Category: News

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On the latest Pod Yourself A Gun, Gloria throws things, the Russian gets away, and “the poo ass was dog.” This week Matt and Vince are thankful for their guest, Jack O’Brien from the Daily Zeitgeist, and season 3 episode 11 of The Sopranos, Pine Barrens.

This episode is so good, it’s a cliché to bring it up. As Jack points out during the podcast, saying “Pine Barrens” is your favorite Sopranos episode is like saying Michael Jordan is your favorite basketball player. It’s not a bad choice but come on — try to surprise me.

If you haven’t seen it in a while, you might remember this Steve Buscemi-directed episode as the one where Paulie and Chris get lost in the woods. What you might not remember are Gloria’s London broil toss and Jackie Jr.’s Scrabble prowess. If last week’s episode was a reminder that The Sopranos is a soap opera, this week’s episode is a reminder that it is also a sitcom, because it’s got jokes.

Are some of the jokes too sitcom-y? Vince says yes. I say VA FANGOOL, Vince. What happened to Valery? Don’t ask David Chase. What is the geopolitical significance of Paulie’s satin finish manicure? Listen now to find out.

If you’re not going to share your Tic Tacs, at least share a five star review on Apple Podcasts. (-written by Brent Flyberg)

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This Thanksgiving holiday turned out to be a weird one for many reasons. Not only did the pandemic make “gathering” a very bad idea for Americans, but the soon-to-no-longer-be-president threw a Twitter tantrum about “National Security” possibly being threatened by Twitter’s “this claim about election fraud is disputed”-style warnings. And maybe he was complaining about certain unflattering trends. It’s a long story (as with all things this year), but this happened after he addressed reporters from behind a tiny desk, which led to the rise of the #DiaperDon and #TrumpTantrum hashtags. Is this reality? Of course it is, but this whole situation needs some parsing out.

No official statements have surfaced to explain why Trump (or someone on his team) decided that he should address the press from behind a child-sized piece of furniture, but it happened. This is where he stated, in response to questions about whether he’d leave the White House peacefully in January 2021, “Certainly I will, and you know that.” He still has not conceded but told reporters that he’d leave office if the Electoral College did their thing and confirmed Joe Biden’s victory. Still, Trump (baselessly) added, “If they do, they’ve made a mistake… this election was a fraud.”

Oh, and here’s that tiny desk in action.

From behind this miniature piece of furniture, Trump railed at a reporter, “I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way!” (SNL will have so much fun with this.) The #DiaperDon and #TrumpTantrum hashtags were born.

Trump, of course, tweeted all day and night, and he also did a lot of retweeting, so there’s no telling whether he was upset about these hashtags, but who knows? He first complained about how how wished a Happy Thanksgiving to the armed forces, yet the “Fake News Media” allegedly muddled his “real message,” which is that “the 2020 Election was RIGGED, and that I WON!”

The Twitter tantrum continued. Trump complained, “Twitter is sending out totally false ‘Trends’ that have absolutely nothing to do with what is really trending in the world. They make it up, and only negative ‘stuff.’”

Trump appeared to argue that “National Security” was somehow under siege:

As The Hill notes, Trump and the GOP wish to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which they believe “allows social media companies to discriminate against conservative content on their websites, although such content is often amplified.” Whether Trump is upset that his tweets are being marked with warnings, or he doesn’t like unflattering hashtags, who knows? Probably both.

Jay-Z is cutting a deal with Netflix. The rapper is reportedly planning to be the executive producer on an upcoming Netflix thriller titled Forty Acres, a big screen adaptation of a 2014 book by Dwayne Alexander.

Deadline was the first to report about the project, saying the film is still in its developing stages and describing it as a crossover between Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Tom Cruise’s 1993 film The Firm. Apparently, Forty Acres follows the story of a civil rights attorney who is suddenly forced to fight for his life when he joins an elite Black organization with a terrifying secret.

This isn’t the only project that the rapper has signed up to executive produce this year. It was announced in August that Jay-Z will be producing the upcoming six-part series Women Of The Movement. Airing on ABC, the series centers around influential women in the civil rights movement, starting with Emmett Till’s mother Mamie Till Mobley who dedicated her life to seeking justice after the murder of her son in 1955.

The film is the latest entrepreneurial endeavor that Hov has hopped on. In the last few months alone, the rapper backed an at-home workout equipment start-up and broke ground on his own cannabis brand.

