Month: November 2022

Elon Musk walked into Twitter headquarters in San Francisco last week carrying a kitchen sink, allowing him to tweet a pun about his $44 billion takeover of the social media company. On Friday, however, the realities of thousands of layoffs and a slew of advertisers fleeing the platform seems to finally be sinking in for the self-appointed Twitter CEO.

Musk’s Twitter is having a bad week, to say the least. Reports indicate that about half the workforce is expected to be fired on Friday, and a lack of internal communication in the company has put those that remain on edge. Musk has toyed with new revenue streams to keep the company afloat, especially after leveraging $13 billion in debt onto the company as part of his purchase. Which is probably why this tweet on Friday complaining that advertisers are fleeing the platform is bad news all around.

“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” Musk wrote Friday. “Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”

It’s a very Trump-like thing to Tweet, as many people pointed out. And amid all the bluster of his takeover and the human cost of massive layoffs, it’s hard to parse any of this as good news for the future of the company. Blaming activists or not, Musk isn’t hiding the fact that advertisers aren’t buying his message that a platform littered with unmoderated free speech is a good place to put ads for less inherently racist things like soda and laundry detergent.

That said, what’s left of Twitter’s content moderation team seems to have a sense of humor about the whole ordeal. Shortly after Musk’s tweet was sent out, suggested context was added to it by users in an attempt to limit disinformation on the social media platform.

More worryingly, perhaps, are reports that a half-strength Twitter may not be ready for election day in the United States next week. And with an unproven new verification system set to launch a day before people go to the polls, things really could get much worse from here.

But hey: at least Elon still has his memes.

This article originally appeared on 11.13.19

Ask almost any woman about a time a man said or did something sexually inappropriate to them, and she’ll have a story or four to tell. According to a survey NPR published last year, 81% of women report having experienced sexual harassment, with verbal harassment being the most common. (By contrast, 43% of men report being sexually harassed. Naturally harassment toward anyone of any sex or gender is not okay, but women have been putting up with this ish unchecked for centuries.)

One form of verbal sexual harassment is the all too common sexist or sexual “joke.” Ha ha ha, I’m going to say something explicit or demeaning about you and then we can all laugh about how hilarious it is. And I’ll probably get away with it because you’ll be too embarrassed to say anything, and if you do you’ll be accused of being overly sensitive. Ha! Won’t that be a hoot?

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Perhaps women’s familiarity with such episodes is why writer Heather Thompson Day’s tweet about asking her male boss to explain a sexual joke to her has had such an enormous response. Day told a story of working at a radio station when she was 19 when her boss, who was in his mid-40s, made an inappropriate comment:

“When I was 19 my boss said I should be a phone sex operator & laughed.

I said ‘I don’t get it’

He said ‘it’s a joke’

I said ‘explain it to me’

& that’s how I learned that once sexual harrassers have to explain why their inappropriate jokes are funny, they stop laughing.”

Day’s tweet has been shared more than 130K times. Other women also chimed in with similar stories of stopping sexist men in their tracks with their responses to inappropriate jokes.

RELATED: Woman’s explanation for being ‘standoffish to men in public’ brings up an important point about unwanted attention.

What’s baffling is that some men may think that women actually might respond positively to such jokes. One woman simply responds to random harassers with “Please tell me about the last time this worked on an actual woman for you.” Works every time.

Of course, sometimes it takes more than just a no nonsense response to get some dudes to back off.

RELATED: Emma Watson launches hotline that provides women legal advice on workplace sexual harassment

Sometimes it simply takes repeatedly being called out, especially if a man holds a position of power.

As one woman pointed out, it might take the threat of being documented to put an end to it. (Or, you know, actually documenting it can do wonders as well.)

Several men jumped into the conversation with words of support—and even a wicked burn about mansplaining.

Because of course plenty of men are bothered by sexist “jokes” as well and understand that genuine jokes can be explained without hesitation or embarrassment.

Men can also use a similar approach when confronting their friends, acquaintances, and colleagues when inappropriate comments or jokes come up.

In fact, Heather Thompson Day said it was her dad who originally instructed her on how to respond to men’s inappropriate comments. “Don’t laugh,” he told her. “Ask them to explain the joke. They will stop making them.” Well done, Dad.

It was also pointed out that this approach works with “jokes” that are racist, homophobic, or otherwise harmful as well. When people have to explain their prejudice and bigotry, they usually can’t.

And then there’s always the next level “You remind me of someone heinous” response, which may be a bit brutal, but is sometimes necessary to drive home the point.

People in marginalized groups have had to put up with hurtful jokes for far too long. Asking people to explain them and making them sit in the discomfort of their own filth is an excellent way to shut that garbage down.

