Month: November 2021

The NFL’s quest for trying to make an inherently violent game safer is an admirable, albeit at times futile effort. One of the biggest points of emphasis has been getting rid of hits to the head, particularly when it comes to helmet-to-helmet contact or launching into someone’s head. Those penalties are very easy to understand, even if at times frustrating when it appears a defender had no intent but happened to hit a moving target in the wrong spot.

However, the protections for the quarterback, in particular, go far beyond those brutal hits and the result is often some highly controversial roughing the passer calls, particularly for “hits to the head” in which a player’s arm happens to strike a quarterback in the head accidentally and without considerable force. Those calls are made even worse when the flag gets thrown on contact up high but not even to the head.

On Sunday, the Saints were on the wrong end of one of those calls in Tennessee that led to a massive swing in favor of the Titans. A Ryan Tannehill interception in the end zone ended up getting called back due to this being called a hit to the head on Tannehill and roughing the passer.

It was such a poor call that even Gene Steratore joined the CBS booth and said it should hot have been a roughing call and that one of the other officials should’ve stepped in to have a conversation in order to pick up the flag. The Titans, gifted new life inside the 5, would go on to score a touchdown — after a pass interference call on third and goal — to take a 13-6 lead in a game that had been, otherwise, deadlocked in the first half.

After months of build-up, Silk Sonic finally released An Evening With Silk Sonic. The album was preceded by a trio of great singles, “Leave The Door Open,” which topped the singles chart, “Skate,” and “Smokin’ Out The Window.” So far, the reception has been positive. Shortly after it was released, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak stopped by Apple Music to speak about the album.

“Everybody told me the cheat code is linking up with this dude,” .Paak said about Bruno. “Get Bruno on your side, and yeah, it’s dope.” He added, “I tell him all the time I have a lot of trust in him and that felt good too. I felt like a large part of my career I’ve done collabs and everything but it felt good to be able to trust a dude to try it like this – great vocal producer, one of the greatest vocalists I’ve ever worked with and just pushing me to a different level.”

Bruno also spoke about the album’s concept. “We needed this to work,” Bruno said. “We just wanted it to feel like… feel special. Instead of trying to get too cute with the concept.” He added, “It’s like, man, what’s more special than Anderson Paak behind a drum set singing a song and me having his back when it’s my turn, you know? And the band moving in the same direction, it was just like… it’s like a musician’s dream, being in the studio recording a song like that.”

You can watch Silk Sonic’s interview on Apple Music above.

An Evening With Silk Sonic is out now via Atlantic/Aftermath. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Elon Musk is unimaginably, abstractly wealthy. And like some who are unimaginably, abstractly wealthy, he doesn’t pay his taxes. To his credit, he’s at least floated the idea of using a tiny portion of his money bin to end world hunger, though only if he feels like it. But otherwise he’s just another billionaire who’s wasting money on space travel, even if his crafts don’t even have working toilets. (He also seems to have thin skin.) He’s also one of the only rich people who openly mocked those who ask that he pay his taxes, which he did again on Sunday.

It all started when Bernie Sanders, arguably the most progressive longtime member of Congress, made a simple plea: “We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. Period,” he wrote on Twitter. It’s obvious who he was dragging: the nation’s penny-pinching billionaires. But then one of them responded, knowing that all that would happen to him is he would receive bad press.

“I keep forgetting that you’re still alive,” Musk wrote in response. He later added another taunt. “Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word.”

Again, nothing bad will happen to Musk. He will continue racking up unimaginable, abstract amounts of money. He probably won’t even mind that his response got him dragged on social media.

And there were jokes.

Sanders, predictably, wasn’t deterred. He continued to preach the messages he’s been doling out for decades. “It is not some radical idea to suggest that Americans should not have to die because we are the only major country that allows drug companies to raise prices to whatever they want, whenever they want,” he later tweeted, taking aim at the nation’s many other inequities, which could be easily solved by rich people paying their share.

Taylor Swift has just released her second re-record album, namely Red (Taylor’s Version). On top of the original’s 14 songs, there were 16 more that she didn’t release back in 2013. It also dropped more than eight months after Taylor shared a new version of her 2008 sophomore album Fearless. It’s all a part of the process for Taylor to regain control of her first six albums after she was unable to retrieve the masters from her old label, Big Machine Records. However, according to a new report, other artists may not be able to make like Taylor in the future.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Universal Music Group — which is the parent company of Republic Records, the label Taylor is signed to — is reworking contracts to make it harder for artists to re-record their own albums. The publication reports that UMG is “effectively doubling the amount of time that the contracts restrict an artist from rerecording their work.”

