Miami isn’t a hidden gem or secret travel hub. It’s one of the best-known, most populous party cities in the United States. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go. Miami is awesome. Go a lot. Go bi-monthly. Move there.
Charly Jordan — DJ, model, and style entrepreneur — is a Miami regular who’s learned the ins and outs of the city’s scene. She’s DJed at Miami’s hottest nightclubs and most exclusive events (including Scott Disick’s “Boat To Basel” party during Art Basel 2021) and had more than enough adventures to call herself a Miami expert. In preparation for her new single, “Innerbloom,” (debuting today, January 28th, on Spotify and Apple Music) Jordan has been playing the city often and cultivating a vibe in the rooms she plays.
“My goal is to influence positive change in the way people perceive mental health and success,” says Jordan. “I believe success is not just being monetarily successful, but living a rich and full life as well while helping others around you. Be the energy that fills a room, not takes away from it.”
The DJ — a longtime friend of Uproxx — certainly brings energy to the room when she hits the stage in Miami. So we asked her to share a guide to the best places to explore and party in from South Beach to the Keys to Wynwood.
WHY MIAMI?
Charly Jordan
I’ve had the pleasure of playing many shows in Miami over the past year and I’ve really grown to love it. It can be a bit difficult to enter the city if it’s your first time not knowing anybody, but as soon as you find your niche and your crowd there are endless possibilities. I’ve never seen boat life quite as active as I’ve seen in Miami. There are full-blown yacht parties, speed boats, deep-sea fishing, and the late-night boat rides through the Miami River are pretty magical.
What’s one thing that every first-time visitor should see or do in Miami?
If you’re a first-time visitor in Miami and you love food, which who doesn’t, Mila is one of the best dinner spots to go to. As well as taking a stroll along ocean drive in South Beach during the day, where you’ll see endless restaurants and stores right next to the white sand beach.
Miami Beach is a classic, but I also love hotel hopping in South Beach and hitting the different restaurants and bars that overlook the water.
Best way to take in the iconic art scene of Miami?
Charly Jordan
The best way to take in the art scene in Miami is honestly just by paying attention because I feel like the art is everywhere. Obviously, there are more specific areas that are filled with art like Wynwood, where you can hardly turn a corner without seeing graffiti on the wall neighboring a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. But you’ll see sculptures all throughout Miami, even in many of the apartment buildings.
Best nightclub for a late night out in the city?
Charly Jordan
Since I DJ, I would consider myself a sort of connoisseur of nightclubs, given that I’ve been to so many. You won’t really experience anything better than E11even Miami. One of the only of its kind, a hybrid nightclub and strip club that serves food and also has massive artists perform like Migos, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and many more (including myself lol). I’ve performed at E11even a couple of times, so not only is it one of my favorite clubs to go to but they’ve become a family to me.
Make sure if you go to E11even you order the chicken sandwiches because there’s nothing that beats them.
I like hotels that have a lot of amenities and typically when I go to Miami my personal favorite hotel to stay at is the Mondrian. It has the perfect view of the ocean, it’s in the city, has a perfect assortment of food at their downstairs restaurant, and a great bar as well.
The best time of year to visit Miami is definitely during the summer, but the weather doesn’t change that much there honestly so it’s pretty much a good time to go year-round. Basically what I’m saying is there’s no excuse to not go to Miami.
10/10 would recommend taking a boat out into the keys or even to the Bahamas since it’s so close to Miami. There are many sunken ships, planes, and underwater statues with an abundance of wildlife like dolphins, huge schools of various fish, jellyfish, and sharks. Miami’s endless, as long as you know the right people and know where to go. I typically play at E11even Miami and Daer in Fort Lauderdale so if you’re ever out there make sure you catch me at a show or check out my upcoming tour with Cheat Codes.
You can cross the Sacramento Kings off of the list of teams that are trying to bring Ben Simmons on board before the NBA trade deadline. According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Sacramento has made the decision to stop its pursuit of Simmons for now and turn its attention to trying to find a deal elsewhere in the trade market.
