Saturday, July 24, 2021

Around the Tubes: July 24, 2021

  

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting.  This post includes blurbs on Clairo, Lorde, American RustHomeroom, James Blake, UFOPen15, Ariana Grande, Cassadee Pope, Cassadee Pope, Iron Maiden, Superman & Lois, Three Women, and POV.


Following the release of her critically acclaimed sophomore album, Sling, 22-year-old American artist, songwriter, and producer Clairo has announced her 2022 headlining North American tour dates today. Produced by Live Nation, the 28-date tour will kick off on February 16th in Charlotte, NC at The Fillmore Charlotte with stops in Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and more before wrapping April 16th in Atlanta, GA at Tabernacle.  Go to Clairo.com for more details.


GRAMMY® Award-winning multiplatinum artist LORDE has released new song “Stoned at the Nail Salon”. The song is the second track from Lorde’s highly anticipated third studio album, Solar Power, which will be released via Republic Records on August 20th. The album includes 12 tracks and is produced by Jack Antonoff who she collaborated with on her chart-topping last album, Melodrama.  Pre-Order / Pre-Save / Pre-Add Solar Power HERE.  Listen to “Stoned at the Nail Salon” HERE


SHOWTIME has released the official trailer for its upcoming drama series AMERICAN RUST, starring Emmy winner and Tony nominee Jeff Daniels (THE COMEY RULEThe Newsroom, Godless, The Looming Tower) and award-winning actress and Emmy nominee Maura Tierney (YOUR HONOR, THE AFFAIR, The Report, Beautiful Boy). Daniels executive produces the series, reteaming with Oscar nominee Dan Futterman (The Looming TowerCapote, Foxcatcher), who serves as executive producer, writer and showrunner. The series is co-produced with Boat Rocker Studios and will premiere on Sunday, September 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT


Check out the official trailer and key art for the inspiring and powerful documentary "Homeroom" directed by Peter Nicks and executive produced by Ryan Coogler. The Hulu Original documentary premieres on Hulu and in select theaters Thursday, August 12.  In "Homeroom,” Oakland High School’s class of 2020 confronts an unprecedented year. Anxiety over test scores and college applications gives way to uncertainty springing from a rapidly developing pandemic. Efforts to eliminate the school district’s police force unfold against the backdrop of growing nationwide demands for systemic change. 



- GRAMMY® Award-winning UK singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer James Blake has announced his new album, Friends That Break Your Heart, due out September 10, 2021 – Available for pre-order HERE, via Republic Records. Blake joined Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1 for “Hottest Record in the World” to premiere the album’s first single, “Say What You Will”. The single was accompanied by the release of the official music video starring Finneas alongside James Blake – Watch HERE. Today, the artist additionally announced his 2021 Fall tour dates. Produced by Live Nation, the 15-show tour will kick off on September 16th in San Diego at The Observatory North Park, making stops at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, New York’s Radio City Music Hall, and more before wrapping up in Atlanta’s Tabernacle on October 15th. Tickets go on-sale to the general public starting Friday, July 30th at 10am local time on JamesBlakeMusic.com

SHOWTIME has released the trailer for the timely docu-series UFO from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Glen Zipper, premiering on Sunday, August 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The four-part series explores our fascination with unidentified flying objects, and what clandestine influence the American government, lucrative private companies and the military may have in shielding the truth behind extraterrestrial phenomena to further their own agendas. The premiere episode will be made available for free on YouTube, Showtime.com and Sho.com, as well as across multiple SHOWTIME partner platforms, and all four episodes will be available to SHOWTIME subscribers on Sunday, August 8 at 12:01 a.m. ET/PT. Directed by Mark Monroe (Icarus) and Paul Crowder (Riding Giants), the series is a co-production by Bad Robot and Zipper Bros Films.  To watch and share the trailer, visit: https://youtu.be/tU9NhwYKCLM.

It’s summer vacation and your favorite 7th graders are back in a special "Pen15" animated episode launching Friday, August 27th only on Hulu!  Ep. 208, “Jacuzzi”: On vacation with Curtis, Anna and Maya are introduced to new crippling insecurities. The girls try to ignore them, but a mystical turn makes their self-doubt impossible to forget.

Vevo, the world's leading music video network, announces the release of Ariana Grande’s Official Live Performance of “positions" from her album Positions. Vevo’s Official Live Performances are the result of close creative collaboration with artists and their teams, resulting in a series of very special exclusive performances. “positions” follows Ariana’s previous Vevo Official Live Performances of “pov,” “safety net (feat. Ty Dolla $ign,)” “my hair,” “34+35” and “off the table (feat. The Weeknd)”.

Cassadee Pope has just released the new music video for her latest single, "Say It First," off of her upcoming ninth album,  THRIVE, exclusively with Sounds Like Nashville. The video, directed and edited by Ed Pryor, is a colorful depiction of the inner storm that matches the song's eruptive angst along with the vulnerability of its lyrics.   “Working with Ed Pryor again was such a treat," says Pope. "We both knew we wanted this video to include weather elements and fast flashes to coincide with the inner turmoil the song talks about. I wanted to wear a beautiful dress to further illustrate the fact that vulnerability is strength.”  WATCH:      "Say It First" Music Video

BMG is thrilled to announce the release of IRON MAIDEN’s 17th studio album Senjutsu, their first in six years, on September 3rd. It was recorded in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Steve Harris.  It was preceded on Thursday July 15th by an already highly acclaimed animated video for the first single “The Writing On The Wall” made by BlinkInk based on a concept by Bruce Dickinson with two former Pixar Executives. It followed a month-long teaser campaign & global ‘treasure hunt’ for clues about the track title and concept.  For Senjutsu – loosely translated as ‘tactics & strategy,’ the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Steve Harris. With a running time of a little under 82 minutes, Senjutsu, like their previous record The Book Of Souls, will be a double CD/Triple vinyl album.

