Month: October 2021

There is certainly no shortage of material about The Beatles out there. We’ve got feature films, documentaries, biopics, books, magazine articles, and more going back decades. Surely we must have seen everything there is to see, right?

Wrong, apparently. A new documentary coming to Disney+ boasts intimate, never-before-seen footage of the iconic band that’s been locked away in a vault for half a century. Hours and hours of it.

The trailer for “Get Back” begins with intrigue. “In January 1969, a film crew was given unprecedented access to document The Beatles at work,” it says. “This resulted in over 57 hours of the most intimate footage ever shot of the band.”

“The footage has been locked in a vault for over half a century. Unseen…until now.”

The documentary series “The Beatles: Get Back” will be a 3-part event airing November 25–27, with each episode running two hours. The series was directed by Peter Jackson of “Lord of the Rings” fame, and covers a three-week period in which the band had to write and record 14 songs leading up to their first live performance in three years. Jackson is the only person to have been given access to the footage, which has been painstakingly restored, in over 50 years.

There is so much lore and legend wrapped up in The Beatles’ history, it’s quite lovely to see candid footage of them working together behind the scenes and even more of a treat to see some of the world’s most beloved songs come together.

The Beatles: Get Back | Official Trailer | Disney+

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The year 1969 would be a big one for The Beatles. It’s the year John Lennon and Yoko Ono got married, the album Abbey Road was released, and the band ultimately broke up. So the timing of this footage early in the year gives us a glimpse into the creative genius and turmoil that came to define that year for the group.

(And in a final full-circle bit of irony, according to The Chicago Tribune, The Beatles had wanted to make and star in their own “Lord of the Rings” movie musical back in the 1960s. They wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct it, but he turned them down. Even if he had agreed, though, J.R.R. Tolkien apparently wasn’t a fan of The Beatles and didn’t want to give them the rights to it, so the idea was dead on arrival anyway. How funny that Peter Jackson, who created the epic “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, ended up getting exclusive access to footage of The Beatles for this documentary.)

The doc series looks awesome. Watching four of the world’s most famous musicians creating the songs we know and love will be a treat. (How about George Harrison not being able to figure out what lyrics should come after “Something in the way she moves…” and John Lennon telling him to sing “like cauliflower” until the right words came to him?) They were brilliant together, but it wasn’t effortless. They worked hard on their craft, trying different things until they got it just right.

How fun that we get to see something new from The Beatles when we thought we’d seen it all.

Noa Kirel has been a star since the age of 14, and it shows. In her first English-language single, the Israeli-born diva kindly asked that we “Please Don’t Suck,” and even if it was a kiss off, listeners still fell in love. A beautiful woman going on a string of dates with increasingly annoying men… sound familiar?? Highly relatable. Anyway, the video, which was choreographed by the legendary Sean Bankhead (“Wild Side,” anyone??) is sitting pretty at just under 25 millions views as of today, which means the world is officially ready for more new music from Noa.

So today she’s sharing “Bad Little Thing,” another swaggering pop anthem that ushers back ye cinematic days of old when music videos had 20+ outfit changes and actually created an entire universe over the course of the song. Backed by an all-female dance crew, Noa struts and stomps in and out of situations with men who want her to be something small and easy for them, but all she’s interested in being is everything for herself. It’s an excellent follow-up to her debut single and more proof that this girl is destined for a stadium tour. Check out the new video above and keep an eye out for more from Noa.

At long last, Adele’s return to the music world became official on Thursday as she delivered “Easy On Me,” the lead single to her long-awaited fourth album, 30. The track is the singer’s first official track in the nearly six years that passed since she shared her third album, 25. Adele’s return has been celebrated all throughout the music industry from the smallest fans to the bigger artists. This includes Drake who took to his Instagram Story to praise the singer and her new single moments after it was made available to the world.

“One of my best friends in the world just dropped a single,” the rapper captioned a picture of Adele that he shared to his Instagram Story before adding, “WOIIIIIII.”

