After six months of chemotherapy, iconic Blink-182’s vocalist and bassist Mark Hoppus announced on Twitter that he is cancer free. His Twitter bio now reads: “bassist singer person in the blink-182 and simple creatures. he/him. Cancer Destroyer.”
Since sharing his diagnosis in June, Hoppus has been the epitome of good spirits while being open about his struggle. In his first online message to the public, he stated “It sucks and I’m scared, and at the same time I’m blessed with incredible doctors and family and friends to get me through this. … I’m trying to remain hopeful and positive. Can’t wait to be cancer free and see you all at a concert in the near future. Love to you all.”
This initial announcement, though tragic, incited an outpouring of heartfelt support from fellow music legends and loyal fans. Clearly, this musician—who helped create that distinctly bombastic, aggressively playful sound loved by headbangers everywhere—had made a positive impact.
the news about Mark Hoppus having cancer is so so so incredibly sad and I truly hope that as the godfather of pop p… https://t.co/Mmw5n7KC1V
As Hoppus underwent chemotherapy, he candidly documented his treatment updates. Usually with an added joke, like this Instagram photo, where he wrote, “Yes hello. One cancer treatment, please.”
Clearly, some days were more lighthearted than others. Recently, Hoppus shared how dismally uncomfortable the process was, plainly describing his new normal as “getting pumped full of poison every three weeks.”
But for the most part, it appears he’s been in fairly high spirits. He even posted a picture to his Instagram of his previously bald scalp (which had begun to grow white hairs) with the added caption:
“I mean what the shit is this? Is my hair growing back white? If it does I wonder if I’ll look more like George Clooney or Doc Brown? I feel like this is still the cancery peach fuzz hair and maybe my normal hair will start growing again? It’s so strange to have hair growing back more on my head while my leg hair continues to fall out further and further down, now at the bottom of my shins. I’ve been in chemotherapy for five months and TODAY the hair on my shins decides it’s time to peace out? Cancer is weird.”
It’s the sort of comedy I would lovingly expect from a guy made famous by singing about running around naked and dancing like an animal.
The optimism clearly paid off, as yesterday he was able to give his cancer free announcement on Twitter and Instagram. Hoppus’ words were full of gratitude and warmth as he wrote, “Thank you God and the universe and friends and family and everyone who sent support and kindness and love. Still have to get scanned every six months and it’ll take me until the end of the year to get back to normal but today is an amazing day and I feel so blessed.”
Of course, this was fantastic news for more than just Hoppus. In addition to responses from John Mayer, Adam DeVine and Benjamin Madden, even Blink-182’s drummer Travis Barker joined in congratulating his band brother, according to Us Weekly. And let’s not forget the touching fan comments:
@markhoppus Just thinking how much you meant to two kids from Peru… who learned all your songs… fuck… I wanted to b… https://t.co/Gif0wLy9RF
SNL “Weekend Update” host Colin Jost and his wife actor Scarlett Johansson welcomed a baby into this world in August. The high-profile, private couple was able to keep news of the pregnancy relatively quiet until Jost announced it the day before the baby was born.
The couple was married in October 2020. Cosmo is Jost’s first child and their first as a couple. Johansson is already mom to daughter Rose, 6, who she shares with French journalist Romain Dauriac.
Jost announced the baby’s arrival on Instagram where he couldn’t waste the opportunity to take a jab at his “Weekend Update” co-host, Michael Che. He jokingly said to refer any questions to his publicist @chethinks, Che’s Instagram account.
Your weekday update:
Colin Jost & Scarlett Johansson have welcomed a son. ✔️
Michael Che officially has a new IG b… https://t.co/evM1Sbaq0q
Like many creative types, Jost and Johansson chose a name that’s a little quirky and uncommon. In fact, the name hasn’t been a popular American baby name in the past 100 years.
Cosmo hasn’t appeared in the top 1000 U.S. baby names since 1926. However, it’ll probably make a comeback in the coming years after being chosen by celebrity parents.
Appellation Mountain says the name Cosmo has a “quirky, not-quite-real quality,” that could be why it was revealed as the first name of Kramer on “Seinfeld” in 1995.
Scarlett Johansson is pregnant and expecting her first child with Colin Jost. https://t.co/hWmUHErWWw
Jost was on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Thursday where he revealed that his mother wasn’t really on board with the name and did everything she could to have it changed without seeming too pushy.
“My mom, I would say, was slightly thrown by it and didn’t quite understand it,” Jost said. “I don’t know if she thought it was kind of like a hippie thing.”
