Ron DeSantis has quickly become the MAGA crowd’s newest favorite punching bag. Ever since rumors first began circulating in 2021 that the vaccine mandate-hating Florida governor may be eyeing a run for the White House in 2024, Trump (who apparently “f***ing hates” DeSantis) and his cronies have jumped on every opportunity they can to further sully the regularly embattled Florida Man’s already not-so-stellar reputation.
More recently, Trump—who has made a sort of about-face on his attitude toward COVID vaccinations—has described DeSantis and other politicians who won’t share their vaccination status as “gutless” then just outright called him “dull.” And now, as Daily Mail reports, Trump’s good buddy/aspiring Batman villain Roger Stone has jumped on the DeSantis pig pile, and is hitting way below the belt—literally.
Stone took to social media to viciously tear down DeSantis, whom he called “fat boy,” mocking everything from his “bad haircut” to his “ill-fitting suit.”
So now Roger Stone is tweeting “F**k Ron Desantis.
— Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump) January 17, 2022
But it was the last part of Stone’s comments that really raised eyebrows, when he implied that DeSantis—who was accused of going MIA over the holidays—had been with Emerald Robinson, the former Newsmax host who proved to be even too much of a liability for Newsmax when she claimed that the Moderna vaccine contained an enzyme known as “luciferase,” which she described as a Satanic tracking device (it’s not, nor is it in the vaccine). It’s a damning accusation, as DeSantis is married—but even more gross given that Ron’s missus, Casey DeSantis, is currently battling cancer.
According to the Daily Mail, Fat Boy’s DeSantis’ office confirmed that the governor did take some time off… so that he could assist his wife with her cancer treatments.
It’s been about 27 years since Jawbreaker released their final album, 1995’s Dear You. Now, they’re taking it on the road again for a 25th anniversary tour this spring. (“The last two years don’t count,” the band notes in a statement.)
The shows, of which there are currently ten, run from mid-March to late April and will take place in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco (two nights), Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago (two nights), and New York (two nights). On all dates, they’ll be joined by combinations of Jawbox, Team Dresch, Best Coast, The Linda Lindas, Descendents, Face To Face, Built To Spill, Smoking Popes, and Worriers. Additionally, select shows will also feature comedians Kyle Kinane, Irene Tu, and Chris Gethard.
Check out the full list of tour dates below.
03/18 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo *
03/19 — Portland, OR @ Roseland Theatre *
03/24 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore ~
03/25 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore ~
04/01 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern !
04/07 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium #
04/13 — Chicago, IL @ House of Blues ^
04/14 — Chicago, IL @ House of Blues ^
04/27 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza %
04/28 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza %
* with Jawbox, Team Dresch, and Kyle Kinane
~ with Jawbox and Team Dresch
! with Best Coast and The Linda Lindas
# with Descendents and Face To Face
^ with Built To Spill, Smoking Popes, and Irene Tu
% with The Linda Lindas, Worriers, and Chris Gethard
More of The Boys will always be welcome — do you want to know if there was any, uh, fallout from Homelander’s rooftop jerk-off scene? — but it sure feels like we’re far away from the June 3 premiere of Season 3. Fortunately, Amazon decided to rapidly expand the universe, so in addition to a live-action spinoff, we’re also gonna see an animated series very soon. How soon? Early March, and to tide everyone over until then, here’s a teaser of what to expect from The Boys: Diabolical: Laser Baby.
The babe’s all up in the inadvertent homicide business, apparently. She only needed to sneeze, but she’s a Supe Baby, meaning that she’s been injected with Compound V. That’s not great for anyone who ends up in her line of fire, but oh, she’s a cute one. And she manages to crawl away from a pool of blood in search of a red balloon. Yes, this is everything that one would expect from an animated series in this franchise, and The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke recently gave a heads-up on what to expect while talking to Entertainment Weekly:
“We gathered together some incredible creators and we gave them one rule… just kidding, there’s no rules,” he says. “They blew the doors off it, delivering eight completely unexpected, funny, shocking, gory, moist, emotional episodes. You think The Boys is nuts? Wait till you see this.”
