Month: January 2022

Michael Lang, who spearheaded Woodstock’s 1969 festival as well as its 1994 and 1999 editions, has died at the age of 77. He passed away at Sloan Kettering in New York City, and according to family spokesperson Michael Pagnotta, his death comes after a battle with a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The last time the world publicly saw Lang was a little over two years ago, just before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was honoring the 50th anniversary of Woodstock’s first festival. He made some controversial attempts to commemorate the anniversary with another rendition of the festival that made his name.

Lang’s start in multi-artist events goes back to the late 1960s, when he hosted his first event, the 1968 Miami Pop Festival, which featured Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, John Lee Hooker, and more. The following year, he launched the first Woodstock festival, which boasted a lineup that included The Grateful Dead, The Who, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, Joan Baez, Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane. That first iteration surpassed expectations, but it also had its fair share of downsides.

Woodstock made its return in 1994 and again in 1999, the latter being notorious for the violence, vandalism, and reports of sexual assault that occurred during it. Lang attempted to hold a fourth Woodstock festival in 2019, with a lineup that included Jay-Z, Miley Cyrus, Dead and Company, and more, but his plans fell through when the festival’s investors — financial partner Dentsu and its investment division Amplifi — withdrew their $32 million investment, which set off lawsuits. Lang also struggled to receive permits for the festival despite lowering the festival’s capacity to 75,000. He finally pulled the plug on the show, citing “a series of unforeseen setbacks.”

Lang is survived by his wife Tamara, their sons Harry and Laszlo, and his daughters LariAnn, Shala, and Molly.

The New York Giants entered Sunday with nothing to play for in a Week 18 matchup with the Washington Football Team, who also had nothing to play for. With Jake Fromm starting, there weren’t any expectations for a Giants offensive bonanza, but typically in this situation, teams pull out all the stops and just go balls to the wall trying to score some points and created some kind of positivity.

Not Joe Judge, though, as the Giants head coach decided that, rather than dialing up some exotic plays like just about every other team in that situation on Sunday, New York would be doubling down on turtling up. This, naturally, was to the dismay of the sparsely filled MetLife Stadium, as Giants fans got to watch their team put up a robust 48 yards of offense in the first half, trailing the football team 3-0 at the break.

Fromm is not good, but the complete refusal from the Giants coaching staff to even try to move the ball through the air was honestly breathtaking, with the finest example coming on back-to-back quarterback sneaks on second and third down from inside their own five late in the first half.

Look at this! What are you doing? Why bother showing up today? Every other coach of a bad team is running wild trick plays and going for it on fourth downs, while Judge is out here running quarterback sneaks just to create an extra yard of space for his punter. The boo birds were very loud in MetLife, despite a light crowd, and they only got stronger after a draw play on 3rd and 8 on the ensuing drive.

There’s been a massive uptick in COVID cases over the last month, thanks to the new, more highly transmissible Omicron variant. And yet that hasn’t stopped people from flocking to the movies, or at least one of them: Spider-Man: No Way Home. (Sing 2, mind you, has also raked in a mint.) The threequel in the Tom Holland iteration of the franchise, with its real-life paramour stars, has been breaking box office records since it dropped in mid-December, right as cases skyrocketed. On its fourth weekend, it surpassed the domestic haul of what was for many years the highest grossing movie in film history (not adjusted for inflation).

As per Deadline, No Way Home grossed another $33 million, handily trouncing the all-ladies action movie The 355, which tanked at a mere $4.8 million. That brings its total domestic cume to $668, and that puts it just ahead of Titanic, the James Cameron epic that once upon a time grossed a jaw-dropping $659.3 million. It was the biggest money-maker in movie history, at least until it was unseated 12 years later by another Cameron blockbuster, Avatar.

Given that No Way Home is still going strong, it’s only a matter of time — days, really — until it soars past another Tom Holland movie: Avengers: Infinity War, which grossed $678.7 million back in 2018.

