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Tucker Carlson likes to scare his viewers with exaggerated or simply nonexistent stories about illegal aliens, but on Friday he pivoted a bit: He talked about aliens from outer space instead. The sometimes braying Fox News host, who every now and then likes to turn his attention to the skies, spent his latest show addressing an issue that, as he put it, “could be the most consequential thing to happen to this country, this world, maybe ever.”

What was it? It involved the forthcoming report from the U.S. government about UFOs, which will be released this summer and will let the public in on whatever they know about alien life forms from other planets. It may be mindblowing. It may be an anticlimactic nothingburger. But Carlson believes it will be bigger than big, and to prove it he drew from segments Pentagon employee, Luis Elizondo, who has asserted that when the report goes live, we will, in Carlson’s words, “find an intelligence failure on the part of the U.S. intel community on the level of 9/11.”

Elizondo, who worked in a division of the Pentagon that focused on alien life, has already done some scaremongering elsewhere. He recently told The New York Post that “there is something in our skies, we don’t know what it is, we don’t know how it works, we don’t know fully what it can do, we don’t know who is behind the wheel, we don’t know its intentions, and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it.”

In his segment, Carlson played some UFO footage, then got all hot and bothered. “I’m embarrassed I haven’t thought of it before, these objects are potentially a very grave threat to nation-states,” he said. “So where was the intelligence community in warning about this, or learning more about it?”

Carlson also re-played a clip from an interview he did in October with UFO “expert” Nick Pope, in which his guest said some over-the-top things. “We are under siege, it’s like there’s a war of nerves going on,” Pope told Tucker last fall. “If these were drones belonging to a foreign adversary there would be an absolute outcry. And yet the situation we’re in where we don’t know what these things are and they might even be extra-terrestrial, that’s worse. This is a potential catastrophic failure of intelligence.”

These may seem like hysterical threats, but Carlson claims his sources are on the level. “There are a lot of these, it’s not like, you know, some drunk guy on a road in rural New Hampshire saw something weird,” he said. “This is the U.S. military regularly, very often recording these objects.”

The report will be released on June 1, so we’ll see if Carlson was right to scare the bejesus out of his more gullible viewers. You can view the whole segment over at The Wrap.

Last fall, the Grammys were dealt a heavy dose of criticism about their nominations. Many were upset with some of The Recording Academy’s choices, or lack thereof, such as failing to nominate The Weeknd in any category despite having the acclaimed album After Hours. Months later, the Grammys announced they’re making “significant changes” to their voting process according to Billboard. This includes the elimination of “secret committees,” who were originally tasked with reviewing nominations in the general and genre-specific categories.

With this removal, nominations in these categories will now be selected by a majority, peer-to-peer vote from The Academy’s members. They also chose to reduce the number of categories voters can make selections in from 15 to 10. The Grammys created two new categories for the award show, Best Global Music Performance and Best Música Urbana Album, and added an extra month to the eligibility period for next year’s award show. The time frame of eligibility is now September 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021. The changes will go into effect immediately for next year’s show, which is set for January 31, 2022.

“It’s been a year of unprecedented, transformational change for the Recording Academy, and I’m immensely proud to be able to continue our journey of growth with these latest updates to our Awards process,” Harvey Mason Jr., chair and interim president/CEO of the Recording Academy, said. “This is a new Academy, one that is driven to action and that has doubled down on the commitment to meeting the needs of the music community.”

When Bill Maher’s right, he’s right. The HBO host has a lot of dicey opinions, but one subject where he’s right on the money is cryptocurrency. He devoted a chunk of Friday night’s Real Time to the financial fad that’s getting bigger and bigger, with virtual currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and more taking off. Some are even accepted by places like Whole Foods, Etsy, and Home Depot. But Maher’s not having it.

Maher singled out Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that began as a laugh only to become “real,” as emblematic of the whole fad’s problem. “Far as I can tell it’s exactly the same as the other cryptocurrencies because the whole thing is a joke,” Maher cracked. He referred to all of it as “Easter bunny cartoon cash” and compared it to Tinkerbell from Peter Pan: “Its power is based solely on enough children believing in it.”

