Category: News

Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon just lined up his next big animated series as part of his new exclusive deal with Fox. The new adult-oriented show will be set in Ancient Greece as a family comprised of humans, god, and monsters attempt to run the world’s first city without destroying everyone and everything in the process. Via Variety:

“Leave it to Dan Harmon to turn the mythos of early Greek civilization into remarkably sharp commentary on today’s politics, celebrity and pop culture,” said Michael Thorn, president of entertainment for Fox Entertainment. “This project is an incredibly irreverent family comedy as told by one of the town’s most inventive storytellers. We are proud to be partnered with Dan on this series, which strengthens our hold on the animation space.”

The currently untitled Ancient Greece series is only just getting off the ground and has yet to lock down a voice cast, so don’t look for it to hit Fox until sometime in 2022. In the meantime, despite signing an exclusive broadcast deal with Fox, Harmon is still hard at work at delivering more Rick and Morty for Cartoon Network. In fact, he revealed back in October that the pandemic has actually made the show even more on schedule, which presumably came as a shock to fans who are used to waiting a long time between Rick and Morty seasons.

“It kind of makes you have to focus on the whole process when you don’t have this office environment anymore,” Harmon said during a PaleyFest panel. “Everyone has to run this bee colony remotely, so the honey just gets made more consistently. It’s working for us.”

(Via Variety)

Singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers made waves with her performance on Saturday Night Live for perhaps the most modern-day reason ever.

At the end of her second song, “I Know the End,” Bridgers let out a primal scream before smashing her guitar on a monitor. As could be predicted, some people had opinions—including a popular Twitter account “BrooklynDad_Defiant!” who got himself into hot water as a self-described feminist with a rather un-feminist take.

“Why did this woman, Phoebe Bridgers, destroy her guitar on SNL?” he wrote. “I mean, I didn’t care much for the song either, but that seemed extra.”

Before we get into the whole “policing a female musician for doing something male musicians have done for decades” thing, here’s Bridgers’ full performance of the song so you can see what leads up to the guitar smashing. “I Know the End” is a ballad that escalates to heavy metal. The lyrics of the song are up for interpretation, but they seem to start with a kind of personal storytelling and gradually lead to an apocalyptic ending.

Phoebe Bridgers: I Know The End (Live) – SNL

youtu.be

For some, the scream and the guitar smashing at the end were cathartic. If you haven’t felt like letting out a big, guttural “AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!” and smashing something during the past year, you’re definitely living a charmed life.

But even without the pandemic/political dumpster fire of 2020, smashing a guitar during a performance isn’t anything unprecedented. Male rock band members have been destroying instruments after playing since at least the 1960s.

Some people poked fun at BrooklynDad for his grandpa-like response (although most grandpas of today were young during the original guitar-smashing era).

Others pointed out the sexist nature of the complaint. (The addition of “this woman” in the original tweet is what really pushes it into this category, on top of the fact that male guitar smashers are viewed as badass rock ‘n’ roll stars.)

However, some complaints came from people who say they just hate seeing a musical instrument being destroyed no matter who does it. Having a musician with a handmade violin in my household, I understand the visceral response. However, not all instruments are precious works of craftsmanship, and even if you hate to see a perfectly good guitar get smashed, there’s the performance art element that goes with the apocalyptic ending of the song to consider.

The same argument about waste could be made with any movie that destroys cars. The question of what is wasteful when it comes to art is totally subjective. But also, that guitar doesn’t appear to be some kind of priceless instrument.

In fact, Bridgers says she contacted the guitar company to tell them she was going to do it, and they wished her luck and told her they were hard to break.

They were right. One funny part of all of this is that it doesn’t really look like the guitar even broke. Though it may have some damage, it appeared to stay intact throughout the “smashing.” Feels like maybe she should have turned it on its side for full smashing effect.

The monitor she smashed the guitar against appeared to take a beating, but Bridgers clarified that it wasn’t even a real monitor.

So yeah. Much ado about nothing, and all because people can’t stop themselves from voicing an unsolicited opinion any time a woman does anything outside of the prescribed norm.

As far as the “why” question in the original post? Maybe it’s because of stuff like this.

