A new, somewhat unexpected voice has jumped into the debate over Meg White’s drumming skills after a reporter derided her contributions to The White Stripes‘ sound. Karen Elson, the English singer-songwriter who shares two children with Meg’s ex-bandmate (and ex-husband) Jack White, chimed in to defend her fellow musician, evoking the now-infamous words uttered by Will Smith when he stood up for Jada Pinkett Smith at last year’s controversial Oscars ceremony — albeit, very politely, as befits a native of the UK.

“Not only is Meg White a fantastic drummer, Jack also said the White Stripes would be nothing without her,” Elson wrote on Twitter, as a response one fan’s tweet praising Meg. “To the journalist who dissed her, keep my ex husband’s ex wife name out of your f*cking mouth. (Please and Thank You)”

Meg, whose simple backline work often anchored Jack’s… let’s just say “aggressive” guitaring, also received support from fellow drummer Questlove of The Roots, who made it a point to counter the original tweet’s accusation of “sh*tty percussion” with his own expert opinion. “Actually what is wrong w music is people choking the life out of music like an Instagram filter—trying to reach a high of music perfection that doesn’t even serve the song (or music),” he wrote. This is why I walk that Dilla path and play like a drunken sloppy af amateur because them flaws is the human element in music that is missing. Real film >>>>>>> IG filter photo.”

Damian Lillard is in his 11th season in the NBA, all of which have been spent in Portland after being the sixth pick in the 2012 NBA Draft. As happens to all players who are in the league for a decade-plus, they start to see the ways things change, for better and worse.

On this week’s episode of The Old Man and the Three podcast, Lillard explained to JJ Redick what he sees as the biggest negative change in the NBA since he entered, and how it’s posing a genuine problem for the NBA going forward.

“When I came in the league, like Jason Kidd was starting for the Knicks and Grant Hill and Kurt Thomas and Kenyon Martin…it was real older dudes in the league,” Lillard said. “I played with Jared Jeffries, he was 40, 41 or something. Earl Watson was 40 when I played with him. I played with real vets, and it was a lot of stuff I learned, like being a point guard or how to lead from Mo Williams and Earl Watson and Jared Jeffries. And they didn’t even play, it was just the way they showed me how stuff had to be done, I had no choice but to respect the game. I didn’t have – the word I was looking for is entitlement. Like, when I came in the league, you had to earn not just what you get from the team or the respect – you had to earn your space on the team.

“It was no “Oh you the sixth pick in the Draft, it’s your team.” What is this your team stuff? I think now the difference is you don’t have that veteran presence. So you got players who are more talented than ever coming into the league, they’re getting picked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, they’re making more money than those picks ever made, so not only that, now you givin them the keys to the franchise. There’s nobody there to tell them, you’re super-talented, but you’ve gotta earn stuff around here. You gotta earn your way. They come in and everything is given to them from the beginning. So that effects how they are, the way they play. They play for themselves, they play for stats. They think they’re LeBron James when they make an All-Star Game or get a max contract. It’s just different. I don’t know how to completely put it together, but the NBA I play in now is not the NBA I came into.”

There are a few interesting points raised by Lillard here and some hold up better than others. The one I’ll agree the most with is that the lack of veterans on the rosters of rebuilding teams poses a genuine problem to the development of their young hopeful stars. The Rockets stand out as the most obvious example of a team simply lacking veteran guidance who seem to be building just as many bad habits as they have positive skill development. On those teams, there is certainly something to Lillard’s point of teams being too quick to hand the keys to young players with little guidance from the locker room.

At the same time, Lillard is a particularly interesting messenger for this critique, given he played 38.9 minutes per game as a rookie and was second on the Blazers in shot attempts per game to LaMarcus Aldridge — with the tensions between Portland’s handling of their young star versus their established star becoming a storyline as Aldridge eventually left the Blazers for San Antonio. I’m sure internally, there wasn’t the expectation for Lillard to be the leader in the locker room in the way some young stars are asked to take on that mantle immediately and unfairly, but he was handed a large role immediately and while the keys to the Blazers franchise may not have been his alone, he certainly had a copy at the least.

