Entertainment

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Warning: This is a story about online cat videos. If you’re among the seemingly tiny minority of the general population not interested in watching a 1-minute clip of a cat in a T-shirt pounding on a keyboard, then move along.
For everyone else, a new measure of respectability is looming for an Internet pleasure that is both massively popular and, for some people, a bit embarrassing. The Walker Art Center, a well-regarded museum of modern art in Minneapolis, on Thursday is presenting its first “Internet Cat Video Film Festival” to showcase the best in filmed feline hijinks.
With about 70 videos over 60 minutes, the Walker is mounting a social experiment as much as a film festival. At issue is whether cat video lovers used to gorging on the clips in the privacy of their homes will do so in public — an online community of fellow aficionados interacting face to face for the first time.
“It is a cultural phenomenon that raises some interesting questions,” said Katie Hill, the Walker program associate who first suggested the festival.

General Director Charles MacKay announced that The Santa Fe Opera will present the American premiere of Huang Ruo’s Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the 2014 Festival Season. The opera, which commemorates the centennial of China’s 1911 Revolution, was commissioned by Opera Hong Kong and given its world premiere there on October 13, 2011.
“Huang Ruo is one of the most gifted and imaginative composers writing today,” MacKay said. “His music is exotic and distinctive, with a lovely lyrical quality which makes it very approachable for the voice.  It is very moving and beautiful, and fits the Company’s mission perfectly.”
“I wish to express the gratitude on behalf of The Santa Fe Opera Board of Directors to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its generous support of Dr. Sun Yat-sen,” MacKay continued.  “The Foundation, long a tireless advocate of new operas, has also made a commitment to support Theodore Morrison’s opera, Oscar, to be premiered in the 2013 season, and Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain in 2015. Its pledge has made possible these three operas for Santa Fe and for what we hope will become a part of the American operatic canon.”

 Some might say the Beatles were the most popular and influential rock band of the 20th Century and most wouldn’t argue too much about that.  From 1962-1970, the Beatles had 54 songs that made it to #1 on the Billboard Music Charts in the U.S. and UK.
On Friday, a reggae, ska, dub, rock, punk and rock steady Beatles tribute band, Yellow Dubmarine, will play at 7 p.m. at Ashley Pond. Yellow Dubmarine play and have recorded those 54 #1 songs, plus they’ve recorded the entire “Abbey Road” album.
 Dub is a genre of music, which grew out of reggae and reggae grew out of ska. Ska music is a type of fast dance music that came from Jamaica, using a lot of brass. Rock steady slowed the tempo and often resulted in love, R&B or blues songs. Then came reggae in the 60s, with emerging superstars like Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and other greats. Most reggae focuses on politics, protest, black consciousness and the Rastafarian spiritual movement.
Dub features electronic instrumental remixes emphasizing drums and bass with lots of reverb and echo. This combination of Jamaican music is how Yellow Dubmarine play the Beatles’ greatest hits.

1. Whistle, Flo Rida
2. Lights, Ellie Goulding
3. Call Me Maybe, Carly Rae Jepsen
4. Wide Awake, Katy Perry
5. Payphone, Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa
6. Somebody That I Used to Know, Gotye
7. Titanium, David Guetta featuring Sia
8. Some Nights, fun.
9. Home, Phillip Phillips
10. Where Have You Been, Rihanna