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Hairband are cutting their own groove through Glasgow’s busy DIY scene
As is customary for such a densely populated, overlapping scene, Hairband's five members are drawn from a constellation of established indie pop groups including Breakfast Muff and Spinning Coin. Hairband’s self-titled debut EP – distributed by the recently-launched label branch of beloved record store Monorail – is built from the city’s well-honed indie-pop traditions and sense of community, but has a ominous undercurrent to distinguish it.
The subtly jarring imagery of the first two tracks sets the uneasy tone: on opener “Bee”, honey is “sugar water”; lead single “Bubble Sword” alludes to the oddball danger of a man armed with a child’s toy. The complementary waves of instrumentation and close vocal lines establish a sonic harmony that is at odds with the strange lyricism.
The group’s camaraderie is at the forefront of “Flying”, a lo-fi lament to supernatural abilities (“I say goodbye to the feeling of my feet on the earth beneath / and take to the sky”). Populated by interweaving sing-song guitar lines and soothing melody, its warmth invites the listener in; its repeated refrain, “I know a place where we can try to learn how to fly” suggests an anthem for a secret society where everyone is invited.
If “Flying” is the invitation, then “Sassy Moon” is the initiation ritual, balancing drama and humour with a central witchy demand: “How do you feel / how do you feel / about the moon?” Closing track “White Teeth” is an ambiguous, voyeuristic tribute to a briefly-glimpsed crush, or stalkee, or victim: “Your teeth glisten in the sun / Your tongue runs over your gums / I can see your smile from miles around”. The vocal harmonies are sugary-sweet as appreciation turns to a threat. This characteristic balance of sweet and sinister makes Hairband a promising debut for a group who have already claimed their niche in a crowded scene.
Source: https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews/albums/hairband-hairband-album-review
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Amazon Wants More Good Omens and Fleabag
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Usually, in the TV business, it's a network that decides it doesn't want to continue a show and the executive producers beg for another season. For two of Amazon's big hits, it's the other way around. The head of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, and her executive team, told journalists at the summer Television Critics Association summer press tour that the streaming service is hoping to renew two beloved series as soon as their showrunners agree to tell more of their stories.
First, Good Omens premiered its first season at the end of May to good reviews and even a campaign to have it shut down by Christian evangelists. Neil Gaiman, the author of the novel on which the show is based and the adaptation's showrunner, has written an unpublished sequel novel, but it remains to be seen whether Gaiman will return to the world of Good Omens on television.
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"We're lucky to have an ongoing relationship with Neil [Gaiman] and we're so excited about how the season has done for us," co-head of TV Vernon Sanders said. "The notion has come up about whether we can revisit the world. It's in Neil's hands now and we'd love to do it. It just takes a little time..whatever he wants to do we're interested in."
Amazon is in a similar boat with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who has said that FleabagSeason 2 was the last she wanted to do for the series. However, Salke is hoping the current Bond scribe will change her mind.
"I am basically [Phoebe]'s stalker. Anything she wants to do, we are happy to do," Salke confessed. "Nothing would make us happier than for her to bring another season of that show or anything else she wants to do. I'm forever the optimist, so I remain hopeful until its totally over. So, I'm with you, I'm hoping."
However, not all showrunners are being chased by Amazon for more episodes. Co-head of TV Albert Cheng announced there are "no plans at this time" to bring Steve Conrad's Patriot back for more episodes. Amazon also announced the cancellation of Nicolas Winding Refn's Too Old to Die Young and Matthew Weiner's The Romanoffs.
Source: https://www.tvguide.com/news/amazon-good-omens-fleabag-possible-renewals/?rss=breakingnews
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Considering Most Airtime Goes to Oldies, Radio's Promotional Value Under Scrutiny at AIMP Indie Music Publishing Summit
The radio industry is getting the better part of its deal with the music industry, according to a presentation by Massarsky Consulting CEO Barry Massarsky at the Association of Independent Music Publishers annual Indie Music Publishing Summit's opening session on Tuesday (June 11).
Massarsky first questioned long-held radio industry claims that it provides promotion for music that drives sales and, nowadays, streaming activity. He observed that when radio used music, 52.9% of the spins are for gold songs, also called oldies or standards. Otherwise, 36.5% of spins are for current music, less than two years old, and the remaining 10.7% spins are for recurrents, or songs that fell off the charts sometime with the last year but are seeing renewed life at radio. Consequently, in light of how much gold songs radio plays, Massarsky says the claims the platform is promoting music that drives sales and streaming activity is over rated.
“So the older the music played by radio gets, the less promotional that play is,” Massarsky said.
Next, Massarsky looked at which formats were driving the $13.47 billion in advertising revenue and found that 78%, or $10.3 million, of that revenue was brought in by music stations, while non-music stations brought in 22% or $3.013 million.
Considering how much revenue is driven by music play, Massarsky decided to look at what percentage of radio's overall expenses are paid to songwriters and publishers. He found that royalties only comprised 4.6% of overall radio expenses. Moreover, in analyzing other industries, he found that HBO's content costs 27.7% of revenue, AMC movie theaters spend 36.5% on expenses and TBS spends 48.5% of its expenses on content -- so at 4.6%, radio had the best bargain for its content costs.
Considering that music stations bring in 78% of radio advertising revenue and yet only pays out 4% or so to the performance rights organizations, the “relationship to content cost is unequal to the value that radio is receiving” from its music licensors, Massarsky said.
Earlier, ABKCO Music COO Alisa Colemen displayed a revenue slide compiled from data supplied by a group of indie music publishers that showed performance revenue is 50% of all music publishing revenue, while synchronization is at 19% and mechanical is at 32%.
