As the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, the virus’ aftermath has disrupted the music industry. Nearly every summer festival has been canceled or postponed and musicians are pushing back the dates of their tours and album releases. In order to support musicians who have been financially affected by venue and festival closures, Newport Folk Festival’s parent foundation announced it is setting up a COVID-19 musician relief fund.
Newport Festivals Foundation, which operates the beloved Newport Folk and Jazz festivals, announced a COVID-19 musician relief fund Monday. While many festivals are being postponed, Newport Folk Festival is still scheduled for late July/early August and just announced its lineup last week, seeing headliners like Waxahatchee and Big Thief.
Festival executive producer Jay Sweet explained the foundation’s new relief fund in a statement:
“It is with utmost hope that the Newport Folk and Newport Jazz Festivals will go on this summer, but in the meantime we feel the call to do more. We are in a unique position with our foundation, where we can go above and beyond and help provide support for our musicians community while other tours and festivals are cancelling due to COVID-19. I want to be clear, this is not a fundraiser, these are funds that our Festivals Foundation already allocates to annual giving. In this dark time, we feel blessed to be able to provide some small comfort for those whose songs carry us through each day.”
The charity includes funding for small micro-grants of $300 or less for immediate and dire financial concerns, as well as full grants offered to help cover lost income related to the virus. The money will be divided on a case-by-case basis. Musicians can apply for relief here.
Read more of Uproxx’s coverage on the coronavirus here.
With President Trump making it official that Americans will have to practice social distancing until at least the end of April, SyFy has added the hit sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica to the growing list of free content being dropped on entertainment-hungry audiences. The news comes from filmmaker Ery De Jong, who tweeted out the very helpful information.
If you’re not familiar with the series that lit genre audiences on fire in the 2000s, here’s the official synopsis:
Considered by many to be one of the best television series ever made, Battlestar Galactica picks up just as Cylons – intelligent robots designed by humankind – commit mass genocide against humanity. Only Battlestar Galactica, the last of the Colonial Fleet, survives the attack. Driven by prophetic visions and political necessity, the Galactica travels through uncharted space in hopes of finding the mythical, lost 13th colony – Earth.
As De Jong correctly notes, you can stream every single Battlestar Galactic episode for free on SyFy’s website along with the straight-to-DVD movies The Plan and Razor. The series joins its sci-fi brethren Picard, which essentially unlocked its first season after Patrick Stewart tweeted out a free month subscription for CBS All Access that will also allow audiences to binge-watch Star Trek: Discovery, The Twilight Zone, and The Good Fight.
As for animation fans, Adult Swim just made every season of Samurai Jack available for streaming on its website. And for parents strapped for cash and content, Deadline reports that Amazon has pushed several children programs outside of its Prime paywall. All you need is a free Amazon account to stream Just Add Magic, Tumble Leaf, Little Big Awesome, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Odd Squad, and Arthur, which should keep the little ones busy so you can watch Battlestar on your laptop, or hear yourself think for five minutes. Either one.
As the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe and the US expands its testing, new cases are being accounted for daily. Legendary songwriter John Prine is, unfortunately, one of many Americans who have contracted the virus. Prine became infected by the virus and was hospitalized due to prior health conditions. But the singer’s wife, who also tested positive for the virus, shared a hopeful message to fans Monday.
Fiona Prine took to social media to share an update about her and her husband’s health status. Prine announced that she has in fact recovered from the sickness after contracting it. “I have recovered from Covid-19,” she wrote. “We are humbled by the outpouring of love for me and John and our precious family. He is [stable]. Please continue to send your amazing Love and prayers.”
I have recovered from Covid-19. We are humbled by the outpouring of love for me and John and our precious family. He is stabile. Please continue to send your amazing Love and prayers. Sing his songs. Stay home and wash hands. John loves you. I love you
The tweet is the latest update about Prine’s condition since his family said his health had worsened on Sunday. Prine was rushed to the hospital Thursday where he remains on a ventilator. Prine has miraculously beat cancer twice, which unfortunately puts him at greater risk with the virus.
After news of Prine’s condition broke, fans came together to show support. Most recently, Joan Baez dedicated a cover of Prine’s “Hello In There” to the singer in order to send her “best wishes and prayers” from afar.
Read more of Uproxx’s coverage on the coronavirus here.
