Month: April 2022

Absolute king David Lynch is as committed to saving the planet as he is to publishing a daily weather report. The legendary director has a plan for world peace: a transcendental meditation program for college students worldwide. The $500 million initiative, announced April 14, aims to “establish large groups of peace-creating experts worldwide to diffuse the buildup of political tensions that fuel conflict and warfare,” per a press release. According to the release, transcendental meditation has proven to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression as well as heal trauma.

“We don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring if we don’t get peace on this planet,” Lynch said in a promotional video shared on his adorably dated website, filming over Zoom in what appears to be his woodworking shop. “This war in Ukraine, people were saying it’s not going to happen, and now it’s happened. People are dying. Cities are being destroyed. Things are very, very precarious. Everybody knows it. Talking, marching, singing. It’s not brought peace.”

The press release explains the plan in more detail:

The peace plan calls for establishing a peace-creating group of 1,000 meditation experts in a college or university in 10 countries. Through their twice-daily meditation practice, these groups of students will reduce stress and develop brain potential in their own lives and, at the same time, produce a powerful influence of coherence and harmony in the collective consciousness of the entire nation.

Lynch has sadly not directed a film in 15 years, but at least he’s doing something good while depriving us of his cinematic glory.

March turned out to be a great month for family movies on streaming. As The Batman dominated theaters, streaming services were overloaded with family-friendly movies like The Adam Project and Turning Red (though not all parents were happy about that one).

According to Neilsen’s streaming data for March 14-20th, Turning Red clocked in 1.67 billion minutes over the week, with The Adam Project closely following behind at 1.33 billion which evens out to about 2 thousand years of people watching Ryan Reynold’s face.

Disney’s smash hit Encanto sat comfortably at number three, with 823 million minutes watched, though half of those minutes were probably spent listening to We Don’t Talk About Bruno. The movie was released last fall and continues to dominate the streaming numbers, both on the actual movie and the soundtrack. Coming in at number four is Liam Neeson’s 2014 thriller A Walk Among The Tombstones which recently hit Netflix, followed by the dog adventure film Rescued By Ruby.

Of course, the most interesting name on the Top 10 would be the animated classic Shrek and Shrek 2, after the latter was added on Netflix last month. As we all know, Shrek will never not be a cultural phenomenon.

Check out the full list below:

1. Turning Red (Disney+), 1.67 billion minutes viewed
2. The Adam Project (Netflix), 1.33 billion
3. Encanto (Disney+), 827 million
4. A Walk Among Tombstones (Netflix), 420 million
5. Rescued by Ruby (Netflix), 306 million
6. Black Crab 2022 (Netflix), 271 million
7. Cheaper by the Dozen 2022 (Disney+), 242 million
8. Shrek (Netflix), 228 million
9. Deep Water (Hulu), 206 million
10. London Has Fallen (Netflix), 199 million

Drake is the king of streaming. Even just looking at Spotify numbers, he’s been the platform’s most-streamed artists on three separate years (more times than anybody else) and he was the platform’s most-streamed artist of the 2010s. His popularity continued in 2021: Billboard reports last year, his music had more on-demand audio streams in the US than the combined total streams of every song from before 1980.

Billboard breaks it down:

“Music released in the 1990s generated 60 billion streams in 2021, which translates to 6.07% of streams; music released during the 1980s accounted for 33.84 billion streams, or 3.42%. Music released before then doesn’t even account for a single-digit percentage point: Music from the 1970s scored 3.51 billion streams, or 0.36% of the total; music from the 1960s had 2.64 billion streams, or 0.27%; and 1950s material generated just 212.85 million streams, or 0.02%. (The market share of music released before that is too small to count.) All told, music released before 1980 accounted for 0.6% of 2021 US on-demand streaming – while Drake himself generated 7.91 billion streams, or 0.8%.”

Looking at other data, it would seem Taylor Swift also beat everything pre-1980 last year (in a notably close call), as Billboard previously reported, “Drake racked up nearly 1.9 billion more on-demand audio streams [in the US] than Swift, the country’s second most-streamed artist, who accounted for 0.61% of all on-demand audio streams.”