The show further promises “unseen stories within The Boys universe, brought to life by some of the most creative minds in entertainment today.” Of course, it’s difficult to imagine that this animated show could be even more explicit than the live-action O.G. version that’s going to bring us a “Herogasm” episode and that submitted for an Emmy nomination with this glorious clip. Is it June yet? Please.
A little over two years before his death, Alex Trebek weighed in on who should replace him on Jeopardy! when he eventually left the show. Despite former Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings waiting in the wings, Trebek named two candidates that personally caught his eye: LA Kings hockey announcer Alex Faust and CNN legal analyst Laura Coates.
As we now know, neither Faust nor Coates ended up being involved in the running to replace Trebek as the permanent host following his death. In fact, executive producer Mike Richards essentially gave himself the top gig, only to lose it in a matter of days following numerous sandals. To add to that drama, Coates revealed to Tamron Hall on Monday that Jeopardy! producers never even gave her the time of day when she reached out about making good on Trebek’s personal request. Via Mediaite:
“I asked for the opportunity when it came time, when they were looking for people to possibly fill in,” she told Hall. “I certainly raised my hand and knocked on doors and found them closed. I asked for the opportunity. I was told, ‘No.’”
The rejection obviously stung for Coates, who was honored that Trebek even named her in the first place, and yet his personal wishes were rejected by Jeopardy! producers.
“I was thrilled when he said my name,” Coates told Hall. “I thought, ‘My God. This person that I have watched my whole life really, even knows my name let alone thinks that I would be worthy enough to fill his shoes which frankly can’t be filled?”
We’ve all seen it by now. The little green and yellow blocks filling up our Twitter timelines, group chats, and message boards. It’s not some weird morse code, it’s just everyone showing off their scores on Wordle. This free-to-play word game has over social media and everyone’s daily discussions as they all compare how quickly they solved the most recent puzzle. There is a serious conversation surrounding this game that we don’t often see. Entire communities gleefully share their scores with one another while not spoiling the word for anyone who hasn’t played yet. It’s fun, unique, and an example of how when something really wholesome comes together the internet can make it a truly great thing.
It also growing so incredibly fast that there are still people that don’t know what it is yet. The game first started to gain traction before the new year, but early into 2022 it exploded into the game that everyone was talking about on social media. Growth that quick can make anyone that’s in on it feel special and those of us who missed it feel left out. Well, don’t worry, because you’re not the only one. A lot of us are still just learning what Wordle is, why exactly it’s so popular, and the best way to play it. For anyone that is still trying to figure out what this whole thing is, we’ll do our best to answer any questions you may have.
What Is Wordle?
Wordle is a very simple word association game where the player is given five blank squares and the entire alphabet. The player must guess what the word is with no hints as to what it may be. However, correctly guessed letters will be highlighted in yellow. If that letter is in the right spot it will be highlighted in green. The player is given six chances to guess the word. If they get it then their reward is self-satisfaction and the opportunity to share how quickly they guessed the word with friends. Simple enough right?
Part of what makes a game like Wordle so addicting to talk about is that it only features a single word every day. So part of the conversation around the game has to do with the word itself. We want to know when someone has completed the daily puzzle so we can talk about the word, what strategies we used to get to it, and if it stumped us or not. Some people have said they want the ability to access previous puzzles they missed, but the limited aspect of Wordle may be its best feature. The game is intentionally limited and that’s what makes the conversation around it so exciting. When a puzzle is finished you can’t wait to play the next one. This also helps extend the game’s life and avoid something like burnout.
So as we said earlier, playing Wordle is very simple. Once a day a new puzzle drops and the player will be given six chances to guess the five letter word. However, if all you do is guess blindly then you’re going to find yourself having a hard time making any progress. While the true fun of Wordle is getting through the puzzle using your own wits, we do know of a few strategies to make the experience a little smoother. The key is in how you start the game and there are few ways to go about it.
Go For The Vowels
The most popular strategy on Wordle right now is by trying to figure out how many vowels are in the word. As such, a lot of people choose to start off with a vowel-heavy word such as ADIEU. This gives the player every single vowel plus Y to work with. From that point on it’s just figuring out how to frame a word around those vowels. This may seem a little formulaic, but the truth about puzzles is that most of them are formulaic in some capacity.
