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George R.R. Martin once said that if he didn’t finish The Winds of Winter by next summer, “you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done.”

He wrote that in 2019, many summers ago.

Honestly, as much as I want to read the final two books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, it would be very funny if they never come out. A part of me thinks they’re finished, but Martin isn’t telling anyone because he wants to make Game of Thrones fans suffer. We’re used to it.

Martin is even practically teasing readers now, based on the title of his new blog.

“The Winds of…”

OH MY GOD COULD IT BE?

“…June.”

Oh.

“The Dark Winds will start blowing in June. June 12, to be precise. That’s the day that DARK WINDS, a new series based on the classic bestselling Navajo detective novels by Tony Hillerman, will premiere on AMC and AMC+,” Martin wrote on Not a Blog, along with a trailer for the show. To be fair, Dark Winds looks good, and I would watch Zahn McClarnon (Fargo, Reservation Dogs) in anything, but Martin knew exactly what he was doing with that title. To paraphrase Anchorman (a movie that came out between the third and fourth A Song of Ice and Fire novels), I’m not even mad, that’s amazing trolling.

Here’s the Dark Winds trailer:

(Via Not a Blog)

Dancing all the way through a new era, Florence And The Machine have revealed their latest video for “Free.” Taken from their upcoming album, Dance Fever, “Free” shares an account from Florence Welch about living with anxiety.

Right out of the gate, Welch opens “Free” by singing, “Sometimes I wonder if I should be medicated / If I would feel better just lightly sedated / The feeling comes so fast and I cannot control it / I’m on fire, but I’m trying not to show it.”

Continuing her series of visuals directed by Autumn De Wilde, the visual for “Free” sees Welch living with a personified form of her anxiety, played by Bill Nighy. Throughout the video, the two sit side-by-side as Nighy hands Welch a cup, Nighy symbolically signals her to get up and dance, in tandem with the lyrics “picks me up, puts me down” in the song’s chorus, and Welch dances on a table during brief moments while Nighy is directed toward other things. By the end of the video, Welch and Nighy embrace.

The video was filmed last year in Ukraine and the band has chosen to dedicate the song and its video to the people of Ukraine.

Check out “Free” above.

Dance Fever is out May 13 via Polydor. Pre-save it here.

At some point, most parents have to field questions, concerns, worries, anxieties, angst and sometimes downright despair from our kids over their relationships with other kids. Friendships can be messy. Bullying is a thing. When you pool together a couple dozen kids who are growing and changing and figuring out their emotions for most of the day, all manner of relational dynamics can occur.

Navigating the social landscape with our kids isn’t easy. Each child is unique, some are more sensitive or aware of what’s happening than others, and some need assistance with figuring out how to handle tough social situations. As parents, we don’t want to swoop in and solve their problems, but we also don’t want to leave them rudderless in a storm. We want to provide them with the tools and help them build the skills they’ll need to steer their own ship.

One tool that can help a kid who is struggling to connect with their peers is intentional kindness. However, a blanket admonition to “be kind” is often too vague to help a kid in the midst of a social crisis. That’s why one parent’s “kind can” idea has gone viral—it offers a specific way to practice kindness in a way that’s not overwhelming.

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A Facebook account by the name Marmaduke Arkansas shared the idea in a post, writing:

“‘Mom, I hate them.’

‘Them’ being her friends at school.

This is what my 7-year-old confided to me as I was putting her to bed the other night.

I could have made light of her hatred, like I’ve done when she tells me she hates broccoli. I could have gotten caught up in her anger: ‘Who are these kids upsetting my daughter!?’

Instead, I asked her what was going on that her heart hurt so much. Because under anger is usually hurt.”

“Sure enough, the tears came pouring out as she told me about how her best friend only wanted to play with another girl, and how when she went to find others to play with they told her to go away. This had been happening all week.

‘Why doesn’t anybody like me?’

I didn’t have an answer for that, but I did have a thought: It’s time for the Kind Can.

Suddenly I was 8 years old again, a grade 3 student who was having a rough start to the school year. I had a teacher I didn’t like, friendships had shifted, and I couldn’t seem to get along with anyone. I hated going to school.

My mom created a Kind Can.

She used a big coffee tin can.

In the can went the names of every single one of my classmates. Each morning before school I would pull a name out of the can. That day I had to go out of my way to do something kind for them.

Not to have them do something in return.

For no other reason than to do something kind.

It wasn’t easy at first, but my mom encouraged me to keep trying, and helped me think of all the different ways I could show kindness to others.

It started to get really fun!

And then things shifted.

No longer caught up in my own mind about what others were ‘doing to me’, I was now focused on what I was doing for others.

Though there were no expectations of kindness in return, more and more kindness is what I got. I loved going to school!

