Author: bestmedeal

**A few years ago, things were not going well for Tim Knol. The musician fromNorth Holland ate poorly, drank too much and was very overweight. When thedoctor told him he wouldn ‘t grow old that way, Tim changed course. Now he iskilos lighter and feels fitter than ever. There is a new album and anextensive tour. Ron Flens of Culture Club spoke to Tim before the concert atstage Victorie in Alkmaar. **

Tim Knol is back – NH News

For the interview we walk along a green strip behind pop stage Victorie inAlkmaar. Tim Knol in a lumberjack shirt, body warmer and hiking boots. “Tolose weight, you have to go through more vigorously than the roaming we donow,” jokes Tim. “I prefer to walk in the North Holland dune area. I didn’tknow it was so beautiful there. I really discovered that.”

By walking a lot, eating healthier and drinking less, Tim lost 40 kilos inrecent years. He wrote the album Lightyears better about the turn in his life.

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Fan with Tim Knol is Vet t-shirt in 2011

When I filmed Tim Knol ten years ago in his breakthrough year when he won anEdison and played at Lowlands, there were fans walking around with “Tim Knolis Vet” on their t-shirts. “I was really fat then. For a long time I feltpretty good about that,” says Tim. But over the years he gained weight due tobad food and a lot of alcohol. “I was a midnight snacker. I could drink well,a lot of Guinness and whiskey, but at some point I had to put something in.That was shoarma and that kind of junk,” says Tim. At one point he weighed 120kilos.

Outage in hands

Tim started to feel worse and worse. He became depressed, was out of shape andlost his hands while playing the guitar. “The latter was a bit of the laststraw, then I went to the doctor,” says Tim. The doctor said that if he wantedto grow old, he would have to drastically change his life. “And I want to growold!”

Tim then started walking, eating healthier and drinking less. He has alsomoved from Amsterdam to Wormerveer with his girlfriend, where the temptationsto go out are much less. “My girlfriend has also helped me a lot to live ahealthier life. I am very grateful to her for that”.

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Tim Knol in Victory in Alkmaar

That evening Tim and his band the Wandering hearts will be performing in thesmall hall of Victorie in Alkmaar. It is one of a series of concerts that Timwill perform solo and with his band in the coming months. Isn’t he afraid offalling into old habits now that he’s back on the road? “No, not at all. I nolonger need that. I feel good that way. And there is now a Guinness 0.0 in thefridge in the dressing room and I’m already looking forward to it”, laughsTim.

Tips from Tim

Tim Knol not only makes music himself, he is also a great connoisseur of thehistory of pop music and a lover of country, soul, bluegrass and pop. Here arethree tips of records that you should have listened to according to Tim:

Actually, a lot of Neil Young is good. He can play small and play big, solovery subdued and rock with a band. In that way he is also a source ofinspiration.

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That woman could sing so beautifully and that record is really insane.

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The last album by John Prine who passed away in 2020. “But actually everythingis good about this man.” For Tim, Prine is on the same level as Bob, Neil,Townes and Guy. Surnames can be omitted from that list. “What’s so good abouthim is that everything comes together with him: soul, country and folk.”

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In Buddhism, ‘bardo’ is a transitional state between life, death andreincarnation. The soul rehashes the past life in anticipation of its reboot.In such a state is the famous Mexican journalist and documentary filmmakerSilverio Gacho, the alter ego of director Alejandro Iñárritu in feature film_Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths_ – indeed yes, a pretentioustitle. It is a virtuosically designed, self-righteous self-examination that isreminiscent of Fellini’s self-parody 8½ and to Gaspard Noé’s cinematic end-of-life care Enter the Void.

Director Silverio wanders in Bardo around in memories and dreams: about hisfather and mother, family and success. Big and intimate issues tumble overeach other. His uprooting, his split between Mexican pride and the need forrecognition by gringos. It is about culture of violence and narcotic terror,conquistador Hernán Cortés enthroned on a lurid pyramid of Indian corpses. Theintimate trauma of baby Mateo, who only lived for 24 hours, turns out to be aleitmotiv. After birth, a doctor pushes him back into mother’s vulva: humorthat Freudians can sink their teeth into.

Threatening talk show

The intentions of Bardo are immediately clear: in the desert a shadow liftsitself from the ground with great leaps until it flies. We are in dreamland.Two-time Oscar winner Iñárritu enchants us there with beautiful scenes thatflow into each other with dream logic. Silverio wades into his living room viaa flooded subway car, watches a comic battle with the American ambassador,rambles through a hectic TV studio to a menacing talk show. Voices fromanother world can be heard in the sometimes familiar, sometimes disturbinginner world of his family. Something is seriously wrong with Silverio. Wewon’t find out until much later.

