Month: January 2022

It’s World Surf League season! Starting today and running through February 10th (wave conditions permitting), WSL’s Billabong Pro Pipeline competition will put an official start to the 2022 WSL Championship Tour. The Pro Pipeline will see world champion surfers, Olympians, and even some up and comers hailing from all around the world come together to begin competing for the world title race.

This year’s competition is particularly notable because it marks the 20th anniversary of the film Blue Crush, which is based on Susan Orlean’s terrific article “Life’s Swell,” which chronicles the story of the women of the late ‘90s Hawaiian surf scene and holds a special place in the surfing community — especially as the WSL makes real, determined efforts to better involve women in the pro surfing scene. This year’s competition will see women included in the infamous Pipeline contest as well as a full combined tour with men.

“To have the women surf Pipe is incredible,” says Tyler Wright, two-time consecutive WSL World Champion. “A lot of hard work has happened to get us here today. I think it will take us a few years to get used to it, but it’s exciting.”

“I’m scared of Pipe,” Wright continues. “I don’t even hide that. It’s a wave that makes you pull every single resource. All the choices and all these things you have to read within half a second while surfing there really pulls everything you got as a surfer. ”

That’s a sentiment shared by 2019 World Title champion Italo Ferreira, “Pipeline demands a lot from us surfers,” he says. “It’s a challenging wave for sure. Winning my World Title here in 2019 and making it to the semifinals last year doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be here on Finals day. Nothing is guaranteed when it comes to Pipe.”

Former champs showing this much hesitancy to talk a big game shows just how intense and demanding this year’s competition is set to be. Anything can happen, and that’s what makes the Pro Pipeline a must-watch in the weeks ahead.

To catch the WSL Billabong Pro Pipeline, be sure to keep your eye on the official WSL site from now until February 10th (the Men’s contest started today) or watch via the WSLapp or the official WSL YouTube channel.

The second season of Euphoria got underway earlier this month, bringing back the many characters we’ve come to love (or despise) over the course of the show’s first season. They include Rue Bennet (played by Zendaya), Jules Vaughn (Hunter Schafer), Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie), and Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney). This season has also brought new characters into the mix, a group highlight by Elliot who is played by Dominic Fike. Elliot meets Rue at a drug-filled New Year’s Eve party and the two quickly form a bond that Jules, who is also Rue’s girlfriend, initially questions but later accepts after warming up to Elliot.

So, who is Dominic Fike from Euphoria?

Aside from being an actor on the show, Fike is also a singer who delivered his first project back in 2017 with his Don’t Forget About Me, Demos EP. The project earned the singer plenty of attention from around the industry and it later sparked a bidding war between record labels to sign him. Fike eventually picked Columbia in 2018 where he re-released Don’t Forget About Me, Demos and his debut album, 2020’s What Could Possibly Go Wrong? That project featured no guest appearances across the 14 songs present on it.

Elsewhere, Fike has worked with Justin Bieber, Slowthai, Halsey, Kevin Abstract, and more throughout his career.

Five months after Kanye West released his tenth album Donda, which was met with a few delays, the rapper is prepared to release its sequel. Earlier this week, West announced that Donda 2 will arrive on February 22 and that it will be executive-produced by Future. Many are understandably unsure if West will deliver the album on that day, as he has a well-documented history of pump-faking on release dates. However, thanks to an Instagram story Kanye shared, there’s seems to be some significance behind the date he chose, which hopefully means it will arrive on schedule.

West shared a screenshot that revealed February 22 is also a big deal in astrology. “Astrologically, a Pluto return is when the heavenly body returns to the same position in a birth chart where it was when the chart began,” the image read. According to Bustle, Pluto’s return occurs once every 248 years, meaning that this will be the first one in the United States since the nation’s founding.

Furthermore, one of Future’s nicknames is Pluto, dating back to his 2012 debut album of the same title. Other times Future has used the name were on his 2012 mixtape Astronaut Status, and his 2021 joint project with Lil Uzi Vert, Pluto X Baby Pluto.

You can view a screenshot of Kanye’s post above.

Earlier this month, in news that doesn’t augur well for the rest of 2022, one of the more beloved celebrity couples —Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet — split up. It was amicable. The two released a joint statement in which they declared that they have decided to “free each other.” Momoa wasn’t just close with Bonet. He also had great relationships with both her daughter, Zoe Kravitz, and her father/Bonet’s ex-husband Lenny Kravitz. And despite the break-up, it looks like he has every intention of staying in their lives.

