Around the Tubes: May 6, 2020

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Showtime, Tee Grizzley, Selena Gomez, Bryan Fox, Tommy Lee, Justin Flom, and POV.

- In an effort to provide resources and raise awareness around the ongoing struggle against systemic racism in America, SHOWTIME has made two of its acclaimed documentaries available for free. Peabody Award-nominated and Television Academy Honors recipient 16 SHOTS examines the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke and the cover-up that ensued. Acclaimed director Sacha Jenkins’ BURN MOTHERF*CKER, BURN! explores the complicated relationship between the Los Angeles Police Department and the city’s Black and minority communities. Both are now streaming on YouTube and SHO.com, and are available to SHOWTIME subscribers on demand. The two films will also be available across multiple television and streaming providers’ devices, websites, applications and authenticated online services and their free On Demand channels.  


- Detroit rapper Tee Grizzley releases powerful anthem "Mr.Officer".  The song boldly addresses the issue of police brutality alongside a poetic hook with the assistance of Queen Naija and the children of the Detroit Youth Choir. As protests across the country continue, Tee explains the importance of releasing the song by saying  “I got a million experiences I can touch on in my music, but I couldn’t make another song without speaking on what’s going on. I’m not a politician or activist but right now it’s everybody’s job to speak up because the pain, the struggle for equality and the brutality is real”.  Along with the release, Tee also donated $10,000 each to Victory Management Homes and the Horatio Williams Foundation. As the son of a mother who is currently incarcerated, Tee recalls the moment in his childhood when they took his mother away and the state was going to put him and his siblings into foster care before his grandmother stepped in to be their primary caregiver. With that memory in mind, his donation comes as an effort to better support children who have lost their parents due to police brutality or mass incarceration and are forced to live within the foster care system. 



- Selena Gomez and The Lonely Island joined Usher, Janelle Monáe, Solange Knowles, Megan Thee Stallion, John Mulaney and many more to endorse law student Loralei HoJay’s viral Change.org petition calling for Justice for Breonna Taylor today. Loralei is leading a virtual protest today, Friday, June 5th at 3 PM EST, on what would have been Breonna’s 27th birthday. The protest directs petition signers and supporters to make phone calls, as well as send emails and “tweetstorm” calls for action targeting public officials, including KY Gov. Beshear and Sen. McConnell.

- Country rock songwriter Bryan Fox makes a celebratory return with fellow Kentucky natives Buffalo Stille and Ron Clutch from the Grammy-nominated, Southern alternative hip hop group Nappy Roots, releasing a new collaborative song called “That’s About Me.” Produced by studio verteran Malcolm Springer (Matchbox 20, Collective Soul, Boz Skaggs), and recorded at Nashville’s House of Blues studios, the new rollicking summer song is the third collaboration between the trio, and likely their best yet. The song gives its listener a reason to celebrate the return of summer, while paying homage to the popular song themes and instrumentation you get by mixing a little bit of country rock, with a little bit of hip hop.

- In conversation with Tommy Lee about his new music, his abject JOY over his new  album, ANDRO, is infectious. The mastermind behind this compelling collection of songs has conquered TikTok amassing 560k followers in the past couple of months, while growing his Instagram audience to over 1 million during quarantine - an audience that eagerly awaits his new opus.  Lee has had a mega-popular Netflix film (The Dirt), starred in and produced 3 Network TV shows (Tommy Lee Goes To College, Rockstar: Supernova, Battleground Earth: Ludacris vs Tommy Lee), had a NY Times Bestseller (Tommyland) and has appeared on scripted and interview TV shows – most recently, a hilarious appearance as a professor on ABC’s The Goldbergs. 

- Justin Flom, world-renowned magician and father of two, has debuted Season 1 of his new series Making Magic at Home with Justin Flom, exclusively on the Yippee TV platform, with Season 2 already in production. On the series, Flom shares the secrets to some of his most popular tricks and illusions, instilling a sense of wonder and joy to viewers of all ages.  Justin Flom has a magical life. At a very young age, Flom began sharing the stage with his family, performing magic as a form of storytelling. Now, as an adult, Flom finds himself in front of as diverse an audience as any entertainer, including touring with Country Superstars Florida Georgia Line and creating magic for other stars and companies such as Coca-Cola, Hobby Lobby, Lady Antebellum, Super Bowl Coach Pete Carroll, and the entire Seattle Seahawks team, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen and Nick Jonas. His tours take him to buildings like Madison Square Garden to mega-churches to amphitheaters across the US. He truly has the ability to entertain anyone, anywhere.


- POV’s historic 33rd season kicks off with Linda Goldstein Knowlton’s We Are The Radical Monarchs on July 20 at 9 p.m., available to stream on all PBS platforms, including PBS.org, the PBS Video App and pov.org. The documentary, which debuted at SXSW Film Festival 2019, follows a group of young girls of color on the frontlines of social justice. Radical Monarchs co-founders Anayvette Martinez and Marilyn Hollinquest—two queer women of color and working mothers—share their journey as they grow the group in Oakland, a city with a deep history of organizing movements. “I think self-empowerment and self-worth for young girls of color is really critical, and it’s really lacking,” says Martinez. “How do we create alternative spaces where that can happen?”