Month: February 2022

Though Justin Bieber was recently in Las Vegas to help celebrate the launch of his Our World documentary, dropping a few hints about when he wants to start a family in the doc in the meantime, he’s been forced to cancel an upcoming concert there. Due to what? Covid-19 of course. Even if the current Omicron variant isn’t wreaking so much havoc that SNL guests have to be canceled, like it was back in December 2021, the virus is still very much a threat and impacting live events and tours.

Justin’s Justice tour, which kicked off in San Diego this past Friday, has already had to postpone their second scheduled show. “Due to a covid outbreak within the team, Justin Bieber’s Justice World Tour show scheduled to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada has been rescheduled to June 28, 2022,” the Justice Tour News account posted on Twitter, along with the following statement:

“Due to positive COVID results within the Justice Tour family, we will, unfortunately, have to postpone Sunday’s show in Las Vegas. Justin is, of course, hugely disappointed, but the health and safety of his crew and fans is always his number one priority. The tour launch in San Diego was a massive success and Justin is excited to bring this spectacular show to his Las Vegas fans as soon as possible. The rescheduled date for Las Vegas will be June 28. Tickets for the original show will be honored. Refunds available at point of purchase.”

According to TMZ, Justin is the one who tested positive for Covid-19, but the pop star hasn’t confirmed that news. Wishing a speedy recovery to whoever it is on the Justice touring team who is dealing with exposure.

Bryan Cranston is one of the few performers who can do whatever he wants. But doing whatever you want sometimes means turning things down, knowing they might not go over well. That’s how he felt when he stepped away from directing a play that parodied the Ku Klux Klan, suspecting that it might not go over well given the current spike in white supremacy.

In a new interview with The Los Angeles Times (as caught by Page Six), in 2019 a playhouse in L.A. offered Cranston the chance to direct The Foreigner, a play by Larry Shue about an Englishman who puts the kibosh on a KKK plot to take over a Georgian fishing lodge. But after the murder of George Floyd and the protests that erupted, the Breaking Bad alum suspected a comedy lampooning racial tensions might not fly in the current climate.

“It is a privileged viewpoint to be able to look at the Ku Klux Klan and laugh at them and belittle them for their broken and hateful ideology,” Cranston told the publication. “But the Ku Klux Klan and Charlottesville and white supremacists — that’s still happening and it’s not funny. It’s not funny to any group that is marginalized by these groups’ hatred, and it really taught me something.

“And I realized, ‘Oh my God, if there’s one, there’s two, and if there’s two, there are 20 blind spots that I have … what else am I blind to?” he said. “If we’re taking up space with a very palatable play from the 1980s where rich old white people can laugh at white supremacists and say, ‘Shame on you,’ and have a good night in the theater, things need to change, I need to change.”

So instead Cranston accepted a job starring in Power of Sail, about a professor whose decision to have a Holocaust denier speak to his class does not go over well with his students.

“A good play may not change your life, but it could change your day,” Cranston explained. “To go deeper, a play can also stimulate the mind. It can make you question your thought process — your dogma. It could challenge you.”

(Via The Los Angeles Times and Page Six)

Tyrese Maxey has been one of the breakout stars of the 2021-22 NBA season, going from promising rotation player as a rookie to an apparent foundational piece for the Sixers as they hope to be a championship team this season.

Maxey took the reins as the starting point in Philadelphia this season amid the Ben Simmons fiasco and thrived, doubling his production from last year while actually becoming more efficient a scorer. The second-year star is averaging 16.9 points, 4.6 assists, and 3.5 rebounds per game on 46.9/39.0/87.1 shooting splits, making himself untouchable in James Harden trade talks as the Sixers see those two partnering to create a highly productive and dangerous backcourt combo opposite Joel Embiid’s dominant inside presence.

For All-Star Weekend, Maxey got to play in the revamped Rising Stars Game and take in the full All-Star experience in Cleveland for the first time. On Saturday, we got a chance to sit down with Tyrese at Mountain Dew’s The Block activation and talk about Rising Stars, he and Scottie Barnes hilariously missing bunnies, seizing opportunity this season, and lessons learned from Embiid and his newest star teammate in Harden.

