If you grew up on the Magic School Bus, you probably took away two things – 1) it’s possible to fit a school bus inside the human body as long as magic is involved and 2) coordinating your outfits with your lesson plan is both a fashion statement and a way to engage students.
But not everyone is thrilled about the idea of a grown woman dressing up for educational purposes, because maybe some people just hate joy? A man took to Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole” forum to complain about his preschool teacher girlfriend’s work outfits, saying, “she dresses like Ms. Frizzle.”
According to the man, she’ll wear “a dress with the pattern of whatever they are studying. She makes a lot of them herself, now including matching masks.” He might be the only person who has a problem with it, because he admitted, “The kids love it, and the parents seem to think it’s great.”
His (totally false) belief that it’s okay to dictate how his girlfriend dresses led to a fight. “On Friday, she helped my mom with something after work and she was still in her weird dress. I have told her before I don’t like when she dresses that way, but she tells me I don’t have to like it, but I have no right to tell her how to dress,” he wrote on Reddit.
Not only did he get all weird and controlling about the outfit, he also lied to his girlfriend. “I was upset she went out like that with my mother, and told her that my mom said she was embarrassed and to ask that she please not dress like that again if they’re going out,” he continued.
If you mess with the bull, you’re going to get the horns. And his girlfriend gave the man more than he bargained for. She called his mom to apologize. “My mom was furious, explained she doesn’t have a problem with how my girlfriend dresses and thinks it’s great she spends extra time doing things to engage her students. My mom then yelled at me for lying to my girlfriend and trying to throw her under the bus because I was being an insecure jerk,” he said. Was that a magic school bus she was thrown under?
Even the man’s friend couldn’t stand by him. “My friend said I was horrible and called me trash,” he said. Twitter agreed with the friend.
@AITA_reddit ms frizzle is a style icon sir how dare you
The story has a happy ending. Reddit deemed the man an asshole, but most importantly, his girlfriend deemed him an asshole, too. “I’m sure you all will be pleased to know we broke up tonight. She said I’m too controlling and narrow minded so she broke up with me,” the man posted in an edit. Congrats on your freedom, girl. We wish Ms. Frizzle was this scrappy in the books.The thought and effort that this woman puts into her clothes indicates that she cares so much about her students. TBH, more teachers should probably dress up like their lesson plans. Wouldn’t you have gotten more from AP bio if your teacher was dressed like the circulatory system? It would be really hard to forget where the aorta is located.
Chris Stapleton is set to appear on tonight’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but ahead of that, he popped up on the show a day early to promote his upcoming (fake) holiday album, Chris Stapleton’s A Very COVID Christmas: Holiday Songs For A Pandemic.
In the sketch, Stapleton presents snippets of some of the songs, with the first being “Disinfect The Halls”. The track begins, “Disinfect the halls with sanitizer, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la / Until we get a cure from Pfizer / Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.” Other songs include “Oh, Cover Your Mouth-Hole” (“Oh, cover your mouth hole / I don’t want your droplets”), “Oh, Clorox Wipes” (“Oh, Clorox wipes / My groceries disinfected / My vegetables all taste like bleach”), and “Oh, CDC… Oh, CDC…” (Oh, CDC, oh, CDC / your website is depressing”).
Additionally, anybody who orders the album (which is not possible because it was fabricated for a late-night TV sketch) will get a free copy of Stapleton’s other holiday album, Chris Stapleton’s Chanu-Cough! Holiday Songs For A Pandemic.
Stapleton also had a good night at the CMAs yesterday. In addition to performing, he was nominated for Male Vocalist Of The Year and his “Second One To Know” visual was up for Music Video Of The Year.
Maren Morris has had a busy year following the release of her 2019 sophomore record Girl. Along with winning several awards and breaking streaming records from the album, Morris also gave birth to her first child a few months back. Now taking time to focus on her music, Morris was tapped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to give a soulful late-night performance.
Taking the Mother Church stage in Nashville, Morris appeared in a baby blue getup backed by a full live band to showcase her Girl track “To Hell And Back.” Passionately delivering each lyric with guitar in hand, Morris sang of finally finding someone who accepts her for exactly who she is, baggage and all.
In other Morris news, the singer dedicated her Female Vocalist Of The Year award at last night’s CMAs to all of the talented Black women in country music. During her speech, the singer gave a shout out to singers from the ’70s to the present, mentioning Rhiannon Giddens, Yola, Linda Martell, Rissi Palmer, Mickey Guyton and Brittney Spencer. “There are so many amazing Black women that pioneered and continue to pioneer this genre,” Morris said in her acceptance speech. “I know they’re gonna come after me. They’ve come before me. You’ve made this genre so, so beautiful. I hope you know that we see you. […] Thank you for making me so inspired as a singer in this genre.”
