Aaron Taylor-Johnson Reminds Fans on Instagram of His Upcoming Film ‘A Million Little Pieces’
by Gabriela Silva
The American drama film, ‘A Million Little Pieces’ is based on the book by the same name written by James Frey. The film is co-written by Sam Taylor-Johnson who is known for directing ‘Nowhere Boy’ and the first installment of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’.
Alongside Taylor-Johnson is her husband, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who is starring in the film as James Frey. Aron is known for his roles in ‘Kickass’, ‘Savages’, The Avengers films and ‘Nowhere Boy’.
Vince Staples’ “Yo Love” feat. 6lack & Mereba From Queen & Slim:The Soundtrack Is Out Today
Image Credit: Queen & Slim Album Cover
Today, Motown Records released Vince Staples’ “Yo Love” feat. 6lack & Mereba. The new song is from Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack, which will be released this Friday, November 15.Zane Lowe debuted “Yo Love” earlier today as a World First on Apple Music’s Beats 1.The track is featured today on the cover of Apple Music’s New Music Daily playlist. Download / stream “Yo Love” HERE and view the pseudo video HERE.
Those who pre-order / pre-save the albumin digital format will instantly receive “Yo Love” plus “Ride or Die”by Megan Thee Stallion x VickeeLo and “Collide” by Tiana Major9 & EARTHGANG. Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack is available for pre-order / pre-save HERE.
Starring Oscar® nominee Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Queen & Slim isa powerful, consciousness-raising love story that confronts the staggering human toll of racism and the life-shattering price of violence. The film, from GRAMMY®-winning director Melina Matsoukas and Emmy®-winning writer Lena Waithe, is due in theaters November 27 following its November 14 premiere at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, where it opens the festival.
The music in the film serves as an additional voice and showcases the range of talent across Black artists with a compelling blend of genres. The 16-song soundtrack also features new tracks by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Lil Baby, Coast Contrafeaturing BJ The Chicago Kid and Syd, plus classic songs by Roy Ayers, Bilal, Mike Jones and others. Blood Orange composed the film’s score and is featured on the soundtrack.
“Collide,” by Tiana Major9 & EARTHGANG, has amassed over three million combined global streams. Produced by Benny Cassette (Kanye West, John Legend), the track was the #1 Most Added song at Urban AC Radio. It has topped Spotify’s The Newness playlist, placed in Apple Music’s “Me & Bae” playlist and appears on the biggest R&B playlists on Pandora (Top R&B Hits), YouTube Music (R&B Wave) and Amazon (R&B Rotation).
Lena Waithe wrote the screenplay for Queen & Slim from a story by herself and bestselling author James Frey (A Million Little Pieces, Katerina). The film is produced by Frey, Waithe, Matsoukas, Michelle Knudsen, Andrew Coles, Brad Weston and Pamela Abdy.
Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, when, on Nov. 9, 1989, Berliners breached the 12-ft.-high wall that had divided the communist East side of the city and the capitalist West side of the city since 1961.
It was not only the beginning of a new chapter for Germany and the World, but also a new chapter in David Hasselhoff’s career. The actor and singer had made a name for himself in the U.S., especially as the star of the TV show Knight Rider, but he became even more of a celebrity in Germany after his song “Looking For Freedom” (an English adaptation of the 1978 German hit “Auf Der Strasse Nach Süden,” often translated as “On the road to the South”) came out in 1988, followed by the album of the same name in June 1989. It topped the charts in West Germany, in large part because its lyrics about the long search for freedom struck a chord among those living in a divided Germany. The coincidental timing of the song’s release and the wall’s destruction made Hasselhoff a surprising symbol of the end of the Cold War, a position cemented by his performance at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on New Year’s Eve 1989.
‘Queen & Slim’ a tale of outlaws, but also a love story and a meditation on racism and police brutality
By SONAIYA KELLEY, LOS ANGELES TIMES
Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) and Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) in “Queen & Slim,” directed by Melina Matsoukas. (Andre D. Wagner/Universal Pictur / HANDOUT)
For “Queen & Slim,” screenwriter Lena Waithe’s meditation on race relations and police brutality, director Melina Matsoukas drew visual inspiration from sources as diverse as Alfonso Cuaron’s 2001 dramedy “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and Spike Lee’s 1989 classic “Do the Right Thing.” But the biggest influence came from YouTube.
