Category: News

Netflix’s latest animated show is about a basketball coach who isn’t very good at basketball. Thankfully, that coach is voiced by New Girl star Jake Johnson.

“As everybody knows, it’s bad luck to end practice on a miss,” the coach says in the trailer for Netflix’s animated show Hoops. Problem is, the shots just aren’t falling. Johnson’s character gets closer and closer to the hoop, eventually resorting to layups that keep clanging out. There’s a lot of swearing in front of children, who look to be a bit beaten up and downtrodden in their own right. But you can’t end practice without a make, so Johnson’s coach lowers the rim to give himself a fighting chance.

Predictably, he goes in for a dunk on a 4-foot rim and the ball clangs halfway across the court, drawing more curses. It’s a brief glimpse at what the show will be like — Johnson’s character coaching from a position of weakness as he helms the Colts, who at least seemed to have some success in the 80s.

We’ve seen some great voice acting from Johnson in Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse and the character seems perfect for his tonality. The trailer said we’ll see more on August 21, which doesn’t leave a lot of time to hit the gym and put up some shots to get into playing shape.

Because 2020 is a non-stop juggernaut of crazy, Adult Swim found itself in the middle of a viral conspiracy theory after a woman on Twitter stumbled upon Cartoon Network‘s late night animation block for clearly the first time.

Despite the fact that Adult Swim has been on the air since 2001, the woman fired off a set of now-private tweets that accuses Cartoon Network of duping unsuspecting parents by switching its programming from children’s cartoons to content that is a plot to normalize infant sacrifice. Yup, you read that.

“They throw it in your face,” the woman wrote. “They hope you aren’t the kind of parents who monitor what your kids watch and do. What do you see here? I see witches abusing babies. This is not ok.”

After her tweet went viral, the woman was swarmed by Twitter users who pointed that not only has Adult Swim existed for almost two decades, but it’s literally called “Adult Swim” as in not for kids. On top of that, the programming block is known for its bumpers that repeatedly warn that its airing material for mature audiences. Cartoon Network managed to make it twenty years without any problems, but welcome to Twitter.

Clearly the folks at Adult Swim caught wind of the controversy because, first thing Monday morning, they tweeted out its bumper warning that airs before every show along with a polite caption.

You can see Adult Swim’s reaction below:

As for the woman who kicked off the viral event, she took her account private, but not before boasting that “when the darkness is exposed, the demons start panicking,” which is one way you can describe what happened here, we guess.

(Via Adult Swim)

In late January, the Damon Albarn-led group Gorillaz teased a new project titled Song Machine. While it at first wasn’t clear what form the new project would take, Gorillaz began cranking out singles with an ever-evolving eclectic array of artists from UK rapper Slowthai to ‎Kate Tempest’s former drummer Georgia. Now, Gorillaz once again return with the brand-new single “Pac-Man,” which arrives on the 40th anniversary of the iconic arcade game.

This time, Gorillaz tapped LA rapper Schoolboy Q to offer up a verse on the new single. A digital beat accompanied by a sweeping bass provides the song’s instrumentals as Albarn offers breathy lyrics: “I’m a mad Pac-Man / Living in levelled world / Everywhere I go / I don’t know where I am.” The beat breaks down into a cacophony of synths before Schoolboy Q’s hard-hitting verse puts it back on track.

The song’s accompanying video was directed by Jamie Hewlett and depicts the band being taken over by an addictive video game. Gorillaz’s members begin to feel the hallucinogenic effects of the game before getting a much-needed wake-up call.

“Pac-Man” marks the fifth installation of Gorillaz’s Song Machine series. The group kicked off their project with a collaboration with Slowthai and Slaves, before sharing the tracks “Désolé,” “Aries,” and most recently, “Friday 13th” with Octavian.

Listen to Gorillaz and Schoolboy Q’s “Pac-Man” above.

Gorillaz are a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Uproxx is excited to announce we’re partnering with EDGE (Experiential Development for Gaming and Esports), a new cultural entertainment platform designed to connect regionalized communities of casual gamers by VY Esports. To celebrate this, we’re teaming up with GameStop on EDGE’s launch event, which features Madden in partnership with the North American Collegiate League, and will be available on both the UPROXX Gaming and GameStop Twitch streams.

