Month: December 2020

The Milwaukee Bucks enter this season as the favorites to win the Eastern Conference once again, and spent this offseason retooling their roster to try and build a team that can finally get over the hump and make it to the NBA Finals.

They traded a bounty of first round picks to New Orleans for Jrue Holiday and, after having a Bogdan Bogdanovic sign-and-trade fall apart, spent the rest of the offseason bringing in various role players to fill out the roster and try and build out some depth around their strong starting unit. The centerpiece of everything in Milwaukee, of course, is Giannis Antetokounmpo, and whether this offseason is viewed as successful or not is dependent on whether the reigning two-time MVP signs his supermax extension by December 19.

Antetokounmpo celebrated his birthday on Saturday, as he turned 26 years old, and on Sunday when the Bucks met with the assembled media Khris Middleton was asked how they celebrated with their star teammate. The fellow All-Star had quite the response, noting that the entire team decided to get Giannis what they felt was the perfect gift, 19 pens that they hope he will “enjoy and use.”

It’s a not so subtle message from Middleton and the Bucks, and if Giannis does indeed sign his extension this will be a clever and fun thing everyone can look back on. If he doesn’t, then, well, it will be incredibly awkward for all involved and this season will be with one eye on the future and hoping the superstar doesn’t depart for elsewhere should they fall short of their ultimate goal once again.

Joe Biden campaigned, in part, on the fact that he wouldn’t break news on Twitter once he was elected president.

It’s a promise he reiterated last week, saying that he would not first disclose important news or decisions about legislation on the social media platform. Donald Trump, however, has made no such promises and has famously fired people and announced his own COVID-19 diagnosis on Twitter. He’s spent the weeks following the election spouting election misinformation on social media in a desperate and fruitless attempt to overturn results that clearly elected Biden president.

But on Sunday, he broke some very interesting news in a realm he’s largely ignoring: the rising coronavirus crisis in America. On Sunday, he tweeted that his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had contracted coronavirus, though he used a racial slang for it he’s often leaned on to deflect blame for the pandemic that’s killed more than 220,000 Americans.

“@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA, has tested positive for the China Virus,” Trump tweeted. “Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!”

The news drew plenty of reaction online, as well as concern about his jet-setting legal battle to prop up baseless allegations of election fraud that’s drawn colorful and bizarre characters viral fame in recent days. Now the actual viral nature of Giuliani is an immediate concern, which makes all of this a lot less funny and far more dangerous.

It’s unclear what Giuliani’s status is right now, as there’s been plenty of speculation about him and his health as he appears in increasingly bizarre press conferences and public hearings while maskless. But hopefully he hasn’t turned what’s already been a needlessly prolonged and baseless legal fight into a multi-state superspreader event, too.

Much to the chagrin of movie theater enthusiasts, HBO Max got a lot more valuable to cinephiles last week when Warner Bros. announced that its entire 2021 slate of movies would premiere on the streaming app the same day they hit theaters. But the news was especially cruel to some streaming enthusiasts, mainly those that rely on Roku to get their digital media in this fragmented streaming marketplace.

The lack of an HBO Max app on Roku devices, including smart TVs, has been a sticking point for both owners of said devices and those at Warner who want to see the platform grow. Without a true app on Roku, only a screen mirroring trick or maybe using Apple AirPlay on certain devices served as a proper workaround. Unless you, of course, have another device hooked up like a gaming console or an Amazon FireTV device, which officially added HBO Max in late November.

And despite the glut of big releases soon to hit HBO Max, it doesn’t seem like either side is ready to budge on this stalemate just yet. As Variety laid out earlier in the week, even the kind of application HBO Max would be on Roku is up in the air right now.

Sources confirm to Variety that WarnerMedia and Roku are in active talks. But both sides have signaled that they are unwilling to budge on their positions: Roku wants to keep HBO/HBO Max as a channel it can sell directly to its own customers, while WarnerMedia is insisting that HBO Max be available as a standalone app. The companies are also hashing out the terms for how they will divvy up ad inventory for the ad-subsidized version of HBO Max, which WarnerMedia plans to launch for a reduced price later in 2021.

In other words, things are tied up in quite literally what kind of access to HBO Max would be allowed on Roku, let alone where the money goes from that app or channel if it existed. And neither side seems intent to make a deal despite the additional pressure that will come, starting on Christmas Day, when Warner Bros. movies start hitting HBO Max. As Variety laid out, Warner’s general thesis is that the pressure is on Roku as Christmas is often a time people buy streaming hardware, and not necessarily subscriptions, as gifts. Meanwhile, Roku feels its large user base is incentive enough for HBO Max, which now needs to see its subscriber base grow to make up the billions it’s likely to lose by surrendering big box office returns in 2021.