I told my daughter about the Kind Can and her eyes got that little spark – the one that tells me she’s about to get creative.

So yes, she has big plans for just how fancy this can will be – much better than an old tin can she proclaimed! That’s our project.

A Kind Can.

A way to create more kindness.

A way to keep our hearts open even when they want to close.”

People loved the kind can idea, with the post being shared more than 23,000 times. Some people pointed out the beauty of the wisdom in it being passed down through generations. Several parents wished that they had seen the idea when their own kids were going through some social struggles. Many commenters said that a lot of adults could use a kind can as well.

A kind can won’t solve every friendship woe a child has, but goodness knows the world could use more kindness. Helping kids practice that virtue with a tool that makes it specific and fun is definitely a win-win.

One of the most unique players in the NFL reportedly wants to seek greener pastures. In a conversation with Jeff Darlington of ESPN, Deebo Samuel, the San Francisco 49ers’ do-everything wide receiver, has gone to the organization and asked for a trade.

While Samuel did not express a reason for why he wants out, the 26-year-old has been in the midst of contract talks with the franchise. But according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Samuel pulled the plug on the conversations despite the fact that “the 49ers are ready” to agree to a new deal.

“San Francisco would pay Deebo Samuel today, tomorrow, the next day,” Schefter said on Tuesday’s edition of NFL Live, per Bleacher Report. “This, I think, is Deebo not wanting to get a deal done.”

This was confirmed by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, who said money isn’t why Samuel wants out.

It stands to reason that Samuel — who, according to a recent report by Clarence Hill Jr., wants to be the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback — would command quite the trade market, as he showed last season that he might be the most versatile offensive player in the league. He put up stellar statistics as a pass-catcher, hauling in 77 balls for 1,405 yards and six touchdowns with an NFL-best 18.2 yards per receptions, and filled in as the Niners’ backfield got hit hard by injuries, toting the rock 59 times for 365 yards and eight scores.

Chicago rapper Noname seems to be much more interested in activism than music these days. After opening the Radical Hood Library in Los Angeles last autumn, she insinuated that she was done with music, apologizing to fans for stringing them along regarding her long-awaited third studio album, Factory Baby. However, just a few weeks later, she posted a photo from her home studio, musing in the caption that “maybe 30 is too young to retire.”

If that was an encouraging sign for longtime fans hoping that Noname would rediscover her spark for music, then her latest post should have them feeling ecstatic — or at least cautiously optimistic. In a new post, Noname announced that she’d be performing again for the first time since before the pandemic before releasing the album. In the caption she gave her reasoning, which fluctuated between exasperated obligation and outright bravado. “First i’ll play a few shows because my mortgage doesn’t care about my politics,” she wrote. “Then i’ll drop an album because it seems like people forgot i’m that bitch.”

The first show in question will be at the upcoming Afropunk festival in Minneapolis on June 19, where she’ll join a lineup including Ari Lennox, Mereba, Sango, and Pink Siifu. Then, I guess we’ll see what happens.

Massachusetts’ favorite boys are back at it again! Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are teaming up for an Amazon Studios drama based on the life of former Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro. The Dunkin Donuts enthusiast Affleck will write, produce, direct, and star in the drama, with Damon co-starring and co-writing.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Damon will play Nike exec Vaccaro, while Affleck will portray co-founder Phil Knight in the story about Vaccaro’s quest to sign Michael Jordan to the sneaker company in the eighties. The deal would become one of the most lucrative deals ever between a company and an athlete.

The duo have been longtime basketball fans, with Affleck recently starring as a coach in The Way Back, which unfortunately was released in theaters in March 2020, so…it wasn’t exactly the center of attention. Meanwhile, Damon is seemingly always on a basketball court.

Most recently, Damon starred in Ridley Scott’s historical drama The Last Duel alongside Adam Driver and Jodie Comer, which famously suffered at the box office because of millennials and their damn phones, and definitely not because it was released during a pandemic, or because of its controversial themes.

As for Affleck, he’s been busy reliving his 2002 dreams of getting engaged to Jennifer Lopez. Oh, and he was also in The Last Duel, and recently starred in Deep Water alongside his ex Ana de Armas. He’s been busy!

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, HBO’s new series about, well, the rise of the Lakers dynasty during the 1980s, has been a hit with viewers. And in early April even got the greenlight for a second season. One person who is most definitely not celebrating the show’s success, however, is former player-turned-Lakers executive Jerry West—the literal face of the NBA.

On Tuesday night, ESPN reported that lawyers for West, who is portrayed by Jason Clarke in the Adam McKay-produced series, sent a letter to HBO and McKay in which they demanded both an apology and a retraction for the series’ depiction of West, which they described as a “a baseless and malicious assault” on his character.