It’s actually fantastic that tens of millions of dollars have been invested insuch a personal, unruly art house project. With Alejandro Iñárritu, Netflixhopes to repeat the performance of his friend Alfonso Cuarón in the comingOscar season: his Roma childhood memories in black and white, won threeOscars from ten nominations in 2019. Bardo that won’t work. In Venice, thefilm press put the prestige film through the meat grinder in September, afterwhich Iñárritu cut out 21 minutes in shock. The current version still lasts 2hours and 40 minutes.

Fellini

Too long, pretentious, narcissistic, was the criticism Bardo at its premierein Venice. A director who digs into his own psyche was a novelty in 1963, whenFellini introduced it in 8½. Resembles that movie classic Bardo sometimesreferred to: with humpa music, a death march, a tender farewell to a deceasedfather. You also suspect that Iñárritu is after his glorious double whammy_Birdman_ (2015, four Oscars) and The Revenants (2016, three Oscars) feltjust like Fellini did at the time. World hit La Dolce Vita in 1960 led totemporary paralysis: how do you deal with so much success?

Fellini broke in 8½ his creative block itself becomes the theme: alter egoMarcello Mastroianni, as star director Guido Anselmi, gets stuck in a sciencefiction film. He barely has a script and doesn’t really believe in it, but thecircus has already started and the producer built a very expensive movie setfrom a missile base. Dragged along in the maelstrom, Anselmi flees in dreamsabout his youth and the (many) women in his life.

8½ came out when the French ‘author theory’ had just broken through andfitted in wonderfully well. According to that idea, the vision of the filmdirector is all-determining: the big man, the general on the set. Alsodissecting yourself in the film makes you the ultimate author. 8½ wasjubilantly received and inspired many imitations: in 2012, directors found itin the global Sight and Sound poll still ranks as the fourth greatest filmof all time. No wonder. “Make films about yourself, that is what everydirector wants,” I heard Martin Koolhoven say on TV this week.

However, Fellini’s followers often lack something 8½ so delightful: self-mockery. Guido Anselmi is a joking figure, his dream about a harem in which healternates between spoiled Nero, baby or lion tamer remains a hilarious parodyof the male ego – Fellini’s ego.

Midlife crisis

Iñárritu has the content of 8½ split in two in his oeuvre. His movie_Birdman_ was previously about the creative process: a (stage) director triesto get a grip on crew, actor egos and his own ambitions. Bardo is now aboutthe director’s ego. That soon threatens to become ludicrous and sentimental: alove letter to himself, I read somewhere. Yet it is missing Bardo certainlynot humor and self-relativization. Opponents repeatedly point out thehypocrisy and contradictions of Iñárritu’s alter ego Silverio. During aswinging fiesta in his honor and glory, ‘frenemy’ Luis verbally fillets theentire film in terms that real critics can easily copy. It would be a tangleof pretentious associations about private life, politics and cosmos thatmerely shed light on the director’s midlife crisis, according to Luis.

In the film, director Silverio silences the critic with a short wave of hishand. Bardo takes place in his brain, where his will is law. What we see isSilverio’s comatose self-image: a sincere family man, a tragic figure full oflove and unresolved grief who can look back on a successful life.

Due to the completely subjective form of Bardo Iñárritu can hardly maintainan ironic distance from his alter ego. He falsely relies on us viewersironically decoding his character, I suspect. But viewers don’t do that: theysee what they see. Then becomes Bardo an ego trip and it doesn’t help thatIñárritu mixes minor suffering with major historical themes, as if they allhave the same weight. And then a cinematic will of a 59-year-old also feels abit like Trimalchio’s dinner from Petronius’ Satyricon – also filmed byFellini, by the way. In it, a vulgar Roman rich man stages his own mockfuneral, with followers stroking his ego with treacle and exaggeratedmourning.

That does everything Bardo shortage. Iñárritu’s self-mockery comes across asbad, but if you step over it, you end up with a film full of ambition andunforgettable images that strikes bizarre, sometimes disconcerting emotionalchords. A train wreck of great beauty and originality at the intersection oflife and death.

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Cinemas and film houses will still pass on the high energy costs to theirvisitors, according to a tour of NU.nl. Earlier they said they did not intendto. But the cinemas now see no other way out, although they still hope forfinancial support from the cabinet.

Cinemas and movie houses usually have a hefty energy bill due to the use ofenergy-guzzling projectors. Moreover, they are often located in old buildingsthat are poorly insulated.

This applies, for example, to Rialto in Amsterdam. “Our building in the DePijp district is a hundred years old. That is why we are currently in theprocess of replacing the last windows with double glazing,” says head ofoperations Jennie Zijlmans.

