Monthly Archives: January 2020

by Alison Bonaguro 1/16/2020

Hell hath no fury like thousands of country fans and artists scorned.

There is currently a tweet causing a lot of angst on social media, because one radio station had the guts to reveal the sad, sad, truth.

It all started when veteran entertainment journalist Chris Willman posted, I turned on the 105.1 country station in L.A. just now, and they were playing the new song by Gabby Barrett, and then, without any pause or interruption at all, they went into a Kelsea Ballerini song. Cant they get fined for that?

He was being sarcastic, but as it turns out, he wasnt wrong.

Because Saginaw, Michigans WKCQ explained their stations rule and likely the same rule at other country stations:

We cannot play two females back to back. Not even Lady Antebellum or Little Big Town against another female, they wrote. I applaud their courage. Pop audiences are more welcoming and forgiving of their female singers. I kinda like that. The Country audience not so much. They accepted Taylor because their daughters loved her.

Fans are replying and retweeting and ranting, obviously. But even the stars are coming out to play.

Smells like white male bullshit, Kacey Musgraves responded, and why LONG ago I decided they cannot stop me.

And after Kelsea Ballerini read the tweet, she quipped, ALEXA PLAY LBT LADY A CARRIE MIRANDA KACEY CARLY GABBY MAREN INGRID RUNAWAY JUNE M&T LAUREN. ALL IN A ROW.

Alison makes her living loving country music. She's based in Chicago, but she's always leaving her heart in Nashville.

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This Telling Tweet Is Causing All Kinds of Trouble on Twitter - CMT.com

Throughout our endless scrolling through social media, zipping through our own cultivated bubble of todays culture for hours each day, there is often the nagging feeling that there is something fundamentally unhealthy about the whole exercise.

I know from experience that I can be sucked in to using social media in a way that is, if not unhealthy, then unsatisfying at the very least. Aimlessly flicking through a Twitter or Facebook feed every few minutes, magically expecting something of interest to come along. Rarely does it happen, instead becoming numb to moribund posts and the continued ruptures in our society.

To the point where frustration kicks in that Im making my day actively worse and chucking my phone in a drawer. Only to repeat the process a few hours later.

And my own experience with social media is but the tiniest sliver of the seeming potential of harm that can come from improperly calibrated social media use.

Barely a week goes by without social media being in the headlines, stories of bullying, "self-harm tips"and dark imagery so prolific that platforms cannot keep up with policing it.

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Twitter and Facebook have warped our minds in ways we dont understand - Telegraph.co.uk

Atkinson is talking about his approach to UNC basketball, which involves advanced analytics sometimes found only in the ranks of the NBA and sometimes found virtually nowhere else.

After an initial live watch of any given game, Atkinson, a data scientist by day, spends two to three hours re-watching and charting things like deflections and offensive efficiency on different offensive sets. He then spends another hour or two on data entry and charting before dropping relevant information to his Twitter followers, of which there are more than 5,000.

Hes been charting games for more than 15 years, gradually adding more things to keep track of and more ways to frame everything from the intricacies of Roy Williams half-court sets to the Tar Heels recent loss to Clemson.

I dont think Ill ever be able to analyze the game to Adrians detail, said Chris Gallo, whos collaborated with Atkinson on UNC basketball projects in the past. Its unparalleled.

Gallo (profiled last spring by the DTHs Chapel Fowler) is being modest. Hes the founder of Dadgum Box Scores, where he shares his own data-informed insights with his thousands of Twitter followers.

The impetus behind creating the account? Just a passion for UNC basketball a sentiment shared by everyone interviewed for this story.

Its never really been my goal to gain a bunch of followers, Gallo said. Im kind of just doing this for myself selfishly and also just sharing some things.

Gallo is one part of the Big Three of UNC basketball analytics, along with Atkinson and Bryan Ives (@awaytoworthy), an ESPN researcher-turned-producer who still makes time to tweet about UNC football, basketball and the ACC at large.

As a kid, Ives a Hornets fan would check the box scores in the paper, comparing Glen Rices nightly output with Michael Jordan (Rice finished third in points per game in 1996-97 behind Jordan and Karl Malone). While he says he never thought to pursue a career in sports analytics It just sort of found me he always liked numbers, an approach that shines through in his posts.

That Big Three helps make UNC basketball Twitter one of the most informed communities in college sports. But, it doesnt exactly help fans cope with a disappointing 8-8 campaign, one that has seen the Tar Heels drop four straight ACC games with their NCAA Tournament chances now seriously up in the air.

Theyre not good, Ives deadpans. Theyre not just like, Oh, were underachieving. Theyre a bad basketball team.

