Whether it’s a traffic stop that turns into “We smell something in your car” or a “driving while black” situation, you have rights when you’re pulled over, and it’s for the best if you actually use them. So how does this work, anyway? Well, you have rights when you’re pulled over. These have been established via case law, and ultimately, some stem from the Constitution itself. In order, here are the magic phrases, along with some graphics to help you remember.
1. “Am I free to go?”
In any situation involving the police, you can ask this question. Some people ask it slightly differently: “Am I being detained?”—which is a version of the same question. Basically, if they’ve got nothing on you, they have to let you go. If they answer no to that question, you are in fact not free to go. In that case, you are suspected of doing something, and it’s their job to try to get you to admit to it or to say a bit too much and incriminate yourself.
2. “I do not consent to any searches.”
One of the trickiest things that some law enforcement folks try is to talk you into letting them search your vehicle—or house, for that matter. “So if you haven’t done anything, then you’re ok with us searching your car … right? I mean, if you’re innocent. We’ll go easier on you if you let us.” Do NOT give up your rights that easily. Are you certain your buddy didn’t leave a bag of weed in the glove box? Are you sure your boyfriend took his target pistol out of the trunk after he went to practice shooting the other day? Are you absolutely certain that the body in your trunk was removed and buried in that farm fiel … whoops. Did I say that last one out loud?! The point is, don’t give up your rights easily. And believe me, cops are gooooood at trying to play psychological games. Which leads to #3.
3. “I want to remain silent.”
You have that right, and if things start getting thick, you need to use it. “We clocked you going 60 in a 50, but when you opened your window to give us your license, we smelled marijuana.” The correct answer to something like this is, “I want to remain silent.” The temptation is to say, “Yeah, my buddy and I smoked in my car this morning but I wasn’t driving, blah blah blah”—but then you’re already nailed. Time for them to get the dogs and search. Congratulations, you’re on your way to the pokey for the night.
4. “I want a lawyer.”
If you’ve reach this particular point, then you’re in deep doodoo anyway, so go ahead and ask for one, and say nothing until he or she arrives. Remember these four things. It will be hard in the moment, with your adrenaline pumping, your freedom in question, and when you’re possibly in physical danger, depending on the cops involved and your skin color.
“Am I free to go?”
“I do not consent to any searches.”
“I want to remain silent.”
“I want a lawyer.”
Perhaps a word involving the first letter of the four statements will help you remember: FoSSiL (Free, Searches, Silent, Lawyer)
When blizzards line up to rip through the Northeast, schools close, flights are canceled, and people even board up their houses. Though missions and homeless shelters do what they can to provide safety to those who have no homes to go to, thousands of people still have to weather the cold outside.
At Carnegie Mellon University’s 2015 Impact-a-Thon, students were challenged to provide a temporary low-cost shelter for homeless people during the winter. One team of students came up with the “Satellite Shelter,” an insulated sleeping bag that converts into a tented structure. The students used mylar, a reflective material frequently used in greenhouses and space blankets, and wool blankets to ensure the shelter would keep anyone in it safe from the cold.
“We wanted to make sure it was super-portable and durable so that it’s easy to carry,” said student Linh Thi Do, who worked on the project. “We have wheels on it so it’s easy to move from place to place.”
Solutions like this one are handy in an emergency. Perhaps, however, other cities should take note of the city of New Orleans’ success in providing long-term housing solutions for its homeless veterans. The only perfect solution to homelessness is giving people permanent homes to go to at night.
Imgur user “mollywho” felt her life was falling apart. Not only was she battling clinical depression, but she had her hands full. “I’ve been juggling a LOT lately,” she wrote on Imgur. “Trying to do well at work. Just got married. Couldn’t afford a wedding. Family is sparse. Falling out with friends, yaddadyadda.” She was also upset about how she treated her new husband. “I’ve not been the easiest person to deal with. In fact, sometimes I’ve lost all hope and even taken my anger out on my husband.”
