Month: October 2021

As the 6 p.m. ET contract extension deadline approached for the 2018 Draft class, many of the biggest names had already gotten taken care of, with Trae Young, Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson Jr., Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Michael Porter Jr., and Mikal Bridges all getting extensions done this offseason.

However, one significant name is missing from that list, as the top overall pick, Suns center Deandre Ayton, entered Monday without a deal done and little in the way of positivity that something would get done. Ayton had expressed his frustration with the situation, as he thinks he’s done more than enough to justify being given the max that Young, Doncic, SGA, and MPJ have all gotten, coming off a Finals run where he was a key contributor in the middle.

Any hope that after the Bridges deal got done, the Suns would get serious about Ayton was snuffed out on Monday afternoon when ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that talks had ended with Phoenix refusing to put that max deal on the table.

It’s a disappointing way for the Suns to start the season given all of the positivity coming off of a Finals run where Ayton stepped up in a major way down the stretch and in the postseason. There’s still an incredibly high chance that he signs long-term this coming summer with the Suns matching what will likely be a max offer he gets from another team. However, it’s more about the messaging towards a young core piece, and what feels like a step back in terms of the culture they have worked so hard in building recently.

A mere two hours before doors opened to her show this past Friday at Berkeley’s open air Greek Theatre, Phoebe Bridgers sent a cryptic tweet to stoke the fire of the evening, writing, “get to the show early tonight trust me.”

So for the lucky folks in the sold out 8,500-capacity crowd who wised up and listened to Bridgers and indeed got there early, they were treated to a surprise opening set from her Boygenius bandmate, Julien Baker. Baker played a clean eight song set that was heavy on material from her 2016 breakthrough Sprained Ankle, including the title track, “Everybody Does,” “Blacktop,” “Good News,” and “Something.”

To close out Baker’s set, Bridgers joined her on stage for a cover of Loudon Wainwright III’s 1985 track “One Man Guy,” a song that also appeared on Rufus Wainwright’s (Loudon’s son) 2001 album Poses (which would explain why Bridgers told the crowd it was a Rufus song.)

The pair did not stop there with the surprises however, as Baker joined Bridgers for HER set too. Playing guitar on “Graceland Too” and “I Know The End” (the closing tracks from Bridgers’ 2020 album Punisher.) You can watch that performance in the video clip below.

Bridgers, who performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week, has three remaining appearances in 2021: At the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on 10/21 and 10/22 and at Atlanta’s Shaky Knees festival on October 24.

Coldplay’s partnership with K-pop titans BTS has been particularly fruitful. Earlier this month, “My Universe” became Coldplay’s first No. 1 song in well over a decade. Now, they’re keeping the Music Of The Spheres single alive with a new version of the track, remixed by BTS’ Suga.

The “Suga’s Remix” version of the song maintains a lot of elements of the original track, but there are some key changes. The song’s hook takes on a more danceable new rhythm, while the verses are more subdued in nature. While the original track is Coldplay at their most pop, the Suga remix brings it even further into pop territory.

Coldplay says of the remix, “We’re so grateful to SUGA for this glorious remix. A BRILLIANT producer on top of everything else.” Suga also noted, “I’m thrilled to be able to work together with Coldplay, who I’ve admired since I was a kid, and honored to be a part of this remix.”

Meanwhile, Chris Martin recently noted that Music Of The Spheres, the band’s ninth album, could be one of their final LPs.

Listen to “My Universe (Suga’s Remix)” above and check out our review of Music Of The Spheres here.

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

While Eternals is right on schedule for its November 5 release date and the next entry in the Spider-Man series is still swinging into theaters on December 17, just about every other Marvel movie has officially gotten a somewhat substantial delay, starting with Doctor Strange in the Mulitverse of Madness. While the sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange was originally scheduled to premiere March 25, 2022, the film has been pushed back to May 6. As a result, every subsequent Marvel movie is also being pushed back, with Thor: Love and Thunder moving from May 6 to July 8, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever moving from July 8 to November 11, The Marvels moving from November 11 to February 17, 2023, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania moving from February 17, 2023 to July 28, 2023.

According to Deadline, the drastic shift has “nothing to do with a change in distribution strategy for these films” nor are ” Disney execs immediately concerned about the future of the global marketplace.” Instead, Deadline reports, it’s all “on account of a domino effect going on with production and filmmakers,” as “some titles are contending with finishing scenarios while others are in production.”

