Month: July 2021

George W. Bush was President of the United States the last time the Detroit Pistons won a playoff game. It’s been more than 13 years since the last great era of Detroit basketball faded, replacing a dynasty typified by hard-nosed defense and physicality that reflected the city it called home with a series of stopgaps and failures. Players like Rodney Stuckey, Charlie Villaneuva, Greg Monroe, and Andre Drummond were purported saviors of the floundering franchise, but in the end, they were nothing more than false idols.

For more than a decade, the Pistons traded poorly, chased the wrong free agents, and seemingly always made the wrong pick in the Draft. In 2011, they picked Kentucky guard Brandon Knight eighth over Kemba Walker, who went one spot later. In 2013, it was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope—then seen as a reach—over another shooting guard, CJ McCollum. Two years after that, when faced with a choice between Justise Winslow, Stanley Johnson, and Devin Booker, Detroit opted for Johnson, whose most notable moment in the pros came when he said he was in LeBron James’s head. He said this after the Cleveland Cavaliers beat them in a playoff game in a series they would go on to sweep. And in 2017, needing a player he thought could contribute immediately, then-president of basketball operations and head coach Stan Van Gundy selected Luke Kennard over Donovan Mitchell.

Even when the Pistons did make the right choice—like in 2012 and 2014, when they snagged Khris Middleton and Spencer Dinwiddie, respectively, in the second round—the endings were still unhappy. Middleton was moved to Milwaukee in his second season as part of a package for Brandon Jennings. Dinwiddie was flipped to Chicago for Cameron Bairstow, who played 36 games in his NBA career, zero of which came with the Pistons. Each front office decision—dating back to the calamitous trade that sent Chauncey Billups to Denver in exchange for Allen Iverson, through the hiring of Troy Weaver as general manager last summer—painted Pistons executives as the kind of folks who shot themselves in the foot, stared at it for a while, then fired another bullet in there, just for good measure.

But in the midst of a pandemic, a regime change, and another lost season, some hope started to emerge. Weaver’s first Draft class—Killian Hayes (no. 7), Isaiah Stewart (16), and Saddiq Bey (19)—blossomed in their inaugural season, with the latter two prospects making the All-Rookie team. Hayes, saddled with injury, showed flashes of his potential in the closing weeks of the season. And free agent signings originally lambasted as reckless, like the 3-year, $60 million contract awarded to Jerami Grant and 3-year, $25 million deal gifted to Mason Plumlee, turned out well. Plumlee was one of the most efficient offensive big men in the league, and Grant was an All-Star and Most Improved Player candidate.

Sure, the Pistons limped their way to the second-worst record in the NBA. But for the first time in years, they seemed to be bad on purpose. It wasn’t The Process, but there was a plan in place. The pieces on the roster weren’t cobbled together with the goal of maybe reaching the first round, only to be swept by a far superior squad. There was logic behind the choices. Plumlee was here to give Hayes a consistent post presence to feed to facilitate his development. Grant was a high-potential veteran looking to make good on his first shot at the limelight after showing glimpses of it during his prior postseason run with the Denver Nuggets. And even Bey and Stewart were nothing more than fliers in the mid-first round. Blake Griffin, who very obviously didn’t want to be there, was bought out. Put another way: The Pistons, who’d so often seemed to build rosters with the same amount of foresight as people who decide what to order as a waiter approaches their table, had begun following a plan.

The thing about a plan is it’s theoretical. The pieces can fit in your head, but making it work on the court is another matter entirely. The 2004 championship team—itself a collection of misfit toys—was proof of what can happen when those gears interlock smoothly. The 2010s were an example of what happens when they don’t. While so much of this comes down to luck, there is an element of being in control of your own destiny, and the Pistons were masters of being their own worst enemy.

By selecting Cade Cunningham with the first pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Detroit has a chance to make good on a decade of failure, and see through a rebuild in earnest. Cunningham is one of the best prospects that has come into the league in the last decade. In his lone season at Oklahoma State, Cunningham scored 20.1 points per night on 40 percent three-point shooting, despite often facing double teams and being surrounded by poor shooters. He carried the Cowboys to a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the Big 12 championship game.

