Month: August 2024

Glass Animals like to have fun, as is made clear by the name of the tour they just launched this past weekend: Human Music Group Sensations Glass Animals: Tour Of Earth. Indeed, the “Heat Waves” band is on the road, and if you’re planning to see them, you can take a look at their August 4 setlist (via setlist.fm), at The Underground in Charlotte, for an indication of the show you’re in for.

Naturally, the 18-song setlist leaned heavily on the band’s just-released new album, I Love You So F***ing Much. In other “of course” news, you won’t go home empty-handed if you’re hoping to hear “Heat Waves.”

Check out the setlist below, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Glass Animals’ Human Music Group Sensations Glass Animals: Tour Of Earth Setlist

1. “Whatthehellishappening?”
2. “Life Itself”
3. “Wonderful Nothing”
4. “Space Ghost Coast To Coast”
5. “Take A Slice”
6. “Show Pony”
7. “A Tear In Space (Airlock)”
8. “Creatures In Heaven”
9. “Youth”
10. “Lost In The Ocean”
11. “Gooey”
12. “How I Learned To Love The Bomb”
13. “White Roses”
14. “On The Run”
15. “Pork Soda”
16. “The Other Side Of Paradise” (encore)
17. “Tokyo Drifting” (encore)
18. “Heat Waves” (encore)

Glass Animals Human Music Group Sensations Glass Animals: Tour Of Earth 2024 Dates

08/07 — Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion +
08/08 — Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre +
08/10 — Philadelphia, PA @ TD Pavilion at the Mann +
08/11 — Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center +
08/13 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
08/16 — Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek +
08/17 — Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion +
08/20 — Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage +
08/21 — Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center +
08/23 — Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center +
08/24 — Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre +
08/25 — Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center +
08/27 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena +
08/28 — Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island +
08/31 — Kansas City, KS @ Azura Amphitheater ~^
09/03 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre ~
09/04 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre ~
09/05 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre ~
09/07 — Seattle, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre ~^
09/08 — Vancouver, BC @ Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena ~
09/11 — Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre ~
09/13 — Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre ~
09/14 — Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum ~^
09/17 — Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre ~
09/20 — Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion ~
09/21 — The Woodlands, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion ~
09/22 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center ~
10/15 — Paris, France @ Zenith =
10/16 — Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National =
10/17 — Dusseldorf, Germany @ Mitsubishi Electric Halle =
10/19 — Warsaw, Poland @ Expo XXI =
10/20 — Berlin, Germany @ Max-Schmeling-Halle =
10/22 — Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz =
10/23 — Zurich, Switzerland @ The Hall =
10/24 — Munich, Germany @ Zenith =
10/26 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ AFAS Live =
10/30 — Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena =
11/01 — Glasgow, UK @ OVO Hydro =
11/02 — Manchester, UK @ Co-op Live =
11/03 — Nottingham, UK @ Motorpoint Arena =
11/05 — Cardiff, UK @ Utilita Arena =
11/07 — London, UK @ The O2 =

+ with Kevin Abstract
~ with Eyedress
^ with Blondshell
= with The Big Moon

Those who have not watched the HBO drama Industry have surely heard the show being compared to Euphoria but set in London’s financial sector. Succession comparisons also exist and are based upon the cutthroat nature of this industry and the glossy sheen of this story that is awash with morphing power dynamics. On a surface level, the latter comparisons make sense. These characters are also young, clever, messy, and money-motivated, but writing off Industry as an imitator on the eve of its third season would do a disservice (to the show and to you), especially as it looks to level up and expand its horizons by throwing new challenges at its characters.

That is to say: do not sleep on Industry‘s new season. Also don’t watch the third-season trailer and think that Myha’la’s character, Harper, is getting sidelined in favor of making this the Marisa Abela (Yasmin) and Kit Harington (Sir Henry Muck) Show.

Such worries are unfounded but understandable. After all, the second season ended with Eric (Ken Leung) betraying and firing Harper from Pierpoint, a move that is (near) fatal for their riveting dynamic. But Harper remains very much on the scene, both at home with Yasmin and Rob (Harry Lawtey) and at her new job, with a new mentor (Sarah Goldberg). She is still maneuvering as hard and as questionably as ever. She’s still ruthless and brilliant and self-destructive and intoxicating and enormously flawed. One of TV’s most compelling characters on what is becoming its most addictive show, hitting levels that rival and maybe even top Succession in the toxic finance weight class.

