The Las Vegas Raiders have a bit of a reputation during the NFL Draft for reaching to take the guy they want, regardless of when Roger Goodell takes the stage to read their selection. This year, that meant the team took Alex Leatherwood with the No. 17 pick. Leatherwood, an offensive lineman out of Alabama, was a decorated player in college, but was viewed as more of a day two prospect among prognosticators.
There are two bits of good news here for Raiders fans who might roll their eyes at the team going forward with a perceived reach. One is that Leatherwood was really good in Tuscaloosa, earning unanimous All-American nods in 2020 and winning the Outland Trophy, given annually to the nation’s best interior lineman. The other is that Leatherwood is a delightful character off the field, as evidenced by the following bit of information in bullet point No. 4.
Fun fact about the Raiders’ No. 17 pick Alex Leatherwood:
It is unclear exactly which memes Leatherwood relies on most as he gets points across, and Alex, if you are reading this, please feel free to reach out so we can discuss. Anyway, he also has extremely strong takes on dogs vs. cats, the latter of which he believes are “demons.”
Alabama had a record-tying night on Thursday, as six players were selected in the first round of the Draft. There will be plenty of debate as to who the most fun of those players is on the field, but off of it, Leatherwood seems to have the field lapped for now.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
“I get intrusive thoughts like cutting my hands off, like jumping in front of a bus,” Girl In Red — the musical project of Norwegian singer-songwriter Marie Ulven — sings in her latest single, the Finneas O’Connell-produced “Serotonin.” She adds, “I’m running low on serotonin, chemical imbalance got me twisting things, stabilize with medicine, but there’s no depth to these feelings.”
The 22-year-old indie rock/lo-fi pop artist has been open about her life with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and brought her experiences with life, love, and growing up to the forefront for her forthcoming debut album, If I Could Make It Go Quiet, out today (April 30). Produced by herself and Matias Telléz, the LP largely confronts the “mean voices” in her head, while also attempting to accept the ebbs and flows of her maturing mind, body, and soul. (“I hate the way my brain is wired…” she admits on the thumping, choral “Rue.” “I try to get it off my mind, to leave it all behind, don’t wanna make it worse.”) The project’s release date was delayed during the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave Ulven the chance to dive even deeper to unpack her feelings regarding solitude (the ironically spacious “Apartment 402”), physical love (the painfully honest “Hornylovesickmess”), and mental self-awareness (“Serotonin”).
“I’ve been going through so many different emotional changes within relationships, whether it’s my friends, or how I treat people, and how I am as a person,” she explains over Zoom from Norway of the “emotional recap” If I Could Make It Go Quiet purveys. “I’ve become more self-aware [this year] and realized that I’m full of flaws, and I’m just so many things.”
But don’t get it twisted: this honesty is not new. Ulven amassed a global following after the success of her 2018 breakout single, the guitar-driven and genuine “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend.” Her candid melodies — which come equipped with vulnerable, straightforward lyricism — are bolstered by captivating instrumentals she often self-produces and arranges. Her words often tackle her journey through growing pains, mental health, and her experiences as a queer person. Girl In Red’s emotional authenticity is likely a byproduct of being a Gen Z’er, where much of her fanbase resides, resulting in supporters who feel seen, heard, and understood by her messages.
As a young millennial (not much older than Ulven, but you know… any age gap is quite the gap), I praise the frankness she and her generation possess, before admitting that I wish I were more open about my emotional needs and struggles while growing up. The difference, she notes? “[You] not having the Internet in those defining years of being a teenager really separates it.” Bingo, Marie.
Uproxx caught up with Ulven for a lovely chat days before the release of her album, where we discussed not only the emotional process of crafting her debut LP, but self-discovery and self-love during quarantine.
Let’s get into If I Could Make It Go Quiet…are you nervous? Because it’s your first, first album. What are some of the reasonings for those nerves, you think?
I’ve never put out an album before, also I sometimes forget that people actually think that I know what I’m doing. When I get reviews from shows and stuff, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know what I’m doing. They’re going to like perceive it as I know what I’m doing…’ Does that even make any sense?