“In addition to making the building more sustainable, we are looking at how wecan cut costs in other ways. For example, we turn off the projectors in therooms that are not in use. But we also had to increase the regular ticketprices. That price increase does not apply for minimums and students.”

Lumière Cinema in Maastricht already raised prices a few months ago. “We findit difficult to raise ticket prices, so we are not planning to do so againanytime soon,” says director Nico Haenen. “We are now gathering all the costitems together to see where we can cut back. The main concern is, of course,that energy prices will continue to rise and thus become an unmanageable andunaffordable cost item.”

‘It must remain pleasant for our visitors’

Another way to save money is to turn down the heating a few degrees. But thatwill not make much difference for all cinemas and movie houses. ForumGroningen has five cinemas, but they are located in a building of 17,000square meters that is also used for other purposes.

“We buy the energy with the other organizations and are therefore largeconsumers. For us it means that next year we will go from 400,000 euros to 1.2million euros in energy costs,” says director Dirk Nijdam. “Where the doors ofour catering facility used to be open, they now remain closed to save energy.We also set the temperature slightly lower where possible. But it must remainpleasant for our visitors.”

Cinema KINO in Rotterdam is also busy with sustainability. “In January 2023 wewill open two new halls and we will use this renovation to make the entirebuilding from 1908 as sustainable as possible. And when we replace projectors,we do this with laser projectors that use less energy,” says financialdirector Frank Groot.

‘We don’t have that many options’

But that is not enough. Because not only energy prices, but also other costsare going up. This increases personnel and purchasing costs. “That’s why werecently increased the regular ticket prices. The tickets are still notexpensive, but that’s never fun.”

Cinemas and movie houses continue to puzzle with their costs. They don’t haveto cancel performances, but the need is increasing.

According to Gulian Nolthenius, director of the Dutch Association of Cinemasand Film Theaters (NVBF), the situations vary and also depend on currentcontracts. “The cinemas and movie theaters will do everything they can tolimit any increases to ensure that the visit remains one of the cheapestoutings.”

“We do what we can, but we don’t have that many options,” emphasizes Nijdam ofForum Groningen. “For a solution to the high energy costs, we look to thegovernment. They must step in.”

Entre los tópicos que rodean a la Copa del Mundo tenemos los habituales:“Cuando empiece a rodar el balón solo se hablará de fútbol”, “los jugadoresllevan días no metiendo el pie no sea que se lesionen y se queden sin jugar laCopa” , “si ganamos la Copa poco importa donde se haya jugado” or “es que casino hay ambiente de copa”.

Después están aquellos centrados en Qatar… “¿A quién se le ha ocurrido llevarla copa a Qatar?”, “ya ​​verás como se arma la de San Quintín”, “pero ¿cómo sepuede jugar con esas temperaturas?”, “jugar en invierno, ¿Quién va a poderir?”.

De ahí se pasa a los más futbolísticos, viejos conocidos, esos que hacenreferencia a los jugadores convocados, a los que no, a los rivales, a loséxitos y los fracasos que están por venir. No me esforzaré en hacer el listadode estos porque son realmente cansinos y, en algunas ocasiones, hay que“comérselos con patatas”.

Trying to see Taylor Swift live? You’re on your own, kid.

Tickets for the pop star’s highly-anticipated “Eras Tour” became available forpresale on Tuesday morning to lucky Swifties selected as “verified fans” byTicketmaster. However, for many, today wasn’t a fairytale.

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I started my ticket-buying journey at 8 am PT, an hour before my purchasingwindow for the Glendale, Ariz. shows. While Ticketmaster issued the codes,both Glendale and the Arlington, Texas concert presales were executed throughSeatGeek.

The previous night, my friends and I negotiated our budget ceiling. It wasreported that non-VIP tickets would max out at $449, but I’ve been burned bydynamic pricing too many times to enter a ticket sale unprepared for pricegouging. I opened up my presale link on two computers and my phone in hopes ofincreasing my chances of getting through the queue. As I scrolled Twitter toget tips from Swifties on the East Coast, panic set in.

Many fans attempting to snag tickets took to Twitter to voice theirfrustrations — while some made it through to purchase, many were met with aqueue indicating “2,000+ people ahead of you.” To make matters worse,Ticketmaster then “temporarily paused” the queue, leaving hopefuls in limbowith no indication of when they may be let through.

As soon as the clock struck 9, I was redirected to SeatGeek’s virtual line.Unlike Ticketmaster, there was no telling where I was in the queue: the words“you’re in line” were accompanied by an unmoving orange progress bar.

At 9:09 am, one of my computers displayed a blurry image of the seat map. Ittook another four minutes for the interface to actually load. I immediatelynoticed that I was assigned March 18, with no option to try for the March 17show, despite Ticketmaster’s assurance that the verified fan presale wouldapply to any dates for your selected venue. I decided not to waste time overthe date, instead locking in on the very front of the pit, choosing four seatsas close to the stage as possible.

