Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 2/20/17
Bow to your new (Lion) king, Donald Glover
11:00 AMHappy Monday, kiddos! If you missed Highly Questionable Friday, here you go. Also, there were a lot conspiracy theories discussed on The Morning Roast. Lastly, we’re filling in for Russillo & Kanell on ESPN Radio, 1-4 p.m. EST today.
It’s Presidents Day, so let’s talk about ours. The weekend proved a few things about President Donald Trump. First of all, he kicked off his 2020 campaign less than a month into his own administration with a rally in Florida, seemingly because he needs constant adulation. He then made a claim about an incident in Sweden that never happened. The Swedes weren’t happy about it. But perhaps most importantly, he fired a senior appointee after it was found that he had criticized Trump in a private speech. Loyalty over expertise. Good luck finding a replacement.
Sidney Poitier is a national treasure. Today is his 90th birthday, and if you haven’t spent a large chunk of your life with his films, you need to. You know him for quite a few iconic roles: A Raisin In The Sun, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and, perhaps, Uptown Saturday Night. But you might not know that his best friend is Harry Belafonte, the singer and activist with whom he shares the same age. They’ve been tight since they were 20 years old and the story of their bond is really quite remarkable.
If you don’t like Donald Glover, that sucks for you. The man is all over Hollywood, and now, he’s going to be a part of an epic Disney remake: The Lion King. He’ll be playing Simba. It’s getting a reboot as a live-action film, which considering the success of The Jungle Book and the upcoming Beauty and the Beast was bound to happen. The Lion King is going to be a little more difficult, considering that there are no actual humans in that story. Nonetheless it’s an excellent pick and we are very much looking forward to the soundtrack.
LeBron James is about way more than basketball. If we’re being honest, his basketball career isn’t exactly coming to a close, but his days as the guy who can carry a single team on his back all the way to an NBA championship might be, which is fine. His legacy is more than secure after bringing a title to Cleveland. So, it’s time to look beyond that. He’s already got a production company that’s been rather successful. So, the next obvious step for the king to take over? Hollywood, duh.
Free Food
Coffee Break: It’s becoming harder and harder to defend Uber. We’ve all heard the stories of drivers sexually assaulting people and the company not being exactly responsive to complaints about it, but this latest essay on what the working environment is inside the actual company is worth your time. It does not paint a pretty picture.
Snack Time: Oddisee is perhaps the most thoughtful and politically conscious rapper in the game right now. This NPR interview with him about his latest album, The Iceberg, is excellent.
Dessert: Y’all are wrong for this, I swear.
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 2/17/16
Do you know anyone in the Congressional Black Caucus?
10:11 AMI’ve been in Miami for the last couple of days because I’ll be hosting Highly Questionable at 4 p.m. with my radio co-host Mina Kimes on ESPN. Thursday, though, I dropped by Bomani Jones’ The Right Time to chop it up.
One thing intrigues me about the White House press corps: Why don’t they simplify things? Policy questions are pointless. Just go basic. If I were in that room, I’d meet the president on his level. Why do you care about the media so much? What do you think the purpose of the press is? Why do you watch television and tweet? When do you plan on ending your comments about the election? It would all be fair at this point, judging from how Thursday went. And, oh, yeah. April Ryan is a hero for dealing with that Congressional Black Caucus reply.
If you’re an undocumented immigrant in this country, right now is a fearful time. No matter how many public officials deny it, raids are certainly being carried out and many of them are rather craven. There are some truly sickening stories circulating about how this crackdown is going. Snatching people up coming from work, picking their kids up from school, or leaving church? All of it just seems so extra. To top it all off, quite a few of these arrests are breaking up families, which is really sad.
You know what the funny thing is about black folks? Our stories are interesting. For more than one reason. No. 1, because most of them are not necessarily well-known in mainstream storytelling lanes. No. 2, because, ahem, we are humans, who deserve to have our stories told like everyone else. So, shocker, when we actually get to tell them as we choose, guess what? People like them. As in, everybody. And, unsurprisingly, the numbers show that it’s true. No one should be shocked.
One thing that working in the sports industry does is humanize you. When you cover the people who play the games that so many people watch on television, you get to see their actual personalities behind those numbers and jerseys. This seems obvious, but every once a while you get a story from an athlete that truly breaks your heart. This tale of the former Chicago Bears’ defensive tackle Tommie Harris and how he lost his wife is the kind of thing that no one should have to deal with.
Free Food
Coffee Break: The Golden State Warriors need to learn to stop doing group photo shoots in anything other than their sports uniforms. The whole squad always ends up looking like models in some stock photo situation, which of course opens the door for supreme roasting. Actually, the jokes are too good. Dubs, please never end this tradition.
Snack Time: Eric Andre is a pretty eccentric guy. His television show is a series of explosions, anatomy jokes and other absurd high jinks, but, he’s now dating Rosario Dawson. No one wants to believe this is real, but it is, folks.
Dessert: There’s nothing like a good love song. Here’s one to help out your weekend.
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 2/16/17
What’s life in the U.S. like without immigrants?
9:38 AMNBA All-Star Weekend is about to be underway and to kick things off, the homey Aaron Dodson has a new edition of the What Are Those?! podcast that’s all about the festivities. Plus, Kevin Merida joins them! Check it out.
If you want something to eat in D.C. today, you’ll have to make informed choices. As part of an effort to help recognize the contributions that immigrants make to this nation, many restaurants in the nation’s capital are closing down entirely or shuttering their kitchens. Some other nonfood establishments are giving workers the day off in solidarity as well. I’m not personally sure this correctly represents how many immigrants contribute to society, but what the heck. At least people are talking about it.
