Latest news with #CourtneyLove
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Have you noticed smoking is making a comeback? I hate that. I love that.
The sight of snuffed cigarette butts in an ashtray might feel jarringly anachronistic these days, given successful efforts to curtail the smelly act for decades. Nonetheless, we're edging toward a resurgence, at least in popular culture, of the classic combustion of an old-school cigarette, even if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assures us rates aren't yet increasing. Unfortunately, I've fallen into the quiet resurgence. I'm a 46-year-old diabetic who tries to be healthy, yet after quitting 20 years ago, I find myself back in the alley occasionally (always shamefully) puffing as I hold pleasure and consequence in the same breath. My friends call it nostalgia. I think it's deeper – a defiant exhale of the angst and authenticity I crave in an uncertain world. Smoking was eradicated. Now it's creeping back into the mainstream. The historical canon of smoking is well-documented from early 20th century glamour and association with sophistication, rebellion and artistic freedom – see flappers, film noir, World War II soldiers, the Beat Generation, the Marlboro Man and Bob Dylan. I grew up in the haze of the 1990s when smoking wasn't just a habit, it was a personality – raw and rebellious – butts smeared with Courtney Love's red lipstick, the thrift-store fantasy of "Reality Bites," the sultry detachment of Mia Wallace in "Pulp Fiction." But smoking fell out of favor over the past several decades, transforming the cigarette from an emblem of cool into a symbol of a bygone era, fraught with undeniable health consequences. Increased spending on public health campaigns successfully shifted public perception in the 1990s and early 2000s as tobacco control media campaigns vilified the act. Opinion: Is it Alzheimer's or am I just getting old? Here's how to find an answer. In 1998, federal law prohibited paid smoking product placement on TV and in the movies, and subsequent smoking bans made it difficult to light up where secondhand smoke might blow. Taxes made cigarettes pricey, and in 2007, the Motion Picture Association of America began considering cigarette use as a factor in film ratings. Meanwhile, I managed to quit smoking while navigating my career and a second marriage, as anti-smoking campaigns gained traction and thankfully weakened tobacco's power. Decades later, the old-school act of combusting nicotine is back in the zeitgeist. The New York Times recently reported on the aesthetic resurgence of smoking, and even the Republican Party brought the act back to the U.S. Capitol in 2023. Eight in 10 of the 2025 Oscar best picture nominees featured tobacco imagery. In the new Netflix show 'Too Much,' the character Felix practically begs you to tell him smoking isn't cool, as he puffs between his nail-polished fingers and we swoon. Mistrust of institutions and our angst are why smoking is back This cultural phenomenon unfolds against a backdrop of deep and precipitous institutional distrust in the U.S. government and a decline in trust across various sectors from 2021 to 2024, including pharmacies, hospitals, social service agencies, fire departments, universities, police departments and public health departments. Concurrent to these visual cues of lighting up, global anti-smoking efforts are quietly being defunded in favor of even bigger world problems. Without dedicated efforts to keep smokers focused on the undeniable health consequences, are we soon to face an even bigger health crisis? Recent legislation will surely compromise health care for 17 million Americans in the near term. Opinion: I'm taking a stand against jacked-up airline fees by taking the middle seat This rebirth points to a deeper longing for control. This stance was well-spun by Kurt Vonnegut when he said, 'The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide.' In this chosen ritual, however infrequent, I signal a visceral middle finger to ambient anxieties and constant demands for optimization. I scroll my phone anxiously as I'm bombarded by news that's not immediately credible, often a polarized take on fleeting democratic norms. Smoking is terrible for my health. But it helps feed my need to rebel. Smoking offers a palpable pause, a singular moment of physical presence in an existence mediated by the ever-present pressure of political machinations. And when those threats feel ambient and involuntary, smoking is a sensory language all its own, where the health consequences almost fade to black (like my lungs) as I relish each tantalizing feature of personal agency. