Emergency alerts have been issued for Nordegg and Lodgepole because two separate fires are burning within a few kilometres of each community.

The fire near Nordegg, which is 200 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, has been burning for several days and residents have been on a one-hour evacuation notice since Thursday.

Duncan MacDonnell with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development said crews had the fire contained, but officials were still poised to issue an evacuation order if the blaze broke through any containment points.

MacDonnell said the fire near Lodgepole, which is about 100 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, is new.

Wildfire information officers with the province said late Sunday that as the sun set and winds died down, the situation with both fires appeared to be calming down and their spread was slowing.

It's unclear exactly how many people are affected by the evacuations. Lodgepole's website lists its population as 200, while provincial wildfire information officer Richard Horne said between 40 and 250 people were affected in Nordegg.

An employee in the Brazeau County office said most of the people in Lodgepole had left the community earlier on Sunday. Highway 620 into Lodgepole is now closed, she said, and she didn't have any information about anyone who might have remained.

Wildfire information officer Whitney Exton said roads around Lodgepole were being closed to prevent people from heading towards the community and that the province was working with county officials to assist with the evacuation.

Horne, meanwhile, said about 250 hectares had burned in the fire near Lodgepole and that winds had pushed the blaze towards the community. He said 50 firefighters, helicopters and tankers were on the scene by Sunday evening and that additional resources were on the way.

Alberta issued a fire weather advisory for the province Sunday, saying that high winds and dry temperatures made the likelihood of uncontrolled wildfires high.

Residents of Nordegg are being told to go to Rocky Mountain House about 100 kilometres east of the community.

Lodgepole residents are being told to go to Drayton Valley, which is about 50 kilometres away.

Last week, a provincial official said conditions in some areas were similar to May 2011 when flames roared through the town of Slave Lake, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing thousands of people to flee to safety. The wildfire caused an estimated $1 billion in damage, including firefighting and relief costs.

Cavendish, the British standout with the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team, clocked three hours 56 minutes, three seconds over the mostly flat 168-kilometre leg from Mola di Bari to Margherita di Savoia.

Elia Viviani, an Italian with Cannondale, crossed second, and Matthew Goss, an Australian with Orica-GreenEdge, was third, both with the same time as Cavendish.

It was the 12th Giro stage win of Cavendish's career and his 99th victory overall. The Isle of Man rider also won this year's opening stage in Naples.

Defending champion Ryder Hesjedal of Victoria was 52nd in the stage and remained fifth overall, 34 seconds behind Paolini.

Stage 7 Friday is a hilly 176-kilometre leg from San Salvo to Pescara.

Lt. Col. Souleymane Maiga refused to give a timeline for the attack on Kidal, saying only that preparations for the deployment are "in an advanced stage" and that Mali can no longer accept having two armies on its soil.

Kidal, the capital of one of the three northern provinces which fell into rebel hands last year, is currently controlled by Tuareg separatists who want to secure a homeland for the Tuareg people, which they call "Azawad" in the local language. The rebel National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or NMLA, swept into northern Mali a year ago. Their victory was short-lived and within weeks they were pushed out by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida, who seized control of a territory the size of Afghanistan, imposing Shariah rule and opening jihadist training camps.

In January France sent in warplanes, combat helicopters and 2,000 soldiers to take back the north.Though the French purged the main towns of the al-Qaida groups, they stood by while the NMLA returned to Kidal. Soon, the Tuareg rebels were manning roadblocks in and around the city. They have since started collecting taxes and appointed their own governor, thumbing their nose at the Malian state, even as French soldiers continue to occupy the Kidal airport.

"The army is preparing to take back Kidal. Not just Kidal, but also Tessalit, Abeibara and Aguelhok," said the military spokesman, naming the localities north of Kidal, which are also believed to be mostly controlled by the NMLA. "The highest authority in the land has made clear that we cannot accept that there be two armies in Mali, so (the Malian army) is going to go to Kidal to protect the population and the territorial integrity of our country."