But adjusting that revenue for the rates awarded by the Copyright Royalty Board earlier this year, which were retroactive back to Jan. 1, those percentages changed to performance at 49% of music publishing revenue, synch at 18% and mechanical at 33%. (This presupposes that the digital services are not successful in appealing the CRB rates.) Further breaking out the 33% mechanical portion, that breaks out to 8% from physical and other formats; 6% from downloads and 18% from streaming.
Next, Coleman looked at performance revenue and broke that out, finding terrestrial radio accounted for 38% slice of the performance pie; streaming for 34%, television and other for 18% share, satellite radio for an 8% slice and audio/visual streaming at 2%.
Earlier she reminded attendees of the role indie music publishers play in the music industry, noting their importance is measured by their heritage. She said, “It takes real heart to be an independent music publisher.”
Source: https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/8515561/considering-most-airtime-goes-to-oldies-radios-promotional-value-under-scrutiny
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Did a Muslim Man Impregnate a 9-Year-Old Girl?
An image of a young child in Brazil with an enlarged liver and spleen is frequently used by internet trolls to spread Islamophobic rumors. On 24 March 2019, for instance, this photograph was shared as if it showed a 9-year-old girl who had been impregnated by a Muslim man:
This image does not show a pregnant child. This photograph was originally posted by the Garrafão do Norte Facebook page in November 2016 and shows a 12-year-old girl named Sandy at a hospital in Belém, Brazil. At the time, the Facebook page was attempting to raise money for her medical care, as she was suffering from problems with her liver:
The Brazilian website Diario Online reported that Sandy had struggled with an enlarged liver and spleen since she was six months old. Her aunt, Maria Zeneide, told the outlet: “(Sandy) has been fighting the disease since six months after a bacterium that settled and infected everything. She was being treated in Porto Alegre, but due to her mother’s health problems, the two had to go home and the treatment had to be stopped.”
This isn’t the first time that Sandy’s photograph has been re-purposed to spread misinformation. In 2017, this image was attached to a similar rumor claiming that it showed a young girl who was impregnated at a Rohingya refugee camp in Myanmar.
Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/muslim-man-pregnant-child/
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'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' Star Ellie Kemper Wants You To Stop Using "LOL," Kthxbye!
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Ellie Kemper, the star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, knows the sound of real laughter when she hears it—or reads it. In this excerpt from her new collection of essays, My Squirrel Days—check it out in Cosmo's October issue—Kemper explains why should quit saying, er, typing "LOL" and try something a little more, let's say, robust.
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Guys, I can’t lie: It’s rough out there. Our world can feel cruel, hard, depressing. Sometimes I want to get on the next spaceship to Mars. Actually, I’ve found it’s easier to purchase my favorite pint of ice cream from my neighborhood grocer and just down the entire container in one sitting.
Of course, neither of these options really serves as a solution. And the truth is, there is no single panacea. But I have one very unique coping mechanism, and it looks like this:
Let’s do away with writing LOL. Let’s just forget about it.
AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Now, doesn’t that make you feel better?
Here is what I want to throw out there: Let’s do away with writing LOL. Let’s just forget about it. At the dawn of the internet, it was cute. A sweet little shorthand to let your correspondent know that you thought something was funny. At first, I thought it stood for laughing online. That’s how fun it is: open to interpretation, flexible, easygoing, cool. “LOL,” friends would write to me.
My Squirrel Days
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“I know, major LOL!” I would write back.
Even then, though, I knew that LOL wasn’t going to work for me. Because here’s the thing: It’s too tidy. Unbridled, gut-busting laughter isn’t tidy. Have you ever seen someone laughing really, really hard? It borders on disturbing. It’s maniacal and sloppy and uncontrollable. This raw sensation is precisely what AHAHAHAHAHAHA captures. LOL is sweet, but it is too polite.
One of the first documented instances of my using AHAHAHAHAHAHA in an e-mail dates back to October 2014, when my sister, Carrie, was about to get married. For their wedding reception, she and her soon-to-be husband, Ben, had hired two college gymnasts to double as the bride and groom—the lady gymnast would be wearing a white dress, and the guy would be wearing a tux.
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They would enter the party doing backflips and front handsprings. (Carrie and Ben are strong and athletic people, but they are hardly Olympians.) All the guests at the party would temporarily think that this blur of tumbling was actually Carrie and Ben….and I could not stop laughing thinking about it. Carrie e-mailed me the video of the gymnasts rehearsing a week before the wedding, and I was in tears.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHA,” I wrote to her. “AHAHAHAHAHAHA THIS IS GOING TO BE BRILLIANT.”
And guess what? It was brilliant. It was fantastic and hilarious and joyful and bright—it was all those things that AHAHAHAHAHAHA represents.
We need to find laughter where we can, and we need to celebrate that laughter.
We should be happy that we are living in an age when AHAHAHAHAHAHA should be not only accepted but also embraced. I know I’m talking about something pretty light here, but I honestly think it represents something more powerful. Women are speaking up. We are making our voices heard. In the same way that LOL is a demure style of communicating, AHAHAHAHAHAHA is the thunderous roar of a feeling that is alive and passionate, one you don’t feel the need to keep in check.
We need that now. A lot. Because like I said, the world is a tough place. We need to find laughter where we can, and we need to celebrate that laughter. So thank you for your time, LOL, but I will be AHAHAHAHAHAHAing from here on out.
Adapted from Ellie’s new book of essays, My Squirrel Days, published by Scribner, out October 9.
