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GOP Representative Nancy Mace has made headlines recently for her role in the subcommittee hearings investigating the existence of UAPs — UFOs as they’re more commonly known. And it seems like the South Carolina lawmaker is eager to hold onto that spotlight just a bit longer because she made a wild, “TMI” remark in front of a bunch of Evangelicals that practically guaranteed she’d be trending on social media.

Mace, who got engaged to her partner Patrick Bryant last year (in a totally not staged moment that she turned into a campaign video), gave a speech at Tim Scott’s prayer breakfast where she bragged about turning down some hot, morning premarital sex in order to break bread, or at least some cold eggs and a few stale croissants, with her Christian base.

“When I woke up this morning at 7, I was getting picked up at 7:45. Patrick, my fiancé, tried to pull me by my waist over this morning in bed and I was like, ‘No, baby, we don’t got time for that this morning. I got to get to the prayer breakfast and I got to be on time,” Mace bizarrely boasted before adding that it may have “been a little TMI.”

But, as bizarre as it was to hear a conservative Christian lawmaker give us a peek inside her bedroom, Mace followed that up with an even more WTF omission.

“He can wait,” after Mace got some chuckles when she admitted to blue-balling her fiance. “I’ll see him later tonight.” Now, we’re not prudes and we’re certainly not concerned with how premarital sex violates the tenets of certain religions, but the people in the audience sure are what makes this whole thing even stranger.

But hey, congrats to the happy couple!

We don’t have the time to list all the reasons why HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones is one of the best shows on TV. But here’s a partial list: naked fights, monster trucks, Danny McBride’s hair, Skyler Gisondo in a neck brace, the sentence “that ain’t no Babadook, that’s Mama,” the Smut Busters, literally every scene with Edi Patterson, and so on. But the number one reason why Righteous Gemstones belongs on year-end lists is Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers.

Earlier today, HBO announced that The Righteous Gemstones has been renewed for a fourth season. That’s wonderful news… but nowhere in the press release does it mention Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers, the game show (it’s like Family Feud, or “Family Feuds,” but for Bible trivia) hosted by Walton Goggins’ Uncle Baby Billy, with accompaniment from Valyn Hall’s delightful Tiffany. If HBO releases a standalone episode of Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers, I vow to never call Max “HBO Max” again.

“The way in which Baby Billy’s story starts off in a clamshell, doing 24 performances a day, beside a pool at the Gemstone Resort, was exhausting, but it was so much fun. I had no idea that it was gonna start off in an imaginary music video that was gonna end with ripping off Family Feud,” Goggins told Collider. He added, “Secretly, that’s always been a dream of mine, to do something like that and to infuse it with a certain amount of late show humor.”

Give us what we want: Walton Goggins saying “Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers.”

When your toddler has a meltdown, it’s perfectly natural to want to fly off the handle.

There’s nothing more infuriating than a small human repeatedly demanding something that’s physically impossible for you to give them, or wailing because you had to punish them after repeatedly telling them to knock it off.

“I CREATED YOU, YOU LITTLE MONSTER. I CAN DESTROY YOU,” you might want to say (though you never would). You love your kids — of course you do — but damn if they aren’t the best at pushing you to your breaking point.

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As tempting as it may be to raise your voice, yell, and keep ramping up the punishment to ridiculous levels, some parenting experts say there’s a much better option.

Vanessa Lapointe, a mom and professional psychologist, suggests something called “discipline without damage.”

Lapointe defines this practice, sometimes called “compassionate parenting,” as an intervention that reinforces connection, not separation — in other words, staying calm and kind while setting firm boundaries for kids in a way that doesn’t dampen their spirits or preach obedience above all else.

This isn’t just some new-agey, feel good stuff: Lapointe says it’s all based on science and the way children’s brains develop.

“Our job as parents is to grow up children who are hardy. Not children who are hardened,” she explained in an essay for The Huffington Post. “Children who are hardy can weather the storms of life. Children who are hardened cannot, and instead tend to shut down and have ineffective coping strategies.”

Lapointe recently released a nifty “Discipline Cheat Sheet” that offers some simple changes to the words we use when faced with a meltdown that can completely change the tenor of the situation for the better.

Here’s how this technique might play out.

Say your toddler colored on the wall with bright green crayon.

