Year: 2022

Arnold Schwarzenegger is the epitome of the American dream. He’s an immigrant from Austria who came to America with $20 in his pocket and wound up being one of the most celebrated people in the world. He was Mr. Olympia seven times, played the Terminator on the big screen and was elected governor of California twice.

However, even though he’s had tremendous success, he never call himself a self-made man. This is surprising being that Schwarzenegger is a member of the Republican Party, a group that has traditionally stood for self-reliance.

He explained his rationale in a moving commencement speech at the University of Houston in May 2017.

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“Now, the diplomas — there will only be one name and this is yours, but I hope it doesn’t confuse you and you think that maybe you made it that far by yourself,” Schwarzenegger told the graduating class. “No, you didn’t. It took a lot of help. None of us can make it alone. None of us. Not even the guy that is talking to you right now, that was the greatest bodybuilder of all time.

“I didn’t make it that far on my own. I mean, to accept that credit or that medal, would discount every single person that has helped me get here today, that gave me advice, that made an effort, that lifted me up when I fell,” he added. “The whole concept of the self‑made man or woman is a myth.”

The former “Governator” then shared the names of a lot of people who helped him become successful, including his parents, teachers, a lifeguard, bodybuilder Joe Weider, the people at Gold’s Gym, producer Dino De Laurentiis, director James Cameron, comedian Jay Leno and, of course, the people of America.

At the end of the speech, he shared his belief that with success comes responsibility.

“The reason why I want you to understand that is because as soon as you understand that you are here because of a lot of help, then you also understand that now is time to help others,” he said. “Make sure that it is not about me. That it is about ‘we.’ Turn the ‘me’ into ‘we,’ and I guarantee you that you can change the world.”

Cate Blanchett is one of the best actresses of her generation, with seven Oscar nominations and two wins (Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator and Best Actress for Blue Jasmine), to her name. And she may have just made her “magnum opus.”

The first film from director Todd Fields (In the Bedroom) in 16 years, Tár, premiered on Thursday at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, and the reviews are near-universally positive, especially for Blanchett. “Tár is breathtaking entertainment,” Richard Lawson writes for Vanity Fair, “anchored by Blanchett’s alternately measured and ferocious performance, a tremendous (but never outsized) piece of acting that is her most piercing work in years.” IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich was equally effusive, writing, “The controlled demolition of a performance she delivers here provides a more nuanced (and cautiously sympathetic) interpretation of the social dynamics behind the #MeToo movement than any male actor or character might be able to offer.”

Here’s more:

Following the premiere, Blanchett called Tár a “human portrait and I think we have perhaps matured enough as a species that we can watch a film like this and not make [a character’s gender or sexuality] the headline issue. It just is, and I found that exciting.”

As for the official plot synopsis:

From producer-writer-director Todd Field comes Tár, starring Cate Blanchett as the iconic musician Lydia Tár. Tár examines the changing nature of power, its impact, and durability in our modern world.

Tár opens in theaters on October 7. You can watch the teaser above.

(Via Deadline)

This past weekend, allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against Arcade Fire lead singer Win Butler were published in detail on Pitchfork. After Butler issued a vague statement, the band embarked on their tour nonetheless, which prompted a lot of mixed reactions.

The opener Feist dropped off the tour today and shared a lengthy statement reckoning with accountability and her own responsibility in the situation, writing, “I can’t solve that by quitting, and I can’t solve it by staying.”

Read the full statement below.

“At a pub in Dublin, after rehearsing with my band, I read the same headline you did. We didn’t have any time to prepare for what was coming let alone a chance to decide not to fly across the ocean into the belly of this situation. This has been incredibly difficult for me and I can only imagine how much more difficult it’s been for the people who came forward. More than anything I wish healing to those involved.

This has ignited a conversation that is bigger than me, it’s bigger than my songs and it’s certainly bigger than any rock and roll tour. As I tried to get my bearings and figure out my responsibility in this situation, I received dozens of messages from the people around me, expressing sympathy for the dichotomy I have been pushed into. To stay on tour would symbolize I was either defending or ignoring the harm caused by Win Butler and to leave would imply I was the judge and jury.

I was never here to stand for or with Arcade Fire — I was here to stand on my own two feet on a stage, a place I’ve grown to feel I belong and I’ve earned as my own. I play for my band, my crew, their loved ones and all of our families, and the people who pay their hard-earned money to share space in the collective synergy that is a show. The ebb and flow of my successes, failures, and other decisions affect all of our livelihoods and I recognize how lucky I am to be able to travel the world singing songs about my life, my thoughts and experiences and have that be my career. I’ve never taken that for granted.

