Month: May 2023

Have you ever wondered what happens at the dry cleaners? Or are you like me, who just assumed the people at the dry cleaners were wizards and never questioned their magic? Turns out, dry cleaners aren’t magic and there’s actually a pretty interesting explanation of how they came to be and what they do.

Melissa Pateras is known on Tiktok for her laundry knowledge. Seriously, her ability to fold laundry is hypnotizing. This time, she created a video explaining what actually takes place at the dry cleaner and the internet is aghast.

Before Pateras explained what happens in the mysterious world behind the counter of a dry cleaner, she asked a few of her friends what they thought dry cleaning was. Their answers were…interesting to say the least.

One friend surmised, “You put it in a box, right…and then you let some wind, really fast wind, blow around on your clothes and it wipes off all the dirt.” The friend, whose username is @unlearn16, continued with her working hypothesis, saying that the clothes are then blasted with infrared heat to sterilize the garments. While that is certainly an interesting theory, that’s not what happens.

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Another friend guessed, “Dry cleaning is when they take all of your dirty clothes into this big dryer with a clean sheet that sticks all of the dirt to it from your dirty clothes.” This friend was also incorrect, and Pateras finally explained why after her friends dug deep into their brains for their best guesses.

Turns out dry cleaning was invented by accident when Jean-Baptiste Jolly spilled a kerosene lamp on his tablecloth, which dried cleaner than it was previously, according to Pateras.

The laundry guru explained that while it was dangerous, the practice of cleaning things with kerosene continued until a less flammable method was discovered. But even the safer method is still fairly harsh, which is why dry cleaners take buttons off of clothing before running them through, she says.

This prompted one commenter to ask, “They really take the buttons off of every shirt?” to which Pateras replied that it only occurs if the buttons won’t withstand the chemicals.

If you’ve ever been curious about what happens at the dry cleaner, watch the video below. She takes you through each step.

@melissadilkespateras

What is dry cleaning #laundry #laundrytok #drycleaning #funfacts @Tracy Taylor @Unlearn16 @Ana Pac @Ashley Mathieu @Li

Subscription payments to things like Netflix and Spotify might seem like a hassle, but a new program is putting together a possible way for people to become homeowners through a modern mortgage concept, according to The Independent.

A bank in the UK called Leeds Building Society has partnered with Experian’s free Experian Boost. This would allow those who need to borrow money more opportunities to prove that they routinely keep a “financial track record.”

“This will particularly help younger borrowers, first-time buyers and anyone on lower incomes who face the toughest challenge to prove their ability to repay,” Richard Fearon, Leeds Building Society’s chief executive, told the publication.

“Often through no fault of their own, these groups can struggle to build a good credit score because they need to spend most of their earnings on rent and other regular payments,” he added.

Additionally, another bank called Skipton Building Society made a mortgage program that doesn’t need a deposit. “We recognise there’s a clear gap in the market for people who have a strong history of making rental payments over a period of time so can evidence affordability of a mortgage – but there is currently no solution for them to buy a property due to lack of savings or access to family wealth,” the company’s Charlotte Harrison noted.

While Spotify and the streaming platforms aren’t directly involved in the program, it still gives all those monthly subscriptions that we all pay possibly counting for something in the long run.

Chicago rapper Lil Durk has taken to calling himself “The Voice” of his hometown, and it looks like he’s taking that self-declared position seriously. He recently met with Chicago’s new mayor Brandon Johnson in an effort to address the city’s violent reputation. Earlier this week, some behind-the-scenes footage surfaced online, prompting Durk to take the defensive against fans who cynically called the meet-up part of his album rollout.

In the comments of a DJ Akademiks post featuring the footage, he wrote, “It ain’t album promo it’s saving kids’ [lives].”

Durk’s certainly been putting his money where his mouth is. In April, he donated over a quarter of a million dollars to HBCU scholarships, while late last year, he vowed to stop name-dropping slain enemies in his music. Even the music itself might be taking a more positive edge; Durk teased one of the new songs from the album, which features J. Cole, with the help of a large cadre of teens.

While some skeptics could certainly view Durk’s uplifting turn as more of a shrewd business move than a newfound life philosophy, it at least looks like he wants to continue making a difference in the streets of the Windy City.

