Month: October 2021

Earlier this week, Lindsay Lohan made her official plunge into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs for short) by auctioning off a piece of artwork that transforms the Mean Girls actress into a furry. Her “fursona,” as the community calls it. Lohan tweeted the image on Wednesday, which kicked off a 72-hour auction that would grant the winner the digital rights to the cartoon rendering of Canine Lohan, or whatever they’re calling it.

By Thursday, Lohan was trending on Twitter, and not in a good way. The actress was getting roasted for attempting to shamelessly cash in on the NFT craze, and more specifically, her “art” did not go over well with the furry community. Via Rolling Stone:

“Flat D, perhaps even a D-,” says Colin Spacetwinks, a writer in the furry community. “It reminds me in a way of frequently insecure straight artists rendering furries: [diminish] and reduce furry traits so as to not ‘commit’ to what you’re doing. Ears covered, why? Feels like it’s avoiding animal traits on purpose.” Furry and aspiring game developer Tommo the Cabbit made a similar point, telling Rolling Stone, “It’s weird how there’s no ears shown since furry characters have ears shown on the top of the head.”

As, uh, animal lovers (to put it mildly), furries also took issue with Lohan endorsing NFTs, which have a negative impact on the environment thanks to the exponential levels of power consumption needed to create cryptocurrency. Turns out, there’s not a whole lot of room for animals to thrive when you’re raising the earth’s temperature to make imaginary computer money.

You can see some more reactions below:

(Via Rolling Stone)

At this year’s BET Hip-Hop Awards airing October 5 at 9 pm ET, LL Cool J will be presenting Tyler The Creator with a new award named after LL’s most impactful hit. The Rock The Bells Cultural Influence Award will recognize the growth and widespread effect Tyler has had over the past decade of rap music, representing a way for the older generation of hip-hop pioneers to recognize their successors — and maybe inform viewers on a little bit more hip-hop history.

Meanwhile, the awards themselves were actually filmed this week on Thursday, September 30, giving LL a chance to address the occasion via a statement from BET. “I am proud to honor Tyler, The Creator, with the first-ever Rock The Bells cultural influence award, which celebrates an artist who continues to break down the conventional boundaries of hip hop culture,” he said.

In addition, Tyler is nominated for four awards including, Hip Hop Album of the Year for his album Call Me If You Get Lost, Artist of the Year, Best Live Performer, and Producer of the Year. The honor follows Tyler’s mind-(and everything else)blowing performance of album single “Lumberjack” at the BET Awards earlier this year. Tyler said of the experience, “I was so hype to perform at the BET Awards. I don’t think people understand, dude. Having Durk and Lil Baby and Styles P just tell me how good the performance was meant a lot. I just never felt like my style of music would ever have been, not even appreciated, but allowed on there. And because of that, I would mock it. It was like a defense mechanism because I felt like I wasn’t accepted by that audience. But when they asked me this year, man, I was enthralled. I was so happy.”

Watch the BET Hip-Hop Awards on 10/5 on BET.

The world’s in a shambles. That’s an undeniable truth these days, and also consider this: It’s been over two years since we learned that Robert Pattinson was the seemingly unlikely choice to play the lead in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and it’s been over one year since the first (intense) teaser trailer arrived. Someday (March 4, 2022), the movie will land in theaters for real, and that day is obviously not today (October 1, 2021), which happens to be the intended release day.

Naturally, there was bound to be some emotional realizations once people realized that this was to be a joyous day, when Robert Pattinson — master of reinvention and murderer of microwave ovens — could deliver his take on a young Bruce Wayne. We’ve been robbed of so much life over the past few years, so obviously, delayed movie dates don’t rank anywhere near a real tragedy, but still, people are upset. And they’re venting.

And some people decided to deal with disappointment by making sh*t up for fun. Enter a flurry of tweets, which saw their authors pretend to have seen the movie and dole out “reactions.” Hey, it sounds like what Batman wouldn’t do on Harley Quinn (even though he totally would) is in the mix for these claimed scenarios, which include everything from “Batman does in fact go down” to “Red Hood shot Bane in the f*cking nuts.”

Meanwhile, someone woke up and decided to choose real chaos.

After the release of his new album, Justice, earlier this year, Justin Bieber has been back on his A-game. Arguably, the resurgence started directly after the release of his Changes album at the top of 2020. After a period of quiet during the early pandemic, Bieber began to slowly release new singles like “Lonely” with Benny Blanco and “Holy” with Chance The Rapper that reflected a more vulnerable, intimate look at where the singer’s head was at.