Some scouts see him as a Ben Simmons with a jumper or a player with shades of guys like Luka Doncic, Grant Hill, and Paul George, the sort of jumbo creator—both for himself and others—that all 30 teams covet. Any of those outcomes would radically alter the Pistons’ future. After nearly a decade and a half of sub-mediocrity, there’s hope in Detroit. The rebuild has a centerpiece: one who could make a claim as the team’s most talented draft pick since Hill was taken in 1994.

What happens now is straightforward: Cunningham will don a Pistons hat, sign some paperwork, and smile for photos. He’ll travel to Detroit and eventually meet his teammates—the collection of players who will, for better or worse, have a greater impact on whether he reaches his sky-high potential than any other he’s ever shared a floor with. At some point, he’ll likely scan up to the rafters, and notice championship banners and retired numbers. And that’s when the real fun begins.

There’s a moment in Green Knight in which Dev Patel’s character consumes mushrooms, which is something of a throwaway scene in the film, but a fitting metaphor for David Lowery’s style. No other living director makes me feel so much like I’ve taken mushrooms. In the same way psilocybin forces you to reevaluate familiar objects and situations through the eyes of a baby, David Lowery’s movies make me feel like I’m watching my first movie. All the familiar hallmarks are there, but it never settles into anything resembling a predictable pattern.

I don’t enjoy any other filmmaker so abstract or so self-consciously arty, nor could I entirely articulate Lowery’s purpose in any given scene. Words fail, and that’s part of his power. I’m left with an unmistakable feeling: this was a good trip.

Dev Patel plays Sir Gawain. Or rather just Gawain, he’s not yet a Knight when we meet him, just a carousing wannabe, whose first battle is with a hangover as he attempts to make his way from brothel to castle. Alicia Vikander plays Gawain’s chivalric fuckbuddy, Essel, with peasant’s accent and pageboy hair, with Sarita Choudhury as his disapproving but supportive mother. In a cast that’s perfect from top to bottom, Sean Harris plays the frail king (real ones among us remember him as a bisexual killer for hire in The Borgias) with Kate Dickie (the breastfeeding helicopter mom from the Eyrie in Game Of Thrones) as his queen. (Both actors must have faces that just scream “Dark Ages.”)

On a dark and misty Christmas night, this benevolently paternal king asks young Gawain, whose name the king pronounces “Gar-wynn” for some reason and no one corrects him because he’s the king, if Gawain will sit at the king’s table. Shortly after receiving this honor, an enormous, tree-like knight — “that’s the Green Knight,” you can whisper to your date — enters the hall on horseback to issue a challenge. He dares any of the king’s men to land a blow on him. But it comes with a twist: whatever blow the knight shall land, that knight must travel to the Green Chapel in exactly one year’s time and present himself before the Green Knight, who will return the blow unchallenged. Gawain accepts. He lands his blow, and fulfilling the second half of the challenge becomes both his quest and his dilemma.

What does it mean? Who is the Green Knight and what is his purpose? Can he be cheated? Trusted? What does it mean to renege or to fulfill this promise? Gawain soon sets off on his four-day journey to the Green Chapel, encountering along the way people and situations every bit as abstruse and spooky as the Green Knight himself. There’s a mischievous, corpse-robbing urchin boy played by Barry Keoghan (whose face, a pale pumpkin with slits for eyes, is one of the most compelling), an apparition searching for her head, and a fox that seems to guide the way.

A friend once said, after we’d watched Inside Llewyn Davis, that “every movie should have a magical cat.”

I agree with this, and in The Green Knight, virtually every character is a magical cat. David Lowery might himself be a magical cat. Like Lowery’s 2017 movie, A Ghost Story, Green Knight is something of a riff on mortality. Yet whereas I nearly walked out of A Ghost Story during the seven-minute shot of Rooney Mara morosely eating pie (I was eventually glad that I didn’t), there’s nothing in Green Knight that feels artificially puffed up or derivative of other arthouse cinema in the way that shot did. The narrative jumps around in time and place without the usual signposts, with a logic that’s more lateral than it is linear. The beauty of Green Knight is that it’s so fully realized on every level — score, cinematography, production design, acting — that even when you don’t know entirely what Lowery is on about you can’t look away. It’s almost as if every individual shot has a narrative arc unto itself. It’s so compelling on a micro level that the “big picture” becomes irrelevant. You stop worrying “what does this mean” and “where is this going” and simply savor the moment, like a creature of pure sensual pleasure. Like I said, mushrooms.

