Month: May 2021

In just a few days, St. Vincent will have a new album out, as Daddy’s Home is set for release at the end of this week. Annie Clark promoted the effort thus far with advance singles and a Saturday Night Live appearance. Today, she has offered what will presumably be the final pre-album single, “Down.”

She has shared a new video for the track and like the visuals that have preceded it, it has a ’70s-inspired aesthetic. As for the song, it’s a funky and punchy number on which she vows to best her opposition.

Clark previously said of Daddy’s Home, “I would say it’s the sound of being down and out downtown in New York, 1973. Glamour that hasn’t slept for three days. […] I went back to these records that I probably listened to more in my life than at any other time. Music made in New York from 1971 to ’76, typically post-flower child, kick the hippie idealism out of it, America’s in a recession but pre-disco, the sort of gritty, raw, wiggly nihilistic part of that. It’s not a glamorous time, there’s a lot of dirt under the fingernails. It was really about feel and vibe but with song and stories.”

Watch the “Down” video above.

Daddy’s Home is out 5/14 via Loma Vista. Pre-order it here.

Nicki Minaj hasn’t released a new project since 2018’s Queen, semi-retiring to focus on starting a family with her husband Kenneth. After giving birth to her son and clearing her Instagram followers, it appears she might finally be ready to take the first steps back into the spotlight — and her latest Instagram post will likely accelerate that sense among fans.

In Nicki’s new post, she poses on a plush pink desk, apparently nude or semi-nude, clutching fuzzy pink heart pillows to her body to keep the Instagram moderators at bay. The caption simply reads, “Friday,” with a fingers-crossed emoji, suggesting that she’s coming out with… something… later this week.

She wouldn’t be the only rap superstar to make her return after taking the last few years off. Isaiah Rashad recently returned with a new single featuring Duke Deuce after a week of teasing by his label, revealing that he’d been battling addiction in the meantime, and J. Cole took some time out of pursuing his hoop dream to drop the interlude from his new album The Off-Season, which also drops this Friday.

And while Nicki has plenty of other side projects going, the timing would be right for her to make a return, as fans eagerly await a release date from her Young Money labelmate Drake, a potential collaboration with Saweetie, and Nicki’s erstwhile rival Cardi B’s next album — which could also feature a reunion between the former foes.

Stay tuned.

Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit tested positive for elevated levels of betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory corticosteroid that is legal to a certain level in horse racing. Subsequent testing will take place to determine whether or not Medina Spirit’s win at Churchill Downs will be thrown out, and already, its trainer, Bob Baffert, has been banned from the track.

Baffert decided to go on the offensive in response to these allegations, appearing on Fox News on Monday morning to discuss what is going on. The following clip is real, and it involves a grown man blaming cancel culture for there being allegations of doping against a horse that had a positive test for elevated levels of a controlled substance.

“Well, I haven’t heard anything officially, they haven’t told me anything,” Baffert said when asked about whether or not Medina Spirit will be able to run at the Preakness this weekend. “I know when Churchill Downs came out with that statement, that was pretty harsh. And I think they had to just … you know, with all the noise going out … we live in a different world now. This America’s different. And it was like a cancel culture kind of a thing, so they’re reviewing it, I haven’t been told anything, we’re prepared to run.”

It gets better! Here was Baffert’s explanation for what happened…

…and here is why this is even more absurd than it seems on the surface.

So as a recap: A dude who bares a striking resemblance to Ashley Schaffer of Eastbound and Down went onto Fox News, said that this was the second time someone on cough medicine peed on some hay that a horse ate, and as a result, the horse tested positive for some sort of drug. The difference between that time and this time is that Baffert said that a right-wing buzzword is at fault. Anything to prove that the horse is not, as former president Donald Trump put it, a “junky.”

Over the past 14 months, cheap flight deals have been plentiful, as air travel bottomed out worldwide. With vaccination rates rising in wealthier nations, travel is starting to bounce back in some segements of the sector (we’re not out of the woods yet, though). Unfortunately, that means cheap flights are about to get a lot harder to find.

Over the course of the pandemic, airlines enacted free change policies on flights and full refunds with no fees. They also lowered prices to the absolute rock bottom break even point. Well folks… that era is over. Most change fees are back. Zero fee refunds are not a given anymore (though some airlines have adopted a new model with flexibility built in). And flight prices are pretty much as high as they ever were.