Even though the couple made the name official on the birth certificate, his mother wouldn’t let the issue go.
“She would call us after three or four days,” he explained. “And she’d be like, ‘And now, is it final? Like, did you submit the birth certificate?’ And we’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, we did that at the hospital.'”
Then she started suggesting names that sounded like Cosmo, but were a few letters off.
“She was like ‘OK, interesting. Because I was reading that there’s also a name Cosimo with an ‘I,’ so that could also be an option. Maybe Cosimo, that’s his real name, but then you can call him still Cosmo,'” Jost said as his mother.
He recalled: “Then she goes, ‘There’s a patron saint called Cosmos, so that’s another option.’ We don’t need more worse variants on Cosmo. But thanks, Mom.”
Jost’s mother’s process of dealing with her grandchild’s name followed the five stages of acceptance: denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance.
It appears as though she finally came to accept the baby’s name when her neighbors on Staten Island told her that it’s a common name amongst Italian-Americans.
“Eventually, she started meeting various members of the Italian community who have a lot of Cosmo relatives,” Jost said. “And so then she would call, and she would say, ‘I met someone — they said their uncle’s name is Cosmo. So it is OK.'”
South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham has a pretty cushy spot in Trumpworld, even after a disastrous coup attempt left the now-former president essentially marooned at Mar-a-Lago. Save for rallies and golfing, Trump isn’t doing much beyond issuing press releases he wishes were tweets.
While Trump seems to planning a 2024 presidential run, many others who have fallen out of favor with him are doing their best to cash in on their experiences. One of those is ex-press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who is publishing I’ll Take Your Questions Now, a tell-all book about her time with Trump that includes a number of shots at those in and around his orbit.
One anecdote that made waves on Monday was an excerpt about the South Carolina senator who became known as “Senator Freeloader” among those who saw him wine and dine at Mar-a-Lago. As Raw Story detailed, Grisham wrote about how Graham was famous for “lapping up” free stuff at Trump’s Florida resort.
“And Lindsey Graham? Well, it struck me he was using Trump to mop up the freebies like there was no tomorrow (seems that he still is),” she explains. “He would show up at Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster to play free rounds of golf, stuff his face with free food and hang out with Trump and his celebrity pals.”
At one point, according to Grisham, Graham actually kicked a Trump staffer out of a room so he could stay and continue to get free stuff at another Trump resort.
“Senator Freeloader was sitting at a table by the pool, a big grin on his face, lapping up the goodies he was getting like some potentate,” Grisham writes. “He said to me with a creepy little smile, ‘Isn’t this great? Man, this is the life.’”
Grisham called Graham’s behavior “almost schizophrenic” and said he would wildly swing from defending Trump’s actions to being a harsh critic. But it’s clear the word was out on his behavior.
You can read the full excerpt from the book below.
On Monday, everyone’s favorite purveyor of misinformation about horse drugs suddenly went down. Facebook servers, and their services, including Instagram and WhatsApp, went MIA for several hours before slowly roaring back to life. Jokes, of course, flew wild on the other big dicey social media platform, Twitter. And some of these jokes were about the same subject: that old Jeremy Renner app that was too pure for this world.
this would have never happened on the Jeremy Renner app
If you remember, the Marvel actor branched out in a most unusual direction: by establishing his own social media site. Dubbed “the Jeremy Renner of apps” by Ringer, it allowed users to interact, along with plenty of pictures of Hawkeye himself. It lasted over two years before Renner himself pulled the plug after some chuckleheads kept exploiting a strange loophole for yuks.
But though the app — called Jeremy Renner Official on iOS and simply Jeremy Renner on Android — is gone, it’s not forgotten. When Facebook suddenly vanished from the internet, lots and lots of people had the same joke. And that joke was about the Jeremy Renner app.
After several hours, Facebook gradually came back, to the delight of olds who have no nose for obvious misinformation. It was a bad 24 hours for the social media giant, which also had to suffer the slings fired by a whistleblower, who made public some hair-raising — though hardly surprising — intel about how their algorithms may have helped destroy the world. The Jeremy Renner app never had it so bad.
If 80s games are to be deemed retro and the 2000s were innovative, I’d say that makes the decade smack in-between them the era of the classics, and based on the list below that seems a pretty apt title for ’em. In the 90s, video games seemed to find their footing and genres were more clearly defined. We got the definitive racing game, figured out what made a shooter work, adapted arcade-fighters for console in a way that ruled, figured out how to make stealth games a bit less cruel and a bit more clever, and established what it takes to make a fantastic and immersive 3D action-adventure game. In short, the 90s are video games “roots,” and as we all know, our roots are well-worth remembering and celebrating — hence this little list we’ve thrown together.
