Timur PANKOV
ALMATY, Sept 23
(THE GLOBE)
Will Smith earned the nickname �Prince� from his grade-school teachers because this smooth-talking tyke from West Philadelphia was more charming than any monarch�s son. Smith completed his nom de rap by tacking on �fresh� (a popular hip-hop adjective of the mid-�80s), and the Fresh Prince tapped his considerable charisma to become a Grammy-winning musician, the star of a long-running sitcom, and�returning to his birth name�a big-screen action hero.
A born entertainer, Smith started rapping at the age of 12 and shortly thereafter teamed up with Jeff Townes, who, as Jazzy Jeff, became the Fresh Prince�s musical partner. Eight years later, the duo had produced two platinum albums, including the Grammy-winning He�s the DJ, I�m the Rapper. It featured the crossover hit single �Parents Just Don�t Understand� and scads of clever, gangsta-free lyrics that elicited knowing chuckles from middle-American teenagers. With musical success achieved, Smith expressed a desire to try acting to several business associates, including Warner Bros. executive Benny Medina. It turned out that Medina, who was born poor in Los Angeles but lived as a teen with a rich Beverly Hills family, had been unsuccessfully pitching a sitcom based on his demographically diverse life. Smith would be perfect, Medina figured, as the protagonist in this fish-out-of-water-tale�a modern Beverly Hillbillies. According to Hollywood legend, Smith read the script for NBC�s suits with such �lan that they bought the concept on the spot. Fresh Prince of Bel Air premiered in 1990, and with its well-timed quips and pratfalls from Smith, the successful show stayed on the air for six years.
Despite his homeboy swagger, Smith himself grew up middle class (his father is an engineer; his mother works for the school board) and did so well in school that M.I.T. offered him a scholarship, which he refused in order to pursue a show-business career. A millionaire by age 18, Smith was nonetheless deeply indebted to the I.R.S. when he landed the sitcom. Produced by Quincy Jones, the series� success enabled Smith to not only remedy his I.O.U.s, but also establish a well-connected professional family, which includes much of Hollywood�s African-American royalty: Jones, Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg, Sidney Poitier, and Denzel Washington. In fact, it was Washington who counselled Smith on how to proceed with his first starring movie role, as a young gay con man in Six Degrees of Separation (1993). Although it was scripted that his character would kiss another man, Smith was reluctant. He sought counsel from Washington, whose advice boiled down to, �Don�t be kissing no man.� Smith informed the furious director, Fred Schepsi, that the homosexual smooch would have to be faked. When the movie opened, the controversy was smoothed over by critical praise for Smith�s performance.
For his follow-up flick, Smith teamed with fellow sitcom star Martin Lawrence in the action-heavy, gay-kiss-free Bad Boys (1995). The buddy movie was a smash, Smith�s asking price rose to $5 million per film, and offers poured in. He opted to play a heroic fighter pilot in the surefire blockbuster Independence Day(1996). Sadly, as the actor�s stardom was growing, his three-year-old marriage to Sheree Zampino was falling apart. The couple divorced in December 1995, and Smith relinquished primary custody of their son Willard C. �Trey� Smith III.
Smith simultaneously returned to rapping and the sci-fi genre with the 1997 summer blockbuster Men in Black. The success of his �Men In Black� single seemed to inspire him: after wrapping the film, Smith ducked into the studio to lay down tracks for a new record. Big Willie Style, his first album in four years landed on record-store shelves in November 1997. Smith and longtime love Jada Pinkett capped off the year with a New Year�s Eve wedding ceremony. The couple welcomed their first child, a son named Jaden Christopher Syre, the following summer.
January 1999�s American Music Awards saw Smith scoop up trophies for three of the four cat
ALMATY, Sept 21
(THE GLOBE)
�For the first time in the post-soviet space the conception to unite everybody who propagandise a healthy style of life is being realised,� the head of the Centre on forming the healthy style of life announced at the press conference devoted to the healthy style of life festival to be held in Almaty.
According to Aikan Akanov, the Healthy Style of Life Festival will be held on September 25 in the Central Park of culture and rest.
The objective of this festival is to attract wide masses of the population to the movement for healthy style of life and to establish an alliance to unite efforts and possibilities of everybody who propagandises and leads healthy style of life.
�Taking into consideration the economic situation in the country, the festival is being prepared and held owing to non-budget financial means,� the head of the Centre on problem of forming the healthy style of life stated. The general sponsor of the festival is the famous company �Procter & Gamble�.
During the festival the exhibition-fair of products under the slogan �Everything for the healthy style of life� will be held.
�During the festival we also plan to organise a work of the medical town, where people may get free consultations and hear mini-lectures of leading specialists from republican medical institutions,� he remarked.
During the festival people may see different performances (callisthenics, aerobics, oriental single combats) and events on different kinds of sport. Winners will be awarded prizes.
According to the results of the festival, Aikan Akanov said, �we plan to submit a proposal to the Parliament to make the Health Festival a republican calendar holiday �Healthy Day�.
by Malcolm Forbes
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the president of Harvards�s outer office.
The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn�t even deserve to be in Cambridge. She frowned. �We want to see the president,� the man said softly.
�He�ll be busy all day,� the secretary snapped.
�We�ll wait,� the lady replied. For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away.
They didn�t. And the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted to do.
�Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they�ll leave,� she told him. And he sighed in exasperation and nodded.
Someone of his importance obviously didn�t have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.
The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him, �We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus.�
The president wasn�t touched, he was shocked.
�Madam,� he said gruffly. �We can�t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery�.
�Oh, no,� the lady explained quickly. �We don�t want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard.� The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, �A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard.�
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. And the lady turned to her husband and said quietly, �Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don�t we just start our own?� Her husband nodded. The president�s face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. And Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.
September 24, 1975 - British mountaineers Doug Scott and Dougal Haston become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest via the southwest face.
September 24, 1988 - Canadian athlete Ben Johnson sets a new world record of 9.79 seconds for the 100-meter dash at the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Six days later he is stripped of his gold medal when he tests positive for having taken banned substances in preparation for the Games.
September 26, 1984 - During a meeting with China, Great Britain agrees to honor the 1997 expiration of its ninety-nine-year lease on the island of Hong Kong. China first ceded Hong Kong to the British in 1842 as part of the treaty ending the First Opium War, and granted Britain an additional ninety-nine years of rule in 1898 under the Second Convention of Peking. In 1997, Hong Kong reverts back to Chinese rule during elaborate ceremonies attended by Chinese and British officials, including Prince Charles of Wales, heir to the British throne.
September 26, 1996 - American astronaut Shannon Lucid returns to earth in the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis, after six months in orbit aboard the Russian space station Mir. Lucid, who shared Mir with Russian cosmonauts Yuri Onufriyenko and Yuri Usachev, conducted scientific experiments during her stay. Her 188 days in space sets a new space endurance record for an American, and a world endurance record for a woman.
September 27, 1938 - Queen Elizabeth, wife of King George VI of England and mother to Queen Elizabeth II, visits the Scottish construction site of a massive ocean liner to be named in her honor.
September 27, 1959 - Typhoon Vera sweeps over Honshu, Japan�s largest island, and nearly five thousand people are killed. Only one month before, Iris, another Asian typhoon, killed over two thousand people in the Fukien province of China.
From September 14 to October 14.
The Kosteyev State National Museum. The exhibition of private picture-galleries: �Gallery parade � �99�
The Kosteyev State National Museum. Exhibition of S. Kalmykov, I. Itkind, and V. Eifert�s works, and Rudolf Nuriev�s painting.
From 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Closed on Mondays.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
© 1998 IPA House. All Rights Reserved.