As folks hunker down and try their best to stay safe and protect others through social distancing, movies have become a very reliable way to disconnect from reality and spend a few hours. Streaming services make this incredibly easy if you have the means and high-speed internet to make it happen, but for us in the sports department it was time to get nostalgic and talk about our favorite sports movies growing up.
If you’re looking for the best sports movies ever or the best available on Netflix, this list may not be for you. Not all of these are winners that stand the test of time, but they’re all winners in our hearts.
The Sandlot
The thing I like best about The Sandlot is that it is, at heart, a movie about unsupervised rascals on bicycles. It is a sports movie, sure, there’s no denying that. Everything that happens, all of the action, revolves around a never ending baseball game. But it’s not really about that. It’s about the other stuff. It’s about being a kid.
Look at the scene with Phillips and the rich kids, with all the name-calling and subsequent baseball beatdown. Look at the scene where they’re chomping tobacco and puking at the carnival. Look at the scene where they all stop their game for a moment to stare up at July 4th fireworks in awe as the Ray Charles version of “America the Beautiful” plays. That’s what being a kid is, that combination of mischief and wonder, being unsupervised on a bicycle. It’s one of the reasons I like Stranger Things, too. Maybe it’s because I was a rascal on a bicycle at that age, too.
Good sports movies usually make you feel good. The good guys win, the underdogs take out the jerks, the schlubs get their moment. There’s a formula to it all. But, like, formulas can work. Sometimes you just have to stick to them. That’s the whole point of chemistry. And baking. I’ve gotten off-topic. This paragraph is very much the “a scene about puking at a carnival in the middle of a baseball movie” of my blurb. I stand by it. The Sandlot rules. — Brian Grubb
Space Jam
OK so, here’s the thing: Space Jam is a terrible movie. By any objective measure, it is extremely bad. Michael Jordan’s tenure as a baseball player (in which he hit .202 and had 88 hits to 114 strikeouts) was exponentially better than his attempt at being an actor, most of the voice acting was just a little off, the plot had more inexplicable nonsense in it than I can remember off the top of my head — the one that sticks out above all else is that Michael Jordan get sucked down a portal to hell and his friends keep golfing — it is essentially an 88-minute long ad for brands that sponsored Jordan, and a whole host of other things. Having said that, if you saw Space Jam around the time it came out and liked basketball, you just inherently have a certain emotional connection to it that no other movie can match. It is delightful, it is perfect, and I love it with my whole heart. Soundtrack is aces, too. — Bill DiFilippo
Like Mike
I would not go so far as to call Like Mike the best movie on this list. In fact, I would reckon it’s probably the worst. A young Shad Moss (Lil Bow Wow) in a sports comedy is already a bad idea in concept and in execution it’s even worse, but little kid me did not care because this movie had two things. Basketball and a young kid putting on a pair of magical Jordans that made him dominate the NBA. Is this not the dream of every eight year old kid growing up as they play NBA Live 03, watch Tracy McGrady, and dream of dominating the NBA themselves despite admittedly being pretty chunky.
OK, so maybe that’s a little too narrow, but I’m willing to bet multiple children watched this movie and thought to themselves that they could absolutely do that if they had a magical pair of shoes. I know after watching it I wanted to go buy a pair right at that moment but my Mom, the intelligent woman she was, told me they were too expensive and that never happened.
The movie itself is not really worth watching as an adult, but I do suggest going on YouTube and looking up the cameos. Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, and Dirk Nowitzki all make appearances as well as a handful of other NBA stars. What will never not be funny to me, though, is while there’s a representation for almost all 29 teams at the time, the Clippers have been replaced by the Los Angeles Knights. They are clearly supposed to be a Clippers stand in with the color scheme and playing in Staples Center, but at no point are they mentioned in the movie. Probably for the best, because back in 2002 it was way more believable that a kid wearing a pair of magical shoes would dominate the NBA than the Clippers actually winning games. — Chris Barnewall
Varsity Blues
Is this a children’s movie? Absolutely not. Is it a movie that is important to me from my youth? Absolutely. Everyone always tells me I need to watch Friday Night Lights, but to be honest, I refuse to believe it can stack up to the original cinematic portrayal of Texas high school football that Varsity Blues provided. First, let’s talk about the cast. James Van Der Beek at the peak of his powers as backup QB turned star Jon Moxon, Paul Walker as starter whose gruesome knee injury might cost him a scholarship to Florida State Lance Harbor (an elite fake Texas QB name, I must add), and Jon goddamn Voight as Bud Kilmer in my personal favorite portrayal of an overly aggressive coach that cares too much about winning and not enough about his players. It’s a familiar trope in sports movies but one that has never been executed this well.
