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Back in February, Calvin Harris insinuated that he was looking into a career change. Fortunately for his fans, though, he was only referring to the part of his DJ gig that requires him to play live sets around the world into the wee hours of the morning. He’s still all for producing the music that other DJs can play at clubs — and today, he teased his next song, which will be perfect for doing just that.

The new song — a collaboration with Miley Cyrus — will be perfect for day and beach parties, as he demonstrated with the video teaser he posted to social media. The video captures a peaceful afternoon on the shore, with Miley’s sunny vocals cruising along a mellow, house-oriented beat. Miley sings, “We were dancing, we were wild in the ocean,” making the clip a fitting companion for the song snippet. And while the snippet is seeing significant pickup from fan pages across the social media spectrum, Harris hasn’t given any indication of just when the song will be dropping.

The upbeat and summery vibe of the song has led to speculation that Harris’ next project could be a continuation of his Funk Wav Bounces series, which has lain dormant since Vol. 2 in 2022. If it is, it’ll certainly enter a more accepting climate for the nu-disco, deep house sort of production that marks the Funk Wav albums than its predecessor. Thanks to Beyoncé and a handful of dance-centric rappers like Drake and Channel Tres, music listeners are better primed for its pop-EDM leanings than they were coming out of a global pandemic. Meanwhile, such a collaboration is a great way to start; Cyrus is white-hot after her country collab with Beyoncé and enlisting Pharrell to produce on her next project.

Stay tuned for more info on the eventual release of Harris and Miley’s latest collab.

The Sandman series was worth the (decades-long) wait for Neil Gaiman, who famously sabotaged a film adaptation by leaking a script that was absolutely terrible. Now, he has the perfect Morpheus/Dream in Tom Sturridge, who never dreamed it possible that some of his co-stars hopped away to film cameos in the new spin off series, Dead Boy Detectives, on Netflix.

After less than two weeks, the ghostly show is sitting at #2 on the Netflix Top 10 for TV (behind Baby Reindeer), and although there’s been no confirmation on a second season yet, The Sandman is currently filming its sophomore round of episodes. Will there be any more crossover cameos between the two projects? Well, it was news to Sturridge that any of them existed at all. As Entertainment Weekly reveals, he was surprised to hear that Kirby Howell-Baptiste made a Dead Boy Detectives appearance as Death:

“I didn’t know you did this,” a shocked Sturridge tells Howell-Baptiste after EW asks her a question about her cameo appearance in the Dead Boy Detectives premiere.

“Yeah, I snuck off to Canada,” Howell-Baptiste says impishly. “I shot on a different show!”

“How long were you there?”

“One day. I mean, I flew in, I shot, and I left the next day. It’s been a family secret!”

“It feels…kinda weird,” Sturridge says.

Somebody sounds like he’d like to make a cameo? Surely, co-creator Steve Yockey would not turn down that opportunity. Along with Death, Despair (Donna Preston) has already made an appearance on the spin off, and Yockey revealed that he’d also love to see Desire (Mason Alexander Park) if the show returns. Let’s get Morpheus in there as well. Give him the 1300s Oasis-brothers hairstyle, too.

The first season of Dead Boy Detectives can be binged on Netflix.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Grandparents are often stereotyped as doting and eager to be a big part of their grandchildren’s lives. In movies and TV, we often see parents of child-free women begging them to have kids so they can be grandparents.

However, that’s not always the case. Many grandparents are unable to help raise their grandkids because of their location or health. There are also far too many who aren’t that eager to do the work.

For many parents, the presence of grandparents who actively participate in raising their kids can be a game-changer. The support they provide, whether it’s watching the kids on a Friday night or picking them up from school, can significantly ease the juggling act of modern parenting.

Kelsey, a popular TikTok and Instagram mother of two, recently celebrated the joy of having “voluntarily involved” grandparents, calling them the biggest “parenting flex.” Of course, the subtext of the post is that, unfortunately, many grandparents are uninvolved with their grandchildren’s lives and their families could use their help.

Warning: Strong language.