Thats why there are accounts like UNC Humor, run by Michael Hardison, to soften the blow. As a UNC undergraduate student, Hardison started a Facebook meme page with a friend. Soon, he made the move to Twitter, where hes amassed more than 26,000 followers.

Hardison has since pivoted to content focused on sports commentary and conversation, and sees his account as a great way to stay connected with the community. Recently, thats meant a lot of commiserating about a season that has tested the limits of Murphys Law. Everything that can go wrong an offense that has yet to gel, injuries to nearly every contributor at various points has.

After the way that this season has gone so far, Ive decided to transition my account from analysis to just memes, John Bauman, a DTH alum whose content has landed him more than a thousand followers, said soberly.

Still, there are silver linings, even for the most painfully invested fans.

Were very fortunate to tout (this season) as our worst year of the decade, Hardison said. UNC basketball is one of the top programs in the country, and I think years like this happen we dont really realize how good we have it.

Levels of optimism might vary most are dubious of the Tar Heels March Madness odds but levels of involvement do not. It begs the question: what other college programs can claim a Twitter fandom that matches UNCs?

Clemson football Twitter got a mention, as did Virginia, Duke, Kansas and Kentucky basketball. And Gallo gave a shout out to the growing infrastructure around Ivy League hoops, with Yale and Harvard grads angling to become the Billy Beane of basketball.

If you read some of their stuff, Gallo said, its kinda nuts.

But when it comes to a diversity of voices and perspectives many of which operate outside of a traditional media context there seems to be a consensus: the UNC hoops community is in pole position.

Theres a pretty good mix, Atkinson said. People like to consume basketball in different ways. Not everyone wants to dig deep into the numbers like I do, or break down Xs and Os. But Carolinas got a good mix of those, and then just super-fans who like watching the games and cheering.

I dont think theres many other college programs that have such an intense following, Bauman agreed. Some SB Nation team accounts sort of serve as the de facto gathering place for the fans, but it feels like UNC has so many different accounts and they all have different purposes and share different types of things.

Its a really cool little ecosystem to be a part of.

@ryantwilcox

@DTHSports | sports@dailytarheel.com

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'A really cool little ecosystem': A look at the world of UNC basketball Twitter - The Daily Tar Heel

On Monday night, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended the 2020 College Football National Championship game between the LSU Tigers and Clemson Tigers.

The game, played at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, featured LSU winning 42-25, capping off an undefeated season. But the real fireworks happened over on Twitter.

After journalist Timothy Burke (a former Daily Beast employee) posted a series of videos of actor Vince Vaughn chummily chatting with Trump and Melania in a skybox, accompanied by a cheeky caption, right-wing Twitters blue-checkmark brigade assembled, accusing lefty Twitterwith no evidence whatsoeverof being triggered by the episode.

There was the Washington Examiners Siraj Hashmi, who, mimicking a liberal, cracked that VINCE VAUGHN IS CANCELED. This refrain was echoed by right-wing columnist Rita Panahi, far-right blogger/troll/serial plagiarist Benny Johnson, former NRA mouthpiece (and worlds foremost Neil Young hater) Dana Loesch, and those at Ben Shapiros right-wing rag The Daily Wire, who ran an article claiming leftists were freaking out over Vaughns back-and-forth with Trump and Melania, while only citing numerous small left-wing accounts that went uncited in the piece; rather, the piece chose to cite the tweets of a number of prominent right-wing talking heads imagining how the left would react to the news.

Vaughn, the 49-year-old star of Wedding Crashers and Swingers, is a staunch libertarian, having said he voted for Rand Paul in the 2016 election and supported Ron Paul before him. This is not a secret. In a controversial British GQ interview, he also spoke up for the rights of gun owners and advocated for arming schoolteachers to prevent mass shootings.

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Vince Vaughn Gets Chummy With Trump and Melania - The Daily Beast

In between eating breakfast, bouncing her teething 10-month-old baby in her arms and fielding text messages from her Little Women group chat, Greta Gerwig stepped away from the madness on Monday to talk about the six nominations for her second feature film. Calling from Los Angeles, she also delved into the unseen forces that kept her out of the best directing category, an omission that seems to enrage Twitter far more than it angers her. Here are edited excerpts from our chat.

Congrats on the six nominations. Is any of the recognition specifically gratifying?

Honestly, best picture because it represents the collective whove been working on this movie. Its for every single person who contributed such great work. The Little Women text chain is blowing up.

What do you make of the fact that this is only the third best-picture nominee to be produced, written, directed by all women? (The previous two are Winters Bone and The Piano.) Was that intentional on your part?

