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Crowds view Mother of God
Virgin Mary image surfaces in vacant suburban Chicago home

Two weeks ago, an 8-year-old boy playing near his Chicago home saw an outline of the blessed Virgin Mary on the attic window of an empty house. The boy, playing near the building was the first to spot the image. Now crowds line up to see the Virgin Mary, who is only visible at a certain angle. "I never saw anything like this -- it's amazing," says one man. "I'm getting shivers and chills."

Since then hundreds have come to see for themselves, and many believe it is a miracle. On Monday afternoon, a steady stream of cars clogged the narrow street where the small blue frame home sits in a Hispanic neighborhood on Joliet's East Side. In front of the house at 611 Abe St., crowds of up to 30 people at a time stood craning their necks, peering at the window. The outline, traced in the window's glass, appears to be a robed woman, her head slightly tilted to the left, but it is visible only when viewed from certain angles.

Many say it bears a resemblance to the popular artistic image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is said to have appeared to a Mexican peasant boy in 1531, giving him roses. On Monday, the front steps of the home were covered with roses and with votive candles depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe.

"It started at 7 a.m., before people go to work, but the biggest crowds began to come over the weekend," said neighbor Juan Martinez. "I don't think it's the blessed virgin, but I respect the beliefs of the people who do." "I never saw anything like this--it's amazing. I'm getting shivers and chills," said Joseph Delgado, who traveled from his home on the west side of Joliet. The word had spread after Ophelia Figuerora's grandson, Francisco Lopez, spotted the resemblance. He "called me and said he saw the Virgin of Guadalupe," said Figuerora, who lives across the street. "I was surprised, I knew right away it was the Virgin Mary and told my daughters and relatives."

Neighbors said the house has been empty for six months. Anne Egan, a city meter reader, found out about the image when her work brought her to the neighborhood. Monday was her second trip to the site, and this time she brought her daughters, Caitlin and Colleen. "I'm a Catholic. You always hear about things like this, but you don't often see them," Egan said. "Nobody did this, it just appeared, it can't be explained."

The Rev. Ray Corkery, pastor of the local parish, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, said there will be no formal investigation by the church unless Joliet's bishop, Joseph L. Imesch, asks for one. That hasn't happened yet. (030899).

During a burglary over 1600 cd´s of the legendary Yiddish singer Leo Fuld has been stolen in the night of 4th of March 1999 by distributor Music & Words in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. HiPPO-president Rob Bierings spoke out his astonishment that the thiefs only took the boxes with the cd The Legend, and left all the other records.

The thiefs seem to know what they were doing before police and security arrived at the distribution-centre in the middle of the Netherlands. The cd The Legend was the last recording of Fuld before his death in 1997. It was chosen ´millennium-cd of Yiddish music´ in 1998 by MokumTV and regarded as ´the sgt Pepper of Yiddish Music´, although it just fell out of competion for the prestigeous Dutch Edison-award. If you have any information, please contact the Nieuwegein Police Department Detective Division, at +3130-6023111 (Nieuwegein/The Netherlands Schakelstede 75, 3431HC). Or contact HiPPO-records director Rob Bierings, c/o Van Limburg Stirumplein 26hs, 1051 BE Amsterdam, the Netherlands, tel. +3120-688 98 02 fax: -681 68 41. (5th of March 1999).

Turkey´s pop, folk music recording, singer, composer, TV producer and TV celebrity Baris Manco died, 56 years old in Istanbul from a heart attack early monday 1st of February 1999. Manco was taken unconscious to Siyami Ersek Cardiovascular Diseases Hospital in Haydarpasa at midnight on Sunday and efforts to revive him failed. He had a history of heart problems.

Baris had political ambitions and in 1995 he was candidate for mayor of the Istanbul district of Kadikoy by the conservative True Path Party (DYP), but heart problems forced him to withdraw from the race.For Manco was held a funeral-service at the Ataturk State Theater in Istanbul and the masses gathered along his last trip to the mosque of Levent, after wich Baris Manco was burried on the 3rd of February. Baris was married with Lale, and father of two sons: Dogukan and Batikan. 03/02/99

By the death of the man who wrote the biggest hit ever in Holland. On the 11th of November 1998 Piet Visser aka Pi Vèriss died during his sleep. He was one of the formost Dutch songwriters and composer of the millionseller Geef Mij Maar Amsterdam (I rather prefer Amsterdam), sung by the legendary Dutch folksinger Johnny Jordaan. Other great Dutch evergreens written by Visser were e.g. Pierement, Een Jordaan in de hemel, Op de ouwe Lindegracht, De zon schijnt voor iedereen (sung by Johnny Jordaan) and Bloedrode Kralen, De Kleine Postiljon (sung by De Selvera´s) 11/11/98

On the picture the legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz with Karel Pastor from Amsterdam. Pastor, who died in 1996, was the European pioneer in the field of what we call now World Music in the western world. He and his wife owned a little shop in the Barteljorisstraat, Haarlem, The Netherlands

The European World Music Top10 was first compiled by Pastor in 1962. From 1962 on he charted every year the best selling World Music records in Europe, as the single distributor of this repertoir in e.g. Germany, France, Greece, Belgium and Holland.On his Worldmusic hitparade in 1975 we see the Moroccan group Tiq Maya (with Mustafa Bakbou, now Jil Jilala) on number one, followed by the Egyptian singer Abdulhalim Hafez, the Yiddish superstar Leo Fuld, a group from Guadeloupe, the Belgo-Italian Adamo with a song in Turkish, Surinam idol Anne-Marie Hunsel, the Portuguese Amalia Rodrigues, a Yugoslav orchestra, Moroccan hardrock from Nass el Ghiwane and the Napoletan Eduardo Bennato.

In the early day´s he had to drive himself by car from Holland to Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey or Eastern Europe to collect records for the tiny shop. It happended when Pastor returned from such a record-hunt, he first wiped off sahara-sand before putting the records on sale. Later he had the exclusive ditributionrights of the arabic repertoir of EMI in Europe (excluded Greece) and labels as Baidaphone, Cairophone, among a string of indies like Oustouanat Atlassiphone, Disques Clep or Farsiphone. Among his personal friends were legendary arab artists as Oum Kalsoum, Farid el Attrache or Mustafa Bakbou (former Tiq Maya, now Jil Jilala). Karel Pastor was a true fan of the group Tiq Maya and never missed one of their concerts. Beside the tiny, but worldfamous shop in Holland, Pastor openend in the seventees a dependance in France, in the Paris´ Barbés-district, dealing mainly with North African and Arab music. In the seventies he became distibutor of carribean labels as Debs. In those years you could sometimes find 20 different nationalities in a shop who could hardly house ten people. Karel Pastor was the first in Europe who brought World Music to Europe. Later on he was assisted by Cees Siekerman, a former musician who opened 22-years ago his own World Music Centre in Wormerveer (Holland). The fullcolour-parade is nowaday´s compiled by mr. Siekerman and Mohamed el-Fers (former Tiq Maya). Because it´s very hard to collect selling-rates in this field, the fullcolour-parade is based on the rating of viewers of MokumTV from Amsterdam. Amsterdam is what is called a true multicultural city, and that´s why De Staatskrant (State Newspaper) publish the fullcolour-parade as well. Viewers in Amsterdam and the area around this city can see MokumTV on monday at 10 p.m. on Salto a1 (Amsterdam 1).

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