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Sports leagues around the country are beginning to look forward towards a potential return, and are going through various planning stages and contingencies for possibly resuming seasons this summer.

While the NBA discusses the possibility of a bubble league at Walt Disney World, NASCAR is set to be the first major sports league to return to action, as they announced plans to run seven races — including four Cup series races — over the course of 11 days in late May. All seven races will take place at Darlington Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, keeping the teams all confined to the Carolinas for now and limiting the travel needed to make this happen.

The Cup series races will take place on Sundays and Wednesdays, with the first race a 400-mile event at Darlington on Sunday, May 17, followed by a 500 kilometer race on Wednesday, May 20. The Coca-Cola 600 will be next up on Sunday, May 24, followed by a 500 kilometer race on Wednesday, May 27. There will also be two Xfinity series races, one at each track, and one truck series race at Charlotte to round out this preliminary schedule. Sunday races will be on Fox, while the others will all be broadcast on FS1.

How this experiment goes will be watched closely by other leagues, who will want to see how successful this kind of sporting event can be and they will be watching over the weeks to follow to see if it was able to be safely done. The risk in this is that while the drivers are secluded to their cars, they each have large pit crews that work close together and in tight proximity. If it works and there are no COVID-19 outbreaks inside those crews, other sports leagues will surely look to NASCAR’s plans and try to mimic them however possible to launch summer returns to action.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cast reunited on Will Smith’s Snapchat series Will From Home, but it’s not a complete reunion, not without James Avery, who sadly passed away in 2013. The actor, best known for playing Philip Banks on the NBC sitcom and voicing Shredder in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, had a tremendous impact on Smith, who got emotional watching clips of his on-screen uncle.

After playing a montage of Uncle Phil’s finest Fresh Prince scenes, all Smith could say was “James Avery” over and over again, while his co-stars wiped tears away.

“Some of my greatest lessons in Acting, Living, and being a respectable human being came through James Avery. Every young man needs an Uncle Phil. Rest in Peace,” Smith wrote following Avery’s death. He included a photo of Alfonso Ribeiro, Karyn Parsons, and Tatyana Ali, all of whom were in attendance during the recent reunion, and added, “This photo was the last time we were together.”

As for how Smith brought everyone else together, he called what’s happening in the world a “beautiful pause button for us to stop and think about what’s really necessary. How often do we even pop on a call and say, ‘Hey, how you doing?’… Of all the things I have ever done, nobody brings up things more than they do about the Fresh Prince.”

You can watch the tribute below, and the entire episode here.

Add another name to the deluge of talent let go by WWE during the COVID-19 pandemic as the company announced that former Intercontinental and two-time Tag Team Champion Curtis Axel has been released. And starting this moment … from now … from this moment on … this’ll be the moment … starting now … of the Revelation … of McGillicutty.

WWE released the following statement, which I think really touches on the difficult emotions that come with releasing the grandson of a wrestling legend and the son of a WWE Hall of Famer:

“WWE has come to terms on the release of Curtis Axel. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

The grandson of The Axe and the son of Mr. Perfect, Axel (real name Joe Hennig) joined WWE developmental in 2007 and debuted a a participant on (and eventually the winner of) the second season of the ill-fated game show version of NXT. Axel’s WWE run included membership in the “New Nexus,” a brief stint as both the Intercontinental Champion and a “Paul Heyman Guy,” a popular Hulk Hogan impersonation gimmick that hit the bricks when Hogan was temporarily wiped from the company’s history, and a surprisingly thorough tag team alongside fellow underappreciated third-generation talent Bo Dallas.

We’d also like to wish Hennig the best in his future endeavors, which hopefully don’t involve being beaten up by Snoop Dogg.

There’s a lot of beer sitting on the shelf or in kegs right now, with millions of gallons in danger of getting wasted. Meanwhile, May is that time of year when craft beer releases kick into high gear. Plus the quarantine has left us in dire need of excitement and new experiences. Three factors that act as a call to action. A rallying cry.

Find new beer this month! Drink it!

If you’re a beer lover, ’tis the season to visit your local brewery and support them in any way that you can (most likely via whatever carry out service they offer). Brewers are having a hard time and there’s no sign of that stopping anytime soon. So get to drinking.

