After 50 years, Rogers still excited about hits

NASHVILLE, Tenn. �

Kenny Rogers is proud of his 50-year career, just he can't help simply hope that the best is in time to come.

"For me, the whole finish is to stay relevant as long as I can," said Rogers, whose career retrospective, "Kenny Rogers: 50 Years," came out Tuesday exclusively through Cracker Barrel restaurants.

While the 12-track CD includes hits such as "Lucille" and "The Gambler," it also features three modern songs.

"It's one thing to still be doing it, but to still have your records played on the radiocommunication and to have contemporary success, that's what's exciting," he said Tuesday.

Rogers, 70, became a superstar in the 1970s and '80s. His career cooled in the '90s, but he continues to have hits. His 2006 album, "Water & Bridges," charted ternary songs, including the No. 14 "I Can't Unlove You."

He's now working on material for a new album.

"Radio has said to me in so many words: If you do great work, we'll play it. But if it's average, you'll have to stand in line," he said.

"I've incessantly been a country isaac M. Singer with a lot of influences," aforementioned Rogers, world Health Organization played jazz, folk and rock ahead hitting his stride with a country-pop sound, "and I retrieve that's helped me because I can buoy do a variety of songs."

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On the Net:

http://www.kennyrogers.com

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Stop smoking pill 'quit success'

A controversial pill is boosting the success of smokers in England in kicking the habit, NHS figures suggest.

One in seven people trying to quit are using Champix, according to the first figures published since the stop smoking drug was licensed in 2006.

And NHS Information Centre data showed 63% of people were successful last year at the four-week mark compared to half using nicotine replacement therapy.

Champix has come under scrutiny over reports it causes suicidal feelings.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency says it is "closely" monitoring the drug after almost 3,000 reports of adverse reactions.

So far in that respect have been more than 200 reports of suicidal thoughts in patients taking Champix.

And more than than 350 reports of depression, although these have mainly involved patients world Health Organization had an underlying psychiatrical illness.

The drug is unusual as it both stimulates and blocks specific nicotinic receptors in the brain.

By stimulating the receptor it is thought to mimicker the personal effects of nicotine to reduce cravings.

At the same time, it part blocks the receptor preventing nicotine from binding to it, resulting in a weaker response in people who present in to temptation and have a cigarette.

Trials suggested around 44% of smokers give up after taking the dose twice a day for 12 weeks, compared with 18% of those apt a placebo and 30% of those taking some other major anti-smoking drug, bupropion.

Smoking ban

The latest figures show that in 2007-8 - the first year since the smoke ban was introduced - there was a 13% increase to 680,000 in the number of people stage setting a depart date.

There was also a 10% uprise to 350,800 in the number of people who had stuck to their attempts to lay off after four weeks.

NHS Stop Smoking Services spent most �61 1000000 in the past year on serving people to quit - nearly �10 million higher than the year before.

Health minister Ann Keen aforesaid she was delighted with the increase in people successfully quitting smoking.

"I'd like to take aim this opportunity to tell congratulations to all those who have made such positive efforts to recoil the riding habit - selfsame well done.

"This shows that the investments that we are qualification in helping smokers to quit are having a positive impact."

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Risk Assessment Plays Key Role In Long-Term Treatment Of Breast Cancer

� Breast cancer patients and their physicians may make more informed, long-run treatment decisions using danger assessment strategies to help determine chance of recurrence, a research team light-emitting diode by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported in the Aug. 12 on-line issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.


The 2,838 women studied were diagnosed with Stage I through III breast cancers and had been treated with adjuvant systemic therapy (AST), such as chemotherapy and or estrogen antagonist between 1985 and 2001, and were in the M. D. Anderson Tumor Registry. The patients in the study were five years from the get going of their AST and were cancer-free. The researchers calculated the residual or remaining danger of recurrence from the benchmark of five eld from the start of AST and determined the factors that contributed to a higher residual risk of exposure of return.


