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Kendrick Lamar, one of hip-hop’s most fascinating and enigmatic figures, opened up to W Magazine in a recent interview, sharing how the album challenged him as he trekked through life’s lessons and fatherhood on his latest album, 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.

“It’s stuff that I’ve written that’s just now seeing daylight because I wasn’t secure with myself in order to do it… It was really about not being insecure [or] tormented by opinions,” the rapper told W. “When I did this, it was kind of the marker and the growth of everything I’ve always wanted to say. I think that was my purpose of writing my way out of things that I was feeling, from when I was nine years old, all the way up to 35.”

It’s been five years since Lamar’s last project, 2017’s Damn, which spawned hits like “DNA,” “Loyalty,” and his Billboard No. 1 single “Humble.” Since then, the artist has been busy, winning seven Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize and having two children.

Throughout the interview, the Compton rapper noted how crucial it was for his development as an artist to not have anyone influencing him, even his family.

“The reason why I had to make that decision, whether they was for or against it, I just didn’t want the influence. I could have cut corners and got flashy with it and worded my words a certain way — nah, I had to be in the rawest, truest form I could possibly be in order for it to be freeing for me, in order for me to have a different outlook and the perspective on people I’m talking to,” Lamar said. “I had to reap whatever consequences came behind that, and also be compassionate and show empathy if they were hurt by it.”

The Big Bang Theory was one of the biggest sitcoms on cable at one point, inspiring both a spinoff series and various catchphrase t-shirts that felt integral to the years 2007-2013. The group of science nerds was accompanied by the quirky Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco, and the show ran for 12 seasons, which is basically unheard of for a sitcom that isn’t animated.

The series is the inspiration behind the new book The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series, which was first detailed byVanity Fair and chronicles the show’s varied history, including one terrifying incident that almost caused production to stop together.

During the show’s third season in 2010, Cuoco, an avid horse competitor, was riding on her horse when she fell off, spooking the horse which then landed on her leg. She was quickly rushed to the hospital, where the doctors were not optimistic. “That was the darkest, most frightening time in all twelve years [of the show],” showrunner Chuck Lorre said in an excerpt from the book. “Kaley could have lost her leg. It was a series of miracles that allowed us to get through that and for her to come out the other end of that healthy.”

Originally, doctors didn’t think Kaley would be able to walk for months, and there was a chance she would lose her leg. According to Cuoco, via Vanity Fair and People:

Before I went into surgery, they made me sign something that said, ‘We don’t know until we get in there and see this leg, and it could come out that you don’t have it anymore.’ That wasn’t the case, obviously, but I had to sign something that said, ‘OK, you can.’ Everything ended up fine, and I was up and working a week later, but the doctors acted like I was never going to walk again. It’s still too much for me to go into, and it sounded way worse than it was. And of course, it was spiraling and everyone was freaking out, which I get. It scared people.

Cuoco was back on her feet after only two weeks. She was subsequently written out of two episodes, though Lorre believes that there was a chance that the show would never go on if Cuoco wasn’t on board.

“It was an absolutely miraculous intervention that I ran into Dr. Steve,” Lorre said, referring to the surgeon who helped repair Cuoco’s leg. “Every time I see him, I say, ‘Thank you! You saved Kaley! On a lesser level, you saved The Big Bang Theory!’” And on an even lesser note, he indirectly helped Cuoco get involved withThe Flight Attendant and for that we are grateful!

(Via People and Vanity Fair)

The Las Vegas Raiders fell to 1-4 on Monday night in an incredibly frustrating loss to the Chiefs in Kansas City. After going up 17-0, the Raiders saw the Chiefs come back take a 30-23 lead in the fourth quarter.

Vegas would get a touchdown to give them a chance to tie or go ahead on a second bomb from Derek Carr to Davante Adams on the night, but a two-point conversion attempt failed to leave them down one. After getting a rare second half stop, the Raiders got near midfield but had another attempted deep ball on a 4th-and-1 to Adams fall incomplete after teammate Hunter Renfrow ran over Adams on his route, letting the Chiefs kneel out a one-point win.

Afterwards, Adams was very frustrated, slamming his helmet on the sideline and then shoving a photographer to the ground who walked in front of him as he exited the field to the tunnel. While Adams apologized after the game, the photographer went to the hospital to get checked out and filed a police report, leading to this statement from Kansas City police which are investigating the incident for possible assault.

