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The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — Show me my favorite characters as babies, see what I care

It looks like origin stories are here to stay. At least for a while. It’s a whole thing now, especially this week, with Emma Stone’s Cruella hitting theaters and streaming this weekend and Timothee Chalamet signing on for an upcoming one about Willy Wonka. But it’s been going on for a while now. There was a gritty Scrooge origin story on television not long ago. The X-Men franchise seems to re-tell its origin story every three or four movies. Again, it’s a whole thing. A Black Panther origin story series for Disney+ was just announced last night.

The temptation here is to get cranky about it, to decry the mining of intellectual property in such a blatant way, to raise your fist to the heavens and shout “Was it not enough? Were the reboots and sequels and extended universes not enough? How far does it go? Where does the madness end?” in the general direction of the movie gods. And I get that. I do. Not everything needs a full-length origin story. I kind of like the idea that Willy Wonka is just some fully-formed kooky candy man. I do not necessarily want to know what trauma caused him to become that way. It seems like something that will make me sad.

But shouting at the clouds won’t make them go away, even if you shout very loud. (I’ve tried.) And so, I have decided to just lean all the way in. Screw it. Give everyone an origin story. Give origin stories their own origin stories. Show me what Thanos was like as a teenager. Give me a very small John Wick flinging building blocks at people in a nursery school. Skip right over the Batman origin story and just show me how Thomas Wayne got so rich. Don’t even put supervillains in it. Just make it Billions but with Batman’s dad. I am barely joking.

The truth is, origin stories can be pretty cool when they’re done well. The Godfather Part II was basically an origin story, at least in De Niro’s half. Better Call Saul is an origin story and it rules, which is really wild when you think about it. They took the comic relief from Breaking Bad and gave him a huge dramatic backstory about sibling rivalries and inferiority complexes and all of it. There might be no better proof that these can work than that. I hope they keep going backwards. Do the next show about Lalo Salamanca’s rise to power. Now I am not joking at all.

The cynical ones aren’t as fun, sure. You know those when you see them. But there are uglier cash grabs out there, lots of them. At least origin stories attempt to add context to things, to show you why and how compelling characters became that way. And if the origin story trend keeps cooking and growing and it all ends up with me in a theater watching a toddler Dominic Toretto ripping around the parking lot of his daycare in a NoS-fueled Power Wheels in a Muppet Babies-inspired Fast & Furious movie, well, I guess there are worse ways to spend two hours.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — “I don’t read scripts, I smoke pot”

Background will help, I suppose, but only a little, because the quote in this heading is incredible and we can’t go around wasting time when there’s important business to like that get to. Here goes: Former O.C. star Rachel Bilson is now doing a podcast about the show, kind of a rewatch/behind-the-scenes thing, where she has former co-stars and notable figures swing by and chat the show that burned fast and bright across the early 2000s pop culture sky, like a meteor with a pastel popper collar on.

This week, the guest was Tate Donovan, who played noted fraud aficionado Jimmy Cooper on the show and later went on to direct a few episodes. That’s what we’re discussing here, his directing. And specifically, the time he tried to give Bilson a note about a scene. He prefaced it all with some kind words about how the teen actors on the show were all fried and ready to bail and everything was wearing thin, which was nice and fair of him to do. And then this happened.

“So, I just wanted to put something in your mind. And I said … ‘Just so you know, that was great. Just so know, you’ve just come from Seth’s room, and you’ve had a huge argument, in that thing, and you’re like, breaking up. And so, I want to see that argument in you … You know that right? You know that you had an argument with Seth?’” Donovan continued. “I didn’t want to step on toes. I didn’t want to insult you by reminding you of that.”

It was at that point that Bilson chimed in, “I think I know where this is going.”

As Donovan carried on, he revealed Bilson had an unusual reply — one he calls one of the “best quotes” he’s heard from an actress in his life.

“You go, ‘Tate, I don’t read scripts, I smoke pot,’” he said to laughs from the actresses and podcasters.

This is… the coolest thing I’ve ever heard? I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s definitely close. At the very least it is right up there near the top with the time someone asked Allen Iverson why he didn’t lift weight and he replied “That shit was too heavy.”

I mean, come on. “I don’t read scripts, I smoke pot.” I can already tell that this is one of those sentences that will live in my brain forever. I’ll be on my deathbed hopefully many decades from now and the only things left in my head will be this, the Iverson quote, and the thing where Liam Gallagher says he owns 2,000 tambourines. Have Iverson and Liam on the O.C. podcast next. I doubt very much that either of them have seen a single episode and I do not care at all.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — Eternals looks wild as hell

The tricky thing here is that I am bad at the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Always have been. I’ve pieced it together as I’ve gone along and I do find myself rewatching some of its individual movies quite a bit (Ragnarok and Black Panther, hello), but as far as knowing the lore and the chronology of events and remembering every lesser hero… not so much.

