One of the many (we do mean many) Game Of Thrones spin-offs that nobody really asked for has finally wrapped filming, according to author George R. R. Martin, who confirmed on his blog, titled “Not A Blog.” Martin has seen “rough cuts” of House Of The Dragon,which is aiming to be released later this year on HBO.
“I have seen rough cuts of a few of them, and I’m loving them. Of course, a lot more work needs to be done,” the author added. “Special effects, color timing, score, all the post-production work.” So, it looks like 90% of the show still needs to be done.
“But the writing, the directing, the acting all look terrific,” Martin continued, “I hope you will like them as much as I do. My hat is off to Ryan and Miguel and their team, and to our amazing cast.” The cast features Doctor Who alum Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans. and Olivia Cooke.
While there is no confirmed premiere date, Martin insists he is “excited” and will let the fans know as soon as he knows. “When will the dragons dance? I wish I could tell you. Lots of work remains to be done, as I said, and COVID makes planning difficult. This spring? Unlikely. Maybe summer? Could be. Fall? Who knows?” Basically, in true Game of Thrones fashion nobody knows what’s going on.
Jordan Klepper has rarely witnessed a right-wing protest he didn’t want to infiltrate. So for his latest episode of “Fingers the Pulse,” The Daily Show correspondent headed to Ottawa to get to the bottom of the Great Canadian Trucker Convoy of 2022—yep, the same protestors that Russell Brand is for some reason praising. Among the questions Klepper wanted answered: How long do you plan to stay here? (Two years was one man’s answer.) Are you smoking a lot of weed to pass the time? (Yes, the same man said.) And have you seen the end table Klepper ordered from Wayfair several weeks ago and has yet to receive (no luck there)?
As Klepper attempted to make his way around the streets of what he called “Canada’s eighth-best city,” he couldn’t help but wonder: How had it come to this? What began as a protest against vaccine requirements for truckers entering Canada has morphed into an all-out war against vaccine mandates in general and the kind of thing Tomi Lahren and Ted Cruz are on board with (which is never a good thing). Yet the results of this ‘Freedom Convoy’ have meant a further disruption to the already challenging supply chain in America, plus higher prices for American consumers. None of which really hits Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau where it hurts, which seems to be their primary goal… if they even have one.
When one protestor told Klepper that the demonstrations were “about our freedoms,” he asked if she could “be any more generic?” It turns out, she could: “You know, if you are vaccinated, you get to do certain things. If you’re not vaccinated, you don’t. I don’t think people should be divided. We should all be together, united.”
Klepper, ever the professional, wanted to make sure he had the protestors’ side of the story right, so he clarified: “We’re setting up, essentially, a truck barrier to keep everybody together so they can be united,” and was told “yes,” exactly that. “Gotcha,” he replied. “We might as well lock them in. Sort of like a parent who locks the door and says, ‘You guys are in here until the water runs out, you become friends, or democracy crumbles.’” Again, he was met with two nodding heads of agreement.
Klepper learned a lot more during his north of the border adventure, including that Canadians love to appropriate American culture by comparing vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany, pushing QAnon conspiracy theories, and stealing the line that Donald Trump stole from Adolf Hitler by declaring that we should “Make North America Great Again.” He also learned about Agenda 2030, which one protestor described as the world being headed toward “one government” that will “sterilize us [so] that only certain people can have kids.” (Though he also guessed that he might be sterile already.)
Saget was featured in the video alongside Snoop Dogg, Jay Pharoah, pornstar Kendra Sunderland, and the track’s artists Desiigner, DJ Whoo Kid, and Slushii. “Please believe me when I tell you this: Get Bob on the job,” Snoop Dogg says to Desiigner as the hilarious and raunchy video begins. Shot in the Hollywood Hills a few weeks before his death, Rolling Stone reports that Whoo Kid corralled Saget, whom he already knew, after Willie Nelson wasn’t available.
A minute of outtakes plays after the video clip (above) in remembrance of the late comedian and in them, he’s funny as hell. “I’m just here to have bacon,” he says, before noting that “Bakin”/bacon is “a supreme pun. It’s like the best Dad joke ever.”
