Category: News

After dropping the highly anticipated trailer for the first Euphoria special, HBO has announced (in a press release) that fans can catch the episode a few days early on HBO Max. According to a press release, Euphoria Part 1: Rue will start streaming on HBO Max on Thursday, December 3 at 12:00 a.m. ET/9:00 p.m. PST before airing on its previously announced date of Sunday, December 6.

There’s a little confusion going on, however. A tweet from the official Euphoria Twitter account says the special will start streaming on Friday. While that’s technically correct for the East Coast, not so much for the West Coast. But the important thing is that you can watch Emmy Award Winner Zendaya early, and there’s no confusion on that being awesome.

The episode is one of two specials meant to tide over fans until the proper return of Euphoria‘s second season sometime in 2021. While there’s no date for the second special, we do know the details for Part 1: Rue, which takes place after the climactic events of the season one finale. Via Variety:

Spoilers for Euphoria season one below in this synopsis:

These special episodes pick up right after the season 1 finale, in which Rue (Zendaya) uses cocaine and relapses after her girlfriend Jules (Hunter Schafer) gets on a train and leaves her after their high school winter formal. Rue sits in a diner contemplating her life when she runs into Ali (Colman Domingo), whom she met at her Narcotics Anonymous meetings. The first episode will find Rue in the aftermath of being left by Jules at the train station and relapsing. The episode, written and helmed by series creator Sam Levinson, follows Rue as she celebrates Christmas.

Euphoria Part 1: Rue starts streaming either Thursday, December 3 or Friday, December 4 on HBO Max. It’s definitely one of those days.

There’s a weird thing that happens when we talk about people dying, no matter what the cause. The 2,977 souls who lost their lives in the 9/11 attack felt overwhelming. The dozens of children who are killed in school shootings are mourned across the country each time one happens. The four Americans who perished in Benghazi prompted months of investigations and emotional video montages at national political conventions.

But as the numbers of deaths we talk about get bigger, our sensitivity to them grows smaller. A singular story of loss often evokes more emotion than hearing that 10,000 or 100,000 people have died. Hearing a story of one individual feels personal and intimate, but if you try to listen to a thousand stories at once, it all blends together into white noise. It’s just how our minds work. We simply can’t hold that many individual stories—and the emotion that goes along with them—all at once.

But there are some ways we can help our brains out. An anonymous visual effects artist has created a visualization that can better help us see the massive number of Americans who have been lost to the coronavirus pandemic. The number alone is staggering, and seeing all of the individual lives at once is overwhelming.

In this video, each marble represents one American who has died of COVID-19, and each second represents six days. At the top, you can see the calendar fill in as time goes by. Unlike just seeing a grid of dots representing the visual, there’s something about the movement and accumulation of the marbles that makes it easier to see the scope of the lives impacted.

Just watch:

(If you’re curious, the artist has clarified that no, the flesh tones of the spheres are not representative of the racial makeup of those impacted by the pandemic.)

The artist, who you can find on Reddit wrote on Vimeo, “A single death is terrible but something I can comprehend as I have life experience to draw upon. When the number of deaths become 5, 10, 50, [it’s] a tragedy and still something I can connect with at a very personal level. However, as death tolls start to hit the 100s it becomes something else. It becomes an event. An awful event. It becomes harder to conceptualize and empathize with. I suspect the threshold for this is different for everyone and varies between cultures. The goal of this project was to help me visualize 230,000 as a number but it also helped reconcile that these are people with families, friends and social circles…“

The artist said they started working on this project on November 1 and finished November 15. During that time, an additional 15,000+ Americans died from COVID-19.

Furthermore, from the time the project was finished to the time this article was written—two weeks—another 22,000+ have died from the virus.

The scope of the tragedy of the pandemic truly is hard to fathom. When you think of the extended circles of people each of these marbles represent—the family and friends of the people who have died from this disease—it becomes even moreso.

And it didn’t have to be this way. In the early months of the outbreak, we were told that if we managed the pandemic, we might lose 100,000 to 200,000 Americans total. We’ve already blown past the top of that range, with our average daily death toll trending upwards. And with hospitals filling up and a limited supply of healthcare workers, we are likely to see those averages spike even further.

We can slow that spike with our own behaviors—staying at home as much as we can, wearing masks when we have to go out, keeping up social distancing and handwashing. But no matter what happens, each of the lives lost to this disease deserves to be recognized for the tragedy that it is. And they each deserve the acknowledgement that we could have and should have done more to keep it under control. We have examples in countries like New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and South Korea, who managed to successfully keep the virus at bay and prevent the deluge of deaths that we’ve seen here.

