The Music Hall of Williamsburg, one of AEG Worldwide's fine portfolio of New York music venues, found itself embroiled in controversy this week. An event on their calendar, the "Blexit Live Liberation Tour," was the subject of an online outcry and eventually canceled. The club said in a statement posted to Instagram that the organizers of the Blexit event had initially presented the group as "a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of urban and minority communities."
Which is a pretty good prank, because the Blexit Foundation (it's like Black Brexit, but from the Democratic Party) actually is a right-wing organization founded by Candace Owens that's now linked to Turning Point USA (adults who troll college students for a living). One imagines a group of people appearing to be a "nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of urban and minority communities" tied up like at the end of a Scooby Doo episode, with their leader being unmasked and the gang intoning in a shocked unison, "notorious far-right grifter Candace Owens?!"
I'm supposed to come down hard at this point, I suppose, about either cancel culture and free speech, or the dangers of allowing far-right extremists a platform. Ultimately, though, the main thing I hate about this is that it's a giant case of trying to make the internet real life. The Music Hall of Williamsburg is a real place that I've really been to. I don't want to talk about the right for private organizations to decide what or who they allow in their spaces, blah blah blah. This is all annoying as fuck. Turning Point USA is a computer virus. Candace Owens is like that parasite in cat shit that warps your brain and makes you worship cats, except she only infects people in college and the cure is having a job.
As for AEG, we know what's up with them: the megacorporation's billionaire, Philip Anschutz (known colloquially as "The Man Who Owns L.A.") is a powerful donor to conservative causes.
The venue has since canceled its contract with Blexit, writing in their statement, "It has become abundantly clear to us that in actuality this organization provides a platform for hate speech and homophobia, which The Bowery Presents will not tolerate, and we have canceled their rental contract. This event will not take place in our venue."
Updated (6/15/23, 11:10 a.m.): This post has been updated with a note about AEG's owner, Philip Anschutz, and his political associations.
Jinkies! Here are some links:
- Daniel Penny has been indicted by a grand jury.
- Bill de Blasio did an interview in which he gave extremely off vibes, vaguely blames everything on others.
- New York Focus reports that the state is not on track to close polluting "peaker" plants by its own deadline.
- Mayor Eric Adams is considering vetoing more housing vouchers for low-income New Yorkers.
- The Department of Homeless Services is cutting funding to nonprofits, which they say will lead to layoffs. Seems like a bad time to be doing this!
- Queens is now the most competitive rental market in the city.
- Congrats to striking workers at Insider, who have reached an agreement with management.
- The air quality crisis last week was apparently equivalent to "smoking 30 cigarettes in 8 hours."
- That smoke might be back tonight, by the way.
- The likely interim NYPD Commissioner, Edward Caban, allegedly told a man he was stopping on the street that he was "getting ready with the broomstick," a reference to Abner Louima, who was sodomized by a broomstick in NYPD custody in 1997. The CCRB substantiated the complaint against Caban but that clearly did not prevent him from rising to the highest levels of the NYPD.
- The State Senate has approved a bill expanding health care coverage for low-income New Yorkers. Now it goes to the Assembly.
- Reuben McDaniel III is resigning from his position in the Office of Cannabis Management.
- Here's a cool boat.
- According to City officials, only one percent of asylum seekers are being housed in counties outside of the City.
- And finally, the people will be heard:
