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Ryan Pollie is formerly known as Los Angeles Police Department, and last year, he took on yet another moniker with his Total Revenge project. Now, though, he’s back to making music under his own name (as he did on his 2019 self-titled album) with a new single, “The Shore House.” It starts as a breezy tune with some pep in its step before going through multiple other moods and musical ideas, so it’s fitting that Pollie describes the track as “a concept album within a song:

“Featuring a ripping guitar solo by Michael Rault, ‘Shore House’ is a concept album within a song. There is a chromatic breakdown that features a desk bell and gym whistle and a chorus that strips down to my voice, a string quartet and a lonely harpist. Inspired by my father, ‘The Shore House’ is a story about a man raising children in suburbia. The character grew up at the shore and always thought he would see his kids grow up next to the beach as well. Now stuck in the mundanity of a predictable suburban life, he dreams of the waves and longs for even just a weekend back home at the shore.”

Of his upcoming music and life in general, he noted that things are going exceptionally: “I felt so much support from our music community when I had Cancer that it’s absolutely necessary to say my thanks here. Artists, journalists, industry folk and the like — reaching out and checking in… I truly appreciate it. Quick update — I’ve been in remission for 3 years almost, which is HUGE. Every year that goes by, the more in the clear I am. Of course the music you’re going to be hearing from me has a bit to do with when I was sick and what I’ve been pondering about my own life and life in general since then. Looking back, regret, and the like. But this is certainly the most joyous material I’ve ever released — my sad boy 22-year-old self would be in disbelief!”

Watch the video for “The Shore House” above.

Stephen A. Smith is one of the defining takesmen of our time. Smith, as has long been evident, takes a quantity over quality approach to dishing out his beliefs on a given subject, as the longtime ESPN personality has the breathtaking ability to come up with something for literally every subject. They’re not always good — in fact, some of them are quite bad — but they are consistent in their ability to exist.

The sheer volume of takes Smith has doled out was revealed during a recent appearance on Ebro in the Morning. Smith, while discussing the end of Max Kellerman’s time on First Take, said that while the pair have a good relationship, sometimes, chemistry between two people can begin to grow stale. He slipped in his sheer output as a takesman and good LORD.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is the work that goes into doing the show every single day,” Smith said. “And the reality is that we have 15 segments a day, 75 segments a week, over 3,000 takes a year. In the nine years that I’ve been on First Take, I’ve given over 33,000 takes.”

That is a lot of takes! The wild thing is this does not include Smith’s take output on, say, his radio show, or SportsCenter, or Stephen A’s World, or any of the other shows he appears on, or that time he went onto Fox News and no one on set had any idea how to respond to the fact that Stephen A. Smith is a master takesman who was unfazed by the general weirdness of being on Fox News (link here, but be warned that you’re going to Fox’s YouTube page and it might totally mess your YouTube algorithm up, so maybe go Incognito for this one).

Anyway, I would love to know exactly how this number is kept. Does Smith do it himself? Does someone on First Take keep count like they’re watching a pitcher on a strict pitch limit? Is there a big board that has a number that goes up with every new take? Is this just unique takes, or does this include ones that are constantly repeated? What happens when he hits 50,000? Or 100,000? More questions than answers exist, surely.

On August 13, 2020, Fortnite developer Epic Games “declared war on Apple” after the company’s frustrations with the iOS version of their app being forced to use Apple Pay reached a boiling point. Following their 1984-inspired declaration, Epic Games proceeded to add an option in Fortnite‘s main menu that allowed players to choose to pay Epic directly — and at a lower cost — in order to cut Apple Pay out of the equation. As you can imagine, tech giant Apple didn’t take too kindly to Epic’s bold move, and quickly removed the Fortnite app from the App Store, kicking off a massive legal battle between the two.

Now, over a year later, the judge overseeing the case, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, has issued a ruling in favor of Epic Games, stating that Apple can no longer force developers to use its own payment system within their apps as it engages in what the state of California refers to as “anticompetitive conduct.” However, the judge also ruled Epic Games must pay Apple $3.6 million in revenue that was previously withheld, stating Epic’s “Project Liberty” (Epic’s name for its aforementioned attempt to allow players to buy from them directly and circumvent Apple Pay) was nothing more than a “highly choreographed attack” on Apple. Lastly, Judge Rogers argued Epic’s description of Apple as a monopoly was incorrect, stating “success is not illegal.” This ruling is scheduled to officially take effect in 90 days, meaning Apple could seek to block the order before then.

