When the news broke of Sinead O’Connor’s death on July 26, 2023, there were a couple of different reactions. One was “Who’s Sinead O’Connor?” That wasn’t terribly surprising. Her last hit album was released in 1990. A couple of generations have gone by since she was on the charts and may have never heard of any of her songs.
The second reaction came from readers of tabloids and gossip columns, those who had at least peripherally heard about her struggles through middle age.
The third reaction came from those who remembered not only what a talent she was, but that she was also a force of nature unlike almost anyone we had ever seen in music. That is why her death was front page news around the planet.
Sinead O’Connor took a position—many positions, in fact—with her art and her public persona and never, ever backed down… she was always herself…she was a nonconformist. She would not be put in a box and refused to be silenced.
Sinead spoke up on things few people would dare talk about, including her own personal struggles (of which there were many). She spoke up on women’s rights, children’s rights, organized religion, the struggles of gay, lesbian, and transgender people, aids patients, racial minorities, and the patriarchy of the recorded music business. Did you know that she donated her house in Hollywood to a family of refugees from Somalia?
When she died, she left behind an intriguing body of work that includes solo material and collaborations. Two of those solo albums are all-time classics.
But if you know Sinead O’Connor, you already know this and what you’re about to hear will bring back a flood of memories. But if you’re late to the party, you may still be asking yourself “What’s the big deal about Sinead O’Connor?” Here: let me show you.
Songs heard on this show (all by Sinead O’Connor)
I Am Stretched on Your Grave
Heroine (with The Edge)
Troy
Nothing Compares 2 U
All Apologies
No Man’s Woman
Milestones
Here’s a playlist from Eric Wilhite.
The Ongoing History Music can be heard on these stations. Don’t forget that there’s a podcast version, too, in case you miss any episodes. Get them for free wherever you get your podcasts.
Don’t forget about my other podcast, Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. If you love true crime with your music, you’ll love this. Get Uncharted wherever you get your podcasts.
Many musicians engage in extreme behavior, including things that are dangerous and illegal. Why? Probably because artists can turn into thrill junkies. Neurologists believe dopamine—the body’s feel-good hormone—may have less impact on them. Okay, why? Hard to say.
Each of us has individual brain chemistries, meaning that we react to dopamine in different ways. Extreme people need extreme things to get the same dopamine hit as the average person. In other words, they may have a dopamine tolerance that’s built up over years of chasing that feeling on a daily basis. The longer they live, the harder they have to go to get a meaningful and transcendent dopamine high.
This may also extend to areas of their lives beyond music. Here’s where we get into things like becoming addicted to risky and dangerous behavior—anything to feel that feeling that most of us get a much lower levels of dopamine.
The very late/early 1990s were a volatile and prolific time in British indie music. Coming off the 80s rave and dance scene, the country was also spitting out Madchester, alt-dance, shoegaze, dreampop, and various forms of pre-Britpop. Among all that was grebo, a short-lived alt-rock/shoegaze cousin that had a lifespan of maybe 24 months. The key acts were Pop Will Eat Itself, Gaye Bikers on Acid, and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin.
Everyone reacts to music at different levels and in different ways. You might be a laid-back kind of listener, someone who just sits back and takes it all in. Or you may be the kind of music fan that loses their mind over all music with singing and dancing and jumping about. Why the difference?
It’s largely neurological and chemical. The spectrum of musical reactions is related to how an individual creates and reacts to dopamine, the brain’s feel-good hormone. Dopamine can have wide-ranging effects depending on our own individual chemistries. It doesn’t mean that the quiet listener is less of a music fan than the spontaneous singer and dancer; it just means that the physical reactions are different. Dopamine is an interesting hormone.
A little hard rock and a little punk soaked in some beer and vague memories of some bad decisions made last night. That’s how this Vancouver trio describes what they do. They also say “Guaranteed to throw napalm on any party.”
As the host of a true crime podcast myself, I was immediately attracted to the opening track of their Gold & Silver album. And because I like the record, I’ve included the whole thing here.
FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2014 file photo, Val Kilmer poses for a portrait in Nashville, Tenn.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File
Val Kilmer, the brooding, versatile actor who played fan favorite Iceman in “Top Gun,” donned a voluminous cape as Batman in “Batman Forever” and portrayed Jim Morrison in “The Doors,” has died. He was 65.
Kilmer died Tuesday night in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said in an email to The Associated Press. The Times was the first to report his death on Tuesday.
Val Kilmer died from pneumonia. He had recovered after a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required two tracheotomies.
“I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed,” he says toward the end of “Val,” the 2021 documentary on his career. “And I am blessed.”
Kilmer, the youngest actor ever accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School at the time he attended, experienced the ups and downs of fame more dramatically than most. His break came in 1984’s spy spoof “Top Secret!” followed by the comedy “Real Genius” in 1985. Kilmer would later show his comedy chops again in films including “MacGruber” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.”
His movie career hit its zenith in the early 1990s as he made a name for himself as a dashing leading man, starring alongside Kurt Russell and Bill Paxton in 1993’s “Tombstone,” as Elvis’ ghost in “True Romance” and as a bank-robbing demolition expert in Michael Mann’s 1995 film “Heat” with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
“While working with Val on ‘Heat’ I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character,” director Michael Mann said in a statement Tuesday night.
Actor Josh Brolin, a friend of Kilmer, was among others paying tribute.
“You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker,” Brolin wrote on Instagram. “There’s not a lot left of those.”
Kilmer — who took part in the Method branch of Suzuki arts training — threw himself into parts. When he played Doc Holliday in “Tombstone,” he filled his bed with ice for the final scene to mimic the feeling of dying from tuberculosis. To play Morrison, he wore leather pants all the time, asked castmates and crew to only refer to him as Jim Morrison and blasted The Doors for a year.
That intensity also gave Kilmer a reputation that he was difficult to work with, something he grudgingly agreed with later in life, but always defending himself by emphasizing art over commerce.
“In an unflinching attempt to empower directors, actors and other collaborators to honor the truth and essence of each project, an attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad of Hollywood moments, I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio,” he wrote in his memoir, “I’m Your Huckleberry.”
One of his more iconic roles — hotshot pilot Tom “Iceman” Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise — almost didn’t happen. Kilmer was courted by director Tony Scott for “Top Gun” but initially balked. “I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me,” he wrote in his memoir. He agreed after being promised that his role would improve from the initial script. He would reprise the role in the film’s 2022 sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick.”
One career nadir was playing Batman in Joel Schumacher’s goofy, garish “Batman Forever” with Nicole Kidman and opposite Chris O’Donnell‘s Robin — before George Clooney took up the mantle for 1997’s “Batman & Robin” and after Michael Keaton played the Dark Knight in 1989’s “Batman” and 1992’s “Batman Returns.”
Val Kilmer attends the gala screening of the film 'Twixt' at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Sunday September 11, 2011.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Janet Maslin in The New York Times said Kilmer was “hamstrung by the straight-man aspects of the role,” while Roger Ebert deadpanned that he was a “completely acceptable” substitute for Keaton. Kilmer, who was one and done as Batman, blamed much of his performance on the suit.
“When you’re in it, you can barely move and people have to help you stand up and sit down,” Kilmer said in “Val,” in lines spoken by his son Jack, who voiced the part of his father in the film because of his inability to speak. “You also can’t hear anything and after a while people stop talking to you, it’s very isolating. It was a struggle for me to get a performance past the suit, and it was frustrating until I realized that my role in the film was just to show up and stand where I was told to.”
His next projects were the film version of the 1960s TV series “The Saint” — fussily putting on wigs, accents and glasses — and “The Island of Dr. Moreau” with Marlon Brando, which became one of the decade’s most infamously cursed productions.
