Maria Sharapova Failed Drug Test vs Serena Williams Australian Open Press Conference
Maria Sharapova has called a press conference for Monday afternoon. According to ESPN, her agent referred to it as a major announcement and there is speculation she could be retiring.
Heres the details on Mondays press conference:
Date: Monday, March 7, 2016
Time: 3 p.m. Eastern (12 p.m. PST)
TV Channel: ESPN will have coverage of the press conference.
Live Stream: The above video will be a live stream of the press conference once it begins. You can also watch it on YouTube.
Preview: Sharapova has not played since losing in the Australian Open in January. She has battled injuries throughout the year, but a retirement announcement would be seen as surprising. She is ranked as the 7th player in the world. Details of the press conference have not been released aside from it being referred to as a major announcement.
George R.R. Martin Interview (Game of Thrones) - [43 mins]
Sir George Martin, the music producer whose collaboration with the Beatles helped redraw the boundaries of popular music, died Tuesday, according to his management company. He was 90.
Beatles producer Sir George Martin dead at90
Sir George Martin, the music producer whose collaboration with the Beatles helped redraw the boundaries of popular music, died Tuesday, according to his management company. He was 90.
In this story
Sir George Martin, Beatles" music producer, dies at age 90
Classically trained, he helped redefine pop culture with the Beatles
Martin produced 23 No. 1 hits in the United States
By Todd Leopold
CNN
(CNN) Sir George Martin, the music producer whose collaboration with the Beatles helped redraw the boundaries of popular music, died Tuesday, according to his management company. He was 90.
Martin died peacefully at home in England, according to Adam Sharp, the founder of C A Management which represents the music producer.
In a career that spanned seven decades he was recognized globally as one of musics most creative talents and a gentleman to the end. The family ask that their privacy be respected at this time, Sharp said.
Martin worked with countless others over a career that spanned decades, including Peter Sellers, Shirley Bassey, America, Cheap Trick, Jeff Beck and Celine Dion. But his fame, and his influence, rests on the seven years he spent with the Beatles, the most successful group in music history a group Martin helped propel to the top spot with his musical expertise, tasteful arrangements and willing experimentation.
For Paul McCartney, Martin was like a second father to me.
If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George, he said in a statement. From the day that he gave The Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person Ive ever had the pleasure to know.
Ringo Starr thanked the producer in a tweet: G*d bless George Martin peace and love to Judy and his family. Judy refers to Martins wife of nearly 50 years.
Martins partnership with the group he signed to Parlophone Records in 1962 changed all of their lives and, by extension, popular culture.
When I first met the Beatles in 1962, I didnt think much of their songs at all, he told JazzWax.com. But they learned so quickly how to write a hit. They were like plants in a hothouse. They grew incredibly fast.
The polished, classically trained producer began as a father figure to the four somewhat scruffy lads from Liverpool, capturing their songs on tape with a minimum of fuss or studio gimmickry. But by 1966, he was as much a collaborator as mentor, using his knowledge of both musical structure and recording technology to help the band realize its musical visions.
Typically modest, he described his role as a producer in matter-of-fact terms.
Put simply, my job was to make sure recordings were artistically exceptional and commercially appealing, maximizing the qualities of artists and songs, he told JazzWax.com.
In Martins hands, however, that job was both expansive and unobtrusive. Songs produced by George Martin had a distinctive touch but rarely called attention to his work. The spotlight was on the music.
And yet his role cannot be overstated. Working with engineers such as Norman Smith and Geoff Emerick, Martin helped the Beatles turn the studio into another instrument.
He added a string quartet to Yesterday a decision that McCartney initially balked at, telling Martin: Oh no, George. We are a rock and roll band.
With a gentle bit of nudging, Martin added the cello in low octave and violin in high octave. His idea obviously worked because the song subsequently became one of the most recorded songs ever, McCartney said in a statement.
He allowed backward tape loops on Tomorrow Never Knows, even if he couldnt make John Lennons voice sound like chanting Tibetan monks one of Lennons characteristically absurd requests.