A fine from the league felt almost assured for Adams, but he may face a legitimate legal situation from the incident. Hopefully the photographer is alright, but it appears that this situation is not fully resolved and the Raiders receiver might face some charges and/or a civil suit for the incident.

After years of aligning herself with the likes of Tucker Carlson, and more recently being touted as a potential running mate for Donald Trump, former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has announced she’s leaving the Democratic Party. Gabbard, who has been a vocal supporter of Vladimir Putin, blasted her former party over a predictable list of grievances including “wokeness” and “anti-white racism.” In short, the type of things you’d expect a Republican to say.

Via ABC News:

“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war,” Gabbard said on Twitter.

Despite being a member, Gabbard has been a vocal critic of the Democratic Party over the years, so her resignation is not exactly a surprise. She’s repeatedly aligned herself with Republicans on anti-trans initiatives, anti-abortion bills, and again, pushing Russian propaganda.

As news of Gabbard’s resignation spread across social media, the reactions were overwhelmingly divided into two camps: “What took you so long?” and “Good riddance.” In fact, at the time of this writing, “She’s a Russian” was trending on Twitter.

You can see reactions to Gabbard leaving the Democratic Party below:

(Via ABC News)

David Gordon Green has now completed his Halloween trilogy. When you take a step back from it, it is unusual for a renowned director to all of a sudden decide to make three horror movies. It would be like if, say, Jeff Nichols (also Green’s film’s school pal) announced one day he’s going to make three Leatherface movies. Actually, this sounds like a pretty good idea. Maybe someone can talk him into doing this.

Halloween Ends (which comes out this Friday in theaters and on Peacock), the final film of Green’s trilogy – the “Ends” in the title is right there in case there’s any doubt) – is a strange movie, which Green admits. And Green doesn’t deny this is a response to the criticisms of Halloween Kills just being Michael Myers going around killing people the whole movie. (For people unaware, this is what Michael Myers does.) Well, now we get a movie in which Michael doesn’t even show up until almost halfway through the movie and he’s got himself a new pal.

Halloween Ends, which is set in 2022, as opposed to the last two movies that both took place in 2018, starts with a flashback to 2019 in which a terrible accident happens while Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) is babysitting. To the point he, over the following years, is shunned by the town and often beat up by local teens. Though, eventually, he starts dating Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak). The two connect over the fact the town both looks at them as these odd people. And things are going okay until Corey has a run-in with Michael Myers and, after this encounter, things get pretty weird.

Ahead, David Gorgon Green takes us through how and why he wanted to end his Halloween trilogy the way he did, even though he already knows there’s no way he can make everyone happy because they can’t just remake the original 1978 movie again. Also, he explains why he had to get permission from Jean-Claude Van Damme to release the version of the movie you will see this coming weekend.

You did it. You have now made three Halloween movies.

I made three Halloween movies. For me, as a filmmaker, it’s really nice to have the security of a fan base. There’s a lot of people that say, “is that daunting?,” or, “is that intimidating to have these passionate fans?” But, for me, it gives me a playground to be able to know that there are people out there that are going to tune in and have their own passions – love it or hate it – but they’re going to engage in what I’m creating.

That’s interesting you say security, because on social media there were a lot of opinions about Halloween Kills and I felt in the minority defending it. Is that security?

Well, first of all, it sounds reassuring that I’m not on social media. But I think that maybe it would be the opposite, and I’m that security for myself. But I’ve made a lot of moves that did not connect with audiences, and there’s a certain pride to having a vision and going in deep and creating something…

I guess my point is that this is a very opinionated fan base, let’s put it that way.

And I love the conversation. People like you and I know that engaging with our friends, or someone that we don’t even know that has an opinion about something, we want to give ours, we want to hear theirs. We want to challenge that. We want to agree with that. We want to tell them something they don’t know. We want to learn from something they do know. I think that as a filmgoer, a film fanatic that I’ve been since I was six years old, that’s something that’s really important.

And this is the first time as a filmmaker I’ve gotten to have that type of stimulus from the creative standpoint of knowing that there’s going to be people, regardless of what I do, if I just film a Michael Myers mask for an hour and a half, people are going to show up and look at that art project and they’re going to think and they’re going to discuss. And then the fact that I can have an idea, or put a twist, or add a character or bring a character back, these just trigger things within people. And I can’t tell you how strange and interesting it is, even when it’s not “loving.” But to be able to have that interaction is a whole other type of creation.

