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Man fined $800 over 'massive intestinal wind'

A man in Vienna has been fined 500 euros (AU$817) for breaking wind loudly in front of police — a move that the Austrian capital’s police force was at pains to defend on Tuesday (local time).

The Oesterreich newspaper reported the fine stemmed from an incident on June 5 and the offender was fined for “offending public decency”.

City police wrote on Twitter “of course no one is reported for accidentally ‘letting one go’.”

They added the man had behaved “provocatively and uncooperatively” during an encounter with officers that preceded the incident.

Vienna police handed a fine to a man who let out a fart 'with full intent'.
The man got up from a park bench, looked at officers and 'let go a massive intestinal wind apparently with full intent'. Source: Getty Images
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He got up from a park bench, looked at officers and “let go a massive intestinal wind apparently with full intent”, they said.

“And our colleagues don’t like to be farted at so much.”

Police noted the decision could be appealed.

Hollywood composer Ennio Morricone who wrote the music for The Good, The Bad And The Ugly dies aged 91

Ennio Morricone dies at the age of 91 at a clinic in Rome after taking a fall
The Italian rose to stardom working on the Spaghetti Westerns in the 1960s
He often reminded people that his career consisted of more than just Westerns
Morricone once turned down a studio's offer of a luxurious villa in California
By SAM BAKER FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 17:27 AEST, 6 July 2020 | UPDATED: 20:29 AEST, 6 July 2020


Ennio Morricone, whose scores for movies such as 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', 'The Mission' and 'Cinema Paradiso' made him one of the world's most famous and prolific screen composers, has died aged 91.

Morricone, who won two Oscars and dozens of others awards including Golden Globes, Grammys and BAFTAs, broke his femur some days ago and died during the night in a clinic in Rome.

A statement issued by lawyer and family friend Giorgio Assuma said Morricone 'passed away in the early hours of July 6 with the comfort of his faith'.

He remained 'fully lucid and with great dignity right until the end,' the statement said.

His last Oscar was in 2016 for best original score for Quentin Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight'.

He first declined the job, but then relented, demanding that Tarantino allow him a 'total break with the style of Western films I wrote 50 years ago'.

Morricone wrote for hundreds of films, television programmes, popular songs and orchestras, but it was his friendship with Italian director Sergio Leone that brought him fame, with scores for Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood in the 1960s.

They include the so-called 'Dollars Trilogy' - 'A Fistful of Dollars,' 'For a Few Dollars More,' and 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'.

Morricone, who won two Oscars and dozens of others awards including Golden Globes, Grammys and BAFTAs, broke his femur some days ago and died during the night in a clinic in Rome

Morricone used unconventional instruments such as the Jew's harp, amplified harmonica, mariachi trumpets, cor anglais and the ocarina - an ancient Chinese instrument shaped like an egg.

The music was accompanied by real sounds such as whistling, cracking of whips, gunshots and sounds inspired by wild animals including coyotes.

He always tried to shake off the association with the Spaghetti Westerns, reminding people, particularly outside Italy, that he had a very creative and productive life before and after the films he made with Leone.

'It's a strait-jacket. I just don't understand how, after all the films I have done, people keep thinking about 'A Fistful of Dollars'. People are stuck back in time, 30 years ago,' the Maestro, as he was known in Italy, told Reuters in 2007.

'My production for Westerns is maybe 7-1/2 or 8 percent of what I have done overall.'

One of Morricone's most evocative soundtracks was for the 1986 film 'The Mission,' by Roland Joffe, for which he was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe.

To accompany the story of the Jesuit missions in 18th century South America, Morricone used European style liturgical chorales and native drums to convey the mix of the old and new worlds.

Another non-Western classic was Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in America', in 1984, which told the story of poor Jewish children in New York who grow up to become Prohibition-era mobsters.

In Italy, Morricone developed a close friendship with director Giuseppe Tornatore, whose 'Cinema Paradiso' won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1989.

