Month: May 2023

Late in the third quarter of Tuesday’s pivotal Game 5 between the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets, the Suns huddled as Devin Booker prepared to shoot a free throw following an away-from-the-play-foul assessed to Christian Braun. While Phoenix began huddling, Nuggets guard Bruce Brown and superstar center Nikola Jokic tried to sneak their way into the group, much to the dismay of Kevin Durant and Jock Landale.

Durant swiped away Brown, who curled around to the other side of the huddle. Then, Landale brushed aside Jokic, who entered the eyesight of Durant and received a forearm to the chest from the dominant scoring wing. At that point, Jokic embellished the contact, flailed his arms and stumbled backward. Both Brown and Durant were issued technical fouls, which Durant didn’t seem to agree with.

As TNT’s color commentator, Grant Hill, alludes to, this is the second consecutive game between these sides that’s involved some extracurricular flopping. During Sunday’s Game 4, Jokic, trying to inbound a ball that caromed into the stands and exploit an advantageous 5-on-4, extended a forearm to the chest of Suns owner Mat Ishbia, who exaggerated the contact. The two reconciled prior to Game 5, but it seems the theme of flopping lives to see another game in this entertaining Western Conference Semifinals series.

A little over a year ago, Bright Eyes announced that they would be reissuing all nine of their studio albums for the Companion Series project. First came A Collection Of Songs Written And Recorded 1995-1997: A Companion, Letting Off The Happiness: A Companion, and Fevers And Mirrors: A Companion. Then Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground: A Companion, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning: A Companion, and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn: A Companion.

On Tuesday, May 9, they the third installment is arriving: Cassadaga: A Companion, The People’s Key: A Companion, and Noise Floor (Rarities 1998-2005): A Companion. Singles out now include “Middleman,” “When You Were Mine,” and “Blue Angels Air Show.”

Here’s what Conor Oberst said about the release:

“We are really excited about the final installment of our companion EPs. It’s been an interesting journey revisiting and reimagining all of these old songs. 54 songs total seems ridiculous now looking back, but I’m glad we did it. This new batch includes great contributions from Alynda Segarra (Hurray For The Riff Raff), Johanna and Klara Söderberg (First Aid Kit), and an amazing cast of other fantastic musicians that brought these songs into the present tense. I hope all of the fun and neo-nostalgia we experienced recording these comes through to the listeners.”

Listen to “Middleman” above and “When You Were Mine” and “Blue Angels Air Show” below.

Cassadaga: A Companion, The People’s Key: A Companion, and Noise Floor (Rarities 1998-2005): A Companion are out 6/16 on Dead Oceans. Find more information here.

Scarlett Johansson may have spent years playing a superhero — though she’s done with that (or at least done with Marvel) now — but in real life she’s done something heroic, too: She’s taken on Disney. Two years ago the actress made headlines for suing the House of Mouse over how they released Black Widow, her MCU character’s first and only solo outing. She was awarded with a settlement — and she was awarded with random people giving her props.

“I couldn’t even walk through a restaurant without somebody saying, ‘Good for you. Stand up for yourself,’” Johansson said during a profile by Variety (in a bit teased out by Insider). “I could see that it had a bigger impact. I got support from strangers that have no skin in the game at all.”

Johannson’s lawsuit took Disney to task for dropping Black Widow in theaters and on streaming on the same day, back when theaters a good half-year from starting to return to normal. By doing so, her legal team argued, they violated her contract, which called for the film to be released exclusively in theaters. Disney retaliated by attacking Johansson for her “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.” To make the scuffle all the more surreal for her, she was mere days from delivering her second child.

Two months later Disney settled with her, offering a payout that was reportedly in the area of $40 million, on top of the $20 million she’d be paid upfront.

The two parties have since made peace, with her starring in their film version of the theme park ride Tower of Terror. Besides, Disney is a little busy right now repeatedly out-maneuvering the governor of Florida.

(Via Variety and Insider)

The anticipation for Doja Cat‘s new album is building at a rapid pace. The “Woman” singer is stirring up the conversation on social media Tuesday, May 9 by leaking snippets of unreleased songs on her Instagram Live and claiming the title is no longer Hellmouth on Twitter. “its not called hEllMoUth either its called ‘First of All’ and yes I’m announcing the album title right now,” she wrote.

Along with that tweet, she also shared thoughts about her previous albums. “planet her and hot pink were cash-grabs and yall fell for it,” she wrote. “now i can go disappear somewhere and touch grass with my loved ones on an island while yall weep for mediocre pop.”

Last month, she also tweeted: “no more pop.” She also confronted those criticizing her ability for hip hop: “i also agree with everyone who said the majority of my rap verses are mid and corny. I know they are,” she wrote. “I wasnt trying to prove anything I just enjoy making music but I’m getting tired of hearing yall say that i can’t so I will.”