Source: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/books/a23646825/ellie-kemper-memoir-my-squirrel-days/
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How Apple Will Have to Overcome MacBook Drama for iPhone XS Launch
Apple has a big challenge next week. The iPhone maker is expected to unveil three new devices on Wednesday, as part of its annual smartphone refresh that will roll out the successors to the iPhone X. While this is normally a rather straightforward affair, the past 12 months have proved tumultuous for the company from a quality standpoint, and the pressure will be on to make a strong impression.
Rumors point to the company unveiling three devices at the company’s Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California and 10 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday. The first is a $699 6.1-inch LCD iPhone, offering a cheaper device at the expense of niceties like dual lens cameras and possibly materials. The second is an $899 5.8-inch OLED phone that acts as a successor to the iPhone X, possibly named “iPhone XS,” while the most expensive device is a $999 6.5-inch OLED extravaganza tentatively titled “iPhone XS Max,” possibly rocking dual SIM support. Unlike last year’s phones that all used Touch ID bar one model, the new lineup is all expected to use the Face ID scanning system, removing the home button in the process.
It all sounds exciting, but Apple hasn’t exactly enjoyed good publicity since it last took to the Steve Jobs Theater stage. A Quartz story entitled “What the hell is going on with Apple?” despaired at a slew of issues with the company’s products released during that time. An update to AirPods has been delayed, the AirPower wireless charger is still nowhere to be seen, HomePod didn’t launch on time. Of the products that did launch, the MacBook Pro suffered from overheating, the entire range suffered from a temperamental keyboard, and Apple Watches have been expanding on the wrist.
Apple's iPhone in action.
Perhaps worst of all, in terms of the iPhone’s image, is battery throttling. A single Reddit post in December 2017 revealed that older Apple phones seemed to slow down as the battery got older. The company later admitted that, in order to avoid random shutdowns from requesting too much power, iOS was altered to slow down the processor to reduce demands on the battery. Apple was hit with 59 putative class actions, the company was forced to announce a switch would launch in a software update, and the iPhone name was tarnished with fans that had spent so long reassuring people that Apple wasn’t slowing old phones down.
These issues haven’t gone unnoticed. A story in The Outline entitled “The new MacBook keyboard is ruining my life” went viral, while writer Owen Williams has collected a list of all the ways Apple’s MacBook has failed for users.
The Mac comprised just 10 percent of Apple’s profit in the third quarter of this year, making its success arguably less important for the overall company. But with the iPhone making up 56 percent in the same quarter, the pressure is on for the company to get the hardware right when Tim Cook takes the stage.
Check out some of the other big questions we’re following ahead of next week’s big Apple announcement.
Source: https://www.inverse.com/article/48763-iphone-xs-how-apple-will-have-to-overcome-macbook-drama-for-launch
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SRK Graces India-UK Business Summit in London!
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan is felicitated as a `Game Changer for his Unmatched Contribution to Globalising Indian Cinema` at the business summit in London.
Time and again Shah Rukh Khan has represented India at international events making the nation proud. The ET India - UK Strategic Conclave, a special business summit discussing the economic relations between India and UK was graced by the global icon, taking place in London today.
Representing the entertainment industry for a chat session on the 'Growth of the business of entertainment across the globe and its impact on India`, Shah Rukh Khan said, `The growth for Indian films has been much smaller compared to the growth of television in India. The ratio of theatres to the audience area is still very small, we have very few theatres compared to the audience we can garner. In the Interiors of India, there are not many screens for people to go and I think there is a huge market here for entrepreneurs to get into making low-cost theatres.`
The actor, producer, activist was also felicitated with The Economic Times Game Changers of India` - Hall of Fame for `His Unmatched Contribution To Globalising Indian Cinema` A coffee table book titled 'Game Changers of India' was also unveiled at the summit which features Shah Rukh Khan along with other accomplished leaders.
Accepting this honour Shah Rukh Khan said, `I take this opportunity to thank a lot of people, actors, actress, and audiences, for allowing me to continue unencumbered with any idea that I had, they gave me the ability to just go ahead and give it a shot, try and go wrong if I may, and more often than not they allowed me to go wrong`. He further added, `Business is become about millions, targets and projections, though I fully respect the managerial capacity of business, but I like to think of it as the people who work with me allowed me the imaginarily capacity, they allowed me to imagine and they managed that imagination. So, when you become a game changer you cannot take it upon yourself, there are loads of people involved and the audience as well around the world accepts you doing the stuff you do and think it's entertaining`.
Themed 'New Economy, New Rules' the global business summit was held in London today, wherein top CEOs, government officials and the global elite come together to focus on the India-UK relationship and future trade and business opportunities that could exist between the two countries.
The conclave features speakers and panelists of respected delegates from their respective fields, providing a platform to enable delegates to interact and exchange ideas.
On the work front, Shah Rukh Khan is currently gearing up for his upcoming next Zero directed by Aanand L Rai, starring Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma.
Source: http://www.santabanta.com/bollywood/127128/srk-graces-india-uk-business-summit-in-london/
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Love Island Has Turned Into Weston Island
It's Episode 4 of Recap Island, TV Guide's unofficial Love Island podcast! Each week through Aug. 7, join TV Guide editors Liam Mathews, Keisha Hatchett, and Tatiana Tenreyro as they break it down and chop it up about what happened on Love Island USA. This week, they're covering Episodes 13 through 17 of Love Island.
What a week it's been! In this episode, the hosts discuss the Islanders who recently arrived, Jered, Emily, and the already departed Anton, as well as the exits of Winston, Cashel, Katrina, Eric, and Kelsey and the screen time dominance of Kyra and Weston, whose will they/won't they was one of the biggest surprises of the season. They also make their predictions for who will take home the cash prize at the fast-approaching end of the season.
