Month: December 2021

Bobby Shmurda‘s come a long way since 2014, but all it took to change his life was one $20/hour recording session. The Brooklyn rapper sent an encouraging tweet to his fans, recalling the single that upended his trajectory and encouraging fans to chase their dreams.

“Too many people got a DREAM that they never chased, then go through life and be angry they never tried,” he wrote. “Let me remind y’all ‘Hot N****’ took 20$ for 1 hour of studio time in the hood to create and that 1 hour of FOCUS changed my life and everyone around me FOREVER.”

That track, which Bobby recorded at some point in 2013, borrowed the Jahlil Beats-produced beat from Lloyd Banks’ 2012 song “Jackpot” and became one of hip-hop’s first modern viral hits, setting the stage for the modern social phenom to legit rap star pipeline that spawned many of today’s biggest artists like Lil Nas X. The track peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made Bobby and his “Shmoney dance” from the music video household names.

While Bobby’s momentum was briefly curtailed by a stint in prison as the result of a racketeering investigation, since his release, he’s remained as popular as ever as fans await the release of his debut album.

The Chicago Bulls have been one of the best teams of the early NBA season, but over the last week they have seen a COVID-19 outbreak derail things, sending 10 players including stars DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine into the league’s health and safety protocols.

The shorthanded Bulls dropped back-to-back games against the Cavs and Heat, but as more and more names were added to the COVID protocol list, including some players who had been added as emergency replacements, it became clear the situation wasn’t tenable. With two games this week against the Pistons and Raptors and another player, Alize Johnson, going into COVID protocols on Monday, the league finally decided to issue its first postponements of the season, calling off their games against Detroit and in Toronto on Tuesday and Thursday.

The Bulls technically would’ve had the 8 players needed to play, but as it was clear there was still an issue with exposure and spread as more and more members of the organization went into quarantine, the league made the right call to give them the week off. Hopefully, the Bulls can get guys healthy and back in time for Sunday’s game with the Lakers, without any more internal spread. As case counts rise in the United States once again and absences due to COVID have been piling up in the first third of the season, the NBA may not be done with postponements as we have been given a stark reminder that, no matter how much people want it to be over, we are still very much in the midst of a pandemic.

Château Miraval is a large villa in Correns, France that is co-owned by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and it has a rich musical history. French pianist and composer Jacques Loussier used to town the place and while he was there, he built a recording studio, which was known at the time as Studio Miraval. The studio was part of a number of noteworthy releases; Perhaps most notably, Pink Floyd held sessions for The Wall there. Other artists who have made use of the space include AC/DC, The Cure, Sade, and The Cranberries, among others.

Muse’s 2006 album Black Holes And Revelations was one of the last projects recorded in the studio before it was shut down. Now, though, Pitt and French producer Damien Quintard are bringing the facility back as Miraval Studios, which is set to reopen in the summer of 2022. Press materials note, “Pitt and Quintard will reopen the completely redesigned and updated Miraval Studios for the future, honoring the past while pushing forward a new take on recording, amid a breathtaking vista sure to nurture all manner of creative expression.”

The space is also described:

“In addition to the original gear on which so many classic albums were recorded, the studio is built around a desk designed by Pitt and Quintard with hybrid analog/digital capacities, while boasting a fully integrated Dolby Atmos system as well as technology to handle pre-mixing for film and television. With its 25-foot ceilings, Studio One has a 100 square meter control room and 320 square meter live room that conserves what Quintard describes as the ‘heritage of the quirky sound’ of the iconic drum room pioneered by Loussier.

Quintard says, “The combination of Brad’s vision for Miraval and our common passion for taking the time to make simple but beautiful things has resulted in something that is one-of-a-kind. We are so excited for musicians of all types to be a part of what we’ve created.”