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I was brought to another screen, ready to pay… only to be told my selectedseats were already snatched up. It took another five minutes for the seat mapto load again — and I immediately noticed that the seats I had just attemptedto buy were still listed as available on the map. I ignored them and triedagain in section after section, repeating the “already taken” experience threemore times.

My boss called me in the middle of my ticket-induced meltdown. After anattempt to discuss the workday was interrupted by my screams of expletives, wecut things short. “Get your tickets and call me after you’re done,” he said,clearly recognizing I was in a frenzy.

At 9:18 am, I finally managed to pick some seats that were _actually_available in the front section of the pit. I was, to borrow a phrase fromSwift, “The Lucky One,” snagging four tickets at $429 each (plus the dreadedservice fees, adding $99.14 to each ticket).

Eras Tour Tickets

After soaking in the glory of being my friend group’s hero (and finallycalling my boss back), I texted another pal buying tickets for an LA show.“Ticketmaster has not let me into the waiting room, which was supposed to beopen 20 minutes ago,” he said. After 20 minutes, he was pushed to a sale at 3pm PT.

Ticketmaster addressed the crash in a statement on social media, citing“historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets.”The seller delayed the Capital One presale by a full day, moving it toWednesday at 2 pm local venue time.

Moreover, fans who had tickets to Swift’s canceled “Lover Fest” were promised“preferred access” to the sale, but it seems that fell to the wayside duringthe purchase process, with many reporting they still waited in the generalpresale queue.

A quick glance at StubHub shows that seats in my section now range from $1,999to $12,825. If the verified fan system was intended to stop scalpers fromreselling tickets at a premium… it didn’t. It’s curious that Ticketmaster,which controlled the number of verified fans, wouldn’t have the means tosupport the sale.

Obviously, tickets for Swift’s concerts are a hot commodity, but no one shouldbe forced to take days off work and wait in hours-long lines with no end insight just to see their favorite artist. While I’m grateful I’ll be able toattend the “Eras Tour,” I can’t stop thinking about how poorly this sale went— and this is far from the first strike against these sellers.

Ticketmaster and SeatGeek: You’re the problem, it’s you.

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After weeks of public silence, rappers Quavo and Offset paid tribute to theirMigos band mate Takeoff, who was killed Nov.1 in a shooting outside a Houstonbowling alley.

Offset on Tuesday wrote a tribute on Instagram and said posting aboutTakeoff’s death “still doesn’t feel like reality,” largely echoing hisemotional remarks at his band mate’s funeral at State Farm Arena in Atlantalast Friday.

“Dear Take,” he began the post. “The pain you have left me with is unbearable.My heart is shattered and I have so many things to say, but I can’t find theright words. I’ve been going to sleep and waking up hoping that all of this isa dream, but it’s reality, and reality feels like a nightmare.”

“Every time you would see me, you didnt give me a dap you gave me a hug. Iwish I could hug you one last time. Laugh one last time. Smoke one one lasttime. Perform one last time,” he continued. “I know someone with a soul likeyours is in heaven now. I hope you can see how much we love and miss you. Youhave left a hole in my heart that will never be filled. Give me strength, giveyour brothers strength, give your family strength.”

Concluding the post, Offset wrote: “Even though I know you will always be withus, throw me a lil sign or a beautiful dream. I love you forever, 4L andafter.”

The Grammy-nominated Atlanta-based hip-hop trio Migos consisted of Takeoff —real name Kirshnik Khari Ball — his uncle Quavo, 31, and his cousin Offset,30. The chart-topping hip-hop trio is known for hits such as ” Walk It TalkIt,” “Stir Fry” and “Bad and Boujee.” Takeoff, whose star was on the risebefore the shooting, had been there as the “peaceful” and “chill” member ofthe act.

According to TMZ, Takeoff and Quavo were playing dice at a private party at abowling alley on Nov. 1 when an altercation broke out and someone opened fire.Police said that two other people were also injured and taken to hospitals inprivate vehicles.

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The Harris County medical examiner ruled the death of Takeoff a homicide daysafter the shooting. The “T-Shirt” rapper, died of “penetrating gunshot woundsof head and torso into arm,” according to a preliminary autopsy reportreviewed by The Times. (The report is not yet completed.)

Quavo, who also performed with Takeoff as the duo Unc & Phew, posted hislengthy tribute to his nephew on Saturday, reflecting on their time togetheras children and as adults, highlighting Takeoff’s demeanor, humor, tripletflow and even his lack of punctuality that was dubbed “Takeoff Time.”