It manages to mix fun with serious topics without feeling like an afterschool special, pointing out the issues of concussions in football (in 1999!) and the rampant use of painkillers to get players back on the field too quickly. They also delve into racism (like Kilmer refusing to let his workhorse running back get touches once close to the end zone), battles between fathers and sons over the future (if you’ve never said, “I don’t want your life” like Mox then we just can’t relate), and the fleeting nature of fame (Harbor’s girlfriend suddenly throwing herself at Mox who is dating Harbor’s sister). They do all of this while being able to have a sequence where the team is too hungover on game day because they were at the strip club all night to cheer up Lance and found out their teacher strips there in the evenings resulting in this, a truly spectacular scene featuring Scott Caan and Ron Lester.
It also has reasonably good actual football sequences, which helps its case against other sports movies where the actual sports action tends to be, let’s just say, lacking. It all ends with Paul Walker taking over as coach after the player’s orchestrate a coup against Kilmer in the playoffs, running the “Oopty Oop,” where they sent five wide receivers onto the field to run a spread offense, quite literally, breaking the brain of one fan who begins counting the receivers on his fingers in the stands in one of my favorite moments in movie history.
Basically, Varsity Blues predicted the rise of the spread offense and brought to light issues of concussions and painkillers in football while also being a highly entertaining movie about high school hijinks. It should have won Oscars. — Robby Kalland
Rookie Of The Year
Two words: funky buttlovin.
Okay, here are more than two words. Until the Cubs actually won the World Series, this was the only realistic way the Cubs were ever going to win the World Series. A kid, who slips on a baseball and messes up his shoulder, finds his tendons have been fused together to make him now able to throw a fastball 100 miles an hour. After hurling one from the outfield right to the catcher, the Cubs — owned by the same dude who had that big toy store in Home Alone 2 — sign the guy, but some shady room deals have a coup brewing in the front office as one exec is focused on money and the original owner cares more about family. All the while, the kid is being groomed by Gary Busey and Marv from the Wet/Sticky Bandits who uses the term “hot ice” at one point.
If you aren’t already hooked please enjoy the fact that a gigantic steroid goon yells “MOMMY” a bunch in a climactic scene and later strikes out when our hero throws a slow pitch softball pitch at him. Ray Charles makes an appearance for a Pepsi ad. And the hidden ball trick is utilized to perfection. Also, Gary Busey’s character’s name is Chet Steadman and he communicates mostly through grunts in this film.
Five stars, you’ll love it. — Martin Rickman
Johnny Tsunami
The entire Disney Channel Original Sports Movie slate has been catalogued by this writer on this very website, and you may notice something amiss here: Brink is ranked above Johnny Tsunami and yet it doesn’t appear on this list. That’s because this about favorite movies, not best, and I will not be taking any more questions at this time.
Johnny Tsunami is a personal favorite in a lot of ways, including the fact that a rewatch of the movie as an adult makes it approximately 300 times funnier and more ridiculous. Budding surfer bro Johnny is ripped from Hawaii on a transcontinental move apparently planned in a matter of days. A bunch of prep school kids immediately try to murder him on a mountain that very clearly does not exist in New England. The rest of the movie plays out fairly predictably, and the action sequences are hilariously bad. Johnny, a small boy, yet his jacked as hell stunt double rides his surfboard to glory in his name. The ski/snowboard rivalry is inexplicable until loosely explained at the end, but the logistics just never really make any sense.
But here’s the thing: the show did a very good job of establishing villains and making the snowboarders actually seem cool. The public school kids are clearly the dudes you wanted to be friends with, and as a kid who made an awkward transition from public to parochial school (sans tropical shirt collection, mind you) I definitely identified with Johnny in a few ways. The child in me hates that I learned how to ski, but the rest of me understands that life isn’t black and white and everyone should get to ride the mountain together. — Ryan Nagelhout
Nav looks like he’s ready for war in his video for “Turks.” The new song, which the Torontonian rapper-producer released four days ago, features guest verses from Gunna and Travis Scott, while the Amir “Cash” Esmailian and Zack Facts-directed video also has a cameo from Young Thug. The video is set in what looks like a military compound with XO flags flying over it (that’s The Weeknd’s label, to which Nav is signed), where Nav, Gunna, and Travis oversee a troop of scantily-clad women as they march in place with rifles at the ready. Throughout the video, Nav fires off his own rifle, while Travis raps from atop an armored personnel carrier.
