Category: Worldwide

It’s been more than eight months since the deadly helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven other people. Their deaths hit the NBA in a way we’ve never seen before, prompting an outpouring of grief from friends, family, teammates, fans, and media alike as we all tried to make sense of an unthinkable tragedy.

Unfortunately, there were those who attempted to use the opportunity to capitalize on that tragedy. Reports eventually emerged that some of the sheriffs involved had taken and shared graphic photographs of the scene, but Sheriff Alex Villanueva has since told reporters that they had deleted the pictures of their own accord.

But Vanessa Bryant believes that the photos in question might still exist and that they could find their way into circulation, which is why she’s filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department seeking damages.

Via ESPN:

The suit seeks damages for negligence, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

***

Vanessa Bryant’s lawsuit alleges the sheriff’s actions constituted a “cover-up” of the misconduct. The suit claims the photos could still exist.

“Mrs. Bryant feels ill at the thought of strangers gawking at images of her deceased husband and child and she lives in fear that she or her children will one day confront horrific images of their loved ones online,” the lawsuit states.

Bryant has also filed a suit against the helicopter’s pilot, claiming that he was negligent in choosing to fly in foggy conditions. In another strange twist to this story, it apparently isn’t illegal for first responders to take photos of he deceased at the scene of an accident, though a new piece of legislation awaiting signature by Gov. Gavin Newsom would make it a misdemeanor. The county sheriff’s own internal policy forbids taking and sharing pictures at crime scenes, though it doesn’t apply to accidents.

(ESPN)

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

The Playbook (Netflix docuseries) — The first season of this docuseries digs into the journeys taken by legendary coaches on their roads to long-standing success in sports and in life. From Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers to two-time FIFA World Cup-winning coach Jill Ellis, Premier League’s José Mourinho, Serena Williams’ famed tennis coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, and hall of fame basketball player and coach Dawn Staley, the featured coaches have been through it all. Emotional and in-depth interviews will dig into pivotal points in each legend’s career while attempting to unfurl lessons of their ultimate coaching (and playing) philosophies.

Kal Penn Approves This Message (Freeform, 10:30pm EST) — Actor turned Obama administration member turned actor Kal Penn (House, the Harold and Kumar trilogy) is here to celebrate the changes that young voters can make. This promises to be a non-partisan approach with comedic sketches and in-depth interviews that will help Gen Z make their voices more impactful than they already are.

Dead Pixels (CW, 8:00pm EST) — Three friends dig into Kingdom Scrolls in a “Hive-Mother” episode that promises a darkly humorous edge.

Tell Me A Story (CW, 9:00pm EST) — Katrina’s men turn against her in order to stop her from saving Gabe, while Nick worries about his relationship.

Transplant (NBC, 10:00pm EST) — Bash is attempting to gain a work-life balance when his friend from Syria seeks help in treating patients.

Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Desus and Mero

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Ken Jeong, Alicia Keys

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — Keira Knightley, Chelsea Clinton, Tame Impal

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Keith Urban, Rachel Dratch

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Tenacious D

Every day, I wake up feeling like Peeta at the end of “The Hunger Games” series asking Katniss what’s real and what’s not real.

The first thing I do is run through a series of thoughts to orient myself to this bizarre reality we’re currently in: “What day is it today? Umm…Tuesday, I think. Who is president of the United States? Donald Trump. Wait, is that right? That can’t be right….No, yes, that’s right. Wow. Are we still in the middle of a global pandemic that has killed 200,000+ Americans in six months? Yes. Are people still acting like it’s a hoax? Apparently so. Is there still a ridiculous number of people who believe that an elite cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is secretly running the world and trafficking children to harvest fear hormones from their blood, and that Donald Trump is going to save us all from it? Yup.”

Then I lie there in dumbfounded disbelief before semi-rallying: “Okay, here we go.”

It’s not really okay, though. How any of us are expected to be able to function in this reality is beyond me. When we’ve gone beyond merely having different perspectives on issues and instead are living in completely different versions of reality, I can’t figure out how to feel okay. Or, to be more accurate, when some of us are living in objective reality and a not-insignificant-enough number of us are living in a completely made-up land of alternative facts and perpetual gaslighting, it’s hard not to feel like I’m the one losing my grip.

