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In four months Taylor Swift will release her second re-recorded album, Red (Taylor’s Version), which arrives months after her first, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), topped the album charts. As the wait continues, we’ve now learned it will contain a rare song from the singer’s catalog.

The track is “Ronan,” and it was previously released as an exclusive iTunes song. It concerns a four-year-old boy named Ronan Thompson who died from cancer. Ronan’s mother Maya is credited as a co-writer on the song, and it was inspired by her blog Rockstar Ronan and written from her perspective. In a new blog post, she shared a portion of a letter Taylor recently sent her.

“I’ve recently completed the re-recording of my 4th album, ‘Red’,” Swift wrote to her. “It’s really exceeded my expectations in so many ways, and one of those ways is that I thought it would be appropriate to add ‘Ronan’ to this album. ‘Red’ was an album of heartbreak and healing, of rage and rawness, of tragedy and trauma, and of the loss of an imagined future alongside someone.” She added, “I wrote Ronan while I was making ‘Red’ and discovered your story as you so honestly and devastatingly told it. My genuine hope is that you’ll agree with me that this song should be included on this album. As my co-writer and the rightful owner of this story in its entirety, your opinion and approval of this idea really matters to me, and I’ll honor your wishes here.”

In the same blog plot, Maya also revealed that she gave Taylor permission to include the song on the album. She also shared her feelings about the singer’s request. “Taylor has anchored you to this world so you will never be lost, and now she has ensured you will forever be safe in a new, permanent home,” she wrote. “She is once again giving a voice to the often voiceless, bereaved parents of the world as well as childhood cancer which deserves so much more funding than it gets.”

Two years back, Taika Waititi added yet another project to an already towering pile: He wanted to bring Flash Gordon back to the big screen. It’s been over 40 years since the interstellar hero, first seen in comics in the mid-’30s, has been turned into a movie (and almost 15 years since his last TV show). Initially the filmmaker had planned on an animated opus. But it appears he’s since changed his mind.

In a new interview with Collider, producer John Davis, late of Jungle Cruise, revealed that Waititi has decided to go for broke, which is to say do it with flesh and blood actors. “He initially said to me, ‘Let’s do it animated.’ I said, ‘Okay,’” Davis recalled. “Then we got into it and started developing it and he said, ‘No, let’s do it live-action.’ I said, ‘Even better.’” (Of course, that means it will likely be both more expensive and trickier to make.)

Davis says Waititi has long been in love with the 1980 movie version, which starred Sam J. Jones as the athlete earthling who’s whisked off to space, where he battles the evil Ming the Merciless, played by Max Von Sydow. While a hit in England and Italy, it underperformed in the U.S. It’s since become a cult movie, as was bound to happen to a loony space adventure featuring a winged Brian Blessed and songs by Queen.

(Via Collider)

Since its formation in the early 1970s, hip-hop has grown exponentially, becoming one of the biggest genres in the world. This year alone a total of ten hip-hop albums have reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart this year — the most across any genre. So it’s no surprise that the Senate decided to grant hip-hop its own official holiday.

Less than a month before hip-hop turns 48, the United States Senate passed a resolution that recognized August 11 as National Hip Hop Celebration Day. The resolution also made August “Hip Hop Recognition Month” and November “Hip Hop History Month.” The news was shared via a tweet on the official Senate Periodicals page, which also revealed that the vote was passed with “unanimous consent.” This also marks the first time that hip-hop has been recognized in any fashion by the Senate.

August 11 is an extremely important date in hip-hop’s culture, as it serves as the day in 1973 that DJ Kool Herc, born Clive Campbell, and his sister Cindy Campbell held a back-to-school party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in Bronx, New York. It’s this party that many have claimed as the birth of hip-hop’s music and culture.

You can view the announcement from Senate in the tweet above.

The NBA free agent market doesn’t feature a ton of gigantic, franchise-naming names, but there are a handful of reliable players who can slide into a starting lineup or bench role and be very productive. One such guy who fits that bill is Derrick Rose, who is looking to parlay a solid season with the New York Knicks into a longer contract as an unrestricted free agent.

For a team that needs a point guard and prefers to have someone who can bring a scoring punch, Rose is a tailor-made fit. And apparently, one such team is his hometown squad, as Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report reports that both Rose and the Chicago Bulls are interested in a reunion. While Chicago reportedly also is interested in Lonzo Ball as a restricted free agent, per Fischer’s reporting, they have an eye on their former MVP.

“There are strong indications from league sources that mutual interest exists between Derrick Rose and his storied hometown franchise, where he claimed league MVP honors in 2010-11,” Fischer wrote. “It’s unclear how Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau can stand in the way of the Bulls’ potential advances, and Chicago will need to shed contracts to bring on two ball-handlers at such expected salaries.”