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts/Spotify/Stitcher
Love Island airs weeknights at 8/7c through Wednesday, Aug. 7 on CBS. It's available to stream on CBS All Access.
(Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation.)
Source: https://www.tvguide.com/news/love-island-recap-podcast-episode-4/?rss=breakingnews
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Pussy Riot Protest Group Member Briefly Detained in Moscow
One of the protesters who barged onto the field last year to disrupt the World Cup final in Russia was briefly detained Tuesday by police in Moscow, activists said.
Veronika Nikulshina of the Pussy Riot protest group was reportedly detained along with two others as they were heading to attend a theater awards ceremony at the Bolshoi Theater. Fellow Pussy Riot member Verzilov tweeted that Nikulshina and her companions were nominated for the Golden Mask award.
Verzilov said police didn’t explain the reason for the detention and freed the trio a few hours later.
Verzilov, Nikulshina and two other activists served 15-day jail sentences last year after they disrupted July’s World Cup final, running onto the field wearing police uniforms.
In September, Verzilov was treated at a Berlin hospital for a suspected poisoning. Doctors were unable to determine the cause, but fellow activists suspected foul play.
Source: https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8507502/pussy-riot-member-detained-moscow
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Oliver Wendell Holmes
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A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Civilization is the process of reducing the infinite to the finite.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to act. To act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Science is good furniture for one's upper chamber, if there is common sense below.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
When I think of talking, it is of course with a woman. For talking at its best being an inspiration, it wants a corresponding divine quality of receptiveness, and where will you find this but in a woman?
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, "The Poet at the Breakfast-Table", 1872
A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858
Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become. Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell them.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858
Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858
I find the great in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,-but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1891
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Source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Oliver_Wendell_Holmes
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Best TV of 2019 so far
Back to Life
Daisy Haggard’s downbeat gem took on a tough topic – a woman’s return to her home town after a stretch behind bars – and turned it into a meditation on grief, regret and the passing of time, though with enough gags to keep things zipping along.
What we said: A few episodes into Back to Life, I felt like pushing it away in protest. “No, no!” I cried inwardly. “It’s too much! It’s too good!” Read the full review
Barry
In its second season, this black comedy about a hitman who catches the acting bug took its story into darker territory, with Barry’s attempts to extricate himself from his past life only dragging him further into oblivion. Things aren’t going to end well.
What we said: Though it’s a comedy rather than a thriller, Barry replicates much of what made Breaking Bad irresistible. Read more
Broad City
After five virtually flawless sitcom seasons, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson’s millennial kweens went out in the same way they came in: with gross-out gags, madcap surrealism and one of the greatest on-screen friendships in TV history.
What we said: This season has given Abbi and Ilana the best possible send-off. It has been joyful, silly and wild, and while it feels like the perfect and necessary time to wrap up their adventures, it is poignant that they’ve done so by reminding you just how good those can be. Read more
A fitting, shocking end ... Catastrophe. Photograph: Channel 4
Catastrophe
Another comedy that went out on a high, Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney’s tale of floundering parents managed to deliver more home truths about the family unit, pay fond tribute to late guest star Carrie Fisher – and offer up one of the most shocking endings in recent TV history.
What we said: From first to last, Catastrophe has been an unremitting triumph. Read the full review
Chernobyl
Already sitting atop IMDb’s top 250 TV shows list before the final episode has even aired, Sky and HBO’s restaging of the Soviet nuclear disaster captures the ineptitude, corruption and horror at its core.
What we said: Chernobyl is a disaster movie, a spy movie, a horror movie, a political thriller, and a human drama, and it spins each plate expertly. The terror is unflinching and explicit, and its images of burned bodies collapsing into putrid decay are impossible to forget. Yet it never feels shocking for the sake of it, only as haunting and horrible as its subject matter demands. Read more
Finally ... David Attenborough lays bare our greatest threat in Climate Change: The Facts. Photograph: BBC/Polly Alderton
Climate Change: The Facts
After years spent hinting at the damage done to our planet by the climate crisis , David Attenborough finally laid out the threat in all its magnitude, in a documentary that may just have turned sceptics into believers.
What we said: This is a rousing call to arms. It is an alarm clock set at a horrifying volume. Read the full review
Dead Pixels
E4’s comedy accurately captured the loneliness and mundanity, but also the sense of community, that comes with picking up a controller. All that, and it was as addictive as an all-night Fifa session to boot.
What we said: This wickedly entertaining new sitcom may have been inspired by the massive success of online games like World of Warcraft but, thankfully, you are not required to know your Azeroth from your elbow to enjoy it. Read more
Derry Girls
One of last year’s surprise hits, Lisa McGee’s Northern Irish comedy didn’t let things slip in its second season, with its quartet still finding teenage kicks in the midst of the Troubles. The scene in which teens from both sides of the sectarian divide unleashed a barrage of stereotypes about each other (“Protestants hate ABBA!”) is among the year’s funniest.
What we said: Derry Girls’ magic remains intact. The evocation of the 90s is as lightly done as ever (Elizabeth Hurley is fleetingly referenced – “She’s a total ride, but she paperclips her frocks together”) and the Troubled setting never overwhelms but simply throws into relief the ordinariness of the girls’ lives in the middle of extraordinary depths of conflict. Read the full review
Don’t Forget the Driver
Bleak comedy … Toby Jones in Don’t Forget the Driver Photograph: BBC/Sister Pictures
Pulling off a state-of-the-Brexit-nation series looked a tall order, but Toby Jones’s understated comedy-drama was taller, finding humour and pathos in its tale of a coach driver who discovers a refugee hiding in his wheel arch and a body washed up on the beach.
