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☆ Cassie’s Suit Against Sean Combs May Cast Her Career in a New Light
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Joe Coscarelli | More About Joe Coscarelli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A second album was routinely teased in the press — with Combs touting her artistic development: “she’s really cocooned into a butterfly” — but never materialized. “I wanted to go all the way and kind of land in punk,” she said at the time. By 2012, with the release of the single “King of Hearts,” Ventura was still touting a comeback. It would be years before Ventura released music again. According to the singer’s lawsuit, on at least two occasions in 2009 and 2015, Combs beat her after seeing her speak to music managers at parties.

Persons: Combs, “ You’ve, Lil Wayne, Akon, Ventura, Cassie, “, ”, ” Ventura, “ I’m, “ It’s, Wiz Khalifa, Rick Ross, Meek, she’s Organizations: MTV, Interscope Records, Bad, Pitchfork

☆ The average price of a resale ticket for the Eras Tour was $3,801. That's up 2,321% from Taylor Swift's last tour.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Will Gendron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The average resale ticket price for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour has gone up 2,321% since her last tour. A ticket for the North American leg of the tour cost an average of $3,801 on the secondary market. The average secondary market price of a ticket to the North American leg of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour was $3,801 as of July 10, Pitchfork reported, using data from ticket analytics firm TicketIQ. That's a 2,321% increase from her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour, for which the average resale price in North America was $157. A fan in California purchased a ticket for $1,400 on the secondary market, only for the ticket to not exist.

Persons: Taylor, Taylor Swift, It's, Swift, Harry Styles, Swifties, StubHub Organizations: Pitchfork, North, Service, Ticketmaster, White, Live Locations: Wall, Silicon, That's, North America, California

☆ Taylor Swift is doing 6 shows in LA for her Eras tour. Mini-residencies could be her smartest business decision yet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour is set to break records, with some estimating it could gross $1.4 billion. Swift is set to take home hundreds of millions of dollars — and "mini-residencies" will help. There's no arguing that, when it comes to her Eras tour, Taylor Swift is polishing up real nice. This will likely be an immensely profitable tour for Swift no matter what, but thanks to one key business move, she's set to make even more. "The totality of Taylor Swifts' U.S. tour could generate $4.6 billion in total consumer spending, larger than the GDP of 35 countries," the Common Sense Institute estimated.

Persons: Taylor, Swift, She's, Taylor Swift, she's, Nathan Hubbard, Harry Styles, Hubbard, That's, wouldn't Organizations: Swift, Ticketmaster, Firebird, Kia Forum, Las, Federal Reserve, Pitchfork, Taylor Swifts Locations: Los Angeles, Toronto, San Diego, Ottawa, New, Covid, Las Vegas, Louis, Phoenix, Nashville, Chicago, Kansas City , Missouri, Philadelphia, U.S

☆ Mahogany L. Browne's Love Letter to Hip-Hop
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Mahogany L. Browne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Latto, “Put It on da Floor Again” (2023)The video for this song featured, among others, the L.S.U. ), Lil’ Kim shot to stardom with her debut solo single, “No Time,” which was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Benzino, “Rock The Party” ft. Mario Winans (2002)Might this be the only rap single recorded by a magazine mogul to hit the Billboard charts? The rapper Benzino, real name Raymond Leon Scott, was a co-owner of the iconic hip-hop magazine The Source. Benzino, “Rock The Party” ft. Mario Winans (2002)I’m a boss in a skirt, I’m a flirt.

