Month: April 2024

The NC State Wolfpack are on one heck of a run right now, as the team won the ACC Tournament to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament and has kept on winning. Despite being an 11 seed, the Wolfpack have made it out of their region and will play Purdue in the Final Four on Saturday evening.

It’s been a joy to watch, in large part because they might have the most fun player to watch in America. NC State’s starting center is D.J. Burns, a 6’9, 275 pound big man with unreal footwork, some incredible instincts as a passer, and a big smile that seems to always be on his face. He came up huge in the team’s Elite 8 win over Duke, as the big fella went for 29 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.

Burns’ college hoops career ends when this season does, and apparently, there are NFL teams with some level of interest in seeing if he could suit up along the offensive line. The problem: Burns isn’t particularly interested in that, telling reporters he has “zero” interest in trying his hand at football.

“Until I got my first scholarship offer (for basketball), and then I quit immediately,” Burns said when asked if he ever played football. NC State’s coach, Kevin Keatts, is also pretty confident that football isn’t in his future.

Word of Burns drawing NFL interest came earlier this week from Peter Schrager of Fox Sports, who cited his size and footwork as things that make him an appealing prospect in a sport he doesn’t play.

The Boss is coming to LA. Bruce Springsteen and his trusty E Street Band have officially kicked off their 2024 tour, which rolls into the Kia Forum in Inglewood tonight for two dates. As one of three major venues in that neighborhood, parking can be… let’s say, “dubious” at times, so if you’re looking to avoid some rigamarole, read on. You can also check out the setlist here.

Where To Park For Bruce Springsteen’s 2024 Tour At The Kia Forum

Obviously, you can park in the Forum’s own parking lot. It’s $25, and there are entrances on Prairie Ave. and Kareem Ct. on the east and west sides of the Forum, respectively. If you’re going with this option, allow plenty of time for getting in and out, as traffic can be pretty hectic.

Your other options are, of course, ride-sharing and LA’s oft-maligned but vastly underrated public transit. The LA Metro 211/215 line has two stops on Prairie at Manchester and Kelso, with only a 10-minute walk to the arena from either. The ride-share pick-up and drop-off lot is at Pincay and Prairie, but if you don’t mind a little stroll, have it drop you off at the Sizzler on Manchester.

You can find more information on the Forum’s website or on Metro.net.

If you got your 2024 Dreamville Festival tickets, congratulations! Now, you have a new journey ahead of you: Figuring out how you’re going to get to the fest. If driving is looking like your best option, here’s what to know about parking.

Here’s Where To Park At Dreamville Festival 2024

There’s an official guide to Dreamville parking on the festival’s website, as well as as some informative graphics you can check out below.

Parking can be purchased at NC State University’s Centennial Campus, right across the street from Dorothea Dix Park, or here. This guarantees a parking spot in one of the designated Dreamville Festival parking lots, which are on NC State University’s Centennial Campus. The lots will open at will open at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7.

Aside from parking, there’s also an official festival shuttle that will run between Moore Square and the West Entrance of the festival venue at Centennial Park. The shuttle can be used for those who purchase a shuttle pass, and the shuttles will run continuous service from 10 a.m. until 1 a.m. Shuttle passes can be bought here.

Another option is utilizing the pick-up and drop-off spots, whether that’s via a friend driving you or using a rideshare service like Uber and Lyft (or a taxi). Drop-off zones are located near Dorothea Dix Park.

Check out this page for more information about all the aforementioned options.

The latest casting news out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe today turned out to be a big surprise not just because of who was cast but also because of who they’re playing.

Julia Garner, best known for roles in Ozark and the Netflix scammer biopic Inventing Anna will reportedly be joining the cast of The Fantastic Four. She’ll be playing the role of Shalla-Bal, a longstanding character with a new role in the MCU — that of the Silver Surfer, a longtime antagonist/supporting character of the titular Marvel First Family.

