Month: March 2021

If you’ve spent a decent amount of your Tuesday on Twitter, you more than likely caught some portion of the growing story between Jensen Karp and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It began when Karp posted an image of what he said were dried shrimp tails that he discovered in his box of cereal. He reached out to the brand’s Twitter account and was able to get a response, but it wasn’t the one he hoped for. As a result, he took his cereal box findings to a lab to confirm it. The entire thing was written about in The Washington Post and while we wait to see how this plays out, there are more details coming out about Karp that continue to shock people.

After hearing who was the owner of the shrimpy Cinnamon Toast Crunch box, Chance The Rapper hopped on Twitter to share an encounter he had with Karp early in his career. “Fun fact,” he said. “The Cinnamon Toast Crunch shrimpy guy gave me 5 racks to shoot a video back when I still had a nose ring.” Just in case you didn’t believe him, Chance posted the tweet with a video that shows him receiving the $5,000 check from Karp and celebrating afterward. The track that got the visual treatment was Chance’s “Na Na” collaboration with Action Bronson from his 2013 tape Acid Rap.

That’s not the only celebrity connection Karp has. People also learned on Tuesday that his wife is Danielle Fishel Karp — yes, the woman who played Topanga, the love interest of Ben Savage’s Cory Matthews, on the beloved teen sitcom Boy Meets World.

There’s no doubt Deante Hitchcock has something big planned in the future. The Atlanta rapper has spent the last month releasing very impressive freestyles over hip-hop tracks from today and yesterday, and for his latest offering he took on Outkast’s 2004 classic “Roses,” with an accompanying video. It finds Deante posing as a homeless man who aims to make ends meet. Despite his character’s hardships, he proclaims that one day he’ll reach the heights of some of today’s favorites in music, like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, and Young Thug.

The new video serves as the fourth consecutive entry in Deante’s New Atlanta Tuesdays freestyle series. He started things off with some bars over Lil Wayne’s “Let The Build Beat,” which arrived with a video that saw him carrying a goat. He returned a week later with a wild freestyle over SpotemGottem’s “Beat Box” and his own submission to the song’s TikTok-bred challenge. Most recently, Deante engaged in an all-out Nerf gun war while rapping over Drake’s No. 1 single and Scary Hours 2 favorite “What’s Next.”

Prior to the New Atlanta Tuesdays series, Deante shared a live version of his debut album, Better, and released videos of the performances with it.

You can watch the video for the new freestyle above.

Evan Peters has two big gigs going. He’s played Quicksilver in the Fox wing of the X-Men-verse, and now that Disney owns Fox, he can play it in Marvel fare, such as on WandaVision. (Although technically he was playing an imposter.) And he’s got Ryan Murphy. The producer has cast him on all but one season of his long-going series American Horror Story, including the forthcoming Double Feature. But that’s not all Murphy is having him do.

As per Deadline, one of the prolific TV maven’s next projects is Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, a limited series that will tell the story of the notorious serial killer, but largely from the perspective of his victims. According to Deadline, the show’s m.o. is to dive “deeply into the police incompetence and apathy that allowed the Wisconsin native to go on a multiyear killing spree.”

But who’s to play the monster at the center of Monster? It’s Evan Peters, whose innate aw-shucks suburban fun nice guy mien should make for an interesting clash with someone who murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys before being caught, and whose final kills involved necrophilia and cannibalism. Anyway, it sounds like it will fit in with the darker sides of Murphy’s CV, among them the Emmy-winning The Assassination of Gianni Versace. And Jones brought some low lurking menace to his role as the guy pretending to be Pietro Maximof on WandaVision, so this is even better outside-the-box casting than when Zac Efron was cast as Ted Bundy.

(Via Deadline)

Who doesn’t love Mad Libs news? That is to say, the kind of news so random it seems to have conceived through a round of the fill-in-the-blank game, played with someone trying to make the sentences sound extra surreal. A couple weeks ago we had “Elizabeth Banks is directing a movie called Cocaine Bear.” More recently we had “Seth Rogen is playing Steven Spielberg’s uncle.” But this may beat them all: The guy who found shrimp in a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch is married to the actress who played Topanga on Boy Meets World.

