Category: News

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — This is journalism to me

There was a period of time, not that long ago, where everyone was mean to Guy Fieri for no really good reason. Yes, the hair, sure, and the general vibe, fine, crossed with a generally harsher and more judgmental version of the internet — blogs, specifically — created as close to a perfect storm as you’ll ever see. I was as guilty of it as anyone. I don’t think any news story in my online career brought me as much pleasure in the moment as the time a teenage supervillain stole his Lamborghini. I feel conflicted about it. Maybe not the Lamborghini thing. That’s still wild.

The tide is turning, though. It’s been turning for a while. Guy Fieri is being recognized as a wholesome king and good dude by some of the snots like me who once roasted him and by some of the fancy-schmancy types in the food community. This is cool. It’s good to look at things and re-evaluate them and maybe flip your perspective a bit every once in a while. It is now my position that every waiting room should play episodes of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on a loop all day long. I think it would do wonders for the American psyche as a whole. I am serious about this.

Which, among other reasons, is why it brings me such pleasure to direct you to this profile of Guy Fieri in the New York Times by Matt Flegenheimer. It might be the greatest work of journalism I’ve ever seen. Go read it all. I’m going to pull out some highlights, but seriously, go read it all. Because it is barely a paragraph old before it gets to this…

“I want to chug the chutney!” Mr. Fieri said, daring someone to stop him. “One little bump.”

It was 9:33 a.m.

Perfect.

Or this section, in which Guy Fieri explains his theories on cooking and food and how all of it has slowly gained acceptance from the community that once shunned it.

“If you only hear Metallica as a heavy-metal band, then you are not hearing Metallica,” Mr. Fieri said, riding shotgun after a day of filming and charity work. “Now maybe you don’t like that style. But they’re real musicians.”

Not a single note. It reads almost exactly like something you would expect Guy Fieri to say, which is kind of cool. There’s something to be said for being yourself all the time, even when it wasn’t always popular. I respect it a lot. It’s also good that we note the thing in there about charity. Guy Fieri does so much charity work. It’s one of the things that bent his colleagues toward acceptance. Look at these quotes.

“I don’t think he had the respect of people like me or people in the food industry,” said Traci Des Jardins, an acclaimed Bay Area chef who has become a friend. “He has earned that respect.”

“An amazing individual,” said the philanthropic chef José Andrés, recalling how Mr. Fieri churned out plates of turkey for wildfire evacuees in 2018.

That’s cool. Good for Guy Fieri. I love that he’s made an entire career out of highlighting American small businesses and supporting the restaurant industry — literally the people that feed America — and he’s found a way to do it that’s fun and in his own distinctive style. Arguments can be made that he’s done as much for independently-owned restaurants in America as the entire federal government. Again, that’s cool.

Also, he makes paragraphs like these possible.

He can pass hours, by land or fishing boat, reflecting on life and family with a close friend, Rob Van Winkle, whom Mr. Fieri addresses as Ninja and most others know as Vanilla Ice.

“Some of us never grow up,” said Mr. Van Winkle, who attributed Mr. Fieri’s nickname for him to his rap in the 1991 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” sequel, adding that he has been renovating the chef’s new home in Palm Beach County, Fla., a short drive from his own. “When Guy and I are together, we’re like the oldest teenagers in town.”

Okay, stop reading for a second. After this paragraph. Close your eyes. Picture yourself out fishing, early in the morning, dew on the grass in the marsh surrounding the lake, a thin layer of fog lingering on the glassy surface of the water… and then, a few dozen yards away, approaching you, you see Guy Fieri and Vanilla Ice together in a boat.

Think about how you would react to that one.

Be honest.

There’s a non-zero chance you would fall out of the boat.

Right?

Do not lie to me.

Yet the likeliest explanation for his durability, for his heightened esteem among some peers, is deceptively simple.

“He seeks to understand rather than be understood,” Mr. Zimmern said, “which I think is as high a compliment as I can give.”

This is a great quote and a beautiful explanation of why Guy Fieri is still out here doing it, gaining a foothold in the culture, and winning over cynical dweebs across the country. It sums things up almost perfectly.

“Almost” is the key word there, though. It turns out things can be summed up better. I know this because, a little further down the profile, we see this quote from a dude named Jim that, I think, really nails things with a clarity you don’t often get from words on a page.

