Month: June 2021

In 2019, Clairo quickly established herself as an up-and-comer to keep an eye on. Her debut album, Immunity, earned a ton of acclaim, and months later, in October 2020, “Sofia” became her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. That’s a tough act to follow, but now, Clairo is ready to do just that: Today, she announced that her second album, Sling, is set for release on July 26 via Fader Label and Republic Records. Furthermore, it’s produced by Jack Antonoff.

She preceded that news yesterday by guesting on The Tonight Show to premiere a new song from the album, “Blouse.” Her performance was sparse, with just vocals and acoustic guitar. The studio version, which is out now, has some more compositional adornments, including vocals from Lorde. This is their second collaboration of the day, as Clairo appears on Lorde’s latest, “Solar Power” (which also features Phoebe Bridgers).

Clairo shared a message about “Blouse” on social media, writing, “Joanie, my dog, opened up my world in ways I didn’t think were capable. By caring for her, it forced me to face my own thoughts about parenthood and what it would mean to me. stories as lessons, regrets as remorse.. thinking about something/someone before yourself. It’s a glimpse into a world where I found that domesticity is what I was missing.”

Listen to the studio version of “Blouse” above and check out the Tonight Show performance below.

Sling is out 7/16 via Fader Label/Republic Records. Pre-order it here.

The problem, as I see it, is that television is kind of broken. It didn’t used to be broken. It was all very regimented and orderly and it kind of stunk, if we’re being honest about it. Shows were on certain channels at certain times and you had to be in front of your television with that channel on at that time and if you weren’t you just never got to see them. But then some people invented some technology and other people got some ideas and now shows are everywhere, all over the place, at your fingertips all day long, sometimes at a website where you can also order, like, coffee tables or soup. It’s weird. And broken. Just a mess.

But we are making progress, I think. We’re taking baby steps in the right direction. Some of the newer streaming services are moving away from the “dump a whole season of episodes at once” thing, which is good, as we’ve discussed, because that model just makes for a very siloed and isolating viewing experience. Television is more fun when you experience it with other people, whether that’s in-person or online, talking at the water cooler about a recent episode or reading borderline unhinged blogs filled with theories about what might happen next. It’s good that weekly episodes are making a comeback. I support it wholeheartedly.

But now, I’m going to need us all to take this one step further: We have to start releasing these episodes at a normal hour.

Here’s what happens right now: The streaming services that release one episode per week — your Disney and Apple Pluses, your HBO Maxes, etc. — drop them on their sites at midnight Pacific time, 3 a.m. Eastern time, usually on a Thursday into Friday. That’s fine for a fun comedy like a Hacks or a Ted Lasso, where you’ll probably just watch it over the weekend at your leisure and do not generally have to worry about avoiding spoilers. It’s another thing entirely when it’s some huge deal show that websites and excited social media users want to discuss in granular detail as soon as possible. Because now you are navigating a minefield.

You really only have two options, if you’re the type of person who enjoys those shows and the discussions that form around them.

OPTION ONE: You can wake up a full hour early in the morning and watch the show as the sun rises, with little crusties still in your eyes, just angry and groggy and miserable and waiting for the caffeine to get into your bloodstream, hoping that no one else in your house wakes up to distract you in the small window you have before work or class or other obligations kick in, at which point you could find yourself shouting things like “NOT NOW, BRENDAN, BABY YODA IS FLYING A SPACESHIP” at 6:45 a.m. on a Friday morning like a freaking lunatic.

OPTION TWO: You can behave like a normal human and plan to watch the episode at a regular television-viewing time, after dinner or on a lazy weekend afternoon, and spend every second of your life between when you wake up that day and when you finally finish the episode bobbing and weaving to avoid having it spoiled for you by a tweet or an Instagram comment or Brendan, and if you let your guard down at any point you might find yourself shouting something like “DAMMIT, THE TWIST ABOUT BABY YODA FLYING THE SPACESHIP IS RUINED” inside a Panera at lunchtime like a freaking lunatic.