Instead of screeching something along the lines of “What were you thinking?!??!” Lapointe recommends using a kind and compassionate tone and saying something more like, “You know I don’t want you coloring on the walls. We need to get this cleaned up.”

“No!” your kid might respond, with a stomp of a tiny foot. “I don’t want to!”

“Come on,” you say, keeping your voice calm. “I’ll show you where the cleaning supplies are and help you get started.”

Now, ideally, that would be enough. Your toddler would calm down and gladly help you clean the walls. When it comes to toddlers, however, parents know things are rarely that easy.

What if by then he’s too upset and has thrown himself to the ground in protest, banging fists against the floor? Instead of finally breaking and losing your temper, it’s time to try a different tactic from the cheat sheet.

“I can see this is tricky for you. We’re going to solve this later. Let’s get a drink of water,” you can say.

He may agree or not. But eventually, he will calm down (every parent knows that they always do), and you can show him how to get the crayon off the wall.

When the wall is finally clean, turn to him and say, “Let’s find a better place to keep your coloring supplies so this doesn’t happen again.”

The whole conflict may take a while, and you may have to go back to the cheat sheet to try many of these different techniques, but in the end, you get what you want (a clean wall) without yelling at, frightening, or physically forcing your toddler to clean it up. At the same time, your kid learns that their actions have consequences.

The reality is that most toddlers are nearly psychologically incapable of impulse control. No amount of yelling or being a strict disciplinarian can change the wiring of their brains. And though the phrases in the chart above are best for young children, the same principles of compassionate parenting apply to older kids, too.

The chart has been shared far and wide across the web, though Lapointe’s approach isn’t without its critics.

Some parents worry that her recommendations feel an awful lot like “helicopter parenting” and isn’t strong enough to teach kids about independence and feeling the consequences of their actions.

Lapointe says these people are missing the point. She spells out the difference:

“The hoverer is worried, nervous, and uncertain, and prevents their child from ever having to come to terms with the things in life that simply cannot be. The provider is confident, all-knowing, and in charge, and supports the child in regulating around their upset in coming to terms with the things in life that cannot be. “

She urges parents to remember that kids are kids and not to expect them to understand the world as adults do.

Compassionate parenting is more than just a few handy phrases.

The phrases on Lapointe’s cheat sheet are a great first step for reframing the way we react when our kids start misbehaving, but they’re not the only tool a compassionate parent can keep in their back pocket. For parents looking for an alternative to punishment and escalating behavior, however, Lapointe’s cheat sheet could be just the help they need to stay calm in the face of a toddler tornado.

Though easier said than done, a simple, “Come here, I’ve got you,” could be exactly what your kid needs to hear.

This article originally appeared on 07.21.17

When Carrie Hollenbeck needed to sell her 1996 Honda Accord, with over 140,000 lifetime miles on it, having a filmmaker boyfriend paid off. Big time.

Max Lanman had the idea to produce an actual commercial to advertise his girlfriend’s jalopy. But this wouldn’t be some low-budget production for a 4 a.m. run on the local access cable channel. Oh no. Not at all.

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“I thought it would be hilarious to make a high-end car commercial for a really junky car,” Lanman told ABC News. “And she had just the car.”

The ad begins like any high-gloss, self-important, sleek car commercial, with a deep-voiced narrator uttering some vaguely inspiring patter: “You, you’re different. You do things your way. That’s what makes you one of a kind.”

Cut to — instead of a luxury vehicle with a slick dash, leather interior, and impeccably dressed anonymous driver — Carrie’s old Honda, complete with coffee spills, random objects rolling around in the back, and one of those cassette things you use to play your iPod in a car without Bluetooth.

“You don’t do it for appearance. You do it because it works,” the narrator adds triumphantly.

Check out the finished product:

Lanman may have intended the piece to be more silly than satire, but the faux ad inadvertently makes an important point about the car buying experience in America.

As commonplace as the ads he’s lampooning are, the majority of Americans cannot afford a new car. Things are only getting worse — the average price of a new vehicle has skyrocketed 35% since the 1970s, while the median household income is only up about 3% for the same time period.

Cars have always been a status symbol, but somewhere along the line — between the time of horse-drawn carriages and the modern era of Matthew McConaughey selling Lincolns by falling backward into an infinity pool while wearing a tuxedo — cars have become an extreme symbol of status.

