Month: January 2023

This year’s Oscar nominations were announced on Tuesday. Hooray for Judd Hirsch on his second-ever nom! Can you believe RRR only got one for Best Original Song? The big show isn’t until March 12, but the 95-year-old ceremony — which hasn’t had strong cultural relevance in a good while — is getting some attention this year thanks to an incident that happened last year. You know what we’re talking about: that slap. Will something like it happen again this year? We’re a month and a half from finding out, but already host Jimmy Kimmel is making nervous jokes about it.

On Tuesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the comic talked about some of the betting that’s been going on for who will win this year. Odds are that Everything Everywhere All at Once will trounce the likes of Tár and Elvis. Brendan Fraser in The Whale has the edge over Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin. But there’s another category of betting that caught Kimmel’s eye: one entitled “Will any host or award presenter be slapped during the show?”

Right now someone who bets $100 on “yes” will win $1200. That unnerved Kimmel a bit, and he joked “seems like they’re encouraging someone with a gambling problem to slap me.”

Kimmel wasn’t the only late-night host to make Will Smith Oscars slap jokes. Wanda Sykes, currently sitting in as a temporary Daily Show host, cracked, “If you’re wondering how they picked the nominees this year, they basically just went, ‘Hmm, let’s see, who’s not going to slap nobody?’”

Kimmel also joked about a category that rarely gets much attention: Best Animated Short. During the nomination announcements, presenter Riz Ahmed went viral when he read the name of one of the nominees, a little film called My Year of Dicks.

Kimmel admitted he’d never heard of that one, adding, “I went to look up My Year of Dicks, and now my computer won’t turn on.”

You can watch Kimmel’s monologue in the video above. The bit about the slap category begins around the 1:30 mark.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

After he was kicked off Twitter, Donald Trump found some ways to cope with the loss of one of his favorite activities. First he became a moody blogger. When he got bored of that, he launched his own rinky-dink Twitter clone. There he has remained even though it almost certainly doesn’t give him the same rush. Recently rumors have spread that he may finally make his triumphant return to his favorite social media platform when his contract ends in June. But according to the former lawmaker who gave up his sweet House gig to work for the ex-president, that ain’t happening. Probably.

On Wednesday, Devin Nunes went on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox Business show to wearily swat away claims that his boss is ditching Truth Social.

“This is about the 10th time this story has been regurgitated over and over again and it’s kind of a classic lesson in the swamp and how fake news narratives are started,” Nunes replied.

Part of Trump’s contract stipulates that if he posts on Twitter without at least first posting on Truth Social, he’ll face a steep fine. When asked if Trump will end his exclusive contract with his own social media service after the contract is up, Nunes replied, “No, of course not.”

He then elaborated: “This is all public knowledge which over and over again we’ve told the press this, that Donald Trump can post on social media if he wants. He has a six hour exclusivity and the president’s very happy with Truth Social as we continue to grow.”

Trump’s once-permanently banned Twitter account was un-permanently banned not long after it was taken over by fellow chaos agent Elon Musk. His old tweets are back, but Trump has so far not added any new ones. Surely Nunes — who again surrendered a cushy government job to work for a man infamous for screwing over his minions — hopes he doesn’t have one of his unpredictable changes of heart.

(Via Mediaite)

Snow Tha Product will be touring the U.S. this spring. Today (January 25), the Mexican-American rapper announced the dates for The Quince I Never Had Tour.

After a few years of creating buzz in the Latin rap scene, Snow Tha Product released her debut album To Anywhere last October. The Bay Area native flexed her bicultural influences in hip-hop by teaming up with artists on both sides of the US-Mexican border. Juicy J joined her for “Not Today” while Mexican rapper Santa Fe Klan was featured on “Bájala.”

In support of the album, Snow Tha Product will be embarking on her The Quince I Never Had Tour. The tour’s title is a reference to the quinceañera parties that are typically thrown for Mexican girls who turn 15 years old. The tour will kick off on March 30 in San Francisco. Throughout April and May, Snow Tha Product’s tour will visit 32 cities like New York, Las Vegas, Houston, and Anaheim. Pre-sale tickets are now available. Tickets for the general public will be released on Friday, January 27.

Snow Tha Product’s album also featured the fan-favorite song “Piña” featuring Lauren Jauregui. Both artists, who are openly bisexual, sang about bringing women to the yard with their appetizing pineapples.

