Month: March 2022

From his “Turbo Radio” merch collection, to touring with hip-hop collective Brockhampton, and even collaborating with indie slacker rock legend Mac DeMarco, rising hip-hop star Jean Dawson is doing it all. His first release, Pixel Bath, let fans into Dawson’s world, and a subsequent documentary called Burnout was a peek into his creative process. Industry veterans like Travis Barker have already picked up on Dawson’s potential, and he shows no signs of slowing down in the near future.

The 26-year-old is half Mexican and half Black, and grew up in Tijuana, Mexico, giving him a particularly unique view on the world. Today, he’s dropping a new video for the song “Porn Acting,” a visual and song he explains in the following way: “We are all the same, we are all bags of flesh, tryna prove that we’re not as bad as we know we are.” The track starts off a little sing-songy, and quickly devolves into a more chaotic, heavier melody, as Dawson stars in the clip, moving from audience to stage in an abandoned movie theater, and sporting a full face cast throughout the clip. Check out the visual above and look out for Dawson’s live show while he supports Brockhampton on tour this year.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Uber’s real-life founder Travis Kalanick in the latest Showtime drama Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber which premiered on Sunday. Kalanick is, for lack of a better word, kind of a villain. The CEO went through many uphill battles to create the ride-sharing app, but also made many mistakes along the way, which led to his ultimate downfall.

Super Pumped follows Kalanick’s rise to the top of the tech bro chain in the late 2000s, when suddenly if you had an idea, you had to make it an app, and Uber was born. It became a success, much to the dismay of local taxi drivers everywhere, and then turned into a prominent app, and suddenly people were using the phrase “Uber” as a verb.

But there was turmoil within the company–videos of Kalanick yelling at Uber drivers surfaced online, along with accusations of a toxic workplace. A former employee called out sexual harassment at the app’s offices, which were promptly swept under the rug by Uber higher-ups. All of this led to Kalanick stepping down in 2017.

Despite stepping down, Kalanick still remained one of the key investors in the app. Then, in December 2019, Kalanick left Uber for good, to pursue other ideas, and now invests in e-commerce sites and other apps. Most recently, Kalanick launched CloudKitchens, which uses “ghost kitchens” so that chefs can make and deliver food without having a restaurant. Don’t worry, he’s still very rich.

Even though Kalanick isn’t with the company, his legacy lived on, enough to inspire a book about his generally nasty behavior, which ultimately became Showtime’s Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber.

Unless you’re a certain former president or a certain current Fox News host, you’re probably very much against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The pushback has been severe, both on the ground and from those very far away. Sanctions have helped tank the ruble; Russian president Vladimir Putin, with few friends left, is reportedly going “feral.” This is on the very low end of the scale, but there’s also this: The nation’s moviegoers won’t be watching a bunch of highly anticipated blockbusters any time soon.

As per Deadline, a number of studios are “pausing” the Russian releases of their big films. It started with Disney, who announced they were putting their releases on hold, including the new Pixar joint Turning Red. It wasn’t clear how long the “pause” will last, and if it will affect another big upcoming release, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which is scheduled to kick off the summer movie season on May 6.

Warner Bros. followed suit by blocking The Batman, the long-delayed, much-hyped new take on the Caped Crusader that’s due elsewhere, including in America, on Friday. In a statement, the studio said they will “monitor the situation as it evolves” and that they “hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to this tragedy.”

And then came Sony. They put a hold on Morbius, the Jared Leto-starring vampire comic book movie, which also includes an appearance, at least, from Michael Keaton’s Vulture, the baddie he played in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Sony, too, hoped the crisis “will be resolved quickly.”

In the meantime, the fight to drive Russian forces from Ukraine continues, with help from its own president.

(Via Deadline)

Everyone expected a wild show starring Zendaya to do well, but Euphoria is doing even better than expected. Despite being a frequent downer, exploring the turbulent lives of high schoolers, some of them struggling with addiction issues, the show is so popular not even the Super Bowl affected its ratings. Soon after learning that it’s the most tweeted-about show on television, there’s this: HBO is claiming its their second most-watched show after no less than Game of Thrones.

This comes from Variety, which reported HBO’s claim that the second season of Euphoria has averaged 16.3 million viewers, which is the premium network’s best since that show one of its actors said was simply about “t*ts and dragons.” Sunday night’s season finale was able to draw in 6.6 million viewers during its actual live airing alone — a series best.

