Month: March 2022

This past week, we have seen what courageous, compassionate leadership looks like in the incredible response of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy was given the opportunity to evacuate under U.S. protection and he chose instead to stay in Ukraine and fight for his country, saying “I need ammunition, not a ride.” He delivered an emotional appeal to the Russian people, calling on them to recognize that ordinary people—both Russian and Ukrainian—will be the ones to suffer if Russia wages war. He and his leadership team have shared messages from the streets of Kyiv, reassuring his fellow Ukrainians that they will continue to fight alongside them.

Absolutely heart shattering.Ukraineu2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officials, standing strong in Kyiv, recording the words: u201cWe are here. We are in Kyiv. We are defending Ukraine!” #UkraineRussiapic.twitter.com/ekTNPrQVSN

— Dr. Jennifer Cassidy ud83cuddfaud83cudde6 (@Dr. Jennifer Cassidy ud83cuddfaud83cudde6)
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The calm, courage and resolve Zelenskyy has demonstrated has captured the hearts of freedom-loving people around the world. His words have also moved interpreters to tears as he calls upon the humanity in all of us in supporting Ukraine against Russia’s attacks.

Zelenskyy addressed the European parliament today, explaining the current situation in Ukraine, where cruise missiles hit Freedom Square in Kharkiv and cities are all blocked. You can hear the interpreter fighting back tears as he translates the president’s message that they are fighting for their land and their freedom.

Wow, I’ve never heard a translator for a head of state get choked up like this. nnThe emotion is clear, in both word and delivery:nn”Nobody is going to break us. We’re strong. We’re Ukrainians. We have a desire to see our children alive. I think it’s a fair one.”pic.twitter.com/fMPinmIRmY

— Nora Neus (@Nora Neus)
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Once again, Zelenskyy’s words were powerful: “Nobody is going to break us. We’re strong. We’re Ukrainians. We have a desire to see our children alive. I think it’s a fair one.”

Zelenskyy’s speech was received with a standing ovation from the members of the European Parliament.

The interpreter’s emotional reaction was shared by another Ukrainian interpreter a few days ago. As she attempted to translate Zelenksyy’s speech live on German TV, the interpreter burst into tears and couldn’t continue.

The translator of the German newspaper Welt burst into tears while translating Zelensky’s latest video message.pic.twitter.com/KT9HUyKZMy

— KyivPost (@KyivPost)
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She shared what happened on Twitter, writing, “I’m a conference interpreter, I interpret 10 hrs peace talks. But today live on German TV I couldn’t finish interpreting Zelensky, during his last words I broke into tears.”

“I love you all, my fellow Ukrainians,” she added.

I’m a conference interpreter, I interprepret 10 hrs peace talks. But today live on German TV I couldn’t finish interpreting Zelensky, during his last words I broke into tears.nnI love you all, my fellow Ukrainianshttps://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1497850848185040897u00a0u2026

— Die Welt u00dcbersetzerin ud83cudf3b (@Die Welt u00dcbersetzerin ud83cudf3b)
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By showing he won’t back down and by calling on people’s common humanity, Zelenskyy has moved and inspired the free world and rallied allies behind him around the globe. Even Switzerland, which has famously remained neutral in conflicts, has taken its side and sanctioned Russia for the invasion.

Whatever the political outcome, President Zelenskyy has given the world a hero to root for and won over the hearts of people in a way that authoritarian dictators will never be able to.

Zelenskyy’s full speech to the European Parliament is worth a watch:

Dave Grohl has made it clear he’s a major Billie Eilish fan. In 2019, for example, he praised the connection she has with her audience and said, “When I look at someone like Billie Eilish, I’m like… sh*t man…. rock n roll is not even close to being dead…’” Now, even three years later, he’s still got Eilish on the brain.

In a new interview with The Independent, he discussed the state of rock music, saying:

“Well, I think you have to define ‘relevant.’ It’s hard for us to say that rock and roll is in a rough patch, because we get up on stage and there’ll be thousands of people f*cking going bananas and singing along to our songs. I can understand how it’s a different game nowadays for younger bands. There’s a lot of great young bands that are f*cking killing it and have devoted fan bases. They might not be as popular as Nicki Minaj, but honestly, when I see f*cking Billie Eilish, that’s rock and roll to me. She started a revolution and took over the world.”

