Month: June 2023

Donald Trump had a lot to say during his two-part Fox News interview with Bret Baier, which aired Monday and Tuesday. He basically confessed to crimes, learned that an inmate he freed would be executed under his drug dealer plan, and rambled… something… about Vladimir Putin. It was a lot and nothing at the same time. It’s the Trump way! He also claimed he saved the lives of 100 million people, but modest man that he is, he doesn’t want the credit.

“There are people that say I saved 100 million lives — I don’t even talk about it,” Trump said before talking about it. He has a Democrat friend who told him, “I don’t understand one thing about you. I watch your rallies, they’re incredible. You talk about defeating ISIS, you talk about taxes, you talk about regulation, you talk about everything. You never said — I’ve never heard you talk about the incredible job did you with the vaccines.”

Trump believes he’s single handedly to thank for getting the COVID vaccine “done in nine months and it was suppose to take anywhere from five to 12 years… I broke their ass, OK?” Trump’s hypothetical Democrat friend (who probably isn’t Joe Biden, but the president did give Trump credit) wasn’t done lavishing praise on the big man. “You may have saved in the world, throughout the world, a hundred million people and you never talk about it.” He replied, “I said, I really don’t want to talk about it because, as a Republican it’s not a great thing to talk about because, for some reason, it’s just not.” Come again?

Baier pushed back on Trump and asked, “For some reason?”

“Yeah, for some reason,” Trump shot back. “Because, people love the vaccines, and people hate the vaccines. But, conservatives aren’t — and I understand both sides of it, by the way. I understand both sides very well.”

You can watch a clip from the interview below.

(Via Mediaite)

Over the past couple years, sisters Britney Spears and Jamie Lynn Spears have had what seems like a strained relationship. Britney made that pretty clear by writing in 2022 post, “f*ck you Jamie Lynn !!!!” Recently, though, Britney appears to have been mending fences with her family, like when she and mother Lynne recently shared a friendly visit. It looks like Britney and Jamie Lynn are now working things out, too.

Yesterday (June 21), Spears shared a video of herself wearing a bikini and dancing on a warm-weather vacation. The post’s caption starts, “It was nice to visit my sister on set last week !!! I’ve missed you guys so much !!! Loyal girls stay home but it’s so nice to visit family [relieved face emoji] !!!”

It’s not clear what set Britney was referring to, but Zoey 102, a Jamie Lynn-starring movie that’s a sequel to her teenage Zoey 101 TV series, was just announced earlier this week.

Britney’s post caption continues, “This is me and Hesam’s first vacation in a year !!! I’m so so blessed and l’m gonna play the queen of hearts now [winking with tongue emoji] !!! Normally that’s Spanish right mamma [smirking emoji] !!! Should I do French from now on ??? Latin ??? Portuguese or German ??? Nahh I dunno [shrugging emoji] because I don’t speak English [crying laughing emojis] !!!

Earlier this year, Ice Spice and one of her biggest fans, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s daughter North West, linked up and filmed a series of TikTok videos. One in particular raised eyebrows, as it featured the 9-year-old mouthing along to Ice Spice and PinkPantheress’ “Boy’s A Liar Pt. 2,” specifically the line, “Sayin’ he home, but I know where he at, like / Bet he blowin’ her back / Thinkin’ ’bout me ’cause he know that it’s fat.”

The clip was later removed from TikTok and now Kardashian has spoken more about making the decision to delete it.

In a new interview, she told Time, “As soon as I saw the words, I was like, ‘Oh no, we’re taking this down.’ I saw on the internet, [people saying] ‘Kanye was right,’ and maybe he was in that instance, but she loves making slime videos and doing her little hair tutorials, and I will fight for her to be creative.”

After the video was shared, an older clip of Kanye resurfaced, in which he spoke about his frustrations with North spending time on TikTok and how he didn’t want her to be “used” by the social video platform.

Check out Kardashian’s full Time interview here.

Prepare your thirst accordingly because FX’s The Bear is almost back, baby. The series will imminently arrive on Hulu as well, where it will be streamable in binge form. Some shows are simply better that way due to momentum, and The Bear is one of them. And I’m happy that the series recognizes that strength, which is actually rarer than it should be these days.

