Lucky Break brings it home.

Upon entering Night Club 101 before the show, I immediately felt that this space was for someone looking to build community through music.

Not only were the Lucky Break fans in attendance that night so lovely and willing to talk to a stranger, hugging the wall, but it also felt like a space where new fans are made.

Night Club 101 is known for staging new artists and musicians who are still finding their sound, or artists who have already established their base and are looking to host a space a safe space for other user music lovers to land.

That's why this venue was perfect to host Lucky Break’s East village show ahead of her tour across the U.S. Lucky Break played an amazing show that indeed captured the vibes of nostalgia, family, hope and most of all fun.

Inside night club 101

Before attending the show, I sat down with Emma of Lucky Break to chat about her new album, her tour and what’s in store for this new creative chapter. 

Ann Tankersely: You came out with your new album, made it!— Why now (for this album)?

Lucky Break: This album is an accumulation of me (at ages) 19 to 23. So I really wanted to take my time, and I wanted to jump into the visual world of Lucky Break as a character first.

AT: Why did you take this album on tour?

LB: That’s what it’s all about for me. The live aspect is the most important part of the whole equation. My mom was a singer/songwriter, and I grew up watching her play bars around here (in the East village). Watching her connect with people live solidified for me that being in a room with people is really the center of the musical experience and the job of the musician.

AT: You grew up here (in the East Village). You're here tonight with your friends. How do you feel about tonight’s show versus the rest of the tour? 

LB: It does feel like a homecoming, and it’s celebratory being with my friends. I get really nostalgic coming to the East village, I know it by heart. I feel so connected to this place, and it’s so essential to who I am. It feels like coming home, it feels really good.

AT: Are you traveling with the band on this tour?

LB: It’s just me and my guitar. I started this by playing at SXSW with tracks. I realized I just like playing with my guitar, I have more direct access to people. I like how intimate it feel, and it’s so essential to the kinds of artists I listen to. I like the “no-frills” aspect; it’s so simple.

Lucky Break on stage

 The character of Lucky Break bleeds through every song from the album and provides an interactive yet transcendent experience for every listener.

If you have the chance to go see Lucky Break on their tour, don’t delay your plans. Not only are there sounds to blast all Summer long from a hyperpop idyllic landscape of their album, but there is also the awesome indulgence of the Lucky Break character in the world that has been built for them. 

Follow their journey at linktr.ee/imyourluckybreak, listen to their album made it! streaming now, catch them on tour with upcoming dates in Memphis and across the U.S. this Summer, and check out their super cute merch on Bandcamp or at the show!

Lucky Break CD, Stickers, and Post Card

Lucky Break T-Shirt

I Love Boosters Film Review: Anti-Capitalism Meets Satire, Crime, and Fashion

Boots Riley’s new film, “I Love Boosters,” was a vibrant, anti-capitalist fever dream. Everything about the movie–even down to its official poster–references the era of 1960s crime films such as “How to Steal A Million,” that blend crime, social criticism, and high fashion. This film does all the same things, but for a modern audience. 

It was as surreal as a Boots Riley film can be. There are stop motion characters in a world of real people, a building that is tilted at an almost 45-degree angle, though no one mentions it, and a demon model who takes the souls of his romantic partners by going down on them. Yes, you read that right.

The lighting and costumes were also colorful and visually pleasing. I was thanking my lucky stars that the main characters didn’t sacrifice being fashionable in their fight against capitalism!

These elements, alongside the writing and direction of Boots Riley, help to serve the film’s purpose. “I Love Boosters” is a satirical criticism of capitalism with plenty to-die-for fashion  moments along the way.

This review will contain spoilers!

The film follows a group of boosters (people that steal and resell clothes) called the Velvet Gang. When one of the boosters, Corvette (Keke Palmer), discovers that CEO and fashion designer, Christie Smith (Demi Moore), stole one of her designs and is selling it at her Metro Designers store, Corvette and her friends plan to steal from as many Metro Designers locations as they can.

Their cover: getting hired to work at the store.

At the same time, executives at the Metro Designers’ factory in China decide to implement teleportation devices to cut shipping costs. The employees also ask for better pay and working conditions, but Christie refuses to meet their demands. One of the employees, Jianhu (Poppy Liu), steals the device and teleports herself to America, where she plans to send all Metro Designers supply back to China until their demands are met. Eventually, she joins the Velvet Gang as they all have a vendetta against Christie. 

