Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 11/3/16
Beyoncé shuts down the CMAs with the Dixie Chicks
2:00 PMWhat are you up to Friday afternoon? Nothing? Great. Then tune in to ESPN2 at 4:30 p.m. EST. Domonique Foxworth and I will be hosting Highly Questionable tomorrow. Yes, Papi will be there, too. Tune in!
When a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard runs for office in 2016, problems will arise when he speaks in public. That’s exactly what went down Wednesday night in New Orleans where David Duke showed up at Dillard University for a Senate debate. Mind you, it’s an HBCU. The protests turned quasi-violent, with demonstrators trying to push their way into the event hall past police. Why? Because the broadcaster decided that having people in the crowd at all was a bad idea. It didn’t go well for Duke, to say the least. ABC News reports on the bizarre night in Louisiana.
Don’t ever try to tell me that the Dixie Chicks don’t keep it real. Remember back when lead singer Natalie Maines had the guts to stand onstage and tell the country music world in 2003 that then-President George W. Bush invading Iraq was a terrible idea? Well, it got the group blackballed from the industry to an extent. So, on Wednesday night, when they were invited to sing Daddy Lessons with Beyoncé at the 50th anniversary of the Country Music Awards, people lost their minds. Lucky for you, Beyoncé dropped a CDQ on SoundCloud of the collaboration. ABC News details the fun.
Dave Chappelle once told a very funny joke about voting. The basic premise was that white guys will tell you anything about their personal lives, up to and including lewd acts, but will never reveal who they plan on supporting on the ballot. So, when you hear all these people talking about how undecided they are, it’s really just a dodge to see what someone else is going to say and basically deflect. Point is, in this presidential race in particular, most people have known who they plan to vote for. FiveThirtyEight’s Dan Hopkins explains that those choices haven’t changed.
Josh Huff is a wide receiver for the Eagles. Not exactly a star, he’s not the kind of player you care about a lot unless you have him in a fantasy league or root for his team. He was pulled over this week with a gun in his car. Alas, the gun is licensed in Texas, where he’s from, not New Jersey, where he lives. It’s been a marginal distraction for the team this week, but in explaining his situation, Huff made a rather interesting observation. He basically said, if you think most athletes don’t carry guns, you’re wrong. Then he took a swipe at former NBA star Gilbert Arenas. ESPN reports.
Free Food
Coffee Break: If you haven’t caught up on all of FX’s Atlanta, you absolutely need to, fam. I can’t even explain how much I love this program. The writing, the characters, the somewhat faux reality in the context of surrealism, the dialogue, all of it. But perhaps most important is the music. The finale ends on a legitimately perfect note. Watch it.
Snack Time: Some people have a hard time understanding how a large social media presence can lead directly to making money for individuals. Well, if Instagram develops its shopping feature the way it wants, you’ll get it then.
Dessert: If you smoke e-cigarettes, you might want to be careful. They can basically explode at any time, fam.
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 11/2/16
Two police officers ambushed and killed in Des Moines, Iowa
12:45 PMWe’ve got some fresh content for the streets from the desk here today. First, we got our first podcast episode off from the new studio here, and secondly another installment of Locker Room Lawyer. Stay for the outtakes, kiddos.
An ambush attack on police has left two officers dead in Iowa. For those of you thinking that this is somehow related to angry black folks deciding to take their anger out of law enforcement, pump the brakes. The suspect that officials are looking for is named Scott Michael Greene, who also apparently once decided that flying a Confederate flag and causing a scene at a high school football game was a cool thing to do. ABC News has the latest details on the incident.
People in this world identify themselves many different ways. There are heterosexuals, homosexuals, transsexuals, the list goes on. Until this morning, however, I had never heard the term “ecosexuals.” But apparently it’s a growing trend in which people basically identify their sexuality as something more closely related to their connection with the earth, than, say, another human being. There’s also a healthy dose of doomsday alert involved with many who feel this way. VICE‘s Neil McArthur looks at how ecosexuality may actually save the planet.
We’re less than a week away. Many people have voted early, as in tens of millions of people, but others are still gritting their teeth, waiting for what happens next Tuesday. The political ads are heating up, if you haven’t turned on your television recently. Somehow, and we’ll just chalk this one up to male privilege, there are people who believe that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is more honest than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, which … OK. Anyway, the gang at FiveThirtyEight has a new election podcast out. Tune in here.