The event takes place on July 25, 2020, and runs from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. PST. Hosted by esports personality Jess Brohard, the event is packed with big names from the worlds of gaming, sports, and entertainment. Los Angeles Chargers star Derwin James and Los Angeles Rams rookie Cam Akers will join in on the fun, as will rapper and gamer YBN Nahmir. Additionally, representatives from FaZe Clan and Team Liquid will participate, as will esports representatives from UCLA, USC, and UC Irvine.

“As the go-to source for culture and entertainment, we are always striving to deliver content that moves audiences to engage, listen, and share,” UPROXX Head of Publishing Kristopher Maske said in a statement. “And with more and more people exploring the world of gaming and esports, we’re thrilled to dedicate our efforts to collaborate with VY Esports to amplify this subculture of tomorrow.”

American Eagle is also joining the event as a sponsor. If you’d like to follow along, head on over to the Uproxx Twitch channel and subscribe, or visit the EDGE site for details.

On Saturday evening, 53-year-old Chris David, a disabled Navy veteran, took a bus ride to downtown Portland. According to the Washington Post, he had seen videos of federal agents attacking protesters, whisking some of them away in unmarked vans, and was disturbed by what he saw. So he decided to go talk to them, to ask them what they thought of the oath they had made to defend the Constitution of the United States.

David, who had never attended a protest before, hung back and watched protesters outside the federal courthouse after he arrived on the scene. When the feds arrived, they rushed a line of protesters, and David took the opportunity to approach the agents. Standing before them in his Navy sweatshirt, he asked them, “Why are you not honoring your oath? Why are you not honoring your oath to the Constitution?”

At first, agents pushed him away, causing him to stumble. He regained his footing, then continued to question the agents. Video footage from Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling then shows one agent hitting David repeatedly with a baton, while David somehow stands firm and unflinching with every blow.

“I stood my ground at that point and just stayed there…I did nothing provocative,” David told The Independent. They just started wailing on me with batons, and I let them. I probably could’ve taken a lot more baton blows if they had not sprayed pepper spray all over my eyes.”

After the pepper spray, David turned around and walked away, flipped the agents the bird, then stumbled into a cloud of tear gas. He managed to make his way to a park bench where he was helped by a medic.

“I would really, really, really like to thank Tav,” he wrote on Twitter. “She’s my street medic angel who pulled me out of the park and took me to safety when I couldn’t see anything anymore. She stayed with me the whole time and then her and her friends drove me around to find an ambulance.”

At the hospital, David found out that his hand was broken in two places. On Twitter, he shared that the surgeon had splinted his hand for now, but “plates, screws, and/or pins” await him on Friday.

People have made offers for donations or assistance, which David has said he doesn’t need. However, he has said he wants to help raise funds for street medics and Black Lives Matter.

A true hero stands firm in the face of injustice, not for personal glory or recompense, but because it’s the right thing to do. And a true hero redirects any attention or offers they receive to those who truly need it or who can further the cause of justice.

Christopher David proved himself a true hero this weekend, though he doesn’t see himself as the superhero some are making him out to be.

“They are playing me up as an Iron Man and a Superman,” David told KOIN News. “I’m a 53-year-old overweight man on blood thinners and I have a lot of physical damage from the military. So, I’m not made of steel at all. They could have killed me last night, as my ex-wife and daughter have reminded me 45 times this morning.”

Thank you, sir, for reminding federal agents who and what they took an oath to protect and for the physical sacrifices you ended up making in order to do so.

MMA fighter Alain “The Panther” Ngalani posted a video to Instagram on Thursday demonstrating the importance of wearing a mask on public transportation and it’s received over 86,000 likes.

In the video shot on a Hong Kong train, a maskless rider attempts to sit next to the four-time kickboxing and Muay Thai World Champion as he’s reading a book. But the fighter refuses to allow him to sit down by doing the splits so his legs cover the entire row of seats.

“If you are not wearing a mask in public transport, keep your distance! Don’t argue with me,” Ngalani wrote on the post.

Masks are mandatory on public transportation throughout most of the United States because, according to studies, people are 19 times more likely to catch COVID-19 indoors compared to an open-air environment.

According to a UC Davis study, wearing a mask decreases the chances of contracting COVID-19 by 65%.

“Everyone should wear a mask,” Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, said in a statement. “People who say, ‘I don’t believe masks work,’ are ignoring scientific evidence. It’s not a belief system. It’s like saying, ‘I don’t believe in gravity.’