The way the employees are treated in this film is one of the most obvious critiques of capitalism.

They have to sprint to their lunch break, which is absurdly thirty seconds long, while the manager, Grayson (Will Poulter), gets a full hour. Corvette’s coworker, Violeta (Eiza González), gets a paycheck that is about $43,000, but after the company deducts money for employee uniforms and other costs, the check is reduced to just over $43. It’s over the top, but it gets the point across! 

Christie Smith is a symbol of capitalism in general and the “one percent.” She was livid that the boosters were stealing from her, meanwhile, she had already taken Corvette’s design and passed it off as her own. Christie also buys into her own self-importance and convinces others to believe her lies too, using propaganda. 

Throughout the film, there are a handful of side characters, such as Dr. Jack (Don Cheadle), who disguises his pyramid scheme as a self-help program, and Crying Black Mother (Kara Young), a woman on the news who says she wouldn’t want people to “bear the burden of free housing.”

She and the others seem unimportant until the final act, where it is revealed they have been working for Christie the entire time, having had their skin surgically removed so they can wear the skin of other people and promote Christie’s ideologies undercover.

They represent people who have bought into capitalist propaganda so much that they will sacrifice their own skin (their wellbeing) to keep the system going.

One of the “skin people” says she once acted as Candace Owens! This could be taken solely as a dig at Candace, but there’s a bigger message behind it. It symbolizes how all media can be a tool to control the narrative. People with platforms, big or small, can influence the public and get them to support things that benefit the system but harm themselves.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Boots Riley movie without LaKeith Stanfield, who plays the demon model, also known as Pinky Ring Guy. His entrance to the film is jarring as he suddenly appears with no warning in an extreme, borderline invasive close-up, while Corvette is stealing from Metro Designers. Though he helps Corvette and her friends infiltrate Christie’s fashion show in the final act, the character’s purpose in the larger message of the film isn’t clear. On the surface he mostly adds to the surrealism, but in retrospect, it’s possible he represents the concept of sacrificing your soul for pleasure.

Most of his rare appearances in the film are when Corvette is in the middle of a plan with the boosters, and he tries to get her to go out with him. He could represent the temptation to give up the fight and give in to pleasure as a means of numbing oneself in the face of uncertainty. Or maybe he just symbolizes the bums we put up with to escape loneliness, who will actually suck the life out of us if we let them. Either way, Corvette rejects him completely, showing that she isn’t willing to give up her soul.

Refreshingly, the film doesn’t just criticize the problems with a capitalistic society; it offers solutions.

One being that we are most effective in fighting the system when we work together. 

Throughout the movie, Corvette hallucinates a giant ball of trash filled with overdue bills and eviction notices coming towards her, representing the dread and isolation of looming societal expectations. She also mentions many times that she feels alone.

As the film goes on, Corvette and the Velvet Gang gradually expand their circle, working with others to achieve a specific goal. By the end, Corvette isn’t alone anymore, and the giant ball of trash becomes small enough to pick up and throw away. It shows that fighting alone can be unbearable, but the way to handle the burden is by uniting.

At the end of the day, we have more in common than we think.

Another interesting detail is that the teleportation device has two other settings: deconstruction mode, which reverts objects into the raw materials that made them, and situational acceleration mode, which accelerates objects into what they will be in the future.

Deconstruction mode represents that the system doesn’t necessarily need to be destroyed. We need to take a closer look at the individual moving parts and understand how it works so we can rebuild it. Situational Acceleration mode represents future possibilities.

In the final act, there is a protest at Christie’s fashion show. On one side are the protestors, on the other, those who were guests invited to the show. When the boosters use acceleration mode on everyone, we see what they will be in the future: both sides are protesting together. When Corvette and her friend Sade (Naomie Ackie) accidentally accelerate a police car, it becomes a futuristic vehicle with all kinds of weaponry and destructive features. But when they accelerate the people, it makes them into a version of themselves that depicts unity.

That is how they win.

The film’s ending leaves us with a sense of hope. The Velvet Gang opens a community center to sell clothes, and Christie has to comply with the demands of the people who work in the Metro Designers factory.

It shows that regardless of how bad the world gets, future generations will still unite and fight for something better. This conveys a future of unity, a future that is hopeful in the face of bleakness, and it's a message the world needs to hear.

