Grimes says she couldn’t afford house without Elon Musk’s help

Singer Grimes raised eyebrows after claiming she simply couldnt afford to buy a house without ex Elon Musks financial help.

The Genesis hitmaker, who shares two children with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, took to Twitter on Monday to ask her followers to join her in petitioning against rising house prices in Texas.

My fellow Texans! Petitions can feel useless but I guarantee local politicians are taking these seriously, she tweeted.

Plz sign to reduce housing costs in Austin. Theres effective legislation on the table here but we need public support.

But despite her good intentions, some followers criticized the singer for petitioning for something that they claimed didnt affect her.

Grimes you are set, your opinion on the housing market is invalid, wrote one Twitter user.

It wasnt long before the mom-of-two responded, writing, First of all I couldnt afford to buy a house that fits my kids in Austin atm without help from their dad which is INSANE cuz Im a p[retty] successful artist.

Secondly, these arent my opinions, Ive just agreed to help out some actual experts/ policy makers, she added.

The critic doubled-down, adding, Thats what Im meaning, their dad will help and get it done. Youre set.

It seems as though Grimes isnt the only one Musk supports financially.

The billionaire recently revealed that he and his brother, Kimbal, have provided financial backingfor their father Errolsince he ran out of money decades ago.

Read more from the original source:

Grimes says she couldn't afford house without Elon Musk's help

Grimes – Wikipedia

Canadian musician (born 1988)

Claire Elise Boucher (;[1] born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer.[2][3] Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop,[4] and has incorporated influences from electronic music, hip hop, and rock. Her lyrics often touch on science fiction and feminist themes. She has released five studio albums.

Born and raised in Vancouver (later moving to Montreal), Grimes began releasing music independently in the late 2000s, releasing two albums, Geidi Primes and Halfaxa, in 2010 on Arbutus Records. She subsequently signed with 4AD and rose to prominence with the release of her third studio album, Visions, in 2012. Visions includes the singles "Genesis" and "Oblivion" and received the Canadian music industry Juno Award for Electronic Album of the Year.[5] Following this, her fourth studio album, Art Angels, was released in 2015 and received critical praise as several publications named it the best album of the year.[6] Her fifth studio album, Miss Anthropocene, was released in 2020.

Outside of music, Grimes had a voice role in the 2020 action role-playing video game Cyberpunk 2077 and is a judge on the music competition game show Alter Ego.

Boucher was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia,[7] on March 17, 1988.[8][9] She is of French Canadian (including Qubcois), Italian, Ukrainian, and Mtis descent.[10][11][12][13] She was raised Catholic, and attended Catholic school.[14][15] Her mother, Sandy Garossino, is a former Crown prosecutor and arts advocate;[16] her father, Maurice Boucher, a former banker, works "in the business side of biotech".[17][18] In 2006, Boucher graduated from Lord Byng Secondary School and relocated from Vancouver to Montreal to attend McGill University focusing on neuroscience and Russian language, but left the university in early 2011 before finishing her degree.[19][20]

According to the timestamps on her original Myspace page, Boucher began writing music under the name Grimes in 2007.[21] Her performer name was chosen because at the time, MySpace allowed artists to list three musical genres. She listed "grime" for all three, without knowing what the grime music genre was.[22] Grimes is self-taught in music and visual art.[23][24]

In January 2010, Grimes released her debut album, Geidi Primes,[25] a concept album inspired by the Dune series,[25][26][27] followed by her second album, Halfaxa, in October of the same year.[28] After the release of Halfaxa, she began to publicly promote her music and tour beyond Montreal. In 2011 Grimes released five songs on her side of the split 12" with d'Eon, Darkbloom (through both Arbutus and Hippos in Tanks).[29][30] Beginning in May 2011, Grimes opened for Lykke Li on her North American Tour, and the following August her debut album was re-released through No Pain in Pop Records, in CD and vinyl format for the first time.[31][32] In 2011, she collaborated with DJ/producer Blood Diamonds.[33][34]

Following extensive touring and positive reception to her first two albums and Darkbloom contribution, Grimes signed with record label 4AD in January 2012.[35][36] Her third studio album, Visions, was released on January 31, 2012 in Canada through Arbutus Records,[37] February 21, 2012 in the United States through 4AD,[36][37] and various dates in March 2012 elsewhere.[38][39] appeared on a number of publications' year-end lists and is considered Grimes' breakout album.[40] NME included it on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2013.[41] Visions won the Electronic Album of the Year Award and Grimes was nominated for the Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the Junos.[42] Grimes also won the Artist of the Year Award at the 2013 Webbys.[40][43]

[After nine days] you have no stimulation, so your subconscious starts filling in the blanks ... I started to feel like I was channelling spirits. I was convinced my music was a gift from God. It was like I knew exactly what to do next, as if my songs were already written.

Grimes in The Guardian, April 27, 2012[44]

The album's second single, "Oblivion", was named the best song of 2012 by Pitchfork[45] and was produced into a music video co-directed by Emily Kai Bock and Grimes.[46][47] Pitchfork ranked "Oblivion" at number one on their 200 Best Tracks of the Decade So Far list in 2014.[48] In interviews following the album's release, Grimes explained that she was assigned a strict deadline by which to have her third album finished far before it was complete,[49] resulting in her recording the bulk of Visions while isolated in her Montreal apartment for three consecutive weeks. Notably, this intensive recording session included a period of nine days without sleep or food and with blacked out windows, since she generally could not make music as readily during the day, and doing "tons of amphetamines"[44][50] She described the writing process as being "equally enjoyable and tortuous",[51] feeling that its difficulty contributed to its success.[51] Grimes went on the Visions Tour from 2012 to 2014 with supporting acts Born Gold, Myths, Elite Gymnastics, and Ami Dang.[52][53][54] In March 2012, Grimes collaborated with Cop Car Bonfire's Tim Lafontaine and went under the name, Membrain.[55][56] They released an EP called, Sit Back, Rewind.[55][56] In May 2012, Grimes was featured on Blood Diamonds's song "Phone Sex".[57][58] In July 2012, Grimes toured as a supporting act with Diplo and Skrillex on the Full Flex Express Canadian Train Tour.[59][60] In August 2012, Grimes made her American television debut on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.[61][62]

In April 2013, Grimes posted a written statement addressing her experience as a female musician as rife with sexism and expressed disappointment that her feminist stance was often interpreted as anti-male.[63][64] When speaking about her preference to produce all her studio albums herself, she said, "I don't wanna be just like the face of this thing I built, I want to be the one who built it".[65]

In December 2013, Grimes employed the services of Jay-Z's management company, Roc Nation.[66][67]

On June 26, 2014, Grimes premiered the new track "Go", produced by and featuring Blood Diamonds. It was a track that had been written for and rejected by Rihanna and was premiered on Zane Lowe's radio 1 show.[68][69][70] Rolling Stone ranked it number fourteen on their Best Songs of 2014 list.[71] In July 2014, Grimes was featured on Bleachers' song "Take Me Away" from their album, Strange Desire.[72] On August 19, 2014, Grimes was featured in the music for the remix of Haim's My Song 5.[73][74]

