Month: August 2021

It’s seemed like a foregone conclusion for the duration of the 2021 NBA offseason that Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers are headed towards a split. But after weeks of reporting that indicates the Sixers have yet to find a suitable deal for the All-Star guard/forward, a new rumor indicates that Simmons has taken a step towards expediting his exit from the only city in which he’s called home during his NBA career.

Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Simmons met with the Sixers’ brass in Los Angeles last week. The group — made up of Josh Harris, Daryl Morey, Elton Brand, and Doc Rivers — were informed that Simmons does not want to return to the team. To take things a step further, Simmons reportedly said that he does not plan on reporting to training camp when that begins at the end of September.

The line that has been trotted out all summer is that the Sixers are very much willing to move Simmons, but the team needs to get a suitable offer in return, with reports being that they want a package of picks and young players that rival the haul that the Houston Rockets wanted in exchange for James Harden. Whether or not that is feasible given Simmons’ postseason struggles, which were on display as the team fell in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to the Atlanta Hawks, is unclear. What is clear, though, is that Simmons has appeared to things regarding his departure for the first time since the season ended, and now, the ball is in Philly’s court.

Dear Evan Hansen has become one of the most beloved musicals of the last decade, so much so that the 2015 production has a film adaptation coming out next month. Part of that is the soundtrack album, and aside from the cast, the OST features some big-name artists.

Dear Evan Hansen (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) includes covers of some of the musical’s songs. Sam Smith and Summer Walker will take on “You Will Be Found,” SZA has “The Anonymous Ones,” Carrie Underwood and Dan + Shay performed “Only Us,” Finneas sang “A Little Closer,” and Tori Kelly covered “Waving Through A Window.” The album is set for release on September 24, the same date the movie hits theaters.

Check out the Dear Evan Hansen (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) tracklist below.

1. Ben Platt and Dear Evan Hansen Choir — “Waving Through A Window”
2. Ben Platt — “For Forever”
3. Colton Ryan, Ben Platt, and Nik Dodani — “Sincerely Me”
4. Kaitlyn Dever, Danny Pino, and Amy Adams — “Requiem”
5. Ben Platt and Kaitlyn Dever — “If I Could Tell Her”
6. Amandla Stenberg — “The Anonymous Ones”
7. Ben Platt, Amandla Stenberg, Liz Kate, DeMarius Copes, Isaac Powell, Hadiya Eshe, and Dear Evan Hansen Choir — “You Will Be Found”
8. Kaitlyn Dever and Ben Platt — “Only Us”
9. Ben Platt — “Words Fail”
10. Julianne Moore — “So Big / So Small”
11. Colton Ryan — “A Little Closer”
12. Sam Smith — “You Will Be Found” Feat. Summer Walker
13. SZA — “The Anonymous Ones”
14. Carrie Underwood and Dan + Shay — “Only Us”
15. Finneas — “A Little Closer”
16. Tori Kelly — “Waving Through A Window”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The football world has been consumed by one of the strangest stories of the sports year after IMG Academy crushed Bishop Sycamore on national television and sparked numerous investigations into how this apparently sketchy prep school managed to con their way onto ESPN’s airwaves.

Getting a national television audience to introduce their fledgling program to seems to have been the worst decision Bishop Sycamore could’ve made, as it has resulted in the unearthing of a number of very shady details about the “school,” from the lack of a real facility or school building to the team playing twice in one weekend with an undermanned roster of under 40 kids. A former player detailed his experience at the predecessor to Bishop Sycamore, COF Academy, where he says they stayed in a hotel they paid for with bounced checks, had to steal food because there was no money to eat, and they never actually did anything related to school (leading to him having to make up all his classes just to transfer back to a regular high school).

All of it is bad and made plenty wonder what they were thinking attracting the scrutiny and attention that comes along with being on a national showcase game. On Tuesday, the fallout continued as coach Ron Johnson was fired by the school.

The surprising part of the move for many was the assumption that he was running the program, and as Bishop Sycamore has become the premier example of a prep school grift, plenty of people had ideas for who should be their next head coach.

After almost an entire year of radio silence, the gritty Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot has officially recast the role of Will Smith, and who better to deliver that news than the actual Will Smith.

In a Zoom call recorded for Peacock’s YouTube channel, Smith dialed up young actor Jabari Banks to surprise him with the news that he landed the coveted role in the upcoming reboot series known simply as Bel-Air. Needless to say, Banks was blown away, yet still managed to crack up the original Will Smith with his story of how he went for the role. According to Banks, his dad sent him an article about the reboot and just said, “You should do this,” and Banks had to explain to him that “Dad, it doesn’t work like that.” But thanks to his dad’s urging, Banks pursued the role, and bam, here he is talking to Will Smith about becoming Will Smith. (It probably didn’t hurt that Banks is also from West Philadelphia, born and raised.) Via THR:

Set in modern-day, Bel-Air is a serialized one-hour “dramatic analogue” of Fresh Prince that follows “Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air. With a reimagined vision, Bel-Air will dive deeper into the inherent conflicts, emotions and biases that were impossible to fully explore in a 30-minute sitcom format, while still delivering swagger and nods to the original show.”