“One of the key references for me has been real life, authentic struggles in the black community,” said Matsoukas, who makes her feature debut with the movie, in theaters on Thanksgiving. “I watched a lot of YouTube videos of black people being pulled over by the police or encountering law enforcement and it not necessarily ending well. Unfortunately, there are so many of those videos, but they were a major influence in how I wanted to approach shooting the opening scene.”
Starring Daniel Kaluuya and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith, our protagonists (known simply as Slim and Queen until the end) are forced on the run within the first 10 minutes of the movie. “A Million Little Pieces” author James Frey pitched the idea for the opening to Waithe at a party.
“He was like, ‘Yo, I have this idea for a movie that I can’t write,’” she remembered. “And I was like ‘What’s that?’”
The world will mourn the passing on of a true legend – Vaughn Benjamin
St. Croix, US Virgin Islands – It is with heavy heart and endless gratitude for the teachings & music that we share the devastating news of the crossing over to the next dimension by one of the most brilliant, original, prophetic writers and chanters we ever had the blessing to know. Reggae Festival Guide will truly, deeply, miss our wonderful brother and beloved friend for over a decade – the mystical Vaughn Benjamin of Midnite Band, then Akae Beka.
Vaughn’s life & lyrics were Livicated to JAH and his music touched upon esoteric and ethereal realms of ancient and modern history, the sciences, metaphysics and beyond.
His perspective on Rastafari and life taught loyal fans around the world and will continue to be an epic example of a life serving JAH and spreading knowledge. He taught us so much we will be forever grateful for the heights!
The world has lost a true shining star and prolific teacher unlike any being to ever walk the earth. Vaughn and his brother Ron Benjamin created a new meditative genre within roots reggae, rooted in ancient Ithiopian chanting and toured the globe as Midnite for 20 years before Akae Beka.
(AllHipHop News) Melina Matsoukas and Lena Waithe are two of the producers behind the forthcoming motion picture Queen & Slim. Matsoukas also made her feature-film directorial debut, and Waithe wrote the screenplay.
In the movie, Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) and Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) are on the run after a police officer is killed in self-defense during a traffic stop. As two Black fugitives, the retail worker and the lawyer unwittingly become a symbol of trauma, terror, grief, and pain for people across the country.
“Filmmaking is a war, and those are my war wounds up on that screen. I feel like you have to fight for your vision,” expresses Matsoukas. “That’s my favorite kind of art to create, that speaks to people and also creates change.”
Matsoukas is a two-time Grammy winner for directing Rihanna’s “We Found Love” and Beyoncé’s “Formation” music videos. Lena Waithe won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (Netflix’s Master of None), and she is the creator of the Showtime program The Chi. Best-selling author James Frey and Waithe developed the story for Queen & Slim.
“You’re trying to find it through the visuals, I’m trying to find it through the words, and the actors are trying to find it in their performances,” says Waithe while speaking with Matsoukas.
The Chicago native continued, “All these Black artists are trying to find truth in something or some form of honesty. Whoever’s watching it, whether you like it or not, it’s going to make you feel something.”
From two-time Grammy award winning director Melina Matsoukas, the visionary filmmaker behind this generation’s most powerful pop-culture experiences, including HBO’s Insecure, the Emmy award-winning “Thanksgiving” episode of Netflix’s Master of None, and Beyonce’s “Formation,” and from trailblazing, Emmy-winning writer Lena Waithe (Netflix’s Master of None), comes the unflinching new drama, Queen & Slim.
Joining a legacy of films such Set It Off and Thelma & Louise, Queen & Slim is a powerful, consciousness-raising love story that confronts the staggering human toll of racism and the life-shattering price of violence.
The feature-film directorial debut from Melina Matsoukas (executive producer/director of HBO’s Insecure) stars Academy Award nominee Daniel Kaluuya as “Slim” and rising star Jodie Turner-Smith (Syfy’s Nightflyers), as “Queen.” Waithe wrote the screenplay from a story by herself and bestselling author James Frey (A Million Little Pieces, Katerina).
The film is produced by Frey, Waithe, Matsoukas, Michelle Knudsen, Andrew Coles, Brad Weston and Pamela Abdy. The executive producers are Pamela Hirsch, Kaluuya, Aaron L. Gilbert and Jason Cloth.