Just like our previous top games posts we did covering the 2010s and the 2000s, this top ten list was compiled using the aggregate review site Metacritic which I do for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it just feels way more fair and inclusive than me picking my personal favorites and missing some of the great games I never got around to playing. It also keeps me from taking too much heat for leaving things out, because trust me, I’m just as upset as you that Final Fantasy VII, Poke’mon Red/Blue, and Banjo-Kazooie aren’t on here, among countless others. As always however, feel free to comment on what games you think are missing or shouldn’t have made the cut.
10. Grim Fandango (1998, 94) Grim Fandago is somewhat of an anomaly. After all, how often do you hear about a game that commercially failed so hard it caused a major studio to pull back from developing games, helped contribute to the death of an entire game genre, and is widely considered among one of the best games ever made? Not very often, I’d recon. A film-noir adventure game set in a comedic take on the land of the dead and regarded as a triumph in visual design, Grim Fandango is an experience unlike any other — and perhaps that is what led to its alienation and cult-classic status that didn’t lead to great sales. Either way, you can’t say the adventure genre didn’t go out with quite the bang.
Just for starters, it feels more than fair to say stealth games would not be what they are today without the creation of Metal Gear Solid, and that statement in itself goes to show how important this game is. While still frustrating in its own right, Metal Gear Solid took a lot of what felt unfair about stealth games (namely the genre’s reliance on trial and error to progress) and established you could nail things the first time… if you’re clever enough to figure out how. And boy are there countless clever ways and strokes of brilliance peppered throughout the entirely of Metal Gear Solid. From using cigarette smoke to detect lasers and wearing a box and having a wolf cub pee on you to cover your scent, there are countless moments that will frustrate you with how smart (and ridiculous) they are, which is kind of the theme of the game. While it is undeniably a campy little title filled with over-the-top characters enacting over-the-top-plans, it also is exceedingly grounded and brilliant in both its politically-charged story and its mechanics and puzzles.
When it comes to what game studio was putting out the most adrenaline-pumping hyper violent games folks couldn’t get enough of in the 90s, id Software — the studio behind DOOM, Wolfenstein, and Quake — was basically unrivaled. As such, Quake had a lot of hype and expectations to live up to when it was announced, leaving some folks worried the title might fumble or fail to deliver everything fans expected it to. However, Quake not only lived up to id Software’s reputation, but established the company could also design a disgustingly good multiplayer experience as well. Quake‘s truly 3D world, immersion, and unparalleled multiplayer Deathmatch mode cemented the game as a 90s classic, with the Trent Reznor created soundtrack being merely the cherry on top.
Since Sid Meier’s Civilization hit PC back in 1991, the overall concept of the game hasn’t changed much — which honestly just goes to show you just how perfect this series has always been at what it does. However, the jump from the first entry to the second was one noted and appreciate by fans and critics when Civilization II launched in 1996 and for good reason. While the series has always felt a bit similar to an intense game of Risk, Civilization II upped the thinking required by players with the introduction of new nations, city growth variations, troop types, and more. Civilization II wasn’t just a bigger and better looking game, but one that upheld the series’ original intent of creating a brilliant (and oh-so addicting) strategy game that will either leave you feeling utterly triumphant or ripping out your hair.
IMDb
6. Gran Turismo (1998, 96)
Ready for a kind of unbelievable fun fact? While we might think of God of War, Uncharted, The Last of Us, and Horizon as PlayStation’s biggest exclusive series, when it comes to which exclusive franchise has sold the most on the system, it’s none other than Gran Turismo. Released in 1998, the first Gran Turismo took a whopping five-years to make because of just how hyper-realistic the racing game was intent on being. Ultimately, all the work the studio put in was well-worth it when it quickly became regarded as the greatest racing game ever made. The game featured a staggering 140 cars for players to drive with the most realistic feeling driving to ever grace a racing game, and quickly became the new benchmark for the genre.
Long before Valve was one of the most well known companies in gaming, it was just a little studio working on a very ambitious game: Half-Life. While the overarching story already felt tried and true at the time it was released (scientists experiment goes wrong and now the faculty is overrun by abominations you gotta somehow take care of), Half-Life‘s delivery was handled with such care and precision it turned a cliché into what’s widely regarded as a masterpiece without relying on merely turning the game into something cinematic. That same care and attentiveness ultimately went into every element of the game, ultimately creating a title that felt more realistic and clever than any first-person shooter to come before it, with plenty of puzzles and strokes of brilliance. Alongside the aforementioned Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life was one of the titles that urged action-packed games to think both bigger and smaller than ever before.