In terms of the creative team I work with, I always want the very best people. It was the very best people. Im thrilled that they are women. I think part of it was I went to an all-women high school and an all-women college, so it just doesnt seem that strange to me that an entire team would be led by women. It makes perfect sense to me.

You were quoted by Vanity Fair about the hierarchy of stories: you believe that the top of that hierarchy in Hollywood is male violence, either man on man, or man on woman. Is this something youve always felt or something that has become more crystallized this year?

In truth, Im always thinking about the narratives we turn to again and again. What are the shape of stories, not just the content but also what do we consider worthy and why? I think its interesting what feels important. What Louisa May Alcott did with writing this is one of the first examples I can find about the lives of girls and women written in a way that gives it a lot of real estate. That act of creativity has long-lasting effects because I think stories are how we organize what we think is important.

What do you make of the fact that men were saying they wouldnt see a film called Little Women? That there were male critics out there begging men to go see the film.

I have talked to a lot of really wonderful men who have loved this movie and so I think I have a skewed data set. No man would just walk up to me and say, Hey, Im never going to see your movie. My data set indicates that men love Little Women and they cant wait to see it again. Honestly, Ive talked to so many men who have told me about watching it with their wives and their daughters. But many men have talked to me about watching it alone and crying, and that makes me feel really good. [Laughs]

In this year where female filmmakers were ignored in the directing category, has anyone presented you with any ideas that could actually change things in a way you think makes sense?

I think the thing that changes the narrative are sheer numbers. And the numbers are all moving in the right direction. According to the Annenberg study, this year is better than any other year. So you want to see the work acknowledged on the largest stage possible, and there is so much beautiful work done by female writers, producers, directors, creators. But in terms of it all moving in the right direction, thats all we can do: continue to make the work, make the work, make the work.

So is it just that the academy is lagging behind?

There have been great strides and weve got to keep going: keep writing, keep making, keep doing. Its all there.

Has it gotten any easier?

Making a film is something that is slightly impossible in any circumstance because its a giant undertaking, everything is unlikely, all signs point to this is a silly thing to do with your time and money. So any movie that gets made is against all odds, but I think that at this moment, there is just so much more of an effort on the part of the studios who are doing the hiring to hire women to be writers and directors and producers. And also, independent film functions differently and there is a real push by producers to make movies written and directed by women. And there is a ripple effect, because we are paying more attention to festivals, programmers and how they program, what the distributors buy and what they promote.

I keep going back to the work, the work is great and the audiences love it. Thats the whole ballgame and thats whats so important and what gives me so much hope.

Whats unfortunate though is what the Annenberg School often points out, which is that there are economic and commercial advantages that Oscar nominees receive from their nominations. Its not just an accolade.

Thats something that Ive thought about and weve talked about, and its incredibly real. Its going to have to move. It just has to move. When you look at something like Hustlers [directed by Lorene Scafaria] that was wildly successful on its own. If it cant get the bump from an award, which it should, its also real that its something audiences love. And that will eventually move the awards. I wish it would move all at once, but it is moving.

Continued here:

Greta Gerwig Isnt as Outraged as Twitter About Her Directing Snub - The New York Times

Mohammed Shami claimed three wickets while Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja picked two each as India beat Australia by 36 runs to level the three-match series 1-1 in the second ODI encounter at Rajkot.

Steve Smith was the top-scorer with 98 but that was not enough for the visitors.

Earlier, Shikhar Dhawans sublime 96-run knock and impactful half-centuries from KL Rahul and Virat Kohli helped India post a challenging 340 for six.

India looked good for a 350+ total but they lost quick wickets after Kohlis dismissal. It was then Lokesh Rahul, who took matters in his own hands and smashed a quickfire 80 to help India reach 340.

Heres how Twitter reacted:

Ticking boxes in all 3 departments today #TeamIndia , but the highlight has been execution ,with ball in hand , clinical #INDvAUS

subramani badrinath (@s_badrinath) January 17, 2020

Well done team India on making a come back. Batted superbly and backed up by the 5 bowlers #shikhar #virat #rahul #kuldeep #shami #saini

Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) January 17, 2020

Great win well done boys @SDhawan25 @imVkohli special inn by @klrahul11 followed by some brilliant bowling by @imjadeja @imkuldeep18 looking forward to see the final in banglore #AUSvIND #topcricket

Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) January 17, 2020

WonWonWonWonWonWonWonWon

Last eight results for India in the second match of a bilateral ODI home series after losing the first match.#INDvAUS

Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) January 17, 2020

High scoring game but a Good game..top quality knocks from some top quality batsman.. Manish Pandey set the tempo on the field and KL behind the stumps was exceptional #INDvAUS

Kartik Murali (@kartikmurali) January 17, 2020

Absolute class #KLRahul. Luxury to have a player who can bat anywhere.

Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) January 17, 2020

High scoring game but a Good game..top quality knocks from some top quality batsman.. Manish Pandey set the tempo on the field and KL behind the stumps was exceptional #INDvAUS

Kartik Murali (@kartikmurali) January 17, 2020

Flautist , Poet and most importantly smiling assassin well played @SDhawan25 bhai

Vikram Sathaye (@vikramsathaye) January 17, 2020

It is testament to the talent of KL Rahul that despite India's constant meddling with his position in the team and his role in the side he continues to excel. What a brilliant player. #INDvAUS

Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) January 17, 2020

India beat Australia by 36 runs in Rajkot #INDvAUSScorecard: https://t.co/4b4SCrQRbK pic.twitter.com/98xsioKNf4

The Cricket Times (@CricketTimesHQ) January 17, 2020

Clinical performance by #TeamIndia to beat Australia by 36 runs and level the series 1-1. Onto the decider in Bengaluru. #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/H808C2tbot

BCCI (@BCCI) January 17, 2020

India win by 36 runs in Rajkot and level the ODI series 1-1 #OneFamily #CricketMeriJaan #INDvAUS

Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) January 17, 2020

Gone! Bumrah cleans up the final wicket. complete a hard fought 36 run victory! A complete all-round performance by the Men in Blue. #INDvAUS #PlayBold

Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) January 17, 2020

1-1

Solid comeback from #TeamIndia to level the series with a 36-run win! #INDvAUS #OrangeArmy (: BCCI) pic.twitter.com/nsoYEmGiMs

SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) January 17, 2020

#TeamIndia's bowlers proved to be too hot to handle for as the home side registered a 36-run win in Rajkot to level the series 1-1

Off to the decider in Bengaluru #INDvAUS #ThisIsNewDelhi #DelhiCapitals pic.twitter.com/XOzSI2dQe1

Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) January 17, 2020

Man of the Match : KL Rahul #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/QaEpaLcPZ6

The Cricket Times (@CricketTimesHQ) January 17, 2020

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Twitter Reactions: All-round India beat Australia in Rajkot ODI to level the series... - The Cricket Times

President Trump's tweet in Farsi expressing support for Iranians protesting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already earned over 200,000 likes, making it the "most liked Persian tweet" in the social media giant's history, according to a leading think tank adviser.

On Saturday, protesters in the country called upon Khamenei to step down after Iran admitted to shooting down a commercial airliner on which dozens of Iranian citizens were traveling. That evening, the president sent out a tweet in Farsi, saying that he stands with their efforts.

To the brave and suffering Iranian people: I have stood with you since the beginning of my presidency and my government will continue to stand with you. We are following your protests closely. Your courage is inspiring, Trump wrote.

After just one hour, the tweet had received over 100,000 likes and has since more than doubled that number.

"This tweet by @realDonaldTrump with more than 100k likes is already the most liked Persian tweet in the history of Twitter," Saeed Ghasseminejad, senior adviser and financial economist at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, claimed. "A strong show of support by Iranians for Trump's Iran policy, something the MSM does not and will not report."

FDD is a policy institute based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on national security and foreign policy. Described as hawkish, the group is highly critical of Tehran's theocratic regime, and its members advise the Trump administration on its Iran policy. Born and raised in Iran, Ghasseminejad also teaches finance at Baruch College of New York.

The president's inner circle began celebrating the news shortly after, with Dan Scavino Jr., assistant to the president and director of the White House's social media operation, tweeting in Farsi, "Excellent."

Iran responded to the United States's recent killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani by firing off over a dozen ballistic missiles at two military bases housing American troops in Iraq. An Iranian missile took down a Boeing 737 carrying well over a hundred people from Tehran to Kyiv, Ukraine, killing everyone on board.

On Friday, Iran admitted to "unintentionally" shooting down the plane, blaming "human error" after originally claiming there was a mechanical problem, sparking the protests.

See the article here:

Trump sends 'the most liked Persian tweet' in history of Twitter - Washington Examiner

Like many artists today, Lizzo is an active user of social media. After all, much of her success was due to her lyrics being a popular meme on the app TikTok. However, it looks like one social media site will be seeing a little less of Lizzo. The singer recently announced that she has decided to take a break from Twitter, and she has a shocking reason for it.

On January 5, Lizzo shared with her Twitter followers that she was leaving the platform, though she did not specify how long this break was for.

