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Continuing his own fight against the coronavirus, Bernie Sanders held a livestream Saturday night to discuss the virus and a relief package he hopes will pass through congress. As they have done before, both Soccer Mommy and Bon Iver appeared on the livestream to treat listeners to a few musical offerings. Both delivered their performances from the comfort of their own homes, but it was Bon Iver’s set that raised a few eyebrows thanks to his performance of an unreleased song.
In addition to performing his more recognized songs, “Towers” and “Blood Bank,” as well as a cover of Bob Dylan’s “With God On Our Side” on the guitar, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon performed “Things Behind Things Behind Things,” a beautiful and tender track that may appear on the band’s future work.
Justin Vernon’s performance comes a bit more than a week after the group announced that its upcoming tour featuring shows in Europe and the UK would be delayed until January 2021. “The entire Bon Iver team has been closely monitoring this unprecedented worldwide health situation, and it is under the guidance of those more knowledgeable than us that we have determined rescheduling to be the safest path forward for all involved.”
On a much brighter note, The National’s Aaron Dessner revealed that new material for he and Vernon’s Big Red Machine duo was almost done. In a post to Instagram, Dessner responded to a gift from a friend saying, “Wow @heckpaul ….you just raised my spirits ….literally finishing new @bigredmachineadjv as we speak. THANK YOU.”
Tiger King is everywhere these days, even if you can only watch it on Netflix. The extraordinary tales of Joe Exotic and a wild cast of characters taking care of big cats and plotting murders might even have a new episode coming later this week, if you believe one of the people involved in the show.
If that never comes to pass, though, we’ll always have Joe Exotic’s music videos. We now know the voice we hear in them isn’t Joe, but that doesn’t mean the videos are any less insane. Exotic’s music videos have been available online, but Netflix took it to the next level by re-editing one of Exotic’s most popular songs, “I Saw A Tiger,” and adding a sing-a-long element.
The bottom of the video features the song’s lyrics, though you could probably guess them even if they weren’t actually there. Exotic is a man of wild tastes, but his songs aren’t exactly winning any Mark Twain Awards anytime soon. The bouncing cat that follows each word is a pretty great touch, though.
Now we just need one for “Here Kitty Kitty,” which would be the first diss track that ever came with a sing-a-long music video that I can remember ever existing.
Dwyane Wade, like so many kids that grew up in the late 90s and early 00s, was a huge fan of Allen Iverson, which is among the reasons he wore the number 3.
As a rookie in 2003, Wade got the chance to meet Iverson for the first time down in Puerto Rico and learned Iverson’s generosity firsthand. On a recent episode of The Adam Lefkoe Show, Wade joined Lefkoe and fellow TNT Tuesday Night analyst Candace Parker to tell the story of going to a casino with Eddie Jones and having the Hall of Fame guard casually kick him a $1,000 chip so he could enjoy himself — and Wade made sure to keep a little of that for himself.
.@DwyaneWade on the time he met Allen Iverson at a casino as a rookie:
“He threw me a $1,000 chip and was like, ‘Yo, go play this, young fella.’ So I played $500, and I put the other $500 in my pocket.”
True OG
(via @LefkoeShow) pic.twitter.com/Q3wrubw93u
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 5, 2020
“Eddie Jones is like, ‘Young fella, come with me.’ Eddie Jones is my veteran. So I go with Eddie Jones, and he knew Allen Iverson was one of my favorite players, so he wanted to introduce me,” Wade said. “And he introduced me to Iverson right there while they were gambling, so Iverson’s gambling and I’m standing there the whole time. And he threw me a chip, he threw me a $1,000 chip and was like, ‘Yo, go play this, young fella.’ So I played $500, and I put the other $500 in my pocket, because I ain’t have money like that at the time.”
It’s a funny story, but also explains a lot about Iverson, who has long been one of the best veterans and past superstars when it comes to showing love to the next generation. Where many former players are critical of the modern game, Iverson has always been welcoming to the generations that have followed him, whether that’s offering them advice, praise, or, in the case of Wade, a little financial support so he can enjoy himself at the hotel casino.
Night two of WWE WrestleMania 36 airs tonight, Sunday, April 5, live on tape on WWE Network and pay-per-view. Remaining matches include Brock Lesnar defending the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre, a Firefly Funhouse Match, the Last Man Standing match between Edge and Randy Orton, and more.
