Sports leagues around the world are working to map out a return to action in some form or fashion due to various COVID-19 shutdowns. In the United States, the NBA and NHL had to press pause late into their seasons, and it is unclear when they’ll be able to resume. Meanwhile, MLB did not start, MLS barely got off the ground, and while the NFL is going through its offseason, things like free agency and especially the draft have been impacted.

Other leagues around the world have struggled with this too, as evidencing in China, where its top basketball league has been unable to restart. But in Germany, a country that has received praise for how it has handled and contained the novel coronavirus, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for its top professional sports league.

According to the New York Times, the top executive of the Bundesliga revealed that plans are being put together to get the top two German football leagues on track to play at the start of May, while players for each club are already back in training.

The Bundesliga’s chief executive, Christian Seifert, said in an interview that plans were being put in place for games to return at all 36 stadiums by the beginning of May, with the remaining nine games of the schedule to be completed by the end of June, a time when some of Europe’s other top leagues may not yet have returned from their hiatus. England’s Premier League, soccer’s richest domestic competition, is unlikely to return until July at the earliest.

Understandably, these games would occur without fans in attendance, and the league would work to make sure that various proper protocols are in place to keep people safe — for example, Seifert made it a point to mention that supplies will not be moved to make sure footballers can get taken care of so they can play games. He also mentioned the league’s role in providing a sense of normalcy to Germans as life resumes after the virus.

“We are part of the culture in the country, people long to get back a short piece of normal life, and that could mean the Bundesliga plays again,” Seifert said. “This is why we have to play our role here, and that means to support the government and to talk with the government about when we will be able to play again.”

It will be a fascinating experiment to follow, as “play games but make sure everyone stays safe” is a road every league is exploring right now. And as an added bonus, the Bundesliga might be the most entertaining major professional sports league on earth — games frequently turn into goal-fests, it has some of the most exciting young talent on earth, and the top-five teams atop the table are separated by eight points with nine matches left to play. Going from no sports to getting the Bundesliga, of all leagues, back would be like going from 0-to-60 in the blink of an eye.

Even beyond all of that, seeing any sports right now would be great, as long as players, coaches, and various workers needed to make sure games can occur are able to safely make sure games can go on. The Bundesliga believes that day is coming soon, and here’s to hoping they end up being correct, if only because a misreading of this would be disastrous.

The Bulls are moving forward quickly in their effort to get out in front of the rest of the NBA during the league’s hiatus and land a new top executive to lead the front office. This week, reports from NBC Sports Chicago and ESPN indicate Chicago has already interviewed four candidates for the position, including two former Hawks general managers and two younger GMs on current NBA playoff teams, as well as one massive wildcard.

Initial reporting suggested the Bulls were predominantly targeting executives with NBA experience currently employed across the league. That list included Chad Buchanan of the Pacers, Bobby Webster of the Raptors, and Adam Simon of the Heat, each of whom declined the offer to interview with Chicago COO Michael Reinsdorf (who is also the son of 84-year-old owner Jerry).

So the Reinsdorfs moved on to the other current executives on their list, including Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas and Jazz general manager Justin Zanik. Both candidates are similar in that they’ve interviewed for multiple recent openings around the NBA (with Zanik momentarily serving as interim GM in Milwaukee), and both serve below top dogs with final decision-making power in Tim Connelley (Denver) and Dennis Lindsey (Utah).

The Bulls reportedly interviewed both Zanik and Karnisovas early this week, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and NBC Sports’ K.C. Johnson. Longtime Bulls reporter Vincent Goodwill, now a national analyst at Yahoo Sports! wrote on Tuesday that Karnisovas is the frontrunner.

“Karnisovas has a strong draft record and is known to be good in player development, two of the bullet points the Bulls have earmarked for their next top basketball executive,” Goodwill wrote.

That didn’t stop Reinsdorf from seeking out three new candidates from the ranks of former NBA execs. The Bulls reportedly also have interviewed former Hawks GMs Wes Wilcox and Danny Ferry, as well as two-time Executive of the Year (and later disgraced burner Twitter account user) Bryan Colangelo, per various reports on Wednesday.

While Ferry and Wilcox have been in the league for years, both have been unable to land top jobs since they were both ousted from Atlanta for separate instances of racial insensitivity. Colangelo, on the other hand, infamously stepped away from leading the Sixers after admitting that he and his wife failed to exercise proper judgment with regard to social media, as anonymous burner accounts exposed private information about the team.

So far, the Bulls’ top candidates appear to be the two most qualified, as Zanik and Karnisovas each have helped build perennial Western Conference playoff contenders in small markets, and appear ready to take full control of a franchise. But judging from the Bulls’ expansive process, they haven’t landed on one candidate yet, and are looking high and low — although, as many have pointed out, their search has yet to bring in a minority candidate.

Burgeoning Indiana songwriter Omar Apollo returns after a prolific 2019 with his first song of the new year. Apollo’s “Imagine U” arrives as an alluring, melodic anthem about modern heartbreak.