Let’s unpack a bit: Earlier on Tuesday, March 23, a man named Jensen Karp — a writer, comedian, and podcaster whose Twitter bio bears the words “Kanye Owes Me $300” — posted a most curious image, claiming that he’d found dried shrimp tails in his box of the popular breakfast cereal.

That wasn’t all: He also found some weird black items baked into certain squares, on top of shrimp tails. Thus began a real journey. Karp successfully got in contact with the cereal’s Twitter account, who claimed there was a perfectly sane explanation for all this. Unconvinced, he took it to a lab. It became a whole thing, and the whole ordeal was soon written about in The Washington Post.

Thing is, they buried if not the lede then a potential lede for another story, such as this one: The story mentions his wife, Danielle Fishel Karp. And soon people realized that’s the married name of one Danielle Fishel, aka Topanga, the main squeeze of Ben Savage’s Cory Matthews on the ‘90s squeaky clean teen favorite Boy Meets World.

People were shocked — perhaps as shocked to find weird dry shrimp tail things in a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

There were Boy Meets World jokes.

And plenty of people pointing out that this story makes for one seriously bizarre sentence.

After a year where public mass shootings hit a historic low due to COVID-19, America has been rocked by two in the past month, leaving many — once again — with a feeling of helplessness. On March 16, a gunman in Atlanta, Georgia murdered eight people in massage spas, six of the victims were Asian.

On Monday, a gunman in Boulder, Colorado murdered ten people in a supermarket.

After a year out of the headlines, the topic of gun control has made it to the forefront once again. The maddening thing is even though the vast majority of Americans support common-sense gun control laws, nothing ever gets past Republican lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

There are two significant gun-control policies that enjoy bipartisan support, the assault weapons ban and universal background checks.

A 2019 poll reported by Politico found that 70% of Americans support an assault weapons ban, including 86% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans. The same year, a National Public Radio (NPR), PBS Newshour, and Maris College poll found that 83% of Americans believe Congress should pass legislation that requires background checks for gun purchases at gun shows or other private sales.

Pew Research found that Americans on both sides of the political divide overwhelmingly support universal background checks. Ninety-three percent of Democrats and 82% of Republicans said they favored, “making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks.”

via Maryland GovPics

One of the biggest reasons why Republicans refuse to pass any gun-control legislation is a paralyzing fear of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Many Republican legislators are afraid that a negative grade from the organization will immediately end their careers.

The NRA is one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington and spends money with laser-like precision, elevating those who support gun rights and taking down those who favor gun control.

That means it’s nearly impossible to get a Republican to support gun safety laws, even though only 1.5% of Americans are members of the NRA and 70% don’t even own a gun.

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 that killed 26 people, including 20 children and school employees, President Barack Obama got little support from Senate Republicans to pass a gun control bill supported by 90% of Americans. “It came down to politics—the worry that that vocal minority of gun owners would come after them in future elections. [Congress members] worried that the gun lobby would spend a lot of money and paint them as anti-Second Amendment,” Obama said in a speech afterward.

Last Friday, after the Atlanta shooting, president Joe Biden spoke out about the need for Congress to take action this time.

“I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common-sense steps that will save the lives in the future, and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” Biden said.

On Tuesday, Biden called for the Senate to “immediately pass” two bills the House recently approved that change background check laws.

Biden has a long record of supporting gun-control measures. In 1993, he helped pass the Brady Bill which first established the background check and waiting period requirements. In 1994, he wrote a controversial crime bill that included a 10-year ban on assault weapons.

The problem Biden faces is that passing common-sense gun legislation would need 60 votes to make it through the Senate, so 10 Republicans would have to flip. However, some lawmakers believe that the current moment gives Democrats one of the best chances they have at getting something done because the NRA has been weakened over the past few years.

The NRA declared bankruptcy earlier this year and in 2018 it was outspent by gun-control groups for the first time ever.

“I think the implosion of the NRA, the growing support among the American people and the inevitability of increased support gives us an opportunity we haven’t had before,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said earlier this month. He added: “What’s changed is we now have a president who can put pressure on our colleagues.”

