“I’ve waited 34 years to say this: I’d like to thank the Academy,” Diane Warren began her acceptance speech, capturing what the annual Governors Awards are all about: honoring those in Hollywood whose recognition by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has been a long time coming.
This year’s honorees — Warren, directors Euzhan Palcy and Peter Weir, and Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient Michael J. Fox— were celebrated on Nov. 19 at the Fairmont Century City, where they were surrounded by collaborators, veterans of the screen, and others who they helped along the way.
But the event has traditionally served another purpose, doubling as the first major awards event for actors, filmmakers and other artists hoping to hold their very Oscar onstage in March. Due to COVID concerns, last year’s event was pushed to late March, two days before the Oscars and outside of the voting window, making for a scaled-down invite list that didn’t include anyone out on the campaign trail. This year it was back to form, packed with talent as soon as you walked into the lobby for pre-dinner cocktails. There were unexpected and interesting interactions everywhere: Eddie Redmayne hugging Jeremy Pope; Joe Alwyn chatting with Taron Egerton; Jonathan Majors jokingly massaging Ke Huy Quan’s shoulders; Michelle Yeoh warmly hugging her former The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor co-star Brendan Fraser; and Colin Farrell, Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott deep in discussion together.
The Governors Awards is a highlight of the long campaign season, as an untelevised event that allows for a relaxed atmosphere and often draws film legends in support of the honorees. Among them this year were Cher, who introduced Warren; Ed Harris, who was at Weir’s table; and Christopher Lloyd, who dined with his Back to the Future co-star Fox.
Fox was the first to be awarded his Oscar, introduced by Woody Harrelson. He recalled his feelings when he was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 29 in 1991, after he’d become a global star thanks to Back to the Future and Teen Wolf. “I entered into seven years of denial, trying to make sense of it all,” Fox said onstage. “The hardest part of my diagnosis was battling with the uncertainty.”
He publicly disclosed his diagnosis in 1998, while he was starring on the sitcom Spin City; Fox said he was met with an “outpouring of support” from both the public and his peers. He began meeting with people and medical experts in the Parkinson’s field, and established the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which has raised $1.5 billion in research so far. “I’m grateful to all these people, and the thousands more who will make a cure for Parkinson’s a reality,” he said. “My optimism is fueled by my gratitude. And with gratitude, optimism is sustainable.”
Fox’s speech, like so many that evening, was at times comedic, other times pensive and sometimes deeply emotional. Each of the honorees — some making it very clear they’d waited a long time for a moment like this — found a different message to share with the crowd.
For Warren, the prolific songwriter who has created original songs for more than 100 films and worked with Beyonce, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and Lady Gaga, she had 13 Oscar nominations worth of practice. She’d had “a lot of speeches that got crumpled up in my pocket,” she said, seemingly in awe to finally have her Oscar moment. “This is what I was born to do, this is what I love to do. I can’t believe I’m standing here right now and this is really happening.”
For Weir, it was quite the comeback evening— the Australian director behind Witness, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World has been retired from filmmaking since 2010’s The Way Back. Many of his past collaborators were in the room (Jeff Bridges, who starred in his 1992 film Fearless, did the opening remarks for him), and in his video reel, several of them expressed their desire for the director to return to work. But Weir seemed satisfied with appearing in front of this Hollywood crowd for just this moment, sharing stories from his time on set, and mostly praising many of his collaborators, including Harrison Ford, Norman Lloyd and Robin Williams. “I love craft. I think that’s what it’s really all about…I had a wonderful 20 years making studio pictures. I’m delighted to be here,” the six-time Oscar nominee said as he wrapped up his speech.
“If you are asked to do a movie and they say there’s water, hang up,” jokes costume designer Ruth E. Carter when I ask her about her experience on the long-awaited Marvel sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Carter won the costume-design Oscar for her work on 2018’s Black Panther, creating vibrant Afrofuturistic designs for inhabitants of the powerful country of Wakanda. So it would seem that no task would be too difficult for Carter in the follow-up. That was until Ryan Coogler came to her in the summer of 2020 and let her know that the sequel would introduce a new community, the Talokanil, a group of underwater-dwellers inspired by Mesoamerican cultures.
“There were so many beautiful visuals in the aquatic life, with fish fins and coral,” Carter says. “And as we dove into the culture, also there was a plethora of beauty to examine.”
Carter was deep into research, reading and talking to historians and other experts about Mayan, Aztec, and Guatemalan history, when Chadwick Boseman died in August of 2020. The devastating loss meant the filmmakers had to figure out a way to tell the next chapter of Wakanda’s story without him. “Ryan Coogler became our hero in a sense that it was his decision whether we would continue. It was his decision how this story was going to play out,” says Carter. “And he had to figure this out through his own grief of losing his friend. We all lost a friend.”
Wakanda Forever, which opened in theaters November 11, is both a tribute to Boseman and an ambitious expansion on the world created in the first movie. This time, we see the kingdom of Wakanda mourning the loss of its leader, but soon needing to gather its strength to defend against threats on their nation, including from Namor (Tenoch Huerta), the mutant leader of the aquatic nation of Talokan.
With the return of much of the original cast, including Letitia Wright as Shuri, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, and Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda, Wakanda Forever also expands the kingdom of Wakanda, pushing Carter to upgrade and reinvent designs for familiar characters as well. Here, Carter dives in on her approach to Wakanda, Queen Ramonda, and a whole new underwater world.
Carter on the set of Wakanda Forever
By Eli Adé/Disney.
WAKANDA 2.0
Carter knew early on that the essence of many of the characters’ looks from the original would return, but the designs would be very new and different. “Ryan said like, ‘Whenever I see a Batman film, the suit is different. The suit is new. It’s still Batman, but there’s this fresh new thing that’s being presented,’” she says, adding that a lot of thought had to go into what a new Black Panther suit (worn by a different character) would look like.
Because many of the battle scenes take place in the water, Wakanda Forever would also introduce Wakanda’s navy. “I was like, ‘Hello! There was no navy in the first film,’” Carter says with a laugh. She not only had to design what the navy’s uniform would look like, but also come up with different ranks and how that would be illustrated in the clothing.
Katy Perry and Thomas Rhett brought down the house at the 56th Annual CMA Awards. Making her CMA Awards debut, Perry teamed up with Thomas Rhett to perform their pop-country collaboration, “Where We Started”, at Wednesday night’s star-studded show.
Perry was dressed in a long denim dress and a signature black cowboy hat for the performance, while Thomas Rhett opted for a sleek leather jacket.
The moving melody of “Where We Started” had the crowd on their feet and in their feelings as they grooved along to the sweet song.
The pair’s performance comes just weeks after they released the music video for the hit song. The ethereal visual sees the pair singing to each other after an intense walk through sheets forces them to meet.
In April, Thomas Rhett dished to ET about the collaboration and how it came to be.
“I had no part in that. My record label called her and said, ‘Would you want to do a collab with Thomas Rhett?’ and I thought they were crazy,” the 32-year-old singer told ET backstage during the CMT Music Awards. “I was like, ‘She has no idea who I am.’ They sent it to her, and she loved the song.”
The “Slow Down Summer” singer also talked meeting Perry and shared how she took the tune to the next level.