That doesn’t mean I don’t or can’t enjoy the whole thing. As we discussed just last week, I did not know who Kite Man was and how he related to the world of Batman before I started watching Harley Quinn, and now I worry about him constantly and want him to be happy. Point being: This is the trailer for the next film in the MCU, Eternals, directed by Nomadland’s Chloe Zhou. It looks super cool. Also, I do not know who anyone is or why they’re there or how it all ties into the events of Endgame, which I do not entirely remember.

Maybe I should read the description. Maybe that will help.

After an unexpected tragedy following the events of Avengers: Endgame, the Eternals — an immortal alien race created by the Celestials who have secretly lived on Earth for over 7,000 years — reunite to protect humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants.

Hmm. Nope. No dice.

I guess this is one of those Two Things Can Be True At Once situations. The first is that it appears I will never be able to keep all of the information in the MCU in my head. This is not a comment on the quality of the project. Lord knows I am not trying to say I’m above it. It’s just clear at this point that I’m going to be a little lost, and that’s okay.

The second thing is that Eternals looks cool as hell and it’s cool that Marvel keeps handing big projects — again, Ragnarok, Black Panther — over to smart directors who have things to say about the characters. I will see this movie. I’ll spend the first 30-40 minutes confused, I bet. But I can deal.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Let’s check in with Quincy Jones

Hey, let’s see what iconic producer and music legend Quincy Jones is up to these d-… aaaaaaand he’s giving a series of outrageous quotes to an interviewer. Again. Here, look at this, from The Hollywood Reporter.

Did you know Judy Garland at all?

I worked with her at Newport [Jazz Festival]. You kidding? I’d never forget that. We were playing the evening show with Duke Ellington, and she came out and the wind was in the mic, so Phil Ramone, the engineer, came out and put a condom on the microphone. To keep the wind away. And when Judy came out, she did like this. (Mouths swallowing the mic.) I never let her forget it.

Bless this man. He has eight decades of the greatest stories you’ve ever heard and he will be goddamned if he doesn’t share them with anyone who wants to know. The man simply cannot keep secrets. It’s great. I want him to start a podcast. Just call it “Quincy Talks His Shit” and have listeners write in with questions — or, hell, just the name of a famous person or event — and let him go until he is out of things to say. I would listen every week.

Now, I hear you. You’re saying, “I don’t know, Brian. This all seems like you reaching for an excuse to post his quote about the Beatles from that Vulture interview a few years back. Is that what is happening here?”

Hmm. Sure is!

That they were the worst musicians in the world. They were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard. And Ringo? Don’t even talk about it. I remember once we were in the studio with George Martin, and Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldn’t get it. We said, “Mate, why don’t you get some lager and lime, some shepherd’s pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.” So he did, and we called Ronnie Verrell, a jazz drummer. Ronnie came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says, “George, can you play it back for me one more time?” So George did, and Ringo says, “That didn’t sound so bad.” And I said, “Yeah, motherfucker because it ain’t you.” Great guy, though.

“Great guy, though.” Makes me laugh every single time. Let’s keep Quincy talking straight through summer. The people deserve this.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Forget it, Jake, it’s Penguin Town

This is the trailer for an upcoming Netflix docuseries called Penguin Town. It is maybe the cutest shit I have ever seen in my entire life. Look at those freakin’ guys! They keep wobbling and stumbling! Look at them!

There is, I should report, more to this series than klutzy penguins, although I would absolutely watch a feature-length documentary titled Klutzy Penguins. It is narrated by Patton Oswalt and sounds kind of interesting. Per Netflix.

You’ve never met penguins like these before. Forget ice and snow, this rowdy colony of African penguins are hitting the sun-drenched beaches and breaking all the rules. Filled with boisterous shenanigans and loads of adorable penguins, this eight-part series from Red Rock Films about the real lives of African penguins brings flipper-flapping fun and drama. Join the ride … this town is gonna get painted black and white!

So there’s that. Which is cool. I suppose you have to fill all the hours with something. But even if it just ends up being like multiple hours of this…

… I am extremely in. I’m not a complicated man. I like movies about assassins coming out of retirement to murder hundreds of their enemies in the most violent ways possible and I like cute penguins doing adorable stuff in slow motion. That’s all.

ITEM NUMBER SIX — PERD

The season finale of 911 Lonestar aired this week. There was a huge dust storm and dramatic events and Texas was just generally in peril. It’s a lovely show. More importantly, look at that screencap. Look up in the corner. In the television. Do you see it?

Enhance.

ENHANCE.

PERD.

