Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 3/6/17
Floyd Mayweather Jr. has enemies across the pond
4:00 PMThe radio keeps calling, so we keep answering. On Sunday, The Morning Roast got off as usual, and this morning, we filled in for The Dan Le Batard Show. Here’s Sunday. Here’s today. People hated us, which is a good thing.
This travel ban refuses to go away. The White House has retooled this effort as a way to tear apart families under the guise of keeping people safe. Still not sure I understand that logic considering that most of the threats to the people of this nation very much come from inside our own borders, but whatever. In the new deal, Iraq is cut out from the other nations that will trigger scrutiny from TSA, but fundamentally, the idea is still there. Meanwhile, immigrants are being shot left and right for reasons we don’t know.
So, recently we found some new planets. Like, for real, they located a bunch of new places that might actually be habitable to humans, some 40 light years away. If I’m being honest, I don’t really understand space. I don’t particularly get how we can legitimately send people to other planets, like, say, Mars. And once I start contemplating what the concept of it is, I get really nervous thinking about the gravity of what is the great beyond. Check out this creepy story about what will happen to us if we actually get to Mars.
Finally, we’re coming to an end. The season finale of The Bachelor is tonight, and it couldn’t be coming a minute sooner. Nick Viall got rid of Corinne, which means she got as far as she needed to in order to get famous, but also didn’t have to deal with the awkwardness of the fantasy suite. Now, we’re looking at either Raven or Vanessa, since, although she’s still on the show, we know that Rachel is The Bachelorette. There’s also that small matter of Raven’s sex life. Should be fun, plus the women tell all.
There are some easy ways to know when someone doesn’t like you. No. 1 on the list is when the person says, ‘I don’t like you.’ No. 2 is when the person does something wildly disrespectful to you, and shows little to no remorse even after he or she knows your feelings have been hurt. Then, there’s the third level, which involves going to lengths to destroy one’s personal items as a way to send a message, a la Angela Bassett in Waiting To Exhale. Someone set Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s car on fire in England, which is pretty dang terrifying.
Free Food
Coffee Break: Banksy is known for his elaborate pranks and political demonstrations in the form of art, but this latest one on the West Bank in Bethlehem, Palestine, is really something. It’s a hotel that boasts the worst view in the world, which is really quite depressing on multiple levels.
Snack Time: We literally have zero idea of what Michael Jordan is talking about here, but anytime you say something this ridiculous, we’re going to laugh. Sorry, MJ.
Dessert: If you still haven’t seen Get Out, go do it. Hopefully your experience won’t be as bad as this one.
All Day
Daily Dose: 3/3/17
Congratulations, you played yourself
2:12 PMAll right, kiddos. Big weekend for the radio squad, if for no other reason than that it portends a big week. We’re doing the show on Sunday per usual, then filling in for Dan Le Batard on Monday. Then Bomani Jones on Thursday and Friday.
The man accused of making threats against Jewish facilities is a former journalist. He’s also a wacko creepstick who decided he was going to make all sorts of dangerous remarks to scare people and get the attention of a woman who had spurned his attention. Dudes are the absolute worst. If you don’t remember, he’s the guy who worked for The Intercept, and thought it was a good idea to make up a source regarding the whole Dylann Roof situation, which was also extremely harmful. Here are the details.
Cincinnati’s Zoo needs some good news. They’re the ones who killed Harambe, setting off an international firestorm over a gorilla that some say was trying to protect a child that fell into its enclosure. If you’re not familiar with Harambe, where on earth have you been? But should we let one extremely unfortunate incident affect the entire reputation of one zoo? Probably, yeah. But now, they’re doing something good. There’s a hippo that was prematurely born there, who is now thriving courtesy of their lovely people. She’s so adorable.
Admitting you got played is not easy. Letting the world know that you put yourself out there, only to be taken advantage of is a difficult thing to do because to some, it admits weakness. But it can be necessary in order to let the rest of us know who’s looking to treat people like that. So, when you saw all those presidents of historically black colleges and universities in the Oval Office for what they thought was going to be something significant, well, you know what happened next. At least Morehouse’s president had it in him to say it openly.
