Month: October 2022

Bob Woodward has been promoting his upcoming audiobook, The Trump Tapes, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A collection of audio recordings from Woodward’s conversations with Donald Trump during his tumultuous presidency.

Woodward had previously detailed those interviews in his 2020 book, Rage, which exposed Trump’s openness about lying to the American public about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak. According to his new essay in The Washington Post, the audiobook is Woodward’s efforts to help voters truly understand Trump by letting them hear his actual voice, and the former president is not thrilled.

Trump lashed out at Woodward in a new Truth Social post where he tried to claim that Woodward isn’t authorized to use his voice, which is not how journalism works by the way. Via Mediaite:

As he fully understands, writer Bob Woodward never got my permission to release tapes of my various interviews with him.Those tapes were allowed only for purposes of making sure that he got my quotes & statements correct for “the WRITTEN WORD,” in other words, for his, nevertheless, highly inaccurate book.The tapes are much better than the book, at least if they were not bludgeoned to death by him to make me look as bad as possible, but he & his publisher had NO right to use my “VOICE” or them!

Naturally, Trump has every reason to freak out. The book isn’t even out yet, and so far, Woodward has exposed that Trump knew that his Kim Jong Un letters were classified. Trump bragged that they’re “so top secret,” which flies in the face of his defense that the documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago were declassified. Woodward also revealed that Trump told his youngest son Barron that the Chinese could’ve “fixed” the coronavirus, but didn’t for some reason. Basically, the tapes are pure, unfiltered Trump.

(Via Mediaite)

Towards the end of Taylor Swift’s appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon yesterday (October 24), Swift and Fallon shift gears from discussing her new album, Midnights, to another one of Swift’s favorite subjects: cats. She is a proud owner and cat mom to three, Meredith, Olivia, and Benji. Swift had also noted in her NYU honorary graduation speech that the only way she would be needed as an actual doctor was if someone needed the names of a bunch of cat breeds.

“That was me committing an act of extreme hyperbole,” Swift jokes. “I’ can name fifty cats in five seconds.’ I was trying to make a joke. I don’t think I can actually do that.”

Still, Fallon wants to put her to the challenge of seeing how many cats she can name in thirty seconds. Swift delightfully accepts as the score counter appears in the video. “Scottish fold, ragdoll, ragamuffin,” she begins, rattling off several cat breeds in the process.

Towards the end, she appears to lose count and fumble slightly while still managing to find additional types of cats. “A black cat, a calico cat, a cat that knocks pens off of desks,” Swift finishes — reaching a grand total of 24 types.

Watch the relevant part of Swift’s Tonight Show interview. Fast-forward to 10:00 to see her cat challenge.

As one major HBO property wraps up its first season, a second familial drama show is slated to return sometime in 2023. Fans will need to fill the Daemon-sized hole in their hearts with someone like Logan Roy or Tom Wambsgans, and that will have to do! HBO seems to have waited long enough for another season to keep fans on the edge of their seats, but not too long that people decide to cancel their HBO Max subscription for a few months. So that was nice of them.

The fourth season of the hit series Succession will return next year on HBO, and fans were given a first look earlier this week in a trailer that promises a “rebel alliance” brewing among the Roy family (but StarWars is a Disney property so they can’t really call it that, right?). The fourth season promises to bring all of the shenanigans and superfluous cursing back for another round. Plus: more Alexander Skarsgård!!! As per the official description:

In season four, the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) moves ever closer. The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is complete. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.

Production for season four took place over the summer and fall throughout New York, California, and Norway. While there is no confirmed release date, it’s likely that the Roys will return in the spring of 2023, just a little over a year since season three concluded in December 2021.

HBO Max has a pretty hefty release schedule for next year ahead of its merger with Discovery+, so maybe it’s best to keep those subscriptions active after all. At least until Barry’s final season.

October is ending with arguably the wildest week for the best of new pop music. Two of the biggest pop stars released brand new albums on the same day. One of the previously-mentioned powerhouse performers broke a ton of records with said album, and even released a special 3am Edition with seven new songs as a surprise. In addition, a certain Disney actor returned with another single this week. (It rules.)

