Pink Floyd’s classic album TheDark Side of the Moon is celebrating its 50th anniversary in March, and a new book is being released to commemorate the occasion.
The album-sized book The Dark Side Of The Moon will feature 129 rare and unseen backstage and onstage photographs shot between 1972 and 1975, while the band was touring the album. Photographers contributing to the book include Storm Thorgerson, Jill Furmanovsky, Aubrey Powell, Storm Thorgerson and Peter Christopherson.
The book will also include U.K. rock writer Chris Charlesworth’s Melody Maker review of the band’s 1972 Wembley show, plus a complete list of Dark Side of the Moon tour dates. It will also delve into how the album’s iconic artwork was created.
Published by Thames and Hudson, the book is set to be released March 7 in the U.S., just a few days after the actual 50th anniversary of the album’s release. Fans can preorder it here.
Pink Floyd released TheDark Side of the Moon on March 1, 1973. It has gone on to be the band’s most commercially successful album, having been certified 15-times Platinum. In 2012 it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.
(WASHINGTON) — Migrants from Latin and South America, who have traveled through dangerous conditions to make it to the U.S., have had a powerful new tool to tell their stories to the entire world in the last couple of years.
TikTok videos, tweets, and other social media posts from these migrants, showing moments such as their struggle through mud, expressing fear about their family’s safety and the hope of a better future in America, have gone viral over the last couple of months. For many of these individuals, it was the best way to show people their struggle.
“I wanted to document what migrants like me have to go through to get to the United States. This is not only my story, but also the story of many people,” Lionel Baquero, a former professor and computer engineer major who fled Cuba last year, told ABC News. “Many people have made the same journey I did. The difference is that it was not documented.”
As uncertainty rises over the status of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S., Baquero and other migrants said they hope their videos can sway minds.
Daniel Noguera posted several videos last year when he and his daughters Nathaniel and Danielis walked eight days through the Darien gap, the dense forest between Colombia and Panama.
Noguera, a Venezuelan native who is now living in the U.S., told ABC News the experience was traumatic for the family.
“There was a time when my daughter’s life was in danger. She almost fell off a cliff. My God, I thought I was going to crumble,” he said.
Still, Noguera said he had to go on this journey because the current political and economic climate in his country made it more dangerous to stay.
“We would hear rumors that they wanted to kill us, that they wanted to harm us because we opposed the government,” he said.
Last week, President Joe Biden announced a new border strategy that would allow up to 30,000 migrants per month to seek asylum as long as they meet specific criteria.
Applicants will need sponsorship in the U.S. and are required to pass background checks. Those who cross into the U.S. illegally will be disqualified.
Noguera said that many migrants want to get a sponsor and come to the U.S. legally, but the strict criteria are major hurdles.
“If we could get our papers, trust me that no one would put their lives in danger to get here. No one,” he said.
Over a decade after he “Woke Up in a Car” with Something Corporate, Andrew McMahon is getting back behind the wheel for his latest Wilderness song.
The track is titled “Lying on the Hood of Your Car,” and you can listen to it now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video is streaming now on YouTube.
“For me, this song is pure nostalgia,” McMahon says. “I made a conscious decision when I was writing it to imagine a whole world of important figures in my life lying next to me on the hood of that imagined vehicle. In one breath it’s a song about young love and in another it’s about those nights out with friends.
McMahon has also revealed that the next Wilderness album, the follow-up to 2018’s Upside Down Flowers, is titled Tilt at the Wind No More and will drop March 31. Along with “Lying,” the record will feature the previously released songs “VHS,” “Built to Last,” “Stars” and “Skywriting.”
To celebrate the Tilt at the Wind No More release, McMahon will play shows in Anaheim, California, on March 30 and 31, and New York City on April 4. He’ll also launch a full Wilderness tour in May.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit AndrewMcMahon.com.
Black Thought is preparing to release a new album alongside El Michels Affair, a “cinematic soul” band from New York. Glorious Game is slated to drop on April 14 and will feature the just-released lead single “Grateful.”
