New Releases

WATCH: Lindsey Stirling on Her New Album and Epic Music Videos

The musician and performer talks to Jordan Edwards and Demi Ramos about 'Duality'

Heather Koepp/Courtesy of the Artist

It feels like Lindsey Stirling is living her dream. From an audience favorite on America's Got Talent to filling large Las Vegas theaters, she's at the top of her game. She's admired by adults and small children, and her social media following totals more than 20 million.

Above all of this, she remains present and grounded. With a smile on her face, she's continuously developing new songs, visuals, and choreography. Stirling loves to create.

Her latest album, Duality (out 6/14), is cinematic and a little dark, the kind of album that needs to be listened to at full volume. It includes "Inner Gold," a collaboration with Royal & Serpent and "Evil Twin," an instrumental with pounding drums and a sweeping refrain.

Watch Stirling talk to Jordan Edwards and Demi Ramos about the making of Duality, producing her incredible music videos, and being grateful for her success.

Lindsey Stirling Returns! | It's Real with Jordan and Demi

For more from Lindsey Stirling, follow her on Instagram and TikTok.

Jordan Edwards/Popdust

For the first time, an episode of It's Real with Jordan and Demi features two unrelated guests. Madilyn Bailey and Rachel Grae are both singer-songwriters, but that's where the similarities end.

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Sydney Takeshta/Courtesy of the Artist

Each holiday season, we're bombarded with new Christmas albums. There's the country guy you forgot about, that one singer from the '80s your mom likes, and a Broadway person that no one really knows. The songs probably include a heartfelt "White Christmas" and an uninspired "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."

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TV News

Spoken Word Poet Brandon Leake Just Won "America's Got Talent"—Does America Love Poetry?

Brandon Leake is a powerful ambassador for an art form that has never had such a mainstream platform

Screenshot of Brandon Leake / America's Got TalentAmerica's Got Talent / YouTube.com

When you think of poetry, what comes to mind?

Maybe it's Robert Frost making trivial choices sound important, or Emily Dickinson giving voice to alienation, or Edgar Allan Poe writing his creepy love to his so-much-younger cousin/wife.

Generally speaking—to the extent we think about poetry at all—Americans tend to think of it as something a handful of dead people did in order to make our high school English classes slightly more dull and confusing. But there is another strain of poetry that doesn't feel so buried in the past–a form that was pioneered by people who are still alive and that's still thriving.

Golden Buzzer: Brandon Leake Makes AGT History With Powerful Poetry - America's Got Talent 2020www.youtube.com

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Cats are polarizing. Non-cat people vehemently despise the entire species, readily listing the wrongs done to them and loved ones by felines. Meanwhile, cat people feel just as strongly, and are ready to tell you all the ways their cat is smarter, better, prettier, and more fun to be around than you'll ever be. But whether you love them or hate them, you have to admit there isn't anything much better than a funny cat video. So you don't have to waste your time filtering all the non-cat content out of your newsfeed, we've compiled a list of our favorite funny cat videos.

Cat Jump Fail with Music: Sail by AWOLNATION

First of all, "Sail" by AWOLNATION is an absolute banger under any circumstances. Second of all, this sneaky boi looks like he'll set your house on fire and laugh while it burns. Third, and finally, what an incredibly bad jump.

Cats vs Zombies

We love a high budget production, talented feline actors, and tasteful machine gun use. Most of all, we love cats in funny little vests committing graphic acts of violence. We hope the creator of this video has found the help he needs.

Official Video: Cat Bath Freak Out -Tigger the cat says 'NO!' to bath

This cat is not happy about bath time, and eerily screams "NO!" over and over again. Inexplicably, instead of calling an exorcist, the owners of the cat continue to laugh, ignoring the fact that Lucifer himself is emerging from the mouth of their furry friend.

Surprised Kitty (Original)

This video of a small kitten throwing it's paws up in surprise has gained almost 80 million views on Youtube. We have to wonder if the person to post this now famous 30 second clip had any idea of the cultural impact their kitten would have.

Boxing cat

While this boxing cat's behavior almost certainly indicates a feline neurological disorder and not an understanding of human sports concrete enough to generate imitation, it's pretty funny anyway. We're pretty sure he'd lose a boxing match though, he's pretty small.

The Savitsky Cats: Super Trained Cats Perform Exciting Routine - America's Got Talent 2018

We aren't sure if these talented cats are funny or just disturbing, but either way they're undeniably entertaining. And fluffy. Look at their little paws. We'd like to believe that the cats actually trained the two women, not the other way around.

CULTURE

Americans Are Shocked At Terry Crews' Seemingly Pro-China Posts on Instagram

Whether the post was really intended to be pro-China remains unclear, but it wouldn't really be that shocking

Screenshot via Instagram

Americans love to have a villain.