Aside from Eilish, he’s also big on Wet Leg and specifically their song “Chaise Longue,” saying, “Wet Leg are about to take over America. I really do dig them. A friend of mine turned me on to them about six or seven months ago and I couldn’t get [‘Chaise Longue’] out of my head. Sometimes we’ll hang out at a friend’s house and just dance until four o’clock in the morning, and we’ll play ‘Chaise Longue’ on repeat, like over and over and over and over and over again.”

Check out the full interview here.

As far as I know, Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin can do no wrong. They’re best known for Netflix’s I Think You Should Leave, one of the funniest shows of the past 20 years (and ever???), but the duo also created Comedy Central’s much-beloved Detroiters with Sam Richardson, wrote the bowling episode of Documentary Now, and without them, there would be no “Bugs” sketch on SNL. For their latest cosmic gumbo collaboration, Robinson and Kanin on working on a pilot for HBO Max.

Variety reports that Computer School is about a “recent high school grad and his uncle [who] attend the same computer class in suburban Michigan. Robinson will star as the uncle. Robinson and Kanin are writing and executive producing the pilot. Andrew Gaynord will direct.” The series hasn’t been officially picked up it and there’s no other information available, including what it means for a potential third season of I Think You Should Leave, but a new Robinson and Kanin project? Give me that.

Kanin and Robinson originally met when they were both writers for the long-running NBC sketch series Saturday Night Live. They were part of the writing team for the show in 2016 when it was nominated for the Emmy Award for best variety series.

Unlike Paul and cars, Robinson and Kanin do have good TV ideas.

(Via Variety)

Canada’s Hannah Judge turned in a terrific little Fanclubwallet EP last year with Hurt Is Boring, and now she’s gearing up for a full-blown album: Today brings the news that You Have Got To Be Kidding Me is set to drop on May 20, as well as a new single, “Gr8 Timing!.” The song aligns with her groovy bedroom pop aesthetic and it even comes with a delightful video shot at a trampoline park and in a foam cube pit.

Judge says of the song, “Even people that everyone thinks are really nice can be mean too. Everyone has a mean streak!” Of the album more broadly, she notes, “I think I spend a lot of time trying to be like the cool, chill, calm girl. This album’s kind of me being like, maybe I’m not cool, calm, and collected.”

Watch the “Gr8 Timing!” video above and find the You Have Got To Be Kidding Me tracklist and Fanclubwallet’s upcoming tour dates below.

1. “Solid Ground”
2. “Gr8 Timing!”
3. “Fell Through”
4. “Toast”
5. “Trying To Be Nice”
6. “55”
7. “Go Out”
8. “That I Won’t Do”
9. “National TV”
10. “Coming Over”
11. “Jar”
12. “You Have Got To Be Kidding Me”

03/16 — Austin, TX @ Swan Dive — POP Montreal (SXSW)
03/18 — Austin, TX @ Austin, TX @ Swan Dive Patio – The Line Of Best Fit (SXSW)
03/24 — New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge *
03/25 — Washington, DC @ DC9 *
03/26 — Boston, MA @ Café 939 *
03/30 — Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen *
06/17 — Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co ^
06/18 — Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room & Garage ^
06/19 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall – Upstairs ^
06/21 — Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade – Purgatory ^
06/22 — Nashville, TN @ The Basement East ^
06/24 — Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups ^
06/25 — Detroit, MI @ El Club ^
06/27 — Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground ^

* with Thomas Headon
^ with Penelope Scott & Yot Club

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me is out 5/20 via AWAL. Pre-order it here.

