Month: January 2023

What is it like to question a fabulist with no apparent self-awareness? Just ask the lawyers who had to interrogate Donald Trump. Last week a judge unsealed key excerpts from the former president’s deposition from last October in regards to the lawsuit filed against him by E. Jean Carroll. Trump may have ruined his chances before it began, and even from what little has been made public, it’s clear Trump not only didn’t want to be there but was predictably throwing one of his petulant hissy fits.

Carroll is suing Trump for defamation after he said some potentially libelous things about her after she accused him of sexual assault. Not content to have already landed himself in hot water, he went to his rinky dink Twitter clone to trash the case mere days before he was set to be deposed. Once he got there he was a classic hostile witness, promising frivolous lawsuits to everyone once this was all over, as seen in transcripts obtained by Politico‘s Kyle Cheney (which were caught by The Daily Beast).

Of the accusation of rape, Trump called it “false,” adding, “Never happened, never would happen.” As per the reckless Truth Social posts, he was remorseless — and vengeful.

“And I posted and I will continue to post until such time as—and then I will sue her after this is over, and that’s the thing I really look forward to doing,” he said, adding, “And I’ll sue you too.”

At the end of Trump’s lengthy spluttering, the lawyers asked him what prompted his Truth Social diatribe.

“Her false story and that I have to waste a whole day doing these ridiculous questions with you,” Trump steamed.

This happened in mid-October. His life has changed dramatically since then. Long story short, there’s a good chance he’s screwed. Then again, this is Teflon Don we’re talking about.

(Via Politico’s Kyle Cheney and The Daily Beast)

Two of Argentina’s biggest pop stars collided in Madrid last week. On Friday night, Tini and Lali had an epic reunion during Fiesta Bresh. Spanish pop star Lola Índigo danced with the iconic duo as well.

Tini and Lali are two of Argentina’s top female pop stars. As women, they have gotten pitted against each other by the media over the years, though they have shown that they’re close friends. While working in Madrid this past week, Tini and Lali had a chance to catch up at the Fiesta Bresh event. Tini was in town to promote her new single, “Muñecas,” while Lali was celebrating the release of season three of her Netflix series Sky Rojo.

When Lali was invited to the Fiesta Bresh stage to perform her song “N5,” she grabbed Tini by the hand to join her. The two Argentine pop stars had the crowd and social media going wild as they danced together. Índigo joined them as well. One fan on Twitter wrote, “A song by Lali and Tini is not what I want, it’s what I need.”

Later, Tini performed “Muñecas” on the Fiesta Bresh stage. Índigo danced with her to her new collaboration featuring Steve Aoki and La Joaqui. Índigo also sang her song “La Niña De La Escuela” alongside Tini during the event.

Unfortunately, invasive reports have followed Britney Spears into 2023. Over the weekend, TMZ reported that Spears and Sam Asghari, her husband of six months, made a scene at the Los Angeles-area restaurant Joey on Friday, January 13.

“The dinner was a bust for Britney. Patrons pulled out their cell phones and began shooting footage of her. Britney got pissed and things went south quickly,” TMZ relayed. “Eyewitnesses say Britney became ‘manic,’ yelling and talking gibberish — not another language, just unrecognizable speech. We’re told Sam got visibly upset, abruptly stood up and stormed out the door.”

Spears responded on Sunday, January 15, with an Instagram post that compared the situation to the 1994 film Natural Born Killers. Asghari also appeared to downplay it with an Instagram Story that simply said, “Don’t believe what you read online people” (as noted by Page Six).

“I’m sure I brought a billion SMILES to me LOOKING LIKE SHREK at a restaurant,” Spears captioned her post, in part. “Even my best friend couldn’t WAIT TO SEND IT TO ME, THEY DON’T THINK TWICE because we are all natural born killers … I know the news is all hyped about me being a little drunk at a restaurant … it’s like they’ll be WATCHING MY EVERY MOVE [eyes emoji] !!! I’m so flattered they talk about me like a maniac THEN have the balls to talk about all the negative things that happened in my past !!! Honestly it would be safer for me to compliment this world and f*ck up because if I become a prophet and don’t create history, we might have something y’all… I’m just KIDDING, but it’s a good thought.”