This past December marked five years since Lemmy Kilmister died. The Motorhead frontman passed away from congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, and prostate cancer, which he was only diagnosed with just two days before his death by his doctor, who originally believed he had two to six months to live. His death was certainly a surprise to his family, friends, and supporters all over the world, but prior to it, the late rocker was able to ensure a special gift would be delivered to his close associates as way to remember his life.

The late rocker’s ashes were placed into engraved bullets with the word “Lemmy” on them and recently delivered to his close friends. Headbanger’s Ball host Riki Rachtman showed off the gift in a on Monday. “Before his death, Lemmy asked for his ashes to be put in some bullets & handed out to his closest friends,” he said. “Today I received a bullet & was literally brought to tears Thank you Motorhead.” Ugly Kid Joe vocalist Whitfield Crane also received a bullet and his gift was shared by tennis player Pat Cash on Instagram.

“#Lemmy (RIP) from #Motörhead asked that his ashes be put in some bullet and given out to his closest friends,” he wrote. “last night one was presented to my mate #whitefieldCrane whilst we were having dinner at ‘Lemmys bar in ‘The Rainbow.””

Every now and then, we can use a reminder that it is really insanely impossibly hard to be a professional basketball player. This goes for leagues all over the world, but this is especially true of the NBA. If you are a regular person and you see an NBA player, they are better than you at basketball. Don’t think too much about it! They’re better than you! It’s ok!

We haven’t had a good video to really hammer this point home in a while, but fortunately for us, Brian Scalabrine is here. Scalabrine, who calls Boston Celtics games in retirement, put up meager numbers in his career — 3.1 points and two rebounds in 13 minutes per game in 11 years in the Association — but because he played in the NBA, he is better than most humans alive at basketball.

One teen learned this lesson the hard way. Thanks to this video making its way around the internet, we saw an epic tale of someone named Zay, a high school hooper, challenging Scal to 1-on-1 to 11 and getting beaten so badly that he had to hand over his sneakers.

Listen, just leave Brian Scalabrine alone, man. Let him get up shots in peace. Maybe say hi! He seems like a nice enough dude. But under absolutely zero circumstances should your reaction be “I am capable of beating this former NBA player in a game of 1-on-1.” You will lose. Although it is very fun to watch when it happens, so on the other hand, please keep doing this.

Today marks exactly one month since Bobby Shmurda was released from New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility. The rapper spent almost seven years behind bars after accepting a plea deal on conspiracy to commit murder and weapons possession charges. His first month of freedom was well-documented, with a profile of his first day out published in GQ to a few club appearances with some of his rap peers. Bobby’s release from prison did come with some conditions, and thanks to documents obtained by TMZ, we now know what those are.

Bobby, who is under parole supervision until February 23, 2026, is not allowed to drink alcohol, attend any bars, or associate with gangs. He also has a curfew of 8 p.m., must submit to drug testing, and receive aggression and anger counseling. An additional component of the parole conditions is that Bobby must seek, obtain, and maintain employment, but with the world waiting on his official return to the hip-hop world, accomplishing that part should be no issue. He also landed a few performance slots during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in Atlanta earlier this month.

The parole conditions explain a video that emerged at the end of last month, in which was seen turning down a drink during a club appearance. After the video circulated throughout social media, the rapper reposted it on his Instagram story and wrote, “Hell nah a n**** on parole.”

Centuries of history and decades of scholarly research have left no doubt that the legacy of slavery, post-slavery economics, Jim Crow laws, redlining, discriminatory lending, and other anti-Black policies have made it unfairly difficult for Black Americans to accumulate wealth. In 2016, the net worth of a typical white family was $171,000, while that of a Black family was $17,150—a staggering disparity that illustrates the impact of generational wealth.

Put plainly, money makes money, and racist policies have directly kept money out of the hands of Black Americans for generations. (Not to mention the wealth that was literally taken from Black people’s labor and placed in the pockets of white enslavers for generations.) That’s the impetus behind the idea of reparations—that the damage done by actively denying people economic opportunity due to the color of their skin be repaired financially.