“He goes to all these diners, drive-ins and dives,” said one fan, Jim McGinnis, 77, explaining the show’s appeal as Mr. Fieri administered handshakes and how-ya-doing-brothers at a charity event for New Jersey veterans. “It’s just a pleasure.”

Zero lies detected anywhere in those statements. Congrats to Guy Fieri. And Jim. Congrats to both of them. I bet they’d get along. They should go fishing with Vanilla Ice and make it a television show. I would watch it. I swear to god I’m not joking.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — LET RITA AND HELEN RACE

Something important happened this week: Rita Moreno, Hollywood legend and freaking EGOT winner, was cast in Fast X, the tenth Fast & Furious movie. As the grandmother of Vin Diesel’s character. This is wild. Imagine going back in time to 2001 and telling someone as they walk out of the theater after seeing the first movie in this franchise that there will be nine more over the next 20 years and that Rita Moreno will end up playing Dominic Toretto’s grandmother. They would think you are insane. And that’s before you tell them any of the other stuff that’s happened in the last 20 years. My point is that having a time machine would be fun.

Anyway, I have one request here and I think it’s pretty reasonable: I want to see Rita Moreno and Helen Mirren race. Against each other. Maybe for pink slips or maybe for pride or maybe just for the love of the game. This could happen. It really could. They are both now members of the Fast & Furious Family. Literally, kind of. Helen Mirren plays the mother of Jason Statham’s character, who tried to kill Dominic Toretto with a bazooka as recently as three movies ago but is now invited to his cookout. These are the best movies.

The nice thing here is that, by explaining all of this again, I have given myself another excuse to post the quotes Helen Mirren gave when she was cast in the eighth Fast & Furious movie but was not given the chance to drive…

“I wanted to be driving, but unfortunately, I’m not,” she says, shrugging. “Maybe that will come in the future, in Fast and Furious 12.” She pauses. “I’m probably one of the few people on the set who know how to drive a gear shift car. I doubt the Rock knows,” she jokes. “But I do. I know how to double declutch.”

… and to post this GIF of her getting to drive in the ninth movie after making that stink and calling out The Rock, which, to be clear, is still deeply funny to me.

So, yes, please, whoever is reading this and can make it happen or who knows someone and can make it happen or can maybe blackmail someone (just a little) into making it happen, let Rita Moreno race Helen Mirren in Fast X.

For me.

For all of us.

But definitely for me.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — The Mission: Impossible movies must continue, for the people

This is the trailer for the next Mission: Impossible movie, Dead Reckoning — Part One, which is an outrageous thing to title a movie. Or anything else, I guess. But definitely a movie. That’s not really the point, though. There was nowhere to go but down after they came up with Ghost Protocol anyway. Ghost Protocol! I’m still not over that. I suspect I’ll never be over it. It is one of my favorite phrases ever. Someone even said it in the movie. Here, look.

It must have been so thrilling to deliver that line. I bet people cheered. I bet someone off-camera whispered “yesssss” right away and it was just loud enough that a microphone picked it up and they had to reshoot the scene. I would have absolutely been this person. I should not be allowed on a movie set.

The trailer is awesome, though. Which is not a surprise. The Mission: Impossible movies rarely disappoint. Tom Cruise is about to turn 60 and he’s still out here doing nonsense like this.

Meanwhile, I ate something kind of spicy last week and my stomach hurt for two days. I am conflicted about this. As I am about the thing where the trailer came out this week and the movie does not premiere until next year. Next year is so far away. It’s not fair. Give it to me now. For free. And give me $1,000. I’ll go as low as $850.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Thank you to Sebastian Stan for keeping “Pam & Tommy had a scene where Tommy Lee’s penis spoke to him with the voice of Jason Mantzoukas” in the news

A good way to tell that there are too many television shows these days is that we are not all sitting around every day talking about the scene in Pam & Tommy where Sebastian Stan, in character as Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, had a conversation with his own penis, which was shown on-screen and was voiced by Jason Mantzoukas. It’s a shame, really. We’re just burning through all kinds of stuff — some legitimately good, some wild, some featuring a talking penis — and none of it is sticking. I hate it.

This is why I’m grateful whenever someone brings it up again. Which Sebastian Stan did. On television. During an interview. The Hollywood Reporter has the quotes.

The actor went on to say that Lee’s 2004 book Tommyland features the rocker’s penis as a character, and so the show’s writers intended the scene as an homage to that choice.

“It’s actually a very sweet scene because it’s a love confession to some extent,” Stan continued. “He’s realizing he’s in love with this woman, and he’s telling his best friend. ‘Don’t let me down, buddy.’”

