Latest news with #WoodyGuthrie
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Helldivers 2 Players Are Pulling Off Incredible Feats In A Last-Ditch Effort To Save Super Earth
Helldivers 2's Galactic War has come to Super Earth and it's going very, very badly. Players have lost every major city on the planet save for two, but are making a triumphant last stand against the Illuminate as fans from across the real world band together to hold the line. Players have spent the last week tackling Major Orders that have tasked them with defending Super Earth's Mega Cities from squids (the nickname for the blue alien invaders). Things haven't been going well, though, as one city after another has fallen, from York Supreme to Remembrance. The rain forest was turned into giant airfields and Super Earth's remaining natural wonders were liquidated in a break-glass effort to reverse the tide. Throughout the chaos, heroes were made and new bonds were forged among fans, much of it around finding unique and clever ways to take out massive Leviathan spacecraft flying over the urban battlefields. reddit-thread-Helldivers-1kyh5sl reddit-thread-Helldivers-1kvlpm9 reddit-thread-Helldivers-1krsdl4 The last remaining cities are Prosperity (Stockholm) and Equality on Sea (Shanghai). With reported swells of players from China helping to hold back the advancing Illuminate, fans have been swapping memes about geopolitical harmony. Think Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land' but about U.S.-China relations and conceived of by meme-pilled Redditors. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for division within the ranks to start poisoning the new ties of friendship. Players managed to push the Equality on Sea defense percentage up to 99.9783 percent but not beyond. No matter how many players flooded the battlefield, the odds seemed stacked against them. Negative reviews seemingly written by Chinese players started flooding the Helldivers 2 Steam page. The phrase '99.9783" was spammed over and over again. The confusion, amplified by the language barrier, has sowed dissension within the Helldivers 2 community. reddit-thread-Helldivers-1ky6fp6 This internal conflict may involve a translation issue with the Mandarin-language version of a current Major Order. According to some fans on Reddit, instead of saying 'percentage held' it reads something like 'defense success,' potentially implying that Chinese players are supposed to hit 100 percent in order to achieve the objective rather than just hold the city until the onslaught subsides. It's become an oddly unexpected mess. The tides also appear to have once again started turning against Super Earth's remaining defenders. Why? One likely reason is that tons of players in China have now gone to sleep. Helldivers 2's concurrent peak on PC tends to occur at around 10:00 a.m. ET. That means there's currently a long night ahead for players in later time zones. The only question now is whether there's still a chance to halt the Illuminate advance or if the total destruction is all part of Arrowhead Game Studio's endgame for the current phase of the Galactic War. What then? Maybe Super Earth will be detonated into another black hole. Maybe other weird cosmic anomalies will come into play. Or maybe players will discover some technology that lets them go back in time and fight over the fabric of reality itself. I wouldn't put it past Arrowhead to do something completely unexpected, though how players respond to whatever transpires will likely remain the most entertaining part of the ongoing drama. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Independent
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Bruce Springsteen's lyrical view of America has long included politics — even more so as he ages
Even as his fame and wealth have soared over the decades, Bruce Springsteen has retained the voice of the working class' balladeer, often weighing in on politics — most notably when he was a regular presence on Barack Obama 's presidential campaign. This month, though, his music and public statements have ended up as particularly pointed and contentious. At a concert in Manchester, England, Springsteen denounced President Donald Trump 's politics, calling him an 'unfit president' leading a 'rogue government' of people who have 'no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.' 'The America I love, the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,' Springsteen said in words that he included on a digital EP he released a few days later. (A few more days later, he began another gig with the nonpolitical but saliently titled track 'No Surrender.') Trump shot back and called Springsteen highly overrated. 'Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,' he wrote on social media. For decades, Springsteen has salted his songs with social and political commentary, and it's hardly surprising: One of his self-described musical heroes, the activist folk singer Woody Guthrie, played a guitar upon which was written, 'This machine kills fascists.' Here is a look at some Springsteen lyrics that ventured into current events and the plights of people caught up in them. ___ 'Born in the USA' LYRIC: Down in the shadow of the penitentiary, out by the gas fires of the refinery: I'm 10 years burnin' down the road; nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go." YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: Springsteen's most misinterpreted song — misread by Ronald Reagan and many politicians after him — tells the tale of a Vietnam vet who lost his brother in the war and came home to no job prospects and a bleak future. The driving, catchy chorus — composed primarily of the words from the song's title, which made misunderstanding it easier — turned it into an anthem, albeit one that was not a burst of patriotism but a bitter description of veterans' circumstances. 