“You never competed with me, we were always on the same team,” he wrote.

Quavo said that as kids they dreamed of being professional WWE wrestlersbefore they thought about pursuing hip-hop and noted that Takeoff was “superquiet though.”

“Quietest in the room, always been like that!!!” he wrote. “Nothing everreally bothered Take and he didn’t bother anybody. He was the most unbotheredperson in the world. He never got mad, he never raised his voice, and when hedid he silenced the room because what Take said was law and he wasn’t changinghis mind fa na, not even Unc could.

“This whole time I’ve been trying to figure out what you really are to mebecause nephew wasn’t it. We hated that word ‘nephew’ or when they said ‘Uncand Phew’ cuz we always knew we were way closer than that and it made me feelold too,” Quavo continued. “But I knew you weren’t my brother cuz you are mysister’s son, so I couldn’t say brother. Now I finally get it… you are OURangel watching me and watching us this whole time in living form making sureEVERYONE FELT UR LOVE AND HUGS while u were here and u made our dreams cometrue.

“You will continue to send your blessings down from HEAVEN and I will continueto keep your name alive as long as I live,” he vowed.

Quavo and Offset were among many musicians who mourned the loss of Takeoff onsocial media and at his Atlanta funeral.

The arena was transformed into a church for the three-hour sendoff andfeatured performances from Justin Bieber, Chlöe Bailey and Yolanda Adams, apoem by Drake, and speeches from Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and the foundersof Migos’ label, Quality Control Music, CNN reported.

Rapper and record executive Gucci Mane on Tuesday released a musical tributetitled “Letter to Takeoff” as a sendoff to the Migos rapper and a number offallen hip-hop stars, including XXXTentacion and PnB Rock.

Other recording artists who paid tribute to Takeoff include Kid Cudi, Ja Rule,Desiigner, Chika, Rae Sremmurd, Rick Ross, Keri Hilson, Rauw Alejandro andHalle Bailey.

“Time to give me my flowers, you know what I mean?” Takeoff said in a recentpodcast episode of “Drink Champs,” which went viral in the wake of his death.“I don’t want ’em later on when I ain’t here. … I want ’em right now, bro.”

Matthew Perry Credits friends for saving his life during his darkest days ofaddiction to alcohol and pills, but an intervention held by the cast amid hisstruggles was “not going to work” in getting him sober.

The 53-year-old actor, whose memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big TerribleThing , __ is __ at the top of bestseller list, spoke about recovery withElizabeth Vargas for her Heart of the Matter podcast for Partnership to EndAddiction.

Perry, who had his first drink at 14 and was already struggling when he landed_friends_ in 1994, he said “stifled the drinking a little bit when I got thatjob because for the whole time I was like, ‘You can’t screw this up. This isthe best job in the world.’ … And the job saved my life in many ways. But … Iwas drinking every night. Then it got worse and worse and worse and worse.” Hewent to rehab for the first time at age 27 “because I weighed 130 pounds and Iwas very, very ill … and on friends at the same time.”

His co-star and friend Jennifer Aniston called him out on his drinking,telling him they could smell it. He told Vargas that she wasn’t the only one.

“Lisa [Kudrow] said something” as well, Perry revealed. Then “at one pointeverybody was in my dressing room after a run-through that I had been reallyshaky in” for an intervention. “But that’s not going to work,” he said of thewell-meaning effort.”You need a professional. You need somebody who reallyknows [addiction]. Because what people don’t really understand is if there’san intervention, the only thing you have to do to end an intervention is justsay: ‘No. No, get out of my house.’ And then it’s over. If you have aprofessional, somebody who does this for a living, and an interventionist anda plane waiting and then you go to rehab, that’s the way to do it. But 50people saying, ‘You should quit drinking.’ I can ‘t quit drinking. What areyou talking about? And I can’t let you know that I can’t stop drinking becausethen you’ll try to stop me from drinking.”

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The “Friends” crew: Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Matt LeBlanc as JoeyTribbiani, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing,Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller. (Photo: NBCUPhoto Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Perry recalled going home and drinking after the first time Aniston privatelycalled him out on his addiction. “I couldn’t stop,” he said. Aniston continuedtrying to help him, a reflection of the “lovely person she is,” Perry said.She also tried tough love. “The second time I came back from rehab, she said,’I’ve been really mad at you,'” because his addiction had “put the show injeopardy.” Perry recalled replying, “‘Honey, if you know what I’ve beenthrough, you wouldn’t be mad at me.’ But she had — and why would she? — noidea what I’d gone through to be sober at that time.”

