Category: News

While in Washington DC during a stop on her Special tour, Lizzo paid a visit to the Library Of Congress. She was invited to the Library last week by Carla Hayden, the Librarian Of Congress, who offered to show her the library’s collection of over 1,800 flutes. One of those flutes includes James Madison’s crystal flute from 1813. In response to Hayden’s invitation, Lizzo replied, “IM PLAYIN THAT CRYSTAL FLUTE!!!!!”

Last night, during her show at the Capital One Arena, she was handed the flute and played a few notes on it while twerking.

In a video shared to her Twitter account, Lizzo says, “B*tch, I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s. We just made history tonight. Thank you to the Library Of Congress for preserving our history. And making history freaking cool. History is freaking cool, you guys.”

The video is captioned, saying, “NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD THIS FAMOUS CRYSTAL FLUTE BEFORE. NOW YOU HAVE. IM THE FIRST & ONLY PERSON TO EVER PLAY THIS PRESIDENTIAL 200-YEAR-OLD CRYSTAL FLUTE– THANK YOU @librarycongress.”

Check out the clip from Lizzo’s DC concert above.

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

JJ Watt is in the midst of his 12th season in the NFL, the second of which is coming as a member of the Arizona Cardinals. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year spent the first decade of his career, of course, as the heart and soul of the Houston Texans before taking on a new challenge last year. While he’s only three games into his sophomore campaign in the desert, Watt tells Uproxx Sports he found himself more comfortable entering this campaign.

“I think no matter who you are, how long you’ve done anything, your second year somewhere is always going to be slightly more comfortable,” Watt says. “I mean, everything from just getting settled in a house and getting settled, my wife and the dogs and everything, just getting settled into life.”

Earlier this month, Uproxx Sports sat down with Watt via his partnership with Gatorade to discuss the season so far, what the team can take away from their wild win over the Las Vegas Raiders, and much more.

What do you got going on with Gatorade?

A few of us were given the opportunity to create our own Gatorade bottles — myself, Lionel Messi, Christian Pulisic, and DK Metcalf. I grew up on Gatorade, Gatorade is literally sports, Gatorade is everything. And so, for the opportunity to create my own bottle was very special. There’s not many things as an athlete that are iconic like that, and Gatorade is iconic. So we got to create my own bottle. We spent some time going through, trying to think what’s important to me, what’s been important in my career. And the theme always comes back to Dream Big, Work Hard. That’s the motto of my foundation, it’s kind of the motto I’ve lived my life by, and it’s, as an athlete, what’s gotten me to where I am.

So we have two sides to the bottle. One side is all work, and then when you cut away, you have the dream underneath. Because the dream is the motivation behind the work — when you’re struggling in a workout, when you’re grinding, you got to have that thing in the back of your mind to keep you going. And then the other side, we have it backwards where we have the dream, and then underneath the dream is the work, because you can have the biggest dreams in the world, but if you’re not putting in the work, you’re never going to accomplish them. So it’s all about how you got to have the big dream, but you also have to be willing to put in the work. And it’s very cool, and I can’t wait, I hope other people are motivated by it. I’m excited to use it myself on the sidelines.

I know there are two camps with Gatorade: you refer to Gatorade by colors or you refer to them by their flavors. Which one do you go with?

The traditionals I go by colors, so you have yellow, you have blue, you have orange, you have red. And then when I get into the deeper cuts, then I go more by flavor — Fierce Grape, Rain Berry, Glacier Freeze, some of those where you have to get specific. Blue is blue, but then you have light blue, which is Glacier Freeze. So, I do love both.

Speaking of blue, one of the other guys involved in this project is Christian Pulisic. And obviously I know you’re a big Chelsea supporter. What are your thoughts on Christian as a player, especially with such a big tournament coming around the corner for Americans?

