Tony Bennett’s Latest Album ‘Viva Duets’ Features Puerto Rican Artists

RPM/COLUMBIA RECORDS MARC ANTHONY

Legendary performer and 17-Time Grammy winner Tony Bennett will release his latest album Tony Bennett: Viva Duets, worldwide on Tuesday, October 23rd on Columbia Records. Viva Duets is the Bennett’s third duets-themed project following the platinum selling and critically praised Duets and Duets II albums. Viva Duets will featuring many of the top names in the Latin recording industry, including successful Puerto Rican artists Marc Anthony, Chayanne and Romeo Santos.

RPM/COLUMBIA RECORDS CHAYANNE

Viva Duets will also include other celebrated artists including Miguel Bose, Robert Carlos, Ana Carolina, Franco DeVita, Gloria Estefan, Vicente Fernandez, Maria Gadu, Juan Luis Guerra, Dani Martin, Thalia and Vicentico, with additional duet guests to be announced. A truly international endeavor, Viva Duets features performances in English, Spanish and Portuguese with artists representing eight countries and three continents.

Working with this unprecedented list of Latin artist, many of whom he met for the first time in the recording studio, Bennett commented, “Each of these artists were so warm and welcoming that there was an instant rapport. Latin music has always been about melody and harmony and a lot of soul, so there was a very close artistic connection with each duet guest. I am absolutely thrilled about the record.”

Check out video footage of Tony Bennett and Marc Anthony in the studio, and more information about Viva Duets (track listing and how to pre-order Viva Duets) below!

Here is the current track listing for Viva Duets:
“For Once In My Life” with Marc Anthony
“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” with Miguel Bose
“The Very Thought of You” with Ana Carolina
“The Best Is Yet to Come” with Chayanne
“The Good Life” with Franco DeVita
“Who Can I Turn To?” with Gloria Estefan
“Return to Me (Regresa A Mi)” with Vicente Fernandez
“Blue Velvet” with Maria Gadu
“Just in Time” with Juan Luis Guerra
“Are You Havin’ Any Fun?” with Dani Martin
“The Way You Look Tonight” with Thalia
“Cold, Cold Heart” with Vicentico

Viva Duets can be ordered for pre-sale on Amazon now here: Viva Duets on Amazon.com

Source: PR Newswire

Carmelo Anthony Charity Work In Puerto Rico

carmelo-anthony-court-dedication-2012_puertorico

Last weekend, New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony visited Puerto Rico to unveil two newly remodeled basketball courts located within the Magnolia Gardens public housing complex in the northern city of Bayamon. The newly remodeled basketball courts are used by the island’s top minor league players which have produced players that are part of the island’s Superior League. It is estimated that about 350 children currently use the two courts.

In a press conference last thursday Carmelo Anthony, whose father is Puerto Rican, said “There’s plenty of kids down there who need role models… I grew up in a situation like that. It was survival of the fittest.”

CarmeloAnthony-Courts4KidsBefore
CarmeloAnthony-Courts4KidsAfter
Before & After of La Perla Basketball Court

Last year The Carmelo Anthony Foundation restored a basketball court in the northern coastal town of Luquillo. In 2010, they refurbished a popular basketball court in La Perla, which is a famous seaside slum in historic Old San Juan. Courts for Kids is a partnership between The Carmelo Anthony Foundation and Anthony’s Syracuse University coach’s Jim & Juli Boeheim Foundation. Their focus is to encourage and help kids in disadvantaged socioeconomic areas of Syracuse and Puerto Rico by giving them a better place to play and the opportunity to be successful both on the court and in life.

While in Puerto Rico, Melo also hosted a free-admission celebrity softball game with other athletes including Knicks teammates Amare Stoudemire and Raymond Felton, former Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams, NBA players Marcus Camby and J.J. Barea, and rapper Fat Joe among others. The outcome for the softball game was great even though it was raining and Melo was seen signing autographs.

carmelo-anthony-softball-fans-puerto rico

CARMELO-ANTHONY-SOFTBALL-puertorico-charity

Carmelo’s wife LaLa was also on the scene with her cousin Dice and friend Po. Carmelo Anthony expects to refurbish more of the island’s courts in the future.

Check out more photos from this past weekend’s events and past Courts for Kids charity work below!

If You Can’t Beat Them, Eat Them?

