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A Boomer Professor Is Very Upset That Young People Are Spending Time Trading Stocks And Bitcoin Instead Of Working Out And Trying To Get Laid

In the latest installment of “Millennials Kill Everything: Stonks Edition,” the GameStop stocks drama is now causing Boomers to lose their minds and throw tantrums on national television.

Case in point: This bizarre take from Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business. Galloway gave an interview on MSNBC, which felt more like a one-minute rant against those damn Reddit “youths” who are influencing the stock market by beating some hedge-fund managers at their own game (embedded ab0ve — Galloway’s rant starts around the 6:40 mark). If you’ve been keeping up with this delightful tale of stock market sabotage, you’ll know a bunch of Redditors banded together to drive up the price of GameStop’s stocks when a hedge fund essentially made stock bets against the company (“shorting” the stock), intending to make a huge profit on the company’s failing business. It’s a fairly normal practice in the marketplace, so the stock bros didn’t expect a group of retail investors to disrupt the status quo which led to bankruptcy filings and blatant market manipulation and a pretty fiery exchange between Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ted Cruz (we’ll let you guess who came out on top).

Now that the old system of doing things when it comes to buying and selling on the stock market is being threatened, a handful of old-timers like Galloway are effectively losing their sh*t, predicting how terrible this will be for the market, for hedge funds, etc. But while we’re all incredibly sad to see rich white men lose their boats, Galloway’s take on the stonk drama feels, well, dramatic — even for a dude that simps for big government in his Twitter bio.

“Maybe it’s fun, fine,” Galloway told MSNBC. “But the biggest loss of capital will be the human capital of young men who are sitting and staring at their phone, watching the price of Bitcoin or the price of AMC. Ask yourself, ‘Would you be better off taking that one, two, or three hours a day and working out, trying to form relationships, romantic relations, getting great at something so you can be the person on the other side of the trade?’ Similar to how there’s a ton of young women out there who became very depressed by looking at Instagram, self-cutting, and self-harm skyrocketed … I think you are going to see an explosion in young male depression.”

The leap from playing with stocks on investment apps to women cutting themselves is certainly something, but Galloway seems pretty worried about the state of masculinity in today’s younger generations and what educating ourselves on stock market practices designed to keep the rich rich and make the poor poorer will do to it.

Of course, his distaste for all this stonk revolution nonsense hasn’t stopped him from finding a way to cash in on our renewed interest in upending the imbalance in America’s oldest financial institution. After all, that’s capitalism baby!

But watching Galloway whine about hedge funds dying surprisingly isn’t as funny as watching Twitter drag him for his own hypocrisy.

Look Boomers, if you didn’t want us to band together to throw the free market into chaos, you should’ve let us spend our money on avocados and kept your mouths shut.

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Amazon’s New Anthology Series ‘Solos’ Put Together A Heck Of A Cast

Amazon is certainly no stranger to impressive ensemble casts in its scripted shows, and Solos appears to be no different. The anthology series from Hunters creator David Weil has a number of impressive names attached the to project, enough to fill a Brady Bunch-style lineup that was teased with the series announcement on Monday.

Three Oscar winners are involved in the show, as Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway, and Helen Mirren signed on to play Stewart, Leah, and Peg, respectively. Uzo Aduba, who won an Emmy on Orange Is The New Black, is also in the cast, as is Nicole Beharie, noted Avenger Anthony Mackie, Dan Stevens, and Constance Wu.

“I am beyond thrilled to be bringing Solos to life alongside this group of artists who I so deeply admire. I created this piece with a desire to capture stories about connection, hope, and the search for that common hum of humanity that binds us all. I’m immensely grateful to Jennifer Salke and my incredible partners at Amazon for their unwavering support and collaboration on this special project,” Weil said in a statement.

Solos is just the latest anthology project on Amazon, as Modern Love is the most notable the streaming service has released recently. Hathaway also starred in an episode of that one too, mind you, though details on just what Solos will be remain scarce right now.

