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American Music Awards Partners With Easy Day Foundation to Honor Veterans on Memorial Day

American Music Awards Partners With Easy Day Foundation to Honor Veterans on Memorial Day

Epoch Times25-05-2025
The 2025 American Music Awards will honor more than just this year's most influential artists. Airing for the first time on Memorial Day, the fan-voted award show will also pay tribute to some of the nation's greatest heroes—
U
.S. veterans.
The AMAs partnered with the Easy Day Foundation to shine a national spotlight on former military and active-duty personnel while raising funds for the veteran community.
Founded in 2023 by Frank Fertitta IV and Landon Gyulay, the Las Vegas-based grant-making nonprofit helps service members transition to civilian life by providing funding and resources to partner organizations that support veterans.
The charity serves as the first official foundation partner of the AMAs, which will air live on May 26 during Military Appreciation Month on CBS and Paramount+.
A portion of the award show's ticket sales will benefit the Easy Day Foundation. The program will also feature several in-show fundraising moments for some of the nonprofit's beneficiaries, including the Folded Flag Foundation, the Bob Woodruff Foundation, the Boot Campaign, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas's Military and Veteran Services Center.
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Fertitta said the partnership marks an incredible milestone for his foundation.
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'To now be aligned with the American Music Awards, the world's biggest fan-voted music event, is exactly the kind of platform we've envisioned to fulfill our mission,' he explained.
Fertitta, an executive at Red Rock Resorts, said the show will allow the Easy Day Foundation to amplify its message on a broader scale and be a guiding light for patriotism by building 'community, visibility, and tangible support' for the brave men and women who have risked their lives for this country.
'Our mission at the AMAs is to turn inspiration into impact, and that starts with awareness,' he said. 'We want to inspire a new generation of philanthropic leaders and hope that viewers walk away with a deeper understanding of the challenges Veterans face after service and why continued support is so critical.'
According to the
Moreover, veterans are at an increased risk of developing a substance or alcohol use disorder. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
'That's why our partnership with the AMAs is so important,' Fertitta said. 'It amplifies visibility on Easy Day Foundation's three mission pillars—mental health, job placement, and family support, which directly address the urgent needs of those who have served and sacrificed.'
Gyulay noted that his foundation's efforts go far beyond raising awareness for the struggles many veterans face each day.
'It's about action,' he told The Epoch Times. 'Ultimately, real change starts with understanding, and our goal is to shed visibility on the crucial need for support as veterans transition from military to civilian life.'
In addition to fundraising opportunities, Gyulay said the 2025 AMAs will also feature special performances tied to themes of service, resilience, and unity.
'What's most important to us is that Veterans aren't just being talked about, they're being included, front and center,' he said. 'This show is for them. And we hope it sparks a wave of compassion and commitment that lasts far beyond the broadcast.'
The 2025 American Music Awards, hosted by singer Jennifer Lopez, will air on CBS and Paramount+.
Courtesy the American Music Awards
Veteran television personality Dick Clark launched the AMAs in 1974.
This year's show, hosted by singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, will take place at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a luxury resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
The broadcast will mark the award show's return to television for the first time in almost three years, following the expiration of its previous contract with ABC.
Presenters will include actress Cara Delevingne, singer Ciara, and comedians Nikki Glaser, Tiffany Haddish, and Wayne Brady.
A variety of entertainers are slated to take the stage, including country stars Blake Shelton and Lainey Wilson, rising pop-rock star Benson Boone, and Latin pop singer Gloria Estefan, who will be performing at the AMAs for the first time in more than 30 years.
Singer-songwriter Janet Jackson is also expected to perform, marking her first television performance in almost a decade. The 11-time AMA-winner will receive the show's prestigious ICON Award, which is given to artists whose music has had a significant cultural and global influence on the music industry.
British singer Rod Stewart will take home the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his nearly six-decade career.
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Over 160 Blizzard workers in Irvine join union as gaming-industry labor movement expands

