The new Katy Perry is a lot like the old one—or at least one of the old ones in her era-defined pop career. Her album Smile, released on Aug. 28, feels like a B side to her third album Prism, released seven years ago, that found her healing from a short-lived marriage to Russell Brand and the intensity of her record-smashing Teenage Dream run. Instead of pursuing personal happiness amid commercial success and public heartbreak this time, Perry is rehabilitating from the crash and burn of her previous album Witness that left her “depressed” and “insecure” after failing to impress critics […]
Lady Gaga
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Around 11 pm on Thursday night in New York, near a particularly dark and disturbing segment of Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention and amid nationwide unrest in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting, a series of loud, seemingly endless rumblings echoed throughout the city. Once it became clear that the intense noise was lasting far too long to be thunder or a passing truck, panicked New Yorkers ran to their windows trying to see what the hell was going on. Explosions? Shootings? An occupation? An uprising? Alien invasion? It turned out to be a fireworks display set […]
It’s ridiculous writing about celebrities right now. It’s ridiculous being a celebrity right now. The nation is alight with people demanding justice, dignity, equality, and life for black people in our country. The attention, for once, is not on the rich and famous. Nor should it be. But the fact remains that these are people with platforms, whether they deserve them or not and whether we want them to have them or not. For once, they seem to be using those platforms correctly. It’s always complicated when it comes to these things. And the praise isn’t uniform. CNN anchor Don Lemon […]