Month: July 2024

Categories
Rock Daypop

‘(Rotten Apples) The Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits’ to be released on vinyl for the first time

The Smashing Pumpkins band perform at Beale Street music festival. Memphis^ Tennessee USA - 04-30-2022

The Smashing Pumpkins are bringing their celebrated greatest hits compilation ‘(Rotten Apples) The Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits’ to vinyl for the first time.

(Rotten Apples) The Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits spans the first decade+ of Grammy award-winning rock band’s discography, and features the songs “Today,” “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “Cherub Rock,” “1979,” “Ava Adore,” and more. The collection also features “Drown” from the soundtrack of Cameron Crowe’s Singles; “Eye” from the soundtrack of David Lynch’s Lost Highway, and the Pumpkins’ cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and “Untitled” — the last song recorded by founding Pumpkins Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin until their reunion in 2018.

The Smashing Pumpkins, alongside new guitarist Kiki Wong, are touring North America with Green Day this summer ahead of headlining dates in the summer and fall, including a performance at Montreal’s Osheaga 2024.

The new 2-LP release of (Rotten Apples) The Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits will be available on 180-gram black vinyl and limited edition color variants pressed on standard weight or 180-gram wax.   Pre-order (Rotten Apples) The Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits, dropping August 9, 2024 – here.

Editorial credit: L Paul Mann / Shutterstock.com

Categories
News Daypop

Junior Navy sailor attempted to access President Biden’s restricted medical records

Navy seal^ emblem^ crest or plaque isolated on white background

The U.S. Navy confirmed to CBS News that a junior Navy sailor attempted to access the restricted medical records of President Joe Biden from a military medical database three times in February, but was unable to do so.  The sailor, whose name the Navy will not disclose, was administratively disciplined after an investigation into the attempted breach ended in late April.

A U.S. official told ABC News that the incident took place on Feb. 23, and the unidentified sailor searched “Joseph Biden” three times. The sailor accessed the Genesis Medical Health System — the database for the military medical system, but “he did not pull up the right Joe Biden.” Navy Commander Tim Hawkins, said in a statement: “The MHS Genesis system is a secure health system and at no time was the President’s personal information compromised.”

The person responsible for the breach is a junior enlisted sailor serving in the Navy’s hospital corps and is based at Fort Belvoir, in Virginia, a major medical hub.  The U.S. Navy said in a statement: “On February 26, 2024, Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Fort Belvoir was notified of an unauthorized access to medical records by an active-duty service member. A Sailor assigned to NMRTC Fort Belvoir searched the name ‘Joseph Biden’ in MHS Genesis, the Military Health System’s electronic health record, out of curiosity. A co-worker reported the Sailor’s breach of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).”

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service launched an investigation Feb. 26; during the probe, the sailor admitted he looked up the president’s name “out of curiosity.” The investigation concluded on April 24, and according to the official, determined the sailor “never reached the president’s medical record” and could not have reached it by searching the Genesis system because the president’s medical record is restricted.

The president was informed about the sailor’s attempts to access his medical records within hours of White House staff being notified about the attempted breach by the Defense Department.   Biden underwent his physical on Feb. 28, two days after this investigation began. The White House official said the physical was “previously planned and was not impacted by this incident.” The White House released a summary of the physical several hours later, with the president deemed “fit for duty” by his doctor after the physical that lasted about two and a half hours. Kevin O’Connor, physician to the president, said in a memo released the day of the physical: “The president feels well and this year’s physical identified no new concerns. He continues to be fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”

Editorial credit: Anton Caballero / Shutterstock.com

Categories
Sports Daypop

Daniil Medvedev defeats World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in Wimbledon quarterfinals

Daniil Medvedev during quarterfinal round at the US Open Championships at Billie Jean King Tennis Center in New York on September 6^ 2023

No. 5 seeded Daniil Medvedev eliminated World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in a five-set, 4 hour match in Tuesday’s quarterfinals match at Wimbledon, winning 6–7, 6–4, 7–6, 2–6, 6–3.

Sinner fired 17 aces, converted 3 of 6 break points and totaled 61 winners and 45 unforced errors in Tuesday’s loss, and throughout the match he appeared unwell (even leaving the court for a medical assessment in the third set). Medvedev dropped the first set before roaring back in the victory over Sinner on Centre Court.

