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Vine was, overall, a good thing, providing hours of entertainment in seven-second videos. I still regularly watch Vine compilations on YouTube, if only to remember the good ol’ days (2014) of Squidward dabbing, the duck army, and everything Demi Adejuyigbe made. But I had to include that “overall” earlier, because while most of Vine rocked, it was almost where Jake Paul got his “big break.” The same Jake Paul who used the n-word during a freestyle rap in 2018, and who’s now in trouble with the authorities for “allegedly participating in weekend looting” at a mall in Arizona.

Variety reports that Paul was “charged by police in Scottsdale, Arizona, with criminal trespassing and unlawful assembly after he was identified among the crowd of looters at a local mall Sunday.” In response, Paul, brother of Logan, tweeted, “Gimme my charges and let’s put the focus back on George Floyd and Black Lives Matter.” For sure, he definitely wasn’t there to “profit off human suffering.” Both charges are misdemeanors:

On Sunday, Paul posted videos to his Instagram story showing him protesting outside the Fashion Square mall in Scottsdale and police officers who threw tear gas in his direction. He captioned the video “america is in ruins” and “what can we do,” then posted a photo of his face saying “I’m tear gassed my eyes bleeding.” Subsequent videos posted on Twitter from the scene showed Paul watching others damage the outside of a P.F. Chang’s restaurant.

Sigh. Remember the Squidward dabbing video? That was fun. Let’s watch that again.

(Via Variety)

Through all the unrest that has been going on in the US over the past week or so, people online have noticed that Kanye West hasn’t been vocal about the situation, despite the fact that most of his celebrity peers have been. Now, though, it looks like Kanye is stepping up with some big-time financial contributions.

Variety reports that, according to a Kanye representative, the rapper has launched a college fund to cover tuition costs for Gianna, Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter. Additionally, he has so far donated $2 million to charities associated with Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and has vowed to cover legal costs for the Arbery and Taylor families. On top of that, he will also be donating money to black-owned businesses.

Gianna spoke about her father in a recent interview on Good Morning America, saying, “I miss him.” She also said, “I know what I want to be when I grow up: I want to be a doctor. I want to take care of people.”

Kanye can certainly afford all of these efforts, as Forbes just named him the highest-earning musician of 2020.

This story is being updated.

I May Destroy You promised to be provocative, given that it springs from the mind of Michaela Coel (the creator, writer, and star of the hit Britcom, Chewing Gum, now on Netflix). Since the show revolves around sexual consent, I also expected it to be tonally different than her relatively lighthearted series, and yes, that’s the case. Yet the show is not a fully harrowing watch despite tackling difficult issues. It’s true that Coel brings a brazenly witty reputation to the table, although I still did not anticipate any humor and guessed wrong there. What I did expect is a sort-of blend of Unbelievable and Euphoria, yet this effort feels less clinical and exudes more warmth, respectively, than these recent treatments of sexual assault and violence. All three shows are very good in their own way, but I May Destroy You cements Coel as a fearless creative force, not to be ignored.

Coel’s multi-hyphenating again here as creator, writer, and star while adding executive producer and co-director to her existing mix for the BBC One series that will also air on HBO and HBO Max. It’s dizzying, what she’s accomplished, with this disorienting and uncomfortable and tragic and triumphantly real series. As noted, there’s a darkly funny streak that tears through the 12-episode season of half-hour episodes, although this was neither engineered nor avoided (Coel even told the BBC, “I didn’t add humour, humour is always there; at every party, funeral and war, although often uninvited, she’s always there”). Well, this uninvited party “spikes” the show, akin to the drug slipped to Coel’s character (Arabella) by a rapist.

Here’s the thing, though: we’re not supposed to laugh during stories of sexual assault. For a reason: rape is absolutely no joke, but Coel’s navigating the post-#MeToo era, and she’s not afraid to make her audience feel uncomfortable. She’s also stunningly adept at weaving textured stories, where a survivor is not singularly defined by their own trauma. This is an authentic portrayal of her character’s experience, not only as a woman but as a Black woman and artist and fully-dimensional human, against an expansive backdrop, and yes, humor tiptoes into the space.

