Month: September 2021

Over the weekend, Machine Gun Kelly performed at Louder Than Life, and the predominant takeaway from his set was that there was a plethora of boos and Kelly getting flipped off by attendees. Now, though, Kelly has shared his response to that, indicating that the narrative around his show isn’t accurate.

One festivalgoer shared a video from Kelly’s performance and wrote, “here is the crowd singing along with no boos for @machinegunkelly . Im a far bigger Slipknot fan than MGK fan but come on with the relentlessly bood headline.” Kelly shared the tweet and added his two cents, writing that he thinks the media made a mountain out of the molehill that was just a few attendees who weren’t feeling Kelly’s performance: “i don’t know why the media lies in their narrative against me all the time but all i saw was 20,000 amazing fans at the festival singing every word and 20 angry ones.”

This all comes after he and Slipknot’s Corey Taylor found themselves in some beef. The two parties traded shots back in forth before Kelly claimed Taylor was upset over being cut from an MGK song. However, Taylor insisted (with proof) that it was actually him who rejected Kelly.

The Brooklyn Nets held media day on Monday morning as they get set to start training camp, and while much of the conversation was expected to be about Kyrie Irving and his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine, which would prohibit him from playing in home games or practicing in Brooklyn due to New York City’s vaccine mandate.

Irving was not physically at media due to health and safety protocols, but was set to address the media later in the day over Zoom, which put Kevin Durant up to the podium first. The first questions to Durant weren’t about Kyrie or the Nets’ championship aspirations or really much in the way of basketball at all. No, the first person to snag the mic at media day was none other than David Letterman, who asked why he goes by KD, then asked him for the exact field goal percentage he’ll shoot this season, and if playing the Pelicans makes them giggle.

Why Letterman was there is anyone’s guess — the real cynical theory is it’s something to get people talking about literally anything other than Kyrie’s vaccination status — and Durant didn’t seem particularly into the whole bit but played along, making for a strange first 90 seconds of media day.

Eventually, the actual questions started and Durant insisted he and the team weren’t worried about Kyrie, saying they have complete “trust” in him and that they expect to have the entire team together at some point. James Harden followed that up by deferring to Kyrie and telling reporters they can ask the man himself later, but saying he’s a very important part of the team.

One of Tucker Carlson’s pet causes is the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. It’s a white supremacist belief that “non-white people or outsiders or strangers or foreigners will overtake the United States via immigration, reproduction, and seizure of political power,” as NPR described it. He’s peddled the BS theory in the past, but despite the head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) calling on Fox News to fire Carlson, he’s still there — and he’s still discussing the “white supremacist” theory to his millions of viewers.

Including Matt Gaetz:

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida appeared to endorse a white nationalist conspiracy theory that Tucker Carlson promoted on his Fox News show last week… Carlson embraced the “Great Replacement Theory” on his show Wednesday during a segment attacking President Joe Biden for the Haitian migrant crisis that played out on the southern border last week. He accused Biden of intentionally bringing immigrants into the country for political purposes and falsely said Biden supports open borders.

“.@TuckerCarlson is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America. The ADL is a racist organization,” Gaetz, the Florida senator who’s under investigation for possible sex trafficking, tweeted. Nothing good ever follows “Tucker Carlson is correct…” Especially when it ends with defending the Fox News blowhard over an organization that aims to secure “justice and fair treatment” for all.

In conclusion, please don’t side with Tucker Carlson. On anything, really, but especially over the ADL.

(Via Insider)

Last week, Coldplay and BTS released their much-anticipated collaborative track, “My Universe.” The track was produced by Swedish producer Max Martin and found both acts singing in English and Korean while showering a special someone in their lives with love and adoration. Over the weekend, the group released an acoustic version of their track.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about collabing with the K-pop kings, Coldplay’s Chris Martin said back in May: “When we started, it was like, ‘You’re a white indie band and this is urban radio and this is alternative radio,’ and basically old-fashioned racist statements. Of course, we fit in a box at the beginning, and then right now in 2021, everyone’s doing everything. You can like Olivia Rodrigo as much as you like AC/DC and no one thinks that’s weird, and that’s musical utopia for me. […] It’s miraculous. So why would you want to stay in one box?”

