Waterfall art installation set in New York City

Waterfall art installation set in New York City

NEW YORK — If you’re visiting New York City this summer, don’t be surprised to find a waterfall next to the Brooklyn Bridge.

The spectacle will be one of four man-made waterfalls built on the shores of the city’s East River by Scandinavian artist Olafur Eliasson. The water will course over scaffolding 90 to 120 feet high, from late June to Oct. 15, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and will be illuminated after sunset.

The locations will be the Brooklyn base of the Brooklyn Bridge, Governor’s Island, Pier 35 in Lower Manhattan, and between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn.

There will be numerous public vantage points, including from the Brooklyn and Manhattan waterfront and from the pedestrian path of the Brooklyn Bridge.

7 U.S. wonders named

NEW YORK — New York City, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and South Dakota’s Badlands were named to a list of seven U.S. wonders featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Also on the list were the Grand Canyon, Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Preserve, Washington D.C.’s National Mall, and the Saturn V moon rocket at the Davidson Center for Space Exploration in Huntsville, Ala. Huntsville is nicknamed Rocket City because the U.S. space exploration program began there in the late 1940s.

The show assembled a panel of experts to choose the seven destinations, which included man-made as well as natural wonders. The places were announced one at a time over seven shows, with the final one airing May 14.

Viewers chose Yellowstone National Park as an eighth wonder in an online vote.

Annual Montreal Jazz Fest kicks off June 26

MONTREAL — Eleven days of music and entertainment gets under way June 26 with the 29th annual Montreal Jazz Fest.

The celebration starts at noon each day and runs until midnight, ending July 6. Several city blocks are closed to traffic for the event. An art gallery, street performers and a musical park for children are all part of the program, along with a multitude of performances from jazz and related genres, including the blues, and Latin, African, reggae and other types of music from around the world.

Among the headliners scheduled to attend this year are Aretha Franklin, Woody Allen, Leonard Cohen, Return To Forever, Abbey Lincoln, Dianne Reeves, James Taylor, Lee “Scratch” Perry, The Wailers, David Murray, Michel Donato, Guy Nadon, Ravi Coltrane, Coral Egan, Steely Dan, Katie Melua, Yael Naim and a double program with Al Green and Lizz Wright.

The festival is dedicated this year to the late Oscar Peterson, who was Canadian.

Von Trapp house protest

VIENNA, Austria — The hills are alive ... with the sound of protest.

Angry Austrians living near a Salzburg villa that once belonged to the Von Trapp family immortalized in the blockbuster hit movie “The Sound of Music” are fighting plans to turn the home into a hotel.

Opponents have said the neighborhood already is teeming with tourists drawn to the area where the 1965 film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer was made.

Organizer Andreas Braunbruck told Austrian television that neighbors intend to fight the hotel plan “with all means at our disposal.”

Salzburg tourism officials had previously announced plans last week to open the property and an adjacent park to the public for the first time.

But local residents complain they weren’t consulted.

The Villa Trapp is on the outskirts of Salzburg and once housed the von Trapp family, which gained global fame in the 1965 film. The movie tells the story of an Austrian woman who marries a widower with seven children and teaches them music.

Associated Press