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Nicola Benedetti – a musical cheerleader
The indefatigable Nicola Benedetti, celebrating her 38th birthday, is gearing up for the Edinburgh International Festival starting in three weeks of which she has been the first female director since 2022. Heralded as one of the most sought-after violinists of her generation, she was a child prodigy, continues to play and record prolifically to international audiences, … Read more
Malcolm Jamal Warner – a highlighted Pisces Moon
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the American actor, musician and poet best known for his role in the Cosby Show had drowned while on vacation in Costa Rica, apparently dragged out to sea while swimming by a strong current. He was born August 18, 1970 at 2.43 am Jersey City, New Jersey, named after Malcolm X, and had … Read more
Family disasters – Gloria Grahame, Lawrence Durrell
Blighted and scandalous families are not restricted to the obscenely wealthy, with two biographies out turning the focus on unforgivable behaviour amongst creative and celebrity types. Gloria Grahame, a four time married Hollywood actress, who gained some success in the 1950s with an Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful, seduced the 12 … Read more
Family Curses – Algol down the generations
Athina Onassis, the heir to a Greek shipping fortune, is gradually emerging from seclusion after her divorce several years ago which turns a focus back onto her family which has been blighted by early deaths, accidents, suicides and dramas. All the cliches about the curse of money which have haunted dynastic wealth like the … Read more
Clint Eastwood – the films versus the flaws
Clint Eastwood has gained another biography which promises to be “neither acquiescence nor denigration,” though whether he will welcome it personally given his dislike of any incursion into his private life is questionable. Shawn Levy, the author, according to a review, covers Eastwood’s sixty years in films without making any attempt to moralize about … Read more
Pholus – mobs, madness or inspiration
Early astrology knew nothing of the outer planets. As they were discovered and added to the zodiacal lexicon, astrologers had extra tools for interpretation, expanded further by the addition of Chiron. In recent times Fixed Stars like Algol, Scheat, Alphard, have come back into vogue as helpful tools. And now asteroids are also coming … Read more
Crypto heaven – risks and rewards
The value of the global cryptocurrency market has reached $4tn for the first time after the passage of the US digital asset legislation – the so-called Genius Act. It marks “one of the most significant moves” towards mainstream adoption of crypto. It is a huge turnaround since 2022, when its value fell to about $800bn … Read more
Felix Baumgarten – born to fly
Austrian Felix Baumgartner, the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound in 2012 after jumping out of a balloon 24 miles (39 kms) up in the air over New Mexico and smashing the record for the highest ever freefall, has died in a paragliding accident in Italy. According to media reports, he … Read more
Connie Francis – great highs and worse lows
Connie Francis, the American singer, who was the best selling performer in the late 1950s/early 1960s after Presley and The Beatles, with Stupid Cupid, Who’s Sorry Now?, and Lipstick on Your Collar, has died aged 87. From 1964, her career was blighted by a catalogue of personal tragedies including three divorces, two miscarriages, rape, … Read more
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