Month: November 2023

When Sylvester Stallone wrote the original Rocky, it was for him a Hail Mary — an attempt to salvage a career that wasn’t going anywhere. Needless to say it worked and then some, paving the way for everything from the John Rambo cycle to Staying Alive, his misbegotten, disco-less sequel to Saturday Night Fever. But what if audiences hadn’t been charmed by the film? What if Stallone had filmed his original script, which wasn’t as heartwarming as what got made?

Per Deadline, in the new Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone describes his initial version of the underdog hero as “thuggish,” the movie closer in tone to Martin Scorsese’s gritty breakthrough Mean Streets. Then he showed it to a friend, and it wound up making her cry.

“She goes, ‘I hate Rocky. I hate him. He’s cruel. He hits people. He beats them up,’” Stallone recalled.

Instead of being stubborn, he asked her how he could change it:

“I said, ‘what if you stop short of it?’ Like, maybe he almost did. He could have, that’s his job, but he doesn’t?’ ‘That’d be nice,’” he added. “I said, ‘What if he had a girlfriend or something?’ ‘Yeah, that’s nice.’ So I go back, start writing that: ‘Girlfriend. Nice.’”

And so instead of yet another feel-bad ‘70s Hollywood downer, they got one that was, like Jaws before it and Star Wars after it, a kind of antidote to them. Not only was it the top grosser of 1976, it nabbed the Best Picture trophy from Scorsese’s own Taxi Driver. And though Rocky Balboa himself is (allegedly!) retired, that franchise is still puttering along.

(Via Deadline)

When Sylvester Stallone wrote the original Rocky, it was for him a Hail Mary — an attempt to salvage a career that wasn’t going anywhere. Needless to say it worked and then some, paving the way for everything from the John Rambo cycle to Staying Alive, his misbegotten, disco-less sequel to Saturday Night Fever. But what if audiences hadn’t been charmed by the film? What if Stallone had filmed his original script, which wasn’t as heartwarming as what got made?

Per Deadline, in the new Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone describes his initial version of the underdog hero as “thuggish,” the movie closer in tone to Martin Scorsese’s gritty breakthrough Mean Streets. Then he showed it to a friend, and it wound up making her cry.

“She goes, ‘I hate Rocky. I hate him. He’s cruel. He hits people. He beats them up,’” Stallone recalled.

Instead of being stubborn, he asked her how he could change it:

“I said, ‘what if you stop short of it?’ Like, maybe he almost did. He could have, that’s his job, but he doesn’t?’ ‘That’d be nice,’” he added. “I said, ‘What if he had a girlfriend or something?’ ‘Yeah, that’s nice.’ So I go back, start writing that: ‘Girlfriend. Nice.’”

And so instead of yet another feel-bad ‘70s Hollywood downer, they got one that was, like Jaws before it and Star Wars after it, a kind of antidote to them. Not only was it the top grosser of 1976, it nabbed the Best Picture trophy from Scorsese’s own Taxi Driver. And though Rocky Balboa himself is (allegedly!) retired, that franchise is still puttering along.

(Via Deadline)

The good news: After three weeks of chaos, the House of Representatives has a new Speaker, and it’s not Jim Jordan. The bad news: It’s Mike Johnson. The Louisiana lawmaker may not be a loud MAGA cheerleader like Jordan or Marjorie Taylor Greene, but he still holds some out-there views, including statements against the LGBTQIA+ community. But instead of warring against him, Pete Buttigieg is taking the high road.

The transportation secretary went on The Late Show Thursday, where host Stephen Colbert asked him about Johnson’s past statements about how same-sex marriage is a “dark harbinger of chaos.”

“Look,” he said, after sighing, “I’ll work with anybody who can help us get good transportation available to the American people.”

He then said, “I don’t know, maybe we’ll just have him over.” He continued:

“If he could see what it’s like when I come home from work, and Chas is bringing the kids home from daycare or vice versa, and one of us is getting the Mac and Cheese ready and the other’s microwaving those freezer meatballs, which are a great cheat code if you’ve got a toddler and you need to feed them quickly, and one won’t take their shoes off and one needs a diaper change.”

Buttigieg added, “Everything about that is chaos, but nothing about this is dark.” He concluded by saying, “The love of God is in that household.”

Johnson was hardly a household name before he got his current gig, but after his views became well-known, he’s been a source of outrage — and jokes.

(Via HuffPost)

When the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame class was announced in May, it was no shock that country music legend Willie Nelson was one of the inductees. Even at the tender age of 90, Nelson is still ripping and running on the road. Just as his birthday celebration concert brought out a star-studded bunch of guest performers and attendees, so did his induction ceremony.

On Friday, November 3, Dave Matthews opened the tribute to Nelson with a performance of his 1962 song “Funny How Time Slips Away.” He then delivered a tongue-in-cheek speech filled with jokes about Nelson’s refusal to retire and his well-documented love of marijuana.