Could TMZ Bring Accountability to American Politics?

TMZ is branching out from the Hollywood Hills to Capitol Hill.

On March 26, 2026, they put out a open call for pictures to be taken of politicians spotted out over Easter weekend, and it could be just the thing to bring more accountability to American politics.

You might be thinking, really? TMZ and accountability?

To understand how TMZ can be effective, you have to understand the United States, its elections, and its relationship with the media.

In the United States, we elect politicians to represent us in government. Elections are just one way the law allows us to replace the leaders we feel aren’t representing us well or making the changes we want to see. If politicians want to be elected or re-elected, they have to do what we, the people, elect them to do. Not only that, but they have to win over the American people, so it matters how they are perceived. This is where the media comes into play.

Think of it as filmmaking v.s. Hollywood: Filmmaking is the actual act of making movies, and Hollywood is about image and perception. If people actually like you (actor, director, etc), they’re more likely to support your work (Film, TV, etc).

When it comes to government, I like to think of it as public service v.s. “politics.”

Public service is the actual boots on the ground work, like drafting legislation. Whereas a big part of “politics” is playing the game of perception. Hence, campaign tours, doing interviews, etc. 

Political campaign tours basically run on the same principle as Hollywood press tours. Perception and likability are key!

Throughout American history, politics and the media have gone hand in hand. From political cartoons, radio interviews, images in newspapers, to televised presidential debates, television commercials, and now social media. Politicians have always relied heavily on the media to get their message across to the public.

With social media being even more crucial in election results over the last ten years, we’ve seen politicians becoming even more and more visible and accessible to the public, where before they may have been harder to reach. Ironically, visibility doesn’t solve a lack of transparency. Just because we’re seeing politicians on our feeds more, doesn’t mean they’re being more honest.

Currently, there is a lack of transparency between the American people and the officials we have elected to represent us.

Politicians benefit from the tax dollars we pay, but they aren’t following through or being truthful. 

Let’s go back to the Hollywood and politics analogy.

For the most part, actors or other celebrities will say whatever they need to say to the public for a plethora of reasons, whether it be promoting a movie or avoiding scandals. It’s the same for politicians.

That is why TMZ may be the answer. The way TMZ and other paparazzi and tabloids pry into the lives of celebrities without second thought or abandon could be exactly the aggressive journalism America needs right now.

Think about it: America is being run not just by a businessman, but a media mogul. His presidency so far has been like a reality show, and many of the people in his cabinet are from the media world. There’s Dr. Oz, a physician and television host, who currently serves as the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Linda E. McMahon, co-founder and former CEO of the WWE, serves as the U.S. Secretary of Education. 

What better way to combat this style of leadership than with the very thing all people in the media try to avoid? The paps!

So here comes TMZ, a tabloid company that is notorious for prying into the personal lives of the rich and famous, often releasing photos and information that is downright intrusive and sometimes evil. They promise that if people send them photos of politicians on vacation, they will help demand accountability.

In a time of cellphones and technology like Meta glasses, there is a general lack of privacy that previous generations didn’t have to face, where at any moment someone could be recording you, and you would never know it.

Everyone is a paparazzi now; all anyone needs is a recording device and a little bit of nosiness. People even go as far as to record strangers! It’s no longer just celebrities who are concerned with being photographed during their off time, but everyday people.

By calling for people to send in pictures of politicians on vacation, TMZ is tapping into a gold mine! Essentially allowing people to channel the power of surveillance into holding their elected officials accountable. It would seem that the paps might be obsolete when everyone can take a photo or record a video, but TMZ has found a way around it, a way to funnel all that media attention back through themselves.

And they found the perfect timing: amidst last month's government shutdowns, T.S.A. agents working with no pay, and waiting for Congress to make a decision, while members of Congress take two-week vacations, during which many will travel by plane. 

The hypocrisy is hard to miss.

Since the current political landscape looks like a reality show, with members of the administration being fired like a Survivor elimination, who better than TMZ to step up to the plate to hold them accountable?

TMZ created an avenue for the people’s frustration to become motivation, and for that motivation to become an actionable step. It’s honestly genius.

In a way, it taps into the very heart of the American experiment, the idea that, if we the people don’t like how our leaders are acting, we can do something about it.

Time will tell how much this will change things, but in a rapidly changing, image-obsessed political landscape, it might be the perfect start.