It’s not ideal. That’s what I’m getting at. Releasing an episode at a time of day when no reasonable person can be expected to watch it and then kicking off this kind of free-for-all is madness. It’s borderline supervillain behavior. Do we have bigger problems? Yes, sure, fine. Should we all try to chill out a bit, just in general? Also yes, as soon as possible. But does “pushing an already on-edge society over that edge through the seemingly innocent policy of releasing its favorite shows in a way that will leave people either sleep-deprived or hyper-vigilant or both throughout their Friday until they tear each other apart because PEOPLE LIKE BRENDAN DON’T RESPECT BOUNDARIES” sound like a slow-burning plan that the Joker would come up with to turn Gotham against itself? I mean…

I’m being dramatic here. I know I’m being dramatic. I’m doing it to make a point. But still, we don’t have to do it this way. We don’t have to release episodes in the middle of the night and spend our days with our hands over our eyes and ears in a futile attempt to make sure that the people who watched the show at the crack of dawn like maniacs or bloggers (not exclusive groups) don’t go and ruin it for the rest of us, even by accident. Things were definitely not perfect the old way, as discussed already, but there was at least some order and structure there. I don’t see why we can’t adopt the good parts of that (episodes premiering in the evening at a set time) and heave out the parts that stunk (not being able to watch them at any other time). It seems so simple.

And so, for the sake of our vulnerable and fried society, I simply ask that streaming services start releasing their individual episodes at a reasonable hour when a larger number of people can watch them right away. I know there’s no perfect solution. Some people work second shift or have plans or are members of popular rock bands that have concerts to perform when primetime television typically airs. But this will help a lot of people. Like me, and some of you, and even freaking Brendan, who will GET THIS ENTIRE HOAGIE WHIZZED AT HIS HEAD IF HE SAYS ONE MORE WORD ABOUT BABY YODA OR THE SPACESHIP, I SWEAR TO GOD.

I think 9 p.m. Eastern will work. Then we can all watch the shows at night and discuss them in the morning like civilized people. Thank you.

A recent study conducted by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California found that Muslims are woefully underrepresented in film. The report, “Missing & Maligned: The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movies,” discovered that in 200 popular films released between 2017 and 2019 in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, Muslims accounted for only 1.6 percent of speaking roles. To break it down even further, “While Muslims make up 24 percent of the global population, they made up less than 2 percent of the films researched, meaning out of 8,965 speaking characters in 200 movies, 144 were Muslim. Of the 144 Muslim characters, about 34 were Muslim women,” according to USA Today.

“The representation of Muslims on screen feeds the policies that get enacted, the people that get killed, the countries that get invaded,” Oscar-nominated actor Riz Ahmed said in a statement released with the study. “The data doesn’t lie. This study shows us the scale of the problem in popular film, and its cost is measured in lost potential and lost lives.” Ahmed has partnered with the Pillars Fund and the Ford Foundation to create the Pillars Artist Fellowship, which will give $25,000 fellowships to Muslim storytellers:

To address the many issues the study highlighted, the Pillars Fund, in partnership with Ahmed and Left Handed Films, will help select the first set of candidates for the Pillars Artist Fellowship later this year. The fellowship will focus on aspiring Muslim directors and writers in the U.S. and U.K. and provide mentorship and other support in addition to the $25,000 award. An advisory committee of Muslim artists for the fellowship includes Ahmed, Mahershala Ali, Sana Amanat, Karim Amer, Rosa Attab, Lena Khan, Nida Manzoor, Hasan Minhaj, Jehane Noujaim, and Ramy Youssef.

Ahmed also discussed the study’s findings in a video, where he said he’s “fed up.” He continued, “The progress that’s being made by a few of us doesn’t paint an overall picture of progress if most of the portrayals of Muslims on screen are either nonexistent or entrenched in those stereotypical, toxic, two-dimensional portrayals.”

You can watch it above.