Find Snow Tha Product’s upcoming tour dates below.

03/30/23 — San Francisco, CA @ Regency
03/31/23 — Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
04/01/23 — Chico, CA @ Senator Theatre
04/02/23 — Reno, NV @ Cargo
04/04/23 — Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
04/07/23 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
04/08/23 — Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory
04/10/23 — Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
04/12/23 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
04/14/23 — Lincoln, NE @ The Royal Grove
04/15/23 — Kansas City, MO @ The Truman
04/16/23 — Des Moines, IA @ Wooly’s
04/18/23 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
04/20/23 — Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre
04/21/23 — Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave/ Eagles Club
04/22/23 — Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
04/25/23 — Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
04/26/23 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
04/28/23 — Washington, DC @ The Howard Theatre
04/29/23 — Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
04/30/23 — Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
05/02/23 — Madison, TN @ Eastside Bowl
05/04/23 — Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
05/05/23 — San Antonio, TX @ Aztec Theatre
05/06/23 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
05/07/23 — Austin, TX @ Emo’s
05/09/23 — El Paso, TX @ 11:11 EPTX
05/10/23 — Albuquerque, NM @ Villa Hispana
05/12/23 — Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
05/13/23 — Phoenix, AZ @ Universatile
05/17/23 — Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
05/19/23 — San Diego, CA @ SOMA

Festival season isn’t complete with the announcement of international shows. Glastonbury Festival, Afro Nation, and Rolling Loud have all revealed their lineups. That leaves just a hand full of others, including Wireless Festival. Well, the organizers of the annual three-day music extravaganza have just dropped a promotional advert starring British talent Nella Rosa, Yung Filly, and more to share this year’s lineup.

The festival set to take place between July 7 and 9 in London’s Finsbury Park will be headlined by Playboi Carti (July 7), Travis Scott (July 8), and D-Block Europe with special guest 50 Cent (July 9). For the full day-to-day lineup, continue below.

Friday, July 7

Playboi Carti
Lil Uzi Vert
Metro Boomin
Lancey Foux
Latto
Ken Carson
Destroy Lonely
Lola Brooke

Saturday, July 8

Travis Scott
Ice Spice
Headie One
Bryson Tiller
Flo
Joey Bada$$
Maria The Scientist
Clavish

Sunday, July 9

D-Block Europe with special guest 50 Cent
Lil Durk
Popcaan
Lil TJay
Dexter Daps
GloRilla
Black Sherif
Dreya Mac

With a roster full of drill, grime, and gangster rappers, the festival might as well lift its vulgarity clause.

During Scott’s previous appearance at the festival, he advocated for the release of ASAP Rocky, who was being detained by Swedish authorities. On the other hand, Playboi Carti had a bad fall during his set last year but recovered well.

Last year’s festival headliners included Offset and Cardi B (who nearly got into an incident with an attendee, as did Lil Uzi Vert).

GoPuff is billed as this year’s sponsor. While 1XTRA returns as the official broadcaster.

Tickets for Wireless Festival 2023 are on sale now. To grab a single-day ticket or sign up for a payment plan for multi-day passes, click here to be redirected to the festival’s official website.

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

Polyamory, a lifestyle where people have multiple romantic or sexual partners, is more prevalent in America than most people think. According to a study published in Frontiers in Psychology, one in nine Americans have been in a polyamorous relationship, and one in six say they would like to try one.

However popular the idea is, polyamory is misunderstood by a large swath of the public and is often seen as deviant. In reality, it can be a healthy lifestyle that those who practice it say has several benefits.

Taya Hartless, 28, and Alysia Rogers, 34, along with their husbands Sean, 46, and Tyler, 35, are in a polyamorous relationship and have no problem sharing their lifestyle with the public on social media. Even though they risk stigmatization for being open about their non-traditional relationships, they are sharing it with the world to make it a safer place for “poly” folks like themselves.

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It all began in 2019 when the Oregon couples met in an attempt to add some spice to their sex lives. “None of us had been polyamorous before, but we all just met and fell in love,” Taya said, according to the Mirror. “We didn’t even know what polyamory was, until we started getting feelings for each other,” Alysia told Today.

See on Instagram

“From the first night we met, we all wanted to just see more of each other. It wasn’t easy—there was a lot of hesitations around having feelings,” Taya said. “Sean was the first to point it out—he said ‘we can’t deny this is happening’. We agreed to talk it out to see what the future would look like.

