Month: August 2021

For many of us, losing the ability to travel this past year has meant losing the opportunity to immerse ourselves in new cities, new cultures, and new flavors. For Chef Ed Szymanski, that adventure roadblock inspired him to get creative when it came to his cuisine.

In the latest episode of Creator Connections, made in partnership with Delta Air Lines, Szymanski shared how the pandemic derailed his plans to travel along the West Coast last year. He wanted to sample the flavors of the sea that places like California and Oregon are known for and use it as the inspiration behind dishes at his restaurant Dame, in Greenwich Village. Instead, he found ways to connect with his community at home via pop-up shops and budget-friendly food staples like the always-classic fish and chips. But the time spent growing roots and giving back only made him more appreciative of the opportunity to travel again.

“Traveling is about people and it’s about the moments I get to share with those people,” Szymanski says. “Those are the things that really broaden my horizons and make me grow as an individual.”

The pandemic didn’t cancel our travel dreams, it just postponed them for a while. Check out Ed’s story above to learn more about his next culinary adventure and how Delta is inspiring him to get out and see the world again.

“I’m so excited to plan again, and to travel,” he says. “I guess I didn’t realize how much I missed that until it was gone.”

Last year, Hit-Boy helped Nas overcome his recent album slump, executive producing the Queens legend’s latest full-length, King’s Disease. The results spoke for themselves; not only was the album credited with breaking rap fans’ prevailing “Nas has a tin ear for beats” narrative, but it was also one of the most critically acclaimed rap projects of the year.

It looks like the two principals were pretty impressed with each other, as they recently announced a follow-up titled King’s Disease II to be released on the same projected date as Kanye West’s Donda. Either that, or it’ll be a Lost Tapes-type release collecting some of the cutting room clippings from the original sessions and stitching them together — which has worked for Nas before on Lost Tapes. Today, they shared the tracklist, revealing collaborations with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Blxst, Eminem, EPMD, Lauryn Hill, and YG.

King’s Disease II will thus mark the second collaboration between Nas and Em and Nas and Lauryn. While Eminem produced Nas’s 2002 God’s Son song “The Cross,” Nas and Ms. Hill collaborated on Nas’ biggest hit to date, 1996’s “If I Ruled The World” from It Was Written. You can see the full tracklist courtesy of Nas’ Instagram below.

Meghan McCain‘s final week on The View continues to be an epic showcase of how much the co-hosts, and guests, love to shade the conservative commentator. During a panel discussion on the contentious issue of making children wear masks as COVID cases spike ahead of the quickly approaching 2021-2022 school year, Whoopi Goldberg didn’t even hide her disdain for McCain, who completely ignored the topic and went on a three minute rant about Lollapalooza and vaccine passports.

McCain’s segment comes in at the 3:10 mark, and instead of responding to Whoopi’s concerns, McCain goes on a tirade about New York Mayor Bill de Blasio who’s going to cause “civil unrest” with his vaccine passport program. McCain also attempts to say that the program will disproportionately affect the Black community, and Whoopi was not pleased with any of it.

As McCain finishes talking about pending sci-fi dystopia (she’s been on a real tear about people fleeing to Arizona), a perturbed Whoopi said, “OK, I’m going to go back to the original question,” and people went nuts for the unbridled shade. Just check out these Twitter reactions that started rolling in immediately after the segment:

Getting shaded by Whoopi now makes two back-to-back episodes of The View where McCain had egg on her face. On Monday’s episode, she notably skipped out on an interview with Mary Trump, who called out McCain for not having the “courage” to discuss the current state of the Republican Party and its allegiance to Donald Trump.

Later that day, McCain reacted to Mary Trump‘s now-viral moment with a profanity-laced tweet. “There is no ‘good’ Trump family member to me,” McCain wrote. “Continue to wish they would all just leave me and my entire family the f*ck alone.”

Otto Porter Jr. was once considered one of the NBA’s rising stars on the wing, as his fourth and fifth seasons in Washington were nothing short of tremendous (14.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.5 steals per game on 50.9/43.7/83.8 shooting over those two seasons).

He looked even better to start his tenure in Chicago, but was shut down after 15 games with the Bulls in 2018-19 and played just 42 games in the two seasons since with the Bulls and Magic due to various injuries. That led to Porter’s free agent market being very poor this summer, with mid-level type offers being the best he could find as teams wanted to see him look like the player he once was before they paid him as such. As a result, Porter went in search of the best possible situation for him to shine and ended up taking a veteran minimum deal with the Warriors, where he could fit in incredibly well.