The setup: The London-based, 20-something Arabella is a carefree soul with a lively social life and a writing career-on-the-rise (she’s celebrated as a “voice of her generation”). One night while desiring a break from deadline pressure, she hits a bar with friends and wakes up feeling “off.” An hours-long gap in her memory turns troublesome, and it’s quite apparent that something is wrong, but she’s only snapped into awareness by a fleeing memory flash. The rest of the series sees her piecing together the mystery of who raped her and how to take action on said perpetrator. The show could be triggering to some viewers, but Coel so deftly handles the subject matter that there’s an overwhelming sense of catharsis by season’s end.

This setup is also is notable for a few reasons:

(1) The rape is based upon her own experience while writing Chewing Gum.
(2) Arabella’s a flawed and “imperfect” victim, and said portrayal will be controversial.

The first characteristic is what helps Coel grind her heels deep into an authentic portrayal of the potentially dicey second aspect. It’s an inherently risky approach, for sure. Yet Coel toys with the notion that sexual assault victims must behave in certain ways, lest they not be believed, almost as if to challenge the system that’s actually set up to make prosecution of rapists exceedingly difficult. Adding to her ways of f*cking with expectations: some disorienting aspects of the show. Some moments don’t seem real — but the rape sure as hell is real — and this appears to be subversive commentary on how survivors are often made to question their own versions of events.

Here’s where I come back to the notion that this show is provocative. It is that, but more than simply looking to provoke reaction, I May Destroy You is seeking to provoke a thought process. Other arcs intersect with Arabella’s main story, with other players and flashbacks and various iterations of the sexual assault theme. The central sexual assault is the most generally accepted definition of rape: Arabella was drugged by a stranger, who forcibly had sex with her. Other scenarios are at play, like a non-consensual encounter between two people who previously had consensual sex, or the removal of a condom in an otherwise consensual encounter. There are even more permutations to consider on this series, but underneath it all, there’s a collection of achingly human friends, who support each other as these questions (unfortunately) must be asked.

What this distills to the core, for me, is that Arabella, as a character, is multi-dimensional and resilient and triumphant through all she endures. She’s not drawn through a particularly sensitive lens, and that might be off-putting to some. Arabella seeks to avoid but must reckon with her trauma, but where I May Destroy You differs from other survival portrayals is this: this show does not brand survivors with their trauma. Yes, there’s an added layer to Arabella’s post-sexual assault existence, but it’s not something that other characters view as her defining characteristic. That’s how many sexual assault survivors are written, but Coel’s too crafty to let that happen to Arabella. Or to herself.

Coel, underneath it all, is a firestarter, and that brings me to one of the most striking scenes of the season. This takes place very late in the story, so I will not supply much context for the surrounding scene, but it involves Arabella dancing in a drinking establishment to one of The Prodigy’s most notorious tunes. She’s tearing through lyrics, limbs flying everywhere in controlled chaos and shouting, “I’m a firestarter, twisted firestarter!” almost as a dare. A dare to another character? Perhaps. A dare to the audience? Definitely. This leads to a complicated, sure-to-be-controversial flourish for the show, one that conquers trauma, but might start some fires in the process. Yet as with the rest of the season, Coel — who is a voice of her generation — undertakes her character’s actions with a fearlessness that’s almost breathtaking.

BBC1’s ‘I May Destroy You’ makes its HBO debut at 10:30pm EST on Sunday.

The effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, including bans on international travel, have gone on a lot longer than I think most of us were really expecting when the whole thing got started. That may have something to do with a change in WWE’s official rhetoric we saw on last night’s episode of NXT.

If you watched the show, you know that El Hijo del Fantasma beat Drake Maverick in the tournament finals to become the new NXT Cruiserweight Champion. That’s great for him, but when this tournament started it was only going to crown an Interim Cruiserweight Champion, because Jordan Devlin is still the official champion but is currently stuck in Ireland. You didn’t hear that word “Interim” as the tournament ended, however.