“You don’t expect him to be sitting around here with all these bad models, and booties-a-clapping and racks being thrown and Desiigner being there doing his thing,” Pharaoh told Rolling Stone. “But it works because that’s what Bob’s whole spirit was. It was different. It was, ‘Put me in an odd place that you wouldn’t expect for me to be and watch me shine.’”
There was nary a room that Saget walked into that he didn’t light up. And he somehow manages to steal the show in a video featuring rappers, pornstars, money, and bacon. “Full House, Nick At Nite, Bob Saget used to rock me to sleep at night, man,” Desiigner added.
Every so often, a plucky indie will get nominated for Best Picture. Think: Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Lady Bird. This year’s contender is CODA, a charming coming-of-age film about a teenager (played by Emilia Jones) who is the sole hearing member of a deaf family (including Best Supporting Actor contender Troy Kotsur). Apple acquired the distribution rights to CODA (which stands for Children of Deaf Adults) for $25 million, and it was released in select theaters and on Apple TV+ last August.
Following the Oscar nominations, CODA is being re-released “for free in theaters from Friday, February 25 through Sunday, February 27,” Deadline reports. “All free screenings to feature open captions to be fully accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing.”
You can find out where the closest first-come, first-serve screening is to you here.
“I just wanted to make a film,” CODA writer and director Sian Heder told Uproxx‘s Mike Ryan after she was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. “I think I never want to make a film that’s messaging something to people. You just want to tell a great story about characters that people fall in love with and I think the subversive part of this film is that the reason it feels like a step forward in terms of representation is because these characters are relatable and funny.”
With the Peacemaker finale now available for streaming, fans of the John Cena series no doubt have lingering questions as the show wrapped up its Season 1 story with a bang and one heck of a surprise cameo. Fortunately, creator James Gunn has already started to explain some of the choices made in the finale, and for the other big moments, well, we’ll do our best to tackle what they might mean.
Why did Peacemaker turn down Goff’s offer?
While controlling the body of Officer Song (Annie Chang), Goff reveals the Butterflies’ plan in the hopes that Peacemaker — real name: Christopher Smith — will join them in their cause. Like him, the Butterflies want peace. Their goal is not invasion but instead, to steer humanity away from destroying the planet. However, that plan will involve killing some people and taking over the world’s government, but ultimately, it will be in humanity’s best interest.
Despite claiming to love peace so much that he’ll kill every man, woman, and child to get it, Peacemaker turns down the offer and destroys the Cow, the Butterflies’ sole source of food. At the end of the episode, he tells Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) that he couldn’t take Goff’s offer because he knew it would result in his friends being hurt. As Gunn explains in a new interview, this represents a significant change in Peacemaker’s development after previously murdering Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) in The Suicide Squad to complete his mission. Via Vulture:
She makes a lot of sense. But what’s more important for our story is that Chris has disconnected himself from other human beings by making every person an object to fulfill his goal. He did it in The Suicide Squad, and all through this story he had to fight the urge to do exactly the same thing. In that moment in the end, he takes a different path.
However, it’s clearly a difficult choice as Gunn himself admits he’s “not even sure if Chris is doing the right thing.”
Why did Peacemaker let Goff live and stay at his house?
This questions a trickier one because there isn’t a clear answer from Gunn yet. Although, going by what he’s said about Goff’s offer, it’s easy to see why Peacemaker would be reluctant to kill the Butterfly leader. There’s also the bond they formed when he previously kept her in a jar in his house, which led to her making the offer in the first place. She knew how to connect to Peacemaker and his mission to bring about peace no matter what the cost. However, it’s clearly shown that Peacemaker only has a very small amount of the alien goo left from the Cow, so there’s a good chance that Goff might not be around for long.
HBO Max
What does the Justice League cameo mean?
After Peacemaker and his ARGUS team basically did all the work and stopped the Butterfly invasion, the Justice League made a surprise appearance at the end. True to character, Peacemaker called them “d*ckheads” and made a joke to Aquaman’s face about him “f*cking fish” before walking off to take a wounded Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) to the hospital. As for the greater implications of the Justice League showing up, the cameo firmly plants Peacemaker in the DC Extended Universe that started being built in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Peacemaker is now officially part of that cinematic universe, and on the Justice League’s radar, which could have some interesting effects on Season 2.
