Month: September 2023

Donald Trump says a lot of dodgy things, but, as Blur once sang, no matter how low there’s always somewhere to go. Last October, Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was viciously attacked by a home intruder. The gravity of the situation — the fact that an 82-year-old man was beat with a hammer and almost died — didn’t stop the Trump team from making jokes. Nearly a year later the former president is still at it.

During a wild-even-for-him speech in Anaheim, California Friday, Trump took a moment to slam someone who’s no longer even in office.

“We’ll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco,” he promised the crowd. Then he smiled a Cheshire Cat grin and said, “How’s her husband doing, anybody know?”

The crowd ate it up — “it,” again, being a joke about a senior citizen who underwent surgery for a fractured skull, perpetrated by one of his fans.

Perhaps sensing that his fans were loving the jokes about a violent attack, he double dipped. “And she’s against building a wall at our border, even though she has a wall around her house — which obviously didn’t do a very good job,” he jeered.

Trump’s comments were met with widespread condemnation, but that’s not likely to stop him from making similar comments in the future, nor his supporters for cheering them on.

On a much lighter, more bizarre note, Trump — whose brain is definitely not broken — went on a strange tirade about non-existent water restrictions in California, which he says makes wealthy Beverly Hills residents stink. You can’t make any of this stuff up and, besides, who would want to?

(Via Politico)

Nicki Minaj‘s fifth studio album Pink Friday 2 is on the way. As a new era is upon us, the album rollout has been an exciting one for the Barbz. She pulled in double duty as the host of this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, and as a performer. During her performance, she performed her hit single, “Last Time I Saw You,” along with a new song, “Big Difference,” which has not yet received an official release.

Both of these songs are set to appear on Pink Friday 2, as well as the Diwali Riddim-sampling “Red Ruby Da Sleeze,” and her No. 1 hit single, “Super Freaky Girl.”

While the song “Big Difference” hasn’t gotten a streaming release yet, parts of the song played at a stop on Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour.

Minaj has been keeping much of the details under wraps, however, she has revealed the album’s November release date. She also revealed one of two cover arts for the album on her social pages.

Today (September 30), Minaj took to TikTok to reveal that she will share an album-related surprise every Friday until Pink Friday 2 drops. What these surprises will entail, she can’t reveal just quite yet. But after a five-year wait for this album era, we’re certain it will all be worth the wait.

Pink Friday 2 is out 11/17 via Republic. Find more information here.

Saturday was a tense one on Capitol Hill. It was the final day Congress had to avert a government shutdown — the 15th time it would have happened in the last 40-some years. Spoiler: The House passed an 11th hour bipartisan bill, which was to then head to the Senate. It was a wild day, made all the wilder by one Democrat pulling a fire alarm during a key vote for some reason.

Per CBS News, Jamaal Bowman, a progressive member of the House Democrats, admitted to pulling the alarm, which came as the chamber was voting on a stopgap spending bill that would delay a potential shutdown for another 45 days. House members were quick to spread discord about it, claiming it was an intentional — and illegal — attempt to delay the vote.

Among them were Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said Bowman should be treated just like the Jan. 6 protesters (whose actions she’s defended).

Republican representative Nicole Malliotakis vowed to draw up a resolution to have Bowman expelled.

Some simply called for him to resign

As for Bowman, Emma Simon, a spokesperson for him, claimed that it was an accident. “Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote,” Simon said. “The Congressman regrets any confusion.”

Bowman himself told reporters that he “thought the alarm would open the door”

Bowman has been a critic of some of the shadier Republican House members, such as George Santos. Santos was one of the Republicans who dragged him over the incident.

An investigation is underway, which should be fun. In the meantime, at least it now seems unlikely that the MAGA crowd is going to shut down the government.

(Via CBS News)

As the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes seem to be coming to an end, with negotiations scheduled for this coming Monday (October 2), many film and television viewers are impressed by the power these strikes have had, and the impact they’ve made throughout the industry. But as we’ve seen the results these strikes will yield, other creatives are wondering if these types of unions exist in other realms of creativity.

