Year: 2022

As the infamous Oscars slap continues to be parsed through for details (and potential disciplinary action for Will Smith), a new camera angle has emerged that shows Jada Pinkett Smith‘s reaction after her husband slapped Chris Rock. The footage was filmed on a phone from just a few seats behind Jada, and the most notable moment comes in the first few seconds. As Rock announces that “Will Smith just slapped the sh*t out of me,” Jada appears to be seen (from the back view, so it’s tough to tell) laughing, just like most of the audience does before it became clear that the incident was not a scripted bit. When Will begins screaming, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth” twice, and Rock responds seriously with, “I’m going to, OK?” Jada makes no reaction and sits motionless as the gravity of the situation sets in.

Considering these people are all professional actors, there’s not a lot to infer from the moment, but it is an interesting perspective as we sift through the aftermath of The Slap.

You can see the Jada reaction video below:

In other new details, the Academy revealed on Wednesday night that, despite reports to the contrary, Will Smith was allegedly asked to leave the Oscars after assaulting Rock. However, the actor refused to leave, and there are conflicting reports on whether Smith was personally asked or the Academy merely suggested it to his publicist. According to TMZ, Smith’s reps got into a “heated conversation” with “plenty of ‘yelling’” at producers and Academy president David Rubin.

(Via DJ Akademiks on Instagram)

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Finding belonging wouldn’t be easy. Their adventure began when they packed up their belongings (along with their two kiddos) and hit the road in a camper van. Little did they know that it would evolve into a 10,000 mile, three year journey. Along the way, they soon realized that Mississippi – or the South for that matter – wasn’t the only place where transgender people were refused resources. Even institutions designed to offer humanitarian support like churches, charity organizations, and homeless prevention programs denied the Blake family help in their time of need.

Securing a new job proved to be a near insurmountable obstacle. Jim would commonly receive the generic response of, “We’ve decided not to move forward” or “ We don’t feel you’re the best fit” following an interview. That is, if he heard anything at all. Many times, it would just be crickets. But the message was still clear: he wasn’t wanted.

Knowing they weren’t the only ones experiencing these kinds of hardships, Jim and Kat were determined to not just create a supportive, affirming community for themselves, but for as many transgender folks as possible.

Kat began working with Trans Lifeline, a peer support group call center, talking to multiple people a day, while Jim researched job discrimination, finding some pretty overwhelming statistics. Helping others relieved some of the isolation, but not all. And it didn’t spread any education for finding work.

Then Jim had an idea that would set them on a brand new path. “What if we made a Facebook Group?”

Facebook’s platform allows for super specific, ultra niche interest groups. You’ve seen them: “Millennial Women Who Love Ducks,” or “Marathon Runners Who Only Listen to EDM.” Facebook Groups make it easy to form friendships based on common interests from anywhere in the world. It can also make it easy for specific (and often underepresented) demographics like transgender, queer, and non-binary people to access a support group made just for them.

And thus Trans Job Connect was virtually born.

Trans Job Connect, as the name implies, helps transgender people gain access to all the tools they might need to find secure employment. And for many, the major challenge is the interview. Namely, in interview clothes. As Jim notes, 34% of transgender people have a yearly income of less than $10K, and aren’t able to afford a wardrobe that expresses their new gender.

Couple this with gender dysphoria (the sense of unease a person may feels when there’s a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender), and it’s a recipe for low confidence. As anyone who has bombed an interview due to not feeling your best knows, being comfortable in our own skin is crucial. Trans Job Connect partners with an organization to provide binders and transition specific clothing, so that candidates can present themselves authentically and self-assured.

In addition, the group holds resume workshops, matches candidates to trans-inclusive businesses, and hosts in-person and virtual job fairs. Though Jim noted that the first bit of the virtual fair was a tad wonky (as in, the awkwardness of first time dealings with technical issues), the group still succeeded. 100 people were interviewed. 10 moved onto a second round. 13 were hired on the spot.