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. If I asked my therapist why I returned to a pack of Kool 100 Milds as a way to subconsciously control the world's chaos, she'd likely say it's like thumb sucking, a childish habit that I need to eradicate – immediately. I can't disagree. Smoking is awful for my health. Still, the choice to engage with a known threat paradoxically feels safer than the chaos beyond my control, where fundamental freedoms, like the right to bodily autonomy, are increasingly debated and denied. It speaks to my desire for imperfection, a reclaiming of agency over my body, and deliberate choices in defiance of a societal narrative that often conflates moral virtue with absolute health. For those, like me, who sometimes justify with a 'one or two won't kill me,' it's important to remember all the reasons we quit in the first place. In addition to the risk of lung cancer or worse, I remind myself of the absurdity of Botoxing my forehead wrinkles and injecting Ozempic if I'm willing to suck on a cancer stick. I put saccharine, bubble-gum flavored vapes and nicotine pouches in this category, too – they're all really bad for our health. There's no dispute on that, whether or not we fully demonize smoking. And maybe the fact that we all know how bad it is is the problem. Smoking is Chapter 1 of the original anti-authority playbook, creeping back into consciousness the minute we look away. Akin to slipping on my classic black leather jacket, it will never truly go out of style. Society, it seems, once again sanctions both as my potent symbols of defiance in a world rife with involuntary consequences. Andrea Javor is a freelance writer and marketing executive based in Chicago. She spends her free time playing poker and working on her memoir. Connect with her on Instagram: @AndreaEJavor You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is smoking coming back? Cigarettes still hold power over us | Opinion Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
6 days ago
- Health
- USA Today
Have you noticed smoking is making a comeback? I hate that. I love that.
I know smoking is bad for my health. We all know that. So why is it making a comeback? The sight of snuffed cigarette butts in an ashtray might feel jarringly anachronistic these days, given successful efforts to curtail the smelly act for decades. Nonetheless, we're edging toward a resurgence, at least in popular culture, of the classic combustion of an old-school cigarette, even if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assures us rates aren't yet increasing. Unfortunately, I've fallen into the quiet resurgence. I'm a 46-year-old diabetic who tries to be healthy, yet after quitting 20 years ago, I find myself back in the alley occasionally (always shamefully) puffing as I hold pleasure and consequence in the same breath. My friends call it nostalgia. I think it's deeper – a defiant exhale of the angst and authenticity I crave in an uncertain world. Smoking was eradicated. Now it's creeping back into the mainstream. The historical canon of smoking is well-documented from early 20th century glamour and association with sophistication, rebellion and artistic freedom – see flappers, film noir, World War II soldiers, the Beat Generation, the Marlboro Man and Bob Dylan. I grew up in the haze of the 1990s when smoking wasn't just a habit, it was a personality – raw and rebellious – butts smeared with Courtney Love's red lipstick, the thrift-store fantasy of "Reality Bites," the sultry detachment of Mia Wallace in "Pulp Fiction." But smoking fell out of favor over the past several decades, transforming the cigarette from an emblem of cool into a symbol of a bygone era, fraught with undeniable health consequences. Increased spending on public health campaigns successfully shifted public perception in the 1990s and early 2000s as tobacco control media campaigns vilified the act. Opinion: Is it Alzheimer's or am I just getting old? Here's how to find an answer. In 1998, federal law prohibited paid smoking product placement on TV and in the movies, and subsequent smoking bans made it difficult to light up where secondhand smoke might blow. Taxes made cigarettes pricey, and in 2007, the Motion Picture Association of America began considering cigarette use as a factor in film ratings. Meanwhile, I managed to quit smoking while navigating my career and a second marriage, as anti-smoking campaigns gained traction and thankfully weakened tobacco's power. Decades later, the old-school act of combusting nicotine is back in the zeitgeist. The New York Times recently reported on the aesthetic resurgence of smoking, and even the Republican Party brought the act back to the U.S. Capitol in 2023. Eight in 10 of the 2025 Oscar best picture nominees featured tobacco imagery. In the new Netflix show 'Too Much,' the character Felix practically begs you to tell him smoking isn't cool, as he puffs between his nail-polished fingers and we swoon. Mistrust of institutions and our angst are why smoking is back This cultural phenomenon unfolds against a backdrop of deep and precipitous institutional distrust in the U.S. government and a decline in trust across various sectors from 2021 to 2024, including pharmacies, hospitals, social service agencies, fire departments, universities, police departments and public health departments. Concurrent to these visual cues of lighting up, global anti-smoking efforts are quietly being defunded in favor of even bigger world problems. Without dedicated efforts to keep smokers focused on the undeniable health consequences, are we soon to face an even bigger health crisis? Recent legislation will surely compromise health care for 17 million Americans in the near term. Opinion: I'm taking a stand against jacked-up airline fees by taking the middle seat This rebirth points to a deeper longing for control. This stance was well-spun by Kurt Vonnegut when he said, 'The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide.' In this chosen ritual, however infrequent, I signal a visceral middle finger to ambient anxieties and constant demands for optimization. I scroll my phone anxiously as I'm bombarded by news that's not immediately credible, often a polarized take on