LaMarcus Aldridge is in fact returning to the NBA.
As reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Aldridge is signing a one-year deal with the Nets for next season. The 36-year-old Aldridge signed with Brooklyn last season, but retired in April due to an irregular heartbeat. He was reportedly considered a comeback a few months ago and, per Woj, has now been cleared by a “number of doctors” in order to another season.
After retiring with heart concerns five months ago, seven-time All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge is returning on a one-year, $2.6 million deal with the Brooklyn Nets, his agent Jeff Schwartz of @excelbasketball tells ESPN.
Aldridge has been medically cleared by a number of doctors – including those both independent and Nets-affiliated – to make a return for his 16th season, Schwartz tells ESPN.
Aldridge, it would seem, is making one last go at winning an NBA title. And who better to do it with than the Nets, who are likely the favorites to win it all next season. Even if he plays a bit bench role and only plays 12-15 minutes a night, it would all be worth it if he could win a title. Aldridge is now part of a frontcourt that includes Paul Millsap, Blake Griffin, and Nic Claxton.
From a Nets perspective, there’s a question of if Aldridge can absolutely give the team more in center minutes then, say, Claxton or their handful of small ball options. He’s certainly a more polished post player and veteran proven presence for head coach Steve Nash to go to. But Claxton can switch, run the floor with more energy, and offer a different dimension compared to the former Blazers and Spurs All-Star.
New video games are always welcome on modern consoles, and while Nintendo’s first party titles maybe a slow trickle to the Switch the console has a glut of titles thanks to a sprawling indie games scene. But according to a report those with the
Eurogamer reported on Friday that Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles are coming to the console’s online gaming platform. The Nintendo Switch Online subscription service already has more than 100 games from the NES and SNES era, and reports indicate that Game Boy titles are coming to the service soon as well.
Word that Nintendo will bulk up its Switch Online back catalogue first broke earlier this week via the Nate the Hate podcast, which discussed various possible handheld games Nintendo could bring to the Switch subscription offering. Nintendo Life sources then offered their own confirmation.
Now, Eurogamer has been able to separately corroborate these reports – and we have heard that other retro platforms are also on the cards.
As the Eurogamer report noted, datamining and swirling rumors have predicted expansions of the program’s library in the past, so though there’s been no official word from Nintendo the odds are good that we’ll hear something more substantial soon. In the mean time, it’s a good chance to look back at your cartridge library and decide which games you’d like to see on the Switch in the coming months.
Female auto mechanics are few and far between. According to Data USA, 97.7% of automotive service technicians and mechanics are male.
Jessica E. Cardoso, an Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) qualified automotive technician from Florida, is changing perceptions of women in the mechanic world by posting videos on TikTok that prove they definitely belong.
She exposed the challenges she faces with male colleagues by posting a video where one has no problem telling her she shouldn’t be working in a garage.
“You’re gonna be famous, go ahead, say it,” she tells him.
“You don’t belong here,” he replies.
“I don’t belong where?” Cardoso responds.
“You don’t belong here…in the mechanic world,” he says.
To prove her worth as a mechanic, Jessica then cut together a series of clips showing that she’s more than comfortable beneath the hood of a car.
After the video went viral receiving over 8 million views, she posted a follow-up video to show that the comments from her male coworker weren’t edited. In the video, the coworker says she should be “out doing something you like, like going to a college.”
He also admits that she should be working as a mechanic “Because this is a man’s world,” he replies.
In addition to the headliners of the week, Memphis rapper Big30 came through with a mid-week release of his debut project, King Of KillBranch, led by the single “Free Shiest Life.” The Bluff City native has been building a buzz with his high-profile collabs and co-signs from big names like Gucci Mane, Moneybagg Yo, and Yo Gotti. Here, he earns the buzz, proving he can carry a full-length as charismatic as his features.
Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending September 3, 2021.