(Via USA Today and the Hollywood Reporter)

There are so many moments and achievements that arrived for Doja Cat’s thanks to her sophomore album, Hot Pink. A chart-topping song and a TikTok trend are just the half of it, but now that’s all in the past as she’s ready to start a new chapter in her career. Doja’s third album, Planet Her finally has a release date as she announced earlier this week that it would arrive on June 25. With “Kiss Me More,” her collaboration with SZA leading the way, Doja Cat returns with “Need To Know” as the second single from the album.

The track is a euphoric effort supported by a hard-knocking bass and Doja’s repeated requests for a happy ending to her night with her adoring lover. “Wanna know what it’s like / Baby, show me what it’s like,” she proclaims on the song. “I don’t really got no type / I just wanna f*ck all night.” Prior to the song’s release, she spoke about it in a post to Twitter. “Need to know isn’t even the next single is just some sh*t before the next more important single comes out for you to enjoy,” she wrote.

In addition to sharing the release date for Planet Her, Doja also revealed the tracklist and artwork for the album. Its cover art depicts her laying naked on a sparkly neon-colored rock with bright colored particles covering her private parts. As for the tracklist, Planet Her is comprised of 14 songs and guest appearances from Young Thug, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, JID, and SZA.

You can listen to “Need To Know” in the video above.

Planet Her is out 6/25 via RCA Records.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Towards the end of 2020, The Recording Academy announced the nominees for the 2021 Grammy Awards. Amid all the controversy that would pour out after the nominations were revealed, there were certainly celebratory moments for a number of artists like Roddy Ricch. The Compton native received six nominations at the show, which included nods in the Best Rap Song, Song Of The Year, and Record Of The Year categories. Despite it being a high moment, Roddy felt it was ruined for him as just months prior, Kanye West, one of his idols, delivered a golden middle-finger to the Academy by peeing in one his Grammy awards, an act Roddy would criticize him for.

“If I get nominated for six Grammys and a n**** I look to that had 22, 23, 24, 25 of these motherf*ckers and I come in here, I get nominated for six this year, I feel like that’s a good number,” Roddy said during a March Instagram livestream. “And this year this n**** just pissed on that sh*t. Like, how you think that make the world look at my accomplishment, n****? I did all this shit and you pissing on sh*t. That sh*t be lame. I don’t really like that sh*t.” However, during a recent interview on Los Angeles’ Big Boy’s Neighborhood, Roddy clarified the comments he made.

“I feel like what I was saying, I needed to gather my thoughts more and say it how I wanted to say it,” Roddy admitted. “What I was saying was, I grew up looking to a Kanye or Jay as like, if I do this, I want to have 27, 30 Grammys because that’s what they did. When I seen him pissing on a Grammy, it kinda rubbed me wrong ’cause I was like, damn n****, now that I’m getting nominated, I feel like everybody’s sh*tting on the accolades.’”

You can listen to Roddy’s comments in the video above.

Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ryan Reynolds has got the kind of life that makes you want to punch him: He’s a talented actor who’s good-looking with a natural affability and is genuinely very funny. He and Gossip Girl star/fashion icon Blake Lively have been married for going on nine years now and seem to have a very happy family life with their three daughters at their country estate in New York, where Martha Stewart is their neighbor. Hell, they probably even swap pie recipes. And you know those crusts are being made from scratch then probably cooling on a windowsill somewhere!

Reynolds is also the face of an amazingly popular superhero franchise with Deadpool. And, in recent years, he has proven himself to be a pretty savvy entrepreneur with his purchase of Mint Mobile and his investment in Aviation Gin, which sold for $610 million in 2020 (though he remains the face of the brand).

Yet Reynolds still somehow found time to take a break from his seemingly perfect life to poke a little fun at his embarrassment of riches in the charmingly snarky way that only he can by creating a Father’s Day-themed cocktail video for Aviation, in which he mixes up a special Father’s Day cocktail: The Vasectomy.

In addition to watching Reynolds be a kind of terrible bartender, he describes the cocktail’s ingredients by delivering such gems as “Fill a tall glass with ice, the way children fill our lives with so much joy” and “Pour three ounces of tonic—so bubbly, just like I feel every day after I wake up after a long, full night’s sleep.”