Airlines seem to be racing to recoup 14 months of pretty drastic losses. Which isn’t great for anyone looking for a ripping price on plane tickets.

That said, it’s not impossible to find a good value on flights as we look ahead to summer travel. It just takes some hustle. You have to set alerts. And you have to be willing to act almost immediately or risk missing the deal completely.

To that end, we’ve compiled a list of (mostly) domestic flight deals for the coming summer, starting with Memorial Day weekend. Some of these call-outs are specific sales; others are ways to find cheap flights in general. We also took each of these deals to the payment page to find out what the bottom line prices actually are, instead of just the flashy advertised “sale” price.

Hotwire Free Flight With Hotel Booking

The Deal:

This deal would be great if it was for one person, but it’s exclusively for two (meaning the price is “per person” but the room is shared).

If you book a hotel, you can get a free flight with that price (or at least a discount on the flight). The price includes all taxes and fees associated with the flight and a stay at your destination for two people (in one room).

Bottom Line Price:

So looking at a July 4th weekend trip from Los Angeles (LAX) to Austin, the advertised price is $456 per person. That includes two roundtrip tickets (Alaskan/United), a suite with a king bed and free breakfast for three nights (Homewood Suites by Hilton), plus taxes and fees. The final price comes to $911.93. The flights come with one carry-on included in that price.

Naturally, this price will vary depending on the weekend you choose to travel and the route you’re flying.

Kayak Explore

The Deal:

This isn’t so much a deal as it’s a way to find one. Kayak Explore allows you to set your home airport and time frame. Then, prices will pop up all over the country and world. From there, you can find a destination that’s in your price range.

Bottom Line Price:

Let’s use a flight deal that pops up in July from Portland to Las Vegas advertised as “from $128.” Once you click through, you’re led to “Flight Network” where you can book a “Flexible” flight (meaning that you can still change it) for $148.17 roundtrip.

After going through the booking, the price skyrockets to $293.85. The bulk of that is for a carry-on there and back (around $105) plus various small fees. But that’s still without a checked bag or pre-booking a seat — all of a sudden the deal looks less exciting.

Delta Travel Planning Center

The Deal:

Like Kayak above, this is more a service for finding deals in an easy and efficient way. Basically, you set your home airport and time frame, and see where is in your budget with Delta and their affiliate airlines and go from there.

Bottom Line Price:

A Delta roundtrip flight from Portland to Nashville comes up as “Starting At: $295” in early June. When you click through, the final price comes up to $374.40 with one carry-on. The flight is changeable (without a fee) but not refundable.

Southwest 50th Anniversary Deals

The Deal:

Southwest is running massive flight sales until May 20th, 2021. The best way to find these deals is to use their “Low Fare Calendar” to suss out where it’s actually cheap to fly to over the summer months.

The best part of this deal is that baggage fees are being waived, meaning you can get two free checked bags plus a carry-on for $0. That’s a real steal right now.

Bottom Line Price:

A flight from Boston to Miami during the second week of June comes up as $88 each way. When you click through on the prices, the final price is $175.96. That’s with the two free checked bags, a carry-on, and no change fees (it’s only refundable up to ten days before departure).

“$25” One-way Deals Frontier

The Deal:

Fly Frontier is always running deals for one-way and roundtrip flights around the U.S. Basically, you should set alerts for destinations or simply check in periodically.

Right now, they’re advertising one-way flights for $15. Let’s see what that really means.

Bottom Line Price:

Looking at a one-way flight from Philadelphia to Orlando on May 30th, you are drawn in with a “$19 one-way” flight price. To get that price, you’ll need to join Frontier’s points program for $59.99 per year — and even then that’s a base price, not a final one. Otherwise, the price is $25 for a one-way ticket initially.

When you click through, you’ll need to pay an additional $39 for a carry-on (you’re allowed a small backpack for free). With no seat, insurance, or refundability, the final price is $63.40 for a one-way ticket from Philly to Florida. If you want all the perks of seats, pre-boarding, and checked bags (including changeability and refunds), the price ends up at $118.40 each way.

JetBlue Flight+Hotel Deals

The Deal:

JetBlue is running deals for Memorial Day weekend. Their deals include a hotel and flight, usually for two. There’s an easy landing page with plenty of options with a focus on the hotel as the destination.

Bottom Line Price:

Looking at a deal over Memorial Day weekend going from New York (JFK) to the Biltmore in Miami, you can get an advertised price of $478.15 per person (when booked for two). Clicking through, you end up at a final price of $956.29 in a superior room with a king bed and two round-trip non-stop flights.