Albums/EPs/Mixtapes
Asher Roth — The Greenhouse Effect Vol. 3
Asher Roth
Hey, remember this guy? Way back in 2009, the so-called “frat rap” movement was bubbling up, earning its moniker largely on the back of Asher’s breakout single “I Love College.” Incidentally, much like “frat rap” as an institution, this phase of his career fizzled out pretty quickly, considering how limiting such a label wound up being (it similarly hamstrung early career development for both Mac Miller and Lil Dicky, who both far surpassed its bounds). While his peers either faded away or expanded their palettes, though, Asher burrowed deeper and deeper into hip-hop’s underground, becoming something of a degree-bearing disciple of MF DOOM. That tradition more or less continues here, with heady, intricate wordplay and a dizzying overall concept constructed of contributions from Roth’s loyal base of fans via Discord server.
Big30 — King Of KillBranch
Big30
Big30 has been one of the most entertaining characters fizzing up from Memphis’ burgeoning trap scene, rising side-by-side with fellow standout and close friend Pooh Shiesty. While Shiesty awaits trial for a litany of aggravated battery charges thanks to his itchy trigger finger, 30 keeps the flag waving high, putting his buddy on several of the debut mixtape’s tracks. However, while there’s plenty of room for guest stars like Lil Durk, Quavo, and Offest to do what they do, 30 steers the ship adeptly, staking his own well-deserved claim on some territory in rap’s ever-sprawling landscape.
Drake — Certified Lover Boy
Drake
After months of delays, Drake’s latest arrived in a flurry of activity seemingly motivated (at least in part) by his on-again-off-again rival Kanye. From its troll-ish, emoji-laden cover, to its hijacking of Right Said Fred samples — and the accompanying, fittingly goofy music video for “Way 2 Sexy” — Drake’s sense of humor has been evident throughout the well-executed rollout. However, judging from early fan reactions, it’s also a musical course correction after letting his competition set the tone for Scorpion; it seems the lesson he learned from that debacle was to play his own game on the music while dancing around direct confrontation in the rollout stage. For what it’s worth, it looks like it’s working — Kanye must be tearing his hair out (or giggling with his frenemy on the group chat — rap is as real as wrestling, friends, and never forget it).
Little Simz — Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Little Simz
While Drake may vacuum up all the attention for his big-name release, Simz’s own long-awaited comeback shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s personal and poetic and political and powerful in equal measure, while Simz sets about clearing her mental hard drive of all the thoughts that have crowded it since quarantine. “It’s me being this introverted person that has all these crazy thoughts and ideas and theories in my head and not always feeling like I’m able to express it if it’s not through my art,” she told The Guardian. Fortunately for her — and us — her art capably handles the challenge of wrangling the clutter and making it incredibly compelling.
Singles/Videos
DijahSB — “Here to Dance” Feat. Mick Jenkins
Hip-hop and house have gone hand-in-hand for almost their entire parallel existences and the combination never gets stale. Here the Torontonian rapper/singer employs the Chicago-based rap philosopher Mick Jenkins for a smooth, surprisingly heady meditation on the problems of the world and the things we do to escape them.
Ray Vaughn — “Tap”
Okay, yes, technically, we did break out this video in its own standalone post. But Ray Vaughn, Top Dawg Entertainment’s Long Beach-bred new signee, deserves the attention. Rarely has an artist been so polished, cutting, and open in his earliest works, but as an artist who’s still technically developing, that’s a truly exciting prospect for this young man’s future.
Saweetie & NIKI — “Swan Song”
Say what you want about Saweetie’s nigh-ubiquity at this point but she’s been very good at positioning herself at the forefront of pop culture. Case in point, here she leverages her heritage and Bay Area upbringing to land a placement on 88rising’s groundbreaking soundtrack for Marvel’s newest superhero film, Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings that perfectly fits the theme and setting of one of the hottest properties on Earth this weekend.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The COVID-19 era was officially dubbed the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” by CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD last July and she wasn’t kidding.
Unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who got the jab and studies show they now account for 99% of deaths from the virus.