The news has both casual MCU heads and hardcore comics readers flustered; isn’t the Silver Surfer supposed to be Norrin Radd, the first herald of the world-eating Galactus? And has there ever been a female Silver Surfer? Read on, True Believer…

Has There Ever Been A Woman Silver Surfer?

The answer is, like most things when it comes to 80-plus years of comic book history, complicated.

in the main Marvel Comics continuity, the Silver Surfer has always been Norrin Radd of the planet Zenn-La, who took on the role of herald in exchange for Galactus sparing his homeworld from its apocalyptic fate. Shalla-Bal was his romantic partner and has sporadically appeared in his comics stories as either a romantic interest or an antagonist over the years.

However, in the 1999 limited series Earth-X, the usual Marvel canon was turned inside-out to depict a potential dystopian future for the Marvel Universe (now, there are like a hundred of those, but in 1999, this was still a relatively novel concept). One of the biggest changes was splitting the Silver Surfer persona between Radd and Bal, who are now twin heralds of a reborn Galactus after the original was killed in his first encounter with the Fantastic Four — the opposite outcome of one of the foundational stories of the Marvel Universe.

As with plenty of characters from the comics, the MCU is finding a new twist on the publisher’s 60-year history to tell different stories with its long-established characters. If it feels like a lot to keep track of, just remember: The important thing is not to be an ass about it just because the adaptation tried something new.

Denis Villeneuve has reportedly lined up his first post-Dune project. The visionary director and Legendary Entertainment have locked down the rights to the best-selling book Nuclear War: A Scenario. Much like Christoper Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the film would tackle the devastating reality of nuclear weapons as it adapts the non-fiction tome from Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen.

However, in an interesting note, Deadline reports that Villeneuve would helm Nuclear War after delivering Dune: Messiah, the final installment in a proposed Dune trilogy. After completing Dune: Part Two, which was delayed for several months due to the writers’ and actors’ strike, Villeneuve has stated in interviews that he’s hesitant to return to the desert too quickly.

He recently told Collider that he might “make a little detour, maybe” before returning to Dune. Based on Deadline‘s reporting, it appears that Villeneuve and Legendary have opted to wrap up the trilogy first.

Here’s a brief synopsis of Nuclear War, which just hit the New York Times bestseller list:

The book explores a ticking-clock scenario about what would happen in the event of a nuclear war, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who built the weapons and have been privy to the response plans and have been responsible for those decisions should they need to be made.

As for Villenueve’s adaptation, Deadline reports “the expectation also is that this would be a chilling cautionary tale about where the world might be headed in an age of political volatility at a time when too many countries have nuclear capabilities.”

(Via Deadline)

Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson is not only a man of many (2) names, but also a man of many talents. We all can recognize his acting abilities, his impressive singing voice and his violent punches. The Rock, Dave Bautista, and John Cena should really team up for a buddy comedy.

What maybe you didn’t know about The Rock, however, is that he’s the co-owner of the United Football League. But Larry David did. He knows all.

While on The Tonight Show, The Rock reenacted a phone call between himself and David in which the Curb Your Enthusiasm actor requested some rule changes to the UFL. “Larry David calls me, first of all, Larry’s f*cking crazy,” the Moana star said. “Larry, if you guys don’t know, he is so kicker-[averse]. He hates this idea that they’ll play a game and the players will leave it all out on the field and it can, at times, come down to the kicker. He hates that idea.” Because David hated the idea, he called up The Rock to change it.

Johnson then gave his best Larry David impression to reenact the scene. Even though he’s an actor, Johnson is not good at doing another person’s voice. “He goes, ‘Y-You’re going to launch the new league, right? … What can we do about the kickers? Do we need the kickers?’” he said as the Curb Your Enthusiasm creator, adding, “I do a terrible Larry David impression. We had this spirited conversation.” Johnson then confirmed that they did “tweak” some of the rules, but kickers are still necessary to the game. “We need the kickers, by the way, because kickers are an amazing component of football,” he said.

