Month: April 2020

Air travel is an absolute mess right now. Flights are empty, planes are grounded, and an inexplicably short-sighted industry is asking for government support. In the wake of the coronavirus shutdown, airlines have been forced to adapt their cancellation/ change policies drastically. More and more airlines are moving toward a Southwest-style “change whenever you want, for free”-type model.

In hopes of gaining customer loyalty and trust during the quarantine, Delta Airlines is extending their rebooking window for two years. That’s massively helpful because while it’s expected that travel will open up again within a few months, building up the disposable income to travel might take potential flyers worldwide considerably longer. Delta’s previous policy only applied to trans-Pacific flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Incheon, South Korea, and Italy and required passengers to rebook their travel before May 31st, 2020, but considering a lot has changed since the early days of the outbreak — namely that the US now leads the world in COVID-19 cases by a substantial amount — Delta has expanded that policy to include all flights.

Delta’s current policy allows passengers to rebook their tickets for up to two years since the date of purchase and will waive all change fees until May 31st, 2022 if you’ve booked your flight for any time in April or May of 2020 or have existing eCredits or canceled travel from flights in March, April, or May of this year. Tickets purchased between March 1st and May 31st, 2020 can also be changed without a change fee for up to a year from the date of purchase. Thankfully, this is an automatic process and you won’t have to jump through any formal channels or make an official cancellation (a stipulation of many previous cancellation/rebooking policies) to score your eCredits. Delta is also making information on eCredits and their new ticket expiration dates readily available online soon.

“We are actively working on a solution to display the new expiration dates in all the places you can find your eCredits on delta.com,” reads a statement on the new policy, “If your eCredit for canceled travel has not yet been processed or extended, or is temporarily displaying incorrectly… rest assured your flight value is secure through May 2022 and will be ready to redeem online when you need it.”

Some fare differences may apply for new bookings, but fortunately if your fare ends up being cheaper than your original ticket you’ll receive the eCredits back into your account for the difference. Delta’s policy page has a full breakdown of this new policy — it’ll be interesting to see if other airlines follow-suit in the weeks to come.

Smino hits the motherland in his latest video, visiting South Africa’s Alexandra Township and rubbing elbows with the locals in “Reverend,” which originally released almost a year ago. The St. Louis rapper has been working on his third album, which he says is “done” and being mixed by Derek Ali — aka MixedByAli, the in-house producer for Top Dawg Entertainment.

The video, directed by TopShotta, sees Smino showing off his colorful personality and unusual stylistic sensibilities by sitting in a bright green bathtub under a lime-green sun umbrella, plopped right down in one of South Africa’s notorious townships. Of course, he’s also bringing light to an area that is often overlooked and underserved by public officials — an area where the residents are mainly Black and poor. Alexandra is located in the Gauteng province, just a few miles (or kilometers) from Johannesburg, the largest city in the country. As you can probably see in the video, many folks there live in makeshift shacks and the crime rate is understandably extremely high.

Yet, by highlighting Alexandra, Smino also calls attention to the potential for greatness in humble beginnings — among the township’s most famous residents is South Africa’s first democratically-elected President, Nelson Mandela. Even in dire circumstances, there’s a lot of beauty — and Smino shows that in his new video.

Watch the “Reverend” video above.

With so much conflicting information going around about the coronavirus and our leaders shilling Malaria drugs and promising the global pandemic will miraculously go away, it’s time to get serious and listen to one of the nation’s true thought leaders: Hulk Hogan.

Hogan, who currently looks a lot like a Santa with muscles lately, took to Instagram to provide some helpful insight on the COVID-19 plague that has shut down the entire sports industry and even has professional wrestling and WrestleMania on the ropes. His perspective as a rich 66-year old who lives on the beach: maybe God gave us the virus as punishment for going outside and doing things, and that science can’t heal us, Jesus can.

Word up,can you handle the truth my brother only love HH In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. God said, “you want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centers. You want to worship actors, I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don’t want to go to church and worship Me, I will make it where you can’t go to church”

“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Maybe we don’t need a vaccine, Maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus.

I also really like that the picture he posted appears to credit “I AM THAT I AM” to Hulk Hogan.

As of Monday morning there are more than 330,000 cases of the coronavirus infections in the United States, so please, people, for the love of God, stop worshipping Regal Cinemas and have a spiritual awakening so The Lord won’t keep crashing the economy and ruining baseball season.

It’s been less than 24 hours since Drew McIntyre defeated Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 36 to capture the greatest prize in professional wrestling history, the WWE Championship. (Well, technically, it’s been about two weeks, since Mania was pre-taped this year due to COVID-19 concerns, but you get the idea.)

Earlier today, the new champ called in live to talkSPORT’s morning radio show, at which point he joked about fighting BBC sports pundit Chris Sutton before pivoting into what kinda-sorta sounded like a real-deal challenge toward lineal world boxing champion (and part-time WWE Superstar) Tyson Fury:

“I know Tyson Fury is on the show today as well. I need to bring up Fury because he was talking trash about me. I know he’s coming up to the show, so tell him, ‘I saw what you said about me’ — you know, he doesn’t care who wins the match, he thinks I’m gonna win and he can smash me. Let him know, ‘All right, Fury, I’ve won the belt now, I’ve won the championship now, now I’m paying attention to you.’ After I beat Sutton, I’m coming for Fury.”

The Gypsy King, who already holds a count-out victory in WWE over Braun Strowman (himself the new Universal Champion), responded to McIntyre’s challenge via Instagram, writing:

@dmcintyrewwe has call me out after his @wwe Wrestlemania 36 victory, first I say congratulations and what a fantastic job. Secondly I accept his challenge, anytime any place, anywhere.

