Category: Worldwide

Turns out Jordan Klepper’s visit to Mike Lindell’s MAGA rally was as bats*it as the MyPillow guy himself made it look. The Daily Show correspondent was among the several who turned out to his MAGA rally in Wisconsin over the weekend, and he managed to snag an interview with Lindell and many of the Trump supporters who still believe a long list of lies Trump’s litany of sycophants tout about the election and Trump’s apparent coming reinstatement to the presidency later this summer.

Lindell tried to turn the tables on The Daily Show by posting video of the interview before it aired on Comedy Central, but perhaps he didn’t come off as well in that reveal as he’d hoped. Which is why the actual segment airing on Thursday night was a topic of interest, to say the least.

Klepper’s ‘Fingers The Pulse’ segment heavily featured Lindell on Thursday, but started with several who attended the rally and parroted the usual misinformation about the election, Democrats and how Lindell is a real American who tells it like it is. But when he actually talked to Klepper, well, things didn’t go so well.

“I already have the evidence,” Lindell claimed, without evidence before he went into a speil about what the rally really is for. “Do you know what this is doing? Do you guys get it?”

The actual purpose of the rally is not for Trump, Lindell claimed, but a show of free speech against… demonetization on video sharing platforms. OR something.

“This is a free speech rally, my platform, Frank Speech, for all the individuals whether they’re Democrat or Republican. Right now if you talk about machines, vaccines, the border, Jesus, you speak out for anything and YouTube and Vimeo and people like you guys, the journalists, suppress it, cancel us. And try and destroy something good that’s coming out of this.

“This is a free speech rally,” he continued. “This isn’t a Trump rally. Did you call it a Trump rally?”

Klepper points out that it says “MAGA” in the event’s title and Trump is supposed to speak via video later in the day.

“You got his picture on the poster, Mike,” Klepper says. Lindell replies to that Trump “got suppressed” just like the rest of the things currently airing on national television in the segment.

Klepper pointed out that the “elongation” of this election conspiracy process from Trump supporters and amplifying of those voices by Lindell has led to death threats for otherwise anonymous election officials in several states and had harmful impacts in the real world, including the January 6 insurrection in Washington. Lindell demurred here a bit, and Klepper then called out the oscillation he keeps having about his role in all this.

“Do you either want to be the guy everybody comes to or not the guy everybody comes to?” Klepper asks. “Because you have answers for being the guy that the cyberpunks come to but you have no other answers.”

The line is a reference to Lindell saying “white hat hackers” came to him with incriminating information about “the crime of the century” but his reluctance to share it with anyone else. Later, Klepper asks what Lindell will do if Trump does not get reinstated in August, as he’s promised again and again in recent weeks. Of course, there was more fight ahead.

“Then the states are all going to pull it down because they’re doing audits in every state,” Lindell said. Which prompted Klepper for perhaps his best line of the segment.

“It’s like watching that Bigfoot show,” Klepper suggested. “They don’t find Bigfoot at the end but, if you tune in next week, maybe it’s gonna happen.”

Lindell laughed, then seemed to understand what Klepper was saying and ended the interview, walking away saying “you guys are horrible.” So, tune in next week for more, I guess.

Since Iron Man kicked off the MCU all those years ago, I’ve come to find that if there’s one thing Marvel Cinematic Universe fan’s love apart from, well… Marvel, it’s a thoughtful crossover. Whether it be a massive, universe-altering event, or a subtle interaction that harkens back to a conversation that happened five years prior, crossovers and connections are indisputably fun to find, theorize about, and simply experience. Fortunately for Marvel fans, the MCU is chock-full of ’em, and their newest Disney+ show, Loki, is no exception. However, rather than take a look at every little Easter egg tucked away in the show’s most recent episode (Revengers, anyone?), we’re going to talk about one item in particular: Roxxcart.

After successfully nailing down when and where the Loki Variant (or are they?) is located, Loki, Mobius, and a squad of the Time Variance Authority’s finest Minutemen travel to the year 2050 and head to Haven Hills, Alabama, a corporate town owned and operated by the Roxxon Corporation (which, just to be clear, has no relation to UPROXX). So once in Haven Hills, the team busts into the corporation’s version of a Walmart-like big box store, Roxxcart, where they encounter folks seeking shelter from an imminent and sadly devastating hurricane, as well as the variant they’ve been hunting down. While everything that happens within Roxxcart is incredibly engaging, if you’re anything like us you might have spent a least a bit of time wondering why Roxxcart sounds vaguely familiar and if there’s any significance to it the neon-lit superstore’s appearance. Well, we’re here to tell you there is a reason why, and there certainly is a least a little bit of significance.