Yes, there is Jay Jackson, best known for playing Perd Hapley on Parks and Recreation, appearing as a news reporter and/or anchor, yet again. I know I just wrote about him a few weeks ago when he popped up in the background of Without Remorse. I do not care. This is like my favorite thing now. I am going to point it out every time I see it. It could be a lot. The man is a treasure.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Kate:

I just read in a magazine that Guy Fieri and Matthew McConaughey are friends, and this is amazing. Like, what an iconic friendship. I think they should host a cooking show together— they could call it “Matthew McConaughey’s Meals” or something and Guy could abbreviate it “Triple M” like he does with Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I mean, Guy could make a meatball sandwich or something and then Matthew McConaughey would be like “Alright, alright, alright.” So, my question for you is if you could have any celebrity or pair of celebrities host a cooking show, what would it be called? What would be their specialty dish?

See, this is a good email, for a bunch of reasons. It states a fun fact, that Matthew McConaughey and Guy Fieri are friends. It allows me to link to this Forbes report about Guy’s new Food Network deal being for $80 million over three years, which is somehow both more and less than I expected it to be. And it gives me an excuse to remind you that Matthew McConaughey gave a speech at Guy Fieri’s Walk of Fame ceremony when he got his star. Look at these two jokers.

And best of all, it sets me up to give a completely unhinged answer to a fun question. Who WOULDN’T I want to see host a cooking show, Kate? There are so many options. And I don’t even have to make-up “Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart” because that sucker already exists, somehow.

Let’s see, let’s see. Hmm. I could go a lot of ways here. I’m tempted to go for pure chaos and just say I want a Tracy Morgan cooking show, but that feels like cheating because the Guy/Matt pairing includes one legit food-related personality. We need to ground this in reality, at least a little.

But this is a blessing in disguise, really, because now I get to type this collection of words: A cooking show hosted by Tracy Morgan and Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten. It would be called Getting The Oven Pregnant, in honor of Tracy, and their signature dish would be… oh, let’s go with shark stew. Also in honor of Tracy. Because of this, one of the greatest television lines in history.

This was a good email. The only downside is that now I really want to see this show.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Wisconsin!

An alligator is missing in Shawano County.

It’s from Doc’s Zoo at Doc’s Harley Davidson along Highway 29 in Bonduel.

Just to be clear here, because I think that’s important: What we have so far is an alligator escaping from a zoo in Wisconsin that appears to be either inside or adjacent to a Harley Davidson dealership owned by a man named Doc. Please do not correct me if any of this is wrong. I need this.

“We came out to feed the gators today and one of them was missing,” said Hopkins. “There was no sign of the enclosure being breached in any way or the gator digging underneath or anything. It’s just very strange. This has never happened before.”

I mean, if you can’t trust the security measures of a zoo located on the same plot of land as an establishment that sells motorcycles…

So this is all quite fun, really. But there’s still an alligator on the loose. There’s an element of danger involved. Because alligators are predators and without a source of food, this one could get hungry and become a danger to children and pets in the area. Unless…

“The old gator is very unathletic and quite overweight,” said Hopkins. “He can barely open his jaws. He has terrible arthritis in his jaws. If he can open up his jaw an inch and a half, it’s a lot….The most he could do is probably slap you with his tail and that is only if you get close and upset him.”

Well, guess what: I love this guy. I love this gator. I hope he told all the other animals in the motorcycle zoo that he was gonna bust out and I hope all of them were like “Pfft, you’re not going anyway, Dave,” and then I hope they all woke up the next day like, “Wow, Dave really did it.” If there’s any justice in this world, my dude is sipping umbrella drinks on a beach somewhere, happy, free. Good for him.

Currently, Silk Sonic (the duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) has just one song, “Leave The Door Open.” (Well, two if you count the minute-long “Silk Sonic Intro.”) So far, though, that’s all they’ve needed: The song has peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a height the single achieved again a couple weeks ago. So, at least for the moment, Silk Sonic is a one-trick pony, but what a trick it is. They trotted it out again last night for a performance at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards and the song still makes an impact: Silk Sonic was trending on Twitter following their performance, even still the morning after.

Last night’s performance was similar in nature to their previous live renditions of the tune, featuring .Paak and Mars accompanied by backing singers as they all bust out soulful throwback vibes.

Although the duo currently only has one single, they’ve actually performed more than just “Leave The Door Open” live: At the Grammys in March, .Paak and Mars performed a medley of Little Richard songs in honor of the late legend.

Watch Mars and .Paak perform “Leave The Door Open” at the iHeartRadio Music Awards above.

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

Pop goddess Madonna is the latest celebrity to receive a truly astonishing ratio on Twitter after her latest post ruffled the feathers of users who took issue with her inability to tell the difference between a bandana and a du-rag. Posting a throwback photo of herself wearing dark shades and a black bandana, Madonna captioned the photo “Durag activity….” which… uh… no. On so many levels, no.

