Last December, U2 were slated to perform at KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas at the historic Forum, but the group had to cancel the gig after Bono suffered a bike accident a few weeks before. But on Thursday night in L.A., the world’s biggest rock band made good on their promise to play the show while in town for their current Innocence + Experience tour. The group took a break from their five-night run at the city’s larger Forum to deliver a high-energy set for 500 fans. Read More...
Monty Brogan is going to prison in 24 hours. Caught hiding drugs in his Manhattan apartment, he’s been sentenced to seven years. David Benioff’s headlong suspense novel, The 25th Hour (Carroll & Graf, $24), is a deceptively simple chronicle of his final day of freedom. Monty isn’t a career criminal — he’s just a rueful guy who succumbed to an easy way to make money. His friends throw a farewell party at a chic club, a scene that includes a terrifically tense yet beautifully black-humored confrontation with a drug lord. Read More...
In some ways, Cootie (Jharrel Jerome) is a lot like most teenagers. He wants to hang out with friends, maybe earn some money to take his crush out on a date, and grow up to do something important with his life. But Cootie isn't a normal teenager. He's a 13-foot-tall Black kid, one who's been hidden from the world for the last 19 years. With no sense of what it means to be a Black man (of any size) today, and no understanding of the myriad forces that keep his Oakland community in a perpetual state of struggle, Cootie soon realizes he must define himself before society does it for him. Read More...
