Music and sports go hand and hand. However, in hip-hop, the connection runs much deeper. Rapper Drake often gets into social media beef because of his diehard support for his hometown basketball team, the Toronto rappers. Lil Wayne was invited on ESPN to comment on a football match. Now, “Hotel Lobby” rapper, Quavo was spotted in the crowd during the College Football Playoff National Championship game.
Although the match-up was held in Inglewood, California, the former Migos member didn’t let that stop him from rooting on his home state’s Georgia Bulldogs as they went up against the TCU Horned Frogs. After the Bulldogs snatched the win with a 65-to-7 blowout, while joining in on the fun taking place on the field, the musician took a moment to remember his late nephew and group member Takeoff, who was senselessly murdered in November, saying, “Long live the Rocket.” Rocket is a nickname, Takeoff earned for his unique rapping abilities.
Quavo isn’t the only former Migos to put his home state pride on full display. Just before Christmas, rapper Offset was given the key to Gwinnett County in his hometown of Lawrenceville, Georgia, for his community outreach efforts during his inaugural Offset Toy Giveaway Day.
If you’ve been on social media in the past few years, undoubtedly you’ve seen a photo or video of what’s been dubbed the “Yosemite Firefall” – when Horsetail Falls is backlit fiery orange by the setting sun in mid-to-late February. While the original firefall was a summer event where literal burning embers were dropped from the top of Glacier Point to mimic a fiery waterfall into the valley below, the current version is all-natural and on many a bucket list.
Once a hidden gem – if anything really can be “hidden” in Yosemite – popular with landscape photographers, this naturally occurring phenomenon is now well-known with crowds swarming the park during February to catch a glimpse. The National Park Service says that on just February 19, 2022 at least 2,433 visitors gathered to view the falls. They did so mostly areas that are off-limits, too — thereby damaging sensitive vegetation.
So while Yosemite is dropping reservations for summer of 2023 (they’ve required them the past two years) they’re adding them for February weekends during firefall viewing.
THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
WHEN IS THE FIREFALL THIS YEAR?
In order for the backlit bright orange firefall to occur, the setting sun has to hit Horsetail Falls at just the right angle. This only happens from about the second week of February to the end of the month. This year February 10-28 is expected to be prime viewing. Of course, the weather can change at any time.
WHAT’S CHANGED FROM PREVIOUS YEARS?
National Park Service
In previous years there have been no restrictions on access into the park or viewing of the firefall. But with the extreme increase in visitors in the last few years this year the park is implementing a reservation system for firefall weekends.
WHEN DO I NEED A RESERVATION?
You’ll need a vehicle reservation to enter Yosemite – even if you don’t plan on viewing the firefall – on these dates in February:
– February 10-12 – February 17-19 – February 24-26
The reservation is required 24 hours a day during these time periods (so don’t assume you can just sneak in at 3 am and sleep in your car). Once you have the reservation secured, you will have access to the whole park, although some parking will still be restricted or limited.
Reservations will be available on Recreation.gov starting January 13 at 8 am Pacific Time. Just 50% of the available reservations will be released on this day, and then the other 50% will be released 2 days prior to each reservation date (For example, reservations for February 17 will be available on February 15 at 8 am Pacific Time).
The National Park Service stresses that “Reservations are taken almost immediately. Be sure to have an account and be logged in and ready to get a reservation promptly at 8 am Pacific time.”
Recreation.gov
If you don’t have an account at Recreation.gov, it’s super easy to create one. Once you’re there you’ll want to search for “Horsetail Fall Timed Entry.” Once the reservation window opens, the available dates will become blue with an A inside. Quickly pick your reservation date and immediately check out. You’ll want to have your payment info stored in advance.
WHERE DO I GO ONCE I’M IN THE PARK?
National Park Service
Once you’re in the park, you’ll want to make your way to the Yosemite Falls Parking Lot where you’ll then have to walk an additional 1.5 miles (each way) to the viewing area near El Capitan Picnic Area. If parking is full, the park recommends parking at the lots in Curry Village or Yosemite Village and taking the free shuttle that will stop at Yosemite Falls Parking.
It will be very obvious which direction to walk towards if you are confused, as there will be thousands of people doing it with you.
Bring layers, a headlamp or flashlight, and warm durable hiking or walking shoes. Many people I’ve seen throughout the years come early to get a prime spot and bring chairs, blankets, and food with them to the picnic area to spend the day waiting. Of course, always stay on trails and in maintained picnic and viewing areas, remembering to leave no trace using the El Capitan picnic area trash and recycling, or by packing out all of your own trash.
WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO PHOTOGRAPH?