You’ll need to pay an additional $64.56 if you want travel insurance, which will cover cancellations and changes if need be.

“$77” Roundtrips On Spirit Air

The Deal:

Spirit is always running deals, too. Their current sale ends on May 16th and covers flights between May 16th and June 16th. If you’re a member of Spirit’s $aver Club, you can score one-way base fares starting at $25 ($59.95 to sign up and $69.95 per year). For non-members, that price will start at $40 one-way for a base fare.

Bottom Line Price:

Looking at flights in mid-June from Detroit to Austin, you’re met with a base price of $113.54 for a roundtrip, nonstop flight. That price stays the same and includes one small carry-on (backpack size) and that’s it. The price increases if you want travel insurance, a full carry-on or checked bag, or a seat assignment in advance.

Google Travel Explore

The Deal:

Google Travel Explore has a slightly better user experience that allows you to search flight deals from your home airport through various timeframes. Their map is a little easier to use, and the best deals are lined up under your details on the left.

Bottom Line Price:

A roundtrip deal from Burbank to Bozeman (Yellowstone) is advertised at $191 on Alaskan. Clicking through, that price holds at $191 total with one standard carry-on, no seat, no checked bag, and no changes possible (or refunds). If you want all of that (still minus a checked bag), the price goes up to $251 total for the same roundtrip.

Expedia Flight Deals

The Deal:

Expedia has a cool landing page where they collate their “Today’s Amazing Flight Deals.” Depending on your airport, roundtrip deals will line up with choices all over the country and the world.

Bottom Line Price:

Looking at a Delta deal at the end of summer (early September) for a Portland to Honolulu flight, there’s a flight for $356 that stays pretty close to that price. Taking it all the way to the payment page, the final price is $360.61. That’s for a basic economy flight with one standard carry-on, no change or refunds, and no seat assingment.

Secret Flying Deals

The Deal:

Secret Flying still lists hard-to-find flight and hotel deals that you’d be really hard-pressed to find yourself. The best practice for following the latest deals is to set up alerts with Secret Flying or follow them on social media.

Bottom Line Price:

A flight deal that popped today for a roundtrip from New York to Paris between September 2021 and March 2022 is pretty hard to beat. The flight is on TAP Air Portugal and clocks in at $275 to $288 for a roundtrip.

Clicking through, the deal takes you to Skyscanner.com. And that takes you to a screen that says this ticket has sold out. That’s a very good lesson that you cannot hem and haw over whether to grab a ticket when you see it on Secret Flying.

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As a Hotwire affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.

Part of what makes DJ Khaled’s over-the-top motivational speaker schtick so amusing is he’s not afraid to poke fun at himself — he’s in on the joke. That holds true in the new video for “Let It Go” from his recently released album Khaled Khaled. Recruiting 21 Savage and Justin Bieber for a tongue-in-cheek clip that finds the trio fighting alligators and creating a whole new meaning for the term “golf club,” Khaled shows off his sense of humor while promoting everything from his latest project to the Chime financial app and Raising Canes restaurants.

The video’s narrative begins with a simple premise: Khaled and his billionaire buddies hitting the links at Khaled’s own golf course for a friendly round of big-money golf with Bieber playing Khaled’s trusty caddy. When one of Khaled’s playing partners challenges Justin to tee off, Khaled ends up boasting about his ability to find and develop talent when Bieber sinks a hole in one from what looks like 100 yards. Next, the young phenom squares up with 21 Savage, showing off a variety of trick shots before Khaled has to save the day by wrestling an alligator.

The trio then cruises the course in Lamborghini golf carts and has a dance party near the scoreboard. It’s all very silly and fun and exactly what you’d expect from Khaled’s latest joyful rollout, which has included dragons and pirate treasure, post-apocalyptic cityscapes, and a neon-lit casino.

Khaled Khaled is out now. Get it here.

Lil Baby and Lil Durk have been teasing their joint project for weeks and yesterday, it seems they may have revealed when it comes out. Lil Baby posted, then deleted, on Instagram, asking fans, “How does ‘Voice Of The Heroes dropping May 28′ sound?” The post was captured by fan account screenshots before Baby deleted it, leaving us to wonder whether plans changed, the date was meant to be secret, or if this is an elaborate hype-building tactic as part of the long, convoluted rollout for the joint project.

