Latest news with #rebirth
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
George Houston: ‘Parts of rural Ireland can still do better with how they welcome queer children to the world'
George Houston is discussing his death. Not in the physical sense, but the young musician has been undergoing a rebirth of sorts in recent times. 'I don't know if you know about numerology or anything, but there's this thing with your birth year,' he says. 'Each year you have a tarot card prescribed to you, and last year, while I was recording the album, was my death year. 'This year I'm on a different card, and it's all change ... When the album was finished, it was like this big breath out. Now I can start thinking about new things. It feels like a new era.' Despite being only 24, Houston, who is from Burt, Co Donegal, has already released three albums since launching his career in 2020 with the wry folk-pop single Boo Fucking Hoo. READ MORE He's correct about it being a new era for him, though. His latest album, TODC, which, in a reference to his interest in tarot and numerology, stands for The Original Death Card, also marks him out as a talent to watch. He treads a line somewhere between the droll melancholia of Jens Lekman, the country-folk quiver of Orville Peck, the lyrical wit of John Grant and the tender alt-indie stylings of Sufjan Stevens. That spark has been noted by the likes of Paul Weller , who asked Houston to support him on his US tour last year, and Jools Holland , who recently invited him to play on his Later ... show on the BBC. Houston is a thoughtful conversationalist (despite apologising for being 'blabbery' when we talk) and a discerning lyricist. He loved growing up in the countryside with 'a big garden and plenty of fresh air from a very lovely family background'. His music-loving parents encouraged Houston and his two siblings to learn an instrument from an early age; seeing David Bowie in the film Labyrinth proved a pivotal moment: a convergence of his two loves, music and film (something he is exploring by making music videos for every song on TODC). 'But there's parts of growing up in rural Ireland that you become very aware that you're not so welcome, like growing up in Catholic schools,' he says. 'I love my background and I love where I'm from, but there are parts of rural Ireland that can still do better with how they welcome queer children to the world. Because I know too many [gay] people that will never come out, and will get married and have a wife and children. It's two very grim alternatives, so I'm incredibly lucky that I had this cocoon of community around me.' There's something very traumatic about growing up and loving all of that, and knowing that they hate you back — Houston on the Catholic Church On TODC he uses tarot as a framework to examine other topics that loom large in his life and his songwriting, most notably sexuality and the Catholic Church . The title track has lyrics such as 'I'm thanking God for all the work that I've done, to love those faults he's installed' over a jaunty indie-pop melody. The snarling Drag Queen, an album standout, lays waste to the church with the refrain 'The feeling is mutual, and the feeling is hate'. 'I wanted to write songs about queer love, and femininity, and different things that I've experienced in my life,' he says. 'I'm definitely out of my comfort zone, and I am being a lot more vulnerable in this album. 'I do reference religion a lot in these songs. I was raised going to Mass every Sunday, and I do have an affection for the Catholic Church; I think there are lovely cultural traditions within it, and I visit churches everywhere I go, because I think they're beautiful, calming spaces. 'But there's something very traumatic about growing up and loving all of that, and knowing that they hate you back. And then, on top of that, the things that you love and [the person] that you are is likened to being a 'sinner' and being told you're going to hell forever.' He shakes his head, sighing. 'So yeah, there's lots of trauma to unpack there.' Houston, who is bisexual, says he never felt the need to come out publicly, 'because I have that kind of security blanket of also being straight', he says. 'That is a ridiculous thing, but it's true. I never wanted to come out in secondary school, because I didn't owe the homophobes in the school any of myself, and I didn't want to give them any satisfaction of knowing more about me. 'I'm very anti the term 'the closet', because I'm a strong believer that that is a myth, and the closets are built up around children when they grow up by not educating them about who they could be, or about the different kinds of relationships and identities in the world. 