David Gregory’s 2014 documentary “Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau,” described a cursed set that included a hurricane, Kilmer bullying director Richard Stanley, the firing of Stanley via fax (who sneaked back on set as an extra with a mask on) and extensive rewrites by Kilmer and Brando. The older actor told the younger at one point: “‘It’s a job now, Val. A lark. We’ll get through it.’ I was as sad as I’ve ever been on a set,” Kilmer wrote in his memoir.
In 1996, Entertainment Weekly ran a cover story about Kilmer titled ″The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate.″ The directors Schumacher and John Frankenheimer, who finished “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” said he was difficult. Frankenheimer said there were two things he would never do: ″Climb Mount Everest and work with Val Kilmer again.″
Other artists came to his defense, like D. J. Caruso, who directed Kilmer in ″The Salton Sea″ and said the actor simply liked to talk out scenes and enjoyed having a director’s attention.
″Val needs to immerse himself in a character. I think what happened with directors like Frankenheimer and Schumacher is that Val would ask a lot of questions, and a guy like Schumacher would say, ‘You’re Batman! Just go do it,’″ Caruso told The New York Times in 2002.
After “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” the movies were smaller, like David Mamet human-trafficking thriller “Spartan”; ″Joe the King″ in 1999, in which he played a paunchy, abusive alcoholic; and playing the doomed ’70s porn star John Holmes in 2003’s “Wonderland.” He also threw himself into his one-man stage show “Citizen Twain,” in which he played Mark Twain.
“I enjoy the depth and soul the piece has that Twain had for his fellow man and America,” he told Variety in 2018. “And the comedy that’s always so close to the surface, and how valuable his genius is for us today.”
Kilmer spent his formative years in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles. He attended Chatsworth High School alongside future Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and future Emmy winner Mare Winningham. At 17, he was the youngest drama student ever admitted at the Juilliard School in 1981.
Shortly after he left for Juilliard, his younger brother, 15-year-old Wesley, suffered an epileptic seizure in the family’s Jacuzzi and died on the way to the hospital. Wesley was an aspiring filmmaker when he died.
″I miss him and miss his things. I have his art up. I like to think about what he would have created. I’m still inspired by him,″ Kilmer told the Times.
While still at Juilliard, Kilmer co-wrote and appeared in the play “How It All Began” and later turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” for the Broadway play, “Slab Boys,” alongside Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn.
Kilmer published two books of poetry (including “My Edens After Burns”) and was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for spoken word album for “The Mark of Zorro.” He was also a visual artist and a lifelong Christian Scientist.
He dated Cher, married and divorced actor Joanne Whalley. He is survived by their two children, Mercedes and Jack.
“I have no regrets,” Kilmer told the AP in 2021. “I’ve witness and experienced miracles.”
Trump has pledged to unveil on Wednesday so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on multiple countries on what he has dubbed as “Liberation Day.”
It’s not yet clear what the specifics are of his new trade policy and whether Canada will be included, or what the levels of tariffs could be.
“The president will be addressing the decades of unfair trade practices that have ripped our country off and American workers off,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday in previewing Trump’s announcement, while declining to offer any further details.
Wednesday also marks the deadline for Trump’s temporary exemption of auto parts and other goods traded under North American free trade rules from sweeping 25 per cent tariffs.
Those were imposed on March 4 in what Trump has billed as a push to get Canada and Mexico to take action on fentanyl trafficking. He has also said he wants to use “economic force” to force Canada to become the 51st state.
Leavitt would not say if Trump is considering an extension of that pause, only telling reporters to tune into Wednesday’s tariff announcement.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is running as the Liberal Party leader, pressed pause on his election campaign for a second time in less than a week.
He is expected to hold meetings in Ottawa Wednesday ahead of Trump’s announcement at 4 p.m. Eastern.
Speaking at a campaign stop in Winnipeg Tuesday, Carney said Ottawa will be “very deliberate” in its response to fight against the “unjustified measures” by the U.S. administration, while also making sure there is “minimal impact” on Canada.
“There are measures that we can take that at a minimum, level the playing field with the United States and again it depends on the broader measures they take tomorrow, if indeed, they do against Canada,” Carney said.