It’s terrible that people are dying of symptoms that are nearly 100% preventable. But it’s also fair to criticize those who are unvaccinated because for nearly all of them it’s a selfish decision. There are of course exceptions, primarily those who cannot get vaccinated because of overriding medical conditions. But those are relatively few and far between. Unvaccinated people are three times more likely to spread COVID-19 and on rare occasions, they can infect someone who did the right thing and got the shot.
The virus just keeps dragging on so it’s understandable that some on the front lines are fed up with those who keep it going.
Conservative pundit Candace Owens has been very vocal about her opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine and mask-wearing. She often tweets that she’s proud to be unvaccinated, even saying that no one in her family will “ever touch the COVID-19 vaccine.”
If that decision only affected her, then this wouldn’t be much of a problem. But, unfortunately, there are many people who cherish her opinion.
Owens needed to get a COVID-19 test earlier this week but was denied by Suzanna Lee, co-founder of Aspen COVID Testing because she’s actively encouraged the spread of the virus.
“I’ve just learned of this testing request and as the owner of this business am going to refuse this booking and deny service,” Lee wrote.
“We cannot support anyone who has proactively worked to make this pandemic worse by spreading misinformation, politicizing and DISCOURAGING the wearing of masks and actively dissuading people from receiving life-saving vaccinations,” the email continued. Lee then directed her to a free testing facility at city hall.
Owens shared the letter on Twitter calling Lee a “danger to the Aspen community.”
Just finished my live on Instagram here: https://t.co/lPjhqVYaGO
As promised— here is the email from the rabid act… https://t.co/3RvHH86akA
Owens responded to Lee by saying it was the most “hilarious email” she’s ever received in her life and criticized her for politicizing the virus. This is pretty hypocritical from someone who has repeatedly politicized the virus.
It’s debatable whether it’s ethical for a healthcare provider to deny Owens a test but there were no real consequences for her actions because there are other places to get tested.
But what about doctors who are the last line of care and only have a limited number of beds. Is it fair for them to prioritize someone who got the vaccine over someone who didn’t? All things being equal, doesn’t the person who got the shot to protect themself and others deserve care more than the person who did not?
A doctor in Alabama recently said he would no longer treat unvaccinated patients.
“We do not yet have any great treatments for severe disease, but we do have great prevention with vaccines. Unfortunately, many have declined to take the vaccine, and some end up severely ill or dead. I cannot and will not force anyone to take the vaccine, but I also cannot continue to watch my patients suffer and die from an eminently preventable disease,” Dr. Jason Valentine, a physician at Diagnostic and Medical Clinic Infirmary Health in Mobile, wrote in an open letter.
Doctors Feel Compassion Fatigue About Vaccine Refusers – The Atlantic
To many medical providers working today, the… https://t.co/n5UFLf8M4q
Last month, Dr. Chavi Eve Karkowsky wrote a piece in The Atlantic saying that unvaccinated people are beginning to run up against “compassion fatigue” in America’s hospitals.
“To many medical providers working today, the rejection of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines feels like a giant ‘Fuck you’ from 29 percent of American adults. We will keep providing the best care possible, but they are making our job much harder,” she wrote.
“Doing the work of curing human bodies is harder when some of one’s faith in humanity is lost,” she added.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an awful time to live through because millions of people have suffered and our lives have been completely upended.
Even if the virus does go away there will be one thing that will never change. It’s left many of us with a diminished view of humanity. It’s disheartening to realize that at a time when lives were on the line there were opportunists who knowingly promoted the spread of the deadly disease through misinformation.
We’ll also never forget that at a time when a virus was raging, millions of people had the opportunity to do what they can to stop the spread and did nothing.
What are the consequences? For Owens, the annoyance of having to find another testing place. But for many others, their lives.
The Brooklyn Nets are continuing their busy offseason by moving veteran big man DeAndre Jordan. Acquired in the same offseason that the team managed to secure the signing of Kyrie Irving and the sign-and-trade of Kevin Durant, Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Nets have decided to send Jordan to the Detroit Pistons in a move that will save the team a ton of money.