You can watch the full video above.

(Via The Wrap)

The worst thing that can be said about Operation Tango is that it didn’t come out when all of us were stuck inside, because it does an excellent job connecting two people who are in separate rooms. Operation Tango is a co-op game that can only be played by two people using two separate screens. One player is the agent and the other is a supporting hacker. It’s up to both players to work together to complete the task in front of them, be it extracting a poisonous gas from a safe, stealing sensitive information, or stealing files off a moving train.

The game requires a human partner somewhere else, no A.I. or couch co-op in sight here. The game’s main menu only has an option to invite a friend or find a game via code. Which would have been perfect about a year ago when much more of the world was stuck in their houses trying to find ways to communicate with each other online. Still, that doesn’t make Operation Tango any less fun right now. In fact, it may be exactly what you and a friend are looking for anytime at all.

A game of Operation Tango gives players two options: One can be the hacker and the other the agent. There’s then a brief explainer on what the mission is, as well as a loose guide of what to do so the players aren’t completely lost. The fun of Operation Tango is more about figuring out how to solve the objectives given to the players and responding to quick changes during the mission. There are some slight puzzle aspects to every mission, but you’re rarely left wondering what to do next.

The best part of Operation Tango is the variety of these missions. There’s a variety of sequences players go through, and every level features a new challenge. If one level seems dull or not entertaining, you can be confident you’ll get something different to do in a later mission. Hackers and agents also have very different screens and objectives, so switching roles presents new opportunities to find something worth playing. The devs did a good job of keeping both roles fun and varied, and though the agent is slightly more entertaining to play, the hacker-focused missions can be really exciting and create some of the best visuals in the game.

The game itself looks great, with a cell-shaded 3D art style that sets the game about 10-15 years into the future. Playing as the hacker, that palate is more colorful, with an almost cyberpunk style. It’s a good contrast that fits the extremely technological universe this game has created.

Operation Tango does a good job of setting you up for success, but your overall enjoyment is heavily determined by who you play with. This is not a game that is going to be fun with someone that you’ve never met or don’t have particularly good communication with. Longtime friends, significant others, or someone you frequently play games with are the ideal partners here. I personally played with someone I’ve been in an Overwatch group with since 2017. We already have good communication so it made communicating in Operation Tango far more manageable, and that’s important because communication is the key to the game at the end of the day.

That’s because nothing in the game is impossible to explain, but it’s always going to require just enough thought to be a little uncomfortable. For example, at one point we had to find a particular key and they were all similar in design. We had a timer that was quickly counting down on us, but our years of experience playing games together made it something much more manageable than trying to describe a key to a stranger. That said, the game has a fairly generous checkpoint in case of these kind of failures. Missions can even be quit and restarted from the most recent checkpoint, which came in handy when a glitch later disconnected us and forced a restart. It’s also good for when players start to reach some of the later missions, which can take up to an hour if not longer.

Operation Tango would have been perfect a year ago, but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t play it right now. It can be beaten in a single session or two and can be replayed a second time as a different role. This gives it a little bit of replayability, but unfortunately, it does mean that after a single playthrough the missions lose some of the surprise aspects. The core mechanics here, however, would be great to use in the future if new missions are added. Just make sure you’re feeling good about your dance partner before you tango.

Kanye West has approximately 30.3 million followers on Twitter. The number of people that Kanye follows is substantially smaller: 218, as of this post. Interestingly, Kim Kardashian is no longer among that select group.

As Page Six notes, West recently unfollowed Kardashian as well as her sisters Kourtney and Khloé. It’s not clear, though, when that change happened, whether it was prompted by the birthday wishes he received from Kim and Khloé or by Kim opening up about their divorce on last night’s Keeping Up With The Kardashians series finale. It may also be related to reports that West has been dating model Irina Shayk for at least a few weeks, which Kardashian is reportedly fine with.

It’s worth noting, however, that West currently follows just one account on Instagram, and it’s that of Kardashian.

