David Johansen, the chameleonic and charismatic vocalist who fronted the New York Dolls and found solo success under the moniker Buster Poindexter, died on Friday, his publicist confirmed to NPR. He was 75.
Why it matters: Johansen was the frontman of the New York Dolls, which rose to prominence in the first half of the 1970s, associated with the glitter-rockmovement spearheaded by Alice Cooper, David Bowie and T. Rex, among others. The Dolls stood out from even their most colorful peers thanks to striking stagewear and androgynous looks — various combinations of skintight pants, sky-high platform boots, makeup, loud animal prints and women's clothing.
The backstory: Last month, his family revealed that he had been in "intensive treatment" for stage 4 cancer. The punk pioneer "died of natural causes after nearly a decade of illness," according to the publicist's statement.
David Johansen, the chameleonic and charismatic vocalist who fronted the New York Dolls and found solo success under the moniker Buster Poindexter, died on Friday, his publicist confirmed to NPR. He was 75.
Last month, his family revealed that he had been in "intensive treatment" for stage 4 cancer. The punk pioneer "died of natural causes after nearly a decade of illness," according to the publicist's statement.
Johansen died at his New York City home "holding hands with his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, surrounded by music, flowers, and love," it read.
Born in 1950, Johansen grew up on Staten Island with five siblings and parents who met while working at a Barnes & Noble. "My father was a Norwegian tenor and my mother a New York Irish librarian," he told The Independent.
As a teenager, Johansen started performing in rock 'n' roll bands and at a weekly hoot night at a local Jewish community center; at the latter, he sang the Delta blues songs he grew up loving.
"Some people would do, like, Kingston Trio-type stuff and the Greenbrier Boys," he toldFresh Air in 2001. "I was more into, you know, Lightnin' Hopkins and things like that."
He also joined the Ridiculous Theatrical Company in the West Village in the years preceding the formation of the New York Dolls.
That band rose to prominence in the first half of the 1970s, associated with the glitter-rockmovement spearheaded by Alice Cooper, David Bowie and T. Rex, among others. Led by Johansen, the Dolls stood out from even their most colorful peers thanks to striking stagewear and androgynous looks — various combinations of skintight pants, sky-high platform boots, makeup, loud animal prints and women's clothing.
The New York Dolls perform at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York on Oct. 31, 1973. At right is lead singer David Johansen, with guitarist Sylvain Sylvain.
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Richard Drew
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AP
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"We didn't consider ourselves glitter rock; we were just rock & roll," Johansen said in the book Please Kill Me, an oral history of punk music. "And we thought that's the way you were supposed to be if you were in a rock and roll band. Flamboyant."
Johansen was a lithe onstage presence who strutted and peacocked with the confidence of Mick Jagger, but possessed earnest insouciance that was rough around the edges. The Dolls' lack of polish was a major part of their charm, as they traded in raucous glam riffage and ragged takes on early rock 'n' roll and R&B. But, in a nod to his foundational sonic texts, Johansen pointedly noted that the band covered Otis Redding, Archie Bell & The Drells, and Sonny Boy Williamson.
Produced by Todd Rundgren, the Dolls' 1973 self-titled album featured songs written or co-written by Johansen. (The lone exception was a slipshod take on Bo Diddley's "Pills.") New York Dolls ended up a proto-punk masterpiece: shambling bar-band boogie ("Personality Crisis"), swaggering glam ("Looking For A Kiss"), hot-rodding garage-punk blueprints (the Johnny Thunders co-write "Jet Boy") and deconstructed rockabilly-soul (the howling "Trash").
Johansen's lyrics were vivid and hungry, capturing the restless energy of both the band's New York City hometown and the political and societal fissures rupturing America.
"We were really such a gang, and it was like us against the world," hetoldFresh Air host Terry Gross in 2004. "And we were really trying to evolve music into something new, and it was, you know, very kind of almost militant to us."