There’s some comfort in knowing I’m not alone in this. It’s always refreshing to hear from fellow citizens who feel like someone keeps slipping them crazy pills, which is why writer Chuck Wendig’s recent Twitter thread about people ignoring the toilet on fire in the living room resonated with me. Wendig has a way with words, and seeing him describe the surreal experience of life at this moment—and that it’s totally normal to feel totally not normal about it—was immensely satisfying.

Wendig wrote:

“It’s okay that you’re not okay. That’s not your brain misfiring. Your response is that you’re not okay because things are very much not okay. I’m not okay. You’re not okay. We aren’t okay together and that’s perfectly acceptable, normal, and expected.

Politics, Zoom school, people not wearing masks, gender reveal forest fires, and other assorted verses to We Didn’t Start The Fire — JFC, shit is jaw-dropping right now. Reality is walking a tightrope between Absurdist Shitshow and Active Malevolence so, yeah, you aren’t okay.

I went to an ice cream parlor and everyone had masks on (no dicknoses, even) and that was great.

I went to a doctor’s office and the office manager of that doctor’s office did NOT have a mask on and what the fuck is that shit.

And I look outside and I see people acting like there’s no pandemic and then online there are people who act like the president is doing a great job and Joe Biden (!) is a socialist (!?) and climate change is a liberal bogeyman and you start to feel like reality is unraveling.

And you start to feel like YOU’RE the cuckoo bananapants person, like there’s a toilet on fire in the middle of the living room and nobody else in your family will acknowledge it. “Nobody else sees the fire toilet?” “The fire toilet is antifa propaganda. Eat your Spaghettios.”

And all that makes you feel like you’re the fucked up one, like it’s not okay that you’re not okay. But it is okay. You’re not okay and that’s your reaction to a very not okay world. There is a toilet on fire in the living room. I see it too.

I’ve no answers how to make it okay. (Except, obviously, vote, give money, raise a ruckus.) Try to secure some peace and pleasure for yourself away from this Hell Realm. I walk and listen to birds and high-five pine trees and it feels a little better. Not okay, but closer to it. (And I note that even going outside is a privilege right now, with many places experiencing ash and smoke or bad weather. I only mean to suggest you put down the phone and try to steal some moments of peace away from the maw of the maelstrom.)

I don’t know that we’re going to be okay. Individually or collectively. But we can try despite everything to care about ourselves and each other through whatever comes and that can be our true north, a star to light the dark. It’s okay that you’re not okay. The toilet is on fire. I see it too. And I’m not okay either.

p.s. jfc wear a mask”

Ah, thank you Chuck Wendig for putting the feelings of so many of us into words. We’re not okay, and that is okay. If we were okay through all of this, it would mean that we’re really not okay.

And since there’s no season finale preview yet for this weird reality show we’re living in, we have to learn to be okay with not being okay. That’s okay, even though it’s not. That’s where we’re at. That’s reality at the moment.

The toilet is on fire. At least we’re not the only one who can see it.

Berwyn — a Trinidad-born UK rapper, songwriter, and producer — overcame a lot to get to where he is today. After a rough childhood, he endured “frequent cycles of homelessness and dead end jobs,” as noted in press materials, before almost moving back to Trinidad. Instead, he took to a “sh*thole flat,” lived “on a diet of toast, weed and insomnia,” and recorded his new project, Demotape/Vega.

The album comes out at the end of the week, but ahead of that, the artist dropped a new video, for “017 Freestyle.” Over a classic-sounding soulful beat, the rapper drops a vulnerable verse over the course of two minutes, addressing his hardships and optimism for the future. Sharing the song today, Berwyn tweeted, “I wrote these songs a good while now from a mattress on the floor. Gassed to finally share it. Hope u love this one more coming friday!”

Berwyn made headlines earlier this year with a rendition of his song “Glory” on Later… With Jools Holland, which came around the start of the Black Lives Matter protests and was tailor-made for the moment. So much so, in fact, that he wrote a new verse for the track the day before the performance.

Watch the “017 Freestyle” video above.

Demotape/Vega is out 9/25 via Heritage.

While The Sopranos broke the mold on the heights that television dramas could reach, its cast members were breaking wind thanks to a deviously placed fart machine.