Pitt and Jolie signed a long-term lease for Château Miraval in 2008 before buying it in 2012 for an estimated $60 million, as People notes. Pitt and Jolie divorced in 2019, and now, they each own a 50-percent share of the estate (which is now worth a total of about $160 million), per Page Six.

Miraval Studios has launched some social media pages (here’s Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube), so check those out to keep updated on the status of the studio.

Right-wing anger bear/provocateur Ben Shapiro has been helping to engineer Gina Carano’s return to show biz, and elsewhere, his sister’s causing controversy. This revolves around Abby attempting to slut-shame Madonna, who’s been doing her outrageous thing since the 1980s. That’s nothing new, although recently, she did grow upset over being censored on Instagram over a nipped-out photo, but again, that’s business as usual for Madge. She cannot be shamed, although Abby Shapiro sure did try.

Shapiro refers to herself as “Classically Abby,” and as such, she decided to hold Nancy Reagan out as an example of this “Classic living” vibe. She tweeted photos of Madonna, age 63, and compared them to Reagan at 64. Naturally, she chose a wholesome looking photo of Nancy surrounded by family. “This is Madonna at 63. This is Nancy Reagan at 64,” Abby tweeted. “Trashy living vs. Classic living.”

Well, it sure sounds like Abby never read the Village Voice piece that quotes Nancy Reagan’s biographer, who wrote that (back in the day), Nancy Davis “was known to give the best blowjobs in town.” And there’s no shame in that game, truly, although it’s safe to guess that Abby, who was attempting to shame Madonna, would have never used Nancy Reagan as an example of sterling wholesomeness, had she known about those rumors.

Obviously, people were somewhat surprised by this turn of events, and that also caused “blowjob queen of Hollywood” to trend like crazy, at Abby’s expense.

Not everyone was surprised! Twitter is wild, man.

One of the most heart-wrenching games of 2020 was Spiritfarer. The game where the player “learns how to say goodbye to their friends” is just as much of an emotional wreck as it sounds. It was also one of last year’s best games, and since releasing in August 2020 it’s been receiving frequent updates and support from the development team over at Thunder Lotus Games.

Now, an edition of the game that features all those updates is being released so fans of the game can go back and enjoy it in totality, or those who may have missed out initially can go back to a highlight of 2020’s gaming releases. Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition is considered the “definitive” version of the game so anyone that hasn’t played it before may want to check it out, just be emotionally ready for the journey. It’s a game that was considered a Game of The Year contender, but it was also difficult for some people to handle emotionally.

Platform: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC
Price: $30
Original Release Date: August 18, 2020
Genre: Life Simulation
Developer: Thunder Lotus Games
Publisher: Thunder Lotus Games
Rating: T
Where can I buy this: PlayStation Store, Microsoft Games Store, Nintendo Switch Shop, Steam, Epic Games Store
Single Player: Yes
Multiplayer: No
Early Access: No
Microtransactions: No

Tyler The Creator’s fashion-forward Golf Le Fleur line has recently expanded its offerings, adding a fragrance in addition to the usual assortment of apparel designed or inspired by the multitalented entertainer. That growth continues this week with the inclusion of nail polish, which will come in three colors: Georgia Peach, Geneva Blue, and Glitter. Tyler has been seen throughout the rollout of his new album Call Me If You Get Lost wearing the blue shade, which is being offered along with the others for $20 at the Golf Le Fleur website.

Tyler’s French Waltz fragrance, which was announced just last week, was crafted in collaboration with CPL Aromas. Tyler accompanied the announcement with a short film (in French!), putting his own unique spin on those dramatic fragrance ads, saturating the usually somber tones with bright sunlight and pops of pastel. Tyler showed off his one-of-a-kind vision in another ad — this one for his Converse collaboration — earlier this year, putting NBA legend Bill Walton in a hilarious Chuck Taylor club with the likes of Don Cheadle, Henry Rollins, and Vince Staples.