Let’s learn from this experience so the next time a pandemic hits—and there assuredly will be a next time—we’ll have a better grasp on what to do from the get go. And let’s make sure that hundreds of thousands of Americans dying in a matter of months never become just another statistic.

This holiday season is going to look vastly different from other years, but one thing still remains the same: it’s never perfect. Carly Rae Jepsen knows this all too well and previously shared the synthy jingle “It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries” as an ode to everything that goes wrong during family gatherings. Now sharing a video alongside the track, Jepsen depicts her holiday hiccups while trying to remain positive.

Directed by Josh Forbes, Jepsen’s visual shows the worst-case scenario: her family feeds her vegan boyfriend fish, her uncle gets started in a political argument at the dinner table, and her grandpa accidentally ate an edible. Even still, Jepsen is still able to remain positive and celebrate the occasion with her loved ones.

Speaking about the song in a previous statement, Jepsen said she wanted to paint a realistic picture of the holidays:

“I love the old-fashioned movies and the family traditions and the excitement of gifting presents and decorating the tree and and and… my list is endless. But each year the pressure to have the perfect Christmas always ends in tears. I call it ‘Christmas versus expectation.’ […] Christmas holiday is my favorite time of year. I love it. But so often emotions run high and expectation versus reality is something I’d like to shed some light on and hopefully some laughs too in the process. So if you are lucky enough to get to be with the ones that matter most to you this year- embrace it! And if things go south just remember, ‘the secret is to sing a little song to survive… that it’s not Christmas till somebody cries!’”

Watch Jepsen’s “It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries’ video above.

Happiest Season is a delightful holiday rom-com from the great Clea Duvall (who co-wrote and directs) and her super talented co-writer Mary Holland that focuses on family and relationship dynamics and the complexities of coming out. The cast is stupid good. Kristen Stewart! Mackenzie Davis! Dan Levy! Mary Steenburgen! My dad Victor Garber! Holland pops up too and almost steals the damn thing. Same with Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, and Ana Gasteyer… it does not stop. And then you get to the cameos. Michelle Buteau, Lauren Lapkus, and Tim Simons specifically. It’s great, and while it delves into fictional local politics and elements of conservativism as a cause for the main character’s hesitancy about coming out and introducing her family to her partner, the film isn’t infected by actual politics and Trumpy red hattery. Harper’s parents Ted and Tipper (really) aren’t presented as scary culty “to the end of the world” conservatives, just uptight rich assholes with a slavish dedication to looking catalog fresh. Which is why it’s a shame what I’m about to do.

Spoilers ahead, by the way. I’m sharing an ultra minor detail but it’s a detail all the same. While Simons is barely in the film, his role as an overexcited and overcaffeinated security guard with a chip on his shoulder stands out. Partly because Tim Simons always stands out. He’s a monolith in the comedy desert. This is meant to be a timely and complementary observation. God damn if his hapless mall cop character doesn’t seem a lot like Jonah Ryan from Veep, though! Like, if he wound up in retail security services purgatory. Which is not to say that mall cops have to be sad or bad, just that Jonah would be miserable in that perfectly fine job following the exhaustion of his innate ability to fail up and his impeachment as Vice President of the United States. And while I know it’s not the case, I also want to believe that Duvall and Holland (who both worked with Simons on Veep) did this on purpose as a tacit nod that their film and their old show exist in the same universe. Because it’d be perfect. And because it might be the closest thing we’ll get to seeing the Jonah-esque ruling class catch a consequence for their wicked ways.

I don’t mean to real-world this junk up, but America’s rich and powerful don’t seem likely to incur the burden of justice anytime soon. Have you heard? They seem to get away with a lot! The donations keep rolling in, mean tweets still act as a deterrent for the spawning of spines, and self-pardons and never-ending campaigns loom. These bits, among many many other things, all stand as evidence that life is not fair. And hey, that doesn’t feel great, so why not go with me on this and escape the reality of things out of your control? Why not watch or rewatch Happiest Season, appreciating its charms and goodness and outstanding performances before getting to that 2-minute sample of disgraced Vice President Teenage Mutant Ninja Asshole taking petty theft way too seriously while clearly feeling his ultimate irrelevancy? Take a hit. Hold it, love it, and move on. It’ll feel good! It won’t hurt anyone (save for a film that probably doesn’t need this association mere days after Ben Shapiro, the silica gel pack of people and a pint-sized Jonah clone, called it out).