Fans were quick to express their discontent with Madonna’s misuse of the style and its nomenclature, reminding her that: 1. She is wearing a bandana, not a du-rag, in the picture, and 2. That “Durag activity” doesn’t mean what she apparently thinks it does. Naturally, Madge’s misstep was met with a deluge of reactions ranging from outrage quotes to tongue-in-cheek drags as she was compared to the plethora of pop stars in the past who’ve overstepped their cultural bounds and wound up stepping on an appropriation landmine.

Truthfully speaking, I am personally of the same mind about this stuff as comedian Sam Jay, who broke down her philosophy in the first episode of her (really excellent) new HBO show Pause With Sam Jay: I’m not offended, it just looks goofy. There are obviously way more important things going on in the world than to worry about a middle-aged mom’s off-target attempt to be “hip” — or any pop star’s, really. But if it looks bad, it looks bad, and you can get roasted like anybody else — it’s part of the culture, after all.

Check out the responses above and below.

Oban whisky has been around for 227 years. That’s longer than the actual town of Oban in Scotland has even existed. Oban Distillery, nestled on a calm harbor of inky black seawater and against a tall, wet, and mossy black rock wall, is the heart of the town in every sense. Especially considering the town was built up around the distillery after it started making whisky all those years ago. It’s a corner of the world that’s as special as the whisky that’s made there.

Would you like to go? If you know Oban whisky, that answer is probably a resounding, “yes!”

Well good news, you might be in luck. Oban is running a sweepstake that’ll take you to Scotland for a week where you’ll eat wild food from Scotland’s seas and mountains while learning about and tasting whisky with the team at Oban. You’ll also get to stay in “The Oban Abode” right next to the distillery. That’s a small apartment that was curated by Oban distillery worker Derek Maclean and decorated with handmade furniture made from spent Oban whisky casks. You’ll also get a tour of the pubs and culinary scene in and around Oban while meeting locals who call the small hamlet home.

The best part, Oban will foot the bill for you and a friend to go for a week to experience this once-in-a-lifetime whisky journey. That’s six days and five nights of accommodation for two. Coach airfare from your nearest airport. Transport. Most meals (no alcohol is covered, outside of tastings). And a fully immersive experience at the Oban Distillery.

There are a few rules. You need to be at least 21 to enter. You’ll have to enter by Thursday, September 2nd at 11:59:59 pm EST. And you’ll have to travel before December 31st, 2021. Naturally, there will likely still be COVID protocols you’ll have to follow for flights, border controls, and day-to-day activities in Scotland as well.

All of this is to celebrate Oban introducing a new docuseries, Postcards from Oban, and the reopening of the distillery. The short online vignettes will focus on Oban’s seven distillery workers as well as local artisans, fisherman, and farmers. The idea is to transport you to the town and the distillery to really absorb the chill and unique vibe of the place.

If this sounds like your idea of a good time enter here! Trust us, it’ll be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

With Donald Trump still banned from Facebook and Twitter the former president has turned to the one medium that hasn’t deemed a credible threat yet: blogging. Using his website as an impromptu substitute for his daily tweeting habit, Trump has been firing off unhinged missives, and his latest one caught the attention of late night host Jimmy Kimmel. During his Thursday night monologue, Kimmel easily debunked Trump’s Memorial Day message to his legion of followers, which naturally, included a rant about how things were much better when he was president.

Here’s what Trump wrote on his blog, which Kimmel read out loud in disbelief:

“With Memorial Day Weekend coming up, tomorrow people start driving in the biggest automobile days of the year. I’m sorry to say the gasoline prices that you will be confronted with are far higher than they were just a short number of months ago where we had gasoline under $2 a gallon. Remember as you’re watching the meter tick, and your dollars pile up, how great of a job Donald Trump did as President. Soon Russia and the Middle East will be making a fortune on oil, and you will be saying how good it was to have me as your President. Wasn’t it great to be energy independent, but we are energy independent no more. Shame, shame, shame. Other than that, have a great Memorial Day Weekend!”

“He’s just a crazy old man shouting at pigeons now,” Kimmel joked while laughing at the ridiculous message. “He seems to have forgotten that the reason gas prices were low is because we had no place to go. We had nowhere to drive. There was a terrible virus killing our grandparents.”

Mocking Trump’s oddly self-congratulatory post, Kimmel finished off the segment by declaring, “When I was president, we spent money on porn stars, not gasoline!”

(Via Jimmy Kimmel Live)

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.

Bachelor first formed over a mutual love for chicken tenders and sh*tty reality TV. Before launching the duo, Jay Som‘s Melina Duarte and Palehound‘s Ellen Kempner were introduced in 2017 while sharing the stage at a show. They had been mutual fans of each other’s music for some time and Kempner described their interaction as “best friendship at first sight.”

Their bond over fried food and dramatic dating series proved to be the foundation not only for lasting friendship, but also for a joint side project. Bachelor’s debut album Doomin Sun is a testament to their connection. It was written and recorded over the course of just two weeks in the dusty hills of Topanga, CA. “You’d think that it would feel like a lot of pressure,” Kempner said of their brief recording process. “But it really didn’t feel like that at all. We just showed up and started the day we got there, and kind of chilled a lot. It wasn’t a very busy week, we spent a lot of time just watching TV and sleeping in.”