'So I never did come out. I just showed up one day with my boyfriend to my parents' house, but they already knew.' He shrugs. 'It wasn't that I didn't want to come out, but at the same time I wasn't keeping anything a secret. I just wanted it to be normal, if that makes sense.' It was an earlier song of Houston's, In Aeternum Vive, from his 2023 album, Vehicular Suicide, that caught Paul Weller's ear. As well as inviting him on tour – Houston's dad drove him across North America to play such iconic venues as the Fillmore, in San Francisco, where he recorded a live version of his album track Jesus Freaks – Weller offered Houston the use of his Black Barn Studios to record the album. The singer recorded 10 tracks there over five days last August; the subsequent autumn tour with Weller was intense but an enormous learning experience. 'Some shows were more chatty, and people had a drink, and you just played into that. And some shows you could hear a pin drop and it was really lovely,' says Houston. 'I remember the Lincoln Theatre in Washington – the audience were very engaged. Then there was this theatre in Minneapolis that [was synonymous with] Prince, and every one of my idols played that stage. That was a real pinch-me moment.' George Houston: 'I'm probably a people-pleaser at heart' Weller, he says, was a great musician to tour with. 'I was very worried about getting in people's way, because I'm, like, 'Oh my gosh. How did I manage to get here?'' He laughs. 'But I think Paul maybe recognised that, and made the effort to come and chat to me, which was very lovely. He's brilliant for lifting up smaller acts. I wish there were more artists like him.' The Weller connection also went some way to landing Houston his appearance on Later … with Jools Holland, where his acoustic, tender telling of the single Lilith (performed in a resplendent glittering costume with black angel wings) was supremely assured. 'I suppose Paul put in a good word for me, which helps big time,' he says, laughing. 'I was just really lucky, and it was really good timing with the album release ... Jools came and said hello, and he made the effort to say he'd listened to the album and stuff ... I was more nervous than I let on, because it's a hard song to sing. It's one of my more high-pitched songs, and a bit more yodelly than I usually go.' He shrugs. 'But it worked.' If there's one thing Houston has learned over the past five years, it's that a sense of humour is imperative, both in navigating the music industry and tackling tough topics in his songwriting. 'I like to describe my music as sad music for people with humour as a defence mechanism,' he says, laughing. 'I'm probably a people-pleaser at heart; I get great joy from making people laugh and talking to people on stage, and I like to see people smile when I'm telling a story through the songs. I would hate it if people went away from a show of mine and were, like, 'How do I describe it?'' 'I want people to feel engaged and know that they were listening to what I was singing.' He breaks into a wry smile. 'A bit of humour helps with that sometimes.' George Houston plays at the Under the Drum festival, in Co Antrim, on Saturday, August 9th, and Balor Arts Centre , in Co Donegal, on Thursday, August 14th; he plays in Galway, Derry, Belfast and Dublin in October
Malay Mail
16-07-2025
- Malay Mail
Selangor top cop: Four women undressed during ‘Queens Night' at RM9,000 eHati programme
SHAH ALAM, July 16 — Four participants at the eHati motivational programme took off their clothes during an event called Queens Night, Selangor police chief Comm Datuk Hussein Omar Khan revealed today. He said all four were female. 'The event which took part on one of the days during the programme saw the females at some point be naked, at least by four individuals. 'It was part of the event called Queens Night. In that programme they had two packages, A and B. B was more expensive and ended with Queens Night. 'It was an extra activity and said nudity happened here in an activity called 'rebirth' which they claimed was to raise the participants' spirits,' he told reporters in Shah Alam today. Hussein said that the programme had participants from all over Malaysia and one of them was from Kedah. He also said that non-Muslims had also taken part in the event and urged all who have not stepped forward to give their statements or risk being arrested. 'The organiser apparently was trying to organise an event to rediscover yourself. So, participants paid RM6,000 for package A and around RM9,000 for package B. Package B was Queens Night,' he said. Thus far the police do not have any video recording nor pictures of the event, said Hussein, adding that the organisers weren't there during Queens Night. They were there during the day.
