Month: September 2020

The year 2020 has, in many ways, been defined almost as much for widespread social unrest as the worldwide pandemic that has upended daily life. For months now, protesters have taken to the streets to demand justice for the countless unarmed black citizens killed by police.

Their names have become rallying cries. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are just a few of the victims who have been front and center in the fight for reform. Taylor, in particular, has become a focal point as until just recently, none of the officers involved in her death had been charged with a crime.

On Wednesday, the Kentucky attorney general announced that just one of the officers, Sgt. Brett Hankison, would be charged with “wanton endangerment,” prompting outrage and disappointment from the NBA and WNBA world, who believe the charges don’t go nearly far enough to bring justice.

The NBA Countdown crew also took a moment to reflect on the development, led by Maria Taylor, who said that despite the highly-emotional nature of the moment, the NBA and those who cover it would press on and do their jobs and use their platform to continue bringing greater awareness to these issues.

“Our reality, in the face of injustice, is we are expected to not only show up but to perform. And like every athlete that takes the court tonight we will do it with Breonna Taylor’s family in our hearts and in our prayers.” – @MariaTaylor pic.twitter.com/2KL0LRG9mC

— The Undefeated (@TheUndefeated) September 23, 2020

Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon also used segment on SportsCenter to discuss this latest development, with Wilbon saying that he wasn’t surprised by the news, but ending on a hopeful note, reminding viewers that the fight for justice is a marathon and note a sprint.

“I’ve got several reactions … The first one is — I’m not surprised. Part of our outrage about this is, this isn’t the first time.”@RealMikeWilbon and @stephenasmith discuss the grand jury’s decision made in Breonna Taylor’s case: pic.twitter.com/RYnhyb7Wl7

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 23, 2020

Smith also closed the show with a powerful statement.

The NBA, together with the owners and players’ association, has created a social justice campaign that is designed to raise funds and educate the public about the ongoing fight for equality, and we will continue to see the basketball world use their voice and influence to enact change.

This past Sunday, HER performed a cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” during the “In Memorium” segment of the 2020 Emmy Awards. The Grammy award-winning singer effortlessly performed the track while delivering an impressive guitar solo. It turns out that the guitar she used was not just any old guitar. In fact, the Stratocaster is a part of HER and famous guitar label Fender’s new partnership, making her the first Black female artist to receive one of their guitars.

The guitar is shaped with an alder body and a Chrome Glow finishing, one that’s a new iridescent color for Fender. The Stratocaster guitar comes with a custom plate that’s engraved with HER’s artwork and flaunts Fender’s Vintage Noiseless pickups, which should give users a clean, well-defined tone. The guitar also favors most hand sizes, as it comes equipped with modern oval “C”-neck shape. HER’s Stratocaster guitar is available now on the Fender website and is currently priced at $1,099. She spoke about the instrument in a press release:

Fender was the reason I began playing guitar. My father taught me how to play my first blues scale on a mini black-and-white Strat®, so it’s absolutely surreal I have partnered with Fender to design my own Signature Stratocaster®. As an artist, I find that my most personal thoughts make the most relatable music. By designing a Stratocaster® with a color, shape and sound that is one-hundred-percent my own, my hope is that other young women and players from all backgrounds feel inspired to pick up this guitar, tap into their thoughts, and create amazing music

Check out pictures of HER’s new Stratocaster guitar below. You can learn more on Fender’s website here.

Few people in Hollywood have a lot on their plate as James Gunn. Once the quarantine is over, or at least manageable, he has not one but to huge comic book sequels to direct: The Suicide Squad, the sequel/mild reboot of DCEU’s 2016 ensemble anti-villain romp, and The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. When it was announced that he was already working on a TV spin-off of new Suicide Squad character The Peacemaker, played by John Cena, some comic book fans flipped out: When, exactly, does he plan on filming this TV show? And will it impact the release of Guardian 3?

Well, the answer to the latter appears to be no, because the answer to the former is this: He was scheduled to take a break between the two monster productions — which are presumably really, really stressful! — but he’s going to oversee the Peacemaker show during that time instead. It’s still unclear if he’ll be directing it himself, but he is committed to writing all eight episodes. But lo and behold, that part is already done because he got so bored during six months of quarantining that he wrote an entire TV show.