Spears continued, “I know y’all are rooting for me and all and make sure you check out the shocking Shrek picture of me … I was like damn that’s horrific yet there were two pics where I was normal [thinking emoji] … either way honestly I know nobody gives a flying f*ck what I do !!! I’m just bored writing this paragraph like a damn idiot.”

Before that post, Spears had posted a video of her dancing along to Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself” and flipping off the camera. See both posts below.

If there’s anything foreshadowing TXT‘s new year, it’s the fact they’re booked and busy.

With HYBE’s 2023 plans shared last year, it was already revealed the Big Hit boy group would be making their comeback this month with an all new EP. However, less than two weeks away from the actual release (January 27), BigHit Music dropped the surprising news last night (January 15) announcing TXT’s upcoming world tour. Titled TOMORROW X TOGETHER WORLD TOUR , the tour will take place in Asia and the US with “more to come,” according to the post.

TXT will kick off their tour in Seoul for two nights on March 25 and 26, then will make stops in Singapore, Taipei, and major cities in Japan such as Osaka, Saitama, Kanagawa and Aichi in April. Following that, the ACT : SWEET MIRAGE tour will fly west to the US for a nine concert, six-city tour in early May. The quintet will embark on the US leg of their world tour in Charlotte, North Carolina and will touch down in cities like Belmont Park, Washington, DC, Duluth, and San Antonio, before concluding in Los Angeles, California by the end of the month.

Thought more details on ticketing have yet to come, MOAs (TXT fans) can already save the date and anticipate the new performances TXT has to offer from their upcoming release, The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION.

It looks like the next BTS solo project is happening soon: According to a report from Korean news outlet DongA, BTS member Jimin is set to make his solo debut in February.

In response, a representative from the artist’s label, BIGHIT Music commented saying a release schedule will be shared once all is finalized.

The news of Jimin’s solo debut kind of comes to no surprise as his name has been floating around for the past couple of weeks.

Just last week, BTS’ main dancer and lead vocalist was featured on Taeyang’s comeback single after six years. Known to be highly inspired and influenced by the second generation icon, Jimin’s feature on Taeyang’s “Vibe” can only hint on what’s to come from him or showcase the other genres he’d like to explore for his solo project.

Though no further information has been provided in regards to Jimin’s solo debut, ARMY can already anticipate next month’s release from the BTS member. This would make Jimin the fourth member of the pop group to drop a solo project.

BTS’ solo projects have slowly made waves since last summer starting with J-Hope and his EP Jack In The Box, followed by Jin’s “Astronaut” in the fall, and RM’s first studio album Indigo released last month.

Shakira is continuing to shatter records with “BZRP Music Sessions #53,” her collaboration with Bizarrap. On Friday (January 13), the Colombian superstar claimed the record for the most-streamed Latin track in a single day in Spotify history.

Last week, Shakira surprised the world surprised with “BZRP Music Sessions #53,” which turned out to be her diss track about her ex Gerard Piqué. With clever wordplay in Spanish, she name-checked Piqué and his current girlfriend Clara Chía Marti. Her cutting lyrics generated countless memes. Bizarrap, who is the most-streamed artist from Argentina on Spotify, produced the song.

On Friday, Shakira and Bizarrap’s “BZRP Music Sessions #53” debuted at No. 1 on Spotify’s Global 50 chart. With over 14.4 million streams, Shakira smashed the record for the Latin track with the most-streams in a single day on Spotify. Shakira, who is in the fourth decade of her music career, celebrated the news in a post on Instagram. She described the song as a “catharsis” and a “relief.”

