Month: July 2023

When Carrie Hollenbeck needed to sell her 1996 Honda Accord, with over 140,000 lifetime miles on it, having a filmmaker boyfriend paid off. Big time.

Max Lanman had the idea to produce an actual commercial to advertise his girlfriend’s jalopy. But this wouldn’t be some low-budget production for a 4 a.m. run on the local access cable channel. Oh no. Not at all.

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“I thought it would be hilarious to make a high-end car commercial for a really junky car,” Lanman told ABC News. “And she had just the car.”

The ad begins like any high-gloss, self-important, sleek car commercial, with a deep-voiced narrator uttering some vaguely inspiring patter: “You, you’re different. You do things your way. That’s what makes you one of a kind.”

Cut to — instead of a luxury vehicle with a slick dash, leather interior, and impeccably dressed anonymous driver — Carrie’s old Honda, complete with coffee spills, random objects rolling around in the back, and one of those cassette things you use to play your iPod in a car without Bluetooth.

“You don’t do it for appearance. You do it because it works,” the narrator adds triumphantly.

Check out the finished product:

Lanman may have intended the piece to be more silly than satire, but the faux ad inadvertently makes an important point about the car buying experience in America.

As commonplace as the ads he’s lampooning are, the majority of Americans cannot afford a new car. Things are only getting worse — the average price of a new vehicle has skyrocketed 35% since the 1970s, while the median household income is only up about 3% for the same time period.

Cars have always been a status symbol, but somewhere along the line — between the time of horse-drawn carriages and the modern era of Matthew McConaughey selling Lincolns by falling backward into an infinity pool while wearing a tuxedo — cars have become an extreme symbol of status.

Car commercials would have you believe that cars are not something you buy because of how well they can get you from Point A to Point B, but because of how they made you feel and how they make you look to other people. For every person buying a $60,000 car that fits their “lifestyle,” (or to sit in their garage, barely touched) there are dozens more people buying a used junker on Craiglist or eBay because it’s all they can afford. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Though it wasn’t intended to be, Max and Carrie’s viral ad is almost a digital middle finger to those who want the rich to get richer and income disparity to get worse. It reminds us to be proud of our ability to successfully live our own lives, even if it’s not always pristine or glamorous. This ad … is practical and real and … well, it’s all of us.

“Luxury is a state of mind,” the narrator bellows at the end. Finally, a car slogan everyday Americans can get behind.

This article originally appeared on 11.09.17

If you haven’t heard actor Justin Baldoni’s name, you at least probably recognize him.

Best known for his role as Rafael on “Jane the Virgin,” Baldoni is the epitome of Hollywood’s “tall, dark, and handsome” stereotype. He is every bad boy with a sinister past. Every womanizing billionaire. Every domineering playboy.

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In a talk at TEDWomen 2017, Baldoni joked about the string of characters he’s been typecast as (most of them appear shirtless a good majority of the time).

“Most of the men I play ooze machismo, charisma, and power,” he said. “And when I look in the mirror, that’s just not how I see myself.”

Baldoni came to realize that it wasn’t just on-screen that he was pretending. In his everyday life, he found himself trying to conform to society’s masculine ideal as well, and it all felt like a lie.

“I’ve been pretending to be strong when I felt weak. Confident when I felt insecure. And tough when really I was hurting,” he explained.

The past few years have been a journey for Baldoni, who has set out to redefine for himself what “being a man” is really all about. In his TED Talk, he shared three major realizations he had along the way.

1. “Real men” make themselves vulnerable — not just with women, but with other men too.

Baldoni’s early attempts at being more open about his emotions publicly on social media went great — until he realized almost all of his followers were women. Opening up to his fellow men was another challenge altogether.

“If it’s about work or sports or politics or women, [men] have no problem sharing our opinions,” he observed. “But if it’s about our insecurities, our struggles, our fear of failure, it’s almost like we become paralyzed.”

He recalled recently wanting to talk to his guy friends about a serious issue in his life and needing almost the entirety of a three-day guys trip to work up the courage to do it. Once he did, however, he found many of his buddies were eager to share with him, too.

“My display of vulnerability can, in some cases, give other men permission to do the same,” he realized.

(If only there were a TEDMen Baldoni could have given this talk at.)

2. “Real men” hold other men, and themselves, accountable.

As he began to engage more with other men, Baldoni started to become even more aware of toxic male behavior around him. It was everywhere.

He recalls an Instagram comment someone left on a photo of him and his wife. The random male commenter called the photo “gay shit.”

So Baldoni decided to message him.

“I said, very politely, ‘I’m just curious, because I’m on an exploration of masculinity, and I wanted to know why my love for my wife qualified as gay shit,'” he remembered.

To his surprise, the man responded thoughtfully about how his own displays of affection had been mocked as a child, and he apologized for lashing out.

“Secretly he was waiting for permission to express himself,” Baldoni said. “And all he needed was another man holding him accountable and creating a safe place for him to feel. The transformation was instant.”

3. “Real men” embrace the good aspects of traditional masculinity — with a twist.

Not everything traditionally associated with manliness is bad. Strength, bravery, and confidence are great things to aspire to (regardless of one’s gender). But Baldoni urges men to think deeply about what those qualities really mean in practice and whether, perhaps, there’s not a different way to think about spending their energy trying to achieve them.

“Are you brave enough … to be vulnerable?” he asked. “Are you strong enough to be sensitive? … Are you confident enough to listen to the women in your life? … Will you be man enough to stand up to other men when you hear ‘locker room talk’?”

Near the end of his talk, Baldoni acknowledges an important point: As bad as the “performance of masculinity” is for men, these rigid gender roles can be far worse for women.

He bemoaned that there wasn’t even enough time to get into issues like the gender pay gap, division of household labor, and violence against women — all issues created and upheld by the toxic male behavior Baldoni’s fighting against.

“The deeper we get into this, the uglier it gets,” he said.

