Category: News

As the backlash continues following Dave Chappelle‘s controversial remarks about transgender women during his latest comedy special, The Closer, Netflix has reportedly suspended one of its trans employees who has spoken out against the comedian. For the record, Netflix did not suspend the employee, Terra Field, for her now-viral Twitter thread, but for allegedly trying to attend a meeting she wasn’t invited to. Variety reports that Field and two other employees have been suspended for “crashing” a virtual leadership gathering. A spokesperson for Netflix made it clear that the suspensions and pending investigation were not because of Field’s tweets because employees are “encouraged to disagree openly.”

According to The Verge, Chappelle’s special has caused internal strife inside the streaming company, where employees want to know whether transgender voices were included in the decision to stream the new special and where the company draws the line at hate speech.

“We repeatedly provide a platform for content that is harmful to the trans community,” an employee wrote in a Netflix Q&A document. “What is our plan on how we are going to repair this situation in particular?”

Here’s what Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos wrote in response. Via The Verge:

Several of you have also asked where we draw the line on hate. We don’t allow titles on Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe The Closer crosses that line. I recognize, however, that distinguishing between commentary and harm is hard, especially with stand-up comedy which exists to push boundaries. Some people find the art of stand-up to be mean spirited but our members enjoy it, and it’s an important part of our content offering.

As for Chappelle, he’s bathing in the controversy. While attending a special screening of a documentary on his life last week, the comedian proudly told the crowd that he “loves” being canceled. “F*ck Twitter. F*ck NBC News, ABC News, all these stupid ass networks. I’m not talking to them. I’m talking to you,” Chappelle told the audience full of Hollywood celebs. “This is real life.”

(Via The Verge)

Lil Uzi Vert is quickly becoming one of rap’s most approachable superstars. Despite doing true rockstar things like getting huge pink diamonds embedded in his face and donning a Daft Punk-esque robot helmet for as-yet-unknown reasons, Uzi is just as likely to be found hanging out with fans and freestyling at gas stations. He recently explained that he’s a “happy person” who isn’t “gonna act gangster because that’s not what I am,” and that truth becomes more apparent with each social media post depicting his down-to-earth shenanigans.

The latest found him attending a traditional Cambodian wedding in his native Philadelphia on Saturday, where he danced with fellow guests and gifted the couple several thousand dollars in cash, according to HipHopDX. Uzi also freestyled for the other guests and took photos with the happy couple. The couple posted the photos on Instagram with a caption making it clear that Uzi was indeed invited and didn’t crash the wedding.

Both DX and Complex noted that it wasn’t the first time Uzi went viral for showing up at a wedding. Last year, he apparently showed up at a Palestinian wedding in New Jersey wearing a keffiyeh around his neck and again danced with the guests.

One thing is for certain: Uzi makes for an entertaining guest, so if you can get him that invite, it appears it’ll be worth it.

The welcome content factory that is Jeff Tweedy has delivered the goods once again. In the past 12 months, the Wilco frontman has delivered a solo album (Love Is The King), a New York Times bestselling book about channeling your musical creativity (How To Write One Song) and kicked-off a VERY active Substack newsletter, Starship Casual. Now the prolific songwriter and Chicago die-hard has dropped two new singles as part of the Sub Pop Singles Club.

“C’mon America” is the A-side to the 7-inch release that is part of unreleased bank of songs from Tweedy. It’s a passively patriotic tune whose opening guitar strums are reminiscent of Wilco’s classic “Kamera.” Its lyrical simplicity is endearing as Tweedy sings, “Now what you gonna do? Now that the world has turned against you?” The B-side is “UR-60 Unsent,” a gentle, wistful tune about an unsent mixtape to a lover and it comes from a different batch of unreleased songs, which makes you wonder just how much more material Tweedy is sitting on?

The Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 6 edition features a dozen 7-inch releases from John Waters, Washed Out, Hand Habits, Porridge Radio, and more. You can peep the Singles Club playlist and claim one of the 1,000 subscriptions here.

Listen to “C’mon America” and “UR-60 Unsent” above.

In Game 1 of the NLDS, the Atlanta Braves had first and third with no one out in the first inning and failed to score a run, which proved to be the difference in a 2-1 loss to the Brewers in Milwaukee. After a 3-0 win in Game 2 evened the series going back to Atlanta, it was clear that runs were going to be at a premium in this series and leaving opportunities on the table would be incredibly costly.

