Category: News

The mental image of Senator Ted Cruz in a tight, spandex onesie is nightmarish, to say the least, but according to a recent interview from Representative Eric Stalwell, it’s the uniform he’s more suited to wear.

Let us explain.

Stalwell, an outspoken opponent of Donald Trump and the Democrats’ choice for impeachment manager, recently gave an interview on the MeidasTouch podcast (via Insider), to which he revealed some surprising information about his colleagues across the aisle. In speaking with the show’s host, Stalwell said that many of his fellow Congressmen, including Cruz and Representative Matt Gaetz, were “better suited to work at the WWE” and accused them of putting on an act because that’s “what they think the fans want.”

“That’s what’s so frustrating,” Stalwell continued. “And this may sound crazy, but if you ran into Matt Gaetz or Ted Cruz or Jim Jordan at the Santa Monica Pier, you would say: ‘These are nice guys! Boy, they’re nothing like what I see them do on Twitter or TV.’”

Stalwell said he had many run-ins with Gaetz before “Trumpism” took hold and the change in the politician was fairly startling. He accused Gaetz of playing a character, revealing that the divisive Florida native would often “laugh at himself about how stupid he had to act to keep the act going.” With Cruz, Stalwell said that during the impeachment trial, the senator from Texas told him he was “doing a great job” when they’d run into each other on Capitol Hill, something that shocked Stalwell since Cruz had launched a public smear campaign against him when the trial started.

“I’m like what the f— is this guy talking about? He just scorched me on Fox News, like, the night before. He tweets at me every other week,” Stalwell said. “But to him, if you’re a pro wrestler, like, it doesn’t matter that you hit me over the head in the ring with a steel chair. It’s all fake, right? You’re just doing what the fans want, so I should just be cool with it because he projects onto me what he does. He thinks that I’m just performing as well. And that’s what’s most sickening, is that I don’t even know what these guys believe. Like, I really don’t.”

Does anyone?

(Via Insider)

Roadrunners have been cropping up a lot in pop culture lately. There’s the Anthony Bourdain documentary on HBO Max, Brockhampton’s penultimate album, and, of course, the high-speed Looney Tunes character who constantly threatens the safety of Wile E. Coyote and appears in the LeBron James Space Jam reboot currently out in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. Joining this menagerie of pavement pounders, Migos released the video for their latest single from Culture III today, and yep, that’s right, it’s “Roadrunner.”

In the video, the Atlanta trio naturally hits the desert, taking over an outdoor compound for a performance in which they deck themselves out in motocross gear and army surplus. A team of black-clad, female dancers runs through some choreography reminiscent of late-90s Aaliyah videos, and the boys pose atop various luxury motor vehicles in their solo shots.

Speaking of the desert, they’re set to return in autumn for Las Vegas Weekender Fest promoting Culture III, where they’ll host a variety of hedonistic events alongside big-name supporting acts like Duke Deuce, Gunna, Kash Doll, Lil Yachty, and 2021 XXL Freshman Rubi Rose. Meanwhile, singles like “Straightenin’,” “Modern Day,” “Avalanche,” and the Cardi B-featuring “Type Sh*t” continue to make waves.

Watch the video for “Roadrunner” above.

Megan Fox doesn’t drink alcohol anymore due to comments she made at the 2009 Golden Globes. The Jennifer’s Body actress told Who What Wear that while attending the ceremony, she sat at the same table as Blake Lively and the Jonas Brothers (all five — Fox, Lively, the Jonas Brothers — are still famous; pop culture is cyclical). “At the Golden Globes, they always put those giant bottles of Moët champagne on the table — I went through multiple glasses of that,” Fox said. “Now I don’t drink and this is why, I was belligerent and said a bunch of sh*t I shouldn’t have said on the red carpet after that.”

Fox knows that she “got in a lot of trouble for whatever I said on the red carpet at this event,” but confesses that “I don’t remember why, but I know I did. You can look that up.”

[In] the moment Fox is referring to, she is seen being interviewed on the red carpet by former E! host Giuliana Rancic.

After Rancic calls her “beautiful,” Fox responds, “I’m pretty sure I’m a doppelganger for Alan Alda. I’m a [offensive and outdated term for someone who is transgender]. I’m a man. No, I’m so painfully insecure I’m on the verge of vomiting right now. I’m so horrified that I’m here and embarrassed and scared.”