Canada has already responded to Trump’s trade actions with counter-tariffs on almost $60 billion worth of American goods, which were announced in retaliation for the 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods and a subsequent round that was retaliation for the steel and aluminum tariffs.
Trump announced his one-month suspension of the March 4 tariffs, Ottawa paused a larger, $125-billion round of retaliatory levies until Wednesday to allow for negotiations with the Trump administration.
The trade war has become a key campaign focus for all the main federal parties in the general election. Canadians are set to go to the polls on April 28.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said the country needs to stand up to Trump and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has urged support for workers who will be impacted by the tariffs.
If you’ve ever gone on vacation to a place where the local music is everywhere—say, the Caribbean with its reggae and dancehall and so on—you may have noticed that this music sounds absolutely brilliant while you’re away. You might even try to listen to that same music when you get back home. But have you noticed that this vacation music doesn’t have the same boost as it did when you were away?
Music researchers are interested in this phenomenon. They believe it’s related to the instinctive social bonding that comes through music. If we are immersed in local music, it helps us feel more included in that environment. But when we’re removed from that environment, the immediate need to bond with the locals dissipates and the musical boost lessens.
Birds are chirping, pale pink tree buds are about to pop--now’s the time to add a little spit ‘n polish to your front stoop.
Birds are chirping, pale pink tree buds are about to pop–now’s the time to add a little spit ‘n polish to your front stoop. Whether your entrance is expansive and covered or a basic, walk-up apartment-style entry, it’s all in the details for this TMS make-it-pretty mission.
Who cares how many of your bank statements are now delivered electronically, there’s something so charming (and convenient) about the perfect post box.
I love the desert hue of this mailbox, a collab between celebrated Québec lighting brand Luminaire Authentik and Canadian retailer Simons. Also available in Glossy Barista and Glossy Canyon.[/product_listing]
And here’s your less expensive dupe. Extra points for the gold French tip to match your manicure.[/product_listing]
If something that locks and can accommodate larger envelopes is in order, consider a departure from basic black with something fresh, white and well-priced – like this version. And I dig the viewfinder![/product_listing]
In my Vancouver beach neighbourhood, Porch Pirate is an actual job title. This next level locking mailbox (translation: bank vault) is perfect for those of us who receive a large amount of box-style deliveries–that we actually want to receive.[/product_listing]
I’ve always had a thing for handsome house numbers. They can take an entrance from 0 to 100 faster than any other exterior improvement, and for a comparable drop in the budget bucket.
These individual house numbers are 9” tall, made in Canada and have a contemporary ‘floating’ effect.[/product_listing]
Four inches smaller than the above Simons version, but same effect–and wallet friendlier.[/product_listing]
Looking for a one-and-done? Meet the solar powered, light-up address plaque. Boom. Done.[/product_listing]
We can all agree that this rooster is awesome, but what is also awesome is the layered effect of these front door mats. One is washable and eye-pleasing, the other is rooted in necessity. And while I would personally choose my small mat with no lettering or frills, the concept is still high impact.
Available in a variety of sizes, this washable cotton mat will work for indoor/outdoor, balconies, kitchen, you name it. And who doesn’t love a stripe?[/product_listing]
A plant stand at the front door says ‘nice people live here’. This version from Article is called the Marais and comes in a taller design – as well as taupe and black options.[/product_listing]
A completely charming and low-cost addition to any covered front entrance is housing your pot inside a basket. Also a clever use for market totes with minor wear or holes that are no longer suitable to carry. This Canadian Tire tote can garage an unsightly pot and add texture and warmth to any front door-scape.[/product_listing]
WATCH: Massive 2023 Halifax wildfire was beyond the fire department’s capabilities: report.
Almost two years after wildfires destroyed 200 structures, including 151 homes, in the western suburbs of Halifax, residents are anxious about the city’s slow progress in creating more ways for them to flee if the flames return.
