Month: April 2023

As a hardcore fan of Coca-Cola, I have to admit that I’m loving the Coca-Cola Creations line. For the uninitiated, Coca-Cola Creations is a fairly new subsection of the brand that brings a steady stream of brand-new flavors and celebrity collaborations to the soda space. Now, I’m not one to be charmed by celebrity endorsements, I could care less what a celebrity likes, but a new flavor of soda? Bring it on.

So far Coca-Cola Creations has given us a collaboration with DJ and electronic producer Marshmello, which ironically wasn’t a marshmallow-flavored soda but a mix of strawberry and watermelon. Next came a flavor called Starlight, which came across as a mint cola. Another was called Dreamworld, which is a “Dream Flavored” soda that was inspired by M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali (unfortunately, it did not get you high). And yet another was called Byte and was a flavor inspired by pixels. Yes, pixels.

Now Coca-Cola has teamed up with multi-Grammy award-winning artist Rosalía for Coca-Cola Move, a flavor inspired by transformation.

What does “transformation” taste like? Does it taste like a “dream”? Will it ironically taste like marshmallows? We found out by grabbing both Coca-Cola Move and Coca-Cola Move Zero to give you the full rundown on this new flavor.

Coca-Cola Move/Move Zero

The Concept:

Before we dive into the flavor, let’s talk about the concept. From the outside, Coca-Cola Move sounds pretty f*cking random. If you’re a Rosalía fan (she was my most listened-to artist of 2022), it all ties in perfectly with her excellent 2022 album Motomami. Motomami is largely an album about transformation, both lyrically and visually with mariposa (butterfly) imagery. Sonically, Rosalía takes the familiar sounds of Latin music and deconstructs it via Virgil Abloh style, thereby transforming it into something that sounds radically brand new.

So as basic as “Move” sounds as a flavor, it’s meant to evoke the same sort of sensation you get from listening to Motomami. This is dope because instead of it being a random and empty celebrity team-up (what the hell does Marshmello have to do with strawberry and watermelon flavored soda?), it seems like Rosalía actually put some thought into the concept around Move. From a flavor perspective, it sort of works.

Tasting Notes:

Move has a shifting and evolving flavor. It hits the palate with sweetened coconut notes before transitioning into cotton candy flavors and a hint of freaking marshmallows. As the name suggests, this flavor is always moving across the palate, offering up something new with each taste. There’s a certain spring vibe to this flavor, which ties into the butterfly imagery used on Motomami, but it still has that distinct chocolate and cinnamon flavor you’d associate with Coca-Cola.

The soda has a nice strong fizz but lacks that characteristic bite that Coca-Cola is known for. It’s a lot softer on the throat and the flavor lingers on the tongue like Cherry Coke.

The Zero version of the flavor tastes very similar, but it has even darker notes and comes across as a bit sweeter despite having no sugar. I prefer the full sugar version easily. But if you’re a Coke Zero drinker, the sugarless version is likely more up your alley.

The Bottom Line:

Unfortunately, as cool as I think this soda is from a conceptual standpoint, I don’t know that I need a coconut, cotton candy, marshmallow-flavored soda. Coca-Cola Move is interesting, and as a soda drinker, I appreciate that it’s a unique flavor that doesn’t exist anywhere else. For that reason alone, it’s worth seeking out. But at the end of the day, I rather just have a classic Coke.

Buy Coca-Cola Move and Move Zero.

While some members of the GOP might talk a big game about moving away from Donald Trump and embracing potential presidential candidates like Ron DeSantis, make no mistake: Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party. Case in point, the former president has routinely floated the idea of bombing Mexico, and he’s reportedly making it a key campaign promise.

“‘Attacking Mexico,’ or whatever you’d like to call it, is something that President Trump has said he wants ‘battle plans’ drawn for,” a source recently told Rolling Stone. “He’s complained about missed opportunities of his first term, and there are a lot of people around him who want fewer missed opportunities in a second Trump presidency.”

Crazy stuff, right? Apparently not for the GOP. Some Republican politicians are actually trying to make Trump’s harebrained scheme happen by literally starting a war with Mexico. Via Politico:

Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill seeking authorization for the use of military force to “put us at war with the cartels.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he is open to sending U.S. troops into Mexico to target drug lords even without that nation’s permission. And lawmakers in both chambers have filed legislation to label some cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move supported by GOP presidential aspirants.