The show, obviously, will be back for more. A third season was recently greenlit, with hopes that it will start shooting later this year, the schedules of Zendaya and breakout star Sydney Sweeney depending. Still, the gap between the second and third seasons will likely be shorter than the one between one and two, which was delayed due to the onset of the pandemic. In the meantime, keep those fan theories coming.

(Via Variety)

Ja Morant submitted a “Dunk of the Year” nominee on Monday evening, throwing down an emphatic slam over San Antonio Spurs big man Jakob Poeltl to great acclaim. Later in the same quarter, Morant converted a buzzer-beater and had 29 points in the first half to lead Memphis to a solid lead over San Antonio. However, the third-year superstar was not done by a long shot, leading the way from wire to wire and finishing with a career-best 52 points in a 118-105 home victory.

Morant was highly efficient on the way to the 52-point outburst, shooting 22-of-30 from the floor and 4-of-4 from three-point range. Considering Morant entered the night shooting only 33 percent from long distance, his numbers should boost his season-long output, and Morant used that three-point weapon to open up the floor.

As always, Morant attacked the rim at will, getting downhill and putting pressure on the defense as a result. He was a game-best +23 on the evening and needed only 34 minutes of court time to rack up 52 points.

The crowd at FedEx Forum also showed its appreciation for Morant as he checked out to a standing ovation in the final minutes, as he somehow managed to top his 46-point effort from Saturday (which set the Grizzlies single-game scoring record for all of two days before breaking it again).

On a night when Morant had one of the best highlights of the season, he was even better in the floor game, and Memphis climbed within just one game of the Golden State Warriors for the No. 2 seed in the West. Not bad for a day’s work in the NBA.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has turned into one of the NBA’s most dominant forces and cemented his place among the all-time greats last season with his performance leading the Bucks to a championship, saving his best for last with a 50-point game to clinch his first ring.

That effort from Giannis in the postseason won over just about every skeptic of his, as even the likes of Shaq and others have given him his due props for being a dominant big man who could hold his own at any time. However, there are apparently still some who don’t believe Giannis’ game, which is about as timeless as it gets, would translate to the 80s and 90s, as Charles Oakley made headllines over the weekend when he made the outrageous claim that Giannis would’ve been a bench player “back in the day.”

It is one of the funniest examples of a player from that era downplaying the success of a current star, and on Monday night Isiah Thomas was in studio for NBA TV when they had a Bucks-Hornets game and was teed up for a question about how Giannis’ game would translate across eras. Thomas had a hilarious response to Oakley, saying Antetokounmpo would “dog you every single time you stepped on the court.”

“Dude, Giannis going around Oakley. Giannis going around all them. He dunking on them. He bigger, he faster, he stronger. You can talk all that stuff cause you don’t play no more,” Thomas said. “You can talk all that stuff cause you got gray hair and sittin on the sidelines smoking cigars talkin about what you used to do. That dude would dog you every single time you stepped on the court. Now, you may hit him hard, ok, alright, after you hit him hard you ain’t got no game. You ain’t got no game.”

You’d be hard pressed to find too many people who would side with Oakley in this argument, particularly given what we saw from Giannis in the postseason when he answered just about every question about whether he could still dominate when teams load up on him in the playoffs and try to beat him up. Previously that had been the critique of his game, but that’s been pretty well put to rest and Thomas made it abundantly clear what he, a Hall of Famer of that same era, thinks of Oakley’s assertion.

Michael Keaton has been busy lately, and not just with the Golden Globe-winning Dopesick. Like many of his generation, he’s been called back to dust off old roles. He’ll soon be seen reprising Batman not once but twice, in The Flash and the HBO Max movie Batgirl, to say nothing of exhuming his Spider-Man: Homecoming villain for Morbius. But he may have to return to yet another former gig, and it’s all thanks to Brad Pitt.

As per Deadline, Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment, which tends to focus on smaller, more socially conscious films like Minari, Moonlight, and The Big Short, is looking to get into the franchise business. That would explain why they’ve boarded the long-threatened sequel to Beetlejuice, the fantasy-comedy classic from Tim Burton that saw Keaton as a malicious spirit hired by a recently deceased couple (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) to scare off the new owners of their old house.