On a new episode of Drea De Matteo’s podcast, Gangster Goddess Broad-cast, Lorraine Bracco, who played Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the hit series, stopped by and recalled the time she pranked Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini, during one of their iconic therapy scenes. Thanks to the help of a crew member from set design, Bracco had a remote fart machine taped underneath her chair and immediately got to work priming an unsuspecting Gandolfini for the gag.

“I said to Jimmy, ‘Listen, I don’t feel good, I don’t know what I ate, I’m sweating,’” she said. “So I set it up — my stomach is killing me, the whole thing. Then with Marchetti, I would [clench up], and he would press the button.”

Eventually, Gandolfini started to suspect something was up, but the clever placement of the fart machine won out. “So Jimmy finally said, ‘You’re f—ing around with me,’ and he grabs me and he takes my chair and he lifts up the cushion — but there’s nothing there!”

If you’re thinking to yourself, wait a minute, there’s another The Sopranos cast member doing a podcast? De Matteo revealed back in May that she was encouraged to start one by Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, who’ve found success with Talking Sopranos. Via Deadline:

They worked me on the whole idea and so I went back and watched the show. And Jesus Christ, it was good. The show that we were originally looking to do was a little more of a psychological thing, what broke you, and how did you rise from the ashes? That was our original premise for a podcast, because my friends call me the can opener. So I’ll just get into anything and pull everything out of your chest, you know? I didn’t know if I could do a re-watch, and what it feels like more is a re-late, where we could take this series, tear apart every theme, every character trait, every disorder, and apply it to many things that are still happening today, to every psychological thing that we all go through, to relationships, family, everything.

Well, there’s certainly one thing we can agree on: The set of The Sopranos sounds like it was a real gas.

(Via Gangster Goddess Broad-cast)

September — for the first time in so long- will be a busy month for Chicago Bulls guard Coby White.

Chicago is headed into a local mini-Bubble near the United Center, where the team will sequester off the arena so that they, like the eight other NBA squads that did not go down to Florida this summer, can practice together for the first time since March. It will be a chance for players to get their conditioning back and for teammates to keep their chemistry up with the start of the 2020-21 campaign still an open question.

As White headed back to Chicago for camp, he also partnered with the online optical brand Zenni to provide Zenni Blokz, which filter out harmful UV and blue light from digital screens, to his alma mater, Eastern Wayne Middle School in North Carolina, as well as the entire Chicago Park School District.

White caught up with Dime to look back on his rookie year, discuss his goals for Bulls camp, and chat about why it was so important for him to give back to kids in his community, both where he grew up and his new home in Chicago.

Let’s start with this partnership with Zenni. The coolest part to me was that you were able to do it not only with the community that you’re from but also the one that you joined. I’m curious how you’ve embraced Chicago that way and why it was important to you to be in both communities even as an athlete where you only play in one of those places?

I always want to give back to home because that’s a must for me. But like I always say, when I first came to Chicago, everyone embraced me. Everyone was excited I was here and embraced me as their own. For them to embrace me like they did, it’s only right to give back to the city of Chicago. Any opportunity, any chance I get to give back, that’s what I’ll do.

Thinking back to when you were a kid and going to school, seeing all these kids now who are having to learn virtually right now and wondering how parents are making it work, was that part of your desire to help out and be a helping hand with that process?

For me, I can’t imagine what the kids are going through and I can’t imagine what parents are going through. It’s so much easier to go into a classroom and be engaged and locked in, in-person, than it is to a screen with all the distractions at home. I know it’s a lot going on and it’s tough on the kids. I just tried to have a helping hand as much as possible and make that easier on the parents and the kids, too.

Congrats on making the All-Rookie team as well. What was your reaction when you found out, and being able to think back through your rookie season, what did it mean to you and did it give you a new sense of gratitude for what you were able to accomplish?

It was an honor, a great accomplishment for me. Not too many people in their lifetime can say they made the All-Rookie Second Team, so I was super excited. It was a huge blessing to be acknowledged for my play.

What’s sticking with you as you think back through the season, the difference from the beginning to the end as you got better and improved, as far as something you may have learned or realized about the NBA?

For me, it was my whole experience. I tell everyone it was humbling but it was also a learning experience. I got better in so many aspects. I probably made my biggest leap on the defensive end of the court, just locking in defensively.

