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The Guardian
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
BuzzBallz, brat tenacity and hangover face: 25 things I learned about the world at Glastonbury 2025
It was such a hot debate in the 90s, whether a feminist should shave her armpits. On the one hand, didn't it speak of a profound unease in your own skin, the result of internalised patriarchal oppression, that you'd want to parade a hairlessness that everyone knew was fake, in order to satisfy a male gaze that fundamentally didn't want to deal with the messy reality of you? And yet, on the other hand, wasn't it so much neater and more feminine? Decisions, decisions. We argued a lot but shaved our pits anyway. Then the world moved on without us, and nobody does this any more. The worst thing is, if you've shaved your pits for long enough, they won't grow back; like a metaphor for lost youth, made of hair. Drag icon and activist Bimini was wearing a red, white and blue bustier, fishnets, hot pants and 12in heels when they made their final adjudication on festival style: 'Skimpy. Look, see what I mean?' They then pointed at someone in the crowd who was wearing a bra and shorts, and looked quite surprised to be singled out. 'Skimpy, skimpy, skimpy.' Generally speaking – and no offence, surprised crowd-member – it's not enough to get dressed, take off one layer and then go out; you have to mix it up a bit. Regular trousers with the arse removed; panels cut out to reveal random segments of hamstring; vest tops rolled up on one side. The vibe is Flintstone or fetish, your call. This time last year, the spirit of Charli xcx seemed to herald a new spirit of rebellion and devil-may-care among young women specifically, all women generally, and actually, hell, all people. An awesome amount of time was spent explaining to each other what a 'brat' was – she had ladders in her tights and didn't wash her hair, except on a Wednesday; if she got drunk in the morning, it was because that's what she'd decided; she was never waiting for anyone's call. It was anti-consumerist, anti-wellness, anti-pilates, an emancipation from bullshit. If it had all been a flash in the pan, that would have been quite sad. Charli ceremonially burned the green brat curtain at the end of her set, and the homemade brat merch in the crowd has thinned out. But Charli xcx ain't going nowhere – she's like herself times a thousand. If I saw someone famous, I would leave them in peace, up to the point of pretending not to notice who they were. I'd never ask for a selfie, I'd never tell them how much they'd meant to me and insert some heartfelt detail, I'd try not to even poke the person I was with and say, 'Look, it's so-and-so,' because, in the end, the celeb is a person, not a zoo animal. They always have to find some way to match your surprise and enthusiasm, which just isn't possible. Plus they'll have recently come off stage, and likely be way too hot. So I thought, anyway. Then I saw Mr Tumble, fresh out of the CBeebies House Party, and I had to tell him he'd saved the 2010s for me, and I had to get a selfie, even though I was so overexcited that it only has my ear in it. Stick in a band called 'Patchwork' and everyone knows it's Pulp. News of an unscheduled Lewis Capaldi show will go round faster than measles in a post-facts autocracy. Sometimes the details get a bit lost, so a 'secret' Fat Dog set will become the rumour of a 'secret' appearance by Wet Leg – don't go to the rumour mill for accuracy. But the minute the mill grinds into gear, it will not rest until everyone, everywhere, knows everything. The information age has created a desperate appetite for intel that was not freely given up. No one ever asks whether it's any more special than all the other intel. As Jarvis Cocker said, 30 years and four days after he first played this festival, Glastonbury is bigger than any of us. It is an entity, and it is alive. And, like any living thing, sometimes it spawns a stupid idea, which you just have to hope doesn't spread. This year, imagine a bucket hat, made of fake fur, probably pink. Don't rub it in on a stranger and look like a creep; don't try to discuss their sunscreen needs and look as though you're trying to make friends in the most boring possible way. If you see the back of a neck going a bit red, just spray them and be on your way. As the queue for coffee snaked endlessly across the grass, the barista explained that nobody's face ID was working because they were all too hungover. No amount of 'whither political civility?' will do it, no casual or strident dismissals of their viewpoint. I decline to extrapolate from this anything about public opinion on issues besides Kneecap. Let's just leave it at: people really like Kneecap. You've got to wonder what you're trying to say with this Betty Draper cosplay, which even Gracie Abrams was spotted in. Do you have to cover your head because your hair is too beautiful to look at directly, and your modesty too pronounced? Are you about to engage in some agricultural labour? Solid pickled onion on the front taste, and any idiot could get that; followed by a chilli kick, which in the Pringle universe goes by the generic 'spicy'. Whether or not this