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The Rundown: If You Close Your Eyes You Can Already Picture The Movie About The Big Stuck Boat

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — My sweet boy, the big boat

There is a big boat stuck in the Suez Canal. The boat is named Ever Given and it is owned by a company called Evergreen and it is just stuck there, wedged across the canal, holding up international commerce as hundreds of people attempt to unstuck it and move it forward again. Those are the facts at their most basic. This is also a fact: I love the big stuck boat and I hope it stays there as long as it wants. We’ve all had a tough go of it lately. Build a new canal if you’re in such a rush. Leave my large floating son alone.

But the main thing I’ve taken away from the situation is that I have watched too many movies on basic cable on weekend afternoons, to the degree that I can’t stop picturing every update to this story as generic scenes from cookie-cutter entries in the “let’s save this thing and/or the world” genre. Think like Armageddon but with a huge stuck boat instead of an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. Think about this whole thing for five seconds and tell me you can’t picture Bruce Willis in a hard hat. I suppose examples will help. Let’s start with a few paragraphs from the New York Times article about the situation.

The ship’s manager has said in a statement that a preliminary investigation found that the vessel grounded because of strong winds, not because of mechanical or engine failure. The company said that all 25 crew members, who the ship’s owner said were all Indian citizens, were safe and that there were no reports of injuries, pollution or cargo damage.

Two scenes jump to mind here, right away:

  • The one where the ship captain is trying to steer the boat through a storm and insisting he can do it over the objections of his crew, many of whom are looking at printouts or weather maps and saying things like “these winds are pretty strong, sir” as he brushes them off and barrels ahead
  • The scene where someone in the Suez Canal control room — I’m going to go ahead and assume this exists — sees like a radar of the ship starting to get stuck and says, “Uh… sir… you better come look at this…” and then his boss comes and looks at the screen and is like “Mother of God”

This is Act One. Moving on.

Eight large tugboats were attempting to push and drag the ship from its unintended berth, the Suez Canal Authority said in a statement on Thursday, but at about 1,300 feet long — roughly equivalent to the height of the Empire State Building — and weighing around 200,000 metric tons, dislodging the Ever Given is proving challenging.

An attempt to extract the ship at around 8 a.m. on Thursday did not succeed, forcing salvagers to try again later in the day, the ship’s technical manager, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, said in a statement on Thursday. The company said that a specialized suction dredger had arrived to help dig the ship out.

Okay, this is the beginning of Act Two, maybe the end of Act One, where the people in charge think there might be a simple solution that can solve the problem without too much hassle or expense. It helps to get a picture of specific actors in the roles. Paul Giamatti is a good choice for a frazzled scientist who has lots of data about the soil. Jeremy Irons or maybe Famke Janssen as the icy CEO who just wants it fixed. For some reason, I see a bearded Zac Efron on the tugboat. I can be talked out of any of these, probably, but the last one will be tough. I saw Zac’s nature show. The man could absolutely play a handsome tugboat captain. He would love it.

But this is where it gets good. This is where we introduce the elite salvage team.

An elite team is set to tackle the monumental challenge of freeing the massive container vessel that’s blocking the Suez Canal, as a backlog of ships continued to build up for a third day in what is arguably the world’s most important waterway.

ELITE

SALVAGE

TEAM

If you’re not immediately picturing a) Jason Statham, and b) someone showing up in a helicopter and begging him to take the job, and c) some version of the “because you’re the best there ever was, that’s why” conversation… I don’t know what I can do for you. Why are you even reading this column? Go read a book or something.

And yes, those of you who saw The Meg, a movie in which Jason Statham battles a monstrous prehistoric shark, might recognize this exact scene from that movie, right down to the reference to diving.

WARNER BROS
WARNER BROS
WARNER BROS
WARNER BROS

That’s how you know I’m right. But let’s learn more about this salvage team. I think some additional information will help us get a fuller image of who they are and what they do.

