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It’s no secret that comic book movies are huge moneymakers for the folks at Disney and Warner Bros. However, just how much these multibillion-dollar companies are giving the minds behind the stories and characters they’re adapting has been a bit secretive — and it turns out the truth isn’t very pretty. In a report published by The Guardian, several comic book creators came forward with stories of how their work has been compensated as both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Cinematic Universe have continued to expand. While DC was mentioned several times, the bulk of the article focused on Marvel and its mistreatment of writers/creators. According to multiple sources, despite Marvel making literal billions off of comic book writer’s properties, many creators are merely getting a $5,000 check and an invite to the film’s premiere.

However, for Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, the creators of Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier persona and his respective storyline, they didn’t even get that. According to Brubaker via The Guardian, when he and Epting showed up to the premiere party for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, they were told they weren’t on the list. Brubaker then had to text Sebastian Stan, the actor who played Bucky, and ask him to let them in. In his interview, Brubaker went into more detail on how he feels about the whole ordeal, as well as Marvel’s treatment of him and his partner in comic book creation:

For the most part, all Steve and I have got for creating the Winter Soldier and his storyline is a ‘thanks’ here or there, and over the years that’s become harder and harder to live with. I have a great life as a writer and much of it is because of Cap and the Winter Soldier bringing so many readers to my other work, but I also can’t deny feeling a bit sick to my stomach sometimes when my inbox fills up with people wanting comments on the show.

Of course, there are a few exceptions to the studio’s general mistreatment of comic book writers. According to Jim Starlin, the creator of Marvel’s Thanos, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” After arguing he was underpaid for his character appearing as the MCU’s big bad he was able to secure more money from Marvel. There is also an application in place to help creators get just compensation for their characters, though based on The Guardian’s report, it sounds anything but simple and fair:

The Guardian has seen an application for the “Marvel Special Character Contract”, in which creators can formally ask Marvel whether one of their characters qualifies for extra payouts. In the application form, Marvel explicitly reserves the right to tell creators their characters aren’t original enough to get the bonus, warning that “the decisions are final” and not subject to appeal. DC uses the same measure.

As more and more folks come after Disney and other studios for being a bit too greedy with their billions, it’s not surprising we’re seeing the creators of some of these top-grossing properties expect a bit more for their significant contributions to these growing “cinematic universes.” Here’s hoping the report sheds some light on the current situation and amends — and more equitable arrangements in the future — will be made.

Jack Antonoff has been spending time at Electric Lady Studios lately, or to get more specific, on the roof of the famed New York City studio. He recently brought Lorde up there and the two delivered some stripped-back renditions of some Solar Power songs. Now Antonoff is back on the roof, and this time, he brought St. Vincent with him.

Together, the two performed the new Bleachers song “What’d I Do With All This Faith?.” On Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night, St. Vincent delivers some background vocals, although it’s on “Stop Making This Hurt,” not this song. Meanwhile, Bleachers also performed a Vincent-less rendition of “Big Life.”

St. Vincent previously told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of working with Antonoff, “Because he can play everything — between the two of us, we can really play everything — there doesn’t have to be a sort of lost in translation moment where you go, ‘I kind of want it to be something like this,’ and then you get another instrumentalist in and you’re translating through them. I did work with other great people on the record; I don’t want to shortchange that at all, but we have a shorthand and he’s just one of my favorites.”

Watch the performance videos above.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit many people hard, but it’s been a particularly rough road for restaurant owners. Businesses that rely on people gathering can’t sustain being closed for long, and when your small business is your livelihood, your financial security can plummet far and fast.

That’s the situation Mary O’Halloran found herself in when her Irish pub in New York City’s east side was shut down just before St. Patrick’s Day. In a post shared by Humans of New York, O’Halloran explained that her longshoreman husband got stuck in the Aleutian Islands for nine months when the pandemic hit, as no flights were going out. That meant she was stuck with a suddenly shutdown pub, six kids who needed schooling from home, and no idea how to make it all work.