This drama is already being praised as an awards season contender with Oscars in its sights, with the full ensemble including Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner-Smith, Bokeem Woodbine, Chloë Sevigny, Flea, John Sturgill Simpson, Indya Moore. Melina Matsoukas directs from screenplay by Lena Waithe with a story by: James Frey and Lena Waithe. Producers include James Frey, Lena Waithe, Melina Matsoukas, Michelle Knudsen, Andrew Coles, Brad Weston, Pamela Abdy. Executive Producers include Pamela Hirsch, Daniel Kaluuya, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth.
Walter Mercado, a flamboyant astrologer and television personality whose daily TV appearances entertained many across Latin America and the U.S. for more than a decade, has died. He was 87.
“He is one of those people who used his celebrity and power to reach millions in order to inspire people with good messages,” said Aida Levitan, who helped organize an exhibition in August at the HistoryMiami museum to honor Mercado.
She said hundreds of people showed up and wanted to meet him and take pictures, and he agreed to it all.
he ominous caverns that may be hidden below the fractured landscape of contemporary America are the violent playground for two Universal Pictures films, Us and Queen & Slim, that were represented on Saturday at Deadline’s The Contenders Los Angeles by two filmmakers who plugged into the nightmare side of the American Dream with fascinating results.
First to the stage was Melina Matsoukas, who made her directorial debut this year with the Universal/Makeready spree film Queen & Slim, which follows in tradition of Natural Born Killers, Bonnie & Clyde, Thelma & Louise and other outlaw-duo-on-the-run tales.
This week, we celebrate what many consider the 50th birthday of the Internet. The underpinnings of the World Wide Web originated in an American communications network built for national defense and the pursuit of knowledge: ARPANET. Funded by the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, the network was designed so that scientists could share computer hardware, software and data.
It worked. In the ensuing decades, the ARPANET, and after the 1980s, the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET), did indeed allow scientists to collaboratively build knowledge around networked tools and information. But expanding access to the Internet, combined with looser government regulations, ultimately produced a situation no one foresaw or intended. On today’s Internet, conspiracy theories run rampant, identities can be faked and our real-life elections are vulnerable to manipulation. A network designed for spreading truth became a profit-driven industry, a public sphere that threatens to undermine the public good.
The ancient water tunnel is thought to have been built by Emperor Montezuma I in the 15th century. Inscriptions, carvings and paintings inside, as well as the tunnel itself, are thought to be linked to the Empire’s god of water and fertility, Tlaloc.
Announcing the discovery, the Mexican Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) revealed they had found the densely decorated tunnel in the city of Ecatepec de Morelos within the central state of Mexico.
Several carvings out of rock were found inside, as well as chunks of statue thought to have unbounded archaeological value.
According to local media, researchers found 11 carved images on the wall of the tunnel, which measured 27.5ft long, as well as the remains of a wooden gate.
Lena Waithe, left, and Melina Matsoukas at the Underground Museum in Los Angeles.(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)
For “Queen & Slim,” screenwriter Lena Waithe’s meditation on race relations and police brutality, director Melina Matsoukas drew visual inspiration from sources as diverse as Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 dramedy “Y Tu Mamá También” and Spike Lee’s 1989 classic “Do the Right Thing.” But the biggest influence came straight from YouTube.
“One of the key references for me has been real life, authentic struggles in the black community,” said Matsoukas, who makes her feature debut with the movie, in theaters on Thanksgiving. “I watched a lot of YouTube videos of black people being pulled over by the police or encountering law enforcement and it not necessarily ending well. Unfortunately, there are so many of those videos, but they were a major influence in how I wanted to approach shooting the opening scene.”
Starring Daniel Kaluuya and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith, our protagonists (known simply as Slim and Queen until the end) are forced on the run within the first 10 minutes of the movie. “A Million Little Pieces” author James Frey pitched the idea for the opening to Waithe at a party.
“He was like, ‘Yo, I have this idea for a movie that I can’t write,’” she remembered. “And I was like ‘What’s that?’”
Frey described a scenario in which a black couple driving home from a first date are pulled over by a cop and forced to kill him in self-defense. “I was like, ‘You’re right, you shouldn’t write that,’” said Waithe. “But then we exchanged information. I think he thought he was never going to hear from or see me again, but it just stayed with me.”
Robert Evans, the Paramount executive who produced “Chinatown” and “Urban Cowboy,” and whose life became as melodramatic and jaw-dropping as any of his films, died on Saturday night. He was 89.