Make sure to click here to read about night one, and here to check out Saturday’s open thread for night one.
Remaining WrestleMania 36 Card:
(advertised as of Saturday, April 5)
1. WWE Championship Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Drew McIntyre
2. NXT Women’s Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Charlotte Flair
3. Raw Tag Team Championship Match: Street Profits (c) vs. Austin Theory and Angel Garza
4. Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley
5. Last Man Standing Match: Edge vs. Randy Orton
6. Firefly Funhouse Match: Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena
7. Dolph Ziggler vs. Otis
8. Kickoff Show Match: Natalya vs. Liv MorganPresumably still hosted by Rob Gronkowski
Make sure to give your favorite comments from tonight’s open discussion a thumbs up, because as always we’re including ten of the best, funniest, and most insightful in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of WrestleMania 36 Night Two column. Be sure to flip your comments to “newest” in the drop-down menu, and enjoy the second night of the show!
As live sports and TV and film productions across the U.S. were postponed because of COVID-19, America’s two biggest wrestling companies continued to film wrestling shows. WWE reportedly plans to continue taping shows for the time being despite the stay-at-home order in the Performance Center’s home state, but according to the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, All Elite Wrestling has now shut down production indefinitely.
After they lost access to Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida, AEW had moved production to Georgia. But the future of that situation was precarious, especially now that Georgia has joined the list of states with stay-at-home orders. Before shutting down production, AEW was reportedly able to film material for multiple weeks of Dynamite, including matches in the tournament for the TNT Championship, its new men’s secondary title.
The first AEW TNT Champion is supposed to be crowned at Double Or Nothing (II) in Las Vegas on May 23. Though the coronavirus pandemic and how it impacts pro wrestling continues to evolve, the future of DON, at least as a normal wrestling show, feels up in the air, especially since Nevada has a stay-at-home order through April 30 and the MGM Grand, where the pay-per-view was scheduled to take place, is currently shut down.
The COVID-19 outbreak has forced everyone into their homes for social distancing and, for those that have come into contact with the virus, actual quarantining, and as such it has disrupted nearly every aspect of life.
One of the few bright spots in the otherwise catastrophic pandemic has been the creativity we’ve seen from the entertainment world to continue trying to engage with fans and bring a little joy to people. Nothing has been as successful at doing this as the Instagram Live producer battles that have been set up by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, who were the first to go head-to-head under the #VERZUZ tag, playing 20 hits back-to-back in a highly entertaining battle.
Since then, the battles have continued with Swizz and Timbo serving as the Don King and Bob Arum of the producer battle game on social media, pairing up producers for battles and promoting them across various platforms. It’s been highly entertaining to watch, and seeing how many big stars are watching along with fans and commenting on the battle in the live comments has been great. Recently, the Brands have begun to join in on the fun, and the results have been mixed, from the typical try-hard comments to some legitimately funny reactions — Lil Jon and T-Pain both freaked out upon realizing that the Netflix account was watching them in a very meta moment.
The star for many, however, has been the Sacramento Kings account which has popped up a few times, first in the Mannie Fresh-Scott Storch battle to weigh in on how the two were doing. Then, on Saturday night during T-Pain and Lil Jon’s highly entertaining battle, when Lil Jon threw on “Lovers & Friends” by Usher, the Kings account got, well, a bit personal.
Someone check on the Sacramento Kings social media intern man hes going through it pic.twitter.com/1V1gNFyhnO
— Hoops Reference (@HoopsReference) April 5, 2020
There is something hysterical about a team account saying their ex broke up with them to this song. When you think of a team account you don’t think of the social media manager running it, but the team as a whole or even a specific player that represents that team, so it’s very funny to imagine, like, Buddy Hield being transported back to a lost love while Usher croons during an Instagram Live battle. Some have thought the Kings social media person has simply forgotten to log off the company account, but given that the Kings account always operates on the edge and isn’t afraid of doing something weird or wild in the effort to be funny (and often is, it’s one of the best team accounts out there) this is surely purposeful.
If the effort is keeping people engaged with you and thinking about your account, then this approach is surely working. Mostly, I hope that the Kings social media person is doing alright and is no longer dwelling on that ex that left them at what I have to imagine was a homecoming dance while everyone else was grinding to Usher, Ludacris, and Lil Jon.