These new songs along with other singles like “Anyone” and “Hold On” would eventually be part of Justice, but at the time momentum was building and fans were thrilled to discover that Bieber was going to be hosting a massive livestream concert for New Year’s Eve 2020. Hey, livestreams aren’t normally the most exciting thing in the world, but after a year of lockdown and isolation, it felt like a prescient good omen for the coming year. Justin Bieber: Our World is a new documentary from filmmaker Michael D. Ratner that follows Bieber and his team for the month building up to the show, along with self-shot moments from Bieber and Hailey that capture the couple navigating their new relationship during the isolation.

Check out the trailer above, the film drops on Amazon Prime Video on October 8.

The Philadelphia 76ers and Ben Simmons reached a major inflection point in his holdout designed to force the team to trade him. Simmons is owed 25 percent of his salary, which is a little over $8 million, on Oct. 1, and there were questions about whether or not the Sixers would cut him a check or keep that from heading into his bank account.

According to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, Philly — which already gave Simmons’ the 25 percent of his contract he was owed earlier this year — has decided to go with option B. It is unclear whether or not this would spark a gigantic fight in which the NBA and the Players’ Association would step in, but Fischer added that a growing belief is that Simmons will end up reporting to the team but sit on the sideline, citing injuries.

In turn, there have been growing whispers this week among NBA sources with knowledge of the situation that Simmons could respond by actually reporting to Philadelphia in the coming days, but maintaining that he is injured and unable to compete. Simmons has had noted knee and back injuries in the previous two seasons.
…

The Sixers’ first preseason game is in Toronto on Monday, and there’s a belief held in league circles that Simmons may even rejoin the Sixers prior to that contest. How that would be received by teammates and staffers remains to be seen.

The news was confirmed by Shams Charania of The Athletic.

It had been reported that Simmons was willing to sit out this season and forfeit his salary in an effort to get a trade from the Sixers, and that his plan is to never suit up for the team again. The question now is whether or not losing out on a major payday leads to Simmons having a change of heart.

As television productions continue to spring back after facing brutal delays from the pandemic — The Righteous Gemstones was literally on its second day of shooting for Season 2 when it was forced to shut down — HBO has dropped a heavenly bounty of information about the upcoming new season for Danny McBride‘s latest masterpiece. While the network has yet to nail down a definitive release date, The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 will start airing its nine new episodes this winter. Not very specific, but have faith the show is coming soon.

Here’s the official synopsis for the new season, which is as mysterious as the Lord’s ways:

THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES tells the story of a world-famous televangelist family with a long tradition of deviance, greed and charitable work. Season two finds our blessed Gemstone family threatened by outsiders from both the past and present who wish to destroy their empire.

HBO also released the first round of photos from Season 2, which includes a look at some of the new characters joining the holy roller cast.

Firing right out of the gate is the Gemstones family still living that jet-set life: Kelvin (Adam Devine), Eli (John Goodman), Judy (Edi Patterson), Jesse (Danny McBride), and his now estranged wife Amber (Cassidy Freeman).

Here’s a look at the Gemstones family at work at their megachurch that’s ruled with an iron fist by Eli despite the numerous messes caused by his wayward children. When they’re not embezzling money, they’re snorting cocaine with strippers, which doesn’t bode well for the holy exterior.

On the left, we have the welcomed return of “former” Satanist Keefe (Tony Cavalero) who’s been taken under Kelvin Gemstone’s wing. Or is it the other way around?

In a new addition to the cast, Eric Andre and Jessica Lowe star as megachurch pastor and wife Lyle and Lindy Lissons.

Jason Schwartzman is also a new addition as a journalist named Thaniel.

Despite being estranged at the end of Season 1 (Amber literally shot Jesse in the ass with a gun), McBride and Freeman’s characters appear to be working together in the new season, but to what end?

Easily the highlight of Season 1, Judy and B.J. (Tim Baltz)’s weird as hell relationship is apparently still going strong.

And, finally, you can’t have a new season of The Righteous Gemstones without Walton Goggins as “Baby Billy” Freeman, who survived a lightning strike in the Season 1 finale and immediately found a way to turn it into a money-making scheme.

The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 is set to premiere this winter on HBO.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is not a great movie, but it’s a movie that says, emphatically, that superhero movies aren’t that important. At a time when most other superhero movies have fate-of-the-universe implications and attempt to humanize the machinations of a shadowy (but benevolent!) national security apparatus through wry humor and comic book hyperstylization, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is pretty much just a goofy story about a couple dudes infected with comedic alien symbiotes. It’s silly, thoroughly disposable, and a breezy 90 minutes long. What else could you ask for?