Continue scrolling to see everything pop-focused that Uproxx loved this week. Here’s the best new pop music this week.

Taylor Swift — “Sweet Nothing”

On Taylor Swift’s Midnights album, “Sweet Nothing” serves as the soft side to all the hints of Reputation-era energy early on in the tracklist (“Karma” and “Vigilante Sh*t”). Co-written with her longtime partner, the two find comfort in one another and the little moments as they manage to ignore all the external drama surrounding them. However, as most Swift songs go, the bridge stands out as the most heartbreaking part. “And the voices that implore, you should be doing more / To you, I can admit, that I’m just too soft for all of it,” she notes, tying it with “You’re On Your Own, Kid” and “Would’ve, Could’ve Should’ve” as the album’s saddest.

Carly Rae Jepsen – “Surrender My Heart”

Carly Rae Jepsen opens her new album with “Surrender My Heart,” a song that sparkles as the arpeggiating synths propel it forward. Despite being one of the shortest run times on the record, it sets the tone for the themes to come. “I’m trying not to f*ck this up,” Jepsen declares just before the pre-chorus kicks in. There’s tinges of sadness, but at its core, it is a carefree dance anthem about craving openness in a relationship.

Ellie Goulding — “Let It Die”

“Let It Die” carries a similar dance floor energy, just with the production over Ellie Goulding’s vocals giving the song more of an EDM feel rather than pure pop. As a single, it’s not quite Goulding’s strongest — compared to her past hits of “Love Me Like You Do” and “Lights” — as the electronic style seems to take over the track. She has a powerful and recognizably unique voice, which deserves the chance to shine. It is, however, perfect if you take it as a quick-paced party play, earning it a spot on this list.

Blu DeTiger — “Elevator”

Bass queen Blu DeTiger is back with a new single, “Elevator.” Gritty and incredibly catchy, she brings a blend of retro indie rock vibes with a story about a nighttime party scene. “Call your mama, call your karma, I don’t wanna dance with you,” DeTiger detests before recognizing, “I can be a big shot too.” It’s one of those nights where you just want to do your own thing, and won’t let anybody stop you.

Joshua Bassett — “I’m Sorry”

Opening with a somber acoustic guitar line, Joshua Bassett’s latest weekly single, “I’m Sorry,” is a sympathetic message to someone he used to love. He paints pictures, from writing songs after a few drinks late at night to wondering whether someone’s mother hates him. At the end of all of it, he takes the blame and is incredibly apologetic to the unnamed person.

Caroline Polachek — “Sunset”

“Sunset” is a fast-paced, flamenco-inspired single from Caroline Polachek that shines on the instrumental and production style. The music video finds Polachek at a party, driving through the streets of Barcelona, and wandering the beach… just as the sunset comes. Through it all, she encapsulates wanting to run away with a relationship — all while providing some fun claps in the background.

Katherine Li — “Miss Me Too”

Katherine Li opens “Miss Me Too” with a sample of a voice recording, where she warns listeners that she “just woke up” and “it might be a little rough.” The exact opposite proves true, as Li glides through the song, despite the emotional detailing about her feelings of reminiscing on a relationship. Her message boils down to one line in the chorus: “I hope that you still miss me too.”

Emlyn — “Girl’s Girl”

Bringing the pop-rock fire, “Girl’s Girl” is Emlyn’s take on supporting fellow women when it comes to handling toxicity. Each line is biting, bringing a unique rhyme as it digs at a certain type of man. “So, she broke your PS4 / But didn’t you go and break her to her core?” Yeah.

Bishop Briggs — “Superhuman”

Bishop Briggs’ “Superhuman” places her powerful vocals at the forefront, with a soft piano ballad about making it through tough times. By the chorus and second verse, Briggs transforms the song by introducing layered harmonies and percussion. The enthusiasm she has for someone surviving “the eye of the storm” explodes by the end, truly carrying home the message.