Considering the role of Will was just locked down today, it will probably be a bit until Bel-Air starts filming, so fans are gonna have to hold tight for a little while longer. In the meantime, would it kill someone to reveal how they’re going to pull off a gritty re-imagining of the Carlton dance? It’s only the greatest question to be asked in the history of modern movement.

(Via Peacock)

A friend recently asked me to name a conspiracy theory that I 100 percent believe in. I struggled to give an answer at the time (I think I mumbled something about Arby’s standing for roast beef), but I know what I would say now: Roy Kent is a CGI character.

As spotted by Twitter user @guymrdth, the Ted Lasso subreddit includes a thread started last July with the headline, “Ok just started the show and… CGI??” The post reads, “I just started watching the pilot, and i’m up to the scene where roy is called into teds office. Am i crazy or does he look like a complete cgi character?”

Ted Lasso uses a lot of visual effects, more than you might realize (it helps that the show is bankrolled by a multi-billion dollar technology company), but I don’t think Roy Kent is one of them. Or so I thought before Reddit opened my eyes. Now I don’t know what to believe. If Apple can stealthily reveal its new iPhone in an episode, what’s to stop them from digitally inserting “Brett Goldstein” into the show? Maybe he’s not real, either!

Others on Reddit are already convinced (this does not seem like a bit).

“he 100% is CGI, i swear he glows off the screen and looks like a halo character in movement and speech”

“Omg I had the same thought”

“Echoing all of the previous comments. Thank you for confirming my sanity!”

“Here for the same reason. Thought it was my Apple TV settings”

“So glad this thread exists. Just started watching and I’m convinced Roy is CGI”

“Thank god for this thread. My husband doesn’t see it…I felt like I was going crazy. Every episode consists of me analyzing Roy and I can’t pay attention to anything else. His slow eye movements, blinks, and odd body movements have to be CGI! How are we the only ones seeing this?”

“My wife thought I was crazy until she googled it and found this thread. Roy is CGI AF”

I am now a Roy Kent CGI truther. It’s the only possible explanation for someone so handsome, funny, and talented.

There is a mental health crisis among America’s youth. Major depression in adolescents is up 47% for boys and 65% for girls since 2013 and suicide has increased a staggering 56% from 2007 to 2017 according to the National Federation of State High Schools.

Experts have yet to pin down the specific causes of this crisis but it’s believed that increased pressure to succeed, unrealistic expectations caused by social media, and technology’s effect on how humans connect may be contributing factors.

“Most experts would agree with me that there is more stress today than in previous generations. Stress triggers depression and mood disorders, so those who are predisposed to it by their creative wiring or genes are pretty much guaranteed some symptoms of depression at the confusing and difficult time of adolescence,” Therese J. Borchard, author of “Beyond Blue,” says.

---

“I think modern lifestyles — lack of community and family support, less exercise, no casual and unstructured technology-free play, less sunshine and more computer — factors into the equation,” Borchard continues.

On top of the societal factors that have led to a decade-plus decline in mental health, the COVID-19 pandemic has also been hard on American youth.

Pritzker with President Biden earlier this year

To help children and teens better cope with the increased stress in their lives, the state of Illinois is now allowing students to take up to five mental health days per year without a doctor’s note. The new law was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week.

The bill passed the Illinois House and Senate unanimously.

Illinois now joins Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Virginia on the growing list of states that have passed similar bills.

The new law is a big step towards removing the stigma surrounding mental health by making it as important as students’ physical well-being.

“It’s critical that schools are offering support to students who struggle with their mental health,” state Representative Barbara Henandez said in a statement. “Just as we would allow a student with a cold or fever to stay home from school, students should be able to have the same treatment for days where they need a break for their mental health.”

Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, medical director of the Child Mind Institute, says we should use mental health days as a way to allow children to celebrate big achievements in school such as completing a big project.

However, if the child is suffering from anxiety or depression, Koplewicz believes that parents and faculty should refer to them as sick days instead of mental health days to remove the sigma.

“Sick days are sick days, whether it’s physical or mental,” he said.

via Pixabay

In addition to giving kids the mental breaks they desperately need, mental health days are a way to normalize self-care. When schools promote routines that prioritize mental health, they normalize these behaviors and teach children that their mental health is just as important as their physical.

It’s great that multiple states are now putting the mental health of their students front and center, but the most important focus should be on fixing the societal problems that have led to the mental health decline in the first place.

