Month: April 2022

Elon Musk actually did it: After some roadblocks, the SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and Boring Company billionaire actually bought Twitter yesterday, for about $44 billion. As the world reacted to the news, so too did Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey.

He first did so by digging into the Radiohead archives and sharing just a link to the band’s Kid A song “Everything In Its Right Place,” using the title to imply he’s on board with Twitter’s new owner. (Notably, the link he shared was from Tidal, presumably because his Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.) owns the streaming platform.)

After sharing the song, Dorsey continued over the course of multiple tweets:

“I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness.

The idea and service is all that matters to me, and I will do whatever it takes to protect both. Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.

In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.

Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is ‘maximally trusted and broadly inclusive’ is the right one. This is also [Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal’s] goal, and why I chose him. Thank you both for getting the company out of an impossible situation. This is the right path…I believe it with all my heart.

I’m so happy Twitter will continue to serve the public conversation. Around the world, and into the stars!”

Before Dorsey’s reaction, Musk offered a statement of his own, saying, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

Find Dorsey’s tweets below.

Dr. Mehmet Oz is still actually running for that Pennsylvania senate seat, and of course he’s endorsed by Trump while doing so. This ex-presidential nod has caused MAGA backlash, including from Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, and let’s just say that Oz did not clean up at the debate.

As Mediaite reports, rival David McCormick (an ex-hedge fund CEO) owned Oz in a few contexts in only one line. Oz had already branded him as “Dishonest Dave,” who Oz claimed “went groveling to President Trump,” but Trump “did not endorse him.” The subject in question was, uh, fracking and Oz bragged, “I know how exactly to manage our energy issues.”

From there, McCormick nailed Oz for how he “keeps talking about President Trump’s endorsement is because he can’t run on his own positions and his own records.” He then declared, “And what’s true is that he has flip-flopped on every major issue we’re talking about in this campaign.” McCormick wasn’t done yet: “He’s never – in his entire media career – advanced a conservative agenda.” Do you want more? Sure: “The problem, doctor, is there’s no miracle cure for flip-flopping. And Pennsylvanians are seeing right through your phoniness and that’s what you’re dealing with. And that’s why you’re not taking off in the polls.”

At this point, Oz and McCormick are pretty darn close to each other in the polls. However, McCormick may have scored some points at this moment in the debate. Or rather, Oz may have lost them after making this face:

Naturally, people couldn’t resist responding to this face. “Dr. Oz staring dead ahead like he just farted loudly in church” is a response that happened. “Stuffed in a locker” also popped up as well as various mentions of Botox and edibles hitting hard.

Oh politics, you can be fun at times.

(Via Mediaite)

Lil Nas X is hitting the road this fall. The “That’s What I Want” rapper will bring his theatrics across North America and select cities in Europe on the Long Live Montero Tour.

Named for his debut album, Montero, the Long Live Montero Tour will likely see Lil Nas X perform his Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping hits, the album’s title track, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and “Industry Baby,” which features Jack Harlow. If the tour is anything like his iconic music videos, we are — perhaps quite literally — in for a hell of a show.

Presale for the show begins this Wednesday for CashApp cardholders, with general on-sale beginning Thursday.

Check out the trailer above and the full list of tour dates below.

09/06 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
09/10 — Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
09/15 — Toronto, Ontario @ History
09/18 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall At Fenway
09/20 — New York City, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
09/22 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met
09/25 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
09/27 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca Cola Roxy
10/01 — Nashville, TN @ Nashville Municipal Auditorium
10/03 — Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live
10/04 — Miami, FL @ James L. Knight Center
10/18 — Los Angeles, CA @ YouTube Theater
10/21 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Federal Theatre
10/23 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
11/08 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ AFAS Live
11/09 — Berlin, Germany @ Max-Schmelling Halle
11/10 — Hamburg, Germany @ Sporthalle
11/12 — London, United Kingdom @ Eventim Apollo
11/14 — Paris, France @ Zenith
11/15 — Brussels, Belgium @ Palais 12
11/17 — Barcelona, Spain @ Sant Jordi Club

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In March, indie sensation Soccer Mommy announced her next album Sometimes, Forever, the follow-up to 2020’s beloved Color Theory. She unveiled the lead single “Shotgun,” an off-kilter tune with an addictive bassline that’s about “the joys of losing yourself in love,” she said, continuing, “I wanted it to capture the little moments in a relationship that stick with you.”

Last night, she brought “Shotgun” to Fallon with a mesmeric performance. The blue and purple lights add to the texture of the song, whose ethereal synths become more apparent in this live setting. She captures the intensity of the chorus as she sings: “So whenever you want me I’ll be around / I’m a bullet in a shotgun waiting to sound.

