Month: January 2022

In March 2021, a woman named Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered in South London as she was walking home.

Simply walking home alone at night proved to be life-threatening. But this aspect of the story is no new news. Women have long shared their fears on the subject.

Constant glances over the shoulder and walking with keys between the fingers have become well-known protection rituals against potential violence. And these efforts, though necessary measures of self defense, can at times feel like small band-aids over a larger wound.

As Alice Jackson and Rachel Chung, two students in Edinburgh, attended one of Everard’s vigils, an idea struck them. And it’s helping women in the U.K. gain not only a sense of safety, but something else too. Something of equal immense value.

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Jackson and Chung together created Strut Safe, a volunteer organization where women can request a pair of volunteers to escort them home, or stay on the phone with them while they are in transit.

According to Strut Safe’s website, all volunteers are vetted and subject to a strict code of conduct. And as of now, they have more than 50 volunteers across the U.K.

See on Instagram

In an interview with indy100, Chung shared how Everard’s death inspired a call to create change.

“The idea of ‘she was just walking home’ was, I think, a very prominent idea. So many of us don’t always feel safe when walking home so we basically decided that we wanted to put something structurally and tangible in place that anybody could call…We wanted to be the universal number for people to get in touch with if they feel unsafe walking home,” she explained.

“The view we take is if we’re there on the phone with you, we’re there with you in live time so if something did happen we are going to be able to alert the authorities,” she added, likening it to “being a professional friend.”

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So just what is a phone call like? Well, that depends.

Sometimes, it’s merely gossip. Other times, “you come off a 20-minute call that’s been really emotionally intense, really serious,” Chung tells BBC News. “The caller might have been running at the end, crying. And then you’ll hang up, and you’re sitting on your sofa, the telly paused, and there’ll be silence.”

Though the goal is to be available every night, Strut Safe currently runs its services Friday and Saturday nights between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m., and Sunday night from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.

That goal might not be too far off, as social media has added exponential visibility to the service. Currently Strut Safe has more than 70,000 followers on Instagram.

See on Instagram

Writing this, I can’t help but be reminded of a Twitter thread, created by activist Danielle Muscato, which went viral back in 2018.

Muscato asked women what they would do if men had a 9 p.m. curfew. The answers were both eye-opening and heartbreaking. Running with both earbuds in, enjoying quiet nighttime strolls, looking up at the stars are some examples.

The answers, though varied, all have a similar theme: freedom.

Muscato’s thread offered some long-overlooked insight as to just how un-free many women felt over something easily taken for granted.

Luckily, the volunteers at Strut Safe are helping to change this narrative and helping women reclaim empowerment through their services.

Amy Schneider’s incredible Jeopardy! run came to an end after 40 wins. Although people were beside themselves to see her head off into the sunset, rest assured that Amy’s taking $1,382,800 in winnings with her, so it’s all good. Also, she certainly will be able to relax a little bit after the exhausting process of keeping her player status secret from everyone, even family and friends. And Amy sat down for a weekend-long interview with The New York Times, which yielded some wonderful nuggets, like Amy confirming that, yes, she briefly cried after losing her 41st game, but “[i]t wasn’t just a feeling of sadness, there was a sense of relief.”

Racking up five wins per day sounds “exhausting,” alright. Amy, who’s the winningest woman in the show’s history, also revealed a semi-strategic decision that she made along the way. Much like she judiciously used her platform to call out the GOP and wear a pin of support for the community, she also chose “how she wanted to sound” on TV. In the end, Amy went with what felt right for her, partially because she wanted to focus on her gameplay and partially because she wanted to send a message to other trans women:

“I’ve got a more feminine voice when I really want to, and I’d sort of been planning on using that voice on TV,” she said. But she ultimately decided that consciously altering her voice could affect her gameplay and chose to speak in her usual register. She’s proud of that decision.

“Trans women watching can see me with my voice as it is and see me being OK with it,” she said.

The New York Times notes that Amy once found her voice to be “a source of dysphoria,” but she’s now looking to get into voice acting and has signed with the CAA. And as of interview time, the former engineering manager was still waiting on her Jeopardy! check. From there, the sky is truly the limit, and Amy’s second-place in consecutively won games will surely be secure for awhile. Meanwhile, Amy’s successor on Jeopardy!, Chicago librarian Rhone Talsma, will pick up on Thursday night to defend champ status.