Tom Hardy, effusing his usual sheepdog charm, is back as Eddie Brock, a San Francisco reporter living an odd couple life with the alien goo that lives inside his butt. Okay, maybe not specifically inside his butt, but I promise you that this kind of joke fits perfectly with V:LTBC‘s general sensibility. V:LTBC is a lot like a superhero twist on Look Who’s Talking. We get Tom Hardy, the reticent, mumbly actor with big, pillowy lips on the outside, and Venom, Tom Hardy’s effusive, Cookie Monster-voiced alter ego on the inside narrating all the action. It’s having your cake and eating it too; very dumb, but mostly in the best way.

Eddie and Venom bicker like an old married couple, with Eddie demanding that Venom not eat people and get him in trouble, and Venom constantly begging for the nutrients he needs to survive. Which, we learn, are found only in brains and in chocolate. In one bit, Eddie points out that he already bought two live chickens for Venom to eat (“chickens have brains, don’t they?”), but Venom named them Sonny and Cher and they became his pets. With so many comic book movies feeling like the CIA hired someone to rewrite Watchmen, it’s fairly refreshing to see one that feels more like an R-rated episode of Alf.

Wait, has anyone seen the cat? AAAAALF!

Meanwhile, Detective Mulligan, played by Stephen Graham, aka Tommy from Snatch, one of the most enjoyable character actors we have, gives Eddie the opportunity of a lifetime: interview serial killer Cletus Kassady (Woody Harrelson) from death row, and hopefully reinvigorate his own career while helping Mulligan clear some cases. Things go sideways when Kassady begins to provoke Venom, one thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, Kassady is infected (enhanced?) with an alien symbiote of his own. “The red kind,” Venom notes reverently, though this is never explained nor expanded upon. Presumably for the best.

Cletus and his symbiote then bust out of prison to go find Cletus’s girlfriend, Francis Barrison (Naomie Harris), who has been imprisoned in a top-secret Victorian insane asylum on account of having supernatural screaming powers (she yells loud: it can shatter glass and scare symbiotes). Cletus is on a mission to… marry his girlfriend? While Venom and Eddie have to… stop them? Witness the marriage? I’m not really sure, actually. The point is, the movie is called “Let There Be Carnage” and the screenwriters have graciously allowed there to be carnage, thus fulfilling the ancient prophecy.

That screenwriter, by the way, is Kelly Marcel, writer of Saving Mr. Banks and adaptor of the Fifty Shades Of Grey movie, with direction by Andy Serkis, who last directed Disney’s live action-ish Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, and is best known as the guy in the spandex ping pong ball suit in the featurettes for the Lord Of The Rings and Planet Of The Apes movies, frequently seen discussing the act of jumping around like a chimp with the kind of reverence generally reserved for painting the Sistine Chapel. I mention them only because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a movie in which the filmmakers’ pedigrees were less apparent in the final product. How these two incorrigibly cerebral-sounding Brits teamed up to create a movie that feels like an episode of WWE’s Monday Night Raw is perhaps Venom: Let There Be Carnage‘s most intriguing question.

There’s the de rigeur showdown between superpowered fighters near the end of the movie, and it’s hard to tell what exactly either of them wants, though it doesn’t really matter. The real conflict in V: LTBC is between Eddie Brock and Venom. It’s essentially an unlikely rom-com, set within the backdrop of a superhero movie. The question isn’t so much “what does Carnage want and why should we care?” as it is “will Eddie and Venom finally learn to get along?”

This is all slightly unexpected and slightly refreshing, compelling for as long as it takes before the novelty value wears off. At 90 minutes, Venom: Let There Be Carnage doesn’t really let it. It peaks in a climactic sequence that’s as smash-cut-to-funeral dumb-funny as Samuel Jackson getting eaten by a shark mid-rousing speech in Deep Blue Sea. It’s pure junk food cinema, good for a cheap laugh in the moment before vanishing from memory forever. The post-credit scenes and requisite tie-ins cheapen the impact somewhat, but the basic fact remains: about the best thing a comic book movie, or really any movie, can do these days is not spend any time trying to convince you of its importance.

‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ is available in theaters everywhere October 1. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

The NWSL announced on Friday afternoon that it will call off this weekend’s matches on the heels of a damning report from The Athletic regarding now-former North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley. In it, multiple players (including two, Sinead Farrelly and Meleana “Mana” Shim, who spoke on the record about specific incidents) recounted Riley’s history of abusive behavior, which led to him being the second coach this week — alongside ex-Washington Spirit coach Richie Burke — who was dismissed due to allegations of abuse and creating a toxic environment within the club.