She explained what she did to homeschool her kids, as well as try to make ends meet:

“I pulled all the furniture out of the bar, and made a section for each of them [the kids]: pillow, blankets, everything they needed. Then I had to figure out how to survive. Other bar owners were just throwing up their hands, but I had to try something. I began catering dinners for emergency workers at a nearby hotel. It wasn’t much money, but it was something to do. Each night I’d cook dinner for thirty people. The kids would help when they could: peeling potatoes, washing dishes.

But I’d be so exhausted every day. Everyone had so much faith in me to survive. Maybe because I keep the tough side out—everyone assumed I was OK. Nobody knew I was full of worries. But it was so freakin’ hard. To keep the kids happy. Month after month I’m falling further behind on the rent. It felt like the walls were closing in.”

However, her regular customers kept showing up:

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“They ran errands for me. Sometimes they’d take the kids on walks to give me a break. There was a group of Irish musicians who would play here every Thursday night. They helped me set up an online store, so that I could sell scones to the music people. Soda bread scones with homemade blackberry jam. My mother’s recipe from back in Ireland. Really, it’s the simplest thing– but all six of us kids used to line up for them.”

Those scones became a lifeline for O’Halloran when a reporter did a story on the bar and tasted one of her scones live on TV. For a few months, the orders rolled in:

“It wasn’t a ton of money. I was only making $1800 for 100 boxes of scones. It wasn’t paying rent or anything. But it was something to do, you know? I finally found something that was working. People were writing notes, saying: ‘I gave these to my grandmother, and she loved them.’ It was the little bit of light that I needed. It pulled me forward. I didn’t feel alone anymore. It was like: ‘Oh My God, there’s something out there.’

O’Halloran’s story on Humans of New York resonated with people who acknowledged her work ethic and heart for service—and comments from those who know her and her pub came flooding in as well.

“I used to sing in Mary’s pub,” wrote one commenter. “My jazz band loved her food, my Irish parents loved her hospitality, and I loved her genuine, heartwarming, generous, positive, can-do, independent spirit. This woman is a Celtic Goddess. She’s the rainbow in an Irish sky. She adds a secret ingredient to the extraordinary mix of this melting pot city. As Nat King Cole spelled it…. L-O-V-E.”

“Mary is SO WONDERFUL,” wrote another. “No one in the world deserves happiness and success more than Mary. I had the pleasure of teaching her daughter Erinn, and Mary was the most incredible class parent, always sending in treats for the class and asking what more she could do when she was already stretched so thin. She even hosted our entire grade of 75 students for a cooking class at the pub! She often donates catered meals to our school’s teachers and office staff. We love you, Mary!!”

And yet another: “Mary even would come in on a Sunday am & teach local Boy Scouts how to cook & let them serve their families in her dining room! My son still knows how to crack an egg one-handed thanks to her. She’s a gem and so is Mary O’s!”

And still another: “I live around the corner. Mary let my neighbor get married in her restaurant. There was no money in it for her. Just needed a space for 30 minutes. There were only a few of us there in person; a lot of people on zoom. But Mary couldn’t help herself: She whipped together a shepherd’s pie and sautéed mushrooms and we had a wedding feast all afternoon.”

Brandon Stanton, the man behind Humans of New York created a special web page for people to purchase O’ Halloran’s scones for $30 instead of her price of $18 to help her out. “Mary started crying when I suggested raising prices, because she says other people are hurting more than her,” he wrote. “So if you are also in a tough spot, but want to try the scones, do not worry. The $18 non-magical scones are still available through her website.”

Within a day of posting Mary’s story and the link for ordering scones, more than $1 million worth of orders came in, Stanton shared on Instagram.

“We found a quiet table at the end of the night, and I gave her a full accounting,” Stanton wrote. “There were 25,000 orders, which meant 150,000 scones. She allowed herself a brief, joyful cry. Then she asked: ‘I can do this, right?’ I told her: ‘Of course.’ Because every one of those orders came from people who want the best for her. And I felt confident that we’d all be patient while she figured out a new process for making scones. Mary has a great team around her. She refers to them as ‘The Regulars’ as if they’re a squad of superheroes, but they’re actually longtime customers who transform into volunteers at a moment’s notice.”