What happens to Task Force X now that Adebayo revealed its existence?
After completing their mission, Adebayo goes public with the ARGUS team’s actions and reveals the existence of Task Force X (a.k.a. The Suicide Squad) in an effort to cement Peacemaker’s status as an American hero. With the covert group now exposed and Adebayo’s mother, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), none too pleased about it, Task Force X’s future is now in serious jeopardy. Considering Waller is not a person to be messed with, even by her own daughter, there is sure to be blowback from Adebayo’s press conference.
Is Peacemaker’s dad going to haunt him in Season 2?
In the final moments of the finale, Peacemaker is seen sitting on his porch after feeding Goff and watching Eagly fly off to hunt possums. However, Peacemaker’s deceased father (Robert Patrick) appears on the porch to haunt his son for what is now a second time. Judging by his silent laughter and Peacemaker’s visibly frightened face, it certainly seems like this will be a lingering issue going into Season 2. Particularly after Harcourt saw Peacemaker talking to the vision in his head earlier in the episode. If his teammates start to question his sanity, that can only spell trouble for Peacemaker down the road.
Peacemaker Season 1 is available for streaming on HBO Max.
Taco Bell does some weird shit. They’ve flattened a chicken patty and turned it into a taco shell — which absolutely no one asked for. They ditched the Mexican Pizza (disappointing Doja Cat, of all people), and they inexplicably started selling wings in a year where there was apparently a wing shortage. See what I mean? Weird. Taco Bell is the most chaotic fast food brand, Wendy’s Twitter account be damned.
But I have to admit, hearing that select Taco Bells in Milwaukee and Southern California would begin test selling Choco Tacos this week filled me with all sorts of questions. In this order: The Klondike Choco Taco? What does the Choco Taco have to do with Taco Bell? Why does it need to be tested? Why SoCal and Milwaukee? Aren’t Choco Tacos already available in the supermarket freezer aisle?
If you’re curious, the answers to these questions are as follows: Yes, nothing, it doesn’t, no idea, and apparently, no. It turns out, Choco Tacos aren’t readily available in grocery store freezer aisles right now. A quick search on Google leads to a variety of dead links, and even the official Klondike site, which says they are available, ultimately leads to a Walmart Error page.
Walmart
The only Choco Tacos I can find are this 24 pack from Amazon, which costs $64. I could probably go my whole life without eating 24 Choco Tacos, and I like Choco Tacos!
So, if for some reason you have an insatiable craving for a Choco Taco, your best bet is, for some reason, the Taco Bell drive-thru (so long as you live in SoCal or Milwaukee). Since we’re lucky (is that the word?) enough to be in the test market zone, we went out and ordered one and gave it the full fast food review treatment, in an effort to see if they’re as good as we remember and worth a trip to Taco Bell this weekend.
Hey, if Taco Bell wants to give us a reason to eat a Choco Taco, we’ll take it!
Klondike Choco Taco
Dane Rivera
Price: $2.99
I have to say, even though I knew going in that this was just a Klondike Choco Taco, I expected a little more effort on Taco Bell’s part. Foolishly perhaps, I did not expect to receive a regular-old, pre-packaged Klondike bar. At least wrap it in a Taco Bell-branded cardboard taco shell holder or something. Engrave a big bell on the waffle shell, throw Taco Bell on the label, do something to make me feel like this thing has a purpose! Because ordering a Klondike Choco Taco for $2.99 at a Taco Bell feels a little stupid, and the employees probably feel the same, judging by my experience ordering one.
“Hi, could I get the Choco Taco, please?”
“The what?”
“The Klondike Choco Taco… do you have those here?”
*long pause*
“It’s a promo-“
“Is that going to be all today?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of hot sauce— oh, right. Uh… please pull up to the second window.”
