Month: October 2021

The Minnesota Timberwolves knocked off the Milwaukee Bucks, 113-108, on Thursday night despite a monster game from Giannis Antetokounmpo. The reigning NBA Finals MVP had 40 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists, and three blocks in 35 minutes of work, and after the game, the most entertaining member of the Timberwolves’ roster took some time to express his amazement over what Antetokounmpo can do on the basketball court.

Anthony Edwards spoke to the media about the team’s approach to slowing Antetokounmpo down. He made clear that the team’s plan was to not let Antetokounmpo beat them, and while he said they were victorious, he conceded that the Wolves weren’t able to contain him.

“With a guy like that, you can’t stress about him scoring,” Edwards said. “That’s what he’s gonna do. Motherf*cker’s 7’2, 280 pounds, there ain’t nothing you can do about it. Like, sh*t, we put four people on him and he was still scoring the ball.”

Edwards went on to say that he’s never seen anything like Antetokounmpo, and that, “he’s amazing, man. There’s nothing I can say about him, he’s unstoppable.” In fairness to Edwards, he wasn’t particularly easy to stop, either — the second-year guard scored 25 points with seven rebounds, three assists, and a steal while also providing us with the latest in a line of quotes that show us he is one of the most fun dudes in the league.

Love Life: Season 2 (HBO Max series) — Love Life ended up being the HBO Max original show to launch the service, and Season 2 is upon us with Anna Kendrick’s Darby passing the baton to a new unlucky-in-love protagonist, Marcus, who will be portrayed by William Jackson Harper. He’s still best known for playing Jacked Chidi in The Good Place. Darby’s still in the show a little bit; she got married, and who knows if she’ll actually be happy (or found herself with another a-hole), but this season will mostly focus upon the Marcus. He did the whole sunk-cost investment thing, apparently, and now, he’s finding himself in the hell hole known as the dating world. Godspeed, Marcus.

Selena + Chef: Season 3 (HBO Max series) — Selena Gomez has come a long way since her Disney days, including a recent turn in the terrific Only Murders In The Building. Here, she’s totally herself and in an environment that she loves while not pretending at all to be a chef or do anything besides love to eat. It’s delightful stuff.

Star Trek: Prodigy: Season 1 (Paramount+ series) — This animated series sees the return of Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Janeway to this universe, sort of! She’ll appear in hologram form, and she’ll guide a ragtag group of alien youngsters who end up on the U.S.S. Protostar ship. Jason Mantzoukas voices one of those aliens, all of whom are outcasts and completely out of their league but ready for the Starfleet life, its ideals, and all of its inherent adventure.

Ghosts (CBS, 9:00pm) — A freelance journalist and a chef move into a massive country estate while hoping to transform it into a bed-and-breakfast. As the title indicates, however, there are ghosts afoot, and they’re comedic. So, there’s a Prohibition-era lounge singer, a hippie who indulges in hallucinogens, a scout leader, and a Militiaman. This week, it’s Halloween, so the ghosts are truly in their element.

Doom Patrol: Season 3 (HBO Max series) — DC’s struggling misfit superheroes are back for another round of being portrayed by an incredible cast. Brendan Fraser has received plenty of raves for his fury-filled Cliff Steele/Robotman, and more kudos should go to Diana Guerrero (Orange is the New Black) as Crazy Jane, which is actually a role that requires Diane to play dozens of incarnations, including a timely take on a Karen.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Chrissy Teigen, Matthias Schweighöfer, Skepta

Jimmy Kimmel Live! — Regina King, Lenny Clarke, The Kid Laroi

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Andie MacDowell, Rudi Dharmalingam, Calum Scott

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Olivia Munn, Roy Wood Jr., Jason Blum, Atom Willard

In case you missed these picks from last week:

Snoop and Martha’s Very Tasty Halloween (Peacock special) — The dynamic duo re-teams again, this time to host a baking competition that’s geared toward the spookiest holiday of all. Expect to see giant chocolate spiders and cotton-candy cobwebs, all packed into room-sized, edible creations.