Still, the overall point stands that we have gotten to a point where older role players tend to have a difficult time sticking around for a variety of reasons, but not the least of which is cost. Most teams would rather pay end of the bench guys less, and someone with 10-plus years of service time in the NBA has a higher minimum contract than those early in their careers. They can sell that as hope those guys develop into a rotation piece, but the cost piece is at the forefront, as it allows them to spend more on stars and rotation players without risking as hefty a tax penalty. The value of those veterans isn’t something that appears on the stat sheet, and as such it’s very difficult to quantify their value.

Lillard lays out how even those that don’t play on the court still can play an integral role in developing your young talent into NBA players who understand how to be a professional on and off the court. That value is an intangible, though, and the appreciation for those things has unquestionably become devalued in this current era of the NBA. The evidence backs up his complaint, as the oldest players in the league now tend to be star-caliber players who are either still playing at that level or are on their way out. Udonis Haslem and Andre Iguodala are rare exceptions to that rule, and it comes as little surprise that they play for two teams who value culture more than just about any others.

Indie rockers Yo La Tengo were onto something when they named their latest album, This Stupid World. The “For You Too” musicians aren’t afraid to remind lawmakers and politicians every chance they get, with their current North American tour being the outlet. Yesterday (March 13), while performing in Nashville, the band seemingly used their set to silently protest the state’s recent anti-drag legislation.

The laws in question are Senate Bill 3 and House Bill 9. Both of which ban all drag performances from taking place on any public property in the state. Later this month, musical acts like Hayley Williams, Jason Isbell, Maren Morris, and more will take part in a benefit concert to raise money for LGBTQIA+ organizations in the state.

However, considering their lengthy tour schedule, Yo La Tengo appear to be showing their support for drag performers in another way. Following an intermission, band members Ira Kaplan and James McNew returned to the stage in a noticeable wardrobe change. Kaplan changed into a sleeveless red dress sporting a long black wig to match. McNew, on the other hand, added a shawl and a sun hat to his existing outfit. Although they didn’t specifically address the ban, concertgoers to took to Twitter to applaud their actions as they shared images of the band onstage.

Unlike the other band members, drummer Georgia Hubley didn’t make changes to their outfit, a detail also noticed by fans.

Even though Melanie Lynskey has had a prolific career filled with award-winning movies and iconic guest-starring roles, she is still a woman in Hollywood, which means that people are always going to be mean by default. Things are going great.

The Yellowjackets star recently opened up to The New York Times about being type-cast as the “fat friend” over the years. Despite being a celebrated actress with multiple awards and nominations under her belt, she is still given roles based on her looks, and she is (rightfully) sick of it.

Lynskey explained that she was always expected to play “the fat friend or the jokey kind of fat person” over the years after various roles in both movies and shows. She even recalls one specific character that stuck out to her, “There was one thing I read where the person had a candy bar in every scene. It was kind of a strange disconnect. I felt like I was pretending when I was going in and auditioning to play these dowdy people.” Instead of being involved in projects because of her A+ acting, she was only being put into roles based on her body.

The actress gained attention last month when she called out online trolls who were mad about her appearance in The Last of Us. Lynskey says that she hopes the conversation shifts to talking about characters instead of their bodies. “I very much want to be onscreen representing an interesting person who’s not paying attention to what her tummy looks like,” she said, adding that her calling attention to it is a part of the problem. “If there were more people who look like me, then I wouldn’t have to talk about it as much.”

Even though she is subjected to unnecessary hate, Lynksey is absolutely crushing it this year after appearing in The Last Of Us and gearing up for Yellowjackets season two premiere at the end of the month. Meanwhile, her haters are out there deactivating their Twitter accounts, so who is really winning here? Hint: it’s the one on TV winning awards.

(Via AV Club)

Leonardo DiCaprio was once asked to name his favorite role of his. “If I had to choose one, it would probably be The Aviator, playing Howard Hughes,” he said in 2012. If the same question was posed to DiCaprio now, he might have a different answer: another Martin Scorsese movie.