Car commercials would have you believe that cars are not something you buy because of how well they can get you from Point A to Point B, but because of how they made you feel and how they make you look to other people. For every person buying a $60,000 car that fits their “lifestyle,” (or to sit in their garage, barely touched) there are dozens more people buying a used junker on Craiglist or eBay because it’s all they can afford. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Though it wasn’t intended to be, Max and Carrie’s viral ad is almost a digital middle finger to those who want the rich to get richer and income disparity to get worse. It reminds us to be proud of our ability to successfully live our own lives, even if it’s not always pristine or glamorous. This ad … is practical and real and … well, it’s all of us.

“Luxury is a state of mind,” the narrator bellows at the end. Finally, a car slogan everyday Americans can get behind.

This article originally appeared on 11.09.17

If you haven’t heard actor Justin Baldoni’s name, you at least probably recognize him.

Best known for his role as Rafael on “Jane the Virgin,” Baldoni is the epitome of Hollywood’s “tall, dark, and handsome” stereotype. He is every bad boy with a sinister past. Every womanizing billionaire. Every domineering playboy.

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In a talk at TEDWomen 2017, Baldoni joked about the string of characters he’s been typecast as (most of them appear shirtless a good majority of the time).

“Most of the men I play ooze machismo, charisma, and power,” he said. “And when I look in the mirror, that’s just not how I see myself.”

Baldoni came to realize that it wasn’t just on-screen that he was pretending. In his everyday life, he found himself trying to conform to society’s masculine ideal as well, and it all felt like a lie.

“I’ve been pretending to be strong when I felt weak. Confident when I felt insecure. And tough when really I was hurting,” he explained.

The past few years have been a journey for Baldoni, who has set out to redefine for himself what “being a man” is really all about. In his TED Talk, he shared three major realizations he had along the way.

1. “Real men” make themselves vulnerable — not just with women, but with other men too.

Baldoni’s early attempts at being more open about his emotions publicly on social media went great — until he realized almost all of his followers were women. Opening up to his fellow men was another challenge altogether.

“If it’s about work or sports or politics or women, [men] have no problem sharing our opinions,” he observed. “But if it’s about our insecurities, our struggles, our fear of failure, it’s almost like we become paralyzed.”

He recalled recently wanting to talk to his guy friends about a serious issue in his life and needing almost the entirety of a three-day guys trip to work up the courage to do it. Once he did, however, he found many of his buddies were eager to share with him, too.

“My display of vulnerability can, in some cases, give other men permission to do the same,” he realized.

(If only there were a TEDMen Baldoni could have given this talk at.)

2. “Real men” hold other men, and themselves, accountable.

As he began to engage more with other men, Baldoni started to become even more aware of toxic male behavior around him. It was everywhere.

He recalls an Instagram comment someone left on a photo of him and his wife. The random male commenter called the photo “gay shit.”

So Baldoni decided to message him.

“I said, very politely, ‘I’m just curious, because I’m on an exploration of masculinity, and I wanted to know why my love for my wife qualified as gay shit,'” he remembered.

To his surprise, the man responded thoughtfully about how his own displays of affection had been mocked as a child, and he apologized for lashing out.

“Secretly he was waiting for permission to express himself,” Baldoni said. “And all he needed was another man holding him accountable and creating a safe place for him to feel. The transformation was instant.”

3. “Real men” embrace the good aspects of traditional masculinity — with a twist.

Not everything traditionally associated with manliness is bad. Strength, bravery, and confidence are great things to aspire to (regardless of one’s gender). But Baldoni urges men to think deeply about what those qualities really mean in practice and whether, perhaps, there’s not a different way to think about spending their energy trying to achieve them.

“Are you brave enough … to be vulnerable?” he asked. “Are you strong enough to be sensitive? … Are you confident enough to listen to the women in your life? … Will you be man enough to stand up to other men when you hear ‘locker room talk’?”

Near the end of his talk, Baldoni acknowledges an important point: As bad as the “performance of masculinity” is for men, these rigid gender roles can be far worse for women.

He bemoaned that there wasn’t even enough time to get into issues like the gender pay gap, division of household labor, and violence against women — all issues created and upheld by the toxic male behavior Baldoni’s fighting against.

“The deeper we get into this, the uglier it gets,” he said.

He challenged the men watching and listening to demand better of themselves and those around them.

“If we want to be part of the solution, words are no longer enough,” Baldoni said.