Gunn broke this intel to freaking-out fans, telling one, “Normally I would have been taking more of a break in this space but it’s Covid, I’m stuck at home, so I wrote a TV series.”

Hey, after half a year of sitting around, waiting for a pandemic to cool down, you would write an entire DC show, too, wouldn’t you? Wait, you didn’t do that? What have you been doing with the last half year? Anyway, all hail James Gunn, the new busiest person in showbiz.

The Wrexham Red Dragons are soccer team in Wales that plays in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football system, and as such, most Americans have likely never heard of them.

However, that may very well change soon as the fan-owned club is in talks with a pair of beloved actors to invest in the club and become majority owners. Van Wilder and Waiting star Ryan Reynolds and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney are apparently in discussions to invest over two million pounds in the club, as was widely reported by various outlets in the U.K. on Wednesday and then confirmed somewhat cheekily by Reynolds on Twitter.

According to BBC Sport, the club’s Wrexham Supporters Trust members voted overwhelmingly in support of proceeding with talks to have the two actors invest in the team, with 1,223 responding in favor and just 31 saying no. As for the deal itself, the purchase of the club would reportedly be a “nominal sum” but far more will be asked for investment to make the team more competitive on the pitch.

The deal – which will be detailed to members before any final decision is made – would see the purchase of the north Wales club for a “nominal sum” but also an immediate investment of £2m for the purposes of taking it forward as a business and as a successful football team.

If the sale goes through, expect plenty of Red Dragons gear to become popular stateside as Wrexham will surely be the most popular fifth tier team in the world under Reynolds and McElhenney’s ownership.

Following today’s Breonna Taylor ruling — in which the court charged no officers directly with her killing, with only one officer indicted for “wanton endangerment” after blindly shooting 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment, and implicitly deeming that the use of force by the other two officers involved in the incident was “justified” — Twitter exploded with a mix of reactions that included heartbreak, defeat, and justifiable fury. But among the mix of reactions were also several reports of tweets about Breonna Taylor disappearing from timelines, being blocked, or straight up deleted.

Users across Twitter are sharing screenshots and examples of how their tweets about the ruling seem to be disappearing, which is likely a result of Twitter’s practice of blocking “potentially sensitive content” — a default setting in Twitter’s privacy settings. That said, how expressing thoughts about the ruling on Breonna Taylor has come to be considered “sensitive content” is… a little confusing to a lot of users.

The “sensitive content” filter doesn’t explain why tweets are being deleted, which Twitter has sort of addressed in a tweet without making any mention of the Breonna Taylor ruling, tweeting “We’re seeing a number of accounts that have been locked or limited by mistake and not because they Tweeted about any particular topic.”

To turn off Twitter’s “sensitive content” filter, head to your privacy settings and check the box that says “Display media that may contain sensitive content.”

It doesn’t get quite as much love today, but a quarter century ago, Forrest Gump was the second highest grossing film of 1994, coming a close second to the original The Lion King. But perhaps even then a big budget epic that spanned decades seemed like a gamble. In a new interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger (as caught by The Hollywood Reporter), star Tom Hanks said he wound up forking over a small chunk of the budget when production company Paramount acted a little stingy with him and director Robert Zemeckis. Thing is, it actually made the two even richer.

According to Hanks, Paramount was not into the paying a little extra for the stretch of Gump where our holy fool hero up and decides to run cross-country. It is a pricey-looking sequence, with lots of location shooting, a swelling number of fellow runners, to say nothing of Gump’s growing hair and beard. But by then, a movie that already cost quite a lot was not, Paramount felt, deserving of more for a bit that, honestly, could be removed without severely damaging the final product. So Zemeckis came to Hanks with a cunning plan:

“And he said ‘Well, this run is going to cost X amount of dollars.’ And it wasn’t cheap. And I said ‘OK’. He said, ‘You and I are going to split that amount, and we’re going to give it back [to Paramount]. We’ll give you the money back, but you guys [Paramount] are going to have to share the profits a little bit more.’ Which the studio said ‘Fabulous, great. OK.’ And it was good for us, too.”