Naturally, when the Braves found themselves in a similar position on Monday afternoon, with runners on first and third with just one out in the second inning, the Atlanta faithful were hoping to avoid a redux of that Game 1 failure. When Travis d’Arnaud hit a fly ball to deep left field, it seemed all but assured that the Braves would at least have something to show for their hard work that inning, as Christian Yelich wasn’t even considering a throw to the plate with Austin Riley running.

However, for reasons passing understanding, Adam Duvall tagged up and took off from first as well, providing an easy target for Yelich to get the ball into second for an out that wasn’t even close to erase the run crossing home plate because Duvall got tagged out before Riley hit the plate.

It is, truly, one of the worst baserunning errors you will see in a spot like this. There are so many ways for this to have simply been “bad” and not “catastrophic.” For one, Duvall could’ve simply stood on the first base bag and assured the run crossed, as Yelich, for all his talents, doesn’t have the type of arm to make it a close play at the plate from that deep in the outfield. He could’ve turned around and gotten himself in a rundown to give Riley time to cross the plate. He could’ve just stopped and made the shortstop run to him and bought enough time for the run to score. Literally anything other than running as hard as possible right into an out would’ve scored a run, and yet, that’s what happened and the Braves strolled back to the dugout with nothing to show for an otherwise great offensive inning.

Just days after releasing his third album, Life Of A Don, Houston rapper Don Toliver has paired one of the album’s standout songs, “Flocky Flocky,” with a suitably lo-fi video featuring his fellow Texan — and label boss — Travis Scott. The video’s shot like a throwback home movie, with grainy footage depicting the two rappers boarding private planes, riding in limos, hanging out in the studio, and throwing money at the strip club.

“Flocky Flocky” is the fourth video from Life Of A Don after “What You Need,” “Drugs N Hella Melodies,” and “Way Bigger.” In addition to Kali Uchis, who appears on “Drugs N Hella Melodies,” and Travis Scott, who appears on “Flocky Flocky” as well as “You,” the album features an appearance from Travis Scott collaborator Baby Keem on the song “Outerspace,” and HVN and SoFaygo on the song “Smoke.”

Travis Scott, meanwhile, has made a slew of appearances on new albums as fans await his own new album Utopia. In addition to his two appearances on Don’s album, Travis popped up on Drake’s Certified Lover Boy and on Baby Keem’s The Melodic Blue. He’s also expecting his second child with Kylie Jenner while working on a companion film for Utopia.

Watch the video for Don Toliver and Travis Scott’s “Flocky Flocky” video.

Life Of A Don is out now on Cactus Jack and Atlantic. Get it here.

The past 12-plus months has played host to a handful of peculiar Smash Mouth stories. In August 2020, Smash Mouth performed at a motor cycle rally that ended up being responsible for a substantial number of COVID-19 cases. Last month, the group took exception to Rolling Stone leaving “Smash Mouth” off their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Then, within the past couple weeks, the group was seen performing with a replacement singer and seemed to deny that anything about the show was atypical.

Now, regular lead singer Steve Harwell is back with the band, and based on one person’s account, it seems at least one recent concert wasn’t exactly the peak of live entertainment.

A TikTok user named Haley shared a video yesterday, which has over 700,000 views as of this post. The video starts with her introducing what’s to come, saying that she saw the band perform at “a local beer and wine festival,” presumably October 9’s “The Big Sip” at Bethel Woods Center For The Arts in Bethel, New York. She described the performance as “the most chaotic show I’ve ever seen in my entire life” and then shared a selection of clips from it.

It’s worth noting that the video features a selection of out-of-context clips, so it’s possible the show as a whole wasn’t like how it seems here. However, this collection of clips is truly something. Aside from a litany of sound issues, Harwell made a gesture that looked like a Nazi salute, appeared to be incoherent, and brought a random person on stage and handed them the microphone.

Meanwhile, some choice Harwell quotes included, “I’ll f*cking kill your whole family, I swear to God,” and, “If I could suck my own dick, I’d never leave the house.”

This afternoon, Haley shared a follow-up video, in which she talks about the supposed Nazi gesture and gives more context to that moment:

So far, the closest thing the band has made to a comment on the performance is a re-share of a photo featuring Harwell and some fans at the event.

Check out the video above.

