Month: May 2021

Live music and entertainment has been necessarily put on hold during the advent of the coronavirus, where close proximity and large crowds are too risky as “super spreader” events to be legally happening. But now that vaccine rollout has begun, the booking behemoth has made it clear that next year, live events and live music will be back in full force. On a call with investors yesterday, May 6, Consequence reports that Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino let concerned parties know that the bookings for 2022 have already doubled the pre-pandemic rate in 2019.

“We are already seeing confirmed major tour dates for 2022 up double digits from the same time pre-pandemic in 2019 for 2020,” Rapino said. “Many of these artists will have multi-year tours, spanning the U.S., Europe and often either Asia or Latin America, setting us up for a strong multi-year growth run. Around the world, people are showing the need to get out and socialize once again which reinforces our expectation that a return to concerts will be the logical progression as vaccines are readily available to everyone who wants to get one.”

Particularly in the US, the interest in tours has skyrocketed due to increased vaccine availability, and Rapino said he expects other markets will react similarly. “This is generally already the case in the U.S. where we are confidently planning our reopenings, particularly for outdoor shows, and we expect many of our other major markets will follow this summer,” Rapino continued.

Finally, he noted that large scale events like festivals are slated to resume this summer.

The NBA, in an attempt to make more games matter for more teams at the end of the regular season, instituted a play-in tournament to determine the 7 and 8 seeds in both conferences this year. It’s drawn some scorn from players and other folks around the league — LeBron James, in particular, is not a fan — but an issue popping up is that people just don’t seem to totally get how the whole thing works.

The fine folks at Inside the NBA tried to remedy this by having Charles Barkley do a full breakdown of the tournament. The problem that they ran into is that Chuck (probably correctly!) deduced that the teams that end up in the 7 and 8 seeds don’t have much of a chance to go on a sustained run, so instead, he just kept calling them losers while struggling to figure out if he should use his hands or a laser pointer.

This ends with a hallmark of most Inside the NBA conversations about stuff: At one point, the topic changed to something completely different when Barkley asked the fellas about their takes on “cryptocoin.” Admittedly, this did a horrific job of explaining things (despite the fact that Ernie Johnson was trying his best), but at least it was good television.

Elon Musk’s Saturday Night Live hosting gig has been, to say the least, widely discussed. Some have expressed frustration that one of the richest men in the world will be given a platform after spreading coronavirus misinformation or, perhaps, just generally never showing a capacity for comedy.

Some on the SNL staff reportedly expressed frustration about the host as well, which spurned an entirely different brand of outrage that rippled across the Internet. But others, however, are extremely excited about Musk hosting the NBC comedy show. Namely, people who are really into cryptocurrency and want Musk to mention things like Dogecoin on air.

According to a CNN report, many crypto investors are actually pinning their hopes on Musk taking part in a sketch that involves Dogecoin or some other cryptocurrency that could cause the value of the currency to soar. In fact, just the news that he would host SNL has already made prices rise to near-record levels.

“Musk will undoubtedly have a sketch on cryptocurrencies that will probably go viral for days and further motivate his army of followers to try to send Dogecoin to the moon,” wrote Ed Moya, a senior market analyst with online trading firm Oanda.

Last week, Musk dubbed himself the “dogefather” in a brief tweet promoting his SNL appearance. The coin shot up more than 30%.

It’s certainly a dream for the cryptocurrency evangelicals who earnestly follow Musk’s tweets and the memes he steals from others to fuel the currency’s value. But actually weighing this a bit critically makes it far less of a sure thing.

Musk does get to play a role in what the show airs as far as sketches, if he has good ideas, but the only thing he has control over with any certainty is the show’s opening monologue and closing credits. The cold open rarely has the show’s host in it, for example, and hosts that don’t have the requisite juice to play parts in multiple sketches often get sidelined while the cast does the heavy lifting. It’s also important to note that SNL has already covered cryptocurrency and NFTs with an Eminem parody sketch, which makes it less likely they’d retread that ground after doing so just a few weeks ago.

And then there’s perhaps the biggest obstacle to making investors happy here: making cryptocurrency actually funny. While it is certainly in Musk’s best interest to joke about crypto — and he’s certainly been willing to bend rules for comedy’s sake in the past — sketches have to get past a fairly rigorous process of workshopping in the writer’s room and also making it past rehearsals and actually into the show’s 90 minutes.

Will a sketch cut for time and posted online later be enough to see Dogecoin actually cross the one dollar mark and make investors happy? That’s tough to say. But we definitely know what a big portion of the audience Musk will bring to the show wants to see. It just may be more for profit than comedy.

