The 2021 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been announced: Tina Turner, Carole King, The Go-Go’s, JAY-Z, Foo Fighters and Todd Rundgren. Tina Turner is now the second woman, after Stevie Nicks, to be inducted twice (she was inducted with ex-husband Ike in 1991). The Go-Go’s, after fifteen years of eligibility, were finally nominated for the first time this year, and I’m elated they were inducted on their first try. I refuse to believe it’s been twenty-five years since the first Foo Fighters album, because that would make me old.
According to Deadline, Tom Cruise has delivered his three Golden Globe awards (Best Actor in a Drama for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire, and Best Supporting Actor for Magnolia) to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association amidst an ongoing conflict surrounding the HFPA’s lack of diversity. I have a hard time taking Cruise seriously anyway due to his slavish devotion to the cult of Scientology, but this sort of performative nonsense will do nothing to affect change.
Are You Experienced by The Jimi Hendrix Experience was released on this day in 1967. One of the best and most influential debut albums of all time, Are You Experienced is stacked with one banger after another, including “Purple Haze”, “Fire”, “Hey Joe”, “Manic Depression” and “May This Be Love”, a personal favorite of mine.
On this day in 1994, Pulp Fiction premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and cinema would never be the same.
On this date in 1988, a musical production of Carrie opened at the Virginia Theatre in New York City. Yes, you read that right – Carrie, the musical. Considered one of the biggest flops in Broadway history, Carrie had some top notch talent, including songs by Dean Pitchford and Michael Gore, the Oscar-winning songwriting duo from Fame. Betty Buckley, one of the greatest musical theater performers ever and cast member of the 1976 film (she played the gym teacher, Miss Collins), starred as Margaret White. A 2012 off-Broadway revival yielded a cast recording, and you can listen to it here.
Entertainment Weekly has kicked off a summer-long series called “I Want My Teen TV” with a list of the fifty best teen shows of all time. I’m happy to see a few of my personal favorites, including Square Pegs, Party of Five and Felicity, on the list, but I take issue with them placing the sublime Freaks and Geeks at #5 – BEHIND Beverly Hills, 90210.
Peanut Butter and Julie 
So glad to see Carol King being inducted!
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