It does. And I think you have every right to be nervous in that way, especially since, you know, we’re all going through something nowadays. And this album confronts a lot of those voices you might have inside your head regarding how you feel about yourself, how you feel about love and life. What do you think has been the biggest emotional change you’ve experienced this year, and how have you been able to really thrust that experience into this project?
Oh, I’ve had so many. But it’s really this weird, overall feeling of coming to terms with being a human has been really hard for me, and learning that I’m just a human and that I have this body that anything can happen to. It’s like ‘Marie’ — like the me, and my body, and my head. And then, this emotional thing of being like… the fact that I’m just going to die. I’ve just been thinking so much and trying to accept the fact that I’m not a mortal, which is really hard to accept for me.
We’re kind of feeling those sorts of things in real-time together, especially during this time. I’m sure it was incredibly cathartic to just let all that out.
It’s really cathartic doing something you really love, and I’ve really loved being in the studio and making music. When you kind of get into that flow and you start feeling really good? I love that. [It’s] a lot of hard work as well. Sometimes, I just had squeeze the words out of me, so it’s definitely been, it’s been a roller coaster. So, when people would be asking me about my process and stuff, I’m like, ‘I’m just vibin’.’ I’m just like, ‘I don’t know how to explain the process, I’m just like ‘hit record and vibe.’
I really hope [this album] matters and that it does something for someone, and that people can apply it to their own lives and take it in. [I hope] they think back in, like, five years time, and be like, ‘Oh, this music was really important to me in this time,’ and that they are taken back to this time of their lives and remember feelings. That’s the best part about music — looking back and seeing what it did for you.
Also on the album, there’s the topic of love: loving somebody, loving yourself. “Serotonin” is incredibly straightforward when it comes to those innermost thoughts [about loving yourself]. And what I appreciate about your music is that it’s honest, there’s no holds barred. Do you ever have a fear about coming forward when it comes to those intrusive thoughts that you have?
For that song particularly, I wrote it and I was like, ’wow, I had a lot of stuff I had to get out…’ So many people have their own perception of what it’s like dealing with different things. I’ve definitely had the thought of people not validating my experiences, or people not seeing this experience as something that’s song-worthy or whatever. I’ve definitely had those doubts, especially for [“Serotonin”]. I’ve never actually felt that way before that song, but you know, most comments have been great. Obviously there are people who are going to be like, ‘yo…this is too straightforward.’ But, I had so many therapists and people who work with OCD patients reach out. It is a very misunderstood disorder, and I’ve had people reach out to me and be like, ‘This is so important that you’re making this.’ I’m really proud, I just pulled through and did it.
As for love, I kind of feel like [the album tackles] a lot of unrequited love, and a lot of misunderstandings, but also very much realizing that I am a lot. It’s not all about what this other person did to me, it’s really about putting myself in other people’s shoes as well. So, “Midnight Love” is me not being someone’s booty call… I’m the booty caller. I’m writing from my booty call’s perspective… Oh my God. (laughs) Anyway, I’m also reflecting on what my actions do. In the song that’s just called “(.)”… it’s just a full stop. I’m heartbroken, but I’m also like ‘I could have done more to actually make this work.’ So, it’s not all about ‘I feel sorry for me,’ it’s also like, ‘I need to speak up about my feelings and I need to be more clear, I need to communicate.’
You’re still growing, still maturing and still trying to understand yourself. Growing pains come with so much nonsense and they hurt terribly sometimes. How do you continue to nurture your emotions and show yourself self-love while you’re on this journey?
That’s been really hard, and I kind of tap into that also on this record. During my song “Body And Mind,” I have lyrics about how “practicing self-love is something I don’t really know… I suppose I cannot live like this anymore,” which is about me realizing that I actually don’t love myself. I’ve loved myself before, but in this last year and a half, I’ve kind of grown to not love myself, and that’s been very painful. I really don’t wish that upon anyone ever, because it’s a very hard feeling to describe. I remember when I was younger, I couldn’t relate to when people said, ‘Oh my God, I hate myself.’ I was like, ‘How is that even possible?’ My friends also don’t understand what I mean when I say it because they’ve never done it, but it’s really painful.