While the all-time streaming charts tend to favor new music, there is one song from the ’70s that has thrived: Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the only song from the decade in the top 100 most-streamed songs on Spotify (and just one of two from before the 2000s, alongside Oasis’ “Wonderwall“). On Spotify’s official 240-song “BILLIONS CLUB” playlist, which collects songs with a billion streams on the platform, Queen has four songs, while Drake has eight. Swift’s sole entry on the playlist is her Zayn collaboration “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever.”

Had injuries to Steph Curry and Draymond Green not impacted the Golden State Warriors season, perhaps they would have been able to hold off the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Instead, they ended up as the third seed in the Western Conference and will face off against Nikola Jokic — likely to be a two-time MVP in the very near future — and the sixth-seeded Denver Nuggets.

It figures to be a hard-fought series, even if the Warriors should still be considered the favorites coming in, and there are some significant questions for both sides to answer when things get started on Saturday night.

How much will injuries impact both teams?

Neither the Warriors or the Nuggets are coming into this series at 100 percent. For Golden State, Stephen Curry seems like he’s going to play when opens this weekend as he comes off of a foot injury that has kept him out for nearly a month. According to Warriors coach Steve Kerr, however, Curry may be on a minutes restriction to start. On top of Curry, Klay Thompson is (understandably) still getting fully back into the flow of things coming off of his two-year absence. To date, he’s not been quite the same player he was pre-injury, and Draymond Green isn’t far removed from a long absence of his own.

If Curry in particular isn’t at 100 percent, Golden State’s margin for error shrinks. On the year, the Warriors were +10.1 points better per 100 possessions with Curry on the floor per Basketball-Reference. As always, he is the engine that makes them go and the Warriors status as healthy favorites (-240 for the series) is based on Curry operating as his usual self, even if in limited minutes.

As for the Nuggets, Jamal Murray’s possible return hangs over this series. As of now, he’s considered doubtful for this series, but not ruled out of the playoffs altogether. Even if he can come back, either in this series a possible second-round series, is it even fair to expect much of Murray after a year away as he just comes back? Had he been able to return in the regular season would have been one thing. A playoff return against a team like Golden State is something different, and more complicated, altogether.

What is the Warriors’ plan to defend Nikola Jokic?

Fun fact: In the four games Denver and Golden State played in the regular season, Draymond Green didn’t play a single minute. In those matchups, Nikola Jokic averaged 28 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists with the Nuggets going 3-1.

Now that Green is back — and starting to play at the level he was at the beginning of the regular season prior to his injury — the Warriors have more looks to throw at Jokic. Kevon Looney will probably start on him, but putting Green at center and having him guard Jokic for stretches is absolutely going to happen. As usual, those lineups are also effective too, with the Warriors outscoring opponents by +10.1 points per 100 possessions when Green is at center per Cleaning The Glass.

How Steve Kerr balances those lineups will be a key point in the series, as will how they decide to defend everyone around Jokic as he posts up. Jokic is too good to just defend one-on-one inside — he’s shooting a career-best 72% at the rim this year, per Cleaning The Glass — so he’ll have to be doubled at times. But how aggressive will those doubles be? Will they be a hard double or simply the closest help defender sliding over just a bit closer to Jokic? And will Kerr elect to be more or less aggressive with them when Green is at the five? The key, more than anything else, may be finding the right balance of aggression and walling off cutters from darting and zipping into the lane around Jokic, allowing him to create easy buckets for his teammates.

Which X-Factor, Golden State’s Jordan Poole or Denver’s Bones Hyland, can stand out?

A key development for the Warriors this year has been the growth of Jordan Poole. He spent time in the G League as recently as last season and wasn’t part of the Warriors teams that won three titles in four years. Now, in his third season, Poole has evolved to be a part of the Warriors’ closing lineups this year and is among the candidates for the league’s Most Improved Player award. Per Cleaning The Glass, he’s made a leap from having a below average true shooting percentage a year ago among guards to a true shooting percentage in the top 20 percent of guards, per Cleaning The Glass, and he’s done that in nearly three times the minutes he played last season.