Right now, it’s not clear who would return. Keaton isn’t confirmed, nor are David, Baldwin, Winona Ryder, who played a Goth teenager who gets involved. Ditto Catherine O’Hara and Jeffrey Jones, who played her despised parents, as well as Burton. That makes Pitt the highest-profile name officially attached at this point, though perhaps he could step into the role once played by Keaton, giving his most spastic performance since 12 Monkeys.

(Via Deadline)

Much has been made of the third-year breakout of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant. The 22-year-old made the leap from being a star-level player during is sophomore season to a bonafide superstar in 2021-22, leading the Grizzlies to a top-four seed in the Western Conference along the way. Beyond the clear effectiveness of his overall play, Morant is also a walking highlight, turning heads on a nightly basis with his patented blend of athleticism, physicality and almost reckless pursuit of the rim.

On Monday, Morant was at it again during the first half of a game against the San Antonio Spurs, putting big man Jakob Poeltl on a memorable poster late in the second quarter, as he authored a serious Dunk of the Year candidate.

Poeltl isn’t exactly a slouch, as he is widely considered an upper-tier defender at the center position. In this clip, Morant seemingly has no regard for his presence, exploding toward the rim and finishing with authority despite Poeltl being outside the restricted area when he takes off. Morant may not be the only player in the league that could finish this dunk, but the list is not very long, and he adds this to an ever-growing array of highlight throw-downs.

For good measure, Morant showed off his perimeter skills just before the halftime break, knocking down a wild buzzer-beater to give Memphis a ten-point cushion.

For his trouble, Morant finished with 29 (!) first-half points against San Antonio, needing only 15 field goal attempts and 16 minutes to gather that lofty total. It was yet another reminder of his brilliance this season, but watching Morant dunk on a loop can be good for the soul.

Those who are intimately familiar with the New York subway system will find Michelle’s “Pose” video highly relatable. Hey, if stars like John Mulaney and LCD Soundsystem can venerate the storied public transportation system on SNL, why wouldn’t the six-piece turn to it as a backdrop themselves? The video, which is for a song taken from upcoming project, After Dinner We Talk Dreams, was choreographed by band member Emma Lee. The album will be released on March 4, just in time for the band’s upcoming tour dates opening for Mitski, as well as several headlining shows in North America and Europe.

Back in September, the group announced their album with the lead single, “Syncopate,” and followed that track up with “Mess U Made,” before releasing “Expiration Date” at the top of the year. The band features the rare of four female vocalists, Sofia D’Angelo, Layla Ku, Emma Lee and Jamee Lockard, who sing in layered harmonies, while members Julian Kaufman Charlie Kilgore are mostly focused on production. Although a press release notes that “predominantly POC and queer collective mix and match the writing and production groups amongst the six of them.” Check out the “Pose” video up top and look for Michelle’s new album coming in just a few days.

There’s been a fair amount of wacko talk about Russian president Vladimir Putin since he ordered soldiers to invade neighboring Ukraine. While most lawmakers, including the majority of Republicans, have denounced him, others have not. Former president Donald Trump called the move “savvy,” even “genius.” Tucker Carlson slammed “corrupt” Ukraine while praising Putin.

Then there’s Pat Robertson. Back in October, the infamous televangelist and former presidential candidate retired from hosting the Christian Broadcasting Network’s The 700 Club after some 60 years. But after Putin’s invasion, the now 91-year-old came back to his longtime gig to claim that it was all God’s plan.

“People say that Putin’s out of his mind. Yes, maybe so,” Robertson told viewers. “But at the same time, he’s being compelled by God. He went into the Ukraine but that wasn’t his goal. His goal was to move against Israel, ultimately.”

Robertson then laid out an elaborate theory about how Ukraine is merely a “staging area” for an end times battle in Israel. And if you don’t believe him, he says to “read your Bible” because Armageddon Time is “coming to pass.”

As per The Daily Beast, this isn’t the first time Robertson has made predictions about the end of the world as we know it. Back in 1982, he claimed “there is going to be a judgment on the world.” Over two decades later, in 2006, he predicted that the Pacific Northwest would be destroyed by a tsunami. A year later he promised there would be “mass killings.” And after Trump lost re-election in 2020, he said the result would be a planet-destroying asteroid. Perhaps needless to say, not one of these came to pass. Nor, for that matter, did Trump listen to him about simply getting over the fact that he lost in 2020.

(Via The Daily Beast)