Ok, Let Me Be Frank (Ocean)

+ Bel Chimes In! Yay!

BESTIES!!! This newsy is hitting you later than usual for a few reasons - ONE - because I’m in Wellington to go to THE 1975 TONIGHT (hence the replaced Harry GIF today)!!!! You better believe I’ve tried everything under the sun to interview them for y’all (and for me) but so far, to no avail. But that's ok!! I just wanna scream Love It If We Made It at the top of my lungs and forget all my worries for an hour or so tonight (and then do it all again on Friday!)

The other reason I’m late is because I just recorded a chaotic episode of Culture Vulture for you with the WONDERFUL Laura, from the floor of my little brother’s Wellington flat. It’s a lifestyle this job, and one that I certainly wouldn’t trade for the world.

Anyway, I’ll be keeping Close Friends in the loop ALL day with my efforts to accidentally bump into Matty Healy (they’ve already seen my plans) so jump over there for more inside info 𓆩♡𓆪

• Let’s talk about Frank Ocean at Coachella

• HUUUUGE PODCAST REC FOR ANYONE WHO LOVES A GOSSIP

• Bel Chimes In: Are you... embracing your ordcore enough?

• 🗺Around the world🗺

  • After days of outrage over the shooting of a Black teen, officials charge the gunman

  • Fox News settles Dominion defamation case for $787.5m

• Do you prefer hard cover books or paperback books?

Let’s talk about Frank Ocean at Coachella

People seem to be reeeeally upset with Frank Ocean after his set at Coachella was not what they expected. As someone who thinks Frank is an INCRED artist, but not a stan of his per se, it’s been SO interesting to see the two types of videos that have been coming across my TikTok FYP. A few of them have been videos of him gorgeously singing ‘Godspeed’ and ‘Self Control’ (and the comments are all super posi) but the rest have been videos of people discussing their extreme disappointment in the set.

The top two articles when I searched ‘Frank Ocean’ were ‘Why Was Frank Ocean’s Coachella Set Such a Disappointing Mess? (Variety) and ‘Frank Ocean at Coachella review – a rollercoaster ending in disappointment’ (The Guardian.) And from my research (watching videos and reading reviews from people who were there) it seems people are disappointed for a few reasons:

• The set started an hour late (not uncommon but also, for your first show in almost six years…. c’mon)

• There was a last-minute cancellation of a planned YouTube live stream for the show

• Frank wasn’t very visible on stage - he was always being obscured by equipment or dancers

• The set itself was…. lacklustre and seemed to be more of a DJ set with remixes??

  • “…overall, the energy was low; he and the band were obscured by a battery of people walking in a circle around the stage; and the pacing was bizarre: a seemingly random DJ set was dropped into the the middle, leading many fans to think his performance was over. It also started an hour late.”

Since the performance, a few different sources have come out offering explanations for why it was… so bad I guess?

One reason is that he was apparently meant to have an ‘elaborate stage production involving an ice rink and a battery of skaters” which was built, rehearsed for several days, and then abruptly called off on Sunday afternoon when the festival was already underway. 

From Variety:

“Citing “sources,” the Festive Owl wrote: “Frank decided at the last minute that he no longer wanted it at all. All of the people walking around him at the start of the performance were actually ice skaters, had been practicing for weeks, and were supposed to be skating as part of the production. Coachella had to deconstruct the approved stage (that had been planned and signed off on for months in advance) + melt the entire ice rink and then set it up how Frank decided today with no warning. Which is what you ended up seeing, and caused the hour-long delay. This all happened when doors had already open for Sunday, and people were securing their spots to see him. If the last minute changes weren’t made he wouldn’t have performed at all — leaving the festival without a closing headliner.” Variety sources support the basics of this report.”

Or it could have been an ankle injury???

Also from Variety:

“The reports in TMZ and Rolling Stone — which published at around the same time Monday afternoon — cite a source as saying that production on Ocean’s performance “was adjusted at the last minute to account for an ankle injury the singer sustained during on-site rehearsals in the week leading up to the festival,” according to Rolling Stone, with TMZ adding that the incident took place not during actual rehearsals but while he was riding one of the bicycles that artists and staff use to get around the sprawling Coachella grounds. It added that the injury “was serious enough for doctors to advise Frank’s production be changed.”