is what Mario and Luigi would have wanted is anyone's guess. If you saw it on a flyer, you'd think: nah. Oversized sheep's head atop a real person's head, so they look like a sheep, but not very much like one? Nah, I'm good. Little Sooty-and-Sweep-style hand puppets, peeking over the top of the DJ booth? I can live without those. But you only think you can live without that, friend. Nobody knows why, but when they appear, puppets add an incomprehensible amount of gaiety. That's part of the point! You're not supposed to be wearing it just for the colourway. Third or maybe 30th-hand, I heard the story of a guy whose girlfriend was Egyptian, and she'd never heard of Stonehenge. He showed her a picture of it, thinking she must have seen it and not remembered its name, and her response? 'Your ancestors were small and weak.' Hun, you think Stonehenge is not all that, you should see the stone circle at Glastonbury. And yet the hippies are all over it. People might just be wearing the boots because they're flattering, the hats because it's hot, and the tasselled jackets to complete the look, and it might just be coincidence that everyone is doing that at the same time. However, let's say that it isn't, and there's a deeper message: it's that everyone wishes Beyoncé was here. Everyone thinks Starmix is the main Haribo; for years, we've all been sitting here thinking: 'It's weird, I don't like them, they have a spongy texture, underwhelming flavour spectrum and insufficient interest, but other people must like them, because they're the main Haribo.' This is completely wrong. If you leave a range of the popular sweets in a populated office space, as I did at Glastonbury, this is the order in which they disappear; Nostalgix; Tangfastics; Giant Strawbs; Strips; Supermix; Happy Cola. Starmix comes a solid last. Neon-coloured plastic balls of booze that taste like a cocktail of battery acid and squash – I've asked family members before who drinks these things, and the answer is always: people whose fake ID is so amateurish it only works in a corner shop. But this is not so! They are amazingly well-designed for drinking on the move, especially if you want to play catch beforehand. The gnarly pop rocker stunned everyone in 2023 when he announced that not only had he fallen out of love with the Tories, he'd go one further and give Labour a go. All eyes were on Stewart this year, to see if anything in his swagger would indicate whether he was still team Starmer or had reverted to his true blue roots. Two days before his legend slot, he blew the suspense by coming out in favour of Nigel Farage. Which is … a worry, I guess? OK, fine, I'm old, but I remember when you'd never say 'cunt', even if you regularly thought it, without first checking that your interlocutor would be OK with it. I was there when it was thought of as possibly misogynistic. I can definitely recall a time when you might think the word, you'd be medium sure your companion also thought it, but you wouldn't say it out loud in case you sounded a bit unboundaried. Those days are apparently well and truly over. Between the T-shirts, the fans and the flags, this no longer seems to be one of the strongest words in the language. Mel C was the only IRL sighting of a Spice Girl at Glastonbury, but they were all there in spirit, owing to the surprising amount of – what would you call it? – heraldry all over the place. … and equality is great, but: when you see how much engineering and overdesign has to go into pretending standing up to wee is a good idea, it feels like a metaphor about adapting to the patriarchy. You think you're being concerned and nice, and you probably don't mean anything by it. In your head, it might have a jaunty upwards inflection: 'You OK, all well in your world?' To the hearer, however, it can sound like anything: are you angry, are you on the brink of a nervous breakdown, are you the most hungover you've been in your life, are you on the level, are you reliable? Find something else to say. A simple 'how are you?' works well. There is a lot of step chat at Glastonbury, but come on. You're in a big place, where things are far away from each other, and there aren't any buses. Obviously you walked a lot. People go on so much about portable hygiene, and nobody ever mentions that you'll use precisely three wet wipes, and then you'll forget about them for a year, and – pro tip – whatever happens, you will never come back from any camping experience going': 'Thank God for those wet wipes.' A parasol, on the other hand, is the difference between you and that idiot who's in A&E right now. After some epic inflation, a ticket is now £373.50 plus a £5 booking fee, up from £225 a decade ago. Travel is going to be a hundred quid unless you live in one of the surrounding villages; food bargains do exist but only if you think £6 for a bag of nachos is a bargain; and there is no way on earth you're getting into the festival spirit, which is to say drunk, with change from £50. It's an £800 long weekend, which is hardly a newsflash, but it does mean that acts like Faye Webster, with more of a teenage following, are underpopulated. Is it unreasonable to mourn a time when more young people could afford to come? Am I being nostalgix?