On March 8, 2015, Grimes released a self-directed video for a demo version of "Realiti" from an abandoned album. It received critical acclaim from music critics, being named Best New Music by Jenn Pelly from Pitchfork, calling it the "best new Grimes song since Visions."[75][76] On March 15, 2015, Grimes and Bleachers released their collaboration, "Entropy" for the HBO TV show Girls.[77][78] In the summer of 2015, Grimes toured with Lana Del Rey for several of her Endless Summer Tour dates.[79][80] She then toured in the fall of 2015 as the headliner of her own Rhinestone Cowgirls Tour with opener Nicole Dollanganger.[81]

Speaking of her upcoming fourth album, scheduled for a "surprise" release in October, Grimes said that record was recorded with "real instruments", a departure from the primarily synth and sampler driven composing of her prior releases.[82] On October 26, 2015, Grimes released the lead single of the album, "Flesh Without Blood", as well as a two-act music video comprising both "Flesh Without Blood" and "Life in the Vivid Dream", another song from the upcoming album.[83][84] The album, titled Art Angels, was released in November to favourable reviews, garnering an 88 (out of 100) rating on Metacritic[85] and the Best New Music designation from Pitchfork. Jessica Hopper of Pitchfork described Art Angels as "evidence of Boucher's labor and an articulation of a pop vision that is incontrovertibly hers... an epic holiday buffet of tendentious feminist fuck-off, with second helpings for anonymous commenters and music industry blood-suckers."[86]

Art Angels was named best album of the year by NME, Exclaim!, and Stereogum.[87][88][89] It peaked at number 1 on the Billboard US Top Alternative Album Chart[90] and number 2 on the Billboard Top Independent Album chart.[91] Grimes won the 2016 International award at the Socan Annual Awards and the 2016 Harper's Bazaar Musician of the Year Award in October.[92][93]

In the spring of 2016, Grimes toured Asia and Europe with supporting act Hana on the Ac!d Reign Tour.[94] Grimes continued touring through the summer of 2016, performing at various music festivals across North America and opening for Florence and the Machine on select dates of the How Beautiful Tour.[95]

Continuing the series of music videos for songs off Art Angels that began with "Flesh Without Blood" and "Life in the Vivid Dream" ("Act I" and "Act II", respectively),[83] Grimes released the music video for "Kill V. Maim" ("Act III") on January 19, 2016,[96] and the music video for "California" ("Act IV") on May 9, 2016.[97] Grimes crafted a slightly remixed version of "California" for the music video to achieve a less "dissonant" visual/auditory mix.[98] This alternate version of California has not otherwise been officially released for sale or streaming. On August 3, 2016, Grimes released the song "Medieval Warfare" as part of the soundtrack of the summer blockbuster Suicide Squad.[99]

On October 5, 2016, Grimes with friend and collaborator Hana Pestle, more commonly known by stage name Hana, released "The Ac!d Reign Chronicles", a lo-fi series of seven music videos including songs by Grimes ("Butterfly", "World Princess Part II", "Belly of the Beat" and "Scream") and Hana ("Underwater", "Chimera" and "Avalanche"), each starring in their respective segments.[100][101][102] Additional appearances include Aristophanes in Scream[101][102] and two of Grimes' backup dancers, Linda Davis and Alyson Van, throughout the series.[100] "The AC!D Reign Chronicles" were recorded over the course of two weeks during the duo's time touring Europe and were made with minimal production,[100] shot exclusively on iPhones with no crew aside from her brother, Mac Boucher, who assisted with filming.[102] In 2016, Grimes helped write Troye Sivan's song Heaven from the album, Blue Neighbourhood.[103]

On February 2, 2017, Grimes premiered on Tidal the high budget futuristic music video of "Venus Fly", starring herself and Janelle Mone.[104] The video was uploaded on YouTube on February 9, 2017.[105] She won Best Dance Video for "Venus Fly" at the Much Music Video Awards.[106] In 2017, Grimes won a JUNO Award for Video of the Year, featuring "Kill V. Maim".[107] On October 19, 2017, Grimes released a cover of Tegan and Saras "Dark Come Soon" with Hana.[108] The cover is a part of Tegan and Sara's The Con X: Covers album.[108]

In February 2018, Grimes wrote on Instagram, "well no music any time soon after all."[109] It was later revealed that this was due to a clash with her label, 4AD.[110] She later revealed on an Instagram post that she would eventually be releasing two albums, and that "they would be separated by a period of time", with the first being released with 4AD, and the second with an undisclosed label. Grimes stated that this first album would be "highly collaborative and [characterized by] most glorious light", with the second highlighting themes of "pure darkness and chaos".[111]

On April 10, 2018, Grimes was featured on "Pynk," the third single from Janelle Mone's album, Dirty Computer.[112][113] On May 30, 2018, Grimes was featured on "Love4Eva" by Loona yyxy, the lead single from South Korean girl group Loona's third sub-unit's debut EP Beauty & the Beat.[114][115] On June 15, 2018, she was featured in a video for Apple's Behind the Mac series on their YouTube channel, with a preview of a song from her upcoming album titled "That's What the Drugs Are For", later released as "My Name Is Dark".[116][117] On the same day, she posted two Twitter videos previewing two songs from her upcoming album, "adore u (beautiful game)" and "4M".[118] In 2018, Grimes composed the theme music for Netflix's animated series Hilda.[119][120] On October 19, 2018, Grimes was featured on Jimmy Urines "The Medicine Does Not Control Me" from the album, Euringer.[121]

On October 31, 2018, Grimes was featured on "Play Destroy" by Poppy on her album Am I a Girl?[122] Shortly after the release of "Play Destroy", Poppy accused Grimes of bullying during the making of "Play Destroy" stating:

"I was kind of bullied into submission by [Grimes] and her team of self-proclaimed feminists, she says. We planned the song coming out months ago, and she was preventing it. I got to watch her bully songwriters into signing NDA and not taking credit for songs that they were a part of. She doesnt practice what she preaches."[123]

Grimes responded by saying:

"Poppy, you dragged me into a disgusting situation and won't stop punishing me for not wanting to be a part of it, Grimes says. I don't want to work with you, you leaked the song anyway. u got what you want. Let it go."[124]

On November 29, 2018, Grimes released the single, "We Appreciate Power" featuring Hana,[125][126][127] which was described as an industrial rock[125] and nu metal song.[127] On December 11, 2018, Grimes performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[128][129] Grimes also appeared on Bring Me the Horizon's "Nihilist Blues" from their sixth album, Amo.[130][131]