“She loved the song and the next week she put her buckle on it and got it back and I was like, ‘This is what it was supposed to be,” he said about Perry’s verse. “And since then we shot a music video, finally got to meet her in person. She’s as sweet as could be and I just think she took this song from good to great.”
The 2022 CMA Awards, hosted by two-time CMA Entertainer of the Year winner Bryan and NFL star Peyton Manning, aired live from Nashville on Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. The show will also be available to stream Thursday on Hulu.
The 56th annual CMA Awards kicked off in style with three of country music’s top female stars paying tribute to the legendary Loretta Lynn, who passed away last month at age 90.
To open the show, the power trio of Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire and Miranda Lambert performed a medley of Lynn’s iconic country hits.
The performance began with Underwood performing Lynn’s classic “You Ain’t Woman Enough (to Take My Man),” before she was joined onstage by Lambert and then McEntire, segueing into Lynn’s “You’re Lookin’ at Country”.
“In any endeavor — whether it’s acting, producing, marketing or business — Ryan Reynolds has the unique ability to create joy and authentically connect with his audience. He’s received many accolades over the years, but it’s these innate qualities that makes him so beloved,” said Cassandra Tryon, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming’s senior vice-president, entertainment live events, via The Hollywood Reporter. “We cannot wait to present Ryan with the People’s Icon award at this year’s show.”
The actor began his career in 1991, gaining prominence for his role in “Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place” and romantic comedies like “The Proposal”, “Definitely, Maybe” and others.
He’s a three-time winner of the People’s Choice Award for his work in the “Deadpool” franchise, which also earned him a Golden Globe and Grammy nomination.
Past recipients of The People’s Icon award include Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston and Melissa McCarthy.
Art The Clown has been stacking up bodies in his second (technically third) outing, and soon, he could be stacking awards as well. That’s right, Terrifier 2of all films has been submitted to the Academy for Oscar consideration. Of course, horror films aren’t particularly favored by the Hollywood establishment, and especially not this kind of horror. A few horror films have won before. There are even some who managed to pick up Best Picture. That being said, it’s not very likely Terrifier 2 will be among those.
Terrifier 2 is the second film in the Terrifier franchise, which spawned from a section of the anthology film All Hallows Eve. The film follows the bloody rampages of Art The Clown, a mysterious and voracious murderer. The first film was notable for its particularly gruesome kills, and the second is no different. The much-reviled “bathroom scene” has gotten a decent amount of buzz — some audience members are supposedly puking right in the theater.
Terrifier 2 has somehow managed to get a pretty wide release, raking in roughly $8 million dollars so far at the box office. The film was initially planned to appear in just one theater for a single weekend before moving to streaming services, but somehow, the fans made their voices heard. For such an extreme film, Terrifier 2 is certainly making some huge strides and doing exactly what its namesake implies.
Here is the film’s trailer:
So far Terrifier 2 has grossed $7.9 million in theaters. That may not sound like a lot, but when your film only cost $250,000, that’s a pretty good number before you consider the additional revenues the movie can make on home video, streaming, and by selling extremely horrifying merchandise.
Holding court onstage in an interview with The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik, the EGOT-winning conductor and composer Lydia Tár claims that gender was never an issue in her rise to the top of the classical music world. But her outfit—a perfectly tailored black suit and crisp white dress shirt—tells a more complicated story. As played by Cate Blanchett in Tár, the new psychological drama from writer and director Todd Field, Lydia dresses to impress, and often reveals much more than she intends.
Costume designer Bina Daigeler tells Vanity Fair that Lydia Tár’s power dressing—effortlessly chic but meticulously tailored custom suits, wine-colored sweaters, and an occasional scarf—took shape after conversations with Field about the enigmatic conductor’s inner life. Daigeler researched the music world, and the sartorial style of both female and male conductors before making menswear the inspiration for the maestro’s wardrobe—one that eschews most makeup and all jewelry, save for a watch worn inwards.
At the height of her career, Lydia lives a privileged life in Berlin with her German partner Sharon (Nina Hoss), the Philharmonic’s first violinist and concertmaster, and their daughter, Petra (Mila Bogojevic). But there are visible cracks: Lydia pops anti-anxiety pills on the sly and maintains her old apartment, ostensibly to focus on writing her next composition.
“Lydia is a very special character who intrigues everybody, and [raises] a lot of questions [for which] there are actually no answers,” Munich-born Daigeler says. “How much do you like her? What is really the truth? Who is really involved in which power game? All of this I tried to reflect in my costume design.”
Daigeler had collaborated with Blanchett previously: first, on German artist Julian Rosefeldt’s film installation Manifesto; and again when Blanchett played Phyllis Schlafly on the miniseries Mrs. America. During early fittings, the women went through the script and talked about the character and the emotions of the scenes, a process that allowed them to often improvise Lydia’s outfits while filming.
For her part, Blanchett doesn’t necessarily think of Lydia’s clothes as menswear. “Women also feel comfortable in pants and suiting!” She says via email. “But still, unfortunately, stepping onto the podium as a woman is a political act. And so, to work out what tradition Lydia was bucking or buying into, and how this was reflected in the way she dressed, was an important early conversation. The baseball cap, for instance, [that Lydia wears when casually dressed for travel, is] a defiant venture towards her American-ness in a Eurocentric music culture.”
The film’s most character-defining fashion moment comes early on, when the maestro is measured for a suit by German tailor Egon Brandstetter at his atelier. It began as a simple script description of her assistant Francesca (Noémie Merlant) shopping for Lydia and a couple of jacket fittings, according to Field. The director—who had standing weekly dinners with his costume designer while filming—says in an email that thanks to Daigeler, who arranged Brandstetter’s participation, the scene became “a nuts-and-bolts example of meticulous self-mythology and image creation.”
Ironically, Blanchett is barely seen in Brandstetter’s finished suit, the outfit relegated to a photo of Lydia in the film. In fact, the orchestra leader’s power suits were designed by Daigeler, who Field describes as an “absolute magician [who] is never pointing to the trick.”
The suits so impressed Blanchett that she took some home. “Bina has such a great eye—for line, color, and embellishment. So whenever I work with her, I covet everything,” she says. “But then you get home, and realize Bina has bewitched you—it’s the character’s taste, not yours!” What matches Blanchett’s taste, however, is the vintage Rolex Lydia wears because it’s her own. The watch was a gift from her husband, Andrew Upton, after the birth of their second child. Blanchett says that she “wanted the face turned inwards for easy access to the watch face for snatched glances at time. After all, it’s a film about time. To wear any other jewelry would have diluted this.”
One aspect of Lydia’s style came straight from Daigeler’s personal playbook, Field reveals. “The way you see [Lydia] in rehearsal is patterned after how Bina herself dresses for work,” he says. “In…somewhat wrinkled clothes, with her sleeves literally rolled-up. Very different than how [the conductor] dresses for other arenas of her life.” This aspect then influenced Sharon’s, Lydia’s wife, rehearsal outfits. Originally, Daigeler and Hoss thought the violinist would have a more feminine look in contrast to her domineering partner. But once the designer and the actor realized how much power the violinist also wielded—and her complicity in Lydia’s abuse of power—Sharon’s clothes wound up mirroring her wife’s gray tops and black pants.