With platforms like TikTok and Spotify, discovering new music is easier than it’s ever been. An artist has several avenues to share their work. However, conversations about who owns whose masters, as well as meager streaming payouts, remain a hot topic in the music industry.

Is there a union for musicians?

According to an article published by Rolling Stone in 2019, two organizations exist that are designed to provide artists with creative power and control.

One of which is the American Federation Of Musicians, which Rolling Stone reported covered around 70,000 instrumentalist musicians. Rolling Stone also reported that SAG-AFTRA’s sound recordings department also covered around 5,000 vocalists.

The Rolling Stone article notes that these two major unions primarily cater to major-label vocalists and instrumentalists “who work mostly with orchestras or in opera or musical theater.”

Beyoncé‘s Renaissance World Tour is wrapping up this weekend, but Beyhive members who weren’t able to get tickets — or simply wish to relive the concert experience — may get the chance to see the critically-acclaimed concert on screen.

According to a report from Variety, the Queen Bey is apparently in talks to deliver a concert film based on the Renaissance World Tour. Variety reports that the publication spoke with sources with knowledge of the project, who said that the film would premiere through AMC Theatres.

Another source reportedly told Variety that mega-agency CAA reportedly had talks with major studios and streamers over the course of the past few weeks, alerting the key players to be ready to bid on a series of projects that Bey has been developing over the past few years. Such projects reportedly include “elements of her top-grossing 2023 live shows, elements of the long-gestating visual album Renaissance and a documentary-style account of making the record and building out the tour.”

The rumored AMC release follows news of Taylor Swift releasing a concert film based on her Eras Tour this coming October.

At the time of writing neither Beyoncé nor representatives from AMC have directly commented.

However, earlier this week, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, shared a post on Instagram congratulating her daughter, along with Swift, for the role their tours have played in stimulating the national economy.

Beyoncé‘s Renaissance World Tour is wrapping up this weekend, but Beyhive members who weren’t able to get tickets — or simply wish to relive the concert experience — may get the chance to see the critically-acclaimed concert on screen.

According to a report from Variety, the Queen Bey is apparently in talks to deliver a concert film based on the Renaissance World Tour. Variety reports that the publication spoke with sources with knowledge of the project, who said that the film would premiere through AMC Theatres.

Another source reportedly told Variety that mega-agency CAA reportedly had talks with major studios and streamers over the course of the past few weeks, alerting the key players to be ready to bid on a series of projects that Bey has been developing over the past few years. Such projects reportedly include “elements of her top-grossing 2023 live shows, elements of the long-gestating visual album Renaissance and a documentary-style account of making the record and building out the tour.”

The rumored AMC release follows news of Taylor Swift releasing a concert film based on her Eras Tour this coming October.

At the time of writing neither Beyoncé nor representatives from AMC have directly commented.

However, earlier this week, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, shared a post on Instagram congratulating her daughter, along with Swift, for the role their tours have played in stimulating the national economy.

Gonna say something that you already know here: You are supposed to only have 11 players on the field at a given time during a football game. While Notre Dame learned the hard way last week by only having 10 dudes out there for their final defensive play against Ohio State, Florida did the exact opposite thing and had way too many players on the field while attempting to stop Kentucky’s offense on Saturday afternoon.

The catch: The result of the play was the exact same as what happened to the Fighting Irish last week. With the Wildcats knocking on the doorstep and sitting there with a 23-7 lead, the Gator defense lined up with 13 players on the field. That, of course, is extremely illegal, but it did not matter one bit. Kentucky lined up in an I formation, handed the ball off to Ray Davis, and let him go to work. Florida was able to get a bit of a push, but there was a hole there for Davis to hit and he took advantage by making his way into the end zone.

By my count, Florida had six players on the line of scrimmage and seven players right around the end zone. It would be a good idea if this was legal or if it worked, but unfortunately for the Gators, neither of those things happened.