@kelsey_p90

Top tier 🙌🏻🙌🏻 #fyp #foryourpage #foryou #momtok #mom #moms #momlife #momsbelike #momsoftiktok #sahm #grandparents #grandparentsoftiktok #grandma #grandpa #parenting #parentsoftiktok

“Without question, the biggest parenting flex isn’t the mom car, not how much you make a year. It’s not how well-behaved your kids are,” Kelsey starts her video. “Biggest flex is having involved grandparents. Voluntarily involved. Holy f***, having that midday struggle with my children and then getting that text from grandma: ‘Hey, can I pick so and so up for a sleepover tonight?’ Ha ha ha, funny, you should say that! Her bag has been packed. Never unpacked it. She’s ready.”

She noted that “voluntarily involved” grandparents aren’t just doing the bare minimum. They’re stepping up and taking charge of their role in the family.

“Ones that you can text like, ‘Hey, can you fly up this weekend? We need your help.’ ‘Sure, no problem!’ I don’t know what kind of reaction that was. But it came within the depths. Nothing beats it. Nothing beats a grandparent that wants to do more than required to get that yearly Facebook Happy Birthday Grandma post,” Kelsey continued.

Unfortunately, many moms and dads don’t have parents they can rely on to help them raise their kids and it’s a big loss. “A lot of the times, people don’t have help, and I am sorry,” Kelsey said. That f****** blows. We know it’s their loss. We know. Who doesn’t want to be involved with their grandchildren?”

Many commenters shared why raising kids without grandparents is so hard.

“I recently read a quote that said ‘uninvolved grandparents never intended to be parents themselves’ everything made sense,” Isabel Cardenas wrote. “You definitely got that right. That is the biggest flex of all time. There’s not enough money in the world that would take the jealousy I have for people who receive that type of love freely,” Katy Alltop added.

Kelsey shared her thoughts on why some grandparents aren’t voluntarily involved with their grandkids.

“I think a lot of times grandparents have the point of view like ‘I did my time, I raised my children, now it’s my time to do whatever I want.’ They don’t want to be tied down with babysitting and other commitments,” she told Upworthy. “Which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing! They deserve a fun retirement. I would never want to force a grandparent (or anyone really) to be a part of my children’s lives. But it is so nice to see so many grandparents who go out of their way to foster relationships with their grandkids and who want to spend quality time with them (not just to give mom and dad a break).”

In conjunction with Star Wars Day, a.k.a. May the 4th Be With You, The Phantom Menace is being re-released into theaters nationwide this weekend. It’s about time kids got to see Watto the way he was intended to be seen: in horrifying resolution on the big screen. But if that’s not enough Star Wars for you, an Austin, Texas-based location of the Alamo Drafthouse is screening the complete the Skywalker Saga and the two stand-alone films from May until July.

“In December 1977, the original Star Wars opened at the Village 4 in glorious Dolby Stereo,” said John Smith, Senior Film Programmer for Alamo Drafthouse. “Forty-seven years later, we’re finishing the story and sharing the complete saga with Austin audiences.”

All the Star Wars films — minus Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, unfortunately — will play at the Village location in Austin only. You can see the screening information below:

Opening Dates at Alamo Drafthouse Village

May 3: Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
May 10: Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
May 17: Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
May 24: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story
May 31: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
June 7: Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
June 14: Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
June 28: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
July 5: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

There’s also the opportunity to watch an entire trilogy back-to-back-to-back.

June 22 and July 19: Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy
June 23 and July 20: Star Wars: The Original Trilogy
July 21: Star Wars: The Sequel Trilogy

I hope I’m not the only one who finds it funny that The Rise of Skywalker has to share a date with another movie. Here’s an idea: instead of sitting through Episode XI again, just imagine Babu Frik hanging out with Salacious B. Crumb in Return of the Jedi. Those two would have a great time!

You can find ticket information here.

Emily In Paris cannot be (much like the Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 in The Terminator) “bargained with” or “reasoned with” in terms of how inexplicably addictive each season has turned out to be. The Netflix show will continue to captivate viewers despite having very little substance and a pretty forgettable ongoing plot. It’s essentially an incredibly cheery little soap opera, which agains proves that creator Darren Star does not miss.

Of course, the main question going into the third season is whether Hot Chef Gabriel‘s revelation of Camille’s pregnancy will deter his and Emily’s undeniable mutual crushing on each other. Perhaps the show will drag that out for a few more seasons, but what really matters is that Ashley Park recovered from her health woes and returned to filming as Mindy.