As excited as fans were for Drake and 21 Savage’s joint album Her Loss after its tongue-in-cheek rollout, the actual product has proven to be more controversial than anything else in its first 12 hours. Two of Drake’s music industry industry peers have spoken out against some of the lyrical content, he’s facing backlash for references to one of them, and now, another public figure he apparently mentions on the album has some thoughts.

On the song “Middle Of The Ocean,” Drake returns to his “timestamp song” formula, rapping for five minutes uninterrupted to show off his lyrical prowess. One line in particular, though, has captured much of the attention. “I swear you don’t even mean what y’all say like y’all dubbin’ a movie,” he raps. “Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie / He claim we don’t got a problem but no, boo, it is like you comin’ for sushi.” Dubious wordplay aside, many fans assumed that the Serena to whom Drake refers here is Serena Williams, with whom he was supposedly romantically linked briefly in 2015. That would make her husband Alexis Ohanian, best known as the co-founder of Reddit.

Ohanian caught wind of the potential reference and apparently replied on Twitter as part of a longer thread on their relationship and fatherhood. Posting a photo of himself and the couple’s daughter Olivia watching Serena play from the stands, he joked, “The reason I stay winning is because I’m relentless about being the absolute best at whatever I do — including being the best groupie for my wife & daughter.”

Elsewhere on the album, Drake makes apparent references to both DRAM and Megan Thee Stallion, garnering him a critical reaction on Twitter.

Becky G put a new spin one of her biggest hits last night (November 3) at Premios De La Radio in Mexico City: The Mexican-American singer performed a mariachi version of “Mamiii” for the first time.

Becky G released “Mamiii” in February as a duet with Colombian superstar Karol G. The girl power anthem rocketed to No. 15 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. It’s gone on to become of the biggest hits of the year with over 509 million streams on Spotify. Becky G and Karol G have performed the song together at Coachella and the latter’s Strip Love Tour.

Becky G was a surprise guest at the Premios De La Radio, the top award show in regional Mexican music. “Mamiii” always had a hint of a mariachi music influence. To honor her Mexican heritage, Becky G decided to lean fully into the traditional Mexican genre while performing the song. Backed by a mariachi band, she sang “Mamiii” to one of the song’s inspirations, Mexican icon Paquita La Del Barrio. She even walked down to the audience to share a sweet dancing moment with Paquita.

Becky G also performed “Ya Acabó” live with Marca MP. For their song together, they won the award for Collaboration Of The Year. The big winners of the night were Carin Leon and Grupo Firme, who both took home three awards each.

Royalty often lives in a world all their own, which is probably why the current British monarch thought it would be extremely normal to casually admit he’s related to Dracula

King Charles III, now occupying the top spot in the English monarchy after the death of longtime figurehead Elizabeth II, is part of a family with a long and colorful history. There’s a lot going on with his very young reign, of course, but he also understands his family’s long history has some interesting characters in it. Some more fictional than others.

And as actor and musician Luke Evans detailed this week, he’s well aware that there are some more sinister roots in his family tree as well. In an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show this week, Evans described meeting Charles and talking shop, where he casually revealed that he’s actually related to Vlad III, the 15th century Romanian ruler who was the basis for Dracula. As The Sun detailed, Charles is the great-grandson 16 times removed from the man most famous for impaling thousands of people during a very bloody reign:

“I remember the first time I spoke to Charles. I was super nervous.

“He came up to me and said, ‘What are you working on?’ and I said, ‘I’ve just finished a movie about Vlad, who turns into Dracula.’ And he went ‘Funnily enough, I’m related to Vlad Tepes.’

It’s very funny to imagine this conversation happening, wherein an actor is playing a very dark role and one of the most powerful people on Earth says “oh yeah, I’m related to that guy.” But we live in a world full of uncertainty and chance, and so really the only detail to take away from this is that Luke Evans should have met the then-prince before he wrapped shooting on the film. Maybe he could have had some character notes to make him seem a bit more like family.

[via Yahoo]

Last week, Kyrie Irving posted a link on social media to a movie containing an array of antisemitic tropes. Despite repeated opportunities in media sessions to condemn antisemitism and the beliefs propagated by that film, Irving failed to do so. Thursday evening, he was suspended by the Brooklyn Nets for at least five games without pay, due to his refusal to disavow antisemitism, and following news of the suspension, Irving took to Instagram and apologized for his behavior.