So what I do now is try and do stuff that makes me happy. I hang out with my dog! She makes me happy. I try to shut down my inner voice — I’ve said that the rudest person I’ve ever met is myself. My inner voice is the rudest person I’ve ever talked to. So, I’m just really trying to do stuff that I like, and hang out with people that reinforce good things. And I try not to find stuff that reinforces all the bad stuff I taught myself.
I feel like I’ve kind of tried to do the very same thing on my own journey. I don’t dislike myself — I’ve just disliked the things that I’ve had to go through. They’re all making me a stronger person, but it’s like, ‘why, why, why?’
That’s so hard, too! You can say that to yourself, ‘it’s gonna make me stronger person,’ But it’s so hard to keep reminding yourself of that when you’re in the middle of it all. It’s kinda like when you know that you should be fully honest with someone, but it’s also really hard when you’re standing in front of that person. And then that person is asking you that question, you just don’t want to answer.
Exactly, we just have to stay positive. Plus, the world’s kind of trying to open up a little bit, so that could help. What are some of the plans or hopes that you have for 2021 and beyond as we push towards a little bit more of a brighter future?
I definitely kind of want to catch up on some stuff that I feel like I maybe missed out on last year that I want to do. I got some impulses last year to travel to certain places and go dancing and places, but, you know, I just couldn’t do anything with those impulses. This year — if I can — I wanna be with my friends and I really want to nurture all my friendships. Like, two years ago, I was hella depressed, and I was like, ‘I don’t need any friends. I just need to be making music. And I just need to be creating art all by myself. People who hang out with friends, what are you doing with your time? You need to create art.’ I was literally in this crazy bubble of depression, and just thinking that anything that was fun was bad. But now I’m like, no, fun is iconic. It’s so healthy to have fun! I want to go back on the road. I want to find a way to deal with touring that doesn’t kill me fully. I just want to hug my fans. I just want to be the best I can be. I just want to be warm and welcoming.
If I Could Make It Go Quiet is out now via AWAL. Get it here.
While 2019 was a quiet year for him, 21 Savage arrived in 2020 to make plenty of noise in the music world and deliver music his fans waited so long for, that being his Savage Mode II joint album with Metro Boomin. The sequel to their 2016 mixtape quickly became a year-end favorite among their supporters. It also help bring 21 Savage back into the spotlight, a trend that continues with his latest single, “Spiral.” The track arrives as a part of the upcoming Saw spinoff, Spiral: From The Book Of Saw, and was recently used for the film’s trailer which was released at the end of March.
After the trailer for the movie arrived, Variety reported that 21 Savage was enlisted to executive produce the soundtrack for Spiral: From The Book Of Saw. The film, which arrives on May 14, is produced by and stars Chris Rock who stands beside Samuel L. Jackson as a father-son duo who must face a Jigsaw copycat killer. The horror film is a perfect body of work for 21 Savage to provide music for. The Atlanta rapper has made a name for himself through spooky and menacing tracks that often err into the gruesome side of life and detail the nighttime dealing he experienced at various points in his life.
Actor and filmmaker Justin Baldoni is a heartthrob, in pretty much every sense of the word. Best known for his role of the handsome and sensitive Rafael Solano on the TV series Jane the Virgin, Baldoni has spent a good portion of his acting career playing the role of a guy who makes women swoon when he takes off his shirt. In real life, he’s known for being a deep and thoughtful man—who is also handsome, and yes, looks good with his shirt off—making him seem like the quintessential man-who-has-it-all.
That’s why Baldoni’s struggles with his own body might come as a surprise to many people.
Baldoni opens up about his body image issues in his new book, “Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity.” In fact, he shares that he’s spent much of his life suffering from body dysmorphia—a psychological disorder in which people have a distorted perception of a part of their body, where they see something different in the mirror than what other people see.
For Baldoni, it started when he was young and being teased by guys for being too skinny. While he’d always been an athlete, he started hitting the weight room in high school—hard. “I became obsessed with gaining muscle,” he wrote. Though he ended up gaining 25 pounds of muscle, it wasn’t enough.
“It was never enough,” he wrote. “When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see what everyone else saw. I didn’t see a teenager who was so jacked that he was accused of being on steroids. I didn’t see the six-pack. When I looked in the mirror, I still saw the skinny kid whose abs weren’t visible enough, whose shoulders didn’t fill out his shirts enough, who should probably try harder and put in more hours to gain more muscle. Wake up earlier. Push harder. Be better. It’s never enough and never will be.”
