Latest news with #AmandaPalmer
RNZ News
07-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Quitting the quit-aid: people trying to stop vaping nicotine need more support – here are some strategies to help
By Joya Kemper, Amanda Palmer, Bodo Lang, Chris Bullen, George Laking, Jamie Brown, Lion Shahab, Natalie Walker, Vili Nosa of A man vaping Photo: AFP/ ANP MAG - Koen van Weel New Zealand is among a number of countries that encourage vaping (the use of e-cigarettes) as a tool to help people stop smoking tobacco. But what happens when people want to quit vaping? Nicotine vapes can be addictive. While they have helped many New Zealanders quit smoking cigarettes, others - including people who never smoked - now find themselves wanting to quit vaping. To better understand how and why people try to quit, we surveyed more than 1,000 people in Aotearoa New Zealand who have used nicotine vapes. The findings from our study point to a need for support that treats vaping cessation like quitting smoking because for many, the challenges are similar. We focused on New Zealanders aged 16 and over who had vaped nicotine. Of the 1,119 respondents, 401 currently vaped and 718 had quit vaping. Around one in eight had never smoked tobacco at all. We found using vapes for more than two years and with nicotine concentrations above 3 percent was linked to higher dependence on vaping. Most current or past vapers wanted to stop, and more than three-quarters of participants had made up to three serious attempts to quit vaping. Some people wanted to quit vaping because what began as a tool to support quitting smoking has become a new source of frustration or worry. The most common reasons to stop vaping were concerns about current or future health, disliking the feeling of being dependent, and the cost of vaping products. These motivations echo the reasons many people cite for quitting smoking, suggesting that people who vape (like most people who smoke) do not want to remain hooked on nicotine, even if it helped them quit cigarettes. Participants used a variety of strategies to quit, including abrupt cessation ("cold turkey"), switching to other forms of reduced-harm nicotine (such as nicotine patches, gums, lozenges, mouth sprays), and tapering down nicotine levels. Many also relied on support from whānau (family) and friends. These strategies mirror those used in smoking cessation. Our participants reiterate the importance of personal strategies, building on previous work on interventions that target vaping cessation. Some people did quit vaping and had no problem quitting. However, others struggled. Triggers that cause a relapse to vaping are similar to those many people who smoke experience, including stress and symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Being around others who vape is also a trigger for relapse. These factors highlight the social and psychological effects of vaping, just as they have long been recognised in tobacco addiction research. Importantly, these triggers appeared consistent across different groups regardless of age, gender, cultural background or smoking history. Whether someone vaped to stop smoking or whether vaping was the first nicotine product they tried, quitting came with similar challenges. Our study suggests many New Zealanders are now trying to quit nicotine vapes, and some face real barriers to doing so. We think existing smoking-cessation support and medications could play a useful role. These tools include behavioural support, such as building self-belief in the ability to quit, identifying key triggers (and strategies to avoid them), stress management strategies, and access to tapering schedules (cutting down the frequency of vaping over time or gradually reducing nicotine concentration). As previous work shows, the type of support needed may differ between older tobacco smokers and the growing population of teens taking up vaping. Vaping as an exit from tobacco smoking should still be offered to people who smoke. Once vaping is taken up, it should be promoted as a medium-term, step-down tactic (3-12 months), while ensuring that relapse to smoking is avoided. Such a strategy aligns with vaping-cessation guidance provided in the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. But it's clear the landscape has shifted. Vaping is no longer just used to quit smoking; vapes are used by people who have never smoked. For some, vaping becomes a habit they want to quit in its own right, but it may not always be easy given the addictive nature of nicotine. We need dedicated support for vaping cessation to address this growing concern. Findings from our survey have been key to the development of a New Zealand vaping-cessation clinical trial currently underway. People who are interested in quitting vaping can find out more and register their interest.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dave Grohl Makes Surprise Appearance To Perform With ‘80s Rock Legend
Dave Grohl Makes Surprise Appearance To Perform With '80s Rock Legend originally appeared on Parade. Someone get Rockapella to record 'Where In The World Is Dave Grohl,' because the Foo Fighters frontman is putting Carmen Sandiego to shame. And his latest random appearance occurred thanks to indie rock icon Kim Deal. Since Grohl, 56, admitted in September 2024 that he fathered a child outside of his marriage to Jordyn Blum, he's made some surprise appearances here and there. He played with Post Malone at the SNL 50th Anniversary concert in March. Dave showed up at Coachella in April, joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic to perform two Foo Fighters songs. Also that month, he played at Oakwood Live, a school benefit in Los Angeles. His latest appearance took place in London when Grohl joined the former Pixies bassist during her show at the Roundhouse on June 20. Deal, 64, brought out Grohl, who told her, 'I'll sing whatever you ask me to sing. I'll do whatever you ask me to do.' They then launched into 'Gigantic,' a song that the two have played together a handful of times over the year, per Consequence. Deal is touring in support of her debut solo album, Nobody Loves You More. Grohl's appearance at Deal's London show adds fuel to an ongoing fan theory: he is going to be a 'surprise' performer at this year's Glastonbury festival. Fans began to speculate about Grohl's involvement on Jun 18 when controversial singer Amanda Palmer posted a photo of her alongside him. 'Well I'll be damned. Not who I expected to run into backstage at the [Yeah Yeah Yeahs] show at @royalalberthall in London tonight,' she wrote. Fans on Reddit speculated that Grohl may make an appearance during Alanis Morissette's set as a tribute to the late Taylor Hawkins. Before he joined the Foos in 1997, Hawkins was Morissette's drummer, appearing in videos for 'You Oughta Know,' 'All I Really Want,' and 'You Learn.' As of June, the Foo Fighters only have a handful of shows scheduled for 2025. In May, the band fired drummerJosh Freese, who says 'no reason was given' for his dismissal. The band hasn't announced Freese's Grohl Makes Surprise Appearance To Perform With '80s Rock Legend first appeared on Parade on Jun 23, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
Irish Times
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
In 28 Years Later, Brexit Britain runs screaming towards its Apocalypse Now. What took it so long?
