Have you ever imagined speaking at your own funeral? That’s what’s depicted in COIN‘s new video for “Brad Pitt,” which premiered on Billboard before heading to YouTube.
The video shows a line of “mourners” at entering a “Celebration of Eternal Relevance” for COIN front man Chase Lawrence. The coffin is wheeled in and then followed by a mobile robot that displays a video of Lawrence smiling and greeting guests, and then addressing the crowd when it makes it to the podium.
The lid of the coffin flings open and we see that inside, it looks like a tanning bed. Lawrence jumps out and starts to sing the song, the lyrics of which go, “Bring me out of the box….I’m just asking you to/keep me young forever.”
Explaining the video’s concept, Lawrence tells Billboard, “I think the video, song and the album [Uncanny Valley] is very centered around this idea of relevance and clinging to our youth…what it looks like to age gracefully, and not knowing how to embrace moving on and getting older.”
“We talked a lot about this idea of the things that sustain you and make you appear younger are actually the things that are slowly killing you, which is seen in the paradox of the tanning bed versus the coffin,” Lawrence notes.
As for the song’s title, he explains, “Really, the title is just a symbol of youth, somebody that’s aged gracefully and has almost denied nature. Naming the song after him felt like a fun, kooky way to reduce the song to a cultural reference.”
Starting in April, COIN will support 5 Seconds of Summer on a tour of the U.K. and Ireland.
If you have Netflix, there’s a good chance that you let somebody else — your kids, your parents, maybe even your ex — watch the streaming service on your dime.
According to a new survey, 33% of the streaming giant’s users share their account with one or more people. The poll of 4,400 users conducted by the Leichtman Research Group found that 83% of Americans households have at least one streaming service, but of those who have Netflix, just 64% keep their account to themselves.
Of the 33% of those who do share their Netflix passwords, just 3% see others sharing the cost.
The poll is interesting in light of Netflix’s recent announcement that it would start charging for those who’ve been mooching movies off their generous friends: The pilot program started in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru would see a surcharge added to accounts that share their access.
In a blog post from Chengyi Long, director of product innovation at Netflix, she noted, “We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans.”
But, she maintained, sharing between different households has begun “impacting [Netflix’s] ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.
Olivia Rodrigo hinted her fans will not have deja vu when they listen to her next album because it’ll offer new “colors and textures.”
Speaking to ELLE, the Grammy nominee admitted, “I’m definitely not as sad as I was when I wrote SOUR” when questioned about the tone of her new work. “I’m so excited to make my next record and explore more colors and textures and feelings and grow as a human being even more.”
Olivia says she is “stoked” about what’s next because of how much she’s changed since dropping “drivers license” last year. Looking back at her old songs — in particular “jealousy, jealousy” and “brutal” that talks about online critics — the singer says she has grown thicker skin since her career exploded.
“I was so angsty,” she laughed when looking over the song’s lyrics. “I guess I was just coming to terms with being like a really young person in the industry and feeling weird about it. But I don’t think I feel that way anymore, which is nice.”
However, Olivia admits she’s still growing up and has to work on herself more — particularly in how she can be her own worst enemy when making music. “I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself all the time,” the 19-year-old singer confessed. “I’m way too hard on myself and it’s past the point of being productive.”
When asked how she plans on overcoming that mindset, Olivia replied, “I guess I just try to think of it in a positive way and try to channel it to make myself a better person and not self-destruct, I suppose.”
She added that the book Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert, has further opened her eyes by teaching her, “If you’re a fulfilled, happy person, your art can only be more whole and better received.”
Before Troy Kotsur broke ground in Hollywood by being the first deaf performer to win the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award with his performance in Coda, he changed a galaxy far, far away.
One of the significant recent changes to the Star Wars universe came in Disney+’s The Mandalorian, in which the desert natives known as the Tusken Raiders were shown to be more than the baddies who mugged Luke in Star Wars: A New Hope, or who kidnapped Anakin’s mom, leading to her death, in Attack of the Clones.
Instead, when Pedro Pascal‘s Mando encounters some of them, he communicates using a form of sign language, showing their culture is deeper than previously shown. This thread was carried through into The Book of Boba Fett.
Kotsur developed the Tusken sign language, and played one of the characters later in the series as one of the masked natives. In an ASL video interview with the deaf blog the Daily Moth, he explained he was a fan of Star Wars since he was eight.
“Remember…in…1977…accessibility for Deaf people were limited, but that Star Wars movie blew my mind. It changed my life,” Kotsur signed. “Why? It was…so visual for me. For the first 5 minutes…The spaceships shooting, the robots…all of that overwhelmed my eyes. I watched it 28 times.”
He explained his contribution to The Mandalorian: “[M]y goal was to avoid ASL. I made sure it became Tusken Sign Language based on their culture and environment.”
He called the gig, “a blessing,” and a dream come true. “It is fate,” he signed.