George Santos has reportedly surrendered to authorities after being hit with a slew of federal charges on Tuesday. The embattled freshman congressman from New York has been under intense scrutiny after much of his background was proven to be a demonstrable lie. That scrutiny quickly reached a boiling point as serious allegations about his campaign finances began mounting followed by Santos being accused of sexual misconduct.

However, to the surprise of no one, the charges against Santos contain a laundry list of previously unknown allegations. The New York representative is accused of stealing from his own campaign, defrauding donors, and lying about his income to obtain unemployment insurance.

Via the Associated Press:

The indictment says Santos induced supporters to donate to a company under the false pretense that the money would be used to support his campaign. Instead, it says, he used it for personal expenses, including to buy designer clothes and to pay his credit cards and car payments.

Santos also is accused of lying about his finances on congressional disclosure forms and applying for and receiving unemployment benefits while he was employed as regional director of an investment firm that the government shut down in 2021 over allegations that it was a Ponzi scheme.

In a statement to the press, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said the indictment “seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations.”

Considering Santos’ wide array of outlandish lies, the jokes immediately started flying on Twitter as people reacted to the freshman representative finally getting his comeuppances.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Associated Press)

This month, one of the most acclaimed albums of the 21st century turns 10. The fourth (and possibly final) LP by the pioneering French electronic duo Daft Punk, Random Access Memories topped the charts in more than 20 countries, spawned one of the era’s most ubiquitous hits with “Get Lucky,” and won multiple Grammys, including Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year (for “Get Lucky”). A decade later, it remains a healthy streamer, with six of the album’s 13 tracks racking up at least 100 million spins. By pretty much any metric, it stands as a significant milestone in contemporary pop culture, an occasion marked by a special “10th Anniversary Edition” due Friday.

It is also — according to some people — overrated.

Maybe you have noticed this. Whenever there is a conversation about Random Access Memories, the matter of its supposedly exaggerated “rated-ness” always seems to come up. In lists of overrated albums, RAM is a mainstay — this is true now, and it was true in 2013. The year after the album came out — and around the time that Daft Punk was collecting all of those Grammys — journalists were already insisting that RAM was (emphasis mine) “widely considered overweening or at least overrated by dance-music purists.”

“Random Access Memories is overrated” is such a commonly stated opinion that it’s practically a meme on social media. Even professional critics have gotten into the act: In 2021, when Pitchfork “rescored” a selection of classic album reviews, the site inevitably singled out RAM, lowering it from a “Best New Music” worthy 8.8 to a lukewarm 6.8. “RAM has some jams, but it doesn’t feel pivotal in the same way that [Daft Punk’s second album] Discovery did,” Pitchfork concluded. “It didn’t push pop music forward; it merely opened the door for countless Moroder cameos and convinced Pharrell that what the world really needed was a 24-hour ‘Happy’ video.”

With all due respect to Pitchfork: 99.9 percent of albums, even the great ones, do not “push pop music forward” in any meaningful way. But most of the time we do not punish artists for not producing another Kid A or To Pimp A Butterfly. Usually, we are happy if the music bangs and the lyrics are quotable (or at least are not embarrassing). So, why is Random Access Memories, of all the prestige records that have come out in the past decade, frequently singled out as “overrated”? And is it actually overrated?

Before I answer those questions, I should concede an obvious point: Talking about art in terms of whether it’s “overrated” can be reductive and kind of stupid. Because calling something overrated is not really about the art, it’s about how other people are talking about the art. It is an expression of misanthropy toward opinions held by strangers. This is why any marginally popular or acclaimed cultural artifact can be credibly labeled “overrated” in the social media era, as it has likely inspired discourse that many of us find to be annoying.

Conversely, when something you like is called overrated, it can feel like a personal attack, because that’s basically what it is. In this instance, if you still put “Get Lucky” on your backyard barbecue playlists, there are plenty of individuals — second-guessing music critics, snarky Twitter commenters, those pesky “dance-music purists” — who are prepared to tell you that your taste is butt.

So: Why is Random Access Memories considered overrated? My investigation began in my own backyard: In the review I wrote back in 2013 — which went up right before it was released and right after it leaked — I noted that there were rumblings about hype in the run up to the album. Even before Random Access Memories was officially rated, people sensed that it might be overrated. “This will be remembered as the third-best Daft Punk album,” I predicted. (I think I nailed that one!)