He added that the army needed to secure Kidal in order to allow Mali's administration to return. And in order to prepare for national elections due to be held in July. The presidential elections are seen as a key step in returning Mali to constitutional rule. The various rebel groups were able to seize the north last year in the aftermath of a March 2012 coup in the capital, led by a junior officer. The coup destroyed the military's command-and-control structure, causing disarray and leading to the collapse of the country's defenses in the face of the rebel onslaught.

Soldiers were seen ripping off their uniforms, piling into trucks and abandoning the frontline. Retaking Kidal would be a major symbolic victory for the military.

Because of their humiliating defeat last year at the hands of the NMLA, however, many fear that the military could seek revenge. Already in Timbuktu, in Gao and in Sevare, the Malian army is accused of carrying out reprisal killings of Tuareg civilians accused of complicity with the rebels. Detainees have been subjected to horrific torture by Malian forces, including water-boarding and being injected with acid-like substances that corrode the skin, according to an investigation by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

On Tuesday, the rights group issued a statement warning all warring parties to respect the rules of engagement in the event of an operation in Kidal.

"Civilians have been through enough in the past 16 months. All sides simply must do all they can to minimize any further suffering," said Corinne Dufka, the group's senior researcher who has led several missions to Mali.

Among the measures that HRW is encouraging is the deployment of the paramilitary police, known as gendarmes, alongside the soldiers. In the Malian security force, it is the gendarmes who are mandated to question detainees during military operations and investigate disciplinary lapses by soldiers.

The military appears to have taken this suggestion to heart, and on Wednesday, an officer in the gendarmerie in Gao confirmed by telephone that a unit is accompanying the military contingent.

"The military started advancing (toward Kidal) two days ago. There is a large contingent of soldiers who are being accompanied by a unit from the gendarmerie in order to try to avoid any abuses. Anyone that is caught with an arm in their hands will not be spared, but those who are found unarmed will be treated humanely," said the gendarme, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

A spokesman for the NMLA in Europe warned that there will be blood spilled if the Malian military tries to take Kidal.

"Unfortunately there will be a clash, and the NMLA will be in a position of legitimate defense," said Moussa Ag Assarid, who spoke by telephone from Paris. "We are there to protect the population from the Malian army."

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Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.

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Rukmini Callimachi can be reached at www.twitter.com/rcallimachi

Baba Ahmed can be reached at www.twitter.com/babahmed1

Harryhausen, who was born in Los Angeles and worked for more than 40 years in the movie industry, died in London, his family said in a statement.

"The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, visual effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator.

"Ray's influence on today's film makers was enormous with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK's own Nick Park have cited Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations," the statement said.

Harryhausen used a laborious, painstaking "stop-motion" animation technique to single-handedly create imaginative effects for 16 films from the 1950s into the 1980s including three "Sinbad" movies, "Clash of the Titans" (1981), "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" (1956) and "One Million Years B.C." (1966).

He received a special Academy Award for career achievement in 1992.

"Some say 'Citizen Kane' is the greatest motion picture of all time, others say it's 'Casablanca,'" actor Tom Hanks said as he presented the special Oscar to Harryhausen. "For me, the greatest picture of all time is 'Jason and the Argonauts.'"

That 1963 movie based on Greek mythology featured scenes of sword-wielding skeletons battling human warriors, a colossal statue coming to life and a seven-headed serpent.

While others officially handled the directing chores in his movies, it was Harryhausen who dreamed up, modeled and shot some of the most memorable moments in film history.

Most of his movies, often made with producer Charles Schneer, were low-budget affairs. He once had to make a giant octopus with just six tentacles to save money. But his movie magic helped inspire future cinema giants.

'DYNAMATION'

Harryhausen perfected the "stop-motion" technique that had been used in a small number of earlier films by others including special effects pioneer Willis O'Brien, who would become his mentor, in "King Kong" (1933).