Washington Post
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Lorde's ‘Virgin' charts a journey of self-discovery
To paraphrase the Queen of Pop, Lorde somehow made it through the wilderness, but didn't know how lost she was until she found herself. That's a good-enough thesis for 'Virgin,' the just-released album from the singer-songwriter. Never mind the album's title, which invokes think pieces and studies of how much Generation Z is or isn't having sex. This 'Virgin' is more about an artist who is touching a new truth for the very first time. As Lorde wrote on her website before the album's release, this is 'the sound of [her] rebirth.'
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nathalie Ng confirms divorce from husband David Chan
30 June - Nathalie Ng surprised many recently by revealing that she and husband David Chan have actually called it quits on their marriage. As reported on Epoch Times, the Miss Hong Kong alumna and former TVB actress posted an excerpt from her new book, "Reborn Through Love" on 27 June, which read, "Marriage taught me to let go and to be grateful. Even though this journey didn't have a fairy-tale ending, it was still a crucial chapter in my life, helping me understand how to love myself more and also those around me. I hope to use my story to tell you: no matter how winding your path, love is your strongest wing; it will carry you through any storm, towards your own starry sky." "Facing, letting go, love, and gratitude can turn a crisis into a turning point, allowing you to find your own rebirth. May you bravely face and let go. May you be reborn through love and gratitude!" In the same post, Nathalie said that there is no right or wrong here, and that she hopes people would refrain from unnecessary speculation. "Some people are better off as friends than as spouses, so let's gracefully revert to being friends! This is not for hype, so I'm stating it once here and will not respond to it again in the future. Please understand!" she added. Nathalie and David tied the knot in 2011 and have two daughters together, ages 10 and 8. In August last year, she revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer three years prior and had since experienced a relapse and was undergoing treatment. (Photo Source: Nathalie IG)
New York Times
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room Reopens at the Brooklyn Museum
The concept of rebirth is central to Buddhism, which teaches that every individual has more than one life. That also appears to be true of the Rubin Museum of Art, long one of New York City's prime locations for viewing Buddhist works. Although the institution closed its doors permanently in October 2024, one of its most cherished installations is taking on a new existence: The Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room will reopen on Wednesday for a six-year stay at the Brooklyn Museum. The Shrine Room, which Holland Cotter, the chief art critic of The New York Times, once described as 'magnificent,' is now on the Brooklyn Museum's second floor, in its Arts of Asia Galleries, where it is like a darker jewel wedged among a series of modernist white boxes. Carefully reassembled to incorporate the same wooden posts and overhead beams as at the Rubin, the 400-square-foot enclosed space also includes the original's transparent glass doors, which both welcome in onlookers and gently seal them off from exterior noise. 'We didn't want the Shrine Room to be a thoroughfare,' Joan Cummins, the Brooklyn Museum's senior curator of Asian art, said in an interview at the site. Inside, the space looks as if it had been dropped in intact from a prosperous Tibetan home, featuring colorful thangkas, or scroll paintings, as well as elaborate decorations to welcome gods. Silver offering bowls and statues of deities in various metals sit atop painted furnishings, along with musical instruments — an elegant bell, a conch shell repurposed as a trumpet, Mongolian cymbals attached to flowing silk. One of many statues of deities in the Shrine Room is this 19th-century bejeweled copper and gold image of Ushnishavijaya, a goddess associated with long life. Credit... Guarionex Rodriguez for The New York Times Music infuses Tibetan Buddhist ritual, represented here by a pair of Mongolian cymbals from the 18th-19th centuries, attached to lengths of silk. Credit... Guarionex Rodriguez for The New York Times The faint scent of incense fills the air, along with the recorded chants of Buddhist monks and nuns. The Shrine Room invites visitors not just to gaze on more than 100 artifacts from nine centuries but also to sit on small stools and experience the space as a Tibetan family might: as a place for meditation or prayer, as a refuge from a fractious world. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
