Billy McFarland was the subject of two documentaries last year that followed the entrepreneur’s failed event Fyre Fest. McFarland is currently serving a six-year prison sentence for fraud but recently announced he would be telling his side of the story in a new podcast titled Dumpster Fyre. The podcast premiered Tuesday, and now, McFarland has apparently been placed in solitary confinement following the tell-all’s release.
According to a report from the New York Times, McFarland’s lawyer, Jason Russo, said the disgraced entrepreneur is being held in solitary confinement for up to 90 days while an investigation takes place. “We believe the investigation stems from his participation in the podcast and the photographs that were taken and utilized in the trailer, which were all properly taken,” Russo said. “We don’t believe he’s violated any rule or regulation, and there can’t possibly be anything else. He’s been a model prisoner there.”
The original announcement of the Dumpster Fyre podcast arrived alongside a newly-minted Instagram account which contains photos of McFarland in his prison cell. Russo claims the Instagram page is being run by McFarland’s team, and that all photos of the entrepreneur were taken with a prison-approved disposable camera.
This apparently is not McFarland’s first time being placed in solitary confinement. According to Forbes, McFarland was previously held in solitary confinement for three months after guards discovered he was holding onto a flash drive, which is a prohibited item in prison. In that time, he came to terms with his crime and expressed remorse after the experience brought a “forced reflection on [his] mistakes and the people [he] hurt.” McFarland added, “I’m aware of the pain and suffering that I caused. What I did was completely wrong and stupid. […] When I think about the mistakes that were made and what happened, there’s no way that I can describe it but just, ‘What the f*ck was I thinking?”
Dumpster Fyre is out now on all streaming platforms. Listen to it here.
Tame Imapla’s 2012 sophomore LP Lonerism set the ground work for the band’s current global success. The record garnered international attention for the Australian psych-rock project, even receiving a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. Now, after having debuted his fourth record, The Slow Rush, back in February, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker revisits the album for a video.
Parker shared his newly-recorded video to the blissed-out track “Why Won’t They Talk To Me?” Friday. Filmed by his friend Alex Haygarth, the visual was originally taped as part of Parker’s performance for Adobe MAX. To execute the rendition of the track, Parker filmed several versions of himself playing each instrument and compiled the clips together to form a cohesive sound.
In a recent interview with Uproxx, Parker reflected on the recording process for Lonerism, saying he “found his calling” with the album:
“With Lonerism, I don’t know what it was, but I had just this sudden bolt of confidence, and ambition, and boldness. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still proud of InnerSpeaker. It’s one of my babies. But with Lonerism, for whatever reason, I guess I’d just found my calling more so than before. I had this wave of curiosity and boldness. I just felt fearless. There are more pop songs on Lonerism than the first one or anything I’d done before. Even though the sound is totally gnarled and blown out, to me it sounded like Backstreet Boys in some of it, or it sounded like Prince.”
Watch Tame Impala’s “Why Won’t They Talk To Me?” video above.
The Slow Rush is out now via Modular. Get it here.
Five-time Grammy Award-winning country singer Chris Stapleton announced his new era of music with the yearning tile track “Starting Over” in late August. The single arrived as Stapleton’s first piece of solo music since he debuted two albums in 2017. Continuing to gear up for the release of his next record, Stapleton offers another preview of Starting Over with the lively track “Arkansas.”
Evoking the metallic guitar tones and textured vocal delivery of classic rock anthems, Stapleton’s “Arkansas” sees the singer belting out each lyric with gusto. “Gotta get down, gotta get down to Arkansas / Havin’ so much fun that it’s probably a little bit against the law,” he sings.
“Arkansas” arrives just a few short weeks ahead of Stapleton’s next LP, which features eleven songs written by Stapleton, his longtime friends, and a handful of new collaborators. On top of the original tracks, Starting Over boasts three covers: “Worry B Gone” and “Old Friends” by Guy Clark and “Joy Of My Life” by John Fogerty. The album, according to press materials, “speaks to and transcends the current moment in ways unimaginable even while it was being created.”
Following the release of Starting Over, Stapleton has high hopes for the future of the live music industry. Alongside his album announcement in August, the singer shared dates to an extensive 2021 tour where he plans to share the stage with other big-name artists like Willie Nelson, Margo Price, Sheryl Crow, Mavis Staples, The Highwomen, and more.