To understand why that is, we need to pull back for a wider view of the musical landscape of 2013. This was a year when we were all just getting used to the ways in which music is currently distributed, consumed, and discussed. Spotify was around, but it only had about 24 million subscribers. Pandora was almost three times as popular, and piracy was still a viable alternative for freeloaders. The industry expectation that listeners would pay for digital downloads was dwindling as album sales sank to new lows. On social media, album cycles were also shrinking — the days when a big-tent record might dominate the conversation for more than a week or even a handful of days were long gone.

There was palpable anxiety among artists and record labels that music was now more ephemeral than ever. And this prompted a massive overcorrection that resulted in some truly bizarre marketing schemes that tried (and mostly failed) to drag music out of computers and back into the physical world. The gambits became instantly infamous: Jay-Z announced the arrival of Magna Carta … Holy Grail in a Samsung commercial. Eminem talked up The Marshall Mathers LP 2 with Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit during a college football game. Katy Perry rented an 18-wheel semi-trailer truck and deployed it on a cross-country journey to promote her latest album, Prism. Lady Gaga strapped on something called the Volantis, purported to be the world’s first flying dress, at a lavish press event for her record, Artpop. Most spectacular of all, the eternally dopey rock band 30 Seconds To Mars celebrated Love Lust Faith + Dreams by launching the album’s first single into outer space. It was one small step for man, one giant leap for meaningless gimmicks.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and these superstars — all of whom were hawking what can be delicately described as “not their best work” — went to extreme lengths to get somebody (anybody?) to pay attention to them for more than the length of time that it took to type out 140 characters. And then there was Daft Punk, who were the savviest when it came to marketing their first record in eight years.

Like the others, they relied initially on old media, including billboards in major cities and a tantalizing teaser that ran during an episode of Saturday Night Live. But unlike their peers, Daft Punk successfully seduced the public. Another ad featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers that aired on the video screens at Coachella was bootlegged and pored over online by fans and media commentators.

What drew people to Random Access Memories was nostalgia for a simpler media era when an album like Michael Jackson’s Thriller or the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack could seemingly be everywhere all at once. The point was never to “push pop music forward.” Rather, it was a deliberate reach-back to a less cluttered time, a journey from a modern multiverse to an idealized, shared universe ruled by two largely anonymous Frenchmen. In the end, they did what everybody else attempted and failed to achieve — they turned their record into a genuine event, like the musical equivalent of a summer blockbuster.

The marketing campaign worked extremely well. Maybe too well. When people heard Random Access Memories, they discovered that it wasn’t quite the album they had been promised. It was, in some respects, the opposite of what was expected. Though not everyone was prepared to admit this right away.

In that same Pitchfork “Rescored” article, the review of Daft Punk’s 2001 album Discovery was also amended but in a positive direction, going from a mediocre 6.4 to a perfect 10. And that aligns with how music criticism in general has evolved. To put it in somewhat oversimplified terms, Discovery is a pop album loaded with bops, which was not something that a typical indie-leaning critic would have been into in 2001. But by 2013, which coincided with the height of “anti-rockism” in critical discourse, that had flipped as a new generation of writers rose to prominence.

And yet when Daft Punk arrived for their moment of critical re-evaluation, they perversely delivered the most rockist electronic album ever made — “serious” music made by “real” musicians in an old-school, analog kind of way. If hearing “Get Lucky” in those pre-release ads felt like an invitation to a party, Random Access Memories was more like hanging out with two sad-sack dudes obsessed with their collection of classic vinyl from the ’70s and ’80s, a scenario straight out of High Fidelity. The album’s tone was melancholic and elegiac; the sense of loss could be sentimental (like on the Paul Williams-assisted mini epic “Touch”) or pedantic (the polarizing musical history “Giorgio By Moroder”). What it wasn’t was remotely modern — Daft Punk committed their resources to making well-moneyed music with excellent studio players, the kind of practice that used to be standard in the 20th century but by the early 2010s was being phased out by native online phenoms making music cheaply on their computers.