Stanton said those volunteers have made it clear that after a decade of serving others, O’Halloran is simply reaping what she’s sown: “‘This woman deserves every bit of this,’ they said. ‘She gives and gives and never asks for a thing.’

It will take teamwork and planning and time to fulfill the scone orders, but it will be done. A GoFundMe also provides an alternative for people who want to help Mary O’s out directly.

What a beautiful show of support for a woman who has provided so much support for others.

This article originally appeared on 08.13.14

There’s a quote going around the Internet attributed to Robin Williams that goes as follows: “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”

Here’s where that quote came from. Williams was performing at the Roxy in 1978 for a brand new comedy special on a little known network called HBO. In the audience were a surprising group of people: Henry Winkler (The Fonz), Tony Danza (before he was famous), and even John Ritter, who does a weird round of improv with Williams at the end of the video.

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Robin Williams Live – the Roxy 1978

www.youtube.com

Trigger warning: discussion of suicidal thoughts. If you decide to start reading my personal story here, please read through the end.

When I was a kid, I was all over the map.

I was an ADD-riddled hyper-awkward nerd, jumping from thing to thing without a trackable train of thought, making jokes, going on tangents, freaking out, jumping around, and generally being weird. People didn’t know how to talk to me.

At the time, I was struggling with the bullying I was getting regularly, and one of my hobbies was contemplating places to commit suicide. My grandfather’s retirement community was seven stories tall and had a nice roof. I imagined plunging those seven stories to my death, and I’d show those bullies who was boss. Which was not the smartest thing to be thinking. Because they wouldn’t realize anything. I’d be dead, and my family would have to live through that pain for the rest of their lives. It’s the worst option ever, and you should never do it.

When I was 10 years old and discovered the genius of the comedy album “Reality … What A Concept,” I knew I had found a kindred spirit and role model in Robin Williams.

I wanted to be him. The kinetic energy he presented himself with reminded me of me, and I figured even though kids bullied me for being a freak, there was someone else who made it out of school in one piece who acted like me in a small way. I memorized his routine like it was Shakespeare. (And, in fact, at one point, he did a Shakespeare routine about porn.) I told the jokes to friends even though I didn’t get half of them.

Robin Williams was everything to me. His jokes made me realize there was more to life than just ending it. I started thinking about the family members I’d leave behind, how upset they’d be, and what I’d miss out on. I’d never get to perform at the Roxy. I’d never get to be on “Saturday Night Live.”

When I heard about Williams’ death by apparent suicide in August 2014, I was sad. For me, 28 years later, as a father, it wasn’t him I was worried about. It was his children and the pain they were no doubt dealing with as their father lost his fight with depression.

The even worse thing about celebrity suicides is that they actually can be contagious. People see the glamorized tributes and start to think that somehow they are a good idea. Let me be clear, they aren’t.

Listen to some advice from someone who knows and talked about it on Reddit:

I wish he would have listened to his own advice.

As we mourned, and continue to mourn, the loss of the incredible Robin Williams, please know that if you are suffering, you are not alone.

Many of us here at Upworthy have struggled with depression, and lots of things have helped us get better — from therapy to medication to yoga to meditation to running to memorizing comedy routines of incredibly talented people and other activities. And you can get better too.

If you are in distress right now, please call (800) 273-8255. We love you. Someone else loves you. And copying an incredibly self-destructive act with your own will only lead to more pain and suffering, not only for you, but for those who love you.

Share this and let those you love know how much they are loved, and if you need help, please just ask. There’s a better way than what you may be thinking.

Last week Isaiah Rashad dropped his excellent new album, The House Is Burning, which our hip-hop editor Aaron Williams described as depicting ” the tension between that sense of helplessness in the face of certain doom and our own… need to press forward as though this is all normal, even though we know it’s not.” This week, Rashad is keeping up the stream of new material by dropping a video for the Lil Uzi Vert-featuring “From The Garden.” The visuals start off in black and white, with Rashad rapping and walking through the neighborhood, lingering outside a line to get into a club, where 4-wheelers and expensive cars line the street.

