One person that is clearly not happy with Kotick and Activision’s response to The Wall Street Journal report is PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier is reporting that Ryan sent out an email to PlayStation employees while linking to the Wall Street Journal report and made it clear that he was not happy with how Kotick and Activision have responded so far.
In an email to employees reviewed by Bloomberg, Ryan linked to the Wall Street Journal’s Tuesday report. He wrote that he and his leadership were “disheartened and frankly stunned to read” that Activision “has not done enough to address a deep-seated culture of discrimination and harassment.”
“We outreached to Activision immediately after the article was published to express our deep concern and to ask how they plan to address the claims made in the article,” he wrote. “We do not believe their statements of response properly address the situation.”
Ryan’s influence in this situation can not go understated. As CEO of one of the three major video game console publishers, Ryan works very closely with many of the companies that publish games under the PlayStation banner. Activision and PlayStation have had a relationship as far back as the first PlayStation console so it’s a very big deal that Ryan is choosing to criticize them in this kind of scenario.
Before he became one of the longest-running Saturday Night Live cast members ever, Kenan Thompson made a name for himself on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That. Just a few years into its run, the show managed to secure a pretty amazing guest star who was no stranger to live sketch comedy: legendary comedian Chris Farley. In 1997, the SNL and Tommy Boy star appeared in a sketch with Thompson, who recently reminisced about the moment on the PEOPLE in the ’90s podcast.
“It was one of the greatest days I’ve ever seen,” Thompson said before praising Farley as a professional who, in just a few short hours, taught the young Nickelodeon star a “wealth of career knowledge” that would prepare him for his own SNL run. Via Entertainment Weekly:
“When you walk through those doors and are around those people, you’re on. It’s time to be funny. It’s not time to just be there. It’s time to prove why you’re there,” Thompson said. “[On the set of All That] Chris was immediately funny, giving everybody what they expected. That part of being a professional goes a long way because we still talk about him being one of the greatest to this day. And that takes serious dedication.”
Sadly, Farley would die of drug overdose the same year as the All That episode, but over two decades later, his memorable performances are still some of the best the comedy world has to offer. So thank you to Kenan for reminding us of this one.
Adele’s divorce was a major inspiration behind her upcoming album 30, but that doesn’t mean she’s sour on the idea of marriage. In fact, the singer recently told John Mayer that he ought to get hitch and noted that she actually misses being married.
Mayer shared a teaser clip of an interview that he and Adele conducted for SiriusXM before it premieres in full on Friday. In it, Mayer asked flat out, “Should I get married?”
Adele was intrigued by the question but answered quickly, saying, “Oh… yes, you should get married.” She then elaborated, “I think it is a really incredible thing, marriage. And I know that some people probably think that I wouldn’t think that, you know, and like, I gave up on it. Yes, I think you should. I can’t really say why. I’m definitely open to marriage again. I definitely am. The feeling that I had in being married was the safest feeling I’ve ever had in my life. Sadly, it didn’t work out. But, you know, I miss being married.”
Mayer was touched by Adele’s answer, as he let out an “aww” and said, “I’m going to get myself married, one of these days,” to which Adele responded, “You should.”
Mayer wrote when sharing the clip, “I interviewed my friend @adele for @siriusxm, and her answer to this question was as evolved, honest and insightful as the rest of what she shared in our conversation. It airs Friday morning on Hits 1 at 7am ET. Her new album ‘30’ drops Thursday at midnight. It is exquisite, profound, and will surely soften the world’s heart. Thank you, Adele.”
Alex Cameron has never been afraid to march to the beat of his own drum, most recently on 2019’s Miami Memory, where he wrote songs about stepdads, broken homes, and porn. Now for the first time since then, he’s released a new song in “Sara Jo” with a can’t-miss video.