Even though Hollywood history is filled with colorful characters, few can match the tale of Evans, whose life would seem far-fetched if it were fiction. With his matinee-idol looks, but little acting talent, Evans was given starring roles in a few movies and then, with no studio experience, was handed the production reins at Paramount in the 1960s. When he left the exec ranks, his first film as a producer was the classic “Chinatown,” and he followed with other hits, like “Marathon Man” and “Urban Cowboy.” Eventually, his distinctive look and speaking style turned him into a cult figure, and he had the distinction of being the only film executive who starred in his own animated TV series.
Garden of Eden in Africa: Humanity’s first home traced to Botswana
A study provides a window into the first 100,000 years of the history of modern humans.
The Paul de Vos oil painting depicts the Garden of Eden
The real Garden Of Eden has been traced to the African nation of Botswana, according to a major study of DNA.
Scientists believe our ancestral homeland is south of the Zambezi River in the country’s north.
The conclusion comes after the study of maternal genetic lineage of anatomically modern humans, finding it was closest to those living in the area, which includes northern Botswana, Namibia to the west and Zimbabwe to the east.
The Secret Battle Over Mona Lisa’s Prettier ‘Twin’
Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre. But a second, earlier painting is at the heart of a multi-million-dollar battle to prove its authenticity and ownership.
by Barbie Latza Nadeau
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photos Public Domain
ROME—When the long-awaited Leonardo da Vinci exhibition celebrating the Italian master’s life opened in the Louvre in Paris this week, two paintings were noticeably missing from the exhibit hall—and they are both of the same woman.
Despite being one of Leonardo’s most famous works, the Louvre decided not to relocate the “Mona Lisa” from her recently renovated viewing room to the exhibit space created to mark the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death. Visitors will instead have to traipse across a hall through the selfie-taking crowds to see her where she normally hangs.
The second painting that Leonardo aficionados will miss is what many believe is an earlier version of the “Mona Lisa,” which shows a much younger—and dare we say—prettier version of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, who commissioned the work in the early 1500s.
The existence of an earlier “Mona Lisa” has dogged art experts for centuries.
What would a Porsche look like in the Star Wars universe? We’re about to find out. PORSCHE AG
This week, Porsche announced its most futuristic design of all time. No, we’re not talking about a new version of its Taycan EV. This is a vehicle so far, far away from everything they’ve designed before that it won’t be measured in something as earthly as miles per hour — it’ll be measured in megalight per hour.
That’s right, the German marque is working on a new vehicle for Star Wars. “Designers at Porsche AG and Lucasfilm Ltd. are collaborating on a fantasy starship design that will be presented at the world premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” according to a press release.
Grace Farms Foundation fundraiser brings stars to Connecticut
By Page Six Team
Jay Fielden / Getty Images for Hearst
“It’s time to open the dance floor — like open sesame,” jazz pianist-turned-“rockjazz” composer and in-demand DJ Elew instructed the crowd at the Grace Farms Foundation’s fourth-anniversary celebration in New Canaan, Conn., on Saturday night.
Attendees enthusiastically obeyed and got down as Elew spun tunes from rap to AC/DC, with saxophonist Marcus G. Miller blowing his horn live on the dance floor.
Among the VIP crowd of 300 at the upscale humanitarian shindig were foundation founder Sharon Prince, event co-chairs Abby Bangser and Amanda Martocchio, former Esquire editor Jay Fielden, author James Frey, jewelry designer Monique Péan, skin-care guru Tata Harper, Blum & Poe partner Matt Bangser, “Chopped”-winning chef Silvia Baldini and British socialite Lexi Bowes-Lyon (cousin of William and Harry).
IN THE BLACK LIVES MATTER–INSPIRED LOVE STORY “QUEEN & SLIM,” NEW STAR JODIE TURNER-SMITH TAKES OUR BREATH AWAY.
When it was announced last year that Lena Waithe and Melina Matsoukas had tapped a relatively unknown Jodie Turner-Smith to star in their film Queen & Slim, playing opposite Daniel Kaluuya, fresh from his Oscar-nominated role in Get Out, the Internet began chattering about the striking British-Jamaican actress. Some remembered Turner-Smith from her star turn as Melantha Jhirl in SyFy’s Nightflyers and her appearance in Zayn Malik’s “Pillowtalk” video. But in Queen & Slim, directed by Matsoukas, written by Waithe from a story by James Frey, the actress is poised to make her mark as a leading lady.