College GameDay decided to do something a little different this week and head to Durham. While the basketball edition of the show is no stranger to vising Cameron Indoor Stadium, the football edition has never been in town for a Duke football game. That changed this week, though, as the No. 17 Blue Devils are playing host to the No. 11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, which are coming off of an emotional loss to Ohio State last week.

As part of the festivities, the GameDay crew pulled a fan out of the stands for their weekly segment in which Pat McAfee tried to have someone make a field goal for money. While field goal kickers are oftentimes unheralded parts of the game who come under tons of criticism when things go poorly, the segment is a really good look into how hard booting one through the uprights is. This Duke student, who was told by McAfee that he had $1 million coming his way if he made this, lined up to kick it and missed pretty badly.

But one reason we love sports are the opportunities for redemption, and the fan was afforded that opportunity after his first miss. He stepped up, lined it up, and oh no.

Duke fans will hope their special teams units do a little better than this against the Irish.

Horror franchises tend to rack up high body counts, but with the Saw films it’s about quality, not quantity. Jigsaw’s kills are elaborate, drawn-out affairs. Some survive his traps. Most don’t, and they’re deaths are gruesome spectaculars, as funny, in their way, as the Jigsaw parody of Nicole Kidman’s AMC ads. Even when they narrowly escaps, there’s still a ton of screaming, so loud and lengthy that the editors of the latest entry spooked the hell out of their neighbors.

In a new interview with NME (as caught by Deadline), Saw X director Kevin Greutert recalled the time when first assistant editor Steve Forn was wrapping up an especially nasty scene, involving a charming device known as the “eye vacuum trap.” You’ll have to see the film to see if the poor guy gets out of that one alive, but whatever happens there’s blood-piercing howls aplenty — so much that it attracted unwanted guests.

“There was a knock at the door,” Greutert recalled. “We have the doorbell [camera] video of the police walking up, [Forn answering the door] and the police saying, ‘The neighbors [have been] calling and saying someone’s being tortured to death in here.’

“And he was like, ‘Actually, I’m just working on a movie… You can come in and see it if you want?’ The cops started laughing! They said, ‘We want to but, you know, you’re all right.’ It must have been a pretty realistic performance!”

To make the story all the funnier, Greutert said Forn is “such a mild mannered guy. I can only imagine the look on his face when he realized what was happening!”

Does the guy survive having his eyes sucked out of his sockets? You’ll have to pony up for a Saw X ticket to find out, but in the meantime you can see the delightful set-up in the video below:

(Via NME and Deadline)

Lil Uzi Vert has had an eventful year. This summer, they dropped their highly anticipated Pink Tape album, which boasted hits like the Jersey Club banger “Just Wanna Rock” and the Nicki Minaj-assisted “Endless Fashion.” But it looks like only months after Pink Tape dropped will a new era of Uzi will soon be upon us. Last night (September 29), the rapper dropped a new song called “NFL,” which stands for “Never Fall In Luv.”

On “NFL,” Uzi keeps their heart on lock, coping with pain and doing their best to avoid future heartache.

“Big body, I feel no pain, I just spiked my soda like I’m in NFL / B*tch don’t call my phone, you heard I’m doin’ well / I don’t give two Fs, like a Fendi belt,” they rap on the song’s chorus.

The song’s accompanying visual features Uzi living the rockstar life, as he goes on shopping sprees, performs for fans, and runs through an emotional minefield, rife with trippy special CGI effects.

It’s likely that the song will appear on Uzi’s upcoming album, which is thought to be the third installment in their Luv Is Rage album series. Uzi teased Luv Is Rage 3 during their set at Listen Out Melbourne 2023 when asked about the album by a fan.

“You know I only drop Luv Is Rage when my heart is hurting,” they said. “It’s about that time. But you know, right now.”

In the meantime, you can see the “NFL” video above.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.