“As you know, l’m quite keen on comic books. Especially the ones about superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating.”
One of my favorite monologues comes from Kill Bill 2 (2004), the second and final entry into Quentin Tarantino’s uber violent revenge series. Obvious spoilers in the clip above, but it’s been 14 years so if you haven’t seen Kill Bill yet thats a you problem. Bill tackles superhero mythology and what it is that makes Superman his favorite; the character’s critique of mankind.
The Wrap – Alfonso Ribeiro is taking his fancy footwork to the courtroom. Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks on the sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” has filed lawsuits against the companies behind the video games Fortnite Battle Royale and the NBA 2K games, accusing them of lifting the dance, often referred to as the Carlton Dance, that he popularized on the series.
In a lawsuit filed against Epic Games in federal court in California on Monday, Ribeiro contends, “Through its unauthorized use of Ribeiro’s highly popular signature dance (‘The Dance’ or ‘Dance’) in its smash-hit, violent video game, Fortnite Battle Royale (‘Fortnite’), Epic has unfairly profited from exploiting Ribeiro’s protected creative expression and likeness and celebrity without his consent or authorization.”
According to the suit, Ribeiro created the dance in 1991 and first performed it in the “Fresh Prince” episode “Will’s Christmas Show,” and that more than two decades later, the dance “remains distinctive, immediately recognizable, and inextricably linked to Ribeiro’s identity, celebrity, and likeness.”
I don’t know why this is just becoming an issue now because people have been doing the Carlton dance for over 20 years. We literally call it “the Carlton Dance.”
So I don’t know it just seems like the statute of limitations on this probably passed around the same time Will Smith dropped Armageddon. The Carlton Dance is common law now. Normally I would say Alfonso Ribeiro has a better chance of being cast as the next Batman than winning this lawsuit, but it seems like the nerds behind Fortnite skipped class the day they were teaching intellectual property law.
“The suit says that Epic infringed on Ribeiro’s dance by selling it as an in-game purchase in Fortnite under the name “Fresh,” which players can buy to customize their avatars for use in the game.”
Pretty easy to connect those dots. People forget that Ribeiro was a legitimate bonafide professional dancer:
He just happened to also star in one of the most successful sitcoms of all time on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. So maybe the fact that Will Smith is the biggest movie star in the world while Alfonso is sitting there without a penny to pinch is starting to grind his gears. Monetize that intellectual property, Carlton.
I used to watch a TON of Fresh Prince in college because it was legit on every night at 2 am so it was the go-to. Let us never forget one of the greatest moments in Fresh Prince history when Will got hustled by some pool sharks and Uncle Phil (may he rest in peace) had to break out his 8-ball skills to save the day.
Goddamn, I can’t do long division anymore yet my brain is just filled with movie quotes and pop culture references from 20 years ago.
PS – I have been going down the Fresh Prince IMDB rabbit hole all morning and I cannot believe the timing of this discovery. We just dropped our first blog in The 300s Cinematic Universe Rewind this morning on Iron Man and scrolling through IMDB and what do I find? On the 1990s Iron Man cartoon Uncle Phil voiced the one and only War Machine. Unreal. That will win you a round of trivia at the bar one day guaranteed.
There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable bloggers, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to rewatch every move in the MCU and prepare the world for Avengers: Endgame.
Well thats what we’ve decided to do ladies and gentlemen. It’s cold, the sun sets at 3 o’clock and we all obsess over these movies anyways so The 300s staff will be tackling the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. We’ll be rewatching and blogging a refresher and a review of each movie all the way from Iron Man (2008) up to Captain Marvel (2019) ahead of Avengers 4, which drops on April 26th, 2019. We’ll be dropping one blog a week for every movie in the MCU and recording a podcast recapping each of the three Phase. By the end of it you’ll have either deleted my number from your phone or you’ll be salivating at the very thought of Avengers 4. We’re in the Endgame now…
Our first blog in The 300s Marvel Cinematic Rewind series drops tomorrow as Papa Giorgio reviews where this whole journey all began with Iron Man.
Yahoo – Calvin Johnson, and his old Detroit Lions teammate Rob Sims, are trying to get in the Michigan marijuana business. Their application for prequalification for a marijuana dispensary, grow operation and marijuana processing facility was denied however, in part because of an old traffic ticket Johnson said he forgot about…
According to Gray’s story, Johnson and Sims were denied prequalification status by the Michigan Medical Licensing Board because of some old, minor issues.