During a masterclass for Qatar’s Doha Film Institute this week, Killers of the Flower Moon costume designer Jacqueline West discussed a conversation she had with DiCaprio about the Apple TV+ movie. “I was talking to Leo about it. We had lunch before I came here. He said, ‘Jackie, I think we worked on a masterpiece.’ I thought for Leo to say that, was something. He doesn’t say that lightly. He has been in the business since he was a little boy,” she said.

You can tell West is close with DiCaprio (they worked on The Revenant together) by the fact that she calls him “Leo.” That familiarity has to be earned, unlike calling Martin Scorsese “Marty.” That’s fun for everyone.

West also said that Killers of the Flower Moon, about a series of murders in Oklahoma’s Osage Nation in the 1920s, “follows the book, and the book was totally captivating. The native cast was incredible and the acting, Lily Gladstone is incredible. The images were thrilling. It looks amazing.”

Killers of the Flower Moon is set to premiere later this year.

(Via Deadline)

Towards the end of 2021, Adele became a bit of a villain in the vinyl community. The singer apparently turned in her album 30 months early to get a headstart on the vinyl production process, and reports indicated this prevented smaller artists from getting their records pressed. Later reports said this probably wasn’t her fault, though, as the 30 LPs Adele had pressed only made up an estimated 0.3 percent of the total vinyl produced in 2021.

Whatever the case, there was clearly a lot of interest in the album, as 30 was the year’s best-selling album on vinyl, even though it was only released that November. Still, it appears that according to one person’s thrift store trip, demand for the album on vinyl was at least somewhat overestimated.

In a tweet that has racked up over 2 million views since it was shared on March 13, a Twitter user wrote, “Imagine ruining the manufacturing process of vinyl for a full year just to end up at goodwill because you didn’t realize there was no market for your music on vinyl.” Accompanying that are photos of sealed 30 LPs apparently for sale at a Goodwill thrift store, priced for $9.99 each. There appears to be over 100 records on the rack.

The source of those photos comes from a Reddit post shared earlier that day. In the comments of the post, one user wrote, “I run a small record label and one of my releases got delayed for almost two years because Sony clogged multiple pressing plants for a year to press this.” The original poster responded, “Yeah, there are so many small labels that went through that. That’s why it pisses me off so much. And here they, just a year later, about to head to the dump.”

One of the presumed top prospects in the 2023 NBA Draft will not play again this season. According to a report by Jonathan Givony of ESPN, G League Ignite guard Scoot Henderson is getting shut down as the team is well on the outside looking in of the playoff picture.

Currently, the Ignite are 11-16 on the year and are four games back of the 8-seed with five games left to play in the regular season. While he has yet to formally declare for the 2023 NBA Draft, Henderson, a 19-year-old guard out of Georgia, is believed to be in the running to go No. 2 overall behind French center Victor Wembanyama. The two players went head-to-head in a pair of games between the Ignite and Wembanyama’s Metropolitans 92 squad last year, and while an injury largely held Henderson out of the second game, the 6’2 guard held his own in a 28-point, 9-assist evening.

Henderson appeared in 19 games for the Ignite this season and went for 16.5 points, 6.8 assists, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 30.7 minutes of work a night. There are questions about his ability to score at an efficient clip, as he converted 42.9 percent of his attempts from the field and knocked down 27.5 percent of his shots from behind the three-point line.

Charly Bliss announced today (March 14) that they’re playing some headlining shows across the US starting next month, their first in years. The tour, which will continue through May, also finds them joining Hippo Campus as an opening act in cities like Phoenix and Boise.

“!! WE ARE GOING ON TOUR !! We are so beyond stoked to be playing our first headlining shows in almost four years,” they posted. “Lots more news to come in the next few weeks, stay tuned.”

Earlier this year, the band hinted on social media that they could be dropping some new music sooner than fans think. “What if we just kept teasing the fact that we are making new music instead of releasing new music,” the tweet read, complete with a Succession screengrab.

All tickets for their solo dates will open in a general sale this Friday (3/17) at 10 a.m. local time. There are also some remaining tickets in certain cities to see them open for Hippo Campus. More information is available here.