“I never thought that I would reach number one in the world at 45 years old and in Spanish,” Shakira wrote. “Women who defend what they feel and think, and raise their hands when they disagree, while others raise eyebrows, they are my inspiration.”

In another post, Shakira continued to express how the song was a way for her to process her feelings. “This goes out to all the women who taught me that when life throws you sour lemons, there’s no other choice but to make lemonade,” she wrote.

Detroit rapper Boldy James avoided tragedy earlier this month. As confirmed by a statement released on Saturday, January 14, James “was involved in a serious two-car accident in the Detroit metropolitan area” on January 9 that left him in “critical condition, suffering from broken vertebrae in his neck and orthopedic injuries.” Luckily, though, he is “now in stable condition.”

James’ road to full recovery is fueled by well wishes from fellow Detroiters and rappers, including Eminem.

“Sending out best wishes for a quick recovery for The D’s own @boldyjames!!!” the recent Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee tweeted on Sunday, January 15, alongside saluting and praying-hands emojis.

Jalen Rose, another Detroit native, and Westside Gunn also tweeted support for James.

Last June, Boldy James teased a project that every Detroit hip-hop fan (and any hip-hop fan, in general) will want to hear.

“I got a whole entirely produced J Dilla project that I’m about to drop,” he said while sitting down at the Trill Hip Hop Shop in Phoenix, Arizona. “I would tell you the name of it, but I had to tell you that. I got the last of the Dilla stash.”

He added, “A lot of people owe their success — not owe their success, but [Dilla] alley-ooped a lot of people’s success. The list goes on. I’m not about to start name-dropping, but if you don’t know who this guy is, you need to do your history. J Dilla. Detroit, stand up.”

Projection is a powerful drug. The psychological phenomenon involves accusing others of doing the very thing you’re doing. For instance, if you have committed voter fraud in the 2020 election, as two residents of the Florida MAGA haven The Villages did, you probably believe that election was “stolen” from its loser, Donald Trump. Lauren Boebert also believes in 2020 voter fraud nonsense, so of course she’s accusing others of being “conspiracy theorists.”

As per Newsweek, the rootin’-tootin’ representative — who has also shown support for QAnon silliness — went on Fox News’ Unfiltered with Don Bongino to talk about the GOP’s razor thin control over the House. The chamber has already descended into madness and, given their slim majority, there’s not a whole lot Republicans can get done.

But they can sow chaos. And so Boebert says she wants to oust noted anti-Trumpers Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell off the Intelligence Committee, claiming they’re the ones with kooky beliefs. Boebert cited Schiff’s belief in Russian interference in the 2016 election, some of which has been debunked. As for Swalwell, he’s been accused of being targeted by a suspected Chinese spy. Those, Boebert claimed, proved a “double standard” when it came to smearing Republicans.

“They’re really showing their colors,” Boebert told Bongino, “They’re a bunch of Blue Anons, conspiracy theorists, that have these witch hunts and hopes that they chase after.” She added, “The Democrats’ double standard is out of control. They want to throw Trump in jail over classified documents, and with Biden it’s ‘let’s wait and see.’”

Boebert was mostly peddling false equivalencies. For one thing, Trump was caught with far more classified documents than Biden. What’s more, Trump has been accused of obstructing investigators while Biden is cooperating fully.

In any case, neither Schiff nor Swalwell have ever voiced beliefs as out-there as “Jewish space lasers,” as once believed by Boebert’s former bestie Marjorie Taylor Greene.

(Via Newsweek)

As you may recall, there was some anxiety over how well Avatar: The Way of Water would do at the box office. It had been a whopping 13 years since the first entry; did anyone even care about Pandora anymore? Even its creator, James Cameron, was worried, threatening to only make a couple more sequels instead of his threatened several. It turns out there was no need to fret: In mere weeks it handily outgrossed Top Gun: Maverick. Now it’s setting its sights on an even bigger money-gobbler.