Marilyn Manson is a whole other article, but suffice it to say that pretty much every woman on Earth has every justification to scream and smash things, especially in times and places where no one is being harmed by it. Doing so in a performance of a song about the world ending during a time period where we all need to let off some steam feels about right. Carry on, Ms. Bridgers.

National Pizza Day falls on February 9th, 2021, a mere two days after the Super Bowl. But just because we binged on the stuff all day Sunday doesn’t mean we can’t re-up our appetites for a good pie tomorrow. Pizza is chewy dough topped with cheese, meats, and veggies — it’s not exactly a thing you get tired of.

In our opinion, the best way to honor the culinary wonder that is pizza is by finally learning to make your own dough. But if you don’t have time for that, these National Pizza Day deals are certainly a solid celebration option. Check them out below!

Blaze Pizza — Blaze will be offering a “Take-Two” deal for $10 that allows you to choose from a build-you-own or signature pizza with a side salad and a bottled drink. If you’ve got a bigger appetite, they’re also offering two large one-topping pies for just $20.

BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse — Between National Pizza Day and Sunday BJ’s will be offering 50% off a large pizza when you check out using the promo code “HALFOFF.”

Cali’flour Foods — Fans of cauliflower crust pizza rejoice! All Cali-Flo shoppers will receive 20% off their online orders when they check out using the code PIZZA20.

Casey’s Pizza — In celebration of National Pizza Day, Casey’s is offering a one day special on February 9th for two large single topping pizzas for just $7.99 each. In addition, Casey’s will also offer Buy One Get One Half Off deals throughout the entire month of February.

Chuck E. Cheese — In addition to offering free delivery when ordering via DoorDash, Chuck E. Cheese is also offering a free medium one-topping pizza with the purchase of a large one-topping.

Cici’s Pizza — Cici’s is currently offering two large one-topping pizzas for just $5.99 each for online orders.

Domino’s — Score a three-topping pizza or a 10-piece order of wings for just $7.99 each when placing your order online for in-store pickup. ‘

Hungry Howie’s — When checking out with the code “PICK2” you can choose two from a list including pizza, mozzarella sticks, soda, or cookies for just $5.99.

Little Caesar’s — Grab a large three-topping pizza for just $6.99 when placing your order online.

Marco’s — Grab a one-topping medium pizza for just $6.99 at Marco’s.

Papa John’s — In celebration of National Pizza Day, Papa J’s will be selling their new one-topping stuffed crust pizza for just $12 for the entire month of February.

Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings — We’re not sure why Pasqually’s Pizza — which is the same pizza from Chuck E. Cheese — has a better Pizza Day deal, but we’re with it. From now until Tuesday, February 9th, you can receive a free large cheese pizza with a purchase of $25 or more when you use the promo code ‘PIZZADAY.’

Pieology — Head to Pielogy’s Instagram and convince them why you’re the biggest pizza fan of all time, and the build-it-yourself pizza chain will give you free pizza for you and your friends… assuming you’ve convinced them.

Pizza Hut — Sign up for the Hut Rewards program and receive $5 off on all orders over $25.

Red Baron — Red Baron is offering free pizza for a year through a contest on their Instagram page. Simply head to Red Baron Pizza, tag a friend in the comments, comment with your favorite Red Baron product and what you like about it, and cross your fingers!

It won’t get you free pizza on National Pizza Day, but it’ll keep you well stocked up until you absolutely hate pizza.

Round Table — Customers ordering via the app will receive a free stuffed crust upgrade on large pizzas.

Shakey’s — Grab Shakey’s classic PCM (Pizza, chicken, and mojos) deal for just $5.99. As a Valentine’s Day crossover, the chain is also offering heart-shaped pizzas for a limited time.

An overwhelming element to the NBA Draft, if you left yourself go there, is how many lives come to converge and hang in the balance of one fateful night and its seemingly split-second decisions. Two hundred or so young men, who have worked for years to get there as much as they have worked to tamp down on doubts, wait to hear if one of their names will be on the impossibly short and final list of 60. Every one of them with a story of how they got there or maybe almost didn’t, stories we might come to learn in the years to come depending on who makes it, but most that we won’t.

In a new anthology documentary series, Hoop Portraits, co-producers Taylor Sharp and Holland Randolph Gallagher of Blue Cup Productions, hope to offer a compelling look at a handful of such stories.

