HOT: No Joke
Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile has pulled out of an appearance at a conference in Washington DC because the event will also feature former homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen as a speaker. Carlile was to appear at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit today (Oct. 22) but announced on Monday that she would not be there as a form of protest over Nielsen’s role in enforcing the Trump administration’s drastic crackdown on immigration at the U.S. Southern border. “I don’t think that human rights violators and merit-based abusers of displaced people should be given a platform to ‘reimagine’ history. Ever,” Carlile said via Twitter. “Respectfully, I absolutely cannot support Kirstjen Nielsen having a voice among the most powerful and inspiring women in America. Her access to power is righteously over.” Nielsen — who left her post in April, but had previously defended Trump’s policy of separating immigrating children from their families at the border that many viewed as unnecessary and cruel — previously dropped out of an appearance at an event presented by The Atlantic magazine due to similar backlash.
With respect and gratitude. pic.twitter.com/rhKpRYf6gF
— Brandi Carlile (@brandicarlile) October 21, 2019
WARM: About a Sweater
The vintage pea-soup-green sweater Kurt Cobain wore during the recording of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged episode/album in 1993 is heading back to auction. The sweater was auctioned off for nearly $140,000 four years ago, despite early forecasts that it would only fetch around $ 60,000. The sweater reportedly hasn’t been washed in decades — neither by Cobain after he bought it (likely at a thrift store), nor the subsequent owners who sought to preserve it — so it apparently reeks and has stains (along with on-brand cigarette burns). Writer Brenna Ehrlich wrote a great overview of the sweater’s six-decade journey for Rolling Stone recently. Ehrlich spoke with the garment’s two most recent owners, including the Cobains’ former nanny, Jackie Farry, who put the sweater up for auction four years ago to help pay for medical costs from her decade-long battle with cancer. Farry said she got permission from Cobain’s family before selling it: “I remember thinking and saying that if Kurt knew the situation I was in, he would definitely want me to sell it. They agreed.” The ratty old sweater goes up for auction on Oct. 25.
COLD: Lizzo Bites?
The accusations of plagiarism plaguing Lizzo of late seem like good fodder for a response song on her next album. Multiple people have already claimed to have first come up with the line “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch” from her huge hit “Truth Hurts,” which recently became the longest-running Hip Hop song to hold the top spot on the singles chart. Now, singer CeCe Peniston has jumped in to say she feels as if Lizzo’s song “Juice” incorporates the vocal-phrasing (what some are calling “ad-libs”) she used on her song “Finally.” While Peniston didn’t say she was taking Lizzo to court, in an Instagram post featuring a video of both songs side by side she used the hashtag “#copyrightinfringement,” so at the very least it’s a passive-aggressive threat of legal action.
This article appears in Oct 16-29, 2019.