“People who don’t wear a mask increase the risk of transmission to everyone, not just the people they come into contact with,” Blumberg added. “It’s all the people those people will have contact with. You’re being an irresponsible member of the community if you’re not wearing a mask. It’s like double-dipping in the guacamole. You’re not being nice to others.”

There are still people out there (dads) who dismissively call Game of Thrones, one of the biggest commercial and critical hits in television history, the “dragon show.” But it’s obviously much more than that, just as another HBO series, Lovecraft Country, has higher ambitions than being known as the “monsters show.” The 1950s-set horror drama is about racial inequality, police brutality, and being Black in Jim Crow-era America.

And also “really f*cking cool” monsters.

“We have the ghost story. We have the adventure, the Indiana Jones story. We have the mystery story. We have the sci-fi story,” showrunner Misha Green told Entertainment Weekly about Lovecraft Country before praising the special effects team for the digital beasts they worked on. Originally, she wanted to put a dragon into the show, but that proved to be too expensive (no wonder Daenerys went from three dragons to one), so she and the team came up with a replacement monster that looks “really f*cking cool”:

“The idea that there’s not just one monster. I didn’t want to wait till the end of the season to see some big effects. I wanted to start in episode one and keep building from that.”

Episode one will also have an “extremely frightening” scene involving a small-sundown town Massachusetts police officer threatening to lynch three Black people if they don’t cross the county line in time. “The slow chase is probably the most tense thing I had experienced,” Da 5 Bloods breakout Jonathan Majors said. “You see a cop car, it could be a hearse. So that sequence was extremely frightening… You want the tension. But when it all came down, when it was all over, we had each other. And that’s a great theme in the [show]: that this family is so tight.” Lovecraft Country premieres on August 16.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

While whiskey remains king in the spirts world, over the past few years enthusiasm for high-quality rum has increased substantially. There’s a pretty good reason for this and it should be obvious to whiskey fans. This sugarcane-based spirit — which is undergoing the same barrelling revolution as bourbon — is well suited for the whiskey drinker’s palate and complex enough that there’s a whole subculture for would-be geeks to dive into.

As with any booming industry, it’s not all gold. Though you have more high-quality rums readily available than ever before, you’ve also got a few duds to wade through, too. We’re talking about overrated bottles that get poured more than they deserve. This isn’t about putting brands on blast. Think of it as more of… an education, at the hands of bartenders. A reminder that you don’t have to always grab the bottle you immediately recognize.

Here’s what a handful of bartenders called out as their picks for the most overrated rums on the market.

Diplomatico Reserva

Nestor Marchand, director of food and beverage at Plunge Beach Resort in Lauderdale, Florida

Diplomatico Reserva. This rum is not very complex for a premium brand. It gets a lot of praise, but the flavors aren’t on par with the high price tag.

Captain Morgan Cannon Blast

Shawn Brown, general manager of Wine World in Miramar Beach, Florida

Captain Morgan Cannon Blast. Compared to others at this price point, it lacks complexity and depth of flavor. At 70 proof, it won’t go as far in mixing cocktails. It seems more like a gimmick than a serious bottle.

The Kraken

Reniel Garcia, bar director of Havana 1957 on Espanola Way in Miami

The Kraken — The quality has dropped lately, while the others around it have improved. I don’t know how much sugar is in this rum, but it is very, very sweet.

Pyrat

Seamus Gleason, bartender at Hotel Jackson in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Pyrat. It’s way too sweet. Drinks more like a cheap cognac and that’s really not what we’re hoping for with an aged rum.

Bacardi Spiced

Robert Swain Jr. of On the Rox Bartending Service in the British Virgin Islands

Popularly used for mojitos and other rum-based cocktails, Bacardi Spiced in my opinion has been overrated for many years. It’s very harsh, dry, and tasteless.

Captain Morgan Spiced Rum

Kurt Bellon, general manager and beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis

Captain Morgan is the brand called for when folks are looking for a generic rum and coke. Its marketing has positioned itself as the spiced rum, but I certainly don’t think it’s the best-spiced rum out there.

Bumbu

Tim Wiggins, co-owner and beverage director of Retreat Gastropub in St. Louis

Bumbu “rum” is one product that is incredibly misleading and overrated. It is marketed as “craft rum” when in reality it is a liqueur. It is a flavored liquid that is at best a bastardized version of rum. It’s truly unfortunate that it has become so popular.