Drake and Adele’s friendship is one that’s documented fairly well over the past couple of years. She attended the rapper’s birthday party in 2019 and sent him well wishes on her Instagram Story afterward.

“Happy birthday to one of the kindest and funniest people I’ve met @champagnepapi,” she wrote.

More recently, she told viewers during a surprise Instagram Livestream that her favorite album of 2021 is Drake’s Certified Lover Boy.

In addition to receiving praise from Drake and others, “Easy On Me” reportedly broke the record for the fastest song to reach No. 1 of the iTunes US chart as it claimed to the top just three minutes after the song’s release.

You can view Drake’s post to Adele above.

When Jon Gruden resigned in disgrace this week after emails showed him regularly using racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language with former Washington executive Bruce Allen, many were quick to point out that if the NFL has 650,000 emails from the investigation into the Football Team, those from Gruden surely weren’t the only ones to show unacceptable behavior.

The NFLPA has called for the league to release all of the emails, which seems highly unlikely, but someone with access to them at least seems happy providing a steady drip of leaks that highlight the ol’ boys club that is the NFL. The latest leak takes aim at Jeff Pash, the NFL’s top lawyer and a key advisor to Roger Goodell, with a number of emails between he and Allen that show a close bond of friendship between the two despite Pash being in charge of investigations into the Football Team and levying fines for the league.

Included in the latest emails unveiled by the New York Times are instances of Pash outright rescinding fines for the Football Team after Allen’s complaints, sharing laughs about Allen trying to lower a player’s salary which Pash calls “the Lord’s work,” and, once again, an odd affection for Hooters. At one point, when discussing a fine for violating spending rules, Pash brought up how Allen got him a Hooters VIP card, which he treasures dearly.

A year later, when the league penalized Washington and Dallas for violating league spending limits, Allen asked to speak with Pash. “Still talking internally about this,” Pash replied. “I am not making any promises as to an outcome. But I can assure you that I am not blowing you off.”

After Allen thanked him, Pash added: “We may not see this the same way. But that does not change my respect or affection for you. After all, nobody else has ever given me a Hooters VIP card.”

There was also lots of correspondence about the Football Team’s former name, which Pash helped Allen and the organization defend, as well as off-color jokes about building the wall amid a push for more Latino fans.

Pash and Allen, as his team spun in and out of crises, joked about the league’s diversity initiatives.

When Allen shared an audio file of a team song aimed at attracting Latino fans, Pash responded, “I am not sure this song will be as popular after the wall gets built.”

There is a lot in the full report from the Times and all of it paints a picture of a relationship between Pash and Allen that was far more than just cordial work acquaintances. Considering Pash headed up the league’s investigation into allegations of sexual harassment towards the team’s cheerleaders, among other matters, it presents plenty of questions about whether their friendship was appropriate. What’s also clear is that we are far from done with the emails discovered in this probe and it seems mostly a matter of who will be the next person to find themselves at the center of controversy for inappropriate emails with Allen.

It’s hard to keep track of all the controversies and, perhaps, crimes that were associated with Donald Trump during his presidency. The man talks a lot, you know, and has a habit of rambling about things he perhaps should not. That hasn’t changed after two impeachments and leaving office in shame, as was evidenced by a new report that detailed Trump talking about an unconfirmed report that he had a very particular kink.

As the Washington Post reported, Trump actually spoke to sitting Republican senators and rambled about his first impeachment regarding his efforts to pressure Ukraine into helping him find information about Joe Biden. He also, uh, talked about that “golden showers” thing that reportedly appeared in a Russian dossier that made waves earlier in his presidency.

The story details Trump’s persistent control over the Republican party in spite of, well, everything. And it includes details about how active he is in the political scene while still essentially in exile at Mar-a-Lago. While he’s still debating another presidential run in 2024, Trump is actively endorsing candidates in other elections and fundraising at various events.