For the remaining performance set, Nelson took the stage. He and Chris Stapleton covered Johnny Bush’s “Whiskey River.” Fellow inductee Sheryl Crow also made a cameo to perform “Crazy,” which Nelson wrote and whose most famous rendition was by Patsy Cline in 1961. Then Nelson, Stapleton, Crow, and Matthews closed with “On the Road Again.” At the end of the set, Nelson delivered his heartfelt thank-you speech to the crowd.

Read his full induction speech below.

Thank all y’all for this great honor. I appreciate the acknowledgment of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, included with so many legends, and some I’m lucky enough to call a friend. It’s been a long ride from my first DJ job to being here with y’all. And as a DJ, I was playing those first songs by Elvis. I remember writers calling that rockabilly rather than rock and roll, and I never did pay much attention to categories, and I’m not sure the fans did either. Folks also like the music I made with my Highwaymen, my brothers. That was fun with [Johnny] Cash and Waylon and Kris Kristofferson. And now that Johnny [Cash] and I’ve been inducted, I want to give a plug for Waylon … and Kris, who sang so many hits, to be inducted too. [Thank you to my band and mife] for keeping me out here doing what I was put here to do. Thank you. Thanks again for including me tonight. And thanks for appreciating my music.

The ceremony was initially broadcast live on Disney+, where it can be replayed. Find more information here.

Nicolas Cage is a serious thespian. He’s even won an Academy Award. But people on social media have a habit of cherry-picking things they like and discarding the rest. Some of the first “supercuts” to become popular on YouTube way back when involved Cage, who’s known to go over-the-top. It’s one thing that’s kept him popular. Understandably he has mixed feelings on this.

In a new interview with The Guardian (in a bit teased out by Variety), Cage acknowledged the elephant in the room, claiming he “might have been the first actor who went through a kind of meme-ification.” According to him, “One person had cherrypicked from all these different movies where I was having meltdowns, but without any regard for how the character got to that place. I was frustrated because I didn’t know what people were taking from the movies other than that.”

Of course, the information superhighway wasn’t a thing when he got his start.

“I got into acting because I was moved by film performance more than any other art form. I didn’t get into movies to become a meme,” he said. “I thought maybe they would compel someone to go back and look at the movies. But I had no control over it.”

Cage found that his latest film, the surrealist comedy Dream Scenario, inadvertently commented on his struggle. In the film, people keep having dreams of his character, a nobody professor, turning him into a celebrity. As with him and memes, Cage says, his character “has no control over this inexplicable phenomenon.”

So when you’re watching a supercut of, let’s say, Cage’s bonkers work in 1989’s Vampire’s Kiss on YouTube, maybe think about watching the whole movie — especially since that one is basically a full-length YouTube supercut containing maybe his bravest performance.

(Via The Guardian and Variety)

Donald Trump Jr. testified in court this week for his dad’s current trial. Which criminal case is this, you might be wondering? It’s the one in New York involving his company’s alleged yen for fraud. His testimony was, of course, not without its moments of chaos. For one thing, the former president’s eldest son seemed to hit on the courtroom sketch artist, asking her to make him look “sexy.” Alas, it didn’t work.

As caught by Newsweek, after his courtroom appearance Don Jr. took to Instagram to bemoan the decidedly non-sexy sketch that resulted. “WTF Fat slob SBF gets to look like a superhero Zac Efron and I look Kermit the fricken [sic] frog in our courtroom drawings,” he railed, referencing another fraud case: the one involving FTX bro Sam Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty last week, He concluded, “It ain’t right.”

And Don Jr. had such high hopes, too. Before the sketch, by artist Jane Rosenberg, was made public, he confirmed reports that he’d asked to be made to look hot, calling it “100% a true story.” He added, “If you can’t have some fun, even in the midst of an insane persecution from a radical sociopath attorney general, when can you have fun?”

Meanwhile, Don Jr.’s oldest brother Eric had the temerity to claim he was just a normal, blue collar everyman. So the trial — one of their dad’s many — seems to be going nice and normal.

(Via Newsweek)

LL Cool J gave DJ Kool Herc an incredible tribute for his 2023 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction at the Brooklyn ceremony tonight. The speech started with LL Cool J looking back on how Kool Herc kicked off the origins of hip-hop by DJ’ing a party for his sister, Cindy Campbell. She was doing it to earn money for back-to-school clothes in 1973.

“We don’t know how much money Cindy managed to raise that day or what clothes she managed to buy but we know she changed the course of history, of music history,” LL Cool J said. “That party has come to be known as the birthplace of hip-hop.”

“It’s a culture that changed my life obviously,” he added, according to Rolling Stone. “It changed the lives of millions and millions of people.”

DJ Kool Herc then went up on stage, bringing Cindy along too.

