Personal injury cases take an emotional and financial toll on the victims but also expose the safety shortcomings of communities. At Davis, Saperstein & Salomon P,C., knowing the risk factors and designing strategic interventions can help New Jersey mitigate unnecessary injuries and enhance safety. Policymakers and government officials, as well as business leaders and residents, can take actions to make the communities safer.
Enhanced Infrastructure to Reduce Hazards
Improved public infrastructure plays a major role in accident prevention. Injuries may be greatly decreased by remodeling roads, sidewalks, and public places. For example:
Enhanced Pedestrian Crossings: Pedestrian-activated flashers or automatic sidewalk lights may be useful for busy intersections on Newark and Jersey City. These measures are especially effective near schools and public transit stops.
Better Street Lighting: Dimly lit streets in high-traffic areas can pose serious risks to both drivers and pedestrians. Installing LED streetlights in areas such as Trenton’s downtown and Newark’s Ironbound district can enhance visibility and reduce nighttime accidents.
Traffic Calming Measures: Certain structures, like roundabouts, curb extensions, and speed bumps can be used to reduce vehicle speed in residential neighborhoods. This is more helpful in Hoboken’s waterfront districts where high pedestrian traffic is common.
Targeted Public Safety Campaigns
Educational campaigns can raise awareness about common injury risks and encourage safer behavior. New Jersey communities can introduce the following initiatives:
Campaigns for Seasonal Safety: Public service announcements focusing on winter driving safety, beach safety, or bicycle helmet use can significantly reduce seasonal accident rates.
Interactive Workshops: Hosting safety workshops at schools and community centers can teach residents critical skills such as defensive driving, fall prevention for seniors, or safe lifting techniques for workers.
Local Business Accountability
Every business should make every effort to provide a safe environment for its customers and employees. Urging them to adopt basic safety measures would lessen incidents such as falling or slipping.
Proactive Safety Audits: Businesses can voluntarily conduct safety assessments to identify and address potential hazards. Implementing a ‘Safe Business Certification’ could incentivize establishments to maintain higher safety standards.
Employee Training Programs: Providing basic first aid, fire prevention, and emergency response training to staff can lessen injuries in the retail, hospitality, and office workplaces.
Emergency Response Training for Residents
Community-wide preparedness programs designed to make the community ready for emergencies can lessen injuries in case of accidents.
First Aid Training Sessions: Towns can organize CPR and first-aid certification courses for residents. Teaching community members how to respond to injuries before medical help arrives can save lives.
Volunteer Emergency Networks: Establishing local volunteer groups with first-aid kits and defibrillators might improve the response time in difficult to access areas.
Legal Advocacy for Safer Communities
Davis, Saperstein & Salomon play a critical role in prevention efforts. Their legal staff looks into injury trends which allows them to recommend safety measures to local authorities to formulate and enforce stricter safety laws.
If a law firm determines there are a lot of pedestrian mishaps in a certain location, the law firm may partner with urban designers to develop better crosswalks and pedestrian signs. Their effort assures that the lessons learned from prior cases are used for public safety improvement.
Key To Safety
Reduction of personal injuries is achieved through prevention. Improving infrastructure, safety awareness campaigns, and community readiness all work together to provide New Jersey residents an improved sense of safety while burdening the personal injury claimants less.
In the fast-paced digital age, effective communication has become the cornerstone of business success. CTI software is at the forefront of revolutionizing how companies manage their communications, enabling seamless collaboration and improved productivity. It integrates telephone functions with computer-based databases, providing a unified communication platform that can significantly enhance team dynamics and customer relations. If you’re seeking ways to streamline your business’s communication processes, CTI might be the solution you’ve been looking for. Keep reading to understand how this technology can be a game-changer for your organization.
Understanding CTI Software and Its Role in Modern business Communication
The essence of CTI lies in its ability to merge traditional telephony with digital information services. CTI software allows employees to manage all their communication tasks directly from their computers, eliminating the need to switch between different devices and applications. This integrated approach contributes to better time management and less room for error, as all relevant information is readily accessible during calls.
With features like click-to-dial, screen pop-ups with customer information, and automated call logging, CTI technology provides a user-friendly interface that streamlines workflow. These capabilities ensure that every interaction is informed and personalized, thereby enhancing the quality of customer service. The adoption of this technology has seen a significant uptick, as businesses realize the benefits of having an integrated communication system.
Implementing CTI software can be particularly transformative for customer-facing teams. The ability to quickly access client data and past interactions can lead to more meaningful conversations and faster problem resolution. In addition, the aggregation of communication channels into one platform can significantly reduce operational complexity.