He challenged the men watching and listening to demand better of themselves and those around them.

“If we want to be part of the solution, words are no longer enough,” Baldoni said.

This article originally appeared on 12.08.17

The term “John Doe” is normally used to hide a person’s true name or as a placeholder when their real name isn’t know. But despite her nom de plume, Chicago’s Jean Deaux is far from being just another anonymous face in the rap world. She’s plugged in with many of the Windy City’s most recognizable artists like Mick Jenkins and Saba, as well as associated acts like Smino, and well-accomplished in her own right, with five self-released projects to date.

She brings her formidable talents to bear on UPROXX Sessions, performing “Yeah Yeah” from her latest project, Heavy. A dismissive track that rides the ever-blurring line between rap and R&B, “Yeah Yeah” is an eye-rolling response to guys “runnin’ game” with nothing to back it up. “I’m every n**** muse, but I’m not amused” she boasts. “I’m out here goin’ dumb, don’t get sh*t confused.” Heavy, released in April, features seven tracks with production by trap rap mainstay Turbo.

You can check out Jean Deaux’s performance of “Yeah Yeah” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

For anyone else, a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands in group-stage play would be a welcome result. For the USWNT, it was a stunning upset.

With eight wins in their past 11 meetings, history was on Coach Vlatko Andonovski’s side. The US had capably handled the Dutch in the 2019 Women’s World Cup final, and eked out a win against their Oranje rivals in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Both teams have been plagued by injuries, welcomed new coaching staffs, and introduced different formations to their style of play – but the odds should’ve been in the United States’ favor.

Instead, during Wednesday night’s match, the Netherlands dominated first-half play, passing with precision, possessing with a sense of confidence, shutting down their opponent’s midfield tactics, and capitalizing on the few offensive chances they were given. The Dutch didn’t look as threatening in the attack as their American counterparts, but when they did float upfield, they made the most of their time there. Midfielder Jill Roord scored a stunning shot from the top of the 18 at around the 17-minute mark, a lead the Netherlands would hold onto until Lindsey Horan’s header off a corner kick tied the game in the 62nd minute. The US maintained control of the match after that, creating some better looks at goal that they couldn’t quite finish, but, by all accounts, they were lucky to squeak by with a draw when the whistle blew.

So, what does that mean for their future, both in group stage play and come the knockout rounds where they’re likely to face off against even tougher opponents like Spain and Sweden? Let’s break it down.

The Midfield Problem

Because this gripe isn’t anything Vlatko’s squad hasn’t heard before, we’ll just say it: The US has a midfield problem. It’s not that we don’t have talented players who can quickly transition from defense into the attack – we’ve got Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle, Ashley Sanchez, Savannah DeMelo … the list goes on. The issue lies with what we’re doing with that talent. Lavelle is on restricted minutes which hampers her impact, but if she can play a full 45, why not give her the start over an inexperienced DeMelo, who struggled to hold up against the pressure of the Dutch push?

Because of Andi Sullivan’s style of play, Horan has dropped back into a more defensive midfield position, which would work if we had attacking mids like Lavelle or Sanchez on the field to connect passes and make runs. Instead, the US seemed almost too defensive-minded in the first half, hesitating and giving an inexplicable amount of space to Netherland’s back three before pressing on the second pass. It might have been a good strategy, except the Dutch are too technically efficient to give them that kind of time on the ball. Instead of shutting down those second and third passes, our midfield was left to run themselves ragged, trying to cut off passing lanes and roadblock the Netherlands’ offensive attack. We wasted energy and ended up paying for that complacency early on. What’s worse, it felt like we abandoned a key element of the American game: our tenacity and aggression. By letting the Dutch control the tempo of play, it felt like the fight was sucked out of the US – and we wouldn’t find it again until the second half.

Sub Strategy

The USWNT has, arguably, the deepest bench of any team in the FIFA Women’s World Cup at the moment. And yet, the only sub Vlatko made happened at the start of the second half, when Lavelle replaced a tired and beaten DeMelo in the midfield. That substitution made a clear and immediate difference, but the choice to ignore his bench in favor of keeping tired legs on the field was likely the most confusing game tactic we’ve seen the USWNT coach make during his tenure. After Horan’s goal, the momentum shifted and more opportunities in the final third were popping up. The problem? Trinity Rodman was gassed after hounding the ball to help our defense during the first half, as was Alex Morgan, who seemed to be the only player interested in pressuring the Dutch’s defense all game. Sullivan had slowed, Crystal Dunn had made mistakes as the left back – a position she really shouldn’t be restricted to at this point given how fantastic she is in the midfield for her club team – and Sophia Smith was struggling to convert on the wing.

When you have Lynn Williams, one of the fastest strikers and defensively prolific players in the game, an equally quick Kelly O’Hara, an experienced and confident-on-the-ball Megan Rapinoe, and a scrappy Kristie Mewis on your bench, why wouldn’t you deploy them? Especially when the temperature of the match had shifted and a win was within your grasp?

Vlatko told reporters after the match that he was worried any sub would take a couple of minutes to adjust to the gameplay and throw off the team’s rhythm, which makes absolutely no sense given these are professional athletes, but even so. Is one to two minutes of adjustment for fresh legs and the chance of another goal worse than 20 minutes of tired forwards exhausting themselves further just for a draw that means we’ll need them in top form against Portugal?

The Front Three

There’s no easy way to say this, but something just isn’t clicking with the USWNT’s frontline. Each player – Smith, Morgan, and Rodman – are individual powerhouses, but their chemistry is noticeably off. Not because they can’t play well together, but because they’re being asked to play in positions and styles that don’t cater to their strengths as strikers. Smith is at her best when she’s attacking central, running at defenders, shooting from the 18, and passing to the wings before accepting a cross. Rodman is terrific on the flank, but she’s only there to score goals. The minute some defending or pass connections must be made, her game lags. And Morgan, who Vlatko has dubbed a playmaker, is stuck up top, in the middle, with two less-experienced wingers whose focus is less on the buildup and more on the end result being the back of the net.

