A stranger knocked on the door of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday morning shortly before Shabbat service. It was 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, 46, made him a cup of tea. The rabbi and Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a British national, spoke for a few moments and then the rabbi went on to perform his regular 10 a.m. Shabbat prayers for his congregation.
When the rabbi turned his back to face Jerusalem, he heard a click come from the stranger. “And it turned out, that it was his gun,” Cytron-Walker told CBS News.
Akram began screaming and a congregant, Jeffrey Cohen, the vice president of the synagogue’s board of trustees, quickly pulled out his phone and dialed 911. A livestream broadcasting the prayer ceremony to congregants participating from home caught some of what Akram was shouting. “I’m gunned up. I’m ammo-ed up,” he told someone he called nephew. “Guess what, I will die.”
The FBI got word of the 911 call and quickly set up a perimeter around the synagogue. Akram took four people hostage, including the rabbi.
u201cIt was terrifying. It was overwhelming. Weu2019re still processingu201d: Rabbi Charlie Cytron Walker shares what he experienced inside the Texas synagogue where four hostages were held at gunpoint over the weekend.pic.twitter.com/ZX8DrQkjJj
During the ordeal, Akram repeatedly demanded the release of a convicted terrorist, Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year sentence at a Texas federal prison for an assault on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Five hours into the ordeal, one hostage—a man—was released by Akram. Four hours later, Akram became increasingly enraged and the hostages knew that they had to take action to avoid being killed.
“In the last hour of our hostage crisis, the gunman became increasingly belligerent and threatening,” Cytron-Walker said in a statement to CNN.
In first TV interview since crisis, Rabbi Charlie Cytron Walker says he and other 2 hostages were terrified in last hour of standoff as Akram u201cwasn’t getting what he wanted” After making sure others were ready, he told them to go, threw chair at Akram and they fledpic.twitter.com/rj9FuOTXf1
“When I saw an opportunity where he wasn’t in a good position, I asked (and) made sure that the gentlemen who were still with me, that they were ready to go. The exit wasn’t too far away,” Cytron-Walker told CBS.
“I told them to go,” Cytron-Walker said. “I threw a chair at the gunman and I headed for the door. And all three of us were able to get out without even a shot being fired.”
The rabbi attributes his ability to keep calm to his rabbinical training.
“As a part of training as clergy, we talk a lot about the idea of being a calm, non-anxious presence,” he told CBS. “We do that in hospital rooms. We do that during the most difficult of individual moments. And I did the best I could to do that throughout the standoff.”
Moments after the hostages were safely out of the synagogue, a group of armed law enforcement made their way into the building. The authorities confronted Akram, who was fatally shot by the FBI Hostage Rescue Team.
Joel Schwitzer of the American Jewish Committee was impressed by the heroic actions taken by the rabbi. “He is the most unassuming, egoless person you could ever meet. He is the personification of nice guy,” Schwitzer told Today. “He’s an average-sized person. When I heard he’d thrown a chair at the guy, I was so impressed. He’s a hero. There’s no other way to describe him.”
Cytron-Walker says he learned to think quickly from various trainings, including from the FBI.
“Over the years, my congregation and I have participated in multiple security courses from the Colleyville Police Department, the FBI, the Anti-Defamation League, and Secure Community Network,” Cytron-Walker told CNN. “We are alive today because of that education.”
On Sunday night, the rabbi gave a moving speech to his congregation assuring them “We will heal.”
In an emotional speech last night, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells his congregants “We will Heal” after he was taken hostage during a Shabbat service. nnRead more here: https://www.thejc.com/news/news/family-of-british-captor-in-texas-synagogue-attack-condemn-his-actions-5R9xywQWvYre81CmUaoeCzu00a0u2026pic.twitter.com/bsaiCPjTYq
— The Jewish Chronicle (@The Jewish Chronicle) 1642521611
A recently proposed New York state bill to prohibit rap lyrics from being used in criminal trials has support from some of the biggest names in the music business, including Jay-Z, Big Sean, Fat Joe, Killer Mike, Meek Mill, Yo Gotti, and more. Proposed in November, Bill S.7527/A.8681 — “Rap Music on Trial” — passed through a Senate Codes committee today, according to Rolling Stone, clearing the way for a vote in the bicameral state legislature. Should it pass Senate and Assembly votes, it’ll go to Governor Kathy Hochul, who Jay and his fellow signatories urged to sign the bill into law in a letter from Jay-Z’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, who co-wrote the letter along with University of Richmond Professor Erik Nielson.
Professor Nielson is the author of Rap On Trial, which examines and criticizes the use of rap lyrics to paint rappers as violent individuals, biasing juries against them in trials that often have little to do with the contents of their music.
“This reform is urgently needed,” reads the letter. “Rather than acknowledge rap music as a form of artistic expression, police and prosecutors argue that the lyrics should be interpreted literally – in the words of one prosecutor, as ‘autobiographical journals’ – even though the genre is rooted in a long tradition of storytelling that privileges figurative language, is steeped in hyperbole, and employs all of the same poetic devices we find in more traditional works of poetry.”
