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The music world was shaken when news arrived that Dr. Dre suffered a brain aneurysm earlier this month. It was initially reported by TMZ who revealed that the health scare occurred on January 4 despite fans learning about it the following day. Almost two weeks later, though, the hip-hop mogul is finally back home and he wasted no time getting back to work in the studio with some of his closest collaborators.

TMZ first reported that Dr. Dre was released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA before Ice T confirmed the news hours later on Friday with a tweet that read, “Update: Just FaceTimed with @drdre He just made it home. Safe and looking good.” Now we have an image of his return and seemingly improved health to go with the tweet.

One of Dre’s longtime collaborators, Grammy award-winning producer Dem Jointz, shared a picture of him, Dre, and a number of other producers sitting together in the studio. The image displayed the support system he has around him while the comments section captured the overall joy fans and fellow musicians felt seeing him in a better state. Names like Ghostface Killer, DJ Premier, and 2 Chainz showed love to him, clearly happy that he’s back home and improving.

Doctors are still unsure was caused Dre’s aneurysm and despite a return back home, they’ve ordered that he be monitored 24/7 as they look to find the cause. A few days after he was hospitalized, Dre shared a picture on Instagram with a caption that thanked fans for their support. “Thanks to my family, friends and fans for their interest and well wishes,” he wrote. “I’m doing great and getting excellent care from my medical team. I will be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars.”

You can check out the picture of Dr. Dre and friends in the studio above.

Donald Trump’s days as president are, quite literally, numbered. On Wednesday at noon Joe Biden will be sworn in as the next president, as is laid out in the constitution after Biden won the 2020 election. There’s already been considerable reporting about how Trump will leave the White House ahead of Biden’s inauguration, but what happens to Trump after is still a bit of a mystery.

Trump was impeached twice while in office, the second time coming after he incited a MAGA riot to lead a failed coup at the US Capitol in order to overturn election results. And though he will leave office before it happens, the Senate plans to hold an impeachment trial for him that will require a considerable legal team. Reports indicated that was true over the weekend, and Giuliani was seen at the White House. But if you ask some Republicans, that means that Trump is doomed to be convicted by the Senate.

That’s probably because Giuliani’s defense is reportedly something that has been thrown out of courtrooms all over America: a baseless conspiracy theory that Trump lost because of widespread, systemic voter fraud.

This comes on the same weekend Axios reported in depth about the bizarre scene in the White House in the days after Trump was declared the loser of the 2020 election. While some of the more reasonable members of his staff convened to explore a potential path to winning, albeit low percentage and involving some legal battles in states like Wisconsin, Giuliani reportedly led the charge of a “Giuliani cabal” shouting wild conspiracies. That group included lawyers like Sidney Powell and other conspiracy theorists that Axios reported sent Trump’s efforts to overturn the election in his favor off the deep end.

The story details some intense arguments between Giuliani and others in the White House about conspiracy theories, including one where Giuliani was called a “f*cking asshole” by another aide. Apparently it got to the point that those with more reasonable efforts to subvert democracy in mind had to leave the room and hold another meeting elsewhere while Giuliani and his friends were left behind.

A bizarre routine set in. These meetings would begin with official staff raising plausible legal strategies. Then Giuliani and Powell, a lawyer with a history of floating “deep state” conspiracy theories, would take over, spewing wild allegations of a centralized plot by Democrats — and in Powell’s view, international communists — to steal the election.

Bewildered campaign aides would look around the table at one another, silently asking what the hell was going on. One would invariably shuffle out of the room, followed by another a few minutes later. Then another. Then another. The professional staff would reconvene in Stepien’s office, about 20 yards down the hall.

Eventually, Giuliani would realize that he and his crew were alone in the conference room. He’d walk down the hall and knock on the glass outside Stepien’s office, where about eight aides had squeezed onto a pair of couches. “You guys, where did you go?” Giuliani would say. “This is serious!”

That report, of course, was denied. Just like Giuliani’s defense of Trump for a second impeachment trial was denied by the White House on Saturday.