Using Facebook Group Insights, an analytic tool that tracks member engagement and post performance, Trans Job Connect has been able to curate content that its members are interested in the most, making it an invaluable resource. Delivering potentially life-changing knowledge to those who often receive very little in “the real world”, it’s no wonder that TJC now boasts a total of over 1600 members. And since it’s humble beginnings in 2017, the group has assisted 348 trans/queer individuals with their job search.

Jim and Kat have nothing but pride for their virtual community, and they have no plans to stop growing it. They currently use the group to recruit volunteers, set appointments, converse with clients, and announce events. For them, Facebook remains a “great hub for organization, recruitment, fellowship, and support.”

When the Blakes set out on their road trip back in 2015, it might have been for survival. But now, they are fearless – and on a mission to help others reclaim a sense of belonging. They might have not expected Facebook to play such a large part in that endeavor, but it’s helped make their vision a reality. When we use technology to connect us to our humanity, great things happen.

Aside from Ja Rule, the two people many folks wanted to hear from the most about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock were Rock himself and August Alsina. Rock, obviously, was the victim of the slap — he’s fine, by the way, everybody should maybe calm down a hair — while Alsina is the singer who was reportedly “entangled” with Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, a thing for which all three were roundly abused in the media for about a year (you’ll remember that Smith attacked Rock after the comedian joked about Jada’s hair). Both men finally addressed the incident yesterday; Chris onstage at his Boston show, and August via — where else? — his Instagram account.

Posting a selfie to his feed (not his Story as so many celebrities tend to do), Alsina didn’t directly mention the slap, but he did advise readers to ‘choose peace,’ something he appears to be doing himself. “Trusting that life’s intricate puzzle pieces are all forming together for the greater good and mastering of the seasonally sometime chaotic nature of your life’s art piece that’s being formed and painted by birthing life to your internal masterpiece,” he wrote. “grown through external chaos-metamorphosing alchemy, dark turned 2 light and beauty within. I’m A Walking Billboard & Network Simply Desiring To Televise & Broadcast Love, the love, grace and healing embrace of God, Good Music that’s healing (w/ a lil bit of nasty).”

Alsina’s involvement in the Smiths allegedly open relationship made waves online throughout 2020 when it was revealed that he was supposedly dating the older Jada. Social media had several field days with that information and the episode of Jada’s Red Table Talk in which she addressed the relationship smashed the show’s one-day viewing totals by rather a lot. And now that we’ve all driven up the streams of J. Cole’s “Jada and Will love” name-checking single “No Role Modelz” and heard from everyone except Daniel Radcliffe about the incident, perhaps it’s finally time to move on.

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. Destroyer, Labyrinthitis

The last we heard from Dan Bejar, it was early 2020 and he was touring behind a spooky and prescient Destroyer album, Have We Met. A sinister work rife with apocalyptic warnings about the future, the album hit almost too close to home when, just over one month after it was released, the world was forced to shut down due to Covid-19. If the Vancouver native earned some credibility as an oracle on the last Destroyer LP, his latest effort points in a more upbeat direction. While the lyrics contain some of the darkest lines of Bejar’s career — so dark that Bejar talks about “the singer” on this record in the third person — the music grooves hard, drawing on an unlikely but somehow compatible combination of influences drawn from techno and rave cultures as well as gloomily catchy ’80s English alt-rock bands like New Order and The Cure. It’s similar to the musical palettes utilized on Have We Met and 2017’s Ken — Bejar considers Labyrinthitis the concluding part of a trilogy with those records — but on the new album there’s a greater feeling of exuberance. It surely is the most danceable music Destroyer has yet made.

2. Nilüfer Yanya, Painless

This buzzy British singer-songwriter was a breakout artist back in 2019, thanks to an eclectic amalgam of influences suggesting that Yanya ultimately wants to fuse the slinky grace of Sade with the sort of chunky and lovably punk anthems associated with Blink-182 and Libertines. Her latest LP has been in constant rotation for me this month — I can’t decide if the manic Hail To The Thief-style electro-rock of “Stabilse” or the smoldering drum machine workout “Midnight Sun” is my favorite track. But I haven’t gotten sick yet of playing them over and over again as I try to figure it.