So as I mentioned before, Roxxcart is Roxxon’s privately owned superstore, and while Loki marks the first time Roxxcart has even been mentioned in both the MCU and the comics, Marvel and Roxxon has a history in both. First appearing in Captain America #180 in 1974, Roxxon Energy is essentially the evil corporation of the Marvel universe and has been involved in several stories with several Marvel heroes. Much like the Umbrella Corporation in Resident Evil, Jurassic Park‘s Ingen, and Alien’s Weyland-Yutani, Roxxon is basically always up to something that’s either actively harming the planet or humanity all in the pursuit of “progress,” which lands them in hot water a lot. However, seeing as Loki and the gang are waltzing into a Roxxon-operated store in the year 2050, you can safely assume these guys never really learn their lesson, and — like all multi-billion-dollar conglomerates — have themselves so intertwined in the people’s lives that their profitability is unwavering. However, even before 2050 we’ve seen Roxxon everywhere.

Prior to Roxxon’s appearance in Loki, the energy and power company has made appearances in Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Cloak and Dagger, Helstom, Iron Fist, Daredevil, Runaways, and every last one of the Iron Man movies, as seen above. While Roxxon never serves as the villain in any of these stories, in every single last one of them, Roxxon acts as an important part of Marvel’s world-building. People have conversations about the company, hear about them in the news, or walk past their ads on the streets. In Daredevil, Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson defend the company as interns. In Iron Man 3, “The Mandarin” threatens to kill a Roxxon employee on air after the company spilled a million gallons of oil into the gulf and faced zero consequences for it. In Agent Carter, you discover that in the Marvel world, Roxxon is responsible for creating America’s atomic bombs.

So while Roxxon has yet to take center stage in any MCU story, we are constantly reminded the company exists, and that these worlds are all so intimately connected to one another, making the Roxxcart Easter egg a pretty damn cool one.

XXL‘s annually anticipated list of hip-hop Freshmen has hit the ‘net and as usual, garnered a tremendous response as those in the know celebrated their emerging faves and everyone else groused about being out of the loop. Of course, along with those reactions, the list also brought an inevitable third response: Fans expressing disappointment that their own favorite artists didn’t quite make the cut.

All of these artists definitely deserve to be here, and as we find out over the next few weeks which artists turned down spots or missed the availability window, it’s important to congratulate everyone who did make it for their accomplishment and acknowledge the hard work and luck it takes to get this far. Sometimes it’s just a matter of timing, as some artists’ big moments came just after the list was finalized.

That said, it’s always fun to play “What If?” with the list, especially because so many artists could qualify for a spot. However, let’s call the below seven artists something like a shortlist of names to watch for next year’s installment of the Freshman Class. Just because they missed out this year doesn’t mean they don’t deserve your attention now — and who knows? Maybe next year, you’ll be seeing these names on the big stage and thinking, “Hey, I know them!”

Babyface Ray

Born and raised on the east side of Detroit, Babyface Ray has a smooth, almost lackadaisical flow and blunt, plainspoken punchlines that are equal parts hilarious and understated (picture Danny Brown on a whole lot of downers). Like many of the best-known, up-and-coming rappers from his city such as Sada Baby and Tee Grizzley, he’s willing to rap on anything, but he stands apart thanks to his poise and stripped-back demeanor, which let his rhymes sneak up on listeners like a sip of sake rather than his contemporaries’ hard-body shots of no-chaser liquor. It’s an approach that makes for a stealthy come-up, but one that is every bit as undeniable

Erica Banks

Whether from the reductive Twitter jokes about being Megan’s offspring or from the maniacal meme that took over TikTok throughout the early part of the year when quarniness (quarantine horniness) was at its absolute peak, you know Erica Banks. And she’s putting in the effort to ensure that remains the case, whether that’s through collabs with fellow Texans like BeatKing, Big Jade, and Yella Beezy, or connecting with New York rising star DreamDoll. Banks has already proven she has the chops to hang with the likes of her contemporaries, and “Buss It” provided her a certified hit — all that’s left is to remain on the grind.

