Month: June 2024

Over the past half-decade, Fontaines DC have emerged as stars in their native Ireland (and the UK) and indie favorites stateside. They had a hit with their 2022 album Skinty Fia, and last month, they announced their fourth album, Romance. That news arrived alongside the single “Starburster,” and now they’ve offered a second look at the upcoming project with a new video for “Favourite.”

In a press release, the band’s Grian Chattenn described the song as having “this never-ending sound to it, a continuous cycle from euphoria to sadness, two worlds spinning forever.”
The track is a soaring a jangly tune, and it arrives with an appropriately fun and lighthearted video.

The video was self-directed by the band and it documents a recent trip they took to Madrid, a city the group has “multiple personal connections to, as the place guitarist Carlos O’Connell was born and grew up in and the city the band used as a base for their first ever tour,” as the release notes.

The band’s O’Connell previously said of the album, “This record is about deciding what’s fantasy – the tangible world, or where you go in your mind. What represents reality more? That feels almost spiritual for us.”

Watch the “Favourite” video above.

Romance is out 8/23 via XL Recordings. Find more information here.

A lot of celebrity relationships tend to be front-page news, but one that tends to fly relatively under the radar is the supposed duo of Grammy-winning singer Ella Mai and Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum. Tatum and his Celtics just won the NBA Finals, of course, so all eyes are on him. That makes now a good time to ask:

Are Ella Mai And Jayson Tatum Still Dating?

As People notes, the two have been linked since 2020, but neither of them have actually publicly confirmed the apparent relationship. The two made their first public appearance together, though, at Michael Rubin’s Fourth Of July White Party in the Hamptons in 2020.

The two were also both at former Celtic teammate Marcus Smart’s wedding in 2023, and Tatum was spotted at Mai’s birthday party last November.

As for where things stand with Tatum and Mai now, the singer was spotted rocking a Tatum jersey as she celebrated the Celtics’ victory last night. So, whatever connection Tatum and Mai have, it appears to be doing just fine.

Meanwhile, Mai’s latest album is 2022’s Heart On My Sleeve, which followed her Billboard 200 top-5 self-titled debut album from 2018. Her biggest hit song to date is 2018’s “Boo’d Up,” which managed a peak at No. 5 on the Hot 100 chart.

Tom Hardy has done so many accents, you might be surprised to learn that he was born in London, and not, as you might have thought, born in the darkness of society. But he’s done all the accents you can imagine, from a New York/Boston hybrid in Venom to whatever this accent is in Peaky Blinders. In the past, Hardy has described his speaking voice as “middle class tw*t” but for The Bikeriders, he had to be something even scarier: American. Specifically, a Midwesterner.

“I’m not sure that I did nail it,” Hardy told Variety of his accent in the film. But he doesn’t care!

In the film, Hardy plays Johnny, the member of a Chicago motorcycle gang in the 1960s. He’s joined by fellow Accent King Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Michael Faist.

When it came to his accent, Hardy says that he tried hard, and that’s all that matters. It’s in his name, after all. “What’s important to me is that if you’re doing something as an actor, if you’re going to commit, then make the effort to fully commit, even if you fail. It doesn’t matter,” he said, adding that he doesn’t like to hold back. “I’d rather go out swinging, trying something to make the effort, than not make the effort at all, because there doesn’t seem to be any point in playing safe.”

While it might sound intense, his costars insist that on-set, he was a “teddy bear” who would go around hugging everyone, so maybe we can overlook the accent thing for now. If you can’t understand him, subtitles are your friend!

(Via Variety)

With Dan Hurley no longer a candidate to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, all eyes are on whether the team will actually hire ESPN analyst JJ Redick to take over for the recently fired Darvin Ham. While Redick has no coaching experience, he’s a sharp basketball mind and he has a good relationship with Lakers star LeBron James, with whom he hosts a podcast.