On August 13, 2019, Grimes posted an advertisement for the Adidas by Stella McCartney Fall 2019 collection on Instagram, stating that she would release the first single off her upcoming album, Miss Anthropocene, on September 13, 2019.[132][133] She released the music video for "Violence", featuring i_o, on September 5, 2019.[134][135] On October 25, 2019, an unfinished version of the album was leaked online.[136] On November 15, 2019, she released two versions of the single "So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth"[137][138] and performed "4M" at the 2019 Video Game Awards in order to introduce herself as Lizzy Wizzy, a voiced character in the game Cyberpunk 2077.[139][140] On November 29, 2019, Grimes released the single "My Name Is Dark".[141][142] On December 13, 2019, Grimes released the single "4M".[143][144] Miss Anthropocene was released on February 21, 2020.[145][146] On February 12, 2020, she released the single "Delete Forever", which was partly inspired by the death of Lil Peep and the ongoing opioid crisis.[147][148][149] On February 27, 2020, Grimes released a music video for the song "Idoru".[150][151] On April 1, 2020, Grimes released a music video for the song "Youll Miss Me When Im Not Around" and asked fans to finish the video because it only features Grimes and a green screen.[152][153] On June 17, 2022, Grimes was featured on Ashnikko's song, "Cry" from her mixtape, Demidevil.[154][155]

Grimes made an appearance on the Adult Swim sketch comedy show, The Eric Andre Show.[156] Her collaboration with Janelle Mone, "Pynk", was featured on episode 5 of the television series, I May Destroy You.[157] Her song "Oblivion" was featured on episode 9 of the same series.[157] Grimes collaborated with Benee on the dance-style song "Sheesh" on the latter's debut album, Hey U X, released on November 11, 2020.[158] Her song, "Kill V Maim" was featured in the soundtrack of the 2020 film, Mainstream.[159] On December 11, 2020, Grimes and other associated artists, all using aliases, released a Cyberpunk 2077-themed DJ mix album on Apple Music, titled This story is dedicated to all those cyberpunks who fight against injustice and corruption every day of their lives!. It contains two new songs by Grimes, "Samana" and "Delicate Weapon".[160][161] On December 18, 2020, nine months after the release of her fifth studio album, Miss Anthropocene, Grimes changed the cover art for the album on all streaming platforms.[162][163] The new cover art is a painting by Rupid Leejm that Grimes commissioned to use.[162][163] In discussing the process of choosing the cover art originally, I polled a bunch of ppl and everyone said not to use it (??) but I wish I trusted my gut. I fucking LOVE this painting."[162][163] On January 1, 2021, Grimes released Miss Anthropocene: Rave Edition, a remix album featuring new versions of songs on the album by artists including BloodPop, Channel Tres, Richie Hawtin, and Modeselektor, along with two remixes from her Cyberpunk 2077 Apple Music DJ mix.[164][165]

On March 5, 2021, Grimes signed with Columbia Records.[166][167][168] On May 8, 2021, Grimes made an appearance on an SNL sketch as Princess Peach alongside Elon Musk.[169] Her song "California" was featured in the computer-animated film The Mitchells vs. the Machines.[170] In June 2021, she appeared in Doja Cat's music video "Need to Know".[171][172]

Later in June, she started a new partnered Discord server called "Grimes Metaverse Super Beta" and a new podcast "Homo Techno", co-hosted with science communicator Liv Boeree.[173] She used the Discord server to tease new music frequently, and released a snippet of a song called "Shinigami Eyes" which she continued to promote in subsequent social media posts,[173] as well as an upcoming collaboration with British DJ Chris Lake.[174] Grimes spoke about an upcoming concept album with Billboard, describing it as a "space opera".[175]

In July 2021 Grimes, alongside will.i.am, Alanis Morissette, Nick Lachey, and Rocsi Diaz were revealed as judges on Alter Ego, a new singing competition series in which the contestants make the use of motion capture technology to portray themselves as "dream avatars".[176][177] On July 21, 2021, Grimes preview the song "100% Tragedy".[178][179] On July 23, 2021, Grimes made a cameo appearance in the short film Discord: The Movie, alongside Awkwafina, Danny DeVito, and J Balvin.[175][180] On September 30, 2021, Grimes released a new song titled "Love".[181][182] The song was recorded in response to her split from Elon Musk and the increased media attention from it.[181][182] On December 3, 2021, Grimes released a new song titled "Player of Games".[183][184] On the same day, she also announced the title of her sixth studio album, Book 1.[183] In December 2021, Grimes teased a collaboration with the Weeknd on Discord saying that the collaboration would be released in 2022.[185][186]

In January 2022, Grimes partnered with the video game Rocket League for the Neon Nights event.[187][188] The event ran from January 26 to February 8, 2022, and featured Grimes-themed items and her songs "Shinigami Eyes" and "Player of Games".[187][188] In January 2022, Grimes announced a 10th anniversary vinyl of her album Visions.[189]

On January 26, 2022, Grimes released "Shinigami Eyes".[190][191] A week later, on February 3, 2022, Grimes announced her forthcoming EP titled Fairies Cum First.[191][192] In April 2022, Grimes was featured on the song, "Last Day" by the Russian band IC3PEAK from the album Kiss of Death.[193] Grimes was featured in the music video for Bella Poarch's "Dolls" which was released on July 15, 2022.[194][195][196] Grimes is an opening act on select dates for Swedish House Mafia's "Paradise Again Tour"[197] alongside Kaytranada, ZHU, and Alesso.[193][198] The tour ran from July 29 to November 13, 2022.[193][198] Grimes appeared on Bella Poarch's song, "No Man's Land" from the Dolls EP, which was released on August 12, 2022.[199][200]

In August 2022, Grimes was featured on the cover of Vogue Plus China,[201] in which she did an interview and further discussed her upcoming collaboration with the Weeknd.[185][186] She confirmed that the song is called "Sci Fi" and is set for release in mid-2022.[185][186] She also provided more details about her upcoming studio album and EP, stating, "all these projects [will] come together and merge into one project at the end."[185][186] On September 17, 2022, she revealed that she has twenty songs for her upcoming album and teased that the album might be divided into two albums.[202] She also confirmed that the album was in the process of being mixed.[202]

Grimes' music has been described with a number of labels, including synth-pop, electropop, art pop, indie pop, dream pop, experimental pop, pop, avant-garde pop, lo-fi, dance, witch house, electronic, glo-fi, bedroom pop, and electronica with elements of rock, hip hop, R&B, folk, drum and bass, and classical.[note 1]

According to Vulture, "[Grimes moved away] from the creepy, lo-fi R&B of her early releases to the futuristic dance-pop of her...[third] album, Visions."[4] For her fourth studio, Art Angels, Grimes learned how to play guitar and violin.[211] She stated "I didnt want to play the keys, cause I dont want to be considered synth-pop."[211] Rolling Stone described the album as a "[move away from her] hazy synth-pop toward an off-kilter guitars-and-beats sound," and "uses rock sounds in a really different context."[211] Grimes described her fifth studio album Miss Anthropocene as "mostly ethereal nu metal."[229] The Guardian summarised her musical style: "By sounding a little like everything you've ever heard, the whole sounds like nothing you've ever heard."[230] The Japan Times wrote that Grimes' "otherworldly, Ableton-assisted music is crammed full of hooks fit to sit alongside Rihanna and Taylor Swift in the Top 40".[231] Dazed stated: "In a sense, she'd always thrived on being too pop for indie and too indie for pop".[232] Her lyrics were described by The Guardian as "generally elusive and impressionistic, shying away from specifics".[44] Grimes is a soprano.[233][234][235][236] The Daily Telegraph described her vocals as "sweet, thin and hazy."[237] She utilizes looping and layering techniques, particularly with vocals; many of her songs feature layers of over fifty different vocal tracks which create an "ethereal" sound.[203] Her lyrical themes include science fiction, feminism, and climate change.[227] Her fifth studio album Miss Anthropocene has been considered to be a loose concept album about an "anthropomorphic goddess of climate change" inspired by Roman mythology[238] and villainy.[239] Heather Phares of AllMusic described the album as a "brooding embodiment of climate change."[227]