[via CNN]

There are a lot of Resident Evil games, and with that comes a lot of history, lore, and absolutely bonkers science-fiction. Fortunately, Capcom has spent the last few years making digesting the series a bit easier, creating remakes of both the second and third entries in the series as well as giving new players a great entry point into the series with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Even more fortunately, everything you might need to know before going into Resident Evil Village, the newest game in the series, you can learn from these games and this helpful explainer, of course. As a heads up, this article will include spoilers for the previous games, particularly Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. However, if you’ve already played it, or are simply just eager to jump into Village, here’s a refresher.

First things first, it’s important to know Resident Evil 7: Biohazard marked a significant shift in the series by changing perspective in two different ways. Not only is Biohazard is the first first-person Resident Evil game, which significantly increased the “scary” factor of the series and reduced the action-adventure elements, it’s the first one where you play as a pretty normal guy — Ethan Winters.

Ethan Winters is the protagonist of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and returns to the series in Village. Prior to 2014, Ethan lived a normal life with his wife, Mia. However, in 2014, Mia left of a business trip, got stranded in a hurricane, and was presumably lost at sea. In 2017, Ethan received an alarming email from Mia simply asking him to pick her up from the Baker ranch in Dulvey Parish, Louisiana. Naturally, Ethan set off at once, so eager he didn’t even think to inform the authorities his wife had returned from the grave. If he had, he would have been informed the area was being heavily investigated after several missing persons reports.

Once Ethan gets to the ranch and enters the nightmarish liar of the Baker family, he learns quite a bit about his wife Mia. It turns out, Mia lied to Ethan about her career and has been working as a researcher for The Connections, a crime syndicate specializing in bio-weaponry, and it gets worse: thanks to her team, an E-type bio-weapon known as Eveline is on the loose. While Eveline takes on the form of a ten-year old girl, she has supernatural abilities that allow her to create fatal mold and control people she comes into physical contact with.

While Eveline was kept stable under Mia’s care for some time, the violent hurricane caused her to snap and rebel against everyone except Mia, who she had begun to love like a mother. While she kills several of the crew members on board, Eveline merely injects Mia with mold, in hopes of preserving her life and forcing Mia to be her to act as her mother. When the pair are knocked off the ship and wash ashore at the Baker family ranch, Eveline comes to before Mia can warn the family of her gifts, and takes control over everyone at the ranch other than the Baker family’s daughter, Zoe, who is immune to her mind control and but remains trapped with her twisted family.

A lot happens over the course of Biohazard, but what’s important to know is that Ethan and his wife are ultimately rescued by Chris Redfield, one of Resident Evil’s most iconic characters. Around since the series beginning, Chris is one of the main protagonists of the first Resident Evil game, the older brother to Resident Evil 2‘s Claire, and is currently working for the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. However, while Chris has always been a “good guy,” all of that is called into question in the Resident Evil Village trailer.

Resident Evil Village takes place four years after the events of Biohazard, and Ethan and Mia are now new parents to a daughter named Rose. However, the two seemingly cannot escape their past and are once again dragged into quite the horror show, but this time the horror starts with none other than Chris, who allegedly murders Mia and kidnaps Rose. In Resident Evil Village, Ethan sets off on a quest for his daughter and the truth, and the great news is you can join him and see what happens next today.

Resident Evil Village is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Google Stadia, and PC.

Electric vehicles are no longer lofty, futuristic goals—they’re here and they’re growing in popularity. There are currently more than 650,000 battery-powered and hybrid electric cars on the road in California alone and that number is only expected to grow, both in the state and across the United States as a whole. In fact, according to industry analysts, sales of electric cars and SUVs are expected to hit record levels in 2021.

Shifting to electric vehicles and using more renewable energy sources is believed to be a big step towards creating a better world for all. Some companies such as General Motors are beginning to pave this path. EVs don’t emit tailpipe emissions, which can disproportionately affect the health of poorer neighborhoods and people of color.

Electric cars have historically had a big problem: they’re known as rich people’s cars, aka luxury vehicles that for a lot of people are simply too expensive to buy. It’s expensive to buy a new car—any new car—and the average sticker price of an electric car is $19,000 higher than an average gasoline-powered vehicle. So even though you can generally recoup this upfront cost over time because EVs can be cheaper to operate with no fueling and lower maintenance costs, people just can’t come up with the money upfront. To change this, though, GM is helping combat costs through a joint venture with LG Energy Solutions to reduce battery cell costs which may help make the vehicles more affordable to new buyers.