On yesterday’s episode of Keeping Up, Kardashian explained why she decided to move on from her marriage, attributing part of the reason to a lack of overlap in their lives: “I want someone where we have the same shows in common. I want someone that wants to work out with me. Like, every single day, Khloé and Tristan and I would workout at 6 a.m., the three of us, and I was third-wheeling it for a good eight months in quarantine, and I was so envious of that. I was like, ‘Wow, it’s, like, the little things I don’t have.’ I have all the big things. I have the extravagant everything you can possibly imagine and no one will ever do it like that — I know that, and I’m grateful for those experiences — but I think I’m ready for the smaller experiences that I think will mean a lot.”

Jeffrey Toobin is back, baby! And Trevor Noah just can’t look. But as his job sort of requires it, The Daily Show host steeled himself and watched through his fingers as Toobin made his triumphant return to CNN on Thursday, where he sat down to chat about recent legal news with CNN Newsroom co-host Alisyn Camerota. But first—in what we can only presume was a condition of his return—Toobin and Camerota spent some time talking about… The Incident. Noah shared a cringe-y clip from the sit-down, and no doubt washed his hands after handling the footage.

For those of you with short memories or who have wondered where The Toobs has been: Eight months ago he was barred from public view after a roomful of Zoom users at The New Yorker saw more of Toobin than anyone who isn’t Mrs. Toobin would ever want. Put less delicately: He jerked off during a Zoom meeting when he apparently thought his camera was off and the other meeting attendees were in another Zoom room. But it wasn’t, and they weren’t—at least not all of them. Hasn’t this guy ever heard of a bathroom? Or just a closed door? Hell, we’ll take a towel! Or just logging off for chrissakes!

At any rate: Camerota gave a quick rundown of the course of events as we know them to Toobin, who confirmed that the details were indeed correct. But he did underscore the point that he “didn’t think other people could see me.” He went on to say how he has spent the past several “miserable” months working on making himself a better person through therapy and public service, including working in a food bank, in order “to become the kind of person that people can trust again.”

After a few seconds of screaming and hiding behind his hands, Noah said that “I cannot think of anything more awkward to watch than that interview. Ok, maybe one other thing…” He also admitted that he didn’t really understand the connection between literally being caught with your pants down and working in a food kitchen. “If anything that’s just unfair to the people at the food kitchen.

But the real losers here were the viewers. Because while watching someone talk about the time he got caught masturbating on camera is as awkward as you’d think it might be, the rehearsed and very straightforward tone of it all made it even more squirmy. It sort of felt like Cersei Lannister’s “Walk of Shame” in Game of Thrones, except we—the viewers—were the ones being pelted with sh*t. On the bright side, Toobin made it all the way through the interview without having a wank. So there’s that!

You can watch the full clip above; the Toobin segment starts around the 6:20 mark.

While promoting his new Netflix movie The Ice Road, Laurence Fishburne has confirmed that he’s reprising his role of The Bowery King for John Wick 4. Considering that Fishburne was the last character that Keanu Reeves’ supremely pissed character spoke to during the final moments of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, and it sure seemed like the two were about to wreak some havoc, yet there was never a guarantee that Fishburne would return. Case in point: He wasn’t invited back to The Matrix 4, and the dude’s Morpheus.

However, the Wick films have had no trouble bringing back Fishburne, and he’s even had a look at the script for the highly anticipated fourth installment, which he says will start shooting in Berlin later this year. Via Collider:

“I read the script. It’s really, really cool. As much as it’s the same world as the other three films, it’s just deeper. It’s much deeper in terms of the code of the assassin and the relationship that he has with one character in particular who I think Mr. Watanabe is playing… is really the heart and soul of it.”

As Collider notes, Watanabe is not a reference to actor but Ken Watanabe, but is actually the name of a character that will have a special connection to Reeves’ Wick. That character is most likely being played by IP Man and Rogue One star Donnie Yen, who recently joined the cast of John Wick 4 as an “old friend” of Reeves’ assassin.

(Via Collider)