Jordan will be joined by a major chunk of change and a number of future second-round picks, but he may be headed for the buyout market. In exchange, Brooklyn will bring in big man Jahlil Okafor, young forward Sekou Doumbouya, and $47 million in savings between the salary cap and the luxury tax.
ESPN Sources: Brooklyn is trading C DeAndre Jordan, four future-second round picks and $5.78M to Detroit for Jahlil Okafor and Sekou Doumbouya. Pistons plan to work through a buyout on two-years, $20M owed Jordan; Nets will save $47M in salary and tax on deal.
According to Wojnarowski, the Lakers are high on the list of favorites to acquire Jordan’s services.
Again, Pistons plan is to negotiate a contract buyout with the DeAndre Jordan and allow him to become a free agent, sources tell ESPN. In that scenario, the Lakers will be a serious contender, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/WjbY2ch41h
Whether or not they keep Okafor and Doumbouya around remains to be seen, but considering how much wheeling and dealing Brooklyn has done this offseason in an attempt to position itself as the favorites to win an NBA championship this year, moving Jordan’s deal likely isn’t a surprise, especially considering he did not play in the postseason as the team decided to embrace small ball. At the very least, Okafor is a reliable offensive big man option off the bench, while Doumbouya is 20 and has shown flashes in each of his first two NBA campaigns.
Sports fans learned of a mysterious school based out of Columbus, Ohio last week when Bishop Sycamore’s football program got rinsed on national television by elite prep program IMG Academy. What happened in the coming days peeled back the curtain on an online charter school and made the situation look extremely bleak, especially when one ex-player gave a shocking interview that revealed the extent to which Bishop Sycamore is one big grift.
A whole lot of things have happened in the aftermath, including the football program’s head coach, Ron Johnson, being fired and Ohio governor Mike DeWine announcing there’s going to be an investigation into what exactly is going on here. And now, Deadline reports that the entire ordeal is going to get the docuseries treatment, thanks to Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Productions, Complex Networks, Klutch Originals, and Haven Entertainment.
Hollywood always smells a good story and there has been a stampede to corral rights to this one, even as it plays out in real time. Hart and Klutch Sports Group CEO-founder Rich Paul (also LeBron James’ agent and head of UTA Sports) are the first to stake out ground here. They have secured exclusive interviews with players and coaches both present and past who were part of what is now reportedly considered an online charter school. They are in discussions with high-level creative showrunners and editors and will secure one soon, and they soon take this to market to find a broadcaster.
“As soon as I started following this story, I was immediately drawn to it and knew it was something that myself and my team at HartBeat had to dive into. HBP thrives in the doc-series space,” Hart said. “We understand how to break down stories and capture the most interesting and honest moments in a narrative. We know this con comes with a robust backstory and cannot wait to share it with the world.”
It’s exceedingly early on in the project, so there is no word on a release date or any other bits of similar information. But considering the details we’ve learned in the last week, we can only imagine what else we’ll learn through this.
After being held captive inside our homes for over a year, it feels good to finally experience live music again. With the wave of music festivals at the top of the summer, came a new glimmer of hope, a twinkling of anticipation, and the chance to (finally!) quench our thirst for human interaction. Though the pandemic robbed us of the My Chemical Romance reunion tour we deserve and a Frank Ocean-adorned Coachella lineup, it hasn’t stopped music lovers and thrill-seekers from traversing the country for a delightful respite. With safety protocols put into place — mask mandates, proof of vaccination, and/or negative COVID test results, etc. — even larger-scale, longer-duration festivals have been able to return to the world.
This coming weekend, Elements Music & Arts Festival joins the ranks of resurrected, rescheduled multi-day fests. Its “sold out” status testifies to how eager folks are to have this beloved event punctuate their summers.
Imagine a world where idyllic natural settings, whimsical art, and boisterous bass cater to the music festival fantasy of your dreams. Where a wide variety of electronic music genres are comingled — all segmented by which natural element the music being featured aligns best with (earth, wind, fire, water, air). The very idea is less of a classic festival and more of what festival co-founder Brett Herman describes as “meaningful, magical happenings.”