Fresh off the Euphoria Season 2 finale — which apparently put up some serious Game of Thrones numbers — actress Sydney Sweeney is reportedly engaged. On Monday morning, she was spotted wearing (via TMZ) what appears to be a very huge diamond engagement ring. As for who it’s from, well, Sweeney has been highly secretive about her relationship to Jonathan Davino, but that hasn’t stopped the two from being photographed several times together. From TMZ:

It’s the first time Sydney’s been seen with the diamond ring, she’s continuously remained mum on her relationship with her likely new fiancé — Jonathan Davino. Davino’s family owns 14th Round and Finalbell … a device technology and packaging company. The couple reportedly started dating back in 2018 — though Sydney’s never confirmed their relationship — but they’ve been linked and were even photographed together last summer smooching on a yacht.

The potential engagement kicks off a big year for Sweeney, who’s been earning praise for not just her work on Euphoria but also on The White Lotus. In a recent interview, Sweeney revealed that a casting director once told her she’d never make it television followed by a friend’s mother saying no boy would ever love her. (Yikes.) Clearly, Sweeney proved both of them wrong.

“I’m a very active person,” Sweeney told British GQ. “I get hurt. I get bruises. I get cuts. I think I came back from laser tag, and I had rug burns all over my legs because I got really into it. And she sat me up on the counter and told me that no boy will ever love me if I have marks on my body. I told her, well, I guess I’m just gonna have to love myself.”

(Via TMZ)

Kim Kardashian wants to divorce Kanye West, but Kanye West doesn’t want to divorce Kim Kardashian. That’s the power struggle at the center of their current frustrations in the ongoing case. With a hearing scheduled tomorrow, Kanye is making one last bid to preserve at least their married status, if not their relationship, by trying to exploit a loophole in California law regarding the couple’s prenuptial agreement. TMZ reports that Kanye’s lawyers have filed documents claiming that such agreements signed after 2002 are invalid.

However, according to TMZ, the loophole Kanye’s lawyers want to use only applies if one of the signed parties challenges it, which Kanye has never done. To do so, he would need to prove that it was either “unconscionable” or that he agreed to it involuntarily — and neither course would seem to be viable, as Kanye and Kim’s assets have remained separate throughout their marriage and both would retain their own fortunes if they returned to single status. Of course, Kanye and his lawyers may not be seeing eye-to-eye, since Kim revealed in the course of their back-and-forth that the rapper has changed lawyers three times, while refusing to come to the table to negotiate.

Kanye apparently still believes that there’s a chance to make it work, despite Kim’s multiple statements to the contrary and his own actions, which have seemed to push her away more than anything else. After Wednesday, though, it could very well be over, although the two will still co-parent their four children, with the couple living in the same neighborhood.

1883 star Sam Elliott paid a visit to the WTF With Marc Maron podcast, and let’s just say that he’s not rooting for Jane Campion’s Netflix Western psychological drama to win any Oscars. The film scored several nominations, but Elliott is most decidedly a fan and told Maron that the film is a “piece of sh*t” because characters wore “bow ties and not much else,” and “[t]here’s all these allusions of homosexuality throughout the f*cking movie.”

Elliott had other criticisms, too, about how Cumberbatch’s sinister (and repressed, and rather miserable) character, Phil, would “play his banjo” too much, and “what the f*ck”? Hmm well, Netflix has noticed what Elliott said, and the streaming service curiously tweeted a screencap from the movie that feels a lot like a response. Since the Netflix film account doesn’t mention Elliott, however, one can witness the shade.

“He’s just a man,” Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) can be seen saying to a shaken Rose (Kirsten Dunst). “Only another man.”

This line embodies much of the film’s critique against toxic masculinity, a point that Elliott doesn’t seem to appreciate. Phil terrorized the hell out of Rose, and Peter had vowed to protect his mother no matter what. This led to (despite Phil warming to Peter later in the movie) the young man’s decision to (apparently) give Phil rope tainted with the anthrax bacteria, so that he could never cruelly attack and endanger Rose again. It’s a bold move and an equally powerful message from the film, which reflects heavily upon sexuality and identity.

The Power of the Dog is currently streaming on Netflix, although you won’t see it in Sam Elliott’s queue.

In 2021, Feist debuted Multitudes, an intimate, immersive performance of new songs in Canada and in Hamburg, Germany. Now she’ll be bringing the series to the US for the first time with a recent announcement of shows beginning in the Western states.