Nav has become something of a go-to producer for some of rap’s top names over the past couple of years, popping up on releases from Young Thug, Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert, and more. Each of those appearances has increased his standing and allowed him to call in favors when he needs guest verses for his own projects. His latest project, Bad Habits, released a little over a year, so it’s not surprising he seems to be rolling out a new project with the release of “Turks.”
We usually share lists of the upcoming concerts scheduled for New York City and Los Angeles, but there haven’t been too many of those lately since the coronavirus outbreak has forced artists to cancel shows. That said, there’s still live music, it’s just different than it usually is: Several artists have started performing live stream concerts from their homes, allowing fans to tune in to free shows online and pass the time with these virtual gigs.
These newly popular types of performances yielded some memorable moments lately and will likely continue to do so. Below, check out a list of the best upcoming live stream performances, and below that, find our recap of the finest shows that have already happened.
Updated: March 30, 2020
Coming up
Aminé: Tuesday, March 31 at 5:10 p.m. EST via The Fader.
Charli XCX: Vocal coaching with Tove Lo on Monday, March 30 at 3 p.m. EST; life drawing with Lucas David on Tuesday, March 31 at 3 p.m. EST; yoga with Ashnikko on Wednesday, April 1 at 3 p.m. EST; psychopath test with Rina Sawayama on Thursday, April 2 at 3 p.m. EST; horoscope reading with Orville Peck on Friday, April 3 at 3 p.m. EST; and make up tutorial with Zara Larsson on Saturday, April 4 at 3 p.m. EST; all on Instagram.
Christine And The Queens: Daily at 1 p.m. EST on Instagram.
Diplo: Sundays at 4 p.m. EST, Tuesdays at 10 p.m. EST, Thursdays at 10 p.m. EST, Fridays at 10 EST, Saturdays at 11 p.m. EST; on YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram.
DJ Shadow: Tuesday, March 31 at 11:10 a.m. EST via The Fader.
Dogleg: Tuesday, March 31 at 2:10 p.m. EST via The Fader.
Earthgang: Tuesday, March 31 at 5:50 p.m. EST via The Fader.
March 29: Death Cab For Cutie leader Ben Gibbard has so far led the charge when it comes to quarantine live streams, but on Sunday, he hosted the last one and sent the series off with covers of Neil Young, R.E.M., and others. No need to fret, though: While the daily series is going away, Gibbard has promised live streams once a week for “every week into the foreseeable future as long as people are quarantined.”
March 28: Following his beat battle with Timbaland, Swizz Beats decided to give songwriters a moment to shine, so he hosted a face-off between two of today’s finest. The main takeaway from the songwriter battle between The-Dream and Sean Garrett is that those two have had their hands in a lot of big songs from artists like Kanye West, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Usher, and others.
Twitch Stream Aid
March 28: Twitch is set-up to shine in a time when live streams are as popular as ever, and they delivered this weekend. Their “Twitch Stream Aid” benefit show had a huge lineup that featured Diplo, Lauv, Charlie Puth, Die Antwoord, Barry Gibb, Kevin Gates, Jordin Sparks, Michael McDonald, Steve Aoki, Scotty McCreery, MonstaX, and Mxmtoon, as well as members of Cage The Elephant, The Chainsmokers, Bastille, The Head And The Heart, Silversun Pickups, The Lumineers, OneRepublic, Mt. Joy, Empire Of The Sun, X Ambassadors, and Young The Giant.
March 27: TikTok has been keeping shortform video viewers entertained with a packed week of programming, but Friday was for the music fans. The lineup for the “Sound Check” day of #HappyAtHome included Alicia Keys, Jason Derulo, Megan Thee Stallion, Hailee Steinfeld, Troye Sivan, Meghan Trainor, DJ Khaled, Lauv, Yungblud, and Kelsea Ballerini.
March 27: Hit-Boy and Boi-1da are two terrific producers to have square off in an Instagram beat battle, and that’s partially because of their willingness to show off their works in progress. Aside from their hits, the livestream also teased new material from Drake, Big Sean, Nipsey Hussle, and others.
Dirty Projectors
March 27: Dirty Projectors dropped a new EP, Windows Open, on Friday, so band members Dave Longstreth and Maia Friedman decided to celebrate with a live stream. Although the pair was in separate cities for the broadcast, it went off without a hitch as the two performed a set featuring the four new tracks, as well as some covers and tracks from the band’s catalog.