Dane Rivera
I’d love to listen in on the conversation between employees after some weirdo queued up in the drive-thru during lunch hours to order a single Choco Taco. Anyway, on to presentation. We give it a failing grade. But presentation isn’t everything, all that really matters when it comes to food is how good it tastes, and if you’ve never had a Choco Taco before, I can tell you, they’re pretty fucking good.
True, it’s far from the best ice cream you’ll ever have. There are no bells and whistles, and no attention to detail or craft. This is straight-up ice cream truck quality snackage, so get your expectations in order. But basic ice cream truck snackage isn’t a bad thing.
Here is what makes the Choco Taco good: Unlike an ice cream sandwich, the Choco Taco has a crunchy waffle cone shell, which gives it a superior mouthfeel. It’s crispy on the outside, but still chewy on the inside, and the cone is lined with chocolate, so it’s sugary-sweet with every bite. The vanilla ice cream — if you want to call it that — is a bit basic. It’s watery and muted, but it comes sandwiched inside an undeniably enjoyable snack that combines the best features of the ice cream sandwich, the Nestlé Drumstick, and a chocolate-dipped soft-serve ice cream. It’s creamy, chocolatey, refreshing, and very satisfying. Especially if you’re stoned. …Uh, or so I imagine.
Dane Rivera
The Bottom Line:
The Choco Taco is good. Having said that, you shouldn’t bother ordering this. I mean, do what you want, but if you feel like trekking to a specific Taco Bell just to remind yourself of what a Choco Taco tastes like maybe… don’t do that? If you’re in LA, go eat actual tacos, or do something fun, dumb, and touristy. If you’re in Milwaukee, visit one of these great bars instead. Go touch grass. Do anything, but don’t eat a Taco Bell Choco Taco.
The test they’re conducting isn’t whether or not Choco Tacos should be sold at Taco Bell nationwide. They shouldn’t, Taco Bell fans deserve a better dessert. Rather, the test is to see just how much bullshit we’ll take before Taco Bell has to cave in and bring back the Mexican Pizza.
Don’t settle for less, people.
If you’re in LA or Milwaukee and still want a Choco Taco, the following is a list of all the participating locations. If you’re not in LA or Milwaukee, you’re not missing anything!
Following the release of 2021’s 1176,the !llmind collaborative album that was among Uproxx’s Best Hip-Hop Albums of the Year and featured P-Lo and Rick Ross, Guapdad 4000 has been getting busy at the top of 2022. The ridiculous and hilarious callback to LL Cool J on “I Need Bands” came out last month and now, Guap is pure flow on “Ruthless.”
Produced by James Delgado, “Ruthless” sees the Oakland rapper keeping it cool among a steady drip of heaters. “Big ass arms on me, I ain’t tryna flex tho. Wipe a n*gga off like an expo,” he raps on the hook. The half-Filipino-half-Black rapper is pretty damn likable and always flashes a balance of poise with wit. Lines like “All these dubs in my pocket like lint,” are par for the course for the man with the 10-foot durag that’ll live forever in Grammy red carpet infamy.
Listen to “Ruthless” above and check out Guapdad 4000’s tour dates in support of Wale below.
02/20 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues Houston*
02/24 – New Orleans, LA @ Fillmore New Orleans*
03/01 – Little Rock, AR @ The Hall*
03/04 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz*
03/09 – Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works*
03/10 – Chattanooga, TN @ The Signal*
03/11 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring*
Guapdad 4000 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
At the top of the conversation, Crosby was asked about the Spotify situation and he starting by saying he was “stunned” that his label was cool with taking his and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s music off the platform. He also spoke about his general disdain for Spotify, and streaming services in general, due to how they pay artists (not much). He also suspects karma will come to bite them at some point, saying, “They’re not doing the right thing, and in the long run it will get them. In some kind of karmic thing, it’s going to come around and crush them. I don’t know what it’ll be, but I hope it’s soon.”
Then he got to Rogan, saying:
“I think Joe Rogan is… eh, not real impressive. But I think he has a right to spew his garbage. He has a right to do it. I think Spotify has a right to put him up there. I absolutely will fight for their right to do that. I have a right to not be associated with it. I told a friend this morning, ‘Listen man, if I was selling my records in a marketplace, I don’t want to be selling them next to some spoiled meat.’