Johnson didn’t mind the call out, especially coming from someone who has very public beef with a puppet. The Rock has had his fair share of conflict with said puppet, so the two are more alike than he thinks. He added, “Dude, it was the greatest phone call to get. We’d never spoken before and he’s awesome, he’s brilliant. It felt like [it was] the final episode of Curb.” Cue the theme song.

You can watch his “impression” at around the 1:45 mark below:

Luckily, there are two sides to every story! David gave his own take on the ordeal, though he doesn’t attempt an impression of The Rock. That would probably get him punched. He doesn’t quite feel like he has been heard, though. Check out his complaints below:

(Via EW)

Beyoncé dropped her new album Cowboy Carter a few days ago. On it, she put her own spin on The Beatles’ 1968 track “Blackbird.”

Now, Paul McCartney, who approved her to use the original backing track in her cover, posted a sweet message about Bey to Instagram.

“I am so happy with @beyonce’s version of my song ‘Blackbird,’” he wrote. “I think she does a magnificent version of it, and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place. I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out. You are going to love it!”

Later in the caption, McCartney also provided some insight into the discussions he had with Beyoncé about covering the song he wrote decades ago.

“I spoke to her on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it,” he added. “I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song. When I saw the footage on the television in the early 60s of the black girls being turned away from school, I found it shocking and I can’t believe that still in these days there are places where this kind of thing is happening right now. Anything my song and Beyoncé’s fabulous version can do to ease racial tension would be a great thing and makes me very proud.”

Check out McCartney’s post about Beyoncé, along with her cover “Blackbiird,” above.

With Monkey Man set to arrive in theaters this week, writer/director/star Dev Patel has opened about up the numerous injuries he suffered while filming the brutal action film. Although, it appears his suffering has not been without reward. The film is already racking up rave reviews and positive reactions for everything from Patel’s performance to his work behind the camera.

While attending the Los Angeles premiere of Monkey Man, Patel revealed that the pain literally started right out of the gate.

Via Variety:

“I broke my hand in the first big action scene, broke some toes, tore a shoulder, eye infections, bruises,” Patel said.

Eye infections?

“I was crawling on a bathroom floor and it’s flooding. We were shooting this scene for three days,” Patel explained. “All the crew were coming in with their dirty shoes and I’m drinking this water literally. It was grimy stuff.”

Despite his injuries, Patel soldiered through the four-month shoot in Indonesia even as his co-stars became concerned about inflicting any more damage on him during Monkey Man‘s ultra-violent fight scenes.

“I was like, ‘Man, this is too much because you don’t want to hurt the guy anymore. It’s enough,’” Sikandar Kher, who plays the villainous Rana, told Variety. “But he mustered through it.”

Monkey Man slams into theaters on April 5.

(Via Variety)

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise, more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific as to prevent a holistic picture or the ability to “browse” the data based on geographic location.

The Tax Foundation addressed many of these shortcomings using the most recent (2015) Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is “worth” in each state. Granted, going state-by-state still introduces a fair amount of “smoothing” into the process — $100 will go farther in Los Angeles than in Fresno, for instance — but it does provide insight into where the value lies.

The map may not subvert one’s intuitive assumptions, but it nonetheless quantities and presents the cost of living by geography in a brilliantly simple way. For instance, if you’re looking for a beach lifestyle but don’t want to pay California prices, try Florida, which is about as close to “average” — in terms of purchasing power, anyway — as any state in the Union. If you happen to find yourself in a “Brewster’s Millions”-type situation, head to Hawaii, D.C., or New York. You’ll burn through your money in no time.

If you’re quite fond of your cash and would prefer to keep it, get to Mississippi, which boasts a 16.1% premium on your cash from the national average.

The Tax Foundation notes that if you’re using this map for a practical purpose, bear in mind that incomes also tend to rise in similar fashion, so one could safely assume that wages in these states are roughly inverse to the purchasing power $100 represents.

This article originally appeared on 08.17.17