This article originally appeared on 12.08.17

The term “John Doe” is normally used to hide a person’s true name or as a placeholder when their real name isn’t know. But despite her nom de plume, Chicago’s Jean Deaux is far from being just another anonymous face in the rap world. She’s plugged in with many of the Windy City’s most recognizable artists like Mick Jenkins and Saba, as well as associated acts like Smino, and well-accomplished in her own right, with five self-released projects to date.

She brings her formidable talents to bear on UPROXX Sessions, performing “Yeah Yeah” from her latest project, Heavy. A dismissive track that rides the ever-blurring line between rap and R&B, “Yeah Yeah” is an eye-rolling response to guys “runnin’ game” with nothing to back it up. “I’m every n**** muse, but I’m not amused” she boasts. “I’m out here goin’ dumb, don’t get sh*t confused.” Heavy, released in April, features seven tracks with production by trap rap mainstay Turbo.

You can check out Jean Deaux’s performance of “Yeah Yeah” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

For anyone else, a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands in group-stage play would be a welcome result. For the USWNT, it was a stunning upset.

With eight wins in their past 11 meetings, history was on Coach Vlatko Andonovski’s side. The US had capably handled the Dutch in the 2019 Women’s World Cup final, and eked out a win against their Oranje rivals in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Both teams have been plagued by injuries, welcomed new coaching staffs, and introduced different formations to their style of play – but the odds should’ve been in the United States’ favor.

Instead, during Wednesday night’s match, the Netherlands dominated first-half play, passing with precision, possessing with a sense of confidence, shutting down their opponent’s midfield tactics, and capitalizing on the few offensive chances they were given. The Dutch didn’t look as threatening in the attack as their American counterparts, but when they did float upfield, they made the most of their time there. Midfielder Jill Roord scored a stunning shot from the top of the 18 at around the 17-minute mark, a lead the Netherlands would hold onto until Lindsey Horan’s header off a corner kick tied the game in the 62nd minute. The US maintained control of the match after that, creating some better looks at goal that they couldn’t quite finish, but, by all accounts, they were lucky to squeak by with a draw when the whistle blew.

So, what does that mean for their future, both in group stage play and come the knockout rounds where they’re likely to face off against even tougher opponents like Spain and Sweden? Let’s break it down.

The Midfield Problem

Because this gripe isn’t anything Vlatko’s squad hasn’t heard before, we’ll just say it: The US has a midfield problem. It’s not that we don’t have talented players who can quickly transition from defense into the attack – we’ve got Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle, Ashley Sanchez, Savannah DeMelo … the list goes on. The issue lies with what we’re doing with that talent. Lavelle is on restricted minutes which hampers her impact, but if she can play a full 45, why not give her the start over an inexperienced DeMelo, who struggled to hold up against the pressure of the Dutch push?

Because of Andi Sullivan’s style of play, Horan has dropped back into a more defensive midfield position, which would work if we had attacking mids like Lavelle or Sanchez on the field to connect passes and make runs. Instead, the US seemed almost too defensive-minded in the first half, hesitating and giving an inexplicable amount of space to Netherland’s back three before pressing on the second pass. It might have been a good strategy, except the Dutch are too technically efficient to give them that kind of time on the ball. Instead of shutting down those second and third passes, our midfield was left to run themselves ragged, trying to cut off passing lanes and roadblock the Netherlands’ offensive attack. We wasted energy and ended up paying for that complacency early on. What’s worse, it felt like we abandoned a key element of the American game: our tenacity and aggression. By letting the Dutch control the tempo of play, it felt like the fight was sucked out of the US – and we wouldn’t find it again until the second half.

Sub Strategy

The USWNT has, arguably, the deepest bench of any team in the FIFA Women’s World Cup at the moment. And yet, the only sub Vlatko made happened at the start of the second half, when Lavelle replaced a tired and beaten DeMelo in the midfield. That substitution made a clear and immediate difference, but the choice to ignore his bench in favor of keeping tired legs on the field was likely the most confusing game tactic we’ve seen the USWNT coach make during his tenure. After Horan’s goal, the momentum shifted and more opportunities in the final third were popping up. The problem? Trinity Rodman was gassed after hounding the ball to help our defense during the first half, as was Alex Morgan, who seemed to be the only player interested in pressuring the Dutch’s defense all game. Sullivan had slowed, Crystal Dunn had made mistakes as the left back – a position she really shouldn’t be restricted to at this point given how fantastic she is in the midfield for her club team – and Sophia Smith was struggling to convert on the wing.