Also and as Variety relays, the show will actually be doing something different this season by moving beyond Paris after star Lily Collins revealed, “While Emily’s heart will always remain true to Paris, her life takes an unexpected twist this season. Don’t be surprised to find her on a Roman holiday.”

Hmm. Well, that’s probably for the best. There are only so many times that a character can act clever with a baguette. This also explains why Collins has been posting photos of herself and Park at the “Paris wrap party” before heading to Rome.

And yup, here are the requisite touristy photos near The Colosseum. When will Emily In Paris be back on Netflix? Clues are pointing toward late 2024.

(Via Variety)

The race is on to get involved in the NBA’s next media rights deal. In recent days, a report indicated that Turner could end up losing its place to NBC, which apparently has plans to make a monster bid to bring the league back to its airwaves.

There are a ton of balls in the air right now, so we’ll have to wait before we get clarity on where the league will air its games going forward. But if Turner loses its seat at the table, that would immediately spark questions about the future of the greatest studio television show of all time, Inside the NBA.

We fortunately did get one bit of good news on this front on Wednesday, when Charles Barkley went onto ESPN Cleveland’s The Really Big Show. Apparently, Barkley made it a point to make sure he could leave Turner in the event this very thing happened when he signed his most recent contract extension with the network.

“It’s a really big deal, obviously,” Barkley said. “But, you know, I covered my ass, to be honest with you … I just signed a 10-year deal two years ago, but one of the things that I did, I put an opt out after a couple years cause I wanted to make sure I covered my ass when it comes to this situation, if I wanted to go to Amazon or another — we thought it was gonna be Apple, to be honest with you.

“So, the one thing I did in my new contract, I’m two years into a 10-year deal,” Barkley continued. “And when I sit down, I said, ‘Wait a minute, now, if you guys lose the NBA, I wanna make sure that I can get out of here.’ So I am actually in a really great position.”

Barkley went on to explain that the team knew Amazon and Apple would get in on the race for TV rights, but they did not foresee that “NBC was gonna come out the woodwork.”

“I love TNT, they’ve been great to me, but if they lose the NBA, I wanted to make sure I had my I’s dotted and T’s crossed,” Barkley continued. “Something’s gonna happen, I hope that TNT, like I said, they’ve been great to me … I wanted to make sure if we lost the NBA in two years, I could be a free agent.”

When asked if he was open to joining whatever network ends up getting television rights, Barkley emphatically said, “hell yeah!” This is terrific news for everyone who loves watching Chuck do what he does on television, which is most people who are not from Galveston.

(h/t Awful Announcing)

This Friday, May 3, Willow Smith (known mononymous as Willow) will release her latest album, Empathogen. Billed by the second-gen singer as a “musical compilation” in a teaser prior to its official announcement, the project was recorded under drastically different conditions than its predecessor. “For this new album, I was sober for every single recording session,” she said. “I feel like my mind state was extremely different.”

She recently brought that new mind set to NPR Music’s offices for a passionate Tiny Desk Concert performance, which was released today. In addition to playing a pair of her catalog hits, she also introduced the crowd to three of the songs from the new project (“Symptom of Life,” “Run!” and “Big Feelings”) while backed by a new band including social media star Taylor “The Pocket Queen” Gordon on drums. The performance ranges from jazz-inflected soul to folksy, ’90s-esque alt-rock that would fit right in at Lilith Fair, with Willow putting on an absolute vocal masterclass. This show should be studied in schools.

Willow’s new musical direction won praise from no less an authority than Questlove, who wrote of the new album on Instagram, “Shout out to @willowsmith for allowing herself to evolve into this artist. Doing all the things artists over the years have told me they wanted to do but were too afraid to because we been told odd time signatures don’t work or @gentlegiantband level prog rock song structure (blink and you missed it codas & bridges coming outta nowhere) might be too much for the “average listener” to consume or to lyrically go to this vulnerable place that we might think will get us ridiculed. Once in an eclipse there is an artist out there that will just be like ‘fuhggggit….this is how I feel’ and the stars align.”

You can watch Willow’s Tiny Desk performance in full above.

x (aka Multiply) was a huge moment for Ed Sheeran, as the album (his second) included the single “Thinking Out Loud,” which became Sheeran’s biggest hit in the US at that point in his young career. Well, the album is ten years old now and Sheeran is ready to celebrate.