300 Entertainment “Unplugged”
March 26: 300 Entertainment is one of the biggest labels in music, and now they’re hoping to similarly position themselves in the new world of live stream concerts with their virtual “Unplugged” show. The series “[originated] from live stripped-down, spontaneous sessions at 300 Entertainment co-founder and CEO Kevin Liles’ hotel lobbies throughout the years,” and the first one was led by singer/songwriter Cobi. 300 has a stacked artist roster, so keep an eye on this series.
March 24: Two of hip-hop’s biggest production titans hopped on an Instagram Live session to face off and remind fans how great their respective discographies are. Between Swizz and Timbaland, they played songs like Ginuwine’s “Pony,” Beyonce’s “Drunk In Love,” Ne-Yo’s “Make Me Better,” Drake’s “Fancy,” DMX’s “Party (Up In Here),” Jay-Z’s “On To The Next One,” and so many more.
Orville Peck
March 23: Masked singer Orville Peck let viewers into his home during his live stream, but he wasn’t about to pull the curtain back on the mystery that is him. The live stream was in celebration of the one-year anniversary of his latest album, Pony, and highlights from the set included a new song called “Summertime” and a tribute to the recently deceased Kenny Rogers via a cover of “Islands In The Stream.”
Courtney Barnett
March 22 and 23: “Courtney Barnett And Lucius & Friends” took place all around the world, and Barnett wrangled some great guests for the two days of program. Stopping by the shows were Sheryl Crow, Nathaniel Rateliff, Lukas Nelson, Fred Armisen, Emily King, Sharon Van Etten, Bedouine, Jonathan Wilson, Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, and Kurt Vile.
Charli XCX
March 18 to 22:Charli has taken a different path with her livestreams: Instead of music performances, she has brought on a number of guests for a variety of programming. For example, last week, she hosted an art class with Clairo, played “Would You Rather” with Kim Petras, and had “An Emo Chat” with Christine And The Queens.
Ben Gibbard
March 15 to 21:The Death Cab For Cutie leader has been one of the most active livestreamers so far, as he is in the midst of a series of daily performances. This past week saw Gibbard cover Radiohead and New Order, as well as perform some material from his other most notable musical endeavor, The Postal Service.
March 19:Badu hosted an “interactive live stream experience” this past weekend, which allowed fans (who paid the $1 entry fee) to not only watch Badu perform from her bedrom, but also help build the setlist.
D-Nice
March 18: The hip-hop icon hosted “Club Quarantine” editions of his weekly “Home School” live stream this weekend, and the list of celebrities who popped in during the show speaks for itself: Michelle Obama, Alicia Keys, Diddy, Oprah, Will Smith, Missy Elliott, Janet Jackson, Common, John Legend, Big Daddy Kane, Mariah Carey, Spike Lee, Donnie Wahlberg, Brandy, Quincy Jones, Timbaland, Usher, Questlove, Jadakiss, and Raekwon, among many others.
March 18:Charlie Puth was one of the artists who carried on the Chris Martin-launched “Together At Home” series. Puth sat at his home piano and busted out a number of songs, including “Attention,” “One Call Away,” and “See You Again.”
Jeff Rosenstock and more
March 17: Record label/shop Specialist Subject hosted a night of music from a jam-packed indie lineup, with was led by Jeff Rosenstock and also featured AJJ, RVIVR’s Erica Freas, and others.
Chris Martin of Coldplay
March 16:Martin is the one who kicked off the “Together At Home” live stream concert series, which has gone on to feature performances from artists like Charlie Puth and John Legend. For Martin’s performance, he busted out some Coldplay favorites and a David Bowie cover, and also answered questions from Instagram Live viewers.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Netflix’s new docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness couldn’t have timed its release better. With large swaths of the globe trapped indoors, audiences are devouring streaming content, and the wild true crime series practically has everything. Tigers, murder-for-hire, courtroom drama, missing husbands, did we mention tigers?
Thanks to the perfect conditions of social-distancing and the series’ insane subject matter, it quickly became a viral hit that’s led to celebrities fighting each other over the movie adaptation, and musical artists like Cardi B launching a GoFundMe to get series star Joe Exotic out of prison. But Cardi can take her time because, to the surprise of no one, Joe is absolutely reveling in his newfound fame, and the opportunity to show off his piercings to the prison population, according to E! News:
Rebecca Chaiklin, co-director of Tiger King, said, “You can hardly talk to [Joe Exotic] without him mentioning the amount of press he’s getting.”