How’s All-Star Weekend treating you?

It’s been going great, going smooth, but it’s freezing out here.

It is very cold.

No, it’s like, too cold.

It’s extremely cold. Aside from that, though, you had Rising Stars last night. That was fun for us as fans watching because the new format seemed to be genuinely fun and you guys seem really engaged. What did you think of the new format?

It was great. It was cool. It kind of kept things competitive, to a certain extent. But, no, it was great. It was fun. I had a great time. I made a lot of connections, talk to some guys and joked a little bit and had a lot of fun.

Are you and Scottie [Barnes] going to work on five-foot push shots a little more?

You know, maybe. After the break, though. My break started on Thursday night [laughs]. But nah, It was just a fun deal, you know. It just turned out like that and we didn’t plan it like that, but now it’s just it’s a funny thing.

And coming here to work with Dew. What does it mean to be able to partner with somebody like this who has an activation like this going on here at All-Star?

This is a major establishment and you really just appreciate it. Mountain Dew and The Block and you know, different things like that. It’s really good. It’s a cool thing to do.

I do want to talk about your season so far, because when we talked last year, we talked about you always being ready for opportunity whenever it came. Obviously this season you come in and you’re given an expanded role. What was it that lets you come in and take advantage of that opportunity to the degree that you have in getting the starting role this year?

Yeah, my father, he told me a thing when I was young about “Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.” So coming in, Coach Doc told me at the end of last year after we lost he was saying that no matter who’s here, no matter what the circumstance is gonna be, your role is gonna expand, it’s gonna be bigger. And he told me it’s gonna be a big summer for me. He wanted me to be ready to hit the ground running as soon as training camp started. So that’s what I did. I told myself that I’ll get one percent better every single day throughout the summer. And, you know, that’s what I did and now we’re here.

What are the things that if you look at where you were last year as a rookie, to where you are now in your second season, where do you think he took the biggest leap over the last year?

I think one is communication. Being able to talk to my teammates, having their trust, and them having the confidence in me to where when I say something they understand it and we can have that respect for one another to go out there on the court and execute it. And then just knowing where to be, like defensively. Because last year I missed training camp just because of the COVID situation, different things like that, so that helped me, having the full training camp and a full offseason. And then lastly, I think catch-and-shoot threes. I’m playing with Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, now James [Harden] the catch-and-shoot threes, the opportunities are going to be a lot more, and when it comes, you got to knock it down.

Your partnership with Joel Embiid, that seems to be more comfortable this year and you seem to be really learning how to work off of a guy like that. What have you learned about playing off with somebody who dominates inside that way, but also is able to step out and kind of create space for you, because it’s obviously working well for both of you?

Yeah, you know, you just appreciate it. Sometimes I have to sit back and not take the moment for granted, because what he’s doing is special. For him to be his size and to have the ball, like you say, shoot back threes and also dominate in the paint and defend the way he defends, it’s amazing. But yeah, I just try to pick his brain as much as possible. You know, I think our friendship off the court is really what helps us be successful on the court. We have a relationship to where when he criticizes me or when I criticize him, it’s still all love, but we just try to push each other to make each other better.

And you’ve now had a week or so with James in the building — obviously he’s not playing yet but he’s been on the practice court. What are you already picking up from somebody like that, who plays your position, who’s somebody I’m sure you’ve watched and pulled stuff from watching him but now you get to share the court with him?

I mean, he’s a former MVP. He scores the ball well, he creates for his teammates well, and I think the biggest thing is he has a high basketball IQ. He knows what a defense is going to be. He knows how to pick a defense apart if it’s pick-and-roll or just one-on-one isolation. So just picking his brain like that, and he’s really helped me as far as confidence as well. He’s like, man, don’t change who you are. You go out there and he said I’m here for you and we’re going to do this thing together.

Lastly, obviously you’re going to make the playoff push here coming up. What did you learn from your first postseason experience that you think is going to help you as you guys try to make a run at the title this year?