Watch Stapleton’s “Arkansas” video above.
Starting Over is out 11/13 via Mercury Records Nashville. Pre-order it here.
When The National’s Matt Berninger announced his debut solo album Serpentine Prison last October, he expected to be able to tour behind the record. But his plans were thrown off with the lockdown and the dissolution of the live music industry. In place of playing a live show, Berninger celebrated the release of Serpentine Prison with a performance of his single “One More Second” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Taking the stage backed by a full band, Berninger gave a cathartic delivery of the single. Losing himself in song, Berninger harmonized the lyrics alongside his backup vocalist.
It’s clear Berninger was entranced by the song during the late-night set judging by his concentrated gaze, something he admitted he does often in a recent interview with Uproxx. The singer described how he needs to be fully committed to the emotional aspect of a song in order to perform it on stage:
“I consider everything, I’m a method singer, I’m a method performer, I’m a method writer. I’m always channeling my own stuff, but there is a character. It’s like Christopher Walken — he almost can’t really be anything other than Christopher Walken. I’m not saying I’m Christopher Walken, but I think that’s what I am as a singer. On stage, I have to take an hour to get ready to be that guy, to be that guy that goes out there and sings and dances for two hours, and does all these songs. I get emotionally to the middle of those songs and if I can’t, I hate it. I don’t like writing a song unless I’m really, really, really sucked into it emotionally. I really hate being on stage unless I’m really, really sucked into it emotionally.”
Watch Berninger perform “One More Second” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert above.
Serpentine Prison is out now via Concord Records. Get it here.
HBO and HBO Max are both bringing the scares with their horror movie collections. You can find some recent Jordan Peele creations, zombie classics, and cult thrillers on the streaming platforms, but if you don’t have time to sort through them all, check out this list of our top picks.
These are the best horror movies on HBO and HBO Max for your Halloween season.
Jordan Peele’s nightmarish follow-up to Get Out cements the director’s status as a master of horror. This twisted tale follows an African-American family on vacation who encounter evil doppelgangers of themselves that hint at an even darker conspiracy. Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke play a married couple, Adelaide and Gabe Wilson, who must protect their family from beings known as the “Tethered,” clones who have been trapped underground for decades and who are ready to take over on the surface. Peele takes fans on a thrilling ride, causing us to constantly question what’s real and who’s who, but you probably won’t get a good night’s sleep after watching this thing.
Samara Weaving and Adam Brody star in this horror jaunt about a wealthy family with a dark secret. Weaving plays Grace, a young woman set to marry her fiance, Alex, at his family’s estate. Alex comes from money, and Grace quickly discovers that his ancestors pulled some supernatural strings to get rich quick. A deadly game of hide-and-seek and a curse that ends in exploding bodies follow.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return for round two of this haunting horror franchise. Ed and Lorrain travel to London to help a single mother of four children who live in a house plagued by evil spirits. The setting has changed, but the plot stays pretty much the same, with the couple confronting some dark truths about their own natures while trying to save the kids.
Elisabeth Moss stars in this terrifying tale of the consequences of a toxic relationship. Moss plays Cecilia, a woman haunted by the specter of her abusive ex. Everyone believes the guy took his own life, except Cecilia, who he left his immense fortune to with the caveat that she remain of sound mind. The whole film centers on his goal of driving her insane, torturing her in invisible form as her friends and family slowly question her sense of reality. It’s horrifying simply because it could easily be true. And well, he’s invisible, so the jump scares are also strong here.
That whole adage about surrounding yourself with people you can trust really comes into play in this sci-fi psychological thriller starring Kurt Russell. Russell plays MacReady, a member of a team of scientists and researchers in Antarctica. The freezing cold weather and perpetual night suck, but what ends up proving deadly for these explorers is the shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims. When anyone can be the monster, that’s when you know you’re in for a good horror story.
Ridley Scott basically invented sci-fi horror with this alien thriller about a crew on a commercial space tug who must battle a violent extraterrestrial being that’s infiltrated their ship. Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley, an officer aboard the Nostromo, who’s forced to face down the titular Alien, an aggressive lifeform intent on killing the ship’s human crew. Most of the action revolves around Weaver’s attempts to destroy the creature and save her shipmates but it’s Scott’s direction behind the camera that creates the suspense and terror this film has become known for.
