Category: Viral

Kendrick Lamar has been stepping out a bit more as of late and it comes after he said his fifth album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is finally on the way. The public appearances for the typically-secluded rapper began earlier this year when he joined Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and more to perform at the Super bowl LVI Halftime Show. More recently, Lamar was spotted at a Los Angeles Dodgers game against the Atlanta Braves earlier this week casually sitting with fellow fans in right-field rather than in a press box. For his next act, Kendrick brought his talents to the second weekend of Coachella’s 2022 Festival.

On Friday night, Kendrick made a surprise appearance at Coachella by joining Baby Keem to perform “Family Ties” and “Vent,” both of which are from Keem’s 2021 debut album The Melodic Blue. The latter track also became Keem’s first and Kendrick’s 14th Grammy Award after it won in the Best Rap Performance category earlier this month. During their Coachella set, Baby Keem performed the first half of “Family Ties” before he welcomed Kendrick to perform his verse in front of a large video screen that displayed fire and water. Kendrick’s surprise appearance concluded with their first-ever performance of “Vent.”

Kendrick’s Coachella appearance comes after he confirmed his fifth album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers would arrive on May 13. It’s one of this year’s most highly-anticipated projects as it’s the rapper’s first album since 2017’s DAMN.

You can view some fan-captured videos of Kendrick’s performance in the videos

For the second time in the three games he’s played against the New Orleans Pelicans this postseason, Chris Paul came up huge down the stretch of the fourth quarter to carry the Phoenix Suns to a win. Paul had 19 of his 28 points on the night in the game’s final frame, and despite the feisty Pelicans repeatedly responding to an electric hometown crowd, Phoenix was able to take a 2-1 series lead by way of a 114-111 win.

The story of the first half was the play of Suns big man Deandre Ayton, who helped the team take a 59-48 lead into halftime. The former No. 1 overall pick was immense through the game’s opening 24 minutes, leading all scorers with 21 points on 10-for-14 shooting. While the Pelicans hammered Phoenix on the glass — they held a 28-16 rebounding advantage heading into the locker room — Ayton’s seven boards led all players.

He wasn’t the only Suns big man to have a huge first half, as the team’s second-leading scorer was JaVale McGee, who pitched in nine off the bench. Paul nearly had a double-double at halftime — seven points, eight assists — while Landry Shamet showed off his hops on a few occasions.

After their hot shooting won the Pelicans Game 2, both Brandon Ingram and C.J. McCollum fell back to earth a little bit to start Game 3. Ingram had 13 and McCollum had 12 at halftime, but the pair combined to shoot 8-for-22 from the field and 2-for-9 from three. And outside of 11 first half points from Devonte’ Graham, no one else on New Orleans scored more than four.

The Pelicans also found themselves shorthanded for the second half, as Jaxson Hayes was tossed from the game for a Flagrant 2 foul on Jae Crowder. But in the third quarter, they were able to inch closer and closer to the Suns thanks in part to a 12-0 run, take the lead for brief spells, and find themselves down by only two as the frame came to a close.

Unsurprisingly, both Ingram and McCollum were able to start cooking — the former had 10 points in the quarter while the latter had nine.

Rookie wing Herbert Jones, whose defensive tenacity and versatility have turned him into an important member of the team’s core, gave them seven points in the quarter, including a dunk that came off of his ability to force a turnover.

The early part of the fourth featured Jose Alvarado, the 6-foot undrafted rookie guard, ripping off seven straight points for New Orleans, including several buckets that gave the Pelicans the lead.

And then, the Chris Paul Midrange Jumpers started coming in waves. Paul, much like he did at the end of Game 1, started getting to his spots seemingly at will and buried jumper after jumper, landing the kinds of body blows that hurt just a little bit more in the late rounds of a prize fight. The metronomic quality that has made Paul the greatest point guard of his generation was once again on display — with Devin Booker sidelined due to a hamstring injury, Paul grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and settled things down when the Pelicans were giving the Suns all they could hand.

Paul and Ayton both scored 28 points en route to a double-double — the former had 14 assists, the latter had 17 rebounds. Mikal Bridges added 17 points and made all nine of his attempts from the free throw line, while McGee had 15 off the bench. Ingram’s 34 points and seven rebounds were tops for the Pelicans, with McCollum having 30, seven assists, four rebounds, and two steals. Graham and Jones both scored 12.

Game 4 between the Suns and Pelicans tips off at 9:30 p.m. ET on Sunday night, with the game being broadcast on TNT.