“This week, and much of this season, has been incredibly traumatic for our players and staff, and I take full responsibility for the role I have played,” NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird said in a statement on the league’s website. “I am so sorry for the pain so many are feeling. Recognizing that trauma, we have decided not to take the field this weekend to give everyone some space to reflect. Business as usual isn’t our concern right now. Our entire league has a great deal of healing to do, and our players deserve so much better. We have made this decision in collaboration with our players association and this pause will be the first step as we collectively work to transform the culture of this league, something that is long overdue.”

The response to the report on Riley featured a number of the most prominent women’s soccer players in the United States, like USWNT stalwarts Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, offering up support for those impacted by the actions of Riley (which reportedly date back to 2010) and the inaction of the league in investigating longstanding allegations of misconduct.

As reporting from The Athletic indicated, Riley had been the source of formal complaints to the league from players in the past, including Shim filing a complaint in 2015 in the immediate aftermath of the season. He was relieved by his then-team, the Portland Thorns, which confirmed that the investigation found him in violation of team policy.

After the NWSL adopted a new anti-harassment policy earlier this year, Farrelly and Shim contacted the league to ask for a new investigation into Riley’s behavior. League commissioner Lisa Baird thanked them for raising their concerns but informed both former players the 2015 complaint was “investigated to conclusion,” and that she could not share any details. This week, when informed of The Athletic’s reporting on Riley, including the allegations made by Farrelly that were not part of the 2015 Thorns probe, Baird chose not to respond. An NWSL spokesperson said in a statement: “The league was contacted earlier this year regarding an investigation that was completed in 2015. Absent any new or additional information, the matter was closed. That said, the behavior described by former players has absolutely no place in our league and will not be tolerated.”

Riley and Burke are the latest male coaches to leave their post or be fired this year due to these sorts of allegations.

Nobody does smart, righteous takedowns through mild-mannered sarcasm as well as Jon Stewart does. Since his departure from “The Daily Show” in 2015, his witty social and political commentary has been missed. Now he’s back with his own show, “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” on Apple TV+, and he’s in peak form.

For years, Stewart has advocated for government support for veterans and first responders impacted by toxic chemicals, with several testimonies before lawmakers making the viral rounds on social media. He has played an active role in pushing legislation to provide compensation for 9/11 heroes who have suffered ongoing health issues from exposure to chemicals and particulates at ground zero, as well as veterans exposed to toxic burn pits while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a four-minute clip of an episode called “The Problem With War: Burn Pits and Sick Veterans,” Stewart says that the Department of Defense and the Department of Veteran Affairs keep putting off action on veterans suffering from toxic chemical exposure because they claim they need clearer evidence. However, as he points out, not only has evidence that benzene and dioxin are harmful been reported on for decades, but the Defense Department’s own internal memos say so as well.

Watch:

The Problem With War: Burn Pits and Sick Veterans | The Problem With Jon Stewart | Apple TV+

youtu.be

“We know the chemicals in burn pits are the same chemicals in Agent Orange and the same chemicals at ground zero. And we know exposure to those chemicals make you sick,” Stewart said. “We know. They know. We know they know. And now I think they know that we know that they know.”

Stewart always throws in that bit of wry humor, but the message he’s delivering is deadly serious.

“Now veterans are dying and going bankrupt because the DoD and VA are forcing them to indisputably prove a connection they already internally admit exists,” Stewart said. “And what makes it so incredibly demoralizing is that they are holding the veterans to a standard of proof far beyond the one our own government used to send them to war in the first place.”

Leave it to Jon Stewart to drive the point home with such clarity and with a gut punch right at the end.

Squid Game is on pace to become Netflix’s biggest show of all-time. It’s so popular that a man with a real-life phone number used in the show is getting around 4,000 calls a day; it’s so popular that Netflix’s stock is at an all-time high; it’s so popular that the streaming service is getting sued because it’s using up too much internet.

Reuters reports that “South Korean Internet service provider SK Broadband has sued Netflix to pay for costs from increased network traffic and maintenance work because of a surge of viewers to the U.S. firm’s content.” The Netflix traffic handled by SK Broadband now requires 1.2 trillion bits of data to be processed every second. I’m not entirely sure how that compares to, say, Disney+ or Hulu, but I do know that 1.2 tacos is not many tacos. But 1.2 trillion tacos? That’s a lot of tacos.

The move comes after a Seoul court said Netflix should “reasonably” give something in return to the internet service provider for network usage, and multiple South Korean lawmakers have spoken out against content providers who do not pay for network usage despite generating explosive traffic… SK estimated the network usage fee Netflix needed to pay was about 27.2 billion won ($22.9 million) in 2020 alone, the court document said.

If only there was a way to make a quick 27.2 billion won, possibly by winning a series of children’s games.

(Via Reuters)