With just a few bars on the piano and an oversized mechanical shark, Steven Spielberg terrorized generations of moviegoers with Jaws. The film follows a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer who team up to hunt a great white shark who has a worrisome bloodlust and seems to be targeting a small beach town during the busiest time of the year. Spielberg’s camera work — the lingering, underwater shots, the quick cuts of flesh being torn from bone and rows of teeth flashing to the surface — make this exercise in inciting aquaphobia even more chilling. You’ll never look at a carefree day at the beach the same way again.
Linda Cardellini stars in this supernatural horror flick based on Mexican folklore. Cardellini plays Anna, a social worker investigating a case of child negligence when she encounters the titular weeping woman, a ghost who steals children and drowns them. Anna’s own kids are marked by la Llorona as is Anna, and the family fights for survival while uncovering disturbing details about the woman’s life.
George Romero is a bona fide maestro of horror and it’s this ’80s creation that helped launch our collective fascination with the zombie subgenre. Romero crafts a classic tale — an apocalypse brought on by a zombie horde forces a group of military officers into an underground bunker where they try to survive the worst of the invasion — but he adds just enough humor and gore to make this a truly enjoyable watch.
This Wes Craven adaptation is, admittedly, hard to sit through. Like its predecessor, it centers on a family that falls prey to a group of cannibals living out in the desert. Unlike the original movie, this thing has perfected its special effects — the monsters are more terrifying than ever — and it doesn’t shy away from showing the rape, death, and destruction the bad guys cause.
Growing up in Tijuana, Mexico, and commuting five hours across the border to attend school in the US every day, Jean Dawson was exposed to many different styles of music as a young child. Now 24, Dawson aims to infuse a bevvy of different genres into his newly-released sophomore record Pixel Bath, which features a track with ASAP Rocky. To celebrate the album’s release, Dawson shares a video to his driving track “Devilish.”
Directed by Zachary Bailey, Dawson’s “Devilish” video sees the musician running away from his personal demons. Appearing in a dark field and surrounded by barnyard animals, the musician is suddenly faced with other eerie creatures.
Previously speaking about his album’s sound in an interview with MTV, Dawson said: “I want it to be controlled chaos. I just want it to feel like you’re in multiple places at the same exact time. People talk about, if you could have any superpower, what would you want to do? I would want to teleport. It’s like that. I want you to feel like you’re at a rave, but onstage, it’s f*cking Rick Ross. Rick Ross at a ’90s rave with the lights to beat, everything. Or I want it to feel like the Pixies, but the Pixies are at the most trapped-out environment that the Pixies can be at. I’m very, very, very, very protective of my babies, which are [the records I made].”
Yesterday I was perusing comments on an Upworthy article about Joe Biden comforting the son of a Parkland shooting victim and immediately had flashbacks to the lead-up of the 2016 election. In describing former vice President Biden, some commenters were using the words “criminal,” “corrupt,” and “pedophile—exactly the same words people used to describe Hillary Clinton in 2016.
I remember being baffled so many people were so convinced of Clinton’s evil schemes that they genuinely saw the documented serial liar and cheat that she was running against as the lesser of two evils. I mean, sure, if you believe that a career politician had spent years being paid off by powerful people and was trafficking children to suck their blood in her free time, just about anything looks like a better alternative.
But none of that was true.
It’s been four years and Hillary Clinton has been found guilty of exactly none of the criminal activity she was being accused of. Trump spent every campaign rally leading chants of “Lock her up!” under the guise that she was going to go to jail after the election. He’s been president for nearly four years now, and where is Clinton? Not in jail—she’s comfy at home, occasionally trolling Trump on Twitter and doing podcasts.
Every accusation that had any possible truth to it has been investigated by the Trump administration and by Republicans in Congress, and guess what—Clinton has still not been charged or indicted for one damn thing. Why? Because there’s nothing there to indict her for.
It’s not like she hasn’t been investigated thoroughly—by her opponents—for her handling of classified emails and her role in Benghazi and cleared of any wrongdoing. It’s not like Trump hasn’t had a chance to send the full power of the law enforcement he has at his disposal after her. It’s not like there aren’t Republicans in power who would love nothing more than to see her behind bars.
But that hasn’t happened. If she were guilty of the stuff she’s been accused of, she’d be in prison. And she’s not.