Persons: Warren G, Tupac Shakur, Michael McDonald’s “, Lil Wayne, Lil Wayne’s “ Tha Carter, phenom, Rip, Angel Reese, “, ”, MC Lyte, Sean “ Diddy ” Combs, Missy Elliott, Slick Rick, Slick Rick’s, Eric B, Momma, Miss Ivana, Lil ’ Kim, Charlie Wilson, Big Sean, Mario Winans, Benzino, Raymond Leon Scott, Anna Wintour, spinnin, I’m, York ” Organizations: New, Tigers, Party, Public, Biz, Recording Industry Association of America, Pitchfork, YG, VH1 Locations: New Orleans, Manhattan, :, York

☆ Behold, the Orb: I can't stop thinking about Sam Altman's dystopian eyeball-scanning device
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The orbs, shiny sculptural spheres that scan the eyeballs of new members, seem to have become the company's dystopian symbol. But Worldcoin's Orbs look more like inscrutable machines than something mythological. Worldcoin has said it has emphasized privacy in designing a system based on extracting eyeball scans. And the eyeball scans get erased, according to Worldcoin. Worldcoin has said that "World IDs" don't contain any eyeball scans or iris data.

Persons: Sam Altman's, Worldcoin, Sam Altman trumpeted, Alex Blania, Donald Trump, Tim Sweeney, It's Organizations: Twitter, Epic, pitchfork, MIT Technology Locations: Lisbon, Singapore, Sands, Miami, Tokyo

☆ Music for (Waiting in) Airports
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Dear listeners,If you’re anything like me, you’ve already spent way too much of this summer in airports. In the mid-1970s, he got the idea for one of his most enduring works during a long, stressful flight delay at an airport in Cologne, Germany. He began experimenting with this concept, and it eventually led to the gorgeous and indefatigably useful “Music for Airports” (1978), his first declared work of what he called “ambient” music. I’m not saying your flight delay needs to be as productive as Eno’s; I won’t judge if you fail to conceive an entirely new genre of music before boarding ends. But if you still need something to listen to when it’s done, there’s always “Music for Airports.” (And Jon Pareles’s playlist of Eno’s 15 best ambient tracks.)

Persons: you’ve, Brian Eno, I’m, Liz Phair, John Denver, it’s, there’s, Jon Pareles’s Organizations: Airports ”, Pitchfork, Music, Airports Locations: Cologne, Germany

☆ Rick Froberg, Singer of Artful Intensity, Is Dead at 55
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Mike Rubin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rick Froberg, the vocalist and guitarist best known for his work with the influential 1990s post-hardcore band Drive Like Jehu, whose urgent howl was one of rock’s most distinctive voices, died on June 30 in San Diego. Mr. Froberg, a beloved linchpin of the San Diego underground music scene that flourished in the 1980s and ’90s, sang in a raspy roar that segued smoothly between snarl and scream. Mr. Froberg particularly loved the gnarled growls of the Australian vocalists Bon Scott of AC/DC — his favorite band — and Chris Bailey of the proto-punk Saints, and he strived to follow them, Mr. Reis said. They bonded immediately and soon joined up in Pitchfork, with Mr. Froberg on vocals. The band was inspired, Mr. Reis said, by the noisy music being issued at the time on independent labels like Dischord, Touch & Go and SST.

Persons: Rick Froberg, Britton Neubacher, Froberg, ”, John Reis, Froberg’s, Bon Scott, Chris Bailey, Reis, “ Organizations: Pitchfork, DC Locations: San Diego

☆ ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ Is Updated for a New Generation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Frank Rojas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He continued, “This song was omnipresent in that era, but in a way where it crept through the cracks of pop culture. “It’s interesting to see what he referenced from the ’50s and ’60s and what he didn’t. “I think every generation gets their own ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire,’” Mr. Gerber said. I think a lot of people actually hated the song at the time. So it’s funny, because I’m also seeing a lot of people criticizing the song thinking it’s ridiculous, but it’s also just a ridiculous song to begin with.”

Persons: Wentz, Billy Joel’s, ”, ” Brady Gerber, ’, Mr, Gerber, “, I’m, it’s Organizations: Pitchfork Locations: New York

☆ Some fans have turned on Lana Del Rey. Here's a complete timeline of how the singer soured her own reputation.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Callie Ahlgrim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +32 min

May 2020: Del Rey posted an unprompted public statement about her own reputationIt all began on May 21, four months after she attended the 2020 Grammys, when Del Rey shared a lengthy open letter on Instagram. —Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021—Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021Hardly one to stifle momentum, Del Rey also responded to the Australian blog Tone Deaf, which had published an article criticizing the defense of her album cover. —Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021—Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021Del Rey continued tweeting about her BBC interview, clarifying that she meant to criticize Trump's "significant lack of empathy" and "the issue of sociopathy and narcissism in America." Advertisement—Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021—Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021She also expressed disdain for negative publicity, citing her "long term relationship" with magazines like Complex and Rolling Stone, calling the former "pathetic." June 24, 2023: Del Rey arrived 30 minutes late to the stage at Glastonbury, telling the crowd, 'My hair takes so long to do'Lana Del Rey performs at Glastonbury Festival.