Perry estimates he spent $9 million to get sober. He has been to 65 detoxcenters. while on friends — the show which paid him $1.14 million an episodein its final years — he would steal pills from real estate open houses to feedhis 55-Vicodin-a-day pill habit. At one point, he had a 2% chance of livingafter his colon exploded due to Oxycontin abuse. Even after that, he hadanother brush with death — when heart stopped for five minutes during surgery.

Perry reiterated while talking to talked to Vargas, who is also in recoveryfrom alcoholism, that addiction “is a disease.” He said when that finallyclicked — that it is actually a sickness — it helped him in his recovery.

It was when he was taking 55 Vicodin a day and “I was very thin, very sick,”he recalled. “And they put me in this office with a religious fellow. I don’tknow exactly what he was, but he was talking to me … and the last thing hesaid was, ‘And it’s not your fault.’ And I went, “What? Say that again?” Andhe said, “It’s not your fault. … You have a disease.” I mean, I can’t tell youwhat that meant to me. I didn’t know. I just thought I was weak and I neededthis thing that other people didn’t need. And then I started to learn that itwas a disease and I was so freed by that.”

And it’s a disease that runs in Perry’s family. He said his father, actor JohnBennett Perry, also struggled. However, they had very different addictionjourneys.

“My dad was pretty much how I learned to drink,” Perry said. “He would havelike five vodka tonics and then bring the sixth one into bed. But he alwayswoke up at 7 o’clock in the morning and … went to work. He was a veryfunctional alcoholic.”

When he stopped drinking, it was like a switch.

“One night he had one too many drinks and he fell through a bush or somethinglike that and the next day his wife said, ‘Do you really want to keep livingthis way?’ And he went for a walk” to consider his circumstances “and quitdrinking [that day]. I’ve been to 6,000 AA meetings. I’ve been to 14 treatmentcenters. I’ve been to a mental institution. And you quit by going for awalk?!” he said.

Perry is currently 18 months sober. “I couldn’t write this book unless I wasreally strong in my sobriety, which I am now,” he said, “And I’m very grateful

The world is hard enough already. With her song ‘It’s Not Just Me, It’sEverybody’, Weyes Blood makes a warm case for more compassion and attentionfor others. Rising from a period of overwhelming developments, we have becomestrangers to each other, she sings. “People are hurting, it’s not just me.”

A tearjerker? Only if you also consider the complete works of Carole King andThe Carpenters as tearjerkers. Weyes Blood’s new album And In The Darkness,Hearts Aglow is of a timeless beauty.

Weyes Blood, stage name of Natalie Mering (34), sounds like Karen Carpenter’sartistic heir, soothing and yet so urgent. She grew up in California in amusical family. Father Sumner Mering released an album of pointy power pop in1980, produced by legendary Phil Spector sidekick Jack Nitszche.

Natalie studied music for a year after high school at the University ofPortland, Oregon. Her first band was called Satanized, far removed from thePentecostal ideas she received in her youth. In 2008 she briefly played basswith the Portland noise group Jackie-O Motherfucker.

The heavy punk noise of the past seems difficult to reconcile with themelodic, carefully arranged music she makes now. But at the age of fifteen sherecognized her life path in the novel Wise Blood from 1952 by FlanneryO’Connor and wrote songs under the names Wise Blood and Weyes Bluhd andreleased them independently. In O’Connor’s book, a war veteran returns to hisfamily home to find it abandoned, only to disown his pious background byfounding an anti-religious cult. The “wise blood” in the book title refers tothe idea that everyone should seek wisdom within himself and does not needspiritual guidance.

If Titanic Rising was the first, dystopian part of a trilogy, the hopeful> third comes next.”

Old soul

Noise was the future, thought Natalie Mering when she toured the world withJackie-O Motherfucker at the age of twenty. “I believed in the power ofexperimental music and improvisation. The performances were great, but themusic could not be sold as a desirable product for the radio or the recordstore. The public asked for more manageable music.”

As a soloist, Natalie Mering immersed herself in her love for the classic popof the 1940s and 1950s, when the Tin Pan Alley song factory was still animportant factor. “Through those influences I ended up with Harry Nilsson andJoni Mitchell, celebrities from the seventies who were also inspired by thatolder music. I only got to know The Carpenters when people pointed out thesimilarities between my voice and Karen Carpenter’s. What we have in common isthat we both sing quite low. I absorbed all that music, including from thelesser-known singer Judee Sill.”

She’s an old soul, she thinks. “I like to sing, not to shout. In California Ihad learned about the surf culture and the music of the Beach Boys. I was alifeguard for a while.

“Hollywood entered my life through old black-and-white films with stars likeJudy Garland. The safe choice, my mother thought, because there were no nudescenes and swear words. The orchestral music from those films made a bigimpression; you can hear that in my music. To The Simpsons or a horrormovie, I crawled out the window to watch TV at a friend’s house. That’forbidden’ horror gave me a lifelong obsession with the dark sides of life.”