Even when he hasn’t been consistently healthy, Porter has been an excellent three-point shooter and there are few things higher on the Warriors needs list than more floor spacers. What they get out of Porter beyond that will determine just how much of a steal this is, as will his health. If he’s able to play most of the season, which is certainly a big if given his recent history, the Warriors are getting one of the league’s best shooters and another big, physical wing who can defend multiple positions on the minimum.

It is the exact kind of swing this Warriors team should be taking, and after an underwhelming offseason to this point, signing Porter is arguably the move they’ve made that should excite fans most in the immediate. It is low risk given he’s, effectively, just taking a roster spot previously used for a non-factor in Allen Smailagic, but has the upside to be a real contributor that can elevate both the floor and ceiling of this team. Only time will tell if Porter can stay healthy and what form he can regain, but this has a chance to be one of the best signings of the offseason for anyone.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s political career appears to be crumbling around him, a little over a year after he led New York through the first U.S. wave of the pandemic. Amid mounting sexual harassment allegations (and nursing-home-related accusation) against him, Cuomo’s publisher suspended the paperback edition of his recent book. That’s led to awkwardness at CNN, where host Chris Cuomo admitted that he couldn’t cover his brother’s sexual harassment scandals, and on Tuesday morning, CNN is (of course) one of the outlets reporting on further Andrew Cuomo developments.

The New York Attorney General’s office has released a 165-page report that concludes (via CNN), “Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women in violation of state and federal law.” The report further states, while corroborating allegations from 11 women (9 of those were state employees), that Cuomo facilitated a toxic workplace, which allowed “harassment to occur and created a hostile work environment.”

In the below video, Attorney General Letitia James lays out the allegations against Cuomo, including a workplace-related September 2019 event when he allegedly “grabbed [a] young woman’s butt.” James also describes an account from a state trooper, who was assigned to protect Cuomo and says he groped her. “In an elevator, while standing behind the trooper, he ran his finger from her neck down her spine,” James declared (via the Daily Caller). “Another time — he took his open hand and ran it across her stomach.”

CNN relays a key excerpt from the lengthy NY AG report:

“We also conclude that the Executive Chamber’s culture — one filled with fear and intimidation, while at the same time normalizing the Governor’s frequent flirtations and gender-based comments — contributed to the conditions that allowed the sexual harassment to occur and persist,” investigators Joon Kim and Anne Clark wrote in the report. “That culture also influenced the improper and inadequate ways in which the Executive Chamber has responded to allegations of harassment.”

The report also dug into how Chris Cuomo did advise Andrew, and he also testified during the NY AG’s probe. “During his testimony, Chris Cuomo explained that there was discussion about remedial measures the Chamber should take in light of the sexual harassment allegations, but some people had taken the position that ‘they should just wait,’” The Wrap reports. Meanwhile, Cuomo is expected to hold a briefing on the report on Tuesday afternoon.

(Via CNN, The Wrap & Daily Caller)

The President of Blizzard, J. Allen Brack, will be stepping down from his position effective immediately according to a statement put out by Activision Blizzard on Tuesday. Taking Brack’s place will be Jen O’Neal and Mike Ybarra, however, they will not be given the title of President, but instead are being named “co-leaders” of Blizzard.

Brack released the following statement following the announcement of his departure:

“I am confident that Jen O’neal and Mike Ybarra will provide the leadership Blizzard needs to realize its full potential and will accelerate the pace of change. I anticipate they will do so with passion and enthusiasm and that they can be trusted to lead with the highest levels of integrity and commitment to the components of our culture that make Blizzard so special.”

Brack’s step down comes after a recent employee walkout where employees withheld their labor in protest of how the company was handling a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The walkout also included demands for improved working conditions at Activision Blizzard specifically mentioning “women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups that are vulnerable to gender discrimination not being hired fairly for new roles when compared to men.” The lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard describes a “frat boy” culture with multiple allegations of sexual assault and discrimination against employees.

Blizzard is most well known for developing World of Warcraft, but it has also developed other popular titles such as Overwatch, Starcraft, and Diablo. Their parent company, Activision Blizzard, is most well known for being the publishers of the Call of Duty franchise.

DaBaby’s name has been all over headlines this past week after he made some extremely inaccurate and homophobic comments about HIV/AIDS during his Rolling Loud set. The rant has been condemned by artists like Madonna and Elton John, and even prompted an official statement from GLAADD. DaBaby had been confirmed to perform at several other festivals this year, but event organizers have opted now to pull him from their lineup.

So far, festivals like Lollapalooza, Governor’s Ball, and Day N Vegas have dropped DaBaby from their official lineups after news of his on-stage comments spread. Now, Texas festival Austin City Limits is the latest to follow suit. ACL issued an official statement on their social media Tuesday, saying DaBaby will no longer appear at their two-weekend event in October. “DaBaby will no longer be performing at Austin City Limits Music Festival — lineup update coming soon,” organizers wrote in an announcement.