'My Hometown' LYRIC: 'Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores/Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: As he moved into his second decade of fame, Springsteen started touching on themes of economic distress more. 'My Hometown' is about a 35-year-old man remembering how he used to ride proudly around his town with his father when he was little. But now, he laments, 'they're closin' down the textile mill across the railroad track. Foreman says, 'These jobs are goin', boys, and they ain't comin' back.'' 'American Skin (41 Shots)' LYRIC: 'No secret, my friend — you can get killed just for living in your American skin.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2001, 'Live in New York City.' BACKSTORY: A song written about the 1999 police killing of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was standing in front of his apartment building in the Bronx when he was peppered with 41 bullets — 19 of which went into his body. The case captivated and divided New York City, and the song's release alienated Springsteen from some of his fan base, which included cops (whose lives he had sometimes chronicled in earlier songs like 'Highway Patrolman'). 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' LYRIC: "Shelter line stretchin' 'round the corner. Welcome to the new world order. Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest — no home. no job, no peace, no rest." YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: Keying in on the ethos and tone of Steinbeck's Depression-era classic 'The Grapes of Wrath,' Springsteen chronicles modern-day people at the fringes of society trying to get by on the road. 'The highway is alive tonight,' he says, 'but nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes.' 'The Line' LYRIC: "At night they come across the levy in the searchlight's dusty glow. We'd rush 'em in our Broncos and force 'em back down into the river below." YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: The tale of a lonely, widowed border patrol agent who falls for one of the illegal immigrants caught crossing the border. It leads him to confront his hypocrisy and leave the job, still searching for the woman he met fleetingly. Its companion song on the album, 'Across the Border,' was written from the perspective of a Mexican man dreaming of America ("For you I'll build a house high upon a grassy hill, somewhere across the border"). 'The Rising' LYRIC: "Lost track of how far I've gone — how far I've gone, how high I've climbed. On my back's a 60-pound stone; on my shoulder a half-mile line." YEAR/ALBUM: 2002, 'The Rising' BACKSTORY: Barely a year after 'American Skin,' Springsteen turned back to first responders in the wake of 9/11, venerating them with a song that tells of a firefighter ascending the steps of one of the Twin Towers to save people — and, presumably dying along the way. He sings of a 'sky of blackness and sorrow, sky of love, sky of tears, sky of glory and sadness, sky of mercy, sky of fear.' He takes no political position but — in his typical way — shows one of history's most political events through the lens of a regular person caught up in it. 'Jack of All Trades' LYRIC: 'The banker man grows fat, working man grows thin. It's all happened before and it'll happen again.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: A lament from an underemployed American man who can't get more than odd jobs after the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The work he does as a handyman sends him toward hopelessness, and he feels a lack of dignity. 'You lose what you've got and you learn to make do. You take the old, you make it new,' the protagonist sings. But, he also allows, 'If I had me a gun, I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight.' 'Death to My Hometown' LYRIC: 'Send the robber barons straight to hell — the greedy thieves who came around and ate the flesh of everything they found. Whose crimes have gone unpunished now, who walk the streets as free men now.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: Springsteen revisits the theme of a dying hometown, this time with more aggressiveness than lament, keying in on the financial crisis of 2007-2008. It functioned as a protest song and a rallying cry against greed and its carriers. The same album featured the song 'Wrecking Ball,' a defiant challenge to people who would tear down beloved parts of northern New Jersey in the name of 'progress.' 'Galveston Bay' LYRIC: 'Billy sat in front of his TV as the South fell and the communists rolled into Saigon. He and his friends watched as the refugees came, settled on the same streets and worked the coast they'd grew up on.