Streamlining Customer Support and Sales With Integrated Telephony
Customer service and sales are often the front lines of a business, directly shaping customer perceptions and driving revenue. CTI significantly enhances these critical areas by providing tools that allow for a comprehensive understanding of the customer journey. Quick access to customer data ensures that agents can make informed decisions, while integrated call management features streamline the entire communication process.
In the fast-paced environment of sales, time is of the essence. CTI’s automatic call distribution and dialers increase efficiency by connecting agents to prospects quickly and more effectively. The automation of routine tasks like dialing numbers and logging call information ensures that sales teams can focus on what they do best.
The Impact of Real-Time Data Access on Team Performance and Decision-Making
Information is power in the world of business, and CTI ensures that this power is harnessed efficiently with real-time data. Having instant access to customer data and history allows teams to make quick, informed decisions that can be the difference between closing a sale or retaining a client. It enables personalized customer engagement, as well as swift responses to inquiries and issues.
Real-time data is also instrumental in managing business operations. Team leaders and managers can monitor calls and performance metrics as they happen. This immediate insight allows for on-the-spot coaching and feedback, which is crucial for the development of team members and the continuous improvement of service delivery.
CTI’s real-time capabilities also facilitate better forecasting and planning. Businesses can predict trends based on current data, allowing them to adjust their strategies proactively. This can cover everything from staffing requirements to inventory management, ensuring that businesses are well-prepared for future demands.
Future-Proofing Your Business: The Advantages of Adopting CTI Systems Early
Embracing technology early on comes with significant competitive advantages. Businesses that adopt CTI systems can position themselves ahead of the curve, offering cutting-edge communication services that meet the expectations of modern consumers. The integration of telephony and information services is more than a convenience; it is becoming a necessity as customers increasingly seek streamlined and personalized interactions.
CTI technology also plays a critical role in maintaining business continuity. With features that support remote work and disaster recovery, companies can ensure that their operations run smoothly in the face of unforeseen challenges. The flexibility and resilience offered by these systems are invaluable assets in today’s unpredictable business landscape.
Overall, CTI software is much more than a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic move toward sustainable business growth. By uniting communication channels and data management, CTI paves the way for companies to create a collaborative, efficient, and resilient work environment tailored to the demands of the modern world.
Akari has arrived at a particularly tough moment in Mariko and Dan’s relationship. The cinematographer has just arrived at her sister’s place in New York to crash on their couch after a particularly long conversation in the middle of the night about sex, literature, and their future. It only gets more tense from there; as the three interact (but mostly worry about each other), they can feel their identities and plans dissolve. Days before the 2016 election, the three Millennials, along with other artists and theater directors, revolve around the loss of an unlived life, unsure if it’s still within reach.
Our Culture spoke with Matthew Gasda about generational fiction, playwriting, and plundering from diaries.
Congratulations on your debut novel! You’ve written so many plays; did you approach the book the same way?
I started writing the book in 2017, so in many ways it predates many of the plays I’ve become known for. In other ways, it postdates them, because I rewrote a lot of the book in the 2020s. I don’t think there’s a linear relationship to my playwriting. When I moved to New York at 22 I had no idea I’d be writing plays; I exclusively conceived of myself as a novelist or a literary person. I had no foot whatsoever in theater, until I was 24 or 25. In a way, the book is tied to my ambitions I moved to New York with, 14 years ago. It was always my ambition to write generationally relevant New York novels, like so many other people, and at some point it materialized. Obviously, people who have written about The Sleepers so far have commented on the play-like aspects of the book — I think that’s somewhat overrated in the sense that if they didn’t know I was a playwright, I don’t know if it’d get brought up. It might be the case that my fictional dialogue always worked like this, and it translated into theater. For readers, they may assume the opposite — this is me translating into fiction. So there’s some relationship between drama and fiction that’s ongoing, there’s no chicken or egg.
Yeah, I was going to ask if this was originally going to be conceived as a play.
I don’t think so. I think in my head, the shadow realm of my brain is the same. I think the only difference is when I’m writing a play specifically I really think about the third thing, which is the audience. There’s a different mental anticipation of the thing you’re writing. You’re thinking of things like stage time, do they have to pee, where do you put the intermission. There are practical considerations with a play, whereas with fiction, there’s a limitlessness, greater freedom to go into a discursive tangent.
You mention trying for the novel to be generationally relevant — I’m curious why you set it in 2016, days before the election?
I think I had a sense that 2015 was the end of a certain structure of living. It was the end of the socialist hipster era. I saw the character Dan in the novel as a tragic moment, not politically, but culturally and morally, there was a peak naivete, peak blindness. There were massive cultural transformations that even by 2017 were already underway. There’s not a big shift in how the world looks, but I think there’s a massive shift in how people react and think, articulate themselves, have sex.
I love the unease in Mariko and Dan’s relationship, and you write, “It was like they couldn’t exist without the tension of possible catastrophe.” What was it like developing them?