Persons: Lana Del Rey, Del Rey, —, Norman, Rockwell, Del Rey's, Del, she's, Ariana, Camila, Cardi, Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, Lizzy Grant, Fader, Helen Brown, Brown, Christine Capetola, Lana, Ashley Reese, YouTuber D'Angelo Wallace, Lana Del, that's, Karen, Wallace, Nichole Perkins, Roxane Gay, Ariana Grande, Cat, Pence, It's, Magdalene, George Floyd, Kehlani, Tinashe, Violet, Noble, lana, frick, preemptively, I'm, Annie Mac, Trump, Donald Trump, Lana stans, Mac, Biden, I've, tweeting, Trump's, Steven Hyden, Ann Powers, Powers, they'd, Judah Smith, megachurch Churchome, Smith, Jack Antonoff, God, desirs, Marie Claire, Chris Pratt, Justin Bieber, Judah, Coleman Spilde, Joseph Okpako, WireImage Del, who's, Let's Organizations: Service, Pitchfork, Independent, Tulane, Trump, Twitter, Country, Billboard, Barnes, CDC, ppl, Michigan, YouTube, Capitol, NPR, Hall of Fame, BBC, Hillsong, Daily, Catholic Church, Glastonbury, Glastonbury Festival Locations: Los Angeles, America, Del Rey's, Del Rey, Churchome, y'all, WireImage Del Rey, Glastonbury

☆ Brawling with elite, Russian mercenary boss wishes politician shot
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"During the 1941-45 war, which is now being repeated, Stalin simply shot people like you. I think we're going to return to those times soon," he told Sverdlovsk governor Yevgeny Kuivashev, according to his press service. Earlier this week, he accused various regional governors of refusing to bury Wagner fighters with military honours, labelling them as lawless, corrupt bureaucrats. From eastern Ukraine, Prigozhin replied that he had stopped being a businessman a year ago and was now devoting his life to leading his fighters. "There is a ceiling (of growth) and mechanisms in place," said the source, who declined to provide more details.

☆ Ditching noncompete clauses would be a win for workers' rights and employees in low-wage jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Marguerite Ward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Noncompetes prevent some workers in low-wage jobs from leaving for better opportunities. If the FTC succeeds in banning noncompete clauses, it can be an important win for low-wage workers and a pivotal moment in the push for workplace equity, advocates for the change say. Annabelle Chih/Getty ImagesCritics point out that many workers subject to noncompete language aren't high-profile executives who've amassed trade secrets — they're average workers. In 2015, The Verge reported on Amazon's use of noncompete agreements for warehouse workers. "Noncompete agreements help artificially stifle competition in the labor market, allowing employers to keep wages low by limiting workers' employment options," Constant wrote.

☆ Scott Galloway looked at 100 charts on US inequality for his new book. America is adrift, but here's why he's optimistic.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

NYU professor Scott Galloway spoke to Paul Constant about his book "Adrift: America in 100 Charts." Galloway says we need to bring back the middle class, but there's still hope for the US. This process offered him several important new insights into the decaying of the American middle class — and a surprising sign of optimism for the future. Galloway believes America has been its own worst enemy, with outsized political division keeping us from solving the problem of inequality. "First you have to acknowledge that the middle class is an accident, and it's not self-sustaining," Galloway said.