Sounds like an epic Labor Day weekend, right?
To dive deeper into the history of Elements, the community it hopes to create, and the challenges of making a safe festival environment during a pandemic, I spoke with co-founders Brett Herman and Timothy Monkiewicz. Check out our convo below!
Elements
How many years has the festival been around? Tell me a bit about what the inspiration was to start this festival.
Brett: Elements was first started in 2013 as a New York waterfront festival. Then, in 2017, we reimagined Elements as a three-day camping festival. So, there’s been an evolution. I think the inspiration came from doing these large warehouse parties, which were starting to get larger and larger to the point of capacity – and that the festival format, with multiple stages of music, would give us a much greater range of expression, and room to create; and even more so once the festival became a three-day camping festival. Now you have a 72-hour canvas. And the possibilities are that much greater.
Timothy: I would also note that I think we’ve always wanted to do festivals from the start pretty much. That’s always been a dream. Neither of us came from money or brought a bunch of investors or anything. So, it’s really just about building up to it. We went from underground parties to 5,000-person warehouse parties, and we started doing outdoor events in New York that grew to 10,000. Then, we moved to the camping deck. It’s really just about saving up and building up experience that you need to know to do outdoor events, which is way more than I ever imagined, especially the camping festival. It’s been a long road, but finally, we’re here.
This feels like the first year it’s kind of more a real festival, you know, over 5,000 people, which is a really cool thing.
Brett: I think the one consistent thing has been pushing the envelope year over year. Each year has to be crazier, more interesting, more spectacular than the last. We’ve reinvested pretty much everything that comes out of Elements back into Elements. So, you see the growth from it year over year, especially this year. Now that it’s year four in this location, I think people are going to be blown away by the cumulative arts and energy it’s built up.
Going back to that whole underground and warehouse component, do you feel like that’s still kind of the vibe of the festival?
Timothy: We come from the Brooklyn underground scene – which it can be raunchy, it can be fun, it can be explicit, it can be a lot of different things. I think that’s something that we bring to the festival, in terms of, just a little bit more out there and a little bit more risqué. Where some other festivals are more middle of the road, we come from that kind of underground world where we have drag queens running around with people giving tattoos. It’s not that crazy, but just definitely a little bit more of the New York flavor than like a more middle-of-the-road festival. We have a lot of nooks and crannies you can explore and if you dig deeper, there are the main stages with big names like Diplo, but when you dig deeper, there’s some really cool flavor from Brooklyn underground. Everything’s really special.
Elements Music & Arts Festival
What’s the process like in determining who the artists will be along with the art lineup?
Timothy: I guess the lineup for sure we find to be eclectic. We’re really trying to touch upon a lot of different genres and get some really tasteful stuff in there – from Bonobo to CloZee – really a mix, not trying to please every last person in the world, but we do like to have our different genres so that people can come and find cool stuff. And to be honest, a lot of festivals outside there, just do one genre which makes more sense because you can spend all the money on one huge headliner. But for us, we’re based around our community meeting people. There are a few big headliners, but then, a lot of these artists are locals or regionals and are up-and-coming. So, we’d like to promote them and give them good set times. Some people who have only played for 50 people are playing for 3,000, which is definitely a really cool thing.
Brett: Art is one of the areas that give us the most joy as well. This is so much more than a music festival – it’s a higher, immersive experience. Everywhere you look, the area is transformed. We try to be maximal. Whatever budget is leftover, we tend to keep saying yes in the art departments. Since we’re on the same weekend as Burning Man, we had a lot of incredible proposals and honorarium artists actually coming out that weren’t able to showcase their art at Burning Man this year. So, we’re extremely grateful that, that we’re able to showcase and give a platform to so many artists that have had pent-up creative energy throughout the pandemic.
Elements Music & Arts Festival
Getting into that further, how do you find these visual artists? Do they send proposals, or do you have an open call?