As a result, HBO Max’s annual average subscriber base would need to be 8.4 million higher than its current pace of additions for WarnerMedia to make itself whole, according to Moffett. “The market has shown a clear preference for go-big-or-go-home digital strategies,” he wrote in a research note Friday. “The most obvious takeaway from yesterday’s news is that AT&T is, come hell or high water, going to drive traffic to HBO Max.”

And Roku, boosted by the COVID pandemic, has seen significant momentum. The company will close out 2020 with an estimated 52 million user accounts — with have a footprint representing around 40% of all U.S. broadband households, according to Rosenblatt Securities.

The deal that got HBO Max on Amazon devices, it should be noted, meant that Amazon could no longer sell HBO subscriptions through its Prime Video Channels. That’s essentially what Roku wants to do with HBO Max, as its research claims channels sold through that tend to get more customer usage than those presented simply as apps. That’s likely because, well, people want to justify their purchases with use, which just so happens to play into Roku’s desire to sell HBO Max as a channel and then tap into ad revenue.

The easy solution for frustrated streaming subscribers is, of course, the most inconvenient one: to have multiple options for streaming content and just be willing to switch HDMI inputs or navigate your way to blockbuster movies with a gaming controller. But as is often the case with these things, it’s just another inconvenience for the people doing their best to stay entertained while they’re stuck at home during a public health crisis.

[via Variety]

Taylor Swift has been having a great year, even during the disruption of a pandemic and quarantine restrictions, she took the extra time at home and created one of her best albums to date with Folklore. We recently cited it as the best album of 2020, in fact, but turns out Taylor has another totally different high-profile fan she just found out about.

The legendary Dionne Warwick has been getting into Twitter recently, and her shout out to Taylor Swift makes it clear she’s a fan: “Hi
@taylorswift13,” she wrote last week. “I hope you’re in good spirits and having a wonderful day. Keep your head high!” Now, Taylor has been busy with the Long Pond film about the making of Folklore, and of course the gargantuan task of re-recording her masters, so apparently she didn’t see the note until today.

But once she did, the outpouring was swift: “I just saw that you tweeted me!! I’m a huge fan and I respect you so much, thank you for wishing me well,” Taylor wrote. “I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, thank you for spreading joy,” she finished with a string of emojis. Collab in the future? Check out the sweet exchange below.

Morgan Wallen was set to make his debut on Saturday Night Live back in October, but a careless decision from the country singer caused him to lose that slot because he violated NBC’s coronavirus protocols. A news report from Tuscaloosa, AL showed Wallen at a maskless party in Alabama and videos on Instagram and TikTok found the singer drinking and making out with maskless partygoers after a Crimson Tide football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

It resulted in him getting dropped and replaced by Jack White for the October 10 episode. Less than two months later, Wallen made his return to the SNL stage, but not without addressing the party in a skit.

Joined by Jason Bateman and Bowen Yang, Morgan Wallen takes viewers back to the October “party.” The singer is first met by Bateman, who arrived via time machine and plays Wallen from one month in the future. A few minutes later, Yang steps out of the time machine and announces that he is also Wallen, but from two months in the future. Both of the future Wallens warn the country singer of the repercussions he should expect as a result of his attendance at the party, but Bateman and Yang end up ignoring their own warnings and quickly seek out some drinks to enjoy the rest of the night. Luckily, present-day Wallen sees the wrong in his actions and opts to turn the situation into a song of reconciliation.

“It’s hard to focus on the future/When the present’s full of girls/But if all you do is kiss all day, you’ll miss out on the world,” he sings. “So let’s all raise a glass up/And I thank you in advance/For giving this poor Southern boy a second yankee chance.”

In addition to the skit, Wallen also performed “7 Summers” and “Still Goin Down,” which will both appear on his upcoming 2021 album, Dangerous: The Double Album.

You can watch the skit and his performances in the videos above.

Dangerous: The Double Album is out 1/8. Pre-order it here.

While there are multiple ways for fans to listen to music these days, streaming has definitely become the most popular way to do so. And despite the popularity of Apple Music and Tidal, Spotify has become a major player in the game as well. What the most-streamed artists of 2020 data from Spotify revealed is that men do way better on the platform than women do, but when it comes to who is winning there among female musician, Ariana Grande is on top.

According to Chart Data, she just became the first female artist to every surpass 70 million followers on the app, a statistic that fans can easily access from every artist’s Spotify page. Just for context, Taylor Swift has around 39 monthly listeners at the moment, and another pop star having a huge year, like Dua Lipa, has 60 million. But in Ariana’s case, there hasn’t been a woman who has hit the 70 million mark before for the streaming app, so it’s a milestone for Grande’s career.