Kenzie — “100 Degrees”

Kenzie might be most recognizable for her past appearances on Dance Moms. However, her new single “100 Degrees” proves she has the power to propel her career in music forward. A synth-heavy pop hit-in-the-making, Kenzie weaves in autobiographical lyricism to piece together the picture about missing someone. “Tell me, is your halo heavy?” she poses on the second verse. Sleek and seamless, there is serious potential for this one to go far, especially with TikTok’s popularity.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Things are a bit of a mess in England right now, and not even Jeopardy! can keep up with all the drama. The English government has been thrown into chaos in recent weeks following a series of scandals and resignations in the Conservative Party, currently in leadership of the island nation.

Earlier in the summer, prime minister Boris Johnson resigned following a long list of scandals. In his place, the Torys put forward Liz Truss to lead the government. It was nothing short of a disaster, with an economic plan that cratered the economy and the value of the pound, and contributed to increasing inflation. Faced with enormous pushback, Truss resigned after just 50 days, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom. The next closest person on the list, to give you some context here, died in 1827 of tuberculosis after 119 days in office.

Her resignation late last week sparked a rushed search to find a replacement and will make Rishi Sunak, the new Tory leader, the nation’s third prime minister in just months. It’s a lot to keep track of, which is perhaps why everyone blanked on Truss’s name when it was an answer on Monday’s Jeopardy! game. Appearing in the “News Makers and Writers 22” category of the show’s second round, the question was in context of the late Queen Elizabeth’s final public act before her death in September.

“Queen Elizabeth II’s last appearance was to appoint this woman as the 15th prime minister of her majesty’s reign,” host Ken Jennings asked three contestants in the show’s Second Chance Tournament. Which would mean this episode taped sometime after the death of Queen Elizabeth and before Truss resigned last week. It’s amazing that the show managed to future-proof the question a bit so she’s not mentioned as the current PM because that would have been amazingly incorrect just weeks after the episode taped.

It’s small, but it’s yet another slight that Truss has to deal with now, with Jeopardy! viewers knowing her fate as PM has already been sealed well before this question made it to air. What’s worse, no one could come up with her name on the show despite it being very recent news at the time of taping. Which means that, until the sun explodes and civilization is finally put to bed, Liz Truss will be a great answer to a very obscure set of trivia questions. Maybe Jeopardy! can mention the infamous head of lettuce that outlasted Truss next time she comes up, too.

YG’s new album, I Got Issues, is out now via Def Jam, and in between releasing videos like “How To Rob A Rapper,” “Maniac,” and “Alone” to promote it, he’s just released the dates for his upcoming tour. The Red Cup Tour will start in January in Denver and run through February, concluding in Honolulu. He’ll be supported on the tour by fellow Los Angeles area artists OhGeesy and Kalan.FrFr, as well as his own 4Hunnid artists Day Sulan and D3szn. Tickets go on sale on October 28 at 10 am local time. You can see the full tour dates below.

01/20 –- Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium^
01/22 –- Salt Lake City, UT @ The Great Saltair^
01/24 –- Garden City, ID @ Revolution Concert House & Event Center^
01/26 –- Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater^
01/28 –- Vancouver, BC @ PNE FORUM^
01/29 –- Portland, OR @ Theater of the Clouds^
01/31 –- Reno, NV @ Reno Events Center^
02/1 –- Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena!
02/2 –- Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum!
02/4 –- San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena!
02/6 –- Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre^
02/15 -– Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory^
02/17 -– Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit^
02/18 –- Toronto, ON @ HISTORY^
02/19 –- Queens, NY @ The Knockdown Center^
02/20 –- Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway^
02/23 –- Honolulu, HI @ Neal S. Blaisdell Center^*

^Support from OhGeesy, Kalan.frfr, Day Sulan, and D3szn
! Support from OhGeesy, Day Sulan, and D3szn

What’s exciting about a Stray Kids album promotion is the fact that Stay (their fans) get spoiled like it’s the 12 Days Of Christmas. The lead single of their EPs or studio albums isn’t the only thing getting a music video. Some of their own B-side tracks get the video treatment as well.

