Month: September 2021

Indie-rock heroes Pavement — aka Mark Ibold, Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg, Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich, and Steve West — have announced a 2022 reunion tour through the UK and Europe, kicking off next June with a previously announced headlining set at Primavera Sound in Barcelona. This is the band’s first string of tour dates since 2010 and will also include a residency at Roundhouse in London.

In March 2020, before the pandemic set in and music festivals had to be canceled or rescheduled, Malkmus opened up about reuniting with Pavement at Primavera, telling NPR, “Well, it feels really exciting to get back up on that stage. You know, we’re playing at a festival in Spain. That’s all that’s planned for… I can’t deny that I would like to keep the Pavement dialogue in people’s minds because we put a lot of labor into it and a lot of love… Maybe it can be brought in context better.”

Check out the tour dates below.

06/02/2022 — Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
06/10/2022 — Porto, Portugal @ NOS Primavera Sound
10/17/2022 — Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy Leeds
10/18/2022 — Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
10/19/2022 — Edinburgh, UK @ Usher Hall
10/20/2022 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
10/22/2022 — London, UK @ Roundhouse
10/23/2022 — London, UK @ Roundhouse
10/24/2022 — London, UK @ Roundhouse
10/25/2022 — London, UK @ Roundhouse
10/27/2022 — Paris, FR @ Le Grand Rex
10/29/2022 — Copenhagen, DK @ Vega
10/30/2022 — Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene
10/31/2022 — Stockholm, SE @ Cirkus
11/02/2022 — Aarhus, DK @ VoxHall
11/04/2022 — Bremen, DE @ Pier 2
11/05/2022 — Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom
11/07/2022 — Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal
11/08/2022 — Amsterdam, NL @ Royal Carré Theater
11/10/2022 — Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street

Every now and then, someone (or a group of people) will dress up like umpires and sit behind home plate at a baseball game and get really into the action. An example from a few years back during a game in San Francisco between the Giants and the New York Mets:

There must be something about the Mets that lead to people doing this bit, because on Tuesday night, someone decided to wear a costume to their game against the Miami Marlins and hang out behind home plate and have a good time. The catch here was that the fan did not head to, uh, the umpire store and pick up the necessary equipment to pull of an Angel Hernandez fit.

Instead, this person hit up their local Party City or those stores that pop up in spaces that used to belong to a Circuit City in the 1990s in a mall and now become Halloween stores once a year and picked up a Cinnamon Toast Crunch costume.

The best moment did not come from the person in the costume doing anything particularly silly — well, beyond the mere fact that they dressed up like this and went to a game the Mets won, 9-4. Instead, that came when New York’s broadcast team wondered just what the heck was going on and legendary play-by-play man Gary Cohen thought this was SpongeBob.

I suppose you can see how Cohen got to that point, but regardless, it is very funny that he mixed up a cartoon character and a single individual piece of a cereal.

This article originally appeared on 11.23.16

With Donald Trump threatening to reverse Roe v. Wade upon taking office, the need to defend women’s reproductive rights has never been more urgent. As other writers have pointed out, pro-life fanatics have the power of positive connotation on their side and use this advantage to demean the valid arguments of pro-choice advocates.

I mean, who would ever claim to be in opposition to life? Only, equating zygotes with adult human beings fails to recognize the science behind conception, as Bill Nye points out in an older video that has recently gained new relevancy.

In the video, you can see how frustrated Nye is explaining why abortion rights aren’t something we should be debating in the first place. After a brief explanation of how conception occurs, the science educator proves how little our laws have to do with reason or logic.

Bill Nye: Can We Stop Telling Women What to Do With Their Bodies? | Big Think

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“You cannot help but notice — and I’m not the first guy to notice — you have a lot of men of European descent passing these extraordinary laws based on ignorance,” he says, adding, “It’s just a reflection of a deep scientific lack of understanding and you literally apparently don’t know what you’re talking about.” We can only imagine how frustrated he — along with every other advocate of logic — must be feeling now.

While anti-abortion zealots aren’t typically eager to consider science or reason, this video could potentially sway those who are on the fence about impeding on women’s rights. And while it shouldn’t take a white guy to explain why women’s rights are human rights, sadly, few people seem to listen when the plea for respect comes from women — despite the fact that these draconian laws only affect them.

Still, Nye and other logic-lovers are willing to hear you out, pro-lifers. If the argument truly comes down to protecting children and not depriving women of basic rights, there are several discussions worth having. For instance, instead of focusing on the rights of unborn babies, perhaps we could put our resources into protecting the children that already exist. We take it for granted that real, live children don’t enjoy the same human rights that adults do — an archaic way of thinking that time and time again puts kids in harm’s way. By actively fueling global warming, we deprive today’s children from having any semblance of a dependable future.

Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that we focus on the facts. By relying on scientific evidence to guide a course of action, we can respect one another’s beliefs without infringing on one another’s rights. It’s really not that hard. Take it from The Science Guy himself: “Be objective about this. We have other problems to solve, everybody.”

This article originally appeared on 10.30.17

Let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to be a man than a woman. Although men die four years earlier than women, they get to live without the extra burdens of menstrual cramps, lower pay, the pain of childbirth, or the feeling of having a bra strap digging into their backs. But now, the CEO of a bra company is letting men experience what it’s like to have large breasts so they can understand what women go through every day.

One day a year, PrimaDonna CEO Ignace Van Doorselaere makes his male employees wear simulated E-cup-sized breasts for an entire work day. “There is only one way for a man to realize what an E-cup feels like, and that is having an E-cup,” Van Doorselaere says.

In order to simulate the feeling of carrying around E-cup-sized breasts, the men wear weights hung around their necks. “Let’s be honest, an E-Cup can weigh up to 1 or 1.5 kilograms (2.2 to 3.5 lbs) per breast,” Van Doorselaere says. “This is a lot. It hurts your neck. It hurts your back. Imagine you are that woman. Carry those breasts for an entire day. That’s why you need good support. Good support is important. Everybody at PrimaDonna knows that now.”

PrimaDonna E CUP DAY for men

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This article originally appeared on 08.10.18

It goes without saying that water is a basic human right that should never be denied to anyone. So when a homeless woman named Polly in Cardiff, Wales, was refused a drink at her local McDonald’s recently, a good Samaritan wouldn’t stand for it.

Jonathon Pengelly couldn’t believe his eyes when the cashier told the woman no. “I don’t know what was going through their minds but a lady, clearly homeless was asking for a basic human right; and for a multi-billion pound company, for them to say no is disgusting!” Pengelly wrote on Facebook.

Pengelly was behind the woman in line, so he offered to buy her and her friend something to eat and was shocked at Polly’s response.

“She asked for a single cheese burger and that was it,” Pengelly said. “We bought as much as we could carry so I knew she wasn’t going to be hungry.” He then sat and ate with them and was blown away by their positive attitudes. So he brought them back to his house, where they showered and brushed their teeth. While they cleaned up, Pengelly prepared some food to tide the women over for a few days.

Pengelly posted about the evening’s events on Facebook to raise awareness about the problem of homelessness in the U.K. “I’m no saint, but this small act of kindness cost me about £20,” he wrote. “I know 90% of people reading this will earn about 10 times that a day. … If you see someone on the streets, don’t look down on them like they’re nothing. You don’t know what they’ve been though! Spare a little thought!”

Pengelly’s experience didn’t just open up his eyes to a real problem, he made a friend as well. “Me and Polly have chatted on the phone and I’ve promised her that she will never go hungry or cold again!” he said.

Here’s Pengelly’s full post:

“Well, my night took an unexpected turn! So I finished my night out, ended up in the dreaded McDonald’s queue. I couldn’t help but notice the lady in front me, all she asked for was a cup of hot water.

The member of staff told her no. I don’t know what was going through their mind but a lady, clearly homeless was asking for a basic human right; and for a multi billion pound company, for them to say no is disgusting!

My heart was shattered! So I spoke to her and told her to order what she wanted, expecting her to order everything. I was so shocked. She asked for a single cheese burger and that was it. We bought as much as we could carry so I knew she wasn’t going to be hungry.

I couldn’t just leave this lady go, she was so warming and so lovely. So I sat with her, on the cold hard floor, in the middle of winter and you know what I did? I cried my eyes out.

You know if people of Cardiff walked passed them and didn’t do anything because, financially, they weren’t in the position, I would understand. But people walked passed and laughed at them. I don’t care who you are, If this was you; and you’re reading this I hate you!

When I got to speak to them I was genuinely shocked at their story and how educated they were! So full of life and enthusiasm and they literally have nothing!

I invited polly and her mate back to my house and we all cooked enough food to feed them and their friends for the next few nights. We boxed them up and packed them in their bags.

Polly and her mate have had showers, brushed their teeth and they both said they have ever felt so appreciated in their life.
I’m no saint, but this small act of kindness cost me about £20. I know 90% of people reading this will earn about 10 times that a day.