(Via New York Times)

Achieving gender parity in musical festival lineups has been an uphill battle for female artists. Over the past few years, we’ve seen lineup figures cross the 30% mark of female-led acts on the bill, but that number seldom affects the headlining slate, which is typically dominated by male artists. We’ve seen some festivals recently make it a priority to feature female-led acts in at least half of the bill, but when it comes to hip-hop, that effort is generally negligible.

Enter Sacramento’s Sol Blume festival. Now in its third edition, the fest has just announced an eye-popping slate of female headlining acts and a 2022 lineup that shows true balance between female and male stars in hip-hop, R&B, and soul. Jhené Aiko, Summer Walker, and Jorja Smith are the headliners along with PartyNextDoor, making for a formidable slate of some of today’s best artists. The two-day Sol Blume fest is also moving to a new venue at Sacramento’s Discovery Park, with its sweeping 300-acre riverside footprint.

Among the acts joining the headliners on the bill are Alina Baraz, Majid Jordan, SiR, Lucky Daye, Kiana Ledé, DVSN, Syd, Thundercat, Tinashe, Blxst, Rexx Life Raj, Sinéad Harnett, Smino, Lauren Jauregui, Tiana Major9, Tink, Yeek, and more.

Tickets go on sale Monday, January, 31 at 1o am PST here. You can full details and lineup info at the same link.

Some of the artists mentioned here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Dijon’s new album Absolutely is out now and racking up the accolades, so last night’s episode of The Tonight Show became the perfect showcase for both the album and the chaotic recording sessions that generated it. Replicating those sessions — which he previously recreated in the video for “Many Times” as well as the Absolutely short film — Dijon surrounds himself on stage with the cadre of musicians that contributed to the album for what essentially becomes a live jam sessions as much as a television debut performance.

While his Tonight Show performance may signal his arrival on the big stage, Dijon fans will have the opportunity to catch him on another set of stages this spring as he embarks on his first-ever headlining tour. Kicking off in Mesa, Arizona on March 30, the tour will span the US, eventually concluding at The Wiltern in Los Angeles in June. Parts of the tour will also see him supporting Bon Iver, as the established indie artist takes Dijon under his wing for the opening half of Dijon’s big US swing. You can find those dates below.

Watch Dijon’s Tonight Show performance of “Big Mike’s” above.

Dijon is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Pizza is a near-perfect fast food. It’s transportable, customizable in ways that speak to almost everybody, easily shared, and can be reheated simply and effectively (hell, some people swear by eating it cold). It offers everything we want out of fast food — it’s cheap, delicious, and covered in melted cheese. But it’s lacking in one increasingly important aspect — it’s just not spicy.

Sure, you’ve got your red pepper flakes (often stale and flavorless after months in a shaker with holes on top) and a few local independent shops probably have some sort of spicy pie (often featuring pickled jalapenos or pepperoncini, neither of which is a good fit), but from the big national brands, the ones you’re most likely to eat as we approach Super Bowl Weekend? They don’t bring the heat. Seeing this gap in the market, Pizza Hut jumped into action, adding a new entry to their Lover’s line of products — The Spicy Lover’s pizza.

Beginning today for an unspecified “limited time,” Pizza Hut locations nationwide will be offering up the Spicy Lover’s pizza, which is available in three forms: Spicy Hawaiian, Spicy Veggie, and Spicy Double Pepperoni. All three of the pizzas feature a new spicy marinara recipe, chopped red chilis, and come pre-loaded with a blend of red pepper flakes and herbs (normalize oregano at pizza chains, we beg you).

We sampled the Spicy Double Pepperoni to see if Pizza Hut can deliver the heat and create the spicy pie we’ve all been hoping for.

Spicy Lover’s Pizza — Double Pepperoni

Pizza Hut’s Double Pepperoni Spicy Lover’s Pizza features multiple layers of spice. You’ve got the spicy marinara base, sliced red chilies, a generous shake of red chili flakes, and, as we mentioned before, two types of pepperoni. To which, we have to ask: why the two types of pepperoni Pizza Hut? Just phase out the old pepperoni. The small crispy and spicier cups taste way better than the old flat floppy slices.

The first thing that stood out to me about this pizza was how pungently spicy it smelled. I was getting wafts of spicy chilies from the closed box. Be warned, this pizza will stink up the surrounding area. It has that sort of stomach-churningly dangerous aroma that comes with ultra spicy food. It’s appetizing in that you know it’s spicy, but it’s not something you’d want to smell if you weren’t eating pizza. Something to keep in mind if you have roommates or you’re one of those weirdos who sneaks pizza into movie theaters.