Whenever the topic of reparations comes up, there are naturally questions about who, how, how much, and why. As Trevor Noah pointed out, that’s mainly a conversation for Black Americans to have with the U.S. government. But one municipality has come up with a form of reparations for local residents that answers those questions directly.

Evanston, Illinois has become the first city in the nation to pay reparations to some of its Black residents for its historical discriminatory housing policies. In a vote of 8 to 1, the city council voted to approve distributing the first $400,000 to qualified residents, giving individual households up to $25,000 to be used for home repairs or down payments on property.

To qualify, a resident must have lived in Evanston or been a direct descendant of a Black person who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, and must have been impacted by housing discrimination due to city ordinances, policies or practices. The city banned housing discrimination in 1969, but a 77-page historical report, “Evanston Policies and Practices Directly Affecting the African American Community, 1900 – 1960 (and Present)” details the segregationist practices in housing, employment, education and policing before that.

“While the policies, practices, and patterns may have evolved over the course of these generations, their impact was cumulative and permanent,” the report authors wrote. “They were the means by which legacies were limited and denied.”

The $400,000 being allocated now to 16 families is just the beginning, as the Chicago suburb has plans to distribute $10 million over the next 10 years. Funding for the program is coming from donations and from a 3% tax on recreational marijuana, which became legal in Illinois in 2020.

However, not everyone is thrilled with this form of reparation, even among Evanston’s Black residents.

The one council member who voted against the program, Alderwoman Cicely Fleming, told Fox 32 Chicago that she fully supports reparations but feels this housing plan isn’t what reparations should be. Rather than putting money in people’s pockets and letting them choose how to use it, these grants will go straight to the banks and lenders and contractors. So while she appreciates that it’s a first step in the right direction, she feels that telling Black residents they have to spend reparations money a certain way isn’t in the spirit of what reparations is meant to do.

Others are concerned that the precedent set by Evanston could impact broader reparations programs, and even impede progress on implementation at the federal level. If local anti-discriminatory housing programs are considered formal reparations, what does that mean for the big picture of less restrictive monetary reparations nationwide? Some also point out that this program will likely subject Black people to credit checks and government loans, which ironically may limit their ability to utilize the program that’s supposed to help the economically disadvantaged.

While Evanston is the first city to formally implement this kind of reparations program, many other municipalities including Amherst, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; Asheville, North Carolina; and Iowa City, Iowa are making similar considerations. In addition, the state of California passed a bill creating a task force to explore what reparations could look like at the state level, and President Biden has expressed support for creating a federal commission to study reparations for Black Americans across the nation. Individual institutions, such as religious denominations and universities, have also taken steps to recompense Black Americans for the impact of their racist histories.

Reparations is a simple concept that is certainly complex to implement, but a formal move toward repairing our nation’s historic racist damage is long overdue. We can’t undo what’s already been done, but we can at least try to make the present and future more equitable by addressing and redressing the lingering effects of the past. Whether Evanston’s program is the best way to go about it is unclear, but it’s at the very least a step in the right direction.

It’s been clear that Dame Helen Mirren has enjoyed doing the occasional over-the-top blockbuster over the 15 years or so — a respite from all her brilliant performances in decades of serious fare. (Although she was never above blockbusters, with Excalibur and 2010: The Year We Make Contact dotting the ‘80s portion of her CV.) She’s even done two comic book movies: the retired assassin romp RED and its 2013 sequel. But one thing she’s never done is a superhero movie, and there’s no reason to think she won’t enjoy torturing the hell out of our bifurcated heroes in the sequel to Shazam!

As per Deadline, the Oscar-winning thespian is taking on the role of Hespera, daughter of no less than the titan Atlas, in Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Atlas is one of the gods whose power our hero — Zachary Levi’s kid-at-heart Shazam, and the alter ego of Asher Angel’s teenage Billy Baston — can emulate, along with Mercury, Solomon, Hercules, and Achilles.

Much more importantly, he’ll have to square off against Mirren, who ever since winning her Academy Award for The Queen has juggled serious fare with, well, multiple Fast and/or Furious entries, including playing Jason Statham’s mom in both the eight episode and its spinoff Hobbs & Shaw. She always seems to enjoy herself, and not only because of the giant paychecks, so this should be fun for all of us.

(Via Deadline)