Introducing, Selma Blair (Discovery+ film) — As the title indicates, this feature follows Selma Blair’s perspective, and it’s a very serious one, given that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and keeps on maintaining a Hollywood career.

The Next Thing You Eat: Season 1 (Hulu series) — Chef David Chang teams up with director Morgan Nevill for six episodes that follow seismic changes in the way we eat. There’s a global perspective, and expect to see robots and lab-grown food and all manner of other surprises.

Tom Brady is no longer the only famous Bostonian promoting cryptocurrency. Matt Damon is now the face of Crypto.com thanks to a new commercial produced by renowned film director David Fincher because, apparently, the world’s going nuts for the latest fad in computer money.

In the new global ad titled, “Fortune Favours The Brave,” Damon promotes the crypto site with by highlighting inspirational figures from history who would probably want a decentralized form of currency built on blockchain, too. Maybe. Via Variety:

Directed by Wally Pfister and produced by David Fincher, the 60-second commercial features Damon taking viewers on a historical journey of brave men and women who’ve made a difference in the world, in the hopes of inspiring people to “be their bravest selves.” This campaign aims to formally introduce the platform — aimed to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency — to consumers around the world and will launch on TV during “Thursday Night Football” on Fox Sports, eventually running in more than 20 countries.

Despite the fact that Brady defected to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, lifelong Patriots fan Matt Damon clearly still admires the quarterback as the two are now the biggest facts promoting crypto. Brady recently revealed that he’s giving Bitcoin to the fan who returned the ball from the NFL star’s 600th touchdown. The Bucs fan had already surrendered the football to the team before Brady’s generous gift, but the quarterback thought it was the right thing to do.

Of course, the most pertinent question now that crpyto is bringing in another Boston hero is this: has Dunkin started taking Bitcoin as payment? Is that’s what’s happening here? If so, watch out, because Ben Affleck is going to want in.

(Via Variety)

Major League Baseball is experimenting with a number of changes in an attempt to make baseball a more enjoyable sport to watch for the casual fan. Speeding up the game is at the top of the priority list, as is how the game is adjudicated, with the minor leagues serving as a testing ground for everything from pitch clocks to robot umpires.

However, there is a new proposal for a change from the outside that has nothing to do with speeding up the game or improving play on the field. PETA issued a release on Thursday calling on MLB to stop calling the area where relievers warmup the “bullpen” and start calling it the “arm barn.”

“Words matter, and baseball ‘bullpens’ devalue talented players and mock the misery of sensitive animals,” PETA executive vice president Tracy Reima said. “PETA encourages Major League Baseball coaches, announcers, players and fans to ‘changeup’ their language and embrace the ‘arm barn’ instead.”

The reasoning given is that the bullpen is in reference to an area cattle is kept before it is slaughtered or where bulls are caged in at bull-riding competitions and are treated inhumanely. PETA can issue some odd requests, but I have to say, disregarding the actual reasoning, arm barn is an upgrade on bullpen. It is so to the point that it’s funny, which also would make it an easy switch in terms of the terminology because no one could really be confused by what it’s in reference to. I fully support the arm barn change, not for the reasons PETA offers, but simply because it’s a much better name for the bullpen and it would make me laugh sometimes when someone like Joe Buck very seriously talked about who’s getting loose in the arm barn.

Squid Game has been out since mid-September, but it’s still a fixture in Netflix’s top-10 list. The South Korean survival series is the streamer’s second most-watched program today behind You, but this time last month, it was number one — and breaking records. Deadline reports that “Squid Game repeated atop Nielsen’s U.S. streaming rankings for the week of September 27 – October 3, dominating the Top 10 rankings and becoming only the sixth title to surpass three billion minutes viewed in a week’s span. It also marks the best title performance of 2021 in the U.S. rankings.”

