COVID-19
Manchester, Tenn. Mayor Lonnie Norman Has Died Of COVID-19 Complications
Source: City of Manchester / City Of Manchester Lonnie J. Norman, a longtime mayor of Manchester, a small town in Tennessee, has died from COVID-19 complications. Norman was just re-elected to a third term as mayor this past August but fell ill at the top of October. Local publication the Manchester Times reports that Norman passed away Monday (Oct. 12) after being hospitalized at the top of the month due to complaints related to the coronavirus. From the Times: The Board of Mayor and Aldermen has issued the following statement: Today we share in the sorrow of a great loss to our community. Mayor Lonnie J.Norman was a dedicated servant to the people of Manchester for several years. He served as Mayor during the early 9o’s and again since 2012. Lonnie was a statesman and a diplomat, but abo...
Watch The Flaming Lips Perform to an Audience in Giant Bubbles
In something out of a Black Mirror episode, psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips have hosted a concert wherein everyone was encapsulated in giant bubbles. Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has been using a bubble over the course of his career to walk on top of crowds, but the Oklahoma City show marks the first time the band has required fans to utilize them on a large scale. While the globes were primarily used to thwart a potential spread of COVID-19, they also offered quite a live music experience. More importantly, the use of the bubbles offers a glimpse into what the immediate future of concerts could look like as many regions continue to struggle to navigate the convoluted process of reopening. Check out footage from the unprecedented show below. Prior to the show, Coyn...
FKA twigs Says She Made a “Whole Album in Quarantine”
Fans had to cool their heels for five years between 2014’s LP1 and 2019’s MAGDALENE, but the wait for FKA twigs’ third album is already nearing its end. In a recent interview, the British songwriter said that she made a “whole album in quarantine.” The news came in conversation with Scott Goldman as part of the Grammy Museum’s Programs at Home. Early on in the pandemic, twigs acknowledged “struggling a little bit to find my rhythm.” A professional dancer before she was a professional musician, twigs missed going to dance studios and pushing her body to its limits. But she eventually settled in, finding a songwriting routine over FaceTime. She explained, “In the beginning of the quarantine I was struggling a little bit to find my rhythm, because I love to train, I love to go to da...
Tool’s Maynard James Keenan Had COVID-19 and Still Has Lung Damage Months Later
Tool singer Maynard James Keenan has revealed that he contracted COVID-19 back in February. Moreover, he is still feeling the effects months later, as he deals with lung damage and coughing fits. While speaking to the Arizona Republic about his band Puscifer’s upcoming album, Existential Reckoning, Keenan was asked about Tool having to shut down their tour plans due to the pandemic. He responded, “I was still recovering from having gotten COVID at the end of February. I’m still dealing with the residual effects. But it was ugly. I survived it, but it wasn’t pretty. So I definitely had to deal with that.” When the interviewer expressed surprise at the singer’s revelation, Keenan explained, “I kind of didn’t want to run around screaming it. But it’s real. And there’s after-effects. I had to ...
Broadway Extends Shutdown Through Spring 2021
Broadway has been entirely shut down since March 12th of this year, and it doesn’t look like the lights will be coming back up anytime soon. Today, it was announced the iconic theater district will remain shuttered well into 2021. The Broadway League, a trade association of producers and theater owners, announced that they’re officially suspending all ticket sales for New York City productions until May 30th of next year. However, the League’s president, Charlotte St. Martin, expressed skepticism that the city’s 41 theaters will even be operating by the summer. “Certainly a lot of shows are making their plans, and some think we will open in the summer, and I hope they are right,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. “But I think people’s bets are the fall of next year.” An add...
Bubble Boys: The Flaming Lips are Planning a Concert With Audience in Giant Globes
No, we are not in the Matrix. The Flaming Lips are planning a performance in their hometown of Oklahoma City amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but they have a unique way of thwarting a potential spread of the virus. According to frontman Wayne Coyne, each member of the audience will enjoy the show while encapsulated in their own giant bubble, a-la Jake Gyllenhaal from Bubble Boy. Coyne, of course, has encased himself in a plastic bubble many times over the course of his career, using it to traverse on top of crowds. The Flaming Lips also recently used the bubbles in their remote Fallon and Colbert late show sets following the onset of the global lockdown period, doling them out to a limited capacity audience for the latter performance. However, the fabled psyc...