Now he’s 37, and though he thought he’d moved past those insecurities, he admits found himself anxious on the set of Jane the Virgin whenever he was going to be shirtless in a scene. He was grateful to be working and making money as an actor, but playing “the hot guy” came at a cost. He would resort to extreme dieting and exercise leading up to shirtless shoots, and he would even use props to hide parts of his body he felt self-conscious about. And getting support was tricky. Here’s a guy with a physique many would pay good money to have, and he’s feeling self-conscious?
In a confusing bit of irony, Baldoni came to realize that the roles he’d taken on had perpetuated the problem he himself was experiencing. “On the one hand, in my personal life I was beginning this journey to (hopefully) find a level of body acceptance that I had never known,” he wrote, “but on the other hand, I was taking off my shirt on TV and literally creating the same images that triggered my insecurities as a boy.”
“I’m tired. I’m so damn tired of it,” he added. “I’m part of the problem, and I’m also suffering, and those two things are not exclusive. So at the very least can we start talking about it?”
I did talk to him about it this week in an interview about his book. When I asked about his body image issues, Baldoni pointed out that women deal with body image issues on a whole other level than men do, and he doesn’t want him talking about his own issues to detract from that. But he also points out that the same system that creates that baggage for women also hurts men.
“Women struggle with this on far greater levels because of, I believe, the patriarchal system we live in,” he says. “And the objectification, and the way that we have propagated women’s bodies as objects instead of people…women have been struggling with this for so much longer because men have reduced women to their bodies and we use bodies to sell.”
“The male body image thing is a little trickier to unpack,” he says, “mostly because it doesn’t have anything to do with women. It’s the same system. What I’ve learned is that so many of the men I know who struggle with their body image don’t struggle with their body image because they want to impress women. They struggle with their body image because they want to be accepted and respected by men.”
“Women are being oppressed and sexualized and objectified by men, and men are also suffering in a similar way silently, because of the exact same system,” he says. “It hurts all of us.”
Having conversations about hard-to-talk-about elements of manhood is what “Man Enough” is all about. Baldoni calls the book “a love letter to men,” and an invitation to explore the elements of the male experience that are often thought of as taboo or shameful or embarrassing or not “manly” enough to talk about.
Much of the book is about Baldoni’s relationships—with his body, with his parents, with his peers, with his wife and kids, with his faith, and with himself—and how the scripts of masculinity that have been passed down for generations can impact and influence those relationships. He doesn’t use the term “toxic masculinity,” because he feels that it’s been too politicized. But he does get into the ways in which certain traditions and messages of masculinity have hurt both women and men, and how he has learned to unpack what it means to be a man in order to embrace who he is without having to prove anything about his manhood.
Baldoni calls it a long, slow journey from his head to his heart, one in which he is learning to take off the armor, take off the mask (figuratively, not literally), and be all of the various parts of himself that are genuine without feeling like any of them diminish him as a man. Ultimately, the journey leads to knowing that he is enough, just as he is.
“The messages of masculinity will tell me over and over again that I need to be better or different,” he wrote, “that I need to conform to be worthy. They’ll tell me to acquire more success, confidence, muscles, women, social status—you name it, I will always need more. But my heart? My heart will simply say, ‘I am enough,’ over and over again.”
In recent months, it appears that many hip-hop artists have circled back around to a tried-and-true promotion tactic while live touring is still mostly shut down: Remixing other artist’s hits. We’ve seen several artists take on SpotemGottem’s viral hit “BeatBox” and Coi Leray’s “No More Parties.” Now, it looks like we can add Mooski’s “Track Star” to the list of coveted tracks for bigger stars to cover, as A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie puts his own spin on the TikTok favorite.
The Woodpecker-produced, dancehall-influenced beat remains unchanged, and A Boogie lets the now-familiar hook play out before coming in with his revamped verse, flexing his way through a melodic rap with a number of vocal effects applied throughout.
A Boogie’s had a relatively quiet year so far, although this weekend has seemingly cracked the seal on new music from the Bronx native. In addition to dropping his remix of “Track Star,” he also appears on DJ Khaled’s new album, Khaled Khaled, rhyming alongside Big Sean, Puff Daddy, and Rick Ross on “This Is My Year.”
