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Dreaming about lo mein on the season finale of Pod Yourself A Gun.

On the latest episode of Pod Yourself A Gun: A Sopranos Podcast, Rolling Stone chief television critic and co-author of The Sopranos Sessions, Alan Sepinwall, returns to talk to Matt and Vince about the final episode of The Sopranos season 3, “Army of One.”

In the last pre-9/11 Sopranos episode, everyone’s favorite fail-stunad’ is at it again. The principal has a DNA match on AJ’s peepee, and Tony thinks military school will straighten the little piss bandit out. He’ll never get to be Donald Trump’s helicopter pilot if he doesn’t learn some discipline. During their talk, the guys decide when it’s okay to hit your kids, and try to find out if David Chase has heard the show. Let’s hope not!

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Kawhi Leonard is entering his second season in Los Angeles after choosing the Clippers in free agency a year ago, provided they paired him with another star in Paul George. The Clippers’ pursuit of Leonard had been no secret, as Lawrence Frank was a regular at Raptors games to watch Leonard and make clear L.A.’s desire to bring him back home.

However, there are recent allegations that implicate Clippers executive Jerry West of improprieties in his pursuit of Leonard, lobbied by Johnny Wilkes, who claims to be Leonard’s friend, in a lawsuit that was first reported by TMZ. West denied wrongdoing, but Wilkes claims he was promised $2.5 million by West to assist in steering the star to Los Angeles. The lawsuit also alleges West agreed to give Leonard’s uncle, Dennis Robertson, a house and a travel expense account as part of the agreement for Leonard to join the Clippers.

Marc Stein of the New York Times and Sam Amick of The Athletic both reported on Thursday that the league was now launching an investigation into the claims in Wilkes’ lawsuit, although it remains unclear how much merit there is to the claims — and most importantly, if anything can be proven.

We’ll learn in due time how real these allegations are and if they are at all something that can be proven, either in court or in an NBA investigation. Given that the parties involved aside from Wilkes all have reason to avoid such improprieties becoming public knowledge, even if such agreements did happen, barring hard evidence it figures to be very difficult to find someone among the chief individuals involved who would be willing to admit to these things having taken place.

The pandemic has robbed us of the better part of a year. Not being able to have holiday celebrations has made it feel as if the holidays didn’t even happen. Those little rituals of cutting turkey with your family on Thanksgiving or going to a BBQ on Labor Day are what makes the holiday feel more like a holiday than just getting the day off. Technically, the only reason why we had a Fourth of July this year is because July 4^th is a date on the calendar.

COVID hasn’t entirely cancelled Christmas. Festive Holiday light shows mean you can experience that Christmas-y feel from the safety of your own car. Or better yet, you can skip getting in your car and watch them on You Tube. These people have been working hard, despite the pandemic, to make sure that some of that Holiday magic enters our lives.

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Magical Light Show

Titanium (David Guetta/Sia) 2020 Christmas Light Show

www.youtube.com

The Magical Light Show happens every year in Tracy, California and 2020 isn’t an exception. The light show also doubles as a fundraiser for the McHenry House, a family shelter in Tracy. You don’t have to be anywhere near the California city to view the show or to donate. The organization is taking donations on their website.

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas Light Projection

The Grinch- Christmas House Projection Show 2020

www.youtube.com

COVID is basically the Grinch who stole Christmas, or at least the Grinch who reduced Christmas to only essential functions. This light show is the Dr. Seuss classic, but projected on to somebody’s house – which is really the best way to see it, anyways.

Polar Christmas Light Show At Toronto Pearson Airport

Polar Christmas light Show 2020 Massive (4K) #Christmas Medley Disco Remix 2020 no copyright #Glow

www.youtube.com

In any other year, going to the airport around the Holidays is a special kind of hell you’d only wish on your worst enemy (because it’s not fatal, just uncomfortable). The upshot of 2020 is that Holiday travel is less painful, thanks in part to this fun light show on the way to the airport in Toronto. It’s like a Christmas-y theme park ride at a time when theme parks are closed. And it’s a lot cheaper than Disneyland, too.