In the flick, there’s a scene in which Turner-Smith glides slowly into frame after her uncle’s girlfriend-—played by Pose’s Indya Moore—takes out her braids so as to be less recognizable to the authorities chasing her. At Turner-Smith’s arrival, the audible gasp from the audience at an early screening dispelled any notion that the actress was someone who would shrink into the background. When the film hits theaters on November 27, viewers won’t be able to take their eyes off her.
Turner-Smith has a powerful presence. A captivating beauty whose sultry energy makes her a scene-stealer, she’s thoughtful when speaking. And while she began her career playing a siren on HBO’s True Blood and popped up in projects like TNT’s The Last Ship, it was only a year ago that she caught our attention in the adaptation of the George R. R. Martin novella Nightflyers.
Louvre exhibit acclaims Da Vinci, 500 years after his death
By CLAIRE PARKER
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Leonardo da Vinci during a visit at the Louvre museum Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019 in Paris. A unique group of artworks is displayed at the Louvre museum in addition to its collection of paintings and drawings by the Italian master. The exhibition opens to the public on Oct.24, 2019. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)
PARIS (AP) — Much about Leonardo Da Vinci remains an enigma: the smile of the “Mona Lisa”; why the world’s most famous painter left so many works unfinished; and more recently, who bought the contentious “Salvator Mundi.”
A new exhibit at the Louvre, however, opening Thursday and marking the 500th anniversary of the Italian master’s death, tries to sketch out as complete a picture of the artist and thinker as possible.
Drawing from the Louvre’s permanent collection and institutions around the world, the exhibit brings together some 160 works. They include Da Vinci masterpieces, dozens of studies and scientific sketches, and pieces by other artists in Da Vinci’s orbit. Visitors can also experience a virtual reality portion of the exhibit that delves into the story behind the “Mona Lisa.”
I was naked. So was Laura,” begins one dream of the more than 20,000 collected in G. William Domhoff’s DreamBank. “I was re-stringing an unvarnished electric bass, so I guess it was naked, too. At one point I put a screw in to secure a string, but then realized I wasn’t holding the bass but Laura…” The dream is one of many “naked” entries in the database, and Domhoff says dreams about being naked or exposed in public in ways that betray a fear of embarrassment are widely reported. But why?
Domhoff, a distinguished professor emeritus specializing in psychology at the University of California-Santa Cruz, has spent years collecting self-reported dreams in journals and laboratory settings, meticulously tagging and cataloguing each one. An outdoor setting, for example, is marked with an OU, a familiar character with a K, and physical activity with a P. Individual dreams can then be described with their own idiosyncratic combination of labeled elements. Domhoff calls this coding system “quantitative content analysis.” He’s concluded that at least some dreams have universal elements related to common human preoccupations and concerns.
The psychoanalysts have a vested interest in destroying my argument.
Some “typical” dreams long studied for their figurative meaning—such as dreams where you fly under your own power, or where your teeth fall out—don’t occur nearly as often as people think (flying dreams, for example, make up only about one-half of 1 percent of all dreams). But many people dream about being naked, or about physical journeys that might stand in for fraught everyday dilemmas, such as being thwarted in a quest for success. “We are walking down hall after hall,” one of the dreams in Domhoff’s database reads. “We are looking for a restaurant. We climb laboriously up ladders and get to a top floor to find out the restaurant is closed. I am upset and afraid of going back down.”
Lena Waithe moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in 2006. Photography by Lelanie Foster; styled by and wearing Richfresh; hair by Dominique Evans; makeup by Rebekah Aladdin
Lena Waithe says she moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in 2006 knowing she wanted to conquer it. And with 22 projects in active development with some of the biggest names in the business—including Amazon, BET, Disney, HBO, Netflix, Showtime and Universal—as well as a star-making turn on the Netflix series Master of None, which earned her an Emmy, she’s arguably done just that.
Season 3 of The Chi, a drama Waithe created for Showtime about the South Side of Chicago, is now in production. She did a food tour of L.A. with David Chang for his new Netflix limited series Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, premiering Oct. 23 (the show also features Chrissy Teigen and Kate McKinnon). And next month, she’s bringing her talents to the big screen with the film Queen & Slim, for which she penned the screenplay (it’s based on a story she wrote with author James Frey). The movie, about what happens to a couple on a first date after they get pulled over by the police, stars Jodie Turner-Smith and Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya in the title roles.