But his biggest beef was how bad cryptocurrency is for the environment. He pointed out that every transaction sucks up tons of power, using “more energy than Netflix, Apple, Facebook, and Google combined.” Each exchange, he says, “uses more electricity than a million Visa transactions and has the same carbon footprint as watching 85,000 hours of YouTube.”

He also drew a compare-and-contrast with another major energy suck: “Cars are bad for the environment, but at least they take you somewhere.”

Maher also called out the big tech bros, like future SNL host Elon Musk, who talk about the environment while taking part in energy-sucking cryptocurrency. “How can Tesla be all-in on saving the planet with electric cars and then participate in destroying it with this completely unnecessary online play-money?”

Maher’s words did not sit well with some pro-cryptocurrency types.

But others argued that you can hate cryptocurrency and Bill Maher at the same time.

Remember Donald Trump? He used to be the leader of the free world. Then he lost an election. Then he tried to overturn said election. Then he inspired his violent followers to try to storm the Capitol. Now he spends his days in a Florida resort, banned from most of social media, crashing weddings to blather for minutes on end about the election he lost. You don’t hear from him very often, apart from the occasional weird “press release,” which rarely go viral. Now, some three-and-a-half months after he left office in disgrace, a video is going around that shows the depths of his sorrow.

It’s not clear if the video is new or when it was taken. Perhaps each day, each week, each month is now a blur for the former American president. It shows him addressing the randos willing to pay an exorbitant membership to be in the same company as an unpopular former politician. Their reward is addresses like the one in the video, which finds the owner of Mar-a-Lago awkwardly, robotically ranting about the “rigged election” and the “thousands and thousands of votes” that were allegedly supposed to be for him, based on nothing but whatever’s in his broken brain.

The person who posted the video on Twitter put it well: “The one time leader of the free world who now lives alone in a hotel sharing buffets, common areas, and staff with strangers, yearns for attention and relevance so badly, he now stands on a patio step every night ranting to tens of people about a 6 month old election that he lost.”

As the video went viral, people — clearly never fans, many amongst his sharpest critics — almost felt sorry for the guy. Almost.

Some compared it to the end of a sad movie.

Or a certain Dickens character.

Or Napoleon.

Or a Disney World animatronic.

There were Shining jokes.

And other jokes.

During Trump’s disastrous presidency, many pointed out that real life had come to resemble a vicious satire. Now that it’s over, his life resembles a depressing tragedy, about a dangerous man who got his comeuppance — who got it three times filled and running over. But the only ones who get to see it are at Mar-a-Lago.

The Celtics look like they want to end the season on a good note. After a massive comeback against San Antonio, they finished April with an 11-5 record in a month that featured young superstar Jayson Tatum put up a career high twice. Having just scored 53 two weeks ago, Tatum led Boston to its comeback over the Spurs with a whopping 60 on Friday night.

That scoring total tied Tatum with the legendary Larry Bird for the most points in Celtics history.

Most impressively, it only took him 37 field goal attempts, as Boston’s offensive engine was relentless getting to the basket.

That set up the pull-up three, a weapon he’s developed nicely since being drafted in 2017.

Tatum also had five assists and, incredibly, zero turnovers. That’s about as fine an offensive performance as you will see in the NBA.

This all came in the midst of a comeback, too. Boston was down 29 at the half and looking hapless again, as they have many nights this season. The Celtics scored just 48 points in the first half.

Without Kemba Walker and in a game in which Jaylen Brown went 5-24 from the field, it took every bit of effort from Tatum to will the Celtics to victory. They are now tied with Atlanta for fifth in the East and are only two games in the loss column behind the Knicks for fourth.

When it comes to pop stars, Ariana Grande has always been pretty vocal about her liberal political leanings. During last year’s primary she made her support of Bernie Sanders very clear, and later supported the Biden/Harris ticket. One of issues that, for some reason, has been a divisive one over the last few years is support of queer relationships and gay marriage. Ari has continually vocalized support for those groups, and today she’s made an even more straightforward statement on the subject by dedicating the lyric/dance video for one of the most romantic songs on her latest album, Positions, to a queer couple.

