Today in History: Chuck Berry records ‘Maybellene' for Chess Records
Today in history:
On May 21, 1955, Chuck Berry recorded his first single, 'Maybellene,' for Chess Records in Chicago.
Also on this date:
In 1881, the American Red Cross was founded by nurse and educator Clara Barton in Washington D.C.
In 1924, 14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a 'thrill killing' carried out by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (Bobby's distant cousin).
In 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis monoplane near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 33 1/2 hours.
In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean as she landed in Northern Ireland, about 15 hours after leaving Newfoundland.
In 1941, a German U-boat sank the American merchant steamship SS Robin Moor in the South Atlantic after the ship's passengers and crew were allowed to board lifeboats.
In 1972, Michelangelo's Pieta, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, was damaged by a hammer-wielding man. (The sculpture went back on display 10 months later after its damaged elements were reconstructed.)
In 1979, former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the slayings of Mayor George Moscone and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk. Outrage over White's lenient sentence sparked the White Night riots that evening.
In 1991, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated amid Indian national elections by a suicide bomber.
Today's Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox is 84. Singer Ronald Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 84. Singer Leo Sayer is 77. Actor Mr. T is 73. Actor Judge Reinhold is 68. Filmmaker Nick Cassavetes is 66. Actor Lisa Edelstein is 59. Comedian-TV presenter Noel Fielding is 52. Actor Fairuza Balk is 51. Actor Da'Vine Joy Randolph is 39. Country musician Cody Johnson is 38. Actor Hannah Einbinder is 30. NFL quarterback Josh Allen is 29.
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New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
‘Superman' director faces backlash for calling the Man of Steel an ‘immigrant': ‘Superwoke'
'Superman' director and DC Studios co-head James Gunn is facing backlash for calling the Man of Steel 'an immigrant that came from other places' in a new interview. Ahead of the release of Warner Bros.' superhero reboot on July 11, Gunn, 58, told The Sunday Times of London that ''Superman' is the story of America… An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country.' The 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' the director added: 'But for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.' Advertisement 'Superman' director James Gunn called the Clark Kent 'an immigrant.' AP Clark Kent is, of course, not human. Named Kal-El, he's an alien from planet Krypton who lands on Earth as a baby and is adopted by a couple in Smallville, Kansas. In the new movie, the iconic red cape is donned by 32-year-old actor David Corenswet. Advertisement Gunn said that some audience members who watch the action movie through a political lens could have a negative reaction to it. Driving home that point, the Sunday Times' headline is: 'Some people will take offense at my new 'Superman.'' 'Yes, it plays differently,' Gunn said. 'But it's about human kindness and obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them.' Several media personalities bristled at Gunn's remarks. 'He's creating a moat of woke, enlightened opinion around him. He's got a woke shield,' said Fox News' Greg Gutfeld, with a graphic on the screen that read 'Superwoke.' Advertisement James Gunn said 'there will be jerks out there' who criticize his film's immigrant themes. WireImage Kellyanne Conway said, 'We don't go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us.' The cast stood by Gunn's interview on Monday's red carpet in Los Angeles. 'My reaction to [the backlash] is that it is exactly what the movie is about,' Sean Gunn, James Gunn's brother who plays Maxwell Lord, told Variety. Advertisement 'We support our people, you know? We love our immigrants. Yes, Superman is an immigrant, and yes, the people that we support in this country are immigrants and if you don't like that, you're not American. People who say no to immigrants are against the American way.' Nathan Fillion, who plays the Green Lantern, put it more succinctly. 'Aw, somebody needs a hug,' the actor said. 'Just a movie, guys.' 'Superman' hits theaters on July 11.