No amount of extra minutes playing together is going to solve the fundamental problem – this lineup wasn’t built to work.

Youth vs. Experience

So much has been made about diversity when it comes to the age of players on the USWNT. Alyssa Thompson is the baby, an 18-year-old superstar in the making while Rapinoe is the team’s oldest member, a “cool Gay aunt” in her words who knows how to dictate play and come up big in key moments. If we were leveraging both, the age gap might not be an issue. But, as it stands, Vlatko seems to prefer young, fresh, untested talent in big matches. Sometimes that pays off – as with Smith and Naomi Girma. And sometimes, adjustments need to be made, especially when we are facing teams like the Netherlands who have years of built-in chemistry playing together at the national level.

Would Rapinoe, Lavelle, or Williams – all players who have faced the Netherlands and beat them in big games – have made a difference if they came on, or came on sooner? Who knows. But as it stands, there seems to be a disconnect between how much Vlatko values experience versus how much stock this team is putting into its new additions. Balance feels like the key here.

Making Horan Angry

We imagine most teams watching film from the Netherlands match will have learned Daniëlle van de Donk’s lesson: Don’t make Lindsey Horan angry. You won’t like her when she’s angry. After fielding a careless and, frankly, dangerous challenge from her Lyon teammate, Horan got into a heated argument with the Dutch player, one the referee bizarrely tried to defuse by having the two hash it out on the field … during play.

As weird as the whole incident was, Horan harnessed her emotions and converted them into a set-piece goal that saved the team’s chances of advancing out of the group stage. If there’s a way to ensure a fire is lit underneath the USWNT’s co-captain each game going forward, we’d love to hear about it.

It was a little surprising when it was announced Justin Simien – best known for directing Dear White people, Bad Hair, and being announced as the showrunner for the still not produced Lando series (we’ll get to that) – would be directing a reboot of Haunted Mansion, which is also a staple ride at the Disney theme parks. This came as a surprise to Simien, too, who assumed he’d read the script and politely pass. But he wound up being impressed with Katie Dippold’s script and, well, here we are with Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion premiering this weekend in theaters.

As you may expect with Simien’s involvement, this version has little resemblance to the 2003 film starring Eddie Murphy. LaKeith Stanfield plays Ben, a widower and former scientist who has kind of given up on life and when he’s not day drinking, he gives city tours of New Orleans. Rosario Dawson plays Gabbie, a widow and mother of a young son who gets a really good deal on an old house, but immediately discovers it’s haunted. The problem is, once you enter the house, the ghosts will haunt you wherever you go. Through a local priest (Owen Wilson), they hire the services of Ben to document the ghosts because he once built a camera that can photograph the paranormal. Thinking this is all nonsense, Ben accepts the job for the quick money but gets more than he bargained for and is now also trapped in the haunted mansion with the aforementioned characters, along with Tiffany Haddish as a psychic and Danny DeVito as a local historian.

Ahead, Simien explains why he decided to make a Haunted Mansion movie and if the people who know him best were surprised. Also, there hasn’t been an update on the Lando series for quite some time and the way Simien explains it, it’s probably not happening anytime soon, if at all.

How does this happen? Do you get wind they are making this and express interest? Did they come to you?

This one came to me. I mean, you know, you do all of the above. I write, too. I develop. All that stuff. I was in the halls of Disney, already, working on a little something with Lucasfilm, and also just trying to figure out what my next feature was. And the screenplay came in by Katie Dippold, who I adored and whose work I love. But Haunted Mansion? I knew they made a movie before. But I get this script and I think, okay, well, this will be a pretty quick read and probably, “No thanks.” And it just got me, man. I legitimately stayed up and laughed and cried. And it had been a really long time since a screenplay did that to me.

I also felt this weird connection, because I had worked at Disneyland. I was already extremely obsessed with the Haunted Mansion as a ride. And my family is from Louisiana. So I have all of this connection to the culture of New Orleans, and that mixture of voodoo and Catholicism that some of the New Orleans’ vibes come from. It was as if I made a list or something, and we went and found the perfect project for me. But it was quite organic.

It almost sounds like you had the same reaction to hearing about this that most people had the reaction when we heard you were doing it. Like, “Wait, what?”

Exactly.

But then you see the movie and it’s like, “Okay, this makes sense.”

Also, it’s kind of the fun of it, for me. I love the unexpected. I love doing things that people aren’t sure I should do. That was a surprise.

I’m curious, from your friends, did you get any like, “Wait, that’s what you’re doing next?”

I wouldn’t say anybody was as overt as that, but I certainly clocked it. I think that the general assumption – and this assumption isn’t untrue, by the way – is that especially if you are an artist, filmmaker, and you write and you have things you want to say in your work and stuff, this is sort of like a necessary evil, to go and do a big studio movie…

But it’s also kind of the dream, right?

Yeah, it’s also the dream. And it’s also kind of a miracle to get a script that is both based on existing IP, but is also totally original. It’s the first of something. It isn’t a remake. It isn’t the sequel to the other Haunted Mansion film. It’s just a totally different way about it. I think those are really, actually, really hard to find. Especially as well executed as Katie Dippold had it on the page when I encountered it.

I haven’t seen the Eddie version in a really long time. But I don’t remember it having as much gravitas as this one does.

Yeah, it’s a very different film. Different goals for that film. Different reasons to see. And that was also really refreshing about the script, too. It didn’t spend any time, whatsoever, even addressing the other film. This is just a new movie. And that gave me permission to be untethered by that film, for better and worse.