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Olivia Rodrigo Enters Rare Territory As ‘Drivers License’ Stays At No. 1 For A Third Week

Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” went rapidly from surprise hit to a genuinely dominating force on the charts. Last week, the single spent its second week in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and this week brings more of the same: On the chart dated February 6, “Drivers License” is once again No. 1 for the third time.

For the third consecutive week, the single is both the top-selling and most-streamed song. On top of that, the track is making a bit of history: Of the 48 songs that have ever debuted on top of the Hot 100, “Drivers License” is now just the 14th of those to stay at No. 1 for at least three weeks. The last time this happened was when Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” spent its first five weeks on top.

https://twitter.com/billboardcharts/status/1356306109460602882

Rodrigo recently reacted to the song’s surprise popularity, saying, “All the recognition the song has got is beyond my wildest dreams. Taylor Swift — [who] is my songwriting idol and I wouldn’t be half of the woman and a songwriter I am today without her — reached out and was so supportive of the song. I just found out the other day that Lorde likes it, Halsey likes it, all of these people that I have grown up listening to are saying they’re liking the song.”

Meanwhile, The Weeknd continues an impressive chart run with “Blinding Lights,” which is No. 3 this week. It extends its record for the most weeks ever spent in the top 5 of the Hot 100 (38 weeks) and in the top 10 (47 weeks). Its 53 weeks in the top 10 is also second-most all-time, while its 56 weeks in the top 40 is seventh.

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The Game Claims He’s The Best Rapper From Compton And Kendrick Lamar Fans Vehemently

Ever since NWA exploded in the late eighties, putting Compton on the pop culture map, the city has become a hotbed for rap talent, churning out dozens of hit-making rappers in the decades since. However, with one of those rappers recently laying claim to being the absolute best one, fans are naturally locked in an intense debate about whether he — or another challenger entirely — deserves it.

During a recent chat on Clubhouse with fellow Los Angeles County rappers Glasses Malone and Kxng Crooked, The Game made a bold assertion that has plenty of folks questioning whether he might be right. “Can’t nobody in Compton out rap Game,” he boasted. “Can’t nobody in Compton out rap me.” Naturally, Kendrick Lamar was proposed as a potential challenger, prompting Game to acknowledge the younger rapper. However, he refused to backpedal, taking credit for K. Dot’s development in the bars department.

“Kendrick my n****,” he admitted. “Kendrick doing his sh*t. I love that n**** to death. I flew past Kendrick when that n**** was on foot, in a Range Rover, and showed him how to do this sh*t. Don’t play. Don’t play with Game name. Hardest n**** in Compton, rapping, lyricist, me. Any n**** that say any different, I’ll body him and any n**** he f*ck with.”

For what it’s worth, there’s some pretty stiff competition, even leaving Kendrick out of the equation. Besides the foundational members of NWA (we’re talking mainly Ren here because Ice Cube is from South Central and all of Dre’s verses are written for him), the Hub City has produced some of LA’s finest, including AD, DJ Quik, MC Eiht, Problem, Westside Boogie, and YG. However, very few can claim to have as extensive a discography as The Game, and gossip column antics aside, Game’s pen skills remain as sharp as ever as recently as 2019’s Born To Rap.

As a local, my money is forever going to be on King Tee, without whom the rap game would never have even gotten as far as it has. If Biggie didn’t have King Tee to bite his whole flow from, who’s to say whether he’d have been the star he was? In any case, The Game’s comments have certainly ruffled quite a few feathers. Check out Twitter’s best responses below.

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‘Eight For Silver’ Is A Delicious Bit Of Period Fantasy

Imagine a thinking man’s Sleepy Hollow with mucus-y gore effects, or a feature-length X-Files episode produced for HBO and you might have something close to Eight For Silver, writer-director Sean Ellis’s riff on Victorian werewolves premiering at Sundance this week. Like Game Of Thrones or The Witch before it, Eight For Silver is so beguiling as a straight period piece that the elements of the fantastic just feel like icing. Ellis combines Robert Eggers’ historical meticulousness with Ari Aster from Midsommar‘s flair for exuberant gore in a movie that’s arguably a little more “pop” than either.