When you have Lynn Williams, one of the fastest strikers and defensively prolific players in the game, an equally quick Kelly O’Hara, an experienced and confident-on-the-ball Megan Rapinoe, and a scrappy Kristie Mewis on your bench, why wouldn’t you deploy them? Especially when the temperature of the match had shifted and a win was within your grasp?

Vlatko told reporters after the match that he was worried any sub would take a couple of minutes to adjust to the gameplay and throw off the team’s rhythm, which makes absolutely no sense given these are professional athletes, but even so. Is one to two minutes of adjustment for fresh legs and the chance of another goal worse than 20 minutes of tired forwards exhausting themselves further just for a draw that means we’ll need them in top form against Portugal?

The Front Three

There’s no easy way to say this, but something just isn’t clicking with the USWNT’s frontline. Each player – Smith, Morgan, and Rodman – are individual powerhouses, but their chemistry is noticeably off. Not because they can’t play well together, but because they’re being asked to play in positions and styles that don’t cater to their strengths as strikers. Smith is at her best when she’s attacking central, running at defenders, shooting from the 18, and passing to the wings before accepting a cross. Rodman is terrific on the flank, but she’s only there to score goals. The minute some defending or pass connections must be made, her game lags. And Morgan, who Vlatko has dubbed a playmaker, is stuck up top, in the middle, with two less-experienced wingers whose focus is less on the buildup and more on the end result being the back of the net.

No amount of extra minutes playing together is going to solve the fundamental problem – this lineup wasn’t built to work.

Youth vs. Experience

So much has been made about diversity when it comes to the age of players on the USWNT. Alyssa Thompson is the baby, an 18-year-old superstar in the making while Rapinoe is the team’s oldest member, a “cool Gay aunt” in her words who knows how to dictate play and come up big in key moments. If we were leveraging both, the age gap might not be an issue. But, as it stands, Vlatko seems to prefer young, fresh, untested talent in big matches. Sometimes that pays off – as with Smith and Naomi Girma. And sometimes, adjustments need to be made, especially when we are facing teams like the Netherlands who have years of built-in chemistry playing together at the national level.

Would Rapinoe, Lavelle, or Williams – all players who have faced the Netherlands and beat them in big games – have made a difference if they came on, or came on sooner? Who knows. But as it stands, there seems to be a disconnect between how much Vlatko values experience versus how much stock this team is putting into its new additions. Balance feels like the key here.

Making Horan Angry

We imagine most teams watching film from the Netherlands match will have learned Daniëlle van de Donk’s lesson: Don’t make Lindsey Horan angry. You won’t like her when she’s angry. After fielding a careless and, frankly, dangerous challenge from her Lyon teammate, Horan got into a heated argument with the Dutch player, one the referee bizarrely tried to defuse by having the two hash it out on the field … during play.

As weird as the whole incident was, Horan harnessed her emotions and converted them into a set-piece goal that saved the team’s chances of advancing out of the group stage. If there’s a way to ensure a fire is lit underneath the USWNT’s co-captain each game going forward, we’d love to hear about it.

It was a little surprising when it was announced Justin Simien – best known for directing Dear White people, Bad Hair, and being announced as the showrunner for the still not produced Lando series (we’ll get to that) – would be directing a reboot of Haunted Mansion, which is also a staple ride at the Disney theme parks. This came as a surprise to Simien, too, who assumed he’d read the script and politely pass. But he wound up being impressed with Katie Dippold’s script and, well, here we are with Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion premiering this weekend in theaters.

As you may expect with Simien’s involvement, this version has little resemblance to the 2003 film starring Eddie Murphy. LaKeith Stanfield plays Ben, a widower and former scientist who has kind of given up on life and when he’s not day drinking, he gives city tours of New Orleans. Rosario Dawson plays Gabbie, a widow and mother of a young son who gets a really good deal on an old house, but immediately discovers it’s haunted. The problem is, once you enter the house, the ghosts will haunt you wherever you go. Through a local priest (Owen Wilson), they hire the services of Ben to document the ghosts because he once built a camera that can photograph the paranormal. Thinking this is all nonsense, Ben accepts the job for the quick money but gets more than he bargained for and is now also trapped in the haunted mansion with the aforementioned characters, along with Tiffany Haddish as a psychic and Danny DeVito as a local historian.