Of course, there were other barriers that have made owning electric cars inaccessible and inequitable in the past, contributing to their image as rich people cars, but this too is rapidly changing thanks to new developments.

One of those barriers was that EVs were also seen as too inconvenient to own in certain neighborhoods, especially in poorer neighborhoods or cities where most people rent apartments. This was partly due to range. EVs haven’t traditionally driven as far as their gasoline counterparts before requiring a “fill-up”—aka a charge. In fact, the industry average for EVs is a range of around 250 miles, though some can go a little further. This is especially a problem if you need to drive a lot, need to commute long distances, or you don’t own a garage.

This leads us into barrier number two: EV chargers are not always easy to find and they’re not equitably distributed across the United States. For example, if you don’t have a garage—as is the case for most city dwellers— you’re reliant on public charging stations, and there simply aren’t enough (yet) in cities such as New York. And when they are available, they tend to be in high-income communities. For example, in California, low-income communities have the fewest total EV chargers per capita, while high-income communities have the most.

There’s good news though: companies like General Motors are taking huge strides to help make EVs more accessible to everyone by investing $27 billion into electric and autonomous vehicles over the next five years, with specific investment in their new Ultium battery technology, which is capable of charging fast, running long, and fitting every type of vehicle, from crossovers and sedans to SUVs and trucks.

The new Ultium batteries are made up of large, pouch-style cells that can be stacked horizontally or vertically, allowing them to optimize energy storage and layout so they can be used in different-sized vehicles. They will also be capable of powering an EV with a GM estimated range of up to 450 miles on a full charge — which is way more than the current industry average of 250 miles—though of course range will vary depending on temperature, terrain, battery age, vehicle model, the load it’s carrying, and maintenance.

In addition, General Motors is working with EVgo to triple the size of the country’s largest public fast-charging network by adding more than 2,700 new fast-charging stalls in the US by the end of 2025 so that more people can charge their vehicles without issue. (Even better, all of these new chargers will be powered entirely by renewable energy.)

Once EVs become more available and more practical to own and use, they can become more accessible to everyone, no matter where they live. It’s going to take a lot to make a better world; but with corporations and individuals all doing our part, we have a fighting chance.

When Lisa Wright watched the mid-’70s TV show “That’s My Mama” as a child, she had no idea that she was actually seeing her mother on the screen.

“I grew up watching my mother on TV and didn’t even know it,” Lisa told Today. “‘That’s My Mama’ — that was our must-see TV. We all sat down and watched ‘That’s My Mama’ every week, and who knew? No idea. … And that’s my mama!”

Lisa was born on Dec. 10, 1964 and her mother gave her up for adoption. The mother’s face was covered by a towel after she delivered the baby, so she was never able to see her child. She only heard the baby’s cries as they ushered her away.

50+ Years Later, A Daughter And Birth Mother Reunite With Help From DNA Tests | TODAY

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Fifty-four years later, in 2018, Lisa signed up for 23andMe to learn about her genetic heritage.

“I get an alert, and it says, ‘This person is your uncle,'” Lisa said. So, she reached out to the man, named Carlton Moody, and asked, “If you’re open to it, I would love to chat with you to see what all of this means.” Carlton got back to her the next day.

The next day on the phone, he asked Lisa to tell him something about herself. “‘I was told that my biological mom was very young when she had me,'” she told Carlton. “‘She moved to L.A. because she wanted to be in Hollywood.’ And then he just stopped me right there.”

“So then I’m thinking, ‘OK, here it comes. He’s going to say don’t ever call me again.’ And so he goes, ‘Lisa, you’re my niece. We’ve been looking for you. We’ve all been looking for you,'” she said.

Lisa was excited to learn that her mother, Lynn Moody, lived in Los Angeles, too. And her name sounded familiar.

“Wait a minute, I know that name,'” Lisa told Red Rocks. “Sitting at my desk, I Googled Lynne Moody and when her picture popped up, I almost wanted to cry because it was the first time anyone had looked like me. I then realized that I grew up watching my mother on TV and didn’t even realize it. It was amazing information but it felt like a dream.”

Lynne has had a long career as an actor, starring on “That’s My Mama” for one season as the groundbreaking mini-series “Roots” and its follow-up “Roots: The Next Generation.” She also appeared on “Soap,” “Hill Street Blues,” “General Hospital,” and “Knots Landing.”

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“For 54 years I had to learn how to deal with the fact that I had a daughter out there, not knowing if she was dead or alive,” Lynne said. “For the first time in my life, I was able to say, ‘Yes, honey, I am your mother,'” Lynne said. “I was still nervous. I wasn’t sure if she’d hate me, resent me, accept me, love me. I didn’t know.”

