NEWS
‘Rent’ Musical Celebrates 25th Anniversary
The musical was Rent and it’s celebrating its silver anniversary this year with an online gala and a lot of gratitude from generations of fans. Jonathan Larson’s tale of free-spirited artists and street people in New York’s gritty drug- and AIDS-plagued East Village of the early 1990s was inspired by Puccini’s “La Boheme” and found a ready-made audience in young people. “It gives people hope who feel that ‘I’m different’ and ‘I don’t fit.’ This says ‘It doesn’t matter,’” says James Nicola, artistic director of New York Theater Workshop, which nurtured “Rent.” ”It says, ‘You can go out and make your own community.’” New York Theater Workshop will celebrate “Rent” with a gala on March 2 that will be available to stream through March 6. Original cast members will be joined by theater stars su...
Bella Thorne Blasts Public Scrutiny Britney Spears Faced: ‘No One Gives Disney Kids Enough F***ing Credit’
When Bella Thorne first watched Hulu’s Framing Britney Spears in early February, she was irate — and has yet to shake the feeling. “It made me so sad, just all the wrongs that society did to her,” she says. “It’s disgusting what she went through, what she is still going through, the whole nine yards, it is literally terrible. And thank goodness they made the documentary so that people can change their fucking perception on situations.” The actress, 23, shares some similarities with the pop star, after all. They both were groomed for stardom as children and came up through the Disney ranks, Thorne via “Shake It Up” (opposite Zendaya) and Spears as a Mouseketeer, and both suffered the predations of paparazzi and negative scrutiny. She vividly r...
Björk Shares Sonos Radio Mix: Stream
Björk is the latest artist to curate a Sonos Radio station, plumbing her formidable WAV archives for a playlist that touches every corner of the globe. Her channel is called “21 years worth of wave files liquidated into a stream”. As she explained in an interview at the top of the mix, Björk has owned the same laptop for 21 years. It’s become a repository for all her favorite tracks discovered on CDs, cassettes, vinyl, and more — every song that she says “saved my life” she converted into a high-quality WAV format. Now, these sonic chronicles have been distilled down to an eclectic hour’s worth of music, featuring performances by Alim qasimov, Jeremiah, Oui, LFO, Aby Ngana Diop, ML Buch, and more. In a statement, Björk delved into her curation process, writing, “i am quite t...
Daisy Ridley Responds to Ted Cruz: “I’m an Emotionally Tortured Jedi Who Doesn’t Leave Their State”
Out of all of the Star Wars’ characters to choose from, Ted Cruz recently declared Cara Dune was the one who broke the most barriers in the franchise’s galactic universe. Of course, this flawed but acceptable stance came only in the wake of Gina Carano’s firing from The Mandalorian, and in taking his position, Cruz decided to dig himself a hole of bias by dissing Rey Skywalker in the process. Now, Daisy Ridley has responded to him with the most perfect comeback. This all started on February 11th when Cruz weighed in on Disney booting Carano from The Mandalorian following a series of “abhorrent” social media posts, including Carano comparing being a Republican today to being Jewish during the Holocaust. Carano did not apologize for her statement but instead doubled down, saying, “They can’t...
Rina Sawayama Reveals Mercury Prize and BRIT Awards Nationality Requirements Have Changed
Last July, Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama revealed she was ineligible to win a Mercury Prize or BRIT Award for her critically acclaimed album, SAWAYAMA, due to an archaic nationality requirement. She’d lived in the UK since she was a toddler, but because she lacked a British passport, she wasn’t up for awards consideration. Today, our former Artist of the Month revealed the eligibility rules have changed. “I’m over the moon to share the news that following a number of conversations the BPI [British Phonographic Industry] has decided to change the rules of eligibility for all nominees for the BRIT awards and Mercury Prize,” she wrote on Twitter. “Starting this year, artists (like me) will be eligible for nomination even without British citizenship. The rules have broadened to include...
Paranormal Activity Sequel and Pet Sematary Prequel Coming to Paramount+
Halloween is nowhere near, but horror fans are still being gifted one of those king-sized treats today. A sequel to Paranormal Activity and a prequel to Pet Sematary are in the works and are set to debut on the new streaming service Paramount+. The platform, which was officially unveiled to investors earlier today, is ViacomCBS’ rebranding of its unsuccessful streaming service CBS All Access, and the company is clearly trying to get off on the right foot with viewers who yearn for a good scare. Both of these clicks are being developed by Paramount’s division Paramount Players, which intends to deliver four to six films to Paramount+ each year (via Variety). The studio hasn’t provided much information about the films themselves, but they’re calling the seventh edition of the ...