Ahead, Simien explains why he decided to make a Haunted Mansion movie and if the people who know him best were surprised. Also, there hasn’t been an update on the Lando series for quite some time and the way Simien explains it, it’s probably not happening anytime soon, if at all.

How does this happen? Do you get wind they are making this and express interest? Did they come to you?

This one came to me. I mean, you know, you do all of the above. I write, too. I develop. All that stuff. I was in the halls of Disney, already, working on a little something with Lucasfilm, and also just trying to figure out what my next feature was. And the screenplay came in by Katie Dippold, who I adored and whose work I love. But Haunted Mansion? I knew they made a movie before. But I get this script and I think, okay, well, this will be a pretty quick read and probably, “No thanks.” And it just got me, man. I legitimately stayed up and laughed and cried. And it had been a really long time since a screenplay did that to me.

I also felt this weird connection, because I had worked at Disneyland. I was already extremely obsessed with the Haunted Mansion as a ride. And my family is from Louisiana. So I have all of this connection to the culture of New Orleans, and that mixture of voodoo and Catholicism that some of the New Orleans’ vibes come from. It was as if I made a list or something, and we went and found the perfect project for me. But it was quite organic.

It almost sounds like you had the same reaction to hearing about this that most people had the reaction when we heard you were doing it. Like, “Wait, what?”

Exactly.

But then you see the movie and it’s like, “Okay, this makes sense.”

Also, it’s kind of the fun of it, for me. I love the unexpected. I love doing things that people aren’t sure I should do. That was a surprise.

I’m curious, from your friends, did you get any like, “Wait, that’s what you’re doing next?”

I wouldn’t say anybody was as overt as that, but I certainly clocked it. I think that the general assumption – and this assumption isn’t untrue, by the way – is that especially if you are an artist, filmmaker, and you write and you have things you want to say in your work and stuff, this is sort of like a necessary evil, to go and do a big studio movie…

But it’s also kind of the dream, right?

Yeah, it’s also the dream. And it’s also kind of a miracle to get a script that is both based on existing IP, but is also totally original. It’s the first of something. It isn’t a remake. It isn’t the sequel to the other Haunted Mansion film. It’s just a totally different way about it. I think those are really, actually, really hard to find. Especially as well executed as Katie Dippold had it on the page when I encountered it.

I haven’t seen the Eddie version in a really long time. But I don’t remember it having as much gravitas as this one does.

Yeah, it’s a very different film. Different goals for that film. Different reasons to see. And that was also really refreshing about the script, too. It didn’t spend any time, whatsoever, even addressing the other film. This is just a new movie. And that gave me permission to be untethered by that film, for better and worse.

And LaKeith, he is really going for it in this movie…

He’s brilliant. He’s brilliant. I knew I needed somebody who could make audiences, particularly audiences showing up for a quadrant kind of movie, to care intimately and as fast as possible about somebody who was grieving. Somebody who kind of hates people. Somebody who is hard to get into. I mean, I talk a lot about Up with the studio and that lead character. And this is an old man that really hates everybody. And yet you just love him and you root for him. Who can do that for us? Who can bring somebody in? And I had just seen Judas and the Black Messiah. Obviously, I’ve been a fan of LaKeith for a while. But he always is doing that. He is making you so empathically connected to people that are just bizarre and hard to love.

He does that in Knives Out, as well.

He does that in Knives Out. He does that in Get Out. He does that in Atlanta. And the other thing is, I just felt like it’d be really great to surprise people. If that sort of emotional punch doesn’t work, I don’t know how interesting the rest of the story is. And I don’t know. I felt like he had some of that Johnny Depp magic, too. Like from Pirates, when we suddenly saw this weird, eccentric character actor in a leading man role. And the just cognitive dissonance of that was really fun and exciting to me.

Were there antics on this set? Because you have a lot of personalities here.

There weren’t a lot of antics. I mean, the truth is, that we’re making this movie during COVID.

Oh, right…

And it wasn’t easy. “Fun” is not the word I would ever use to describe making a movie. It certainly has fun moments. But everyone came ready to work and knew the assignment and put it on the screen. And part of that is luck. You never know what you’re going to get when you’re dealing with an ensemble of really big movie stars. But these were all really warm people who just love the craft of acting and ensemble work and finding things together. And it was really lucky. They really took to the creative environment that I wanted to create for everybody.