LeBron James is already winning the psychological battle over the Golden State Warriors. Since the world won’t let the Warriors forget that they blew a 3-1 lead in last year’s NBA Finals, The King played along as well during his Halloween party. Come on, it was funny, no big deal, right? Wrong. The media has been asking players in The Bay about it since it happened, and many of them are NOT amused. I feel like this is the wrong tack. If you admit that this bothers you, you’ve already lost. ESPN’s Chris Haynes reports.
Free Food
Coffee Break: Bruno Mars is the biggest pop star this world has right now. If you couldn’t tell on his latest Saturday Night Live appearance, my man is on another level. His live shows are off the charts, his music is dope and he’s finally embracing his star persona as a legit part of his presentation, which is awesome. Read this feature on him.
Snack Time: A casino in Queens, New York, is about to have the worst karma in the world after what they did to one woman. A machine told her she won $43 million. They basically just said, nah, and gave her a steak dinner. Seriously.
Dessert: You didn’t know that you needed a Sade and MF Doom mashup tape, but you did. You’re welcome.
All Day Podcast
All Day Podcast: 11/1/16
The death of Vine, Tristan Thompson’s Kardashian connection and a conversation with Omar Epps
5:23 PMThings look a little different around here these days. We’ve set up our new studio at The Undefeated offices, which has made everyone more comfortable on the mic and saved us a ton of time in general. Much respect to everyone who helped us out along the way.
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | Embed
As for this week’s episode, we also heard from some new voices. Aaron Dodson, who you’ve seen as a featured player in Practice Squad and Locker Room Lawyer, lends his voice to the show to talk about his Halloween experience. He dressed up as San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the reactions he got on the street are worth tuning in to hear.
Also, Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James is rumored to have told teammate Tristan Thompson to keep his new boo Khloe Kardashian away from the team, lest she create any distractions. Personally, I don’t see any real issue with what a man chooses to do in his off time, but King James runs the squad. Jill Hudson’s take on the matter is certainly interesting.
To cap things off, the crew discussed the death of Vine as a social medium and our Bristol, Connecticut, correspondent (that’s only partly a joke) Terrika Foster-Brasby sat down with actor Omar Epps to discuss his career in sports movies and the upcoming release of Almost Christmas. She’s great and we’re looking forward to more of her on the program.
Give it a listen, and if you have any feedback or show ideas, feel free to email us at allday@andscape.com.
Locker Room Lawyer, Episode 10: Cam Newton
The Carolina Panthers quarterback feels he isn’t protected from hard hits like other quarterbacks
3:50 PMIn this week’s edition of Locker Room Lawyer, Clinton Yates and Domonique Foxworth take the case of Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton to The Undefeated courtroom.
On Sunday during a postgame news conference following the Panthers’ 30-20 win over the Arizona Cardinals, Newton expressed his displeasure about the lack of late-hit calls he receives, especially compared with those received by other quarterbacks in the NFL, adding that he planned to go as far as to address the issue personally with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
“At times, I don’t even feel safe. Enough is enough,” Newton said. “I plan on talking to Commissioner Goodell about this. It’s not fun, and I don’t know what I have to do.”
On Tuesday, ESPN’s Ed Werder reported that the NFL has concluded that the Cardinals should have been flagged for an illegal hit on Newton in Sunday’s game. Goodell has also reportedly promised to speak to Newton.
In the meantime, Domonique, a former NFL cornerback and our Locker Room Lawyer, has Newton’s back, and the numbers are in his favor. On the other hand, Clinton argues that the real problem lies in the inherent danger of the sport.
Will the verdict be in Newton’s favor?
Check out the video, and if you have any professional athlete in mind (past or present) who needs the Locker Room Lawyer’s representation, feel free to email us at allday@andscape.com with episode ideas. Also, check out our weekly All Day Podcast.
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 11/1/16
Bill Cosby is trying to hide behind his impaired vision
12:30 PMOh, you think you had a cool Halloween costume? I’ll bet you do. Plenty celebrities did, but you know who had the best? None other than our own Brent Lewis’ son, who looked amazing as Kit Kat Chance The Rapper. So dope.