Someone they can really sneer at and come together to root against. But Terry Crews is usually the furthest thing from the bad guy. He's a gifted painter, a former NFL player, and a fountain of positive energy and open communication whom we loved for his role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine even before he became a hero of progressive cultural change.

In 2017, when Crews shared his personal experience with sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood, he made himself vulnerable in a way that a lot of men—particularly men who are perceived as strong and masculine—would shy away from. His story became as clear an illustration of the toxic power dynamics in the entertainment industry as most of us could imagine—showing that even someone with the strength and confidence of a literal superhero could be taken advantage of and violated by the powerful figures in a system with such pervasive problems.

How could a man who has done so much to win our love provoke American society to suddenly turn against him? By siding—or at least seeming to side—with America's favorite villain du jour: China.

Crews is currently in Shanghai with his family and apparently having a great time. Some people would probably take issue with that alone—with an Instagram post asserting that China's largest city is "INCREDIBLE!!!" and "Truly a wonder to see in person!" Many American's have so thoroughly written off China as a force of pure evil that even innocuous positivity like this, delivered with a message of "WORLDWIDE LOVE," would be unacceptable, but it's not really surprising or out of character.

What really surprised people was when Crews posted a picture of himself, earlier this week, posing in front of the flag of the People's Republic of China, with the phase "POWER TO THE PEOPLES." This is the post that opened the floodgates on a torrent of negative responses, with thousands posting messages expressing their shock.

Most of the commenters seemed particularly concerned with the protesters in Hong Kong and with the perception that Crews was aligning himself with the mainland government, against the people who have occupied Hong Kong's streets for the past seven months fighting for autonomous democracy in their city. While it seems like a stretch to assume that Crews intended the post as an endorsement of Xi Jinping's government, the image was certainly suggestive of pro-China propaganda, with Crews looking buff and tough, with the red and gold flag framing his head. It's reminiscent of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, posing in front of the flag of the USSR. And just like Ivan, Terry's post could not be more perfectly calculated to inflame American patriotism against him.

It may be that Crews is not particularly familiar with the issues in Hong Kong—he's a busy man, with a lot on his plate. Or maybe, seeing the way people live in Shanghai, he doesn't think that Hong Kong has a great deal to fear in losing their autonomy. That's debatable, but there are other, more pressing reasons to maintain a strong critical stance when it comes to China. In particular, the "Vocational Training" that is being provided to Uyghur Muslims against their will in the Xinjiang re-education camps. There are reports about various atrocities—everything from rape to organ harvesting—that may be taking place in those camps. Without a free press in China, it's difficult to say for certain what's going on there—which is a problem in and of itself.

But if Crews had instead appeared in front of an American flag—or wrapped in a flag suit like his character in Idiocracy—would people have taken that as an endorsement of Donald Trump? Does the fact that he hosts America's Got Talent mean he must deny that America also has police violence? Does it mean he should ignore the sexual assault that takes place in our concentration camps at the southern border? Maybe flags in general just make for cool backdrops. Or maybe a person can express appreciation for a nation and its people without endorsing everything the government does there.

Meanwhile, Flint Michigan, where Terry Crews grew up, still has poison flowing from many of its taps. The NFL, where Terry Crews used to play, has—at the behest of President Trump—banned kneeling on the sidelines during the national anthem to protest police violence. Los Angeles, where Terry Crews lives, is suffering from a housing crisis, with 1% of the population living on the streets or in shelters. And the United States is still officially home to the largest population of imprisoned people on earth.

It's easy to attack China's crimes, because China is far away and their political problems seemingly have little in common with our own—and there is absolutely a lot to be critical of. Their problems allow even a divided country like ours a moment of unity—with everyone from Elizabeth Warren (who penned an article titled "It Is Time for the United States to Stand Up to China in Hong Kong") to the Trump family jumping on board. It may yet turn out that Terry Crews was unaware of some of these problems, or he didn't want to take the risk of expressing his own criticisms while his family is still within the country's borders.

That would be understandable. It could even turn out that "POWER TO THE PEOPLES," was meant as a subtle, pro-democracy message of solidarity—we can't really know right now. But if it's not, would it be that shocking to learn that, as a black man in the United States, Terry Crews knows better than to judge a nation simply by its worst crimes or its greatest achievements. Crews has achieved tremendous success for himself and his family, but he has also seen how badly his home country tends to treat people who look like him. Maybe he can celebrate the best of what he's seen in China—e.g. the hundreds of millions there who have been lifted out of poverty—without endorsing the worst of that government's evils.

Maybe Terry Crews is more capable of nuance than the people who break everything into heroes and villains—who praise Hong Kong protesters for throwing bricks and attack American protesters for throwing milkshakes or distracting us from football.