“He says people are asking to see his Prince Albert and girls are sending him sexy bikini pictures even though he’s gay. He’s over the moon. Having kept in pretty close touch with him while he’s been in a horrible county prison, this has raised his spirits. Joe definitely did some horrible things to his animals. He was very abusive to them and he shot five tigers, no question about it. But what has happened to him has also been hard,” Chaiklin said.
While Joe is remorseful about about abusing the tigers and wants to dedicate himself to criminal reform, co-director Eric Goode cautioned theLos Angeles Times about taking the eccentric trainer at his word. “He is in a cage and of course he’s gonna say that he now recognizes what he did to these animals,” Goode said. “With Joe, we have empathy for him, but at the same time, he’s someone who really knows what to say at the right moment. I take it with a big grain of salt when he says he is now apologetic for keeping animals.”
Now, as is becoming the custom for workers who leave WWE for AEW, he’s gone on Talk Is Jericho to discuss his problems in WWE, and what’s different about All Elite Wrestling.
First of all, that thing you’ve heard about how Vince didn’t like Luke Harper because he didn’t have a Southern accent? Turns out that’s true.
So I think the way I do talk, Vince doesn’t see a person that looks like me talking like me. And I don’t think he could get over that. He saw a backwoods hillbilly who talked in a southern drawl, and being from Rochester, New York and being somewhat eloquent, he didn’t understand, and it just didn’t compute with him.
He had his own ideas for things he could do in WWE, but none of them ever got approved:
I wanted to be a collector of some sort, almost like, I’m very into serial killers, and stuff like that, so I wanted to collect something from each person I would beat, and then the problem just become that I wasn’t beating anybody, so it’s hard to collect from people to do that. I also wanted to be maybe a smart monster, a very intelligent monster, where I can speak like I do in a very intelligent way and break my opponents down in a certain way that I wasn’t doing in the Wyatt Family, and then just have the same matches I was having, and look the same exact way, so be this slovenly character but just very also intelligent, almost like a Bruiser Brody, and again, I just don’t think he could see that way of talking.
After all those years of doing what he was told and often being told to do nothing, AEW was a whole different world, where the workers have control over their characters.
So then I would start doubting myself, too, like maybe I don’t have it. This happened actually last week with AEW, where it’s like, “Hey, go do this promo.” And coming from WWE, it’s like, “OK, well what do you want me to talk about?” And it’s like, “Well, whatever you want, it’s your promo.” So then it’s like, the stress was like, holy shit. So now I have no one to blame, so if it’s not good, it’s on me, and it’s like, can I do this? So then it became that whole thing too. Even Cody came in the room and he’s like, “Well, what do you got?” And I read it to him and I totally stumbled over everything I was gonna say to him, just I don’t even know, and he goes, “OK, go ahead, good luck” and he just left. And I was like, well, here we go.
The day of his AEW debut, Brodie was incredibly nervous, but once he’d done it he felt much better.
It just didn’t feel right all day, I guess. I was very stressed out about it. More than I thought I would be, and not, I think, as excited or pumped up as I should have been. And then it came on like super fast. They’re like, “Well, the tag match is in the ring, you guys are next.” And I was like, “Holy shit, it’s time to go.” And then that’s when it got keyed up and I was all pumped up. And like doing the promo and the way it came out, I felt really good about everything.
In fact, AEW President Tony Khan had given him the option to delay his debut for a show with a live audience, but Brodie couldn’t wait any longer to be back in the ring.
Tony very specifically texted me and said, “Hey man, if you don’t want to do this, we won’t do this.” And I wrote back, I was like, “No man, I’m all in for Wednesday, just let me know what you need me to do.” And that’s the thing, I had a way out if I wanted it, but I just didn’t think, I’ve been cooped up for so long, and I think I told you this last week, I want to get out, I want to do something, I need to be creative, I need to just fly a little bit, so even that little bit last week was something.
It’s great to see a talent like Brodie Lee in a company that appreciates what he can do, and wants to let him do it. I’m interested to see where the Exalted One goes from here.
After the disbandment of his indie rock outfit Cymbals Eat Guitars, Joseph D’Agostino pivoted towards solo music. The change birthed D’Agostino’s new project Empty Country, and he shared his eponymous debut solo album last week. D’Agostino celebrated the release of his debut record while stuck at home in quarantine. So the singer decided to grace his fans with three live versions of songs off Empty Country.