Dancers Cory Graves and Brian Nicholson star in the sweet clip, which is a little more than a lyric video and a little less than most fan-made dance videos, offering an understated look at two people playing out the emotionally-charged lyrics with their bodies. By specifically making two men the partners exchanging loving glances and touches here, instead of a man and a woman, Grande has opted to make a subtle political statement about the song’s intent. It’s just another impressive move from a diva who has already overcome so much herself, and continues to advocate for others. Check out the clip aboe.

Fast 9 is shaping up to be the moviegoing event of the early summer, and the latest trailer framed the movie as an emotional return to movie theaters after a tough, plague-filled year. Despite nearing double digits on Fast and Furious films, fans are still extremely hyped up for the much-delayed movie. And they’ll certainly be glad to hear of the rigirous standards the film has for everything that appears on screen. Including the franchise’s notably speedy and temperamental motor vehicles.

Series star Vin Diesel appeared on an Entertainment Weekly podcast to hype up the latest movie in the Fast Saga, and he dropped a very interesting note about how they pick the cars the franchise uses. And as i09 pulled from it, Diesel revealed that the movie’s most expensive characters are cast much like the humans that appear alongside them.

“Part of the process of Fast is we’ve always auditioned our cars,” the actor said. “The cars have really been such a significant part and representation of our characters, that there is a process of casting, right? Of casting the exact vehicle for the state of mind that the character is in, or the journey that the character is going through.”

Few people get to live their lives picking which car to drive based on their “state of mind,” so congrats to those in the Fast universe for that luxurious opportunity. But it’s also very funny to imagine cars being “auditioned,” at least in the traditional sense of actors reading lines. It certainly makes sense that the cars have to not only look the part but be able to perform for the characters driving them.

And while it is funny to imagine a huge muscle car practicing lines with a Toyota Prius friend, or something like that, it also reveals the amount of thinking that goes into what is ultimately a very loud action series beloved by millions. So congratulations in advance to the cars that made the cut for Fast 9, and to all of us who will get to see their work later this summer.

NBA Top Shot has continued to grow amid the NFT boom of 2021, and on Friday the Dapper Labs product announced it would give collectors something new to do with their moments that may significantly alter the company’s marketplace.

Top Shot announced on Friday that it would let collectors trade in moments for “Trade Tickets” which can be used for entry in new pack drops and other products for sale through Top Shot over the coming months. It’s a huge new feature for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that it presumably allows collectors to trade their moments in for a new form of currency in the marketplace.

Each Moment will be worth exactly one Trade Ticket, and collectors will be able to use Trade Tickets to acquire exclusive packs that are only available with Trade Tickets.

Whether it’s a common, rare, or legendary Moment from your collection, all will be exchangeable for a single identical Trade Ticket. Trading in your Moments will be the only way to obtain Trade Tickets as they will not be sold by us nor transferable between collectors.

With every moment worth a single Trade Ticket, the news in theory gives new value to some of the cheapest moments currently on the market. While initially seeing a surge in prices as popularity of the platform skyrocketed, subsequent new releases and other market movement has brought prices back down to single digits for some of the most common Top Shot moments on the market. But many of those moments, even those with a circulation of 35,000+, initially saw a boost of a dollar or so in the immediate aftermath of the news according to Evaluate.Market. Trading these in for Trade Tickets would, at least in theory, take scores of low value moments off the market and give collectors with unwanted moments a chance to get something potentially more valuable with their Trade Tickets.

That’s because Top Shot framed the news as a way to get some very rare and valuable moments into the hands of collectors: unpurchased moments from its Season One release. Typically some of the most valued, and rare, moments on the market, there are still a number of packs left unsold from the earlier days of the beta, which began in earnest in October of 2020. Those packs would be the first to hit the market, and collectors would only be eligible to buy them if they had Trade Tickets in hand.