And LaKeith, he is really going for it in this movie…

He’s brilliant. He’s brilliant. I knew I needed somebody who could make audiences, particularly audiences showing up for a quadrant kind of movie, to care intimately and as fast as possible about somebody who was grieving. Somebody who kind of hates people. Somebody who is hard to get into. I mean, I talk a lot about Up with the studio and that lead character. And this is an old man that really hates everybody. And yet you just love him and you root for him. Who can do that for us? Who can bring somebody in? And I had just seen Judas and the Black Messiah. Obviously, I’ve been a fan of LaKeith for a while. But he always is doing that. He is making you so empathically connected to people that are just bizarre and hard to love.

He does that in Knives Out, as well.

He does that in Knives Out. He does that in Get Out. He does that in Atlanta. And the other thing is, I just felt like it’d be really great to surprise people. If that sort of emotional punch doesn’t work, I don’t know how interesting the rest of the story is. And I don’t know. I felt like he had some of that Johnny Depp magic, too. Like from Pirates, when we suddenly saw this weird, eccentric character actor in a leading man role. And the just cognitive dissonance of that was really fun and exciting to me.

Were there antics on this set? Because you have a lot of personalities here.

There weren’t a lot of antics. I mean, the truth is, that we’re making this movie during COVID.

Oh, right…

And it wasn’t easy. “Fun” is not the word I would ever use to describe making a movie. It certainly has fun moments. But everyone came ready to work and knew the assignment and put it on the screen. And part of that is luck. You never know what you’re going to get when you’re dealing with an ensemble of really big movie stars. But these were all really warm people who just love the craft of acting and ensemble work and finding things together. And it was really lucky. They really took to the creative environment that I wanted to create for everybody.

How are you feeling with this coming out? Because it’s like, your other movies did really well. But there are going to be a lot more eyeballs on this.

I’m ready. I’m ready. I’m ready. I’ve been ready. But I look at other people in my class of Sundance, and there are differences in our careers. There are differences in the kind of movies that they got offered and the movies that I got offered. And I have been dying to play in a sandbox this big and with resources this deep, for a while. These are the kind of movies I grew up on. And all of my stories are personal. All of my films come from a really deep, personal place and a need to put a specific thing out there in the world. But, at the same time, I’m a nerd.

But I think you bring that to this one, too.

Yeah, I would include this one. Yeah, I’ve been dying to work at this level and for people to know that I can do that. You get typecast a lot in this business. And whether or not people saw me as an indie comedy director, or as a social satirist, or as a TV creator, or whatever … to me, I’m just a storyteller. And I will make a story that is appropriate for the venue that I’m given. And this was a huge, huge venue to showcase what I can do.

I haven’t heard about Lando in a while. You mentioned Lucasfilm earlier. I know nothing’s going on right now with the strikes, but is Lando still on the table?

I don’t know. To be honest with you, I haven’t heard anything, either. The last thing I heard was the last thing the world heard.

Well, that’s not a good sign.

So, I wish I could speak on it, but I literally don’t know anything. That was something that I put a lot of time and energy into until I couldn’t anymore. It was not possible to.

I’m curious if you feel like you spent a couple of years on something, or however long it was, and nothing came out of it and you could have been doing something else?

Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard. And what I’ve learned is that it’s par for the course. I mean, for everything you see from any filmmaker, and I can certainly say this for myself, there are so many things that were worked on that you didn’t see, that didn’t make it, that didn’t get announced. So it’s something you just got to acclimate to. I haven’t, yet, reached a level in my career where I have the privilege to say, “I just want to make this. Everything else has to stop.” I’ve got to put a lot of buns in the oven before one starts to bake. That’s the way my career’s always been. So, it is hard to invest a lot of time and creative energy into something that doesn’t go. But, at the same time, you’ve got to learn that, as an artist: you get better, the work gets better, and a lot of things are learned on a project that get pulled into another project. And there are projects that have been dead for a long time that suddenly come back to life. And there are projects that feel like a slam dunk, sure deal, that die suddenly. It’s a very volatile industry, that way.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Last year, Soccer Mommy ventured into a haunted, shoegazy direction with her album Sometimes, Forever. Around that time, she told The New York Times about her appreciation for Sheryl Crow. “She has so many songs that are these massive hits that, at least for someone my age, you can’t have grown up and not heard those songs,” she said. “She has a knack for saying something hard, but making it feel like she’s ready to acknowledge it and be cool with this hard acceptance.”

Now, she’s fittingly back with a Crow cover. She took on the country star’s hit “Soak Up The Sun” and made it her own with a lighthearted instrumentation and her soaring vocals. It’s brighter and closer to her earlier material.

In our 2022 interview with the indie artist, she discussed the music industry. “When it comes to artistry, there’s a strive for perfection and for success and all of these things, but all of that comes with playing the game,” she said. “You can’t just make this perfect album and pop it on the internet and have this amazing rollout. Like, it doesn’t happen if you’re not already hugely successful.”

Listen to her cover of “Soak Up The Sun” above.

The Jonas Brothers served as Uproxx cover stars in June, just after the successful May release of The Album. Joe, Kevin, and Nick expressed how excited they were to kickstart their headlining The Tour with back-to-back sold-out shows at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York on August 12 and 13.

“We all grew up watching Derek Jeter and the golden era of the Yankees teams that won a bunch of championships. He’s certainly an icon here in New York and New Jersey, so the invite is there if The Captain wants to come back to Yankee Stadium for the show,” Nick said.

Everybody, Jeter included, will have more opportunities to catch The Tour. On Thursday, July 27, the Jonas Brothers revealed 54 new dates, including 27 additional stops in North America.

While the Jonas Brothers were already excited about checking Yankee Stadium off the bucket list, the colossal stadium trek will also find them performing in the following places for the first time in their nearly 20-year career, per press release: Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Hamburg, Lyon, Munich, and Norway.

Tickets for the newly announced North American shows will be sold via Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan. Registration is open now until Monday, July 31, at 10 p.m. ET before the presale begins on Thursday, August 3. The general public sale will offer “a limited number of tickets” on Friday, August 4, at 10 a.m. local time.