If you are visiting the firefall, you’ll probably want to take some photos while you’re there – but there are some things to keep in mind.
Keep tabs on the weather :
In order for a firefall to occur the waterfall must be running, meaning that the area has to have received adequate precipitation and the temperatures need to be above freezing to melt snow and ice. On the day of, you’ll need mostly cloud free skies – as the light needs to be able to reach the valley.
Keep tabs on the time:
While the firefall obviously occurs “at sunset” – the best viewing is going to be around 10-20 minutes prior to the time you see on your weather app as sunset. You’ll want to be set up and ready about an hour prior.
Bring a tripod and DSLR if possible:
A tripod and DSLR or mirrorless camera are going to give you the best shots. In the valley you are still shooting from quite a distance and zooming on an iPhone is just not going to look as great – but if that’s all you have by all means experiment!
And remember if the stars align and you see this natural wonder to also take some time to put your camera away and stand in awe at its majesty.
Gwen Stefani did a recent interview with Allure, where she was asked point blank about her controversial past when it comes to cultural appropriation. Most notably, her Harajuku Lovers fragrance line that directly tied to her 2004 album, Love.Angel.Music.Baby. — and pulled from Japanese culture.
Stefani (who was born and raised in California) noted in the interview that her father (who was Italian) worked for Yamaha, so he had to travel between America and Japan. Eventually, the pop star traveled to Harajuku herself. However, the story takes a wild turn when she repeatedly insists that she is Japanese.
“I said, ‘My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it,’” Stefani said. “I am, you know.”
“If [people are] going to criticize me for being a fan of something beautiful and sharing that, then I just think that doesn’t feel right,” she added. “I think it was a beautiful time of creativity… a time of the ping-pong match between Harajuku culture and American culture.”
Stefani also described herself as “a little bit of an Orange County girl, a little bit of a Japanese girl, a little bit of an English girl.” But, she’s also Italian — at least from her dad…
“The music, the way the girls wore their makeup, the clothes they wore, that was my identity,” she said. “Even though I’m an Italian American — Irish or whatever mutt that I am — that’s who I became because those were my people, right?”
Following the interview, the piece notes that Stefani’s representative contacted the author the following day, claiming she had misunderstood Stefani’s words. Still, when the team was asked for an on-the-record comment of clarification, they declined.
Reggaeton royalty Bad Bunny had an absolutely massive 2022, but his 2023 is already, implausibly shaping up to be even bigger. Not only was he tabbed as one of Coachella’s three headliners this year — along with K-pop chart toppers Blackpink and R&B mystery man Frank Ocean — but according to Deadline, he’s also adding “television producer” to his resume after assuming his debut role in last year’s action-thriller Bullet Train and in F9.
The series, which is an adaptation of New York Times bestseller They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera for Netflix, bears a creator credit from Chris Van Dusen, who also created Netflix favorite Bridgerton. Yellowjackets executive producer Drew Comins and studio eOne are also credited as producers with Bad Bunny. They Both Die At The End is a young adult sci-fi drama about two teenage boys, Mateo and Rufus, who learn they only have one day left to live courtesy of a service that can predict peoples’ now quite timely demises. The two characters get closer over the course of their final 24 hours, which are marked by the mystery of how and why Mateo and Rufus will meet their respective ends. The book was a smash sensation, hitting No. 1 upon its publication in 2017, then again in April 2021 after BookTok (the colloquial term for the loose community of TikTok creators focused on reading) championed it to become the best-selling YA book of the year.
On Monday, all most people wanted to talk about was how surreal things got on the House floor in the early morning hours of Saturday morning, when Republicans finally managed to (sort of) come together and vote Kevin McCarthy in as Speaker of the House. But Donald Trump is not most people — and he seemed more concerned with how unfunny late-night TV has become. Which Jimmy Kimmel promptly roasted him about.
Exactly what prompted Trump to lash out against late-night talk show hosts is unclear, but Kimmel thinks he may have just “woken up on the wrong side of the tanning bed.” Because he kicked off his Monday morning with a social media attack on guys like Kimmel. As the host explained:
[Trump] wrote: ‘Wow. Those Trump-hating late-night network shows are doing really badly. The worst ratings that those time slots have had in television history,’ says the guy posting to no one on TRUTH Social. ‘Why are the untalented fools who host paid so much? Does the DNC make a contribution as a wing of the Democrat party? They are all a total joke — not talent, no laughs.’
You know, you think being the father of Eric and Don Jr., he’d have more sympathy for untalented fools.
Kimmel did, however, allow that Trump is correct that he and his fellow hosts do make a lot of money. Though he clarified what they did with that money: “We pay taxes on it!”
