Month: July 2022

Jordan Peele is no stranger to making historical pieces of art. In 2019: Us shattered previous horror movie box office records, and now Peele is becoming the first Black director to have their own attraction at a major theme park.

Ahead of Nope’s Friday release, a pivotal set piece known as Jupiter’s Claim Amusement Park has made its way to Universal Studios Hollywood, where it will now live permanently alongside various iconic sets like the Norman Bates house from Psycho and the Back to the Future town square.

The set was taken right from the movie and meticulously put back together on the backlot, which now features merchandise and various photo ops. While the plot details are still slim, it’s clear from the trailers that there is some sketchy stuff happening at this so-called amusement park.

Jon Corfino, vice president of Universal Creative, told The Hollywood Reporter the importance of the mysterious set. “There’s really two essential locations [in Nope], and this is a big one. It all kind of starts here and ends here, so people are going to want to come back after they’ve seen the film.”

Earlier this month, Peele confirmed the move, citing his childhood trips to Universal as a driving force behind his cinematic endeavors. “I remember visiting Universal Studios when I was 12 years old and being mesmerized. That experience reinforced my passion and drive to someday join in on the meta-magic of ‘backlot life.’ Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to direct three movies for Universal. It is a privilege to honor these collaborations with my studio partners, crew members and cast, and to be able to share Jupiter’s Claim with fans.”

Hopefully aliens are not included in future studio tours!

(Via GQ and The Hollywood Reporter)

Later this year, Pat Benatar is set to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. At the moment, though, she’s leaving behind one of the songs that helped her get there: In a new interview, she explained she’s not currently performing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” due to recent mass shootings.

Benatar told USA Today:

“We’re not doing ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ and fans are having a heart attack and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, I’m not singing it.’ I tell them, ‘If you want to hear the song, go home and listen to it.’ [The title] is tongue in cheek, but you have to draw the line. I can’t say those words out loud with a smile on my face, I just can’t. I’m not going to go on stage and soap box — I go to my legislators — but that’s my small contribution to protesting. I’m not going to sing it. Tough.”

Indeed, per Setlist.fm data, Benatar has only played the song twice in 2022.

When asked how things like Roe v. Wade being overturned recontextualize her old material, Benatar said, “Well, ‘Invincible’ is really important. I’m worried, like all of us, about fundamental autonomy rights. This is a slippery slope. It’s about not abortion for me. I’m concerned that people are not paying attention to what this actually means.”

Read the full interview here.

Kate McKinnon was on Saturday Night Live for 11 seasons and 28 Hillary Clinton impressions, but she departed the long-running sketch series after the season 47 finale. While appearing on Live with Kelly and Ryan, the two-time Emmy winner discussed her exit.

“I thought about it for a very long time, and it was very, very hard,” she told hosts Ryan Seacrest and Kelly Ripa during Thursday’s episode. “All I ever wanted to do in my whole life was be on Saturday Night Live. So, I did, I loved it, I had the best decade, and then I was just like, my body was tired, and I felt like it was time.” When asked if she’ll continue to watch the show, McKinnon replied, “I don’t know what I will do. I don’t know that I can watch the show yet because it’s too emo because I miss everyone so much. It’s my family. It’s too emo. So, I think I’m just going to tape The Bachelorette and watch it.”

That’s good advice. The world would be a much better place if everyone took a chill pill and watched The Bachelorette.

McKinnon left Saturday Night Live at the same time as her buddy Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney, but she’s the only one who appears in Barbie. Greta Gerwig is probably saving Mooney for the sequel.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Aesthetically, Channel Tres has carved out a distinct sound for himself that he dubs “Compton House.” Beyond the moniker though, when you hear a Channel Tres track, it’s uncanny. His drums hit with a particular rhythm that’s immediately recognizable as one of his creations, with each subsequent production leveling up the previous work.

Now he has announced his debut album, Real Cultural Sh*t, due out this fall on Godmode. After a flow of stealthy EPs over the last handful of year, including this past March’s fully-instrumental Refresh, this is an anticipated drop for Channel Tres to say the least. Along with the announcement, comes the single “Just Can’t Get Enough” which is absolute flames. Soaked with ’70s disco soul vibe, this is a song of the summer candidate no doubt.

“Some people say this ain’t black music,” Channel Tres says in a statement. “Well it ain’t. It’s black precision. And I’m as precise as they can be.”

Channel Tres has also announced his first headlining tour of North America. You can check out all of those dates below, along with his existing festival plays and support slots for Flume.