The soundtrack to the highly anticipated film “Queen & Slim” will be released by Motown on Nov. 15, it was announced today. The 17-song collection features new tracks from Ms. Lauryn Hill, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby, Vince Staples featuring 6lack X Mereba, Tiana Major 9 & EARTHGANG and Coast Contra featuring BJ The Chicago Kid and Syd. Classic songs by Roy Ayers, Bilal and Mike Jones can also be heard.
Starring Daniel Kaluuya, who was nominated for an Academy award for his role in Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” and Jodie Turner-Smith (“The Neon Demon”), “Queen & Slim” is a modern re-telling of Bonnie & Clyde that confronts race relations and police brutality in America. Melina Matsoukas (“Master of None,” “Insecure”) makes her feature directorial debut with the film. Lena Waithe, the first black woman to win the Emmy award for outstanding writing for a comedy series, is credited as a writer alongside James Frey, of “A Million Little Pieces” fame.
One brief song-snippet aside, Michael Stipe hasn’t released any music since his band R.E.M. broke up in 2011. That changes today. A few months ago, Stipe performed new solo songs called “Your Capricious Soul” and “Drive To The Ocean” during a surprise opening set for Patti Smith, and he reportedly has at least 16 other tracks ready to go. Today, to coincide with the “International Rebellion” climate justice protests this week, he’s sharing his official debut solo single.
That would be “Your Capricious Soul,” one of the songs he debuted back in May. Although it won’t be on any of the major streaming platforms, at least immediately, it is available for a pay-what-you-want donation (or for free) on Stipe’s website. The download comes with master-quality audio version of the song, its accompanying video by Sam Taylor-Johnson, a lyric sheet, a print-ready poster, a stencil, and an animated flip-book portrait. For the next 365 days, all proceeds from the song will go to Extinction Rebellion.
Basquiat Designed an Album Cover for a Grimy Punk-Ska Band 35 Years Ago. Now, a Limited Edition of the Album Is Being Reissued
Basquiat’s 1984 design for the cover of The Off’s First Record.
Originals of the record regularly sell for thousands of dollars, though oddly almost no one knows the band.
Basquiat’s 1984 design for the cover of The Off’s First Record.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was a music fanatic and wannabe drummer who before he hit superstardom as a visual artist often needed cash—fast. Sometimes the two worlds collided. Once was in 1981 when the young Basquiat agreed to design an album sleeve for his friends in the punk-ska band, The Offs, in exchange for $400, which his mother needed to pay her rent.
Basquiat’s design for the album, called simply First Record, included some of the earliest examples of motifs that would come to define his work—a cartoon-like, black-and-white totemic figure standing atop a triangular mound with a crown of thorns hovering above his head. The punk band’s name appears written in Basquiat’s signature scrawl in three spots. Today, original copies of the album sell for thousands of dollars.
Twenty-two years ago, Texas Monthly, the venerable “national magazine of Texas,” published a ranking of the state’s fifty best barbecue joints. The magazine had named the state’s best barbecue before, but the Top Fifty was an extraordinary feat of carnivorousness—a giant inventory of smoked meat, involving hundreds of meals and uncountable thousands of miles—and it became a phenomenon, on and off the newsstand. Regularly revised and updated in the years since, the list drives tourism both to and within the state, names and shapes trends, makes kings of newcomers, and topples long-established empires. So tremendous is Texans’ desire to read about barbecue, so essential is the food to the very notion of Texan-ness, that in 2013 Texas Monthly appointed the food writer and meat savant Daniel Vaughn to the freshly created role of barbecue editor.
This week, the magazine announced the creation of a new position to stand alongside its barbecue editor: beginning September 18th, José R. Ralat will become the magazine’s and the nation’s first taco editor. Ralat—who was born in Puerto Rico, grew up in New York City, and now lives in Dallas—has been something of a professional taco-eater for more than a decade, first writing taco reviews for the New York Press, and then, after decamping from Brooklyn to Texas, ten years ago, launching a weekly taco column with the Dallas Observer. He’s the author of the blog Taco Trail and, until the end of this week, the food and drink editor at the Dallas-based magazine Cowboys & Indians. His new role sounds like an office drone’s daydream: a full-time salary, plus benefits, just to wander around Texas and eat tacos? Sure thing, kid, dream on. But, as with its editorial commitment to barbecue, Texas Monthly considers this job to be not only serious business but essential Texas journalism: in a state where more than forty per cent of the population is Hispanic, including Mexican and Mexican-American residents, tacos are part of daily life, and key to Texan culinary identity.