It’s funny, reflecting on something that took ten years. I’ve sort of lost touch… I was writing at such radically different periods, at one point I was a high school teacher, or writing on the subway, going to a job I really loathed, living with someone. The first draft has this extreme feeling of stuckness that reflects my own state and self-loathing. I think I began the book at a time where I felt morally, economically, spiritually disjointed. I didn’t like 2017, I didn’t like the 2010s. I think I was starting to realize it felt bad. In a way, Dan and Mariko became mutilated versions of my own psyche, the academic writer and the theater person, both of whom feel lost. The difference is that I was hyper aware of myself at the time, so there was a kind of beauty and relief in writing these characters who forestall their own realizations. They aren’t fully aware of themselves as failed, whereas at the time I felt very failed. My fantasy in a weird way was to be like them.
I love taking a part of me, either good or bad, and really expanding on it fictitiously through a character.
Yeah, I do believe in the alternate self theory of fiction. I tell people, when I write plays, these are versions of myself that I don’t want to have happen, paths I don’t want to go down. There’s a therapeutic element to seeing your own vulnerabilities and egotisms and desires. I wasn’t a 40-year-old male feminist socialist like Dan, I was 29. I could see how that person was relatively easy to become. Any New Yorker could become Dan. Writing the book was like a ritual to ward off Dan in myself before it was too late.
Speaking of, Dan is a writer who has a book under contract with Verso, and he writes pseudo-philosophical ideas about “the collectivization of opinion” or “the algorithmization of consensus.” I’m wondering if you think he’s pretentious, or earnestly attempting to figure out American society.
Some of those things I took from my own blog in 2015; some of the most uninteresting. That was my way of creating a hybrid — the way to create earnestness was to actually put in some of my own earnest thoughts. I think he’s incredibly earnest. The level at which he’s operating, he fully believes the things he’s doing. The book talks a lot about levels of consciousness, the biological level, material level, social level, erotic level. Dan is someone who is unable to integrate his different drives and modes of awareness; he’s hyperintellectual but unable to integrate that within his own choices.
Dan has an affair with Eliza, and although it’s pretty mundane, both are irreparably changed from it. What did you want their actions to introduce in their lives?
I think it’s as simple as introducing them to themselves. My theory of the book is that if these characters are not fully aware of who they are when the book begins, if they’re both trapped in this sort of daily sameness, they’re both staring down the rest of their lives and they’re not happy with that. There’s a world where they don’t act out their drives or needs. Maybe life’s about settling for someone you don’t get along with. Dan talks about being nostalgic, how nice it is just to have somebody. So the affairs show them they’re not able to compromise, they’re vulgar materialists, libidinal in ways that don’t allow them to acquiesce to the ordinariness of their lives and just accept it. It just returns them to who they always were.
Mariko’s sister, Akari, is just a viewer from LA who is witness to the destruction. Do you think she’s able to view the couple without all the layers of story, or does she not have all of the information?
She knows. I don’t think she needs all the information. As a cinematographer, she’s an observer, kind of passively capturing what’s around her, in a sense, to edit later. She intuits the affair, she doesn’t know the details, but she sees Dan and Mariko both come in, and she clocks it. To me, Akari is someone who’s got a good life. If you want to look at it like a tragedy, she’s the one who could stop the tragedy from unfolding, but she refuses to confront anyone, she’s hung up on her own relationship and career, so she doesn’t want to get involved. She’s sort of the social Darwinist of the group.
I liked that you included some contemporary ideas, mirroring your work for UnHerd, like when you write, “I’m beginning to understand what an artist’s life means… It means giving up this fucking bizarre American obsession with happiness.” Do you as a writer agree?
[Laughs] Yeah. I don’t think you should consciously try to be unhappy, but so many people want to live the Carroll Gardens, Brooklynite novelist lifestyle, write for The New Yorker four times a year, teach at Brooklyn College. I think certain writers get grandfathered into a way of life where you can do that, sell a book or two, enough to buy an apartment. I think the early 2000s in general had de-romanticized the idea of sacrifice or suffering for art. That got left in the 90s. A lot of 90s plots are driven by the idea of the sellout vs the slacker, and I think that just goes away, in my generation, definitely by your generation. There’s no difference between commerce and art. Culturally, no difference. But there is a reality in which you have to offend or reject or push away. Everyone can’t like you, you can’t be happy all the time and be a great artist. I just don’t see how that’s possible. You can’t be a people pleaser or de-libidinal. Real people do real things. We have subjects and genitals and class positions and bodies that are tall or short or fat or ugly or hot. There’s an NPR voice for novelists that really annoy me, where they all sound like the same person. It’s all very nice and pleasant; it’s what I grew up thinking novelists would be.