If you know Detroit, you know Mr. I, Mike Ilitch. He not only owned both the Detroit Tigers and the Red Wings for a time, he was also the creator of the Little Caesers pizza empire. Turns out he was a good dude, too. He paid Rosa Parks rent for more than 10 years. Ilitch read a newspaper story in 1994 that Parks was assaulted in her home, contacted federal judge Damon Keith and offered to pay it for the rest of her life, which he did until she died in 2005.
Speaking of food, I love Sriracha. I don’t only use it when I eat pho, which is at least twice a week, it’s also good on all sorts of other things. Throw some on your popcorn next time you sit down and watch a movie, or see how it can spice up a bowl of grits. I’m serious. As a brand, the red sauce has gone completely through the roof in recent years, with people going to more lengths than just eating it to rep their love for Sriracha. There’s an entire cottage industry around this condiment. Check out this story of how it came to America.
Twitter is always there for relationship advice if you need it. Wondering how much to spend on a date? Ask the TL. It’s $200, by the way. Need to know if your text game is too savage? Post a pic and let your mentions take over. So, when a video of a boyfriend explaining to an ex how he was unfaithful to her crossed people’s desks, things went haywire. It forced a lot of people to examine their own situations and of course, the girl in the scene was dubbed #HurtBae. Basically, Twitter is high school.
Everyone knows that Vince Carter was a great dunker. But overall, there are parts of his game that aren’t necessarily overlooked, but don’t immediately come to mind. So, if I asked you where he was on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, would you have guessed the Top 25? I certainly wouldn’t have. I definitely wouldn’t have guessed that he was just behind Allen Iverson on the list either. Well, last night, Carter, who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies, passed A.I. for 23rd overall. Good for Vince!
Free Food
Dessert: It’s New York Fashion Week and aside from my homegirl Cardi B slaying in these streets, there are quite a few political messages being sent on runways across the city. Protest is the new black for #NYFW, and everyone’s getting in on the trend.
Snack Time: It’s been a rough few months for Kanye West. He’s now a full-blown Kardashian and his whole world has been up and down. But Pusha T says Ye has new music coming out, but that’s all he can say on the matter.
Dessert: Read this. Thank me later.
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 2/15/17
Under Armour CEO walks back Donald Trump comments
3:00 PMWe taped another podcast Tuesday, and Jill’s back! We talked about the Grammys and the ever-evolving ridiculousness that is the New York Knickerbockers franchise. Have a listen and don’t forget to subscribe!
Sometimes I wonder if Donald Trump knows how to tie his shoes. Seriously, when it comes to the people around him and decision-making in general, everything seems to be someone else’s issue or his hypersimplification methods make it seem like if it really came down to fixing a problem, he’d have to ask someone else to handle it for him. The New York Times is reporting that his aides have been cavorting with Russia all along, and when it comes to the situation in Israel, he says he can live with either one. Alrighty, then.
When I was in high school, I wore JNCO jeans. Not the insane crazy huge ones, but people tend to forget that they had regular-sized pants that were actually rather comfortable and decent. Their whole existence gets defined by those absurdly super-wide-leg jams that were so patently ridiculous, but definitely something that people wore very seriously. I could name you 10 people right now off the top of my head who definitely wore them. Anyway, it’s 2017 and one guy decided that he was going to take the plunge for a week to “find himself.”
People love dissing Beyoncé. Between racism and sexism, it’s like they just can’t let her live without a fully public comment that somehow discredits who she is. Whether it’s a criticism of how she looks, or people somehow taking issue with the fact that she’s made a pregnancy announcement, it’s always something. Now, Carlos Santana, the musician is taking a shot, as well. He went so far as to say she’s not really a singer, which is insane. He apologized for it Wednesday, because, well, it was way out of pocket.
Remember when the Under Armour CEO decided he liked the president? Well, after three of his most famous endorsers came out and said they didn’t agree with him, Kevin Plank is walking back those comments. After calling Trump an asset to the country, Stephen Curry, Misty Copeland and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson were all like “hold up.” So, Plank decided to make better for his people on the situation and took out a full-page ad in The Baltimore Sun calling the immigration executive order a bad idea.
Free Food
Coffee Break: I love Jean-Michel Basquiat. He’s basically my spirit animal on a couple different levels and has been since basically I was a kid. There’s a new exhibit out that features pictures of him and his work from before he was super famous and it’s in Denver. So, the moral of the story is that I’ll be going to Denver soon.
Snack Time: Did you know that Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson once almost played a one-on-one game on pay-per-view in Las Vegas for a million bucks? Welp, now you do.
Dessert: I’ve started listening to Bronzeville. I like it a lot.
All Day Podcast
All Day Podcast – 2/14/17
We recap the Grammys and the New York Knicks are still a problem
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | Embed
It’s Valentine’s Day, but there was no time for love in Studio D410. This week, Jill Hudson is back and we talked about the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. Feelings are mixed about the importance of Beyonce’s performance, but pretty much everyone can agree that Rihanna deserved something, anything for her eight nominations this year. That aside, the crew ran down their favorite shows and fashion choices from the show Sunday.
Not to be forgotten are the New York Knicks, who are completely out of control. After they kicked Charles Oakley out of Madison Square Garden and had him arrested, the owner went super petty and started bringing back other former Knicks to be honored and even sit with him courtside. What a mess.
With NBA All-Star Game weekend coming up, everyone’s got big weekend plans as well. Enjoy!