ESPN Sources: The Sacramento Kings – one of the most aggressive teams in the market and once an eager suitor for Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons – have ended pursuit of a deal with the 76ers and turned elsewhere in trade talks. Story soon.
The hang up, Wojnarowski reports, is that the Kings simply do not believe that the Sixers have an asking price in a Simmons deal that they can meet.
Inside of two weeks until the February 10 NBA trade deadline, the Kings believe the asking price for Simmons is too steep and that a pathway to reaching an agreement with the Sixers doesn’t exist, sources said.
Sacramento has been mentioned as a potential landing spot for Simmons for some time, with previous reports indicating that the teams held very preliminary talks regarding a move that would send De’Aaron Fox to Philly. That, however, never really got off the ground, and while he recently admitted that he could see a path forward that would involve a deal with the Kings, Sixers executive Daryl Morey made clear that it’s more unlikely than likely that Simmons isn’t moved by the trade deadline on Feb. 10.
Despite this, it does not sound like Sacramento — which sits 18-32, 13th place in the Western Conference, and needs to make up a three-game gap to get the 10-seed and a berth in the play-in tournament — is willing to sit back and roll into the second half of the season with this group. According to Wojnarowski, the team’s front office is “determined to reshape their roster and remain engaged on several other fronts.”
Dry January is almost over. That begs the question: Which cocktail are you going to drink to break the streak? I have an answer: The Amaretto sour. It’s the sweet and nutty, bourbon-filled citrus bomb with a silky mouthfeel that’ll help you ease back into cocktails again (if you’ve actually taken part in Dry January, that is).
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about a low-alcohol cocktail here. The Amaretto sour is a full-on shaker that’s full of almond liqueur and high-proof bourbon. This has a good kick hidden underneath layers of egg white and citrus with a touch of sweetness. All of those layers make this both complex and easy to sip, while still holding onto a wintry vibe (mostly thanks to Amaretto having a marzipan feel to it).
Moreover, perfecting this cocktail will give you a chance to dial in those shaking skills. You’re going to need to give this a dry shake before you add ice. You also need to pour this out well, so that the layer of citrus-infused egg white foam builds on the top of this cocktail. But don’t worry, it’s still fast, fun, and easy to make.
There’s no getting around the Amaretto in this cocktail. The Italian liqueur — made from almonds and apricot pits — is readily available in any liquor store, with Disaronno being the most recognizable brand.
As for the high-proof bourbon, I’m using one of my favorite cocktail bases, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (at over 60 percent ABV). This bourbon really stands up well to everything that’s going on in the cocktail from lemon to the almond.
The rest is pretty easily to find at a grocery store. Just make sure your lemons and eggs are fresh.
Zach Johnston
What You’ll Need:
Rocks glass
Cocktail shaker
Cocktail strainer
Pairing knife
Barspoon
Jigger
Cocktail stick
Zach Johnston
Method:
Fill the rocks glass with ice, set aside.
Add the Amaretto, bourbon, lemon juice, simple, and egg white to a cocktail shaker. Affix the lid and shake without ice for 15 seconds.
Pop the lid and add fresh ice to the shaker (filling it about 1/2 way), reaffix the lid, and shake for another 15 seconds or until the shaker is frosted over and ice-cold to touch. Don’t go easy while shaking, you really want to build up that foam.
Pop the lid and strain the cocktail into the waiting rocks glass with fresh ice. You’ll need to really shake out the foam as you strain. So take your time and make sure you get out as much as you can.
Peel a thin stripe of lemon peel and twist it over the cocktail, making a twirled pigtail.
Spear two cherries and garnish the glass with the cherries and lemon peel. Serve.
Bottom Line:
Zach Johnston
I sighed when I took a sip of this. It’s just great — so refreshing while still having serious depth.
I’m also a sucker for rich and decadent marzipan (Niedderegger is my go-to), so this really hit me in the feels. The bourbon shined through and created a nice whiskey sour base that’s bolstered by the Amaretto’s almond.