The struggle to dislodge the ship is now falling to SMIT Salvage BV, a legendary Dutch firm whose employees parachute themselves from one ship wreckage to the next, saving vessels often during violent storms. Japan’s Nippon Salvage Co. has also been hired to assist in the re-floating, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Yes, this is definitely a Statham situation. And Bruce Willis. Cast every rugged bald actor in Hollywood as a member of this salvage team and then add on one handsome young dude with terrific hair, like a Noah Centineo, just to give the handsome bald guys something to grumble about. It’s incredible to me that Hollywood hasn’t already started this. Maybe they have. I hope so. I need this movie on TNT by a rainy Saturday in early 2022. At the latest.

Let’s close by going back to the New York Times story. There is one additional item we need to discuss.

The head of the Suez Canal Authority, Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, said in a statement on Thursday that the day before, 13 ships had been expected to be able to move through the canal after the Ever Given was tugged out of the way. But the salvage operation was taking longer than hoped, forcing the ships to drop anchor in a waiting area, the authority noted in the statement.

To recap, we have:

  • Cranky boat captains dropping anchor and floating around in the sea, which will make for excellent comic relief
  • Many angry CEOs whose businesses are being held up by the stuck boat

I need Eric Roberts as one of these angry CEOs and I need him to put a plan in motion to blow up the big boat. I need to hear Eric Roberts say “Well, then just blow it up,” and shrug off any potential loss of life like it’s of no real concern to him. This is where things get fictionalized in the name of a good story. To add drama and excitement. And to give Statham and Bruce Willis a bomb to defuse. It’s not exactly a true story anymore but hey, that’s Hollywood for ya.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — Jessica Walter was the best

Jessica Walter passed away this week, which stinks. Jessica Walter was great, both as a longtime working actress and just, like, in general, too. She’s best known for her work as boozy matriarch Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development, as she should be, and please do take some time this afternoon to peruse her highlights in the role on YouTube. The woman could absolutely deliver a line or a wink or even just a laser-focused look that would elevate whatever was on the page and make it something special. You can probably tick off half a dozen of her best lines right now. You didn’t even need to watch the show to know them. Jessica Walter was the queen of reaction GIFs, even today, years after the scenes she was reacting in were shot. It’s kind of a cool legacy, actually.

She was so good as Lucille Bluth that she was hired to voice a kind of stakes-raised animated version of the character on Archer, FX’s deviously funny spy cartoon. Voice acting is not as easy as it appears. You have to create an entire performance using only one of the tools you have as an actor. Jessica Walter pulled off Mallory Archer so well and with such apparent ease — you could picture her holding a martini in the recording booth if you closed your eyes — that it was a borderline magic trick. It was typecasting but in the best possible way, considering anyone else would have just been doing a B/B- Lucille Bluth impression anyway. Might as well get the real deal.

It’s also worth noting that, despite being most famous for her later-career roles, Walter was a working actor for almost 60 years. She popped up everywhere. She was in a really great Columbo episode as the wife of a scientist who was killed by his boss for threatening to expose the boss’s kid as a plagiarist. She appeared in the pilot episode of the old Flipper show about a friendly dolphin who got into trouble and/or saved the day. And here’s the thing about being in Hollywood long enough to have been in the pilot of Flipper: you accumulate some great stories, like this one, from the 1964 episode of Flipper, which she told to Jesse Thorn on an episode of the Bullseye podcast.

“One of my first shows I ever did on film was Flipper. Remember, ‘Flipper, Flipper’? It was shot in Florida and it was about this dolphin. And so I get to Florida … they had a thing where Flipper, in the story, he comes out of a helicopter and he dives into the ocean to pick up this medicine… this trunk of medicine that’s gonna save people on my boat that’s stranded. So sure enough, you know, the helicopter, we set up the shots and we’re in the middle of somewhere in Florida in the ocean. And this helicopter, the thing opens up and OUT COMES FLIPPER, right into the ocean. Dives in. I said ‘Well isn’t that amazing!’

“He said ‘Well that’s a frozen dead dolphin.’”

Now, yes, let’s be upfront about the fact that this story is horrifying. You should not heave a frozen dead dolphin out of a helicopter for a stunt in a television show. You should not heave a frozen dead dolphin out of a helicopter for any reason, actually. Now that I think about it, you should probably not freeze a dead dolphin for any reason, very limiting science things aside. But that’s not really the point. The point is that you need to hear Jessica Walter tell that story. The rising and falling of her voice, the way she set up and delivered the punchline, all of it. You can probably hear it in your head right now if you close your eyes again. I bet you’ll see the martini again, too.