Watch Morris perform “To Hell And Back” on Kimmel above.
“It’s more than a garment of clothing, they start conversations. Art is supposed to make people feel and make them react. I was able to translate that through graphic designs and images and these iconic black figures who I feel are gold in their own right.”
When Brandon Jones started his own streetwear label, Black is Gold, it was less about a desire to jump headfirst into a cruel industry that chews up and spits out young designers and more about making the clothes he wanted to see in the world. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based artist’s first designs were printed versions of his paintings. Eventually, the line became a way for Jones to pay tribute to his alma mater, Howard University.
“When I was in college, I actually couldn’t even afford a lot of the things that were sold in the bookstore,” Jones says, about his choice to use the renowned HBCU’s iconography. “I wanted to create clothing that could be representative of this new push to shine a light on HBCUs, and give people something positive to wear and cool and fashionable and not your typical collegiate wear.”
Black is Gold quickly attracted an audience of like-minded grads who wanted to rep their school in a way that synced with the vibrant styles of modern streetwear. Around the time the pandemic hit, Jones started to build an audience outside of college kids and recent alumni. With growing civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd by police, he pivoted once again — focusing not just on HBCUs, but Black lives and Black leaders.
We linked up with Jones to talk about his design process, the retro looks that inspired Black is Gold, and the power e-commerce has given small streetwear brands amid a global pandemic.
Black Is Gold
Tell me a little bit about Black is Gold and the design ethos and the driving force behind the label?
Overall, I’m an artist. I started off as a painter and graphic designer, creating the designs that way initially. I started finding that I might create a painting that I might not necessarily want to sell, or maybe I think it’s not getting its worth, so I started creating prints, and that lead to clothing. I started putting my art on clothing — simple things like t-shirts and hoodies at first — and the more I got into it the more it blossomed and I embraced it as a full-on clothing line.
I partnered up with other artists who maybe weren’t distributing their art that way and giving them a platform to put their art out as well, and then branching out to colleges, specifically HBCUs.
Where did the label start?
It started in Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s where I’m based. And I go back and forth between here and Oakland, and now LA to expand the brand a little bit more. I just did a product shoot out in LA recently, I’m just trying to get it to coast to coast to get different people wearing different things.
What about that varsity look appeals to you, how are you changing it and updating it for a more modern perspective?
I’m actually an HBCU graduate. I went to Howard, and when I was in college I actually couldn’t even afford a lot of the things that were sold in the bookstore. So it started with me creating things for myself that I wanted to wear, I’d print them myself, create a new design, and go out and about and I’d get a lot of attention and a lot of people asking, “Where did you get that from? Can I get one too?” So I thought, well I might as well go full throttle!
I started with my own college, I already had that base built to test it out and a network there, and I do other HBCUs as well that I’ve been incorporating slowly, but my base has been so strong that I haven’t even had the time to get to other schools and then, of course, you have to deal with licensing issues.
You have to be creative as far as what you use and how you brand it.
Can you take me through the typical design process?
The line originally started as a vintage look. I couldn’t really source out actual vintage things, but I thought, “maybe I can design things that have that look that I don’t see for sale anymore.” It started with me searching archive yearbooks, old photos, getting inspiration from things that people use to wear that maybe got discontinued or can no longer be found in mass production, and trying to recreate or remix that style and that energy because I felt like a lot of people were leaning back towards that and wanted more of a vintage or retro look.
But there wasn’t really anyone creating that, the schools have a lot of lockdowns as far as licensing, and if you do go that route you have certain limits on what you can design because now you’re licensed through the school so you have to represent them in a way they consider tasteful.
But if you know how to create your designs to where they still come off as original but also identifiable for the people who went to that school, you can color outside the lines a little bit more.
Black is Gold
You’re fairly new to the world of fashion, but how does sustainability factor into an emerging line?
A lot of the print providers I’ve worked with are now offering eco-friendly cotton material, recycled material, so I’ve been slowly recently swapping them out when they become available for certain styles. As far as getting inventory and finding things mass-produced, it’s not that heavy on the recycled or eco-friendly yet, but every time a new option is available I switch it up.
You guys are doing a lot of masks, how are those doing sale wise and do you plan on making masks even after this year is over?
