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Dan Heilman

@danheilman.bsky.social

Coming to you from that oasis of sanity they call St. Paul, Minn.

1365 Posts396 Follower95 Folgt
Prem Thakker ツ@premthakker.bsky.social · last wk.

New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour. But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families. The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that. Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened. Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues. Ed was in …What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me. And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability. I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation. When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic: لا شكر على واجب "La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty. That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human. Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
Angry@angrystaffer.bsky.social · 3w ago

No, not irreversible. But it will almost certainly take more than one Democratic term to fix. Which is why I’ve been so insistent that folks stop the goddamn purity tests and vote responsibly in November. We aren’t looking for perfect candidates. We’re looking for better than Republicans.

Dan Heilman@danheilman.bsky.social · 4w ago

Bruce Springsteen, 1978 (canceled; only 700 out of 3,000 seats sold) Prince, 1983 (ride from Eau Claire to St. Paul fell through) Ian McLagan, 2014 (he died that morning)

John Moe@johnmoe.bsky.social · 4w ago

How about this? Best concerts that you ALMOST got to see but DIDN’T. Include reasons if you like: Rolling Stones (play rehearsal) Johnny Cash (I dallied) R.E.M. (play performance) Nirvana (canceled, college declined to pay requested $500 appearance fee)

MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com · 4w ago

Wab Kinew reacts to Donald Trump renaming Lake Ontario: "You know when a rock band is really over the hill and you see them in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago? I think that's the part of Donald Trump's presidency we're at now."

Allison Gill@muellershewrote.com · last mo.

THREAD: A couple of thoughts on Natalie Harp. First, I'm so glad that people on our side are concerned about her and her mental health. It's because we have hearts and empathy and we aren't sociopaths. We're good people, and I love that about us. But I think we are also right to be angry. 1/

Dan Heilman@danheilman.bsky.social · last mo.

Dave Marsh's death reminds me of something. Forty-plus years ago, if a critic wrote something you disagreed with, you couldn’t vent anonymously in an online forum. You couldn’t join a hundred other people sparring with them in a setting like Bluesky. (1/3)

Dan Heilman@danheilman.bsky.social · last mo.

Since it's that time of year...is there a worse value in sports than an NFL exhibition game? You pay $150 to see the starters run half a dozen plays, followed by a parade of has-beens and never-will-be's, as you sip your $25 beer and ponder walking back to your $30 parking spot.

Tonch@tonch.corneria.city · 2mo ago

What this presidency has taught me beyond any doubt is that crime is legal for the rich and powerful, and our checks & balances are utterly worthless. I have no idea how anyone could have any faith in a system that can be brought to its knees so quickly and ruthlessly.