The only other shows with over three billion minutes viewed in a week: You, Tiger King (twice), Ozark (three times!), The Umbrella Academy, and The Crown. All on Netflix. Here’s the rest of the top for the week of September 27 – October 3, just to show how far ahead Squid Game is from the competition.

1. Squid Game – 9 episodes, 3.26 billion minutes of viewing
2. Midnight Mass – 7 eps, 1.17 billion minutes
3. Maid – 10 eps, 850 million minutes
4. Cocomelon – 12 eps, 635 million minutes
5. NCIS – 353 eps, 560 million minutes
6. Lucifer – 93 eps, 536 million minutes
7. The Great British Baking Show – 67 eps, 534 million minutes
8. Criminal Minds – 316 eps, 515 million minutes
9 (tie) Sex Education – 24 eps, 469 million minutes
9 (tie) The Guilty (movie) – 496 million minutes

Squid Game‘s continuing popularity is a big relief to everyone who bought a track suit costume weeks ago and lost the receipt. It’s still topical.

(Via Deadline)

A climate activist group called Insulate Britain has been causing havoc in the UK for the past six weeks by blocking major roads to promote its climate agenda. Since mid-September 146 members have been arrested 690 times.

Some members of the group have gone so far as to glue themselves to the streets to stop police from arresting them.

While their tactics may seem a little extreme, their message is not. The group has a very practical plan to help the country lower its emissions to combat climate change. It is calling on the government to fully insulate all 29 million homes in Britain by 2030.

“Nearly 15% of the UK’s total emissions comes from heating homes: an overhaul of the energy performance of the UK’s housing stock is needed to reduce the energy demand,” the group says on its website.

Cameron Ford, a spokesperson for Insulate Britain appeared on conservative Mike Graham Show to discuss climate activism and it ended with the show’s host making a bizarre claim about concrete.

Ford is a carpenter.

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Mike’s interview with Insulate Britain spokesman Cameron lasts less than a minute.

@Iromg | @InsulateLove https://t.co/yJS7DheACq

— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO)
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GRAHAM: You work with trees that have been cut down, then, don’t you.

FORD: It’s a sustainable building practice.

GRAHAM: How is it sustainable if you’re killing trees?

FORD: Because it’s regenerative. You can grow trees, right?

GRAHAM: Well, you can you can grow all sorts of things, can’t you?

FORD: Well, you can’t grow concrete.

GRAHAM: You can.

Then after seven seconds of awkward silence, Graham ended the interview.

After the exchange went viral Graham was dubbed “Mr. Concrete” across social media.

People said it was a complete waste of time, but we would argue that creeping into Mike Graham’s garden to replace… https://t.co/sPlxuE9kqx

— NewsThump (@newsthump)
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BREAKING: Mike Graham provides definitive proof that you can in fact grow concrete. https://t.co/1nMYCRXHsU

— Have I Got News For You (@haveigotnews)
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Striking paradox about Mike Graham, is that despite his implacable hatred of socialists, he seems determined to rep… https://t.co/8QiB41YIb8

— Otto English (@Otto_English)
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Mike Graham is very proud of his lawn https://t.co/rsspdMSF2E

— Count Mysterioso (@MysteriosoX)
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While most people would run away from making such a foolish comment, Graham has decided to double down on his statements. He later appeared on the Jeremy Kyle show where he further explained how concrete grows.

Mike Graham went on the Jeremy Kyle show to embarrass himself one more time. https://t.co/vhOCSCUln9

— Mukhtar (@Mukhtar_iam)
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“If you were to say to me, what do you call something that gets bigger, what would you say? It would be something that grows, it expands, it grows,” Graham said, to which Kyle agreed, “Foam things expand.”

“If you were to describe the economy growing, would that be something you would say had to be planted?” Graham added. “It would expand and grow because you have growth in the economy. You don’t actually plant the economy to make it grow.”