Could this be Drew’s first title defense? Will we see McIntyre-Fury at SummerSlam (or in Saudi Arabia)? We’ll all have to wait and see. In the meantime, Fury continues to train for his third fight against Deontay Wilder, originally scheduled for July but postponed until later this year due to COVID-19.

While we all deal with unprecedented and terrifyingly uncertain times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a few things that have brought some levity and much needed entertainment into our lives. One such thing is the sudden boom in Instagram Live broadcasts featuring superstars in the world of music and sports trading stories, going track-for-track in producer battles, or just going long on a DJ set for people to vibe to from their living room.

It’s helped there be a continued sense of community and also offered a welcome respite from the weight of the real world for a brief period. Sometimes, it’s even served to mend some fences and bring folks together that we wouldn’t typically expect. On Monday, we saw Chris Paul and Stephen Curry, two generational point guard talents who have not exactly been the best of friends, sit down to talk on IG Live about all manner of things, including that infamous behind-the-back crossover that Curry hit Paul with in 2015 that sent the Point God to the ground and has run on highlight reels ever since.

Paul knows there’s no way to do this conversation without bringing it up, since the comments scrolling on the bottom surely are all discussing it, and Curry doesn’t gloat or brag even after Paul admits he “got me.” Curry, unsurprisingly, deflects, noting he’s been gotten by Paul in the past and that it’s something that happens to everyone when you defend elite point guards in the NBA. It’s cool to see them talk about this and while there’s not been basketball to watch, seeing some of these greats swapping stories and getting together on a large platform to talk about the game has been a bright spot in all of this.

Last month Tom Brady, in a somewhat expected but nonetheless remarkable move, announced that he would be taking his talents to Tampa Bay. The six-time Super Bowl champion, three-time MVP and one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history struggled last season with New England, throwing for 4,057 yards, 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Eliminated in the Wild Card round by the Tennessee Titans, the Patriots failed to make it to the AFC Championship Game for the first time since 2011 and broke their three-year Super Bowl appearance streak.

On Monday the 42-year-old penned an essay for “The Players Tribune” about his future, thanking New England for his 20 years with the organization and labeling his move to Tampa Bay “a great challenge.” As is now well known, twenty years ago, Brady was a scrawny kid from the University of Michigan and wasn’t given much of a look at the 2000 NFL Combine. The Patriots drafted him in the sixth round and from there, the rest is history. “I wouldn’t change anything about it,” the former cornerstone of the New England franchise wrote.

Following the 2019-20 season, it seemed that the 14-time Pro Bowler wanted a long-term commitment from the Patriots — something the team was not willing to provide him. Brady now finds himself with many doubters — he will turn 43 in August and currently holds the title of oldest quarterback in the league. But Brady seems to know that his football career won’t last forever, and that knowledge only serves to fuel his motivation going forward.

“Now I want to see what more I can do,” the quarterback wrote. “I want to see how great I can be. I want to hear other people say, ‘Go, man. Now that’s what we’ve been missing. That’s what we need! That’s what we’ve been looking for!’”

Brady also wrote about how excited he is to “embrace fully a team that is confident in what I do — and what I bring — and is willing to go on this ride with me.” As a player with 20 years of experience playing for one of the most successful franchises in NFL history, Brady also hopes to bring his veteran leadership and expertise to the Buccaneers locker room.

But most of all, Brady believes he still has a chip on his shoulder, and that he still has something to prove.

“If I don’t go for it, I’ll never know what I could have accomplished,” the star player wrote. “Wanting to do something is different from actually doing it. If I stood at the bottom of a mountain, and told myself I could scale the highest peak, but then didn’t do anything about it, what’s the point of that?”

Look, we know you might be getting bored with the quarantine. We’re past the two-week mark and folks have cleaned their cupboards and indulged in all the Zoom happy hours they can handle. There’s a distinct possibility that you’ve got nothing to do with your leisure time today. (Assuming you are safe and food secure and have a few minutes to spare between dreading the unknown, refreshing Google news to a compulsive degree, and checking Twitter like a masochist.) The way we see it, you can spend those leftover minutes in one of two ways. You can lay on your bed digging deeper into a pit of despair thanks to the increasingly dire coronavirus news, or you could get busy living (while socially distanced).

That might mean leveling up your bread game. Or figuring out what dalgona coffee is all about. It might be improving your understanding of whiskey. Or taking your self-care more seriously. It could also mean finding new, meaningful ways to express yourself at a time when you have all kinds of bottled up emotions and feelings. Because if you’ve got the energy for it, there’s no better time to make art.

Not an artist you say? Check that noise. Remember those people you used to roll your eyes at, who would say things like “It’s art” about any little thing they made? Yeah, well, those kids were right. Anyone can do it. And anyone should. So pick up that camera that you dropped a lot of money on and never used (or your phone!) and start documenting this unprecedented time in our lives. Because one thing in all this is for sure: We’re living through a fascinating moment in history. One we’ll be asked about until we’re old. How do you want to answer those young brats researching the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 for a school paper? By griping about how your neck got sore while doing a full Breaking Bad rewatch? Or by cracking open that digital photo album (this is a future thing) and showing them how you kept your cool in the face of one of the scariest global moments in modern history?

We vote the latter (there’ll still be time for a few episodes of Walt and Jesse, don’t worry.) So to help you elevate your visual storytelling game, we chatted with three photographers — Charmi Pena, Dixie Dixon, and Thomas Bol — and picked their brains for some expert tips on how to use your home set-up to take better photos. Dive into their tips, then grab some everyday household items, your camera, and some good ‘ol boredom-fueled inspiration and get to creating!

