Singer-songwriter Emily Burns has unveiled the music for her single ‘I Love You, You’re the Worst’, from her recently released EP of the same name. Matching the vibrant, colourful tone of the song, the visual sees her encountering different versions of herself in various settings. Check it out below.
Speaking of the new video on Twitter, Burns wrote: “‘I Love You, You’re The Worst’ is about chasing after someone who doesn’t want you back… It was so fun to play all the different characters in this video, I might actually keep the pink gloves. I’m so grateful to the team who pulled this together.”
To celebrate the release of her new EP, Burns will perform a live-streamed show from Abbey Road Studios on July 30th, with all proceeds from the performance going towards AKT Charity, which helps support young and vulnerable LGBTQ+ people faced with homelessness. Find more information here.
BoJack Horseman is a popular Netflix TV series. It first aired in August 2014 and since then has produced 6 successful seasons. While at the start the whole TV series gives the vibes of something very much close to our hearts and souls like Family Guy, The Simpsons, or Futurama, at some point it took a turn. A deep turn.
The story revolves around a humanoid horse. Reverse centaur with the body of a male but the head of a horse. He was a star of a show in the ‘90s sitcom where he played as an adoptive father of three kids. It was a major hit however met an abrupt end due to cancellation. The actual TV series starts 18 years from this incident where BoJack decides to make a spectacular comeback into show business.
It goes without saying that after this point there will be some spoilers. If you are still pondering about whether to watch the series or not – we do recommend it. It is an awesome experience with quite heavy plot twists in the middle and a very unique and strong perspective about alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, gambling, and other serious ordeals of adult life. Anyhow, it goes without saying that the show is not for children. The tone itself is very humorous however due to the dosage of strong feelings that the series is awakening in the hearts and souls of the audience it is something everyone should try.
It is a rollercoaster. In 6 seasons BoJack manages to become an alcoholic, get severely and clinically depressed, hurt people with disabilities or terminal illnesses, give teens booze, almost sleep with the underaged, sink other people’s careers to boost his own, and even manages to leave someone to die. However, even though all of this the main character manages to be extremely relatable and strangely – human. Depression in particular is depicted really well within the TV series and is one of the main draws for a lot of people who watch it.
One of the most crucial moments of the show is when BoJack is playing the main role in the movie called Secretariat. The story follows an independent-minded young horse who wants to become a professional runner. He takes up this career to “run away” from the abusive family he grew up in. Unfortunately, Secretariat meets his end by his own hands via suicide. However, it is widely believed in the community that he was actually murdered by his trainer to cover up his gambling addiction.
Gambling is one of the biggest problems all across the world at this moment. This has been the main focus of lots of different TV shows, movies, books, etc. However, BoJack, who is a den of psychological problems, is surprisingly not that much into gambling. Lots of people in the past kept covering things up, however, the modern world has turned tables on such issues with the introduction of online gambling. Canada is one such country where more than 500,000 people are considered to be having problems with gambling. Even though lots of countries permit it the idea is that there is much less chance of getting caught by your family or loved ones in the process of gambling when you can just open your smartphone and have fun with online blackjack in Canada or anywhere else in the world. Even though BoJack Horseman TV series does not speak about this issue openly, the potshot is still being taken with the underlying cause of death of the Secretariat. It is an extremely important touch for us as the communities not only in Canada but across the globe are struggling with such issues. However, it is a good opportunity gone to waste as this heart-wrenching possibility could’ve been much more deeply explored.
Apart from this, there are quite a few other relatable characters like work-obsessed princess Carolyn, or ever happy Canadian Mr. Peanutbutter, Sarah Lynn – drugs and party obsessed teenager with strong parent issues, or just an extremely lucky but also good for nothing Todd Chavez, as well as one of the stars of the show Vietnamese American Diana Nguyen who plays a pivotal role in the development of BoJack’s character as well as the whole series. The cast makes it so that everyone can find someone from their friend circle to identify with the characters and Bojack himself is extremely relatable for anyone who had anything to do with addiction and depression.
As in real life, everything comes to an end. One cannot hide all of the bones they collected during their lives in their closet. The close is going to become full and start leaking. There is no way around it and much like in real life BoJack didn’t escape his demise as well. Seasons 3 and 4 becoming darker and darker and him ending up in the mental hospital in season 5. The idea is that even though he got all of his help the last two episodes of season 6 are quite difficult to understand as the fanbase is split.
