This story appears in the June 2020 print edition of Rolling Stone. There’s a refrigerator in the kitchen of Eleven Madison Park designed specifically for ducks. They hang in rows, hooks through their heads, ready to be rubbed down with honey and lavender, and plated like pieces of modernist art. …
Read More »Stranded Under the Northern Lights: A Musician's Surreal Coronavirus Quarantine
This is the eighth installment of Rolling Stone’sMusic in Crisisseries, which looks at how people all across the music industry are coping with thecoronavirus pandemic. On March 3rd, Victor Alarcon traveled to Rovaniemi, in the Finnish Lapland, a region so frigid and remote that it proclaims itself the home of …
Read More »Watch Dave Grohl Surprise ER Nurse With Intimate 'Everlong' Performance
Frontline medical workers come face-to-face with the coronavirus daily as more and more cases flood U.S. hospitals. Jimmy Kimmel brought one such worker, ER nurse TJ Riley, on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday to show his appreciation — and dole out a pretty big surprise. Riley, who also survived COVID-19, works …
Read More »Promoters Want Live Music to Return This Fall. Not So Fast, Say Medical Experts
When Goldenvoice, the concert promoter behind Coachella, postponed the giant music festival until October over coronavirus fears, many fans understandably assumed that it meant the pandemic would be a crippling, but temporary, speed bump for the live music industry. As other major festivals like Bonnaroo and Summerfest followed suit and …
Read More »When Will We See At-Home COVID-19 Testing?
If we’re going to slow down the coronavirus pandemic and get people out of their homes and safely back to work, experts agree part of what’s needed is widespread testing. Right now, you can only get a test at a hospital or clinic, however, so widespread testing would potentially expose …
Read More »The President and the Plague
This story appears in the May 2020 issue of Rolling Stone, on newsstands May 5th. While Americans died of the modern plague, President Trump sang happy birthday to a fading Fox News personality. On March 7th, a who’s who of the Republican establishment gathered at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s lavish retreat in …
Read More »Record Stores: Coronavirus 'Could Be the Death Knell' for Indie Retailers
The day before Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order over the coronavirus, Reckless Records buyer Matt Jencik felt anxious. Over the previous week, Jencik’s chain of three Chicago music stores, which employ about 40 people, had been playing chicken with the inevitable: closing its doors. But Jencik was …
Read More »A White House Adviser Warned of the Coronavirus Pandemic in January — But Trump Dismissed the Threat
On January 30th, during an event in Michigan, President Trump wanted his supporters to know that they had nothing to worry about when it came to the novel coronavirus outbreak that began in China and was fast spreading across the planet. “Hopefully it won’t be as bad as some people …
Read More »The Question the CDC Won't Answer About Coronavirus Testing
In his disturbing appearance at the Centers for Disease Control on Friday, President Trump bragged about the availability of testing for coronavirus: “Anybody that needs a test gets a test,” Trump said, adding of the nation’s public health authorities: “They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful. Anybody that …
Read More »Elizabeth Warren, on Fire in Nevada
“FINISH HIM!” read tweet after tweet after Elizabeth Warren’s opening verbal volley against Mike Bloomberg, echoing the video-game edict from the fighting game Mortal Kombat that precedes a graphic evisceration of one’s opponent. While the Massachusetts Senator didn’t reach to her right and rip out Bloomberg’s spine, her piercing account …
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