What’s the easiest type of photography to practice at home?

Charmi: Still life. I literally just pulled out all the fruit that I purchased before we entered quarantine so that I could photograph it. It’s especially easy if you’re just getting started. Otherwise, I would say documentary photography would probably be the next easiest thing, because then you could just shoot what’s happening in your house.

Thomas: I think for me, or at least what’s coming to mind right now, would be macro photography. Macro implies that you can get close to your subject, but it doesn’t need to be people. You can literally do things inside the house, outside the house. Plants. I guess the only caveat is that to get close you need a little bit more gear. If you don’t have those lenses, try portraits or food photography or something along those lines.

Dixie: Kids and pets are obviously some of the best subjects; and you can also utilize objects like flowers, water droplets, cookies. Grabbing flowers from your garden to make a cool headpiece for a cool self-portrait or something would be really fun. If you don’t have a kid or a pet, coffee in the morning always photographs really nicely with the window light.

What everyday household items might be converted to some good gear?

Charmi: I used my laundry basket earlier today as my tripod. Just because I didn’t want to go out into the garage to get everything. So I think literally any surface is a tripod in your house. I used a bungee cord from my garage to hang my camera from a pillar in my house at one point. So, yeah. Yeah, bungee cord, laundry basket, table. Maybe put a pillow under something if you’re bungee cording it. Be inventive but don’t break your gear.

Thomas: I went into my garage and I found — I climb and fly fish and do all these outdoor activities– I found all these amazing small detailed things related to that — flies, leaders, hooks, carabiners, things like that. It started as a macro session and quickly evolved into a light painting session in a dark garage with a small penlight.

Dixie: If you take a frame, like a picture frame, and then take the back out of it, you can actually shoot through the glass of a picture frame and you can put Vaseline on the frame to create some really cool artsy portraits. Shooting through wine glasses looks really cool for some portraits. Utilizing the blinds of a window for interesting shadows. If you grab an old CD, I mean not many people have CDs anymore, but if you find an old CD you can actually make rainbow colors if you reflect the sun with it on your object or your portrait. And then also using old Christmas lights in the background of a portrait creates really beautiful bokeh.

What are some beginner lighting tips?

Charmi: I think if you don’t have a lot of light, it’s actually okay to embrace shadows and just highlighting what’s important in an image. For example, it’s the most horrible, rainy day today and so that’s why I took out the fruit — I just wanted something that I could photograph because I felt like I hadn’t been doing anything lately. And there’s not a ton of light coming in and I put all the fruit by the window and I’m just really accepting what’s coming through as window light, as little as I have. The key here is to understand shutter speed on your camera. And so if I was new, I would say put my camera in manual and then just play with your shutter speed in every image and that exercise will show you what you need to do to get the photo that you want.

Thomas: Go into your garage or in your house and make it dark. Wherever that room is, put your camera on a tripod and get the smallest flashlight that you own, and if you don’t own a small flashlight, then put a little tape over the front of the light to make it a smaller beam. Set your exposure for 30 seconds, ISO around 1000 and 5.6 and put, whether it’s forks and tableware, cutlery, anything like that, or maybe you have some hobby that involves some other things that I can’t even think of. Then just try a shot where you put all that stuff on the kitchen table or out on the garage bench, hit it with the flashlight from a perpendicular side angle and see what the picture looks like.

The beauty, of course, with digital is you get instant feedback on the LCD. The first ones are probably not going to look great and that’s what we all do when we’re learning to light with a flashlight. The cool part about all this is, we’re not talking speed lights or bigger strobes or anything. Almost everybody has a flashlight and now they got to have a tripod, but most photographers will have a tripod and then your camera, and that’s all you need. Then you just got to experiment a lot to try to figure out what looks good.

Dixie: One of my favorite kinds of light is just natural window light. If I was going to create some portraits inside, it’s always nice to find windows that face the north or south because it provides a really consistent kind of lighting throughout the day. It’s just really soft and it’s really diffused.

But if you want to create more dramatic kind of portraits, you might use east or west-facing windows because the light’s going to stream through and create really harsh shadows to create that really dramatic type of lighting. Where you position your subject has a huge impact on what the picture will look like. For instance, if you place your subject facing the window and you have your back towards the window, shooting into your subject, that’s going to create a really soft and beautiful portrait. So that’s a really great way to light women. We actually use this type of lighting a lot in fashion shoots and stuff like that because it just has a really soft look.

Then if you position your subject with the window to the side of them, that’s going to bring out all the texture in your subject. So, that’s really better for males because they look cool all rugged and more textured. Then you can also add a reflector on the side, say you are shooting a woman, to kind of bounce some of that light back into your subject. Then also you can create some really nice silhouettes if you stand… or you placed your subject against the window and then you’re shooting into the window you create some cool silhouette shapes.

Basically, the bigger your light source, the softer it’s going to be. So one of the greatest rooms in your house is to actually utilize your garage. Basically, the garage is like a big light source. If you open the garage door and then you place your subject just inside and you stand outside shooting in, you can create some really amazing fashion portraits and stuff like that.

If you want to get super moody, like at night time, you can utilize candles. Candles are a really cool light source. You could also utilize flashlights, instead of having them shining right on the subject, I like to bounce it on a white piece of paper or white cardboard and then back into my subjects cause it creates a softer type of look. And then with lampshades, you can actually take the lampshade off the layout and utilize the bare bulb for a very nice portrait; just hold it slightly above your subject, get as close to your subject as you can without it being in the frame. So, those are kind of some of the basic lighting you can utilize at home.

