One night in December 1958, Ray Charles and his band were scheduled to play a four-hour set at a Pittsburgh dance hall. At the time, this was a regular gig for the singer-pianist, a promising Atlantic-signed artist who had broken through with his 1954 single “I Got a Woman.” Charles …
Read More »Sky News Trolls Trump With Baby Balloon Ahead of U.K. Visit
What even is this world we are living in? British network Sky News promoted its upcoming coverage of President Donald Trump‘s visit to the United Kingdom with an ad featuring a giant baby balloon version of the president. In the ad, as an gigantic shadow looms over Britain, citizens look …
Read More »Duff McKagan Gets Woke and It Works on New Solo Album 'Tenderness'
Duff McKagan, Guns N’ Roses’ second-best singer (or is it third-best? where’s Izzy?), gets woke on his mellow new solo album. Amid twanging steel guitars, gospel backup singers and fiddle filigrees, he variously addresses America’s opioid epidemic, school shootings, sexual assault, homelessness and his own transgressions, but it never feels …
Read More »Stretching the Truth: How Incels Are 'Jelqing' for a Bigger Penis
It’s no secret that there are a lot of angry young white men on the internet; it’s also no secret that a substantial percentage of these men are angry because they aren’t getting laid. Known as “incels” (short for involuntarily celibates), these men are fueled by the belief that the …
Read More »10 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Sketches of Season 44
You wouldn’t say that Saturday Night Live had an off year per se — any season that gave us the sight of Adam Driver crushing stuffed birds with a cane is not a complete flaming trash-heap of a failure. But there was a certain sense of SNL fatigue that started …
Read More »See Trump White House Sing Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now' on 'SNL'
Saturday Night Live‘s final cold open of Season 44 ended on a musical note as the series’ Trump administration sang a tribute to the president to the tune of Queen‘s “Don’t Stop Me Now.” “I’m on cruise control to a second term and there is nothing the Democrats and Congress …
Read More »'Game of Thrones' Close-Up: Arya, Dazed and Confused
A lot happens in each episode of Game of Thrones. So every week, we’re drilling down on one memorable scene in particular. Full spoilers for this week’s episode, “The Bells,” coming up. Two weeks ago, Arya Stark singlehandedly saved the world. This week, she nearly became one of thousands of …
Read More »Woodstock 50's Last Stand: 6 Key Things We Learned From New Court Papers
Less than two weeks after investor Dentsu Aegis announced it was pulling the plug on Woodstock 50, the festival’s organizers fired back at the company on Wednesday through the courts. In a filing with the Supreme Court of New York, Michael Lang, the original festival’s co-founder, and other organizers requested …
Read More »Flashback: Johnny Cash Sings 'The Unclouded Day' With His Mother
In 1944, one week after the accidental death of his older brother Jack, 12-year-old J.R. Cash answered the altar call and accepted Jesus Christ as his savior at the First Baptist Church, the tiny house of worship his family attended three days a week in Dyess, Arkansas. It was at …
Read More »The Last Word: RZA on Wu-Tang's Legacy, Turning 50 and Why He Prays Daily
Even for RZA, one of the Wu-Tang Clan’s most thoughtful members, 2019 is shaping up to be a particularly reflective year.Of Mics and Men, a four-hour documentary on the group directed by longtime hip-hop journalist turned director Sacha Jenkins, will premiere on Showtime May 10th. Getting every member to talk …
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