian Bach may have inspired Nina Simone, and how a love of Genuine can turn into a career in classical music.
Want to be featured on IBAM? Record a voice memo responding to Brittany’s question at the end of the episode and send it to ibam@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Corey Antonio Rose. It was edited by Jessica Placzek and Sara Sarasohn. Engineering support came from Patrick Murray. We had factchecking help from Ayda Pourrasad. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sangweni.
Lifestyle
Can this trendy ingredient in Erewhon's drink aisle really boost your mood or help your anxiety?
It’s not enough for a drink just to taste good anymore. Most specialty grocery or liquor stores now offer colorful cans and bottles that advertise so-called adaptogens, ingredients that beverage companies claim can help you manage stress, enhance creativity and sharpen focus. With packaging printed with bright colors and trendy fonts, these drinks are designed to pop on the shelves and on your social media feed — a subtle health flex for the aesthetically conscious and sober-inclined.
You can find them in trendy superettes around the city. Silver Lake’s Soft Spirits’ adaptogenic section includes a Spritz Italiano from L.A.-based De Soi (founded by Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan), a concoction containing Reishi mushroom, which the company claims is “a stress soothing, brain boosting botanical often referred to as ‘the herb of immortality.’” At Bristol Farms across the city, you can pick up Bonbuz, a blood red tonic that promises to “heighten your senses and transport you to a deeper mind-body experience” with ingredients like pyridoxine-HCL (a vitamin-b6), ginger root and rhodiola rosea. Or you can grab a hemp-infused chili margarita by Aplos at the Dream Hotel in Hollywood that says it can “elevate mood, stimulate brain function and boost energy.” In Erewhon, you can’t throw a gluten-free turmeric chicken tender without hitting a canned beverage touting its adaptogenic qualities.
But the appeal for consumers goes beyond smart marketing and playful design. The adaptogenic drink market is booming, as research shows that young people are less and less interested in alcohol and seek healthy alternatives. (Gen-Z drink 20% less than millennials, which is perhaps why Anheuser-Busch InBev projects one-fifth of their sales to be from non- and low-alcohol beers by 2025). The global market for these beverages is set to reach $1.2282 billion by 2024, with the projected valuation increasing to $2.4168 billion in 10 years.
A TikTok video from last fall that highlights different types of adaptogenic drinks has been viewed over 1.2 million times. In the comments, viewers ask where they can buy them and share their experiences.
“I love these drinks,” one user writes. “I have horrible anxiety and some of them calm me and make me feel warm and fuzzy lol.”
Though adaptogenic drinks are relatively new to Western consumers, the term “adaptogen” has been around since 1947, when it was coined by the Soviet scientist Nikolai Lazarev who was searching for stimulating substances during the Cold War.
“Adaptogens are made from herbs, roots, and other plant materials that may help our bodies deal with and manage stress or restore homeostasis after stressful situations,” said Dana Ellis Hunnes, a senior clinical dietitian at UCLA Medical Center and assistant professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, in an email. “Some of these stressors can be physical (a small burn), physiological (burnout from work and the toll that takes on our bodies) or psychological (emotional stress).”
Examples of common adaptogens are ingredients like rhodiola (a root promoted to increase stamina), ashwagandha (a shrub promoted to reduce stress and fatigue), licorice and reishi mushrooms, which have been used as traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicines for centuries.
Today, those same ingredients are showing up in adaptogenic supplements and beverages, but their medical value is debated. In the Food and Drug Administration’s book, adaptogens are categorized as supplements and thus not regulated the same way drugs are. For that reason, it’s hard for medical experts to make blanket statements about their efficiency or even their safety.
“It’s unknown whether the dose that most people can buy of adaptogens on the market are high enough to produce a medicinal effect,” Ellis said. ”So, what you think you’re buying, may not actually contain as much [or may sometimes contain more] than you think.”
Depending on the person, some adaptogens may even cause nausea and stomach problems. (Those who are taking specific medications, pregnant or breastfeeding should first seek guidance from their healthcare provider before consuming them.) Clarity about adaptogens’ efficacy is further muddled due to the fact that most research on these ingredients comes from animal or in-vitro studies that Nicholas B. Tiller, a senior researcher at the Institute of Respiratory Medicine & Exercise Physiology, noted in an email “are not necessarily applicable to the real world.”
“The few human studies [on adaptogens] are largely disappointing,” he said. “It’s going to require a lot more high-quality evidence before these herbs and other natural products are extensively incorporated into medical practice.”
But do most adaptogenic drink consumers see their consumption of these beverages as explicitly medicinal, or are they simply weighing their options and picking something less altering than a beer and more novel than a seltzer?
“When we initially opened our doors [in 2021], a lot of customers asked ‘what’s the point?’ and had a difficult time wrapping their heads around why anyone would want a cocktail without alcohol,” said Jillian Barkley, Soft Spirits Founder & CEO, in an email. She found these beverages — although harder to acquire back then — hugely helpful when she stopped drinking five years ago.
Aplos Arise, a non-alcoholic spirit infused with adaptogens. De Soi, a non-alcoholic aperitif made with natural adaptogens. De Soi is a company co-founded by Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan. (Rebecca Peloquin/For The Times)
“Shopping at Erewhon and buying Kin makes you a part of a certain in-crowd, and people are seeking belonging.”
— Nikita Walia, brand strategist
“For those folks, the possibility of a physical effect tends to be enticing,” she said. “‘So you’re telling me I can drink this nightcap and it will help me feel relaxed, but I won’t be intoxicated?’ Yep!”
Nikita Walia, brand strategist and founder and CEO of BLANK, thinks the popularity of adaptogenic beverages will only gain more steam with consumers as our culture puts a higher premium on health and wellness.
“Having a beverage that is a social tonic, well-branded and aesthetically pleasing as a stand-in for alcohol is a perfect substitute,” Walia said in an email. She adds that many of these drinks are expensive and seen as luxury items only adds to their appeal.
“Shopping at Erewhon and buying Kin makes you a part of a certain in-crowd, and people are seeking belonging.”
In other words, whether adaptogenic drinks can actually elevate your mood might not matter — as long as they can elevate your social status.
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