Fox also said that she “really want[s]” Salma Hayek’s breasts and that her then-fiancé Brian Austin Green didn’t want to be her Golden Globes date because “he’s a man, he has an ego.” She is now dating Machine Gun Kelly, and although she doesn’t drink alcohol, she did drink ayahuasca during a trip to Costa Rica with her musician boyfriend. “It was incredibly intense. Everybody’s journey is different. The second night, I went to hell for eternity,” she said about the experience. “Just knowing its eternity is torture in itself, because there’s no beginning, middle or end. So you have, like, a real ego death.”

(Via EW)

A gut-wrenching story shared by a Yosemite park ranger shows why it’s so important for people to be mindful of surrounding wildlife.

Yosemite is a 750,000-acre national park that occupies four separate counties in northern California.

Last week, the national park shared the first-hand account of a park ranger who took care of the body of a dead bear cub that was struck by a car. Sadly, the ranger says that it happens far too often in Yosemite. “I try to remember how many times I’ve done this now and, truthfully, I don’t know. This is not what any of us signs up for, but it’s a part of the job nonetheless,” the ranger wrote.

The ranger received a call about a bear that was struck by a car and after an hour’s drive, they located the cub by the side of the road, next to a part that had fallen off of a car.

“I turn my gaze from the car part down the embankment on the side of the road and there it is,” the post reads. “A cub. Its tiny light brown body lying just feet from me and the road, nearly invisible to every passerby. It’s a new cub — couldn’t be much more than six months old, now balled up and lifeless under a small pine tree.”

There’s not much the ranger can do but move the cub to a wooded area away from the road so that scavengers are safe from speeding cars when preying on the body. The ranger realizes the cub is a female and wonders what the future could have held for the bear if tragedy hadn’t struck.

“This immediately triggers thoughts of the life this bear may have lived — perhaps she would have had cubs of her own,” they wrote.

After lying the body down in the forest, the ranger heard a stick snap behind them. It was the bear’s mother.

“From behind me there’s a deep toned but soft sounding grunt. I immediately know what it is. It’s a vocalization, the kind sows (female bears) make to call to their cubs,” the ranger wrote. “I turn and look in its direction and there she is, the same bear from before intently staring back at me. It’s no coincidence. I can feel the callousness drain from my body. This bear is the mom, and she never left her cub.”

The mother had stuck by the cub for over six hours.

“Now here I am, standing between a grieving mother and her child. I feel like a monster,” they wrote.

The ranger then set up a remote camera to document the situation and left the scene.

via Keep Bears Wild

Vehicle collisions have become a leading cause of death for black bears in Yosemite and over 400 such collisions have occurred along roadways in the national park since 1995.

There are currently an estimated 300 to 500 black bears living in the national park.

The ranger hopes that their emotional post will put a face to the numbers and encourage people to be more mindful of wildlife in the park and beyond.

“So please, remember this. Remember that when traveling through Yosemite, we are all just visitors in the home of countless animals and it is up to us to follow the rules that protect them,” they wrote. “Go the speed limit, drive alertly, and look out for wildlife. Protecting Yosemite’s black bears is something we can all do.”

It was announced recently that Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys is directing an upcoming documentary about the late New Orleans music legend Dr. John. That seems like a natural fit, given that Auerbach produced John’s final album of original material, 2012’s Locked Down. However, John’s estate isn’t on board, as they shared a statement declaring that the currently untitled film is unauthorized by them.

The statement reads (via Stereogum):

“The Official Estate of Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr., p/k/a Dr. John, clarifies that the Estate has not authorized the recently announced documentary on the life of Dr. John purportedly to be produced by Impact Artist Productions (and Management) and Radical Media. For clarity, Impact Artist Productions (and Management) does not manage or speak for the Estate, which has its own team with, as Mac would say, a gang and a half of legalizers. The Estate thanks Mac’s fans for their support and assures that the Estate will ‘Walk On Guilded Splinters’ to deliver new music and an officially authorized documentary, to be announced In The Right Place at the right time.”

Auerbach previously said of the project, “I’m thrilled to be partnering with RadicalMedia and Impact Artist Productions to try my hand at directing a documentary feature for the first time and I’m honored to have the subject be my friend Dr John. He was such a unique individual and a shining example of the great melting pot of American music. From his mysterious voodoo stage persona Dr John, to his real, humble self Mac Rebannack — the street poet, the family man, the junkie, the Grammy award winner and all that’s in between, this documentary will introduce the world to him in a way they haven’t seen him before. I’m still learning bits about him that I never knew, and I hope the movie provides a lens into the story of the life of Dr. John.”

It’s been just shy of a year since Chicago-based trio Dehd released their self-assured third studio record Flower Of Devotion. The band haven’t been able to tour behind the release, but that’s about to change later this month when Dehd embarks on their 2021 fall tour. To celebrate, Dehd tapped a number of their musician friends to rework their Flower Of Devotion songs on for remix album.