Incidentally, if you want to know the sign for “Mandalorian,” Kotsur invented that, too: It’s based on the ASL for “M” and the shape of their trademark helmets.
Kanakaʻole, who died in 1978, was an internationally acclaimed hula teacher, composer, chanter and performer.
She is credited for playing a vital role in passing down the teachings of hula amid the 1970s Hawaiian Renaissance when cultural traditions, languages and institutions were being revived widely and publicly among Native populations.
Kanakaʻole’s dance school, Hālau o Kekuhi, was internationally acclaimed, for its teachings of the ʻaihaʻa style of hula and chanting.
The ʻaihaʻa is a “low-postured, vigorous, bombastic style of hula that springs from the eruptive volcano personas of Pele and Hiʻiaka,” according to the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation.
The non-profit is focused on uplifting the cultural teachings, philosophies and traditions that were revived thanks to the Kanakaʻole family.
Hula is a cherished way of telling Hawaiian stories through dance. Because performers are often dressed in lei, grass skirts, or other natural elements-turned-garb, there is a relationship with the earth that often must be cultivated.
According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, many dancers find ways to give back to nature and the forests that provide them with their dancing materials.
She was also a longtime Hawaiian studies instructor at the University of Hawai’i-Hilo, and not only taught about hula, but also taught about the connection between nature and Hawaiian culture.
In 1996, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs deemed hula schools and their teachers “Living Treasures” to recognize the deep study of Hawaiian genealogy, plants, language, and history required for hula.
Her legacy lives on through the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation, which is run by Kanakaʻole’s descendants.
“This is an unbelievable honor for our family, for our body of work at the Edith Kanaka‘ole Foundation in carrying on her legacy and her teachings, for our home and for our people,” said Kanaka‘ole’s granddaughter Huihui Kanahele-Mossman. She is also the executive director of the foundation.
“This high recognition reminds us that our work at the foundation continues to be relevant, our research and our practices continue to have meaning and application,” said Kūha‘o‘īmaikalani Zane, Kanaka‘ole’s grandson and president of the board of directors of the foundation.
Kanakaʻole will be featured opposite George Washington on the coin.
She joins several other prominent women in the 2023 release of this project: former First Lady and first chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt, first African American and Native American woman pilot Bessie Coleman, Mexican American journalist Jovita Idár and Native American Maria Tallchief, America’s first major prima ballerina.
“The range of accomplishments and experiences of these extraordinary women speak to the contributions women have always made in the history of our country,” U.S. Mint Deputy Director Ventris C. Gibson said in a press release.
He continued, “I am proud that the Mint continues to connect America through coins by honoring these pioneering women and their groundbreaking contributions to our society.”
(NEW YORK) — Two people were killed Thursday in the Florida Panhandle when their mobile home was toppled by a suspected tornado, one of nearly 30 that has wreaked havoc across seven South and Midwest states, officials said.
The deaths in Washington County, Florida, were the first fatalities reported from the outbreak of severe weather that began Tuesday night.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said two mobile homes were destroyed, and the two people killed were inside one of them, according to ABC affiliate station WMBB in Panama City. Two other people in the second mobile home that was destroyed were injured, the sheriff’s office said.
The deadly episode came after the National Weather Service issued new tornado watch warnings early Thursday from coastal Apalachicola, Florida, to Valdosta, Georgia.
The band of severe weather continued to move east and north, prompting severe weather warnings up the East Coast, including a forecast of potentially damaging winds Thursday evening for New York City, Trenton, N.J., and parts of eastern Pennsylvania.
The severe weather front that swooped in from the Rocky Mountains generated at least 29 tornadoes in seven states on Tuesday night and throughout Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Funnel clouds reportedly touched down in Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Missouri.
One twister that tore through Springdale, Ark., on Wednesday injured seven people and caused heavy damage to an elementary school. The NWS reported that the Springdale tornado was a powerful EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale and produced winds of 145 mph.
Besides tornadoes, the severe weather front came with damaging winds that ripped roofs on homes, barns and businesses and uprooted trees.
In Louisiana, powerful winds and low visibility due to blowing debris was blamed for a three-car pile-up on a highway near Iota that caused several minor injuries, according to the Iota Police Department.
At least 10 twisters were reported across Mississippi and high winds toppled large trees outside the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson.
At least three tornadoes touched down in Central Alabama, including one that flipped over a mobile home in Shelby County, triggering a rescue of a person trapped inside, ABC affiliate station WBMA in Birmingham reported.
A twister also touched down in Montevallo, Alabama, Wednesday night, tearing the roof off a dorm at the University of Montevallo and injuring one person, according to the Montevallo Police Department.
“We are thankful that this week was spring break and that very few people were on campus during tonight’s storms,” university officials said in a statement.
ABC News’ Max Golembo, Puri, Alexander, Griffin, Melissa Griffin and Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report.
Billie Eilish‘s dress turned heads at Sunday’s Academy Awards, but not everyone was in love with it — and some were very vocal about that.