What we said: If it is a comedy, it is one with the bleakest tragedy at its heart. But whatever label you put on it, it is a fine, fine piece of work. Read the full review
Fleabag
Back for its second (and, as it turned out, final) outing, Fleabag added a hot priest into the already heady mix of biting wit and family dysfunction – and it built to a heart-rending ending with a wedding, a mad dash to the airport … and a fox. Unforgettable.
What we said: Series two raised the bar. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s risks were so impressive all one could do was shake one’s head in appreciation. Read the full review
Game of Thrones
Unquestionably the TV event of the year ... Game of Thrones. Photograph: HBO
Did the gargantuan fantasy drama stick the landing in its final season? That’s an argument for the comments section, but both in the scale of its six episodes, and the fevered discussion they prompted, it was unquestionably the TV event of the year.
What we said: The ending was true to the series’ overall subject – war, and the pity of war – and, after doing a lot of wrong to several protagonists, it did right by those left standing. When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. Overall, I think, it won. Read the full review
Gentleman Jack
Sally Wainwright travelled back in time for her latest piece of thrillingly human Yorkshire drama, with this real life tale of Anne Lister. Suranne Jones has received rave reviews for her portrayal of the 19th-century industrialist and diarist, who developed a code to hide her lesbianism.
What we said: It’s Regency Fleabag! Because the heroine occasionally breaks the fourth wall and exteriorises her inner monologue. But it’s set in Halifax in 1832, so it could be Northern Jane Austen. Then again, it’s about Anne Lister, who has been dubbed the first modern lesbian, so maybe it’s Queer Brontë ... You can afford to have a little fun with Gentleman Jack; Sally Wainwright clearly has. Read the full review
Ghosts
The Horrible Histories team offered up more unashamedly silly comedy with this spirited sitcom about a group of ghouls going to war with the new owners of a crumbling mansion.
What we said: In making us giggle at the supernatural, Ghosts is very British. But it is American in the sense of having a gag-to-airtime ratio much higher than British sitcoms normally manage these days. Read the full review
I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson
This deliriously absurd sketch show from a former Saturday Night Live player was hailed immediately as one of the greatest Netflix shows to date.
What we said: I wolfed down the entire series in one sitting, genuinely incapacitated with laughter. And then I watched it all again. I’m at the stage where I’m cherrypicking sketches now, but I’ve seen my favourites six or seven times. I’m fully obsessed at this point. At its peak, I think I Think You Should Leave might be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Read more
Leaving Neverland
A devastating four-hour exposé of alleged child sexual abuse by Michael Jackson. Wade Robson and James Safechuck chillingly and plausibly outlined their accounts of childhood grooming by the man that they, and the whole world, worshipped.
What we said: An astonishing piece of work. Relentlessly spare and unsensationalist, it manages better than any other in its genre not to let its attention wander from the survivors’ testimony. Footage of Jackson is confined almost wholly to that of him with the boys themselves on stage, private calls between them and family snaps. He is never allowed to overwhelm the story. Read the full review
Line of Duty
Complex … Martin Compston and Stephen Graham in Line of Duty. Photograph: BBC/World Productions
Jed Mercurio’s police corruption masterpiece returned for a fifth outing after a two-year wait, bringing with it a stunningly complex performance from Stephen Graham, more urgent exits required … and heartstopping, jaw-dropping action to the last.
What we said: As ever, nothing is wasted; not a scene, not a line, not a beat. It fits together flawlessly – you can imagine Mercurio sitting like a watchmaker at his table with the parts spread before him and fitting the loupe to his eye before assembling the whole thing and listening for its perfectly regulated tick. Read the full review
Mum
Stefan Golaszewski’s sitcom tour de force ended on a heartwarming high. Over three lovely series, Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan as Cathy and Michael gave us the gift of a quietly epic romance that will echo down the ages – and kept the tears in our eyes.
What we said: Mum might have looked like it was just a sitcom, but it had something beautiful to say about love and loss. It’s said it. Read the full review
Pose
Assembling the largest collection of trans actors in televisual history, Ryan Murphy’s big-hearted drama about the voguing scene in 1980s New York had style, grace, swagger and sass for days. What’s not to love?
What we said: Razzle-dazzle showmanship isn’t Pose’s only source of infectious joy. Watching the slow, still-unfolding process of these characters becoming more and more their true selves is as exhilarating as the opening bars of Cheryl Lynn’s Got to be Real. Self-actualisation isn’t easy, but it sure is beautiful. Read the full review
Pure
Frank and fearless ... Pure. Photograph: Sophia Spring/Channel 4
Following a young woman with a form of OCD called Pure O, which manifests as constant invasive thoughts about sex, this comedy-drama was among the year’s frankest and most fearless TV.
What we said: The drama and the gags are never sacrificed to worthy exposition, virtue-signalling or finger-wagging, but, at the same time, the series has so evidently been made in good faith that you can surrender to it entirely, never fearing that it will put a foot wrong. Read the full review
Russian Doll
A hipster Groundhog Day, but also so much more, Natasha Lyonne’s comedy about a thirtysomething trapped in a time loop of death and rebirth proved a truly mind-bending proposition.
What we said: Russian Doll is an acquired taste. But do persist: there is such a fine, idiosyncratic, impressive show nested within. Read the full review
Sex Education
Gillian Anderson starred as Jean, a sex therapist whose son Otis (Asa Butterfield) – though too anxious to masturbate himself – sets up a sex advice service at school. A punchy, horny comedy, with the added bonus of the fantastic Ncuti Gatwa as Otis’s best friend Eric. Worth watching for his heroic prom outfit alone.