According to a press release, Thought and El Michels Affair frontman Leon Michels met performing at charity concerts in the early 2000s. The Roots star contacted Michels during the pandemic for some new beats, and Glorious Game was eventually born.
The album will follow Black Thought’s Cheat Codes, the collaborative album he and Danger Mouse dropped back in August.
El Michels Affair’s last few albums include 2020’s Adult Themes and 2021’s Yeti Season. They previously put their spin on Bandana by Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, who they’d backed in their 2019 NPR Tiny Desk Concert.
(WASHINGTON) — Among their first priorities while serving in the House majority, Republicans voted Wednesday on two measures related to abortion — a key issue for the party after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last summer.
One of the bills, a resolution, would condemn violence against facilities, groups and churches opposed to abortions. The bill passed 222 to 209, with three Democrats voting yes: Reps. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Marie Perez of Washington.
The other bill would mandate health care providers give care to an infant that is born alive after a failed abortion. The measure passed 220 to 210 with one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cueller of Texas, joining Republicans in supporting the bill.
But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that they are “doomed in the Senate” and are “extreme.”
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act — which was introduced by Republican Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri — would require health practitioners to care for a fetus carried to term after a failed abortion. The bill would also impose criminal penalties on health care providers who don’t, of five years’ imprisonment.
“It pains me that this fight has to be fought at all, but medical care for babies should not be a partisan issue,” Wagner said in a statement. “Now, with Republicans in the Majority, the House will finally take action and vote to protect the fundamental right to life.”
An incomplete abortion where the fetus is carried to term is exceedingly rare. One report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that over a 12-year period, there were 143 cases where an infant was born alive after a failed abortion and then subsequently died.
Only a small percent of abortions are performed at a point in pregnancy where the fetus could theoretically survive. In 2020, 0.9% of abortions were performed after 21 weeks gestation, according to the CDC.
In his statement on Wednesday, Schumer said, “American women deserve to have their right to healthcare protected, not undermined. Just months after a historically disappointing midterm election, the MAGA Republican controlled House is putting on full display their truly extreme views on women’s health with legislation that does not have the support of the American people. Once again, Republicans are proving how dangerously out of touch they are with mainstream America.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Republicans are “committed to defending life and doing everything in our power to keep babies who survive an abortion alive.”
But some in the party, including Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, have been more critical of the push for legislation to restrict abortion access, voicing concern that it could alienate voters.
Abortion rights proved to be a key midterm issue, according to exit polling, which also showed a majority of voters saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
“This is probably not the way to start off the week. We should be looking at measures for example making sure every woman has access to birth control,” Mace said on MSNBC ahead of Wednesday’s votes on the legislation.
Mace is anti-abortion, she said, but “I have many exceptions.” She voted with Republicans to pass both bills.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler, Allison Pecorin and Nicole Wetsman contributed to this report.
Ryan Reynolds appeared to take the high ground with online frenemy Hugh Jackman in response to the Tony winner’s recent pleading with the Motion Picture Academy not to nominate Reynolds’ song “Good Afternoon” from Spirited.
According to Jackman, Reynolds receiving a nomination in the Oscars Best Song category “would make the next year of my life insufferable.”
He commented, “I mean, I have to spend a year with him shooting ‘Wolverine and Deadpool,’ and trust me, it would be impossible. It would be a problem.”
In an Instagrammed response Wednesday, Reynolds said, “I’m not gonna stoop to that level,” adding, “I’m gonna say right now, I loved Hugh’s performance in The Son. There’s zero sarcasm here.”
He added, “It’s literally one the best of his entire career, and his career is very impressive already. So I humbly submit Hugh for your consideration. OK.”
At this point, Reynolds attempts to stop recording, but fumbles the phone and his camera catches him saying under his breath, “Wolverine and Deadpool, who is he kidding? Not in your life, Chappie.”
The latter references the bomb Neill Blomkamp sci-fi film Jackman starred in that was released in 2015.