Russia’s Medvedev will play at the semifinals for the second year in a row at Wimbledon, with only one major title to his name, the 2021 U.S. Open title. Medvedev has played in three Australian Open finals, including against Sinner at the Australian Open this year; he said on the ESPN broadcast: “It is very tough because I could feel he wasn’t moving that well. You can’t beat Jannik easy. At one moment he was not feeling good, but I knew that could change. You want to make him suffer a bit more — in a good way — and at the same time you know at one point he is going to think he can’t run anymore and will go full power and that is what he did. He had set points to win the third set. In a way I would have preferred to not have this situation, but everything is well when it ends well, so I’m pretty happy.”

Medvedev will meet No. 3 seeded Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in the semifinals; Alcaraz beat No. 12 Tommy Paul of the United States 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.  The Spaniard is the defending champion, and previously beat Medvedev in a Wimbledon 2023 semifinal.

Wimbledon quarterfinal coverage will resume at 8 a.m. EDT Wednesday on ESPN. No. 2 Novak Djokovic of Serbia will face No. 9 Alex de Minaur of Australia in the first men’s semifinal; while No. 12 Taylor Fritz of the United States will take on No. 25 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in the final men’s quarterfinal.

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

Categories
Sports Daypop

Spain’s Lamine Yamal, 16, becomes youngest scorer in Euro history with goal vs. France

Lamine Yamal during the LaLiga EA Sports match between FC Barcelona and UD Almeria at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Barcelona^ Spain. Barcelona^ Spain. 20th Dec^ 2023

Spain’s Lamine Yamal became the youngest player to ever score at a men’s European Championship on Tuesday, with a goal against France in their semifinal match.

The 16-year-old Yamal scored in the 21st minute, collecting the ball in the final third and setting himself up for a left-footed shot that curled above France goalkeeper Mike Maignan into the top left corner off the inside of the post, into the back of the net. Yamal turns 17 on July 13th.

Yamal’s goal broke a record held by the previous youngest scorer, Switzerland’s Johan Vonlathen. Vonlathen was 18 years and 141 days old when he scored a goal against France. Vonlathen’s goal came just four days after England’s Wayne Rooney had set the youngest goal-scorer record.

Yamal had already become the youngest player to ever feature at a Euro at 16 years and 338 days old when he took the field for Spain’s Group B win over Croatia. The Barcelona star has played a key role for Spain throughout Euro 2024, appearing in all six of Spain’s games so far, starting in five of them. He had an assist in the first game of the tournament against Croatia and picked up assists in each of Spain’s first two knockout round games. Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said of Yamal after the Croatia game: “He just keeps on breaking records. He’s growing, maturing and getting better every day. He’s on the path to be a great player, but he’s very young and we have to be patient with him.”

Yamal’s goal tied the semifinal game at 1-1; not long after Yamal scored, France defender Jules Kounde deflected a ball inside the box by Dani Olmo into the goal to give Spain a 2-1 lead.

Editorial credit: Christian Bertrand / Shutterstock.com

Categories
Country Daypop

Hardy to livestream headlining set from Country Concert Festival in Fort Loramie, Ohio

Hardy performs in concert during the "Can't Say I Ain't Country" Tour on July 20^ 2019 at Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh^ New York.

HARDY will livestream his first headlining set from the Country Concert Festival in Fort Loramie, OH, on Saturday, July 13, via Veeps.com. The performance takes place one day after the release of HARDY’s forthcoming album “Quit!!” out July 12th on Big Loud Rock, with fans able to tune in to this live-only streaming event for free.  This year’s Country Concert Festival marks his first time HARDY will be taking the stage as a headliner.

Hardy’s highly anticipated new album Quit!! features singles “Six Feet Under (Caleigh’s Song),” dedicated to his wife; “Rockstar,” currently climbing rock radio; “Psycho,” and “Jim Bob,” as well as collaborations with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, and Knox. Recorded with renowned producer Joey Moi, Quit!! is Hardy’s first full album embracing his fiery rock sound.

Head to Veeps.com for more information on the livestream performance.