Including at a National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) event detailed in the story. Where he talked about the Big Lie that he still claims he won the 2020 presidential election, which he did not. He also decided it was the time and place to address the rumors that he likes to be urinated on.

“It was all phony s—, okay. All phony stuff,” he said of the Democratic impeachment efforts and the investigation of his ties to Russia.

Unprompted, he brought up an unsubstantiated claim he had interactions with prostitutes in Moscow before he ran for president.

“I’m not into golden showers,” he told the crowd. “You know the great thing, our great first lady — ‘That one,’ she said, ‘I don’t believe that one.’ ”

The story made it sound like a greatest hits of things he hates and other grievances. He railed against windmills, for some reason, and praised the president of China. But it’s still very strange, no matter how much you know about Trump by now, to think of a former president commenting on a very specific sexual fetish. Even if it’s not something he’s actually, you know, into.

[via Washington Post]

The resignation of Jon Gruden from the Raiders earlier this week for racist, homophobic, and misogynistic emails sent to former Washington executive Bruce Allen has led to plenty of discussion about the ways those who are powerful in the NFL talk behind closed doors and what needs to change in the overall culture of professional football.

Some, like Chargers coach Brandon Staley, have used the Gruden situation as an opportunity to recognize their role as a leader to provide a welcoming atmosphere to those groups and why it’s so important to build trust and earn that trust in all of your actions. It is a great time for some introspection from many in football, and the circumstances of this week made what happened on Fox’s Thursday Night Football pre-show stand out to many even more as another example of things that shouldn’t be happening.

After an Erin Andrews interview with Devin White, whose love of horses led to the two of them doing the interview at a horse stable, they threw it back to the Fox studio crew for what became a very awkward transition as Terry Bradshaw made some comments about Erin Andrews’ appearance in the interview that left some viewers feeling uncomfortable.

Some felt it was simply an awkwardly worded compliment, but plenty felt Bradshaw’s comments came off as inappropriate.

It’s certainly wasn’t Bradshaw’s finest on-air moment as, if nothing else, it was a very awkward transition.

Banksy has remained relatively quiet in the plague years, with just a handful of new works popping up in 2020 and 2021 thus far. But one of his most famous works from earlier in his career is still making headlines, this time for being sold for much more “destroyed” than it was worth intact.

The commodification of, well, everything has certainly made things interesting during a pandemic-aided period of rapid value appreciation across all sorts of markets. The trading card industry is as hot as ever, for example, and art is no exception. But the recent sale of Banksy’s infamous shredded painting is certainly notable. According to the New York Times, the retitled piece that was infamously shredded after a sale in 2018 sold for a record for the artist’s work.

The Banksy painting that sensationally self-destructed three years ago after selling for $1.4 million at auction was resold by Sotheby’s Thursday for 18.6 million pounds, or $25.4 million, a record for the artist.

That work’s “destruction” shocked observers in 2018 after it was remotely ran through a shredder built into the artwork’s frame by the artist himself. As the Times pointed out, though the statement Banksy was trying to make with the painting was that value in art is entirely subjective and, sometimes, temporary, many expects correctly predicted that the shredding and subsequent attention it was given only made the painting significantly more valuable. And popular.

The artwork, which started as a spray-painted canvas from 2006 called “Girl With Balloon,” had been the last lot of Sotheby’s equivalent “Frieze Week” sale in October 2018. Immediately after being bought in a telephone bid, for $1.4 million, an alarm went off in the salesroom. Sotheby’s staffers and the audience at the auction gasped as the painting slid through its elaborate gold frame and shredded, then jammed halfway through. It was carried out via a remote-controlled mechanism hidden in the frame. Sotheby’s declared afterward that it had been “Banksy-ed.”

…

“Love Is in the Bin,” with its shredded lower half dangling under the frame, was displayed behind a protective glass screen at Sotheby’s. It had been offered for sale by an unidentified European collector. It was exhibited for 11 months next to revered old masters at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Germany in 2019-20. During that period, the Staatsgalerie said, it attracted 180,000 visitors, about double its usual attendance.

