Straight Outta Compton, Vin Scully's call to be preserved by Library of Congress

First it became the basis for an Oscar-nominated movie. Now, Straight Outta Compton — the groundbreaking album from rap group N.W.A. and a one-time flashpoint in the nation's culture wars — has been selected for the prestigious U.S. National Recording Registry.

The album was one of 25 additions to the registry announced Wednesday by the Library of Congress, and it wasn't the only one with a Los Angeles connection.

Baseball play-by-play from Vin Scully, who retired last year after calling Dodgers games for 67 years, will also join the national library's trove of recordings, which are selected for their historical, artistic or cultural significance. 

The library chose longtime baseball announcer Vin Scully's call of the final meeting between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants at Manhattan's Polo Grounds in 1957 for induction. Both teams would depart for California after that season, joined by Scully, who retired in 2016 after broadcasting his final major-league game for the Dodgers. (D. Ross Cameron/The Associated Press)

The library chose Scully's call of the final meeting between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants at Manhattan's Polo Grounds in 1957. Both teams would depart for California after that season.

"It's a rather imposing call to realize that something that you have done would technically live forever in the Library of Congress," Scully, 89, told The Associated Press from his home in Hidden Hills, Calif. 

"It was a particularly meaningful game for me anyway, so to have it picked up and put for posterity is rather humbling and, at the same time, overwhelming."

Plenty of standards are joining the registry too, including Judy Garland's version of Over the Rainbow, the Eagles' 1976 greatest-hits collection and Don McLean's elliptical 1971 folk song American Pie.

N.W.A.'s influential release

Released in 1988, Straight Outta Compton influenced a generation of rappers with its raw lyrics about gang violence and the drug trade in south central Los Angeles.

Released in 1988, Straight Outta Compton influenced a generation of rappers with its raw, incendiary portrayal of gangs, drugs and violence in Los Angeles. It achieved platinum sales without radio airplay and captured the attention of America.

It achieved platinum sales without radio airplay and captured the attention of white America. The incendiary track F--k tha Police was denounced by right-wing politicians and prompted a warning letter from the FBI to the group's record label.

The album was also one of the first to receive a parental advisory label for explicit content, the outgrowth of a group started by Tipper Gore, then-wife of future vice president Al Gore. But the controversy has long since faded and critics consistently rank it as one of the best hip-hop albums ever made.

While N.W.A. brought the L.A. sound to the world of rap, Scully is an L.A. transplant who moved west with the Dodgers. He was 29 years old when he called his last game at the Polo Grounds, which was about 20 blocks from his grammar school, and he captured the melancholy of the moment.

"I wanted that game to take forever, which is a little different. Today, everyone talks about, and maybe not the fans, but certainly those of us broadcasting and writing, we're always talking about how long the game is. Baseball is now trying to see if they can't speed things up," Scully said.

"But as a kid way back, and even as a broadcaster, I remember saying, 'Take it easy fellas, be slow, let's squeeze all of the juice out of this game before we finally close the curtain on it.'"

Streisand's People, Bowie's Ziggy Stardust

Recordings picked for the registry are preserved at the library's vast audio-visual vault in Culpeper, Va. If they have already been preserved elsewhere, the library collaborates with those studios or archives to ensure they will be available to future generations.

This year's selections date back as far as 1888. That's when Col. George Gouraud, a Civil War hero and friend of Thomas Edison, used his newly acquired wax-cylinder phonograph to record the voices of prominent poets, scientists, musicians and politicians, including William Ewart Gladstone, the future prime minister of Britain, and Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert & Sullivan.

Other additions to the registry include Barbra Streisand's 1964 recording of the song People, from the musical Funny Girl; the late David Bowie's 1972 concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars; the original-cast recording of the musical The Wiz (1975); and Sister Sledge's inclusive anthem We are Family (1979).

"I believe People touched our common desire to relate to others with love and caring, and I've always tried to express this in my renditions of this magical song," Streisand said in a statement.

Garland, too, felt the magic of Over the Rainbow, which was released as a single in 1939 after she sang the ballad in The Wizard of Oz. The song won an Academy Award, and she continued singing it throughout her career, crediting its "childlike, wistful quality" to composer Harold Arlen.

The Eagles, on the other hand, weren't too enthusiastic about Their Greatest Hits, which was released in 1976 against the band's wishes. But it became their biggest success and remains one of the top-selling albums of all time. The California soft-rock group was also recognized at last year's Kennedy Center Honors.

