Music, film, matters of cultural import. Sometimes I dabble in serious* investigations. (*pop)
Glastonbury's all-male headliners prove the #MeToo movement didn't even scratch the surface in the music world
I was considering going to Glastonbury this year. It would be my 12th, I think. And listen, Glastonbury is never about who's headlining but when I saw the headliners I felt flattened and decided I could probably skip it.
On paper I can understand the decisions. Arctic Monkeys have a new album out and they've become as popular and expected at a Glastonbury headline slot as Coldplay. Not to mention, they're one of the best live acts in the world – and British. But Elton John can amply take care...
Perhaps a middle-aged man should not be writing Euphoria
By episode four of the second season of Euphoria, it had become obvious how quickly the once-revered, Emmy-winning series about Los Angeles teens running wild has fallen into style over substance.
I don't know whether it was Sydney Sweeney's Cassie violently vomiting in a hot tub over Nate's infidelity, or the clumsy extinguishing of Jules’ delicate queer metamorphosis story, which had been so beautifully portrayed by trans actor Hunter Schafer. Or perhaps it was Barbie Ferreira's Kat, who ha...
Whoopi Goldberg’s Ignorance About The Holocaust Is What Happens When Intersectionality Rots People’s Brains
The Holocaust was not, as Goldberg put it, about ‘man’s inhumanity to man.’ It was about man’s genocide of Jews.
It’s a chilling concern that corporate media repeatedly get matters of Jewish life and identity wrong. What happened on “The View” Monday morning was a perfect capture of the absolute ignorance about the Holocaust of American non-Jews with captive audiences in major media.
In a panel segment, host Whoopi Goldberg began, “the Holocaust isn’t about race.” She said it four times: “It’...
I Am A Jewish Advocate And The Way The World Has Reacted To The Texas Synagogue Siege Is Terrifying
The only thing more frightening than a violent act of antisemitism, is a violent act of antisemitism that the world is happy to ignore.
Last Saturday, on Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest), a Muslim extremist from Blackburn named Malik Faisal Akram entered the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in the town of Colleyville, Texas and took four Jewish people (one a Rabbi) hostage for 11 hours while demanding the release of a terrorist – Aafia Siddiqui – from a Texas prison.
The news of this incide...
Eve Barlow on Paul Thomas Anderson’s Nostalgic ‘Licorice Pizza’
You can smell the acne on Cooper Hoffman’s chin. You can feel the heat on the pavement as Alana Haim sprints toward a feeling. You can taste the burgers from the drive-thru and the martini at the clubhouse bar. You can almost touch the life in San Fernando Valley that Paul Thomas Anderson remembers from the 1970s, or dreams that were closer to the version he realizes on screen.
The way Anderson’s latest ode to the part of L.A. in which he was raised is brought to life speaks to a filmmaker wh...
Sinead O'Connor is just being herself
Never one to mince words, the legendary Irish singer-songwriter speaks candidly about her new memoir, mental health, being influenced by anger, and a bad run-in with Prince
It's evening in Ireland and Sinead O'Connor is sitting on top of a mountain in her little cottage, discussing her forthcoming memoir Rememberings. The book, out June 1, sets to document the parts of her life she can still recall, and makes for a colorful and challenging exposition of her early childhood, growing up amid so...
The Social Media Pogrom
What is Tisha B’Av? It’s the day, the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av, on which a series of Jewish tragedies took place, notably the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE and the destruction of the Second Temple 656 years later, in 70 CE.
When is Tisha B’Av? Tisha B’Av 2021 begins at sundown on Saturday, July 17, and ends at sundown on Sunday, July 18.
What’s it all about? We Jews should’ve known this day was no good when, on it, Moses’s spies came from the Promised Land with reports of ...
St. Vincent
Sleazy, gritty, grimy – these are the words used to describe the latest iteration of St. Vincent, Annie Clark’s alter ego. As she teases the release of her upcoming new album, ‘Daddy’s Home’, Eve Barlow finds out who’s wearing the trousers now.
Photos: Zackery Michael
Yellow may be the colour of gold, the hue of a perfect blonde or the shade of the sun, but when it’s too garish, yellow denotes the stain of sickness and the luridness of sleaze. On ‘Pay Your Way In Pain’ – the first single from...
Nancy Sinatra: 'I'll never forgive Trump voters. I hope the anger doesn't kill me'
She may be 80 and cut off by Covid, but she’s still ready to walk all over Donald Trump. As her greatest songs are reissued, she reflects on the sexual politics of the 60s, her friendship with Elvis and her hopes for peace in the US
Nancy Sinatra has one of the most famous surnames in America, but she has struggled to feel proudly American of late. It’s a couple of weeks away from the inauguration of Joe Biden, and the singer and film star is recalling Donald Trump’s preparations for his own ...
Miley Cyrus, Plastic Hearts, review: a few wrecking balls later, this rockstar has found her groove
After a turbulent journey through pop, country, heartbreak and scandal, Cyrus is back to her rock roots. Why did she ever leave them?
Miley Cyrus has a unique conundrum: she's perhaps the best modern interpretor of some of the greatest rock songs, but can she find a bigger catalogue of her own to match?...
Juanita Stein on writing through grief: “I didn’t have a choice”
When Juanita Stein, Australian singer-songwriter and former frontperson of the Howling Bells, lost her father Peter Stein at the beginning of 2019 she was propelled into one of her most meaningful creative spurts. In her base of Brighton in the UK, she found herself rallying to the studio every day for her longest period of writing on a record. Over the course of nine months she spilled her guts into the vocal booth and wrote and recorded ‘Snapshot’, her third solo album, alongside producer B...
MARIKA HACKMAN
M A R I K A
H A C K M A N
Throughout the mundanity of lockdown, Marika Hackman turned to her musical heroes to get her through the year’s weirdness. Eve Barlow meets the musician to hear about her new ‘Covers’ album and why you sometimes need to break things apart to create something new.
Photos: Fiona Garden. Styling: Helga Burrill with Clarks Originals.
Marika Hackman did not stick around when the pandemic took hold. Her flatshare in London was too crowded an environment in which to work. “...
Gorillaz Damon Albarn Predicts The Future
Damon Albarn was prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1995, after his band Blur’s first paycheck from the success of their third album—1994’s Parklife—he bought a farmhouse in the countryside by the sea. “Everyone thought I was mad,” says the Blur frontman, and one half of the creative duo behind virtual band Gorillaz. “Everyone said, ‘Why have you bought a remote house so far away?’” He chuckles, his gold tooth peering out over a Zoom call from his studio. “Now everyone’s like, ‘It’s the b...
Combatting Antisemitism Is A Matter For Everybody
Grazia feature on modern day antisemitism
Laura Jane Grace: “Maybe this is all one long manic episode that I’m going to snap out of”
Three days into a new tour with her primary band Against Me!, Laura Jane Grace found herself interrupted by a global pandemic. All immediate plans cancelled, the 39-year-old punk returned to Chicago, where she lives, and stared down the barrel of nothingness and the biggest test of patience. It was the first time in more than 20 years that she had experienced this much time off-the-road with no foreseeable plans to return to it. With about 30 songs already written (intended for a future Again...