“I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude that I get to speak on a microphone that MartinScorsese has spoken on and Pedro Almodóvar has spoken on,” Elegance Bratton told the crowd at Alice Tully Hall, where his film The Inspection was closing the New York Film Festival. “I almost want to lick it.” Less than an hour later, the director was actually standing face-to-face with Martin Scorsese himself, across the street in a makeshift photo studio that they had both stopped in to get their portrait taken. Bratton asked if Scorsese had a Twitter. Scorsese emphatically said, “No,” to laughs in the crowded room—but added that he would take a look at Bratton’s film.
After the interaction was over, Bratton looked gobsmacked. “It’s literally something I’ve always wanted to do, to meet Scorsese and tell him how much I’ve loved his movies and how much he’s inspired me,” he says. “And I got a chance to do it, and it’s surreal.”
It was a night full of moments like this for 43-year-old Bratton. While The Inspection, his autobiographical first narrative feature, had already debuted to acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival, New York represented a sort of homecoming for the New Jersey native who ended up attending both Columbia and New York University. With his producing and life partner Chester Algernal Gordon by his side, Bratton kept remarking on the “incredible” and “amazing” experience.
The events of Bratton’s life, which formed the basis of The Inspection, warrant those adjectives. The A24 release tells the story of Ellis French (Jeremy Pope), who is kicked out of his home by his homophobic mother (a transformed Gabrielle Union) and decides to join the Marines to pull himself out of poverty and win back his mother’s elusive love. The film follows French’s experience in bootcamp, navigating his queerness in the age of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but also the family that he long craved.
Like French, Bratton left home at the age of 16 and spent 10 years without a home before meeting with a recruiter. After scoring highly on the placement test, three military professions were suggested to him: Intelligence, but he’s “nobody’s snitch”; journalism, but he’s way “too biased”; and filmmaking.
Bratton’s work in the Marines was largely technical, making what were essentially visual manuals. He was aware of the inherent homoeroticism of photographing men at the peak of their physical fitness, but it wasn’t until he started working on his documentary Pier Kids at Columbia that he really started considering the gaze of the camera. Inspired by an assignment for a sociology class, he returned to the community of Black queer and trans people at New York’s Christopher Street Pier, the place he initially went when he was forced to leave his mom’s. “I realized that the question of finding home outside the domestic is a cinematic question,” he explained when I met up with him and Gordon a few days after closing night, in the lounge of The Standard in the Meatpacking District. Getting Pier Kids to release in 2019 was a lengthy process; all the while, he studied film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, made shorts, sold a television show to Viceland, and worked on feature screenplays.
As he sipped tea, Bratton said he has “cinematic dyslexia,” unable to differentiate between narrative and documentary. Before writing the first draft of The Inspection, he was initially considering another autobiographical project, a book about his life. It was Gordon, who met Bratton on a dating app, who encouraged him to make it a movie—impressed not just with Bratton’s resilience, but the brotherhood he shared with his fellow Marines. “This is not a pro- or anti-military film,” Bratton says. “It was a pro-troop film. I can disagree with you, but if I understand that I can’t survive without you, I have to come to the middle and we have to figure it out. That’s what we’re trying to get across with this film.”
Pope, already an Emmy and Tony nominee, calls his lead turn in The Inspection an act of “service” to Bratton’s story. “To see him filled with so much love, and to see the audience just excited to witness him—he is so fucking stunning to me,” Pope said amid the premiere hubbub. “I’m so happy. And I hope he just feels all the love, we love him so much.”
Elegance Bratton, Gabrielle Union, and Jeremy Pope at the NYFF premiere of The Inspection.
Prizes awarded in honor of immigrant leaders in the arts and sciences, including musicians Du Yun and Angélique Kidjo, and scientist Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado
NEW YORK, October 18, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– The Vilcek Foundation announces the recipients of the 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prizes. Awarded annually in the arts and sciences, the prizes recognize and celebrate immigrant contributions to the arts, culture, and society, and build awareness of how important immigration is for intellectual and cultural life in the United States.
Since 2006, the Vilcek Foundation has awarded prizes each year in biomedical science and in rotating categories in the arts and humanities. In 2023, the arts and humanities prizes are awarded in music. The foundation awards two primary types of prizes in each category: the Vilcek Prizes, and the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise.
The Vilcek Prizes are $100,000 awards bestowed on immigrant professionals whose career achievements represent a legacy of major accomplishments in their field. The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise honor immigrant professionals whose early-career work demonstrates a singular innovation or represents a significant contribution to their field. Recipients of the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise each receive an unrestricted cash award of $50,000.
The Vilcek Foundation typically awards one Vilcek Prize and three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in each category every year. In 2023, the Vilcek Foundation is awarding two Vilcek Prizes in Music.
The Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science
The 2023 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science is awarded to Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, executive director and chief scientific officer of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Sánchez Alvarado receives the Vilcek Prize for his contributions to the field of regeneration—from the identification of genes that control regeneration in living organisms to the potential for regenerative medicine to revolutionize how we treat disease in humans.
“Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado has devoted his career to understanding the fundamental molecular and cellular bases of regeneration, from the specific genes responsible for regeneration to epigenetic regulators that compel the expression of these genes,” said Vilcek Foundation Chairman and CEO Jan Vilcek. “Using a freshwater flatworm—an organism called Schmidtea mediterranea—as a powerful experimental tool to study the molecular mechanisms of tissue regeneration, he has pioneered and expanded the field of regeneration. His work has broad applications for our understanding of the pathology of degenerative disease.”
The Vilcek Prize in Music
The Vilcek Foundation has made the decision to award two Vilcek Prizes in Music in 2023 to Du Yun and to Angélique Kidjo. Each will receive a cash award of $100,000 and a commemorative trophy.
“Music transcends language,” said Vilcek Foundation Cofounder, Vice Chair, and Secretary Marica Vilcek. “It defies borders and boundaries, and has a unique power to resonate with people across cultures. Rhythm, melody, and harmony are critical parts of how we communicate with one another as humans.” She continued, “With this year’s prizes, we wanted to honor the range of impact that immigrants have on this expansive art form. As such, we made the decision to award two Vilcek Prizes in Music this year, to Du Yun and Angélique Kidjo.”
Says Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel, “The sheer scope of Du Yun and Angélique Kidjo’s work defies any easy categorization. Du Yun’s virtuosic range and arresting compositions expand the horizons of contemporary and classical music. Kidjo’s resonant songwriting and engaging performances have captivated audiences globally, and introduced generations of audiences to Afropop, Afrobeat, and traditional West African music. These distinctions convey the breadth of music as an art form, as well as the broad impact immigrants have on culture and society.”
Du Yun receives the Vilcek Prize in Music for her open approach to composition, which subverts the boundaries of traditional classical music by incorporating influences from punk, electronic, and experimental music, and for the virtuosity of her Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Angel’s Bone. Born in Shanghai, China, Du Yun began studying piano at the age of four and began attending the Preparatory Divisions of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at age six. She came to the United States to pursue higher education in music, earning her bachelor’s at Oberlin Conservatory and her Ph.D. in Music Composition at Harvard University. In 2001, Du Yun co-founded the International Contemporary Ensemble with the goal of advancing the genre of experimental music through collaborations, commissions, and performances.
