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Lil Nas X Introduces the Man Behind the Meme at New York’s Radio City: Review and Setlist
When arriving at a show on the “Long Live Montero Tour” (grab tickets to remaining dates here), you’re first greeted by venue security handing you a Playbill. It’s a jarring experience — particularly, as was the case at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on September 20th, when a local radio DJ is warming up the audience by blasting songs you might have attempted to grind to at a homecoming dance. But this Playbill actually sets the scene well: It has a photo of Lil Nas X on the front, adorned with butterfly wings and all. “I hate writing stuff that isn’t music but my people are forcing me at gunpoint to write this welcome note,” reads the first page in a hand-scribbled passage from the rapper, who certainly isn’t known for doing things in earnest. “This play is about my journey, what I...
Fan Chant: 2022 Is for the Girls
Welcome to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, stans, and newbies alike. Each week, I’ll be rolling out interviews, lists, and all kinds of content to keep you in the loop on the latest and greatest from our friends in Seoul and beyond. Also, make sure to subscribe to my companion newsletter! At its core, I simply believe that being a K-pop fan should be fun. Think about why you got into your ult group — whether it was the music, the thrilling music videos, or the immaculate vibes between members, odds are there was something that made you smile and want to keep tuning in. For the chronically online among us — myself absolutely included — it’s easy to get caught up in release goals, voting, and the ever-present charts that circulate fandoms. This week, I found myself thinking about ...
NGHTMRE’s “DRMVRSE” Album Is a Hallucinogenic Matrix: “We’re About to Send You On the Craziest Trip of Your Life”
No blue pill or red pill can replicate the mind-bending matrix of NGHTMRE‘s DRMVRSE. NGHTMRE released his long-awaited debut studio album on September 9th after eight years of cranking out hits such as “REDLIGHT” and “GUD VIBRATIONS.” The album is just one bright star in the deep expanse of DRMVRSE. The cinematic project is a methodical piece of fiction with music, animation and narrative components—and that’s just scratching the planet’s surface. DRMVRSE tells the story of a fictional NeuroTech company that discovers a sonic frequency called “Unsound,” leading users through gateways to other physical planes of existence. A DMT-dose of portal-jumping and epic battles are the status quo inside NGHTMRE’s playground. “It s...
A Day in the Life of… MOD SUN
When I caught up with Mod Sun, he was lounging in bed with his new cowboy boots on and, as he tells me, doing “wonderfully”, evoking his trademark easy outlook. “Today…I felt like putting on a pair of great beat-up leather cowboy boots,” he says. “To me, one of my favorite sounds is the sound of boot heels on tile floor. There’s nothing like wearing a nice pair of boots.” He’s just spoken with his mother who, to no surprise, wasn’t thrilled watching her son’s character get brutally pummeled—all-too realistically by Mod’s on-screen antagonist played by Zach Villa (American Horror Story)—in his powerful, filmic new video for his pop-punk ballad “Battle Scars.” “The song itself is like a piece of my body honestly,” he tells me. “It was the first song I made when I got sober and it was my best...
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Shines Thanks to a Deadpan Daniel Radcliffe: Review
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. The Pitch: Based on the 100% true story of comedian/musician/renegade polka king’s rapid rise to superstardom, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is an “unflinching” look at “Weird” Al Yankovic’s chaotic life. From his childhood as a closeted accordion player, to his brief flirtation with the hot underground polka scene, to his excessive rock and roll lifestyle to his artistic struggles, to his tumultuous romance for the ages with Madonna, and his deadly feud with a legendary drug lord, writer/director Eric Appel and co-writer Al Yankovic pull no punches. This is as real and serious as it gets. Related Video Generic Blues: A fake biopic of “Weird” Al Yankovic is most likely a foolproof formula. How wrong can you...
Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson Charm in the Time Loop Rom-Com Meet Cute: Review
The Pitch: It’s a tale as old as time: Gary (Pete Davidson) and Sheila (Kaley Cuoco) meet at a bar, and it’s basically love at first sight. She notices him because he’s the only one in the bar not watching the Big Game. He notices her because she’s funny, witty, unexpected, and a little kooky; their droll senses of humor bounce off each other like electricity. As their night goes from bar to restaurant to slow walks and talks along the riverside, it seems like their moment-one spark is too good to be true. Well, that might be because it is: It doesn’t take long for Sheila to fess up to the fact that their spontaneous meeting wasn’t so spontaneous: She’s lived this night dozens of times before, thanks to a magical tanning machine in a nearby nail salon that zaps you back 24 hours in ti...
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever Is the Worst-Reviewed Movie on Rotten Tomatoes — 20 Years Later, Is It Still That Bad?
According to Rotten Tomatoes, there has never been a movie quite like Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. The 2002 film, which stars Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu as espionage agents on opposite ends of an action-packed conspiracy, turns 20 years old today, and it bears one of the most unfortunate distinctions in the entire entertainment industry: It has 118 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and every single one of them says it’s bad. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is not the only movie with a 0% on the internet’s best-known review aggregator, but not all the zero-percenters are equal on that site. Even notorious duds like Jaws: The Revenge and Highlander II: The Quickening only have a fraction of the reviews have been logged for Ballistic. The odds that out of 118 critics, not a single one of them ever gave ...
Lacoste Blends Golf and Art at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France
What happens when golf inspires? This was a central question last week in Deauville, France, where Lacoste celebrated the renewal of its sponsorship of the Lacoste Ladies Open de France with a fresh concept for the tournament to champion not just women’s golf, but also art, fashion and culture. It’s a move that makes a ton of sense for a brand like Lacoste that has successfully melded performance and aesthetic while balancing streetwear with luxury since it was founded in 1933. Leveraging a new location, Lacoste revamped the tournament branding, created an art exhibition around the golf course to offer something new to fans both young and old, and extended the playing experience to not just pros, but to amateurs and novices who were outfitted in the latest Lacoste apparel. The event rewrot...
Saving the planet could be blockchain’s killer app
The sustainability movement has emerged as a 21st century megatrend, and it shows no signs of abating. Record heat in Europe, wildfires in the U.S. West, floods in Pakistan, drought in China, and accelerating ice cap melt in Greenland and Antarctica have driven home to many the looming threat of climate change. Meanwhile, the New York Times declared in December “the sustainable industrial revolution is just getting started,” and even heavy industries like shipping, steel, and plastics are beginning to grasp the importance of an ecologically sustainable future — developing products like “green steel,” which is a fossil-free steelmaking process. But hurdles remain, including questions about transparency, accountability, traceability, trust, data integrity, and even greenwas...
Rapper-Producer NAV Goes Above and Beyond Hip-Hop Beat Making
NAV, the rapper, has officially come to the forefront. The Ontario-born artist has spent nearly a decade making beats for hip-hop’s heavy hitters, landing his first major production credit on Drake’s “Back to Back” in 2015. The ensuing years saw NAV sign to XO Records and produce for Gunna, Travis Scott, Future and Young Thug, among other legends, while simultaneously building out his personal discography with a few albums of his own. It can be gleaned, however, that NAV’s star-studded roster of collaborators has positioned his identity as a rapper secondary to his reputation as one of rap’s leading producers. On Demons Protected by Angels, his fourth studio album, NAV has reaffirmed that he can deliver bars just as well as he can manufacture beats. Following 2020’s Good Intentions, Demons...
Opinion: Are Online Scams Undermining Trust in SA Government Services?
Protecting citizens when they interact with digital government services is fast becoming a top priority for governments around the world. The astonishing growth of the global cybercrime industry and the perceived ease at which threat actors imitate trusted brands and government departments online is challenging governments to implement new measures to protect citizens. As one of the continent’s most developed and heavily industrialised economies, South Africa is an attractive target to the global cybercrime industry. Interpol’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2021 found that South Africa led the way in all categories of cyberattacks, from digital extortion and online scams to business email compromise attacks. The 2021 Interpol report found that weak networks and poor security make c...
How Tech Businesses Can Empower South African Entrepreneurs
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