Category: News

As the world went into lockdowns and quarantines barely two months into 2020, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah was one of the first broadcasts to switch to an “at home” format featuring Noah on his couch wearing a comfortable hoodie. Jokingly rebranded as The Daily Social Distancing Show, Noah became a go-to for insightful commentary and information in the early days of the pandemic. His surprisingly no-nonsense and engaging interview with Dr. Fauci before he became a Saturday Night Live sketch, and political target, has been viewed over 11 million times.

Unfortunately, the coronavirus wasn’t the only major news event that broke during the spring. The killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked nationwide and global Black Lives Matter protests in late May. At the time, The Daily Show was on a two-week hiatus, which Noah appreciated for a simple and insightful reason.

“I was glad that we weren’t on the air. I couldn’t speak. I had to listen,” Noah explained to Variety. The time absorbing the protests also caused Noah to rethink details like his wardrobe when the show returned to cover the growing movement. “I wore a black hoodie for a while. Not to build it up, but I just — I didn’t feel like color, you know? Every day, when I walked into the closet, it didn’t feel like a purple day; it didn’t feel like a green day; it didn’t feel like a red day. It felt like a black day.”

It’s that type of thinking that led Jon Stewart to recently praise The Daily Show for being “better” with Noah behind the desk, especially when it comes to bringing more diverse opinions to the show. While admitting his own failings at not making The Daily Show more inclusive, Stewart had nothing but praise for Noah while talking to Howard Stern. “It took 16 years to change it at a glacial pace. Because that kind of mindset to me, because I didn’t grow up in it… it’s not a part of me,” Stewart said. “For Trevor, it’s a part of him. It flows from him naturally… It makes it better. The show is better.”

(Via Variety)

Back in mid-2019, it felt like fantastic news to hear that Stephen King’s The Stand was getting the remake treatment with a limited series at CBS All Access. Then six months passed, and you-know-what happened, and suddenly, this show seemed like the victim of unfortunate timing. Yes, King’s book is widely considered to be one of the best post-apocalyptic works of fiction, but perhaps a revisiting of the Captain Trips virus that obliterated 99% of Earth’s population isn’t such a great idea in 2020. Well, CBS All Access has thought this through, and they still got production back on track to move ahead with a December 17 release.

Skepticism might be the initial reaction to this decision, but this is Stephen King we’re talking about. People know to expect a darkened (and possibly darkly humorous) tone from him. Even HBO’s The Outsider contained a Spanish Flu reference around the same time that Covid-19 was heating up, so there’s that. And King had already written a new ending for the series, so there’s some curiosity-fueling potential for this remake starring Alexander Skarsgard as Randall Flag, James Marsden as Stu Redman, and a vast ensemble cast that includes Marilyn Manson as an unknown character.

Variety quotes The Stand showrunner Benjamin Cavell about why the time might still be right for this remake, despite it feeling all-too-eerily relevant:

“During the two years we spent making ‘The Stand,’ we all felt the responsibility of adapting what may be the most beloved work of one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, but none of us could have imagined that Stephen King’s 40-year-old masterpiece about a global pandemic would come to be so eerily relevant. We’re honored to tell this sprawling, epic story, including a new coda that Stephen King has wanted to add for decades. We’re so proud of this show and its attempt to find meaning and hope in the most uncertain of times. We can’t wait to share it with the world.”

Back in March, James Marsden revaled how unsettling it felt to be on set when anyone displayed symptoms like coughing, but it appears that everyone rallied to get this remake’s footing back on solid ground for a launch. And who knows, this might actually draw in some wild TV ratings, depending upon several factors, including where the U.S. stands on putting Covid-19 to sleep for good.

Recently, King’s son, NOS4A2 author Joe Hill, told us that he sometimes talks with King about our current situation. Hill quoted King as saying, “The thing about this particular scenario is that imagination is this incredibly vital tool that’s used to make a living, but it can also turn against you.” Clearly, both father and son are in the business of horror, and they do it well, and the genre can provide therapeutic experiences for audiences. We’ll find out more in December when The Stand remake launches.