Dehd herald their upcoming Flower Of Devotion Remixed LP with a version of “Flying” reimagined by the band Physical Medium. The new version distorts the track into lo-fi territory, trading in the cutting guitars and hollow drums heard on the original version for a more dreamy sound.

In a statement about the “Flying” rework and the remix album as a whole, guitarist Jason Balla said:

“I’d like to give Physical Medium a special shout out for planting the seed and really opening my eyes and ears to the world of remixing. Their passion for it has been infectious. What I love about dance music is that it exists to put my body into motion. It can do so many things that a normal song can’t because of its humble mission: keep the asses shaking. Dance music is just plain fun. In this spirit, we invited 14 friends to chop up Flower Of Devotion and put it back together as they saw fit. No rules, no guidelines. The songs went all over the place and it was really amazing to hear songs I knew so well become something new altogether. Hearing one of our voices or a guitar line in a new context really showed me how much room as a band we have to explore. It’s already impacted how we approach writing at practice, figuring out the basics and then asking ‘now what?’”

Listen to “Flying – Physical Medium Remix” above and check out the Flower Of Devotion Remixed tracklist and Dehd’s 2021 North American tour dates below.

1. “Flying – Physical Medium Remix”
2. “Disappear – 03sem Remix”
3. “Loner – Protomartyr Remix”
4. “Apart- Accessory Remix”
5. “Drip Drop – Freak Heat Waves Remix”
6. “Flood – 100% Cement Remix”
7. “Haha – Rxm Reality Remix”
8. “Letter – Sunglow Remix”
9. “Desire – Lala Lala Remix”
10. “Month – In The New Age: Scott Monroe Remix”
11. “No Time – Dom Rabalais Remix”
12. “Moonlight – Lionlimb Remix”
13. “Nobody – Miranda Winters Remix”

09/10 — Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
09/11 — Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
09/18 — St. Augustine, FL @ Sing Out Loud Festival
10/01 — Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club #
10/03 — Detroit, MI @ El Club #
10/04 — Toronto, ON @ The Baby G #
10/06 — Montreal, QC @ L’esco #
10/07 — Brooklyn, NY @ Market Hotel #
10/08 — Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s #
10/09 — Peekskill, NY @ First River Festival
10/27 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre *
10/28 — Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater *
10/29 — Houston, TX @ The Heights Theater *
10/30 — San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger *
11/01 — Phoenix, AX @ The Van Buren *
11/02 — San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park *
11/03 — Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
11/04 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern Theatre *
11/06 — Oakland, LA @ Fox Theater *
11/08 — Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater *
11/09 — Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre *
11/10 — Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre *
11/12 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex *
11/13 — Englewood, CO @ The Gothic Theatre *
11/15 — Lawrence, KS @ The Granada *
11/16 — St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall *

# with Bnny
* supporting Julien Baker

Flower Of Devotion Remixed is out 9/17 via Fire Talk. Pre-order it here.

Remi Wolf made our list of rising pop stars to watch in 2021, and she’s been doubling down on that distinction all year, including via appearances in other people’s videos. Today she’s sharing her own video, the Seussian visuals for “Liquor Store,” one of the new singles she’s released to preview her next project. Debuting the visual today Wolf wrote about her excitement over the song on Youtube: “it feels like I am shedding a skin!!!! It’s my first baby of the bunch off my album coming this fall and I hope you love it. .”

In a press release, she doubled down on how this song has helped herald her transformation into sobriety. “‘Liquor Store’ feels like I am shedding a skin,” she said. “It’s about my journey with sobriety, which has been a major life shift for me over the last year. At the end of 2020, after six months away from the studio, I had a crazy explosive week where all these feelings came pouring out of me — ‘Liquor Store’ captures a lot of them. It’s my first baby of the bunch and I hope you love it.”

Though she recently shared the new track “Liz” as well, “Liquor Store” serves as the lead single off Wolf’s forthcoming debut record, which will be out this fall. Watch the video above and keep your eye out of this buzzy LA artist, she’s going straight to the top, and fast.

Jack Antonoff has built quite the career for himself between his work with Fun and Bleachers. In recent years, though, he has become perhaps best known for his production and songwriting work, specifically with high-profile collaborators like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Clairo, and Lorde. Lorde’s latest single, “Stoned At The Nail Salon,” is another collaboration between her and Antonoff, and some observant fans noticed it sounds like something they’ve heard before.