How are you feeling with this coming out? Because it’s like, your other movies did really well. But there are going to be a lot more eyeballs on this.

I’m ready. I’m ready. I’m ready. I’ve been ready. But I look at other people in my class of Sundance, and there are differences in our careers. There are differences in the kind of movies that they got offered and the movies that I got offered. And I have been dying to play in a sandbox this big and with resources this deep, for a while. These are the kind of movies I grew up on. And all of my stories are personal. All of my films come from a really deep, personal place and a need to put a specific thing out there in the world. But, at the same time, I’m a nerd.

But I think you bring that to this one, too.

Yeah, I would include this one. Yeah, I’ve been dying to work at this level and for people to know that I can do that. You get typecast a lot in this business. And whether or not people saw me as an indie comedy director, or as a social satirist, or as a TV creator, or whatever … to me, I’m just a storyteller. And I will make a story that is appropriate for the venue that I’m given. And this was a huge, huge venue to showcase what I can do.

I haven’t heard about Lando in a while. You mentioned Lucasfilm earlier. I know nothing’s going on right now with the strikes, but is Lando still on the table?

I don’t know. To be honest with you, I haven’t heard anything, either. The last thing I heard was the last thing the world heard.

Well, that’s not a good sign.

So, I wish I could speak on it, but I literally don’t know anything. That was something that I put a lot of time and energy into until I couldn’t anymore. It was not possible to.

I’m curious if you feel like you spent a couple of years on something, or however long it was, and nothing came out of it and you could have been doing something else?

Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard. And what I’ve learned is that it’s par for the course. I mean, for everything you see from any filmmaker, and I can certainly say this for myself, there are so many things that were worked on that you didn’t see, that didn’t make it, that didn’t get announced. So it’s something you just got to acclimate to. I haven’t, yet, reached a level in my career where I have the privilege to say, “I just want to make this. Everything else has to stop.” I’ve got to put a lot of buns in the oven before one starts to bake. That’s the way my career’s always been. So, it is hard to invest a lot of time and creative energy into something that doesn’t go. But, at the same time, you’ve got to learn that, as an artist: you get better, the work gets better, and a lot of things are learned on a project that get pulled into another project. And there are projects that have been dead for a long time that suddenly come back to life. And there are projects that feel like a slam dunk, sure deal, that die suddenly. It’s a very volatile industry, that way.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Last year, Soccer Mommy ventured into a haunted, shoegazy direction with her album Sometimes, Forever. Around that time, she told The New York Times about her appreciation for Sheryl Crow. “She has so many songs that are these massive hits that, at least for someone my age, you can’t have grown up and not heard those songs,” she said. “She has a knack for saying something hard, but making it feel like she’s ready to acknowledge it and be cool with this hard acceptance.”

Now, she’s fittingly back with a Crow cover. She took on the country star’s hit “Soak Up The Sun” and made it her own with a lighthearted instrumentation and her soaring vocals. It’s brighter and closer to her earlier material.

In our 2022 interview with the indie artist, she discussed the music industry. “When it comes to artistry, there’s a strive for perfection and for success and all of these things, but all of that comes with playing the game,” she said. “You can’t just make this perfect album and pop it on the internet and have this amazing rollout. Like, it doesn’t happen if you’re not already hugely successful.”

Listen to her cover of “Soak Up The Sun” above.

The Jonas Brothers served as Uproxx cover stars in June, just after the successful May release of The Album. Joe, Kevin, and Nick expressed how excited they were to kickstart their headlining The Tour with back-to-back sold-out shows at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York on August 12 and 13.

“We all grew up watching Derek Jeter and the golden era of the Yankees teams that won a bunch of championships. He’s certainly an icon here in New York and New Jersey, so the invite is there if The Captain wants to come back to Yankee Stadium for the show,” Nick said.

Everybody, Jeter included, will have more opportunities to catch The Tour. On Thursday, July 27, the Jonas Brothers revealed 54 new dates, including 27 additional stops in North America.

While the Jonas Brothers were already excited about checking Yankee Stadium off the bucket list, the colossal stadium trek will also find them performing in the following places for the first time in their nearly 20-year career, per press release: Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Hamburg, Lyon, Munich, and Norway.