Morricone also composed for Brian De Palma's 'The Untouchables', Barry Levinson's 'Bugsy', and Margarethe von Trotta's 'The Long Silence'.

Born in Rome in 1928 while Italy was headed by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, Morricone learned music from his father, a trumpeter in small orchestras.

He entered Rome's conservatory at the age of 12, studying trumpet, choral music and composition, and later was chosen to join the orchestra of the prestigious Academy of Santa Cecilia.

He first wrote music for theatre and radio programmes and later was a studio arranger for record labels, working with some of Italy's best-known pop stars of the 1950s and 1960s.

He ghost-composed several film scores before he received his first credit for a feature film for Luciano Salce's 'Il Federale' in 1961.

His success with director Leone, a former schoolmate, made him one of the most desired composers for the screen, with directors around the world beating a path to his door: John Huston, John Boorman, Terrence Malick, Bernardo Bertolucci, Barry Levinson, Warren Beatty, Oliver Stone, Barry Levinson, Roman Polanski and Franco Zeffirelli.

Morricone said his one big regret was never having worked with Stanley Kubrick.

'He did call me to do the score for 'A Clockwork Orange' and I said 'yes'. He did not want to come to Rome, he did not like flying. And then he called (Sergio) Leone, who told him I was busy working with him. He never called again,' he said.

One of few Italians to have become a Hollywood legend without living there, Morricone said a studio had once offered him a luxurious villa in California, but he turned it down.

'All my friends are here, as well as plenty of directors who love me and appreciate my work,' he said. 'Rome is my home.'

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, fellow composer Hans Zimmer paid tribute, saying: ‘I am devastated by this news, because Ennio was an icon, and icons don’t just go away. Icons are there forever.’

The Inception conductor added that Ennio’s death took him by surprise, having seen him looking ‘strong’ at a performance at the O2 arena only a year ago.

While Ennio is most well recognised for his work on westerns like the Dollars Trilogy, Zimmer added that his work was incredibly varied.

‘It wasn’t just the music he wrote for spaghetti westerns, think about The Mission, Once Upon A Time In America, what beautiful music that truly was,' he said.

‘I was a huge fan of his, he was a major influence on me. The first movie I ever saw was Once Upon A Time In The West, and I heard that music and saw those images and thought “that’s what I want to do”.’

Country rocker and fiddler Charlie Daniels dies at age 83
Country rocker and fiddler Charlie Daniels dies at age 83
Country music legend Charlie Daniels has died. (Source: Photo by Erick Anderson/Courtesy Absolute Publicity)



By KRISTIN M. HALL AP Entertainment Writer | July 6, 2020 at 11:30 AM CDT - Updated July 6 at 8:25 PM
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Charlie Daniels, who went from being an in-demand session musician to a staple of Southern rock with his hit “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” has died at 83.

A statement from his publicist said the Country Music Hall of Famer died Monday at a hospital in Hermitage, Tennessee, after doctors said he had a stroke.

He had suffered what was described as a mild stroke in January 2010 and had a heart pacemaker implanted in 2013 but continued to perform.

Daniels, a singer, guitarist and fiddler, started out as a session musician, even playing on Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline” sessions. Beginning in the early 1970s, his five-piece band toured endlessly, sometimes doing 250 shows a year.

“I can ask people where they are from, and if they say `Waukegan,′ I can say I’ve played there. If they say `Baton Rouge,′ I can say I’ve played there. There’s not a city we haven’t played in,” Daniels said in 1998.

Daniels performed at White House, at the Super Bowl, throughout Europe and often for troops in the Middle East.

He played himself in the 1980 John Travolta movie “Urban Cowboy” and was closely identified with the rise of country music generated by that film. Some of his other hits were “Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye,” “Boogie Woogie Fiddle Country Blues” and “Uneasy Rider.”

“I’ve kept people employed for over 20 years and never missed a payroll,” Daniels said in 1998. That same year, he received the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music.

