Quoteworthy
Laurie Anderson Called Off Plan to House Lou Reed Archive in Texas over Gun Law
The new exhibition “Lou Reed: Caught Between the Twisted Stars” opens at Lincoln Center’s Library for Performing Arts on Thursday, but it nearly ended up in Texas. As Reed’s widow Laurie Anderson explained in conversation with The New York Times, she cut off conversations with UT Austin after Texas legislators passed a law allowing handguns to be carried on college campuses. Reed died in 2013, and Anderson had initially wanted his archive to be housed at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, which already boasted papers from James Joyce, Norman Mailer, and Don DeLillo. But after Governor Abbott signed the campus-carry bill in 2015, “I called them up,” she said. “‘This thing we’ve been talking about for a couple years? It’s off. Because of guns.’” A few months later, she read about a...
Tim Burton on Batman: “You Put Nipples on the Costume? Go Fuck Yourself”
Tim Burton directed Batman (1990) and Batman Returns (1992) before exiting the franchise over disagreements with Warner Bros. about tone. In a new interview with Empire, he said that his reaction upon seeing the next installment, Batman Forever (1995), was, “You put nipples on the costume? Go fuck yourself.” The conversation came as part of a broader reckoning with the twists and turns of the Batman films, which in recent years have trended darker. It’s something Burton had always wanted, he said. “It is funny to see this now, because all these memories come back of, ‘It’s too dark,’ So, it makes me laugh a little bit.” As he explained, “[Back then] they went the other way. That’s the funny thing about it. But then I was like, ‘Wait a minute. Ok...
Big Thief Announce Israel Tour Dates, Internet Boos
Big Thief have extended their world tour by adding two dates in Tel Aviv, Israel, cushioning the announcement with a statement claiming to be “open to other people’s perspectives” regarding the country’s conflict with Palestine. Noting that bassist Max Oleartchik is from Israel, the band explained that they wanted to explore Oleartchik’s hometown and meet his family and friends in the same way that he had done for them as they toured the United States. “It is important for us to go where we have family to share space and play for them,” the band said. “It is foundational. It is in that spirit that we made our decision to play in Israel.” Aware that many fans would likely not support their decision to perform in a country currently occupying another, Big Thief went on on to add, “We ar...
John Lydon, Who Wrote “Anarchy in the U.K.,” Says “Anarchy Is a Terrible Idea”
By this point, John Lydon’s status as a one-time punk pioneer has been overshadowed by a series of right-leaning political faux pas. But perhaps unsurprisingly, the man once known as Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten has now gone so far as to retract the message of his band’s debut single “Anarchy in the U.K.,” saying that he isn’t an anarchist at all. “Anarchy is a terrible idea,” Lydon wrote in a new essay for The Times. “Let’s get that clear. I’m not an anarchist. And I’m amazed that there are websites out there — .org anarchist sites — funded fully by the corporate hand and yet ranting on about being outside the shitstorm. It’s preposterous. And they’re doing it in designer Dr. Martens, clever little rucksacks and nicely manufactured balaclavas.” Just in time for Queen Elizabeth II’s ...
Jerrod Carmichael Slams Cancel Culture: “That’s Just to Give Boring People Something Interesting to Talk About”
Breaking news: A famous comedian has an opinion about cancel culture. Jerrod Carmichael is the latest funnyman to chime in on the topic, saying during a new roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he thinks “cancelation” is just coinage “to give boring people something interesting to talk about.” The interview in question featured Carmichael alongside fellow TV comedians Danny McBride, Michael Che, Will Forte, Jake Johnson, and Bowen Yang. The topic of cancel culture arose when interviewer Lacey Rose asked Che about a recent episode of his show That Damn Michael Che, during which the SNL star explored what being “canceled” might actually feel like. “I think the lie that we tell each other, and ourselves, is that we don’t feel [being canceled],” but we...
Why Kate Bush Granted Stranger Things Clearance of “Running Up That Hill”
Strangers Things 4 might bring Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (Make a Deal with God)” to a new career high on the Billboard charts thanks to its repeated use in the Netflix show’s latest installment, which debuted over Memorial Day Weekend. Though its reached instantaneous viral fame, the process of securing the 1985 cult-pop favorite was apparently years in the making. Warning: Spoilers ahead. The song is first introduced as an auditory balm for the character Max (played by Sadie Sink), who has isolated herself after the traumatic events of the previous season and blocks out her friends and classmates by blasting the tune through her headphones, and later serves as a crucial plot device. In a report by Variety, Stranger Things music supervisor Nora Felder reveals she was given free ran...