EST Gee

After Lil Baby’s 2020 co-sign on “Real As It Gets” launched him into the public consciousness, the Louisville native hit the ground running, dropping viral hit after viral hit tapping into the same sort of rough-edged, street-bred, unfiltered vein as Lil Baby. Gee’s strategic collaborations with more artists in that lane — Moneybagg Yo, 42 Dugg, Yo Gotti — furthered his gritty street rap appeal but his connection with fellow Louisvillian Jack Harlow on the latter’s more polished “Route 66” also solidified his crossover potential.

Hotboii

Hailing from Orlando, FL, Hotboii’s look is eye-catching, to say the least, but he pairs it with some of the most compelling autobiographical rhymes the Sunshine State has produced in the last big chunk of the streaming era. It’s slurry and simple but with an undercurrent of genuine distress — he’s seen some stuff, and he’s just trying to keep a straight face. This approach has turned out to be successful for him over the past year, as videos generate a million views a go at the minimum and his December debut album Double O Baby shot to the top of Billboard‘s Top Heatseekers chart.

Lil Poppa

Propelled by a fluid, bouncy cadence, Jacksonville rapper Lil Poppa has quietly accumulated one of the more loyal fanbases in hip-hop. His discography also boasts more than a few appearances by current playlist dominators like Lil Durk, Polo G, and Toosii, while his emotive and passionate storytelling makes him a compelling figure. He also understands how to write a catchy song, something he attributed to growing up a “big Lil Bow Wow fan,” as he told XXL‘s The Break.

RMR

Ever since he finagled his way to viral stardom with his cover of Rascal Flatts’ “Bless the Broken Road,” the masked ATLien has been consistently surprising listeners with his moves. Whether that means tapping in with trap favorite Future, Lil Baby, and Young Thug, recruited boom-bap revivalist Westside Gunn to his cause, or becoming a one-man cover band trying on everything from Drake hits to ’90s alt-rock favorites, the only thing you can expect from RMR is the unexpected.

Yung Bleu

Mobile, Alabama’s rap scene is popping off right now. After spawning the 2021 XXL Freshman brat rapper Flo Milli, its next star could very well be Yung Bleu, who’s gotten love from both Drake and Nicki Minaj as his breakout single “You’re Mines Still” racked up enough streams to become a legitimate, out-and-out hit. It helps when Drake jumps on the remix, but what likely means more is having a foundation of beloved tracks for new fans to discover and Yung Bleu certainly has that, including another 2021 Freshman, Coi Leray on “Thieves In Atlanta.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

We are now only a week from The Golden Casket, which will be Modest Mouse’s first album in six years, following 2015’s Strangers To Ourselves. Ahead of the June 25 release, the band has shared what will presumably be the final pre-album single, “The Sun Hasn’t Left Yet.” It’s a jaunty, upbeat tune that almost sounds like a children’s song at times with its lighthearted instrumentation.

Isaac Brock recently spoke with Uproxx’s Steven Hyden about the album, saying, “I wanted to make sure I didn’t accidentally make the same record again. It’s better to not put out many records and make them all feel a bit different. I try to be very aware of whether I’m doing the same thing, or doing something too close to another thing. My canon of information — what songs are out there, not just Modest Mouse songs, but just songs in the world — I know about a lot more songs. I just remembered a song I was super psyched on with Jacknife Lee last week. I was playing the kettle drum. And I get done and I’m listening to it and I’m like, ‘This is f*cking strange. It sounds like The Simpsons theme song.’ And so I’m aware that I can’t cover songs by accident. I’m also aware that I don’t want to accidentally cover my songs.”

Listen to “The Sun Hasn’t Left” above and check out our interview with Brock here.

The Golden Casket is out 6/25 via Epic Records. Pre-order it here.

Next week, Modest Mose is releasing The Golden Casket, their first new music since 2015’s Strangers To Ourselves . We recently got Isaac Brock to review every Modest Mouse album, including their latest, and now it’s time for Steve and Ian to give their takes on the band’s first release for the better part of a decade.

In addition to new music, Steve and Ian are also reflecting on the catalogue and career of one of the brightest lights in the indie rock scene of the aughts: The Shins. The band recently celebrated twenty years of Oh, Inverted World with a newly remastered version of the album, considered to be one of the definitive touchstones of the indie rock canon. How does it hold up two decades after its initial release?