The timing of the bill is especially poignant in light of the recent death of Drakeo The Ruler, who spent two years in jail in Los Angeles as the city’s District Attorney prosecuted a case against him built largely around the lyrics of his music rather than hard evidence. Drakeo was later released after a new District Attorney was voted in, but had lost two valuable years of freedom, a case made all the more tragic by his death in December.
In a statement, Senator Jamaal Bailey of the Bronx, who co-authored the bill alongside Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, said, “Presuming a defendant’s guilt based solely on musical genre or creative expression is antithetical to our foundational rights and perpetuates the systemic racism that is embedded into the criminal justice system through discriminatory conflations of hip-hop and rap with criminality.” In short, don’t believe the hype; all rappers aren’t “thugs” and none should be considered guilty just because they rap about their conditions.
For the travel-obsessed citizens of the world, the new year means all-new adventures. While 2021 served up a platter of incredible travel experiences, we’re looking forward to what 2022 has in store for our bucket lists. Unfortunately, with the threat of new COVID variants, we may need to postpone or virtually experience some of these once-in-a-lifetime trips… for now. (If you do decide to travel, it’s essential to consider vaccination rates, safety protocols, and travel restrictions in your home city and at your destination.)
With all of this in mind — and it is a lot to juggle — we asked 19 prominent travel influencers and writers for their 2022 travel trend predictions. From a rise in solo trips and spontaneous adventures to long-term living abroad and transportation by train, the travel trends shouted out below might surprise you. More importantly, they may just inspire you to plan (however far out in the future) your next trip!
NICOLETTA DARITA DE LA BROWN (@vida.magica.love) — MICRO TRIPS & WELLNESS
Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown
I just got back from a trip to The Bahamas. It was a quick trip. It was all sea, except I had to fly to Florida to get on a cruise. And for me, what I think is going to be coming up are these micro trips or micro vacations where everything is smaller. The number of places I was going, the amount of time I was going there, and what I was doing — it was really deliberate, really thoughtful, and curated. It was very intentional. I wanted to be as close to local life and culture as I could be. I wanted to be ethical. I wanted to leave places better than I found them. And I also wanted to make sure that I was leaving better than I arrived, from a health standpoint.
I think that travel is going be about wellness and wellbeing in 2022. I also think it’s going to be about being deeply connected to where you are in a way that is both ethical and really thoughtful, kind, and deliberate. I spent my entire trip on catamarans, in glass-bottom boats with local Bahamians telling me about the local plants and connecting me to the water. That, for me, was amazing. I was basically making deep connections with people that I would’ve never met before — since it was such a small group of people. Since I wasn’t in a big gathering space and just basically on this catamaran with the captain and his crew and a few other people, I could really listen and pay attention to learn.
I also spent a lot of time meditating on the beach and dancing on the sand and being in bikinis from the day I got there ’til the moment I had to put on my clothes to get back on and head home. I was just thinking about how I could squeeze out as much time with nature and with people who are from where I’m visiting, listening to their stories and learning. So I think for me, the prediction for 2022 is going be travel that’s focused on healing, health, wellbeing, both mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health, and also micro trips in every sense of the word.
I expect to see a lot more car camping in 2022! Gaining popularity during the beginning of the pandemic, people started getting outside—in droves—by any means necessary. For those who wanted to get outdoors but didn’t want to throw themselves into a full-on camping situation where they’re essentially sleeping outside, car camping provided a safe and cost-effective solution.
As long as you have a hatchback, SUV, or crossover vehicle, you just throw down your back seats, lay out a sleeping pad or air mattress, and let the adventure begin.
With swirling uncertainty in the air as we enter the New Year, I think everybody’s going to need to figure out what they’re comfortable with in terms of travel. Some will be happy to hop a plane, others may want to wait. No matter what, though, the National Parks have seen huge increases in visitors, which is a clear indicator that Americans are doing more domestic travel than ever.
And I guarantee car camping is going to continue to be an integral part of that!
The destination at the TOP of my 2022 travel bucket list is for sure, Seychelles. It’s a beautiful, archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of East Africa. It’s quickly gaining popularity, yet isn’t over-saturated and many travelers have yet to visit the island.
It boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the world (that are free of charge to visit), lots of different adventures to choose from, and is full of culture. Travel is predicted to be up 300% in 2022, so it sounds like we’ll ALL be busy traveling (and quite frankly making up for missed travels due to the pandemic). I predict that the Seychelles will see a nice chunk of the spike.
Another place that I think will be trending in 2022 is Belize. So many people have reached out to me to inquire about Belize and I’ve also noticed that many new hotels are being built there, which are solid indicators that Belize is going to pull at travel heartstrings tough next year!
Belize is known for having the second largest barrier reef, hence it’s an amazing destination for scuba diving adventures. It’s also home to a slew of Mayan Ruins for travelers who enjoy educational travels. If just relaxing at a beautiful beach is more your vibe, it’s absolutely great for that too! There’s literally something for everyone. Hello, perfection.