He added: “I love them, and we love them, and it’s been such a joy. It’s something you could look at so cynically, and we have at times, but anytime there’s actual communication or music between us, it just feels so good. So, I unabashedly and unashamedly feel really grateful for the song, grateful for the person that inspired the song, and grateful for the people we sing it with.”

Listen to the acoustic version of “My Universe” above.

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

The Ted Lasso Power Rankings are a weekly analysis of who and/or what had the strongest performance in each episode. Most of the list will feature individual characters, although the committee does reserve the right to honor anything from animals to inanimate objects to laws of nature to general concepts. There are very few rules here.

Season 2, Episode 10 — “No Weddings And A Funeral”

HONORABLE MENTION: Higgins (a good man); Jane Payne (the joy in her face while getting FaceTimed into a funeral was somehow both sweet and haunting); comfortable shoes (impossible to overrate); Isaac (I like how much Isaac enjoys being captain and I like that the young guys on the team treat his declarations like the Gospel); the frustrated vicar (please stop swearing in the church); Rebecca’s mom (we like her); Dr. Sharon (slowly moving up the list of characters I would watch a spinoff about, like she hops from team-to-team and sport-to-sport each season, starting with my beloved but troubled Philadelphia 76ers); Nate (the whispering with Rupert is going to be a problem); Sassy and Nora (fun to picture these two on a family vacation to Ibiza); Rupert’s stupid baby (imagine what an awful teenager this kid will be)

10. My sweet prince Dani Rojas (Last week: Unranked)

If we as a people are ever invaded by aliens that understand our Earth languages and can grasp the general concept of feet, we are going to have a really hard time justifying why we sometimes wear uncomfortable shoes on purpose even though we all have sneakers sitting in our closets. It’s madness, really. We should all be wearing sweats and slippers every day. Stop and think about it for five or one thousand minutes sometime in the near future.

Maybe I’m just lashing out because it hurt me physically to see Dani in pain like this while wearing dress shoes. But maybe there’s a point in there, too. Too soon to tell.

9. Rick Astley (Last week: Unranked)

What a fascinating life Rick Astley has lived. Born with a magical singing voice that does not fit his body, had a worldwide smash number-one single, kind of fizzled out, was absent from public life for a couple of decades, became maybe even more famous because rascals on the internet discovered his song and used it to goof on each other, leaned into that a bit, and created a nice little second act for himself. He seems to have a good sense of humor about it, too. Pretty wild.

Or, to sum things up using only titles of sections of his Wikipedia page…

• 1987–1989: Success
• 1994–2000: Retirement
• 2000–present: Return to singing and renewed success

Success, retirement, renewed success. That’s a full life right there, buddy. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes with a surprisingly soulful voice.

8. Jamie (Last week: Unranked)

Jamie’s big “I’ve changed, I’m not so selfish now, I think about other people and their feelings in the moment and I try to take that into account before I act” moment was slightly undercut by the thing where he saw his ex and her new boyfriend bickering a bit and swooped in to declare his never-ending love to her at the funeral of her best friend’s father.

Timing, Jamie. Come on.

7. Roy (Last week: Unranked)

As someone who is also uncomfortable with death and real emotion, in general, and uses cheap and/or bad jokes as a forcefield to avoid bad vibes, I understood Roy very deeply this week. He’s a good man. You just have to give him a minute.

It’s going to be so awkward when he finds out about the Jamie thing, especially after that hug the other week. I do not expect or even want them to fight but now I can’t stop picturing what that would look like. We’ve already seen Jamie throw a punch. We know he has that in him. I feel like Roy had a youth filled with scrapping but hasn’t tossed a fist in well over a decade. Is it weird that I think Jamie might win? Like that his bottled-up rage is somehow more dangerous than Roy’s ever-present anger because Roy vents his out so often that the little needle on his gauge never swings fully over into the deep red? I don’t know. I don’t know. I need to stop typing this paragraph before it consumes me.

6. Sam (Last week: Unranked)

Think about this one for a second: He got dumped by his brand new girlfriend in a closet right after her father’s funeral. That’s some tough business right there. Part of me wants to take issue with some of this, with how some characters on this show get big arcs about feelings and growth and the kinds of things that add layered depth, but Sam gets yoinked around a bit and just keeps smiling. It’s strange. Sam can be sad, too.

Another part of me likes that he’s wonderful. There’s a lot to process here. This is a situation we will continue to monitor.