I also liked this quote: “That was what the internet did to people: it destroyed their indigenous interiority, left them vulnerable to external representations of the self.” I feel like in 2016, when you set the novel, was when people really started to understand this kind of thing and think more deeply about it.
I don’t know if you’ve ever read Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows, from 2011. When I first moved to New York, I couldn’t afford to buy a book so I’d go to Barnes & Noble and read it in one or two sessions. Someone like him has been worried about that, or George Steiner or Harold Bloom in the 80s and 90s. It’s amazing how often this thought gets iterated. Harold Bloom was interested in the loss of interiority. I guess he was right, but there’s also levels of hell. Broadly speaking, yes, 2016, 2012 — there were these flashpoints where we get further and further away from the inner self and more into these buzzing, external, roboticized… I guess one of my aphorisms is that the threat isn’t just AI becoming more like us but us becoming more like AI. There’s some conversions there.
I wanted to talk about your Writer’s Diary and what a day in the life is like — what things go here, in a book, in a play, in a journal. Where’s the boundary?
It used to be the case where I borrowed immensely from the diary for other things. Sleepers borrowed a lot from my old Medium, in which I wrote a lot of good things, but there’s also a normal, scared liberal voice in the original diaries that I eventually turned against and turned into Dan. But there was also a lot of great writing in fragments that I thought were great sentences. Obviously when the diaries are public they become sort of an archaeological record of your own. I think I was more poetic and intuitive ten years ago, mentally more agile. But I had a much more generic, New York Times-mediated social consciousness. It’s gone through iterations, but [the diary] used to be this thing that 30 people read regularly. It was something I would plunder constantly, all of it was grifts for other projects. Over time, especially on Substack, I’ve stopped plundering. And I think that’s made the diary better, because it’ll be published as a book in the fall. Some of it will show up in other places, but it’s slowly evolved from me posting my notebooks to becoming now, a step in formulating thoughts that might influence other things I might write. It’s like the cycle of life of a larger thematic thought process. Sleepers has a ton of my old blog, some I put in to parody, and some things, like a poem I wrote that I worked into Dan’s inner thought. As a technical matter, I think one thing that’s served me well is writing a lot of loose poetry every morning and not even thinking about those things as final poems, just language that’s more enigmatic or freer than a beat-by-beat novel. Integrating linguistic strings that are more ambiguous or lyrical into things that are more prosaic. It creates a unique texture.
Finally, what’s next? I saw you have three books coming out this year.
Yeah, my next play collection, the writers diary, and Sleepers. I sold another novel, which will come out next spring. Like The Sleepers, it’s bits and pieces of [past] writing. It might seem like I got incredibly prolific, but I didn’t get an agent until I was 33. It’s more the case that I have a lot of projects in the drawer. I guess I am an obsessive worker, so it makes me feel sane and decent to just keep going.
Once a dominating force in streetwear and runway collections alike, vintage sportswear—think oversized windbreakers, old-school tracksuits, and retro trainers—seemed to define an era of fashion led by nostalgia. But the question now in 2025 is whether the buzz has quietened?
A Quiet, Stylish Integration
What we’re seeing now is not the end of the trend, but its absorption into mainstream fashion. Rather than being styled as full vintage ‘looks,’ retro elements have become subtler, used to accent otherwise modern outfits.
Classic sneakers like the Autry Medalist—a minimal ’80s silhouette—are everywhere this spring, worn with everything from wide-leg trousers to suit skirts. The same goes for iconic pieces like Adidas’s Firebird trackies, spotted at fashion week worn beneath longline coats or paired with designer bags.
Still Relevant in Subcultures
Away from the catwalk, vintage sportswear is thriving in youth-driven, internet-fuelled subcultures. The ‘blokecore’ movement—reviving football casual wear from the late ’90s and early 2000s—is still going strong.
Think vintage football shirts, layered over turtlenecks, paired with baggy jeans or cargos. It’s the kind of look that wouldn’t feel out of place while watching rugby on TV with friends or down the pub, blending sport and style effortlessly.
Nostalgia-Driven Reissues
The fashion industry’s continued flirtation with Y2K aesthetics has also breathed life into retro sportswear. High-end brands like Dior and Chloé are reissuing early 2000s classics, driven by emotional connection and millennial/Gen Z buying power.
While not strictly sportswear, these reissues are part of the same nostalgic trend cycle that makes vintage Nike sweatshirts and old-school gym kits desirable.
Sustainability and Longevity
Crucially, the vintage sportswear revival has benefited from the fashion industry’s growing concern with sustainability. Consumers are more conscious about fast fashion’s environmental toll, and vintage or second-hand items offer a low-impact alternative.