Lynne had searched for Lisa for years but kept hitting dead ends because the adoption was confidential. She even received help from revered “Roots” author Alex Haley, but he couldn’t make any headway either.

Unfortunately, Lisa’s adoptive parents weren’t able to meet Lynne because they had passed away in 2006 and 2010. The mother and daughter have forged a deep bond since they were first reunited in 2018. Lisa has got to meet many of her aunts and cousins, and Lynne has gotten to know her grandson.

“It’s a story about love and never giving up,” Lynne told Red Rocks. I’m experiencing a new world as a result of what has happened and I couldn’t be happier.”

Ziwe (Sunday, Showtime 11:00 p.m.) — Ziwe Fumudoh’s former status as a Desus & Mero writer will be no shocker for anyone who catches her new variety series. She intends to use comedy as a weapon to examine the hardest-hitting issues out there, and those will include cultural issues including race, but also, as she’d like to know (of Fran Lebowitz), “What bothers you more, slow walkers or racism?” Ziwe shall spread her brand of unfiltered chaos, which viewers of her YouTube-turned-Instagram Live comedy show, Baited, will recognize. This week, Ziwe will be presiding over a focus group for real-life women who are burdened with the name “Karen.”

Mythic Quest: Season 2 (Apple TV+ series) — Two pandemic specials sustained viewers between seasons of Rob McElhenney’s workplace comedy, which shall see plenty of awkward maneuvering while the crew comes back to the office after you-know-what happened. In short, sometimes the bigger battle than the work itself is learning (and in this case, relearning) how to achieve harmony with one’s coworkers, but here’s great news: Snoop Dogg stops by this season to spread his feel-good… vibes.

Jupiter’s Legacy (Netflix series) — Kick-Ass and Kingsman creator Mark Millar is to thank for this epic superhero series, starring a heavily bearded Josh Duhamel as The Utopian. He’s the head of a superhero family that’s hoping to pass the torch to a new generation, but (no real surprise) things aren’t going well. Yes, this description does evoke shades of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible (on Amazon), but the vibe is less R-rated and also entertaining on its own merits. No spoilers here, but there are twists involved with this family’s ethics as heroes, and the show answers a lot of questions left open by Marvel Studios’ The Avengers with all of its collateral damage.

SNL (Saturday, NBC 10:30 p.m.) — Elon Musk hosts with musical guest Miley Cyrus.

A Black Lady Sketch Show (Friday, HBO 11:00 p.m.) — The fast-paced, quick-witted narrative series returns with loads of celebrity guests, but of course, the sketches all happen by the grace of the core cast, including Robin Thede, Ashley Nicole Black, and Gabrielle Dennis with Issa Rae executive producing,

Fear the Walking Dead (Sunday, AMC 9:00 p.m.) — Weeks after the show brilliantly subverted Negan’s storyline, Grace copes with amnesia after losing years of life with her friends. Can she put the puzzle pieces together?

Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist (Sunday, NBC 9:00 p.m.) — Jane Levy’s so great here, and this week, Zoe goes to therapy to look back on her first day on the SPRQPoint job.

The Nevers (Sunday, HBO 9:00 p.m.) — This Joss Whedon-created show (with a steampunk elephant in the corner) sees Penance struggling with the moral implications of Amalia’s plan, and there’s a pending execution on the horizon.

City On A Hill (Sunday, Showtime 9:00 p.m.) — Grace can’t overlook the criminal activity of her sons and must take action, while Jackie confronts her over the Copeland territory shootout.

Mare Of Easttown (Sunday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — Kate Winslet returns not only to TV but to HBO as a hard-vaping detective in a small town where she both portrays and elevates the “complicated” cop trope. This week, Mare must step back from the case while Colin confronts a local priest about the suspicious circumstances of his arrival.

Couples Therapy (Sunday, Showtime 10:00 & 10:30 p.m.) — Dr. Orna Guralnik is guiding a new trio of couples through all of their conflict and resentments and otherwise unhealthy behavior, all with the hope of keeping them together.

Last Week Tonight (Sunday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — Please, let John Oliver tackle Ted Cruz again.