Part of Industry‘s appeal sources from how these morally bankrupt young analysts hail from widely varied backgrounds — setting this show apart from Succession‘s more homogenous set of characters. This season, the show takes a deeper detour into Yasmin’s psyche, which ends up being much more engrossing than it sounds.

Although privileged, she is also busy surviving, calculating, and fighting against odds that will seem insurmountable. We learn more about why she is the way that she is, and those reasons are frightening and heartbreaking. Also, the below HBO-released still is far more important (and vastly more layered) than it might seem at first glance.

Yasmin’s struggles are not meant to distract from what Harper has had to do in this “industry” to not only exist and survive but thrive as a Black woman. Viewers are already aware that she did not surface at Pierpoint through any semblance of privilege. The show has never shied away from parceling out these background details for Harper, and likewise, as Yasmin’s troubles come to a boil this season, having a fuller picture of who she is makes for a more compelling show in the moments when the focus is less on Harper and her quest to re-climb the ladder.

This season also does fairly well by Rob, who is moving beyond how he glided through his early days of finance without registering much about what goes on around him. He’s much more mature now, both professionally and personally, and I’d even say that he’s probably experienced more growth (with possible backsliding being a given) than any character on this show thus far.

As Sir Henry Muck, Kit Harington gets to lead us into thinking that the character is merely a BS green-tech CEO/overblown party bro who is used to getting everything that he wants, but there’s more beneath the surface. Harington scores a win with this character who is, like most, faking it to make it and dealing with the battle between his ambitions, anxiety, and perceptions of who he is supposed to be. Did Kit need a win? Hell yes. Ever since he knew nothing as Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, no project has allowed him the “oomph” and challenge that he deserves and that he gets here.

Naturally, sex and drugs remain as primary vices and escapes for nearly every character, including Eric as he deals with changes in his own life and career. This season provides the fantastic Ken Leung the chance to pull off a tightrope performance amidst the aftermath of that season 2 finale where he pulled the ultimate power move to suppress Harper’s budding ruthlessness before she inevitably turned on him. I really do not believe that Leung receives enough credit for his reactions that convey the gravity of Harper’s f*ck ups. Fortunately, his exasperated responses continue even while physically separated from Harper, and Leung is so much fun to watch.

This third season of Industry, overall, convinces me that there will be a future moment when this series will move beyond scoring critical acclaim and maintaining a loyal but relatively modest audience. Years into the future, this show could catch on with a whole new audience and be streamed into oblivion in a Suits-like way. That USA Network show maintained a dedicated enough audience to last a decade, but years later, the show’s exploding popularity on Netflix led NBC to double back and find new life in the franchise. It’s very easy to imagine Industry someday harnessing broad streaming appeal in the same way. If you keep watching (or even begin to watch) now, you’ll be able to pull an “I told you so.” Get in “early” while you can.

‘Industry’ returns to HBO on Sunday, August 11.

You know that website, X? It used to be a bird, but everyone goes there to complain? Well, the FBI or whatever heard that you were gonna log on today so they wanted to make sure you saw a ton of ads for things you don’t need but will buy anyway. That whole website is a Trap. What are you still doing over there! (But occasionally there’s something worth sticking around for.)

M. Night Shyamalan‘s latest movie Trap centers around a pop concert that was set up to take down The Butcher, a violent serial killer played by Josh Hartnett. Does it make sense? Not really, but who cares!

In the film, a stadium merch employee played by Jonathan Langdon essentially reveals the whole plot to the serial killer himself by summing up the entire premise while ignoring others customers in line: “You know The Butcher? The freakin’ nut job that goes around chopping people up? The feds hear that he’s gonna be here today. So they set up a trap for him. This whole concert is a trap.”

Obviously, this formula can be applied to many movies where someone is being hunted down, which inspired a brand-new meme format. That’s all we can really ask from movies, these days. And there are some good ones:

Did all of these traps work? No. Did it work for The Butcher? Maybe! You’ll just have to see. Trap is now in theaters, but the whole thing is a trap, so be careful.

Adele is in the middle of something pretty wild. In January, it was announced that a new concert venue was being built in Munich, Germany specifically for an Adele residency. Fast-forward to this past weekend when the first shows kicked off and it appears the run has a shot at making some history.