The reason this strategy works is that vowels are the building blocks of most words in the English language. The majority of words are going to feature one if not multiple vowels and it’s why knowing which ones are in a word can make finding the consonants around those vowels far easier. Vowels are so powerful when it comes to forming words that in Wheel of Fortune they make players buy them.
The Wheel Of Fortune Strategy
Anyone that’s watched Wheel of Fortune knows about the bonus round where a contestant is given a blank board and one hint. However, starting in 1988 the gameshow started automatically giving contestants the series of letters RSTLNE, plus their guesses of three consonants and one vowel. Why start players off with that series of letters in particular? Because those letters happen to make up 45 percent of words in the English language.
Many players of Wordle have taken to using this strategy in their own guesses. Since Wordle requires the player to guess actual words instead of a series of letters players will typically go with something like RENTS or they’ll mix in a few more vowels to get ROAST or LINED. The goal of using this strategy is to try and find as many letters as possible early on so filling in the blanks later isn’t as much of a challenge.
However, the player chooses to go about this, as long as you’re solving the puzzle and having fun then it doesn’t really matter what you do. We’ve just found that these methods have worked best for us.
Jamie recently sat down for an interview on the popular podcast Call Her Daddy to talk about her upcoming book and discuss what it was like for her to deal with family issues in the public eye. Jamie admitted a lot of her sister’s life was kept private from her, and she only found out about Britney shaving her head from reading a blog post. Jamie said she was “never allowed” to publicly speak about her sister before because Britney’s team was so concerned with optics:
“It wasn’t even really my brand. I was a prop to a lot of things but at the same time, I was never allowed to control my own narrative or have my own voice unless it was in line with everything. I was never allowed to do or say anything that would possibly put my sister in a bad light. Honestly, I love my sister, I’m her biggest fan. But guess what? Sisters are sisters. That’s okay, and I think the biggest thing is why wasn’t that just made normal from the beginning? I was born into this family, I didn’t choose. […] Why can’t two sisters just exist in their own right? We never compared each other, the world did. We never had that dynamic or that issue. My sister, to this day, is still going to be the most badass performer that ever walked this earth.”
Jamie said staying silent about her personal life was deeply “ingrained” in her from a young age, but she’s now finally telling her side of the story:
“I couldn’t be responsible for everything that happened around her and also be authentic to myself. And I wasn’t allowed to be. I guess I didn’t have the courage to do it, I guess I was too scared, but when it’s ingrained in you so perpetually to be that way. I’m trying hard, I’m breaking a true pattern that has been ingrained in me. It is hard and I’m scared. But I have to do this. It doesn’t matter who your sister is, or who your family member is, or who your relationship is with. If something has caused you pain or this is your experience, nothing should diminish your experience. My whole life, I kind of felt like I didn’t matter.”
If 2021 Grammy Award-winning Producer Of The Year Andrew Watt has learned one thing from his years of making music with today’s top artists, it’s that a hit song doesn’t happen by accident. And seeing as his career achievements include several chart-topping singles, Watt should know better than anyone.
In his time as a producer, Watt has worked with an eclectic array of artists. His genre-spanning portfolio has had him laying down hard beats for Cardi B’s Invasion Of Privacy and Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding. On the other hand, he’s learned how to prioritize improvisation when making rock music — something he kept in mind while producing Eddie Vedder’s first solo project in over a decade, Earthling, which is out next month. But no matter the project, Watt always has one simple goal in mind: “I’m just trying to make the best songs I can possibly make.”
Today’s music fans are more connected to their favorite artists than ever before. And with millions of songs readily available at their fingertips, simply uploading a track onto a streaming platform isn’t enough to capture someone’s attention. “You can’t spoon feed people sh*t,” Watt says over the phone. “It’s not just as simple as song’s out and that’s it.” Rather, it takes a label, a producer team, a management team, an artist’s connection to their fan base, impeccable timing, and most importantly, genuine belief in an artist for a song to truly become a hit. “How many times have you heard a song you think, ‘Wow, that song is amazing.’ And then it just never becomes a hit?” he asks. “That’s because someone didn’t do their job.”