But as his presidency comes to an end and the White House continues to empty out, it’s clear that some of the few people left defending Trump are Giuliani and the MyPillow guy.

[via Axios]

“Hey! Long time,” John Kreese says into the phone at the end of Season 3 of Netflix’s Cobra Kai right after making an arrangement with Daniel and Johnny to settle their dispute at the All Valley High competition. The suggestion, of course, is that Kreese is calling his friend from Vietnam who — in the flashback in the scene before — said to Kreese, “I owe you, man. You saved my ass. Anything you need, I’m there for you. Your whole life. You hear me? Your whole life.”

The phone call, in effect, sets up Season 4, and knowing who is on the other end of the phone also establishes the contours of next season. The nickname of the character in Vietnam whose life Kreese saved was Twig, but his real name is Terry Silver, a character played by Thomas Ian Griffith in Karate Kid III.

In that third Karate Kid movie, we learn that Silver was a friend of Kreese’s from the Vietnam War. He’s also a wealthy businessman (who owns a toxic-waste disposal business) and the founder and owner of Kreese’s Cobra Kai dojo. Silver and Kreese had designs on opening up an entire franchise of Cobra Kai dojos, but Daniel’s defeat of Johnny Lawrence in Karate Kid destroyed those plans. In Karate Kid III, Silver (along with Kreese) is out for revenge, and in an effort to gain that revenge, Terry Silver brings in a Mike Barners, a vicious karate prospect, to defeat Daniel at the All Valley competition. Silver also briefly turns Daniel against Miyagi, training Daniel himself, which obviously brings out the worst in Daniel. Miyagi has to step in and undo all the poisoning inflicted on Daniel by Silver.

The phone call at the end of season three suggests that the trick Kreese has up his sleeve in Season 4 is Silver, who I expect is still a wealthy businessman and capable of bankrolling another “vicious” prospect who can defeat Miguel at the All Valley High. I am also guessing that the new vicious prospect will probably alienate Robby at Cobra Kai, hopefully driving him back to Johnny and Daniel.

What’s less clear is whether Thomas Ian Griffith will return for Cobra Kai Season 4. He hasn’t had an acting credit in nearly 15 years, although his performance in Karate Kid III was singled out for transcending the otherwise subpar installment. John Hurwitz, the showrunner of Cobra Kai, has not confirmed the return of the character, although he confirms his identity and alludes to the possibility of his return. “We can’t really speak to how Terry Silver would respond to that call,” Hurwitz told EW. “I think you’ll have to see if that character returns in Season 4.”

On the other hand, why create that backstory for Terry. Silver, and introduce that phone call to Silver unless the plan is to bring him back for Season Four of the series? Let’s just hope that writers do a better job with Season 4 of Cobra Kai than Robert Mark Kamen did with Karate Kid III. Let’s also hope that Anthony LaRusso is not the ringer, although if they want to bring Aisha back for this, that’d be more than OK.

When the various The Walking Dead series went on hiatus back in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expectation was that they’d be gone for three to four weeks, they’d pick-up production where they left off, and that the release plans for the series itself would not be delayed.

That obviously changed. Dramatically. The pandemic pushed The Walking Dead‘s tenth season finale so far back that by the time it aired, it was no longer the season finale, and instead of planning for the eleventh season, the producers of The Walking Dead are now planning an endgame for the series, a Carol and Daryl spin-off, an anthology series, and maybe even a The Walking Dead comedy.

The entire The Walking Dead universe has since shifted, but plans are now falling into place for 2021. While we may not get the 40 consecutive episodes that were originally envisioned for 2020, we can expect to see a lot of The Walking Dead this year. By my count, in fact, we should be seeing approximately 40 episodes from the universe, although some may air concurrently. In a video tweeted by the official The Walking Dead Twitter account, AMC laid out their plans.