Despite their continuing online flame war, actual-good-friends Reynolds and Jackman will appear as, yes, Wolverine and Deadpool in 2024’s Deadpool 3, both beloved characters’ first adventure as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This week’s news that John Lydon would be competing in the Eurovision Song Contest with his band Public Image Ltd. was certainly surprising. After all, something as flashy and elaborate as Eurovision doesn’t exactly scream punk rock, especially for someone who used to front the Sex Pistols under the name Johnny Rotten.
If you ask Lydon, though, that’s exactly what makes this endeavor punk rock.
“That’s the irony of it all!” Lydon tells Ireland’s RTE Radio 1. “Life throws out the unexpected at you occasionally.”
Still, that doesn’t mean Lydon has to be fan of Eurovision. In fact, Lydon is very much not a fan of Eurovision.
“It’s absolutely awful!” Lydon declares. “The songs, just the whole thing of it is disgusting, really, to me. I’m a songwriter, I perform live, and these shows, they just come off so dreadfully phony to me.”
He adds, “But look, here we go, we’re giving it a chance to break out of that mold.”
Lydon and PiL will compete to represent Ireland in Eurovision with their new song “Hawaii.” The track was written for Lydon’s wife, Nora, who is battling Alzheimer’s disease.
“It’s win, lose or draw, my wife gets the reward,” Lydon says. “It’s all about her for me.”
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival )
Judy Collins has been announced as one of the honorees at the 2023 She Rocks Awards, along with songwriter Shelly Peiken (“What A Girl Wants”) and Fitz and the Tantrums’ Noelle Scaggs, with more honorees to be announced soon.
Presented by the Women’s International Music Network, this will be the 11th annual She Rocks Awards. It’s set to take place April 13 at the Ranch in Anaheim, California, during the National Association of Music Merchants Show. It will feature live music, awards, a silent auction and more.
“I am always astounded by the passionate and meaningful accomplishments of the ground-breaking women in music that we honor,” Laura B. Whitmore, founder of the WiMN and co-producer of the She Rocks Awards, shares. “This year we’ll turn it up to 11 for our 11th anniversary! I am excited to shine a spotlight on these fantastic role models…with more to come!”
Previous She Rock Award winners include the Go-Go’s, Pat Benatar, Melissa Etheridge, Nancy Wilson and Dionne Warwick.
The 2023 She Rocks Awards is open to the public. Tickets can be purchased here.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday faced a growing political headache — and outstanding questions — after classified documents were found in his former office in Washington.
But the president and his aides have left several key questions unanswered, allowing congressional Republicans to seize on the news and speculate about its implications, even as they do not have the full story.
Biden and the White House counsel have said lawyers for the president immediately notified the White House when they discovered those documents in a locked closet as they cleared out his office at the Penn Biden Center, a University of Pennsylvania-run think tank in Washington where Biden worked after his vice presidency ended.
One key question is why the president did not inform the public about the find earlier. The White House says Biden’s lawyer found the documents on Nov. 2 – less than a week before last year’s midterm elections – but it only commented on the incident after a CBS News report made it public this week.
“Every time we find something that comes up before the election, dealing with Biden’s family, it’s pushed under the rug,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters Wednesday.
Congressional Republicans have decried what they have called a double standard with how the administration has handled this incident compared to the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, after he brought hundreds of classified documents there.
But there are key differences between the cases. Trump is alleged to have knowingly taken those classified documents, some with top-secret markings, when he left office; refused to hand over the material for months; and after receiving a grand jury subpoena still failed to return all in his possession.
And even after the FBI searched Trump’s residence, finding more than a hundred more documents with classification markings including some in Trump’s private office, department officials have been continuing to press Trump’s lawyers in recent weeks to certify that he does not continue to have any more classified records in his possession.
The White House, meanwhile, says that it immediately heard from Biden’s lawyers after they found the documents, and that the National Archives took possession of them the next day.