That’s why I don’t want to be on the same platform as Joe Rogan. He’s calling people the n word all the time. He’s talking about women as if they’re a mouth and a pair of tits. He doesn’t really represent me at all, so I don’t want to be there with him. That’s all I said. I said I’m removing me. I’m not trying censor him or you. That’s of course the first thing that all his fans said: ‘This is censorship! You used to be a hippie!’ I still am. I still have the exact same set of values. I just don’t want to be associated with that guy.”
He also noted that even if Spotify got rid of Rogen, he does not “envision going back,” saying, “No, I don’t want to be in there. I don’t like ’em and their quality’s lousy and their payscale’s lousy and I don’t want anything to do with them.”
Crosby spoke a lot more about the topic, including how he feels about only a small number of artists leaving the platform, so check out the full interview here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
J. Cole well-documented love for basketball and his understated, ultra-comfy style have come together in his latest collaboration with throwback sportswear designer Mitchell & Ness. He revealed his new Dreamer X Mitchell & Ness throwback jersey collection after teasing it with the help of viral hoop phenom Hansel Enmanuel, who appeared in a video narrated by J. Cole praising the young, one-armed baller’s audacity to dream of a pro hoops career.
The jerseys are designed to look like ’90s-era NBA team jerseys, with the name Dreamer taking the place of the original team names on each. Included in the initial run are looks referencing the old-school aesthetics of the Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards (formerly the Baltimore Bullets), Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, Orlando Magic, and New Jersey Nets (now the Brooklyn Nets). Alas, my beloved Clippers are nowhere to be found, nor are the Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Seattle Supersonics, or any iteration of the Grizzlies (Vancouver or Memphis). I’m not sure if anyone even cares about the Utah Jazz (they can’t read this; they don’t have internet). Cole also posted several throwback jersey photos on Instagram to remind fans of their cultural impact (including the “bootleg” throwback he wore as a kid — an authentic NBA jersey, but not a Mitchell & Ness one, which was the THING back then).
The jerseys retail for $375 and are available on mitchellandness.com (for now, expect them to sell out quick).
Could Donald Trump take a page out of former BFF Rudy Giuliani’s book and become the first former President of the United States to shoot happy birthday videos for your gun-toting grandma on Cameo? Never say never!
As Raw Story reports, at least one reporter with deep knowledge of the financial predicament Trump could find himself in following his very public parting of the ways with Mazars USA, his longtime personal and business accounting firm, predicts that the former president is going to need to start offloading some assets—and fast. Susanne Craig, an investigative reporter with The New York Times who has been covering Trump’s financial dealings for several years now, appeared on MSNBC on Thursday night to talk about what the fallout from being dumped by Mazars for a decade worth of suspicious financial statements could mean in the short-term. And what Craig sees is: Everything must go!
Trump’s biggest issue, according to Craig, are the hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of loans that are about to come due—and how/whether he’ll be able to renegotiate the terms on them. “If this was a public company, you’d be like, ‘Wow!,’” Craig said. “It would just be so much trouble for them. I think their stock would tank. There would be so many ramifications.”
Though a $100 million loan on Trump Tower will be the first to come due, Craig believes that Trump is in a good position there, as the lender is Donald-friendly. From there, however, “there are other loans that are going to be more difficult,” she said, pointing to his Doral golf club, which he borrowed from Deutsche Bank on, as one example.
“Deutsche Bank has been signaling that they may not want to do new business with him,” Craig said. “None of this is good news. And when you think about how he’s going to have to handle this immediate debt, there’s going to be potentially higher rates, and in some cases I wonder who the lender is going to end up being.”
According to Craig, Trump’s recent decision to sell his Washington, D.C. hotel was a surprise—and indicative of an immediate need to raise cash by selling assets. “He must need cash, or he wouldn’t be selling it,” she said. “And I think we’re going to potentially see other asset sales here. Very few of the main assets, golf courses that he has, are making money. He’s got golf courses overseas, none of them are making money. It’s the exception when he has a business that is making money.”
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