He didn’t end there though. “While we’re on the subject of low ratings,” Kimmel said, addressing Trump directly, “yours are lower than the wall you never built.”
You can watch the clip above beginning around the 7:35 mark.
The best part about a really good and universally acclaimed show being renewed for another season is the influx of guest stars that they get to add in for season two. Severance recently added a handful of fun new players for its sophomore season, and we all know how much fun everyone is having with fan-casting the third season of The White Lotus.
Another Really Good show, Yellowjackets, will return for its second season in March, and you bet that there will be some fun new faces, like a certain familiar hobbit (not Martin Freeman….yet).
Elijah Wood will reunite with Melanie Lynskey and make his Yellowjackets debut in season two of the series. Today Showtime released a first look at his character, Walter, who is being welcomed into the Bureau of Citizen Detectives, alongside Christina Ricci’s Misty.
Not much is known about Walter, though his character is described as an amateur sleuth who is trying to lead his own investigation regarding the girls’ time in the wilderness all those years ago and how it impacted the rest of their lives. The second season also brings in newcomers Simone Kessell, Lauren Ambrose, Jason Ritter, Nicole Maines, and Nia Sondaya.
Wood and Ricci have also worked together before, over 20 years ago in 1997’s The Ice Storm, a coming-of-age drama about a bunch of teens trying to survive during an ice storm. Perhaps this is foreshadowing for an upcoming Yellowjackets plotline?!
Season two of Yellowjackets premieres on March 24th.
If the end of the year is for looking back, then the start of it is for looking ahead. Music fans are gearing up for the 2023 music festival season, and now the biggest of them all has made a major announcement: Coachella organizers, as they tend to do around this time of year, just revealed the festival’s 2023 lineup.
Ahead of the official reveal, rumors indicated that Blackpink, Bad Bunny, and Frank Ocean — the latter of whom festival co-founder Paul Tollett said in 2021 would lead the 2023 event) would be headlining this year’s fest. It turns out that was true. Also on this year’s poster are acts like Gorillaz, Burna Boy, Rosalía, Boygenius (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker), The Kid Laroi, Charli XCX, Björk, Kali Uchis, Dominic Fike, Latto, Willow, Glorilla, Weyes Blood, Calvin Harris, Alex G, Mura Masa, Snail Mail, Earthgang, Pusha T, Wet Leg, Muna, Doechii, Benee, and Magdalena Bay, among many others.
Ugh was stuck in drafts
Register now for access to passes at https://t.co/qujCsdlTip. Presale begins Friday, 1/13 at 11am PT. Very limited Weekend 1 passes remain. For your best chance at passes, look to Weekend 2. pic.twitter.com/5zMQ4dJZHq
This year’s event is set for the weekends of April 14 to 16 and 21 to 23, in its usual location at Indio, California’s Empire Polo Club. Pre-sale for tickets starts on Friday, January 13 at 11 a.m. PT, although organizers note, “Very limited Weekend 1 passes remain. For your best chance at passes, look to Weekend 2.” More information about tickets is available on the Coachella website.
A clip from Ja Rule’s Power 106.9’s Jingle Jam concert with Ashanti at Baxter Arena is now hilariously going viral again. Initially uploaded to TikTok on December 11, the moment captures what the rapper’s team does when you play 50 Cent’s hit, “In Da Club.”
“Stop this song,” one of the crew members says into the microphone. “Aye, cut this sh*t off,” another guy added, getting increasingly angry.
The several crew members wander around the stage confused as they try to stop the song, even talking to the on-stage DJ, but it continues playing. Despite Ja Rule’s crew clearly disliking the 50 Cent drop, some of the crowd did — as they can be seen singing along.
The video eventually made its way to 50 Cent himself, as the rapper shared the video on his Instagram.
“LOL, now this is some funny sh*t,” he captioned, complete with laughing and clapping emojis. “I wish I had something to do with it.”
Following 50 Cent’s post, fans on social media are having a field day reacting to the clip.
“Ja Rule out there 20 years later and still getting done in by 50 Cent,” one user tweeted.
The two rappers’ beef was first documented in 1999 after Ja Rule was reportedly robbed by one of 50 Cent’s associates, and the latter responded with a diss track. Over two decades later, the bad blood hasn’t settled down.
Continue scrolling for some additional reactions to the 50 Cent needle drop during Ja Rule’s show.
Let’s be blunt: video game adaptations almost never work. A major part of that problem is you’re trying to take a story from an active medium (games) to a passive medium (shows/movies), and a whole lot can get lost in translation. Fortunately, The Last of Us seems to have overcome that major hurdle.