That wasn’t the only part of the film Paramount refused to fund, though Hanks wouldn’t specify which one he was talking about. “They said ‘The weather is such that we can’t get the insurance coverage on it,’ the studio said, ‘So you guys can’t shoot,’” Hanks recalled. “And Bob and I said, ‘We’ll cover the insurance.’ And we did.” (This sounds like the scene where Forrest and Gary Sinise’s Lt. Dan almost drown at sea on their Bubba Gump shrimping boat, but maybe not.)

Haggling for portions of the profit wound up being the right move as, again, Forrest Gump made near-Lion King money. Hanks himself pocketed an estimated $65 million after the film became a commercial and critical behemoth.

Hanks dropped at least one other notable Gump tidbit: He didn’t relax into the character’s singular personality right away. In fact, the first three days of shooting were totally scapped. “Bob said, ‘Look, I know what you are trying to do. I know how nervous you are and how self-conscious this can be before we get into the groove. But we’re not going to use any of these first three days because I don’t think you’ve got it. You haven’t got the character.’ And I said, ‘I don’t. I don’t. You’re right.’ And he just said, ‘Don’t try so hard.’ And from that, everything settled down in a moment’s notice.”

The lesson? Spend a lot and you’ll make a lot, especially if you’re Tom Hanks in 1994.

(Via THR)

The Delta Baby Cafe in Sunflower County, Mississippi is providing breastfeeding assistance where it’s needed most.

Mississippi has the third lowest rate of breastfeeding in America. Only 70% of infants are ever-breastfed in the state, compared to 84% nationally.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends infants be exclusively breastfed for their first six months of life. However, in Mississippi, less than 40% are still breastfeeding at six months.

The population of Sunflower County is 74% Black and studies show that only 69% of Black mothers breastfeed their babies at birth, 16% fewer than white mothers.

There are multiple reasons why Black women are less likely to breastfeed their children. First, according to the CDC, maternity wards that serve large Black populations are less likely to help Black women initiate breastfeeding after birth or provide lactation support afterward.

via PixaBay

“With breastfeeding specifically, there’s an assumption when [Black] women give birth that they’re not going to breastfeed, and they’re not offered the same kind of assistance. They’re offered formulas right away. There is no attention paid to potential health risks,” Andrea Freeman, law professor and author of “Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice,” told NPR.

Black women are are also overrepresented in low-wage jobs which tend to have inflexible schedules and provide less maternity leave.

“Policies that enable taking paid leave after giving birth, flexible work schedules, and support for breastfeeding or expressing milk at work might help improve breastfeeding intention, initiation, and duration,” a CDC study says.

To add to the issue, Black babies have a greater chance of being born premature or with low birth rate. “Black women have babies born too small and too soon,” Kimberly Seals Allers, a maternal and infant health strategist, told PBS. “Those babies need breastmilk the most.”

Research suggests that breastfed babies face a lower risk of developing diabetes, obesity, asthma, digestive tract, ear, and respiratory infections.

via PixaBay

The Delta Baby Cafe, supported by the Delta Health Alliance, provides support for new mothers by teaching logistical techniques, such as how to position the baby while feeding. It also provides access to breast pumps, and breastfeeding education.

“I started attending the breastfeeding classes, then it just got easier and easier,” Kaylyn Walker said. “It’s definitely a different experience (than with her first daughter who was bottle-ed). So like I said, I didn’t plan on going this long but, you know, with my daughter, if it’s something she likes then I’m okay with it. And it helps her as well with her immune system. Anything that’s helping her, I’m okay with it.”

The Baby Cafe’s main goal is to increase the number of women in Sunflower County who breastfeed, but to also reduce the stigma associated with breastfeeding. By supporting over 80 new mothers a month and promoting breastfeeding as a women’s health issue, hopefully this will increase breastfeeding numbers in the county.