The masks really changed everything, to be honest. The masks were instant direct traffic… I already knew it would extend past medical and into fashion. I taught a year out in South Korea. Their pollution issues make it so they still rock the masks even when they have clear air. I foresaw it and was on it early and that boom — before it was mandatory; before it was a political statement. I put them out because I knew this was going to become implemented in fashion. When the masks took off I probably made $20,000 in masks alone. I’m not saying that number as a brag, that’s just to show much of a spike it was, that need and necessity.
7 billion people in the world. If you have this product, you should be able to sell it.
Knowing human nature and individuality, people aren’t going to want to wear the same thing. NFL masks, NBA masks, I got in on it early. The beautiful thing about it was that it generated traffic to other things I had been selling. Things that have been sitting on my site for months now are selling consistently because the masks have brought so many new customers. Now, as they are getting their masks, they’re checking out prints, shirts, pants… A $20 mask order turns into a $300 order and a new customer.
Can you speak on the way that history plays a part in Black is Gold. I’m thinking specifically about the way it was inspired by retro looks, a lot of the designs bring in Black icons like Langston Hughes and Harriet Tubman.
When you hear “gold” you hear the gold standard. You think of excellence, opulence, wealth — this is to curtail stereotypes. The clothing is meant to exemplify people who represented that in the past. Something to let people embody themselves, and the happiness of wearing themselves. Support different independent businesses instead of wearing designers and companies that don’t really do anything for your community or for your kind of self-expression or self-worth.
You can wear things that are representational but can teach at the same time. It’s more than a garment of clothing, they start conversations. It’s not just a brand about black people or blackness, but a certain specific experience — the gold standard.
Because of the pandemic, industries worldwide are changing. In this opportunity how do you hope to see the fashion world change?
I don’t know because I still don’t consider myself in the fashion world yet. But it’s hard to tell, because it’s all contingent on if we’re going to be out socially a lot more and extroverted. Fashion is heavily contingent on showing somebody. Luckily, with social media, we can still be home and post our fits, and things are circulating but I don’t know how long that’s going to last. Maybe people won’t buy new clothes come January. But if things get back to normal, whatever normal is, it’s only going to boom.
One thing it’s doing is making people more comfortable with e-commerce and buying clothes online.
That probably levels the playing field for smaller designers to compete with the larger labels…
People are definitely wanting things that are different. They want to post pictures wearing something that nobody is wearing. As a designer, you have to be contingent upon that.
Like a normal human being with a normal amount of love for the president, former actor Scott Baio spent his Wednesday evening crafting a very special message to Trump. Using a shelf full of candles at a local Michael’s, Baio spelled out the words “Trump is still your president,” and tweeted out a photo of his masterpiece, which caught the president’s eye the next day. Despite having a busy schedule of ignoring the coronavirus and attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Trump retweeted Baio’s work of art along with a special thank you for the Charles in Charge star.
“Thank you Scott, and stay tuned,” Trump wrote. “You are terrific!”
Baio has been an outspoken supporter of the president and is so loyal to Trump, that he recently trashed a Happy Days reunion that raised funds for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “Here’s what I don’t get,” Baio complained to Fox News. “To take a show like Happy Days that represented traditional American values, good morals, a slice of Americana and to use that show and those ideals to promote two people in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that condone, encourage and foment rioting and looting is a little bizarre to me.”
Baio was also the subject of sexual assault and harassment allegations from his former Charles in Charge co-stars Nicole Eggert and Alexander Polinsky. Both actors have accused Baio of inappropriate behavior while they were both minors, and in Polinsky’s case, only 12 years old. Baio has denied the allegations, and the scandal fell out of headlines after the LAPD declined to file charges citing the expired statue of limitations.
Billie Eilish is minutes removed from the debut of her latest single, “Therefore I Am.” She also just sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to talk about the song, and during their chat, Eilish revealed that she sometimes feels like “a parody” of herself.
Eilish explained what she meant be that, saying:
“For most of this year, like the first half of this year, I felt very trapped in my own facade, weirdly. I was having a real problem of… because I kept feeling like a parody of myself, which was crazy and very weird and hard to maneuver. And I don’t really know how I got out of it, but it was very… I mean, it happens occasionally still, but there was a couple of months in there where I was like, everything I wore, I was like, ‘Oh, I look like Billie Eilish.’ Everything I said, everything I did. And then we would make music and I would be like, this feels… I kept feeling like… what’s the word? Inauthentic. Yeah, inauthentic version of myself, because I felt like I was being myself too much.