This is not the first time Irving’s been involved in an off-court controversy during his Brooklyn Nets tenure. Last season, he refused to comply with New York City’s now-outdated vaccine mandate, which sidelined him for the majority of the year. Irving’s latest actions, however, seem to be the breaking point for Nets owner Joe Tsai. According to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, Tsai is “completely done” with the All-Star guard.

“From what I’ve been told, Joe Tsai is completely done with him,” Smith said on Friday’s installment of First Take at the 5-minute mark of the above video. “He’s dealing with him because he’s under contract and he has to, but he’s completely done with Kyrie Irving.”

Irving and the Nets did not agree to a contract extension this summer, so Irving opted into his $36.5 million player option. He will be a free agent at the end of this season.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story has been one of the most talked-about movies of the past few months, and at last, it’s finally out, streaming exclusively on the Roku channel starting today (November 4). The soundtrack is available now, too, and it includes a new Yankovic original called “Now You Know.”

The tune plays over the film’s end credits and fittingly serves as an epilogue to the movie. On the track, Yankovic insists that everything in the film is factual, despite the fact that the movie is very much a highly exaggerated version of Al’s life story.

One excerpt in particular is telling of the song’s tone: “Yeah, that’s how it all went down, bro / We proof-checked every fact / If you still don’t believe it / Well, no skin off my back / Just don’t call me a liar / ‘Cause shut up, you weren’t there / This movie is now canon / Every word is true, I swear / We only changed one thing, I really did play Live Aid with Queen / and I blew ’em off the freakin’ stage! That’s right.”

Yankovic recently told Uproxx of the movie, “I mean, people say that this is not a biopic, but it really is a biopic by Hollywood standards. It’s not a documentary, it’s inspired by real life. And there are enough nuggets of truth sprinkled throughout that I think you can call it a biopic in that sense. I’ve seen a few more biopics since my movie was done, and I still think, yeah, that’s not any less true than my movie.”

Listen to “Now You Know” above and stream the soundtrack below.

Even if you were to put all politics aside, it’s hard to deny that Marjorie Taylor Greene is a fairly despicable person. Though she’s been in Congress for less than two years, she has quickly made a name for herself by using any news story or tragedy as a way to amplify her message of hate and intolerance. Considering she ran on the promise to try and impeach Joe Biden on her first day in office — a threat she made good on — her continued bouts of bad behavior should not be surprising to anyone. Yet just when you think she couldn’t get any lower, the Georgia congresswoman manages to outdo herself.

On Thursday, Greene yet again served as the hype woman for Donald Trump during a rally in Iowa in which the former president — who lost the 2020 election — teased that he “will very, very, very probably” run yet again in 2024. But before we got to the main act, Marge acted all a ghoul by complaining that “the only crime victim you hear about from Democrats and the media is Paul Pelosi,” with the mere mention of his name eliciting a series of loud boos from the crowd. Because, sure, why not razz an 82-year old man who just had his skull fractured with a hammer by an unhinged MAGA who broke into his home.

Greene, however, managed to victim-blame Pelosi — husband of Nancy Pelosi — by suggesting that things could have turned out differently had he been packing heat while relaxing at home. And managed to cram a few more of her favorite talking points into mentioning Pelosi’s assault:

Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked by a drugged-out illegal alien that should have been deported. And Paul Pelosi should have been a gun owner and shot his attacker.

So there you have it — a Republican who managed to both victim shame AND wish death upon the perpetrator of a crime in one sentence!

(Via The Recount)

The soundtrack for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released today (November 4). For this second visit to Wakanda, multiple up-and-coming artists from Mexico were enlisted, including Blue Rojo. The Mexico City-based singer contributed the song “Inframundo” to the Disney soundtrack.

In September of last year, Blue Rojo went from indie artist to major label when he signed with Universal Music Group. That following November, he released his debut album Solitario where he sang about the pain of his unrequited crush on a straight man. Almost exactly a year later, he considers his inclusion in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to be his biggest break yet.

“I can’t believe I’m on a f*cking album with Rihanna!” Blue Rojo told Uproxx. “It’s such a dream. I feel so honored to be a part of it and blessed.”

With the introduction of the character Namor, who is played by Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta, the sequel is introducing elements of Mayan and Indigenous cultures. Ludwig Göransson, who helmed the soundtrack, sought out Blue Rojo after hearing his song “Soy Tu Payaso Papi.” Nine months ago, in a studio in Mexico City, he wrote “Inframundo” with Göransson.

“I love that they were mixing this African story with more like the Mayan and pre-Hispanic world of Mexico,” Blue Rojo said. “We were talking about [Chadwick Boseman‘s passing]. We were talking about Mexico. We were talking about the movie’s story. I felt so connected.”