Yet people persisted like mad in their assertions that she was a criminal.. Now we’re seeing same kinds of disinformation campaigns being waged against Joe Biden, mainly through his son, Hunter. And make no mistake, it’s a purposeful strategy. Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon succinctly explained that the key to manipulating the media—and by extension, the public—is to “flood the zone with sh*t.” You provide a tsunami of junk news, with just enough tiny nuggets of truth that people don’t know what to believe, and in such high volumes that wading through it all to try to discern what’s true is impossible.
The fact of the matter is that the Hunter Biden stories that have gotten Trumpland all foamy at the mouth have not proven to have news legs. The reporter who wrote it up for The New York Post—a tabloid paper that already didn’t have a great journalistic reputation—reportedly refused to put his name on it. But that hasn’t stopped people from sharing it like it’s gospel truth.
NBC News did a really great in-depth investigative report on the super sketchy origins of the Hunter Biden story, but of course the people who need to read it won’t, because they think NBC is fake news. (The number of people who think real journalistic news is “fake news,” while simultaneously believing that blatantly biased fringe outlets are real news is baffling. But that’s where we are—up is down, left is right, and fiction is “alternative fact” in the disinformation age.)
For what it’s worth, The Wall Street Journal—one of the most reputable journalistic news sources out there, and one that can’t be accused of being biased to the left due to its right-leaning editorial board—reported yesterday that their review of the documents showed Joe Biden playing no role in the business ventures of his son. And yet the Breitbarts and the Infowars and the other myriad right-wing outlets just keep on running with it, knowing that the actual truth doesn’t really matter if people think something is true—more more accurately if people want to believe it’s true.
Of course, disinformation campaigns aren’t new, especially on the right-wing side of the aisle. In 2004, John Kerry famously had his Vietnam record smeared by a contrived veteran group that ended up being discredited after he lost the election. In 2008, the whole “birther” movement claiming Obama wasn’t born in the United States was pushed by many, including Donald Trump himself, despite the fact that it was ridiculously untrue. The only thing true about it was its racist origin.
But these last two elections, the conspiracy theories and smear campaigns have become more and more heinous. I mean, a Satan-worshiping cabal of pedophile elites? Come on, people. But it makes sense when you think about it. When you have candidate who is on tape saying he “tried to f*ck” a married woman and that he grabs women “by the p*ssy” because they let him, who paid off a porn star he had an affair with when his wife was pregnant with his child, who had to pay $2 million for misusing his charitable foundation’s money for personal gain, who had to pay a $25 million settlement to students he defrauded with his “university,” who is a billionaire who owes hundreds of millions of dollars and refuses to release his tax returns, and whose campaign and administration have produced indictment after indictment, and more—to make that candidate look remotely acceptable, much less desirable, you have to make his opponent look not just bad, but like evil incarnate.
That’s how we’ve ended up with crap like “Pizzagate” and QAnon boiling up from the dark corners of the internet. If we lived in a normal era, such insane ideas would disintegrate in the light of day, but now we have people in powerful positions—including the president himself—pushing them. And with social media outlets inadvertently amplifying them, getting people to see disinformation for what it is feels like a losing battle.
This is why it’s important to bring up Hillary Clinton now, 11 days before an election she’s not even a part of. Because the things that people said about her in 2016 were far worse than what people claim about about Biden, and yet after four years, she’s not been found guilty of a thing. The only way you can explain that is by creating some kind of elaborate, “deep state” conspiracy, and if you’ve slipped into that kooky world, you’re probably beyond help. But if you’re merely unsure or suspicious of what you’ve heard—which is understandable, considering how much junk information there is to sift through—just think this through. If what had been said about Hillary Clinton were true, wouldn’t she be locked up by now?
For the love of all that is good and decent—literally—please don’t fall for this garbage again, America. There’s far too much at stake.
Among Us is the surprise hit game of 2020, as the two-year old game has become a star online thanks to its amplification on Twitch streams and amid an explosion of party game popularity.
But the backlash against the game has officially begun, and according to reports, it’s of a political nature. Among Us developer InnerSloth shared on Twitter that it was aware of the spam promoting an online handle, “Eris Loris,” and is attempting to fight back against what appears to be a coordinated attack.