As you can imagine, both Apple and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney had a lot to say about the ruling. In a New York Times article published earlier today, an Apple representative said:

“Today the Court has affirmed what we’ve known all along: the App Store is not in violation of antitrust law. Apple faces rigorous competition in every segment in which we do business, and we believe customers and developers choose us because our products and services are the best in the world. We remain committed to ensuring the App Store is a safe and trusted marketplace.”

Sweeney provided his own comments on the ruling via tweet, stating “today’s ruling isn’t a win for developers or for consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition among in-app payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers.”

Ultimately, the ruling given by Judge Rogers could cost both parties a lot of money and neither one is walking away with a “victory royale,” meaning if you were someone who was rooting for both big businesses to be knocked down a peg or three, you just got your wish. However, I think the real takeaway from the whole trial has to be that popular Fortnite mascot Peely was also ruled to be “just a banana man,” which really throws the absurdity of this whole ordeal into perspective.

In an almost on-brand moment considering she was promoting The Morning Show Season 2, Jennifer Aniston left BBC viewers scratching their heads after an awkward exchange with The One Show host Jermaine Jenas. While appearing alongside her Morning Show co-star Reese Witherspoon, Aniston was seemingly cut off by Jenas, and her reaction has people divided over who was in the wrong.

It all happened as Aniston described experiencing the intense early morning grind that talk show hosts go through … only to have Jenas abruptly toss a question at Witherspoon who took the whole thing in stride. Via The New York Post:

“Reese, I’ve got to be honest with you, Jennifer’s pretty much sold it to me that she’s not a morning person,” he said, at which Aniston appeared stunned.

“Did I sell that to you?’” Aniston uncomfortably asked, to which Jenas responded, “A little bit, a little bit.”

“Did I get a good deal?” the actress snapped back.

Jenas, a former English soccer player, then laughed awkwardly and tried to move forward with his conversation with Witherspoon, abruptly saying, “So, what about you, Reese?”

After the back-and-forth between Jenas and Aniston went viral, BBC viewers were split over whether Jenas was rude or Aniston overreacted.

Without picking a side here, Jenas did cut her off, but it also seemed like Aniston was rolling with the punches and delivering some friendly jabs that wouldn’t be out of place on The Morning Show. It’s almost like the whole blue and gold dress debate, but without the deep emotional scars that will haunt an entire generation.

The Morning Show Season 2 premieres September 17 on Apple TV+.

(Via New York Post)

It was reported this morning that Josh Homme’s young children, 10-year-old Orrin and 5-year-old Wolf, have filed (through their mother and Homme’s ex-wife, Brody Dalle) for restraining orders against their father, citing physical and emotional abuse as the reason. It looks like that didn’t go as planned for them, though, as TMZ reports the requests have been denied by two separate judges.

The publication notes the requests were first filed in Los Angeles, but after they were denied there, Dalle brought them to a Santa Monica court, where they were again shot down.

At the time the original news was announced this morning, Homme’s attorney, Susan Wiesner, told TMZ, “Ms. Dalle has previously brought these claims to the police, DCFS, and the presiding judge of the family law court, all of whom have declined to take any action based upon these spurious claims.”

Documents indicated that Homme’s sons are scared their father will harm them. Homme allegedly drinks and drives with the children in the vehicle and physically and emotionally abuses the children, with Orrin claiming examples of that behavior include “flicking his ears, hitting his head, poking his chest and throwing things at him — while calling him fat and allegedly making threats about murdering Brody’s boyfriend.”

Masters of design are like magicians. They have a beautiful gift of being able to manipulate our movements, thoughts, and emotions without us even knowing. Their clandestine work is all around us but only those who practice the arts can see it in action.

One such master is Svilen, an inventor, designer, and futurist originally from Bulgaria who’s since moved to the Washington, D.C. area. According to his Medium page, he invents “concepts for products and experiences ranging from reimagining the mundane, to protecting fundamental human rights.”