When she returned home from a business trip in San Francisco, mentally exhausted, she collapsed on her bed and cried. Then she noticed some writing on the bedroom mirror. It was a list that read:
Reasons I love my wife
1. She is my best friend 2. She never quits on herself or me 3. She gives me time to work on my crazy projects 4. She makes me laugh, every day 5. She is gorgeous 6. She accepts the crazy person i am 7. She’s the kindest person i know 8. She’s got a beautiful singing voice 9. She’s gone to a strip club with me 10. She has experienced severe tragedy yet is the most optimistic person about humanity i know 11. She has been fully supportive about my career choices and followed me each time 12. Without realizing it, she makes me want to do more for her than i have ever wanted to do for anyone 13. She’s done an amazing job at advancing her career path 14. Small animals make her cry 15. She snorts when she laughs
Image via Imgur
This amazing show of support from her husband was exactly what she needed. “I think he wanted me to remember how much he loves me,” she wrote. “Because he knows how quickly I forget. He knows I struggle to see good in the world, and especially the good in myself. But here it is. A testament and gesture of his love. Damn, I needed it today…”
She ended her post with some powerful words about mental illness.
“I’m not saying mental illness is cured by nice words on a mirror. In fact, it takes professional care, love, empathy, sometimes even medication just to cope. Many people struggle with it mental illness – more than we probably even realize. And instead of showing them hate or anger when they act out. Show them kindness and remind them things can and WILL get better. Everyone needs a little help sometimes. If that person can’t be you – see if you have any resources for therapy.”
A new camera developed at MIT can photograph a trillion frames per second. Compare that with a traditional movie camera which takes a mere 24. This new advancement in photographic technology has given scientists the ability to photograph the movement of the fastest thing in the Universe, light. In the video below, you’ll see experimental footage of light photons traveling 600-million-miles-per-hour through water. The actual event occurred in a nano second, but the camera has the ability to slow it down to twenty seconds. For some perspective, according to New York Times writer, John Markoff, “If a bullet were tracked in the same fashion moving through the same fluid, the resulting movie would last three years.”
It’s impossible to directly record light so the camera takes millions of scans to recreate each image. The process has been called femto-photography and according to Andrea Velten, a researcher involved with the project, “There’s nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera.”
As Instagram user @rocketrob_90 posted on Saturday, Drake apparently donated a brand-new wheelchair-accessible van to the fan to help his sister Dora. “God is good,” he wrote. “This has been a wild year, to say the least. My sister, Dora, was gifted a 2021 Dodge Pro Master wheelchair conversion van by @champagnepapi!
Those that know me, know he’s my favorite rapper/artist of all time. He has been a HUGE blessing for me and my family. Glad to call him brother and friend. I don’t have to use the pickup truck to take her to her appointments anymore. We can all ride comfortably, especially Dora, to her doctor appts with little effort. This has changed our lives for the better.” In response, Drake commented, “Love my g love to the family!!! Big wheels keep rolling!!!”
Earlier this year, one of the recipients of Drake’s altruism posted her graduation pictures after Drake gave her a $50,000 check in 2018. As it turns out, even if Drake only gives to benefit his public image, those gifts still have solid benefits for the people receiving them.
Kacey Musgraves has announced a run of 2022 North American tour dates — “Star-Crossed: Unveiled” — in support of her upcoming Star-Crossed album, which arrives September 10. The country-pop crossover will hit the road starting January 19 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and wrap up in February at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Supporting Musgraves will be King Princess and Muna.
So far, Musgraves has shared two singles — “Justified” and “Star-Crossed” — from the new album, which she has described as a “Greek tragedy in three acts.” Star-Crossed follows its author’s experience through her divorce from fellow country star, Ruston Kelly, the chapter that comes after her record-breaking album, Golden Hour, which was mostly inspired by their love story and marriage.
Check out the dates below.
01/19/2022 — Saint Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
01/20/2022 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
01/21/2022 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
01/23/2022 — Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
01/24/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
01/26/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
01/27/2022 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
02/03/2022 — Washington DC @ Capital One Arena
02/05/2022 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
02/09/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
02/11/2022 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
02/14/2022 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
02/16/2022 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
02/19/2022 — Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
02/20/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center
“Star-Crossed: Unveiled” tickets go sale to the general public 9/9 at 10 a.m. local time. Get them here.
Star-Crossed is out 9/10 via Interscope Records/UMG Nashville. Pre-order it here.
The Velvet Underground is the first documentary from I’m Not There and Carol director Todd Haynes (Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story almost counts, but not quite).
The Apple TV+ film, which premiered to rapturous reviews at the Cannes Film Festival, looks at one of the most influential rock bands ever. Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker (and later, Doug Yule) packed a lifetime’s worth of sunglasses-wearing, guitar-distorting, BDSM and heroin and stabbed in the head with a sheet metal cutter-chronicling memories into four short years, from 1967’s The Velvet Underground and Nico to 1970’s Loaded. It’s in the spirit of the VU that Haynes’ film doesn’t look like your average music doc — it channels the experimental Exploding Plastic Inevitable scene that guided the band, while still allowing for talking head interviews. Your life can be saved by rock and roll (and rock and roll documentaries).
