It was wishful thinking on my part that this was a hoax but it’s not. Prince is dead at the age of 57.

Prince’s body was discovered at his Paisley Park compound in Minnesota early Thursday morning. Multiple sources connected to the singer confirmed he had passed.

Prince had a medical emergency on April 15th that forced his private jet to make an emergency landing in Illinois. But he appeared at a concert the next day to assure his fans he was okay. His people told TMZ he was battling the flu.

According to TMZ, authorities responded to a medical emergency at his property on Thursday at about 9.43am.  The Carver County Sheriff’s department in Chanhassen, Minnesota has confirmed there has been a fatality, and they’re notifying next of kin.

After his sold-out performance in Atlanta on Thursday, April 14 his private jet made an unscheduled landing at Quad City International Airport in Illinois.

From there the Purple Rain star was taken to hospital.

According to TMZ, he was released three hours later, returned to his plane and was taken home.

Just days later he was pictured cycling around Paisley Park and held a party for fans at Paisley Park.

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How do you make China’s 13th five-year plan, a far too dense document laying out the country’s future economic strategy from 2015-2020, appeal to the masses? Make a crazy ass video that’s the love child of Schoolhouse Rock and Joseph Goebbels.

“If you wanna know what China’s gonna do, best pay attention to the shí sān wǔ.”

Shí sān wǔ are the Chinese words for “13-five.” So you better pay attention to it, man.

China’s Five Year Plan video is a thing of beauty. It features the Great Wall, a Volkswagen camper van, a rubber duck, disembodied lips, a mixtape, a disco ball, Albert Einstein, and a guy with poo on his head.

Revival Road Workshop

The psychedelic video was created by the incredibly mysterious Revival Road Workshop, a media company that has put out a bunch of pro-China videos.

The company was behind a propaganda video earlier this year about how much the Chinese love Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Welcome to Stupid People Monday, where I, against my better judgement, post about stupid people who walk among us.

Stupid People: Steve Santagati

First up is Steve Santagati, self-proclaimed #1 relationship expert in America and author of the book The Manual. This yahoo appeared on CNN with Amanda Seales to discuss the Hollaback video of a woman enduring hours of catcalling in New York City that went viral last week.

As soon as Steve Santagati opened his mouth it was evident that he is a complete idiot and a total d-bag. My favorite part was when he said, “Political correctness has gone too far. If you don’t like it as a woman, turn around and tell him to shut up. Stand up for yourself. Act like a strong woman …”

When Amanda Seales pointed out that a woman in Detroit was just killed for doing that (and another woman had her throat slashed for not going ton a date with a stranger) Stupid Steve said, “Then carry a gun.”

Oh Steve, you’re such a romantic.

Check out the whole segment here.

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Yesterday I posted about my lifelong struggle with depression, anxiety and my Bipolar Express. Wait. Make that the Bipolar II Express. The reaction to that post was overwhelming. I had more hits on my website than I’ve ever had. Here’s what I learned:

Depressive Disorders Affect Nearly Everyone

The number of people who said they struggle with depression, anxiety or Bipolar or struggle with family members or friends afflicted with a depressive illness was staggering. I had friends email me privately to tell me about their illnesses and failed suicide attempts. Some wrote about friends who sadly didn’t fail.

When you look at the facts, however, this should come as no surprise. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 350 million people globally suffer from depression, and the number is growing.

The WHO projects depression will be the No. 1 global disease burden by 2030, surpassing heart disease and cancer. It is anticipated that it will be No. 2 by 2020.

And here’s what I love: the report says most developing countries spend less than 2% of their national budgets on mental healthcare.

What the hell!?

We need to stop being afraid to talk about depressive illness and face it head on. And it’s already begun. Celebrities are already talking about their struggles. The more we can get it into the spotlight the better.

There Is Help

Okay, I didn’t really learn this yesterday but it bears repeating: There is help!

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is open 24/7 on 1-800-273-8255. If you need it, call. Yesterday alone saw a spike in calls to the NJ Hopeline. That number is 855-654-6735.

There are groups like Mental Health America and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance that can help.

Try to get out and exercise. If you can’t bring yourself to do that, try to get out in the sunshine. Studies show that just being in the sunlight can help.

There are also some great books. One of my favorites is “Shoot the Damn Dog: A Memoir of Depression.” By page 2 I felt such relief because I discovered I wasn’t alone and there were other people in the world going through the same thing. Buy it here.

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China has been rolling out  safe havens, little shelters, where parents can abandon their child without fear of facing charges or revealing their identity.  At Guangzhou’s first safe haven,  51 children were abandoned in the first 13 days of operation, according to China Daily.

Not all the children were babies. Some were 5 and 6 years old. But all of the children were critically ill or disabled.

There’s been a lot of controversy about the program, as some feel it will just become a dumping ground. And already the number of abandoned children has exceeded the estimate by government officials.

While it may seem cruel for parents to abandon their children, and we have no way of knowing why they’re abandoning their children, it beats the alternative. I adopted my daughter from China in 2005. She was abandoned in a park. Fortunately she didn’t join the 70-million girls who met a worser fate.

