Month: August 2021

These days, we could all use something to smile about, and few things do a better job at it than watching actor Christopher Walken dance.

A few years back, some genius at HuffPo Entertainment put together a clip featuring Walken dancing in 50 of his films, and it was taken down. But it re-emerged in 2014 and the world has been a better place for it.

Walken became famous as a serious actor after his breakout roles in “Annie Hall” (1977) and “The Deer Hunter” (1978) so people were pretty shocked in 1981 when he tap-danced in Steve Martin’s “Pennies from Heaven.”

Christopher Walken Dance Now Full HD edit

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But Walken actually started his career in entertainment as a dancer. He took his first dance lessons at the age of three. “It was very typical for people—and I mean working-class people—to send their kids to dancing school,” he told Interview Magazine. “You’d learn ballet, tap, acrobatics, usually you’d even learn to sing a song,” he later explained to Interview magazine.

As a child, he also studied tap dance and toured in musicals. He even danced with a young Liza Minelli. “I’d been around dancers my whole life, having watched my parents make musicals at MGM, and Chris reminded me of so many of the dancers I knew growing up,” Minelli said according to Entertainment Weekly. “He’s talented in every way.”

Craig Zadan, Executive Producer of “Peter Pan Live!,” agrees with Minelli. “I think that if he had been around in the heyday of MGM, he would have been a big star of musicals on film,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

His dance moves were put center stage in 2001 in Spike Jonze’s video for Fatboy Slim’s song “Weapon of Choice.” Walken says he did it because one day he’ll be too old to cut a rug. “You think, ‘Well, do it now!’ You know, you get too decrepit to dance,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

Fatboy Slim – Weapon Of Choice

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This article originally appeared on 11.20.15

A drama teacher had the most polite “screw you” response to the mom who stopped her kids from taking classes with him upon discovering that he was gay. Michael Neri is a drama teacher from Kidderminster, England. He runs Talking Props Theatre School, a performing arts school for children ages 8 to 13.

A mother signed her kids up to take theater classes at Talking Props, but upon discovering that Neri was gay, texted him to let her know that she was withdrawing them, citing her “Christian” beliefs. He responded by gracefully shutting her down.

via Facebook/Michael Neri

Look, lady, nobody has time for bigotry anymore. ESPECIALLY not in the performing arts.

Mike Lindell‘s 72-hour Cyber Symposium has been a series of non-stop blunders that culminated in the most epic fail of all when his own cyber security expert revealed that the terabytes of “evidence” that Lindell has been boasting about does not prove the 2020 presidential was stolen. It was basically random garbage. Considering the entire point of the symposium was for the MyPillow CEO to prove once and for all that he has the goods on election fraud, it was bad.

Things didn’t improve when a frantic Lindell agreed to an interview with CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan on Thursday night that quickly went south. When Sullivan brought up the elephant in the room, namely that Lindell’s proof of election fraud had been debunked my his own team, the MyPillow CEO lost it.

Via Raw Story:

“No. Just forget about the evidence,” snapped Lindell. “If I’m right that China took our country, right now, do you care? Would that bother you? Does that bother you?”

When Sullivan noted that having evidence is important when it comes to backing up serious claims like election fraud, Lindell flipped out again and called the interview a “hit piece.”

Prior to his CNN meltdown, Lindell had ended his now thoroughly debunked symposium with a teary-eyed claim that he had been attacked at his hotel on Wednesday evening. He later claimed it was the work of Antifa, but provided no evidence that he was actually attacked, so at least he was on brand.

(Via Raw Story)

Chvrches have been on something of an ’80s-inspired tear in the lead-up to their forthcoming album, Screen Violence. Earlier in June, the Glaswegian synth-pop trio released a collaboration with The Cure’s Robert Smith, “How Not To Drown.” The band again dipped into prime Carter/Reagan-era territory by trading remixes — “Good Girls” and “Turning The Bones” — with horror-movie master John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing, The Fog, They Live). Now, Chvrches have released a cover of Echo And The Bunnymen’s 1983 classic “The Killing Moon” for Amazon. Check it out below.

“The Killing Moon,” of course, fits in nicely with Chvrches’ current interest in ’80s filmography; as lead singer Lauren Mayberry notes below, the track famously soundtracked one of the most well-known movies set during that decade: Donnie Darko.