Angélique Kidjo receives the Vilcek Prize in Music in recognition of her exceptional range as a singer-songwriter, and for her artistic leadership through her performances, albums, and collaborations. Born in Ouidah, Benin, Kidjo had her musical debut with the album Pretty in 1981. She rose to international fame in the 1990s with albums like Logozo, Ayé, and Fifa. In 1997, Kidjo immigrated to the United States, moving to Brooklyn, New York. Since then, she has continued to write, record, and tour extensively, while undertaking humanitarian work as an international Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and with the Batonga Foundation, which she founded in 2006.
The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science
The recipients of the 2023 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science are Edward Chouchani (b. Canada), Biyu J. He (b. China), and Shixin Liu (b. China).
Edward Chouchani receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for his work to decipher the molecular mechanisms that drive metabolic disease, with the aim of developing therapeutic interventions targeted at the molecular drivers of metabolism within cells.
Biyu J. He receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for her leadership in the field of cognitive neuroscience, and for her groundbreaking discoveries on the biological bases of perceptual cognition and subjective experience.
Shixin Liu receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise for applying cutting-edge biophysical tools to directly visualize, manipulate, and understand the physiological function of nanometer-scale biomolecular machines including DNA replication and transcription complexes at the single-molecule level.
The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music
The 2023 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music are awarded to Arooj Aftab (b. Saudi Arabia, to Pakistani parents) Juan Pablo Contreras (b. Mexico), and Ruby Ibarra (b. the Philippines).
Arooj Aftab receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music for her evocative songs and compositions that incorporate a range of influences from semi-classical Pakistani music and Urdu poetry, to jazz harmonies and experimental music.
Juan Pablo Contreras receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music for his work as a composer and conductor of orchestral music that draws on his Mexican heritage, and for his leadership in founding the Orquesta Latino Mexicana.
Ruby Ibarra receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music for her hip-hop and spoken word performances that center her experience as a Filipina American woman, and for her powerful lyrics that address colonialism, immigration, colorism, and misogyny.
The Vilcek Foundation
The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation for the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and has supported organizations with over $5.8 million in grants.
The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org.
Du Yun, Angélique Kidjo, Arooj Aftab, Juan Pablo Contreras, and Ruby Ibarra are recipients of the 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Music
NEW YORK, October 18, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– The Vilcek Foundation announces the recipients of the 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in the Arts and Humanities, a part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes Program. Awarded annually in a rotating category, the Vilcek Foundation Prizes in the Arts and Humanities recognize and celebrate immigrants’ contributions to intellectual and cultural life in the United States and highlight the value of immigration for a robust society.
In 2023, the Vilcek Foundation Prizes in the Arts and Humanities are awarded in music. The foundation is awarding five prizes, totaling $350,000 in awards. Two main prizes—the Vilcek Prizes in Music—each include a cash award of $100,000. Three additional awards—the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music—each include a cash award of $50,000.
The Vilcek Prizes in Music
The 2023 Vilcek Prizes in Music are awarded to Du Yun and Angélique Kidjo. Vilcek Foundation Cofounder, Vice Chair, and Secretary Marica Vilcek elaborated on the decision to award two prizes.
“With the 2023 Vilcek Prizes in Music, it was important to us to recognize a range of musicians: from those in the halls of classical music to the songwriters and performers whose music vibrates across the airwaves around the world,” said Vilcek. “Music transcends language, borders, and boundaries. Du Yun and Angélique Kidjo’s work exemplify this, from Du Yun’s arresting operas and electrifying postmodern compositions to Kidjo’s charismatic presence on the global stage over the past four decades.”
Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel shared similar sentiments. “The sheer scope of Du Yun’s and Angélique Kidjo’s work defies any easy categorization,” he said. “Du Yun’s virtuosic range is evidenced from her operas to her avant-garde projects like Shark in You and A Cockroach’s Tarantella—her work bridges sound art and classical composition. Kidjo’s prolific songwriting, albums, and collaborations have brought African music to the mainstream, while also introducing generations of listeners to Afropop, Afrobeat, and traditional West African music.” He continued, “Both artists’ respective influence exemplifies the broad impact immigrants have on culture and society.”
Du Yun receives the Vilcek Prize in Music for her open approach to composition, which subverts the boundaries of traditional classical music by incorporating influences from punk, electronic, and experimental music, and for the virtuosity of her Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Angel’s Bone.
Born in Shanghai, China, Du Yun began studying piano at the age of four and began attending the Preparatory Divisions of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at age six. She came to the United States to pursue higher education in music, earning her bachelor’s at Oberlin Conservatory and her Ph.D. in Music Composition at Harvard University. In 2001, Du Yun co-founded the International Contemporary Ensemble with the goal of advancing the genre of experimental music through collaborations, commissions, and performances.
Angélique Kidjo receives the Vilcek Prize in Music in recognition of her exceptional range as a singer-songwriter and for bringing African music to the global stage through her performances, albums, and collaborations. Born in Ouidah, Benin, Kidjo made her musical debut with the album Pretty in 1981. She rose to international fame in the 1990s with albums like Logozo, Ayé, and Fifa. In 1997, Kidjo immigrated to the United States, moving to Brooklyn, New York. Since then, she has continued to write, record, and tour extensively, while undertaking humanitarian work as an international Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and with the Batonga Foundation, which she founded in 2006.
The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music
The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music are awarded to early- and mid-career immigrant musicians, composers, and music producers living and working in the United States. Recipients are selected for the professional and creative quality of their work: musical compositions and performances that represent important contributions to their genres, and that resonate and inspire both performers and audiences.
The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music are awarded to Arooj Aftab, Juan Pablo Contreras, and Ruby Ibarra.
Arooj Aftab receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music for her evocative songs and compositions that incorporate a range of influences from semi-classical Pakistani music and Urdu poetry, to jazz harmonies and experimental music. Her blend of ancient traditions and contemporary style has earned her mainstream recognition, including a 2022 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and a 2022 Grammy for Best Global Performance for Mohabbat. Born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents, Aftab found music as an outlet for self-identification and discovery. She immigrated to the United States in 2005 to pursue studies in music composition and engineering at the Berklee College of Music.
Juan Pablo Contreras receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music for his work as a composer and conductor of orchestral music that draws on his Mexican heritage, and for his leadership in founding the Orquesta Latino Mexicana. Contreras’ compositions tell stories about Mexico from an immigrant perspective. A dedicated teacher and mentor, Contreras seeks to empower the next generation of musicians and to foster equity and inclusion in orchestral programming and seeks to expand classical music curriculum beyond its traditionally Eurocentric focus. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Contreras immigrated to the United States in 2006. He holds degrees from the California Institute of the Arts (BFA), the Manhattan School of Music (MM), and the University of Southern California (DMA).
Ruby Ibarra receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music for her personal and evocative hip-hop and spoken word performances that center her experiences as a Filipina American woman, and as an immigrant growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born in Tacloban City in the Philippines, Ibarra immigrated to the United States with her family in 1991. Her debut mixtape, Lost in Translation, and her 2017 album, CIRCA91, explore themes including immigration, colorism, and misogyny. In addition to her music, Ibarra is a dedicated activist, and in 2018 she founded the Pinays Rising Scholarship program.
The Vilcek Foundation
The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation for the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and has supported organizations with over $5.8 million in grants.
The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org.
Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Edward Chouchani, Biyu J. He, and Shixin Liu are honored with the 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science
Press Release –
Oct 18, 2022
NEW YORK, October 18, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– The Vilcek Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science. Awarded annually since 2006, the prizes recognize immigrant scientists at the forefront of their fields, and celebrate the importance of immigrant contributions to scientific research and discovery in the United States. In 2023, the foundation awards a total of $250,000 to Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado (b. Venezuela), Edward Chouchani (b. Canada), Biyu J. He (b. China), and Shixin Liu (b. China).
The prizes comprise the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science, and three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science. The Vilcek Prize is a $100,000 award bestowed on an immigrant scientist whose career achievements demonstrate a legacy of major accomplishment in their area of study. The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise are $50,000 prizes given to immigrant scientists and researchers whose early career work represents a significant contribution to their field.
The Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science is awarded to Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado. Edward Chouchani, Biyu J. He, and Shixin Liu receive Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise.
The Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science
Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado is executive director and chief scientific officer of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He receives the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for his contributions to the field of regeneration—from the identification of crucial genes that control regeneration in living organisms to the potential for regenerative medicine to address how we treat disease in humans. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Sánchez Alvarado immigrated to the United States to pursue his bachelor’s at Vanderbilt University before going on to complete his Ph.D. in pharmacology and cell biophysics at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine.
“Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado has devoted his career to understanding the fundamental molecular and cellular bases of regeneration, from the specific genes responsible for regeneration to epigenetic regulators that compel the expression of these genes,” said Vilcek Foundation Chairman and CEO Jan Vilcek. “Using a freshwater flatworm—an organism called Schmidtea mediterranea—as a powerful experimental tool to study the molecular mechanisms of tissue regeneration, he has pioneered and expanded the field of regeneration. His work has broad applications for our understanding of the pathology of degenerative disease.”
The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science
Edward Chouchani, Biyu J. He, and Shixin Liu are the recipients of the 2023 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science.
Edward Chouchani is an associate professor of cancer biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an associate professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School. He is a cofounder and board member of Matchpoint Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the development of precision medicine. Born in Ottawa, Canada, Chouchani earned his bachelor’s at Carleton University and his Ph.D. in biological sciences at the University of Cambridge. He receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for his work to decipher the molecular mechanisms that drive metabolic disease, with the aim of developing therapeutic interventions targeted at the molecular drivers of metabolism within cells.
Biyu J. He is an assistant professor of neurology, neuroscience and physiology, and radiology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and principal investigator of the Perception and Brain Dynamics Laboratory at NYU Langone Health. Born in Xinxiang, China, Biyu J. He immigrated to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. in neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis. She receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for her research leadership in the field of cognitive neuroscience, and for her groundbreaking work on the biological bases of perceptual cognition and subjective experience.
Shixin Liu receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise for applying cutting-edge biophysical tools to directly visualize, manipulate, and understand the physiological function of nanometer-scale biomolecular machines including DNA replication and transcription complexes at the single-molecule level. Liu is an associate professor at The Rockefeller University, where he has been the head of the Laboratory of Nanoscale Biophysics and Biochemistry since 2016. Born in Anhui province in China, he immigrated to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard University.
The 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prizes
In addition to the Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science, in 2023 the foundation is awarding $250,000 in prizes to immigrant musicians with the Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Music. The recipients of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Music are Du Yun, Angélique Kidjo, Arooj Aftab, Juan Pablo Contreras, and Ruby Ibarra.
The Vilcek Foundation
The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation for the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and has supported organizations with over $5.8 million in grants.
The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org.
OSLO, Norway (AP) — This year’s Nobel Peace Prize is going to jailed Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties, the award’s judges said Friday.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the judges wanted to honor ”three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence in the neighbor countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.”
“Through their consistent efforts in favor of human values and anti-militarism and principles of law, this year’s laureates have revitalized and honored Alfred Nobel’s vision of peace and fraternity between nations, a vision most needed in the world today,” she told reporters in Oslo.
The award follows a tradition of highlighting groups and activists trying to prevent conflicts, alleviate hardship and protect human rights.
Three scientists jointly won the prize in physics Tuesday. Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger had shown that tiny particles can retain a connection with each other even when separated, a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, that can be used for specialized computing and to encrypt information.
French author Annie Ernaux won this year’s Nobel Prize in literature Thursday. The panel commended her for blending fiction and autobiography in books that fearlessly mine her experiences as a working-class woman to explore life in France since the 1940s.
The 2022 Nobel Prize in economics will be announced on Monday.
The prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on Dec. 10. The money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, in 1895.
The Vilcek Science Symposium brings immigrant scientists together for a two-day conference at the Gladstone Institutes.
Press Release –
Oct 5, 2022
NEW YORK, October 5, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– They come from around the world—born in Taiwan, India, Lebanon, Israel, Romania, and Russia, among other places—but they all call the United States home. The scientists presenting at the first Vilcek Science Symposium, taking place Oct. 19-20 at Gladstone Institutes, have something in common other than their top-notch, award-winning research: they’re all immigrants.
Organized in partnership with the Gladstone Institutes, the symposium, “Science Crossing Borders: Celebrating the Contributions of Foreign-Born Researchers in the United States“ aims to recognize outstanding science by researchers born outside the U.S. It also provides a platform for the researchers to share their personal stories, network with one another, and raise awareness of the impact of immigration to inclusive and high-quality science.
“Even though we come from diverse backgrounds and study very different topics, immigrant scientists share some common experiences,” says Jeanne Paz, Ph.D., conference chair and associate investigator at Gladstone. “We thought it would be nice to meet, create opportunities for collaboration, and brainstorm how we can support trainees who are coming from other countries.”
“This symposium represents the first time that Vilcek Prizewinners in biomedical science have a specific opportunity to connect in an academic context,” says Jan T. Vilcek, MD, Ph.D., co-founder, CEO, and chairman of the Vilcek Foundation. “We hope that the two-day program will help these leaders learn more about one another’s work and create space for potential collaborations moving forward.”
A Chance to Connect
In 2019, Paz won a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for her research on epilepsy. At the annual Vilcek Awards Gala, she and fellow winner and scientist, the late Angelika Amon, Ph.D., struck up a conversation about some of the unique challenges that immigrant scientists face. They started brainstorming ways to strengthen the community of Vilcek Prizewinners and proposed the idea for a symposium.
“When Jeanne Paz and Angelika Amon approached us in 2019 about developing an academic forum for our Vilcek Foundation Prizewinners, we were delighted,” says Vilcek. “It is a testament to Angelika’s lasting impact as a mentor to see this symposium realized, and it speaks deeply to Jeanne’s leadership in supporting the next generation of scientists at the Gladstone Institutes.”
“We are thrilled to host this exciting symposium,” says Lennart Mucke, MD, of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease. “An immigrant myself, I deeply appreciate the efforts of the Vilcek Foundation and the pioneering contributions of these outstanding speakers. Their paths beautifully illustrate that science truly is universal and boundless.”
Inspiring Change
The scientists presenting at the upcoming symposium work in diverse fields—from physics to biomedicine—and Paz hopes that getting them all in one room will create new collaboration and networking opportunities. But she also hopes that students will tune in for the talks and be inspired by their personal stories.