Guyanese rapper Saint JHN bypassed Kanye West‘s approval to get a verse on his raunchy new song “Smack DVD,” revealing in the stripper-filled visualizer that Kanye probably won’t see it until it’s officially out. The tongue-in-cheek message plays out via title cards on a blank screen during Kanye’s verse, informing viewers that Kanye didn’t get approval on the video and jokingly asking for “some Yeezys in a colorway for not a cult.”

Saint JHN just released his third album, While the World Was Burning, a week ago via HITCO and his own Godd Complexx imprint. Ahead of the release, he planned to release a video for the single “Roses” with Future but instead canceled the shoot to donate the budget to charity. He did release the single “Gorgeous,” while the album itself features appearances from 6lack, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, DaBaby, JID, Kehlani, and Lil Uzi Vert. Kanye also appears on a song called “Pray 4 Me.”

The rapper has steadily increased in notoriety since changing his stage name to Saint JHN in 2016. After being cosigned by Solange Knowles, he featured on her sister Beyonce’s The Lion King: The Gift project, as well as Vic Mensa’s V Tape and “Famous” with Octavian.

Watch the “Smack DVD” visualizer above.

In a highly memorable moment a few weeks ago, Adam Driver stopped by the Last Week Tonight season finale, and he proceeded to “berate” John Oliver for spending the better part of 2020 basically begging the Kylo Ren actor to physically destroy him. The whole thing became an obsessive, if not downright outrageous, gag where Oliver referred to Driver as a “f*ckable redwood,” an “unwashed buffalo,” a “forlorn block,” and other oddly sexual names with menacing connotations. In short, it was all very weird, and Oliver will be the first to admit that.

While stopping by Late Night with Seth Meyers, Oliver revealed that the joke was initially just a weird idea from one of the writers, so they gave it a shot back in March, and the audience hated it. “It felt like only 40 percent enjoyed it,” Oliver said, and that’s when the obsession started forming. The writers doubled down on the gag, and once again, the audience wasn’t thrilled, which only fueled Oliver and the writers to push the joke even further. Finally, they realized they had to “put a ribbon” on the whole thing, and that’s when they hesitatingly reached out to Driver. As they feared, he was aware of the gag and found it “strange,” but he was also in.

As both Meyers and Oliver noted, Driver’s performance was incredible, and Oliver says it’s even more impressive because the two couldn’t even see each other. They were just using audio, and Oliver readily admits that “I was giving him nothing.” That’s how good Driver is at acting, and Oliver still can’t get over how jarring it is to see their separate sides of the screen in the final product.

You can watch Oliver describe the life and death of his Adam Driver obsession in the opening minutes above.

Miley Cyrus released her anticipated record Plastic Hearts on Friday. Because she couldn’t celebrate her album’s debut with a conventional release concert, the singer instead opted to host a variety show in a TikTok livestream. The show featured sketches, games, and a very convincing prank pulled on Iggy Azalea.

The prank started when Cyrus and Azalea were together in a dressing room. They were chatting about Cyrus’s new music when the room suddenly went up in smoke. A smoke alarm went off but Azalea realized the door was locked from the outside. In a moment of panic, Azalea opted to hide underneath her coat and shout “we can survive this” while Cyrus dialed 911. But just seconds later, Cyrus revealed the entire ordeal was nothing but a prank. Thankfully, no fire had actually started and neither of the musicians were in any real danger.

After a clip of the prank was posted on Twitter, Azalea made it clear she had no hard feelings about the incident. “I had called out and tried to open the door before that!” she wrote. “My plan was to get low, put covers over our head, while she called what I thought was 911.”

Watch a clip of the prank above.

Plastic Hearts is out now via RCA. Get it here.

(SPOILERS from The Mandalorian “Chapter 13: The Jedi” will be found below.)

As if the first live-action appearance of Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano wasn’t enough, Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian took several major steps towards pulling the bounty hunting series even deeper into the Star Wars universe. One of those steps is the revelation that Ahsoka is still searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn, who disappeared with her fellow Jedi Ezra Bridger during the season finale of Star Wars: Rebels. Without getting too deep into the weeds, Thrawn has been a major presence in Star Wars lore, going all the way back to the very early ’90s. In a nutshell, he was the Big Bad following the death of the Emperor. Obviously, Star Wars canon has changed since then, but Thrawn was reintroduced with all of his character traits still intact. And now his name drop in The Mandalorian opens up all kinds of possibilities, including the chance that he can still claim his place as the New Republic’s next major threat. There’s still 25 years to go until The Force Awakens, so that leaves lots of time to play with as Disney+ expands its live-action Star Wars offerings even further.