This question of the Green Knight, based on an Arthurian poem whose meaning scholars have debated since the 13th century, his greenness, and what he represents — life, death, the devil, entropy — is at the heart of Gawain’s quest. Which becomes, essentially, his search for the meaning of life. As Gawain strives after the chivalric virtues of love, honor, greatness, he’s forced to ponder what they truly mean. Is he actually willing to risk his life to obtain some abstract trophy? Is honor a feeling, a way of life, or simply an external challenge to complete? He ponders, essentially, what we in the modern age we might call “adulting.”

On paper, this abstract meditation on The Meaning Of Everything from David Lowery and A24 might sound like A24 at its most A24iest. What makes it great is that while Green Knight might be abstract, lateral, impressionistic — it’s also decidedly un-cerebral. This is as close as abstract expressionism comes to being a crowd-pleaser. Whereas similarly celebrated movies like First Cow have a tendency to treat sex like it’s something you read about in the New Yorker, passion is Green Knight‘s lifeblood. And it’s hard to mistake what the film is actually about, even if it’s delivered in a non-traditional form and structure.

Alicia Vikander shows up in a few places as different characters, like a haunting melody Gawain can’t quite forget. Vikander is so good it’s hard to describe. She’s liquid metal, nothing short of a revelation in both roles. She and Dev Patel have real chemistry. Most important of all, when the climactic moments come, David Lowery never looks away.

He’s conveying his thoughts, fears, obsessions in ways I’ve never seen before, reinventing the cinematic language as he goes along. What must this have looked like on paper? It’s impossible to imagine. No one facet of the film — writing, lighting, direction, design — really works without any other, yet they’re perfect just so. It’s a work that could seemingly only exist in the precise format in which it’s delivered. The best art is like that.

‘The Green Knight’ is out today in theaters nationwide. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

It isn’t often you get to write about watching a rap star literally eating ass in a new video without incurring a potential invasion of privacy lawsuit, but in the case of Tyga‘s new video for “Mrs. Bubblegum,” that’s exactly what happens. The… ahem… cheeky video finds the West Coast rap star surrounded by disembodied derrieres in a variety of hilarious situations including on a Mount Rushmore, as a member of Blue Man Group (the butts are drums, natch), dining on the aforementioned rump roast (served on a fancy plate!), and being swarmed by BUTTerflies. Sorry, I’ll stop now.

The song itself samples D4L’s snap-era ringtone classic “Laffy Taffy,” and if you listen closely, you can actually hear some of the vocals from that song’s inescapable hook. Tyga repurposes that hook, rewriting the lyrics from “shake that Laffy Taffy” to “shake that ass for me,” imploring listeners to imitate the gyrating, disembodied gluteuses that populate the video. Is it kind of crass? Absolutely. It’s also so irreverent and silly, it’s hard to get too mad at him. Meanwhile, his recent career resurgence has included a number of strip club anthems and an OnlyFans account. He’s certainly having himself a ride, at least he can laugh at himself along the way.

Watch the “Mrs. Bubblegum” video above.

So you want to drink more wine but you don’t feel like actually going out and buying it? You, my friend, are not the only one who isn’t always in the mood to search through store aisles or endlessly scroll on delivery apps to get good vino. I, too, wish an array of bottles would just magically appear at my doorstep from time to time.

Believe it or not, this is an actual possibility. There’s a way you can score a variety of bottles — a whole case even! — without ever leaving your home to purchase them, without needing to pick the specific style or varietal of wine. How, you ask, can one benefit from such a great service?

Easy. Join a wine club.

Whether you’re a wine newbie looking to expand your palate or a seasoned enthusiast on the hunt for more obscure, you’ll-never-find-this-in-a-store bottles, there are plenty of wine clubs that ship curated cases of wines to people across America month after month. Some of them even host virtual hangouts for members as well as various other interactive events like club-wide wine tastings with some of the country’s most celebrated sommeliers.

To help pick the club that’s right for you, we scoured through some of the coolest wine clubs online. And because we love a little competition, we ranked them all based on the price and quality of the club. Additional info on how you can sign up is linked in the price points.

Now off to the clubs!

10. Flight Cru

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Membership Price: $208 – $389

The Club:

This is a club that those just beginning their wine journey will appreciate. Not only does it provide members with a mix of six or 12 bottles every month — from wineries in every corner of the world, at that — it helps drinkers advance their wine knowledge with tasting notes, monthly group tastings (virtual, for now), private one-on-one tastings with Flight Cru’s sommelier and access to wine tours and events.