Listen to A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie’s take on Mooski’s viral hit “Track Star” above.
A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Lately, Sharon Van Etten fans have been hearing her songs as interpreted by others, as she recently finished rolling out her Epic Ten anniversary release, which features other artists performing songs from her album Ten. Now, Van Etten has turned the table by sharing a cover of her own, performing Daniel Johnston’s “Some Things Last A Long Time.” The song was recorded for the 2020 documentary Feels Good Man, about the creator of the Pepe The Frog meme.
This comes after Van Etten supported an initiative from the Hi, How Are You Project, a mental health-focused non-profit inspired by Johnston, last year. The campaign, launched to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Month in May, had a simple ask: “Because mental health matters, I pledge to ask others, ‘Hi How Are You?’”
Van Etten also recorded an original song for the film, “Let Go,” which was shared a few months ago. Van Etten said of the film and her song for it, “After watching the documentary, I just followed the feeling of coming to terms with something and tried to evoke peace through my melody and words. The song and film’s producer, Giorgio [Angelini], was a great collaborator and communicator and I was given a lot of freedom. That says a lot about the film and the people who made it.”
Listen to Van Etten’s cover of “Some Things Last A Long Time” above.
I was talking with my colleague, Martin Rickman, the other day about the Foo Fighters‘ new rock and roll van life documentary, What Drives Us, and he summed up Dave Grohl in a way that I hadn’t heard before: “He’s the Guy Fieri of rock.” Whether you take that as an insult or not is subjective. To me, it’s a spot-on assessment of Grohl (who directs the doc, which you can stream now through the Coda Collection on Prime), someone that is the ultimate ambassador for a more uncomplicated and less self-serious kind of rock and roll, and universally known as a good guy who always seems like he’s having fun doing what he loves.
To many, Grohl (like Fieri) is an appealing and positive part of the pop culture landscape. This, of course, makes him a target to those who view his whole thing as manufactured and inauthentic. Because trying is often regarded as such, especially within the world of rock where, historically, likeability hasn’t been quite as effective a mythmaker as sex, drugs, and indifference. Somehow Grohl found a way around that, though. Good for him and good for the survival of the rock and roll aesthetic, frankly, because while the music has been downshifted somewhat in the cultural hierarchy, the brand needs someone to keep the flame alive and make it seem cool to grab a guitar, jump into a van, and see if magic happens.
All of this isn’t to say that Grohl has lost all other relevance. The Foo Fighters still churn out radio-friendly cuts. Sure, they don’t reach the level of their past hits, but in what way is that unique for a band that’s been at it for a quarter-century? I personally liked parts of the recent Medicine At Midnight with the funky ambition of “Shame Shame” and the Lemmy-inspired muscle of “No Son Of Mine.” I want to sit in an arena with 20,000 people shredding my throat to “The Sky Is A Neighborhood” from 2017’s Concrete And Gold after running through “My Life” and “Stacked Actors” from days gone by. And they’ll sell out that arena and a bunch of other ones because people love this band and the way they still play loud and fast. Again, uncomplicated.
Grohl’s continuing relevance is what gives his second (third?) act as a documentarian and very specific rock historian credibility. That and the fact that he’s pretty good at it, bringing unique access and perspective to stories about the spaces and cities where music history has been built brick by brick with Sound City and the Sonic Highways docuseries. When you think about it, switching things up to focus on the connective tissue between those things makes perfect thematic sense, and so here we are with What Drives Us, another excuse to float in the nostalgia with Grohl, the other Foo Fighters, and a few famous rockers (Steven Tyler, The Edge, Slash, Flea, Tony Kanal) who deliver a mixed bag of memories and aphorisms.
The insights derived from the experience of watching this doc are… fine. Rock greybeards talk all about the experience of piling into an Econoline or other metal beast and how it forged a sense of family with their bandmates while archival images of babyfaced versions of them occasionally dot the screen.