The soft silkiness of the egg white is what really helps this cocktail rise to the top, though — it’s like drinking velvet. In fact, I might have to shake up one more of these tonight.
By this time next week, Jackass Forever will finally — FINALLY — be in movie theaters, and all will be right in the world. Well, maybe not “all,” but it’s undeniable that the world is a better place with more Jackass in it. Go ahead, try to deny it. See? You can’t.
Ahead of the release of the fourth film in the Oscar-snubbed series, Johnny Knoxville & Co. sat down with MTV to discuss the classic Jackass stunt, “The Goldfish.” In case you’re unfamiliar, it involves Steve-O swallowing a goldfish and puking it back into a bowl (the little guy survived). Steve-O called it “an idea that I saved for a special occasion. I thought it was going to be a real banger.” He wasn’t wrong: “I’ll never forget after this,” Knoxville said, ‘Well Steve-O, if you’re not already famous, you’re gonna be now.’”
MTV should release All-22 versions of old Jackass episodes. It’s the only way to appreciate the attention to detail that goes into Steve-O vomiting a fish.
Jackass Forever, which stars Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Wee Man, Danger Ehren, and Preston Lacy, as well as newcomers Sean “Poopies” McInerney, Zach Holmes, Eric Manaka, Jasper, and Rachel Wolfson, opens on Feb. 4.
Not only is Rihanna is a talented singer, humanitarian, and a national hero in her native Barbados, she’s also an incredibly savvy entrepreneur who has just raised a lot more money for one of her ventures. Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie brand — which emphasizes inclusivity, body positivity, and confidence — just raised $125 million in their Series C round of investing.
This comes shortly after Savage X Fenty opened its first retail location this month, at the Fashion Show Mall on the Las Vegas strip. As Forbes reports, opening physical locations is the big push in 2022 for the surging company, which plans to open four more stores in the first quarter of 2022, “in Culver City in Los Angeles (where the company is based), followed by the Galleria Mall in Houston, the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia and Pentagon City’s Fashion Centre in Arlington, Virginia.”
This new round of funding was led by Neuberger Berman, but there were a number of other private investors in the mix as well, including Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners VC firm. Savage X Fenty has now raised a total of $310 million in capital. Rihanna, meanwhile, has a reported net worth of over $1.7 billion (well over $1 billion of which comes from here Fenty Beauty cosmetics line), second only to Oprah as the wealthiest female in the entertainment industry.
“Let’s talk about the good stuff while really confronting the bad stuff,” says W. Kamau Bell at the start of a long conversation about his new docuseries, We Need To Talk About Cosby (which premieres Sunday on Showtime). He’s speaking to his approach on the series in response to me telling him about my initial hesitancy to watch and cover such heavy and upsetting subject matter. It’s an unusual lead-in for an interview, but an honest feeling that Bell knows a lot of people may have. It’s something he needed to confront going into this project – the need to bring in a broader audience that might not always watch something like this.
It’s fair to say that if you’re reading this, you know that former TV icon and “America’s Dad” Bill Cosby was accused of sexual assault by more than 60 women and convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018. You also know that that conviction was overturned on a procedural matter and that Cosby is out of jail now (and criticizing Bell’s docuseries). That was the self-imposed limit of my understanding of all of this going in, but stopping at the basics can undercut the impact. In the theater of public opinion, it turns these women into a kind of monolith and it simplifies Cosby’s heel turn for mass consumption; especially to a younger generation that didn’t experience him at the height of his fame and influence.
To counter that thought, you might say that we as a society spend too much exploring the nuances of our villains and monsters thanks to cable news and flowery profiles of Nazis and anti-vax profiteers. But this isn’t that. Sure, we see come of Cosby’s good deeds with regard to representation on-screen and behind the scenes from earlier in his life, but that’s a part of an overall package that, if I can editorialize, pushes back on our latent need for hero worship while serving as an important reminder that villains and monsters don’t always put up billboards heralding their bad intentions or let you in on their darkest secrets. Most importantly, however, this is a series that makes a concerted effort to have victims be heard, and not just with regard to where their lives and dreams collided with Bill Cosby.
