Phone-Free Concerts Can Restore the Power of Live MusicArtists on tour tend to follow a basic principle: the flashier the concert, the better. And with good reason. As ticket costs skyrocket — reaching an average of $136 in 2024, up 50% from 2019 — fans expect performers to deliver a TikTok-worthy spectacle to justify the eye-watering prices.
UFC at the White House Is Cringe. The Sport Isn’tStrange things frequently happen in the sport of mixed martial arts. But when the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s cage door closes this weekend, it will be stranger than most.
‘Scary Movie’ Cements Hollywood’s Spoof Comedy RenaissanceWhen Scream 7 arrived in theaters in February, the Ghostface turning heads wasn’t from the horror hit itself but from Scary Movie. The trailer for the long-running parody series’ sixth installment played before opening-weekend screenings of Scream 7. After an enthusiastic fan response, star, co-writer and producer Marlon Wayans announced that the film’s release would be moved up one week to June 5.
America’s Politics Are Reaching Peak ParanoiaOne of the most striking things about contemporary America is the popularity of conspiracy theories. The list of absurd things that “everybody knows” gets ever longer. If you’re on the right, you “know” that the Deep State is subverting the administration of President Donald Trump; that the global elite is set on undermining American sovereignty; and that lockdown during Covid was a dry run for totalitarian rule. If you’re on the left, you “know” that Putin has “kompromat” on Trump, probably inv
Jim Clyburn Survived Redistricting, but the CBC May Be DecimatedYou can’t really think about South Carolina or national politics without thinking about Representative Jim Clyburn. First elected to Congress in 1992, Clyburn twice served as majority whip and had a big hand in rescuing Joe Biden’s flailing 2020 presidential campaign. His annual fish fry is a folksy, can’t-miss test for presidential hopefuls, like Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Representative Ro Khanna, who attended this year.
SpaceX-Anthropic-OpenAI Is a Cocktail With a HangoverThat’s SpaceX out of the way. Next, investors will have to absorb the artificial-intelligence titans behind the Claude and ChatGPT chatbots, Anthropic PBC and OpenAI. It’s a heady cocktail for a market that isn’t used to swallowing initial public offerings of this size individually let alone in quick succession. How long will the aftereffects take to appear?