What we said: Endlessly and seemingly effortlessly funny, in a naturalistic way that doesn’t have you listening for the hooves of the next gag thundering down a well-worn track but, like Catastrophe, catches you almost unawares and makes you bark with laughter. Read the full review
The Last Survivors
Sam Dresner, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Frank Bright and Susan Pollack ... The Last Survivors. Composite: BBC/Minnow Films Ltd
Arthur Cary’s thoughtful, wonderful and always dignified 90-minute documentary heard the stories of some of the last living people who survived concentration camps as children. A very important work indeed.
What we said: For an hour and a half, I was crying, especially when Cary followed three generations of Holocaust survivors to Auschwitz, knowing all the time that tears are not enough. Nor guilt. Read the full review
The Other Two
How would you react if you could barely get cast as Man Who Smells Fart in an advert while your kid brother became a Bieber-esque teen hearthrob overnight? That’s the premise of this brilliant satire, which skewers our pop-culture-obsessed society spectacularly.
What we said: It has heart, charm, steel, belly laughs and a gimlet eye. Get on it. Read the full review
The Victim
John Hannah and Kelly Macdonald starred in an intelligent drama about a vigilante attack on a potential child killer that managed to ask ever more challenging questions as its episodes rolled on.
What we said: It is a drama that resonates with its time by asking what constitutes a victim and how much leeway we allow in bestowing that status. Do they have to be perfect? How sure do we have to be? And what happens when the perpetrator becomes a victim too, of a different kind? Read the full review
The Virtues
Shane Meadows reunited with This is England star Stephen Graham for an unflinching drama about a troubled dad attempting to reunite with his long-lost sister and process childhood sexual abuse.
What we said: Unspoken pain infuses every scene, every gesture and expression from Stephen Graham and in doing so lays the foundations to do justice to the suffering of victims everywhere. Read the full review
The Yorkshire Ripper Files
Liza Williams’s three-part documentary revisited one of the biggest – and longest – murder manhunts in British history, taking us back to a time so different it seemed almost foreign.
What we said: At its best, Williams’ series – with its mixture of archive footage and new interviews – is a social document. The hindsight it offers is not primarily about the mishandling of the investigation, but of the grim tone of the times. Read the full review
This Time With Alan Partridge
Appalling company ... This Time With Alan Partridge. Photograph: Colin Hutton/BBC/Baby Cow
The excruciating monkey tennis-pitcher went back to the BBC for a One Show-style magazine programme. Inevitably – and hilariously for viewers – it wasn’t the smoothest of returns.
What we said: We get the heroes we deserve, and as you finish writhing in agony and lie limp from laughter, hatred, panic, despair or in awe at the end of another half-hour in his appalling company, you can only reflect that if Brexit means Alan then the whole business just got more complicated still. Read the full review
Veep
A last hurrah for Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s mendacious yet incompetent vice-president, in a political satire that was perfectly attuned for these most buffoonish of times.
What we said: Louis-Dreyfus has won a record six Emmy awards for her role as Selina Meyer, and, frankly, it’s no wonder. She is magnificent, brittle and furiously amoral. In this seventh and final season of Veep, it appears to be getting out while it still has a hope in hell of making its fictional world look more comedic than the real one. Read the full review
When They See Us
Almost unbearably harrowing ... When They See Us. Photograph: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix
Ava DuVernay’s staggering miniseries about the Central Park Five showed how a group of young boys came to be falsely convicted for raping a young white woman in 1989. It is unbearably harrowing to watch the boys, as young as 13, get violently coerced by police into giving confessions.
What we said: The performances are uniformly astonishing – especially from the central five, Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Ethan Herisse, Marquis Rodriguez and Jharrel Jerome, most of whom are just a few years older than the teens they are playing. They capture the innocence, in all senses, of children, and the permanence of its loss. It feels like a great privilege to see them. Read the full review
Years and Years
Russell T Davies’s hugely ambitious drama followed a family through the next 15 years of British life, taking in the migrant crisis, terrifying technological innovations and Trump’s increasingly fraught face-off with China.
What we said: For a series that compresses 15 years into six hours, it seems to pass in the blink of an eye thanks to Russell T Davies’s trademark humour, compassion and the kinetic energy with which he infuses every project. We do not deserve Davies, but thank God he’s here. Read the full review
100 Vaginas
Following her projects about breasts and penises, artist Laura Dodsworth photographed a range of women’s vulvas, then showed the sitters their vaginal portraits and interviewed them for their responses. The result? Intimate, empowering television, unlike anything that has ever aired before.
What we said: A gently but relentlessly radical documentary. It’s not until you see a full set of female genitals filling your screen that you realise how little you see anything of or about them in wider culture. Read the full review
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/03/best-tv-of-2019-so-far
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Jason Aldean producer Michael Knox promoted to Senior Vice President, peermusic Nashville
Michael Knox (pictured) has been promoted to Senior Vice President, peermusic Nashville.
Knox previously served as Vice President of peermusic Nashville and will continue to oversee all aspects of the company’s Nashville operation.
In addition to his work with peermusic, Knox is also an accomplished producer and is well known for his work with superstar Jason Aldean.
Knox has produced 23 No.1 hits, with 45 million singles and 20 million albums sold during his career.
In addition to his long-running role as Jason Aldean’s primary producer, his production credits include Thomas Rhett, Kelly Clarkson, Ludacris, Trace Adkins, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Michael Tyler, the hit TV series Nashville as well as his father Buddy Knox (“Party Doll” fame 1957), among others.
