In the 60 years since its inception, the Newport Folk Festival has undergone many a shape shift. But this year the fest’s star-spangled lineup, one of its most diverse in recent memory and the most gender-balanced ever, did full justice to the plurality and collective spirit of the folk tradition. …
Read More »Ray and Dave Davies Recording New Kinks Songs for Possible Album
The Kinks have been teasing fans about a reunion that never seems to materialize for the greater part of the past decade, but it’s now finally happening. In a 2018 interview with Channel 4 News in England, Ray Davies said he was recording a “new Kinks record” with his brother …
Read More »Stonewall's Gift: 50 Years Ago Queer Fury Erupted and Changed the World
In the spring of 1968, weeks before the start of her final year of life, Judy Garland met with a biographer to discuss collaborating on her memoir. The author, Gerold Frank, was a journalist well-known for ghostwriting the life stories of celebrity women, including Zsa Zsa Gabor. The meeting, arranged …
Read More »Watch Jon Stewart Tear Into Mitch McConnell on 'Colbert'
After Jon Stewart recently gave an emotional testimony before a House Judiciary Committee to ask Congress to extend the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed that the former late night host was “bent out of shape” about nothing. Stewart responded to that statement on The …
Read More »Alec Baldwin 'So Done' With Portraying Trump on 'SNL'
The back half of Saturday Night Live‘s Season 44 saw a decrease in cold opens revolving around Alec Baldwin‘s Donald Trump, and as the actor reveals in a new interview, he’s unlikely to reprise the role of the president when SNL returns for Season 45. “I can’t imagine I would …
Read More »America's Soul Is Not on the Ballot
The United States will require much correction in the wake of Donald Trump, should he be defeated and should he actually leave the presidency peacefully. I assume neither, given his behavior and the current slate of candidates opposing him, numerous as they are. There are 20 of them now, with …
Read More »America's Boom in Illegal Weed
It seems former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was correct about one thing: Pot legalization has provided cover for criminals, allowing illicit production to thrive. Experts estimate that at least 30 percent of cannabis cultivated in legal states is being “diverted” to illicit markets across the country. The biggest problem has …
Read More »'Star Wars': See First Trailer for 'Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker'
The story of the Skywalker family ends December 20th, and in front of a cheering, lightsaber-waving crowd at Chicago’s Star Wars Celebration convention Friday morning, director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy finally announced the title of the final film in the saga: Star Wars: Episode IX – The …
Read More »The #MeToo Primary
Back in 2014, when former Nevada state assemblywoman Lucy Flores was campaigning for lieutenant governor, she got a bit of good news: Vice President Joe Biden was interested in joining her on the trail. But her initial optimism over Biden’s appearance at a rally in Las Vegas curdled upon his …
Read More »12 Senate Republicans Defy Trump, Vote to 'Terminate' National Emergency
The Senate on Thursday voted in favor of a resolution to “terminate” President Trump’s national emergency declaration. The vote marks a stunning bipartisan rebuke of the president, who last month used his executive privilege to circumvent Congress and fund the construction of a wall along the southern border. Though the …
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