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Nirvana Sued by Baby on ‘Nevermind’ Cover for Childhood Pornography

Nirvana‘s surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic and the estate of Kurt Cobain have been sued by Spencer Elden, who appeared as a baby on the cover of 1991’s Nevermind. As TMZ reports, Elden has sued the above parties, as well as photographer Kirk Weddle and the labels involved in the album’s release, alleging that the artwork is childhood pornography.

The lawsuit, filed August 24, claims that Elden has sustained “injuries” and “lifelong damages” as a result of the artwork, including “extreme and permanent emotional distress” as well as “interference with his normal development and educational progress” and “medical and psychological treatment,” according to legal documents uploaded by Pitchfork. He also alleges that the band promised to cover his genitals with a sticker, though the album was ultimately released without one. Elder is asking for damages of at least $150,000 from each party named in the lawsuit, attorney fees, and a trial by jury.

Elden has recreated the image at various points in his life and had “Nevermind” tattooed on his chest. However, in a 2016 interview with GQ Australia, he revealed his perspective on the artwork had shifted around the time of his most recent photo reenactment. “It’s fucked up. I’m pissed off about it, to be honest,” he said. “Recently I’ve been thinking, ‘What if I wasn’t OK with my freaking penis being shown to everybody?’ I didn’t really have a choice.”

The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts Dead at 80

Charlie Watts, the drummer for the Rolling Stones since 1963, has died at the age of 80. His publicist confirmed his death in a statement, writing: “It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family. Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation. We kindly request that the privacy of his family, band members and close friends is respected at this difficult time.” A cause of death was not provided.

Charles Robert Watts was born in London in June 1941 and grew up in the Wembley neighborhood. He started drumming in his early teenage years after developing an interest in jazz music and befriending Dave Green, with whom he played in the jazz band Middlesex while attending Harrow Art School. “I bought a banjo, and I didn’t like the dots on the neck,” Watts said. “So I took the neck off, and at the same time I heard a drummer called Chico Hamilton, who played with Gerry Mulligan, and I wanted to play like that, with brushes. I didn’t have a snare drum, so I put the banjo head on a stand.”

After playing in various local bands, Watts joined Alexis Korner’s group Blues Incorporated in 1961 while working as a graphic designer. The Rolling Stones lacked a regular drummer after forming in the early 1960s, and before originally turning down an invitation to join them to keep his secure day job, Watts eventually became a permanent member. Watts both helped define the band’s sound and was capable of adapting to its evolution, and his work with the Stones earned him three Grammy Awards. In 1989, he and the band were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Over his seven-decade career, Watts continued to pursue his passion for graphic design and jazz through a variety of projects, including the 32-piece Charlie Watts Orchestra and the Charlie Watts Quintet. In June 2004, Watts was diagnosed with throat cancer, but recovered after two surgeries. Watts continued to tour and record with the band for another decade and a half, playing his last official Stones concert in August 30, 2019 in Miami.

Watts’ passing has been mourned by figures across the music world, including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Brian Wilson, Radiohead’s Philip Selway, Janet Weiss, Patti Smith, Liz Phair, Sheila E., Jason Isbell, Ringo Starr, Joan Jett, and more. Read a selection of tributes and revisit some of Watts’ most memorable performances below.

 

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Achieving Timeless Style In Your Home

Interior design trends come and go, yet a small stable of elements always stand the test of time. Vogue Australia highlights concepts as simple as using wood, through to deploying the statement armchair, as style icons that will always look good. Any home is capable of achieving these goals; by judicious use of statement pieces around the home, you can create a real sense of timeless beauty. This starts in the bedroom and the bathroom, where evoking scent can bring an aura to the home.

Classic perfumes

Perfumes are there to powerfully evoke an era. Yves Saint Laurent Opium was the luxury of the 70s; Dior Poison a spice-bomb of the 80s. However, timeless perfumes like Chanel No.5 have changed the world, according to the New York Times, and they can change your house to boot. The use of vintage perfume bottles in your bathroom or bedroom can give a certain sense of luxury and classic taste to the home. It harks back to an era where perfumes were powerful focal points, a way to announce yourself to a group or party, and to leave a lasting memory.