While it’s a bummer to have to wait a bit longer to find out what happens next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, some fans have been quick to look at the bright-side of the whole ordeal. For example, the only other movie opening against Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 6 is now Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, which I feel we can safely say won’t lead to too much competition. In addition, no other big blockbusters films are currently slated to go up against Thor: Love & Thunder on its new date of July 8. While Black Panther: Wakanda Forever does hit pretty close to DC’s The Flash, there’s at least a week of space between the two, meaning you won’t have to pick which film to see (or hurt your wallet seeing both in the same weeekend) when the time comes.

In addition to all these MCU titles, the next entry in the Indiana Jones series has also been extremely delayed, shifting from July 29, 2022 to June 30, 2023. As of right now, it’s not believed the push-backs are causing any changes in the production of the films, so it seems safe to say you can expect the exact same films, just a bit later.

The Indiana Pacers will keep one of their core pieces around for a little longer than originally planned. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Indiana came to terms on a two-year contract extension with starting guard Malcolm Brogdon, which will keep him tied to the organization for the next four seasons.

Wojnarowski reports that this extension will pay Brogdon $45 million, meaning he is now guaranteed to make a little under $90 million over the remaining time on his contract.

While keeping Brogdon around is certainly notable, Bobby Marks of ESPN noted that there’s an added twist to this. Brogdon has seen his name pop up in trade rumors involving the Pacers and the Philadelphia 76ers over Ben Simmons, but because of this extension, he is no longer able to be traded during the 2021-22 NBA season.

After spending the first three years of his NBA career with the Milwaukee Bucks, Brogdon joined the Pacers via a sign-and-trade during the summer of 2019. The 28-year-old is coming off of the best season of his professional career during the 2020-21 campaign, as he put forth career-best marks in scoring (21.2 points per game) and rebounding (5.3 a night) while adding 5.9 assists a game and connecting on 38.8 percent of his threes. Now, the team has made a commitment to keep him around as they work to get back to being a playoff team.

Rolling Stone reports that Kanye West is no more — the Donda artist will now be known as simply “Ye,” according to the Los Angeles Superior Court and Judge Michelle Williams Court, who signed off on the change. Kanye initially filed his petition to have his name changed on August 24, citing “personal reasons.”

He later explained the change in an interview with Big Boy: “I believe ‘ye’ is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible, it means ‘you,’” he reasoned. “So it’s I’m you, I’m us, it’s us. It went from being Kanye which means the only one to just Ye being a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, our everything.”

Far be it from me to judge anyone on goofy name changes, but that reasoning seems muddled for what is essentially just a shortening of his actual name (also, it betrays a critical lack of understanding of how the English language evolved in the 500 or so years since the King James Version of the Christian Bible was thrown together — something that Ye’s Nebuchadnezzar line reading already prepared me for a couple of years ago).

The name change isn’t the only big move he’s making; it was recently reported that Ye had put his Wyoming ranch up for sale, just after closing on a new home in Malibu.

There were fewer gulfs in impact during last season’s playoff run than Jrue Holiday’s menacing, versatile, overwhelming defense and his erratic, unpredictable, confusing scoring. When the Milwaukee Bucks opted to stop switching screens and keep Holiday tethered to Chris Paul in the NBA Finals, the Hall of Fame point guard struggled mightily to catalyze the offense the same way.

Holiday was an All-Defensive First Team honoree and looked the part as the Bucks pulverized teams defensively en route to a title. He was also a tremendous third scorer during the regular season, averaging 17.7 points on 59.2 percent true shooting (.503/.392/.787). Had he not missed 10 consecutive games in February due to COVID, there’s a chance he’d have received his second All-Star berth. That’s how good he was on both ends all regular season.

While the defensive chops translated to the playoffs and he remained a valuable distributor, the individual scoring became unreliable, when he averaged 17.3 points on 48.2 percent true shooting. His finishing and rim frequency deteriorated, he settled for more hurried midrange jumpers, and seemed to gravitate toward early clock pull-up threes on the break too often. As Milwaukee looks to defend its title, an improved scoring Holiday could loom large.

The Bucks should be a better team than last year. Donte DiVincenzo will return, who they missed mightily during the final three rounds of the playoff rounds. Acquiring Grayson Allen was a savvy move to add some shooting and playmaking. Post-title bumps for their stars, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, could be a legit phenomenon and both were better players by the end of the postseason than at the start. Maybe, they figured some stuff out.

