Michael Stipe—the lead singer of the iconic alternative band R.E.M., and a keen photographer—unleashes his inner monster while proving that no one is shiny or happy all the time.

“Common courtesy is an oxymoron these days.” [R.E.M. bassist] Mike Mills said it, and I could not agree more. Here are 10 things I fucking despise:

Angela Davis was born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, when the politics of racial segregation were still volatile (and constitutional). Her family emphasized the importance of education, which she took to heart, eventually becoming one of the most recognizable figures in the history of American activism. Davis has built her life’s work around issues of race, community and the criminal justice system. Her involvement with the Soledad Brothers case in 1970 landed her name on the FBI's most wanted list, and once imprisoned, a national campaign broke out for her release. She recently retired from the position of professor and Presidential Chair of the History of Consciousness Department at University of California, Santa Cruz. This month, with a slew of black heroes -- from fearless artist Kara Walker to empire-maker Tyler Perry -- Davis is interviewed in the second installment of the groundbreaking HBO documentary The Black List.

He’s a veteran of the “confrontation business,” but you’d never know it talking to him. Reverend Al Sharpton, who stars in this month’s HBO documentary The Black List, puts down the cause for a few minutes to talk tracksuits and track records. Sharpton has long been a fixture in the world of racial politics. Conservative, flamboyant and bombastic—his description, and ours—the reigning father of American social justice reform takes the hot seat to discuss growing older and wiser, all the while pushing onward with his tireless, insatiable war against inequality.