CHLOE CALDWELL (@chloeicaldwell) — A GENERAL SENSE OF SPONTANEITY
I’ve always said that the most spontaneous of adventures make for the best memories. I think now more than ever, people are more willing to pack up their bags and head out the door with little notice or planning. With the ongoing option to work remotely for many of us into the new year, it’s easier to leave at the spur of the moment when last-minute travel opportunities present themselves. For me personally, I’ve recently been on several spontaneous trips, which have turned out to be some of my favorite excursions. I see myself and others saying yes to more spontaneous adventures as they come up this year (so long as travel restrictions and safety protocols allow it).
It might sound stressful to hop on a plane or in the car for a trip without planning ahead. But, honestly, I find it to make the experience all the more exciting and unique. You’re able to curate your itinerary as you go and gain authentic memories you may not have made if the whole trip was pre-planned. Every time I go on a last-minute trip, I find myself more willing to talk to locals for inside tips on where to eat, drink, and explore. It’s a great way to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Embracing spontaneity while traveling also takes the pressure off of creating a “perfect” vacation. Rather than forcing a plethora of activities and excursions into one day, you’re able to take one step at a time. It’s always so fun being surprised by the people, places, and meals I end up experiencing on these unexpected trips.
This may seem a little obvious, and maybe it should have been the move all throughout this nightmare of a pandemic, but as we head into 2022 it’s looking more and more like local solo travel is the way to go. Our day-to-day explorations come with more responsibility than ever as we learn to live in the midst of a pandemic, protecting ourselves and the people around us. So instead of gathering up all your friends and hitting a strange town for a weekend, hop in the car, queue up your favorite tunes, and hit the road solo.
Solo travel might sound lonely at first, but once you’re on your own you’ll see that there is nothing better than living by your own schedule. Plus you never have to compromise on where to eat again, and that’s always a good thing.
Today, we are worried about Omicron. Before that, it was Delta. It seems likely that 2022 will see the rise of new virus variants that will continue to present new challenges to travelers.
Already, we are seeing airline partnerships with privatized healthcare turning into a de-facto travel tax for people who want to go abroad. This isn’t to say travelers shouldn’t be tested. In my opinion, that’s an important step in wrestling this pandemic. However, the result is that travel has become more expensive and more difficult in a time where many people are already struggling to make ends meet.
With increased travel costs and restrictions, I expect more travelers to look at long-form vacations. A family or couple might choose to spend most of their visit in a single country rather than hopping around a region. That could push travelers to more rural areas of a country and move tourism dollars away from tried-and-true cities into towns with lesser-known attractions and fewer resources for foreigners.
Fortunately, those are exactly the kind of places that often hold memorable experiences for people adventurous enough to go off the beaten path.
I do think train travel is going to be even more of a trend. I know it definitely came up more in 2021, but I definitely foresee that being something people seek out more often as an alternative in ways I don’t think they would have pre-pandemic. I know it got a great response on my Instagram and TikTok, so I anticipate train travel to continue to be of interest.
I’m also thinking that not only responsible travel continuing to be an emerging trend out of the pandemic, but more of the sabbatical type of travel. I know a lot of people with the whole great resignation are really looking for those extended, extensive slow travel experiences, which I think go hand-in-hand with more responsible travel experiences as well.
I think travel is going to be really unpredictable in 2022 just because we still don’t know what’s happening with COVID and things are rapidly changing. Travel policies are changing. Vaccination policies are changing. With that being said, I think people have been spending a lot of their time in 2021 being cooped up inside planning what their next big trip is going to be. I feel like we’re gonna see a lot of people taking really long extended trips because we’ve been cooped up for so long.
We are all excited to get back on the road, and I feel like people aren’t just going to be taking week-long or weekend-long trips anymore. They’re really gonna plan out to be in a region and explore for at least a month or so. I already know a few people who’ve planned out trips either in Europe or in Asia for next year, and I’m hoping to be one of those people as well.
My predictions for 2022 travel would be that conscious travelers are going to continue to seek out countries that have strict COVID regulations. Someone who’s being conscious right now is vaccinated, and they’re only going to go to countries that have high vaccine rates and require vaccinations for foreigners to enter, such as Uraguay where vaccines are required, or Rwanda where a negative COVID test is required to enter national parks.
At least for me, that’s something that I’m going to be looking towards. I think that’s how we can be responsible for the places we choose to visit in 2022. If we choose to visit places that do not have vaccine requirements, we will still get tested before we enter because it’s the right thing to do. So my 2022 travel prediction would be supporting countries that are supporting their people by having strict travel regulations.
I think 2022 is going to see a lot of the same emphasis on outdoor travel and adventure as 2021. People seem to be realizing the outdoors are pretty dang great, not to mention safe from a pandemic perspective. I’m also seeing a rise in sustainable travel. Folks are realizing travel has the potential to do good instead of just harm, so I think the year will see more accommodations putting an emphasis on sustainable practices, more travelers opting to purchase carbon offsets, and people choosing responsible attractions that benefit the local economy and culture. Huzzah to that!