One of the quirks of a virtual Sundance is that you can just switch to a different movie if one isn’t working for you without gathering your things in the dark and trudging through the snow to another theater. Without naming any names here, in a year of drab streamers, Eight For Silver‘s vivid yet icy compositions immediately stood out. It opens in the WWI trenches, on the front lines of the Somme where French soldiers are masking up for a charge as mustard gas explodes overhead. We cut to a surgeon removing bullets from a dying soldier. The surgeon pulls one bullet, two, and then a shiny third that doesn’t look at all like the others. “This isn’t a German bullet,” notes the surgeon. “Eight for silver,” croaks the dying man in his last breath.

From there we flash back to the 1800s, where a dour landlord — Seamus Laurent, played by Alistair Petrie — and his fellow landowners are having some trouble with a band of gypsies squatting on their land. They probably should’ve just asked the gypsies nicely to move along, or figured out a way to coexist peacefully, but this being Victorian England they definitely don’t do that. Thus, the die is cast.

With the townspeople having some… er… trouble, a handsome stranger arrives, Ichabod Crane-like, to investigate. Boyd Holbrook, the thinking man’s Garrett Hedlund, plays John McBride, an out-of-town pathologist. “Men keep speaking even after they’re dead. I listen,” he explains.

McBride shacks up with Seamus and his wife and daughter (Kelly Reilly from Flight and Amelia Crouch) at their manor house while he tries to figure out what’s going on, and even though he’s playing things pretty close to the vest, it’s obvious that he believes the trouble is something supernatural. Gypsy curses, hot people, and werewolves, oh my!

The beauty of Eight For Silver is that it’s hard to decide whether Sean Ellis is better at shooting restrained Victorian stoicism or balls-out gore; whether the next scene will bring arthouse restraint or multiplex schlock. Like Sleepy Hollow before it (though without Burtonian preciousness), Eight For Silver is a little bit of both. It works wonderfully together. It’s a movie that offers thrills, chills, and just the right amount of thinking.

‘Eight For Silver’ is playing at Sundance this week with no release date set as of this writing.

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Please Enjoy Werner Herzog Discussing The Beauty Of Failure In Skateboarding Videos

Werner Herzog is a legendary filmmaker and actor who is known for taking risks and making art that is specifically interesting to himself, but the German director is not exactly known for his ties to the extreme sports world. And yet, last week, he joined skateboarding magazine Jenkem Magazine for a video call in which they discussed skateboarding for a conversation that was pretty fantastic.

Herzog waxes poetic on the beauty of skateboarding, which to him is the constant failure, over and over and over again, in the pursuit of that one successful run or landed trick. He marvels at watching a skateboarder try over and over — “so many failures, that’s astonishing, yes” — before finally getting it right for a “clean run,” which when said in Herzog’s German accent is tremendous. The best part is how he explains why he enjoys skateboarding compared something like David Blaine’s stunts, which he doesn’t like, because the latter is for personal fame and glory while the former is a pursuit for one’s self and inner gratification, not to garner attention.

At the end he explains how he’d score a skateboarding video with a “Russian orthodox church choir” in order to create a “strange feeling of space” and make it feel almost sacred. The interview delighted skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who was thrilled to see it and the introspection into the human condition and spirit is delightful to watch.