Sharing the news on Instagram today (May 1), Sheeran explained:

“10th anniversary of Multiply this year, which feels wild but also a lot has happened in that 10 years. This album was made from 2011 – 2014, and spanned my whole personal life through that time, which was a mad time. Going from playing pubs and clubs to selling arenas in those years, falling in and out of love, travelling all round the world, working with some of the best producers in the world, it was a real rollercoaster, and it’s been amazing to revisit all the memories. Can’t wait to experience the multiply show with you, and remember some amazing moments over this summer together.”

He then noted that an anniversary concert will hit New York’s Barcleys Center on May 22. Tickets are set to go on sale on May 6, and a sign-up link can be found on Sheeran’s website. There’s also an anniversary edition of the album coming out on vinyl, and more information on that can be fuond here. It’s available to pre-order now ahead of its June 21 release.

Check out Sheeran’s posts about it below.

Toddlers are built differently. Something about when they take those first trepidatious steps tells them that they no longer need things essential to human life. It also gives them a supersonic ego boost of invincibility, which is a concerning combination given the size of their heads in comparison to their little bodies and not-so-agile reflexes.

One dad has successfully convinced parents on the internet that toddlers must all listen to this completely made up podcast. Tyler Champagne has brought “Toddler Motivational Podcast” to life with one of his recent Instagram posts. In the video, Champagne, dad of a 2-year-old son and newborn daughter, imagines what it would sound like if his toddler had a motivational podcast.

The dad of two is sitting behind a podcast microphone speaking in a hushed voice that’s oddly motivational. Maybe don’t play the video while your littles are in the room—no need to give them any ideas.

“I don’t sleep at night. Sleep is for elderly people, like my parents in their 30s. When I’m sleeping, I’m not causing chaos, right? When I’m awake, I can continuously cause chaos throughout the day. Concentric circumference. Wanna know what I had for breakfast today? I licked one grape. That’s all I need. I don’t eat food. Food is a waste of time. When I’m chewing, when I’m swallowing, not causing chaos, okay?” Champagne says while motivational music plays in the background.

This is probably one of the most accurate portrayals of how it feels having a toddler in the home and parents couldn’t agree more.

“My toddler is getting rowdy listening to this speech,” one person raises a fist.

“How do we all have the same kids,” someone cries.

“My toddler watch[ed] this and screamed ‘that’s right’,” another says.

“Don’t y’all know. 90% of their hydration happens in the bathtub,” a commenter reveals.

Well, it may be a weird coincidence that every parent has the same kid. But it also seems totally plausible that once parents are asleep, some sort of motivational podcast like this comes through their baby monitor. Watch the video below, just make sure your toddler is out of earshot.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tyler Champagne (@heated_seats)

I’ve long been of the belief that every movie should be under 90 minutes or over three hours. Give me The Nightmare Before Christmas (76 minutes) or Seven Samurai (207 minutes), but nothing in between.

I’m (mostly) joking, but it’s no joking matter how much people seem to not want to watch movies that are over two hours.

A recent poll of 2,000 Americans found that the “ideal” movie runtime is 92 minutes, according to Talker Research. That makes sense. If I was asked to pick between two movies but was only told the runtimes, not the titles, I would almost always choose the shorter film. I’ve got things to do (mindlessly scroll through Twitter). But worryingly, only 15 percent of those polled “want to sit through a movie that’s two hours or longer,” while the number drops to two percent if the film is over two and a half hours. Meanwhile, people sit through an entire season of a streaming series in a day without complaint.

The Guardian has more:

Recent research by What to Watch suggests that the average running time of the most commercially successful films is increasing, with an average of 141 minutes in 2022 compared with 110 minutes in 1981. A number of reasons have been advanced, from streaming platforms’ ability to ignore the rigidity of cinema screening schedules, to the desire to showcase expensive visual effects and action sequences that have proliferated over the last decade.

The funny thing is, three of the four highest-grossing movies of all-time are over three hours: Avengers: Endgame, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Titanic (it would be four out of four if box office king Avatar was 18 minutes longer).

So, what’s the actual “ideal” runtime for a movie? If it’s good, as long as it needs to be.

(Via Talker Research and The Guardian)