Month: October 2021

One of the best big men of his generation called it a career on Tuesday. Paul Gasol, who suited up for five teams over the course of his NBA career and also played professionally in Spain, announced his retirement during a press conference in Barcelona, the city and club where he started and ended his professional career.

In the tweet where Gasol confirmed the end of his career, the former All-Star big man included a nod to the short film Dear Basketball, which was written and narrated by his friend and former teammate, the late Kobe Bryant.

Gasol’s NBA career included tenures with the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, and Milwaukee Bucks. It was in Los Angeles where he ascended to the sport’s mountaintop, as the team won NBA championships in 2009 and 2010 with Gasol playing alongside Bryant. A six-time All-Star and a four-time All-NBA selection — twice on the second-team, twice on the third-team — Gasol will be immortalized sometime in the future by the Lakers, as team owner Jeanie Buss announced that the franchise will retire his number at some point.

During his NBA career, Gasol averaged 17 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game. In addition to his success for his various club teams, Gasol was arguably the face of the greatest generation of Spanish basketball, as he led his national team to back-to-back silver medals at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, along with a gold medal at the 2006 World Cup.

You can’t always trust subtitles. What you’re reading when watching a movie or TV show in another language has usually been simplified. As a result, something can be lost in translation. But the American subtitles for Squid Game — the surprise South Korean hit show, which is currently out-streaming even the newly arrived Seinfeld on Netflix — may have gone too far.

According to Esquire, some viewers of the show — which presents an alternate world in which those in debt compete in deadly games — have noticed that the show’s Korean-to-English subtitles are..off. One of the first people to spread awareness of the issue was New York-based comedian Youngmi Mayer.

“I watched Squid Game with English subtitles, and if you don’t understand Korean you didn’t really watch the same show,” Mayer tweeted. “Translation was so bad. The dialogue was written so well and zero of it was preserved.”

Mayer then directed readers to TikTok, where she broke down the matter in greater detail. As per Esquire:

She focuses specifically on the character of Mi-nyeo, whose brash behavior and irreverence toward the guards in Squid Game comes off as, honestly, a bit bonkers considering that if you don’t win this game, you die. But with additional context from Mayer, Mi-nyeo’s character makes a lot more sense.

As explained by Mayer, certain pieces of dialogue are slightly mistranslated, which makes a huge difference when meaning is considered. In one clip, the character says (as told via subtitle), “I’m not a genius, but I still got it work out. Huh.” Translation is close-ish, but upon review from Mayer, she says the line is more like, “I am very smart. I just never got a chance to study,” which, as Mayer explains, is a huge trope in Korean media. It’s not just a mistranslation; it’s a lack of understanding of Korean pop culture.

Others noticed the same thing.

https://twitter.com/YasminLG18/status/1443794793537155073

Some people, though, didn’t agree 100% with Mayer’s police work, saying she was going off the English closed captioning, not the English subtitles. (Yes, those are two different options, though you’d have to manually choose the closed captioning.)

Others were happy that so many Americans were watching something with subtitles, even citing Parasite director Bong Joon-ho’s passionate pitch for reading while watching.

Netflix has not addressed the issue, but possibly because they’re already dealing with people upset that they’re showing Seinfeld in the wrong aspect ratio.

In the meantime, America, like much of the world, continues to have Squid Game fever. The show is so popular that Netflix is even getting sued for the massive surge in internet traffic. Meanwhile, people are not happy about one of its fans: Amazon creator — and noted union hater — Jeff Bezos.

(Via Esquire)

LeBron James has been vaccinated against COVID-19. But despite this, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar made clear that he does not believe it is his place to tell people what they should or should not put in their bodies when he met with the press at the team’s media day last week.

James and Golden State Warriors standout Draymond Green, who expressed similar sentiments regarding then-unvaccinated teammate Andrew Wiggins, were the subjects of a recent piece written on Substack by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. An outspoken advocate for Americans to get one of the COVID vaccines, Abdul-Jabbar wrote that James was “just plain wrong” for his comments, and said that Green’s belief that people needed to “honor” Wiggins’ decision to remain unvaccinated “couldn’t have been said worse.”

After mentioning the cost of inaction on things designed to make people safe — something that he took as a literal with the pandemic, saying “Harvard economists say it’s cost us $16 trillion so far” — Abdul-Jabbar addressed Green’s comment that there is “something to be said for people’s concerns about something that’s being pressed so hard.”