Grimes described her music as "ADD music", shifting frequently and dramatically "I go through phases a lot."[240] She said "Most music with traditional verse, chorus and bridge structures can probably be considered 'pop.' But I think most people think about Top 40 these days when they use the word 'pop,' and I'm emphatically not from that world."[231] She said that Panda Bear's 2007 album Person Pitch "jumpstarted" her mind. She explains, "Up until that point I had basically only made weird atonal drone music, with no sense of songwriting. I barely understood anything about music ... But suddenly all music clicked into place and seemed so simple and easy. I was pretty much able to spontaneously write songs immediately after listening to this album once."[241]

Her work has been likened to various artists, including Bjrk,[44] Julianna Barwick, Siouxsie Sioux,[242] and Enya.[203] She has stated that she loves British rock bands like Bring Me the Horizon and Foals.[211] She was described by Tastemakers Magazine as an "alien love-child of Aphex Twin and ABBA".[243] While making her third studio album, Grimes was listening to Aphex Twin, Black Dice, Dungeon Family, Michael Jackson, New Edition, Outkast, Nine Inch Nails, Burial, TLC, Mariah Carey and stated "I'm into the really caustic beats, the kind of sharp drum and bass kind of stuff. Really nice vocals too, with lots of tight harmonies at the same time."[4]

Grimes cites Blink-182 as an influence in her Amoeba Records Whats In My Bag? episode where she picked one of their live DVDs.[244] Grimes considers Blue Hawaii "a big part of my family in Montreal."[245] Grimes stated that Cocteau Twins[246] are "one of the first bands I was into that was considered alternative." In a tweet, Grimes replied to someone saying that her recent influences were Chris Isaak, St. Vincent, and Mindless Self Indulgence.[247] The theories of her second studio album, Halfaxa were inspired by Hildegard von Bingen.[248]

Before releasing her fourth studio album, Art Angels, Grimes described one of her upcoming songs as a glam rock track inspired by David Bowie and Queen.[247] Art Angels was also influenced by Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and The Godfather movies.[249] Grimes said that while touring with How to Dress Well, his song "Suicide Dream 2" "made me tear up every night... [and] after this tour I got really re-inspired, went home, and immediately wrote [songs that] are, in my opinion, the best shit Ive ever done.[245] Early on, Grimes stated that "an early diet of the Spice Girls, Marilyn Manson, OutKast and Skinny Puppy drove her to build pop songs out of the harsher sonic textures she rarely heard on the radio."[250] Grimes considers her female pop idols/influences to be Mariah Carey, Dandi Wind, and Beyonc.[218] Some of her other influences include Jedi Mind Tricks,[251] Kenji Kawai,[252] Yoko Kanno,[252] Yayoi Kusama,[252] Geinoh Yamashirogumi,[252] Alicia Keys,[253] Panda Bear,[35][253] Bikini Kill,[35] Kate Bush,[254] Al Green,[253][255] Salem,[253] Marilyn Manson,[256] Trent Reznor,[257][258] Tool,[241] Yeah Yeah Yeahs,[241] Paramore,[259] Enya,[259][35] Joanna Newsom,[35] medieval music,[255] medieval choral music,[255] K-pop,[260] and The Legend of Zelda.[261]

Grimes designs her album art for all of her albums, gig fliers, comic book covers,[262] and merchandise.[263] She has done exhibitions showcasing her works and has stated that "[she has] always been a visual artist".[262] Her art is influenced by Japanese anime, manga, and comic artists such as Charles Burns and Daniel Clowes.[264] Her illustrations have appeared in gallery shows, including at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.[265] She created an alternate cover for Image Comics' The Wicked + The Divine,[266][267][268] and designed a capsule collection of t-shirts for Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent, in 2013.[269][270] That year, she also curated a two-day event at the Audio Visual Arts Gallery in New York City with a silent auction to benefit the Native Women's Association of Canada's campaign to raise awareness of violence against aboriginal women in Canada.[271][272] In early 2021, she sold original digital art in the form of non-fungible tokens for $5.8 million.[273][274] In May 2022, she said on Twitter she was joining the board of Unicorn DAO, "to help their mission to fund/ develop female and non-binary lead art and projects."[275][276]

Boucher has a step-brother who raps under the name Jay Worthy;[277] they collaborated on the single "Christmas Song", released on the Rough Trade bonus disc of her Visions album.[278][279] One of her brothers, Mac Boucher, was involved in the making of some of her music videos, such as "Violence", "Go", "Realiti", "Flesh Without Blood/Life in the Vivid Dream", "Kill V. Maim", "Venus Fly" and "We Appreciate Power".[280]

In 2009, Boucher and a friend attempted to sail down the Mississippi River to New Orleans from Minneapolis in a houseboat they built.[281] Following several mishaps, including engine trouble and encounters with law enforcement, the houseboat was impounded by the city of Minneapolis. Boucher claims that elements of the story were exaggerated in the newspapers that reported on it at the time.[282] The adventure has been turned into an animated video narrated by T-Bone Burnett.[283]

In the past, Boucher has been open about her drug use, stating during the creation of Visions in 2012, she "blacked out the windows and did tons of amphetamine and stayed up for three weeks and didn't eat anything".[50] In 2014, Boucher wrote a blog post expressing her aversion to hard drugs.[284][285]

Boucher has a lisp;[286][287][288] she stated that she "likes it", and has no desire to undergo speech therapy.[289]

From 2007 to 2010, Boucher was in an on-and-off relationship with Devon Welsh, then lead vocalist of Majical Cloudz.[290] The two met in 2007 at a first-year dorm party while studying at McGill University.[290] From 2012 to 2018, Boucher was in a relationship with electronic musician Jaime Brooks,[291] who supported her on the Visions Tour performing as Elite Gymnastics.[292][293]

In 2018, Boucher began a relationship with business magnate Elon Musk.[294] They met after discovering on Twitter that they both came up with the same pun relating to Rococo and the thought experiment Roko's basilisk.[295] On May 4, 2020, she gave birth to their son,[296][297] whom they named "X A-12"[298][299] (pronounced "Ex Ash A Twelve"[300] or "Ex Ay Eye").[301] The name reportedly violated the naming law in California, where the child was born,[302] and was subsequently changed to "X A-Xii".[303] According to an image of the birth certificate, the letter "X" is the child's first name, and "AE A-XII" the middle name.[304] He is Musk's seventh child.[305] Grimes said via Instagram that Go Won of the South Korean girl group Loona, with whom she collaborated in 2018, is her son's godmother.[306] The couple "semi-separated" in September 2021.[307]

In January 2022, Grimes said of her relationship with Musk: "I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid." She further revealed that their second child, a daughter named Exa Dark Siderl Musk (nicknamed Y), was born in December 2021 via surrogate.[15][308][309] In March 2022, following publication of the interview (which had been delayed two months before its publication), Grimes tweeted that she and Musk had broken up again but said "he's my best friend and the love of my life."[310]

Studio albums

See the original post:

Grimes - Wikipedia

Grimes – IMDb

Claire Elise Boucher (born March 17, 1988), better known by the stage name Grimes, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer and music video director. Born and raised in Vancouver, she first became involved with the underground music scene and began recording her own experimental music while attending McGill University in Montreal.

