In an upcoming episode of the HBO high-school drama Euphoria, one of the show’s characters is confronted by an armed intruder in her bedroom and forced to participate in a game of Russian Roulette. After the twisted contest has concluded, the camera pans to her dresser, where her phone displays …
Read More »Me and the Monkee: A Final Visit With Michael Nesmith
W hen I stepped onto Michael Nesmith‘s tour bus in Huntington, New York, on Oct. 28, the first thing he did was offer me some weed. I politely declined, as I did every time we sat down together, and asked about his health. The subject had been on my mind …
Read More »Marilyn Bergman, Oscar-Winning Lyricist of 'The Way We Were,' Dead at 93
Marilyn Bergman, the songwriting giant and music industry fixture who, with her husband Alan, wrote the lyrics to Oscar-winning songs like Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were” and Michel Legrand’s “The Windmills of Your Mind,” has died at the age of 93. Bergman’s representative Ken Sunshine confirmed Marilyn’s death from …
Read More »Is There Kool Without the Gang?
Kool & the Gang, one of the world’s greatest living groove-based bands, have been playing more than 100 shows a year for longer than Robert “Kool” Bell cares to remember. He was already adjusting to the unfamiliar sensation of a long stint at home in 2020 when tragedy struck — …
Read More »One Wilco Fan's Choice: Get Covid, or Kiss $6,000 Goodbye
Mitch Timbanard is hoping his Covid test comes back positive. The 47-year-old Orange County, California resident is one of many Wilco fans anxiously awaiting the band’s SkyBlueSky festival in Cancun. The multi-day fest is scheduled to begin January 17th and feature Spoon, Kurt Vile, Stephen Malkmus and Thundercat, among others. …
Read More »Norman Jewison: Why Sidney Poitier Was Perfect for 'In the Heat of the Night'
When Norman Jewison came across an early draft of the script for In the Heat of the Night, the then-39-year-old Canadian director recognized that this adaptation of John Ball’s novel — about a Black cop caught in the middle of a murder mystery in the Deep South — had the …
Read More »Argentine Electronic Music Pioneer Flavio Etcheto Dead at 52
Argentine electronic music pioneer Flavio Etcheto, who collaborated with icons such as Soda Stereo frontman Gustavo Cerati and the famed artist and producer Daniel Melero, died on Jan. 6 at the age of 52. He had been battling cancer for several years. Born in Buenos Aires, Etcheto had a prolific …
Read More »Sidney Poitier Tributes Pour In From Denzel Washington, Barack Obama, Viola Davis and More
Viola Davis, Barack Obama, Questlove and more have shared tributes to the groundbreaking actor Sidney Poitier, who died Friday at the age of 94. Davis, in a moving post on Instagram, wrote about how Poitier’s work “radically shifted my life,” adding, “The dignity, normalcy, strength, excellence and sheer electricity you …
Read More »Nas Ruled the World. Decades Later, He's Looking for More to Conquer
There are more frequent solar eclipses than there are instant classics in rap. But back in 1994, when Nas courted unbelievable hype — after a planet-shifting verse on 1991’s “Live at the Barbeque,” followed by the red-hot “Halftime” a year later — then delivered with the Library of Congress–inducted Illmatic, …
Read More »Gunna's 'DS4EVER' is Flashy, Intoxicating, and a Little Cliched
On DS4EVER, Gunna brings a surfeit of personal style. His raps, a blend of melodic gestures and whispered boasts, glide like an Aston Martin dashing along Biscayne Bay. It’s breezy and full of allusions to hot sex, macho boasts and luxury accoutrements. On occasion, he refers to personal troubles: The …
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