<tr><td>( Eid Mubarak! )

 ( RACIAL SLUR MADE BY H&M EMPLOYEE WORKING AT CHGO MICH.AVE LOCATION )

Elizabeth Murray, 66, Artist of Vivid Forms, Dies
from the New York Times

Elizabeth Murray, a New York painter who reshaped Modernist abstraction into a high-spirited, cartoon-based, language of form whose subjects included domestic life, relationships and the nature of painting itself, died yesterday at her home in upstate New York.

She was 66 and lived in TriBeCa and in Washington County, N.Y.



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Common finds forever: an album that once again expands hip hop's geographic mind-map and solidifies the go-ill's place in this cultural movement. A signature Kanye stamp underscores the top-notch production of this album without undermining Common's message by turning it into the Kanye show; eight tracks is enough. Reluctant fans of Kanye's lyrical ability (or lack thereof) will gratefully salute his vocal absence, save "Southside," which for the named Chicagoans on that fortunate end of the compass rose, will arguably be the duet anthem of the decade. "Start the Show" and "Driving Me Wild" are sure barnburners, while "The Game" carries over the momentum and edge into the remaining, more contemplative five tracks. "The People," though the album's flagship track, will never escape the inherent "Peace, Love, and GAP" contradictions of this (RED) generation of world stage celebs; work on that, Common. The social commentaries of "Black Maybe" and "So Far To Go," find their saving grace in the J-Dilla beats and crooning of Bilal and D'Angelo, respectively. A decided shift from the headnod to the swingin' stepper-set "Break My Heart" rhythms is reconciled with "Misunderstood," an intergenerational dialogue of soul-searching Simone's. And what's a Common album without an epilogue by Lonnie Lynn? Cue cards aside, "origin is forever...just talk, don't sing." well said. Bring home forever, pops. Your son did you proud with this one.