Historical combinations

What you keep in your kitchen is a reflection of your personality, too, but it can display a timeless quality. Architectural Digest notes how the blue-and-white porcelain that adorns countless kitchens is rooted in 14th-century Chinese design, and there’s a reason it has always looked good. Whether exuberant homes or quiet social boltholes, blue-and-white China can provide a gorgeous quality. Equal forms of China, routed in 17th century Dutch distribution networks, will do the trick, too. Put them on display for full effect.

Simple upholstery

Perhaps the most simple trick of all, but one that works magnificently, is upholstery. This provides warmth and livability to your home as well as a classic display of luxury – after all, not every home had upholstered furniture, and relied on rattan, wicker or wooden chairs. Even a cheap sofa, kept in good maintenance, will provide a focal point to your home and a timeless quality that will keep the home looking stylish.

The vintage look is a timeless one, and achieving that in the home is not difficult. It just requires a little planning and a commitment to the style. The most timeless style tricks are the most simple, and that’s good news for the modern home planner.

Fantasia 2021 Review: When I Consume You (2021)

In 2015, Perry Blackshear took the festival circuit by storm with his multiple award-winning debut feature They Look Like People, a slow-burning, lo-fi exercise in psychological horror propelled by an astonishing central performance from MacLeod Andrews. While Blackshear’s follow-up The Siren (2019) was not quite so well-received, When I Consume You marks a welcome return to form – a grubby and disquieting metropolitan nightmare in which two siblings are relentlessly pursued by someone (or something) determined to make their lives a misery. Our Culture reviews the film here as part of its selection from the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Daphne Shaw (Libby Ewing) is a nurse who is hoping to adopt a child, though her history of addiction is proving something of a stumbling block. Her brother Wilson (Evan Dumouchel) is a janitor looking to find work as a teacher, but his resume leaves a great deal to be desired. Struggling emotionally and financially, both siblings are living in sparse and cramped New York City apartments while trying to advance in life and let go of their traumatic past. Daphne is particularly troubled; she has long been menaced by a shadowy figure who seems to find her wherever she goes, leaving her bruised and beaten in the streets until their paths cross again. As the enigmatic stalker closes in on Daphne and resolves to make Wilson its next victim, the siblings try to find a way to rid themselves of it for good.

The great triumph of They Look Like People is its central metaphor. The tale of a single man who sincerely believes that everyone around him is slowly being replaced by otherworldly doppelgängers, it has a great deal to say about the paranoia bred by urban alienation; its pervading theme is that we can be surrounded by people and still feel utterly, dreadfully alone. In many ways, When I Consume You uses its monster to serve a similar allegorical function. Even in a city home to nearly nine million people, Daphne and Wilson have no one but each other – and even if they have a chance of defeating the malevolent entity that blights their lives, they will have to do so without external help.

The acute isolation of the film’s central characters is captured perfectly in its cinematography (by Blackshear himself, who also serves as writer, director, editor and producer). The New York of When I Consume You is a dark and desolate concrete labyrinth, an endless maze of empty sidewalks lit only by the fiery orange glare of streetlights. It’s a terrifyingly vacant and entirely unromantic vision of the city that would make William Lustig proud. The film’s internal scenes are closely shot to create a palpable sense of claustrophobia, as if the walls are forever closing in on Daphne and Wilson. The combined result is an unbearably hopeless atmosphere – one that is greatly aided by Mitch Bain’s dissonant, foreboding score.