He won a CMA Award for his work as producer of the CMA Album of the Year My Kinda Party (Jason Aldean) as well as three ACM Awards.
Prior to joining peermusic, Knox opened Nashville’s first song plugging company HIT PLUGGERS and left his stamp on more than 150 million records as Warner Chappell’s Vice President responsible for writer and artist development from 1992 to 2002.
Knox is on the ACM Board of Directors and has previously served on the CMA Board of Directors.
“Michael’s creative and business leadership has been the reason peermusic has had such incredible success and growth in the country music space over the past few years.”
Kathy Spanberger, peermusic
Kathy Spanberger, President & Chief Operating Officer, peermusic said: “Michael’s creative and business leadership has been the reason peermusic has had such incredible success and growth in the country music space over the past few years.
“This promotion is a well-deserved acknowledgement of all of his contributions to the company. Personally, I am in awe of his abilities, especially his wicked sense of humor (!), and feel very fortunate to be able to work with him every day.”
“I want to thank Kathy and the rest of the peermusic team not only for this promotion, but for the privilege to work with our amazing staff and the incredibly talented roster of artists and writers we have at peermusic Nashville.”
Michael Knox
Michael Knox added: “I want to thank Kathy and the rest of the peermusic team not only for this promotion, but for the privilege to work with our amazing staff and the incredibly talented roster of artists and writers we have at peermusic Nashville.
“We’re all working together to build something really special here and I’m very proud to be part of it.”Music Business Worldwide
Source: https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/jason-aldean-producer-michael-knox-promoted-to-senior-vice-president-peermusic-nashville/
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Trailblazing Sylvia Rhone Named Epic Records CEO, Chairman
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Source: https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2019/04/trailblazing-sylvia-rhone-named-epic-records-ceo-chairman.html
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15 Characters Getting Coal for Christmas
'Tis the season where everyone tries to convince Santa that they've been on their best behavior all year long.
But Santa has a list, he's checked it twice, and he knows exactly which TV characters were naughty or nice.
Related: 27 Festive TV Original Movies That Are a Must Watch This Holiday Season
For every character that deserves a nice Christmas gift is a character who's been so bad all they deserve is a lump of coal in their stockings.
From murder to corruption to cheating on a spouse, here's a list of "naughty" characters who are not going to be happy with their gifts from Santa come Christmas morning.
1. Joe - You
A deranged serial killer who justifies each kill as "necessary" and "for the greater good" warrants the top spot on our list. And his murderous tendencies are just one of the reasons. Beck would have been a solid contender, but death by stupidity seemed like punishment enough.
2. Frank & Bonnie - How to Get Away with Murder
Frank and Bonnie are two people who will go to any lengths to help Annalise. This season, Bonnie helped cover up the murder of her boyfriend Ronald Miller because she thought he betrayed her while Frank killed Dominic. Sure, it was to protect Laurel, but murder is murder.
3. Zelda - Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Zelda was always the more rational sister, but she really messed up when she told the High Priest that his female child passed during birth and then proceeded to steal the child to raise it at Spellman Mortuary. Even open-minded Hilda was not down with the plan because stealing children is generally frowned upon. Of course, coal is nothing compared to the Dark Lord's wrath when he finds out.
4. Hiram - Riverdale
You'll never see Hiram's name on a "good list." Ever. This year alone he's been manipulating and blackmailing a whole town, ordering the Sheriff to murder lying witnesses, and basking in the glory of destroying a high school student, who is also his daughter's boyfriend, in juvie. Double the lumps of coal if he turns out to be the Gargoyle King.
5. Alexis - Dynasty
Not only is Alexis partially responsible for the fire that killed Cristal, but she's also openly mooching off of the family to pay back Hank, a man she hired to be her pretend-son so she could steal even more money from her own family. And when Hank left Claudia's baby at her doorstep, she pretended to know nothing about it and lured Sammy out so he would find it in the manger!
6. Grace - Manifest
Grace doesn't appreciate the second chance that's been handed to her. She kicked her husband out of the house after he'd gone above and beyond to protect the family and specifically their son, Cal. Why would she accuse Ben of spewing conspiracy theories when there's still no logical explanation for his plane returning five-years later with all the passengers barely aging a day. Maybe just take his word for it?
Wait! There's more Characters Getting Coal for Christmas! Just click "Next" below:
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Source: https://www.tvfanatic.com/slideshows/2018-characters-getting-coal-for-christmas/
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State retirement benefits on the chopping block UPDATE
Michael Wickline reports for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today on the board of the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System's move to make retirement benefits both more costly and less lucrative.
I remain unclear on the key element of the plan —
to ask lawmakers to give trustees the flexibility to set the annual cost-of-living adjustment for retired members somewhere between the consumer price index and a 3 percent rate that is not compounded.
Does this mean an annual payment to reflect a rise in the cost of living is not compounded only if 3 percent is paid? Or does it mean it is not compounded no matter the size of the payment? This is a BIG deal. If it's the latter, it's no longer a COLA at all but an annual bonus.
With no compounding of amounts that recognize the rising cost of living, a public employee who retired today with a $700 monthly benefit could expect to be receiving $700 a month 20 years from now, plus an annual payment that reflected the rise in the consumer price index that year, if any. The longer you live, the behinder you would get, in other words.
I've asked Rep. Doug House, who expects to introduce legislation along these lines, for some clarification. Today this just applies to APERS. But the larger Teachers Retirement System and smaller retirement systems for highway workers, State Police and judges (I'm a related beneficiary of that plan) are also likely to be targeted for cost savings.
