Established 1961 15 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, June 10, 2020 ‘Pointer Sisters’ founding member Bonnie dead at 69

onnie Pointer, one of the four original members of Awards for their 1975 hit song “Fairytale.” The song, co- the top of the charts and close to 50 years performing BThe Pointer Sisters sibling musical group, has written by Bonnie and her sister Anita, won in the Best to sold out audiences around the world,” the group died at the age of 69, a statement on the group’s Country Duo or Group category and was later record- statement read. “Our family is devastated,” Anita Pointer website said Monday. The sisters—Bonnie, Anita, Ruth ed by Elvis Presley. Bonnie Pointer left the group in the told CNN in a statement. “On behalf of my siblings and I In this file photo Anita Pointer (left) and Bonnie Pointer and the late June—began singing in their father’s church mid-1970s for a Motown solo career, and her biggest and the entire Pointer family, we ask for your prayers at (right) of the Pointer Sisters attend The Hollywood in Oakland, California, and rose to fame in the 1970s. solo was the 1978 hit “Heaven Must Have Sent You.” this time.”—AFP Chamber Of Commerce 98th Annual Board Installation And Their songs included hits such as “I’m So Excited” and “Because of Bonnie’s talent, drive and determination Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala at Avalon Hollywood in “Jump (For My Love).” the multi-Grammy winning Pointer Sisters exist and Los Angeles.—AFP The quartet won the first of three Grammy Musical have had the great fortune of spending two decades at

BTS fans match K-pop superstars’ $1 mn Black Lives Matter donation

ans of K-pop megastars BTS raised and donated police brutality,” and support black-led advocacy F$1 million to the Black Lives Matter movement, groups, among others, they said on Twitter. matching the septet’s donation of the same None of the fan group’s organisers are South amount within 24 hours, organisers said Monday. The Korean, according to their website, with most from band’s managers Big Hit Entertainment said at the Europe or North America. The announcement follows weekend that they and BTS—currently one of the a recent online effort by K-pop fans to take over the biggest acts in the world—had jointly donated $1 mil- controversial #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag, often used lion to the ongoing anti-racism movement in the US by those who criticise the anti-racism protesters, by and beyond, triggered by the death in police custody posting the tag along with videos and images of their of an unarmed black man as an officer knelt on his favourite singers. BTS—or Bangtan Sonyeondan, neck. “We stand against racial discrimination. We con- which translates as Bulletproof Boy Scouts—are the demn violence,” BTS tweeted last week, which has first K-pop group to top charts in the United States since been retweeted around 1 million times. and Britain with a string of sold-out shows in Los The Big Hit announcement soon sparked a Angeles, Paris and London’s Wembley Stadium. “I am #MatchAMillion hashtag trending worldwide on from London. My mom had to deal with racism all her Twitter, with a set of BTS fans—One in an Army—set- life,” wrote one black BTS fan. “I’m absolutely proud ting up an online donation project for the cause. On to tell her the group that... I adore supports us and Monday morning, One in an Army announced they had stand with us.”—AFP raised just over $1 million from nearly 35,000 donors. In this file photo Models present creations by Chanel at the end of the Women’s Spring-Summer 2020/2021 Haute “Just like BTS, we were able to donate 1M dollars to Couture collection fashion show at the Grand Palais in Paris. help fund bailouts for those arrested for protesting Chanel calls time on extravagant Paris fashion shows