Hello everyone, We’re are super duper aware of the current hacking issue and we’re looking into it. We will be pushing out an emergency server update so people who are in game will get kicked from games. Please play private games or with people that you trust!!! Bare with us!!
The Verge reported on Friday that pro-Trump hackers and trolls are apparently wreaking havoc on the game’s servers and doing their best to disrupt games played, even among friends. They cited a Eurogamer report that apparently included an interview with the hacker behind the attack, who claims to have recruited others to coordinate a pro-Trump message on the game’s servers.
The end goal, it appears, is to promote the Eris Loris YouTube channel, which advertises hacks and other game cheating services. The spam attack may have hit as many as 1.5 million games, affecting close to 5 million players if the hackers’ claims are to be believed. Loris is also a self-described Trump supporter, the report says.
*Upworthy may earn a portion of sales revenue from purchases made through links on our site.
With the election quickly approaching, the importance of voting and sending in your ballot on time is essential. But there is another way you can vote everyday – by being intentional with each dollar you spend. Support companies and products that uphold your values and help create a more sustainable world. An easy move is swapping out everyday items that are often thrown away after one use or improperly disposed of.
Package Free Shop has created products to help fight climate change one cotton swab at a time! Founded by Lauren Singer, otherwise known as, “the girl with the jar” (she initially went viral for fitting 8 years of all of the waste she’s created in one mason jar). Package Free is an ecosystem of brands on a mission to make the world less trashy.
Here are eight of our favorite everyday swaps:
1. Friendsheep Dryer Balls – Replace traditional dryer sheets with these dryer balls that are made without chemicals and conserve energy. Not only do these also reduce dry time by 20% but they’re so cute and come in an assortment of patterns!
Package Free Shop
2. Last Swab – Replacement for single use plastic cotton swabs. Nearly 25.5 billion single use swabs are produced and discarded every year in the U.S., but not this one. It lasts up to 1,000 uses as it’s able to be cleaned with soap and water. It also comes in a biodegradable, corn based case so you can use it on the go!
3. Reusable Storage Bags – Whether you are snacking, sandwich-ing, or storing food for later, never use a single use plastic bag again! Dishwasher, microwave, boiling water, freezer (recommended to be placed upright), and oven safe, up to 400F.
4. Cotton Rounds – Ditch single use cotton balls and switch to reusable cotton rounds. These come in a set of 20 which typically lasts 2 weeks before you need to wash them.
5. Toilet Paper – Who can forget all the empty shelves in stores at the beginning of the pandemic, never panic again about where to get a roll of toilet paper and help save the 27,000 trees that get flushed down the toilet daily. Instead, this 3 ply toilet paper is made from unbleached bamboo pulp. It’s soft and padded for comfort.
6. Leaf Shave Razors – Replacement for single use plastic razors, 100% recyclable in metal recycling. This razor also has a lifetime guarantee.
7. Bamboo toothbrush – Replaces plastic toothbrushes that often end up in the ocean, completely made from plants.
8. Laundry Detergent – Created by The Simply Co. who strives to make the most sustainable cleaning products ever. Simple three ingredient laundry detergent made without plastic packaging or harmful chemicals that are often unregulated and enter our waterways through washing.
This election might be giving a lot of people stress, but it’s also giving us memes. While Thursday’s debate didn’t have anything nearly as spectacular as the fly – which will now get a whole chapter in future history books just so there’s enough room to cover even a fraction of the jokes – people were still able to have fun with it.
During the debate, Joe Biden accidentally misspoke and referred the Proud Boys as “poor boys.” “He has made everything worse across the board. He said about the poor boys, the last time we were on stage here, he said ‘I tell them to stand down and stand ready,'” Biden said during Thursday night’s debate. “Come on. This guy is a dog whistle about as big as a foghorn,” Biden said.
While the internet didn’t pick up on that whole vintagey-sounding dog whistle/foghorn analogy, Twitter did go wild with Biden’s “poor boy” moniker.
Somewhere in Minnesota, a level D beer league hockey team named Poor Boys are going to wake up and wonder why their… https://t.co/H36ho0nVpU
— Stephen L. Miller (@Stephen L. Miller)1603425944.0
I’m naming my new band Abe Lincoln and the Poor Boys.
Verbal gaffs from politicians are the gift that keeps on giving. And while this whole election cycle might be exhausting, at least we’re able to still have even a little bit of fun.
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