Timothy: There’s a lot of it. I mean, it’s all over the place, we do open calls. Some people come to us, some people we follow on Instagram. We’ll see some dope stuff and be like, “Hey, do you want to try this?” It’s definitely a big process. It’s just a lot of work. A lot of artists are brilliant, but also might have some weird hang up. So you have to be very patient and very appreciative of what they’re doing. The end result is awesome.
Brett: If anybody out there has a crazy idea that they want to see in reality, feel free to hit us up. At the end of the day, this is about having a dream and turning it into a tangible experience. We’ve had some great journeys with unexpected folks along the way.
ALIVE Coverage
What do you both admire and love about Elements and what you bring to the festival circuit?
Timothy: I think one of my favorite things about the fest is the fact that we’re bringing communities together that don’t normally party or hang out together. A lot of times, there are different scenes in electronic music. There’s bass music and they all go to these venues, then the house music people who go to Tulum or Burning Man. Then, there are the tech-house people who go to different spots. With us, I think the coolest thing we’ve done is we have different areas; each stage has its own vibe. We make these beautiful pathways to each stage and the beautiful things that draw people to those. So many people are like, “Wow, I met these awesome people I never would have met! I ran across the Earth stage and I actually love this artist and I didn’t realize I liked this music because I was so boxed in with my one genre.”
So many people at festivals meet new friends for life. And I think we’re one of the best at that. We’re very open-minded. We do love all kinds of music and stuff. We just give people a really cool place to meet other people surrounded by art and cool stuff.
Brett: Where to begin? My favorite things at the festival were often the small experiences that you find along the way. It’s not always about the destination. It’s the journey. It’s the strange performance that you saw between two cabins or a solo art piece in the woods. I find that sometimes the smaller, simple things can really speak to you more. I hope as we grow, we can continue to create more of these meaningful, magical happenings throughout. The thing that brings me the greatest joy at this festival and other festivals is discovery. So, I hope that people will be discovering new musicians, new artists, and then really coming away with an expanded palate.
Burning Man and so many “transformational festivals” that are modeled after it have been accused of being stratified based on wealth or celebrity. How do you guys create community at a festival and make guests feel a sense of togetherness?
We think that every way we can invite people to become part of the process of creation is the way to do this. We want guests to feel that they are part of the experience, and we invite them to create art, create themed camps, do more than just attend, invent a costume, and be your best self. We’ve been inspired by New York, where we founded the company; and one thing that makes New York incredibly special is the diversity of people that you find interacting in nightlife – from Wall Street folks to drag queens to artists to you name it. It’s diverse across cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds and artistic tastes, in general, that really makes an excellent mix. You have to have all the elements, so to speak.
“All the elements” – I love it. What were the COVID challenges with rebooting the festival?
With our smaller events in 2020, we feel like we had a head start on preparing for the challenges of ’21 – dealing with constantly changing regulations, new scientific data, and new recommendations from scientific and medical professionals. In some ways, being in the pandemic longer made it easier, because several best practices had evolved since then. But we still are glued to the news, glued to the latest updates from the health and scientific communities as the safety of our guests is always paramount.
Excellent. What do you encourage newcomers to the festival to do to prepare? What attitudes and energy do you hope they have coming in?
We want newcomers to feel the same crazy zeal and electric energy that we felt going to underground and offbeat parties when we first arrived in New York. We want every aspect of the festival experience to feel like that; like you could strike sparks anywhere, in any direction, and that every person you talk to is going to an incredible new world to explore.
There seems to be a fairly broad consensus that the world is a bit of a dumpster fire at the moment, but that perspective doesn’t account for the countless examples of beauty, goodness, and hope we see all around us when we look for them.
If you’re looking for reasons to smile, here are ten from this week that’ll give you a dose of joy and boost your faith in humanity.