The whole point of Flight Cru is to expose drinkers to wines from all over the world and give them the opportunity to experience regions in more ways than just with a glass.

Members can sign up for a Short Term Visa membership for $208, which gets them six bottles of wine over the course of three months. The Long Term Visa membership for $389 gets members 12 bottles of wine shipped out over a six-month span.

Bottom Line:

If you want to gain a deeper understanding of various wine regions (and possibly visit them), this club can teach you everything you need to know, on top of possibly helping you foster a community of wine friends through monthly tasting events.

9. Wine Access

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Membership Price: $150, quarterly

The Club:

The wines included in boxes from Wine Access are picked by a certified master sommelier, a master of wine, and an International Wine judge every month. Sometimes, the trio sends recommendations sourced from Michelin-star somms and some of the world’s most celebrated winemakers. All that to say, you’ll be receiving some top-notch bottles from all around the world, should you join Wine Access.

There are two clubs to choose from. First is the Discovery Club, in which subscribers receive six bottles — either all reds or a mixed box of red and white wines — from renowned wineries. Then there’s the Connoisseurs Club, which gets members two luxury bottles of red wine — I’m talking the finest wines of the world, the stuff you’re going to want to save for a few years and pop during a celebratory moment.

Both clubs send members wine four times throughout the year. And with every box, members will get access to video tasting notes and insights from the wine experts at Wine Access, as well as invitations to occasional group tasting events.

Plus subscribers can always go on the club’s site and buy individual bottles, should they fall in love with something included in their box and want to purchase more. There are hundreds upon hundreds of options in Wine Access’ bountiful wine library.

Bottom Line:

The options at Wine Access are nearly limitless, which means no two boxes are ever the same. This is the club when you want variety all the time, every time.

8. Cellar 503

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Membership Price: $40 – $50

The Club:

Okay, this wine club is hella specific. And by specific, I mean that this club only ships out bottles of wine made in Oregon. Whether a box of chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, sparkling rosé — whatever — it’s always and only ever going to be by Oregon from Oregon.

The state’s Willamette Valley in particular is home to some pretty spectacular wineries. But for some reason, it can be a challenge to finding good Oregon-made bottles in grocery stores and other places where wine is sold. This club is the solution for that and a gateway to exploring the wines of the Pacific Northwest.

Here’s the skinny on the club: Members can choose a Red Wine Club subscription and get two bottles of some fabulous Oregon offering for $55 a month. The White Wine Club offers two bottles of Oregon-made whites for $45 a month. And the Mixed Wine Club gets subscribers a bottle of red and a bottle of white for just $50 a month.

Bottom Line:


You should be drinking more wine from Oregon. This club is the perfect way to start doing that.

7. Williams Sonoma Wine Club

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Membership Price: $90 or $210

The Club:

Have you entered the Williams Sonoma chapter of your life? Do you find yourself entering the store or filling your online shopping carts with glassware, plates, cast iron skillets, and more gourmet cookware sold at the kitchen and home emporium?

Well, then obviously, you’ll be interested in boxes of wine picked for you by William Sonoma’s elite league of sommeliers and wine professionals.

You get two options here: The Explorer Wine Club, which gives members a six-bottle box of wines sourced from around the globe for $90 a month, and the $210-a-month Entertainer Wine Club that comes with six bottles of occasion-worthy wines and bottles made for cellaring.

Bottom Line:

You’re going to need some wine to pair with the roasted chicken you plan to make with that Le Creuset dutch oven you bought during quarantine. This is the club to join when you want to take the easy approach and have someone else pick that bottle (and send it) for you.

6. Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Wine Club

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Membership Price: $39 – $249, monthly

The Club:

Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant is one of the biggest French and Italian fine-wine importers in the world. So naturally, a club created by the company is going to give subscribers access to some of the best wines of those regions.

There are many types of clubs for members to participate in under the Kermit Lynch umbrella.

For $39 a month, members can get two bottles of wine from France and Italy through The Adventures Club package. Then there’s Club Rouge for $69 a month, which, as the name suggests, focuses on red wines while for $89 a month, members can get two bottles of white wine through Club Bianco.

If two bottles aren’t enough, there’s Club Chevalier. For $249, members can get a box full of artesian, rare, and aged wines every other month. Good luck getting on that waiting list though!