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Straight Outta Compton, Vin Scully's call to be preserved by Library of Congress

20 years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Scooby gang reunites

Buffy Summers and her old pals from Sunnydale High are reuniting to celebrate the 20th birthday of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

'This is like a high school reunion, but much worse because they all still look really great,' series creator Joss Whedon says of the reunion. (Warner Bros./Getty Images)

Series creator Joss Whedon talks with stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan and 10 other cast members on EW Reunites: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which premieres Wednesday on the streaming People/Entertainment Weekly Network .

"This is like a high school reunion, but much worse because they all still look really great," Whedon says.

He and series stars including David Boreanaz, Nicolas Brendon, Charisma Carpenter and Michelle Trachtenberg share memories of their days on the show and reflect on its enduring impact.

TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on March 10, 1997 and ran through 2003. The title character and her friends battled vampires, demons and other dark forces while navigating everyday struggles of young adults. (Getty Images)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered in 1997 and ran through 2003. Its title character battled vampires, demons and other dark forces while navigating everyday teenage struggles.

Whedon was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on the show in 2000.

The show was 'the ultimate metaphor' for teens, said star Sarah Michelle Gellar. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/Associated Press)

The show was "the ultimate metaphor," Gellar says.

"It was utilizing the horrors of adolescence manifested through these actual monsters," she says.

"And I think that [for] everyone going through it, that's the hardest time of life and to understand that you're not alone through that."

The interview was filmed earlier this month in Los Angeles.

The reunited Buffy cast also appears on the cover of the upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine, available Friday.

Joss Whedon, seen second left during the taping of the series finale in 2003, was nominated for a writing Emmy for the show. (Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press)

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20 years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Scooby gang reunites

Bob Dylan to accept Nobel honour this weekend in Stockholm

Nobel literature prize laureate Bob Dylan will meet with members of the Swedish Academy during a weekend visit to Stockholm and they will hand over his Nobel diploma and medal, the academy said Wednesday

Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the academy, said in a blog on the academy's website that Dylan will not give his Nobel lecture during the weekend but that a recorded version would be sent at a later date.

She noted that taped Nobel lectures are occasionally presented, most recently in 2013 by Canadian Nobel literature laureate Alice Munro.

Danius said that the academy "is very much looking forward to the weekend" and will attend a Dylan concert, but added that the setting of their meeting will be "small and intimate, and no media will be present," in line with his wishes.

The 75-year-old Dylan, who was awarded the prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition," declined an invitation last year to the traditional Nobel Prize banquet and ceremony on Dec. 10 — the date of Alfred Nobel's death — pleading other commitments. He is performing concerts in Stockholm both Saturday and Sunday. 

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Bob Dylan to accept Nobel honour this weekend in Stockholm

'It was a shock': Residential school survivor sees her painting more than 50 years later

It was a way to express the horrors she went through at residential school. It was cathartic.

That is how Gina Laing describes the after-hours art classes she attended at the residential school in Port Alberni.

A member of the Uchucklesaht Tribe, Laing was recently reunited with art she painted more than 50 years ago.

Laing's paintings were part of a collection donated to the University of Victoria in 2008 by the family of Robert Aller, the teacher who led the extracurricular art classes at the school.

As part of the era of reconciliation, staff at the university decided to start an initiative to reunite students with their paintings. 

After being tracked down by university staff, Laing describes seeing her painting The Beach for the first time since she created it at the age of 11.

"It was a shock," Laing told host Gregor Craigie on CBC's On the Island. 

"I was very emotional when I saw the painting because I remembered immediately why I had painted it.

"The painting was of the beach at my home at my reservation. I left out the houses because I had bad pictures, bad ideas, bad thoughts about the homes down there because I knew what was going on in most of them."

Gina Laing's painting 'The Beach' will be displayed at the Canadian Museum of History in Hull, Quebec. (April Thompson)

I was always afraid

Laing describes the art class as 'life saving', saying she probably wouldn't have survived residential school without the chance to express herself.

"The way things were going while I was at residential school, it was terrifying at points. And there was always pressure to perform the way they wanted you to, and I always was afraid."

Laing does, however, have fond memories of Aller, who she says gave the children creative freedom.

"He was a wonderful man," Laing said.

"He would walk around behind us with his hands behind his back, sometimes he would be humming a tune, and he never ever made us do anything.

"He asked questions like, 'Where is the sun? Where is the light coming from? How far away is that?', so you actually used your own mind."

Andrea Walsh is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Victoria and she helped reunite residential school survivors with their artwork.

He taught them how to paint, not what to paint

Walsh says Aller was an artist who trained under Arthur Lismer, a member of the Group of Seven.

"The classes were really unique," Walsh said, "He never taught the children what to paint. He taught them how to paint. In the classes too, he allowed them to think through what they wanted to."

As to whether he knew about the abuse going on at residential schools, Walsh believes his memoirs make it clear he had an understanding.

