Category: Worldwide

After making an unusual proclamation that he’s “part of” the LGBT community, Eric Trump quickly became a Trending topic on Tuesday, which forced the president’s son to clarify his remarks.

While defending his father from a damaging New York Times report that seemingly enraged the president going into his first debate with Joe Biden, the younger Trump appeared to have outed himself on Fox & Friends while discussing how even a lesbian New Yorker supports his father.

“I’m telling you, I see it every day, the LGBT community, they are incredible and you should see how they’ve come out in full force for my father every single day,” Trump said. “I’m part of that community and we love the man and thank you for protecting our neighborhoods and thank you for protecting our cities.”

After social media latched onto the strange admission that he’s part of the LGBT community, Trump issued a statement to the New York Post clarifying that he is a happily married, heterosexual man. He also confirmed that he is not bisexual:

“To clarify, many of our close friends are part of the LGBT community, which was the intent of my statement — the left has taken that vote for granted for a long time and support from the gay community for my father is incredible,” Trump said.

“As to me personally, as I think you know, I am a happily married man to my wife, Lara.”

Naturally, Trump’s remark arrived far too late to stop social media users from having a field day with the Fox News clip as actual members of the LGBT community made it clear that Eric Trump joining their ranks is the last thing they need right now.

(Via New York Post)

The Chicago Bulls have been in perpetual turmoil the past several years, undergoing constant personnel turnover, roster upheaval, and behind-the-scenes issues that have made an already-tough situation that much worse. They became one of the first teams to join the coaching carousel when they fired Jim Boylen after two seasons, but recently filled that vacancy with former Thunder coach Billy Donovan.

Donovan had spent five seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder, making the playoffs each year but being eliminated in the first round in all but one of those seasons: the year they blew a 3-1 series lead to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

Perhaps it’s that somewhat spotty postseason resume that’s at the heart of Scottie Pippen’s apprehension about his hiring. During a recent interview, Pippen made no bones about how he felt about Donovan getting the nod to helm the team where he spent the bulk of his career and won six titles.

Via Chris Cason of Forbes:

“I like Billy Donovan as a person but I don’t think he’s proved anything in the NBA that proves he’s worth investing in and bringing a team up that needs help like Chicago does. They’re a team that has been struggling for a long time. To me, I don’t see the value he brings to them. He’s going to be a coach but there are a lot of them out there. He didn’t do anything special in OKC that warranted him a second opportunity. That’s just my opinion.”

This season, Donovan earned plenty of well-deserved Coach of the Year consideration for shepherding an OKC team through an unexpected playoff run after many picked them to finish near the bottom of the Western Conference standings last summer. Prior to that, Donovan was the longtime coach at Florida, where he won back-to-back NCAA championships.

Still, Donovan will have his hands full with the roster he’s inherited in Chicago and a new front office trying to build a team as they see fit. It’s a team that has been blessed with young talent but has yet to pull all the pieces together. Bulls fans are hoping he can replicate what he accomplished with the Thunder last season and make the Bulls relevant again.

(Forbes)

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

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. This week, Kal speaks with Hillary Clinton and takes on education, including the different paths (including the faux beef between college vs. trade school) that students can take to bolster their future.

2020 Presidential Debate 1 (Everywhere, 9:00pm EST) — Donald Trump faces off with Joe Biden. Anything could happen during this dumpster fire of a year.

Michelle Buteau: Welcome to Buteaupia (Netflix standup special) — Buteau’s determined to deliver a dynamic hour of comedy on cultural differences and why women should give short men a chance.

Tell Me A Story (CW, 9:00pm EST) — Hannah’s working hard to get Gabe released while Jordan’s just about had enough.

Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Senator Cory Booker, Public Enemy

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Bernie Sanders, Kal Penn, Haim

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Andrew Rannells, Brittany Howard

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — John Cena, BTS

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Sarah Silverman, Lili Reinhart, Phoebe Bridgers

Few people can capture the grandeur and scope of Burning Man quite like Jane Hu. The award-winning San Francisco photographer has been documenting Black Rock City from the ground floor for a decade — she even has a tab devoted to Burning Man on her website — as both an official staff photographer and a participant in what Hu describes as an annual event that provides both “a sense of closure and a new beginning” for her year. That culminating end-of-the-cosmic-year event didn’t happen in 2020, thanks to COVID-19 shutting down Burning Man for the first time since its inception, which left Hu — and us, quite frankly — pretty nostalgic about Burns past.

To remedy things, we linked up with Hu for a chat about what Burning Man means to her and picked her brain about what she thought of this year’s Digital Burn and what lasting impacts the pandemic may have on the festival in the future. As a bonus treat, Hu shared with us some of her favorite photos from Burns past and gave some advice for photographers who are trying to capture a large scale extreme environment like Burning Man.