There’s no word on a potential timetable for Redick to get hired, but on Tuesday morning’s edition of “Get Up,” one member of the ESPN panel might have accidentally let it slip that the deal is done. While discussing the Lakers in the aftermath of the Boston Celtics winning a title on Monday night, Jay Williams said this:

“You have the Los Angeles Lakers, that are trying to figure out, with JJ Redick, a first-time head coach, we wish him all the best of luck, with LeBron James in his twilight years,” Williams said. “Granted, they’re still there, they still have a chance to contend, but you’re gonna give the edge to Boston in a really big way — stability in the front office, stability on the court with your top tier players, there’s a difference of franchises here.”

One major difference between the two franchises is that, as of Tuesday morning, everyone knows who Boston’s head coach is, while the Lakers’ coach is still TBD.

Jayson Tatum has never missed the NBA Playoffs in his career, but as the years of playoff appearances without a championship mounted, questions grew louder about whether he and Jaylen Brown could lead the Boston Celtics to a title together.

On Monday night, they put those questions to rest for good with a dominant five-game Finals win over the Dallas Mavericks to bring Boston its 18th NBA championship, but the first for the storied franchise in 16 years. The emotions poured out of Tatum on the court as the final buzzer sounded, as he bent over, head in his hands, realizing the weight that had finally been pulled off of him.

At the team’s championship celebration later that night, Tatum hopped on the microphone and addressed all those questions about what would happen if he and Brown never won a title with the Celtics, borrowing Kanye West’s line from his legendary Grammys speech, saying “I guess we’ll never know.”

Tatum’s teammates loved it, especially Jaylen Brown, and Tatum quite literally dropped the mic and walked off, Larry O’Brien in hand, to continue his celebration. The Celtics will take a few days to celebrate their title down in Miami, enjoying some beach time before they come back to Boston for their parade on Friday. We’ll see if Tatum breaks this back out on the parade stage or if he finds any more quotes to borrow for his speech in front of the Celtics faithful.

Ariana Grande guested on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast recently and it yielded some noteworthy breakouts: Grande wants to release a deluxe edition of Eternal Sunshine and she discussed her habit of casting actors famous for playing serial killers in her videos.

One of the biggest takeaways, though, was a moment where Grande appeared to switch between using two different versions of her speaking voice, one lower-pitched and one higher. Well, according to Grande herself, fans weren’t just hearing things, and it’s actually intentional on Grande’s part.

In a TikTok comment (as Pop Crave notes), Grande explained, “habit (speaking like this for two years) and also vocal health [tea emoji] i intentionally change my vocal placement (high / low) often depending on how much singing i’m doing [crying emoji] i’ve always done this BYE.”

This actually isn’t the first time Grande has explained this vocal preservation method of hers. When the clip first made the rounds, one X (formerly Twitter) user shared an older video of Grande in which she says, “I’m speaking in a slightly higher placement than I usually speak in, because I’ve been doing a lot of interviews all day and I’m trying to keep my voice healthy.”

The Bikeriders will soon arrive in theaters after a long, winding road to release day. The film stars Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, and Jodie Comer and revolves around The Vandals, a biker club based upon photojournalist Danny Lyon’s seminal black-and-white photo book about his time embedded with real-life 1960s biker culture. The movie also boasts a vast ensemble cast of biker dudes, and of course this means that Norman Reedus had to be involved. How could he not?

Reedus, however, looks like this ^^^ in the movie, which is stunning to behold because this is the truly unwashed version of Norman Reedus rather than the simply greasy version as seen on The Walking Dead and the Daryl Dixon spin off. Heck, the spin off made it a point to give Daryl his first onscreen bath (and perhaps his only tub soak since the zombie apocalypse began), but The Bikeriders has him looking more than merely unwashed. Those teeth are a thing, obviously, but according to director Jeff Nichols, the chompers were actually Reedus’ brainchild, via Variety:

He’s almost unrecognizable as a biker with shaggy, dirty-looking hair, a beard and rotted teeth. “He just didn’t want to look like Daryl Dixon,” Nichols said, referring to the actor’s “Walking Dead” character. “The teeth were his idea and then we went with the hair and beard. His character felt like he could be a catch-all for every crazy frickin’ idea we had and Norman was up for it.”