But the “bad guy” singer doesn’t give a you-know-what — literally. Taking to TikTok on Wednesday, Billie shared a video of one red carpet critic tearing apart the dresses he hated most, and her fluffy black number was number one on his list. As the critic groans, “I’ve had enough of her s***” while displaying Billie’s gown in the background, the Oscar winner flashes a peace sign before flipping the bird.
It also should be noted that as she reacts, Billie is clearly sitting on the toilet and apparently putting it to the use for which it’s intended. She even said as much in her caption, while tagging the critic, writing “i HAVENT had enough of my s***. i am s****ing right now.”
While Billie’s dress might not have been everyone’s favorite on Sunday night, her “No Time to Die” Bond theme was a hit, winning her and her producer/brother FINNEAS the Oscar for Best Original Song, making her the second-youngest winner to ever collect the honor.
It also should be of note that Billie’s also now the first person born in the 2000s to win an Oscar. Not only that, her win at the Academy Awards allowed her to collect the ultra-rare “Triple Crown” in film music award wins, confirmed Guinness World Records, with “No Time to Die” also picking up a Golden Globe and a Grammy Award.
So people dragging Billie’s dress does appear to be small potatoes compared to everything else.
(WASHINGTON) — Oil prices are dropping Thursday morning in response to news that President Joe Biden is moving forward with a plan to release roughly 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve over the next six months, the White House has confirmed.
Biden is expected to announce this step on Thursday afternoon during a scheduled event to discuss actions his administration is taking to rein in soaring gas prices that have spiked even further following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden will also call on “Congress to make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing,” the White House said in a release.
About 3 million barrels a day of Russian oil will come off the market in April due to Western sanctions, according to the International Energy Agency, and this plan could help alleviate pain at the pump by helping to replace that loss.
This would be the third time Biden has had to tap into the strategic petroleum reserve. In November, he authorized the release of 50 million barrels as gas prices surged ahead of the holidays, and along with 30 other countries, the U.S. released 30 million barrels following the start of the war in Ukraine, though that did little to ease skyrocketing prices.
As of Friday, there were more than 568 million barrels of oil in the reserve, according to the Department of Energy.
Given the complexity and volatility of the oil market, many geopolitical and economic factors feed into oil prices and there is no guarantee this release will keep prices down for an extended period of time.
Overnight, crude oil prices were down roughly 5% in reaction to this plan, which means the price at the gas pump could also dip in the coming days.
The current national average for a gallon of gas is $4.23, according to AAA, $1.35 higher than this time last year.
Madonna is capitalizing on the “Frozen” craze and has dropped an all-new remix, featuring R&B singer 070 Shake. This song reboot features new lyrics laid against a hypnotic beat.
The new lyrics come from Shake, who recites, “Don’t pull my heart/ Don’t text me back, don’t call me back/ It’s something in the water, yeah,” over the song’s familiar refrain.
To further treat fans, the two teamed for a new music video. It starts with Madonna pulling up to a dark, abandoned warehouse to meet 070 Shake. The two enjoy moments around the mysterious grounds in the rain before jumping into the souped-up car to make their getaway.
Madonna said of her new collaborator, “070 Shake is indescribably mysterious and alluring. There are very few women in the trap music world that aren’t pandering to men. Her lyrics are deep and unique — there is no one like her. I’m excited for the world to discover her!”
This marks the second time Madonna has breathed new life into her 1998 hit. Another remix dropped earlier this month, featuring Nigerian superstar Fireboy DML.
As Deep Purple prepares to launch a major European tour in late May, the band has announced that longtime guitarist Steve Morse “will be taking a temporary hiatus” from the band because of a serious family matter.
The group assures fans that Morse remains a full member of Deep Purple, although he won’t be playing the concerts scheduled for May, June and July. Replacing Steve at those shows will be Simon McBride, a veteran rock guitarist who previously has toured with Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan and keyboardist Don Airey, among many others.
In a message, Morse explains, “[M]y dear wife Janine is currently battling cancer. At this point, there are so many possible complications and unknowns, that whatever time we have left in our lives, I simply must be there with her.”
He continues, “I am not leaving the band — I hope that after she gets a clean bill of health, I can re-join the tour. However, I am not seeing any likely situation which would allow me to do overseas touring in the immediate future. I continue to be privileged to be a part of the Purple family tree, and also to get to feel the amazing support of so many loyal fans and the rest of the band.”
Steve also praises McBride as “a certified world class guitarist,” and concludes, “I appreciate all your sincere prayers for Janine and thank you all.”
The rest of Deep Purple adds, jointly, “All of our thoughts are with Janine during her fight against cancer and also with Steve while he supports his wife at a very difficult time.”
The U.S.-born Morse has been a member of Deep Purple since 1994. He also is a co-founder of jazz-rockers the Dixie Dregs and previously played with Kansas.