I think the biggest thing I learned is that the playoffs is single possession games. You know, every possession matters, every single possession. I feel like you don’t realize that until the end of the game when, you know, you had a layup or something and you turn the ball over and then now at the end of the game with five seconds left you down one or you’re down two and now it’s like, oh, man, I wish I had that layup back. Coach Doc said something last year that I think will stick with me the rest of my career. He kept saying that you never know how many good teams you’re going to be on. You never know how many contending teams you’re going to be on, and you never know how big the window is.

So every chance you get, you gotta cash in on the opportunity.

For a former president, Donald Trump has a lot on his plate. There’s the Jan. 6 committee looking into his actions during his final months in office. There’s the twin investigations into his chief business, which may leave him with no money save his pensions. Then there’s Truth Social, his long-threatened social media service, which will compete with not only Twitter but also an army of far right competitors. At one point it was supposed to be late last year. Then it was bumped to February. Now it’s been moved again.

As per The New York Times (in a bit teased out by The Verge), Truth Social was supposed to have a symbolic launch on February 21, aka Presidents’ Day. But that ain’t happening. So now it’s sometime in March. One reason for the hold-up? A regulatory investigation is underway into the merger of the service’s parent company, the Trump Media & Technology Group, and a publicly traded blank-check company.

That said, an extremely limited version was recently unveiled. Indeed, the big guy himself made the first post on the service — though only a small amount of people can actually see it. Don Jr. was recently mocked for sharing said maiden tweet, underlining the fact that pretty much no one can actually use it, because it’s still not widely available. But when it is, it will follow in the footsteps of such glorious Trump products as Trump Steaks, his failed casinos, and his quickly abandoned blog.

(Via NYT and The Verge)

A scene in the fifth episode of Hulu’s buzzy Pam & Tommy show depicted Motley Crüe’s Tommy Lee kicking Third Eye Blind out of a recording studio. Trouble is, according to Third Eye Blind singer Stephan Jenkins, this scene is entirely fictionalized and the encounter never even happened.

“Hey! Who the f*ck are you guys?” Tommy Lee (played by Sebastian Stan) says storming into the studio. “Third Eye Blind,” responds Stephan Jenkins (played by Jeffrey Conway.) Lee then leans back on the control room glass and says “Well I’ve got bad news for you, Third Eye Blind. Studio A is Mötley Crüe room” and lights up a cigarette.

Jenkins’s character tells Lee that the band was booked there for six weeks and it was set up by the label that they both shared, Elektra. It’s a hilarious portrayal of the pompous Tommy Lee in the Crüe’s heyday, at the expense of Third Eye Blind. But Jenkins tells Variety, that this indeed never happened:

“Mötley Crüe and I’ve never been in the same studio. I recorded my whole first album in Northern California. So we were across the state from each other at the very least.”

“I had never, in fact, listened to Mötley Crüe. I never even heard them. I actually saw Tommy Lee’s penis before I ever heard their band. I was like, ‘Well, good on ya, Tommy. Well done, lad.’ I literally had never heard them. But I somehow saw the sex tape. I’d also never seen ‘Baywatch.’ So I had never seen Pam or Tommy. That was my first introduction to them.”

You can’t help but laugh at how Jenkins says he “somehow” saw the sex tape. Heck, everybody in 1995 was trying to get their eyes on it, we get it. Jenkins, who said he hadn’t even seen the scene yet and didn’t know which actor played his role, asked Variety’s Michael Schneider if Tom Hardy portrayed him. Wishful thinking, but understandable.

Last summer, Kendrick Lamar made a rare appearance on social media, where he delivered a shocking announcement: He revealed that his upcoming fifth album would be his last under Top Dawg Entertainment. “As I produce my final TDE album, I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years. The Struggles. The Success. And most importantly, the Brotherhood,” he wrote. “May the Most High continue to use Top Dawg as a vessel for candid creators.” During a recent interview with Mic, TDE’s president Terrence “Punch” Henderson spoke about Kendrick’s upcoming departure and what it means to him.

“I don’t even know if I would describe it that way as ready to leave, as more so ready to build his own thing,” Punch said. “That’s a grown man right now. We watched him grow from a teenager up into an established grown man, a businessman, and one of the greatest artists of all time. So how long do you actually be signed up under somebody? It’s been almost 20 years. So it’s time to move on and try new things and venture out.”