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Up, up and … eh? A rebooted ‘Superman' gives the Man of Steel a mind of marshmallow
Fine, I'll say it. I need Superman. I'm craving a hero who stands for truth and justice whether he's rescuing cats or reporting the news. Cheering for such idealism used to feel corny; all the cool, caped crusaders had ethical kinks. Even his recent movies have seemed a little embarrassed by the guy, scuffing him up with cynicism. I'm with the latest incarnation of Superman (David Corenswet) when he tells Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) that having a big heart is 'the real punk rock.' Director James Gunn's antsy reboot skips past the origin story of infant Kal-El slamming into Kansas in an escape pod from Krypton. Instead, this 'Superman' opens with Corenswet's savior slamming into Earth again, this time after losing his first fight. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and his bionic minions have batted Superman around Metropolis like a toy, forcing him to flee to his Fortress of Solitude in Antarctica with 14 broken bones and a busted bladder. The starkness of the white snow against his bright costume looks like a blank page asking: Who should Superman be today? The Superman myth has always been a fable of collision: a near-perfect alien challenged to protect fragile, scared humans who struggle to accept that we're not the bestest beings in the universe. Here, Kal-El's parents (Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan) are heard insulting Earthlings outright — 'The people there are simple and profoundly confused' — which, for the franchise, is actually going a little easy on humankind. Historically, we tend to let him down, going back to his surprisingly spiky movie debut in 1951's 'Superman and the Mole Men' (note the lack of a 'versus'), in which George Reeves protected the outsiders of the title from a rural American mob. 'Obviously, none of you can be trusted with guns, so I'm going to take them away from you,' he lectures the townsfolk, pretzeling their shotguns. 'Stop acting like Nazi storm troopers!' Gunn isn't that punk rock. He's pop punk; he wants to be liked by a mass audience. Having taken control of the DC Universe, he's pivoted away from gloom to concoct a Superman who isn't too sweet or too serious — frankly, he's a little stupid. After a hasty resuscitation from his adorable dog Krypton and his robot butlers (voiced by Alan Tudyk, Pom Klementieff and Michael Rooker, among others), Superman races back into battle before he's healed. He gets beaten senseless again. Stupid is a smart idea for a 21st century reboot. Superman's stymied do-gooder impulse feels right for an era where you can't say 'Save the whales' without some genius asking why you don't care about plankton. The goal might have been to make him super naive. But Gunn doesn't do sincerity, so this Superman comes off as obtuse and overwhelmed — which, even for a Julliard-trained actor like Corenswet, is pretty impossible to pull off with any personality. His dimples and blue eyes are empathetic. But he mostly just looks dazed. This Superman is all impulsive energy, much like his unhousebroken puppy, who also wears a cape and tramples on things when he tries to help. They're essentially the same species. Superman gets distracted midfight by his urgent need to protect a squirrel; Krypto spends one brouhaha looting a pet store. Superman's reporter girlfriend of three months, Lois (a savvy and sensible Brosnahan, kitted in fabulous '70s-style threads), is well-aware of his dual identity and the flaws in his hasty reactions to injustice. She points out that physically threatening the thuggish president of fictional Boravia (Zlatko Buric) to stop invading weaker countries is technically torture. 'People were going to die!' Superman sputters. Lois' reticence about him mirrors our own vacillation with the DC Universe's new direction: We need to see something more from this guy before we commit. In this script, the lines of good and evil aren't drawn in black and white or even gray — they're a tangle of squiggles. There are no neat solutions, no shortcuts and there's no way for Superman to defend himself when Hoult's Luthor drums up a dubious sex scandal to accuse the Kryptonian of 'grooming' humanity and hires an actual room of typing monkeys to ruin his online reputation. (You may remember that before Gunn was hired to oversee DC Studios, Walt Disney fired him from Marvel when a blogger behind Pizzagate unearthed the director's old shock-jock jokes about pedophilia and 9/11. Clearly, that grievance is still on his mind.) The plot is impatient but entertaining enough. The villainous billionaire Luthor, who Hoult plays like a beady techno-zealot, has several schemes up his fancy sleeve. One involves a tent city in the desert that hides a portal to an extrajudicial jail for his enemies, both interstellar and domestic. (He's got green-skinned babies and a sobbing ex-girlfriend in there.) Gunn has sarcastically tried to make the place look cheery — Luthor's henchmen are dressed in mismatched Hawaiian shirts — but the sequence might give you the shivers. Gunn is known for wrangling groups of weirdos ('Guardians of the Galaxy,' 'The Suicide Squad') into blockbuster action-comedies. His instincts are to spray everything with silly string and slap on a wacky soundtrack. Here, there's actually a very good doom metal electronic score by John Murphy and David Fleming, but the movie stiffens up whenever it needs to get real. When we visit Clark Kent's family farm, it's touching to see his childhood bedroom. But his plainspoken Ma and Pa (Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince) have been made to talk so slowly they sound like they have brain injuries. It's as though 'Superman' isn't sure how to be earnest without whacking us over the head with it. The script is way more confident when Gunn gets to scribble in the margins, whisking in Milly Alcock's party-hardy Supergirl for a fast and fun cameo. (She'll have her own movie next summer.) Luthor's main henchwoman, known only as the Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría), is constructed from skittering robotic cells that let her change form like a Swiss Army Knife, while his latest ditzy blonde girlfriend, Eve (a very funny Sara Sampaio), wriggles her way into becoming a memorable highlight. One of the film's umpteenth kaiju fights introduces the corporate-sponsored Justice Gang, a trio of apathetic superheroes spearheaded by Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) with Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi). They dispatch a monster so gracelessly that Superman finally gets some sense knocked into him. 