Editorial credit: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

Categories
Country Daypop

Take a listen to George Strait’s single ‘The Little Things’

George Strait at the Musicares Person of the Year honoring Tom Petty at Los Angeles Convention Center on February 10^ 2017 in Los Angeles^ CA

George Strait recently dropped his new track ‘The Little Things’, taken from his upcoming 31st studio album ‘Cowboys and Dreamers‘ set to drop on September 6, 2024. ‘Cowboys and Dreamers’ is the follow-up album to ‘Honky Tonk Time Machine’, which was Strait’s 27th number 1 album on the Billboard Country charts. That album featured ‘Honky Tonk Hall of Fame’ with Chris Stapleton, and a cover of Waylon Jennings’ “Waymore’s Blues”.

The song, written by Strait along with Monty Criswell and Bubba Strait, is produced by Strait with Chuck Ainlay and Tony Brown. ‘The Little Things’ is the second track to be unveiled from ‘Cowboys and Dreamers’ following ‘MIA Down in MIA’.

Take a listen to the song ‘The Little Things’: here.

Editorial credit: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

Categories
Entertainment Daypop

Gypsy Rose Blanchard announces pregnancy, expecting first child with boyfriend Ken Urker

pregnant woman holding her belly in silhouette/ blue background.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the woman who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her involvement in the killing of her abusive mother Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard in 2015, announced on Tuesday that she is expecting her first child with her boyfriend, Ken Urker, 31. Blanchard was released from prison in December 2023 after serving eight years of her sentence, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for her role in the murder of her mother, who abused her for years via Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

The 32-year-old Blanchard shared the pregnancy news in a video titled “I’m Pregnant, My Journey So Far” posted on her YouTube channel on Tuesday, July 9:  “I know the rumors have been flying around for quite some time now, and I’m happy to announce that I am 11 weeks pregnant. Ken and I are expecting our very first child come January of 2025 … This was not planned at all, it was completely unexpected, but we’re both very excited to take on this new journey of parenthood.”  Blanchard added: “I know that there are going to be people who feel like I’m not ready to be a mother, and I don’t know if anyone’s really ready to be a mother. I don’t know anybody that said, ‘Okay, I’m ready, I’m doing this … All the things that I wanted in a mother, I want to give to this baby. I am a mother now, I am happy, and I just want to be a good mother for my child. I want to be everything my mother wasn’t.”

Blanchard and Urker first connected as pen pals while Blanchard was still in prison. Urker proposed in 2018, however their relationship at the time ended years prior to her 2023 prison release. Blanchard later married her ex-husband, Ryan Anderson, while still in prison.  However following her release from jail and subsequent split from Anderson in March, Blanchard and Urker reconnected. Blanchard told PEOPLE in May: “Ken and I reconnected as friends. It wasn’t like, jump out of a marriage and then let me meet up with you, and boom, we’re in a relationship. We had kept a friendship for the longest time. He was in a relationship. I was with Ryan, and so we were living different lives with respect to our partners, a ‘wish you the best’ type of thing.” After her marriage to Anderson fell apart, Blanchard said she reached out to Urker: “It wasn’t until I knew that my marriage was over that I was like, ‘I would like to see you and let’s hang out because we never got to hang out before when I was in prison’. I would say that Ken is my first love because that’s when I honestly felt like a mature love. It wasn’t based off of a fantasy. It was actually based on a connection that two people have for each other.”

Blanchard’s story was explored in the Lifetime docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, released in January.  She is currently appearing in  Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, which airs Mondays at 9/8c on Lifetime.

Editorial credit: Natalia Deriabina / Shutterstock.com

Categories
News Daypop

Gypsy Rose Blanchard announces pregnancy, expecting first child with boyfriend Ken Urker

pregnant woman holding her belly in silhouette/ blue background.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the woman who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her involvement in the killing of her abusive mother Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard in 2015, announced on Tuesday that she is expecting her first child with her boyfriend, Ken Urker, 31. Blanchard was released from prison in December 2023 after serving eight years of her sentence, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for her role in the murder of her mother, who abused her for years via Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

The 32-year-old Blanchard shared the pregnancy news in a video titled “I’m Pregnant, My Journey So Far” posted on her YouTube channel on Tuesday, July 9:  “I know the rumors have been flying around for quite some time now, and I’m happy to announce that I am 11 weeks pregnant. Ken and I are expecting our very first child come January of 2025 … This was not planned at all, it was completely unexpected, but we’re both very excited to take on this new journey of parenthood.”  Blanchard added: “I know that there are going to be people who feel like I’m not ready to be a mother, and I don’t know if anyone’s really ready to be a mother. I don’t know anybody that said, ‘Okay, I’m ready, I’m doing this … All the things that I wanted in a mother, I want to give to this baby. I am a mother now, I am happy, and I just want to be a good mother for my child. I want to be everything my mother wasn’t.”