In Johnson’s case, it was an outstanding “failure to maintain lane” ticket from July 2014 in Atlanta. A spokesman for Johnson said he was unaware of the ticket and as soon as he heard about it, he flew to Georgia to take care of it…Still, they were denied.
“One is nine years old and one is four years old and there are warrants out,” board member and retired Michigan State Police officer Donald Bailey told Gray. “They’re minor, maybe even meaningless, but the problem is their response. We’re entering this highly regulated market. And if this is their response, that’s a problem for me.”
What a bunch of horse shit this is huh?
Whether you’re pro-weed or anti-weed, one thing you cannot deny is the absolutely absurd amount of money that it will generate. Not only for the business owners, but for the states that welcome these shops due to the crazy high taxes slapped onto every sale. I don’t know what it is in Michigan, but in Massachusetts it’s 17%. We still have the pearl clutching though, even as politicians plan on how to spend all that new money they’re suddenly flush with.
“Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said he hoped the the tax revenue from marijuana in Massachusetts would be worth the “human toll.”
Give me a break, Marty. Just look at the green Massachusetts has already raked in.
“Customers bought more than $4.8 million in marijuana in the first 12 days at the first two shops that opened for adult-use sales.”
And that’s with just two stores open. Insane.
Back to Calvin Johnson’s case though, this has been a problem for a lot of people trying to get into the business and it’s hard to ignore the hypocrisy of it all. The number of well off entrepreneurs with some money that are going to make even more money selling a product that tons of people got locked up for using and are are now unable to sell said product (because of those arrests) now that it’s actually legal is wild.
Now I’m not going to shed any tears for Calvin Johnson seeing as the guy made over $100 Million in his football career, but it does make you think about who will be getting shafted trying to get into the gold rush that will be recreational marijuana.
We’ve been looking for a fulfillment partner for a while and we finally have one so The 300s Store is ready to roll for the holidays. You need 300s t-shirts? We got you. YUCK stickers? We got you. Crewnecks? Hoodies? Phone cases? A Time Lord CLOCK?? We. Got. You. So check out The 300s Store and get every Christmas gift you’ll ever need!
So Robert Williams is finally starting to get some burn off the bench with Al Horford out and he has ran with that opportunity. The Time Lord has been rewarding Mattes and I for all the hype pieces we wrote before he even clocked into an NBA game. So we decided now was the perfect time for Bob to get his own shirt. Robert Williams’ time is now. The Time Lord shirts are here and we’ll be taking pre-orders on them starting today!
Here’s the backstory on the Time Lord nickname via MassLive if you aren’t constantly on Celtics Twitter:
“The Celtics, of course, selected Williams at No. 27. When Williams was late for a conference call and absent for the team’s first Summer League practice, the media reaction was intense.
“I’m irony poisoned, but to me it was hilarious,” Hebert said. “Manny Ramirez is the first athlete I loved and it was very Manny. And like, local writers and talk-radio people overreacted, and the whole point of Weird Celtics Twitter is to make fun of them and media in general being too uptight. …
So (we) started joking that he wasn’t late, he was operating on a different timeline concurrent to the one we are in, as evidenced by the fact that I knew he was a Celtic two years before he was a Celtic. And we would do it with people taking themselves really seriously and they’d get very mad at us for thinking they were too uptight. So from there he became a T I M E L O R D, like the characters in Doctor Who whose time travel can tie together terrible holes in the plot of a shoddy script.”
So is Kyrie Irving a Jedi? It would explain the insane handle and ball control in traffic; dude’s been using the force this whole time. It would also explain his overly elaborate and theatrical style of speaking. Kyrie is simply stuffed to the gills with midichlorians.
ESPN – Whichever team signs free-agent reliever Adam Ottavino will have a confident pitcher. Assessing the state of today’s game on MLB’s Statcast podcast, the 33-year-old right-hander said that Babe Ruth couldn’t keep up.
“I had an argument with a coach in Triple-A about Babe Ruth’s effectiveness in today’s game,” Ottavino said. “I said, ‘Babe Ruth, with that swing, swinging that bat, I got him hitting .140 with eight homers.’
“He was like, ‘Are you nuts? Babe Ruth would hit .370 with 60 homers,’ and I’m like, ‘I would strike Babe Ruth out every time.’
“I’m not trying to disrespect him, you know, rest in peace, you know, shoutout to Babe Ruth. But it was a different game. I mean, the guy ate hot dogs and drank beer and did whatever he did. It was just a different game.”