Lord of the Rings is one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy titles of modern history. It is one of the most popular Book series in the world. With the addition of 3 movies in the early and mid-2000s and the release of the Hobbit series in 2010s. In total, the series has acquired 21 Oscars and earned eternal love and respect from a huge fanbase.
As of now, the lovers of LOTR are getting a new TV series. Although there were all of the major publishers competing for the rights to develop the series Amazon Studios came out on top. The company signed a $250 million rights contract in November 2017 with J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate, publisher Harper Collins and the Newline Cinema, which will produce a multi-season TV show.
Here we will discuss what we know up until this point about the development of the series.
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A little bit of fun trivia is that a lot of New Zealanders, or as they like calling themselves Kiwis, are flocking to the casting call which was issued for “funky-looking” people. It goes without saying that the world of the Lord of the Rings is full of different races like Hobbits, Elves, Humans, Dwarfs, Wizards, and etc. This means that the studio is on a lookout for people to fill up these backend roles.
The official release date is still yet to come. There has been no official word although Amazon is required to start filming during the next two years after signing the contract. This means that the filming has started somewhere around November 2019. In the recent update, Amazon executive Jennifer Salke stated that the production is going to start somewhere around 2021, although, there are lots of people who expect it to begin in 2020.
Even though Season 1 is still in production Jennifer has also confirmed in an interview with the Deadline that same writer who finished Season 1 has also been contracted to start working on Season 2 of the show even though the filming is still underway for the first one.
The budget of the film is set to be somewhere around $250 million. This is due to the fact that the contract was signed for this very same amount. Although there are news coming in from the Hollywood Reporter that the budget is set to be around $1 billion – which is the biggest in the television history.
The hype is real and New Zealand is becoming the center of attention due to the fact that the filming is taking place there. Local newspapers, TV channels, and media outlets have started sharing information about the series and pop culture also followed suit. This means that lots of different companies are looking into developing LOTR themed products, which involuntarily draw in a big chunk of the fan base. These are different movie stores, gaming channels, basically anything that is associated with the fantasy genre and not only. It is said that there has been a boom in casino slots for Kiwis which have been notoriously marketing on the hype around the TV series. The international casino companies have been eyeing out New Zealanders due to the fact that Kiwi Law explicitly forbids online gambling for companies based in the country. Although the citizens are legally allowed to pay and play away in companies that are outside of the state.
All of this is due to the fact that the filming for previous films was notoriously done in New Zealand and the TV series is no exception. This information has already been confirmed by the showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who have come out stating that New Zealand captures the primordial beauty of the Second Age of the Middle Earth. They have explicitly outlined the fact that they see New Zealand as a majestic place with pristine coasts, forests, and mountains. It is also true that the country is full of one of the best movie sets in the world as well as studios and skilled individuals to work on the show. It is also a fact that the New Zealand government, people, and especially Auckland have been extremely supportive of the initiative and have aided the pre-production phase.
It is worth noting that Scotland was also considered as a place to film the new TV series, although, the uncertainty in connection with Brexit and the novel coronavirus outbreak have all forced the producers to reconsider. As an added bonus Amazon is committed to making 5 seasons of a Lord of the Rings TV series as part of the $250 million deal.
Taylor Swift has gone through many transformations. Lover – released less than a year ago – was framed as a snapshot of her entire career, careening from bombastic pop to straight-up country. If the shift from Reputation to Lover felt like a stylistic detour, on her latest album Swift has taken down an entirely different path, setting up camp somewhere deep in the woods to write an indie folk record that radiates confidence in the most quietly understated way. She doesn’t need to announce that the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now because she’s dead – she just opens her surprise new record with a couple of warm, hushed piano chords and the lines “I’m doing good, I’m on some new shit”. It evokes the strange feeling of catching up with an old friend after, say, a period of prolonged self-isolation – which isn’t something you’d normally say about a record from a megastar like Taylor Swift.
And yet, as strikingly intimate as folklore sounds, it’s not the kind of confessional album one might expect from that description, nor does it center around Swift’s fame and career. Instead, its sombre, muted tones give Swift the space to hone in her skills as a narrative storyteller, penning songs that are as much about herself as they are about everyone else – which is to say, they are great songs, and folklore is arguably her best effort to date. Explaining the concept behind the album, Swift wrote: “A tale that becomes folklore is one that is passed down and whispered around […] The lines between fantasy and reality blur and the boundaries between truth and fiction become almost indiscernible.” It’s the ambivalent nature of Swift’s lyricism that partly makes the album so compelling, but it’s the open-heartedness and empathy on display here that renders it so emotionally resonant.