We’ll have just over 10,000 Series 1 Reserve packs loaded with coveted Moments from early in our beta that we are eager to make available to the community. About 70% of them will be distributed via new Trade Ticket queues, with the rest being reserved for future promotion. We will start rolling out these packs for distribution in the next few months and expect to complete distribution of all of these Series 1 Moments by the end of November, 2022.

There will be Trade Ticket-only pack drops that will function similarly to current pack drops. Hopeful collectors with enough requisite Trade Tickets in their account will gather in a waiting room and get randomly placed in a queue. For these queues, you will only be able to acquire packs with Trade Tickets. To repeat, you will not be able to use Dapper Balance or credit cards to purchase packs from Trade Ticket queues.

That 18-month timeline means it won’t be a mad dash to burn moments into tickets, but it will certainly cause some changes in what’s been the most active and valuable NFT marketplace on the internet. Dapper Labs community lead Jacob Eisenberg provided more context to the move on Friday, writing on Twitter that he expects demand to “far exceed” supply of Season One packs but that those who miss the chance to buy them with Trade Tickets will still get a chance to buy packs.

In recent weeks, the Top Shot has started selling “rebound packs” of more common moments to those who have missed out on rare or legendary pack drops. That looks like something that will continue with these drops as well, though missing out on a pack of Season One moments after all that work trading in tickets will be a tough loss to take for the many who will try to expand their collections, both of moments and Trade Tickets, in the coming months.

Welcome to our weekly roundup of the best streetwear and fashion trend drops on the market! This week we’ve got the exclusive details on New York-based streetwear label (and favorite of Bella Hadid and Marshmello) FLAN’s unconventional capsule with Atlanta-based Cotton Cravings, as well as new spring/summer sets from Peachy Den, Travis Scott’s big Nike collabo, new weirdness from Supreme, and Mr. Saturday’s best drop to date.

Besides those top-line drops, it’s a lean week this go around. But things are sure to heat up in the following weeks as we officially dip into the summer season. This year, we might actually get to wear shorts outside instead of in our houses, binge-watching Netflix and trying to convince ourselves that Tiger King isn’t boring! Imagine that!

If you’re looking for some kicks to complete your look, be sure to hit up our weekly sneaker roundup, SNX DLX, which features more Travis Scott, and the week’s best Jordans. Jordan and Nike heads are living their best lives right now with all the fire drops out of the big Swoosh, but we’re dying to see what the other big labels have in store. Not calling out any names but… get on it Adidas.

FLAN x Cotton Cravings

While streetwear food collaborations tend to be nothing more than gimmicky cash-grabs, New York-based streetwear label FLAN is attempting to disrupt that trend with their playful late-spring-early-summer capsule collection made in collaboration with Cotton Cravings. Linking up with a Georgia-based organic cotton candy brand might seem like a weird move for an emerging streetwear outfit, but FLAN is all about being playful — the brand’s name is an acronym for Forever Laughing At Nothing — so this seemingly random light-hearted linkup makes sense.

The unisex capsule collection is on the smaller side, featuring only a t-shirt, socks, and flan-flavored cotton candy (because what good is collaborating with a cotton candy brand if you’re not going to make some snacks?). The collection’s centerpiece, the t-shirt, features a pastel graphic of cotton candy, watercolor rainbows, and dual branding and is made using 100% organic cotton t-shirts, in keeping with the ethos of both brands.

It’s lighthearted, fun, and simple — the way streetwear should be — which is probably why the brand has caught the eyes of the Hadid sisters, Noah Centineo, and the Art Basel crowd.

The FLAN x Cotton Cravings collection is available now at the FLAN Labs webstore. Yes, the cotton candy is there too.

Travis Scott x Nike — British Khaki Merch Collection

You’re probably well aware that Travis Scott and Nike linked up this week for yet another fire Jordan collaboration, but the insane hype behind that shoe drowned out the news that the sneaker is being released alongside a matching apparel collection that consists of a variety of branded apparel and weird accessories. The collection features a pronounced motocross vibe, mixed with Scott’s usual faded desert aesthetic and includes work jackets, rugby shirts, t-shirts, hoodies, pants, and safari hats.