What are some in-camera tips or tricks that people can use to take more interesting photos or to experiment? Obviously, this is going to be different depending on what camera a person is using, but I’m talking basics.

Charmi: If we’re just trying to make artsy, fun images while we’re learning, I think using household items as the foreground is really fun. Like using a glass from your kitchen and shooting through it or shooting through the edge of it or using it to make a reflection. You can use your iPhone to make a reflection. I do that all the time. Just use your household items and use them as foreground and background and just play with the different effects that different materials will give you. A copper pot is going to give you a very different effect than a clear glass. A lit candle is going to be something else that if you shoot through, you’re going to see something that you didn’t see when you were just looking at it, the camera sees some really cool stuff.

Thomas: Some photographers work in raw, some work in JPEG. What I would tell folks is experiment with different white balance settings and experiment with different depths of field, which is going to be controlled by the aperture setting.

You could literally take one object or say you’re looking at a flower in the front yard or a tree or whatever and from the same position, shoot the same subject and go through every aperture setting your lens offers and look at the difference on the computer with the background and just the overall mood and feeling that’s created simply by changing the depth of field and the background. I think that’s a very fundamental thing that everyone with a camera can try. A lot of people really don’t ever have the time to do an experiment like that, and it’s so important when you’re in the field.

Dixie: Gear wise, the Nikon Z50 is my favorite camera right now for a beginner. That’s what I’ve been telling everyone. Basically you can do all these different settings in-camera. I love creating in-camera black and white, but you can just go to picture control and click “monochrome” and create some really beautiful black and white pictures in-camera and then just send it to your phone using the SnapBridge. When I’m shooting, I always like to shoot raw because then that gives you a lot more leeway in the editing.

If you’re not a master at settings yet, a great way to set your camera is to shoot aperture priority. Basically, set the aperture to the widest possible that your lens has. So, I would set it to F2.8 and then that’s going to create that beautiful look where the eyes are really a tad sharp, and then the rest of the photo just falls out of focus really nicely. I love aperture priority because it basically just sets everything for you and you choose the aperture.

Another fun thing to play with is double exposure in-camera. With the Nikon Z series cameras — like the one I shouted out above — you shoot a picture and you can click “double exposure,” multiple exposures, and it’ll show the image that’s laid on top of the other image. That’s really fun to play with for portraits to create some really creative effects in-camera.

What’s a good at-home substitute for a seamless or a reflector?

Charmi: A blank wall is good for a seamless. For a reflector, I would say poster board or even tape some white pieces of paper together and then your good. You have some printer paper, you tape it together. Try to use matte tape if you can instead of shiny tape so that you’re not completely skewing the reflection, but I would definitely say putting pieces of white paper together would do the trick.

Thomas: I got the best one. It’s simple. Get out tinfoil and put it around an 8.5 x 11 magazine, and you now have a small little silver reflector that works terrific for flowers, pet portraits, anything like that. It works like a charm. When I first started shooting, oh so many years ago, that’s how I first started. I had all this old cardboard, so I just wrapped it in tinfoil, taped it up, and then I had these great silver reflectors.

Dixie: Something that really makes a great reflector is insulation board. But you can use that as a nice reflector. We actually use those on set quite often, the insulation boards, and it’s a really nice reflector for portraits and things like that.

What ISO should we be aiming for with indoor photography?

Charmi: Modern cameras are so amazing that even when I’m shooting professionally, I would say that I try to stay under 2,500. But I will tell you, shooting in my house right now and photographing my kids do their homework and my husband do his job and just like I said, apples and bananas, I am letting that ISO range kind of do what it wants to do. So under 2,500 if you really care about the grain, but I’m kind of letting the grain… I think we’re in the kind of situation right now where letting the grain be what it is, is also speaking to the mood that we maybe are in. So I think it’s okay to just embrace the range that your camera offers you.

Thomas: it’ll certainly depend if you have good window light or not. But indoors, you’re probably already starting at 800, and if it’s just a room lit by incandescent lights and overhead lights, they’re probably closer to 1600 on the ISO. The beauty of it is, all the cameras these days, the new cameras, they do so well with ISO performance that 1600 is not the end of the world. If there’s no window light in their room, then they’re probably going to need that just as a starting point.

Dixie: I feel like it used to be you wanted to stay, back in the day, stay at like 200 or 400, but now you can go pretty high. I mean, for indoor type of photography you could go to 800 or 1000 ISO and still be okay, and it’s going to look super crisp. It’s really amazing just how little light you need to make amazing portraits these days.

Do you have any portrait taking tips?

Charmi: My big one when we’re taking portraits is I’m not personally a fan of mixed light. That is very up to everybody’s taste. But personally I think that if I was new and learning to take portraits, the first thing I would do before I would mix light is just turn off anything that doesn’t match so that you’re only dealing with one source of light. Start with one source of light and then you can add other sources of light later. But if you’re just getting started with a portrait, I would stick with one source of light, see how you master that and then you can add more after.

Thomas: I think to really get the shot that is really evocative and really shows the connection between photographer and portrait person, even if that person — the model… I hesitate to say that — it’s going to be a friend or a family or a kid or something like that if we’re not bringing in people from the outside. I think the trick is, before you even bring the camera up, you engage. Your son or girlfriend or whatever it may be, they may hate having their photo taken. So, the end goal is to make a really evocative shot. My mode of operation, whether it’s somebody on the street or a friend or a paid model, is when I first start, the images are never that great.