Steve Jones Doesn’t Like the Sex Pistols’ Music Anymore: “I’d Rather Listen to Steely Dan”
Sure, Steve Jones might be in the midst of promoting Pistol, the new FX series about his band, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he has to like his own music. In two recent interviews, the Sex Pistols guitarist has admitted that his tastes have changed quite a bit since being a punk rocker in the ’80s; nowadays, he’d “rather listen to Steely Dan.” The topic first came up in an interview with The Telegraph last week. “I never really listen to the Pistols’ music anymore,” Jones admitted. “I’m fucking tired of it, to be honest with you. I’d rather listen to Steely Dan.” It might come as a shock that Jones would prefer a jazz-rock group over the genre he helped pioneer, but rest assured he meant what he said. Speaking with The Associated Press about the re-release of the Pistols’ hit...
Jack White Calls for “New Rules” Following Uvalde Shooting
Jack White has joined a chorus of renewed calls for gun control following the shooting at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead. In a statement posted to Instagram, the artist called for “new rules” that “save lives and protect us from serious harm.” “As we tour in Texas these past few days, I can’t help but to feel saddened in so many ways about the latest in a long line of mass shootings, but mostly I’m exhausted,” White began his statement. “Exhausted with the ignorant excuses about the inability to fix this problem, exhausted with people clinging to their political party or their ‘side’ instead of looking at the issue. Exhausted with people whining about their ‘freedom’ being more important than rules that help save lives.” The musician continued...
Michael Che “Doesn’t Have Any Plans” to Quit Saturday Night Live
The next season of Saturday Night Live is going to look a little different from what we’re used to, but not every one is leaving. Following the news earlier this month that Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney were all departing the show, Weekend Update anchor Michael Che said he “[doesn’t] have any plans to leave just yet.” “I think I’m staying,” Che told The Ringer’s Bill Simmons on his self-titled podcast. “I never know, it’s hard. Once the season’s over it’s best to not to make decisions like towards the end of the year because all you want to do is get out of there, you’ve had your fill. But August or September is usually a different story. I don’t have any plans to leave just yet.” Simmons did poke fun at Che’s indecisiveness, as the comedian has ...
Ricky Gervais Defends His Transphobic Jokes: “That’s What Comedy Is For”
Ricky Gervais evidently hasn’t learned any lessons from Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle about behaving himself onstage. Despite the backlash he’s received for the blatant transphobia in his new Netflix special SuperNature, the Office (UK) star defended his decision to crack jokes about “taboo subjects,” saying he thinks “that’s what comedy is for.” “I think that’s what comedy is for, really — to get us through stuff,” Gervais said during a recent appearance on BBC’s The One Show. “I deal in taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn’t been before, even for a split second. Most offense comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target.” Following SuperNature‘s release, LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD took to Twitter to share their frustration...
Mick Jagger: Harry Styles Is a “Superficial Resemblance to My Younger Self”
Mick Jagger says Harry Styles is a “superficial resemblance to my younger self” who “doesn’t have a voice like mine or move on stage like me.” The Rolling Stones’ frontman’s eyebrow-raising comments about Styles came in what was otherwise a mundane interview with The London Times designed to drum up publicity for the band’s upcoming 60th anniversary tour. Jagger prefaced his remarks by saying he likes Styles and the two have “an easy relationship.” But the pleasantries ended there, as Jagger proceeded to rattle off all the reasons why there’s no comparison between the two. Advertisement Related Video “I mean, I used to wear a lot more eye make-up than him. Come on, I was much more androgynous,” Jagger said. “And he doesn’t have a voice like mine or move on stage like me; he just has a supe...
Billie Eilish Opens Up About Living with Tourette’s: “It’s Very Exhausting”
Billie Eilish isn’t one to censor herself; In just the past few months alone, the pop megastar has boldly vocalized her secret battle with COVID-19, how being exposed to pornography at a young age affected her, and her anger towards restrictive abortion laws. But more recently, during her appearance on Netflix’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, Eilish discussed a topic she’s virtually never addressed before in interviews: Her experience living with Tourette’s Syndrome. It didn’t look like Eilish was necessarily planning on talking about Tourette’s — which she said she was diagnosed with at age 11 — but the topic came up naturally after a change in the set lighting provoked one of her tics. “If you film me for long enough, you’re going to see lots of tics,...