I will miss her a lot.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — Tall cast continues getting taller

FOCUS FEATURES

I have an important update about my favorite television show, the upcoming HBO series about the Showtime-era Los Angeles Lakers, which has not aired a single episode yet and will not start airing episodes until 2022. The last time we talked about this show I was bringing you the very exciting news that Michael Chiklis would play Red Auerbach and Adrien Brody would play Pat Riley, and now it is my great pleasure to inform you that Bo Burnham has been cast as Larry Bird. From Variety:

The untitled series was ordered at HBO in December 2019. It is described as chronicling the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of sports’ most revered and dominant dynasties, in what came to be called the Showtime Era.

Bird is widely regarded as one of the best basketball players of all time. Having played his entire professional career for the Celtics, he helped lead the team to three NBA Championships. His time with the team included a legendary rivalry with the Lakers.

First of all, I love it. I love everything about it, starting with the little paragraph in that blockquote where Variety felt the need to explain who Larry Bird was in the most basic terms possible because Variety is the type of Hollywood trade publication that is read by a fair number of people who would not know. I love that this casting made me shout “WHAT?!” at my desk in a silent room. I love that the show also cast Jason Segel as Paul Westhead, Riley’s Laker predecessor, because Bo Burnham is like 6’5 and Jason Segel is like 6’4 and there’s no point not just casting all the tall dudes in Hollywood at this point.

But mostly I love it because it gives me an excuse to post Larry Bird stuff in a column that is allegedly about film and television. Like, for example, his segment from the old NBA Superstars video, which a) is set to John Mellencamp because of course it is, and b) I had on a VHS cassette as a small child and watched so much that the tape wore out, and c) also featured a set of Michael Jordan highlights set to “Take My Breath Away” from the Top Gun soundtrack.

And, for another example, this true story about Larry Bird from a Jack McCallum book that was helpfully excerpted by Yahoo a few years ago.

“I think I wanna be active,” said Bird. “What I might do, though, is git in shape, git outta shape, then git in shape again. I won’t do it like I used to, though. It’s gittin’ tougher. Three years ago I could lose fifteen pounds like nuthin’. Now? I don’t know if I could.” He had put on a few pounds when he was out of action, but he wasn’t sure how many. “I was so bored, I’d set around the house, drive my wife crazy, and eat and eat. In two and a half weeks I was off I ate ten gallons of ice cream and seven weddin’ cakes. Why them? I ate weddin’ cakes ’cause you knew they was gonna be good. I mean, who would [eff] up a weddin’ cake?”

That last sentence might be one of the most logical things I’ve ever heard. Bless this upcoming television show for giving me an excuse to share it with you. And for casting John C. Reilly as former Lakers owner and noted Tinseltown playboy Jerry Buss, because that happened, too. If you don’t know who Jerry Buss was, Google him. This is perfect casting. I love that part, too. I love it all.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Look at the French Andy Samberg

NBC

The French Canadian version of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, titled Escouade 99, was renewed for a second season this week, which is cool, I guess, even though I had not been aware it existed during its first season. I’m happy for everyone involved. But that’s not why I bring this news to your attention. I bring this news to your attention because the image at the top of this section is a promotional picture from the series and I need everyone to look at French Canadian Andy Samberg.

Computer… enhance.

ENHANCE.

NBC

Is it weird that I had zero interest in watching the French-Canadian version of Brooklyn Nine-Nine until I zoomed in on their version of Jake Peralta and now I want to see it so bad that it physically hurts me? I need to know how Jake’s very American antics translate — literally and metaphorically — to another culture. What pop culture references does he use? Does he still love Die Hard? Does Jason Mantzoukas play Adrian Pimento in this too, speaking fluent French out of nowhere? Is it weird that this last thing somehow would not surprise me at all?

I am filled with questions.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — It’s about family

Universal

I have discussed F9 a lot in this column. Too much, probably, by anything resembling a reasonable measure. I can’t help it. The trailer came out over a year ago and then the entire world conspired against me seeing it until this coming June. (This is how I choose to perceive it, at least.) It’s not fair. Charlize Theron has a magnet plane. They might go to space. HAN IS ALIVE. Come on. I’m only so strong. It’s a miracle I’m not out mumbling about this on the street.