Duarte and Kempner’s friendship is at center stage on Bachelor’s Doomin’ Sun. The 10-track effort teeters between melancholic murmurs heard on songs like “Sand Angel” and erratic chords that mimic the inconsolable frustration of “queer yearning” on tracks like “Anything At All.” The music is both atmospheric and comical, laying out anecdotes like falling in love with the no nonsense confidence of a trashy Florida woman or the endearing charm of a partner unknowingly kicking you all night in their sleep.

Speaking with Kempter and Duarte over the phone, their connection is clear. They’ll casually drop inside jokes and giggle at each other’s responses. The two switch between dishing out playful digs and exchanging a heartfelt “I love you.” “We really love each other, truly and genuinely,” Duarte said with sincerity. “The hardest part of making this record was just laughing so much that sometimes we couldn’t get stuff done.”

Read an edited and condensed version of our conversation below, where Duarte and Kempner sing each other’s praise and speak about their unique experience as two queer solo artists existing in the indie rock scene.

Tell me about the band name Bachelor. What does it mean to you?

Duarte: We came up with that because I love the ABC show The Bachelor. I’m really obsessed and I think at the time I was really into the current season. I knew everything about it and I would force Ellen to watch it with me. But I think it was actually Ellen’s idea to name the band Bachelor because it’s cute. It’s the opposite of what we are, it’s very strange sounding. You picture a cis guy in a suit. And we’re just, like, really gay and not that.

What are some strengths the other person brought to the table during the recording process?

Duarte: Ellen is so good at writing songs, but in a really fast way that’s really beautiful. I have a hard time sometimes, especially with lyrics and the way to word a song, because I tend to write like I’m in producer mode. I play my instruments and write my lyrics last. Ellen’s like, ‘I have this idea. It’s this cool story, this guitar part symbolizes fire striking down.’ Things like that. She has this entire story and it’s really powerful and super cool and I think I was very inspired by her throughout the writing process. When you collaborate with people, you feed off of them and you’re like, ‘Wow. I never thought of this that way.’ You carry that with you in future sessions that you have with yourself or with other people. Ellen is just very inspiring in that way.

Kempner: For me, this was a completely life-changing experience to record this record in terms of how I approach recording. Melina is also just so inspiring as a producer and as an instrumentalist. She is a pro at every instrument. If she could clone herself, it would be the best band in the world. Melina’s ear is unlike anything, her instincts for painting a picture in a song. I would write stories and Melina would build the set. You know, it was like writing a movie almost. I would write the screenplay and Melina would build the set. She just knew exactly how to capture the story and what the song needed at all times. There were some ideas she’d have where I would be a little bit skeptical but also really curious to see. She would do something and then we’d listen back and it would be absolutely perfect. Like, wow, that just made the song and this is a wild idea that I never would have thought of. She’s always thinking of hooks, she’s the groove master.

Ellen, I read in a former interview that once you came out, you were able to meet other queer people and you noticed a lot of queer people started attending Palehound shows. Have either of you been missing that sense of community and now that you haven’t been able to play live shows in the last year or so?

Kempner: For sure, I have not been around enough gay people.

Duarte: You’ve seen me!

Kempner: I have seen you. You’re the only gay person besides my partner that I’ve seen all year. I’ve literally been on Tinder just to look at gay people in my area. Just to literally see what they look like and how far they are from me. [Laughs] It’s really sad.

Duarte: I miss it. One of the things I miss is all the young queer people, especially is seeing all the kids who are like, ‘I made out with my girlfriend to your song and that’s our song now.’ I really miss really cute interactions like that. It means a lot. Ellen and I are the same age and when we were growing up, we really did’tn have anyone. We had like, The L Word. Who else?

Kempner: Ellen DeGeneres.

Duarte: [laughs] Ellen DeGeneres. That was our visibility at the time.

I was wondering what you had in mind when writing the lyrics to “Spin Out.” You talk about watching the world spin out in a slow burn. It definitely does at times feel as though the world is burning, especially since you recorded this album in early 2020 when Australia was literally on fire.

Duarte: At the time, I was having problems with the cis men around me in my life, especially my best friend. I was struggling with some microagressions and having to talk about that with cis men in general my whole life, like a lot of people have to do. You kind of want to blame people for that and you can help but see that in your own personal life, you see that in the world and how people, especially powerful white men, treat people that live in this country. They have directly caused destruction in this world, as long as humanity’s been around. I can’t help but feel this anger and resentment watching the world turn into something that it shouldn’t have been.

And I love how your song “Anything At All” breaks down at the bridge. I listen to it a lot when I’m driving and get mild road rage, it’s great. I also get the sense that it’s about the idea of flirting with someone and not necessarily knowing if they’re queer not.