The New Orleans Pelicans suffered a big blow halfway through the second quarter of Friday night’s Game 3 between themselves and the Phoenix Suns. After a jumper from the free throw line by C.J. McCollum went in, third-year center Jaxson Hayes busted out the hit stick and flattened Suns forward Jae Crowder.

After some jawing and Crowder getting held back by some of his teammates, the referees went to the video monitor and determined that Hayes committed a Flagrant 2 foul, thereby ending his night after 10 minutes of work with four points and six rebounds.

It was not the first time Hayes got a little chippy with a member of the Suns during Game 3, as he unsuccessfully tried to challenge a dunk by Landry Shamet. In the aftermath, Hayes and Mikal Bridges jawed with one another for a moment.

Hayes has started all three games of the series against Phoenix, and while he has not put up gaudy box scores, his length and athleticism have provided problems for the Suns. He entered Friday night’s game with 13 points, four rebounds, and two blocks combined in the first two games of the series, which double as the first time that the former lottery pick has played in the playoffs.

The Atlanta Hawks are back in their series with the Miami Heat. Despite being on the wrong end of a 21-0 run in the third quarter and falling behind by double-digits, a productive fourth quarter and a game-winning floater by Trae Young with 5.5 seconds remaining gave the Hawks a 111-110 win. As a result, the Heat’s series lead has been cut in half, as they now find themselves up on Atlanta, 2-1.

While Jimmy Butler had a rollicking start and Young struggled to score in the opening 12 minutes, Miami only led by two points at the end of the first quarter. Butler, to his credit, was magnificent to start the game, going for 11 points, five rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

Thanks to a 10-0 run in the second quarter, Atlanta was able to take a lead into a locker room. The team played with the swagger that it put on display during their magical run to the Eastern Conference Finals last year, making Miami face its biggest deficit of the series as Young found a rhythm and both Danilo Gallinari and Bogdan Bogdanovic started to impose themselves on the game.

While Tyler Herro took 15 points into the locker room, Atlanta led, 61-54, thanks to 11 points from Gallinari; Young going for 10 points, five assists, and four rebounds; and Bogdanovic stuffing the stat sheet with nine pints, six assists, three rebounds, two steals, and a block.

And then, the avalanche came from Miami. Halfway through the third frame, the Heat were able to tie things up at 68 thanks to a triple by Kyle Lowry.

They just poured it on from there, looking like they were going to blow the doors off of the Hawks and take a 3-0 series lead in the process. Miami ripped off 21 unanswered points to open up a 16-point lead, with both Herro and Max Strus having 17 at the end of the quarter.

But as it turned out, the Hawks were able to settle things down and go on a 9-1 run to end the quarter and get the deficit down to eight, making the hill they had to climb in the fourth far more manageable.

Atlanta kept chipping away to start the fourth quarter, and slowly but surely, they made Miami’s lead evaporate, with Young tying things up at the free throw line.

Strus canned a three on the ensuing possession, only for Young to come back down, launch one from the logo, and have it go in.

The two teams kept trading baskets, and with less than a minute left, Butler found Tucker in the corner for three that briefly took the air out of the building.

Kevin Huerter couldn’t make a go-ahead basket on Atlanta’s next possession, while Butler missed a pull-up that could have put the game out of reach. Young got the ball off of a Bogdanovic rebound, pushed it up the court, and darted to the rim instead of taking a timeout. That decision ended up winning the Hawks the game, as Young busted out one of his patented floaters.

Young led the way for Atlanta with 24 points and eight assists, while Bogdanovic had 18 with eight rebounds and six assists off the bench and De’Andre Hunter pitched in 17. For Miami, Herro’s 24 points, seven rebounds, and four assists led the way off the bench, while Strus scored 20 and Butler had 20 with 10 rebounds, eight assists, two steals, and a block.

Game 4 between the Hawks and the Heat will take place in Atlanta on Sunday evening at 7 p.m. ET on TNT.

The 2022 NBA playoffs don’t feature either team from the city of Los Angeles. While the Clippers were able to make it to the play-in tournament before injuries and a COVID-19 absence by Paul George caught up to them, the Lakers were stuck in a season-long malaise and missed out on making the postseason altogether.

For LeBron James, this marked the second time during his four-year stint in the City of Angels where he had to watch the playoffs from his living room — his first season saw L.A. miss out entirely before the offseason overhaul that led to them acquiring Anthony Davis. James, who is among the league’s most prolific posters, has spent these playoffs watching games and tweeting out his thoughts, and they’re usually a celebration of the players in the game he is watching.

That was once again the case on Friday night, when James watched Game 3 between the Atlanta Hawks and one of his old teams, the Miami Heat. After praising ESPN’s J.J. Redick in the booth, James mentioned that he’s not exactly having a good time watching the postseason play out and swore that this is the last time he’ll sit at home until he calls it a career.

