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HOUSTON—The biggest names of the National Rifle Association’s annual gun show wouldn’t take the stage until mid-afternoon on Friday. B ut a young man with a vintage Make America Great hat, and a couple wearing matching “ULTRA MAGA” shirts, began camping out in the third-floor hallway of the convention center not long after 9 a.m. to guarantee themselves of prime seats for the star attraction: former president Donald Trump . The timing of this conference, the NRA ’s guns-palooza, is beyond perverse, coming just days after 19 students and 2 teachers were massacred by an 18-year-old wielding an AR-15 in Uvalde . By noon on Friday, a protest was in full-tilt across the street from the convention hall. D emonstrators for gun control held signs aloft with slogans like “NRA OWNS GOP.”  One listed the names of the children killed in their classroom on Tuesday, etched in black and blood red. “¡Asesinos!” yelled a man repeatedly into a megaphone, using the Spanish word for “killers.” … [Read more...] about From a Gun-Free Bubble, NRA Demands ‘More Guns’ To Limit Mass Shootings

George Shapiro , the deeply respected talent manager, producer and co-founder of Shapiro/West & Associates, died Thursday evening of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 91. Along with his partner and childhood friend Howard West, Shapiro was personal manager to comedy greats Jerry Seinfeld , Andy Kaufman and Carl Reiner , among others. He and West would go on to executive produce Seinfeld , one of the top comedy series of all time. Born in New York, Shapiro spent summers during his teenage years as a lifeguard at the Tamiment Resort in the Poconos, where he met performers like Dick Shawn, Pat Carroll and Carol Burnett, singer Barbara Cook, and choreographer Herb Ross. That’s when he also got to know talent agents. “These guys came up … I didn’t even know what an agent was, but they came to see the show, to talk to the girls, talk to the comedians,” said Shapiro in a past Television Academy Foundation interview. “I said, ‘This is your job? To … [Read more...] about George Shapiro Dies: Legendary Talent Manager & ‘Seinfeld’ Producer Was 91

A diet of rice and tofu, plenty of regular, gentle exercise and excellent hospitals: the Japanese have nailed the formula for getting old prolifically. With a little less than 30% of the population over 65, Japanese society is now officially termed as “super-aged.” Meanwhile, thanks to a low birth rate and an ingrained opposition to immigration, the total number of people is falling dramatically. Each year, there are fewer younger people to look after more older ones. It’s a slow-burn economic crisis. Of course, there is an obvious solution, unthinkable in real life but very much in working order in Chie Hayakawa ’s Plan 75 , which screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard . The plan of the title is a hypothetical government-funded program that merely offers seniors the chance to be bumped off quietly. It is never acknowledged to be a mass extermination program. On the contrary, it is entirely benevolent. There are little nudges along the way, it’s true. Those who … [Read more...] about Cannes Review: Chie Hayakawa’s ‘Plan 75’

For the past couple of years, a 23-year-old producer from the suburbs of Buenos Aires has been challenging the mainstream of Latin music, one viral YouTube video at a time. Known to the world as Bizarrap , Gonzalo Julián Conde is one of the most streamed Latin American artists in the world thanks to his BZRAP sessions and their exhilarating fusion of hip-hop, trap, and EDM. Every month a new session pops up, featuring some of the most intriguing MCs in Latin rap – from Argentina ’s L-Gante and Paulo Londra to Spain’s Ptazeta to San Jose, California-born Snow Tha Product to Puerto Rico’s Residente, whose Bizarrap freestyle made headlines this spring with its ruthless bars aimed at J Balvin. You only need to watch a couple of sessions to understand the rules of the game. There are 49 videos so far, numbered and posted in chronological order, each with a different rapper. Biza comes up with a backing track, then the guest MCs record vocals at the producer’s minimalist home … [Read more...] about Bizarrap: Meet the Mysterious Argentinean Producer Whose Viral Freestyle Videos Have the Whole World Talking

‘Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years in New York that Changed Music Forever,’ by Rolling Stone contributor Will Hermes and available today, chronicles the period between 1973-1978 during which punk, hip-hop, salsa and other revolutionary forms of popular music were born or reinvented. In this exclusive excerpt, Hermes tells the stories of three era-defining musical beginnings: the collaboration of punk pioneers Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, the early days of the New York Dolls and the legacy of jazz legend Sonny Rollins. Tom Miller was tripping his balls off on LSD in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. The next thing he knew, a week later, he was in New York City, crashing in a crappy East Village apartment with his old friend Richard Meyers. They were both 19 years old. They’d met at Sanford, a boarding school for ne’er-do-wells and other types near Wilmington. Meyers was raised in Lexington, Kentucky, a town shadowed by the Lexington Narcotics Farm rehab facility, … [Read more...] about Exclusive Book Excerpt: ‘Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years in New York that Changed Music Forever’

Getty Matthew McConaughey and some friendly pooches have touched down in Uvalde, TX -- but their presence alone won't fix what's become a major scandal on the slow police response. The actor is back in his hometown, where he's meeting with families and children affected by the massacre on Tuesday ... when 21 people were slaughtered by a crazed gunman, including 19 children who were wiped out in a classroom he'd barricaded himself in. This week was a solemn reminder that evil exists in the world, but we will never let it break us. We’ll unite to be an even more powerful reminder that love never fails & together we can change things. #UvaldeUnited pic.twitter.com/2LwZPbuVNX — Tony Gonzales (@TonyGonzales4TX) May 27, 2022 @TonyGonzales4TX Looks like he's with U.S. Congressman Tony Gonzalez -- representing Texas' 23rd district, encompassing Uvalde -- who posted some pics of their time together and thanked MMC. Shortly after the news broke, … [Read more...] about McConaughey & Uvalde Comfort Dogs Not Enough to Quell Outrage at Police