“There’s often this idea in the scientific community that to be successful, you have to come from a very famous lab and follow a particular path, and it’s important for young scientists to see that doesn’t have to be true,” says Paz. “You can come from a very difficult background and move far away from your support network and succeed because you pursued a path that you were passionate about.” Paz herself was born in the Republic of Georgia and moved to the United States for her postgraduate research.
Many Vilcek Foundation Prizewinners credit not only their backgrounds but the purposeful diversity of their labs with helping them think more expansively about their research subjects. With those messages in mind, the symposium organizers have arranged roundtables, mentoring opportunities, and a panel discussion with a handful of attendees about how being an immigrant has shaped their science.
“There is no singular immigrant story or experience, and while our prizes recognize immigrant scientists, each of our prizewinners has a unique experience, focus, and insight that has contributed to their success,” says Rick Kinsel, president of the Vilcek Foundation. “We hope to make this diversity apparent, and to bolster individuals’ understanding of the ways that immigration has a positive impact on our scientific communities, and on society more broadly.”
The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation for the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and has supported organizations with over $5.8 million in grants.
The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org.
Contact
Elizabeth Boylan Communications Manager The Vilcek Foundation www.vilcek.org
Most financial planners advise young people to start saving early — and often — for retirement so they can take advantage of the so-called eighth wonder of the world – the power of compound interest.
And many advisers routinely urge those entering the workforce to contribute to their 401(k), especially when their employer is matching some portion of the amount the worker is contributing. The matching contribution is – essentially – free money.
New research, however, indicates that many young people should not save for retirement.
The reason has to do with something called the life-cycle model, which suggests that rational individuals allocate resources over their lifetimes with the aim of avoiding sharp changes in their standard of living.
Put another way, individuals, according to the model which dates back to economists Franco Modigliani, a Nobel Prize winner, and Richard Brumberg in the early 1950s, seek to smooth what economists call their consumption, or what normal people call their spending.
According to the model, young workers with low income dissave; middle-aged workers save a lot; and retirees spend down their savings.
Source: Bogleheads.org
The just-published research examines the life-cycle model even further by looking at high- and low-income workers, as well as whether young workers should be automatically enrolled in 401(k) plans. What the researchers found is this:
1. High-income workers tend to experience wage growth over their careers. And that’s the primary reason why they should wait to save. “For these workers, maintaining as steady a standard of living as possible therefore requires spending all income while young and only starting to save for retirement during middle age,” wrote Jason Scott, the managing director of J.S. Retirement Consulting; John Shoven, an economics professor at Stanford University; Sita Slavov, a public policy professor at George Mason University; and John Watson, a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
2. Low-income workers, whose wage profiles tend to be flatter, receive high Social Security replacement rates, making optimal saving rates very low.
Middle-aged workers will need to save more later
In an interview, Scott discussed what some might view as a contrary-to-conventional wisdom approach to saving for retirement.
Why does one save for retirement? In essence, Scott said, it’s because you want to have the same standard of living when you’re not working as you did while you were working.
“The economic model would suggest ‘Hey, it’s not smart to live really high in the years when you’re working and really low when you’re retired,’” he said. “And so, you try to smooth that out. You want to save when you have relatively high income to support yourself when you have relatively low income. That’s really the core of the life-cycle model.”
But why would you spend all your income when you’re young and not save?
“In the life-cycle model, we are assuming you are getting the absolute most happiness you can out of income each year,” said Scott. “In other words, you are doing your best at age 25 with $25,000, and there is no way to live ‘cheaply’ and do better,” he said. “We also assume a given amount of money is more valuable to you when you are poor compared to when you are wealthy.” (Meaning $1,000 means a lot more at 25 than at 45.)
Scott also said that young workers might also consider securing a mortgage to buy a house rather than save for retirement. The reasons? You’re borrowing against future earnings to help that consumption, plus, you’re building equity that could be used to fund future consumption, he said.
Are young workers squandering the advantage of time?
Many institutions and advisers recommend just the opposite of what the life-cycle model suggests. They recommend that workers should have a certain amount of their salary salted away for retirement at certain ages in order to fund their desired standard of living in retirement. T. Rowe Price, for instance, suggests that a 30-year-old should have half their salary saved for retirement; a 40-year-old should have 1.5 times to 2 times their salary saved; a 50-year-old should have 3 times to 5.5 times their salary saved; and a 65-year-old should have 7 times to 13.5 times their salary saved.
Scott doesn’t disagree that workers should have savings benchmarks as a multiple of income. But he said a high-income worker who waits until middle age to save for retirement can easily reach the later-age benchmarks. “Savings for retirement probably is more in the zero range until 35 or so,” Scott said. “And then it is probably faster after that because you want to accumulate the same amount.”
Plus, he noted, the home equity a worker has could count toward the savings benchmark as well.
So, what about all the experts who say young people are best positioned to save because they have such a long timeline? Aren’t young workers just squandering that advantage?
Not necessarily, said Scott.
“First: saving earns interest, so you have more in the future,” he said. “However, in economics, we assume that people prefer money today compared to money in the future. Sometimes this is called a time discount. These effects offset each other, so it depends on the situation as to which is more significant. Given interest rates are so low, we generally think time discounts exceed interest rates.”
And second, Scott said, “early saving could have a benefit from the power of compounding, but the power of compounding is certainly irrelevant when after-inflation interest rates are 0% – as they have been for years.”
In essence, Scott said, the current environment makes a front-loaded lifetime spending profile optimal.
Low-income workers don’t need to save either
As for those with low income, say in the 25th percentile, Scott said it’s less about the “income ramp that really moves saving” and more that Social Security is extremely progressive; it replaces a large percentage of one’s preretirement income. “The natural need to save is not there when Social Security replaces 70, 80, 90% (of one’s preretirement income),” he said.
In essence, the more Social Security replaces of your preretirement income, the less you’ll need to save. The Social Security Administration and others are currently researching what percent of preretirement income Social Security replaces by income quintile, but previously published research from 2014 shows that Social Security represented nearly 84% of the lowest income quintile’s family income in retirement while it only represented about 16% of the highest income quintile’s family income in retirement.
Source: Social Security Administration
Is it worth auto-enrolling young workers in a 401(k) plan?
Scott and his co-authors also show that the “welfare costs” of automatically enrolling younger workers in defined-contribution plans—if they are passive savers who do not opt-out immediately—can be substantial, even with employer matching. “If saving is suboptimal, saving by default creates welfare costs; you’re doing the wrong thing for this population,” he said.
Welfare costs, according to Scott, are the costs of taking an action compared to the best possible action. “For example, suppose you wanted to go to restaurant A, but you were forced to go to restaurant B,” he said. “You would have suffered a welfare loss.”
In fact, Scott said young workers who are automatically enrolled into their 401(k) might consider when they’re in their early 30s taking the money out of their retirement plan, paying whatever penalty and taxes they might incur, and use the money to improve their standard of living.
“It’s optimal for them to take the money and use it to improve their spending,” said Scott. “It would be better if there weren’t penalties.”
Why is this so? “If I didn’t understand that I was being defaulted into a 401(k) plan, and I didn’t want to save, then I suffered a welfare loss,” said Scott. “We assume people figure out after five years that they were defaulted. At that point, they want their money out of the 401(k), and they are optimally willing to pay the 10% penalty to get their money out.”