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Steve is excited about the return of Gang Of Youths with the new single “The Angel Of 8th Ave.” Ian is digging Megabear, the new album from UK outfit Me Rex.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 44 on Apple Podcasts and Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Being a globally recognized music icon is an experience with which few people can relate, and that’s even more true in the case of Billie Eilish. She achieved success at an uncommonly young age: Her debut single, “Ocean Eyes,” was released when she was just 14 years old, and it quickly made her a star. Somebody who had a similar coming-up in the music world, though, is Lorde, whose breakout single, “Royals,” was released when she was 17.

It turns out that Lorde recognizes those parallels, and she spoke about them in a recent interview with BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac.

The host brought up the similarities and asked Lorde is she and Eilish have spoken and compared their experiences as teenagers in the music industry. Lorde, who gave affirmative “mmms” as Mac spoke, responded, “We have sent just a few little messages back in the day, when she was very young. She’s so, so sweet and there’s only a handful of people who understand what that’s like, to be a teenager and, you know, have that level of scrutiny on your body and your brain. Yeah, it’s a specific experience. Obviously, she’s very close with her family, as I am, which I think is really helpful at that age when your world is changing. And yeah, the music is awesome. She’s just doing such a good job.”

Listen to Lorde discuss Eilish above.

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — Our nation’s finest television program has returned

Many of the world’s most respected scientists and other losers will tell you that the first day of summer is June 21. This is fine, and accurate in the most technical sense of things if we want to fall into their trap, which we do not. Summer cannot be quantified by things like dates on the calendar or positions of various objects in the solar system. Summer is more fluid than that. It’s more of a vibe than the other seasons. To paraphrase the United States Supreme Court in a ruling on a… different subject, you know summer when you feel it. Maybe it’s seeing kids in a pool, or smelling grilled meats, or feeling drops of sweat develop on your lower back when you’re driving around in a hot car. This is also fine, and I can’t really go about telling you you’re wrong when I just got done saying how subjective it all is. But it is my position, and the position of this column, that summer does not officially begin until some bozo gets wiped out by a cartoonishly complicated obstacle on our nation’s finest television program, Holey Moley.

Point being: Welcome to… summer?

Hmm. Well, this is a little awkward. I just went on this whole rant about how the show signifies summer and they went and changed the volcano hole to a Santa one. It’s a winter wonderland now. Although… now that I think about it… yes, okay. This still plays. And I’m not going to sit here and complain to any of you about them adding reindeer and candy stripes to the whole endeavor. That is good, objectively. It’s still summer. We just have reindeer now. That’s fine, too.

And guess what: It gets better. The windmills have fire now.

What a perfect television show. They had an obstacle where people attempted and usually failed to run through some windmills, almost always resulting in them getting wiped straight out of the screen and into a pool, and they were like “… but what if there was fire?” Never mind the fact that the Dutch hillside is not generally known for wildfires, or that none of this makes sense. There’s fire now. Look, again.

And again.

I could easily just keep posting GIFs here, and I suspect I will in the coming weeks, but I’ll stop for now because I feel like the point has been made. You see where I’m going with this. The good show is back and they have raised the stakes needlessly and borderline recklessly for no reason other than to please you and me. This is commendable if only for the legal liability they appear to be assuming to bring the people some belly laughs. There are new holes, too, with innuendo-laden names like Cornhole and The Pecker, because everyone on this show is 12 years old and I love them. There’s a jousting hole where contestants sit on what appears to be a lubed-up plastic horsey and face off against a knight who launches them into the watery abyss. There’s a ski jump hole for… I don’t know, reasons?

Also, hosts Joe Tessitore and Rob Riggle are back and really finding their groove. I don’t think anyone on television is having more fun than those guys. I mean, just look at their reaction to one of the better wallopings…

It’s all so stupid and so perfect and it makes me so happy. They gave Riggle a telestrator this season, which would thrill me if it didn’t make me so mad he didn’t have one before now. But I’ll live. The vibes are just too good. Summer is here and it is dumb as hell in the best possible way. Grab your swim trunks and sunscreen. And maybe some ibuprofen. It’s gonna get weird.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — The Batman discourse is out of control

I’m going to assume you spend as much time online as I do. You don’t, probably, hopefully, both because my job requires me to be online all day long and because I choose to believe readers of this column are all attractive and well-adjusted millionaires. But it’s easier this way. It will save me from explaining The Batman Discourse in anything beyond posting a cursory blockquote, which I will do now.