Guess Positions has the kind of playability that makes it ripe for repeat listens. At the time of writing this, Ari has 71, 592, 320 monthly listeners in the app. Kudos to her on the big win, and who else is daydreaming about what it will be like to finally hear those new songs live on tour?

Athletes care about the weather, too, which is probably why Jarome Iginla got interviewed about a nor’easter by a Boston TV station on Saturday. Amazingly, though, the station didn’t seem to know who the NHL legend was until hockey fans started sharing the story on Twitter.

New England got its first true blast of winter weather on Saturday, and if you’re in local news you know that means a story about the weather that must include interviewing some commuters. Improbably, Iginla was interviewed by Boston 25 News for a story datelined in Lexington, MA. You can clearly see him interviewed on camera, instantly recognizable by pretty much any hockey fan who saw him play over the last two decades.

It’s difficult to explain how funny it is to see Iginla, a wildly popular and recognizable figure in Canada and the larger hockey world, be interviewed like any old person. It was probably a welcome change not to be recognized. If you, like the interviewer, don’t know who Iginla is he played 16 seasons for the Calgary Flames, leading them to the Stanley Cup Final in 2004. This is a guy who scored 52 goals in 2002 and helped Canada win gold twice at the Olympics just randomly chatting about a snowstorm and handing out winter driving tips.

“I like the snow, I like the winter, but not necessarily this,” said Jarome Iginla. “May be a little too much.”

Visibility was poor on the highways as heavy snow came down for a few hours. Getting around was a challenge, even for those who are used to this.

“Pretty tough, we’re from Canada, so it’s not too crazy,” Iginla said. “I mean we got some winter tires. Used to this growing up so, it’s not great, I’ll tell you, you get some tough stretches, but if you don’t go too fast it’s doable.”

What’s particularly funny about all this is that Iginla actually played for the Boston Bruins during the 2013-14 season, so it’s not like he’s an unknown stateside.

It’s just one of those things about humanity: not everyone knows everything, and even famous people can go unnoticed by the right typically dogged reporter. What’s even odder about this is that it’s not the first time a hockey player has gone unnoticed in a story about the weather. Here’s former all-world goaltender Roberto Luongo talking about how nice a day it is a few years ago.

It all made for a very fun Sunday for hockey fans, who are still very uncertain about whether there will be another NHL season amid a pandemic. At least we know Iginla is still out there, navigating a fairly mild New England winter storm safely.

Every parent knows the woe of kids leaving their dirty clothes lying around. When I was a kid, my dad would see my pile of clothes on the bathroom after I took a shower and cry, “Oh no! Annie melted!” I thought that was a clever alternative to yelling at me to pick up my stuff, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the way a Washington state mom handled a dirty sock left behind by her daughter.

Xep Campbell shared how her and her 10-year-old daughter Kestral’s creative one-upsmanship escalated on Facebook, and people are loving it.

“On the evening of Thanksgiving when I went to bed I noticed one of Kestrel’s socks on the bathroom floor,” Campbell wrote. “I decided not to toss it in the hamper but instead see how long it would stay there, sort of a sociological experiment. Today, a week later, it remained, so I decided it must be intentional and deserved recognition as such. I made this little label hoping it would motivate her to pick it up. Oh no.”

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Xep Campbell/Facebook

The label reads like a sign at an art installation—”The Forgotten Sock, Mixed Media, Nov 25, 2020. On loan from the collection of the artist.”

Xep Campbell/Facebook

“She sent me a text message asking if I had done it.,” Campbell wrote.

Xep Campbell/Facebook

“When I got home she said ‘I made a pedestal for it!’ She gamed my shame.”

Xep Campbell/Facebook

Game on.

“I figured as long as it was on display, it deserved an audience so the barnyard animals arrived,” wrote Campbell. “They find it very fascinating.”

Xep Campbell/Facebook

Xep Campbell/Facebook

That alone would have been enough to draw a chuckle from anyone. But it didn’t end there.

You know those “mysterious” metal monoliths that have been making the news?

Xep Campbell/Facebook

Oh yes, she did.

Xep Campbell/Facebook

And it just kept going. “I came back from walking the dog and this had appeared,” Campbell wrote. More art for the animals to enjoy.

Xep Campbell/Facebook

And then? This happened. “It’s a miracle!!!” Likely the only nativity scene of its kind, ever.

Xep Campbell/Facebook

And it kept growing. “They heard about the party.” Oh. My. Goodness.

Xep Campbell/Facebook

“I should point out this is a *very small* bathroom,” Campbell added. “I asked when the sock might go away. She said ‘how long do art exhibits usually last?’

