Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot
Getty Images for ABARussian punk band/activists Pussy Riot have teamed with several cryptocurrency groups to mint an NFT that will be sold this weekend to raise funds for Ukrainian civilian groups.
UkraineDAO will launch Saturday at noon EST with the release of a 1/1 NFT of the Ukrainian flag, the sale of which will benefit Ukraine’s Come Back Alive, “one of the most effective and transparent Ukrainian charitable and volunteer initiatives.”
“Our goal is to use what we’re good at, web3, to assist Ukrainians as they cope with the Russian invasion of their country,” Pussy Riot tweeted of UkraineDAO. “We’ll be buying an NFT of the Ukrainian flag.”
In a statement, the group’s co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova added, “We purposefully avoided adding our own art to this release, in a way it’s our strong conceptual artistic statement. People can have different aesthetics, but it’s not about what color we prefer, it’s about uniting to save lives. The Ukrainian flag unites us.”
The NFT sale also allows for people to donate any amount of money to participate, with those people receiving a digital souvenir for their contribution.
The Defiant reports that within 12 hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more than $400,000 in Bitcoin was donated to Come Back Alive, as the nation’s banking institutions were rocked by the invasion and the subsequent declaration of martial law.
“Crypto is borderless, permitless and it’s so much easier and faster than fiat,” Tolokonnikova told Bloomberg.
Check out the UkraineDAO site for more information on the NFT sale as well as to donate. UkraineDao was created in partnership with Trippy Labs and PleasrDAO; the latter is also the crypto group that secretly purchased the one-copy-only Wu-Tang Clan album previously owned by Martin Shkreli.
NEWS
Brad Paisley has called Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding “one of the least pretentious weddings he’s ever seen”.
The country star attended the ceremony alongside his actress wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley. They joined around 1,000 guests at New York City’s Madison Square Garden earlier this month as the global pop icon married the American football star.
Although the celebration attracted enormous attention and involved tight security and a stunning makeover of the famous arena, Paisley said the occasion never came across as excessive.
“Ironically, (it) was one of the least pretentious weddings that I've ever seen or ever will see,” Paisley told The Associated Press during an interview. “It meant a lot to be (invited). It was, kind of, a big thank you from her to invite us.”
Paisley, who chose Swift as an opening performer for his tour when she was a teenager in 2007, said he was delighted to be included in what many considered the biggest celebrity wedding of the year.
“They were very clear with the invite, and I took this personally when I got the invite, because in the invite, it said, ‘If you're getting this, you mean a lot to us,’” he revealed.
The musician also explained that guests were not told the wedding’s exact location until the date drew nearer.
“It was really fun to watch the cat and mouse game of, like, ‘We can tell you roughly where it's going to be, we're not gonna say what building... and here's the date. If you're in, we'll tell you more,’” he continued. “I went to my wife, I said, ‘Want to go?’ and she said, ‘Absolutely, we gotta be there!’ So, we did it, it was RSVP yes.”
Other famous attendees included Brad Pitt, Gigi Hadid, Bradley Cooper, Ed Sheeran, Sabrina Carpenter, Hugh Grant, Haim and Tom Hanks.