Here’s the official synopsis:
The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock and roll’s most revered bands. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.
The Velvet Underground premieres in theaters and on Apple TV+ on October 15.
Scammers: they’re in your email pretending to charge your credit card for Norton Anti-Virus fees (just me?), they’re on your phone calling from familiar area codes, and they’re apparently pretending to be Modern Lovers singer and solo performer Jonathan Richman.
Over the weekend, reports arose that an Olympia-based music festival, LoveOly Summerfest, had booked who they thought was the cult indie-rock singer/songwriter in what would’ve been his first live performance since the pandemic started. But when the Evergreen State College radio station tried to book a pre-show interview with Richman, the singer’s publicist had never heard of the festival or of Richman’s alleged booking. Apparently, festival organizers (the Olympia Film Society) had been hoodwinked by someone who had gotten in touch pretending to be Richman.
Olympia Film Society executive director Audrey Henley said in a statement, “We are shocked that this happened. We’ve been booking bands for the past 30 years, and this is a first for us. We hope this does not in any way hurt our relationship with the real Jonathan Richman and that he will return to Olympia soon.”
Richman himself also sent out a statement:
“Hello everyone! This is the real Jonathan Richman! I just heard of your wonderful festival and sounds like an ideal place for me to play someday. No hard feelings on my part and no apologies necessary from the wonderful people at OFS who have invited me and Tommy up to play so many times. Did the guy who called you up manage to imitate my voice pretty good? Cuz if he did, you’ve got to hand it to him, most people can’t do it! But seriously now for just a second, I am sad for any disappointments and expenses caused to the Film Society and the fine people of Olympia. Of course I will come back to play for the Olympians!”
Well, Richman certainly has a good attitude about the whole thing. What a guy.
After the initial wave of signings and trades to open the offseason in early August, things have slowed significantly in the last two weeks, but there are still conversations ongoing and deals being worked out as teams continue to try and shape their rosters prior to training camp in a month’s time.
One of the final big free agents has a new home in Lauri Markkanen, as the Bulls’ RFA was sent to Cleveland in a three-team sign-and-trade. Another former Bull who was part of a different sign-and-trade, Thaddeus Young who ended up in San Antonio in the DeMar DeRozan deal, has popped up in a new trade rumor and could be on the move again soon.
Young, who was one of the brightest spots for the Bulls in 2020-21 averaging 12.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists, is garnering interest from last year’s title runner-up in the Phoenix Suns, per Shams Charania of The Athletic. Charania reports the Suns are “among the contenders” who have reached out to the Spurs about Young, indicating that they aren’t alone which isn’t surprising considering Young is the type of steady, veteran role-playing presence on both ends of the floor that just about every contender would like to have.
That said, with Dario Saric likely out for the season, even with JaVale McGee now in tow, the Suns could certainly use someone like Young to bolster their frontcourt rotation. Now, the difficulty lies in making a trade happen. Young can’t be dealt until early October because he has to be in San Antonio for two months before being dealt again, but the real issue is Phoenix figuring out how to match salary. The Suns have done a really good job of building this team with guys on rookie deals and smaller contracts, but the one problem with that is it becomes much more difficult to bring in a guy on a $14 million deal.
The only real option for Phoenix would be to trade Saric and Jalen Smith (and any draft assets) for Young, which would require them to once again address their backup center position in free agency next season. That’s not an unreasonable price for a player the caliber of Young, but they’d have to hope the Spurs have interest in Smith’s potential to make that happen, as Saric adds another year and $8.5 million to the San Antonio cap sheet. Still, for a Suns team looking to get back into the Finals picture this season, Young’s presence would be a big addition.
At last year’s Grammy Awards, Yola received four nominations — including Best New Artist — for her breakthrough debut album Walk Through Fire. Yet many were quick to place the Bristol, UK-born singer in a box, classifying her as an Americana artist following the Grammy recognition.
With her follow-up album Stand For Myself (released July 30 via Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound), she’s shattered all of those unwanted expectations and showed Black women’s multifacetedness. The album’s kaleidoscopic take on music (a blend of disco, funk, soul, pop, country, and rock) partly has to do with growing up with a Ghanian father and Bajan mother. We have specific genres in America: hip-hop, R&B, techno, pop, etc. But when speaking to UK artists, their perspective is more genre-less because of their radio format.
