35 h. ago There were two paths for America and Lilith Fair was one of them. Sadly it chose the other | Emma Brockes

The all-female tour was a counterpoint to the era’s misogyny. We could do with some of that promise todayThere’s an argument to be made that the first person in the US to spot the oncoming freight train of the Maga movement – fully 17 years before the first election of Trump – wasn’t a political forecaster or a bearded contrarian but the rock star Sheryl Crow. In 1999, Crow appeared at a press conference backstage at Lilith Fair, the all-women music festival, during which she was asked about a disastrous appearance she had recently made at Woodstock ‘99. This was the Woodstock reboot in upstate New York marred by violence, sexual assault and an angry male crowd that heckled the few female artists present with, “show us your tits.” Crowe, smiling bleakly, said, “I’m hoping it doesn’t represent our future as a nation or the youth of America.”Well, as they say: ha. Crow’s comments feature in Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, a new documentary by Ally Pankiw on Disney+ and a mind-blowing...

Politics

9 d. ago Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir has raised eyebrows – but she always comes out on top | Emma Brockes

A new tale from the longtime purveyor of self-love is both horrific and poorly done, and nobody’s sure how to respondIf you are someone who reads multiple news sources a day, a fun way to occasionally spend your time over the last few weeks would have been to watch how critics and commentators have grappled with a hard problem. It is not, admittedly, as hard as the problem of grappling with consciousness. But it is hard enough that the famous assurance by Glennon Doyle, lifestyle coach and thought leader, that “we can do hard things,” remains relevant. I am talking about the problem of how we talk about All the Way to the River, Elizabeth Gilbert’s new memoir – specifically, how to be kinder and more measured about it than the book really deserves.As you may know if you are one of the 30 million people who bought Eat Pray Love, one of the tens of millions who have read Big Magic or one of her other novels, or simply one of her 1.2 million followers on Instagram, Gilbert recently pub...

Politics

9 d. ago ‘The idea we should be in the kitchen serving our men is enraging’: singer

She withstood bomb threats when making her all-female Lilith Fair festival in the 90s – and this week stood up to Disney over Jimmy Kimmel. The alt-pop star explains why she’s still so fired upIt’s 11 years since Sarah McLachlan last released an album of original songs. The break had worried her. “What do I have to say at this point in my life?” she says. “I’m a 57-year-old white woman of privilege. Does anybody want to hear from me?”Looking tanned and relaxed on an early morning video call from Vancouver Island, the Nova Scotia native admits she had “stayed busy”: she released a Christmas album (2016’s Wonderland) and worked as the principal fundraiser and founding board chair for her three namesake music schools, which provide lessons and education to at-risk youth. At the same time, she was a self-proclaimed dance mom raising two daughters; the second recently went off to college. But there was still “trepidation around being out of the game for so long”. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Dreamers review – powerful film about immigrant kids in the US, denied their chance of citizenship

Study of the fate of undocumented children brought to the US, now grown up and paying taxes, yet under constant threat of deportation and removalFor undocumented immigrants, life is a state of perpetual limbo; the present is fraught with unexpected dangers, while the future is as ephemeral as a mirage. Shot in lyrical black and white, Stéphanie Barbey and Luc Peter’s documentary astutely conveys these feelings of anxiety and isolation. The film centres on the so-called Dreamers, migrants who were brought to the US as children without papers. Carlos, the main subject, is one such case: originally from Mexico, he crossed the border at the age of nine with his three brothers and his parents. Now in his late 30s, Carlos has spent all of his adult life in America, yet there is no legal pathway for him to citizenship.A tragedy looms large. Jorge, one of Carlos’s siblings, was deported to Mexico after a minor driving offence, leaving behind his partner and his son. The enforced separation ...

Events

1 week ago Sarah McLachlan cancels Disney premiere performance over Jimmy Kimmel suspension

McLachlan and Jewel were reportedly set to perform at the premiere of ‘Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story’

Politics

2 w. ago Sarah McLachlan talks Lilith Fair, her first new album in 11 years and yes, that ASPCA commercial

Sarah McLachlan thought her forthcoming album, “Better Broken,” would be her last

Politics

2 w. ago After quitting the US, Britain seemed like a sanctuary from Trump’s Maga movement. Now I wonder, for how long? | Emma Brockes

I was the envy of the friends I’d left behind. Now it seems prudent to assess how much that nativism will truly take root hereThis time last year, I had just moved back to Britain from the US and was enjoying the almost universal envy of American friends. While they were looking down the barrel of a second Trump presidency with its guarantee of chaos and division, we had elected Keir Starmer by a landslide and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. I remember people congratulating me on the prescience of my move, which I absolutely took even though politics hadn’t been part of my decision (not least because, for most of 2024, I had assumed Trump would lose). Anyway, here we are a year later and who’s laughing now?I guess the answer to that is Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party, which has somehow managed to harness the anger, disappointment and shame felt by large numbers of people who voted for and were then let down by Brexit, and are now in search of another fire to light. ...

Politics

2 w. ago I quit the US and Britain seemed like a sanctuary from Trump’s Maga movement. Now I wonder, for how long | Emma Brockes

I was the envy of the friends I’d left behind. Now it seems prudent to assess how much that nativism will truly take root hereThis time last year, I had just moved back to Britain from the US and was enjoying the almost universal envy of American friends. While they were looking down the barrel of a second Trump presidency with its guarantee of chaos and division, we had elected Keir Starmer by a landslide and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. I remember people congratulating me on the prescience of my move, which I absolutely took even though politics hadn’t been part of my decision (not least because, for most of 2024, I had assumed Trump would lose). Anyway, here we are a year later and who’s laughing now?I guess the answer to that is Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party, which has somehow managed to harness the anger, disappointment and shame felt by large numbers of people who voted for and were then let down by Brexit, and are now in search of another fire to light. ...

Politics

2 w. ago What to Stream: Cardi B, a movie about Bumble, 'Morning Show' and a look at Lilith Fair

Cardi B releasing her long-awaited sophomore LP, “Am I the Drama

Culture

4 w. ago Summer’s ending – and the delusion that a new me might be possible is back | Emma Brockes

The start of a new school year always awakens my resolve: time to be more disciplined, less cluttered and nicer to the catsSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreEvery year at this time, I think of a quote from the Bible, but which I know from Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, in which seven-year-old Jeanette stitches a needlepoint sampler decorated withthe inscription: “The summer is ended and we are not yet saved.” We are not yet saved: no, not in this house, where I experience the back-to-school week in September far more urgently than New Year’s Day as the time of year for a behavioural reset. New school year, new me, new cast-iron conviction I can put the rocky road on the top shelf after I’ve used it in my girls’ packed lunches and not get it down until tomorrow.This is the first and most pressing item on the list: diet. Ten days o...

Politics