This is terrific. He said it — and by “it” I am again referring to the thing where he, Sebastian Stan, in character as Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, had a conversation with his own penis, which was shown on-screen and was voiced by Jason Mantzoukas – was “a sweet scene.” And he was kind of right about it, too. There are two primary takeaways from all of this and I think it would be good if we all tried to remember them going forward:

• It’s good to try to slow down sometimes and let the cool and important stuff sink in so it doesn’t get burned up like rocket fuel as you hurtle yourself through an endless cosmos of content
• There was a scene in Pam & Tommy where Sebastian Stan in character as Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, had a conversation with his own penis, which was shown on-screen and was voiced by Jason Mantzoukas

I might go carve both of these into the face of a mountain. People need to know.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Paddington gets it

This was a weird and bad week for reasons that do not especially require rehashing here. I am fried and I suspect a lot of you are, too. So… let’s just look at this tweet from my sweet boy Paddington Bear in which he takes the famous Top Gun quote about having a need for speed and substitutes, instead of speed, marmalade sandwiches.

And then let’s look at this tweet by jaythechou — who is doing the Lord’s work on a daily basis — that inserts Paddington into the original Top Gun.

We needed this.

We deserve it.

I want to see Paddington fly a fighter jet.

These are all true statements.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this up.

From Matt:

Pop quiz, hotshot.

A madman threatens to blow up the moon unless you agree to never use one of the following GIFs ever again: Judith Light doing cocaine at the rodeo or James Wolk slapping a general and shouting “Where’s the sloth?” What do you do? Just let him blow up the moon?

This question cracked me up, mostly because of the general premise of it all. Just the idea that someone is so sick of me posting these GIFs that they’re spending millions of dollars to shoot what I’m assuming is either some sort of rocket or space laser at the moon. I get it, though. I do post them a lot. And I’m going to post them again, now, for context. First, the one from the short-lived Dallas continuation series where Judith Light did a line of cocaine from an ornate box while standing inside an empty rodeo arena…

… and then the one from Zoo where James Wolk backhand-slapped an evil general while demanding to know the location of a sloth whose shrieks were so powerful they could cause earthquakes.

Two things are true here:

• Both of these things actually happened on television
• I love them both the way a parent loves their children

That said, I’m keeping Judith. It’s just more useful. You can use it to react to all sorts of things. And I do. Friends will text me to ask simple questions — “Do you want to go to Chili’s for dinner on Saturday?” — and I’ll just post that GIF as a response. I bet they groan every time. This makes it funnier to me.

Apologies to James Wolk. But this one was easy.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Germany!

Authorities in the southwest German town of Walldorf have ordered some cat owners to keep their pets indoors until the end of August, to protect a rare bird during its breeding season.

CAT LOCKDOWN

WE HAVE A GERMAN CAT LOCKDOWN

I DID NOT EVER EXPECT TO TYPE THAT SENTENCE

I AM GOING TO TYPE IT AGAIN BUT MAKE IT BOLD THIS TIME

WE HAVE A GERMAN CAT LOCKDOWN

The decree is designed to help save the crested lark, which makes its nest on the ground and is therefore easy prey for feline hunters. The bird’s population in Western Europe has declined sharply in recent decades.

This is incredible. They really want people to keep their cats inside the entire summer to protect some birds. Which, now that I think about it, isn’t that big deal? I don’t know. My family had a cat when I was growing up and he barely ever went outside. You could leave the door wide open and he’d just yawn at it from the floor. His name was Sylvester and I loved him very much. Great dude.

Regional daily Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung reported Wednesday that the head of the local animal protection association plans to take legal steps to challenge the decree.

“Please remain calm,” it quoted him as saying. “I can assure you we’ll do our best to stop this disproportionate measure.”

It says a lot about me as a person and the various personality flaws I possess that I would absolutely, 100 percent, watch a video feed of these legal proceedings. Live. Every day. Lots of you weirdos have been watching the Depp-Heard trial. This is that for me. I hope they call witnesses. I hope one of the witnesses is a cat. I hope the trial becomes a worldwide phenomenon and they end up making a miniseries about it in a few years. I hope the miniseries contains a scene where a bunch of dogs are watching the trial on television and laughing at the cats.

It could happen. You don’t know. Shut up.