Well, you mentioned filming a Michael Myers mask for an hour and people will show up. Are you nervous about this one a little bit because Michael Myers doesn’t really show up for almost an hour in this one? He certainly looms over it. But he doesn’t really show up for almost an hour and I remember thinking this is pretty bold…

But it has for me, in my opinion, I watched it yesterday for the first time in a theater. So, for me, it has the greatest Michael Myers moment that I’ve ever turned the camera on when he does activate. This movie has sometimes the blurry line between when I’m smiling along with it, when I’m scared of it, and when I’m laughing. There are moments of even camp and some strange, dramatically executed things that I think are tremendously funny.

Well, you said you’re not on social media and don’t see what people say, but a complaint about Halloween Kills was, “it’s just Michael Myers going around killing people.” And my defense is, “Yeah, that’s what he does.” But it seems like this movie is your reaction to that. “Okay, that’s not what you want? Now you’re going to get a really weird movie where he doesn’t even really show up until halfway through.”

Exactly.

And Michael has a buddy in this one. A protege almost. This is a weird movie and you know that.

Yeah. But the other reason I love the franchise is because it’s like, here’s this beautiful piece of property and you get to build your dream house on it. So there’s a lot of people, I do engage with fans a lot, and I even have been to conventions and things like that. And it really is fun to have those conversations. And a lot of the criticism that I’ll hear is just describing how they wish it was the original film. So it’s never going to be the original film again and nobody would want it remade anyway. But there’s an inherent emotional attraction to things that we were introduced, I say we, as film geeks, introduced to between, I’ll say, the age of 11 and 17, right?

True…

Because you’ll hear someone say my favorite Halloween movie is Halloween 5. And then you’ll think, that’s interesting that that’s your favorite. How old were you when you saw it? “Well, I was 12 years old.” That’s because it had that taboo, that allure, that magnetism of genre that you were less critical then, right? And so now you just want people, things, movies to emulate Halloween 5.

To your point, when I was eight the first Halloween I saw was Season of the Witch, of all things. And I love it still, but it’s probably because I was that age, what you just said.

I agree wholeheartedly. And we stole our font from Halloween III: Season of The Witch.

And in Halloween Kills, I think that’s another reason that movie won me over so much is you did so many Season of the Witch references in it.

Yeah, it had a good bit of that. And these movies are also a test in indulgence, too. So when do you get indulgent in your fan service when you’re a fan? When do you get indulgent in a gross-out gag, a gratuitous kill because it looks awesome on set, even though you know it might not be in alignment with the original DNA of the Carpenter film? But would he have gone there if he could have afforded it in 1978? Or what are the boundaries that we create based on that, versus when do we want to break the rules that either John and Deborah established in ’78? Or we established in 2018? I’m of the opinion that you follow your gut and you surround yourself with a trustee group of colleagues that are going to creatively challenge you. And I’ve worked with the same people in all these movies, and then take chances and invite the audience to take a chance along with you.

Speaking of John Carpenter. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice at the beginning they are watching The Thing, directed by John Carpenter.

And remember in the original film when they’re watching the original The Thing?

Yes. The part I laughed out loud at, someone in this movie during an important scene is watching Hard Target. I love that movie.

Well, I was talking to the actor, Rick Moose, that plays the character of Ronald in the movie. It’s just amazing, he’s an ex-cop from Florida and I was asking him what his favorite movie was and that was one of his favorites.

So he got to decide? And he decided he’d be watching Hard Target?

And then it was a thing because we had to get JCVD to sign off on it. So somehow they tracked him down and he agreed to let use the film.

So it’s not John Woo has to agree? It’s Jean-Claude Van Damme who has to agree?

If your likeness appears on-screen. And we couldn’t use certain clips because they couldn’t find some of the stuntmen that were in that action sequence. So we had to edit around some of the people that we couldn’t find because they were stunt players in the movie. But I don’t know, I remember vividly seeing that as John Woo’s introduction, in some ways, to American audiences.

I believe the studio even put Sam Raimi on set with him because they didn’t know if he could do an American movie or not at the time. Raimi was like, “Yes, he can.”

Too good.

So do you actually call Jean-Claude Van Damme? Who calls Jean-Claude Van Damme?

The clearance department.

I see.

Not that exciting, but it was a relief when we got it. Because I don’t like to do burn-ins on set if I can avoid it. I like to play it back so the actors can engage with what they’re watching. Particularly in this case, because it is a very subtly expressive actor. And so it came down to two days before we finally got it cleared and could use the clip live.