The Bill Cosby trial will soon be underway. He arrived today for a pretrial hearing, looking like a blind old man because, effectively, that’s what he is at this point. The big thing at question for this trial is whether or not Cosby’s other accusers will be allowed to testify against him. The longtime television star’s lawyers are arguing that because he apparently can’t see, they shouldn’t be allowed to speak. That gross irony of that defense is not lost on anyone, considering what he’s accused of doing. ABC News reports the latest.
I’ve got a lot of friends who are hysterical about the election. Between group texts, online chats and otherwise, there are a lot of people who refuse to believe that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will not be the president-elect next Wednesday until they actually see it with their own eyeballs. Between polls and predictions, everyone’s head is spinning about what is a realistic forecast and what isn’t. Luckily, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver is around to solve that problem. On Tuesday, he explained how the odds of an electoral college popular vote split are in fact increasing.
We really need the Taylor Swift and Drake rumors to be true. If for no other reason that these two could make an album together that would instantly go double platinum just off the strength of both fan bases. Don’t get it twisted, Tay Tay’s got bangers. Perhaps most importantly, if and when the two broke up, they’d both then make albums that would also do numbers. From a music fan standpoint, this is a match made in heaven. Listen to what Viceland‘s Desus & Mero have to say about the matter.
It’s all over for Ray Allen. To be quite honest, I didn’t exactly realize that this wasn’t official for some time. But, the man who initially made me cry as a high schooler back in 1995 when he hit a shot to win the Big East Championship game over Allen Iverson is certainly the greatest NBA shooter of all time. People tend to forget that he used to be a guy that could dunk on you if you didn’t look out. Now, it’s just a countdown to the Hall of Fame.
Free Food
Coffee Break: I’m always looking for new places to hang out and work. Sometimes that means a cafe, other times that means a library or a reading room. Or, if I’m lucky, some combination of both that provides a reasonable environment to concentrate. If they had listening clubs like this where I live, I’d be there every single day.
Snack Time: If you’ve never heard of a fungus called Devil’s Fingers, you’re in for a treat. Check out this tremendous time lapse, paired with some pretty crazy music that will make you feel like you might have gotten closer to hell.
Dessert: The season finale of FX’s Atlanta is Tuesday night, so check out this great GIF thread of what we’ve seen so far.
Halloween
The best Halloween costumes of 2016
Stars nailed them, per usual, but us normals did, too
5:44 PMWhether or not you still or ever did dress up for Halloween, it’s not hard to appreciate a good costume. Of course, there are people who wouldn’t recognize a solid one if it were literally walking down the street in front of them. That said, we’re not here to drag people either, so we’ll just keep Khloe Kardashian’s name to a minimum Monday.
5. The Entire Cast and Crew of ESPN’s His & Hers
Puttin on for the Hood #HappyHalloween #hisandhers pic.twitter.com/wAnvCjQThX
— Reese Waters (@reesewaters) October 31, 2016
We realize that the homer element to this making the list is very high, but come on, look at that photograph. This show’s parody game has been on point, but what made Monday particularly special was the complete holiday revamp of the set, designed after the movie they were spoofing, Boyz n the Hood. Sitting on the stoop, with the lawn chair and all the side props, up to and including a pack of Newport cigarettes, it was just tremendous design and execution. Also, if you’ve got people asking if Jemele Hill was playing Eazy-E in your mentions, you know that this type of cultural education is still important.
4. Gucci Flip-Flop
I need y'all to know that someone pulled up as a Gucci flip flop last night 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/5EzcXC2ufe
— LEGEND (@ChriStylezz) October 30, 2016
I have no idea who this person is, and it doesn’t really matter. A couple different things to note here. Aside from the joke, which I’ll explain in a second, the actual execution of the garb appears to be tremendous. One of the most annoying things about costumes in general is the ability to actually party in them can be tough once props get involved. But my man appears to have no problems on that front, either. Looks sturdy and clean, so let’s ride out.