He’s obviously a great player, he can do many things, and obviously with the World Cup coming up, I hope he goes on an absolute tear and I hope he just dominates. Hasn’t gotten as much action in this Chelsea side as maybe he and we would like, but you know, that’s the way it goes. He has a Champions League, and so he’s done some incredible things there, he’s got some goals in Champions League. So I’m hoping that the World Cup is a special event for him.

Let’s talk about football a little bit. We’re two weeks into the season, how are you feeling about things so far?

I feel good. Obviously we had a rough start, and then had a rough start in the second game, but we found a way, wild game, crazy game, came back. So here we sit 1-1, we’ve got a very good Rams team coming in on Sunday into our stadium, and we’re looking forward to this opportunity. Divisional game, Super Bowl champs, all that, and it’s a great opportunity for us. We’re looking forward to this weekend.

Did you find a little bit … easier might not be the word, but last offseason you’re busy getting to a new team, have to learn what life is like there, have to learn what it’s like to play on that team. Or have you been at this long enough that from day one, you were able to walk in and just get used to life in a new place?

I think no matter who you are, how long you’ve done anything, your second year somewhere is always going to be slightly more comfortable. I mean, everything from just getting settled in a house and getting settled, my wife and the dogs and everything, just getting settled into life. And then obviously, with teammates and coaches, schemes and everything, you do as much as you can and it’s certainly not the most difficult thing in the world. But there’s no question in your second year you are more comfortable.

I want to ask about that game against the Raiders. When you have a game like that, how long do you ride that high? You’re on that high for just a day? Do you have a little pep in your step for the entire week? Or is it the sort of thing that you go through the entire season knowing hey, we’ve done this before, we’ve been here, we know if we’re down, we can come back because we have done it already?

Yeah, I think that you don’t ride the high for overly long. I think that’s a next day thing, maybe Tuesday. But then, what you do use is use what you learned from it. We use the resilience, the overcoming adversity, the ability to know that even though we started the game horribly, we were down 20-0 at half, we knew that we had the opportunity to come back and if we played the second half the way we’re capable of, we would win. And so now we carry that with us the rest of the season. We don’t want to ever start a game like that again, we don’t want to put ourselves in adverse situations. But we know that when those situations do arise, we’re equipped to handle it.

I’m guessing that there’s a sense of belief among you guys that when you have a guy like number one at quarterback, you never feel like you’re going to be out of a game.

You watch some of the plays that he makes and what he’s able to do, there’s not many people in the world that are capable of doing that, and we got one. So, he’s capable of making unbelievable plays back there, and he did it. e showed that he can do it when it’s important. And it gives you a whole lot of belief.

As someone whose entire career has been, “I have to stop the best quarterbacks in the NFL from doing their thing,” what is it that maybe we don’t see that makes Kyler such a unique and special football player?

I think you saw it especially on that two point conversion play. Not only can he throw the ball, not only can he run, he can just make magic happen back there. That was what an 18, 20-second play. I’m 290 pounds, I’m in good shape, but I’m not running around for 20 seconds. The guys are dead, you’re dead tired, trying to chase him around. But he’s fresh, he’s bouncing around, and he can run 83 yards in one play and run it into the end zone, and everybody else’s gassed, but he sees the gaps, he sees the holes. And then the next two point conversion, he can fire a bullet into the back of the end zone to AJ Green. He can do both of those things and it’s very, very difficult for a defense to stop, because … I don’t know if there is a way.

You’re someone whose commitment to training, preparation, super well documented, but at the same time, as everyone knows, Father Time is undefeated. How has your routine change as you become more experienced in the league? What are the things that you still do? What things have you added that have helped you keep playing at such a high level 12 years in?

You have to learn, you know, some things you learn the hard way and some things you just learn as time goes on. But you learn how to adapt and how to change your routines and your programs to elongate that career. Like you said, it’s undefeated, but there are ways to lengthen it, whether it’s things like more stretching, or you find a different way to do the same exercise to get the same benefit without putting as much stress on your body, or it’s adjusting a training camp practice schedule, whatever those things may be. That’s what we’ve tried to do to make sure that the 17 games during the season are the most important thing.

