Month: March 2022

While even Donald Trump seems to have largely backed away from his once-vociferous claims about the 2020 presidential election being stolen from him, the former president’s “gang of weirdos,” as Seth Meyers calls them, just won’t let it go. Chief among these dissenters is MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell, who just this weekend was attending/lurking about a Trump rally in South Carolina and sharing his batsh*t conspiracy theories with anyone who was dumb enough to listen.

On Monday night, Meyers shared a clip of Lindell from the event, where he was yelling about the 1.5 million votes that he claims “were stoled” (his word) from Trump in California. Though he had asked the presumably small crowd gathered around him to guess which state was the most corrupt when it came to the most recent election, he clearly forget the rules of The Guessing Game, because he launched right into what sounded like an ear-piercing version of “Fifty Nifty United States” when he shouted out “the list of states that Donald Trump won for sure.” According to Lindell, those states include: “Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, umm, Georgia… Arizona, and Nevada. We don’t know about, he might have won Maine, he might have won Colorado, there’s four others in question.” That’s a lot of states, as Meyers pointed out, while whipping out his hilariously spot-on Lindell impersonation:

Are there any states Trump didn’t win? ‘He won Wisconsin, Pennsyldonia, Old Jersey, New Jack City, Arrakis, Endor, Xanadu, and the one that has the flag with THA bear!’

Also, if you’re going to ask people to guess something, give them a second to answer first. The guy didn’t get the microphone back to his mouth before you yelled it out.”

You can watch the full clip above.

The pandemic’s led movies to an odd place, to say the very least, with some not-so-great records being broken. That would include the Jared Leto-starring Morbius, which managed to land a dubious record that no film would want to see. On the other hand, the Tom Cruise-starring Top Gun: Maverick has seen a few delays as well (the original release date was in June 2020), but the flick’s flying high no matter what. In fact, this “Need For Speed”-bound movie has already determined to do something that no Cruise movie has done in three decades.

As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the sequel to the 1986 action picture will head to the prestigious Cannes film festival this may. This marks exactly 30 years since Far and Away (co-starring Cruise’s now-ex-wife, Nicole Kidman) did so under the direction of Ron Howard. The festival begins this year on May 17, and there’s no word on whether this tentpole film would actually enter the competition or simply bow there with a splashy debut (with the Iceman in tow, natch), but it will nonetheless be an event. This won’t, however, be the actual debut of the movie. Via THR:

Cruise is considered one of Hollywood’s most relentless promoters, and never shies away from publicity. Cannes would be an obvious place for the actor to show off his new film. And Cruise’s appearance would benefit the two-week fest as it emerges from the pandemic.

Cannes, however, would not serve as Top Gun: Maverick‘s world premiere. That event has long been planned to be held in San Diego, where the first film was set.

Tom Cruise is coming to Cannes, which means that movies will officially be back, baby. This might help make up for all the disappointments that he’s endured with the Mission: Impossible 7 delays, perhaps? Actually, that’s still gotta feel like a gut punch.

Top Gun: Maverick arrives in U.S. theaters on May 27.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Britney Spears’ Instagram followers got an eyeful yesterday when Spears shared a close-up photo of her breasts (concealed by a bra instead of her hands like last time). The post wasn’t just an opportunity to show off some skin, though, as Spears used the photo to introduce some thoughts on breastfeeding, womanhood, and what her father Jamie told her on the first day of her conservatorship.

Spears started her lengthy post with a story about how much milk she produced while breastfeeding, which transitioned into her writing about how she got to hold a baby in Maui, an experience that brought her back to her days of early motherhood.

That got her to addressing her father, saying:

“I think beneath it all women have a ground breaking way of knowing when it comes to babies … but kids … now that gets tricky … I mean TRICKS ARE FOR KIDS !!! You know when they become clever little sh*ts … I actually think my dad always played the kid as his role … I mean the first day my dad became my conservator I will never forget !!! He said sit down in that chair … we’re going to have a talk … He said ‘I’m Britney Spears and I call the shots from now on’ and ever since that day I felt a huge part of my womanhood stripped from me … I was never the same … but oh geez !!!! 13 years later and I say damn I got through it !!!!”