Hopefully, the eight beers we’re calling out this month will pique your interest and help you find something exciting near you. These picks are regional craft beer releases from breweries that we vouch for (we weren’t able to taste them all this month because of the lockdown, so we’re offering tasting notes from the brewer). Each one offers something unique to savor as summer draws near.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST DROP: Alaskan Handcrafted Pilot Series Pineapple Jalapeño Gose

Style: Gose
ABV: 5.8%
Brewery Location: Juneau, AK

The Beer:

This gose is part of Alaskan’s much-sought-after Handcrafted Pilot Series. These are one-off beers that you may never see again. This German beer was brewed with pineapple, ghost peppers, and jalapeno to add a seriously fruity and vegetal depth to the salty and herbaceous style.

Tasting Notes (from the brewer):

“The aroma is dominated by raw jalapeno and juicy pineapple, with a hint of smoke. The flavor is a perfect balance of sweet and heat. The pineapple balances the subtle heat and pepper character, with a light sourness that fades into a sweet finish.”

SOUTHWEST DROP: Sierra Nevada Summerfest

Style: Lager
ABV: 5%
Brewery Location: Chico, CA (& Mills River, NC)

The Beer:

Summerfest is a classic Bohemian pilsner from California. The beer is a yearly drop that never disappoints, especially as the weather heats up. The combination of Two-row Pale, Pilsner, and Munich malts act as the perfect base for the Perle, Saaz, and Spalter Select hops.

Tasting Notes (from the brewer):

“Crisp, golden, dry, and incredibly drinkable, Summerfest has a delicate and complex malt flavor with spicy and floral hop character—the perfect warm-weather beer.”

ROCKY MOUNTAIN DROP: New Belgium Sparkling Lime Lager

Style: Lager
ABV: 4.4%
Brewery Location: Fort Collins, CO (& Ashville, NC)

The Beer:

Sparkling Lime Lager is the latest drop from New Belgium’s Up Next Series, which highlights the changing seasons of beer. This light and fizzy lager leans into citrus with an almost hard seltzer underbelly. That is, it’s the perfect sunny day sipper.

Tasting Notes (from the brewer):

“Citrus and sunshine make a fantastic combination. The only thing missing is Sparkling Lime Lager. Bright, bubbly, packed with lime flavor, and brewed for crushing. This refreshing lager was made for soaking up the sun.”

SOUTHERN DROP: Creature Comforts Tastes Like Flowers

Style: Saison
ABV: 6.4%
Brewery Location: Athens, GA

The Beer:

It’s that time of year again. Tastes Like Flowers is back! Spring flowers are harvested every year and added to Creature Comfort’s signature saison. This makes every year’s edition slightly different but always special.

Tasting Notes (from the brewer):

“The 2019 Spring flower harvest offered calendula, chamomile, and yarrow, which present a beautiful bouquet of floral intricacies in this annual saison.”

MIDWEST DROP: Bell’s Flamingo Fruit Flight

Style: Tart Ale
ABV: 5%
Brewery Location: Comstock, MI

The Beer:

Flamingo Fruit Flight is the perfect summer sipper with a real tart edge with a sweet fruitiness. The beer is made with fresh passionfruit and lime zest, adding to the depth of the tropical and citrus nature to the beer.

Tasting Notes (from the brewer):

“It is brewed with passionfruit and lime zest, resulting in a tart blend of tropical, citrus flavors, and aromas.”

NORTHEAST DROP: Trillium Goody Trill Shoes

Style: Kölsch
ABV: 4.8%
Brewery Location: Boston, MA

The Beer:

Goody Trill Shoes is a carry-out only offering from Boston’s Trillium. The beer honors Exhibit A Brewing’s award-winning Goody Two Shoes kölsch. Trillium’s version is brewed using Pilsner, Valley Vienna, and Acidulated Malt from the venerated Valley Malt in Upstate New York with Saaz, Hallertauer, and Magnum hops added to the mix.

Tasting Notes (from the brewer):

“Goody Trill Shoes pours a brilliant straw-gold color with a fluffy, bone-white head. Nuanced aromas of crisp water crackers, toasted grain, and a lively lemon zest character entice the palate. Remarkably clean, with scrubbing carbonation and a dry finish that begs for another sip.”