The couple lived two hours from each other, so in February 2020, right before the whole world changed, they moved in together along with Tyler And Alysia’s two children, 7 and 8. “The Quad” as they call themselves came together to create what they call a “polyfamory.”

Although neither Sean and Tyler nor Alysia and Taya are dating one another, they see each other as close partners. The women have their own rooms which the men rotate in and out of each night.

See on Instagram

The couples had a very cool way of explaining their relationship to their kids. “We told them: ‘You know mom has a boyfriend and dad had a girlfriend and we’re going to move in together, and we’re all going to be a big family and they’re going to help parent you, so we’re going to need you to treat them like you treat us— like parents,’” Tyler explained.

Since moving in together, both women have had a baby but no one knows for sure who the fathers are. “We did not regulate the biology,” Alysia said. But it doesn’t matter because all four adults share parenting responsibilities.

See on Instagram

“At the end of the day, we’re just like any other monogamous family—there’s just four of us,” Tyler says. “Being a parent is so much more than just biology, and that’s what we’re about.”

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Reading isn’t a particularly enjoyable activity, Carlson admitted, explaining that rather than seeing images of characters and landscapes, she only sees words.

“In my head, every sentence has a shape so you can see the shape of a sentence. Keywords will pop out and I can file those away into my concept map, so at the end of reading something I can have a concept map of the main topics that I read about. It’s not images, it’s just the words.”

That said, she is apparently a “very fast” reader.

This concept alone was hard for viewers to grasp. As one person wrote, “She’s broken my mind. I don’t even understand what I’m not understanding. I’ve never visualized a sentence in my life.”

While she “never daydreams,” Carlson does dream at night. However, she doesn’t recall any dialogue in those dreams. Carlson also shared that her alone time is always spent doing stuff like cleaning, cooking, watching Netflix and studying. I can only imagine the things I’d accomplish if I didn’t get sidetracked with existential questions like “Is a hotdog a sandwich?” If only.

While Carlson’s way of thinking might seem vastly different from the norm, there are several commonalities. Like most people, she has stores of information that she can pull up at any time. Thoughts still can keep her up at night, even if she does picture her endless to-do lists rather than hear them. And not having an inner monologue offers no protection against things like anxiety or depression, which Carlson explains manifest physically for her. Rather than feeling mental overload, her hands will start shaking, her stomach might get nauseated, and she’ll feel physically fatigued or disinterested in life.

Watch the video below:

As our understanding (and appreciation) of neurodiversity becomes more evolved, it’s likely that we’ll have even more fascinating conversations to absorb. No two people interpret the world that same way. Celebrating these differences reminds us that there is no one “right” way of thinking.

For most of us, waking up to a temperature of minus 50 degrees would spell catastrophe. Normal life would come to a screeching halt, we’d be scrambling to deal with frozen pipes and power outages, school and work would be canceled and weather warnings would tell us not to venture outside due to frostbite risk.

But in the Yakutia region of Siberia, that’s just an average winter day where life goes on as usual.

When you live in the coldest inhabited area on Earth, your entire life is arranged around dealing with ridiculously cold temperatures. Villages don’t have running water because freezing pipes wouldn’t allow for water treatment. Kids go to school unless the temp drops below minus 55 degrees Celsius (which is then considered dangerous). Showering involves spending hours stoking a fire in the bathhouse to create a steamy, warm room.

Native Siberian Kiun B. has created a series of documentary short films detailing what daily life is like in Yakutia’s frigid winters. She was born and raised in Yakutsk, Siberia, widely recognized as the coldest city on Earth, where average winter temperatures hover around minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit. As seen in her videos, smaller villages in the Yakutia region regularly dip down into the negative 50s, with the lowest recorded temp in the Yakut village of Oymayakon reaching a mindblowing minus 96 degrees Fahrenheit.

The popularity of Kiun’s YouTube channel demonstrates how curious people are about life in such harsh conditions, as her videos have been viewed by tens of millions of people in the past year alone.

Check out this video detailing a day in the life of a family in a Yakutia village.

Can you imagine going out to use an outhouse in minus 40 degrees? Oof.

Another of Kiun’s videos goes into more detail about how people shower and do laundry in the region. You might assume they wouldn’t line-dry their laundry outdoors, but they do.