Set on a chilly Croatian shore, the clip is directed by Cameron and sees him shifting from cabana wear to skin tight Speedo swimsuit and Chaco sandals as he dances to the beat. The delightfully weird Cameron sings about his dysfunctional family, “Who pulled the curtains? Who broke the screen? Who told my brother that his kids are gonna die from this vaccine? Who told my mother that she’s never gonna find no love, nobody? Who told my father that he doesn’t have to pay for counseling?”
Over upbeat drums, synths, and of course a sprinkling of saxophone from his longtime “business partner” Roy Malloy, the song sets the stage for a new motif of disillusionment from the singer. That’s surely something we can all relate to in these new roaring ’20s we’re living in. But in presenting it as audaciously as he does — while gyrating in a Speedo — Cameron continues to show that he’s a master of not taking himself seriously.
Watch the video for “Sara Jo” above and check out Cameron’s European tour dates here.
For the past several years, Jason Sudeikis and his longtime friend Billy Brimblecom have organized the musical charity event Thundergong!, celebrating the Kansas City-based nonprofit Steps Of Faith, which works to provide prosthetic limbs to people who need them. This year, the fifth annual event is set to include performances by musicians like Waxahatchee, Michael McDonald, and more.
Thundergong! 2021 takes place virtually this weekend. Along with Michael McDonald and Waxahatchee, the event will invite musicians like Sammy Hagar & The Circle, Ryan Miller of Guster, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Wynona Judd and Cactus Moser, Ben Rector, Dashboard Confessional, and Counting Crows to perform. The night will also see appearances by comedians Will Forte, Fred Armisen, Heidi Gardner, and Kay Cannon.
Last year, Sudeikis and co-founder Brimblecom detailed how Thundergong! came to be in an interview with Uproxx. Apparently, the idea for the charity event was started when the pair took over a bar to help Brimblecom raise money to pay for his prosthetic leg. The success of the night made Sudeikis want to help more people.
“It’s a very profound thing, in this day and age, to celebrate the act of caring about people you may never meet,” Sudeikis told Uproxx about the benefit concert. “And it is a big line in the sand, I think, for the American experience. And this show walks on the side of, ‘We do that.’ And so when people care about something so much, they might willing to do even more work and do even more of this, and we go and we go bigger, and we go stronger.”
Thundergong! kicks off 11/20 at 8 p.m. EST, with viewers being able to donate in real-time. Tune in here.
As a song, “I Love You, I Hate You” is the fulcrum of Little Simz’s devastating and beautiful album, Sometimes I Am Introvert. It’s incredibly vulnerable and visceral songwriting from the British rapper, as she dissects the relationship (or lack thereof) with her absent father. When you dive into lyrics like, “You know what was destroyed, but you don’t know what was left,” it’s clear that there was deep soul-searching required to arrive at the stunning final track, produced by Inflo.
Now, Little Simz has just released a short film commissioned by WeTransfer’s “WePresent” platform and it adds depth and context to Simz as a songwriter. With a story conceived by the rapper, it marks her film debut in the 22-minute piece written by Caroline Adeyemi and directed by Sam Pilling (who has been behind a number of The Weeknd clips and also directed the epic Run The Jewels and DJ Shadow “Nobody Speak” visual).
In the film, Simz’s lead character is a writer on a deadline, spending time in the British countryside with her partner and close friend. It’s beautifully shot and spares no emotions as the imagery and collateral damage of creating lasting work is depicted in numerous ways.
In a statement, Simz shared some thoughts on the project:
“I Love You, I Hate You is the story of abandonment. How trauma can affect us in our adult lives if never confronted. I wanted to make this film because I feel it’s a universal story that many people can relate to. It’s been incredible to work with a partner like WePresent (the digital arts platform of WeTransfer) who are so invested in telling stories like this. They understood and trusted my vision from the jump and had my back to create the film I set out to make.”
Up next in the WePresent series will be a performance film by Moses Sumney entitled Blackalachia, out on December 8th. In it, Sumney and his band come to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, to play songs off his albums Grae and Aromanticism. “The film is a wild imagining of what can happen when we seek not just to reclaim nature, but to reintegrate with it,” Sumney said.