I go home and I watch myself on TV and hear myself in the store and it’s like, it’s great. It’s just like, I got really in my head because I forgot … Because it was always natural. And so suddenly when it was like a thing that everybody knew about, then I was like, now I feel like I’m trying to be… It was crazy. So yes, I definitely had to kind of get over that hurdle of feeling like a Billie Eilish parody.”
She also shared some excitement about her upcoming album, saying, “I feel good. I’m very, very happy with where I’m at in making music. I love ‘Therefore I Am,’ I love ‘My Future.’ I can’t f*cking wait for people to hear this album that we’re working on. It’s like, oh my God.”
Oh boy. As you are likely aware, Veterans Day happened on Wednesday, and that meant lots of social media shoutouts with the customary “thank you for your service” sentiment attached. In the process of that whirlwind, The Nation’s Ken Klippenstein tricked an ex-Trump official, Richard Grenell (who served as acting director of the U.S. National Intelligence), into giving a shoutout to Klippenstein’s “grandfather” while tweeting a photo of convicted war criminal Bill Calley. For his part, Grenell walked right into that trap with Klippenstein providing receipts.
It’s a sneaky little maneuver but nonetheless funny, given that Grenell was all-too-eager to greet his “huge fan,” and of course, he was neither tipped off by the supplied photo or the claimed name that Klippenstein provided. So, this actually turned into Grenell enthusiastically tweeting, “Thank you for your service, Bill Calley!” Of course, it’s been preserved for all of posterity, and the moment hit CNN as well.
Bill Calley was charged for his acts during the 1968 My Lai Massacre in Vietnam and convicted of personally murdering 22 civilians. He was the only member of his platoon to be convicted and only served house-arrest time (three and a half years) before President Nixon moved to keep him from serving time in an actual prison.
Should Grenell have recognized Calley’s name? Surely. He’s worked for the State Department and in various foreign policy capacities since 2001. It also appears that Klippenstein tried to trick ex-CIA director Michael Hayden (who worked under Obama and George W. Bush), who realized “exactly what was happening,” but “Grenell surely didn’t… He’s an asshole. Again and again.”
I got that too. I know exactly what was happening. Grenell surely didn’t. He’s an asshole. Again and again. https://t.co/yurekucUHV
As for Grenell’s response after the trick, he wasn’t pleased. “Duped. Trying to be helpful to people who reach out on Veteran’s Day,” Grenell wrote. “It’s a shame people would do this on a day like today. DC is a sick city.”
Duped. Trying to be helpful to people who reach out on Veteran’s Day.
It’s a shame people would do this on a day like today.
While the weather in much of the country has been unseasonably warm this autumn, change is in the air. As November rolls on, freezing temperatures and ever-shortening days are sure to drive us all inside. You don’t have to get out your snow boots and parkas just yet, though. Instead, find the closest fireplace and pour yourself a pint of stout.
While much of “seasonality” in spirits and beers feels gimmicky, stouts really are best when it’s cold. Their heavily-malted, coffee-chocolaty notes are deeply warming during the winter and late fall.
To help you find the best stouts to sip until spring arrives, we went to the experts — asking a handful of our favorite bartenders for their picks. Check them out below, you’re sure to find a few new brews to try!
Founders KBS is always a favorite. What better way to warm up than with a 12% imperial stout, Throw some chocolate and coffee in there and shove the whole thing in a bourbon barrel.
Chris Johnson, beverage director, Oaxaca Taqueria in New York City
Oskar Blues Ten Fiddy Imperial Stout. 10.5% abv to warm you up and the dark malt lends coffee and caramel notes for days. Perfect by a fire, either indoors or preferably while out camping to enjoy the fall colors.
Left Hand Brewing Milk Stout. I particularly enjoy it on nitro, as the silky, creamy quality is delicious, and just what I’m looking for on a cooler day. It’s got those delicious notes of chocolate, coffee, and malt that I’m looking for in a stout, and the smoothness that makes it easy to drink.
Darwin Brewing, amongst their killer spread of all things hopped, has an Imperial Stout with cold brew coffee — Apparent Motion. Aged in rum barrels, it kicks off with a nice spice and has a big boozy punch, but all of that is wrapped up in some smooth cold brew vibes.
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout is the perfect beer to crack open when the temperature starts falling. The barrel aging imparts great vanilla and oak notes to complement the rich chocolate flavor you usually find in a stout.
Mother’s Brewery Winter Grind
Andy Printy, beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis
My go-to stout for this season is Winter Grind from Mother’s Brewery! It’s made with coffee from a local roaster, Mudhouse, and lots of barley. It’s essentially a cold-brewed coffee with an ABV that finishes with balanced and malty dryness.