It costs nothing to be kind, and I genuinely hope people share this to raise awareness of homelessness throughout the UK!
Me and polly have chatted on the phone and I’ve promised her that she will never go hungry or cold again! I’ve given her blankets, pillows and a backpack full of food.

If you see someone on the streets, don’t look down on them like they’re nothing. You don’t know what they’ve been though! spare a little thought!

I don’t care if I look like shit cause I’m crying!

Polly, you’ve changed me!”

This article originally appeared on 11.03.17

There’s an old saying that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. There’s no better example of that than a recent discovery at the University of California, Irvine, by doctoral student Mya Le Thai. After playing around in the lab, she made a discovery that could lead to a rechargeable battery that lasts up to 400 years. That means longer-lasting laptops and smartphones and fewer lithium-ion batteries piling up in landfills.

A team of researchers at UCI had been experimenting with nanowires for potential use in batteries, but they found that over time the thin, fragile wires would break down and crack after too many charging cycles. A charge cycle is when a battery goes from completely full to completely empty and back to full again.

But one day, on a whim, Thai coated a set of gold nanowires in manganese dioxide and a Plexiglas-like electrolyte gel. “She started to cycle these gel capacitors, and that’s when we got the surprise,” said Reginald Penner, chair of the university’s chemistry department. “She said, ‘this thing has been cycling 10,000 cycles and it’s still going.’ She came back a few days later and said ‘it’s been cycling for 30,000 cycles.’ That kept going on for a month.”

Thai’s discovery is mind-blowing because the average laptop battery lasts 300 to 500 charge cycles. The nanobattery developed at UCI made it through 200,000 cycles in three months. That would extend the life of the average laptop battery by about 400 years. The rest of the device would have probably gone kaput decades before the battery, but the implications for a battery that lasts hundreds of years are pretty startling.

“The big picture is that there may be a very simple way to stabilize nanowires of the type that we studied,” Penner said. “If this turns out to be generally true, it would be a great advance for the community.” Not bad for just fooling around in the laboratory.

editsharetrending_up

This article originally appeared on 10.23.17

A stunning photo of an African-American woman confronting police at a Black Lives Matter rally blazed across social media this weekend, with some calling it a touchstone image that will stand as a powerful symbol for many years to come.

The photo, captured by Jonathan Bachman of Reuters, comes from a Black Lives Matter rally outside Baton Rouge police HQ this weekend. Police in full riot armor are shown descending on a poised, well-dressed woman, apparently about to be cuffed.

Her name is Leshia Evans, according to the Daily Mail, a 28-year-old nurse from New York who had not been to a protest rally before this one. The AP says Evans was arrested for blocking a public roadway shortly after the image was taken.

DeRay McKesson, one of the most prominent voices of the Black Lives Matter movement, was also arrested at Saturday’s rally. McKesson was released after 16 hours in a cell; he told the New York Times that he felt Saturday’s mass arrests were unlawful, as the protesters were peacefully assembled on the side of the highway.

“What we saw in Baton Rouge was a police department that chose to provoke protesters to create, like, a context of conflict they could exploit,” said McKesson. Over 100 other protesters were also arrested Saturday.

The protests were a direct response to the killing of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge last week, after two officers shot him repeatedly outside a Baton Rouge convenience store. Shortly after Sterling’s death, a school cafeteria worker was shot and killed by police in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. And at a protest rally in Dallas following Falcon Heights, five police officers were killed by snipers.

Last week’s violence is already proving to be an intensely raw and revealing piece of American history. Bachman’s photo will surely be one of the images that lasts.

Jonathan Bachman’s #BatonRouge protest photo will become as iconic as “woman in red” during 2013 protests in Turkey. https://t.co/igMnWOdL4g

— Matt Sandiford (@catsbegrey)
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When you see this image you think thank God America won the Cold War and defeated tyranny
(JONATHAN BACHMAN/REUTERS) https://t.co/ryVd3lGqIw

— Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks)
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For anyone who has even a modicum of respect for the earth and the environment, the idea of dumping trash on the side of a highway is unconscionable. Who does such a thing? There’s no excuse for littering like that, right?

That’s what I would have thought before reading this Twitter thread by Glen Cantrell, but now…I don’t know. While it pains me to think of polluting an area with trash, this might be the one exception where I’d be like, “Oh heck yeah. I can totally see why someone would do that.”

Cantrell starts by explaining that his mother was not an activist, then goes on to describe a deliberately illegal act of defiance and subterfuge she invited him to join without his knowledge.

“My mother didn’t have an activist bone in her body,” Cantrel wrote. “Not one. But once, when I was visiting from school, she woke me up and told me to help her load up the truck with barn trash.”