Little Simz’s I Love You, I Hate You the film is out now and you can watch it above. Check out the trailer for Moses Sumney’s Blackalachia here.
At one point, there were more than 9,000 Blockbuster Video stores across the globe. There’s now only one. “The Last Blockbuster” is located in Bend, Oregon, and it runs on internet-less computers and employees still use hand-written membership cards. The reason “The Last Blockbuster” is, well, the last Blockbuster is due to numerous factors, including bad decisions from those in charge (that’s usually the case). But it’s also because of Netflix popularizing renting DVDs through the mail and also forever changing the entertainment industry with streaming, which decimated physical media.
So, it’s kind of cruel and kind of hilarious that Netflix is making a show about Blockbuster.
Created by Vanessa Ramos (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), “the single-cam series is described as an ensemble comedy that takes place in the last Blockbuster Video in America. It explores what it takes – and more specifically who it takes – for a small business to succeed against all odds,” according to Variety. The always great Randall Park will star, while Happy Endings creator David Caspe and Kenan creator and Superstore writer Jackie Clarke are attached as writers and executive producers.
“To say getting to make a show about a place I love, with my friends Jackie and David, and Randall Park as our star is a dream come true, somehow feels like an understatement,” Ramos said. “I could not be more grateful to [the] whole team at Netflix for being on board with so many weird jokes.”
In other news, Facebook is making a movie about MySpace.
London-based multi-faceted creative Sega Bodega, the moniker of producer Salvador Navarrete, just released the captivating album Romeo. The album, which features hyperpop artist Arca, has already been well-received by listeners. Now giving his fans something to look forward to, Sega Bodega unveiled dates to his 2022 US and European tour.
Like much of a’s past music, Romeo is highly conceptual. The album is meant to tell the story of a joyous relationship between Bodega and his imaginary girlfriend, “Luci”, who is made entirely of light. The project conveys a whirlwind of emotions through skittering beats, lo-fi production, and ethereal chords, accompanying the depths of feelings Sega Bodega explores thematically on Romeo.
The tour kicks off in mid-January in Dublin takes a trip through several major European cities. Sega Bodega then arrives in the US to play a Portland show in February before the tour comes to a close in early March in Atlanta.
Check out the full list of tour dates below.
01/14/2022 — Dublin, IE @ Grand Social
01/17/2022 — Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
01/21/2022 — Amsterdam, NL @ Muziekgebouw
01/24/2022 — Brussels – Botanique, BE @ Rotunde
01/25/2022 — Berlin, DE @ TBC
01/26/2022 — Paris, FR @ Le Petit Bain
01/28/2022 — Prague, CZ @ Underdogs’ Ballroom & Bar
01/29/2022 — Warsaw, PL @ Proxima
02/02/2022 — London, UK @ Scala
02/04/2022 — Saint Petersburg, RU @ Mod Club
02/05/2022 — Moscow, RU @ Aglomerat Club
02/22/2022 — Portland, OR @ Holocene
02/23/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
02/26/2022 — San Francisco, CA @ Gray Area (Noise Pop Festival)
02/28/2022 — Montreal @ Fairmount
03/02/2022 — Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
03/04/2022 — Miami, FL @ ICA Miami
03/06/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5
Tickets to Sega Bodega’s 2022 US and EU tour go on sale 11/19 at 1 pm EST. Get them here.
The music world was met with some tragic news this afternoon when it was confirmed that Memphis rapper Young Dolph died at 36 years old. It was reported that the rapper was shot while visiting one of his favorite businesses in his hometown, Makeda’s Butter Cookies, with TMZ noting, “Dolph went into the store and a vehicle pulled up, firing through a front window and striking the rapper.”
Dolph’s career had been enjoying a steady rise since releasing his 2016 debut album King Of Memphis. In recent years, he found his way into the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart with multiple releases: The two albums he made with Key Glock, Dum And Dummer and Dum And Dummer 2, both peaked at No. 8, while 2020’s Rich Slave rose all the way to No. 4.