When can you catch up again with Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto? On June 22 at 3:00am EST and 12:00am PST. Get ready for a fairly quick guest star arrival with many more to come. The Original Beef of Chicagoland will eventually be revamped as The Bear, which brings even more symbolism than the hints that we received in Season 1. And get ready for a few episodes that match the anxiety level of “The Review,” which was the penultimate episode in Season 1 and the point where Ritchie got stabbed in the butt.

He deserved this, yes? And perhaps Marcus will be able to enjoy his donut-making time and much more this year. Sydney must one day rule the world, and fingers crossed that we’ll see a return of both Jon Bernthal and Joel McHale in their guest roles. Get ready to be stressed the hell out and love every moment of it.

The Bear will officially be back on June 22.

Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit‘s new album Weathervanes arrived earlier this month. A documentary about him called Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed premiered on HBO in April. So far, it’s undeniably been a big year for the country star.

Isbell and the crew are on the road now on an exciting tour. They’ll be bringing the new songs to Alabama, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, and more states over the course of the next few months. About Weathervanes, he previously said in a statement that it’s a “a collection of grown-up songs.” “There is something about boundaries on this record,” he continued about the record. “As you mature, you still attempt to keep the ability to love somebody fully and completely while you’re growing into an adult and learning how to love yourself.”

Find their full setlist below from their performance at Garfield Park, Indianapolis, IN on June 18, according to setlist.fm.

1. “Save the World”
2. “24 Frames”
3. “King of Oklahoma”
4. “Outfit” (Drive-By Truckers cover)
5. “Last of My Kind”
6. “Middle of the Morning”
7. “Overseas”
8. “Stockholm”
9. “When We Were Close”
10. “Death Wish”
11. “If We Were Vampires”
12. “Miles”
13. “Cast Iron Skillet”
14. “Honeysuckle Blue” (Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ cover)
15. “Cover Me Up”
16. “This Ain’t It”

The Los Angeles Clippers once again failed in their pursuit of a championship last year, as the team got the 5-seed in the Western Conference and fell in five games to the Phoenix Suns in the first round. The team didn’t decide to make any major moves in the immediate aftermath, as head coach Ty Lue will return next season, but as it turns out, there might be some interest in a gigantic shake-up on the team’s roster.

According to Marc Stein, the Clippers are making some calls around the league that, at the bare minimum, have made clear that they’re interested in gauging what they could get back in a Paul George trade.

League sources tell The Stein Line that the LA Clippers have left various rival teams with the impression through their Draft Week conversations that they are, at a minimum, attempting to gauge Paul George’s trade value and, to hear some describe it, giving real consideration to the idea of disassembling the Kawhi Leonard/George tandem.

It would be a gigantic move for Los Angeles, which is under some pressure with the pairing of Leonard and George due to both players having the option to hit unrestricted free agency next summer. Per Stein, if George is truly available, two teams high up in the lottery “have been identified as potential trade partners”: The Portland Trail Blazers, which have the No. 3 pick on Thursday night and have been mentioned as a team to watch in the lead-up to the draft, and the Houston Rockets, which pick fourth and have been in the midst of a lengthy pursuit of James Harden as an unrestricted free agent.

Late in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s game between the Dallas Wings and Atlanta Dream, with Dallas leading by double-digits, star guard Arike Ogunbowale received a double technical and was ejected. As Ogunbowale headed toward the locker room, the crowd gave her a raucous standing ovation and she reveled in it, encouraging fans to get as loud as possible. Just before she disappeared into the tunnel, she stopped and signed an autograph as well. Her technical fouls were two of 10 total doled out during Wings-Dream.

Ogunbowale completely owned the moment. She held a spectacle, played off the crowd perfectly, soaked it in and punctuated the entire sequence with an autograph. If you’re going to be ejected in the waning minutes of a rout, that’s how you do it. Ogunbowale aced it. I need more athletes to follow suit. Can we get players to ink an entire line of autographs for fans? How far can things be stretched? I want to test the utmost boundaries here. Let’s get weird.

Alongside Natasha Howard’s game-high 23 points, Ogunbowale notched 21 points, three boards and two assists, helping power Dallas to an 85-73 win for its sixth victory of the year. Ogunbowale entered Tuesday’s contest averaging a career-high 23.5 points, 4.3 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 11 appearances this season.