On Thursday, Momoa dropped an Instagram post featuring a new poster for The Batman, the forthcoming revival of the Caped Crusader, which stars Robert Pattinson in yet another bleak-o-rama take on the classic comic book character. Zoe plays Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, who appears to be friendly-ish with Bruce Wayne, as in The Dark Knight Rises, in which she was played by Anne Hathaway.

“so proud. can’t wait. march 4th love u zozo,” Momoa wrote in the caption.

The Batman — whose filming was famously halted mid-shoot due to the onset of the pandemic — will finally hit theaters on March 4, and it has a truly epic run-time. Before that, HBO Max subscribers can watch Zoe in KIMI, Steven Soderbergh’s new thriller, due on Feb. 10. As for Momoa, he may be going bad for the 10th Fast & Furious outing.

(Via HuffPost)

Many legendary hip-hop acts have taken part in Verzuz battles: Ja Rule, Fat Joe, Dipset, The LOX, Ludacris, Nelly, DMX, Snoop Dogg, and more. Fans often debate which artists would make for a good duel. Recently, thanks to a post from Dr. Dre, many have wondered who should be pitted against Eminem. Swizz Beatz, who created Verzuz with Timbaland, mentioned Busta Rhymes as an opponent, but many disagreed with this recommendation.

One of those people includes E-40, who shared his opinion on a proposed Eminem-Busta mash-up during a recent interview. “Busta Rhymes would eat Eminem in a Verzuz battle. I really believe that,” E-40 said. “Busta Rhymes goes crazy. Because, now, it’s turned into a performance type of situation. Busta Rhymes is animated. He got gas. He raps fast, all that. He do all that stuff that Eminem do. And Busta Rhymes got up-tempo slaps that get the party goin‘. Anytime you got up-tempo slaps, you’re gonna win.”

E-40 also made sure to highlight praise the other rapper. “Eminem is so legendary,” he noted. “You know, definitely. Can’t take nothing away from him. Great hits, great style—I mean, he’s legendary, he’s an icon …” He went on to say, “I feel like Busta Rhymes gots what it takes to bring it to the surface, man, to let people say, ‘Damn, I didn’t even know he had all these hits, man’ …” he said. “The stuff he did with Mariah (Carey) and the stuff he did with Craig Mack, and he got his own slaps, bro. And he’s animated.”

You can listen to E-40’s comments in the video above.

Sometimes comedians face difficult choices when it comes to what jokes they will make, what subject matter is appropriate, and how far to take things. But I think in the year 2022 during the third year of a global pandemic that led to an unprecedented, disgusting spike in violence against Asian people, we can all agree that anti-Asian jokes are in terrible taste? Apparently, Jimmy Kimmel didn’t get that memo, because he decided to not once but twice try out a line of humor that compared the popularity of the biggest boy band on the planet, BTS, who happen to be Asian, with Covid-19.

Here’s how it went down.

First, Kimmel trotted out a joke about boy bands as viruses during his opening monologue on Thursday. He initially compares boy bands and Covid-19 variants around the 2:27 mark up above, or check out just a clip below.

“These variants, all the different variants in the world right now, it reminds me of the boy bands in the late ’90s and early 2000s,” Kimmel began. “You had the big ones like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, and then that mutated into O-Town and 98 Degrees. The JoBros popped up, Big Time Rush, they kept splitting off in different directions, eventually One Direction, and they took pieces, and it popped up all over the world until eventually we get to one that’s so contagious it destroys all life on earth.”

While that’s a more subtle reference to BTS, another joke he made about the band earlier this month was a bit more direct. While guest Ashley Park from the show Emily In Paris was visiting the show, her own bout with Covid-19 came up. Park had gotten sick with the virus right around the time some members of BTS had posted about her cover of “Dynamite” on the show. She thought her physical reaction was excitement about the band’s acknowledgement, but really, it was Omicron. “You thought it was BTS fever?” Kimmel asked. “Well they’re both very dangerous, you’re lucky to come out of both of those alive,” he finished. (You can watch the clip around the 9:01 mark above.)

Though it might’ve seemed just like an off the cuff remark to some, other leveled serious criticisms at Kimmel for his remarks, which, taken in the context of Covid-19 misinformation and anti-Asian backlash, definitely weren’t the greatest choice. Check out some of the reactions below.