Other contenders should be better as well, though. The Phoenix Suns bolstered their bench and can expect growth from the quartet of Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson. The Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets were constantly bitten by the injury bug last season. Both enter the year seemingly much healthier, though Kyrie Irving’s vaccination status threatens to complicate the situation in Brooklyn.

That’s why a guy like Holiday being better equipped to handle the mantle of third scorer is crucial. Much of the talk surrounding Milwaukee last season centered on its diversified offense that was seemingly more playoff-ready. Yet when late May rolled around, the Bucks made most of their money defensively. They had the top-ranked defense of the postseason, while their offense finished 11th among 16 teams.

Some of that is because they played a handful of very good teams, especially the Nets, whose defense was stifling at times. But it’s also because Giannis, Middleton, and Holiday struggled earlier before the former two turned it on eventually. Holiday had some impressive scoring outings, including Games 5 and 6 against the Atlanta Hawks and Game 5 against Phoenix. Yet by and large, the Bucks would have benefitted from consistency. That hasn’t changed as their title defense begins this month.

Going into the weekend, news broke that Netflix fired the organizer of a planned employee walkout that was sparked in response to the streaming company’s continued defense of Dave Chappelle‘s latest comedy special, The Closer. However, that setback has not stopped the walkout of trans employees and their allies who have been internally voicing their frustration with Netflix’s refusal to grapple with the potential harm caused by the transphobic and homophobic portions of Chappelle’s special.

Scheduled for October 20, the event’s new organizers and participants — now formally known as the Trans* Employee Resource Group (ERG) — have shared a list of demands that includes internal changes they want to see the streaming giant adapt. Notably, removing Chappelle’s special is not one of the demands. However, the employees would like to see content warnings going forward as well as more concentrated efforts to promote trans talent across the company.

Here are just some of the demands via The Verge:

– Increase investment in trans and non-binary content on Netflix comparable to our total investment in transphobic content, including marketing and promotion.

– Revise internal processes on commissioning and releasing potential harmful (“sensitive”) content, including but not limited to involving parties who are a part of the subject community and can speak to potential harm, or consulting with 3rd party experts/vendors.

– Hire trans and non-binary content executives, especially BIPOC, in leading positions.

– Acknowledge the harm and Netflix’s responsibility for this harm from transphobic content, and in particular harm to the Black trans community.

– Add a disclaimer before transphobic titles that specifically flag transphobic language, misogyny, homophobia, hate speech, etc. as required.

You can read the full ERG letter here.

(Via The Verge)

If you thought Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. was out there, wait until you see what the team over at Hulu is working on next. Following M.O.D.O.K. (but unfortunately no longer leading up to the debut of the tentatively planned The Offenders series over on Hulu), the streaming service has revealed the first trailer for Marvel’s Hit-Monkey and forgive us for making the pun but… it’s pretty ape sh*t.

Based on the 2010 comic series of the same name, Hit-Monkey follows a Japanese snow monkey (voiced by legendary voice actor Fred Tatasciore) who ultimately dedicates his life to killing fellow assassins. However, based on the trailer, it seems there might be some deviations between the comic series and the upcoming television adaptation.

In the Hit-Monkey comics, the monkey who goes on to become the legendary killer gains his skills through disdainfully watching an unnamed assassin (Jason Sudeikis’ Bryce, in the trailer) train following his troop of fellow snow monkeys essentially adopting and caring for him following an assignment gone wrong. Eventually, the observant monkey attacks the rest of his tribe after they attempt to save the hitman from death, which he vehemently objects to, and he is ultimately banished from the tribe for his violent nature. During his banishment however, he finds a group of assassins on the way to finish their job and kill the unnamed man staying with the monkeys. When Hit-Monkey returns, the unnamed assassin and his entire, former tribe have been murdered, causing Hit-Monkey to take on a vow of revenge. In addition to appearing in his own series, the furry lil’ killer has also been featured in the Deadpool comics, which makes complete sense given literally everything about his character.

