Keep Vermont spotless, Phish tells concertgoers

Keep Vermont spotless,Phish tells concertgoers
Phish has a message for fans planning to attend the band's big farewell festival in Coventry next month: Don't mess with Vermont.
The jam band posted a message on its Web site last week, noting that the Northeast Kingdom is "a region of unspoiled rural beauty and small, tight-knit communities."
Drummer Jon Fishman said it was important to the band that its last show, performed in its home state, go smoothly.
Members of Phish have lived in the Burlington, Vt., area for more than two decades. The band wants fans to car-pool and to leave the site as spotless as possible since much of the campground is on farmland usually left for grazing cattle or growing corn. "This is your last chance to show the rest of the world what makes the Phish audience so unique," the band wrote.
Demand for tickets has exceeded expectations; all 70,000 tickets for the Aug. 14-15 event have been sold.
hPresley fans seek funds to mark 50th anniversary
Elvis Presley fans are trying to raise $80,000 to have a statue of the rock 'n' roll icon created in time for the 50th anniversary of Presley's first appearance on Louisiana Hayride.
In Shreveport, La., friends of the Municipal Auditorium and a fan club known as Elvis Angels plan to ask the Downtown Development Authority for money, said Johnny Wessler, past president of the auditorium group.
Artist Eric Kaposta of Houston, who formerly lived in Shreveport, said he could have the statue ready in time for the Oct. 16 anniversary if backers can come up with $20,000, Wessler said.
Wessler said Kaposta has created a bust of Presley that bears such an accurate resemblance to the singer that Memphis, Tenn.-based Elvis Presley Enterprises, which handles Presley's image, agreed to sanction the project. "The statue will be on a tremendously large granite base that will tell a story and include lyrics from his songs," Wessler said.
Salsa legend Cruzwas twice denied visa
Salsa legend Celia Cruz, a Cuban exile who later became an anti-communist icon of the Cuban-American exile community, was refused an artist's visa to visit America at least twice in the 1950s, according to recently declassified documents.
Cruz's once-classified 32-page FBI file said she was a "well-known communist singer and stage star," according to a story published Sunday in The Miami Herald. The alleged activities predate Fidel Castro's 1959 communist revolution on the island, during a time when Cruz was in her teens and 20s.
Cruz died last summer at 77 of a brain tumor in her Fort Lee, N.J., home.
Cruz was first refused a visa in May 1952, the Herald reported based on documents it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. She was then refused again in July 1955 under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that weeds out suspected subversives.
The memo quotes reports that contend she was among a group in 1951 that signed a letter published in a Communist Party newspaper that endorsed a Pro-Peace Congress. It also contended she was a member of Cuba's Socialist Youth movement at age 20.
None of the records provides proof of the contentions, including one that Cruz met secretly at age 27 with the Cuban Socialist Party leader and had used an October 1953 concert as cover to meet covertly with communists in Venezuela.
At the time, these activities were legal in Cuba. But U.S. immigration law forbade entry to foreigners found to have communist affiliations or anti-government sympathies.
Cruz would eventually get permission to visit the United States in 1957. She traveled to New York again in 1960, to perform, and was granted asylum in 1961. But Cruz was aware of her record and sought to clear her name, according to a confidential Oct. 11, 1961, telegram from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
Notable death
Italian composer Piero Piccioni, who wrote music for more than 100 movies in Italy and abroad, died Friday, newspapers reported. He was 82.
Today's birthdays
Movie director Blake Edwards is 82. Actor James Best is 78. Singer Dobie Gray is 64. Actress-singer Darlene Love is 63. Singer Brenton Wood is 63. Rock star Mick Jagger is 61. Movie director Peter Hyams is 61. Rock musician Roger Taylor (Queen) is 55. Actress Susan George is 54. Actor Kevin Spacey is 45. Rock singer Gary Cherone is 43. Actress Sandra Bullock is 40. Actor Jeremy Piven is 39. Rapper-reggae singer Wayne Wonder is 38. Actress Kate Beckinsale is 31. Gospel-contemporary Christian singer Rebecca St. James is 27.