MANILA, Philippines—Olsen Racela has stepped down as Far Eastern University’s head coach after five seasons. The school announced Racela’s resignation on Thursday just a month after the Tamaraws failed to make the Final Four in the recently-concluded UAAP Season 85 men’s basketball tournament. FEU missed the Final Four for the first time since 2012. The […]
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Last year’s pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics cost 20 percent more than the final figure reported by the organizing committee, according to an analysis by Japan’s audit board. A report issued late Wednesday found the Games cost 1.7 trillion yen ($12.9 billion), up from the 1.42 trillion yen reported by Tokyo 2020 earlier this year. The audit […]
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Kate Bush has shared her hopes for an end to the conflict in Ukraine in her 2022 Christmas message.
READ MORE: Kate Bush’s best on-screen syncs – from Stranger Things to ‘Being Human’
The singer, who called for a pay rise for doctors and nurses in her 2021 Christmas message, has shared a new post on her website titled ‘Merry Christmas’, in which she reflects on how life has continued to be “incredibly frightening” after the pandemic.
“Every year seems to fly by a little faster. They say this happens as you get older, but there’s no doubt that the speed of life is accelerating at a greater rate than ever,” she opened the message.
“I don’t think any of us have ever known a year like this one. Life became incredibly frightening in the pandemic, but just as we think it might be over soon, it seems to keep going.
Kate Bush in the 1970s. Credit: Chris Walter/WireImage
“It’s a bombardment,” she continued, “the horrific war in Ukraine, the famines, the droughts, the floods… and we lost our Queen. Many of my friends were surprised at how upset they were at her death especially as we aren’t royalists, but I think her passing became a focus for grief, for unexpressed loss that so many people had felt during the pandemic.”
The singer also reflected on the renewed popularity of her 1985 single ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ after it appeared in the fourth season of Stranger Things, going on to break three Guinness World Records and as well as being the most-streamed song on the planet at one point.
“It’s been a crazy, roller coaster year for me. I still reel from the success of RUTH, being the No 1 track of this summer,” Bush continued. “What an honour! It was really exciting to see it doing so well globally, but especially here in the UK and Australia; and also to see it making it all the way to No 3 in the US. It was such a great feeling to see so many of the younger generation enjoying the song. It seems that quite a lot of them thought I was a new artist! I love that!”
She also thanked everyone who “supported the track and made it a hit”.
The message continued: “I wonder where on earth we’ll all be at the end of next year? I hope the war will end. I hope that the nurses will be in a position where they are appreciated – they should be cherished. Let’s all hope that next year will be better than this one. I keep thinking about hope and how it was the last to fly out of Pandora’s box. Sometimes it’s all that seems to glow in the dark times we find ourselves in right now.”
Bush concluded: “I used a little robin in some of my Christmas gifts to friends this year. I felt that this humble little bird, which symbolises Christmas could also symbolise hope in the context of Emily Dickinson’s beautiful words: Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.
“I‘d like to think that this Christmas when joy is so hard to find, hope will perch in all our souls. Merry Christmas!”
Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ was among the most streamed songs in the UK this year, also ranking number six in the Top 10 most popular songs in the UK on TikTok for 2022.
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The Madison Square Garden group of venues has been using facial recognition technology to remove lawyers who are in the process of suing them from events.
As reported in Rolling Stone, the venue have been using the technology to identify lawyers present at any of their New York venues, and removing them if they work for a firm that is in the process of suing MSG.
Confirming the tactic, a representative for Madison Square Garden Entertainment said: “MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes attorneys from firms pursuing active litigation against the Company from attending events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved. While we understand this policy is disappointing to some, we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an inherently adversarial environment.”
The report details that among the lawyers to have been removed from MSG shows include Grant & Eisenhofer employee Barbara Hart, who was asked to leave a Brandi Carlile gig with her husband, and Davis, Saperstein and Solomon employee Kelly Conlon, who was kicked out of a show at affiliated venue Radio City Music Hall.
Both Hart and Conlon’s firms are in the process of pursuing legal cases against MSG, but neither lawyer is directly involved themselves.
Madison Square Garden. Credit: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images.
Evan Greer of organisation Fight For The Future opposes the tactic, telling Rolling Stone: “This is the perfect example to show that these tools can be used in ways that are really alarming.
“In some ways, this is kind of an innocuous case — it’s not like [Conlon] was arrested. But the reality is that this was a corporation with what amounts to a petty grievance, using a deeply invasive surveillance apparatus in a way that left a mom sitting outside while her kid went into a concert.”
Last year, Kathleen Hanna and Tom Morello were among a number of musicians protesting new Amazon palm scanners at music venues.
The technology, recently implemented “as a form of “convenient” ticketless entry” at a number of US venues including the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, is “an example of biometric data collection, and could turn Red Rocks into the site of ICE raids, police violence, and false arrests,” the letter states.
