HOT: Love and Music Trump Hate
London and Manchester, U.K. have brought out the best and worst of humanity recently. The worst were the terrorist attacks near London Bridge and Ariana Grande’s Manchester concert, but the best was the massive Grande-led benefit concert featuring an all-star Pop lineup and raising more than $13 million for the British Red Cross and the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund. Even if you aren’t a fan of the musicians, the One Love Manchester event was a touching reminder of the huge power music still has. Some “worsts” did sneak back in — apparently several buttholes tried to score the free tickets offered to those who went to Grande’s initial concert, Donald Trump tweeted a lot of incredibly dumb things about London’s mayor, etc. — but the U.K. spirit is stronger than idiocy.
You can stream the whole One Love Manchester event below. Go here if you'd like to donate to the cause.
WARM: This Means GWAR
Comedian Kathy Griffin suffered major backlash over a photo of her holding a fake severed Trump head, stirring fake outrage (from conservatives), faux agreement with those fake outraged and at least a little bit of actual anger from costumed alien-monster band GWAR! Actually, even that anger was fake — the band’s Beefcake The Mighty claimed the comedian stole GWAR’s gag because the group has been fake-decapitating Trump during concerts for a while now. Mr. Mighty later complimented the quality of Griffin’s severed head and invited her to a GWAR show for more fake-beheadings, adding (with love), “Then we’d like to kill you.” (After it was publicized in the media, Griffin's lawyer made a point of name-checking GWAR, Marilyn Manson and Municipal Waste — who've all referenced violence against the president in their art — to suggest a sexist double-standard is in play.)
COLD: Rowdy Return
After Beheadgate, Griffin understandably won’t be getting hired for any high-exposure jobs anytime soon, but maybe she just needs to lay low for a few years and wait for CNN to come crawling back. Hank Williams Jr.’s “All My Rowdy Friends” was pulled as the Monday Night Football theme in 2011 after ESPN cut ties with the Country singer following his comparison of then-President Obama to Hitler in a TV interview. But now Trump is president, nothing means anything anymore and we’re all going to die — so sure, why not bring back that awful song for the upcoming NFL season?