Perry Blackshear’s desolate New York City

But this is not just a story about the essential loneliness of the urban existence; it is also one about the struggle to survive in a capitalist society. It is implied that Daphne and Wilson have always been disadvantaged, lacking in education and financial resources. Much of the first act is dedicated to establishing their hopes and dreams (to start a family, to find a good job, to live a happy and stable life) before grinding them into dust. Every attempt to move forward, to “succeed,” is met with seemingly insurmountable resistance. With this in mind, the film’s monster – a creature determined to literally and figuratively beat its victims into submission until they finally give up hope – is the perfect metaphor for the systemic forces that ensure those at the bottom of the ladder stay there and suffer.

And that suffering is perfectly captured in the film’s two central performances. Dumouchel (making his third appearance in a Blackshear film) gives a heart-wrenching turn as Wilson, a grown man with the sensibility of a little boy lost in a world that wants to eat him alive. Meanwhile, Ewing imbues the downtrodden Daphne with a fierce and quiet defiance as she tries to keep her brother safe. The ever-excellent MacLeod Andrews – who starred in both of Blackshear’s previous pictures – takes a much reduced role here, and the less said about that role the better. Suffice it to say, though, that he steals every scene he appears in after making his entrance.

Leaving behind the rural setting of The Siren, When I Consume You ultimately feels very much like a thematic sequel to They Look Like People: an unnerving, cerebral horror film about what it means to feel alone amongst the urban masses. But, importantly, it does not simply repeat those themes – it deftly extends them. Daphne and Wilson feel alienated from society because society has failed them; they are two of life’s “losers,” but only because the game is rigged. Their battle against Daphne’s “stalker,” then, represents a steadfast refusal to give up – even if the odds are stacked against them.

Geese Announce Debut Album ‘Projector’, Share New Song ‘Low Era’

Brooklyn’s Geese have announced their debut album: Projector arrives digitally October 20 via Partisan/Play It Again Sam, with a physical release to follow on December 3. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new single ‘Low Era’, which follows previous single ‘Disco’ and comes with a music video directed by Fons Schiedon. Check it out and find the LP’s cover art and tracklist below.

Projector was written, produced, and recorded by Geese while they were still in high school and was mixed by Dan Carey. The band said of the new single in a statement:

We had been trying to get everything to sound super heavy, creepy crawly, and complicated, really because that’s all we knew how to do. Four-on-the-floor songs like ‘Low Era’ had felt a little like poison to us for a while, until we consciously tried to challenge ourselves to write something more danceable. Once we stopped enforcing certain boundaries, it ended up working out without us expecting it to, and even ushered in this psychedelic 3-D element that ends up appearing throughout the album.

We like the idea of confusing the listener a little, and trying to make every song a counteraction to the last, pinballing between catchy and complicated, fast and slow. ‘Low Era’ is one end of that spectrum, and ultimately broadened the scope of songs we thought we could make.

Projector Cover Artwork:

Projector Tracklist:

1. Rain Dance
2. Low Era
3. Fantasies / Survival
4. First World Warrior
5. Disco
6. Projector
7. Exploding House
8. Bottle
9. Opportunity is Knocking

My Morning Jacket Announce New Album, Share New Song ‘Regularly Scheduled Programming’

My Morning Jacket have announced a new self-titled album. My Morning Jacket arrives October 22 via ATO. It includes the newly unveiled track ‘Regularly Scheduled Programming’, which comes with an accompanying video co-directed by Jim James and George Mays. Check it out below and scroll down for the LP’s cover artwork (by Robert Beatty) and tracklist.

“This song really hits home for me after what we’ve gone through with the pandemic,” James said of the new single in a statement. “But even before then, it felt like so many of us were trading real life for social media, trading our own stories for the storylines on TV, trading our consciousness for drugs. We need to help each other wake up to real love before it’s too late.”

Last year, My Morning Jacket issued The Waterfall II, their first full-length record in five years following 2015’s The Waterfall.