'There's got to be a better way to do this,' he groans. The movie's tone shape-shifts just as recklessly as an outer space inmate named Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) who can transform into explosive acid. Gunn is compelled to show us his entire vision for the DC Universe. But as he cuts from a slow-burning gag about a garage door opener to a legitimately brutal execution to a whizbang combat scene set to a song that whoops, 'Fun fun fun!,' I just wished I was having more of it. This isn't quite the heart-soaring 'Superman' I wanted. But these adventures wise him up enough that I'm curious to explore where the saga takes him next. Still, I left chewing over how comic book movies can be so popular and prescient, and yet people who've grown up rooting against characters like Lex Luthor cheer them on in the real world. Maybe Gunn can answer that in a sequel. Or maybe our stubborn myopia is what this Superman means when he says, 'I screw up all the time but that is being human.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
DETOX GALLERY Makes Bold Debut at Hamptons Fine Art Fair 2025, Spotlighting Rising Women Artists and a Bold, Grassroots Vision
NEW YORK, July 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid the prestige and polish of the Hamptons Fine Art Fair, a new entrant is making a thoughtful impression. DETOX GALLERY, a radically inclusive, artist-led nomadic fine art gallery founded by Dallas/NYC-based painter Vickie J. Lin, debuts this year at the prestigious Hamptons Fine Art Fair 2025, taking place July 10–13 in Southampton, NY. At Booth 118, DETOX GALLERY will be exhibiting work by five rising women artists and designers: including founder Vickie J. Lin, alongside Lili Rochelle, Maria Sardi, Shivya Ahuja, and Yianna Foufas. Rooted in community, representation, and accessibility, DETOX aims to challenge industry's norms by carving out space for historically marginalized voices in the fine art industry. What sets DETOX GALLERY apart isn't just its curation - it's the radical way it came to life. Founded in 2023 by Chinese-American artist and entrepreneur Vickie J. Lin without institutional backing, DETOX GALLERY has grown as a grassroots force, with nine major exhibitions in New York and Dallas in under two years - reaching over 2,000 visitors and showcasing works of 200+ artists. As the first AAPI-founded nomadic gallery dedicated to uplifting BIPOC, femme, and LGBTQ communities, DETOX embodies a radical, artist-led approach that challenges the conventions of the fine art world. The gallery's primary mission is accessibility, bringing contemporary art from emerging artists to high-end gallery venues while refusing to conform to exclusionary industry norms. "I founded DETOX to detoxify the art world - to build what I needed but couldn't find: a space where underrepresented artists are celebrated and centered, not sidelined. To now be showing at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair with no investors, no grants - just grit and vision - is a full circle moment and the realization of a lifelong dream for me." – Vickie J Lin, Founder & Director of DETOX GALLERY Meet the Artists at Booth 118: Vickie J. Lin - Abstract expressionist and DETOX GALLERY founder who will unveil the ocean-inspired Heartbreak alongside new gilded works from her Transformation series at the fair. Lili Rochelle - Brooklyn painter reimagining divine femininity through ethereal figures and cosmic mythos. Raised in Alaska and painting on reclaimed palettes, Rochelle's work honors the Earth and celebrates the sacred feminine. Maria Sardi - Venezuelan-American collage artist layering nostalgia, pop culture, and personal myth, presenting her exuberant mixed-media piece Florida at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair. Shivya Ahuja - Furniture designer and founder of The Studio Grain, fusing Himalayan heritage with New York sleekness, showcasing her sculptural, handcrafted teakwood Zen Table and Martini Tables at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair. Yianna Foufas - Painter and wrestler channeling kinetic resilience into canvas, debuting the vivid and detailed oil painting - "Synaptic Embrace" at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair. About the Founder Vickie J. Lin founded DETOX GALLERY to challenge exclusion in the art world. A self-taught curator who overcame housing insecurity and systemic barriers, Lin built DETOX from the ground up, without investors or grants. Her mission: to center underrepresented artists and create the inclusive spaces she needed but couldn't find. In a market where less than 10% of art sales benefit women and minority artists, DETOX GALLERY is actively working to shift the paradigm, one show at a time. About DETOX GALLERY DETOX GALLERY is a nomadic fine art gallery uplifting femmes, BIPOC, and LGBTQ artists. With no outside funding, DETOX has hosted rotating group art exhibition shows in New York and Dallas, as well as meetups and wellness events, building a grassroots following through its bold curatorial voice and DIY ethos. The gallery's "floating" model brings underrepresented artists to high-visibility venues - proving that a bootstrapped, community-first gallery can thrive at the highest levels of the art world. DETOX GALLERY will exhibit at Booth 118 at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair, July 10–13, 2025. For more information, visit or follow @detoxgallery on social media. Contact: Vickie J. Lin, info@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE DETOX GALLERY Sign in to access your portfolio