he collection was very much in Viard’s own touched by it.” Viard said the clothes will be in the Timage with plenty of deft Parisian classic chic shops in November along with her summer collection touches to go along with bare midriffs adorned which has been eclipsed by the COVID-19 crisis. And with strings of jewellery and tummy belts, tiny bags, she insisted that Chanel’s haute couture collection will flip up sunglasses and gladiator-style armband be ready to show in Paris in July, when the shows will bracelets. Cruise collections traditionally showcase be held digitally. holiday wear for glamorous foreign travel, a luxury some jetsetters may have to forego this year. The BTS daughter of two doctors, Viard said she was not immune to the effects of the coronavirus which she said has “left us all feeling more fragile”, and therefore steered clear of evening dresses. Instead she wanted to create something “simple Art Basel 2020 Rare Rembrandt and luxurious and charming. I hope people will be scrapped over self-portrait to go virus uncertainties on sale in London rt Basel, the world’s biggest contemporary art Afair, cancelled its 2020 edition in Switzerland due ne of the last self-portraits by Rembrandt to the coronavirus pandemic, denting its parent Oremaining in private hands is to go on sale company on the stock exchange Monday. The fair had next month with a guide price of £12-16 mil- already been postponed from June to September but lion ($15-20 million, 13-18 million euros), Sotheby’s organisers pulled the plug, saying there were too many said on Monday. Only three of the Dutch master’s uncertainties to stage the international show, which will In this file photo taken on October 02, 2018 German fash- painted self-portraits remain in private hands: ion designer of Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld (left), flanked by return in 2021. “Art Basel regrets to announce that the Sotheby’s in London sold one in 2003; another is on 2020 edition in Basel has been cancelled,” it said in a French fashion studio director of Chanel Virginie Viard Shop assistants wearing protective masks welcome cus- long-term loan to the National Gallery of Scotland. (right), acknowledges the audience at the end of the statement. “While there are signs of hope as individual The third, “Self-portrait wearing a ruff and black hat”, tomers at a store of French luxury brand Chanel at the countries are coming out of lockdown, the global situa- Chanel Spring-Summer 2019 Ready-to-Wear collection Galeries Lafayette on the first day of the department is the earliest in date of the three, and goes on sale at fashion show in Paris. tion remains precarious and, unfortunately, too many the London auction house on July 28. store’s reopening, on May 30, 2020, in Paris.—AFP photos uncertainties remain to go ahead with the fair.” It said those included limitations on intercontinental Xing Er was not harmed and there were no human travel, the health risks posed by large gatherings, and doubts over whether Swiss COVID-19 regulations Sick of lockdown: injuries. Bengt Holst, the zoo’s chief scientist, said in a would allow large public events. “We believe that the statement that security around the enclosure will be best option concerning the Basel show is to focus on “carefully examined” to “make sure (it) doesn’t happen next year’s edition and delivering a fair of the excep- Panda escapes again”. Xing Er and his female mate Mao Sun—who tional international quality that the art world expects,” it did not take part in his escape—arrived in Denmark in said Saturday. The 2021 Basel fair will run from June 17 April 2019, on loan from the Chinese city of Chengdu. to 21. The share price of parent company MCH Group confinement in They are a part of the “panda diplomacy” programme fell further on the Swiss stock exchange on Monday. set up by China which consists of lending pandas in MCH, which had already lost 41 percent of its value order to foster relations with trading partners. –AFP since the start of January, fell 3.05 percent to 15.90 Copenhagen zoo Swiss francs in afternoon trading. By comparison, the SPI index of the top 215 companies on the Swiss exchange was down 0.28 percent. The Swiss govern- umans are not the only ones tiring of confine- ment stopped short of imposing full confinement to Hment during the coronavirus pandemic—a pan- combat the coronavirus pandemic. But the restrictions it da escaped from his enclosure at Copenhagen brought in led to the cancellation of major events, Zoo on Monday. Xing Er, a six-year-old male panda— including the Geneva Motor Show and the main watch soon to be seven—then took a tour of the zoo, which fairs. While events for up to 300 people can now go was closed at the time. He was spotted on a surveil- ahead with appropriate protection measures, events for lance video “leaving his enclosure, slipping under an more than 1,000 people remain banned until August 31. electric fence”, zoo spokesman Jacob Munkholm While Art Basel is based in its Swiss home city, its suc- Hoeck told AFP. The animal wandered around the zoo cess led to additional annual events in Miami since until an employee noticed it and called a security 2002, and in Hong Kong since 2013. —AFP team. “The veterinarian of the zoo anaesthetised the panda and he was brought back to the enclosure,” An undated handout photo released by Sotheby’s auction Hoeck said. “There he was given an antidote and woke A picture taken on April 9, 2019 shows Panda Xing Er sit- house in London, shows ‘Self-portrait, wearing a ruff and up a couple of minutes later.” ting in its enclosure in the Copenhagen zoo. black hat’, one of the Last Self-Portraits by Rembrandt left in private hands.—AFP The self-portrait is one of 80 he created during his career, and was painted towards the end of 1632, when the 26-year-old was establishing himself in Amsterdam and enjoying his first flush of commercial success. “Rembrandt’s face is instantly recognisable to us at every stage of his adulthood—far more so than any other painter,” said George Gordon, Sotheby’s co-chairman of Old Master Paintings Worldwide. “We know that this painting was created in a remarkably short period of time, because he laid in the background first, but when he signed it upon In this file photograph visitors arrive at Art Basel, the completion, the background was still wet, so the sig- world’s premier modern and contemporary art fair, in nature is impressed into it by his brush.”—AFP Basel.—AFP A picture taken on May 23, 2020 shows a view of the Copenhagen zoo. — AFP photos