But we’re not the only ones nerding out over the big Thrawn reveal. Star Wars fans who’ve caught the latest The Mandalorian episode are absolutely freaking out at the chance of seeing a live-action version of the classic villain and all of the tantalizing story paths that come with it.

And for the extra Star Wars nerds out there, here’s a theory that could shed some new light on the final moments of Star Wars: Rebels.

It’s something to think about.

Over the course of ten years, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker transitioned from playing local shows in his Perth, Australia hometown to selling out stadiums and performing headlining sets at major festivals across the world. But because the pandemic threw off tour plans behind his recently released album The Slow Rush, Parker is possibly looking to return to his DIY roots.

Parker spoke about what he has in store for next year in a recent interview with Australia paper The Sydney Morning Herald. “I miss those smaller shows, those sweaty, intimate shows – it’s a vibe that can’t be replaced,” he said. “It’s not the same in an arena or a stadium. This year has been all about having a good excuse to do something you wouldn’t normally do so if it’s an excuse to do some smaller shows, I would love that.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Parker also clarified whether Tame Impala is considered a band or a solo project. “The music sounds like a band, which I guess has always been the source of confusion for people,” Parker said. “For all intents and purposes, I am a solo artist – I make music in my studio by myself and I bring it to the world. […] I am extremely fortunate that I have found my confidence and I can stand behind my music myself and say I made this.”

Ahead of his interview, Parker found out he was nominated for two Grammy Awards this year. The musicians is up for Best Rock Song for his The Slow Rush track “Lost In Yesterday,” as well as Best Alternative Music Album.

The Slow Rush is out now via Modular. Get it here.

Former Silver Spoons child star Ricky Schroder catapulted into the headlines last week after he proudly helped bail out Kyle Rittenhouse. The Kenosha shooter was awaiting trial on murder charges in Wisconsin after he was caught on tape while opening fire (with a semi-automatic rifle) into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters, killing two people (and wounding a third) in the process. The 17-year-old was defended by Tucker Carlson (which led to people calling for his Fox News firing) in the immediate aftermath, and three months later, Schroder is now defending himself for the bail-out move.

Schroder sounds pretty angry. Online backlash already upset him enough that he called police and posed with a gun, but now, he’s spoken more openly with the New York Post. As the actor explained, he felt “infuriated” because Kyle “was there to defend property.” Schroder’s words probably won’t help him win over any new online supporters for his cause, but nonetheless, he feels that Rittenhouse is “innocent”:

“It made me mad. This boy is innocent and he will be proven innocent. I did what any father should’ve done, and that’s get a kid out of jail that doesn’t deserve to be there… This was Kyle’s life being destroyed… This is his freedom at risk. It infuriated me to see an innocent 17-year-old young man being tried and found guilty before trial.”

Schroder also likened the charges against the teenager with allegations that were made against him in May 2019. At the time, Schroder was arrested after his girlfriend accused him of punching her, but prosecutors did not charge him over the alleged incident. “It sucked because everybody thought I was a woman beater, and I’m not a woman beater,” Schroder told the New York Post. “I was tried and convicted in the court of the media. But you have to understand, that’s only my reputation that was being destroyed.”

Again, Rittenhouse was caught on film while firing his gun at protesters who took to the streets after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, yet Schroder bailed the teenager out of jail because he’s convinced that Rittenhouse is not guilty of the charges against him. The teen’s bail had been set at $2 million due to being considered a flight risk, and he could face, at minimum, decades in prison if convicted.

(Via New York Post, AP, New York Times & CNN)

Back in April, Eminem woke in the middle of the night to a man breaking into his Detroit home and threatening his life. The rapper was thankfully unharmed and the intruder was detained by police. While the incident took place several months ago, the man will appear in court to face his charges in 2021.

The intruder, revealed to be 27-year-old Matthew David Hughes, will stand trial for his crime over a year after it took. As reported by the Detroit Free Press, Hughes’ trial has been set for April 19, 2021. Along with being charged for first-degree home invasion and malicious destruction of property, Hughes also faces charges of assaulting a prison employee — an incident that took place after he was arrested at Eminem’s house.

Much of the reason for Hughes’ delayed trial is due to the pandemic. When Hughes’ trial was being set, Judge Edward Servitto said it’s not possible to have a jury until it can be done safely. “I don’t believe we’re going to have trials with jurors until the vaccine is produced, and that’s a ways down the road, I think,” Servitto said.

A police officer who arrived on the scene during the original crime detailed what went down that night when he testified in September. According to the officer, Hughes told Eminem that he was there to kill him. Hughes did not have a weapon on hand, despite his threat, though he broke into the house by throwing a brick into the window.