Category: Viral

With every major summer festival getting canceled due to the pandemic, festival organizers are brainstorming clever ways to keep fans engaged. Some events, like Primavera Sound, have gone digital and opted to air past sets in place of their events. Newport Folk Festival, one of the longest-running music festivals in the world, is following suit. Newport announced their Folk On Revival weekend, a three-day virtual event that will broadcast never-before-seen performances by major artists.

Newport’s Folk On Revival weekend will pull rare sets from their 60-year archive to share an eclectic range of performances. Fans will be able to watch artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Sharon Van Etten, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Mavis Staples, and more perform their songs at a variety of venues. Along with having the opportunity to watch the sets, Folk On Revival will broadcast audio of the performances on a handful of radio stations across the country.

Newport’s executive producer Jay Sweet said the decision to cancel this year’s event was tough but he hopes the Revival weekend will bring music lovers together:

“In the history of this festival, there has never been a time like we’re in now. A global pandemic shuttering our plans to congregate before quickly shifting into the biggest civil rights movement in over 50 years. Many of our lives have drastically changed, financially, emotionally, and/or irrevocably. It has been painful for many of us, on the front lines fighting the pandemic, on the front lines fighting social injustice and especially for those losing loved ones along the way. While it was an emotional gut punch to cancel the festival in a year where it is so clearly needed, we felt it was imperative to our community to do something. Music has always brought our family together, even when we’re divided. The Newport stage has always been a sanctuary for artists to speak their minds on the times in front of us, not with merely one voice alone, but many in unison. This year’s Newport is no exception, collectively representing what it feels like to be human in today’s world by amplifying our convictions. For 2020 these voices will be our megaphone, these events our stage.”

Get tickets Newport Festival’s Folk On Revival weekend here.

The Philadelphia Union played its first MLS Is Back match on Thursday morning, a 1-0 win over New York City Football Club that kicked off at 9 a.m. in Orlando. The breakthrough came in the 63rd minute by team captain Alejandro Bedoya, but a moment before things kicked off paid homage to those who have lost their lives to senseless acts of police brutality.

The entire Union squad lined up for a pre-match photo in t-shirts that read “Black Lives Matter.” Upon taking them off, the team turned around, and instead of having their names across the nameplates, the team surprised everyone — most notably ESPN’s broadcast crew, which wasn’t sure what was going on — by having names like “Floyd,” “Taylor,” and more across their backs.

This was not the only tribute we saw out of the Union, as Bedoya wore a special captain’s armband that included the names of those who were killed by those who took an oath to protect and serve.

Following the match, Union coach Jim Curtin explained that the decision was made among members of the team without the league’s approval.

“At the start, certainly things going on in our country far bigger than soccer,” Curtin said, per ESPN. “I have to say I’m very proud of my players throughout the past four months for the leadership they’ve shown, the leadership role they’ve taken in the BLM movement, educating the other players on our team.

“The idea today was action over permission; I hope the league understands that. It was done to show respect, to learn, to grow, to make our country better. I’m really proud of my players for everything they’ve done.”

After releasing Father Of The Bride last year, Vampire Weekend spent some time touring in support of the album (back when touring was a thing). Now, they have chronicled a pair of Florida performances in a new EP, Live In Florida, which is available exclusively on Amazon Music.

The EP features performances of five songs: “Sunflower”, “How Long?”, and “2021” from Father Of The Bride, as well as “A Punk” and “White Sky,” recorded at shows in Miami and St. Augustine.

The band wrote in an Instagram post, “We went back to revisit some of our favorite shows from last year and put together a little something based around two beautiful nights in the Sunshine State.” Drummer Chris Tomson also said in a statement, “Vampire Weekend has had a long and healthy relationship with the Florida music fan, and last summer’s Miami/St. Augustine run was no different. These shows were a little sticky in the August humidity but I had so much fun playing and the really great crowd vibes always help (especially, but not limited to, Nick from Orlando’s inspired assistance on ‘A-Punk’). These shows stayed with me like the pepper sauce from O’Steen’s or a Cubano Doble from Enriqueta’s.”

Listen to the Live In Florida EP below.

One of the exceedingly few good things to come out of this year of COVID has been the reemergence of drive-in movie theaters. The worst things about theaters have been and always will be the proximity to random strangers (I got stories, believe me, folks).

This weekend also sees the release of Palm Springs, possibly my favorite movie of the year and maybe a whole lot more. It’s 88 minutes of perfection. I saw it at Sundance six months ago and snagged a screener to refresh my memory so I could write my review. I ended up watching twice, once for myself and once to show my fiancée. It’s the kind of movie you want to force your friends and significant others to see. Which is to say: perfect for a drive-in.