Keep in mind, none of this is adjusted for inflation, and what Titanic grossed some 25 years ago would today be north of $1 billion. It’s also only taking in domestic grosses. Indeed, globally, No Way Home has amassed a combined $1.5 billion, which is still shy of the $2 billion Infinity War grossed. And Titanic? It grossed $2.2 billion globally, and adjusted for inflation that’s $3.8 billion. So Spidey still has a ways to go.

(Via Deadline)

(SPOILERS for Showtime’s Dexter revival will be found below.)

“Sometimes I wish the hurricane had taken me, released me of the burden of my own urges. Instead, it showed me that I have to bear them alone. That’s my fate… Let me die, so my son can live.” – Dexter Morgan, Season 9, Episode 10

*deep sigh*

I’m feeling oddly torn after the Dexter: New Blood season finale where the show’s principal serial killer bites the dust. After all, this revival set out, from the very beginning, to erase the sins of the lumberjack past (and it did so for at least the first half of the sesaon). The Powers That Be had heard all of our complaints about that series finale. Original showrunner Clyde Phillips and star Michael C. Hall knew that the whole “sail into a hurricane and emerge as a lumberjack” maneuver was silly. Seriously, somebody (back in the day, a decade ago) truly expected people to be cool with the beloved serial killer anticlimactically gliding away with no consequence.

There also was no justice to this ending. Dexter simply tossed the body of his dead sister into the ocean near Miami, sailed into a hurricane, and smirked through his (supposedly) final onscreen moments. It was a weird flex, at best. And to many viewers, it was a mildly insulting payoff for watching eight seasons, the final few of which didn’t measure up to preexisting standards. On one hand, this was bad. On the other hand, this outcome gave Showtime and Phillips and Hall a chance to make things right better. And let’s face it, no matter what happened, not everyone would be happy with a redo. Because the word “lumberjack” is already enough to set off Dexter fans. This had to be handled delicately, and some fans, like our own Dustin Rowles, declared that one of the key things that needed to happen here was that “Dexter must die.”

Mission accomplished. Did this happen the right way, though?

I would argue not, for a few reasons:

– Harrison/Dexter Connection Wasted: The season spent an awful lot of time building Harrison up as having a Dark Passenger and leading us to believe that Dexter’s own character had developed so much that he’d help the kid channel his own dark and violent proclivities for the greater good. Instead, Harrison changes his own mind on a dime because Dexter killed an innocent man, Logan. In effect, Harrison’s “Coach” had died, so all bets were off. Not that this was all wrong because Dexter did deserve to die (sometime, maybe not yet, though). And the swift turn of events (and Dexter praising Harrison for pulling the trigger) felt like a middle finger to the “Born In Blood” vibe explored throughout the season.

– Batista Wasted: Why the heck did they drag Angel Batista into this finale for five minutes if that was gonna go nowhere? This makes no sense, and it feels as though the writers could. not. figure. out. what to do with him. They dropped him in there and made it seem like we’d see him show up in Iron Lake, but yeah, never happened. He was used to clue Angela into Dexter being the Bay Harbor Butcher, end of story.

– Angela’s Career Wasted? On one hand, I’m happy with finally seeing an end to the mystery of who’s been killing girls for decades. On the other hand, I wish that Angela had been the one to discover the final piece of the puzzle, rather than be told by Dexter that Kirk Caldwell did those deeds. However, she did get to declare Dexter’s death to be an officer-involved shooting. And that has to be satisfying on a few levels, not the least of which was her own boyfriend lying about his damn identity and then still refusing to tell the whole truth (and gaslighting Angela with an “I’m worried about you” while he’s being interrogated over Matt Caldwell’s death), up until the bitter end.

These writing slip-ups do make the entire season seem deflating, despite initial success. Yet it’s not all bad, really:

– Doakes (!) has been fully vindicated: Finally, there’s justice for Doakes over the whole Bay Harbor Butcher misnomer. So, here’s as excellent reason as any for an O.G. “surprise m*therf*cker” clip.