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In his downtime, he’s created a TikTok page where he reveals the design secrets behind everyday things that we take for granted. He has nearly 600,000 followers and his videos have received 5.6 million likes.

Here are nine of his most popular videos that reveal the hidden secrets behind everything from kids’ cartoons to snack foods.

1.) Why do old cartoon characters wear neck collars?

“By giving characters something to wear around their necks, it meant that animators could keep the exact same body position and only animate the head while it was moving and talking, which not only meant that the frames required for a 7 min cartoon were reduced from 14000 down to just 2000, but this move is actually credited with saving the entire animation industry.”Why are the interiors of movie theaters red?

2.) Why are movie theater interiors red?

“If you ever noticed that in theatres curtains and seats tend to be the color red, that’s no coincidence, that’s by design. And that’s because the color red is the first color that the human eye loses sight of in dark and low light conditions, making it easier for you to focus on the performance or movie screen and not get distracted by the surroundings.”

3.) Why do snipers wear their watches upside down?

“The reason snipers wear their watches upside down like this is to avoid the sun or moonlight from reflecting off their watch face, into the enemies eyes and therefore, giving away their location.”

4.) Why are Pringles shaped that way?

“Pringles enlisted the help of supercomputers to come up with an aerodynamic shape for the potato chips known as a hyperbolic paraboloid, so the chips don’t fly off of the production line.”

5.) The mysterious power of Baker-Miller pink

“[Alexander Schauss] discovered that this very specific shade of pink had a very profound calming effect on people. It would make them relax, lower their heart rate, breathing, and even curb their appetite.”

6.) How an airport reduced complaints at airport baggage claims

“The Houston Airport in Texas was experiencing an extraordinary amount of complaints regarding the baggage claim wait times. … Upon further investigation, they found out that it only took passengers 1 minute to walk from their arrival gate to baggage claim and then 7 more minutes for their luggage to arrive. … They moved baggage claim as far as possible, so now it took passengers 6 times longer to get to it. And just like that, overnight complaints dropped to nearly zero.”

7.) Why do London pubs have weird names?

“Since many of the pubs in Britain are hundreds of years old, back in those days, a lot of people were illiterate, which meant that they couldn’t easily identify and discover businesses. So business owners got creative and instead of using letters, they started using pictures of easily identifiable and recognizable objects in their logos, so that even people that can’t read can still find the business easily.”

8.) How does blue lighting stop drug use?

“The blue lighting makes it impossible for the drug user to find his or her veins because they’re also colored blue; therefore, it elegantly prevents them from injecting drugs in the first place in a non-confrontational and cheap fashion.”

9.) What secrets are lurking in your elevator?

“Moving down to the lobby, you will notice a lot of mirrors and reflective surfaces. It could be the elevator doors themselves or just decorative mirrors hanging around. And those are there to actually distract you from the fact that the elevator is taking a long time.”

In what absolutely sounds like a sentence uttered after some audience interaction on Match Game 77, James Gandolfini was once so drunk people desperately tied him to a tree on the set of the Sopranos so he didn’t fall off a cliff.

As IndieWire detailed, Michael Imperioli was also involved thanks to the precarious filming details of a pivotal scene in Season 4 of the HBO drama. Imperioli does the Talking Sopranos podcast with Steve Schirripa, who, during an interview with Insider, retold a story from the filming of “Whoever Did This” where (mild spoilers) Tony and Christopher need to hurl a body off a cliff.

The problem was that they were filming at night, near a real ledge, and it was taking a while to get things right. So they started drinking.

The production required the two actors to stand close to the edge of a cliff, which was made risky because they were inebriated.

“On the break, while they set up the lights, Michael and Jim [Gandolfini] drank a bottle of Wild Turkey,” Schirripa said. “They were so drunk that they had to chain their legs to a tree, because they were afraid they were going to fall off the cliff.”

Given the strong pivot toward green screens and risk reduction in Hollywood these days (unless you’re Tom Cruise filming Mission Impossible, I suppose) there’s something refreshing about this slightly dangerous behind-the-scenes story about filming on location. Thankfully everyone got the shot they needed without incident, but it’s very funny to imagine the powers that be needing to break out the chains to keep two stars safe because they accidentally had a bit too much Wild Turkey to be trusted near a ledge. Happens to everyone.