So what changed? According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE has quietly stripped Jordan Devlin of the title since he’s been unable to defend it or even appear on WWE TV in so long, which makes Fantasma the sole champion. As for why this wasn’t explained on the show, Dave said they just expected fans to come up with their own explanations, which does sound like typical WWE behavior.

On the other hand, as of today, the roster page on WWE.com shows both El Hijo del Fantasma and Jordan Devlin sharing the Cruiserweight Champion slot. So it’s possible that Meltzer is wrong on this one, and all that’s happened is a change in rhetoric. Either way, it seems likely that an angry Jordan Devlin will return to wrestle Fantasma just as soon as he’s able, and the winner of that match will be Cruiserweight Champ going forward.

The NBA’s Board of Governors approved a return to play plan that will send 22 teams to Orlando in July for the completion of eight regular season games before the playoffs.

The Players’ Association now must ratify that plan as well, but if they do, it will bring basketball back at the end of July. We learned earlier in the day that the plan will put the NBA Draft on October 15, with the lottery on August 25. The Athletic’s Shams Charania then offered details on the key dates for the return plan, not just for the resumption of this season, but for offseason and 2020-21 dates as well.

The July 7 date for everyone to head to Disney offers them a chance for more practice and camp time, as well as some “preseason” type scrimmages with other teams, as reported by the AP’s Tim Reynolds, before the July 31 start.

With the season ending on October 12 at the latest, the draft on the 15th and free agency starting on the 18th will make for quite the turnaround. While most anticipated something like a Christmas Day start to next season, according to Charania, the plan is to restart on Dec. 1 with camp starting on Nov. 10, which means it’s possible that teams in the Finals could have less than a month of rest before camp begins.

It is an incredibly condensed schedule, and it will be very interesting to see how this impacts next season for teams that make a deep playoff run this year. One would think those teams would be more likely to try and rest players and shuffle lineups in and out to keep guys fresh on such a short turnaround. It’s hard not to think that the NBA starting so soon is in an attempt to set players up for potentially playing in the Olympics next summer, although it wouldn’t be a surprise if players that play deep in the playoffs this year would be less than keen on playing an extended schedule of international play next season.

Charlamagne Tha God, known for being a host on the NYC-based radio show The Breakfast Club, virtually joined Stephen Colbert on a recent episode of The Late Show. As a guest, Charlamagne discussed systematic racism, the ongoing protests, and why he’s not shocked by news of looting.

“None of it surprises me,” Charlamagne said, speaking to Colbert about reports that over 380 cities across America have held protests. Charlamagne said he believes America has oftentimes been misportrayed as an inclusive country:

“Right now, America’s being exposed right now for the illusion it’s always been. America advertises itself as an all-inclusive resort, but it’s really a project founded by an old, rich white man for rich white men. They make the rules and then we’re all caught up in this web of white supremacy. Nothing’s going to get us out of that web until you have more privileged white men who are willing to dismantle that system by relinquishing and sharing the wealth and power. Black people, we don’t have the power to dismantle that system. We didn’t create it. We have the power to force our elected officials to change the way the system is, and that’s what the protests are doing to me.”

Charlamagne continued to point out the hypocrisy of liberty in America: “You can’t advertise liberty and justice for all but only offer liberty and justice for white folks. How many times are we supposed to watch Black people brutalized and murdered at the hands of the police? Our ancestors were enslaved and built this country for free and didn’t get anything for it and the country feels like it doesn’t have to atone for that?”

Continuing to speak about protests, Charlamagne addressed news reports of people looting various stores and offered his explanation:

“Forty-plus million people filed for unemployment and wondering how they’re going to pay their bills, their rent, put food on the table. And you wonder why people are looting? Not to mention, people are clearly not happy with the administration in the White House, so you just have this perfect storm for people who are disgusted by this white supremacist system called America. That doesn’t surprise me at all. I think America has been past its breaking point. And I’m actually shocked this is just happening now.”

