Slumberland Records marks 35th anniversary with a weekend of celebrations
They hit on the idea of a two-night Slumberland 35 event and scheduled it for this weekend. Friday at ChurchKey is the debut of the beer, billed as a collaboration among the label and two local breweries, Ocelot and Bluejacket. It will be poured as Schulman and other early label stalwarts rule the DJ booth. 'We're going to play all Slumberland stuff, until people can't tolerate it any longer,' he says.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
05-07-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Helen Schulman walks us through the short stories in her new book, ‘Fools for Love'
Helen Schulman is not afraid to make you squirm. Across her long and distinguished career as a novelist and short story writer, she has fearlessly explored the awkward collisions between our private and public selves, between what we present to the world and what we conceal from even our closest companions. Her 2011 best-selling novel 'This Beautiful Life' dared to plunge headfirst into the shark-infested waters of the internet while most of us were still basking in the glow of the web's shiny benevolence. 'Fools For Love,' her latest collection of stories, finds Schulman's characters weighing the past against the present, looking for redemption in the wrong places and occasionally coming up roses. (Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to whose fees support independent bookstores.) When it comes to ideas, what becomes a short story and what becomes a novel? A lot of my ideas spring forward from something Henry James called the 'germ' — the bit of overheated gossip, the newspaper article, an eavesdropped conversation on a public bus, a story told by other parents when you are both pushing toddlers on the swings in a playground, which injects itself into the writerly imagination and grows — often over large swaths of time. Sometimes these obsessions entangle, too. That's what happened in [my story] 'The Revisionist.' My husband had a college buddy over for dinner who told us this story about a friend of his who was walking home from work when a strange man ran into his own house and slammed the door in his face. Why? What? Who? The reality was somewhat pedestrian — the intruder was a drunken next-door neighbor, who I guess had overshot. But the anecdote stuck with me. For some of your characters, the past is ever-present — they are fated to live with the sum of their choices, and it engenders a lot of regret. Can you speak to that? My all-time favorite writer is William Faulkner. You must be familiar with his quote from the novel 'Requiem for a Nun': 'The past is never dead. It's not even past.' I sometimes feel this way about existence in general, like each and every moment in a lifetime is somehow equal, and that as one ages the moments accrue and tag along wherever one goes. Certainly in my own life I don't sweat my big choices; I'm happy about them. I think a person does the best they can with what they know at the time. But I'm infinitely curious about what could have happened instead. There is a lot of status anxiety in your work — not just financial status, but marriage, career — the things you think will align pleasingly in middle age but often don't. My husband and I are both working writers. The marriage works; the financial status has gone in and out. I'm not sure I always looked to middle age as a time of 'pleasing alignment,' but I also didn't think the world would be as effed up as it is now. Some of my characters get older and wiser; some are just more wrinkled, taller kids. But there is a lot of endurance over time in these stories — love, friendship, workplace passions. I would venture to say that most of my characters have real lives, and some very real satisfactions within the stresses that inevitably go along with them. There are also secrets in your stories. Are we as sick as our secrets, or are they simply unavoidable? Everyone has secrets. In 'The Revisionist,' the protagonist even keeps secrets from himself. One of my closest friends, after the death of her parents, found out that one was married before and that the other had two other children with someone else. Now everyone is dead, and so we don't even know if the spouses knew this about each other. There is nothing pedestrian about 'ordinary lives.' We all roil and we all excite. I feel like one of my jobs as a fiction writer is to dive down beneath the surface. In the story 'My Best Friend,' there is a shocking act of violence. Why did you take it in that direction? That story is about two men, one an up-and-coming-actor and the other a want-to-be novelist, who fall into a deep brotherhood while sleeping with the same woman. In fact, they each marry her — sequentially, of course. At some point, the friendship goes south; the protagonist, Jake, and Jeannie, the woman, have kids together and his career dries up. The first husband, Phil, becomes a very successful TV showrunner and producer. Out of pity, he hires Jake to be a character in one of his nighttime soaps. Jake starts to become an audience favorite, and Phil tortures the character on the series. All their pent up homoerotic attachments and jealousies explode in a 'manly' brawl, which I see as tragicomedic, at the end of the story. The love story is theirs, after all. Kurt Vonnegut has a quote about, when one reaches advanced middle age, life becomes an epilogue. That is a hard thing to carry. Do you feel that this is the case? I guess I'm thinking about your story 'In a Better Place,' which revisits the characters from the book's titular story in old age. No, honestly I don't. That story is really about the celebration of long love between the couple at the heart of the story, its healing powers and sustaining comforts. What may make this all feel epilogue-y to you (not a word, I know) is because these two people feel happy and fulfilled by their marriage. … My own artistic hope is to go as long as I can. I live to write! Valerie Castellanos Clark weighs in on Charlie English's 'The CIA Book Club,' about how Polish citizens fought Russian communism with books. 