Listening to Random Access Memories now, the two words that come immediately to mind are “yacht rock.” In places, you can make a one-to-one comparison, like the song “Beyond,” which gently rips off Michael McDonald’s early-’80s smash (later sampled by Warren G) “I Keep Forgettin,’” as well as “Fragments Of Time,” a Gaucho pastiche that emulates that record’s spotless cocaine chill. But it’s the overall vibe that really evokes the era. Pivotal early tracks like “Game Of Love” and “Within” are unabashed expressions of stately, sensitive-guy longing dressed up as sad-robot music, like the first Christopher Cross album crossed with Blade Runner.

Daft Punk have been likened to Pink Floyd, in part because of their spectacular live shows, but I think a more apt comparison is Steely Dan, particularly when it comes to Random Access Memories. Though the most accurate analogue is probably Donald Fagen’s first solo album The Nightfly, in which the most commercially successful cynic of the Me Decade retreats to the comforts of his childhood as a bulwark against a new, colder, and more technological era he doesn’t understand. For Fagen, that meant fetishizing jazz, late-night radio, and Cold War-era politics. For Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, it was Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder, and the guy from The Phantom Of The Paradise.

The Nightfly was released in 1982, the same year as Thriller, which like Random Access Memories places it as an end-of-an-era statement. Steely Dan was already on hiatus at the time, and Fagen didn’t make another solo record for 11 years; Daft Punk meanwhile announced their break-up in 2021, and Bangalter recently released a low-key album of orchestral music. “We were always on the side of humanity and not on the side of technology,” he told the BBC earlier this month. “As much as I love this character, the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot.”

Daft Punk’s latent hostility to the contemporary EDM movement typified by pleasure-seeking endorphin hounds like Skrillex, and an emerging digital music apparatus designed to reward instant accessibility over slow-born relevance, put them at odds with a music scene they helped to invent but did not want to inhabit. And that, I think, is why so many people think Random Access Memories is overrated. Yes, the album is overlong, it drags a bit in places (and a lot in others), and it isn’t terribly fun. But it’s also a prescient critique of the modern world. What Daft Punk was attacking is us. Or, more specifically, the kinds of musical experiences so many of us seem to value now. They think we’re overrated.

But do I think Random Access Memories is overrated? Let me put it this way: Like the Daft Punk guys, I’m part of the generation that has lived most of our lives online, but can also remember the world as it was before the internet. It is, in a way, the worst combination of experiences to have — we know just enough to realize exactly how much has been lost in the transfer from IRL to URL. So I understand instinctively an aesthetic that mashes up Michael Jackson and Chic with Julian Casablancas and Panda Bear. It’s a world that still feels like home. More than that, Random Access Memories speaks to me as an insightful commentary on the very thing it rebelled against — the accessorization of music, where songs are regarded simply as adjuncts to phones, computers, and other tech devices.

Daft Punk were robots who wanted to be people, at a time when people were happily turning themselves into robots. In 2013, you could dismiss that as reactionary alarmism. In 2023, it hits as a self-evident truth.

Today (May 10), Beyoncé‘s highly anticipated Renaissance World Tour kicks off in Stockholm, Sweden. Since announcing the tour back in February, the Beyhive has been abuzz, anxious for details about the tour.

At this time, not a whole lot is known about the tour, or the visual elements, as Bey is known for remaining tight-lipped. Even hours before the show is set to kick off, fans aren’t even sure about an opener for the Renaissance World Tour.

Does Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour in Europe have an opening act?

Before the Renaissance World Tour was officially announced, several acts were rumored to be on the shortlist to be considered openers for Queen Bey.

Rapper Bree Runway was among those who was reportedly being considered, as well as R&B girl group, FLO. Fans also spectated that Chlöe may also open for Beyoncé, as her solo debut album, In Pieces was announced around the same time.

However, at the time of writing, no official opening acts have been reported. However, the Beyhive knows the Queen loves delivering a good surprise. As Bey is known to drop surprise albums, surprised remixes, and surprise visuals, it’s not unlikely that she would include an opening act in her show without prior announcement.

A YSL co-defendant was given a separate trial after a mental health evaluation, according to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Jayden Myrick, originally one of 14 defendants in the YSL RICO case, was ordered to undergo the evaluation after claiming that he was receiving legal advice from Donald Trump and Joe Biden and wanted to represent himself in the upcoming trial.

Chief Judge Ural Glanville severed Myrick’s case on Monday due to the fact that the 22-year-old hadn’t been taking his medication for at least four months. In April, Myrick was quoted saying, “I’m not the regular inmate, I be with Joe Biden and Donald Trump and they be talking to me. Donald Trump is going to get me out.”