Uproxx spoke with Bell about all of this, the wall of silence in comedy culture, the difference between consequences and cancellation, and whether Bell would watch a Cosby comedy special again.
What was your own relationship to Bill Cosby’s works prior to the allegations and everything that followed?
I feel like I was like many Black kids in America. Because I was born in the early ’70s, I grew up [with] Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids as just another Saturday morning cartoon. But it was the one that had Black people on it and it was majorly Black. So that was right up there to me with Super Friends. [Laughs] Bill Cosby was just the host of the show, I had no idea it was his show, I had no idea he did so many of the voices. But that show was the Trojan horse that said, “Bill Cosby is somebody you should pay attention to.” And that show was filled with moral messages, so my mom of course supported it and she also knew Cosby from I Spy and the comedy albums.
When I was a young kid who was starting to like standup comedy and I saw Bill Cosby himself, I was like, “This is better than the other standup comedy I’ve seen. This is a step ahead of that stuff.” Just by the nature of the fact that he was sitting down and nobody else was sitting down. Then The Cosby Show hit. So I would have been president of the Bill Cosby Fan Club at 11-years-old if that was a thing. That show, as we talk about in the docuseries, I don’t think we had the words at the time, but for Black folks, it was a half-hour break from the horrors of America that also celebrated Black excellence before we had really coined that phrase. Black excellence. Also, the fact that White people liked it just made it easier for us to watch it. [Laughs] So it didn’t feel like something we couldn’t discuss or couldn’t talk about. It was like, “Oh, he’s America’s Dad, sure. He’s America’s Dad, but he’s ours.”
What was the biggest surprise for you going through this process?
I knew this was a thorny conversation, but it was only after we started asking people and so many people said no that I started to realize how thorny the conversation was. It occurred to me, “Oh, I may have made a mistake. I may have made a mistake in getting involved in this.”
When people are saying no to you do you perceive that to be column A, they just don’t want to talk about it, or column B, they’re still afraid of the influence and power he has in general, even from prison at that time?
I think there’s a column A, a column B, a column C, a column D, a column E, there are so many reasons that people can name for reasons why not to do it. One, there is, “even if I’ve been public about my belief, my support for these women, there’s no percentage in being public about it again, because it just stirs up a hornet’s nest with my own fandom.” So it’s like no reason to turn to kick this log over again. Because at the time, Cosby was in prison, so it felt like, “He’s done, why would I kick this log over?”
For many people, I think, I’m not known to be a documentary filmmaker, so maybe they’re like, “I don’t know that you would do a good job with this.” I think there’s also the side of it that is like, “I’ve said my piece and I really don’t want to have to fight the masses if I say my piece again.” Then there is a sense of, like we say in the film, especially people said no before he got out of prison, and then I think when he got out of prison they were like, “Oh, thank God I said no.” Because now it feels like this is active again, he’s talking about going on tour. He is such a divisive figure, specifically in the Black community still, that if you can just avoid talking about it, why not just avoid talking about it?
Jumping back, in terms of surprises, what was the biggest surprise you encountered in going through this and in talking to people? Not just what people were revealing, but how it impacted you.
I believed the survivors before I started this work, but to really sit down and talk with them, and these conversations, many of them were more than two hours… and to hear their whole stories outside of even their relationship, outside to whatever happened in their relationship or that night with Bill Cosby for some of them, or that event with Bill Cosby… to sit down and talk, I was nervous the first time I sat down and talked with them. Victoria Valentino was the first survivor I talked to. And she was so full of light and love and joy and so happy to be there. I found out so many of the survivors knew my work, which is why they came, because they were like, “I trust you to handle this.”
I think we have an image of this as being, and I don’t use this word regularly, but I’m saying I think there are people who have an image of this, even people who maybe believe them, as 60 groupies who were waiting backstage after the show to meet Bill Cosby. So in some sense, [these people are saying] even if it’s bad that he assaulted or raped them, that that’s what they were there for. When you sit down with these women and hear their life stories, which I did for most of them, you realize that so many of these women were living their lives, going about their business and he stepped in front of them and said, “Come with me.”