WILD CARD DROP: Upslope German Style Pilsner

Style: Pilsner
ABV: 4.9%
Brewery Location: Boulder, CO

The Beer:

German Style Pilsner from Upslope is one of my favorite craft Pilsners. So, yeah, I’m partial to this return. The crisp nature and (near) session levels of ABV make this a go-to every summer.

Tasting Notes (from the brewer):

“Clean and crisp with an impeccably balanced hop profile. Pouring a brilliant straw color, it offers fresh and floral aromas from choice Loral and Tettnanger hops. The finish is dry and succinct with a refreshing crispness and snappy carbonation.”

INTERNATIONAL PICK OF THE MONTH: Brewdog Sonic Temple

Style: Session (NE)IPA
ABV: 5%
Brewery Location: Columbus, OH (UK)

The Beer:

Sonic Temple from Scotland’s BrewDog is a fruit bomb in IPA form. The addition of oats helps the beer mellow out and brings the ABVs down. The beer leans into a very hazy and fruity New England IPA nature with a hop profile that wallows in tropical fruit without too much alcohol punch.

Tasting Notes (from the brewer):

“Hazy yellow with rising tropical aromas, delivering a mix of pineapple, mango, and lime flavors. Brewed with oats for a smooth, bassy experience. Amped up hops, dialed down bitterness, big taste.”

As the health crisis became an undeniable concern by mid-March, abruptly shutting down TV productions may have been a difficult decision, but logistically, it was pretty basic to pull off. Just send everybody home. But as studios prepare to go to the opposite direction and resume filming in the coming months, producers are finding themselves facing a complex series of questions and hurdles with no easy answers. With the virus still actively being spread, and a vaccine probably far away, actors and crew members will face a considerable risk by returning to work.

In a new report from The Guardian, the BBC has revealed its unorthodox plans to address the seemingly insurmountable health concerns and hopefully bring “flashy dramas” and reality TV back to the masses who are growing tired of watching shows featuring awkward Zoom calls and webcam footage. One of the options includes putting Strictly Come Dancing participants into long-term isolation together and filming without a studio announce. Another is, well, playing a little fast-and-loose with social-distancing guidelines:

[Head of BBC Drama Commissioning Piers] Wenger said the BBC was also looking at ways to film new episodes while observing social distancing rules by looking to the Australian television industry: “There are ways of cheating, actors being close enough together to act in a scene. Neighbours are experimenting with different ways of shooting while social distancing is in place.”

While the BBC continues to look for solutions to roll out fresh content, it’s also prepared to simply abandon series like Line of Duty, which features high-profile actors and directors whose schedules are booked years in advance.

Meanwhile, Hollywood showrunners are also facing similar concerns as they prepare to face a new normal that could also include quarantining cast and crews “like a drama camp.” But before things can even reach that phase, numerous actors, producers, and crew members have been citing the availability of fast, daily testing as the top priority before productions resume, according to Deadline. Given America’s significant lag in testing, Hollywood productions could be looking at a much longer delay than their British counterparts.

(Via The Guardian & Deadline)

It wasn’t long ago that late-night TV shows were filmed in studios, in front of live audiences and with dozens of other people in the vicinity. Nowadays, though, the coronavirus pandemic has changed things: Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and the Jimmys/Jameses have started hosting their shows from home in recent weeks. Before all this happened, though, St. Vincent started work on a project that probably seemed more unusual then than it does now: She has teamed up with Progressive to host Shower Sessions, a new podcast that is filmed in a bathroom (or more accurately, a set designed to look like a bathroom).

All of the episodes are available on podcast platforms now (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.), and the musical performances are up on YouTube. Progressive notes of the series, “Half interview. Half concert series. 100% in a bathroom. Grammy winner St. Vincent shares the stage with six emerging musical artists. They sing. They share. And they do it all from the natural sound booth of the home, the shower.” The series features St. Vincent interviewing Duckwrth, Kassi Ashton, Loote, Donna Missal, Banners, and Amber Mark.

