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Talkhouse

Varsity came to fruition one night in 2013 when several Chicago musicians gathered for a &#8220;salon night&#8221; where friends shared stories and songs. Singer-keyboardist Stephanie Smith was set to perform solo, but was quickly drawn to the sound of guitarists Dylan Weschler and Pat Stanton and asked them to join her. Shortly after their first performance as a trio, they recruited Jake Stolz on drums and his brother, Paul Stolz, on bass to fully round out their sound and become the quintet that they are today. Varsity played shows in the Chicago area the following year and spent one weekend at Chicago&#8217;s Public House Studio to record their debut self-titled LP released in March 2015.
Varsity has since found success in the growing indie-pop space. The powerful driving vocals of singer/keyboardist Stephanie Smith over infectious guitar melodies and exciting rhythm has them frequently sharing bills with artists including American Wrestlers, Alvvays, Courtney Barnett, The Hold Steady, and Car Seat Headrest. The band has further explored and developed their sound across a variety of digital releases—often two complementary singles at a time —that have earned rave reviews and a growing audience with millions of plays on YouTube and Spotify.
(Photo Credit: Alexa Viscius)

Varsity

Music

Three Great Things: Varsity

Todd Haynes is an acclaimed American independent film director and screenwriter. From his Sundance-winning debut Poison and its follow-up, the indie classic Safe, through to his most recent works – his HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, the hugely acclaimed Carol, the period coming-of-age movie Wonderstruck – he has been one of the most distinctive and original voices in American cinema. Some of his most celebrated work, such as his 2002 film Far From Heaven, have centered on female characters, while music and musicians have also been a persistent focus, from his short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story through the glam-era drama Velvet Goldmine and his unconventional Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There. His latest film, <a href="https://www.focusfeatures.com/dark-waters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dark Waters</a>, a real-life legal drama starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway, is in theaters now through Focus Features.

Todd Haynes

Film

Three Great Things: Todd Haynes

Fatima Al Qadiri is a New York-based artist, musician and composer.
(Photo Credit: Dom Smith)

Fatima Al Qadiri

Three Great Things: Fatima Al Qadiri

Dessa is a rapper, writer, and public speaker whose extraordinary career spans many genres. As a writer, she has contributed to the New York Times, the Star Tribune, the hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale, and literary journals around the country. She’s hosted radio and TV events, delivered keynote speeches around the country, contributed to The Hamilton Mixtape, and tried every dessert that was ever offered to her. Dessa has toured North America, Europe, Australia, China, and South Africa, both as a solo artist and as a proud member of the Doomtree hip-hop collective.
In August of 2019, <a class="c-link" href="https://slack-redir.net/link?url=http%3A%2F%2FTED.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TED.com</a> featured a talk on heartbreak and neuroscience that Dessa delivered in Hong Kong. In the weeks since, her speech, titled &#8220;Can We Choose to Fall Out of Love,&#8221; has accrued more than a million views. Other recent career accomplishments include 2018’s acclaimed album Chime, a Super Bowl 2018 performance, in spring of 2019, she performed her sixth straight sold-out show with the Minnesota Orchestra at Orchestra Hall.  The Utne Reader called her simply a “one-woman powerhouse.”
(Photo Credit: Matthew Levine)

Dessa

Three Great Things: Dessa

David Michôd is an Australian film director and screenwriter known for his films Animal Kingdom, The Rover and War Machine. His latest film, The King, will be distributed by Netflix and stars Timothée Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, Robert Pattinson, Ben Mendelsohn, Lily-Rose Depp, Sean Harris, Tom Glynn-Carney and Thomasin McKenzie. Michôd co-wrote the television series Catch-22, based on Joseph Heller’s celebrated novel, starring George Clooney and Chris Abbott. He was the editor of Australia’s Inside Film magazine between 2003 and 2006. He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and Victorian College of the Arts School of Film &amp; Television. (Picture by Mirrah Foulkes.)

David Michôd

Three Great Things: David Michôd

Formed in New Brunswick, NJ in 2005, Screaming Females are Marissa Paternoster (guitar, vox), Mike Abbate (bass), and Jarrett Dougherty (drums). Over six albums and more than a decade of music making, the band has remained deeply individual and steadfastly DIY. They have also grown into one of the most dynamic and devastating touring bands going today.

