Link - PAGE 209

Adam West Passes Away

Jason Tate

Adam West passed away over the weekend. He was 88.

To at least a generation of young Bat-lovers, the cheeky ABC series was their true introduction to the DC Comics crime-fighter created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and first popularized in the World War II era. As “American Gods” and “Sandman” writer Neil Gaiman once told Comic Riffs: Decades before he was crafting Batman comics, he was glued to West’s series — this sly, psychedelic-era confection — when he was a boy in Britain who absorbed whatever American pop culture he could find.

Adam West’s portrayal of Batman was one of my first introductions into the character. R.I.P.

Grosses Analysis: Brendon Urie Gives ‘Kinky Boots’ a Lift

Jason Tate

Playbill is reporting that Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco has contributed to a nice uptick in sales for the Kinky Boots musical:

As expected, Kinky Boots’ capacity has increased above 90 percent, while its gross potential has hovered around there as well as Panic! fans catch the lead singer’s Broadway debut. The last time the musical had made over $1 million in a non-holiday week was Wayne Brady’s final set of performances as Lola in the week ending March 27, 2016.

Gerard Way Talks with Billboard

Gerard Way
Jason Tate

Gerard Way talked to Billboard about his upcoming work with comics, and mentioned in passing a little about My Chemical Romance:

“I wouldn’t count (a reunion) out, but at the same time everybody’s doing stuff in their lives now that they’re really enjoying,” Way says. “In some ways I don’t really miss it; It had gotten so big it was very unwieldy. It took a toll on my mental life and personal life. The thing I’m happiest about right now is everybody’s relationships with each other are really strong. That’s more important than anything else to me.”

And a second solo album:

Way is also starting to eyeball a second solo album, with “a bunch of stuff I’ve written over the past couple of years” already in motion. “I’m just about to seriously figure out my schedule in terms of how many weeks I’m writing comics and how many weeks I’m writing music,” Way explains. “There’s a plan to put something out; I don’t know when that’ll come, but the process is starting.”

Bryson Tiller Lands at No. 1 on the Charts

Jason Tate

Bryson Tiller has the number one album in the country this week:

Bryson Tiller notches his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as his second studio effort, True to Self, debuts atop the tally. The set, which was released through TrapSoul/RCA Records on May 26, earned 107,000 equivalent album units in the week ending June 1, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 47,000 were in traditional album sales.

Google Chrome Will Automatically Block Annoying Ads

Google
Jason Tate

George Slefo, writing for Ad Age:

Google’s Chrome browser will soon come with preinstalled technology that will block the most annoying ads currently marring the web experience, the company confirmed on Thursday.

Publishers will be able to understand how they will be affected through a tool Google is dubbing “The Ad Experience Report.” It will basically score a publisher’s site and inform them which of their ads are “annoying experiences.”

At the same time, Chrome will give publishers the option to force a choice on people running their own ad blocking software: whitelist the site so its non-annoying ads can display or pay a small fee to access the content ad-free.

I’m assuming Google’s annoyingly shitty ads will display just fine? I think I’m fine with the move to build this into the browser, but I think Google’s own ads, specifically their tracking capabilities, are just as big a problem as the ones that dance all over my screen on Alternative Press’ homepage.