fleeting democratic norms. Smoking is terrible for my health. But it helps feed my need to rebel. Smoking offers a palpable pause, a singular moment of physical presence in an existence mediated by the ever-present pressure of political machinations. And when those threats feel ambient and involuntary, smoking is a sensory language all its own, where the health consequences almost fade to black (like my lungs) as I relish each tantalizing feature of personal agency. If I asked my therapist why I returned to a pack of Kool 100 Milds as a way to subconsciously control the world's chaos, she'd likely say it's like thumb sucking, a childish habit that I need to eradicate – immediately. I can't disagree. Smoking is awful for my health. Still, the choice to engage with a known threat paradoxically feels safer than the chaos beyond my control, where fundamental freedoms, like the right to bodily autonomy, are increasingly debated and denied. It speaks to my desire for imperfection, a reclaiming of agency over my body, and deliberate choices in defiance of a societal narrative that often conflates moral virtue with absolute health. For those, like me, who sometimes justify with a 'one or two won't kill me,' it's important to remember all the reasons we quit in the first place. In addition to the risk of lung cancer or worse, I remind myself of the absurdity of Botoxing my forehead wrinkles and injecting Ozempic if I'm willing to suck on a cancer stick. I put saccharine, bubble-gum flavored vapes and nicotine pouches in this category, too – they're all really bad for our health. There's no dispute on that, whether or not we fully demonize smoking. And maybe the fact that we all know how bad it is is the problem. Smoking is Chapter 1 of the original anti-authority playbook, creeping back into consciousness the minute we look away. Akin to slipping on my classic black leather jacket, it will never truly go out of style. Society, it seems, once again sanctions both as my potent symbols of defiance in a world rife with involuntary consequences. Andrea Javor is a freelance writer and marketing executive based in Chicago. She spends her free time playing poker and working on her memoir. Connect with her on Instagram: @AndreaEJavor
Vogue
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Avalon Is the Cult LA Musician Crafting Indie-Pop Bangers—and Building Her Own ‘High-Femme Fantasy' World
The end result? Six slick, stylish, and deliciously moody tracks that explore the shadowy corners of desire, fame, and sexuality. There's the wildly catchy opener 'Harder to Reach Than God,' on which she delivers a winking come-on to a lover, and the eerie, noirish 'Scream,' on which she sweetly sings about having a 'superstar' locked in the trunk of her car. A particular highlight is the scuzzy, electric guitar-led 'Forever,' with its lyrics charting a dangerous romance—mysterious snippets of which feel like they're being glimpsed through the shimmer of a hot, hazy day in Los Angeles—over swirling synths and a hyperactive, distorted beat. ('If you fucked me forever / in your denim and leather,' she sings, with a gentle growl. 'If you fucked me forever / don't you think I'd feel better?') The EP has quiet echoes of other artists who have both romanticized and subverted the clichés of California life—Courtney Love and Lana Del Rey both spring to mind—but Avalon's melting pot of sonic influences is altogether her own, with traces of grunge, '00s indie, and synth-pop all whizzed up into a silky, seductive package. Like most artists of her generation, however, Avalon doesn't worry about genre all that much. 'When I think about genre, I don't necessarily think of a sound, but more about the subcultures they sprang from,' she says. 'I think we're now living in a sort of post-subculture world because of the internet, and a lot of artists aren't really conforming to genre. I suppose I was really inspired by some of my contemporaries that just make music from the heart, as corny or trite as that might sound. I think that's the most important thing. I don't think about genre so much as I think about honesty.' Photo: Gaylord Studios Photo: Gaylord Studios This fluid approach to making music can be chalked up, at least in part, to Avalon's upbringing. She notes that her parents had her when they were 18 and 20, and when she was growing up in Santa Ana, they'd often take her to gigs, where she absorbed an eclectic range of sounds—new wave, post-punk, electroclash. By the time she was a teenager, she was already performing in punk bands. (She even co-founded the very first Death Grips fan club with her friend Jarrod.) Before long though, she wanted to strike out on her own. 'I'm a control freak,' she says with a laugh. 'I always knew that I needed to have full autonomy over the work and every aspect of the music I was making.' As a first-generation Chicana, equally central to her artistic identity is her Mexican heritage. 'I think the Chicano community is one of the driving forces of alternative and post-punk and goth music,' she says. 'A lot of those artists have been held up by Chicanos: Morrissey and the Smiths, the Cure, Depeche Mode. These are all bands that my uncles listen to. Even though they're from England, for some reason, their music just resonated with us—I think because it's so dramatic, it reminds us of Vicente [Fernández] or Luis Miguel. It's so passionate and romantic. I suppose that's how I feel about life too.'