West’s legal team writes that “Winning Time falsely and cruelly portrays Mr. West as an out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic”—a depiction that they claim “bears no resemblance to the real man.” And for which they are demanding a retraction within two weeks of receipt of the letter in question.

How exactly one would “retract” the portrayal of a character that has already been well established on the show is unclear. And while a statement ahead of the series makes it clear that the show is a “dramatization,” West’s lawyers say that isn’t enough. The claim that the show’s creators acted with “legal malice” in creating their portrayal of West.

“Jerry West was an integral part of the Lakers and NBA’s success,” said Skip Miller, an attorney for West. “It is a travesty that HBO has knowingly demeaned him for shock value and the pursuit of ratings. As an act of common decency, HBO and the producers owe Jerry a public apology and at the very least should retract their baseless and defamatory portrayal of him.”

Winning Time, the series, is based on Jeff Pearlman’s book, Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s. As part of their complaint, West’s lawyers note that many of the scenes that portray West in a violent or negative light do not appear in the book.

Several of the other real people portrayed in the series, including star player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, have backed up West.

“Instead of exploring his issues with compassion as a way to better understand the man, they turn him into a Wile E. Coyote cartoon to be laughed at,” the former Laker said in a statement. “He never broke golf clubs, he didn’t throw his trophy through the window. Sure, those actions make dramatic moments, but they reek of facile exploitation of the man rather than exploration of character.”

HBO has yet to comment on the letter.

(Via ESPN)

Intoxicated minds speak sober hearts on Becky G‘s new single, “No Mienten.” Her latest follows her Karol G collaboration, “Mamiii,” and precedes her new album, Esquemas, out next month.

On “No Mienten,” Becky G croons for her lover over seductive guitar strings and thumping bongo drums. On the song’s chorus, she sings, “Puedes mentir de nuevo / Pero yo tengo claro lo que sientes / Anoche se te escapó un ‘te quiero’ / Y dicen que los borrachos no mienten,” which translates to “You can lie again / But I am clear on how you feel / Last night, an ‘I love you’ escaped from you / And they say drunks don’t lie.”

Becky wrote the song with Spread Lof, who has also collaborated with Rauw Alejandro and Sebastian Yatra, and producer Juacko, known for his work with Anuel AA, Ptazeta, and Karen Méndez.

Now a staple in Latin music, Becky G got her start making English pop singles, including 2014’s “Shower,” which got a second life in the form of a viral TikTok hit. In a recent interview with Flaunt, she admitted she felt “Shower” lacked identity.

“When it comes to my Spanish music,” she said, “I am a young, empowered woman, who has a lot to say, who hates double standards, who wants to challenge the machismo that exists within the Latinx culture, and the world. Who wants to own her sexuality, and wants to challenge people on all these things.”

Check out “No Mienten” above.

Esquemas is out 5/13 via RCA. Pre-save it here.

On the list of things that most amuse Jimmy Kimmel, Donald Trump failing bigly is at or at least near the top of the list. Which explains why the late night host has been following the rollercoaster ride that is TRUTH Social, the former president’s very own social networking site, so closely. And why he was positively tickled to talk about TRUTH’s latest setback: spontaneously going offline for hours on end.

After discussing Trump’s continued attempts to overturn the 2020 election—despite it being 2022—Kimmel turned his attention to TRUTH Social, which he dubbed “Trump’s other hopeless endeavor” (though Trump’s own team swears they’re beating Twitter). Describing it as “to use one of [Trump’s] favorite phrases, a total disaster since its launch in February,” Kimmel went on to detail the website’s most recent hiccup:

“They had a massive outage yesterday; it was down all morning. All dozens of their users were affected by it. So the CEO of TRUTH Social is Devin Nunes, the former congressman. He attempted to put a spin on his incompetence. He posted this message once the site came back up: ‘As many of you know, our team has been working nonstop to ensure that TRUTH cannot be shut down by tech tyrants.’ Which means he probably forgot to pay the electric bill.

Why would tyrants try to shut down a service that barely works? In order to shut something down, it has to be UP.”

You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 6:25 mark.

It seems like only yesterday a millennial was a college kid that baby boomers chided for being entitled and Gen Xers thought were way too sincere and needed to learn how to take a joke. Today, the oldest millennials, those born around 1980, have hit their 40s and have lived long enough to have some serious regrets.

They also have enough experience to take some pride in decisions that, in hindsight, were the right moves.

The good news is that at 40 there is still plenty of time to learn from our successes and failures to set ourselves up for a great second half of life. These lessons are also valuable to the Gen Zers coming up who can avoid the pitfalls of the older generation.

A Reddit user who has since deleted their profile asked millennials nearing 40 “what were your biggest mistakes at this point in life?” and they received more than 2,200 responses. The biggest regrets these millennials have are being flippant about their health and not saving enough money when they were younger.