And, somehow, even this week, almost a year after it was supposed to be released, there is more news breaking about the movie. This news, specifically: Young Dominic Toretto will be played by Vin Diesel’s real son, Vincent Sinclair. From TMZ, of all places.

When the “Fast & Furious” franchise revs up its engines again for the 9th installment, you might notice a familiar, but much younger-looking face … because it’s Vin Diesel’s kid!!!

Vin’s 10-year-old son, Vincent Sinclair, will be making his big-screen debut this summer in ‘F&F9’ … as the younger version of Vin’s character, Dominic Toretto.

Some notes:

  • Vin Diesel’s real name is Mark Sinclair
  • Which means he gave his son his real last name and his chosen first name
  • It would have been awesome if he named his son Vin Diesel, Jr.
  • Imagine being a 5th grade substitute teacher and calling out names for attendance and getting to “Vin Diesel, Jr.”

It makes sense, though. As Dominic Toretto has been telling us from the beginning, the movies are about family. But I think my favorite part of the news is this next blockquote, in which TMZ both sort of insults a 10-year-old boy and endorses unpaid child labor.

It’s unclear how much screen time Vin’s boy will get, but his minor’s contract says he got paid a daily rate of $1,005. Not bad take-home for a kid who, let’s be honest, probably woulda done it for a pack of gum.

I need this movie to come out soon. I’m starting to lose my mind. Just blast it onto the side of the White House with a projector and let the people watch from the lawn. Do it this weekend. It’s not like any of us have other plans.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Tom:

I started watching Bosch on your recommendation a few weeks ago and I am so glad I did. It’s a perfect pandemic binge. The funniest part has been how excited I get when I see one of the scenes from the screencaps you post all the time. My wife thinks I’m crazy because some character will mumble Bosch’s name in the middle of a serious scene and I’ll start laughing. So I guess what I’m saying is… thank you?

Tom, you are welcome. And I’m sorry. But mostly you are welcome. What I like most about this email is that it kind of makes me the Bosch of the situation. Is this all an excuse to post the picture of Lance Reddick sitting at his piano with a glass of wine and grumbling Bosch’s name after another one of Bosch’s shenanigans has put him in a tough spot, kind of like you when my dumb shenanigans make your wife look at you like you’ve lost your mind?

Amazon

Perhaps.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Oklahoma!

A man was arrested over the weekend after leading law enforcement officers on a multi-city chase in a stolen Frito Lay truck, and an Enid police officer’s body camera captured the moment he was taken into custody.

Well, guess what: We have a SNACK TRUCK HEIST.

And not just any snack truck heist, either. A snack truck heist with a multi-city police chase. This sounds, to me, like a crime that was thought out ahead of time and planned meticulously.

Oklahoma City police said it started Saturday morning near Northwest 39th and May. The driver of the Doritos truck stopped and went inside a convenience store.

“While he was inside the store, somebody jumped into the truck and stole it. He came back outside and while he was waiting on police, he could actually see it parked across the street,” Capt. Jeff Spruill said.

I do not often wish I were a police officer. It does not seem like a job I would enjoy in any substantial way, and I do not think I would handle the authority well. I would be a bad cop and I would hate it. But this is one of those very rare situations where I would like to be a cop, just for a minute, just so I could ask the guy who stole the Doritos truck on a whim some sunny afternoon in March just what, exactly, he was thinking.

But more than that, I would like to be his defense attorney. I think I could get at least one person on a jury to agree that sometimes your day just goes sideways and you — any of us, really — could find yourself leading the cops on a jurisdiction-hopping chase in a stolen Doritos truck. It happens. We’ve all been there. Not guilty.

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‘The Daily Show’ Channels ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ To Hilariously Investigate If Don Jr. Knows Who His Father Is

The Daily Show tore into Donald Trump, Jr. on Thursday night with an Unsolved Mysteries-style investigation into whether Don Jr. knows his father is Donald Trump. In the hilarious segment, Roy Wood, Jr. highlights how often Don Jr. will go on Fox News or Twitter to criticize political opponents while acting completely oblivious to the fact that these are things his own family is guilty of.