As far as the taste, this pie delivers. First, let’s start with the spicy marinara — it’s an improvement over Pizza Hut’s normal pizza sauce. The OG sauce is overly sugary and dominates the entire pie regardless of toppings. The spicy marinara on the other hand doesn’t suffer from this problem. It is a bit sweet, likely to counterbalance the spiciness, but the overall sauce is brighter without being distracting.

The double serving of pepperoni is appreciated, the pizza is very meaty and since the pepperonis are of two different sizes they never pile on top of one another, which helps to keep each slice crispy instead of sweaty, a real problem with meat-piled pies.

But the real star of the show is the spicy chopped chilis. They’re red jalapeño peppers so they aren’t out-of-this-world spicy, but if you can’t tolerate heat this is going to make your mouth feel like it’s caught fire. For the spicy fan, this is a great thing. I didn’t struggle to eat this (my tolerance is very high) but I did experience some light brow sweat. The multiple heat sources compound together and cause your tongue to crackle with pleasing spicy sensations throughout the entire experience and I found myself reaching for more slices not out of hunger, but for that spicy sensation. This is easily my favorite pizza from the Hut.

The Bottom Line

It’s delicious and delivers the heat. It’s not so spicy that eating it is a challenge, but it’s the spiciest pizza you’re going to find from a national chain and hopefully, it kicks off a trend that the other brands follow.

FInd your nearest Pizza Hut here.

Over the course of her music career, HER has earned an overwhelming number of awards an accolades, including several MTV VMAs, 21 Grammy nominations, and an Oscar. Now, along with Grammy-winning singer, HER can add another title to her name: Global Brand Ambassador.

The multi-hyphenate musician just signed on as the Global Brand Ambassador for the makeup company L’Oréal Paris. Much like with her music, the singer said she hopes to inspire girls everywhere in her new role with the brand.

“When I use my voice, I need to stand 100 percent with what I represent,” HER said in a statement. “So, I’m beyond happy to join L’Oréal Paris, and to add my voice to this sisterhood representing the diversity of beauty on this plant, with the message for every girl to know her worth deep in her heart.”

Continuing to talk about her new role on Instagram, HER wrote, “Like so many women, @LorealParis is a brand I’ve known since I was a young girl, not just for their products (which I really do use!) but also for their beautiful mantra, Because I’m Worth It. That powerful statement is just as relevant today as it was when introduced to the world 40 years ago. I can’t wait to be part of helping to shape what it means for the next generation of women to feel #worthit.”

HER hasn’t mentioned whether or not the new partnership will result in an exclusive makeup line, like Megan Thee Stallion did with Revlon. But it does look like HER will be starring in L’Oréal’s upcoming advertisement campaign for their Elvive Dream Lengths Super Curls hair care line.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Paul “Sexiest Man Alive” Rudd is a big Kansas City Chiefs fan, so Super Bowl Sunday, February 13, is shaping up to be an eventful day for him. Patrick Mahomes & Co. are seven-point favorites to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals this weekend and play in The Big Game, as brands are legally obligated to say, against either the Los Angeles Rams or San Francisco 49ers. But even if the Chiefs lose, Rudd will still make his presence known during the Super Bowl in a Lay’s commercial with his buddy Seth Rogen.

Lay’s hasn’t released the full ad yet, but there is a teaser — which Rogen is not happy with. “What are we doing?” he asks Rudd in the video above. “We’re doing a teaser,” the Ant-Man actor replies. “We’re teasing commercials now? That’s a thing?” an incredulous Rogen wonders. It’s like a movie trailer, “but the commercial is incredible short in the first place, how long is the teaser?” Before Rudd can answer, he gets cut off.

It’s a monumental spot for Lays, as it marks their first Super Bowl ad in 17 years. Dubbed the “Golden Memories” campaign, the official in-game commercial will see Rogen and Rudd enjoy “typical best friend activities” — as well as what the brand calls “a few adventures you won’t believe until you see.”

Rudd could have starred in the Lay’s spot 17 years, and looked exactly the same as he does now.

(Via People)

One of the greatest movie disappointments is the scene in the John Hughes classic The Breakfast Club when “basket cast” Allison Reynolds, played by Ally Sheedy, gets a “makeover.” The makeover in question just consisted of wearing a frilly outfit and having her makeup done by the preppy Claire, played by Molly Ringwald. It was supposed to be this big “a-ha” moment when she finally gets noticed by the other misfits as something other than an outcast. The problem is…that’s a pretty crummy message to send teens.

Sheedy recently spoke with Page Six saying the transformation was “uncomfortable.” “It was one of those things, though. It was the ’80s, and we got to take this young woman who seems like a crazy person and make her into, you know, somebody pretty or whatever it was.”