This has kept demand high on resale platforms like Depop and Vinted. Brands like Fred Perry, Ellesse, and Fila—whose original pieces are prized for quality and durability—continue to appeal to style-savvy, eco-conscious shoppers.
The Final Whistle?
So, is vintage sportswear still apparent in the fashion industry in 2025? Absolutely—but its influence has shifted from statement to staple, with retro elements subtly threaded through everyday and high-fashion looks alike.
In subcultures and resale markets, vintage sportswear is thriving—fuelled by nostalgia, sustainability, and enduring style. From pub-ready track jackets to reimagined retro trainers, it’s no fad, but a lasting thread in modern fashion.
THCA flower offers a legal cannabis sativa product that you can buy online. It’s the same thing as the flower you’d buy at a dispensary; all of the THCA is converted to THC when heated.
Because it contains less than 0.3% THC in raw form, though, THCA flower is considered a hemp product and is therefore federally legal.
All of this has made THCA flower very popular. But with some many products available online, how can you know what’s right for you?
It helps to understand the main types of THCA flower. In this article, we’ll break down these types so you can figure out which option suits you best.
What is THCA Flower?
THCA flower is dried cannabis sativa bud that’s been bred to contain high levels of tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) and low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Because it contains less than 0.3% THC by dry weight, it’s considered hemp and is therefore federally legal.
THCa turns into THC when heated through a process known as decarboxylation: you get the same effects from high-THCa, low-THC strains as you would from strains with a lower ratio of THCa to THC.
Types of THCA Flower
There are three main types of THCA flower: type 1 THCA flower, type 2 THCA flower, and exotic THCA flower. Here’s a bit about each:
Type 1 THCA Flower
Type 1 THCA flower refers to hemp flower strains that contain high levels of THCA and low levels of secondary cannabinoids, such as CBD, CBG, or CBN.
Due to the high THCA profile of type 1 THCA flower, these strains are ideal if you’re looking for intense euphoria, deep relaxation, and heightened sensory perception (by contrast, type 2 THCA flower is better for therapeutic uses or if you don’t want as strong of a head high).
Given the potency of type 1 THCA flower, we generally recommend it only if you have experience with THCA and know what to expect.
Type 2 THCA Flower
Type 2 THCA flower refers to hemp flower strains that contain a balanced ratio of THCA and CBD, along with other secondary cannabinoids like CBG or CBN.
The THCA converts into THC, delivering psychoactive effects, while the CBD and other cannabinoids help to counteract the intensity, creating a more relaxed, clear-headed experience.
Type 2 THCA flower is ideal if you’re consuming THCA flower for therapeutic purposes. The high levels of secondary cannabinoids in type 2 flower increases its physically and mentally relaxing benefits while taking the sharper edge off the high created by THC.
Exotic THCA Flower
Exotic THCA flower refers to hemp flower strains with very high THCA levels (20-30%+). These strains are often made by mixing multiple strains together and can be hard to find, hence the “exotic” name.
Exotic THCA strains often have bright, trichome-rich buds with vibrant colors like purples, oranges, and greens, making them visually stunning as well as potent.
Exotic strains are ideal if you’re looking for extremely powerful or unique effects. Because an exotic strain is often made by mixing multiple other strains, you can get the effects of several of your favorite strains all at once.
As with type 1 THCA flower, though, we only recommend trying exotics if you’re experienced with THC, given how powerful they are.
What to Look for When Buying THCA Flower Online
Apart from knowing which type of THCA flower is right for you, here are some things you’ll want to consider when shopping for strains online:
3rd-party lab testing
Only buy THCA flower that’s been 3rd-party lab tested. The hemp market is largely unregulated and there’s a lot of poor-quality flower out there; 3rd-party lab testing is essentially the only way to verify the quality of a strain.
Reputable THCA flower vendors will provide 3rd-party lab tests for their products. If a company doesn’t, do not buy from them.
All-natural flower
Only buy all-natural THCA flower. This will ensure the flower you buy is free of low-quality additives that don’t add to the effects or benefits you receive and may even be harmful.
All-natural flowers are richer in naturally-occurring cannabinoids (such as THCA, CBD, CBG, and so on), making it better for both therapeutic and recreational use.
Effects and potency
When you’re shopping for THCA flower, ensure you buy a product that provides the experience you’re looking for. There are two main things you’ll want to look for:
THCA Percentage: The amount of THCA in the strain will determine how potent it is. Ensure you select a strain that’s appropriate for your preferences and level of experience. Type 1 strains, which contain 20% THCA or higher, are best if you’re experienced with flower. Type 2 strains, which are lower in THCA and higher in CBD, CBN, and CBG, are better for therapeutic use or if you’re new to THCA flower.
Other Cannabinoid Content: If THCA flower contains other cannabinoids (whether naturally or through infusion), it will render different effects than THCA flower with minimal amounts of these other cannabinoids.