The pilot episode, titled Two Ways to the League, follows North Carolina standouts Ty-Shon Alexander (Creighton) and Josh Hall (Oak Hill Academy and Moravian Prep) in the lead up to the 2020 NBA Draft. The two lived and trained with one another in the pre-draft period, extended due to the pandemic, and the episode traces their development under former NBA player and UNC star Jeff McInnis as much as it does the challenges of staying mentally motivated and physically focused during such a prolonged period of uncertainty.

In one of the clips, Alexander and Hall catch and shoot, over and over. The audio is Hall’s agent, Nate Conley, talking about how when Hall’s up at the combine and upcoming pre-draft team workouts, he’s only going to have the blink of a window to showcase his shooting, that the habit of it needs to be as natural as breathing. The video is rhythmic, focused only on each of them from the waist up as they catch and release again and again, the building soundtrack behind it just the feathery thud of the ball hitting their hands, an exhale and a split second later, the echoing answer of nylon folding in on itself offscreen as the ball swishes through netting. It’s beautiful as much as it encapsulates the years of steady work that go into one career-defining moment, and all the pressure that demands to be contained.

In another, Alexander works out with a trainer on a light-filled court. He moves through catch-and-shoot drills, footwork and dribbling drills, his clothes soaked with sweat. Through the wide, garage-door style window to either side of the basket low palms sway, green fronds flashing in the sun. There’s a pool sitting still and empty, a lone inflatable mattress drifting across its surface. A cat can be seen slowly ambling by. It’s a perfect juxtaposition of the focus and sacrifice players in Alexander’s anxious position are in, necessarily zeroed in while the distracting and idyllic parts of the world they’ve opted out of exist at the periphery.

Catching his breath, Alexander mentions he has an interview with the Pistons. The video cuts to Alexander sitting down at a desk in an office where a laptop is waiting, he pulls on an NBA Draft embroidered button up, still wearing his basketball shorts. The camera has pulled back, just out of the room, but Alexander is visible from the side as he angles the screen, does all the things anyone familiar with taking an important video call is familiar with: set his arms on the desk, quickly pulls them off, sits up a little straighter. Suddenly his face lights up, he gives a confident nod, “How you doing?” He asks whoever it is on the other side, deciding how his fate might align with theirs.

On Draft night, the main event the episode builds steadily towards, both Hall and Alexander don’t end up having their names called, but both have since gone on to sign two-way contracts — Hall with OKC and Alexander with Phoenix. After spending the first month of the NBA season with their respective teams, Hall and Alexander will be competing in the G League’s bubble in Orlando beginning February 10th.

Sharp, who doubles as the series’ director, and Gallagher, are both North Carolina natives, and while the first episode’s storyline runs close to their hearts, the remainder of the series will focus on a variety of stories, from a top high school prospect to retired players. If the features to come are handled with the same nuance, care of story and visually striking treatment of the pilot, then Hoop Portraits promises to be a critical as much as tender look into the stories behind the sport.

The pilot episode premieres virtually tonight, February 8th, at 8 p.m. ET in partnership with the NBA G League, and will live stream via the NBA’s Twitch channel as well as the G League’s YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch channels.

Like so many others in the beer industry, Averie Swanson’s journey began as an enthusiastic homebrewer. Gradually realizing that she had a knack for the art, she began to think about brewing as a career. Eventually, she took steps to test the commercial brewery waters.

“I reached out to several breweries in the Austin area,” she says, “and Jester King was the only one to offer me an opportunity to volunteer.”

Eager and highly motivated, Swanson helped with everything under the sun for six months without payment, then asked for a full-time apprenticeship which ran another six months.

“At that point, they offered me a job as a brewer. Over the course of my six years there, I went from volunteer to head brewer and co-owner.”

Swanson resigned from her position at Jester King in December of 2018 and moved to Chicago, where she’s since launched her own saison-focused beer label, Keeping Together. The beers are delicate expressions of mixed fermentation, with equally evocative labels and beer names (“The Art of Holding Space” and “I am Because We Are” are two of our favorites).

This week, we spoke to the brewer and entrepreneur about her brewing style, starting from scratch in a new city, and carving a path as a woman in a male-dominated industry.