Rose was selected No. 1 overall in the 2008 Draft by the Bulls and was among the league’s most exciting players during his first few years, giving Chicago the kind of must-see superstar they hadn’t had up to that point in the post-Michael Jordan era. Rose won the 2011 league MVP award and made a trio of All-Star Games, but saw his productivity tail off due to a string of knee injuries and was eventually traded in 2016.

Of the freshman class of Republican lawmakers, Madison Cawthorn hasn’t anywhere close to the headline-staple infamy of Marjorie Taylor Greene or even a Lauren Boebert. But it’s not for lack of trying. He’s fumbled about as he tried to spread voter fraud lies; he’s made bizarre and lazy claims about President Biden’s vaccine push. He can’t even get into a screaming match correctly, as he did on Friday, with a member of the wrong party.

As per Politico, on Thursday Cawthorn got into a spat with fellow Republican representative David McKinley. Their beff? A bill to which Cawthorn no longer wanted his name attached. He was so incensed that he first took out his anger on a female member of McKinley’s staff. As the argument escalated, Cawthorn reportedly condescended to her, telling her to lower her voice when speaking to a member of Congress. He also referred to her boss as ” that guy with the mustache that nobody f*cking knows.”

Cawthorn later took his aggression to the floor of the House, where he confronted McKinley personally. McKinley called him out for pushing around his staff, and refused to take his name off the bill. Things soon mushroomed into a screaming match. At one point Cawthorn called McKinley out for daring to support the bipartisan committee investigating the events of Jan. 6.

“I said, ‘Your district will remember that. And if you want to run for re-election and you’re going to sit here and attack me all over this stuff, I will make sure they remember,’” Cawthorn later recalled tellin ghim. “And then he started getting all kinds of angry.”

The McKinley staffer later filed an ethics complaint, which seemed to have caused Cawthorn to simmer down. He sent both McKinley and his staffer letters of apology. In one he said he doesn’t “wish for any ill will between our offices” and hopes they can put “our differences behind us” and “focus on our true adversaries.”

The letters even made their way to social media, but some couldn’t get past Cawthorn’s handwriting.

Cawthorn’s name was finally removed from the bill. It remains to be seen if the House Ethics Committee will pursue the staffer’s complaint, details of which are currently unknown.

(Via Politico)

This time last summer, Bright Eyes delivered their first performance in over a decade on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Now they’re back doing live shows, doing a mini-tour that began on July 29 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and was set to last through the second week of August. Unfortunately, the band was forced to postpone select performances. A July 31 show in New York City, a pair of performances in Atlanta on August 6 and 7, as well as another one in Birmingham, Alabama on August 8 have all been postponed by the band. According to Stereogum, Bright Eyes shared a statement about the delay.

Due to the complications of managing a large touring party during a pandemic, Bright Eyes have made the difficult decision to postpone a handful of their indoor Summer 2021 shows. Over the past few weeks the band have joined the rest of the world in having to recalibrate and reassess their safety measures on an almost daily basis as new information is reported. The well being of the musicians, crew, friends and family on the road are of the utmost importance to them. Conor, Mike and Nate are aware that decisions they make for their traveling workplace have widespread repercussions for all immunocompromised family members within their touring party’s orbit and have therefore made the personal decision to postpone four shows during this time of unprecedented uncertainty. Bright Eyes will always prioritize the health and safety concerns of their touring team and are committed to providing a working environment everyone is comfortable with.

Refunds for the affected shows are available at the points of purchase. Bright Eyes also revealed that the New York City, Atlanta, and Birmingham shows will be rescheduled as a part of their 2022 touring schedule.

In what may be a harbinger of things to come, Paramount has suddenly pulled one of its biggest fall releases — Clifford the Big Red Dog, the live-action take on the beloved children’s series — from its theatrical release schedule. The film was due on September 17. But as per Deadline, the studio has yanked it, over concerns about the surging COVID cases brought about by the Delta variant.

Despite fears, voiced by the CDC and Dr. Anthony Fauci, that the country’s battle with the pandemic is taking a turn for the worse, Paramount isn’t looking to scotch the movie’s theatrical release entirely. (And there’s no word of any similar plans with their other big movies, including the already delayed Top Gun: Maverick.) They aren’t looking to dump it on their new streamer, Paramount+. Instead, they’re looking for a new release date. Still, it’s the first movie to get delayed due to the new, evolved strain of the disease that has already done a number on the planet.

The Clifford movie has come under considerable social media scorn, with many mocking the curious design of its giant CGi mutt. But according to Deadline, it’s been tracking very well, and the belief is it could be a big bread winner, at least once parents feel safe taking their brood to movie theaters.