Local presales for European dates are slated to begin on Wednesday, August 2, before a general public sale on Friday, August 4, at 10 a.m. local time. The Australian and New Zealand leg will go on sale via local presales beginning on Friday, August 4, leading up to a general public sale on Tuesday, August 8, at 1 p.m. local time. All information can be found here.

See all of The Tour dates below, with new shows listed in bold.

08/12/2023 — Bronx, NY @ Yankee Stadium
08/13/2023 — Bronx, NY @ Yankee Stadium
08/15/2023 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
08/16/2023 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
08/17/2023 — Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
08/19/2023 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
08/22/2023 — Indianapolis, IN @ Gainbridge Fieldhouse
08/24/2023 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
08/25/2023 — Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field
08/27/2023 — St Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center
08/30/2023 — Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field
09/01/2023 — Saint Paul, MN @ Minnesota State Fair
09/03/2023 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
09/06/2023 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
09/08/2023 — Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena
09/09/2023 — Los Angeles, CA @ Dodger Stadium
09/11/2023 — Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
09/14/2023 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
09/16/2023 — Omaha, NE @ CHI Health Center
09/18/2023 — Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
09/21/2023 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
09/22/2023 — Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
09/23/2023 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
09/25/2023 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
09/26/2023 — Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena
09/28/2023 — Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena
09/30/2023 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
10/01/2023 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
10/03/2023 — Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
10/05/2023 — San Antonio, TX @ AT&T Center
10/07/2023 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
10/09/2023 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
10/10/2023 — Columbia, SC @ Colonial Life Arena
10/12/2023 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
10/13/2023 — Orlando, FL @ Amway Center
10/14/2023 — Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center
10/16/2023 — Orlando, FL @ Amway Center
10/18/2023 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
10/20/2023 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
10/22/2023 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
10/23/2023 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
10/27/2023 — Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena
10/28/2023 — San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena
10/29/2023 — Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
11/02/2023 — Fresno, CA @ Save Mart Center
11/04/2023 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Maverik Center
11/05/2023 — Nampa, ID @ Ford Idaho Center Arena
11/07/2023 — Spokane, WA @ Spokane Arena
11/09/2023 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
11/10/2023 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
11/11/2023 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
11/14/2023 — Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place
11/16/2023 — Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre
11/17/2023 — Grand Forks, ND @ Alerus Center
11/19/2023 — St Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
11/20/2023 — Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
11/21/2023 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
11/27/2023 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
11/29/2023 — Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre
12/01/2023 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
12/02/2023 — Albany, NY @ MVP Arena
12/03/2023 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
12/06/2023 — Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
12/09/2023 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
02/27/2024 – Auckland, New Zealand @ Spark Arena
03/01/2024 — Sydney, Australia @ Qudos Bank Arena
03/02/2024 — Sydney, Australia @ Qudos Bank Arena
03/05/2024 — Brisbane, Australia @ Brisbane Entertainment Centre
03/08/2024 — Melbourne, Australia @ Rod Laver Arena
03/09/2024 — Melbourne, Australia @ Rod Laver Arena
05/18/2024 — Oslo, Norway @ Spektrum
05/20/2024 — Copenhagen, Denmark @ Royal Arena
05/21/2024 — Hamburg, Germany @ Barclays Arena
05/22/2024 — Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena
05/25/2024 — Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Sant Jordi
05/27/2024 — Lyon, France @ LDLC Arena
05/28/2024 — Milan, Italy @ Mediolanum Forum
05/30/2024 — Krakow, Poland @ TAURON Arena
06/01/2024 — Vienna, Austria @ Stadthalle
06/02/2024 — Prague, Czech Republic @ O2 Arena
06/03/2024 — Munich, Germany @ Olympiahalle
06/04/2024 — Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion
06/07/2024 — Paris, France @ Accor Arena
06/08/2024 — Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportpaleis
06/10/2024 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome
06/12/2024 — London, United Kingdom @ The O2
06/15/2024 — Birmingham, United Kingdom @ Utilita Arena
06/16/2024 — Glasgow, United Kingdom @ OVO Hydro
06/17/2024 — Manchester, United Kingdom @ Co-op Live Arena
06/19/2024 — Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena
06/20/2024 — Belfast, Northern Ireland @ SSE Arena

Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.

20. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount Plus)

What we have here is a spinoff of one show (Star Trek: Discovery) that was itself a prequel to another show (the original Star Trek), now in its second season. We are deep into the lore here. But that’s okay. It’s a fun little ride, good for both diehard fans of the franchise and newbies trying to dip their toes in a little. You could use a little galactic escape sometimes. We all can.

Watch it on Paramount Plus

19. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FXX/Hulu)

It’s the 16th season of It’s Always Sunny and if you’re not already endlessly in love with this gang of moronic miscreants and their low-rent misadventures I don’t know that you can be saved. For those who have fallen off a little over the years, though, please allow us to reassure you that the show is as good, chaotic, vile, silly, and subtly smart as ever, trading international hijinks in Ireland during part of last season for a back to basics approach. In just the first two episodes we’ve seen Mac, Charlie, Dee, Dennis, and Frank giving us a cliffs notes understanding of inflation and crypto (as only Always Sunny can), revelations about Charlie and Frank’s cramped apartment, a crazy family road trip, and a whole lot of casual gunplay. And that’s just the first two episodes. We can’t wait to see the rest.

Watch it on Hulu

18. Warrior (Max)

Warrior is back for a third season, still starring Andrew Koji as Ah Sahm and still set in 19th century San Francisco and still based on the writings of Bruce Lee, but now it’s on Max, which was previously known as HBO Max, after originally debuting on Cinemax back in 2019. There’s a lot going on here, most of it involving some usage of the letters m-a-x, but the bottom line remains the same: it’s a good show that’s full of action and cool fights scenes and sometimes that’s exactly what you need when it starts getting hot outside.