Despite being persona non grata in the music industry for the past six months or so, Travis Scott remains as popular as ever among sneakerheads. Today, his latest collaboration with Nike dropped — and unfortunately for his fans, the shoes proved as scarce as a recent Travis headlining performance.

The culprit in this not-so-mysterious case of the missing shoes — as it so often is — was SNKRS, Nike’s app for bidding on the most coveted (or “hyped”) releases from its stocks. Whereas you’d go on the plain old Nike app for a pair of new LeBrons or general release Air Max, SNKRS is where you need to be for the latest Jordan retro or high-profile limited-edition release with artists like Travis or Billie Eilish.

However, ever since its release, it has been as much a source of frustration for fans as it has a resource — in fact, many times, it is more so. Nearly every new release day brings with it a slew of fans posting their “Ls” on social media, as the drawing system condemns many fans to the dicey proposition of the resale market, where they can get their latest grails, but only at a 200% markup (sometimes more). Today was no different, as the hotly-demanded Travis Scott Cact.us collection, consisting of a reconstructed Air Max 1 and Air Trainer 1, disappeared faster than you could say, “It’s lit!” Those who did hit today met an immediate wave of hate from their peers.

There is some good news on the horizon for Travis fans, though. He makes his return to the festival scene at Primavera Sound in Brazil this summer, while his album Utopia is still waiting in the wings. Check out fans’ SNKRS laments above.

WARNING: Spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi below.

Flea is of course best known for his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers, but all the while, he’s been active as an actor, too. In fact, he’s had roles in some legendary movies, including The Big Lebowski, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, and Back To The Future Part II (and Part III). He may have also helped define your childhood by voicing Donnie in The Wild Thornberrys.

Now, the bassist and thespian has found his way into another iconic franchise: Star Wars, thanks to his role in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Flea’s latest role comes after rumors about it started circulating a few weeks ago. (Worth noting is that Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow also directed RHCP’s recent “Black Summer” video, a connection that surely helped fuel those rumors.)

Consequence notes Flea plays a bounty hunter named Vect Nakrui and describes his role, “In order to bring Kenobi out of hiding, Third Sister Reva (Moses Ingram) hires a bounty hunter to kidnap Leia Organa. That criminal is Vect Nakru, played by Flea himself. The idea is that since Kenobi served Bail Organa during the Clone Wars, the Alderaan Senator would once again call upon the Jedi to help find his daughter. Indeed, Kenobi digs up his old lightsaber and heads to Daiyu to rescue the girl — and face Vect.”

Flea isn’t the first musician to carve out a role in the world of Star Wars: Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) played Lando Calrissian in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Lin-Manuel Miranda and legendary Star Wars score composer John Williams also had cameos in Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.

Drama seems to always follow the Migos, but rumors have been swirling about internal tension between the trio ever since fans realized Offset and Cardi B unfollowed Quavo and Takeoff on Instagram. The concerns grew even further as the unfollowing aligned with Qua and Take promoting their new single “Hotel Lobby,” which was released last Friday (May 20) under the name Unc and Phew. Now, Offset is evidently here with some new music of his own, providing a small snippet on his Instagram story this week.

The three members of Migos are no strangers to doing things on their own, regularly appearing on other artists’ music by themselves and even dropping three solo albums from each member within six months of one another in 2018-2019 before taking a long break. The added layer of the social media aspect makes this a cause for concern, but none of the members have officially addressed the supposed tension. It’s known what they can do together, with multiple No. 1’s and Grammy nominations under their belt and DJ Akademiks spoke in a TMZ interview about how he believes fans should not be worried.

“They might be going through a small disagreement or whatever,” the media personality says. “I think that they’re angling it because, you know, Takeoff and Quavo just put out a song, so they’re kind of letting it lie, letting the questions linger or something like that.” In this “everything is a rollout” climate of today’s music, it’s fair to question everything. The actual blood ties between the three make this an even more intriguing situation.

Check out the snippet of Offset’s new music above.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Once upon a time, the phrase “Compton rapper” evoked a very different image than the one it might conjure today. Before the very concept of a denizen of the Hub City was revamped to include examples of Black excellence and crunchy granola woke rap, the above-mentioned term suggested an air of menace, as well as urgency. After all, “Straight Outta Compton” wasn’t just a declaration of hometown pride, it was a call to action.