She added later in the post, “I mean if someone asks me … if I told you when you were 17 that 9 years from now your dad is going to take over your whole career if you do this record … What the hell do you think would have said ???? Not NO BUT HELL NO !!! Everything happens for a reason … I’m not so sure about that.”

Find Spears’ post below.

“Okay … so I breast fed my 2 boys … like a freaking milk factory !!! I had literally 6 full bottles pumped out and ready to go at all times beside me as I was breast feeding because I never wanted my babies to go hungry !!! I was always spraying out and leaking because I was so full of milk and it kind of hurt my boobs !!! They got so full so I was like ‘hey I will make a milk factory in my living room’ and guess what . .. I did !!! I had my breast milk in literally 12 bottles at one point !!! Anyways I was in Maui and this new mom let me hold her 2 month old baby !!! I was extremely surprised because she was so small!!!! I held the baby for an hour as we talked and I guess as women our bodies hold memory because it was like my back came out and instinctive came back … it was immediate !!!

I had my boys back to back so I remember how strong my back had to be holding them when at one point I had 40 cars of paps on my tail !!! The strength you can hold is unbelievable when you are a mom !!! Four years after my children were born I was on tour changing in my quick change room and milk started coming out of my breast !!! Like a lot … I couldn’t understand because there were no babies nearby and usually if that happens which is extremely rare it’s because your body connects to another human being …

Anyways … the baby I held was so adorable and she tried to talk to me by mouthing words but there was no sound !!! I think beneath it all women have a ground breaking way of knowing when it comes to babies … but kids … now that gets tricky … I mean TRICKS ARE FOR KIDS !!! You know when they become clever little sh*ts … I actually think my dad always played the kid as his role … I mean the first day my dad became my conservator I will never forget !!! He said sit down in that chair … we’re going to have a talk … He said ‘I’m Britney Spears and I call the shots from now on’ and ever since that day I felt a huge part of my womanhood stripped from me … I was never the same … but oh geez !!!! 13 years later and I say damn I got through it !!!! I miss the deep angst of living in secret though .. I was so alive !!!!

Anyways … as time goes by and I look at my body … I still have the same boobs but a little bit wiser now !!! So call it what you want … happy, glad, mad, ugly, pretty, bad, good … They are all just motherf*cking words … here I am doing just that but it’s to make sense out of something I mean if someone asks me … if I told you when you were 17 that 9 years from now your dad is going to take over your whole career if you do this record … What the hell do you think would have said ???? Not NO BUT HELL NO !!!

Everything happens for a reason … I’m not so sure about that … what game do you play where you don’t use words ??? A game of chess & as in CHEST !!!! It’s a man’s game !!! Pretty hard right ??? What women dare to threaten a man’s world !!! Lol so funny right … Just words … if you check out my chest it could kind of pass for a baby’s ass so go ahead and kiss it … while you’re at it, don’t forget I’m a b*tch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother, I’m a sinner, I’m a saint, I do not feel ashamed, I’m your hell, I’m your dream, I’m nothing in between … I know you wouldn’t want it any other way …. Who wants to play ??? What’s your name ??? Where are we going ??? Where are you from ??? Let’s go !!! Oh and F*CK YOU TOO !!! Pssss TAKE ME BACK LOL ????? LOL – It’s more like F*CK YOU UNTIL THE DAY I DIE !!!!”

LeBron James is not having an awful lot of fun playing basketball right now. The Lakers are currently on pace to finish with the worst record a LeBron-led team has ever had — both his rookie-year Cavs and first-year Lakers went 37-45, which would require a 8-6 close to this season for L.A. to match that, which seems unlikely — and the losing seems to be taking its toll on James.

LeBron has managed to remain fairly calm on the court this season, but after getting blown out on Sunday night in Phoenix, the Lakers came home on Monday and got smacked once again by the Toronto Raptors, trailing 33-12 after the first quarter. Things didn’t get much better as the game wore on for the Lakers, as their deficit hovered around 20 for most of the night, and a second straight night in which his team wasn’t competitive seemed to finally be showing its effect on LeBron. First, there was this outburst in the second quarter after the Raptors got fouled after an offensive rebound in which he lit into his teammates for failing to clear the glass.

