Month: July 2022

Earlier in the month, Ryan Gosling fielded an interview question about his rumored talks with Marvel Studios. The actor quickly shut the topic down by telling Happy Sad Confused podcast host Josh Horowitz, “I don’t know anything about Nova” and joked that “I was waiting for the Captain Canada call.” While that seemed like the end of that discussion, Gosling made an interesting move the next morning by reaching out to Horowitz and letting him know that, actually, there is a Marvel character he’d love to play: Ghost Rider.

Armed with this information, Horowitz caught up with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend and let him know that Baby Goose wants to turn into a motorcycle-riding skeleton. Despite being a master of secrets, Feige didn’t even try to hide his excitement at the idea of Gosling joining the MCU, which just massively expanded its upcoming slate.

Via Variety:

“Hey man, if Ryan wants to be Ghost Rider…” Feige said when he learned about Gosling’s Marvel pitch. Even when Feige was informed that “The Walking Dead” favorite Norman Reedus is also on record wanting to play Ghost Rider, the Marvel Studios boss responded, “Gosling’s unbelievable. Ryan is amazing… I’d love to find a place for him in the MCU. He’s dressed up as Ken on Venice Beach and gets more press than giant movies coming out that weekend. It’s amazing.”

Our condolences to Norman Reedus during this difficult time.

(Via Variety)

For weeks, the New York Knicks have been the presumptive front-runner to land three-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell. Among their wealth of future first-round picks, bevy of complementary young players and Mitchell’s connection to New York City, the Knicks seemed primed, at some point, to acquire him.

However, according to a recent report from The Athletic’s Shams Charania, New York is not the lone suitor aiming to trade for the 25-year-old star. Charania writes that “along with New York, several other teams have expressed interest to the Jazz when it comes to Mitchell, such as Washington, Miami, Toronto, Charlotte, Sacramento and Atlanta.”

Further, Charania noted that Mitchell has not requested a trade or “attempted to force his way out of Utah.” If the franchise does pivot toward a total rebuild, though, “Mitchell would prefer to be in an environment geared toward winning now, not later.”

Among the teams Charania specifically mentioned, Toronto seems like the most obvious suitor to rival New York, given Utah’s reported preference for a return package. The Heat could deal Tyler Herro, but like RJ Barrett, he’s in line for a new, well-deserved, lucrative contract soon and it seems the Jazz do not want to be tied up in significant long-term money as they shift to a rebuilding phase.

Meanwhile, Toronto sports various intriguing young players, has future picks and could greatly benefit from Mitchell’s offensive exploits in the backcourt. Prior to trading for Dejounte Murray, the Hawks would’ve been an interesting fit, but now seems highly unlikely to really be in the mix. The Mitchell-Trae Young duo presents clear defensive concerns, but that offensive firepower could have certainly been explosive. I remain intrigued by a Mitchell-LaMelo Ball guard tandem and think they complement each other’s offensive styles rather well, but whether the Hornets have the assets to land Mitchell remain to be seen.

I do wonder how much influence Mitchell will ultimately hold in determining where he ends up, if he is actually moved. If immediate winning is the goal, I’m not sure many of these suitors can offer that at a substantial level. Miami, Toronto and New York could — contingent on what exactly they give up — but Sacramento, Washington and Charlotte seem more precarious as it pertains to being a win-now situation. Atlanta would be excellent with three All-Stars at the helm, but its lack of draft capital post-Murray trade likely takes it out of the true contenders for Mitchell.

This feels, at least in part, to be the Jazz making sure the Knicks know it’s not just a one-team negotiation and that there are potentially other options out there.

KYLE doesn’t stop. After making a name for himself with a couple of acclaimed mixtapes, the multi-hyphenate artist has been on a steady pace of releases ever since his debut album, Light Of Mine, in 2018. Over the past four years, the rapper, singer, and songwriter has appeared as the lead in Netflix’s The After Party, given us the excellent follow-up to his debut, See You When I Am Famous, this year’s very worthy It’s Not So Bad, and now he’s hitting the silver screen once more with his new film (and perhaps best project to date!), Allie & I.

The short film, which is available to stream on YouTube, and a very creepy website dubbed TheInternetDoesntLoveYou, was written by Kyle Harvey, along with Jesus, Araujo, and Tomás Whitmore, who also directed the project, and stars KYLE and Kota Eberhardt — who steals the show as the titular Allie, a stand-in for the intoxicating allure of social media.

The film opens with ominous tracking shots and cryptic birdsong and tells the story of an artist who gets sucked into a world of fame and social media obsession and slowly starts to lose his mind in the process. Like a lot of visual projects KYLE is involved in, Allie & I has a dreamlike hallucinatory quality — dude loves exploring the complex tapestry of the human mind. Using visual poetry and sound design, the short movie weaves a tale that’ll constantly have you questioning what’s real and what’s imagined.

