Quoteworthy
Joni Mitchell Receives Honorary Doctorate from Berklee: “My Mother Would Be Really Proud”
That’s Dr. Mitchell, to you. Joni Mitchell has received an honorary doctorate degree from Berklee College of Music. Berklee’s Office of the President and Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice presented Mitchell with the much-deserved honor yesterday, August 23rd, at a private event in Santa Monica. As Pitchfork points out, the ceremony was hosted by Linda and Russell Brown of MaddocksBrown Foundation, during which the legendary folk musician quipped: “Well, luckily I’m too old to get a swelled head.” Naturally, she also wore a custom beret to the ceremony, embroidered with her new name “Dr. Joni Mitchell.” “It’s a beautiful event. Words can’t describe it. I’ve got my good friends here with me,” Mitchell told the crowd, which included Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. “I wish my parents were...
“I Just Remove Myself”: Kendrick Lamar Talks Attention Economy and Social Media
If his blank Instagram account is any indication, Kendrick Lamar isn’t big on social media — or the spotlight in general. The rapper — who recently followed up 2017’s DAMN. with the long-awaited Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers — discussed stepping away from the limelight in a rare cover story interview with Citizen Magazine, saying, “If I feel I have to remove myself, I just remove myself.” “Because I’m so invested in who I am outside of being famous, sometimes that’s all I know,” Lamar said. “I’ve always been a person that really didn’t dive too headfirst into wanting and needing attention. I mean, we all love attention, but for me, I don’t necessarily adore it. I use it when I want to communicate something.” Rather than projecting a manicured persona online, “The person that ...
Street Racing Fast and Furious Fans “Torment” Residents in Film Locations
Fast and Furious has few remaining fans living in the Los Angeles neighborhood where several of the franchise’s most popular locations are set due to its tendency to attract street racing, stunt driving, and car collisions. Residents appear prepared to protest. According to a report by Variety, an upcoming shoot for the series’ tenth installment, Fast X, has intensified an outcry from homeowners in the Angelino Heights neighborhood, who claim that the films present an acute threat to the area while the city overall has experienced a 27% uptick in incidents related to street racing or street takeovers over the last year. A protest against the shoot is being organized by community members and the road safety advocacy groups Street Racing Kills and Streets Are for Everyone, though the exact d...
Frank Grillo Slams “Out-of-Control Crime” in Los Angeles Following Trainer’s Homicide
Frank Grillo has a few words to say about crime in Los Angeles after his boxing trainer Azuma Bennett was shot and killed outside a legal marijuana dispensary last week. The actor, known for his role as Brock “Crossbones” Rumlow in a number of Marvel films, said the incident marks an example of “out-of-control crime” in the city. “I don’t know what’s happened to Los Angeles that a beautiful guy like this gets shot and killed over nothing,” Grillo told KNBC, explaining that Bennett “made everybody feel good about training.” Bennett worked at Fortune Boxing Gym, which in addition to Hollywood actors, hosted famous fighters like Manny Pacquiao. He was shot around 9:45 a.m. on August 12th, and died on the way to the hospital from injuries sustained. Advertisement Related Video At the time of p...
Dr. Dre Says Doctors Thought He Was Going to Die from Brain Aneurysm: “They Thought I Was Outta Here”
Dr. Dre has revealed that doctors were preparing his family for the worst after he suffered from a brain aneurysm back in January 2021. During an appearance on fitness entrepreneur Dolvett Quince’s Workout the Doubt podcast, the hip-hop mogul explained how his loved ones were invited to the hospital because doctors thought he might not make it. “I’m at Cedars Sinai hospital and they weren’t allowing anybody to come up, meaning visitors or family or anything like that, because of COVID, but they allowed my family to come in,” Dre remembered. “I found out later, they called them up so they could say their last goodbyes because they thought I was outta here.” At the time, Dre had “no idea” his medical condition was “that serious.” He continued by describing the extensive tests that were ...
Idris Elba’s Daughter Didn’t Speak to Him for “Three Weeks” After Not Landing Role in His New Film
Idris Elba stars in his new movie Beast as a father trying to protect his two daughters from a lion during a trip to South Africa. As it turns out, his real-life offspring Isan auditioned to play one of his daughters in the film and then gave him the cold shoulder for “about three weeks” after failing to land the role. During a recent appearance on The Breakfast Club, Elba was asked about how his experience as a father informed his performance in the movie. “Interestingly enough, my daughter auditioned for this role. She wants to be an actress and she auditioned,” the actor said. “It came down to chemistry in the end. You know, my daughter, she was great, but the relationship in the film and the relationship with my daughter was — the chemistry wasn’t right for [the] film, w...