As Billboard reports, “The engagement, which runs two days a week throughout August, could break the Billboard Boxscore attendance record for a concert engagement, currently held by Coldplay, which drew 627,000 fans to 10 shows in Buenos Aires in 2022. It could also break the box office record of almost $110 million, held by U2 for its first 17 shows at the Sphere, in 2023. (Adele has not generally reported concert grosses to Billboard Boxscore, so the records may stand anyway.)” Furthermore, Munich economic official Clemens Baumgärtner has estimated that the residency will bring 560 million Euros (about $614 million) to the city.

It’s really quite the spectacle. The custom venue holds 74,000 people and the production is reported to have cost over $100 million dollars. There’s also a 720-foot-wide screen that’s apparently the largest in the world, as well as “a Ferris wheel, a biergarten, and merchandise operation the size of a large boutique,” per Billboard.

Big numbers aside, it just seems like a ton of fun, from watching the Olympics with Adele on stage to Adele’s impressive t-shirt cannon.

Unlike Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon will end before overstaying its welcome. Following Sunday’s season 2 finale, which left some viewers disappointed about the lack of action, showrunner Ryan Condal announced in a press conference on Monday that the prequel series is likely to wrap up after season four (just as George R.R. Martin hoped, although not at 10 episodes each).

Condal also confirmed that season 3 will go into production in “early-ish 2025.”

“There are so many great events that we are already writing in season 3 as it is,” he said, according to Deadline. “This war really comes to a big head at this point in the storytelling. I mean, if you look at season 2, it’s largely a metaphor for a nuclear conflict… There’s gonna be giant moments of spectacle but real moments of surprise and character nuance that we’re very much looking forward to. Some of my favorite moments of in the book, as a reader, I’m excited to adapt as a dramatist.”

One moment that was pushed back to season 3 was The Battle of the Gullet, which Condal called “the biggest thing to date that we’ve we’ve pulled off. We just wanted to have the time and the space to do that at a level that is going to excite and satisfy the fans in the way it’s deserved. We also wanted to build some anticipation toward it.” He apologized for the battle not being in season 2, as many fans hoped, but “with the team that we have together, we’re going to pull off a hell of a win with The Battle of the Gullet.”

(Via Deadline)

T.I. has been subject to several legal stories over the years. However, the latest story requires no further investigation to know that it was unwarranted. A case of perhaps the most unlucky coincidence of all time.

According to TMZ, T.I. was arrested at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Sunday night, August 4, “but it was a case of mistaken identity.”

“A warrant had been issued for another man named Clifford Harris — the same as T.I.’s real name — who was wanted in Baltimore, Maryland,” TMZ relayed. “The suspect is wanted for alleged involvement in violent behavior toward a woman, stalking, and possibly involving a gun. T.I. was taken from the airport to Clayton County Jail. Since the warrant was issued out of state, the arrest triggered an automatic extradition hearing.”

Steve Sadow, T.I.’s attorney, confirmed to TMZ that T.I. had been released “within two hours of arrest,” and the judge had reviewed and dismissed the order. As of this writing, T.I. had not publicly commented on the ordeal, and he probably won’t.

Meanwhile, T.I. has been supporting Latto’s forthcoming Sugar Honey Iced Tea, and he celebrated Tiny Harris, his wife, on their 14th wedding anniversary with a video posted across his social media accounts.

Fred Again.. has a big fall coming up. A few days ago, he announced Ten Days, a new album. That’s set to drop on September 6, and Fred revealed today that shortly after that, he’ll be heading out on the month-long Places We’ve Never Been Tour that hits a few cities in North America.

Ticket sales begin with the artist pre-sale on August 8 at noon local time. Then, the general on-sale starts August 9 at noon local time. More information on pre-sales and tickets can be found here.

Fred previously said of his new album, “my new record is called ten days. it’s ten songs about ten days. theres been a lot of biggg mad crazy moments in the last year but basically all of these are about really very small quiet intimate moments. some of them are like the most intensely joyful things i have felt, and some of them are the other side of things. and some days I don’t want to speak about loads cos I’m not the only person it was an important day for if that makes sense.”

Check out Fred Again..’s 2024 tour dates below.

Fred Again..’s 2024 Tour Dates: Places We’ve Never Been Tour

09/11 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
09/12 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
09/15 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
09/18 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
09/19 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
09/25 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
09/28 — East Troy, WI @ Alpine Valley Music Theatre
09/29 — East Troy, WI @ Alpine Valley Music Theatre
10/01 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
10/03 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
10/04 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
10/07 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
10/09 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
10/13 — Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena

Ten Days is out 9/6 via Atlantic Records UK. Find more information here.