I think a big trend for 2022, because of COVID and because of all the unknowns, I think that long vacations are gonna be the norm. I think most people are still going to be working remotely, and the people who are still just not ready to give up their lives are going to be more ready to do month-long trips with family. I see people moving somewhere for a month or six weeks and making that their vacation. That way even with restrictions and testing requirements and all of that, they can still enjoy their time, but they’ll get a different experience than staying in a hotel. They’ll be staying in houses. They’ll be cooking for themselves, trying to be safe but also enjoying another part of the world. I think that’s what we’re going to see in 2022.
While I believe that international travel will begin to make a comeback, I predict that outdoor adventures and road trips will continue to be the big trends of 2022. As the pandemic continues to cause uncertainty regarding travel, it’s much easier to hop in the car and embark on an epic road trip to explore amazing natural spaces. As travelers begin to venture internationally, it’s possible that they’ll be avoiding the bigger cities and opting for road trips to smaller towns, and discovering natural wonders outside.
I think a lot of us thought international travel would be in the cards for 2022, and I still have hope! Small group tours, meaningful experiences, longer trips, sustainability, and traveling with purpose will guide everyone’s travel bucket lists going forward — including more domestic travel again and international destinations that will allow travelers in. Of course, I think the COVID vaccination “passport” or whatever you want to call it will be the determining factor for which destinations we can visit!
ZACH JOHNSTON (@ztpwhiskey) — PEOPLE FLAT OUT MOVING ABROAD
Having lived through 9/11, the 2008 Recession, and now a global pandemic that’s still raging around the world, I know one thing: Travel restrictions and PCR aren’t going away any time soon. Paying up to $250 to get in and out of the U.S. (for a PCR test) is going to be the norm for a while as we deal with Omicron, then Pi, Psi, Tau, Omega, and more COVID mutations over the next (likely several) years. Some years will be easier, some will be harder. Moreover, the world is being rebuilt in a way that I’ve lived for nearly 20 years — abroad and without the menace of a mortgage, car payment, or creditors that so many folks get stuck in by “staying home.” Working easy-to-find jobs from English language schools to over-heated kitchens to behind bars to behind documentary cameras made my life on the road tenable back in the day. Today, a lot of people can work remotely — I do. So why leave “home” for just six weeks or a few months. It’s time to say, “f*ck, it!” and just move the hell out permanently.
Home is where you make it and that can be anywhere. You can Zoom with old friends and family whenever you need. You can find work that you can do remotely more easily now than ever before. And if you move to a place, you’ll be able to travel around that country without having to pay to get in and out with PCR tests over and over again (I’ve lived in Berlin for 13 years and traveled Germany extensively and there are still a ton of places I haven’t been in this country). Plus, you can have an experience outside of the U.S. corporate media indoctrination and political circus and hopefully see the world a little more clearly by actually living in it.
It’s time to just move somewhere different, cooler, and new (to you). Plus, the amount you learn from figuring out how to rent an apartment in a language you don’t speak is education in its purest form.
EDITOR’S PICK: STEVE BRAMUCCI (@steve_bramucci) — SAUNAS, ONSEN, HOT SPRINGS, & MORE
Photo by Logan Fisher on Unsplash
Hot springs have been huge on Instagram for some time now. Which is a perfectly absurd sentence to write (hot springs bubble up from the earth’s mantle and are, therefore, ancient in nature and they’ve been used by humans for thousands of years — so acting like IG “made them” sounds totally bizarre); and also a perfectly reasonable one (the confluence of the IG travel aesthetic and the healing allure of these waters has combined to make a force so seismic that when I reserved a spot at a certain Pacific Northwest hot spring this winter, they must’ve googled me, recognized that I was a travel writer, and literally called me begging me not to write about them — “we are inudated and cannot handle any more popularity” the voice message said). In recent years, saunas, onsens, bathouses, wooden hot tubs, and other stylish-looking ways to relax have seen a similar IG boom.
With wellness being democratized and less stigmatized/ gendered than ever, I look for that to continue. Dramatically so. But I think there is a social aspect that will be layered on. Like the Russian bathhouse or Swedish sauna experience with a more 2022 energy. And… probably DJs.
Why? In part because, as Nicoletta Darita De La Brown wrote so eloquently in our 2021 Fall Experiences Guide, we all need some healing right now. And in part because Instagram’s specialty is convincing us that we can be as stylish and cool while relaxing as the models and pro photographers it sends us so many steady streams of. In 2022, I think we’ll see hotels — particularly boutique properties — take the aesthetics of their spas very seriously. How could you not in this age when IG powers so much of the hotel industry?
As I hinted before, I think we see these experiences grow much more social. The gay bathhouses of Chicago have long had a DJ and party vibe while the pools of Las Vegas take a similar maximalist approach. Will some travel brand open a series of plunge pools focused on wellness that also has a little party energy? Yes, abolutely. In fact, it’s already happening — the cult beloved Thermëa spa in Ontario certainly has a very social vibe and forthcoming hotel spas often feature shared plunge pools and public spaces (the brand new Montage property in Big Sky, Montana is much more social than its older retreats, for example).