Couched in lush, earthy production courtesy of the National’s Aaron Dessner, the organic, earnest qualities of Swift’s songwriting come into sharp focus. There are really no duds on folklore – it’s an album that flows as naturally as the river to the sea, which isn’t something you could really say about Lover. It takes the best elements of that album – the evocative, low-key mood of ‘The Archer’, the trickling nostalgia of ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’ – and shapes them into something entirely different, resulting in her most cohesive and fully-realized project yet.
There’s only one problem. The black and white artwork, an obvious switch from the pastel-hued palette of Lover; the album’s distinct goth-folk approach; its preoccupation with fantasy, myth, and fairytales – it all just screams a certain kind of aesthetic. To any adamant detractors, what might otherwise be seen as Swift’s most honest album instead passes as just another calculated stunt, a style-over-substance affair. So what if there are absolutely no pop songs on folklore? It arrives at a time when we’re all longing for this dreadful summer to be over and cosy up against the fireplace with a warm cup of hot cocoa, and the album’s autumn vibes are so pronounced it practically doubles as a time machine. Isn’t there something at least a little bit self-serving in that?
But of course, anyone who actually listens to the full record would be able to pick up on the way Swift engages with the concept of myth-making itself – there are multiple references to the stories here being “just like a folk song” or “just like a movie”, enough to make them subtly subversive rather than purely nostalgic – but as much as there is to unpack in these 16 songs, the sheer richness of the compositions should be enough to win sceptics over. The shimmering folktronica of ‘the last great american dynasty’ provides the perfect backdrop for some of Swift’s sharpest lyrics, detailing the life of the previous owner of her Rhode Island mansion, Rebekah Harness, and infusing it with the kind of feminist undertones that informed Lana del Rey’s last album: “Holiday House sat quietly on that beach/ Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits/ And then it was bought by me.” It proves that behind what might appear to be a shallow fascination with Fitzgerald-esque decadence – a criticism that’s been directed at del Rey for years – lies a compelling critique of how society views women, and the way Swift ties these historical details with her own life makes these observations feel disconcertingly enduring. “There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen,” she sings, “She had a marvelous time ruining everything.”
It’s a theme that resurfaces later on the audacious ‘mad woman’, which features the first-ever instance of Swift singing the word “fuck” on record. Unlike ‘The Man’ from last year’s Lover, which was insightful but not necessarily potent in the same way, ‘mad woman’ tells a very specific story that manages to feel both personal and universal in its directness. “And there’s nothing like a mad woman/ What a shame she went mad/ No one likes a mad woman/ You made her like that,” she sings, that sense of rightful indignation a stark contrast to the song’s velvety, gorgeous instrumental.
Swift’s ability to shift between different perspectives is most evident in what she refers to as the Teenage Love Triangle trilogy – ‘cardigan’, ‘august’, and ‘betty’, each written from the point of view of a different person. They all feel less like a teenager’s account of love than a young adult novel that’s marked by an intimate understanding of the kind of youthful idealism that’s representative of that age: “When you are young they assume you know nothing,” goes the most quotable line on ‘cardigan’. But it’s ‘betty’ that paints the most damning yet complex character portrait, written from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy who’s done wrong but who would genuinely do anything to regain his lover’s trust.
On the lilting ‘august’, it’s producer Jack Antonoff’s trademark sound that stands out the most – after lending Lover some of its most riveting highlights, he works his studio magic once again, this time utilizing a more subdued approach that suits the album’s wistful aesthetic while also allowing for some of its most rousing, pop-adjacent moments. In that sense, it’s more reminiscent of his work on Lana del Rey’s last album than Taylor Swift’s. ‘mirrorball’ might just be their most stunning collaboration to date, Swift’s tender harmonies soaring atop dreamy, textured guitars. She delivers one of her most impassioned performances during the bridge, when she reaches the crushing realization that no matter how many different versions of herself she spins out, and no matter how many times it fails to get her what she most desperately wants, she’ll still keep trying: “And I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why/ I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try/I’m still on that trapeze/ I’m still trying everything to keep you looking at me.” She makes the point all the more clear on ‘this is me trying’, in which she laments: “They told me all of my cages were mental/ So I got wasted like all my potential.”