'Donald Trump is going to make punk rock great again,' the mouthy musician Amanda Palmer said after that individual was elected president of the United States for the first time. You think? In the same year, 2016, the United Kingdom elected to leave the European Union. Nobody suggested that punk would feast on incoming catastrophe, but there was great wailing from the literati. 'I think it's a self-inflicted wound,' Martin Amis said. 'I don't like the nostalgic utopia.' Ian McEwan described Brexit as 'the most pointless, masochistic ambition ever dreamed of in the history of these islands'. One imagined poets and choreographers collapsing in despair up and down the aisles of north London's classier off-licences. READ MORE Brexit would now reap the artistic whirlwind. Right? The Europhobic voters of Stoke-on-Trent will feel silly when they hear about that ballet concerning lengthened queues for non-EU passport holders at Florence airport. Worthwhile anti-Trump culture proved thin on the ground in that president's opening term. There was even less Brexit-bashing art in the aftermath of 'Britain's fateful decision' (to use the approved cliche). We did get a great many popular – and good – nonfiction books on the mechanics of the referendum, its potential aftermath and its moral implications. Fintan O'Toole, of this jurisdiction, had a big hit with Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain . Tim Shipman's All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class did what the title claimed in exhaustive fashion. There was a lot more where those came from. But few were writing operas or novels on the topic. We are still awaiting the first great anti-Brexit protest song. These thoughts are prompted by the arrival this week of the second sequel to Danny Boyle 's classic zombie flick 28 Days Later. It hardly needs to be said that Alex Garland's script for 28 Years Later does not halt the violence to ponder article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. [ 28 Years Later review: Danny Boyle's rattling zombie epic never lets up in pace or invention Opens in new window ] We are dealing in allegory here – an unmistakable and blackly hilarious allegory. The mindless zombies have been driven back to Britain from the Continent. (I didn't catch if, like the Romans, the rage virus left Ireland uncolonised.) One proud island off the northeast coast has, however, kept the hordes at bay and, in the process, retreated into a class of mid-20th-century patriotic nostalgia. Boyle intercuts a reading of Rudyard Kipling's poem Boots with clips from Laurence Oliver's Henry V. 'Gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here!' And so on. The film-maker confirmed his intentions to El País newspaper. 'We haven't made a political film,' he said . 'But we've used the current world as a reference, how we behave in it, what cultural legacy we're going to leave behind. Brexit has constrained us, locked us in, and that's what 28 Years Later is about.' A stubborn Mancunian of Irish descent, Boyle will care not a whit if the thumping allegory upsets leavers, not least because it in no way impedes the hurtling progress of the core narrative. He can feel proud of showing how the subject can be addressed without dragging your film into po-faced agitprop. Why have so few artists attempted anything similar over the past decade? Have a look at Anish Kapoor's A Brexit, A Broxit, We All Fall Down from 2019. Created for the Guardian newspaper, it works an enormous cleft along the spine of Britain. The meaning is clear – a little too clear for an artist of Kapoor's subtlety. In 2017 the unavoidable, pseudonymous Banksy delivered a mural showing a sculptor chipping away one star from the EU flag. Not his most affecting piece. British novelists proved reluctant to engage so directly with the subject. It remains an oddity that Ali Smith's Autumn , frequently labelled the first post-Brexit novel, was published just four months after the vote. Alex Preston, writing in the Financial Times, marvelled 'that writing this good could have come so fast'. No deluge of Brexit fiction flowed into the succeeding abyss of negotiation. Plenty of films seemed to offer comment on the Brexit mindset. You could see Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk making the case for either side. The triumphant Paddington 2 played as an argument for diversity and inclusivity. But 28 Years Later really does feel like the closest thing to mainstream cinematic engagement with Brexit since the country voted on June 23rd, 2016. Maybe the argument against feels too much an obsession of elite London dinner parties. Maybe the wider subject is too complex to address as allegory or side narrative. Most likely audiences (and creators) just got sick of it long before the documents were finally signed. It's not Vietnam. Nobody was going to make an Apocalypse Now about Brexit. Though Boyle has come closer than seemed possible.