One week and several celebrity call-outs later, DaBaby finally issued an apology statement Monday. After first complaining that people were quick to condemn him on social media, DaBaby wrote: “I want to apologize to the LGBTQ+ community for the hurtful and triggering comments I made. Again, I apologize for my misinformed comments about HIV/AIDS and I know education on this is important.”

Read DaBaby’s full apology statement here.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has a Stage 4 case of Denial. According to Vanity Fair, the Sunshine State’s COVID status is anything but sunny:

“On Monday, the Sunshine State reported 10,389 hospitalizations, the most statewide at any point during the pandemic, including the height of it in spring 2020. That followed more than 21,000 new infections on Friday, and the news that Florida now reportedly accounts for roughly one in five cases nationally. And local doctors are pretty sure they know who to blame!”

Hmmm… let’s take a guess: Could it be Ron DeSantis, the stubborn governor who has been kicking and screaming any time the mere mention of mask mandates, lockdowns, or any other proven measures for reducing the spread of COVID have been mentioned? The same man who, despite being in charge of a 65,758 square mile, swamp-filled COVID hotspot decided to poke fun at a virus that has killed more than 4.2 million people worldwide by selling T-shirts and beer koozies brandished with the slogan “Don’t Fauci My Florida”?

According to the Independent, Florida doctors are “angry and ashamed” of DeSantis, who has seemed more concerned about tourists and residents not being able to order an overpriced frozen cocktail on Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive than seeing those same people infected with a deadly coronavirus. “While hospitals in our state were filling up, DeSantis was shouting about ‘Freedom over Faucism,’” Miami-based cardiologist Dr. Bernard Ashby, who heads up Florida’s Committee to Protect Health Care, told South Florida radio station WLRN. “If DeSantis were as concerned about stopping COVID-19 spread as he was about coming up with these clever jabs about Dr. Fauci, we might not be in this position.”

We’d also have far fewer beer koozies emblazoned with ignorant slogans.

(Via Vanity Fair)

After sacrificing every last bit of respect he ever earned from his days as being “America’s Mayor,” Rudy Giuliani’s reputation is now officially in the sh*tter for his seemingly undying devotion to Trump. Yet the former president seems to have repaid that loyalty by not paying Rudy for the work he did as his personal lawyer, which included trying to gain momentum for the (false) notion that the 2020 election was rigged. Now, in addition to staring down a possible prison stint — which Giuliani says he’s fine with, by the way — Rudy’s first stop may be the poorhouse. As The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman tweeted, “Giuliani’s friends say he is saying he is close to broke.”

All of this, of course, comes after a series of Rudy-related events that would almost be comical if they weren’t the U.S. political system in action. As Bess Levin writes for Vanity Fair:

For starters, [Rudy had] recently had his home and office raided by the Feds, who seized nearly a dozen cell phones and computers as part of their criminal probe into his Ukraine dealings. Subsequent to that, he had his law license suspended in both New York and D.C. over the many election lies he’d told, and in one of the many new books out about Trump, it was reported that when it became clear that Trump was probably going to lose, an allegedly inebriated Giuliani “started to cause a commotion… telling other guests that he had come up with a strategy for Trump,” insisting the campaign should “Just say we won,” which it did.

All of this came after Giuliani requested to be paid $20,000 a day for playing the role of Trump’s stooge — which Trump reportedly scoffed at. In January, CNN reported that the then-still-president had instructed his staff to not pay Giuliani at all, as he was mad about being impeached again.

Meanwhile, Trump has raised a reported $75 million in 2021 alone from supporters who believe he’s planning to use their hard-earned money to prove his stolen election theories… despite the fact that he hasn’t spent a single penny to do that yet. Could he use some of that cash to pay Rudy the money he legitimately owes him? Yes — but “legitimate” might not be in Trump’s vocabulary. And since Rudy’s legal woes are mounting, Trump and his advisors think it’s best that Donald distance himself from the former mayor. Or, as Haberman puts it: “Trump aides have been clear they see no mechanism for paying Giuliani’s legal bills that isn’t problematic for Trump, and they think Giuliani took actions a lawyer should have known were problematic, even if the client wanted it.”

Rudy meanwhile, seems to be taking it all in stride. As Insider reports, during an interview about the upcoming 20th anniversary of 9/11, Rudy went off-track to declare that though he has “committed no crime,” he is “more than willing to go to jail if they want to put me in jail. And if they do, they’re going to suffer the consequences in heaven. I’m not. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

So if he didn’t do anything wrong, why would Rudy be willing to spend time in the clink? “Because they lie, they cheat,” he said. Which is about as straight and coherent an answer as you’re ever likely get from a man who once married his cousin.

(Via Vanity Fair)