Kempner: Yeah, that song is the gay song. I mean, they’re all gay songs, but that one is the horniest song. It’s about that. It’s about feeling out a vibe. That song for me, I’m always writing lyrics about emotion and pain and sh*t like that. But this song is just about sex and about the anticipation of sex and the hesitation of being queer and feeling out what is happening with someone.

Duarte: Queer yearning.

Kempner: Queer yearning, for sure. Like queer yearning and confusion. That’s part of the bridge, it should feel like road rage because it’s that moment where you’re like, ‘Gahhhhhhh. Why isn’t this easy? Why does this have to be so hard? Why do I have to be so cryptic and weird and why do I have to question myself every f*cking minute of every day?

Ellen, you mentioned you write about pain when you write lyrics. While Doomin Sun is about joy, it also touches on pain, especially relating to identity and queerness. Can you unpack that?

Kempner: Even what Melina was saying about ‘Spin Out.’ That song is about the pain of being a queer woman and feeling misunderstood and feeling like an outcast. Melina and I have very similar experiences of being the same age and being queer solo artists in the music industry. So we dealt with a lot of insecurities and a lot of family fears and self-doubt. I think we had a lot of really inspiring conversations about those things leading up to recording and during recording.

Doomin’ Sun is out now via Polyvinyl. Get it here.

The Robin Hood Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to addressing poverty in the New York City area and a favorite of wealthy Wall Street executives looking to do some good with their riches (you know, aside from just like… giving it all away). The bemusingly titled charity is set to hold its annual investors’ conference next month and has invited a speaker who knows a bit about being on the other side of the wealth gap: Jay-Z.

CNBC made the announcement yesterday, reporting that Jay’s booked to discuss his use of data to make investment decisions, as well as the recent sale of his Tidal shares to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Jay’s other endorsements include cannabis, NFTs, and a reported TV and film production company for which he just filed a trademark. According to CNBC, it’s also an opportunity for Jay to schmooze with the sort of high rollers who can invest in his future endeavors as he builds his billion-dollar empire.

Even as Jay continues to make million-dollar money moves, the rap mogul has contributed just as much to his day job, collaborating with former rival Nas twice in as many months with songs on DJ Khaled’s new album and on DMX’s posthumously released Exodus, out now on Def Jam.

H/T to Complex.

After playing a few games with the Rwanda Patriots of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), J. Cole has left the team and returned home. While he didn’t exactly set the world on fire with his on-court contributions, he got to play basketball on a professional level, which is more than most lovers of the game can say. Now that Cole is back home, he has taken some time to reflect on the experience.

In an Instagram post from last night, Cole wrote:

“So many thank you’s are due. Thank you to @thebal and to @patriotsbbc for the opportunity. Thank you to my teammates, the coaches and staff for treating me like family. I learned so much in the few weeks we were together. Congrats on that win tonight and good luck next game. Thank you to @puma for supporting a dream from day 1, and getting me to Rwanda and back safely via Puma jet.

Thank you to the entire country of Rwanda and to the city of Kigali for hosting us. BEAUTIFUL land with BEAUTIFUL people. To anyone considering visiting or moving to the continent, from everything I saw and heard, I would recommend you consider Kigali and Rwanda in general. Thank you to everybody that had kind words for me despite my inexperience. I plan to get better.”

He also wrote a bit more about his basketball experience in another post about his new Puma RS Dreamer sneaker, saying, “The first drop will have a special place in my heart forever, for obvious reasons. These are the ones I took the scariest leap in. That nervous feeling I had playing under the whistle for the first time is the same feeling I had moving to New York without knowing anybody there. I say all that to say, Despite the fear we have to choose to jump, or be forced to live with regret.”

Check out Cole’s posts below.

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s upsetting plenty of Republicans lately with her incoherent rants on COVID restrictions, which she’s repeatedly compared to the Holocaust. She’s even willingly taken a fine to refuse wearing a mask on the House floor while suggesting that Nancy Pelosi’s making her wear the Star of David. Well, Greene took a slight break from that subject on Thursday night during a Georgia rally (alongside Matt Gaetz, of course) to talk about the U.S.-Mexico border.

As one might imagine, Greene put her own tasteless spin on the issue. She decided to put on a “Mexican accent” after declaring (of Democrats), “They’re in the business of helping the cartels! The cartels love the Democrats.” She then suggested that progressives are friendly with drug lords. “Yeah, they’re down there like this: ‘We’re makin’ a lot of money off of Biden. Joe Biden!’ That’s my really bad Mexican accent.”

It was… not good. In fact, people struggled to process the spectacle of what seemed like the worst stand-up comedy routine ever.

Inevitably, though, Greene went back to referencing her previous Holocaust talk. “You know Nazis were the National Socialist Party,” she declared. “Just like the Democrats are now a national socialist party.”