The 90s were honestly an incredible time for fighting games. With the rise in home consoles came a concentrated effort to take classic cabinet fighters and turn them into games we could play at home, without pockets full of change and germ-covered joysticks — and by and large, developers did a great job doing it. We got Street Fighter 2, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, another little title coming up just a bit further on this list, and, of course, Tekken 3. When it released in 1998, Tekken 3 made a name for itself as a fantastic looking and modern feeling fighter that somehow completely retained the feeling of being an arcade game. Perhaps that’s because above all else, Tekken 3 was concerned with being a balanced game where every type of player could find their go-to fighter and dish-out relentless combos using the hundreds of moves each character came with, making it a must-have entry in the fighting game genre.
While the notion that a licensed game could not only be critically-acclaimed but somehow be groundbreaking seems a bit scoff-able, Goldeneye proves the idea is not an impossible one. While Halo: Combat Evolved would ultimately come along and prove once and for all competitive first-person shooters did have a home in console gaming in just a few short years later, when Goldeneye hit shelves in 1997 it helped move the needle and open people up the idea. With smart AI, great level design, a killer soundtrack, and a multiplayer mode that went on to provide families and friend groups with hundreds of hours of entertainment, Goldeneye became an unlikely staple on the Nintendo 64 alongside the likes of Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 64.
While the Sega Dreamcast might have not have sold the way the company dreamed of (ultimately leading to it being Sega’s last effort in the home console war), it wasn’t for a lack of trying. From Crazy Taxi toShenmue, the system had some seriously innovative and fun exclusive titles, one of which was SoulCalibur. Considered by some to be the sole reason to buy the Dreamcast, the 1998 SoulCalibur revival took a fun arcade game and made it arguably the most powerful and compelling fighting game ever made, with an eight-way direction system, realistic physics, cutting-edge graphics, and fast-and-fluid gameplay. The weapons-fighting game also boasted a cast of character that felt incredibly unique to play in a world where fighting games were becoming a dime-a-dozen and there was some serious overlap between franchises and characters. Ultimately, SoulCalibur stands out as thee fighting game in a decade filled with entries in the genre.
Nintendo Life
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998, 99)
Nowadays, just about the greatest compliment a game can get is it feels “immersive,” meaning it creates a world so fleshed-out and so worthy of getting invested in, we temporarily forget our own. While it doesn’t take a 3D-world, engaging combat, beautiful art, an iconic soundtrack, perfect level design, and a compelling story to make a game immersive, all of these things led to Ocarina of Time being widely regarded as the most immersive action-adventure game to ever hit consoles when it was released in 98. While the Legend of Zelda series was already quite beloved by this point, Ocarina took it to a next level, capturing the the magic, adventure, loneliness, and eerie-quality of the games in a way no entry had before.
Finneas is perhaps best-known as the sole producer and collaborator of the music his super star sister, Bille Eilish, makes. But, he’s already branched out to producing and collaborating with other artists in the meantime, and this fall he’s releasing a solo album of his own, Optimist, and in anticipation of that NME did a cover story focusing on what’s been going on in his life lately. The piece is a great feature, running down some of the success that he and Billie have had together in their not one but two albums released in as many years, along with other surreal moments like winning a host of Grammys or performing “Fix You” with Coldplay.
Though he’s committed to his own solo work, and obviously his collaborations with Billie, Finneas said he considers himself in service of the artist and their sound when he’s enlisted by another musician to help out. “I’m still passionate and opinionated and I make sure they know what I think,” he told NME. “That, at the end of the day, is part of the reason I get hired – hopefully people trust me.”
But no matter what, there’s nothing like the connection he has with Billie. “I don’t know that anything could get [as] strong as our creative bond,” he explained. “I like working with anyone that you could list that I’ve worked with. I haven’t had a terrible experience working with anybody. But I think just the intimacy of a relationship with a sibling is impossible to replicate or duplicate.”
Read the whole cover story here and look out for Optimist dropping October 15.