Watch it on HBO Max

17. Survival of the Thickest (Netflix)

Michelle Buteau delivers a heartfelt take on sudden singleness and chosen families with this Netflix comedy that was partly inspired by her book of the same name. Centered around an aspiring stylist whose life gets extremely complicated very quickly when she catches her live-in boyfriend hooking up with someone else, Buteau’s character gets lifted by her friends (fully developed friend characters!) and her indefatigable spirit. Still, none of this feels fairytale perfect, breaking the notion of a cliched story through charm, nuance, and realness to create something that’s as funny as it is empowering.

Watch it on Netflix

16. Foundation (Apple TV Plus)

In case the clip of Lee Pace battling a group of relentless assassins dressed only in his birthday suit wasn’t a big enough clue, this season of Foundation f*cks. And fights. What we’re trying to say is there’s a ton more action involved in the latest batch of episodes as the struggle to save a small swath of humanity from a predicted galactic war grows more perilous. We’ve hurtled 100 years forward as Dr. Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) and his group of revolutionaries encounter a new threat to his psychohistory equation while navigating the unintended consequences of time travel. Meanwhile, the Emperor clones (Pace among them) are scrambling to hold onto power as rebellions and political upheaval threaten their DNA-replicating dynasty. Man, no one is doing sci-fi like Apple TV+ right now.

Watch it on Apple TV Plus

15. Black Mirror (Netflix)

Can the bleak freaky award-winning anthology series and buzz machine from a few years ago still scare the piss out of audiences now that the world has been brought closer to some of its popular themes about metaverses, AI everywhere, neural implants, evaporating privacy protections, and the malignancy of loneliness and hollowness of digital interactions? We’re about to find out with five new star-studded episodes that beg for our attention while it’s still ours to control.

Watch it on Netflix

14. Praise Petey (Hulu)

What if Schitt’s Creek, but with ritual killings and space cults? That’s the basic idea driving Praise Petey, a new Hulu-streaming cartoon from Mike Judge, Greg Daniels, and SNL head writer Anna Drezen. Starring the voice of Schitt’s alum Annie Murphy, the show tells the story of a big city influencer who inherits a town from her father… and the weird cult at its core. Naturally, cultures clash when she decides to put her fancy shoed foot down and stop all the human sacrifices, but besides the ritual killings, everyone seems more quirky than nut-retractingly terrifying, so we’re sure these divergent sides can work out their differences before a comet comes to wipe us all out/save us.

Watch it on Hulu

13. The Witcher (Netflix)

How will Henry Cavill be written off the show? Find out in volume two of season three.

Watch it on Netflix

12. The Bear (FX/Hulu)

The first season of The Bear was often chaotic and intense in the very best of ways. But while season two doesn’t move fully away from that formula, it all feels a little more slow-burn and structured as it seeks to tell a story about what happens when you dare to take a chance and change things up. How discombobulating it is and how the universe reacts. We thought last season was a main course, but it was apparently just an appetizer.

Watch it on Hulu

11. Specials Ops: Lioness (Paramount Plus)

Because bucketfuls of Taylor Sheridan TV shows still aren’t enough, the former Sons Of Anarchy cop is here with an inspired-by-real-life story about the CIA’s Lioness Program. Zoe Saldaña stars as an operative who helps mentor and mold recruits, who will one day become fearsome assassins. Saldaña is surely relieved to be back in ass-kicking mode, over a decade after Colombiana proved how riveting she can be as an action star. Nicole Kidman also headlines as the chief of the Lioness Program, which is part of the “CIA’s efforts to thwart the next 9/11,” according to the show’s synopsis.

Watch it on Paramount Plus

10. Quarterback (Netflix)

Quarterback is Netflix’s next stab at a sports docuseries, after first diving into F1 racing and professional golf with surprising success. This one follows — you guessed it — a group of NFL quarterbacks as they prepare for battle in an NFL season. We get looks at everyone from Patrick Mahomes to Kirk Cousins to Marcus Mariota as they try to fling the pigskin successfully while getting chased by very large dudes. It’s basically an action movie.

Watch it on Netflix

9. Full Circle (Max)

We are fixing to be awash in Tim Olyphant. Not only is Justified: City Primeval on the way, but he also plays an apparently hatless role in this crime drama series from Steven Soderbergh. Olyphant and Clare Danes portray parents of a kidnapped child, so yes, this might not be the kind of “tense drama” that you’re craving, but the talent is stacked into the stratosphere. Zazie Beetz plays the lead investigator on the case, and naturally, do not expect a cut-and-dried story from Mr. Soderbergh. Yes, there are secrets afoot here.

Watch it on Max

8. They Cloned Tyrone (Netflix)

They don’t make movies like They Cloned Tyrone anymore. Pulled from a Black List script from first-time director Juel Taylor, this slick, riotous crime caper is an amalgam of genres – one part mind-bending sci-fi, one part Blaxploitation homage, mixed with 70s era funk, infused with Nancy Drew references, and propped up by stellar comedic performances from Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris. John Boyega’s in here too, playing a reluctant hero tasked with saving his block from a secret government conspiracy that’s somehow twisted up in fried chicken recipes and grape drink offerings and hair relaxer. If we could have more of this, that’d be great.

Watch it on Netflix

7. The Afterparty (Apple TV Plus)

The Afterparty was a ton of fun in its first season. It was a little whodunnit mystery with a cast full of your comedy favorites — Sam Richardson! Tiffany Haddish! Ben Schwartz! And so on! — and a fun hook where each episode focused on a different character and was presented using a different style of storytelling. Well, it’s back for a second season now, with a new murder and some new genres and a similar crew of characters. There is very little to complain about here.