Listen to “Just Can’t Get Enough” above and check out the Real Cultural Sh*t album artwork below.

07/24 — Salmo, BC @ Shambhala Festival
08/05 — Denver, CO @ Vortex Festival
08/10 — Budapest, Hungary @ Sziget Festival
08/12 — Buftea, Romania @ Summer Well
08/13 — Copenhagen, Denmark @ Three Days of O
08/14 — Marseille, France @ Baou
08/18 — St. Pölten, Austria @ Frequency Festival
08/19 — Hasselt, Belgium @ Pukkelpop Festival
08/20 — Biddinghuizen, Netherlands @ Lowlands
08/27 — London, UK @ All Points East
08/28 — Saint Cloud, France @ Rock en Seine
09/04 — Chicago, IL @ North Coast Music Festival
09/25 — San Francisco, CA @ Portola Festival
09/27 — Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
09/28 — Albuquerque, NM @ Electric Playhouse
09/30 — Austin, TX @ Emo’s
10/01 — Dallas, TX The @ Echo
10/02 — Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
10/04 — Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
10/06 — Detroit, MI @ Leland City Club
10/07 — Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
10/08 — Montreal, QC @ S.A.T.
10/11 — Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
10/13 — Washington D.C. @ Ai
10/14 — New York, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/11 — Perth, Australia @ Red Hill Auditorium (with Flume)
11/16 — Brisbane, Australia @ Riverstage (with Flume)
11/18 — Sydney, Australia @ The Dome at Sydney Showground (with Flume)
11/24 — Melbourne, Australia @ John Cain Arena (with Flume)
12/06 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
12/07 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
12/10 — San Luis Obispo, CA @ The Fremont Theater
12/14 — Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
12/15 — Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
12/16 — Vancouver, BC @ Celebrities Nightclub

Welp, that didn’t take long. Within hours of the White House disclosing that President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID and is experiencing mild symptoms, Fox News host Joey Jones suggested that it was an act of “karma” after Biden made a gaffe about having cancer. Earlier in the week, Biden misspoke and made it sound like he currently has cancer, prompting the White House to quickly clarify that he was referring to his bout with non-melanoma skin cancer from before he took office. Jones decided to connect the moment with Biden’s COVID diagnosis, but even the Fox News host realized mid-rant that his karma theory might not be the best thing to say right now.

“You don’t want to fool with that. You don’t want to put into the universe something like that,” Jones said about Biden’s cancer gaffe before attempting to soften his remarks. Via The Daily Beast:

“I think life comes at you fast! I think when you’re pretending you had cancer one day and you’ve got COVID the next, you might want to recalibrate how you treat things and how you talk,” Jones declared before backpedaling a bit: “But, you know, I don’t wish bad luck on him and I’m not going to say that’s the reason why, just that maybe it’s a good opportunity for him to have a reality check.”

While Jones went off on this particular tangent, the rest of the network surprisingly handled Biden’s COVID diagnosis with tact. During American Newsroom, Fox News anchor Bret Baier and others repeatedly emphasized the importance of the COVID vaccine and touted their role in keeping Biden out of the hospital, unlike Donald Trump’s pre-election bout with COVID that saw him airlifted from the White House over concerns for his oxygen levels.

According to Mediaite, Baier also brought on two medical experts who continued to hammer home the benefits of Biden being vaccinated and double boosted. Clearly, a better approach than the whole karma thing.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Just when you think that all flavors of pizza have been created, guess again. A new version has rolled out, and it’s taking the internet by storm.

Its name? Watermelon pizza. You read that right. Watermelon + pizza. It’s a thing.

Watermelon Sugar GIF by Harry Styles

Giphy

You might be picturing watermelon as the topping in this unique dish—much like its fruity predecessor, the pineapple. But no. As the creator of watermelon pizza, Oliver Paterson, reveals in his now viral TikTok, the juicy fruit actually serves as the crust.

There are a few key details that make this recipe work, as Paterson, known on TikTok as @elburritomonster, explained to Fox News.

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First, the watermelon has to be grilled on both sides for five minutes prior to toppings, to “remove as much moisture as possible to avoid a soggy mess,” according to Paterson.

It’s also “vital” to substitute the standard tomato-based sauce with barbecue sauce, as “BBQ is already a tried and tested flavor combination with watermelon.” (I for one did not know this to be true, but sweet and tangy is a pretty unbeatable combo.)