Scott and his colleagues assessed welfare costs by figuring out how much they have to compensate young workers at that five-year point so that they are OK with having been inappropriately forced to save. Of course, the welfare costs would be lower if they didn’t have to pay the penalty to cash out their 401(k).
And what about workers who are automatically enrolled in a 401(k)? Are they not creating a savings habit?
Not necessarily. “The person who is confused and defaulted doesn’t really know it’s happening,” said Scott. “Maybe they’re getting a savings habit. They’re certainly living without the money.”
Scott also addressed the notion of giving up free money – the employer match — by not saving for retirement in an employer-sponsored retirement plan. For young workers, he said the match isn’t enough to overcome the cost of, say, five years of below-optimal spending. “If you think it’s for retirement, the match-improved benefit in retirement doesn’t overcome the cost of losing money when you’re poor,” said Scott. “I’m simply noting that if you are not consciously making the choice to save, it is hard to argue you are making a saving habit. You did figure out how to live on less, but in this case, you did not want to, nor do you intend to continue saving.”
The research raises questions and risks that must be addressed
There are plenty of questions the research raises. For instance, many experts say it’s a good idea to get in the habit of saving, to pay yourself first. Scott doesn’t disagree. For instance, a person might save to build an emergency fund or a down payment on a house.
As for the folks who might say you’re losing the power of compounding, Scott had this to say: “I think the power of compounding is challenged when real interest rates are 0%.” Of course, one could earn more than 0% real interest but that would mean taking on additional risk.
“The principle is about, ‘Should you save when you are relatively poor so you can have more when you are relatively rich?’ The life-cycle model says, ‘No way.’ This is independent of how you invest money between time periods,” Scott said. “For investing, our model does look at riskless interest rates. We argue that investment expected returns and risks are in equilibrium, so the core result is unlikely to change by introducing risky investments. However, it is definitely a limitation of our approach.”
Scott agreed there are risks to be acknowledged, as well. It’s possible, for instance, that Social Security, because of cuts to benefits, might not replace a low-income worker’s preretirement salary as much as it does now. And it’s possible that a worker might not experience high wage growth. What about people having to buy into the life-cycle model?
“You don’t have to buy into all of it,” said Scott. “You have to buy into this notion: You want to save when you’re relatively rich in order to spend when you’re relatively poor.”
So, isn’t this a big assumption to make about people’s career/pay trajectory?
“We consider relatively rich wage profiles and relatively poor wage profiles,” said Scott. “Both suggest young people should not save for retirement. I think the vast majority of median wage or higher workers experience a wage increase over their first 20 years of working. However, there is certainly risk in wages. I think you could rightly argue that young people might want to save some as a precaution against unexpected wage declines. However, this would not be saving for retirement.”
So, should you wait to save for retirement until you’re in your mid-30s? Well, if you subscribe to the life-cycle model, sure, why not? But if you subscribe to conventional wisdom, know that consumption might be lower in your younger years than it needs to be.
James Edmund Caan (March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor who was nominated for several awards, including four Golden Globes, an Emmy, and an Oscar. Caan was awarded a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978.
After early roles in Howard Hawks’s El Dorado (1966), Robert Altman’s Countdown (1967) and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People (1969), he came to prominence for playing his signature role of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised the role of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974) with a cameo appearance at the end.
Caan had significant roles in films such as Brian’s Song (1971), Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Gambler (1974), Rollerball (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), and Alan J. Pakula’s Comes a Horseman (1978). He had sporadically worked in film since the 1980s, with his notable performances including roles in Thief (1981), Gardens of Stone (1987), Misery (1990), Dick Tracy (1990), Bottle Rocket (1996), The Yards (2000), Dogville (2003), and Elf (2003).
DUBLIN, June 8, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) hosted the aviation industry in Dublin, Ireland, this week to celebrate airlines being honored with the 2022 APEX Regional Passenger Choice Awards®. The awards were given out Wednesday, 8 June, during APEX’s popular Content Market event, which was collocated with the FTE EMEA/Ancillary/World Airport Retailing Summit. The awards recognize airlines in various regions for providing the best passenger experiences as rated by passengers.
APEX once again partnered with TripIt® from Concur®, the world’s highest-rated travel-organizing app, to gather data based on neutral, third-party passenger feedback and insights. For the 2022 awards, well over one million flights were rated by passengers across more than 600 airlines from around the world using a five-star scale. On the same screen, passengers were given the opportunity to provide anonymous ratings in five subcategories: seat comfort, cabin service, food and beverage, entertainment, and Wi-Fi. The single screen rating allows airline passengers to easily rate their flight in less than 15 seconds. The 2022 APEX Regional Passenger Choice Awards were independently certified by a third-party auditing company and verified by Porsche Consulting.
“Recipients of the 2022 Regional Passenger Choice Awards were honored in Dublin thanks to the feedback of their passengers during some of the most difficult times of the pandemic for aviation,” APEX/IFSA CEO Dr. Joe Leader said. “Over the last year, each of these airlines has taken incredible steps to provide the best in-flight experience against the backdrop of challenges. We are proud to shine a light on these best-in-class airlines for each region of the world.”
Last December, winners of the 2022 APEX Global Passenger Choice Awards® were announced at the APEX/IFSA Awards Ceremony during APEX/IFSA EXPO in Long Beach, California, USA. Winners of the 2022 APEX Global Passenger Choice Award® were: Emirates for Best Entertainment; EVA Air for Best Cabin Service; Delta Air Lines for Best Wi-Fi; and Qatar Airways for Best Seat Comfort, and for the APEX/IFSA Global Passenger Choice Awards for Best Food & Beverage.
The Global Passenger Choice Awards are the highest award attainable. Airlines receiving the Global honor are not eligible to receive a duplicate award at a regional level. For the regional awards, the highest honor goes to APEX Passenger Choice Award winners for Best Overall. Airlines receiving that honor are not eligible to receive redundant awards for in-flight categories. Finally, no airline may be awarded more than two in-flight categories for a region. These rules were established by the APEX Awards Committee to make certain that airlines are recognized based on the areas where they shine most brightly at a global, regional, and category level.
As a global non-profit and one of the world’s largest international airline associations, APEX accelerates our industry with the backing of nearly every major airline and valued supplier. In conjunction with both the International Flight Services Association (IFSA) and Future Travel Experience (FTE), APEX serves the full spectrum of the end-to-end travel experience. APEX reinvests all its resources to serving its members, strengthening the worldwide airline industry, advancing thought-leadership, fostering business opportunities via events, developing global initiatives, setting key airline standards, and highlighting well-deserved recognition across our industry. For more information, please visit apex.aero.
Source: Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX)
Johnny Depp to try to stage a Hollywood comeback after winning defamation suit against Amber Heard.
Johnny Depp is an American actor, producer and musician. He has appeared in films, television series and video games. He made his film debut in the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984.[1] In the two following years, Depp appeared in the comedy Private Resort (1985), the war film Platoon (1986), and Slow Burn (1986). A year later, he started playing his recurring role as Officer Tom Hanson in the police procedural television series 21 Jump Street (1987–1990) which he played until the middle of season 4, and during this time, he experienced a rapid rise as a professional actor.]