Everyone is their own worst critic, but not all are quite as ruthless (or as smoothly voiced) as the one wreaking havoc in Olivia Munn’s head in the trailer for Violet. In the feature film directorial debut of writer and actress Justine Bateman (Family Ties, Desperate Housewives, Californication), Munn plays Violet, a woman crippled by anxiety in the form of cutting, and pessimistic internal monologues delivered by Justin Theroux. After debuting earlier this year at SXSW, the acclaimed film is scheduled to be released in a limited release on October 29, followed by streaming services on November 9 — and based on the film’s official synopsis, it seems like one you don’t want to miss:
“What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Justine Bateman’s intriguing and immersive debut film follows Violet Calder (Olivia Munn) as she realizes that she can no longer ignore the daily barrage of self-criticisms (voiced by Justin Theroux) that clouds her life. These self-criticisms cause her to make fear-based decisions and hold her back from the kind of professional, personal, and romantic life she knows she wants. Unsure how to live a life free from that self-doubt, like her childhood friend Red (Luke Bracey), Violet realizes she has no choice but to travel the road that is more frightening to her than the fear that holds her back: Doing everything differently.”
In addition to Munn and Theroux, Luke Bracey, Laura San Giacomo, Jason Dohring, Zachary Gordon, Todd Stashwick, and Colleen Camp all star in the upcoming drama that is coming to select theaters on October 29. While Violet’s theatrical run is looking to be quite small, rest assured it’ll be on video on demand on November 9.
The player was built and designed by Raphael Ong and Sean Lim, who Barnett thanked on Twittter when she posted about the new app. “We have put together an interactive stem mixer on my website,” she wrote. “You can listen & play around w Rae Street, Before You Gotta Go & Write A List Of Things To Look Forward To. more songs added soon. Built and designed Raphael Ong & Sean Lim @rrphl @bgourd05.”
Ever the class act when it comes to crediting those she works with, Barnett followed up with a second tweet identfiying everyone who worked on the songs in question: “t̫h̫i̫n̫g̫s̫ t̫a̫k̫e̫ t̫i̫m̫e̫, t̫a̫k̫e̫ t̫i̫m̫e̫ out Nov 12. Engineered by Simon Berckelman at Golden Retriever Studios. Assistant Engineer Chloe Dadd. co-produced, additional engineering & many instruments by Stella Mozgawa. Mixed by David Wrench. Mastered by Heba Kadry.”
We have put together an interactive stem mixer on my website. You can listen & play around w Rae Street, Before You Gotta Go & Write A List Of Things To Look Forward To. more songs added soon. Built and designed Raphael Ong & Sean Lim @rrphl@bgourd05https://t.co/YgBasibWUj
One aspect of soccer that the FIFA games have been embracing more recently has been playing the game in places other than the state of the art pitches built for clubs. The world’s most popular sport didn’t reach that status through only playing in stadiums, it grew through people playing it on grass and concrete. It made sense for EA Sports to embrace that.
With FIFA 22 releasing to the world on October 1, it gave EA Sports an opportunity to continue reaching out to those communities. The Ground is an indoor soccer facility in Lower Manhattan. At The Ground, anyone can gather to play a game of pickup soccer. It’s also where EA Sports, in collaboration with artist Nina Chanel Abney, have painted a pitch that sits on the roof of the building. It’s colorful, references the recently-released FIFA 22, and is a sight to behold.
The collaboration didn’t end there. Abney also designed some special kits that can be used in Ultimate Team, which have a similar style to the pitch. There is also a special FIFA 22 cover designed by Abney for anyone that wants to bring a different kind of style to their physical game case.
FIFA 22
Collaborations like this are always fun and it’s great to see EA Sports embracing them as frequently as they do.
Rad Dad is a hilarious meme page on Instagram that focuses on jokes about fathers everywhere. As the stereotype goes, the typical American dad loves to grill, wear comfy New Balance sneakers, drink beer, and marvel at how wonderful his lawn looks.
Dad’s love for beer is so intense that sometimes it gets in the way of handling the housework that he was supposed to tackle on Saturday. Oh well, there’s always Sunday.
Here are 18 of the funniest dad memes from Rad Dad’s Instagram page.
1. Dad’s a little rusty.
2. This dad clearly has his priorities in order.
3. Dads can wear white after Labor Day, but they wouldn’t be caught dead going out without getting their zip-up pants in fall form.
4. No lies here.
5. It’s 10 am somewhere.
6. If you stand, you can hear it better.
7. One less thing to think about.
8. The ultimate in dad comfort and support.
9. It’s time to go to work.
10. They’re still in better shape than most pro bowlers.
11. Love and marriage was all you needed back then.
12. Quickest way to lose a fingernail.
13. I’ll get up early tomorrow and get things done.
14. The older I get, the more they stay the same.
15. What’s he listening to?
16. We’re simple creatures.
17. Fact: More dads die of colds than heart attacks.
18. Every dad’s perfect Twilight schedule.
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