– Dexter is, in fact, dead: And I’m good with this. Dexter’s gone. Maybe we’ll see some sort of followup down the line (because Showtime loves to keep their shows going as long as humanly possible) with Harrison in the driver’s seat (which was pretty much the parting shot of this revival’s season). Or maybe it’s really over. And I do appreciate, even though this was not handled in a graceful way, that Dexter saw real repercussions for breaking his code. And Harrison got some closure for his abandonment issues. Also, he inherently realized that dad was too far gone from his own rules, even if Dexter hadn’t given him all the details. However, yeah, all felt too rushed by the writers.

– Deb’s ending was a better one: She got to hold Dexter’s hand as he died and then she released him into the snow. It’s moderately better than being dumped into the ocean to be eaten by sharks or something, and it’d be hard for the writers to not improve on what happened to her in the original series because that was so awful.

In the end, I have mixed feelings about this finale. It’s hard to connect to the whole. Sure, Angela gets the best ending possible (even though fans might not be too connected to her, given that she’s a new character), and the brutal acts of Kirk Caldwell are at least brought to light (even though he’s already dead). Dexter won’t be able to go to Los Angeles, but at least Harrison is free. He can make his own path now, and I’m curious about whether he can tame the Dark Passenger, but the finale makes me doubt that he ever carried one around in the first place.

R.I.P, Dexter Morgan. May you rot in hell, and I mean that in the best-worst possible way.

The ‘Dexter: New Blood’ season finale is currently streaming via Showtime.

Last week, we lost one of Hollywood’s greatest talents: Sidney Poitier, the first Black person to win a Best Actor Oscar, for a long time the director of the highest grossing movie helmed by a Black filmmaker, and who helped break the glass ceiling for Black performers, passed away at the age of 94. His death prompted an avalanche of remembrances (and unearthed anecdotes), but one of the most striking came from Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

“In the middle of the night, when I was 8 years old, I was given a white rose by the most elegant man I would ever meet,” the actress wrote on Instagram. She then detailed how she wound up watching a historic moment for humankind with one of the biggest and most ground-breaking actors of all time.

“I was in Tunisia traveling with my family — my father worked with the 60’s equivalent of Doctors Without Borders. At 2 in the morning, my mom woke me up and, in our nightgowns, we went to the lobby of the Tunis Hilton where they had set up a little black and white television on which at 2:56 am, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.

“Afterwards, we headed outside to look up through the hot summer night at the never-again-the-same moon in the sky. What could possibly top THAT? Well, it was when we returned to the lobby, and that handsome elegant stranger gave to me and each woman present a white rose to commemorate this historic evening.”

Who was that “handsome elegant stranger”? It was the guy who delivered one of the greatest slaps in screen history. “My mom, in something of a swoon, explained to me that this was not just any man, this was Sydney Poitier,” she recalled. “What a gesture. What a gentleman. Rest in peace.”

At the time, Poitier was wrapping up a hugely successful decade. After breaking through in the late ‘50s, he became one of the most popular and bankable actors in Hollywood and on stage, with films like A Raisin in the Sun (in a role he originated on Broadway), Paris Blues, A Patch of Blue, To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. He won the Academy Award for 1963’s Lilies of the Field. And he still had a long career and a long life ahead of him.

Last week, Ted Cruz — perhaps the most dunkable person in the Republican party — stepped in it again. Oddly, it started with him doing the right thing. The Texas senator made the honest mistake of referring to those who stormed the Capitol building as “domestic terrorists.” Tucker Carlson got mad. Cruz tried to make amends by pulling a 180, groveling on Carlson’s show, claiming he misspoke. Carlson didn’t buy it. And neither, on Sunday, did Jake Tapper.

The CNN host dedicated a segment of his latest State of the Union to debunking Cruz’s mea culpa while torching him for even trying to make it.

“The thing is, it wasn’t sloppy phrasing,” Tapper said, pointing out that the lawmaker had called the attack “terrorism” at least 17 times, in both written and spoken remarks. Tapper then cited the FBI’s definition of domestic terrorism: “violent criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences such as those of a political, religious, social, racial or environmental nature.”