3. Wednesday, Mowing The Leaves Instead of Piling ‘Em Up

This North Carolina band is quickly becoming one of the fascinating roots-leaning indie acts. This new covers album speaks to their uncommon range and ambition — country legends Roger Miller and Gary Stewart commingle with The Wipers’ Greg Sage and Adore-era Smashing Pumpkins. (Finally some justice for “Perfect.”) But my favorite tracks meet somewhere in the middle of those poles — the garage-rock take on Drive-By Truckers’ “Women Without Whiskey” and the gorgeous meltdown of Chris Bell’s immortal “I Am The Cosmos,” which just might be my new favorite version of that classic.

4. Goose

Along with being a fan of their music — I’ve seen them three times, which qualifies me as a medium-devoted follower by obsessive listener standards — “the next great American jam band” Goose fascinates me as an observer of both the indie and jam scenes, and the invisible veil that separates those worlds. Goose in many ways signifies that divide, even as they are attempting to bridge it. Their forthcoming album due in June, Dripfield, presents a litmus test for how a band like Goose is perceived by the mainstream media. Recorded in March of 2021 in Woodstock, New York, it was produced by D. James Goodwin, whose previous credits include records by Kevin Morby, Craig Finn, Bonny Light Horsemen, Whitney, and jam scene O.G. Bob Weir. And the sonic touchstones fall squarely in that sort of company — Goose’s most obvious influences include legacy indie acts such as Bon Iver, Radiohead, Fleet Foxes, and Vampire Weekend. I normally don’t listen to jam bands for their studio work — even the Grateful Dead struggled to capture their live magic on wax. But Dripfield is a consistently engaging pop-psychedelic record, like a trippier Father Of The Bride. While it is technically Goose’s third studio LP, it feels like a proper debut, far outstripping its predecessors in terms of quality and ambition.

5. James Krivchenia, “The Science Of Imaginary Solutions”

The drummer for Big Thief took a lead role on the recent Dragon New Mountain I Believe In You as a producer. But on his own, he does the opposite of Big Thief. The forthcoming Blood Karaoke (due April 15) suggests that future BT shows might have a “Drums/Space” section. You can hear this on full display on this recent single from the album — it’s some of the most bonkers music you’ll hear this month, veering from aggressive dance music to apocalyptic explosions to new age meanderings and then back to body-stirring techno. Basically anything but the gentle and stirring folk-rock of his regular band.

6. Caracara, New Preoccupations

My favorite “shiny guitar” album of the moment. Produced by “shiny guitar” aficionado Will Yip, New Preoccuptions has been described by this Philly band as a druggy album about recovery, which you sense from the charged, blurred sonics and the scarred but hopeful lyrics. But, admittedly, my relationship with this record isn’t quite that deep. At the moment, I am preoccupied by how New Preoccuptions relentlessly targets my ’90s alt-rock pleasure centers. I refer specifically to the post-grunge half of the decade, when bands like Third Eye Blind and Matchbox Twenty shed the sludge and went straight for soaring hooks. There’s also a generous helping of Bleed American-era Jimmy Eat World here. (I know that came out in 2001 but that record capped the previous decade’s pop-rock epoch.)

7. Band Of Horses, Things Are Great

My favorite moment in any recent interview I’ve done occurred earlier this month when Ben Bridwell brought up a negative review I wrote for Band Of Horses’ Mirage Rock a decade ago. The moment was good-natured, though I think he enjoyed making me slightly uncomfortable. Of course, Bridwell himself isn’t all that crazy about Mirage Rock, which he can admit now that he’s made a much better record. Things Are Great is a conscious return to the brawny, vision-quest-y rock of Band Of Horses’ mid-aughts era, when they first roared to indie fame on the strength of their 2006 debut, Everything All The Time. Their next album, 2007’s Cease To Begin, continued their winning streak, spawning a hit, the affecting ballad “No One’s Gonna Love You.” The band’s output gets spottier after that, an outcome that the candid and self-effacing Bridwell blames on his own lack of self-confidence. Too often, he says, he’s let other people goad him into artistic decisions he didn’t fully believe in. But that’s changed with this latest record.