Grohl’s central thesis is that there’s a commonality to the experience of a van tour, something that’s illustrated by appearances by St. Vincent and a Missouri-based punk band, Radkey, who rides around the country in a rented van with their dad as a roadie. But while Radkey gets a few minutes to tell their story, I wanted more, specifically around the challenges of touring in a van and getting your name out in modern times (especially since I’m now pretty obsessed with their music thanks to the doc). That’s something Grohl, Flea, and others aren’t going to be able to speak to. All of this sparks a wonder on if this project might have been better served going the Sonic Highways docuseries route where Grohl could focus whole episodes on some of the feature’s more compelling artists like Radkey or Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro, who goes into detail on his substance abuse struggles throughout his career and how it took him to a point where he was homeless.
Aside from Peligro, there really isn’t much about the downfall of life of the road, nor is there the expected sleaze about groupies and random hookups. Maybe that’s because Grohl is shining a light on the moment before the trappings of fame began to impose themselves on these musicians or maybe it’s in the name of his broad reputation as a nice guy who wouldn’t traffic in such stories. This is not a complaint, by the way. If you want that kind of on-the-road confessional, there are plenty of other places to get it. But it’s an interesting omission. As is the sparsity of Nirvana references and reflections or really much at all to do with the Seattle scene from which Grohl was launched (after his start in DC with Scream, which does get some real estate here). Though, again, it’s not like those stories aren’t out there.
Similar to the feelings evoked when watching the Radkey and Peligro segments, I wanted for a full episode around Grohl’s own tour stories, which are heavily tilted toward the first Foo Fighters tour here (Grohl’s continued possession of the 1995 Ram van that they used is a key point in the story). Oddly, you’ll get more from Grohl on his time on the road with Nirvana in a recent THR interview than you do in the doc.
What Drives Us is sometimes scattered and too short. It could have hit a few notes with more force and focus if given more time or more priority in planning, but it nevertheless stands out as another solid entry in Grohl’s growing filmography. It’s also another entry in his (intended or not) efforts to sell the awesomeness of the rock and roll odyssey with its ingrained rebellion, camaraderie, chaos, crowds, and the exhalation that comes from performing in front of a crowd as they join you in celebrating the music. If you watch this and don’t wish you were an 18-year-old kid, checking out of your life to join the rock and roll circus, then something’s wrong with you, not What Drives Us.
‘What Drives Us’ hits Amazon Prime on Friday, April 30th.
It’s hard to reconcile the life and career of Rudy Giuliani. In the wake of 9/11, he experienced a worldwide boost in popularity where he was dubbed “America’s Mayor” and named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year. Yet he also spent nearly 15 years married to his second cousin.
While he’s always been a polarizing public figure, the past several years have definitely not been kind to Rudy’s public image. So when news broke that the FBI came knocking at Giuliani’s door at 6 a.m. on Wednesday to serve search warrants for both his home and office, few people were surprised. And while Seth Meyers joined in the public mockery, he also pointed out that Rudy’s downfall is largely a disaster of the former mayor’s own making.
On Thursday night, Meyers dedicated more than 13 minutes of his show to “A Closer Look” segment about the raid on Giuliani’s apartment, the cartoon-like gang of goons he has surrounded himself with, and a brief history of how Giuliani has repeatedly invited suspicion to fall on him, particularly in his role as Donald Trump’s personal attorney, by outing his misdeeds for all the world to see.
Meyers took a stroll down criminal misdeeds memory lane to remind viewers of Rudy’s many public gaffes. Like the time he accidentally butt-dialed an NBC reporter and left a long voicemail in which he can be overheard complaining about the Bidens and telling an associate that he was in need of lots of cash. Or when he left an obsequious voicemail for Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville in which he attempted to get him to drag his feet on a vote so that Rudy and Donald Trump could try and overturn the results of a completely legitimate public election… but made a whoopsie and left the message for a different senator (who promptly released it to the public).
While a big part of the FBI raid story has been that Rudy’s electronic devices were confiscated, Meyers rolled footage of the many, many times the former president’s lawyer popped up on Fox News and openly scrolled through his own screens for all the world to see. “No wonder they never asked Rudy to wear a wire,” Meyers said. “He is a wire.”
That said, when you think about the many blatant blunders Rudy has made out in the open, who knows other secrets those devices might hold.
You can watch the full clip above, complete with the pretty spot-on Owen Wilson imitation mentioned in our headline.
