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On Wednesday, for the first time since early March, New York City logged its first day with zero confirmed deaths from COVID-19. For a city that became the nation’s biggest coronavirus hotspot by far, with a daily peak of 590 deaths on April 7, that’s wonderful news.

There is one caveat, though. According to the New York Daily News, records released by the city showed three “probable” deaths from the virus, which may very well end up being confirmed. Even at that, though, the milestone of zero confirmed deaths in a 24-hour period was met with celebration by officials in the city, which has seen nearly 17,000 confirmed deaths and more than 4,700 probable deaths in the past three months.

Mayor Bill De Blasio also explained in a press conference that the city had also reached three key reopening thresholds on Wednesday in hospital admissions, ICU admissions and testing. According to the New York State website, New York City will begin phase one of reopening on June 8.

“That is very good news,” De Blasio said. “Whatever else we’re fighting, whatever else we have to overcome, this is what is going to allow us to move forward.”

Of course, the virus hasn’t disappeared, so this milestone is not a mark on a linear timeline. Public health and infectious disease experts have prepared us for the idea that the pandemic will come in waves, with peaks and valleys and hotspots invariably popping up in different places.

But in some way, that’s all the more reason to celebrate when we do have a big dip. We need moments of hope to break up the long battle we’re fighting with this virus. After the intensity of lockdowns and the tragedy New York has experienced, having some space to breathe and something to feel happy about feels like a much needed—even if temporary—relief.

In the days after the death of George Floyd and the protests that have followed, musicians have shared some music inspired by these current events. The latest to make their voices heard in this way are Nasty C and T.I., who have shared their new collaboration, “They Don’t.”

Nasty C sings on the chorus, “They don’t want me to sleep, they don’t want me to dream / They don’t want to see my people livin’ good and at ease / They wanna lock ’em all up and then get rid of the keys / We ain’t never free.” On his verse, T.I. directly discusses the current state of America: “Guess they’d rather see us all in civil unrest / Than to go and make some f*ckin’ arrests, f*ck is that? / Well, after that, here’s to getting exactly what you expect / How you ‘posed to serve and protect with your knee on my neck?”

A meet-up between T.I. and Nasty C has been slowly brewing for a while now. Back in late 2018, Nasty C shared a DM he received from T.I., telling him that he heard is music and that he enjoyed it. A few months later, T.I. was speaking at a press event about his relationship with African musicians, and he mentioned that he recorded a song with Nasty C. Now T.I. is set to appear on Nasty C’s upcoming album, Zulu Man With Some Power (presumably with this new song). Nasty C said of the T.I.’s guest spot on the album, “I hope it opens up a whole new lane for American hip-hop artists to interact with African hip-hop artists. In bridging those gaps, I want people to realize there are a lot more flavors here.”

Listen to “They Don’t” above.

In an appearance at a rally in Seattle on Thursday night, Storm teammates Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd were joined by Bulls guard Zach LaVine and Washington men’s basketball coach Mike Hopkins to speak out against police violence and systemic racism.

The rally was organized by Washington assistant Will Conroy, but among the star athletes in attendance, it was Stewart, the WNBA’s 2019 regular season and Finals MVP, who spoke first.

“I’m disappointed in the country I represent with USA Basketball and a country that still has racism,” she said. “Racism is a big problem in our country.”

Stewart added: “I can’t relate to the Black community, I know what I’m feeling, you guys are feeling 1,000 times more, and I’m just going to continue to do my best to create change.”

The four-time champion at Connecticut pledged to educate herself and her family members, and do the work that has been “put off” for so long. Lloyd then took the microphone and told the story of calling her father recently. The Storm standout recalls being saddened by the fact that he felt his “biggest success in life” was raising children who lived past 25 years old.

“That can’t be the only success story that the black community knows and understands,” Loyd said. “There’s so much more that we have to give as human beings.”