Standing behind her child-care centre, rebuilt after it was destroyed in the 2023 spring wildfire, owner Donna Buckland said in a recent interview she has a detailed emergency plan outlining how staff and 68 children would escape in case of fire.
But she’s upset that Halifax doesn’t have “a viable” exit route for the outer areas of her Westwood Hills suburb — where a wildfire erupted on May 28, 2023 — even as federal research has noted the region has been abnormally dry over the past year.
City council recently approved a $2.7-million emergency road exit for Westwood Hills, but it’s to be located close to two existing exits — and about three kilometres away from Buckland’s child-care centre.
Buckland and other residents in nearby communities who were interviewed by The Canadian Press say further changes are needed. They all have memories of the spring of 2023, when a heat dome and tinder-dry forests fed the blaze on the outskirts of the Nova Scotia capital. Homeowners, startled by the rapidity of the spread, encountered traffic jams while attempting to flee their neighbourhoods. More than 16,000 people were evacuated.
“It’s not OK. The Halifax Regional Municipality has to treat this seriously. One emergency exit isn’t enough. They need something on the back of the subdivision,” Buckland said.
About 12 kilometres from Buckland’s daycare, Julie Davies has similar fears and frustrations about limited escape options in the White Hills and Hammonds Plains subdivisions.
In the months following the fires, Davies learned the main evacuation plan for her daughter’s school would only bring students to one of two, closely adjacent exits feeding into the main road. She predicted that if fires reached her area, both exits would likely be blocked by blazes, and the main road would be gridlocked.
The existing evacuation plan isn’t safe, Davies said, adding that one alternative is to build an access road to an existing dirt road owned by Halifax Water, which exits the suburb in a different direction from the main road. “It’s a temporary, emergency solution that could be part of a bigger plan,” she said in an interview Tuesday.
Davies contacted the Halifax regional council for education, which told her they’d bring her suggestions forward to Halifax’s Emergency Management Office. The council sent letters to the city’s emergency office last January, but Davies said she’s had no response to her ideas.
“After nearly two years of reviews and reports, the Halifax regional council for education, the municipality, EMO and the province still don’t have a viable plan that addresses the lack of emergency egress (for the school). I am beyond furious,” she wrote in an email on Friday.
Roy Hollett, the acting director of the emergency management office, said in an email that an evacuation plan for the city’s western suburbs “is expected before the end of the year.”
Still, Coun. John Young, who represents the White Hills and Hammonds Plains area, says the responses to residents’ worries aren’t good or fast enough. “This isn’t being viewed as a high priority, which it should be,” he said.
Young said budgets for road work in the 2025-26 fiscal year should be funding connector roads between the outer edges of the series of suburbs, creating options for residents who need to flee wildfires.
He’s also concerned about the fire hydrants in the Upper Hammonds Plains portion of his district, and their ability to provide sufficient water at high enough pressure to fight fires. The city’s media relations department says in an email the system “as designed provides a limited level of fire protection to the community.”
The email added that “discussions are ongoing” with the province, the water authority, and other agencies to upgrade the main water supply and install more hydrants.
However, “a concrete plan is not in place now,” Young said in an interview on Monday.
Coun.. Nancy Hartling, who represents a portion of the western suburbs devastated by fires, said in an interview that she agrees with citizens over the urgency of finding solutions, adding that the topic is her top priority.
She said there have been a number of improvements to fire prevention and firefighting in the past two years, including the addition of four new firefighters to the area, along with added equipment and gear that can be used for wildfires. The Department of Natural Resources has also purchased equipment, improved firefighter training, and committed to replace its fleet of four helicopter water bombers over the next three years.
However, the frustration remains for Daniel Newbury, a resident of White Hills. He said he had hoped for short road extensions that would have connected his area to the neighbouring development of Indigo Shores, allowing residents an alternative way to safety.
“It’s one study after another. They have meetings, they bring people in … they say people own the land privately and they can’t get their hands on it, or companies won’t release it for development,” he said.
“You can’t keep growing and growing the population and not provide the infrastructure that’s needed.”
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