Her resentment for pop music could have something to do with the way music gets overplayed, which she discussed in a Variety interview. “I just got an award [from iHeartRadio] for a billion spins on the radio, so with that alone, I’m constantly being shoved down people’s throats,” she said.

Being a Doja Cat fan is not easy. In March, speculation emerged about the title of the musician’s highly anticipated new album after she tweeted “#hellmouth.” It seemed like a simple announcement, especially after she kept confusing people about what the genre would be, saying it would be rave-influenced, rap, R&B, punk, and not pop.

However, as Doja backpedals on what genre it is, she’s also backpedaling on what the title is. “The whole album is no longer rap yall its rock/spoken word and the album title is not Hellmouth anymore,” she tweeted last month. A minute later, she added, “Album is called Moist Holes.”

The shenanigans continued Tuesday, May 9, when Doja took to Twitter to stir the pot further: “its not called hEllMoUth either its called ‘First of All’ and yes I’m announcing the album title right now.” This followed her Instagram Live in which she shared a snippet of a new song.

Moist Holes was hard to believe. First of All is now suspiciously normal. Fans are tired of hearing about it, though. In the replies, some are demanding she drop the record already. She leaked a possible tracklist on her Instagram Story last month as well. Still, no release date has been teased.

Perhaps the weirdest moment of the NBA playoffs so far came in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinal series between the Denver Nuggets and the Phoenix Suns. Nikola Jokic wanted to inbound the ball quickly after it went out of bounds and ended up right in the arms of the Suns’ new owner, Mat Ishbia. That didn’t happen because Ishbia refused to hand the ball over, and after Ishbia touched Jokic, the two-time league MVP shoved him, which led to Ishbia flopping into his chair.

Jokic was assessed a technical foul and there were concerns over whether he’d get suspended for the incident, but ultimately, he only received a fine — Ishbia, it must be noted, tweeted that he didn’t want to see Jokic receive any sort of punishment. Tuesday night marked the first game since all of this, and before things tipped off, the two linked up when Jokic ran over to Ishbia, threw a ball to him, and dapped him up.

Their interaction in Game 4 was legitimately very tense — Jokic expressed his belief that Ishbia should have gotten tossed from the game, while Nuggets coach Michael Malone was pretty explicit when he found out who the fan was. As such, it’s nice to see that the pair shared a pretty lighthearted moment before things tip off on Tuesday.

Self-love is a skill, and learning how to develop it from an early age can make a world of difference.

And this is exactly what the students at Brooklyn’s Excellence Boys Charter School are learning each and every day—one hype up at a time.

Performing Arts teacher Ivan Marrero had the idea to let the boys try saying an affirmation to themselves in the mirror, starting with the phrase “One thing I like about myself is…” Basically, anything that made them happy was fair game.

One by one, each student went up and praised their reflection, commending their eyes, their smile, their strength, their ability to climb, you name it. Marrero posted the heartwarming video online, where it immediately went viral.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ivan M. (@imarsdancelab)

“It really showed the humility of our black and brown boys in a way that we don’t often see,” Principle Jaz Grant shared with Good Morning America. “As loving beings, loving themselves.” Granted explained that Excellence Boys serves 95% children of color.

“It is so important that our young black and brown boys know ‘you’re worthy, you are special, you are talented,’” from an early age, so that they’re “really ready to tackle and face the world,” he told GMA.

As it turns out, self-affirmations aren’t the only part of Excellence Boys’ confidence-boosting curriculum. Every morning, school faculty await the boys at the gate, where they take them to the cafeteria for morning motivation—basically a group hype-up.

In addition, each classroom is also named after a college or university. Grant stated that this strategy was specifically incorporated to “embed in our boys from day one that college is a place that they all have access to,” since many children of color “statistically fall to the bottom of the equity gap,” making it harder to pursue higher education. Each and every self-love ritual is designed to disrupt a prevailing narrative and set the boys on the path towards confidence and success.

Man, can you imagine a world where every kid learned how to engage in healthy self-talk? Where education touted not only hard work, but pure joy? Where school was not only a place to gain academic knowledge, but also learn crucial skills for emotional resiliency? The educators fighting to make that possibility a reality for young children are truly planting seeds for a brighter future for everyone.

Even though same-sex marriage became legal across the U.S. in 2015, some still refer to marriage between a man and a woman as “traditional marriage.” The fact that people need to differentiate between different types of marriage makes many feel the term is disparaging to LGBTQ people.

When people refer to traditional marriage, they’re usually describing the union of a cisgender man and woman that is rooted in love and equality, where both partners have the same rights under the law. However, according to a video by Matt Baume, this notion of traditional marriage looks a lot different than marriages of the past.

Baume is a YouTuber who makes videos about pop culture history from a queer perspective.

