Kenny Rogers deserved better. But, then again, I guess we all deserve a little better right now. So, with things currently how they are, it’s unfortunate, but not terribly surprising, that Kenny Rogers’ passing was greeted with an almost collective ambivalence. Which just goes to prove how dire the circumstances are now because Rogers was a giant and such a huge part of popular culture in past decades.

Yes, most people know him for his duet with Dolly Parton, “Islands in the Stream.” Or for both singing and staring about a cardplayer who knew when to stop playing. (For me, the strangest entry into Rogers canon is the song “Coward of the County,” which has some seriously disturbing lyrics for such a mainstream song.)

But, I think there’s a sweet spot era of people who were first introduced to Kenny Rogers via his acting in movies like the 1982 racecar driving motion picture, Six Pack. Now, Six Pack was one of those movies that played on HBO pretty much nonstop in the early days of HBO. And as a latchkey kid, only child, and now member of the *New Greatest Generation, yes, I watched Six Pack many, many, many times.

*There’s been an unusual amount of pieces written lately about the heroism of Gen X because we are used to isolating ourselves and not being particularly needy or social. Look, if someone wants to send accolades my way because instead of “going outside” after school I’d go home and play Excitebike, I’ll certainly take them. It didn’t feel particulary heroic at the time, but I guess someone had to defeat Soda Popinski. But it also feels a little disingenuous to proclaim Gen X is good at anything, really. This seems out of character. So, please, just leave me alone and let me watch Six Pack in peace.

I’m always fascinated when a movie isn’t on streaming, it’s not even available to purchase on iTunes (or whatever it’s called these days), but it is available in full, through multiple sources, for free on YouTube. Does this mean the rights holder has just given up? Basically the effort to put this on some sort of streaming platform isn’t worth the trouble and if people really want to watch it so bad, well, have at it? Anyway, after scouring every other possible option, I watched a, let’s say, “serviceable” version on YouTube.

I have to say, for a movie I watched repeatedly as a little kid, I remember very little about Six Pack. The opening scene – which shows us down-on-his-luck race car driver Brewster Baker, solemnly driving along with his race car in tow – opens with my favorite Kenny Rogers song, “Love Will Turn You Around,” which immediately made me feel a rare emotion called “happiness.” And the good news is, somehow this song plays three times during the duration of Six Pack. This is not a complaint!

The premise of Six Pack, about six orphans who join Brewster Baker’s racing team, is a lot weirder than I remember. Well, at least when I was a kid it didn’t seem that crazy that me and five other friends my age would just hang out with Kenny Rogers and race cars. He seemed like a cool guy! But, now, from the other side, if I were a rival race car driver and Brewster Baker is just hanging out with six kids all the time, it would raise some questions.

Also, I had no idea two of the kids would turn into famous people. Diane Lane and Anthony Michael Hall make up a third of the “Six Pack orphans” who Baker meets after they steal his engine. It turns out a corrupt Texas sheriff (hm, I wonder where that idea came from), played by *Barry Corbin, was making them do this.

(*We don’t talk about Barry Corbin enough. What a run he had in the early ‘80s – pretty much playing the same variation of a tough-talking character with a southern drawl. And you probably know him best as General Beringer in WarGames. You know, the guy who gets to tell Dabney Coleman, “your new defense system sucks.” Anyway, I just looked him up and he’s still acting. I don’t have time to write a whole “In appreciation of Barry Corbin” piece (though, with no new movies, check in with me in a few weeks), so, for now, let this serve as an “appreciation of Barry Corbin” paragraph.)

Anyway, as it turns out, Six Pack is a perfectly pleasant movie. For a movie where not a whole heck of a lot happens, I was enjoying my time watching it. Good clean fun! They all live happily ever after at the end. Isn’t that what any of us want right now? Well, I guess except for the theft. And when the kids break Brewster out of jail at gunpoint. But, hey, these are scrappy orphans, they had to do what they had to do.

(Here’s a strange thing: In the ’70s and ’80s, a lot of movies had television spinoffs, which was always weird because it usually ignores the events of the movie and had an entirely new cast. M*A*S*H* is probably the most famous version of this phenomenon. Anyway, it seems they tried to do this with Six Pack, only with Don Johnson(!) playing Brewster Baker and Joaquin Phoenix(!!) as one of the “six pack.” Sadly, this wasn’t picked up.

For a million reasons, I wish last week had just been devoted to remembering Kenny Rogers. So, this is my small part in remembering Rogers again. And this is especially for us noble Generation X latchkey kids who are helping to save the world by staying home and watching Six Pack once again, just like we used to. (Barf.)

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Drake has been protective of his son’s exposure to the public. Adonis, who is two years old now, was mentioned by Pusha T in a song that came out during their feud, and Drake later confirmed his existence on Scorpion. Drake is apparently ready to open up about his family life a little more now, as he has shared the first photos of his and Sophie Brussaux’s child.