UPDATE: I think I get it now. The change is not as big as I thought, but a change. Annual payments to reflect cost of living increases would add to monthly benefits over time, but be computed against the benefit at retirement. Thus an increase of up to 3 percent would be computed against starting retirement and added — that move to $1,030 a month for a person retired at $1,000 a month. A 3 percent raise the next year would be a simple payment of $30 more, not computed on the $1,030 being paid. No interest on earned interest, in other words. This will produce a significant savings over time, particularly if there is not an automatic 3 percent increase.
The currently independent systems have varying degrees of financial stability with differing so-called unfunded liabilities. A guaranteed 3 percent compounded increase is a VERY good deal for retirees and expensive in the form of a compounding cost of benefits. It not only has tended to beat the CPI increase in recent years, it regularly exceeds the pay increases given by the legislators to active state employees.
The change in the COLA is the biggest ticket item, but it is not the only way legislators and the APERS board (now controlled by Gov. Asa Hutchinson) aim to reduce pension costs. Other proposals:
* Raise from 5 percent to 6 percent of pay the amount employees must contribute to their retirement. Governments pay roughly 15 percent.
* Cut the multiplier in the pension formula from 2 percent to 1.8 percent times years served. A newly retired 25-year employee would thus see a 5 percent drop in benefits now offered.
* Cut the interest rate paid on members' contributions from 4 percent to 2 percent annually. That's a 50 percent cut in investment return.
* Figure retirement benefits based on an average of the highest five years of pay rather than three for new members beginning next year. This won't affect the many long-term legislators who have moved into high-paying state jobs covered by APERS. They can calculate benefits on three years of state executive pay.
UPDATE: Rep. House today filed shell bills, the specifics missing, to alter COLAs for all four of the state retirement systems. He said that they had decided to set future simple COLAS on current benefits, not on benefits when originally awarded.
Source: https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2019/01/17/state-retirement-benefits-on-the-chopping-block
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Incredible Trailer for Doc 'Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski'
by Alex Billington
December 11, 2018
Source: YouTube
"What's going on in this guy's head must be vast." Netflix has debuted a trailer for a new art documentary titled Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski, a Searching for Sugar Man-esque story about a forgotten Polish artist, directed by Ireneusz "Irek" Dobrowolski. Don't know who this Szukalski is? That's the point of the film. The doc is about Polish painter and sculptor Stanisław Szukalski, an artist that not many people are familiar with. The story goes that in 1968, pop culture collector Glenn Bray discovered a book with his art. Then on a trip to a local bookstore, discovered that the artist was still alive, and lived near him. So he went to find him. The film is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and features narration by Nick Tate. This trailer is incredibly captivating, I'm already entirely sold on this. I need to hear his story! And learn more about him! What really is going on inside this guy's head? Where does his creativity come from?
Official trailer for Irek Dobrowolski's doc Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski, on YouTube:
This documentary takes us inside the mind of one of the last century's great characters, offering a startling look at how history can stand in the way of true artistic genius in one generation while stepping aside to reveal it dramatically in the next. In 1968, pop culture collector Glenn Bray, who had an interest in surrealist art, happened upon an unusual book featuring the art of Stanislav Szukalski. Like most people, Bray had never heard of Szukalski, but he delighted in showing the book of drawings and photos of sculptures to his circle of friends in the underground art comic world. It was a few years later when Bray noticed an unusual poster depicting Copernicus on the wall of a small bookstore in Tarzana – something he immediately recognized as the work of Szukalski. The bookseller informed him that the artist himself had given the poster as a gift – in fact, he also lived nearby. Bray couldn’t believe it – this long-forgotten genius was still alive, and in the same area code. Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski is directed by Polish filmmaker Irek Dobrowolski, director of the documentary The Portraitist previously. Netflix will release the doc streaming exclusively starting December 21st later this month. Anyone interested in this?
Find more posts: Documentaries, To Watch, Trailer
Discover more around the web:
Source: https://www.firstshowing.net/2018/first-trailer-for-netflix-doc-struggle-the-life-and-lost-art-of-szukalski/
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Live Nation Puts Production Chief Heather Parry on Leave After Accusations of Abuse
Live Nation said Friday (Dec. 21) it has put film and TV production chief Heather Parry on leave after several employees reportedly accused her of verbally abusing them.
"At Live Nation we pride ourselves on having an open, accessible and inclusive culture. We take all employee complaints seriously and have retained a third party to investigate. We have placed Ms. Parry on leave during this time," the company said in a statement emailed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Parry is an executive producer of 2018's A Star Is Born, a Warner Bros. production in association with Live Nation Productions, and she has produced documentaries with Lady Gaga, who stars in the film, and with Sean "Diddy" Combs.
The move was first reported by Variety after the publication obtained an audio recording of four employees speaking to management about Parry's offensive language. In the recording, an employee said they sought therapy and one complained of health problems related to Parry's allegedly abusive behavior, according to Variety.
A person claiming to be a current Live Nation Production employee gained access to the company’s Twitter feed and on Dec. 19 posted an open letter to CEO Michael Rapino that excoriated the company for protecting an "abusive monster," Variety reported.
"I want a normal working environment," wrote the anonymous person on Twitter, "One where I don’t have to fear being called an expletive or have something thrown at me or one where I don’t have to cry at my desk daily. Is that too hard to ask for?"
Parry's attorney, Marty Singer, was unavailable for comment.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
Source: https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/tv-film/8491303/live-nation-puts-production-chief-heather-parry-on-leave-after
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