Meanwhile, America continues to be plagued by mass shootings. What’s the GOP response to that? “We’re not gonna fix it.” (Nothing we can do about it?)

Bombing Mexico, however, that’s totally gonna work. What could go wrong?

(Via Politico)

A new Hulu documentary has social media losing its mind. Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told will focus on the HBCU picnic that exploded into a no-holds-barred, street party event in Atlanta during the 1990s. Just the mere mention that footage from the event might make it onto TV screens has older Freaknik attendees concerned about what kind of debauchery their relatives might see.

One “Freaknik auntie” already went viral with her understandably worried reaction to the Hulu doc below:

However, Freaknik’s popularity quickly became its downfall as citizen groups in Atlanta began condemning the event, which had grown considerably out of control after transforming from a modest picnic to a full-on rager. Via Complex:

By the late-1990s, Freaknik had sparked criticism from various groups, including the Atlanta Committee for Black College Spring Break, which called on the local community to no longer embrace the festival.

“We cannot support events that bring lewd activities, sexual assaults, violence against women and public safety concerns; firetrucks not being able to reach victims, and ambulances not being able to reach hospitals in a timely manner,″ the committee told the Associated Press in 1998.

Regardless of the controversy, Twitter began having a field day at the thought of people seeing what their parents and relatives were up to during their younger years. You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Complex)

We’ve all done it. If there is one common human experience, it’s getting the lyrics wrong in a song. I refuse to believe that this isn’t a universal thing that transpires in all countries, cultures and languages, and if you tell me otherwise I’ll have no other choice than to believe you’re lying. But there’s something innocently hilarious about people learning that they’ve been singing the wrong words to popular songs. Someone in a Reddit community decided to ask the question that clearly a lot of people have been waiting to be asked: “What’s a song lyric that you completely misheard for a while?”

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The results were gold, obviously, because lots of lyrics are misheard and sung incorrectly until it’s emblazoned into the part of your brain that’s responsible for holding song lyrics. I remember hanging out with a friend and we were blasting “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis but when the part came when they sing “so we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold us,” my friend belted “so we put our hands up like the silly can holders.” When I told her those weren’t the words she insisted I was mishearing them, so I asked, “what the heck is a silly can holder?!”

Turns out my friend had no idea what a silly can holder was and we had a good laugh. The person on Reddit that asked people to share their misheard lyrics was likely just as entertained. Like when one user’s misheard lyrics gave Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved” a very dark turn, because they heard and sang “ask her if she wants to stay alive” instead of “ask her if she wants to stay a while.” Ma’am-sir, we’re going to need to see what’s in your trunk.

One person thought Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” said “Starbucks lovers” instead of “long list of ex-lovers” and honestly, it’s pumpkin spice season, so Starbucks lovers kind of works. A couple of cozy sweaters, laptops and white cups with a weird mermaid that seems to be holding two tails in her hands could make a great rom-com opening.

Some unfortunate person thought Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” lyrics were “I can’t believe you kiss your cock goodnight.” Now that’s either NSFW or someone has a really close relationship with their rooster. Either way, those lyrics are unequivocally wrong because the actual words are, “I can’t believe you kiss your car goodnight.” Car! Sweet mother of pearl, I hope they weren’t singing that in public.

Who remembers Dido? “White Flag” was definitely a bop in the early 2000s but this person thought the singer said “I will poke my eyes out and surrender.” Let’s hope they do in fact still have their eyes because the actual lyrics are, “And I won’t put my hands up and surrender,” which obviously makes much sense—bonus points for getting to keep your eyeballs.

Some of these misheard lyrics are just hilarious and also confusing because I can’t quite figure out how this person heard “I got shoes, they’re made of plywood.” The words are, and as far as I know have always been “I’ve got chills, they’re multiplying” in the Grease song “You’re the One That I Want.”

But this last one has me wondering who is Jason and why does he get his own waterfall? This user thought TLC sang “don’t go Jason waterfalls” in their hit song “Waterfalls.” I mean, we probably shouldn’t be chasing waterfalls like the lyrics actually say, but Jason waterfalls might be a pretty cool dude. We’ll never know though.