Let’s see what happens when we start giving kids technology-free days where they look at the world around them through their eyes, instead of a screen, and see how things begin to change.

During his Rolling Loud festival set, DaBaby hopped on the mic and made some very distasteful and inaccurate comments about people living with HIV/AIDS. The homophobic rant caused the rapper to be dropped from several festival lineups and get called out by several celebrities for his offensive speech. Now, it seems as though DaBaby is taking some steps to educate himself about people living with HIV/AIDS.

According to a recent report from TMZ, the rapper has held meetings with nine HIV/AIDS non-profit organizations. A few of the organizations in attendance included Black AIDS Institute, GLAAD, Positive Women’s Network, and Transinclusive Group. GLAAD had previously issued a statement following DaBaby’s comments, calling them inaccurate, “hurtful, and harmful to the LGBTQ community and the estimated 1.2 million Americans living with HIV.”

During the meetings, DaBaby allegedly had the chance to hear from people whose lives are impacted by the condition and how they are able to live with the virus. Apparently, several of the organizations had reached out to DaBaby directly following his rant, attempting to “call him in instead of calling him out” by having a thoughtful conversation.

Per TMZ’s report, several of the organizations noted DaBaby was “genuinely engaged” during their meetings and open to learning more about HIV/AIDS. He reportedly apologized for his inaccurate and hurtful comments, allegedly acknowledging how it impacted Black and LGBTQ+ communities.

If you haven’t been watching Reservation Dogs, go and watch it right now. It’s a fantastically funny, tragic, and unique look at the most overlooked folks in America. It’s also proving to be a hell of a food show. The first episode featured a classic basket of fried catfish. Episode two had an entire storyline based around meat pies. Episode three had a throughline of venison backstraps (filet). Then episode four dropped and upped the ante. The episode opens with fictional Indigenous rapper Punkin’ Lusty’s hit rap video, Greasy Frybread (performed by real-world Indigenous rapper Sten Joddi), and I don’t think I’ve been the same since seeing it.

The music video is a celebration of all things frybread and explores the hold that famine food still has over Indian country (to understand another piece of this issue, look at inflated prices for necessities at grocers on Indian reservations). Message aside, the track is also one hell of an earworm that I found myself humming over and over this week. To break the spell, I realized I had to make some frybread at home.

I’m on the record as being very on the fence about frybread’s place in Indigenous cuisine. The food was born from the U.S. colonial genocide against the nations of the Southwest. 150 years later, it’s come to serve as a unifying food between most Indigenous nations across the U.S. and Canada, but it’s also a dish made from cheap, nutrient-free foodstuffs that wreak havoc on Indigenous health. Alas… I grew up with frybread made in the skillets of my uncles and aunties from the Skokomish and Yakama Nations and it holds a place in my heart — which I’ve passed onto my own kids, as well.

Sure, I know frybread isn’t the best thing for me or any Indigenous person (or any human). But I also love double cheeseburgers from McDonald’s and Neapolitan milkshakes from In-N-Out. At least in this case, my childhood nostalgia is inflected with memories of family at the stove rather than preservative-laden fast food handed out a drive-thru window. Point being, I treat frybread as just that, a treat — eating it three or four times per year.

If you want to try your hand at this Indigenous treat (made with famine rations), give my recipe a shot. Though it’s not good for you, it does make the perfect accompaniment to a Reservation Dogs binge.

Frybread

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups AP flour + extra
• 1.5 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup water (or whole fat milk)
• 4 cups sunflower oil (or any vegetable oil)

This is a very easy quick bread recipe. I grew up using milk instead of water. Use what you like but I find that milk adds a little extra fat that helps the bread’s crumb edge more towards a light old-fashioned doughnut. Frybread is a bit like Sunday gravy or fried rice, every home has its recipe and no one’s wrong.

When it comes to toppings, that’s 100 percent up to you. Butter and jam, cinnamon-sugar, sesame seeds and salt, or full Indian taco mode are classic ways to go. As a kid in the Pacific Northwest, my favorite was a smear of peanut butter with a dollop of huckleberry or salal berry jam. I’ve also gone in completely opposite directions with cold smoked salmon, red onion, capers, and cream cheese. Hell, you can put tomato sauce, mozz, and pepperoni on it if you want.

The point is when it comes to frybread toppings, the world’s your oyster. Yes, I’ve also paired fry bread with fried oysters. It was delicious.

