Pop Culture

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Call it Bon Jovi 2.0. Fans were excited following the band's comeback show Tuesday, July 7, at Madison Square Garden in New York City but did acknowledge that frontman Jon Bon Jovi seems to be singing in a different style. The band returned to the stage for the first time in four years on Tuesday after its namesake's battle with vocal issues. “I really enjoyed the show. It was amazing and his voice was different than what I had heard before, but it was still very strong and his presence on stage really made up for anything that his voice was lacking,” said Kelly Thomke of Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Source

Sony said on Wednesday that it would stop releasing new video games for the PlayStation console on disc in January 2028 following a shift in consumer preferences. “Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only,” the company said on its official PlayStation blog. In practice, that means gamers will have to download directly from Sony’s PlayStation store or obtain a download code when purchasing a title from a retailer. The announcement comes as the upcoming exclusively digital release of Grand Theft Auto VI, which is predicted to become one of the biggest-selling cultural products of all time, has caused some…

NASHVILLE (AP) — The time has come for country music superstar Alan Jackson to hang up his signature Stetson hat. The genre traditionalist from Newnan, Georgia, whose career kicked off in the 1980s and exploded shortly thereafter in the oft-cited ‘90s country wave with heartfelt songs for the working man who’d rather be drinking, or fishing, or ideally both, has sold over 60 million records across his storied career. And on Saturday night at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, he brought his touring career to an end. Five years ago, the 67-year-old music giant Jackson shared that he has a degenerative nerve condition that affects his balance called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, w…

NEW YORK (AP) — Charlie Brown began writing to a pen pal not long after the comic strip “Peanuts”debuted in newspapers back in 1950. No one has gotten a look at whoever was on the other end of his letters — until now. Her name is Mia, and she’s a young girl from London of South Asian descent who uses a wheelchair. She glides into the spotlight in the animated movie “Snoopy Unleashed,” coming to Apple TV in 2027, helping Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang explore what being a pal is really all about. Read the rest here.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A light saber with Luke Skywalker’s severed hand from “The Empire Strikes Back” that is expected to sell for seven figures headlines an upcoming auction of valuables from movies, music and other corners of pop culture. The Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction presented by Heritage Auctions announced Tuesday and held July 13-17 also includes hats from “The Wizard of Oz”and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” hoverboards from “Back to the Future II,”rugs from “The Big Lebowski” and a pair of Rocky’s boxing boots. The light saber, used onscreen by Mark Hamill in the climactic Cloud City fight in the 1980 “Star Wars” sequel, where Darth Vade…

Country music superstar Garth Brooks is considering selling his music catalog in a deal that could be valued at roughly $2 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The potential transaction would include both Brooks’ songwriting rights and his recorded music catalog, placing it among the largest catalog sales ever tied to a single artist if completed. Brooks has discussed possible valuations ranging from the high $1 billion range to more than $2 billion with potential investors, Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The 63-year-old singer is one of the best-selling recording artists in U.S. history. According to the Reco…

The company that promotes the legacy of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” has a reminder: Fred Rogers still wants to be your neighbor. Starting this week, Fred Rogers Productions is situating the iconic show as nearby as YouTube, where it’s getting its own channel. The channel will debut Thursday, June 4, with five episodes including the very first one, which was shot at Pittsburgh’s own WQED TV studios on Sept. 21, 1967, and aired the following February. Episodes of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” are already available online and via paid streaming services. But folks at Fred Rogers Productions, which continues to produce spin-off programs like the animated “Daniel Tiger’s Nei…

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Frankie Valli, whose legendary falsetto defines the sound of the 1960s rock group the Four Seasons, has cancelled the remainder of the band’s 2026 tour dates, citing health concerns. “I’m so sorry to disappoint the folks who have purchased tickets to my shows, but I have decided to take the rest of the year off from touring to focus on my health,” the 92-year-old singer wrote on social media Friday. Valli, the frontman and only original member still performing with the Four Seasons, launched an extended farewell tour billed “The Last Encores” in October 2023. Shows scheduled for April of this year were rescheduled to dates in summer and fall. Now,…