One example: Don Jr. has been making a huge deal out of the fact that several women have accused Governor Andrew Cuomo of misconduct and even went so far as to call Cuomo “the biggest predator in American politics.” This is particularly ironic given the fact that over 16 women have accused the former president of sexual assault, which prompted Wood to investigate the mysterious occurrence of when “Don Jr. started talking like a man who had no damn idea that Donald Trump is his daddy.”

Don Jr. also has a habit of going after President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and accusing him of using his family name to get rich, which is literally Don Jr.’s entire situation. “This is like the Kool-Aid Man complaining about other people crashing through walls and leaving Kool-Aid Man-sized holes,” Wood says before asking a very good question at this point: “Does Donald Trump Jr. not know what the word ‘Junior’ means?”

Furthering his claim that Don Jr. has no idea who his daddy is, Wood goes on to note that investigators combed through hours of footage and have not found a “single hug or even affectionate look between the two.” Sad! (But pretty true.)

(Via The Daily Show with Trevor Noah)

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Miguel Announces His Impending Return, ‘Art Dealer Chic Vol. 4’

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from genre-bending R&B singer Miguel, but it looks like the wait for new material from the Grammy winner is almost over. Today, he announced the impending release of his return project, Art Dealer Chic Vol. 4 — the continuation of his popular blog-era EP series which introduced songs like “Adorn,” “Arch N Point,” and the original version of “Candles In The Sun, Blowin In The Wind.”

And, as a bonus, Miguel also made the first three editions of Art Dealer Chic available on DSPs for the first time, allowing fans to play “Gravity,” “Ooh Aah!,” and “Party Life” from Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal.

Miguel capped a relatively quiet 2020 with the release of the video for his 2019 single “Funeral,” which not only ended the drought of new solo songs from the singer but also teased the impending return of the Art Dealer Chic series. “The Art Dealer Chic EPs have always been reserved for freedom, self-curation, and honest expression without the influence of music industry politics,” he explained at the time. “I’m excited to introduce my fans to a very different world in my creative expression, and that begins with ADC 4.”

Press “play” on the playlist above or click here to listen to the first three Art Dealer Chic EPs.

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Last Night Was A Big Night For TV As Sean Hannity Called Seth Meyers An ‘A**hole, And Seth Meyers Called Ted Cruz An ‘A**hole’

In an a**hole-off for the ages, late-night TV lit up with the a-word in two notable ways on Thursday night. Both instances (on Fox News and NBC) went entirely uncensored, and yeah, it is what it is. First up, let’s talk about Sean Hannity’s latest outburst, which happened in response to Seth Meyers coming for Hannity (earlier this week) for what the NBC late-night host described as (via the Daily Beast) a “sociopathic” reaction to gun violence in the United States. The plague of mass shootings recently reared its head again in Atlanta, Georgia and Boulder, Colorado, and in typical Hannity fashion, he had ducked into distraction-land while focusing on (as rehashed by Media Matters) Joe Biden tripping on the Air Force One Stairs. Well, Hannity was not pleased that Meyers called him out, and that led to this angry retort from the Fox News host.

“You’re just another limousine liberal, socialist, hypocritical a**hole,” ranted Hannity towards Meyers. “Who does nothing but spew anti-GOP hate and as virtually nothing positive or productive to add to any political dialogue.”

Well, Mayers had a different subject in mind for beginning his evening, which would be Ted Cruz’s party-boy attitude while he refused to wear a mask upon a reporter’s request. As noted by The Wrap, Seth Meyers also went in big on the a-word.

“If you’re a decent, normal person, and someone politely asks you to put on a mask in their company, you do it. Ted Cruz, however, took it as yet another opportunity to be a giant a**hole,” Mayers offered. “Man, Ted Cruz is the Steph Curry of being a giant dick. He never misses a shot.” The fun begins below after the 1:00 minute mark.

Big night for the a-word! Exciting stuff.

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No One Loves Volcanoes More Than Björk

At the moment, much of Iceland (and beyond) is excited about Fagradalsfjall, a volcano about 25 miles outside of Reykjavík that started erupting last week for the first time in about 700 years. As of today, it is still emitting fresh lava. People in Iceland are pretty amped about the whole thing, but perhaps nobody is more thrilled than one of the country’s most internationally renowned residents: Björk.