Meek Mill Claims He Apologized To Vanessa Bryant Privately After She Checked Him For Kobe Lyric
Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz83 Monday (Feb.22), Vanessa Bryant let Meek Mill know that she wasn’t feeling his lame Kobe verse, and now Meek is saying he’s sorry for it. After taking another beating on Twitter for the nut ass Kobe bar where he rapped Yeah, and if I ever lack, I’m goin’ out with my chopper, it be another Kobe. Shit, I could tell that they ain’t never know me/’Cause if they knew me they would’ve never showed me,” Meek Mill revealed that he did apologize to the late Lakers’ superstar’s wife. The apology for the ill-timed verse came 24 hours after she called him out for it. Using his Twitter fingers, the Philly rapper wrote in a tweet, “I apologized to her in private earlier today not to the public. Nothing I say on my page directed to a internet viral moment or the ...
Madlib & KAYTRANADA Connect On Double Single For Innovative Lexus IS Wax Edition
Source: Lexus / Pitchfork Madlib and KAYTRANADA individually have achieved worldwide fanfare in their respective lanes as producers and sound providers. With the pair collaborating on a new double-single, the exclusive vinyl and its creation is part of an effort featuring Lexus and their innovative IS Wax Edition model. Pitchfork produced and filmed the connection between the two musical giants, both of whom admire the other’s work. In fact, KAYTRANADA, the younger of the two, was especially humbled by the moment but the Oxford, Calif. native made sure to gently brush aside the accolades to praise his Canadian counterpart for being nominated for a trio of Grammy Awards. Partnering with Lexus, the first video of the two-part Driven By Sound documentary series follows Madlib and KAYTRANADA’s...
Samsung Announces New “Buy and Try” Program For Its Foldable Smartphones
Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz83 Are you still on the fence when it comes to buying one of Samsung’s foldable smartphones? This new program might help you make up your mind. Tuesday (Feb.23), Samsung announced it is offering to customers a “Buy and Try” program for the Galaxy Z Flip 5G and Galaxy Z Fold2 5G. The Korean tech giant is hoping with this new initiative to help customers find out if Samsung’s latest foldable devices are right for them and is a part of its commitment to making the devices accessible to everyone. For the first time, Samsung offers a program for its mobile devices that will extend the return policy from 15 days to 100 days after consumers buy either the Galaxy Z Fold2 5G or Galaxy Z Flip 5G. The program’s announcement comes af...
Rising Dubstep Artist LEVEL UP Signs to United Talent Agency
Rising dubstep music producer LEVEL UP has officially signed to United Talent Agency, one of the nation’s premier agencies. It’s a pivotal and well-deserved moment in the budding career of the rising beatsmith, who is one of the bass music scene’s brightest young producers. She dropped her thunderous Scared Of The Dark EP in September 2020, flaunting a sinister sound that yearned for the festival stages of pre-pandemic yesteryear. She then doubled down on that dark, demonic sonic flair with “Satan Works Alone” in December before kicking off 2021 with a wobbly banger called “Hell Hole,” which she produced alongside JEANIE. Check out LEVEL UP’s announcement below. In addition to her growing discography, LEVEL UP is a gifted DJ, having trai...
New Reno 911! and Beavis and Butt-Head Movies Coming to Paramount+
During a TCA event on Wednesday, ViacomCBS unveiled some of the exclusive titles coming to its new streaming platform Paramount+ in the near future. On the comedy front, the streamer is reviving both Reno 911! and Beavis and Butt-Head for new movies. Following a six season run on Comedy Central between 2003 and 2009, Reno 911! was revived by Quibi for a seventh season in 2020. Paramount+’s upcoming revival is billed as a “super-sized event” titled Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon. As for Beavis and Butt-Head, the upcoming untitled movie will serve as a precursor to a series revival set to air on Comedy Central. This will be the second Beavis and Butt-Head movie, following 1996’s Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. Paramount+, a rebranding of ViacomCBS’ CBS All Access platform,...
Paramount+ Announces Docu-Series with Dave Grohl and His Mom, New Behind the Music
When CBS All Access rebrands itself as Paramount+ next month, it will come with a slew of new content for music fans. At the ViacomCBS’s TCA presentation on Wednesday, it was announced the platform will be a home to reboots of classic MTV and VH1 franchises as well as a new docu-series from Dave Grohl and his mom, Virginia Hanlon Grohl. The Grohls’ series is based on Mama Grohl’s 2017 book From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars, taking the name From Cradle to Stage. The book featured interviews with rock stars’ moms about raising their little hell-raisers, and the six-part docu-series will further explore those relationships. Each episode will center on a single famous artist and their mother, with Dave and Virginia along for the ride. Paramount+ wi...