With the release of the new Golf collection — just in time for the holidays! — Tyler caps a year that saw him live out some of his biggest rap dreams (working with DJ Drama, appearing on BET) and elevate his brand to new heights. We can’t wait to see what he does next.

In one heck of a casting coup, Tom Hanks has joined the Yellowstone prequel 1883, which according to creator Taylor Sheridan will feature a cavalcade of guest stars. The cast is already stacked with the likes of Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sam Elliott, and Billy Bob Thornton, but apparently, Hanks is a just a small taste of surprises to come. Thanks to the massive success of Yellowstone, the prequel will explore the origins of the Dutton family ranch that Kevin Costner has been defending by any means necessary for the past four seasons.

As of this writing, Hanks’ role in 1883 appears to be a cameo, for now, and it centers around McGraw’s character reliving a bloody battle from his time as a Confederate soldier. Via Deadline:

A famous photograph of the carnage in the brutal Civil War Battle of Antietam comes to life, with Tim McGraw’s James Dutton character picking himself off the ground following the concussive conflict. A Confederate officer, Dutton can only sit dazed as he surveys death all around him. As Union troops approach, a gloved hand falls on Dutton’s shoulder. He looks up and it is a sympathetic three-star general, inspired by General George Meade. Playing him is two-time Oscar-winner Tom Hanks.

Hanks’ appearance marks the actors’ increasing foray into the world of streaming. He’s become a regular presence on Apple TV+ thanks to Finch and Greyhound, but 1883 will be his first performance for Paramount Plus where the prequel series will begin streaming on Sunday, December 19.

(Via Deadline)

Have you ever wanted to know how the Xbox came to be? What it took for Microsoft to enter the console market and take on Nintendo and Sony? While most of us know at least a little bit of the story, there is still so much more we can learn about. Luckily for those of us intrigued by the history of video games, there is a way to learn as much as we want about how the Xbox came to be.

Microsoft has created and produced an entire documentary series about the history of the Xbox named Power On: The Story of Xbox. This series not only shows how the Xbox came to be but how it handled its rise and failures. Some of those failures include the red ring of death on the 360 and how the console producer briefly “lost its way.”

The entire series is available on YouTube and can be watched for free. It can also be found on Redbox, the Microsoft Store, IMDb TV, and The Roku Channel. It’s six episodes each and all of the episodes are about 40 minutes long. It seems like the perfect series for anyone that’s interested in the history of video games, Xbox, or just needs something to watch over the next few days.

Kevin Durant turned in a marvelous performance Sunday evening when he dropped 51 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, two blocks and one steal on 67.8 percent true shooting, guiding the Brooklyn Nets past the Detroit Pistons, 116-104. Durant’s 51 points established a new scoring record at Little Caesars Arena, eclipsing teammate Blake Griffin’s 50 points set during the 2018-19 season against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Post-game, a reporter asked Durant if he was “aware whose arena scoring record” the superstar forward broke. Durant was not privy to it and when the reporter replied “Blake Griffin’s,” Durant let out a chuckle.

“Good to break Blake’s record,” Durant said lightheartedly. “Damn, I didn’t know that. I mean, I guess it’s a new arena. I’m sure somebody going to break this one here soon.”

Durant’s 51 points tied his most since a game against the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 29 and is the third-highest total of his career, including the playoffs.

Despite an East-leading 19-8 record, Brooklyn’s season has been filled with various setbacks, so seeing Durant enjoy himself after a win and get in a bit of playful banter with his teammate was welcomed. Durant and the Nets will look to snag their 20th win of the year when they face the Raptors Tuesday night.

The Succession Report Card is a weekly recap feature where we attempt to assign grades to the important people, things, and themes from each episode of ‘Succession.’ The grades are entirely subjective and the criteria for scoring will change from week to week and occasionally mid-week. Someone might get detention. It’ll probably be Roman.