If you’ve never known the hilarity and embarrassment of mishearing lyrics, consider yourself lucky. But I’m highly suspicious that you’re making that up. No one’s that perfect, people aren’t tacos. Now go forth and belt out “pour some shook-up ramen” while the rest of the crowd demands they be doused with sugar.

This article originally appeared on 09.24.22

Grandparents can be a wealth of history and knowledge. But one TikTok user, Reagan Jones, was blown away by her grandmother’s ability to write in shorthand, so she did what a lot of people do in this century—uploaded it to TikTok. Not surprisingly, most people who viewed the video had no idea what shorthand was and some thought the whole thing was made up. The reaction to it certainly makes you question if it’s more than a lost art, but a forgotten part of history.

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Shorthand is a method of quickly writing that has been around for a centuries. The first recorded history of a form of shorthand being used was in the 4th century B.C.. In the 1800s, two different types of shorthand became popular, Pitman in 1837 and Gregg in 1888. Looking at the shorthand alphabet may make you furrow your eyebrows because a lot of the symbols look ridiculously similar. It’s full of lines that are straight, slightly curled or partially looped and some that just look like a squiggle. It’s something to behold and resembles a super secret language.

Judging by the comments on the video, other people feel the same way. One commenter, Jamie wrote, “I’ve heard the term shorthand but I think my brain always took it as abbreviations not this 😳😅”

Another commenter, Samantha said, “Nah this has to be a glitch in the timeline I’ve never heard of this from any of my family member.”

@reaganjones176

This is called “short hand” and its a real form of old-style note-taking. She uses this to write herself notes daily. 😂#coolgrandma #funwithgrandma #grandparents #handwriting #shorthand

In a reply to a commenter, Jones revealed, “My grandma was a legal secretary for the railroad 🙂 She won a lot of awards for her work and shorthand in school.”

Now, that’s just cool. Sure there are still professions like court reporters and such that use shorthand, but it’s not as common as it was back when most people’s grandparents and great-grandparents were young adults. This was such a neat blast from the past. It’s clear that Jones’ grandma could probably still take home some awards for her unique skill.

This article originally appeared on 09.13.22

If there’s one thing a determined parent will do, it’s make sure their kid is getting their needs met. Even if that means they have to reinvent the wheel to do it. Rachel Griffin Accurso, or as parents across TikTok and YouTube know her, Ms. Rachel, found herself without any real options for additional resources to help her toddler who was diagnosed with a speech delay.

Accurso was looking for a developmentally appropriate show for her son but she wasn’t having any luck. That’s when she decided to take her teaching degree and get to work on creating her own show. It became a family business when she teamed up with her husband, Broadway composer Aron Accurso, who has been there every step of the way. He’s even in the episodes singing along.

“Songs for Littles” has infiltrated homes across America. If you have a toddler and internet access, you’ve likely heard of it. The show has more than a billion views on YouTube. Yes, that’s billion, with a “B.” Ms. Rachel also has more than 19 million likes on TikTok and has speech pathologists everywhere singing her praises.

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Accurso is intentional with all of her videos, doing close-ups on her mouth when introducing new words and pausing to “hear” responses from her viewers after asking a question. In her interview with Today, Accurso admitted, “A lot of things I teach are things I wish I had known for my son.” She explained that everything she does is backed by research and is recorded in her small apartment in front of a green screen.

Parents on TikTok often upload videos thanking Accurso or showing off the skill their child learned from watching her show. The journalist who interviewed “Ms. Rachel” for Today even got to record an episode of “Songs for Littles” with her.

Check out the cute video below:

This article originally appeared on 01.10.23

As if things couldn’t get any stranger, Stranger Things is veering into animated territory. The hit Netflix show will be getting its own animated spinoff series, with the Duffer Brothers back to executive produce via their company Upside Down Pictures. Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps will also produce.

“We’ve always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling,” the Duffer Brothers said in a statement, per Variety. “We couldn’t be more blown away by what Eric Robles and his team have come up with — the scripts and artwork are incredible, and we can’t wait to share more with you! The adventure continues…”

Stranger Things has been a monster hit for Netflix, so it was only a matter of time before they made a spinoff show (or two or three). In typical Stranger fashion, no plot details have been released, though even if they were, they probably wouldn’t be true anyway. Those folks love their mysteries! But hey, they sure do seem excited.