“It’s incredibly gratifying and free to be using characters that are considered villains because you just have so much more leeway,” says Halpern. “A perfect example of that is in this third season of ‘Harley’ [when] we had a moment where Batman was going down on Catwoman. And DC was like, ‘You can’t do that. You absolutely cannot do that.’ They’re like, ‘Heroes don’t do that.’ So, we said, ‘Are you saying heroes are just selfish lovers?’ They were like, ‘No, it’s that we sell consumer toys for heroes. It’s hard to sell a toy if Batman is also going down on someone.’”

(In fairness to DC, both Halpern and Schumacker went on to say that the company has been remarkably supportive of their series and has allowed them to push the envelope numerous times. Still, it remains to be seen if Batman and Catwoman will be shown engaging in some bedroom antics in Season 3 or if it will simply be implied via cunning linguistics.)

So, yes, chaos everywhere. It was nice in some ways because it made social media fun for about 48 hours, which is a staggering achievement in 2021. And it all led to Actual Former Batman Val Kilmer weighing in with a tweet that featured a GIF of himself as Batman, which is an astounding power move and still only about the third most remarkable thing here. It was, to put a needle-fine point on it all, a week.

But before we put it all to bed and move on to other, less fun things to shout about, let’s all be clear on one important thing: Harley Quinn is such a good show.

We’ve talked about this before, a few times, because it’s true and we value the truth here, sometimes. There’s not really a need to re-hash it all in any depth. So we’re not going to do that. What we’re going to do instead of post some screencaps from the show. Ones I made this week. Ones that feature the show’s hopelessly depressed version of Commissioner Jim Gordon — voiced by Christopher Meloni, who is also having a week, in a good way — having a complicated relationship with Batman and the Bat Signal. Like, for example, these, from the very first episode.

And these, from later in the first season.

Those are just wonderful little pieces of business. Harley Quinn is a good and fun show, no matter what Batman is or is not allowed to do with his face in the upcoming third season. Trust me on this. I would not lie to you. Thank you.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — While we’re on the subject…

Every now and then a headline will cross the screen that makes you stop dead in your tracks. It’s one of the many ways you can tell words are powerful. Choose the right ones and put them in the right order and you can alter someone’s entire day, or week, or life. It happened twice this week to me. The first time was when I saw this tweet.

And the second time was a few days later, when I saw this perfect and straightforward announcement at Deadline: “Zoë Kravitz To Make Directing Debut On ‘Pussy Island’; Channing Tatum Playing Tech Billionaire With Mysterious Tropical Island.”

I will require information about this news at once. Tell me about this movie. Someone. Anyone.

Frida is a young, clever, Los Angeles cocktail waitress who has her eyes set on the prize: philanthropist and tech mogul Slater King (Tatum). When she skillfully maneuvers her way into King’s inner circle and ultimately an intimate gathering on his private island, she is ready for a journey of a lifetime. Despite the epic setting, beautiful people, ever-flowing champagne and late-night dance parties, Frida can sense that there’s more to this island than meets the eye. Something she can’t quite put her finger on. Something terrifying.

The biggest shocker here, in the grand scheme of things, is that Channing Tatum is starring in a movie called Pussy Island and it’s not the dramatic conclusion of the Magic Mike franchise. Tell me you would not watch Magic Mike: Escape From Pussy Island. Do not lie to me.

And somehow that isn’t even the best part of that Deadline story. Because that Deadline story also contains this anecdote.

“When someone can just come out and tell me I should not be wearing Crocs, and is so adamant about it, she completely convinced me and I never wear Crocs anymore,” Tatum said.

“I was just trying to be a good friend, Chan,” she said.

“I get it, but I totally loved Crocs for a hot second, and in one hang she was like, you can’t ever do that again. And I said, ‘OK, fine.’ “

Said Kravitz: “Just to be clear, there are people out there who can pull off the Crocs thing; I just wasn’t sure you were one of them.”