“Everything you said is what I normally tell people when they haven’t noticed,” Yola says over Zoom with a hearty chuckle. “The smushing of genres is a very British thing. I’m bringing my lens: Bajan, African, British, and feminine. It is it’s all of those things in balance. I’m really glad that it’s connecting to you as a second-generation Caribbean woman who sees the different layers in ways that others won’t. This is such a joy.”
Stand For Myself details her story: traveling to America and ultimately settling in Nashville. To Yola, the album feels like a release.
“I didn’t choose any of the co-writers for the first record and I hadn’t met Dan yet. I didn’t know anybody here [in America],” she explains. “I didn’t know how the industry was different from the UK and consequently, how I might function in it. So the concept of agency was absent. We managed to make a record that’s beautiful, but it’s impossible for it to be deeply personal because all of the co-writers are older white American males.
“We didn’t even have a geographical standpoint where I can speak on how our radio stations are very different or how being a Black woman in the UK is different. With this record, I understood how the machine works. I was able to pick all the crew myself, dig into my life experience and go into songs from the back catalog that was I ready to approach because I knew people who could help me finish them.”
Below, Yola goes deep with UPROXX about Stand For Myself’s story and why Black women are simply fed up with society’s archaic standards.
The closer “Stand For Myself” summates your entire journey. There’s such a gospel-inspired assertion when you sing “I’m alive!” I love that as a full-circle moment from the “Barely Alive” opener, where you’re not really mentally there. By the time you get to the final song, you’re in the fully realized moment of your purpose as a person.
Well, this is why it’s really nice talking to Black lady interviewers because normally I’m saying what you just said to somebody! [laughs]
Doesn’t it feel good when you finally have that relatability? We Black women just get it.
Yes! Normally [in interviews] I’m like, “Did you notice that?” But you’re like, “Of course I do!” Well, I can skip that entire part of the conversation and get even deeper. So you get to a place in your life where you decide that this sh*t isn’t a dress rehearsal anymore and you’re going to have to do everything in your power to live in your most honest truth as possible. I don’t think I recognized the blast radius of segregation in this country and what it would do to your networks and how hard it would be if you arrived with a manager who was a white lady, then everyone would assume that you want to only speak to white people. Like, I’m here too guys!
Another thing that was massive for this record was finding writers of color who are published and have experience with co-writing. I noticed that there was such a disparity with writers of color that were on rosters that I would have access to. It didn’t even necessarily have to be just writers based in Nashville, I’m like, “Send me whoever you have.” They [told me], “We don’t have anyone that doesn’t do hip-hop who’s Black.” That’s not great because white people are doing everything — they’re the most.
They’re doing everything that we laid the groundwork for, which is equally frustrating.
Thank you, it is! They’re doing hip-hop, R&B, neo-soul, jazz, funk, gospel, blues. We can’t stop white people. They’ll do everything. They’ll start doing Afropop soon. Wait, they already are! It’s never gonna end, what white people think they can do. Hey I don’t want to piss on your chips, whch is what we say in the UK. But at the same time, I just want the same level of freedom. No one goes: “So Justin [Bieber], how in the living heck did you get all of those Afropop influences given that you’re not African? Have you been to Ghana, Nigeria, or Senegal? Have you been up in Dakar? No? I didn’t think so!” [Laughs] So this expectation to have some connection that is more than “I bought a record” is something that is bestowed upon people that aren’t white guys.
Being a Black woman, I think about the title Stand For Myself. It’s like, “Well we survived, but at what cost?” Even though we’re empowered and trying to reclaim certain things, we’re always going to have to go through the struggle.
It’s standing for my rights to nuance. It’s not standing for my right to be a strong Black woman. If anything, it’s quite the bloody well opposite. We’re tired!
I’m over being strong, I want to be vulnerable and soft. And it feels like a luxury to be afforded that.
It really does. When we were doing the treatment for the “Starlight” video, I was like “We can’t have any sassy, strong Black woman energy” because I so rarely feel like that. If I’m in a romantic situation, I’m not like that. So let’s not misrepresent who I am.
I borrowed from Issa Rae’s brief where all the male romantic interests are still Black guys, but they’re nicer than the ladies. Could it be that we have a non-colorism option? So I was like, “my romantic interest in the video has to be at least one makeup shade lighter than me.” So I’m not putting the same toxic BS into the world for dark-skinned women. Not on my watch, sunshine.