China has a huge social issue that needs to be addressed.

Photo Courtesy: Xinhua

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Rarely do I post a straight up article from the AP but this story about a Russian activist being sent to prison for three years for spray painting a fence is hashtag cray-cray.

And he was found guilty of swearing at a bus stop, a hooliganism charge.

Holy f**k. Swearing at a bust stop is a mother f**king hooliganism charge? I’m not moving to f**king Russia. I’d be in deep s**t for swearing too d**n f**king much. I’d like to see that f**king law fly in New York City.

SOCHI, Russia February 12, 2014 (AP)

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA  Associated Press

An activist who shed light on the environmental impact of Olympic construction in Sochi was ordered Wednesday to serve three years in prison for spray-painting a fence.

A court in the regional capital of Krasnodar converted the suspended sentence given to Yevgeny Vitishko in 2012 into a prison term, according to his lawyer, Alexander Popkov.

“We expected it and so did Zhenya (Vitishko),” Popkov told The Associated Press, adding that the ruling confirms suspicions that Vitishko is “persecuted for his activities.”

Vitishko and another activist, Suren Gazaryan, were found guilty in 2012 of “deliberate destruction of property” for spray-painting the fence of what they said was a local governor’s property in a national forest where construction is forbidden. Both received a suspended sentence, but Gazaryan was later threatened with additional charges and promptly left the country. He received political asylum in Estonia last year.

As a condition for his suspended sentence, Vitishko had to check in regularly with penitentiary officials and inform them of his travel plans. Officials last year petitioned the court to convert Vitishko’s suspended sentence into a prison term, claiming that he had failed to inform him of his trip out of town.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday condemned the ruling, saying that “the case against Vitishko has been politically motivated from the start.” The rights group called on the International Olympic Committee to urge Russian authorities to free the activist.

Vitishko was planning to go to Sochi last week to present an environmental report but was arrested in his hometown of Tuapse, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the northwest, after formally filing for permission to travel to the Olympic city. He was found guilty of swearing at a bus stop, a hooliganism charge.

Popkov said prosecutors cited his Feb. 3 arrest as another argument in favor of his imprisonment.

Rights group last year said local officials in Krasnodar and Sochi were directly responsible for the campaign of what they described as harassment and intimidation against local activists and journalists. Regional officials have denied any role in persecuting Vitishko and other members of Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus, a key critic of the games’ environmental record.

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My new play, Tom Jones, will get its world premiere at the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, FL this spring! I’ve been waiting for the official press release to come out before I said anything and lo and behold it appeared in the Sarasota Herald Tribune today.

I’m thrilled and nervous (my perpetual state of mind, minus the thrilled) to have a new play hit the stage. And I’m very excited that Florida Studio Theatre is doing the world premiere. FST produced Around the World in 80 Days when the script was still getting its legs and the show was a huge hit for them. I think the show received five Sarasota Magazine Theatre Award nominations. So yea Florida Studio Theatre.

Is It About Tom Jones the Welsh Singer?

No, it is not about Tom Jones the Welsh singer, although (spoiler alert) I make reference to him in the script. Of course I do. I am a man without shame. Or taste, as some people have told me. This Tom Jones is the title character in the 346,747 word Fielding novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. I have reduced the 1000-page book into what I’m hoping will be a 2-hour fun-filled show. Good God I’m hoping it’s fun-filled.  And here I’ve reduced the 2-hour play into one paragraph:

Tom Jones, a charming young man of questionable birth, is madly in love with Sophia Western, who is equally in love with Tom. But when Sophia’s father arranges for her to marry a loathsome man, she flees for her life. When Tom is subsequently banished from his home, he goes in search of Sophia. Aristocrats, wenches and scalawags abound in this bawdy and rollicking romp through the back roads and bedchambers of England.

And here’s what Florida Studio Theatre Artistic Director Richard Hopkins has to say about the show (This is the part my mom will like because someone she doesn’t know says nice things about me):

“First of all, Tom Jones is a wonderful swashbuckler of a story in the classic style of the great adventures. Second, it is adapted by Mark Brown, one of the best of our contemporary comic playwrights who authored Around the World in 80 Days, which was a huge hit for FST. Between Henry Fielding’s classic novel, and Mark’s ribald sense of theatricality, these two together make for a cosmic and comic energy relished by actors and directors alike. Mark has that rare ability to twist a classic into contemporary sensibility and make it thoroughly enjoyable. His adaptation is filled with the stuff of great theatre: love, sex, and laughter.”

I’m sure I’ll have many updates before opening night.

Tom Jones will run April 9-June 1 in FST’s Gompertz Theatre, 1247 First St., Sarasota. For more information: 366-9000; floridastudiotheatre.org

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To commemorate Mao’s birthday, here’s a demo recording from my musical China – The Whole Enchilada, written with my friend Paul Mirkovich. In the show, the song is sung by Joseph Stalin.

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“It’s not easy being mean.” ~ Constantine

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