Zoe Kravitz, an extremely cool person who is the child of two extremely cool people, told Channing Tatum he was not allowed to wear crocs anymore, and Channing Tatum listened to her and stopped wearing them. And the conversation happened while they were discussing a movie they are making together called Pussy Island. Everyone is really just doing a tremendous job this week. I’m proud of all of you.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Let’s all go to a Vin Diesel concert

The cast of F9 is out making the publicity rounds. This is good for a number of reasons. It’s good because it means the movie is actually coming out, finally, almost 18 months after the first trailer dropped. It’s good because I love everyone in these movies very much and like to click on links about them. But mostly it’s good because it resulted in Vin Diesel talking about making an album. A music album. With lots of songs and everything! Here, look at this Vulture interview:

I remember being in London and I told Paul Walker that everyone really freaked out at me for singing the song and posting it. And he said, “Pfft. Don’t listen to that. You know you’re a singer.” So my point is, he encouraged me to sing. That led to Kygo wanting me to sing. Steve Aoki wanting me to sing. Nicki M. wanting me to sing. And I eventually got the confidence to step out of my comfort zone and went for it.

Just to be clear here, he is talking about this song, which he released on Valentine’s Day last year.

And if we had more time I would get into the thing where I think he called Nicki Minaj “Nicki M,” which is perplexing on a number of levels, but we do not have more time. Because of this.

I would love to do an album. Chris, I think something that you alluded to in the beginning conversation speaks … You talked about, “Do you want to do other things?” What you’re implying is what’s real. And that is, I do go deeply into stuff to the point of being myopic at times. And that’s the only thing that could prevent me from having an album out: the beautiful pressure to deliver [Fast] 10 for 2023 or 2024.

Marks my words: If, after Fast 10 comes out, Vin Diesel released a full album and goes out on tour to support it, the following things will happen:

• I will see a Vin Diesel concert regardless of price
• I will write a lengthy reported feature about it

You can come, too. We’ll tailgate. Coronas only.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE— Welcome to Henry Winkler Fish Picture Season

Regular readers of this column will recognize Henry Winkler Fish Picture Season. It is a lovely time of year. It starts whenever Henry Winkler goes on vacation and posts pictures of the fish he catches and lasts until he goes home and stops posting pictures of the fish he caught. The best part is that he posts them on Twitter, the angriest and pettiest website in the world. So you’ll be scrolling through like 700 tweets about something some grifter politician said or did and then suddenly, out of nowhere, blammo, the Fonz has a fish.

It is so good and pure that it almost makes me uncomfortable. I do not want it to stop. Henry Winkler Fish Picture Season only lasts a few days at a time. Please take a moment to stop and cherish it this weekend. Let it cleanse your soul. You need this. We all do.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Matthew:

Matthew McConaughey is thinking about running for Governor of Texas. Cynthia Nixon ran for Governor of New York. The Rock is apparently considering a run for President. This is just in the last few years too, and comes after Arnold Schwarzenegger was Governor of California and Ronald Reagan was the actual President. My question has two parts:

First, why do so many actors want to get into politics? Second, what actor or actress would you like to see run next? I’m picturing Keanu running on a “Giant Wine Glasses For Everyone” platform.

This is a good question. Both parts of it. The first part is good because it is something that has vexed me, too. I can’t see why anyone would want to get into politics. I’ll go even further: I am suspicious of anyone who wants to hold elected office. It seems awful. And everyone you work with is awful. Wanting to be a politician, by choice, should automatically disqualify you from holding office. People should have to be dragged into Congress kicking and screaming. That’s the only way you know you can trust them.

It’s more true for wealthy celebrities. I’m glad they want to help, I guess, but what are we doing here? Why would anyone give up that life for politics? The Rock and Matthew McConaughey are both widely adored and fabulously wealthy. They don’t need this. It’s madness. Someone please tell them to stop.

As to the second part, if I really have to choose, if there’s no way around it… I guess… hmm… I guess I’ll go with Helen Mirren. I know she’s British. I know this is a bad idea for a bunch of reasons. But I feel like, between the accent and the thing where she’s played a queen over half a dozen times in various projects, people would at least feel obligated to behave around her. That’s a start.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Topeka!

This seems like a boring thing for me to highlight but, I swear, it’s about to get good. Just hang tight.

Ahhhh, but why? Why would the authorities in Topeka be in favor of tires that don’t leave marks? That seems like an oddly specific concern. There has to be more to this. And there is. Look at this tweet.

Three things are worth noting here, in no particular order:

• This is hilarious to me, a child
• All I could think about when I saw it was the first season of American Vandal, with fake documentary within a documentary about someone spray painting penises on the cars in a high school parking lot
• Let’s all watch the first season of American Vandal again

Moving on.