On the accessories end, we have backpacks, fanny packs, bucket hats, socks, bracelets, phone cases, and a welcome mat which I’m POSITIVE nobody asked for. Insane hype aside, we’re not going to lie, the collection is pretty dope. Hit Travis Scott’s website to pre-order the merch, which is set to ship in about two months.

Peachy Den — Luna & Luella Sets

If you’re looking for a statement fit to wear this summer season, London-based Peachy Den has got you covered with these monochrome ’90s inspired matching sets made from deadstock fabric. The Luna sports a gingham print on a one-shoulder top and your choice of a matching skirt or straight-leg pants (or both apparently), while the Luella features a more night-life appropriate one-shoulder top with a cut-out back and sleek straight-leg pants.

The sets are equal parts playful and chic. The Luna and Luella sets are available now at the Peachy Den online store.

Mr. Saturday — Where Life Is Just A State Of Mind collection

Mr. Saturday’s latest Spring Summer 2021 collection mines the nightlife of late ‘70s early ‘80s New York club culture for a collection of statement bomber jackets, button-ups, and a few streetwear staples for the label’s best collection yet. Dubbed “Where Life Is Just a State Of Mind,” highlights from the collection include the Flight Satin Bomber, the vintage party flyer adorned French twill button-up, and the graphic-heavy Printed Cupron button-up. The hoodies and sweat pants and shorts are also pretty dope.

The collection leans most heavily into its influences with Madonna tabloid and Michael Stewart tribute hoodies. Stewart, a model and promising graffiti artist, was murdered by New York City police following injuries he received during his arrest for using a soft tip marker on a New York Subway city wall. Stewart has since become an icon of New York City culture, inspiring Jean-Michael Basquiat’s Death of Michael Stewart (Defacement) and one of the most pivotal scenes in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing.

Michael Stewart isn’t just an icon of New York City, he’s an icon of the street culture that would inspire streetwear, so it’s cool to see Mr. Saturday label head Joey Gollish pay tribute in his own way.

The Mr. Saturday Where Life Is Just A State of Mind collection is out now at the Mr. Saturday online store.

Supreme Spring/Summer 2021 Drop 10

For its 10th Spring/Summer 2021 drop Supreme is getting playful with their wackiest collection in some time. Loud crushed-can graphic button-ups, weird New York pride patch-heavy baseball t-shirts, and a Jim Carrey in The Mask-esque jacket and pants set are just some of the weirdness from Supreme on display in this 20+ item collection. Scanning through the full set will show you a handful of pieces that are functional and fashionable, and a whole set of stuff that we’re pretty sure is a prank.

Supreme is trying hard to prove to somebody that they’re still fun. The 10th Supreme Spring Summer 2021 arrives today. Check out the collection at the Supreme webstore.

Like most musicians during the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutdown of live entertainment, British electronic artist Burial had a relatively low-key 2020, aside from the December releases of “Her Revolution,” “His Rope,” and “Chemz.” However, like many artists, 2021 has seen a bump in productivity, as Burial teamed up with fellow London native Blackdown to surprise drop their new, two-part EP, Shock Power Of Love.

The four-track compilation features two songs apiece from each of its collaborators, with Burial contributing “Dark Gethsemane” and “Space Cadet,” while Blackdown adds “This Journey VIP” and a remix of Heatmap’s January release, “Arklight.” Burial and Blackdown last collaborated on a remix of the latter’s 2006 single “Crackle Blues,” so their long-awaited reunion is pretty meaningful for longtime fans of both.

The EP is out now on all DSPs and available in vinyl form through Burial’s Bandcamp page, along with Burial’s previously released track “Chemz,” which initially dropped in December last year but is now listed as part of a two-song EP with the as-yet-unreleased “Dolphinz.” Blackdown, meanwhile, released the 21-song RollageLive Vol. 1: Nightfall in 2020, available on DSPs.

Burial’s other December 2020 releases were created in conjunction with Four Tet and Thom Yorke via XL Recordings, their first work together since 2011’s “Ego” and “Mirror,” which shared a 12″ vinyl release.

Listen to Shock Power Of Love below.