As everyone knows, Babe Ruth is regarded as the greatest player in the history of baseball. He had a career batting average of .342 with 714 home runs and is the all-time leader in slugging % at .690 and OPS at 1.164. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.
But that was playing against guys that worked in factories and delivered milk in the morning. Not to mention he played against white guys and white guys only. Ruth retired 12 years before Jackie Robinson made his major league debut. So there are a lot of arguments to be made if you want to poke some holes in the legend that is Babe Ruth.
Babe Ruth played the cards he was dealt though and absolutely dominated the competition that was put in front of him for 22 years. Can’t knock the hustle. But if he played today?
6’2″ and north of 250 pounds? Yea that guy might struggle against hyper-specialized relievers throwing 100 mph on the black.
It’s impossible to really know how he would fare in today’s game. You know what is a much more fun argument? How would players from today fare in Babe Ruth’s era? In any sport really. Imagine LeBron James playing in the 1950s against a bunch of 5’11” dudes in short shorts? He would score 80 points a night without even breaking a sweat.
Leave it to a guy from New York who went to school in Boston to make national headlines for spitting the truth.
We’re quickly nearing the end of December, which means 2018 is already coming to a close somehow. Naturally, that means it’s time for year end lists! With everyone on the internet posting Spotify analytics of what they listened to all year long I figured it was only appropriate to break down the best music of the year…according to me. Full disclosure, this list definitely skews heavier into hip hop than your traditional year end best of list, but hey we started #RushHourRap so what else did you expect? Without further ado, I give you my Top 5 Albums of 2018.
J Cole – KOD
One of the year’s truly most unexpected and experimental heaters of an album. J. Cole dropped “KOD” from the cloud’s, which more and more artists are doing these days, and I cannot believe how Cole continues to hit it out of the park. Kids on Drugs, King Overdose, and Kill Our Demons are the three different meanings of that album title, according to Cole himself.
In succession he has released “Cole World: The Sideline Story,” “Born Sinner,” “2014 Forest Hills Drive,” “4 Your Eyez Only,” and now “KOD.” Mind you, these FIVE albums came directly on the heels of “Friday Night Lights” and “The Warmup,” which in my opinion is the greatest mixtape ever released not named “Da Drought 3.”
Granted a couple of the songs came dangerously close to overkill, which only the likes of Fall Out Boy and Dane Cook have seen as the NBA Playoffs ABUSED the usage of “KOD” in commercials.
Seriously, remember how badly MLB drove that 2007 Dane Cook commercial into the ground?
Fittingly released on 4/20, this is Cole’s first foray into a legitimate concept album as the entire collection is about drug abuse, addiction, greed, and our own demons. It’s a bit of a paradox as “KOD” sounds like an album promoting the typical rap pillars (money, women, drugs), while actually doing the opposite as Cole slips in some mature tidbits of advice for those struggling with these vices.
Without the drugs I want you be comfortable in your skin I know you so I know you still keep a lot of shit in You running from yourself and you buying product again I know you say it helps and no I’m not trying to offend But I know depression and drug addiction don’t blend
I understand this message is not the coolest to say But if you down to try it I know of a better way Meditate
Best Track: FRIENDS
The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
This really is an incredible album coming out at the perfect time. With anyone and everyone suffering from anxiety, depression, and general insecurity, a lot of people blame social media. Everyone is fronting, showing you the highlights of their lives so you end up scrolling through news feeds of hundreds of people you “know” seemingly doing better than you, looking better than you, making more money than you. It’s easy to see how that can screw with your head. “Modernity has failed us” is one of the most quotable, appropriate lyrics I’ve heard in a long time. These technological advancements that were meant to bring us all closer together have ironically ended up making us feel more isolated than ever before. The 1975 have always been out there, experimental, and straight up weird at times, but more often than not it just works. This album is no exception as it truly is a genre-bending collection of music featuring tracks from pop to rock to jazz to electronica and everything in between.
“Brief Inquiry is a vivid and panoramic record about what it means to be alive right now, in all its terror and glory. Its explorations of technology-induced numbness put into relief the human joy of reconnecting to another person, or maybe just oneself.”
Best Track: Love It If We Made It
Kanye West & Kid Cudi – Kids See Ghosts
Kanye has had a whirlwind year of borderline schizophrenic behavior primarily around his thoughts on politics and his support of a polarizing president. After misguided outbursts on TMZ, the bizarre sit down/press conference with Trump, and his trademark rants on Twitter it seems like Yeezy finally realized it may be best to just sit the next few plays out.