The real horror in M. Night Shyamalan‘s Trap isn’t the psychopathic serial killer named The Butcher or even the cat-and-mouse chase between the killer and the FBI — it’s having to choose which song would be the best mid-set break in order to go to the mile long merch line only to find out that the shirt you want is sold out. That’s the terrifying stuff.

In Trap, Josh Hartnett plays the enthusiastic father/part-time murderer taking his teen daughter to see her pop idol Lady Raven. Why the concert started at 1 p.m. and was over by 4:30 p.m. is still unclear, but Shyamalan is famously mysterious.

While some of the concert scene might have seemed over-the-top, Hartnett learned first-hand that Lady Raven’s fans are actually nothing compared to the Swifties. “I became well-versed after the movie, but before I really didn’t know,” Hartnett said of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Harnett took his daughters to see Swift at Wembly Staduim in June. “It was wild,” Hartnett recently told People Magazine.. “I’ve never experienced anything like it: 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium losing their minds, including my two daughters.”

Hartnett might have thought that the fans in the film were exaggerating, but once he went to the tour, he got it. “Some of the stuff, while we were filming, I was thinking, ‘God, this is a little over the top. The amount of the fervor of the audience, and they know every word.’ Then I went to the concert. I was like, no, it’s exactly right.” It’s really hard to replicate the power of the Swifties when they all align into one conglomerate, but it’s similar to the inner workings of an ant colony. It’s good that Hartnett was able to see that in play out.

Obviously, Hartnett could not go to a Taylor Swift concert without doing his research, which included his favorite album. “The thing is, my kids weren’t really into pop music so much last year when we shot [Trap],” he explained. “Then when they heard the Eras Tour was coming because their friends at school were all into the concept, they just immediately became Swifties — and really hardcore Swifties. We listened to that music for six months nonstop in the car before we went to the show,” he said.

So which Era is Hartnett? While he might look like a Reputation stan, he prefers the classics. “The album that they play a lot at our house is 1989, and I like that album. It’s a good album.” Hopefully this revelation won’t start a social media war between the Swfities and the Lady Raven fans.

Trap is now in theaters.

(Via People)

Fifth-grade teacher Emily E. Smith is not your ordinary teacher.

She founded The Hive Society — a classroom that’s all about inspiring children to learn more about their world … and themselves — by interacting with literature and current events. Students watch TED talks, read Rolling Stone, and analyze infographics. She even has a long-distance running club to encourage students to take care of their minds and bodies.

Smith is such an awesome teacher, in fact, that she recently received the 2015 Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing.

It had always been her dream to work with children in urban areas, so when Smith started teaching, she hit the ground running. She had her students making podcasts, and they had in-depth discussions about their readings on a cozy carpet.

But in her acceptance speech for her award, she made it clear that it took a turning point in her career before she really got it:

“Things changed for me the day when, during a classroom discussion, one of my kids bluntly told me I “couldn’t understand because I was a white lady.” I had to agree with him. I sat there and tried to speak openly about how I could never fully understand and went home and cried, because my children knew about white privilege before I did. The closest I could ever come was empathy.”

Smith knew that just acknowledging her white privilege wasn’t enough.

She wanted to move beyond just empathy and find a way to take some real action that would make a difference for her students.

She kept the same innovative and engaging teaching methods, but she totally revamped her curriculum to include works by people who looked like her students. She also carved out more time to discuss issues that her students were facing, such as xenophobia and racism.

And that effort? Absolutely worth it.

As she said in her acceptance speech:

“We studied the works of Sandra Cisneros, Pam Munoz Ryan, and Gary Soto, with the intertwined Spanish language and Latino culture — so fluent and deep in the memories of my kids that I saw light in their eyes I had never seen before.”

The changes Smith made in her classroom make a whole lot of sense. And they’re easy enough for teachers everywhere to make:

— They studied the work of historical Latino figures, with some of the original Spanish language included. Many children of color are growing up in bilingual households. In 2007, 55.4 million Americans 5 years of age and older spoke a language other than English at home.

— They analyzed the vision of America that great writers of color sought to create. And her students realized that our country still isn’t quite living up to its ideals. Despite progress toward racial equality with the end of laws that enforced slavery or segregation, we still have a long way to go. Black people still fare worse than white people when it comes to things like wealth, unfair arrests, and health.

