Much of the pre-scripted material on Sunday night’s Emmys telecast was devoted to the idea that the small screen has no limits to exactly what it can show, or be. As former Emmy winner Bryan Cranston put it, at the end of a monologue that began with talk of Neil …
Read More »Walmart Officially Bans E-Cigarettes
In the midst of a nationwide vaping-related illness epidemic that has resulted in at least eight deaths, Walmart has decided not to stop selling e-cigarettes, the company announced Friday. In a statement, the company said that the lack of information regarding the health risks of e-cigarettes, as well as the …
Read More »'Country Music' Review: Ken Burns' Epic, Essential Look at an American Artform
Country Music, Ken Burns‘ PBS docuseries on a musical journey that spans from hollers to honkytonks to hit parades, is a whole lotta things. It’s long, which is a given when you consider the authorship — clocking in at a shade over 16 hours, this eight-episode megillah’s running time falls …
Read More »Green Day Detail Their Soulful New Album, Stadium Tour With Weezer and Fall Out Boy
“I knew I wanted to do something different,” says Billie Joe Armstrong. He’s talking about his search for a new sound after 2016’s Revolution Radio, the album where Green Day got back on their feet after the messiest period of their career. Armstrong wanted to find a way to incorporate …
Read More »Toronto 2019: 'Joker' and the Tears of an Intellectual-Property Clown
“Is it just me or is getting crazier out there?” It’s a legitimate question that Arthur Fleck, a troubled clown-for-hire, asks the social worker assigned to his case. Garbage spills out on to the avenues and alleyways of the urban wasteland he lives in. The news is filled with stories …
Read More »This Week in Latin Music: Hispanic Artists Score at the VMAs, 'Thotiana' Remix, New Draco Rosa
MTV made a noble attempt at Latinx inclusion at this year’s VMAs; and “Thotiana,” the hit song by Blueface, made her way to Colombia and came back “Fariana.” In case you missed it, here are some highlights from this week in Latin music. Hispanic Artists Win Big at the VMAs …
Read More »How MTV's 'Are You The One?' Is Changing Dating Shows
Over the last eight years, Are You the One? executive producer Rob LaPlante has conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews with eager twentysomethings who hope to be cast on the MTV reality dating show. For anyone not familiar, the series asks young people who admit they “suck at dating” (as they …
Read More »'Helter Skelter' Star Steve Railsback: The First Manson Actor Looks Back
Fifty years ago this month, Steve Railsback was a 23-year-old actor in New York when he caught a newspaper headline that Sharon Tate and four others had been brutally massacred in a house in L.A. “I remember thinking, ‘God, what’s happening in this fucking world?’” Railsback recalls. Seven years later, …
Read More »Joan Baez Looks Back at Woodstock: 'It Was the Eye of the Hurricane'
Joan Baez took the stage of Woodstock a little before 1 a.m. on the first evening, following sets by Ravi Shankar, Melanie Safka, and Arlo Guthrie. She was six months pregnant and missing her husband David Harris, who was in a Texas prison for refusing to fight in the Vietnam …
Read More »Watch Fleetwood Mac Play 'Man of the World' for First Time in 50 Years
Fleetwood Mac brought their world tour down to Australia for a month-long run of shows late last week, and during the second concert at the RAC Arena in Perth Sunday they expanded the setlist by playing the Peter Green-era classic “Man of the World” for the first time since 1969. …
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