4VF News – Daily News Channel

Poor Macaulay Culkin.

Cartoonist Sam Harvey, creator of the Goodnight Kiwi, has died.

Harvey’s minute-long animation was broadcast for almost 20 years until 24-hour transmission began in the 1990s.

The plucky Goodnight Kiwi, with his companion the cat, said goodnight to New Zealand viewers in the days when TV broadcasts shut down overnight.

For generations of younger viewers, Goodnight Kiwi became a much-loved symbol of staying up past bedtime. The fact that kiwis are nocturnal, not to mention endangered by cats, was irrelevant.

The accompanying tune was an arrangement of a Māori lullaby, Hine e Hine.

Harvey was 91.

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– Stuff

Poor Macaulay Culkin.

A photograph has appeared of the Duchess of Cambridge’s bare bottom, taken while she was in the NSW Blue Mountains during the recent royal visit.

The photograph, first published on the German Bild website, was reportedly taken when Kate and William arrived at the Blue Mountains by helicopter in April.

Catherine’s bottom, apparently sans underwear, was revealed when her blue and white Diane Von Furstenberg frock was blown up by the air from the helicopter’s rotor blade.

Bild published the photograph on Tuesday in a story about celebrity bottoms. It included an enlarged picture of the Duchesse’s rear alongside snaps of Kim and Khloe Kardashian.

“The weekend flattered us with nice pictures as the temperatures rise, the celebrity pictures are getting hotter,” Bild wrote.

“There have been pictures that show our beloved Duchess Kate in the Australian Blue Mountains.

“The rotor of the Royal helicopter blew up the air so much that Kate’s dress went up and gave a fine view of her bottom. Never before have we been so grateful to a helicopter for making wind.”

The photograph is said to have started a bidding war overnight before being purchased by the German tabloid style website.

The official Buckingham Palace spokeswoman told the Daily Star she didn’t wish to comment on this new story.

The Foo Fighters have hinted at a tour of Australia and New Zealand.

In a post on their Facebook page on Monday, the US rockers made the hint alongside a link leading to a newsletter for their new record, Album 8, which they say is due in the northern hemisphere’s autumn.

“Hey AU/NZ pals… It’s been WAYYY too long. If you want to make sure to stay up on all the news… Sign up by clicking the envelope here: http://www.foofighters.com/

“Cause you never know where/when the Foo’s may show up. Just sayin…” the post on the band’s Facebook page read.

While it reads like a massive hint the rockers will come Down Under, it may just be a ploy to get more people to sign up to their newsletter and buy their new album. The link on the Facebook post leads to a page encouraging people to sign up to their mailing list or share the link to their mailing list via Twitter and Facebook.

The Foo Fighters last rocked Auckland with Jack Black’s band Tenacious D in December 2011 after playing a charity gig for Christchurch the same year.

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– AAP

A photograph has appeared of the Duchess of Cambridge’s bare bottom, taken while she was in the NSW Blue Mountains during the recent royal visit.

The photograph, first published on the German Bild website, was reportedly taken when Kate and William arrived at the Blue Mountains by helicopter in April.

Catherine’s bottom, apparently sans underwear, was revealed when her blue and white Diane Von Furstenberg frock was blown up by the air from the helicopter’s rotor blade.

Bild published the photograph on Tuesday in a story about celebrity bottoms. It included an enlarged picture of the Duchesse’s rear alongside snaps of Kim and Khloe Kardashian.

“The weekend flattered us with nice pictures as the temperatures rise, the celebrity pictures are getting hotter,” Bild wrote.

“There have been pictures that show our beloved Duchess Kate in the Australian Blue Mountains.

“The rotor of the Royal helicopter blew up the air so much that Kate’s dress went up and gave a fine view of her bottom. Never before have we been so grateful to a helicopter for making wind.”

The photograph is said to have started a bidding war overnight before being purchased by the German tabloid style website.

The official Buckingham Palace spokeswoman told the Daily Star she didn’t wish to comment on this new story.

Even if you’re not a fan of jazz or don’t recognise Larry Carlton’s name, chances are you’ve heard him play.