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: An almost biblical parable about pain and old hatreds. A veteran in Galveston Bay, who'd fought in Vietnam, watches as an immigrant Vietnamese shrimper protects himself and sets out to kill him one night — but it ends with unexpected results and quiet hope. '57 Channels (and Nothin' On)' LYRIC: "So I bought a .44 Magnum, it was solid steel cast. And in the blessed name of Elvis, well, I just let it blast 'til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet. And they busted me for disturbin' the almighty peace.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1992, 'Human Touch' BACKSTORY: An expression of sardonic rage at the emptiness and hopelessness that the unremitting feed of cable TV had brought to the world. This is less political and more social, though it reflected some of the disillusionment of the age about the brain rot of popular culture. It came months before Michael Douglas' anger-management-failure movie 'Falling Down' depicted an enraged man losing it and tearing a swath through Los Angeles because of the stresses of modern culture. 'Livin' in the Future' LYRIC: 'My ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon. The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2007, 'Magic' BACKSTORY: A twist on the old-fashioned warning song, written from the vantage point of the future. ("We're livin' in the future, and none of this has happened yet.") This was a commentary on a post-9/11 America that — as the song suggests — is headed in a bad direction. Oblique but devastating, particularly with such somber words against an upbeat melody reminiscent of his early work, it suggested there was still time to correct course. Which touches on a frequent Springsteen theme: possibility amid the hardship and challenge. ___
Associated Press
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Bruce Springsteen's lyrical view of America has long included politics — even more so as he ages
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as his fame and wealth have soared over the decades, Bruce Springsteen has retained the voice of the working class' balladeer, often weighing in on politics — most notably when he was a regular presence on Barack Obama's presidential campaign. This month, though, his music and public statements have ended up as particularly pointed and contentious. At a concert in Manchester, England, Springsteen denounced President Donald Trump's politics, calling him an 'unfit president' leading a 'rogue government' of people who have 'no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.' 'The America I love, the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,' Springsteen said in words that he included on a digital EP he released a few days later. (A few more days later, he began another gig with the nonpolitical but saliently titled track 'No Surrender.') Trump shot back and called Springsteen highly overrated. 'Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,' he wrote on social media. For decades, Springsteen has salted his songs with social and political commentary, and it's hardly surprising: One of his self-described musical heroes, the activist folk singer Woody Guthrie, played a guitar upon which was written, 'This machine kills fascists.' Here is a look at some Springsteen lyrics that ventured into current events and the plights of people caught up in them. ___ 'Born in the USA' LYRIC: Down in the shadow of the penitentiary, out by the gas fires of the refinery: I'm 10 years burnin' down the road; nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: Springsteen's most misinterpreted song — misread by Ronald Reagan and many politicians after him — tells the tale of a Vietnam vet who lost his brother in the war and came home to no job prospects and a bleak future. The driving, catchy chorus — composed primarily of the words from the song's title, which made misunderstanding it easier — turned it into an anthem, albeit one that was not a burst of patriotism but a bitter description of veterans' circumstances. 'My Hometown' LYRIC: 'Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores/Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1984, 'Born in the USA' BACKSTORY: As he moved into his second decade of fame, Springsteen started touching on themes of economic distress more. 'My Hometown' is about a 35-year-old man remembering how he used to ride proudly around his town with his father when he was little. But now, he laments, 'they're closin' down the textile mill across the railroad track. Foreman says, 'These jobs are goin', boys, and they ain't comin' back.'' 'American Skin (41 Shots)' LYRIC: 'No secret, my friend — you can get killed just for living in your American skin.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2001, 'Live in New York City.' BACKSTORY: A song written about the 1999 police killing of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was standing in front of his apartment building in the Bronx when he was peppered with 41 bullets — 19 of which went into his body. The case captivated and divided New York City, and the song's release alienated Springsteen from some of his fan base, which included cops (whose lives he had sometimes chronicled in earlier songs like 'Highway Patrolman'). 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' LYRIC: 'Shelter line stretchin' 'round the corner. Welcome to the new world order. Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest — no home. no job, no peace, no rest.