Watch it on Apple TV Plus

6. How To with John Wilson (Max)

A surprisingly stirring mosaic of human weirdness, modern annoyance, and the pursuit of presence and meaning, How To with John Wilson landed when we needed it most amidst the wall-to-wall coverage and heavy isolation of the peak pandemic. Like other revered HBO shows (Succession, Barry), it’s now leaving, perhaps a little sooner than we expected or wanted. Nevertheless, it feels like it’s going out on high and on its own terms creatively with another volume of mundane misadventures adding up to something touching profundity.

Watch it on Max

5. What We Do in the Shadows (FXX/Hulu)

Body-swaps. Pride parades. Mall outings. The best comedy on TV is officially back, baby. WWDITS’ latest season introduces our favorite group of undead idiots to even more 21st century hijinks proving that this show – unlike its immortal characters – only gets better with age. Guillermo’s struggling with an identity crisis of supernatural proportions, Nadja’s been hexed, Colin Robinson is thriving in the service industry, and Nandor and Laszlo are knee-deep in a centuries-old feud. The house is in chaos, which is just how we like it.

Watch it on Hulu

4. The Righteous Gemstones (Max)

The super-rich mega-church proprietors are back and they’re ready to step into a new chapter that sees patriarch Eli Gemstone ceding control to his kids. Shades of Succession? In some surface ways, sure, but Gemstones is its own swirl of chaos and genius, and this new season goes all in on family feuds while adding monster trucks, romantic entanglements, backwoods survivalists doing that thing they do, and an all-new Baby Billy scheme.

Watch it on Max

3. Harley Quinn (Max)

Even though there’s been a lot of upheaval at HBO Max/Max and even more so for films and TV shows starring DC characters, at least one supervillainess is safe. Miss Harley (who does not need the Joker for success) was almost pointedly renewed as a clattering of show cancellations and removals swirled. Heck, Kaley Cuoco’s voice even gave us the only Valentine’s Day special worth watching this year. Soon, we might find out whether Bane is still making love to a skyscraper as Harley attempts to get in good with the Bat Family. Quite a contrast there.

Watch it on Max

2. Justified: City Primeval (Hulu)

Everyone’s favorite extralegal lawman is swaggering back into our hearts, long after he made it out of Harlan alive. Can he make it out of Detroit alive, too? We’ll see, and Raylan Givens’ daughter, Willa, is also onboard to give the hat a hard time because someone needs to do it. We’ve already pinpointed the one Justified episode, “Long In The Tooth,” that makes an ideal essential rewatch before this spinoff, and Raylan should have a swell time hunting bad guys in Motor City. At the top of his list: The so-called “Oklahoma Wildman,” portrayed by Boyd Holbrook and his tighty-whiteys.

Watch it on Hulu

1. Twisted Metal (Peacock)

Twisted Metal is one of the more unlikely video game-to-TV show adaptations, but the Peacock series has put together quite the crew for this post-apocalyptic joyride. The action-comedy stars Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz, Thomas Haden Church, Mike Mitchell (of Doughboys fame), and wrestler Samoa Joe as Sweet Tooth (Will Arnett provides the voice of the evil clown). The Last of Us was great, but did it have a clown driving an ice cream truck? Exactly.

Watch it on Peacock

Róisín Murphy saved a lot of people during lockdown. Her 2020 disco-pop gem, Róisín Machine, came out at a time when celebrating its merits on the dancefloor just wasn’t possible yet. So, her empowerment and self-discovery anthems had to come across as viscerally as possible and Jesus did they ever.

The Irish pop singer (her name is pronounced “Ro-Sheen” by the way) came to the fore in the late ’90s as the vocal yin to producer Mark Brydon’s yang in the duo Moloko. Their track “Sing It Back” is forever a gushy, melt-on-the-dancefloor staple and Murphy has made a career out of sparkling alongside a range of dance music producers. From Matthew Herbert to Crooked Man and then briefly in 2018 with one of today’s finest-yet-elusive artists, DJ Koze, on his masterpiece knock knock. On the chilled-out thump and especially on the driving pulse of “Illumination,” theirs was a collaboration that seemed destined for greater things. And here we are.

Murphy’s upcoming album, Hit Parade, is produced entirely by the German Koze, and it sees two artists at the top of their respective games colliding in style. For fans of both, Hit Parade (out September 8 on Ninja Tune) is a dream scenario; an album that scratches the itch of wanting to hear more — and more and more — of those first two divine collabs, especially considering Koze has never done an entire collaboration album with any vocalist. Early singles like the flowering stringed “CooCool” and the slow-building snazzy “Fader” are bonafide hits, with Murphy at her masterful adaptable self over Koze’s nectar for your ears. It’s different from anything the producer has ever done though, living in an entirely new world spun by the duo. “It blows my mind,” Murphy says. “It blows my mind that I can be prolific at this stage of the game and keep making surprising music.” We caught up with Murphy on Zoom from her home in Ibiza, where she was taking a break from watching episodes of The Bear to talk about the method behind the madness of an entire album of disco pop panache from her and Koze, in what’s sure to go down as one of this year’s best.

This interview has been slightly modified for length and clarity.

The first time I came across you was in 1999 on a track called “The Truth” (with J-Live) off of the first Handsome Boy Modelling School album. ‘twas a lovely introduction.

It was a trip making that track. I wrote it on the 4-track to that sample of the piano in Sheffield. And then I got on a plane and got picked up by Dan The Automator and Prince Paul and they drove me straight to the studio. I was petrified. I mean…Prince Paul was a massive hero of mine and we hardly knew each other at this point. I just thought, “Shit they expect me to be brilliant straight away.” Again, petrified. I went in and sang it like twice and they turned around and were like ‘That’s it. It’s done and it’s superb.’ And then I had three days with them to do nothing, so we bought loads of weird toys and kimonos and laughed a lot. It was pretty much exactly as I put it down. So that was an eye-opener.”

Well I’m glad I asked you about that, even though I wasn’t really planning on talking about this old project as much as the new one.

As much as anything else in my career, I think there’s a thread from “The Truth” through to this record.