Lil Uzi Vert does show up in the clip to rap alongside Rashad, wielding a 4-wheeler of his own in a return to black and white visuals that multiply and divide like a trippy ’70s video where twerking abounds. Cutting back to the club from earlier, more hijinks abound as someone drops a pizza, and Rashad makes it rain with fistfuls of money outside the club, as patrons eagerly run over to grab the cash. Check out the Omar Jones-directed visuals above and read our full review of The House Is Burning here.

The Brooklyn Nets had a relatively quiet offseason, which wasn’t a surprise given their roster and cap situation. The three biggest questions facing the Nets were what to do with Spencer Dinwiddie (who was sent to Washington in a sign-and-trade), what veterans they’d be able to keep (Bruce Brown and Blake Griffin re-signed, while Jeff Green left for Denver), and whether they’d be able to lock down their Big 3 to contract extensions.

To this point, Kevin Durant is the only one to sign on the dotted line, tacking four years and $198 million onto his deal in Brooklyn, but that could change very soon. Kyrie Irving and James Harden are also extension eligible this summer, with Irving able to sign a 4-year, $186.6 million deal and Harden able to add three years and $161 million to his deal that has two more years left. According to Nets GM Sean Marks, who met with the media on Wednesday morning, those deals should be done by training camp, putting the Nets in position to be the East frontrunners for the foreseeable future.

Many were quick to point out that this means the Nets tax bill will be through the roof, but that’s a problem for Joe Tsai and ownership’s wallets and for Marks to work out in terms of building the roster around them with little money to spend elsewhere. For Nets fans, it’s confirmation that this core will be together long-term and that, health-provided, they’ll be a title favorite in most if not all of the next five seasons. By the end of these deals, Durant will be 37, Harden will be 36, and Irving will be 34, which certainly presents a chance that they age out of being favorites by the end, but that’s a price the Nets are willing to pay (as they should) for what figures to be the best team on paper for some time.

MTV has officially unveiled their full list of nomination for the 2021 VMAs, with Justin Bieber and Megan Thee Stallion leading the pack. Thanks to his successful Justice release, Bieber holds seven nominations, including nods for Video Of The Year, Artist Of The Year, and Best Pop. Megan follows behind him with six nominations for categories like Video Of The Year and Song Of The Year.

This year’s MTV VMAs is set to return to Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the first time since 2013. It kicks off September 12 and organizers expect to invite musicians and fans to join the event in-person.

See the full list of 2021 VMA nominations below.

Video Of The Year

Cardi B Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “WAP”
DJ Khaled Feat. Drake — “Popstar” (Starring Justin Bieber)
Doja Cat Feat. SZA — “Kiss Me More”
Ed Sheeran — “Bad Habits” – Atlantic Records
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” – Columbia Records
The Weeknd — “Save Your Tears”

Artist Of The Year

Ariana Grande
Doja Cat
Justin Bieber
Megan Thee Stallion
Olivia Rodrigo
Taylor Swift

Song Of The Year

24kGoldn Feat. Iann Dior — “Mood”
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic — “Leave the Door Open”
BTS — “Dynamite”
Cardi B Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “WAP”
Dua Lipa — “Levitating”
Olivia Rodrigo — “Drivers License”

Best New Artist

24kGoldn
Giveon
The Kid Laroi
Olivia Rodrigo
Polo G
Saweetie

Push Performance Of The Year

Wallows — “Are You Bored Yet?”
Ashnikko — “Daisy”
Saint Jhn — “Gorgeous”
24kGoldn — “Coco”
JC Stewart — “Break My Heart”
Latto — “Sex Lies”
Madison Beer — “Selfish”
The Kid Laroi — “Without You”
Olivia Rodrigo — “Drivers License”
Girl in Red — “Serotonin”
Fousheé — “My Slime”
Jxdn — “Think About Me”