5. Ted (Last week: Unranked)

This show is quickly becoming a very huggy affair. Everyone is hugging and crying a lot. This is not a complaint as much as it is an observation. I kind of want to see a full-on chart with crisscrossing red arrows that diagrams which characters have hugged each other so far and who might hug each other next. It would look like one of those conspiracy yarn walls you see in a character’s apartment to let the audience know that they are onto something and/or losing their mind. I will build it if I have to.

Anyway, yes, this was a lot. And it started to really pull back some layers on Ted, to show why he is the way he is and that his whole personality is more than relentless positivity and a mustache. That’s good. And it makes sense. There was always something dark in there. There had to be. It’s good he’s confronting it and it’s good he has someone who can help him through it, even if she does charge for house calls.

4. Breaking into song in unison kind of out of nowhere (Last week: Unranked)

Weirdly powerful. You know this from seeing it on television shows and movies, with examples including this episode of this show and also the “Tiny Dancer” scene from Almost Famous, but it’s even heavier when it happens in real life. I was once in a small crowd that started belting out the lyrics — chorus only because no one knew the verses, which was hilarious — to “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias and now that song owns a nice little two-bedroom condo in my brain. Probably will forever.

The point here, I suppose, is that brains are weird. And music is good. You are welcome for these profound observations.

3. Keeley (Last week: Unranked)

I know I kind of made this point already but, really, what a weird day for Keeley. She went to a funeral for her best friend’s father, uncovered a secret romance, and had two world-famous athletes profess their love to her separately in a span of about 45 seconds at the aforementioned funeral. That is a lot to unpack. I usually like to pull a screencap for each character that includes a funny/notable line of dialogue but, in this case, I think the face alone says it all.

Part of me hopes members of the team just keep telling her they’re in love with her. All of them. Just have them form a line and give them all flowers and turn this into The Bachelorette. Everyone is already in suits and on a scenic estate. We’re well on our way.

2. Rebecca (Last week: Unranked)

Real big old whirlwind of an episode for Rebecca, a character who started this show as a taller British version of the evil owner from Major League and has since become one of its most sympathetic characters. That’s some kind of trick, really, especially when you factor in the thing where she’s a billionaire who literally just started and broke off a fling with a much younger employee. Put these facts down on cold and unforgiving paper and she comes off as a villain.

And yet! There we all were this week having emotions as she dealt with the death of her father, and her crappy ex crashing the funeral, and the realization that she needs to grow on her own a bit before she can let someone else into her life in any meaningful way. There’s a reason this show and Hannah Waddingham just collected a whole bunch of trophies last week. Everyone here is pretty good at their jobs.

1. Coach Beard (Last week: 9, 7, 5, 3, 1)

This is an incredible way to greet anyone at any time anywhere but it’s even better when you realize that this is how greeted his boss at her father’s funeral.

Just a champion doing championship-caliber things.

Thanks to Netflix’s TUDUM event, The Witcher fans were given a grab bag of goodies over the weekend to prepare for the upcoming Season 2 premiere. One of those treats involves a first look at Kristofer Hivju’s character, Nivellen, who’s essentially a dark and twisted take on the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. With Hivju’s character out in the open, Henry Cavill decided to properly welcome the Game of Thrones star to the cast with a solid burn on Instagram:

The amazing, the wonderful, the electric and the enigmatic Kristofer Hivju. Kristofer was extraordinarily brave for season 2 of the Witcher and decided to play his character of Nivellen with zero make up or visual effects, as you can see above. Kristofer, we are all so proud. #Brave

You can see Cavill’s post along with a closer look at Hivju’s character below:

Hivju’s character appearing in The Witcher Season 2 is an interesting addition for the monster-hunting series. The show has adhered closely to the books with the first season adapting the short story collection The Last Wish, but the series hasn’t been afraid to play fast and loose with the chronological order. While Season 2 is definitely moving The Witcher saga forward, Hivju’s character is a sign that the series will still take time to dip into Geralt of Rivia’s past as well as the books’ penchants for riffing on fairy tales, but with a darker twist. In other words, don’t expect Hivju’s beast-like Nivellen to be a Disney prince.

(Via Henry Cavill on Instagram)

No team took greater advantage of the Orlando Bubble in 2020 than the Heat, and perhaps as a result, no team suffered a greater hangover in 2021 than Miami. Coming off a first-round sweep at the hands of the champion Bucks, the Heat reimagined their roster once again and head into the upcoming season with their sights on another Finals berth.