@elburritomonster

I can’t actually recommend this enough

♬ Watermelon Sugar – Paul Moonlight

Lastly, Paterson swaps out chorizo for the usual pepperoni. Then, voila. You have a dish that “tastes sweet and smoky, with fatty salty richness,” he told Fox News.

However, get just one of these three things wrong, and the results are less than fruitful. This was the case for Domino’s Pizza in Australia when it tried and hilariously failed to recreate Paterson’s recipe in their own TikTok video.

@dominosau

Y’all keep asking us for a low carb option 😏🍕Nah fr when we saw @elburritomonster make a watermelon pizza, we HAD to give it a go.

♬ original sound – Domino’s Australia

Unsurprisingly, watermelon pizza has sparked a heated culinary debate online. Comments were across the board on this one, ranging between “I’m calling 911” to “I mean… add melted cheese to anything and it would be delicious.”

No one seems to agree on the legitimacy of this new flavor combination. Still, watermelon has undoubtedly done the impossible—using it for pizza has put an end to the war on pineapple.

“Suddenly pineapple on pizza isn’t so bad,” one person admitted in the comments.

Another conceded, “Pineapple on pizza is normal compared to this.”

There you have it, folks. Watermelon isn’t just for outdoor picnics and a Harry Styles song. Not anymore.

Paterson seems to know a thing or two about creating quirky snack options. His TikTok is an online buffet of unique food creations—in particular, epic burritos.

You name it, and the guy has somehow turned it into a burrito. I’m not kidding.

Like this Scotch egg burrito:

@elburritomonster

Would you eat a Chorizo Scotch Egg and Chicken Burrito? 😅

♬ Gone up in Flames – Morning Runner

Why choose between a Scotch egg and a burrito, when you can have both?

Or this made-with-leftovers burrito:

@elburritomonster

Best use of leftover KFC 😋

♬ Paper Planes – M.I.A.

Un-clucking-believable.

And here’s Beef Wellington in burrito form:

@elburritomonster

Have a look at the recipe if you’re in the mood for a ✨ fancy✨ Beef Welly Burrito 😁

♬ original sound – Elburritomonster

The cooking instructions are sung to Billie Eilish, no less.

As for his watermelon pizza, it might become a passing internet trend, as so many things on TikTok do. Or, it might surpass the Hawaiian, who knows? The only thing to know for sure is that life is about all kinds of experimentation.

Since The Atlantic staff writer Kaitlyn Tiffany put out her book Everything I Need I Get From You: How Fangirls Created The Internet As We Know It, Taylor Swift fans, also known as Swifties, came under fire for sharing screenshots of the “Blank Space” singer and her boyfriend Joe Alwyn at a funeral that was being livestreamed.

Swifties, safe in their anonymity usually with handles and avatars that have only to do with Taylor rather than their own identities, replied to the pictures with frantic affection: “Imagine sitting next to her,” “I’m like awww they’re so cute but I’m also like oh no rip HELP,” “the girl sat to next taylor is so lucky.” Some Swifties condemned this behavior (“what is wrong with u”), but it went viral nonetheless, whether for curiosity of seeing their fave or for notoriety that fans would make a spectacle out of such a private, sad event.

Everything I Need I Get From You is a study on this kind of community of devoted, frequently unhinged pop fans called stans. Tiffany taking on this task was undeniably brave; upon its announcement, she received a barrage of hate from stans asking why she was so obsessed with them, despite the fact that she had actually been one when she was younger. Of course, these stans have a reason to worry. Their image has never been clean. They are known for the dark side of their dedication, which mainly consists of harassing people who get in their way, like their fave’s new romantic partner or a harsh critic (Tiffany quotes a tweet of an example of the latter: “I want to f*cking mutilate your insides, feed them to my dog and burn your body in my own personal raging hell.”). But Tiffany’s book is not a takedown — it is an examination, but that is still too much for stans to fathom as well.

“Infatuation is irrational but it can be a precursor to introspection,” Tiffany asserts early on. It is hard to believe. If anything, it seems like the infatuation of these fans is the kind of coping mechanism that is numbing and distracting. But obsession can definitely be multi-dimensional; think Chris Kraus’ I Love Dick, a cult-followed autofiction masterwork that proves the way uncensored, indulgent female obsession can be a vehicle for creativity, knowledge, and power. Tiffany argues that the passion stans feel is similar, instead of the kind of blind consumerism that many think it is.