Guy Fieri’s hair might be a joke, but his relief efforts are anything but that.
The flamboyant Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives host has raised over $25 million for restaurant workers impacted by the pandemic. “So many people work in the restaurant industry in multiple jobs, second jobs, single moms, single parents, students, retirees. And the restaurant industry is massively important to our communities,” he told CBS earlier this month about working with the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund. “So, when I saw this coming, I said, ‘We got to do something to get some money to these folks.’”
Fieri was also profiled by the Hollywood Reporter, where he discussed his fundraising work — and revealed that the world’s richest man didn’t give a penny. “I don’t get pissed or lose my shit. But I was pissed,” he said about his mood in the early days of the pandemic. Fieri channeled that energy into asking “his business manager for contact info for CEOs of major corporations,” according to the Reporter. “He drafted personal emails to power brokers like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, soliciting donations for an emergency relief fund that would ultimately award more than 43,000 grants — of $500 each — to out-of-work line cooks, servers, and other restaurant professionals.”
The CEOs of PepsiCo, Uber Eats, and Procter & Gamble came through with “huge sums of money,” but although Fieri doesn’t enjoy “shaming people and telling who didn’t donate, that’s not my style,” he did admit, “Jeff, by the way, didn’t help us.” That would be Jeff Bezos, who has a net worth of over $200 billion. The Amazon CEO might be worthless (the irony) for this particular cause, but Fieri is being hailed as a “national treasure” and a “blessing” on social media.
GOAT @GuyFieri is a national treasure…I’ve been a life long fan since Next Food Network Star and of course Triple D, but the RESPECT he is now getting is well overdue. Thank you Guy for being the person you are https://t.co/dgkZ06VNFy
— Alex Levitt: It’s the Future I Can See (@AlexLevitt2) April 30, 2021
The streaming wars aren’t looking the peachiest today for Roku users, who may not be pleased with a YouTube TV development. Granted, the news today isn’t a complete red alert, although it might signal a transition on the horizon following Roku’s warning earlier this week about YouTube TV subscribers potentially losing access to the YouTube TV app. At this point, current subscribers still retain access to that app, but the cause of the back-and-forth continues to escalate and points towards what Roku says is a growing dispute with Google. Roku essentially claims that its attempt to re-up its carriage agreement has led to Google playing favorites with its own products (in this case, Google’s separate YouTube app and preferential results for YouTube content searches), and negotiations between the two companies still aren’t resolved.
Previously, Roku accused Google of “predatory, anti-competitive and discriminatory” practices that “harm Roku’s users.” Earlier this week, Variety noted that Google denied requesting preferential Roku search results or for access to user data from Roku while stating of the dispute, “We hope we can resolve this for the sake of our mutual users.”
Fast forward to today, and Roku says that re-up negotiations are no closer to success. As of Friday, Roku has pulled the YouTube TV app from the channel store; this means that new subscribers won’t be able to access it, although existing subscribers can (“at this time”) keep using YouTube on Roku. It’s also worth noting that this dispute only involves the paid live TV service known as “YouTube TV,” rather than the free YouTube app. Here’s a statement from a Roku spokesperson:
“We are disappointed that Google has allowed our agreement for the distribution of YouTube TV to expire. Roku has not asked for one dollar of additional financial consideration from Google to renew YouTube TV.
“We have only asked Google for four simple commitments. First, not to manipulate consumer search results. Second, not to require access to data not available to anyone else. Third, not to leverage their YouTube monopoly to force Roku to accept hardware requirements that would increase consumer costs. Fourth, not to act in a discriminatory and anticompetitive manner against Roku.
“Because our contract has expired, we have removed YouTube TV from our channel store. To continue to provide our users with a great streaming experience, we are taking the extra step to continue to offer existing subscribers access to YouTube TV on the Roku platform unless Google takes actions that require the full removal of the channel. Because of Google’s conduct, new subscriptions will not be available going forward until an agreement is reached.”
The streaming wars are only bound to include such a perpetually shifting landscape, although Roku users sure have to roll with those changes. For several months, Roku fans felt left out of the HBO Max launch party until both services finally struck a deal. Hopefully, things will settle down soon for Roku’s YouTube TV subscribers, too.
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