Coming in, I wasn’t the best defender. That’s why I always give credit to Coach (Jim) Boylen. He was the type of coach I could just go to and ask what’s going to get me on the floor, and he told me, ‘Your competitiveness on the defensive end just isn’t there,’ so I locked in on that. He challenged me and I answered the challenge. To be honest, when that happened, that’s when my season started to get better and everything all started falling together.

I’m always curious too, having been in the NBA for a year now, have you been watching these playoffs, and do you watch high-level playoff basketball differently now having been in the league?

Yeah, I think so. When you’re in high school and college, people say the NBA playoffs are a different animal than the regular season. For me, to play in the regular season and then watch the playoffs, you can really tell how much of a difference it is, and how much more locked in it is. It’s so hard to get your shot up in the NBA playoffs because of how hard the teams are playing. Even little things like that, you notice while watching. The intensity is way higher and you can tell by watching. I can’t wait until I’m able to play in the playoffs.

I imagine it’s pretty exciting to watch that Donovan Mitchell-Jamal Murray battle knowing the kind of player you are, in that same mold. Seeing the way they were able to score and go to that next level must be pretty exciting.

I definitely tuned in every game for that one. (They) did some things nobody’s ever seen before. Don’s actually my big bro, so I hated to see the end result, but I loved watching him go for 50 and then almost 60, so it was fun to watch.

Let’s talk about this minicamp. What are you and your teammates hoping to accomplish as you get into practice with them again and work with these guys for the first time in a while?

For me, it’s just coming in being way more of a leader than I was last year. All we’re talking about now is just being able to hoop together again. For the most part, a lot of us haven’t hooped this summer at all. To get back on the court is good for our mental, too, because for a lot of us, basketball is our therapy and basketball gets us through a lot. It’s the first time in our lives unless we’ve gotten injured where basketball has been taken away from us. The biggest thing is just getting back on the court together, to be able to hoop, play five-on-five and get up and down.

What’s that been like for you? I know you guys have been able to get into the gym individually for a little while now, but during that early time, did you have access to (facilities), and what’s it been like to try to stay focused without being able to do what you’re normally used to?

I went back home when the pandemic started for three or four months and was able to get into a gym with my trainer, but it wasn’t like five-on-five. We played (one-on-one), but it wasn’t (the same). I played five-on-five only a couple times with just my homeboys from back home, but it’s nothing like playing against other NBA talent and high-level guys. I haven’t really been able to do that, so for me, it’s just been working out. You can work out so much, but you want to implement what you’ve been working on into five-on-five. And I love to hoop. I could hoop every day. So I’ve been fiending to get back on the court.

So do you have a specific goal for yourself, or is it a matter of getting a feel for things and just getting back to normal?

The first couple of days are going to be rough, just because I haven’t been playing. You can condition and run all you want, but there’s nothing like really getting up and down. For me, it’s just getting back into that rhythm and that normalcy and getting back to hooping.

I’ve been really focused on my finishing around the rim, so focusing on that and my shooting off the dribble and my efficiency. (Improving) those types of things and competing on the defensive end. I’m looking forward to that, but at the beginning, I’ll just be getting up and down.

If you asked us in 2019 to predict the festival fashion staples of 2020, facemasks and headphones would probably be last on our list. But COVID changes everything, as you surely know. With the world upside down, Denver’s Acoma Street Project — one of the first pandemic-era music festivals — seems sure to turn the facemask-headphone combo into a style staple for our troubled times. One day, your grandchildren will open up their history books (via brain-based uplink, obvi) to see these photos and learn how, even during a global pandemic, their grandparents’ generation just couldn’t stop partying.

The Acoma Street Project is an open-air, six-week, limited pop-up music festival — featuring live-streamed performances and live spinning from DJs around the world in an outdoor setting. It features an immersive art-walk that festival-goers take turns exploring in small groups and a 26ft 4K LED wall for the type of festival visuals that pair so well with electronic music (and, you know… drugs). Each week, the Acoma Street Project invites new talent to perform for small groups of fans under strictly enforced social distancing guidelines. These parameters include mandatory mask-wearing in certain sections of the 5,000 square foot space, crowd limits, and rules against intermingling.