LaVine, a native of Renton, Wash., spoke next, pledging to do a better job of being informed politically and making it a priority to vote.

Rarely do you see the genuine, humble perspective of athletes like what has been shared by these three, and many, many others around the country the past two weeks. Communities are hurting, and it’s one thing to talk about conversations that must be had, and another to start them oneself.

Judy And Punch is an endearingly odd, theatrically Australian take on The Witch; a Witch for people who unironically Abba, say. Or maybe it’s more like a British prestige TV take on Willow. Whatever the comparison, it’s fully realized, idiosyncratic, and tough to pigeonhole, the kind of movie that feels like it came from a far away land, and did.

Written and directed by Mirrah Foulkes, Judy comes from Blue Tongue Films, an Australian production company that has in the past given us Animal Kingdom, Hesher, War Machine, and The King, among others. This one feels like a departure from the angst and grit of those, not exactly “campy,” but certainly with an unabashed theatricality. Mia Wasikowska from Alice in Wonderland plays the titular Judy, opposite Damon Herriman (Tarantino’s Charles Manson) as Punch, puppeteers in a fictional Elizabethan-ish backwater called Seaside (which isn’t actually near the sea, but hoped to lure investors who might believe that it was). They dream of taking their puppet show to the big time, and escaping their provincial village, where the chief recreational activity is the stoning to death of heretical women.

Mostly they embody the characteristics of the marionettes they control — Judy just trying to live while being saddled with the abusive Punch. Wasikowska always seems to get cast in these fantasy stories and it’s not hard to see why. Something about her penetrating lemur gaze and delicate features just screams storybook ingenue. Herriman, meanwhile, with his jutting jaw and iguana mouth, and eyebrows that seem to have been installed upside down, trades strict realism for a theatricality so committed that it almost becomes realism again. It helps that he’s playing an entertainer, but he’s clearly working his ass off here, and it’s mesmerizing.

Judy and Punch is very much a “reimagining” of the classic(ally violent) puppet show, exploring what exactly it means for a slapstick domestic violence show (for the whole family!) to have survived for hundreds of years, while trying to rewrite its history as something more empowering. We’ve become somewhat inured to the corporate corny, female-empowerment-as-genre stories we get here, but Judy and Punch‘s version is quainter, more like Rocky Horror or Tim Burton where outcasts and goth kids matter too, gosh darn it.

That’s the pitch, anyway. Judy and Punch‘s real hook is the world itself, with colorfully baroque sets and a cast where committed veterans mingle with magnificently odd-faced characters, complete with dwarves, town drunks, and albinos. The townsfolk are scraggled, poxy, and red-cheeked, spraying spittle as they bellow at one another through a kaleidoscope of bread-mouthed Anglo-Celtic accents. While they hunt witches and stone spinsters, a matriarchal heretic camp of broad-shouldered braid-haired ladies lives happily off the grid in the woods, foraging fruit and doing tai chi in the morning fog, free from masculine tyranny. It’s hard to mix the earnest with the goofy this well, but Australians might be especially suited to it.

Punch, a vain, alcoholic abuser who hates even old people and small dogs, eventually gets his reckoning, as expected. It’s not quite the glorious crescendo we might hope, but it is just odd enough to be compelling. Judy and Punch may not be as thought-provoking as it wants to be, but what it lacks in cultural critique it more than makes up for in escapism, eccentricity, and eye candy. It’s transporting, in every sense of the word, and it comes along just when we most seem to need it.

‘Judy and Punch’ is available now on VOD. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

As Mark Calaway continues his ongoing media tour in support of the WWE Network docuseries Undertaker: The Last Ride, we keep getting new nuggets of information and lore about one of the most mysterious and protected characters the pro wrestling business has ever seen. We learned he was “disappointed” in his WrestleMania 33 main event with Roman Reigns and that he doesn’t think he could pull off the “mystique” of the Undertaker character in present-day WWE anymore. But this latest tidbit of information, coming from the Bill Simmons Podcast (via Wrestling Inc.), fleshes out even more details around his disastrous WrestleMania 30 match against Brock Lesnar, which had already been covered in episode one of The Last Ride — but now we know Calaway’s concussion was even more severe than the docuseries let on.