Best Collaboration

24kGoldn Feat. Iann Dior — “Mood”
Cardi B Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “WAP”
Doja Cat Feat. SZA — “Kiss Me More”
Drake Feat. Lil Durk — “Laugh Now Cry Later”
Justin Bieber Feat. Daniel Caesar, Giveon — “Peaches”
Miley Cyrus Feat. Dua Lipa — “Prisoner”

Best Pop

Ariana Grande — “Positions”
Billie Eilish — “Therefore I Am”
BTS — “Butter”
Harry Styles — “Treat People With Kindness”
Justin Bieber Feat. Daniel Caesar, Giveon — “Peaches”
Olivia Rodrigo — “Good 4 U”
Shawn Mendes — “Wonder”
Taylor Swift — “Willow”

Best Hip-Hop

Evanescence — “Use My Voice”
Foo Fighters — “Shame Shame”
John Mayer — “Last Train Home”
The Killers — “My Own Soul’s Warning”
Kings Of Leon — “The Bandit”
Lenny Kravitz — “Raise Vibration”
Cardi B Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “WAP”
Drake Feat. Lil Durk — “Laugh Now Cry Later”
Lil Baby Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “On Me (remix)”
Moneybagg Yo – “Said Sum”
Polo G — “Rapstar”
Travis Scott Feat. Young Thug & M.I.A. — “Franchise”

Best Rock

Evanescence — “Use My Voice”
Foo Fighters — “Shame Shame”
John Mayer — “Last Train Home”
The Killers — “My Own Soul’s Warning”
Kings Of Leon — “The Bandit”
Lenny Kravitz — “Raise Vibration”

Best Alternative

Bleachers — “Stop Making This Hurt”
Glass Animals — “Heat Waves”
Imagine Dragons — “Follow You”
Machine Gun Kelly Feat. Blackbear — “My Ex’s Best Friend”
Twenty One Pilots — “Shy Away”
Willow Feat. Travis Barker — “Transparent Soul”

Best Latin

Bad Bunny x Jhay Cortez — “Dákiti”
Billie Eilish & Rosalía — “Lo Vas A Olvidar”
Black Eyed Peas and Shakira — “Girl Like Me”
Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny, Tainy — “Un Die (One Day)”
Karol G — “Bichota”
Maluma — “Hawái”

Best R&B

Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, Saint Jhn, WizKid — “Brown Skin Girl”
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic — “Leave the Door Open”
Chris Brown and Young Thug — “Go Crazy”
Giveon — “Heartbreak Anniversary”
HER Feat. Chris Brown — “Come Through”
SZA — “Good Days”

Best K-pop

(G)I-DLE — “Dumdi Dumdi”
Blackpink and Selena Gomez — “Ice Cream”
BTS – “Butter”
Monsta X — “Gambler”
Seventeen — “Ready To Love”
Twice — “Alcohol-Free”

Video For Good

Billie Eilish — “Your Power”
Demi Lovato — “Dancing With The Devil”
HER — “Fight For You”
Kane Brown — “Worldwide Beautiful”
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”
Pharrell Williams Feat. Jay-Z — “Entrepreneur”

Best Direction

Billie Eilish — “Your Power” Directed by Billie Eilish
DJ Khaled Feat. Drake — “Popstar (Starring Justin Bieber)” Directed by Julien Christian Lutz aka Director X
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” Directed by Lil Nas X and Tanu Muino
Taylor Swift — “Willow” Directed by Taylor Swift
Travis Scott Feat. Young Thug & M.I.A — “Franchise” Directed by Travis Scott
Tyler, The Creator — “Lumberjack” Directed by Wolf Haley

Best Cinematography

Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, SAINt JHN, WizKid — “Brown Skin Girl” Cinematography by Benoit Soler, Malik H. Sayeed, Mohammaed Atta Ahmed, Santiago Gonzalez, Ryan Helfant
Billie Eilish — “Therefore I Am” Cinematography by Rob Witt
Foo Fighters — “Shame Shame” Cinematography by Santiago Gonzalez
Justin Bieber Feat.Chance The Rapper — “Holy” Cinematography by Elias Talbot
Lady Gaga — “911” Cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth
Lorde — “Solar Power” Cinematography by Andrew Stroud