Charlemagne added that people both have the right to be angry and the right to express their anger. “I think that they’re just screaming to America to make a change,” he said. “We keep talking about things ‘going back to normal.’ Normal was never working in America. It just wasn’t. How does a white supremacist system work for everybody?”

Watch Charlamagne Tha God on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert below.

Drew Brees has drawn the ire of the sports world for comments he made about kneeling during the national anthem on Wednesday. While Brees has long-believed that those who follow in Colin Kaepernick’s footsteps are disrespecting the flag — evoking his grandfathers’ service in World War II — he repeated those comments on Wednesday amid the protests that have occurred nationwide in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Brees received a firestorm of criticism in the hours following his comments. Teammates, other NFL players, and even LeBron James all chimed in to call Brees out for his ignorance and lack of understanding, leading to Brees offering up an apology on Thursday morning that earned a mixed reaction. Perhaps the strongest reaction came from Fox personality Shannon Sharpe, who called on Brees to “probably retire.”

Sharpe, during Thursday’s edition of Skip and Shannon: Undisputed, said that “what’s made the Black fight so hard is people like Drew Brees,” before diving into Brees’ “insulting” mention of World War II, referencing how Black Americans were treated upon returning stateside.

“I can’t believe you, Drew,” Sharpe said. “What would make you think, at this moment, Skip, eight, nine days after George Floyd had lost his life, you would bring up the military and the flag? Again, Skip, I told you, Skip, if you wanna talk about B, and I don’t wanna talk about B, I wanna talk about C, I’m gonna talk about D, I’m gonna talk about everything except what you wanna talk about, because that’s an issue I do not want to face. Drew, Blacks fought in World War II alongside your grandfather, and did not have the freedoms that they had when they came home, Skip, although they had sacrificed the exact same thing as his grandfathers did.”

Sharpe eventually spoke from the perspective of someone who has been the leader in an NFL locker room, calling his apology “meaningless” and saying that in his eyes, it may be in Brees’ best interest to retire.

“It will never be the same,” Sharpe said. “Take it from a guy that’s been a leader in a locker room for a number of years. At every step, Skip, I’ve been the leader in a locker room. What he said, they gonna, “oh, yeah, you know.” No, they will never look at him the same, because he spoke his heart, and Skip, it wasn’t what he said, it’s how he said it. He was defiant. I will never respect the man, even though Colin Kaepernick had told you what he was doing, Skip, and guess what? Even after all this, nobody had even mentioned the flag. He brought that up on his own.”

Brees has drawn a ton of ire, but few have been as pointed and blunt as Sharpe in referencing the historical contexts that his comments demand and expressing their belief that he should call it a career. There is no word on whether Brees, who has a deal lined up with NBC to move into the broadcast booth at the conclusion of his NFL career, will heed Sharpe’s advice.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have a new album, Sideways To New Italy, set to drop tomorrow (June 5). Ahead of then, they have offered one more preview of the record, a song called “Cameo.”

The band’s Fran Keaney says of the track, “This is a love song. It’s about reaching through time portals. The lyrics were pieced together over about a year like a little puzzle. I found the first pieces in Rushworth, and the last pieces in Darwin.”

Keaney previously said of the album as a whole, “I wanted to write songs that I could use as some sort of bedrock of hopefulness to stand on, something to be proud of. A lot of the songs on the new record are reaching forward and trying to imagine an idyll of home and love.” Bassist Joe Russo added, “We tried to make these little nods to our friends and loved ones, to stay loyal to our old selves.”

The group also recently offered a statement about the George Floyd protests, providing their perspective as white Australians: “None of us have ever felt unsafe walking down the street because of how we look. We don’t even need to think about it. We are beneficiaries of the same systemic racism that lets people of colour die at the hands of those who are supposed to protect them. Not just in America, but in our own backyard, where First Nations people continue to die in police custody & suffer the highest rates of incarceration in the world. We stand in solidarity with protestors and we are continuing to educate ourselves about how to be useful allies, and confront our own sense of complacency and despair.”

Listen to “Cameo” above.

Sideways To New Italy is out 6/5 via Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.

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