This is understandable. As much as Reedus has discussed adoring his Daryl Dixon role, he’s also done so for over ten years at this point. Shaking it up is a good thing every so often, but let’s just hope that his wife, Diane Kruger, didn’t have to kiss him with those teeth. Then again, she seems to have a sense of humor, so who knows?

The Bikeriders rides into theaters on June 21.

(Via Variety)

The year is almost half over, and we are still reeling from last year’s various delays to Hollywood’s release schedules. One of the more highly anticipated projects is Jordan Peele’s next flick after the success of his 2022 horror movie NOPE, which not only helped shuffle in a new appreciation for The Scorpion King, but also helped validate Peele’s role as the next great horror director. Unfortunately, we will have to wait a little longer until we get another spooky adventure.

Peele is set to direct his currently untitled fourth film, which is now scheduled for an October 23, 2026 release date. The director announced the new date on his Instagram:

Universal Pictures had previously planned a December 2024 release, though that clearly isn’t on the calendar anymore. In fact, we don’t even know what the movie is about–all we have is the date, which is over two years out.

In January, Peele spoke with Conan O’Brien about his next project, which had been delayed for several reasons. He explained, “It’s been an interesting year because the writer’s strike had had me in a state of listening, and that’s where I need to be,” the writer/director said on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast when asked about any upcoming projects.

He did share one tidbit: “I do feel like my next project is clear to me, and I’m psyched that I have another film that, you know, could be my favorite movie if I make it right.” Hopefully, he feels like he’s had enough time to make it right.

The coming of age era known as your twenties are a time for experimentation, branching out, learning about different aspects of yourself, and of course, having stupid fun.

Of course, every generation‘s definition of fun varies. Just what might Gen Zers, those who navigated their teenhood through TikTok and basically came of drinking age during a global pandemic, do to elicit feelings of fun?

Thirty-two year old (read: millennial) Ashley Tea wondered this very thing. In a video that went viral on TikTok, she shared “I genuinely think millennials got to have a way better time than Gen Z does.”

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Tea then reminisced about her own experience of being “an emo kid in 2005,” going out to clubs, bars and restaurants with her friends having a “fun, great, trashy” time.

That simply wouldn’t be financially feasible in today’s economic landscape, Tea noted, leaving her “mystified” as to how today’s college age adults might enjoy themselves.

So again, Tea posed the question: “ it’s a Friday night, a Saturday night…What do do? Where do you go?”

Thousands responded to Tea’s question, and their answers were…illuminating, to say the least—and certainly different than how she spent her early 20s.

For starters, Tea’s joke about “Gen Zers not having any fun at all” rang true for many people of that age group.

“As a 23 year old: I don’t have any fun, hope that helps!” quipped one person.

Another joked, “sometimes I sit outside if I’m feeling extra.”

One obvious factor behind this is finances. With everything being far more expensive, many Gen Zer’s simply cannot afford to have a social life that resembles earlier generations.

“As a 21 year old, the economy makes it difficult to have fun that way, I work 40 hours weekly and I’m either too tired or can’t afford it,” one person wrote.

Another reason, which isn’t maybe as obvious, is surveillance. Tea noted that a lot of young people said that since either “parents can track their phones everywhere” they are deterred from doing things that could get them into trouble. Perhaps that’s a win for safety, but there is something to be said about excessive levels of control.

Then of course there’s the pandemic, which sucked the fun out of everything big time.

“I got ROBBED of my early 20s bs COVID started when I was 22 😭 Nwo things are normal but all the good bars and clubs in my area didn’t survive the lockdown,” one person wrote.

Plus a lack of third spaces to gather, leaving very little options beside staying home and scrolling on TikTok.

However, it’s not all gloom and doom, Tea discovered.