My experiences include the same experiences as the many people I have spoken to since the news broke on Saturday, and the many strangers whom I may only be able to reach with this letter, or not at all. We all have a story within a spectrum ranging from baseline toxic masculinity to pervasive misogyny to actually being physically, psychologically, emotionally or sexually assaulted. This situation touches each of our lives and speaks to us in a language unique to each of our processing. There isn’t a singular path to heal when you’ve endured any version of the above, nor a singular path to rehabilitate the perpetrators. It can be a lonely road to make sense of ill treatment. I can’t solve that by quitting, and I can’t solve it by staying. But I can’t continue.

Public shaming might cause action, but those actions are made from fear, and fear is not the place we find our best selves or make our best decisions. Fear doesn’t precipitate empathy nor healing nor open a safe space for these kinds of conversations to evolve, or for real accountability and remorse to be offered to the people who were harmed.

I’m imperfect and I will navigate this decision imperfectly, but what I’m sure of is the best way to take care of my band and crew and my family is to distance myself from this tour, not this conversation. The last two nights on stage, my songs made this decision for me. Hearing them through this lens was incongruous with what I’ve worked to clarify for myself through my whole career. I’ve always written songs to name my own subtle difficulties, aspire to my best self and claim responsibility when I need to. And I’m claiming my responsibility now and going home.”

Shia LaBeouf awkwardly dropping receipts aside, the promotional tour for the erotic thriller Don’t Worry Darling is in full swing as it gets ready to open in theaters later this month. Directed by Olivia Wilde, the film stars her now-boyfriend Harry Styles, Florence Pugh, and Chris Pine, whose character is based on a real life person who’s practically the actor’s polar opposite.

While being interviewed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Wilde revealed that Pine’s character will take his cues from the highly controversial Jordan Peterson, whose rhetoric has gotten so despicable lately that even Joe Rogan is calling him out. The Peterson revelation led to Wilde explaining the incel movement to Gyllenhaal, who worked in one heck of a zinger. Via Interview:

WILDE: Terrifying. We based that character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community. You know the incels?

GYLLENHAAL: No.

WILDE: They’re basically disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women.

GYLLENHAAL: Oh, right.

WILDE: And they believe that society has now robbed them—that the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place.

GYLLENHAAL: Well, they must be psyched. Things are going really well for them.

Despite playing a character based on one of the weirdest dudes imaginable, Pine was great to have on set thanks to his “very positive force” and willingness to engage with the part.

“Chris, who I’ve known for, like, 20 years, probably agreed to do the movie at first as a favor to an old buddy, and then he really took it and ran with it,” Wilde said.

Don’t Worry Darling opens in theaters on September 23.

(Via Interview)

With the last three-day weekend of summer 2022 a mere 48 hours away, it’s time to start planning your backyard brouhaha. While shaking or stirring up some cocktails might feel like a good play, you don’t want to be stuck behind a home bar all day and night. That’s where batched or premixed cocktails come in.

Friends, the time has come to make rosé sangria.

Rosé wine is all about al fresco drinking — or “day drinking” if you’re not fancy. Add in some key ingredients and a chilled bottle of rosé goes from “nice!” to “party-ready.” It also gets a little boozier and that’s kind of what you want for a backyard Labor Day Weekend drink, right?

The best part? You can prep this the day before and have everything prechilled and frozen. That means your actual time making jugs of sangria this weekend will be about 30 seconds. Seriously, it’ll probably take longer to pull the cork from the bottle than make this drink if you’re prepped.

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Rosé Sangria

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of pre-chilled rosé wine
• 1 cup triple sec
• 1 cup brandy
• 1 can of blood orange soda
• 1/2 cup frozen berries
• 1/2 cup frozen peaches
• 1/2 cup frozen apples
• 1/2 cup frozen lemon wedges
• Fresh mint
• Pinch of salt
• Ice

This is a very fast and loose recipe. I used Hennessy VS because it was around on my shelf. I like Pellegrino Blood Orange soda but you can use any orange or lemon soda you have around — even Squirt (this is where the bulk of the sweetness comes from so don’t skip it). The rest is pretty standard stuff.