“That, of course, is what the attack was, violent and criminal to further a domestic ideological and political goal, specifically to stop the counting of Electoral votes to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president,” Tapper pointed out.

He then pointed out that Cruz was one of the Republican politicians who gave the insurrectionists reason to violently storm the Capitol:

“Now, what’s odd is that Cruz is voicing opposition to the activity of January 6th, because they were in part inspired by his actions, by his role, and that of Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, objecting to the electoral votes for Joe Biden which was part of the twisted kabuki theater and incited the very people who attacked the Capitol, ransacking desks in the Senate chamber including Cruz’s desk.”

You can watch Tapper’s segment in the video above.

(Via Raw Story)

Cardi B and rapper Cuban Doll haven’t seen eye-to-eye in recent years. Another example of their beef came on Saturday after the two rappers exchanged words on Twitter. It started after a Nicki Minaj fan account posted a screenshot from Cuban Doll’s Instagram Story which depicted Doll in a leopard print outfit for an upcoming music video. The image was placed next to one of Minaj in a leopard wig, suggesting that Cuban had been inspired by Minaj. A Cardi B fan account then shared an old video of Cardi showing love to Cuban. This is when Cardi herself jumped into the conversation.

“Ask me why they hate me … THEY DON’T HAVE A REASON, JUST BANDWAGONING,” Cardi replied in a now-deleted tweet. “It’s Cool tho, everyone that ever hated never succeeded.”

Cuban issued a quick response which launched the rappers into a full-on Twitter beef. “Girl Sdfu !!!!! We never had a problem you dry tweeted that sh*t bout me,” Cuban tweeted. “Me & you ain’t been cool offset was tryna fuck me.” In an additional tweet, which she later deleted, Cuban added, “Don’t play victim… THATS WHAT WE NOT FINNA DO.”

Cardi countered Cuban’s victim claims and said she was the one that started the war of words. Cardi shared screenshots of tweets from Cuban that seemed to throw shots at Cardi’s past marital issues with Offset.

“I pray a man don’t marry me just to cheat on me. That’s next level OD DISRESPECT,” Cuban wrote in the now-deleted post. She also added, “I could never be inspired by someone I don’t listen to. Simple stop trying to force that on me.” Cardi shared the screenshots and wrote, “You started this whole sh*t wit those two NOW DELETED tweets being shady about the inspiration and then my husband. Now that I respond I’m wrong?” After Cuban called Cardi a “bully” and claimed she was getting attacked over her leopard outfit, Cardi issued another response to set the record straight.

“It was never about clothes I never shaded you,” she wrote. “You put these two tweets up and then deleted them and now you talking about I bullied you ?” Cuban defended her tweets and said they were not about Cardi and Offset, but also noted that she does not feel inspired by Cardi. “You can’t get mad I said I don’t listen to your music !?” Cuban wrote. “B*tch it’s been years the husband tweet was not bout u ! It’s just got that’s made u mad girl bye your werid.”

Offset’s 2018 cheating scandal was eventually brought up during the rappers’ beef when Cardi shared screenshots between her and Cuban, who denied knowing about the situation until it was posted online. Cardi also posted Cuban’s TMZ interview in which she denied knowing Offset at the time. “This is you as well LIKE I SAID,” Cardi wrote. “Don’t try to act victim cause I reply to those deleted tweets you was directing at me.Just tell your label to pay me for the promo.”

Cuban still insisted that “your husband tried to f*ck me” while doubling down on claims that she was not inspired by Cardi, who claimed that Cuban could not “keep up with ya own lies.” Finally, the two ended things by seemingly agreeing to disagree, but not without throwing out final shots. “Deleting those tweets.. it’s bad for business and I’m done helping out the needy,” Cardi wrote. “I want to apologize to my fans. I know y’all get upset when I give attention to germs.” Cuban shared her tweet writing, “Don’t need no attention from no rat ass h*e.”