To many, including even far right commentators, Donald Trump’s new, two-part Fox News interview was an unmitigated disaster. During its lowest point, the former president, while addressing the case brought against him over his alleged mishandling of classified government documents, basically confessed to the crime. At another, he bragged about pardoning a former drug dealer…who, interviewer Bret Baier pointed out, would have been sentenced to death as part of his new plan on how to handle drug dealers. But there was one fan of the chat: Donald Trump.

“In the hours after his interview with Brett Baier aired on Monday, Trump privately boasted about how well he thought he performed,” says a new report by Rolling Stone. “As he asked others if they had caught the interview and what they thought of it, the former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner said the tension and parrying with Baier made him look tough, creating buzzy, attention-grabbing television, two sources with knowledge of the situation tell Rolling Stone.”

Not everyone was thrilled. “Where Trump saw buzz, people hoping to keep him out of legal jeopardy saw trouble,” writes RS. “Several of the ex-president’s current and former legal advisors watched on with exasperated sighs, and in some cases terror, according to three people familiar with the matter.”

No doubt his lawyers — if he still has any — are among those nonplussed, which also includes at least one former Trump attorney. Ty Cobb (apparently his real name) told RS that the instantly infamous Fox News clip of his near-confession would be used by prosecutors during the trial and that Trump had given them “an enormous gift.”

At least it’s increasingly likely we’ll be able to see if Trump really can run for president from the clink.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Róisín Murphy is back. The beloved singer and producer started off as one-half of the 90s pop duo Moloko, and she’s preparing to release her new album Hit Parade, made in collaboration with DJ Koze. The single “Fader” is out now, and it’s an extravagant, engaging journey.

The track comes with a video that lives up to the vivaciousness of the music. Read what she said about it:

“This idea came to me partly in reaction to making such surreal and ‘other’ imagery for the album artwork, and partly in response to the track itself. I felt I needed a totally authentic space in which to perform ‘Fader.’ The song is about life & death & music and so I went home to where it all started for me. Just as in the music there’s a huge HipHop influence on the video and for me to have the sheer front for that, it needed to ring true and so my home town, Arklow was in fact, the only option. It was a huge task to take on, connecting with local government counselors because we had to close the high street and then, with local groups of all kinds, musicians, dancers, scouts, majorettes, farmers, fishermen etc and much of my family… doing something like this is a massive responsibility and it threatened to overwhelm me at times. But on the day we had Hollywood sunshine and just an incredible sense of goodwill. The people of Arklow made me so proud. It truly turned out to be one of best days of life…”

Watch the video for “Fader” above.

Hit Parade is out 9/8 on Ninja Tune. Find more information about it here.

The beef between Jim Jones and Pusha T began in April. On Spotify’s RapCaviar podcast, Jones expressed disagreement with Billboard and VIBE’s 50 Greatest Rappers Of All Time list, taking particular umbrage with Pusha T’s placement at No. 29. “What has he done that puts him in the greatest rappers of all time besides talk about coke that he probably didn’t get himself?” he said.

“He’s nice as sh*t. He could rap his ass off, but what has he done? Nobody has dressed like him,” he continued. “Nobody wants to be like Pusha T. I don’t remember nothing. And let’s not be evil, but we don’t talk about rap where the n**** that’s popping the b*tches wanna f*ck and the n****s wanna be like. I don’t know too many n****s in this game that was leaning towards being like Pusha T.”

He didn’t backtrack at all. Instead, he went deeper in. He appeared on The Breakfast Club and said, “Could you name five Pusha T records? No. Could you rap to five Pusha T records?” He added, “I never wanted to be like Pusha, I never had a Pusha moment in my life. Where I’m from, n****s wanted to be like you if you was really that dude as a rapper.”

On April 21, Pusha T shared a photo on Instagram with fashion designer Jerry Lorenzo before his performance at the Fear of God fashion show at the Hollywood Bowl. “Places they’ll never be, stages they’ll never see…,” Pusha wrote in the caption. “Jerry, you turned the Hollywood Bowl into your world and let me be apart of it…forever grateful.” Fans interpreted it as him firing back at Jones.