Similarly, I think the fact that you can buy a sauna for 12K on Instagram or learn how to build a cedar hot tub on YouTube means that we’ll be getting a lot more Airbnbs with those sorts of features and it will prove to be a high priority for guests.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are the reigning NBA champions, and currently sit at 27-19, fifth in the East but just two games back of the Bulls and Heat, tied atop the standings.
Like so many teams, it has been a year filled with sudden absences and makeshift rotations, but coming off of their title run, there is an air of calm around Milwaukee despite some ups and downs. It’s a far cry from where they were a year ago at this time after yet another early exit from the Orlando Bubble, getting thumped in five games by the Miami Heat, which raised further questions about whether this Bucks team and their star were built for postseason play.
They answered that emphatically in the 2021 postseason, particularly in a first round sweep of those same Heat, as Milwaukee seemed to take great pleasure in exorcising some demons against the team that sent them packing a year prior. Funny enough, it’s now Miami that has to answer questions about its legitimacy, as there are plenty that have discredited their run to the Finals in 2020 as a result of the strange circumstances of the bubble, particularly for Miami’s three-point shooters who all very much enjoyed the empty Orlando gym.
One of those critics is Giannis himself, who told The Athletic’s Eric Nehm that he believed that 2020 series would’ve gone very differently under normal circumstances, and took a dig at the Heat for being “built to be a bubble team.”
“Year 7. Ended with Miami,” Giannis said. “I don’t make excuses as an athlete, but it wasn’t a satisfying year for me because I felt like if it was a normal situation, it wouldn’t end up like that. But at the end of the day, I felt like Miami was built to be an NBA bubble team, you know?”
It’s a spicy quote from Giannis, but it’s not hard to understand why he feels confident speaking like this after his performance last playoffs and that of his team. Still, there’s a very good chance we get to see the two teams meet again this postseason, this time with the Heat taking a turn as the team trying to rewrite its narrative. Giannis’ comments will surely make their way to Miami, where the Heat may shrug them off for now but they will certainly linger in the minds of those who were on that 2020 team if the two sides find themselves clashing in a series later this year.
No surprise here, Spider-Man No Way Home has secured its new home as number four on the all-time box office list, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The latest Spider-Man movie just crossed the $700 million mark at the domestic box office. The flick hit theaters just a month ago on December 17th, 2021.
Though No Way Home was beat out by Scream this past weekend, the film just surpassed Black Panther ($700.4 million) to reach the fourth slot on the all-time box office list. Now, No Way Home trails behind Avatar ($760.5 million), Avengers Endgame ($858.4 million) and the top spot, which belongs to Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936.7 million), not adjusting for inflation.
In addition to the domestic success, the movie, starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man (in addition to Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire), has done well globally, coming in at number eight worldwide with a total of $1.63 billion as of Monday. This makes No Way Home the highest-grossing Spider-man film of all time, in addition to the highest-grossing Sony film.
This marks the first post-COVID movie to make a substantial amount of money at the box office. Despite its big numbers, No Way Home is still unreleased in certain countries such as China, as COVID spikes across the globe. Sony has also yet to release information about if or when No Way Home will be available on streaming for those who aren’t able to make it out to a theater.
Over its four-and-a-half decades, Saturday Night Live has had plenty of Mad Libs-y host-musical guest(s) pairings. Al Gore and Phish. Tony Danza and Laurie Anderson. Old school entertainer Milton Berle and free jazz legend Ornette Coleman. Business magazine founder Steve Forbes and anti-capitalist rockers Rage Against the Machine. Some even become memes. There’s even an entire Twitter account dedicated to hosts improbably introducing musicians. So here’s another.
As per Deadline, for the episode of Jan. 29, the live sketch show has recruited beloved character actor Willem Dafoe and — why not! — pop goddess Katy Perry. For Perry, who is in the midst of her first Las Vegas residency, it’s her fourth time on the show. For Dafoe, it’s his first. Dafoe isn’t exactly a comedic actor, preferring serious art cinema and cutting up the occasional blockbuster, but he can be very funny. Witness The Lighthouse, in which he out-there enough to inspire an SNL sketch, well before they finally invited him on.
Besides, who doesn’t look Willem Dafoe? He can currently be seen in two big movies: dusting off his old Green Goblin duds in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is making all the money, and Guillermo del Toro’s star-studded remake of Nightmare Alley, which is not. He had a busy 2021, appearing in yet another Wes Anderson movie (The French Dispatch), yet another Paul Schrader (The Card Counter), and yet another with perhaps his most frequent collaborator, eccentric weirdo Abel Ferrara (Siberia).
Before this hot mess begins, feel free to visit the aforementioned SNL host/musical guest(s) Twitter account, where you see such inventive sights as this.
We’ve all done it: You snap a selfie, look at it, say, “OMG is my nose swollen?” then try again from a different angle. “Wait, now my forehead looks weird. And what’s up with my chin?” You keep trying various angles and distances, trying to get a picture that looks like how you remember yourself looking. Whether you finally land on one or not, you walk away from the experience wondering which photo actually looks like the “real” you.