Not long after, James was chasing down a long rebound and battling Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes — who had a big first half in L.A. with 17 points — and corralled it as he was headed out of bounds and Barnes was sliding on the floor behind him. As James wheeled around to throw it off Barnes to get L.A. possession, he seemed to put a little extra something behind it, launching it into poor Barnes on the floor.

You could see that Barnes popped up not exactly appreciating the velocity of James’ throw, and it’s hard to blame him for being less than thrilled to end up on the wrong end of James’ release of frustration.

Pusha T is currently preparing to release his fourth solo album It’s Not Dry Yet. While things have been going smoothly for him so far, thanks to the project’s lead single “Diet Coke,” Pusha and his brother No Malice are now dealing with a heavy loss in their lives. The rappers, who were once united as the rap duo Clipse, took to their respective Instagram pages to announce that their father Gene Elliott Thornton Sr. passed away over the weekend.

“I love you Dad…you taught me to remain poised, to always be calculated, to be prideful, and to respect hustle and hard work but to know the difference between the two,” Pusha T wrote on his Instagram post. “I am who I am because of you and I’ve always been proud to be your son. We are all gonna miss you… R.I.P. Gene Elliott Thornton Sr. P.S. We all know what this is abt, kiss my mom for me…[heart emoji].”

No Malice’s message to his late father was just as touching as his brother’s own. “You told me Psalm 34:19 was your favorite verse,” he wrote. “Right now, I clutch it with both hands. We all love you dad. You were everything a father is supposed to be. ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous: But the LORD delivereth him out of them ALL.’ Psalm‬ ‭34:19‬ ‭KJV‬‬ #TogetherAgain #Jesus #Salvation.”

Pusha T and No Malice’s messages come four months after their mother passed away. Pusha shared the news in a post back in November. “I love you Ma, thank you for sticking around to meet your grand baby,” he wrote at the time. “We all are gonna miss you. R.I.P.”

You can view the posts from Pusha T and No Malice above.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have been one of the best stories in the NBA this season, as the young Wolves have finally broken through into being a true playoff contender in the West for the first time since 2018.

On Monday night, Minnesota picked up its 40th win of the season (the team’s first 40-win campaign since 2018) against the Spurs and rode a truly sensational performance from their All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns to get there. In a high-scoring affair in San Antonio — the final score was 149-139 — Towns put up a new career-high with 60 points, which is also the highest-scoring game for any player this season, passing Trae Young and LeBron James’ tie at 56.

Towns did his damage inside and out on a highly efficient night, going 19-of-31 from the field, including 7-of-11 from three-point range, and 15-of-16 from the free throw line on the night, for a final stat line of 60 points, 17 rebounds, and three assists. Early on, Towns was in attack mode, getting downhill and forcing the Spurs bigs to respect his ability to get to the rim which started to open up the three point line as they sagged off of him to protect the paint.

The third quarter was when Towns really erupted, scoring 32 points in the quarter to push Minnesota into a comfortable lead and get him to 56 on the night with the fourth still to come, as San Antonio continually lost Towns at the top of the key, where the Three-Point Contest champ is at his best and lit the Spurs up on this night.

Towns played sparingly in the fourth but was inserted back into the game with a few minutes to go, sitting on 56 as his teammates fed him to try and get to 60. After splitting a pair of free throws, he hit that 60-point mark with a three-pointer that put the dagger in the Spurs (who had missed a three on the other end that would’ve cut the Minnesota lead to six and made things very interesting all of a sudden).

It was a tremendous performance for Towns who has been on a tear of late, as have the Timberwolves, winners of eight of their last nine to stay within a couple games of the 6-seed and the similarly red-hot Denver Nuggets. Towns joins Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson as the only centers since Wilt Chamberlain to score 60 points in a game, and on a night where the basketball world was locked into the MVP battle in Philly between Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, it was Towns who had the performance of the night among NBA big men.

Earlier today, Machine Gun Kelly revealed the cover art to his upcoming album Mainstream Sellout. The artwork features Kelly playing the guitar as pink tomatoes are being hurled at him. Some, including Rolling Stone, believed that the artwork was quite similar to Japanese Breakfast’s 2021 album Jubilee thanks to the presence of spherical fruit. That project helped give the band, which is led by singer Michelle Zauner, two nominations at the upcoming Grammy Awards, one for Best Alternative Music Album and another for Best New Artist. The fuss over the Mainstream Sellout and Jubilee covers earned enough of a reaction to warrant a response from Zauner, who was quite nonchalant about the whole ordeal.