Yeah I cant do this Twitter shit no more.. too many trolls, Lizzo tweeted.Ill be back when I feel like it.

A couple of days later, Lizzos Twitter account shared a picture of the lineup for the upcoming Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee with Lizzo as one of the headlining acts. However, the tweet stated that it was posted by Lizzos management team, not the singer herself.

Lizzo also went live on Instagram recently to talk more about her decision to leave Twitter. The singer stated that all social media is not created equal, alluding to the fact that she finds Twitter more difficult to be on.

Lizzo elaborated: I would love to be on Twitter cause I could connect with you people who positively support me not to mention spreading my own positive messages. But now Ive gotten to a point where Im not just dealing with Internet bullies, Im dealing with seeing a lot of negativity on the Internet dealing with everyoneEven from my well of positivity, I feel it, and it doesnt feel good.

Lizzo did not share what the trolls did on Twitter that made her quit the platform. However, one does not need to look far to understand what Lizzo might have been going through.

In early January, after tension between the United States and Iran heightened to new levels, some Twitter users began making jokes comparing Lizzo to a bomb that could be dropped on Iran. One particular tweet got over 22,000 retweets and 112,000 likes.

Of course, this was not the first time Lizzos body type became the subject of ridicule. Ever since she became popular in 2019, there has been no shortage of cruel memes about her on the internet.

Lizzo has also talked openly about the fact that she deals with a lot of haters on social media. For example, in an interview with Billboard, Lizzo shared that she often lets her work speaks for itself in proving doubters wrong.

Ive always had to turn haters into congratulators, she said. Thats the thing with my songs and my live shows: Ive never lost that mentality of I have to win you over.'

Even though Lizzo clearly tries to be strong when facing negativity, she has admitted that certain things do get to her sometimes.

Somebodys like well you know, you a big girl so you can never have short hair, you always gotta have big hair cause you a big girl and they say that lovingly but Im like thats a little mosquito bite, she told CBS. You dont even know its there but soon you look up and youre covered in mosquito bites.

Fortunately for fans who want to follow Lizzo, she is still active on other social media sites. She posts regularly on herInstagram account, and her Facebook and YouTube pages still get updated as well.

Read the rest here:

The Devastating Reason Why Lizzo Quit Twitter - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Janelle Mone appeared to come out as being non-binary in a tweet on Friday.

Mone, who stars in the upcoming film "Antebellum," shared a post on Twitter that read: "There is absolutely nothing better than living outside the gender binary."

The star's quote tweet included the hashtag "#IAmNonbinary."

Mone did not elaborate beyond the initial quote tweet, but several fans of the actress and musician responded with supportive messages.

Someone who identifies as non-binary expresses their gender identity as falling outside the categories of "male" or "female." They may define their gender as being somewhere between "male" or "female" or may identify differently, according to GLAAD.

In a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone, Mone came out as identifying as pansexual, which means "being attracted to all gender identities, or attracted to people regardless of gender," according to GLAAD.

Mone said in the interview that she previously identified as bisexual, "but then later I read about pansexuality and was like, 'Oh, these are things that I identify with too.' I'm open to learning more about who I am."

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Janelle Mone appeared to come out as non-binary in a Twitter post - INSIDER

The studio behind the highly-chaotic Overcooked series is teasing something new for the franchise, but it's hard to decipher exactly what.

Over on Team 17's official Twitter account, you'll see a mostly-blacked-out image with a small, splat-shaped window. The caption reads "Something new is coming to #Overcooked2," most likely suggesting some sort of DLC pack.

The tweet by Team 17 is incredibly vague, leaving open a huge window of possibility as to what could be coming to Overcooked 2.

Overcooked 2 is a wildly hectic co-op game where you're paired up with a friend in a kitchen, tasked with working together to push out plates of food at a breakneck pace. GamesRadar's Sam Loveridge had this to say about Overcooked 2 in her review:

"Everything's on fire, and there's meat everywhere. It's clear, as the timer starts blinking red furiously, that my sous chef and I might have to restart this level. Our burger making expedition hasn't exactly gone to plan, and it's mainly because we keep falling down chasms and getting caught out by the rotating plank of fry stations and plates. But that's just part of the manic, and regularly rather messy, fun of Overcooked 2."

The last DLC we got for Overcooked 2 was in December with the Winter Wonderland update, which blanketed the game with a festive layer of snow and icing.

We named Overcooked 2 one of the best local multiplayer Switch games to ruin your friendships with.

See original here:

Overcooked studio says "something's cooking" for Overcooked 2 in Twitter tease - GamesRadar