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You didn’t know his name, but you certainly knew his voice and alter ego.Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for nearly 50 years on TV’s Sesame Street, died Sunday at his home in Connecticut. He was 85.The Sesame Workshop, which produces the show, says Spinney had been suffering from dystonia — a disease that causes involuntary muscle movements.Spinney introduced Big Bird and Oscar on Sesame Street’s first episode in November 1969. The show’s young audience immediately embraced both characters.The yellow feathered Big Bird stood two and a half meters tall and had a child’s view of the world – he was filled with curiosity, questions, and innocence.FILE – Big Bird, voiced by Caroll Spinney, reads to children during a taping of Sesame Street in New York, April 10, 2008.Oscar lived in a garbage can and was perpetually grubby and miserable. But he was still lovable even when he grumbled at anyone who lifted the lid of his can. Oscar let young kids understand that it’s OK to be angry sometimes.”Before I came to Sesame Street. I didn’t feel like what I was doing was very important. Big Bird helped me find my purpose,” Spinney once said.The Massachusetts-born Spinney became interested in puppetry as a child and after serving in the U.S. Air Force, brought his skills to early television in the Boston area.The founder of the Muppets troupe, Jim Henson, discovered Spinney at a puppet festival and helped develop Spinney’s trademark characters for the new non-commercial children’s series that set the standard for educational television.  In addition to Sesame Street, Spinney played Big Bird on TV game and variety shows and in live stage shows. The character is on the Library of Congress’ list of Living Legends.Playing Big Bird was a physically exhausting job. Spinney had to strap a television monitor to his body to see that was going on outside the huge costume he had to wear. He had to constantly hold his arm up to operate Big Bird’s mouth.Spinney gave up wearing the bird costume when he was 82 years-old, but continued to provide Big Bird’s voice until he retired last year.There is no retirement in sight for Big Bird or Oscar. 
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Actress Sally Field, singer Linda Ronstadt and the disco-funk band Earth Wind and Fire awaited their turn in the spotlight Sunday night as part of the latest group of recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievements in the arts.Also in this year’s class are conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and long-running children’s TV show “Sesame Street.”Once again, the attendance of President Donald Trump had been an open question until the White House said Friday that neither he nor first lady Melania Trump would attend. Trump skipped the past two celebrations; in 2017, after multiple recipients threatened to boycott the event if he attended.The Kennedy Center’s president, Deborah Rutter, said in an interview earlier this year that “they are always invited.”Field, 72, was a television star at age 19 and went on to forge a distinguished career that included two Academy Awards and three Emmys. She starred last year in a Netflix miniseries called “Maniac.”FILE – Puppeteer Caroll Spinney is interviewed during a break from taping an episode of “Sesame Street” in New York, April 10, 2008.”Sesame Street” debuted in 1969 and remains a force in children’s educational television. The show now airs new episodes on HBO, and they are rebroadcast months later on the show’s original home, PBS. The co-founders of “Sesame Street,” Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, will accept the award on behalf of the show.Hours before the ceremony, the Sesame Workshop announced that Caroll Spinney, who gave Big Bird his warmth and Oscar the Grouch his growl for nearly 50 years on “Sesame Street,” died Sunday at the age of 85 at his home in Connecticut.Ronstadt was one of the faces of American music in the 1970s and 1980s, landing on the cover of Time magazine in 1977. In 2011, she announced her retirement from singing, citing the advancing effects of Parkinson’s disease.Tilson Thomas, who has served as music director of the San Francisco Symphony for the past 24 years, has become particularly renowned for his interpretations of the entire works of Gustav Mahler.Earth, Wind and Fire was originally formed in Chicago by lead singer Maurice White. The group drew elements from rhythm and blues, funk, and disco in a flashy crowd-pleasing mix that spawned eight No. 1 hits. Songs such as “September” and “Shining Star” remain in heavy rotation for both radio station programmers and wedding DJs.Each recipient was to be honored with a personalized presentation that in the past has in included surprise guests. Last year, Cher was shocked to find her friend Cyndi Lauper walking onstage to deliver a tribute; Lauper had said she would be out of town.The event will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 15. 
