HOT: Dead for Super Bowl Halftime?
After rumors about the forthcoming Super Bowl halftime show began circulating that suggested Bruno Mars (who just did the big gig two years ago) had been asked to perform again this year, a presumable Deadhead named Douglas Machado decided to rally fans to sign a petition asking that the Grateful Dead be asked instead. As he points out, it makes sense — it’s the 50th Super Bowl and The Dead just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Plus, Super Bowl 50 is being held in San Francisco, birthplace of the band, so the musicians and crew would probably have a place to crash after the game, saving the NFL some money for lodging.
WARM: Naming Right
After backlash over their chosen band name, members of Canadian Indie Pop/Rock band Viet Cong announced they will change their moniker soon. As soon as it was made apparent that some were offended, the group seemed open to feedback and dialogue about the matter, admitting online earlier this year to being naïve when the name was chosen and never meaning to “trivialize the atrocities or violence that occurred on both sides of the Vietnam War” (the real “Viet Cong” fought against the U.S. and South Korea in the war). Donald Trump would call the band politically-correct losers for the move (or maybe not, since it’s a fairly anti-U.S. name? He’d probably praise and condemn them, just to be safe), but it’s nice to see the musicians be sensitive about the issue.
COLD: Belated Beatles Backlash
John Lennon’s fans, family and friends are probably wishing the late Beatle would have been a little more politically correct during a concert in which Lennon appears to be ridiculing learning-disabled people while Paul McCartney is trying to get the audience members to clap (probably for a break from all that shrieking). Footage from the concert, in which eventual justice-warrior Lennon is seen making faces, slurring his words and mockingly clapping, surfaced on the British TV show It Was Alright in the 1960s. Many fans expressed shock on social media, and a spokesperson for Mencap, a charity for the learning-disabled in the U.K., while acknowledging that times have changed, called the clip “painful to watch.”
