Astroworld & Anne Frank Updates
Mōrena lil shits!!
Yesterday was my first day back working in the office and holy shit I forgot how exhausting it was!! Guess what time I was asleep by last night?? 7:40PM! I couldn’t even get through my episode of Euphoria - that’s how sleepy I was. Fatigue aside, I wanna say a huge thank you to everyone who sent me a kind message about my lil Enzo yesterday. It’s an interesting phenomenon having pals that you've never met from all over the world consoling you about your cat, but honestly, it’s the loveliest and most comforting thing ever. You’re all really the best & I love you 🥺
Also, I just thought I’d fill you in on our flat’s recent obsession - those chocolate Christmas wafer things. You know… the ones that are shaped like straws and you can only get them during Christmas time? And they come in tins? Yeah, we’re just weirdly so obsessed with them right now. Not that you asked but #justlucethings.
Help pay my rent?? 🥺 — www.getrevue.co
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In today’s newsletter:
An Astroworld update
Who betrayed Anne Frank?
An NFT restaurant?
Harry Styles KILLED this cover
A British woman has died in the tsunami in Tonga
Rich dudes doubled their wealth during the pandemic
Hot or cold?
We have been successfully distracted from Astroworld
Yesterday Liv and I recorded our first episode of Culture Vulture for 2020 about the PR machine that fuels the Kardashians, and it was honestly one of the most fascinating episodes we’ve ever recorded (in your ears tomorrow!!) It would be hypocritical of us, however, to do a whole podcast episode about what the Kardashians are so desperately trying to cover up, without giving you an update on what we know about that very thing - Astroworld.
So about a month ago the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform announced that it is leading an investigation into Live Nation's role in the tragedy. Here’s the open letter the committee wrote to Michael Rapino, Live Nations CEO, about whether adequate steps were taken to prevent something like this in the first place.
And then yesterday it was announced that the FBI have partnered with Houston Police Detectives to create a portal urging those who have any photos or video taken at the concert to upload them. There’s been a bit of talk about why this has only happened two months on from the incident when people may have deleted footage, but it does take time to build a secure site like this, so at least it’s happening I guess?
While I was researching this, I also saw this article from Rolling Stone that flew pretty under the radar. It alleges that an email from the event’s promoters suggested employees wouldn’t be paid unless they gave up the right to sue Scoremore and Live Nation:
“In a peppy email filled with exclamation points, the manager made it sound like the staffers hired at a rate of $7.50 per hour to perform tasks such as wristband screening wouldn’t receive their paychecks unless they signed a revised employment contract releasing Scoremore and Live Nation from any liability.”
Hmmmm.
Anyway, amidst all of this (and the 420 other stories about the Kardashians that trickled out over summer to distract us from Astroworld) Travis Scott made his return to social media (which in 2022 means… his return to public life) without seeming to take any responsibility for what happened (despite the 300+ lawsuits that have been filed against either him, Drake, or the organisers.)
If you want to dive a little deeper into what actually happened at Astroworld, Nick and I recorded an episode of The Shit Show all about it, otherwise, keep your ears peeled (????) for tomorrows episode of Culture Vulture!
Travis Scott and the Astroworld tragedy, explained - The Shit Show — open.spotify.com
This weeks episode is dedicated to explaining and debunking what really went on at Travis Scott's Astroworld music festival where eight people died and hundreds were injured. Why did Travis continue to perform? Who is being held accountable? Were there people stabbing each other with needles in the crowd? We tell you what we know.
The worlds first NFT restaurant is coming to New York
Because of course it is! If you want to make sense of this, you can just picture a fancy social club, but in this case (for Flyfish Club), you can only get in if you own a certain digital token. According to Morning Brew, you need to be an owner of a “Flyfish digital token” to get their seafood menu; “and another, more exclusive token will get you into a special omakase room.”
This month, Flyfish sold 1,501 tokens to raise around $15 million for the venture (right now a token is trading for $22k USD minimum.)
Something tells me that this won’t be the last we see of NFT restaurants/social clubs/ other weird stuff that you could just buy a normal ticket/ membership/ reserve a table for.
Harry Styles killed this cover of Sledgehammer and you just need to watch it
77 years on, we might know who betrayed Anne Frank
A new investigation has identified a suspect who may have given up Anne Frank and her family to the Nazi’s, after she spent two years in hiding.
The BBC reports that a team including historians, an ex-FBI agent and computer algorithms, spent six years working on cracking this ‘cold case’ and said ‘Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish figure in Amsterdam, probably "gave up" the Franks to save his own family.’
"When van den Bergh lost all his series of protections exempting him from having to go to the camps, he had to provide something valuable to the Nazis that he's had contact with to let him and his wife at that time stay safe," former FBI agent Vince Pankoke told CBS 60 Minutes.
The team said it had struggled with the revelation that another Jewish person was probably the betrayer. But it also found evidence suggesting Otto Frank, Anne's father, may himself have known that and kept it secret.”
An update on the tsunami in Tonga
Though it’s still proving extremely difficult to make communication with Tonga, there have been a few updates since I wrote about it yesterday. First, a British woman, Angela Glover, is the first person to be confirmed dead after she tried to rescue her dogs from the tsunami, according to her brother.
Second, both New Zealand and Australia have sent surveillance flights to find out more, with New Zealand saying there had been "significant damage" along the western coast of Tongatapu, Tonga's main island. The Red Cross, however, said that it isn’t looking as bad as what they had initially feared, but I’ll keep you updated!
The 10 richest men in the world saw their wealth double during the pandemic :)
In some extremely chill news, the 10 richest dudes in the world have seen their global wealth double to $1.5 TRILLION since the start of the global pandemic following a surge in share and property prices. Naturally, this is widening the gap (gaping chasm) between rich and poor and honestly, I don’t really have much analysis for this that we haven’t already discussed here!
Would you rather be too hot or too cold?
64% of you would rather be too cold
36% of you would rather be too hot
People were taken hostage at a Synagogue, here's what we know (The Cut)
How Encanto Explains America (The Atlantic)
A hack to watch TikTok hands-free (Mashable)
Being horny on main (VICE)
Kendrick Lamar is making a film with South Park creators (Dazed)
You can listen to us talk about Sex & The City & Josh Bassett on Culture Vulture, about THE WORLD on The Shit Show or watch us explain the internet on Extremely Online.
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