Roster:

Bam Adebayo
Jimmy Butler
Dewayne Dedmon
Marcus Garrett (two-way)
Udonis Haslem
Tyler Herro
Kyle Lowry
Caleb Martin
Markieff Morris
KZ Okpala
Victor Oladipo
Duncan Robinson
Max Strus
P.J. Tucker
Gabe Vinent
Omer Yursteven

Projected Vegas Win Total: 48.5 at DraftKings

Biggest Addition: Kyle Lowry

This is a no-brainer. After flirting with a trade for Lowry before last year’s trade deadline, the Heat instead nabbed Oladipo and now come away with Lowry anyway. Though they had to give away fan favorite point guard Goran Dragic and promising young big Precious Achiuwa, Miami likely believes Lowry will be the difference between a mid-seed playoff team and a bona fide contender in the East.

DARKO projects Lowry to continue a late-career downturn at age 35, while FiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR metrics predict more of a bounce-back campaign for Lowry in Miami. Perhaps most importantly, Lowry enters a defensive infrastructure and more veteran-laden squad than he had in Toronto, where the hope is Lowry can do less and help more.

Biggest Loss: Kendrick Nunn

One could easily make the case for Dragic or Achiuwa here as well, though getting Lowry in return (and keeping Dedmon) lessens that blow. Instead, the value Nunn provided on the court will be harder to replace. He was third among regular Heat players in Box Plus-Minus and posted a near-60.0 true shooting percentage along with a 21 percent usage rate, combining efficiency with responsibility.

At 26, Nunn was also one of the better candidates on Miami’s roster to keep improving, but now that growth will happen next to LeBron James and Co. in Los Angeles. In Nunn’s place, the Heat will look to the unproven Gabe Vincent and Max Strus (as well as perhaps more Oladipo or Herro at point guard) to back up Lowry.

Biggest Question: Can Miami score enough?

A few big things stand out that help explain why the Heat’s offense fell from eighth in the NBA in 2020 and a unit that could compete with LeBron and Anthony Davis all the way to 19th.

First, Butler missed 20 games and wasn’t himself until the last couple months of the year, while Dragic was injured and inconsistent. Second, their transition offense fell from eighth to 19th and scored more than a point fewer per 100 opportunities. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, they went from one of the best deep shooting squads in the league to the bottom half of the league. Lowry should help with shooting, but a return to form for Herro and Robinson would be the bigger missing ingredient.

What Makes This Season A Success: Cracking the top tier in the East alongside Brooklyn, Milwaukee and (maybe) Philadelphia.

The Heat will not be many folks’ pick in a conference that features the reigning champs as well as the betting favorite. But Miami solidifying homecourt advantage during the regular season and then using their cohesion and veteran starpower to make a run at a Finals appearance come playoff time would be a welcome sight for a core that was two games from a title less than a year ago.

What Makes This Season A Failure: Another first-round exit

No team with Butler, Adebayo and Lowry should be suffer a first-round exit in the postseason. Staying healthy will be a key ingredient here as well, which puts even more stress on the depth pieces to step up.

Kid Cudi started his career at the same time that Myspace launched in 2003, so unsurprisingly, he took to the platform, which was then a popular destinations for musicians to promote themselves online. Over the weekend, Cudi revisited his old profile and shared his thoughts on it now.

Yesterday, a Twitter user shared Cudi’s old profile photo on the site, as well as his bio, which read:

“Its dat Cleveland boy reppin Shaker H.T.S all day baby, K.i.D CuDi a.k.a. Tubbz a.k.a Scotty McFly. Yea I go by many names but call me which ever one u want. I reside in new york right now workin on music. Dats right yall ima mc, but not ur normal kind. Id like 2 think I’m from another planet and my mind is really gears, hardware, and a sim card. Lol. I’m 22 years old and I’m on here 2 network with music. Currently I’m getting ready 2 start shoppin my records at labels this month and I’m also workin on outside projects with other underground artist. I’m really on here 4 bizness ladies but if u wanna holla, I won’t ignore u. I do love da ladies oh so much. Especially models. So much so I did a song called ‘ I love models’ produced by myself and 0-Dot from Full Circle Ent. dat I will be posting so can hear it. Real talk. If ur a producer and u got heat, get at me. I’m always lookin 4 talent 2 put on my elite team of producers. Right now I have a strong clique of producers but if u got dat different new age sound dat can take da rap game 2 da next level, we can make it happen. Anyway dais about it yall. I’m Cudi. Wut it be!!! LEAN!!! Sip & Lean Teamer ‘The Talent’ MidWest Action ‘droppin dem muthaf*ckin beez on em’