With games on Sundays or Mondays, do you build into your Saturday schedule to go “I’m setting aside a little bit of time to make sure I’m watching my alma mater”?

Oh, absolutely. Out Saturday schedule works out perfect, especially because it’s a home game this week. So we’ve got morning work, so I’ll work from seven o’clock until noon. And then then we got the middle of the day wide open. So I go home and you have to rest, anyway. So just kick my feet up on the couch, have a little film on or watch the boys play, and then we go to the hotel at night to get ready for the game. But I got some buddies in town from Wisconsin this weekend, some of my high school buddies, so you can bet we’re going to be posted up on the couch watching the boys.

What gets you more excited, fired up, whatever it might be: Watching your brothers play when you’re watching one of their games, or watching Wisconsin play when you’re watching one of their games?

My brothers by far. I mean that’s blood. I get more into my brothers’ games than anything, it is the coolest, best thing in the world. I love it. I get more nervous, obviously I play the game, I’ve had injuries, my own stuff I never get nervous. When I’m watching a game, I get crazy nervous for my brothers and I get crazy excited when they make a play. I’m pretty sure I get more excited when they make one than when I make one. It’s the coolest thing in the world to me, all three of us in the NFL, there’s nothing like it.

Foo Fighters and company put on their second Taylor Hawkins tribute concert last night, and both yesterday’s Los Angeles event and the London show from earlier this month were massive. Last night’s show had a 53-song setlist with so many different artists taking the stage. There are a lot of moving parts involved with an event of this scale, which is wonderfully illustrated in a behind-the-scenes photo.

Ahead of yesterday’s show, longtime music photographer and Sea.Hear.Now Festival co-founder Danny Clinch shared a backstage photo of the London tribute concert, of Hawkins’ son Shane standing among a massive array of different drum kits used during the show. (While the photo is from the London concert, the LA event presumably had a similarly impressive setup.)

Clinch wrote in his post, “A moment with Shane Hawkins and the many drum kits ready to be swapped in and out at Wembley. Honored to be photographing again today at the legendary Forum In honor of Taylor Hawkins, and to see Shane crush it again.”

Previously, ahead of the London tribute event, Clinch shared the first band photo of Foo Fighters taken after Hawkins’ death. The pic naturally drew some emotional reactions from fans who saw it.

Rihanna was officially confirmed as the headliner for the NFL’s 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show over the weekend. Following the announcement, fans were understandably excited for her to make a musical return in a massive way — her last album dropped in 2016. Still, Rihanna has countless hits spanning several records, which sparked a divisive question online: what would (or should) her setlist look like?

While it’s currently unclear if Rihanna will be playing solo for the halftime show’s entirety or be considering special guests, it seems that the NFL might be pushing her to bring some surprise stars on stage. According to TMZ, there is currently a list of over 50 performers that could join her, but nothing has been confirmed. Rihanna’s collaborations — which include Drake, Jay-Z, Britney Spears, Paul McCartney, and Kanye West — could find themselves making a potential appearance as well.

After Billboard published a piece about what they think Rihanna’s set should be, many fans were confused by some clear omissions, including “Kiss It Better” and her debut single “Pon De Replay.” On social media, other publications asked Rihanna’s Navy fan base directly on what songs they think she should perform. Continue scrolling to see some of the fan reactions, which include everything from her massive hits to some hidden gems meant for the fans.

Yesterday, Ryan Reynolds teased Hugh Jackman returning again as Wolverine, and this morning, they posted a video seemingly confirming that the duo would team up for Deadpool 3 after several years of debate and speculation. “I had a lot of questions. I’m sure you had a lot of questions, but rest assured, we are going to answer them right now. For example, how is Wolverine alive after Logan?“ Jackman asks.

He is quickly answered by Reynolds, who clears the air. “Logan takes place in 2029. Totally separate thing. Logan died in Logan. Not touching that. What actually happens in our film is, these two f*cking guys,” Reynolds continues before “Wake Me Up” by WHAM! drowns out the audio, naturally. It also seems like Shawn Levy is attached to the project.