'As with the best spy novels, we know the good guy is going to win … but how English gets us there is exciting,' Clark writes. Melina Sempill Watts calls Josh Jackson's book, 'The Enduring Wild: A Journey Into California's Public Lands' a timely book for a state that is in danger of losing its most precious public resource: 'Jackson's assertion that we are all landowners is a clarion call amid a GOP-led push to sell off public land.' Leigh Haber raves on Amy Bloom's latest novel 'I'll Be Right Here.' 'As Bloom has demonstrated throughout her stellar literary career,' writes Haber, 'she can train her eye on any person, place or object and render it sublime.' Jim Ruland calls Megan Abbott's latest thriller, 'El Dorado Drive,' a novel for our present age of anxiety, propelled by Abbott's masterful narrative drive and her skill at 'rendering the hot, messy inner lives of young people.' This week we are perusing the shelves at Now Serving, a cozy bookshop devoted to the culinary arts and located on the ground floor of Chinatown's Far East Plaza. Co-owner Ken Concepcion gives us the scoop on the hot goods. What books are selling right now? 'Umma,' 'By Heart,' 'Fat + Flour,' 'Salsa Daddy' and 'The Choi of Cooking.' What food trend are customers excited about right now? Being that we are in L.A., there has always been a demand for vegetarian and vegan titles. The interest in plant-based cookbooks that delve into specific cuisines such as Filipino, Vietnamese, Mexican and Japanese has definitely grown over the years, and the diversity of voices has been wonderful to see. There needs to be better representation for Ecuadorian, Guatemalan and other Central and South American cuisines as well — there is a real demand for it. Why do you think cookbooks are still important, despite the ubiquity of recipes online? As with anything that you can find online, recipes are no different. There are thousands upon thousands available. Most of them are copycat recipes. We think cookbooks are still unparalleled in that they can deliver a narrative, historical context and incredible imagery and stunning design in a world that is more reliant on technology than ever. Cookbooks at best are functional objects of art that can be then passed down from generation to generation. They can often become keepsakes, time capsules and family heirlooms.
Fox News
27-05-2025
- Fox News
Broadway star Patti LuPone says Trump-led Kennedy Center 'should get blown up'
Broadway veteran Patti LuPone lashed out at President Donald Trump for his overhaul of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and called for the building to "get blown up," in an interview published Monday. In February, Trump fired several Kennedy Center board members, including the president and chairman, and replaced them with pro-Trump figures, who then named the president as chairman. In a post to Truth Social announcing the changes, Trump vowed to make the performing arts center "great again," by removing board members who did not share his administration's "vision for a Golden Age in arts and culture." Trump said that drag shows "targeting" children were one example of programming at the Kennedy Center that would end under his leadership. His actions stirred backlash in the theater and film world, with multiple artists resigning from their roles or canceling upcoming performances at the Kennedy Center in protest. LuPone, 76, slammed the Trump takeover in new comments to New Yorker writer Michael Schulman. "She's even angrier at the rest of the country," Schulman wrote. "She told me, more than once, that the Trumpified Kennedy Center 'should get blown up.'" LuPone also told the outlet that she wished that the Trump administration would "Leave New York alone." She has been an outspoken critic of Trump over the years. Ahead of the 2020 election, LuPone said she was considering moving to Ireland if Trump won. On the Tony Awards red carpet in 2017, she said that she would not perform for Trump if he came to one of her shows, "because I hate the mother—." Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, slammed LuPone's comments in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The far left has morphed into violent extremists. This is completely unacceptable – from the same people who claim to be for tolerance and diversity. Everyone should condemn these radicals," Grenell said. LuPone did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital, "President Trump cares deeply about American arts and culture, which is why he is revitalizing historic institutions like the Kennedy Center to their former greatness."