My Morning Jacket Cover Artwork:

My Morning Jacket Tracklist:

1. Regularly Scheduled Programming
2. Love Love Love
3. In Color
4. Least Expected
5. Never in the Real World
6. The Devil’s in the Details
7. Lucky to Be Alive
8. Complex
9. Out of Range, Pt. 2
10. Penny for Your Thoughts
11. I Never Could Get Enough

Caribou Shares Video for New Song ‘You Can Do It’

Caribou has shared a surprise new track called ‘You Can Do It’. The song, out now via Merge, is accompanied by a dog-filled music video directed by Richard Kenworthy of Shynola. Check it out below.

Last year, Caribou released Suddenly, his first album in six years, which landed on our 50 Best Albums of 2020 list. A reimagined version of the LP, featuring remixes from Four Tet, Floating Points, Morgan Geist, India Jordan, and more, arrived this past March.

Self Esteem Shares Video for New Song ‘How Can I Help You’

Self Esteem has shared a new track, ‘How Can I Help You’, from her upcoming sophomore album Prioritise Pleasure. The song is accompanied by a self-directed video, which you can check out below.

“‘How Can I Help You’ is one of the first songs I wrote for the second album,” Rebecca Taylor said of the new song and video in a press release. “After touring the first record and most weeks being told that I am underrated or intimidating I just felt very fed up. I guess I’ll be eternally angry for the way as a woman unless you’re sweet, nice, settled and quiet, you’re considered ‘different’ and ‘difficult’. I wanted to play the drums in the video to reclaim how often I used to feel self conscious playing them. The physical act of a woman playing a drum means your tits move – all I ever wanted to do was play but it always came with this fear of being looked at in that way. Now my tits move for me, my song, my video. I’m also aware it’s probs a nice watch if you’re that way inclined, but I’m afraid if you wanna watch it you have to hear what I’ve got to say. Click for the tits, stay for the feminism!”

Prioritise Pleasure lands on October 22 via Fiction Records. Taylor previously shared the album’s title track.

Hamilton Musical: 10 Facts You Don’t Know About Broadway’s Musical

Broadway’s musical is one trend that never fades, but instead, it keeps gaining more ground and becoming more popular. The name Broadway originated from the longest street in New York, named Broadway. So far, there are 41 Broadway theatres in New York that have collectively produced historical musicals. Some Broadway musicals have been in the limelight for years and have sold out tickets each time they have a performance.

The First-Ever Broadway Musical That Conforms To Modern Musical Is The Black Crook

The Black Crook is an 1866 musical that premiered September 12, 1866, in New York. The musical performed 474 times, despite its length of 5 hours and a half. People were probably not bothered about the length of the musical because it was intriguing to see a different pattern of music with dancing and singing in it. The Black Crook paved the way for Modern-day musicals.

The Longest Running Broadway Musical Is Phantom Of The Opera. 

The Phantom of the opera musical premiered in Her Majesty Theatre London, October 9, 1986, joined Broadway 1988. Phantom of the Opera has been on Broadway for more than 30 years and still counting. They have been consistently having Broadway performances, and 15 different actors have played the role of Phantom.

The Play With The Most Tony Awards Is The Coast Of Utopia

The Coast of Utopia, written by Tom Stoppard, is a 2002 trilogy of plays, namely Voyage, Shipwreck, and the last of them Salvage. This play has received the most Tony Awards so far. Hamilton musical by Miranda, on the other hand, is the most nominated musical for Tony awards.

Click here for Hamilton tickets information.

“Tony” Is A Nick Name

Tony is only a nickname and not the full name of the award. The full title is Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre. As the name implies, they present awards to musicals with excellent performances. Brock Pemberton founded Tony Award and was named after an actress, producer, and theatre director, Antoinette Perry. She was a co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing.

Hamilton Brought A New Perception Of Broadway Musical

Although Broadway musicals have stood the test of time and continued to break its box office records, there was a notion that musicals were only attended by the advanced in age and not for the younger generation. The younger ones preferred going to cinemas than theatres. Hamilton broke that notion when it came into the limelight and got so much Attention due. Both the young and the old trooped into theatres to watch the performance on Broadway. Broadway musicals became a trend for both the younger and older generation.