When did you first start taking photos at Burning Man?

This would’ve been my 11th year if it had happened, so I’ve been to 10 and I started taking photos, not the first year because I was freaked out about getting my camera ruined, but every year since then. I joined the official documentary team a few years ago and have been helping them capture the event in a more, I don’t know if “official” is the right word, but certainly in a larger capacity.

The environment of Burning Man can be extreme, what advice do you have for beginner photographers who may be taking photos in extreme settings like a desert, or snow-filled landscape

Research the specific environment that you’re going into ahead of time and research it well. At Burning Man the issue is really really fine alkaline dust. The dust is so fine that it gets in the crevices between the buttons in the body of your camera, it’s really corrosive and really hard to remove.

I’ve constructed what I call a camera condom — it’s a series of plastic ziplock bags with camera lens filters that are attached with painters tape so that I can still change lenses and keep my camera completely protected within this bag.

Over time it’s hard to manipulate your camera that way, some people use underwater casings, but its harder to take photos and get to your controls when you have a whole contraption to deal with. I’ve experimented with painter’s tape over my buttons and labeling it, but the last few years I’ve just brought multiple camera bodies, this way I can have a different lens on each body. Wednesday will be portrait day, so I’ll bring the portrait lens camera out, Thursday will be landscape day, and I’ll bring my wide-angle out. It’s a huge part of the planning process.

How did you spend Burning Man this year? Did you do the digital burn or did you do your own personal experience at home?

It was hard, I’m not going to lie. I think of Burning Man as this culminating end of a year event and beginning of the next. Burn night to me is like New Year’s Eve and it ushers in the beginning of a whole new year, missing that event, missing that sense of closure and a new beginning is psychologically really difficult.

What we did is bought an Oculus, so I did some amount of the BRCVR which is one of the eight multiverses, it was surprisingly impressive. Given the scope of it and how many people participated in it, and built worlds in it, a bunch of friends and I got together and would run around the virtual playa, and get into adventures. There are all these little Easter eggs in there that you can’t have in the real world. Part of what makes Burning Man so great to me is that you never know what you’re going to come across, and it has a sense of immediacy. If you get a certain experience you’re not going to find it again, you have to get the most out of it.

BRCVR had a very similar vibe to it — you can get to a secret section of this world if you crawl through this dumpster and reemerge on the other side of the DJ booth.

It was such a surprising find that I want to continue to go to now and I hope it’ll be around much longer. On the actual Burn night a few of my friends and I did go to Ocean Beach, we didn’t go to the big Ocean Beach gathering that [SF Mayor] London Breed scolded people about, we just had our own small mini celebration on the beach.

How does that VR experience compare? Obviously, the experiences are very different but it seems like they really tried to capture that sense of discovery that is so characteristic of Burning Man.

I thought it was surprisingly similar, it rang a couple of the same bells for me in terms of this idea of an infinite world that is non-linear, interactive, changes depending on the time of day, very immediate, it’s very participatory, the main Burning Man 10 principles were very much applied to the VR version.

Obviously, it’s different, a lot of pieces just can’t be replicated but because it was VR, and frankly my first time in that amount of VR, the immersive nature of it is really impressive. We also tried to do the same experience on a laptop, but then it just feels like a video game, but when you’re in VR it does feel like you’re immersed. When I took off my headset I was disoriented because I forgot I was in my living room.

Burning Man has a grandiose scope, what tips do you have for photographers capturing the scope of a location in a still photo?

What draws me to Burning Man is the idea of the scale of it. I’m obsessed with this idea of something being larger than life and the concept of scale and the fact that the art you see out there is larger than most art you’d see in the “real world.”

I love the sense of awe and wonder that that gives people and that’s what I love capturing most. My photos are mostly photos of art, the scale of art, it’s almost like the scale of human potential to me.

My advice is, bring the right lenses to capture the scale that you want to capture, I always bring a wide-angle and I use the wide-angle more than half the time I’m out there because I want to get that scale and the largeness of the object with some of the interplay between the vastness of the surroundings. The conditions out there are a photographer’s dream, there is no better place to take photos, the light is just amazing most of the time. There are really harsh daylight hours and pitch-black nights, but there is photography for any time of day depending on the style you want to shoot and your subject matter.

Definitely sunrises and sunsets, you don’t want to miss those, be ready to ditch your friends to take advantage of those narrow windows because the light will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

Speaking of that balance between the subject and the background, when you’re doing something like a portrait, what are some tips for being able to capture the surroundings and that intimacy at the same time?