But while many of their glammy peers went on to enjoy great commercial success, the Dolls remained a cult favorite, albeit one that had an enormous influence on '70s and '80s rock. The '80s hair metal scene owes a sartorial debt to the band, while Duran Duran, Morrissey and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe are avowed fans. In the book Please Kill Me, music impresario Malcolm McLaren, who briefly worked with the group, even admitted, "I was trying to do with the Sex Pistols what I had failed with the New York Dolls."
The Dolls broke up in 1976, with Johansen citing "inertia" and "factions in the group that were, you know, more interested in drugs than in playing music" in the 2004 NPR interview.
He subsequently went solo, releasing a swaggering, Rolling Stones-esque 1978 self-titled album with singles like "Funky But Chic." Future records continued to refine his shimmying, bar-band glam, with the Mick Ronson co-produced 1979 LP In Style, occasionally dabbling in disco. Johansen also toured heavily and landed opening slots for Pat Benatar and The Who.
In the 1980s, Johansen revisited his love of the blues — and had an unexpected career resurgence — under the moniker Buster Poindexter, a childhood nickname.
"On the street, they called me Buster," he told People in 1988. "Then they'd catch me with books and call me Poindexter, so it's kind of an intellectual punk or something."
As Johansen told Fresh Air in 2004, he shaped this musical persona during a low-key Monday night residency at an Irish bar in Manhattan's Gramercy Park, a "barrelhouse kind of roadhouse show" where he performed music he had been listening to, like jump blues songs and Camelot's "The Seven Deadly Virtues."
This intimate engagement eventually led to him fronting a big band in the guise of a louche Las Vegas club performer, complete with a pompadour, fancy suit, and accoutrements like cigarettes and martinis.
"By the time it got to the national awareness, it did have this kind of Vegas-y kind of idea to it," he said in 2004 of his act. "But it started off more kind of like the Louis Prima days in the '50s of Vegas."
Buster Poindexter became a regular presence on Saturday Night Live and earned an unexpected hit with 1987's horn-peppered "Hot Hot Hot," a cover of a tune by the soca artist Arrow. The song was the "bane of my life," Johansen told Terry Gross in 2004, after asking her not to play the tune during the interview.
Over the years, Buster Poindexter toured with a group dubbed the Banshees Of Blue and released four studio albums, encompassing vintage R&B, blues, salsa and merengue.
"I know some people think, 'Oh, Johansen puts on a tuxedo and thinks he's somebody else,' " he told People in 1988. "But it's me, really. Sometimes I've found that by getting into a certain drag, or a certain feeling, you can cast off your mortal coil and really do something. I don't know if it's important, but it's something. It's entertainment."
Outside of music, Johansen acted in a number of films, including Married to the Mob and Scrooged. And in the early 2000s, he formed a band called the Harry Smiths to perform his childhood favorite blues songs (including by Lightnin' Hopkins) and tunes by the group's namesake, folk archivist Harry Smith.
Somewhat improbably, Morrissey convinced the New York Dolls to reunite in 2004, a performance that was documented on Morrissey Presents the Return of the New York Dolls (Live from Royal Festival Hall 2004). This led to three more studio albums — the first, 2006's One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, included guest vocals from Michael Stipe — and tour dates that included Alice Cooper.
According to a statement posted by his daughter Leah Hennessey, Johansen had navigated serious health challenges since 2020, including a brain tumor, but kept this news private and remained busy. He kept up his hosting gig at his weekly SiriusXM radio show "Mansion of Fun," opened for Morrissey in 2023 in London, and did a heartfelt cover ofPhil Ochs' "There but for Fortune" at a late 2023 celebration of 1960s Greenwich Village.
He also helped promote Martin Scorsese's and David Tedeschi's 2023 documentary on him, Personality Crisis: One Night Only. The loving chronicle of Johansen's life and career was anchored by footage from a January 2020 set at the cozy Café Carlyle. Sporting a sophisticated take on his trademark Buster Poindexter look (a wolfish pompadour and a sparkly suit jacket), he entertained the crowd with stories and songs from his career, his voice as comfortable and weathered as a worn-in leather jacket.
After a 2022 New York Film Festival screening of Personality Crisis, a panel discussion with Scorsese, Johansen and others involved in the film evolved into some lighthearted back-and-forth about making the film, with Johansen's daughter Leah Hennessey noting how much her father disliked looking back and telling stories about his past.
