Month: July 2020

Kanye West was active on Twitter last night, and the main takeaway from his series of posts was his talk about wanting to get divorced from Kim Kardashian. That wasn’t the only newsworthy tweet Kanye shared last night, though: In one post, he suggested he might not continue his 2020 presidential campaign.

Kanye shared a photo of a handwritten tracklist for his upcoming album and suggested that he might instead run for president in 2024, writing, “#2020VISION of maybe ’24. I guess all black people supposed to vote on Biden? Y’all want me to run or nah???”

Kanye’s campaign certainly hasn’t been a runaway success. After hosting a rally in South Carolina, Kanye did not manage to get on the state’s ballot. A poll also recently suggested that not a lot of voters would check the box next to Kanye’s name come November.

If Kanye decides to end his presidential bid, he will still have plenty to do to keep himself busy in the coming months and years. He recently signed a deal to enter a huge 10-year partnership with Gap, he and Kid Cudi have an animated show on the way, and he’s working on a new album that he says will be out this week

It has been an eventful past few weeks in the world of Kanye West, and the story continued last night: Kanye took to Twitter to fire off a series of tweets, many of which have since been deleted. In one of them, he claimed that he has been “trying to get divorced” from Kim Kardashian.

In a tweet, Kanye seemed to suggest that something went on between Kardashian and Meek Mill around the time of the Criminal Justice Reform Summit, which took place in November 2018 and at which both Kardashian and Mill spoke. Kanye tweeted, “They tried to fly in with 2 doctors to 51/50 me. I been trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meek at the Warldolf for ‘prison reform.’” He continued in another tweet, “Meek is my man and was respectful. That’s my dog. Kim was out of line.”

In the aforementioned initial tweet, he continued, “I got 200 more to go. This my lady tweet of the night … Kris Jong-Un. Lil baby my favorite rapper but won’t do a song wit me.” In subsequent tweets, he seemed to imply that Drake and Larsa Pippen are up to no good, as he tweeted both of their names with thinking emojis and added, “Should I name more?”

Meanwhile, amid all this, Kanye is set to release a new album this week.

Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

A pair of NBA players, Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans and Montrezl Harrell of the Los Angeles Clippers, have left the league’s bubble in Orlando due to urgent matters elsewhere. On Tuesday evening, we learned of a third player who needs to depart from the bubble, and unfortunately for the Clippers, it’s yet another member of their roster.

Malika Andrews of ESPN reported that Los Angeles starting point guard Patrick Beverley has to go tend to “an emergency personal matter.” As for whether he’ll be able to return, Andrews reports that is in the cards somewhere down the road.

Beverley and Harrell aren’t the only Clippers players who aren’t with the team, as both Ivica Zubac and Landry Shamet have yet to join the squad in the bubble.

The No. 1 priority, of course, is that Beverley and everyone in his family is safe and healthy, so here’s to hoping that whatever issue popped up is resolved. Losing him is a tough blow for the Clippers, which sit in the 2-seed in the Western Conference but are only 1.5 games up on the 3-seed Denver Nuggets. L.A. does have options for offensive initiators — Reggie Jackson has performed admirably since joining the team earlier this season, and while neither Kawhi Leonard nor Lou Williams are point guards, giving them the ball and having them figure something out has worked out well for the Clippers this year.

The Clippers will begin their eight games in the bubble on July 30, when they’ll take on the Los Angeles Lakers.

Animal attack movies seem to have truly peaked about a decade ago, but Megan Fox is apparently trying her best to subvert the war genre with a lion attack film of her own with Rogue. The trailer, which dropped on Tuesday, starts out looking like a classic war film with a specialized force, led by a tattered Yankees cap-wearing Fox, executing a rescue plan against a well-armed group of unknown origin.

The trailer lays the plot of the movie out as such: Fox’s team has recovered the daughter of a governor, played by Jessica Sutton (The Kissing Booth). Their extraction helicopter blows up, though, setting up a fight for survival that will take them far from the original plan. And then a… lion shows up to try eating everyone in sight?

