Angelina Jolie Has a Vital Voice

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/hoekstra/889881,CST-FTR-Mayfield11Web.article

Music continues to help Mayfield deal with the loss of his father, Irvin Mayfield Sr., who drowned in the Elysain Fields neighborhood of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. “Music gave me a way to communicate and make people have a relationship with a loss,” Mayfield said in a recent conversation from New Orleans. “But I would never want my music to be elevated because of a tragedy or an experience. And the Elysian Trumpet gives people an opportunity to experience what we went through in New Orleans — although they didn’t lose their dads, they didn’t lose their house, their friends or high schools. The trumpet brings people along with that.”

bdj @ 04/11/2008 at 8:11 am

Thanks for my morning news, Happy TGIF

http://www.newsweek.com/id/131535
BOOKS
Going Mobile With Blue Balliett
The popular author features the work of whimsical Alexander Calder in her latest mystery for children.

Four years ago, Blue Balliett became a children’s-publishing sensation with the debut of her acclaimed first novel, “Chasing Vermeer,” about kids searching for a missing Vermeer painting. Two years later, she followed up with another best seller, “The Wright 3,” a mystery about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House. Next month Scholastic is publishing her third children’s novel, “The Calder Game,” which involves a missing boy and a missing sculpture. Meanwhile, “Chasing Vermeer” remains in the news, since Al Roker is featuring it on his “Today” show kids’ book club next month, and Brad Pitt’s production company is turning it into a movie. NEWSWEEK’s Karen Springen talks with author Blue Balliett, a fellow Chicagoan, about her latest projects. Excerpts
Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B Entertainment, is producing a movie version of “Chasing Vermeer.” When is it coming out—and have you met Brad Pitt?
They’re still in production. Don’t have a date. I haven’t met him [Brad Pitt]. I know we have ideas in common. I know he’s interested in kids and art, and in architecture, and in how to give kids bigger ideas. My central message is that kids are powerful thinkers, and their ideas are valuable, and that adults don’t have all the answers. Kids clearly are inspired by these books. That makes me happier than any news about book sales or anything else. [After reading the books, kids think] maybe my real world isn’t so boring. Maybe there’s a building I can save, or I can go to the museum and figure out something no one else has figured out.

She is beauty and brains. A woman of substance and purpose. Brad must be very proud of her. Go Angie.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=53540

(Great article with pictures of Papa Pitt involvement in Green house)
Making it right
Global Green opens its first 9th Ward ‘green’ house
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS - Before the launch of his Make It Right Foundation last year, Brad Pitt lent his name - and some cash - to a rebuilding initiative in the Holy Cross section of New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward headed by the environmental group Global Green USA.

This week - almost a year after a May groundbreaking - the first home built after Hurricane Katrina with environmentally sustainable materials was completed. It will serve as a model home and visitor center while other houses are constructed.

Though Pitt hasn’t visited the home since its completion, Global Green president and CEO Matt Petersen said he’s sure Pitt will stop by eventually.
“He contributed significantly to this home being built,” Petersen said. “We’re deeply grateful for all that he has done.”

The sleek green-colored home is hard to miss among the blocks of flood-damaged homes that have largely gone untouched since Katrina struck in 2005. The poverty-stricken Lower 9th Ward was all but wiped out when a wall of water surged through a broken levee during the storm. Population has been slow to return but developments such as the Make It Right and Global Green housing programs offer hope that the neighborhood will re-emerge.

“We’re planning to be here for many years to come,” said Global Green’s Beth Galante, while touring the three-bedroom, two-bath model home. She said the organization plans to eventually relocate its office from the city’s downtown area to the Lower 9th Ward.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-daltonbeninato/forget-american-idol-a-cr_b_96153.html

Taking it one step further, imagine candidates signing a Rebuild New Orleans pledge. After the race, a candidate’s surplus campaign funds would go directly to the rebuilding of New Orleans through the charity or agency of his or her choice.