I’m not what you would call a traditional “street photographer” by any means. I’m less concerned with capturing people in their daily activities and more concerned with composing my shots in a way that presents a juxtaposition between the setting and the person. I really like shooting people but I also really like making sure they fit with the overall story of the image. A lot of what I do is craft scenes — I start with a location, scout a good location, and find a place that has interesting potential then work with collaborators who will work with me to come up with a really interesting composition between the person and the setting.

A lot of the times I collaborate with performers because they’re comfortable in front of the camera, they usually have a particular style or something they want to say with their look. A lot of dancers, a lot of circus performers, a lot of musicians, I think that interest and openness in being in front of a camera really helps a lot with what shows up at the end of it, but it’s really a collaborative process. I want the person I’m shooting to have a say in what is being created and feel comfortable. At the end of the day, you can’t fake that comfort level or that interest in it. being part of telling the story.

I can’t be someone who says “Hey stand over there and put your arms up” I’m bad at posing, but I’m really good at finding collaborators and working with them to realize a joint vision.

We talked a bit about the position of the sun and how light is more flattering at sunset and sunrise, but when capturing candid moments, the sun won’t always be in a position that’s helpful. Do you have any tips for interesting ways we can use less flattering light to take interesting photos?

It’s definitely a hard photographer challenge. Capturing light is what photography is all about, but you’re right, sometimes you have to make do with what you have or the conditions that happen to be there. Yesterday, because of the fires, it was completely orange out. That’s not something anyone expected, so photographers just have to make do with that.

I shoot probably 99% natural light, I shoot very little studio lighting — the camera has to be an extension of your mind, in a way.

“Okay it’s dark, it’s windy, I need to boost my ISO up I need to boost my shutter speed up” a lot of that has to be very intuitive. Burning Man in particular really forced me to have to learn that really quickly. You’re in these crazy conditions, you have to catch that moment, your camera is in some weird plastic bag contraption, you just have to learn by feel how to get to the setting you need.

But honestly, I’m not going to lie — there is a lot you can do in post-production. Post-production is just as important and just as interesting an experience to me as the shoot itself. In post, I use Lightroom, and PicsArt, there is just a lot of possibility you can do with your image, to pull up the levels to change the light balance, to crop, etc. There is a level of control that we have now over our images that I think the analog photographers would call “cheating” but as long as you’re not doing something that isn’t true to what you believe in and what you think constitutes the story you want to tell, all power to the tools you utilize and you master to tell that story.

For me I’m in Lightroom all the time, I’m trying different things out on PicsArt because it gives me a new level of control that I would never think of in a photography app. I use those tools a lot to discover what I’m trying to say.

Circling back to Burning Man going Digital, do you think COVID-19 will have lasting impacts on Burning Man going forward, I’m sure this loss of revenue has hit them hard.

There is definitely a set of challenges for any festival coming up in the next two years. For Burning Man it’s not just the loss of revenue, it’s also the fact that it’s such a participatory event that you really need thousands to build Black Rock City. If those thousands have moved away from the Bay Area or the surrounding Nevada area because they can’t afford to live here or because they’ve moved back home because of COVID-19, that’s a big hit on Burning Man

The VR element is never going to be the substitute for the real experience, it’s a great additional experience for people who can’t make it out to Burning Man and it’s a really great starting point or gateway to the real thing.

With your photos of Burning Man, what are you trying to capture, what’s the story you’re trying to tell?

A couple of things, what I said earlier about capturing something “larger than life” I’m obsessed with that idea. What really drives me to Burning Man is this idea of the interplay between human effort and Mother Nature. My first Burn I didn’t even know how to set up a tent, I had to have other people set it up for me. When it was finally set up and I biked out I was just blown away by this world that just came out of nowhere, built from people completely from scratch through a ton of effort. If I couldn’t even set up my tent, I couldn’t even imagine people building these magnificent things and then burning and dismantling them at the end of the week.

It’s deeply inspiring and it shows you that if you really want to do something, this is just one of the edges of what’s possible. That’s what I want to capture in my images, how do I inspire other people to produce something at the edge of what’s possible? That’s the impetus behind what makes Burning Man so special to me. On the more mundane side, there has become this commercialization of Burning Man or this idea that Burning Man is great for your Instagram feed, so there have been more and more Instagram stars going out to Burning Man, so what I try to do is capture the range of people who are out there. My portraits are more focused on everyday people and people who are not size 0 with a boyfriend taking photos for them.