The work reached a pinnacle in 1967, with Martins ingenious oversight of the Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields Forever single and the album that often tops the lists of greatest ever: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
By then, even he wondered whether the group had gone too far.
As we were getting longer and longer into the album, and more and more avant-garde, I was wondering if we were being a little over-the-top and a little bit, maybe, pretentious, Martin recalled in a 1992 documentary about Pepper. Is the public ready for this yet?
Finding odd harmony
On the surface, the contrast between the patrician-looking Martin and his long-haired musical charges couldnt have been starker. He was movie-star handsome, reserved, establishment; they were casually pretty, energetic, counterculture. He was the World War II generation; they were the ones who helped upend it.
But the two sides had a surprising amount in common. Martin came from a working-class background, as did the Beatles. Moreover, the producer was a keen fan of comedy, having worked with members of The Goon Show, such as Sellers and Spike Milligan, and produced the satirical Beyond the Fringe troupe. Their work was well known to the comedy-loving Beatles.
It was a sense of humor that may have initially bound them together. According to legend, when introduced to Martin at an audition for his record label, the producer asked the band whether there was anything they didnt like. George Harrison quickly responded, Well, for a start, I dont like your tie.
At EMIs staid Abbey Road Studios, where the studio engineers were required to wear lab coats, Martin could have easily taken offense. Instead, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
George Henry Martin was born in London on January 3, 1926. He took an interest in music from an early age, teaching himself piano and becoming enraptured by radio broadcasts of orchestras. By the time he was 15, he was running a small band, George Martin and the Four Tune Tellers.
He enlisted in the Royal Navy at 17 and served as a pilot and commissioned officer, though he managed to evade Japan, he told Rock Cellar magazine. Upon leaving the military in 1947, he enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying piano and oboe.
After a short stint at the BBC, he joined EMI Records Parlophone label, a tiny part of the huge record conglomerate. Martin had some success he did a hit record with actor Peter Ustinov in 1952 but was still caught off-guard when he was asked to take over the label in 1955. He hadnt yet turned 30.
Parlophone was primarily focused on classical music and was forever in danger of being shut down. Martin expanded the repertoire, signing comedy acts such as the Goons and some pop singers. In a pinch, he even performed himself under assumed names.
He liked the freedom to experiment: I made a lot of what I call sound pictures with actors and comedians because it was fun to do. Im a person who gets bored quite easily, and I dont like doing the same thing over and over again, he said.
Something slightly different
Still, he had his eye on a rock n roll act, a sure entry into the youth market. At the time, Britain was top-heavy with teen idols, ranging from the sublime (Cliff Richard and Billy Fury) to the marginal (Johnny Gentle and Dickie Pride).
In February 1962, Martin received a call from a music publisher who was trying to drum up interest for a band managed by a friend, Brian Epstein. Martin met with Epstein and heard his group, the Beatles.
He was not impressed. The songs were weak and the tempos uneven.
Nevertheless, he liked a few aspects of the group and eventually agreed to sign them.
I just thought they were interesting and had something slightly different, and Id like to know more about them, he told the BBC in 1964.
Their humor, typified by Harrisons quip, helped win him over.
Still, Martin quickly learned the Beatles were not easily moldable like other bands of the era. There was no frontman: Lennon, Harrison and Paul McCartney all sang lead.
Lennon and McCartney were also determined to make it as songwriters and were dismissive of Martins suggestion, at an early session, that they release a Mitch Murray song called How Do You Do It. Another producer may have put his foot down, but Martin decided to trust the bands judgment. They soon rewarded him by coming up with Please Please Me, the groups first UK No. 1.
(Not that Martin was wrong; Gerry and the Pacemakers later took How Do You Do It to No. 1 as well.)