That’s because the four-time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist has played on big-selling albums – and the theme to the popular television drama Hill Street Blues. And it’s not just simply being a session man. Carlton’s distinctive playing style, usually on his signature Gibson ES-335 guitar, has been essential to the music.

One of the best known is Michael Jackson’s She’s Out of My Life, from Off the Wall in 1979, both produced by Quincy Jones. But Carlton, who for a time was doing session work up to 500 times a year, says it was a fluke. “When Quincy was doing Off the Wall I had already discontinued doing session work. Tom Bahler, who works with [Jones], wrote the song. Tom called personally. He said, ‘Larry, we’ve got this one tune for Michael and Quincy and we both looked at each other and said it’s gotta be Carlton’.

“So I went in and did She’s Out of My Life – and that’s the only tune I played on the album.”

Elsewhere, Carlton’s played across whole albums. It’s him on guitar on Joni Mitchell’s acclaimed 1973 release Court and Spark, when Mitchell was moving away from folk roots to rock and jazz.

Among the many other artists he’s worked with are Sammy Davis Jr, Paul Anka, Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Carole King, Dolly Parton, Billy Joel and the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia.

Talk of Garcia reminds Carlton that at one point he was playing on so many albums, he’d have to be reminded what he’d played on.

“The [Garcia] album was in the can and unreleased for I don’t know how long. So when it came out and I was doing interviews people would say, ‘you’re on the Jerry Garcia album’ – and I had no idea. It was too long ago.

“There are songs that are still surfacing that I’ve forgotten that I’ve played on. I go, ‘wow! I did play that’.”

In 1976, Carlton also made what’s now considered a historic contribution to popular music: Steely Dan’s 1976 funk and jazz-fused Kid Charlemagne. His guitar solo is ranked at No 80 in Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 greatest guitar songs.

Carlton, who has played on recent Steely Dan tours, doesn’t take the kudos for granted. “You can’t plan on magic – and when it happens you’ve got to stand back and say, ‘I’m sure glad I was along for that ride’. I’m very proud of the stuff I did with them.

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“Their music is so sophisticated harmonically, but still available for the general public. We all realised back then, because [while] I had such a strong harmonic jazz background I could still play with a rock’n’roll sound. It was a really good mix. They could write their hard chords and I could play over them.”

Carlton, 66, says over the years he keeps getting asked if he sees himself as a jazz guitarist or a guitarist who happens to play jazz. “I usually say I’m a jazz-influenced guitar player.”

It’s also been the foundation for him becoming a musician. He started playing guitar at the age of six, took to jazz at high school and while influenced by guitarists including BB King and Joe Pass, was also inspired by saxophonist John Coltrane.

“I discovered jazz in my teens and it touched me. It was challenging and fun to learn [with] big chords. I was inspired when I heard it, so I went for it.”

In 1971, for five years Carlton played with jazz funk band The Crusaders, while also juggling session work.

“In the beginning I was a servant. It was not about me. It was about the artist and the producer and the other players. That approach is really good. You come in wanting to give. But as my sound became more established and I sounded like Larry Carlton, they’d want me to do whatever it was I wanted to do on that song that day.”

In 1978 he released his first solo album, Room 335. It was named after Carlton’s recording studio – which he had built from his income as a session player. It was also the site of a near-tragedy in 1988, when Carlton stepped outside and was shot in the neck in a random gang shooting.

Carlton thought he was going to die. His left vocal chord was destroyed and nerves from his shoulder to his left arm were damaged.

But after surgery and rehabilitation Carlton believes he is better than ever. “I had people tell me that I was a different player after the shooting. I didn’t know it, but they said it sounded different,” he said in 2012.

He still managed to release Solid Ground, the album he was working on shortly after and carried on. He continues to work on solo recordings, collaborations and the likes of his quartet, which he’s bringing to the Wellington Jazz Festival.

But Carlton says it’s unlikely he’ll return to the days of 500 sessions a year. “It was three sessions a day, 15 or 16 a week. It was a lot of studio.”

THE DETAILS

Larry Carlton Quartet performs at Wellington’s Opera House on June 7, 6pm and Auckland June 6. Find details here.

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