I do this, even as a 40-something-year-old who is quite comfortable with the face I see in the mirror. So, it makes me cringe imagining a tween or teen, who likely take a lot more selfies than I do, questioning their facial features based on those snapshots. When I’m wondering why my facial features look weird in selfies it’s because I know my face well enough to know that’s not what it looks like. However, when a young person whose face is changing rapidly sees their facial features distorted in a photo, they may come to all kinds of wrong conclusions about what they actually look like.
Not that it should matter, of course. But we’re talking about people living in a society obsessed with personal appearance. It’s going to matter to a lot of people, and if they get the wrong impression of their face, some people will go to all sorts of lengths to change it. That’s why understanding a bit about how focal lengths on cameras can impact what we see in photographs is vital.
Writer Evey Winters shared some of that education in a post on Facebook. She writes about this topic through a trans and dysmorphia lens, but it applies to everyone.
Winters points out that if someone is thinking of doing surgery to change their bodies, they should seek sources outside of themselves and a cellphone camera.
“I have dysmorphia and recognize that in myself,” she wrote, “but even if I didn’t, there’s not a selfie I’ve ever taken that would accurately help me make choices about my face. Mirrors are slightly better only for their minimal distortions.”
“If you want the best chance at getting good feedback pre-op about what you might want to change,” she added, “I’d recommend a skilled photographer take a series of photos of you at different focal lengths and even then none of these will be entirely accurate as none of these employ humans binocular vision and filtering.”
Winters shared a collage of photos of the same girl’s face at different focal lengths to show the significant difference it makes. “Notice how in different photos this child’s eyes may appear to be slightly hooded,” she wrote. “The nose appears enlarged disproportionately. Hairline seems to shift with every snap. So does jaw shape, face shape, and even the width and size of the ears.”
The difference between each of these photos is significant, but the difference between the first and the last is stunning. Cellphone selfie cameras usually have an even smaller focal length than the 40 mm shown here (Winters points out that the iPhone 13 Pro Max selfie camera has the equivalent of a 23 mm focal length), so they distort facial features even more. It also depends on how far away from the camera you are—the closer you are, the more distortion you’ll see. Lighting matters, too, but even the best lighting can’t cancel out what the focal length is doing.
Vox shared a video specifically about the “big nose” phenomenon with selfies, showing how drastic the distortion can be.
As a parent of two teens and a young adult, I find these photos to be fantastic tools for teaching my kids not to put too much stock in what they see in a selfie. Far too many people are increasingly seeking out plastic surgery to change a nose or a forehead or a jawline that doesn’t even really exist. Imagine looking in a funhouse mirror and thinking you need to do something to change how you look. Selfie cameras are basically mini funhouse mirrors. Smartphones and apps are getting better at making filters that adjust for those distortions, but none of us should be relying on selfies of any kind to see what we really look like, much less taking major measures to alter our appearance based on what we see in them.
Even if you have some physical feature you simply can’t accept and want to change, make sure you get a skilled photographer to give you the most accurate picture of what it actually looks like. As Winters concluded at the end of her post: “Make sure you’re not reshaping your body for a you that only exists in selfie cams.”
For decades, Hollywood has been asking eye-rollingly moronic questions of its female-identifying audiences. The slapstick, bro-heavy comedies of the ’90s and ’00s wanted to know if women could really be funny. The more recent slate of dramas and crime thrillers have inquired if they can be unlikeable too. But action movies? Action movies have been posing perhaps the most taboo query of all: Can women kick-ass?
The mind-numbingly obvious answer is … yes, but it’s taken cinema a while to fully grasp the concept.
It’s worth noting that female-led action films have been around for over a century. When movies first got their start in the early 1900s, men were headlining the big features – Westerns and musicals and swashbuckling romances – but women were often the stars of something called the “serial” film genre. These movies were released in episodic-like installments, featuring the same female characters flirting with disaster, wielding weapons, and effectively playing both the damsel in distress and the strapping hero who comes to save her. But, with every step forward, society often takes two steps back and after these “chapter” movies disappeared from screens in favor of male-fronted features, it took a good 60+ years before the first mainstream female action star was born.
In Ellen Ripley, cinema was given a blueprint for the formidable heroines to come.
Ridley Scott’s sci-fi Alien franchise made a bold decision for its time, gender-swapping its intended male lead and casting Sigourney Weaver in the role. What was even more impressive was Ripley’s arc over the course of those first few films. A by-the-books, low-ranking officer, Ripley transformed into a fearless leader, one whose ability to dispatch Xenamorphic menaces with whatever blaster happened to be lying around felt believable and earned. She wasn’t a natural-born fighter, but her grit and survival instincts were forged in the unforgiving void of space. In Ripley, the same hyper-masculine traits that made heroes like Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme so appealing and aspirational were both embraced and challenged. Ripley proved women could be cold, almost apathetic warrior types with a limitless capacity for violence, but also that they harbored feminine intuitions and abilities that perhaps made them even more powerful.