Banksy’s work is all about getting attention, of course, so that was certainly achieved by the viral fame that piece got in the aftermath of turning most of it to very expensive ribbon. But despite his best efforts, all that paper has only gotten more valuable to observers in the years that have passed.

October 14th would have been George Floyd’s 48th birthday. Floyd, whose life helped galvanize millions of Americans within the Black Lives Matter movement, was killed at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25th, 2020.

On Wednesday night, hip-hop’s reigning diva Queen Erykah Badu had a tour stop at the Minneapolis Armory venue in the city. The gracious Badu invited George Floyd’s family backstage —including his sister, his uncle, and aunt — to celebrate and honor his life at the stroke of midnight,

As she counted down the final minutes to midnight, Badu recorded a video tribute to Floyd on her Instagram story, panned the camera to show his family members, and stated the following message:

“People of planet Earth, we’re about four minutes away from George Floyd’s birthday. He would’ve been 48 years old and I’m here with his family now. It seems like we have a moment of peace right now. And we know that your life is not in vain. Thank you for your spirit and your sacrifice so that we can move on the way we should — be where we supposed to as a people.”

To learn more about or to donate to the George Floyd Foundation and their legacy mission of “activating our communities to challenge the root causes of racial inequity and end the systemic violence affecting Black Americans,” you can visit www.georgefloydmemorialfoundation.org/.

When Adele releases music, it’s expected to break records. An example of this came on her 2015 album, 25, through its lead single “Hello.” At the time of its release, the song broke a record by going No. 1 in 102 countries on iTunes. BTS would later surpass this when their “Blac Swan” record went No. 1 in 105 countries. Six years later, Adele is back in action as she just released “Easy On Me,” the lead single to her upcoming album 30, and to the surprise of no one, the singer is back to breaking records.

Adele reportedly broke the record for the fastest song to reach No. 1 on iTunes’ US chart with “Easy On Me.” According to the Twitter account @chartdata, which delivers weekly Billboard chart updates and often reports about unique occurrences on various music charts, “Easy On Me” reached No. 1 in just three minutes to break the record. The previous record-holder for this achievement was Ariana Grande whose “Positions” track hit No. 1 on the US iTunes charts in under ten minutes. iTunes or Apple has yet to confirm the new record.

The release of “Easy On Me” comes after Adele finally confirmed that 30 would be her next album title and revealed it would arrive on November 19. In a message she shared on social media, she described how the upcoming release was a close friend to her “throughout the most turbulent period” of her life. She ended the message by writing, “I’ve painstakingly rebuilt my house and my heart since then and this album narrates it. Home is where the heart is x.”

30 is out 11/19 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.

The 2021 WNBA Finals series between the Chicago Sky and Phoenix Mercury got underway this past Sunday, and so far, it’s proven to be an exciting matchup. The Mercury won Game One with a satisfying 14-point win while the Sky game back strong to win by five in an overtime thriller. The Finals series has fans, like fellow Phoenix athletes Chris Paul, Jae Crowder, and Devin Booker, excited for the next matchup. This also includes Chance The Rapper who hopped on Twitter to make a bold claim ahead of Game 3.

A little over 24 hours before tipoff for game three, Chance took to Twitter to make a strong promise for the game. “When the Sky clenches the victory in game 3 tmw I will be getting tatted to commemorate the victory,” the rapper wrote. Even if the Sky win on Friday, Chance’s tattoo will be a bit of a premature celebration as the team will still need an additional win to get their hands on the WNBA Finals trophy.

Chance’s comments come shortly after he released his Magnificent Coloring Book film concert, a movie that he recently admitted made him “super thirsty” to perform again. He added during the interview with Billboard, “I’m saying to myself ’I can’t wait to perform this particular song now. I’m looking at it as a performer, but also as a filmmaker.”

You can read Chance’s tweet above and tune in to game three of the WNBA Finals on 10/15 at 9 PM EST.