Martin was always a valuable partner to the Beatles, but particularly so in the early years. It was Martin who suggested speeding up the tempo of Please Please Me, originally a Roy Orbison-inspired slow rocker. It was Martin who suggested to Epstein that he meet with d**k James, who became the groups song publisher. And it was Martin who found ways of making the groups experiments work, whether it was feedback on I Feel Fine, the use of a sitar on Norwegian Wood or the harpsichord-sounding piano on In My Life.
Not one to miss a trick, he also recorded instrumental versions of the bands hits during the height of Beatlemania and provided incidental music to the groups film A Hard Days Night.
The golden age
By 1965, Martin was chafing at EMIs oversight and decided to become an independent producer. He established Associated Independent Recording, though he continued to work with the Beatles as well as other EMI acts.
He also entered his most fruitful period. The Beatles were breaking ground, and Martin was right along with them.
On Strawberry Fields, he recorded two versions: one using more standard rock-band instrumentation, the other with an orchestra. When Lennon asked to put the two together despite the versions being in different keys and tempi Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick obliged and, by happy accident, found they fit almost perfectly by speeding one version up and slowing the other down.
The Sgt. Pepper album was an even bigger challenge. Though overflowing with multitracked harmonies and clever arrangements, it was recorded on a four-track console. Martin would mix four tracks down to one and then record more, careful to limit distortion.
Yet, out of this rudimentary setup came songs such as A Day in the Life, with its rumbling piano, tweaked Lennon vocal and explosive crescendos.
As the Beatles, beset by legal issues and differing philosophies, started splitting apart, Martin grew weary of the atmosphere. He sat out a number of the White Album sessions, entrusting the work to assistants such as Emerick and Ken Scott. He was left out of the troubled Let It Be sessions entirely and returned for Abbey Road only after assurances that the group would put aside its bickering.
It was the last album he would do with the full band, though the single version of Let It Be released in 1970 bears his credit.
A legendary career
After the Beatles breakup in 1970, Martin worked with a wide variety of artists. He had particular success with the group America, producing their Top 10 hits Tin Man, Lonely People and Sister Golden Hair.
He also produced Jeff Beck, Cheap Trick, UFO, Ultravox, the original cast recording of the Whos Tommy and the movie soundtrack of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Elton John had Martin produce his updated version of Candle in the Wind, done in honor of Princess Diana, in 1997.
Martin also maintained his relationship with Paul McCartney, overseeing the explosive James Bond theme Live and Let Die and one of McCartneys most highly praised solo albums, Tug of War.
The Beatles, however, were never far away. When the surviving members of the group embarked on the Anthology project in the mid-90s, Martin was back in the producers chair, overseeing all the old recordings. He brought in his son, Giles, to help with such projects as The Beatles Love, the soundtrack to a Cirque du Soleil show that mixed and matched snippets to Beatles songs.
By that time, his ears werent what they used to be, he admitted. Indeed, he became the vice-president of Deafness Research UK, a charity dedicated to hearing issues.
He finally retired, officially, about 2009, when he was 83. Three years later, Giles Martin said he was enjoying early retirement.
Over his long career, Martin won pretty much every honor that could be given in the music world and elsewhere. Sgt. Pepper was the Grammy winner for 1967s album of the year; Martin was later given a Grammy Foundation Leadership Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
Twenty-three Martin productions hit No. 1 in the United States. Thirty did so in the UK.
And he was knighted in 1996. Indeed, when it came time for someone to serve as musical director for Queen Elizabeths Golden Jubilee in 2002, Martin was the choice.
Throughout his life, Martin generally played down his accomplishments. But that wasnt to say he didnt know how much he had achieved.
Would I like to do something again? No, I wouldnt want to do anything again. Im not a person to look back, he told Rock Cellar in 2013. I dont honestly think I could do anything better than what we did.
CNNs Cheri Mossburg and Madison Park contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire & 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
LONDON (AP) George Martin, the producer who guided the Beatles to astounding heights, has died, his manager says. He was 90.
Adam Sharp of CA Management says Martin"s family "would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and messages of support."