(Via Variety)

Budding songwriter Samia is gearing up for the release of her debut album, The Baby, which arrives in full Friday. So far, the singer has teased the upcoming release with a handful of powerful singles. Giving fans one last taste of the project, Samia shares a visual to “Triptych,” a final single which showcases her moving and wistful songwriting.

Directed by Fred Hechinger, the visual depicts Samia finding unexpected love with a ventriloquist dummy. The pair share intimate and at times awkward moments on Samia’s journey to self discovery, underscored by the tender ballad.

In a statement alongside the visual’s release, Samia said she was inspired to write the song after reading a book about a medieval lord:

“I wrote ‘Triptych’ sobbing in a green room in Denver. I’d just read the story of Francis Bacon and his lover/muse, George Dyer, whose chaotic lifestyle served as Bacon’s artistic inspiration. George Dyer overdosed in the bathroom of a hotel room paid for by Bacon, who famously painted a triptych of his lover’s final moments. I had just been through a pretty tough breakup and felt I might be purposefully getting myself into dicey situations to justify my big feelings and write about them. ‘Triptych’ was a pretty blatant cry for help and an opportunity to confess my fear of being misunderstood.”

Watch Samia’s “Triptych” video above.

The Baby is out 8/28 via Grand Jury Music. Pre-order it here.

The first American sports league to return to play in a bubble this summer was the NWSL, which held its Challenge Cup in Utah where the Houston Dash emerged victorious. It was the first real proof point of how sports could return to action and that the bubble system works, which the MLS, WNBA, NBA, and NHL have all shown further in recent months.

Now, they will look to build off of the success of the Challenge Cup with their upcoming Fall Series, in which the league’s nine teams will be broken into pods — West, Northeast, and South — with each team getting four games. The pods concept is in an effort to limit travel and keep teams as safe as possible. The pods are broken up as follows.

WEST: OL Reign, Portland Thorns, Utah Royals FC
NORTHEAST: Chicago Red Stars, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit
SOUTH: Houston Dash, Orlando Pride, North Carolina Courage

The schedule for the games and complete format for the Fall Series will be announced next week, but what we do know is games will run from September 5 to October 17, with a game each Saturday in September on CBS and on CBS Sports Network in October. Getting games on the main network is, obviously, a big win for the league to get even greater exposure on a major network station, with CBS broadcasting other games on their CBS All Access platform.

Taylor Swift’s surprise record Folklore awarded the singer an impressive feat: she became the first woman to have an album spend its first four weeks at No. 1. To celebrate, Swfit found a clever way to thank fans while also supporting record stores across the country. The singer sent boxes of signed Folklore CDs to indie records stores. Word of the exclusive copies spread quickly among Swifties, and one fan was lucky enough to find a full box in her hands.

Over the weekend, Swifties lined up in front of Exclusive Co. record store in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Manager Tom Smith allowed fans to wait outside the store before he opened, but UPS delivered the precious package 15 minutes before he arrived. Smith recounted the event to Today. “I walk up, and one of the people standing outside the store handed me the box and said UPS had her sign for it,” Smith said.

But instead of running off with the box and reselling CDs to make a pretty penny, the Swift fan asked herself what Taylor would have done. “I said, ‘Thank you for not walking off with this,’” Smith said. “She goes, ‘Taylor would have not wanted me to walk off with this.’” Smith said the box could have “easily” made the fan $9,000, but instead she chose to do the right thing. “It’s really endearing,” he said. “Taylor Swift does so much good with her celebrity, and you can see how it also trickles down to her fans.”

Folklore is out now via Republic. Get it here.

In a new interview with Hot97’s The Breakfast Club, Nas finally admits what many long suspected — that despite having months to work on it from when it was announced, he and Kanye West rushed through the development of their joint album, Nasir, which contributed to its lukewarm reception among fans.

While Nas has openly admitted a penchant for procrastination on his own projects the past, this time is seems he can pin the failings on Kanye’s distractedness as he tried to stir too many pots at once. “[Kanye] was working on a lot,” Nas says. “He had Cudi, Teyana Taylor, he had his album. I was the only one coming in starting fresh. So I had less time with him. We really did that album the week it was supposed to come out.”

He says that the reason so many of the seven songs from the project sound sort of incomplete is because they mostly were. “I don’t know what went wrong,” he confesses, “But I would say I did want to work more with him. I did spend some time there with him, but I was working on ideas. He would give me a few loops and I would write to them, but they wasn’t finished.”