"Understandably, one of the most common questions posed by breast cancer survivors is 'What are the chances of it coming back?'," said the study's jumper cable author, Abenaa Brewster, M.D., assistant professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention. "Now we canful tell some women within a certain percentage their future risk of recurrence and clinicians may be able to make more than informed decisions regarding prescription of prolonged adjuvant ductless gland therapy."


Data analysis revealed that 89 percent of the study populations did not know a recurrence at

Sierra Maestra

   
Artist: Sierra Maestra

   Genre(s): 
Latin
   

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Discography:


   
 Dundunbanza

   Year: 1994   
Tracks: 9

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Havana-based base Sierra Maestra is i of the foremost bands playacting the Cuban word style, which enjoyed its height of popularity in the '20s and '30s. Though parole experienced significant revival and renewed outside interest thanks to the late-'90s Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon, Sierra Maestra gave the music a new rent on liveliness as other as the late '70s. Headed by Juan d'Marcos González, the nine-piece rig came in concert in 1976 for a operation at the University of Havana, the musicians' alma mater. Utilizing traditional

Signs of Betrayal

   
Artist: Signs of Betrayal

   Genre(s): 
Rock
   

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Discography:


   
 Distortia

   Year: 2007   
Tracks: 12

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Asrai

Mango

   
Artist: Mango

   Genre(s): 
Folk
   

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Discography:


   
 Ti Porto in Africa

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 10


   
 Disincanto

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 13


   
 I Grandi Successi CD-1

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 10


   
 Visto Cosi

   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 16


   
 Credo

   Year: 1998   
Tracks: 13


   
 Dove Vai: Live

   Year: 1995   
Tracks: 13


   
 Come L'acqua

   Year: 1992   
Tracks: 11


   
 Sirtaki

   Year: 1990   
Tracks: 12


   
 Inseguengo L'aquila

   Year: 1988   
Tracks: 9


   
 Adesso

   Year: 1987   
Tracks: 12


   
 Odissea

   Year: 1986   
Tracks: 12


   
 Australia

   Year: 1985   
Tracks: 9


   
 La Mia Ragazza Un Gran Caldo

   Year: 1982   
Tracks: 9


   
 Arlecchino

   Year: 1979   
Tracks: 10


   
 Pino Mango - E' Pericoloso Sporgersi

   Year:    
Tracks: 9

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Paul Sills, founder of the famed "The Second City" comedy group, dies at 80

CHICAGO - Paul Sills, one of the founders of the improvisational comedy group "The Second City," which has turned out some of North America's best-known comedians, died Monday. He was 80.

Sills died at his home in Baileys Harbor, Wis., of complications from pneumonia, said his daughter, Aretha Amelia Sills.

The troupe said in a statement on its website Monday that "the influence of Paul Sills on the American Theatre can not be exaggerated."

Sills helped found the comedy institution in 1959, along with its precursor "The Compass Players." Second City helped launch the careers of John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Stephen Colbert and Mike Myers.

"Somehow he ended up making the careers of dozens and hundreds of other people," said Jeffrey Sweet, who interviewed Sills in his book "Something Wonderful Right Away: An Oral History of The Second City and The Compass Players." "Not a year has gone by that somebody coming out of (Second City) hasn't achieved major stardom."

Even though Sills was not looking for commercial or financial success, Sweet said, he found it in Second City. The group celebrates its 50th anniversary next year with stages in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas and Canada and has a reputation for training actors who go on to NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and Hollywood.

"I don't think he even particularly wanted it to happen," Sweet said. "He was never interested in product. He was always interested in the journey."

Sills was inspired by his late mother, Viola Spolin, who created hundreds of improvisational games used to train generations of actors. Sills followed in her footsteps and was known as a guru of improvisation.

He also created the New Actors Workshop in New York in 1987 along with director Mike Nichols and colleague George Morrison.

Sills' play, "Story Theatre," was nominated for a Tony Award in 1971 and he published a book in 2000, "Paul Sills' Story Theater: Four Shows."

"It was always this vision that he had that he was trying to reach for," Sweet said. "He's probably the most influential person in the theatre that general people don't know about."

-

On the Net:

The Second City: http://www.secondcity.com/

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