Iggy Pop: Every Loser review a celebrity rocker group hug

 Posted on April 24, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  834 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

Kitty Empire's artist of the weekIggy PopReview(Atlantic Records/Gold Tooth) The veteran showman’s 19th album is slick, tuneful and big on star guests, yet feels like a step backwards More than half a century into his career, Iggy Pop now takes many forms. To most he remains the proto-punk showman who used to roll around in broken glass or crowd-surf covered in peanut butter. His early records with the Stooges on the 1960s/70s cusp remain some of the most influential in the canon – documents of devil-may-care nihilism that provided a scuzzy counterweight to the era of peace and love. [Read More]

Jam Master Jay | Culture

 Posted on April 24, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  610 words  |  Kary Bruening

CultureObituaryJam Master JayDJ who pioneered hip-hopThe American hip-hop DJ Jam Master Jay, who has been shot dead at his New York recording studio aged 37, was a member of Run-DMC, the first rap group to capture a worldwide audience; he was also responsible for popularising the idea of a DJ creating a musical collage for a song. His raps never embraced gun culture, instead promoting black awareness and education. Run-DMC were formed by Joe Simmons and Daryl McDaniels in the early 1980s. [Read More]

The Republican podcast taking a shot at making conservatism cool

 Posted on April 24, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1196 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

US politicsThe irreverent Ruthless attracts big-name guests and is offering a rightwing alternative to wildly popular progressive podcasts An increasingly prominent Republican podcast is emerging as a conservative alternative to the type of political media progressives have had a monopoly on for years: the partisan, edgy-oftentimes-irreverent entertainment show that nevertheless attracts powerful newsmakers. The podcast, called Ruthless, is hosted by Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Michael Duncan, one of Holmes’s colleagues at the consulting firm they work for, and the lawyer pseudonymously known by his Twitter handle Comfortably Smug. [Read More]

We ferried 500 men out: how an organizer foiled one of Americas biggest human trafficking o

 Posted on April 24, 2024  |  10 minutes  |  2075 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

MississippiInterview‘We ferried 500 men out’: how an organizer foiled one of America’s biggest human trafficking operationsWilfred ChanIn his thrilling book The Great Escape, Saket Soni tells the true story of a brutal labor camp in Mississippi Few labor organizers tell stories as skillfully as Saket Soni. Originally from New Delhi, Soni enrolled in the University of Chicago at 18 to learn how to write plays. “I think my parents may have been the only ones in Indian history to let their son come to the United States to study theater,” he says. [Read More]

Chinese Calvinism flourishes | Andrew Brown

 Posted on April 23, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  1034 words  |  Valentine Belue

Andrew Brown's blogReligionChinese Calvinism flourishesThe churches that follow Calvin are the third largest Christian grouping in the world. In China they hope to become the religion of the eliteJohn Calvin was a Frenchman, but he is being remembered in Geneva this week because it was here that he built Calvinism. Invited to reform the city in 1541, almost as what would now be called a management consultant, he formed an alliance with the city fathers. [Read More]

Fervor: Remembering Lorraine Hunt Lieberson | Classical music

 Posted on April 23, 2024  |  10 minutes  |  2024 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

Classical musicFervor: Remembering Lorraine Hunt LiebersonAhead of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's Tribute to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, we reprint Alex Ross's essay about the much missed great US singer.On July 3, 2006, the mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson died of complications from breast cancer. She was fifty-two years old. News of her passing aroused little interest outside the classical-music world: the singer was hardly a household name, lacking even the intermittent, Sunday-morning-television stardom achieved by the likes of Renée Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma. [Read More]

France reports 12% fall in number of cars torched on New Years Eve | France

 Posted on April 23, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  236 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

France This article is more than 9 years oldFrance reports 12% fall in number of cars torched on New Year’s EveThis article is more than 9 years oldGovernment says there were fewer arrests for disturbances due to more security following street attacks before ChristmasThe French government has reported a 12% drop in the number of cars torched on New Year’s Eve – a ritual among revellers in the high-rise suburbs. [Read More]

John Ryder: Canelo in Mexico? If you think thats big, wait for the rematch | Boxing

 Posted on April 23, 2024  |  10 minutes  |  2066 words  |  Valentine Belue

John Ryder is a huge underdog against Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez in their undisputed world super-middleweight title fight in Guadalajara. Photograph: Teri Pengilley/The GuardianJohn Ryder is a huge underdog against Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez in their undisputed world super-middleweight title fight in Guadalajara. Photograph: Teri Pengilley/The GuardianBoxingInterviewJohn Ryder: ‘Canelo in Mexico? If you think that’s big, wait for the rematch’Donald McRaeThe British boxer will be a huge underdog on the champion’s home turf but he is promising the crowd a fight to remember [Read More]

Natalie Zemon Davis obituary | History books

 Posted on April 23, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  914 words  |  Kary Bruening

History booksObituaryNatalie Zemon Davis obituaryAcademic and author of The Return of Martin Guerre, an account of peasant life in France that inspired a generation of historiansWith her book The Return of Martin Guerre (1983), the historian Natalie Zemon Davis, who has died aged 94, attracted a wide readership and inspired future historians. It came out of working as a historical consultant on a film of the same name released the previous year, starring Gérard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye, and directed by Daniel Vigne. [Read More]

Summer is over welcome back to big scarf season

 Posted on April 23, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  852 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

Fashion Statement newsletterFashionIn this week’s newsletter: It may still be September but from Loewe to Asos, blanket-size knits are flying off shelves – Lenny Kravitz has even brought that scarf back Don’t get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up here In 2012, Lenny Kravitz was photographed nipping out to the shops wearing a scarf so large, the internet became embroiled in a debate over whether it was a scarf or actually a blanket. [Read More]