The process allows miniatures to be turned into monsters. Doll-sized models are photographed one frame at a time in continuous poses to create the illusion of motion in a method Harryhausen dubbed "Dynamation."

The creations are then mixed with footage of people, cities and nature and can be made to appear gigantic or tiny depending on the plot.

Harryhausen's creations invariably cause mayhem. In "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers," his UFOs invade Washington, toppling the Washington Monument and smashing the Capitol dome.

In 1953's "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms," a dinosaur-like creature roused from hibernation by an atomic bomb test rampages through Manhattan before meeting its end amid the wreckage of a Coney Island rollercoaster. Many themes from that movie were repeated in the original 1954 Japanese "Godzilla."

Harryhausen brought dinosaurs to life in 1969's "The Valley of Gwangi," featuring an Allosaurus battling an elephant, and the caveman fantasy "One Million Years B.C.," which is also known for Raquel Welch donning a fur bikini.

The three movies based on the Sinbad tales - "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1973) and "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" (1977) - feature a one-horned Cyclops battling a fire-breathing dragon and a statue of a six-armed goddess based on the Hindu Kali coming to life to fight Sinbad and his crew.

His last film was 1981's Greek mythology adventure "Clash of the Titans," marking the only time in his career he had a big-name cast, including Laurence Olivier, Burgess Meredith, Maggie Smith and Ursula Andress appearing alongside Harryhausen's winged-horse Pegasus and snake-haired Medusa.

Asked in 2010 which of his creatures was his favorite, Harryhausen told the Star-Ledger newspaper in New Jersey, "Oh, I couldn't tell you that. The rest of them would get jealous."

Harryhausen's career inspiration came when he saw "King Kong" at age 13, with the giant gorilla battling dinosaurs and then running amok in New York. He started to sculpt his own models and film experimental footage and received advice from O'Brien, with whom he worked on another giant ape movie, "Mighty Joe Young" (1949) before making films on his own.

Ray Bradbury, the American science fiction writer who was a lifelong friend, said, "Harryhausen stands alone as a technician, as an artist and a dreamer."

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant and Will Dunham; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

The zoo dwellers also sparked her desire to help improve the lives of elephants in captivity and the chances for survival of those in the wild. "An Apology to Elephants," a documentary produced and narrated by Tomlin, is one result. It debuted this week on HBO.

"I had done some animal activism" and donated money, Tomlin said, but becoming enlightened about elephants prompted her to focus on their plight.

The film is an unabashed polemic, calling for improved treatment of elephants in zoos and an end to the use of the animals as entertainment, which the film contends must invariably involve abuse. Circus operators do not have a say, although a zoo that has overhauled its elephant habitat weighs in.

"An Apology to Elephants" also outlines the animal's importance to ecosystems and the dangers faced by wild African and Asian elephants, including habitat destruction and poachers after their highly marketable tusks.

Last month, leading conservation groups warned that the illegal ivory trade is growing and is hastening the decline of Africa's already endangered elephant population.

"The elephants became so symbolic to me, the evidence (of their treatment) so clear, and I wanted to tie it together and show how inured we are to that around the planet," said Tomlin, an Oscar-nominated actress ("Nashville") and comedian.

Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, said the film misrepresents its practices.

"Clearly, it's a distortion of the animal care we provide 24 hours a day, seven days a week for this magnificent species. We have a team of animal care professionals and veterinarians who spend their lives caring for these animals," said spokesman Stephen Payne.

The film also failed to include the company's conservation efforts that Feld said are international and done in concert with zoos and researchers. "As opposed to people who make one-off documentaries or protest, we put our money where our mouth is," Payne added.

The film's images are dramatic, some by contrast: We see a line of elephants silhouetted majestically against an orange African sun as well as a solitary pachyderm confined within a zoo enclosure. There also are disturbing shots, including elephants prodded by sharp-edged rods and footage of the 1903 death of a Coney Island elephant that, according to the film, had turned violent because of abuse. Thomas Edison agreed to electrocute the animal named Topsy to illustrate a certain type of current.