Baby and Durk’s impressive working chemistry stems — at least in the short term — from their collaboration “3 Headed Goat” from Durk’s 2019 album Just Cause Y’all Waited 2. They’ve since released a handful of singles together such as “Finesse Out The Gang Way” from Durk’s 2020 album The Voice and more recently, “Every Chance I Get” from DJ Khaled’s new album, Khaled Khaled.

When fans suggested that they turn that chemistry into a full-length mixtape, they immediately began teasing such a tape with cryptic social media posts, eventually revealing the working title during an interview with MTV News. Intriguingly, they still have yet to release any songs from the project itself, preferring instead to let their established work do the promotion. We’ll see if May 28 turns out to truly be the official release date — for now, it seems fans will have to stay tuned to their social media for more updates.

David Litt, a former-speechwriter for Barack Obama, appeared on Newsmax on Monday morning to discuss Elon Musk hosting SNL. (Everything you need to know about the episode can be found in this screenshot.) Instead, he hijacked the interview by switching topics: Litt wanted to discuss the far-right “news” network spreading lies.

“What happened on SNL this weekend was that people made stuff up and then said it on television like it’s true. And that actually happens pretty frequently in American TV,” Litt told conservative anchor Rob Finnerty. Then came the seamless segue: “For example, in 2020, Dominion Voting Systems sued Newsmax over its false claims about election fraud. Newsmax was lying to its own viewers, and Newsmax had to settle that lawsuit. So, I just need to check-in: Are you still telling that lie or are you telling new lies?”

Newsmax withdrew false claims about the 2020 election after Dominion employee Eric Coomer filed a defamation lawsuit against the media outlet (Dominion also went after Fox News for claiming that their equipment was used to “rig” the election to the tune of $1.6 billion). “Newsmax subsequently found no evidence that such allegations were true. Many of the states whose results were contested by the Trump campaign after the November 2020 election have conducted extensive recounts and audits, and each of these states certified the results as legal and final,” the company wrote in a statement.

Finnerty tried to bring the conversation back to Elon Musk, but it was too late. “I know this is a very funny moment for you,” he said. “I’m sure you didn’t sleep last night as you prepared to try and sort of ‘get’ the morning anchor on Newsmax. I’d be happy to talk with you about whatever you want to talk about.” Finnerty offered an ultimatum: we can talk about SNL, “but obviously, I’m not gonna talk about anything else right now. So you decide right now, in this moment on live television, go ahead.” Litt replied, “Did Dominion Voting Systems have any impact on the 2020 election?” His feed was cut seconds later.

You can watch the interview below. It’s more entertaining than Elon’s SNL episode.

Eric Andre’s mockumentary comedy Bad Trip gained a passionate cult following when it was released on Netflix last month. The film starred Tiffany Haddish, Lil Rel — who nearly quit the film after the first prank he shot — and even Chris Rock, who only appears in the deleted scenes because he’s too famous to pull off a prank like the ones executed in the film.

Bad Trip owes much of its inspiration to the Jackass films (in fact, Jeff Tremaine, who directed the Jackass films also produced Bad Trip), as well as the mockumentaries of Sacha Baron Cohen. But while the Jackass films about finding the humor in the participants torturing themselves, and while the humor in the Borat films is in seeing Sacha Baron Cohen torture other people, Bad Trip offers a unique approach. Bad Trip is not about humiliating anyone for laughs, nor is it about Eric Andre humiliating himself (although there is some of that). It’s about how unsuspecting strangers respond to what they believe are difficult situations for Eric Andre, Lil Rel, and Tiffany Haddish.

As Conan O’Brien explained this week on Conan O’ Brien Needs a Friend, Bad Trip is a “comedy confection filled with delightful silliness, really intelligence silliness, but also silly and foolish silliness, all mixed together. And it’s made me like humans more because I thought, when it was over, that you weren’t ridiculing other people, and almost everybody who is ‘the victim in one of these pranks,’ you see them at their best. They’re stepping in, their reactions are real, and then you let them in on the joke in the end and everyone is hugging. We need more of what this is.”

O’Brien called it the “perfect movie” for the end of the pandemic. He’s not wrong, because after the divisiveness of the last four years perpetuated in some part by the divisiveness of the media, Bad Trips goes the other way and reveals that “most people are good.”