☆ If the Biden administration doesn't step in to block the $25 billion Kroger-Albertsons merger, it will be devastating for shoppers and grocery-store workers — while the rich shareholders will get rich
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Last month, Kroger announced a $25 billion deal to merge with grocery chain Albertsons. During the pandemic last year, local city councils in Long Beach and Seattle passed "hero pay" laws requiring grocery stores to pay their public-facing workers $4 extra per hour. Last month, Kroger announced a $25 billion deal to merge with Albertsons, another major national grocery chain. In the press release announcing the merger, Kroger promised that the consolidation would result in lower prices for customers and better compensation and benefits for workers. But the larger Kroger-Albertsons merger is still on track to conclude in 2024, unless the Biden administration steps in to stop it.

☆ Google has a secretive project that could reduce the need for human engineers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Today, we've got the details on Elon Musk walking back perks at Twitter, and news on a secretive project at Google. Google has a secretive new project that teaches code to write itself. In this case, the goal is to reduce the need for humans to write and update code, while maintaining code quality. It later moved into Google Labs — a transition that signaled its increased importance to leaders, with Google Labs pursuing long-term bets. Elon Musk put an end to some Twitter perks.

☆ Google has a secret new project that is teaching artificial intelligence to write and fix code. It could reduce the need for human engineers in the future.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google is working on a tool that teaches code to write and rewrite itself. The project was spun up at the company's moonshot unit X, and moved into Google Labs this year. Google is working on a secretive project that uses machine learning to train code to write, fix, and update itself. It could have profound implications for the company's future and developers who write code. Google Labs pursues long-term bets, including projects in virtual and augmented reality.

☆ Patrick Haggerty, trailblazing gay country star, dies at 78
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —When Patrick Haggerty was gearing up to record his very first country music album, he had a choice to make. He chose the latter, and 1973’s “Lavender Country,” Haggerty’s first album recorded under the same name, is now widely considered the first country album recorded by an out gay musician. He became a country music star after all. That call with Greaves was the first step to reintroducing Haggerty and Lavender Country to new listeners, many of whom had been hungry for an out gay country star. “My life changed completely and forever that day.”He became a country star his wayAs more people heard “Lavender Country” and learned Haggerty’s story, his contributions to country music were acknowledged and appreciated more widely.

☆ Conservatives love to blame America's housing crisis on Democrats. An economist explains the true reason behind it and why it extends beyond political parties.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He recently spoke with economist and author Jenny Schuetz about the housing crisis. Pundits love to blame permissive social policies for the disrepair that they highlight, but the truth is that rural America — including many red areas — is facing the same problems of skyrocketing crime, housing costs, and homelessness. Schuetz said that a true solution to our housing crisis requires the passage of policy solutions at the federal, state, and local level. An overly regulated market and a broken tax codeBringing housing costs down and home supply up starts with stripping power from zoning boards. When the majority of homeowners and homebuyers treat housing as the foundation of their wealth, as opposed to one of the most basic human needs, the housing market behaves more like an investment market.

☆ Art Laboe, beloved California DJ who popularized ‘oldies but goodies,’ dies at 97
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Laboe died on Friday after a short bout of pneumonia, his spokesperson Joanna Morones confirmed to CNN. Laboe helped desegregate Southern CaliforniaLaboe, born Arthur Egnoian, started DJing in 1943 as a teenager, he said in an interview with the Orange County Register. Most recently, he hosted “The Art Laboe Connection” on station KDAY. In September, the 79th anniversary of Laboe’s radio debut, the nonprofit station dublab flipped the script on Laboe and sent dedications to him. Over an hour and a half, fans called in to give Laboe songs (and kisses): One requested “18 With a Bullet” because Laboe played it for her when she turned 18.

“It’s fascinating how people seek queerness — and where they seek queerness,” Fuller added. Murnau’s “Faust” and “Nosferatu,” such moments of levity keep viewers engaged while they’re soaking up early Hollywood’s rich queer history. “Whether you’re ideologically queer or sexually queer, you might relate to the monster’s narrative, because you, too, have felt ‘outsidered’ or villainized in some way.” Bryan fuller, 'queer for fear' executive producer“The Dracula costume kit is basically drag. So this, to me, is the experience of being a gay man.”As Alaska’s assessment demonstrates, “Queer for Fear” isn’t interested in just exploring how horror has provided a haven for queer creatives. Because of the Hays Code, LGBTQ creators and those, like Hitchcock, who wanted to include those themes had to do so through subtext, which counterintuitively gave birth to some of the most essential queer horror ever made.