With Curry potentially on a minutes restriction, Poole becomes even more important. If his regular season play carries over into the postseason, he can help Golden State’s offense thrive when Curry sits. This absolutely could tilt the series in Golden State’s favor. He’s also perhaps the most trustworthy role player on the Warriors roster, particularly as Andrew Wiggins’ shooting has dropped off since the All-Star break. That matters not just here, but in the future playoff rounds if the Warriors have a title run in them this season.

For Denver, Bones Hyland has been an immediate impact rookie at guard — a necessary success while Murray and Michael Porter Jr. have been out. He takes care of the ball, has improved as a passer as the year has gone on, and is shooting 36% from three and 60% at the rim. Those are good numbers in the exact spots where Jokic can best find teammates for open shots. He also excels at getting out on the break, either getting to the rim or pulling up from three with confidence.

There are other x-factor options for the Nuggets, namely Will Barton and Monte Morris. But Hyland has shown something right away and plays a dynamic brand of basketball that arguably gives him a higher ceiling than either Barton or Morris. He can’t replace what Murray offers in full, but he’s perhaps the closest Denver has right now and in this series he is going to have to provide them with a lift off the bench to keep up with Golden State offensively.

Cardi B is flying high this week, appearing on the cover of Essence with her family and popping up in an episode of Baby Shark’s Big Show! to perform a new song, “The Seaweed Sway.” She’s obviously making the most of her status as a crossover pop icon, but that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten where she started. Cardi also got back to her roots this week with another new song that’s completely the opposite of her Baby Shark guest role. Appearing on Kay Flock’s new single “Shake It,” Cardi shows she’s still got ties to the streets that raised her.

However, rather than simply dabbling in the controversial drill style to expand her own resume, she’s using the moment for good. Drill rap has come under fire recently for encouraging gun violence on the streets of New York. While the style’s practitioners say they’re simply recording the life around them, there’s no denying that there’s a link between the gang shootouts and the reporting that drill rappers do in their rhymes. Cardi, however, wants those rappers to make the most of their opportunities with music and leave the streets alone.

“On some G sh*t, yo, let me tell y’all little n****s something,” she said during an Instagram Live stream. “I know it’s a lot of smoke, I know how sh*t goes, but use y’all music to get signed and get the f*ck out the Bronx because it’s only death and indictments out there.” She has a point; even her host on “Shake It,” Kay Flock, is currently in jail, while another rapper who appears on the song, Dougie B, was recently picked up on a probation violation.

Meanwhile, in another video, Cardi explained the difference between the Bronx and Brooklyn drill styles. Check that out below.

The Los Angeles Clippers’ postseason hopes will be decided in a game without Paul George. According to a report by Tim Bontemps and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, star wing Paul George entered the league’s health and safety protocols on Friday and will not be able to take the floor against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night.

The team eventually confirmed that they’ll play a win-or-go-home game for the 8-seed without George.

The Clippers ended up in a spot in the final play-in game after losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night. George had an impressive evening, scoring 34 points and knocking down six of his attempts from three with seven rebounds, five assists, and three steals in 41 minutes of work. If there is a silver lining for Los Angeles, it’s that the team is used to having to win games with George on the sidelines — George only appeared in 31 games during the regular season, with an injury to his right elbow holding him out from mid-December until the end of March.

New Orleans made it to the final play-in game by beating the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. The game between the Pelicans and the Clippers is slated to tip off at 10 p.m. ET on TNT. It’s not the only game with postseason implications on Friday, as the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers will play for the 8-seed in the Eastern Conference at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter just released Brother Johnny, a tribute album to his late brother Johnny Winter, the legendary blues guitarist who tragically passed in 2014. The LP features an array of guests including Joe Bonamassa, Billy Gibbons, Warren Haynes, Steve Lukather, Doyle Bramhall II, Robben Ford, and more.

The most shocking appearance, though, is Taylor Hawkins, whose devastating death last month sent waves of grief through the music world. This is his first posthumous release. The song is titled “Guess I’ll Go Away” and it’s a cover of the opening track from 1970’s Johnny Winter And. Though Hawkins is known for his inimitable drumming, he contributed vocals. (Hawkins was a singer in his side project band, Taylor Hawkins And The Coattail Riders, and his cover band, Chevy Metal.)