— They read excerpts from contemporary writers of color, like Ta-Nehisi Coates who writes about race. Her students are reading and learning from a diverse group of writers. No small thing when they live in a society that overwhelmingly gives more attention to white male writers (and where the number of employees of color in the newspaper industry stagnates at a paltry 12%).

— They read about the Syrian crisis, and many students wrote about journeys across the border in their family history for class. The opportunity particularly struck one student; the assignment touched him so much that he cried. He never had a teacher honor the journey his family made. And he was proud of his heritage for the first time ever. “One child cried,” Smith shared, “and told me he never had a teacher who honored the journey his family took to the United States. He told me he was not ashamed anymore, but instead proud of the sacrifice his parents made for him.”

Opportunities like this will only increase as the number of children from immigrant families is steadily increasing. As of 2013, almost 17.4 million children under 18 have at least one immigrant parent.

Smith now identifies not just as an English teacher, but as a social justice teacher.

Smith’s successful shift in her teaching is an example for teachers everywhere, especially as our schools become increasingly ethnically and racially diverse. About 80% of American teachers are white. But as of last year, the majority of K-12 students in public schools are now children of color.

As America’s demographics change, we need to work on creating work that reflects the experiences that our students relate to. And a more diverse curriculum isn’t just important for students of color. It’s vital for everyone.

As Smith put it, “We, the teachers, are responsible for instilling empathy and understanding in the hearts of all kids. We are responsible for the future of this country.”

This article originally appeared on 12.07.15

There are few more fulfilling hobbies than having a love of books.

Reading isn’t just a great way to have a good time. Reading increases brain connectivity, makes people more empathetic, reduces depression symptoms, improves vocabulary, and may even cause you to live longer.

It’s a huge benefit for a child’s development as well. According to Parent.com, reading “stimulates the side of the brain that helps with mental imagery, understanding, and language processing, and that brain activity.”

Sure beats wasting time playing video games.

Thirteen-year-old Callum Manning wanted to share his love of reading with the world, so he created an Instagram account where he posted photos of the books he’s read. It started with a post about Stephen King’s “The Shining.”

“So I guess I’m going to start this account off with one of my favourite books, Callum wrote. “This book was the first book I read in 1 day. And I was like 10. So yeah it scared me.”

See on Instagram

He would go on to fill his pages with books such as “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “1984” by George Orwell, and current classics such as “A Game of Thrones” by George R.R. Martin and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” by J.K. Rowling

Kids Callum’s age can be exceptionally cruel. A group of them created a group chat where they bullied him for his love of books and then invited him to join. After subjecting him to emotional abuse, they kicked him out of the chat.

“I don’t tend to cry that often but I think that was the first time in a while I’ve actually cried,” Callum told PA Media.

His older sister, Ellis Landreth, was understandably upset about the cruelty, so she tweeted about the group chat, hoping about “20 or 30 of my friends [would] like a few of his posts or follow him or give him some words of encouragement.”

Her tweet would go viral, receiving over 180,000 likes.

Canu2019t believe how awful kids are. My little brothers made an Instagram reviewing and talking about books and kids in his new school have seen it and have created a group chat calling him a creep slagging him off about it and added him to it so he could see pic.twitter.com/wuuj2XlO34

— Ellis (@Ellis)
1582972178

She was bombarded by responses from people who wanted to support her brother.

I think the love from all around the world has probably let him know he isn’t alone. But all the interesting people I know were once considered weird kids with books. Including me.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) March 2, 2020

I’ve followed him and dropped him a little message but I’d love to buy him a book or send him over an amazon gift card – I’m sure he has a lot of books on the way but please DM me if there’s any book he doesn’t have 😊

— beffy (@beffybadbelly) March 1, 2020

Just a few hours after the tweet, Callum received thousands of followers on his page. In just three days, he’s up to nearly 400,000 followers. He’s also received countless messages of support through the page.

English novelist Matt Haig sent Callum a collection of books, adding: “Hey let’s all follow Cals Book Account on Instagram and show him some support.” A book store near Manning’s home in northeast England promised him a book on the house.

Callum’s story was shared on Instagram by authors Caroline Kepnes and Malorie Blackman.

The teenager received over 15,000 messages in his DMs. “He’s absolutely overwhelmed,” Landreth told CNN. “He can’t even get through all his DMs.”

Callum’s mother is over the moon about the response. “She’s so happy people are spreading positive messages about these issues,” Landreth said. “No matter how small some things seem, they can stick with kids forever.”

This article originally appeared on 03.04.20