He then claimed that concrete grows in a cement mixer. “If you have ever seen somebody making concrete in a concrete mixer… it expands and it grows, so you can actually make it grow,” he continued.

Graham’s attempts to make the case that concrete grows just shows he has very little respect for his audience’s intelligence. He thinks that his verbal gymnastics are clever enough to make them belive something that’s utterly rediculous. But, as we’ve seen time and time again in American media, people have no problem beliving a lie as long as it’s big enough.

After the whole bizarre child-bathing debate, we might be tired of hearing the parental styles of celebrities. But what Dax Shepard has to say about teaching kids, especially daughters, about sex is actually quite enlightening.

In the latest episode of his podcast, “Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard,” shared his “unpopular opinion” when it comes to raising his two daughters Delta and Lincoln.

“The most generic thing every guy says to me is, ‘Oh, you better have a gun, there’s gonna be guys coming around,'” he said. “This notion that I have to protect my daughters’ virginity, with great prejudice if necessary.”

Shepard said: “My response is, I do not want my daughters to have sex so they can get approval from somebody, but if my daughters are horny and want to have sex, that was my favorite activity, remains my favorite activity, I’d be lying if I said I was in any way anti-that activity. I’m anti-getting esteemed from that activity, but that’s it.”

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Shepard and his guest Gwyneth Paltrow went on to discuss how—despite living in markedly progressive times—young women are still taught to seek love, admiration and validation through sex, without being able to seek out pleasure themselves, let alone talk about their desire for pleasure. Whereas, generally speaking, men are “far less shame-ridden.”

Shepard’s wife Kristen Bell also has some life hacks when it comes to subtly teaching consent (another lesser talked about but utterly important topic).

“I’ll tell you one thing that my wife does that’s ingenious,” said Shepard. “When she describes sex to our children, she says, ‘And then the woman takes the man’s penis and puts it in her vagina.’ So right away it’s like, you’re in charge of this, you will decide to put this in your vagina, not the man puts his penis in your vagina.”

I especially love Shepard’s enthusiasm to Bell’s “ingenious” sex talk technique: “I was like, that’s a nice little adjustment we’re gonna make.”

The husband-and-wife duo have made a name for themselves as “low-key Hollywood parents” in the way they candidly describe moments in their marriage and family life. Recently, on her own podcast “Momsplaining,” Bell revealed that Shepard had to literally nurse out a clog she had during breastfeeding.

When one of her milk ducts became blocked due to inflammation, Bell shared, “I said to my husband, ‘I just need you to suck this out. We could talk about it. We could be weird about it, or you could just go ahead and nurse.”

Bell added: “He was pulling it out and spitting into this cup, and I’ve never been more in love in my life.”

I mean, sure, as a mom of none (do cats count?) I would have never imagined that scenario in a million years. But to some parents, I bet it was all too relatable. As relatable as having to give the new-and-improved sex talk. But if we want young women to grow up valuing their pleasure, having personal power and enjoying a healthy sex life, it’s necessary.

Discussing the birds and the bees might feel a tad daunting for parents. Especially for fathers with daughters. Hopefully taking a page out of Shepard’s book can make it a little more doable.

After Mozzy made a whole album with YG earlier this year, the Sacramento native once again taps in with a Compton star in the video for “Whole 100” from his new album, Untreated Trauma. The video sees Mozzy and Kalan.FrFr operating an ice cream truck, which helps put them in contact with baddies at the beach, as well as the usual assortment of block-bound misfits. With an upbeat and lighthearted tone, it’s something of a departure for the usually serious-minded Mozzy but Kalan.FrFr helps make this one a party-ready good-times anthem.