“We all love Echo And The Bunnymen and had wanted to cover ‘The Killing Moon’ for a long time and jumped at the chance when Amazon Music gave us the opportunity,” said lead singer Lauren Mayberry in a statement. “Screen Violence, the new Chvrches album, is very much inspired by movies and ‘Killing Moon’ feels almost synonymous with Donnie Darko, which is a film we all love.”

Screen Violence is out 8/27 via Glassnote Records. Pre-order it here.

Earlier in the week, Quentin Tarantino made headlines after revealing that he’s spent decades holding firm to an adolescent vow to never give his mother a penny if his screenwriting career ever took off. The distinctive writer/director made the admission on The Moment podcast, where he told Billions co-creator Brian Koppelman about the childhood grudge that he’s never let go. However, Tarantino’s mother, Connie Zastoupil, has issued a response to his “vow,” and unlike her son, she appears to be taking the high road in a statement sent to USA Today:

“Regarding my son Quentin – I support him, I’m proud of him and love him and his growing new family,” she said. “It gave me great joy to dance at his wedding and receive his news upon the birth of my Grandson Leo.”

Zastoupil added that it’s easy for podcast comments to “spin and go viral without full context” and that she does “not wish to participate in this salacious transactional media frenzy.”

According to Tarantino, the vow started when he got in trouble at school for writing screenplays in class. Like any normal parent, his mom took him aside and attempted to set him straight, but the director has been forever stuck on her choice of words.

“In the middle of her little tirade, she said, ‘Oh, and by the way, this little ‘writing career’ — with the finger quotes and everything — this little ‘writing career’ that you’re doing? That sh*t is f*cking over,” Tarantino said.

As Tarantino went on, he revealed he did help his mom out of a “jam with the IRS,” but otherwise, he’s held firm to his vow. “There are consequences for your words as you deal with your children,” he continued. “Remember there are consequences for your sarcastic tone about what’s meaningful to them.”

(Via USA Today)

In addition to the 11-song soundtrack released to DSPs by Interscope today, the 2022 iteration of Madden NFL also includes another 40 songs which can be found both in the game and on the official Madden NFL 22 Soundtrack playlist on Spotify. While the original soundtrack boasts appearances from 42 Dugg, Jack Harlow, JID, Swae Lee, and Tierra Whack, the playlist version on Spotify adds dozens of previously released tracks.

However, it looks like the curators missed out on the theme-appropriate “The Game” from Denzel Curry, which the Miami rapper shared with a retro-aesthetic video inspired by the original 1995 version of Madden. A thumping, borderline menacing beat backs Denzel’s ruminations on “The Game” — the rap one — as a game plays out in the video with updated graphics reflecting a team named for Denzel’s most recent album, Zuu, and with himself included as the star running back.

Meanwhile, Curry himself has been relatively busy for an artist who hasn’t dropped a new project in two years (even allowing for the pandemic). He’s guested on tracks with fellow rabble-rousers Jasiah and Rico Nasty (“Art Of War“), collaborated with DC Comics on a companion to the Death Metal miniseries (“Bad Luck“), and teamed up with Snot (“Sangria“) and JID (“Bruuuh” Remix) in past months, all while preparing a new album that has fans pretty excited.

Listen to Denzel Curry’s “The Game” above.

Kevin Hart’s new Peacock show promises to be full of celebrity interviews with some wine, which (one would think) should loosen some lips. And that’s what happened during an awkward exchange between Hart and guest Don Cheadle, only things may have gotten a little too loose? It’s difficult to pinpoint what really happened here, or if the exchange was pre-planned/staged in some way yet went off the rails. Who knows! Cheadle’s already dealt with one recent awkward situation, which resulted him admitting that, yes, it’s bizarre to be nominated for an Emmy for his very brief appearance in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Now this? Damn.

Well, “damn” was the exact word that came out of Hart’s mouth when Cheadle casually mentioned his age (56 years), which was greeted by a swift, “Damn!” Whether or not he meant this like, “Dude, no way, you don’t look 56!” or, you know, something worse, we might never know. Hart swiftly apologized, and oh my goodness, that made it worse. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry… understand, I did not mean it the way it came out,” Hart said while appearing to want to erase what he said. That led to this from Cheadle: “We’ll take a poll on how you meant it with people here later, after the show’s over.”