The only support for Draymond’s statement is his belief that when people “press hard” there’s something inherently wrong with their opinion. There is no logic to that statement. If I press hard against institutional racism, if I press hard against police brutality, if I press hard against recent laws making it harder for minorities to vote, if I press hard against child porn, if I press hard in support of MeToo am I automatically wrong? On the contrary, the passion of those urging vaccines might suggest there’s some urgency to their opinion. That the situation is serious and we need to take immediate action to protect people. That thousands are dying every day, mostly among the unvaccinated. That the Black community, where vaccine hesitancy is high, are dying at a disproportionately higher rate than whites. That publicly talking about honoring opinions that contribute to their deaths is irresponsible.

In Abdul-Jabbar’s eyes, the pair are making arguments that stem from a support for freedom, but that saying it here comes at the expense of the health and well-being of others. He also called on athletes like James and Green to use their platforms for good, encouraging others to get vaccinated and play roles in ending the pandemic that come from being as famous as LeBron James or Draymond Green are. Whether or not they heed his advice, though, remains to be seen.

Eleven-year-old best friends Stevie and Owen hadn’t seen each other since 2019, after Owen’s family moved from Chicago to Missouri. Despite several phone calls and FaceTime video game sessions, COVID-19 had made keeping in touch difficult.

But their luck was destined to change last Friday. Stevie Stroud had no idea that after being picked up early from a bad day at school, his friend Owen would be waiting in the car to pay him a special visit.

A heartwarming video of their reunion has been spreading smiles, and a few tears, across the internet. If you’re in need of an extra dose of sweetness today, you’re in luck.

In the video, Stevie approaches the car, backpack and basketball in hand. On seeing his friend in the back seat, he is filled with excitement.

3 yrs ago, best friends Stevie & Owen where separated when Owen moved to Missouri

Recently, Stevie had a bad day a… https://t.co/hp3axnIbml

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1)
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“What are you doing?” he asks. The basketball drops and tears fall. Stevie lets out a wail as his head falls into Owen’s arms.

“What are you doing here?” Stevie asks again, sniffling. “I don’t know, what am I doing here? I’m visiting you in Chicago, that’s what I’m doing here,” Owen replies. Clearly, Owen is the jokester of the two.

As Owen pats his shoulder, Stevie says, “You just made my day. I’ve had the worst day ever.”

The cries turn into laughter as Stevie hops in the car next to his pal. And the clip ends with Stevie saying “I think I’m dreaming.”

Seeing these two young boys express their love for one another so purely and freely is definitely worth a view, so it’s no wonder the video has now gone viral.

Gracing our phone screens since April, the “that girl” TikTok trend shows us an archetypal, if not stereotypical, wellness formula usually consisting of an early morning wake up + healthy breakfast (plant-based, preferably) + wellness activity + goal setting. Have this done before 7 a.m., then go boldly forth into your new day with full confidence that you have earned your happiness. Document it all for the world to see, and voila, you have now become “that girl.”

On the one hand, “that girl” encourages us all to bring our A-game every day. By offering a small snapshot of what our lives could look and feel like if we really committed to morning routines, we can find motivation to follow through on our goals. And hey, if multiple studies show that faking it till you make it actually works, then maybe posting that yoga routine will genuinely boost confidence and help it stick. Nothing wrong with that.

And “that girl” inspires us to find joy in the small things, even our daily habits. Much like the #maincharacter trend, which encourages everyone to see themselves as the hero of their own story, “that girl” is all about romanticizing life. Sometimes, that can be good medicine.

However, things that at first glance appear empowering can often have more insidious effects on mental health.

For example, when it presents a narrow view of wellness. Though you’d think that we could move beyond picturing healthy eating as avocado toast and celery juice, trends like “that girl” allow that narrow view to permeate. The biggest danger of this message being that good health is only a result of a privileged lifestyle. Not everyone can easily have access to fermented coconut yogurt and goji berries; only a certain few, therefore, can trully become “that girl,” even though everyone should, apparently, be striving to become “that girl.” Yikes, even writing out this logic is exhausting.