Angry Chair Barrel-Aged Adjunct Trail
Seth Falvo, bartender at The Hotel Zamora in St. Pete Beach, Florida
Those familiar with Florida breweries know that Angry Chair is one of our absolute best. And while they make a ton of amazing stouts, I usually opt for something barrel-aged as the weather gets cooler. Their Barrel-Aged Adjunct Trail has tons of hazelnut, coconut, dark chocolate, and coffee throughout it, complemented nicely by the oak barrels. Very much worth a trip to Tampa.
Black is Beautiful. This beer was created by Weathered Souls in Texas and has developed into a worldwide collaboration with over 1,100 breweries and 20 countries worldwide. This beer is a stout created to support equality and inclusion for people of color. Proceeds of this beer are donated to a local fund, for each location, to support policy brutality reform, equality, and inclusion for all people of color. Each brewery uses a basic stout recipe directly from Weathered Souls but puts its twist on the beer.
I have had a few different variations. They are all unique and delicious. It’s available in all states as well.
Wawa Winter Reserve Coffee Stout
Alex Clark, bartender at Square 1682 in Philadelphia
I dig Wawa Winter Reserve Coffee Stout. Wawa Winter Reserve Coffee Stout has become a new go-to for winter. This beer is nicely balanced with oat and chocolate flavors alongside the flavor of Wawa’s roasted coffee.
Harpoon Nana’s Nightcap
Roberto Berdecia, bartender at La Factoria in San Juan, Puerto Rico
That’s an easy one, Harpoon Nana’s Nightcap. Great balance of flavors. Vanilla, cinnamon, oatmeal & raisins
The holiday season is quickly approaching, and though this year’s celebrations will look vastly different, musicians are holding onto some semblance of normalcy by rolling out Christmas songs. So far, Jonas Brothers and Carly Rae Jepsen have already joined in with holiday jingles, and now, Sharon Van Etten is throwing her own Christmas music into the mix.
On Thursday, Van Etten shared her brooding covers of the two holiday classics “Silent Night” and “Blue Christmas.” The covers are just now hitting streaming services, but they are actually over ten years old. Van Etten originally recorded her versions of “Silent Night” and “Blue Christmas” back in 2009 to appear on the benefit album Do You Ear What I Ear. Proceeds from the compilation record were given to the Association To Benefit Children, a New York-based organization dedicated to permanently breaking the cycles of abuse, neglect, sickness, and homelessness among disadvantaged children and their families.
Announcing the songs’ arrival on streaming services, Van Etten wrote, “The holidays are just around the corner & since I’m always late to the party, I thought I’d share 2 holiday songs I recorded, ‘Silent Night’ & ‘Blue Christmas.’
The holidays are just around the corner & since I’m always late to the party, I thought I’d share 2 holiday songs I recorded, “Silent Night” & “Blue Christmas”. Thank you to Niccolò Debole for creating this beautiful artwork. Both songs are available now.https://t.co/kfhXIhuuLWpic.twitter.com/VOj8bNRVfH
This isn’t the first occasion this year that Van Etten has shared some previously unreleased music. Back in September, Van Etten dug through her musical archive to release the 2015 B-side “All Over Again” on streaming services.
Listen to Van Etten’s renditions of “Silent Night” and “Blue Christmas” above.
Earlier this week, Billie Eilish teased a new single, “Therefore I Am.” Now, right on schedule, the song has arrived and it’s accompanied by a self-directed video.
The tune features the classic Eilish combination of bounciness and dark edge, and she sings on the hook, “I’m not your friend or anything / Damn, you think that you’re the man / I think, therefore, I am.”
The video starts with Eilish silently walking through an empty mall… the Glendale Galleria, specifically, a spot where Eilish spent plenty of time in her early teenage years. Eventually, the song kicks in, at which point Eilish runs through the mall, sings the song at the camera, and snags free pretzels, donuts, and other food court fare. At the end of the clip, somebody who is presumably a security guard shouts at Eilish to leave, and she runs out of the building with a smile.
There isn’t any sort of concrete news about a new album from Eilish yet, although Finneas recently revealed when he hopes Eilish’s next LP will be released, saying, “Billie’s album, and my album, they won’t be a bummer COVID record. I have a desperate desire not to release them during COVID-19. It’s the vaccine record! I want it to be the album everyone’s out dancing in the streets to.”
Watch the “Therefore I Am” video above.
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