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Georgia Republicans Have Already Launched A ‘Stop Stacey’ Campaign In An Attempt To Defeat Abrams In The Gubernatorial Race

After her diligent voter turnout efforts delivered the state of Georgia to the Democratic Party during both the 2020 presidential election and the Senate runoff, Stacey Abrams already has a political action group working against her in case she decides to run for governor in 2022. The “Stop Stacey” group is reportedly being funded by allies of current Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and now former Senator Kelly Loeffler, who Abrams played a key role in ousting in the Senate runoff in January. Abrams hasn’t even announced she’ll run for governor or signaled any attention of running, yet, but Republicans are already concerned after suffering two major losses thanks to Abrams’ vast network of voters. Via Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“We will do whatever it takes to expose Stacey Abrams’ radical network, highlight her dangerous agenda and ultimately defeat her — and her left-wing candidates — at the ballot box,” said Jeremy Brand, a senior strategist with the group, an independent committee. “There is no time to waste: We must stand up, fight back and stop Stacey.”

The “Stop Stacey” group couldn’t have picked a worse time to announce its efforts. On Monday, Abrams received a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize for the exact voting efforts that have Republicans scared. According to The Hill, the committee recognized Abrams for following in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who won the peace prize in 1964. “Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of America shall succeed in its effort to create fraternity between all its peoples and a peaceful and just society.”

(Via Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Hill)

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Netflix Vs. HBO Max: Which Streaming Service Is Better?

Welcome to the Age of Streaming, in which we’ve traded in outrageously-priced cable bundles for dozens of different platforms and pricing models, each promising a unique binge-watching experience. Sure, it can be mind-numbing trying to keep up with which network has gone digital this week and where you can watch what, but isn’t that what we’re here to do? After all, watching an unhealthy amount of TV is kind of our thing here at Uproxx, so we thought we’d make good use of the endless hours spent gazing at a small screen by sharing what we’ve learned when it comes to picking the right service and getting the most bang for your buck.

Welcome to the Streamer Smackdown, where we’ll pit some of the biggest platforms against each other to see who comes out on top. We’ll look at everything from content to pricing to how easy it is to find that one obscure ’90s sitcom (that you saw two episodes of when you were a kid) and name a winner. It’s not as fun as cage matches and steel chairs but then again, what is?

In round one, it’s Netflix, the O.G. streaming giant, vs. the relative newcomer, HBO Max. One’s dependable, prolific, and currently housing horny alt-history period dramas. The other’s a flashy rookie wielding a backlog of prestige TV and straight-to-streaming blockbusters.

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The Case For Netflix

Most of us remember the day when Netflix used to mail DVDs in red, paper-thin packaging when streaming was just the crackpot dream of a young startup with plenty of money to make it a reality. Every streaming service alive today owes something to Netflix, and that kind of reputation holds weight. It also means the platform carries a hefty load of content, from original series and movies to international offerings, anime, and blockbuster classics.

It’s got a three-tier pricing plan, which means it’s slightly more affordable depending on what you’re looking for. The most you’ll pay is $15.99 a month, and that guarantees you four simultaneous streams, 4K viewing, unlimited downloads of certain shows and films, and the ability to watch from pretty much anywhere on any device.

And what are you watching? Oh, just a library stuffed with award-winning series and movies sporting some of the most A-list talents of the moment. There are genre shows like The Witcher and Stranger Things for sci-fi and fantasy lovers. There’s the massively popular Bridgerton for romance junkies. There are surprisingly poignant animated favorites like BoJack Horseman and Big Mouth. And there’s a ton of YA series and family-friendly fare to keep everyone in your household entertained. The biggest pro for Netflix though — besides the fact that it’s promised new shows and movies will drop every week this year — might be its cataloging system. The platform remembers the shows you watched, recommends similar series, crafts interesting subgenres, pulls hidden gems and calls out what’s new and what’s trending (effectively doing the heavy-lifting for you so you don’t waste hours scrolling for something to watch).

Pros: A huge library of originals and some old-school favorites, a cheap pricing plan, and easy navigation.
Cons: There’s still so much content people are missing out on, some of the originals are hit and miss, and we’ve already seen a lot of what it has to offer.

The Case For HBO Max

It’s weird to think of HBO and Warner Bros. as underdogs, but that’s kind of what they are when it comes to the streaming wars. HBO’s had its own service for a while now, a place where fans could deep dive into its extensive library of prestigious series and watch a handful of good movies too, but when Warner Bros. came into the picture, that model got an upgrade. Now, fans can stick to HBO Now (although, why would you?), or they can choose to try HBO Max, which combines the best of the premium cable network and Warner Bros.’ mind-boggling line-up of blockbusters — a lineup that includes the expansive DC Universe.