In this instance, wellness takes on an all-or-nothing attitude. Where instead of one person jogging at the crack of dawn in their Lululemons, everyone is, and therefore you should be too. It seems harmless enough, but when women, especially young girls, are being bombarded with images of extremely low calorie diets, and only one aspirational body type, it’s a recipe for disappointment. If not worse.

all that the that girl trend did to me is give me an eating disorder and made me hate my life 🙁

— ꧁MilkyOnce꧂ (@Dahyuni16548508)
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Of course, we can’t put all the blame on “that girl.” This idolizing of a certain aesthetic of health and success is no new trend. “That girl” goes by many names: girlboss, bossbabe, bosslady. Whatever moniker she takes on, “that girl” is here to tell us to wake up earlier, eat cleaner, get the reps in, and you can be everything you want to be. And before TikTok and Instagram, “that girl” showed up in magazines, showing us all exactly what to do to have the perfect life.

The real question here is: Why won’t this trend die? Why does it continue to reinvent itself even in a digital space? What is so intoxicating about the idea of perfection that generations of women have become addicted? In a word, it’s control. The dizzying high of knowing deep in your bones that Z always follows X and Y. That if you control your body, you control your life, and if you control your life, you control destiny. You will be worthy. And at the heart of many women, there is a fear of UNworthiness. If that uncomfortable, unattainable, downright rigid routine keeps you at arm’s length from the dreaded UNworthiness? Then sobeit.

Though this is not the first time TikTok has inadvertently promoted body image issues, in an interview with Refinery29, a company spokesperson stated “Being true to yourself is celebrated and encouraged on TikTok. As a platform, we’re focused on safeguarding our community from harmful content and behaviours while supporting an inclusive – and body-positive – environment.” Because the platform has had several trends that actually advocate body positivity, in addition to viral success stories of self-love, there’s reason to believe the platform can help break the social media mold on beauty standards.

After all, nothing is inherently wrong with the desire for self-improvement, but there’s no need for women to be “that girl,” if they don’t want to, or can’t. They’re perfectly fine being themselves.

It’s been a while since experimental R&B duo Majid Jordan — that’s Majid Al Maskati and Jordan Ullman — have released a full-length body of work. The Canadian duo’s last album, The Space Between, dropped October 27, 2017, climbing to No. 30 on their home country’s Billboard albums chart and No. 74 stateside. However, in all that time, they’ve never been forgotten or overlooked by fans, who have patiently awaited news of a follow-up.

They rewarded that patience today with the announcement of their upcoming third album, Wildest Dreams. Building on the momentum of singles “Been Through That,” “Waves Of Blue,” and “Summer Rain,” the duo is set to release their latest album on October 22 through Warner Records and, as always, Drake’s OVO Sound. In addition, they’re planning a short, celebratory tour to commemorate the project’s release, hitting four US cities including Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco ahead of a triumphant homecoming to Toronto to complete the run.

The singles that they’ve released so far promise a return to the New Wave-inflected, dance-pop-grooving R&B we’ve come to enjoy from them — and look forward to hearing again, very soon.

Wildest Dreams is due 10/22 via OVO and Warner Records.

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

It’s rare when comic book movies bomb; even The Suicide Squad, which tanked in movie theaters, allegedly did gangbusters on HBO Max. But when they do it’s like a redwood going down. One of the genre’s most notorious black eyes is 1997’s Batman & Robin. It grossed $100 million domestically…but against a $160 million budget. And it ensured that the Caped Crusader, who had once ruled the superhero film, was AWOL for almost a decade. It has some fans now, but its star is definitely not one of them.

George Clooney attended a screening of his latest directorial opus, The Tender Bar, where a Variety reporter reminded him of one of his cinematic nadirs. They were discussing how he’s one of the old Batmen not asked to be in the multiverse-loving The Flash, which features Tender Bar star Ben Affleck as well as Michael Keaton. Clooney had a simple reason for that.

“The truth is I didn’t want to do it,” he joked, before adding, even more bluntly, “No, they didn’t ask me.” He had a reason for that, too. “When you destroy a franchise the way I did, usually they look the other way when The Flash comes by.”

Amal Clooney, his wife, then revealed that he “won’t let me watch it.” Why? “There are certain films I just go, ‘I want my wife to have some respect for me,’” he said.

Clooney did agree with the Variety reporter that in the film he did “have great nipples,” referring to an unusual sartorial addition to the iconic Batman suit. But when Amal pointed out that one day their kids may want to watch it, his eye-roll was as over-the-top as Batman & Robin itself.