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Vivian Wilson mocks conservatives profiting off her name: 'You're welcome'
Sorry conservatives, Vivian Wilson has zero fucks left to give. The model and social media personality recently sat down for a 20 minute chat with Sasha Colby, courtesy of Teen Vogue. They discussed everything from their love of drag to role models to online friendships, but one thing in particular that Colby wanted to ask about was that sense of fearlessness Wilson has been emitting ever since she slid onto the scene. "I've been like up for fodder for the right wing and it gets a little scary," Colby said. "You're like just so resilient with it. Like, you just go for it, you welcome it. What is that drive? Where is that from?" "Well, drive of not giving a fuck," she replied. "First of all, if conservatives are talking about me, they're making money off of my name. So they are thanking me behind the screen. You're welcome. Second of all, if they're talking about me, then they are free to talk about me, but I don't have to listen." - YouTube It's a great outlook, and one Colby was quick to praise, joking that Wilson just saved her ten years of therapy. As for how she reached that point of no fucks given? Well, for that, she largely credits drag, admitting that she was "basically this like, anxious fem boy" in high school. But watching drag and, eventually, participating in drag helped her find the confidence she needed. It's a common story among drag performers, but one that never grows old. And the same way Wilson says she found inspiration from Colby and other performers who came before her, her own story of finding confidence in drag is likely to inspire others — no matter how much the haters try to bring her down. "Not giving a fucking is not that hard after you've kind of been dragged across the coals," she noted. "After you get dragged across like burning coals, being dragged across normal coals, it's a massage." This article originally appeared on Pride: Vivian Wilson mocks conservatives profiting off her name: 'You're welcome' 6 times Vivian Wilson murdered her father Elon Musk with words Vivian Wilson calls father Elon Musk a 'pathetic manchild' in new tell-all interview Vivian Wilson, Elon's trans daughter outs him for sex-selective IVF, here's why that matters
CBS News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Roller-skating drag queens on the Oakland watrerfront bring a new spin to Pride
On the edge of Oakland, right by the bay, something fabulous is afoot. Drag queens, those glittering stars of the late-night stage, have rolled out of the dark and into the park. They've traded the spotlight for sunlight, the velvet rope for a view of the bay, and high heels for four wheels. The result? Rollin' With the Homos - a monthly drag skate party held at Township Commons. It's part talent show, part roller derby, and part something you've never quite seen before. At the center of this rolling rainbow is a queen named Angel Food Cakes, which might explain why everyone here is eating it up. "I think it's a mixture of people love watching skaters," said Food Cakes. "You know, they love seeing somebody doing something so kind of unusual, and it can be beautiful, but it can be silly and dangerous." What began as a scrappy sidewalk performance quickly gained traction, turning into a highly popular monthly show. There was no script, just skates, rhinestones, and a whole lot of heart, said co-founder Nicki J. "Most drag performers - we're all out in the clubs and it's late night and it's not all ages," Nicki J. said. "And this is a way that we can connect with the community." It all comes as the ACLU reports over 570 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced nationwide this year. More than 50 have already been signed into law, most targeting trans Americans. So here, under the open sky, Rollin' With the Homos has become something bigger than a show - it's a statement on wheels. That mix of spectacle and sanctuary is what draws 16-year-old Cora McSkimming, who performs as Trashley. She's not old enough for the clubs, but here she can skate alongside the queens she admires. "I think it's about the community," McSkimming said. "It's a celebration of queer joy." Speaking of joy, 4-year-old Joy Clinard has been attending since she was in diapers. Her dad, Drew Clinard, makes sure she never misses a roll. "She loves drag queens," he said. "She's been coming here since she was 2, and she thinks these are like celebrity-level, as-good-as-it-gets drag queens." Rollin' With the Homos happens at Township Commons in Oakland every fourth Sunday of the month.
The Guardian
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Avant-Drag! review – queer artists light up the streets of Athens with joy and resistance
The queer defiance of Fil Ieropoulos's kaleidoscopic documentary manifests not only through its subject, but also through its form. Centring on a group of drag performers and gender-nonconforming artists in Athens, this shape-shifting film celebrates a vibrant underground scene that thrives in a homophobic system, rife with state-sanctioned discrimination and violence. Introduced through an episodic structure, figures from the community light up the screen with their artistry and activism as they carve out a safe haven of their own. In each of the vignettes, we get a glimpse of both the joy and the peril of navigating the city as a queer person. Decked out in extravagant costumes and makeup inspired by Leigh Bowery, Kangela Tromokratisch struts in towering high heels, while her drag performances, with their vaudevillian feel, parody heteronormative ideals of motherhood and marriage. Equally irreverent is Aurora Paola Morado, who weaves her Albanian heritage into her act as she takes aim at xenophobia in Greek society. For them and other artists featured in the film, drag is both a form of self-expression and a tool of protest. Some of the skits and performance pieces are shot on DV camera, a format that lends a fascinatingly grainy texture to the footage and also suggests a lineage between these contemporary artists and those who came before. Most powerfully, Avant-Drag! largely films its subjects on the streets, conveying the courage as well as the subversiveness of existing in drag in public spaces. Their presence is a political statement, just like slogans of protests graffitied on the city walls. The spectre of trauma might still linger – the film is dedicated to Zackie Oh, a Greek queer artist brutally murdered in broad daylight in 2018 – yet the solidarity among this band of outsiders also imbues the city with the beautiful spirit of liberation. Avant-Drag! is on True Story from 20 June.