I want to showcase other sides of Burning Man. A couple of years ago I did a piece for SF Gate around “The Temple” which is this really special place in Burning Man that is not about partying or nudity or drugs, it’s about leaving a piece of yourself that you’ve been mourning or celebrating and want to let go of. Walking through that experience and reading it is the most touching thing in the world, and it never gets covered in the press!

I’m always looking for beautiful yet alternative stories that emerge from Burning Man.

Although the United States a glorious country, it have a problem, too: not enough Borat. Problem solved! A sequel to Larry Charles’ 2006 comedy, reportedly titled Borat: Gift of Pornographic Monkey to Vice Premiere Mikhael Pence to Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan, will premiere on Amazon Prime on October 23, less than two weeks before the election.

Deadline reports that Borat 2 “was the first movie made during the COVID-19 shutdown, shot [quickly] as coronavirus shooting restrictions were eased.” The follow-up to the $262 million-grossing original, shot throughout the United States and abroad with a small crew, apparently put star Sacha Baron Cohen into some dangerous situations.

I’m told by sources that he had to wear a bulletproof vest on two different shooting days and on many days, there were risky and dangerous scenarios… [Producers] decided the best way for the movie to be seen by its widest audience before Election Day was to open on Amazon Prime before the end of October.

Just think: there’s an undivided voter out there who won’t make up his or her mind on Trump vs. Biden until after seeing Borat 2. Actually, maybe don’t think about that. Instead, watch Borat! It’s still funny, despite the best efforts of your freshman year dorm-mate asking you to give him a “HIGH FIVE” six times a day.

(Via Deadline)

Perhaps the most fascinating subplot of the 2020 NBA Finals, outside of the fact that it is being played in Disney World amid a global pandemic, is that it pits LeBron James against the Miami Heat, the organization he left in 2014 to re-join the Cleveland Cavaliers. A whole lot of reporting has been done about his departure from South Beach, which did not seem to happen under the friendliest of circumstances between a player who wanted to win “not five, not six, not seven” rings with the organization, and a franchise that has never taken falling shot on anything particularly well.

Now, the Heat have a chance to show LeBron the error of his ways, while James gets the opportunity to take down Pat Riley, Erik Spoelstra, and co. on basketball’s biggest stage. Still, as James tells it, there’s no added motivation of any sort to beat the franchise for which he once played.

“Absolutely not,” James said. “There’s no extra meaning to winning a championship, no matter who you’re playing against. It’s already hard enough to even reach the Finals.”

In fact, James made it a point to praise both Riley and Spoelstra, lauding the former for his contributions to the game of basketball over the course of his decades-long career and saying that the latter has never gotten the respect he deserves for being one of the best coaches in the sport.

The Heat have long been praised as being one of the best organizations in basketball, which is where the whole “Heat culture” thing has come from over the years. Now, one person who played perhaps the best basketball of their illustrious career while they were in that system has the opportunity to take them down with a Larry O’Brien trophy on the line.

Michaela Coel (creator, writer, and star of HBO’s I May Destroy You) and Donald Glover (creator, writer, and star of FX’s Atlanta) had a conversation for GQ, and it was as expansive and insightful as you’d expect it the piece to be. Amid other topics of discussion, Glover revealed that he’s not necessarily done with Childish Gambino yet, and the two discussed their various brainchildren with Coel revealing that, as far as literal children go, she’s not incredibly attached to the idea but is freezing her eggs. The conversation included Donald raving about IMDY, but he hasn’t seen that finale yet, so a followup discussion might be necessary, public or otherwise.

In the meantime, the two discussed (among subjects as wide ranging as “WAP” and Elon Musk taking over our brains) the urge that many people have to obsess over social media approval. Michaela mentioned that time when she first revealed (a few years ago while giving a keynote address) that she turned a Netflix offer, and she actually didn’t follow up to see if people tweeted about it. Glover was all in on that vibe and referenced how Nina Simone probably wouldn’t dig Twitter:

“That’s awesome. Nina Simone did her thing and then she went home. She wasn’t on Twitter checking, “Do people like this sh*t?” I try really hard not to know what people are saying about me. That’s not to say that I’m impervious, because I definitely do check. It’s so easy to get caught in that loop. I feel like a lot of people I see are getting caught in the narrative of who they are. And I’m like, “Man, you’re not anybody. Stop!”

From there, Michaela likened Twitter to a “monster,” but she added that this is a highly relative term, as in “just like all monsters, you can see it either as this huge monstrous thing or this little baby that’s having teething problems.” She said that while writing IMDY, she had to get the heck off Twitter for awhile because it wasn’t contributing to the clarity of her narrative. Before this declaration, GQ quotes Donald as remarking, “Naming that bar Ego Death [in I May Destroy You]? I was like, ‘Yo, this sh*t is f*cking deep. This is a f*cking deep dive, man.’” Agreed. You can read the full feature here.