The artist has been sharing excited posts about the volcano on social media recently. Last week, she posted a photo from the set of her 2015 “Black Lake” video, which was filmed at Fagradalsfjall. She wrote, “YESSS !! , eruption !! we in iceland are sooo excited !!! we still got it !!! sense of relief when nature expresses herself !!! enjoy , warmthness , björk. p.s. this photo is taken where the eruption is … we filmed ‘black lake’ there …. 30 minutes from my house …”

Days later, she doesn’t seem to have lost any of her sense of wonder about the whole thing, as she shared a lengthy post about it yesterday that reads:

“i am so blown away by this eruption !!! i cannot even believe that it is P R E C I S E L Y where we filmed black lake , a song of catharsis and healing , director @andrewthomashuang even added an eruption !!! and here it is !! and it seems so strangely prophetic watching me tip-toeing barefoot in @irisvanherpen lava-dress , wounded and vulnerable searching for redemption ….. it only shows that everything heals in time , wounds get covered over , there might be scars but there is enormous capacity in nature to create new mountains and carry on ……. the valley we filmed in , Geldingardalur , is slowly disappearing and being filled up with lava and perhaps has got a new name : Fagrahraun . which means : ‘beautiful lava’ . which it is ….. !! we icelanders are proud parents of new lava mounts and hills.”

Check out Björk’s posts below.

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Rod Wave And Polo G Are ‘Richer’ Than They’ve Ever Been On ‘SoulFly’

As of press time, the official audio for Rod Wave’s new collaboration with Polo G, “Richer,” is No. 1 on YouTube’s trending list. After pressing play on the song — which comes from Rod Wave’s new album SoulFly — it’s not hard to see why. The two rappers have brilliant chemistry, as Wave croons and Polo raps over the country-influenced, slow-grooving trap beat, addressing the pressures of their respective upbringings and chasing their dreams. “I’m richer than I’ve ever been,” Rod cries over the chorus, celebrating the change in his circumstances as a result of rap stardom.

Ahead of the release of the album, Rod previously released two singles with videos, the reflective “Street Runner” and the somber “Tombstone.” He also released a simple browswer racing game to go along with “Street Runner,” giving even more visual flair to the new song. SoulFly‘s rollout wasn’t entirely smooth, though; in February, the Florida rapper criticized his label, threatening to withhold his album over a money issue which was quickly resolved.

Meanwhile, his guest star, Polo G, has been working on his own third album while lending a lyrical assist to his fellow breakout star Lil Tjay on the ruthless “Headshot” featuring Fivio Foreign. To keep fans sated between projects, Polo also shared a triple video for his “For My Fans” freestyle in which he jumped on the three hottest beat trends simultaneously.

Listen to “Richer” above and check out Rod Wave’s SoulFly album here.

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‘Sesame Street’ Is Introducing Two New Black Muppets To Teach Children About Race

As the gold standard for children’s television, Sesame Street has never shied away from teaching young minds about sensitive topics, and it’s often recruited the beloved Muppets to get the job done. In a new series from Sesame Workshop, the “ABCs of Racial Literacy,” Elmo is introduced to new Black muppets, Wes and his father Elijah, who are part of a new initiative in teaching children about race and identity. Using its “science-based whole-child model” that Sesame Street is known for, the series has worked closely with researchers and experts to help children form a positive relationship with racial diversity.

Here’s the official synopsis for the first episode, “Explaining What is Race?” via Sesame Workshop:

When Elmo notices that some of the leaves in the park match his red fur and some match his friend Wes’s brown skin, he wonders how skin gets its color. Wes’s dad Elijah explains it’s from melanin—something everyone has in their bodies that gives us our skin, eye, and hair color. These things make us who we are, and many people call this race. But like the leaves on a tree, the colors are most beautiful when they are standing together!

Unlike most new episodes of Sesame Street, the “ABCs of Racial Literacy” is already available outside of HBO Max. The new videos can be found on the official Sesame Workshop page for “Coming Together,” its ongoing initiative to strengthen communities by giving parents the resources to have positive conversations with their children about race at a young age.