Fear and loneliness

On her penultimate album Titanic Rising (2019) Natalie Mering predicted thedoom of the world. On her new album, she finds herself in the middle of thedoom-laden predictions she made back then. Fear and loneliness reign supremein her lyrics. The pandemic, the lockdown and being unable to perform gave hertime to think. “Many of the problems we face now, racism, the politicalmalaise in the US and global warming, have a long history. The pandemic was analarm bell. My lyrics became more realistic, as I felt the effects of thelimitations we all had to live with. if Titanic Rising was the first,dystopian part of a trilogy, I am now marking time. The hopeful third partcomes next.”

Prominent contributors to the new album include Jonathan Rado of Foxygen,brothers Michael and Brian D’Addario of The Lemon Twigs, and minimal producerOneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin) with whom she wrote the song “God TurnMe Into A Flower.” With Lana Del Ray she sang the Joni Mitchell cover ‘ForFree’ on Del Ray’s album Chemtrails Over The Country Club. “I have tocherish that collaboration. Everyone leads such a busy life that we rarelyhave time for that. It’s a lonely profession, pop musician. My ideal is tomake music without ego. I channel the information that comes to me to distillbeauty from it.”

She likes contrasts, says Mering. “Orchestral music with an electronic twist,or a beautiful melody that is disturbed by a thunderstorm. The trick is tomake those seemingly irreconcilable forces point in the same direction. Therecording studio is the laboratory, but the job isn’t done until I can playthe songs live. The lockdown has been a terribly frustrating time. That themusic couldn’t breathe kept gnawing at me. The real challenge, if there is anaudience, will only come now.”

_

And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow appears November 18 at Sub Pop. WeyesBlood plays February 6 in Paradiso, Amsterdam. Inc: weyesblood.com

Taylor Swift performs on Saturday, November 13, 2021 Credit – Photo By: WillHeath/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Taylor Swift is going on tour for the first time since 2018. In that time, theglobal superstar has released four albums: Foliage , Folklore ,__Evermore , and midnights along with two re-releases of her pastprojects: Fearless (Taylor ‘s Version) and Red (Taylor ‘s Version), eachfeaturing new songs “from the vault.” So when Swift announced “The Eras Tour”in November, set to kick off in 2023 and highlight the distinct sounds acrossher discography, the race to get tickets began.

But Swifties looking to attend the stadium tour are having major problemssecuring tickets due in large part to a system from Ticketmaster. CalledVerified Fan, the system was implemented to prevent scalper bots from buyingup an already limited amount of tickets and reselling them. As Swift and otherartists like Bruce Springsteen, Paramore, and Blink-182 plan tours for 2023,the limited number of tickets available through Verified Fan has resulted insoaring prices and rising anxiety among prospective concertgoers.

Read more: _Let ‘s Break Down the Easter Eggs and Influences of TaylorSwift’s _midnights

Per Ticketmaster, Verified Fan has been able to combat resellers creatingskyrocketing prices after presales. “For big events, more than 30 percent oftickets might end up being resold,” Ticketmaster executive president DavidMarcus told POPSUGAR. “But with [Harry Styles’s 2017] tour, we saw less thanfive percent of tickets being resold for the shows, and that’s a hugeimprovement.”

Tickets for the Eras tour went on presale Nov. 15, and the Ticketmasterwebsite crashed 30 minutes before the sale was supposed to go live.

Here’s why fans are so frustrated with Ticketmaster and some of the ways thatSwifties can attempt to grab tickets.

What is a verified fan?

In 2017, Ticketmaster introduced Verified Fan, a program that requires usersto input their personal information within a registration window. Beforetickets go on sale, verified fans will get a notification telling them whetherthey’ve beenselectedto get access to a presale code or whether they werewaitlisted.Anyone buying tickets for a major artist knows that getting access to thepresale is the best chance to get good seats and avoid steep prices at thehands of resellers.

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Read more: Why Everyone ‘s Mad at Ticketmaster Right Now

But since its implementation, ticket buyers have noted issues with VerifiedFan, saying they have not been able to get tickets to the shows they want toattend.

Why has Verified Fan been causing a problem for concertgoers?

Many fans are not able to get verified. According to Ticketmaster, VerifiedFan is supposed to combat the ever-growing number of bots on the site that buyup large quantities of tickets and then resell them for high prices. Thecompany claims in a statement that artists are losing money to resellers “whohave no investment in the event going well or any of the people working behindthe scenes to bring the event to life.” They continue, “As such, EventOrganizers have looked to market-based pricing to recapture that lostrevenue.”

Although the new system was meant to make the ticket-buying process morestreamlined, many fans are saying they are not able to get verified and can’tget tickets to the presale. They either have to find tickets from resellers orjust not go at all.