The Los Angeles Rams have serious identity issues. But for now, they’re going back to the white-horned helmets, harkening back to the days of the Fearsome Foursome, which was pre-color TV for the most part. But they’re still holding on to the gold trim of the St. Louis days, which I don’t understand. Why bother? Save some money on the jerseys? Either way, once they get a new stadium, they’ll probably switch up the unis again, which could be great if they ditch the gold entirely. We’ll see. For now, this is what we’ve got.
Free Food
Coffee Break: Condoms are superimportant. Between protecting against sexually transmitted diseases and infections, never mind preventing pregnancy, they’re a hugely important part of public health. And a new company is looking to keep the public part about that alive. Behold, a rubber that’s also a FitBit, in case you need that info.
Snack Time: I don’t know what SXSW is thinking, but they’re about to seriously ruin their already altered brand by apparently threatening artists if they do nonfestival sponsored events this year. Not cool, y’all.
Dessert: Behold. The greatest basketball coach of all time. Happy weekend, y’all.
Netflix unveils Dave Chappelle trailer
On March 21, site will stream two shows from his personal vault
3:57 PM[protected-iframe id=”cbc98538d1cfb3eb33be5df9ca9db6e8-84028368-105107678″ info=”http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1″ width=”480″ height=”270″]
The wait is over … for the trailer. Today, Netflix released a clip to promote its new comedy special with Dave Chappelle and the date is set: March 21. In case you forgot, he got paid $60 million for this deal, which includes one set from April 2015 in Austin, Texas, and another from March 2016 in Los Angeles for the time being. There is another show scheduled as well.
Sure, it’s just a short teaser, but in it, he touches on his long absence, Martin Luther King Jr., O.J. Simpson and being black. Judging from the way people react pretty much anywhere Chappelle shows up, this might end up being the most highly streamed event in Netflix history.
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 3/2/17
P.K. Subban set to return to Montreal for first time
12:26 PMMarch is Women’s History Month and few things sum up the transition from February like this amazing video.
Black women when #BlackHistoryMonth ends and #WomensHistoryMonth begins pic.twitter.com/lfROWuy4Hb
— Lauren Chanel Allen (@MichelleHux) March 1, 2017
Jeff Sessions is in some serious trouble. The man who grinned and laughed his way through his Senate confirmation hearing to become U.S. attorney general is accused of having had contact with the Russian ambassador, but did not disclose said information. Mind you, he was then a Trump adviser and he said he had no contact with the Russians at all. He’s also on the commission designed to oversee whether Russia interfered in U.S. elections. Yeah, that’s not good. This is not going to end anytime soon. Some want him to resign. Also, check this out.
When news first broke that Beau Biden’s widow was dating his brother, people jumped with reaction. Beau, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, died from brain cancer in 2015 and was a veteran with a budding political career when he died. His brother, Hunter, recently separated from his wife with whom he has three daughters. Between the two tragedies, apparently the two found a connection and have the blessing of the family. On the surface it seems a tad weird, but considering the circumstances, it’s not. Great sitcom premise, though.
Rachel Dolezal is completely bugging. You remember her, right? The woman who claimed to be “transracial” after trying to pass as a black person and heading up an NAACP chapter? Well, her life took a bit of a twist. She lost her job and is on food stamps (no shame in that, btw), but she’s taken things a bit further by changing her name. And not just any old name, she’s reportedly changed it to, wait for it, Nkechi Amare Diallo. Please, hold your applause. I mean look, I’m sorry, but come on. I’m having a hard time taking this seriously.
The trade deadline passed in the NHL, if you weren’t paying attention. And while we’re not going to chalk talk all the transactions across the ice, there is one particular story that we are extremely interested in. P.K. Subban, one of the top five stars in the league, is coming back to Montreal for the first time since being traded to Nashville. Nobody really knows why he was dealt to begin with, but when a Canadian player who happens to be black is viewed as a little too flashy for a franchise’s taste, who knows. His reception oughta be interesting.
Free Food
Coffee Break: When we first saw Gary from Chicago on the Academy Awards stage, he was just another prank victim who was really into taking pictures of things on his smartphone. It was adorable, in an old black family kind of way. Turns out he’s got quite the backstory, which is an interesting look at how sentencing and rehab can work.
Snack Time: There are disturbing death cases. Then there’s the case of a Muslim teen found hanged in the woods. It was initially ruled a suicide. Now the family is asking the FBI to investigate. Very troubling.
Dessert: Just watch this. You’re welcome.