Boucher released the studio albums Geidi Primes and Halfaxa through Arbutus Records in 2010, and signed a secondary recording contract with 4AD in 2011. Her third studio album Visions (2012) and its singles "Genesis" and "Oblivion" received widespread critical acclaim; it was hailed as "one of the most impressive albums of the year so far" by The New York Times was nominated for the Polaris Prize, and received the Juno Award for Electronic Album of the Year. Her fourth studio album Art Angels was released in 2015 and has since become her highest-charting project in the United States peaking at number 36.

Grimes' music has been noted by critics and journalists for its atypical combination of vocal elements, as well as a wide array of influences across electronica and pop, hip hop and R&B, experimental and medieval music. In 2013, Grimes was awarded the Webby Award for Artist of the Year.

More:

Grimes - IMDb

Grimes shares rare photo of her and Elon Musk’s daughter Exa

Grimes is giving fans a rare glimpse of her and Elon Musks 9-month-old daughter, Exa.

The singer, 34, posted a photo via Twitter Sunday of the toddler wearing a black onesie and pink headband.

My daughter is dancing to techno over this copy of the birth of tragedy by nietzsche, she wrote. what a queen.

Grimes and the SpaceX founder, 51, also share 2-year-old son X AE A-XII.

While the Juno Award winner announced her first pregnancy in early 2020, she kept Exas arrival via surrogate under wraps until three months after the infant was born in December 2021.

Shes a little colicky, Grimes told Vanity Fair in March, noting that she and Musk call the newborn Y. I dont know what I was thinking [trying to hide her].

Although the on-again, off-again couple were fluid at the time of the interview, the musician clarified that she had split from the Tesla CEO by the time the story was published.

Me and E have broken up *again* since the writing of this article haha, but hes my best friend and the love of my life, and my life and art are forever dedicated to The Mission now, she tweeted.

Four months later, news broke that Musk had secretly welcomed twins with his Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis in November 2021.

Musk confirmed the news to Page Six exclusively in July, saying, Bravo to big families. [I want] as many as I am able to spend time with and be a good father [to].

Musk is also the father of twins Vivian and Griffin, 18, and triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian, 16, with his ex-wife Justine Musk.

In April, Vivian filed to legally change her name and gender, citing the reason as gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.

The teenagers request was granted two months later.

Follow this link:

Grimes shares rare photo of her and Elon Musk's daughter Exa

Grimes Says Elon Musk’s 2yo Son Can Identify ‘Obscure Rocket Design’

Thanks for signing up!

Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app

Elon Musk's two-year-old son seems set to follow in his father's footsteps, according to his mom.

Grimes, the mother of two of the SpaceX CEO's children, tweeted that it should be normal to have kids in workplaces. "Baby joy is contagious for adults, amazing to have at work and they learn so much. Win win for all."

She then added that her son, X A-12, who was born in May 2020, "shadows engineering/strategy meetings. can identify obscure rocket design, knows all abt grid fins, entry burns, robots."

Her comments came after The Washington Post reported that X ran around Twitter's offices in San Francisco while his father met with trust and safety chief Yoel Roth to discuss content moderation.

Grimes previously said that her son would use the f-word when his "toy rockets failed to reach orbit."

"He has destroyed them all because he doesn't realize they aren't real and so he rips off the boosters and whatnot trying to emulate a real rocket, then accuses me of trickery for giving him fake rockets and becomes inconsolable," she'd responded to a user who said she should buy him a new toy.

"Yes he says rocket landing about 200 times a day. It's very heartwarming,"she added.

Musk is believed to have had 10 children, though his firstborn died of sudden infant death syndrome.

He's had twins with Shivon Zilis, a top executive at Musk's company Neuralink, and his first daughter, Exa Dark Siderl, was born last December with Grimes and a surrogate.

Musk's other children include Griffin, Vivian, Kai, Saxon, and Damian.

Follow this link:

Grimes Says Elon Musk's 2yo Son Can Identify 'Obscure Rocket Design'

What is Grimes’ net worth and why doesn’t she get money from Elon Musk …

CANADIAN singer and record producer Grimes welcomed her first child with Elon Musk back in 2020.

The couple recently made headlines in after it was revealed the two welcomed a baby girl in December of 2021 two months after parting ways.

2

Grimes, 33, is a singer-songwriter from Vancouver.

She is ofQubcoisandUkrainian and her real name is Claire Elise Boucher.

Her mother, Sandy Garossino, is a former Crown prosecutor and used to own three Metro Vancouver taxi companies.

She began writing music and posting it on MySpace in 2007 and the name Grimes actually came from an old technical mishap with the site.

The old social media platform once allowed you to list three musical genres on your profile. She listed Grime for all three before she knew what it was.

On myspace ur genre could be grime and u could have 3 genres so i was plural grime, b4 knowing what grime was, she explained on Twitter in 2014. I was very pleased to discover that i actually loved grime music.

Grimes first shot to fame in 2012 with her album Visions which was followed by the equally successful Art Angels.

Her net worth now stands at $3million according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Most recently she was named as one of the judges for Fox's new reality competition show Alter Ego alongside Alanis Morissette, will.i.am and Nick Lachey.

It was reported on September 24, 2021 byPage Sixthat the couple had recently parted ways but remain on good terms.

We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms,Musk told the media outlet.

Its mostly that my work at SpaceX and Tesla requires me to be primarily in Texas or traveling overseas and her work is primarily in LA.Shes staying with me now and Baby X is in the adjacent room.

The split comes after three years of dating.

They were most recently spotted at the 2021 Met Gala together, though Grimes walked the red carpet alone and Musk joined later on inside.

In an interview in 2020, Grimes revealed she doesn't take any financial help from her former boyfriend.

She told Business Insider that she admired how he lived his life and put his money into making the world better.

She later clarified that Musk does not fund her career and that she would feel guilt if Musk were to divert funds from, like, Tesla to my stupid art project.

Grimes is funded by Grimes, she continued. "I can't say the things I say and believe what I believe and then take money from my boyfriend."

In a separate interview on the matter with Rolling Stone, she said:

"If someone's just gonna take everything and just put it into R&D to make the world better, and just get up at the f****** crack of dawn every day and go to bed really late every night, doesn't take vacations and just actually puts every single ounce of his energy in everything he cares about and all his money into making the world better? Like, I can make an exception."