Xep Campbell/Facebook

The creative escalation of the abandoned sock story has delighted tens of thousands as the post has gone viral.

Campbell tells Upworthy that she tries to live live in a way that results in a net positive gain for herself and anyone she comes in contact with—a philosophy that clearly extends to her relationship with her daughter.

“I always try to take the creative route whenever possible,” she says. “There is a lot of beige in the world that needs to be countered. There are also endless possibilities to be creative with even the most mundane aspects of life. I tend to go for the weird option when it’s there.”

As one example, when Campbell had to have brain surgery, she invited her friends to a zombie-themed roller skating party where they ate giant, brain-shaped jello. She says that Kestral isn’t phased by any of her mother’s antics because she’s grown up with it. “She definitely appreciates the absurd, though.” Campbell adds.

Not only is this story wildly entertaining, but seeing a unique approach to an extremely common parenting situation can help all parents expand their toolbox. Not only is this sock-turned-art-turned-manger-scene a fun way to make a memory with a child, it’s also likely to be far more effective at helping her remember to pick up her clothes off the floor than simply reminding her for the dozenth (or hundredth) time to use the hamper. Normally a kid might overlook something they left behind, now any time her eyes hit a piece of clothing on the floor, her brain will remember this goofy scene and at least notice that it’s there.

Well done, mama. Thanks for the entertainment and the positive parenting example.

DeMar DeRozan has never won the NBA’s Defensive Player of The Year award, but maybe he should after he had to defend his house from a home invasion last November.

The Spurs guard was staying in his Los Angeles home when he heard a noise in a different part of his house. When he went to investigate he found an intruder and managed to chase them off. The invader was later arrested by local police and according to TMZ claimed he was not trying to break into DeRozan’s home but was instead looking for Kylie Jenner’s. An odd thing to admit when you’re being arrested, but I guess at that point you don’t have much else to lose.

DeRozan spoke about the incident while meeting with the media on Saturday and he shrugged off the situation, via ESPN.

“I grew up in Compton, California,” DeRozan said Saturday. “I’ve been through worse.”

Thankfully it sounds like nobody was seriously hurt in the invasion and we’re hopeful that everyone is okay from a mental standpoint as well. Home invasions are a very real fear and can have lasting effects. With DeRozan making light of the situation we can be hopeful that he’s not too hung up on the incident.

Every now and again, the comedy gods conspire to give one member of the Saturday Night Live cast a perfect opportunity for an impression that defines a viral moment. Saturday brought one for Cecily Strong, as a witness in Rudy Giuliani’s fruitless election hearing in Michigan brought a slurring, wild performance to the viral public that everyone hoped she’d take full advantage of.

Strong hit it out of the park on Saturday with a pitcher-perfect take on Melissa Carone, who went viral due to her wild testimony that had even a squeaky Giuliani trying to restrain her a bit. The moment made many wonder where Giuliani even found the cast of characters who have appeared to allege all kinds of bogus claims, and some digging done by reporters has revealed some wild things about Carone in particular.

As the Huffington Post’s Ryan J. Reilly caught up with Carone, who had plenty to say about not only her viral appearance but some other wild things in her history.

As Reilly detailed in a Twitter thread as well as the story on HuffPo, Carone recently got probation in a case where she apparently framed a woman for stealing sex videos.

She was previously charged under the name Mellissa Wright with first degree obscenity and using a computer to commit a crime. Under a plea agreement, she reduced her charge to disorderly conduct and received 12 months of probation, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County, Michigan, prosecutor’s office told HuffPost. Her probation ended on Sept. 13, just weeks before Election Day, when a temporary staffing agency employed Carone to assist Dominion Voting Systems in Detroit.

But Carone, in an interview with HuffPost on Saturday, claimed that it was actually her fiance, Matthew Stackpoole, who sent the explicit videos to his ex-wife and that she took a plea deal only because they didn’t want to spend any more time in court. Stackpoole also admitted to HuffPost in a text message that he sent the videos and suggested that police officers knew he had done so when officers “took [Carone’s] official ‘confession.’”

“The reason I got charged for it is it was sent off of my phone,” Carone, a self-proclaimed cybersecurity analyst, told HuffPost. “I just said screw it, I’m going to have to take it.”

Committing crimes using the technology you claim to be an expert in is a pretty brazen move, though perhaps not as brazen as claiming widespread election fraud and having produced zero evidence to back said claims up. The Huffington Post story has plenty of details about the weird sex tape scandal, but perhaps it’s Giuliani’s defense of Carone that best sums all this up. It also helps to know the context where the quote came from.

Giuliani is definitely right about one thing: you could certainly describe all this using the word “incredible.”

[via HuffPo]