In closing, I’d like to mention that Michaela happened to tell us that she wouldn’t mind if her Arabella character popped up in Atlanta one day. And given that Atlanta‘s third and fourth seasons are apparently written and ready to film whenever it’s safe to do so, might we suggest a slight revision for an Arabella cameo? Surely, Glover can make it happen. Even if Arabella’s only walking by in that pink wig and telltale sweater or dancing to The Prodigy, it’d be an unforgettable crossover.

(Via GQ)

This week, Sharon Van Etten partnered with the organizations Sounds Of Saving and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in order to raise awareness for National Suicide Prevention Month, which has taken place throughout September. Along with touching on some of her own past experiences, Van Etten shared a cover of Nine Inch Nails‘ 1994 track “Hurt.”

In a Q&A ahead of the cover, Van Etten said she chose to cover the track because it helped her understand her own emotions during dark times in her life:

“Sometimes you don’t have the words for what you’re going through. I can pull up a song that I’ve listened to for the last ten years and sometimes it gives you words for what you’re going through but it also takes you outside of your own experience, which I think can help slow down the darker thoughts. […] It’s hard for anyone to ask for help. But when you need it you have to learn how to do it even when its hard. In my life, when I’ve accepted help are the times when I have overcome it. I’ve found the road, ya know? It was like someone opened the gate to a road that I knew was a better road. Even if it’s a different road. At least it’s moving. And you’re moving forward to something else then this dark place alone. Wouldn’t you rather go down the road with someone you care about that wants to help you? Sometimes it does take an outside perspective for you to understand yourself better.”

Listen to Sharon Van Etten cover “Hurt” above.

Say the words “track five” to a Taylor Swift fan (me) and watch them (still me) spontaneously begin crying (I’m sobbing).

The Grammy-winning songwriter tends to put her most honest and emotionally destructive songs in the fifth slot on her albums — there’s the cathartic diary entry “The Archer” on Lover, the f*ck-off-John-Mayer ballad “Dear John” on Speak Now, and “All Too Well,” not only the best song on Red, but the best song in Swift’s discography.

The fan-favorite anthem, which Swift called the “hardest [song] to write on the album,” is supposedly about actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who she briefly dated in 2010. As “All Too Well” builds to its powerfully cathartic bridge, Swift sings, “Photo album on the counter, your cheeks were turning red / You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin sized bed.”

Speaking of little kids with glasses…

Swifties are flooding Gyllenhaal’s Instagram comments with “All Too Well lyrics. “u posted this pic and thought that the swifties would do nothing???? mistake,” one follower wrote, while West Side Story actress Rachel Zegler added, “I’ll be honest mate you set yourself up for this one.” As for the actual message of Jake’s post:

I’ve worn my glasses ever since I parted my hair meticulously with gel (see above), which is why NEW EYES has always been near and dear to my heart. Since 1932, @neweyes_ has provided eyeglasses to people who needed them most. I’m thrilled that they’ve partnered with @theinspireprojectus to create Project Human: Changing the Way We See the World, a speaker series coming to schools and remote learners this fall. Project Human is designed to spark conversations focusing on unity and equality. It’s an opportunity for students to interact with public figures and do what they do best: Keep ‘em on their toes!

If Mr. Music is wearing a scarf in his next throwback photo, you’ll know he’s onto us.

Yesterday, Rex Orange County fans didn’t have much to look forward to in terms of official announcements. Oh, how things can change in a day.

Last night, Rex made his The Late Show debut with a simple remote performance of “Always,” which featured just him and a piano in a room. After that, he announced a pair of new project, both of which are arriving tomorrow at noon ET: A live EP and a documentary.

The EP, Live At Radio City Music Hall, features nine tracks, taken from a pair of performances Rex gave at the storied venue on February 7 and 8 earlier this year. Meanwhile, Rex teased the documentary, Funny How Things Go From One Thing To Another, with a brief teaser. There’s no word yet on how long the doc will be, but it looks like it will follow Rex on his latest tour, as it features concert clips as well as behind-the-scenes footage from his travels.

Watch Rex Orange County perform “Always” above, and check out the Live At Radio City Music Hall art and tracklist below.

1. “10/10”
2. “Never Enough”
3. “Pluto Projector”
4. “Untitled”
5. “New York State Of Mind”
6. “Corduroy Dreams”
7. “Sunflower”
8. “Best Friend”
9. “Always”

Live At Radio City Music Hall is out 9/30 via Sony. Pre-order it here.