The film spotlights those who are working for elephants today, including the Oakland Zoo, which has implemented new methods of managing the animals, including more space to roam, and a Northern California wild animal sanctuary that helps remove elephants from circuses and zoos.

The grounds are home to elephants Gypsy and Wanda, who performed for the same circus before being split up. When the pair ended up 20 years later at the sanctuary, they "went crazy and are inseparable," said Pat Derby, the former animal trainer who co-founded the Performing Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS, which operates the sanctuary.

Their new life, in nature and without the demands of performing, represents her dream, Derby says in "An Apology to Elephants." The film is dedicated to Derby, who died in February of cancer at age 69.

"Knowing they have some days or even years of safety and peace and dignity, that's the big reward," said Derby in the documentary directed by Amy Schatz.

Tomlin said her hope is that people take heed of what elephants face. Her narration, written by her longtime partner, Jane Wagner, is measured and eloquent, but she's passionate in conversation as she decries "inequity and injustice and suffering" and encourages others to get involved.

"The first thing is to be conscious of the ivory trade. Don't foster anything like admiring ivory objects or people wanting them," she said. "Just to have that consciousness affects the movement of things. It takes years, but it's like getting people to wear seatbelts."

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Online:

http://www.hbo.com

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Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org and on Twitter (at)lynnelber.

Two governors eyeing possible White House bids Bob McDonnell of Virginia and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana suddenly find themselves fending off critics and trying to shore up legacies they hope will withstand national scrutiny. Other high-profile governors run the gamut from maintaining solid popularity to being in danger of losing re-election next year.

Governorships can be springboards to the White House, as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and others have shown. But the high visibility also can lead to painful falls.

McDonnell, who built an image as a competent problem-solver, confronted questions Tuesday about an FBI inquiry into gifts he accepted from a wealthy Virginia businessman. And Jindal, even in a Republican-dominated state, had to pull back his ambitious plan to replace Louisiana's corporate and personal income taxes with higher sales taxes. His popularity has sagged lately.

The 2016 presidential election is far away, of course, and the GOP has plenty of possible contenders. They include current and former governors, such as Chris Christie of New Jersey and Jeb Bush of Florida.

Still, McDonnell's and Jindal's struggles combined with those of Republican governors in Pennsylvania, Florida, South Carolina and elsewhere prove that governorships can be far from ideal incubators of political ideas and national ambitions.

"It's a double-edge sword, being chief executive," said John Ullyot, a Republican strategist and former Senate aide from Virginia. Effective governors, he said, can implement agendas and build reputations for bipartisanship, as Christie has sometimes done in New Jersey.

"But if something goes wrong in your state," Ullyot said, "there's no one to blame but you."

Starting with McDonnell and Christie in 2009, and followed by an impressive class the following year, Republicans won gubernatorial races in numerous states carried by President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. They included Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida and New Mexico.

Politically, the timing was ideal. GOP control of these battleground states enabled Republicans to dominate the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional districts after the 2010 census. It's one reason Republicans hold a 31-seat House majority even though Americans cast a million more votes last November for Democratic House candidates than for Republicans.

Some of these new GOP governors mostly notably John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin pushed conservative agendas so fast and fiercely that the public backlash forced them to regroup and proceed more diplomatically.

Republican Govs. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania and Rick Scott of Florida, who have lower national profiles, are among those still struggling to rebound from early problems.

McDonnell's and Jindal's woes draw notice beyond their states because they are among the half-dozen or so most-discussed Republicans in early political chatter about 2016. Democrats have ambitious governors, too, including Maryland's Martin O'Malley and New York's Andrew Cuomo. But Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden tend to dominate early Democratic talk about Obama's possible successor.

In Virginia, McDonnell had enjoyed comfortable approval ratings and was seen as a conservative pragmatist unafraid to compromise. Last winter, he achieved a landmark overhaul of the state's failing system for funding road construction and addressing acute gridlock in the Washington suburbs and the Norfolk region.