2

Alter Ego premiered on September 22, 2021 and is a new singing competition where contestants reinvent themselves and perform like never before.

Judge will.i.am, said that this show could "transform television, movies and more."

"People are used to filters and face technology on social media but nobody has a whole entire body where they can totally transform their presence," he told Fox News. "I think that's going to transform movie-making, reality shows, and change entertainment, this show."

Despite high hopes heading in, following the premiere, fans on Twitter continued to scoff at Grimes for being an "annoying" judge on the competition series.

"i just heard grimes say 'you have fortnite energy' on a singing competition where ppl perform through an AI this is the bad place," said oneTwitteruser.

Another user added: "The alter ego singing show that comes on after it is a really interesting concept but grimes ruins it."

more from celebrity net worths

Despite the negative feedback, there were many users that showed their support for the artist.

One user said, "i want to go on the alter ego show and sing for grimes."

While another added "Alter Ego. Moving and lovely. And Grimes is a hoot."

We pay for your stories!

Do you have a story for The US Sun team?

Go here to read the rest:

What is Grimes' net worth and why doesn't she get money from Elon Musk ...

Grimes hospitalized for panic attack after Elon Musk ‘SNL’ debut

Grimes revealed she was hospitalized for a panic attack this week, following partner Elon Musks Saturday Night Live debut.

The Oblivion singer on Tuesday posted backstage photos and said shed forgotten to share the snaps because she was seeking medical care.

Forgot to post these cuz I somehow caused myself to have a panic attack and went to the hospital yesterday which tbh was quite scary and I suppose its a good time to start therapy , Grimes captioned the pics of her dressed as Princess Peach alongside musical guest Miley Cyrus.

But nonetheless wowwwww@mileycyrusis good live and so chill! she continued.

Grimes, 33, also thanked the SNL staff and gushed over her boyfriend, despite the fact that it would upset her fans.

So grateful to the SNL team for being so kind and letting me sneak in as princess peach snd so proud of my beautiful E (which I know will upset the grimes fans so I apologize in advance) but he killed it, she ended her caption.

The 49-year-old Tesla billionaire, who went into his SNL gig as one of the most controversial choices NBC has ever made, used the shows platform to reveal and joke about his Aspergers syndrome. He also fittingly participated in a Weekend Update segment to explain cryptocurrencies to Michael Che.

Toward the end of the episode, Musk played Wario Super Marios evil counterpart and cracked Nintendo cocaine jokes, which is when Grimes made her cameo as the video game princess.

Following the SpaceX founders debut, the pair attended a crypto-themed afterparty attended by SNL honcho Lorne Michaels, Chris Rock, Colin Jost and Matt Stone of South Park.

Read more:

Grimes hospitalized for panic attack after Elon Musk 'SNL' debut

Did Grimes Know About Elon Musks Twins With Shivon Zilis? | YourTango

According to court documents exclusively obtained by Business Insider, Tesla CEO Elon Musk fathered a set of twins with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis in November 2021 just weeks before welcoming his second child with Grimes.

Grimes and Musk have been in an on-and-off relationship for around 4 years now currently off but the news of secret twins leaves many wondering whether the Canadian artist knew about Musk and Zilis, or whether or not she cares.

Zilis' twins were born in November meaningthey were likely conceived around February 2021, which was a pretty silent time for both Grimes and Musk.

If Grimes knew about Zilis' pregnancy, then she didn't let it show, and as far as we know she and Musk were still together.

RELATED:Inside Elon Musk's Relationship With His Kids As His Daughter Files Legal Documents To Cut Ties With Him

Grimes and Musk, who first started dating in 2018, share a son named X AE A-XII X for short who was born in May 2020 and a daughter,Exa Dark Siderl, who was born in December 2021.

In April 2021, Grimes publicly defended Musk after fans asked her why she was in a relationship with a "men's rights activist."

"He's not, she said on TikTok, denying the claim that he was a mens rights activist. [Definitely] he's been very immature at points on Twitter but for [example] the president of SpaceX is a woman, as is his right hand at Neuralink etc."

While Grimes did not name Zilis, she does have a senior position at Neuralink and couldbe who the singer was referring to as Musk's "right hand."

Grimes responded with a star emoji to a tweet in which Zilis defended Musk saying that there was "no one I respect and admire more" than the billionaire businessman.

This exchange happened around 5 months before the secret twins were born.

In May 2021, Musk hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live where Grimes even made an appearance during one of the skits. The couple appear to be going strong.

About a month before Zilis' children were born, Musk revealed that he and Grimeswere semi-separated, and living apart, according to Page Six.

RELATED:Elon Musk Alleged To Be The Father Of Amber Heards Baby Amid Claims They Created Embryos Together

We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently, and are on great terms, Musk said.

Musk insisted that the split was largely because their careers require them to be far away from each other all of the time she lives in LA while he lives in Texas.

The twosecretly welcomed a second child via surrogate at the beginning of December 2021 a daughter named Exa Dark Siderl. Their daughter's existence was revealed in a March 2022 Vanity Fair article.

In the interview, Grimes says she and Musk are together but seem to have a rather unconventional relationship. However, this wasn't built to last either asGrimes announced that theyhad actually broken up again.

Me and E have broken up *again* since the writing of this article haha, she tweeted, referring to theVanity Fair interview.

At no point did Grimes have anything bad to say about Musk, reveal any secret children, or offer any acknowledgment of the fact that these things were happening in the background.

She did, however, say that their relationship is very fluid.

I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but were very fluid. We live in separate houses. Were best friends. We see each other all the time. We just have our own thing going on, and I dont expect other people to understand it, she toldVanity Fair.

Since the news revealing the documents filed for a name change have been revealed, Grimes has been completely silent on all social media platforms.

Musk, on the other hand, has admitted to the revelation, and claims hes Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis.

Zilis has also remained silent amidst the news cycle.

RELATED:9 Strict Rules Elon Musks Nine Kids Must Follow

Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Since graduating from Rutgers University, he spends most of his free time gaming or playing a fictional sport. Keep up with his rants about current eventson his Twitter.

See the original post here:

Did Grimes Know About Elon Musks Twins With Shivon Zilis? | YourTango

Elon Musk reacts to report he had secret twins with Neuralink exec …

Newly surfaced paperwork reveals that Elon Musk, 51, had twins nearly a year ago with his Neuralink company executive Shivon Zilis, 36.

According to Insider, court documents published on July 6 show that Musk and Zilis became parents of twins in November 2021.

They also reveal that Zilis had originally filed for a name change document on April 25 to change the childrens last names to Musk and their middle names to Zilis.

The request, which was filed to a court in Austin, Texas, was approved in May.

More from NextShark: Asian American Realtor Fired for Using Racial Slur at Black YouTuber

The date of the twins births marks just a few weeks prior to when Musk had welcomed his second child with musician Grimes, a daughter named Exa Dark Siderl Musk, via surrogate in December.

Musk and Grimes were known to have an off-and-on relationship, with Grimes loosely describing the billionaire as her boyfriend.