Compared to the often unfocused structure of Lover, folklore benefits from sticking to a handful of trusted collaborators that allow Swift’s songwriting to shine. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is the only other artist whose singing features on the record, leading to the wonderfully melodic duet that is ‘exile’; but it’s the elegant ‘peace’ that sounds more like a Bon Iver cut circa 22, a Million, which makes sense considering Dessner’s partnership with Vernon on their collaborative Big Red Machine project. “Our coming-of-age has come and gone/ Suddenly this summer, it’s clear,” she sings, sounding not only remarkably self-assured but also reassuring. “Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?” she ponders as the song comes to an end. Folklore is Swift’s most mature collection of songs – and if the best it can offer is the simple comfort of diving into its intricate yet poignant fictional worlds, that’s certainly more than enough.
Rina Sawayama has shared a teaser trailer for a new documentary about the making of her debut LP, SAWAYAMA. Check it out below.
The Making of SAWAYAMA features footage from the recording of the album, as well as from the pop singer’s tour and day-to-day life. No release date has been announced as of yet, but behind-the-scenes content is currently available to watch on her YouTube channel.
In the trailer, Sawayama speaks about the shift from 2017’s Rina EP to the new album. “It’s scary to alienate some people. The sound has definitely changed. It’s quite sad and angry, and it kind of reflects my overall feelings towards the world.”
She continued: “You just never know. People are savage online, you know? You never know how it’s going to get received. I can only make it super authentic to how I’m feeling. I could sell out on the second album, sure, but my first album is pretty precious to me, and I have a lot to say, lyrically.”
Eveline Iagofarova, a previously featured photographer out of Russia, has presented a superb series which focuses on the remarkable windmills in the village of Kinderdijk in the Netherlands.
Find more stunning work by Eveline Iagofarova here.
Ellis is a singer-songwriter hailing from Hamilton, Ontario. With a sound that’s reminiscent of bedroom pop artists like Clairo both in its emotional directness and its dreamy, luminous arrangements – just listen to the first few seconds of ‘Pringle Creek’, the opening track of her debut LP, born again, and you might just think it’s Claire Cotrill on the mic – Ellis taps into the intimate qualities that makes this type of music so evocative, while carving out her own space in the scene. Following her self-released, self-produced EP the fuzz, her latest marks a shift in style for the artist, who collaborated with producer Jake Aaron (Snail Mail, Solange, Grizzly Bear) for a more polished yet still bracingly vulnerable effort. Her self-aware, strikingly earnest songwriting often feels like a diary-entry, like listening to “secrets whispered in my ear”, as she sings on ‘Fall Apart’. One track even begins: “It was March 13th, 2016/ And you were afraid of me.” As the album unpacks the cycles of anxiety and depression, her personal but often darkly funny poetry always cuts through: “Read about Zhuangzi’s Dream and rolled my eye,” she sings on the closer, “Somehow I convinced myself that I was wise/ So wrap me up in a cocoon of my bed sheets/ And leave me to wonder/ Leave me to wonder.”
We caught up with Ellis for this edition of our Artist Spotlight series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.
What inspired you to start making music?
I started playing piano when I was 4 years old, so music was a huge part of my upbringing. I’ve been making up songs since as long as I can remember, they were obviously very bad back then and still sometimes are! As a teenager I started recording some original songs on Garageband, but never really showed anyone. It took me a really long time to feel comfortable actually sharing and performing my own music.
Who are some of your biggest influences, and why?
I remember so vividly the first time I saw Avril Lavigne’s music video for ‘Complicated’ on TV. It’s the first memory I have of seeing a girl playing an electric guitar, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I saved up all my babysitting money to buy my first guitar – a navy blue Fender Squier Stratocaster. Since then I’ve been influenced largely by other femme songwriters, from Joni Mitchell to Taylor Swift, who write really candidly about their feelings and experiences.
What were some of the ideas that went into the making of Born Again?
I wrote Born Again while I was really reflecting on the last decade of my life and all the ways I have grown. It’s sort of a series of revelations and as much as it’s extremely personal, I think a lot of it is pretty universal. It’s about growing up, or even more, about growing into myself. I remember saying out loud that what I wanted most was to make an earnest record, and I think that’s what I did.
Why did you choose to cover these particular songs from Taylor Swift, Dinosaur Jr. and the Used for your bedroom covers EP?
I hadn’t been feeling very inspired to write, so I’d taken to learning some of my favourite songs by other artists as a way to keep creative. I liked that these 3 songs together sort of felt like they represented Ellis as a project. I love Taylor Swift’s to-the-point lyricism about her feelings and the relatability of her songs. Dinosaur Jr is just one of the coolest bands and J. Mascis is one of my favourite guitarists – I want to be able to shred like J! And The Used was a sort of staple in high school – Bert McCracken writes perfect emo songs.