Dropping earlier today at midnight KST, Stray Kids goes from realizing how madly in love they are with someone in “Case 143” to curiously wanting to know more about their love interest in “Give Me Your TMI.” (For context, TMI is shortened for “too much information.” But in Korean lingo, it’s used as a phrase to get to know someone better by basically asking them what’s something, either personal or random, about them they haven’t told anyone.) Dressed like young James Bonds as if it were spinoff of The Kingsman: Secret Service (but better), Stray Kids’ “Give Me Your TMI” music video is a metaphorical visual telling the story of overcoming obstacles (check out the hi-tech watches, goggles and umbrellas) in order to get to know more about the person they’re interested in.

The B-side track off of the group’s MAXIDENT! album was written by Stray Kids’ Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han — best known as 3RACHA — and also co-composed by them with NEWTYPE’s TAK and 1Take.

The Minnesota Timberwolves got thumped by the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night in a rather dismal performance at home, dropping them to 2-2 on the season despite opening the year as heavy favorites in all four games — their two wins have been against the Thunder and the other loss was to the Jazz.

It has not been the start Minnesota was hoping for coming off the Rudy Gobert trade that was supposed to vault them further into the contender class out West. While it still might do that, the early returns indicate there’s a lot more work to do to get everyone on the same page this season, with defensive issues standing out in particular. Anthony Edwards took responsibility for looking flat in the second game of a back-to-back after the loss, as he had just nine points against the Spurs, and Karl-Anthony Towns was asked what he can do as a leader to help get Edwards at the level he needs to be.

Towns had an interesting response, calling out Edwards’ eating habits and wanting the young star to take more care of his body so he can be more consistent game-to-game with his energy.

The last two years, Edwards has made clear his love of Popeyes and McDonald’s in postgame pressers, as KAT references, but these comments are particularly interesting considering Edwards made a declaration prior to camp that he had cut out his beloved fried foods this season.

Either that’s not been the case and Edwards has been still on the Uber Eats grind to start the year, or Towns hasn’t realized his young co-star has made those changes already to try and be in better shape this season. Neither option is great, but the latter might be worse because for Towns to call out something like this publicly when that change has already been made feels like adding unnecessary stress to the locker room.

All of this falls away if the Wolves can piece together a winning streak, but it’s certainly not been an ideal start to the season in Minnesota where there is apparent work to do on the court and off to bring everyone onto the same page.

Welcome to the Fresh Pair post-show huddle! After episodes of Fresh Pair, we’ll link up with Katty Customs to talk about the latest episode and dig deep behind the scenes to uncover hidden gems from the design process that didn’t make the main show.

On the latest episode, Katty and Just Blaze were joined by Harlem rapper and one half of The Diplomats, Jim Jones, who was gifted a custom one-of-one mid-rise Air Force 1 that touched on several aspects of Jones’ career and general vibe and paid tribute to his El Capo and Vampire Life albums.. If Jones’ “Vamp Life” brand were a sneaker, it’d be this custom AF-1, without question.

We linked up with Katty to talk the concept of her design for Jones and how she and Just Blaze collaborated to make this sneaker something truly special. Let’s dive in.

Take us behind the custom sneaker for Jim Jones. What was the concept here?

Jim Jones’ sneaker was really fun to work with. We did a few things, we wanted to incorporate the E.K.G. symbol because his sister has a health situation and he once saved his photographer after they passed out. Luckily he was there to perform CPR. So we thought there was something great there == with him being the heart of the collective, the Diplomats, and having a hero’s heart. In addition to the CPR, he basically was raised to help his sister with her condition growing up. We put his logos on there, the Vamp Life. We incorporated roses to represent the El Capo album.

Jim and the Diplomats operated a lot like a military organization — their structure. So we used a Nike Air Force 1 boot to conjure that. He’s like a rockstar — so we put the chains on there, we wrapped it. We put the Velcro strap. Those rockstar chains shine and show a little bling. We added reflective material and used his “Vamp Life” tag and his El Capo logo, which is the skull logo, we put that on the shoes.