The trailer quickly goes from war film to horror, with an upbeat musical cue and the revelation that the movie is from the director of Silent Hill: Revelation. And unlike Cloverfield, we get to see the Big Bad right away here.

Fox has shined in these kind of less serious roles before, with Jennifer’s Body atop the list of cult favorites in that realm. The trailer actually has an odd juxtaposition to it, with the beginning and end looking straight out of the war-torn cliche playbook and the middle serving as the big reveal to the film’s true antagonist: a female lion. The tag line “All Hail The Queen” surely will have some symbolism to work with: is it about Fox’s Samantha O’Hara or the lion trying to kill every human on screen?

The movie is going the on-demand route, with a release date set for August 28 according to the trailer. As for an explanation for this particularly human-hunting lion? Take it from one character in the film, who simply said “some lions go rogue.” Good enough for me.

If you aren’t familiar with textured hair, it’s hard to know how to style it properly. Similarly to how straight-haired people may not know that curly-haired people often don’t use shampoo, people who don’t have textured hair often have no clue what products to use to keep hair healthy or what hairstyles work best with different hair types.

That can be a problem when non-Black parents adopt Black kids. Hair is a significant cultural reality, and knowing how to manage one’s hair is important. If parents are clueless about helping their kids with personal grooming, children will grow up missing out on that aspect of their personal identity.

Enter Styles4Kids, a non-profit organization founded by Tamekia Swint in 2010. Swint had helped a transracial adoptive mom learn how to style her three daughters’ hair, and that mom began referred Swint to other adoptive parents. She founded Styles4Kids with just a handful of clients, and how helps thousands of parents and kids. The non-profit organization focuses on hair care education, training, and services for transracial adoptive parents as well as children in foster care, residential facilities and detention centers.

Great Big Story created a video about Swint and her organization that explains why helping kids with their natural hair is so important.

“Sometimes transracial adoptive families don’t understand how important hair is,” Swift says in the video. “It’s much bigger than. hair. It’s really about the care and the confidence that we’re giving to the child through the hairstyle.”

A white mom with six Black kids shared her own realization that her hair styling skills were not up to the challenge, and how Swint helped her gain the skills and confidence she needed to help her care for and style her kids’ hair.

“I would want to tell other transracial adoptive parents that it is your job to make your kid look decent when you’re out of the house, and if you can’t do that naturally on your own—and most of us can’t—then it’s your job to seek out help from somebody who can teach you.”

Styles4Kids even has a non-profit salong now, “where multiracial, foster and adoptive kids are empowered to embrace their natural, ethnic crown.” Swint calls her services “Hair Care With Heart,” fulfilling the organization’s vision of building “a diverse community of people creating and celebrating hairstyles that boost kids’ self-esteem and cultural pride.”

Learn more about Styles4Kids on the organization’s website here.

The Sacramento Kings will be jockeying for playoff position when the NBA begins seeding games in Orlando in late July. However, the Kings have been battling roster issues as competition nears and, on Monday, the team announced that former No. 2 overall pick Marvin Bagley III suffered a right injury during a practice. That issue required an MRI and further examination revealed an injury that will sideline the second-year big man for the entirety of Sacramento’s stay in the bubble.

In short, this is unfortunate for both player and team. The Kings don’t have overwhelming depth in the frontcourt and, considering the team’s position in the standings, Sacramento has virtually no margin for error as games begin.

For Bagley, the 2019-20 campaign is essentially a lost season, as the former Duke star appeared in only 13 games as a result of injury issues. Bagley did average 14.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game when he was able to play, but he wasn’t terribly efficient and the Kings have interesting roster-building concerns as they continue to evaluate what he can bring to the table.

If nothing else, it would have been informative to see Bagley on the floor in a high-intensity environment, and the Kings will lose out on valuable evaluation time as a result. In the grand scheme, though, Bagley’s health is of greater concern than anything that could have taken place in Orlando for the 21-year-old, and the next time he will be on the floor in a competitive environment will be during the 2020-21 season.