Is Allie a dream? A figment of Kyle’s imagination? Is she social media as seductress? Or is she — and I know this sounds crazy — a bird? Something is going on with birds in this film and we want answers even though we know it’s making us seem like the Charlie Day conspiracy meme!

The answer is never explicitly revealed but it’s fun to get lost in all of the questions. It definitely warrants a re-watch because on a second viewing you’ll start to notice the clues Whitmore and Harvey have cleverly laid out. The eerie and unsettling vibe reminds us of Satoshi Kon’s psychological thriller Perfect Blue, an anime that is name-checked in the film and shares Allie & I’s dream-bordering-on-nightmare themes.

For an artist who consistently one-ups himself, Kyle’s latest project feels like more like a leap than a simple next step. Catch the full film above and lay out your theories in the comments!

While Doja Cat has been recovering from having throat surgery, she’s been active on social media, using her accounts to keep fans up to date on her life offstage. Fortunately for them, the thing she’s most known for outside of music is her hilariously trollish online antics. She’s also an expert thirst trapper, and her latest post combines both interests into a funny but enticing twofer.

In an Instagram post over the weekend, Doja showed off her “first ever tattoo” via a mirror selfie. Wearing a revealing string bikini (along with a cowboy hat and kitten heels, for some reason) and posing strategically to show off the new “ink” on her bum, Doja’s new post turned out to be cheeky in more ways than one. In the next slide, she zooms in to reveal that the classic, heart-shaped tattoo, which reads “Sex Goddess,” is just a temporary one… but I don’t think that’s what most folks were paying the most attention to in the first place. The comments on the post reveal her followers’ affection for the “artwork,” although there’s plenty of attention for the kitten heels too.

I’m sure Doja appreciates this attention more than the scrutiny she’s gotten over the last couple of weeks after she DMed Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp to ask him for his co-star Joseph Quinn’s contact info.

The Oval Office during Donald Trump’s four years as president was dubbed the “Star Wars bar” because it “always contained so many odd characters.” If only Kid Rock and Rudy Giuliani were as lovable as Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes and Momaw Nadon.

The teetotaling former-president would not indulge in a glass of Yatooni Boska, but as an American who was in his early 30s when A New Hope was released, he couldn’t resist making a Star Wars reference while raging at Fox and Friends, as one does.

“@foxandfriends just really botched my poll numbers, no doubt on purpose,” Trump wrote on alt-right Twitter knockoff TRUTH Social on Monday morning. “That show has been terrible – gone to the ‘dark side.’ They quickly quote the big Turning Point Poll victory of almost 60 points over the number two Republican, and then hammer me with outliers. Actually, almost all polls have me leading all Republicans & Biden BY A LOT. RINO Paul Ryan, one of the weakest and worst Speakers EVER, must be running the place. Anyway, thank you to Turning Point, the crowd & ‘love’ was AMAZING!”

Trump was responding to a recent poll conducted at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit conference that found 78.7 percent of attendees would vote for Trump, compared to 19 percent for his chief competitor, Ron DeSantis, and 0.03 percent for Ted Cruz (the poll must have a 0.03 percent margin of error).

Fox and Friends was not convinced:

Here’s another Star Wars reference for you: “Somehow Trump returned” — me in 2024 if he wins again

(Via Raw Story)

After a very quiet week on the trade rumor front, Monday morning brought an unexpected wave of information about the two biggest stars on the trade market currently — Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell.

A few intel dumps from NBA newsbreakers published in the morning, with reporting on a group of teams that have inquired about Mitchell as well as a new team that’s poked around about KD — the reigning Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics. The Celtics offseason has been plenty busy, with the addition of Malcolm Brogdon in a splashy trade after free agency began, but Brad Stevens apparently hasn’t stopped looking for ways to upgrade the roster of a team that fell just a bit short in the Finals.

Shams and Woj both reported on Monday morning that the Celtics had offered a package with Jaylen Brown as the centerpiece to Brooklyn for Durant, with Derrick White and some picks also going to the Nets, but had been turned down. It’s unclear exactly when this overture was made — there’s some scuttle it might be a bit of old news being refreshed in the middle of the offseason lull — but it certainly raised eyebrows considering how important Brown was to Boston’s run to the Finals.

Brown, for his part, saw the reports and offered a succinct response on Twitter.

It’s a guarantee that the side that leaked this information was Brooklyn, as Boston would have no incentive to possibly disrupt what had been to that point a happy offseason with a happy locker room. Instead, they now have at least a bit of work to do to smooth things over with Brown, who understandably isn’t thrilled by the news (even if Boston calling and seeing about a Brown for Durant swap makes plenty of sense basketball wise). The Nets seem to want to drum up some more urgency from the rest of the league to put forth better offers, making sure that other teams know a bonafide All-Star in Brown was offered along with picks and more and they said no, as they continue to set the bar almost impossibly high for a KD trade — one could also argue it is impossibly high and that’s being done on purpose because they don’t actually want to trade him and instead would rather just run it back one more year, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Pearl Jam was set to conclude their European run of shows today, but unfortunately, some health issues with Eddie Vedder have put that in jeopardy. The band’s last performance came in Paris for Lollapalooza’s showcase in the city, and it was there that smoke from a wildfire nearby — together with heat and dust — caused damage to Vedder’s throat. The band’s next show in Vienna, Austria was canceled as Vedder sought treatment, but it turns out Vedder needs additional time as Pearl Jam was forced to cancel two additional shows.