In 1990, he starred as the title characters in the films Cry-Baby and Edward Scissorhands. Throughout the rest of the decade, Depp portrayed lead roles in Arizona Dream (1993), What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Benny & Joon (1993), Dead Man (1995) and title characters Ed Wood (1994), Don Juan DeMarco (1995), and Donnie Brasco (1997). He also starred in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) as Hunter S. Thompson, The Ninth Gate (1999) as Dean Corso, and Sleepy Hollow (1999) as Ichabod Crane.
In the early 2000s, he appeared in the romance Chocolat (2000), crime film Blow (2001), action film Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), drama Finding Neverland (2004), and horror films From Hell and Secret Window (2004). In addition, Depp portrayed the title character in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and appeared in Public Enemies (2009). In 2003, he portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, starting with The Curse of the Black Pearl, and reprised the role in four sequels (2006–2017), becoming one of his most famous roles. For each performance in The Curse of the Black Pearl, Finding Neverland, and Sweeney Todd, Depp was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He also portrayed Willy Wonka and Tarrant Hightopp in the fantasy films Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and Alice in Wonderland which each garnered over $474 million and $1 billion at the box office, respectively.
In 2010, he went on to star in The Tourist with Angelina Jolie and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy. He starred in Dark Shadows (2012) with Michelle Pfeiffer, The Lone Ranger (2013) with Armie Hammer, and Transcendence (2014) with Morgan Freeman. He reprised his role as the Tarrant Hightopp in Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) and starred in the drama Minamata (2020). Beginning in 2011, he has produced films through his company Infinitum Nihil. He has also lent his voice to the animated series King of the Hill in 2004, SpongeBob SquarePants in 2009, and Family Guy in 2012, in addition to the animated film Rango (2011). Moreover, Depp has appeared in many documentary films, mostly as himself. [From Wikipidea]
HOLLYWOOD, CA – OCTOBER 22: Actor Ray Liotta speaks onstage at the 16th Annual Hollywood Film Awards Gala presented by The Los Angeles Times held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 22, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California.
Ray Liotta, ‘Goodfellas’ star, is dead at 67.
Rest in Peace good friend.
Raymond Allen Liotta (Italian: [liˈɔtta]; December 18, 1954 – May 26, 2022) was an American actor and producer. His best-known roles include Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams (1989), Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990), and Tommy Vercetti in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002).
His other roles included Ray Sinclair in Something Wild (1986), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, as well as starring in Unlawful Entry (1992), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Killing Them Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), and Marriage Story (2019), as well as the drama series Shades of Blue (2016–2018).
Home furnishings and design source Absolutely Fabulous Unique Gifts & Décor in Huntington Beach, CA, has been named one of Home Accents Today’s Retail Stars for 2022 by editors of the premier trade magazine for the home accents industry.
Press Release –
updated: May 27, 2022
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., May 26, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– The Retail Stars list, sponsored by AmericasMart Atlanta and Las Vegas Market, publishes each year in Home Accents Today’s May issue. Members of the home furnishings industry are invited to suggest stores, and retailers are encouraged to submit information describing their businesses. This year’s list was compiled and narrowed down by Research Director Joanne Friedrick and the editors of Home Accents Today.
Absolutely Fabulous, owned by Diane Silverstein, is at 6026 Warner Avenue, in Huntington Beach, California.
The Retail Stars list, now in its 18th year, recognizes independent brick-and-mortar retailers of home accents — including furniture stores, home accessories boutique stores and interior design showrooms — that merchandise creatively, have a positive presence in their local communities and stand out from the competition.
“Home Accents Today’s 2022 Retail Stars list showcases some of the best independent home décor and home furnishings retailers in the country,” said Home Accents Today Editor-in-Chief Allison Zisko. “No sooner had the industry adjusted to trade show cancellations, lockdowns and mask mandates than it had to deal with extreme supply chain delays and soaring prices. Although this has not yet dampened consumers’ desire for home products, it has made the day-to-day challenges of running a retail business even harder. Our Retail Stars have demonstrated, with enthusiasm and commitment —plus a little grit and determination — that they are up to the task.”
Despite a store closure in 2019 due to flooding, followed by the pandemic, Ab Fab has earned multiple awards and grown during that time.
For more information, contact: Allison Zisko, Editor-in-Chief Home Accents Today azisko@bridgetowermedia.com
New amenities and a now-completed $3 million remodel project helped propel the established Venice community to the top prize in two Senior Living-related categories as part of the 2021 Best of Venice Awards, which are conducted annually by the Venice Gondolier Sun.
Press Release –
Apr 19, 2022
VENICE, Fla., April 19, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Discovery Senior Living community Aston Gardens at Pelican Pointe has been named a 2021 Best of Venice Award Winner in two categories, including “Best Assisted Living (Under 50 Beds)” and “Best Overall Assisted Living.” Conducted annually by The Venice Gondolier Sun, the Best of Venice Awards are 100% citizen-voted and honor the area’s top businesses in dozens of wide-ranging categories. In addition to the two category wins, Aston Gardens at Pelican Pointe was named a finalist in two other categories, including “Best Assisted Living – Independent” and “Best Overall Retirement Community.”
Originally opened in 2003, Aston Gardens at Pelican Pointe is built amidst a charming, park-like setting just one block from East Venice Avenue and the Venice Commons shopping center. The community, which sits adjacent to the Pelican Pointe Golf & Country Club property, offers Active Independent Living, Assisted Living and an exclusive, SHINE® Memory Care living option.
The continuum-of-care campus is home to 298 Active Independent Living, 31 Assisted Living and 12 SHINE® Memory Care suites and one- and two-bedroom apartment homes. Residents also enjoy daily, chef-prepared meals and access to resort-quality amenities, including multiple dining venues; a heated outdoor pool; senior-specific health and fitness center; movie theater with digital surround sound; professional beauty salon and barbershop with spa services and much more.
In 2022, the community unveiled the results of a $3 million designer remodel, which imparted fresh aesthetics and delivered a host of enhancements to indoor and outdoor amenities spanning the community’s more than 29,000 square feet of living and common areas.
“We are honored and excited to accept a pair of 2021 Best of Venice Awards for excellence in senior living,” said Therese Williams, Executive Director of Aston Gardens at Pelican Pointe. “With these awards being citizen-voted, it’s the truest testament of all that the new aesthetics, amenities and experiences our team members are making possible each day are having the meaningful, positive impact we’ve envisioned in the lives of our residents.”
Located at 1000 Aston Gardens Drive with accessibility from both East Venice Ave. and Jacaranda, Aston Gardens at Pelican Pointe is one of six Aston Gardens communities owned and operated by Bonita Springs-based Discovery Senior Living. Aston Gardens is part of that company’s national, multi-brand portfolio that includes 110 upscale senior living communities across 19 states. Discovery Design Concepts, the company’s in-house design group, planned and executed Aston Gardens’ recent remodel.
About Discovery Senior Living
Discovery Senior Living is a family of companies that includes Discovery Management Group, Morada Senior Living, TerraBella Senior Living, Discovery Development Group, Discovery Design Concepts, Discovery Marketing Group, and Discovery At Home, a Medicare-certified home healthcare company. With almost three decades of experience, the award-winning management group has been developing, building, marketing, and operating upscale senior-living communities across the United States. By leveraging its innovative “Experiential Living” philosophy across a growing portfolio of more than 15,000 existing homes or homes under development, Discovery Senior Living is a recognized industry leader for lifestyle customization and today ranks among the 10 largest U.S. senior living operators and providers.