☆ Ukrainians flee from Russian annexation - while they still can
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Jonathan Landay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

As Russia prepares to annex a swathe of Ukrainian territory the size of Portugal after staging what it calls referendums in four provinces, hundreds of Ukrainians escaped through the last Russian checkpoint. For now, Russian forces have been letting some people out of occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces through the one checkpoint. The biggest fear is that fighting-aged men will be press-ganged into Russian forces once Moscow declares the territory to be Russia. With public schools ordered to switch to the Russian curriculum and classes in Russian next month, she did not want her 13-year-old son Bogdan returning to the local school. Kyiv and Western countries call the exercise a complete sham, aimed at justifying the annexation of territory seized by force.

☆ If you don't want a recession, stop talking about it
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-20 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Every recession in the 20th and 21st century has followed predictable metrics — spending drops, unemployment rises, and manufacturing slows down. If you examine the economy with rising prices in mind, it looks like we're in a recession. Since the word is on everyone's lips, it's important that we hammer down the meaning of a recession. That said, we live in uncertain times, and nobody can predict whether or not a recession is imminent. Are Americans spending enough money to ensure that the service economy continues to add jobs?

☆ How the Inflation Reduction Act Could Help Normal Americans
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-05 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Interest rates are rising as the Federal Reserve attempts to combat inflation by slowing down the economy. In response, Democrats are pushing the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to address the inflation crisis in a new way. It's a catchy name that's garnered a lot of media attention, but the political risks of tying the bill directly to the inflation crisis could damage the Democratic Party in the midterm elections. A growing number of economists believe that because the current inflation crisis was inspired by both pandemic-related supply-chain issues and runaway corporate greed, the Fed's actions are unnecessary and will cause an avoidable recession. In order to study its effects, we need to explore what's in the Inflation Reduction Act.

☆ Raising interest rates won't fix the real reason behind inflation: price-gouging and corporate greed
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-26 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Mabud said the Fed raising interest rates won't combat corporate price-gouging. And Rakeen Mabud, the chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, joined "Pitchfork Economics" to identify the second inflationary pressure on top of the pandemic: corporate greed. "Three ocean shippers control pretty much all of the ocean shipping in the entire supply chain," Mabud said. Trucking has become a job of "such rock-bottom quality that nobody wants" to do it, she said, "which, ultimately, is another weak point in our supply chain." The Fed's interest hikes likely won't address any of Mabud's concerns about corporate greed and price-gouging.

☆ Economic policy is full of false assumptions that benefit the wealthy and undercut average Americans — just look at how CEOs are paid
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-19 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Recently, he spoke with author Tom Bergin about the problem with CEOs acting like shareholders. A 2021 study found that typical CEO compensation has risen 1,322% since 1978, while worker compensation over that same time only increased by 18%. The problem with CEOs behaving as shareholdersThe National Bureau of Economic Research reports that in 1980, stock options were rarely included in CEO compensation. When they were a part of the compensation package, average stock options rarely made up even 20% of the total direct pay for CEOs. But today, according to Lawrence Mischel from the Economic Policy Institute, "Stock-related compensation comprises around 85% of CEO compensation."

☆ Congress treats the Congressional Budget Office like a crystal ball for legislation, but one economist says their models are built on flawed assumptions
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-12 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In a recent episode, he spoke with economist Mark Paul about the role of the Congressional Budget Office. They run these economic models that I think are the most important policy models out there." The CBO's models are built from flawed assumptions that don't necessarily reflect how legislation might actually behave in the real world. "In the economics literature, what we find is that on average public investment is at least as productive as private investment — and often more so," Paul said. "In fact, there's this really well-known review that shows that public investment is 50% more productive on average than private investment."

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