It’s like you just are trying to get into that zone where you’re at that level where they’re comfortable with you, you’re comfortable with them, and the same applies to very familiar people. So, I just talk to folks and let them see the picture, show them the LCD, just kind of try to really relax the situation out. I think then, even in available light or just being lit by an incandescent bulb, you can find a great photograph of a family member that is going to probably shock just how good it can get. I think we’re all relearning a few things here with all this time on our hands going, “Wow, I’ve done that in the past, but this looks really good. Look what I can do at home.”

Dixie: Composition is really fun to play with, and positioning your subject to the right or left-hand side of the frame, leaving negative space; practicing with more centered type of portraits. I like to get to a higher angle and then shoot slightly down on my subject, especially for beauty headshots, because whatever is closest to your camera is going to appear larger. So when we shoot from that higher angle, the eyes are closer to the camera. And so it really brings out the eyes of whoever you’re shooting, which is really beautiful.

Lighting is so huge; just having that beautiful window light. Natural light is probably the most beautiful kind of lighting you can use on people. If you’re shooting outside, you don’t really want to shoot portrait during high noon because you’ll get those ugly raccoon shadows underneath their eyes.

Also, play with different expressions. Like, when I photograph, I tend to shoot through moments, so I’ll shoot a lot more images than I need just to get that supernatural type of look where they look like they’re connecting with the camera. If their eyes are super sensitive to the sun, you might have them close their eyes and then kind of look up towards the sunlight or the window or whatever it is and then have them open it on three and that’s going to make their eyes look super bright in the frame and be super open and not squinty.

… Any self-portrait tips?

Charmi: I’m letting my mood guide me. If I’m having a really good day, then I’m letting myself set up a happier, brighter photo. And if I’m having a grumpy day, I’m accepting that the photo may convey a little bit of mood and darkness and that’s okay. I think with self-portraits you have the opportunity to get as creative as you want to get and it doesn’t always have to be of your face. It could be of your feet, of your fingers, of yourself hiding under your blanket in bed. It doesn’t matter.

So let your mood guide you. And then circling back on a technical front, just use what you have for settling your camera. If you don’t have a tripod, that’s okay. Set the timer on your camera and put in on your kitchen island or put it on your couch. Do whatever you have to do. You don’t need all that stuff right now.

Thomas: That is not my expertise! I’ll throw this out. So, I was a journalism major about a million years ago, and one of the projects I remember doing in journalism school and I still bring this up when we do portrait stuff is, do an implied portrait. In this case, it’s going to be an implied selfie. And so what that means is, the selfie can’t be actually your face, the camera can’t be pointed at you, but it can be pointed at a mirror that reflects you, or it could be your silhouette created by a lamp and the shadow that you project on a wall. Or in its most basic form, maybe it’s things that you use every day like if you’re an older person, you have a cane or maybe your glasses or even your cell phone. These are the things that are really my identity, but it’s not actually me. I like the idea of the implied portrait and seeing on a creative level where that goes with folks.

Dixie: Definitely the high angle is key with selfies. And then utilizing the self-timer is definitely a big part of that. If you don’t have a tripod, you can use a table or a bench or something like that to place your camera on. But it’s a lot of trial and error with selfies. That higher angle; it’s always more flattering. You don’t want to shoot from a lower angle because it’s going to bring out the chin if you have any sort of double chin. I love utilizing props. I’m big into hats and glasses and things like accessories and earrings. Those are really going to come to life when you’re shooting self-portraits and things like that.

Why should we all be documenting this time in history — or, how are you choosing to document this time?

Charmi: I think everyone should be documenting this time. I think that this is literally the most unprecedented, never happened before in our lifetime thing. I lived through 9/11, from the other side of New York, the Hudson River and we’ve had people live through tornadoes and we kind of think, “Oh my God, this is the worst it could get,” or, “This is the wildest it could get.” Nobody ever saw this coming and I think that for future generations it’ll be really interesting for everyone to see how lots of different people spent this time and how they viewed this time. Photography really isn’t just about what you’re photographing, it’s a lot of what feelings are coming through in the image and the story that you’re telling. I think telling our stories of this time is going to be really important.

I am trying to force myself to photograph things even when I’m in a mood because it’s not easy to be cooped up, but I actually think it’s a really good way to process your feelings. So on a lot of different fronts, I think it’s really important that we record this history.

Thomas: I know this maybe isn’t as fair to the folks that are in an apartment, but we live in suburbia Colorado and we have a lot of flowers coming up through the dirt right now. It’s full-on spring out here. We shoot macro and flowers and that kind of thing by default on assignments and workshops, but I’ve kind of made that my mission. It’s like, okay, I can’t really leave my yard but look at all these flowers coming up.

Dixie: I think that in life in general, when we go through things that are tough and life gets really real, people gravitate towards art because it’s a nice outlet. It’s an escape from what’s going on in reality. This is a perfect time to turn off your television, turn off the news, get out and shoot because that’s going to really be good for your soul, and just getting those creative juices flowing to get away from what’s going on.

My folks have two Frenchies so I’m going to be probably up shooting them today because it’s a really nice sunny, sunny day today, just to get out and get off the computer, get off the screens, and really just take in that moment. I think it’s super important.

f nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

Better Call Saul (AMC, 9:00 p.m.) — Mike goes to extremes to mitigate the destruction caused after he pissed off the cartel, and a simple task pushes Jimmy to his breaking point.

The Neighborhood (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) — Calvin, Dave, and Gemma encourage (read: peer pressure) Tina into trying skydiving while Marty helps Grover with his school science project.