While home in his own studio, D’Agostino managed to perform energetic versions of the tracks “Diamond,” “Clearing,” and “Becca.” Along with his wife, D’Agostino said in a statement that they “hope this provides a distraction from the constant, crushing anxiety we’re all enduring.”
D’Agostino wrote about the theme of the song “Diamond” in a statement, saying it was written about the hardest year of his life:
“I began writing ‘Diamond’ for my wife Rachel in October 2017, on our foreshortened honeymoon in Upstate New York. Rachel’s aunt had passed away after a long battle with leukemia the day before our wedding, so we would have to head back south for the funeral only a few days later. Rachel’s cousin had succumbed to bone cancer just three years prior. The days Rachel and I spent in the Catskills after our wedding were slow and unreal, suspended in amber. We walked on the rails of the derelict Ulster & Delaware like twin gymnasts on parallel balance beams, Esopus Creek slipping by beside us. We relished in having no cell service. Though we were less than a year into the Trump era, we were already exhausted and full of dread. We fell deeply in love with the region and made plans to move there from Philadelphia as soon as we could. On the morning we left NY, the weather shifted. The leaves took on the queasy dull luster that prefigures thunderstorms. But for two gold days, we postponed encroaching reality. It is now 2020. The sh*t is fully hitting the fan, and we haven’t yet left Philadelphia. The advance I mention waiting for in the song— the one we planned to use as a downpayment on a house— would never come. In January 2019, within 24 hours of handing in the Empty Country masters, I was promptly dropped by my manager, publisher and booking agent. This professional disaster kicked off what would prove to be one of the most challenging years of my life, one that I seriously doubt I would have made it through alive without Rachel. So this song is for her… but you can listen too if you’d like.”
Watch Empty Country perform “Diamond,” “Clearing,” and “Becca” from his living room above.
Empty Country is out now via Get Better Records. Get it here
The sports world is on hiatus right now due to the global pandemic that is COVID-19 and the far-reaching impact it’s had just about everywhere, from China and southeast Asia to Iran to Italy and central Europe to the United States where the outbreak has reached record levels. Most sports leagues have accepted their fate that they will not be playing games for some time — the latest federal push of CDC guidelines banning gatherings of more than 10 people through April 30 indicates it wouldn’t be until the summer at the earliest before leagues get back.
UFC has been insistent that their big UFC 249 event would still take place on April 18, however, in a venue outside the United States and without fans. The main event for the card was set to be the highly anticipated matchup between Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson, but that appears to be unlikely to take place due to travel restrictions placed on Russia, where Khabib recently returned to and now is stuck.
Nurmagomedov updated fans on his status on an Instagram Live on Monday morning, saying he was not able to travel due to the recent restrictions placed on the country by the prime minister. He also explained he was told the fight was likely to happen in the UAE, but when he left camp in the U.S. and traveled there earlier in March, he was told he had to return to Russia due to restrictions that were set to be enforced there. A snippet of the translation of his IG Live is below, via RT Sport.
“After talking to the UFC we decided to fly over to the Emirates a month before the fight. I don’t remember the exact date, it was 19th or 20th, I’ll have to check. But when we landed in Emirates we learned that they are going to close borders. And no one will be able to leave or fly in, with exception for residents.
“So we had to fly back to Russia. Currently I am in Dagestan and I am training and preparing every day. Although I don’t know what am I preparing for. Because after we came to Russia we also learned that the borders are going to be locked. Same like in the States, same like in Europe, Emirates, everywhere. The whole world is in quarantine right now.
“So now I am hearing that they are looking to organize it with or without me. OK, go ahead.”
According to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, UFC is aware of the situation and is now moving forward with looking for alternatives, including a possible replacement fight for Ferguson, as well as seeking a new location for the event.
Ferguson, per sources, has been offered a fight against top contender Justin Gaethje. However, that fight has not been agreed upon nor finalized. Neither has a location for the event.
Given increased travel restrictions facing just about everyone around the world right now it is hard to see how UFC pulls off getting all of their fighters to a central location outside the United States for this event. As more restrictions get placed in more places, Dana White and company will be hard pressed to find a location that can accommodate them, but there’s no doubt they certainly will try to make it happen.
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(@erydejong) 
something to this lil thing I was just vibin on 