He continued, “He’s doing a great job developing Baby Keem. It’s always been there, but now it’s just time and space where he can actually do it. It’s a beautiful thing to watch because that’s something that started with what we built in the beginning. To see it blossom, it’s a full-circle moment.”

You can read Punch’s full interview with Mic, where he also discusses SZA, TDE as a whole, and more, here.

Nandi Bushell just might be one of the best drummers alive. Sure, this could definitely be an exaggeration, but given how young she is, and the number of rock stars she’s already collaborated with — Foo Fighters, Tom Morello and Arctic Monkeys to name a few — this assertion doesn’t feel too far-fetched. I mean, she even beat Dave Grohl in the faceoff that initially put the then ten-year-old Bushell on the map.

Speaking of maps, Bushell is a British girl herself, which means she’s got a special affinity for one of the country’s biggest pop stars — none other than Ed Sheeran. Since the British rock band Bring Me The Horizon recently decided to turn Ed’s latest jittery EDM single, “Bad Habits,” into a rocked out scream smash at the BRIT Awards, Bushell got a lot more interested in the song. Apparently, Ed and BMTH are going to be doing more work together, as he’s keen to get a bit more into their deathcore/metalcore sound, and maybe they’re down to go a little pop?

Anyway, inspired by the BMTH version of things, Bushell recorded herself adding some drum fills to the scream version. “I am #LOVING the collaboration between @edsheeran and @bmthofficial!” she wrote on Twitter. “Ed is a local #hero in #ipswich where I live! When I heard one of my favourite bands #BMTH, was collaborating with my local hero, I had to give their tune a go! #BadHabits #EdSheeran @olobersyko end scream.” Her enthusiasm is matched only by her playing, check out a clip of the Nandi x BMTH x Ed version below.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Avril Lavigne is going through a serious career resurgence. Following up her epic new single “Bite Me,” she’s prepping her new album, Love Sux, which is out next week, and shared another new collaboration with Black Bear, “Love It When You Hate Me.” But that’s not all this early pop-punk star has going on. Her breakout hit, “Sk8er Boi” had such staying cultural power that the ultimate Sk8er Boi Tony Hawk himself still wants to be involved with it, and there’s even a movie based on the song reportedly in the works.

However, that might all be about to pale in comparison to the power of the latest cultural force to get involved with “Sk8er Boi,” and that, my friends, is K-Pop. Pop-punk might be having a lovely resurgence, but K-Pop is basically the reigning force from here on out in the pop world. So when a member of the K-Pop group Tomorrow X Together, Hueningkai, decided to drop a pitch perfect cover of the song, all bets were suddenly off. For her part, Avril loved the cover of her hit, and thought Hueningkai did a great job. “Amazing cover!” she wrote on Twitter today, along with sharing the band’s tweet of their member’s new version.

Check out the new version up top, and maybe take a trip down memory lane and revisit the original below?

Following up the hip-hop extravaganza that was this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, another superstar crew got together for a second major sports event. Basketball fans don’t have to wait long after the biggest football game of the year is over to get their own fix, as the NBA’s annual All-Star weekend usually comes right after. And though this might be the first time the Super Bowl has ever fully embraced rap, that’s not the case for the NBA at all. The league has a much better relationship with hip-hop artists than the NFL has in recent history, so it’s no surprise that they booked a packed stage for 2022.

DJ Khaled returned for a third time to orchestrate the whole medley of performers, occasionally overstepping his bounds as an overeager hype man, and helped ring in sets from Lil Wayne, Lil Baby, Gunna, Ludacris, Migos, and even Mary J. Blige herself, who was the only performer involved in both of these massive sporting events. If that doesn’t cement her legendary status, at this point, I don’t know what will. Check out the whole performance above and get more of Uproxx’s NBA All-Star weekend coverage by following along with Dime Magazine.