Best Art Direction

Beyoncé, Shatta Wale, Major Lazer — “Already” Art Direction by Susan Linns, Gerard Santos
Ed Sheeran — “Bad Habits” Art Direction by Alison Dominitz
Lady Gaga — “911” Art Direction by Tom Foden, Peter Andrus
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” Art Direction by John Richoux
Saweetie Feat. Doja Cat — “Best Friend” Art Direction by Art Haynes
Taylor Swift — “Willow” Art Direction by Ethan Tobman, Regina Fernandez

Best Visual Effects

Bella Poarch — “Build a Bitch” Visual Effects by Andrew Donoho, Denhov Visuals, Denis Strahhov, Rein Jakobson, Vahur Kuusk, Tatjana Pavlik, Yekaterina Vetrova
Coldplay — “Higher Power” Visual Effects by Mathematic
Doja Cat & The Weeknd – “You Right” Visual Effects by La Pac, Anthony Lestremau, Julien Missaire, Petr Shkolniy, Alexi Bailla, Micha Sher, Antoine Hache, Mikros MPC, Nicolas Huget, Guillaume Ho Tsong Fang, Benjamin Lenfant, Stephane Pivron, MPC Bangalore, Chanakya Chander, Raju Ganesh, David Rouxel
Glass Animals — “Tangerine” Visual Effects by Ronan Fourreau
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” Visual Effects by Mathematic
Pink — “All I Know So Far” Visual Effects by Dave Meyers, Freenjoy Inc

Best Choreography

Ariana Grande — “34+35” Choreography by Brian Nicholson & Scott Nicholson
BTS — “Butter” Choreography by Son Sung with BHM Performance Directing Team
Ed Sheeran — “Bad Habits” Choreography by Natricia Bernard
Foo Fighters — “Shame Shame” Choreography by Nina McNeely
Harry Styles — “Treat People With Kindness”
Marshmello & Halsey — “Be Kind” Choreography by Dani Vitale

Best Editing

Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic — “Leave the Door Open” Editing by Troy Charbonnet
BTS — “Butter” Editing by Yong Seok Choi from Lumpens
Drake — “What’s Next” Editing by Noah Kendal
Harry Styles — “Treat People With Kindness”
Justin Bieber Feat. Daniel Caesar, Giveon — “Peaches”
Miley Cyrus Feat. Dua Lipa — “Prisoner”

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

LAS VEGAS — Darius Garland has spent his summer working.

In the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics, Garland was a member of the Team USA Select Team and, for a few exhibition games, played for the senior roster. In Las Vegas, he spent weeks being coached by Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra and competing with and against experienced stars like Damian Lillard, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green.

According to Garland, the experience was a confidence builder for him coming out of his second season in the league.

“It was getting to play against some of the best players in the world,” Garland told Dime. “They gave me the confidence and they gave me the keys to have the ball in my hand a lot in practice and scrimmages.”

Back in Las Vegas for summer league, Garland is taking those lessons from a summer with the best in the world and using them to embrace a bigger leadership role with the Cavs. In-between games, Garland, Collin Sexton, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen and others have been working out together under the supervision summer league head coach and Cavs assistant J.J. Outlaw, who was hired in 2019, in large part, to work directly with Garland and aid in his development.

For Garland, he says the goal of the workouts is to build chemistry with teammates he hasn’t seen since the season ended. It’s getting to reconnect with Allen, who the Cavs’ signed to a five-year, $100 million deal this summer, and his backcourt partner, Sexton. It also means beginning to gel with Mobley, the No. 3 pick in July’s draft. It’s also a role several people in the Cavs organization, including Outlaw and general manger Koby Altman, have talked about wanting Garland to take on.

“I just need to communicate more and be around the guys and try to find out what their vibe is and just try to make them better as much as I can,” Garland said. “It’s fun [being here], building camaraderie and seeing faces I haven’t seen in a couple months. Just being around each other, getting the vibes from each other. It’s about building chemistry for this season and it’s a good sign, everybody being here and being locked in and really just sacrificing the time out just to come.”

