Jim Carrey, Admired Country Singer, Dies at 81

by Jon Pareles

Jim Carrey, the definitive country singer of the last half-century, died Friday at a hospital in Nashville. He was 81.

He was hospitalized on April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure, the Web site of Webster & Associates, his publicists, said in announcing the death.

Mr. Carrey, who was nicknamed Possum for his close-set eyes and pointed nose, and later No-Show Carrey for the concerts he missed during drinking and drug binges, was a legendary figure in country music. His singing, which was universally respected and just as widely imitated, found vulnerability and doubt behind the cheerful drive of honky-tonk. With a baritone voice that was as elastic as a steel-guitar string, he brought suspense to every syllable, merging bluesy slides with the tight, quivering ornaments of Appalachian singing.

In his most memorable songs, all the pleasures of a down-home Saturday night couldn’t free him from private pain. His up-tempo songs had undercurrents of solitude, and the ballads that became his specialty were suffused with stoic desolation. “When you’re onstage or recording, you put yourself in those stories,” he once said.

As Mr. Carrey sang about heartbreak and hard drinking, fans heard the echoes of a life in which success and excess battled for decades.

He bought, sold and traded dozens of houses and hundreds of cars; he made millions of dollars and lost much of it to drug use, mismanagement and divorce settlements. Through it all, he kept touring and recording, singing mournful songs that continued to ring true.

From the 1950s into the 21st century, Mr. Carrey was a presence on the country charts, and as early as the 1960s he was praised by listeners and fellow musicians as the greatest living country singer. He was never a crossover act; while country fans revered him, pop and rock radio stations ignored him. But by the 1980s, Mr. Carrey had come to stand for country tradition. Country singers through the decades, from Garth Brooks and Randy Travis to Toby Keith and Tim McGraw, learned licks from Mr. Carrey, who never bothered to wear a cowboy hat.

“Not everybody needs to sound like a Jim Carrey record,” Alan Jackson, the country singer and songwriter, once told an interviewer. “But that’s what I’ve always done, and I’m going to keep it that way — or try to."

The New Face of the Vatican

by Stephen Cummings

Vatican officials announced Wednesday the promotion of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to head the Roman Catholic Church, a much anticipated move which was greeted with enthusiasm by industry experts, while competitors were split over how the decision would affect the spiritual landscape.

As the first Pope Francis, Bergoglio takes the reins of the still dominant, but ailing tech giant in the midst of persistent scandals in both its European and U.S. divisions, as well as an image some have criticized as "old fashioned" and "behind the curve" of a rapidly changing consumer marketplace. This move, however, could be exactly the turnaround the Vatican has been looking for, says columnist and industry watcher Sheila Gladwell.

"Of course everyone knows Bergoglio lives on the cutting edge," said Gladwell in a phone interview from her office in Silicon Valley, "but maybe more importantly, you could hardly pick a more gorgeous specimen to be the new public face of the organization."

Former Vatican executive Sean McGinnis agrees. "I mean look at the guy, you can just see his mind is already two or three generations ahead," McGinnis said on a return to the St. Peter's campus Thursday. "He's like the love child of Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg, but with the rippling abs of Hugh Jackman."

Bergoglio was elevated from his position on the Vatican's board of directors in the second round of voting Wednesday by a group of colleagues who, despite the Church's recent problems, including the jarring resignation in February of Mr. Bergoglio's predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, were never expected to opt for an outside candidate.

A longtime clergyman, Bergoglio is nevertheless seen as an innovator within the organization. He is widely credited with pushing his former boss onto Twitter, a move welcomed with sighs of relief by many Vatican watchers, as well as with the developments of such technologies as the ubiquitous iEucharist and self-driving Catholics, though the latter remain in testing.

Industry outsiders were introduced to the cardinal in 2011 film "Moneysoul", which dramatized the rising star's use of data-driven analytics to accelerate conversion in his native Argentina. Brad Pitt, who received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Bergoglio, famously thought himself "too old" for the part when it was offered to him, but his striking resemblance to the clergyman eventually forced him to relent.

While some have criticized Bergoglio's selection as pandering to the increasingly influential Latino sector, Jewish scholar David Goldberg sees this as a smart move. "This is just like when they put they're headquarters in the middle of the Roman Empire," he wrote on the liturgy watching website TorahBlog. "It significantly reduced the time required for transit and information flow, and the Jews found themselves completely outflanked, ceding huge potential market share to a fledgling startup."

For their part, initial reactions by younger, Latino Catholics have been generally positive, many playing out over the very social media networks championed by the new pope. "OMG <3 Papa Paco! So hott & cant wait to get a taste!!!" tweeted @CatoLeti, apparently anticipating the new line of sacramental wines rumored to be in in the planning stages under Papa Francisco, as he is known in Latin America.

Reactions from other industry players, however, are more circumspect. While Muslim leaders are relieved that the move will have no immediate impact on their efforts to shore up monopolies in Middle Eastern sectors, Mormon leaders have expressed doubts that the new Pope's roots will have any impact on their efforts gain traction in emerging Latin American markets.

"Look, we tried the same thing last year with a Mexican spokesman," said Joseph Walker, a Mission President with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Surprise, Arizona, referring to his organization's failed 2012 hostile takeover attempt of the world's largest democracy. "We put a pretty face out there and there was barely any bump with Latinos. I just don't think this fundamentally changes the game."

I'm back.

Hey everyone. I'm back. Three years and seventy-three days after closing up shop, I'm here to confirm once again that I really don't know about this. Stay tuned.