Where to Buy THCA Flower Online
If you’re looking for the best place to buy THCA flower online, Carolina Hemp Cafe is the place to go.
They have a selection of 30+ THCA flower strains, including type 1, type 2, and exotic selections. From classic strains like Northern Lights and Green Crack and exotics like Super Lemon Haze and Skywalker, they’re sure to have a strain you’ll love.
Every strain is 3rd-party lab tested, federally legal, and packaged in childproof containers. Carolina Hemp Cafe ships to 35+ states and offers free shipping over $99.
Whether you’re ready to try THCA flower for the first time or want to find a new supplier, Carolina Hemp Cafe is your go-to.
Conclusion: Choosing the Best THCA Flower for Your Needs
THCA flower allows you to enjoy the cannabis sativa plant legally and conveniently.
Whether you’re a wellness-focused user or like THCA recreationally, there’s a strain for you.
Powerful type 1 and exotic THCA strains are best for strong effects, while balanced type 2 THCA flower is better for addressing physical discomfort or sleeping more restfully at night.
No matter what path you choose to go, you now know what to look for when buying THCA flower.
William “Smokey” Robinson has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by four former housekeepers. The Motown music luminary is facing a $50 million lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles superior court on May 6, from the four women, who are identified only as Jane Does 1, 2, 3 and 4.
The complaint also names Robinson’s wife, Frances Robinson, and lists a number alleged labor violations, including failure to pay minimum wage, failure to pay overtime, inaccurate wage statements, and hostile work environment.
According to The Post, the women claim they worked for Robinson between 2012 and 2024. Jane Doe 1 accused Robinson of painfully penetrating her and committing other unwanted sexual acts at least seven times upon calling her into the “blue bedroom” of his Chatsworth residence.
Jane Doe 2, who allegedly worked for the couple from May 2014 until February 2020, claims she was assaulted by the singer at least 23 different times, including in the laundry room and garage of his Chatsworth residence, where there no cameras. She called his advances “brutal,” “constant,” and “predictable.”
Jane Doe 3 claims she worked for them from February 2012 until April 2024 and was “sexually harassed, sexually assaulted and raped” by Robinson “at least 20 times.”
The fourth woman also says she served as Frances Robinson’s personal assistant, hairdresser, and cook, working for them for 18 years before resigning in 2024. Her account includes allegations of rape at Robinson’s Las Vegas and Bell Canyon homes.
The complaint also states that Frances Robinson failed to prevent her husband’s sexual assaults, “despite having full knowledge of his prior acts of sexual misconduct, having settled cases with other women that suffered and experienced similar sexual assaults perpetrated by him.”
Speaking at a Los Angeles news conference, the women’s attorney John Harris said: “We believe that Mr. Robinson is a serial and sick rapist, and must be stopped.” He added that while “no amount of money can compensate these women for what Mr. Robinson put them through,” the $50 million was warranted “based on the gravity of Mr. Robinson’s despicable and reprehensible misconduct.”
Man/Woman/Chainsaw have released a new song, ‘MadDog’. Like April’s ‘Adam & Steve’, the frantic, winding track was recorded with Geordie Greep producer Seth Evans and Margo Broom at RAK Studios. It “talks about losing a friend and watching them become everything you thought they wouldn’t,” according to the band’s Vera Leppänen. “We wrote the song as two parts, the pissed off bit and the sad/nostalgic bit, and recorded it with a quick turnaround which was fairly new to us.” Listen to it below.
Existential anxiety shimmers through Beach Bunny‘s new record, Tunnel Vision. “You think the world will act the same,” frontperson Lili Trifilio sings on highlight ‘Pixie Cut’, “Your aversion to anything new/ Makes you maladapt to change.” That the world is changing for the worse is a fact she acknowledges right from the album’s opening track, though the band – rounded out by bassist Anthony Vaccaro and drummer Jon Alvarado – conjure enough sticky hooks and buoyant melodies to steer the singer through the ensuing self-sabotage and perpetual uncertainty. While the songs on Tunnel Vision are easy on the ears, they didn’t come easily; Lili Trifilio experienced writer’s block in the early stages of the album, and it was the very act of writing about being stuck in her own head that helped open the floodgates. Her lyrics became more abstract and introspective, but no less relatable or urgently felt. The group – who have today announced the third annual Pool Party Festival in their hometown of Chicago – then recorded the LP in 2024 with longtime producer Sean O’Keefe, getting playful with the basic tenets of their pop-punk sound. “I’d give my brain a pixie cut/ If it’d make the voices all shut up,” Trifilio sings. If yours won’t shut up either, at least they can sing along.
We caught up with Beach Bunny’s Lili Trifilio to talk about the making of Tunnel Vision, playing the new songs live, nostalgia, and more.