BTS have spoken out against anti-Asian violence in the past, but so far haven’t commented on Kimmel’s jokes.

The focus of Pokémon games has changed considerably ever since its early releases on the Game Boy. For many gamers, the first Pokémon game they play is the way the series is “supposed to be” — there’s something nostalgic about whatever their first game is, and it sets a high bar for the rest of the series to have to clear.When we look at how the series has evolved over time, though, it makes looking at newer games interesting.

Pokémon is one of the biggest media franchises in the world, and we want to look back on how the series has changed. Some of the ideas that we thought would become franchise staples got abandoned way earlier than we ever would have expected. Other aspects of the series had the seeds laid years before they ever blossomed. We love all these games and we want all of them to be appreciated equally, so let’s have a fun trip down memory lane and look at the growth of Pokémon.

Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow (1996-1998), Game Boy

• Completing the Pokédex
• Rivals
• Gym Badges

Pokémon Red and Green weren’t just hugely popular in Japan, but when they came out in the states as Red and Blue, it kicked off a craze that the series has never been able to quite match. While Pokémon has gotten more popular thanks to more people growing up with the series, there are still folks who have only played these original games and love them dearly.

The impact that the first games had on the franchise is obvious. Not only did they establish formulas that the series would follow for over a decade with gym badges, a recurring rival, and a criminal organization, but they laid the groundwork for one of the most successful franchises ever. Pokémon is a machine and everything about it can be relayed back to Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow.

Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal (1999-2000), Game Boy

• Breeding
• New Pokémon
• Sprite Animations (Crystal only)
• A playable female character (Crystal only)

Most people who know about the origins of Pokémon know that the first games were very much a first attempt. As a result, they had numerous bugs, odd design choices, and a lot of Pokémon that were cut from the final game. Once it became clear that they were going to have enough money to make a sequel, Game Freak began development on Pokémon Gold and Silver. The main purpose here was to fix most of the bugs that were prevalent in the first games, and to add in some of that cut content. However, those two games happened to establish some major franchise staples on their own alongside even more features in Crystal.

These were the games that fixed an obvious wrong from the first releases and added a playable female character. It also made some great presentation changes by giving sprites little animations upon exiting their Pokéball. A case can be made that all the second generation really accomplishes is giving the first-gen some much-needed polish, but this feels like it’s missing the forest for the trees. Not only did the second series of games start the trend of adding new Pokemon to every mainline title, but with the addition of breeding and eggs, it laid the foundation of what would become the competitive scene.

Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald (2002-2004), Game Boy Advanced

• Pokémon Contests
• Abilities
• Double Battles

The third generation of games is a mixed bag for a lot of fans. They moved away from the continuous plot and world that had been established in the first two games, introduced many different Pokémon to the world, and for a brief period of time, didn’t feature any way to connect to the first two generations. This would eventually be fixed with the release of Fire Red and Leaf Green — both remakes of the original games — but this was the first time in the series we saw them really take a risk and move away from its established formula.

Alongside those changes, this is the generation that really put an emphasis on each individual Pokémon feeling unique with abilities and personality values. No playthrough ever feels the same, even with the same exact team of Pokémon, and that’s thanks to these changes. We also saw the introduction of a new battle system with double battles and a heavier emphasis on pushing the player through the world with a plot, and they’re the first games to not directly state the player’s main goal as completing the Pokédex. They’re instead more about collecting the gym badges and accomplishing personal goals, such as surpassing your father. Plus there’s also a side mode, Pokémon Contests.

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum (2006-2008), Nintendo DS

• Physical/Special Split
• Nintendo Wi-Fi
• 3D Environments

While the fourth generation of Pokémon games saw some of the greatest advances for the series, it’s also when we saw Pokémon start to move away from a lot of its longstanding traditions. The Pokédex is handed to the player, not as an afterthought, but with less emphasis than ever. It’s viewed as a favor to the Professor and not considered an integral part of the journey, because the plot of the game involving the villainous Team Platinum takes on a much larger role. As a result, these games do a lot of cool stuff with expanding the lore of the Pokémon universe and explaining to us how it all works. Alongside this are some really excellent 3D models that the world will sporadically use to help it feel more open.