Now sitting down with Uproxx, Watt describes the process of making five of his hit songs with artists Justin Bieber, Young Thug, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Camila Cabello, and Shawn Mendes.
Justin Bieber – “Peaches”
Let’s start with Justin Bieber’s song “Peaches.” I understand that you have a really close working relationship with Justin. You’ve toured with him and you’ve been making music with him for a few years. Can you walk me through how “Peaches” was made? Was it a fairly breezy recording session?
Justin lives very close to me and I’m very good friends with him and his wife. He FaceTimed me one day, he’s like, “What are you doing today?” He rode his scooter over and we were just sitting around and he started playing these chords on the piano. I was like, “Alright, let’s record that.” I caught him on the drums, and he laid down this amazing beat.
Then I picked up a guitar and he was telling me, “Play it like this.” He got on the mic and that “Peaches” hook flew out of him. It was so amazing just to give him the space to create it and be comfortable and have the mics on for him, I didn’t need to do much. The ideas didn’t come from me. They were all coming from him, but I made him feel good enough and comfortable enough to get it out. That first initial day was just me and him and two friends jamming, no thought involved.
Young Thug – “Hate The Game”
I want to ask you about Young Thug’s song “Hate The Game.” You once said Young Thug is so prolific that he can write the most amazing song ever in just 15 minutes. What was collaborating with him on that song like? Was it that quick of a process?
I had a whole bunch of beats that I had made for him that I thought would be so interesting to hear his voice on. [“Hate The Game”] was one of the first ones I played him and he was like, “All right, send it to my engineer. Let’s go.” Without thought, the beat is on his headphones and he just starts spitting lyrics out. There’s no conversation before, there’s no nothing. The concept comes to him as he’s saying words as he’s singing melodies.
His cutting process is so interesting. He can engineer, so he’s got his engineer and he’s right next them cutting vocals. He’s moving his vocals around himself, nudging sh*t to the left, to the right, using a different take, using a different word. He’ll sing a line 12 times in a row and pick the ninth take and just knows which one’s right.
Ed Sheeran – “2Step”
You produced Ed Sheeran’s = (Equals) song “2Step.” Ed Sheeran is one of today’s top songwriters, and he not only writes music for himself, but he also writes music for other artists like BTS. What was it like producing “2Step” with Ed Sheeran since he’s used to making music for other artists as well?
I don’t think that changes his work, but what is true is that he’s a very self-contained songwriter. He can do it all on his own. We wrote three songs in one day. It was this amazing spitfire thing. We both had guitars in our hands. We were making riffs, laying down the guitar, and then he started singing melodies to himself and started writing stuff. He just starts firing off, it’s almost like a mental workout. It’s like a form of exercise, he’s got his routine and he’s so good at it. It’s high-performance songwriting.
Dua Lipa – “Break My Heart”
Let’s talk Dua Lipa’s track “Break My Heart.” And I loved how her album, Future Nostalgia, was very ’80s disco-inspired. Can you talk about producing the song?
It was the first time we ever worked together. Whenever I’m working with an artist for the first time, I always try and make a simple recording on my phone of a guitar riff, just a place to start. I showed them to her and she was really cool, sweet, and respectful and listened. She then said, “That doesn’t really feel like me. Let me show you some of my stuff that I’m making.” That album, that perfect album, she played us half of it, so I started to hear what vibe she was on.
I just picked up the bass and I started playing this lick. It came from what I equate funky music to be, and she said, “That, I love. Record that.” Melodies just started flying out from all of us, and we came up with the idea to synchronize the hook with the bass line. It doesn’t happen often, but that song was written, tracked, and produced all in the same night. We were just on fire and we nailed it. She was in such a confident place and she brought it on another level. When an artist knows what they want and can give you vision, the sky’s the limit.
Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes – “Señorita”
You produced “Señorita” by Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes. This song is different than other typical collaborations because it’s a song that puts an equal amount of importance on both the singers’ lines and also has a lot of interplaying vocal harmonies.
That song took a long time — opposite of the Dua Lipa song. Shawn and Camila’s relationship speaks for itself. Those two are clearly bonded and will be very close friends for life. They kind of fell in love over the song or admitted that they were in love in this process of the song. I don’t pretend to understand anyone’s relationship, but I was seeing what I was seeing from it during the process. And those vocals are reflective of that, the desire and the passion comes through in the song.