Weaver wasn’t the only actress of this time period to push the action genre forward. Linda Hamilton followed in her footsteps, playing a hardened mother trying to protect her son and save humanity alongside another mainstay, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in The Terminator franchise. Pam Grier, the reigning queen of Blaxploitation films, combined an effortlessly cool and sexy exterior with some impressive ass-kicking abilities in films like Coffy and Foxy Brown. And, on an international scale, Chinese Wuxia films and Japanese revenge epics like Lady Snowblood would go on to inspire imitators in directors like Quentin Tarantino and blockbuster vehicles like Charlie’s Angels.
The ’90s and early aughts built on this foundation, though not every female-led action film that would drop in the next 20 years felt like progress. For every leather-clad dystopian revolutionary and small-town schoolteacher-turned-CIA assassin, there were infantilized sex objects and one-dimensional Femme Fatales. All were entertaining – Milla Jovovich deftly straddled the thin line between funny and deadly in The Fifth Element– but most existed within the confines of the male gaze. TV found a way to challenge that view though, particularly with characters like Buffy the vampire slayer, super-spy Sydney Bristow in Alias., and badass pilot Kara Thrace in Battlestar Gallactica. These women challenged conventional norms — they were geeky, flawed, and often broken outcasts assuming a mantle thrust upon them — while fulfilling a specific fantasy guaranteed to earn ratings: guys wanted to watch them, girls wanted to be them.
That male gaze aspect so prevalent a decade before would be interrogated further in the 2000s as stylized storytelling from the likes of Tarantino, the Wachowskis, and Ang Lee competed with an emerging subgenre – action films with video game influences.
Kill Billwill likely be remembered as a formative installment in the lineage of powerful women who pack a punch on-screen. Tarantino harnessed Uma Thurman’s charisma and undeniable beauty to mold a different kind of action star in the form of Beatrix Kiddo – a betrayed woman and desperate mother with revenge and redemption on her mind.
Thurman’s commitment to selling complex fight sequences filled with the kind of martial arts moves that would terrify the masters is matched by the other actresses Tarantino employs in this duology. In many ways, Lucy Liu’s stern and unforgiving Yakuza mob boss is even more terrifying than Beatrix and Vivica A. Fox’s suburban mom is just as worthy a champion. Each woman represents different facets of femininity – innate power, relentless drive, an almost unlimited capacity to endure hardship, and a maternal protective instinct that can quickly morph a colonial-style kitchen into an unrecognizable warzone.
And few actresses have done more to define the action heroine than Michelle Yeoh, a woman who not only taught Jackie Chan that women belonged outside of the kitchen, she handed him his ass in the process. Yeoh jumped from stunt-heavy performances in Hong Kong action films, often acting alongside greats like Chan, to subverting the love interest trope by playing a super spy on James Bond’s level in Tomorrow Never Dies and an expert swordswoman in Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – a film that introduced Wuxia to a new generation of American audiences.
But while these sweeping epics and high-brow arthouse films earned critical praise, more franchise fare, like Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider series, Jovovich’s Resident Evil run, and Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld saga also deserve some love. The storytelling in these movies was rarely revolutionary, but the women who headlined them added charisma, mystery, and a kind of swagger normally reserved for their male contemporaries. Jolie in particular was a revelation in the role of Lara Croft. A proven dramatic actress whose presence was electric on-screen, she was alluring and refined, happy to play puppeteer to a revolving marionette line of hunky love interests, flipping an action trope on its head. Suddenly, men like Daniel Craig (who would, ironically enough, go on to fill 007’s perfectly-fitted tux) and Gerard Butler were the Bond girls and Jolie was the smarter, more capable hero leading us on death-defying adventures, solving ancient mysteries, and swinging from temple vines in ripped shirts a la Indiana Jones.
It was perhaps this era, more than any other, that began to hone in on what exactly a “female action star” could be. Instead of auteur directors helming slick martial arts flicks and burying social commentary in citizen uprisings, these films treated plot as filler and relied solely on the magnetism of the women at the top of the call sheet. It was as if Hollywood finally realized that, yes, kickass heroines sell tickets, and suddenly the need to surround every woman, no matter how self-sufficient and well-versed in hand-to-hand combat, with a team of male sidekicks slowly started to ebb. The YA dystopia boom helped with that, introducing fans to teen rebels like Katniss Everdeen and Tris Prior, fairly ordinary girls who would evolve into government-toppling warriors, but this next generation of badasses helped to push a pretty novel concept at the time as well. These women were inspirational, sure, but they were often flawed, sometimes unlikable, and almost always conflicted on how to best use their abilities to do good.
Action movies might not have created the “antiheroine,” but they certainly gave her the spotlight, one she continues to control as the genre moves into this next phase of feminine representation on screen. Our high-octane lady heroes now are even more intimidating, possessing supernatural abilities and ruthless bloodlust that easily overpowers their male antagonists. Instead, the conflict comes from within.