Taking to Instagram, Drake shared a gallery of pictures of his family, which mostly featured photos of Adonis. He also wrote a lengthy caption for the post, styled as a letter to Adonis in which he offers life advice and wisdom like, “What is most important for you right now is to connect to your own inner light,” and, “You have the biggest heart and that is your greatest gift.” Drake ended the post, “I love and miss my beautiful family and friends and I can’t wait for the joyful day when we are all able to reunite. Until then please keep your lights on.”

Read Drake’s full post below.

“What is most important for you right now is to connect to your own inner light. This will create the biggest opening of all. Trust that you have all of the power within to make this happen, and in order to do that connect to the people and things that bring you a lot of joy. When the mind starts to move into overthinking or fear, shift your attention right away to something bright. It doesn’t matter what has happened in the past or what is happening around us now, you can always make the choice to break free of the wheel of suffering and panic and open up to your own light. We are powerful manifestors, so once you make the choice in the moment to shift your awareness to something good, it will show you in your reality. Be conscious, especially right now of fears coming in from others, and recognize that not everything should be held by you. Laughter is your best medicine, but tears can also be a powerful release. Let go of any judgment you may have around that. Remember that you are never alone, and if you need to be reminded of that ask for support and it will show up. Everything comes down to intention, and even though there are conflicting energies circling around us you must KNOW…It will rebuild. But in order for that to happen, you have to do exactly that. Trust. You have the biggest heart and that is your greatest gift. It’s impossible to always control your surroundings, but when you shift the focus to how you want to feel, everything will conspire to assist you. I love and miss my beautiful family and friends and I can’t wait for the joyful day when we are all able to reunite. Until then please keep your lights on.”

View Entire Post ›

View Entire Post ›

View Entire Post ›

View Entire Post ›

Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes recently started dating, and during the Coronavirus pandemic the two are quarantined together in Miami. That meant it was no problem for them to participate in the iHeartRadio Living Room Concert for America together, and though fans might’ve expected them to deliver an acoustic rendition of their 2019 duet “Senorita,” they instead did a song off Camila’s latest album, Romance, “My Oh My,” that features rapper DaBaby on the original version.

Before their performance, Camila urged everyone watching to remember that staying home is the best way to protect each other and our loved ones through social distancing, and Shawn also shared a specific thank you for all the first responders in hospitals. While the spread of COVID-19 and Coronavirus has reached crisis levels in areas of America like Washington, California, and New York, there are still parts of the country that aren’t taking it as seriously.

Hopefully, those who aren’t directly impacted yet are watching massive livestream events like the iHeartRadio Living Room Concert for America and realizing just how severe the threat has become. The livestream features plenty of other artists weighing in on the crisis and performing acoustic songs at home for fans, including Finneas and Billie Eilish. Watch Camila and Shawn perform above.

Phoebe Bridgers recently returned with new music, sharing “Garden Song” as the first solo material since the release of her breakout debut album, Strangers In The Alps in 2017. Tonight, she’s returned with another bit of music for fans, although it’s not quite new material – Bridgers released a cover of Conor Oberst’s “Mamah Borthwick (A Sketch),” off his 2016 album Ruminations. In the caption of the video uploaded to Instagram, Phoebe shared that she’s releasing the song to help raise money for the employees of the local Los Angeles music venue The Bootleg. The link to that fundraiser is here.

She explains that it was the place where she met Oberst, who has since become her collaborator on the project Better Oblivion Community Center. “The Bootleg is raising money to pay their employees and hopefully keep the doors open once this is over,” she wrote. “Here’s me singing a Conor song because I met him there. It’s a special place. Help out if you can. Link in my stories. #coverthebootleg”

For those unfamiliar with the story of Mamah Borthwick, she was the mistress of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and you can learn a lot more about her story via this post from the tumblr that annotates songs by Conor Oberst.

One of the most heartwarming things about human beings is our ability to adapt to changing circumstances. As the Coronavirus pandemic becomes a very real threat to public health, and social distancing is the most effective way to halt the spread of the virus, all tours and concerts have been canceled across America. Not only does this leave fans and audiences hungry to hear from their favorite musicians, but it also leaves these performers stuck at home, unable to express themselves.

Almost immediately, the ability to host livestreams from the safety of living rooms and houses began to crop up, and the iHeart Living Room Concert for America is just the latest platform to enlist musicians who are more than willing to get on camera from the comfort of their own home to entertain fans who are cooped up in isolation.

Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas were part of the show’s offering that aired live tonight, delivering an acoustic version of “Bad Guy” from their couch in Highland Park. Finneas even joins in on some harmonies, a welcome touch to update the song that dominated last year and helped catapult Eilish to break Grammys records at this year’s awards. Watch above.

View Entire Post ›