[via Insider]

The past few years have been impressively productive for Ariana Grande, as she dropped new albums in 2018, 2019, and 2020. At the moment, though, she’s not focused on music, as her attention is on her new R.E.M. Beauty cosmetics line. In fact, it appears she’s in the midst of a break from music at the moment, as revealed in a new Allure feature.

The piece is mostly centered on Grande’s cosmetics line, but there’s one section of it that pulls back the curtain on what Grande’s up to now aside from that. It says she’s been “taking a break from recording” music lately to explore “new versions of storytelling,” as she puts it. She seems to be making a push to get more into acting again, as she’s currently “working with an acting coach who trains leading ladies.” That section of the feature also notes her judging gig on The Voice and her Fortnite virtual concert.

She also addressed her thoughts on the “crowded” space of celebrity cosmetics lines, saying, “I’ve thought a lot about this, of course, because I don’t want to just hop onto any bandwagons ever. I think that… I wear my peers’ makeup as well, just like I listen to their music. I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, there’s too many female artists.’ I love and I’m [a] huge fan of my peers that do both, and I think that it’s just another way to tell stories. Because you can never have enough makeup, just like you can never have enough music.”

Read the full feature here.

Blackpink rapper/singer Lisa has released her debut solo album today, and to celebrate, the Thai-born K-pop performer has released an exhilarating new music video for the title track, “Lalisa.”

Over the course of three-and-a-half minutes, Lisa rap-sings through city streets before decamping for the desert, where she and a crew of backup dancers bust moves and ride dirt bikes. (Because, why not?) Finally, the ultra-maximalist clip gets Lisa back indoors, wearing a headdress and on a literal throne. In summary, this is pretty much everything you’d want a pop music video to be: costume changes galore, bonkers dance routines, super-slick sets, etc.

Speaking to Billboard about what she learned making a solo album, and what she can bring back to Blackpink, Lisa said, “The number one thing is the confidence I learned throughout the whole process of preparing my solo. When I’m with the other members, we rely on each other a lot. There’s a lot of things I learned during my solo prep that include things like leadership — I have to make all these decisions on my own. I hope I can carry this back into the group when we promote together.”

She also opened up about how dance “is kind of a universal language,” adding, “Take Latin music, for example — you may not understand what the artists are saying, but you feel that energy. Even with my music, people might not understand what the lyrics are, but listening to the beat and seeing the dance, they can feel the vibe and have that connection.”

Watch “Lalisa” above. Lalisa is out now via YG Entertainment/Interscope Records. Get it here.

Many players have been better than Jordan Poole currently is during Steve Kerr’s seven years as head coach of the Golden State Warriors. But never, over that span, has this team rostered a player who resembles Stephen Curry’s off-ball scoring package like Poole. This is not, of course, a proclamation that Poole is the next Steph, nor am I positing that Poole is a more lethal off-ball scorer than healthy Klay Thompson. I’m talking stylistically, and the film testifies to that.

Watch this clip.

It’s nearly impossible to not spot shades of Steph in that bucket. The jitterbug motion and lively footwork. The rerouting to flummox defenders. The pop-gun jumper without a moment of hesitation. Adding a zero to the back of Poole’s jersey would deceive lots of people.

Suggesting these similarities 6.5 months ago was far-fetched. Poole struggled mightily as a rookie, averaging 8.8 points on 45.4 percent true shooting (.333/.279/.798 splits). The Warriors, short on high-end talent, were en route to a top-three pick. The speed of the NBA seemingly overwhelmed him and he endured a season-long cold spell from deep. Even the start of his second campaign saw him relegated to deep bench minutes, aside from an occasional brief cameo.

But then, following 11 games with the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League Bubble, where he posted a 22-5-3 line on 64 percent true shooting, Poole returned and was primed to carve out a major role on a playoff contender. Across 35 post-All-Star break games, the second-year guard averaged 14.4 points, 2.4 assists, 1.2 turnovers, and 2.0 rebounds on 57.1 percent true shooting (.426/.348/.869 split), including nine outings with 20-plus points.

Outside of Curry, Golden State predominantly lacked floor-spacing and offensive vigor. Poole provided both. While his on-ball exploits still require blossoming, he presented a level on- and off-ball duality necessary for the Warriors offense.

