When the music fades

Devoted fans of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, who have dubbed themselves the “Beyhive,” rejoiced this week when the singer released another surprise album. This one, called Homecoming, was recorded during her two landmark performances at the 2018 Coachella music festival, along with a two-hour-and-17-minute Netflix documentary filmed before and during the event.

Homecoming’s arrival is worth noting for two reasons: first, because Beyoncé is changing the way people listen to popular music, and second, because she promotes a hedonistic worldview that is becoming a sort of religion for the post-millennial generation.

Beyoncé modeled her April 2018 Coachella concerts on marching band and danceline routines from historically black colleges and universities. She performed on and around a pyramid of bleachers accompanied by a marching band, a dance line, and step performers—all dressed in collegiate-style spirit wear. The performers wore different colored costumes at each of the two concerts, which were executed with such precision that in video cuts between the two shows the dancers’ attire looks like it is magically flashing from yellow to hot pink and back.

More than just about any other performer alive, Beyoncé understands that her audience members want more than a song or a show—they want to feel like they have a relationship with her. She achieves this by releasing content across multiple platforms: Homecoming on Netflix and a live album and 2016’s Lemonade with an album and a 600-page coffee table book. She infuses her raw emotions about motherhood, work, and marriage into her songs, and in behind-the-scenes footage she offers glimpses into her family life with husband Jay-Z, 7-year-old daughter Blue Ivy, and toddler twins Sir and Rumi. But it’s always on her own terms; Beyoncé and Jay-Z spend boatloads of money on security and legal maneuvers to avoid intrusions into their private lives.

In reality, fans are forming a relationship not with Beyoncé herself but with a painstakingly orchestrated brand. That’s not all bad: Beyoncé has elevated African American song and dance traditions and given a voice to the struggles of black women, who often endure both harsh stereotypes and impossibly high standards in today’s society. But she counters that pain with a style of self-worship that defines freedom as being able to say, do, and buy whatever she wants whenever she wants.

“I’m bigger than life, my name in the lights / I’m the number one chick, I don’t need no hype,” she boasts in one song titled “Bow Down/I Been On.” Then in a poignant behind-the-scenes montage, she agonizes over her struggle to lose weight in the months between giving birth to twins and putting on the Coachella show. Her narration conveys a physical and spiritual hunger that doesn’t appear sated when at last she can fit into one of her old stage costumes. She calls her husband to share the good news, and he seems to laugh it off. “Why aren’t guys as excited?” someone in the background asks as Beyoncé shakes her head. It’s a question that remains for everyone who ascribes to the gospel of self-gratification: When the lights go down and the music fades, what is left to get excited about? The answer is found in Isaiah 40:8: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”

A scene from Unplanned Pure Flix

A tepid defense

Christian radio giant K-Love has broken its silence about why it refused to promote the pro-life movie Unplanned. The radio network cited the movie’s R-rating as the reason it refrained from mentioning or advertising the movie on-air, a decision that has drawn criticism from listeners.

Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood facility manager whose life Unplanned is based on, has chided K-Love on social media for its silence and for reneging on a now-disputed agreement with the movie’s producers to promote it.

On Wednesday, Johnson tweeted a screenshot of K-Love’s response about the movie in which the network cited its “general rule” of not promoting R-rated films in order to “provide content that is safe for the entire family”—despite an exception in 2004 for the R-rated The Passion of the Christ. “This was not a political decision or consideration for us,” the statement said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t support it or are suggesting a boycott or ban.”

The Motion Picture Association of America gave Unplanned the R-rating, which the filmmakers disputed, for bloody images of an abortion.

K-Love also said in the statement, which Johnson publicized, that the film’s producers “were understanding of our decision not to advertise the movie on air.” But Johnson and producer Joe Knopp, whom I interviewed earlier this month, said this is untrue. “Their response is so ridiculous because they promised our producers that they WOULD be promoting the film,” Johnson tweeted Wednesday.

Since news spread of K-Love’s silence, the network has played the movie’s theme song, also titled “Unplanned,” by Matthew West. It also replied to a Twitter user that some of its DJs have mentioned the film “in a safe, family-friendly manner.”

After weeks of silence on Facebook, K-Love responded to disgruntled listeners with messages like this one on Wednesday: “We are committed to pro-life and we’ll be using your feedback to help us in future decisions.”

Unplanned has grossed more than $16 million since its March 29 release despite a plethora of marketing challenges. —Mary Jackson

A scene from Unplanned Pure Flix

A new rescue mission

Just weeks before Marvel Studios’ April 26 release of Avengers: Endgame, 37-year-old actor Chris Evans announced plans to launch a partisan-free political website called A Starting Point, a “one-stop shop for simple digestible information from people who know best.”

Best known as Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Evans has been seen recently donning suits and interviewing members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats. Many of them have dubbed his website a civic engagement project. There is no release date for the site yet.

In a video obtained by CNN, Evans tells politicians his idea for the site stems from his own search for straightforward information: “I just thought, ‘Why isn’t there a place I can go to hear both sides of an issue in a succinct way that I can trust?’” He aims to “demystify politics” by featuring lawmakers succinctly stating their positions on dozens of issues.

Evans, who frequently berates President Donald Trump on Twitter and campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, maintains the website will not contain his own political beliefs.

But many of his fans are skeptical. “How do you plan on presenting both sides of a political argument when there are issues where one side is, ‘these people shouldn’t exist,’” one Twitter user wrote. “Don’t you worry that this will continue to create a false equivalency on many issues, or amplify messages of hate?” Another person tweeted, “This will end more badly than Infinity War.” —M.J.

A scene from Unplanned Pure Flix

Traditional Easter eggs

Werner Zaroba, from a small Slavic minority in eastern Germany, is keeping alive a generations-old tradition of intricately hand-painting Easter eggs. Last Sunday, Zaroba and two dozen other egg-painters displayed their art at a market in the village Elsterheide, near the Saxon town of Hoyerswerda.

The tradition, passed down by Sorbian families, involves dipping eggs into a color bath and using fine knives, feathers, and wax to engrave delicate patterns on the surface. Zaroba learned the craft from his grandparents, saying it takes him up to seven hours to decorate one egg. He remembers every Good Friday, “We would paint the eggs and give them to our godparents as an Easter present.” —M.J.

A robotic artist?

Hong Kong artist Victor Wong has created a robot that uses artificial intelligence to produce its own traditional Chinese ink paintings. Wong took three years to build and program the robot, named A.I. Gemini, feeding it NASA 3D images of the moon and imagery from China’s lunar rover for a project called “Far Side of the Moon.”

Since randomness is written into the robot’s algorithm, its moonscape creations were a surprise and took up to 50 hours to complete. Wong programmed the robot to use the ancient Chinese art of shuimo, using mostly ink and water. The paintings are selling for an average price of $13,000 in London. —M.J.