Having now watched your three Halloween movies, I have finally come to the conclusion … Michael Myers should be charged with murder.

It’s a really good idea. To the first degree!

Maybe if they did that at the beginning, we could have saved everyone some grief.

Yeah, the gavel would go down and the judge decides.

Throw the book at him.

Throw the book at Mike. He’s a naughty boy for real.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

When Tom Cruise said he wanted to go to space, he meant it! But Russia squashed his dream of being the first person to film a movie in space when they filmed a movie at the International Space Station last year, so he had to settle for going really high in an airplane instead. Which was still cool! But not space cool, you know?

But Cruise is not ready to go down without a fight. After breaking box office records all summer, the Top Gun actor seems like he is once again beginning his campaign to make space history, no matter how much it costs. There is nothing like riding high on the success of your long-awaited aviation movie to get you prepped for outer space! According to the Head of Universals Picture Donna Langley, Cruise will become the “first civilian to do a spacewalk outside of the space station.” Yes, it’s a very specific record to get to, but he needs this, okay? Or else he just won’t stop.

“Tom Cruise is taking us to space. He’s taking the world to space. That’s the plan,” Langley told BBC News. “We have a great project in development with Tom, that does contemplate him doing just that. Taking a rocket up to the space station and shooting and hopefully being the first civilian to do a spacewalk outside of the space station.” Hopefully is the operative word here, assuming that nobody beats him to it. Considering how hard he’s been working lately, it would not be surprising if he was somehow up there right now.

The currently untitled movie will follow Cruise as a normal guy with a little bit of bad luck who somehow becomes the only person who can save Earth. Honestly, if there was one person to be a space representative from Hollywood, Cruise is a pretty solid choice. He’s down to do just about anything for the thrill of the fans! For better or worse.

(Via Variety)

Weyes Blood (real name: Natalie Mering) firmly entered the chat with Titanic Rising, one of the best albums of 2019. She described it as “the first album of three in a special trilogy” when announcing And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow this August. The new album is due November 18, and Weyes Blood gave fans a taste of what’s to come with “Grapevine” on Tuesday (October 11).

The acoustic-based, wistful track proves the perfect platter for Weyes Blood’s poignant indie-pop presence. “Six hours on the grapevine,” she sings in the first verse about a narcissistic man who has made her feel small. “And I feel kidnapped this time / ‘Cause my baby thinks / He always believes / That he’s always right / But I think still of him at night.”

Weyes Blood unveiled the song on Instagram, writing, “Sun’s down, guys, and my new single is out. It’s called Grapevine. Play it in your car driving late at night. I’ll be playing it tomorrow.”

She shed more light on the song’s meaning in a statement, per Pitchfork: “‘Grapevine’ is a road song set along the titular stretch of Southern California’s Interstate 5. Technology is harvesting our attention away from each other. We all have a ‘Grapevine’ entwined around our past with unresolved wounds and pain. Being in love doesn’t necessarily mean being together. Why else do so many love songs yearn for a connection?”

“Grapevine” is the second single from And In The Darkness behind September’s spirited single “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody” that examined loneliness in the modern age. Weyes Blood will soon take it all on the road for her headlining In Holy Flux Tour. See the dates below.

And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow is out 11/18 via Sub Pop Records. Pre-order it here.

If you’re going to read only one article about Elon Musk desperately trying to befriend grumpy New York Mets fan Nathan Fielder, make it, “Elon Musk Has the World’s Strangest Social Calendar.” (Actually, make it two: “Elon Musk Has the World’s Strangest Social Calendar” and this blog post you’re currently reading. Thank you.)

Writing for the New York Times, reporter Joseph Bernstein details how the Tesla CEO “seems to be living the teenage years he never had — parties, drugs, popular friends, beautiful girlfriends, jokes cracked to an adoring audience — without quite escaping his own innate insecurity.” Musk’s cool kid club ambitions have occasionally come true, like how he appeared on both Rick and Morty and The Simpsons, but not always.

Mr. Musk has, in particular, pursued a friendship with one comedian whose public image revolves around the outrageous steps he takes to relate to other people: Nathan Fielder, who first became famous for his Comedy Central show Nathan For You… Mr. Musk — a huge fan — invited Mr. Fielder to lunch at SpaceX in 2016. For years afterward, the famous businessman invited the famous fake businessman to his parties and would strain to make the deadpan Canadian laugh.