What made you want to get into brewing? How did the passion turn into a career?

Coming out of college, I was an avid craft beer drinker. I tried as many different styles of beers as I could, and eventually realized that brewing my own beer would allow me to further explore the flavors that I was experiencing.

I kept a pretty detailed log of my recipes and brew sessions and was drawn to the data collection and precision in the process. It reminded me very much of the organic chemistry lab in college. I fell in love with it and before long I was brewing more than I was drinking, and I decided that perhaps it was worth seeing what it was like making beer on a commercial scale.

Tell us a little about your style when it comes to brewing?

Despite originally being drawn to brewing because of the scientific precision required, I have become pretty laissez-faire in my approach to beer making at this point. I had some pretty incredible teachers at Jester King, and while I was there I learned that brewing is just as much an art as it is a science. Making mixed fermentation beer is inherently a less rigid process than making clean beer [like lagers, or IPAs] –there is a fair amount of flexibility in the recipe development when making beer with a mixed culture.

Though I may start with a recipe or a flavor concept in mind, I more often than not end up changing my plans as the beer evolves through fermentation. If the fermentation flavors end up inspiring me to take the beer in a different direction than I originally intended, I follow my intuition there.

What went into the decision to leave Jester King?

It was certainly not an easy decision to leave Jester King. Several personal reasons led me to the decision but, in a nutshell, I had managed to seriously overextend myself through work and work-related travel and felt that I needed some dedicated time to attend to my family and personal relationships.

That brewery had been my home and the team there had been my family for a very long time, and there are days when I miss it terribly. However, I do think my decision to move on was the right one — my departure created space for others at the brewery to grow and learn, and it certainly has resulted in no shortage of learning experiences for me either.

What made you decide to start your own brewery?

Beer is what I know and what I love. Starting my own beer label has offered me the opportunity to really brew for myself and create things that I am wholly excited about. I have been fortunate to have so much support from my peers and colleagues in the industry over the years, and starting my own thing allows me to continue to give back to the greater beer community and support others as I have been supported.

Did you have any difficulties navigating through the male-centric beer world as a female brewer?

Becoming a brewer is difficult regardless of your sex or gender identity. I have certainly experienced plenty of challenges throughout my time in this industry — issues with coworkers, industry peers, consumers. I could go into specifics or details, but honestly, I don’t care to remember the assholes that tried to keep me down and prevent me from getting where I wanted to go. I prefer to look forward and spend my energy supporting a reality of equity for anyone and everyone who is interested in being a part of the craft beer community.

Progress is being made every day, but we still have a long way to go.

What advice do you have for other women looking to get into brewing?

Work your ass off and don’t let other people make you feel small or unworthy. You have every right to be there and are as capable as anyone else at becoming an authority at what you do. It will be hard, but just about everything worth doing is hard — so don’t give up.

Last week Evan Rachel Wood accused her ex-fiance Marilyn Manson of serious abuse, including rape, anti-semitism, racism, brain-washing, and more. The horrific allegations come a few years after Wood had talked about her past abuse without naming the abuser, but after she named Manson, born Brian Warner, others started coming forward with their own experiences. Corey Feldman accused Manson of “mental and emotional abuse,” and ramifications from around the industry began to come down, as Manson was cut from several TV shows and dropped by his record label.

When at least four other women came forward with their own stories, Manson responded, calling the accusations “horrible distortions of reality.” Today’s allegation is pretty straightforward though, coming from Ellie Roswell of the UK band Wolf Alice. On Twitter today, Roswell shared that Manson had filmed an up skirt video of her when she met him at a festival. She also shared her solidarity with Wood, and other survivors, and called out his tour manage for responding “he does this kind of thing all the time.” Below is her full statement, and the original tweets.