Chicago The Second Longest Running Broadway Musical

As earlier mentioned, in case you missed it, Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running musical on Broadway, the second longest running in Chicago. Chicago started running on Broadway in 1975, took a break in 1977, and got revived on Broadway in 1996. Since then, it has been consistent on Broadway, with more than 8,000 performances and still counting. Chicago musical is based on a real-life story but was transformed into a Broadway comedy play by reporter Maurine Watkins.

Ten highest-grossing Broadway Original Production shows

Usually, only the number 1 highest-grossing Broadway show is mentioned, so we decided to list nine others with their debut years and grossing revenue.

  • The Lion King debuted in 1997 is the highest-grossing Broadway show with gross revenue of $1,657,407,012.
  • Wicked debuted in 2003 is the 2nd with gross revenue of $1,345,482.298.
  • The Phantom of the Opera debuted in 1988 is the 3rd, with gross revenue of $1,241,017,579.
  • Chicago debuted in 1975 is the 4th with gross revenue of $656,495,931.
  • The Book of Mormon debuted in 2011 ranks as the 5th, and its gross revenue is $644,811,371.
  • Mamma Mia! Debuted in 2001 is the 6th, and its gross revenue is 624,391,693.
  • Hamilton debuted in 2015 ranks as 7th, with gross revenue of $612,820,842.
  • Jersey Boys debuted in 2005 is number 8 with a gross venue of $558,416,092.
  • Les Miserables debuted in 1987 is the 9th, with gross revenue of $514,794,489.
  • Last but not least is Cats, which debuted in 1982 ranks 10th, with gross revenue of $453,624,091.

The First Nude Broadway Production is Hair

Hair is a musical that opened on Broadway in 1968. It is a production of the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s. Far back in the 1960s, when the world was not as advanced as it is now, Hair raised a lot of controversies for having a brief nude scene. Despite its controversial nature, Hair ran up to 1,750 performances on Broadway. After Hair, some other musicals have had nude scenes, but Hair made history by daring to be the first to do it.

There are 41 Broadway Theatres in New York but only four on Broadway Street.

Forty-one theatres in New York are known as Broadway theatres, but only 4 Broadway are actually located on Broadway Street. The 37 other Broadway theatres are within a close range, though. There are certain criteria for becoming a Broadway theatre. Firstly the theatre must have 500 seats, and secondly, they must be located at the 40th to 54th streets and from West of 6th Avenue to East of Eight Avenue, including Times Square. Theatres not located in these selected areas are known as off broadways.

Hamilton Received a Record-Breaking 16 Nominations and Won 11 at the 70th Tony Award.

Hamilton Broadway Musical broke the record of having 16 Tony Award nominations, from just play and going ahead to win 11 of those awards. Hamilton, a musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, received so many awards and recognition right from when it premiered in 2015. It has gained so much sport light in different countries and still have sold out tickets for all its performance.

Control And Reduce Your Pain With These 4 Non-Invasive Pain Relief Solutions

The cannabis industry is booming with all different types of new products, thanks to the numerous ways CBD and THC can enter the body. Cannabis itself is becoming more legal; however, its marketing efforts are still inconvenient, as leading search engines such as Google continue to take down most websites’ marijuana product advertisements. Even if a manufacturer’s state legalizes advertising for marijuana, the company would still need to find other ways to promote and sell its products online. Yet, hundreds of new cannabis products are on the rise, with some becoming more prominent than others. While we’re not endorsing the use of any of these products, let’s take a look at the different cannabis products you may not have heard of before. 

Cannabis Drinks

Drinking weed may be in its infant stages of popularity. However, it is expected to expand rapidly as a trend as more states legalize the use of marijuana. Right now, cocktails that are infused with cannabis are only popular in the few bars that serve this drink in Los Angeles, and in other places where marijuana consumption is decriminalized or totally legalized. There are also a few dispensaries in Colorado, a state that legalized recreational marijuana, that sell cannabis fruit punch and cannabis cola. In addition, many New York coffee shops sell coffee infused with cannabis, a perfect combination if a regular cup of coffee is too strong for your anxiety.