Shiv

The thing about Shiv is, as we’ve discussed on a number of occasions, Shiv sucks. She doesn’t suck all the time. She was surprisingly good with Kendall when he was melting down in the dirt, to the degree that she was crouching in wedding heels for an extended period of time, which, I say as a man who wears comfortable shoes every day, does not seem fun. She seems to want to do right, sometimes, games of Monopoly and marriage vows notwithstanding. It’s complicated.

But she also earned this one, through the treatment of Tom all season and Gerri in the last episode, and yes, it just dawned on me that Waystar has high-ranking executives named Tom and Gerri. I write 2000 words about each episode and that’s only hitting me now. I’m both thrilled and embarrassed.

More importantly: Did you see her face when she saw Tom and Logan exchange pleasantries at the end? You probably did because it’s right up there. That’s the face of a woman who is realizing things. A lot of them. All at once. Shiv is not having fun right now. But again, she earned it. No tears on this one.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Most things, but she knows that

Connor

Hmm. Let’s see…

• Hijacked an intervention for his borderline suicidal half-brother that he more or less stormed out of while shouting “I AM THE ELDEST SON”
• Got his former escort turned girlfriend to agree to marry him by throwing himself a pity party until he extracted a literal “fuck it” from her
• Might be getting deplatformed by the Swedish weirdo who is buying his father’s company, which, it could be argued, is actually a good thing?

I don’t know. Connor is such a loser. Nothing will ever end well for him. It’s funny to watch him flail, though. I kind of hope the entire fourth season is just about him and Willa planning their doomed wedding.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Storming out successfully, remaining platformed

Green smoothies, generally

It doesn’t matter why you’re drinking them. Whether it’s general health or digestive wellness or trying to impregnate an assistant who is 40 years your junior with another awful little hellspawn despite going 0-for-4 so far in the old “producing a useful member of society” race, green smoothies do not taste good. Get them out of here.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Taste, color, etc.

Willa

Willa is going to regret this. She knows she is going to regret this. She probably regrets it already, if she’s being honest with herself. It’s not a good sign when someone asks you to marry them and you push your decision for multiple days before finally agreeing to it with the same phrasing and energy you would apply to a waiter asking you if you’d like to add bacon to your cheeseburger for an extra 99 cents. She could barely even look at him when he was leaning in for a kiss afterward.

It’s fine. I mean, it’s not fine, and the press is going to snoop if Connor keeps going with his doomed presidential run, and that’s not going to end well, but still. For now, like for right now, it’s fine. See you next season.

GRADE: D-

MUST IMPROVE: Getting pushed into weird/bad marriages by pitiful grandiose creeps

Caroline and Peter Onions

Think about these two for a second. Their whole big fancy Italian wedding got sidetracked by her ex-husband and his crappy children engaging in business subterfuge. She got kind of railroaded into changing the terms of their divorce — again, during her wedding — so her ex could hose their kids and cash out with an extra $5 billion, and then the kids all blamed her for it. And Peter is still a doofus. Just a world-class lanky goof. No one is living up to their potential here.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: They should have just eloped on a beach, it would have saved everyone so much trouble

Roman

The good news here is that Roman kind of, in a way, after and including a prodigious amount of squirming, stood up to Logan — or anyone, really — for the first time in his spineless little life. Good for him. This is progress. Almost. The only reason he did it was because his other two siblings were bullying him, so he was still getting shoved into it all, but he didn’t let Logan run him over with a steamroller in the room. Again, progress.

The bad news is that doing it accomplished nothing but getting him bounced from the company and burning bridges and watching as Gerri extracted a form of sideways revenge against him and Shiv for embarrassing and/or intimidating her last week with the text fiasco.

The lesson here is… to never stand up for yourself? Hmm. No. That can’t be right. Let’s sleep on this one. There’s probably a lesson here.