Nas also explains the production of his new project with Hit-Boy, King’s Disease, which is receiving a much more positive response after getting off to a shaky start with “Ultra Black.”

Watch Nas’ full interview with The Breakfast Club above.

The Dallas Mavericks managed to tie their first round series with the Clippers at 2-2 thanks to the heroics of Luka Doncic, whose 43 points, 17 rebounds, and 13 assists in Game 4 was punctuated with a stepback game-winner for the ages, sending the Mavs and the entire NBA world into a frenzy.

It was the kind of moment that will live on highlight reels forever, and what made the Mavs Game 4 performance so impressive was that they orchestrated a 21-point comeback without the services of Kristaps Porzingis. While Doncic has been able to play through his sprained ankle, Porzingis was a late scratch due to knee soreness in Game 4, and on Tuesday the team downgraded his status to officially OUT for Game 5 with the same issue.

Given Porzingis’ knee issues in the past, it’s understandable why he and the Mavs would be cautious with any soreness, but it certainly puts a damper on their hopes of pulling off the series upset. That said, with Doncic playing the way he is coupled with the emergence of some of the Mavs bench pieces like Seth Curry and Trey Burke taking on much larger scoring roles in this series, they’ve been able to manage. The bigger issue likely comes on the defensive end, where Porzingis was, by far and away, their best rim protector. They’ll have to continue upping Boban Marjanovic’s minutes, but his positive contributions almost all come on the offensive end.

Alter egos have always been creative tools of the masters, but they can get tricky. In literature, most protagonists are written in some likeness to their authors. Marcel Duchamp was one of the first conceptual artists to step out as a second self. Music has many prolific examples: Bowie did it with Ziggy Stardust, Nicki Minaj has several, George Clinton created an entire alternate universe out of them. And sports are rife with them because there’s something to be said for creating an in-game persona that’s capable of consuming nerves and doubt and converting them to confidence when it’s time to compete.

But a cross-vocation hybrid?

JaVale McGee’s alter ego, “Pierre,” isn’t a secret. He released a self-titled album with it in 2018, and continues to produce music under it, most recently on Justin Bieber’s February 2020 album on the track Available. McGee has dabbled in producing media with him behind or around the camera for just as long. He hosted the Parking Lot Chronicles during his time with Golden State, a funny and candid show where he interviewed teammates in the parking lot outside Oracle, and since arriving in Orlando for the season restart has been releasing his Life in the Bubble vlogs that chronicle the charming daily ennui of he and his teammates.

It’s clear that McGee is a true creative, in the sense that he is most happy when he is turning his gaze out on the world and producing something, free to try new things. For his latest interpretation, a new podcast called Finding Pierre, McGee’s turned all the way inward, going past Pierre as a veneer and attempting instead to find and simultaneously write the origin story of his alter ego.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSNpav4RTpA&feature=youtu.be

“Ever since I was little, I wanted to make music.” McGee muses in the opening line of the podcast’s trailer, over his own new original track, Round of Applause, “But when you can run the floor and protect the rim like me, basketball, it just kind of chooses you.

The story that’s promised to unfold is loosely based on McGee’s own trajectory into the league, a young first-round draft pick who was “picked from my mama’s house in Flint, Michigan and thrust into the big leagues.” McGee narrates the intro to Finding Pierre as himself, at first, but shifts in and out of person and persona in the way one would in their own head.

“Basketball by day, alone in a strange new city by night with nothing but my music to keep me company,” McGee recalls, delving into some of the stress that came with his success and self-interpreted doubt. “I was a lottery pick, Slam Dunk Champion, but I’ve also led the league in air balls and been traded three times in four years. My commitment to the game was questioned from day one.”

When McGee introduces his on-court alter ego, Sly Malone — the one who’ll be narrating the new Audio Up produced podcast — he slips easily into the story. We haven’t spent any time with him but he’s as fully realized as McGee, plucked directly from his brain completely whole, an NCAA basketball player living a secret identity by night as a music producer, navigating two paths at once.