This is far from the first time Clooney has dissed his stab at DC’s most brooding superhero. “I always apologize for Batman & Robin,” he said on The Graham Norton Show back in 2015. “I thought at the time this was going to be a very good career move. It wasn’t.”

You can watch Clooney’s old Graham Norton appearance below. Please enjoy his spot-on impersonation of Batman & Robin director Joel Schumacher.

(Via Variety)

It’s no secret the many award shows are struggling to pull numbers these days and the Oscars are no exception. Despite stay-at-home mandates and a lot of controversy surrounding last year’s Academy Awards, the ceremony hit a shockingly low amount of viewers in 2020 when only 9.85 million people tuned into watch. While almost 10 million people might not seem so bad in theory, it marks a staggering 13.75 million drop from 2019, or just over a 58% decrease in viewers. To add insult to injury, the Oscars ratings also took a nosedive, scoring a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49 — a 64.2% dip from 2020. Needless to say, the Academy is looking for a way to fix this major problem, and it would seem their proposed answer is film producer Will Packer.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Will Packer (Girls Trip, Straight Outta Compton, Think Like a Man) has been tapped to produce the broadcast of the 2022 Oscars. Packer marks the second filmmaker asked to helm the project, following last year’s Steven Soderberg, the director of films such as Erin Brockovich and Traffic. Packer comes to the job with no prior Oscar or television broadcast experience but brings with him a whole lot of commercial success and enthusiasm.

“The power, the beauty, the romance of the imagery in movies has always attracted me,” said Packer. “I’m fully embracing the challenge of bringing an ode to one of the most iconic mediums in the world to life. What an honor!”

Following the reveal, Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson released a joint statement citing Packer’s success in all genres as the reason they selected him for the role. The pair then stated Packer is “already bringing a boundless energy and a focus on innovation to this year’s Oscars to entertain the widest spectrum of fans” and “many wonderful surprises” lie ahead. The Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre.

Louisville rapper EST gets borderline blasphemous in the new video for “Make It Even” from his recently released mixtape Bigger Than Life Or Death, out now on Interscope Records. Actually, I guess it’s probably more sacrilegious, with its irreverent use of Christian iconography including crucifixes, altars, and confessionals as he threatens bloody revenge on his enemies.

The wicked concept constitutes something of a departure for the Collective Music Group rapper, whose videos are usually meditations on the spoils of rap and other, less legal activities. Generally, he’s surrounded by women, as he is in the “Price Tag” video, or money, like in the videos for “Riata Dada,” “5500 Degrees,” and “In Town.” Even when he’s making a guest appearance, as he does on G-Eazy’s “At Will” and 42 Dugg’s “Rose Gold,” it seems like his singular focus is money — which is why the imagery in “Make It Even” is even more jarring, whatever your spiritual affiliation.

Whatever visual cues he uses, it’s clear he’s having a stellar year, from featuring on fellow Louisville citizen Jack Harlow’s album to meeting with Jay-Z. EST Gee’s profile is rising, bit by bit, thanks to his consistency where it counts: His gritty, unapologetic lyrics.

Watch EST Gee’s “Make It Even” video above.

Bigger Than Life Or Death is out now via Collective Music Group and Interscope Records. You can stream it here.

Meek Mill’s new album Expensive Pain is out now and today, he followed its release with a music video for the reflective title track.

The video splices together clips from Meek’s lavish life, from riding in private jets and relaxing at luxury resorts to playing chess with his friends and shopping for new Richard Mille watches. Interludes sprinkled throughout the video use clips from Meek’s battle rap DVD days to contrast his gritty comeup with his glitzy current.

Meek’s album, which features appearances from A$AP Ferg, Brent Faiyaz, British rapper Giggs, Kehlani, Lil Baby & Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, Moneybagg Yo, Vory, and Young Thug, finds Meek exploring new territory and stretching his creative faculties, whether that’s finding new styles of beats to rap over or trying his hand at Autotuned crooning. After releasing the album alongside new videos for “On My Soul” and “Intro (Hate On Me),” Meek received praise from frequent collaborator Drake, who expressed his pride in his colleague.

Watch Meek Mill’s “Expensive Pain” video above.

Expensive Pain is out now via Atlantic Records and Maybach Music Group. You can stream it here.

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