As for the wine, I used Leslie Reserve Rosé of Pinot Noir. It’s a little spendier but delicious. Remember the cardinal rule of cocktail mixing: The better the base alcohol, the better the final product. It’s a nice, zesty, and spritely wine that works well as a sipper (without too much sweetness). It’s a nice wine on its own but really shines as a sangria. The best rule to follow is to use a wine you actually like to drink.

What You’ll Need:

• Large pitcher
• Highball glasses
• Paring knife
• Measuring cup
• Large spoon
• Straws

Method:

• Slice all the fruit into wedges and place in the freezer until frozen through.
• Add the wine, triple sec, brandy, soda, and all the fruit to a large pitcher with a big pinch of salt (about the size of a large pea). Stir until well integrated.
• Add ice and mint to a fresh glass and pour the sangria over. Scoop some fruit on top of the drink and serve.

Bottom Line:

This is as delicious as it’s refreshing. The rosé is light and has a thin line of leathery body underneath all the fruit. It also isn’t overly sweetened. A lot of American sangria recipes call for syrup of some sort — definitely not necessary. The fruits leech sugars into the drink gradually and the orange soda adds more than enough sweetness.

The brandy is just there with a hint of dried grape and maybe a whisper of vanilla. The triple sec adds some orange vibe but those two additions are tertiary to the wine and fresh fruit. That said, this has a bit of punch thanks to that brandy and triple sec — it’s grown up fruit punch in the literal and metaphorical senses with a real wine base that’s light yet well-rounded.

This is fun. It’s very fun. What more could you possibly crave at the end of the summer?

Pinhead sure is raising hell once more for a modern audience! Actress Jamie Clayton will be bringing the character back to life (or… death?) for Hulu’s “reimagining” of the classic 80s thriller Hellraiser. Clayton has shared a first look at the infamous Cenobite, complete with soulless black eyes and, of course, pins.

The 2022 version follows a “young woman struggling with addiction who comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.”

Director David Bruckner is hoping that Clayton brings new life to the character as a trans woman. “We felt a kind of anticipation around the fans to reimagine the character,” says Bruckner. “We knew we wanted Pinhead to be a woman. Jamie was just the right person for the role. A person’s identity can be really exciting for a role in many ways, but I have to emphasize that Jamie absolutely killed, that’s how we got there.” Killed literally and figurately, probably.

The reimagined movie will be produced by Barker, and feature Odessa A’zion, Adam Faison, Drew Starkey, Brandon Flynn, Aoife Hinds, Jason Liles, Yinka Olorunnife, Selina Lo, Zachary Hing, Kit Clarke, Goran Visnjic, and Hiam Abbass.

Hulu’s Hellraiser will hit the streamer on October 7th, just in time to be spooked for the whole month!

(Via EW)

Believe it or not, whipped cream is all over the news right now. After some confusion over a new nitrous oxide law in New York state, local shop owners erroneously thought they had to card people buying whipped cream cans to make sure they were 21 years or older. The national news cycle picked it up, thinking the story was legit since shop owners were seemingly carding people buying Ready Wip. Eventually, the state Senator who wrote the law had to step in and clear everything up.

Long story short (too late), the law is for nitrous oxide canisters that one would use in manual whipped cream dispensers (like the ones you see at Starbucks or other fancy bars/restaurants/dessert shops). People like to buy the little silver tubes of nitrous, crack them into a ballon, and have a zipping good time (or so I hear). To quell this misuse of rote kitchen equipment amongst New York’s youth, New York state enacted an ID law to buy the nitrous canisters, and shop owners misread that as all whipped cream cans. So, no, you don’t need your ID to buy Ready Wip in New York.

That did remind me, though, that whipped cream is about the easiest thing to master ever in the home kitchen. It’s also far better from scratch than any emulsifier-filled can of whipped cream. Hell, you don’t even need nitrous to make it at home (unless you’re using a snazzy whipped cream dispenser). In fact, my record to make whipped cream in a bowl with a whisk (back when I was working in kitchens) was just shy of 30 seconds. It’s really that fast and easy.

It also gives me an excuse to dust off this old GIF!

Let’s jump in and I’ll show you how to do it.

Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

Technically, you don’t need vanilla extract. The cream should have enough flavor on its own to be a nice accent to whatever you’re serving it with, though I like a dash of vanilla to give it a tiny bit more depth. Some folks add a pinch of sugar. I find that detracts from the natural flavor of the cream. It’s also likely you’ll be using this on something that’s already very sweet anyway. You don’t need extra sugar on top of that.