Roswell, New Mexico (CW, 9:00 p.m.) — Isobel tries to use her powers for good as Liz enlists Kyle’s help after her mission to save Max hits another dead end.

The Plot Against America (HBO, 9:00 p.m.) — A death in the neighborhood shakes Phillip to his core while Evelyn attends a state dinner with Mrs. Lindbergh and the foreign minister for Nazi Germany, where she’s convinced to make Sandy the face of the youth assimilation program.

Breeders (FX, 10:00 p.m.) — Luke is sent home with the class bear with an assignment to take him on an adventure but Paul can’t even get the family to make a trip to the park.

Manifest (NBC, 10:00 p.m.) — With the clock running out, Saanvi and Vance go to the Major, who may be the only person capable of saving Zeke from his Death Date.

Dispatches From Elsewhere (AMC, 10:00 p.m.) — Janice receives an unexpected clue while Peter and Simone confront their growing feelings for each other.

Restaurants across the country have shuttered or are struggling financially, due to the coronavirus pandemic, including the iconic Twin Peaks diner. Over the weekend, actor Kyle MacLachlan, who played Agent Cooper on the original ABC series and Cooper/Dougie Jones on the Showtime revival, shared a GoFundMe for the “Twede’s Cafe Employee Relief Fund.” Twede’s Cafe is the real-life Double R Diner, located in North Bend, Washington, and organizers are hoping to “keep this iconic diner alive and directly support the staff who are being severely impacted by this global crisis”:

All over the world, individuals and businesses are being hit hard by the impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic. Twede’s Cafe is located within King County, Washington, one of the hardest hit counties in the US. We are limited to take-out only and have had to greatly reduce our employees’ hours. We are doing our best to keep our staff on the clock, but we are unable to support everyone financially with our reduced sales and as new business owners. We are hoping to raise money that will go directly towards paying our employees and helping them through this tough time. (Via)

If you have the means, spare a few bucks for the employees at this damn fine “landmark for #TwinPeaks fans,” as Agent Cooper put it. In other Twin Peaks news, MacLachlan is hosting a live-tweet of the show’s pilot on Wednesday, April 8, at 11:30 PST, followed by “an Instagram Live starting at 1:20pm PST w/ a mystery guest.” He teased that it’s Mädchen Amick (Shelly Johnson), but here’s hoping for a Wally Brando cameo, too.

(Via GoFundMe)

Previously on the Best and Worst of WrestleMania 36: I gave the Firefly Fun House match its own column, because I needed to write 4,000 words to understand it. You can also read about night one, and the night that the skeletons came to life, here.

If you haven’t watched part two of this year’s WrestleMania yet, go do that now. Remember that With Spandex is on Twitter, so follow it. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter. BUY THE SHIRT.

One more thing: Hit those share buttons! Spread the word about the column on Facebook, Twitter and whatever else you use. Be sure to leave us a comment in our comment section below as well. Feel free to peruse the WrestleMania 36 tag page if we missed anything.

Here’s a special, one-match breakdown edition of the Best and Worst of WWE WrestleMania 36 (2 of 2) for April 5, 2020.

Before We Begin

As mentioned in the intro that you probably breezed through, we decided to give the Firefly Fun House match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt its own, full length edition of Best and Worst. I got about 2,000 words into it and realized it’d be a hell of a thing to drop in the middle of jokes about Liv Morgan’s catch-as-catch-can skills and Randy Orton taking three and a half minutes to throw a punch. I definitely recommend you give it a read, though, as I did my best to break down the most ambitious and complex character work WWE’s ever done. It’s not a “good match,” and it’s not even the wacky and enjoyable experience of the Boneyard Match, but it feels essential to the product.

I apologize in advance that the rest of the WrestleMania night two recap isn’t going to be that meticulous.

Best: Charlotte Flair Is Low Key One Of The Best WrestleMania Performers Of The Last Decade

Leave it up to Charlotte Flair, with all her perceived flaws and frustrating idiosyncrasies, to once again walk into a difficult position at a WrestleMania and not only do validate her “I MAKE HISTORY” talking points, but deliver one of the best performances of the night. Of the weekend. You know what I’m saying. She’s been doing that for years now, and I’d argue that over the past five WrestleManias (32 through 36) she’s been one of WWE’s best and most reliable big match performers.

Flair vs. Rhea Ripley — wearing Vegeta-themed gear and joining New Day on the list of people who dressed up like Dragon Ball character at WrestleMania and lost — works well in juxtaposition from two other women’s matches on the WrestleMania card: the Kickoff Show’s Liv Morgan versus Natalya match, and Saturday’s Raw Women’s Championship match between Shayna Baszler and Becky Lynch. I thought it was a really interesting choice to run Liv and Natalya on the pre-show and then go straight into Charlotte and Rhea, as it emphasized the clear as day distinction between competence and excellence. I guess that’s why two of these people had a “history making” championship match with months of build bolstered by a Royal Rumble win with emotional video packages and a marquee spot on the show, and the other was announced on a whim on Saturday afternoon.

The more interesting comparison is between this match and Lynch vs. Baszler, as Becky Lynch is the John Cena to Charlotte Flair’s Randy Orton, and Ripley had one of the best NXT Women’s Championshp matches in history with Baszler only a few months ago. Baszler and Lynch got eight minutes, while Ripley and Flair got 20. Different spots on different nights, I guess, but it’s an interesting comparison nonetheless. Makes you wonder how much the construction and presentation of the matches had to do with WWE’s interest in Ripley and Baszler as performers and characters.

