Jenny Lewis (Opening for Harry Styles) - Love On Tour - Atlanta, GA - 10/28/21 - State Farm Arena

If there's one thing that could be said of our modern era, it's that nothing exists in isolation.

One could even say that nothing goes in just one direction anymore—instead, things are moving in multiple directions, operating in loops, often meeting at crossroads. For a long time, at least in the music industry, things appeared to be stratified, separated by genre, linear visions, and arbitrary categories. Rock artists toured with rock artists; indie stars opened for indie stars. Patrician music lovers looked down on pop-lovers, and pop-lovers bullied indieheads. Success could be purchased with a record deal and marked by a position on a top chart. Gender was divided between a man and a woman. Feminism was disconnected from race and class.

Times are changing. Pop, like fashion, has become fluid and multidimensional. Elton John can collaborate with Young Thug. Lady Gaga can ricochet from electronica to folk and back. Harry Styles has become a bisexual icon and a truly great songwriter, capable of drawing from multiple genres to create nuanced and political pop music.

And now he's going on tour with Jenny Lewis, Koffee, and King Princess. They'll all be opening for him on different stops on his 2020 "Love on Tour" tour, which will begin in April.


A little background: Jenny Lewis is an iconic songwriter who fronted the band Rilo Kiley before creating a body of intensely powerful solo work. Koffee is a singer-songwriter, rapper, and musician from Jamaica who's generated a huge amount of buzz in a short time by putting a fresh and experimental spin on reggae. King Princess is a dream pop star who may or may not be capitalizing on queer aesthetics but still embodies an inspiringly out and proud image.

Styles' choice of openers is brilliant because it brings together so many different devoted and passionate fan-bases. Queer fans will relish the chance to dance along to King Princess, while indie traditionalists and older millennials will come for Jenny Lewis, and Gen-Z fans of cutting-edge music will show up for Koffee. All these musicians are bound together by one common thread: Their music is really, really good. And isn't that what matters in the end?

Rilo Kiley - A Better Son/Daughterwww.youtube.com


King Princess - 1950www.youtube.com


Koffee - Toast (Official Video)www.youtube.com

Unfortunately, the existing tickets sold out with stunning speed and cost an exorbitant amount of money, sadly prohibiting many of Styles' fans from enjoying the experience. (Many of them feel scammed). If Styles were to truly embrace the ethos of his commitment to breaking down all genres and boundaries, he'd make his concerts free, but alas, one can only dream... Until then, let us keep listening to our descriptively titled crossover Spotify playlists (shoutout to "Creamy" and "Pollen"), saying "okay" to Boomers who insist that there are only two genders, checking Co-Star for evidence of discernible meaning, and praying for the day when everything and everyone will truly be free.

Harry Styles - Sign of the Times (Video)www.youtube.com

Film Lists

Now in Theaters: 5 New Movies for the Weekend of March 15

Featuring some sick teens who are just dying to stand "Five Feet Apart"

Welcome back to "Now in Theaters: 5 New Movies for the Weekend."

This week we get yet another entry into the "sexy dying teenagers" canon.

WIDE RELEASE:

Five Feet Apart

Some things just go together – peanut butter and jelly, salt and vinegar, romantically-inclined teens and crippling disease. You cried during A Walk to Remember when that girl died from leukemia. You cried during The Fault in Our Stars when that guy died from cancer. You'll probably cry during this one too, because these teens both have cystic fibrosis, meaning they need to stay six feet apart at all times or else they'll die. But wait, this movie is called Five Feet Apart. Does that mean…? Yup. Life-threatening disease can't stand in the way of young love, so they're gonna smooch even if it kills one of them. Which it definitely will. And yes, the guy is half of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Trailerswww.youtube.com

Sophia Lillis (Beverly from It) stars as the legendary teen detective in the newest reboot of Nancy Drew. This iteration sees Nancy Drew as the new kid in town, bored with suburban mediocrity as she skateboards down way-too-safe residential streets. If only there were a spooky, scary mystery to solve! Great news, there is. It's the mystery of the hidden staircase, which happens to be located in an old mansion that Nancy has broken into. Where does this hidden staircase lead? To what ends was it built? Why doesn't she just climb the hidden staircase and find out? Find out this weekend.