In his video “What’s the Definition of ‘Traditional Marriage’?” Baume points out that marriage isn’t exactly the “one man, one woman” story you’ve always heard.

For example, 4,000 years ago, in Mesopotamia, marriage was akin to slavery. During the Roman Empire, public displays of affection weren’t tolerated. Baume also notes that marrying for love is a relatively recent development, and it’s only been a few decades since interracial marriage was legal and married men and women began sharing the same rights.

The video discusses what it means to be married from a historical perspective, making it evident that the institution is constantly in flux. “Look, marriage has been a lot of things. But when you get down to it, it’s always been an agreement between people,” Baume says in the video. “And as people strived to improve themselves, to become a more fair and just society, the marriages they form improve with them.”

When Eric Weber, owner of The Slice in Evansville, Indiana, discovered that a man had been sleeping in a tent next to the dumpster behind his pizza restaurant, he had basically two choices: make him go or let him stay.

For Weber, the decision to let the man continue living behind his shop was an easy one. “I know it’s wrong just to kick a poor homeless guy down the street when you can provide care for him just as easily as anybody else can,” he told local CBS and Fox News affiliate 44News Evansville.

It’s not like Weber hasn’t attempted other solutions. He told the outlet that he had tried reaching out to other organizations to help for years, but always came upon dead ends. Knowing that forcing the man to leave would likely only cause more instability and worsen the situation, Weber felt like letting him stay was the only way to do the right thing.

“Either you kick him down the road until somebody complains—and then he gets kicked down the road again—or you deal with it,” Weber said.

The city’s planning commission, however, seems to feel differently. According to the institution, the man’s tent represents a structure that violates a city ordinance for land use. The fine for this type of offense starts at $500 and exponentially increases each day afterward. In less than a week, the fine will surge to over $7,000 a day.

Weber, who has already been given the initial fine, is determined to continue helping the man and feels that the commission’s values are misaligned.

“If you’re looking at the greater good in this situation—the aesthetics of the alley and taking care of a homeless person—which one makes more sense?” Weber said.

More than 580,000 people experienced homelessness in the United States on any given day in 2022, according to the 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report. The issue might be more prevalent in large cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, but states nationwide have seen a visible increase in homelessness within the last decade, particularly due to the rising cost of housing…what little housing is available, that is.

As the challenges facing homeless communities become more visible, cities are making better incremental efforts to help. Lawmakers in Oregon, for example, have proposed a bill that would decriminalize homeless camps and allow unhoused people to sue if they are forced to leave. Other towns are building “tiny home villages” to help clear out homeless encampments on the street.

Though Weber isn’t waiting around for help to do what he feels is right, he said that his own city has the means to provide better solutions for helping the man and others who are struggling. “If you give him food and water and a basic-shelter situation, it seems to me it could be done in an economical fashion that makes sense, and I definitely think the city could do it.”

Hopefully, Weber will not have to pay the price for having compassion.

On Tuesday, some two weeks after being kicked to the curb by Fox News, Tucker Carlson revealed he’d found a new home: the same place where Catturd lives. The host who’s been fired from three separate 24-hours news networks announced he was producing a version of his Fox News show for Twitter. Given that Carlson had reportedly had a secret meeting with the service’s owner, Elon Musk, over the weekend, it sounded like the two had worked out some kind of deal. Not so, Musk later said, adding that he’d be policing Carlson should he say anything false — which, you know, good luck with that.

As per Deadline, Musk claimed he and Tucker “have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever,” adding, “Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators.”

In his announcement video, Carlson had called Twitter the “last big” platform for unfettered free speech “remaining in the world.” Alas, it sounds like it won’t be as free as Tucker would like. On Fox News, Carlson regularly spread bald misinformation about matters such as the pandemic and the Jan. 6 riot. He even spread white supremacist conspiracy theories. He also used to sing the praises of “testicle tanning.”

But while Musk rarely deletes tweets (at least lately), misleading or incorrect posts do often receive annotations. Tucker, it seems, will be no different, with Musk vowing that should the firebrand say “anything misleading,” he’ll incur the wrath of Community Notes, the team responsible for affixing corrections to prominent posts boasting misinformation.

That said, Musk was stoked that someone as big as Tucker Carlson was not only a paid Twitter Blue subscriber, but was also creating content for him, for pay. He encouraged liberals to become “content creators” for him, just like Tucker.

So did Tucker Carlson potentially leave millions from his Fox News contract on the table — to say nothing of any legal fees and/or settlements he’ll incur should he and his old employers go head-to-head in court — so he could be just another schnook paying a service to give them free content? And will his videos be graffitied with reams of corrections written by overworked fact checkers? If so, this was surely not the outcome anyone imagined for the network’s erstwhile biggest star.

(Via Deadline)