Bottom Line:

If you seek excellence in a bottle, this wine club is surely where you will find it.

5. Plonk Wine Club

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Membership Price: $110 for four-bottle subscriptions, $160 for six-bottle subscriptions, and $285 for 12-bottle subscriptions

The Club:

All the wines shipped to Plonk Wine Club members are sourced from small-production wineries that specialize in organic, biodynamic wine.

The club is especially good at highlighting and showcasing some of the realllllyyyy good wines being produced in untapped regions of the world like Greece and Croatia, and wine made from grapes that hardly ever get a spot on shelves at stores. Looking to try some Hungarian Hárslevelű? This is the wine club that can get you a bottle of that.

Members can choose to take part in the monthly Red Wine Club, Mixed Wine Club, or White Wine Club, and they can choose how many bottles they want to receive in each shipment—four, six, or 12?

Even payment is customizable. Members can opt for a monthly plan and get a new box of wine shipped out every month, or they can opt for subscriptions that will send out wine three or six times a year.

Bottom Line:

This is the wine club to join when you’re tired of the same-old-same and want to excite your tastebuds with quality wine that you likely won’t find at your local wine shop or grocery store.

4. Natural Action Wine Club

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Membership Price: $150 quarterly

The Club:

If you want to drink and make the world a better, more inclusive place, then this is the wine club for you.

The folks at Natural Action Wine Club work with a different natural wine producer for each box, and they are really specific in their choosing. Winemakers must meet the club’s “critical” sustainable and ethical standards to have their bottles included — standards centered around promoting inclusivity, sustainable farming methods, and employment opportunities for the BIPOC community.

Members receive four bottles of wine in a box four times a year along with information regarding the history and community impact efforts of each winery.

What’s even better, the club’s profits from memberships go directory scholarships and programs that will provide jobs, internships, and apprenticeships for BIPOC people.

Bottom Line:

This is wine drinking for a good cause. What’s not to love about that?

3. Winc

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Membership Price: $59.99 monthly

The Club:

Take a quick quiz and Winc’s experts will compile a box of four wines tailored to your palate. All of the wine mailed out each month is sourced and produced by Winc’s own in-house winemakers, and the bottles sent to members are picked by the club’s sommeliers.

What’s great about this club — aside from the array of fruity, zippy, earthy, and easy-drinking wines mailed out each month — is that members can rate the wines they like and don’t like, which helps the somms get a better idea of what type of wines to send next month. Members also get access to Winc’s forever-expanding wine library, so if they want to tac on bottles of their choosing, they can do that too.

Not a fan of a bottle sent? No problem. Winc has a refund policy for wines not enjoyed. Members also have the option to skip a month when they don’t need a box.

Bottom Line:

Can’t beat a box full of good wine for $59.99.

2. Winestyr

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Membership Price: Between $99 and $649 per shipment

The Club:

Whether you’re only starting your wine journey or deep in the game, this is an all-around great wine club for people who want to drink great wine. Boxes are curated by sommeliers, and all the wine comes from actual, viable wineries. This means there’s no guessing where the grapes come from, who makes the wine, or any of that other sketchy business some wine clubs fall prey to.

Subscribers have some options with this one. There are four different tiers of memberships all based on what type of wine you want to receive. There’s the All Reds package, which, obviously is all red wines. There’s an All Whites package, and for those who like to shake things up, a Mixed package. Drinkers who are mostly looking to upgrade their personal cellars can get down with the Collectors package — the most expensive membership but worth it for those looking for rare and high-scoring red wines.

For each package, members can choose how many bottles of wine they want to receive per shipment — three, six, or 12. Prices vary for each with. However, members have the option to receive shipments 12 times a year, six times a year, or four. Folks can also go on Winestyr’s website and buy individual bottles at a discounted price at their leisure.

Bottom Line:

Guaranteed quality wine from quality producers across the globe, plus purchase flexibility, and access to exclusive library wines, discounts, member events, and virtual tastings — what’s not to love about Winestyr?

1. Eater Wine Club

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Membership Price: Four bottles per month for $100 or 2 bottles a month for $70

The Club:

Eater’s wine club takes interaction to another level. Every month, subscribers are sent either four or two unique bottles of wine curated by a wine professional from an Eater-selected restaurant.