Now that the city has spawned such eclectic artistic standouts as Kendrick Lamar, Buddy, and Westside Boogie, one might think that Compton is no longer producing acts in the vein of NWA, MC Eiht, or more recently, YG. However, there’s a burgeoning underground in the city, producing rappers who are far less mainstream-friendly, but every bit as vital as their gangbanging predecessors. The one you need to know is Compton Av.

Named for the street he grew up on, Av quietly but assuredly built a decade-long career on independent releases such as Thugged Out, Tru 2 The Streets, and All In, becoming something of a local celebrity and a fixture of Compton’s indie rap scene. But with his latest release, the 10-track Net 30, he stakes a claim on the wider world of hip-hop, proving that despite his veteran status, he’s just getting started.

From its opening track, Compton Av lets listeners know what kind of time he’s on. Yes, he’s gangsta as hell, but he’s a businessman, as well, here to teach the finer points of making the transition from the streets to the boardroom. There’s a knowing wit to his rhymes, which find him smirking his way through casually delivered daggers and the sort of raunchy comedy of peers like 1TakeJay and AzChike, but he also drops the occasional gem like a thunderbolt from Zeus himself.

“I done seen record deals and said I wouldn’t take it / And took care of hoe n****s who said I wouldn’t make it,” he says in the self-titled intro. Later, in the interlude “Fucc The Opps,” Av sums up the mindset that drives the reckless lifestyle he touts: “N****s give they life to the set until they lose it / Had a chance to go to the league, the n**** blew it… How you supposed to feel when you grew up in the slums / When they asking ‘where you from,’ you better get yourself a gun.”

While much of the album is given over to turn-up anthems like “Secret,” “Tear It Up,” and “Jumpin,” he also offers upliftment on “I Did It (Winnin),” which calls to mind Jay Rock’s 2018 hit “Win.” “We made it from nothin’, look at God,” he boasts over a triumphant horn loop. And on “Slid’N” featuring West Coast rap godfather Snoop Dogg, he gets off some sinister one-liners, demonstrating both his gangsta bonafides and an unexpectedly creative way with words.

This isn’t game-changing stuff, but it is perhaps more representative of where the average Compton citizen is at than the brainy, jazz-infused raps from some of Av’s more celebrated compatriots. As important as it is to magnify the “high art,” it’s equally necessary to highlight the stuff that will soundtrack the late-night house parties, summertime cookouts, and midnight gang slides that are also a part of the city’s vibrant, rich history. Black folks shouldn’t always have to be excellent to be considered worthwhile and some stories are best told in the blunt language of the culture that created them.

Net 30 is out now via Cook Gods/Rich Off Rap/Empire. Get it here.

’80s star Bruce Hornsby has proved himself as an avid participant in the current indie-rock scene. In 2019, he gathered Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, guitarist Blake Mills, British folk trio The Staves, and musician-producer Brad Cook for his album Absolute Zero.

Today, Hornsby furthers his indie-rock involvement with the release of his new album ‘Flicted, which includes a feature from Danielle Haim on the swift song “Days Ahead.” The track moves forward with optimism as they take turns singing, “There will be days ahead / I’m pretty sure / Brightening lighter rays / In this world.” The sound is vibrant and airy, and their vocals are ethereal, especially when coming together to create a harmony.

The group Haim released one of the most beloved albums of 2020 with Women In Music Pt. III. It watched them find power in their vulnerability, which they were open about on Twitter: “For my sisters and I, there have been times in our lives where we have felt like we are stuck in a dark hole,” Danielle wrote on Twitter. “Every time I’ve been depressed — it takes me accepting that I need help to start to get out of it.”

Listen to Hornsby’s new collaboration with Danielle on “Days Ahead” above.

For the past two weeks, Kellyanne Conway has been aggressively promoting her new book, Here’s the Deal, which reflects back on her time working for both Donald Trump‘s campaign and his administration during his one term as president. While Conway still remains a steadfast supporter for Trump, she has been vocal that he lost the 2020 election and claims she told him as much. So it really didn’t come as a surprise when the former president took to Truth Social on Thursday and blasted his former adviser. Pushing back on the Big Lie is a huge no-no.

“Kellyanne Conway never told me that she thought we lost the election,” Trump wrote. “If she had I wouldn’t have dealt with her any longer – she would have been wrong – could go back to her crazy husband.”

Again, not a surprising reaction from Trump who has always been notoriously thin-skinned. However, according to Conway, his reaction did catch her off-guard because she had recently been shown a glowing statement about her book that he was going to release until something changed.