Here are some more fresh streaming picks:

From Cradle To Stage (Paramount+ series) — The premiere episode of this Dave Grohl-directed series follows Dave and his mom, Virginia, taking a pilgrimage of sorts to Las Vegas, where they meet with Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds and his mom, Christine. It’s the first of six similarly-themed installments that will warm the hardest of hearts. Moms rule! Hug your mom, and then watch this show.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Season 1 Premiere (Disney+ series) — You might prefer to think of this show as the Star Wars franchise’s version of D.C.’s Suicide Squad, but fear no Leto-Joker intrusion. Instead, this The Clone Wars spinoff follows the conclusion of its flagship series that recently wound down on Disney+. Dave Filoni (also of The Mandalorian and Rebels) is executive producing here, and the show focuses on a mercenary squad of sorts that’s made up of (as the title indicates) “the Bad Batch” or Clone Force 99. These elite soldiers stand apart from standard clones due to their unique physical capabilities like super strength, super eyesight, and so on. They’ll try to find their place in a post-Clone War era, and good luck to them.

That Damn Michael Che (HBO Max series) — This show’s title kindly tells us which SNL star will be front and center. However, several other SNL stars from today and yesteryear shall be right beside him, and that includes Colin Quinn, who previously admitted that he wasn’t the best fit for Weekend Update, but he seems to be a good fit for a priest who’s gearing himself up to hear all of Michael Che’s sins. This season also won’t shy away from tackling the all-too-timely issue of policing. Yes, the series promises appearances from Cecily Strong, Heidi Gardner, Ellen Cleghorne, and Colin Jost. Also expect to see Billy Porter, Method Man, Omari Hardwick, and Geoffrey Owens.

Girls5Eva (Peacock series) — Tina Fey and Robert Carlock haven’t swung and missed yet while executive producing together, and here’s their latest joint project about a one-and-done, Spice Girls-esque 1990s girl group who get one more shot at stardom. Unfortunately, they’re all balancing real-life stressors like family, day jobs, and aches and pains that one doesn’t exactly deal with during early-20s life when abusing one’s body simply comes with the territory. Busy Phillips stars alongside Sarah Bareilles, Paula Pell, and Renée Elise Goldsberry.

Years ago, Seth Rogen shared a wild anecdote about the time he got to meet George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, only to have Lucas spend a concerning amount of time sharing his belief that the world was going to end in 2012 to the noticeable embarrassment of Spielberg.

“George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is gonna end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it,” Rogen told WENN back in 2011. “He’s going on about the tectonic plates and all the time Spielberg is, like, rolling his eyes, like, ‘My nerdy friend won’t shut up, I’m sorry…’”

To this day, Rogen remains convinced that Lucas was actually serious about his theory, which obviously didn’t pan out. While promoting his upcoming collections of essays, Yearbook, which recounts the meeting with the Star Wars creator, Rogen stopped by Conan O’Brien’s podcast to explain why he still believes Lucas wasn’t joking with his apocalyptic prophecy and clarify that Lucas “will not be happy” with the story re-circulating. Via IndieWire:

“We [made] a joke like, if you’ve got a spaceship to escape Earth, can we get a seat on that thing?” Rogen said. “And he was like, ‘No.’ It makes me think he wasn’t joking because, if you were joking, you would just say ‘Yes’… But, no, he said, ‘No.’ To this day, I am confounded and plagued by that story.”

Rogen also shared the Lucas story in his latest interview with British GQ, where he remembers the Bearded One looking at him during his doomsday prediction and saying, “I know it’s gonna happen… it’s science. And I know science.”

(Via IndieWire)

With the Mac Miller estate announcing The Book Of Mac: Remembering Mac Miller releasing this October, fans may be surprised to learn that Donna-Claire Chesman’s book isn’t the only one about the rapper planned for release in the next year. Journalist Paul Cantor also has a biography in the works called Most Dope: The Extraordinary Life Of Mac Miller with a release date of January 17, but unlike Chesman’s book, Cantor’s effort has drawn the ire of Miller’s estate.

Sharing a statement through publicity company Orienteer’s Nick Dierl, Miller’s estate denounced the upcoming project, saying that it was “not authorized or endorsed by Malcolm’s family” and noted that Cantor wasn’t closely connected with Mac during the rapper’s life. The statement also points out the Cantor was advised that “the family and friends of Malcolm were uncomfortable with him authoring this biography.” The fact that the book has since been made available for pre-order also rubbed Mac’s family the wrong way, prompting them to wonder if the release date was announced to take advantage of the Book Of Mac pre-order in hopes of confusing fans.

The family expresses disappointment with Cantor and Abrams Press for the move and for setting the release date so close to Mac’s birthday (January 18). “With that in mind,” the statement reads, “We urge those that wish to support Malcolm and his legacy to abstain from purchasing this new book.” You can read the full statement below.

Mac Miller is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.