What You’ll Need:

• Large bowl (chilled in the freezer)
• Large whisk (also chilled)
• Measuring cup/spoon

Chilling your bowl and whisk helps speed the process up. Everything just comes together faster when ice cold. Keeping things super cold also lets the cream’s temperature stay stable.

Method:

• Add all ingredients to the pre-chilled bowl and whisk unit stiff peaks form (about one minute or so). Focus on moving your wrists with your arms close to your body in large motions through the cream, basically like you’re manically folding in the air. Always stir in the same direction. I stir away from me, basically pushing the whisk through the cream on the bottom of the bowl and pulling it back toward me over the top of the cream.
• Serve immediately.

Bottom Line:

And look at that, folks! Whipped cream and it only took one minute to make. Which was still way off my record of just under 30 seconds.

Still, this was perfectly good whipped cream in a minute. It’s really that fast. There’s basically no prep besides putting a bowl in the freezer and measuring some cream. All told, this was crazy easy for a whipped cream that’s far superior to anything out of a can. It was so airy and soft and you could taste the fat in the milk with a near butteriness to it. The vanilla adds a smooth underlayer that helps the cream really shine. Give it a shot!

Rudy Giuliani just can’t win — though he’s only got himself to blame. The man once widely known as “America’s Mayor,” who was named TIME’s Person of the Year in 2001, has devolved into an international laughingstock, for reasons far beyond confusing Philadelphia’s Four Seasons Hotel with a small landscaping outfit. His utter (and some might say misguided) devotion to Donald Trump and his election fraud lies could very well land the former New York City mayor in prison. But for now, they’ve seen Giuliani be stripped of his license to practice law in both New York and Washington, DC. Also revoked? The honorary degrees he was given by several colleges and universities, with only five of them still in place — though all that could soon change.

For more than a year, mortified students, faculty, and alumni at Syracuse University — which is one of those five schools — have been pressuring the administration to rescind Giuliani’s fake degree, to no avail. Now, The Daily Orange is reporting that the university’s Board of Trustees is currently discussing the possibility of finally distancing themselves from Giuliani for good. On Monday, during the first University Student Association meeting of the semester, school chancellor/president Kent Syverud told the students in attendance that he had again brought up the topic of Rudy’s honorific degree, and whether it should be invalidated.

The Student Association sent a formal request to the University Senate back in April, requesting that Giuliani’s degree be erased. Though no official decision was made at the time, Syverud was asked to research how other universities go about making these decisions, as this would be the first time in Syracuse University’s history that an honorary degree was revoked. As Sarah Wells wrote for The Daily Orange:

Following his research, Syverud said he plans to present his draft recommendation for standard practices to the board at the executive committee meeting in September. Following the meeting, he said he hopes the full board will vote on the matter in November.

(Via The Daily Orange)

When Kendrick Lamar dropped his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, one track, in particular, got fans’ attention straight out of the gate. Thanks to its unnervingly accurate depiction of a contentious domestic dispute, “We Cry Together” became a polarizing fan favorite — if I can use that term loosely. While some were uncomfortable with Kendrick’s and guest star Taylour Paige’s performances, others (including one very enthused security guard) praised them for bringing their actual experiences to life. Now, Kendrick’s gone one step further, releasing the accompanying short film for the first time since its June premiere in Los Angeles.

The short film is pretty much exactly what the song portrays: A couple in the midst of an explosive argument, trading acidic insults and disquieting threats. Kenny’s in character as a blue collar worker and the whole episode mostly takes place in the cramped confines of the couple’s living room as the toxic discussion unfolds. It ends, as the song does, with a messy, Insecure-esque sex scene that is, frankly, not safe for work at all. In a nice twist, though, the camera pulls back to reveal that the living room is indeed a movie set, giving viewers the opportunity to decompress as they realize it’s all just a production.

You can watch the “We Cry Together” music video/short film above.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

A few weeks before he announced his third studio album The Forever Story, JID tweeted an intriguing statement about his burgeoning popularity. “None of my rap co-workers be tryna rap wit me dawg,” he wrote. “I think y’all n****z is scared, I’m talking to bigger rap artists.” The Forever Story presents a wealth of compelling evidence to support that theory.

In fact, I’ll go out on a limb here and say that The Forever Story is the – as in singular, as in only – best-rapped album to come out in 2022. Present your arguments for whomever and however you see fit, but the Atlanta rapper’s project has at least one song to give it an edge over its qualified competitors.