Staged or not, Cheadle then dominated the situation. Hart insisted that his “damn” sprang from “a place of love,” and from there, we received a discussion on different types of “damns” and their meaning. Was it a real argument, and does it matter? Cheadle pulled off a “run the tape back” type of attitude, and ultimately, he ended up being far funnier than Hart in this instance.

Whatever the case, people couldn’t stop laughing at the clip.

Did Cheadle come out on top after “suck[ing] ten years out of Kevin Hart’s soul”? You be the judge, but oh, it was both painful and wonderful to watch them hash it out.

The Killers released their album Imploding The Mirage last year, and now they’ve quickly followed it up with Pressure Machine, a new LP that’s out today. One of the highlights is “Runaway Horses,” a tender track that includes a feature from Phoebe Bridgers.

Speaking of the song and Bridgers’ involvement with it, Brandon Flowers recently said, “We definitely needed a female voice on ‘Runaway Horses.’ She has a history, I think, with not only that type of music but even in her lineage — her grandpa has rodeo ties. It just felt right.”

He also said of Bridgers in general:

“She knocked us out with a couple beautiful covers, ‘Read My Mind’ and ‘Human.’ She’s been on my radar since I first heard ‘Funeral’ years ago, and you just know there’s something special about her. It was nice to know that she was also a fan of ours. It just kind of came together naturally. It was fast. It was during the middle [of the pandemic], everyone was wearing masks. I don’t think we ever really saw her face. She came into the studio, she went into a darkly lit live room. She had already gotten really familiar with the song, did a couple takes, and then that was it. She disappeared into the Los Angeles night [laughs].”

Listen to “Runaway Horses” above.

Pressure Machine is out now via Island Records. Get it here.

Harlem rapper Dave East has been around for a minute, but absent the big-name co-signs or signature hits that drove some of his peers’ careers, mainstream success has eluded him. With that said, his latest project, the Harry Fraud-produced Hoffa, is a masterclass in ignoring mass appeal in favor of crafting high-quality work and staying true to yourself — the album Dave East always needed in his catalog. However, it turns out one of East’s peers had some advice for him to improve his chances to gain traction on future projects.

Speaking with Apple Music 1’s Ebro, East recalled how J. Cole helped him make some adjustments to improve his rap voice — a key component in any rap artist’s success. “I got a chance to lock in with J. Cole, just me and him in the studio with the engineer, and he asked that same question, like, ‘Bro, I’m a fan of what you do, I really respect your pen, but you rap with one tone,’” he recounted. “And I really sat and listened to myself, and a lot of my sh*t is one tone.”

The rest of the session, he said, consisted of “me and him in the studio testing tones. He’s just really seeing how high I can take my voice, how low I can take it, and then he just was like, ‘Apply that to your music. Watch the difference. That’s just something I gotta keep working at, keep working at. I think it will be something dope to add to my music.” Listening to Hoffa, it’s clear the advice paid off, as Dave sounds more energized than ever, partly as a result of Harry Fraud’s complementary beat choices but also because his inflections bring a new-found dimension to his delivery, highlighting the emotional stakes of his rhymes.

Watch Dave East and Harry Fraud’s interview with Ebro below.

Tierra Whack‘s latest track, “8,” constitutes her contribution to the soundtrack of the upcoming 2022 edition of EA’s Madden NFL video game series and finds the Philly rapper going in over a grumbly, buzzing beat produced by frequent collaborator J Melodic. It’s a short but hypnotic track that it’s easy to imagine backing a late-night session of shotgun passes and QB dives. Joining Whack on the soundtrack — which is out now on Interscope — are buzzy artists like 42 Dugg, BRS Kash, JID, Sally Sossa, and Tank And The Bangas.

In addition to popping up here, Whack’s latest mercenary efforts have included a collaboration with Lego on “Link” and with her hometown’s NBA franchise on “76.” While the former found her working with school kids to come up with a cute narrative music video as part of the brand’s Rebuild The World campaign, the latter celebrated the 76ers’ playoff run and had Whack name-checking the team’s players while showing off her own ball skills in the video.

Of course, she’s still had time to build on the impressive body of work she kicked off in 2018 with the attention-grabbing Whack World. As well as showing off her impressive, battle-honed flow on freestyles over “Whoopty,” “Last Dayz,” and “Stand Up,” she recently dropped her own original, house-influenced single “Walk The Beat.” She also celebrated her birthday this week.

Listen to “8” above.