I recently spoke with Ralat by phone about his new gig; in our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we also explored how to categorize burritos, why tacos are essentially Texan, and Ralat’s mission to correct the record on breakfast tacos.
s your child misbehaving? Well, if you’re a demented mother and father interested in traumatizing your little one for years to come, you can follow in the footsteps of a shocking number of other American parents and dial 407-734-0254—the phone number for Wrinkles the Clown, a Naples, Florida, creep who, for a small cash fee, will lurk around your kid until they get the message and straighten themselves out.
This is both not a joke and a hilarious gag, as detailed by Wrinkles the Clown (in theaters Oct. 4). Michael Beach Nichols’ simultaneously spooky and amusing documentary concerns the notorious circus weirdo, who became an internet sensation in 2015—and inspired a rash of nationwide copycat dangerous-clown sightings in 2016—thanks to a series of online videos (beginning with this one) and stickers featuring his name, face and phone number that he posted around his hometown. In an age of viral horror fads (Slenderman, Momo, etc.), Wrinkles, bolstered by local news coverage and, then, a 2015 story in TheWashington Post, was a standout star, not least because you could actually call him and either leave a voicemail or, if you were lucky, chat with the gruff, curt clown himself.
The cozy estate on the Wisconsin River called Taliesin, where Wright hosted Mamah and her kids, became the scene of their bloody massacre.Wisconsin Historical Society
On Aug. 15, 1914, Frank Lloyd Wright was overseeing the final stages of construction at Midway Gardens, a massive entertainment complex on the South Side of Chicago. John, the second of his six children, was helping out on the project, when his father went out to take a phone call.
When Wright came back, he looked shocked and had to lean on a table to keep from collapsing.
“What’s happened?” John asked.
The call had been from Wisconsin, where Wright had built an estate called Taliesin for himself and Mamah Borthwick, his mistress for the last five years. Her two children from her previous marriage were with her at the time.
“Taliesin is on fire,” Wright said. “Why did I leave them today? What if they’re hurt?”
Are you ready for a modern-day Black Bonnie and Clyde? Lena Waithe, the Emmy-winning screenwriter, already has everyone on the edge of their seats for Queen & Slim as she explains to Complex.
The film is “Bonnie & Clyde meets Thelma & Louis meets Set It Off. Waithe worked closely with writer James Frey as they adapted an original idea for the story. Universal Pictures will release Queen & Slim a romantic thriller film directed by Melina Matsoukas on November 27.
Had U.S. soldiers not fought in the trenches on the battlefields of the First World War more than 100 years ago, offensive and defensive linemen may not be doing battle in the trenches of NFL game fields today.
That’s one of the major takeaways from veteran Chicago sportswriter Chris Serb’s War Football: World War I and the Birth of the NFL, an impeccably researched work which details the time period during the Great War when football was being played at U.S. military bases at home and abroad by members of the Army, Navy and the Marines.
The majority of the players who took the field in those games, which were played against other bases as well as top colleges to raise money for the war effort, had played at the college level before WWI but had little chance at going pro after their service because a respectable professional league did not exist yet.
There were some semi-pro leagues at the time, but they were looked down upon by the general public, at least partially because they took the Sabbath in vain by playing on Sundays (the only day all factory employees generally had off).
“Before the war, pro football had such a negative connotation that a lot of players played under assumed names because they did not want to be associated did not want their mom to see that they were playing for the Columbus Panhandles, or whatever the team might be, on a Sunday,” Serb tells InsideHook. “They were factory workers, regular guys who might have been good high school football players, but did not have the means to go on to college. They went out and got jobs and still enjoyed playing football and the only time they could play, because they had six-day work weeks, was on Sundays.”
Once the war began, some of these semi-pros enlisted and subsequently joined up with military football teams, mixing on rosters with experienced collegiate players who had also joined up.
Though some of the pre-war semi-pro teams may have included a few guys who were relatively big names in college, the military teams which were assembled during WWI were football’s “first true All-Star teams,” according to Serb.