Beyond that, he had also collaborated with people like Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Yachty, and Gucci Mane. So, he had some friends in the music industry, and as his peers learn about his passing, they are sharing reactions to it on social media.
Check out some posts about Dolph’s passing from folks like Megan Thee Stallion, Chance The Rapper, and Lil Yachty below.
I am sooo sick rn I am in disbelief! Praying for his family and friends ! Rest In Peace to my friend a true legend dolph
God bless Dolph Real independent Memphis rapper born in chicago. loved by millions of ppl. Always showed love everytime I seen him this is tragic God bless his family man
I ALWAYS give flowers to the living, Dolph is one of the only ppl to make me go harder believe it or not, my fuckin FAV this Tweet was 4yrs ago https://t.co/1O3ADW0zow
Sending love to the family ,friends, & fans of @YoungDolph Rest in power young Brother. I pray your children and family are covered and lifted up by the almighty.
Fatal shooting on a movie set. The former president is attacking secretaries of state. The body of a missing man is found to be a murder suspect. Energy prices are rising and could lead to social unrest. Cargo ships are stuck in the harbor.
A quick scan of America’s most popular news websites shows a country that appears to be on the brink of chaos. But if you picked up a newspaper in 1972 or 1998 you’d probably come away with the same feeling.
Humans have such unquenchable hunger for hearing about crime, scandals and political turmoil that the news media rarely tells us what’s going right in the world.
War always grabs the headline over peace. Economic crises always get more headlines than prosperity, and the storm always receives more press than the calm before it.
At Upworthy, we have a bias toward sharing stories that highlight the best of humanity to help counter the barrage of negativity that comes from traditional media outlets. So we wanted to shine a light on another organization that’s doing the same.
Human Progress was created by the Cato Institute after the economic downturn in 2008 to counter the prevailing pessimism of the times. It’s a reminder of the power of a free and open society at a time when America’s core institutions are being questioned.
Over the past 13 years, the site has compiled a data bank of information from literacy rates and hunger rates to studies on the environment, war, peace and violence. It also recently released a book, “Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know.”
We talked with Chelsea Follett, the managing editor at Human Progress, about the media’s negativity bias and why it’s crucial to promote the positive trends happening in the world.
Chelsea Follett, Managing Editor of @HumanProgress walks educators through their data rich website. Amazing – check it out. St. Lukeu2019s School participating in @CatoInstitute Sphere Summit.pic.twitter.com/lc1uKM1Sc8
Follett doesn’t believe that the media is insidious, but that humans have a number of psychological biases that predispose us toward pessimism.
“Historically, obviously our ancestors in a primitive environment who overreacted to danger were more likely to survive than those who underreacted,” Follett told Upworthy. “But there is a point where unwarranted panic can actually be detrimental to your survival, if you abandon policies or institutions that are actually working, or that have allowed you to make tremendous progress in the past.
“There’s also the nature of the media,” she added. “Obviously sudden, noteworthy and rare events are the ones that make headlines, whereas long-term slow, steady, incremental progress is just not as interesting.”
Follett says that the American public has been kept in the dark over the incredible steps that the country has made to reduce crime over the past five decades.
“Crime is near historic lows in the United States. It’s been falling and falling. We did see a small uptick last year, but we’re nowhere close to where it was 30 years ago,” she said.
If Follett could shout one truth about human progress from the rooftops, it’d be humans’ incredible capacity for innovation.
“You’re able to solve so many problems and whatever problems we face whether it’s climate change or a global pandemic,” she said, “the key seems to be giving people the freedom to cooperate and find solutions.”
Here are seven of the most encouraging trends reported by Human Progress.
1. The middle class is shrinking, but it’s because Americans are getting richer.
The middle class, it turns out, is shrinking. But not because more people are falling into poverty, as some politicians and pundits might have you believe. Rather, it’s shrinking because more people are “moving on up,” and ascending into a higher income bracket.
The U.S. economy has been on shaky ground since COVID-19 hit, but the overall trend shows more and more Americans are movin’ on up.