The chosen wine expert for the month not only chooses the wine for club members based on a theme of their choice, but they also guide members through the club’s virtual tasting for the month. For example, May’s box of goods was picked by San Diego sommelier Chelsea Coleman, who runs the natural wine shop Rose. Back in March, Rania Zayat — who we spoke to about her change-making, inclusive wine organization LiftCollective — guided subscribers through the islands of the Mediterranean and Aegean seas with wines sourced from Sardinia and Sicily.

The wines are almost always bottles you’ve never heard of but will want to add to your rotation, and the virtual club tasting is a total blast. Seriously! There are games, breakout sessions where you get to interact virtually with other members and Eater peeps, thoughtful discussions, pairing notes, and a lit chat box that goes all the way up with comments and debates amongst attendees.

Bottom Line:

Eater’s Wine Club is more than just a box of wine dropped off at the door — it’s a whole community. If you’re looking for interesting wines with the help of an actual wine expert to guide you through each of them, then this is the club for you. Not to mention all the new wine friends you’ll make along the way.

Following Johnny Depp losing his libel suit against The Sun, which ruled that the media outlet’s headline was “substantially true” when it called him a “wife beater,” the actor was immediately forced to resign from Fantastic Beasts 3. This chain of events caused his notoriously aggressive online fans to launch an effort to get Amber Heard fired from Aquaman 2 in retaliation. Despite the social media pile-on, in November 2020, Heard made it clear that the “paid campaigns” didn’t work “because they have no basis in reality,” and that she was set to film the Aquaman sequel.

Unfortunately, Heard’s confirmation that she was still in the Aquaman 2 cast didn’t stop the online campaign, and persistent rumors continued that she was set to be replact. Of course, those rumors proved to be baseless speculation as Clarke joined the cast of Marvel’s Secret Invasion, and Heard has since been spotted on the set of the Aquaman sequel, which is currently filming.

Now, Aquaman producer Peter Safran has cemented Heard’s job security even further by making it clear that the campaigns launched by Johnny Depp fans was never going to affect her role as Mera. Via Deadline:

“I don’t think we’re ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure,” said Safran whose James Gunn The Suicide Squad movie hits theaters and HBO Max on Aug. 6.

“You gotta do what’s best for the movie,” continued Safran, “We felt that if it’s James Wan, and Jason Momoa, it should be Amber Heard. That’s really what it was.”

“One is not unaware of what is going on in the Twitter-verse, but that doesn’t mean you have to react to it or take it as gospel or accede to their wishes,” said Safran.

The next time you see #JusticeForJohnnyDepp trending, as it so randomly does, just know that Heard was correct the first time when she said it has no basis in reality.

(Via Deadline)

In a better world, Florence Pugh would already be deeply installed in the MCU. Black Widow, in which she debuted her character, Yelena Belova, was supposed to kick off the summer 2020 movie season. Then forces conspired to bump it over a year. In fact, Marvel is only now filming the second thing she’s supposed to be in Hawkeye, the franchise’s next spin-off show, for Disney+. Back in December we learned Pugh would be among the show’s cast, and from a new social media post, it’s clear she’s more than anxious to get back in action.

The actress took to Instagram, re-posting a first look image from the show dropped by Entertainment Weekly. It shows star Jeremy Renner, reprising his bow-and-arrow sharp-shooting Avenger, as well as Hailee Steinfeld, who will play his protégée, Kate Bishop.

“I now want a bow and arrow,” Pugh wrote, adding, “Muchos love to @haileesteinfeld and @jeremyrenner, can’t wait to see you there.” She also mentioned the premiere date: Nov. 24.

Not that Pugh’s Yelena will just be chilling with Hawkeye and his mentee. The show finds her trying to hunt him down, blaming him for the death of her faux-sister, Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, in Avengers: Endgame. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Pugh’s on-screen not-quite-sibling just sued her employers at Disney over the way they released Black Widow. So maybe Pugh thought the MCU was in need of some good vibes.

More and more it feels like it’s Lin-Manuel Miranda’s vibrant, musical world and we’re all just living in it. Fresh off the success of HBO’s In The Heights, we now have a trailer for Sony and Netflix’s latest collaboration Vivo. The animated musical follows “one-of-a-kind kinkajou” Vivo (voiced by Miranda) as he leaves his Cuban home on a mission to deliver a love song his elderly owner Andrés wrote for the love of his life, Marta, before it’s too late. However, in true animated family film fashion, the journey is anything but short and sweet, and Vivo is faced with countless colorful personalities and just as many obstacles. Luckily for us, Miranda is also providing a handful of original songs for the film as well, making the perilous journey a lot more fun.