“When you start by having programs and having things available for women, you begin to see that this is a part of a woman’s health,” says Jacqueline Lambert who launched the Baby Cafe last year. “I think most of it, the stigma, is because we just don’t see it. And when you don’t see a thing, you don’t think it’s normal.”

As most of us are now fully aware, the upcoming election — which we’ll remind you is just six (!!!) weeks away — is enormously important to the future of our nation. It’s starting to feel like we’re voting for our very lives. As such, people are rallying together to encourage voting and electoral engagement. That push includes a currently trending ad campaign out of Atlanta, Georgia called #GetYourBootyToThePolls.

What makes #GetYourBootyToThePolls so damn effective is not just the gyrating strippers with “Vote” written on their butts. It’s the truth bombs and snippets of crucial knowledge that the performers collectively deliver throughout the ad.

“Do you know who elects the DA? We do — but you don’t want to vote. Can’t make it rain if you locked up on some bullshit,” begins the video before diving into some of the meaningful change that can be brought about by participating in politics on the local level:

Want trades and coding taught in our schools? Then vote for the school boards that will prepare us for the job market. Want to end cash bail? Well then vote for the sheriffs and county officials that feel the same way you do. But you talkin’ about ‘awww, they gonna pick who they pick shawty.’ Ferguson just elected their first black mayor, do you know how that happened? It’s clear Black Lives don’t matter to some of our current elected officials, if they matter to you then don’t let other people decide who is gonna run your community. Get your booty to the polls!

At the Get Your Booty To The Polls website, would-be voters can find resources on how to register to vote and where to vote in this upcoming election, as well as resources on how to find information about the people running and ballot measures on the local level. The campaign is already beginning to spread on Twitter where it’s being celebrated for its pro-sex-worker and pro-down-ballot-election messaging.

With voter registration dates looming, what are you waiting for? Get registered today.

The National leader Matt Berninger has offered another video ahead of his debut solo album, for the single “One More Second.” The video’s premiere arrives as part of Berninger’s “Cocktail Seconds With Matt Berninger” livestream, featuring special guests Chris Sgroi and brother Tom Berninger, who discuss the making of the video.

Berninger previously said of the track, “I wrote ‘One More Second’ with Matt Sheehy with the intention for it to be a kind of answer to Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You,’ or sort of the other side of that conversation. I just wanted to write one of those classic, simple, desperate love songs that sound great in your car.”

He previously explained how Serpentine Prison came to be, saying of the recording process, “I sent [friend and collaborator Booker T. Jones] a few rough demos of originals that I had started working on with some old friends, including the songs ‘Serpentine Prison’ and ‘Distant Axis.’ Booker responded to those demos right away and encouraged me to keep writing and digging deeper into that stuff. Six months later we had twelve originals and seven covers. Everyone I had been working with on these songs came to Venice, CA, and we recorded it all in 14 days.”

Watch the “One More Second” video above.

Serpentine Prison is out 10/16 via Book’s/Concord Records. Pre-order it here.

Tee Grizzley dropped his new mixtape The Smartest back in June, and he only put a handful of guests on the project. The ones who did make the tracklist, though, were major, one of those being Big Sean. He joined Grizzley on “Trenches,” and now the two have partnered again to drop a visual for the track. In the video, the pair enjoy a day at home. Sean starts his day with a bowl of cereal and a dog walk, while Grizzley loafs around in a cash-covered bed.

This is the second meet-up between Grizzley and Sean this month. Towards the start of September, Sean recruited Eminem to lead a flock of Detroit rappers on “Friday Night Cypher.” Also featuring on the track were Grizzley, Royce Da 5’9″, Kash Doll, Boldy James, Sada Baby, Cash Kidd, Payroll, 42 Dugg, and Drego.

Meanwhile, Sean is one of a number of artists who appear to be getting more ownership of their master recordings. Today, Kanye West, who has been vocal about issues surrounding music contracts and masters ownership lately, said he was giving his GOOD Music artists back his 50-percent share ownership of their masters. Sean offered a grateful response, tweeting, “Thank you!!! This would help so much.”

Watch the “Trenches” video above.