SNEAK SCREENINGS (JULY 9)

NEW YORK
Orchard Beach
Bronx, NY

Nickerson Beach
Nassau Cty, NY

Murmrr
Montauk, NY

MIAMI
Hard Rock Stadium
Miami, FL

CALIFORNIA
Vineland Drive-In
City of Industry, CA

Rose Bowl
Pasadena, CA

TEXAS
AT&T Stadium
Arlington, TX

WEEK-LONG ENGAGEMENTS

CALIFORNIA
Van Buren Cinema 3 Drive-In
Arlington, CA

De Anza Mission Four Drive-In
Montclair, CA

De Anza Rubidoux Drive-In 3
Riverside, CA

Paramount Drive-In
Paramount, CA

Vineland Drive-In,
City of Industry, CA

Cameo Cinema
St. Helena, CA

De Anza South Bay Drive-In 3
San Diego, CA

Santee Twin
Santee, CA

Camelot Theatre 3
Palm Springs, CA

NEW YORK
Warwick Drive-In
Warwick, NY

Delevan Twin Drive-In
Delevan, NY

Transit Drive-In
Lockport, NY

Malta Drive-In
Malta, NY

Vintage Drive-In
East Avon, NY

Sunset Drive-In
Middleport, NY

Silver Lakes Drive-In
Perry , NY

Finger Lakes Drive-In
Aurelius (Auburn), NY

Elmira Bargain Drive-In
Big Flats, NY

Bay Drive-In
Alexandria Bay, NY

Black River Drive-In
Black River, NY

INDIANA
Tri Way Drive-In 2
Plymouth, IN

Tibbs Drive-In
Indianapolis, IN

IOWA
Blue Grass Drive-In
Blue Grass, IA

Superior 71 Drive-In
Spirit Lake, IA

MICHIGAN
Getty Drive-In
Muskegon, MI

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Weirs Drive-In
Laconia, NH

NEW JERSEY
Delsea Drive-In
Vineland, NJ

NORTH CAROLINA
Badin Road Drive-In
Albemarle, NC

Hounds Drive-In
Kings Mountain, NC

Eden Drive-In
Eden, NC

OHIO
Magic City Drive-In
Barberton, OH

Springmill Drive-In
Mansfield, OH

Midway Drive-In 2
Ravenna, OH

South Drive-In
Columbus, OH

Dixie Drive-In Theatre
Dayton, OH

Field of Dreams Drive-In
Liberty Center, OH

Field Dreams Drive-In
Tiffin, OH

Van-Del Drive-In
Middle Point, OH

Elm Road Drive-In
Warren, OH

Skyway Drive-In
Warren, OH

PENNSYLVANIA
Skyview Drive-In
Carmichaels, PA

Comet Drive-In
Dunbar, PA

Brownsville Drive-In 3
Brownsville, PA

Starlight Drive-In
Butler, PA

Dependable Drive-In
Coraopolis, PA

Evergreen Drive-In Theater
Mount Pleasant, PA

Garden Drive-In
Hunlock Creek, PA

Circle Drive-In
Scranton, PA

Pike Drive-In
Williamsport, PA

Carrolltown Drive-In
Carrolltown, PA

SOUTH CAROLINA
Highway 21 Drive-In
Beaufort, SC

TEXAS
Galaxy Drive-In
Ennis, TX

Showboat Drive-In
Hockley , TX

TENNESSEE
Stardust Drive-In
Watertown, TN

Summer Drive- In 4
Memphis, TN

WASHINGTON
Rodeo Drive-In 3
Pt. Orchard, WA

Orcas Island FF Pop Up Drive-In
Orcas Island, WA

WISCONSIN
Moonlight Outdoor Drive-In
Shawano, WI

And if you can’t make it to any of these places, well, there’s always Hulu. Happy millionth birthday, dipshits.

Back when the casting buzz for Captain Marvel was in full swing, Charlize Theron was a name that got bounced around a lot, and it made perfect sense. An A-list actress with proven action chops and supermodel looks? How do you lose?

However, while sitting down with Variety to promote her upcoming Netflix film The Old Guard, Theron made a shocking admission. She’s never once been approached by Marvel over the years, which seems like a serious omission on the MCU’s part. Theron has appeared in the Fast and the Furious films, the Alien prequel Prometheus, and the action films Aeon Flux and Ultraviolet, so it seems odd that Marvel studio head Kevin Feige hasn’t at least dropped her a call to discuss a future collaboration. But according to Theron, she hasn’t heard a peep, and she’s cool with it. She’s doing her own thing:

“I swear to God. I’ve never gotten anything,” the Oscar winner says during an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket.” “No, I’m not lying to you. But that’s okay. You know what? I am paving my own way. I’m creating my own opportunities. So it’s alright.”