Out of all those drinks, beer gets the most attention in terms of CBD experimentation. Cannabinoids offer different effects. However, so many new tastes and aromas can be produced from the terpenes in cannabis. This is what makes CBD very good to mix with beer. Yet, the endless possibilities are limited by the federal rulings concerning what is and isn’t considered a Schedule 1 drug. Some breweries and brewers in states with legalized weed, however, have been able to find workarounds for this problem. 

Cannabis Oil

Cannabis oils refer to a large category of cannabis products that can be taken in many different forms. While there are certain products that contain CBD or cannabidiol oil, cannabis oil itself can be taken in more than one form. This is why this product in particular gains the most popularity among legal users. CBD oils are known to have very low levels of THC, which is why they don’t give the same high sensation that is usually associated with marijuana. This makes these oils perfect for people looking for anxiety relief, pain relief, or nausea relief without experiencing the psychoactive reactions of THC. 

Cannabis oil use for Epilepsy is highly supported on a federal level and receives the most consistent approval. However, these oils have also been proven to be useful for the treatment of cancer, pain, depression, anxiety, and sleep problems. Larger companies that produce CBD oils offer many options for their products. For example, you can find E-liquid bottles, which are the most common form of cannabis oils, that are sold to be used in vape pens. There are also CBD tinctures, which are drops made from the extract of concentrated CBD, and are consumed by dropping them under the tongue and absorbing them in the mouth. Cannabis oils also give us CBD capsules that can be swallowed with water, just like any average pill. If you’re legally shopping for cannabis oil and don’t want to deal with a middleman, you can easily buy CBD hemp oil from many dispensaries and consume it by dropping it under your tongue.

Cannabis Gummies 

One of the most popular cannabis products in the legal marijuana industry is cannabis gummies or CBD-specific gummies. These products are becoming so prolific that it’s now a regular thing to buy a bag of CBD gummy worms from a local gas station. However, it’s still not easy to accurately find out how much the percentage of CBD is in the gummies you’re buying. This is acceptable in most states with the legal use of marijuana. Some gummies may even contain delta 8 THC or delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is an isomer that is extremely similar to delta 9 THC, the main psychoactive compound that gets you high. The delta-8-THC compound is used commonly in cannabis gummies due to its milder psychoactive effects that are preferred by many cannabis users. Now, the majority of local dispensaries in states with legal recreational marijuana sell cannabis gummies and worms, whether they only contain CBD or percentages of both CBD and THC. All you need is a medical marijuana card and to be of legal age so that you can buy all sorts of cannabis gummies from the nearest dispensary. Gummies are one of the most dominant cannabis products if you’re looking for a treat instead of capsules or oils.

Cannabis Skincare Products

The idea of marketing CBD or weed products to suburban women are new to the cannabis industry, however, it seems to be very effective. This is one of the leading reasons why CBD beauty and skincare products are gaining more success every year. In addition to its known benefits, CBD can offer many anti-inflammatory properties that are absorbed by the cannabinoid receptors in our skin. This is why it is claimed by many researchers to reduce acne and promote pain relief. It is also advertised in the skincare and beauty industry as helping with hydration problems in the skin and inducing a nice euphoric feeling. These types of products are becoming more and more popular every day that they are being sold and featured on some of the major makeup and skincare websites, such as Sephora. 

Both THC and CBD can be used and consumed in so many ways that it’s difficult to not find your favorite form of cannabis product. Whether it’s drops, oils, body lotions, or worms and gummies, this industry is certainly on the rise. However, some products seem to receive more attention than others. While many would think that cannabis beers are the most preferable to cannabis users, gummies tend to be more prominent and receive greater attention from users looking for a sweet treat that’s not as sweet as chocolate.