Demi Lovato Addresses “Survivor’s Guilt” Over Mac Miller’s Death on New Song “DEAD FRIENDS”: Stream
Demi Lovato has opened up about feeling “survivor’s guilt” over the death of Mac Miller, whose passing from a drug overdose took place just weeks after the singer survived her own. After speaking about the topic in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe earlier this week, the pop star has released a song called “DEAD FRIENDS” off her new album, HOLY FVCK. Part of Lovato’s return to her pop-rock roots, “DEAD FRIENDS” finds the 29-year-old singer reflecting on having made it through a near-fatal overdose that was followed by three strokes and a heart attack. Lovato ponders why she made it through and her friends didn’t with lyrics like, “I’m waking up right now/ And they never will/ Again, I still can’t understand.” On the chorus, she adds, “I danced with the devil, I made it th...
Tarantino on No Michelle Yeoh in Kill Bill: “Who Would Believe Uma Thurman Could Kick Your Ass?”
Quentin Tarantino has been frank about finding inspiration for Uma Thurman’s character in Kill Bill from Michelle Yeoh’s performance in Jackie Chan’s 1992 comedy, Police Story 3. So why didn’t he cast Yeoh in his film? “I asked Quentin the same question,” Yeoh said in a new interview with Town & Country. “He’s very smart. He said, ‘Who would believe that Uma Thurman could kick your ass?’ ” While they’ve never worked together, Tarantino and Yeoh are friends, and she credits the director with convincing her to come out of retirement after her terrifying fall from a bridge on the set of 1996’s The Stunt Woman. She broke several vertebrae. “I thought I broke my back. I thought I was paralyzed,” she explained. Every breath was agony. Tarantino was in Hong ...
Frances Bean Cobain Turns 30 Years Old, Reflects on Near-Death Experience
Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, is celebrating her 30th birthday today, August 18th. In an Instagram post reflecting on the milestone, Cobain opened up about how a mid-air incident during a 2017 flight led to a change in her perspective over the past several years. “I made it! Honestly, 20 year old Frances wasn’t sure that was going to happen,” Cobain wrote. “At the time, an intrinsic sense of deep self loathing dictated by insecurity, destructive coping mechanisms & more trauma than my body or brain knew how to handle, informed how I saw myself and the world; through a lens of resentment for being brought into a life that seemingly attracted so much chaos and the kind of pain tied to grief that felt inescapable.” She continued, “Then,...
Kid Cudi on Kanye West: It Would Take a “Motherfucking Miracle” to Be Friends Again
While they’ve mended fences before, the Kid Cudi seems adamant that he’ll never again be friends with Kanye West after their most recent public fallout in February. In a new cover story for Esquire conducted back in June, Cudi said it would take a “motherfucking miracle” for them to patch up their relationship. After initially declining to speak about West for the interview, Cudi let off steam about being cut from Donda 2 solely due to his friendship with Kim Kardashian’s now former boyfriend Pete Davidson. “Do you know how it feels to wake up one day, look at your social media, and you’re trending because somebody’s talking some shit about you?” Cudi said. “That shit pissed me off. That he had the power to fuck with me that week. That he used his power to fuck with me.” He...
Mark Hoppus Hints at “Next Phase” of Blink-182 After Reconciling with Tom DeLonge
Based on People magazine’s new interview with Mark Hoppus, it’s looking increasingly likely that the future of Blink-182 will once again include Tom DeLonge. While speaking about his recovery from cancer, Hoppus opened up about a home visit with DeLonge and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker that left the trio in “a really great place right now.” “It was the first time that all three of us were in the same room in like five years,” Hoppus recalled about the informal reunion, which took place before he began chemotherapy in 2021 for stage 4 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. “It’s actually better than it used to be. There was no agenda. There were no lingering grudges. It felt very back to what it should be: three friends sitting in a room.” Adding that the renewed connection was crucial...
Bam Margera Says He Was “Much Better Off” After Being Fired from Jackass Forever
After completing a one-year substance abuse program in May, Bam Margera has unfortunately been in and out of court-mandated rehab. At some point, however, he was able to appear on Steve-O’s podcast to discuss his battles with addiction and dismissal from Jackass Forever. Though the episode was just released last week, Steve-O explained in the introduction that it was actually recorded “a while back.” Based on the recency of Margera’s skateboarding injury in the video, the sitdown appears to have taken place a week or so after he passed the one-year mark in late May. With such a major milestone behind him, Margera was open to talking about his departure from the franchise. “Everything [was] meant for a reason and I’m much better off not being in it,” Margera said, after Steve-O explain...