Larsen’s Light Show

Larsens Light Show – Carol of the Bells

www.youtube.com

There’s something so soothing and satisfying about watching perfectly synchronized lights and music. This Campton Hills, Illinois-based light show does not disappoint. The show is lovingly put on by Brian Larsen. This year is actually the last year for the show in its current location. Traffic issues are making the light show move to a different, larger, and hopefully less congested location.

COVID Mask (Monster Mash Parody)

Covid Mask – Monster Mash parody – Halloween lightshow 2020

www.youtube.com

Is it still October? It could be. Who really knows. Time has been irrelevant since March. It’s hard to tell what day or month it is anymore. We didn’t have Halloween, so this Monster Mash/face mask parody is still relevant, even though we’re halfway through December. This cheeky light show pokes fun at the frustrations of having to wear a face mask. But seriously, you should wear a face mask. It’s a pain in the butt, but it could save someone else’s life.

Much of the discourse around a trade for James Harden includes the belief that the best player that Houston can realistically get back in the deal is Ben Simmons. There have been plenty of reports about whether or not Philadelphia was willing to part with their young All-Star, and on Thursday evening, a pair of new reports indicate that the answer is yes. Despite this, nothing seems to be imminent in a trade between the two teams.

According to reports by both ESPN and The Athletic, Houston and Philadelphia have held conversations about a trade that would see Philly part ways with Simmons. Having said that, the two sides are apparently not close to any sort of deal, as Houston’s asking price beyond just him is quite high.

Houston is coming at this from a position of strength. Harden is under contract for another two years, so they have the ability to let this play out and let the market dictate what they eventually do. This is also reflected in ESPN ‘s reporting, which indicates that the Rockets or having conversations with teams beyond two — Philly and Brooklyn – that appear on Harden‘s wishlist for a deal.

As for which teams this includes, that is unclear. But ESPN does report that there are a handful of contenders from both conferences that are inquiring, and Houston is keeping Harden abreast of what is happening.

Several playoff-caliber teams in the Eastern and Western conferences tell ESPN that they’re finding increased comfort in committing high-level trade assets in talks to acquire Harden. The Rockets have ongoing discussions on several fronts and have been communicating with Harden about those scenarios, sources said.

Several teams tell ESPN that they’re feeling less inhibited about trading for Harden without an assurance that he’d re-sign once he can become a free agent in two years.

Harden’s contract means that this would not be exactly the same as a Kawhi Leonard situation, where he would go as a potential mercenary for one year to a team that has championship aspirations. There is no guarantee that Harden would resign with which ever team put all their cards on the table to acquire him, but it does appear that there is a potentially robust market for the former MVP services that is not scared off by any potential uncertainty regarding what his future holds.

George Clooney’s currently promoting his post-apocalyptic Netflix movie, The Midnight Sky, which has led to many interviews of note, including the Howard Stern visit where the former E.R. heartthrob called out COVID deniers following Tom Cruise’s rant on the same subject. During that same discussion, the topic turned to the collective distaste for 1997’s Batman & Robin, which — to no one’s surprise — Clooney does not enjoy either, yet the Oscar winner goes in even harder on himself than expected.

While speaking with Stern, Clooney admitted that “physically” feels pain while witnessing the movie. He can’t even stand his own performance, which he called “terrible.” And he divulged that he was paid $1 million as opposed to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s $25 payday to portray Mr. Freeze. Clooney and the former Governator didn’t even cross paths on the set, apparently, but the core of this part of the discussion inevitably landed upon Clooney’s disappointment in the movie. And yup, he also spoke on behalf of the late Joel Schumacher. Via Hollywood Reporter:

“The truth of the matter is, I was bad in it. Akiva Goldsman — who’s won the Oscar for writing since then — he wrote the screenplay. And it’s a terrible screenplay, he’ll tell you. I’m terrible in it, I’ll tell you. Joel Schumacher, who just passed away, directed it, and he’d say, ‘Yeah, it didn’t work.’ We all whiffed on that one.”