Old agreements stated that artists could not re-record their old songs until five years after their last recording under their contract or two years after the contract ended. Now, UMG’s new contracts have extended that time period to seven and five years respectively. The contracts also institute an additional seven-year period where the artist cannot re-record more than two songs.

While the move comes while Taylor is re-recording her old albums, an expert told the Wall Street Journal that the contract updates predate Taylor’s re-recording campaign. They added that the amendments were made to reflect the shift that the music industry has experienced as a result of the streaming era, which made it easier for artists to digitally record and distribute music outside of a major-label system.

While die hard Trumpists (and Joe Rogan, and Aaron Rodgers) are still refusing to get a COVID vaccine — and suffering as a result — others are busy getting their booster shots. A third dose of a safe and effective preventive measure against a deadly virus is all the rage, especially as we head into the winter months. And though Republicans like Ted Cruz are currently getting mad at fictional avians for telling kids to get vaxxed, they probably won’t do the same to real-life muscle men.

On Saturday, Mr. T — the A-Team and Rocky alum, who in the ‘80s was simultaneously a TV star, a movie star, a wrestler, and a staple of children’s television — took to Twitter to announce that he’d gotten boostered.

“I am Blessed and I am Thankful. I just got my Booster Vaccination shot. My arm is a little sore but no pain. I Pity Pain! Thanks again to all the Doctors and Nurses,” Mr. T wrote. He added, “Even though I am fully vaccinated, I will still wear my mask and keep my distance, thank you.”

Like Big Bird, Mr. T used to appear on the likes of Sesame Street to dole out helpful advice for children. At 69, he’s still at it. Though he didn’t explicitly tell anyone to get vaxxed, the implication was to be like him and do something that’s both beneficial for one’s self and for the greater good. As such, he received lots of praise on Twitter.

Others dared Ted Cruz to go after the erstwhile B.A. Baracus, even though he’s older and shorter than Big Bird.

And others dug up old Mr. T ephemera, such as the explanation for his unique style.

If you qualify, please get a booster shot.

Comic-Con isn’t for everyone. Fans seem to enjoy it, but what about the talent — the serious thespians and high-minded filmmakers who find themselves thrown into big rooms teeming with nerds? Some appear to be okay with it, but others not so much. You can place Adam Driver in the latter group.

The Oscar-nominated actor appeared on The Graham Norton Show to tout a busy fall, which includes not one but two Ridley Scott movies: The Last Duel and House of Gucci. Driver is also a Star Wars alum, having played the conflicted Kylo Ren in the most recent trilogy. But even though he did three films in the franchise, he only had to do Comic-Con once. And it was not much to his liking.

Norton asked Driver point blank if he liked the time he went there, for The Force Awakens. And Driver’s answer was blunt: “No.”

Driver then elaborated. “I didn’t know the rules of Comic-Con,” he said. He said he assumed he could wander around and get a coffee. He was wrong. “‘If you want to go outside,’ they’re like, ‘Put a mask on so nobody knows who you are.’”

Turns out being sequestered in a hotel room for a full day does something to a person. But when he tried to break up the monotony, he was in for a rude awakening.

“I opened my window, because I’d been in the room for 24 hours before this thing we were supposed to do,” Driver said, “and then there was a band at the bottom of the building playing the Star Wars theme on repeat, because we [the cast] were all staying in the hotel. It was scary.”

Driver tried to be diplomatic. “I mean, it’s nice,” he said, though he added, “I’m not anxious to go again.”

You can watch Driver discuss his first and so far only Comic-Con stint in the video above.

(Via EW)

It was, as with any time in which Donald Trump and/or his minions still loom large over the culture, a busy week. Steve Bannon was indicted. Kyle Rittenhouse launched into a perhaps unconvincing crying jag on the stand. Taylor Swift performed on SNL. And the hosts of Weekend Update was there to talk about all of it.

On Friday, Bannon — the on-again-off-again Trump adviser with the wackadoodle podcast who ignored congressional subpoenas requesting testimony and documents related to the Jan. 6 Capitol siege — was actually held in contempt of Congress. SNL used that famed photo of him looking like total crap, which co-anchor Colin Jost described as looking like it was taken “moments after shooting out of a sewage pipe.” He also made sure to use his full name: Stephen K. Bannon, “the K stands for KKK.” If convicted, Bannon could receive a two-year jail sentence, “which from the looks of him might be a life sentence.”

Then there’s Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old who last summer crossed state lines armed with an illegally obtained AR-15 and shot three protesters, killing two. In the second week of his trial, he took the stand, and prompted to cry, albeit without what looked like actual tears. But Michael Che was among the many who didn’t buy it.