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: Keying in on the ethos and tone of Steinbeck's Depression-era classic 'The Grapes of Wrath,' Springsteen chronicles modern-day people at the fringes of society trying to get by on the road. 'The highway is alive tonight,' he says, 'but nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes.' 'The Line' LYRIC: 'At night they come across the levy in the searchlight's dusty glow. We'd rush 'em in our Broncos and force 'em back down into the river below.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: The tale of a lonely, widowed border patrol agent who falls for one of the illegal immigrants caught crossing the border. It leads him to confront his hypocrisy and leave the job, still searching for the woman he met fleetingly. Its companion song on the album, 'Across the Border,' was written from the perspective of a Mexican man dreaming of America ('For you I'll build a house high upon a grassy hill, somewhere across the border'). 'The Rising' LYRIC: 'Lost track of how far I've gone — how far I've gone, how high I've climbed. On my back's a 60-pound stone; on my shoulder a half-mile line.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2002, 'The Rising' BACKSTORY: Barely a year after 'American Skin,' Springsteen turned back to first responders in the wake of 9/11, venerating them with a song that tells of a firefighter ascending the steps of one of the Twin Towers to save people — and, presumably dying along the way. He sings of a 'sky of blackness and sorrow, sky of love, sky of tears, sky of glory and sadness, sky of mercy, sky of fear.' He takes no political position but — in his typical way — shows one of history's most political events through the lens of a regular person caught up in it. 'Jack of All Trades' LYRIC: 'The banker man grows fat, working man grows thin. It's all happened before and it'll happen again.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: A lament from an underemployed American man who can't get more than odd jobs after the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The work he does as a handyman sends him toward hopelessness, and he feels a lack of dignity. 'You lose what you've got and you learn to make do. You take the old, you make it new,' the protagonist sings. But, he also allows, 'If I had me a gun, I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight.' 'Death to My Hometown' LYRIC: 'Send the robber barons straight to hell — the greedy thieves who came around and ate the flesh of everything they found. Whose crimes have gone unpunished now, who walk the streets as free men now.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2012, 'Wrecking Ball' BACKSTORY: Springsteen revisits the theme of a dying hometown, this time with more aggressiveness than lament, keying in on the financial crisis of 2007-2008. It functioned as a protest song and a rallying cry against greed and its carriers. The same album featured the song 'Wrecking Ball,' a defiant challenge to people who would tear down beloved parts of northern New Jersey in the name of 'progress.' 'Galveston Bay' LYRIC: 'Billy sat in front of his TV as the South fell and the communists rolled into Saigon. He and his friends watched as the refugees came, settled on the same streets and worked the coast they'd grew up on.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1995, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' BACKSTORY: An almost biblical parable about pain and old hatreds. A veteran in Galveston Bay, who'd fought in Vietnam, watches as an immigrant Vietnamese shrimper protects himself and sets out to kill him one night — but it ends with unexpected results and quiet hope. '57 Channels (and Nothin' On)' LYRIC: 'So I bought a .44 Magnum, it was solid steel cast. And in the blessed name of Elvis, well, I just let it blast 'til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet. And they busted me for disturbin' the almighty peace.' YEAR/ALBUM: 1992, 'Human Touch' BACKSTORY: An expression of sardonic rage at the emptiness and hopelessness that the unremitting feed of cable TV had brought to the world. This is less political and more social, though it reflected some of the disillusionment of the age about the brain rot of popular culture. It came months before Michael Douglas' anger-management-failure movie 'Falling Down' depicted an enraged man losing it and tearing a swath through Los Angeles because of the stresses of modern culture. 'Livin' in the Future' LYRIC: 'My ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon. The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run.' YEAR/ALBUM: 2007, 'Magic' BACKSTORY: A twist on the old-fashioned warning song, written from the vantage point of the future. ('We're livin' in the future, and none of this has happened yet.') This was a commentary on a post-9/11 America that — as the song suggests — is headed in a bad direction. Oblique but devastating, particularly with such somber words against an upbeat melody reminiscent of his early work, it suggested there was still time to correct course. Which touches on a frequent Springsteen theme: possibility amid the hardship and challenge. ___ Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation for The Associated Press, has written about American culture since 1990.