Confirmation of Martin"s death came after British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed Martin "a giant of music" and Ringo Starr tweets thaed "George will be missed."
Starr also tweeted a picture of the Beatles and Martin and said: "Thank you for all your love and kindness George peace and love."
Cień -dokument z 1995 o ministrze Mieczysławie Wachowskim.
She said she was trailed by tabloids, including Londons Daily Mail, eager to tell the story of how a well-known director had transitioned to another gender. It didnt matter, she said, that outing trans people before they are ready to re-introduce themselves to the world can lead to suicide. And, for awhile, the glossy magazines in the supermarket aisle held off.
The editors of these publications didnt print a story that was only salacious in substance and could possibly have a potentially fatal effect, Lilly Wachowski, who co-directed The Matrix trilogy under the name Andy Wachowski, wrote in a lengthy statement to the Windy City Times, a Chicago LGBTQ publication. And being the optimist that I am, I was happy to chalk it up to progress.
But when a man claiming to be a Daily Mail reporter showed up on her doorstep earlier this month, Wachowski, 48, decided to make public what was known already to her friends and family: Like her sisterLana Wachowski who co-directed The Matrix under the name Larry Wachowski she is a transgender woman.
So yeah, Im transgender, she wrote. And yeah, Ive transitioned.Im out to my friends and family. Most people at work know too. Everyone is cool with it. Yes, thanks to my fabulous sister theyve done it before, but also because theyre fantastic people. Without the love and support of my wife and friends and family I would not be where I am today.
The news was stunning. The siblingvisionariesbehind The Matrix one of the highest-grossing film franchises in history as well as Bound and Cloud Atlas had done their very popular work while struggling with their identities. And now that they have both gone public, they joinCaitlyn Jenner among the ranks of the most famous transgender women in the world.
[Caitlyn Jenner: I like Ted Cruz]
To transition imparts a sense of immediacy, a before and after from one terminus to another, Wachowski wrote. But the reality, my reality is that Ive been transitioning and will continue to transition all of my life, through the infinite that exists between male and female as it does in the infinite between the binary of zero and one. We need to elevate the dialogue beyond the simplicity of binary. Binary is a false idol.
The scolding Wachowski offered the Daily Mail also shined a light on the papers alleged insensitivity toward people in transition. Wachowski cited the case of school teacher Lucy Meadows, a trans woman who killed herself in 2013 months after she was scorned in an editorial by Richard Littlejohn in the paper, which then faced protests and calls for Littlejohns firing.
Miss Meadows may well be comfortable with his/her decision to seek a s*x-change and return to work as if nothing has happened, Richard Littlejohn wrote in the paper which has reportedly removed the editorial, now reposted here. The school might be extremely proud of its commitment to equality and diversity.But has anyone stopped for a moment to think of the devastating effect all this is having on those who really matter? Children as young as seven arent equipped to compute this kind of information. Littlejohn added: Hes not only trapped in the wrong body, hes in the wrong job.
In her statement, Wachowski returned to the story, saying she feared the headline Wachowski Brothers Now Sisters and slammed the Daily Mail.
The reason I knew about [Meadows]wasnt because she was transgender it was because three months after the Daily Mail article came out, Lucy committed suicide, Wachowski wrote. She added: And now here they were, at my front door, almost as if to say Theres another one! Lets drag em out in the open so we can all have a look!" (The Daily Mail did not immediately return requests for comment.)
The LGBT advocacy organization GLAAD said that reporters covering transgender people must be more responsible.
GLAAD is thrilled that Lilly Wachowski is able to be her true and authentic self today, however, she should not have been forced to disclose her transgender identity before she was ready to do so, Nick Adams, GLAADs Director of Programs for Transgender Media, said in a statement. Journalists must learn that it is unacceptable to out a transgender person, in the same way it is unacceptable to out a person who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
GLAAD also produced a tip sheet for journalists covering the Wachowski story.