Watch:

What do people wear to protect themselves from the negative temperatures? Frostbite is a real risk, so it’s important to have the right kinds of clothing and outdoor gear to stay safe and relatively comfortable.

Kiun shared some frigid fashion norms from Yakutsk, which include traditional fur hats and boots as well as lots of layers and down jackets.

However, there are some Yakut folks who see the cold as something to embrace. For instance, this man takes an ice bath out in the elements as a morning ritual. It’s something he has worked up to—definitely not something to try on your own during a cold snap—but it still has to be painful.

(Seriously, please don’t try this at home.)

The way humans have learned to adapt to drastically different environments, from the sweltering tropics to the Arctic tundra, is incredible, and it’s fascinating to get a close-up look at how people make life work in those extremes. Thank you, Kiun B., for giving us a glimpse of what it’s like to experience life in the dead of winter in the world’s coldest inhabited places.

Facebook has been a great place for people to bare all when it comes to their emotions. But when it comes to bearing all with regards to bodies, Facebook has always seemed as if they’d rather people bare none of it. Facebook has received criticism for over-sexualizing breasts, but a new recommendation from Meta’s advisory board says the nipples can come out for nonbinary users.

Recently, Facebook censored two posts from a transgender and non-binary couple that featured the couple appearing topless. Even though their nipples were covered, an AI system took the photos down for “violating the Sexual Solicitation Community Standard” after they were flagged by a human user. The couple appealed to Meta, and the photos were reinstated, but it was enough to catch the attention of Meta’s oversight board, which advises Meta on content moderation policies, and is made up of academics, politicians, and journalists.

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After looking at the issue, the oversight board suggested Meta change their Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity Community Standards “so that it is governed by clear criteria that respect international human rights standards.”

According to the board, Meta’s policy was “based on a binary view of gender and a distinction between male and female bodies,” making it “unclear” in how it deals with intersex, non-binary and transgender users.

“We are constantly evolving our policies to help make our platforms safer for everyone,” a spokesperson from Meta told The Guardian. “We know more can be done to support the LGBTQ+ community, and that means working with experts and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations on a range of issues and product improvements.”

How free the nipples should be on the social media platform has been a source of contention for more than a decade. Breastfeeding moms have been leading the battle of the boob, duking it out with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over their ability to share nursing photos on social media. They’ve gone so far as holding a “nurse in” at Facebook headquarters to protest the ban on breasts.

In 2020, Instagram loosened up their nudity policy thanks to a campaign started by Nyome Nicholas-Williams. And while nipples are still a no-no, Instagram now allows breast cupping, hugging, and holding. And in 2021, the oversight board gave the okay for “health related nudity,” allowing for photos of nips if they’re related to things like breastfeeding, birth-giving, breast cancer awareness, or gender confirming surgery. Acts of protest are allowed as well.

Facebook has received criticism for the platform being lax on hate speech but tough on boobs. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg says this is because, It’s easier to build an AI system to detect a nipple than what is hate speech.” Which might explain why Meta is going to use “human reviewers” to “quickly assess both a user’s sex, as this policy applies to ‘female nipples,’ and their gender identity,” according to the board.

The new nipple rules are only applicable to transgender and non-binary users. “The same image of female-presenting nipples would be prohibited if posted by a cisgender woman but permitted if posted by an individual self-identifying as non-binary,” the board noted in its decision.

While the nipple might not fully be free on Facebook, it has taken one large step forward out of its cage. However, Facebook’s over-sexualization of breasts might just be a reflection of society, and in order for the nipple to run wild and out in the open, we might need to change the way people think about breasts in general.

Alt-pop rockers Beach Weather make music for everyone. With the singles off their forthcoming album Pineapple Sunrise their breezy style can strike a chord with romantics and introverts alike. Sunny chords and jaunty riffs make their band name seem apt, but underneath the surface, one can find relatable lyrics about isolation, relationship woes, and self-image.

The trio — composed of vocalist Nick Santino, bassist Reeve Powers, and guitarist Sean Silverman — is a band of fast friends. They first linked up in 2015 and quickly delivered a series of EPs (their debut Chit Chat was recently re-discovered on TikTok and its track “Sex, Drugs, Etc.” has been doing crazy numbers on the app). After amicably taking a break from music in 2017, they reformed in 2020, poised and ready to serve up lively and — in their own words — euphoric music. So far, the tracks off Pineapple Sunrise have proved just that, proving Beach Weather have yet to reach their peak.