Winter wrote about working with Hawkins on his website: “I had only just met Taylor, and barely got to know him, but I was so impressed by his sincerity, positive energy, and pure enthusiasm. He had a unique spontaneous style different from anyone I’ve ever worked with before. I can be very opinionated — but as soon as heard what he was doing, I knew it was best to step back, stay out of the way, and let him do his thing. That session was an experience I will never forget.”

Listen to Hawkins’ cover of “Guess I’ll Go Away” above.

Bob Odenkirk is still thinking about all the love and support he received following his heart attack on the set of Better Call Saul last year. In 2021, Odenkirk had a heart attack while filming Better Call Saul. He has since recovered, thankfully, but things were kind of hairy for a minute. In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Odenkirk opened up about the surreal experience of seeing fans, colleagues, and loved ones show their support.

“It was so affecting,” Odenkirk said. “It’s still something I think about every day. I literally lay in bed at night listening to my heart and thinking about all the people who responded when they heard this happened, and just every chance I get, I want to say thank you to everyone. Social media is a place of poison and evil, and then this moment was just beauty and love from strangers. And I don’t really have it figured out yet except that it felt so damn good and still does. People aren’t as bad as I thought they were. They’re really great”

Odenkirk also talked about the news that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul will be reprising their roles as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul, which premieres Monday, April 18.

“These two shows, Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, have never been as closely intertwined as this new season coming up,” he said. “So it’s very exciting if you’re a Breaking Bad fan I think you’ll enjoy this. I wondered how they got those guys to Albuquerque in secret, and then I found out they’ve never left. They’ve been living on the sets, waiting to play their characters again.”

Tekashi 69 is past the worst of his legal troubles, but just because he’s not in jail anymore doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any more problems. According to TMZ, the controversial New York rapper is being sued by Streamusic over a pair of Hollywood shows he allegedly blew off last December. Streamusic, an app that streams live shows, apparently booked Tekashi for the two concerts, paying him $150,000 in advance. But when the company tried to get him to hold up his end of the arrangement, he stopped responding.

When he finally did get back to Streamusic to reschedule the shows in January, he ghosted them again, even after the company says it sent seven letters (who uses mail anymore?). So, they’ve sued Tekashi for breach of contract and fraud. However, the rapper’s attorney Lance Lazzaro told TMZ, “We have no comment at this time. Tekashi has not been served with any legal papers.”

Of course, the papers could have gotten lost in the veritable avalanche of paperwork the rapper has been served over the past couple of years. In 2021, he was sued by another concert promoter over bailing on a show after being paid in full, after he was sued by his security company over an unpaid bill. Also in 2021, he was sued by a Miami stripper who claimed he threw a champagne bottle during a fight, hitting her instead of the intended target. In 2020, Fashion Nova sued Tekashi for $2.25 million when he didn’t fulfill the terms of a promotion deal.

Last year, rapper G-Eazy shared on Instagram the tragic news of his mother’s passing. The post was as heartfelt as it was heartbreaking: “The shock still won’t let me accept the feeling that I’ll never get to hug you in person again,” he wrote. Today, he returned with a tribute to her with the song “Angel.”

The track watches the rapper settle into vulnerable territory, showcasing his more emotional music influences; against soft, slow sounds he speaks with patience and earnestness: “Can’t find what my faith is / I been lost in this basement / Keep searching and searching / I must be looking in the wrong places,” he contemplates.

But the song builds and grows hopeful; on the chorus, he sings, “‘Cause I met an angel, an angel.” In an interview with People, he explained: “As I was recording the song, I kept feeling the presence of her energy dancing to the chorus. Her favorite thing in the world was to come to my shows, and smoke her joints and dance to my music when I performed.”

In that same interview, he mentioned that he will be starting a scholarship program in honor of his mother. It will be called the Dandelion Scholarship, and it will reward $15,000 to one US arts major annually. Applications open this summer.

Listen to “Angel” above.