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2018, more than 30% of U.S. households earned over $100,000 (i.e., the upper class). Fewer than 30% of households earned between $50,000 and $100,000 (i.e., the middle class). The share of U.S. households making at least $100,000 has more than tripled since 1967, when just 9% of all U.S. households earned that much (all figures are adjusted for inflation).
2. Extreme poverty rates are on a steep decline throughout the world.
In East Asia, a region of the world that includes China, 80.6% of people lived in extreme poverty. Today, 4.1% do—a 95% reduction. Even in sub-Saharan Africa, a relatively underperforming region, the share of the population living on less than $1.90 per day dropped by 38%.
Why are people in developing nations doing so much better these days? A major reason is a rise in international trade. The movement of capital, people and goods around the globe has increased dramatically since the ’80s.
Extreme poverty is also on the decline due to an increase in the “rule of law” in developing nations to protect people and their property. Improvements in public health, infrastructure and technology have also been a big aid to developing nations.
3. Far fewer people are dying in war.
While war deaths are certainly more visible than ever, with television and the internet bringing scenes of flag-draped coffins into our living rooms, far fewer people ever see battle firsthand. After adjusting for population growth, the data shows that despite the noted exception of the World Wars, battle deaths have become rarer since 1900.
In fact, today there are fewer military personnel as a share of the population than at any time since 1932. The world may seem chaotic, but the data shows a more optimistic story.
4. America’s incarceration rate is at the lowest level since 1995.
The United States incarcerates a larger percentage of its population than any other country. Mass incarceration is responsible for destroying families and reducing mobility for marginalized groups.
The good news is that in 2019, the U.S. incarceration rate fell to its lowest level since 1995, according to recently published data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the statistical arm of the Department of Justice.
At year-end 2019, an estimated 6,344,000 persons were under the supervision of adult correctional systems in the United States, about 65,200 fewer persons than the year before.
A major reason for the decline in incarcerated Americans is the steep decline in violent and property crimes over the past few decades. The nationwide arrest rate has also been falling steadily.
5. Violent crime has dropped like a rock.
Violent crime has dropped like a rock.pic.twitter.com/weFrlVIIuG
— John of the d’Urbervilles (@jeirvine) 1630344870
Even though the news media and politicians would like people to think otherwise, the number of Americans who’ve reported violent crime has been cut in half since 1990. The problem is that regardless of how much safer America has become, public perception has only gone in the opposite direction.
One study out of California found that the more local news one consumes, the greater one’s perception of risk and fear.
“The news is not going to report on things that are going really well very often,” Meghan Hollis, a research scholar at the Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship, told FiveThirtyEight.
“You can have people perceiving areas of cities as much more violent than they actually are because that’s what they see in the news,” she said. “It really amplifies that view of criminal activity beyond what it really is.”
6. COVID-19 forced many to work from home where they are happier and more productive.
Many people were forced into working from home due to the pandemic, but it looks like the unforeseen change may have incredible benefits for workers and employers everywhere.
7. We’re making tremendous progress in the fight against malaria, AIDS and other diseases.
While the world has been focused on eradicating COVID-19, we’ve also been making huge strides in the fight against malaria and AIDS. Thanks to better treatments and preventive measures, the malaria death rate dropped from 12.6 per 100,000 in 1990 to 8.2 per 100,000 in 2017.
The number of people who die of AIDS every year, as well as the number of those infected, is now half of when the disease was at its peak. The HIV pandemic peaked in the mid-2000s when some 1.9 million people died of AIDS each year. In 2017, less than 1 million died from the sickness. In the mid-1990s, there were some 3.4 million new HIV infections each year. In 2017, there were only 1.8 million new infections.
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Real independent Memphis rapper born in chicago. loved by millions of ppl. Always showed love everytime I seen him this is tragic God bless his family man
(@coi_leray) 
this Tweet was 4yrs ago 
(@KAASHMYCHECKS) 
(@BRSKash) 
(@1DJFirstClass) 