Tickets for the newly announced North American shows will be sold via Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan. Registration is open now until Monday, July 31, at 10 p.m. ET before the presale begins on Thursday, August 3. The general public sale will offer “a limited number of tickets” on Friday, August 4, at 10 a.m. local time.

Local presales for European dates are slated to begin on Wednesday, August 2, before a general public sale on Friday, August 4, at 10 a.m. local time. The Australian and New Zealand leg will go on sale via local presales beginning on Friday, August 4, leading up to a general public sale on Tuesday, August 8, at 1 p.m. local time. All information can be found here.

See all of The Tour dates below, with new shows listed in bold.

08/12/2023 — Bronx, NY @ Yankee Stadium
08/13/2023 — Bronx, NY @ Yankee Stadium
08/15/2023 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
08/16/2023 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
08/17/2023 — Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
08/19/2023 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
08/22/2023 — Indianapolis, IN @ Gainbridge Fieldhouse
08/24/2023 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
08/25/2023 — Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field
08/27/2023 — St Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center
08/30/2023 — Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field
09/01/2023 — Saint Paul, MN @ Minnesota State Fair
09/03/2023 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
09/06/2023 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
09/08/2023 — Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena
09/09/2023 — Los Angeles, CA @ Dodger Stadium
09/11/2023 — Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
09/14/2023 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
09/16/2023 — Omaha, NE @ CHI Health Center
09/18/2023 — Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
09/21/2023 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
09/22/2023 — Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
09/23/2023 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
09/25/2023 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
09/26/2023 — Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena
09/28/2023 — Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena
09/30/2023 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
10/01/2023 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
10/03/2023 — Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
10/05/2023 — San Antonio, TX @ AT&T Center
10/07/2023 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
10/09/2023 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
10/10/2023 — Columbia, SC @ Colonial Life Arena
10/12/2023 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
10/13/2023 — Orlando, FL @ Amway Center
10/14/2023 — Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center
10/16/2023 — Orlando, FL @ Amway Center
10/18/2023 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
10/20/2023 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
10/22/2023 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
10/23/2023 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
10/27/2023 — Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena
10/28/2023 — San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena
10/29/2023 — Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
11/02/2023 — Fresno, CA @ Save Mart Center
11/04/2023 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Maverik Center
11/05/2023 — Nampa, ID @ Ford Idaho Center Arena
11/07/2023 — Spokane, WA @ Spokane Arena
11/09/2023 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
11/10/2023 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
11/11/2023 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
11/14/2023 — Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place
11/16/2023 — Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre
11/17/2023 — Grand Forks, ND @ Alerus Center
11/19/2023 — St Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
11/20/2023 — Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
11/21/2023 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
11/27/2023 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
11/29/2023 — Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre
12/01/2023 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
12/02/2023 — Albany, NY @ MVP Arena
12/03/2023 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
12/06/2023 — Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
12/09/2023 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
02/27/2024 – Auckland, New Zealand @ Spark Arena
03/01/2024 — Sydney, Australia @ Qudos Bank Arena
03/02/2024 — Sydney, Australia @ Qudos Bank Arena
03/05/2024 — Brisbane, Australia @ Brisbane Entertainment Centre
03/08/2024 — Melbourne, Australia @ Rod Laver Arena
03/09/2024 — Melbourne, Australia @ Rod Laver Arena
05/18/2024 — Oslo, Norway @ Spektrum
05/20/2024 — Copenhagen, Denmark @ Royal Arena
05/21/2024 — Hamburg, Germany @ Barclays Arena
05/22/2024 — Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena
05/25/2024 — Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Sant Jordi
05/27/2024 — Lyon, France @ LDLC Arena
05/28/2024 — Milan, Italy @ Mediolanum Forum
05/30/2024 — Krakow, Poland @ TAURON Arena
06/01/2024 — Vienna, Austria @ Stadthalle
06/02/2024 — Prague, Czech Republic @ O2 Arena
06/03/2024 — Munich, Germany @ Olympiahalle
06/04/2024 — Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion
06/07/2024 — Paris, France @ Accor Arena
06/08/2024 — Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportpaleis
06/10/2024 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome
06/12/2024 — London, United Kingdom @ The O2
06/15/2024 — Birmingham, United Kingdom @ Utilita Arena
06/16/2024 — Glasgow, United Kingdom @ OVO Hydro
06/17/2024 — Manchester, United Kingdom @ Co-op Live Arena
06/19/2024 — Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena
06/20/2024 — Belfast, Northern Ireland @ SSE Arena