In response to the published documents, Musk not only confirmed the news from Insider, but posted a tweet as well.

More from NextShark: 34,000 visitors trapped at Shanghai Disneyland for hours after a woman tested positive for COVID-19

Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis, he wrote. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.

The twins are Musks eighth and ninth children. He also shares twins Vivian and Griffin, 18, and triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian, 16, with his ex-wife Justine Wilson, in addition to his two children with Grimes.

More from NextShark: Hundreds gather in NYC Chinatown to protest the development of a new 24-hour homeless shelter

With a $230.8 billion fortune, Musk is by far the richest person in the world and has been known to be outspoken about the global trend of decreasing birth rates, tweeting about the issue multiple times.

Zilis is impressive in her own right as a 2008 Yale graduate with a degree in economics and philosophy.

She met Musk at his artificial intelligence non-profit OpenAI, where she initially joined as a project advisor.

Story continues

As an expert in AI, she also worked at Tesla for its Autopilot semi-autonomous driving program.

Zilis joined Neuralink, which Musk co-founded, in 2017, where she currently serves as one of the companys executives.

Featured Image via TED; Quid Inc

Original post:

Elon Musk reacts to report he had secret twins with Neuralink exec ...

Dear Knicks fans: Its OK to believe in Quentin Grimes – Posting and Toasting

Heading into Summer League, Quentin Grimes made his intentions clear: He was coming to dominate. After two games, Grimes appears to be backing up his words, scoring 24 points in both New York wins. The opening game started out a bit rough, as he shot 1-9 in the first half, but since then he has been the Grimes fans were hoping to see.

Perhaps it is fitting that Grimes has grabbed the spotlight in Summer League, as this could be a big moment in his young career. There have been rumblings that Grimes might have a chance to supplant Evan Fournier as the starting two guard in the regular season. Could it really happen? Could Grimes go from the 25th pick in the 2021 Draft to supplanting the Knicks premier 2021 free agent acquisition?

While we here at P&T certainly support the decision to start Grimes, we recognize that we have no say in the matter. But I would like to address a trend that Ive noticed on social media recently a sort of backlash to the excitement many Knicks fans feel when watching Grimes dominate in Vegas. This backlash starts from a reasonable premise: Summer League stats dont matter. Hey, thats true! Knicks fans need only look back a few years, to Kevin Knoxs star turn in 2019 Summer League, to remember how these Vegas fantasies can turn into harsh regular-season realities.

However, this sentiment often takes a very dark turn in the minds of Knicks fans. Because these are the Knicks the cursed, incompetent Knicks, who never draft the right guy you would be a fool to expect any good from these Quentin Grimes minutes.

Im not here today to relitigate the decision to draft Obi Toppin, or whether Immanuel Quickley deserves praise despite his poor field goal percentage Im just talking about Quentin Grimes. And personally, I think its weird to doubt the kid. His rookie numbers dont stand out, mostly due to poor injury luck and Thibs decision to bury him for the first part of the season, but when Grimes played, he produced. How soon we forget his first NBA start, when he dropped 27 points on the defending-champion Milwaukee Bucks. Over the 26 games between that Milwaukee game and the All-Star break, he averaged an impressive 8.8 points per game on 42.6 FG%/39.5 3P%. If his season hadnt been derailed by a freak knee injury in the first game after the break, he would have been in contention for an all-rookie team.

Look, Im one of the most negative Knicks fans youll ever meet. Ive been scarred by decades of Knicks failures. I think theyre going to lose every game, and no halftime lead is too large to blow. But I have seen nothing in Vegas that makes me think that his rookie season was a fluke. The kid has standout defensive chops. Yes, maybe Frank Ntilikina was also a great defender, but Grimes is different he is a legit three-point sniper with the guts to pull up from anywhere on the court.

This isnt about curses, or institutional ineptitude. This isnt about Phil Jackson selecting Cleanthony Early over Nikola Jokic. This is about Quentin Grimes, the basketball player. Hes quite good, and hes only getting better. Being a Knicks fans requires a massive leap of faith. We know now that well never sign a prime LeBron James or Kevin Durant. Well probably never win a draft lottery in the near future, because one time in 1985 was apparently enough from the basketball gods. If the franchise is going to improve, its going to come from players like Grimes players of more humble origin, who grow into something better. You can feel confident in his play, Knicks fans, whether hes in Vegas or on the MSG hardwood. Hell, maybe we can all enjoy him together.

Originally posted here:

Dear Knicks fans: Its OK to believe in Quentin Grimes - Posting and Toasting

Drive-by shooting suspect arrested in Grimes, charged with attempted murder – WHO TV 13 Des Moines News & Weather

DES MOINES, Iowa A Des Moines man is being held in the Polk County Jail, charged with attempted murder in a drive-by shooting in the Drake neighborhood Thursday afternoon.

David Hysion Jones, 23, is also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and multiple felony narcotics-related charges.

Just before 1:00 p.m., officers with the Des Moines Police Departments Neighborhood Based Service Delivery Unit heard gunshots in the area of 25th Street and University Avenue. Police found a 24-year-old man who had been shot at but not injured. They also recovered a handgun that had been tossed behind a home and several shell casings at the crime scene in the 1100 block of 26th Street.

Sgt. Paul Parizek said surveillance video nearby showed a person, later identified as Jones, hanging out of a vehicle while firing a gun. Police were able to get a license plate from the video and within 45 minutes of the shooting had traced it back to Latitude Lofts apartments at 551 SE Gateway Drive in Grimes.

The vehicle was spotted in the parking lot and an officer kept watch until police obtained a search warrant. Two guns were recovered by police in the search.

Jones was arrested along with his girlfriend, 25-year-old Tionna Merrett, who was charged with accessory after the fact. Police said they believe she was driving the vehicle at the time of the shooting.

Go here to see the original:

Drive-by shooting suspect arrested in Grimes, charged with attempted murder - WHO TV 13 Des Moines News & Weather

Shinzo Abe Remade Japanand the World, BU Expert Says – Boston University

Japan, with 125 million people, had just one gun death last year, and a total of just 14 since 2017. The nation has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. The virtual absence of lethal shootings made last weeks assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe not just tragic, but aberrational, prompting BU Japan scholar William Grimes to mourn Japans lost innocence.

Abe was gunned down July 8 as he campaigned for a parliamentary candidate. Japans longest-governing prime minister served two stints, the last from 2012 to 2020. Police arrested 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami and said he confessed to the murder; he reportedly believed rumors of Abes ties to a group that the police havent identified.

Grimes, a Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies professor of international relations and of political science, studies Japanese politics and political economy and has been a visiting researcher at the nations Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Japan, and at universities in Japan and Australia. The author of numerous books and articles on Japan and East Asia, Grimes says Abe altered the trajectory of his nations politicsand the worlds. He analyzes the late prime ministers legacy and the implications of his murder for Japan.