One person made a video comparing a section of the song with Lana Del Rey’s “Wild At Heart,” a Chemtrails Over The Country Club song that Antonoff co-wrote.

That observation was echoed by many and taken to another level, as many Twitter users (enough to help make Antonoff a trending topic this afternoon) shared their belief that a lot of the projects with which Antonoff is involved bear a similar sound. One fan accused Antonoff of “stripping all the flavour from the alternative girls and adding piano,” while another alleged that he “has managed to sand off the interesting parts of even Lorde’s music.” One user even declared Antonoff the “eco-friendly king” because of how he “recycles” parts of his songs.

Check out some more memes and posts about Antonoff below.

James Wan has made a name for himself as a filmmaker who can deliver a box office hit, with blockbusters like Furious 7 and Aquaman on his resume, but the Saw director never lost sight of his horror roots. He’s the man behind a handful of today’s most popular horror franchises, including Insidious and The Conjuring, and he’s about to dig back into his past with Malignant. You can watch the trailer above.

Malignant follows a woman (Annabelle Wallis) who suddenly begins seeing terrible visions of brutal deaths and must delve into her own past to make sense of what she’s seeing. From those few short minutes in the preview above, it’s easy to see why Wan is calling it a return to his “more gritty, rough thriller roots,” as he told IGN.

The timing of Malignant was intentional for Wan: It’s coming right in between his blockbuster hit Aquaman (2018) and that film’s upcoming sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which is due out in 2022.

“I wanted to make a movie in between those two giant films, which, just something smaller, more intimate, and really harken back to the style of filmmaking or the kind of films that excited me when I was when much younger, when I was a teen growing up, idolizing filmmakers like [Brian] De Palma, [Dario] Argento, and all that. I just thought, ‘When am I ever going to get the chance to do a film like this ever again? Now is the time for me to use this opportunity to make the kind of movies that I don’t think really get made at this level anymore.’ And so it really came from the want to just make a hark back, a throwback kind of film. And this was just a story that I came about that really fit that desire.”

While Wan is keeping pretty tight-lipped about what the movie is about, he did tell IGN, “I’m a big fan of titles that have multiple meanings to it. And with Saw, we felt there’s one part of that that obviously refers to the visceral aspect of a tool, but at the same time, it touched a bit on what the voyeuristic aspect of the film was as well. And so with Malignant, I just felt like this title really encompasses the tone of the film, the subject matter, which actually has a fair bit of medical horror attached to it. So it just felt appropriate.”

Malignant comes out in theaters and on HBO Max on September 10.

Lil Yachty and Bhad Bhabie have worked together on music in the past, but they’ve recently taken their working relationship one step by investing in an exclusive dating app for Jewish people called Lox Club. Though they may be business partners, the two rappers don’t always see eye to eye — especially when it comes to cultural appropriation. The two got in a heated discussion on the topic on Instagram Live, with Yachty trying to explain that Bhabie doesn’t quite have the correct definition.

Since appearing on The Dr. Phil Show and starting her career in rap music, Bhabie, born Danielle Bregoli, has been consistently called out for cultural appropriation. Though Bhabie is white, she has been accused of building her brand on emulating Black culture. She’s had her hair in box braids, used slang terms in her music, and simply refused when Black women have asked her to stop. Though the definition of cultural appropriation tends to be malleable, it’s generally understood as the act of a person adopting aspects of a minority culture they don’t belong to and profiting from it. However, Bhabie doesn’t agree with that definition.

Bhabie hopped on an Instagram Live session with Yachty where she went off on her critics. “The one thing I’m really, really sick of is the ‘Bhad Bhabie is a cultural appropriator,’” she said. “No. Y’all make these words have different terms to what they even mean. Cultural appropriation is if I was to sit up and say, ‘Oh. A certain race looks ugly with that.’ And then I go do that on myself. Take braids for example. If I say a Black girl look ugly with braids and then I go get them, that’s culturally appropriating. Or when girls put chopsticks in their hair, that’s cultural appropriation. That’s doing something negative with someone’s culture.”

Yachty cut in with, “Bro. What the f*ck is you talking about? That’s not the argument.” Bhabie then proceeded to yell about people criticizing her “hood accent” as Yachty sighs and groans in the background. “This ain’t got nothing to do with nothing,” Yachty said before Bhabie cuts him off again.

Before hanging up, Yacthy was able to get in a final word. “On the real, you understand right now that in the room it’s you yelling at a phone screen. For what though?” To which Bhabie replied: “It makes me feel better.”

Watch fan-recorded snippets of Yacthy and Bhabie’s conversation above.

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