Thanks to Mozzy and YG’s collaborative effort, Kommunity Service, and Untreated Trauma, Mozzy’s profile is higher than ever. Not only has he become something of a fixture of West Coast turn-up joints like “Perfect Timing,” “Vibe With You,” “Gangsta,” and “Dangerous,” but now his name rings enough bells to get put on songs with hitmakers like Eminem and Polo G — Skylar Grey’s “Last One Standing” features all three. Untreated Trauma is Mozzy’s highest-charting album yet, peaking at No. 19 on the Billboard 200.

Meanwhile, Kalan is having something of a breakout year himself after dropping his debut album TwoFr 2 in March. That led to him starting to land more placements, while his UPROXX Sessions performance of album cut “Never Lose You” has generated impressive buzz for the West Coast rising star.

Watch Mozzy’s “Whole 100” video featuring Kalan.FrFr above.

Benee has mostly stayed out of the public eye in 2021, save for a cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” that she shared this summer. Now, though, she’s back with new music, as she shared a fresh track called “Doesn’t Matter.” On the calming midtempo track, she gets real about her mental health, opening the song by singing, “What’s it like / To not have to think about it? / It seems nice / Not a care, so quiet.”

Benee says of the song:

“It seems like a very long time since I’ve released any music. This year has been very difficult for me and many other people, and I’ve had times that I’ve really felt my lowest. I wrote ‘Doesn’t Matter’ during one of these periods when I felt truly overwhelmed, anxious, and stuck. I was diagnosed with OCD, which actually helped me understand myself better. This song ponders on what it would be like to feel truly carefree and how much easier life would be. Sometimes, it’s hard for people who don’t suffer from anxiety or depression to really understand what it’s like for us. People telling you not to worry or saying ‘It doesn’t matter’ don’t understand that it’s not that simple. Having had help to learn how to deal with my own anxiety and depression, I want others to know that there is a way through.”

Benee teased the track in a vulnerable Instagram post on Mental Health Day earlier this month (October 10), writing, “2020 was so hard and we thought it couldn’t get worse than that, but we’ve really been tested in 2021. I’ve spent a lot of this year under my weight blanket & not nearly enough time making music which made me feel even worse lol. […] There have been moments when I really felt like I wasn’t going to get through it all ( I know so many of you will relate ). I’m still navigating my own mental health journey but I’m so glad that ppl are finally starting to talk more openly about their own struggles. […] I’ve been filled with so many doubts lately, but knowing that even a few of u might be able to take something away from a post like this makes me want to keep this dialogue going. I’m so grateful to have this platform and I don’t know what I’d be doing without my music shtuff. Please, please reach out to someone if you are struggling . U can get through it. I love all of you so much thank u for sticking around. new music is coming sooner than u think x.”

Watch the “Doesn’t Matter” video above.

After previously teasing that the company was headed for a rebranding following a parade of bad headlines stemming from leaks and whistleblowers, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has officially announced that the company is now called “Meta.” For the record, Meta will be the new name for the parent company that oversees Facebook, the social media platform, which will continue to still be called, well, Facebook. Via CNN:

Facebook is changing its company name to reflect its future ambitions and confronts wide-ranging scrutiny of the real-world harms from its various platforms after a whistleblower leaked hundreds of internal documents.

The company will change its name to Meta, effectively demoting Facebook’s namesake service to being just one of the company’s subsidiaries, alongside Instagram and WhatsApp, rather than the overarching brand.

The name change was announced on Thursday during a Facebook Connect starring Zuckerberg where he laid out the company’s plans for the future, which involve expanding beyond the social media sphere.

“Today we’re seen as a social media company,” Zuckerberg said. “But in our DNA, we are a company that builds technology to connect people. And the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started.”

Naturally, the reactions started pouring in fast and furious on social media where the Facebook name change (that’s not really a name change) was dunked on along with Zuckerberg’s weird robotic video. You can see some of the reactions below:

While the future of social media and how it adapts to an internet where misinformation has became a rampant societal ill is important, perhaps the greatest existential question from Zuckerberg’s announcement is his choice of bookends because, seriously, is that what it looks like? My god…

(Via CNN)