“Palm scans and other forms of biometric data collection, like facial recognition, are tools of state violence,” Siena Mann of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition added in a press release. “Once the databases are created, police and DHS will find ways to access them.”
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Journey‘s Neal Schon has filed a cease and desist to his bandmate Jonathan Cain over a performance at Donald Trump‘s Mar-A-Lago resort.
Last month, Cain performed the band’s iconic hit ‘Don’t Stop Believin” at the Florida complex with politicians and Trump acolytes Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Kari Lake.
In a letter to Cain – whose wife Paula White-Cain is a former spiritual advisor to Trump – Schon’s lawyer wrote (via The Guardian): “Although Mr. Cain is free to express his personal beliefs and associations, when he does that on behalf of Journey or for the band, such conduct is extremely deleterious to the Journey brand as it polarises the band’s fans and outreach. Journey is not, and should not be, political.
“Mr. Cain’s unauthorised affiliation of Journey with the politics of Donald Trump has the band’s fans up in arms, as is demonstrated by a sample of the attached emails and Twitter comments.
“This has caused, and continues to cause, irreparable harm to the Journey brand, its fan base and earning potential, especially in light of the forthcoming tour.”
“Mr. Cain has no right to use Journey for politics…” the letter added. “He should not be capitalising on Journey’s brand to promote his personal political or religious agenda to the detriment of the band.”
In response, Cain said: “Schon is just frustrated that he keeps losing in court and is now falsely claiming the song has been used at political rallies.”
Former US President Donald Trump speaks during an event at his Mar-a-Lago home on November 15, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida CREDIT: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
This new development is far from the first legal battle within Journey. Schon sued Cain last month over allegations that he was refused access to the band’s credit card, with Cain responding by alleging that Schon added over $1million (£830,000) in personal expenses to the card in question.
Also, Steve Perry, who fronted Journey from 1977 to 1998 and sang on many of their most well-known hits, is attempting to stop his former bandmates from owning trademarks to the names of some of the band’s biggest songs.
As Billboard reports, Journey’s two biggest mainstays – Schon and Cain – hold the trademarks to many of the band’s hits, including ‘Anyway You Want It’, ‘Wheel In The Sky’ and ‘Open Arms’, through their Freedom JN LLC company.
The trademarks covers the use of those titles on merchandise such as T-shirts, hoodies and other apparel, making it easier for Schon and Cain to sue anyone infringing the trademark by selling items bearing those titles.
However, in a petition filed by Perry to the US Patent and Trademark Office on September 11, the singer argued that Schon and Cain’s trademark goes against a partnership agreement the trio signed requiring unanimous consent for any business relating to the trademarked songs, and that he had not provided that consent. As such, he has asked the agency to invalidate 20 of the pair’s trademark registrations.
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MANILA, Philippines—Filipino guard SJ Belangel and the Daegu KOGAS Pegasus’ losing trend continued in the Korean Basketball League on Wednesday. Daegu dropped its third consecutive game, falling to defending champions Seoul SK Knights, 78-73, at Daegu Gymnasium. Belangel, the former Ateneo standout, came off the bench and scored 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the […]
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Brazilian football great Pele will spend Christmas in hospital, his medical team and family said Wednesday, as he receives treatment for worsening cancer as well as kidney and heart problems. The 82-year-old “requires greater care related to renal and cardiac dysfunctions,” said the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo. It also reported a “progression” of […]
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Blockberry Creative has issued a brand-new statement addressing recent controversies as well as announcing changes to LOONA’s upcoming record ‘The Origin Album: 0’.
READ MORE: From rookies on the rise to raved-about reunions, here’s a look back at K-pop in 2022
The South Korean music label published the new statement earlier today (December 22) via news outlet My Daily, announcing that ‘The Origin Album: 0’ will be indefinitely postponed. “First, we would like to apologise for worrying LOONA fans due to various events surrounding our company. We also sincerely apologise to the public for causing fatigue due to the situation,” the statement read, as translated by Koreaboo.
“As a result of listening to the opinions of Orbit and many people, we have decided that comeback activities are meaningless as various concerns about the members’ situation are not resolved,” explained the company. “Therefore, the new album, ‘The Origin Album: 0’, which was scheduled to release on January 3, 2023, will be postponed indefinitely.”
Blockberry Creative then went on to explain its financial position with regards to LOONA’s debut and subsequent activities as a group. “LOONA is a project that took a lot of effort over a long period of time. Because it was a long-term and significant project that required a lot of investment and money compared to a typical idol group, the results that appeared on the surface were often less revealed than we tried.”
The label claimed that with LOONA, there was an “endless need for expenses that a small to medium-sized agency could not easily afford”. Blockberry Creative then wrote that it “felt sorry to the members who could not generate profit for a long time”, calling the process of achieving success for LOONA a “near-impossible task… without any promise of reaching a break-even point”. It then added that this year marked the first time in “six years after starting the first debut project” that it has “finally discovered the light of hope”.