As for the item itself, this is hilarious. The now iconic lyric from Future’s 2015 track Thought It Was A Drought took on renewed relevance when news spread earlier this month that Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen and his wife, Larsa, would be splitting up. One of the reasons cited for the split was her relationship with one Future, which … is and was awkward. Yeah. So, shoutout to Gucci flip-flops. I like that homey completed the look with the hat, too.
3. LeBron James As Jerome from Martin
This is nothing short of excellent. We’re not even counting the epic troll job on the Golden State Warriors that his actual party included. Let’s stick to the costume. He dropped a cool $5,000 to have it custom-made, according to TMZ, which seems well worth it, to be honest. I don’t even have the time to delve into the cultural importance of the character of Jerome, never mind the show Martin itself, but there were a lot of characters on that show overall. Jerome was easily the funniest.
2. Blue Ivy, Beyoncé and Tina Knowles as Salt N Pepa
Where do we start. No. 1, the costuming is 100 percent perfect. But in case you couldn’t tell from the initial image, Bey took you through every aspect and application of it, effectively creating a look book for her Halloween costume, which is just such a next level idea anyway. She did this via video, which had the song Push It as the background music. Jay Z’s complementary look was excellent, and that one shot of her and Blue apparently just eating breakfast in their costumes adding that family touch makes you remember just how cool they all are.
1. White Privilege
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMMTEN3ALwe/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMPK_6MAnrJ/
If both of these hadn’t happened, neither of them would be on the list. But the fact that they both exist made the combo factor impossible to ignore. No. 1, whoever this guy is who found a way to put this all together is a genius. His cape game is also very wavy, it appears. But the Snow White Privilege costume offers a good look, a tad more intellectually, about exactly what the problem with it is. And with character appropriate phrases on her dress (“The Palace Police Never Stop Me”) is particularly well done. Why does it matter? Two words: Jason Walsh.
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 10/31/16
Referees come under fire after NFL’s Week 7
2:25 PMHey all, hope your weekends went well. As a person who spends too much time thinking about which holidays are best celebrated on particular days of the week, I can confidently say that Monday is the worst possible day for Halloween.
You know what’s not cool? Using people’s cultural identities as costumes on Halloween. It’s particularly problematic when the effect of said mockery and cultural erasure is manifesting itself right before our eyes. See, while Hillary Duff’s man Jason Walsh was out here dressed like a jerk, actual Native Americans and others are protesting an oil pipeline that could affect their water supply for eternity. Oh, and guess what, those people are getting arrested for trying to save the globe.
With the election just around the corner, NOBODY FREAK OUT OR ANYTHING. Alas, that’s exactly what’s happening all over the shop. FBI Director James Comey is being completely reckless and has genuinely upset a lot of people with the decision to say that his organization is planning to reopen an investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails. Harry Reid thinks Comey broke the law. Former Attorney General Eric Holder said that Comey made a mistake. And, of course, Anthony Weiner is involved. ABC News has the latest.
So, among the various problems we have in this nation, there’s one particularly tricky one. Our country is too old. Just look at the age of both of our presidential candidates. More generally though, it’s a larger problem because, unfortunately, old people can often be a drag on the economy, which is wack to say, but it’s true. But guess who’s helping that change? You guessed it, immigrants. Just keep that in mind the next time you want to talk about how the U.S. needs to be doing. FiveThirtyEight’s Ben Casselman explains.
Sunday was a strange one in the NFL, but also a bounce back from the previous week. We got some games that came down to the wire and one that still doesn’t have a winner. Anyway, three very notable names stood up after their matchups and loudly complained about officiating, both in different ways. Josh Norman doesn’t understand how his position is officiated anymore and is frustrated. Richard Sherman straight called out referee Ed Hochuli for missing calls. And Cam Newton says he doesn’t feel safe. Roger Goodell, call your office.
Free Food
Coffee Break: I don’t know Perez Hilton and will probably never meet him. Fine. But I will not stand by as a site/operation as popular as his talks down on the icon-level game that Dipset put us on to back in the day. I hate to defend Tyga, but his costume dressing up as Juelz Santana is actually tremendous.
Snack Time: If you don’t know who they are already, you might want to familiarize yourself with the McClure twins. They are adorable and this video of one of them learning that the other is one minute older is precious beyond belief.
Dessert: It’s Halloween, which means that RL Grime has a new mix out.