(Via Sesame Workshop)

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Kim Petras Guests On A New Remix Of Studio Killers’ TikTok-Boosted 2013 Hit ‘Jenny’

It’s been a quiet past several months for Kim Petras, who most recently popped up with a Kygo collaboration “Broken Glass” last summer. She back with new material today, though, as she has guested on a remix of “Jenny” by Finnish group Studio Killers.

“New material” is only sort of accurate. For those unfamiliar, Studio Killers is a virtual band similar in nature to Gorillaz (coincidentally, today marks the 20th anniversary of Gorillaz’s self-titled debut album), featuring virtual members Chubby Cherry, Goldie Foxx, Dyna Mink, and Bipolar Bear. They’ve been around for a while, as their self-titled debut (and currently only) album came out back in 2013.

“Jenny” first appeared on that album and was a successful single at the time, peaking at No. 2 on the Finnish charts and at No. 3 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Digital Songs chart. So, fans of the band have been familiar with this song (minus Petras’ new contributions) for nearly a decade now. That said, the song has found a new audience recently thanks to it being part of a TikTok trend.

The band also noted they have new music “coming soon,” so for the first time in a long time, there may be more to come from Studio Killers.

Listen to the new version of “Jenny” above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Lil Nas X Says His ‘Montero’ Album Releases This Summer And Mocks The Backlash Against His New Video

After over a month of teasing his new song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” Lil Nas X shared the video today — and it sure is something. A colorful, fantastical video, the clip offers such mythological imagery as angels and hell, where Lil Nas X seduces the king demon, only to kill him and take his crown. While such visuals were exciting to some fans, there were plenty of critics who spoke out against the video — and Nas was more than up to the challenge of shooting down the backlash.

One outspoken commenter took issue with the devilish character that Nas seduces in the video, as well as Nas’ sartorial choices. “Basically he is riding the Devil,” the critic complained. “Explain how this visualization is supposed to be interpreted by the youth? Should all men dress androgynously and sleep with satin [sic]?” Nas, who quoted the disingenuous tweet, simply replied, “Yes.”

In a more sincere explanation, Nas shared a letter written to his 14-year-old self, revealing that releasing “Call Me By Your Name” was “very scary for me.” He acknowledged that “people will be angry” and that “they will say I’m pushing an agenda,” but admitted, “I am. The agenda is to make people stay the f*ck out of other people’s lives and stop dictating who they should be.”

After getting a few hours of sleep, he returned to once again troll his critics. “y’all love saying we going to hell but get upset when i actually go there lmao,” he joked, before revealing that the “Montero” video is just the beginning — his debut album, also named Montero “drops this summer.” Meanwhile, he has yet to respond to FKA Twigs fans who claim he ripped off her “Cellophane” video.

You can watch the video in question here.

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How Tate McRae Went From Dance Superstar To Music’s Next Big Thing

Despite the pandemic’s persistent pandemonium, Tate McRae was able to turn the trash year of 2020 into a time of professional triumph. After the drop of her debut EP All The Things I Never Said last January, the 17-year-old Calgary native was christened “one to watch” by Uproxx, Rolling Stone, Forbes, and more. Following the release of the melodic “Tear Myself Apart” (written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell), and the Billboard-charting hit “You Broke Me First” (which would become 2020’s fourth most-streamed song by a female artist), she earned an MTV VMA nomination for Push Best New Artist during the summer.

McRae’s appealing, genre-bending approach is only bolstered by a winning combination of engaging lyricism and irrefutable stage presence. Although she became a music sensation seemingly overnight, her entertainment industry takeover is nearly a decade in the making, thanks to an impressive run as a commercially-successful dancer.

“When people say, ‘Oh, she dances,’ it blows my mind because that’s my original thing,” the doe-eyed multihyphenate tells Uproxx over Zoom. “I always used to say ‘I’m a dancer who sings, not a singer who dances.’ That’s how it always went.”

McRae began dancing at the age of six, and despite “hating classes” during that time due to the constriction of her boundless energy, she was able to go from being “a backrow dancer” to a front-and-center star. (“I was super terrible in the beginning,” she laughs before taking a sip of her Starbucks drink.) At age 11, she joined her mother’s company YYC Dance Project and underwent ballet instruction at the School of Alberta Ballet, the home base of the Alberta Dance Company.