The first reviews for the HBO series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are rolling in, and the critics are blown away. Again, video game adaptations do not have a stellar track record, so it’s a welcome surprise that The Last of Us manages to deliver across the board. Not only are the lead actors being praised for their performances, but the show’s visual effects are also garnering rave reactions thanks to the current landscape of over-CGI messes.
That said, there are a few quibbles about adapting the game’s award-winning story, but for the most part, The Last of Us appears to be another hit for HBO. You can see what the critics are saying below:
What works about “The Last of Us” works well enough that one sees the near future in which the show winds up among television’s best. The raw material, including a poignant and thoughtful curiosity about what it might be like to live through catastrophe, is there.
In many ways, the show is a triumph of typecasting. Once again, Pedro Pascal is playing an action hero of few words who has to lead a cute young charge through hostile territory. He’s joined by fellow Game of Thrones alum Bella Ramsey, and if her Ellie is far warmer and funnier than underaged House Stark ally Lyanna Mormont, Ramsey is nonetheless again playing a girl who has had to grow up far too soon, and participate in far too much violence, due to the circumstances of the broken world around her. But even though the two of them are playing the kinds of roles they’ve handled before, they do it spectacularly well; both are compulsively watchable and almost instantly endearing.
Now that so much of what we see on the big and small screens has a vaguely unreal aspect imparted by the overuse of computerized effects, it’s a particular pleasure to see a video-game adaptation that’s genuinely cinematic, immersing us in the majesty of snow-covered mountains at one moment and the grimy details of an abandoned shopping mall the next. The Last of Us is so skillfully, meticulously, and lovingly constructed—to call it TV’s best video-game adaptation would be to damn it with faint praise.
For fans of the game, it is an adaptation of the utmost skill and reverence, yet one still capable of surprise; for people who have never picked up a controller, it is an encapsulation of the game’s heart and soul – its full-blooded characters, its neat plotting, its mature themes of love and loss. It is, to finish Ellie’s joke, “outstanding in its field”.
A brilliant retelling of one of video games’ most beloved stories that rebottles the lightning of what made it so special to many in the first place, letting it strike again to stunning effect. Thanks to a pair of phenomenal lead performances and a beautifully executed vision of what it is to find hope and love in a world hellbent on denying it, The Last of Us thrills from the first episode to the last.
Because the show moves and can’t really afford to give you more time to spend with the cast of figures that come in and out of Joel and Ellie’s lives, it also ends up feeling like a much more condensed version of The Last of Us‘ plot, even though that’s not the case. It’s almost impressive just how much (and then some) of the first game HBO’s show manages to fit into this first season without feeling overfull.
As is so often the case in these kind of stories (see “The Walking Dead” at its early best), the real threat isn’t the zombies, which aren’t particularly distinctive, but rather what people will do when the structure of society breaks down. From that perspective the storytelling here is absolutely fearless and unflinching, creating horrifying scenarios and moments that can be alternately touching and utterly tragic.
The live-action The Last Of Us is a superb example of how to make an adaptation work, how to retain the elements of what worked while having the confidence to explore bold new avenues, to expand the universe, to make a thing that stands on its own two feet.
Twin brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner have kept fairly busy over the past few years. Aaron notably handled a fair portion of the production on Taylor Swift’s 2020 albums, Folklore and Evermore, and Bryce scored films like 2021’s C’mon C’mon and last year’s Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths. Today, the brothers, who are arguably most known for their work as members of The National, have announced that their newest musical project, Complete Mountain Almanac, is set to release their self-titled debut album later this month.
Complete Mountain Almanac is comprised of the twins, as well as their sister Jessica and composer Rebekka Karijord. Ahead of the album, they have shared a new single, “February.”
On the raw, guitar-driven track, Karijord alludes to vivid imagery to describe a harrowing experience. “Near the hunter’s forest / Someone will take apart / My body / In order to save me,” she sings.
In a statement, Jessica revealed that she drew from her experience after being diagnosed with breast cancer to write the song, saying, “‘February’ is a song that began as a reckoning with the profound physical changes wrought by breast cancer, and how they threaten to dismantle every aspect of life, and yet, somehow the spirit rises, remains constant, immutable, a force, like nature.”
“To me, ‘February’ is like an ancient myth,” Karijord added. “A road trip dance, moving between vulnerability and resilience. It journeys through layers of odd meters, restlessness and mystery, and then lands in a musical landscape of acceptance and clarity.”
Listen to “February” above and check out the cover art and tracklist for Complete Mountain Almanac below.
Complete Mountain Almanac is out 1/27 via Bella Union. Pre-save it here.
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