Previously, Greene tweeted about a grocery store that planned to identify employees who’d been vaccinated, presumably so that customers would feel more comfortable in stores. “Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” Greene complained. “Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable.” Yep, there’s no convincing her otherwise.

Prior to HBO and Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen (2019), not many Americans knew much about the Tulsa Race Massacre. Heck, not many Tulsans knew too much about the mass tragedy either. As someone who grew up in Tulsa, I assure you that the events of May 31 and June 1, 1921 did not surface in my public-school history classes. What I did know about the event was through metaphorical whispers and through discussions with one witness to what happened on those days. And when I interviewed Watchmen star Tim Blake Nelson (who spent his formative years in Tulsa), his sentiment was the same. Quite simply, this Greenwood-district event — the total decimation of what Booker T. Washington dubbed as “Black Wall Street” and one of the most horrific instances of racially-motivated violence in U.S. history — was excised from the books. Lindelof became aware of the massacre after reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations” (2014) in The Atlantic. The rest is unearthed history, albeit still in process.

That unearthed history is literal (the digging for alleged mass graves) and a huge chunk of what a new PBS documentary, Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten (directed by Emmy-winning Jonathan Silvers), details while contextualizing the tragedy alongside systemic racism that persists today. The film duly dives into how hundreds of Black-owned businesses burned to the ground after a false accusation of violence against a Black man. All told, a violent white mob (which carried rifles and dropped firebombs) killed up to 300 Black Tulsa residents and left thousands without homes; and this documentary charts the Greenwood community’s resilience and ongoing efforts for renewal, justice, and reparations. The project features interviews with Greenwood descendants and several local leaders, including current Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum (a Republican), along with civil rights activists, including Greg Robinson II. We spoke with Robinson about this documentary (spoiler alert: he is not a fan of Bynum) and his hopes for the future.

Like many people (including Tulsans), I didn’t know massacre details until around the year 2000 when I spoke with Clyde Eddy, who claimed to have seen a mass grave being dug in 1921. What does the centennial most represent to you?

I’m glad to be talking to a Tulsan! Certainly, the one thing that this 100-year marker has done is that it has finally shone a light on this tragedy but also the greatness that was Black Wall Street. We can now get to work on doing something about it. That is the gift of this commemoration period. I am stressed about it, though, because it is not an anniversary of independence. It’s not something that great that happened. It’s actually the destruction of the American Dream and what was the Dream for those Black Freemen and what they built, and it is truly a reminder of the work that we have left to do. There’s been no justice, and part of why the silence is so maddening and so frustrating now is that we’re just beginning that fight for justice.

In this documentary, you discuss how reparations were flat-out (and stunningly) denied to survivors.

Yes, and when you understand how Black Wall Street was built, then you understand that there was [also] no payment for insurance claims, and there’s been no one held accountable from a criminal standpoint. Absolutely nothing. For me, yes, I am proud of what my ancestors built here. I’m happy that there’s finally a light on that, but my eyes are more focused on making sure that we do what’s right, specifically while the last survivors are alive. I do think about the fact that Mother Randall and Mother Fletcher are each 107 years old. Are we going to get justice for them while they’re still here to see it? For me, that’s at the heart of this moment.

People don’t understand why reparations are so important for this tragedy. Decades of business prosperity were wiped out for Black Tulsans, not only by the massacre but, later, as you described it, through “urban renewal.”

What people don’t realize a lot of times is that it was within the next decade, before 1930, that Greenwood actually came back. Because of the way the state was built at the time, you had 50 all-Black towns. So even though Greenwood was destroyed, you had city laws and policies that were put into place to make it difficult. Things like having to rebuild with fire-retardant materials, only two-story structures. Even though those were put into place to mitigate the rebuilding of Greenwood, it was rebuilt and thriving again by 1930. Actually, the height of its business success was in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was then that this concept of “urban renewal,” or as we sometimes call it in the Black community, “urban removal,” began to occur. Greenwood was originally built in an area of downtown that was rife with manufacturing buildings, so it became easy to come in and blight out areas and use eminent domain and take that land for construction.

There’s still a very telling geographical dividing line in Tulsa, too.

To this day, Highway I-244 runs right through the Greenwood business district and community. We have to remember that Greenwood was 40 square blocks, and all that remains is one avenue. So for us, we try to tell the realization that it wasn’t just those two days that threatened to put the nail in the coffins of Black Tulsans, but it was the ensuing systemic racist policies, marked by things like urban removal in the 1960s, and we continue to be marked by racist and systemic policies that still see the northern part of Tulsa cut off from the city and every tangible data category, down to life expectancy, you see North Tulsans suffering. To this day, Kimberly, if you are born in North Tulsa like I was, you are at risk of living a decade less than somebody who’s born on the other side of town. I think that can directly be tied to racist policies like urban renewal.