“Man, is there a white tears law school that I don’t know about,” he joked. “I noticed that every time y’all get in trouble, you start crying, and everything just works out for you, whether you’re trying to beat a murder charge of trying to be a supreme court justice.” The latter prompted a cut to a picture of Brett Kavanaugh, who did just that after being accused of sexual misconduct, also as a teen.

The two anchors also had words for the night’s musical guest, Taylor Swift, who launched into a 10-minute rendition of “All Too Well.” It’s been widely assumed that the song is about Jake Gyllenhaal, whom she briefly dated all the way back in 2010.

“I think the lesson we all learned this week is: Never break up with Taylor Swift,” Jost joked. “Or she will sing about your for 10 minutes on national television.” He added, “At the very least, return the scarf.”

You can watch Weekend Update in the videos above as well as below.

Hard to believe it’s been a week since Ted Cruz launched a sustained attack on a fictional 8-foot bird. Last weekend, the Texas senator got big mad at Big Bird, all because the character dared to tell kids to get vaxxed. (Oh, for the days when Republicans were trying to save Mr. Potato Head.) There was no way SNL wouldn’t mock him, and they made sure to give him prime real estate in a jam-packed cold open.

The sketch finds Aidy Bryant as the badly bearded politician, appearing on “Newsmax for Kids” in a far right version of Sesame Street. (The announcer tells kids to stand by at 1 for “White Power Rangers.”) We then get to visit “Cruz Street,” a “gated community” and a show with twists on characters who’ve long taught kids nice things, as well as special guests.

“For 50 years I stood by as Sesame Street taught our children dangerous ideas, like numbers and kindness,” Bryant’s Cruz says. “But when Big Bird told them to get vaccinated against a deadly disease, I said enough.”

Cecily Strong’s Marjorie Taylor Greene — who made news over the last week with approximately 10,000 deranged news items — swung by. “I’m just taking a break from releasing the phone numbers of Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill so they and their families get death threats,” she said.

Strong’s Greene also reveals the letter for the day: Q. “Not the letter, the man,” her Greene told the kids. “He will tell us when JFK Jr., who is alive, will reveal himself and help President Trump reclaim his rightful throne.”

Kyle Mooney shows up as a sickly Bird Bird, made ill by the vaccine. “My feathers fell out, my nuts got huge, and my doink don’t work,” he says.

There’s a lot more where that came from. Joe Rogan (Pete Davidson) pays a visit to hawk horse medicine. There’s Bert and Ernie, as Proud Boys who are definitely hooking up. There’s Oscar the Slouch (“He’s been trained by the Democrats to suck off the teat of the government”). Even the newly freed Britney Spears swings by. And we get an idea of how twisted Sesame Street would be if it were in the wrong hands.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

The roll out for Taylor Swift’s new version of Red has been nothing short of extravagant. Along with several new songs, including a duet with Phoebe Bridgers on “Nothing New,” Taylor pulled out all the stops for a new ten-minute version of her most beloved track ever, “All Too Well,” and also debuted a short film to accompany the new version. Well, game recognize game, and Cardi B herself had to weigh in on the cultural moment, like she does with all the best pop culture hits of late.

Quote tweeting a fan who was praising the new version of the song, writing “I can’t believe how good Taylor’s version of ALL TOO WELL is. Ten minutes of just…[emojis]” Cardi added her own two cents: “Yes I just watched it today ….very impressed, loved it a lot.” Cardi is just the most recent of plenty of other celebrities and peers who have been blown away by the additional videos and SNL performances and songs and late night TV appearances that Taylor has packed in to make the release of Red (Taylor’s Version) feel like just as much of an event as her new albums do. This is not a woman to cross, clearly. Enjoy the short film for “All Too Well” up top if you haven’t seen it yet.

The staggering success of Adele’s return single, “Easy On Me” has let the acclaimed singer take a beat before releasing any other new music from her forthcoming album, 30. But the diva has the formula for follow-ups down pat, and is readying her next single with a few different treatments involved.

First up? She previewed the song in a commercial for retail giant Amazon, who is gearing up for the holiday push. In a visual that acknowledges just how hard it’s been for some to cope with the anxiety and stress of the pandemic, particularly the loneliness, isolation, and fear of returning to normal after months spent alone, the track is a comforting, quieter anthem that, of course, builds to a peak like any classic Adele tune.

But, since she’s one of the most prominent divas in the world, you know that she’s going to give the song a proper send off for it’s first listen. Now, she’s shared another preview of the clip, this one a live performance that’s part of a new CBS special called Adele: One Night Only, that’s dropping tonight, November 14. The two-hour special includes an interview with Oprah and some special live performances of tracks off 30. Check out that new preview, above, and the Amazon ad below if you missed it before. She’s also shared the 30 tracklist, and let fans know the album is coming on November 19, just a few days away.