"It's a beautiful objet, and I'm very appreciative," he protested lightly, referring to the film.
In response, Johansen's wife, Mara Hennessey, gently backed him up with a touching clarification: "The first time David and I saw the penultimate screening, he said, 'Well, that's a version of myself I can live with.'"
Copyright 2025 NPR
Farmworkers drink water in the shade of a tent as they weed a bell pepper field in Southern California during a heat wave. A new study shows that rules designed to give the state's outdoor workers access to shade, water and rest on hot days has saved lives.
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Etienne Laurent
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Topline:
It's long been understood that working outside in hot weather can be dangerous: Even ancient Egyptians worried about dehydration for workers building the pyramids. Now, a growing body of research is quantifying that danger — and suggesting ways to better protect workers.
Why it matters: A suite of new analyses has found that regulations that provide basic safeguards like water, shade and rest for workers in hot conditions can help lower the numbers of heat-driven injuries, workers' compensation claims and even deaths.
How have regulations helped? The most recent study, published in December in the journal Health Affairs, looked at California's rule protecting outdoor workers from heat, the oldest such rule in the country. Researchers found the regulations led to at least a 33% drop in heat-related deaths among workers after 2010 — an estimate of several dozen lives saved each year.
Read on ... to learn more about the ways the government can protect workers.
It's long been understood that working outside in hot weather can be dangerous: Even ancient Egyptians worried about dehydration for workers building the pyramids.
Now, a growing body of research is quantifying that danger — and suggesting ways to better protect workers.
The risks extend beyond obvious concerns like dehydration and heatstroke.
"Heat makes people slower to react and worse at making decisions," says Adam Dean, a labor economist at George Washington University. "That means farmworkers driving a tractor or a construction worker operating equipment are more likely to have a fatal accident on a hot day."
But a suite of new analyses has found that regulations that provide basic safeguards like water, shade and rest for workers in hot conditions can help lower the numbers of heat-driven injuries, workers' compensation claims and even deaths.
The studies all use different datasets and methods but come to a similar conclusion, says Barrak Alahmad, an environmental health scientist at Harvard University and an expert on occupational health risks.
"States with heat standards have lower risk of heat injuries, of heat fatalities and other outcomes compared to states that don't have these heat standards," Alahmad says.
The most recent study, published in December in the journal Health Affairs, looked at California's rule protecting outdoor workers from heat, the oldest such rule in the country. Researchers found the regulations led to at least a 33% drop in heat-related deaths among workers after 2010 — an estimate of several dozen lives saved each year.
The outcome "delivers a clear message," says Dean, the study's lead author. "Heat standards, if they're adopted and effectively enforced, can significantly reduce worker deaths."
The federal rules, first proposed under Biden, are now under review by the Trump administration. Their future is uncertain.
While the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has recognized for decades that heat poses risks to workers, there is active debate among worker advocates and business groups about how best to provide protections: via stringent, highly specific regulations, or with broader guidelines that allow employers to take the lead in crafting efforts specific to their own industries.
The new studies could help inform any new rules, says Jordan Barab, who was deputy assistant secretary of labor at OSHA under the Obama administration. Though the basic measures to protect workers have been well-known for decades, it's invaluable, he says, to "show that when a state actually implements these requirements that they actually have saved lives."
The California example
Federal regulators first noted that heat could put American workers at risk in the 1970s and '80s. But for years, OSHA prioritized regulating other workplace hazards. Heat issues were managed under the agency's more generalized rules, such as the "general duty clause," which required employers to maintain workplaces "free from recognized hazards."
But some states, like California, decided to go further. In 2005, after the highly publicized deaths of several farmworkers due to heat exposure, California passed the nation's first state-level regulations to protect outdoor workers from excessive heat. Requirements kicked off when temperatures exceeded 85 degrees Fahrenheit (the threshold has since been lowered further).
The rules set out to provide some simple protections: access to water, shade and rest on hot days.