Sho
One thing that I found most shocking was just how many times throughout the course of the last 40 years, 50 years, he told on himself… with the barbecue sauce thing and the Cosby Show or the Larry King interview. I’m sorry, this is a long-winded question, but then we get to a point with Hannibal on stage and everything breaks out, but there were whispers for a while. In your opinion, why did it take so long for the light to flash?
I think this is what we were really trying to make clear with the series is that this is all bigger than Bill Cosby. So America, and I think I say something to this effect, America has a history and a present, but let’s focus on the history of not taking women’s stories of being sexually assaulted and raped seriously.
And dismissing them in every way, trying to find ways, like you were saying before, they get put into a box, all his “groupies,” that’s what the culture does and it’s astonishing.
Yeah, and it’s pervasive through the culture throughout the history of this country, so it’s not like we ever did a better job of it in history, we’ve only done slightly better jobs maybe as we’ve moved along. So I think Bill Cosby’s operating within that, Mo Ryan says that, he’s operating in this blind spot where women come forward, get blamed and shamed, as Lili Bernard says, and then other women see that happen to a woman, then they don’t come forward and then we blame them for not coming forward.
In 2004, when Andrea Constand’s case is happening, there’s no social media, the internet is a thing but it’s nowhere near what it is now. So Bill Cosby’s able to have siloed information. If you’re not watching the evening news about Andrea Constand, you don’t know that story. If you only are watching late-night talk shows and you see him come on to promote something, you’re just like, “Yay, Bill Cosby.” We didn’t all have easy access to the same information, whereas now we have access to more information than you want. Now, all the streams are crossing, and then you have somebody like Hannibal Buress, who very much accidentally forced us to reckon with this.
Sho
Did you reach out to Hannibal to be in the doc?
Yes, yes, I did. I don’t blame… I want to be clear, Hannibal’s a friend of mine and I hope he feels that we did okay by him in this because I really worked on that section hard, but that wasn’t a plan he executed. I think some people think it was a plan he executed… [Laughs] Like, “I’m going to go to Philadelphia, I’m going to do a joke that is half-written, I’m going to set somebody in the back with a really bad cellphone camera…” If you know Hannibal’s life and career, he had no interest in being a part of that. I can’t speak for him, but I just know that… So I think he’s had to reckon with it, and I hope he doesn’t feel like he has to reckon with it unnecessarily here, but it is a thing that I don’t think he feels like, “This is not something I was trying to do.” I think the other thing, he’s not trying to make a name off of this, which I think some performers might.
That is a question though, in general, the idea of reckoning with it, the idea of comedy culture in general and whether there’s a wall of silence with some of this stuff. Thoughts on that?
In my years as a touring standup comic, here’s what has never happened. “Welcome to the club, before you come inside, you need to sign this paperwork about sexual assault and harassment. Also, the HR department is over here, so if you have any problems, you can go over there. Also, just so you know, that’s where the other people will go and they can tell stories or have anonymous tips about things that are going wrong here.” There’s no HR department in standup comedy clubs, not in the time I was in one. The fact is that, I’m a part of this too, the reason why we get into it is because we like to stay up late and have a good time, and sometimes that involves substances, alcohol, legal and illegal substances. So it creates a clubhouse playground mentality that is not conducive to lots of good things. It’s conducive to good comedy maybe, but it’s not conducive to safety. Yeah, I’ll just leave it at that. It’s not conducive to safety. And show business is the same. There’s more money on the table, but showbiz, when they built showbiz back in the day, when they built Hollywood, they didn’t start with the HR department. The HR department came a lot later and still, it is not something that is clear enough about, “Here’s what we’re here to do and here’s what here not to do.” In my opinion.
You mentioned Cosby getting out of prison and feeling like it’s an active situation again. Cancel Culture is the label that gets used so, so much. Thoughts on that? Because I’ll preface this by saying Louis CK just got a Grammy nomination, people who get “canceled” complain about being canceled to their three million followers on Twitter or in a special.