8. Guerilla Toss, Famously Alive

I stumped for this band in my January 2022 column, but now that their new album is finally out I want to make sure you don’t miss it. An indie band with jam band tendencies — they let fans tape their shows — Guerilla Toss make some of the most purely fun and funky music you’ll hear from this corner of the music world. Now that live music has returned to a state of semi-normalcy, the time seems right for a band like this to get clubs jumping again.

9. Foo Fighters, “Somebody To Love” (Live In Chile, 3/18/22)

That Taylor Hawkins’ death at the age of 50 was so shocking speaks to how stable the Foo Fighters have seemed for decades as one of the last remaining stadium-rock bands. The tragedy that unfolded this month mirrors Hawkins’ overdose and subsequent coma back in 2001, but the drummer had seemingly come so far over such a long period of time that there was no reason to expect that such a thing could ever happen again. Now what’s left is a feeling of profound sadness — for Hawkins’ family, friends, and bandmates — and sense of waste. Here was a talented musician and effervescent personality who appeared to have at least a few more decades ahead of him as a jet-setting rock star. In his final performance, you see how comfortably he seemed to fit into this role. At a time when the term “rock star” has been devalued to the point of near-irrelevance, here was a guy who looked and acted like a genuine, old world, mf’ing rock star. But there’s always another life that exists beyond the stage and our own limited comprehension.

One of Foo Fighters’ final scheduled performances before Taylor Hawkins’ death was an appearance at Paraguay’s Asunciónico festival. The show would ultimately be canceled due to weather, but Hawkins still managed to make a young fan’s dream come true while in Paraguay.

As ET Canada notes, in the weeks leading up to the festival, 9-year-old drummer Emma Sofía started a social media campaign in an effort to perform with Foo Fighters at the event. While the show was ultimately canceled, Sofía had her parents’ full support, as they brought her to the hotel where the band was staying. There, she set up her drums outside and started playing on the street. A crowd gathered and eventually, Hawkins himself noticed, so he went outside and posed for a photo with Sofía.

Sofía shared the photo on social media, as well as a video recapping the experience, which includes footage of a smiling Hawkins approaching the scene to meet her. She wrote in a post (translated via Google), “It was two months of a lot of work, rehearsals, cover recordings and interviews to try to play with the @foofighters! We tried EVERY means but we couldn’t so after much frustration I took my drums to the hotel sidewalk and played until they heard me and @taylorhawkinsofficial came out. So I was able to conquer my dream. Words are not enough to thank all the people who accompanied me during this campaign and sent me the best energy from all over the world, you gave me the courage to do this!! THANK YOU! My daddy and my mommy told me that THIS IS HOW ROCK IS LIVED!”

A few days later, Hawkins died. After his passing, Sofía wrote on Instagram (translated via Google), “There are no words to describe what we feel. We are devastated to hear of the passing of Taylor Hawkins, our thoughts are with his loved ones and fans. We will remember him for his charisma and the beautiful gesture he had with Emma. Taylor gave us something to believe in. He was, is and always will be an inspiration. There goes our hero. RIP TAYLOR HAWKINS. Emma, dad and mom.”

Speaking of young, Foo Fighters-associated drummers, Nandi Bushell also shared a message about Hawkins after his passing, tweeting, “Our love, thoughts and support are with all who knew Taylor. Thank you for looking after me, thank you for being so kind and loving, thank you for being the most awesome drummer ever, thank you for bringing so much joy to the world, thank you for being you! With love, Nandi x.”

It’s been four days since Will Smith attacked Chris Rock live at the Oscars, and it’s still pushing news about the Russia Ukraine War and Madison Cawthorn’s claims that the GOP is basically Eyes Wide Shut below the fold. One of the most interesting developments occurred on Wednesday when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a statement claiming that Smith was “asked to leave the ceremony and refused.” Jimmy Kimmel, like all of us, is curious as to just how that went down.

On Wednesday night, after suggesting that the best way to punish Smith would be to sentence him to making only Hallmark Christmas movies for one decade (has he seen After Earth?), Kimmel had some questions about Smith’s purportedly failed ejection:

I don’t know who asked him to leave—maybe Jazzy Jeff asked him? I don’t know. ‘Hey Jazzy, can you pass a message along to Will?’ Can you imagine? Who would have accepted his Oscar if he’d been thrown out? Chris Rock, maybe? I don’t know.