New York Times
13-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
MLB's baseball is behaving differently again, but no one seems to know why
Something's up with the baseball. Again. Deep flies aren't flying as far this year in Major League Baseball, and the league office is acknowledging as much. A review by The Athletic of MLB's publicly available data shows there has been more drag on the ball in 2025 than in any of the other nine seasons that MLB has tracked it. As a result, equally hard-hit fly balls are coming up 4 feet short, on average. Advertisement That indicates that this year's ball is somehow different than last year's, but it's unclear why. When contacted by The Athletic, MLB confirmed the difference in the ball's performance, including the 4-foot reduction on long flies, but did not offer a specific explanation. The league says, though, that no intentional changes were made to the ball for this season. 'For the last several seasons, MLB has made drag information available to the public online, which is updated daily during the season,' league spokesperson Glen Caplin said in a statement. 'We are aware of an increase in average drag this season and have provided information to the Major League Baseball Players Association on this issue as our experts continue to study any potential causes beyond normal variability in a product made by hand with natural materials. There has been no change to the manufacturing, storage or handling of baseballs this year, and all baseballs remain within specifications.' A potentially tiny change in seam width or height is one theory the league office has identified, according to a league source who was not authorized to speak publicly, but nothing is conclusive at this point. Baseballs are hand-stitched, prompting league officials to point out there will always be some ball-to-ball and batch-to-batch variation. However, something appears to be happening at scale: On all but four individual days this year, there has been more drag on the ball than last season's average. The mean drag coefficient this year is .3514. The previous high in the Statcast era was .3462 in 2016. That means that something about the ball is causing it to drag more through the air, which would theoretically reduce how far the ball would go. Some players said they have noticed well-struck balls are no longer leaving the yard. 'I've definitely hit some balls that I thought were gonna have a chance and they've been caught against the wall,' said A's slugger Brent Rooker. 'Maybe the extra drag is why my expected slugging percentage is 100 points higher than my actual slugging percentage.' In meetings, players have brought the topic up to commissioner Rob Manfred himself. The commissioner acknowledged to players that the ball has performed differently, said one meeting participant who was not authorized to speak publicly about the closed-door conversation. 'The Players Association has been monitoring baseball behavior throughout the season, and recently reached out to the commissioner's office to review available data and request additional information on a range of baseball measures,' said Kevin Slowey, MLBPA's managing director of player services, in a statement. Advertisement MLB's position is that gameplay is largely unaffected. The league said that the results through Monday — which marks the first 978 games, or about 40 percent of the season — are 'in line' with last year through the same amount of games. 'Long fly balls hit at similar trajectories travel about four feet less than they did through this time last year,' Caplin said. 'In terms of outcomes on the field, 2025 remains in line with 2024 results.' MLB cited three statistics: home runs per ball in play were at 4.2 percent this year, compared to 4.1 percent in 2024; batting average was at .244, compared to .240; and runs per game were at 8.6, compared to 8.7. The additional drag might be obscured by the fact that MLB batters are hitting the ball a little harder this year overall. At the same time, the missing length on fly balls could be reflected in other stats. Across 28 of 30 MLB stadiums this year — removing the two minor-league parks that are being temporarily used in Sacramento, Calif., and Tampa, Fla. — home runs as a percentage of fly balls hit in March, April and May are at an eight-year low. Professor Alan Nathan, who helped come up with the formula for drag on the baseball, and who was on a league-organized commission that looked into the state of the ball back in 2018, said more work is to be done. 'When I correct for air density, using game-time temperature and elevation, I find that the ball traveled about 3.2 feet farther in 2024, with a standard error of about .5 feet,' said Nathan, professor emeritus of physics at the University of Illinois. 'This is more or less what I would expect based on the difference in Cd (drag coefficient) for the two seasons. I would not take this to be the definitive word on the subject, as there is much more analysis one might do.' The above graph suggests that MLB has, overall, produced a more consistent baseball in recent years. From 2015 to 2019, there were wild year-to-year swings in drag. Over the past few years, however, MLB has bought the ball manufacturer, changed the bounciness of the inner core and installed humidors in every park. The past four-plus seasons have been relatively serene in comparison. Which makes what is happening this year all the more surprising. Advertisement The ballmaker Rawlings, which MLB partially owns, constructs the major-league ball in Costa Rica and the minor-league ball in China. Tariffs have not changed the league's manufacturing or import process, Caplin said. They could at some point have an impact, however. Manfred acknowledged last week that the league could incur additional costs on ball imports because of the tariffs. 'There are potential tariff costs,' Manfred said in a press conference at MLB headquarters during the league's owners meetings. 'Costa Rica's not much of a tariff problem to be honest with you. The minor league baseball's made in China, that's more of an issue.' (Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Photo: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
