Month: April 2022

Comedian/podcaster/thirst trap Jordan Klepper has become a viral sensation, largely for his remarkable ability to speak fluent moron. Over the past few years, The Daily Show correspondent’s regular sojourns into MAGA World have been a highlight of the satirical news series. Klepper himself largely thanks his improv background for his ability keep a straight face while carrying on inane conversations with everyone from January 6 rioters to Mike Lindell. But even Klepper admits that listening to the conspiracy theories that come out of these people’s mouths can indeed be “infuriating.”

On Monday night, Klepper sat down with Seth Meyers to chat about how he prepares for his deep dives into Trumpworld, and admitted that it’s not always easy. While Klepper explained that he adopts “the improv rule of prep, and then let it all go and see what happens” he admitted that “more often than not, it’s just us pushing people to get to the point where they have to justify the issues they maybe haven’t thought through.”

Meyers, who knows Klepper to be a naturally “very nice, very polite person in real life,” was curious as to whether it was difficult to maintain such an “affable persona” when he’s talking with people he clearly does not agree with. Klepper decided to clarify the question: “As a nice guy, is it easy to be nice to these f***ers?” His answer was pretty forthright:

It’s infuriating, I will say. Sometimes you want to shake folks. I try not to. Or babies. Folks or babies… I will say, what I empathize with, when I go to any of these rallies, is people want community. And I get that. People want community and they need meaning. When you go to a rally, what you find is likeminded people who have a purpose. And you walk into an arena and you have the former leader of the free world say, ‘You’re a hero! You’re a patriot! Just do what I do!’ And so, I get that. I joined an improv group; that gave me purpose and a community. We all have our own cults!

So I can empathize with why people are there, I think. But I get frustrated with the logic that’s behind some of these ideas. And the manipulation of the people who impose that logic onto these folks.

As millions of people regularly watch Klepper’s videos, he admits that going the undercover route is no longer so easy. He told Meyers that he does get recognized, and when he does people generally either want to engage with him or yell and chase him down.

What truly shocked Klepper, however, was attending CPAC earlier this year. “I was prepared for people to recognize me and not want to engage and perhaps get fairly angry that I was crashing their party. But I was shocked by how many selfies I took at CPAC.”

You can watch the full clip above.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is one of the biggest stars in the world. While he’s best known for his involvement in action movies, he also has a growing resume in the video game industry. He’s been in two video game movies of varying quality, he’s a skin in Fortnite, and there’s a strong chance he did some voice work in Fortnite, as well.

With an upcoming movie being made about the hit game It Takes Two, we’re now going to be seeing him take on a behind-the-scenes role, but there’s still a possibility of him making an appearance on screen. According to Variety, Johnson will be an executive producer on the upcoming movie and there’s a possibility of him starring in it.

Variety reported in January that the game was being adapted for the screen. As previously reported, dj2 Entertainment will produce the film, with Seven Bucks Productions now boarding the project along with Amazon Studios. Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia will produce on behalf of Seven Bucks. According to sources, Dwayne could also star in the film, but nothing is official as of now.

Johnson has previously stated that he is going to be starring in a “badass” upcoming video game movie, but it’s unclear if he meant It Takes Two. It’s really exciting to see Johnson and other big stars embracing video game movies — with recent releases like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Uncharted, we’re seeing more games get adapted into movies.

Following an investigation into the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, the production behind the ill-fated Alec Baldwin film Rust has been hit with the maximum fine for the unsafe working conditions. The New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau spent six months looking into the circumstances that led to Hutchins’ death after a gun held by Baldwin went off during a rehearsal. (The actor has claimed that he didn’t pull the trigger.) Somehow, a live round was in the chamber, which never should have been the case, and it led to the production getting hit with the highest possible fine.

Via Deadline:

“While the film industry has clear national guidelines for firearms safety, Rust Movie Productions, LLC failed to follow these guidelines or take other effective measures to protect workers. Rust Movie Productions, LLC’s documents indicate that it would follow the Industry Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee’s Safety Bulletin #1, ‘Recommendations for Safety With Firearms and Use of Blank Ammunition,’ but failed to adhere to these guidelines on set. The guidelines require live ammunition ‘never to be used nor brought onto any studio lot or stage,’ that safety meetings take place every day when firearms are being handled, and that employees ‘refrain from pointing a firearm at anyone’ except after consultation with the Property Master, Armorer or other safety representative, such as the First Assistant Director. By failing to follow these practices, an avoidable loss of life occurred.”

Baldwin is currently facing litigation for the shooting incident, which has led to a tense back and forth between himself and Hutchins’ husband. Baldwin has also claimed that his contract for the film absolves him from liability for Hutchins’ death because he was not responsible for hiring decisions, specifically, in the case of the film’s armorer, who was in charge of firearm safety on set.