The Flaming Lips Are Planning a Concert Where the Crowd Is in Space Bubbles
The Flaming Lips’ live shows have long been synonymous with space bubbles, but the coronavirus has forced them to take things to the next level. Instead of just frontman Wayne Coyne rolling around in a giant, inflatable hamster ball, they’ve lately been putting a bubble around every member of the band — and the audience. They did it on Fallon, they did it on Colbert, and now they’re trying to do it in an actual music venue. As Coyne explained the Brooklyn Vegan, a concept that began as a funny bit of merch has grown into a very real possibility. “We’re starting to get ready to do an actual show where yeah, there’s three people in each of these space bubbles, and we play,” said the frontman. “We think maybe playing two shows a night, and getting a big audience in there each time.” The plan ...
Totally Under Control Is a COVID-19 Horror Movie for the History Books: Review
The Pitch: COVID-19. Sorry, but there really are no breaks from this fucker until we have actual, steady control over this present strain of novel coronavirus. When the culture is illness, you don’t hide under coats until the whole thing blows over. You deal head-on. And this review for this particular movie will treat the issue in that way. Despite President Trump’s assertions that COVID-19 is “totally under control,” no, it’s not. And that, in a dish served cold and fast, is the case of the new documentary Totally Under Control. With 210,000 dead in the United States and rising, millions infected, and a president unwilling to acknowledge the hubris of his actions while himself testing positive for the disease, we’re far away from anything remotely resembling “control” at this present mom...
Miami’s Club Space is Reopening This Weekend—But You Can’t “High-Five Strangers”
As bars and nightclubs across the globe continue to flounder due to the convoluted and often nebulous reopening process, one famed Miami venue is reentering the fray. Club Space has announced that it will reopen this weekend with stringent guidelines and rules in place to ensure the safety of its patrons amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The announcement arrived after governor Ron DeSantis moved forward with the third phase of his reopening plan for the state of Florida, which allows bars and nightclubs to resume operations. With regards to their reopening, Miami New Times reports that Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Giménez instated an 11PM curfew, mandatory facemasks, and capacity limits, among other restrictions. Club Space shared a number of guidelines t...
Facebook Pulls Donald Trump’s Post Falsely Claiming the Flu is More Lethal Than COVID-19
Donald Trump knows firsthand what it’s like to have COVID-19, and he also knows what it’s like to have the best medical treatment immediately available. Yet, less than a day after being released from the Walter Reed Medical Center, Trump posted messages to social media downplaying the severity of coronavirus. Facebook responded by taking down the post, while Twitter flagged it with a warning label, reports Mashable. Trump’s post to social media on Tuesday morning seemed completely unbothered by the ongoing pandemic. “Flu season is coming up!” it read. “Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations fa...
Widows of John Prine, Nick Cordero Slam Trump’s “Don’t Be Afraid of COVID” Tweets
Nick Cordero and Amanda Kloots (photo via Instagram/@amandakloots); Fiona Whelan Prine and John Prine (photo via Instagram/@fprine); and Donald Trump If anything good were to come from Donald Trump contracting COVID-19, it would have been a change in messaging from the White House. Instead — and completely unsurprisingly — he’s still downplaying the pandemic in complete defiance of reality. Now, the widows of two prominent individuals who have died from COVID-19 are slamming Trump for his callous tweets about the dangers of the disease. Shortly before being discharged from Walter Reed on Monday after just a two-day stay, Trump tweeted, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I fe...
National Independent Venue Association Begs Government to Save Concert Industry from “Mass Collapse”
Today, Donald Trump halted all negotiations with Congress regarding further COVID-19 relief until after the election. The abrupt political move, which come across like the actions of a manic drugged up on steroids, will undoubtedly impose even more financial hardship on a country that’s already months-deep into an economic crisis. The National Independent Venue Association, having already suffered major losses the last few months — including the shuttering of Washington, DC’s iconic U Street Music Hall just yesterday — has now responded to Trump’s decision. “We have been sounding the alarm since April that if our members don’t get emergency assistance, they will go under forever — and it’s happening,” said Audrey Fix Schaefer, director of communications for NIVA. “This is real. We nee...