That image was rocked by Monday's news that the FBI is examining ties McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, have with a Virginia-based food supplements maker that's the subject of a federal securities probe and two shareholder lawsuits.

McDonnell told WTOP radio that his administration never gave special treatment to Star Scientific Inc. or its CEO, Jonnie Williams, who had given McDonnell more than $100,000 in political contributions and spent thousands of dollars more on personal gifts to McDonnell and his family.

Virginia law did not require the governor to disclose the $15,000 that Williams gave McDonnell's daughter Cailin for her wedding. But in his radio appearance Tuesday, McDonnell acknowledged the political sensitivity of the matter.

"I think, obviously, from the attention it has gotten, it has certainly now been disclosed," he said. He said it was hard to say whether he would ask his daughter to reject the gift if given a chance to do it over. "It's caused a fair amount of pain for me personally," McDonnell said. "I'm a governor, but I'm also a dad and I love my daughter very much."

In Louisiana, polls and anecdotal evidence suggest many people have grown tired of Jindal's national travels, state government layoffs and budget cuts, especially to health care and higher education. His sweeping tax plan drew wide criticism.

It marked a setback for the fast-talking Yale Law School graduate and Rhodes scholar, who has urged the GOP to stop being "the stupid party" that's out of step on key social matters.

In the past 50 years, more governors and vice presidents have been elected president than have sitting senators, although a few senators almost always try. Republican senators weighing possible presidential bids in 2016 include Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida.

Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Michael Dukakis are among the incumbent or former governors who won their party's nomination but failed to win the White House. Four of the last six presidents, however, were governors.

Republican Governors Association spokesman Jon Thompson defended his team. GOP governors, he said, are balancing budgets "while tackling energy, pension and education reform. Their successful brand of results-oriented conservatism shows why today's leaders of the GOP come from the states."

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Lewis reported from Richmond, Va.

I was in her shoes once. With diet and exercise I lost more than 60 pounds, and I've kept it off. But I was never ridiculed as she was. On the contrary, one day after I had just begun a daily 1-mile jog and was struggling to keep going, I passed by a man who cheerfully called out to me to "keep at it, and one day you'll be a 10!"

Abby, I can't tell you what that meant to me. I thought about his encouragement whenever I felt hopeless and was thinking of giving up. The memory of his kind words inspired me to go on. Thirty years later, I still think about his encouragement with amazement and gratitude.

We all have a choice: We can be kind to each other and offer friends and strangers alike support for the challenges we all face, or we can make ourselves feel superior by being cruel and demeaning. In the end, our choice shapes our character and we receive what we give, so we must choose wisely.

I'm sorry that "Losing" has met with only ignorant jerks so far. I would be honored to pay it forward and tell her how incredibly brave she is, and to encourage her to stick with it. Because she has the courage to keep exercising in the face of constant humiliation, I know without a doubt that she will reach her goals. -- WENDY IN COLORADO

DEAR WENDY: Thank you for your upbeat response. Many other readers were quick to "weigh in" with letters of support for "Losing Slowly":

DEAR ABBY: I, too, have a weight problem, which I am working to resolve. But I can tell you from experience that the worst kind of discrimination is directed against people with weight problems. I have been insulted in the workplace, in restaurants and doctor's offices. I have not been hired for jobs because I am perceived as fat and lazy.

I am not lazy! I keep a clean house, work hard at my job as a secretary every day, and I am a good wife and parent. We may ignore it and pretend that it doesn't hurt us or matter, but I can tell you it is painful, demeaning, and it doesn't go away. I have been in meetings or at social functions and have had to excuse myself to have a good cry. -- STILL SUFFERING IN KENTUCKY

DEAR ABBY: Please let "Losing Slowly" know she has another option to continue her new, healthy lifestyle in a safe environment. I have worked in malls for years, and they have all had a mall walkers' club.