Not too long ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) stalked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez through the halls of Congress after calling the Green New Deal a “communist manifesto.” And AOC largely ignores MTG’s troll-heavy antics, which have caused her colleagues to strip her committee seats. That’s only inspired Marjorie to crank up the crazy, including toting a Scooby Doo meme to the House floor and saying things so nutty that even Steve Bannon has gives her a side eye. Well, Marjorie is apparently not in the good graces of Lin Wood, a far-right QAnon lover and Kyle Rittenhouse’s ex-lawyer.

Wood is taking issue with Marjorie in an escalating war of words first reported by Vice, which notes that Wood’s been trashing the freshman congresswoman on his Telegram channel. He’s angry that she hasn’t pushed Georgia officials to audit election results, and as a result, he believes that she’s not a true patriot. Further, he reportedly wrote that Greene is a “communist” because she’s calling for a Biden impeachment, and this is so circular. Mediaite further pointed toward what Wood’s been saying: “In my opinion, Marjorie Taylor Greene is a communist. Greene is running around saying ‘Impeach Biden,’ that says that Biden won — he didn’t.” He then added, “A traitor will come into you as a patriot. Be careful!”

Via the The Republican Accountability Project Twitter account:

Well, Majorie, who recently (and falsely) claimed that horse medication Ivermectin “won a Nobel Peace Prize,” wasn’t going to take the “communist” insult without comment. She fired back by claiming that Lin “lifts up his Bible high and lies and lies and lie.” She also insisted, “He’s not one of us.” Marjorie tweeted a link to a Law and Crime article about why Rittenhouse’s family decided to fire Lin from Kyle’s defense team. She went on to attack Lin on the same subject in further tweets.

Trouble in QAnon land! This is what happens when they lose their Shaman.

(Via Vice & Mediaite)

ICYMI, October has started off well for bear news. First, we had Otis, the crowned chunk and winner of the annual Fat Bear Week (yes, it’s a thing). And now, we have footage of three precious little cubs, whose hammock struggles are so cute, it’s almost unbearable.

According to ABC News, this #hammockfail happened in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Which leads me to think: Obviously these cubs were touring in some kind of bluegrass bear band and had been searching for a place to rest. It’s the only explanation.

To be fair, hammocks are not always the easiest to hop onto, even for humans, several Twitterers pointed out:

But I think we can all agree: Watching this trio spin, flip and fall in their attempts to hoist themselves onto the hanging apparatus is infinitely more entertaining than watching a person do the same thing.

I myself was especially fond of the super-impressive-synchronized-double-bear-flip extravaganza at the end. Seriously, these bears are ready for the Olympics. 10 outta 10. I don’t even care that they in no way, shape or form “stuck the landing.”

I do, however, feel a tad sorry for the one bear who had made it onto the hammock successfully and was lying peacefully … until the others decided to bring chaos. I’m sure anyone with siblings can relate.

Truly, the only thing that would make this video better would be some fun sound effects. Perhaps a fun “splat” noise at the end to really drive it home? Either way, it’s a video that Goldilocks herself would dub “just right.”

FLIPPING OUT: These curious cubs are still trying to figure out how to use a hammock. https://t.co/Dy5LGjBIVF https://t.co/pD2fjcAj6F

— ABC News (@ABC)
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So, right off the bat, don’t worry, nobody’s getting shot in the face. On September 12, the Korean Cultural Center will be hosting a real-life “Squid Game” event in Abu Dhabi that will attempt to recreate the smash-hit Netflix series, but obviously, without anyone getting brutally killed. Probably

Organized by KCC director Nam Chan-woo, participants will get a chance to compete in four games pulled directly from Squid Game: Red Light, Green Light, Dalgona Candy, Marbles, and Ddajki (paper-flipping). However, instead of millions of dollars, players will compete for nifty customized green tracksuit inspired by the Netflix series. Via Business Insider:

“The games played in the Netflix series are popular amongst children in Korea and remind Korean adults of nostalgic childhood memories. But similar traditional games are played by children here in the UAE, too,” Nam said. “I hope the global popularity of ‘Squid Game’ will be an opportunity to spread other aspects of Korean culture, too, such as Hangeul, taekwondo, as well as K-dramas and movies.”

Squid Game has been an absolute juggernaut for Netflix, to the point where internet service providers have threatened to sue the streaming giant for how much bandwidth users are sucking up to watch the South Korean series. It’s a worldwide phenomenon, which has come as a welcome surprise for its creator, who spent ten years trying to get the show off the ground. Squid Game had been routinely rejected as “too implausible” until Netflix stepped in. The streaming service gambled on the world being dark enough to appreciate the show, and man, were they right about that one.

(Via Business Insider)