“I don’t actually think it looks anything like my album cover at all,” Zauner said to Pitchfork. This came after she joked about the matter being “2022’s feud of the year” in a tweet. She added, “But I think it’s very funny that Rolling Stone put up an article about it just because there’s a circular fruit in the foreground.” She added, “I mean his is people throwing tomatoes at him, and mine is persimmons peacefully hanging around me, so I think they’re very different concepts.” Zauner called MGK’s pink tomatoes a “very contemporary Avril aesthetic,” adding, “Which, as much as I stan Avril, is an aesthetic I don’t really embrace for myself.”

Zauner continued, “I can’t imagine having rock beef with anyone, but if I had to choose, it would probably be Machine Gun Kelly.” She concluded her message with a nice dose of sarcasm. “I’m honored to have a celebrity feud published in Rolling Stone today, it was not something I had anticipated,” she said. “My manager actually was like, ‘I think you should lean into this. I think it’s so funny that I have to talk about it.’ I’m excited to see what clickbait you come up with. ‘Japanese Breakfast Slams Machine Gun Kelly!’”

You can check out the cover arts and see what the hubbub was about in the posts above.

Earlier today, Machine Gun Kelly revealed the cover art to his upcoming album Mainstream Sellout. The artwork features Kelly playing the guitar as pink tomatoes are being hurled at him. Some, including Rolling Stone, believed that the artwork was quite similar to Japanese Breakfast’s 2021 album Jubilee thanks to the presence of spherical fruit. That project helped give the band, which is led by singer Michelle Zauner, two nominations at the upcoming Grammy Awards, one for Best Alternative Music Album and another for Best New Artist. The fuss over the Mainstream Sellout and Jubilee covers earned enough of a reaction to warrant a response from Zauner, who was quite nonchalant about the whole ordeal.

“I don’t actually think it looks anything like my album cover at all,” Zauner said to Pitchfork. This came after she joked about the matter being “2022’s feud of the year” in a tweet. She added, “But I think it’s very funny that Rolling Stone put up an article about it just because there’s a circular fruit in the foreground.” She added, “I mean his is people throwing tomatoes at him, and mine is persimmons peacefully hanging around me, so I think they’re very different concepts.” Zauner called MGK’s pink tomatoes a “very contemporary Avril aesthetic,” adding, “Which, as much as I stan Avril, is an aesthetic I don’t really embrace for myself.”

Zauner continued, “I can’t imagine having rock beef with anyone, but if I had to choose, it would probably be Machine Gun Kelly.” She concluded her message with a nice dose of sarcasm. “I’m honored to have a celebrity feud published in Rolling Stone today, it was not something I had anticipated,” she said. “My manager actually was like, ‘I think you should lean into this. I think it’s so funny that I have to talk about it.’ I’m excited to see what clickbait you come up with. ‘Japanese Breakfast Slams Machine Gun Kelly!’”

You can check out the cover arts and see what the hubbub was about in the posts above.

As vinyl sales just reached record highs, the issue of vinyl pressing plant shortages is coming to a head. Yes, the prevailing thinking is that the demand for vinyl from pop stars like Taylor Swift and Adele is responsible for the nearly year-long waits for vinyl records to be pressed for smaller (often independent) artists, but no, they are not the reason why these delays exist. Jack White, who owns his own Third Man Records pressing plant in Detroit, has just issued a pointed call to action to the major labels.

“It’s no longer a fad,” White said in a minute-long video message from his Detroit facility posted earlier today. “Vinyl records have exploded in the past decade and the demand is incredibly high. He cites how “a small punk band can’t get their record for 8-10 months,” and then issues one final call out to the majors: “I now ask the major labels, Warner Brothers [sic], Universal, and Sony, to finally build your own pressing plants again. As the MC 5 once said, you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. Thank you.”

He also issued a written statement with more details and clarification, which you can read below. Watch White’s briefer video message above.

“At least once a week, without fail, someone will reach out asking me to help expedite their vinyl record manufacturing. It’s a natural thought… knowing that I own a pressing plant and have my own record label, “if anyone could help, it’s this guy!”