What You’ll Need:

• Large skillet or high-walled saute pan
• Wooden spoon
• Tongs
• Mixing bowl
• Fine mesh sifter
• Cutting board
• Cookie sheet with a wire rack

Method:

• Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in the sifter and sift into a bowl.
• Add in the milk (or water) and mix with a wooden spoon until a soft ball of dough forms. It should just come together but not stick to your hands. Use extra flour as needed.
• Divide the dough ball into four balls.
• Heat the oil in your skillet on medium-high heat.
• Flour your hands and a cutting board.
• Gently pull the dough into a disc using your thumbs around the edges and letting gravity stretch the dough. Pat out each round disc between your hands, making sure to keep the edges a little thicker than the middle (kind of like a pizza crust). Each disc should be able four to six inches across. Rest the discs on the floured cutting board.
• Gently lay the dough discs into the hot oil making sure to lay them out away from you. Fry one or two at a time (you don’t want your oil to cool).
• After about 90 seconds, the bottom of the frybread should be turning a light golden color. Use the tongs to flip.
• You might have to use the end of the tongs to splash some oil over the middle of the frybread to evenly brown it. Make sure to always do this away from you.
• After about another 90 seconds, the frybread should be golden brown. Remove from the oil and place on the waiting rack.
• Serve immediately with your topping of choice.

Bottom Line:

I mean… this is fried dough. How can it not be amazing? What I love about this recipe is that you get this lovely crisp edge and coating with a real crunch to it while the inside remains super supple and soft with a light heft.

I ate one of these with no toppings and I immediately wanted to eat another one. For me, it hits such a deep nostalgia note that it’s hard not to devour this food. Still, I saved the rest for my family. The biggest issue is that now I have a pan of frybread grease sitting on my stove. That means that I’m definitely going to be making frybread again this week. And I’m not mad at all about that.

Of course, if you’re going to make this recipe, you kind of have to listen to Greasy Frybread now. Good luck getting it unstuck from your head.

Adding a new layer to the Montero multiverse, Lil Nas X shared some majestic album art for his forthcoming album earlier today. Depicting the rapper fully in the nude, his back arched and skin glistening, the Lisa Frank-looking design for Montero represents “a continuous loop, to represent the circle of life,” according to Nas’ follow-up tweet. Indeed, when the art is duplicated and stacked vertically, the edges of the art line up to make a continuous image.

Then, the “Industry Baby” rapper laid out some more visual inspirations for Montero, posting images of SpongeBob SquarePants and John Stephens’ Genesis II. The tracklist, he said, would arrive tomorrow.

Just a few days out from Montero‘s release, Lil Nas X has definitely been making the most of his promotional cycle, posting his (joking) take on Drake’s Certified Lover Boy emoji art and making nice with Tony Hawk on TikTok.

“Growing up in the Atlanta area, I [saw] a lot of microaggressions towards homosexuality,” Nas recently told Out Magazine in a cover story about growing up in the South and his coming out process. “Little things like going into an IHOP and hearing one of your family members say ‘look at those faggots’ to two people eating or even just a small [statement like] ‘boys don’t cry.’ Little sh*t like living in the hood, not being super into sports, and then having to go outside and pretend that I was. [I remember] pushing that part of myself in more and more, almost convincing myself that it’s not even actually there,” he added.

Meanwhile, he recently wrote of Montero, “creating this album has been therapy for me. i’ve learned to let go of trying to control people’s perception of who i am, what i can do, and where i will be. i’ve realized the only opinion of me that really matters is my own.”

Montero is out 9/17 via Columbia Records. Pre-save it here.

Francis Ford Coppola, the filmmaker behind some of the greatest movies of all-time (and also Jack), including The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now, hasn’t directed a feature in a decade. But he’s been trying to make Megalopolis for decades. “The concept of the film is a Roman epic, in the traditional Cecile B. DeMille or Ben-Hur way, but told as a modern counterpart focusing on America,” he explained to Deadline. Megalopolis will cost in the $100-120 million range and he’s “not afraid to risk my own money to make it happen” (this has never backfired on him before). Coppola is also hoping his dream project will have a dream cast.

While some conversations are further along then others, the actors Coppola is discussing roles with include Oscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker, Cate Blanchett, and Jon Voight, with Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jessica Lange also among those he is seeking. He will also reunite with James Caan, whose role as Sonny Corleone in Coppola’s The Godfather made Caan one of the biggest stars of that era. This for a big tapestry film that will have many other actors in the cast.

Nothing is official yet, but Coppola is already fan-casting. “It’s based on the Catiline Conspiracy, which comes to us from ancient Rome,” he said. “This was a famous duel between a patrician, Catiline, and that part will be played by Oscar Isaac, and the famous Cicero, who will be Forest Whitaker. He is now the beleaguered mayor of New York, during a financial crisis, close to the one that Mayor Dinkins had. This story takes place in a new Rome, a Roman epic sent in modern times. The time set is not a specific year in modern New York, it’s an impression of modern New York, which I call New Rome.”

He didn’t specify which character he wants Zendaya to play, or how she got on the 82-year-old’s radar. Maybe he’s a big fan of Euphoria.

(Via Deadline)