As expected, the final six episodes of The Walking Dead will begin airing on February 28th (along with the return of The Talking Dead). That should take us to the Spring, where the back half of the sixth season of Fear the Walking Dead is expected to air. Things get a little more ambiguous beyond that, except that The World Beyond will return sometime in 2021, while later this year, we should expect to see the first episodes of Season 11 (which will run until the end of 2022), as well as the seventh season of Fear the Walking Dead.

In other words, 2021 will be crammed with The Walking Dead content, and the fact that The World Beyond is airing this year probably also means we’re getting closer to the Rick Grimes movie, which is expected to begin shooting in the Spring.

For now, however, we have the final six episodes of Season 10 (which began back in the fall of 2019) to watch on February 28th, which will include Hilarie Burton Morgan as Lucille.

The Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens went into the locker room at halftime on Saturday night in the midst of a 3-3 rock fight. Buffalo got the ball out of the break, and before the third quarter came to an end, they managed to get six points on back-to-back possessions.

The catch: Only one of those possessions involved Buffalo’s offense taking the field. After Josh Allen connected with Stefon Diggs for a score, Baltimore’s offense came out and managed to march down the field. They got into a goal-to-go situation, and failed to punch it in on the first two plays of the series.

Then, on third-and-goal, Lamar Jackson had his eyes on sure-handed tight end Mark Edwards, who was standing in the end zone. Jackson’s issue was that Bills corner Taron Johnson read Jackson’s mind, reeling in the pass and taking off in the other direction for a record-setting score.

The first turnover of the game managed to be a 101-yard pick six, tied for the longest pick six in postseason history. This also marked the first postseason interception of Johnson’s career, and in what might be the understatement of the year, it came at a pretty fortunate time for the 6,700 folks in the stadium in Western New York.

Most of us have been hoping and praying that 2021 will be better than last year. Well, if you’re Olivia Rodrigo, then that dream already came true within the first two weeks of the year. The young TV star was best known for starring in the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (try saying that five times fast), until she released her debut single “Drivers License” about a week ago, Friday, January 8. Since then, the song has absolutely exploded, earning massive first-day streaming numbers on Spotify, winning over Taylor Swift, and catapulting Rodrigo to the top of numerous Artist To Watch lists for the year.

And even if Spotify had words about Olivia’s success before, odds are they’re going to have even more after she just broke one of the platform’s biggest records in the shortest time possible. According to Pop Crave, “Drivers License” has already exceeded over 100 million streams, and it did so in just about eight days. That makes it the fastest song in platform history to achieve such a high benchmark. If this is just the reaction to Olivia’s first single, I can’t wait to see what kind of wonderful chaos the whole EP brings. Maybe this year will shape up ok after all. If you haven’t heard the song yet, check it out above.

She might only be 5’2, but Lady Gaga is hitting some lofty marks lately, and that’s not just in the Chromatica community, either.

Introduced by none other than Jennifer Hudson, Lady Gaga was honored today with the Yolanda Denise King Higher Ground award. This award is part of the larger Beloved Community awards organized by The King Center, that seek to uphold the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists following in his footsteps and working toward justice and civil rights.

Gaga was recognized both as an artist and the co-founder of the Born This Way foundation, which advocates for mental health and provides resources for marginalized groups with a focus on the queer community. She was also commended for her work last summer during the Black Lives Matter movement, and how she advocated for PPE gear to be distributed to healthcare workers to help keep them safe during the pandemic.

“I dedicate this award to Black, Brown and Indigenous people,” Gaga said during her speech. “Triumphant people, whose resilience is the life force of every beloved community in this country. Black, Brown and Indigenous people continue to thrive in the midst of systemic oppression, thrive with radical joy, unapologetically creating full and beautiful lives despite the systems of white supremacy that are intended to keep them from doing so.” Later, she explains how unlearning has been a part of her own process and speaks directly to her white fans saying “as white people we have a responsibility to unlearn.”

Check out the whole speech below.