In the lead-up to the dunk contest at the 2022 NBA All-Star weekend, Obi Toppin told Dime his plan of attack: “You got to get in tune with the crowd, and I feel like with the dunks that I have I feel like I’m going to do that.” While the competition was rather underwhelming from top to bottom, Toppin easily put on the best show. As a result, the New York Knicks big man outlasted Juan Toscano-Anderson, Cole Anthony, and Jalen Green to win this year’s competition.

Rounds 1 and 2

Jalen Green: 38, 45 (83 total)

The No. 2 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft ran over to Rockets teammate Josh Chrisopher and pulled out a chain with a phone playing an NFT of his own highlights prior to his first attempt. After running it over to a judge, Green headed to the baseline and struggled to figure out a dunk that would work. Ultimately, Green caught a lob from Christopher and threw down a windmill, but because of his numerous struggles to figure out a dunk, Green got a 38.

Green led off the second round of dunks with a bang, doing a 360 and going between the legs with his seemingly effortless bounce for a 45.

Cole Anthony: 40, 30 (70 total)

Anthony’s father, former NBA player Greg Anthony, came out with a bag prior to his first dunk. Anthony pulled out a pair of Timbs, took off his warm-ups, revealed he wore his father’s old Knicks jersey, and laced up his kicks. While his father held a ball and after a few run-ups to get his bearings about him, Anthony ran up, grabbed the ball out of his hands, and threw down a windmill for a 40.

https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1495237461642862593

Anthony’s second attempt lacked the theatrics of his first dunk, opting to go on his own in a regular pair of sneakers. It very, very nearly paid off with one of the dunks of the night — Anthony threw himself a lob, tried to grab it with one hand while doing a 360, and throw it down. He struck out on all three attempts, though, and got a minimum 30 for his efforts.

Juan Toscano-Anderson: 44, 43 (87 total)

JTA needed a quick wardrobe change before his first dunk, as he threw on a Warriors uni featuring the colors of the Mexican flag — he was the first player of Mexican descent to ever compete in the competition. After getting a red, white, and blue ABA ball autographed by Julius Erving and grabbing Andrew Wiggins out of the crowd, Toscano-Anderson used his left hand to lift himself up over Wiggins while doing a one-handed windmill with his right, earning him a 44.

Toscano-Anderson kept the green, red, and white Warriors jersey on for dunk number two and got right down to business. Because he went third and didn’t need anything spectacular to get into the final ahead of Anthony and Green, JTA went with a 360 windmill for a 43.

Obi Toppin: 44, 46 (90 total)

Toppin missed his first attempt on his first dunk, but for good reason: The degree of difficulty was awfully high. The Knicks big man pulled someone from out of the crowd and ran in from midcourt, jumping over them while going behind the back and dunking with one hand for a 44.

Toppin needed a 39 to avoid elimination as the final dunker of the round, but didn’t opt for something conservative. The Knicks big man threw the ball of the backboard, caught it, went between the legs, and threw down a reverse with two hands for a 46 and a spot in the final round.

Final Round

Toscano-Anderson led things off in the finals but didn’t appear to get what he wanted. As a result, he threw down a pretty standard windmill for a 39.

Prior to his first dunk in the round, Toppin stressed that everyone had to watch the replay of what he was about to do. His first two attempts at something spectacular — a between the legs dunk where he tapped the ball off the backboard with one hand before dunking — didn’t quite work, but his backup was a pretty spectacular save, as he went off the backboard and between the legs for a 45.

Toscano-Anderson decided to end his evening paying tribute to Warriors legend and former dunk contest champion Jason Richardson by tossing on a throwback J-Rich jersey. He took up shop on the baseline and threw himself a lob, trying to catch it off the bounce, go between the legs, and dunk it backwards. Unfortunately, JTA was unable to convert and got a 30 as a result for a 69 on the round.

While he mathematically had things wrapped up heading into his final dunk, Toppin still went for something big. He did the dump he tried to do on his final attempt, getting a 47, a 92 on the round, and the title of dunk contest champ.

Ultimately, it’s hard to heap too much praise onto this competition — there were a whole lot of missed dunks that, in fairness, stemmed from over-ambition that never quite came to fruition. Still, Toppin was the unquestioned best dunker of the bunch, and will take the title of dunk contest champ with him back to New York.