People familiar with the incident told ABC News that the roughly 10 documents dated from 2013 to 2016, when Biden was vice president, and that some were marked top secret.
Another person familiar with the matter said the lawyers did not look through the documents before notifying the White House that day.
Republicans have called on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to conduct an assessment of the damage potentially caused by this incident.
The White House, and other relevant agencies have not said what was in the documents. Biden himself said he did not know.
“I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office,” Biden told reporters in Mexico City on Tuesday. “But I don’t know what’s in the documents. I’ve–my lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday repeatedly declined to provide more information when questioned by reporters Wednesday, including why the White House did not make the document discovery public until a news organization did over two months later.
“I’m not going to go beyond what the president laid out,” Jean-Pierre said. “I’m not going to go beyond what my White House counsel colleagues have stated.”
In November, Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation to Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago as well as a separate probe into efforts by Trump and his allies in 2020 to overturn his election loss. Republicans have called for the same standard to be applied in Biden’s case.
“They treat people differently based upon their philosophical or political party,” McCarthy said.
Republicans are not alone in seeking answers from the administration. The Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner of Virginia, said in a statement to ABC News he expected to be briefed on what happened.
The White House has also not explained why lawyers were involved in packing up Biden’s office or why the documents were only discovered in November and not before.
People familiar with the Biden case said that after the Archives received the documents from the president’s lawyers, it reached out to the Justice Department, and Attorney General Merrick Garland tasked U.S. Attorney John Lausch – an appointee of former President Donald Trump – with leading a review into the matter.
The Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation have been conducting a preliminary investigation that is “well underway”, according to the sources, who said Lausch has briefed Garland – although it’s unclear when exactly his final report will be completed.
“We’re cooperating fully — cooperating fully with the review, and — which I hope will be finished soon,” Biden said Tuesday.
ABC News’ Alex Mallin, Cecilia Vega, Katherine Faulders, Trish Turner, Lauren Peller and Gabe Ferris contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Sesame has joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s list of major food allergens and will soon be added to labels of packaged food to protect consumers.
The eight initial food allergens that cause the majority of serious food-related allergic reactions — all established in 2004 — include milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans, according to the FDA. Sesame is the ninth food to be added to the list.
As of Jan. 1, 2023, the agency stated that sesame is required to be labeled as an allergen on food packages, including dietary supplements.
“Even though the requirement that sesame be listed on the label as an allergen is in effect — you still may find food products for sale that don’t list sesame as an allergen on the label,” the FDA stated. “The law establishing this sesame labeling does not require food products that were already on their way to the store or in stock before 2023 to list sesame as an allergen on the label.”
During this transition period, consumers should note that food products on store shelves that were produced prior to Jan. 1 will not be removed or relabeled.
“Because some packaged foods can have a long shelf life, it’s hard to say when pre-2023 stock will be replaced with food products carrying the required labels,” the FDA statement continued. “So, proceed with caution during this transition period.”
The FDA also said that this serves as an important reminder for shoppers to always check labels on food products each time, since labels and ingredients can change, even if it’s a staple you’ve eaten before without an allergic reaction.
With the new labeling requirements, the name of the food source of a major allergen must appear either in parentheses following the name of the ingredient, such as “natural flavor (sesame),” or immediately next to the list of ingredients, such as “contains sesame.”
“Sesame has always been required to be listed in the ingredient statement if it was an added ingredient, with a few exceptions,” the FDA explained. “Now that sesame is a major food allergen, the FDA expects that it be specifically listed as sesame on the label if it’s part of another ingredient, like ‘natural flavor,’ or ‘spice mix.'”
The new sesame labeling requirements apply to packaged foods, but allergen labeling for foods that aren’t packaged, like fresh bagels in a grocery bin, may vary. For customers with allergy concerns, the FDA suggests asking store employees for food allergen information.
The change was made through the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research (FASTER) Act, a federal law passed in 2021. The other eight major food allergens were defined through a federal law passed in 2004.