For many years, California was the only state with such heat rules, setting up a natural experiment: Would heat-related worker deaths fall in California, compared to neighboring states with similar weather conditions but no such protections?
The new study suggests that, at first, the rules didn't make much of a difference. During the first few years, researchers did not find a decrease in heat-related death rates in California compared to neighboring states.
"When California first adopted a standard in 2005, it was ineffective," Dean says.
But that would soon change.
In 2010, the state strengthened the rule and deaths began to drop, the study found — eventually falling by more than 30%, with even more dramatic reductions in recent years.
The changes to the rule, Dean says, were critical. Though the initial rules required employers to provide water and shade, in practice, inspectors sometimes found problems — like undrinkable water.
So, the state clarified. Water had to be drinkable and free. And there needed to be enough shade for all workers during breaks. California also ramped up workplace inspections and launched an educational campaign to train the state's many outdoor workers about their rights.
"A critical lesson is that merely passing a heat standard is not enough," Dean says. "It was only after the state launched a statewide enforcement campaign that we started to see deaths decrease relative to the surrounding states."
The rules could have been even more effective with more consistent enforcement, says Garrett Brown, who until 2014 worked for Cal/OSHA, the state agency tasked with enforcing the rule. Even though the number of inspections increased, he says, limited staffing caused ongoing enforcement challenges.
It could have been "even more health protective for workers if there was an even more robust enforcement program," Brown says.
A growing body of evidence
The California study joins two other analyses with similar findings published in the past year.
Together, they provide important insights that could help in the design of future rules, says Alahmad. He led an analysis of heat-influenced worker injuries, published earlier this year, which found that states with heat rules had lower injury rates than those without.
Another recent study found workers' compensation claims were lower in states with heat standards compared to those without.
The next step for researchers is to suss out the most important parts of those regulations, Alahmad says: "What elements are actually most effective?"
That will be key information for regulators across the country. More than a dozen states and cities proposed new heat protection rules in 2025.
What movies are nominated? Sinners leads the way with a record-breaking 16 nominations, while Leonardo DiCaprio-led One Battle After Another has a hefty 13 nods. Both are also nominated for best picture.
Read on ... to see where you can watch the nominated movies and learn more about many of them.
Below, you can find details and coverage of the 14 films nominated in six major categories: best picture, best actor and actress, best supporting actor and actress, and best director. Dive in!
Sinners
The gist: Ryan Coogler's movie stars Michael B. Jordan playing twin brothers who open a 1930s juke joint. And opening night does not go as planned when a bloodthirsty menace appears outside. (Vampires — we're talking about vampires.)
16 nominations: actor in a leading role, actor in a supporting role, actress in a supporting role, casting, cinematography, costume design, directing, film editing, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original song, best picture, production design, sound, visual effects, original screenplay
The gist: Paul Thomas Anderson's action thriller stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a washed up ex-revolutionary whose past comes to haunt him. DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Teyana Taylor are all nominated for their performances.
13 nominations: actor in a leading role, actor in a supporting role, another actor in a supporting role, actress in a supporting role, casting, cinematography, directing, film editing, original score, best picture, production design, sound, adapted screenplay
The gist: Guillermo del Toro's take on the Mary Shelley classic. Jacob Elordi plays the creature and Oscar Isaac is the scientist.
9 nominations: actor in a supporting role, cinematography, costume design, makeup and hairstyling, original score, best picture, production design, sound, adapted screenplay
The gist: Timothée Chalamet plays a working-class heel aiming to become a table tennis champion in the 1950s.
9 nominations: actor in a leading role, casting, cinematography, costume design, directing, film editing, best picture, production design, original screenplay
The gist: Stellan Skarsgård is a filmmaker attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughters, proving that at the very least, the tension between art and parenthood is complicated. Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning are all nominated for their performances.
9 nominations: actor in a supporting role, actress in a leading role, actress in a supporting role, actress in a supporting role, directing, film editing, best international feature film, best picture, original screenplay
Where to see it:In theaters. Rent or buy it on Prime Video, Apple TV and more.
The gist: A young English couple meets, falls in love, has children and suffers an unspeakable tragedy. One of them happens to be William Shakespeare, who goes on to write Hamlet. Jessie Buckley plays his wife.