I think we’ve seen it happen, whatever this thing called Cancel Culture is, it has become a career move for people. [Laughs] It has become a thing where if you get canceled, you’ll get a new audience. If you get canceled, you’ll be able to move to a new platform where they want the canceled people. Cancel culture is just another tool in people’s, “How do I get an audience?” arsenal. Well, you need a graphic designer and you need a good website and you need to get canceled. So I think there are certainly people who have… I just saw yesterday, I was reading an article about Kathy Griffin, and that’s an example of like, she’s materially been affected by the things she did — that’s 100% true — but I think sometimes, and I’m not really commenting on the Kathy Griffin situation, but we’re really getting confused between cancel culture and consequences sometimes. And also, how you recover from the consequences. And certainly, Kathy Griffin as a woman is in a very different position than a lot of male performers who are doing things that are way worse than what she did but manage to somehow come back.
If Bill Cosby did a standup special, would you watch it?
[Laughs] I just froze like a computer. Here’s the thing, I regularly watch things I don’t agree with, just to know what’s going on. So I regularly engage with material, and this is part of my job too, I have to. But I regularly go, “I just want to see what’s happening.” Also, I think I would have to watch it because I would be asked about it. Now, am I going to support his tour? Am I buying the T-shirt? No, I’m not doing any of that stuff, but I do think that a part of this thing for me is actually investigation and reckoning and also being able to have the conversation. But saying all that, I don’t begrudge anybody. I think I’m watching it for different reasons. I’m not sitting down to watch that special to go, “Ah, new comedy from Bill Cosby.” I’m sitting down to watch it and go, “What is he doing?”
I can’t even imagine the moral panic it would set off if I was watching a Bill Cosby special and he said something that caught me and I laughed. I can’t even imagine.
I mean, through this whole process, we had these Zooms, again because of COVID, and we had producers and editors and associate editors say, “I watched this stuff, I watched this or I listened to his standup and I find myself laughing and then I catch myself, why am I laughing?” That’s where the whole conversation is for me, how do we reckon with this? Because some people can, but you can’t just turn off what makes you laugh. If it makes you laugh, it makes you laugh. But then you can go, “Why am I laughing? What does it mean about me that I’m laughing? Is it okay that I’m laughing?” These are all the kinds of questions I feel like a lot of people don’t want to ask.
‘We Need To Talk About Cosby’ premieres Sunday on Showtime
Polo G’s Hall Of Fame is nearly nine months in the rearview, but that hasn’t stopped the Chicago product from continuing to release new content in support of the album. The latest is the video for the Moneybagg Yo collaboration “Start Up Again,” which finds the two rappers posted up in a gentlemen’s club hosting an NSFW twerk-off under the black lights as they throw cash and boast their prowess in both reciting their raps and getting derrieres to clap.
Polo’s nonstop support of his 2021 album has included videos for “Unapologetic,” “Heating Up,” “Fortnight,” and “Young N Dumb,” which all appeared on the updated deluxe edition of the album, Hall Of Fame 2.0. Polo’s relentless promotion paid off early as the original version debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming his first album to do so. The deluxe edition, which was released in October, featured 14 new songs, including collaborations with Lil Baby, Lil Tjay, and NLE Choppa.
Meanwhile, Moneybagg Yo had a similarly successful 2021, dropping his own No.1 album, A Gangsta’s Pain. Moneybagg’s chart-topper was so successful that it actually returned to the top spot, producing a hit record with “Wockesha” and earning him a spot on Kanye’s upcoming Donda 2.
When I hear “underground warehouse party,” I can’t help but feel a little skeptical. Hundreds of people gathered in a dark space at a secret location? Slightly terrifying. But anyone who hits the warehouse party scene knows that at their best they’re incredibly safe and buttoned up. And also a ton of fun.
Nite Rinse, an LA and Denver-based warehouse events company, takes underground parties to the next level by creating a lineup of well-known and local DJs, integrating eye-catching art installations, and blasting party-goers’ eyes with epic laser shows that keep them dancing until the sun comes up (and often well-beyond). It also provides a unique and affordable music experience compared to your typical festival or concert.