It’s also probably impossible to discuss this match without talking about the decisions around it. The assumption is that Flair won the championship here so she can spend a few months working Wednesdays, and help NXT’s ratings on USA. But there’s also the fun side story with her being a complete prick to Bianca Belair, which will hopefully build to Belair K’ing the O-D out of her at SummerSlam in August. Belair showing up later on this same show made me think that’s an even more likely possibility. Anyway, the point is that Flair and Ripley killed it, Ripley’s future is as bright as ever, and Charlotte’s horrible ass of a character is going to make NXT shows better, if only by increasing how badly we want to see the entire NXT women’s roster put her in a figurative body bag. Very excited for Io Shirai to show her what a moonsault’s supposed to look like.

Surprisingly Good: Bobby Lashley Loses At Dark Souls

Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley was about as good as it could be for a match between two characters who’ve never met or interacted, wrestling in an empty building. Like I said before, it’s very much like of those old pay-per-view matches featuring mid-carders you stumble onto and have no idea why it’s happening. I don’t think the two guys HAVING the match knew why it was happening. There’s the flimsy pretense of Aleister Black “wanting competition,” I guess, which probably would’ve been a better angle if he hadn’t gotten dunked on by AJ Styles for a couple of weeks early last month, and hadn’t only won the rematch via divine (Satanic) intervention.

Still, credit to the guys for having a pretty good Raw match in quarantine. I didn’t like the finish, though, as Lana getting up onto the apron to cause a distraction that ultimately led to her man losing the match is ostensibly the same finish they used in the very next match, with Sonya Deville getting up onto the apron to cause a distraction that ultimately led to her man losing the match. Maybe they should’ve put these on different nights, so you wouldn’t notice how similar they were? It worked for Braun vs. Goldberg and Lesnar vs. McIntyre, after all.

Best, I Guess: True Love Weights

So yeah, Sonya (who is super invested in Mandy Rose dating this specific co-worker instead of the other one, because vague reasons we’ll probably never explore) is now not only managing Dolph Ziggler and accompanying him to the ring, but getting up onto the apron to make sure he wins matches against a nice fat guy they both hate. Things look bleak for poor Otis without even so much as a Tucky to back him up, but out comes Mandy (sadly not in sweat pants and a big graphic tee from Walmart) to even the score. The most disappointing thing about this entire night of WrestleMania, I think, is that we missed out on the monster pop Mandy and Otis’ retaliation and pairing would’ve gotten from a live crowd. Folks would’ve been all,

As is, Otis ends that classic American story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl due to the secret machinations of girl’s gay best friend and an asshole cheerleader they know, girl finds out thanks to help from an unidentified hacker who gained access to their work gym’s video screen, girl helps boy win a WrestleMania match, boy gets girl. Boy carries girl off like at the end of An Officer And A Gentleman, which is a cute callback to how boy briefly prevented girl from being eliminated from a battle royal.

Sorry, Worst: Last Man Standing

This is going to be a divisive one.

I want to say before anything that I like what these guys put together as a concept. The build was great, and I like the idea of Edge having to go to some big extreme to put Orton down only to immediately reveal how sad it makes him that he had to do it. Orton claiming to “love” Edge and saying love’s why he had to hurt him without showing any human emotion or remorse contrasts really well with Edge outright hating Orton, but hurting him and revealing that he feels this hate because of how much he loves him. I also think Edge is a good actor, and that Orton can be good when he tries.

But man, this did not have to be 40 minutes long. They were already doing that thing WWE does where their conceptualization of “hatred” is two guys kinda punching each other and throwing each other into things while they walk around and try out props. It’s not hatred as much as it’s … I don’t know, violent tourism? I know a lot of people really like this kind of match so I can’t really shade it for giving people what they want, but it didn’t work like I wanted it. Add to that the fact that the Last Man Standing mach is actually one of my least favorite match types ever, as it’s always a 15 minute match that takes 30 because half of it is the referee loudly counting to 8 or 9, and it felt less like a grudge match and more like an interminable walkabout. Like, if you hate a man for attacking your wife and trying to paralyze you to take away the career you spent nine years working to get back, why are you doing spider-crawls along lighting fixtures to drop elbows on him? Who does that? Why are you guys comically fighting with gym equipment and basically just doing CrossFit at each other? At one point in the match Edge uses a pull-up bar to do a big Bronco Buster. It’s just not the right tone for what you set up. Not that I can expect you to have a bloody southern empty arena brawl during quarantine or whatever, but still.

I actually had to mute the majority of the match due to the combination of the referee using his full, project-to-the-back-of-the-building REFEREE VOICE to count to ten, completely with that little bend over and stand back up and throw up your hands gesture, and the announce team mumbling about what they’re seeing in the lowest volume possible. Honestly, if this had just been a no disqualification match and gone 15 minutes, it would’ve been brilliant. The shorter matches really helped night one of Mania move at a much better pace than night two.

It was funny to see the backstage areas from WWE video games finally get used in a real wresting match, though. They fought in the hallway, in Goldberg’s pretend dressing room from the night before that’s actually a conference room, in the lighted area where they film promos, and even on top of cars. Just doing their signature moves to each other on the tops of cars. They go up onto the production truck for the finish, and I swear I thought Orton was going to climb up that really tall ladder nearby and Edge was gonna run and leap off the truck and spear him off, or whatever. Instead they just did more signature moves up there and Edge won with a Conchairto, which hurt more on top of a truck the same way submission moves hurt more when you do them on a table.

All in all, again, I get and don’t hate what they were going for, and it’s great to see Edge back. But Randy Orton pay-per-view matches are Randy Orton pay-per-view matches, no matter what. The payoff is never going to be as good as the build. He’s “the journey, not the destination” of professional wrestlers.