Who I’d like to meet:
..Anybody interested in music period. Mostly singers witta r n b soulful alternative kinda feel. Lol or if ur good, I mean extremely dope I’d f*ck wit it 2. I’m all about creativety, makin new hot sh*t, and Lakin hip hop or music n general 2 a whole nother level. I don’t wanna get in da game 2 blend in, I’m tryna change da face of it. I wanna make my mark. I aim 4 grammy statis. Don’t u?”

Cudi saw the tweet and was blown away by his ambition about about how well he has achieved the goals he laid out for himself, writing in response, “This is so wild. I had that fire burnin in me. Everything I said in this bio, I did. F*ckin unreal. Destiny.”

That said, some of Cudi’s latest achievements are ones he probably did not see coming, like acting in a movie with Leonardi DiCaprio and Meryl Streep, having (and eventually squashing) beef with Eminem, and hiring a professional blunt roller.

John Oliver couldn’t have been happier to be back in front of a live studio audience as Last Week Tonight returned from a brief hiatus. He also couldn’t resist a chance to swing at Jeopardy!‘s ongoing hosting conundrum, after previously kicking Mike Richards on his way out the door. The game show, however, appears to be in a difficult spot while selecting a new permanent host. Producers would obviously love to avoid selecting anyone with a lick of controversy in their past, and perhaps Mayim Bialik’s resurfaced vaccine remarks might prevent her from receiving the full-on hosting gig, for which she’s expressed her intent to score.

It’s all a freaking mess. Even Ken Jennings (who will serve as one of two temporary hosts, the other being Bialik, for the rest of the year) had those controversial tweets to reportedly muck up the selection process. TMZ previously reported that producers wanted Bialik to be the permanent host before the Richards disaster, but who knows how this will all shake out in the future.

Last Week Tonight is here to pass some judgment while using the show as a comparison to the U.S.-Mexico border situation. Oliver slammed the Biden administration’s approach to Haitian migrants with “no clear rationale. And yep, Oliver is aware of Bialik’s air of controversy, as this went down early on in the broadcast:

“It’s not great when our process for deciding who gets released and who gets expelled is as haphazard for finding a new host for Jeopardy!. And by the way, great job so far, guys. You dodged giving that guy the job permanently, and right now, we’ve got somebody absolutely free of controversy, Mayim Bialik, a person I think is great because I don’t have Google.”

To get real, yep, it’s also not great when the border situation has no unified perspective from the Biden administration. The president has condemned the treatment of Haitians at the border, even as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has defended the deportation of Haitians due to Covid. That’s the case even though no one is really doing anything about the U.S. citizens who won’t take the pandemic seriously and, as a result, clogging up hospitals because of “freedom.” Comparing the situation to Jeopardy! might ultimately seem out context, but both situations veered into fiasco territory due to the people in charge completely neglecting to prepare. The digging-out phase of these disasters will now happen in full public view, and Last Week Tonight will be watching.

Kanye West is about a month removed from releasing Donda, but he’s not taking a break after his new album. Over the weekend, he was back in the studio, accompanied by a couple of big-time guests: Post Malone and Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold.

A video of West and Malone in the studio surfaced, in which Malone is thoroughly enjoying Fleet Foxes’ “The Shrine / An Argument” as it plays over speakers. Furthermore, as Stereogum notes, Pecknold also shared a photo of himself and Malone, indicating that they were also together that night.

West and Pecknold have yet to appear on a song together, but Pecknold and Malone (a noted major Fleet Foxes fan) have struck up a friendship in recent years. In a 2020 interview, Pecknold noted that Malone nearly appeared on Fleet Foxes’ album Shore and said of Malone, “He’ll text me every once in a while and it’s always a really fun thing to receive. To have that pop up in my iMessages, it always feels like a glitch in the Matrix or something. […] He’s a super sweet guy, he’s a real gentleman, and he’s probably the best melody writer in the business right now, I think. And by some glitch in the Matrix, we have a casual friendship.”