The Sun
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Rock legend ‘gives away' he's Glastonbury's mystery performer as he flies into UK days before festival
GLASTONBURY fans have gone wild after one mega music star dropped a huge hint that he's headed to the festival. The American musician has flown in to the UK just days before this year's Glastonbury gets underway at Worthy Farm. 5 5 Fans are convinced he will be making a 'surprise' appearance at the huge music event - especially as he has done it before. Dave Grohl, 56, has sent fans into a spin after posing for a photo with US singer Amanda Palmer at London 's Royal Albert Hall. Amanda was backstage at a gig by rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs when she bumped into the Foo Fighters legend. After grabbing Dave for a photo, she shared it on social media and told her followers: "Well I'll be damned. Not who I expected to run into backstage at the Yeah Yeah Yeah's show in London tonight, but look, it's Dave Grohl. She added: "We shared a sweet conversation mostly singing the cosmic praises of Melissa auf der Maur, whose magnificence truly obscures both of us. "It was really nice to meet you, Dave." Writing on Reddit, fans have been quick to make the connection between Dave's trip to London and next week's Glastonbury Festival. In 2023, a mystery act called The Churn Ups caused a stir when they featured on the Pyramid Stage bill. Fans went into a frenzy trying to work out who the band was, before they were eventually unmasked as The Foo Fighters. Starting a new thread on Reddit, music fans are now convinced Dave will be making another surprise appearance at Glastonbury. Fans slam Glastonbury as 'worst one ever' as full lineup announced One wrote: "Dave Grohl is in London, likely will be at the festival. Has done bits with John Fogerty in the past and other acts. Surely will be popping up at places this year?" Another replied: "Drumming for Alanis Morrisette possibly? Tribute for Taylor Hawkins?" And a third added: "100% will be milling about - I'd say a couple of guest appearances are a safe bet. Maybe Alanis for a song or Neil Young for an encore." The Foo Fighters' surprise Glastonbury set in 2023 was the first time the band had been at the festival since headlining in 2017. It was also their first major gig in the UK following the death of the band's drummer Taylor Hawkins, who passed away in March 2022 aged 50. Taylor had joined The Foo Fighters in 1997 and, prior to that, was the drummer on Alanis Morrissette's tour. Canadian musician Alanis is listed to perform on the Pyramid Stage at 6.15pm next Friday (June 27), which would be the perfect time for Dave to appear. Other headliners this year include The 1975, Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Doechii and The Prodigy. Glastonbury 2025 - confirmed acts so far TICKETS to the 2025 festival sold out in just minutes before some of the acts were even confirmed. Here is who has been confirmed so far. Confirmed headliners: The 1975 will take to the Pyramid Stage on Friday. Neil Young will headline the festival for the second time after his last set in 2009 on Saturday after RAYE makes her return. Charli xcx will headline the Other Stage on Saturday night. On Sunday, Olivia Rodrigo is due to belt out her hits for her first appearance while Rod Stewart will perform in the legends slot. More acts to appear on the Other Stage include Loyle Carner and The Prodigy. Doechii will make her Glastonbury debut on the West Holts Stage on Saturday night. Other names confirmed include Noah Kahan, Alanis Morissette, Gracie Abrams, Busta Rhymes, Lola Young, Brandi Carlile, Myles Smith, En Vogue, Amaarae, Cymande, Shaboozey, Osees and Gary Numan. Rod Stewart will also be performing in the Legends slot, having previously headlined at Worthy Farm 23 years ago. This week, the rock icon revealed in an interview how much he is being paid to perform this year - and how much he is set to lose. Rod told the Radio Times: "It was about eight months ago when I was asked to do it, maybe a little longer. But it didn't fit with my schedule because I've got to bring everybody back from America. "It's going to cost me £300,000 to do it and they only pay you about 120,000 quid. So it's going to cost me." 5 5 5
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Watch: Lorde releases 'Man of the Year' single, music video
May 29 (UPI) -- New Zealand music artist Lorde is back with new music. The "Royals" singer, 28, released the song "Man of the Year" and an accompanying music video on Thursday, ahead of her upcoming album Virgin, which arrives June 27. "There's going to be a lot of people who don't think I'm a good girl anymore, a good woman," she told Rolling Stone. "It's over. It will be over for a lot of people, and then for some people, I will have arrived. I'll be where they always hoped I'd be." The music video shows Lorde grappling with a "recent ego death" in a New York apartment that is empty except for a chair and a pile of dirt. She replaces a white shirt with gray tape across her chest. The song arrived as Lorde explored what "was fully representative of how (her) gender felt in that moment," Rolling Stone reports. In an Instagram post teasing the video, music artist Amanda Palmer commented that "the song form is totally unique." "And the video is raw power... Lorde the Artist being Lorde the Artist and I'm so deeply happy to see this artist continuing to follow where the muse leads. Hats off Lorde," she wrote. In addition to "Man of the Year," and the previously released track "What Was That," other songs on Virgin include "Hammer," "Shapeshifter," "Favorite Daughter," "Current Affairs," "Clearblue," "GRWM," "Broken Glass," "If She Could See Me Now" and "David." Lorde previously announced her Ultrasound World Tour, which kicks off in September and winds down in December.