The pricing for HBO Max isn’t as flexible as Netflix at an unwavering $14.99 a month, and that bill guarantees just three simultaneous streams. You’ll still be rewarded with dozens of kick-ass TV shows — think Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Succession, Euphoria — and the kind of blockbusters you’d normally pay to rent for a movie-night watch.

Another key advantage that HBO Max has in this streaming battle is its recent announcement that, because of the current pandemic, Warner Bros. will be releasing new movies in theaters and via streaming on the same day. We’ve already seen how that works with Wonder Woman 1984 (spoiler: it’s insanely convenient) and with buzzworthy titles like Dune, the Matrix 4, Godzilla vs. Kong, and James Gunn’s Suicide Squad set to drop this year, there’s really no better argument for subscribing if you’re a film junkie.

Pros: A massive library of guaranteed-to-be-good shows and a lineup of theatrical releases coming this year.
Cons: The original content is lacking, so if you’ve already seen older series, there’s not much on the TV side to sway you here.

The Verdict: Netflix Edges Out HBO Max (for now)

This one was tough, especially because we’re all pining for the day when we can once again enjoy eating stale popcorn in a crowded theater while watching superhero franchises on a big screen, but Netflix’s original offerings, both current and planned, feel like a better reward for its price tag. Now, if you’re a DC diehard, or you want to re-watch award-winning dramas from TV’s Golden Age, HBO Max is probably the choice for you. But if you’re basing your decision on which platform gives you more — more shows, more quality originals, more options for how and where to watch — then Netflix is the way to go.

But let this fight put the streaming kingpin on notice because, by the end of 2021, HBO Max might reign supreme.

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‘Saved By The Bell’ Star Dustin Diamond Is Dead At 44

TMZ reports that Dustin Diamond, best known for playing Samuel “Screech” Powers on NBC’s long-running sitcom Saved by the Bell, died on Monday morning from stage 4 lung cancer. He was 44.

(Via TMZ)

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Dave Grohl Admits Nirvana Had More ‘Dysfunction’ Than Foo Fighters Does

Dave Grohl famously has the uncommon distinction of being in two era-defining bands: Nirvana and Foo Fighters. Naturally, there were differences between the groups, one of which Grohl has pinpointed in a new interview.

Speaking with The Big Issue, Grohl described Nirvana as being more dysfunctional than Foo Fighters, saying:

“Of course we loved each other. We were friends. But, you know, there was a dysfunction in Nirvana that a band like Foo Fighters doesn’t have. You also have to realize, from the time I joined Nirvana to the time it was over was only about four years. It wasn’t a long period of time. Was I [as] close to Kurt [Cobain] as I am to Taylor Hawkins? No.”

He went on to say, though, that the music brought Nirvana’s chemistry to a new level: “When I see Krist now, I hug him like family. But back then we were young, the world was just so strange. But that emotional dysfunction in Nirvana was relieved when we put on instruments. If the music hadn’t worked, we wouldn’t have been there together. I truly believe that there’s some people you can only communicate with musically. And sometimes that’s an even greater, deeper communication. There are people that I might feel a little awkward talking to but once we strap on instruments, it’s like they’re the love of my life.”

He also revealed that he almost never played music again post-Nirvana, saying, “There was a particular trauma after the end of Nirvana that lasted for a while, but, you know, I think that love of music I had when I was a child eclipsed everything, and I realized that music was going to be the thing that would write me out of that depression. For a while there, I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to play music again. But it came back. And thankfully, just as I had hoped, it healed me. To me, music has always been about life. It was the thing I most loved about life, more than anything else. After Nirvana, I needed it to keep me alive, and it’s the reason why I never stopped.”

Check out the full interview here.