(Via Deadline)

After teasing the follow-up to his disco- and R&B-inspired album Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 for the past month, Calvin Harris has finally revealed when fans can expect Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2. This morning, Harris took to social media to share a picture of a billboard that read, “Calvin Harris Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2,” and captioned it, “Summer ’22 it’s happening #FWBV2.”

Though he didn’t offer any news in regards to an upcoming single, Harris shared a photo last week of an orchestra recording with a piece of sheet music titled “New To You.”

Fans have speculated that Charlie Puth may appear on the alleged “New To You” song, as the “Light Switch” singer tweeted that he and Harris “made a really good f*ckin song” in February.

The first iteration of Funk Wav Bounces contained collaborations with Kehlani, Frank Ocean, Migos, Khalid, Future, Katy Perry, and Ariana Grande. As of now, Harris remains tight-lipped about the collaborators, but he did clarify to a fan that the phrase “wav bounces” refers to the “bouncing/exporting” of a .wav file, from audio editing software or a DAW (digital audio workstation, like GarageBand, Logic Pro, or FL Studio).

This June will mark the five-year anniversary of Vol. 1, so it’s not unlikely that Vol. 2 may drop around that time.

Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Nas isn’t resting on his laurels after achieving new successes in his career. After winning Best Rap Album at the 2021 Grammy Awards, he performed at the ceremony for the first time at this year’s awards, delivering a career retrospective via a medley of hits spanning the past 25 years. Despite reaching these new plateaus, he’s not taking any time off to celebrate, dropping a new video for the song “Ugly” from his and Hit-Boy’s third joint project, Magic.

Produced by ASAP Rocky’s media company AWGE, the abstract, black-and-white video is pieced together from archival footage taken around the city of New York, spliced in with shots of Nas rapping the lyrics of the song in the back of a limo with a female companion. The video ends with a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Despite Magic being less than five months old, Nas and Hit-Boy are already hard at work on their third installment of the King’s Disease series, which has been credited by fans as rejuvenating Nas’ public perception. Nas is also preparing to embark on the NY State Of Mind Tour with Wu-Tang Clan beginning late this summer.

Watch Nas and Hit-Boy’s “Ugly” video above.

In May 2021, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, along with Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, announced they had formed a new band, The Smile. That was nearly a year ago now, but despite the good amount of singles they’ve released since then, the group hadn’t actually announced their debut album yet. That changed today, though, as it was revealed A Light For Attracting Attention is set for release real soon, on May 13.

The band also shared a video for “Free In The Knowledge” today, a mostly acoustic number with lush orchestral accompaniment. Those sorts of embellishments will be found throughout the album, as it features strings by the London Contemporary Orchestra and a full brass section of contemporary UK jazz players, including Byron Wallen, Theon and Nathaniel Cross, Chelsea Carmichael, Robert Stillman, and Jason Yarde.

Watch the “Free In The Knowledge” video above and find the A Light For Attracting Attention art and tracklist below.

1. “The Same”
2. “The Opposite”
3. “You Will Never Work In Television Again”
4. “Pana-vision”
5. “The Smoke”
6. “Speech Bubbles”
7. “Thin Thing”
8. “Open The Floodgates”
9. “Free In The Knowledge”
10. “A Hairdryer”
11. “Waving A White Flag”
12. “We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings”
13. “Skrting On The Surface”

A Light For Attracting Attention is out 5/13 via XL Recordings. Pre-order it here.

Does anyone (on TV right now) walk the walk better than Natasha Lyonne as Nadia in Russian Doll? I mean this in terms of swagger, and I keep rolling around that question in my head, and realizing how absurd it sounds. There’s so much devil-may-care about now Natasha dominates the sidewalk and the subway and the bodegas and the parks and, well, everywhere that she moves. She pounds that sidewalk with purpose, yet it still seems effortless, and I really can’t think of a better example of this than the way Johnny Depp confidently strutted through the airport in Blow. And I’m mad at myself for making that comparison because Blow, as a whole, was unmemorable beyond that scene.

My apologies to Natasha Lyonne and Nadia. Yet Natasha doesn’t even need to be walking with what I’m getting at. She’s often falling, tumbling, dying, dozens of times, and Natasha’s sense of physical comedy (and the way she moves), never fails to command the screen. And little drops of the absurd fall onto the tapestry while feeling natural. Even death-by-falling-air-conditioner doesn’t feel like slapstick here. I have no idea how they do it (they being Natasha as executive producer along with Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland), but do it, they do.

What an offhanded way to begin this review. And say it with me: Russian Doll is back, and it’s trippier than ever while debuting on 4/20, what a damn concept.

