UPDATE (4/9):The Small Business Administration said Friday evening that the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant portal was still “temporarily suspended” and would remain so through the weekend as technical issues were resolved. A re-launch date was not announced, with the SBA adding, “When a reopening date is determined, we’ll provide updates …
Read More »Princess Nokia Pays Homage to Jennifer Lopez in 'It's Not My Fault' Video
It’s been quite a week for Nineties nostalgia. Following Beabadoobee’s throwback video for “Last Day on Earth,” Princess Nokia pays homage to Jennifer Lopez in “It’s Not My Fault.” The video is a direct nod to Lopez’s 1999 video for “If You Had My Love,” where Mid90s actor Olan Prenatt …
Read More »The Last, Best Chance on Climate
B arbara Boxer was in Greenland in July 2007, watching chunks of ice slide off glaciers into the rising ocean. She had brought Republican senators there with her, hoping a first-person confrontation with climate change would persuade them to take action. And as the newly calved icebergs flowed past, the …
Read More »The Last Word: Nancy Sinatra on What Her Father Taught Her and How She Saved 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin”
Nancy Sinatra wasn’t planning on revisiting her old hits. The singer, who ruled the Sixties with dark psychedelic-pop classics like “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ ” and “Bang Bang,” walked away from the music business in the Seventies to focus on raising her daughters and supporting progressive causes. She …
Read More »Bad Bunny Won 2020, and He's Just Getting Started
No artist had a bigger year in 2020 than Bad Bunny. In February, the Puerto Rican superstar released his acclaimed second album,YHLQMDLG, filled with nods to the old-school reggaeton he grew up listening to back home. The world shuttered shortly after that, but he still found a way to keep …
Read More »Mariah Carey's Diva Lit Masterpiece: Knowing Me, Knowing You, Not Knowing Her
You don’t know her. Nobody knows her. The one and only Mariah Carey has always been She Who Must Not Be Known, and her new book The Meaning of Mariah Carey (with Michaela Angela Davis) is an instant classic of pop diva lit. For any connoisseur of music memoirs, it’s …
Read More »Contact Tracing Trump: A Guide to Who in the President's Circle Has (or Could Have) Covid-19
President Trump returned to the White House on Monday after spending the weekend at Walter Reed Medical Center following his positive Covid-19 diagnosis. Though the president tweeted Tuesday that he’s “FEELING GREAT,” his health status remains a mystery, and a growing number of people he’s been in contact with directly …
Read More »Amy Coney Barrett Is an Emergency
This is not a drill. This is a judicial emergency. We are at DEFCON 1. These are not exaggerations. If the reports are true that President Trump plans on nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, we will be on the verge of the Supreme Court …
Read More »Toots and the Maytals: 15 Essential Songs
Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, who died Friday at age 77, wasn’t just a pioneer and key popularizer of Jamaican music; he was also an essential bridge between the worlds of ska, rocksteady, reggae, and the great American R&B tradition. His vocal delivery, raspy yet gorgeously supple, and poignant way of writing …
Read More »'Freedom-Loving People': Behind the Scenes at That Controversial Smash Mouth Show in South Dakota
Related: Somebody Once Told Me: An Oral History of Smash Mouth‘s ‘All Star’ Each year, hundreds of thousands of bikers come from across the country to the Black Hills of South Dakota for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally — and the Covid-19 pandemic isn’t stopping them in 2020. Now in its …
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