Theron truly is paving her own way, and in an ironic twist, she’s actually poised to dominate the comic book movie conversation this weekend, since Marvel and DC delayed the releases of Black Widow and Wonder Woman 1984. With the chances of movie theaters reopening soon looking grimmer by the day, Theron’s The Old Guard has a wide-open chance to run the table and deliver the action blockbuster of the summer. If Theron didn’t have Marvel’s attention before, we’re guessing she will very soon.

The Old Guard starts streaming on Netflix on July 10.

(Via Variety)

Charlie Puth unveiled his latest sunny single just in time for summer. His first song of the year so far, “Girlfriend” displays Puth’s masterful ear for writing feel-good tunes. Now, Puth has followed the release with an equally-energetic visual.

Directed by Drew Kirsch, who has worked with Taylor Swift and Niall Horan in the past, the visual shows off Puth’s quirky side. Puth anxiously awaits a big date and spends the entire day preparing himself. The singer first attempts to make a home-cooked meal, but eventually gives up and opts for takeout. Find ways to calm his nerves, the singer pumps himself up by cleaning, toying with knickknacks around the house. Eventually, the singer gets so distracted that he doesn’t hear his date arrive at his door.

In a statement alongside the video, Puth said the visual shows his true colors: “I’ve never released a music video that wholeheartedly showed my personality. The video for ‘Girlfriend’ is the first time I’ve truly been myself in every aspect. I can’t cook and I’m an absolute nerd. It’s also meant to visually represent what I want people to do when they hear my music and that’s to have fun in their very own way.”

Watch Puth’s “Girlfriend” video above.

Charlie Puth is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Way before the rise of hazy New England-style IPAs (and other hazy contemporary beers) on the domestic beer scene, there were wheat beers. These brews are perfect for summer because they’re refreshing, full of flavor, and easy to drink on a hot, July day. Sessionable, in other words.

Before you crack one open though, a few notes on the category. Wheat beers include Weissbier (the German style) and Witbier (the Belgian style). There are also Berliner Weisse and lambic-style beers in this category. No matter which you select, you can bet it will be well suited for warm weather drinking — these aren’t heavy and they’re never overly bitter.

We asked a handful of well-respected bartenders to tell us which wheat beers they’ll be drinking this summer. Check their answers below.

Sierra Nevada Kellerweis

Sondre Kasin, principal bartender at Cote in New York City

Sierra Nevada is one of my all-time favorite beer brands and their Kellerweis is an excellent wheat beer. Fresh, crisp without too many spice notes. Wheat beer sometimes has a tendency to be too heavy on the banana notes, this one is not.

Bell’s Oberon

Ian Campbell, assistant general manager at Gansevoort Hotel Group in New York City

I’d go with the Oberon from Bell’s Brewery – It’s a great beer as it begins with light citrusy notes, and ends with a rather spicy finish, so it’s like the best of both worlds.

Rahr & Sons Summertime Wheat

Nancy Conaway, bartender at Cassidy’s in Fort Worth, Texas

Rahr & Sons Summertime Wheat. It’s refreshing and light bodied with full flavor. These guys won a gold medal in Germany for their beers, so I’m pretty confident in what they put out on a constant basis. After all, it’s name is “Summertime Wheat”!

Blue Moon Belgian White

Larry Day, beverage manager at Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa in For Lauderdale, Florida

Well in Florida, spring, summer and winter are the same, so we pretty much drink the same beers in every season. But as wheat beers go, Blue Moon can’t be beat. It’s hazy, sweet, and endlessly refreshing.

St. Clair Brown Honey Wheat Ale

Sammy Norris, bartender at EVO Entertainment in Schertz, Texas

St. Clair Brown Honey Wheat Ale is the perfect combination of fruity ale. It is the perfect summer drink – you get the taste of grapefruit and apricot with nectarine right at the back end of your first sip.

Golden Road Mango Cart

Eva Al-Gharaballi, bartender at Datz Restaurant Group in Tampa, Florida

Golden Road Brewing’s Mango Cart Wheat Ale has come with me every time I’ve gone to the beach. Inspired by the fruit vendors in Los Angeles, this beer is light and refreshing with mango flavors throughout.

Upland Wheat Ale

Sarah Fackler, bartender and manager at Upland Brewing Co. in Bloomington, Indiana

Upland Wheat Ale for sure. It’s made in the traditional Belgian-style and brewed with coriander and orange zest. The perfect refresher on a hot day, after a bike ride or a dip in the pool.

Avery White Rascal

Hayden Miller, head bartender at Bodega Taqueria y Tequila in Miami

Avery Brewing makes White Rascal and it has always been a summer favorite. Nice hazy pour with a medium body and some great banana and clove notes. Perfect for an afternoon at the beach.