The point is, I like stories where bad people lose. I’m old fashioned like that, but a fading belief in karma has me looking past real-life to secure that satisfaction now and I’ll take what I can get even if it means I need to reach big time to concoct an imagined back story for a fun cameo. Give me this.

‘Happiest Season’ is available to stream on Hulu. ‘Veep’ is streaming on HBO Max (or CNN, depending on your outlook).

The King is going to remain in his court for a little while longer.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers have come to terms on a maximum contract extension. The deal tacks on two years and $85 million to James’ current deal, which Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports notes means that James is signed with the Lakers through the 2022-23 campaign.

While all eyes in L.A., at least the purple and gold half, have been on whether or not Anthony Davis will stick around long-term — the All-NBA big man is an unrestricted free agent, but it is believed that he is going to agree to a deal of some length with the Lakers — James was able to solidify his future in the City of Angels. He joined the team as a free agent prior to the 2018-19 season, and while that year ended prematurely due to an injury, he came back with a vengeance this time around. James averaged 25.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, and a league and career-best mark 10.2 assists a night this year, and of course, led the Lakers to an NBA championship, which ended with him being named MVP.

The intrigue continues to be on Davis, who of course shares and agent with James in Rich Paul. But at the very least, we now know that if Davis decides to stay in Los Angeles, he’ll have his superstar running mate next to him for a long, long time.

In a new interview with Billboard, Cardi B takes credit for the success of one of her biggest critics, conservative commentator Candace Owens. The raunchy rapper has gotten into Twitter tiffs with conservative pundits multiple times over the years, as they’ve realized that poking the bear provides them even greater exposure when Cardi claps back.

But in her new interview, Cardi says moments like this are what prompted her to pursue an alternative outlet for her opinions leading her to OnlyFans, where she can “curse out” haters to her heart’s content. Explaining why OnlyFans appealed to her, Cardi observes, “There are certain things that I want to get more personal on, and I don’t want to get on Instagram Live and talk about it because blogs are gonna chop it up. There’s certain people I want to curse out, but I don’t want to give them clout. For example, when me and Candace Owens got into an argument, I gave that bitch 2 million followers.”

While a number of conservatives have needled Cardi over the years, especially this year in the wake of her “WAP” success, Owens especially has made it a point to pursue a feud with the Bronx rapper, jabbing on multiple occasions. In 2019, Owens challenged Cardi to a public debate, deriding Cardi’s support of Bernie Sanders’ campaign and criticism of Donald Trump’s administration. Cardi shot down the challenge on Twitter, telling Owens to advocate for her own candidate rather than worry about Cardi.

This year, Owens doubled down after Cardi interviewed Joe Biden in a separate political awareness campaign once Biden had won the Democratic nomination. Owens denounced Cardi’s music, saying it “contributes to the disintegration of Black culture and values” — whatever the hell that means — prompting Cardi to respond with a video of her sister Hennessey being harassed by Trump supporters at the beach. While Owens mocked
Cardi’s hastily typed clap back, Cardi pointed out that Owens’ support of Trump ran counter to her own position on supporting Black people while giving her a lesson on tax policy and how the federal budget works. Cardi also buried Owens under her own words, digging up Candace’s old tweets supporting Cardi and pointing out her hypocrisy.

Read Billboard’s full feature here.

Donald Trump continues throw tantrums with with false claims of “massive dumps” (of votes, duh) that he says cost him the election. He’s also suggested that he might refuse to leave the White House in January while tweeting, “Think I’ll stick around for awhile!” And he’s holding events where “four-more years” gets shouted, and so on, even though Arizona certified its election results, further cementing Joe Biden’s POTUS victory. There’s no telling whether Trump will truly refuse to leave or if he’s simply suckering the MAGA crowd into more “legal fund” donations. One thing is certain: Trump will not exit gracefully, and the dominoes of supporters are (slowly) starting to fall.

Prominent conservative talk-show host Michael Medved (author of God’s Hand On America: Divine Providence in the Modern Era) certainly sees the writing on the wall. And he knows that there’s no way to talk sense into Trump, but he’s hoping that Mike Pence will (finally) go a different way. In an opinion column for USA Today, Medved whipped out the term “orange overlord.” Yes, he did. He also urged Pence to warmly welcome Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to the official VP residence (at the Naval Observatory), quite like Joe Biden did in 2016 for the Pence fam. Mostly though, Medved urged a departure from Trump’s tantrums, which he believes that Pence can pull off to start healing a badly wounded nation:

To turn up to honor Biden’s assumption of power would also provide a personal declaration of independence from Trump’s angry, ugly obsessions.