Clooney continued, saying that he didn’t have any creative input into the project. Presumably, that includes any discussion of those notorious Batnipples that he’s joked about on previous occasions, and I’m sorry to see that it doesn’t appear that Stern mentioned those Batnipples at all. I guess he really has put that “Shock Jock” label behind him, right? It happens.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Cupcakke’s fiery repurposing of 50 Cent’s breakout hit “How To Rob” has elicited its first on-record response. Sukihana, the Atlanta rapper who was co-signed by Cardi B in the “WAP” video and who just put out her debut project, Wolf Pussy, clapped back with the five-minute freestyle, “Rob Who?” The track has Sukihana’s name trending on Twitter, with the newcomer defiantly accepting the challenge and declaring, “Bring back the real rappers,” although she also makes clear that despite the vicious bars, “It’s all love tho.”

The track comes after Suki received her second major co-sign from an established predecessor in the form of Rico Nasty, who put her on the remix to the breakout hit “Smack A Bitch” from Rico’s debut album, Nightmare Vacation. Suki’s own breakout came a few years ago when she provided a filthy guest verse on Cuban Doll’s “Drug Dealer.” Prior to that, she was a cast member on Love & Hip Hop — the show that also launched Cardi B’s career — beginning with season three. On “Rob Who,” she unleashes a flurry of punchlines that cut down Cupcakke, including one that compares her to Vivian from the ’90s animated classic Bebe’s Kids (that’s who’s in the cover art).

Cupcakke, who is known for shaking up social media with wild pronouncements and surprise releases of her fiery freestyles, once again sparked raised eyebrows and captured fans’ attention with her “How To Rob (Remix)” yesterday. Over the course of the song, she imitates the song’s original artist 50 Cent in reaching out with rude one-liners directed at her contemporaries. Aside from Sukihana, she also named Cardi, City Girls, Chief Keef, DaBaby, Doja Cat, DreamDoll, Flo Milli, G Herbo, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Megan Thee Stallion, Migos, Mulatto, and more.

Listen, if there is one thing we know about new video game releases, it’s that bugs are going to happen and they are going to be written about on sites like this one. Now that that is out of the way, please bask in the glory of this absolutely ridiculous Madden NFL 21 glitch, because it rocks.

The game, which was previously on current generation consoles, hit next gen consoles at the beginning of this month. Apparently, one thing that will have to be included in future patches is the ability to return kicks without some total nonsense happening, as we saw in this video that made the rounds on Twitter.

There are two things here that everyone can agree with. One is that this is extremely funny and also would be the most maddening thing on earth if it happened to you in a game of Madden. The other is that an NFL player should try this immediately, because that would be even funnier than this glitch, especially if the largely empty stadiums include commentary like “GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, BABY” that we can hear from our living rooms.

One frustration that people can have with Madden, in my experience, is that the game makes returning kickoffs and punts extremely difficult, if only because if they did not, some hardcore gamer would find a way to return every single kick for a touchdown. Still, this video makes it seem like the pendulum has gone a bit too far in the other direction in Madden on PS5.

I’ll tell you what I love: I love a show that moves fast. A show that has twists and turns and reveals coming at a breakneck pace. A show that is willing to sacrifice a little bit of reality in the name of a good time. A show that does so much so often that it makes you sound like a babbling maniac when you try to explain the plot to other people. This is probably why I enjoyed The Flight Attendant so much. The Flight Attendant was all of those things and more over its just-completed eight-episode run. It was such a freaking blast.

Start at the top of the list. The show just moved so fast. It stomped on the gas in the premiere with a one-night stand and a dead body in Bangkok and it never let up. There were assassins and conspiracies and secrets revealed at important moments. Kaley Cuoco spent over half the show playing very drunk as she wobbled her way through her own investigation. Zosia Mamet’s character, Annie, was one of the most reasonable people on the show even though she had an open shower in the middle of her living room and a secret hacker boyfriend who got hit by a car at one point. Rosie Perez accidentally provided secrets to the North Korean government and was last seen preparing to go on the lam in Europe wearing a stylish floppy hat. At one point, when cornered by one of the two assassins chasing her (the one who was not also seducing her), Cuoco’s character, Cassie, flicked her shoe at her attacker’s head and ran off in the other direction with one bare foot. It was awesome.