8 nominations: actress in a leading role, casting, costume design, directing, original score, best picture, production design, adapted screenplay
The gist: Directed by Richard Linklater,Ethan Hawke plays lyricist Lorenz Hart on the worst night of his life — the opening of Oklahoma! on Broadway — after his long-term collaborator Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) has forged a new partnership with Oscar Hammerstein II.
2 nominations: actor in a leading role, original screenplay
The gist: Rose Byrne plays a therapist shouldering all the responsibility of caring for her ill daughter while her emotionally absent husband is away for work.
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Countless VHS tapes line the walls inside Whammy Analog Media in Echo Park.
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Whammy Analog Media
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Courtesy Erik Varho
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Topline:
Physical media has been making a comeback. Whammy Analog Media, an Echo Park storefront specializing in VHS tapes, has been providing a place for enthusiasts and newcomers to embrace the antiquated format.
Why now: Whammy hosts their first quarterly VHS swap meet of the year this weekend. Peruse VHS classics and rarities at this event in Echo Park.
The backstory: Whammy owner Erik Varho never stopped collecting VHS tapes. With an abundance of tapes in his possession he started selling them online in 2020, and in 2022 he opened a storefront to cater to the needs of all VHS enthusiasts.
Physical media has been making a comeback. Whammy Analog Media, an Echo Park storefront specializing in VHS tapes, has been providing a place for enthusiasts and newcomers to embrace the antiquated format.
From tape collector to curator
Whammy founder Erik Varho always wanted to open his own store — he just didn’t have a clue as what it would be. A die-hard videotape lover, Varho never stopped collecting them, even after major releases ceased printing in 2006.
Shelves full of VHS tapes inside Whammy Analog Media.
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Whammy Analog Media
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Courtesy Erik Varho
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In 2020, fresh out of work and with VHS tapes lining the walls of his studio apartment, he started selling his tapes via Instagram.
“I was pleasantly surprised that people were actually out there buying them,” Varho said.
With the success of his online sales, Varho was able to open a brick-and-mortar store in 2022. Varho intended it to just be a retail store, but the space, he thought, was perfect for an indoor screen.
“I just kind of dove headfirst into the microcinema aspect of it,” Varho said.
Whammy’s been hosting events celebrating that grainy quality of the Video Home System — or VHS — ever since.
A crowd watching a projected VHS film inside Whammy Analog Media.
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Whammy Analog Media
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A small crowd gathers to watch a film inside Whammy Analog Media.
One regular event is the WhammyVHS Swap Meet. The quarterly meet-up brings together video vendors from across Southern California to showcase their wares.
Bad Taste specializes in lowbrow horror and cult films, whileCinefile Liquidations sells vintage posters, records and other film ephemera.
“It's just kind of a place for people to display their craziest, weirdest, rarest finds and just have a place to talk about them and hang out,” Varho said.
Those rare finds include Image of the Beast from 1981, the third installment in a Christian apocalyptic thriller series about the rise of the antichrist and an evil A.I.
Whammy recently projected the film as part of its “Stuck on VHS”series, which showcases works that were only released direct to video.
A rewinding renewal
Shoppers look through various stacks of tape inside Whammy Analog Media.
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Whammy Analog Media
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Courtesy Erik Varho
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Besides an entire store, Varho also owns a storage unit filled to the brim with VHS tapes. Those who RSVP to Sunday's swap meet get a free mystery VHS tape upon entry.
He says the most frequent question he gets is if they sell VCRs. They do, but they run out pretty quickly.
Varho takes it as a good sign and says lately customers have been skewing younger and younger.
"People who didn't even grow up with VHS who are just interested in exploring movies in that way. It's a fun time to be into VHS for sure,” Varho said.
Sunday's event includes a screening of a mystery VHS.
“I can’t reveal what we’re playing, but it’s always stuff that is going to be attention-grabbing and usually pretty silly,” Varho said.
Details
Whammy! VHS Swap Meet Location: 2514 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles (in the back) When: Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Free admission, RSVP here
How it works: The annual competition invites filmmakers from around the world to reimagine often long-forgotten literary classics, films, cartoons, music, and visual art that are now in the public domain.