USA Today
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Alanis Morissette blasts early days in industry, return to 2000s thin aesthetic
Alanis Morissette isn't holding her tongue. Known for an acerbic tone, the "Jagged Little Pill" singer proved she's not done speaking her mind, calling out the toxicity of her early days in the industry in a new interview with The Guardian that published June 21. "There was no one to hide behind," she told the outlet of her rise to fame in the 90s. "What I found in terms of the lovely patriarchy, was that at that time if men couldn't (have sex with) me, they didn't know what to do with me." More of an introvert, she told the outlet that when she began looking around the industry during her early days, success was mostly afforded to people "secure in their loudness, à la Courtney Love." "That seemed to be valued," she told the Guardian. "I was like, 'OK, I'm going to pretend to be an extrovert for the next 25 years.' So, tequila – anything that allowed me to be the life of the party – or if I was doing a talk, Xanax. Anything that would help me pretend I'm not me." Morissette, who has been open about both her struggles with addiction and with eating disorders, said her current phase in life affords her a new comfort in her own skin. "Now there's zero desire to present as something that I'm not," she said. "I spent 25 years trying to be someone who didn't have this temperament. At 51, I feel this is just what it is like." But trends are cyclical and what once made her early years in the industry hard is back again with a vengeance, she said, lamenting the return of the "size zero" aesthetic. "We thought that whole era was done, right? We sorted this out! Didn't we?" she said. "Oh, we didn't. We dropped the ball… the hyper-sexualization thing is so boring."
USA Today
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Alanis Morissette blasts early days in industry: 'They didn't know what to do with me'
Alanis Morissette isn't holding her tongue. Known for an acerbic tone, the "Jagged Little Pill" singer proved she's not done speaking her mind, calling out the toxicity of her early days in the industry in a new interview with The Guardian that published June 21. "There was no one to hide behind," she told the outlet of her rise to fame in the 90s. "What I found in terms of the lovely patriarchy, was that at that time if men couldn't (have sex with) me, they didn't know what to do with me." 'This was not the story I agreed to tell': Alanis Morissette blasts new documentary 'Jagged' More of an introvert, she told the outlet that when she began looking around the industry during her early days, success was mostly afforded to people "secure in their loudness, à la Courtney Love." "That seemed to be valued," she told the Guardian. "I was like, 'OK, I'm going to pretend to be an extrovert for the next 25 years.' So, tequila – anything that allowed me to be the life of the party – or if I was doing a talk, Xanax. Anything that would help me pretend I'm not me." Morissette, who has been open about both her struggles with addiction and with eating disorders, said her current phase in life affords her a new comfort in her own skin. "Now there's zero desire to present as something that I'm not," she said. "I spent 25 years trying to be someone who didn't have this temperament. At 51, I feel this is just what it is like." But trends are cyclical and what once made her early years in the industry hard is back again with a vengeance, she said, lamenting the return of the "size zero" aesthetic. "We thought that whole era was done, right? We sorted this out! Didn't we?" she said. "Oh, we didn't. We dropped the ball… the hyper-sexualization thing is so boring."