It’s the surest sign that Garland himself has grown comfortable and confident in his place in the league that he can begin to shift more of his focus outward to teammates. In particular, Garland sees getting Mobley acclimated to the league and figuring out his role on the Cavs as part of his job, even if they won’t actually share the court until the fall. When that moment comes, Garland seems very excited about the possibilities of playing with someone who possesses his natural gifts.

“His size is crazy,” Garland said. “He’s only like 19 and he’s a seven-foot athlete. There’s a lot more to come.”

It’s also getting easier for Garland to build those off-court bonds with his teammates. Last year, Garland says, dinners and team hangouts weren’t really possible due to league health and safety protocols and a condensed schedule. Now, those are far more common, with the team talking to each other about non-basketball topics and learn more about each other on a deeper level. For a young team, that off-court bond lends itself to more trust on it, and for a point guard like Garland, it allows him to be more aware of how to push the right buttons to get the most out of his teammates.

As for himself, Garland believes his confidence is “way higher” than it’s ever been since being draft by the Cavs in 2019. Year 1, Garland says life was “hectic” and he was just trying to get games under his belt as he came off of surgery that ended his Vanderbilt career early. Year 2 was better — “a totally different thing,” he says — but also not good enough for what he and the Cavs want to accomplish.

Now, as Year 3 approaches, Garland feels he’s in a great space, ready to take that next step both as a player and a leader in Cleveland. It’s just a matter of putting in the work.

“I had my relaxation time already,” he says of his rest of summer plans. “It’s time to get to work. The season is about to start.”

Lil Nas X has been on a roll this year. After ushering in a new era of music, the rapper dropped the internet-breaking song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” along with the introspective number “Sun Goes Down” and the viral Jack Harlow collaboration “Industry Baby.” Thanks to the success of his recent singles, it’s no wonder that Lil Nas X has just become Spotify’s most-listened-to male rapper, surpassing DaBaby’s monthly listeners shortly after the rapper’s homophobic on-stage rant.

Lil Nas X now boasts well over 52 million monthly listeners on the popular streaming platform, according to Spotify’s data. That’s about one million more than DaBaby, who currently sits at 51 million monthly listeners. Upon hearing the news, Lil Nas X graciously thanked his followers for their continued support, saying it’s a career record for him. “wow this is insane,” he rapper on Twitter. “this is the most i’ve ever had in my career. thank u to everybody listening.”

The rapper’s victory over DaBaby in streaming numbers arrives shortly after DaBaby was captured on the Rolling Loud stage making some very uninformed remarks about HIV/Aids and the LGBTQ community. Several festivals booted DaBaby from their lineups as a result of his homophobic rant, and many celebrities like Dua Lipa and Miley Cyrus condemned the rapper out for his uneducated comments.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Nicolas Cage has been in some wild movies over the years. He stole the Declaration of Independence in National Treasure, fought evil animatronics in Wally’s Wonderland, and had a cage of bees placed over his head (after punching a woman in the face while dressed as a bear) in Wicker Man, to say nothing of his time as Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider. But Cage thinks Prisoners of the Ghostland “might be the wildest movie I’ve ever made.” Cage and director Sion Sono (Suicide Club) is a match made in wild heaven.

In Prisoners of the Ghostland, Cage plays a bank robber who’s freed from jail by a rich warlord. The catch: he has five days to find the warlord’s granddaughter, played by Sofia Boutella (Climax, Atomic Blonde), or else the leather suit that he’s in will go kablam. “It’s just crazy,” the actor said about the film. “It’s way out there.”

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

In the treacherous frontier city of Samurai Town, a ruthless bank robber (Nicolas Cage) is sprung from jail by wealthy warlord The Governor (Bill Moseley), whose adopted granddaughter Bernice (Sofia Boutella) has gone missing. The Governor offers the prisoner his freedom in exchange for retrieving the runaway. Strapped into a leather suit that will self-destruct within five days, the bandit sets off on a journey to find the young woman — and his own path to redemption.

Prisoners of the Ghostland hits theaters and VOD and digital on September 17.