Superman saves the world, and saves his family when Superman & Lois: The Complete First Season releases on Blu-ray and DVD on October 19, 2021 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Featuring never-before-seen extended versions of all 15 action-packed episodes from the first season, plus bonus features, Superman & Lois: The Complete First Season is priced to own at $24.98 SRP for the DVD ($29.98 in Canada) and $29.98 SRP for the Blu-ray ($39.99 in Canada), which includes a Digital Copy (U.S. only). Superman & Lois: The Complete First Season is also available to own on Digital via purchase from digital retailers and to stream exclusively on HBO Max starting August 20, 2021.

SHOWTIME has announced that Emmy and SAG Award nominee Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies) will star in the original series THREE WOMEN, based on the blockbuster nonfiction No. 1 bestseller by Lisa Taddeo, who is also a writer on the series. The show has been picked up straight to series, with principal photography set to begin in the fall. 

American Documentary | POV is proud to announce the national broadcast premiere of David Osit's Mayor on Monday July 26th at 10 p.m. (check local listings) and online at pov.org. The film will also be available to stream for free on pov.org until August 25th, 2021.  Mayor is director David Osit’s second film to broadcast on POV after his documentary Thank You For Playing, which won the ‘Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary’ at the 2017 News and Documentary Emmy Awards. Mayor was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick and has picked up awards from Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and CPH:DOX, among others. 


- SHOWTIME has signed THE L WORD: GENERATION Q showrunner, executive producer, director and writer Marja-Lewis Ryan to an overall deal through which she will develop television projects exclusively for SHOWTIME. “Marja is our Shohei Ohtani … a gifted two-way player who is both an exceptional writer and an inventive director,” said Levine. “I love the energy, the perspective and the fun she brings to THE L WORD: GENERATION Q, and I look forward to the upcoming season of that series and other inspired creations from her.” 

Sunday, July 18, 2021

57 Channels and Only This Is On: July 18, 2021

 

The White Lotus:  I was not expect this show to be a murder mystery but we learned someone died in the first scene.  Obviously we can write off the boring white dude since he was there in the future.  But since he was alone, this heavily it was his wife, but he seemed more angry than sad his wife died.  Plus they already set up plenty of reasons why she would want to go home without him (especially if you include the “This Season On” segment). 

 

Steve Zahn and his possibility of testicular cancer also makes him too obvious.  After the first episode, I would definably put Jennifer Coolidge at the top of my.  She is all alone and sad.  In the trailer she even asks if booze will be served on the boat.  Alcohol and the high seas seem like a pretty bad combination.  But then after I did my internal power rakings of the cast, it occurred to me, does it have to be one of the guests?  Could it be someone who worked there but grew up on the mainland?  The manager is Australian, so probably not him, the pregnant chick seems native to the island, but I would not be too surprised if it is someone else.  Granted the masseuse lady is the only other employee we spent much time with.

 

Kevin Can Fork Himself:  So all the trouble getting the drugs and she is not even going to try and kill Kevin?  So now the plan if for him to go to jail for the drugs?  Seems like a worse plan.

 

The Chi:   So the mayor gets shot last week and they are just going to ignore who shot him?  Is he not even going to plot revenge?  But hopefully they are learning just how hard it is to keep the piece if you are policing yourself.  Dude is going to be the one that gets shot if he keeps going out trying to stop violence by himself.  He has already been punched a few times.  But poor Kevin, finds a girl to play video games with but gets blocked when he tried to shoot his shot.  Though I am not sure why he is getting more freedom after he punched a teacher and got kicked out of school.  Might want to reign that kid in after that.

 

Black Monday:  Oh snap, Mo just not so subtlety called out the Emmy’s for always getting the Best Comedy Actor wrong.  So Dawn is just going to work for Death Row now (assuming the white rapper that was hung over the balcony was Vanilla Ice)?  That should be fun.  I always thought Staight Outta Compton should have a sequel that focused on Dr. Dre’s time at the label and not entirely sure why no one has done it.  Well, maybe I know why and it has to do with everyone being too scared of Suge Knight.

 

Flatbush Misdemeanor:  “Things just don’t make sense, you just go along with them.”  What a great thing for a teacher to say to his class.  About as good as “If only he’s death, I think it’s a win.”  Who knew a bomb threat at school could be so funny.

 

Motherland: Fort Salem:  So the former partners were in the same place at the same time for the first time this season.  I wonder how long until they come face to face.

 

In the Dark:  Man, all that trouble and the cop just takes all the cash.  But that is on the dude.  If you offer the cash, do not present him with a bag, take the right amount out while you care in the car then give it to them.  But now we are closer to my prediction that the blind chick will go back to Chicago and become evidence against the captain.

 

Good Girls:  If the DA is not actually a DA what game is the skincare guy even playing?  Is the lawyer even a lawyer?  Clearly he is just projecting his distain on his wife onto Dean, It is just about control over other people because he lost all control to his wife?