How so?

Well, there’s that hip-hop feeling to it, a real soulfulness. There’s a way that the vocal sounds; it’s so prominent. It has a kind of a mood like the vocal that maintains on “The Truth” that has that old-fashioned feel almost. It feels organic, and somehow not digital. Not that the new one doesn’t sound digital. There’s a good connection there.

I’ve been spending a lot of time with the songs off the new album. I think it’s brilliant and I hear trap influences on it, beats I hadn’t heard before from Koze and now that you mention the throughline, it kinda makes sense.

I mean, he was a hip-hop DJ and a DMC champion when he was 16 in Germany. They’d be like “Crazy ah! Hip-hop German punks! We fuck you up!” [laughs] He’s as German as the day is long.

It’s funny and sorta perfect that the series that this story is a part of is called Hitmakers and the album is called freakin’ Hit Parade!

I mean…come on!

This is a great match. Were you two trying to consciously make #hits on this album or was it a reference to another train of thought?

Oh no. We weren’t consciously doing anything. If anything was conscious, it would be immediately dismissed by Stefan (Kozalla; DJ Koze.) He really doesn’t want that consciousness. He doesn’t finish a song until it sounds amazing and if you put any pressure on him like, “I just made a dance record, maybe we should make more dance tracks or something?” He’ll be like, ‘First of all don’t compare my music to anything else you’ve ever done before, because I’m genius.” [laughs] and “Just you wait and see,” basically. And I think that’s why he worked with me. Because I can go along with that easily, and I’m very happy to go on an adventure of discovery.

After “Illumination” and “Scratch That,” what made you both decide to collaborate on an entire album?

Well, he offered it. Straightaway afterwards he said, “I wanna make more stuff for you.” And I was like, “Well, I have to make a Róisín Murphy record next” and he just said “Ok, that’s what we’ll do.” And I thought it was wonderful. Just that people would give me their music, that’s incredible. That’s the joy you hear on the record. That’s me speaking to the music.

“CooCool” came out in March and has this song of the summer feel to it with these blooming sounds — the whole persona of the song is this sort of blossoming. What were you thinking about when you wrote and made that song?

I was thinking about what I’m always thinking about when I write love songs: How you have no choice. You have these decisions in your head like “Can I stop thinking about this person? Can I not be in love with them?” It’s absolutely pointless. It really proves to you that you have no free will when you’re in love.

But this one is you getting carried away on the “CooCool”… Carried away, carried away. It’s a very joyful one and hasn’t got an edge. I like the line, “This thing was way beyond any kind of parody.” I was trying to be very earnest in my way without being boringly earnest.

What did Koze bring out of you that you had maybe never imagined was there before?

I definitely think he prioritized the vocal…In a way that maybe only Matthew Herbert had done before. The vocal was put onto a velvet cushion. It was a total priority to both of those producers to make me sound as compelling and soulful and full as possible. And Koze always said that: “I’m gonna make you sound fucking great”

That’s interesting because do you think other producers prioritize the beat over the vocals? Is that the counterpoint to that?

A lot of things can get in the way of that…a lot of little ego things. Not necessarily negative things, but other areas can be concentrated on. This was obsessive, you can hear the things he [Koze] did to my vocal in order to satisfy his ear, in order to make sure that it was sounding incredible. He’d speed it up, he’d switch the key, he’d switch it up, turn it upside down — not really on “CooCool” though. That’s the least changed of all the tracks really. The backing track is very close to what he sent me to sing on and singing it very close to the arrangement that the key and tempo I put it down on.

Does Ibiza as a locale inspire you?

Well I wrote my bit of ‘The Universe’ with Koze in Ibiza. That’s the only song we did together. He stayed with us for a couple days in Ibiza and we set up a studio there for him and I still didn’t see him work, just saw him record me on that session. But he took sound from around the space. There are sounds from the ambiance like crickets and stuff. He loves our house. It was in between the lockdown and Ibiza was really quiet and magical in some ways. And as you can hear there are these incessant, narcissistic voices on the record, which you can find quite a bit of on Ibiza — especially in the summertime.

Maybe my weed is too good when I’m listening to it all, but I hear subtle brushstrokes of the island in parts of the record. Not sonically per se, but I try to place myself where your head is.

Well, our compound is heaven. But there is the rest of the world going on, just outside the frame and that’s the feeling that you have across the record. That’s how the world kinda is still…

Why Koze? Why was this the move for you?

I love to surprise people. It’s my favorite thing. If I’m surprising, then I’m alive. If I’m changing, I’m alive. As you get older, it’s funny…I thought you’d become more of a stick in the mud, you’d become less flexible. But the truth is, you go the other way. Because you see the changes. You live through so many changes that it becomes something. When you’re younger, you don’t expect to change and now, I expect to be in flux and I think that’s a good place to be creatively.

One of the biggest pieces of news in the music world from the past few days (a particularly busy stretch with Sinéad O’Connor’s death and Tom DeLonge’s role in the congressional UFO hearings) has been Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro calling off their engagement and breaking up. Following the initial reports, we’ve heard Alejandro’s perspective, and now Rosalía has shared hers.

Rosalía posted a statement on her Instagram Story today (July 27), writing, “Yo quiero, respeto y admiro muchísimo a Raul. Ni caso a las películas, nosotros sabemos lo que hemos vivido. Este momento no es fácil así que gracias a todo el mundo por entender y respetar [white heart emoji].” That roughly translates to (via ChatGPT), “I love, respect, and admire Raul very much. I don’t pay attention to the gossip; we know what we’ve lived through. This moment is not easy, so thanks to everyone for understanding and respecting it.”

In his own recent statement, Alejandro said his and Rosalía’s engagement actually came to an end a few months ago and noted of rumors surrounding the break-up, “There are thousands of problems that can cause a breakup, but in our case, it was not because of third parties or infidelity.”