We wanted to give him his roses. So on the Nike Swoosh, we drew roses on there to give him his flowers. We also made his shoes out of chalk, the front part, the mud guard. We also incorporated that, because he’s done a great job dropping game to the young generation.

In relation to the E.K.G. stuff and referencing his sister’s health condition, was it hard to get that personal or was that kind of an inspiring aspect of the design for you?

I think that was a very inspiring and it was definitely hard to make too, because we had to add to the Air logo and make it look just as good as the Air logo that’s on the side of the shoe on the mid sole. So, that was crazy.

Why the Air Force 1? Was that the kind of militant vibe the shoe has?

Yeah, we definitely felt like it was the perfect shoe for the military intent for sure.

What was your relationship to Jim Jones’ music before making this sneaker?

I was definitely listening to Jim Jone’s music. I was a fan, but we have to learn more about the artist before even putting the shoe together, I definitely learned a lot about him before creating his shoes. He’s tough, but he has a good heart and that’s really good to know about him, those are things that I just didn’t know.

I just love to see real things, you know what I’m saying? Real things from real people, so it was pretty cool. I was already a fan before, but learning about him and making him a one-of-one shoe made me even a bigger fan.

In your opinion, what was Just’s best contribution to this one? What did he lay out that really inspired you and pushed you to make a dope design?

Just was so involved in this design. He talked about the reflective material on the black colorway. He suggested that we make the shoe black, we wanted make the shoes really dope, but we didn’t want to use a lot of color. So we wanted to do something really cool and wondered, how can we make these shoes dope without using so many colors? He thought it would be cool to do the reflective material for Vamp Life print. And the roses, giving him the flowers and the E.K.G. element, to make it glow, that was really cool.

And how’d you feel about Jim Jones’ reaction?

Oh, he loved it. I felt good about his reaction. He’s a cool guy, so he wasn’t like, “Ooh,” but you could tell that he really liked his shoes. He said, “We did our thing,” so I’m happy.

What’s a good price for this pair?

I’ll say about 4,500.

So 1k more than TI? Are we going to keep going up until the season finale?

Yeah, we’re going to go up. We’re going to keep going up! The more we do on the shoes, the more that is going to go up, for sure.

What would be on the Jim Jones 2 and what sneaker are you using?

Oh, I say we should do either a low top Air Force 1 or a Nike Air Max. I know he likes Air Max 1’s. So if we could do the second pair, I say let’s do an Air Max 1, for sure. I know he likes Air Maxes. And we’d probably do something with more color, more towards his personal style.

Nicolas Cage was one of the highest-paid actors of the early 2000s, reportedly raking in $20 million for Gone in Sixty Seconds, Windtalkers, and National Treasure. Not $20 million total, but $20 million each. By the late 2010s, however, he was making a fraction of that. Between 2017 and 2019, Cage appeared in 15 live-action films, and his fee for the predominantly VOD-type movies fell in the $1 million to $1.5 million range. Some of those films, like cult classic Mandy and Color Out of Space, were critical hits and he probably earned decent money for voice roles in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but, well, dinosaur skulls don’t pay for themselves.

Things changed for Cage once Pig came out.

The eccentric actor didn’t get the Oscar nomination he deserved, but the quietly bonkers, expectations-defying drama was the most critically-acclaimed film of his career. Its humble success “allowed the actor to raise his price. One indie movie source says Cage’s quote is now $4 million,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

He returned in earnest with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent… then he booked a chewy role as Dracula in Universal’s upcoming vampire thriller Renfield. Sources tell THR that the actor was paid $7 million to lead Massive Talent and received close to $3 million for Renfield for a supporting role.

$7 million is no $20 million, but Cage is in “various stages of discussions for sequels” to National Treasure and Face/Off, so give him a few more years. He’ll be back to buying king cobras in no time (keep them away from the cats, though).