“I was given a statement last night that he was going to put out — a beautiful statement about the book and our relationship and how hard we had worked together,” Conway told Mediaite’s The Interview podcast shortly after Trump’s remarks. “So somebody worked overtime between last evening and this morning to have him put that statement out.”

Conway then proceeded to call out Trump’s inner-circle who “have their own interests at hand” even though she knows they “privately” say Trump lost. But despite her belief that Trump has been poisoned by sycophants (Mark Meadows is a name that comes up often), Conway says she’d gladly work on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign “if he would have me.”

(Via Mediaite)

For millions of people, the idea of being in agreement with Tucker Carlson on anything is as laughable as it is terrifying. But on Thursday night, in a rare moment of empathy, the Fox News host seemed genuinely appalled to learn that police in Uvalde, Texas waited approximately one hour before entering Robb Elementary School, while a teen shot and killed 21 people, including 19 schoolchildren.

As Mediaite reports, Carlson—who, earlier this week, was blaming the shooting on COVID lockdowns—played a clip of Texas governor Greg Abbott praising the “amazing courage” of the police officers who risked their own lives by “running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives.” Yet based on new interviews and information, Carlson questioned the veracity of Abbott’s statement. While the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that police officers were on the scene at the time of the gunman’s arrival, and engaged with him immediately, Carlson was more interested in what an eyewitness to the events saw.

Juan Carranza, who lives next to the school, told the Associated Press that he saw the gunman crash his truck outside of the school, pull out a rifle, and begin shooting at a pair of people outside a nearby funeral home. He then began shooting at the school before running inside. According to Carlson, Carranza stated that there were no officers at the school to engage him, and that when law enforcement did arrive “they didn’t do anything at all for about an hour. In fact, parents had to beg the police to save their children.” Which… is quite a different tale.

Shockingly, Carlson has seen the videos that have emerged in the wake of the shooting and agreed that they corroborate what Carranza said happened. In the meantime, rumors are swirling that some officers did enter the school sooner—but only to remove their own children, which Carlson described as “a moral crime at the very least.”

Carlson also played clips from a Thursday press conference in which police officials were basically able to confirm very few details—except the fact that their initial statement that the gunman had been immediately engaged was, in fact, untrue.

“So the point is not to point fingers or blame people,” Carlson said. “Nobody wants a school shooting. Everyone’s heart is broken by it, but the authorities are not allowed to lie to us in the aftermath of an event like this.”

Carlson then took his anger even further when he concluded: “No matter how pro-law enforcement you are—and we are—there’s only so much B.S. you can take in the face of a tragedy like this.”

You can watch the full video at Mediate here.

(Via Mediaite)

The Dallas Mavericks’ season came to an end on Thursday evening in San Francisco. The team took on the Golden State Warriors in their second win-or-go-home game of the Western Conference Finals, but unlike their win in Game 4, the Mavericks came up a bit short. By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Warriors picked up a 120-110 win to punch their ticket to their first NBA Finals since 2019.

Luka Doncic put up his usual big numbers in Game 5, going for 28 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and a steal in 40 minutes of work. Despite that, he had a poor shooting night — 10-for-28 from the field, 3-for-13 from three — and saw his team get outscored by 12 points when he was on the floor. After the game, Doncic did not mince his words when asked about his performance.

“I don’t like losing, especially like this,” Doncic said, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “I played terrible.”

Doncic was also critical of his defense, saying that while he is proud of the “huge step” he took forward on that end of the floor, “there’s so much room for improvement. I’ve got to be way better there. I think that’s one spot that can take us to the next level.” But despite this, he made it a point to praise Dallas for going as far as they did this year.

“If we talk about our season, I’m really proud of this team — everybody, every player, every staff member,” Doncic said. “Nobody had us here. But I promise we fought until the end. Congratulations to Warriors. They were obviously the better team. But I’m really proud of this team.”

It’s pretty rare for a festival lineup to genuinely have something for everyone. You’ll have your hot pop headliners, your buzzy R&B/hip-hop/dance acts a few lines below, a few indie acts in the undercard, maybe a smattering of punk and metal, and probably a couple of big rock legacy names. But for those who want to dig deep into any facet of the music world at a major festival, it’s pretty lean out there.

This is where the Barcelona institution Primavera Sound comes in. When they say they have something for everyone, they really mean it. The first thing that’ll strike you about its lineup is how much of it there is — there are two stacked weekends at the actual festival ground, Parc del Fòrum, plus the full week in between featuring venue shows around the city. And from the big fonts to the small, you can find both the most relevant current artists and some genuinely legendary legacy acts from all over the spectrum: pop, indie, hip-hop, dance, R&B, punk.