Wonder Park

Wonder Park (2019) - New Trailer - Paramount Pictureswww.youtube.com

Imagine if some dumb amusement park you made up as a kid turned out to be real. You had no idea how roller coasters operated. You probably still don't. Those rides you made up would be literal death traps. But Wonder Park is a children's movie, so it can't explore the logical ends of its inane premise. Instead, the fantastical park is now populated by a bunch of annoying, talking forest animals who communicate entirely through flat jokes. Also, the park is overrun by zombie monkeys for some reason. As Nickelodeon Movies' first animated feature since 2015, Wonder Park looks disappointing, at least based on the trailers. But trailers don't always do a movie justice, so if you're a fan of animation, it might be worth checking out for yourself.

LIMITED RELEASE:

Ash is Purest White

Ash is Purest White | Official US Trailer | Starts March 15www.youtube.com

A Chinese crime drama currently holding a 100% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Ash is Purest White follows the relationship between a young dancer and a mobster. While witnessing a fight between her boyfriend and a rival gang, the young dancer shoots one of the attackers and gets sentenced to five years in prison. The epic narrative spans fifteen years of the dancer's life and plays out more like a melodrama than a crime film. If you're a fan of powerful foreign language films with sweeping narratives, Ash is Purest White is definitely up your alley.

The Mustang

THE MUSTANG - Official Trailer [HD] - In Theaters March 2019www.youtube.com

Matthias Schoenaerts plays a violent convict who participates in a prison rehabilitation program revolving around training wild stallions. The Mustang is one of those movies that takes its simple premise, does exactly what you expect with it, but you'll probably enjoy the film if you enjoy the concept. In other words, The Mustang is the same "bad man redeemed" story you've seen many times before, except this time he's redeemed through friendship with a wild horse instead of through sports or raising a baby or whatever.


Dan Kahan is a writer & screenwriter from Brooklyn, usually rocking a man bun. Find more at dankahanwriter.com



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PREMIERE | MkX Drops Red-Hot Music Video, 'One Sided Love'

Pulsing with muscular trap-pop energy, 'One Sided Love' hits the bull's eye

MkX drops a new music video today, called "One Sided Love." Coming hot on the heels of his previous singles, "The Look" and "Ghost," the track was written and produced by MkX, and remixed with DJ Mike D.

"One Sided Love," a smoldering trap-pop tune about the emotional turbulence of unrequited love, taps into MkX's up close and personal familiarity with the ache of one-sided passion.

"I wanted to write a song that reflected what I was going through and that I know everyone who listens has gone through at one point or another," says MkX. "As a longtime pop super fan myself, I know how important it is as a listener to be able to connect with what the artist is saying.Lyrically, the song is like an inner-monologue of overanalyzing and being a bit paranoid."

Performing live since the age of nine, MkX toured with Ariana Grande, Christina Perri, and the British pop/rock band Rixton. By the time he stepped into the limelight as a solo artist, the energy around him was a swirling vortex. Both "The Look" and "Ghost" clipped the 500,000 mark on Spotify, rounded out by his featured performance at Las Vegas' Fashion Show Mall's live show.

Opening with gleaming synths, flowing into a resonant trap groove, "One Sided Love" throbs with potent, dark, sensual energy. MkX's voice starts off with husky, sighing tones ascending to gorgeous, nastily tight colors, imbuing the tune with stinging atomic muscle. Smooth, radiant vocal harmonies suffuse the music with lustrous textures, lush and intense.

The lyrics speak to the heartache prompted by love that's not returned.

"I try and try / Your truth disguised / Save me the pain / And forfeit the game / Slam the brakes / So my heart don't break / This is a one-sided love / Just say no / Cuz now I know / This is a one-sided love."

The video, directed by Matt Alonzo, is a stylish work of visual art, full of phantasmagoric colors, avant-garde tessellations, and polished dance moves. MkX projects a magnetic presence.

"One Sided Love" brims with pulses of sub-bass layered oomph and infectious surges of seductive hues. MkX's voice infuses the tune with electrifying frisson and sizzling heat. "One Sided Love" is off the chain.

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