“No one even knew [I was concussed]. Brock got hyper nervous about it but you could tell, maybe for the casual fan you couldn’t tell but anyone who follows our business could tell. My memory of that day stops at about 3:30 in the afternoon, that’s the last memory I have. My wife had come backstage as she normally does before I start going through my process, I had told her what was going to happen and calmed her down and that was it. I have no recollection of the match, it was 4 in the morning before I even knew what my name was.

“I basically stayed in my room in the dark for 2 weeks. I’ve been concussed before, but never to that level. I’ve never had the lingering headache and sensitivity to the light, that had never happened to that extreme before. It was strange. Not being able to remember, I had been concussed a few times and been able to finish the match and know when it happened but not that time.”

Amnesia, light sensitivity and lingering headaches are all signs of a grade 3 (severe) concussion and Post-Concussion Syndrome, so it sounds like Taker was really knocked for a loop during the match that ended the Streak. Thankfully, it appears he’s been able to fully recover.

Episode four of Undertaker: The Last Ride premieres Sunday, June 14 on WWE Network.

Republic Records has banned the internal use of the genre term “urban” and issued a statement pushing for industry-wide change, according to Billboard. The change comes amid calls from multiple artists, including Billie Eilish and Tyler The Creator, to update outdated genre distinctions that hold racist connotations and histories. The label is home to some of the biggest stars in pop music and hip-hop, including Drake, Jaden Smith, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Post Malone, and The Weeknd.

Republic announced the change with a post on Instagram reading: “Effective immediately, Republic Records will remove ‘Urban’ from our verbiage in describing departments, employee titles, and genre titles. We encourage the rest of the music industry to follow suit as it is important to shape the future of what we want it to look like, and not adhere to the outdated structures of the past.” Billboard notes the origin of the term as “urban contemporary,” as coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in lieu of “Black music.” Republic’s announcement comes after the music industry’s Black Out Tuesday this week, which was launched by industry professionals Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang to encourage workers in music to meaningfully engage with Black people and culture, who drive much of the business’ creativity and success, in the wake of the police killing George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Since the term was first introduced, it has drawn criticism for being used to “silo” Black artists, regardless of musical style, into one category without affording them the distinction of specific genres. In January of this year, Tyler The Creator called out this practice, saying, ““It sucks that we — and I mean guys who look like me — do anything genre-bending or anything, they also put it in a ‘rap’ or ‘urban’ category.” Meanwhile, just days ago, Billie Eilish expressed similar concerns, pointing out how the industry’s double standards in categorizing artists seemingly according to ethnicity rather than style. “Look, if I wasn’t white I would probably be in ‘rap,’” she lamented. “Why? They just judge from what you look like and what they know. I think that is weird.”

See Republic Records’ statement above.

As protests concerning police brutality and the murder of George Floyd continue across all 50 states, musicians are banding together to raise funds for charity in a number of ways. Many artists are pledging funds from Bandcamp to benefit Black Lives Matter organizations, while more wealthy musicians like Kanye West offered millions to charity. Trippie Redd took a different approach and applied pressure to his own record label to step up to the plate, and he was successful.

Trippie’s record label, 10k Projects, announced they are creating a charitable arm of their organization and committing to funnel $500,000 to various projects over the next five years. Trippie commended his label’s commitment, saying he was the one who pressured them. “won’t sit back and let things happen to my people knowing I’m around people with good hearts and souls that have no problem helping the cause,” he wrote.