Blanchard and Urker first connected as pen pals while Blanchard was still in prison. Urker proposed in 2018, however their relationship at the time ended years prior to her 2023 prison release. Blanchard later married her ex-husband, Ryan Anderson, while still in prison.  However following her release from jail and subsequent split from Anderson in March, Blanchard and Urker reconnected. Blanchard told PEOPLE in May: “Ken and I reconnected as friends. It wasn’t like, jump out of a marriage and then let me meet up with you, and boom, we’re in a relationship. We had kept a friendship for the longest time. He was in a relationship. I was with Ryan, and so we were living different lives with respect to our partners, a ‘wish you the best’ type of thing.” After her marriage to Anderson fell apart, Blanchard said she reached out to Urker: “It wasn’t until I knew that my marriage was over that I was like, ‘I would like to see you and let’s hang out because we never got to hang out before when I was in prison’. I would say that Ken is my first love because that’s when I honestly felt like a mature love. It wasn’t based off of a fantasy. It was actually based on a connection that two people have for each other.”

Blanchard’s story was explored in the Lifetime docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, released in January.  She is currently appearing in  Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, which airs Mondays at 9/8c on Lifetime.

Editorial credit: Natalia Deriabina / Shutterstock.com

Categories
Entertainment Daypop

See Tom Hanks, Robin Wright ‘de-aged’ in trailer for new Robert Zemeckis film ‘Here’

Tom Hanks attends New York premiere of Asteroid City at Alice Tully Hall on June 13^ 2023

Sony Pictures shared a trailer for the movie ‘Here,’ featuring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright.   The film adaptation of the Richard McGuire graphic novel of the same name is written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, who previously collaborated with Hanks and Wright on the 1994 Oscar-winning film, Forrest Gump.  “Here” also marks the sixth collaboration between director Zemeckis and Hanks.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Hanks, 67, and Wright, 58,  are de-aged in the movie through the generative AI-driven tool called Metaphysic Live. Zemeckis explained last year that “With ‘Here’, the film simply wouldn’t work without our actors seamlessly transforming into younger versions of themselves. It only works because the performances are so good. Both Tom and Robin understood instantly that, ‘Okay, we have to go back and channel what we were like 50 years ago or 40 years ago, and we have to bring that energy, that kind of posture, and even raise our voices higher. That kind of thing.”

Per an official film synopsis, ‘Here’ tells the story of “multiple families and the special place they inhabit,” traveling through generations and “capturing the human experience in its purest form.”  The film tells the century-long story of a single house and all the different people who lived there, with the camera siting at a fixed angle for the entire 104-minute duration without moving.

The trailer features Hanks and Wright depicted as teenagers and at different ages, all the way into their 80s, with the cast also including Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, Michelle Dockery, Gwilym Lee, David Fynn and Ophelia Lovibond.

HERE opens in theaters Nov. 15; check out the trailer at this link.

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

Categories
Rock Daypop

Megadeth to embark on ‘Destroy All Enemies’ North American tour

Dave Mustaine of Megadeth performing at Monster Energy Rock Off festival - 07.10.2016 - Turkey / Istanbul

Megadeth are coming back to North America later this summer with their ‘Destroy All Enemies’ tour, following their ‘Crush The World’ Tour and run of European festivals.

The 34-date ‘Destroy All Enemies’ tour, featuring special guests Mudvayne and All That Remains, kicks off on August 2nd in Rogers, Arkansas with stops including two shows in Los Angeles, as well as dates in Las Vegas, Boston, St. Louis, and more before with special guests Mudvayne and All That Remains, kicks off on August 2nd in Rogers, Arkansas before wrapping in Nashville, Tennessee on September 28th.

Frontman Dave Mustaine said of the upcoming run of dates: “We are all playing tight, and that has made it possible for me to really focus on solos and singing, we are playing more songs than ever before, and we are closer to each other, onstage AND off. I’m excited to see Mudvayne, and All That Remains. Join us as we DESTROY ALL ENEMIES.”

Tickets for the ‘Destroy All Enemies’ tour are available now via Ticketmaster.

Editorial credit: bahadir aydin / Shutterstock.com