Kennedy Center names director of hip-hop culture
Simone Eccleston is coming from New York’s Harlem Stage
12:26 PMThe Kennedy Center is doing what most of America hasn’t done in pretty much forever: listening to a black woman. On Wednesday, the performing arts venue named Simone Eccleston as its first director of hip-hop culture and contemporary music.
Simone Eccleston will begin her Kennedy Center role on March 13.
Aurora Fiorentino Scerbo
“With the Kennedy Center serving as the preeminent home for our nation’s arts and culture, the creation of a programmatic platform for hip-hop culture is deeply significant,” Eccleston said in a statement, according to NBC4 in Washington, D.C. “It is also an important catalyst for community-building, activism and empowerment.”
You may recall that last year, the center named A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip as its first artistic director for hip-hop culture. Who knows how these two roles will overlap, but Eccleston is coming from Harlem Stage in New York, where it commissioned work such as Meshell Ndegeocello’s Can I Get a Witness? The Gospel of James Baldwin.
Over the years, the traditionally fancy center has made incredible strides in opening up its performance and creative avenues to less traditional outlets. Hip-hop acts are now a regular mainstay on the Millennium Stage, so when Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, announced that he’d been doing one of his final U.S. shows there, it wasn’t entirely surprising. Last year, it even erected a skate park outside of the building as part of the Finding A Line skateboard, music and media festival. (Warning: explicit language in video below.)
It’s not just hip-hop, either. The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which was created by President Barack Obama and heavily promoted by first lady Michelle Obama, is still under White House purview. Earlier this year, the center brought world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma to Bunker Hill Elementary School to play with orchestra students as part of an outreach effort with a group called Turnaround Arts — which started at PCAH under and has moved to the Kennedy Center — looks to give underprivileged kids chances to excel in the arts.
KenCen stays woke.
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 3/1/17
President Oprah? It’s not out of the question
2:45 PMThe podcast was a fun one Tuesday, with Kelley L. Carter joining us to talk about her time in Hollywood last weekend. We also talked about the Nicki Minaj and Remy Ma beef. You can listen here.
So, President Donald Trump spoke to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. To be honest, I didn’t watch. But I did watch this morning and the man’s tone was a tad different than usual. Fair enough, but his pleas urging unity were pretty hollow, considering he spent the entirety of his campaign insulting nearly every person in that room. I can’t even imagine what the career politicians must have thought sitting in that room. Anyway, it wasn’t officially a State of the Union address, but it might as well have been. Let’s see what he got right and what wasn’t true.
Speaking of the Oval Office, let’s think about who might be considering a run. Seriously, now that Trump is there, you’ve got to presume that basically any celebrity who has a modicum of political opinion might give it a shot. So, let’s just pick a name out of a hat. Oprah Winfrey? Hmm … that’s actually not a terrible idea. And she recently did an interview with Bloomberg and didn’t exactly rule it out. I can’t even explain how much I want this to happen. Oprah vs. Trump in a presidential campaign? Sign me up.
It’s 80 degrees where I live today. Which means, it feels like summer. You know what’s open during the summer? Swimming pools. You know what kids do at the pool? They run on the deck, they toss each other in the water, they learn to socialize and, occasionally, they actually swim. You know what else they do? Relieve themselves in the pool. Like, a lot. Personally, this doesn’t bother me, because it’s not like you’re in a bathtub, but a new study says there is actually a WHOLE lot more urine in pools than you might think.
Amar’e Stoudemire needs to check himself. In a recent interview with an Israeli website, he made some completely outrageous comments about what he would do if he found out a teammate was gay. He’s been playing in Israel recently, but there was a time when I thought that he was a relatively woke dude. Making homophobic comments about potential teammates is so 1985, never mind patently offensive. Not cool, dude. Not cool at all.
Free Food
Coffee Break: You know what’s not a good idea? Taking safety out of the hands of doctors, when it comes to children playing football. But, in North Carolina, lawmakers were considering a bill that would let parents, not medical officials, decide if they could play following a concussion. Thankfully, it was killed, but what on earth?
Snack Time: Uber can’t seem to get out of its own way. Every week, there’s another scandalous headline. This time, the CEO was actually caught on tape arguing with a driver about fares. Yikes.
Dessert: Moonlight‘s got a mixtape, which means you’ll be listening to it.