GRADE: D+

MUST IMPROVE: Sympathy, empathy, spine-having

Various Karls, Franks, and Karolinas

I love to see Karl and Frank thrive. I hope they both cash out with billions and spend the entire fourth season on a sailboat off the coast of Bermuda, just chilling with boat drinks and stylish Caribbean hats and comfortable linen shirts unbuttoned to their navels. Good for them.

GRADE: C-

MUST IMPROVE: Sneaking, snooping

Kendall

Some notes:

• There was a lot of talk about Jeremy Strong’s acting process after that big profile dropped, about how he’s a complicated but passionate weirdo who might be hard to work with, but if this is the result of it all, I mean… fine
• It was such a good performance
• It was nice to see Kendall briefly emerge from his tailspin to educate his siblings on corporate governance
• He’s a disaster in about six or eight distinct and completely debilitating ways but, I’m sorry, I’m now rooting for him more than anyone else on the show with the exception of his assistant Jess Jordan, who has hopefully been on a relaxing vacation in Key West while the events of the past few episodes unfolded
• It was a little heartbreaking the way he touched the valet on the shoulder, like he was trying to make amends for the dead waiter at the last wedding

I don’t know how to feel about any of this. Let’s move on.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Self-esteem, brushing off his pants, just generally not melting down all the time

Kerry

Kerry’s rise this season has been unprecedented. She went from a nameless assistant to a mistress to a trusted advisor to someone Logan sided with above and beyond his own children. She might be having his baby, at some point, if the smoothies do their job for Logan’s gloop, which would be a whole thing. Imagine a newly retired Logan morphing into a loving and attentive father to a newborn and then imagine how insane it would make Shiv.

I think I want to see it. I hope Logan gets way into, like, Pokémon.

GRADE: C+

MUST IMPROVE: Avoiding Marcia at all costs

Comfry and the Duchess

No choice here but to give them the tie, in part because the two of them have somehow found themselves in a love triangle with freaking Cousin Greg of all people, in part because it sounds like Comfry went full Baywatch to save Kendall from drowning in chlorinated limoncello, and in part because I like the idea of a newly powerful Cousin Greg ascending to an unoccupied European throne by the end of next season.

We’ll come back to this.

GRADE: B-

MUST IMPROVE: They can both do so much better than this, he’s just tall and rich, come on

Showing up to a business meeting in a helicopter and/or speedboat

Lots of great shots of people entering/exiting helicopters or riding across bodies of water on speedboats. Makes me feel like I’ve been living my life all wrong. Blogging rarely requires emergency helicopter or speedboat travel. I should have considered this. This one is on me. Let’s go ahead and pencil it in as a goal for 2022: More blogging-related speedboat rides.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: Feels like we should have a combination speedboat/helicopter by now

Iverson Roy

He’s a good boy and I love him very much.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: Needs more exciting books

Logan

Two sides to this coin, both of which I will attempt to present objectively…

He’s a monster, a hard-driving maniac who views every situation — even ones involving his children — as a zero-sum game with a winner and a loser. No moral compass at all. Will use and dispose of people to whatever degree it advances his personal interests. A manipulative strongman who bullies and pushes and finagles until he bends the world to his own twisted and perverted whims.

On the other hand, even as I found myself weirdly rooting for the kids while they were in the car headed over to confront him, as I was feeling proud of them for finally making a play, I still had to admit that Logan had a point with the “MAKE YOUR OWN PILE” rant. The kids seem to view Waystar as their birthright, like they deserve to take over the company their father built into a juggernaut. And, like, screw those spoiled little jerks, you know?

No one is clean here. Logan is a demon who raised a bunch of different mini-demons and now they’re all making each other miserable. It’s not ideal.

GRADE: B+

MUST IMPROVE: Like… being a human?

Gerri

Did you see it? Did you see what Gerri did? Did you see the callback to her advice to Roman from earlier this season, even though it now feels like this was all 100 years ago? Here, look.