DO describe people who transition as transgender, and use transgender as an adjective, the tip sheet read. Lilly Wachowski is a transgender woman. DONT use transgender as a noun. For example: Lilly Wachowski is a transgender. DONT use transgendered. Transgender never needs an extraneous -ed at the end. DONT use transsexual or transvestite."
[Caitlyn Jenners Republican politics arent going over well]
DETROIT, Mich. Donald Trump has won Michigans Republicanprimary by a comfortable margin on Tuesday, his first victory in a Midwestern race.
Michigans 59 delegates make it Tuesdays largest race on the Republican side. (RELATED: Bernie Surprises Hillary By Winning Michigan Primary)
With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Trump won 36.6 percent of the votes and 25 delegates. Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are in a tight battle for second place, both winning 17 delegates. Cruz has won 24.9 percent of the vote to Kasichs 24.3 percent. Sen. Marco Rubio underperformed, only winning 9.3 percent of the votes and no delegates.
Trump made waves at Thursdays Fox News debate in Detroit when he clarified that his hands and his junk are not small.(RELATED: Donald Trump Clarifies The Size Of His Junk On National TV [VIDEO])
Michigan voters have supported Democratic candidates in the last six presidential elections, but Trumps message of protecting American manufacturing jobs is appealing to white blue-collar voters in the Rust Belt and will be critical to winning states like Michigan and Ohio in the general election.
CHELSEA vs PSG (Séan Garnier) , Amazing SKILLS vs supporters, Champions league Photo Gareth Bale of Real Madrid taking a penalty kick against Manchester United during an August 2014 match in the International Champions Cup that drew more than 100,000 fans in Ann Arbor, Mich. Credit Jeff Kowalsky/European Pressphoto Agency
LONDON The American promoter Charlie Stillitano could hardly have chosen a worse time to push for change in European soccer.
Stillitano, the chairman of Relevant Sports, runs summer tournaments called the International Champions Cup. It features elite soccer teams from Europe playing one another during their off-seasons in three different countries: the United States, Australia and China. Its novelty factor has drawn sold-out crowds and drummed up television and sponsorship money for, in effect, watching half-fit star players getting into shape for the coming season.
Europes best are coming, is the slogan on its website. Relevant Sports claims to have revolutionized the international soccer landscape by transforming the standard European club preseason tour into something remarkable: a competitive, world-class tournament.
Those words are like something from an old-school boxing promoter: The tournament features the heavyweights of the game, but it fails to mention that the teams are nowhere close to their peak when it comes to performance.
Last week, Stillitano met in London with executives of five English clubs: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United. On satellite radio, Stillitano later talked about how those teams are the elite of the Champions League and, in his view, deserve permanent roles in the tournament and far more money.
Lets call it the money pot created by soccer and the fandom around the world, Stillitano said on a show on Sirius XM. Who has had more of an integral role, Manchester United or Leicester?
He acknowledged that Leicester Citys rise out of nowhere to lead the English Premier League this season is a wonderful, wonderful story. But, the promoter said, you have to look at it from Manchester Uniteds or Chelseas perspective.
Those teams are having a bad season (or several, in Manchesters case). They might not qualify for a place in the next Champions League and that, according to Stillitano, should not be allowed to happen. Essentially, he would want a tournament without relegation for the biggest clubs.
I guess they dont have a birthright to be in it every year, he said, but its the age-old argument U.S. sports franchises versus what they have in Europe. There are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful elements to relegation and promotion, and there are good arguments for a closed system.
Is Stillitano really Silvio Berlusconi in disguise?
Nearly 30 years ago, when Berlusconis team, A.C. Milan, was ruling Europe, the Italian politician and club owner attempted to lead a breakaway of Europes richer clubs and close the door to any upstart from gate-crashing what is now the Champions League.
The word champion has become a misnomer. Nowadays, four clubs from England, Spain, Germany and sometimes Italy qualify some, seemingly perennially for the UEFA Champions League. The fact that A.C. Milan struggles now in Italy, or that both Manchester teams and Chelsea are suffering below-par seasons in England, is no reason to exclude them from the financial spoils of top European competition, according to the Berlusconi/Stillitano theory.