On Reddit, user Dull_Entry_8287 writes: The mall didn't die because of Amazon. It died because of a lease clause. And mid-size towns got screwed twice. Everyone has the story wrong. Ask people why malls died and you get the same three answers: Amazon, COVID, and "people just stopped going." Those things all happened. But a lot of our local malls closed in the 1990s. Amazon was a bookstore. COVID was thirty years away. Something else killed them first. Here's what actually happened, and why the nostalgia you feel for your mid-size town's mall is about something more than the Auntie Anne's pretzel smell. The numbers don't match the story The U.S. had roughly 25,000 malls of…

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — When Ronda Rousey finally got back into a mixed martial arts cage after 9 1/2 years away from her sport, she couldn’t wait even one more minute to collect another arm — and to have her own arm raised one last time. Rousey stopped Gina Carano with her signature armbar just 17 seconds into the two iconic fighters’ double comeback bout Saturday night. After finishing the 44-year-old Carano with a ferocity that evoked her famous heyday, the 39-year-old Rousey reaffirmed that this was only the epilogue on her historic MMA career. She insists she is headed into retirement after ending on a dominant victory. “I was hoping to come out as unscathed as poss…

Any other songs you think belong on this list more?

Roger Sweet, the toy designer who created the He-Man character in the "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" 1980s animated kids' show -- has died at age 91 after battling dementia. Roger worked for Mattel in the '70s and '80s and is widely credited with developing He-Man after pitching multiple muscular action figure concepts that eventually evolved into the sword-wielding hero. His death comes as a new live-action "Masters of the Universe" movie from Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel is set to hit theaters this summer ... proving his creation still has the power of Grayskull decades later. Source

Enjoy these two folks listening to "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" for the first time:

You know the riff. It’s a spiky, exuberant burst of electric guitar that often generates cheers of recognition among listeners across many generations. It’s so infectious that by the time you hear Axl Rose sing “she’s got eyes of the bluest skies,” you just might already be up, dancing, and singing along. That would be the guitar part at the beginning of the Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” the 1988 smash hit that became the band’s sole number-one single in the U.S. The riff is legendary—but it’s also been the subject of a number of rumors, including a popular, albeit false, legend that Slash originally created it as a warm-up exercise. Slash formally cleared up the …

At this point, it’s anyone’s guess what exactly is going to happen with Avengers: Doomsday, a film that Marvel has a lot riding on during an uneven period for the MCU since Avengers: Endgame. Endgame was the moment for the MCU, so much so that Doomsday is being described as a literal sequel to that film. It remains to be seen what that means, but now the Russos are doing something wild and a little bizarre. Speaking at the Sands Film Festival, Joe Russo said that for the theatrical re-release of Avengers: Endgame, there will be new footage in the film “that is set in the Doomsday story that we have added to Avengers: Endgame,” Russo said. “It’s an opportunity to create a …

NEW YORK (AP) — Phil Collins, Iron Maiden, Billy Idol, Queen Latifah, Oasis, Sade and Joy Division/New Order will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, along with first-time nominees Wu-Tang Clan and the late Luther Vandross. The list was revealed on Monday night’s airing of “American Idol.” Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before they’re eligible for induction. Nominees were voted on by more than 1,200 artists, historians and music industry professionals. Those nominated this year but who came up short for the class of 2026 include Mariah Carey, Lauryn Hill, INXS, Melissa Etheridge, Jeff Buckley, Pink, New Edition…

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by Jared Bahir Browsh “¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!” Meaning “hurry up, let’s go,” the trademark slogan of Speedy Gonzales was, for generations of children, the first Spanish words they learned. But by the 1980s, ABC had pulled his cartoons due to concerns that his dress, accent and characters like his cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez, were insensitive toward Mexicans and Mexican Americans. The Cartoon Network followed suit in 1999. I’ve studied and written about the history of animation, including how characters have been received around the world. Though rooted in a well-intentioned effort at cultural sensitivity, taking Speedy Gonzales off the air was a step too far f…

Weekends as a kid were the best in the '80s. Kids today will never know the thrill of grabbing a bowl of your favorite cereal and gearing up for the cartoon marathon Saturday mornings brought. Were most of the cartoons just long-form advertisements for toys at the time? Sure, but they also had some episodes that would stay with us for years to come. Quite a few of our favorite '80s cartoons have gotten modern remakes or live-action adaptations. But they will never match the pure nostalgia of the originals. Here are seven of the cartoons that made our Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons magical. Smurfs (1981-1989 )Smurfs was based on the Belgian comics, written by Pe…

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