Japanese writer who documented WWII Tokyo firebombing dies

Japanese Breakfast was joined by Wilco‘s Nels Cline during her set at Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts, over the weekend.The musical moniker of Michelle Zauner, Japanese Breakfast welcomed Cline onstage towards the end of the set, to help in playing ‘Posing For Cars’ from her 2021 LP ‘Jubilee’. During the song, the Wilco guitarist shredded his way through a masterful guitar solo, captured by fans in the audience.“Nels Cline just ripped a fucking solo on my fucking song,” Japanese Breakfast shared on social media, later returning the favour for the rock outfit and joining them onstage for ‘Jesus, Etc.’.

Bo Hopkins, who appeared in such memorable films as The Wild Bunch (1969), The Getaway (1972), American Graffiti (1973), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), Posse (1975), and Midnight Express (1978), has died at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys. He was 80 and had a heart attack.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Plan 75,” Hayakawa Chie’s Japanese dystopian drama which world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, has been sold in a raft of territories by Urban Sales. The movie is set in Japan, in a near future where a government program called Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized in order to remedy the aging society. The film weaves the stories of an elderly woman who isn’t able to live independently, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman and a young Filipino caregiver.

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, MusicVeteran music promoter, filmmaker and venue owner Peter Shapiro is lifting the curtain on a career that spans 10,000 concerts. “The Music Never Stops: What Putting on 10,000 Shows Has Taught Me About Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Magic,” will be released by Hachette Books on August 2.Described as “perhaps the most notable independent concert promoter since Bill Graham,” a sentiment shared by Steven Van Zandt and others in advanced praise for the book, Shapiro is known for his long-standing relationship with the Grateful Dead and its myriad offshoot projects.His roots in the scene go back to when he acquired and ran jam band destination the Wetlands in downtown Manhattan — while still in his 20s — to opening Brooklyn Bowl and expanding the franchise to Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Nashville, to staging the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary “Fare Thee Well” tour, featuring the co-founders Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann with Phish’s Trey Anastasio.

Japanese Breakfast will feature as a musical guest on the Apple TV+ show Helpsters.From the makers of Sesame Street, Helpsters is a children’s show about a group of monsters who work together to solve the problems of customers in their shop. The first season launched alongside Apple TV+ in 2019, with the third season set to debut on Friday (May 27).Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner performs a track with Cody and her friends in the third season.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKawase Naomi, the Japanese auteur who won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and has had films in competition on multiple other occasions, is paying a flying visit to the festival with “Official Film of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Side A,” which screens on Wednesday evening.A feature-length documentary, “Side A” is focused largely on the athletes. “Side B,” Kawase’s next project, casts a wider net and captures what Kawase calls a turning point for Japanese society.The International Olympic Committee hired me to do it. I was elected or nominated by the IOC.

Adele and Japanese Breakfast have both been named on Time‘s 2022 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.The news magazine’s annual list spotlights the “pioneers, leaders, titans, artists, innovators and icons” of the past year.Adele is listed under the ‘icons’ category alongside Jon Batiste, Keanu Reeves and Mary J. Blige, with Late Late Show host James Corden writing in support of the singer’s entry.Japanese Breakfast, AKA Michelle Zauner, is celebrated as an ‘innovator’ along with Zendaya, Taika Waititi and Miranda Lambert.Questlove, Jazmine Sullivan, Oprah Winfrey, Issa Rae and Quinta Brunson are also named on the Time 100 list for 2022.