This is what I’m talking about. Just a ball of messy fun from beginning to end. Yes, there were dark moments, and this is where we mention Cassie’s alcoholism and troubled childhood and the memory-warping her brain did as a form of denial and self-defense. That was in there too, rabbits and deer and car horns and all of it. But even those flashbacks were in service of launching the plot forward at all times, brief pauses that explain why she did the thing she did or is about to do the thing she is about to do. She’s a troubled lady, deeply, beyond the thing where an international financial conspiracy has plopped into her lap and dead bodies keep turning up in the places she’s been. That’s not great either.

But again, fun. The show spent about six and a half of its eight episodes digging her hole deeper as everything got more complicated. It sent her to Bangkok, and New York, and Rome, and into her own head with a vision of the dead guy she woke up next to, and to an aquarium with her nieces, and had her hook up with some handsome zero with a stupid name, but nothing was ever as it first appeared and nothing was ever simple. Buckley the Zero was actually Felix the Psychopath Assassin, and his big plan to kill her and cover his tracks almost worked until one of her coworkers kicked open the door spraying bullets and revealed himself to be an undercover CIA agent who was investigating Rosie Perez’s character’s completely unrelated accidental treason whoopsie, and after everything else that happened in the season I was fully happy to just accept it. “Oh, yes, Shane is a CIA agent, that makes sense,” I said to myself about the completely nutso last-minute twist. Terrific television program.

(This brings up another fun point. The flight crew on the show had four main people. By the end of the finale, one of them had unraveled a globe-spanning conspiracy, one was wanted for selling military secrets to North Korea, one turned out to be an intelligence operative, and the other was… still just a snarky flight attendant. Part of me wants another season just to hear her explain all of this to, like, her sister. Another part of me wants another season so the show can reveal she’s secretly a billionaire drug smuggler or something. Both parts of me want another season. We’ll come back to this.)

I think a lot of the credit for keeping things so fizzy and bouncy despite all the trauma and murder can go to two things: One, Cuoco’s performance, which was so good and threaded a tiny needle when it came to tone; two, the music, which I described in my earlier piece on the series as “dinky bonk piano” music, a phrase I stand by today. The opening theme was catchy in a tinkly and jaunty Archer-style way, animated action and all of it. The music inside the show was perfect too, and yes, this is where I point out, again, that whoever did the subtitles for this show deserves a raise. Like, today.

The result of all of these things was that The Flight Attendant didn’t ever feel like a slog, a trap a number of other limited series have fallen into. You’ve seen a few, I’m sure. They’re the ones that have an interesting premise but start to revel in being bleak and dark for the sake of being bleak and dark, like everyone just got done watching the first season of True Detective and decided that a limited series has to be Very Serious At All Times. The ones that somehow drag despite only having six to eight hours to fill. The ones that seem eager to grab you by the shoulders and shout “GET READY TO GET BUMMED THE HELL OUT, BUSTER.” Is there a place for a show like that? Sure. I guess. Why not? But it’s nice to see someone out there taking the format and doing something a little peppier.

Which brings us back to the big question: Should there be a second season of The Flight Attendant? Prior to the finale, I would have shrugged my shoulders. A show with a high degree of difficulty — like five intertwining mysteries about murder and espionage counts as “a high degree of difficulty” — can have trouble with the landing. Even if the finale had whiffed, I still would have enjoyed the ride. But whiff it did not. It wrapped up most of its business pretty nicely and left a few avenues open for further inquiry. Would I watch a second season about Rosie Perez and her floppy hat crisscrossing the globe to try to clear her and her husband of high treason? Yes. Would I watch Cassie and Annie and maybe CIA Shane — WHOSE NAME PROBABLY ISN’T EVEN SHANE — attempt to help her do it? Of course. Would I watch an entire season about Miranda the newly wealthy assassin just doing various Miranda things? Hmm. I think I would, but it would help if someone wore a floppy hat or turned out to be a spy or kicked a shoe at someone.

I’m sorry. I’m conditioned to expect these things now. You can’t take them away from me.