While it could be the trailer doesn’t paint the whole, bloody picture, it seems like the show will deviate somewhat from that premise, and the unnamed assassin will play a much larger part as Bryce, Hit-Monkey’s ghost companion who helps train the little guy. The trailer also introduces us to Shinji Yokohama (George Takei), a “kind politician with too much on his shoulders,” Akiki (Olivia Munn), “the smart and ambitious niece of Shinji,” and Haruka (Ally Maki), ” a good honest cop who wants to fight the injustice in Tokyo.”

Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon (Blades of Glory, Office Christmas Party, The Switch), the crude comedy might remind you a bit of another adult animated series: Archer. This is because Floyd County Productions, the production studio behind hit FX series Archer, is the same one working on Hit-Monkey. The series is set to hit Hulu on November 17, 2021, and is the last planned Marvel series coming to the service after its planned Howard the Duck, Tigra & Dazzler, and The Offenders series were all canned.

Might we never really pass on into nothingness? Has the world ended many times before? Are we in fact doomed to spend eternity unknowingly jumping from one dimension to the next? According to one TikTok theory, the answer is yes. And it’s blowing millions of minds worldwide.

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Joli Moli (@joli.artist) is quite used to spooking and perplexing viewers with conspiracy theories and alternative hot takes. In her video titled “Apocalypse…again,” Joli introduced the concept of Hugh Everett’s quantum immortality.

Fans of the Marvel “multiverse,” are quite familiar with this concept, where instead of experiencing death, “your consciousness just gets transferred to a parallel universe where you survived,” the TikTokker explained.

Joli admits that this might burst the bubbles of those seeking the “sweet relief” of a widespread apocalypse. “If the quantum immortality theory is correct,” she deduced, “you’re just going to wake up in a parallel universe with no memory of the fact that you just survived an apocalyptic event.”

According to Joli, the only sort of clue or hint you’d get that you might have woken up in a parallel world would be “new Mandela effects.” You know, the strange phenomenon where all of a sudden there are two completely opposing memories of historical events? Yeah, quantum theory says that if you remember Curious George having a tail, you probably died in another universe.

Driving her point home, Joli added: “What I’m basically implying here is that in our reality, apocalypses happen every day … after the inevitable apocalypse occurs, you’re going to wake up the next day in a new reality, and the next thing you know, you’re going to find yourself on Reddit talking about ‘since when did Pizza Hut have two Ts?!’ Arguing with people who are native of this new reality, talking about ‘it’s always had two Ts’.”

I for one would never want to live in a Pizza Hutt universe. Blech.

Still not sold on the theory? Joli has further arguments: “You don’t believe me? Okay, it’s been about 65 million years since the asteroids allegedly took out the dinosaurs. … So you mean to tell me that in the last 65 million years, no other asteroids have come through the neighborhood, taken us out? You think we’re just that lucky, huh? No other super volcanic events in 65 million years? We’re just out there in space just dodging asteroids by luck, right? Earth doesn’t have a steering wheel.”

Hmmm. That’s a good point.

Joli concluded with the upbeat sentiment that “Earth is probably always being taken out, and our consciousness just keeps getting transferred to another parallel universe, and another one, and another one. For all you know, the apocalypse maybe already happened last night…”

So far, in this reality anyway, the video has 4.9 million views. And—as to be expected—the video left many feeling uneasy.

One user commented, “Ok, I’m actually kind of freaking out right now coz I’m not the conspiracy typa guy, but you’re like eerily making sense.”

A few resorted to sarcasm as a defense mechanism (understandably), like this Twitterer: “Thanks I was overdue for another existential crisis.”

The discourse got so intense, people were reporting physical side effects from the stress. One person wrote: “The thought of never being able to actually die is extremely depressing, and it’s giving me a headache.”

Another added, “Bruh, I’m just done with this anxiety. My body [is] emotionally [and] physically TIREDDD.”

One commenter, who clearly had their priorities straight, wrote: “You’re over here talking about extinction level events and I’m having to check on the two Ts in Pizza Hut.”

It wasn’t all gloom and doom though. According to indy100, some saw the potential of eternal life as a comfort against the loss of loved ones, while others finally got to make sense of their “world-ending” dreams.

If you have watched the original TikTok and are filled with burning questions, Joli posted a follow up Q&A video. A small disclaimer: You might be left with even more questions.

Though we may never really know what awaits us on the other side, it is interesting to think that we might live in a multiverse with infinite second chances. And whether or not this theory floats your metaphysical boat, it’s fun to contemplate on one of life’s biggest mysteries.