The singer is known for her honesty in life and her music. Shes been talking about solitude, sobriety and how Quentin Tarantino convinced her to give up cocaine
Its been eight years since Fiona Apple last graced the world with a studio album, but an illuminating profile in the latest issue of the New Yorker, filled with a fair number of wild anecdotes involving her celebrity cohorts, serves to remind us of her brilliance. Here are six reasons why Apple is just the performer we need in this mixed-up, locked-down world.
She doesnt shy away from the difficult topics Apple has said that her new album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, is about women and not being afraid to speak. Throughout her career she has spoken, in her songs and in the press, about her issues with depression, self-harm, OCD, PTSD, and the fact that, when she was 12, she was raped by a stranger.
In so doing, she paved the way for other women to speak about their experiences, from Kesha to Lady Gaga, and on to the #MeToo movement.
She has the best story about giving up cocaine Every addict should just get locked in a private movie theatre with QT [Quentin Tarantino] and PTA [Paul Thomas Anderson] on coke, she jokingly told the New Yorker magazine. And theyll never want to do it again.
She can teach us a thing or two about self-isolation Apple doesnt venture out much these days, save to walk her dog along the beach near her home in Venice Beach, California.
She has learned how to live a little more wisely Once a bottle-of-vodka-a-day level drinker, Apple is now sober and has been vegan for many years.
She knows her political onions Last summer, Apple pledged two years worth of earnings from her song Criminal to the While They Wait fund, which finances legal support and necessities for immigrants seeking asylum. In 2017, she released Tiny Hands for the Womens March on Washington. She has said that one of her latest tracks, For Her, was written in a cloud of rage after the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court Justice.
She has her priorities straight In late 2012, Apple postponed the South American leg of her tour due to the ill-health of her dog, Janet.
Friends and colleagues are puzzled by his unexpected conversion, and some speculate that hes angling for an administration post
Facing a skeptical audience at a theatre in downtown Washington, Senator Lindsey Graham embraced the role of pantomime villain in the ongoing saga of Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the supreme court.
Im the first person to say, I want to hear from Dr Ford, he said, referring to the woman who testified to the Senate about allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. I thought she was handled respectfully. I thought Kavanaugh was treated like crap.
Some members of the audience walked out in disgust. But the South Carolina senator was reveling in being the centre of attention. He was also displaying his new, unexpected conversion from ardent critic of Donald Trump to one of the presidents most ferocious attack dogs.
It is a role that has pushed Graham into new national prominence, putting him squarely in the middle of the national confrontation between the #MeToo movement and the populist backlash of male victimisation and righteous indignation.
His battle cry: I know Im a single white man from South Carolina and Ive been told to shut up but I will not shut up.
But friends, acquaintances and colleagues are puzzled. Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: I think a lot of people in this town who know Lindsey are scratching their heads and saying, Thats not the Lindsey Graham whos always been an honest broker. If Lindseys honest, he would not perform the way hes been performing on behalf of Trump.
Graham, 63, has long been one of the most colorful characters in the Senate, long parodied by TV satirist Jon Stewart as a southern belle like Tennessee Williams Blanche DuBois. He served in the US air force in various capacities for more than three decades. In 2015, he acknowledged he had never sent an email.
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Graham launched his political career in the South Carolina legislature in 1992 before winning an open House seat in 1994. He emerged as a key figure in the attempt to impeach President Bill Clinton. He also became known for hawkish views on foreign policy andfor working across the aisle with Democrats.
Graham ran for president in 2016 but was crushed in the Republican primary. During that campaign, he dismissed Trump as a jackass, a race-baiting bigot and the most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican party.
So his performance at last weeks Senate judiciary committee hearing over Dr Christine Blasey Fords allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh, seemed wildly out of character. Just as Republicans resolve appeared to be faltering, Graham delivered a fire and brimstone blast If you vote no, youre legitimising the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics that thrilled the White House and conservative base and simultaneously destroyed any lingering hopes of bipartisan comity.
Steele reflected: That sycophantic performance was all for Trump because there was really no basis for him to go off the way he did, to show the kind of immature behavior in a setting like that, given the seriousness of the conversation.
The Atlantic editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, put this directly to Graham at Wednesdays event. I think youre cheapening me and thats fine, I dont really care, the senator replied defiantly. Youre suggesting that the reason I got mad was for some political play.
Graham pointed out he had voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, both nominated to the supreme court by a Democratic president, and claimed a double standard. So heres the game here: when Im voting for two female nominees, nominated by the Democrat, Im the smartest frigging guy in town. Im the epitome of what a good Republican would be like. When I defend somebody Ive known for 20 years against complete character assassination, all the sudden its about Lindsey.