(Via Deadline)

Kanye West held a listening event for Donda, his long-awaited new album, earlier this month. It took place at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the rapper stood by himself on the venue’s large floor to premiere songs from the album, which boasted guest appearances from Jay-Z, Lil Baby, Roddy Ricch, Lil Durk, Vory, and more. While many expected the project to arrive shortly after the event, that was not the case. Instead, Kanye opted to keep tweaking the album for a future release. He even moved into the Atlanta stadium in order to fully focus on completing the project.

Now Kanye has announced a second listening event for the album. He shared the news on Instagram and confirmed that it will take place on August 5, with the album rumored to drop the following day. The rapper’s label, Def Jam Recordings, also announced the news, adding that it would once again take place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The label also revealed tickets to attend the event will be made available on August 2, starting at 10 a.m.

It was just a day ago that TMZ reported that another Donda listening event was possibly in the works. The publication adds that Kanye is hoping to make it substantially different from the first iteration, following an ask from Live Nation and Creative Artists Agency, as they fear a smaller amount of tickets for the August 5 showcase will be sold.

The wait for Drake’s highly-anticipated sixth album Certified Lover Boy is nearly over. The Toronto rapper has kept fans waiting for the project’s release for the better part of a year. It was originally set to arrive back in January after Drake shared a nostalgic trailer for the release. It was later delayed as a result of Drake rehabbing from knee surgery for than he expected. While a new date was never announced, many hopped that Certified Lover Boy would arrive by the end of the summer and now, it seems like that will be the case.

Drake hopped on Fri Yiy Friday, a show on Sirius XM’s Sound 42 station which is led by his OVO Sound team, to share a new update about Certified Lover Boy. “Album’s ready… album’s cooked, looking forward to delivering it to you” he told the show’s hosts, OVO Mark and OVO Noel. Drake then took a shot at the competition with his next statement. “Certified Lover Boy on the way and that’s for anyone in the way.”

This comes after Drake revealed the project was in the mixing stage earlier this month. “You know Uncle Drake’s on his way back home to mix the album,” he said on a July 9 edition of the Fri Yiy Friday show. Elsewhere, Drake recently teamed up with Smiley for “Over The Top” before signing on to executive produce a documentary about the experiences of Black hockey players with LeBron James, Maverick Carter, and Adel “Future” Nur

You can listen to Drake’s announcement in the video above.

The United States men’s basketball team will compete for a gold medal. Despite a rocky start on Saturday, the American offense came to life in the game’s final three quarters en route to a blowout win over the Czech Republic. Now, thanks to the 110-76 victory, the team earned a spot in the knockout round, and find themselves three wins away from their fourth consecutive Olympic gold.

The Czech Republic came to play early on. While the U.S. looked sluggish in the game’s early moments, the Czechs raced out to a 9-2 lead and ultimately went up by as many as 10 points in the game’s first frame.

The main issue for the Americans came from the inability to hit shots, a common issue for the team during the tournament. The team went 7-for-19 (36.8 percent) from the field and 4-for-11 (36.4 percent) from three in the first frame, with the Czechs hitting anything they wanted, shooting 10-for-16 (62.5 percent) and 3-for-5 (60 percent), respectively. As a result, Team USA found itself down 25-18 after one frame, although they did have one rather impressive moment when Zach LaVine tossed up a prayer that got answered.

A seemingly different U.S. team came out of the break, as the team looked much more crisp on both ends of the floor to start the second quarter. Eventually, Kevin Durant knocked down a transition three that served two purposes: It gave the Americans their first lead of the night at 34-33, and it made Durant the leading scorer at the Olympics in the men’s program’s history.

Team USA ended up taking a 47-43 lead into the half, largely behind a narrow advantage from the three-point line. They made one more field goal and attempted three more shots from the field than the Czechs, but went 7-for-21 from three compared to 4-for-8 by their opponents. While efficiency wasn’t quite there, the sheer number of attempts made for a major difference. Durant’s 13 points led the way for the United States, while Illinois native Blake Schilb’s had 14 to lead all scorers.

Out of the break, Team USA started to pour it on. The shotmaking — particularly from behind the three-point line — that the team started to show in the second quarter became permanent, while the side showed a defensive intensity that made life miserable for the Czechs. Durant and Jayson Tatum did much of the heavy lifting on the offensive end of the floor, with Tatum scoring 17 in the second half and Durant scoring 10.

Tatum’s 27 points lead all scorers, while Durant had 23 with a game-high nine rebounds and six assists. The team eventually struggled to miss, going 45-for-72 (62.5 percent) from the field and a scorching hot 20-for-41 (48.8 percent) from three. Despite Schilb’s big night (17 points, five rebounds) and Tomas Satoransky stuffing the stat sheet (12 points, eight assists, six rebounds), the Czechs just could not keep up with that level of team-wide production.

Now, the Americans will sit back and wait to see who’s up next. We won’t learn until Sunday who the Americans play, but the potential looms large for a quarterfinal showdown with either longtime international rivals Spain, or a Slovenia team that boasts Luka Doncic.