You know, usually when someone’s asked to leave and refuses to go, that’s when security comes in and takes that person away. But in this case, they decided to give him an Oscar and let him back onstage to speak.

Kimmel went on to note how much oxygen the story has taken from all of us, and that we’re all feeling the effects of the slap. “My jaw hurts just from telling so many jokes about it,” he said.

You can watch the full clip above.

Another week, another Wheel of Fortune contestant losing on a technicality.

That’s not to excuse contestant Chris for messing up — he should know better than to add a word (in this case, an article) that’s not on the board when attempting to solve the puzzle, which is what happened during Wednesday’s episode. The category was “Food & Drink” and the puzzle read, “_RO_EN CONCOCTION.” After fellow contestant Shannon incorrectly guessed “D,” the turn went to Chris, who elected to solve. “A FROZEN CONCOCTION,” he answered before quickly realizing his mistake. “No, you know what? We can’t accept that,” host Pat Sajak said before further explaining why not.

“Chris knows what he did, which is why he went back. He threw in that article. He threw in the ‘A’ in front of it, and we can’t accept it. Just the way it goes,” he said. “It’s just one of the rules, and we gotta go by ’em, and Carol ends up getting the trip to Puerto Rico.”

Poor Chris, but shout out to Carol for winning that trip during Margaritaville Family Week. I bet Jimmy Buffett would have accepted the “A.” This is the guy who wrote a song called “Math Suks” after all. Spelling isn’t really his thing (drinking margz with the boys is).

(Via Yahoo!)

Days after teasing new music, Shawn Mendes is back with a new single. On “When You’re Gone,” Mendes reminisces over a relationship that has now come to an end. The song, presumably about his ex-girlfriend and fellow singer Camila Cabello, features Mendes singing over poppy electric guitar sounds, before escalating into a thumping kick drum and synth-driven chorus.

“I don’t want to move on / I don’t want to know what it’s like when you’re gone for good,” he sings, seemingly in denial that the relationship is over.

By the song’s bridge, he appears to accept that the song’s subject has moved on, singing, “Starting to feel like you don’t need me / Wanna believe it’s all for the better / It’s getting real, I’m missing you deeply.”

Outside of their individual music, both Mendes and Cabello have remained mum about their breakup, which the pair announced last November — until last week, when Mendes shared a video on Instagram opening up about his post-breakup feelings.

“You don’t realize when you’re breaking up with someone, you like, think it’s the right thing,” he said. “You don’t realize all the sh*t that comes after it, which is like, ‘Who do I call when I’m like in a panic attack? Who do I call when I’m like, f*cking, on the edge?’ And I think that’s the reality that kind of hit me: ‘Oh, I’m on my own now.’ Now I feel like I’m finally like, I’m actually on my own. And I hate that. That’s my reality, you know?”

The song is accompanied by a music video containing a montage of his live performances, including some at SXSW, where he played the song earlier this month.

Check out “When You’re Gone” above.

Maybe, just maybe, Oscar-winning Jared Leto should just say no to more comic book movies. Obviously, there are lots of hands in the cookie jar on projects like these, so one can’t really blame him for an entire movie’s quality (yet we can judge him for his Worst Joker), but the first (and sizeable) batch of Morbius: The Living Vampire reviews have arrived, and let’s just say that it’s not good. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie’s currently sitting at a 19% rotten rating after 79 reviews. And it doesn’t appear to even be so-bad-it’s-good, simply straight-up bad.

All of this is happening three months after the movie achieved the dubious most-delayed movie record of the pandemic. The film was initially due to arrive on July 10, 2020, and the eventual April 1, 2022 release date now feels like a cruel joke. Maybe that’s how it was always supposed to be for the movie about a so-called brilliant scientist who tries to cure his own blood disorder and ends up vamping out, but them’s the cards.