Both of them were very militant in how they produced their vocals and how many times they wanted to sing it until it was great. They’re songwriters that take their craft very, very seriously. We pushed it until it was the best it could ever be, and when one of them would call and want to sing it again, the answer would be, “Okay, let’s do it and see if it’s better.” And it was always better, every time. As effortless as the song sounds, a lot of time and effort went into that song to make sure it was the best it could be.
Eddie Vedder’s Earthling is out 2/11 via Seattle Surf Co/Republic. Pre-order it here.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Ecdysis is a word that refers to when reptiles and insects shed their old layers of skin or outer cuticles. Conceptually, the word speaks to rebirth, or better yet, a renewal, which sums up the long-awaited return of Darkside that happened last year. Following an eight-year hiatus, the duo of Chilean electronic producer/vocalist Nicolás Jaar and American guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington came back to release the standout album Spiral, proving that the pair have a lot left in the tank. The nine tracks on their latest album, stacked up handsomely to their 2013 breakthrough Psychic, and today we’ve learned that there was more music from the Spiral sessions that needed to be put out into the world.
Enter, “Ecdysis!,” the track, a glitchy and cacophonous number at first that unfolds into Jaar’s reverb-soaked vocals and a propulsive beat. Digital meets organic, in what feels like a synthesis of Amazonian noise before Harrington’s glorious guitar builds and jams the tune upwards into canopies of sound. It slots effortlessly alongside similarly constructed tracks like “The Limit” and “Liberty Bell,” showing that the pair’s symbiotic penchant for experimentation sees no bounds. “From the beginning, Darkside has been our jam band. Something we did on days off. When we reconvened, it was because we really couldn’t wait to jam together again,” Jaar said in a statement. “It felt like it was time again,” Harrington added.
When Microsoft announced that it was purchasing Activision, the video game world shook. This was two of the largest companies in the industry joining together to give Microsoft the ownership of major IPs like Call of Duty, Warcraft, and Candy Crush. How would that not feel impactful? What was really shocking though was the sheer amount of money involved in the deal.
A $56.1 billion difference isn’t just a gap. It’s such a laughably large difference that it’s hard to believe. It even eclipses the biggest gaming industry merger that took place in 2007, also involving Activision, when Activision and Vivendi Games merged for a deal valued at $18.7 billion. All of these deals eclipse Microsoft’s previous massive developer acquisition when it acquired Bethesda for $7.5 billion — or when Activision Blizzard purchased King for $6.5 billion.
We have no idea what this means for the industry as a whole or what all of the short and long-term impacts will be, but the sheer scale of this acquisition is simply unheard of in the gaming world. We don’t think we’re going to see another one like this for a long time, but who knows, maybe Sony will feel pushed to seek out its own massive purchase.
Maggie Rogers released her career-launching debut album Heard It In A Past Life on January 18, 2019, and since then, fans have been eager to hear more from the Harvard grad school student. Well, the album celebrates its three-year anniversary today and Rogers has marked the occasion by suggesting that new music is on the way.
On Twitter today, Rogers wrote, “happy birthday HIIAPL [lightning bolt emoji] the covid era has taught me that time is elastic and my sanity is kept by keeping friends + community close. feeling so much of that today. thank u for your endless support and care. it’s nearly time to begin again…” This comes a few days after Rogers shared a new photo of herself (which is now her social media profile picture) and wrote, “okay 2022, let’s have some fun [lightning bolt emoji].”
happy birthday HIIAPL the covid era has taught me that time is elastic and my sanity is kept by keeping friends + community close. feeling so much of that today
In recent weeks, Rogers has also shared photos of herself in New York’s Electric Lady Studios and England’s Real World Studios, taken between October 2020 and June 2021. Back in March 2021, she wrote on Instagram, “this record is my favorite work i’ve ever made. feels like being 17 again. everything so fresh and free.” Then, this past October, she tweeted, “making the record ill tour for a lifetime.”
All in all, Rogers has been dropping breadcrumbs for a while now, but it looks like at long last, we’re getting really close to her second album.
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