Screaming Females

Three Great Things: Screaming Females

Noah Hawley is one of the most accomplished auteurs and versatile storytellers working in television, film and literature. Lucy in the Sky, his feature film directorial debut starring Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens, Pearl Amanda Dickson and Ellen Burstyn, is in theaters through Fox Searchlight from October 4. Over the course of his more than 20-year career, Hawley’s work as a novelist, screenwriter, series creator, showrunner and director has garnered acclaim – winning an Emmy®, Golden Globe®, PEN, Critics’ Choice, and Peabody Award – and passionate response from audiences. Also a best-selling author, Hawley has published five novels: A Conspiracy of Tall Men, Other People’s Weddings, The Punch, The Good Father and most recently the bestseller Before the Fall. He currently serves as executive producer, writer, director and showrunner on the award-winning anthology series, Fargo, and also the creator and executive producer on Legion, which just concluded its third and final season. Production on the fourth installment of Fargo, starring Chris Rock, begins this fall. Fargo: This is a True Story, a companion book to the first three seasons of the series and authored by Hawley, which will be released by Grand Central Publishing in October.

Noah Hawley

Three Great Things: Noah Hawley

Saul Williams has been breaking ground since his debut album, Amethyst Rock Star, which was released in 2001 and executive produced by Rick Rubin. After gaining global fame for his poetry and writings at the turn of the century, Williams has performed in over thirty&nbsp;countries and read in over three hundred&nbsp;universities, with invitations that have spanned from the White House, the Sydney Opera House, Lincoln Center, The Louvre, The Getty Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, to countless villages, townships, community centers, and prisons across the world. The Newburgh, New York, native gained a BA from Morehouse and an MFA from Tisch, and has gone on to record with Nine Inch Nails and Allen Ginsburg and has performed in numerous film and television&nbsp;roles.

Saul Williams

Three Great Things: Saul Williams

Takashi Miike’s latest film, the gonzo yakuza thriller <a href="https://www.wellgousa.com/films/first-love" target="_blank" rel="noopener">First Love</a>, is in theaters from September 27 through Well Go USA. Miike’s first films were made direct-to-video in the V-cinema system, which was a way for Japanese studios to develop young filmmakers without using big budgets. A fierce filmmaker, Miike immediately became known for his energetic style and began to explore new genres and accelerate his output. He has since directed more than 100 features between the late ’90s and 2019. In his work, Miike can be seen perverting the Yakusa Eiga (mafia genre), as well as the burlesque comedy (Yatterman), the intimate drama (Visitor Q), the Western (Sukiyaki Western Django), the horror film (One Missed Call), the manga adaptation (Crows Zero 1 and 2, Ichi The Killer, Terra Formars), Tokusatsu Japanese-style super hero movies (Zebraman) and the action genre (Dead or Alive 1, 2, 3). Miike expresses the &#8220;do it yourself&#8221; attitude of punk culture in his films. After being saluted by Quentin Tarantino, his 2000 film Audition became critically acclaimed in the West.

Takashi Miike

Three Great Things: Takashi Miike

Chastity Belt’s energy is like a circuit, circling around the silly and the sincere. Tongue-in-cheek shit-shooting and existential rumination feed into each other infinitely.
Theirs is a long-term relationship, and that loop sustains them. That’s a creative thesis in and of itself, but isn’t that also just the mark of a true-blue friendship?
The band talks a lot about intention these days — how to be more present with each other. The four piece — Julia Shapiro (vocals, guitar, drums), Lydia Lund (vocals, guitar), Gretchen Grimm (drums, vocals, guitar) and Annie Truscott (bass) — is nine years deep in this, after all. It seems now, more than ever, that circuit is a movement of intentionality, one that creates a space inside which they can be themselves, among themselves. It’s a space where the euphoria of making music with your best friends is protected from the outside world’s churning expectations. It’s a kind of safe zone for the band to occupy as their best selves: a group of friends who love each other.
Their fourth record, Chastity Belt, comes out of that safe space. With the luxury of spending several weeks in the studio with Jay Som’s Melina Duterte, Chastity Belt was able to experiment. The result is their most sonically developed and nuanced record yet; one that’s not only a product of, but a series of reflections on what it means to take what you need and to understand yourself better.

Chastity Belt

Three Great Things: Chastity Belt

Negativland&#8216;s True False will be out October 25.

Negativland

Three Great Things: Negativland

Jason Mewes most recently made his directorial debut on Madness in the Method, which will be released in select theaters, on demand and digitally by Cinedigm on August 2, 2019, with a DVD and Blu-ray release to follow later in the year. In addition, he can be seen touring comedy clubs across the country with his solo show “A-Mewes-ing Stories,” where he shares stories about his life and encounters over the years. With cult fans following his controversial antics, Mewes has captured audiences with rebellious banter against his unspoken other half and longtime friend, Kevin Smith (Silent Bob). Since the beginning of the duo’s offbeat work together, Mewes and Smith have continued to build on their beloved character driven roles from the Jay and Silent Bob series. Mewes’ most noted film credits include: Smith’s award-winning Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Clerks II, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. This string of cult hits all celebrated and continued Mewes’ infamous role as “Jay,” a bawdy, fast talking, and over sexed but very likable guy.

Three Great Things