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They also realized that the carefree days of youth are fleeting and impossible to get back. So they should have spent less time working and more time enjoying themselves. Many also lamented that they should have taken their education more seriously in their 20s so they have more opportunities now.

The responses to this thread are bittersweet. It’s tough hearing people come to grips with their regrets but the realizations are also opportunities to grow. Hopefully, some younger people will read this thread and take the advice to heart.

Here are 21 of the most powerful responses to the question: “Millennials of Reddit now nearing your 40s, what were your biggest mistakes at this point in life?”

1.

“Not taking care of my hearing, not even 35 and going deaf.” — Kusanagi8811

2.

“Not getting healthy earlier.” — zombiearchivist

3.

“Staying too long at a job in my 20s, just because it was safe and easy. When I finally got the motivation to leave, ended up with an almost 50% pay boost.” — Hrekires

4. 

“Thinking that I could and should put myself on the back burner for anything and anyone else.” — lenalilly227

5.

“Smoking and not dealing with my shit the right way.” — Allenrw3

6.

“Pining after the wrong person.” — runikepisteme

7.

“I turned 40 this year and just started liking who I am. Why the fuck did it take 40 years for self acceptance?” — guscallee

8.

“Take care of your fucking back. Lift with your knees. Sure it’s rad when you grab a fridge by yourself and lift it in the back of a moving truck unaided, but one day that shit is going to have consequences that won’t just magically go away by resting and “taking it easy” for a week.” — GuyTallman

9.

“I wish I spent more time with my dad while I had the chance.” — CharlieChooper

10.

“I’m 37. I absolutely could have taken better care of my body, but I’m in relatively good health. I’m starting to realize how important it is to maintain my health. I do also think I drank far too much in my 20 and early 30’s. I’m trying to rectify that now, but it’s hard. So that I guess.” — dartastic

11.

“I’m not sure if people have experienced the same but when I entered my 30s I became convinced I was rapidly running out of time. Rather than using that as motivation I let it paralyze me with indecision because I “couldn’t afford to make the wrong choice.” Consequently, I’m now 39 and, though I’ve had great things happen in my 30s, I regret spending so much time worrying and so little time committing to a course of action.” — tomwaste

12.

“Work to live, don’t live to work. You have half your working life after you turn 40 but only 20-25 years to really live it up before the responsibilities become heavy and your joints start to ache. Live life. Really LIVE it. Experience as much you can. Every sensation, sight, sound, touch. Be open. Be brave. Live your first few decades in the fast lane. You have the rest of your life to take it easy, when you have no choice.” — MrDundee666

13.

“I should have paid more attention to my parents telling me to save money and less attention when they were teaching me about purity culture.” — Arkie_MTB

14.

“If I could tell my 18 year old self one thing, it would be to save 10% of every paycheck I ever got.” — PutAForkInHim

15.

“Thinking that I have time to do everything I want only to find myself loosing time, and the endless energy I used to have in order to purse them.” — ezZiioFTW

16.

“Not wearing sunscreen.” — blueboxreddress

17.

“Not recognizing the importance of work/life balance earlier in life. My late teens, all 20’s, and early 30’s were spent pulling 60-100+hr weeks because I thought it was what was required to succeed. How wrong I was. Others stabbed me in the back and reaped the reward.

1.) Putting work first for too long. Work is my #1 priority during work hours now. After quitting time, I don’t think about it (much) anymore. I don’t vent to my wife or friends about it anymore either.

2.) Investing more into fast cars than solid long-term investments. Sure, it was fun, but I could have made bookoos more had I put that towards less-fun investments.

3.) Not using PTO and just waiting for the payout. All those years, missed. I’m in my mid 30’s and I didn’t actually have a real vacation until 3 years ago.

4.) Not realizing that “the good guy” often loses. Just because you’re morally justified doesn’t mean you’re going to win. Just because there’s a number to call doesn’t mean anyone will actually help you. Just because “law” exists, doesn’t mean people follow it, enforce it, or create justice. The world is dog eat dog and cynicism can be healthy in moderate doses.” — [Deleted]

18.

“When you get out of college, keep your friends. No matter how hard it is. Hold on to them.” — mpssss22

19.

“I imagine these are kinda universal:

• Not getting fit and healthy
• Assuming I’d be offered proper guidance on how to achieve my goals
• Assuming higher education would help me achieve my goals
• Spending far too long caring what people think
• Not taking risks that might better my life when I was younger and had nothing to lose
• Staying in relationships too long after they were clearly done.” — katapultperson

20.

“Always ask for more pay. Starting, yearly, before leaving, whatever. Get that money.” — SensibleReply

21.

“Spending too much time in front of a screen and not enough enjoying life.” — BellaPadella