Green iguanas have taken over Puerto Rico and local residents are calling the problem the “green plague“. The iguanas, which aren’t native to Puerto Rico, have few natural predators on the island and are reproducing rapidly. Their population is now estimated at approximately 4 million which surpasses Puerto Rico’s human population that is holding steady at 3.7 million.

The iguana infestation is wreaking havoc on the island. They chew up plants and crops, burrow under roads and dikes, infiltrate electrical substations and have triggered power outages. They had one such power outage in January at Plaza las Américas, the island’s biggest shopping mall. The iguanas have often gathered on runways at the international airport in San Juan and have forced officials to delay flights until they could be removed.

According to Rafael Joglar, a biology professor at the University of Puerto Rico, the green iguanas are native to Central and South America and arrived in Puerto Rico in the 1970s as part of the pet trade. Over time some iguanas have escaped and some were set loose, and over time their population increased.

The complaints about the iguanas have increased drastically over the past few years, and in order to combat the problem Puerto Rico announced that their residents are allowed to hunt them. That did not solve the problem, so now authorities have a new solution — eat them!

The demand to eat iguanas isn’t high in Puerto Rico, but iguana meat is popular in other countries in Latin America and Asia. The hope is that Puerto Rico will gather iguanas up and export the meat to other countries. Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, Galán Kercadó, believes that this could help with the overpopulation of iguanas while creating jobs, too.

Many cultures consider iguana meat a luxury. It can be roasted and eaten in stews and some consume it in hopes that it will increase their libido. Iguana oil has even been used to treat rheumatism and bruises. Iguana-loving regions have had such a decrease in their iguana population that some countries like Guatemala and Nicaragua had to enact protections to ensure the species’ survival.

Puerto Rican officials hope that they could turn this island-wide problem into a lucrative market overseas. On the other hand, members of PETA are crying foul and saying this business proposal is senseless and cruel.

Only time will tell if this proposed method will solve the issue and bring money (and jobs) to the island.

Rare Genetic Disease That Mostly Affects Puerto Ricans

hermansky-pudlak-syndrome-puertorican
Photo credit: Living on the frontlines

Did you know that there is a rare genetic disease that is most prevalent in people of Puerto Rican descent? That rare genetic disease is Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome, and it is said that 1 in every 1,800 Puerto Rico natives carries the HPS gene.

Little is known about Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome (HPS) but its most common symptoms are albinism, legal blindness/visual problems, bleeding disorders, gastrointestinal/digestive difficulties and sometimes fatal pulmonary fibrosis (scarring of the lungs). The symptoms experienced depends on the type of gene mutation involved. This rare disease can shorten one’s lifespan due to the lung disease or bleeding issues. Some say that normal life expectancy is 4-10 years after diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis.

Yeida Soto, who lives in New Britain but both of her parents are from Puerto Rico, self diagnosed herself when doing research online. At birth she was labeled with the condition of albinism. Growing up, she noted that she had other symptoms and when she brought up her suspicion of Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome to her doctor, that idea was quickly dismissed. Eventually she was diagnosed with HPS, but it was not easy since little is known about the disease and patients are often diagnosed with other unrelated illnesses.

For instance, some people with HPS don’t fit the image of what a person with albinism would look like. Soto explains, “People think of white hair, red eyes — the way an animal with albinism would look… but we have dark skinned, black haired people.”

Diagnosis for HPS can be done with a simple non standard blood test.

There is a new documentary out, titled RARE, that follows 3 HPS patients and their experiences in a drug trial to treat some of their symptoms. It follows the Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome Network (HPS Network) to try to treat the disorder’s deadly lung complication. The vice president of HPS Network, Heather Kirkwood, stated that “Even in areas where there’s a big Puerto Rican community, you’d think they’d have known about it, but they don’t.”

Here is the promo video for Rare:

RARE was produced by the Stanford Center for Bioethics (more info at www.rarefilm.org). The HPS Network is a non-profit organization that serves families affected by HPS, visit their website at www.hpsnetwork.org.

For more information about HPS, check out the video below (Part II talks about the disease, Part I is the touching background story of the patient which I will also add below):

Part II: Mystery Diagnosis (OWN) – Hermansky Pudlak Syndrome

Part I: Mystery Diagnosis (OWN) – Hermansky Pudlak Syndrome