St. Vincent also wrote of the show, “When we filmed Shower Sessions in partnership with @Progressive, it was a little less ordinary to film in a bathrobe in the shower. Now we’re on par with late night talk shows.”

Watch the trailer for Shower Sessions above.

Jeremy Lin will appear in a one-on-one interview with NBA announcer Mike Breen on Thursday night on MSG Networks in New York to revisit his career with the Knicks and everything that’s happened since. The pair will cover everything from Linsanity, to how Lin’s NBA career ended, to his philanthropic work during the crisis in China and California, but what stands out most is how badly Lin wanted to remain in New York when his contract expired in 2012.

The stories have been told about resentment from Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, as well as how Mike D’Antoni was unable to keep everyone together, but what’s been missed is that Lin himself genuinely felt comfortable in New York and wanted to remain a Knick.

Because Lin was a restricted free agent, the Rockets had to get creative poaching him from the Knicks, so they backloaded their contract offer, giving Lin what is now called a “poison pill” offer in which the contract explodes in years three and four. That effectively meant the Knicks couldn’t afford to keep him, and no other team tried, according to Lin.

“We couldn’t get anything from any other team. And so, I had to go find a contract from somebody,” Lin tells Breen.

When Lin’s agent heard from Houston, Lin asked, “‘can you tell Houston to lower the offer, this is too much. Can you tell someone to lower the offer’, because I wanted to go back to New York and I wanted New York to match.”

In the end, Lin left for Houston and bounced around the league for a half-decade before leaving to China in the summer of 2019.

Since Kehlani’s debut album was released in 2017, fans have been eager for its full-length follow-up. Kehlani kept fans at bay with a handful of singles, including the recent numbers “Everybody’s Business” and “Toxic.” But finally, the singer revealed her sophomore album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, will arrive very soon. Kehlani trailed her album announcement with the thumping single “F&MU” alongside a sensual visual.

Directed by Hyphy Williamz, the single’s accompanying visual recreates the pheromone-fueled song through intimate choreography. An acronym for “F*ck And Make Up,” the new single features Kehlani’s slow-burning vocals divulging the steamy details of a romance. “We do petty things / Then mess up the sheets, yeah / You be runnin’ back once we let it go / I already know,” she croons.

Ahead of the single’s release, Kehlani found herself embroiled in online drama with fellow Bay Area artist Kamaiyah. The rapper detailed her beef shortly after Kehlani announced It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. The frustration seemed to stem from Kehlani removing Keyshia Cole’s verse from her hit track “All Me.” Kehlani addressed the scuffle on Twitter, taking the high road in a series of since-deleted tweets.

Watch the “F&MU” video above.

It Was Good Until It Wasn’t is out 5/8 via Atlantic. Pre-order it here.

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

Late last year, it was reported that The Matrix 4 and John Wick 4 would have the same release date: May 21, 2021, a.k.a. Keanu Reeves Day. Yeah… about that.

In an interview with Collider, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum director Chad Stahelski, who worked as Reeves’ stunt double on The Matrix before becoming a stunt coordinator on the sequels, said there was some miscommunication about the whole “Matrix same-day” thing. “That was a fubar thing, couple wires got crossed between studios [and] that was a misquote from someone else about how they’re coming out on the same day,” he explained. The good news: you won’t have to choose which excellent Keanu Reeves movie to see first (in this house, every day is Keanu Reeves Day). The bad news: it might be awhile before John Wick 4: Rise of the Tick-Tock Man comes out.

“Between how much we want to expand the John Wick — let’s just call it a ‘franchise’, I guess — and the pandemic, I couldn’t tell you a release date for the next one. I mean, Matrix was only four weeks in when this all happened. So, Keanu’s gotta go finish his commitment up on The Matrix, which is a big deal and which I think will probably take him until the end of the year. Then we have to go into our prep mode… Release dates, who knows right now.”

Stahelski also revealed that he occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night, thinking, “Horses! How do I beat horses?!” but, he added, “I think I have a lot of really cool ideas for the next one that I think are different and shocking and fun and unique.”

As long as Keanu Reeves is mowing down bad guys in neon-lit rooms, I’m there opening night, whenever that is.

(Via Collider)