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3D-printed cocktails, a traffic jam sculpture made of hundreds of tons of sand and more celebrity sightings than a Kardashian Christmas party were all part of over-the-top festivities during the week of Art Basel Miami.Art collector Wayne Boich hosted a lavish dinner at his home Friday night that included Dan Marino, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The after-party crowd, including Floyd Mayweather, Hannah Bronfman, and Alesso, watched a performance by Wyclef Jean, who did a throwback to the Fugees with “Ready or Not,” and later brought dozens of girls onstage to dance with him before passing the mic to “Country Grammar” singer Nelly. Rapper 2 Chainz closed out the night.Across town, rapper Travis Scott didn’t take the stage until 3:30 a.m. at a sold-out performance at 24-hour nightclub E11even. Scott stood on top of the DJ booth tossing dollar bills into the crowd and yelling at partygoers to put away their phones and enjoy the moment.Later in the night, he partied with Nelly in the owner’s booth. Singer Kehlani and model Winnie Harlow were also spotted in the crowd.On the art side, the most talked about work of the week was titled “Comedian” – a spotty banana duct-taped to a wall by artist Maurizio Cattelan.According to artnet News, two pieces quickly sold for $120,000. The Paris-based Perrotin gallery raised the price to $150,000 for the third piece, which will be sold to a museum. The bananas were bought at a local grocery store and instructions were not given on what to do as the banana ages.The gallery did not respond to several emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.The city of Miami Beach commissioned a million-dollar traffic jam by artist Leandro Erlich. It took 330 tons (300 metric tons) of sand to construct 66 life-sized sculptures of cars and trucks stuck in an imaginary traffic jam on the oceanfront of popular Lincoln Road. The installation alludes to Florida’s fragile position in the large universal canvas, touching on climate crisis and rising sea levels.The Shore Club South Beach also focused on global warming where a 36-foot-long (11-meter-long) floating ice sculpture inside the pool spelled out the words “HOW DARE YOU.” The piece, titled “Climate Meltdown” by artist Rubem Robierb, lasted approximately eight hours.The Miami Beach EDITION hotel was also eco-conscious with its Museum of Plastic pop-up where visitors were guided through an interactive experience that tells the story of the single-use plastic water bottle.Photographer David Yarrow’s picture of real-life “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort sold for $200,000. The piece was signed by director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.Bulleit’s novel 3D-printed bar also drew a curious crowd, where guests watched a robotic arm disperse microscopic drops of liquid into drinks in a pre-set pattern. The whiskey maker has printed more than 7,800 cocktails since partnering with a robotics engineer.Elsewhere over the weekend, Haute Living hosted an album release party for Fat Joe; and Lil Wayne, G-Eazy, Rick Ross and 2 Chainz performed at various clubs. Sean Penn and DiCaprio partied late night at Rockwell, where Gucci Mane took the stage.“Cats” actor Idris Elba was slated to spin tracks along with Diplo at club Basement on Saturday night. The actor, who performs under the name DJ Big Driis, played Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival earlier this year. 
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Will Smith still feels “emotional” about homelessness years after playing a destitute man in one of his most acclaimed film roles, the Hollywood star has told charity campaigners braving a fierce New York winter night to sleep rough.Hundreds of people had gathered in Times Square on Saturday, rugged up and ready to bunk down in freezing temperatures, in a campaign to raise funds for what organizers said was record homelessness globally.Smith told the crowd that his Oscar-nominated role in “The Pursuit of Happyness” — a 2007 biopic of a salesman forced to live on the streets of San Francisco with his young son — was a “life-changing experience” that had allowed him to understand the misery of poverty.”It makes me emotional thinking about it right now,” Smith said. “To not have a place to go and to be able to lay your head down with your children at night is a horrendous tragedy.”Smith also charmed crowds with a “bedtime story” — a rap rendition of the theme tune to his 1990s hit sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”People in over 50 cities around the world slept on the streets to support the World’s Big Sleep Out campaign, the charity said in a Saturday statement, adding that funds from the New York event would be donated to the UN Children’s Fund.”In New York City alone, more people are now homeless than at any time since the Great Depression,” the statement said.”Over 62,000 people in New York, including 22,000 kids, will sleep in shelters tonight and the number of homeless people and refugees in cities around the world continues to hit record highs with each passing year.”  
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