The first canceled performance was in Prague on July 22 while the remaining show was the first of a two-night stand in Amsterdam on July 24-25. Pearl Jam shared a statement about the canceled performances on their Twitter page. “In spite of continuous medical treatment, Ed is regretfully still without a voice and unable to perform tonight’s show at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam,” the band wrote. “This is again the worst possible scenario for the band. We wholeheartedly apologize to those that worked so hard to put on the show and those supporters we looked forward to seeing.”

Pearl Jam noted that tickets for the July 24 canceled show would be refunded while the band works to ensure that a performance on July 25 is possible. “All our energies will now be focused on having a show tomorrow,” the band noted, adding that Vedder has been getting “continuous medical treatment.”

You can view the statement from Pearl Jam above.

Apple TV’s workplace comedy Mythic Quest has had quite a turbulent run. The first season debuted in February 2020 to rave reviews, and then the pandemic hit, which caused the second season to be delayed before causing the worst COVID outbreak of any show in Los Angeles while filming season two in 2021. But, the third season of the much-loved streaming series seems to signify things slowly coming back to normal. Well, as normal as a show about a massive RPG can be.

The trailer for season three picks up right where the show left off after Ian and Poppy left Mythic Quest HQ. As expected, the new season hits all the trending tech topics of the last year and a half: the Metaverse, VR headset, and of course NFTs, or as Sue exclaims, “No F*cking Thanks.” The show stars Rob McElhenney, David Hornsby, Charlotte Nicdao, Ashley Burch, Imani Hakim, Danny Pudi, and Jessie Ennis.

The crew presented the trailer this weekend at Comic-Con, and co-creator Megan Ganz confirmed there would be a flashback episode that dives into Poppy and Ian’s relationship. “It’s a bit of an origin story about Poppy and Ian,” said Ganz. “Do comic book people like origin stories?” They do!

Mythic Quest was renewed for a fourth season, which is expected to air sometime in 2023. Season three will debut this fall on Apple TV. Check out the trailer above.

Joe Rogan is firing back at accusations that he’s a “secret conservative.” While defending gay marriage from Republican attacks, the controversial podcaster made it clear that the issue is just one of the things that keeps him from joining the party. “It’s so homophobic,” Rogan said. “The fact that they’re going after that now, like that’s the kind of sh*t that keeps me from being a Republican.”

However, Rogan is clearly aware that people think he’s a right-wing figure because of his political stances, and he made it a point to shut down that talking point. Via Mediaite:

“People will say like, ‘Oh, you know, you’re a secret conservative.’ Like you can suck my d*ck. You don’t know what the f*ck you’re talking about. I’m so far away from being a Republican. Just because I believe in the Second Amendment and just because I support the military and just cause I support police,” he continued. “Like I was on welfare as a kid. I think it’s important. I think having a social safety net is crucial. We should help each other. We’re supposed to be one big community. I’m a bleeding heart liberal when it comes to a lot of sh*t.”

As Rogan himself admits, he does come down on the conservative side for issues like gun control and supporting the police. However, he notably left out his anti-vaccine stance, history of anti-trans remarks, and his penchant for using the N-word. Rogan has also been a vocal opponent of “cancel culture” and has railed against censorship on social media. These are all hugely right-wing perspectives, so it’s hard to take Rogan at his word that he’s a “bleeding heart liberal” even if he has been hammering Donald Trump recently and standing up for gay marriage. The podcast host might not be an outright Republican, but he’s definitely deep inside the ball park.

(Via Mediaite)

Last week, internet darlings Coast Contra joined People’s Party with Talib Kweli — starring Kweli and co-host Jasmin Leigh — to talk about their unique lane as one of the coldest quartets in modern hip-hop. The episode was a natural fit for a show that often zeros in on rap’s mid-90s golden age, as Coast Contra specializes in rhymes that balance that era’s party-rocking energy with clever wordplay and intelligent resistance to ignorance.

Kweli’s interview with the crew covers everything from their initial inspiration and creative approaches in the studio to growing as men beyond the music. The vibes and knowledge exchanges are top tier from front to back.

Near the end of the episode, Kweli invited Ras and Taj Austin, RioLoz, and Eric Jamal to drop some bars — which Kweli found so inspiring that he dropped some unreleased flows of his own. It’s a pure hip-hop moment that bridges generations. Next time someone tells you OGs and new heads don’t vibe well, show them this episode.

Watch the full People’s Party with Talib Kweli episode with Coast Contra below.