The Lakers were the first team in the Western Conference to miss out on the play-in tournament, as they were one game behind the 10-seed San Antonio Spurs. As for an automatic berth in the playoffs, Los Angeles finished 15 games behind the 6-seed Denver Nuggets. Between COVID absences and injuries, James only played in 56 games on the year, while Davis appeared in 40.

Game 3 in Atlanta between the Hawks and the Miami Heat tipped off more than half an hour later than originally planned. A “suspicious package” was identified outside of State Farm Arena in Atlanta shortly before the game’s scheduled tip time of 7:15 p.m. ET, which led to fans not being allowed inside the arena while the authorities investigated.

In a statement released by the team, “the police department, K-9 units and Arena security worked to clear the arena and investigate the contents of the package,” and ultimately, it was determined that the contents were not explosive, leading to it being cleared away by the Atlanta Bomb Squad.

As a result, the game between the Hawks and the Heat got moved back to 7:55 p.m. It was not the only game impacted by the need to clear the suspicious package out of the area — the game is taking place on ESPN as part of a double-header with Game 3 between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Phoenix Suns. While things were in the midst of being sorted out in Atlanta, the Pelicans announced that their game won’t tip off until 10 p.m. ET, which is half an hour later than the original start time.

The Heat lead their series against the Hawks, 2-0, while the Pelicans and Suns are tied up at one game each.

We’ve seen some moving [Fill in the country]’s Got Talent stories before, but a recent viral audition absolutely requires a tissue warning. I tried to steel myself in preparation when I saw the “Admit it, we were *all* in tears after this” caption on the Facebook share of it, but I failed.

In a video that’s been shared more than 95,000 times, the “Britain’s Got Talent” audition shows two tiny little girls onstage with their grandmother. They introduce themselves as “Cally” (age 4) and “Savannah” (age 3) and “Nanny” (their “daddy’s mummy”) then the girls share that they are there to surprise their dad.

Dad—also known as Nick Edwards—is sitting in the audience. He thought the family was there to watch the audition on a fun outing; he had no idea that they had arranged a surprise audition for him, so when his girls and mom showed up on stage, he wondered what was going on.

A “Britain’s Got Talent” spokesperson explained to the Daily Mail how they got Edwards mic’d up without giving away the surprise.

“When Nick entered the Palladium auditorium during ‘BGT’ auditions, he was approached to be part of our ‘gogglebox’ audience and told he would be mic’d up so we could capture his reactions throughout the day as he sat in the audience,” they said. “He was totally unsuspecting. We did this so we could mic him up without him suspecting a thing.”

As Edwards tried to figure out what his mom and daughters were doing on stage, Edwards’ mother explained to the judges and the audience that he sings a special song to his girls. She said they wanted him to come up and sing it. Naturally, not being prepared for an audition, Edwards was stunned. But the judges sent him backstage to “grab a glass of water” so he could compose himself and get ready.

“They gave me some time to warm up—about 45 minutes in total,” Edwards told This Morning. “They gave me my guitar my family brought down on the day, they [producers] said this is the song we want you to sing because we’d seen it on your Instagram.”

The song is an emotional doozy, especially if you’re a parent. “It’s a song I’ve felt quite attached to so I sing it a lot around the house,” Edwards told the judges before he started to sing. Once you hear it, you’ll see why he joked about trying to keep from crying while he sang it.

Lovely voice. Beautiful song. Adorable little girls. Not a dry eye in the house.

Tissue, seriously. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The fact that Edwards was able to pull off that audition with less than an hour of preparation was quite impressive. He told This Morning what he was thinking during that prep time.

“If I go out I’ve got two options here, I either go out and try to own it or I come out and it all crumbles…” he said. “The whole thing just went so quickly. I do remember playing and in a way my fingers started to get a bit jelly, I remember thinking ‘this is going to be a big moment for you.’ I don’t want to stuff it up.”

Stuff it up he did not. What a lovely performance, and what lucky little girls to have a daddy who shares his love for them in such a beautiful and creative way.

Ontario native Alex Trebek would be proud.

After another dominating performance during tonight’s episode, Mattea Roach, the 23-year-old tutor from Toronto who is already the winningest Canadian contestant in Jeopardy! history, is now eighth on the game show’s all-time consecutive games list (14) and tenth on the all-time highest non-tournament cash winnings list ($320,081).