How’s your day been so far? It’s noon there, right?
It’s been good. I actually just kinda woke up. We had a Canada show in Toronto yesterday, and we are now in Detroit, but we had to wake up at like 4:30 to cross the border and go through customs and stuff. So we did that, and then I was like, “I’m just gonna sleep in.”
Pool Kids have joined you on these dates, right?
Yeah, they’re awesome.
I interviewed them when they released their self-titled album, and as I went back to remember when that was, I realized it came out the same day that Emotional Creature did.
Oh, really? I didn’t know that. [laughs] I’m gonna bring it up now. I hope they weren’t harboring any grudge there.
These shows must feel like a long time coming for people who keep going back to those records. I know that in terms of recording Tunnel Vision, a big goal was making sure you’d be able to translate these songs live. How has that approach been paying off so far?
I think we were all a little bit nervous to play new songs before they even came out. But luckily, Tunnel Vision in many ways is a rock record and is really guitar-focused, which I think feels like a safe spot for Beach Bunny. So it was really amazing now that it’s out to see the reception beforehand and people getting excited. Now it’s been out for three or four days, and people already know the words and stuff, which is really crazy. Beach Bunny fans are super awesome.
When it came to writing these new songs, you had a bit more downtime to reflect on yourself and the state of the world compared to Emotional Creature. How do you remember the time when songs for Tunnel Vision started flowing out of you?
That’s a great question. I would say that maybe the latter half of 2023, I felt like I was starting to get my groove back. I think I just needed to give myself a break and stop putting so much pressure on writing the music. So about half the record was written, I think, end of 2023, beginning of 2024. We were in the studio and had to take quite a significant break from doing studio things to go on tour, and then the summer was just very busy. During those times, I think being on the road inspired another handful of songs, which then got recorded in October. We picked through the best of all those batches and merged it together. Luckily, everything sounds cohesive.
I read that you wrote ‘Vertigo’ in an airplane and had to focus on making sure it stayed in your mind before you had a chance to demo it. Lyrics aside, do melodies tend to come and go for you, or do you have a process for capturing or organizing them?
In general, in the past, I would need to sit in bed and really figure out the chords. But I think just from doing this for like a decade now, I do get little spurts of inspiration, and I try to save them when it comes up. Whether that’s recording a little something in a voice memo or jotting down some lyrics that I’ll return back to. ‘Vertigo’ was one of the first times where that felt really natural and effortless. In many ways, it felt easy, and I think that was the first time since Emotional Creature that writing a song had felt easy. Once ‘Vertigo’ was unlocked in my brain, it felt like every other song in little moments was really a lot easier to capture.
One thing that adds to the urgency of these songs for me is a kind of nervy quiver in your voice that feels more prominent than on previous albums. Was that something you were conscious of while demoing or recording the songs?
It was probably more like a subconscious choice, honestly. When I was writing Emotional Creature, the influences I was pulling from are a lot of artists and songs that aren’t really in my regular rotation now. That was probably the same for Tunnel Vision, where the music I was listening to at the time had some interesting vocal techniques. You just get inspired by a lot of things and, maybe subconsciously, copy bits and pieces. With this record, I was also very inspired not just by bigger artists, but a lot of friends in my life who were putting out music, and they all have very distinct styles.
Do you mind shouting out some of them?
This band Charly Bliss is super awesome, and I was listening to their old stuff. My friend Hank Heaven, who makes more experimental country kind of stuff. Rafaella, who’s way more in the pop world. This band in Chicago, Football Head, has more pop-punk angles. Everybody was bringing something different to the table, butI think I was just more receptive to music, a little bit prior to and during the Tunnel Vision writing process. Whereas in late 2022, early 2023, after Emotional Creature – I was just in a big depressive episode, and I feel like I really wasn’t listening too much. I was listening to, like, podcasts.
I’m glad you mentioned Charly Bliss, because I think you both address nostalgia in an interesting way on your latest records. While there is a sense of nostalgia in some of the songs on Tunnel Vision, what struck me about ‘Clueless’ is how you question the things that nostalgia makes you believe. You talk about a memory being partial, but do you feel like you have a clearer perspective on that past now in any way?
I think this record in a lot of ways has helped me move through some of these emotions. But yeah, certainly nostalgia is something that affects me and affects my writing, and I think there’s a lot of yearning for simpler times in general on the record. While also being like: five years ago there were problems, ten years ago there were problems. There has not been a perfect time in human history to be a functioning person. There’s always gonna be stuff, whether that’s personal or in the world. I think sometimes it’s easy to romanticize the past until you actually, critically think about, “Well, when I was 19, what was my headspace?” And if I think about it that way, I’m actually really grateful right now to be 28 and feel a lot more confident in myself and feel like I have a better grip on who I am than in the past.