Rocket League is the sports game of choice for a lot of people who like juggling a giant ball with a car while flying through the air, and now the audience for that game will get a lot larger. Psyonix announced Tuesday that Rocket League will become a free-to-play game “later this summer” and will leave the Steam store for the Epic Game store as well.

Rocket League has seen a considerable evolution since it was first released on PlayStation 4 and PC in 2015. The game is on every console now and has become a big hit online. The game’s makers said on Tuesday that anyone who bought and played the game online before it went free-to-play will get “legacy status” and a number of bonuses, including an “Est. 20XX’ moniker that displays when they first started playing the game. Common items collected in the paid game will also become “legacy” quality and players will get a special boost, set of wheels and a player banner at no extra charge.

Psyonix teased some changes to its Tournament and Challenge systems and more details about the change to free-to-play, which wasn’t given an official date just yet, either. But it’s big news for a vibrant online community that’s likely to get a lot bigger now that it’s an extremely cheap game to get started with.

If you’re a beer drinker, chances are you’ve enjoyed a fair number of IPAs in your time. You’re probably able to distinguish some of the stylistic riffs on the genre — English, West Coast, East Coast, New England, Double, Triple, and Session — but maybe not all of them. This is a sprawling section of the beer family tree, after all, with each sub-style varying in hoppiness, bitterness, and flavor profile. It’s a lot to get your head (and palate) around.

Since India Pale Ale is still hanging on as the most popular craft beer style, there’s never a shortage of options crowding the fridges of your local beer shops or the taps of your favorite breweries. As with most any creative output, a few will be fantastic, many will be solid, and a handful will stink. Where that gets interesting is when the public favor (or popularity) of a beer doesn’t match its actual quality. It happens in music, movies, TV, and spirits — so of course, it happens in beer, too.

Nestor Marchand, director of food and beverage at Plunge Beach Resort in Lauderdale, Florida actually thinks the whole style fits that description. “I think all IPA’s are overrated,” he says. “Originally, the bitter taste was only so they wouldn’t spoil.”

Few bartenders would take things quite that far, but they still recognize that sometimes there’s a disparity between quality and hype. We asked some of our favorite folks behind the bar to share their opinions on which IPAs don’t deserve the praise they get heaped on them.

Cigar City Jai Alai

Shawn Brown, general manager of Wine World in Miramar Beach, Florida

Cigar City’s Jai Alai is maybe the most well-known Florida IPA and it’s a great beer. But there is so much quality out there now that others are catching up. Some of the up and coming smaller breweries are now just as good.

Lagunitas IPA

Reniel Garcia, bar director of Havana 1957 in Miami

Lagunitas was one of the first well known IPAs. It’s harsh on the palate and the finish is mostly bitter but balanced, with a slight lingering bitterness. All in all a good beer, but it has not improved itself among the new IPAs that showed up after that.

Alchemist Focal Banger

Seamus Gleason, bartender at Hotel Jackson in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Pick one. Any over-hopped, over-hyped, bitter bomb gut-buster from your local craft brewer. If I had to pick a more well-known IPA, I’d say Alchemist Focal Banger. Great beer, but not really worth the hype.

Goose Island IPA

Kurt Bellon, general manager and beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis

The Goose Island brand is taking over taps across the country and has me exclaiming, “look at all those chickens!” when I am looking over draft lists and want to throw in a solid Vine reference.

Russian River Pliny The Elder

Tim Wiggins, co-owner and beverage director of Retreat Gastropub in St. Louis

Pliney The Elder. I had it on draft in San Francisco years ago, it tasted like a solid IPA. As far as IPA’s go, I used to get super hyped to try the newest, hoppiest, and dankest beers. Now that I have blasted my palate with far too many hops, I just want a well-balanced IPA with low sweetness and sharp bitterness.

Elysian Space Dust

Alfredo Arroyo, bartender at Joe’s Café in Santa Barbara, California

I’m not a big fan of Lagunitas IPA. For a bitter beer, it’s fairly high in price. But if I had to pick an overrated beer it would be Elysian Space Dust. It’s okay, just more bitter than I would prefer.