(Mind you, there is no need to do the 4/20 thing while watching this season. It’s a mindf*ck on its own, but the release date is a nice touch.)

More than three years have passed since the first season, which I described as being close to perfect with hidden treasures buried within the Groundhog Day-esque framework. Since early 2019 (and despite mainlining countless other TV shows since that time), I’ve made time for a rewatch. It’s also a go-to show that I’ve recommended without hesitation, over and over again, without qualifiers and above the other great TV series out there. And that’s because Russian Doll, quite simply, is a show that carries you along for the ride. It’s a smart show, but it doesn’t hurt your head to watch.

All one has to do is click on that first episode. There’s no need to promise that the show will get better or more interesting after a few episodes. It’s ready to go, right out of the gate. It’s morbid without being too dark. It’s mercilessly funny without being offensive. It’s cerebral and heady without being pretentious. It’s serious during sparing moments and examines trauma and catharsis without being triggering. It’s also so very human in its approach, even though it’s surreal as hell, and yeah, this is simply a very fine show.

Now, what of Season 2? The strongest selling point — for anyone who hasn’t watched yet — is that this show excels in taking a well-worn “concept” and transforming the process into something altogether different. So last season, there was the spacey time loop, and this time, Nadia’s all caught up with time-travel trains. And Greta Lee’s Maxine, she of the “sweet birthday babyyyyyy” utterance, is back as well, to add even more bite as Nadia’s best friend. She’s been a fantastic constant to have, all while Nadia and Alan (Charlie Barnett) get pushed into internal transformations that they never wanted to endure but can’t escape. And Maxine keeps the tone scathingly light.

I’m convinced that Maxine’s the anchor that encourages the viewer to make an important guilt-free choice. Either enjoy Russian Doll for all of its existential nuances and how it uniquely ponders the very nature of life or simply let go and enjoy the party. Beyond her lightness, there are also hints of a greater purpose for Maxine. She seems more aware than the other side players of this show, and in Season 2, more hints come forth on her, but beyond that, she’s simply an enjoyable presence.

Here’s where I start to go even more off the rails of this being a traditional review, and that’s for your benefit, I promise. The less you know about “what happens in this chapter” before watching, the better. Everything does follow up on how the existential purgatory of Nadia and Alan came to a close in the last season finale. The show could have ended, right there, and Natasha could have moved on to doing the Columbo thing, but instead, we’re receiving a wonderful gift that’s ready-made for Netflix queues, but again, expect it to not sit for too long. This is the Pringles of TV shows. Once you pop, well, you know where this is going.

More welcome news: the show doesn’t aim to be bigger in scope, necessarily, this time around, because that would have been too much. And the tone stays the same, but what happens is even wonkier while Nadia shuttles between decades and digs into her intergenerational trauma. Annie Murphy is the biggest new recruit for the cast (she plays a past version of an existing character), but the non-Natasha actor who does the most emotional heavy lifting is Chloe Sevigny. She portrays Nadia’s mom, who we already know had no business ever becoming a mom. That relationship gets more airtime, and things can get rather heavy during moments. However, there’s no cause for concern on this season being more stressful than the last round.

And the secret behind the deceptive levity of this show is this: Russian Doll never forgets that its overarching purpose is to entertain. There’s no preciousness here while Nadia deals with the universe’s careening f*ckery while navigating stairs while we all fear for the best-worst to happen. The sci-fi components of the show take over at times, as Nadia and Alan move deeper into their own backgrounds while somehow enduring a messier set of metaphysical dilemmas than we’ve come to expect. Charlie Barnett’s new mustache is somehow one of the least interesting twists, but Oatmeal the cat still plays a surprisingly important role, beyond being a disappearing pain in the ass.

The show’s still almost embarrassingly full of riches. And I’m so overjoyed to see Natasha Lyonne crushing it at this place in her rough-and-tumble career. From child star to troubled tabloid cliché to an ensemble player of one of Netflix’s very first hit original series, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in this world playing Nadia. She has forged one of the most honest-to-god compelling, non-franchise-minded series out there today. And few people thought that the role of Nicky Nichols (a character with obvious parallels to Lyonne’s own life) in Orange Is The New Black would kickstart the Lyonnaissance, but it’s such a wonderful ongoing surprise. That puzzle of a career has led to a joyous puzzle of a show, where nothing is quite clear, but everything is somehow in sharp focus.