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
Will Smith, Johnny Depp and Alec Baldwin hope for comebacks. Can they succeed?
Hollywood loves a good comeback story. But what about real-life rebounds? That, it turns out, is an iffier proposition and one that's about to be tested by three bold-faced names: Alec Baldwin, Johnny Depp and Will Smith. All three were at different points lead players in the cultural zeitgeist. And all three lost that role, admittedly for vastly different offenses that nonetheless had the same career-dinging effect. Baldwin after Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot with a gun he held on the set of 'Rust' in 2021, Depp after a protracted and tawdry 2022 lawsuit with his ex Amber Heard and Smith after slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. Can this trio win back the hearts and wallets of fans with their new projects? Will Hollywood's gatekeepers stand ready with open arms? Not surprisingly, the latter is highly dependent on the former, industry experts say. If you can still turn a buck with your talents, watch your Tinseltown dance card fill up. 'If people have a loyal fan base, they'll always get a second and even third shot,' says Stacy Jones, CEO of pop culture marketing firm Hollywood Branded. 'Look at Robert Downey, Jr. His drug addiction crashed his career more than 20 years ago. And now..?' Well, now the 'Ironman' star's movies have grossed more than $14 billion and he has a best supporting actor Oscar for 'Oppenheimer.' Point taken. So is that sort of about-face a possibility for Baldwin, Depp and Smith? Experts say the calculus for rebounding from scandal involves factors such as what you did, who you did it to, and to what degree people still care. 'If you think about MeToo and cancel culture and people being publicly shamed, while that was strong in recent years, for me the question is, is that sentiment as strong today?' says Todd Boyd, who holds the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture at the University of Southern California. For Michael Schulman, author of 'Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat and Tears,' fans are the critical factor. 'Stars come back to the extent that they're profitable,' he says. He laughs, adding, 'I hope you can hear the cynicism.' One thing that could help a comeback is playing to your scandalous side, Schulman says. His examples include Rob Lowe, who, after an '80s sex tape scandal, won back fans by playing a sleazy villain in the comedy "Wayne's World." Even Baldwin himself, who was in the tabloids for his raucous 2002 divorce from Kim Basinger and then scored a hit by playing a hilariously morals-free executive in the NBC comedy, "30 Rock." Schulman, who keeps a keen eye on Hollywood for The New Yorker, did a 2021 piece for the magazine called 'Fatty Arbuckle and the Birth of the Celebrity Scandal,' about the silent movie star who was acquitted of rape and murder in the 1920s and never regained his popularity. Today, more than a century later, Schulman says social media connects fans more intensely to celebrities, creating a bond that can help launch a comeback. 'Each of these three stars has a fan base on their side,' he says. 'Will's slap for many was just a man standing up for his wife. With Alec, there's a widespread sense he shouldn't even have been charged. And Johnny had wide online support during that trial. Studios will take the temperature, and when needed can reintroduce people with the help of marketing and publicity.' Let's open our inquiry into these three comeback cases by looking at what each is working on and whether these roles could prove enough to reignite their personal spotlights. For Baldwin, whose Western "Rust" debuted in theaters and video on demand May 2 to poor sales, his new output consists of playing himself in the TLC reality series 'The Baldwins.' Although it's an attempt to showcase the actor as a loveable dad to his brood of seven, the series hasn't made a mark. In fact, unless Baldwin, whose standout movies include 'Glengarry Glen Ross' and 'The Hunt for Red October,' returns with a dramatic flourish, his relaunch could be on permanent hold, experts say. 'Ironically, if Alec is guilty of anything it's coming back as a cringeworthy dad,' says Schulman. 