As per Deadline, over the weekend Jake Sully and his fellow Na’vi sailed past the $1.8 billion mark. That means it’s about to overtake Spider-Man: No Way Home, which bowed in late 2021 and Hoovered up $1.921 billion. That threequel was the first mega-super-duper-blockbuster since the pandemic began, revealing that audiences were willing to come back to the multiplexes in droves, at least if they’re extremely expensive sequels.

Right now, Avatar 2 is the seventh highest grossing movie ever, not adjusted for inflation. After surpassing No Way Home, it’ll then have come for Avengers: Infinity War ($2.04 billion), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($2.06 billion), Cameron’s own Titanic ($2.18 billion), Avengers: Endgame ($2.79 billion), and finally the one started it all: the original Avatar ($2.92 billion).

Avatar 2 might not go all the way to the top, and it probably won’t come close to the highest grossing film adjusted for inflation: Gone with the Wind, which over the decades has made an estimated $3.92 billion, and at a time when movie tickets weren’t as expensive as they are now.

(Via Deadline)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is known for many things—but perhaps his greatest legacy is sparking an unshakable hope that someday, change will come.

Just two months before his assassination in 1968, Dr. King spoke to a crowd in Washington, D.C. and famously said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Spreading (and keeping!) that hope is exactly what Meta aims to accomplish with their latest VR for Good project, MLK: Now is the Time, a 20-minute documentary VR experience featuring the use of hand gesture-based tracking technology.

Developed by TIME/TIME Studios and Flight School Studio for Meta Quest, MLK: Now is the Time drops you into a thoroughly modern interpretation of the March on Washington. Viewers hear first-person stories and can interact with key moments in history, showing them what it means to be an activist. Limbert Fabian, the director of the project, felt inspired to develop something fresh and different that would catch the attention of a new generation. As a parent, he knows what mediums are most likely to engage young people.

“I wanted the audience to walk away feeling that Dr. King’s words are relevant today. Perhaps even motivate them to engage in activism at a local level,” said Fabian. “I imagined that one day a high-school social studies class somewhere is going to be diving into that time in our nation’s history and our project would be a tool that we can offer them to dive in deeper to look at not the day but the ideas that fueled that gathering, and how the words were meant to push into a future for the country.”

TIME Studios worked closely with the King estate to maintain the integrity and accuracy of the original moment. Audio from the “I Have A Dream” speech is layered throughout, culminating in an encounter with Dr. King and a call to continued action around his vision of one day living in a nation where people are no longer judged by the color of their skin, but by their character.

Because the rules for VR technology are still being written, this project is on the cutting edge of merging the past—in the form of archival footage—and the present. There is a sense of intimacy in the VR world; it’s a space where a person can “drop in” and feel as if they are somewhere else, immersed in a world of activism. But even more importantly, the creators want to inspire a sense of hope, just like Dr. King did every time he spoke.

Some of the key, impactful moments in the film include a simulation of getting pulled over by police, as a person of color. Many people may not regard the police as a threat, but in this VR experience, getting pulled over feels authentic for the user. Their heartbeat may heighten. Their palms may get sweaty. That’s something that will stick with viewers and give them something to think about.

Another aspect, Fabian says, is the ability for people to use their hands to add to the immersion experience. “It’s seamless,” said Fabian. “The act of raising a fist holds weight in a lot of different ways: empathy, defiance, an act of contribution…it’s a gesture that’s easily recognizable. I don’t have to say anything and you instantly know.” This engagement is what makes the experience so unique.

“I want people to leave this experience with a renewed spark of hope. What type of hope that is is not for me to decide. However, for so many, King represented a hope for our nation, and I want people to remember that the legacy of hope did not die when he did,” said Andrina Smith, the writer for the project.

Even though it’s been nearly sixty years since Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, it’s as relevant today as it was when he first uttered those words. Racial inequities and injustices persist; the work is far from over. And this, my friends, is why hope is such an important piece of the puzzle.