The two have previously worked together on X-Men Origins, though that iteration of Deadpool is long gone. Now, it seems like a proper stand-off between Deadpool and Wolverine is feasible. Fans have known that this is a long time coming, after Twentieth Century Fox was recently absorbed by Marvel’s owners, Disney. This brings the potential for MCU/X-Men crossovers in the future. Isn’t that what everyone wants? More superhero content?!

Of course, we still have questions. Will John Krasinski be involved? How does this tie into The Multiverse of Madness? Will Reynolds finally have his mouth sewn shut again? Probably not, but one can hope.

Deadpool 3 is expected to hit theaters on labor day weekend of 2024.

If television critics handed out awards like sportswriters, Sadie Sink would have been named the MVP of Stranger Things season four by unanimous vote. She was front and center in the best episode of the season, and her character, Max, helped catapult a decades-old song to the top of the charts. For her extraordinary work in the Netflix series, Sink (who also colloborated with Taylor Swift) was named to the 2022 TIME100 Next list, which recognizes “stars from across industries and around the world.”

Sink’s blurb was written by co-star Winona Ryder, who remembers the first time she saw her on TV. “It was on the great show The Americans. Although brief, it was a stunning moment — and a rare one. I wrote her name down in my notebook. I knew this was someone ­extraordinary, someone to watch,” she wrote. “So when the planets aligned and she came on to Stranger Things, it felt like a little secret victory.”

(Here she is, wielding a gun, on The Americans. Good show.)

Ryder called The Whale star a “creative acrobat and she’s on this balance beam that very few have the courage to walk.” She also told a story about Sink as a person, not just an actor. “At the [season four] premiere, which was her big moment,” Ryder wrote, “when I hugged her she said, so excited, ‘My brother graduated law school today!’ All these moments that are all about her and she’s thinking about her brother. Of course!”

Ryder calling you “stunning” is a bigger accomplishment than any MVP award.

(Via Time)

Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman has been sitting in renewal limbo over at Netflix for over a month. The show gifted us with, among other things with the most beautiful hour of TV (“The Sound Of Her Wings”) of the year, and the saga’s been dancing within and near the top of Netflix’s streaming charts around the globe. Neil has made it clear that the show’s incredibly expensive, and that could prevent a Season 2 renewal (with Netflix tightening its belt these days), but fans are still holding out hope, to the point where, when Neil teased an announcement with an hourglass-themed clip, well, he obviously wasn’t talking about inadvertently irritating trolls with more Lord of the Rings.

Let’s just say that, in response, people got a little bit excited and started reiterating wishes for Netflix Season 2.

Good Omens (streaming on Amazon) also received a few shoutouts, but here’s perhaps my favorite guess: “an edgy remake of ‘Days of our Lives’?”

Neil apparently saw the soap-opera talk and pointed out that Audible did the hourglass thing, too, so there.

And that’s the root of the tease. Audible has hot-dropped Part III of its ongoing audio production of the dark fantasy saga. This is the version with James McAvoy as Morpheus/Dream and Kat Dennings being herself while playing Death. Michael Sheen portrays Lucifer, and we already heard Brian Cox getting Shakespearean while the story leaps through time and space. So it’s very good news: more more wait for Part II on Audible! From a press release, here are some fresh casting details:

Returning to the Audible Sandman universe is series star, James McAvoy in the title role as well as Kat Dennings as Death, Miriam Margolyes as Despair, Justin Vivian Bond as Desire, Jeffrey Wright as Destiny, Kristen Schaal as Delirium, Andy Serkis, Riz Ahmed, Regé-Jean Page, Kevin Smith, Bebe Neuwirth, Niamh Walsh, Arthur Darvill, Ray Porter, and a full ensemble cast. Joining the cast of Audible’s Sandman franchise for the first time are David Harewood as Destruction, Wil Wheaton as Brant Tucker, and KJ Apa as Prez.