The mall allows people in to walk, including many seniors, before it opens in the morning. There she will have access to a place where everyone is on the same page. The walkers are safe from traffic, the climate, and morons who have the manners of a junkyard dog. The regulars there can tell her how many miles they can cover. It's a great society of people who support and root for each other. -- NEVER GIVING UP IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

DEAR ABBY: I would suggest the two ladies create T-shirts that read "At Least We're Trying!" and watch the jeers turn into cheers. -- CAROL IN WISCONSIN

DEAR ABBY: I applaud her effort and your response, but may I raise the issue of people like myself who are ridiculed about being too thin? Strangers say things like "Eat something, or the wind will blow you away!" Please remind your readers that making fun of very thin people is just as hurtful as doing it to overweight individuals. -- WISP OF A WOMAN IN THE WEST

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To order "How to Write Letters for All Occasions," send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Letter Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Musician Troy Andrews, better known as "Trombone Shorty," witnessed his first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at age 12 - not from the viewing area but on stage.

"I was playing with my brother's brass band," said Andrews, now 27.

At this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Andrews will be given a high honor. He will perform for the first time as the closing act of the final day on the biggest stage. That time slot previously had long been occupied by one of New Orleans' most famous bands, the Neville Brothers.

The festival, which began Friday and ends May 5, has music lovers filling the walkways linking 12 stages arranged across 150 acres of the festival grounds, not far from downtown.

During the next two weekends, some 500 bands will perform at the festival, including a sprinkling of big names from Billy Joel, Dave Matthews and Adam Lambert to Jill Scott, George Benson and Willie Nelson.

The stars will help draw some 400,000 people through the gates over the seven days of the festival, but many fans are interested in less famous local performers such as Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Rebirth Brass Band, Irvin Mayfield, Anders Osborne and Tab Benoit, among the 400-plus bands in the lineup that hail from New Orleans and the surrounding area.

"I can't believe the mix of music here," said Keith Oliver, who came to the festival from Richmond, Virginia.

"I don't know where else you could hear great blues, jazz, gospel and all the rest all in one place," Oliver said as he and his wife merged into the sea of flowered shirts and sun hats heading for the next stage.

Festival producer and director Quint Davis said the festival showcases New Orleans' "musical DNA."

"People in New Orleans are wired different for music," he said. "It's not just entertainment here, it's sustenance. It's like po-boys and fried oysters - we can't live without it."

Davis, in his 44th year of producing the festival, said he continues to be impressed by the depth of the local talent pool. That enables him to book one out-of-town headliner per day on each stage and fill all the remaining slots with Louisiana bands in genres including jazz, blues, gospel, R&B, hip-hop, Cajun, zydeco, Latin and Caribbean.

PASSING IT ON

Davis said what distinguishes the New Orleans sound has to do with history.

"No matter what genre they're playing, a lot of this music has been passed through many generations," he said.

Trombone Shorty, one of the hottest musical artists in New Orleans, is an example of that history. His brother gave Andrews his nickname years ago, he said.

Andrews wields a trumpet as easily as the trombone and is also skilled at keyboards, drums and songwriting. His music mingles jazz, funk, hip-hop and soul in high-energy compositions that rev up audiences on frequent tours that take him across the country and abroad.

Andrews has played at the festival nearly every year since his first appearance, and this year, Davis contacted him about performing in the final festival slot.

"Quint Davis sent me a text saying it could be time for the passing of the torch and he asked if I'm ready," Andrews said, recalling how the scheduling came about.

Landing the time slot "is a dream come true" for a young man who grew up among the city's most famous musicians.

Andrews' grandfather, R&B singer-songwriter Jessie Hill, made musical waves in the 1960s working with Ike and Tina Turner, Sonny and Cher and New Orleans artist Dr. John.

Andrews' uncle played in Fats Domino's band "way before my time," he said, "and just about every brass band in the city had a member of my family in it."