The rascals of Topeka are to be commended this. Good for them. We’ve all had a weird year. If taking some scooters out and screeching wieners into various parking lots helps people heal, I say let them do it. This is America, after all.

After months of rumors, Kim Kardashian has been openly discussing the dissolution of her marriage to Kanye West lately. She talked about it during the recent series finale of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and the spoke about it more on last night’s Keeping Up reunion special.

Andy Cohen hosted the program, and he asked Kardashian why the marriage didn’t work. She responded, “I honestly don’t think I would even say it here on TV, but it was not one specific thing that happened on either part. I think it was just a general difference of opinions on a few things that led to this decision.”

The host then asked about the status of their relationship now and Kardashian answered, “We have an amazing co-parenting relationship and I respect him so much and I think we’ll have… you know, that was my friend first. First and foremost, for a long time.”

In the Keeping Up finale, Kardashian also spoke about a general disconnect between her and West, saying, “I want someone where we have the same shows in common. I want someone that wants to work out with me. Like, every single day, Khloé [Kardashian] and Tristan [Thompson] and I would workout at 6 a.m., the three of us, and I was third-wheeling it for a good eight months in quarantine, and I was so envious of that. I was like, ‘Wow, it’s, like, the little things I don’t have.’ I have all the big things. I have the extravagant everything you can possibly imagine and no one will ever do it like that — I know that, and I’m grateful for those experiences — but I think I’m ready for the smaller experiences that I think will mean a lot.”

The Boston Celtics, with Brad Stevens running the front office, have made a significant move in an effort to refresh the team this summer.

Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Celtics are trading Kemba Walker, the No. 16 overall pick and a 2025 second round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Al Horford, Moses Brown and a 2023 second round pick.

There’s a lot to unpack here. On the edge of the deal, Stevens dealing a first round pick in his first move in general manager feels telling. It also seems very possible now that Marcus Smart, heading into the last year of his deal and an assumed trade chip this summer, is more likely to stay now with the next Celtics coach perhaps turning more of the offense over to Jayson Tatum.

The main part of this deal, though, is the Walker-Horford swap. This is the Celtics’ last two big free agent signings being traded for each other. It feels clear that Stevens a) doesn’t think Walker is what the team needs after two years in Boston and b) the team has missed Horford as a frontcourt presence and a leader since he left for the 76ers two summers ago. To an extent, it feels like Stevens is trying to put a genie back in the bottle here.

Will this work for Boston? It’s really hard to know. Both players have two years left on their current contracts, although Walker makes about $10 million more per year than Horford. That, in theory, allows Boston to spend a little bit more to reinforce the edges of its roster this summer or perhaps even extend Smart.

Horford barely played last year after ending up with the Thunder after his time with the 76ers simply didn’t work out. He also just turned 35, so he’s certainty later in his career than he was at his apex. They’ll need to replace Walker’s ball handling and playmaking in some way, even if he wasn’t as good as the team hoped when they signed him. All that’s clear is that Stevens, in moving from head coach to the front office, identified losing Horford as a problem and made his first move to fix just that.

Now that Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour has been released, fans have a handful of songs from the pop star into which they can dig their teeth. There’s always room for more, though, and more regularly arrives thanks to Rodrigo’s role in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Last month brought the Rodrigo/Joshua Bassett duet “Even When/The Best Part,” for example, and now there’s a new Rodrigo solo track from the show, “The Rose Song.”

The song appears on the sixth episode of the show’s second season. In the episode, Nini (Rodrigo’s character) gets cast as the rose in the East High production of Beauty And The Beast. Subsequently, she writes and performs “The Rose Song.” On the chorus of the emotional piano ballad, she sings, “‘Cause I am more than what I am to you / You say I’m perfect, but I’ve got thorns with my petals, too / And I won’t be confined to your point of view / I’m breakin’ through the glass you put me in / ‘Cause my beauty’s from within.”

In a May interview ahead of the release of Sour, Rodrigo said of the song, “The success of the music I’ve put out recently has given me a lot of confidence as a writer and in the other songs that I’ve written, like ‘The Rose Song.’ I think it’s one of the best songs I’ve written. It’s this really intricate metaphor and I’ve never written a song like that before.”

In an interview from last year, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series showrunner Tim Federle described the song as “pretty extraordinary” and continued, “We all felt like, ‘How could she ever top ‘All I Want?’ And then she came up with this concept that knocked our socks off.”

Listen to “The Rose Song” above.