“Solidarity to Evan Rachel Wood and those calling out Marilyn Manson. It’s sad to see people defending him, just because he put his depravity in plain sight doesn’t give him a free pass to abuse women?! I met Marilyn backstage at a festival a few years ago. After his compliments towards my band became more and more hyperbolic I became suspicious of his behaviour. I was shocked to look down and see he was filming up my skirt with a GoPro. There were no repercussions for his behaviour, his tour manager simply said ‘he does this kind of thing all the time.’ If he does this kind of thing all the time why on earth has he been headlining festivals for so many years? When will we stop enabling misogynists on the account of their success? Women must feel safe in the male dominated world that is the music industry. I wasn’t sure whether to bring any of this up but Manson claims in his recent statement that his relationships were ‘entirely consensual’ – I don’t think he knows the meaning of consent if he goes around up-skirting young women at festivals. Thank you for your courage Evan <3”

Watching the Super Bowl on TV last night, it didn’t look like we were in the middle of a pandemic. Actually, though, the stadium wasn’t as full of people as it looked, since about 30,000 of the “attendees” were actually cardboard cutouts. So, through that very indirect way, some music stars got to “attend” the big game.

Spotted at the game in cutout form were folks like Eminem, Billie Eilish, Bernie Sanders, DJ Khaled, YG, DaBaby, Tyga, and others.

Ahead of the game, Peter O’Reilly, an NFL executive vice president, told CNN, “So when you turn on the TV, you’ll look around. It won’t be a full capacity stadium. 65,000 seats will have about twenty five thousand people in here, about 30,000 fan cutouts honoring some incredible people, some veterans and military personnel, health care workers as well, cancer survivors, youth and high school football players. So it’ll actually look full when you turn on the TV,” O’Reilly said.

Tampa Bay ABC affiliate WFTS-TV also noted that it cost $100 to get a cutout in a seat and that a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Feeding Tampa Bay.

In The Fate of the Furious, Michelle Rodriguez harpoons Vin Diesel’s car (the movies are even better if you imagine they’re all documentaries and Rodriguez and Diesel are playing themselves) and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stops a torpedo launched by Charlize Theron from a submarine with his bare hands. How can F9 possibly top that?

By spending eight months on a four-second scene, that’s how.

Before Sunday’s “The Big Game,” as it’s called for legal reasons, Universal Pictures released a new promo for the ninth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise. There’s a backyard picnic attended by not-dead Han; a voiceover about family, because of course there is; John Cena looking angry; and Helen Mirren finally, FINALLY, getting to drive a car. It’s all great, but the promo saves the best for last:

F9 director Justin Lin hopes you enjoyed that (I did), because it took a hundred people eight minutes to perfect it. “One 4 second shot in #F9. 8 months of prep. 4 days of production. 3 cars destroyed. Work from over a hundred of the most dedicated and talented crew,” he tweeted, along with a behind-the-scenes video. “Best job in the world!”

U.S. News & World Report ranks “physician assistant” as the best job of 2021, followed by “software developer” and “nurse practitioner,” but I disagree. “F9 director who gets paid lots of money to play with cars and make them explode” is the best job of 2021.

F9 comes out on May 28.

The MySpace era feels like such an innocent time. Little did we know back then that social media would come to dominate the way just about everyone on the planet interacts.

Back then, social media was just about the joy of human interaction.

Over 100 million people logged on to Myspace per month from 2005 to 2008. It was a place where people blogged, shared their favorite music, gave brief status updates, and followed Tom and Tia Tequila.

It also was a place for self-expression. You could update your page with CSS and HTML to add cool pictures and artwork as a backdrop to your profile. This focus on self-expression made it especially popular with young people in the emo scene.

However, eventually, Facebook would come to dominate and overtake MySpace in 2008. Facebook was easier to operate and had more of an emphasis on real-time interaction with friends.

Now, Facebook has become an environment that many see as toxic. It’s a place rife with political bickering and questionable news stories. It’s also a heavily manipulated environment, ruled by an algorithm that chooses what you get to see and sells your information for top dollar.

This has led many to long for the days when the biggest problem on MySpace was who you chose for your top eight. As opposed to today when logging onto Facebook is an anxiety-inducing trip to the platform where you get to watch your friends, coworkers, and relatives slowly devolve into conspiracy theorists and political extremists.

So An, an 18-year-old student from Germany, has replicated the old-school MySpace experience into a new social media platform called SpaceHey. if you join the site you will immediately become friends with An, much like you did with Tom back in 2006.

via spacehey

“I was only a few years old when Myspace was popular,” An told Vice. “I never came to use Myspace. However, thanks to older friends and the internet, I heard a lot about it. I came to the conclusion that you can’t find something like this nowadays, where everyone can be this creative.”