The fifth and final season of the sci-fi series was ordered last year after the fourth season dominated Netflix for almost the entire summer. Production on that season is expected to begin later this year. It will only have to compete with nearly every single other show that’s slated for a 2024 release. Peak TV is back! But next year, probably.

(Via Variety)

BTS announced their indefinite hiatus last October — though 2025 is loosely pegged for a return — and each member of the historic K-pop group is getting a taste of life as a solo artist. In February, Suga announced dates for his first-ever solo tour, which will support his forthcoming debut solo album, D-Day, under the pseudonym Agust D.

Last week, BigHit Music and Suga confirmed that D-Day will release on April 21. The rollout was boosted by Suga’s single “People Pt. 2” with IU last Friday, April 7. And by the end of the weekend, Suga revealed the rest of his D-Day tracklist.

BTS fans likely were immediately drawn to the inclusion of BTS’ J-Hope as a featured artist on “HUH?!” The album also features Ryuichi Sakamoto and Woosung of The Rose.

J-Hope’s feature comes days after it was announced that he will be the next BTS member to complete South Korea’s mandatory military service, which was cited among the primary reasons for BTS’ hiatus in October. Jin enlisted toward the end of last year and is currently serving.

See the D-Day tracklist below.

1. “Haegeum”
2. “People Pt.2” with IU
3. “D-Day”
4. “HUH?!” featuring j-hope
5. “AMYGDALA”
6. “SDL”
7. “Polar Night”
8. “Interlude : Dawn”
9. “Snooze” featuring Ryuichi Sakamoto, Woosung of The Rose
10. “Life Goes On”

D-Day is out 04/21 via BigHit. Find more information here.

Tory Lanez’s attempt to get a new trial after being found guilty of assault has been delayed. According to court reporter Meghann Cuniff, who was affectionately nicknamed “Meghann Thee Reporter” for her coverage of the original Tory Lanez assault trial, the hearing on Lanez’s motion for a new trial has been rescheduled to next Monday, April 17, at his legal team’s request.

The reason they’re looking for more time likely owes to the stiff opposition put forth by Los Angeles prosecutors. According to Vulture, prosecutors filed a 16-page opposition against Lanez’s motion reading, “The defendant’s brief is replete with colorful rhetoric and conclusory statements, but it lacks substance. Despite being nearly 80 pages long, the defendant has failed to cite a single instance of error in the trial court.”

Lanez’s motion for a new trial rests on his defense’s insistence that evidence was admitted mid-trial, denying them the time to mount an adequate response. The evidence in question appears to be an Instagram comment posted from Tory’s account in response to a post on The Shade Room claiming, “People saying Kelsey shot her.” Tory’s account replied, “That’s not true,” undercutting the defense’s alternate shooter defense. However, it was Tory’s defense’s star witness who kneecapped that defense, admitting that it appeared Tory was the one who fired the shots that injured Megan Thee Stallion. Tory plans to appeal his conviction if his motion for a new trial is denied.

You can find more information about the case here.

The power of Christ compels a bunch of ticked-off exorcists to publicly condemn Russell Crowe‘s new movie.

In The Pope’s Exorcist, the Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World actor plays Father Gabriele Amorth, who served as the chief exorcist of the Vatican. He also helped found the International Association of Exorcists, which has criticized the title of the film for being “pretentious.”

In a statement, the group wrote that “watching the film’s trailer confirms, if anything were needed, not only its splatter cinema quality, a real sub-genre of horror cinema, but its unreliability on such a delicate and relevant topic.” The exorcism depicted in the film “becomes a show aimed at arousing strong and unhealthy emotions, thanks to a gloomy scenography, with sound effects such as to arouse only anxiety, restlessness and fear in the spectator.”

The end result of The Pope’s Exorcist, the IAE concluded, is “to instill the conviction that exorcism is an abnormal, monstrous, and frightening phenomenon, whose only protagonist is the devil, whose violent reactions can be faced with great difficulty; which is the exact opposite of what occurs in the context of exorcism celebrated in the Catholic Church in obedience to the directives imparted by it.”

“The Pope’s Exorcist: an abnormal, monstrous, and frightening phenomenon” is a good pull quote. I’m now more excited than ever to see it.

The Pope’s Exorcist opens on April 14.

(Via the Guardian)