NEWCASTLE In spite of deteriorating weather, the Tapestry Singers conducted by Harold “Sandy” Falconer with the DaPonte String Quartet, as well as some friends on woodwinds, brass, organ and tympani, performed the J.S. Bach “Magnificat in D” on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the Second Congregational Church. The Magnificat, or the Canticle of Mary, […]

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A news reporter for a San Francisco television station has reunited rock guitarist Carolos Santana with a former bandmate he hadn’t seen in decades and who now lives on the streets of Oakland. Reporter Stanley Roberts ran into percussionist Marcus “The Magnificent” Malone while working on a story about illegal dumping […]

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — It’s almost like in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of The Ring:” Gandalf stands in the way of Balrog and tells him to “go back to the shadow” to buy time for fleeing Frodo Baggins and his companions. But the scene is Warsaw, not the Mines of Moria. A Polish prankster dressed […]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The publisher of two tabloid magazines says it never intended to imply that Tom Cruise had abandoned his daughter after his divorce. The statement from Bauer Publishing on Friday accompanied news that Cruise and the tabloids had reached a confidential settlement in a defamation case filed by the actor. Bauer operates […]

NEW YORK Despite all the hard work she put in on the songs and videos from her new album, Beyonce had her doubts minutes before its surprise release. “I was terrified. I was so scared. I already envisioned like the worst things that could happen,” Beyonce said Saturday at a screening for her new music […]

NEW YORK Ned Vizzini, a popular young adult author and television writer who wrote candidly and humorously about his struggles with depression, has committed suicide. He was 32. Vizzini jumped off the roof of his parents’ home in Brooklyn on Thursday, said his brother, Daniel Vizzini. New York City’s medical examiner’s office confirmed Friday that […]