Alerts
Book cover: University Of North Carolina Press; Big Boi and André 3000 from the Stankonia album cover
Graphic: Natalie Peeples
“It’s like this though,” André Benjamin nervously shouted over the chorus of boos. “I’m tired of close-minded folks, you know what I’m saying?” As one half, with Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, of the Atlanta-based hip-hop duo OutKast, Benjamin had just won the 1995 Source Award for Best New Rap Group. The Madison Square Garden crowd, unwilling to budge from their bicoastal sensibilities to applaud this pair of defiantly Southern rappers, was not happy. “We got this demo tape but don’t nobody wanna hear it,” Benjamin continued.
Graphic: Natalie Peeples
Margaret Cho is known for her whip-smart comedic observations on well, on a lot of things. Since breaking out in the mid-’90s as the star of All-American Girl, the first American primetime sitcom to feature an Asian-American family, Cho has carved out a career as an actor, author, and activist, all while remaining true to her first love: stand-up comedy.
Over the years, Cho has also been an outspoken advocate for (and member of) what she calls “alternative sexual communities,” speaking frankly about her experiences with polyamory, pansexuality, and kink. She’ll bring some of the kinky wisdom she’s obtained over the years to audiences this Valentine’s Day with
Graphic: Natalie Peeples
What did the internet used to be like? I’m not sure I remember. The conventional wisdom is that, even six or seven years ago, it was more fun and less serious. The dismissive claim that “the internet is not real life” seemed more true than not. Social media platforms were black holes for people’s free time, and that was the major knock. This all seems inconceivably naïve now that things have so severely deteriorated, now that the rapidity with which misinformation and society-altering conspiracy theories spread is so clear, and people spend more time logged on than ever.
Titanic and Spears’ sophomore album (also called
Oops!. I Did It Again) upon their respective releases in 1997 and 2000, there was just no escaping that song or that video homage or that
dance.
Which isn’t to say that I haven’t dug into Spears’ catalog: “Piece Of Me” and “Work, Bitch” are always in rotation, and on speakers, no less (no earbuds necessary when working from home). And I got a kick out of
RuPaul’s Drag Race’s recent nod to the pop princess in a lip sync to “If U Seek Amy” (a song title that took me far too long to grasp). But “Oops!. I Did It Again” is downright transportive for me, taking me back to the days of frosted tips, metallic eye makeup, and Spears’ pop dominance.
Graphic: Natalie Peeples
Ethan Hawke is not here to bullshit you. The names and details are changed slightly, but the actor’s new novel,
Henry IV, in which he starred; and his very public separation from Uma Thurman that same year, amid allegations of his infidelity. It’s not a memoir, but it’s hard not to read it as one, even after a note ahead of the title page assures us that this is “a work of fiction and dedicated to a dead dog.”
Advertisement
Hawke’s fictional alter ego is William Harding, an actor who returns to New York after filming a movie in South Africa and discovers that the media is abuzz with the news that he cheated on his wildly famous wife during the trip. The opening scene spells this out in no uncertain terms, with a cab driver berating him for being no different than the “shiny fake” celebrities. A tabloid fixture, he’s embraced only by his