An studied internet archive pictures of MySpace and watched videos of the “old internet” to perfectly recreate the site’s user interface and look. The site doesn’t have any algorithms, news feed, or like buttons. So that means you get to see everything as it happens in real-time and there’s no need to worry about how many likes your bulletin received. The site is also highly concerned with privacy and careful about the information it shares with third-parties.

Most importantly, you won’t have to see your uncle’s daily posts about Ben Shapiro.

It’s almost like we got the Internet right the first time.

Over 57,000 people have signed up for SpaceHey not only for the cozy nostalgia of the early millennium but because it’s a safer place for people to interact.

“Most social media platforms these days are incredibly toxic,” a user named Kelly says. “In the three weeks I’ve been on spacehey I’ve experienced more love and support from people than I have in the last five years on all of my social media platforms combined. It’s definitely refreshing.”

While it’ll take a big push to make the MySpace redux a viable alternative to Facebook, its relative popularity shows there is a hunger out there for social media spaces that are less toxic. SpaceHey is proof that there’s a big audience of people who want social media to be a “place for friends” again. And, that’s a good thing.

It was only two short weeks ago that Warner Bros. and HBO Max dropped the trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong and shifted the entire world off its axis a little. Perhaps you think this description is a touch dramatic. Perhaps you think I am engaging in a bit of hyperbole to make a point. That’s understandable. I have long histories of both being dramatic and engaging in hyperbole. But I think I am being fair here. This is a trailer that features Rebecca Hall literally saying “It’s Godzilla” moments after a beast that is very clearly Godzilla bursts out of the sea. This is a trailer that features Alexander Skarsgard as a Vest And Sunglasses Scientist who announces with all the gravitas he can muster that “We need Kong.” It is a trailer that features Rebecca Hall saying “the myths are real” moments before it depicts Kong swinging a pterodactyl like a baseball bat to mash another pterodactyl out of the sky. It might be the best trailer I’ve ever seen. I’m so happy for Rebecca Hall.

But most importantly, for me, the trailer featured King Kong reaching back and walloping Godzilla with a haymaker to his scaly jaw. I cannot possibly express to you how much I loved this, and still love it. He just punched Godzilla straight in the mouth. I did not even know that was a thing you could do. Although I guess “you” can’t, unless you are King Kong. Are… are you King Kong? If so, I have a lot of questions about how you are reading this on a tiny computer or cell phone, but mostly I’d just like to congratulate you on throwing this bomb.

And that was that. BLAMMO. A good trailer, one that teed up the film and got me all jazzed about its late-March release date, simple and straightforward, Kong punches Godzilla, bing bang boom. Everything appeared in order. But then…

A twist.

This past weekend, the Japanese trailer for the film debuted. I will post it below and you should watch it very closely because, while most of it is identical to the American trailer, there is one notable change.

Did you see it?

Did you catch the additional footage, the shot that is nowhere to be seen in the American version but is right there smack in the middle of the Japanese version?

Did you see it?

DID YOU SEE GODZILLA PUNCH KONG?

At the risk of you accusing me of being dramatic and engaging in hyperbole again, this changes everything. In the American trailer, Godzilla destroys stuff and Kong whomps on him, giving the appearance that Kong is some unbeatable fighting machine. In this version, Godzilla takes Kong’s punch and then delivers a counter-haymaker that damn near knocks Kong right off that ocean liner and into the sea. This means at least two things:

• The balance of power has shifted, as, in addition to the punch, Godzilla generally seems to fare better in this trailer than the American one, which raises the possibility that someone in the Warner Bros. marketing department has research that shows that audiences in Japan are more pro-Godzilla than audiences in America, kind of like how the Fast & Furious movies are called Wild Speed there, which is objectively better, especially because Fast Five is called, I swear this is true, Wild Speed MEGA MAX, capitalization theirs
• It also raises the possibility that this fistfight is much longer than we originally thought, which would rule, and yes I would be perfectly happy if it lasted 15 full minutes, just two massive beasts knocking the slobber out of each other’s mouths with their fists and/or claws while the Rocky music plays and the bells kick in just as its getting good

This has been your Godzilla vs. Kong update.