Continue scrolling for a complete list of Charly Bliss’ upcoming tour dates.

04/24 — Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
04/25 — Brooklyn, NY @ Market Hotel
04/28 — Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
04/29 — St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
05/02 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks*
05/04 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren*
05/06 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
05/08 — Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory*
05/10 — Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory*
05/11 — Bozeman, MT @ The ELM*

* supporting Hippo Campus

While taking a break from appearing in several text messages from Fox News employees about his crazy election fraud schemes and leaky head, Rudy Giuliani filmed a new episode of his web show on Monday where he seemed to have no clue what the Oscars are. Keep in mind, the awards ceremony has been going on for 95 years, but Rudy appeared to be absolutely clueless about the whole thing.

Via Mediaite:

“Somebody asked me about something called Oscar. Oscar?” Giuliani said during the Monday edition of his show, America’s Mayor Live.

“The Oscars,” a producer off-camera corrected.

“Oh, it’s the — oh, it’s a family,” Giuliani replied, appearing to get more confused. “What are Oscars. Some big thing happened last night called Oscar?”

After his producer clarified that it was a Hollywood award show, Giuliani went down a different rabbit hole, discussing the show The Chosen about the life of Jesus Christ.

In Rudy’s defense, he has a lot on his plate. The famed New York City attorney who used to be heralded for taking on the mob is facing all kinds of legal trouble from his participation in Trump’s election fraud scheme in Georgia to the multi-billion dollar lawsuits he’s facing from at least voting software companies. He’s also just a downright terrible lawyer now, which is literally the defense he used in his own ethics hearing back in December.

In short, the man’s brain is a twisted labyrinth of Trump schemes and alimony, folks. You can’t expect him to remember things like the longest-running awards show in the history of motion pictures. Be reasonable.

(Via Mediaite)

Simon Beck didn’t set out to become a world-renowned snowshoe artist, yet here he is. The former cartographer was trained in engineering at Oxford, but has spent the past ten years making jaw-dropping art in the snow and sand using only his feet.

Beck uses geometrical and geographical tools to plot out his designs, but it’s still baffling to see him walk exactly where he needs to to create them. His designs can take 12 hours of walking or more, and he’ll take around 40,000 steps for an average-sized piece. It’s beautiful, it’s creative, it’s exercise—and it’s fleeting.

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Being made out of snow and sand, which are constantly being blown or washed away, Beck’s artwork doesn’t last. Such is the nature of creating art in nature, but that doesn’t bother him in the slightest. “Most people will only ever see most of the world’s artwork as photographs,” he said in an article in Artsy. “Even with the Mona Lisa—probably only a minority of people have actually seen the real thing, but everyone’s seen a photograph of it.” As long as Beck gets a photo of his massive designs, it’s all good.

And the photographs are truly something to behold. Check out some of his snow creations on Facebook and Instagram.

See on Instagram

See on Instagram

One of the challenges of working in the snow is that conditions can change throughout the creation of a piece. Snow might melt or become exceptionally icy.

Or, other people might not realize what is happening and inadvertently mess up your work. For instance, there’s nothing to stop a skier from plowing right through a design.

Beck’s sand drawings offer a different kind of challenge. Timing out the tides and dealing with the wind—as well as other beachgoers—makes sand art tricky, but the final product is totally worth it.

See on Instagram

On occasion, Beck even uses his art to make statements about issues in the world. For instance, there are 81 triangles in this drawing, but he says he left 77 unshaded to represent “the 77 countries where LGBT people are given a hard time.”

Beck has created most of his 300-plus land drawings in Europe. However, he will be spending two weeks of January 2020 in Silverthorne, Colorado, where he will create between five and 15 of his iconic works of snow art.

ABC News did a segment on Beck and his work, where he explains a bit of his process and how he uses a ski pole to measure parts of the design. Watch and enjoy:

Simon Beck has become a global sensation for his installations made by stepping through snow with snowshoes and a ski pole.

This article originally appeared on 01.01.20