Whatever the case, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is stumbling from the looks of things. The reactions and reviews are overwhelmingly negative, and that includes tweets and reviews from critics who have seen the movie and some (seriously funny) fake Twitter reactions. That last category will come last because you might need a laugh after this batch of misery. These first tweets (from critics who’ve legit seen Morbius) flat-out call it “bad” and “sloppy” and nonsensical with credits scenes that are “insulting” to audiences. This looks like the first Marvel Cinematic Miss.

The reviews don’t improve the situation. Here’s Alonso Duralde from The Wrap:

It’s become something of a running gag on the internet that “Morbius” isn’t really a movie. Online observers insist that, from its ever-changing release date over the last two years to its grim and somewhat goofy premise involving Jared Leto as a scientist who turns into a vampire, this has to be an elaborate prank and not an actual film… We can confirm that “Morbius” is, really and truly, a movie. Granted, it’s not much of a movie, but it’s a movie nonetheless.

Owen Gleiberman from Variety:

“Morbius” isn’t even a debacle. It’s a little over 90 minutes long if you don’t count the credits (which include what has to be the worst closing teaser I’ve ever seen in a Marvel movie — it ends with the word “Intriguing,” dangled as if Vincent Price had uttered it), and for all the overwrought push of Jon Ekstrand’s score, the film is nothing more than a flimsy time-killer, an early-April placeholder of a movie.

Kate Erbland from IndieWire:

Even the most basic elements of the film are incomprehensible. Michael has all the trappings of a bad guy — this is the kind of guy who has a massive chamber of bats in the middle of his lab, both for decor and research — but by the time he gifts yet another origami animal to someone he cares about, you’ll have to wonder, this dude is a villain? (Leto, who notoriously immerses himself in his work, could seemingly find little here, his Michael is somehow both confounding and very boring. )

Matt Donato from IGN:

Morbius presents its origin story with the most formulaic structure, as an overly serious Leto is doing the opposite of Tom Hardy’s campy Venom schtick that so many adore. It’s a choice that promotes Morbius’ moral conundrum as a self-conscious vampire over anything considered “superhero cinema fun,” taking everything deathly serious to an ultimate detriment.

And here are some of the aforementioned jokey tweets, which are perhaps the apex of what Twitter can do for you. “Be careful out there everyone!” is a valid public service announcement, alright.

Morbius supposedly now arrives in theaters on April 1, 2022.

Foo Fighters and Machine Gun Kelly were both on the March 22 lineup for Paraguay’s Asunciónico festival, with Kelly set to take the stage immediately before Foo Fighters. However, their performances were canceled due to inclement weather. Kelly talked about that on The Howard Stern Show recently, discussing how he and the band still met up and how especially kind Taylor Hawkins, who tragically died a few days later, was to everybody.

Kelly spoke about how he had been texting with Dave Grohl before the sets were canceled, who told him Foo Fighters planned to watch Kelly’s performance. Kelly was excited about that but bummed when the set was called off. However, Grohl invited Kelly to his hotel, where he and the rest of Foo Fighters were going to have a rooftop party.

Kelly continued:

“We got out the elevator, all 20 of [his entourage], and Taylor, Dave, the whole Foo Fighters team, but specifically Taylor, he went up to every single one of us and gave us each our moment. Like, every single one of us, man, down to my assistant; They were relating over, ‘Oh you’re from Topanga? Oh, I’m from Topanga!’ It was like, dude: he’s such a beautiful soul, man. […] He stopped at every single person and gave his heart, man.”

He went on to note that Hawkins brought up Kelly’s role as Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in the 2019 movie The Dirt, saying, “He was talking to me about how he was at the premiere and he was like, ‘Oh man, the way you did Tommy’s mannerisms… he’s the man, huh?’ We were just relating on that.”

Kelly then mentioned how proud Hawkins was of his kids and Kelly shared a message for Hawkins’ children, saying, “I just want to say to his kids: Your father, when we left there, the kids in us came out. We were just like, ‘This is the greatest night of our life!’ […] I really want to thank him and let his kids know he made us feel — in a time when the outside world […] was really coming in hard on us — he made us feel so confident in ourselves and loved. Your father is a great, great man and we were all lucky to know him.”

Watch Kelly discuss Hawkins above.