As a kid growing up in the Treme neighborhood, Andrews hung out with the Neville family and often "sat in" when the Neville Brothers played around town. "I was put on so many different musical stages growing up that I didn't think about what kind of music we played," he said. "I just thought music was music."

Andrews said he was keenly aware that local musicians have a responsibility to pass musical styles from one generation to another.

"When I was younger, we all wanted to play like Rebirth (Brass Band), but people in the neighborhood said before you can play like that, you've got to learn some traditional music so you can understand how Rebirth got where they are," he said.

Now, he's helping his younger cousins, who are anxious to follow in his musical footsteps.

"It's what we've been taught to do," Andrews said. "We have to let the younger generations take our music - and approach it the way they want - but just teach them where it all comes from."

(Editing By Brendan O'Brien, Greg McCune and Bill Trott)

LONDON (Reuters) - Jenson Button could be thankful at least that McLaren allowed their drivers to race each other in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, even as he accused team mate Sergio Perez of dangerous and 'dirty' driving.

The 2009 world champion looked for positives after he and his Mexican team mate cleared the air at a hastily-arranged meeting with McLaren management after Sunday's race.

"We have sat down and discussed it and hopefully we have all learnt from the race... it could have all ended in a very different way for both of us," Button told reporters.

"It's great that we don't have team orders and are allowed to fight," he added.

"I think he will learn," Button said of Perez. "I think it's good being in a team like this that will be very open with comments and say what they think to the drivers, face-to-face. We've all done that, so that's important."

Perez and Button raced nose-to-tail and wheel-to-wheel, with the Mexican bumping the rear of the Briton's car in one heartstopping moment for the McLaren pit wall, as he tried to find a way past.

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh said he had come under considerable pressure from both sides of the garage - which he described as divided between 'Team Button' and 'Team Perez' - to intervene but had refused to do so.

"'Team Button want to beat 'Team Perez'. They'll be saying 'this is hurting us' and that's normal. We like that dynamic," explained Whitmarsh.

"Right down to the mechanics, they want their car to beat the other car. That's how we work as a race team and it gives certain tensions in the system. But I think that's the right way to do it."

WEBBER FURY

The memory of this year's controversial Malaysian Grand Prix remains fresh, even if McLaren have always maintained that their drivers are free to race each other - within reason.

In Malaysia, Red Bull told world champion Sebastian Vettel to stay behind team mate Mark Webber to the chequered flag because they were worried about tyre wear. The German ignored the order, overtook and won in an action that enraged Webber and triggered a media storm.

In that same race, Mercedes told Nico Rosberg to stay behind team mate Lewis Hamilton because they feared the cars could run out of fuel. Their German complied and missed out on a podium place, despite feeling he was faster.

"I had a lot of noise in my ear from people suggesting I should stop them racing, we didn't," said Whitmarsh of Sunday's incident. "I think it was the right thing in the long term for both drivers to know they are racing each other and be competitive," he added.

"We've seen it a couple of times this year, and the driver behind is always going to believe he was quicker, he's always going to be aggrieved.

"Those guys are out there fighting and you can't suddenly decide halfway through a race 'Oh, by the way, I didn't mean it. don't fight because it looks uncomfortable for me'"

Whitmarsh said he was unlikely to issue any such command any time soon, even if he had explained to Perez later that he had gone too far.

The team boss also praised the 23-year-old for his fighting spirit, however, and the 'spark' he had shown.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

MTV said it has ordered a one-hour pilot episode and that producer Dimension Films is in negotiations with the franchise's director, Wes Craven, to direct the pilot.

The series is expected to air in summer 2014, said MTV, a unit of Viacom.

The film series, about a masked serial killer who stalks his victims, began in 1996, and it had follow-up instalments in 1997, 2000 and 2011.

Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette were the main stars of the cast over the course of the four films.

The franchise, which was praised for its satirical take on the slasher subgenre of horror films, has grossed more than $600 million worldwide, according to box office tracker Boxofficemojo.com.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)