He’s already a legit movement shooter, capable of sprinting into jumpers, seamlessly squaring his body and firing from contested or unorthodox angles. He takes efficient angles around picks and has dexterous footwork to set up plays. According to Synergy, he ranked in the 74th percentile off screens, empowering the coaching staff to deploy him in numerous ways, many of which emulate Curry’s off-ball usage. Split actions, slide screens, pindowns, and screen-the-screener schematics are all featured. If there was ever a Curry facsimile on this Warriors team over the last seven years, Poole is it, at least as an off-ball venturer.

Poole’s off-ball similarities to Curry are not confined to the specific play-types Kerr and Co. construct for him. He’s a shrewd player independent of the Xs and Os, slipping picks as a cutter, darting backdoor, and frequenting gaps in the defense to fashion ideal scoring opportunities. Sometimes, this was muted in lineups alongside poor passers (and not particularly perceptive offensive players) such as Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Oubre Jr., and James Wiseman. But letting him cook off the ball while pairing him with Draymond Green, Juan Toscano-Anderson, and Kevon Looney was the proper platform to succeed instinctively. On-ball advantage creation is the most valuable league-wide (usually), but Poole carves out equity as an off-ball advantage creator via feel and timing.

Until Thompson returns, the Warriors should run a Curry-Poole-Wiggins-Toscano-Anderson-Green lineup to close many games. It’s probably a grouping their five best players, at least based on last season (but maybe Otto Porter Jr. or Nemanja Bjelica change that). There’s a concordant ethos among the quintet to thrive on both ends.

Last year, according to Cleaning The Glass, lineups with both Poole and Steph on the floor generated a plus-18.2 net rating across 473 possessions. That’s far too small of a sample to utilize predictively, but conceptually, it’s clear why those units inflicted so much damage for opponents. Increasing the volume moving forward and ratcheting up their two-man game — note the quality of these two looks! — seems prudent.

Poole and Steph are tailored to succeed in Kerr’s movement, screening, and off-ball-heavy attack. Flanking them with heady ball movers/cutters/screeners such as Green, Toscano-Anderson, Looney, and Damion Lee can optimize those minutes offensively and gives impactful defenders with varying skills significant burn.

For Poole, though, it’s not just about the shooting. He’s diverse and adept in that regard, but the primary distinction between year one and two was his interior efficiency. He shot 39.2 percent on two-pointers as a rookie and 54.5 percent in 2020-21, when he showcased finishing and intermediate craft. Per Cleaning The Glass, he shot 67 percent around the rim (87th percentile) and 43 percent between 4 and 14 feet (60th percentile), demonstrative leaps from the 48 percent and 38 percent clips, respectively, of a year prior.

At the cup, he embraces contact against bigs, uses his frame to shield himself from rim protectors, and can convert with either hand in an assortment of ways. He boasts brilliant footwork to tilt defenders out of position, wields crafty changes of pace, and leverages his jumper with shot fakes to threaten defenders. Although his handle is a limited in traffic, he weaponizes it to prime screens and drive defenders into them with the proper load time to string dribble moves together. There’s much to like and admire about his finishing portfolio and processes.

The reason his footwork, change of pace, and off-ball movement are critical to his creation is his traditional methods of advantage creation do not stand out as clear pluses. His burst is not particularly noteworthy, underscored by a 22 percent rim frequency (32nd percentile) and .251 free-throw rate last season. His handle in narrow quarters can often be a hindrance and a prominent source of turnovers. He is quite weak in his lower body, which hamstrings his stability and capacity for generating force.

When his footwork or pre-screen handling are not effective means of forging seamless advantages, he fails to achieve one because of an underdeveloped and unstable lower body. Adding lower body strength, ideally somewhat boosting his explosiveness, would likely be a sizable boon to his creation ceiling.

Streamlining some passing consistency would benefit his on-ball aptitude, too. Currently, he’s a bit shot-happy and will not consider lobs, laydown passes, or kick-outs as a downhill operator. In ball-screens, he has a proclivity to not account for the roller, whether it stems from missing pocket passes or complicating their path to the rim on his own drives. He’s also a bit sloppy on some deliveries. Whereas his cadence enables him when he’s wired to finish, he can assume a one-speed approach and miss chances to feed big men inside or spray passes to open shooters beyond the arc.