True, the “makeover” trope was big in the ’80s and actually still happens today (see 2015’s cringe-worthy teen flick The Duff) but normally ends with the main character realizing that maybe, just maybe, beauty comes from the inside…or something along those lines. But that didn’t happen in The Breakfast Club.

The iconic scene is often criticized by viewers for its shallow message: that if you put a bow in your hair and wear pink, people will think you are more approachable. Sheedy argued that “Allison is much more delicious before the hair bow goes on.” Sheedy said she had originally fought the director on it, but ultimately thought the movie wouldn’t be as big of a hit as it turned out to be, let alone still be criticized to this day.

“I had no idea that the movie was going to be such a success,” Sheedy said. “I didn’t really understand how much [of a] success it was at the time. I didn’t have any idea that it would continue going on and have this extended life.” If an extended life means going viral on Twitter once every few months for the uncomfortable scene, then yes! It has quite an extended life.

After stepping into whole heap of controversy during the early days of the pandemic by refusing to self-isolate, Ant-Man and The Wasp star Evangeline Lilly is back with a brand new anti-vaccine problem for Marvel to deal with. (Letita Wright says thank you.) On Thursday, the Lost actress revealed that she attended the anti-vaxxer protest in Washington D.C. over the weekend. The event has already resulted in an apology from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for saying that anti-vaxxers have it worse than Anne Frank, but that didn’t stop Lilly from proudly announcing that she participated in the weekend protest to “support bodily sovereignty.”

Via Instagram:

I believe nobody should ever be forced to inject their body with anything, against their will, under threat of:
-violent attack
-arrest or detention without trial
-loss of employment
-homelessness
-starvation
-loss of education
-alienation from loved ones
-excommunication from society
…under any threat whatsoever.

This is not the way. This is not safe. This is not healthy. This is not love. I understand the world is in fear, but I don’t believe that answering fear with force will fix our problems.

You can see Lilly’s full post below:

As The Daily Beast reports, none of the threats that Lilly writes about are real and her post “carries a whole host of misleading implications.” Of course, it should be noted that the last time Lilly spoke out against COVID mitigations, she walked back her remarks and apologized for being “arrogant” and “dismissive.” With Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on the horizon, it will be interesting to see if Lilly pulls back on her rhetoric or if Marvel gets involved.

The studio did not publicly act when Letitia Wright spread a conspiracy video referring to the COVID vaccine as the Biblical “Mark of the Beast.” However, the actress notably removed all of her social media accounts following the incident. Everyone is having a lot of fun. It’s great.

(Via Evangeline Lilly on Instagram)

A long time ago, Meghan McCain and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin might have been friends. After all, the late Senator John McCain chose Palin as his running mate in the 2008 Presidential Election. But it sounds like the pandemic — and Palin’s willful stupidity — has burned that particular bridge.

In a new interview with The Daily Mail — where McCain has worked as a columnist after leaving her hosting stint on The View — the outspoken political pundit went off on Palin for dining out in New York City not once, but twice, despite testing positive for Covid. Palin was in the city to testify against The New York Times after slapping them with a defamation suit over some factual errors in reporting (that they’ve since corrected and apologized for) As part of the court’s policy, all witnesses attending trial must test negative for Covid before taking the stand. Palin, who has been fairly vocal about her anti-vaccine philosophies, tested positive for Covid three times, which pushed her court date back.

What those test results didn’t do however is stop Palin from having dinner in a public restaurant, without wearing a mask, on two separate occasions. After photos of Palin stuffing her face with Italian food leaked, McCain — who revealed her own Covid diagnosis — went a bit scorched earth on her dad’s former VP pick.

“Is she crazy? Day two? I haven’t seen her or talked to her for many years, aside from some short emails when my father passed, so I can’t imagine what she is thinking but this is highly irresponsible,” McCain told The Daily Mail. “This was selfish, reckless, and stupid. This is why she shouldn’t be in politics anymore. You have to lead by example. Just because it’s not illegal doesn’t mean it is not unethical. I’m embarrassed to have once known her.”

McCain has consistently flip-flopped when it comes to her thoughts on masks and how President Joe Biden is handling the pandemic, but she is vaccinated and has encouraged others to get their shot. She’s also been quarantining while dealing with Covid, which explains why she’s taking such offense to Palin spreading her germs all over the Upper East Side.

To be fair though, Palin is someone who’s gotten Covid before and still threatened to “rise up” if the government forced her to get vaccinated. Things like scientific logic and facts probably don’t mean much to her.

(Via The Daily Mail)