Indeed, in recent days Graham has continued to be Kavanaughs stoutest champion, even suggesting that if he is voted down, Trump should simply renominate him. His efforts have not gone unnoticed. The president told reporters on Tuesday: Lindsey is a friend of mine at least for the last six months, as you know. And hes done, really, a great thing and a great service for our country.
Only two years ago Graham was lambasting Trump. In 2017 he warned there would be holy hell to pay if the president fired the attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Yet by August this year and after several rounds of golf together – he had done a U-turn, suggesting Trump deserved an attorney general in whom he has confidence.
What happened? Steele said: You only go from This guy is a danger to our nation and bad news to Oh my God hes the best thing since sliced bread, let me play golf with him, only if you want something or you expect something. I cant explain it. Only he can explain it.
Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington, said: Lindsey Graham has probably looked around and seen Jeff Flake leaving the Senate, Bob Corker leaving the Senate and Ben Sasse under siege and thought theres not much mileage in being a Trump critic.
Some observers speculate that Graham is worried about a populist challenger in the next South Carolina primary (in 2014, he won with 56%). Others suggest that he is eyeing a job in the Trump administration. Media reports have suggested that Sessions, much derided by Trump, and Jim Mattis, the defence secretary, might be gone with the next year. Graham could be a contender for either position.
Olsen added: If there is a job in the administration hes angling for, its defence secretary. I have a pretty strong impression Jim Mattis is going to be asked to leave. Lindsey Graham would be happy to close out his career with that.
Kurt Bardella, a political columnist who switched allegiance from the Republican to the Democratic party, disagreed. Lindsey Graham is auditioning to be the next attorney general of the United States, he said.
Bill Galston, a former policy adviser to President Clinton, said he first became acquainted with Graham during the impeachment process. There are many Lindsey Grahams, he said. Ive been puzzled by his trajectory during the Trump administration. I have no explanation. In person hes decent, moderate and humorous, but these attributes were not on display last week.
The supreme court justice and opera lover, 83, had her first speaking role in The Daughter of the Regiment at the Kennedy Center
The curtain rose on act two of The Daughter of the Regiment at the Kennedy Center on Saturday night, to reveal the figure of a tiny woman barely visible in a large dome chair with her back to the audience. Suddenly, she swiveled around and there was supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Cheers and prolonged applause rang out even before Ginsburg, a lifelong opera lover who was making her official operatic debut, opened her mouth to speak as the imperious Duchess of Krakenthorp.
Her character, a non-singing role in Donizettis frothy 1840 comedy, had come to find out whether the title character, Marie, was worthy of marrying her nephew.
Looking frail but determined and wearing an elegant acid green silk dress, the 83-year-old Ginsburg read from a crib sheet a series of qualifications that sounded very much like requirements for high political or judicial office. Her deadpan delivery was boosted by a microphone, though laughter from the audience occasionally drowned her out.
Such lines included: The best of the house of Krakenthorp have open but not empty minds. The best are willing to listen and learn. No surprise, then, that the most valorous Krakenthorpians have been women.
There was also: Applicants seeking a station so exalted must have the fortitude to undergo strict scrutiny. Their character must be beyond reproach.
Ginsburgs biggest laugh came when, in apparent reference to the bogus birther campaign against Barack Obama, she asked whether Marie could produce a birth certificate and added: We must take precautions against fraudulent pretenders.
Francesca Zambello, the WNOs artistic director, asked Ginsburg to appear in all eight performances, but she declined to do more than opening night, citing her day job. Actress Cindy Gold takes over for the remainder of the run.
It wasnt Ginsburgs first time on an opera stage. She had appeared three other times dating back to 1994, but always as a non-speaking supernumerary. This time her presence added a unique lustre to a performance that would have been memorable even without her, thanks to world-class singing by the cast, led by soprano Lisette Oropesa as Marie and tenor Lawrence Brownlee as her sweetheart, Tonio.
After Ginsburgs first scene she was escorted off stage, while many in the house gave her a standing ovation. But she was back again near the end, this time brought in by a servant in a white powdered wig of the type worn by British judges. Hearing that Marie had decided to marry Tonio instead of the duke, she exclaimed: Quel scandale! She then retreated to a chair, fanning herself vigorously until the curtain fell.
She would appear one final time, led on during the curtain calls by Brownlee. Then, leaning on him for a bit of support, one of the most influential and revered women in American life smiled and curtsied three times to the audience.