For four years, Pence defended the president at every turn, but as the Orange Overlord leaves office, he must become his own man at last. With Trump openly musing over his own potential candidacy for a triumphant 2024 return, and with other allies and family members available as more logical heirs to Trumpism, Pence would preserve, rather than damage, a potential run of his own by displaying dignity and class to conclude his vice presidency.

It’s still stunning that such a column needed to be written at all, but yep, Medved is calling upon Pence to do the graceful thing because the leader of the administration definitely won’t. “A platform appearance by the departing VP might be criticized as shallow symbolism,” the host argues, “But at a time of poisonous polarization, healing gestures can only help.” In 2020, we’ll all take what peace we can get.

(Via USA Today)

Aside from being known for their music, Death Cab For Cutie are longtime activists. At the beginning of the pandemic, the band’s vocalist Ben Gibbard shared a project to support the US Postal Service and a single to raise funds for Seattle’s homeless population. Now, the band is focusing their efforts on another cause with their newly announced benefit covers EP, The Georgia.

The project will be available for download only for 24 hours on the band’s Bandcamp page and sees covers of songs by famous Georgian artists like TLC, R.E.M., Cat Power, and more. All proceeds earned from the EP will be donated to Fair Fight, an organization founded by Stacy Abrams in 2018 that aims to address voter suppression, particularly in Texas and Georgia.

Speaking about the project in a statement, the band said they started this project in honor of Georgia flipping blue in the presidential election.

“Last month, Georgia flipped blue for the first time in a Presidential election since 1992 – due in large part to the tireless efforts of @staceyabrams and the men and women who work alongside her at Fair Fight. 
 
We’ve recorded this collection of music as both a celebration of this monumental achievement, and to provide support for the fight ahead – in this case the upcoming special Senate election in January. With control of the Senate on the line, and with it the fate of so many things we care about, from climate action, to criminal justice reform, to voting rights, and everything in between – the stakes are uniquely high this time around. 
 
As for The Georgia EP itself – we love it. It was recorded remotely over four days in our home studios during a productive blast of activity a few weeks ago, and mixed just a couple days later. In a year where so much of what we love to do has been put on pause, it felt so good to be making music together again. ”

Check out Death Cab’s The Georgia EP cover art and tracklist below.

1. “Waterfalls (TLC cover)”
2. “The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1 (Neutral Milk Hotel cover)”
3. “Fall On Me (R.E.M. cover)”
4. “Flirted With You All My Life (Vic Chesnutt cover)”
5. “Metal Heart (Cat Power cover)”

The Georgia EP is out 12/4 via Bandcamp. Get it here.

Death Cab For Cutie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It appears the NBA is nearing a full release of the first half of its 2020-21 schedule, and a new report shows two intriguing matchups on opening night, Dec. 22, on TNT.

Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Nets will host the Warriors that night while the Lakers and Clippers will face off at STAPLES Center.

The early game will mark another return for two-time Stephen Curry, who had only played a handful of games in the spring before the NBA shutdown, as well as the rest of the new-look Warriors, featuring newly acquired Kelly Oubre Jr. and No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman.

It will also feature the return of Kevin Durant for the first time since rupturing his Achilles’ tendon nearly 18 months ago in the 2019 NBA Finals. Of course, back then, Durant was playing for the Warriors, so the game will mark a clash between former championship teammates as well.

In the late game, the presumptive favorites in the Western Conference will go head-to-head in the arena they share, as NBA fans will get to see if the Clippers look fresher after hiring Ty Lue and turning over the back of the roster this offseason. On the other side, new Lakers additions like Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell will take the floor with their new team.

The release date for the 2020-21 schedule — either in its entirety or broken down by halves — is unclear. We do, however, know the opening night games, and on Tuesday, we learned the anticipated Christmas Day slate.

Roughly one in four women will have one. You probably know one of them, whether she’s told you about it or not. As of 2017, they’re at a record low rate in America, thanks in part to the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that birth control is covered by private insurance as out-of-pocket costs. Sixty-one percent of Americans say it should be legal in all cases, but a considerable subsection of them, especially in the South, don’t have reliable access to it. That’s right: we’re talking about abortion — and the musicians who are working to preserve access to it.