After releasing this track, she also shared “Unholy Affliction,” which also has an eerie ambiance and ventured further into sonic experimentation. She said that the song was “really fun in the studio because the end result was totally different from what we expected. [Producer] Dan [Lopatin] made this really cool sequence with the demo vocals that wound up becoming most of the song. It was nice to have 2 different versions of the song that kind of mashed together.”

Watch her perform “Shotgun” on Fallon below.

Sometimes, Forever is out 6/24 via Loma Vista Recordings. Pre-order it here.

You may find this hard to believe, but Fox News host Tucker Carlson mislead his viewers. If only we had seen this coming.

During Monday’s episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the testicle-tanning fanatic attributed his return to Twitter (“We’re back”) to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media platform for $44 billion. Carlson’s account has been locked since he made hateful remarks about Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman. The two things — Carlson being back to Twitter and Musk buying Twitter — are not related, but you wouldn’t know that from watching his show.

For 60 seconds during Tucker Carlson Tonight, a Fox News chyron framed Musk as having “unshackled” the host on Twitter. A chyron that read “MUSK BUYING TWITTER IS THE LEFT’S WORST NIGHTMARE” was replaced at 8:10 p.m. ET by one that implied Musk had set the host free from Twitter jail. “UNSHACKLED BY ELON MUSK: FREE SPEECH RESTORED; @TUCKERCARLSON BACK ON TWITTER,” a second chyron read until 8:11 p.m. ET.

As Mediaite points out, “Carlson’s Monday tweet appears to be the result of a decision to delete the Levine post, which no longer appears on his timeline.” In other words, Carlson’s account was reinstated because he deleted this tweet, not because of anything Musk did. Carlson still heaped plenty of praise on the world’s richest man.

“The reason that today’s sale of Twitter is big news — the reason it could turn out to be a pivot point in our history — is that Elon Musk does not agree with the rest of the billionaires in the tech business,” he said. “He thinks everyone should be allowed to talk.” And if you don’t like what you hear, change the subject to sexual positions.

(Via Mediaite)

Lorde is in the midst of a tour right now. While she had a bit of downtime recently, she took a few minutes to break down what a day on the road is like for her.

In an email newsletter sent to fans last night, Lorde started:

“Writing this backstage after soundcheck in Minneapolis. Am firmly entrenched in the rhythms of tour life — wake up at 11am, do some work or drink a tea in bed or go to the gym, then drift in to soundcheck in another beautiful venue with columns and gilt and a cloud-painted ceiling. Sit alone for a while after that, steam voice, do some skincare, embroider or read, soon start to feel show night momentum build all around. Walkie-talkies buzzing to each other, house music going on, [Remi Wolf’s] set wafting up the stairs. Sitting in glam, being transformed somehow from someone with eye bags and active acne to… something shiny. In to the band to sing, then to the stage, in the wings, that feeling of waiting in the wings so imprinted from childhood, always the same open feeling, giving oneself over to what’s about to happen. Which always feels like it’s over in a second, blink and I’m running back down the hall to my room, where I’ll leave the gears on the floor in a pile, and head to the bathroom to wash the glittery paint from my face.”

As for the voice steaming Lorde refers to, vocal coach Katja Maria Slotte notes of it, “Steam is the only way to directly hydrate the vocal folds. Usually prescribed for tired and husky voices, or when recovering from illness like a cold, flu, or laryngitis, steam is the cheapest and simplest vocal health cure in the world. But did you know steaming is also worth doing even when you’re not experiencing any vocal problems? Steaming daily can keep the vocal folds lubricated to help avoid injury. […] Your voice will really appreciate ten minutes of steaming.”

It makes sense that Lorde is making time for steaming since she had to postpone shows earlier this month due to laryngitis.

If Candyman (and more recently, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) has taught us anything, it’s that you should never play a game that involves saying the same word multiple times. It’s a lesson that’s ignored in Bodies Bodies Bodies.

The new A24 horror-comedy, which stars Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova (Tutar from Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), Rachel Sennott, Myha’la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders, Lee Pace, and Pete Davidson, follows a rich group of friends who take shelter at a mansion to party during a hurricane. To pass the time, they play “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” which apparently involves slapping people in the face (how timely). “I get so stressed out every time we play it, someone always ends up crying,” one of the trust fund kids says in the “toxic” trailer above. It goes beyond crying and slapping, through: there’s also blood, drugs, a dead friend, and Davidson pointing out the obvious. “I just look like I f*ck,” he says. “You know what I mean? I look like I f*ck. And that’s the vibe I like to put out there.”