Gina Laing attended the Port Alberni Indian Residential School which is infamous for its brutal treatment of students. (April Thompson)

" 'The Indian child is not a drop-out, he has been pushed out," Walsh recalled reading in Aller's memoirs.

"To me, this is a marker that Mr. Aller understood these children had incredible potential and the system was not allowing them to realize it. And I think that through his art classes he hoped that a little bit of that potential, they would see in themselves."

The artwork by the residential school survivors is currently on display at Alberni District Secondary School.

As part of the celebrations for Canada's 150th anniversary, it will be exhibited at the Canadian Museum of History in Hull, Quebec.

With files from On the Island

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'It was a shock': Residential school survivor sees her painting more than 50 years later

3 dead as freelance tornado chasers for Weather Channel crash vehicles

Three storm chasers were killed when their vehicles collided at a rural crossroads during severe West Texas storms on Tuesday.

The storms spawned multiple funnel clouds and an occasional tornado in open areas of West Texas on Tuesday afternoon. No damage was reported.

The crash happened at a remote intersection near the town of Spur, about 85 kilometres southeast of Lubbock. Tornadoes had been reported nearby at the time of the crash and heavy rain had been reported in the area, according to the National Weather Service.

The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the three storm chasers killed as Kelley Gene Williamson, 57, and Randall Delane Yarnall, 55, both of Cassville, Missouri, and Corbin Lee Jaeger, 25, of Peoria, Arizona.

DPS Sgt. John Gonzalez said the Chevrolet Suburban driven by Williamson ran a stop sign and slammed into the Jeep driven by Yarnall with Jaeger as passenger. All three were killed instantly.

On Wednesday, the threat shifts eastward, and forecasters say about 19 million people in Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana could see stormy weather, including the possibility of strong tornadoes.

The Weather Channel in the U.S. expressed its condolences in a statement on Tuesday night, saying two of the men were freelancers for the network.

Weather Channel Statement on Loss of Beloved Members of the Weather Community: https://t.co/ZO0prjJfWS

— @weatherchannel

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3 dead as freelance tornado chasers for Weather Channel crash vehicles

Bill Cosby's lawyers ask to exclude testimony on other women, pills

Bill Cosby's lawyers don't want jurors at his suburban Philadelphia sexual-assault trial to hear he gave women quaaludes, money or educational funds.

The defense says in court papers filed Tuesday that Cosby's deposition testimony about those topics would prejudice the jury.

Cosby acknowledged in a decade-old deposition he gave a woman quaaludes and a string of women alcohol or pills before sex. And he said he offered some accusers money or educational funds.

But the judge has ruled most of those women can't testify in his trial. So the defense wants his deposition testimony about them excluded as well.

Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting a Temple University basketball team manager in 2004. He has pleaded not guilty.

He's set to go on trial June 5.

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Bill Cosby's lawyers ask to exclude testimony on other women, pills

Margaret Atwood expands The Handmaid's Tale for audiobook

Margaret Atwood hasn't quite finished telling The Handmaid's Tale.

The Canadian author has provided additional material for a special audio edition coming out next week exclusively from audio producer and distributor Audible.com, which is owned by Amazon.com. The audiobook expands upon a version released in 2012 and narrated by Claire Danes, Audible told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Atwood's novel, as related through a handmaid known as "Offred," imagines a dystopian republic named Gilead in which women have lost their rights and even their identities.

The original book ends with a section called "Historical Notes," a 22nd-century academic symposium discussing the now-fallen Gilead and the ordeal of Offred, who had recorded her story on a set of cassette tapes. "Are there any questions?" is the final line.

"The roots of The Handmaid's Tale are in audio — Offred's story was recorded, not written, and even the 'Historical Notes' are a voice — so I was excited to extend the story for Audible with additional material meant specifically to be heard," Atwood said in a statement.

Revisiting the final scene of The Handmaid's Tale 'was an engrossing challenge,' said Margaret Atwood. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

"The Handmaid's Tale ends with 'Are there any questions?' With this new special audio edition, I've added the questions and answers that I think the people at that symposium, occurring in 2195, might ask. It was an engrossing challenge for me to revisit that last scene of the book and address some questions that I know many readers and listeners have had, over the years, after finishing The Handmaid's Tale."

Atwood's prize-winning novel was first published in 1985, but has returned to bestseller charts as part of a wave of works on the loss of democracy that has sold strongly since the election of Donald Trump as president.

Interest in The Handmaid's Tale has become even greater in anticipation of a new adaptation, released through the Hulu streaming service, that is scheduled for release in late April and stars Elisabeth Moss as Offred.

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Margaret Atwood expands The Handmaid's Tale for audiobook