Allagash White

Billy Cox, bar chef at Ocean Prime in Boston

My go-to wheat beer is Allagash White. It’s #1 on the Beer Advocate’s Belgian Witbier rankings for a reason. It’s cloudy, refreshing, a summer classic that never disappoints.

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

Thomas Nesselhauf, manager of Datz Restaurant Group in Tampa, Florida

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier. It is the best wheat beer for any season, or the best wheat beer to bridge the gap between any seasons, or… just the best wheat beer altogether! Anyone that disagrees hasn’t had one. It’s pretty much the most classic, old-world, full-flavored wheat beer you can buy.

“‘Til death do us part” takes on a whole new meaning in Kehlani’s latest video from her It Was Good Until It Wasn’t album. The somber, black-and-white video for “Bad News” casts Kehlani in a bridal photoshoot that plays up the gangster culture of her native Bay Area as she poses in a white gown and veil with a pistol, bounces in a lowrider, and twirls on a dancer’s pole.

The video, according to Kehlani, is self-directed with photography by her close friend Brianna Alysse and edited by both. She expressed her pride in the video — the fifth from the album so far — on Twitter, writing, “Y’all gotta understand… The first video off the album was some wine drunk sh*t on iMovie at 12 pm.” She also shouted out Adobe Premiere Pro editing software, which she said was used on the computer in her garage to create the video.

That first video she alludes to above was the racy “quarantine style” video for “Toxic,” which she followed up with “Everybody’s Business,” “F&MU,” and “Open,” for which she was recently sued after reportedly damaging the Ferrari she used as a prop.

Watch Kehlani’s “Bad News” video above.

It Was Good Until It Wasn’t is out now via Atlantic Records. Get it here.

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

The sports documentary boom is upon us after the success of The Last Dance, and that means we may finally get a detailed account of the rise, fall, and rise again of one Tiger Woods. HBO announced it has acquired a two-part documentary film called Tiger, based on the best-selling biography on Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian.

The film will air in December across HBO platforms over the span of two weeks, premiering on Dec. 13 with the second installment on Dec. 20. It is directed by Matthew Heineman and Matthew Hamacheck, and has reportedly been in the works for at least two years.

“Since his introduction to the world at the age of two, Tiger Woods has inhabited our collective consciousness as a prodigy, a pioneer, a champion, a global icon, and then a tabloid headline,” said directors Heineman and Hamachek. “After months of research and countless hours of revelatory conversations, we discovered that he has always been a projection of outsized expectations. His father, his sponsors, and his fans all made Tiger Woods into whom they wanted him to be. Our goal was to dive deeper and create an unflinching and intimate portrait of a man, who like all of us, is imperfect and inherently human.”

After the controversy over the extent to which Michael Jordan was involved in the making of The Last Dance and how much his interviews dictated the direction of the film, this doc will take a different tact, orbiting around Woods without directly taking his perspective or creative oversight.

The key interview subjects for the documentary include long-time former caddie Steve Williams, golf legend Nick Faldo, Pete McDaniel (friend and biographer of Tiger’s father, Earl Woods), and Rachel Uchitel, the woman who was at the center of Tiger’s sex scandal in her first ever public interview.

We’re now looking at a month-long span in which Woods will defend his Masters title at the rescheduled event at Augusta National in mid-November, and then a doc centered about his life will hit screens less than a month later, so surely there will be a ton of Woods talk among sports fans this winter.

Steve McQueen’s 2018 heist-thriller Widows earned $76 million at the box office on a $42 budget, so while it was “technically” a success, it should have made a lot more. Widows rules. Look at the cast alone: Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya, Jacki Weaver, Carrie Coon, Garret Dillahunt, Jon Bernthal, Robert Duvall, Liam Neeson, and Elizabeth Debicki, who was so good in the movie that it almost prevented her from being cast in Tenet.

In the Chicago-set Widows, Debicki plays one of the titular widows after her bank-robber husband is killed; the actress is Australian, while her character is American. Her accent was so convincing that according to Variety, “Debicki was almost too good an actor for Nolan to consider… Having seen her work in Widows, he assumed she was American”:

“I was looking for a very, very British characterization, an English Rose kind of character,” Nolan reveals. So when Emma Thomas, Nolan’s wife and producing partner, suggested Debicki, she had to inform him the actor wasn’t from the States. “Elizabeth’s one of these great actors who, when they’re brought to your attention, you realize you’ve seen them in a lot of things but not realized it’s the same person,” he says.

The moral of the story here is: if you want to be in a Christopher Nolan movie, be good at acting, but don’t be too convincing. Tenet is scheduled to come out on August 12.

(Via Variety)