'It's a naked attempt at rebranding. Why not come back as an actor?' Baldwin is starring in "Hollywood Heist" with Nick Cannon, with Deadline reporting the film is being introduced to buyers in Cannes. But USC's Boyd argues that Baldwin's name was never as lofty in the culture as Depp or Smith, and that could hurt his chances of a comeback. 'He's just not as relevant anymore,' he says. The public seems to agree, says Jones. 'Even if 'The Baldwins' is atrocious, you should have had a lot of haters tuning in,' she says. 'But the public response was indifferent.' Depp's offense was not an on-set tragedy but rather an incendiary 2022 court battle with his actress ex wife, who had accused him of being abusive during their relationship. He sued her for damaging his reputation, and won. Depp is currently filming 'Day Drinker,' a thriller with Penelope Cruz. It's his first movie since appearing in the little seen 2023 French-language film 'Jeanne du Barry,' in which he played King Louis XV. Recently released photos from the new production show a gray-haired and bearded Depp who appears to be acting his age, 61. That pivot could be a smart way to reinvent himself. 'Depp won the court of public opinion (in his case against Heard), but the bigger issue is simply whether he is still the big star he once was," Boyd says of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' icon. "Does he mean the same to audiences now that he did in the past?' Depp has said before he wasn't interested in doing a sixth installment in Disney's lucrative "Pirates" franchise, but 'he's still the face of that ride at Disney, and I bet he would totally do another if offered,' says Jones. The response to 'Day Drinker' could sink or revive those piratical conversations. And then there's Smith. The talented rapper-turned-TV-star-turned-Oscar-winner (a title he earned on the very night he struck Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife's shaved head, a result of her alopecia) is planning to bombard his fans with fare soon. Upcoming Smith films in various phases of development are a remake of the 1987 John Candy and Steve Martin comedy 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,' co-starring Kevin Hart; a post-apocalyptic action thriller sequel 'I Am Legend 2' with Michael B. Jordan; and a super hero redemption sequel "Hancock 2.' With these movies, Smith has a chance to recement his bond with audiences, which didn't happen with two post-Slap movies, 'Emancipation,' about a runaway slave, and the popular but critically panned 'Bad Boys 4,' as well as a new album, 'Based on a True Story.' But for those reading Hollywood tea leaves, Smith has the greatest chance of mounting a strong industry comeback. 'He was a gigantic star and people really aren't that angry about that slap and some saw it as noble even,' says Schulman. 'Plus, we all saw it happen, it was no secret. There was no mystery.' For Boyd, 'it comes down to who he slapped, which was Chris Rock, a comedian, and comedians often say things that people don't like.' Jones agrees on Smith's good odds, adding what was most shocking about the slap was that it was done 'by someone who comes across to us as such a nice guy" through roles such as TV's "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." For her, what Smith did was more a direct result of the pressure-cooker spotlight and "all-out mania' of Hollywood's awards season. Smith is "fundamentally a kingmaker who can likely still make billions in profits for someone," she says. "Plus, let's remember, he slapped someone across the face, he didn't kill someone.' We'll give Boyd the final word here. And the final word is: cash. 'In any performance based industry, and this comes up in sports a lot, if someone is very good at what they do and they have a strong following and someone can profit off those talents, those things will be factored into consideration when it comes to giving people another chance,' he says. 'Anyone looking at talent that is trying to come back from something is thinking: 'Is the risk of taking on this person bigger than the profit we stand to make?' You figure that out, and go from there.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Can Will Smith, Johnny Depp and Alec Baldwin get a Hollywood comeback?