The “best quote” that Eric Andre got, however, came from the master of the genre, Sacha Baron Cohen, who saw an early cut of the film in his house with Eric Andre and the film’s director, Kitao Sakurai. “You know,” Cohen said to Andre. “My movies set out to expose the hypocrisy and evil of rich, white oligarchs. Your movie is exposing the beauty and humanity of the working class and people of color. It’s not polarized. It’s showing American unity.”

That’s exactly right. The film was shot during the divisive Trump era, and it was delayed over a year because of the pandemic, but it may have worked to the film’s advantage, if only because Bad Trip reveals what we need to see the most in America right now, which is the best of humanity (and also a prank in which two men get their penises caught in the same pair of finger cuffs).

Source: Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend

It’s not every performer that has the audacity to cover Frank Ocean, because delivering a performance that’s at least comparable to his exemplary vocal abilities is a significant challenge. However, Arlo Parks has emerged as one of the finest new vocalists to emerge in a while, and she did just fine when she took a crack at Ocean’s “Ivy” for a new BBC Radio 1 Piano Sessions performance. Seated behind the keys, she also sang one of her own songs, “Hurt.”

She shared some photos from the session and wrote, “It was an honour to sing sum Frank Ocean and Hurt for @bbcradio1’s Chillest Show – there’s something so deep and soothing about the piano as an instrument.”

These performances don’t come too long after her last time in a Radio 1 Piano Session: Back in September 2020, she joined Phoebe Bridgers to help out with a rendition of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees.” Parks also played piano as Bridgers sang her single “Kyoto.”

This also arrived just days ahead of this year’s Brit Awards, which take place tomorrow, May 11. Parks is up for handful of big awards: Best British Female, Breakthrough Artist, and Best Album (for Collapsed In Sunbeams).

Watch Parks’ performances of “Ivy” and “Hurt” above.

In a show filled with countless classic moments that reshaped the entire paradigm of how great television can be, “Pine Barrens” still continues to standout as one of the creative high points of The Sopranos. In what’s basically the closest that the prestige series ever got to a bottle episode, the Steve Buscemi-directed “Pine Barrens” strands Michael Imperioli‘s Christopher Moltisanti and Tony Sirico‘s Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri in the New Jersey woods where the two gangsters watch their tough guy exteriors hilariously crumble as they clearly have no idea how to navigate in the wilderness and eventually resort to eating ketchup packets in an abandoned car to stay alive.

However, according to a new oral history from The Ringer, there were other challengers to filming the now classic episode. Namely, Sirico who did not adapt well to filming in the woods. Like his character Paulie Walnuts, Sirico was obsessive about his hair and his pillows, which resulted in the crew finding ways to work with the actor’s quirks:

[Terrence] Winter: The two ways to get Tony to do something was if you told him, “You will be really scary or you’ll be really funny.” I said, “Tony, you will be so fucking funny for the audience to see you, who they’ve never seen except looking like a movie star, with your hair [messy].” So he took like two fingers and just messed up three hairs. I was like, “Tony, come on. Come on, man.” He’s like, “All right you motherf*cker,” and he put his hands through his hair and he completely messed up his hair. I said, “Thank you so much.” I turned to Steve Buscemi, I said, “Roll camera. Get this on f*cking film. It’s not going to happen again.”

On top of having to slowly coerce Sirico into mussing up his finely coiffed hair, which he personally styled himself every day, the actor was also very particular about his pillows. According to co-star Steve Schirripa, Sirico “didn’t like the pillows at West Point, so he sent a production assistant back to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to get his pillows off his bed. That was like a four- or five-hour round trip.”

As for how the classic episode came about, it turns out the impetus for one of the most standout moments in television history came from a pretty mundane source: Writer Tim Van Patten had a dream the night before:

Terence Winter (writer): Todd Kessler was another writer on the show. He and I were sitting in the writers’ room alone at the time and just talking and trying to cough up story ideas. Tim came in and said, “I had a dream about a story but it’s really stupid.” I said, “Well, what is it? It can’t be any stupider than what we’re talking about.” He said, “I had a dream that Paulie and Christopher got lost in the woods after trying to kill somebody, then they couldn’t get out.”

When Winter heard the idea, he knew Van Patten had something. “That’s a great f*cking idea,” he remembers saying. “You’ve got to go pitch that to David [Chase] immediately.” Clearly, The Sopranos creator was on board, and 20 years later, TV aficionados are still obsessed with “Pine Barrens.”

(Via The Ringer)