The Japanese temple at Sanjūsangen-dō is home to 1,001 statues of the Kannon Bodhisattva, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. But this shrine holds more than just an impressive statuary; it's home to an important rite of passage.
Read MoreAs Elton John described his early career, "The word 'celebrity' didn't exist, you were either successful or not." But Sir Elton has a very specific reason for the disdain he has for reality TV and its stars.
Read MoreAlice in Chains were among the pioneers of the sonic sounds coming out of Seattle, Washington, when grunge took over rock n' roll in the 1990s. But the band was plagued by demons that were all too common among their contemporaries and reached the point of breaking up.
Read MoreWhile it might seem pretty straightforward that after the end of WWII, the Nazi party needed to pay the price for their crimes, it didn't exactly work that way. Many fled Europe in the aftermath of the war and ended up in South America. How they got there is both bizarre and terrifying.
Read MoreSonny & Cher rode a rollercoaster of successes and failures. Together they topped the charts, danced on the edge of bankruptcy and became a television sensation. But they eventually split, effectively ending Sonny Bono's time as a star. After a rebirth in politics, his life was cut short by tragedy.
Read MoreWhile we know that humans are led by senses such as sight and sound, a recent study has found that humans are also led by their noses and their senses of smell. Here's what you probably didn't know about humans' sense of smell according to science.
Read MoreWhile guitarist Jimi Hendrix's death came unexpectedly in 1970, the 27-year-old's fame continued to blossom posthumously, with the rocker gaining legendary status years after his passing at a young age. This is the eerie way Jimi Hendrix foreshadowed his own death in a song.
Read MoreMank tells how screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz or "Mank," wrote Citizen Kane, a thinly veiled attack on newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. As with all real-life stories turned into film, liberties had to be taken. Here are the times Mank lied to you.
Read MoreThe world of the Neanderthals was a near-endless winter and there were many ways to die, as the unluckiest Neanderthal in history once found out. Some deaths, and this still holds true today, are simply the result of an unfortunate circumstance. This was the unluckiest Neanderthal in history.
Read MoreVince McMahon built the WWE into a global sports entertainment empire worth billions. But all that success came at a cost, as the use of steroids became rampant among wrestlers. In 1993, McMahon's chickens almost came home to roost. Here's how a steroid trial almost led to Vince McMahon's downfall.
Read MoreSandoval, in the Refinery 29 interview, describes a highly sensitive, artistic process of crafting stories and music, saying, "We like to take our time experimenting with different ideas and creating new sounds until we feel satisfied that we've accomplished something mind-expanding."
Read MoreWhich brings us to the 2008 production 10,000 BC, where things get even less accurate. Monumentally inaccurate, really. Think of it this way: The film puts history in a tumbler, shakes it up, and pours a tall glass of annoyance for a metaphorical bar full of historians. Honestly, it's almost sci-fi.
Read MoreWhen Wisconsin University researchers examined a Stone-Age butchery site in Tanzania, they found that the site's animal remains indicated that those animals had been specifically targeted and killed by human hunters. Hunting is apparently far older than we realized.
Read MoreNeanderthals existed from roughly 400,000 years ago until 40,000 years ago. Though they lived in the Stone Age, they didn't have rocks for brains. Here's what life was like for our Stone Age relatives.
Read MoreGum is generally a one and done piece of entertainment. So it's surprising that a 5,700 year-old form of 'chewing gum' remembers its owner well enough that scientists were able to recreate her entire genome, and also see what she had just eaten. You deserve an explanation.
Read MoreThere were always two kinds of people: Those who loved The Dave Matthews Band and those who loved to make fun of those who loved them. After the 2000s, both types went quiet. The Dave Matthews Band's popularity has waned in what could be argued as a "natural course," but they didn't disappear.
Read MoreThe band then returned to England for two performances at the V Festival, which received awful reviews, with NME (per Dedece Blog) reporting, "where songs used to spiral upwards and outwards, they now simply fizzle tamely." In April 1999, it was announced that The Verve had split up.
Read MoreAs MTV reported, Manson and the other members felt they'd had enough. Manson unequivocally said the band was on a hiatus, though many thought they had broken up. Manson said recording and touring for Bleed Like Me had been difficult for all band members. They just needed time away from each other.
Read MorePower pop hit "Closing Time" by American rock band Semisonic checks all the boxes for a novelty hit: an infectious melody, an easy-to-memorize chorus and a meditative double-meaning, much deeper than you might imagine.
Read MoreSomeone once told Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins that their '90s emblem "Semi-Charmed Life" sounds like "summer and everything is going to be wonderful." But the truth of the song is a little less charming.
Read MoreNo Doubt rocketed into mainstream fame with their third album, 1995's Tragic Kingdom, and the song "Don't Speak." It's no surprise that the quintessential nineties rock band who found success because of a breakup will be subject to constant rumors of splitting up.
Read MoreBack in the 90s, the Gin Blossoms were everywhere. They had a song in the movie Empire Records, Grammy nominations, and were even onscreen during the end of Wayne's World 2. But after their heyday, it seemed the band virtually disappeared. Or did they?
Read MoreRadiohead hasn't released a new album since 2016's A Moon Shaped Pool, so of course fans eagerly await the next one. And they might be waiting a while.
Read MoreThe Counting Crows, one of the 90's bands you used to love, released a new song in 2019, but it's been half a decade since the band came out with a full album. Here's why.
Read MoreAs any Gen X'er who still wears acid wash jeans and calls people "dude" can attest, Winger was, for a while there, a band. According to some, it was none other than Beavis and Butthead who brought Winger down.
Read MoreIf you had a Sam Goodie gift card and a lot of feelings about your parents' divorce in the late 1990s, there's a good chance that you owned at least one Everclear album. They had everything that a band could ask for at the time.
Read MoreElla Fitzgerald is undoubtedly one of the greatest singers ever. And, like many extraordinary talents, her rise to fame seemed to have come out of nowhere. But Fitzgerald worked hard to find success and a last-second decision helped propel her to stardom.
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