Blue Rojo calls “Inframundo” a song of “mourn.” The track’s title in English translates to “Underworld.” Backed by sparse production, the star of the song is his voice. Blue Rojo’s operatic vocals hit new emotional heights as he sings about being haunted by the spirit of loved one that has passed on. It’s one of the few songs on the soundtrack without a feature and his standalone performance is breathtaking.

“I really felt connected to like an ancestral energy,” Blue Rojo said. “I was really inspired by the pre-Hispanic feeling in Mexico, and that’s what I felt at the time.”

Next up, Blue Rojo will release his new single “La Foto x Whatsapp” towards the end of this month. Wakanda Forever will be released in theaters on November 11.

The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack is out now via Def Jam/UMG/Hollywood Records. Listen to it here.

The NBA is already through the first month of the season. Multiple teams will have played their tenth game by the end of this weekend, Christmas decorations are out at Walmart, it’s all gone by pretty quickly.

Every Friday throughout the 2022-23 season, we’ll dive into three players who have impressed or caught my eye for one reason or another each week. Without further adieu, here are this week’s Most Intriguing Players.

Jalen Suggs

Thursday night provided one of the best games of the season, as the Magic snuck in a close win over the reigning champ Golden State Warriors. No, the Warriors are not at their best and have been off to start the year. Perhaps they could hit the trade market in an attempt to balance out their bench depth. Orlando’s players did not care, nor should they!

This is one of those games that I’m going to come back to in a few seasons when the Magic have matured into a playoff-caliber team. They wanted this win. They competed like heck for it, and as they won, the depth of its importance was felt by the team. Yes, they’re now just 2-7 on the year, but it was evident in Jalen Suggs’ postgame interview and as the buzzer sounded that this meant so much more than that to a young group looking to put their stamp on the league.

Suggs’ final two minutes were nothing short of tremendous, arguably the highlight of his pro career so far. His threes late in the game, the only two he hit throughout, were emblematic of the dynamism he can bring at his best to the Magic as he set a new career high with 26 points.

Orlando has played inarguably the funkiest lineups in the league this season, leaning into their size and length, but it’s been partially out of necessity due to a plethora of injuries to backcourt rotation players. Suggs’ return in the past two games highlights his importance to the rebuild.

It’s difficult to define being clutch and having a gamer mentality, but Suggs fits the bill. His shot is cleaner and smoother in its mechanics than it was last season. He’s more comfortable driving and finishing. He still has looseness in his handle and can struggle through traffic — something to track growth of as the season goes on — but his ball-handling and initiation are game changing.

Nearly every player on the court for Orlando is capable of some semblance of ball-handling and secondary creation. Suggs smooths that over by kicking sets off with his downhill potential and budding pacing and craft out of ball-screens.

He’s not a traditional primary or point guard, but the vision is there for just the right blend of creation and potential ability to shift on and off the ball to make Orlando’s lineups functional offensively.

The defense is already bordering on elite. His hands are fantastic, averaging two steals per game on the season and snagging four against the Warriors. Suggs is adept at using his chest and feet simultaneously to ward off drivers and drag them into the deeper waters of the shot clock.

Suggs is making an impact and finding ways to make strides. As a result, the Magic are on their way.

Trey Murphy III

Say it with me, or maybe even yell it from Bourbon Street: Trey Murphy has creation potential.

That is not something I believed in the slightest coming out of the 2021 Draft, as I way undersold that he was still growing into his body due to a late growth spurt. Murphy was a fairly stiff athlete coming out of Virginia and for much of last season, but there’s a more defined flexibility in his game and his vertical pop continues to stand out, which is impressive considering he plays alongside the best vertical athlete in the game.

Why does this added pliability matter? Simply put, Murphy is already fairly entrenched as one of the best shooters in basketball. Eighty-two players in the league are taking five or more threes per game thus far in the season, and Murphy is stanchioned in the upper echelon, nailing 47.5 percent of his triples, tied for fifth when filtered for volume.

You can’t lose him in transition. He’s made it his mission to seek out open lanes, gaps, and corners in early offense, sprinting to make himself a 6’10 lightning rod that can let fly in a split second once the ball finds its way to his shooting pocket.

The Pelicans run a ton of ball-screen continuity offense, cycling through ball-handlers. I love this considering how it adds flow to the offense inherently and is beneficial to a roster chock full of players who can make decisions with the ball and get into the paint before rinsing and repeating.

By virtue of how he has to be guarded as the shooter he is, Murphy has garnered some secondary on-ball reps out of pick and rolls, something we saw during Summer League as well.