When I took a class on The Beatles during my last semester of college, my professor showed us photographs on a projector of crowds of hysterical girls. He said, “Let’s talk briefly about Beatlemania.” He clicked through the black and white pictures of the crowds of teenage girls, distraught, crying, possessed, their hands covering their faces or on their heads if they were pulling out their hair. The Beatles were different than any other band, my professor explained, because they allowed women to behave passionately in public with security. They could be assertive, and for once they were not the ones being pursued — they were the pursuers, and the band their object.

Tiffany, though, knows that stan culture cannot be reduced down to this simple explanation. She debunks the myth that One Direction’s fan base is mostly women due to their attraction to the boys; she dives into “Larry,” a shipping of bandmates Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. Tiffany quotes Hannah McCann and Clare Southerton, two cultural studies scholars: “Far more than lusting after their boyband idols, Larries desire desire itself.” This is special, especially for young people who haven’t yet had access to the experience of the intensities and thrills of adulthood: love, sex, yearning, want. In this way, the band is not the object that they are pursuing; One Direction is, instead, a vessel through which fans can escape reality and live vicariously through.

But it is true that being a stan is a route through which a young woman can be free and defy the conventional rules of femininity. Tiffany describes seeing One Direction as a college student: “Outside, the strange things we were capable of feeling were sneered at or smiled off or commercially packaged as ‘girl power,’ but here they were rough and loud. The sounds were ugly,” she wrote. Even if this power that the community holds often manifests in really ugly ways — like accusing Tomlinson’s girlfriend ​​Briana Jungwirth of faking her pregnancy and attempting to prove it by tracking her menstruation cycle(! )— it also came in handy sometimes for the greater good. When Black Lives Matter protests broke out in 2020, K-pop fans flooded hashtags that cops had been using to try to find and criminalize protesters. Fandoms in general also “repurpose[d] news accounts with large followings that usually track chart positions or celebrity Instagram activity to instead disseminate information about the protests,” Tiffany explains, such as “reading material, bail fund links, shareable graphics.”

The best part about the internet age is that everything online is a project that others can become involved in. But this might also be the worst part. The mob mentality will probably never relent. But it also isn’t just exclusive to pop fandoms, or the music scene in general; it’s the entire way the internet operates, and it’s designed for such chaos. What drives more traffic? It is incredibly easy, probably inevitable, for someone to lose their sense of individuality. Tiffany, though, denies that fans are just feeding into the system; they are rebelling against it. What they partake in is democratic, and it’s personal and transgressive; everything they do is an act of their own volition. She even shares quotes from an article hailing One Direction as punk and DIY because of all of the fan’s antics with hacking security cameras and taking charge of music charts by making collective efforts to increase streams for a song, often through clever loopholes.

Tiffany primarily gave stans the benefit of the doubt, and they should be grateful. Everything I Need I Get From You ponders: “Even alone, even in secret, there must be a reason to do what we do.” Though fans can often cross boundaries and get a bad rap, Tiffany finds them redeemable, charming, and fundamental to culture. She knows they have good intentions. They are just doing what everyone else is trying to do — find solace in a tumultuous existence.

Disney+ is officially getting its first batch of R-rated movies. As the festivities for San Diego Comic-Con kick off, the streamer has announced that Deadpool, Deadpool 2, and Logan will hit the platform on Friday, July 22. The films were originally released by 20th Century Fox as part of its X-Men film universe, but the mutants are now under the official Marvel Studios umbrella thanks to Disney’s acquisition of Fox.

While the House of Mouse has added some of the earlier X-Men films to its streaming platform, this marks the first time it’s delved into R-rated features. That said, the three films are fan favorites that crushed it at the box office, so it only makes sense for Disney to use them to expand the value of Disney+. It also shows that Marvel is continuing to dip its toe into more adult waters. Via Polygon:

Deadpool, Deadpool 2, and Logan are unquestionably violent, and those movies have no shortage of salty language and other adult content, but Disney seems open to relaxing its stance on releasing strictly all-ages content. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has said that the next Deadpool movie coming from Disney will be R-rated, and upcoming fare like Blade could be too.

Obviously, Disney+ streaming R-rated films is a concern to parents, but the platform already tackled that problem earlier in the year when it added the Marvel Netflix series to its library. Ahead of those shows jumping streamers, Disney+ implemented parental control features that will keep the platform family-friendly for children while still allowing grown-ups to fully enjoy Deadpool’s raunchy attacks, or an elderly Wolverine stabbing people in the face. There’s something for everybody.

(Via Polygon)