It’s a gesture that says, “I’m going to give this money away because after I win the first four years, I will be elected to four more since this country will be solvent again.”

Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign could already have saved enough on Mark Penn’s salary to rebuild a school, a 9th Ward home, a new musicians’ home and a firehouse. Dennis Leary, Harry Connick, Jr., Branford Marsalis and Brad Pitt are already down there getting the rebuilding started. And there’s precedent. Clinton’s campaign donated Norman Hsu’s $23,000 to charity after his arrest warrant was announced.

http://blog.nola.com/davewalker/2008/04/idol_gives_back_takes_in_60_mi.html

‘Idol Gives Back’ takes in $60 million
Posted by Dave Walker April 11, 2008 1:16PM
Categories: Living: Columnists

Wednesday’s “Idol Gives Back” charity fundraiser had more and less New Orleans flavor than expected.

In addition to a taped piece by Brad Pitt highlighting his Make It Right housing project, the super-sized special also contained taped pieces shot in New Orleans detailing recovery work by two more of the special’s featured charities, Save the Children and The Children’s Defense Fund.

For the first, brothers Eli and Payton Manning explored lingering Katrina-related trauma suffered by young people. For the second, actress Reese Witherspoon examined the impact of the Defense Fund Freedom School project on a struggling family.

Ellen DeGeneres was announced as Ryan Seacrest’s cohost but dropped out citing a scheduling conflict. She contributed a taped spot to Wednesday’s show instead.

During Thursday’s “American Idol,” Seacrest announced that the special had raised more than $60 million in corporate and viewer donations. Last year’s event eventually raised $76 million.

Also appearing on Thursday’s “Idol” were Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama, whose taped spots had been bumped from Wednesday’s “Gives Back” special.

The special averaged more than 17 million viewers - down significantly from a typical “Idol” episode and from last year’s “Gives Back,” though Wednesday’s episode didn’t feature the big draw of an “Idol” contestant elimination.

http://www.heraldextra.com/component/option,com_contentwire/task,view/id,36239/Itemid,53/

(Recap of AJ trip to Washington DC on behalf of Iraqi children)
The actress’s appearance on a panel discussing the plight of more than 1 million Iraqi child refugees was less upbeat than that of the U.S. officials who testified before two Senate committees Tuesday.

“This population we’re talking about is the future of Iraq,” said Jolie, who has traveled twice to Iraq over the past year, as well as to Syria to visit Iraqi refugees. “So to reach them now, to help deal with their trauma and refocus their minds on a possible future should absolutely be one of our top priorities. We need these kids. … We need them to rebuild their country, to stabilize their country and eventually lead their country.”

Jolie also spoke directly to Petraeus’s views on the war.

“Petraeus would agree that a surge does not just mean it works if you get numbers of violence down,” she said. “It works if humanitarian aid is starting to increase and changes are able to be made. He knows that this is the time to start making some big changes and some big steps forward for the people.”

http://www.makeitrightnola.org

Good Morning all. Continue to support the Make it Right project. Have a great day. Peace to all. Thanks for all the updates Just Jared.

bdj @ 04/12/2008 at 9:25 am

Thanks for the news - you had me worried, didn’t know where you were posting.

anoble @ 04/12/2008 at 9:36 am

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff240/commentcherry/cherrytap/comment_graphics/hug_comments/images/1021hugs5.gif

It’s all good here.

How are you anyway??

Is someone in your family sick?? sorry for asking like this. I was just reading some of the post at the other thread and if am not wrong i saw something like that!

Good morning JP Fans!!!

hey anoble, yes, anustin, marianna, Lucy, bdj …have a wonderful day!

bdj–many thanks for the articles and links as usual…

Yes @ 04/12/2008 at 9:43 am

Hello dear heart, vickifromtexas and I were talking about her father who is ill. My step-dad died last year from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)

People in the media are soooo fukcing STUPID! She confirmed she was pregnant at the ISA, i don’t know what other confirmation they need. MORONS!

aloha madame guli!!!!!