@ashleyteacozy

im genuinely curious

♬ original sound – Ashley Tea

For one thing, Gen Zer’s don’t “glorify binge drinking” nearly as much as millennials and Gen Xers. According to a study held at the University of Michigan, many are forgoing booze entirely. Part of this comes down to Gen Zers prioriotizing health and wellness more than previous generations. And the other, again, is the cost.

Plus, when Gen Zers do actually have fun, it tends to lean towards more wholesome activities, like house parties (sometimes even themes house parties) and crocheting. Lots and lots crocheting apparently.

So maybe things look quite a bit different for this generation. That’s not entirely a good or bad thing. And it’s definitely to be expected in some ways. The struggle of rising costs and limited opportunities to form connections and have fun are undeniably issues that must be addressed. But the fact that Gen Zers are leaning into their creativity is worth noting too. And it makes it clear that even though it might not look like it, there is still fun to be had.

This article originally appeared on 1.12.24

Time is a strange phenomenon. It speeds up when we want it to slow down and drags when we wish it would go by faster. Sometimes it feels like we blink and a decade has gone by. Cue “the days are long, but the years are short,” “time flies when you’re having fun,” and all the other time cliches that feel 100% true.

Of course, those truisms are all about our perception of time, not time itself. Time ticks by in a never-changing rhythm of seconds, minutes, hours, days and years, perfectly metered and measured. But it sure doesn’t feel that way, which is why a simple math equation an average third grader can do has grown adults pulling out their calculators to make sure it’s correct.

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The equation in question comes from meme that reads “1981 and 2024 are as far apart as 1981 and 1938.”

Yep, it’s correct. The math checks out, no matter how many times you plug the numbers into the calculator. So why does it feel so wrong?

Again, time is a tricky thing. Those of us who were alive in 1981 remember how far back 1938 seemed to us at that time, and there’s simply no way that distance is what 1981 is to us now. It seems impossible.

Part of the problem is that, at least for the middle-agers among us, the 80s still feels like they happened 20 years ago, not 43. That’s simply how time perception works as we age.

But that’s not all of it. As some people have pointed out, there were certainly major changes in both time periods, but the hugely significant cultural changes from 1938 to 1981 were more visible in many ways than most changes we’ve seen since then. Yes, technology exploded near the turn of the millennium, but once the internet and laptops and smartphones hit the scene, tech advancements have mostly been a matter of degree—better, smaller, lighter, faster, more efficient, more intuitive—in fairly steady increments and not so much dramatic jumps.

From 1938 to 1981, we saw huge leaps, from tiny black-and-white television to full-color cable television, from the first transatlantic passenger flight to sending humans to the moon on space shuttles, from switchboards and party lines to cell phone technology, from human computers to PCs.

We also saw clothing styles change drastically from one decade to the next during that time period in a way that we haven’t really seen in the past 40 years. Same with architecture and home designs. The mid-20th century saw the birth of rock n’ roll, the Civil Rights Movement and the shift to women into the workforce. Again, huge leaps.

Wars also defined generations more in the mid-20th century than in the decades since, from WWII to the Vietnam War to the Cold War. It’s not that we haven’t had wars since 1981, but the direct impact of those wars on American life has not been as notable as those previous wars were.

Then again, it’s possible that much of the difference in feel is simply our perception of life now vs. then. Do the years since 1981 seem shorter simply because we’ve lived them, whereas most of us weren’t alive for a good chunk of the 1938 to 1981 time period and only learned it as “history”?

Hard to say, but one thing that’s clear is that people do not like the way this math feels, as evidenced by the comments people left on the post.

“Fitz is cancelled. Feeling triggered here. Lol”

“I did the math too many times because I don’t want to believe this.”

“As someone born in 1981 I really dislike this.”

“Shut your mouth. Those are fighting words! “

“I honestly did nothing to you! Like why?”

“They’re not far apart. You’re far apart.”

It certainly will be interesting to see how the next 43 years feel for the people who live through it vs. 1981 until now.