Musk and Fielder have communicated on Twitter, although it appears not since 2016.

When Musk tweeted back, “Don’t you already have a spaceship?” with a reference to Nathan for You, Fielder replied, “we haven’t figured out re-entry yet. Or anything besides sex sounds. @elonmusk to be honest though I don’t really care about re-entry.”

One awkward dinner party chat with Musk, and he’s ready to leave Earth permanently.

(Via the New York Times)

(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)

King Viserys Targaryen I deteriorated before our very eyes for two months of Sunday nights on HBO. This translated into many years of anguish for a monarch who suffered from mysterious ailments before finally succumbing while delirious on milk of poppy. In the process, he ended up sowing confusion on behalf of his wife, Queen Alicent (Hightower), which will undoubtedly put the real Targaryen civil war into action. Despite the unintentional damage he wrought, Viserys truly went through hell on earth. He was literally rotting away, randomly bleeding, exposing himself to maggots, and losing fingers. By the time he passed away, Viserys lost an eye and had a mouth full of rotting teeth. Over the season, there have been several theories on what ailed Viserys, who was an exception to the general belief that Targaryens remain resistant to disease.

Paddy Considine, The Outsider and Dead Man’s Shoes actor who brought this sad monarch to life (and death), has offered some insight into what went down with Viserys’ bod. He leaps right past the theories of the Iron Throne rejecting Viserys by injuring him or Otto Hightower dropping poison into tea. In short, the sadness may have killed him, and Paddy also sees the Iron Throne as a “cursed” mechanism.

While speaking with the New York Times, Paddy got real about his own shock at “how it’s so cancerous, this thing, that it eats into his face.” Not that Paddy is calling the illness cancer; rather, the weight of the crown and — even more than that — his guilt over what he greenlit during Queen Aemma’s childbirth/death essentially was “eating him alive.” Here’s more from the NYT:

“I watched my dad die of cancer, and it was a very rapid demise. So it certainly made sense to me, and I think it was pretty shocking and effective. It becomes a physical manifestation of all the infighting and skulduggery, really. The mystery is why so many people crave the Iron Throne. It’s not something Viserys craved; he just had a sense of duty. He knows the weight of being king, the weight of the responsibility, and the toll it can take.

“From the minute of his wife’s funeral, I think Viserys starts to die. It’s a slow death. Nowhere in the story does Viserys ask the maesters to cure him, to stop this thing from eating him alive. I think he accepts it as part of the guilt of the decision he makes to put his wife through a terrible, horrible procedure. It’s like people who surrender to illness. When they offer suggestions to cure him, he doesn’t bother with it. He lets it consume him. He surrenders. That was my thing for him, anyway.”

This makes perfect sense considering that Viserys’ final moments included him exclaiming, “My love!” He wasn’t talking to Alicent, that’s for sure. Heck, he didn’t even realize that he was actually speaking to Alicent (he believed that she was Rhaenyra) in the minutes leading up to that last utterance.

R.I.P. Viserys. It’s probably for the best that he didn’t live to see future Westeros.

HBO’s House of the Dragon airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

After shaking up the K-pop industry and having MOOMOO (MAMAMOO fans) on their toes with ongoing discussions on contract renewals last year, K-pop’s power vocal group returns with all members present — even when one member (Wheein) is no longer under the label.

Earlier today, MAMAMOO — consisting of members Solar, Moonbyul, Hwasa, and Wheein — released their twelfth EP, MIC ON, including the title track “Illella.” Compared to their past releases in the last eight years, “Illella” becomes a post-summer anthem as the quartet gives an alluring flair on a reggae beat that transitions into a dancehall and moombahton dance break. In the midst of body rolls, seductive smirks, and lyrics that insinuate a very intimate night ahead — “Dark night / But restlessness entails / Go all out, don’t stop / Come a bit closer / We’re savages, there’s no stopping us / Roaring like beasts full of rage” — MAMAMOO’s comeback stays consistent with mature concepts that would deem them more of a women group than a girl group.

According to Yonhap News Agency, “Illella” is a Korean phrase meaning “You might make it big,” or in the context of MAMAMOO, “Something’s about to break.”

In addition to the EP and single release, its been reported the leading third-generation group will hold concerts in South Korea and abroad until early next year, with dates and locations soon to be confirmed.

Check out the full tracklist to MIC ON below.

1. “1,2,3 Eoi!”
2. “Illella”
3. “L.I.E.C.”