Celebrating the impending release of Pineapple Sunrise, Beach Weather chat with Uproxx about the desert, supportive parents, and getting a massive tattoo right before work in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Santino: Eclectic, Energetic, Emotional, Euphoric

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

Santino: I’m surprised the world hasn’t already ended multiple times to be honest. But I think the thing about music is the nostalgia you get from hearing the same song over and over. Wanting to relive the first time we heard it every time. We like how those 3 minutes you get out of a song make you feel, we love the pain of a sad song and the high of a dance song. I hope our music gets remembered for all those same reasons.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

Santino: Something about the west coast has always felt special to us. Phoenix always feels like a home show when we’re there. There’s something special about the desert.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

Santino: Oh man, If you asked all three of us you’d probably hear three completely different answers, but for me personally (Nick) the answer is somewhere between The Beatles and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers… But also ’90s boy bands and 2000s country. Not an easy answer honestly. But there is something in all of those that inspire the songwriting I do today. For the same reasons as two questions above, I listened to all of this music at different points in my life and certain songs and artists just make you feel something.

What album do you know every word to?

Silverman: I can almost mouth all the lyrics to Radiohead’s OK Computer or at least most of the lyrics that you can hear Thom Yorke sing.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

Silverman: Saw Phoenix right after they had won their first Grammy Award in Phoenix, AZ at The Marquee Theatre. Changed my entire life. The entire crowd ended up on the stage by the end of the performance.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

Silverman: A nice semi cropped suit jacket. Gives a little extra room for activities.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

Silverman: Cugine! More specifically @meals_by_cug on Instagram. I can watch that man eat all day.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

Silverman: Probably a Beatles or Petty tune. Usually have both on heavy rotation.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

Silverman: Nicholas Cage Raising Arizona shirt.

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Silverman: The Nine Inch Nails record The Fragile. It’s a double disk of sadness. Should keep that person busy for a while trying to get through the mess.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Silverman: I had one of the best meals of my life at Supper in NYC. I still dream about that chicken parmesan.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

Powers: In Europe, all the rooms had two twin beds and we didn’t have much money for multiple rooms… so we would push the beds together. I was the youngest and smallest (at the time), so I got the middle crack every night for a month.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

Powers: I actually managed a tattoo shop during our hiatus and got quite a few. I got my entire stomach done at 9am before work… I think I could endure anything in life after experiencing that kind of pain. It’s a chameleon perched on top of a knife!

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

Powers: My top 4… Kings of Leon, The Strokes, Phoenix and Cage the Elephant.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Powers: My parents raising me to believe I can be anyone that I wanna be. My mom made me feel unstoppable and my dad talked me out of going to college to pursue music.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Powers: Experiment more with other musicians and stop dating around so much, you need to practice your instruments.

What’s the last show you went to?

Powers: Saw my friend Maddie Bouton of Angel Saint Queen play bass for a really cool artist named Ren (issaren) that I discovered that evening. She had some SZA vibes and did a really cool Dijon cover live.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

Powers: Goodfellas.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

Powers: I don’t think that’s appropriate to say in public!

Pineapple Sunrise is out 3/3 via Arista Records. Pre-order it here.

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced a brand new game during their Developer Direct called Hi-Fi Rush. From the creators of The Evil Within, and featuring Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami, this game is not a horror game but a rhythm beat’em up game. Featuring a colorful cell shaded art style, players are able to fight through enemies to the rhythm of rock-inspired music, and the more on rhythm they are, the better they’ll do in combat. It’s a neat concept and one that a lot of people immediately gravitated towards.

The stunning part of this was that at the end of the presentation, they announced that the game was ready to release today. In a shocking announcement, Hi-Fi Rush is available on Microsoft consoles and PC for purchase and GamePass the day of the announcement. Not a demo. Not a preview. The actual full game. We’ve heard of stealth releases before, but this is unprecedented.

While this probably isn’t going to become the norm anytime soon, it’s really cool to see a game get a surprise release like this during an event that’s usually just for teasers and trailers. It’s going to be really fun seeing everyone react to it, all while players rush to go check this out throughout the evening.