In addition to Miranda, Vivo features the vocal talents of Gloria Estefan, Buena Vista Social Club’s Juan De Marcos, Zoe Saldaña, Ynairaly Simo, Michael Rooker, Katie Lowes, Leslie David Baker, and more. The film is written by Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights) with The Croods’ Kirk DeMicco and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2’s Brandon Jeffords co-directing, and Tony and Grammy winner Alex Lacamoire (The Greatest Showman) serving as its composer and executive music producer. The Netflix original exclusive hits the streaming service August 6, and promise to offer an “exhilarating story about gathering your courage, finding family in unlikely friends, and the belief that music can open you to new worlds.”

The last time rap fans heard from Houston rapper Maxo Kream was 2019, when he dropped his critically-acclaimed second album Brandon Banks, which I called a “masterful character study” in my review. Since then, he’s taken something of a hiatus as he mourned the death of his brother and regrouped for his eventual comeback. That comeback arrives today with the release of “Local Joker,” Maxo’s first solo single since early 2020, and its sentimental music video.

In the song, Maxo recounts his Houston upbringing, telling tall tales of his days doing knucklehead activities in the hood and taking stock of his experiences’ effect on the person he is today. In a press release announcing the new song, he provided a quote explaining his mindset in recording and sharing it. “‘Local Joker’ explains where I’m at in my life right now,’” he said. ” love Houston, I’m from Houston. My merch is Houston-focused. My music has a strong Houston influence — everything is Houston, it’s local. You can catch me in any part of Houston with the local jokers – but at the same time, I’m not a local joker because I’ve grown and expanded the territory that I touch. But home will always be home- and that’s Houston, Alief, fasho.”

Watch the “Local Joker” video above and stay tuned for more from the return of Maxo Kream.

Today marks the premiere of Watch The Sound With Mark Ronson, a new Apple+ documentary series. In it, Ronson and guests explore groundbreaking technologies that have impacted the music industry, and each episode ends with Ronson creating a song based on the techniques discussed in the episode. Alongside the show, those songs have been released on their own via the Watch The Sound soundtrack. That’s out now, and it features contributions from Paul McCartney, DJ Premier, Wale, Jónsi, Diana Gordon, Gary Numan, King Princess, Santigold, and Kathleen Hanna.

Ronson recently told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of the show, “It is my dream TV show. After a lot of hours and hours of brainstorming and rambling and talking around it, we were just like, ‘Let’s do six episodes, six subjects — reverb, distortion, synth, sampling, drum machines, and Auto-Tune — and talk about how they revolutionized music and talk to the people who did your favorite stuff on them.’”

He also said of recording with McCartney, “He was going to put acoustic guitar down on [‘Alligator’ from McCartney’s 2013 album New], and he was like, ‘It sounds like an acoustic guitar, but I want it to sound like a record, as if you just put the needle down.’ […] That quote has stayed with me more than anything. That quote from Paul McCartney was almost the ethos of Watch The Sound as a show. […] In music, the most important thing is always going to be the song, the vocal, the performance. But then you go to that next level where you talk about arrangements, sonics, the kick, the snare, the 808. And that’s the thing that makes the difference between a really good song and an iconic recording, something we remember forever. Like, when the needle goes down on track one, you’re like, “Oh, sh*t.” So that quote from Paul definitely, even though I hadn’t thought about it before, is kind of like the symbolic fortune cookie statement of the show.”

Stream the Watch The Sound soundtrack above.

Ready for the weekend? Of course, you are. Here’s our weekly dose of good vibes to help you shed the stresses of the workweek and put yourself in a great frame of mind.

These 10 stories made us happy this week because they feature amazing creativity, generosity, and one super-cute fish.

1. Diver befriends a fish with the cutest smile

Hawaiian underwater photographer Yuki Nakano befriended a friendly porcupine fish and now they hang out regularly.

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2. Denver police are handing out gift certificates to auto parts stores instead of ‘fix-it’ tickets

Police in Denver, Colorado have a new program designed to improve public safety as well as the relationship between the police and those they serve. Instead of issuing tickets, officers will now have the option to hand out $25 gift cards in situations where people are pulled over for minor “fix-it” violations.

Read the whole story on Upworthy.