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timean hour ago

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timean hour ago

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A native Angeleno with a background in feature and documentary filmmaking, Brown conceived of the concept after a chat with architect Robert Thibodeau, co-founder of Venice-based DU Architects. After a deeper dive into the image with Anderton, the idea for a reunion was born. 'We thought, why don't we restage the photo and then use that as an excuse to get the guys together?' Brown explains. He preferred a spontaneous, lighthearted group discussion to the typical documentary, with its one-on-one interviews and heavy production. 'It's about the chemistry between creative peers,' says Brown. 'The real legacy of these architects isn't just in the buildings. It's in the conversations they started — and are still having.' He added: 'There's a spark that happens when they're together ... They talk about failure, competition, teaching, aging. It's a very human exchange.' Episode 1, titled 'Capturing a Moment in L.A. Architecture,' opens with four of the surviving architects — Fisher, Mayne, Moss and Hodgetts — recreating that seminal photograph for Pildas and sitting down for an interview. (Howard was interviewed separately, Gehry declined and Mangurian died in 2023.) The group dissects the photo's cinematic, informal composition, in which Pildas aims down from a berm, the neglected buildings behind the eclectic crew shrinking into the horizon, merging with the sand. And they remember a time in which the city's messy urban forms and perceived cultural inferiority provided endless creative fuel, and liberation. Pildas recalls how the original shoot came together at the request of British design editor Beverly Russell, who was looking to capture 'Frank Gehry and some of his Turks.' (The international design press was gaga for L.A. at the time. Anderton notes that her move from the U.K. resulted from a similar assignment, on the 'subversive architects of the West Coast,' for the publication Architectural Review in 1987.) At the time, most of the architects were working in garages and warehouses, forming their studios and collaborating with equally norm-busting and (relatively) unheralded artists in the scrappy, dangerous, forgotten, yet exploding Venice scene. In a later episode, the architects start listing the art talents they would run into, or befriend, including Larry Bell, James Turrell, Ed Ruscha, Fred Eversley, Robert Irwin, Robert Rauschenberg and Jean-Michel Basquiat, to name a few. Basquiat was then living and working in Hodgetts' building. 'It was a spectacular fusion of all this creative energy,' Hodgetts remembers. 'There was no audience, there were no guardrails, and one did not feel constrained.' He adds, later: 'We all felt like we were marooned on a desert island.' Pildas, who had studied architecture before switching to design and, eventually, photography, was uniquely suited to capture the group. He had shot some of the small, quirky experiments of Mangurian and Mayne, and knew most of the others through social and professional circles. (He even knew Hodgetts from high school back in Cincinnati.) The first attempt at the photo seemed stiff, says Pildas, so he took out a joint, which all except Hodgetts accepted, he says. The icebreaker worked. In a later image, says Pildas, Fisher is hugging Gehry's leg, the others huddled around. 'It got pretty friendly in the end,' he jokes. Pildas argues that the photo is much more layered with meaning (not to mention nostalgia) now than it was at the time. 'Back then, it was just another magazine shoot. Now, it's history,' he says. Adds Moss: 'Its relevancy, or not, is confirmed by the following years. Otherwise it's gone.' Each episode explores the image's layers, and the unfolding stories that followed — the challenges of maintaining originality; crucial role of journalists in promoting their work; maddening disconnect between L.A.'s talent and its clients, along with the mercurial, ever-evolving identity of Los Angeles. The tone, like the photo, is unpretentious and playful, heavy on character and story, not theory. This was not always an easy task with a group that can get esoteric quite quickly, adds Anderton. 'I was trying to keep it light,' she laughs. 'I don't think I even have the ability to talk in the language of the academy.' 'They're cracking jokes, interrupting each other, reminiscing about teaching gigs and design arguments,' says Brown. 'There's real affection, but also a sense of rivalry that never fully went away.' Hodgetts doesn't see it that way, however. 'It was really about the joy of creating things. We wanted to jam a bit, perform together; that's really life-affirming,' he says. There are some revealing moments. Mayne, whose firm Morphosis is known for bold, city-altering buildings such as Caltrans HQ in downtown L.A., reflects on teaching as a way of 'being the father I never had.' (His father left his family when he was a young boy.) He tenderly discusses the seminal role that his wife Blythe — a co-owner of Morphosis — has played in his career. Fisher reveals that Gehry was the chief reason he dropped everything to come out to L.A. (At the time, he was working as a display designer at a department store in Cincinnati.) 'I remember seeing this architect jumping up and down on cardboard furniture. I could see there was something going on here. Something percolating,' he says. Moss opens up about his struggles to negotiate the demands of the practical world, while Hodgetts performs brilliant critiques of the others' work, sometimes to broad smiles, others to cringes. Notably absent from the reunion is Gehry himself, who is now 96. 'He's at a point in his life where trudging through sand for a photo wasn't going to happen,' says Brown. 'But his presence is everywhere. He's still the elephant in the room.' One episode explores how Gehry, about a decade older than the others, both profoundly influenced and often overshadowed the group — a reality that was perhaps reinforced by his nonchalant dominance in the photo itself. 'Frank takes up a lot of oxygen,' Mayne quips. Still, all admire Gehry's unwillingness to compromise creatively, despite often heavy criticism. Another prevailing theme is the bittersweet loss of that early sense of freedom, and the Venice of the 1970s, with its breathtakingly low rents and abandoned charm. Today's architects — wherever they are — face higher stakes, infinitely higher costs and tighter regulations. 'The Venice we grew up with is completely gone,' says Fisher. 'But maybe it's just moved,' noted Moss. Distinguishing L.A. as a place whose energy and attention is constantly shifting, he wonders if creative ferment might now be happening in faraway places like Tehachapi — 'wherever land is cheap and ambition is high,' he says. While Pildas was capturing the seven architects 45 years ago, he was also busy chronicling the city's street culture — jazz clubs, boulevard eccentrics, decaying movie palaces and bohemian artists. All were featured in the 2023 documentary 'Ave's America' (streaming on Prime Video) directed by his former student, Patrick Taulère, exploring his six decades of humbly perceptive, deeply human work. After reviewing the recreation of the photo — the architects are still smiling this time, but their scrappy overconfidence feels eons away — Pildas wonders who the next generation will be, and how they will rise. 'Maybe it'll happen that they'll have another picture someday with a bunch of new architects, right?' he says. 'This is a fertile ground for architecture anyway, and always has been.' Exposing that 'fertile ground' to Angelenos of all kinds is FORT: LA's overarching goal. Founded in 2020, it offers architecture trails, fellowships and a surprising variety of programming, from design competitions to architecture-themed wine tastings. All, says Brown, is delivered, like 'Rebel Architects,' with a sense of accessible joy and exploration — an especially useful gift in a turbulent, insecure time for the city. 'Suddenly, you kind of think about the city in a different way and feel it in a different way,' says Brown. 'This is a place that allows this kind of vision to come to life.'

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