Climb onboard the Season 2 subway train, where the show continues its epic journey while pretending not to be epic rather than claiming to be so. Events go many decades back at times, and also moderately backward when a Travis Bickle lookalike is not out of place in New York. In addition to all the aforementioned contradictions, the show continues to be sexy without being exploitatively so and violent without being gratuitous about it. Even as confusion drives the characters, the story remains as crisp as ever. And even during an episode that takes Nadia and Charlie into a realm where they appear to be the only people in existence, they’re not alone. They have each other; they have the music (which is as impeccably curated as in Yellowjackets); and they have Nadia’s swagger. She’s still walking that walk, and may she never let up.

‘Russian Doll’ will return on April 20.

The Golden State Warriors are halfway to a spot in the Western Conference Semifinals. The Warriors have looked worlds better than the Denver Nuggets through the first two games of their series, and while all of their All-Star and All-NBA players have taken the floor and play well, the biggest story has been third-year guard Jordan Poole, who is averaging 29.5 points and 5.5 assists per game while shooting 66.5 percent from the field and 58.8 percent from three.

Poole has been quite good this season, but his play against Denver has been one of the biggest reasons why Golden State are now the odds-on favorites to lift the Larry O’Brien trophy. And on a recent episode of his podcast, Green heaped praise on him for the way Poole — who he called “the Most Improved Player” — is like a second Curry.

“You think of a defense having to prepare for Steph Curry, which is a nightmare, and then having to prepare for him twice,” Green said. “That’s a totally different nightmare. And right now, that’s what I see out of Jordan Poole. When I’m out there playing with Jordan Poole, like, the same little ‘life hacks,’ if you will, that I use playing with Steph Curry to get him open, I’m starting to realize or have realized are the same little life hacks I can use to get Jordan open. And it’s in large part to his skill-set.”

Green then told the story of how he “absolutely hated” Poole before he came to the league because he’d watch him when he was a standout at Michigan — his alma mater’s rival — but then, he explained how something that Poole would put on display in Ann Arbor has translated to the league.

“He never backed … I’ve never seen him back down in a moment, and that dates back to then,” Green said. “Like, I’ve never seen him shy away from a moment, he wants all those moments, and it showed in these two playoff games.”

Green, Poole, and the Warriors will head to Denver for Game 3 against the Nuggets on Thursday night. The game is scheduled to tip off at 10 p.m. ET on TNT.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but it’s April 20, and I’m sure you know what that means (although what with the traditional festivities endorsed for this unofficial holiday, you’d be forgiven for not knowing what day it is anymore). So it’s only right that for this week’s Tiny Desk Concert debut, NPR has tapped one of hip-hop’s patron saints of the devil’s lettuce, Curren$y, who stops by for an at-home set from a garage alongside one of his many, many cars (this one’s a lifted 1965 Chevy Impala).

Of course, with so much music in his rearview — over seventy projects and counting — the New Orleans native has plenty of product to pull from, opening the set with “Sixty-Seven Turbo Jet” from 2012’s Cigarette Boats with Harry Fraud. Then, it’s “Address” and “Breakfast” from 2010’s Pilot Talk, “Airborne Aquarium” from Pilot Talk II, and finally, “Mary” from 2013’s New Jet City. It’s kind of mind-boggling to think he could have done a ninety-minute set without crossing 2015.

Early in the set, he teases his band for not having their own 4/20-inspired products on them, although he allows that all three members of the trio need both hands to keep the music going.

When SEGA was on its last legs in the console market, it famously put as many resources as it possibly could into what ended up being its final console, the Dreamcast. It was a neat little console that had a lot of unique features and felt ahead of its time, but it failed to catch on and was overshadowed by Sony’s PlayStation 2. Before the Dreamcast was discontinued, it built up a small and very strong library of games that many fans fondly remember to this day.

Two of those games, Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio, are reportedly both receiving reboots. In what Bloomberg says is an attempt by SEGA to tap into previous franchises to find a Fortnite-level hit, these two remakes are the first in a new initiative to create a “recurring revenue” source.

Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. is developing big-budget reboots of its Dreamcast games Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio as it taps its back catalog in search of global hits like Epic Games Inc.’s Fortnite, according to people familiar with its plans.

The two titles would be the first entries in Sega’s Super Game initiative, which the company announced a year ago as an effort to develop recurring revenue sources and build online communities around its software portfolio.

How SEGA plans on using reboots of these two games to create a community is uncertain, but it is at least exciting that we’re going to get the opportunity to play some of the best games of the early 2000s again. Games like Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio don’t get made all that often, and it’s a shame because both of those games are classics of the early ’00s and are still an absolute blast to play. Their focus on fun and addicting gameplay over a story, or multiplayer, are a novelty today, and hopefully, the reboots don’t stray too far away from that.

If SEGA is planning on rebooting more games from their previous era as a console developer, then they have a deep library to choose from such as Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star, and of course, Sonic the Hedgehog.