To make things even more pronounced last year, Trump came to town amid protests of George Floyd’s death. In Tulsa, the Black Lives Matter mural on the street was the first one removed by a U.S. city after Juneteenth. So was there any element of surprise for you on how this went down, given the city’s history?

Let’s put that into context. Tulsa was also the place where Trump came to town to do his rally. And let’s remember that it was originally scheduled for the 99th anniversary weekend of the Tulsa Race Massacre. It was then moved but only to the weekend of Juneteenth. When we understand the white supremacist rhetoric that Trump provided, we also must understand that the city’s leadership, Mayor Bynum but also state leadership (including Governor Stitt), opened our state up during a time that lacked safety and also opened up our arms during a very sensitive time to someone who espoused safety for violence. That’s the very same type of violence that destroyed the Black Wall Street/Greenwood community in the first place. Saying all that, was I surprised that we would be the first in the country to remove it? No, I was not surprised because it was right in line with the protecting of white supremacist ideology that we’ve succumbed to in the past century.

In turn, that weekend’s events felt like a microcosm of what occurred throughout the U.S. in response to Black Lives Matter protests.

I was incredibly disappointed because this is an opportunity for Tulsa to be the city that we want to be and to correct the mistakes of the past and to do something and be a model of the rest of the country. Unfortunately, I see us wanting to talk the good game and say we want to move forward, say we want to be a more equitable city, say we wanna be inclusive, but we do not have the courage to stand up to white supremacy. And the reason that it bugs me is that it was a lack of courage to stand up to the Ku Klux Klan, it was a lack of courage to stand up to angry whites who were mobbing and rioting and burning and looting in 1921 that allowed the murder of Tulsans to occur, a century ago. What have we learned since then about standing up to white supremacy? That’s the frustrating question. Not just as a Black person but as a Tulsan and someone who loves this city, it just bugs me to the end. I wish we could be the model for the country, and I keep seeing us falling short of that mark.

Speaking of frustrating, I saw your Facebook post on Bynum and House Bill 1775, which limits the teaching of race relations in schools and which he supported. There are mixed feelings about him regarding his track record on race relations. On one hand (and as Bynum points out in this doc), he was (outwardly) the person who opened the investigation into alleged mass graves in 2018. But like you said, he doesn’t exactly push white supremacy away.

I think Mayor Bynum is a great politician. I was there when he first pronounced that he was opening the investigation, and the truth was that there was an article in the New York Times with Councilwoman Vanessa Hall Harper, calling for that to occur. I do want to name that. Like so many things in this country, we give white males a lot of credit for doing politically expedient things. I think he did a politically expedient thing then, and I’m on the citizens’ oversight board for that, and certainly, I appreciate him doing that because someone had to, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that — just a week ago — he, as a sitting member of the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission, looked at HB 1775 and, in his words, told those of who were opposing that bill, including his own commission, that they need to read the bill, that it’s no big deal, and he agreed with Governor Stitt signing it. So it’s an example of his politically motivated actions. I would ask the country to look at the timing of when Mayor Bynum has done certain things. He will say one thing to get Black voters on his side. As soon as an election is over, he begins to push a more conservative-sympathetic type of narrative. He’s done the same thing with police reform.

Are you speaking about the Tulsa police shooting of Terence Crutcher?

He came to the home of Terence Crutcher’s family. He sat with them and said, “I’m going to do everything to bring your family justice.” For four years, he had the opportunity to do that, to bring police reform and justice to that family, but over and over again, he’s sided with the Fraternal Order of Police. He’s been on national TV, disparaging Terence Crutcher, saying that his death was caused by a drug addiction and not by a police officer, so I don’t have any more empathy for Mayor Bynum. He was in the seat of power, and he could have done something, and he’s shown what he cares about. That’s not about advancing racial equity for Black Tulsans, it’s about advancing his political career. And I harken back to the words of Martin Luther King, who at one of his lowest moments, sitting in a Birmingham jail, that it is not the Ku Klux Klanner that is the African American’s greatest stumbling block but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice. To me, Mayor Bynum and many of our Republican officials right now really embody that white moderate mindset. I’m not calling them racist, but I am saying that they sympathize with white supremacy and allow it to permeate, and the people that it is coming back is Black Tulsans, the very people that the state system has kept back most since it became a state.

It’s time for us to wrap, but during last year’s Juneteenth events, you declared, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Do you ever envision a time when you’re able to no longer be sick and tired?

You know, I was having a conversation with Terence Crutcher’s twin sister, Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, who started his foundation, and we were talking about reaching that mountaintop. She simply reminded me that we might not reach it, and that’s not our job. Our job is to fight like hell for justice every day and to let God do the rest. I think that’s the spirit that Fannie Lou Hamer had when she said those words, and I think that’s the spirit that all of us have to carry with us.

PBS’ ‘Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten’ will air at 9:00pm EST May 31.