She didn’t tell him where they were going.

“My family is from the Ozarks, mom lived in a little farm town outside Springfield. We hit 65 and drove south from there. Through Branson, past Table Rock, not slowing down until we hit the Arkansas border,” he wrote.

“Mom pulls off right past the state line, in front of one of those Adopt-a-Highway signs,” he continued. “‘Look,’ she points toward the sign. Her face is set. I’m a little scared. It’s THAT face. All moms have it. You know the one. I read the sign. ‘The next mile has been adopted by…'”

“… The Grand Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (there was also some dumb ass sounding chapter name)”. I get it now. Remem… https://t.co/ixVqJIawhx

— Glen Cantrell (@SnarkyLibruhl)
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“‘… The Grand Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (there was also some dumb ass sounding chapter name).’ I get it now. Remember, the ‘not an activist bone in her body’ bit from the first tweet in this thread? There’s a ‘but.’ And, it was the KKK.”

Ah. There it is.

Cantrell explained that his mother’s feelings about the KKK went beyond hatred. “It was more than that,” he wrote, “scarier, even.”

“Let’s do this”, she said, adding, “watch out for cops and white sheets.”The entire truck load of garbage went in t… https://t.co/kI3UshNgMz

— Glen Cantrell (@SnarkyLibruhl)
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They emptied an entire truck load of garbage under the KKK’s adopt-a-highway sign, then his mother ripped every bag open and kicked the trash around to mix it “with all the others who’d done the same.”

Cantrell and his mom drove home in silence, feeling “lighter somehow.” They never really talked about it again.

Mom wasn’t political or outspoken. But, that day, she inspired me. Maybe I’m thinking about this today because “Don… https://t.co/8oeQQkzjUJ

— Glen Cantrell (@SnarkyLibruhl)
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“Mom wasn’t political or outspoken,” Cantrell wrote. “But, that day, she inspired me.”

Cantrell shared that the 8th anniversary of his mom’s death was coming up, which may have prompted this memory (along with the response to Texas’s recent legislation). What a fitting tribute it is to share her secret little slice of “good trouble” with the world.

Drake and Kanye West have a history of longstanding beef that was at one point squashed, but has seemingly intensified around their respective albums. Kanye West dropped his buzz-worthy album Donda just a week before Drake’s equally-anticipated LP Certified Lover Boy. While Donda dominated streaming services upon its release, it looks as though Drake’s album reportedly out-performed Kanye’s.

It’s no secret that both Donda and Certified Lover Boy saw massive debut weeks. According to Kanye’s team, Donda had over 180 million streams in 24 hours, breaking both Spotify and Apple Music’s single-day streaming record for 2021. But a week later, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy took the top streaming slot in just a few days, per a report from Rolling Stone. According to Alpha Data, the analytics provider Rolling Stone uses to calculate their charts, Certified Lover Boy saw 430 million in the three days following its release. By comparison, Donda received under 423 million streams in its first eight days.

Even though Certified Lover Boy saw more streams than Donda, Kanye’s album was still a success by all accounts. The LP debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 309,000 units in its first week and leaving Kanye tied with Eminem for the most-consecutive No. 1 albums.

Eddie Vedder has announced a new solo album, Earthling (via Seattle Surf/Republic, release date TBD), plus a lead single titled “Long Way,” which comes produced by Andrew Watt. Over a strong driving rhythm, “Long Way” is a tight, expansive track, featuring sharp guitar solos and the Pearl Jam singer sounding rather like Bruce Springsteen. In addition, Vedder has announced a pre-order of a limited-edition 7-inch vinyl with “Long Way” and a soon-to-be-released song, “The Haves.”

Speaking of The Boss, Bruce shared some words of wisdom with Vedder last year in regards to playing solo shows. “He gave this one gem of advice that just changed everything – because I was saying I was making mistakes in those first few mini-gigs,” Vedder recalled on a podcast called Daddy Issues. “He said, ‘There’s real power when there’s just one person up there. It’s terrifying, for the audience even. It’s a tight-wire act. There’s just something, an intimacy in it, and there’s a power in it.’”

Moving forward, Vedder will be performing at a handful of festival dates with Pearl Jam, including Sea.Hear.Now. Festival on September 18, Ohana Festival on October 26, and again during Ohana Festival’s Encore Weekend on October 1 and 2. Also, Vedder will also be performing a solo set at Ohana Festival on September 25.

Listen to “Long Way” above, and pre-order the limited-edition 7-inch here via Pearl Jam’s Ten Club.