With industry-wide turnaround times for vinyl currently leaning towards the length of a human pregnancy, it’s obvious, in a world so contingent on being of-the-moment and timed just right (a single, an album, a tour etc.), these timelines are the killers of momentum, soul, artistic expression, and far too often, livelihoods.

I’ve done everything within my power to help. Third Man Records began a concentrated focus on vinyl in 2009 with hopes of exposing its wider potential to the farthest reaches of the music industry. In 2017 I furthered my commitment by opening Third Man Pressing… a plant which has always been open to anyone and everyone who walks in the door and wants to press a record, from bedroom hip hop artists to field recording documentarians. And in the last year, I’ve doubled down and invested in even more record presses, more employees to run them, and more shifts to try and accommodate the insane growing demand for vinyl product.

There are people who will say – isn’t this good for Third Man? More demand than you can handle? To which I say, even though Third Man benefits in the short term, in the long term it ultimately hurts everyone involved in the vinyl ecosystem given the bottlenecks and delays. Something needs to be done.

While the entirety of vinyl investment and framework in the past decade has originated from independent companies and investors, the bigger problems we now see require major solutions.

In this spirit, I turn to our collegial big brothers in the music world, Sony, Universal, and Warner, and politely implore them to help alleviate this unfortunate backlog and start dedicating resources to build pressing plants themselves.

To be clear, the issue is not big labels versus small labels, it’s not independent versus mainstream, it’s not even punk versus pop. The issue is, simply, we have ALL created an environment where the unprecedented demand for vinyl records cannot keep up with the rudimentary supply of them.

Across the globe, there are now a handful of NEW companies, building both automated and manual vinyl presses. It’s easier to purchase a vinyl press now than it has been in four decades. And with more ancillary innovators popping up every day helping advance every facet of the industry, this isn’t a difficult decision to make. It’s a no-brainer.

We’re all on the same team with the same goals. I truly believe that with a good faith investment in the infrastructure that got us here, we can continue on this upward trajectory and further inspire the worlds around us. Now is the time. Thank you.

jack white
III”

Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Donald Trump Jr. is no stranger to unhinged videos. Sometimes they’re recorded in dimly lit hotel rooms in what looks like the middle of the night. Some are more coherent than others. His latest seems to be a little more together than most. It was shot outside, during a sunny day, possibly at Mar-a-Lago, the resort where his former president father now lives. Speaking of, it was of course about his dad, and the latest indignity heaped upon him, and it still made little sense.

What was Don Jr. mad about now? His father having a video removed from YouTube. As per Yahoo! Finance, the video streamer pulled an interview he’d done with the Full Send Podcast, run by the Canadian prank group the NELK Boys. They talked about a lot: Ukraine, showtunes, golf. He also, of course, rambled about voter fraud lies, as he’s wont to do. As such, YouTube removed the video after 24 hours, prompting one of his apoplectic fits. “This is what they do in Russia,” he stormed.

A couple days later it was Don Jr.’s turn. In a video posted on Rumble, the far right-friendly service, he speculated wildly about YouTube’s reasons for removing the video.

“There was nothing really controversial spoken about in this thing,” Don Jr. said about a video featuring his dad spreading misinformation about the 2020 election. “What’s scarier for the big tech overlords is the comments on it were awesome and that’s what they’re scared about,” he postulated. “The comments on this thing were overwhelmingly positive, which doesn’t happen on big tech or social or anything like that.”

He also claimed the interview showed a more down-to-earth version of his pops. “People saw my father in a different light. They saw him the way that I see him on a daily basis,” Don Jr. said. “A different demographic was able to see him in a way that they got and understood and said, ‘Wait a minute, I had no idea.’ Because they’ve been spoonfed a narrative by big tech, by media, everything that they haven’t been able to get over or get passed or see through.

“So that scared them most and that’s why the interview disappeared like that!” he said.

Don Jr. also said some word salad about…something. “The conspiracy theory between truth — the time keeps shrinking, guys,” he railed. “It used to take six months for a conspiracy theory to turn into the truth then six weeks then six days. Now it’s about six hours. OK? Pretty soon it will be about six minutes.”

Well, at least he got some UV rays.

(Via Yahoo! Finance and Raw Story)