The problem has the attention of national politicians including President JoeBiden and New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell, who have spoken out in support ofcustomers. In a letter to Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, Pascrelldemanded the company be more transparent on “the sale, pricing, anddistribution of live-event tickets.”

“The verified pre-sale of tickets each morning has caused high levels ofstress and frustration for our constituents as they see tickets disappear fromthe primary marketplace website as if purchased, only to reappear at higherprices,” his wrote.

Biden promised that he would be going after “hidden junk fees” thatTicketmaster adds to a buyer’s purchase.

What is your best chance of snagging a ticket?

Along with waiting to see if you’re one of the few chosen to be given thecoveted Verified Fan presale code, Capital One cardholders (debit or credit)had the opportunity to provide the first six digits of their card number byNov. 9 in order to be immediately granted access to an exclusive verifiedpresale starting Nov. 15 to Nov. 17.

If you didn’t sign up for the presale or don’t have a Capital One card, youcan wait in the ticketing line queue the day of the general sale or purchasetickets from secondary markets where the prices may be higher than onTicketmaster.

The general sale begins on Friday, Nov. 18. Other than that, you’re on your

Zoë Kravitz is opening up about her relationship with “wonderful human”Channing Tatum.

The pair — brought together for her directorial project Pussy Island inwhich he stars — have been linked since early 2021. However, it wasn’t untilthat summer, when she was snapped by paparazzi catching a lift on the back ofhis BMX bike, that the news was out.

“He’s just a wonderful human,” the 33-year-old told GQ. “He makes me laughand we both really love art and talking about art and the exploration of whywe do what we do. We love to watch a film and break it down and talk about itand challenge each other.”

Pussy Island filmed in the Yucatán jungle for three months over this pastsummer and she admitted that while she got charged up by the creative andcollaborative aspects of making the film, it was also stressful being at thehelm and carrying it all on her shoulders. She credited the Magic Mike starfor being a calming presence.

“Whether it was making me tea or pouring me a drink or going to whip someoneinto shape or whatever—he really was my protector and it was really wonderfuland sweet. I think if you can do something like that together, it’s a goodtest . And we came out even stronger,” said Kravitz, who is now half-waythrough editing the film.

Kravitz said that they tried to keep the relationship “sacred and private” foras long as they could, “so that you don’t have to even think about what theworld thinks about it.” But after denying early rumors that they had coupledup, a paparazzo infamously captured them in Manhattan’s East Village as hepedaled her on his small set of wheels and her arms were wrapped around them.

TheBatman actress explained to the outlet that it was the first time theyhad even gone outside together. She was walking over to her writing partner’shome, a few blocks away, and he was going to tag along on his bike. On theway, she was overheated due to her outfit choice, jeans on the hot summer day,so he offered her a lift.

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“I was sweating and he was like, ‘Get on the bike, I’ll ride you over and youcan relax,'” she explained. They spotted the pap along the way and photosquickly went viral, becoming an instant meme.

Channing Tatum attends the UK screening of The Lost City at CineworldLeicester Square on March 31, 2022 in London, England. (Photo: KarwaiTang/WireImage)

Kravitz also spoke about her brief marriage to Karl Glusman ending just priorto her relationship with Tatum. She said that she pressured herself intogetting married in 2019 when inside she had self-doubt.

“I just learned to think about who I am and what I want,” the daughter ofKravitz and Lisa Bonet told the outlet. “You meet someone who’s amazing andwants to marry you, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If there’s nothingwrong, then why wouldn’t you do it? You love them and that’s what you do.”

The truth was, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be married or have children.

“It’s a hard question to ask yourself: ‘Maybe I don’t want the thing that I’msupposed to want, a marriage, children, any of it. I don’t know if I want thatat all,'” she said. “That’s an uncomfortable question, especially for a womanto ask herself.” (Tatum is also divorced — from Jenna Dewan, with whom heshares a 9-year-old daughter, Everly.)

Kravitz said that having fun in her 20s, she felt there was “somethingromantic and exciting” about settling down. “Like, Oh, I’m an adult. I stayhome and cook now. I bake bread.” Then I think you do that for a couple yearsand you realize there’s still a lot of life to be had… I’m done romanticizingthe ‘old is domestic’ thing. It’s cute for a minute and then it’s not.”

The article also talked about the making of Pussy Island and her pastprojects, including her creative input making TheBatman and disappoint abouthow High Fidelity played out. Additionally, Kravitz’s shared some tidbitsabout her friendship with Taylor Swift, including how when she was in Londonmaking Batman during the pandemic, they were in the same “pod.” Kravitz co-wrote and provided background vocals for “Lavender Haze” on Swift’s