ABC News
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Ellen Stekert: a full life in folk music
Ellen Stekert, who is about to turn 90, has spent a lifetime in folk music. She got her first guitar at 13 (to assist with her rehab after contracting polio) and soon after high school she became enmeshed in the Greenwich Village folk scene, crossing paths with the likes of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Ellen released four albums of traditional songs in the 1950s and then focused her career on academia, teaching English, American and folklore studies. There's been a resurgence of interest in Ellen's life and music, thanks in large part to singer songwriter Ross Wylde. Ross has been helping Ellen to remaster her old recordings, leading to her first release in over 60 years: Go Around Songs Vol. 1 . Both musicians are guests on The Music Show to talk about their deep love of folk music, their intergenerational friendship and how a Bob Dylan photograph for sale on eBay first brought them together. Check out Ellen Stekert's website for photos, music and archive, and Ross Wylde's music is available on Bandcamp. Music in this program: Title: Tomorrow Is A Long Time Artist: Ellen Stekert Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Go Around Songs, Vol. 1 Label: Independent Title: Went To The Sea Artist: Ellen Stekert Composer: Tracy Powers Album: Go Around Songs, Vol. 1 Label: Independent Title: Dink's Song Artist: Ellen Stekert Composer: Traditional Album: Ballads Of Careless Love Label: Cornell Recording Society Title: The Trees They Do Grow High Artist: Ellen Stekert Composer: Traditional Album: Go Around Songs, Vol. 1 Label: Independent Title: The Teetotals Artist: The New Lost City Ramblers Composer: Traditional Album: The Early Years (1958-62) Label: Smithsonian Folkways Title: I'm Gonna Sit Down on the Banks of the River (Live in Seattle, WA) Artist: Reverend Gary Davis Composer: Reverend Gary Davis Album: Let Us Get Together Label: Sunset Blvd Records Title: Jolly Old Sigmund Freud Artist: Ellen Stekert Composer: Anna Russell Album: Go Around Songs, Vol. 1 Label: Independent Title: I Hate The Company Bosses Artist: Sarah Ogan Gunning Composer: Sarah Ogan Gunning Album: Girl of Constant Sorrow Label: Folk-Legacy Records Title: The Walker Outside Artist: Ellen Stekert Composer: Malvina Reynolds Album: Go Around Songs, Vol. 1 Label: Independent Title: Careful Words (Live) Artist: Murphy Wylde Composer: Liam Murphy, Ross Wylde Album: Live From 9th Street Social Club Label: Independent Title: High Floods & Low Waters Artist: Ellen Stekert, Jean Ritchie, Oscar Brand, Dave Sear, The New Lost City Ramblers Composer: Woody Guthrie Album: "Ballads Are News": Live on Camera Three Label: Independent
Times
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Bob Dylan: Point Blank review — the musician is a good painter
There will be people who pooh-pooh yet another exhibition of paintings by Bob Dylan as just another rock star's dabblings. But over the past 20 years (he started exhibiting in 2007 at the Chemnitz art museum in Germany) he has developed into a rather good, interesting painter. More than 20, actually, because he's always been an artist in quiet moments, like his idol, Woody Guthrie. If he has been more visible in this guise recently, it's because his usual relentless touring schedule evaporated during the pandemic and he suddenly had the opportunity to focus on painting in a new way. This series of 97 works began life as a sketchbook, which Dylan filled over the course of his 2022-23 Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. He