Good for Gerri. She’s been at Logan’s side in a business setting for decades and rose to a position of prominence on her own merits and his stupid children almost ruined it all with one texting mishap and a hastily orchestrated power play. Gerri wasn’t going to let that happen. Gerri is a survivor. That’s how she’s gotten this far. She’s not losing to any of these little chumps. Not today.

GRADE: B+

MUST IMPROVE: Not getting into destructive quasi-romantic boondoggles with troubled and emotionally stunted manchildren

Marcia

I choose to believe Marcia knows about the thing with Logan and Kerry and already has a private investigator on it and has been meeting with a divorce attorney once a week while this whole season unfolded. I have this rock-solid belief based on nothing but her intensity and my bone-deep fear of her that she’s the only person alive who could cook Logan in a negotiation. Show me their divorce proceedings. Give me a full bottle episode in the lawyer’s office. I’m not joking.

Also, on the subject of things I would like to see and am not joking about, open next season with her and Kerry alone in the back seat of a chauffeured car, five minutes into an hour-long ride, and then periodically check-in throughout the episode to see Marcia casually drop the most cutting and hurtful statements you’ve ever heard. I need it.

GRADE: A-

MUST IMPROVE: Screentime

Lukas Matsson

My guy finessed Logan into giving up the company through the power of sicko tweets and icy Swedish stares. This is… it’s very powerful. I’m kind of excited to see what he does with all of Waystar. I hope he lets a cartoon meme dog host a nightly show on ATN. Or just goes to space and decides to stay there. He has options now, is my point.

GRADE: A-

MUST IMPROVE: I think I would like it if he had a hat

Cousin Greg

Greg should not, by any objective measure, receive an A for his performance in this episode. He’s two-timing Comfry with a princess/duchess/contessa. He’s conniving and scheming and it’s affecting his status as the show’s beautiful sweet boy. He has a vendetta against Greenpeace. On any television program with even a single redeemable character, he would be an evil twerp and maybe even the villain. We should not like him.

And yet!

Look at his face. This gangly boyish angel is now both a big-time corporate player and also a few more solid dates away from being one plane crash or boating disaster away from ruling a country. Can you think of anything more perfect? Can you think of a better ending to all of this than “Cousin Greg angles/stumbles his way into a business success and a fading European monarchy”? I want to see him hold a scepter.

I’m conflicted about it. A little. I’m a little conflicted about it. I still want to know if he can dunk.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: He should probably let the thing with Greenpeace go now, but we’re nitpicking

Tom

Tom.

Tom.

TOMMMMMMM.

The crazy thing here is that, right in front of our faces, all along, the show has been setting this up. Look at this moment from the meeting at the diner a few episodes ago…

And look at the show bringing the damn Sporus reference full-circle in plain sight, hitting us with the misdirect that was actually just straightforward foreshadowing.

Add in the stuff with Logan saying he’d “remember” Tom’s willing prison sacrifice and all the stuff with Shiv bullying/cuckolding him and taking him for granted, and yeah, Tom’s move — provided that is what happened here — makes perfect sense. You can only push a person so far before they snap. Tom Wambsgans doesn’t have much pride, but he does have a little. I’m somehow both proud of him and disappointed in him. I have much to think about before next season.

But first, I’m gonna keep watching his delivery of “Heeeyyyy Shiv” as he walked into the room. Legitimately hilarious. I’m laughing again now just thinking about it, the way his voice went up an octave from “nervous hello” into “very clearly guilty of something.” Shiv knows. Everyone knows. I don’t think Tom cares. He and Greg are getting corner offices and 20 of their own Gregs. This is a success story.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: Keeping this energy, or possibly abandoning it, I haven’t decided yet

These waiters

I have so much respect for the catering crew at this wedding, mainly the two dudes in the background here, screwing around and snapping towels at each other while a family and international business conglomerate goes to hell around them. They might have a better handle on life than anyone else on the show.

GRADE: A+

MUST IMPROVE: Leave them alone, they’re perfect