Across multiple films, Charlize Theron has been able to craft morally-questionable spies with muddled allegiances and an unforgiving war captain living in an even harsher wasteland, questioning who to trust and how far she was willing to go to usher in a better future. Scarlett Johansson, who was regulated to the background in 10+ years’ worth of Marvel movies, finally got her chance to revive her Black Widow character for a solo showing that touched on the traumatic childhood of the future Avenger, exploring the personal and political consequences of the Red Room in a story about found family and the bonds of sisterhood. In both Guardians of the Galaxy films, Zoe Saldana (whose consistently proven she can kick ass with films like The Losers and Columbiana) found room for Gamora, her alien assassin for hire, to evolve from a cold-blooded killing machine to a woman haunted by her past, conflicted about her parentage, and welcomed by a chose family of weirdos just as f*cked up as she was. Black Panther’s Dora Milaje, the awe-inspiringly fierce bodyguards meant to protect Wakanda’s king, stole nearly every scene, giving us elite, expertly trained African warriors bonded by loyalty and tradition — and fighting against those ideals in an effort to save their kingdom. And in DC showings like Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman, not only were action heroines created and directed by women, they felt refreshingly authentic, responding and relating to their surreal, hyper-violent surroundings in a way that was relatable and empowering.
Perhaps this, more than the traditional male model of an action hero, is the way the genre moves forward for women. Instead of male-filtered views of what a “strong woman” should be, the next step is for female directors, names like Chloé Zhao, Patty Jenkins, Cate Shortland, and Cathy Yan, to interpret that term. And, instead of fitting into an already established mold of billionaire playboys, detached androids, gun-happy outlaws, and all-powerful gods, the next step for female action stars and the movies that house them is to make them more human. To see these women – with their sculpted physiques and unlimited potential – struggle with the same feelings and prejudices and choices that real women often face makes them feel … well, real.
And to finally be gifted heroines in every age bracket. To show that women in the genre can (and should) be allowed to get older, wiser, and deadlier. Carrie-Anne Moss may have brought Trinity to life when The Matrix first dropped in the late 90s, turning out dazzling action sequences and high-speed car chases in her skin-tight leather onesie, but it’s the franchise’s long-awaited reboot that tasks her with stepping into a headliner role, playing a woman with extraordinary abilities finally coming into her own and refusing to accept the prescribed path. Linda Hamilton has returned for another go at her Terminator character Sarah Connor, who may have aged and hardened over the years but never lost her ability to face down engineered killing machines. And Jamie Lee Curtis has proven she’s the ultimate Final Girl, playing a weathered Laurie Strode whose decades-long blood feud with a psychotic serial killer just can’t seem to die. These women, these stories, prove the female action hero role isn’t regulated to any certain age, body type, or demographic. It doesn’t rely on how conventionally attractive these characters are to male audiences. Instead, their success and the diverse lineup of women looking to follow in their footsteps — shouldering tentpole franchises and indie darlings, and genre-bending adventures — give us a map forward.
Rather than hyper-sexualized tough girls defined by their ability to “hang with the guys” and indestructible “chosen ones” gifted with infinite power, the next crop of female action heroes will just be women doing something that comes naturally to them – kicking ass and taking names.
After announcing the release date for his upcoming album, Black Radio III, and sharing its latest single, “Black Superhero,” Robert Glasper brought the new music to a national television audience with a star-studded appearance on The Tonight Show. Playing a medley of “In Tune” and “Black Superhero” (minus Big KRIT and Killer Mike, two of the three featured guests on the latter), Glasper invited guests Amir Sulaiman, BJ the Chicago Kid, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Rapsody to perform with him.
After Sulaiman opens the set with a passionate spoken-word piece, BJ joins in to sing his verse and the chorus from “Black Superhero,” and Rapsody shows up to add her own verse to the song in place of the missing KRIT and Mike, all while DJ Jazzy Jeff adds his signature scratches and Glasper tickles the ivories. “All my superheroes Black,” Rapsody rhymes as she and BJ bop to the bluesy piano riff and old-school beatbox vibes. It’s a cool rendition of the new track, and should Black Radio III continue the trend that most of Glasper’s music has stuck to, it’ll be a shoo-in for another Progressive R&B Album nomination at the next Grammys.
Jenny Ortega and Maddie Ziegler bond over a traumatic school shooting in The Fallout, the directorial debut from actress Megan Park. The movie follows Ortega as high schooler Vada, who survives a school shooting and navigates her trauma after the incident. Vada forms a close friendship with Mia, played by Ziegler. The pair bond over their shared experience, despite their different backgrounds. The aftermath of the shooting leads Vada to change her outlook on her family, friendships, and life in general, as shown in the gut-wrenching trailer.
Shailene Woodley also stars as Ana, Vada’s therapist. Woodley and Park previously starred alongside each other in The Secret Life of The American Teenager, another candid look at the reality of what teens experience in a modern-day high school. The trailer is filled with emotional breakdowns, cathartic screams, and at least one TikTok dance, all set to a slowed-down Billie Eilish track which gives the movie a realistic Gen Z feel. Eilish’s brother Finneas also produce the soundtrack to the film.
Both Ortega and Ziegler have had a busy few months. Ortega has a role in the latestScream film, and Ziegler danced onscreen in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.
The Fallout debuts on January 27th on HBO Max.
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