If you’ve seen some of your faves posting about the issue on Instagram (Kim Gordon and Karen O doing it caught my eye), you’ve probably been seeing the work of a New Mexico-based initiative called Noise For Now. They play matchmaker between musicians who want to support reproductive rights, including abortion and local funds. They aim to destigmatize the conversation around abortion. Hence, part of their plan is to ask artists to post about the organization and why access to healthcare for women is essential. Co-founder and President Amelia Bauer moved to the Southwest from New York after the 2016 election and, while trying to find a way to get involved with local reproductive rights organizations, ended up organizing a concert to benefit the National Organization For Women. It outraised all the big donor dinners and galas they had been putting on.

The idea to work as a connector between those with a large audience — your favorite musician — and small, local abortion funds hits at a targeted play to provide access to reproductive health care that includes abortion to women who are systematically cut off from it. Since 2011, Texas has lost 25 clinics. In the Midwest, 33 clinics have shut down. In the South, it’s 50. Even after the TRAP (targeted regulation of abortion providers) laws that closed them were largely overturned by the courts, most of those clinics have not reopened. There’s no doubt that in specific regions of America, the right to choose is under attack. Meanwhile, 59 new women’s health clinics opened in the Northeast. More and more, having access to reproductive care and abortion is a matter of how much money you have and where you live.

“When you have state legislators working against the will of the people, they create barriers to abortion for people without means,” Bauer explains. “Anyone with means can travel to another state to access abortion if they can’t reach it near their home. That means people who work multiple jobs, who can’t get time off, who can’t afford a plane or bus ticket, who can’t afford childcare are left out of access to safe abortion.” She notes that in the U.S., where most abortions are performed in clinics, the procedure is extremely safe, while in countries where it has been outlawed and criminalized, it becomes dangerous for women. That’s why Noise For Now focuses on working with funds that support and are run by Black, brown, indigenous, and undocumented people.

For Bauer, her work in New Mexico started with an eye on preserving the access that women in nearby states traveled to get — and in making that travel and all the things that go with it, from the time off work to childcare, possible. The current Supreme Court, which leans more conservative than it has in generations, has caused many to worry about stripping away the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling. It is what guarantees women the right to have an abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment right to privacy, as explained in the majority opinion by Justice Harry Blackmun — a lifelong Republican. With the current slate of justices, Bauer predicts the worst, saying, “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I don’t think it’s very likely it will survive this court.”

Amanda Shires is all too aware of the restrictions placed on women’s access to reproductive rights. In Tennessee, 96% of the counties have no facilities that provide abortions. The issue is also bleak for women in neighboring Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi — the latter has only one clinic and three facilities in total where women can obtain an abortion.

“Part of the problem is if people are out protesting [clinics], they’re protesting contraceptive services, HIV testing, hormone therapy, treatment for erectile dysfunction, and all kinds of stuff they don’t even think about. And cancer screenings. And LGBTQA+ hormone therapy,” Shires points out. She later continues, saying, “What I try to do is say, to the best I can, is that I’m on your side, whatever side of this you choose, in hopes people don’t have to walk around feeling alone.”

For Shires, who performed at Noise For Now’s Voices For Choice event and the Pro Roe Tee Campaign for Planned Parenthood, talking about things is the most effective way to destigmatize them and affect change. “It sometimes feels hard to make a change on your own because you can’t. If you can align and affiliate and help and take action, then I don’t know about you, but it makes me feel like I can sleep a tiny bit better at night,” Shires says.

Shires released “The Problem” near the end of 2020. This song imagines a conversation between a couple discussing abortion, with proceeds benefitting the Yellowhammer Fund. This Alabama-based fund offers financial and logistic support to those in need of abortion in the state. Yellowhammer is also a fund that Noise For Now has supported. Its Executive Director Laurie Bertram Roberts points out that having these conversations in spaces where it’s typically verboten, namely among the conservative audiences of country music, is part of removing the stigma.

“We need to be talking about how we make sure we’re having these conversions in spaces we may not think are welcoming, but are maybe more welcoming than we think they are,” Roberts says and notes that some of the most significant legacies in country music have been all about women’s issues.

“Amanda’s song is one is a long legacy of country women artists giving social critique. It goes back to the first women in country music. It goes to Kitty Wells. It goes to Loretta Lynn and ‘The Pill.’ Even Tammy Wynette singing ‘D-I-V-O-R-C-E.’ All those things were controversial at the time, but it tells women’s stories. Even Martina McBride talking about ‘Independence Day.’ Those are women telling their stories in a way that made it accessible and acceptable to talk about those subjects.”