On the game side, we saw the battle system dive even deeper into enhancing the competitive aspects. For every game up until this point, a move being considered a “special” attack or a “physical” attack was based entirely on the type of the move — Fire Punch is special because it’s a fire-type move, but Hyper Beam is considered physical because it’s a normal-type move. In this generation, and every game after it, moves are instead categorized by the type of attack. Now, Fire Punch is a physical move because it’s a punch while Hyper Beam is a special move since it’s a beam. This, mixed with the addition of online battling at the time through Nintendo Wi-Fi, made the competitive scene for the games explode.

Pokémon Black and White (2010), Nintendo DS

• 156 new Pokémon
• No old Pokémon in the main story
• Dynamic camera angles

Pokémon Black and White took the most daring risks of the entire franchise up to this point. Not only did they build the games around a plot involving the villainous Team Plasma, and its main antagonist N, but they didn’t allow players access to any of the previous 493 Pokémon in the main story. The only ones available were 156 new Pokémon. This drastic new direction for the series shocked and upset many players, but the result is genuinely the best plot in the entire franchise. This is the only time they would ever put that kind of emphasis on the game’s story and it’s a shame because it really was well done.

We also saw a gigantic presentation improvement in Black and White: dynamic camera angles, more use of 3D environments, and the best game speed the franchise has ever had. Battles are lightning quick and the best music in the entire series is in these games. From this point on, the games become less focused on the original experiences of collecting gym badges and capturing Pokémon.

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 (2012), Nintendo DS

• Recurring characters
• Back to previous gen Pokémon appearing
• Impossible to complete the Pokédex without transferring Pokémon from a previous generation

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are the first time the series ever had a direct sequel. Don’t confuse them with the third “definitive versions” that the previous games all had, these games has a new plot, recurring characters from the previous game, and a new theme of relationships with one another. While they’re not drastically different from the previous games, we did see them go back to allowing more previous generation Pokémon to appear.

Black 2 and White 2 made it impossible to complete the Pokédex with only this generation of games. To complete it, someone has to transfer previous generation Pokémon into their copy of Black, White, Black 2, or White 2. The very first goal the player ever given in any Pokémon was to complete the Pokédex. The fifth-generation made it very clear that the games were no longer about that.

Pokémon X and Y (2013), Nintendo 3DS

• Fully 3D
• Fairy Type
• Customizable characters
• Experience share overhaul

The first game on the 3DS didn’t just mean an opportunity for Pokémon to show up on new hardware, but also the chance for it to take what was, at the time, a huge artistic step. Pokémon X and Y was when the franchise finally took the full jump into 3D. Previous games mainly used sprites with the occasional 3D environment, but the entirety of X and Y is set in a 3D world to be explored. Alongside this are many new cosmetic improvements, such as finally allowing us the ability to customize our characters, and every battle is far more stylish than previous entries.

With the franchise itself deciding to go in a more plot-focused direction, this also meant allowing the player to advance through the story at a quicker pace. The experience share item received a major overhaul in this entry, giving every Pokémon in the player’s party experience upon winning battles and capturing Pokémon. This makes it easier to keep an entire party of six trained up throughout a play-through and helps avoid roadblocks due to level disadvantage. On the downside, this now makes the main story almost a little too easy. The games do encourage repeat play-throughs though for anyone that is trying to reach the endgame content faster.

Pokemon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon (2016-2017), Nintendo 3DS

• New Gym structure
• No more field HM’s
• No National Pokédex

Pokémon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon made some huge changes to core aspects of the series that were present since the very first game. For starters, the gyms are gone. In these games, every gym is instead a trial that the player goes through. Complete the seven trials and the player will gain the chance to do the traditional Elite Four and Champion battle challenge at the end. While not a complete change from the formula, this is the first time the game moved away from making players collect eight badges. These are also the games that removed field use HM’s. Players now accomplish on-field puzzles through “Ride Pokémon,” which saves them the use of an HM slot in their party.

The most drastic change in this generation, however, is the removal of the National Pokédex. Finally, while the player is free to use Pokémon not natural to the Alola Region, it will not show up in the normal Pokédex. This means there’s no actual reason for the first time in the series to “catch ’em all.” This makes Sun and Moon the first games in the series to buck the traditions that were established all the way back in those original releases.