I’ll go out even further on this narrow branch and say that JID belongs in the top five contemporary rappers discussion, and has since 2018 when he dropped DiCaprio 2. Since then, he’s followed up with the folksy Spilligion alongside his Spillage Village cohorts, utterly stolen the show on two Dreamville compilations, and made me enjoy an Imagine Dragons song.

So, why hasn’t JID gotten the recognition he deserves? There are a couple of reasons that spring to mind. First of all, JID has the unfortunate timing to have made his debut in a time slightly removed from the era where super technically skilled rappers could gain a lot of traction in a relatively short amount of time.

Think about the “blog era,” which spawned such lyrically-gifted standouts as Big KRIT, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, or Wale. Being a rapper’s rapper was prized at such a time because hip-hop goes through different cycles. There’d been a long lull in the priority of bars-first traditionalism, and the massive cultural shift toward blogs and weekly freestyles allowed artists like these to grab a lot of the spotlight.

That era came to an end in the middle of the last decade, as Chance The Rapper, who is probably the last of the blog era super rappers to get on, won his Grammy for Coloring Book. Then the Soundcloud era began, and colorful characters like Travis Scott who prized “vibes” over rhymes began to take center stage. JID is decidedly not one of those, but because he made his debut during that era, fans of hyper lyrical rappers likely wrote him off as just another punk kid.

Another reason might come directly from JID’s own words. One of the biggest drivers of any new – or even established – artist’s rise to stardom is the willingness of their peers to collaborate. Consider Lil Durk, who actually appears on The Forever Story on the song “Bruddenem.” He toiled on the underground scene for nearly a decade until Drake featured him on the 2020 standout “Laugh Now Cry Later.”

Now, Durk’s considered an A-lister, a hotly-demanded feature artist in his own right with numerous No. 1 albums under his belt. No one has yet done this for JID, aside from J. Cole, who hasn’t featured the younger MC on his own albums despite working with him on the Dreamville collabs on songs like “Stick.” Even if he did, JID’s an artist on his label, and would probably be subject to the “homie write-off” effect that plagued underlings in groups like Disturbing Tha Peace, St. Lunatics, and Roc-A-Fella. There’s only so much star power to go around, and artists can get overshadowed by their more famous labelmates.

Other rappers might really be nervous to feature JID, whose sheer force of persona could potentially overpower or overwhelm the sort of mainstream-friendly tracks it would take to expose him to a wider audience more used to party anthems than aggressive battle rap tracks.

Meanwhile, any rapper who considers themselves more lyrics-forward runs the risk of being “Renegaded” – the fan term for being outrapped on your own track, as applied to Jay-Z’s 2001 song “Renegade” from The Blueprint. When Eminem’s intricate, wordy verses seemed to tower over Jay’s more laid-back, heady ones, Nas ridiculed Jay, “Eminem killed you on your own sh*t.” Nobody wants the potential embarrassment.

The last reason JID might not radiate star power like some of his peers do is that he’s so down-to-earth and humble. He’s quiet, not prone to making outrageous pronouncements or having emotional outbursts on Twitter. In the few engagements we’ve had on that platform, he always seemed more curious and willing to learn than he did defensive, boisterous, or argumentative.

Hip-hop loves a villain – or at least an antihero – someone who talks loud and seems unafraid to make enemies. Acts like Kanye West or 50 Cent seem larger than life. Hell, even Tekashi 69, whose antics were decried by hip-hop fans, remains a subject of fascination. The soft-spoken JID just isn’t going to be as sensational a character for them to latch onto.

But his rhymes are sensational. Whether he’s talking tough on “Dance Now” and “Surround Sound” or telling nostalgic stories on “Crack Sandwich,” waxing philosophical on “Better Days” or getting confessional on “Sistanem,” he shows a grasp of the artform that almost nobody in the rap business today even comes close to. So, while he might not be as universally recognized as I believe he should be, The Forever Story might well change that.

He’s got the big-name co-signs from guest stars like 21 Savage and Lil Wayne. He’s starting to talk his sh*t on Twitter. He’s got enjoyable slow burners like “Can’t Make U Change” with Ari Lennox and veteran blessings from Yasiin Bey on “Stars.” All that’s left is for listeners to finally, well, listen. The Forever Story will reward them for doing so. In turn, all they need to do is hail JID as the best rapper of his generation.

The Forever Story is out now via Dreamville/Interscope. Get it here.