Through “training [her] ass off” and learning her history, McRae’s control, awe-inspiring flexibility, and magnetic performance ability quickly developed. She’s not a one-trick pony either, as she’s shown great skill in the contemporary, jazz, and hip-hop dance styles. (Tate’s music videos and performances, choreographed by Michelle Dawley and herself, also feature her versatile moves. The visual for “Stupid” features hip-hop tinged isolations — movements independent from other parts of the body — while her contemporary chops are on full display in “That Way.”)

After taking over Canada’s dance scene, it only made sense for McRae to bring her talents to the United States. She was crowned “Best Female Dancer” at the Dance Awards in New York City, not once or twice, but thrice (2013, 2015, and 2018). In between her training and accolades, she found time to perform on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and on Justin Bieber’s Purpose World Tour. This merely scratches the surface.

In 2016, McRae became the first Canadian finalist on the hit reality series So You Think You Can Dance, working with Emmy Award-winning contemporary choreographer Travis Wall, husband and wife hip-hop duo NappyTabs, and salsa dancer Stephanie Stevenson during her time on the show. She was second-runner up overall, a massive accomplishment given the competitive nature of her season, which featured dancers ages 8 to 13 for the first (and as of now, only) time.

Post-SYTYCD, McRae continued to work on her own choreography by uploading videos to YouTube for a weekly series called “Create With Tate.” After a recording glitch during a late-night dance session in 2017, however, the segment inadvertently kicked off her music career.

“I had it set in my brain that I needed to post [something] because I made this commitment to my supporters, so I locked myself in my room and I wrote,” she says of penning the piano-driven “One Day” that night. McRae has had an interest in poetry and storytelling since she was young, and her interest in songwriting developed around age 14. However, uploading videos of her original work “wasn’t [her] intention.”

“’One Day’ was one of the first songs I wrote that was actually well put together and in the right structure,” she continues. “It was this round-up of emotions, and then an accident for it to even do anything.” By “anything,” she means garnering 35 million YouTube views, a gold certification in Canada, and a deal with RCA Records upon the track’s official release. Call it a modern-day, fairytale-like break into a notoriously-tricky-to-enter field.

These days, McRae is focused on the upcoming release of her second EP, Too Young To Be Sad, slated to drop on March 26. The six-track project features the calm, acoustic “I Wish I Loved You In The 90s,” the sunny, ukulele-assisted “R U Ok,” and “You Broke Me First,” which has over 800 million streams and has been used in over one million TikTok videos.

McRae says her first EP felt like an “intro” into the music world, and that her latest offering is a continuation of her developing style and sonic personality. While she’s got understandable apprehension surrounding the release of Too Young To Be Sad — “You never know how people are going to react,” she explains — she’s hopeful that fans will resonate with the content as she works to grow her artistry.

“The crazy thing is that I’m still trying to find my sound,” she reveals, adding that she doesn’t want to be “labeled” or placed into one genre. “I think there are a million different ways that you can play around, and a different million different artists [to work with] that will shoot you in different directions. But I can’t really define what I do [musically]. I think it changes every month… You can do so many things nowadays.”

What is definite, however, is Tate McRae’s natural affinity as a performer. Her experiences as a poised dance ingenue put her well beyond her years, resulting in her disciplined approach as she transitioned into a full-fledged musician. Though she’s an entertainment industry veteran at this point, she expresses her desire to continue elevating as an artist and creative force.

“I feel like I’m noticing now how much it all kind of pays off,” she grins while discussing how her passions have worked in tandem. “I’m the biggest workhorse, and that’s how dancers are. The dance mentality is working under pressure and working hard.”

“I’ve especially learned a lot about my voice — that has been super crucial for me,” she adds in regard to how her confidence has grown as an artist and person. “I get in my head a lot, and I think it’s because I’m so focused on what I’m doing that I doubt myself. But I’m super proud of everything I’ve done. I’m so happy that everything’s out there.”

Too Young to Be Sad is due 3/26 on RCA. Get it here.