“The real truth is, without my music I’d never survive the stress of NBA life. I needed an alter ego. A mask, to shield Sly Malone, the basketball player, from the scrutiny of fans and media. So I created Pierre,” McGee says sunnily. “Super producer. He saved my life.”

The show will feature new and original music by McGee in every episode, a chance to showcase what he’s done since he was a freshman in college. You can hear an exclusive snippet of one of his tracks, “Let’s Get Loud,” below.

On his venture into podcasting, following a handful of other NBA stars like his teammate, Danny Green, McGee says, “Podcasting is something that I’ve always been interested in. The way Audio Up and CEO Jared Gutstadt takes both music and stories, and turns them into something much bigger, is catching a lot of people’s attention. I’m excited to be a part of this first wave.”

“I’m creating a whole new album, featuring music by my alter ego Pierre. It’s going to be unlocked throughout the original stories within each of the eight episodes. It will be the perfect way for us to expand my digital brand and get some music out in a dynamic way. Folks discover music in all sorts of ways, and Podcasting could just be that new primary avenue. It could turn from being a podcast, into the next big summer blockbuster or animated series!”

Will Sly Malone ultimately pick basketball, like McGee did, will Pierre the producer prevail, or will both find a happy coexistence in each other’s heads, much like McGee himself has created a cerebral coalescence with.

In recent years, there seems to be a trend of musicians putting their beef behind them. Katy Perry and Taylor Swift smoothed things over with a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and Rick Ross recently announced he’s willing to reconnect with 50 Cent if the rapper agrees to promote his partnered brands. Some feuds, though, still live on — like the infamous rivalry between ’90s boybands NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. But NSYNC’s Joey Fatone wants to settle things once and for all with a nostalgia-inducing Verzuz battle.

TMZ caught up with NSYNC star Joey Fatone and asked the singer who he thought would win in a Verzuz battle. “Well, first of all, there’s no contest, between Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. NSYNC will always win,” Fatone quipped.

Fatone then detailed the possibility of a Verzuz battler happening, saying it would be pretty unlikely: “What I will say is it would be hard to do because, believe it or not, a lot of our writers and producers are the same writers and producers as the Backstreet. Let’s be real here — It depends on where we’re going, what outlet, because then if we go with Justin too, Justin also wrote a couple of his own albums, the same thing you could go with AJ [McLean] too, he wrote an album or two. But I think it would be a tough decision of really how that would go down because of the style.”

Though the singer doesn’t believe the battle would be possible, he still thinks it would be a “fun” thing to do: “I don’t think it would be a good thing to have. I think it would be fun, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if everybody would agree. That’s the thing with us — the five of us always have to agree on it together. If we don’t, we don’t do it.”

For now, it seems as though fans will have to keep an eye out on the Verzuz Instagram page to see if the battle between the two boybands becomes a reality.

Last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez replied to a “blatantly misleading tweet” from NBC News, which reported that the congresswoman “did not endorse Joe Biden.” While technically true, this was standard procedure (AOC backed Bernie Sanders) and, as she noted, her remarks were shared “WELL in advance” to the media, including NBC News. “This is completely unacceptable, disappointing, and appalling… @NBC knew what was going to happen & that it was routine,” she wrote, adding that the tweet “sparked an enormous amount of hatred and vitriol, & now the misinfo you created is circulating on other networks.” To reduce the amount of, well, actually fake news (shudder) online, Ocasio-Cortez shared tips “for consuming media and staying informed” on Instagram.

The tips include “don’t rely on only one source,” “get an idea for each outfit’s slant / vibe / perspective / whatever you want to call it (in other words, never trust anything on Breitbart), “identify journalists whose work you respect and trust.” Ocasio-Cortez also noted that “many journalists are not responsible for the headlines above their work,” so even if you don’t like the headline, that doesn’t mean the story isn’t worth reading.

AOC then added a few more quick-hit important tips, like “support local journalism,” “don’t fall down the ‘fake news wormhole but still keep a critical eye,” and (the all-caps emphasis is hers), “PAY FOR A NEWS SUBSCRIPTION (if you can). News outlets that don’t have to chase click ads as much can invest in investigatory journalism.” You can probably get a subscription to your city’s newspaper for around $10/month — use the money you’re not spending on a Quibi membership to support local journalism.

You can find all the tips below.