‘PEACE & LOVE’ UNESCO declares Indonesia’s Toba Caldera as global geopark
With a little help from his friends, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr was set to hold an online 80th birthday bash Tuesday featuring former bandmate Paul McCartney, in aid of charities including Black Lives Matter.
Normally the British musician marks each passing year with performances including fellow musicians and hundreds of fans – but the pandemic forced a rethink this time.
“I love birthdays,” Starr told Rolling Stone recently.
“This year is going to be a little different. There’s no big get-together, there’s no brunch for 100.
“But we’re putting this show together – an hour of music and chat. It’s quite a big birthday.”
The show will see a virtual reunion between Starr and McCartney, who play together on occasion and in 2019 united for a surprise performance in Los Angeles as part of McCartney’s Freshen Up tour.
“I love playing with Paul,” Starr told the magazine in an interview published Tuesday.
“He’s still for me, the finest, most melodic bass player in the world, and I love what he does.
“But, you see, this is when you realize I’ve said that for 40 years, I’m still saying the same line!”
Ben Harper, Dave Grohl, Sheila E. and Sheryl Crow also are set to be among the celebrities joining Starr – who lives in Los Angeles – for the online party.
The event is encouraging donations to the Black Lives Matter
Global Network, The David Lynch Foundation, MusiCares and WaterAid, according to Starr’s website.
Ahead of the bash NASA’s Curiosity Rover tweeted Starr birthday wishes from space.
“Happy 80th, Ringo! Here’s my view of Earth [and Venus] from the
The Executive Board of UNESCO at the 209th session in Paris on Tuesday declared the Toba Caldera in Indonesia’s province of North Sumatra as a global geopark, according to Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.
“Through this declaration, Indonesia can develop the Toba Caldera through the Global Geoparks Network and the Asia Pacific Geoparks Network, especially regarding the empowerment of the local people,” Arrmanatha Nasir, the Indonesian ambassador to France concurrently Andorra, Monaco and UNESCO, told media after the declaration.
The Indonesian government has succeeded in convincing UNESCO that the Toba Caldera has geological potentials that sustain the lives of the local people so as to form a rich culture, tradition and biodiversity, the ambassador said, adding that in this context, UNESCO member countries support the preservation and protection of the Toba Caldera as part of UNESCO Global Geopark.
This declaration was expected to encourage economic growth and sustainable development in the province, and at the same time the government and local people are obliged to preserve the environment in the Toba Caldera, he said. Previously, the Toba Caldera was put in the UNESCO list at the 4th UNESCO Global Geoparks International Conference held in Lombok, Indonesia between August 31 and September 2, 2019.
The Toba Caldera in North Sumatra Province was formed from a super volcanic explosion 74,000 years ago. The base of the caldera was filled with water and became the largest lake in Indonesia with an area of 1,130 square kilometers.
In addition to the Toba Caldera, Indonesia already has four other UNESCO Global Geopark sites, namely, Mount Batur in Bali, the Ciletuh geopark in West Java, the Gunung Sewu geopark which covers Yogyakarta, Central Java and East Java, and Mount Rinjani in West Nusa Tenggara.
A huge sculpture by US artist Alexander Calder sold at auction in Paris on Wednesday for over 4.9 million euros ($5.5 million), auctioneers Artcurial said, after nearly six decades on display at a holiday park in southern France.
The influential sculptor is known primarily for his colorful and abstract mobiles, of which he made thousands over the course of his career.
But he also made “stabiles” – the opposite of mobiles – one of which remained concealed from the general public in La Colle-sur-Loup village, a few dozen kilometers from the ritzy city Cannes.
The black steel 3,5-meter structure was made by Calder in 1963.
“It’s the first time that a monumental stabile of this scale by Calder came up for auction in France,” said Hugues Sebilleau, the head of Artcurial’s contemporary art department.
It was installed six years later in front of a holiday park which aims to attract low-income families by maintaining affordable prices.
The free-standing stabile was sold by the current owner of the holiday park Belambra Clubs. It was estimated to be surface of Mars where I’m thinking about your message of Peace and Love, and how in good times and in tough ones, we all get by with a little help from our friends,” it said.
Known for his easy-going personality and humor, Starr rocketed to global fame in the early 1960s and helped change the face of pop music forever as part of the Beatles – still perhaps the world’s most famous band.
After the group’s break-up, Starr emerged as a band leader in the late 1980s with his All Starr Band, a collaboration that is still active today with various artists that played hits from the Beatles and other ensembles.
In his wide-ranging discussion with Rolling Stone, the newly minted octogenarian talked about his recent turn to health as he heads into his ninth decade.
Starr said he works out anywhere from three to six times a week, goes for long walks and maintains a vegetarian diet – eating “broccoli with everything and blueberries every morning.”
He said he hasn’t really left his LA home in some 11 weeks during the pandemic, inviting an engineer over just once for a jam session.
“I do a bit of that and I have a paint room, a little art room. And I’m going in there, painting and doing stuff. And I love to sit in the sun. I love LA. I love the brightness and hanging out.
“That’s all we’re doing.”
Ringo Starr
worth 2.5-3.5 million euros.
“The stabile is completely characteristic of Calder’s style at the time. The structure is very assertive and well planted on its four bearing points,” said sales expert Serge Lemoine.
Trained as an engineer, Calder used a wide variety of media to make more than 22,000 works before he died in 1976.