Bacardi Superior

Jeremy Allen, beverage director of MiniBar Hollywood in Los Angeles

Starts with a B and rhymes with “the party.” The rough aftertaste is rivaled only by Absolut. To be fair, their 8 year is actually very nice [We argee!].

Writer’s Picks:

Malibu

Sure, if it’s the first alcohol you ever drink, you might enjoy the cloyingly sweet flavor of Malibu mixed with cola or pineapple juice. But if you actually drink rum, this stuff will make it feel like your teeth are going to fall out. Sure, it’s technically a liqueur, but it still has a rum base and is called rum — both of which are insults to the dynamism of this spirt.

Myer’s Original Dark

Part of the appeal of Myer’s Original Dark is that its fairly cheap and it’s a blend of nine different rums of various ages. But for more refined palates, it’s a little too sweet because of the addition of extra molasses after distillation. Not a bad bottle to have in your collection, but certainly overrated.

Over the weekend, it was made clear that Juice WRLD’s new album, Legends Never Die, is a smash. The posthumous release debuted at No. 1 thanks to the biggest first week for an album this year. The album isn’t done making waves yet, though. Billboard, as it does on Mondays, revealed the top 10 of its Hot 100 chart, and of the ten tracks on the July 25-dated chart, five of them are by Juice.

As might be obvious, this isn’t something that happens all that often. In fact, Juice is just the third artist in the chart’s history to pull it off. Most recently, Drake scored seven tracks in the top ten (the all-time record) on the chart dated July 14, 2018. The only artist to do it before that is The Beatles, who did it twice, on April 4 and 11, 1964.

Four of Juice’s top-ten songs — “Come & Go,” “Wishing Well,” “Conversations,” and “Hate The Other Side” — make their debuts this week, which is good for another record. Four simultaneous top-ten debuts ties the all-time high mark: Lil Wayne did it on October 13, 2018, and Drake did it first, on July 14, 2018.

Elsewhere on the chart, DaBaby and Roddy Ricch’s “Rockstar” remains at No. 1 for the sixth week.

Read our review of Legends Never Die here.

Legends Never Die is out now via Interscope. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Being a black woman in America can be difficult and exhausting and it often takes an emotional toll. Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Willson knows this all too well and wanted to share her experiences in a powerful essay published in The Players’ Tribune titled “Dear Black Girls.”

Wilson starts off in reminiscence of a poem or lyrics to a song that will be a black girl anthem.

“This is for all the girls with an apostrophe in their name. This is for all the girls who are ‘too loud’ and ‘too emotional.’ This is for all the girls who are constantly asked, ‘Oh, what did you do with your hair? That’s new.’ This is for my Black girls.”

The 6’4 forward is from South Carolina shared details of her heartbreaking first experience with racism while in the fourth grade after being invited to a birthday party by one of her white friends. Wilson was told she had to stay outside at the party because her friend’s dad didn’t like black people.

While this left her deflated and alone, the Aces’ star player knew that is what many black people have experienced in some form or another in their lives. It was valuable to her to learn about that painful reality at such a young age. Wilson also believes that black girls [women] are often stereotyped or silenced when we want to be heard. Words like “Loud,” “Angry” and “Ghetto” are thrown out there, she says.

“We’re a double minority,” Wilson proclaims. “It’s like the world is constantly reminding us — You’re a girl and you’re a Black girl.”

Difficulties of being the only black person in specific settings are all too familiar. The burden of being the only one is astronomical at times and leaves us with a range of hurtful and angry emotions. To be a black woman and stand up and let our voices be heard is very important. We can be smart, talented, and qualified but still, it’s not enough.

It is our responsibility to let little black girls know they are enough regardless of what society thinks of them. It is our responsibility to continue to speak up for one another. Sometimes we have to be the voice of the voiceless and stand up for what we believe in. As alone as Wilson felt being the only one in a majority white elementary, it was comforting to her to see a familiar face daily that looked like her. It was the school lunch lady that brought her a little excitement daily, which she wanted to note to show that examples can come from anywhere.

“You don’t have to be a WNBA player or a politician or a celebrity to have an impact on someone else,” said the WNBA All-Star.

Like the majority of black women and other women of color, Wilson just wants to be heard — all the time. “I don’t want to have to be UNAPOLOGETIC for you to hear me.”

Hear us!