In an era of Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, The 1975, and people who are doing the MOST at their shows (and we’re seeing it all over TikTok) I do think it’s harder and harder for audiences to EVER be happy, or to have our unrealistic expectations ‘met.’ BUT, in this case, when people are paying over $500 a ticket to see someone perform for the first time in 6 years, even a stripped-back set of his beautiful voice probs would have been enough!! Fingers crossed for weekend two!!

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HUUUUGE PODCAST REC FOR ANYONE WHO LOVES A GOSSIP

This section is brought to you by our besties at Shameless 𓆩♡𓆪

Ok, so you already know how much we’re obsessed with the podcast Shameless - but have you heard about their other pod???? It’s called everybody has a secret, it’s hosted by Annabelle Lee (who produces Shameless) and it’s all about SPILLING SECRETS. Literally - every episode is about a different never-been-told secret. 

You all know me, and you know I fucking looooove chatting shit, so hearing stories from their listeners about infidelity, stealing, wild family dramas… it’s so up my alley, and I reckon it’s up yours too.

Season three is now dropping - with new episodes every Friday morning. And if you want my rec (I know you do) start with ‘the brother!!’ 

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Bel Chimes In: Are you... embracing your ordcore enough?

This section is written by my crush, the refreshing-as-a-house-chardonnay-on-a-steamy-day, Bel Hawkins. She also writes our Sunday newsletter ‘No News is Good News’ which all our paying supporters receive. Upgrade your plan to get her newsy here!

Crushessssss. How the heck are you? Still simply j'adoring our chats in the comments section of the 💌No News Is Good News 💌 newsy and yes, I will be baiting you like a troublesome internet crush about it all year long, and yes, it continues to be one of the cutest places on the internet. Come join 💘

Last week we talked about loneliness, which struck an achey chord with lots of us. Do you feel it? Does it worry you? What do you do to calm it? Nice to know we're all just imperfect specs of dust out here floating around trying to feel connected and good when we can and not freak out too much when we don't.

Over a gorge Malbec with my bestie last night, we started talking about life's ordinariness, which I was like... OK new concept: Ordcore (ordinary core). It kinda ties into that TikTok trend I wrote about a couple of weeks ago where friends just send their 'truths' to each other as opposed to curating an aesthetic life (me, exhausted on the couch watching a British crime drama. Me, greasy-haired at the supermarket. Me, in a lame outfit doing not much at all etc etc, you get it). 

It made me be like...What's ordinary about your life? Can't it be... kinda great? Isn't it... kinda exhale-inducing to admit to being unspectacular? 

Ordcore (ok I'm making this up, but it felt right, let's just go with it) to me feels like a relief. It feels like it's ok to now have much going on. To have a week where you don't do that much out of the ordinary. To use folding washing as a way to feel like a normal zombie human being with crushes and flaws and dirty-turning-clean clothes... you get the drill. 

Lol, Luce always laughs that I turn everything into something romantic (true? a fatal flaw? Who's to say...), but if you're feeling overwhelmed right now, I had this idea that maybe leaning into an Ordcore Era might just help alleviate some of the pressure.

Love ya! See you this Sunday, where I'm going to talk about another goddam made up concept I'm obsessed with (plus hot recs, a new playlist, some chic musings, softcore philosophy and all the other things that come along with it).

xx

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🗺Around the world🗺

USA

After days of outrage over the shooting of a Black teen, officials charge the gunman (NPR)

Content warning: racially motivated gun violence

• Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old high school junior was shot by 84-year-old Andrew D. Lester when accidentally came to the wrong address to pick up his younger siblings.

• Ralph survived - he has since been released from the hospital and is recovering at home.

• Since then, outrage has broken out in Kansas and on Monday evening “Clay County prosecutor Zachary Thompson identified the shooter as Andrew D. Lester, an 84-year-old white man. Thompson's office filed felony criminal charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action against Lester. Additionally, a warrant has been issued for the man's arrest, Thompson shared during a press conference.”

• More on this story here.

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Media World

Fox News settles Dominion defamation case for $787.5m (BBC)

• IDK if it’s just because I’m SOOOOO deep in Succession right now, OR because Rubes told me that this was really interesting, but this story!!!! Read it!!

• “Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit from the voting machine company, Dominion, over its reporting of the 2020 presidential election.

  In a last-minute settlement before the trial, the network agreed to pay $787.5m (£644m) - about half the $1.6bn initially sought by Dominion.

  Dominion argued its business was harmed by Fox spreading false claims the vote had been rigged against Donald Trump.”

• Read more here!

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