This didn’t slow down his music production though as Kanye dropped 2 albums this year, with a third one due in November that was recently delayed. The first album he released this year, “ye,” was one that despite mixed reviews I really enjoyed. “Ye” is admittedly a weird Kanye album made for Kanye stans. If you’re not a huge Kanye guy I can see how you’d trash it. I think the biggest shortcoming of that album is that it seems more like a mixtape without any rhyme or reason as to why these songs were selected and put together in the first place. But his second album of the year was a collaboration with old friend Kid Cudi called “KIDS SEE GHOSTS.” Kanye and Cudi go way back having worked together on a number of hits over the years, including All of the Lights, Erase Me, and Welcome to Heartbreak. It’s a fascinating duet as both Kanye and Cudi have publicly struggled with depression and overall mental health with Cudi actually checking himself into rehab. So seeing these two rap about the issues that have plagued them over the years is definitely worth a listen. While this isn’t “Watch the Throne”it’s definitely an awesome collab album with Cudi’s trademark melancholy rhymes helping to level out Kanye’s outlandishness.
“For fans who’ve watched Cudi and Kanye’s relationship evolve from 2008 — from mentor and protégé to adversaries to equals — the announcement of the pair’s joint effort was supposed to be a dream-team rap fantasy come true. In the aftermath of ye, an album currently atop the Billboard 200 but also a mid-year front runner for most polarizing project of 2018, Kids See Ghosts acts as a bewildered fan’s contextual roadmap, providing some clarity for ye and giving an update on Cudi’s mental state.”
Best Track: Reborn
Mac Miller – Swimming
Different than anything Mac Miller had ever put out before, Swimming is a collection of dark, depressing songs wrapped in slow, soft ballads. It’s an album that deals with Mac’s struggle with drugs, loneliness, and love. If it sounds like a movie you’ve already seen thats because it is. Vice points out:
“It’s lucid and lush, brushed with rich sounds assembled using the help of Jon Brion, the composer of Eternal Sunshine and The Spotless Mind, one of Miller’s favorite films.”
It’s an incredibly haunting album in hindsight considering Mac overdosed just a month after its release. RIP Mac. Vice continues;
“it’s a dark record wrapped in light and airy packaging, where its contents are someone looking for freedom in becoming resigned to their sadness, hoping they will soon overcome it—to be better.”
Best Track: Self Care
Kyle – Light of Mine
I know this one is coming out of left field as most of you have probably never heard a Kyle song aside from his collab with Lil Yachty on “I Spy” that popped over the summer. But this is an artist who has quietly and methodically been putting out incredible work for the past 5 years across 3 records. After various mixtapes and indy work, “Light of Mine” is his debut studio album. The self dubbed “beautiful loser,” Kyle raps about everything from video games, and his struggles with women, to growing up as an outcast in the age of hyper-emphasized popularity with social media. “Light of Mine” takes it to another level that is reminiscent of “Thank Me Later” Drake as Kyle croons over incredibly catchy beats with a few A-list features (2 Chainz, Khalid) thrown in for good measure.
2016 hit me like a bag o’ bricks (yup) 2017 switched up, like ooh it’s lit (it’s lit) I nearly had a mental breakdown And eight months later had a hit I guess life is like box a chocolates, huh You never know what you finna get
Best Track: Ups & Downs
That’s it. That’s the Top 5 albums of the year as determined by me. Love it? Hate it? Want me to curate an entire playlist for the soundtrack to your life? Tweet @the300sboston and let me know what you think.
With pretty much everyone of note sitting last night (Kyrie, Hayward, and Horford) there were plenty of minutes to go around. Enter Robert Williams AKA Time Lord, who got his first taste of legit NBA time with 26 minutes last night and boy did he put on a show. The Time Lord finished with 7 points and 11 rebounds, but for a young, raw player he was a force on the glass. Before last night Williams hadn’t played more than 8 minutes in any game this year so it was great to get an extended look at the 1st round pick. He was even a couple of inches away from being No. 1 on SportsCenter as he muffed an alley oop attempt. The highlight of the night for my young neighbor in Brighton though was this absolutely devastating block of arguably the best player in the game Anthony Davis.
What a block by Robert Williams on Anthony Davis 👀#Celtics ☘️
Davis still finished with 41 points so nobody was shutting AD down, but that block was Williams making a statement. He actually had 3 blocks on the night as he made his presence known.
The best thing about the Robert Williams block of Anthony Davis may be that the rookie didn’t go for the initial hesitation fake. That’s a basketball instinct thing, and it speaks very well of the kid.
The 300s 