In the middle of the album, there’s so much sentimental information. For that reason, I wanted the main body of my journey to be about my right to sentimentality, to that softness, to be Black ladies having nice times and being well-tended to. That’s all I want to see on my Instagram feed. I want to see on my television. I just want to see people being nice to Black ladies, that’s it. Not trying to deal with stuff in our lives. We’re not a sideshow or “the friend of”. We’re the protagonist. And that’s what this record is.
You’re also playing Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic — congratulations on this big breakout role, by the way — and she never gets credit for being the literal backbone of rock and roll.
She invented rock and roll, let’s not beat around the bush. Before the likes of B.B. Kings, Little Richards, and Elvises of the world came along, they went to her nights on Beale Street in Memphis. They were influenced by her. She’s doing this brand new distorted guitar, shredding sound. They’ve never seen anything like that. She was the first person to do it! Another day, another Black woman giving but not receiving. It’s an honor represent her, so that even though she’s not with us anymore, other Black people can go: “I have a right to this legacy and no one can talk me out of it.”
You are a Black woman who sings within so many genres that are now whitewashed, despite directly deriving from Black people. Did playing Rosetta wake up anything inside of you?
Maybe less with the movie, but I remember when I first came across Sister Rosetta in my teens and I was like, “Wait a minute, what year is this? Sorry, what? Shredding guitars was a thing in the ‘40s?” No one else was doing it. So she invented it! How didn’t I know this and how is this some kind of niche thing? If I invented rock and roll, I would expect to be carried on a damn chair everywhere I went. [Laughs] It’s a travesty. But you know, segregation was a whole thing. But what gets me is how easily we can be talked out of our own inheritance. Talking about Black people in jazz, blues, soul music and rock and roll. The number of times I come across a clutch of artists who are campaigning to be involved in something that they created or at least played a part in creating —
It’s so backwards and disheartening.
There’s something so profoundly wrong with the pleading. So I try and impart my sense of “white boy privilege” into everything that I do. I went to a posh school in England with white kids walking into places like they owned it. I thought, “Cool, that’s about to be me. I’m going to Kool-Aid myself into places and go, ‘Oh you thought this was yours? Cute, it’s all mine now.’”
Contemporary music is African, it’s at the origins of all of these things. Before we even had African-Americans in America we had Africans in America. So there’s no way of avoiding that contribution that engineered the inventiveness of African-American culture. Every time you see something groovy, you really think some buttoned-up white guy did that?
There’s a heavy dose of nostalgia on the album too, which sounds comforting. I hear Ella Fitzgerald, Earth, Wind and Fire, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, and Tina Turner. These are people that we grew up with and love. It subconsciously seeps out of our pores to only celebrate that in anything that we do. And I think you do it very well on this album.
Aah, you named everyone! Like no one ever pulls out Ella Fitzgerald [in interviews]. But you can hear it! She’s been my [inspiration] since I was 10. So when you’re like, “Well obviously!” I’m like thank goodness someone could hear it! But it’s all of our touchstones, so this album will touch everybody. Especially if you’re a second-genner in the west.
I totally relate to “Break The Bough” because as a Caribbean-American girl, I grew up eating tropical fruit. I grew up with that sense of joy and being free, which was juxtaposed with being “othered”. I came from a family of immigrants and had those luxuries ultimately taken away from me as I grew up in a white society. I was like, “This song is the story of Black women.” People who aren’t Black won’t get that.
No, but it’s not for them this time. There are a number of things specifically for Black women on this album. Speaking about being “othered,” I’ve gotten a lot of support and fellowship from the LGBTQ+ community. They’re like, “we’ve been othered and connect with a lot of things on this record.” Even if you’ve been a white woman in a space that’s dominated by guys, you would have felt some of this. But if you’re a Black woman, OOOOOOH! Every single jam on this is going to hit very close to home, especially if you’ve got immigrant parents. I’ve talked to Filipino and Asian people that have immigrant parents and they [tell me] they get it too.
So It was really important to represent all of that. Although every song on this record was co-written [with Dan Auerbach], there’s a volume of lyrics that could only come from me because of how personal it is. The pandemic gave me the time to finesse that so that there are these touchstones specifically for women of color.
Stand For Myself is out now on Easy Eye Sound. Pick it up here.
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