According to the founders, “Nite Rinse was created to provide a platform for artists to share their sound and cultivate a space and community that values creativity and freedom of expression.”
Between the out-there outfits, bass-heavy beats, and neon lights, it’s safe to say that creativity and freedom of expression were oozing through the Nite Rinse three-year anniversary party at REELWORKS in Denver’s iconic RiNo District on Saturday, January 22nd. The lineup included Lee Foss and Westend, with support from local artists including CJ Music, HOUSEWIFE, and Josh Fedz.
If you need something to get you hyped for the weekend, check out the photos below. The scene from Nite Rinse’s three-year anniversary event is sure to put you in the mood to party.
Amid a struggling 24-25 season and fewer than two weeks ahead of the trade deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers are searching for reinforcements to an underwhelming roster. Much like last summer, one of those reinforcements appears to be Sacramento Kings sharpshooter Buddy Hield, who Los Angeles nearly acquired back in August before taking the package they reportedly offered for him, adding to it, and trading for Russell Westbrook.
According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, the Lakers have once again contacted Sacramento about a deal for Hield, this time centered around Talen Horton-Tucker. But apparently, no real traction has been made between the two parties.
“Obviously, the Kings are like, ‘No. We feel like there’s more lucrative deals out there,’ ” Haynes said on the “Posted Up with Chris Haynes” podcast. “The Kings are going to be active. They’ve got a whole bunch of people calling them.”
Sacramento certainly seems correct in its position that better deals for Hield are available. Through 2.5 seasons, Horton-Tucker has struggled to become an impact rotation player and the Kings already have three young guards as foundational players. Horton-Tucker, who is still only 21, doesn’t project to usurp De’Aaron Fox or Tyrese Haliburton and more pressing needs exist on the wings and inside for Sacramento.
Hield has his faults, but he’s a marksman from deep who’s drilled over 40 percent of his career threes. Many teams with the right structure in place would benefit from his floor-spacing and off-ball movement. The Lakers are one of those teams, though their avenues to acquire him seem quite limited for now.
Riley Stearns was last making the festival rounds back in 2019 withThe Art Of Self-Defense, his arch indie take on masculinity and martial arts starring Jesse Eisenberg as a wimpy accountant. This year he’s back at Sundance with the far superior Dual, a sci-fi-tinged lark about having to fight your own clone for the right to your identity.
The hallmark of both movies is a detached, affectless style of delivery that makes every character sound like a chatbot sharing some interesting facts they’ve just learned about bread. While this conceit felt like an impediment to deeper understanding in The Art Of Self-Defense, Stearns’ aloof style is a far better fit in Dual, which stars Karen Gillan as Sarah, a terminally-ill millennial who pays a futuristic tech company to make a clone that will eventually replace her, who ends up having to fight the clone for the right to her identity.
Stearns shot Dual entirely in Finland during the height of COVID lockdowns, meaning all the locations are ineffably Scandinavian and the whole cast outside of the principals have a cornucopia of accents, from Finnish to British to everything in between, similar to the way Sergio Leone used Italian locations, crews, and extras for his English-language “Spaghetti Westerns” back in the 60s. I asked a Finnish friend for the Finnish equivalent of “spaghetti” and she suggested “pyttipannu,” a quick mix of old potatoes with sausage and onion. Which I guess makes Dual a sort of Pyttipannu Sci-Fi, though I admit it doesn’t roll off the tongue in quite the same way.
Yet the setting has much the same effect as Stearns’ spammy house style, giving Dual a slightly otherworldly, uncanny valley sensibility that only highlights the ideas of alienation and corporate dehumanization it explores. Its tertiary characters evoke the feeling of reaching some customer support technician somewhere out there in the ether, with opaque backstories and unplaceable accents. Does anyone actually care about me? Is true human connection even possible? Or are we all just going through the motions? Finland is a weird little place, and Dual is a weird little movie.
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Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