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

Even if Donald Trump does not run for president again in 2024 (and even if Democrats stop him from doing so), we’ll still be living with the consequences of his actions for years, decades, maybe generations. But some are more destructive than others. In a new interview with The Daily Beast, Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future, detailed a “genuinely insane” decision he made while in office that could end with one of the planet’s biggest cities devastated.

Marche pointed to a move his administration made in February of 2020, when they abruptly halted a project to erect a seawall around New York City to protect it from dangerous storms, such as Hurricane Sandy in 2012 or Ida over the summer. At the time, Trump mocked the plan, which would have cost billions of dollars, on Twitter, less than a year before he was booted from the platform.

Back then, The New York Times reported that, while Trump “cannot single-handedly cancel a Corps project,” the “unusual” cancelling of the project led to suspicion that politics had played a hand.

While speaking to The Daily Beast, Marche claimed that another major storm, like Sandy, would not be good for the nation’s most densely populated city.

‘The models when a hurricane hits New York are incredibly strong, ” he said. “Miami and New Orleans are very nice towns, but New York is New York and 88 percent of the world’s international currency goes through, it’s still the capital of the world really.” He added that NYC is “also unrebuildable,” saying, “When it floods, the density of the infrastructure is so thick that, unlike Miami or Houston or New Orleans, they won’t won’t be able to rebuild it.”

Both Marche and reporter Molly Jong-Fast agreed that the decision to end that project was “genuinely insane.” So, thanks again, Trump!

(Via The Daily Beast)

The Denver Broncos, for the second straight year, brought up the rear in the AFC West, finishing 4th in the division at 7-10 after their 13th consecutive loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday.

Denver boasted one of the league’s best defenses, allowing the third fewest points and 10th fewest yards in the league, but as has been the case since the Peyton Manning era, the offense was woefully bad (22nd in points, 19th in yards). While Teddy Bridgewater raised their floor a bit, the quarterback situation remains an issue, but they operated an offense that simply wasn’t very inspiring and seemed more aimed at not losing games than trying to win them.

As always, that comes back to the head coach and after three seasons and no tangible improvement in record, Vic Fangio found himself out as Broncos coach on Sunday morning.

Fangio went 19-30 in his three seasons in Denver, never producing an above-.500 record, as the former longtime defensive coordinator in the league got the defense up to speed quickly, but never had the offense to match. Part of that was the QB situation, which Fangio pointed to bluntly after the loss on Saturday as he seemed to know that his time was up and was no longer interested in sugarcoating things.

As for who the Broncos will target, it feels like a safe assumption they’ll be looking more towards the offensive side of the ball, as that’s just how things work in coaching searches when you fire a defensive guy whose teams played uninspired offense. That won’t matter a lot if they don’t, as Fangio noted, have a quarterback in town who can raise their standard of play on that side of the ball, but to win the press conference, they will almost assuredly go with someone with an offensive background.

First, Doja Cat had to cancel one of her last appearances of 2021 due to Covid-19, now, the pop star has got crazed fans calling in threats to her shows. Doja was slated to perform a free show in Indianapolis today, but the show was briefly interrupted by the threat of a bomb and police cleared the area outside Monument Circle where fans had gathered for about 20 minutes while they investigated. Doja was slated to perform an outdoor show in downtown Indianapolis as part of the College Football Playoff national championship festivities, but a man making threats about a bomb almost derailed the set.

According to IndyStar, around 5 PM, a man made a threat about an explosive device. He is now in custody and police are investigating, but so far no bomb or evidence of one has been found. “A fan wanted to advance in line so he exercised very poor judgment and told those around him in line he had a bomb in his backpack,” Deputy Chief Joshua Barker said in a text message to IndyStar. “Someone did the right thing and alerted IMPD. The backpack was clean.”

Fans posted shots of just how packed the area was for the rapper’s performance, as well as some shots from the show, which went on as planned. Check them out below.