About the winner: Titled Rhapsody, Reimagined, the roughly two-minute video captures the King of Jazz's surreal quality: Cookie-cutter rows of musicians, showgirls, office workers and random furniture cascade across the screen as influential bandleader Paul Whiteman's winking face looks on.
One of the most unusual of the creative treasures to enter the public domain this month is King of Jazz. The plotless, experimental 1930 musical film shot in early Technicolor centers on influential bandleader Paul Whiteman, nicknamed "The King of Jazz."
In one memorable scene, the portly, mustachioed Whiteman opens a small bag and winks at the camera as miniature musicians file out one after another like a colony of ants and take their places on an ornate, table-top bandstand.
A new video based on clips from King of Jazz has won this year's Public Domain Film Remix Contest — an annual competition that invites filmmakers from around the world to reimagine often long-forgotten literary classics, films, cartoons, music, and visual art that are now in the public domain. This means creators can use these materials freely, without copyright restrictions. In 2026, works created in 1930 entered the public domain.
Titled Rhapsody, Reimagined, the roughly two-minute video captures the King of Jazz's surreal quality: Cookie-cutter rows of musicians, showgirls, office workers and random furniture cascade across the screen as Whiteman's winking face looks on.
"I wanted to transform the figures and bodies into more dream-like shapes through collage and looping and repetition," said Seattle-based filmmaker Andrea Hale, who created the piece in collaboration with composer Greg Hardgrave. For video artists, Hale said discovering what's new in the public domain each January is a thrill. "We're always looking for things to draw from," Hale said. "Opening that up to a bigger spread of materials is amazing. That's the dream."
A massive repository of content
The Internet Archive, the San Francisco-based nonprofit library behind the contest, digitizes and provides public access to a massive repository of content, including many materials used by contest participants. "These materials have often just been in film canisters for decades," said digital librarian Brewster Kahle, who founded the Internet Archive in 1996.
This year's submissions range from a reworking of the 1930 film The Blue Angel starring Betty Boop — another public domain entrant this year — instead of Marlene Dietrich, to an AI-generated take on the 1930 Nancy Drew book The Mystery at Lilac Inn.
Kahle said the Internet Archive received nearly 280 entries this time around, the highest number since the competition launched six years ago. "Things are not just musty, old archival documentation of the past," Kahle said. "People are bringing them to life in new and different ways, without fear of being sued."
The public domain in the era of AI
Lawsuits have become a growing concern for artists and copyright holders, especially with the rise of generative AI. Recent years have seen a surge in online video takedowns and copyright infringement disputes.
Media companies are trying to address the problem through deals with tech firms, such as Disney and OpenAI's plan, announced late last year, to introduce a service allowing users to create short videos based on copyrighted characters, including Cinderella and Darth Vader.
"On the one hand, these licensing agreements seem quite a clean solution to thorny legal questions," said Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School. "But what's exciting about the public domain is that material, after a long, robust 95-year copyright term, is just simply free for anyone — without a team of lawyers, without a licensing agreement, without having to work for Disney or OpenAI — to just put online," Jenkins said.
Jenkins also pointed out an interesting twist for people who create new works using materials from the public domain. "You actually get a copyright in your remix," she said. "Just like Disney has copyrights in all of its remakes of wonderful public domain works like Snow White or Cinderella." (The Brothers Grimm popularized these two characters in their 19th century collection Grimm's Fairy Tales. But their roots are much deeper, going back to European folklore collections of the 1600s and beyond.)
However, this only applies to works created by humans — U.S. copyright law currently doesn't recognize works authored by AI. And Jenkins further cautioned that creators only get a copyright in their new creative contributions to the remix, and not the underlying material.
This year's Public Domain Film Remix Contest winner Andrea Hale said she's using a Creative Commons license for Rhapsody, Reimagined. This means the filmmaker retains the copyright to her work but grants permissions that allow other people to freely use, share, and build upon it. "I'm keeping with the spirit of the public domain," Hale said.