Pokemon Sword and Shield (2019), Nintendo Switch

• An open world area
• First mainline game on a home console
• First game to have DLC

Pokémon has entered modern gaming. The first games to ever come to a home console, the Nintendo Switch, are Pokémon Sword and Shield, which boast plenty of the touches that come with modern gaming: DLC, improvement patches, and potential for a bigger world. Sword and Shield experimented with this by not being completely open-world games, but having an “open-world area” that the player could explore.

Sword and Shield are also the games that finally made the decision to make it impossible to catch them all. There are 898 Pokémon across the entire series as of the “Crown Tundra” DLC, but only 664 are usable in the games themselves. There is no possible way to bring the other 234 Pokémon into the games. The franchise decided that it wanted to be about the adventure the player went on above anything else. We saw this with more focus on the plots involving villainous teams and saving the world.

If you were a pop or indie music-loving listener in the early 2000s, it’s very likely you encountered the dulcet tones of James Blunt. Not quite a one hit wonder, Blunt’s incredibly popular “You’re Beautiful” was a hit circa 2004, when his album Back To Bedlam was released. While plenty of teen girls latched onto his sad sack songs at the time (hello, I would listen to the entire album on repeat), back then, and even more so as time has passed, Blunt has become the butt of many jokes about how terrible his music is. He’s gone on record saying he thinks “You’re Beautiful” is super annoying, too, and has had a pretty good sense of humor about all the farce that can come along with being a pop star.

But today he’s decided to weigh in on something important with a self-deprecating joke about his own music. Since first Neil Young, and now Joni Mitchell, have pulled their music off Spotify in protest of the platform’s decision to enable Joe Rogan’s anti-vax misinformation, Blunt wants to do his part as well. But his threat has nothing to do with pulling his music — it’s releasing new music that he suspects will get the platform to change their minds about supporting Rogan.

“If @spotify doesn’t immediately remove @joerogan, I will release new music onto the platform,” Blunt wrote on Twitter this morning, following it up with the pitch perfect hashtag: “#youwerebeautiful.”

Thank you, James, for doing your part. Now it’s time for me to revisit my 16-year-old self and stream Back To Bedlam all Saturday long…. on Apple Music.

Even with the Omicron variant, social life hasn’t again ground to a halt. People are still flocking to the movies (or at least one of them). Concerts are still going, albeit with mandates, which have earned the ire of certain performers. But some are hesitant to go out amidst a high number of cases (which, for the most part, are going down again). One West Coast bar tried to combat this with a bizarre campaign that only wound up backfiring.

As per The Everett Herald (as caught by The Daily Beast), Vessel Taphouse, a pirate-themed bar in Seattle, shocked patrons and even scheduled bands with a message on Facebook advertising an upcoming show.

“Come see the show, maybe catch the virus or just stay home and whine,” the message read. “Tickets 10 bucks or 6 with proof of Omicron positive test!!”

After the post, which prompted inevitable furor, four employees at the Vessel Taphouse quit in protest. Three bands scheduled to play there pulled out, including local headliner Atrocity Girl.

Bar owner Steve Hartley told the Herald that the post was “an ill-advised attempt at humor,” and that the person who posted the message, whose identity was being protected, had been fired.

One bartender who’d left the bar told the Herald that she and her fellow staffers followed public health guidelines. “I, and most of my friends, will not be back,” she said. “That bridge is burned.”

So please, stay safe and don’t piss off Howard Stern.

(Via The Everett Herald and The Daily Beast)

Earlier this week, a petition appeared on Change.org demanding Travis Scott perform at Coachella 2023. The petition’s creator felt it was unfair that the rapper was dropped from this year’s festival — which he was initially set to headline — as a result of November’s tragedy at his Astroworld Festival. “We all know Astroworld tragedy wasn’t Travis fault,” read the petition. “Let him get back to performing on the biggest stages!” It took off, receiving upwards of 70,000 signatures — or so it seemed.

But now the petition has been removed from the website, as per NME, after it was discovered many of the 70,000 signatures were fake. When the impostor signatures had been removed, only 5,000 signatures were left. However, after further investigation, it was decided that more would need to be done.

“This petition was removed from Change.org due to violations of our Community Guidelines,” Change.org wrote in their statement. “The petition was found to contain fraudulent signatures, which were removed. After further investigation, our team discovered that the petition had produced several fraudulent attempts, which forced a complete removal of the petition.” The company added that they have a “range of automated systems and teams dedicated to blocking and removing double or fake signatures and detect other fraudulent activity.”