Over the weekend, Leicesters Italian coach, Claudio Ranieri, described that as anti-competitive, a proposal by the elite, for the elite.
You are afraid, Ranieri said. You are not strong. You should ask why is little Leicester doing better than us? Instead, you want to change the system because this year you are weak.
Beyond that, Stillitanos International Champions Cup is in danger this year of being pushed aside on two fronts. Starting in June, the Copa Amrica Centenario, a special edition of the South American continental championship, will be played in 10 American cities to mark the events 100th anniversary.
The top South American players who normally would take part in the off-season tours by the big European clubs will instead be playing in the United States for their national teams.
In addition, the majority of the best European players will also be in action in June and July, when their national teams play in an expanded Euro 2016 tournament in France.
Barcelona is the champion of champions in world soccer at the moment, but it wont be traveling to Australia, China or the United States to play in the world-class I.C.C. this summer.
How could Barcelona take part? Its top three stars Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Surez will be playing for their countries at the expanded Copa Amrica, while much of the rest of the team will be trying to defend Spains title at the Euro.
Barcelona will have a presence in the United States this summer. It will hold summer camps for children in nine cities as it increases its awareness abroad, the clubs president, Josep Bartomeu, told me on the same day in another London hotel just a few hundred yards from where Stillitano met with the club officials.
Bartomeu said then that his club, like all the rest, cannot ignore the rising popularity of soccer in the United States. But equally important, the club the reigning Spanish, European and Club World Cup champion appreciates that athletes do have a breaking point.
The off-season is when Messi, Neymar and their teammates can finally rest and recuperate and spend time with their families after a grueling nine-month season or even undergo the surgeries needed to repair the damage taken from chasing so many trophies.
The schedules are too crowded already without further revolutionizing the international soccer landscape.
ESPN First Take - Lions" Calvin Johnson Retires From NFL
Detroit Red Wings Danny DeKeyser, left, and Justin Abdelkader.(Photo: Helene St. James DFP)
COLUMBUS, Ohio --As fellow professional athletes and Michiganders, the Detroit Red Wings are disappointed -- and appreciative.
News that Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson hadretiredspread around the Wings"locker room just as they hit the ice this morning at Nationwide Arena.
"It"s a little disappointing," defenseman Danny DeKeyser said. "He"s one of the best receivers that the game has seen in awhile and that the Lions have had in awhile, so it"s tough to see him go.
"He was just always a solid red-zone option. He was always getting double-teamed in the end zone. Guys just couldn"t stop him. He was a beast."
More Calvin Johnson retirement news:
DeKeyser, who was born in Detroit, said he has attended "a few" Lions games, so "I"ve seen him in person. He was always one of the best players on the field and always fun to watch."
Wings coach Jeff Blashill, born in Detroit and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, said, "I"ve been a Lions fan my whole life.
"Calvin is one of the greats. A pleasure to watch, for sure. Everybody knows their own time line and when their time is done, and he"s doing it on his own time line. But what a great sports figure in the city of Detroit. He will be remembered for a long time."
As a coach, Blashill sees firsthand what it takes for superstar athletes to maintain their level of play, especially as they get older. Heviews it daily in Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.
"I think, from the outside looking in, too many times, people talk about how talented they are," Blashill said. "Well, talent, most of the time, comes from hard work and comes from your daily approach. Calvin, I"m sure, without having seen it but from what I"ve heard, I"m sure he is similar to (Jaromir) Jagr and Pavel and Hank, all the great ones.
"You don"t become great by chance or happenstance. You become great by your daily choices, and I"m sure Calvin made those choices on a daily basis."
Justin Abdelkader, from Muskegon, raved about "some of the unbelievable catches" Johnson made during his career."He"s made a couple of them where he"s made, kind of between like three guys, jumping over them. It"s disappointing to see him retire, because he"s so fun to watch."
Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.
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