Justin Tucker very well might be the best kicker in NFL history. Whenever the Baltimore Ravens have needed three points at basically any point in his NFL career, Tucker has lined up and generally gotten the job done. For his career, Tucker has connected on 90.7 percent of his field goal attempts, and this year, he only missed three times in 29 tries.

We say all of that to say this: It is weird when Tucker misses a field goal, and even weirder when he misses more than one, and even weirder when Tucker hits one off the uprights. So naturally, in the first half of the Ravens’ conference semifinal game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, Tucker managed to do something he’s never done before, and not necessarily in a good way.

Baltimore started the game with the ball and put forth a lovely 12-play, 52-yard drive that took nearly seven and a half minutes off the clock. They called on Tucker to put points on the board from 41-yards out, but the 15 mile per hour Buffalo wind threw him off ever so slightly and he doink’d one off the left upright.

In the immortal words of Howie Day, even the best fall down sometimes, and the good news for Tucker is that he got a chance at redemption in the second quarter, lining up from 46 yards out for a boot. But to continue the Howie Day joke from the last sentence, Tucker made the ball collide with the right upright this time.

To be fair to Tucker, Bills kicker Tyler Bass also missed one wide right, and since hitting an upright is more impressive than missing wide, I suppose there is something oddly admirable about this. Still, Tucker’s as reliable as they come, to the point that this is the first time in his career that he’s ever failed to make two kicks inside of 50 yards in the same game.

Despite all of this, it is probably safe to assume that if the Ravens need a field goal to win later in the game, Bills fans are going to be pretty scared of No. 9 getting the chance to put his foot through the ball.

You’ll never believe this, but James Harden is still extremely good at basketball. Harden made his debut as a member of the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday evening against the Orlando Magic, and despite the fact the team was not at full strength — Kyrie Irving is still away on hiatus — Harden and his old running mate in Oklahoma City paired up to put on a show in a 122-115 win.

Harden, in particular, looked impressive, as he put up gigantic numbers despite not practicing with his new teammates before today. The Beard scored 32 points, dished out 14 assists, and pulled in 12 rebounds in the win, making him the first player in league history to have a 3o-point triple-double in his first game with a new squad. In fact, Harden became only the seventh player to register a triple-double in their first game.

It’s still pretty evident that Harden needs to figure some stuff out — he had a season-high nine turnovers in the win — but the big thing is that he looked far more loose and comfortable than he did at any point this season in Houston. Even when he was putting up big numbers, Harden was just visibly not happy with the Rockets, and it was fun to watch him show that he can be the MVP-caliber force we know he can be at his best.

This is something that is much easier to accomplish when you have a productive running mate, and Kevin Durant makes for one heck of one. Durant was sensational against the Magic, scoring a game-high 42 points on 16-for-26 shooting and hitting the 40-point mark for the first time as a member of the Nets.

As an added bonus, Durant managed to set a franchise record with his performance.

The Nets are, of course, not a finished product yet, as Harden needs to get fully integrated with his new squad and Irving’s return looms large. Saturday represented the first step on what will be a long journey, though, and the good news for Brooklyn is it did not trip up.

Like many teams in the National Hockey League this season, fans are not currently watching Colorado Avalanche games in person. That creates an interesting opportunity to use technology at the team’s home arena in new ways as hockey continues amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As Awful Announcing noticed, the Avs played some intermission games on the ice projector at Ball Arena, mostly because there’s no need to use it for anything else these days. Conor McGahey, the Avs play-by-play announcer, tweeted earlier in the week that he was quite literally playing Solitaire between intermissions because there’s no fans in the stands to entertain.

That technology, which is usually used to project videos onto ice to create some very fun visuals, was basically turned into a ridiculous way to show off that you’re good at the card games that come standard with basically every PC.

But they got a bit more creative a day later, with McGahey playing Pong at the break.

It’s a fun bit we certainly hope continues, but some fan-less team out there could get creative and use all those cameras in the building to play something more interactive with fans. I’m sure a team would be up for a game of Jackbox with fans voting on their favorite picks. Just not Cyberpunk 2077, OK?

[via Awful Announcing]