What do you hope people get from your music?
I think for me the music I listen to most is the music I connect with emotionally. It’s such a strange and powerful experience to hear a song that resonates with you in a meaningful way. If my songs can ever be that for someone else, well, I couldn’t ask for more!
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
I had a big year of touring planned and those plans were obviously changed. As disappointing as it’s been, I am grateful for the time I’ve been afforded to dedicate to things I wouldn’t have had time for otherwise. I’ve been taking the time to work on my technical skill, practicing my instruments more than I ever have, and most of all, writing. I’m also grateful to devote more time to anti-racism work through reading, learning, listening, and showing up. It’s so important that we be thinking very critically of the systems that we operate within, and to reimagine a system that works for all of us, and not just some of us. I am trying not to look at this year as a time to be frozen (though sometimes it feels like that!), but a time to work towards a better future. It seems that sometimes things get worse before they get better, and I feel hopeful.
Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey star in this award-winning sci-fi romance written by Charlie Kaufman. Clementine (Winslet) and Joel (Carrey) meet on a train, immediately connect, and begin a relationship sood afterwards. They don’t realise until later that they have already been a relationship before and have clinically removed the memories of it after a tumultuous heartbreak.
The film is defined by its fluctuating tones and moods, which become apparent in the hues in each scene (as well as Clementine’s hair). Here are fourteen striking stills from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The Strokes have unveiled a new animated video for their song ‘Ode to the Mets’, the closing track from the band’s most recent studio album, The New Abnormal. The visual was written and directed by longtime collaborator Warren Fu, who worked with them on the ‘You Only Live Once’ video. Check it out below.
Combining CGI and traditional animation, Fu brought together different animators to create each different part of the video, which travels through different scenes. It contains several references to the titular baseball team the New York Mets, including a banner that reads ‘Class of ’69’, a nod to the year The Mets won the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles.
In addition to the colourful new clip, the band have also shared a new episode of their ‘Five Guys Talking About Things They Know Nothing About’ online video series, which debuted in April, the same month The New Abnormal was released.
Fleetwood Mac co-founder and influential guitarist Peter Green has died at the age of 73. A statement issued on behalf of the family by solicitors Swan Turton read: “It is with great sadness that the family of Peter Green announce his death this weekend, peacefully in his sleep.”
Born in London on October 29, 1946, Green first picked up a guitar at the age of 10 and started playing professionally at 15 while working for several East London shipping companies. His career started as a bassist for Bobby Dennis and the Dominoes, until an encounter with Eric Clapton inspired him to change back to lead guitar. Later, Green would go on to replace Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s band the Bluesbreakers after he left the band in 1965, and made his recording debut with the band with 1966’s A Hard Road. “He might not be better [than Clapton] now,” Mayall told his producer at the time. “But you wait… he’s going to be the best.”
After leaving the Bluesbreakers in 1967, Green formed Fleetwood Mac, then also known as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, with former Bluesbreaker Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, and Jeremy Spencer on guitar. He was reportedly the one who named the band, combining the names of the band’s rhythm section. They released their self-titled effort in 1968, which gained widespread critical acclaim and reached number four in the charts, and followed it up with 1968’s Mr. Wonderful and 1969’s Then Play On. Though the band’s repertoire initially consisted of blues covers and blues-inspired originals, Green’s songwriting continued to blossom and expand throughout the years. He was responsible for penning tracks like ‘Albatross’, which remains the band’s only number one single, as well as ‘Black Magic Woman’ (later covered by Santana), ‘Oh Well’, ‘Man Of The World’, and ‘Green Manalishi’.
Green departed the band in 1970 due to mental health struggles and was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. During the 1970s, he spent periods of time in and out of mental hospitals and underwent electroshock therapy. He started playing again in 1979, releasing five solo records over the next 13 years. In the 1990s, he started a new band, the Splinter Group, with guitarist Nigel Watson and drummer Cozy Powell, which resulted in nine albums between 1997 and 2004. He began touring under the moniker Peter Green and Friends five years after quitting the band. In 2015, Rolling Stone included him in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time.
A number of artists took to social media to pay tribute to the guitarist.
God bless the ineffable Peter Green, one of the unsung heroes of musical integrity, innovation and spirit. When I heard he left Fleetwood Mac in 1970 to get a real life and donate his wealth to charity, he became something of a model for me.
RIP Peter Green. #GOAT . Man of the world, oh well, albatross, need your love so bad. Some of my favourites songs and performances of all time. Thank you for the music 🙏🏻