The passing warts are not always prevalent. He hints at versatile, nifty playmaking derived from his scoring gravity. That should be an emphasis for his development, given the shot-making and scoring baseline he established in his age-21 season. It feels reasonable to project that he’ll consistently command defensive attention when the ball is in his hands, which should simplify his reads.

Learning how to consistently open up lobs because of his floater (69th percentile on runners last season, per Synergy) is valuable. Perfecting the standard pocket pass when two defenders engulf him off the catch would serve him wisely. Based upon his off-screen proficiency and general off-ball intelligence, it seems like he’ll routinely be open in spaces from which he can comfortably score, which will prompt defenses to sell out. Becoming both a reliable passing and scoring threat in those spots is an important development. I’m tepidly confident he will and being an understudy to Steph, the NBA’s foremost practitioner of turning immense shooting gravity into facilitating, only reinforces that belief.

Passing growth would unlock more pick-and-roll viability. The limited handle, burst/lower body strength, and distributing vision coalesced to produce consistent record-scratch moments for him in ball-screens last season. He ranked in the 32nd percentile as a pick-and-roll scorer and when passers are included, he finished in the 34th percentile. Too often, he’d fail to pressure the defense around a screen, either because his handle was disrupted or he didn’t have the zip to turn the corner. Instead, he’d retreat or resort to a poor decision.

Expanding his pull-up game to these pick-and-roll scenarios might really augment potential passing strides. He averaged roughly 2.5 pull-up attempts per game last season, and though efficient results weren’t there (45.5 percent on 2s, 29.2 percent on 3s), the flashes of comfort inspire hope. Mere refinement as a shot-maker remains an underrated aspect of development and Poole has exhibited a baseline of fluency to suggest it’s relevant here.

He’ll need to touch up that handle to broaden the scope of his pull-up, but a bedrock exists. Among 162 players with at least 100 pull-up attempts last season, he ranked 99th in effective field goal percentage (44.6). That is not good, of course, but the film just portrays someone whose confidence is ahead of his ability. It’s largely a matter of merging those aspects, which he absolutely can, though it’s by no means guaranteed. These clips, however, are the look of someone whose pull-up evolution is certainly attainable.

For all the reasons to praise his offense in the interim and long-term, his defense is much more concerning. Offensively, he is already good enough to offset those concerns as it pertains to a rotation role. But without development in some or many of the areas articulated above, his defense remains a glaring issue. There are instances of competency. He’ll stymie a drive and force his assignment to reassess their plans. He’ll execute a timely rotation to engender a pass or more challenging shot. Those are blips on the radar, though.

He has to improve in various facets. His closeouts are ineffectual. He’s overly jumpy against shot fakes. As a weak-side defender, he’s slow tagging rollers, is susceptible to losing his man if they lift along the arc, and dabbles in ball-watching too much.

Because of his lack of lower body stability, he typically fails to get low prepping for screens and finds himself trailing plays. Flexibility and fluidity around picks are not his strong suits. His lateral mobility, both on the ball and in off-ball ground coverage situations, is poor. The defensive film paints a dissatisfactory picture.

Fortunately for Poole and the Warriors, this context has the defensive infrastructure to mitigate most of these issues on a broad spectrum and also needs his offensive services. Last season, they finished fifth in defensive rating and 20th in offensive rating, despite Curry being, well, Steph Curry. Poole’s contributions are vital to staying relatively afloat offensively (Klay should help, too).

As contexts shift, though, Poole must sharpen areas on either side of the floor — whether it’s his handle, pull-up volume, or various defensive problems — to graduate beyond rotation player status. To be clear, though, that is already an excellent outcome for the 28th overall pick.

Looking ahead to the imminent 2021-22 season, Poole is going to be critical for Golden State. He complements its best player beautifully on offense and fits snugly into its overall philosophy. By no means does he determine its success, but a sustained breakout or lack thereof seems like the sort of storyline that could explain the Warriors’ Western Conference standing come April.

And this is, perhaps, both a laudatory and pressurized sentiment for a player whose rise is still only in the foundational stages. But it’s a promising foundation and one that previewed the blueprint of a highly versatile and skilled offensive player, someone who the Warriors and their fans should be rather optimistic about moving forward.