Comprised entirely of new songs, here’s hoping it fits into an upcoming new album, as Feist’s last release was 2017’s Pleasure. For Multitudes, she has teamed up with David Byrne’s American Utopia designer Rob Sinclair for a full surround sound experience that promises to envelop the audience within the Canadian singer’s exquisite music. A press release for the performances describes it as such:

“Featuring all new music written and performed by Feist and accompanied by Todd Dahlhoff and Amir Yaghmai, the Canadian artist creates an intimate, radically communal, and topsy-turvy production that muddies the roles between audience and performer, observer and its subject. We are welcomed to sit back and watch, or raise our voices in collective anonymity. Anything goes.”

Tickets for Multitudes will go on sale Friday, March 4th at 10 a.m. local time here. Check out the full Multitudes tour dates below.

04/22 – Denver, CO @ The Buell Theatre
04/23 – Denver, CO @ The Buell Theatre
04/26 – Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Auditorium
04/27 – Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Auditorium
04/30 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
05/01 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
05/05 – Palo Alto, CA @ Stanford Memorial Auditorium
05/06 – Palo Alto, CA @ Stanford Memorial Auditorium
05/07 – Palo Alto, CA @ Stanford Memorial Auditorium

Ahead of the release of her upcoming fifth album, Crash, Charli XCX has released the video for “Baby.” “Baby” follows the release of her rock-influenced track “Good Ones” and the Rina Sawayama-assisted “Beg For You,” which features a prominent sample of September’s “Cry For You.”

The chorus of “Baby” features XCX’s signature yell-singing on the chorus, catchily proclaiming, “I’ma make you my, I’ma make you my, I’ma make you my, I’ma make you my baby.”

In the song’s video, directed by Imogene Strauss and Luke Orlando, XCX is seen in lingerie rising from a bed, before being joined by two dancers. The three then perform an energetic, elaborate dance routine in the room.

On the upcoming album, Charli XCX takes a slight departure from her hyperpop sounds in favor of ’80s-inspired pop and rock. She also incorporates darker themes, inspired by demons and witchcraft.

“I was able to possess and persuade an incredible group of producers and collaborators to contribute to Crash by using my femme fatale powers and a multitude of dark spells and curses,” XCX said in a statement. “Some of these include A. G. Cook, George Daniel, Deaton Chris Anthony, Lotus IV, Caroline Polachek, Christine and the Queens, Oscar Holter, Digital Farm Animals, Rina Sawayama, Ian Kirkpatrick, Jason Evigan, Justin Raisen, Ariel Rechtshaid, Ilya, Oneohtrix Point Never, Jon Shave, and Mike Wise. They will all remain locked in my basement forever.”

Check out “Baby” above.

Crash is out 3/18 via Atlantic Records. Pre-save it here.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

To promote just-released new book, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama, Bob Odenkirk stopped by The View on Tuesday where he fielded questions about his decades-long comedy career, which included working with Chris Farley while the two were just starting out doing live sketches for Second City. The two eventually moved onto Saturday Night Live where Odenkirk helped create the classic sketch where Farley plays motivational speaker Matt Foley who “lives in a van down by the river.”

Thirty years later, the SNL sketch still left the ladies of The View dying with laughter, but when asked what was it like working with Farley, Odenkirk said nothing could beat their time together at Second City:

“There was nothing more fun than being on stage with him — or backstage. My daughter asked me the best time I had in show business, and I said doing that sketch with Chris every night on Second City. He wouldn’t stop until he made every performer laugh. He made the audience laugh right away. But he would grind you with his performance, and you couldn’t help it. It was pure joy.”

Of course, it shouldn’t a surprise that Odenkirk has fond memories of their pre-SNL days. In an excerpt from his book reported by the New York Post, Odenkirk revealed that he hated the now-classic sketch where Farley auditions to be a Chippendales dancer next to Patrick Swayze. The sketch would turn Farley into a comedy superstar, but Odenkirk never cared for the wrong lesson it taught his late friend.

“I know it confirmed Chris’s worst instincts about being funny, which was how he proved his worth — that getting laughed at was as good as getting a laugh,” Odenkirk wrote. “F*ck that sketch.”

(Via The View)