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

When a group of rich 20-somethings plan a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, a party game goes awry in this fresh and funny look at backstabbing, fake friends, and one party gone very, very wrong.

Bodies Bodies Bodies, which premiered at SXSW to strong reviews, opens on August 5.

Bad Bunny is one of the planet’s most successful musicians; He was Spotify’s most-streamed artist worldwide in both 2020 and 2021. He’s also proven himself to be quite the multi-hyphenate by building up his IMDb page with roles in movies like F9 and Bullet Train. Now he’s preparing for his biggest acting opportunity yet: Yesterday, Sony announced El Muerto, a Spider-Man spinoff movie starring Bad Bunny as the titular character, IGN reports.

The movie was introduced by Sony Motion Picture Group president Sanford Panitch at CinemaCon and it’s set to be released in theaters on January 12, 2024. This role will make Bad Bunny Marvel’s first live-action Latino lead.

IGN describes the El Muerto character, “In the comics, El Muerto is a super-powered wrestler who has had their mask and abilities passed down through the generations. To become worthy, new wrestlers would need to prove themselves against El Dorado. Juan-Carlos Estrada Sanchez was one of these chosen descendants, but he was unable to fight El Dorado when his father Marcus Estrada presented him. As a result, Marcus sacrificed himself to save his son. Following the tragic death, El Dorado would give Juan-Carlos ten years to become stronger to face him again and earn the right to become El Muerto.”

Deadline notes of the character’s connection to Spider-Man, “The character of El Muerto, aka Juan Carlos, was a super powered wrestler who originally fought Spider-Man in a charity wrestling match in which he nearly unmasked the webslinger before being stung by Spider-Man with a paralyzing poison. After his oppressor El Dorado came to claim his life, he was saved by Spider-Man, after which the two team up to defeat Dorado.”

The role seems to be a perfect fit for Bad Bunny, given how involved he’s been with the WWE lately.

Game 5 went about as poorly as it could for the Utah Jazz, as they got throttled in Dallas by the Mavericks to fall behind in the series 3-2, put forth arguably their worst offensive performance of the season, and saw their leading scorer exit the game in the fourth quarter well after the game was decided with an injury.

With five minutes to go and the Jazz down 28, Donovan Mitchell pulled up after a drive and kick and grabbed at the back of his left leg and called for a sub. The All-Star, who was having a rough night offensively, limped back to the locker room immediately and naturally there was concern on the Jazz side for his health and status going forward.

After the game, the Jazz announced Mitchell had suffered a hamstring injury and would be reevaluated on Tuesday when the team is back in Salt Lake City.

We’ve already seen one West star guard suffer a hamstring injury this postseason in Devin Booker, whose absence has caused the Suns to find themselves deadlocked at 2-2 with the Pelicans. For the Jazz, it’s certainly hard to imagine how they pull themselves out of a 3-2 hole to the Mavs without Mitchell’s scoring, but it’s possible they will have to do just that given how difficult it is to quickly recover from a hamstring injury.

We’ll await word on Tuesday regarding the severity of the injury and hopefully it was just a scare and not a strain that would knock Mitchell out of the lineup. Mitchell seemed to believe he’d be able to play through it, saying it just “tightened” on him, but that remains to be seen.

Game 5 between the Mavericks and Jazz in Dallas was never much of a contest, as the Mavs jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.

Dallas led by as many as 33 in the third quarter and were on cruise control in the mid-fourth quarter when things suddenly got chippy in the blowout. Luka Doncic, who was clearly enjoying being back in full from his calf strain in a 32-point, 13-rebound performance, went to the rim and tried to throw one down for an exclamation point on Hassan Whiteside. The Jazz reserve big man nearly got a block but was whistled for a foul as he tangled with Doncic, seemingly giving him a little extra toss to the ground as Luka fell.

That discard unsurprisingly led to the Mavs coming to their star’s aid, with Dorian Finney-Smith and Reggie Bullock running over and a shoving match ensuing in a scrum that was a vintage NBA “fight.”

Bullock and Finney-Smith got technicals for their part in coming over and starting the shoving match with Whiteside, while the big man earned two technicals and an ejection for his role — Bullock likewise headed to the locker room early as he had gotten a technical foul earlier in the game for arguing a foul call.

It wasn’t really much from Whiteside on the foul, but the way Doncic went down made it look a bit worse and drew the attention of his teammates who came to his defense. Still, while not much of anything this was the most notable second half moment from the Jazz, who looked listless in one of the worst offensive performances of the playoffs so far.