“This has been such a crazy season of streaks and I was fully thinking Amy [Schneider] might still be here,” Roach said in a statement. “If it’s not Amy, there’s going to be some other super-champion that’s just going to knock me out Game One. I guess what I didn’t realize is maybe I could become the super-champion I wanted to see in the world.” That’s kind of a corny line, but when was the last time you won 14 straight games on Jeopardy! and made enough money to pay off your student loans? Exactly.

Here’s the top 10 consecutive games won list:

1. Ken Jennings (74)
2. Amy Schneider (40)
3. Matt Amodio (38)
4. James Holzhauer (32)
5. Julia Collins (20)
6/7. Jason Zuffranieri (19), David Madden (19)
8. Mattea Roach (14)

And the top 10 for earnings (non-tournament):

1. Ken Jennings ($2,520,700)
2. James Holzhauer ($2,462,216)
3. Matt Amodio ($1,518,601)
4. Amy Schneider ($1,382,800)
5. Jason Zuffranieri ($532,496)
6. David Madden ($430,400)
7. Julia Collins ($428,100)
8. Matt Jackson ($411,612)
9. Austin Rogers ($411,000)
10. Mattea Roach ($320,081)

Roach will attempt to continue her streak on Monday, April 25.

There are a lot of reasons to be concerned for the planet’s future. One bright spot in the fight against climate change is the rise in solar power use in the United States.

Solar power is more affordable than ever before. The cost of the average solar panel has dropped by 70% since 2014 and the country’s total solar capacity has risen from 0.34 gigawatts to an impressive 97.2 gigawatts since 2008. Today, more than 3% of the electricity generated in the U.S. comes from solar panels.

The best way to expand on solar power growth is by finding new surfaces to place panels. One of the most underutilized are the roofs of America’s big-box retail stores. According to a report by Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group, the average Walmart has 180,000 square feet of rooftop, which is about the size of three football fields.

Just one Walmart rooftop could generate enough solar energy to power 200 homes.

There are more than 100,000 big-box superstores in the United States with about 7.2 million square feet of rooftop. If every one were outfitted with solar panels, they could generate enough electricity to power almost 8 million homes.

That change from dirty to clean power would cut annual greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent of removing 11.3 million cars off the road.

One big-box retailer that has made a significant commitment to solar power is Ikea. According to The Grist, Ikea has solar installations on 90% of its U.S. locations. In 2019, Ikea made a huge commitment to alternative energy by purchasing 1 million solar panels, 535 wind turbines and two solar parks.

A solar installation at a location in Baltimore, Maryland—not the sunniest spot in America—was able to cut the amount of energy the store purchased by 84%.

How do we get the rest of America’s big-box retailers to do the same?

The Biden Administration is currently working on extending the federal investment tax credit for rooftop solar for 10 more years, which would put direct payments into the hands of retailers. However, the tax credit extension is part of the Build Back Better Bill that has stalled in the U.S. Senate.

“Every rooftop in America that isn’t producing solar energy is a rooftop wasted as we work to break our dependence on fossil fuels and the geopolitical conflicts that come with them,” Johanna Neumann, senior director for Environment America’s Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, told CNN. “Now is the time to lean into local renewable energy production, and there’s no better place than the roofs of America’s big-box superstores.”

Solar panels have become so affordable they are a total no-brainer for residences and businesses alike. If there’s anything we’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that major corporations want us to think they care about what we care about. They should know that one of the best ways to show they care about the planet is to prove it by utilizing every square foot on their roofs to help fight climate change.

Jon Bernthal is gearing up to portray Julian Kaye, a male escort who was framed for murder, in the upcoming Showtime adaptation of American Gigolo, though the Walking Dead actor isn’t so sure of himself. In a new interview with GQ, Bernthal insists he isn’t actually hot enough to play someone who is considered “sexy,” which is a bit important for a role like that.

“I do not believe that I possess any kind of natural sex appeal,” the actor says. “I’ve always looked at myself as this weird-looking guy.” The original role of Julian Kaye in the 1980 film was portrayed by Richard Gere.

The Showtime adaptation will consist of ten episodes that will act as a sequel of sorts, taking place 15 years after the original movie. The cast includes Gretchen Mol, Rosie O’Donnell, Lizzie Brocher, Wayne Brady, and Leland Orser. Bernthal, who is known for his role as the Punisher, originally thought he was the “wrong guy” for the show.

So why did Bernthal take the part? Because he was very afraid of it. “I just really fundamentally believe you’ve gotta pursue the things you’re scared of,” he says. “If you’re scared of swimming in the ocean, you’ve gotta get in there. If you’re scared of being assaulted in the street, you’ve gotta learn how to fight. You’ve gotta run headfirst toward the fear.”

So, it seems like he was afraid of going shirtless, and has conquered that fear. Way to go, John!