It doesn’t always look sexy. In fact, it rarely does. It’s funky, it’s limby (I’m claiming that as an adjective because it works perfectly here). Regardless, it’s encouraging. He’s toying with some pacing, snaking screens, and getting into floaters, which makes sense considering how adept his touch is. It’s very raw, but the beauty is in that underdone nature, seeing how he’s processing things, making decent reads, trying wacky wrap passes, and exploring the two-man game. I still want to see him sniff out and exploit advantages a little quicker, but that should come with more time and reps.

Figuring out more as an interior finisher will be crucial in the coming months, but where he’s at right now compared to when he was a rookie is staggering. With the shooting chops he already possesses, the real estate market inside the arc is wide open for Murphy.

De’Aaron Fox

The Sacramento Kings are 2-5, and have been absolutely pummeled by a difficult schedule out of the gates. And yet, only one loss has been by double-digits and they’ve had a chance to win every game, which is either encouraging or devastating depending on how you look upon it. I choose optimism!

I still have questions about this team. They’re almost competing too much on defense, as they throw themselves into rotation at will with their scramble. Their wing depth — or lack thereof — creates awkward lineup situations. I still am not sure how to feel about the Davion Mitchell dynamic. I don’t love how their offense runs, even if it has good elements. I could (and will, at some point) fill a whole column with questions about the Kings.

For once, however, De’Aaron Fox is not a question for me, and I consider that the most important aspect of this season. It’s been just six games from him, as he’s out with a bone bruise right now, but this is without question the best he’s played in the NBA from an all around standpoint.

Fox is playing defense consistently, working to be a deterrent, and thriving. He can still overplay at times, overshooting because he’s just that much faster than you, but the effort has been unquestionable and he’s come up huge down the stretch multiple times this season. He’s not a negative, and that’s all I’ve been hoping for the past two seasons.

He also, by far, is the most efficient he’s been throughout his career. His true shooting of 63.9 percent is about seven percentage points above league average, which is gigantic for someone who is usually a league-average or so player in this regard.

His patience has improved. He’s finding more ability to seamlessly change gears on drives and blend his East/West guile with lightning quick speed on his first step of acceleration. You might look at the career-high turnover rate and be disappointed, but I watch Fox and see him making better decisions, cutting down on some of the rashness and unplanned drives and grenade passes. I would argue the turnovers are largely a product of playing good teams and small sample size. He still telegraphs some reads and the decisions aren’t always quick.

But the process is improved, and that matters greatly to me when looking at this early season stretch. I’ve really appreciated the way he’s started to gel with his rollers — can we get this man a lob threat, though?

Fox’s efficiency will likely not hold, because shooting 90 percent at the rim is a bit unsustainable! His touch on floaters and the shorter pull-ups that he likes to get to have been so good that you’re willing to let him get into that bag of tricks in the gray area. As a result, he’s shooting 59.5 percent in the paint outside the restricted area.

More importantly for the proliferation of his positive efficiency, he’s taking more catch-and-shoot threes than pull-ups for the first time since his rookie year. It can’t be put into words how big of a development this is if he keeps it up. Fox has been a fine-to-solid off-ball three-point shooter for much of his career, but has teetered on the precipice of damaging at times with how often he typically is shooting pull-up threes. That’s part of the game as a lead guard operating out of screens, but cutting down on the self-created shots and getting up what is currently a career-high rate on catch-and-shoots is immense. He’s not going to shoot over 50 percent on them for the rest of the season, but again, it’s great process.

The Fox and Damontas Sabonis pairing has intrigued, but also shows room for growth. The screening aspect has been essential for Fox, as the two work in tandem to screen and then quickly re-screen to catch defenders going under and open space for a drive. Their pick-and-roll game has been pretty good, but they’re still ironing out how to compliment one another.

Fox is arguably one of the bets rim threats and interior finishers in basketball, but is currently only taking 23 percent of his shots at the rim per Cleaning the Glass, which is a career low. He’s been fantastic within the confines of the system, which is why I’d like to see a tweak there from Mike Brown as the season goes on. I want to see the Kings lean more into Sabonis as a playmaking hub and elbow operator, getting the most out of Fox as a driver and movement threat while opening up the floor by utilizing Sabonis as a decision-maker.

They were aggressive in utilizing Sabonis as a DHO savant and Fox as an elite cutter and mover without having to worry about how he gets guarded in screens for a short time immediately after the trade last season. We haven’t really seen them go back to that since, and it feels like low-hanging fruit to get the most out of their two man game, and the entirety of the offense.

I still need to see a lot more from the Kings overall. But early on, it’s hard to be anything other than encouraged with what we’ve seen out of their star guard.