He is survived by his wife, Hazel, and his son, Charlie Daniels Jr.

“There are few artists that touched so many different generations in our business than Charlie Daniels did,” said Sarah Trahern, CEO of the Country Music Association, in a statement. “Today, our community has lost an innovator and advocate of Country Music. Both Charlie and Hazel had become dear friends of mine over the last several years, and I was privileged to be able to celebrate Charlie’s induction into the Opry as well as tell him that he was going to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.”

“Well, the devil went down to Georgia, but Charlie went straight to heaven,” said Dolly Parton in a tweet. “My heart, like many millions of others, is broken today to find out that we’ve lost our dear friend Charlie Daniels.”

Contemporary country artists like Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean also paid tribute to Daniels on social media. “What a hero. A true patriot, Christian, and country music icon. Prayers to his family,” said Bryan in a tweet.

“Charlie Daniels embodied the fire of the South,” said Ronnie Milsap in a statement. “He blurred lines between rock and country, when rock didn’t think country was cool, and his Volunteer Jams weren’t just legendary, they brought people from both of those worlds together.”

In the 1990s Daniels softened some of his lyrics from his earlier days when he often was embroiled in controversy.

In “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” a 1979 song about a fiddling duel between the devil and a whippersnapper named Johnny, Daniels originally called the devil a “son of a b----,” but changed it to “son of a gun.”

In his hit “Long Haired Country Boy,” he used to sing about being “stoned in the morning” and “drunk in the afternoon.” Daniels changed it to “I get up in the morning. I get down in the afternoon.”

“I guess I’ve mellowed in my old age,” Daniels said in 1998.

Otherwise, though, he rarely backed down from in-your-face lyrics.

His “Simple Man” in 1990 suggested lynching drug dealers and using child abusers as alligator bait.

His “In America” in 1980 told the country’s enemies to “go straight to hell.”

Such tough talk earned him guest spots on “Politically Incorrect,” the G. Gordon Liddy radio show and on C-Span taking comments from viewers. Later in life, he wrote frequently about his conservative political views on his website and on Twitter, issuing daily tweets aimed at Hillary Clinton about the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Libya, but also bringing attention to veteran suicides.

“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was No. 1 on the country charts in 1979 and crossed over to the pop charts. It was voted single of the year by the Country Music Association and earned his band a Grammy for best country vocal performance by a duo or group.

In the climactic verse, Daniels sang:

“The devil bowed his head because he knew that he’d been beat.

“He laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Johnny’s feet.

“Johnny said, ‘Devil just come on back if you ever want to try again.

“I told you once you son of a (gun), I’m the best that’s ever been.‘”

He hosted regular Volunteer Jam concerts in Nashville in which the performers usually were not announced in advance. Entertainers at these shows included Don Henley, Amy Grant, James Brown, Pat Boone, Bill Monroe, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alabama, Billy Joel, Little Richard, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eugene Fodor and Woody Herman.

“Charlie Daniels embodied the fire of the South,” said Ronnie Milsap in a statement. “He blurred lines between rock and country, when rock didn’t think country was cool, and his Volunteer Jams weren’t just legendary, they brought people from both of those worlds together.”

Daniels, a native of Wilmington, N.C., played on several Dylan albums as a Nashville recording session guitarist in the late 1960s, including “New Morning” and “Self-Portrait.” He also played on albums by Marty Robbins, Claude King, Flatt & Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Leonard Cohen, Al Kooper and Ringo Starr.

He also performed gospel music, which earned him Dove Awards as well. He co-founded a veterans charity called The Journey Home Project.

Eventually, at the age of 71, he was invited to join the epitome of Nashville’s music establishment, the Grand Ole Opry. He was inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016.

He said in 1998 that he kept touring so much because “I have never played those notes perfectly. I’ve never sung every song perfectly. I’m in competition to be better tonight than I was last night and to be better tomorrow than tonight.”

Daniels said his favorite place to play was “anywhere with a good crowd and a good paycheck.”