Myrick is already serving a life sentence for murder, armed robbery, and aggravated assault for a 2018 robbery that turned into a deadly shooting. With his case being severed, there are now 10 remaining co-defendants in the original YSL case. The rap label is suspected of being a street gang led by Young Thug responsible for a slew of murders and other violent crimes in the Atlanta area.

Of the 28 men who were initially indicted, several received plea deals in exchange for time served and their admission that YSL is indeed a criminal organization. However, no such deal was ever extended to Young Thug, whom authorities believe is the ringleader of the entire operation and has been in jail since his arrest a year ago.

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

Bob Huggins will reportedly continue as the head basketball coach at West Virginia in spite of a recent controversy revolving around a homophobic slur he used during a radio appearance. According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, the plan is for Huggins to get fined, lose a million dollars from his current contract, and go through some sore of sensitivity training, all while keeping his job with the Mountaineers.

Huggins, who coached at Cincinnati earlier in his career, went on the radio in his old stomping grounds and expressed his disdain for fans of the Bearcats’ main rival, Xavier. Twice in the span of a few seconds, Huggins referred to Musketeers fans as “f*gs.” One of the times, he called them “Catholic f*gs,” as Xavier is a Jesuit university. You can listen to the remarks right here.

In the aftermath of the clip hitting Twitter, WVU athletics released a statement condemning the remarks and saying that it would put the matter under review. Huggins likewise released a statement saying he used a “completely insensitive and abhorrent phrase,” and that he would “fully accept” any punishment that the university decided to hand down as a result.

Huggins, a Morgantown native and West Virginia alumnus, has been the head coach at his alma mater since 2007.

This week, ex-President Trump was found liable (to the tune of $5 million) in a civil court for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. In the process, Trump didn’t help his case in the slightest by constantly crying “witch hunt” on social media and doubling down on his infamous “grab them by the p*ssy” remarks during a deposition. Clearly, these tactics did not sway the jury in his direction, given that all jurors were required to deliver a unanimous verdict for this outcome to happen.

This, naturally, has given the GOP a chance to finally wipe their hands of Trump and what he’s done to their party, but hmm, that does not appear to be happening, at least among conservative senators. Washington Post quotes Marco “Lil’” Rubio as declaring, “The jury is a joke. The whole case is a joke. Lindsey Graham, who is known to break down in tears on Fox News while imploring people to donate funds to Trump, declared, “The New York legal system is off the rails.” And Tommy Tuberville went further while proclaiming (via Huffington Post), “It makes me want to vote for him twice.”

This isn’t a great look for sure. In the case of Marco Rubio, he tweets biblical verses daily (as noted below by veteran Fred Wellman) yet is now looking at a jury — who surely did not ask for the job that they had to do — as “a joke” in a sexual assault case. So ironically, Joe Walsh tossed out a “you’ve sold your soul” in response. In fact, Rubio and his allegedly absent “spine” are being flattened on Twitter.

(Via Washington Post)

Muna took the stage at NYC’s Terminal 5 last night as the band is continuing their Life’s So Fun Tour. However, they had a surprise in store for fans during their biggest hit to date when they played “Silk Chiffon” as the final encore.

“Put your hands together for Lorde,” lead singer Katie Gavin told the crowd as everyone cheered. Then, none other than Lorde popped out on stage, wearing a blazer and bright red pants. Based on the outfit alone, she was ready to deliver some serious vocals by herself, while the band members danced around on stage.

For the popular “Life’s so fun” chorus, Lorde and Gavin also performed the regular guest choreography — the same as Phoebe Bridgers’ appearance with Boygenius from Muna’s Coachella set. IYKYK.

Muna fans, both at the show and online, went absolutely wild over the performance. “NO ONE TALK TO ME FOR 9 BUSINESS DAYS!!!! wtf lorde x muna??? dead,” one person wrote.

“Proof that MUNA shows are gay church: Lorde was in the building tonight,” another added.

This also brings things full circle in a way, as Muna previously joined Lorde as an opener for the Australian dates of her Solar Power tour. During one particular concert in Adelaide, Lorde invited the band to join her on stage to perform “Kind Of Girl” together.

Check out Lorde’s “Silk Chiffon” performance with Muna from last night above. Below, find some more fan reactions.