Headliners for 2022 range from The Strokes, Pavement and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, to Megan Thee Stallion, Tyler, The Creator, and Dua Lipa. Elsewhere, you can find Bikini Kill, 100 Gecs, Kacey Musgraves, Charli XCX, Big Thief, Run The Jewels, Sky Ferreira, Little Simz, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and still more exciting names than could comfortably fit in a list. It’s the kind of festival lineup that makes your jaw drop.

This year the festival celebrates its 20th edition, which was of course supposed to be in 2020. (And while this feature focuses on the Barcelona iteration, there are also set to be spin-offs this year in Porto, LA, Santiago, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.) For a long time it was a purely indie and alt festival, but beginning with a 2014 headline set from Kendrick Lamar, its genre net has widened considerably.

“Some of the people who started back on the first edition are still working here. But our booking department has grown a lot, and [now] it includes younger people, and way, way more female bookers,” says Head of International Press Marta Pallarès. “So we keep some of the roots and the origins of those lineups, but with our tastes evolving and new people coming to the festival, the lineups became more diverse. [But] the festival grew with a very clear philosophy about what is Primavera and what isn’t. We start thinking as a whole, and at some point we say yes, of course Megan Thee Stallion makes sense with Phoenix, or Jorja Smith with Interpol.”

“The way we decide is — do we really like this artist, would we go to see this artist if we were part of the audience? It’s sort of a commitment never to do a festival that we don’t believe in,” adds Comms Director Joan Pons. “And all the people that have spent all of their lives listening to music such as me or Marta, our criteria change. It’s like okay, maybe twelve years ago, Lorde was a pop artist that doesn’t belong to Primavera. But now it makes sense for her to be in our festival, because it makes sense for the playlist that someone in our audience is listening to every day to also have a Lorde song.”

He adds, “We remember one day [during the 2017 festival], Justin Vernon from Bon Iver looked at the running order of the stage that he played, and on the main stage it was Solange, Bon Iver, Slayer, and Aphex Twin. And he goes, ‘Wow, who’s the genius that made this running order?’ Because they’re such different artists, but it makes a lot of sense to have them all in the same day, because they are leading their genres to new expressions of music.”

It’s a true music lovers’ festival, and as such when its organizers talk about the Primavera experience, music is at the forefront. (That said, Barcelona in June at the oceanside Parc del Fòrum should be pretty spectacular in itself.) The ideal festival experience, explain Pallarès and Pons, would tick four boxes. The first, catching an artist you’ve always wanted to see but never gotten to; this year, that might be Pavement, Bikini Kill, or M.I.A., for example. The second, finding an artist you haven’t heard yet who becomes your new favorite; maybe that could be the fun-loving indie-poppers Beach Bunny, the pop-punk newcomers Meet Me @ The Altar, or the poet-slash-soul innovator Jamila Woods. The third, watching a set that’s a lot of fun; you could pick out eccentric hardcore crew The Armed, the intense hyperpop duo 100 Gecs, or the maverick rap of Tyler The Creator. And finally, checking out something that will challenge you; maybe that could be the extreme sounds of Lingua Ignota or Napalm Death, or else diving into any of the genres on display that aren’t usually your speed. And then, of course, there’s the climactic headliner Megan Thee Stallion, who could embody any one of those four categories, and is sure to be a highlight of the sprawling twelve days.

The platform of the festival comes with its responsibilities. Pallarès explains, “We always say that the festival has four big pillars. One of them being commitment to music. One being sustainability. The third one is everything related to social responsibility, with gender equality being the biggest one. And the fourth one is the commitment to the city.” Illustrating the third point, in 2019 Primavera became the first major festival to honor a 50/50 split of male and female artists. And to speak to the fourth, the Primavera a la Ciutat section of the festival — in between the two weekends — is aimed at supporting city venues that have suffered over the pandemic.

If this all sounds like a music fan’s dream, you wouldn’t be the first to say so. As Pallarès recalls: “The singer of Deerhunter said that he doesn’t know what heaven looks like, but he thinks that maybe St Peter is someone like the guy who every year delivers the keys to his room here. It is really, really nice to see that this could be a little paradise, at least for three or in this case twelve days — for artists, for audience, and also for the people who work here.”

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.