Advance Auto Parts is teaming up with #DPD to increase vehicle safety for motorists in #Denver by providing officer… https://t.co/lZ4Qqsu1MK

— Denver Police Dept. (@DenverPolice)
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3. Stunned wildlife lover set up a camera in a bird box and it got 41 million views

43-year-old John Chadwick started live-streaming footage of birds with their chicks so his family could watch their progress before they flew the nest. But just weeks after uploading the videos to YouTube, he racked up millions of views from around the world. “It’s gone a little bit bonkers,” John said. “I only wanted to show my neighbors, friends, nieces, and nephews what the birds were up to. I had no idea the films would attract such interest.”

UK wildlife fan sets up camera inside bird box- attracting 41 MILLION fans worldwide! | SWNS

www.youtube.com

4. Dad with impaired mobility can walk his newborn after crafty teens built him a ‘wheestroll’

Jeremy King, 37, of Germantown, Maryland has experienced difficulty with his balance after having surgery for a brain tumor. To help him take his newborn on a walk, a group of students at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland built him a “wheelstroll,” a car seat attachment that connects to his wheelchair.

Read the whole story at Upworthy.

High School Students Create Wheelchair Stroller for Teacher’s Husband

www.youtube.com

5. American gymnast Suni Lee made history, winning gold in the all-around

Suni Lee, 18, a Team USA member from Minnesota, became the Olympic all-around gymnastics champion on Thursday. Lee is the first Hmong American athlete to ever compete in the Olympics and the first Asian American to win the gold in the Olympics’ all-around competition. “It feels super crazy, I definitely didn’t think I’d be here in this moment with the gold medal,” Lee said after her win. “I’m just super proud of myself for making it here because there was a point in time when I wanted to quit.”

Read the whole story at Upworthy.

The moment Suni Lee learned she’d won Olympic gold 🥇❤️ https://t.co/U0lvpblPm0

— ESPN (@espn)
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6. An Israeli woman donated a kidney to a Gaza boy

Harel Segal, a kindergarten teacher from northern Israel, donated her kidney to a three-year-old Palestinian boy from the Gaza Strip. She hopes her choice will inspire others to be more humane in a land of perpetual conflict.

“WHOEVER SAVES ONE LIFE SAVES THE WORLD.”

As A Birthday Gift, Idit Harel Segal, a #Jewish Israeli,Donated A Kidney… https://t.co/xLTAd6ak8I

— Owaiz Aslam (@owaiz_aslam)
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7. Two big ships from British Columbia launched an expedition to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The three-month-long, multimillion-dollar venture will test a new system to trap ocean plastics and load them onto vessels. If the system works, the plan is to build bigger versions for larger-scale cleanups.

Our crew is working on the last preparations before going out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with Jenny, our la… https://t.co/B1jddxIYzl

— The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup)
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8. Tunisian teen swimmer shocks with surprise gold, and his family’s reaction is everything

Ahmed Hafnaoui had the swim of his life at just the right time on Sunday. After eeking into the men’s 400-meter medal race in last place out of the eight finalists, the 18-year-old swimmer from Tunisia shocked everyone by taking home the gold in the event at the Tokyo Olympics.

This will give you goosebumps.

18-year-old Ahmed Hafnaoui’s wasn’t given a prayer in the men’s 400m freestyle fina… https://t.co/ZlCxmcTrXB

— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie)
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9. Hundreds of ‘tiny homes’ have been built to help provide shelter for struggling Los Angeles residents

Los Angeles is the latest city to experiment with micro-homes to provide secure accommodations for unhoused people while they get back on their feet. The colorful homes of the Alexandria Park Tiny Home Village are capable of housing 200 residents in 103 one- or two-person units.

Alexandria Park Tiny Home Village, Los Angeles
via @archdaily: https://t.co/wKA5RwLUX9
#designinspiration… https://t.co/bpzAJbc2Nb

— ALPOLIC® MATERIALS (@Alpolic_MCM)
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10. California Congressman introduces legislation for a four-day workweek

Citing pilot programs that have yielded positive results, Democratic Congressman Mark Takano introduced legislation on Wednesday that would reduce the standard workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours.

Redefining the standard workweek by lowering the maximum hours threshold for overtime compensation to 32 hours coul… https://t.co/T4NZ2vr4Qd

— Mark Takano (@RepMarkTakano)
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