Japanese Breakfast made her Saturday Night Live debut last night (May 21) on the show’s season 47 finale – watch her play ‘Be Sweet’ and ‘Paprika’ below.The singer-songwriter, aka Michelle Zauner, released new album ‘Jubilee’ last year, and appeared alongside host Natasha Lyonne, star of Russian Doll and Orange Is The New Black.Zauner played two of the biggest hits from ‘Jubilee’ on the show. For ‘Be Sweet’, she was dressed in deep red and backed by a four-piece band all in white, before she donned a white frock and was joined by a horn section for ‘Paprika’.Watch the two performances below.Last night’s SNL season finale also saw the departure of longtime cast member Pete Davidson.Fellow cast members Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney also announced they were to leave the show after last night’s episode.The news comes after Davidson remarked in 2021 that he was “ready to hang up the jersey” with regards to his stint on SNL.Elsewhere on the 47th season of the show, Post Malone made his Saturday Night Live debut, with Selena Gomez also be making her debut on the NBC programme as host.During his performance, the rapper was joined by Fleet Foxes to premiere ‘Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol’, a song from his forthcoming album ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’.The May 7 episode of SNL, meanwhile, featured Arcade Fire as musical guests, following the release of their latest album ‘WE’ last Friday.

Shibari – it brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “all wrapped up in a neat little package!” because the one being tied is literally, just that!Except, we’re not talking about the end of a Simpsons episode – we’re talking about the intricate art of Japanese Rope Bondage, though technically, the correct term for the weaving of intricate knots for trussing and dangling people for erotic and sometimes artistic purposes would be Kinbaku. Eventually, the custom fell out of practice before reappearing in underground Japanese BDSM clubs. However, it’s only been since the early 1990s that Shibari has been gaining fans and popularity outside of Japan, popping up in clubs in Europe and America, naturally filtering out from there. Image: Sydney Rope ClubBut Shibari or Kinbaku isn’t your western style of Bondage, enjoyed in traditional BDSM settings, though the two practices share some similarities.

Roger Angell, whose vivid essays about baseball in The New Yorker saw him enshrined in a special writers wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., has died. He was 101 and died of heart failure, according to New Yorker editor David Remnick.

Algerian actor Ahmed Benaissa died today following a lengthy illness and just hours before his film Sons of Ramses is scheduled for a Critics’ Week screening at the Cannes Film Festival. He was 78.

Marvin Josephson, who helped grow a small management company that could not afford a secretary into an intenational entetainment agency with multiple offices, died May 17 in Los Angeles. He was 95 and no cause was given in the announcement.

Kay Mellor, the writer of British dramas such as The Syndicate and Band of Gold, has passed away aged 71.

Japanese Breakfast is set to make her Saturday Night Live debut next week, appearing as the musical guest on the show’s season 47 finale.The singer-songwriter, aka Michelle Zauner, released new album ‘Jubilee’ last year, will appear on the May 21 edition of the long-running show, with Russian Doll and Orange Is The New Black star Natasha Lyonne on board to host.“Help!!!!!!!!” Japanese Breakfast simply wrote on Twitter to announce her performance. Last month in an interview backstage at Coachella, Zauner told NME: “This year is about enjoying myself.

Selome Hailu Natasha Lyonne is set to host the season finale of “Saturday Night Live” on May 21 with Japanese Breakfast performing as the musical guest.The episode will mark the “Saturday Night Live” debut for Lyonne, who is the co-creator, executive producer, director and star of the comedy-drama series “Russian Doll,” which debuted its second season on Netflix on April 20. Season 1 follows Nadia (Lyonne) as she mysteriously finds herself stuck in a time loop and must find her way out with the help of a stranger named Alan (Charlie Barnett) who she realizes in the same situation.

Natasha Lyonne is making her Saturday Night Live hosting debut on the season finale.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefUpgrade Productions, the production company launched last year by Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier, is working on an epic Japanese-language TV series.The company has teamed with venerable Japanese studio Shochiku to produce “A True Novel” as an eight-part adaptation of Mizumura Minae’s 2003 Yomiuri Prize-winning novel. Inspired by Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” the sweeping family narrative is set in the decades after World War II in Japan and the U.S.The series, adapted by screenwriter Sakaguchi Riko (“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,” “Mary and the Witch’s Flower”) will bring to life a love story spanning three generations and told by different characters.

Naomi Judd’s daughter is opening up about her late mom’s struggles with mental illness.

Mickey Gilley, who ran one of the world’s largest honky tonks in Pasadena, Texas and was credited with helping foster country music’s revival in the late ’70s as a key part of the Urban Cowboy film, has died. He was 86 and his death was announced by the Pasadena, Texas mayor, where the club was located.