“I got tears in my eyes,” Herc shared, giving some heartfelt acknowledgments. He then gave his sister a moment to speak.

“LL, you gave a heartfelt introduction, thank you, we love you,” Cindy said. “We always did, and I want to congratulate my brother DJ Kool Herc for staying on that path and getting where he is today. Congratulations to my brother.”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of DJ Kool Herc playing that first party.

The hope behind the In-Season Tournament is that it would add some excitement to the early season games that can often fly under the radar. During the first night of competition, there were a few matchups that served as a pretty good proof of concept, with the best of the bunch being the matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder in Group C play.

It was a close, tense affair with neither team really being able to pull away from the other. Ultimately, the veteran Warriors were able to knock off the upstart Thunder, 141-139, thanks to some last-second heroics by Steph Curry. With things tied up at 139, Curry had the ball on the perimeter against the stout Lu Dort, but was able to get by him and make his way to the rim, where he had to throw a layup high enough to get over the outstretched arms of Chet Holmgren. He managed to do just that and banked it in with 0.2 seconds remaining.

The referees originally determined that there was basket interference by Draymond Green, but after a review, it was determined that it counted as a Curry layup. On the night, Golden State’s MVP scored 32 points on 10-for-16 shooting with eight rebounds, seven assists, and two steals.

Tonight’s Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony has honored a truly stacked list of musical legends for 2023. During the show, Chaka Khan received a heartfelt tribute as one of the inductees. Other musicians like HER, Sia, Common, and Jazmine Sullivan welcomed her with the award.

Sullivan led Chaka Khan’s induction speech — giving kind words to one of her biggest inspirations. “That voice, as raw as it is sweet, as sensual as it is soulful, has guided us through good times and bad, through meet-ups and breakups, through desire and despair, through hard times and higher love,” Sullivan said, according to Rolling Stone. “Chaka’s voice will never get lost among her peers or fade in the background, her tone stands alone. Everything about Chaka is fire.”

She also shared a story about how Khan was there for Sullivan’s mother when she went into remission for cancer.

From there, HER, Sia, and Common all appeared at different times to perform a blend of Khan’s songs. Common did “I Feel For You,” and HER played stuff from Khan’s time in Rufus with “Ain’t Nobody” and “Sweet Thing.” Sia closed out the medley with “I’m Every Woman,” according to the publication.

Check out a video from Chaka Khan’s induction tribute here.

It’s a little hard to determine whether there is a trend in Americans relocating to other countries. Still, approximate figures show that the number of U.S. citizens living abroad has just about doubled since 1999, with the number jumping from 4.1 million to 8 million.

Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom are the top 3 most popular destinations for American expatriates.

In a recent article for Business Insider, Brooke Black shared that she and her family relocated to Denmark in 2020 and one of the biggest reasons they have decided to stay is that it feels much safer. Black has a husband and two young daughters.

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​“Overall, Denmark is a safe place, and Danes value trust,” she wrote. “Crime is rare — I rarely see police cars — and gun control is strict. We feel very safe here, which was a major factor in choosing to stay in Denmark.” When you crunch the numbers, Denmark is much safer than the United States. According to Nationmaster, America has 7 times more guns, 6 times more homicides and 4 times more rapes.

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Back in 2020, shortly after Black had her second child during the pandemic. Her family decided to leave Los Angeles for two weeks because it was a COVID-19 hotspot and spend two weeks in Denmark with her husband’s family. What started as a 2-week trip became permanent.

Black finds it is much easier to take care of young children in Denmark because of its shorter work weeks. “Because the Danish workweek is 37 hours, most parents pick up their kids by 4 pm at the latest on most weekdays and even earlier on Fridays,” she wrote for Business Insider. “I work for a Danish company and can easily leave in time for pickup. In LA, I would rush across town to get my kid at 5:30 pm, leaving just enough time for a bath and bedtime. I cherish the time I get with my kids now.”

“I’m very grateful for that because that time isn’t coming back,” she wrote on LinkedIn.

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Black works for Podimo, an app that publishes over 1,000 exclusive podcasts and 70,000 audiobook titles.

Black isn’t the only American who has found a safer home living in Europe. Earlier this year, Upworthy shared the story of Luna Ashley Santel, her husband and young daughter, who left St. Louis, Missouri for Spain.

@lunagoestospain

Here’s what shifted for him. I’m sure this’ll piss the right people off. No pun intended. #movingabroad #spaindigitalnomadvisa #movingabroadwithpets #movingtospainwithkids

After relocating to Spain, they realized that they had been carrying an invisible mental load while living in America. One day, while sitting in a busy cafè, which would have made them nervous in St. Louis, the couple realized that none of the people milling about had guns.

At this moment, Santel’s husband realized that living in America caused him to be on alert whenever he was out in public. A feeling he never got in Spain. “And I realized this weight that I had been carrying around my whole life wasn’t necessary. Like what we think is normal is not normal,” he said.