Q&AWith William Grimes

William Grimes: Abe was Japans longest-serving prime minister, which was particularly impressive coming after a string of one-year terms, including his own first term in office in 2006-2007. That longevity alone allowed him to have an outsized impact on policy, particularly in structural and microeconomic policies, which tend to change incrementally. Combined with the five years that one of his mentors, Junichiro Koizumi, was prime minister, Japan really is substantially different today than 20 years ago. The Koizumi-Abe approach can be seen as prioritizing markets and efficiency over long-term relationships among companies, workers, banks, and the government. Abe differed from Koizumi in his willingness to use fiscal and monetary policy to spur demandAbenomicsas well as structural reforms to increase the reach of markets.Abenomics biggest direct impact was via monetary policy, which accelerated growth and raised asset prices. He also created a more sustainable fiscal path. And the accumulation of microeconomic policiessupport for womens labor, financial sector reforms, tax reform, agricultural reform, and support for new economic ventureswill have a lasting impact on the structure and productivity of the Japanese economy.In foreign economic policy, he pushed forward the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and then, after President Trump withdrew the United States from TPP, he brought to fruition the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the largest and most ambitious trade agreements in the world. On security matters, he helped to secure a redefinition of what Japans Self-Defense Forces are allowed to do to support allies, and was a founding member of the QuadQuadrilateral Security Dialogueamong Japan, the United States, Australia, and India [to balance Chinas growing power]. He was transformative in a way that probably no Japanese prime minister has been since the early 1950s.On the downside, he strengthened the hand of historical revisionists who deny that Japan was an aggressor in World War II or that it forcibly recruited comfort women [sexually enslaved women for the Japanese army]. This has damaged relations with South Korea and China, and has also made xenophobia and anti-Korean sentiment more acceptable in Japan. His longtime intransigence on North Korea abduction issues also damaged efforts to contain North Koreas nuclear program in the early 2000s.

William Grimes: Japan has a parliamentary system, so Abe stayed on as a member of parliament after stepping down as prime minister. He was in a safe district, which he, and before that his father, had represented for more than 60 years. His political lineage was extraordinarythink of the Kennedy family, without the charisma. He was the maternal grandson of one of the most important postwar prime ministers, great-nephew to one of its longest-serving prime ministers, who was the only Japanese person to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and son of a former foreign minister. His brother is currently serving as minister of defense. Either his son or his nephew will probably take over his seat. Its important to note that this is a fraught history though; his grandfather, who was an architect of Japans wartime economic mobilization, was arrested but never tried as a war criminal after World War II and remained affiliated with Japans right wing throughout his career.Abe was the one person who could hold together the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for an extended period of time. He did so through a combination of mastery of internal politics and external popularity. He was unique in recent decades in being both the leader of the largest internal faction and the most popular politician among voters. These advantages remained even after he stepped down as prime minister, after which he became a kingmaker and public opinion leader. The LDP can manage without him, as there is a fairly stable organization and there is currently no electoral threat. But it will have less of a clear policy stance, especially in domestic economic policy.Abes postprime ministerial career was focused on supporting hawkish politicians, advocating for a more proactive security posture, supporting the global liberal economic order, and strengthening the US-Japan relationship.

William Grimes: The LDP victory was pretty much in line with what had been expected prior to Abes murder. The reasons are the perceived competence of the LDP and Prime Minister [Fumio] Kishida on the one hand and the fragmentation and demonstrated incompetence of the opposition parties on the other.

The evolution of Japans approach to security doesnt hinge on Abe. The fundamental basis of Japanese security policy since the end of the US occupation in 1952 has been reliance on the United States to deter attacksfirst from the USSR, later from North Korean missiles, and now China. There has been a long-term shift toward more muscular capabilities and a more proactive approach to the use of force, but the principle of purely defensive defense is still strong in Japan. The key point here is that Japans entire defense capability and strategy are predicated on integration with US forces.

Whether we will see Japan become a military powerfirst, Japan already is a military power; it has one of the most capable navies in the world, very capable air forces and missile defenses, and has expanded its international cooperation into Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Second, Japans forces are not configured for offensive activitiesthere are no bombers or cruise missiles in its arsenal, it doesnt have expeditionary forces, and has only a very nascent aircraft carrier capability. Third, Japan only works as a military power in cooperation with the United States.

William Grimes: Its being reported that the killer was angry because his mother had been involved in a religious sect, apparently the Unification Church, and had given it much of the familys money. The LDP has developed deep but somewhat hidden relationships with a number of religions that may be considered cults or just fringe sects, including the Unification Church. The killer identified Abe personally with the Church. Exactly why Abe in particular was the target is a little murky, but there is a video of him giving greetings to a nonprofit arm of the church. Also, his grandfather Kishi was a key figure in bringing the group to Japan in the 1960s, because of its virulent anti-communist stance. There may be other reasons why the killer associated Abe so closely with it that will become known over time. I do feel confident that he wasnt part of an organized group. For one thing, his homemade weapon suggests that he was working alone.

William Grimes: People are shocked. The Sankei Shimbun [newspaper] put out a list of every attack on a politician, and there have only been three killed since 1960, only one of whom was killed by a gun. Japanese politicians, even prime ministers, have minimal security, and it is normal to do what Abe was doing: standing out in front of a train station with spectators within 20 feet or so. I dont think that will change too much, except maybe for cabinet members or where theres a specific known threat, insofar as the killer in this case appears to be a lone wolf. However, if there are more such incidents, it could raise the distance between politicians and voters, which would be very unfortunate.

See the original post:

Shinzo Abe Remade Japanand the World, BU Expert Says - Boston University

Cameron Grimes on catching John Cena’s t-shirt: "The first thing I did was look at the tag on the shirt. I had to know what size t-shirt he was…

This week, while speaking with Sportskeeda, Cameron Grimes discussed John Cena's return to Raw, as well as Cameron, NC.

Cameron Grimes talking about John Cena returning to RAW:

I think its absolutely incredible that John Cenas back," Grimes said.

"Ill actually go to a side story here. I remember around 2007, maybe, RAW was in Raleigh, NC and I got to go to the show. John Cena came out, took his shirt off, whipped it around, threw it in the crowd, and I caught that t-shirt. I remember catching that t-shirt and the first thing I did was look at the tag on the shirt. I had to know what size t-shirt he was wearing. He had a XXXL t-shirt on and it was still tight on his arms."

Scroll to Continue

"That man is a freak. John Cena is the man. I look up to him so much. Anytime that he can come back and truly be the star that he is on our show, Im tuning in every time.

Grimes talking about Cameron, NC:

I feel like the only reason you would know about Cameron, NC is because of professional wrestling or sports entertainment," Grimes laughed.

"I feel that unless you buy chickens, then you might know about Cameron, NC. I have a heritage of knowledge that I was able to learn from with The Hardy Boyz and 'Hurricane' Shane Helms. I got to learn from those guys and I got to train under those guys. For years, I was in the ring every single day. You couldnt get me out of the ring. Then I got signed to WWE. Now Im in better condition. Im under the best coaches using the best equipment. You just cant beat that. You cant beat passion and hard work.

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Sportskeeda with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.

See the article here:

Cameron Grimes on catching John Cena's t-shirt: "The first thing I did was look at the tag on the shirt. I had to know what size t-shirt he was...