Photos from the event show small parties at distanced booths spread throughout a parking lot — a setting that sort of resembles the VIP section of a pre-pandemic music festival. For the most part, folks look like they’re having fun, but from the outside, we have to admit it looks a little bizarre (and not quite as euphoric as what the festival scene typically fosters). Still, we may be seeing a lot of festivals like this going forward as we wait out a vaccine for Covid-19. Obviously this isn’t a situation to take lightly — Denver county currently has 12,515 cases of Coronavirus and 440 deaths as of September 22nd, Colorado has a total of 65, 936 coronavirus cases and 2,031 deaths, and the United States as a whole has counted 6.88M cases of the coronavirus and over 200k deaths.

To find out more about the Acoma Street Project head to Nightout.

Rexx Life Raj is fresh off a collaboration with G-Eazy, and now he’s back with another team-up. This time, he has joined forces with D Smoke for “Optimistic.” They recorded the song for EMPIRE Presents: Voices For Change Vol. 1, a collection of songs focused on artists sharing their own experiences to bring about hope and change.

Raj says of the track, “I believe in utilizing my platform to support causes that strive for positive change and growth. When my Empire family asked me to contribute my artistry to be a part of this project, I knew ‘Optimistic’ would be a perfect addition of hope and encouragement. I’m honored to be aligned with such a meaningful project and in the company of my peers and colleagues who all believe in supporting something larger than ourselves.”

Press materials say of the upcoming 21-track album, “Voices For Change Vol. 1 is a comprehensive collection of works from a varied and diverse roster of artists spanning genres and geographic regions using their voice to speak truth to power on issues of social injustice. Each artist speaks directly from their own experiences, shedding light on issues specific to their own unique cultures and communities.” Other artists appearing on the project include PJ Morton, Jacob Latimore, and many others.

Listen to “Optimistic” above, and revisit our 2019 interview with Raj here.

Stephen King hailed Clive Barker “the future of horror” after reading Books of Blood, his pre-Hellraiser anthology book series that Hulu has adapted into a feature-length film. For someone who writes horror stories, that’s like Mike Trout complimenting your swing or Julia Butters giving you props for “the best acting I’ve ever seen in my whole life” (Julia > Leo). Speaking of Quentin Tarantino, he also once raved about Barker, calling him “the great imaginer of our time. He knows not only our greatest fears, but also what delights us, what turns us on, and what is truly holy in the world. Haunting, bizarre, beautiful.”

Based on the trailer above, Books of Blood is not lacking in the bizarre. There’s naked mediums, bloody words scrawled on the wall (“i’m not sleeping mommy”), bugs, bumps in the night, unwanted guests in the bedroom, carved skin, and the most terrifying scare of all: someone drinking their tea too loudly. I’d rather play Seven Minutes in Heaven with Pinhead than spend an extra second around that guy, thank you very much.

The Seth MacFarlane-produced Books of Blood, which stars Britt Robertson, Rafi Gavron, Anna Friel, Yul Vazquez, and Freda Foh Shen, premieres on Hulu on October 7.

Kodak Black is currently serving out his 46-month sentence in a Kentucky prison and is once again speaking out against the reported abuse he’s faced while locked up. A new lawsuit allegedly filed by the rapper further details his situation, claiming Kodak has been beaten by guards, denied access to a bathroom, and barred from seeking council with a rabbi.

According to TMZ, Kodak and his lawyers filed a lawsuit against the warden of the Big Sandy maximum security prison. The report states that in the lawsuit, Kodak says he was not only the victim of a “gang beating” by guards upon arrival at the prison, but he was also “routinely punished and mistreated.”

The rapper alleges he has been detained in a four-point restraint for hours on end without access to a bathroom. The lawsuit claims his medical records will show proof the abuse, as it reportedly details “mouth bleeding, lacerations, and vomiting” as a result of his treatment. Along with physical and emotional abuse, Kodak says he’s being religiously suppressed. The rapper claims he is being denied access to a rabbi, a right that other inmates have been granted.

This isn’t the first time the rapper has claimed he’s been beaten by prison guards. Back in May, Kodak’s attorney took over his Instagram page and detailed alleged abuse he’s experienced at the hands of the Kentucky guards: “Friday night he was badly beaten while in cuffs, by 7 guards at Big Sandy KY. They struck him in the head repeatedly with a metal object then after, one of the guards flicked his genitals and said, ‘You’re not so gangster now, you’re gonna need bigger balls to survive.’”

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