Announcing the philanthropic act on social media, 10k Projects said they are forming the project to focus on combatting racist policies while also creating opportunities for young Black creatives and supporting Black-owned businesses:

“We have committed to spend $500,000 over the next five years on 10K Together. 10K Together will donate $25,000 to Color of Change, the online racial justice organization, establish and finance an intern program to empower black youth at 10K Projects, and make a commitment to support black-owned businesses in Los Angeles.”

Read 10k Projects’ full statement above.

While developing 2015’s Fantastic Four for Fox, Josh Trank made a bold move when he used his clout from the success of Chronicle to push for Michael B. Jordan playing Johnny Storm in the reboot. The decision to cast an African-American actor as a white comic book character was controversial at the time, but in a new interview, Trank reveals that he wanted to push the casting envelope even further.

While talking to Geeks of Color, Trank says that his original plan was for the Storm family to be entirely black. While he got his way with Jordan as Johnny and Reg E. Cathey as Franklin Storm, the director noticed he was getting a lot of “pretty heavy pushback” when it came to casting a black actress for Sue Storm. Ultimately, the role went to Kate Mara, and Trank regrets not walking away as the situation unfolded.

Via Comic Book:

“When I look back on that, I should have just walked when that sort of realization hit me and I feel embarrassed about that, that I didn’t, just out of principle, because those aren’t the values that I stand for in my own life and those weren’t the values then, or ever, for me. Because I’m somebody who always talks about standing up for what I believe in, even if it means burning my career up, and I feel bad that I didn’t take it to the mat with that issue. I felt like I failed in that regard, but that was a weird, unfortunate situation, I don’t know how else to put it.”

While Trank didn’t get the racially diverse Johnny and Sue that he was hoping for, he found himself under significant fire regardness. In a lengthy profile in Polygon, Trank recently opened up about how he started sleeping with a gun after receiving online death threats while filming Fantastic Four in New Orleans. That experience on top of his grueling behind-the-scenes battles led to Trank disappearing from Hollywood for years before returning with his Tom Hardy vehicle, Capone.

(Via Comic Book & Geeks of Color)

Timothy Showalter fans are used to hearing indie-rock material from his Strand Of Oaks project, but he has shared something completely different today: Strand Of Oaks has dropped Ambient For Change, his first ambient release. All proceeds from the album, which is available exclusively on Bandcamp (since today is a fee-waiving day), will go to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Showalter also shared a brief note alongside the album, writing:

“I wrote these five songs in the midst of heartbreak for the tragic events in our country. The one outlet that I have is music and the ability to create with the intention of helping. I improvised these songs to try and give language to the overwhelming emotion I was feeling and to try in a small way to lend my voice of support. I’ve spent a lot of my life talking and singing but there are no words on this record. Making these songs helped me be still and contemplate how I can be a better more loving person and stand against injustice and inequality. I hope that these songs bring peace but at the same time I hope that they can also provide a safe space for meditation and reflection on ways that we can all help be there for one another. All proceeds from this recording will be going to NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Black Lives Matter

Much Love,
Tim – Strand of Oaks”

Listen to Ambient For Change below.

A massive Black Lives Matter mural was swiftly painted on the streets of Washington DC early Friday morning ahead of a planned protest this weekend in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The capital — like all 50 states — was home to a week of protests held in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police. The mural, which simply reads “Black Lives Matter” in bold yellow letters, spans two full blocks along 16th street leading straight toward the White House in its southward direction, was officially commissioned by Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser who contacted painters to begin work early Friday morning, according to CNN.

Mayor Bowser has also officially deemed the section of 16th street that houses the mural “Black Lives Matter Plaza.” Speaking at a press conference outside of the nearby St. John’s Church — the site of President Trumps bible-sporting photo-op from earlier in the week — Muriel told reporters “we simply all want to be here together in peace to demonstrate that in America — you can peacefully assemble, you can bring grievances to your government, and you can demand change.”

Saturday’s protest in Washington D.C. is expected to result in a large turnout, and while a mural won’t solve systemic issues, it is a message of solidarity with the protestors who are peacefully demanding nationwide change.