In Blockberry Creative’s conclusion, it wrote that “regardless of the success or failure of the series of attempts we made as a small company, we are proud that the challenge alone marked a milestone in the history of K-pop”. “Of course, all the problems stemmed from our company’s inadequacies, and we should take responsibility for it, but we can’t stop working to protect LOONA and achieve our dreams together,” the closing sentences of the statement read.
While Blockberry Creative’s statement did not go into the specifics regarding the exact circumstances that led to the postponement of ‘The Origin Album: 0’, it comes after a string of controversy surrounding the company and LOONA, after it removed Chuu from the group due to alleged “violent language and misuse of power” towards company staff. Chuu has since broken her silence regarding her expulsion from the band, writing on Instagram that she “[hasn’t] done anything that would be shameful to [her] fans”.
Shortly after news of Chuu’s removal from LOONA went public, it was reported that 9 out of LOONA’s 11 remaining members – excluding ViVi and Hyunjin – had filed injunctions in order to suspend their contracts with the company. Blockberry Creative subsequently denied these reports, calling them “groundless”.
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Day four of Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin‘s 2022 ‘Hannukah Sessions’ sees the pair welcome Grohl’s daughter Violet for a cover of Janis Ian – watch below.
The 2022 instalment marks the third year of ‘Hanukkah Sessions’, which Grohl and Kurstin started back in 2020 in the latter’s home studio. So far, it has featured a cover of ‘Spinning Wheel’ by Blood, Sweat & Tears with Judd Apatow on vocals, a version of Pink’s ‘Get The Party Started’ with the singer herself, and a 10cc cover with Inara George.
For the fourth entry of the year, Violet Grohl sings ‘At Seventeen’, an age she herself will reach in just a few months time.
Watch footage of the performance below.
For this year’s ‘Hannukah Sessions’, the songs were recorded during a secret show in Los Angeles earlier this month, where Grohl and Kurstin performed nine songs in front of a live audience.
The December 5 ‘Hanukkah Sessions’ live recording featured a number of musical guests, with Beck, Tenacious D, Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O, Inara George and Grohl’s daughter Violet making appearances. The covers included ‘The Spirit Of Radio’ by Rush, Randy Newman‘s ‘I Love L.A.’ and David Lee Roth‘s ‘Just A Gigolo’, among others.
2020 saw the ‘Hannukah Sessions’ kick off, with covers of Drake, the Beastie Boys, Peaches, Bob Dylan, Mountain, Elastica, The Knack and The Velvet Underground.
Last year, the series returned with covers of songs by Billy Joel, Van Halen, Barry Manilow, Lisa Loeb, the Ramones, Amy Winehouse, The Clash and KISS. Both seasons are available to stream on digital platforms.
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This past Wednesday, 21 Savage held his annual Grant-A-Wish event in Georgia, allowing dozens of local families to pick up free gifts during the holiday season. While attending the event, the “a lot” rapper was granted his own day while also being recognized for his philanthropy.
Per TMZ, 21 Savage was hands-on at the event, helping to distribute the wrapped gifts to different families along with his Leading By Example Foundation.
Billy Mitchell, a Georgia State Representative, took time during the holiday occasion to officially declare December 21st as “21 Savage Day.” The two also posed for a photo along with a signed certificate.
Proving to be a busy year for the rapper, 21 Savage dropped Her Loss in November, the popular joint mixtape with Drake. The album quickly snagged the number one spot on the Billboard 200 album chart and went viral with hits like “Rich Flex.”
The 30-year-old was also featured on a string of singles in 2022, including Gunna’s “thought i was playing” and Calvin Harris’ “New Money.”
ATLANTA, GA – OCTOBER 19: Drake and 21 Savage perform during Wicked (Spelhouse Homecoming Concert) Featuring 21 Savage at Forbes Arena at Morehouse College on October 19, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/Wireimage)
Last month, the London-born emcee found himself in hot water after claiming that Nas is no longer relevant on Clubhouse. “I just feel like he got a loyal fan base. He still makes good music,” he added.
Not long after, the New York rapper announced that he was collaborating with 21 Savage on the single “One Mic, One Gun.” Promoting the song on Instagram, Nas also made it clear that there was no bad blood between the two.
“Only way we moving is with love, respect and unity. The foundational principles of hip hop. Excited to collaborate with my young brother and I hope more artist use turbulent moments and turn them into a time to make new art,” he penned, adding, “ That’s what it’s about.”
[Via]
Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray, De’Aaron Fox and Harrison Barnes combined for 91 points, Domantas Sabonis logged a triple-double and the Sacramento Kings pulled away from the visiting Los Angeles Lakers in the middle two periods for a 134-120 victory Wednesday night. Huerter led the way with 26 points, followed by Murray with 23, Fox with […]
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