As introspective as some of these songs are, you also contextualize your feelings within the world around you. The two second-to-last songs, ‘Violence’ and ‘Just Around the Corner’, find you turning your gaze outward more. What was the thinking behind placing them together and towards the end of the record?
I think in a loose way, certainly sonically, we were also thinking about the tracks and how they would flow into each other. But from a more thematic perspective, because the record does focus a lot on my relationship with myself and mental health, it was important to me to recognize that nobody’s feeling things in a void. If you’re feeling anxiety or seeking control or feeling indecisive – a lot of these things I sing about on the record – it can expand to other things. Where is this anxiety or lack of control coming from? And I think in many ways, I reached at least a partial conclusion just from being in America and seeing all my friends and loved ones around me struggling, that part of the responsibility is also on what’s going on around you, and you can only control so much.
You released the closing track, ‘Cycles’, under your own name in 2019 as a single, but it gets at a lot of the same theme that pervade this record. What did it mean for you not just to revisit it as Beach Bunny, to place it alongside these songs and end the record with it?
I’m just so grateful that that song wasn’t tied to any prior contracts or anything. When I made it back in 2019, I was just stating my mind and not really caring too much about public perception. It was actually one of the first songs we recorded on this album, before it even developed into an album. I was like, “I really love this song. It would be awesome to have it full band so we could play it live one day and really give it what it needs.” The original is very demo-y, so I’m sure recording that with the band led to other songs on the record. Knowing that I could write a song about something maybe a little bit deeper or more abstract too, because a lot of Beach Bunny’s discography is romance and breakup songs, “me and another person.” I think ‘Cycles’ kind of opened my eyes to being like, “I could actually sing about anything. I could just sing about this quarter-life crisis I’m having and about how the state of the world is giving me anxiety, and maybe people will actually like that.” [laughs]
You also allow yourself to lean on the uncertainty as opposed to trying to force answers to this quarter-life crisis. But there is this one line on ‘Chasm’: “Presence is the essence of what I’ll become.” How do you make yourself work toward that ideal?
That’s a really good question. In the last couple years, I’ve gone on and off waves of meditation and leaning into mindfulness practices, which doesn’t always work. But I think what the record does – and what’s something I’m realizing in my own personal life I need to do more – is just talk about it and lean on community. I think a lot of those worries that people feel in their late twenties are, I’m realizing, very universal and relatable. If you can talk to someone experiencing the same thing as you, you might realize that you’re not alone, and it’s gonna be okay.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Guerilla Toss are back with a new single, ‘Psychosis Is Just a Number’, which was produced by Pavement leader Stephen Malkmus. Jorge Elbrect mixed the track, which a press release describes as “a glittering no wave skronk anthem” – and it is, in fact, as skronky as it is anthemic. Check it out below.
Guerilla Toss released their excellent Sub Pop debut, Famously Alive, in 2022. They’re currently working on their next LP, which is expected to arrive later this year.
Meg Remy is back with news of the next U.S. Girls album. Scratch It, the follow-up to 2023’s Bless This Mess, will be released on June 20 via 4AD. The lead single, ‘Bookends’, a 12-minute epic Remy co-wrote with Edwin de Goeji, is a heavy one. It pays tribute to late friend and former Power Trip frontman Riley Gale, filtered through Remy’s reading of John Carey’s Eyewitness to History, a historical collection of over three hundred eyewitness accounts spanning twenty-four centuries that made Remy ponder the thought: “There is not a hierarchy to suffering, and death is the great equaliser.” Though it sounds heady, it’s hard not to be moved by the song. Check it out below.
‘Bookends’ comes paired with a music video directed by Caity Arthur, who explained: “The video is ultimately about death and absolution — how death is one of the only certain things in life; the ‘great equalizer,’ nolens volens. However, it also subverts the traditional narrative of death as a despairing void, rather, portraying it as a euphoric transitory experience or new beginning through a hallucinatory ensemble cast, a 1960s pop-star performance, and sleight of hand magic. As the video progresses, the TV channels alternate through these scenes as Meg’s lyrics evoke death in its various forms.”
Remy and her band — Dillon Watson on guitar, Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, Loretta Lynn) on bass, Domo Donoho on drums, Jo Schornikow and Tina Norwood on keys, and harmonica legend Charlie McCoy (Elvis, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison) — tracked the new album live off the floor with minimal overdubs. It folds together country, gospel, garage rock, soul, disco, and folk balladry, according to a press release.
Scratch It Cover Artwork:
Scratch It Tracklist:
1. Like James Said
2. Dear Patti
3. Firefly on the 4th of July
4. The Clearing
5. Walking Song
6. Bookends
7. Emptying the Jimador
8. Pay Streak
9. No Fruit