Speaking Of Contrived Spots That Were Supposed To Look Organic

Here’s the 24/7 division naturally fighting out into the gym and running over to stand and brawl under the Cathy Kelley Memorial Juliet Balcony so Rob Gronkowski could jump onto them and win the title. The best part isn’t even that they ran to where they needed to be and congregated in a group, it’s that they just used extras as the “24/7 division” and they were indistinguishable from the guys who’re actually in it.

Best: GIRL! UH HUH!

Tonight was the card full of matches they just made up at the last minute. The Raw Tag Team Championship match was all it was ever going to be, which was five minutes of back and forth Raw-quality tag team wrestling where Montez Ford looks awesome and Austin Theory takes the pin because he was EXTRA extra not the plan. It was probably supposed to be the Profits vs. AOP, but AOP got hurt, so they replaced them with Andrade and Garza and built that for a week, but then ANDRADE got pulled and they were just like, “fuck it, put that first draft Finn Bálor create a wrestler in the match, he can take the pin.” At least they put Theory AND Angelo Dawkins at ringside this time so Ford didn’t jump into nothing.

The positive, though, is that BIANCA BELAIR shows up to help her husband and her husband’s less cool friend even the odds against Zelina Vega and her random confederation of hot guys, continuing her war against people who don’t even go here . Life tip: find somebody who looks at you like Montez Ford looks at Bianca Belair.

Them holding her up and showing her to all four sides was funny, though. Like I said, some wrestlers are just stuck in their animations.

Smackdown: The Women’s Elimination Match

Not best or worst. Simply, Smackdown.

Pour one out for Tamina, who disappeared from TV so long it became a joke and got played up as a threat for two whole weeks, only to be immediately eliminated from the match where she was intended to be dominant and threatening.

See you in another several months when they need a fifth or sixth person for a match and remember they’ve got a division of four people, Tamina.

In case you’re interested in the actual finish, it’s about half of what you were expecting. Lacey Evans got to look way too good while Naomi just kinda went out like a chump, and then Sasha Banks got eliminated just to jog back in and help Bayley win anyway. And then after the match, Sasha handed Bayley the belt in a way to let you know that yes, she’s going to betray Bayley, but she’d probably rather do it in front of people. Maybe she was planning to do it anyway, but called an audible when Karen knocked her out.

Good For Drew: The Main Event

Drew McIntyre vs. Brock Lesnar is the same match as Braun Strowman vs. Bill Goldberg from the previous night. Champ hits a bunch of finishers in a row at the beginning of the match, challenger kicks out. Challenger then immediately hits four of his finisher in a row and wins the title. Same damn match.

As I’ve written at length, I think Drew McIntyre rules and am happy he got to achieve his destiny as The Chosen One despite the empty building, the champion who barely wants to work, and WWE’s obsession with this match layout. We really need to retire the quick finisher spam contest. It was surprising and new when Goldberg and Lesnar did it, but it can’t be your new “main event style” blueprint. It’s just half-assed and lazy. You’re giving us exactly as much “match” as a fingerpoke to the chest would. It devalues the finishers, devalues everyone from before who got beaten by one of those finishers — see also Goldberg squashing The Fiend after Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins went to war with him for hours and couldn’t even hurt him — and feels less like a main event and more like somebody selected “fast momentum.”

Let’s hope Drew doesn’t fall victim to the Universal Championship curse. P.S. please don’t bring Brock back and switch the title back at SummerSlam. Please? Please?

Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Night

AJ Dusman

This is not hyperbole. Bray Wyatt is one of the best wrestling minds to ever live.

FreewayKnight

Dolph Ziggler getting a lesbian to be his rebound girl is the most on-brand Dolph Ziggler has been in a long time.

SHough610

Tom Phillips: Up next is Drew McIntyre vs Brock Lesnar!
Byron: Aren’t we going to talk about what we just saw?
Tom: Huh?
Byron: Did Bray just devour Cena’s soul?
Tom: It would appear that way!
Byron: And we’re not going to talk about it?
Tom: We are not!

Designated Piledriver

Team B.A.D. reunion here.
If you don’t remember, Naomi was “Beautiful”, Sasha was “Dangerous” and Tamina was “And.”

Diamond Joe

Of all the wrestling-related things this pandemic has robbed from us, Gronk getting booed mercilessly by 70,000 people is near the top of that list.

Jushin Thunder Bieber

THIS IS MY BRUTAL YE-TAY

Taylor Swish

BRING OUT SLATER AND JINDER TO HOIST HIM ON THEIR SHOULDERS

Harry Longabaugh

Titus’ brain just tripped under the philosophical ring apron.

ML Kennedy

Otis and Mandy have an “every sitcom husband and wife from the last 30 years” kinda vibe.

Juwave

A Randy Orton match going way too long… and you guys said the epidemic would ruin all their plans.

And there you have it: the Best and Worst of WrestleMania 36, the strangest and most unprecedented WrestleMania in history. An act in three parts.

As always, thank you, thank you, thank you for reading and enjoying these. Times are hard, and knowing y’all are still around checking these out, joking with us, and sharing the columns not only keeps us employed, it keeps his going, period. We couldn’t do it without you, and right now is proof of that. If you liked any of these, give them a share on social and drop a comment down below. We’ve got one more show — the “Raw After WrestleMania,” which will DEFINITELY not be what we’re used to — and we’re on to WrestleMania Hollywood.

CLICK HERE to read The Best and Worst of WrestleMania 36: Night One

CLICK HERE to read about the Firefly Funhouse Match