1. A phlebotomist taking a moment to create breathtaking beauty on his work break.
Healthcare workers have had it rough over the past year and a half as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, through it all, we’ve seen extraordinary resilience and fortitude to carry on through the challenges. Teva Martinson, a phlebotomist at University of Utah Hospital, creates a moment of artistic beauty during a work break with the help of the lobby pianist, and it’s everything.
— University of Utah Health (@UofUHealth) 1630434741.0
2. Singer Shawn Louisiana nailing a Sam Cooke song at the barbershop.
Sometimes a voice shoots like an arrow straight into your soul, and Shawn Louisiana singing “A Change is Gonna Come” for the clientele at a barbershop is one of those times. So gorgeous. Smooth like butter. Definitely worth a listen.
3. A grandpa giving a young woman notes of their time together when she was little.
Aw dang, this is too sweet. This grandpa gave a woman three notebooks filled with stories of each time he hung out with her from ages two to five for her birthday. What a precious, forward-thinking gift.
4. Can we please have all meteorologists get a doggo sidekick?
The pandemic has turned live broadcasts into a family affair and if we keep anything from this era, pet interruptions should be it. A weather report without a dog looking for treats just isn’t a weather report anymore. (The dog’s name is Storm because of course it is.)
5. This baby loves her mama. And her mama’s cheeks, and lips, and eyes, and cheeks, and forehead, and chin, and cheeks….
Hold onto your ovaries if you have them, folks, because this baby gushing with love for her mama and all her mama’s body parts is just too precious. “I wuv all of ’em, Mommy.”
6. These before and after photos of kids on their first day of school are hilariously real.
These photos say it all, don’t they? We totally feel you, kiddos. Sometimes we look like this at the end of a long day, too. Read the full story and see more photos here.
7. Watch this guy surprise drive-up window food workers with big tips.
Food service workers have had a rough go of it during the pandemic, too, so seeing them get a larger-than-expected tip is super sweet. They’re all so grateful and humble about it, too. People can be so good.
Watch this video and try not to smile — it’s impossible 😁
Everyone needs to be more like these people. If you can… https://t.co/pPN2YHPaOk
— Brad Beauregard Jr 🇺🇸 (@BradBeauregardJ) 1630674992.0
8. This woman collects food that stores were going to throw away and gives it to people who need it.
It seems like such a simple concept, but someone has to actually make it happen. Fourteen years ago, Claudia Wheeler started to rescue food that was going to go to waste and now runs a foundation that helps that rescued food to get to people experiencing food insecurity. Wonderful, dedicated, inspiring woman.
9. This adorable dalmatian and kitten video because these kinds of videos never, ever get old.
Seriously, even when everything seems like it sucks, a sweet dog-and-cat video can always bring a smile to your face. It’s the law or something. How could anyone not smile at this?
William Shatner only hosted SNL once (with musical guest Lone Justice), but it was a memorable episode for what long-time writer Robert Smigel called “maybe the most resonant sketch I ever wrote there.”
In the 1986 sketch, referred to as “16th Annual Star Trek Convention” on the invaluable website SNL Archive, Shatner tells die-hard Star Trek fans at a convention to “get a life” and that “it’s just a TV show. I mean, look at you. Look at the way you’re dressed. You’ve turned an enjoyable little job I did as a lark for a few years into a colossal waste of time.” Shatner turned “get a life” into a book and a documentary and the sketch is a classic (Alan Siegel’s article for The Ringer is a great read), but even 35 years later, the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry does not find it funny.
“I never really appreciated that skit because I think it was demeaning to the fans,” Rod Roddenberry told the Hollywood Reporter. “I think it was disrespectful, especially for a character who was an open-minded, intelligent leader.”
Although now in vogue with enormous mainstream popularity, comic and sci-fi cons were once an easy target to bash nerds (a term now worn as a badge of honor). So Shatner using SNL to poke fun and perhaps further ostracize the group was disheartening, Roddenberry says, adding, “But I don’t condemn it in any way. It’s Saturday Night Live, and it’s all fun.”
Maybe the Futurama parody is more his speed. #JusticeForWelshy
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Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