The Sandman‘s first two parts still occupy the top two spots on the Audible all-time bestselling list. Get on over there and download this thing to your favorite streaming device, and keep crossing your fingers for more of the Netflix series.

The Los Angeles edition Taylor Hawkins tribute concert was last night (September 27), and like the London event before it earlier this month, it was a gargantuan and emotional affair. There was some emotion well before the show even started, though, as some fans waiting outside the venue saw something that moved them.

Ahead of yesterday’s concert, a Reddit user shared a video on the r/foofighters subreddit, of a hawk flying over the Kia Forum, noting the bird was spotted “just before” the doors opened. The clip shows the bird soaring in the clear blue sky over the venue and parking lot. One Reddit commenter noted the hawk “has been hanging around there at least since yesterday [September 26].”

Hawkins, given his last name, incorporated hawks into some of his branding, like on his drum kit when performing with Taylor Hawkins And The Coattail Riders (as seen in the 2010 photo at the top of this post).

People found some meaning in this avian sighting. In the Reddit comments, one user noted, “Tell me Taylor is here, without telling me Taylor isn’t here. Taylor’s spirit will live FOREVER!” Somebody else wrote, “If this isn’t a sign, I don’t know what is.” Another person said, “Taylor is just checking up on things. He’s alright.”

In a repost of the video on Twitter, one person commented, “All of us who caught it definitely felt something.” Another wrote, “I saw one. I felt almost an ‘I love you too’ vibe, but…I don’t know…almost a reassuring feeling, I can’t explain it…” A different Twitter user wrote, “You can’t tell me that wasn’t Taylor.”

Find the full 53-song setlist from the LA tribute concert here.

Being co-stars with Taylor Swift has its perks. In an interview with Capital UK, Margot Robbie discussed being in Amsterdam, director David O. Russell’s new film also starring Christian Bale and John David Washington (and pretty much everyone else you like), with the “All Too Well” singer. “I know Taylor already, so it wasn’t a fan girl moment,” she said. “It was more like a, yay, I get to work with another friend, this is so, so nice.”

Robbie called Swift a “real girls girl” and revealed the free merch she got from her:

“The album that was coming out around the time we were filming was [Folklore], and she gave me, I think it was like one of the vinyls of Folklore and like some merch and stuff like that. Honestly, when I took it home, it wasn’t my girlfriends that freaked out. It was my guy friends that were all like, ‘Can I please keep the Folklore shirt? Can I keep the Folklore hoodie?’”

Robbie ended up giving the gifts “to my guy friends because they were all so excited, and they were the way bigger T-Swift fans than my girlfriends.” Meanwhile, Swift’s Cats co-stars are still looking for anyone to take their “Me!” litter-boxes.

Amsterdam comes out on October 7.

For years now, Dave Chappelle has been gradually making Radiohead’s classic 1992 single “Creep” part of his live performance legacy. Back in 2016, he sang the song at a Portland strip club’s karaoke night. Later, he and Ed Sheeran teamed up on a rendition of the song. Then, when Foo Fighters performed at Madison Square Garden in 2021, Chappelle was there to, of course, sing “Creep.”

Chappelle was at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in London earlier this month, where he didn’t perform but shared some words about Hawkins. He was at last night’s (September 27) Los Angeles tribute show, too, and this time, he was part of the musical lineup, rejoining Foo Fighters for yet another rendition of “Creep.”

As for what Chappelle said about Hawkins at the London show, he noted in part of meeting Hawkins’ son Shane, “In that room in Madison Square Garden, even though I had met the Foo Fighters many nights, I felt like I met them for the first time. I’ve seen Taylor be a rock star many nights but it was my first time seeing him be a dad, and what a cool f*cking dad. It was the first time that Dave Grohl and I ever even mentioned the name Kurt Cobain. It was the first time we ever even talked about our love of jazz and go-go music and Taylor’s son Shane was soaking it all in. He sat there, he asked the best questions — not about fame, always about art.”

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.