New Belgium Ranger

Jeremy Allen, beverage director of MiniBar Hollywood in Los Angeles

If I was to make a list of overrated IPAs it would include Goose Island, New Belgium (Ranger IPA), and seriously any beer at Trader Joes. The cans look good, the beer lets down. But for this, I’ll stick with Ranger IPA. If you enjoy IPAs, you can do a lot better than this.

Writer’s Picks:

Stone IPA

Yes, this seems like a crime against beer to not be hyped up about Stone IPA. Maybe it’s the rise of lagers or even the hazy, juicy quality of New England IPAs, but many West Coast IPAs come off has a bit harsh and bitter nowadays, Stone included.

Ballast Point Sculpin

Sculpin definitely had its day in the sun. But it’s been a few years since the craft beer world seemingly passed this seven-percent, citrus-filled hop bomb. A decent beer to sip on a hot day. There are just many better beers available now.

Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

Dale’s Pale Ale is another beer on this list that isn’t bad. We’ve mentioned Oskar Blues in many articles and drink a ton of their beers. It’s just that Dale’s Pale Ale is a little overhyped. Brewed since 2002, it seems to be stuck in a time when drinkers palates were more accustomed to bitter, hoppy brews.

On Tuesday evening, word broke from Sportico that Glen Taylor is examining a potential sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves after owning the team since 1994. In short order, the focus of that report widened to include Timberwolves legend Kevin Garnett, who reportedly has a group that is preparing a substantial and serious bid to present to Taylor.

Later in the evening, Garnett issued a statement via his personal Twitter account, speaking on his passion for the franchise and his affection for Minneapolis.

It is highly notable that Garnett indicates he is “trying to work with” Taylor in the process, especially with previous comments from the Hall of Fame big man about not wanting to see his jersey retired by the franchise while Taylor is still the owner. Still, this is the kind of statement that would be wise to make under the circumstances, especially with Garnett acknowledging that being a part of the new ownership group would be a landmark occasion in fulfilling a dream.

Without financial details, it is difficult to know just how these discussions and negotiations may go in the coming hours and days. Still, there is more than enough smoke to make things interesting, and Garnett operating as the face of a new ownership group would undoubtedly excite fans in the Twin Cities that have a passion for the Timberwolves.

Donald Trump cheats at golf, and now it seems he tried to use his presidency to help move one of the sport’s biggest events to his own golf course. According to a report in the New York Times on Tuesday, Trump asked an ambassador to help move one of golf’s majors to his Scottish golf course.

The American ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, told multiple colleagues in February 2018 that President Trump had asked him to see if the British government could help steer the world-famous and lucrative British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, according to three people with knowledge of the episode.

The ambassador’s deputy, Lewis A. Lukens, advised him not to do it, warning that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain, these people said. But Mr. Johnson apparently felt pressured to try. A few weeks later, he raised the idea of Turnberry playing host to the Open with the secretary of state for Scotland, David Mundell.

It’s important to note that Robert Wood Johnson IV is better known as Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets. It’s a wildly inappropriate use of power for the president, who has long entangled his own real estate holdings with the power of the presidency. He was apparently told this by others, but that person soon saw themselves forced out and Trump tried to make it happen, anyway.

Still, the episode left Mr. Lukens and other diplomats deeply unsettled. Mr. Lukens, who served as the acting ambassador before Mr. Johnson arrived in November 2017, emailed officials at the State Department to tell them what had happened, colleagues said. A few months later, Mr. Johnson forced out Mr. Lukens, a career diplomat who had earlier served as ambassador to Senegal, shortly before his term was to end.

The White House declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s instructions to Mr. Johnson, as did the ambassador and the State Department.

The Open is held at a number of golf courses in the UK, with 10 currently in the active rotation while four have been retired from active use. Given the history of the game and its established courses, announcing a new location would certainly have caused a stir, let alone a course owned by the president of the United States.

Trump has already been impeached by the House of Representatives, though with a reelection vote in November and a lot of more important crises currently unfolding, it seems unlikely that anything will come of the report. But it’s yet another example of Trump trying to force his will on the sports world, and using an NFL owner to try making it happen in the process.