Produced by frequent collaborator Kenny Beats, Apollo’s “Imagine U” is a slow-burning effort. Wonky synths and a grumbling guitars provide an ardent backdrop for Apollo’s lovelorn vocals. “I miss you feelin’ on my waist, you never told me I was rushin’ / But my mind’s changin’ every day, I’m glad that you could even trust me,” Apollo sings.

In a statement, Apollo described his songwriting process for the track:

“I’m all about the feeling when it comes to music. The lyrics and melody came to me so naturally and I feel like free thinking is what’s missing in a lot of music nowadays. There’s a guitar part I played that’s pitched up as soon as the song starts that I love and when I first made the song that part was all I had. I was obsessed with it — I kept playing it on loop cause it felt so good to me. I was listening to a lot of daft punk at the time so I was really inspired by those themes.”

Listen to “Imagine U” above.

Omar Apollo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Of the many TV shows based on podcasts (seriously, there’s a lot!), Homecoming might be the best. True, there’s only been one season, but it was a really good season, and it’s coming back later this year with a new lead actress: Janelle Monáe. “There’s no replacing Queen Julia,” the actress-musician told Entertainment Weekly, referring to season one star Julia Roberts, but Monáe has an electric presence herself. And she’ll be joined by familiar faces from last season, including Hong Chau (excellent in Watchmen) and Stephan James, as well as fellow newcomers Chris Cooper and Joan Cusack

As for what season two is about: Jackie (Monáe) “wakes in a rowboat adrift a lake, with no memory of how she got there — or even who she is. Her ensuing search for identity will lead her into the heart of the Geist Group, the unconventional wellness company behind the Homecoming Initiative,” according to the official plot synopsis.

“It’s doing something that is unique in the television space,” Monáe said about Homecoming. “When I read these episodes, I was like, ‘Oh wow, this is still going to have a very special quality and take everyone in an unexpected place.’ It’s even more elevated this season — and even more suspenseful.” Homecoming season one was already super suspenseful, so I’m both excited for new episodes, and dreading them.

Homecoming returns to Amazon later this year.

Performing livestream concerts from home has become the new normal these days. Aside from artists going at it on their own, organizations and other entities have been hosting multi-artists performance series (like Indie Mixtape, for example). One of the latest, Isol-Aid’s Lunch Without Borders, went down yesterday, and one of the artists performing was Julien Baker. She made the most of her 17-minute set (which somebody graciously uploaded in full on YouTube) by debuting a new song called “Mercy.”

Her rendition of the track, featuring just acoustic guitar and vocals, was minimal and absolutely lovely. Before playing the song, she said of it, “It’s a new one. It’s not newly written, but it’s not on a record or anywhere. And it’s a song about other people showing you how to be a better person by being better people than you, at you, which requires a lot of humility, which is an important and necessary lesson, and probably one of many that we’re all learning.”

Baker wrapped up her 2019 by dropping a pair of new singles, “Tokyo” and “Sucker Punch.” She also has some new material this year, thanks to her inclusion on Hayley Williams’ upcoming album Petals For Armor (alongside fellow Boygenius members Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus).

Watch Baker’s full set above, with “Mercy” beginning at 14:07 into the video.

These work better than people telling us to “just drink more water.” 😑

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Jason De–WHO???

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Young Jennifer Garner was iconic!

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In Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Lady Bird, and even Booksmart, Beanie Feldstein has had to share the spotlight with others. But she’s finally getting the lead role she deserves. Based on Caitlin Moran’s novel of the same name, How to Build a Girl is a coming-of-age teen comedy that stars Feldstein as Johana Morrigan, a teen girl stuck in a working-class neighborhood in England who decides to reinvent herself. “Johanna Morrigan is dead,” she says in the trailer above. “This is the legendary Dolly Wilde,” a music journalist who crosses “over to the dark side.” In other words, she becomes a jerk.

Welcome to being a writer! Here’s the official plot synopsis.

Johana Morrigan is a bright, quirky, 16-year-old who uses her colorful imagination to regularly escape her humdrum life in Wolverhampton and live out her creative fantasies. Desperate to break free from the overcrowded flat she shares with her four brothers and eccentric parents, she submits an earnestly penned and off-beat music review to a group of self-important indie rock critics at a weekly magazine. Despite being brushed off initially, Johana clamors to the top of the ’90s rock music scene by reinventing herself as Dolly Wilde – a venerable, impossible-to-please music critic with an insatiable lust for fame, fortune, and men. It isn’t long before the rapid pace at which Johana’s life is changing becomes overwhelming and she runs face-first into a devastatingly real, existential crisis: Is this the type of girl she wants to become? Or does she need to start over and build again?

How to Build a Girl, which also stars Alfie Allen, Paddy Considine, Chris O’Dowd, and Emma Thompson, hits VOD on May 8.