Sad news for the Star Wars community today. Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who originally portrayed the iconic bounty hunter Boba Fett in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, has passed away at age 75. Reports of Bulloch’s death bounced around the fan community on Thursday afternoon before being officially confirmed by the actor’s website, which announced that he died peacefully with his wife and two of his sons by his side:

Jeremy had a long and happy life as an actor and was best known for his roles in the films Summer Holiday, Star Wars and James Bond; TV series the Newcomers, Doctor Who, Agony and Robin of Sherwood, and several West End theatre productions. Away from the screen Jeremy was a talented footballer and cricketer. He also supported a number of charities including Great Ormond Street Hospital who saved his granddaughter’s life. He was devoted to his wife, three sons and ten grandchildren, who all love him dearly and will miss him terribly.

Actor Daniel Logan, who played young Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones, also posted a tribute to Bulloch on Instagram.

Bulloch’s death arrives just as Boba Fett is undergoing a massive revival, due to the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. Despite the character seemingly being devoured by the Sarlacc Pit during the opening moments of Return of the Jedi, Temuera Morrison is now playing the classic bounty hunter, and Star Wars fans have been losing their minds over getting more of the character that Bulloch first brought to life.

In late November, Bulloch’s fellow Star Wars actor David Prowse also passed away at the age of 85. While his face was never seen in the films, Prowse was the towering body under Darth Vader’s armor in the original trilogy.

(Via JeremyBulloch.com)

“When we look at how everything combined, it was a perfect storm,” Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter- Los Angeles, says. “We were in the midst of a pandemic, but that pandemic also meant that the outward-facing work that most of us do — hustling our children to and from school, hustling across freeways to our jobs outside of our homes — there was a necessary slowing of that. And so, when George Floyd was murdered, we watched all eight minutes and 46 seconds. We had to. There was no turning our heads.”

Abdullah is the chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles; her work as an educator is widely renowned. But in 2020 the tenured academic was out in the streets — leading protests throughout LA to fight for racial justice. She was joined by tens of thousands of people, particularly young people, who raised their voices to stand up against systemic oppression.

That’s worth underscoring. As we look back on a year spent in quarantine, it would be easy to draw the conclusion that society was more isolated than ever. But there’s a story of connection to be told, too. The protests following George Floyd’s murder were the largest in American history — as an estimated 15-26 million people took to the streets to stand up for Black lives.

“We rose up,” Abdullah says. “And once we rose up, I think people got what we’ve been saying for seven years. ‘Black Lives Matter.’”

In 2020 — in the throes of a global pandemic — the Black Lives Matter movement gained tremendous momentum. Millions of Americans, day after day, taking to the streets. At its height, there was an average of 140 separate protests per day across the county.

People didn’t just want to protest, either. They wanted to know more, too; be more aware. Anti-racism book sales skyrocketed — at one point all ten non-fiction books on the NYT bestseller list were about racism. We even shifted the way we spent money. Searches on Yelp for Black-owned businesses went up 7000%.

And in November, people voted for change. Also in historic numbers.

“In 2020, leading up to the election, we were very clear that we have to build the vote and organize,” Abdullah says. “Black folks, especially, were pivotal in organizing voters to the polls — young voters, Black voters, voters of color. But once we win victories at the polls, we need to remember that we have to continue to engage with those elected officials to make sure that we hold them accountable.”

Abdullah sees a lot of “next steps.” Politicians who made big promises when their jobs were at stake will need to be pressed. Allies will have to stay in the fight. And the values that so many of us chanted about and painted on signs need to be applied to our day-to-day lives.

“Every year, and especially this year, we have something called Black Xmas with a website, blackxmas.org,” Abdullah says. “The three tenets of that are: build Black, buy Black and bank Black.”

With more and more vital resources like Black Xmas, along with guides for supporting Black entrepreneurs and restaurants, and scores of political and social justice organizations to get involved with, there’s literally no valid excuse for not carrying the energy of the protest movement forward. In that sense, 2021 offers a clean slate to take real steps toward racial equality. But the onus remains on all of us to keep pushing, keep listening, keep caring, and keep doing the work.

“I’m hopeful about what this movement means,” Abdullah says. “Black Lives Matter was measured to be the largest social justice movement in global history. And so that means there’s a willingness for the first time for people to really confront both individual and systemic racism. And I think that 2021 can move us forward in really meaningful ways with so many people having stepped into this work. We want to make sure that folks aren’t just saying Black lives matter; in 2021, we want to make Black lives matter.”